The Fallen
The Fallen Threads
Anathema - Eternity (1996)
I have decided to fill the gaps in my ratings for the releases in the top 100 charts of my four clans, leading me today to take on Anathema's 1996 album Eternity. Now, seemingly at odds with the rest of the metal world, I have never really got on board the Anathema train, being a little bemused at the exalted status they seem to hold in the metal community. This, of course, may be down to the fact that I was out of the metal loop during their earlier days, so I have only ever viewed their metal phase from a retrospective viewpoint, thus being unaware of the contemporary impact of their music and being personally uninvested in their work, a phenomena whose effect is a big influence on what does and does not resonate with us.
The first thing that baffles me about Eternity is it's doom metal tag. I can't hear a whole lot of what I understand as doom metal here, but I do think it leans towards gothic metal. The bass sound in particular comes straight from The Sisters of Mercy, the jangling nature of a lot of the guitar work owes much to The Mission or the early sound of The Cult's Billy Duffy and "Cries on the Wind" even sees vocalist Vincent Cavanagh aping Aaron Stainthorpe's gothic delivery. So I would tag this as gothic rather than doom metal, although that in itself doesn't tell the whole story of Eternity as it also has a very progressive feel and enters into dalliances with alternative metal.
Most of the reviews I have read of the album refer to it as a transitionary album for the band and I get that, because it feels like an album by a band who have found the constraints of the metal sphere too restrictive to allow them to express the emotions and ideas that they wish to convey and who are testing the restraints that bind them. Initially I was underwhelmed by Eternity and felt it lacked bite, but having lived with it for three or four days now and having got underneath it's bodywork, allowing my preconceptions to fall away, it has revealed itself to be quite the tour de force, albeit with a major caveat that I will get to shortly. The songwriting is excellent and is filled with melodious hooks and pensive, reflectively atmospheric moments. The instrumentation is high calibre with a couple of impressive solos that sound restrained and yet still soar majestically over the on point rhythm work in a style not entirely dissimilar to that of Pink Floyd's Dave Gilmour. In fact The Wall-era Pink Floyd crept unbidden into my mind on more than one occasion as brief snippets seemed to be eerily similar to parts of Floyd's 1979 concept album meisterwork, Eternity Pt.2 bearing a particular point of reference.
And so to that caveat I mentioned which is a major stumbling block to me dishing out a top tier rating. The issue that ultimately left me feeling slightly disappointed is the vocal performance of Vincent Cavanagh, which I don't think is sufficiently proficient to express the emotional heft that the material required, robbing it of a lot of it's poignancy as a result. Vincent seems to be struggling at times and is helped out more than once by backing vocals that cover up for some of his shortcomings, but is still a little jarring in places which led to me being snapped out of the spell that the music had been weaving. With a top-drawer vocalist then I would have had no problem dishing out a 4.5 or 5 star rating, because songwriting and instrumental performance-wise this is an album that worms it's way into even my jaded and cynical psyche, providing a melancholic, yet uplifting, sensation that has been artfully crafted, but sadly left bereft by one important aspect falling short. Maybe a further passage of time will see me warming to the vocals, but for now to me this is a classic that got away.
4/5
Toadliquor - "Feel My Hate - The Power Is the Weight - R.I.P. Cain" (1993)
I'd not heard much about Californian five-piece Toadliquor before now. They've kind of existed on their own underground plane for the last few decades, always steering well clear of the mass popularity contest that is the commercial metal scene in the United States. Hell, they've always flatly refused to release their most popular record (i.e. this one) on CD, instead choosing to offer it up on vinyl only which should tell you a little bit about the band themselves who have largely remained fairly anonymous with none of the five members being associated with other acts. But people seem to have picked up on Toadliquor fairly organically over the years & we now see their 1993 debut album "Feel My Hate - The Power Is the Weight - R.I.P. Cain" being held up as a minor classic in some parts of the more well-informed metal demographic. As you all well & truly know by now, I need to know why in these cases so this week I've decided to explore Toadliquor for the very first time to see what the hell all the buzz is about. I'm glad I did too because it's a very rewarding record indeed.
"Feel My Hate - The Power Is the Weight - R.I.P. Cain" is a 42-minute album that includes seven songs with all of them being well & truly worth your time. It's an unapologetically sludge metal record too it has to be said. Other websites like Metal Archives & RateYourMusic will always award releases like this one a dual tag with doom metal but, in reality, there's really no need to if you have any idea as to what the sludge genre is all about it because it inherently implies the inclusion of doom tempos & riffs. As with a lot of good doom metal though, there's no necessity for Toadliquor to reinvent any wheels as far as their sound goes because good doom riffs are timeless & Toadliquor are too in many respects because this album could just as easily have been released today as 31 years ago. There are loads of bands that sound like this but very few deliver their product with this level of conviction. It's interesting that some RYMers are tending to reach for drone metal secondaries for this release though. Just where they're finding those associations is beyond me as I simply don't see it.
I wouldn't say that Toadliquor's sound is quite as dark, drug-fueled & desolate as an Eyehategod whose highly regarded sophomore album I reviewed only yesterday but I would suggest that it's slightly more consistent in its overall heaviness & I tend to favour it over "Take as Needed for Pain" for that reason, particularly given that it doesn't revert to groovier stoner metal riffs like Eyehategod have a tendency to do. The most significant & divisive element of their sound though is quite clearly the vocals of front man Rex whose delivery comes in the form of a tortured howl more than a masculine hardcore grunt or psychotic scream. I have to say that I do struggle with him a little bit at times & I can't deny that his inclusion has limited just how high my rating has the potential to go because I can't deny that Toadliquor would have been much better served with a more traditional sludge metal vocalist. Perhaps they wouldn't have been able to separate themselves from the huge swarming mass of American sludge bands if they had of gone that way though as Rex is certainly the main talking point when discussing the album. I just wish he didn't sound as phoned-in as he does at times because the effort doesn't always seem to be there.
The tracklisting is brilliantly consistent with the instrumentalists all having a fantastic understanding of the sludge metal medium & of dynamics in general. It's really very hard to pick out highlights as every song has excellent instrumentation with Rex's contribution tending to hold me back from being able to claim many of them as genuine classics. I do think that the crushingly immense heaviness of "Fratricide: A Requiem" manages to overcome those limitations & I can see it going on to become a genre favourite for me in the future. Outside of that, I'd probably suggest that the two tracks that precede it in "Gnaw" & & "Charred" make for an excellent trio that represent somewhat of a sweet spot for the album overall. The rest of the record isn't much different though & if you like one Toadliquor song then you'll no doubt dig everything they bludgeon you with here. Be warned though, this record isn't for the faint-hearted or the casual sludge listener. It's a wall-to-wall sludge-a-thon.
"Feel My Hate - The Power Is the Weight - R.I.P. Cain" was a very easy one to come up with a rating for really. I clearly couldn't afford it an elite score as Rex's vocals simply don't leave that as an available option but, at the same time, the instrumentation is so well written & executed that it was never going to score less than four stars either. I feel that I can easily see a) why Toadliquor as so highly regarded in underground circles & b) why they've never managed to break out of those circles for more mainstream appeal. They're very much a sludge band for sludge fanatics only &, thankfully, I just happen to be one of those so this has been a very worthwhile experience that I'd recommend to others who fall into that category.
For fans of Meth Drinker, Nightstick & Grief.
4/5
Cult of Luna and Julie Christmas - Mariner (2016)
I have no idea who Juie Christmas is, or what her work outside of this collaboration may sound like, but one thing is for sure, she has certainly brought an additional dimension to CoL's sound, without nudging it too far from what we have come to expect from the swedish atmo-sludge crew. I went into Mariner expecting it to be Cult of Luna with ethereal female vocals, presuming Julie Christmas to have come from a darkwave or gothic background similar to Chelsea Wolfe, but that isn't what she brings to the table at all. In fact, there is a quite a variation in her vocal styles, ranging from a quite twee-sounding, young girl-like voice to a snarling, sharp-edged sludgy shriek. I must admit that it is the more aggressive latter style which I found most appealing, such as she uses on "The Wreck of S.S. Needle" alongside a clean style that reminded me of SubRosa's Rebecca Vernon. I can see that Julie's vocals may be divisive among CoL fans and I feel that it may take me a few more listens to be completely at home with them myself, but she does help to revitalise a band that was getting maybe a little too comfortable in it's own skin.
Of course, this being Cult of Luna, the instrumentation is impeccable and the songs are multi-textured affairs, but they feel less reliant on the build-and-release trope that has become the main feature of atmospheric sludge in general and CoL in particular over the years. I think this may be down to the flexibility of Julie Christmas's vocals which bring wider textural variety to the vocal aspect of Mariner's sound and makes it less reliant on the building of instrumental tension and the subsequent payoff of it's release that the genre has stereotypically come to rely on. This fundamental aspect of Cult of Luna's sound isn't completely absent of course and is very much still in evidence in a song like "Approaching Transition" which, tellingly, Julie is less involved in and as such sounds more like the CoL we are all used to.
Whilst the album as a whole is a very solid and interesting affair, for me it is at it's best when JC is given free rein and utilises all the vocal tricks in her toolbox, with the closer "Cygnus" and the afrementioned, "The Wreck of S.S. Needle", being the two standouts as her vocals weave in and around the band's searing and soaring instrumentation in a quite sublime dance of musical dexterity and creativity. The songwriting on these two tracks is quite exceptional and feels extremely natural, as if the sounds these two entities have ended up producing are the only feasible outcome of their inevitable collaboration.
I must admit, before listening to Mariner, I thought that Cult of Luna no longer really had the ability to surprise me. Entertain and delight me, for sure, but to make me do a double-take and really sit up and take notice of a newly-heard release, no those days were gone. I was wrong for sure and I can't really explain why it has taken me so long to get around to checking this collaboration out, other than I already thought I knew what to expect. Well bigger fool me, because this is not at all that thing, but rather an invigorating and special slab of atmospheric sludge that stands up to scrutiny against all but the absolute best that the genre has to offer. Maybe you can teach an old dog new tricks after all.
4.5/5
The Body - "The Crying Out of Things"
This Arizona-based drone metal act seems to put out a new release or collaboration every second week these days. Another one that I've had mixed experiences with so I might watch from afar & see what the hype's like before exploring this album.
High on Fire - Cometh the Storm (2024)
High on Fire are a band I have derived a deal of enjoyment from, yet I haven't given them nearly as much attention as my taste dictates they deserve, not really checking out much since 2007's Death Is This Communion. I don't really have an explanation for this, it's just the way it's been. Anyway, Cometh the Storm is another really solid offering from the Matt Pike-led threesome and is yet another that is right up my street.
The basic sound here is sludgy stoner metal and within that framework there is a fair bit of variety, but with the riffs constantly being king. The production is of very high quality, so those fuzzed-up riffs are given some extra clout with a beefy sound job that still allows plenty of clarity and depth. The variation within the songwriting is illustrated very early on where the relentless chugging of Burning Down with it's myriad stoned-out solos leads into the almost thrashy Trismegistus that, with Matt Pike's grizzled and throaty, but quite shrill, bellows, makes the track sound a bit like Motorhead (a comparison that is even more obvious on The Beating). This then gives way to the psychedelically-loaded stoned-out grooves of the brooding title track and the unexpected, yet perfectly suited, Turkish folk music of Karanlık yol. Each is handled impressively as High on Fire demonstrate exactly how accomplished a band they now are with none of the tracks sounding out of place or mishandled. A quick word for ex-Melvins drummer Coady Willis who has come in to replace founding member Des Kensel and has dropped straight into the HoF groove with the band not missing a step despite the change and with Willis' busy and precise performance being the foundation on which the album is built.
Ultimately, this is top drawer stoner metal, skillfully performed, with great production values and a tough sludgy edge that draws upon the stoned-out psychedelics of past times and drapes them over a solid and harder than you may expect metallic core that is able to appeal to both stoners and moshpit denizens alike. I can't really define why, but this is just one of those albums that feels so authentically and unapologetically metal that it is impossible to do it down in any way.
4/5
Hamferð - Men guðs hond er sterk (2024)
Hamferð are a six-piece doom metal band from The Faroe Islands. They have been in existence since 2008, but this is only their third full-length release in all that time, their debut having seen the light of day back in 2013 after winning the Wacken Metal Battle competition at the Wacken Open Air festival in 2012 and it's follow-up hitting the shelves in 2018. I must admit, I have only recently got on board with these guys myself during a dive into exploring more obscure doom metal bands, but I found much to enjoy in both of their earlier releases.
The new album's title translates as "But God's hand is strong" and the lyrics are sung in Hamferð's native Faroese, relating the tragic tale of fourteen faroese whalers who lost their lives at sea in 1915, with the album's title being a quote from one of the survivors upon his rescue. Musically they play strongly melodic death doom with both growled and clean vocals provided by singer Jón Aldará (also of Iotunn and Barren Earth) who switches between styles, to good effect, often within the same track. The band as a whole are very proficient with a nice clean sound that perfectly suits their more melodic approach to death doom. This melodic approach doesn't seek to crush the listener under waves of heavy riffing, but rather attempts to affect them more subtly with sorrowful airs that worm their way into the consciousness, effecting a deeper sensation of melancholy than a merely bludgeoning approach would achieve. Occasionally they become very light of touch indeed, verging almost on the balladic, which may have come off as a bit corny, were it not for the consummate ability of Aldará who, vocally, never descends into overt melodrama, but who maintains a subtle earnestness throughout, for which he deserves great credit.
I may have given the impression that this is a lightweight album and even though it does like to paint it's sonic landscape with lighter shades, there are certainly heavy moments present. Opener Ábær kicks things off and drags the listener in with a suitably heavy, but also melodic main riff and penultimate track, Hvølja, is the album's heaviest with a monster riff that poses a real risk of crushing the air out of the lungs of the unprepared listener who may have been lulled into a comfort zone by some of the preceeding lighter moments. Elsewhere, second track Rikin features a scarily bellowing Aldará threatening to peel the paintwork with his growls on top of a thundering main riff that you feel at gut level.
Although Men guðs hond er sterk is a concept album, thankfully the music is always pre-eminent over the concept, so none of the tracks feel forced, with the possible exception of the final spoken-word piece, although it isn't at all jarring, especially as it is the final track. The overall impression I get from the album is similar in feel to some of Enslaved's later work, such as RIITIIR or In Times, only within a doom metal framework rather than black metal. I don't wish to downplay the others' contributions, but ultimately it is the astonishing vocal talent of Jón Aldará that strikes me more than any other aspect of the album and on the evidence of this he is one of the absolute best vocalists working in the doom metal field and his performance alone is worth the entry fee.
4/5
Monovoth - Pleroma Mortem Est (2024)
Monovoth is the solo project of argentinian multi-instrumentalist, Lucas Wyssbrod, and Pleroma Mortem Est is the sophomore full-length under the banner. It is an album of instrumental funeral doom, comprising six tracks and with an overall runtime of a mere 38 minutes, which is slight indeed for a funeral doom release. In a nutshell that previous sentence sums up the issues that I personally have with this. First off, six tracks for a measly 38 minutes! The funereal and doom-laden atmospheres for top-knotch funeral doom require expansive build-up and layering with the extensive runtime being a pre-requisite for the sense of an inescapable, soul-crushing doom awaiting all of us at life's end. Secondly, instrumental funeral doom just doesn't work completely for me. With such downbeat and morbid instrumentation as that produced by top-tier funeral doom practitioners, I believe a human connection, such as the wholly human sound of vocals, is an absolute requirement in order to mitigate the hopelessness of the music and to place the human condition, as posited by the funeral doom ethos, into context.
The actual individual pieces here show a lot of potential and it is obvious that Wyssbrod is plenty familiar with the big names in the field, as he unleashes dizzyingly towering chords of immense weight interspersed with passages of self-reflective melancholy, but their brevity and lack of vocals suggests to me a series of musical ideas waiting to be worked up into full pieces and not actually an album of finished work. I really would like to hear these ideas expounded and expanded upon with a truly anguished-sounding vocalist on board because there is really some good stuff here, in seed-like form.
3.5/5
Sunn O))) - The Grimmrobe Demos (2000)
Sunn O))) were formed in 1998 by Goatsnake's Greg Anderson and Stephen O'Malley, who was looking to form a new outfit after the splitting-up of Burning Witch, their name intended as a pun on Earth's moniker as the drone pioneers were huge influences on Anderson and O'Malley. The Grimmrobe demos were released in 2000 as the band's debut release, with the duo's worship of all things Earth resulting in the album containing a track called "Dylan Carson" after the Earth mainman. The sound on Grimmrobe Demos is heavily based upon that explored by Carlson on Earth's debut, the seminal "Earth 2: Special Low Frequency Version" with super-slow tempos, heavily distorted and downtuned guitar tones and feedback, all designed to present a monolithically towering sound with which to swamp the listener. Drums are entirely absent as there is no percussion required here, the tempo being so slow and crawling as to render any sort of timekeeping irelevant. Even for Sunn O))) there is little variety offered here, these are unflinchingly slow and crushing primal soundscapes, with zero evidence of the experimentation the duo were to introduce on some of their later releases. This is the music of nature, the music of tides, the music of tectonic plate movements and I imagine, in my more fanciful flights of fancy, that this is what it would sound like if you could get close enough to a star to hear those awe-inspiring cosmic furnaces burning off their plasmic fuel.
I have touched on elsewhere how busy experimental and technical metal often causes me difficulties because of the challenges I often experience with sensory overload, well Sunn O))) are a perfect antidote to that for me, these bassy and monolithically repetitive aural experiences enveloping like a comforting blanket, providing a calming and meditative experience that I don't often find elsewhere. I get it that these guys really aren't for everyone, or even most people, but they are amongst some of the best at what they do and personally I would hate to live in a world where Sunn O))) didn't exist.
4.5/5
So with the start of a new year it's once again time to have a look at the covers for all the releases for each clan. I personally like to rate a whole stack of covers all at once, rather than doing them one at a time throughout the year, as it allows me to get a better feel for where each cover sits in comparison to others. With that in mind, I've just rated every cover for releases in The Fallen for 2023.
Below are the releases that are currently competing for the prestigious 2023 The Fallen Cover of the Year Award (i.e. they rate at least 3.8 and have 3 or more ratings). The winner will be announced on the 1st of February, so there's still time to get your ratings in.
Ahab - The Coral Tombs
Ocean of Grief - Pale Existence
Fires in the Distance - Air Not Meant for Us
Smoulder - Violent Creed of Vengeance
Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean - Obsession Destruction
Abbey, The - Word of Sin
Oromet - Oromet
Obelyskkh - The Ultimate Grace of God
Acacia Strain, The - Failure Will Follow
Witch Ripper - The Flight After the Fall
Lethvm - Winterreise
Soulmass - Let Us Pray
If you want to contribute and rate some covers, the easiest way is to go to The Gallery and select The Fallen and 2023.
I look forward to seeing which release gets up for the win!
