Album Reviews

[Von Halen]

I quit buying after Hellride.

Yeah, and you're still buying Bon Jovi instead!

You've missed a lot of good stuff!

[vandeleur]

I am gonna check this out solely due to binnie saying beardy squeak ..... Fucking awesome

[binnie]

Book Of Shadows is brilliant!

Mafia is a killer album!

Fuck you haters!

'Book Of Shadows' is great (but it's not a BLS record) .

'Mafia', '1919 Eternal' and a couple of BLS records are all decent enough, but they lack the spark that some of the best stuff has.....

[binnie]

Just checked, and I reviewed 'Order Of The Black' on page 3 of this thread......

[binnie]

Winery Dogs – Winery Dogs (2013)

Wow! A Mike Portney project not named Dream Theater that doesn’t suck. Alongside virtuoso drummer Portney, the dogs also feature virtuoso bassist (and fan of leather pants) Billy Sheenan and virtuoso guitar player Ritchie Kotzen, so you know what this is going to sound like, right? A big ol’ plank-spank fest. Wrong! Here, ladies and gentlemen, is a damn fine hard rock record based on songs, hooks and quality riffs. Opener ‘Elevate’ features Kotzen’s remarkable funk-rock guitar and introduces to his equally remarkable, Cornell-esque, voice (see, in particular, ‘Damaged’). Despite the talent on display here, the chops never overpower the blues/soul/gospel base of the songs, but, by the same token, those base-ingredients never result in this being just another blues-rock record. There are a lot of bands who make music which is the equivalent of a bell-bottomed whore covered in more nostalgia-jizz than a fat chick at a bukkake party, but Winery Dogs have taken those classic influences and made something very relevant. ‘Desire’ lays a Black Crowes melody over a Prince-esque funk-rock, whilst ‘We Are One’ and ‘Not Hopeless’ sound like this band and no one else. And the songs are stella, too. ‘I’m No Angel’, for instance, is a delicate song featuring some shimmering fractured blues licks that will tear your heart out and give it back to you bruised but better. ‘Time Machine’ (my song of the month) is a slippery little headfuck of a tune, whilst ‘The Dying’ is like molten emotion raining from the sky.

Loose, groove-laden, but with plenty of rawk bite along the way, this is a band with legs. Thank the lord for Ritchie Kotzen!

[binnie]

I should apologise to Vandeleur for that one taking me so long to do.....

[vandeleur]

Great review

[vandeleur]

Tho make take a while to get the fat chick at a bukkake party images out my head

[binnie]

Well, your mum does strike quite a pose

[vandeleur]

Right , I want the pics back

[binnie]

From the vaults: Machine Head – Supercharger (2001)

The moment when one of your favourite bands makes an album of unimaginable shitness; when a metal band of unbelievable power dilutes their sound to try and jump on the current (Nu Metal) zeitgeist and ultimately makes a steaming pile of tepid, substanceless drivel. ‘Burn My Eyes’ (1994), Machine Head’s debut album, is a bonafide classic: muscular, caustic, and unlike anything that came before it, it was as important as anything Pantera released at their peak. It’s successor, ‘The More Things Change’ (1997), whilst by no means as consistent, was nevertheless a hulking morass and riffs and aggression; and even when, on ‘The Burning Red’ (1999), Robb Flynn and co. decided to dabbled with baggy pants, hip hops beats and (gulp!) rapping, the results were at least delivered with fire in the belly and a couple of punky, venomous tunes. And then someone at Roadrunner decided that Machine Head could sell a fuck-load of records – trying to go Nu Metal and keep the aggressiveness of their street cred left ‘Supercharger’ an absolute mess.

You get the sense that in Ahrue Lustre, the bands lead guitar player on this and ‘The Burning Red’, Machine Head had hired a man who didn’t really have any interest in heavy music. He fills these songs with Morrello-esque ‘interesting’ noises, which detract from the drive they otherwise possess. Equally unfocussed are Flynn’s vocals – he sounds like a man floundering around for a new style and missing at every grasp. ‘White Knuckle Blackout’ is second-rate Nu Metal, a bouncy riff, soft/heavy dynamics, and Korn(y) guitar scratches; ‘Only The Names’ is 6 minutes of aimless soft/heavy dynamics looped to the point of tedium and is perhaps the only point in their career that Machine Head have ever sounded dull; ‘All Is Your Head’ could have been on the first Limp Bizkit record; and the bouncy pop-metal rebellion and staid angst of ‘American High’ was clearly a calculated ploy to hit the frat boy market. On ‘Blank Generation’ Machine Head fall into the trap that Motely Crue made on their first disc – borrowing from a range of sounds they think are hip and end up sounding like a mish-mash of all of them. But it’s more than the songs. What is really lacking is the one that Machine Head usually deliver in droves: the wrenching conviction that makes their best work compelling.

There are some diamonds amidst the diarrhoea, however. ‘Bulldozer’ is a brutal, groove-laden metal which could be at home on any of the band’s other albums; and, conversely, ‘Crashing Around You’ could have been a bonafide radio hit had it not been for the fact it was released on 9/11. Long forgotten tunes like ‘Trephination’ (damn! What a riff!) and ‘Kick You When You’re Down’ are hyper-fast punk/thrash assaults on the senses. If the whole record had taken this hardcore approach, it could have been interesting – as it stands, this is a clunker of truly appalling proportions. The band were dropped by their US label shortly after, and it sent them spiralling back to the snarling underdog status that made them so loveable. And – thank fuck – they’ve never looked back since.

[binnie]

From the Vaults: Raven – Nothing Exceeds Like Excess (1988)

Album number 7 for New Wave Of British Heavy Metal scallywags Raven found the band embracing the Thrash metal which they had helped to influence (they are often overlooked in the history of that genre). This was certainly a sensible move from Raven – Thrash was at its peak in ’88 – but it was not a cynical one, because like all Raven records what defines ‘Nothing….’ above everything else is the sheer, unbridled sense of FUN which drips from the speakers. It’s heavy, certainly, but the songs are injected with more than a little nod-and-wink humour, the sense of lads about town, if you will. That is not to say, however, that Raven were a bunch of jokers – the songs here were impressive, and the performance was packed with a God Almighty amount of heaviness. Mark Gallagher’s riffing was up there with anyone’s in the ‘80s, and the arrangements are surprisingly progressive in places. But it’s the power the stands out: guitars scream, vocals strain and it all feels like it could fall off the tracks at any given moment, but it’s ALIVE, and you just can’t over-analyse or over-complicated something that feels this vital. ‘Die For Allah’ was near the knuckle even in ’88, but that fact it has hooks most thrashers would kill for makes it instantly loveable, and reminds us that Raven were truly overlooked in their time. ‘Into The Jaws Of Death’ makes more than a passing nod to Diamond Head, while the blue-collar heroes (a la Saxon) of ‘Gimmie A Break’, ‘Hard As Nails’ and ‘Kick Your Ass’ are in your face and screaming to be listened to. It may not have has quite the charm of Raven’s early records, but ‘Nothing….’ was still the sound of a very, very good band in the form of their life.

[binnie]

Nine Inch Nails – Hesitation Marks (2013)

Trent Reznor is the Van Morrison of his generation – a musician who releases album after album of incredible quality, each of which manages to be both markedly
different from its predecessor and yet still sound like no-one else, and most of which are chronically over-looked by the music media/public at large. ‘Hesitation Marks’ continues that story: a slow-burning record which is rarely marked by the angst-ridden, big chorus moments which defined NIN’s ‘90s output, but sees Reznor exploring in greater depth the electronica of the ‘80s which has always influenced his sound so heavily (much of the material here would not have sounded out of place on the UK underground in 1983). Indeed, this is a largely guitar-free affair in which the songs are stripped-back to their skeleton. The effect is haunting, sparse and leaves room for Reznor’s vocals to take centre-stage. Repeated listens result in a form of hypnosis: it’s like staring into the soul of the beast.
Opener ‘Copy Of A’ showcases the darkened electronica which harks back to ‘Pretty Hate Machine’ (1989) and is the sort of anti-hymn Reznor built his career on.

But these moments of self-reflection are rare – this is a record of staggering variety. ‘Satellite’, for instance, could be the backing music to a Hip Hop record while, conversely, on ‘All Time Low’ Reznor’s electronica tapestry is almost symphonic. ‘Came Back Haunted’ has its melodies which sharpen its intensity to feverpitch, and the liks of ‘Various Methods of Escape’ and ‘I Would For You’ compete with the best material he’s ever produced in their presentation of yearning and writhing emotion in ways which only he can do. The sense of menace is present throughout – the stripped-back nature of the arrangements leads to an album pulsating with claustrophobia, fear and suppressed desire and violence.

‘Hesitations Marks’ is not a record you’ll love on first listen. But perseverance yields the marks of genius it contains.

[binnie]

Sebastian Bach – Give ‘em Hell (2014)

The 3rd studio album proper from Sebastian Bach is easily his best yet. Where the thrashy metal of ‘Angel Down’ (2007) and the straight hard rock of ‘Kicking and Screaming’ (2011) had there moments, even the biggest Bach fans would have to admit that those records were inconsistent. Not so ‘Give ‘em Hell’. Using producer Bob Marlette once again, Bach stays clear of the post-Pantera type of metal he experimented with on ‘Angel Down’ and treats us to a more beefed-up, metallic version of the hard rocking grooves he served up on ‘Kicking and Screaming’. The sound is raw and heavy, and Bach has brought some – ahem – big guns to lend a helping hand: Duff McKagan, John 5 and Steve Stevens lend the talents and co-author many of the tunes. The result is some very, very impressive tunes. Opener ‘Hell Inside My Head’ is a barnstormer. It also showcases what makes ‘Give ‘em Hell’ refreshing – where so many of his contemporaries try to pretend it’s still 1989, Bach is making records which sound contemporary, and has modified aspects of his game (like the vocal melodies). ‘All My Friends Are Dead’ is big rock, with big hooks and big vocals – but it wouldn’t sound out of place on a Black Veil Brides or Avenged Sevenfold record. ‘Harmony’ has a scuzzy, punk vibe and chorus which flat out kills – in a fair world it’d be a radio hit; ‘Temptation’ has a dark tone underneath its maniacal bounce; ‘Disengaged’ is heavy enough to crack boulders; and ‘Gun To A Knife Fight’ – as the title suggests – is badass.

There are still a few clunkers, of course. The S&M story behind ‘Dominator’ is a rare moment of cliché, and the country-tinged cover of April Wine’s ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll Is a Vicious Game’ is unconvincing. But those are rare moments in an otherwise impress record. Bach’s vocals may not be what they were in 1991, but he’s developed a style which focusses on melody rather than out and out power. It works for him, and ‘Hell Inside My Head’ may be the best record made by any of the survivors of the ‘Hair Metal’ era in the last ten years.

[binnie]

Satyricon – Eponymous (2013)

Most Black Metal bands fluff their sound with layers and layers of music – keyboards, atmospherics, screamed vocals – which can result in whoosh of music which is both overwhelming and melodramatic to the point of cheese. Not so Satyricon, who ask what the listener can do without. Take horror movies as a comparison: if most Black Metal is the slasher/gore end of the spectrum, Satyricon is the suspense thriller. The result is something less, but yet more powerful.

That being said, ‘Satyricon’ will prove a controversial album in some circles, with many hardcore fans bemoaning the absence of the band’s outright rage and fury. To these ears, however, Satyricon have developed in a manner parallel to Opeth – they are a metal band, but also much, much more, and manage to tap into something otherworldly which lays at the heart of Scandinavia’s darkened beauty. Instrumental opener ‘Voice Of Shadows’ is grand, majestic and ominous; ‘Tro Og Kraft’ is a piece of music of scorching beauty which nurses Paradise Lost’s spartan gothic landscapes of chiselled riffs; and ‘Phoenix’ – which features clean vocals – has points of contact with Anathema or even Jeff Buckley shot through with Nordic twists.

Is it Satyricon’s best record? It certainly doesn’t define their sound. But in a sense, that is the wrong question. You sense that – like Opeth’s ‘Heritage’ (2012) – Satyricon’s decision to move beyond the boundaries of genre which they were so pivotal in founding will undermine the impact of the music which they produce. That, in essence, is a reaction from the fans which prioritises style over substance. And that is precisely the opposite of what metal should be about.