Album Reviews

[Seshmeister]

The debut record from ex-Ozzy Osbourne guitar hero Jake E Lee's new band, featuring Eric Singer on drums (ex-Kiss and future Alice Cooper band) and the impossibly talented Ray Gillan on vocals (ex-touring vocalist for Black Sabbath.) In many respects, this record was the antithesis of the increasigly bloated hair metal that was been coughed out of an ever tired Sunset Strip - raw, under-produced, and bluesy, it was a beautiful counterbalance to the reverb-heavy, production lavished monstrosities that L.A was churning out in its final days before the rise of Grunge. The influences were obviously and unappologetically European - Led Zeppelin, Humble Pie, Jeff Beck Group, Cream and Deep Purple - and the delivery verges on primal. Album opener 'High Wire' featured a riff of gargantually-serpentine proportions that equals anything Jimmy Page ever penned, Lee's blues-hysterionics battling with Gillan's soaring vocals for the listener's attention. The blues dominates the record, with the frosty-kiss of 'Winter's Call' Zeppelinization of the power ballad, and 12 Bar explosion of 'Rumblin Train', which was Lee's showcase. Gillan returned the favour on the haunting epic of closer 'Seasons' his voice spinning from low, tender croon to testosterone wail, marking the song out as a stamp of sincere anguish in a sea of sacarine sentimentality populated by the rest of L.A at the tail end of the '80s.

Indeed single 'Dreams In The Dark' is the only glaring sign of the times here, whilst 'Dancing On The Edge' and 'Hard Driver' keep up the full-tilt rawk angle that the likes of Raging Slab would up and run with in subsequent years, with 'Devil's Stomp' was the kind of hulk of a song beyond the hairspray and lip gloss of the likes of Pretty Boy Floyd and Slaughter.

This was the high point for Badlands, who never reached their potential. Their second record - 'Voodoo Highway' - was a mixed bag cluttered with forays into James Taylor-esque MOR, and the death of Gillan due to A.I.D.S a year later meant that Lee, surely one of the most talented guitar players of the decade, was now a gunslinger without a cause. A sad end, but what a beginning!

I was listening to this again at the weekend, it's a really good album.

[DLR Bridge]

I've had Voodoo Highway in heavy rotation for nearly 20 years now. Loved that swampy vibe and shoestring budget sound.

[binnie]

Diamond Plate – Generation Why? (2011)

There are probably as many thrash bands now as there were at the genre’s height in the mid-80s. Some of it is very, very good – the blistering fury of Vektor, the technical brilliance of Sylosis and Revocation, the proggy leanings of a revived Heathen (a chronically underrated band), or the puerile ephemera of Lost Society – but, in truth, much of it is mired in myopic nostalgia. Diamond Plate can be added to the ‘fuck me THIS is metal’ list. They are separated from the pack by two things: 1) they do not try to emulate The Haunted (the failing of so many bands); and 2), they write distinctive songs, each with their own character, rather than throwing together a whoosh of riffs into a mosaic of metal with no real focal point. Add in a production raw enough to capture the fury of what thrash should be about, and a guitar tone that could melt granite at a thousand paces (seriously, holy FUCK) and you have a mighty fine piece of metal indeed.

Listing the highlights quickly becomes redundant, but the title track could grate your face; ‘Fools Paradise’ captures the ‘non-heavier’ militia march of mid-paced Slayer; and ‘Relativity’ blends the vintage venom of Exodus, Forbidden and Dark Angel with some technical neck-snapping guitar. Konrad Kapier and Mario Cianri lay down some serious – and seriously exciting – shredding, and on the likes of ‘Pull The Trigger’ and ‘At The Mountain of Madness’ you can hear lesser bands weeping in the distance. That guitar tone is utterly ridiculous.

Producing a record which sounds like Testament did in the mid-90s – thrash intensity, but with groove and a darker aesthetic – Diamond Plate are a band which deserves to be more widely heard. Worship the riff, and burn down the altar!

[binnie]

Tesseract – Altered State (2013)

Whoever said that metal couldn’t be beautiful? Or that ultra-technical music has no soul? ‘Altered State’ – album number 2 from djent pioneers Tesseract – proves them wrong on both counts. Put simply, this is an album of the year contender – a staggeringly original, refreshingly ambitious, and incredibly human piece of music. Following multiple singer woes, the band have now settled on Ashe O’hara as frontman, a decision which has allowed them to develop their natural melodic sense and has garnered ‘Altered State’ with a fantastic set of lyrics which provide depth without any pretension. That understated brilliance is matched in the music, which balances superhuman dexterity without falling into a hint of showiness. The unconventional time-changes and polyrhythms of Jay Postones (drums), Aele Kahny and James Monterith add luscious textures with never feeling nod-and-wink ‘clever’ like to much technical music. The emotion is heightened by the delicacy, not removed.

Perhaps not as overtly heavy as the band’s debut – ‘One’ (2011) – the influence of Meshuggah is less apparent, probably in response to the djent clones who have been climbing on Tesseract’s coat-tails, in favour of a heady of brew of ‘70s prog. The added poise is impressive, and the dreamscapes of opener ‘Proxy’ owes more than a little to Tool’s rhythms and quirky melodic eeriness. The incredibly beautiful ‘Retrospect’ switches from A Perfect Circle-esque introspection and the serious stomp of an incredible riff, whilst in ‘Nocturne’ serpentine melodies and ball-crusher riffs combine in an inventive manner. Even when there is a real clout to the band’s heaviness – ‘Eclipse’, ‘Exiled’ – it never overwhelms the listener or drops below captivating.

Controlled, but inspiring; metallic, but never one dimensional; emotive, without being limp-wristed – this is not an album propelled by euphoric rock ‘n’ roll abandon: but it is a cleansing, epic burst of music. Refreshing in every sense of the word.

[katina]

Tesseract !!! I missed your One´s review, but thanks to the Index, I found it at page 6.

I agree with both reviews, Tesseract is beyond classification, an awesome band. They changed the vocalist again, Dan was great, I read he is in other good projects, Ashe O'hara is so fresh and perfect for Altered State album, clean, heavy without screams, I watched on YT some recent shows, and he is great live.

I hope on day I can watch Tesseract live.

[binnie]

I saw them live (with Dan, not Ashe) and they were excellent - a really heavy, but very moving, band.

[binnie]

From the vaults: Sepultura – Nation (2001)

The second, post-Max Cavalera era of Sepultura gets a bad press. Or, more accurately, it gets next to no press at all. It is unquestionable that this band made their best music with Max – from ‘Beneath the Remains’ (1988) to ‘Roots’ (1995) – but to practically write-off almost two decades of music from a band who were not only thrash pioneers, but pioneers of metal as a world music, is a shocking display from the metal press.

‘Nation’ – the band’s second post-Max record – is something of an album in transition. Let’s be clear from the off: this is no classic. There are waaay too many tunes here, a sign of a band in identity crisis and who are throwing in the kitchen sink – we switch here from the 1 minute blast of hardcore punk that is ‘Revolt’ to the tortoise pace of the industrial tinged ‘Border Wars’, and you wonder which band Sepultura wanted to be, a feeling that only increases with the second-tier nu metal of ‘Vox Populi’ or the dire Bad Brains pastiche of ‘Uma Curu’.

But perseverance reaps rewards. The tribal elements which made Sepultura so captivating are still there, as is Andreas Kisser’s cracked concrete guitar tone, and in Derrek Green they found a frontman with a distinctive voice. ‘Sepulnation’ slams out of the blocks with the groove of metal nu and raucous, buzzsaw guitar. The heavy grooves of ‘Saga’ were made for a couple of thousand people to go nuts – the snap of the hook ‘No surrender. Saga. We fight’ is epic – and the presence of Jello Biafra elevates ‘Politricks’ to another level. Although most of this record is a long way from the full tilt thrash of the band’s heyday, when they do delve into their comfort zone – ‘Who Must Die?’, ‘Reject’ – they do so with aplomb.

The presence of such gems amidst such utter mediocrity renders a whole which is all the more unsatisfying for being so unbalanced. If there’s a key problem, it’s the absence of the snappy hooks which were so important in the band’s past – songs written for atmosphere, feel and vibe tend to blend into one mosaic of music without the hooks to make them memorable. But crank it loud enough, and that Sepultura roar, and Iggor Cavalera’s rhythmic stomp and primal thud, are there in abundance. ‘Nation’ is not close to a classic – but it does deserve more attention than it received.

[binnie]

From the vaults: Onslaught – Sounds of Violence (2011)

The second reunion record from UK thrasher Onslaught is packed full of meaty metal and is the sound of a band who wants to march onwards and upwards, not simply wallow in some middle-aged nostalgia trip. Onslaught always had songs which were way bigger than the level of success they achieved, and they don’t disappoint here. It is a crying shame that more metalheads won’t hear these tunes. Opener ‘Born For War’ manages to be hooky and brutal, injecting the groove of a rock ‘n’ roll stomp into thrash abandon – the time-changes snap things into something epic. Full-tilt thrashers like ‘Rest In Pieces’ and ‘Suicideology’ are more than a match for anything the endless new-wave of thrash bands can muster, and ‘The Sound of Violence’ is, well, you guessed it……..

At mid-paced – the point at which most thrash bands come unstuck – Onslaught remain convincing – ‘Code Black’, for instance, is a thudding classic – and in the crisp and powerful production of Jacob Hanson dresses an old skool thrash attitude in contemporary clothes. On this form, Onslaught can more than keep pace with the likes of Testament, Death Angel, Kreator and Sodom. But, then again, they always could.

[Von Halen]

I'm no binnie, but I'll review two albums I picked up today.

Korn - The Paradigm Shift

Alter Bridge - Fortress

They both kick ass. Go buy them now!

[binnie]

Both are on my 'to do' list

[Terry]

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?

I sorta missed the boat on Nirvana when they were actually around. It's hard to explain why that was now. Looking back, I think it had to do with an inexplicable adverse reaction to the sudden explosion of all things Seattle/"grunge" in the media. It felt like this genre was being forced upon me, and I kinda turned my ears off to a lot of it at the time. I still think Pearl Jam and Eddie Vedder are purveyors of a studied 'angst' that is just as artificial as anything Madonna ever did.
At any rate, I heard all the Nirvana tunes that were in heavy rotation at the time on MTV, and I liked the tunes. It wasn't until I saw the Unplugged thing in the fall of 1993 that I got a real sense of what a great songwriter Cobain was. Krist and Grohl were perfect for that band as well (although as a songwriter post-Nirvana I think Grohl is way overrated). What Grohl did with Nirvana was just stripped-down and straightforward, but that's what made it so good to listen to.
I'd readily agree that In Utero was a more interesting listen than Nevermind, but I'd also agree that Nevermind...you can't really deny it, can you? It defined the zeitgeist and shifted the focus of rock music in one fell swoop. Nirvana just felt more real than anything Guns and Roses and Metallica were doing (and 1991 was a year where the Illusions albums and the Black album were selling bucketloads). Some might quibble over if Nirvana actually killed off hair metal, but if so I'm glad they did. And Cobain is dead and Bon Jovi is still out there shilling out his Springsteen-lite pop rock swill.
Truly no justice in this world.

[binnie]

Vektor – Outer Isolation (2012)

Regular readers of these reviews will know that I loooove me some thrash. Old skool, new skool, Scandinavian, European, or American, I live for it all. Hell, you could call me a connoisseur if that term wasn’t so hopelessly out of place amidst a form of music so brutal. All of this should emphasize that when I state that Vektor are the best thrash band in the world, I don’t say it lightly. In fact, I’d say that no-one else – even the mighty titans Kreator, Death Angel, Sodom, Destruction, and killer new boys like Diamond Plate or Evile – even come close. Although we’re only two albums in, we may be witnessing this generation’s Voivod: an ultra-heavy band as willfully determined to be angular innovators as they are relentless uncompromising.

What is so special about Vektor is that they tap straight into the violence which was at the heart of ‘80s thrash. That they do so without self-consciously styling themselves as a nostalgia act, or, worse, actually trying to replicate the tin-pan alley 1985 production of the Bay Area bands, only makes them more endearing. This is raw, savage and relentless, but it is also inventive and based on songs, songs that could rip a whole in the atmosphere. The crucial ingredient is balance – the guitars are scabrous, but the music is also remarkably technically proficient; the songs are complex, but they never come close to disappearing up their own ass. The hypnotic riffage is present – you want that unbridled fury in the rhythmic assault of thrash – but Eric Nelson and David Disanto also do something unique, eschewing relentless staccato guitar in favour of a frenetic, demented approach to melody and combine into quite a wall of sound. Be clear: no metal bands is doing what Vektor do with guitars, and they deserve to be spoken of in the same hushed tones as Mastodon and Gojira. Some of the riffs – ‘Echoless Chamber’, ‘Tetrastructural Minds’ – are ridiculous, and they always complement the eerie, evil atmosphere which is ever-present.

That any band can mold such intricacy into crushing brutality is a remarkable achievement. Ten minute opener ‘Cosmic Cortex’ builds progressive structures and death metal styling upon a molten thrash core, whilst the title-track welds thrash and post-rock into one unholy melee of metal. Elsewhere, the unbridled fury of ‘Dying World’, ‘Dark Creations, Dead Creators’ and ‘Fast Paced Society’ sound like a challenge to other bands – ‘we’re THIS good, can you match us?’ Plenty of bands are as heavy, and as fast, but few are as distinctive – never coming close to being a pastiche of the Big Four, or a mindless exercise in post-Haunted plagarism, ‘Outer Isolation’ is a nightmarish journey of careering thrash packed with unexpected changes, jolts, textures that will soon become a friend.

A cynic might say that there have been prog-thrash bands in the past – and Heathen, Abzu, Coroner and Watchtower were/are all awesome bands. But, none have the sheer abrasive power of Vektor. The only question is: can you handle it?

[Mr Walker]

Hi Binnie
Do you listen to any of the artists on the Rise Above label (Electric Wizard, Blood Ceremony, Uncle Acid, Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell). Didn't see them in the index.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

[binnie]

Mr. Walker - all of the above, with the exception of Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell, who I've yet to encounter.

Electric Wizard would be my favourite on that list, although Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats are really growing on me. If you like that stuff, Purson are well worth checking out too - not brutally heavy (like EW), but trippy psychedlia with really, really great songs.

[Mr Walker]

Mr. Walker - all of the above, with the exception of Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell, who I've yet to encounter.

Electric Wizard would be my favourite on that list, although Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats are really growing on me. If you like that stuff, Purson are well worth checking out too - not brutally heavy (like EW), but trippy psychedlia with really, really great songs.

Yes,
I have 'The Circle and the Blue Door' on vinyl. It's very difficult and expensive to get Rise Above albums here in the states.