Album Reviews

[Kristy]

More white metal reviews.



Good to know.

[binnie]

Blues Pills – Blues Pills (2014)

Just when you thought there couldn’t be any more space on record company rosters for another ‘retro’ blues-rock band, this bunch of misfits come along. And by God is it worth the over-crowding. Playing a heavy rock that captures the spirit of the moment where the ‘60s bled into the ‘70s – think Free and Humble Pie – Sweden’s Blues Pills capture something very earthy about rock ‘n’ roll. This may look back to the past, but its more rootsy than pastiche. Keeping things raw rather than perfecting their pop sensibilities, the tunes here exist on the cusp of the point where a jam becomes a song, with a free-form spontaneity which adds spit and power. In guitar player Dorian Sorriax the band has a unique talent who can channel Rory Gallagher and Ritchie Blackmore at his most flinty without ever sounding like a copyman and adding a range of tones and timbres that brings these songs to life. But the real star of the show is vocalist Elin Larsson, who wails with the very best rock ‘n’ roll frontwomen – scratch that – frontpersons that have ever graced the music. Coupled with lyrics that largely avoid blues clichés to makes these songs tales of longing and living more affecting, and you have an inspired debut record.

[binnie]

More white metal reviews.



Good to know.

I could review some Black Metal, Kristy, but I'm sure you're not into corpse paint.

[Kristy]

Oh, you're soooooooooooooooooooo funny.

[TFM_Dale]

Kristy is waiting for the hipster album reviews.

[Kristy]

Well, when it comes to anything "hip" your generation knows way more about it than me.

Binnie out for a stroll

[TFM_Dale]

We know Kristy, we know.

[Kristy]

Oh, so now you're telling me that she doesn't exist?

Katy practicing her jism in eye rehearsals

You turning into Trollvis? Making shit up just to make shit up?

[TFM_Dale]

Oh, so now you're telling me that she doesn't exist?

Katy practicing her jism in eye rehearsals

You turning into Trollvis? Making shit up just to make shit up?

Just a part of your teenage dream

[Kristy]

Far more interesting than white metal

[Mushroom]

If Katy had some actual luscious lips and more butt her hotness factor would be off the meter

[Kristy]

Dude, what color is the sky on your planet? Her ass is H U G E.

[Mushroom]

Show me her ass!

Let's get this thread back on track! Binnie, hurry up, post a review of Tokyo Dome!

[Kristy]

Let's all wait for Binnie to review the next Katy Perry.

[Von Halen]

Let's all wait for Binnie to review the next Katy Perry.

Binnie won't review that trashes trash.

[Kristy]

I guess you're right. Wouldn't be homoerotic enough for you.

[Von Halen]

I guess you're right. Wouldn't be homoerotic enough for you.

She was married to Russell Brand. She needs to be fumigated.

[Kristy]

So...what are you trying to tell me here? That Russell Brand doesn't fly on your homoerotic radar?

[Von Halen]

So...what are you trying to tell me here? That Russell Brand doesn't fly on your homoerotic radar?

Exactly. I hate him.

But you fly on my homoerotic radar. Are you picking me up at the airport, or what?

[Seshmeister]

Well, when it comes to anything "hip" your generation knows way more about it than me.

You're in Binnie's generation!

And stop messing up the review thread.

[Kristy]

Blow me. I'll review his reviews for how white and contrived they are.

[Seshmeister]

It's an open thread you could add some brown reviews.

[binnie]

From the Vaults (sort of): Europe – Bag of Bones (2012)

It’s fair to say that Europe have never been cool. It’s also fair to say that the song for which they’re famous is entirely a-typical of their catalogue. Indeed, ‘Sweden’s Answer To Bon Jovi’ were really nothing of the sort: they were always more of a hard rock band than Jersey Jon ever wanted to be. So it’s not really any surprise that ‘Bag Of Bones’ is heavier than the casual observer might expect. But even people more familiar with the band’s back catalogue may be surprised at just how good this greasy little album is.

Joey Tempest’s pipes have certainly aged better than most of his generation: there is no rectum-straining screeching or Vince Neil missing the words here. Tempest sings his balls off on every tune and is, as always, the star of the show. John Norum’s voodoo riffs are catchy and enticing, and he shreds away like he has a couple of extra fingers on each hand. Opener ‘Riches To Rags’ has a swampy groove and a chorus that kills; the title track is a clarion call screaming in the face of Father Time and is far more urgent than anything most of their peers can muster; and on ‘Not Supposed To Sing The Blues’ you truly get a sense of how much this band loves music (a rare example of how clichés aid emotion, rather than stunt it). In the hands of producer Kevin Shirely, the band also avoid most of the typical ‘old rock band’ pitfalls: the songs are never over-long, and the band never sell themselves are a bunch of 50-year old party boys (hello Nikki Sixx and co.)

‘Bag of Bones’ is not cheesy, but it certainly errs on the ‘nicer’ end of rock ‘n’ roll (it’s even a little sentimental in places). There are no tales of fuckin’ groopies until they have anal gape here, and if you need your hard rock spiced with aggression and danger, this album isn’t for you. But if want some feel good tunes to give your day a kick in the ass, you’ll do much worse than looking here.

[binnie]

It doesn't get much 'whiter' than that

[Kristy]

...or stale.

Europe? How old are you, Binnie? 90?

[binnie]

The Answer – Raise A Little Hell (2015)

When Ireland’s The Answer first hit the scene some 10 years ago, they were hailed as the future of heavy rock. That they never fulfilled that promise has become something of an albatross around the band’s neck. ‘Raise A Little Hell’ will do little to remove it. What we have here is a very, very good hard rock record – perhaps the best record The Answer have made – which should be enjoyed by all who hear it. But what stops The Answer hitting the big leagues is, quite simply, a sense of existing on the edge which lives at the heart of all great rock music. Ireland’s finest have that quality in spades as a live band – and WHAT a live band! – but it just doesn’t ooze from them in the studio.

But being the best band in the world is a helluva mantle to live up to and focussing on it distracts from the fact that ‘Raise A Little Hell’ is a damn fine record which will become a very good friend when the sun shines this summer. Continuing the strip back their sound to its nuts and bolts – as they did last time round on ‘New Horizon’ (2013) – this is an album which makes a virtue out of simplicity by creating the space for performances to shine. ‘Long Live The Renegades’ is built around a very simple guitar and bass riff and will be incendiary live; ‘Aristocratic’ introduces a cheeky side to the band we’ve not seen before; and ‘The Other Side’ shows them at their most melodic, and it suits them. With the gusto on display here, even the lesser tunes are captivating, and missteps like ‘Last Days Of Summer’ and ‘Gone Too Long’ are forgiveable rather than irritating.

Album no. 5 may be The Answer’s best collection of songs, and its simple and direct approach make much of what is on offer here catchier than the clap. Where previously this band had overthought and overcooked their material, here they sound like they’re enjoying themselves and that ultimately means that the listener enjoys them more, too.

[binnie]

California Breed – California Breed (2014)

California Breed are essentially Black Country Communion minus Joe Bonamassa. Jason Bonham and Glenn Hughes have re-formed with axeman Andrew Wait, whose performance here serves to prove that his is a sensationally gifted as Hughes claims he is – the guitars on this record are a screaming orgasm of electric blues. Rawer that BCC ever were, this album has an irresistibly instinctive, live feel to it, made all the power potent by the fact that the songs here are still fresh enough to still have the uncontrollable energy of the jams from which they emerged in them: the thrill of the first kiss, so to speak.

‘The Way’ kicks things off with bounce and pop, the passionate funk rock that Hughes does better than anybody. ‘Sweat Tea’ is more memorable than anything BCC ever did, whilst ‘Invisible’ and ‘Scars’ combines hits you in the guts, heart and ass. ‘Chemical Rain’ has the bittersweet beauty which only a song about addiction can, and although the subject is tired, Wait’s sky-kissed guitar injects it with life. But perhaps best of all is ‘Strong’, which has a trippy ‘60s vibe and sounds the way which you imagine the Red Hot Chili Peppers would like to sound: a hypnotic swirl of funkadelia.

This is an album saturated with a filthy, filthy feel, the pure joy of music performed on the edge and in the moment. Hughes’s voice has always been underrated, and on the likes of ‘Midnight Oil’ – which drips with emotion – you just cannot fathom why. But perhaps the best thing about California Breed is that this is not just a bunch of (predominantly) older dudes looking back to the good ol’ dayz. The DNA may be the 1970s, but the performance, the ambition, the stylings are irresistibly modern. And it never feels forced, only natural.

[binnie]

Prong – Ruining Lives (2014)

Terms like ‘one-off’, ‘unique’ or ‘owning their sound’ are overused in music, but when it comes to Prong they don’t really do things justice. Put simply, no-one has ever sounded like this band’s Frankenstein brand of punk-metal-crust, a sound that is both irresistibly idiosyncratic and absolutely infectious. It’s also true to say that over the course of a 25 year career, this is a band which has made very few missteps and has a high quality control. So you’d expect ‘Ruining Lives’ to be good. But you’d never expect it to be THIS good.

Opener ‘Turnover’ is one of the best songs this band has ever penned, a scabrous blast of music which would strip paint at 100 yards. The title track is the sound of a tectonic plate slipping and is unimaginably dystopian, and ‘Windows Shut’ taps straight back into the bands industrial roots: Prong here sound like a steroid-injected Killing Joke. Tommy Vitor’s vocals are on fire, and the band feels positively feral. This is a record full of tunes which are very heavy, very abrasive, but never less than captivatingly accessible. ‘Absence of Light’ and ‘Remove, Separate Self’ manage to weld together the ball-shatteringly heavy with the irresistibly melodic. That is no mean feat.

Prong here have served up a killer. In years to come we may even speak of it as a modern classic.

[binnie]

Diablo Blvd – Follow the Deadlights (2015)

With a sound that embraces elements of stoner and goth in the arms of mainstream metal, Belgium’s Diablo Blvd are an odd proposition. They’re also rather good. Third album ‘Follow The Deadlights’ is not a million miles away from Alter Bridge or Godsmack in being deceptively heavy music dressed up in pop sensibilities, with hooks-a-plenty and slab after slab of crunchy riffage to sink your teeth in to. ‘Beyond The Veil’ is dark, bass-driven rock song, the title-track is a twisted take on early Stone Temple Pilots and ‘Peace Won By War’ is just fuckin’ metal. Sure, there’s more than the odd clunker along the way, and the cod the Satanism is more than a little bit tired. But in the hands of vocalist Alex Ayrew – whose Scott Strap-esque baritone croon takes everything a notch up – this is a band with some potential. Maybe they’ll be contenders in the near future: for now it is time to simply press play and bang your head.

[Kristy]

Alex Ayrew - is that his porn name?

[binnie]

He be Belgian. I think that explains it.

[binnie]

Torche – Restarter (2015)

You can tell what a band will be like by the drugs that they take. Judging by Torche’s cover artwork – which seems to depicted some kind of technicolour, technological swamp – they take the best drugs in the world. It is hard to understate just how testicle-tinglingly brilliant this band are. Like Faith No More, Clutch and Monster Magnet before them, Torche inhabit their own little pocket of the rock ‘n’ roll world which is inventive and idiosyncratic but still immediately irresistible. Opener ‘Annihilation Affair’ is heavy, groovy and a mass of cool; ‘Bishop In Arms’ is instantly your new best friend, a propulsion of rhythms and licks which sounds like Arcade Fire with buffalo bollocks; and ‘Minions’ has a bass line like a big, fuck off V8 at cruising king of the hill mode. This is, quite simply, a band that doesn’t write duds despite having a very broad range. ‘Undone’ is a battering ram, the sound of a band playing on a knife-edge; whilst ‘No Servants’ is a slow burn, a series of ominous riffs warning of the threat beneath - worlds apart on the surface, but both sound like Torche and Torche alone.

Producer Kurt Ballou has an ear for cool, and on ‘Restarter’ his lugs were wide open. Heavy stoner thud served up in songs which are hookier than the red-light district of Amsterdam, and as catchy as the crabs which lurk there, this is rock ‘n’ roll at its best: challenging and immediate.

[binnie]

Cancer Bats – Searching For Zero (2015)

There comes a point in bands career where they decide to either keep on keeping on or take a gamble. On album no. 5, Canadian hardcore bruisers Cancer Bats have opted for the latter. Normally a ‘chance’ is code for something more subdued, less vitriolic and calculating at gaining many more fans. This doesn’t seem to be the case with ‘Searching For Zero’, however. Sure, fans expecting another album which amounts to 40 minutes of being hit in the chest with a baseball bat wielded by a crack addict will be disappointed – this album is a lot less ‘aggro’ than in the past. But it’s hardly geared for radio-play, either. If anything, the sound is more complex. Songs like ‘Arsenic in the Year of The Snake’ are angular, atmospheric, and complex. And in the hands of Ross Robinson, this is an album far more focussed on intensity, raw nerves and performance than it is sonic perfection.

Indeed, sometimes it feels like it was recorded in a bath.
‘Satellites’ sounds like early ‘80s punk with dabbles of New Wave thrown in and is a lot looser than Cancer Bats have sounded in the past. With its epic chorus, ‘True Zero’ sounds an awful lot like Amen – sort of like a cool pitbull. In contrast, ‘Beezlebub’ is pure pummel and power (with more than a little bit of metalcore thrown in), and ‘All Hail’ and ‘Devil’s Blood’ will make the old diehards smile and everyone else want to smash shit. On ‘Buds’, Cancer Bats are cooler than Samuel L. Jackson in a pimp suit.

Many will say that this record isn’t as immediate as the band has been in the past. They would be correct – given that this album largely deals with grief, it’s not a lyrically positive affair. Others will spit that ‘Searching For Zero’ is the sign of a band trying lots of styles in the hope of finding one that fits, and ultimately producing a miss-mash of an album which will satisfy no-one. And they might be partially correct, too – we do not have a contender for album of the year here. But God love’s a trier, and it would have been far easier for Cancer Bats to put out 10 new blast of hated and concrete. ‘Searching For Zero’ is a bold move, and demonstrates sounds like an album made by a band with balls.

[Mr. Vengeance]

Binnie, just keep up your reviews. Don't let that twerp cunt-up the thread.

[Kristy]

Yeah, Binnie! Keep on writing the same review(s) about how white and boring metal is. Don't let that angry fuck Nazi 'Grime' it up for you.

[TFM_Dale]

Binnie will keep writing kick ass reviews and kristy will keep trying to convince people she isn't the worlds angriest hipster. Roth on Binnie! Keep listening to Coldplay at mild levels kristy

[binnie]

From the Vaults: Chris Whitely – Living With the Law (1991)

‘Sublime’s is often pinned to music or art that we adore, but it has rarely been more appropriately applied to ‘Living With The Law’. 1991 is primarily remembered for the ‘Grunge Turn’ which killed-off a style of music now retrospectively termed ‘Hair Metal’, but this debut record from bluseman and lost soul Chris Whitely, however, was far, far more interesting. Combining drama without histrionics and feel without sentimentality, ‘Living With The Law’ was a stunning collection of tunes from a talent which – in a Jeff Buckley kind of way – was really like no other. Had it not been for drug abuse, tragedy and illness, he might have had a career as stunning as his songs.

Here da blooze is shown to be a type of music which doesn’t have to be formulaic or limited. ‘Phone Call From Leavenworth’ is raw, dirty and yearning and propelled by what I can only term an acoustic guitar on fire. The title track has nods to American Indie but drenches it in country and blues, with Whitely’s ethereal voice giving it a vulnerable quality. ‘Big Sky Country’ has a soulful pulse running through it and ‘Poison Girl’ is awash with swirling rhythms and suffocating melodies which injects a tired subject (the good love of a bad woman) with verve and immediacy. Even when paired back to man and guitar (‘Make Like Dirt Slick’ and ‘Dust Radio’) the power here, the overwhelming intimacy, is stunningly powerful. On the delicate thunder of ‘I Forget You Every Day’ rage smashes into tenderness.

In stark contrast to the decade in which it emerged, nothing here is overstated. Whitley’s guitar-playing oozes out a seemingly limitless range of tones (electric, acoustic, slide, pedal-steel) to provide – to coin a heavily overused term – a unique voice to the instrument. Follow up albums would be superb, but Whitley never matched the immediacy of the tunes he delivered here. ‘Living With The Law’ is a record to beg, steel or borrow and will quickly become an essential part of your life.

[katina]

Torche – Restarter (2015)

You can tell what a band will be like by the drugs that they take. Judging by Torche’s cover artwork – which seems to depicted some kind of technicolour, technological swamp – they take the best drugs in the world. It is hard to understate just how testicle-tinglingly brilliant this band are. Like Faith No More, Clutch and Monster Magnet before them, Torche inhabit their own little pocket of the rock ‘n’ roll world which is inventive and idiosyncratic but still immediately irresistible. Opener ‘Annihilation Affair’ is heavy, groovy and a mass of cool; ‘Bishop In Arms’ is instantly your new best friend, a propulsion of rhythms and licks which sounds like Arcade Fire with buffalo bollocks; and ‘Minions’ has a bass line like a big, fuck off V8 at cruising king of the hill mode. This is, quite simply, a band that doesn’t write duds despite having a very broad range. ‘Undone’ is a battering ram, the sound of a band playing on a knife-edge; whilst ‘No Servants’ is a slow burn, a series of ominous riffs warning of the threat beneath - worlds apart on the surface, but both sound like Torche and Torche alone.

Producer Kurt Ballou has an ear for cool, and on ‘Restarter’ his lugs were wide open. Heavy stoner thud served up in songs which are hookier than the red-light district of Amsterdam, and as catchy as the crabs which lurk there, this is rock ‘n’ roll at its best: challenging and immediate.

Thank you Binnie, for the review on Torche - Restarter

[Kristy]

I'll never understand white metal

Seems you need some elements

1. Shred riffing- to the point where it becomes comical.
2. Satanism - to the point where it becomes cliche
3. Angry lyrics - now this would be great if they knew what in the fuck they were angry about in the first place.
4. Male homoerotica - believe I have already covered this.

So...white metal... best I can gather is its white suburban rock for those who cannot stand rap or think suburban white kids who wear chains and listen to rap are nothing more than a bunch of pussies. Hardly reactionary. Is it defiance? I'd like to think so but just can't. This shit is way too stupid to be rebellious. Every song sounds the same. Every song. It's like a volatile Ricky Nelson met Beevis & Butthead and formed a band. Much too white for me.

[binnie]

You make some really interesting points there, Kristy.

For the most part, metal is now a corporate music in much the same way that most rock and hip hop is. Has this ripped the balls out of it? Yes: as the bands have increasingly sounded angrier over the years they have actually become less threatening largely because - as you say - they are often not entirely sure what it is they're angry about (lyrically there is plenty of generic themes - war is bad; government is bad; religion is bad; my life is very complex). So, there is a lot of staid angst and metal is for the most part a suburban affair these days - I'm not sure that makes it 'bad', because if it does then that essentially makes people who live in suburbs somehow less worthy than people with 'real' problems.

There is, however, some genuinely reactionary metal. Much of this is not Western - the metal scene in parts of Asia, for example, whilst superficially similar to European/American metal, feels different. Being 'different' in Indonesia, for example, is hardly a fashion statement. A lot of the hardcore Black and Death metal is also not faux Satanism - some of it is genuinely terrifying (although it doesn't really do all that much for me, you can't help but appreciate it).

Does 'every song sound the same'? Well, there's certainly a 'sound' which dominates the middle ground of metal right now (and is the only type to move into more mainstream radio etc). This is called 'metalcore', and there is a template (screamy verse, 'melodic' chorus, breakdown in the middle). I guess like all genres, you have to look to find the good stuff.