Album Reviews

[binnie]

Death Angel – Relentless Retribution (2010)

In many respects, Death Angel were always more interesting than their thrash peers. Not only because they were so young when they first started making records, but because they genuinely seemed willing to expand and explore the parameters of the genre and not feel the need to become engaged in the puerile ‘we’re faster/heavier/more bonehead than all the other bands’ machismo which ultimately saw the genre fall on its ass in the early ‘90s. Indeed, by album number 2 – ‘Act III’ – they were already showing that they could be progressive, and prepared to explore slower and more melodic aspects of their sound. ‘Relentless Retribution’ is the third of their 00 ‘reunion’ records, and easily the best of them. Whilst the first two – ‘The Art of Dying’ (2004) and ‘Killing Season’ (2008) - contained plenty of highlights, they also saw the band’s love of experimentation overcome them and leave them with one foot in thrash and another in search of a ‘relevant’ sound. On ‘Relentless Retribution’ they’ve manage to produce a record true to their thrashtastic roots which nevertheless is far from an exercise in pointless nostalgia. It is, simply, a damn fine heavy metal record and one which has floated under the radar in the three years since its release.

Put simply, there is some stunning stuff on display here. The title-track is a slow-burning, mid-paced crunching bruiser of an anthem; ‘Truce’ has a rhythmic snap like a bat to the ribcage, a more muscular Maiden set on ‘kill’ mode; and the uber-thrash of ‘This Hate’ is as good as anything they’ve ever done. Ripping solos and a chiselled granite guitar tone from Rob Cavestany and Ted Aguilar ensure a precision power and surging energy, whilst Will Carroll’s drumming is authoritative, but never overpowering the music with needless complexity: both ensure that rippers like ‘Claws In So Deep’ and ‘Where They Lay’ easily wipe the floor with any of thrash’s younger pretenders. Mark Osegueda’s vocals, however, continue to be the band’s secret weapon. Recognizing that singing – as opposed to growling – can add depth and aggression to this branch of weapon, Osegueda teases out the band’s traditional love of melody and complements an approach which was always more thoughtful than their peers. Epic Spanish guitar interludes, progressive elements and a certain poise amidst the aggression ensure that on material like the incredible ‘Death Of The Meek’ thrash does not have to puerile, and ‘mature’ does not have to be a synonym for ‘boring’.

There are certainly negatives. A ‘less is more’ policy might have benefitted the whole – the likes of ‘River of Rapture’ and ‘Absence of Light’ are unnecessary additions. But ‘Relentless Retribution’ would be a worthy addition to any metalhead’s collection. On balance, you would have to say that for all the merits of recent records by Death Angel, Exodus and Forbidden (amongst others) the rejuventation of the German ‘Big Three’ of thrash – Sodom, Destruction and Kreator – has been far more convincing and made metal of a far higher calibre than the US bands. ‘Relentless Retribution’ does little to change that trend – but it’s a damn fine thrash record on its own merits, and one perhaps with the musical intelligence to appeal to those for whom the more extreme aspects of metal are unusual rather than frequent territory.

BANG THY HEAD MOTHERTRUCKERS!

[binnie]

From the vaults: In Flames – Come Clarity (2006)

Alongside fellow Swedes Dark Tranquility, In Flames pioneered a sound which changed the way which metal sounded in the post ‘Nu’ era – a sound which, it must be added, has been shamelessly ripped off by far more commercially successful American metalcore bands. Taking the pummelling rhythms and riffage of extreme metal and harnessing them to lighter textures, gothic melodies and hooks you could hang Ophra Winfrey from, In Flames and their peers showed that heavy music could have life in the ‘90s and ‘00s and over a series of superb records delivered a type of thrash that was at once familiar and refreshing. They then changed things up a bit. Beginning with ‘Soundtrack To Your Escape’ (2004) and continuing with ‘Come Clarity’ the band’s sound became rooted in simpler, more traditionally structured songs, cleaner vocals and industrial elements. Songs which you could imagine being played on rock radio, and which were ‘girl friendly’ and, perhaps, palatable to a broader audience. Whether that change came from artistic experimentation or a cynical desire to sell more records is a moot point if the resulting product is good music. In the case of In Flames, the jury has long been out – and the metal community will probably never comes to consensus.
It must be admitted from the off that ‘Come Clarity’ is a far superior record to its predecessor – more focussed and confident, you get the feel of a band a little happier in its new, more shiny, skin. And you would also have to admit that there are some very good songs here, too. ‘Take This Life’ is the perfect amalgam of extreme metal with pop elements, and is propelled by a huge, Korn-esque chorus. ‘Dead End’ is at once abrasive and emotive. And the punchy anthem ‘Scream’ is 3 minutes of pure fun, whether it was calculated for airplay or not. Even the newer sounds like the acoustic balladry of the title-track has plenty of merit – recalling HIM or The Sister Of Mercy in its melodies, this tenderness done with power. In moments like this, In Flames demonstrate that they have the songwriting chops to leap into the big league that they so clearly crave. The problem, is that they’re just not quite convincing. Songs like ‘Versus Terminus’ and ‘Our Infinite Struggle’ hint at the heavier In Flames of old, but although they rip out of the speakers, they’re by-the-numbers and forgettable. Moreover, sat alongside the band’s newer sound they make the whole feel unbalanced.

‘Come Clarity’, then, saw In Flames change from metal messiahs to an ‘entry level’ band. The sort of band that the uninitiated kid might use as a gateway into the nutty world of modern heavy metal. In that, the band will always ensure that they have a warm place in the genre’s heart. And whilst they’re still producing world class tunes – even amidst a sea of mediocrity – they’ll be worth checking out. But trying to branch the old and the new, In Flames ultimately satisfied neither on ‘Come Clarity’. Their harshest critics would suggest that it’s been the same ever since.

[binnie]

Union – The World Is Yours (2013)

Anyone disappointed that The Union are not Thunder #2 have surely gotten over it by now. Luke Morely’s decision to opt for a bluesier, less sex ‘n’ drugs brand of rock has – despite some early naysayers – reaped glowing rewards and on this – album number 3 – the band shows little sign of peaking. More varied than the band’s first two records, here the sonic brew of blues, Americana, gospel and country is blended together more neatly, and the band’s capacity to switch from electric to acoustic is at its most convincing – thus the swampy blues of the title track, the out-and-out hard rock of ‘The Perfect Crime’ and ‘What Doesn’t Kill You’ (which sounds like Robert Plant’s solo material) and the acoustic balladry of ‘Lost To The World’ do seem out of place when placed side by side. The Union’s not-so-secret weapon is, of course, vocalist Pete Shoulder, whose voice would have earnt him worldwide superstardom if he’d been born 4 decades earlier – gravely, husky and soulful, when the band lays back to allow him to shine on the likes of ‘Fading Out Of Love’ and ‘To Say Godddbye’ it pays dividends. Perhaps a song or two overlong, and certainly a little plodding in its adherence to being mid-paced, this is nevertheless a rewarding album for those who like music played without histrionics.

One day, they may serve up a classic.

[binnie]

From the vaults: Doro – Doro (1990)

If ever proof were needed that the Sunset Strip sound needed to die then this – the second solo record from Doro Pesch – was surely it. Much respect must be given to Doro. Her services to heavy music over the past 30 years are immense, and she has one of the best voices in metal. But what ‘Doro’ shows is that when a sound becomes so dominant record labels will do anything to force artists to adopt it, even if it does not sit comfortably. Produced by Gene Simmons at a time when he was trying to expand into production/label management, ‘Doro’ saw the final disbanding of Warlock – the power metal band Doro had fronted over the course of 4 excellent albums in the ‘80s – and the launching of her solo career proper. Aided by Tommy Thayer (ex Black ‘N’ Blue and current Kiss axeman) and an array of hired help, the result is less of a ‘band’ than a product – a singer moulded into the big rock, slick-produced, reverb happy sound of the late ‘80s via a series of songs written to garner airplay in the US. Served up through sultry photos of Doro less as ‘metal queen’ and more as Lee Aaron, you get the feel of an album designed by committee (i.e. Simmons) to sell in a sort of ‘metal meets Debbie Gibson’ kinda way.

There are certainly enjoyable moments. By-the-number anthems like ‘Rock On’ and ‘Alive’ may plod a little, but they were meant to be played live; and ‘Something Wicked This Way Comes’ is fun in a sort of latter-day Alice Cooper epic kind of way, a stomping, schlock filled, shock rock soft/heavy orgasm of cheese that can’t help but raise a smile. But elsewhere it all feels a little thin on ideas and heavy of over-production. ‘Broken’ is mid-80s Ozzy (melodrama and no bite); ‘Only You’ is Journey without the finesse; and ‘I Had Too Much To Dream’ is the sound of two styles – pop balladry and metal – being forced together. At least the brooding opener ‘Unholy Love’ provides a genuine moment of class. And it is hard to deny that Doro herself takes these songs up more than a notch or two solely by the sheer quality of the smokey depths of her vocals.

The best was yet to come for Doro. Thank God that the Sunset sound died to allow artists the space to be themselves.

[binnie]

Ill – Gotten Gains (2012)

That the cover art of this record is an angry mongrel is apt, for ‘Ill’ are a furious amalgam of all kinds of rock music. Punk, funk, blues and ‘50s rock ‘n’ roll are blended together in a sonic brew which incessantly and instantaneously fun with plenty of added bite. And it is a glorious, glorious album that should be begged, stolen or borrowed (and never returned). ‘One Time’ is propelled by a sweet bass riff that you want to see pretty girls dance to, a stoner-tinged number swaying with a hulk of funk. ‘A’ is the coolest heavy rock this reviewer has heard since the epic grooves of The Workhorse Movement 15 year ago (check ‘em out!), like Little Richard being produced by a jive-talking Prince; whilst ‘There Are Worse Things Than Being Alone’ re-arranged the vocabulary of rock ‘n’ roll into a unique synthesis to provide an intelligently bitter take on heartache kicking your ass. You can hear aspects of the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and The Queens Of The Stone Age, but in truth no-one sounds quite like this – and few are quite as captivating. On the sparse and spartan ‘Christine’, the band real back to a creeping pace to deliver a Nick Cave-esque darkened blues melancholia. Played within an inch of the band’s life, guitars scream, synths wail, and drums thunder, but it never feels too much because the whole thing is locked into what is so often lacking in modern rock ‘n’ roll: groove. If this band’s gain really are ill gotten, who on earth could begrudge them it when they sound like this?

[binnie]

Hell – Human Remains (2011)

This debut album is a third of a century in the making. Yep, you read that correctly. A third of a century. Originally part of the NWOBHM movement Hell struggled to get a record deal in the early ‘80s, despite having some very prominent fans (namely Lars Ulrich). Original singer Dave Halliday’s suicide in 1987 seemed to have cemented the band’s failure to see the light of day and were it not for the help of metal uber-producer Andy Sneap (who plays guitar here) we would never have gotten to hear it at all. And that would have been a terrible shame because, as is rarely the case, ‘Human Remains’ is more than worth the wait. This is what those scratchy old NWOBHM records would have sounded like if they’d been made with a production budget – huge, glorious, and - like all good metal – a little bit silly. You get the melodrama of Maiden or Dio, but also the sheer histrionics of Mercyful Fate and sense of theatricality that old horror films possessed. None of this would matter, of course, if the songs weren’t any good, but what staggers most is the variety at work here: whilst ‘The Quest’ is a punchy anthem, ‘The Devil’s Deadly Weapon’ is a 10 minute epic. Both fit snuggly into an oeuvre held together by atmospherics and (faux) Satantic aesthetics. David Bower’s vocals will be an acquired taste – imagine Alan Rickman fronting a metal band – but for those who get it they will only add to a sense of escapism which is akin to a ‘50s horror B movie.

Perhaps ‘Saves Us From Those Who Would Save Us’ – about a paedophile priest – is too genuinely dark to be macabre, but overall ‘Human Remains’ is an epic heavy metal served up through crunching production and a lavish artwork package. All of this tells us that this is truly a labour of love, and in an age that loves narratives Hell’s story is one which is bound to provide added appeal to the music. But do not be fooled into thinking it’s all polish. After 30 years, these songs have been twisted and honed into perfection by musicians evidently at the top of their game. Played within an inch of their life, and served up on a bed of sheer joyous operatic pomp, Hell are a must for those who wish that metal still sounded like it did in 1982.

[ELVIS]

They look like it took a full century...

[binnie]

Apparently they put on a ***cough*** hell ***cough*** of a live show.

[binnie]

Royal Southern Brotherhood – Royal Southern Brotherhood (2012)

That RSB play da blooze should come as little surprise. Featuring quite a familial lineage in the form of Cyril Neville, Devin Allman and Mike Zito, this heady brew of southern music makes for quite a smooth ride. Blues with an added pinch of soul and easy on the rock, that the pulse comes from the rhythm section of Charlie Wooton and Yonnoco Scott ensures that this is not just another needless guitar work out. Indeed, when the guitars of Allman and Zito do take the stage, it is sass rather than sensation. No-one is breaking new ground here; but sometimes treading furrows worn smooth feels good. The likes of the trippy, Sanatana-esque dreamscapes of ‘Fired Up’, the storytelling heart-string tug of ‘Ways About You’ and the smooth blues of ‘Moonlight Over The Mississippi’ make for rewarding listen. You know the moves, and on the likes of the trite ‘Hurt My Heart’ and the flat ‘Gotta Keep Rockin’’ they come up short. But for those who can’t get enough blues to kick back to, RSB are well worth your time.

[binnie]

Sister Sin – Now & Forever (2012)

Put simply: this record will kick your ass! From the first note to the last, there’s not an ounce of fat on these songs, or any let-up in their delivery. Essentially sounding like a heavier version of ‘80s metal with an added dose of scuzzy punk fury and celebrating hedonism from the get-go. Sure, there’s nothing you’ve not heard before – Sister Sin drip in clichés and are coated in corny sauce. But, really, who cares when it’s this much fun? Opener ‘End of The Line’ is snotty, snarly punk fuelled rock ‘n’ roll with – what’s that? – is it, a bonafide chorus? Sweet Jesus, you don’t hear many of those in rock bands today, and ‘Now & Forever’ is packed full of ‘em. ‘Fight Song’ is boneheaded metal – no-one, least of all Sister Sin, is denying that. But who can’t identify with wanting to pop someone in the mouth? ‘God forgives…………I don’t’. Hell yeah! Add in the sticky hooks of ‘The Chosen Few’ and ‘In It For Life’ – delivered by the gravely larynx of Liv (think a female Blackie Lawless) – and you’ve got quite a record.

Cameron Webb’s crisp mix makes everything bigger and RAUCOUS, complementing performances which drip with conviction and passion to make a record which grabs you by the short and curlies and not letting go until you lose your shit. Dropping anthem after anthem like a crack-fuelled Ratt or Krokus, the songs on this record hit you quick like a series of back alley fucks: cheap and satisfying. This may be the 4th record from this Swedish band to sound pretty much exactly like this, but it is by far the best. They’re lightyears better than bands who get far more press coverage ***cough*** Airbourne ***cough***. It’s loud. It’s rude. It’s dirty. It’s mean. And it is unapologetically heavy metal.

[binnie]

Decapitated – Carnival Is Forever (2011)

This record is a triumph in every sense of the word. Rising from the flames of tragedy with a new line up and continuing to make music which can rival the glories of a simply stellar career in extreme metal, Decapitated deserve some serious respect. There are certainly more extreme form of extreme metal than this, but few bands can compete with Decapitated in either intensity or the relentless quality of their material. In Waclan Kieltyka they have one of metal’s very best guitar players: his filthy granite tone is captivating, his piston-like right hand is electrifying, and his ability to serve up riff after dazzling riff and stupefying solos is remarkable. Adding groove – tons of groove – to this thrash-tinged death metal, the guitars here are complemented by atmospherics which are almost industrial in their hues. Even though the guitars and drums are essentially in line, it never becomes mechanic, and the riffs flow out of Kieltyka with an appeal which most extreme metal musicians do not possess. Even when the music is angular, that groove makes it surprisingly captivating; and the neck wrenching drum patterns of Kerim Lechner will grip and shake all before them into acceptance. Itemising the songs would be an exercise in futility in trying to convey the force of what is, in essence, a truly compelling barrage of 21st century metal. Some of it is truly terrifying. All of it deserves our respect.

Perhaps ‘Carnival Is Forever’ is not as complete as Decapitated’s early recordings. Perhaps still finding their feet with their new line up, there is not really a beginning-middle-end here: this is not so much an album, but a collection of excellent songs. But if it is a sign of things to come being just as bright as what proceeded them, ‘Carnival Is Forever’ must be heralded as a true joy for all extreme metal bands.

[binnie]

Ahab – The Giant (2012)

The term ‘Doom Metal’ conjures up a sound of almost slavish ‘Masters Of Reality’-era Sabbath-worship: bass heavy, slow, at once very dark and very, very stoned. Like an stereotype, there is an element of truth in that appraisal – but ‘Doom’ is a deceptively monolithic term. In the case of German 4 piece Ahab, Sabbath is certainly present. But it is far from all that is going on this, their third album. The doom here is epic, and laced with prog rock leanings. These occur both in the grandiose theme and storytelling approach (a tortuous maritime journey); the creation of ‘movements’ rather than ‘songs’ in a traditional (verse-chorus-verse) sense; and sheer size of everything involved, sonically, and in terms of ambition and almost claustrophobic sense of grandeur. This will not be music for everyone – you have to dedicate both time and concentration to it.

Indeed, in a sense ‘The Giant’ exists on its own timescales. Almost all of the songs are 10 minutes long, meandering from part to part in a process that feels very organic. The band switches from floaty, breezy passages of clean guitars to tormented stormy thunder in which the colossal bass of Stephen Wandernorth is the driving force. At times this is utterly devastating: ‘Antarctica: The Polymorphus’ moves from guttural brutality to moments of sonorous beauty without ever falling apart at the seams. Elsewhere, listeners will be tested – for some the crawling pace of ‘Aeons Elapse’ will make its title prescient. The whole record is sloooooow. But it is a hypnotic slowness. ‘Deliverance’ evokes the brilliance of early Baronness, a series of warm guitar melodies spiralling together towards an epic culmination. Doom metal is an incredibly overpopulated sub-genre, and the result is that some of its real stars go unheralded – such is the case for Ahab, who featured on far too few of 2012’s ‘Best Album’ lists.

It’s certainly an acquired taste: imposingly epic, dauntingly heavy, and – by switching from growling to clean vocals – containing plenty of ‘marmite’ factor. But it is a labour of love. This is music to get lost in. Even the artwork is utterly staggering, and on the vinyl really adds to the power and emotion of the music. Like being taken into someone else’s dark, dark world for 70 minutes, Ahab are a band that not everyone will love. Most, however, will certainly admire them.

[binnie]

Although I currently have a massive stack of news albums to get through (it's been a good couple of months for releases) if anyone has any requests for reviews I am more than happy to oblige (assuming I own the album in question, of course)....

[binnie]

Thy Art Is Murder – Hate (2013)

This is a Deathcore album which stands apart from the (rapidly over-populated) pack. Deploying the mandatory breakdowns with a judicious sense of what works best for the song allows this Australian bunch to avoid becoming generic. Indeed, TAIM have managed to produce an album full of songs which are distinct enough to keep the listener more than interested for the duration. Like the best Deathcore bands (Job For A Cowboy, Whitechapel, Suicide Silence), TAIM avoid the hyper-technicality of modern day death metal by injecting its aesthetics with the bouncy crunch and staccato rhythms of hardcore. But there’s still plenty which death metal purists can enjoy: the vocals are decidedly old skool (shades of Chris Barnes), and the melodies and interludes have something of the early ‘90s about them in places (check out ‘Reign of Darkness’).

‘Hate’ is a balance of songs which are not that much more extreme than some of metal’s biggest stars – ‘The Purest Strain of Hate’ and ‘Shadow of Eternal Sin’ are not a million miles away from Lamb Of God, whilst ‘Vile Corrections’ possesses shades of Fear Factory groove – and shit-scary extremity – ‘Immolation’s eerie atmosphere only enhances its utter brutality (anyone who think that deathcore is a watered down version of death metal beware!) At just 10 songs and 36 minutes, TAIM recognise that less is often more with this type of music. ‘Hate’ is easily the best record they’ve put out so far, and goes some way towards matching the hype which Nuclear Blast are throwing at them. ‘Hate’ is not an all-time classic. But it is a very, very good take on a floundering sub-genre. Two things separate TAIM from the pack: 1) the precision-power drummer really allows them to explore arrangements which take their songs to the next level; and 2) like their countrymen Parkaway Drive, they are memorable not for the ‘special’ nature of their songs but for the sheer unrelenting force and conviction of their delivery.

[binnie]

Biffy Clyro – Opposites (2013)

Double albums are usually iffy. Either hugely overblown, padded out with filler, or pompous affairs which leave fans scratching their heads, the list of truly great ones in rock history is short. In the case of Biffy Clyro – Scotland’s post-grunge superstars – the unease at approaching this double opus is compounded by the band’s own perennial status as square pegs uncomfortably forced into rock round holes. Not heavy enough and too colourful for the metalheads, too expansive and progressive for the indie kids, it is quite difficult to pin down who, precisely, this band’s fans are. Not that that has prevented them from selling millions of records or, as I’ve argued before, been largely responsible for putting soul and intelligence back into chart music. An odd band, certainly. But a compelling one nevertheless.

And smart, too. Made up of two discs – ‘The Sand At the Core of Our Bones’ (softer, and more harrowing the its bubbly melodies suggest) and ‘The Land At The End Of Our Toes’ (heavier and more grandiose in approach – Biffy Clyro realise that if you’re going to put out an album of 20 songs spanning almost and our and a half you can’t just line up 3 minute songs next to one another or it becomes incredibly tedious. Thus ‘Opposites’ sees the band take some chances. Always a grunge band at their heart (big riffs, crashing chords, and hook-filled choruses) Biffy Clyro have expanded the progressive elements of their arrangements and the layers of their production to deliver an album which is – in places, at least – cinematic in its sound and scope. But they never fall off the cliff into pompousville. Almost all of the songs here are about a breakup which was evidently tortuous (‘drip, drip, drip’ reads one lyric – tense silence punctuated only by a tap). ‘The Sand At The Core Of Our Bones’ tackles the melancholic and sombre side of things. Opener ‘Different People’ begins with electronic and drum ‘n’ bass before waking into the grandiose grunge that the band are known for. Elsewhere there’s experimentation. ‘The Fog’ serves up some expressive sounds and atmospherics which are oppressively effective, whilst ‘Sounds Like Balloons’ is awash with odd time signatures and downright weird melodies and is propelled by an edgy sort of funk-rock – imagine Queen experimenting. It may all be a little more sentimental than the band have been in the past, but there’s still plenty of rock thud when they need too (‘Black Chandelier’ or ‘The Joke’s On Us’) – like Incubus on ‘Megalomania’, Biffy Clyro here come across like a rock band constrained by their poppier (or, at least, ‘commercial’) past and want to prove that they can play.

‘The Land At The End Of Our Toes’ is the anger after the sadness of a breakup. ‘Stingin Belle’ kicks off with 5 minutes of slithering riffs and crescendos; ‘Modern Magic Formula’ injects a punky spontaneity into what is often a very composed band; ‘Victory Over The Sun’ and ‘Trumpet Or Tap’ is luscious and heavy rock with acidic hooks; and ‘Accident Without Emergency’ is colossal in scope, an orchestral scope on the post-punk folkism of The Alarm. There are certainly some clunkers caused by over-streching. The horns on ‘Spanish Radio’ are as appealing as a fart in a space suit, and ‘Biblical’ and ‘Woo Woo’ are exercises in turd polishing. But in the presence of the irresistibly glorious closer ‘Picture Of a Knife Fight’, such irrelevances seem to float away. Your initial thoughts are that 80 minutes of songs on the theme of a single break up will dissolve into self-indulgent tosh, and it is a testament to Biffy Clyro’s talents as songwriters that this never happens. No-one would add this to the list of truly great double albums, but it is a good one. And it serves up some of the best rock ‘n’ roll (with more than an added dash of pomp) you’re likely to hear in quite some time.

[vandeleur]

Good review of a good album

[binnie]

Cheers dude

[binnie]

Six Feet Under – Unborn (2013)

Until recently, SFU’s selling point was that their singer used to be in an all-time-great death metal band. Chris Barnes’ post-Cannibal Corpse band have always been enjoyable – in a gore-filled, zombies are coming to eat you kinda way – but in truth their albums had been interchangeable and (if we’re honest) not all that much to write home about: fun, but far from fantastic. That all changed with their previous album, ‘Undead’ – more precise than any of its predecessors; serving up some genuinely nasty – rather than comic book schlock – horror; and amping up the dynamics of the songs, ‘Undead’ was something of a game-changer. ‘Unborn’ continues the progression. It will certainly not come near any of the end of year lists for death metal heads, but that should not detract from the fact that SFU have one crucial advantage over most 21st century extreme metal – their sound. Far, far more organic than the over-pro-tooled and compressed modern uber steroid charge bands, this is death metal the way it used to sound: seedy, grimy and down-right dirty. This is tantamount to saying that something is ‘better’ because it is ‘worse’, but it must be admitted that the atmosphere really adds to the music.

SFU’s approach to songs is also much simpler than the complexity and virtuosity of most death metal in 2013, and also eschews the frentic speed and operatic melodrama of black metal. The result is that fans who do not normally dabble in extreme metal might find this enjoyable. There’s certainly plenty to enjoy. Opener ‘Neuro Osmosis’ places soaring melodies over a boiling nastiness of tar-black Black Sabbath and Deep Purple riffs beneath. ‘Decapitate’ is the sort of serial killer horror that reminds you why you liked death metal in the first place. But what really strikes you here is how far SFU have expanded their songwriting skills (if it’s fair to say that about a band fronted by a guy who’s been doing this for 25 years). The pauses amp up the tension, and the relentless mid-paced groove in compelling. They’re also more diverse than in the past: ‘Fragment’ teeters on grindcore; ‘Incision’ is awash with Slayerisms; and the crisp switch-hitting time-changes of ‘Alive To Kill You’ is sheer demonic magic. And – despite what critics of this sub-genre might suggest – there are hooks. Big, gore drenched ones!

They’re never going to serve up a genre-changer. But, then again, they’re not trying to and on this evidence, we really wouldn’t want them too.

[binnie]

Reissue: Mad Season – Above (1995)

If you were to ask me what the best grunge record was, I wouldn’t have many hesitations in answering. It certainly wouldn’t be the gritted up stadium rock sung by the Hamburgler that was Pearl Jam’s ‘Ten’; or the three-chord Husker Du emasculation that was Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind’, an album that sounds like The Pixies would have done if they’d been less ambitious. Alice In Chains’ masterpiece ‘Dirt’ would certainly be in with more than a shot, as would Soundgarden’s muscular orgasm of hate-filled riffs, ‘Badmotorfinger’, or their post-grunge masterpiece ‘Superknown’, a record that could match pretty much any other in history song-for-song. But none of these captured grunge in quite the same way as Mad Season’s debut – and only – record. A sparse, devastating all round soul-drenched take on a rawer form of rock now reissued in a frankly luscious CD/DVD package. Finally, a reissue more than worth its ticket price.

Mad Season were a side project featuring Layne Staley (Alice In Chains) on vocals, Mike McCreedy (Pearl Jam) on guitar, Barrett Martin (the Screaming Trees) on drums and John Baker Saunders on bass. Their sound was certainly not the dirge filled, crusty riffage of bands normally associated with Seattle of that period. Rather, it was a greasier blues recorded in the rawest of ways and arranged loosely to allow Stayley’s frankly epic vocal melodies to take centre-stage. In places, it feels like a demo, a sparseness that only adds to the power of the songs and the authenticity of the emotions displayed. Here we are treated to the deadened psychedelia of ‘Lifeless Dead’ – in which a fractured shimmer of a riff offsets Stayley’s tortured larynx – the harrowing, Hendrix like wistful beauty of ‘River Of Deceit’ and the dirge-rock of ‘I Don’t Know Anything’, who’s riff hits you like a shovel to the back of the head. The disfigured blues of the title track is awash with maudlin hooks and hypnotic tones, whilst the added prescience of Stayley’s call to a drug-addict friend to ‘Wake Up’ has become perhaps grunge’s most harrowing song. What makes it superb? Like any truly great music, it is the human quality of the performances. Dark? Yes, but not in an artificial way – this is no staid angst. Catharsis, if you will. It’s the sort of delicate authenticity which reminds us why LA rock had to go. A bona fide gem of a record which should be hailed as a classic of the ‘90s.

The reissue comes with an essay by Barrett Martin and five additional songs put together for an ill-fated second album which never emerged (due to health and scheduling commitments). One of these – a rather dazzling version of Lennon’s ‘I Don’t Wanna Be A Solider’ – is sung by Stayley, why the other 4 have new vocals by Mark Lannegan, who had provided some vocals to the original album (see the whimsical darkness of ‘Long Gone Day’). These are no off-cuts: they are dazzling slabs of swirling, Screaming Trees-esque rock. Indeed, ‘Black Book of Fever’ and ‘Slip Away’ are utterly captivating. Also in the package is a live CD featuring a 1995 performance from the Moore in Seattle, a DVD of the same show, and an additional DVD recording from RKCNDY. Hailed like returning Gods by the audience, the live performances are even more raw than the original album and pushes the scope of the songs. Highlights are hard to pick. ‘Wake Up’ is pure sonic bombast, whilst ‘All Alone’ utterly devastating as McCreedy and Stayley as battle for centre-stage, and the expanded ‘Artificial Red’ is jiggered and juddered swathe which cuts out of the speakers.

Like another one-off project – the equally harrowing Temple Of The Dog – Mad Season made music which is both timeless and ageless, and reminds us that the ‘90s produced some of the best singers ever to grace rock music. McCreddy plays his best work here, free of the constraints of Pearl Jam his sound is more powerful and spontaneous. But it is Layne’s record – the melodies and lyrics here stick with you and carry the darkness out in a way which reminds us of our common humanity. Harrowing in places, angelic in others, and never shy of being poetic, ‘Above’ is a the rarest of things: an album which captures a period of history which nevertheless resonates throughout the ages.

[chefcraig]

I've been meaning to pick up the re-release (which includes a live DVD), but I have not seen the damned thing in any of the stores I frequent. Thanks for the review, bin. Nicely done.

[binnie]

Cheers, dude. It is WELL worth picking up......

[binnie]

The Faceless – Autotheism (2012)

When a band invents a word to summarize their album’s concept, you know you’re in for a complex record. Perhaps even a dense one. That ‘Auotheism’ – it means mistaking the voices in your head for those of God, since you asked – is both of those things is self-evident: a concept album played out via some of the most technical and expansive metal you’re likely to encounter, and incorporating saxophones, industrial elements, prog rock, death metal and a bit of grunge for good measure, this is not a collection of 3 minute feel-good tunes. But here ‘complex’ and ‘dense’ are positives, largely because The Faceless’s song-writing chops mean that ‘Autotheism’ never becomes overwhelming. Although firmly rooted in (technical) death metal (as their first two albums demonstrated) this is an intelligent sort of heaviness/extremity as evidenced by Meshuggah, Periphery or Strapping Young Lad. The Faceless do not sound particularly like those bands, but their approach to heaviness – employing it for a reason rather than for its own sake – is similar, and as startlingly affective.

The 18 minute title track is broken into three parts: ‘Create’ has a creepy, Alice In Chainsy riff and maudlin melodies and soon explodes into the progressive thrash double-bass drum ecstasy of ‘Emancipate’, which only serves as a warm up for ‘Deconsecrate’ which spans Dream Theatre to death metal and back again. Lurching for style to style is schizophrenic, but only complements the lyrical theme of the album. That the song finishes with a burst of thrash riffs which sound like a 747 taking off is an added bonus. Elsewhere, there is plenty of variety – The Faceless know that you can’t go flat-out all of the time without becoming forgettable. Closer ‘In Solitude’ is an epic power ballad in the school of Judas Priest and Metallica (if they’d grown up 20 years latter), and proof that the band does melody alongside heaviness. ‘Hymn Of Sanity’ possesses more than a nod to The Dillinger Escape Plan, whilst the warp-factor thrash of ‘The Eidolon Reality’ manages (somehow) to inject melody into the madness. It’s dazzlingly impressive stuff.

But it’s no easy listen. There is a LOT of music here, and even at 40 minutes in length it may prove too rich for some. It would be a shame, however, if people didn’t give them a go. Already feted in extreme metal circles, with the tunes on display here The Facless have real cross-over potential. The musicianship is staggering: guitarists Michael Keene and Wes Haugh shred likes their lives depended on it, serves up a bounty of riffs, and create prog soundscapes to boot; and drummer Lyle Cooper has standout skills in a genre of top-notch technicians. Adding clean vocals to the death metal ones this time around only adds depth, and if they pushed this in the future The Faceless could become a genuinely huge band (by the standards of this type of music). Until then, we’ll just have to settle for them delivering truly inspiring albums. Does ‘Autotheism’ break new musical ground? No, but it comes close, and the excellence of its delivery is second to none.

[FORD]

Wouldn't an "autotheist" be somebody who worshipped cars?

[ELVIS]

FUCK!

[ELVIS]

Double fuck!!!!!!!!

Sorry Binnie...

[binnie]

No need to apologize - there's no problem with saying 'fuck' in this thread

[binnie]

Witchcraft – Legend (2012)

This is a band which sounds absolutely nothing like their name. You’re expecting black metal, right? Wrong. Over the course of 4 albums, this bunch of Swedish free-spirits have served up a tasty brew of garage rock, psychedelia, blues and proto metal which has its eyes firmly on the dial of 1967-70, a period when being heavy was an aspect of a band’s music rather than its sole purpose. So you’ll hear a bit of Blue Cheer and Atomic Rooster, but you’ll also hear The Byrds and Creedence, too. Imagine the Rival Sons without the American bombast and Californian teeth and you’re getting somewhere near. Alongside those American firebrands, Witchcraft sit at the forefront of a minor explosion of bands serving up rock music which evokes a period before it became a sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll cliché and still connected with recognizably purer emotions. Bands like Parlor Mob, Nighthorse, Firebird or fellow Swedes Graveyard, who remember that hedonism isn’t enough and that rock needs to be matched with some roll to elevate it the next plain.
In Witchcraft’s case, that roll has always come from blues, folk and prog and has always added a wistful element to their music that ultimately makes it more charismatic. Last album ‘The Alchemist’ (2012) was something of a modern classic as a result of incorporating all of those elements into one synthesis. ‘Legend’ is a much more straightforwardly rocking affair, more immediately riff based and demonstrating a slightly harder guitar tone than in the past, and although those expansive folk and blues leanings they are tempered by pure rock fury. Opener ‘Deconstruction’ is packed full of heavy-ass riffs and sickle-shaped licks from Tom Jondelius and Simon Solomon, and is the way that Down would sound if they’d formed in 1968. ‘An Alternative To Freedom’ would not have been out of place on the last couple of Soundgarden records, and matches that band’s remarkable capacity to sound colossal in 4 minutes. Elsewhere, Magnus Pelander’s vocals take centre-stage. Both ‘Flag Of Fate’ and ‘It’s Not Because Of You’ could light up the radio if given half the chance (and remind the world that The Killers are little more than an average band): the latter’s ruddy chorus and darkened melodies are captivating; whilst that latter has hooks that kill. By the time you arrive at 11 minute closer ‘Dead End’s’ charcoal-grey blues Armageddon, you are in the presence of a band in preaching mode, existing solely on its own terms and own timescales and not pandering to any perception of what rock music should be in 2013. Wailing, soaring and diving, Witchcraft’s songs rest upon the dynamic relationships they engender between fairly conventional rock DNA to produce something special.

And yet, you can’t help but feel that ‘Legend’ is a slight peg down from ‘Witchcraft’ or ‘The Alchemist’, that in becoming more straightforwardly hard rock they’ve let go of that element that made them unique in the first place. Still, with the possible exception of The Rival Sons, Witchcraft remain the best in the world at what they do. Graveyard may get more plaudits, but few can conjure magic quite like Witchcraft.

[binnie]

Bleed From Within – Uprising (2013)

British metal is flying at the moment. Whether it is bands that are truly inventive (djent leaders Tesseract, post-hardcore bruisers While She Sleeps and Heart Of A Coward) utterly divisive (Bring Me The Horizon), arena-rocking unit shifters (Bullet For My Valentine) or just flat out classy (Sacred Mother Tongue), the depth of talent is at a height its not been since the early 1980s. Scotland BFW have long been floating around the mid ranks of that scene (like thrasher Evile and Malefice). But, having put label woes and line-up changes behind them, on album number three they’ve announced their contention for the crown. Let’s be clear from the off: BFW are not breaking the mould here. The plaudits come perspiration rather than inspiration: this bruising, bullish modern metal that screams ‘people champion’. No frills, no self-indulgence, just foot-to-the floor metal. A British Devildriver, if you will, but with add metalcore breakdowns and extreme metal leanings.

Opener ‘Colony’ has the metalcore leanings of God Forbid or later-day Trivium. Awash with bouncy riffs, breakdowns, hooks and gang vocals which seemed designed to make it a live anthem, the blood-curdling fury of the delivery makes ‘Uprising’ infectious from the get-go. ‘It Lives in Me’ has more than a dash of Hatebreed about it, a bouncy aggressiveness made for circle pits. There’s plenty more to like, too. ‘Strive’ proves that aggressive music can be catchy (the guitar melodies a sweet sucker punch); whilst ‘Our Divide’ and ‘The War Around Us’ could give more established bands a run for their money – the latter also proves that the band can serve up a killer set of lyrics, and have something to say. What stands out in these songs is how much music is crammed into them: changing tempo and riff every 4 bars serves up a frenetic energy and keeps the listener hooked. It can be overwhelming in places, but for the most part the band’s focus steers things through.

‘Uprising’ is nothing you’ve not heard before – and you’ve heard it a lot if you’ve been listening to metal in the past 10 years – but it is a very good representation of metal’s mainstream in 2013, post-metalcore if you will. It’s certainly not as good as some of the hype would have you believe – parts of the media tipping ‘album of the year’ is both premature an unsubstantiated – but it is a hell of a record. They’re bound to kill it live.

[Dave's Bitch]

Are you still taking requests Binnie?

I have been crazy into The Quireboys the past week.What's your take on "A Bit Of What You Fancy"?

[binnie]

Might take me a while to get round to that one, but leave it with me

[binnie]

From the vaults: Trouble – Plastic Green Head (1995)

This is quite a gem of a record, albeit one which is a deviation from a classic band’s more celebrated sound. Trouble’s first two albums – ‘Psalm 9’ and ‘The Skull’ – played a significant part in the foundation of doom metal and are unquestionably classic records. As the ‘90s progressed, however, Trouble took on a sound which was closer to stoner in vibe, and often leaves diehards a little dis-satisfied. By ‘Plastic Green Head’ – album number 6 – that psychedelica/stoner vibe had merged with a meatier metallic approach to heaviness in a sound which is reminiscent of both Down and Pepper Keenan-era Corrosion of Conformity. The weight here is colossal. But it is also accessible, largely thanks to the band’s no nonsense approach to song-writing and the sheer melodic force of their hooks. Crunchy metal with groove, weight, stoner hits and thick, thick lashing of excitement – what more could anyone want?

The title-track kicks things off with a belting blues-kissed riff that could crush heaven with its weight. ‘The Eye’ is a hulking, swaying song with heaviness and bombast to spare, whilst ‘Another Day’ sounds like ‘Sabotage’ era Sabbath, an orgasmic rainbow of colour spasming over a core of darkness. No one sounds quite like this band. ‘Hear The Earth’ should have been a radio hit, the colour radiating from the guitar interweaving with the crunching heaviness of its heaviness to make a song both weighty and incessantly melodic. In Eric Wagner they have a grizzled voice and rawk croon with hooks that suck you into the band’s off little world. And in Bruce Franklin they have a chronically underrated riff writer (like Catherdral’s Gary Jennings, Franklin is something of a unheralded guitar genius of the Ockham’s razor style of riffing).

The record was recorded in difficult circumstances (self-financed following record-company woes) and was followed by an extended hiatus. In places, you can hear the cracks: whilst the macabre cover of Carol King’s ‘Porpoise Song’ is stirring stuff, the band’s take on The Beatles’s ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ is just plain odd (if somewhat prescient, given the uncertainty the band was facing). In 1995 this music was ahead of the curve. The best stoner music might have been made in the 1990s, but it was still a small-scale, underground scene. Certainly not nu metal, or post-grunge, or pop punk, these years were difficult ones for true metal bands and you can understand why Trouble folded (temporarily) after this record – but sometimes triumph comes out of adversity and the sheer riff-packed brilliance of this record is a triumph indeed. Not a classic band’s ‘classic’ sound, but a helluva ride nevertheless.

A black gem of an album.

[binnie]

From the vaults: Sodom – Agent Orange (1989)

Thrash was – originally, at least – an American form of metal, perhaps the point at which the US took over the ‘Heavy Metal’ mantle formulated by the UK in the ‘70s and ‘80s. We all know that the ‘Big 4’ of thrash (and some of their ‘smaller’ peers) delivered some genre-changing, life-fulfilling ode-to-the-riff packed albums in the ‘80s and early ‘90s. But what is often overlooked is that fact that Germany’s ‘Big Three’ (Sodom, Kreator and Destruction) served up their fair share of metallic goodness, too. If the debate regarding ‘best album’ for the Big 4 falls roundly between ‘Master Of Puppets’ and ‘Reign In Blood’ (it’s the former, by the way), for the ‘Big Three’ it comes down to Kreator’s delightfully evil ‘Pleasure To Kill’ and ‘Agent Orange’, the third album from Sodom. Most would opt for Kreator, a band who served up something heavier than just about anything conceivable in 1986. But for my money, ‘Agent Orange’ is the superior record – certainly not as fast, or as rabid, but the maturity of song-writing and delivery here makes for a record which is truly crushing in its hyper-fast Teutonic march and relentlessly tight. The German bands were always more brutal, and this is no exception. But ‘Agent Orange’ combined that organic savagery with the complexity of what the ‘Big 4’ were doing, and tempered it in places with some Celtic Frost style atmospherics. Far from gun-metal grey, the result is a band which paints in many shades of heaviness. The cement-mixer bass is high in the mix; the blood-curdling vocals are downright mean; Chris Witchhunter (RIP) hits the drums like an angry gorilla; and Frankie Blackfire’s riffs are utterly, utterly savage.

This album was light-years ahead of the band’s debut ‘Persecution Mania’ in terms of focus and precision. The title-track serves up pulverising riff after pulverising riff on a bedrock of Slayer-esque time-changes to amp up the energy. This is aggression of mesmerizing proportions, the sort of heaviness that owns you, and which has rarely been matched since. Quite how Tom Angelripper’s bark manages to chisel its way through the mountainface of metal is beyond me. Like all classic records, ‘Agent Orange’ combines variety with a unity of theme and purpose. Thus the mid-paced stomper ‘Remember The Fallen’ is distinct from the punk fury of ‘Incest’ (the nastiest song ever written?) but yet not apart from it or the greasy evilness of the Motorhead-esque ‘Ausgebombt’. ‘Magic Dragon’ features 3 or 4 riffs which most band’s spend a life-time never being able to match and builds and builds its power through a machine-gun like delivery of spitting rage and is outdone in the ‘my fucking neck hurts’ stakes only by ‘Tired & Red’, an epic which spans from punk to Maiden via a melodic interlude. Like a Metallica epic, it’s true beauty and the beast stuff. Sodom would certainly become better musicians in future years; and they would also become more comfortable with the concept of melody. But even as good as their records in the ‘00s have been, they’ve never come close to the sheer other-worldly vibrancy and vitality of ‘Agent Orange’.

What makes ‘Agent Orange’ such a joy almost a quarter of a century on is the unbridled fury it exhibits. The sound here is ‘Kill ‘em All’ raw, a hypnotic crunch of metal on metal guitars recorded on a small budget and capturing a certain type of power which bigger productions don’t possess. Easily a top 10 all-time thrash classic, this is a record which should be hailed in the same way as anything produced by Sodom’s American peers, a purchased by the same hairy teenage palms that lap up ‘Hell Awaits’ with such glee. Few records capture a time so aptly without becoming limited to it, but ‘Agent Orange’ is certainly one of them.

[binnie]

Clutch – Earth Rocker (2013)

Clutch are the rarest of things in 21st century heavy music: a genuinely good-time rock ‘n’ roll band that doesn’t ply their trade via shameless plagiarism of rock’s past. Fun is underrated in modern heavy music, but where it does occur it appears in two guises: 1) sounding an awful lot like Zeppelin and AC/DC; or 2) sounding like a Sunset Strip wannabe. Clutch do neither. They have always existed in their own little bubble, a shamanic brew of stoner, funk, blues and metal which is delivered with vibes, wit and charisma a-plenty. And it RAWKS!! ‘Earth Rocker’ is a simpler and more straight-forward affair than the band’s recent (and brilliant) albums ‘From Beale St. To Oblivion’ and ‘Strange Cousins From The West’. Here we get the foot-to-the-floor, in yer face bounce of early Clutch albums like ‘Pure Rock Fury’ and ‘Blast Tyrant’ – there’s far more crunchy stonerisms of Monster Magnet or Fu Manchu here than in recent years. The title-track is a funked up Govt. Mule jamming with Sly and the Family Stone; ‘Mr Freedom’ is sass with badass; whilst ‘D.C. Sound Attack’ is a chainsaw swamp-blues which shows that even when they serve up biting social criticism Clutch remain a fuck of a lot of fun. In a sense, however, itemising the songs cannot do a Clutch album justice. Perfectly balanced, and lacking in any fat, the variety of pace, tones and poppin’ rhythms makes for a classy album which exists to put the ooo in groove. Topped off by Neil Fallon’s idiosyncratic approach to lyric-writing – part preacher, part beat poet – the cool-meter just topped out.

One of a handful of bands who just seem categorically incapable of putting out a bad record, Clutch have yet to disappoint or fail to surprise. ‘Earth Rocker’ continues to serve up smiles. A truly great live – if you’ve seen ‘em, they’re in your top 10 – with another arsenal of songs that charge like a bull with its balls tied, Clutch are going to continue to go from strength to strength. The question is: will they ever secure an audience level which matches their level of critical acclaim?

Your ears will be smiling.

[TFM_Dale]

Clutch – Earth Rocker (2013)

Clutch are the rarest of things in 21st century heavy music: a genuinely good-time rock ‘n’ roll band that doesn’t ply their trade via shameless plagiarism of rock’s past. Fun is underrated in modern heavy music, but where it does occur it appears in two guises: 1) sounding an awful lot like Zeppelin and AC/DC; or 2) sounding like a Sunset Strip wannabe. Clutch do neither. They have always existed in their own little bubble, a shamanic brew of stoner, funk, blues and metal which is delivered with vibes, wit and charisma a-plenty. And it RAWKS!! ‘Earth Rocker’ is a simpler and more straight-forward affair than the band’s recent (and brilliant) albums ‘From Beale St. To Oblivion’ and ‘Strange Cousins From The West’. Here we get the foot-to-the-floor, in yer face bounce of early Clutch albums like ‘Pure Rock Fury’ and ‘Blast Tyrant’ – there’s far more crunchy stonerisms of Monster Magnet or Fu Manchu here than in recent years. The title-track is a funked up Govt. Mule jamming with Sly and the Family Stone; ‘Mr Freedom’ is sass with badass; whilst ‘D.C. Sound Attack’ is a chainsaw swamp-blues which shows that even when they serve up biting social criticism Clutch remain a fuck of a lot of fun. In a sense, however, itemising the songs cannot do a Clutch album justice. Perfectly balanced, and lacking in any fat, the variety of pace, tones and poppin’ rhythms makes for a classy album which exists to put the ooo in groove. Topped off by Neil Fallon’s idiosyncratic approach to lyric-writing – part preacher, part beat poet – the cool-meter just topped out.

One of a handful of bands who just seem categorically incapable of putting out a bad record, Clutch have yet to disappoint or fail to surprise. ‘Earth Rocker’ continues to serve up smiles. A truly great live – if you’ve seen ‘em, they’re in your top 10 – with another arsenal of songs that charge like a bull with its balls tied, Clutch are going to continue to go from strength to strength. The question is: will they ever secure an audience level which matches their level of critical acclaim?

Your ears will be smiling.

I haven't listened to a Clutch album since Blast Tyrant and need to get caught up, I liked it as I have all of their albums I have listened to but they got lost in the shuffle for me I suppose. Great review as always, I'll check it out.

[binnie]

Do check it out (and the other Clutch albums I mentioned in the review). Still one of the best bands in rock.

[Seshmeister]

No need to apologize - there's no problem with saying 'fuck' in this thread

It wasn't him it was the voices in his head.

[binnie]

Kveltertak – Meir (2013)

Kveltertak are an unholy behemoth of a band – and ‘Meir’ is the sort of album that you run out of superlatives for. We may not be halfway through 2013 yet, but when the ‘Best Of’ end of year lists are penned in December, I would be amazed if this evil blast of demented fun is not in the upper half of most critics’ polls. Describing Kveltertak’s sound is not easy. An amalgamation of metal, hardcore, stoner and prog, the band blends its influences through crazy arrangements and serves them up furiously. Like Mastodon or Baroness, they realize that metal doesn’t have to be relentlessly staccato (as it has been since thrash), and they harness their heaviness to some serious old-skool riffage and the duelling guitars of classic metal, and temper it all with the crusty aesthetics and frenetic energy of post-hardcore. And they don’t take life too seriously, either. Songs about Trepans (holes in the skull to release evil spirits), being on the run, a man condemned to walk the earth forever, tyrants and an inter-galactic killer delivered to earth on a meteor all combined the powerful sense of escapism which metal used to possess. Indeed, for all of their proficiency this is a band that wants to kick your ass, not kill you with complexity.

Picking out the highlights is a tough task. ‘Apenbaring’ is a morass of energy, bass-heavy rock ‘n’ roll with a punk sparkiness; ‘Spring Fra Livet’ is awash with killer riffs and loose licks, and passes from white noise to compelling rock ‘n’ roll in one swoop; ‘Evig Vanrar’ is the groove-punk of Every Time I Die slowed down and brawling; ‘Nekroksmos’ sounds like Motorhead being covered by a black metal band and serves up epic wave after epic wave of bison-balled blues riffs; and ‘Kveltertak’ is a metal anthem straight outta-1985, proving that for all their complexity, this is a band can kill it in straightforward mode, too. It will rip it live. You don’t even care that they’re singing in Norwegian – the effervescent sense of fun is so compelling it’ll suck you right into identifying with them. So, a metal band that is innovative without being pretentious; boulder shitting heavy but still infectious; and understands that fun almost always trumps ‘musical depth’ – with albums like this, metal really could move past that cloying sense of misty-eyed nostalgia for the ‘80s which often holds it back.

[binnie]

Killswitch Engage – Disarm The Descent (2013)

Let’s be honest: reunion records usually suck. Dripping in nostalgia, over-confidence and entitlement they usually fall somewhere between self-indulgence and self-parody. Sure, the last couple of years have seen some mighty fine ones – Soundgarden, Alice In Chains, Vision of Disorder – but a general rule of thumb is that the bigger the band, the bigger the disappointment. And in the world of 21st century metal, few bands come bigger that KSE. Having ‘saved’ metal from its ‘nu’ doldrums in the early ‘00s with a debut record which – let’s be frank – punch metal’s collective head squarely in the nose and went on to spawn not only a subgenre – metalcore – but a 1000 copyists with a 1000 cliches (guttural vocals in the chorus/ clean in the chorus, breakdowns in every song), this is a band that actually MATTERED. And then the singer left. He (Jesse Leach) was replaced by an equally talented (if less intense) vocalists in the form of Howard Jones, and the band went on to release some killer material – namely ‘The End Of Heartache’. But as the ‘00s drifted into the ‘10s, KSE became, well, a little flabby. A little uninspired. There was nothing particularly bad about ‘As Daylight Dies’ or ‘Killswitch Engage’ (2009) they just didn’t have the vim of those older records. The hooks weren’t quite as hooky; the melodies didn’t soar in quite such an inspirational way; and the metal, it just wasn’t as livid. So they got their original singer back. And they made this.

Oh, and it fuckin’ RULES!!! It takes about 2 bars of opener ‘The Hell In Me’ to feel it. The precision riffage, the taut rhythms, and then a COLOSSAL chorus kicks in and it’s all over. Welcome back, fellas. We’ve missed you. What made KSE work is here in abundance: dexterous riffage and emotive vocals. They’re heavy, but they never go off the cliff; they’re extreme (ultra-fast in places, screamy in others) but they still put son-dynamics first; and they have more melody in the vocals than just about anyone in metal for the past 2 decades. Jesse Leach is on fire here – his delivery makes the melodies as heavy as they are infectious. And there is just no let-up. ‘The New Awakening’ is an anthem of defiance; ‘No End In Sight’ encapsulates the gleeful rebellion that makes metal great; and ‘The Call’ is warp-factor metal that still manages to be catchy. Sure, there are some predictable moments (‘All We Have’, ‘Turning Point’) but nothing is ever close to forgettable. Adam Dutkiewicz and Joel Stroetzel serve up a compact wall of riffage which remains understated and incredibly powerful, and even fly loose with some nifty solos in places, too. And those choruses, well it’s game over……

Critics might cry havoc that all KSE did was Americanize the Gotheburg sound that In Flames and Dark Tranquilty had been running with 5 years earlier, and they would be right. But that doesn’t diminish the calibre of the tunes this band delivers. ‘Disarm The Descent’ has not re-energized a living legend, it is also the perfect encapsulation of metal’s middleground in 2013. You’ll be singing it for weeks.

[binnie]

Neurosis – Honour Found In Decay (2012)

Describing Neurosis’s music to someone who hasn’t heard them is like trying to explain the big bang theory to a chimp. Indeed, trying to capture what – precisely – is devastatingly powerful about Neurosis in prose is ultimately an exercise in futility, a demonstration that words do have their limitations in trying to demarcate art or sound. It is safe to begin by saying the this band have never been an easy listen. Emerging from the hardcore scene in the mid ‘80s and blossoming into a fully-fledged art-rock band devoted to exploring existential questions and human fragility, Neurosis have always been a long way from the Foo Fighters. But for all the challenging nature of the music, it is truly devastating. Most bands produce sound. This band makes music that matters: in the same way that some authors write stories that you enjoy for the duration of the time it take to read them; and some are Dostoevsky.

‘Honour Found In Decay’ is a long way from the band’s most celebrated albums – the tortured heaviness and metallic tapestries of ‘Through Silver In Blood’ and ‘Enemy of the Sun’ are not replicated here. Indeed, the broader elements of the rock spectrum explored in Scott Kelly’s and Steve Von Till’s solo work have been fed back into the mix to produce a great complement of textures. You can hear Tom Waits and Nick Cave in the nuances, Captain Beefheart in the odours. Like the very best of prog-metal – Isis, Opeth, Oceansize, Mastodon – this is not a band that produces ‘songs’ in the verse-chorus-verse-chorus sense of the term. The songs here are more movement, dark tapestries of pieces of music woven together in a furious fashion. It is the easy with which the band moves from part to part – and with which they absorb their contradictory influences into one solid aesthetic – which staggers. Although the sound nothing like Killing Joke, the effect is similar: a wall of sound rich in texture and colour, and relentlessly hypnotic in the all-consuming pull of its groove. And – like Killing Joke – you could never call Neurosis’s music overtly ‘metallic’. But it IS primal, furious and repulsively heavy.

There is nothing here below excellent, but some moments have to be heard to be believed. The peaks and troughs of ‘At The Wall’ fuse into music that is utterly chilling, the band shifting from Leonard Cohen-esque darkness to doom metal monstrosity with breathless ease and locking the listener in the stare of something truly terrifying. Elsewhere, the tar-black groove of ‘My Heart For Deliverance’ is as ugly and affecting at one and the same time. Most prog sounds like it was made by nice, intelligent private school boys with an affection for whimsy – Neurosis sound like a collection of broken men locked into a darkened wood for several lifetimes. The sound as ever is organic even when the music is complex. As they’ve aged they’ve felt the need to play less and less, and the result is record full of songs which breathe and pulsate, scream and seethe in equal measure. Steve Albini’s unobtrusive production captures the rawness with a sparse delivering serving to make this band even rougher in their grandeur.

This is a record by one of the most innovative and elemental bands of the past two decades. It is demanding – exacting, even – but it will command your attention. And if it’s too much for you, well there’s always that Foo Fighter record…….

[Mr. Vengeance]

I take it Bin, that you do this stuff for a living? If not, you ought to.