Album Reviews

[rockhead]

Nice review Binne of Youthanasia.Ive only just started listening to this cd again, and it was a good logical successor to Countdown to extinction.Although if i had to be stranded on an island and have a choice between taking the Black album or CTE, id take CTE no question....but i guess thats for a separate thread!

[binnie]

Cheers dude - I'd take the Black Album, but each to his own.

There are plenty of Megadeth reviews in this thread: 'So Far, So Good, So What', 'Endgame' and 'Thirteen' have all been reviewed.

[Dave's Bitch]

Another good Megadeth review Binnie.Doing a Megadeth review guaranteed to get a thank you from me.Youthanasia is a great hard rock album,Some really great stuff on there.

stranded on an island I would pick Countdown over The Black Album and Megadeth over anyone

[binnie]

The Black record is superior to Countdown, I feel. But I think it's an incredible record so please don't think me harsh on Countdown.

Scream Bloody Gore coming soon....

[Dave's Bitch]

[binnie]

Torche – Harmonicraft

It is rare to find a metal album with a pink cover. Rarer still for said cover to be reminiscent of a My Little Pony lunchbox from the mid-‘80s (if you looked at whilst on a heroic dose of acid). But it is a perfect encapsulation of Torche’s sound: blending punk, stoner, doom, hardcore and space rock (or rather putting them in a box and mixing the living shit out of it), the resulting sound is a sort of technicolour metal which is both joyous and uplifting. No, that’s not a contradiction in terms: metal that is joyous. The source of that is the band’s love of pop and stadium rock, injecting their heavier or more angular influences into molds which put the emphasis on hooks and melodies to make the end result more palatable and infectious. Like the smoothest of bourbon, Torche’s sound comes with a kick behind the sweetness – listening to ‘Kicking’, you wonder how it is possible to be that melodic and THAT heavy.

A band which seems to be perpetually between labels, sounds and band-mates, it is impressive to hear something so focused. At 13 songs and 38 minutes Torche are clearly confident in their songs, and no moment is spared in the delivery. ‘Letting Go’ is the bastard love child of Jane’s Addiction and Clutch, a sort of effeminate tribal dance bubbling with power; whilst ‘Snakes Are Charmed’ conjures the sort of entwined melodic twists employed Coheed And Cambria and Muse. It’s kaleidoscopic stuff – at times beautiful, at others moving, and always a fuck of a lot of fun. ‘Harmonicraft’ is not quite as impressive as 2009s ‘Meanderthal’ but the problem facing any band which finds a unique sound is that they will never again have the same impact they had first time round. Critics always jump ship as the word spreads, but Torche really are a gem.

Now, where’s that acid……..

[katina]

Thanks Binnie, for your review about Torche

I never heard Torche before, so I am listening to them on Youtube, and they are great!!!
I can´t call them a classic metal band...their music is a kaleidoscope of sounds, and you are right, Torche really are a gem.

[ELVIS]

Torche is cool, but what I've heard of Harmonicraft sounds like it could be a Foo Fighters demo...

[vandeleur]

I like ya review stuff binnie i always find it interesting .
A bit like katina I read your review and checked them out on YouTube .. I like em will check out more .
Good call

[binnie]

Cheers guys, must appreciated.

If I can spread the word about Torche my role here on earth is complete.

Elvis, check out Meanderthal if you're not quite hooked on Harmonicraft.

[ELVIS]

Absolutely, thanks !!

[ELVIS]

Well, I found a song I really dig, Speed Of The Nail kicks ass !!

But the other two or three songs from Meanderthal still give me a Foo Fighters vibe, not that I don't Luke Foo Fighters...

I might have to pick up this disc as well as the new High On Fire you recently reviewed...

I've had Death Is The Communion for a few years now, and I love it...

[chefcraig]

Man, I am truly digging the Harmonicraft songs at Youtube. Thanks for the heads-up, binnie!

[binnie]

Well, I found a song I really dig, Speed Of The Nail kicks ass !!

But the other two or three songs from Meanderthal still give me a Foo Fighters vibe, not that I don't Luke Foo Fighters...

I might have to pick up this disc as well as the new High On Fire you recently reviewed...

I've had Death Is The Communion for a few years now, and I love it...

You can never have too much High On Fire in your life....

[binnie]

From the vaults: Manowar – Battle Hymns (1982)

For Manowar everything has always been on 10. The leather-lunged vocals of Eric Adams, the behemoth rumbling bass tones and the spiraling electronic blacksmithery of Ross the Boss amount to a glorious racket. ‘Battle Hymns’ – the band’s incendiary debut – was an important record not only for the fact that it launched one of metal’s most significant and long-standing bands on the world, but because it was made by an American band. In 1982, Heavy Metal was a very European (and specifically British) style of music. That Manowar would develop something this heavy which didn’t sound anything like LA ‘metal’ was significant in the evolution of the genre. And as ‘Death Tone’ booms into life three decades on, you are struck by two things: 1) fuuuuuuuck that’s HEAVY; and 2) Manowar rarely get their dues for songwriting, because by coupling their hulking sound into traditional pop structures they make it palatable. It is a more difficult skill than it appears, and something which metal’s mainstream lost long ago.

It is certainly not Manowar’s best record – what debut record is a band’s best? – but it is undoubtedly their most charismatic. And it certainly showed how much variety there is in their sound. They could do 3 minute stompers – witness the Motorhead infused ‘Fast Taker’ – or sweeping epics like ‘Dark Avenger’, a composition who’s grandeur outstrips anything which Iron Maiden had done by this point. And that is significant: we have become so accustomed to viewing Manowar as defenders of the faith that we forget that they were important as innovators. Indeed, when all is said and done the patter probably got in the way of the music: they signed their contracts in their own blood; they claimed to be the world’s only true Heavy Metal band aside from Sabbath; and hoped to erase MTV’s ‘fake metal’ from the planet were all well and good as a sales pitch, but when it comes down to it you don’t need much selling on these tunes. Witness ‘Metal Daze’:

I hear the sound in a metal way
I feel the power rolling on the stage
'cause only one thing really sets me free
Heavy metal, loud as it can be

A perfect celebration of the sublime fraternity and the faint whiff of the ridiculous which is essential to Heavy Metal’s appeal.

‘Battle Hymns’ may be the most appropriately titled album ever made, both for the anthemic nature of the tunes themselves and for the fact that Manowar deliver Heavy Metal with an almost religious exuberance. 30 years on it is still 38 minutes of ultra-metal madness which makes you believe that you can fight the world (with a gigantic smile on your face).