Album Reviews

[binnie]

From the vaults: Testament – Souls Of Black (1990)

Alongside 1994’s ‘Low’, ‘Souls Of Black’ is probably Testament’s most underated album. Picking up where previous record – ‘Practice What You Preach’ – left off, the band continued to inject their brand of ultra-muscular Bay Area thrash with variety (a ballad, some mid-paced riffage and progression), ‘Souls….’ was the band’s darkest record thus far. Learning quickly that outright speed for its own sake only gets you so far, the band showed the capacity to pen skull-crushing anthems like ‘Love To Hate’ and ‘Malpractice’ by switching from speed riffs to mid-paced crushers on the spin of a dime. The result has become something of a Testament trademark, and when mixed with the more conventional jack-hammer heavy thrashers like ‘Falling Fast’ and ‘Face In The Sky’ (massive, massive riff) the over-ridding sense is of a band in transition (as most of their peers, Megadeth, Metallica and Anthrax were at the same time). Priest-esque power ballad ‘The Legacy’ avoids cheese by adopting a ‘Planet Caravan’ style melody to make things eerie; whilst the progressive thrash elements on this record provide the songs that really should be better remembered – ‘Absence of Light’ is stunning, but closer ‘Seven Days of Mercy’ is a truly unheralded burst of melodic, heavy thrash.

The performances throughout are tight and sterling. Alex Skolnick naturally delivers ridiculously expert guitar wizzardry; and vocalist Chuck Billy continued his evolution into thrash’s best hook writer (his melodies add some serious weight to these tunes). The production, however, robs much of the album of its true power. Surely a full remixed and remastered catalogue is in order boys?

[binnie]

Gallows – Gallows (2012)

Losing a singer is one the hardest thing a band can endure: the face of the band, its most instantly recognizeable ‘instrument’ and the one which fan’s identify with most closely, losing a singer has often been the death of many a great band. Thus in 2011 when Frank Carter departed from Gallows – Britain’s frankly superlative 21st century punk band – hipsters, fans and journos alike were nervous. How would the band – riding high on one of the best records of the new millenium in ‘Grey Britain’ – bounce back from this? Heads were scratched when it was announced that Carter’s replacement would be Wade McNeil, former belter for Alexisonfire: not only was that band a noteable step-down in aggressive from Gallows, question were asked about how such a quintessentially British band would fare under the helm of a guy from the other side of the Atlantic.

The first lyric on this record answers those questions like a head-butt. ‘Karma’s gonna smash your head like a ton of bricks’ barks McNeil, opening up a record which is – no arguments, please – incredible in every way. This punk the way it should be. Not posed, not over-thought, not preened or polished, but raw, dirty, furious and strident in its dissident intentions. But more than that, what has always marked Gallows out is their capacity to pen great songs – songs that are just as essential as those honed by their influences. Doing so relies upon grasping punk was about more than 3 chords and gob. The variety here is staggering: ‘Victim Culture’ is Sick Of It All style concrete punk; whilst ‘Everybody Loves You (When You’re Dead)’ is a furious nod to Motorhead; and ‘Vapid Adolescent Blues’ is a perfectly fucked-up take on broken youth. Elsewhere, the band explores the capacities of their new frontman: ‘Outside Art’ see McNeil deliver darker melodies as the old Gallows sound is pushed to expand into new horizons, a cement mixer bass and glass in the face hardcore bubbling under arguably the darkest tune Gallows have put out to date. And the high points keep coming. ‘Nations’ – with its jilted riff and militia groove – rearranges the vocabulary of punk into its own language; whilst ‘Cult of Mary’ is the hoarse voice of honest emotion.

This is music that will make you uncomfortable. Lyrics that will challenge you and make you genuinely furious about the state of the world. It is also the British album of the year. Is it as good as ‘Grey Britain’? It’s close, really, really close……..

[binnie]

Anathema – Weather Systems (2012)

Anathema have now evolved so far beyond their doom metal roots that it is probably unfair to call them ‘metal’ at all. Coming off the back of last year’s career high ‘We’re Here Because We’re Here’, ‘Weather Systems’ delivers more heartfelt rock which oozes emotion and class in equal measure. Shimmering, delicate and sombre at turns, few songwriters in the world can deliver this level of quality with such consistent quantities. ‘The Beginning & The End’ is bigger than God – folk meets prog leading your emotions out into the stratosphere. Elsewhere tender is the order of the day: ‘The Gathering Of The Clouds’ sees a serious of delicious vocal lines wrap and lick around each other over lucious orchestration and guitars; whilst ‘Untouchable’ – an ode to the ache of longing – sees Vincent Cavanagh’s dark hues offset by Lee Douglas’s waif-like voice. Less guitar driven than ever before, Anathema continue to prove that they can be poignant in any style. Piano, strings, acoustic and electronica combine to make something, dark and utterly captivating. A longer review could detail the majesty of every song, but it would only be an exercise in the inadequacies of superlatives.

[binnie]

Vision of Disorder – The Cursed Remain Cursed (2012)

Metalcore has now become so tiresome that it is refreshing to remind ourselves that plenty of incredible music was made when bands first began consistently combining metal and hardcore. Vision of Disorder – who were doing this several years before Killswitch Engage did it to much greater (commercial) acclaim – are back to rip the world a new arsehole. Easily one of the most innovative bands of the ‘90s – ‘Imprint’ (1998) sounds as scary today as it did then – ‘The Cursed Remain Cursed’ is the rarest of albums for two reasons: 1) it is a ‘reunion’ in which the band in question makes some music which can rival their heyday; and 2) it is a metal/hardcore combination which is not predictable in any sense of the term.

Whilst Killswitch Engage (and the thousands of bands who copied them) fell more of the ‘metal’ side of metalcore, and coupled that with a shine and sheen of a mellifluous production, VOD always fell on the ‘hardcore’ end of the genre, and coupled that with the broken concrete and broken bones school of production. None of that has changed, and ‘The Cursed….’ Sounds like a hungry pitbull whose been poked with a big stick. Opener ‘Loveless’ lays burning rage and darkened melodies over subversive and submerged sense of groove, rolling from riff to riff and style, blending together different parts of the vocabulary of heavy music. It’s pleasing to hear that they’ve made the record they should have made. They’re still furious – seriously, this could crack your skull – but they’re also older. That’s not to say things have softened, but that the rage is delivered with more focus and sincerity. ‘Set To Fail’ has Life Of Agony tinges, whilst ‘Skullz Out (Rot In Pieces)’ expands the band’s sound somewhat, injecting alt.rock into the punk madness and ‘The Enemy’ smashes Alice In Chains and the Cro-Mags together and comes up grinning a black-toothed grin. This is music about hard times barked by people who MEAN it:

I’ll show you hate – I’ll show you hurt
A lesson of life on the street, you’re kicking the shit out of me.
A spit to the face, no saving grace
Suffer silence, gimmie hate, gimmie love, gimmie what I fucking deserve.

VOD have always managed to cram a lot of music into 3-4 minutes without it ever becoming overwhelming or unfocussed. Everything is boiled down, pure, and these angry, artfully crafted songs will remain with you, serving to remind us that VOD have rarely been equaled, let alone bettered.

[binnie]

Katatonia – Dead End Kings (2012)

In parallel with Anathema, Katatonia’s evolution away from their extreme metal roots has been mesmerizing to witness. Ever since 2001’s ‘Last Fair Deal Gone Down’, the band have delivered album after album of songs most bands – in any genre – would kill to be able to write. Part metal, part Goth, part prog and utterly haunting in their exploration of the darker side of the human condition, Katatonia have always separated themselves from the heavy pack by doing so without tending towards melodrama or pastiche. ‘Dead End Kings’ continues that evolution, with a more focussed and crisp delivery than in more recent outings. ‘The Parting’ combines soft/heavy dynamics with The Cure, A Perfect Circle, The Cult, Mission and Zeppelin stomp, wrapped together with melodies which could provide novacaine for the soul. It’s the combination of so much variety into one aesthetic which always impresses most with Katatonia – ‘Hypnone’ is a sombre Jane’s Addiction, its metallic core bubbling beneath some haunting alt.rock; whilst ‘Dead Letters’ is a strident, rifforama of Tool-like prog Goddery. The highs are frequent and unpretentious – ‘The Racing Heart’ and ‘Ambitions’ sound epic in 4 minutes, and the whole album ebbs and flows, weaving melodies into one tapestry of music. This is not metal which grabs you be the neck and shakes you, but rather that which envelops you in darkness and slowly seeps inward.

Stunning, unparalleled and consistently as good as much gets.

[binnie]

Parkway Drive – Atlas (2012)

Parkway Drive are a band of no surprises. This is metalcore – metal’s most overpopulated and hence most generic genre – at its most basic: you know when the breakdown is coming, you’ve heard that riff before, and the vocals sound like a thousand other bands (although, mercifully, PD avoid the ‘melodic’ chorus lines so commonplace in this genre). But, despite all of this predictability PD never fail to be utterly, utterly compelling – even EXCITING. It’s a paradox solved by one thing: conviction. Boy does this band mean it; and boy do they play like it’s the last day on earth and they’re providing the soundtrack. Coupled with a production from Matt Hyde which balances being gigantic and raw with considerable aplomb, for most of ‘Atlas’ it feels like PD are actually playing in the room behind you.

Much of that conviction comes from the lyrics. Indeed, whilst PD are never going to break new ground musically, lyrically it’s a wholly different matter. Far from the shoe-gazing brigade of modern metal, PD tackle huge issues: environmental collapse, the meaningless of eternity, and the sins of the baby boom generation coming home to roost. It’s relentlessly bleak and if truth be told its out-of-step with the bouncy-bouncy music, but it does add PD a level of intensity which few can match. ‘Dream Ruin’ and ‘Wild Eyes’ have hooks of a higher quality and are made for the mosh pit, whilst the more sombre moments (‘The River’) shows a maturity which goes far beyond staid angst. Elsewhere ‘Old Ghost/New Regrets’ injects some Lamb Of God into the mix, and there is a noticeable presence of Death Metal tones throughout (blast beats aplenty). This is all well and good, but PD do have a tendency to be a little too serious – indeed, when they do come out swinging like Neanderthals on ‘The Slow Surrender’ and ‘Swing’ they do it very well.

‘Atlas’ is not quite as good as ‘Deep Blue’ (2010) – in places it sounds like a band that wants to break out of its mould but doesn’t quite have to courage to do so. They’re easily a head above the pack and one day they make a truly inspiring album. ‘Atlas’ will do quite nicely until then, however.

[binnie]

Converge – All We Love We Leave Behind (2012)

Since ‘Jane Doe’ (2001) Converge have been one of the best metal bands on the planet. To make music this extreme and this intense so utterly compelling is sickeningly talented. That they continue to evolve with every album, and never fall off the cliff into impenetrable noise is a testament to their status as master songwriters. Where ‘Axe To Fall’ (2009) was a relentless metal hackfest, ‘All We Love….’ places the hardcore and punk elements of the band to the forefront. Kurt Ballous lays down some serious melodic and tortured guitar lines over the maelstrom of extremity at Converge’s beating heart, and it makes ‘All We Love…’ a vibrant and compelling album capable of engaging in a staring contest with the abyss – and winning.

‘Aimless Arrow’ is the way Emo should sound (if it didn’t suck): hardcore that its genuinely wounded and vulnerable; music that is cathartic and disturbing. In contrast ‘Trespasses’ sounds like Satan gargling souls: NOTHING is this intense. Sounding like Motorhead jamming with Pig Destroyer, Jacob Bannon screams ‘Nothing will bring peace/ Nothing will bring rest’ and you believe him. What separates Converge from almost all other extreme bands is their understanding of the fact that if you play all out all the time you lose impact. Injecting different types of extremity, different types of vocals and switching things around every 4 bars, they hold the whole thing together with component parts – melodies and riffs – which are so strong they pull you through the chaos. And the variety is impressive: ‘Tender Abuse’ is grindcore brilliance, whilst ‘Coral Blue’ is slower, more cerebral and as seismically heavy as it is Mastodon beautiful. What impresses most – as always – is the intelligent sincerity on display. Witness ‘Sparrow’s Fall’:

The sparrow fell from its perch
From the dead weight of this earth
His precious held life long dreams
Were someone else’s old misgivings
Don’t live as the echo
But thrive as the sound
Don’t live as the echo
But thrive as the sound…..
The fruits of our tears rot at the vine
Not enough heart not enough time
No right answers to their wrong ways
When we inherit our graves
(don’t) live as the echo
But thrive as the sound
Don’t let your future
Writhe in our past….

This is a long way from the ‘Kill-Fuck-Kill’ misanthropy which most metal inhabits. Elsewhere ‘Sadness Comes Home’ is bitter and broken (‘I take so little and I bleed so much/ My hand me down heart is out of luck’) and the title track is like a raw nerve wrenched to agony – the ugliness of grief in all its tortured reality. To the outside, music this abrasive is pointless; but to those who get it, bands like Converge are truly cathartic – you’ll shed skin with them.

[binnie]

And now, the awards literally no-one has been waiting for. The 2012 binnies.

Best Albums: 2012

1 – Gojira – L’Enfant Savage
(Utterly stunning metal mastery – alongside Mastodon they’re flying into the stratosphere and taking the whole genre with them. Not for the feint hearted, but beyond superlative).

2 – Black Breath – Sentenced To Life
(Black metal played with a rock ‘n’ roll ethos. Tar black, nasty, gnarly and rawer than Satan’s first steak of the day).

3 – Meshuggah – Koloss
(Nothing comes close to this in heaviness. As distinctively brilliant as anything Meshuggah has recorded. Does any other band have this sort of clout?)

4 – Katatonia – Dead End Kings
(Achingly beautiful, inspired and inspiring. As always).

5 – High On Fire – De Vermis Mysteriis
(Epic in every sense of the word – this might be the best record Matt Pike has ever made. Yeah, I said it……)

6 – Testament – Dark Roots Of The Earth
(Thrash and then some, Testament continue their late career high with aplomb. Anthemic, epic and packed with the sorts of riffs most bands would sell their Grandmother to pen).

7 – While She Sleeps – This Is the Six
(Post-hardcore that is vibrant, wounded and essential – real music, played by real people and with lyrics that will affect you. Ugly, beautiful and wonderfully demented).

8 – Gallows – Gallows
(British punk at its vibrant and defiant best – they mean it, and they’ll raise your ire as much as they’ll make you think. Go and break something).

9– Anathema – Weather Systems
(Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. Prog doesn’t have to be a wank fest – here’s the haunting proof in all of its delicate glory).

10– Dew Scented – Icarus
(Thrash of hulking proportions – even in an over-crowded genre, this post-Haunted thrash band kick ass and take names).

11 – Converge – All We Love We Leave Behind
(You know it’s been an excellent year when a Converge music doesn’t make the top 5. The lyrics are desperate and vibrant and the music is – as ever – utterly extreme and totally compelling. Easily one of the best bands in the world [if not for the feint hearted]).

12 – Kreator – Phantom Antichrist
(One of the best metal bands of all time on all time great form. ‘Nuff said).

13 – Fear Factory – The Industrialist
(Picking up where ‘Mechanise’ left off, FF continue to remind us why all US metal bands have been ripping them off for 20 years. Cyber metal mastery with mental riffs and compelling songs).

14 – Deftones – Koi No Yokan
(Ethereal, emotional, and bouncy. Continuing their second career wind with considerable aplomb, these songs are so infectious they’ll tattoo themselves on your brain).

15 – Vision of Disorder – The Cursed Remain Cursed
(Visceral, compelling and as terrifyingly brilliant as ever – easily 2012’s best ‘reunion’ record).

16 – Torche – Harmonicraft
(A technicolour dream of heaviness coupled with some of the best rock songs you’ll ever hear. If you buy one record next month, make it this one).

17 – Paradise Lost – Tragic Idol
(Gothic metal at it’s utter best, and strong even by PL’s remarkably high standards, the most overlooked band on the planet continue to put out classic records with ease).

18 – Heart Of A Coward – Hope and Hindrance
(A ‘djent’ record worth giving a shit about. Welding utter heaviness, complexity and huge hooks into one glorious symphony of beautifully crafted crunchiness. This could be a classic – only time will tell).

19 – Every Time I Die – Ex Lives
(Hooky, mental and boulder-bollock powered hardcore rock ‘n’ roll which is like shooting bourbon straight into your live. Party until you’ve broken everything).

20 – Overkill – Electric Age
(Sounds like Overkill, but the quality control department was working overtime).

[binnie]

If you were to ask me what my 'favourite' records of 2012 were (rather than 'best', which I see as something more objective and to do with quality/innovation etc) the list would be slightly different. The following would get a shout at:

Lamb Of God - Resolution
(More of the same for the consistently brilliant LOG. Shitty year for them, but a good album).

Vain - Enough Rope
(Great voice, great songs, and LA sleeze the way it should be).

Accept - Stalingrad
(Teutonic metal brilliance - the late career high continues)

Black Moth - Killing Jar
(Doom metal with some late '60s misnathropy thrown in - brilliant from start to finish).

Baronoess - Yellow & Green
(This has grown on me over and over - adventurous, ambitious and strident in every way).

Orange Goblin - Eulogy For the Damned
(Beer drinkers and hell raisers. Punchy stoner/doom guarenteed to put a smile on your face).

[binnie]

Binnie my good man, I only recognize a few of those bands. Not knocking you in any way shape or form. You always do a solid job with the reviews. I'm thinking your diggin' on music that's alot heavier then anything I have ever listened to.

I try and pick up on the stuff that's actually pushing things forward.

I wouldn't say it's all brutally heavy (everything except the Deftones has been reviewed in here): Katatonia, Anathema, Paradise Lost and the Deftones are not that extreme or 'out there' (the first two are more prog than metal these days, and paint in very hushed tones in places). I'd be amazed if you didn't like Torche (it's just great rock 'n' roll - colourful, eclectic but relentlessly fun). Every Time I Die are certainly amped up and (a little) sceamy in places, but it's just dirty rock 'n' roll at its heart. Suck it and see.

[ashstralia]

where's 'atlas' by parkway drive????

[binnie]

where's 'atlas' by parkway drive????

The review for it is post 714 in this thread (and Bury Tomorrow is 686). Good record (not quite as good as the last one), but I sense they're holding back from being the band they want to be. Live they are sensational......

[ashstralia]

Parkway Drive – Atlas (2012)
‘Atlas’ is not quite as good as ‘Deep Blue’ (2010) – in places it sounds like a band that wants to break out of its mould but doesn’t quite have to courage to do so. They’re easily a head above the pack and one day they make a truly inspiring album. ‘Atlas’ will do quite nicely until then, however.

i truly believe that this could be the best band on earth if they explored their pop roots a bit, and winston would SING; not just shout all the time.

[binnie]

I don't know about 'Best Band On Earth' - there are so many bands doing the 'metalcore' thing and in that sense what Parkway Drive do is actually quite generic in terms of style. What separates them from the pack - as I said in the review - is the sheer force of the delivery.

But, yes, exploring the more melodic side of their sound would open them up a bit.

[Dave's Bitch]

Hey binnie do you have "Halford - Resurrection"?

I have pretty much had that and "Fight - War of Words" on repeat for the past 2 weeks and would enjoy a Binnie review of either