The most recent album from Nordic progressive death metallers In Vain is quite the variety of sounds isn't it? While the album certainly retains its progressive tag throughout the hour runtime, the directions it takes to get there is quite varied. I really enjoyed the inclusion of a full brass section during the the albums highlight moments, such as "Eternal Waves" and "Shadows Flap their Black Wings". For an album that uses such a booming foundation, In Vain are not scared to embellish Solemn with bright/sharp tones; it gives the album a sense of direction that is not as dominant on other similar sounding death metal albums. The vocal styles change on a whim from Steven Wilson-esque hushed vocals, towering Einar Solberg cleans (complete with harmonic counterpoint), then alternating the rest of the time between low death gutturals and the occasional death metal screech. This all sounds like a lot to digest when you see it written down on a screen, but I promise that it is not as difficult of an album than I am describing it. In Vain have a skill of developing their foundation instead of becoming a new band on every track. It is also helped by the record not being quite extreme. At its core, Solemn is a death doom album with the occasional blast beat and tremolo guitar riff. This is what you might get if Wilderun and early Katatonia had a baby. The technique is solid too; granted the production might have a couple of minor hiccups here and there, Solemn remains incredibly consistent with its sound engineering. If anything, I think that the guitar harmonies might be a little too subdued throughout. I'm surprised it took me as long as it did to come around on this record, but I'm sure glad I did.

Best Songs: Shadows Flap their Black Wings, Season of Unrest, At the Going Down of the Sun, Beyond the Pale, Eternal Waves

‘Time Requiem’ is the 2002 self-titled debut album by Swedish progressive power metal band, Time Requiem. Formed by keyboard player Richard Andersson, the band plays a style very typical of progressive metal, with a strong neoclassical influence, and an emphasis on powerful vocals and fantasy-themed lyrics.

The most prominent aspect of Time Requiem’s music is shredding, and it comes in boatloads! Andersson and guitarist Magnus Nordh are absolute beasts on their instruments, furiously ripping up the chromatic scale at every opportunity. It makes for some lavishly flavoured riffs and colourful solos, but sadly it does get a little repetitive after a while.

Most of the songs are very strong and well-written, but also rely on similar tropes. At times, they sound very reminiscent of other bands, such as Symphony X, Dream Theater and Stratovarius. But if you can accept a group wearing its influences on its sleeves, then you might just enjoy tracks such as ‘Watching the Tower of Skies’, ‘Time Requiem’, ‘Milagros Charm’, ‘Visions of New Dawn’, ‘The Aphorism’ and the absolutely psychotic instrumental, ‘Brutal Mentor’.

‘Time Requiem’ can be challenging to sit through in one go, especially if you’re not keen on the sheer technicality of the music, but perseverance and repeated listens can be rewarding. Over time, the album grew on me, and while the band offers nothing new or unique, this is a very solid debut, and I’m excited to hear where things will go with future releases.

Sweden's Mercy are best known for being fronted by a pre-Candlemass Messiah Marcolin, especially as they struggled after he left, eventually splitting up in 1988. This, however, is a bit unfair on the rest of the guys because Witchburner is actually a very cool early doom metal record. It still retained a significant amount of heavy metal DNA, much like most mid-80's doom acts, except maybe Saint Vitus. It kicks off very strongly with the head-turningly-titled "I'm Your Pervert Priest" which possesses a crawling and portentously doomy riff which is topped off by Messiah's instantly recognisable vocals and marks the first time that a genuinely gifted and expressive vocalist was featured on a doom metal track, providing ample proof why Leif Edling wanted Messiah to join Candlemass after Johan Langquist refused to commit beyond the recording of "Epicus Doomicus Metallicus". What may surprise Candlemass fans is that Messiah was only seventeen at the time of recording and also played drums on "Witchburner"putting in a decent shift behind the kit, being basic, but effective. Lyrically, the track is obviously mocking of established religion, a theme that became well-established within metal circles, here given a sardonic and humorous slant rather than the out-and-out vitriolic attacks that became de rigeur within metal lyricist circles.

At this time Mercy had been reduced to a trio with three of the five that recorded the S/T debut having departed before the recording of "Witchburner" and remaining members Messiah and guitarist Andrija Veljaca being joined by second guitarist Jörgen Horst who also handled bass duties on the new record. The guitar sound on Witchburner is based on the "Tony Iommi" sound, but has a bit more of the grittiness of Saint Vitus' filthier intonation than heard on albums like Trouble's S/T or any of Sabbath's material. Where it does have more in common with these is in the songwriting, the slow, doomy material still being countered by a fair bit of traditional metal riffing, although that filthier, distortion-heavy guitar sound makes the faster riffs sound great. This was actually Mercy's sophomore full-length and I find it inconceivable that they hadn't received any exposure to the more doomy acts emerging, particularly from the US, between the recording of their 1984 debut and this because the two are worlds apart. The S/T takes its cues from the NWOBHM with the band coming off like a swedish version of Saxon for the most part, but "Witchburner" was much darker-sounding and had shed all the hard rock influences of the earlier record, becoming a much heavier album as a result.

The riffs are pretty memorable and Messiah's enunciation is excellent as usual, making "Witchburner" one of those albums that sticks around in the old grey matter and that people may find you singing along with later. The two guitarists are also impressive with some terrific soloing, the incendiary and blistering fretwork of the solo at the midpoint of Pain of Golgata, is just one example of a solo that would be salivated over had it come from KK Downing or his like and here provides a searing contrast to the plodding dirge of the main riff.

Whilst the three tracks of side one are undoubtedly the doomier and for me personally the better, the second side also has it's moments and is interesting for different reasons. The opener on side two, "Welcome to My Graveyard" is virtually speed metal and with that filthy guitar sound it actually sounds really good, so if you have always wondered what Messiah would sound like singing in a speed metal crew then here is your chance to find out. After that, "Judgement Day" has a bouncy "Children of the Grave" riff and may be the "catchiest" track on the album - all together now, "No one gets away... on Judgement Day". The penultimate track "Voodoo Kills" is for my money the weakest here being a little all over the place and not terribly well put together, but it is still listenable enough all the same. Closing out with the eight-minute title track, the ponderous ominousness of side one makes a welcome return and we are thrust into the doom-laden world of seventeenth century religious zealotry and witch huntings which was destined to become pretty standard doom metal lyrical fare.

All-in-all I think this is actually a very good example of early traditional doom metal which deserves far more attention than it has received. I would take this over Trouble's "Psalm 9", for example, which may or may not be a hot take, but is my heartfelt opinion as I think this sits much nearer to the Saint Vitus debut than to Trouble's and I would hold SV's self-titled up as the flagbearer for early trad doom. Sure this does step into trad metal and even speed metal territory occasionally, but the doominess of the three tracks on side one and the closing title track are ample proof that these Swedes were committed to playing and exploring doom metal further. It is a shame that we never really heard much more from Mercy, but as I said they struggled after Messiah left and their later output doesn't live up to this earlier promise with 1989's King Doom being a major disappointment. So, as it stands, "Witchburner" is an interesting development in the european take on doom metal and allows us to glimpse the early career of one of doom metal's iconic vocalists, making it a worthwhile listen which should be of interest to any serious student of doom metal and its history.

I cannot pretend to be a big CoF fan. Other than Dusk…and Her Embrace, The Screaming of the Valkyries is the only other album of theirs that I have listened to in the last thirty years. Somehow, I find I like the idea of CoF more than I like the actual reality of CoF. Gothic metal is not a go to sub-genre for me by any means, and so as the band moved away from their initial melodic and then symphonic black metal sound my interest levels (which were not particularly high to begin with) soon began to wane. It is unexpected then that I am sat here about to write a review of their latest album as it plays on what must be its sixth spin in the last three days.

To my ears, to start off with at least, The Screaming of the Valkyries does not introduce itself as an entirely gothic metal record, certainly not as I would expect gothic metal to sound anyway. The opening two tracks are up-tempo and full-frontal attacks of metal. Full of power and promise as opposed to pomp and haughty posturing as I expected. There is even some fantastic lead work to get lost in also. All in all, ‘To Live Deliciously’ and ‘Demagoguery’ make up a great start for the album. Everything sounds well balanced; instruments are all audible in the mix that does them all sufficient justice.

However, The Screaming of the Valkyries peaks far too early as it turns out. That is not to say that the rest of the album is terrible by any means, but it does lack the immediacy that was promised by the opening two tracks. Whilst I completely acknowledge that ‘The Trinity of Shadows’ is well written; it just does not measure up to what precedes it and seems to herald the start of a mediocre section of the album for the next five tracks. It is not until ‘Ex Sanguine Draculae’ that things pick up just in time for triumphant album closer ‘When Misery Was a Stranger’.

As a result, there is a real sense of lost potential on CoF’s sixteenth album. For an album that is so well performed and deftly written, I feel like I should be getting more from the nine tracks than I do. The long-term fan will have a different view, I am sure. However, for me, the record falls short by not playing to its opening strengths and extending that footprint throughout the album.

‘Extreme II: Pornograffitti’ is the second album by American hair metal band, Extreme. Released in 1990, it came out at a time when there was a sense of change in the air. While grunge hadn’t yet completely taken over the world, there was certainly a feeling that a lot of the glam and party antics of the 80’s were becoming dated, which is unfortunate for this Boston quartet, as they had just released what could arguably be considered their best album.

I’ll never understand why hair metal was on such a decline back then, with energetic showmen traded for angsty introverts and flashy guitar solos traded for three chords. Perhaps people were just sick of the image of it all, or just not being able to relate to the lyrics? But regardless, the musicianship was still truly spectacular. For Extreme in particular, praise must go to guitarist Nuno Bettencourt, whose absolute ferocity on the guitar is insane, and vocalist Gary Cherone has an incredible and charismatic voice that totally fits the funky shred style of the riffs.

And I won’t leave out drummer Paul Geary and bassist Pat Badger, who are absolutely solid as a rhythm section, providing plenty of groove and funk.

There’s an absolute abundance of hits on this album, but particular highlights for me include ‘Decadence Dance’, ‘Get the Funk Out’, ‘It (‘s a Monster)’, ‘When I’m President’, the frantic shred-fest that is ‘He-Man Woman Hater’, soft ballad ‘More Than Words’ (which was actually a massive hit for the band), as well as the title track itself. But in all honesty, this album is just non-stop banger after banger, and if you can shake off the 80’s glam stigma, this is an incredible album, and an essential addition to every rock or metal collection.