Album Reviews

[binnie]

INDEX: I-Q


Iggy & The Stooges – Ready To Die – page 22

Ihsahn – After – page 23

Ill –Gotten Gains – page 21

In Flames – Clayman – page 7
- Come Clarity – page 21

In Solitude – The World, The Flesh & the Devil – page 10

Iron Maiden – No Prayer For The Dying – page 2
- The Final Frontier – page 4
- Somewhere In Time – page 6
- Killers – page 11
- Fear Of The Dark – page 17

Iron Monkey – Our Problem – page 10

The Jim Jones Revue – Burning Your House Down – page 3

Judas Priest – Point Of Entry – page 4

Katatonia – Dance Of December Souls – page 14
- Viva Emptiness – page 15
- Dead End Kings – page 18

Kerbdog – One The Turn – page 3

Kilgore – In Media Es Res – page 1

Killing Joke – What’s This For? – page 9
- MMXII – page 16

Killswitch Engage – Disarm The Dissent – Page 21

King Blues – Punk & Poetry – page 6

Kingdom Of Sorrow – Behind The Blackest Tears – page 8

Kiss – Sonic Boom – page 2
- Revenge – page 14
- Monster – page 18

Korn – Korn – page 13

Kreator – Phantom Antichrist – page 16

Krokus – Hardwire – page 22

Kvelertak – Meir – page 21

Kylesa – Static Tensions – page 12

L7 – Bricks Are Heavy - page 8

Lamb Of God – New American Gospel – page 1
- Resolution – page 12

Mark Lanegan – Whiskey For The Holy Ghost – page 11

Laruso – A Classic Case Of Cause and Effect – page 2

Life Of Agony – Broken Valley – page 8

Johnny Lima – Livin’ Out Loud – page 7

Living Color – Stain – page 11

Lizzy Borden – Deal With The Devil – page 22

Lost Society – Fast Loud Death – page 22

Love/Hate – Wasted In America – page 5

Lyrnrd Skynrd – Last Of A Dyin’ Breed – page 17

Machine Head – Unto The Locust – page 9

Mad Capsule Markets – Cistm KonFliqt – page 23

Mad Season – Above – page 21

Malefice – Awaken The Tides – page 8

Mammal – The Majority – page 2

Manowar – Battle Hymns – page 16
- Gods Of War – page 17
- Lord Of Steel – page 19

Marilyn Manson – Antichrist Superstar – page 14

Mastodon – Crack The Skye – page 1
- The Hunter – page 9

Masters Of Reality – Masters Of Reality – page 23

Maylene & The Sons of Disaster – III – page 1

Megadeth – Endgame – page 1
- So Far, So Good, So What – page 5
- Thirteen – page 9
- Youthanasia – page 16
- Supercolider – page 23

Meliah Rage – Kill To Survive – page 16

Mercyful Fate – Don’t Break The Oath – page 17

Meshuggah – Obzen - page 4
- Koloss – page 17

Metallica – St Anger – page 2
- The Black Album – page 9
- Beyond Magnetic – page 10

Million Dollar Reload - A Sinner’s Saint – page 16

Michael Monroe – Sensory Overdrive – page 6

Ministry – Psalm 69 – page 11
- Relapse - page 15

Morcheba – Blood Like Lemonade – page 3

Mortod – The Myth of Purity – page 12

Motley Crue – Motley Crue – page 5
- Saints Of Los Angeles – page 11

Motorhead – Bastards – page 1
- The World Is Yours – page 3

Mudhoney – Under A Billion Suns – page 6
- Vanishing Point – page 22

My Dying Bride – A Map Of All Our Failures – page 22

Neurosis – Honor Found In Decay – page 21

Nevermore – The Obsidian Conspiracy – page 4

New York Dolls – ‘Cause I Sez So – page 2

Obituary – Cause Of Death – page 24

Oceansize – Self-preserved While the Bodies Float Up – page 5

Onslaught – Killing Peace – page 23

Orange Goblin – Eulogy For The Damned – page 12

Outloud – Love Catastophe – page 7

Overkill – Ironbound – page 8
- The Electric Age – page 13

Ozzy – Scream – page 2
- The Ultimate Sin – page 5
- Speak Of The Devil – page 11
- No Rest For The Wicked – page 15

Panic Chanel – One – page 2

Pain – Cynic Paradise – page 1

Pain Of Salvation – Road Salt – page 8

Pantera – Vulgar Display Of Power – page 13

Papa Roach – Metamorphosis – page 24

Paradise Lost – Faith Divides Us, Death Unites Us – page 2
- Tragic Idol – page 16

Parkway Drive – Blue – page 4
- Atlas – page 18

Pearl Jam – Backspacer – page 2
- Vitalogy – page 5
- Riot Act – page 10

Pentagram – Day Of Reckoning – page 23

Pig Iron – The Paths Of Glory – page 6

Primal Rock Rebellion – Awoken Broken – page 19

Prong – Cleansing – page 11
- Carved Into Stone – page 14

Queens Of The Stone Age – Clockwork – page 24

[binnie]

INDEX: R - Z


Rainbow – Straight Between the Eyes – page 3

Ratt – Infestation – page 2

Red Fang – Murder The Mountains – page 12

Revoker – Revenge For The Ruthless – page 6

Revoker – Chaos Of Forms – page 12

Rival Sons – Pressure & Time – page 13
- Head Down – page 19

Rocket From The Crypt – page 8

Romeo Must Die – Harship’s In Season – page 5

Royal Southern Brotherhood – Royal Southern Brotherhood – page 21

Royal Thunder – CVI – page 22

Rye Coalition – Curses – page 13

Sacred Mother Tongue – The Ruin Of Man – page 18
- Out Of Darkness – page 22

Saint Jude – Diary of a Soul Fiend - page 4

Saint Vitus – Saint Vitus – page 17

Saxon – The Inner Sanctum – page 5
- Call To Arms – page 6
- Rock The Nations – page 7
- Sacrifice – page 20

Scar Symmetry – Dark Matter Dimensions – page 2

Michael Schenker Group – Eponymous – page 10

The Scorpions – Love At First Sting – page 6
- Virgin Killer – page 10

Screaming Trees – Last Words: Final Recordings - page 12

Seasons After – Through Tomorrow – page 8

Senses Fail – The Fall – page 22

Sepultura – Roorback – page 5

Shadow’s Fall – Fire From The Sky – page 20

Silent Descent – Mind Games – page 22

Sinner – Crash & Burn – page 7

Sister Sin – Now & Forever – page 21

Six Feet Under – Unborn – page 21

Skansis – Leaving You – page 7

Skeletonwitch – Forever Abomination – page 10

Skid Row – Subhuman Race – page 1
- United World Rebellion – page 24

Skin – Fleshwounds – page 20

Skindred – Shark Bites and Dog Fights – page 2

Skunk Anansie – Wonderlustre – page 3
- Stoosh – page 16

Slash – Slash – page 2
- Apocalyptic Love – page 14

Slashes Snakepit – Ain’t Life Grand – page 4

Slaves To Gravity – Scatters The Crow – page 2
- Underwaterouterspace – page 7

Slayer – World Painted Blood – page 1
- Diabolus In Musicus – page 15
- Hell Awaits – page 22

Slipknot – Slipknot – page 8

Sodom – War & Pieces – page 6
- Agent Orange – page 21
- Epitome Of Torture – page 25

Soulfly – Enslaved – page 13

Soundgarden – Louder Then Love – page 12
- King Animal – page 19

Soulfly – Omen – page 6

Steak Number Eight – All Is Chaos – page 12

Steel Panther – Balls Out – page 14

Stone Sour – Audio Secrecy – page 3
- House Of Gold & Bones part 2 – page 24

Stone Temple Pilots – STP – page 3
- Core – page 10

Stonewall Noise Orchestra – Constants in an Ever Changing Universe – page 1

Strife – Witness A Rebirth – page 19

Suffocation – Pinnacle OF Bedlam – page 23

Suicide Silence – No Time to Bleed – page 4
- The Black Crown – page 9

Sunna – One Minute Silence – page 9

Supersuckers – Get It Together – page 1
- The Evil Powers Of Rock ‘n’ Roll – page 17

Swallow The Sun – New Moon – page 3

Sylosis – Edge Of The Earth – page 6
- Conclusion Of An Age – page 17

Tad – Inhaler – page 9

Them Crooked Vultures – page 2

Taking Dawn – Time To Burn – page 2

Tesseract – One – page 6

Testament – Demonic – page 10
- Dark Roots Of The Earth – page 17
- Souls Of Black – page 18

Therapy? – Crooked Timber – page 1
- A Brief Crack Of Light – page 11

Thin Lizzy – Still Dangerous – page 1
- Thin Lizzy – page 4
- Thunder & Lightning – page 17

Threat Signal – Under Reprisal – page 19

Three Inches Of Blood – Long Live Heavy Metal – page 13

Thy Art Is Murder – Hate – page 21

Tokyo Blade – Burning Down Paradise – page 8

Tokyo Dragaons – Hot Nuts – page 4

Torche – Harmonicraft – page 16

Tracer – El Pistolero – page 22

Trap Them – Darker Handicraft – page 6

Trivium – In Waves – page 16

Trouble – Plastic Green Head – page 21

UFO – Mechanix – page 5
- Lights Out – page 7

Union – Siren’s Song – page 10
- The World Is Yours – page 21

Upon A Burning Body – Red. White. Green – page 17

Vain – Enough Rope – page 13

Velvet Revolver – Contraband – page 11

Viking Skull – Cursed By The Sword – page 19

Vision Of Disorder – The Cursed Remain Cursed – page 18

Voivod – Target Earth – page 20

Volbeat – Beyond Heaven/Above Hell – page 3
- Outlaw Gentlemen & Shady Ladies – page 22

Walking Papers – Walking Papers – page 19

WASP – The Headless Children – page 7

Oliver Weeks – Evil’s Back – page 7

While She Sleeps – This Is The Six – page 18

Whitesnake – Forevermore – page 5

The Wildhearts – Chutpah – page 1
- Must Be Destroyed – page 10

Will Haven –Voir Dire – page 10

Witchcraft – The Alchemist – page 14
- Legend – page 21

Wolf – Ravenous – page 1
- Legions Of Bastards – page 22

Wolfmother – Cosmic Egg – page 4

Wolfsbane – Wolfsbane – page 7
- Save The World – page 13

Wolves Like Us – Late Love – page 8

Yob – Atma – page 19

Zico Chain – Eponymous – page 13
- Food – page 25

Rob Zombie – Hellbilly Deluxe – page 5

36 Crazyfists – Collisons and Castaways – page 3

[VHscraps]

Blimey!

You should really get paid for this, Binnie.

Show your wares to some magazines, or something ... that is a huge amount of work, writing reviews week after week like that.

I salute you, and the special kind of craziness that must drive you to keep doing it.

[katina]

OK, I shall compile an index. It may take a little while, however, as there are the best of 400 reviews in here!

Cheers for the suggestion

Awesome, you did it!! And so fast!!

Thanks a lot, Binnie.

[binnie]

Dew Scented – Insurgent (2013)

A stop-gap release from this fine band of German thrashers, ‘Insurgent’ features a mixture of live tracks, 10 covers and 3 tunes from the band’s new line-up. It is consequently not an essential release, but one which nevertheless packs plenty of punch. After two decades of delivering blistering thrash (this is surely one of the very best of the ‘modern’ thrash bands) 2012’s ‘Icarus’ was something of a career high – it is something of a shame, then, that line-up problems have led to the tinkering of a winning formula. The new tunes here are good, but certainly not of the calibre of last year’s release. Slower, and experimenting with groove and the darkly melodic aspects of the band’s sound, ‘Confronting Entrophy’ and ‘Guided By The Dead Light’ certainly pack plenty of bowel-splitting riffage, but you do sense that this is a band which works better at speed. The live tunes certainly testify to this, with the hulking ‘Storm Within’ (what a neck-snapper of a riff!) being a particular highlight. But perhaps the real triumphs here are the covers. It is always a very cool thing when bands throw knew light on some lost gems, and Dew Scented’s covers of Prong’s ‘Steady Decline’ and Wasted Youth’s ‘Good Day For a Hanging’ are, quite frankly, immense. Perhaps best of all is their take on Incubus’ (not the poofy rock band) ‘Sadistic Sinner’ – biblically heavy, this is the sound of one killer band playing tribute to another one. Incubus never received the props they deserved – it would be a cruel irony if Dew Scented’s career panned-out the same way.

[binnie]

^^^^^^^

And now the index is out of date.....................

[binnie]

From the vaults: Candlemass – Death Magic Doom (2009)

The image which always comes into my mind when I hear Candlemass is Thor at the realm of a gigantic warship which plods slowly and menacingly through the ocean. Few bands sound as lumbering and granite heavy as this bunch of Swedes, whose legendary brand of doom manages to achieve sooooo much with more heaviness with very little playing. At once uncomplicated and melodramatic, the power here – as on all Candlemass records – is incredible. Propelled by the chronically underrated Robert Lowe, whose vocal melodies here are sensational, and the twin guitars of Lars Johansson and Mappe Bjorkman, whose rich, torque-filled tone sound like the exhausts on the devil’s chopper, ‘Death Magic Doom’ is quite a record. It is far from the lofty heights of the band’s classic releases – ‘Epicus Doomicus Metallicus’ and ‘Nightfall’ - but, as is so often the case with seminal bands, being a pioneer early in your career should not leave you shackled to irrelevance in your twilight years.

That is especially the case when the songs are as strong as these. ‘If I Ever Die’ is surprisingly up-tempo for Candlemass – sounding something like Dio-era Sabbath, this is a the sound of a bomber prowling the skies. ‘Hammer Of Doom’ – awash with tolling bell and cavenous guitar – has the elemental magic of the first Sabbath record, but Candlemass make it their own rather than walking the furrows of cliché – it is a screaming metal belter. ‘The Bleeding Baroness’ is epic doom fuelled by crunching riffage, whilst ‘House Of 1000 Voices’ is the song for which the term ‘crushing’ was invented – you’ll throw your neck out for days! ‘Dead Angel’ and ‘Clouds of Dementic’ might be weaker affairs, but when the band kicks into ‘My Forever Dreams’ – a classic band on classic form with a classic song – all is forgotten.

The Messiah-era of Candlemass will always be the ‘classic’ one, but ‘Death Magic Doom’ proves that the Robert Lowe era has plenty to offer too. Indeed, it’s probably the case that his wider vocal range means that the band can explore more terrain musically – just as Sabbath gained more with Dio than they lost with Ozzy. Fantasy and gothic lyrics, the fundamental musical components of heavy metal, and dark enough to please the devil, this is heavy metal at its most unapologetically dramatic. Few bands make music as good as this – that it isn’t Candlemass’s best should not prevent metalheads from exploring it further.

[Mr. Vengeance]

Nice job Binnie! Thanks.

[Mr. Vengeance]

From the vaults: Exciter – Violence & Force (1984)

Canada’s Exciter rose to (semi) prominence at around the same time as the ‘Big 4’ of Thrash Metal. It is a testament to how golden those years were that there is a cluster of new bands in 2013 trying to make records that sound like ‘Violence & Force’ – you’ve heard better sounding demos – despite all of the studio technology available to them. That rawness – the sound might best be called ‘corrosive’ – was part of the music’s charm and, moreover, its power. The drums (double bass, naturally) are fast, the riffs are fast, the solos (you guessed it) are fast, the vocals pierce and soar and everything is on 10. Sophisticated this is not. But it is an awful lot of fun, and a glorious encapsulation of a time when traditional metal was giving way to something heavier.

Thus ‘Delivering To The Master’ sounds like an amped-up version of D’ianno-era Maiden; whilst ‘Scream In The Night’ sounds like ‘Sin After Sin’ era Priest embracing a faster pace. Elsewhere, ‘Violence & Force’ pointed to the future. The title track captures the searing thrash of early Anthrax. Were Exciter ‘thrash’ proper? The genre had yet to get to the point of political/social commentary, or set its sights on dazzling the world with ultra-technical wizardry and rubiks cube time-changes, and in truth Exciter had an awful lot in common with Motorhead and Venom in channelling the raucous energy and un-tempered fury of punk. It’s certainly not all A-rate (see ‘Destructor’ and ‘Saxons Of The Fire’), but the infectious of its delivery makes the whole record feel vital despite being almost 3 decades old. Harking back to a time when metal was (to quote Exodus) ‘Good, Friendly Violent Fun’ and didn’t take itself as seriously as it does today. Who couldn’t fall in love with ‘Pounding Metal’, the band’s Anvil-esque classic?

In many ways ‘Violence & Fun’ was not that far from the rest of the thrash pack in 1984. What separated the ‘Big Four’ (and those chasing their tails, like Exodus and Testament) from the rest was their capacity to evolve with every record. Exciter didn’t have that capacity, but that should not blind us to the merits of a band who served up some killer slices of denim and leather at one of the richest times of metal’s history.

See, the index is already paying off, because I missed this review when it was posted!

Exciter are from Ottawa, which is near where I live, and where I grew up for a time. I had a friend who is the only person I've ever known who had an Exciter t-shirt! He'd play this album all the time and it had an enrgy that had to be admired from a bunch of young guys from Ottawa. What I always took away from it was the album cover- used to make me laugh....The hand, which was so obviously of a white guy, painted to look black with shoe polish, dropping a switchblade as a woman's hands (white woman) push a door with all these broken locks, closed against it......The pink blood dripping down the door...laughable in it's absurdity, but also very typical of 1980s album covers. I remember women's groups in Canada making a big deal about the imagery, and frankly, I can see their point 30 years later. HA.

[Seshmeister]

I am currently compiling an index of the reviews in this thread, as suggested.

It is HUGE.

I think it best that I post it on this page (rather than on page 1) - if it goes at the top of the thread, it is so big that it will knock a lot of the page numbers out of line (albums currently at the bottom of page 2 will be on page 3, and so on) thus making the index a bit pointless.

Once I've done it, if Sesh could edit to first post of the entire thread to say 'INDEX ON PAGE 25' it would be appreciated.

Done!

In the longer term we should do something cooler with this once we do the new site design.

[binnie]

Done!

In the longer term we should do something cooler with this once we do the new site design.

Ok. I'll keep the Word document I created updated.

(And keep buying and reviewing records, of course )

[binnie]

Saint Vitus – Lillie: F-65 (2012)

Still disappointed with the new Black Sabbath record? Well, after you’ve bought the new Church of Misery album, pick up this one. Then buy both band’s back-catalogue (and procure a bong the size of Utah) and enjoy………………..

Named after a barbiturate the band used to take back in the day, ‘Lillie: F-65’ is the first Saint Vitus record since 1995’s ‘Die Healing’, and the first to feature Scott ‘Wino’ Weinrich on vocals since 1990’s ‘V’. No, it’s not a patch on the records they made in the ‘80s. But it is rather splendid nevertheless. Like other US Doom pioneers Pentagram, there is something very elemental about Saint Vitus. This is metal at its most sparse and devoid of histrionics – metal that is about the music’s presence rather than playing. And there’s certainly plenty of atmosphere. ‘Let Them Fall’ is characteristically spartan doom. Played at a pace in which most bands would sound dull, tunes like this reveal the core of SV’s talent – all of the component parts, the fuzzy guitar lines, the lyrics, the melodies, have to be of a superbly simple quality for the magic to emanate from the music. On ‘The Bleeding Ground’ Dave Chandler and Weinrich trade off, the latter’s sandpaper larnyx the perfect foil for the former’s funereal guitar. There is something very stoic about music like this – powerful precisely because it is understated (eschewing the ultra-aggression of most modern metal), this is an unmoving aesthetic which gives birth to jet-black ditties like ‘Blessed Night’ and the crushing power of ‘The Waste Of Time’. ‘Raw’ doesn’t even come close here – this is a band captured very much in the moment.

But you just wish that there was more. At just 33 minutes – a considerable portion of which is wasted on largely forgettable instrumentals – this record can’t leave you feeling unsatisfied. A stoner vibe is all well and good, fellas; but sometimes you’ve got get the job done. So, ‘Lillie: F-65’ could have been one of rock’s great comebacks – instead, it serves as a powerful reminder of the quality of a truly legendary band.

[binnie]

The Dillinger Escape Plan – One Of Us Is The Killer (2013)

Trying to explain what TDEP sound like to someone who has never heard them is like trying to explain string theory to Paris Hilton, or modesty to Will.I.Am: in short, taxing. Often termed ‘mathcore’, TDEP have been making a colossal racket for 15 years or so by writing songs which jolt from riff to riff, impossible time-signature to impossible time signature, on the spin of a dime. That you can SING music this complicate is a testament not only to the band’s incredible talents, but also to the size of the hooks that they somehow manage to lay over the top of this frustrated maelstrom of noise. Easily one of the most innovative and influential bands of the past generation, ‘One Of Us Is The Killer’ continues TDEP’s relentless surge forward with few signs of let up. It may even be the most complete and agonizingly aggressive displays of musical dexterity they’ve served up since ‘Miss Machine’ (2004). And THAT is saying something.

It’s not just the amount of music that is crammed into these songs that kills, or the intensity of the delivery. It’s the variety. Opener ‘Prancer’ is as aggressive as TDEP have sounded in a looooong time. This is not just angry, this is music that seeths. ‘When I Lost My Bet’ has the sort of wounded animal chorus that the early Rollins Band albums featured, and is equally as abrasive – there is no bullshit here, just concentrated anger. ‘Understanding Decay’ and ‘Hero Of the Soviet Union’ are the epileptic, spasming metal we’ve come to expect from this band, but the title track is something altogether other. Sounding like Faith No More doing lounge jazz (before culminating in an explosion of classic metal) is fairly conventional in terms of structure and content – what staggers, however, is that even when they do ‘normal’ TDEP sound defiantly distinct. Greg Puciato serves up yet another masterclass in metal vocals and lyrics, crooning, screaming and spitting in equal measure – when he bellows ‘You are the scum of the earth/ You are the scum of the ocean’ (‘Hero Of The Soviet Union) no-one else even sounds close. We have Phil Anselmo like goddery on display here.

When the end of year ‘Best Of’ lists are compiled, it will be a crime if ‘One Of Us Is The Killer’ is not near the top. A glorious, ravaging orgasm of noise which surges from the speakers and bounces across the room like severed limbs from canon fire, this is a dark, infectious and captivating journey through what it must be like to inhabit a mind driven insane by anger. That we’ve come to expect this level from TDEP is a sign of how truly gifted they are

[vandeleur]

Binnie ..great work on the index . Your definitely a credit to the army .

Now stop sitting on ya laurels and review the Winery Dogs Cd I love it and wanna know what you think ,its totally not my usual cup of tea but it works

[binnie]

From the vaults: Nirvana – Nevermind (1991)

For many hard rock fans, ‘grunge’ was defined by what it wasn’t rather than what it was. The ‘absence’ of stage-presence, or at least the glitz and glam; the rejection of the ‘hey Mom, look at this!’ style of guitar heroics in favour of a song-over-ego approach; and the abandonment of hair-spray in favour of plaid. But, in truth, what separated ‘grunge’ from what came before was a completely different attitude. Generation X, for whatever reason, didn’t feel the ‘nothin’ but a good time’ vibe of the decade before, and whilst their detractors heard only what was missing, the grunge bands themselves pointed to what was there in spades – earthy emotions, genuine expression and an approach which favoured simplicity over complexity. Indeed, when seen as an extension of the alt.rock movement of the ‘80s – rather than as a reaction against Hair Metal – grunge makes a hell of a lot more sense, and no longer appears to have come completely out of the blue. Nirvana had far more in common with Sonic Youth and REM than anything you might call ‘metal’, but by the same token they also had far more power and clout than the Patridge Family with guitars of Poison and Warrant’s ‘Metal’.

‘Nevermind’ was not the best-selling grunge record – that tag goes to Pearl Jam’s ‘Ten’, a record that was really just a dirtied-up Classic Rock masquerading as something new. Nor was it the ‘best’ grunge record – that tag surely goes to either Alice In Chains’ ‘Dirt’, or Soundgarden’s ‘Badmotorfinger’. Hell, it wasn’t even the best Nirvana record – ‘In Utero’ was a far, far superior album. But ‘Nevermind’ defines grunge precisely because it encapsulated so much of the zeitgeist, and so much of what grunge was about: injecting a punk aesthetic back into pop music, and welding together edge with melody. And it flat-out rocked. Sure, it was simple – but making something this powerful from something so simple is close to genius. And it felt more real, and less of a performance than what happened before – more human, if you will. Much of that was down to the rawness of the sound, but Butch Vig had proven himself a very clever producer – there is plenty of studio magic here – over-dubs, multilayered vocal harmonies – but they add tone and shade which amplified the band’s power where in the previous decade they had added a sheen and shine which detracted from it. Almost a quarter of a century on, this is a record which stills arrests attention.

It was all about the songs, stoopid. If the band’s first record – ‘Bleach’ – had been about blustering power, here Nirvana were all about the songs and putting the melodies first. Dave Grohl’s drumming had a classic, American rock feel to it, stripping the arrangement of the songs down to essentials in a way that Springsteen and Petty would be proud of. You here that simplicity in ‘Come As You Are’ – a musical revenge of the nerds – a song propelled by the most uncomplicated of bass-lines; or in the acoustic closer, ‘Something In The Way’ – does music come much more beautiful than this whisp of a song? Cobain touched on themes far from synonymous with multi-platinum records – the abducting/rape trauma of ‘Polly’ being a standout – and in a sense it worked not because it shocked, but because it provided something so distinctive in such a melodic form. But they were never overly austere – ‘Territorial Pissings’ is the sound of a band content to be goofy, and the deeper cuts like ‘On A Plain’ and ‘Drain You’ show an out-and-out rock ‘n’ roll band in shit-kicker form. It is songs like these that jump out far more than the ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’, the best cover of ‘More Than a Feeling’ ever recorded.

Even those who didn’t like grunge would have to admit that it ultimately widened the palette of heavy music – lyrically, Cobain and the other frontmen presented a heavy sound which was open to expressions of vulnerability and tenderness in a way that the alpha-male metal of the ‘70s and ‘80s had not been. Much of the lyrical content of the ultra-heavy bands which trip over one another in the 21st century owe a great deal to records like this. Ultimately, in trying to explain why this record kicked off an explosion, it is easy to over-complicate the explanation, to focus on what it was about grunge that was unique or different. Perhaps it is wiser to think about what it had in common with the rock’s past – here was a record of rebellion, of teenaged awkwardness, of striving, and, most of all, 3 minute tunes you could sing after first listen. Is there anything more thrilling than that?