Varg Vikernes' eight (second recorded after his release from prison) studio album was a major disappointment for me at the time but it's been a good decade & a half since we last crossed paths now so I thought I'd give it another chance to capture me this week. Unfortunately, despite not being quite as bad as I first thought, "Fallen" is still a fairly underwhelming experience with pretty much every element being less effective than they've been during Varg's incredible creative peak of the mid-1990's. The overall sound is thrashier than he'd offered up before & spends time in both the conventional & atmospheric black metal space. There's a noticeable lack of synthesizers here though which is regrettable when you consider how wonderfully Varg's utilized them in the past. Vikernes' harsh vocals are totally different too & sound like he's really struggling to reproduce them in his old age while his incorporation of clean vocals is misguided, even bordering on being cringe-worthy. In saying all of that, there are some great black metal riffs here at times which leads to a good half of the record being pretty enjoyable (see "Jeg faller", "Vanvidd" & my personal favourite "Enhver til sitt"). Sadly though, the other half is pretty lacklustre with the tracklisting petering out badly at the end & collapsing completely with the God-awful neo-pagan folk closer "Til Hel og tilbake igjen". Look... you can obviously tell from my rating that "Fallen" isn't a complete disaster but it simply isn't up the task of maintaining Burzum's legacy. In fact, it's hard to deny that it does its best to tarnish it. I think "Fallen" was comfortably the weakest Burzum album to the time.

For fans of Drudkh, Forgotten Woods & Judas Iscariot.

Let it be known that dropping into a new bands first full length record with lowered expectations is not always the right call. I was all ready to write this review as a scathing criticism of modern metalcore and basic and generic it all sounds; how it focuses on intensity and face melting breakdowns instead of actually writing good songs. Well that only appears to be half right on Hell Is Just a Halfway House by the djentcore act Iridium. Because, while the album isn't really that innovative by modern metalcore standards, the way in which they perform is splendid. Iridium have a very good understanding of being able to split the difference and appease both sides of this debate. The album is heavy, but not overwhelming, while still managing to make the melodic choruses very enjoyable. Hell Is Just a Halfway House does have enough variety between the different tracks as to not become too boring, which is also helped by the fact that this album is just longer than half-an-hour. I would say on an individual basis, the songs are bloated by these extended atmospheric interludes that run pretty consistent throughout the album. They don't feel distracting per se, in fact I quite enjoy them as a slight moment of reprieve, but they definitely could have been trimmed down and not be quite as frequent. 

Besides that however, I can't really be super critical towards this album. Iridium have shown through their debut that heaviness and melody can coexist together in the world of metalcore. It isn't going to blow you away with how drastically different it is from the octanecore of today, but it might just change your mind on the direction that this seemingly motionless genre can go.

Best Songs: God Eater, Soul//Split, Is It Too Late?, Could9

For Fans Of: Spiritbox, Invent Animate

I love thrash metal and I love punk rock but, in truth, I am not all that enthusiastic about crossover thrash. Maybe I haven't heard the right albums as a quick look at my ratings sees me amassing less than 20, so I can hardly call myself an expert. One of my problems with crossover thrash is that far too often it just doesn't seem serious and feels like more of a "party" sub-genre like glam metal. Even outside of fatally unfunny shit like SOD, bands like Gama Bomb, DRI and The Accüsed sound a bit frivolous to me. Before you all call me out on this, I know that this is probably an unreasonable stance to take and you may well be justified in calling me a miserable old fucker, but it is genuinely how I feel. All that said, I am more than happy to say that Zerre have blown that stance completely out of the water with "Rotting on a Golden Throne".

One thing is for sure, these guys are deadly serious about this shit. Having begun life as a hardcore punk outfit, they definitely have the grounding in the punk side of things, bringing a serious level of hardcore aggression and vitality to proceedings. Despite their punk origins, however, they don't come up short in the metal department either with some barnstorming riffs and quite thrilling soloing from dual guitarists Dominik and Rocco. Interestingly, vocalist Nico Ziska, who was previously bassist with black metallers Der Weg einer Freiheit, is not the singer from their punk rock days, yet he still has quite an aggrressive, bellowing vocal style that may lead you to assume he had a previous grounding in hardcore. The gang backing vocals are also expertly handled and don't ever come off as lame or naff, which can't always be said about a crossover album The speed and aggression never lets up and I can imagine a pit at a Zerre show is a hell of a place to be.

The tightness of this five-man outfit is certainly impressive and the guys are evidently skilled musicians, the two leads in particular impressing with their abilities, both technically and artistically. These are genuinely some of the best, high-octane thrash riffs I have heard from outside of Chile for quite some time. The drumming on final track "No Alibi" is also some of the most Animalistic (as in the Muppet drummer) craziness I have heard on a thrash track. There isn't really a weak track on the album, but the run of four tracks from "Deception of the Weak" through to the title track is just insanely good. It is still early days yet, but I am becoming increasingly convinced that this is my all-time favourite crossover album (unless "Among the Living" counts).

Anonymous Massachusetts four-piece Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean are back with a 28 minute EP of their trademark, noise-drenched, sludge metal that, characteristically slams into you like a sledgehammer to the forehead. I don't know if I was in the wrong frame of mind for it during my initial listen-through because it just kind of washed over me and felt draining to listen to the first time, with a really heavy noise influence that gave it a cloying uniformity I really wasn't in the mood for. Subsequent listens have left me feeling more positive although, in truth, it seldom approaches the level of awesomeness I attributed to their 2023 "Obsession Destruction" LP. Things kick off in fine style with the longest and, for my money, best of the four tracks, the 9-minute "An Abundance of Mercy". This is a hulking slab of reverb-drenched sludge metal with a memorable and doomy main riff that crushes like a runaway steamroller and caustic vocals that could double as paint stripper. A couple of noise and feedback-soaked breakdowns fill out the track and provide a counterpoint to that comparatively melodic main riff.

"Upheaval" is the EP's shortest and most vitriolic-sounding track with a fairly quick tempo and a marked noise component that pushed a bit too far in that direction for my particular taste and may well have been the source of my initial reticence towards the EP as a whole. I am on much more comfortable ground with the remaining two tracks, "An Adornment of Light" and "Execution" with their doomier and resultingly more crushing atmospheres. I must make mention of the drumming as it is of particular note, driving and pummelling, even on the slower, doomier sections with the nameless skinsman's performance on "Execution" being an especial standout.

Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean are evidently emerging from under the shadow of their main influence, Louisisana's Thou, and are forging their own identity with an even more abrasive and noisy style of sludge designed not so much to get under the listener's skin, but rather to strip that skin away completely.

Black Sabbath’s aptly titled ‘Vol. 4’ is the British metal pioneers’ fourth studio album, and once again, it’s another release that I struggle to really get into.

I don’t dislike Black Sabbath, I enjoy most genres of music and most bands, from any era. But for whatever reason, the stars just do not align because I just don’t “get” the first few Black Sabbath albums. I’m sure there’s a point, perhaps later in their career, where the band just clicks with me, but their first few records, often revered as metal masterpieces by fans, just do nothing for me.

It’s not all gloom and doom though (well, it kind of is!), as there are a couple of highlights. ‘Snowblind’ is a fantastic song, probably ranking up there as one of my Sabbath favourites, cheesy ballad ‘Changes’ has some great vocal and lyrics, and ‘St. Vitus Dance’ has some interesting guitar work. But overall, I find the rest of the tracks just seem to plod along, similarly to how I felt about their previous releases.

I’ve tried and tried, and have had this one on my playlist for a while, but it’s just not working for me. Perhaps I’ll have more luck with their next album…