Album Reviews

[binnie]

He be Belgian. I think that explains it.

[binnie]

Torche – Restarter (2015)

You can tell what a band will be like by the drugs that they take. Judging by Torche’s cover artwork – which seems to depicted some kind of technicolour, technological swamp – they take the best drugs in the world. It is hard to understate just how testicle-tinglingly brilliant this band are. Like Faith No More, Clutch and Monster Magnet before them, Torche inhabit their own little pocket of the rock ‘n’ roll world which is inventive and idiosyncratic but still immediately irresistible. Opener ‘Annihilation Affair’ is heavy, groovy and a mass of cool; ‘Bishop In Arms’ is instantly your new best friend, a propulsion of rhythms and licks which sounds like Arcade Fire with buffalo bollocks; and ‘Minions’ has a bass line like a big, fuck off V8 at cruising king of the hill mode. This is, quite simply, a band that doesn’t write duds despite having a very broad range. ‘Undone’ is a battering ram, the sound of a band playing on a knife-edge; whilst ‘No Servants’ is a slow burn, a series of ominous riffs warning of the threat beneath - worlds apart on the surface, but both sound like Torche and Torche alone.

Producer Kurt Ballou has an ear for cool, and on ‘Restarter’ his lugs were wide open. Heavy stoner thud served up in songs which are hookier than the red-light district of Amsterdam, and as catchy as the crabs which lurk there, this is rock ‘n’ roll at its best: challenging and immediate.

[binnie]

Cancer Bats – Searching For Zero (2015)

There comes a point in bands career where they decide to either keep on keeping on or take a gamble. On album no. 5, Canadian hardcore bruisers Cancer Bats have opted for the latter. Normally a ‘chance’ is code for something more subdued, less vitriolic and calculating at gaining many more fans. This doesn’t seem to be the case with ‘Searching For Zero’, however. Sure, fans expecting another album which amounts to 40 minutes of being hit in the chest with a baseball bat wielded by a crack addict will be disappointed – this album is a lot less ‘aggro’ than in the past. But it’s hardly geared for radio-play, either. If anything, the sound is more complex. Songs like ‘Arsenic in the Year of The Snake’ are angular, atmospheric, and complex. And in the hands of Ross Robinson, this is an album far more focussed on intensity, raw nerves and performance than it is sonic perfection.

Indeed, sometimes it feels like it was recorded in a bath.
‘Satellites’ sounds like early ‘80s punk with dabbles of New Wave thrown in and is a lot looser than Cancer Bats have sounded in the past. With its epic chorus, ‘True Zero’ sounds an awful lot like Amen – sort of like a cool pitbull. In contrast, ‘Beezlebub’ is pure pummel and power (with more than a little bit of metalcore thrown in), and ‘All Hail’ and ‘Devil’s Blood’ will make the old diehards smile and everyone else want to smash shit. On ‘Buds’, Cancer Bats are cooler than Samuel L. Jackson in a pimp suit.

Many will say that this record isn’t as immediate as the band has been in the past. They would be correct – given that this album largely deals with grief, it’s not a lyrically positive affair. Others will spit that ‘Searching For Zero’ is the sign of a band trying lots of styles in the hope of finding one that fits, and ultimately producing a miss-mash of an album which will satisfy no-one. And they might be partially correct, too – we do not have a contender for album of the year here. But God love’s a trier, and it would have been far easier for Cancer Bats to put out 10 new blast of hated and concrete. ‘Searching For Zero’ is a bold move, and demonstrates sounds like an album made by a band with balls.

[Mr. Vengeance]

Binnie, just keep up your reviews. Don't let that twerp cunt-up the thread.

[Kristy]

Yeah, Binnie! Keep on writing the same review(s) about how white and boring metal is. Don't let that angry fuck Nazi 'Grime' it up for you.

[TFM_Dale]

Binnie will keep writing kick ass reviews and kristy will keep trying to convince people she isn't the worlds angriest hipster. Roth on Binnie! Keep listening to Coldplay at mild levels kristy

[binnie]

From the Vaults: Chris Whitely – Living With the Law (1991)

‘Sublime’s is often pinned to music or art that we adore, but it has rarely been more appropriately applied to ‘Living With The Law’. 1991 is primarily remembered for the ‘Grunge Turn’ which killed-off a style of music now retrospectively termed ‘Hair Metal’, but this debut record from bluseman and lost soul Chris Whitely, however, was far, far more interesting. Combining drama without histrionics and feel without sentimentality, ‘Living With The Law’ was a stunning collection of tunes from a talent which – in a Jeff Buckley kind of way – was really like no other. Had it not been for drug abuse, tragedy and illness, he might have had a career as stunning as his songs.

Here da blooze is shown to be a type of music which doesn’t have to be formulaic or limited. ‘Phone Call From Leavenworth’ is raw, dirty and yearning and propelled by what I can only term an acoustic guitar on fire. The title track has nods to American Indie but drenches it in country and blues, with Whitely’s ethereal voice giving it a vulnerable quality. ‘Big Sky Country’ has a soulful pulse running through it and ‘Poison Girl’ is awash with swirling rhythms and suffocating melodies which injects a tired subject (the good love of a bad woman) with verve and immediacy. Even when paired back to man and guitar (‘Make Like Dirt Slick’ and ‘Dust Radio’) the power here, the overwhelming intimacy, is stunningly powerful. On the delicate thunder of ‘I Forget You Every Day’ rage smashes into tenderness.

In stark contrast to the decade in which it emerged, nothing here is overstated. Whitley’s guitar-playing oozes out a seemingly limitless range of tones (electric, acoustic, slide, pedal-steel) to provide – to coin a heavily overused term – a unique voice to the instrument. Follow up albums would be superb, but Whitley never matched the immediacy of the tunes he delivered here. ‘Living With The Law’ is a record to beg, steel or borrow and will quickly become an essential part of your life.

[katina]

Torche – Restarter (2015)

You can tell what a band will be like by the drugs that they take. Judging by Torche’s cover artwork – which seems to depicted some kind of technicolour, technological swamp – they take the best drugs in the world. It is hard to understate just how testicle-tinglingly brilliant this band are. Like Faith No More, Clutch and Monster Magnet before them, Torche inhabit their own little pocket of the rock ‘n’ roll world which is inventive and idiosyncratic but still immediately irresistible. Opener ‘Annihilation Affair’ is heavy, groovy and a mass of cool; ‘Bishop In Arms’ is instantly your new best friend, a propulsion of rhythms and licks which sounds like Arcade Fire with buffalo bollocks; and ‘Minions’ has a bass line like a big, fuck off V8 at cruising king of the hill mode. This is, quite simply, a band that doesn’t write duds despite having a very broad range. ‘Undone’ is a battering ram, the sound of a band playing on a knife-edge; whilst ‘No Servants’ is a slow burn, a series of ominous riffs warning of the threat beneath - worlds apart on the surface, but both sound like Torche and Torche alone.

Producer Kurt Ballou has an ear for cool, and on ‘Restarter’ his lugs were wide open. Heavy stoner thud served up in songs which are hookier than the red-light district of Amsterdam, and as catchy as the crabs which lurk there, this is rock ‘n’ roll at its best: challenging and immediate.

Thank you Binnie, for the review on Torche - Restarter

[Kristy]

I'll never understand white metal

Seems you need some elements

1. Shred riffing- to the point where it becomes comical.
2. Satanism - to the point where it becomes cliche
3. Angry lyrics - now this would be great if they knew what in the fuck they were angry about in the first place.
4. Male homoerotica - believe I have already covered this.

So...white metal... best I can gather is its white suburban rock for those who cannot stand rap or think suburban white kids who wear chains and listen to rap are nothing more than a bunch of pussies. Hardly reactionary. Is it defiance? I'd like to think so but just can't. This shit is way too stupid to be rebellious. Every song sounds the same. Every song. It's like a volatile Ricky Nelson met Beevis & Butthead and formed a band. Much too white for me.

[binnie]

You make some really interesting points there, Kristy.

For the most part, metal is now a corporate music in much the same way that most rock and hip hop is. Has this ripped the balls out of it? Yes: as the bands have increasingly sounded angrier over the years they have actually become less threatening largely because - as you say - they are often not entirely sure what it is they're angry about (lyrically there is plenty of generic themes - war is bad; government is bad; religion is bad; my life is very complex). So, there is a lot of staid angst and metal is for the most part a suburban affair these days - I'm not sure that makes it 'bad', because if it does then that essentially makes people who live in suburbs somehow less worthy than people with 'real' problems.

There is, however, some genuinely reactionary metal. Much of this is not Western - the metal scene in parts of Asia, for example, whilst superficially similar to European/American metal, feels different. Being 'different' in Indonesia, for example, is hardly a fashion statement. A lot of the hardcore Black and Death metal is also not faux Satanism - some of it is genuinely terrifying (although it doesn't really do all that much for me, you can't help but appreciate it).

Does 'every song sound the same'? Well, there's certainly a 'sound' which dominates the middle ground of metal right now (and is the only type to move into more mainstream radio etc). This is called 'metalcore', and there is a template (screamy verse, 'melodic' chorus, breakdown in the middle). I guess like all genres, you have to look to find the good stuff.

[philouze]

Binnie, love your reviews.. I never told you until today, so there you go.
Armored Saint just put out their BEST album since Symbol Of Salvation.. And that goes waaaaaay back...
Just curious about your thoughts about it..

[Kristy]

For the most part, metal is now a corporate music in much the same way that most rock and hip hop is.

About fucking time.

White metal is as corporate as any Katy Perry record. Difference being it's more comical.

[binnie]

About fucking time.

White metal is as corporate as any Katy Perry record. Difference being it's more comical.

Are there any 'rock' genres that do not have any corporate elements in them? And does the fact that metals bands write their own tunes make them more artistically valid than Ms Perry?

[Kristy]

Yes Binnie, there is.

The study of geology for one:

"Geology is the study of the Earth, the materials of which it is made, the structure of those materials, and the processes acting upon them. It includes the study of organisms that have inhabited our planet. An important part of geology is the study of how Earth’s materials, structures, processes and organisms have changed over time."

And NO ONE is more artistically valid that Katy and her F A T ass.

From some shitty dime-a-dozen website:

Katy Perry Is the Modern Whore of Babylon

According to the Bible, the Whore of Babylon will be a woman who is the head of all prostitutes and harlots, who fornicates into infinity, and who will usher in a new world order. This woman will embody evil to her core and make it taste as sweet as candy. The Illuminati is currently preparing its takeover strategy, appointing those to be the Antichrist and the False Prophet, and dispatching its minions across the globe. One necessary role is the whore, and it's been filled by none the other than Katy Perry.

This despicable hussy of an artist spouts nothing but sex and salaciousness and appeals to our most vulnerable audience, kids and preteens. Just about every single song of hers promotes some kind of sick behavior. Whether it be experimenting with homosexuality or performing fellatio, Perry appears to have no shortage of obscene acts to promote. Her latest song, "Birthday", is all about a girl stripping down and enticing a guy to lick her genitals. If you don't believe us, then read the lyrics for yourself. They're nothing but filth.


Thighs so thick you can feel the gravy dripping off them

Perry's trash doesn't stop with sex either. Satanic references are a common theme too. In fact, "Dark Horse" might just be one of the most satanic songs ever released in pop culture. She actually refers to herself as a "beast". This is an obvious connection to the forthcoming apocalypse the Illuminati is preparing. As the Whore of Babylon, Katy Perry will be frequently making references to monsters. We're betting that she will soon be referring to an animal with seven heads. When that happens, we need to prepare, because the global onslaught is likely to follow."

Let's see one of your white metal acts top that. She beats the shit out of white metal any day. Apparently, Perry is Jewish. Who knew?

[binnie]

Binnie, love your reviews.. I never told you until today, so there you go.
Armored Saint just put out their BEST album since Symbol Of Salvation.. And that goes waaaaaay back...
Just curious about your thoughts about it..

As it turns out, I fuckin' loved it!

__________________________________

Armored Saint – Win Hands Down (2015)

It is customary to hail every new Armored Saint record as ‘their best since “March of the Saints”’: this time, however, the praise is deserved. This is Heavy Metal at its very best, raw, unkempt and more than a little bit silly. There are crazy fills and duel-lead guitars; there are powerchords and hyper-machismo a-plenty; and all eyes are on power for its own sake. And for that reason, you just can’t help but love Armored Saint. This band should certainly have been more successful than they were, and that they weren’t is probably largely due to their having one foot in several musical genres without ever quite belonging to any. ‘Win Hands Down’ is thus part thrash, part pure metal, and part ‘70s hard rock – Joey Vera’s distinctive approach to writing remains true to form, and when boomed by John Bush’s muscular larynx his tunes stick in your head like shit to a blanket.

The title cut is a big, powerchord-led, punch-the-air anthem which will crush live. The metal keeps coming with the pure crunch of ‘That Was Then, Way Back When’ and ‘With A Hull Head of Steam’ (which features the soulful vocals of Pearl Addey). Elsewhere, things are a little less headbutt to the nose. ‘An Exercise In Debauchery’ is awash with groove, swagger and balls, and ‘Mess’ delivers metal on metal through swampy riffs and huge hooks. Perhaps best of all is the dynamic soup of ‘In An Instant’, a sweeping epic which showcases the range of references which Armored Saints bring to the table.

And that, ultimately, might be the key to Armored Saint’s success: their ability and willingness to grow. ‘Win Hands Down’ is completely irrelevant to metal in 2015. It doesn’t try to keep up with the kids; and, unlike so many of their 50-something peers, it isn’t a ‘thrash’ record which tries to pretend its 1987. Instead, it’s something far more potent: a band showing that they can write great tunes and having an absolute blast whilst doing so.