Album Reviews

[binnie]

Graveyard – Lights Out (2012)

It’s the songs, stoopid. That’s what makes Graveyard such an exciting band – simple, yet impactful, songs. With tunes. And melodies – remember them? There may well be a considerable industry of new bands delivering up late-sixties inspired garage rock at the moment, but Sweden’s Graveyard are certainly amongst the best of them. Having made something of a splash in 2011 with ‘Hisingen Blues’, a raw yet sombre slab of proto-metal doom hewn from the summer of 1968, follow up ‘Lights Out’ was always going to struggle if for no other reason than sequels can never emulate the surprise element of a hit. But Graveyard have once again produced an album which impresses. Wilfully understated in contrast to most hard rock/metal’s tendency to melodrama and sonic hyperbole; and giving pride and place to the vocals where most heavy bands in the 21st century opt for a wall of sound from the guitars, this is a record which stands decidedly on the periphery of the musical landscape – and certainly on the books of uber-metal label Nuclear Blast.

This is certainly the sound of ‘hard rock’ before hard rock existed – before Zeppelin was a cumstain on a groupie’s panties, if you will. The label ‘doom’ is often applied to Graveyard, but it does them a disservice. They are more ‘doom’ in the sense of The Doors dark-side-of-the-trip melancholy than Electric Wizard’s boulder shattered Sabbath-worshipping heaviness – the sound can tend towards introspection, and is certainly nuanced. ‘Goliath’ is like an amped up 1967 Jefferson Airplane on full-tilt; whilst ‘Slow Motion Countdown’ has a whiff of Deep Purple in a laid back moment about it (think ‘When A Blind Man Cries’). It takes confidence to write songs this uncomplicated – confidence that that one riff is good enough, that that one melody is strong enough to be out front. But in Graveyard’s case, the songs stick. The moog-drenched ‘An Industry of Murder’ is a spacey take on late-sixties blues rock of the most jet black variety, whilst ‘The Suits, The Law, and the Uniforms’ is pure outlaw anthem, and certainly the best slice of Southern Rock ever to come from Sweden, capturing as it does the fulcrum between ass shakin’ and fist fightin’ which that genre so depends upon.

Perhaps we’re reaching breaking point with bands like this. But Graveyard – like countrymen Witchcraft – have their own niche. If Rival Sons sit on the Californian sunset end of the late sixties; Graveyard are the nightmarish aftermath of the summer of love that was soon to emerge – same component parts, radically different vibe. The trick to doing it well is not to indulge in rampant nostalgia. And the lyrics here sell it: far from the sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll clichés you fear from a band of this ilk, we get something darker, something introspective or social commentary which makes the whole things feel uncontrived and real. But above all else, it makes it feel organic – and that is when music is at its best.

[binnie]

From the vaults: Def Leppard – Songs From the Sparkle Lounge (2008)

Def Leppard get a hard time. Much of this is because they are judged for something that they are not, or have ever really tried to be – a hard rock or heavy metal band. Even at their edgiest, you’d have to call them ‘rock’ and even then, they’ve only ever been ‘rock’ in the same way that the lingerie pages of your mom’s catalogue could conceivably be called ‘porn’: the component parts are the same, but the feel is a whole lot different. None of this is necessarily a bad thing – judged for what they are/were – a pop band with some hard guitar – Def Leppard are/were a titan of a band, a hook-laden, anthem smashing, stadium crushing behemoth who sold (lest we forget) a frankly ridiculous amount of records. If anything, they’re underrated: especially in their native UK, where the critics – or indeed the general public – rarely consider them worthy of praise.

And yet, there’s another side to Def Leppard. A fat, bloated, preening side which has been living off memories of the glory days. And ‘Song From The Sparkle Lounge’ – possibly the worst named record in the history of rock – epitomises everything about that side. They say that bands like this were killed by grunge and, on the evidence here, you wish that were true. There are certainly some positives – they say the last thing a boxer loses is his punch, and if Def Leppard’s case it will be the capacity to write a sugar-coated hook that dies last. Here ‘Come Undone’ is ridiculously memorable, whilst the paper thin ‘Bad Actress’ sink its teeth into you like a cheap hooker whose been short-changed – both might have all the substance of a Kardashian memoir, but they’re a fuck of a lot of fun. And that’s exactly what Leppard should be. On ‘Only The Good Die Young’, you even convince yourself that this band could still light up rock radio if given half a chance. Lightning licks and huge hooks? They’ve still got ‘em (sometimes).

The problem, however, is that those moments are fleeting. You have to know your way around a studio to be able to produce uber-layered turds like the Sweet-by-numbers ‘C’mon, C’mon’, or the self-parody of ‘Nine Lives’ (which sounds a bit like a Def Leppard cover band who have begun to pen their own material). Elsewhere the problem is a lack of cohesion. Most of these songs were penned by one band member rather than the band, and the result is something unfocussed and cluttered which pulls in many different directions: thus the religious musings of Vivian Campell’s ‘Cruise Control’ are wholly out of step with the party rock of Collen’s ‘Hallucinate’. Is this the sign of a business collective, rather than a band? You’d have to assume so. Or at least a bunch of middle aged men so comfortable that they don’t mind risking tainted their considerable legacy with a record as undercooked as this. At least it looks worse than it sounds, which acts as something as a distraction – the photos here see the band looking like a collective of over-preened gigolos for the most desperate of bored housewives (‘one lump or two, luv?’)

If there is one saving grace, it’s that at least there isn’t much in the way of pretension here. So many bands of this age/era tell us that they’re going ‘back to their roots’ and end up producing woeful versions of middle-aged, multi-millionaire white-boy blues. ‘We grew up listening to Howlin’ Wolf’. Yeah, right. At least Leppard have always been more honest than that. Read an interview with this band and they’ll tell you what they grew up with: the luscious pop-rock of Bowie, The Sweet, Mott The Hoople………You can hear that in ‘Songs From The Sparkle Lounge’, and there is something honest about a band who knows exactly what they are. It’s just a shame, then, that they can’t be honest enough with themselves to admit that making good rock music requires more than memorites.

[binnie]

Enabler – All Hail The Void (2012)

Woaaaah. This is impressive indeed. There are many, many bands who fuse metal and hardcore into a big shouty mess of anger. Whilst most make records as incoherent as they are incendiary, Enabler are one of the (very) few who weld the two most abrasive forms of music to something more memorable. Put simply, the quality of the tunes here sells it – everything 4 bars something shifts to peek your attention amidst the battery, adding dynamic and twists that can make three minute blasts of rage seem a whole lot more epic in scope and impact. And there’s variety, too: the title-track has a real bounce and groove to it, a breakneck ball of hatred sitting somewhere between defiance and desperation which is perhaps the most perfect sentiment for the morass facing Western society in 2013; yet ‘They Live, We Sleep’ is slower, more atmospheric and vulnerable, with guitars that lament rather than lacerate; and ‘Speechless’ should leave anyone who thinks that this sort of music is little more than crass anger and juvenile angst well…………………….speechless. Just read the lyrics to see that there’s something very human about all of this. With a tar-thick groove locking all of the aggression together, and dark guitar melodies offsetting some of the abrasiveness of the riffs, Enabler are a step apart from most other hardcore/metal hybrids. Earth Crisis and Trap Them have shown the way, and if Enabler are not quite following either band’s path, they’re certainly proving the point that forging your own way often yields the most rewarding results.

[binnie]

Buckcherry – Confession (2013)

I’ll be honest: I thought I’d be writing Buckcherry’s obituary when reviewing this album. Whilst it is unquestionably the case that they lit the world of hard rock up in the late ‘90s with their debut and sophomore album – the chronically underrated ‘Time Bomb’ – everything following uber-hit album ‘15’ has been decidedly flabby and uninspired: ‘Black Butterfly’ (2008) and ‘All Night Long’ (2010) were decidedly menopausal affairs, flat, off-colour and lacking much of the vim that had made the band worth our time in the first place. When you read that Josh Todd’s lyrics to this album are loosely based around the seven deadly sins as a guide to his debauched life some 2 decades ago, you can only think that that vim was long since dissipated, that this, in short, was a band trading on memories. Motley Crue tried to recapture the glory dayz by making a concept album about them last time out, and the resulting record – ‘The Saints Of Los Angeles’ – fell quite some way short of being fulfilling.

It is a genuine joy, then, to report that ‘Confessions’ is a considerable return to form for Buckcherry. Much, much rawer than their last two records, the band plays to their strengths: sleazy riffs, cheap thrills and hooks that could floor a heavyweight. Always proceeding on the assumption that complexity is the enemy of creativity this is rock ‘n’ roll painted from the simplest of palettes and all the more effective for it. Opener ‘Gluttony’ is a real piledriver of a song which dances on the barrier of where punk meets sleeze; ‘Greed’ has a real swing to it, whilst ‘Lust’ is pure switchblade cool. And there are some moments in which they display their songwriting talents: ‘Water’ is a man’s love song, capturing that moment where being ‘in lust’ passes into something deeper; ‘Wrath’ captures the darker side of debauchery in a gnarly rock ‘n’ roll tune which seethes desperation; whilst ‘Sloth’ is a big rock ballad which sounds like latter day Aero$mith being sung by a strung-out Johnny Thunders – it hits you right in the guts.

There are certainly some pot holes. ‘Nothing Left But Tears’ is a radio-friendly-unit-shifter if ever I’ve heard one, and ‘Pride’ and ‘Envy’ seems superfluous additions which lack the bite of the rest of the harder stuff here. But you can forgive Buckcherry that: any band that is this much fun deserves all of their nine lives…..

[binnie]

Saxon – Sacrifice (2013)

For album number 127, Saxon have created a dub-step opera loosely based on a post-structuralist interpretation of the works of Karl Jung………………………………………o nly joking. You know EXACTLY what this sounds like. It’s heavy. Its (very) British. And its metal. Propelled by metal guru Andy Sneap’s raucous yet crisp production, Saxon sound more aggressive and heavier than last time out – ‘Call To Arms’ (2010), which show-cased the rockier side of their sound – and, as ever, the band is tight and knows exactly when not to over-complicate things. The title-track explores the band’s thrashier end, double bass drums kicks, meaty riffage and a huge, soaring chorus making an anthem in waiting. ‘Made In Belfast’ – an ode to the city’s ship yards – evokes the blue collar ethos that makes the band great and is a perfect subject for the band’s sheet-welder take on their craft: solid, chunky and understatedly skilled. You may mock, and Saxon will help you along the way: there is certainly something inherently ridiculous about a band so masculine it borders on farce (songs about racing and medieval tombs); and on ‘Standing In a Queue’ they take us into that most British of frustrations. You can sneer away, but there are few things in life more glorious than meat and potatoes metal played to perfection as it is on ‘Stand and Fight’ and ‘Walking the Steel’ – there is something truly joyous about this band on their best form.

Saxon have been on quite a run since ‘Lionheart’ (2004), releasing album after album of quality metal. ‘Sacrifice’ is a better record than any of the band’s peers – including Judas Priest – are making, and it is light-years ahead to the crop of new bands shamelessly playing like it’s 1981. The sad thing is that – like Motorhead – this later-day rejuvenation, in which both bands are producing music better than their ‘glory days’, the world is not listening as closely as it should.

[Dave's Bitch]

Saxon – Sacrifice (2013)

For album number 127, Saxon have created a dub-step opera loosely based on a post-structuralist interpretation of the works of Karl Jung………………………………………o nly joking. You know EXACTLY what this sounds like. It’s heavy. Its (very) British. And its metal. Propelled by metal guru Andy Sneap’s raucous yet crisp production, Saxon sound more aggressive and heavier than last time out – ‘Call To Arms’ (2010), which show-cased the rockier side of their sound – and, as ever, the band is tight and knows exactly when not to over-complicate things. The title-track explores the band’s thrashier end, double bass drums kicks, meaty riffage and a huge, soaring chorus making an anthem in waiting. ‘Made In Belfast’ – an ode to the city’s ship yards – evokes the blue collar ethos that makes the band great and is a perfect subject for the band’s sheet-welder take on their craft: solid, chunky and understatedly skilled. You may mock, and Saxon will help you along the way: there is certainly something inherently ridiculous about a band so masculine it borders on farce (songs about racing and medieval tombs); and on ‘Standing In a Queue’ they take us into that most British of frustrations. You can sneer away, but there are few things in life more glorious than meat and potatoes metal played to perfection as it is on ‘Stand and Fight’ and ‘Walking the Steel’ – there is something truly joyous about this band on their best form.

Saxon have been on quite a run since ‘Lionheart’ (2004), releasing album after album of quality metal. ‘Sacrifice’ is a better record than any of the band’s peers – including Judas Priest – are making, and it is light-years ahead to the crop of new bands shamelessly playing like it’s 1981. The sad thing is that – like Motorhead – this later-day rejuvenation, in which both bands are producing music better than their ‘glory days’, the world is not listening as closely as it should.

Great review Binnie.This album is awesome

[binnie]

Cheers, DB.

I think they've put out some great stuff in the last decade or so. 'Lionheart' is probably their best record, and 'Inner Sanctum' and 'Call To Arms' are very, very good too.

No-one would ever accuse them of having finese, but that's not what they're about, is it?

[ELVIS]

Ima gonna have to pick this one up...

Thanks Binnie, awesome review...

[binnie]

Audrey Horne – Youngblood (2013)

Norway’s Audrey Horne have been one of metal’s best secrets over the past decade or so. Their first three records were a unique take on the genre, an amalgam of grunge and prog which combined swirling melodies, huge riffs and sassy songwriting into a firebrand of sonic clout which firmly belong in the ‘beg, steel and borrow’ file. On album number 4, however, they have changed tack. No longer a dark, cathartic and swirling web of ethereal metal, the band have got their ‘70s hard rock on. In one sense, this is good – avoiding the copycat Led Zeppelin clichés, Audrey Horne opt for Thin Lizzy, Uriah Heep and UFO. But in another sense, this is a (very) bad thing. Put simply, a band whose day jobs include extreme metal bands Ensalved and Gorgoroth does not convincingly mutated into a beer-drinking and hell-raising fun-time band. They certainly have the chops to make straight out bar-room rock of ‘Show & Tell’ and ‘Straight Into Your Grave’ passable, but the whole thing feels a little disingenuous. The Mott The Hoople meets UFO of the title track proves only that this band is not convincing when they’re carefree; whilst ‘Cards With The Devil’ is an ‘80s soundtrack which Kenny Loggins missed out on. Witness this: ‘midnight they reanimate/ The living dead knock on my door/ The flames of hell eat my curtains alive/ And the reopening coming back once more’. Oh deary me.

There are certainly some genuinely impressive moments here. ‘There Goes A Lady’ is a glorious swampy blues; ‘Pretty Little Sunshine’ would have broken a million hearts if it had appeared 30 years ago; and ‘The Open Sea’ has an anthemic crush of a chorus. It’s just that for those familiar with the glories of the band’s earlier work, album number 4 may live a bittersweet taste.

[ELVIS]

Wont be wasting my time on that one...

[binnie]

It's perfectly decent hard rock that you'd probably enjoy. But it won't change your life.

The reason I was dissapointed with it is because their earlier records are incredible. Seriously incredible.

Check out 'Le Fol' and 'No Hey Banda' (they sing in English, so don't be misled by the titles)......they're well worth your time.

[Terry]

From the vaults: Dio – Sacred Heart (1985) Reissue.

‘Sacred Heart’ is the overlooked Dio record, lost between ‘Holy Diver’ and ‘The Last In Line’ and the opulent brilliance of ‘Dream Evil’. It is in many ways a match for any of those records and pretty much anything else released in the mid-80s. Reissued with HD and TLIL, it deserves to be more widely appreciated and listened to.

What separates ‘Sacred Heart’ from the first 2 Dio records is the rather ‘Big’ ‘80s production, the sheen of which makes the songs a little leaden in some places, and over keyboard heavy in others, features which perhaps render it more ‘of its time’ than ‘timeless’. But if you can look past the production, the songs are strong. Really strong. Dripping with the distinctly Dio sound – which, contrary to popular opinion, didn’t really have much in common with the rest of ‘80s metal – the tunes here were far superior to what far more commercially successful legends like Sabbath, Ozzy, Priest, and Maiden were putting out at the same time. People forget that. Sure, the band were a little constrained by the ‘Holy Diver’ formula, but you can’t resist the melodic heaviness of ‘Another Lie’ and ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll Children’, or the infectious groove of ‘Like The Beat of a Heart’, which sounds like a titan swatting lesser bands aside.

In truth, ‘Sacred Heart’ is marred by the fact that the first 2 Dio records are pretty much untouchable. Yet it’s certainly heavier, and more aggressive, than the band had been before. Opener ‘King of Rock ‘n’ Roll’ is a lost metal anthem which kicks and screams through the ether of 25 years. And the title track – swaggering with statuesque grandeur in the manner of ‘Heaven & Hell’ or ‘Holy Diver’ – is dinosaur-bollock heavy and infectiously hummable. Being heavy is easy; being melodic less so. But combining the 2, that’s an incredible talent.

Lyrically, you know what you’re getting with Dio. Wizards, rainbows and dragons aplenty. All the mystique and splendour are fine and dandy, but it’s really incidental to the power of the music in comparison to Dio’s voice – this was a time when metal was about escapism and enjoyment, and the fantasy only complements that. Add into the mix the sound of a band killing it – this was the last album to feature the classic line up of Jimmy Bain, Vivian Campbell and Vinny Appice – and you’ve got a classic album found wanting only in comparison to the band’s previous releases. Campbell in particular is on fire here, laying down incendiary solos and tones – remind me again why one of the most talented players of his generation has been playing back-up on ‘Pour Some Sugar On Me’ for 25 years?

The reissue package itself has been put together with the care and respect which Dio deserves. The deluxe package features plenty of images, posters and artwork, and the second disc contains the ‘Hide the Rainbow’ EP and a short live set from San Diego in 1985. Both are welcome additions for Dio diehards, even if they are somewhat incidental to the majesty of the record itself. Listen to it and remember.

God bless you Mr. Dio.

I'd have to agree that Sacred Heart is certainly wanting in comparison to Holy Diver and The Last In Line.

What struck me at the time of the initial release, and what has resonated all these years later, is that Sacred Heart IS kind of classic-Dio-by-the-numbers to a degree. By "classic-Dio" I'm referring to the first Dio solo band lineup (Bain, Appice and Campbell WERE toally fucking lethal). While Holy Diver sounded furious and spontaneous and Last In Line sounded slightly more controlled yet still energetic, Sacred Heart often comes across as very labored, musically and lyrically. Almost as if the band were really trying a bit too hard to adhere to a stylistic formula mapped out on the first two albums. The result was an album that, to a degree, had the effect on me of "I've heard this type of stuff done before by this band twice already, and done a bit better as well".

Holy Diver was such a burst of hard rock fury that the very energy of the performances made it easy to overlook the shortcomings that were there (to my mind, Straight Through The Heart and Invisible sound kind of bashed-out and samey-sounding). Last In Line was a bit more focused, and despite a few throwaways (I'd be hard pressed to imagine it taking more time to write Evil Eyes than to record it) I would go so far as to say there were actually better tunes on LIL than HD (Christ...We Rock to the title track to Breathless to I Speed At Night to One Night In The City...and not a dragon, wizard or warlock in the bunch!).

Sacred Heart sounded like the band were trying to come up with songs that fit a Dio template, rather than let the songs develop organically. I just can't agree that tunes like King Of Rock And Roll, Rock And Roll Children and Hungry For Heaven are nearly as good as even the lesser-tunes on the two albums that came before, and the title track of Sacred Heart has always been a plodding, lumbering endurance test for me to listen to. Also, I found Shoot, Shoot to be bordering on the inane. However, I WOULD say that when Sacred Heart cooks (Just Another Day, Another Lie, Beat Of A Heart), it does fucking rock, and rock well, indeed. I'd also agree that this is some of Campbell's most focused work on all of the Dio albums. You can literally hear the guy boring down and concentrating, especially on the solos, rather than just letting it rip like he had a few years ago on Holy Diver.

[Terry]

From the vaults: Dokken – Tooth & Nail (1984)

Dokken clearly had something, but I’m fucked if I can work out what it was. Glancing at the band mugshots in the linear notes it clearly wasn’t looks. And within ten minutes of listening to ‘Tooth & Nail’ it is also apparent that it was not songs. Indeed, this was a band who had clearly borrowed WASP’s copy of Reader’s Digest’s ‘Book of How To Write Songs’ – indeed, the likes of ‘Heart’s Heartless’ cling so feebly to the rules of songwriting rather than pushing them you wonder how much they paid the A&R guy who signed them. Nor did Dokken have a charismatic/charming/funny in a ‘jack the lad’ kinda way singer – Don Dokken’s voice possessed all the spark of damp cardboard, and his clean vocals sounded odd in front of a rock band.

‘Ahhhh’ I here you say, ‘but Dokken has axe-wielding demi-God George Lynch, he was their X-Factor’. Mmmmmm. Only an idiot would deny that Mr Lynch was near the front of the line for shredding abilities, or that his speedy and colourful soloing and riffage added plenty of meat to these most skeletal of songs – witness the snarly riff to ‘Don’t Close Your Eyes’ or the sheer raucous power of the title track to hear what it was which set Dokken aside as a more metallic cousin to their Hair Band peers. But speed and technique are one thing. Melody and memorability another. Of the Sunset Strip trio who led the ‘80s guitar goddathon, Eddie Van Halen and Randy Rhodes played on classic, classic songs. Lynch didn’t. Unless you genuinely think that ‘When Heaven Comes Down’ is any approaching a classic.

And yet, despite all of this I love ‘Tooth & Nail’. Every unoriginal, ploddingly mid-paced, ‘lets take a tour of ground which had been over-ploughed’ second of it. Few records make me more likely to dance around a room like no-one’s watching than this one. Like I said, they had something……

I think you really hit the nail on the head, in terms of why Lynch has always been a bit second-tier compared to Eddie Van Halen and Randy Rhoads, both of whom were apparently Lynch's peers during the mid-1970s Sunset Strip days.

It comes down to the songs. Lynch is a fantastic player. To my mind, no less able from a technique-standpoint than Van Halen or Rhoads were. The tunes in Dokken just weren't as good. Now, I'll say up-front that I don't think Mick Brown and Jeff Pilson are the most phenominal drums/bass combo to have played on a rock album, even within the context of the 1980s. Not terrible, but truth be told, nothing exceptional. I've never thought highly of Don Dokken's abilities, either. Not as a singer, lyricist or a frontman. Average, at best. One might say that nothing Lynch was gonna do from a guitar standpoint was gonna elevate him from these mundane surroundings. If anything, having three other players in the band who weren't as accomplished as him would, by necessity, hold him back. However, when he left Dokken and formed Lynch Mob, there wasn't exactly a quantum leap in the quality of songs in comparison to his former band. Matter of fact, it was pretty much the same outcome: great solos, neat licks and a wonderful technical display all wrapped around average-to-decent rock songs.

[hambon4lif]

It comes down to the songs. Lynch is a fantastic player. To my mind, no less able from a technique-standpoint than Van Halen or Rhoads were. The tunes in Dokken just weren't as good. Now, I'll say up-front that I don't think Mick Brown and Jeff Pilson are the most phenominal drums/bass combo to have played on a rock album, even within the context of the 1980s. Not terrible, but truth be told, nothing exceptional. I've never thought highly of Don Dokken's abilities, either. Not as a singer, lyricist or a frontman. Average, at best. One might say that nothing Lynch was gonna do from a guitar standpoint was gonna elevate him from these mundane surroundings.

That was always my general impression of Dokken albums. Incredible guitar playing trapped inside of some dull, below-average, and cliche-riddled songwriting.

It made it seem like they were running as fast they could to just keep up with the 80's pack, instead of something that could've been exciting and leading the race.

I used to play Dokken records only to hear what Lynch was up to. I never gave a shit about anything else, especially when that bands frontman only had enough desire to be as good as the others, when they could've been leading them. Big difference.

Loved Lynch Mob. To me, it was George wising up, and trading up.

[DLR Bridge]

Loved Lynch Mob. To me, it was George wising up, and trading up.

Same here! Not amazing songs, but great pregrunge stuff none the less. I always liked reading Lynch interviews, too. He was always frustrated with his sound and he got pretty down about it for a while. Like he felt doomed to never being satisfied. I've always thought his tone got gradually richer.