This has been sat in my playlist for well over a year by this point. I’ve heard it many times, but when it comes to writing a review about it, I have no idea what to say, or how to start. So here’s the lowdown, released in 2005, ‘The 1st Chapter’ is the debut album by Norwegian progressive metal band, Circus Maximus. 

That’s pretty much all there is to it. It’s a solid album, which ticks off all the prog metal clichés; fantastic musicianship, a singer with a powerful voice who can hit incredibly high notes, long, intricate song structures, and thoughtful, introspective lyrics. It’s all here. 

One thing I struggled with is that there’s nothing that specifically stands out that I can comment on. The music is really good and well produced, sounding a lot like Dream Theater or Symphony X (obviously), which is standard for this genre. In fact, there is one absolutely fantastic track, ‘Glory of the Empire’, which sounds like it could have come off of Symphony X’s album ‘The Odyssey’, so if you like that album, you’ll love this! The lyrics even have the legendary Gladiator line about “what happens in life echoes in eternity”. You know the one. The absolute cheek of them! 

Still, lack of enthusiasm aside for my review, this is a good album. ‘Sin’, ‘Why Am I Here’, ‘Biosfear’, bonus track ‘Haunted Dreams’ and the aforementioned ‘…Empire’ song are all worth checking out, and I’ve no doubt that Circus Maximus will stand out a lot more with subsequent releases.  

Over 40 years into their careers, and it’s pretty likely that no band has ever taken more risks than Metallica. From the initial young phase of “proving yourself”, to becoming stadium rock stars, alternative rockers, eyeliner, orchestras, covers albums, a de-tuned nu metal trash can phase, movies, concert movies, collaborations, and having to again prove they can still play metal… one thing has become apparent with Metallica, they always seem most inspired when they’re trying new things. 

News dropped on ’72 Seasons’ at the end of 2022, completely out of nowhere, when the band announced it and debuted a new music video. That video, ‘Lux Æterna’, sounded great. It was short and to the point. The 1983 thrash vibe was there, James’ vocals sounded fantastic, and the writing was polished. If the new album is like this, then count me in! 

Sadly, it seems ‘Lux Æterna’ was a one-off, because all the other songs follow the same routine of Metallica’s last few albums, being massively bloated and overly long. The band pushes the physical CD format to its limit, as usual, with a staggering 77 minute duration of the same repetitive riff, over and over again. Every song repeats the same section for way too long, and it wears thin very fast. It worked great for Metallica in 1988, but since then, progressive metal has evolved and developed, and as much as I love these guys, the longer songs just don’t seem to favour them anymore. 

It’s not terrible though, don’t get me wrong, there’s a few highlights here and there. ‘Lux Æterna’ is genuinely fantastic, and the title track does start off strong, but man, everything just feels so uninspired the longer the album goes on. The same riffs as before, the same lyrics (always involving words rhyming with cyanide), and guitarist Kirk Hammett sounds bored, almost as if each of his solos are forced and lazy. 2008’s ‘Death Magnetic’ was absolutely fantastic, and they just managed to finish milking that sound with 2016’s ‘Hardwired… to Self Destruct’, but it feels like with ‘72 Seasons’, they’re back to releasing just “another Metallica album”.

Don’t get me wrong, I love this band, I even think ‘St. Anger’ was a great album (see, they were inspired then and had something to prove), and I get that Metallica are at a point in their careers where they don’t need to prove anything to anyone and can do whatever they want. Sadly, I just don’t get much enjoyment from this album. Uninspired and way, way too long. Oh well, I’ll still be here supporting them regardless, I just hope whenever they do another album that there’ll be more on it that I can enjoy.  

Melbourne's Black Jack were one of the earlier Australian metal bands which has afforded them a reasonable amount of mystique in the local scene over the years but it wasn't enough to see me going to the effort of exploring any of their music until only the last half-decade or so. This week's revisit to their one & only proper studio release was my first return to "Five Pieces of Eight" since that initial discovery session, this time paying a lot more attention to finer details & nuances of a record that's largely been lost to time, despite holding the questionable honour of being the very first metal record to explore pirate themes.

Black Jack were a four-piece outfit that formed around the brothers John & Rick Giles way back in 1979. There are reports floating around that the two brothers were direct descendants of historical figure Thomas Giles who was reportedly hanged for piracy back in the day so one would guess that this was where they came up with the concept for a pirate-themed heavy metal band. Black Jack's sole E.P. "Five Pieces of Eight" wouldn't be released until 1985 & followed two demo tapes, the first being recorded in their initial year of existence & the second coming four years later in 1983. "Five Pieces of Eight" would be released on legendary Melbourne metal label Metal For Melbourne but wouldn't exactly see Black Jack going on to become global megastars. In fact, they allegedly recorded two full-length albums at some point but neither would ever see the light of day for one reason or another. So, unfortunately, we only have this short E.P. with which to judge the world's very first pirate metal act. (If I'm being completely honest, the front cover is the only obvious pirate reference here anyway as far as I can tell without reading the lyrics.)

"Five Pieces of Eight" was recorded at Saturn Studio with producer George Simak who also worked on Taramis' 1987 "Queen of Thieves" album. The result is a noticeably rough & ready record with a production job that leaves a lot to be desired though. The main concern is that the rhythm guitars are wwwaaaayyyy back in the mix & are dwarfed by the drums & vocals which is a real shame because guitarist John Giles (who also spent some time with the pre-Taipan band Storm) is obviously a very talented shredder. Thankfully, his lead solos are much louder but I don't think it will surprise you to discover that the riffs are significantly impaired by the fact that the guitars sound more like background music than they do the focal point they deserve to be. Rick Giles' soaring vocals have a lot of attitude & charisma about them & they have to be too as he's no technical superstar, occasionally crossing over the borderline into pitchy territory which completely ruins the silly "Hot Rocket".

Apart from the previously mentioned "Hot Rocket", the tracklisting isn't too bad actually. The short introduction piece adds no value whatsoever but opening track "Highwayman's Inn" (my personal favourite) is actually a really solid heavy metal tune that borders on power metal, largely thanks to Rick's operatic (yet mildly chaotic) vocal performance. The drumming of Ion Drive skinsman Mick Burns shows some class & creativity on that track too so a really dig it. "Hot Rocket" is more or less party metal while "Prelude #5" would appear to be an attempt to showcase John Giles' lead guitar prowess in a similar way to Van Halen's "Eruption" & it succeeds in many respects too. "Man of Arms" is a doomy power metal anthem that reminds me a lot of Manowar while closer "The Wiazrd" opts for a NWOBHM heavy metal gallop that was no doubt inspired by the likes of Iron Maiden. The wins clearly outweigh the losses however the production issues certainly limit the heights that "Five Pieces of Eight" has the ability to scale. I can see the potential in it though & subsequently find it hard not to enjoy the naive energy & enthusiasm of it all. 

Look, "Five Pieces of Eight" isn't gonna rock your world & you'll do very well to find yourself a copy anyway. But it is an important landmark in the Australian heavy metal story & Black Jack deserve to be mentioned when local metalheads refer to the important players that built their beloved scene. I can't imagine how those two full-length albums never saw the light of day though. I mean, if you'd put that much time & money into your passion project then surely you'd at least want people to hear it. Perhaps the production was even worse than we hear on this one? I dunno but, for now at least, "Five Pieces of Eight" will have to suffice as Black Jack's sole legacy.

For fans of Taipan, Iron Maiden & early Taramis.

I first took notice of Suffering Hour with their 2021 album, "The Cyclic Reckoning", which I found interesting for its incorporation of influences from Eighties' gothic rock into its blackened death maelstrom. This EP is a different beast however, the gothic element to the guitar sound has been completely stripped away and replaced with dissonant guitar leads and the tempos have been ramped up, resulting in a more immediately visceral and in-your-face experience. The production here is somewhat thicker and muddier than previously and when coupled with such frantic and hectic material it kind of feels to me like Gorguts playing War Metal. I have only recently really been converted to the charms of disso-death (mainly thanks to Ulcerate) and the version of that employed here by Suffering Hour works really well with the rampant black metal blasting. The opening title track is probably the most accessible track on the EP and does still exhibit a little bit of the gothic feel of earlier material, but after that it is pretty much a relentless maelstrom with the sub-two minute "Anamnesis" that follows "Impelling Rebirth" leading the charge. At less than fifteen minutes total runtime, none of the five tracks on offer here are likely to become boring, but that is even less likely when you hear how much is going on within such short compositions.

At my advancing age, I generally prefer to stick to stuff I suspect I will enjoy, but I am glad I have persisted with delving into more dissonant styles because sometimes a record like this comes along and revitalises my jaded perceptions with a good old-fashioned (metaphorical) slap in the face.

Since I found my way to the Horde and I finally got to grips with death metal, Immolation have been a band that stood out to me as being something a bit special. Not special in an innovative, envelope-pushing way, but in a truly-getting-it, well-oiled machine kind of way. Their songwriting chops are unbelievably good and although they don't strive to break new ground, they always manage to make their tracks interesting and vital and seem to unerringly hit the spot with me. It often feels like they tap into an earthiness that feels redolent with the iron scent of spilled battlefield blood and which has the ability to make this old man feel properly alive and alert to the endless incoming of lethal death metal riffs and the hot shrapnel of searing solos. They are also incredibly consistent and while some of their releases may be genuine standouts, I haven't yet heard an Immolation album I didn't enjoy. The last couple, "Atonement" and "Acts of God" were really solid efforts that once more gave me enough of a fix to carry me through until the next one came out, but in "Descent" I think they may have turned in their best work for quite some time, an album able to sit comfortably beside "Close to a World Below" or "Unholy Cult".

The production is crisp and clear and allows the band to showcase how tight they are, allowing perfect expression of the brutality of the riffs and rhythm section. The drums in particular seem really well recorded, the kicks, snares, toms and cymbals all perfectly distinguishable and seeming to come at the listener from all angles, surrounding them in a percussive straightjacket that holds them in place while the riffs pummel the shit out of them. I love filthy-sounding, abyssal, old-school shit above almost all other styles of death metal, but Immolation achieve a similar effect on me with a clarity and precision normally employed by more technically-focussed acts that speaks volumes for their ability to generate a brutally evil atmosphere by sheer skill, not having to turn to production tricks to achieve it or to hide technical deficits.

So, a question I am sure many will ask is "do Immolation do anything new on "Descent"?" Well, no, but what they do do they do better than virtually anybody else, so does that mean you should listen to this? Abso-fuckin'-lutely it does. Is it better than their first five albums? No, not really, but if they aren't to hand or you now know them so well you can replay them in your sleep, then "Descent" will give you a fresh take on an old friend and should satisfy your craving for quality no-frills death metal.