Daniel's Forum Replies

This release has been posted in the Hall of Judgement.

Randy Holden - "Population II" (1970)

This album seems to be getting a few mentions as an early heavy metal release these days so I thought I'd better check it out. It's definitely got a couple of tracks that sound surprisingly like traditional doom metal (see "Fruit & Icebergs" & "Fruit & Icebergs (Conclusion)" but overall it's much more of a heavy psychedelic rock release that provides clear indications that Randy's been majorly influenced by the blues rock of Cream, the first Black Sabbath record & particularly the Jimi Hendrix Experience who he semi-plagiarizes at times. It's not a bad listen though if you like that authentic 70's heavy psych sound (which I do).

For fans of Sir Lord Baltimore, Buffalo & Iron Claw.

3.5/5

So an Aussie record label is interested in remastering & re-releasing the Neuropath demos on vinyl & CD which is amazing. What's not amazing is that I don't know what happened to the master tapes & DATs & it can't go ahead without them. I was definitely the one that had them but I can't remember seeing them since the late 90's. I feel sure that I wouldn't have thrown them away but if that didn't happen then I have no fucking idea what I've done with them. Let's hope I make a very unlikely rediscovery over the weekend. Wish me luck guys!

So I couldn't find the master DAT tape but it's looking like this may happen using some clean rips of the tapes regardless as the production was very good for demos of the time & there's plenty of room for mastering given that the originals weren't mastered. I'm meeting with the label on Tuesday to progress it. Apparently there's quite a following for these old tapes in the underground death metal scene in modern times which is nice to hear.

Black Viper - "Hellions of Fire" (2018)

I wasn’t acquainted with Norway’s Black Viper prior to approaching their sole full-length album as a part of this month's speed metal deep dive. I’d certainly seen their name around the traps but had never seriously considered investigating them further & had no real understanding of what they might offer me. So I guess that’s seen me go into “Hellions of Fire” with no preconceived notions on what I was likely to be presented with & it was a bit of a surprise to discover that they own quite an impressive pedigree in Norwegian metal. Bassist Christoffer Brathan played with thrash metal outfit Condor, drummer Cato Stormoen is the current skinsman for another Norwegian thrash metal staple in Deathhammer while guitarist Arild Myren Torp is a current member of wonderfully talented thrashers Nekromantheon as well as highly regarded death metallers Obliteration so given that they’ve only released the one demo & a single album in their decade-long existence thus far it would seem that Black Viper are a bit of a supergroup side project for several important figures in the local Norwegian scene. Well, if that is in fact the case then they’ve made a pretty good fist of it here as “Hellions of Fire” is a more than respectable effort.

The 48 minute album is made up of seven lengthy tracks that rarely deviate from the relentless pursuit of high velocity metal. For this reason it can appear to be a fairly imposing prospect after the first listen or two & I’d suggest that it could certainly have been shortened a bit in the interest of making for a more palatable package for the average consumer. I mean I’m not sure fun speed metal anthems really need to be over three minutes in length but here we have seven that range from four & a half minutes to an epic ten & a half minutes in duration. That’s not to say that you’ll ever get bored per se as there’s always something exciting transpiring but it can seem like a constant flurry of activity at times with the song-writing seeming to be in an awful hurry for much of the album’s run time.

The modern clarity of the production job gives these tunes added life that the band’s forefathers may not have been blessed with & it’s nice to be able to so easily identify the basslines in the mix. It has to be said that the performances of the three instrumentalists are outstanding too which shouldn’t be any surprise given their credentials. The Destruction influence that is so obvious in Arild Myren Trop’s other band Nekromantheon is just as visible here through the regular inclusion of melodic lead runs within the riffs & that element tends to keep me clear of any genuine tendency to want to reach for comparisons with thrash despite the consistently high tempos. There’s no doubt that this is the style of speed metal that the European power metal movement borrows from so regularly but there’s only really the occasional hint at that genre, particularly on the old demo track “Freedom’s Reign” which I unsurprisingly find to be one of the weaker inclusions on the album. “Quest For Power/The Fountain Of Might” sees Black Viper taking a swing at your more traditional heavy metal sound amidst all the chaos but it’s never long before you find the tremolo-picked speed metal riffage returning to the fold to have you thrashing your limbs around the bedroom again & I’d suggest that “Hellions of Fire” is one of the more pure examples of the genre you’ll find.

There’s a genuine passion to the way Black Viper go about their business as they clearly live for this shit. I’d suggest that I might not have enjoyed their 2016 “Storming With Vengeance” demo though as two of its three tracks are the ones that I don’t get as much enjoyment from here. The band’s real weakness though is in the higher register vocals of Salvador Almijo whose voice isn’t really up to the job in my opinion. He certainly has some pipes on him but he often wanders out of key & his overly flamboyant delivery definitely places a cap on how far the appeal of a record like this one can extend for me personally. Perhaps that’s more of an indicator of my musical preferences than anything else but I don’t tend to think so because I find the rest of Black Viper’s offering to be quite appealing.

I suspect that very few speed metal fans will find Black Viper’s debut album to be a disappointment. It’s a well written, produced & executed example of the genre with a more modern edge to it & it begs the question of why the band haven’t gotten around to following it up. Perhaps it really was just a side-project intended to tick an item off their bucket lists & if that was the case then I'd suggest that it’s been very successful in fulfilling that requirement. I’m just not sure that it’s enough to draw me back for regular revisits though.

For fans of Mystik, Chevalier & Agent Steel.

3.5/5

Despite the occasional appearance of heavy metal & power metal influences, this one clearly sits more comfortably alongside the faster, thrashier releases of The Pit than it does The Guardians.

Boris - "flood" (2000)

Tokyo-based trio Boris have been a major player in my musical world since I first discovered them upon my return to metal in the very late 2000’s. Their classic 2003 sixth album “Boris At Last -Feedbacker-“ proved to be quite the initiation & this earlier release (their third full-length) would be the next in a long line of wonderful records I’d experiment with over the many years since. It didn’t hit me quite as hard as “Feedbacker” did at the time but it’s fair to say that I’ve always regarded it as a high quality piece of work & a testament to Boris’ artistic ambition.

Unlike most of Boris’ releases from this period, “flood” generally isn’t claimed as a metal record as such. It usually slips into the drone & post-rock brackets but in truth it’s a collection of widely disparate ideas (none of them conventional drone in my opinion interestingly enough) with each of the four lengthy tracks taking a very different direction & possessing its own unique personality. Strangely the band elected to open with a highly unusual choice that categorically proves that the band have very few fucks to give about commercial success because the first of these four untitled tracks is pretty tough going, even for the more patient & educated musical connoisseur. It reminds me a lot of the minimalism of an artist like Steve Reich & is essentially made up of one short guitar loop that’s manipulated in a call-&-response fashion with constantly changing delay intervals seeing it trying very hard to sound & feel psychedelic however I’m sorry to say that it fails dismally in this endeavour & ultimately represents a rare failure for Boris. But fear not dear academics because this artist is an elite exponent of their craft so music of the most premium quality was inevitably just around the corner. The remaining 55 minutes of the album's run time is nothing short of spectacular with the deep psychedelic post-rock of the second piece being not only my album highlight but one of Boris’ best efforts overall. The third track is a twenty-one minute, slow-building excursion through post-rock, post-sludge metal & crushingly cerebral drone metal that easily maintains the top tier standard while the equally long final track sees things winding down for a deep, drawn-out ambient soother that has me curling myself up in the sound & letting all of the troubles in my life fade away.

As an overall package I'd suggest that the post-rock tag is as close as you're gonna get to a genre tag for an album like this one but even that broad term seems to short-change a release with such a vast scope. There are very few artists that can create something as special as Boris have achieved across tracks two through four here. Their knowledge & understanding of texture & nuance & their incredible attention to detail in relation to tone are rarely matched in the modern music scene. They almost seem like they belong in another era, perhaps the late 60’s or early 70’s. “flood” is mostly instrumental with Takeshi’s vocals being more of an accompaniment than they are any sort of protagonist. The use of repetition to put the listener into a calm, trancelike state is next level as usual which is why I find it so hard to accept the inclusion of the opening track which I’m afraid to say fails by such a margin that I’d even suggest that it's pretty pointless & even boring. Thankfully the rest of the tracklisting is strong enough to see me just about forgetting that early blip, even if it is a full fourteen minutes in duration & more than enough to test most listener’s patience.

The fact that I don’t place “flood” in my top five Boris records is hardly a major criticism. I simply hold this band up on such a high pedestal that there’s quite a traffic jam at the top of my list. Outside of the opener this is a genuinely remarkable collection of music that covers enormous ground but flows fluently from track to track with clinical professionalism. The warmth & depth in Boris’ guitar tones is always an attraction & I simply can’t get enough of the amplifier reverberation, the mature use of space & the sheer patience at times. All of these things make “flood” another rewarding release from a band like no other.

For fans of Earth, Godspeed You! Black Emperor & This Will Destroy You.

4/5

Nature & Organisation - "Beauty Reaps The Blood Of Solitude" (1994)

A very popular English neofolk album. I found it to be quite pleasant but was probably looking for something a little more imposing.

I've decided that a YES 1 NO 6 tally is close enough to a consensus on this one so I've denied my submission & "Nothingface" will remain in The Infinite under the Progressive Metal genre.

I completely agree & not only regard "Nighttime Birds as The Gatherings' best work but also rate it amongst the top couple of releases for the gothic metal genre as a whole. 4.5/5

Exciter - "Unveiling The Wicked" (1986)

Canada’s Exciter may not have invented the speed metal sound as it was already evident in parts of earlier releases from the likes of Venom however there can be very little doubt that they were the first ones to place the majority of their focus on that style of metal along with Belgium’s Acid. Exciter’s first three albums (released between 1983-85) are still widely regarded as pivotal records in the history of the speed metal genre today & rightly so too. If you’re an old-school thrasher like myself then it’s very unlikely that you’ve managed to steer completely clear of the influence of seminal releases like 1983's “Heavy Metal Maniac” over the several decades since. People with more than a passing knowledge of the band’s later material seem to be a little less common though so perhaps it's not all that surprising that someone like myself has never heard any of Exciter’s material after 1985’s very solid “Long Live The Loud” album (which just happens to be my favourite speed metal release of all time). I have to admit that I went into 1986’s fourth album “Unveiling The Wicked” with a fair amount of trepidation though as the band’s post-1985 material isn’t exactly raved about.

Your first challenge with a record like “Unveiling The Wicked” comes in the form of the horrendous cover artwork as it’s honestly about as woeful as it gets, even by the notoriously low standards of mid-80’s speed metal. It’s so clear that the woman on the cover is really peeling some fake green rubber OFF her face rather than the other way around which leaves you wondering if SHE is really “the wicked” as opposed to the gremlin that’s intended. It all seems so low-grade that it has the effect of significantly diminishing your expectations of the songs contained within before you’ve even pressed play. Then once you do build up the courage to check out the actual music you’re immediately confronted with an empty, muted production job that sounds like the band is playing in the distance. This flawed packaging is certainly not an ideal platform for the band to wet people’s appetites with but the music doesn’t exactly set the world on fire either it has to be said.

Exciter have always had a significant heavy metal component in their sound with bands like Black Sabbath & Judas Priest playing just as strong a role in the creation of their style as Motorhead or Venom but “Unveiling The Wicked” sees that classic heavy metal influence taking the ascendency & I no longer think it’s accurate to call this record a speed metal release. It sounds far too lethargic for that but definitely isn’t helped by the flat production. We also see pockets of commercial hard rock popping up across the tracklisting & it’s hard not to suggest that there’s a been a bit of a cash-grab attempt going on here. New guitar shredder Brian McPhee shows himself to be quite talented through some quite accomplished solos & the band tries to milk that through an ill-timed shot at creating their own version of Eddie Van Halen’s “Eruption” in the one & a half minute “Brainstorm” interlude. It unfortunately comes across as an obvious example of plagiarism & placing it as the second track on the album was clearly a bad call as the energy just kinda dies even though the track itself is one of the more interesting inclusions. Following it up with two commercially focused shockers in the dumb “Die In The Night” & the immature cheese of “(I Hate) School Rules” is even more baffling, as is the fact that the former seems to be the most highly regarded track on the album (do people not have ears any more?). Thankfully Exciter give us some reasonable quality at the end of the record with the final two tracks being clearly the best of the tracklisting (my personal favourite being the most speed metal oriented inclusion on the album in “Live Fast, Die Young”) but this does leave you asking why they’d left it all so late because the damage was already done by that point.

I know some people will disagree with me here but I find the other major weakness to be drummer Dan Behler’s vocals. His shrieking banshee-like delivery is so repetitive & showcases a very limited range & ability which leaves me wondering why it hasn’t been so noticeable on previous records. Perhaps it’s the slower tempos & less aggressive feel of these tracks that sees Dan’s limitations being more obvious in a noticeably less violent soundscape? That does sound pretty logical but let’s be honest… Dan was never an amazing vocalist to begin with.

“Unveiling The Wicked” is easily a couple of steps down from Exciter’s first three albums & I’d suggest that it’s a far from essential release in the speed metal story, especially given that it’s actually a heavy metal record parading around in speed metal attire. It reminds me very much of fellow Canadians Anvil in its various mediocrities & I have to wonder if there's some sort of relation there given the timing & locality of the two bands. It's also hard to imagine that Exciter has a full seven albums to come after this one & that none of them are even regarded as highly as this one. I can’t say I’ll be rushing out to investigate those just quietly.

For fans of Raven, Acid & Anvil.

2.5/5

This album is an easy one to place in The Guardians as it's not really a speed metal release at all. As a result, it likely won't be taken into account in my final judgement on which clan I feel speed metal should ultimately belong to.

Speedwolf - "Riding With Death" (2011)

I first discovered Denver-based speed metal four-piece Speedwolf while selecting tracks for the monthly The Pit Spotify playlist in mid-2021 & quite enjoyed what I heard. The opening title track from their sole 2011 full-length album “Ride With Death” opened in very similar fashion to the highly influential opener from Metallica’s seminal 1983 debut album “Kill ‘Em All before burning off at high speed & it was hard not to buy into the band’s ability to simply not give a fuck. I casually pencilled Speedwolf in as a band to check out at some point & received further encouragement when their more traditional heavy metal number “Up All Night” popped up in a subsequent playlist later on that year. Would the rest of “Ride With Death” live up that potential though? Let’s take a look & find out.

Well, I was always confident that “Ride With Death” would open well with the two tracks I was already familiar with leading off in quick succession but the first thing that any reasonably well educated metalhead will discover is the blatantly obvious Motörhead worship going on as Speedwolf have clearly been guilty of placing the godfathers of filthy speed metal on a lofty pedestal. Frontman Reed Bruemmer does a stellar job at replicating Lemmy’s signature grunt but gives it his own twist which leaves him sounding a little more sinister in my opinion while (much like their idols) some of the punky open-string riffs have a little more to do with hardcore & hard rock than they do with metal. Richie Tice’s wonderful machine-gun style double kick work does an excellent job at erasing any tendency to look outside of the metal space when tagging “Ride With Death” however & his performance is one of the highlights of the Speedwolf sound as he goes about ensuring that the band sound as tight as a motherfucker throughout this 41 minute effort with workman-like efficiency.

The production job on “Ride With Death” is spot on for this style of music by effectively highlighting Speedwolf’s unbridled energy through the relentless barrage of up-tempo thrashers. There’s a consistent clarity to the album that doesn’t ever detract from the authenticity of the band’s 80’s focused sound with Tice's powerful kick-drum sound remaining the centrepiece with which the rest of the music is built around. The album is also helped by some high quality performances from the other band members who show a lot more technique & attention to detail than most of their speed metal peers which is probably the main differentiator with a band like Speedwolf. They’re very much a modern take on an old concept.

If speed metal is essentially the mid-point between thrash metal & traditional heavy metal then Speedwolf sit right bang on the line between the two & are arguably the one of the purest bands in the speed metal crowd. Their speed-freak mentality is rarely diluted too much, despite the inclusion of a few tracks that I regard as being closer to heavy metal than to genuine speed metal (see “Up All Night”, “Time To Annihilate” & “Hell & Back”). Speedwolf's tempos are much more in line with thrash than they are with heavy metal but the use of open-string (rather than palm-muted) riffs definitely has a different timbre to thrash metal & the regular inclusion of melodic lead guitar lines also sees things being pulled back by the heavy metal crowd. Never fear thrashers, you still get your fair share of palm-muted tremolo-picking when the band decide to drop the shackles but they've adopted a mixture of both approaches here which makes it hard to pick a winner. The only obvious change-up track comes in the form of "Death Ripper" which sees Speedwolf heading into black 'n' roll territory temporarily with Bruemmer pivoting towards a blackened snarl to good effect which is a welcome addition.

This is punky & quite repetitive metal music for a working class audience & makes for the perfect soundtrack for drunken bar fights between scary looking biker types. It’s relatively simple in its conception & execution but possesses a class & professionalism that boosts it above a lot of the competition. Even though the album isn’t all that lengthy, the twelve song tracklisting does feel a bit long, mainly due to the lack of variety on offer. It’s also a bit unfortunate that Speedwolf chose to end things with the weakest track on the album in the unintelligent “Denver 666” which isn't done any favours by being positioned right after the excellent title track (the clear standout track on the album for mine). Still… I can’t deny that I had a lot of fun with “Ride With Death”. Is it enough to see me wanting to return to it regularly though? I doubt it as it just doesn’t offer enough depth for that but I can’t see it disappointing too many people either.

For fans of Motörhead, Midnight & Venom.

3.5/5

I honestly couldn't split this one between the two clans & it's pretty obvious why I'm even having to conduct this deep dive in the first place on the evidence of an album like "Riding With Death" which should appeal to both The Guardians & The Pit audiences in roughly equal measure.

A steroid-induced Motorhead cover version from this LA speed metal outfit.

Abattoir - "Vicious Attack" (1985)

Los Angeles speed metallers Abattoir are one of those bands that most old-school metalheads are probably aware of but few have actually heard & I fitted into that category pretty comfortably until this week when I decided to investigate their 1985 debut album “Vicious Attack” as a part of my speed metal deep dive. I’d suggest that the cover art likely hasn’t helped that situation as it displays a particularly dodgy image that comes across as kinda creepy by today’s standards but it wasn’t anything all that unusual at the time with bands like Scorpions doing their level best to push the threshold of what was considered to be acceptable by the morality police.

Abattoir had surprisingly been around for a full seven years by the time this record was released & I’d imagine that their style had changed significantly in that time as the sound “Vicious Attack” is pushing is heavily influenced by releases that came a little after the late 1970’s. If speed metal is essentially the mid-point between heavy metal & thrash metal then Abattoir have done a very good job at nailing down the concept with seven of the eight tracks included fitting the bill nicely. The slower “The Living & The Dead” is probably the only inclusion in the tracklisting that sees them veering towards the more controlled tempos of your traditional heavy metal model but it’s positioning right in the middle of the album sees it serving to break things up a bit by giving the listener a moment of respite from the relentless energy the rest of the material unceremoniously shoves down your throat.

In many regards “Vicious Attack” is the sum of three major influences. For starters you have the early 80’s Motorhead sound being replicated as accurately as I’ve ever heard it with Abattoir even opting for a very decent cover version of the title track from “Ace Of Spades” which may just be the album highlight. Then you have a clear Dianno-period Iron Maiden influence with front man Steve Gaines’ voice showcasing a distinct similarity to Paul's & the use of guitar harmonies & galloping rhythms providing further homage to the greatest NWOBHM band of all. And finally (& to a slightly lesser extent) you'll likely pick up on the impact of Metallica’s 1983 debut album “Kill ‘Em All” with particular reference being made to the more speed metal focused numbers like “Hit The Lights”, “Motorbreath” & “Phantom Lord”. Gaines also touches on James Hetfield’s early vocal approach in his angrier moments too. Now those are some pretty big names, aren’t they? And to their credit Abattoir do a pretty good job of presenting those influences in a way that summarizes the various elements without crossing the line into pure plagiarism all that often (well… I do have to admit that some of the Motorhead worship is pretty damn obvious).

The production job is particularly rough & ready, even for a mid-80’s speed metal record. I’d be very surprised if this wasn’t intentional & a play at creating a similar vibe to Lemmy & his cohorts. It works for the most part too & I find myself losing myself in the reckless abandon of a band that sounds like they’re in the prime of their youth & without a care in the world. The limiter here is really that there’s not a lot of substance beneath the surface. There's no doubt that Abattoir create some outrageously fun metal music that will inevitably get any drunken teenage party rocking but I wouldn’t say that there’s a lot of depth to their music which is not something you could about some of their influences (like Iron Maiden for example). The short 28 minute run time certainly helps as “Vicious Attack” doesn’t come close to overstaying its welcome but when all is said & done I can’t say that feel like I want to return to the album all that much even though it's unquestionably an enjoyable experience. Perhaps that’s a problem for speed metal in general as the fundamental premise of the music certainly leaves itself open to those sort of feelings but I do tend to think there’s scope for a more significant creative statement within the genre.

At the end of the day though, I’d suggest that its best not to over-think things when it comes to a more than decent underground speed metal record like Abattoir have produced here. Instead, I’d recommend chugging a beer, ripping your shirt off & banging your head till your brain feels like mush because the overall winner will almost always be metal. Abattoir know that well & so does your mum which is why she tried to encourage you to stay away from inherently naughty music like Abattoir have produced here. It’s the work of Satan, you see.

For fans of Exciter, Agent Steel & Warrant (GER).

3.5/5

This one really saw me torn as to what clan it's more closely aligned with as there's a case for both The Guardians & The Pit. I think I'm gonna have to go with The Guardians on this occasion though as I think there's more Motorhead & Iron Maiden on offer than there is Metallica. That result now sees this race being opened up a bit at the halfway mark so it'll be interesting to see how it finishes up.

Welcome to the Academy Primordial. We're glad it interests you & are really pleased you've decided to join our little community. Please feel free to use as much or as little of our functionality as you'd like & don't hesitate to ask questions on the forums or by private message. Ben & I are here to help.

Midnight - "Let There Be Witchery" (2022)

The reputation of Cleveland-based solo artist Midnight certainly precedes him. He’s developed somewhat of a cult following in underground metal circles over the years with a level of mystery surrounding him at all times. A part of his appeal certainly lies within his attachment of a Satanic image to a more accessible speed/heavy metal sound but if anything that idea has probably seen me shying away from his releases to be honest. Now I find myself presented with the challenge of reviewing his latest opus in the brand new “Let There Be Witchery” album though & I have to say that I feel up to the task.

I can’t say that I was all that surprised by what I heard upon first listen to tell you the truth because the Venom & Motörhead comparisons are right on the money from a stylistic point of view. There’s a truckload of punk & hard rock about Midnight’s sound & (as with Motörhead) much of this material teeters on the edge of not being metal at all if you wanna get technical about it. I mean the guitar solos are bluesy as fuck & the strummy open-string chords that make up many of the songs don’t have much of a relation to Black Sabbath or Iron Maiden but there’s something about the atmosphere that Midnight creates that ties it all back to our beloved metal with Athenar’s gruff vocals almost commanding it in a similar way to Cronos’ or Lemmy’s. They’re not blackened by any means but they do seem to come from the same sort of heritage, only in a third generation capacity if you know what I mean.

The appeal in Midnight’s sound really comes in the song-writing & execution though with all of these songs possessing plenty of space & some very solid hooks that dig their teeth in nicely without requiring too much effort. The song-structures are very simple & traditional which gives them a level of familiarity but the bright, crystal clear production job sees them growing another limb. “WTF!?” I hear you say? “That’s hardly in line with Venom or Motorhead’s model now, is it?” Damn right it’s not but it really seems to work for Midnight here & I struggle not tap my foot along to track after track of this infectiously fun little speed/heavy metal record.

Midnight may not sit anywhere near my musical comfort zone but perhaps that’s part of their appeal because they do make for a very enjoyable holiday from the seriousness of modern metal. There’s a freshness to their sound that sees them carving out their own niche even though they certainly harness the bands I’ve already mentioned & this sees Midnight commanding a positive response from an audience that will do very well not to comply.

For fans of Motörhead, Speedwolf & Venom.

3.5/5

This release was actually very hard to pigeon-hole as I don't think it's technically a speed metal record. Of the ten tracks I'd suggest that there's just as much punk & hard rock as there is speed metal & there's probably a little more heavy metal. I'd even label the energetic opener as black 'n' roll". If I have to pick sides I'd suggest that it resides a little closer to The Guardians than it does to The Pit but once again this is because it's not a pure speed metal release which muddies the waters significantly. In fact, I'll be creating a Hall of Judgement entry for this one because there's absolutely no reason that Midnight's other releases should command dual speed metal & heavy metal tags but this one should not.

I usually listen to the playlists while exercising & for very much the same reasons as Sonny has listed above. If I have the opportunity to actively focus on music then I'll usually do that with something I want to properly review but if I'm not given that opportunity then the playlists are where I turn.

Rage - "Reign of Fear" (1986)

It’s hard to believe that German stalwarts Rage have released 25 full-length albums in their recording career to date & that many of them have been quite popular yet a diehard metalhead like myself who likes to pride himself on his overarching knowledge of the scene has still yet to experience even a single one of these albums in full after something like 38 years of obsessive metal indulgence but that appears to be the situation here. I was certainly aware of what Rage sound like as I was exposed to bits & pieces of albums like 1990’s “Reflections Of A Shadow” on underground metal radio programs back in my formative years but I have to admit that they never quite seemed like something that’d interest me & it would seem that my suspicions may have been on the money based on the evidence at hand after visitng their 1986 debut album “Reign of Fear” over the last couple of days.

“Reign Of Fear” sees Rage beginning life as a more than decent metal band with a couple of different strings to their bow. In one corner you have the clear influence of the thrash metal which was obviously achieving world domination at the time, most of which would present itself in the form of a simpler meat-&-potatoes brand of speed metal with the crudely performed vocals of front man Peter “Peavy” Wagner giving Rage a distinctly German sound. Then you have the Judas Priest worshipping heavy metal that was so pivotal in molding the local scene through bands like Grave Digger, Running Wild & Avenger. The tracklisting tends to hop between the two styles with consistent regularity but I wouldn’t say that it causes the experience to come across as random or unfocused. It seems kinda natural for Rage to be honest & the band performs their jobs admirably for the most part, proving themselves to have a decent understanding of the tools required to make an enjoyable metal record. Unfortunately no one told poor Peavy though as his performance behind the microphone leaves much to be desired. Staying in key was a big problem for Wagner at the time & he ends up making a real meal of things but is probably not helped by some dodgy song-writing at times too.

In fairness “Reign of Fear” starts off really well with the first couple of tracks leaving me feeling very positive about its prospects. I found the second song “Deceiver” to be particularly appealing & regard it as the album highlight but things descend very quickly after that & I’m not sure that any of the remaining seven tracks offer much of interest with the awful “Chaste Flesh” being a clear low point for the album. I’m not sure if it’s just a taste thing but I definitely enjoyed the slower & more traditional heavy metal tracks a lot less than most of the thrashier material. Speed metal anthem “Hand of Glory” even hints at the early German power metal sound which isn’t really my bag either it has to be said but look… I don’t think it’s a genre thing. It’s definitely a quality issue as the speed metal material enjoys a stronger allocation of the run time & I’m always open to well written, executed & produced heavy metal. This stuff just sounds a bit second-rate, kinda like the first couple of Running Wild albums.

1986 was a huge year for the thrashier end of metal & Rage had a big opportunity to capitalize on that buzz if they could get it right, especially given the timing of this release. Sadly, I feel that they missed the bus a bit & that’s perhaps why I’ve not ended up giving them a crack before now.

For fans of early Running Wild/Helloween & 80’s Blind Guardian.

3/5

This release is a little tougher to pigeonhole as far what clan it would best sit under as the tracklisting is kinda equally split. In saying that though, there are a number of heavy metal tracks included here & the vast majority of the speed metal numbers are best suited to The Pit. That kinda buys into what I said earlier in this thread about speed metal records often muddying the waters through the inclusion of slower heavy metal tracks to break up the monotony of consistently high-tempo thrashers. It is worth noting though that I do think one of the speed metal tracks "Suicide" would likely fit better under The Guardians than The Pit though so I'm still open to both sides of the argument going into the rest of this deep dive.

Bewitcher - "Under The Witching Cross" (2019)

I hadn’t heard much of Portland-based trio Bewitcher before checking this 2019 sophomore album out as a part of my speed metal deep dive but they’ve got a little bit to offer to tell you the truth. Their sound isn’t anything new by any means as Venom, Motorhead & Bathory’s debut album pretty much summed this style up in the early 1980’s but the production & execution are excellent which gives the song-writing every opportunity to dig its teeth in.

There’s an obvious blackened component to front man Matteo Von Bewitcher’s grim vocal delivery that might never challenge the likes of Quorthon for raw evil but certainly gives Bewitcher an extra layer of street credibility. In fact, tracks like opening blackened speed metal anthem “Savage Lands of Satan” & black ‘n’ roll banger “In The Sign Of The Goat” even push out into extreme metal territory but Bewitcher’s music isn’t to be taken too seriously. It’s purely made up of fun-loving, beer-drinking party-time tunes for long-haired scallywags who are looking for a good time with the mates their parents told them not to associate with. It’s certainly a speed metal release but it’s one that keeps one foot in the rock ‘n’ roll camp while doubling down on the Satanism at the same time. Although it was never intended to change anyone’s lives, you can’t help but buy into the energy that Bewitcher possess in their composition & performances.

For fans of Hellripper, Bat & Bütcher.

3.5/5

Once again, this one sits more comfortably in The Pit than it would in The Guardians in my opinion.

Sweet Trip - "Velocity : Design : Comfort" (2003)

The second full-length from this San Francisco group which combines glitch pop, IDM & shoegaze in a quirky & joyous package that's probably a little too sweet, happy & child-like for my taste.

I finished reviewing the nine October feature releases earlier this week & it was a bit of a mixed bag for me this month in all honesty. The huge discovery for me was the wonderful Dreadnought record which has been granted immediate access to my Hall of Metal Glory. The Inanna & Elder releases were both very strong too. I was already across the Godflesh & Cirith Gorgor albums & found that I still have time for both of them. I also quite liked the King Diamond & Liege Lord records which I'd not previously explored. Unfortunately the Coldrain & Arkangel releases weren't really for me but neither of them were shockers.

Here's the list of releases in order of preference:

THE INFINITE: Dreadnought - "The Endless" (2022)  4.5/5

THE HORDE: Inanna - "Void Of Unending Depths" (2022)  4/5

THE FALLEN: Elder - "Dead Roots Stirring" (2011)  4/5

THE SPHERE: Godflesh - "Hymns" (2001)  3.5/5

THE GUARDIANS: King Diamond - "The Eye" (1990)  3.5/5

THE PIT: Liege Lord - "Master Control" (1988)  3.5/5

THE NORTH: Cirith Gorgor - "Onwards To The Spectral Defile" (1999)  3.5/5

THE GATEWAY: Coldrain - "Nonnegative" (2022)  3/5

THE REVOLUTION: Arkangel - "Prayers Upon Deaf Ears" E.P. (1998)  3/5

Well done to Saxy on taking the bikkies this month. 

Rexorcist, will you be participating this month or should I be removing you from the roster altogether?

So I've decided to take up Andi's request for me to do a deep dive into the Speed Metal genre & review our current position on which clan it should rightfully sit under given that one of our competitors has recently labelled it as a subgenre of Heavy Metal. Let's see how we go then.

Agent Steel - "Unstoppable Force" (1987)

I’ve always loved Los Angeles’ speed metal outfit Agent Steel’s 1985 debut album “Skeptics Apocalypse” & it’s been firmly entrenched as one of my favourite speed metal records for many years now so it’s high time I investigated some of the band’s later material, isn’t it? Their 1987 sophomore effort “Unstoppable Force” seemed to be the logical place to start as it’s almost as highly regarded by their fan base & would apparently maintain the speed metal sound of the debut. Let’s see how it fairs in comparison then, shall we?

The production job on “Unstoppable Force” leaves a fair bit to be desired as it’s very raw & quite tinny. This isn’t anything all that unusual for the time however I’m not sure it’s an ideal fit for Agent Steel whose sound is a little more polished than that. The music is certainly very thrashy however & I maintain my position that Agent Steel offer just as much legitimate thrash metal as they do speed metal. It’s just that they also include a few tracks that sit firmly in the classic heavy metal camp so the speed metal tag makes for a happy medium.

There’s a lovely energy to most of the nine tracks on offer with the A side being packed with most of the more aggressive material. The B side is where you’ll see the band slowing things down & adding a bit more melody on a few tracks but I do have to say that I prefer the more up-tempo Agent Steel material over the more traditional heavy metal numbers like “Still Searchin” & “Nothin’ Left” which I find to be a little flat in comparison. In saying that though, closing ballad “Traveler” ends up being one of the album highlights for me along with the thrash-tastic opening title track.

The most notable element of the album though is clearly the vocal contribution of front man John Cyriis whose performance was always going to be polarizing. He displays an over the top theatricality that certainly won’t be for everyone & has bitten off a bit more than he can chew here in my opinion. It's a bit of a shame that John often comes across like a late-night cat fight in the back alley with his pitchy high-pitched squeals & air-raid siren style dive bombs. Thankfully though the instrumental component of the album is excellent with loads of quality riffs & some wonderfully shredding lead solos.

Overall, “Unstoppable Force” makes for an acceptable follow-up to “Skeptics Apocalypse”, if not one that offers the same level of appeal. The production job probably doesn’t help but it’s not really a deterrent either as I’m pretty used to that sort of thing after all these years of indulging in underground metal. If only the producer & his fellow band mates would just have pulled Cyriis into line a bit & told him to tone down the theatrics then we might have had a much stronger product on our hands. As it is though we get a reasonably enjoyable speed metal record that’s unlikely to hit too many best-of lists.

For fans of Helstar, Exciter & Ranger.

3.5/5

"Unstoppable Force" clearly sits more comfortably under The Pit than it does The Guardians in my opinion & totally fits in with my long-standing opinion that people are fooled into thinking that speed metal is closer to heavy metal than thrash metal by the fact that there are usually a few heavy metal numbers included on every speed metal record in order to break up the potential monotony of an album that maintains a high tempo throughout.

Here's my review:

Belgian trio Arkangel seem to have built up a fairly strong reputation in the underground metalcore scene over the years with all of their releases being held in quite high regard by those in the know. I recently realised that I hadn’t actually checked them out before & found the links to thrash & death metal to be quite the drawcard. Their most critically acclaimed debut E.P. seemed to be a good starting point given its short run time so I thought I’d start there with this month’s The Revolution feature release seeming like the perfect opportunity for us all to explore 1998’s “Prayers Upon Deaf Ears” together.

My first impressions of Arkangel weren’t great it has to be said. The production job on “Prayers Upon Deaf Ears” is subpar at best with the levels being all over the place, a fairly ordinary snare sound & the vocals blaring over the top at obscene volumes. The level of musicianship isn’t real flash either to be honest & this leaves the band sounding a bit unprofessional to tell you the truth. Some of the six tracks simply don’t gel with the vocals sounding like they could be screaming over a completely different song to the one their band mates are trying to produce. I think the production probably accentuates that effect further too. The vocals are admittedly quite aggressive & are one of Arkangel’s strengths but I can’t find seem to find myself getting all that excited about them which tells me that they’re being done an injustice by their accompaniments.

Arkangel’s sound is pretty vicious for the late 90’s & is strongly influenced by extreme metal. The guitar tone is very much in line with US thrash/groove metal outfit Exhorder & some of the riffs remind me of them too actually. You can also expect some pretty blatant Slayer worship going on at times while some of the tremolo-picked single notes riffs seem to have been plucked straight out of the early Entombed playbook. That all sounds great on paper & I would have thought it would have amounted to an enjoyable release for me but it wasn’t to be with the last few tracks seeing my hopes being further dashed & leading into one of those awfully meaningless hidden tracks after a pause of about a minute.

I imagine that releases like “Prayers Upon Deaf Ears” build their reputations on pure vitriol but I need a bit more quality to keep me interested so I can’t help but feel that it’s an overrated record. The technical deficiencies are too blaringly obvious & the overall package seems more like a demo than a proper release.

For fans All Out War, Day Of Suffering & xRepentancex.

3/5

I hadn’t encountered Denver-based progressive metal outfit Dreadnought before but I’m very glad I’ve rectified that omission now because their brand new fifth album “The Endless” is one of the best releases I’ve heard in 2022. Dreadnought’s sound sees them combine a progressive take on metal with the tribal drumming & atmospherics of post-metal to wonderful effect & is further highlighted by the angelic female vocals of band leader Kelly Schilling. You can expect to see the band occasionally heading into black metal & some more avant-garde territory at times but Dreadnought are definitely at their best when their attention is focused purely on creating emotionally-charged & deeply moving atmospheres that bring to mind some of Anathema’s mid-to-latter period releases. The 3rd & the Mortal also springs to mind quite often, particularly given the vocal approach & progressive leanings.

On the negative, I have to admit that the first two of the six tracks included here are comfortably the weakest even if they’re still pretty engaging. But my goodness I was in for a surprise after that with three of the remaining four pieces being nothing short of mind-blowing. There’s a transcendental elegance to Dreadnought’s music that appeals to me on the deepest emotional level when they get it right & I can’t imagine how this release isn’t being held in much higher regard. I suspect it’s due to the lack of patience from the modern audience as you really do have to give this album a chance to open up, particularly given the unfortunate way they’ve programmed the tracklisting which I presume was to include some of the more extreme black metal stuff at the start of the album to get people’s attention.

Dreadnought are the perfect example of what the modern metal scene has to offer. They’re fresh & ambitious & have a rare talent for connecting with their audience on an emotional level that allows them to be transported to wonderfully lush & drastically foreign places. They’ve been a real find for me this month & I want to commend Saxy on his feature release nomination because this is what Metal Academy is all about i.e. identifying high quality & interesting releases that offer great appeal but that you’d likely never encounter otherwise.

For fans of Obsidian Kingdom, Kontinuum & Solstafir.

4.5/5

It’s interesting that I’ve never heard a full Liege Lord record before now. I’ve certainly been aware of their highly regarded trio of 80’s albums for many years but they were hardly a household name back in my formative years & I’ve not found myself being tempted previously. I did however quite like the title track from their classic 1988 “Master Control” album when I investigated it for inclusion in the monthly The Guardians playlist a couple of years ago & have subsequently intended on giving it a decent chance ever since. What better time than now I guess!

“Master Control” kicks off in fairly hectic fashion by placing its cards down on the table right from the get-go. Although there’s a significant amount of speed metal included throughout the tracklisting & I agree with that genre being awarded a dual role, the US power metal tag is the most accurate label for this record given the chunky guitar tone, the up-tempo feel of a lot of the material & the operatic higher-register vocal performance of Joe Comeau. You can expect to identify hints at heavy metal & genuine thrash popping up here & there but neither are consistent enough to command further representation.

Comeau is a dead-ringer for Iron Maiden/Samson front man Bruce Dickinson. In fact, his likeness is really pretty uncanny & it’s very clear that he’s worshipped at the Maiden altar for many a year. He does sound a touch like Overkill front man Bobby Ellsworth’s more Maiden-inspired mid-80’s moments sometimes too though, particularly in his phrasing when the music gets a little more thrashy. The production is a touch inconsistent from track to track but the performances are very precise & the execution is pure class with the fantastic guitar solos being an obvious highlight.

The A side is very consistent indeed with no weaker tracks but the B side is a little more hit & miss. Both of my album highlights come in the second half of the album though in the Judas Priest inspired heavy metal anthem “Feel The Blade” & the thrashier US power metal of “Rapture”. Unfortunately these strengths are offset by a couple of duds in “Broken Wasteland” & “Suspicion” which tend to even out my feelings a bit after cancelling out the good impression left by those two highlight tracks. The lack of a couple of truly elite level pieces definitely places a cap on the appeal that “Master Control” has the power to muster but this isn’t a bad US power metal record. It’s just not really the classic that it’s so often made out to be these days in my opinion.

For fans of Helstar, Savage Grace & Agent Steel.

3.5/5

Here's my review:

I didn’t become aware of Dutch black metallers Cirith Gorgor until they’d already released four full-length albums & they’d surprisingly been learning their craft for a good sixteen years by that point. My initial experience came at the hands of this debut album “Onwards To The Spectral Defile” which I remember quite enjoying but apparently not enough to warrant return visits or focused analysis. I’d also touch on Cirith Gorgor’s “Unveiling The Essence” sophomore record from a couple of years later with a similar outcome if my memory serves me correctly however I can’t recall hearing anything the band have done since 2001 & I'm a little hazy on the band in general so it’s probably a good time to refresh things by unpacking this month’s The North clan feature release.

“Onward To The Spectral Defile” is very much a meat-&-potatoes style of black metal record. It doesn’t ever attempt to reinvent the wheel, instead looking to harness some fairly basic & traditional black metal building blocks in as savage a fashion as they can produce. The clear focus of the Cirith Gorgor sound is in the blast-beat driven brutality of bands like Marduk, Dark Funeral & Immortal however they try their best to hide the fact that they’re a bit of a one-trick pony by tossing in some melodic content over the top. In fact, all of the eight black metal tracks included veer off the path of abrasive blasting at some stage with the occasional thrash metal or folk/Viking metal influence popping up here or there along the way. Being a life-long devotee of the more brutal end of extreme metal, I do find significant attraction to the more relentless & abrasive part of the Cirith Gorgor package but I also see the need to break things up by providing a little bit of variety as they’re not as talented at creating atmosphere as the bigger names in that field so they’re always at risk of suffering from a lack of substance even though they can certainly play as fast & brutal as the competition Unfortunately though, the more melodic & thrashy content is vastly inferior to their aggressive stuff & the band even sound a bit messy when they slow things down with their timing not always hitting the mark when they’ve got a little more room to work with. So I guess I find myself at a bit of a contradiction in that “Onwards To the Spectral Defile” clearly needs it’s melodic component but at the same time I also wish it wasn’t there a lot of the time.

The album is very well produced for this style of black metal as you can hear everything very clearly. Nimroth’s shrieking black metal vocals are suitably snarly & sinister & are one of the highlights of the record, even if he doesn’t offer much in the way of variety. I have to say that the guitar solos fall well short of the mark though & add nothing at all to the overall package. They’re simply far too basic & lacking in polish, ambition & accomplishment. Thankfully I can always rely on Cirith Gorgor to return with a light-speed blast-beat session to batter those negative thoughts right out of my brain & that thought pretty much sums up this album for me really. It’s not perfect as it has a few obvious flaws but I can’t resist the relentless savagery that permeates much of the tracklisting & that component alone is able to compensate for the poorer material like the ill-fated thrash metal section in “Sons of the New Dawn” or the flat closing piano interlude “Thorns of Oblivion”. “Onwards To The Spectral Defile” won’t change too many lives but it will certainly give some a bit of casual entertainment when they’re in the mood for a brutal (yet still somewhat melodic) battering.

For fans of Enthroned, Gorgoroth & Sargeist.

3.5/5

Burial - "Untrue" (2007)

This classic sophomore album from London electronic producer Burial is a wonder of the future garage movement & has been a long-time favourite of mine when I wanna chill out on a lazy Saturday afternoon drive.

I've decided that the current YES 2 NO 7 tally for "Master of Puppets" is sufficient enough to decide this Hall entry so the nomination to have the album added to The Guardians has been denied. The "Ride The Lightning" entry is still open at the Hall of Judgement but is very close to a result so get your votes in while you still can.

This nomination has now been posted in the Hall of Judgement.

Here's my review:

Denmark’s favourite Satanic falsetto master King Diamond & his legendary band Mercyful Fate were somewhat of an acquired taste for me over the years. Initially I really struggled with his over the top vocal theatrics however time & attention would see me slowly being converted & these days I quite enjoy the King’s bombastic pomp. Interestingly though, I tend to lean towards his solo work over the more highly praised Mercyful Fate work with albums like 1987’s “Abigail” & 1989’s “Conspiracy” sitting at the top of his back catalogue for me personally, largely contributed to by the wonderful guitar work of Swedish virtuoso & future-Death axeman Andy LaRocque. It’s a little unusual then that I don’t recall ever properly investigating anything the King has done since the 1980’s which leaves a couple of blaringly obvious gaps in my metal armory. 1990’s fifth solo album “The Eye” is probably the most significant of those releases so let’s see what it’s all about.

You certainly won’t be terribly surprised by what you hear on “The Eye” if you’ve got any sort of experience with the King’s earlier solo work as it possesses all of his famous calling cards. It’s yet another concept album that's unapologetically metal & pulls out all the stops to create that spooky horror movie atmosphere that he's so obviously obsessed with. The neoclassical element is still there although it’s probably not used quite as often as on some of the King’s work while there’s plenty of church organ included to enhance the gothic feel. The only real point of difference with “The Eye” over his earlier works is the increased progressive component as there's been a stronger focus placed on artistic creativity here in my opinion. In fact, I’d argue that “The Eye” is easily as much of a progressive metal record as it is a heavy metal one. I mean it’s comfortably as progressive as the more popular Queensryche records for example, perhaps more so.

So all of the pieces are in place for another exceedingly fun trip round a moonlit graveyard but there’s something missing versus the King’s best work in my opinion. There’s no questioning the ambition on display & the performances of the instrumentalists are all of a very high quality but I think the song-writing suffers a little bit at the hands of the storyline which is not an uncommon feeling for me when it comes to concept albums. I guess I just don’t think there are as many vocal hooks of that elite level here & it certainly doesn’t help that I find the closing track “The Curse” to be pretty flat & the weakest inclusion in the tracklisting. I’d also hazard to suggest that LaRocque’s contribution is a little less of a drawcard than usual as he seems to have gone for a more melodic approach rather than the ridiculously shredding style he’d championed in the late 1980’s. In saying that though, future Memento Mori, Mercyful Fate & Denner/Shermann drummer Snowy Shaw puts in a classy display that gives the more ambitious material a rock-solid basis to build off.

After giving “The Eye” a few good listens over the last couple of days I’m left with the impression that it’s a pretty decent King Diamond record that’s benefited greatly from the added interest associated with the more progressive approach. It’s brought me a reasonable amount of enjoyment but I can’t say that I regard it as essential listening for your average heavy metal junkie. It’s certainly worth a few listens but I don’t think it’s on the same level as records like “Abigail” or “Conspiracy”, or the first couple of Mercyful Fate releases for that matter. Perhaps I’m just not a big enough KD junkie as I actually don’t consider it to be all that far behind “Don’t Break The Oath” or “Them” in all honesty & would probably take it over the highly regarded Mercyful Fate comeback album “In The Shadows”.

For fans of Mercyful Fate, Attic & Portrait.

3.5/5

Look, if you agree with my argument Andi then I'm just gonna push this one through as the only reason the release was added to The Revolution in the first place was due to your deciding genre vote on RYM which left Metalcore at 2-1. 

This submission has now been posted in the Hall of Judgement.

What are your thoughts on this as our resident metalcore nut Andi?

Here's my review:

My knowledge of Japanese five-piece Coldrain was fairly restricted prior to giving their brand new seventh album “Nonnegative” its first spin. I’d seen the name around the traps since the mid-2010’s but had never taken the plunge to explore what they had to offer which is mainly due to the circles that they seem to reside in. The idea of the alt-metalcore sound is often more of a deterrent than it is an attraction for me but there are certainly examples that have surprised me over the years. In saying that, I wasn’t even aware that Coldrain had a new album out until Andi put it forward for the monthly The Gateway feature release but I like to keep an open mind no matter what style or subgenre I’m listening to so I went in with my ears open & keen to be surprised. It's fair to say that surprised I was from the first few seconds of “Nonnegative” too.

You see, the sound that Coldrain are pushing here is amongst the most pop driven I’ve experienced in metal music to date. The characteristics of metal music are all there & I never found myself questioning the band’s credentials for inclusion at Metal Academy but if I'm being honest I have to admit that my first couple of listens were spent battling with my own internal prejudices. We get bubblegum pop hooks galore here & literally every song could be a single or a stadium anthem. Honestly, I wouldn’t even blink if I saw Kelly Clarkson singing one of these song on a Sunday morning talk-show. I particularly struggled with the gang-style backing vocals early on but the production is suitably big & glossy & there could be no denying the quality of the vocal harmonies employed by front man Masato whose delivery reminds me very much of Chester Bennington from Linkin Park.

It’s interesting that “Nonnegative” seems to be tagged as both Alternative Metal & Metalcore because the latter of the two tags is inaccurate in my opinion. There are certainly metalcore influences across a lot of the tracklisting but the majority of the material sits miles further over to the Alternative Metal side of the equation. There is a clear punk component but the thing is that it’s a gross injustice to say that an album like this one has anything to do with hardcore punk as it honestly couldn’t get further away from that scene. The punk influence is much more focused on pop punk bands like Blink 182 & there’s absolutely no connection to the likes of Converge or Knocked Loose. I think the fairest outcome is to say that it’s an Alternative Metal release with Melodic Metalcore influences as the sporadic use of metalcore vocals & breakdowns needs to be highlighted somewhere, just not in the primary genre-tagging.

In saying all that though, it’s interesting that I actually find the more metalcore focused moments to be the album’s weakest points. They simply sound so generic & immature. Although the pop hooks are particularly cheesy, there can be no doubt that they’re well done & that repeat listens see them digging their teeth in on the stronger material. For example, my first couple of listens saw me labelling the ballad “Boys & Girls” as the clear low point of the album but by listen four I’d turned that opinion all the way around to it now being the highlight of the album. The guitar solos are really well executed too but at the end of the day I find myself thinking that “Nonnegative” is a pop metal release that’s not really intended for a metal audience. It’s got much stronger ties with commercial radio & a teenage market that craves the simple vocal hooks of the pop charts. I mean there's even a No Doubt cover version included here for fuck's sake & it's not half bad to tell you the truth. Time will tell whether Coldrain ever achieve the commercial success that they are so clearly targeting but in the meantime I think my time with them might be done because, even though there are no complete abortions on offer, I only really enjoyed about 40% of this album with the rest taking me a little too far outside of my musical comfort zone.

For fans of Linkin Park, I Prevail & Wovenwar.

P.S. What the fuck is with the ridiculously cheap cover "art"?? If you're gonna create something this commercially marketable then surely it would be better served by a glossy & attractive cover to draw people in, wouldn't it?

Well in fairness Sonny,  this release doesn't belong in any other clan & will likely appeal to most The Fallen members but I just struggle with it having any genuine claim to metal qualification. Don't take my word for it though because it's just my opinion whereas on RYM it has YES 117 NO 2 for Stoner Metal & YES 51 NO 61 for Stoner Rock. I don't think people realize that Stoner Rock takes "stylistic influence from Doom Metal and Heavy Psych" & as soon as they hear a doom riff they immediately associate it with metal.

This submission has been posted in the Hall of Judgement.

Here's my review:

I first discovered Massachusetts-based stoner metal trio Elder while programming the monthly The Fallen playlists a couple of years ago & was invariably impressed by what I heard. They sounded like a very capable & professional outfit that knew their way around their instruments & had a very well-defined sound. I subsequently investigated their 2012 “Spires Burn/Release” E.P. in order to get a better idea of what they’re all about & found it to be a very solid release indeed. 2017’s “Reflections of a Floating World” would follow shortly afterwards & would leave a similar impression so I quickly found myself claiming myself as a fan of the band. And this leads me to this month’s The Fallen feature release in Elder’s 2011 sophomore album “Dead Roots Stirring” which I selfishly selected in order to further expand my knowledge of Elder’s back catalogue.

“Dead Roots Stirring” is a 51 minute excursion across five lengthy tracks that all offer something a little different from each other while always maintain a clear direction & focus. Unlike “Spires Burn/Release” which sat roughly at the mid-point between stoner metal & stoner rock, this record sees Elder staying firmly on the stoner rock side of the equation &, despite what you may read elsewhere, there’s really very little metal to be found here. There’s simply far too much blues in both the tone & structure of the five songs included & I’d suggest that the band’s influences come mainly from late 60’s/early 70’s blues rock bands like Cream more than they do metal bands like Black Sabbath. Don’t take that as any sort of negative though because this music still has plenty in the tank in the way of classy rock music. The production job is well-executed & gives Elder an authentic 60’s/70’s vibe that also plays a major part in steering the album away from metal. It’s got that lovely fuzzy sound with a dirty distortion on the guitars that feeds very nicely into the more psychedelic moments which are a real highlight of the record. The bass tone is full & powerful which does a great job at selling the doomier moments where the band finally click into overdrive. You won’t find much in the way of the more ambitious progressive rock sounds that can be found on “Reflections of a Floating World” here as yet but that’s not to say that this is simple music with the song structures still being quite expansive & building over time with twelve minute closer “Knot” being a prime example given that it doesn’t really show you its full hand until the last third of the song.

The best material tends to come at the start of the tracklisting with opener “Gemini” (my album highlight) & the lengthy title track being my personal favourites but there isn’t a lot of variation in quality between the various songs with only fourth track “The End” seeing things dipping just a touch. In saying that though, I’m not sure this style of music will ever command my higher scores unless it heads into psychedelic territory more often than Elder do here. Front man Nick DiSalvo has a great voice for this style of music & he does hint at some really great vocal hooks that may have the potential to take things higher up into the stratosphere but it never quite eventuates & the album is much more focused on lengthy instrumental passages anyway. This isn’t intended as a major criticism though as I’ve found it hard to fault Elder on ANY of the three releases I’ve checked out to date. They’re a class act who understand their craft really well & are very unlikely to dish up something subpar.

If you’re a fan of stoner rock then you’ll definitely want to check out “Dead Roots Stirring”. I’d suggest that it’s probably the weaker of the three Elder releases mentioned above with the progressive stoner rock sounds of “Reflections of a Floating World” remaining my personal favourite but don't take that as a negative comment because it’s still a great record that’s provided me with further encouragement to continue investigating this talented artist’s back catalogue.

For fans of Om, Stoned Jesus & Acid King.

4/5

Great selection Ben. Here's my review:

My brother Ben can always be relied upon for quality feature releases & this brand new third album from Chilean death metallers Inanna is no exception as the band clearly possess a strong pedigree in all forms of deathly delights. “Void of Unending Depths” sees them tackling a number of different extreme metal subgenres & proving themselves to be proficient in all of them in the process. It’s quite a lengthy record for this style of music at nearly an hour in duration & I feel that it does overstay its welcome a touch but you can’t deny the quality that’s on offer.

The album begins in a very different way to what it finishes & opens with the strongest track on the tracklisting in dissonant death metal monster “Evolutionary Inversion” before “Among Subaqueous Spectres” sees them dipping their feet into more of a death/thrash sound which reminds me of US death metallers Serpens Aeon’s thrashier moments. The dissonant take on the classic death metal sound returns for “Far Away In Other Spheres” before the record starts to take a turn into increasingly more progressive territory for the remaining four tracks, the B side taking very much a progressive death metal direction in its entirety. I have to admit that the thrashier drumming doesn’t appeal to me as much as the darker death metal stuff & I think Inanna are probably at their best when they get their dissonant pants on.

The production job is very well suited to this style of music & does a good job at highlighting the dark atmosphere while the performances of the four instrumentalists are all high class. I particularly enjoy the use of blast beats but the highlights of the album tend to come through the sporadic incorporation of ethereal lead guitar melodies that remind me very much of Paradise Lost. It’s easy to pick up the influence of classic death metal bands like Immolation & Morbid Angel in the first half of the album while the commitment to progressive song structures & stylistic diversity is similar to that taken by South American counterparts The Chasm. Interestingly, I find the atmospheric interludes included in a few of the tracks to be inspired by Iron Maiden as much as anyone else (particularly the eerie mid-section of their classic “Rime of the Ancient Mariner”) but the last few tracks see the instrumentalists casting their creative inhibitions aside & tackling some highly technical riff structures. Front man Max Neira is an absolute beast with his super-deep yet still easily decipherable death growls providing another highlight for Inanna but unfortunately I find the higher pitched screams to sound a little immature in comparison.

“Void of Unending Depths” is a splendid example of the modern death metal sound & is very hard to fault. If anything, I’d suggest that Inanna may just be lacking a bit of focus as the record jumps around quite a bit & I tend to think that perhaps their next album might be the true culmination of their creative development once they firm up exactly what it is they’re trying to achieve. Regardless, there aren’t a lot of releases that can match Inanna for death metal integrity these days & I doubt there will be too many extreme metal fans out there that can’t get onboard with it.

For fans of The Chasm, Serpens Aeon & Morbid Angel.

4/5

It's been many years since I heard "Clouds" but I think I'd probably rate it the same score as you have Vinny. Tiamat's next album "Wild Honey" was their first to really command my attention.

Bathory - "Jubileum, Vol. I" (1992)

Bathory was a big fucking deal for me when this best-of compilation was released thirty years ago today; so much so that I bought it immediately upon release & primarily so that I could gain acccess to the unreleased tracks. Seriously though, when you put Quorthon's best material together on one CD it really does make an impressive celebration of his recorded career. Vol 1 was comfortably better than Vol 2 & 3 & I played the absolute living shit out of it.

Negură Bunget - "'n crugu bradului" (2002)

It's 20 years since the highly regarded sophomore album from Romanian atmospheric black metallers Negură Bunget first hit the shelves today. I've gotta say that I've never understood the attraction to this band (in fact I rated this album 2/5 on my last revisit) but they seem to have developed an almost cult-like following over the years. 

I picked "Έσοπτρον" up on CD at the time of release & Ben & I both really enjoyed it. I don't think I've ever rated or reviewed it though so I'll need to rectify that at some stage.

This nomination has been added to the Hall of Judgement.

Sixteen Horsepower - "Sackcloth 'n' Ashes" (1996)

Some very cool country music with a darker gothic edge. I haven't returned to this one for a while but it really suited my morning chores nicely as I've prepared to have friends around for the NRL Grand Final this afternoon.

Here's my new review after deleting my old one from 2010:

I came into Birmingham industrial metal godfathers Godflesh’s 2001 sixth album “Hymns” very late when you consider that I’d been a huge fan of the band since around 1989/90. My decade-long hiatus from metal during the 2000’s saw me completely avoiding it until a good year after my return which meant that it had already been out & about for a good nine years by the time I reviewed it in 2010. I have to say that I wasn’t blown away by it either it has to be said. That’s not to say that I thought it was a bad record or anything but I had such high expectations of Justin Broadrick’s projects by that stage & I just found “Hymns” to be a little bit lacking by comparison. It’s been a full twelve years since that review now though so I’ll be coming in with fresh ears & it’ll be interesting to see if my feelings have changed over time.

Godflesh has always possessed a very unique sound that had stayed with them throughout their career even though they’d usually experiment with it in different ways on each release & that trend continues with “Hymns”. 1999’s hip hop inspired “Us & Them” album was probably the record where they’d taken the most risks across their back-catalogue to the time so I was kind of expecting them to expand on that further but “Hymns” sees them bringing things back to a more organic & stripped back sound that relies more heavily on the guitars than the beats which are kept a little further back in the mix. Despite the guitars & bass being so far forward, I feel that this lack of power in the drums makes “Hymns” sound a touch less heavy & places a stronger reliance on the riffs which may or may not be a good thing depending on your taste. You’ll also find that Justin & co. have incorporated alternative & nu metal influences into their sound to an extent which is obvious enough to give the album its own identity but not significant enough to overshadow the industrial metal platform that the band had built their careers on. I mean this fucker still sounds like it could be made up of sounds from a factory but the workers are probably playing alternative radio in the workshop if you know what I mean. Those of you that are familiar with the alternative scene will likely pick up on moments that sound distinctly like Korn, Primus, Soundgarden & Smashing Pumpkins across the lengthy 73 minute tracklisting with the emphasis on groove-driven riffs reminding me quite a lot of a band like Nottingham sludge metallers Fudge Tunnel. Some of the more staccato-based riffage can also draw comparisons with Helmet & Prong but the interesting thing is that at the end of the album I’m still left feeling that “Hymns” sits most comfortably alongside industrial metal counterparts like Killing Joke.

It's interesting that a lot of people seem to want to link Godflesh with the Sludge Metal genre. I can definitely see why given the dissonant riff structures & thick & oppressive guitar tone but there’s a noticeable lack of the anger & aggression required for sludge qualification in my opinion. Godflesh’s music is much more trance-inducing with its repetition being a key component in its appeal so I can't agree with that sentiment. With the possible exception of the very poor hidden track, I also struggle to see how “Hymns” has anything to do with Post-Metal as it’s reliance on riffs is far too extreme for that. As far as I can see this album is still very firmly rooted in the Industrial Metal genre with the alternative elements adding a point of differentiation for a record that has essentially seen Godflesh regressing a bit towards past glories from their recent releases. The jumpy nu metal rhythms that pop up here & there aren’t particularly to my taste if I’m being honest & at times I’m left wondering if the band were clutching at straws in the hope of finding relevance in a quickly changing heavy music scene. I mean let’s be honest, the weaker moments like the nu metal track “Deaf, Dumb & Blind” sound pretty uninspired but then the album highlights like the catchy alternative metal number “Anthem” & the sublime atmospheric closer “Jesu” are some of Godflesh’s very best work so the album can be a little bit up & down. It certainly takes a few tracks to get going which can impact initial impressions but the back end of the record is the stronger of the two sides which sees it redeeming itself over time. In saying that though, there’s very little question that the run time is too long & the requirement for the hidden track is more than a little questionable.

As a Godflesh album, I would have to say that “Hymns” is certainly worth a few listens but I’d suggest that is was the band’s weakest full-length to the time. Despite the respectable rating I’ve given it, I do end up feeling a little disappointed given their star-studded back catalogue. Perhaps my taste profile isn’t really in line with the alternative feel to a lot of the material? Yeah sure, that definitely plays it’s part here but I’m not sure that can explain a few of the flatter tracks here which sound like a band in auto-pilot. It's probably telling that I find the tracks with Justin's gruffer vocal delivery to be more appealing than those that see him struggling with his more melodic side too. I can't help but think that this is a sign of my own affiliations with Godflesh's early works but you have to admire the way the band consistently reach for something a little different without completely severing the ties with their past.

For fans of Pitchshifter, Fall Of Because & HALO.

3.5/5

This playlist is now up on Spotify.

With a current vote tally of YES 7 NO 2, I've decided to pass the second of the two submissions so the Post-Metal genre has now been added to "Mestarin kynsi". Thank you to everyone who contributed to the vote & allowed us to achieve a majority outcome.

Grouper - "A I A: Alien Observer" (2011)

Angelic female-fronted ambient from California, USA. It's a classy effort & I really dig it.

None this month thanks .

None this month thanks.

I believe that Dorsal Atlantica release is a re-recording of Dorsal Atlântica's 1986 debut album "Antes do fim" which I love. Corrosion of Conformity's "Animosity" is worth a listen if you don't mind a bit of early crossover thrash too.