Ben's Reviews

A more traditional doom metal album that requires a few listens to work its magic.

My Dying Bride had already well and truly exceeded my expectations since the turn of the new millennium. Prior to that, they’d seemed destined to head down a path that would take them further and further away from their roots, and therefore my personal tastes. 2001’s The Dreadful Hours changed all that, being the best thing the Brits had released in half a decade, and to prove it was no fluke 2004’s Songs of Darkness, Words of Light retained the high standard, leaving no doubt that My Dying Bride were far from finished. Unfortunately, somewhere in between that brilliant album and 2006, the band’s drummer curse struck yet again. After Rick Miah had been forced to quit the band in 1997 when he contracted Crohn’s disease, his replacement Bill Law was ordered to leave the country (back to Canada) due to visa issues less than a year later. They’d seemingly broken the curse after Shaun Taylor-Steels had been part of the band for five very successful years, only for a reoccurring ankle problem once again leaving My Dying Bride drummer-less. With a full length album ready to be recorded and an otherwise stable line-up, they decided to bring in John Bennett from fellow British death doom band The Prophecy to perform as a session musician to get them across the line. With that sorted, My Dying Bride entered Academy Studios in spring 2006 to record A Line of Deathless Kings.

I have to admit, the first few times I listened to what is the bands ninth full length studio album, I couldn’t help but feel a bit disappointed. After Songs of Darkness, Words of Light had been one of the darkest releases in their long history, and one filled with both immense misery and beauty, My Dying Bride had decided to record a pretty straight forward doom album. Gone were Aaron’s numerous emotive styles of vocals (including death growls) and in their place was fairly one dimensional “singing”. While nothing on the new album called possibly be labelled upbeat, the ominous and desperately gloomy tone of the last few albums had been softened as well, and this more straight forward approach seemed to suggest My Dying Bride were once again attempting to be more accessible, just as they did in the Like Gods of the Sun period back in the mid nineties. That didn’t impress me to say the least and If I’d reviewed A Line of Deathless Kings during those first couple of weeks of owning it, I likely would have been quite harsh, and expressed my disgust in no uncertain terms. I can pinpoint the exact moment when I realised I was being unfair. Preparing for a long drive, I’d selected a few albums to keep me occupied in the car, with A Line of Deathless Kings amongst them. Let me just say that I cranked the album loud, and suddenly found myself completely engrossed, re-playing it three straight times before I reached my destination a changed man.

Unlike the last few albums, for which the strengths were effectively enjoyed through a decent pair of headphones, A Line of Deathless Kings simply demands to be played loud. Its powerful production and more traditional Candlemass-like doom riffs make it less of a personal affair and more of a neighbourhood waking one. It’s in this environment, and I imagine in concert too, that these tracks have real impact. I won’t suggest that this album matches the classics in their discography as it does still lack the creativity and passion that My Dying Bride emanates in their prime. It also suffers in the closing stages with the second half simply unable to match the rousing quality of the first few tracks. And I Walk With Them in particular has the most stunning section where Aaron breaks free and lets his emotions fly in combination with driving double bass kicking. Moments like this remind me of early Solitude Aeturnus which can only be a good thing, and it displays a new feather in the band’s hat that I hope they will one day integrate into their more death metal motivated sound. Other highlights are To Remain Tombless, L’amour Detruit and the stunning Thy Raven Wings. A Line of Deathless Kings is yet another worthy My Dying Bride album, albeit one I had to learn to love. Once I overcame my initial discontent, the album quickly got under my skin, so I highly recommend any potential listeners out there make sure they give this album more than just a passing spin.

A monumental collection of My Dying Bride classics that doesn't add enough to tempt long term fans.

My Dying Bride had already released dual compilations back in 2000/2001 with the Meisterwerk collections, but since those discs contained half unreleased and rare material along with selected classic tracks, they had not yet put out a true Best Of compilation. Considering the band had no less than eight full length albums, a live album and numerous EPs available when the band sat down to compile one in 2005, there was never going to be a shortage of quality material for them to choose from. Add to this the generally lengthy nature of doom metal and it’s not surprising that three whole discs were required to achieve their goal with a total running time of over 220 minutes. Anti-Diluvian Chronicles is the end result of this effort, which is a puzzling title to say the least. The antediluvian period is a biblical reference to the time between the creation of earth and the great flood (ante being pre and diluvian being deluge). Given the clearly intentional play on words here, one can only assume that anti-diluvian would mean anti-deluge, which could possibly be a witty way of suggesting that the great flood never occurred. Then again, considering antediluvian is sometimes used figuratively to refer to anything that is of great age, it would make sense to use this word when discussing the older works of the band. But then the anti rather than ante would suggest a negative connotation, so I think I might just have to give up on this particular puzzle.

There are numerous questions that come to mind when reviewing best of compilations. Firstly, the obvious question is has the compiler really chosen the best tracks by the band? I also think it’s valid to question whether the compilation covers every era of the band, giving a good overview of their entire discography. Lastly, does the compilation offer anything to tempt existing fans of the band that contain the majority, if not all, of their albums? But before I answer any of those questions, I can’t help but bring up how important it is that best of compilations are actually enjoyable to listen to. It might sound stupid to suggest that a collection of great tracks by an awesome band might not be entertaining to listen to, but this is where the way the material is presented really comes into play. For example, a collection of twenty or thirty tracks that jump all over the place in production values and styles can be jarring and awfully difficult to get through in one sitting. Thankfully, My Dying Bride chose, at least for the majority of tracks, to compile Anti-Diluvian Chronicles in reverse chronological order, which at least bunches the distinct periods of their career together. I can accept their decision to split the three remixes one per disc as otherwise the entire first disc would be made up of material off their last two albums, but I do wish they’d been brave enough to assemble the compilation in chronological order rather than reverse, as that would be the best way to understand the evolution of the band.

If I’d been given the opportunity to put a My Dying Bride best of compilation together, I wouldn’t choose a drastically different track listing to the one the band chose. They easily covered my second question above by including at least two, and in most cases three, tracks off each full length album. I think for the majority of the eight albums, they chose the obvious and best tracks too, which shows the band either responded to fan preferences or have similar tastes to their listeners. Of course they were never going to be able to please everyone in every instance, as we all have differing tastes. Sear Me and The Bitterness & the Bereavement are great tracks off As the Flower Withers and while I might have chosen The Return of the Beautiful, it’s recent re-recording for The Dreadful Hours would make it a little bit excessive here. They pretty much could have chosen any tracks off the band’s masterpiece Turn Loose the Swans and their choice of the title track and closer Black God are perfectly acceptable, even if the exclusion of the classic Your River is surprising. No-one’s going to argue about The Cry of Mankind and From Darkest Skies off The Angel and the Dark River, but they might take issue with the selections off Like Gods of the Sun. The inclusion of the exquisite For My Fallen Angel is a given, but the title track and Here in the Throat in my opinion do not compare to the fan favourite A Kiss to Remember which is sadly absent from the compilation.

It would have been easy for the band to skip the 34.7888%...Complete period as they copped so much criticism for it, but I’m really glad they included The Whore, the Cook and the Mother, Der Überlebende and Under Your Wings and Into Your Arms, as those three songs not only make that misunderstood album worth having, but actually really enjoyable despite its flaws. The Light at the End of the World is really well represented with the huge title track and beautiful closer Sear Me III, as well as live versions of She is the Dark and The Fever Sea, so no complaints there. Now we move into the new millennium, which is predictably where the band places a lot of focus, given that this is the material they are really trying to promote. There are three original tracks from both The Dreadful Hours and Songs of Darkness, Words of Light releases, and in both cases I think they got two out of three choices right. The title track and My Hope, the Destroyer are arguably the best tracks on The Dreadful Hours, but The Deepest of All Hearts is probably the track I like the least. Similarly, Catherine Blake and A Doomed Lover are fantastic My Dying Bride moments, but Blue Lotus is not really deserving of the company here. On top of all this, they correctly included the classic Symphonaire Infernus et Spera Empyrium, The Thrash of Naked Limbs and the breathtaking The Sexuality of Bereavement, none of which can be found on any full length album (if you exclude The Sexuality of Bereavement being a bonus track on The Angel and the Dark River).

Given all of the above, it’s pretty damn hard to criticise the effort put into Anti-Diluvian Chronicles when it comes to best of choices. A little tweak here or there is all I would make to create the ultimate collection for “me”, and considering the band clearly and rightfully care nothing for my personal happiness, they can hardly be blamed for that. All that’s left to answer is whether or not Anti-Diluvian Chronicles offers anything extra for those of us that already have everything they’ve released. The short answer to this is that if you already own everything by My Dying Bride, then you’re one of those freaky collector guys that will buy this regardless of whether it has anything extra (yes, I’m one of these people). The band did however make an admittedly small effort to make it worth our while. The package is impressively hefty even if it is annoying that each disc comes in a separate slipcase (within one of those oversized clamshells Peaceville seem so fond of) rather than a big drool-worthy digipak that would have been awesome. There is however a forty page booklet with an entertaining, not to mention lengthy, exclusive interview with Aaron by Dom Lawson of Kerrang! The artwork was all created by the talented and aesthetically pleasing Lady Morgana, but I have to say that as exciting as that proposition was on paper, it turned out to be a little disappointing. The cover in particular, which does manage to cunningly include the band in a painting on the wall, is not as striking as the majority of her work.

There’s a poster of the band included too, but as a thirty something year old guy, I’m fairly unlikely to pin a bunch of gothic looking men on my bedroom wall any time soon, even if I take the reasonably nice looking but not my type Sarah Stanton into consideration. There is however the remixed versions of My Wine in Silence, The Raven and the Rose and The Wreckage of My Flesh. Aaron was really responsible for the My Wine in Silence remix as he never liked the harsh vocals that the rest of the band pressured him to perform half way through the track. This version also has a completely new drum track which doesn’t add much other than a bit of reverb, and removes the bass entirely making the whole thing sound fairly empty compared to the original. The Raven and the Rose remix has only minor differences for the first half before injecting blast beats and wildly aggressive leads halfway through. Basically they took a wonderful eight minute track, cut it in half, and played silly buggers over the top. For The Wreckage of My Flesh, they simply removed the drums and most of the guitars from the song while leaving the keyboards and vocals intact. It’s different for sure and still atmospheric, but also far inferior to the complete original! So unfortunately, the remixes can’t convince me to call Anti-Diluvian Chronicles essential for long term fans of My Dying Bride either, unless you’re one of the aforementioned collection freaks. For new fans of the band or the uninitiated however, this is about as good as a best of could possibly be and highly recommended.

Emotionally engaging and horrifically dark in tone, this is My Dying Bride at their classy best.

2001’s The Dreadful Hours was by far the best thing My Dying Bride had released since The Angel and the Dark River back in the mid nineties. Not only had it shown that the band were still capable of creating enthralling death doom metal while still remaining relevant in the metal scene, it also changed my opinion that the Brits’ best years were far behind them. With this renewed hope for what is one of my very favourite bands, my expectations for a follow-up went through the roof. Often it’s this sort of high expectation that can only end in disappointment, so I was stoked to see that the same line-up used for The Dreadful Hours would create My Dying Bride’s eighth full length studio album, with the positive exception that they’d finally recruited a full time keyboard player named Sarah Stanton after using session musicians since Martin Powell’s departure back in 1996. I can’t find much information on Sarah’s background and can only observe that she appears to be the partner of guitarist Hamish Glencross. Whether that was the case when she joined or it occurred at some stage later I can’t confirm, but either way, it appeared My Dying Bride had finally settled on a line-up they were happy with, which could only be a good thing. On February 23rd, 2004, Songs of Darkness, Words of Light was released and I was first in line to see whether the band could continue their flourishing resurgence.

The first thing to notice is just how dark in tone this release is. From start to finish, Songs of Darkness, Words of Light drips with suffocating, brooding misery. After the band’s forays into more accessible and gothic territory in the mid to late nineties, their return to this haunting tone was both unexpected and satisfying. Apart from the shift further down into despair, the material doesn’t venture far from the precedent set by The Dreadful Hours, which means lengthy, predominantly slow, emotionally engaging doom tracks that seamlessly shift in style without ever losing the aforementioned tone. There’s never any doubt who you’re listening to as My Dying Bride always contain that unique flavour that I assume will always be present while vocalist Aaron and guitarist Andy (who’ve both been with the band for their entire existence) are part of the line-up. Speaking of Aaron, I really think that Songs of Darkness, Words of Light holds the finest performance of his already impressive career. Just as on The Dreadful Hours, he utilises numerous techniques while avoiding crossing the line into cheesy, melodramatic pomp. It’s a performance of real strength and variety, with powerful spoken word, black metal-like screams of torment, heartstring pulling melodies and gloriously brutal growls. Fifth track The Prize of Beauty in particular finds him covering the whole spectrum and stands as just another testament to the man’s immense talent.

The atmosphere of the album is set by the wonderful opener The Wreckage of My Flesh. The intro not only displays the dark and evocative layer that Sara brings to the band, its evil atmosphere of tribal-like drumming and horror-tinged shrieks gives you no doubt that My Dying Bride mean business with this release. That nastiness continues unabated throughout the album, with the possible exception of My Wine in Silence, which I guess could be considered a romantic ballad, albeit one filled with wretched sorrow and dejection in true My Dying Bride style. Other highlights are The Scarlet Garden, where Hamish and Andy really crank out the doom, while And My Fury Stands Ready’s oppressive nature, not-particularly-pleasant acoustic interlude and shattering climax hold the listener completely entranced. But if there’s one track on the album that stands as pure My Dying Bride genius, it has to be closer A Doomed Lover. The slowest of beats, heavy simplistic doom riffs and crooning vocals will push you down into gloomy despair, before a flawlessly executed transition at the three minute mark injects a stunning melody in combination with Aaron’s increase in emotion. The final few minutes stand as one of the finest closing moments of any album I’ve heard, expertly “raising the house” on a consistently engrossing album. Songs of Darkness, Words of Light is My Dying Bride at their classy best and another five star rating is obligatory.

My Dying Bride replicate their classics on stage in a professional, clinical manner.

After twelve years as a band and seven full length studio albums, it was about time My Dying Bride released a live album. This was a period where Peaceville records were really starting to cash in on the popularity resurrection that the British doomsters had experienced since 1999’s The Light at the End of the World returned them to their more comfortable roots. With the Meisterwerk collections acting as both rarity archives and best of compilations and the For Darkest Eyes DVD the first foray into that media for the band, The Voice of the Wretched would top off a five year period where fans were gifted with no less than seven My Dying Bride releases. No doubt Peaceville would be grateful for a band that supplies so much revenue, not to mention one that has stayed loyal to the label for over a decade. However this appreciation doesn’t seem to have resulted in decent quality assurance in this case, as the original pressing of The Voice of the Wretched not only misspells Turn Loose the Swans as Trun Loose the Swans, but it also incorrectly switches the same song and The Snow in My Hand on the tracklisting, resulting in a confusing moment where Aaron announces a different song to what you’re expecting. Thankfully, the performance of the band and the recording are of a much more professional quality.

The Voice of the Wretched was recorded at 013 Club in Tilburg, Holland on the 4th of March 2001. It contains the same line-up as The Dreadful Hours album, meaning Hamish Glencross has already joined the band as second guitarist and Yasmin Ahmed acts as a session musician. I can only assume that Yasmin performed keyboards live while Jonny Maudling performed on the studio albums during this period for creative reasons. Perhaps Yasmin was not particularly good at writing music, but was perfectly capable of playing it? The rest of the band is as you would expect with Aaron on vocals, Andy on guitar, Ade on bass and Shaun behind the kit and given the amount of time the majority of these musicians have spent together, it’s not surprising to find My Dying Bride in such good form throughout this concert. The entire seventy five minute set is executed flawlessly, with just about every moment performed identically to what you can hear on their albums. Shaun doesn’t miss a beat, Andy and Hamish replicate riffs to perfection and Aaron’s vocal styles mimic his not insubstantial on-disc feats. The only thing that really stands out as being dissimilar is the replacement of ex violinist Martin Powell’s beautiful work with Yasmin’s adequate yet unquestionably inferior keyboards.

Of course, this raises the question that I often find myself asking when listening to live recordings. If the material is not going to sound particularly different to the studio versions, then what really is the point of a live album? It’s not like Aaron’s between song banter is of any interest, with the crooner only taking a long enough break to say “cheers” or “thank you” before announcing the next tune and onwards we go. Crowd participation is kept strictly to the close of each track, which doesn’t really give the full impression of what a My Dying Bride live concert would actually be like. In the end, The Voice of the Wretched acts as a best of recording that merely suggests the band are more than capable of reproducing their classics on stage, without displaying the power of actually being there. Thankfully, I can take enough enjoyment out of it by treating it as such, due to the well selected set list. One disc was never going to be able to contain all my favourite My Dying Bride moments, but the band include tracks that range from their harsh origins (Symphonaire Infernus et Spera Empyrium) right through to their at the time unreleased new album (A Cruel Taste of Winter). Classics such as Your River, The Cry of Mankind and A Kiss to Remember are all present, making The Voice of the Wretched thoroughly entertaining if not particularly significant.

This is one hour that's far from dreadful. A stunning album that's awfully close to the band's best work.

My Dying Bride was back in the good books of their fans after 1999’s The Light at the End of the World returned their sound to the death doom metal of yesteryear. Their evolution over the past few years had taken them a fair distance from their roots with 34.788%...Complete perhaps pushing things further than many were willing to go. Whether the band would still find consistent inspiration producing music in a style they’d decisively left behind was yet to be seen, but 2001’s The Dreadful Hours not only suggested that it was possible, it made the irrefutable declaration that My Dying Bride’s best years were not a thing of the past. After an abnormal period of line-up changes, things were finally settling down with no departures in between the band’s sixth and seventh albums. In fact, after recording The Light at the End of the World with Andrew Craighan handling all guitar duties, they recruited Hamish Glencross from Solstice to bring the official line-up back to five (Aaron on vocals, Andrew and Hamish on guitars, Adrian on bass and Shaun on drums). They still hadn’t found a full time replacement for keyboard and violin performer Martin Powell who’d left the band in 1998, so Jonny Maudling from Bal-Sagoth once again helped out with session keyboards for The Dreadful Hours album.

While I found a lot to enjoy on The Light at the End of the World, there were certainly some areas that needed to be tightened up. In particular, the transitions between slower, melancholic phases and aggressive, death metal infused sections were far from seamless, and some of that brutality seemed to be included as an afterthought rather than part of an inspired package. Yet while it appeared that The Light at the End of the World was slightly rushed in an attempt to quickly recover lost ground, it’s obvious that The Dreadful Hours was meticulously crafted with attention paid to all aspects by a strong unit. The end result is a bunch of beautiful compositions that flow through varying moods without dropping the quality or losing their grip on the listener. Right from the tender rain accompanied opening of the title track through to the close of re-recorded classic The Return to the Beautiful, The Dreadful Hours finds My Dying Bride at the top of their game, with all of the miserably despondent elements we’ve come to expect and love, yet with none of the misadventures or uncomfortable instances that occasionally tarnish their work. It’s an album I feared they would never make after their lengthy diversion and despite my enjoyment of everything they’ve produced to varying degrees, The Dreadful Hours feels like home.

As is the norm for latter day My Dying Bride, the production is excellent and there are great performances by all involved. Andrew and Hamish immediately clicked together and the whole album is filled with crushing doom riffs and gorgeous melodies. There’s actually a lot of variety in their techniques throughout yet it’s all held together by wonderfully melancholic glue. Jonny Maudling had stayed relatively in the background on the last couple of albums, happy to support the band’s sound without drawing attention to his symphonic layers. His role is far more effective and evident on The Dreadful Hours and tracks like My Hope, the Destroyer are very heavily based around his stirring work. Of course its way more subtle than what he produces for his full time band Bal-Sagoth, but with each successive My Dying Bride session, he seemed to gain more confidence in this environment and had more impact. The Dreadful Hours is also right up there with the best work of Aaron’s illustrious career and certainly his strongest since Turn Loose the Swans. He manages to produce real emotional weight throughout without breaking into overly melodramatic pulp. He uses clean vocals the majority of the time which are both compelling and touching, while his growls are far more brutal than anything he’d produced since the early years.

Speaking of early years, I wouldn’t normally be too thrilled with the bands decision to re-record a track as part of a full length studio album. I feel that sort of thing should be limited to EPs and compilations, or at the very least listed as a bonus track. When it comes to The Return of the Beautiful, I’m willing to forgive My Dying Bride because it’s just so damn good. The original was the highlight off their debut album As the Flower Withers back in 1992 and this version improves upon it in many ways. The increase in production qualities as well as the small variation to details, including a fantastic climax where the song breaks down to what appears to be The Bitterness and the Bereavement in the distance, make it not only a hugely nostalgic trip, but an album highlight. If anything it gives those fans that decry the debut for being primitive something to think about, as this track shows how ambitious and complex My Dying Bride were even in their infancy. Other highlights are the title track, The Raven and the Rose, the bass driven Le Figlie Sella Tempesta, A Cruel Taste of Winter and the huge My Hope, the Destroyer. I’m not going to go so far as stating that The Dreadful Hours is My Dying Bride’s best album, but there’s no doubt in my mind that it deserves a full five star rating. Glorious, gloomy despondency from the masters of death doom!

Volume two still contains nothing essential, but a couple of tracks make it more worth checking out for fans.

Meisterwerk is the German word for Masterwork, which is defined as “a piece done to prove possession of skill sufficient to be ranked a master”. This may seem a fairly arrogant title for any band to choose for its own work, but when you’ve had as many great albums as My Dying Bride has, it somehow seems reasonable enough. Peaceville certainly picked their time to release the Meisterwerk compilations. The band had just released The Light at the End of the Earth the previous year and in doing so regained the faith of their fans after the courageous yet divisive 34.788%...Complete release in 1998. With My Dying Bride well and truly back in the good books and gaining a few new fans along the way, the label no doubt saw an opportunity to release not one, but two compilations within the space of a few months. Meisterwerk 1 was released on November the 7th 2000 while Meisterwerk 2 would follow it on June the 13th 2001. The band apparently had some input into the tracks selected with each compilation being a combination of classics, demos, rare tracks and a music video.

Meisterwerk 2 is a little bit more interesting than the first volume. The main reason for this is that the rare tracks hold more value to long term fans. It’s still an inconsistent listen that swings wildly from top draw My Dying Bride to primitive and humdrum material, but at least there are a couple of tracks that make it worth checking out. All up it contains the other half of the Towards the Sinister demo, a rare track from the 34.788%...Complete session, two cover tracks recorded for the Peaceville Records X compilation, and four more classic My Dying Bride tracks. I really do have to question the effort that was put into the track listings of both compilations. I can understand the decision to put no tracks from As the Flower Withers on either compilation when two of the demo tracks and the rehearsal track were re-recorded for that release, but only including one track from The Angel and the Dark River and none from the 34.788%...Complete album when there are three from both Turn Loose the Swans and Like Gods of the Sun just seems strange. They could easily have split the X compilation tracks between the volumes too but that’s another matter.

The demo tracks on volume two are of a similar interest to the ones on volume one. Once again there’s one track that was re-recorded at a later date (Vast Choirs) and one that was not (Catching Feathers) and the production is obviously just as ordinary. The Vast Choirs track is by far the better of the two and this version sounds distinctly different to the one that later appeared on As the Flower Withers, mostly due to the keyboards being more prominent in the mix. Catching Feathers is one of the more brutal death metal tracks that My Dying Bride ever recorded and the main riff brings to mind one found on a Morbid Angel track. It’s a raw and nasty slab, but not particularly a very good one when it comes down to it. More positively, Follower is probably the most interesting track on both compilations. Originally a bonus track on the Japanese version of 34.788%...Complete, this strangely poppy piece of work is quite entertaining, and wouldn’t have gone astray on the official release. It’s certainly more enjoyable than some of the drearier parts of that controversial album such as The Stance of Evander Sinque.

The other two rare tracks are the ones My Dying Bride recorded for the Peaceville X compilation. This collection marked the label’s tenth anniversary and included fourteen cover songs of non metal artists recorded by bands on Peaceville’s roster. My Dying Bride performed Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood’s Some Velvet Morning and, unsurprisingly given Aaron’s love of the band, Portishead’s Roads. Both covers are performed and produced perfectly adequately but there’s no doubt that Roads functions better in the melancholic framework of My Dying Bride. Aaron’s vocals may never be able to match the tender tones of Beth Gibbons, but he does admirably well considering the emotion required. As for the four classic tracks, these are some of the bands most loved pieces, with Sear Me MCMXCIII, Two Winters Only and Your River being three varied examples of the best My Dying Bride has to offer. These tracks, along with Roads and Follower make Meisterwerk 2 relatively entertaining and worthwhile for fans of the band, but I still feel with a little bit more thought, or even if they’d left the classic tracks off and released one single disc of rarities, the Meisterwerk experience could have been more appealing.

A hodgepodge of rare and classic tracks that's not likely to thrill either new or long term fans.

Meisterwerk is the German word for Masterwork, which is defined as “a piece done to prove possession of skill sufficient to be ranked a master”. This may seem a fairly arrogant title for any band to choose for its own work, but when you’ve had as many great albums as My Dying Bride has, it somehow seems reasonable enough. Peaceville certainly picked their time to release the Meisterwerk compilations. The band had just released The Light at the End of the Earth the previous year and in doing so regained the faith of their fans after the courageous yet divisive 34.788%...Complete release in 1998. With My Dying Bride well and truly back in the good books and gaining a few new fans along the way, the label no doubt saw an opportunity to release not one, but two compilations within the space of a few months. Meisterwerk 1 was released on November the 7th 2000 while Meisterwerk 2 would follow it on June the 13th 2001. The band apparently had some input into the tracks selected with each compilation being a combination of classics, demos, rare tracks and a music video.

Meisterwerk 1 is undoubtedly the lesser of the two releases, mainly due to its rare tracks being fairly uninteresting. In a nutshell, it contains half of the Towards the Sinister demo, a Portishell remix of a track off Like Gods of the Sun, a very old and under-produced single, and four classic My Dying Bride tracks. With such a hodgepodge of eras and sounds in no particular order, I can’t help thinking that Peaceville tried to please everyone and yet ended up pleasing no-one. Those new to the band will likely struggle to find much enjoyment in the rare and demo material while those already acquainted with the band’s studio albums will find the classic tracks entirely unnecessary. If you listen to Meisterwerk 1 from start to finish, it’s an inconsistent experience that jumps around dramatically in both song-writing and production quality. I personally think that compilations that cover such a large period of time and styles, are much more listenable if they run chronologically, giving the listener a chance to get used to the smaller jumps in quality and recording values along the way. Katatonia’s Brave Yester Days is a great example of such a compilation.

Anyway, let’s take a look at what’s included on this first volume. The demo tracks were recorded in 1990 and as important as the cassette was at the time of release, are low in production values as you might expect. Symphonaire Infernus et Spera Empyrium is a track that most My Dying Bride fans would know, but this early version suffers due to the rawness and the lack of violin which would be included on the EP of the same name the next year. Of more interest to long term fans would be The Grief of Age as it’s one of two tracks on the demo that would not be later re-recorded, but it’s undoubtedly an example of My Dying Bride at their most primitive. A purely death metal effort with terrible solos and out of time drumming, it’s not exactly a track to get particularly excited about. Then there’s the Unreleased Bitterness single which was apparently recorded in 1991 yet wasn’t released until 1993 as a 7 inch vinyl single. It’s actually a rehearsal of The Bitterness and the Bereavement track that would eventually appear on As the Flower Withers in far superior form, so once again offers very little for all but the most extreme fans.

The only other rare track is the Portishell remix of Grace Unhearing. The original track was in my opinion one of the lesser tracks on Like Gods of the Sun and playing around with the drums and cutting the guitars in and out doesn’t really make it work any better. The remix was originally included as a bonus track on the 2003 re-release of the album and was named as such due to Aaron’s obsession with British trip hop entity Portishead at the time. The four classic tracks on Meisterwerk 1 are all great, with The Crown of Sympathy and Sear Me III being the highlights. I do have to question the inclusion of two tracks from Like Gods of the Sun (A Kiss to Remember and For You) when there are no tracks from As the Flower Withers or 34.788%...Complete to be found on either compilation. Finally there’s the bonus video track of The Cry of Mankind, but I have to question how many people bother to watch videos stuck on the end of CDs these days when they’re all so readily available on YouTube and the like. In the end, Meisterwerk 1 is hard to recommend to anyone at all which isn’t something I’d expect for any compilation of such a great band.

A well received homecoming that falls slightly short of their best work.

My Dying Bride faced some tough choices after the widely negative response to their 1998 album 34.788%...Complete. First of all they had to deal with a fair amount of line-up instability, but once that was sorted they had the more significant question of what direction to take their music on future releases. They’d need to find a new drummer after Bill Law, who performed on 34.788%...Complete after long time member Rick Miah contracted Chrone’s disease, had visa issues and was forced to return to Canada. Things got more complicated when guitarist and original member Calvin Robertshaw made the somewhat strange decision to stop playing guitar for the band and be their tour manager instead. The drumming issue was quickly sorted when Shaun Steels became available after a short stint with Anathema. He’d performed on the Alternative 4 album after original drummer John Douglas left the band temporarily, only to be let go once Douglas returned. After eight years of dual guitarists, it was decided that Andy Craighan would record all guitars for the next album, at least delaying the recruitment of yet another member. With all this settled, the band decided not to tour and to instead sit down to figure out what their next move would be.

One look at the album cover for The Light at the End of the World gave their fans a hint as to what My Dying Bride’s decision was. Just as the band replaced their gloomy death metal looking logo to a more conservative one for The Angel and the Dark River as a representation of their move into more accessible realms, they signalled their return to death doom by going back to the old font. It’s easy to criticise the band for taking the easy way out, rather than continuing down the daring and unpredictable path that 34.788%...Complete set in motion, but given the almost irrational disparagement that came in response from long time fans, it’s hard to blame them. I’m a firm believer that a band should follow their inspiration no matter where it leads, and given that the band decided not to tour in 1999 due to the new line-up being filled with grand ideas for the band’s sixth album, it does appear that My Dying Bride followed their hearts rather than dollar signs. That being said, it’s not as though they completely disregarded their last couple of albums and the new skills they’d gained through experimentation. The Light at the End of the World is an amalgamation of parts from all of their previous works and while it might not add anything original or groundbreaking, it’s very solid and blatantly My Dying Bride.

One aspect of their old sound that didn’t make a comeback at this stage is violin. Jonny Maudling of Bal-Sagoth fame did perform keyboards for the album and while they give the tracks a fuller, grander sound, they rarely take centre stage. The Light at the End of the World is very much a guitar driven album, and considering every riff was created by Andy alone, it’s certainly a special album for him in particular. There are some huge tracks here such as Edenbeast, the title track and Christliar that are based around exceptionally moving, not to mention very heavy, doom riffs. If the album has a flaw it’s that the death metal facet is not integrated as smoothly as on albums like Turn Loose the Swans. The band tend to switch abruptly from slow, haunting doom sections into full fledged death metal complete with growls, before dropping the velocity just as abruptly. It’s almost as though the years away from writing death doom left the band just a bit out of practice when it comes to building neat transitions. Edenbeast is probably the most obvious case of this happening with the brutal death metal sections merely interrupting what is otherwise exquisite and totally absorbing doom. It’s strange to consider that despite desperately longing for My Dying Bride to bring back the brutal, that’s the aspect of the album I like the least.

Thankfully these occurrences are few and far between, with the rest of the 70 odd minutes being close to flawless. Aaron’s lyrics went back to the romantic, poetic form of yesteryear, with none of the misogynistic modernity found on the previous album. His vocals cover the whole spectrum from whispers to croons to roars and despite the odd awkward moment (such as the first part of Christliar) he’s as captivating as ever. Shaun Steels also demonstrated that he had what it takes with a crushing yet controlled performance that solidified his position in the band. She is the Dark opens the album in stunning form with those haunting strained notes setting the tone for the whole album and the title track is one of the most epic and despondent of the band’s career, but it’s the spiralling melodies of Into the Lake of Ghosts and the simply wonderful closing track that I consider highlights. Sear Me III in particular is achingly beautiful and continues a fine tradition of Sear Me reimaginings that I hope isn’t yet complete. The Light at the End of the World is an excellent return to form for My Dying Bride who would only gain in strength over the next couple of releases. They still had to clear one or two cobwebs out of the system before they could create another true masterpiece but this is more than recommended for fans of their work.

My Dying Bride's most controversial album, but this sexually charged, genre defying piece of art has much to offer.

My Dying Bride had managed to keep the same line-up since their first official release back in 1991 all the way through to 1996. The only change during this time had been Martin Powell (keyboards/violin) becoming an official member in 1993 after previously acting solely as a session musician. This stable alliance had allowed the band to evolve together without disrupting the natural progression of their sound. The period after the release of 1996’s Like Gods of the Sun album would see this union finally break apart and the band would have some tough decisions to make. Firstly, in a sad turn of events, drummer Rick Miah would be forced to depart the band after being diagnosed with the digestive disorder Chrone’s disease. Shortly afterwards, Martin would leave the band and join Anathema and eventually Cradle of Filth. Both were difficult losses for the band and these members contributed immensely to the much celebrated My Dying Bride sound. They would find a replacement for Rick in Bill Law who had previously performed for label mates Dominion. Tellingly, Martin would not be replaced officially, leaving My Dying Bride with no violinist and only session musicians helping out with keyboards. One can only assume these changes convinced the band that now was the time to try something a little bit different.

A little bit different would be a large understatement too! In October 1998, My Dying Bride released 34.788%...Complete onto their unsuspecting fans. The unusual name originated from a dream guitarist Calvin Robertshaw had where he discovered that the human race had a limited lifespan on Earth, with exactly 34.788% having already expired. The band clearly found the idea fascinating and decided to use it, although I don’t think these themes are represented anywhere apart from the title of this adventurous release. The band had already transitioned from harsh, heavily death metal influenced doom metal right through to fairly accessible, cleanly produced gothic doom over the course of their existence, but there had always been certain qualities that made their music undeniably My Dying Bride. 34.788%...Complete was something altogether different, with very few recognisable features from past forays. The gothic imagery had all but disappeared and the romantic aspect was replaced with an overtly graphic sexuality. I guess it’s important to note that Aaron’s lyrics had always contained sexual qualities (The Thrash of Naked Limbs is a good example), but they’d never been this graphic or crass before. 34.788%...Complete sounded oh so modern and bold and first time listeners were bewildered to say the least.

I was one of these fans back in 1998 struggling to understand how my favourite band could possibly alienate me so badly. I’d hoped after the streamlined, almost too clinical Like Gods of the Sun that My Dying Bride would bring back some of the experimental aspects that made previous albums so amazing, but this had taken things to an extreme I wasn’t quite willing to go along with. Why are there all these expletives all over the place and why does Aaron sound like a sexually perverted maniac? Where are the moving doom riffs and exquisite classical elements? Is that seriously trip hop in the middle of a My Dying Bride album? It would take me at least a year, possibly two, before I finally started to listen to 34.788%...Complete for what it is rather than I what I’d wanted it to be. I’ve got to the point now where I not only accept the album, but I actually get quite a bit of enjoyment out of it. Opening track The Whore, the Cook and the Mother in particular is magnificent with a truly sumptuous melody breaking through the erotica filled verses and an immensely effective ambient interlude complete with captivating mutterings. The voices during this interlude were apparently inspired by the simulant interrogation scene from the movie Blade Runner and it really gives the track a strange atmosphere that I wish they’d investigated further.

Other highlights include the comparatively conventional Der Uberlebende with its cool melodies, Apocalypse Woman with its cascading drums and weighty riffs and Base Level Erotica with its undeniably sexual overtones, but it’s the final track Under Your Wings and Into Your Arms that ended up in regular My Dying Bride concert track listings due to it sounding the least at odds with the bands regular material. All these tracks are meticulously crafted and it’s a shame their fans would dismiss 34.788%...Complete as a failed experiment. Of course all of this experimentation did result in some awkward, unconvincing sections, which brings me to undoubtedly the albums most controversial aspect. Heroin Chic is a trip hop backed, industrial sounding, expletive filled track that many find unlistenable. Personally I think it works pretty well for a while, with the combination of Aaron’s misogynistic meanderings and guest vocalist Michelle Richfield’s angelic voice being thoroughly effective, but the white noise censorship and the sheer length really detract. Once Aaron starts switching off with nah nah nah yeah yeah yeah, Heroin Chic has seriously overstayed its already dubious welcome. My Dying Bride continue to defend 34.788%...Complete to this day, but I think their fans, myself included, are one by one beginning to realise they should never have had to.

A collection of rare EPs that's damn essential for fans that missed out the first time.

My Dying Bride released three EPs of varying quality that were interspersed around their first two full length albums. All three were snapped up quickly and eventually went out of print, leaving new fans wondering what they missed out on. Peaceville saw the need to get them back onto shelves and put out a box set called The Stories in 1994 that contained all three EPs, but since that was limited to three thousand, the same problem arose shortly thereafter. Common sense prevailed and the Trinity compilation was released, including all three EPs in chronological order, albeit with a small twist towards the end. Considering how difficult it is to find these releases these days, and how damn good each of them are in their own way, this is more than just a novelty compilation. All of them were released when the band were very much in their first death doom metal stage, which they would depart from temporarily in the mid to late nineties, and all three of them have the same solid line-up with the only change being Martin Powell's official addition for I am the Bloody Earth.

The first three tracks are from the 1991 Symphonaire Infernus et Spera Empyrium EP. This was the first official release for the band and a groundbreaking recording for its time. It was also my first experience of My Dying Bride and I fell in love instantly! The title track is an absolutely epic classic that set the bar for all gothic themed death doom to come. At this stage the band had far more death metal influences than later in their career, but this particular track displayed just how incredibly atmospheric and crushing their doom metal could be. The addition of violin and keyboards was fairly novel for the time and it worked extremely well on the first attempt. The lyrics were also unique for metal at this stage, being romantic and poetic, with a distinctly morbid edge. God is Alone and De Sade Soliloquay are more standard death metal fair, yet both have great riffs and particularly brutal vocals by Aaron. Neither track approaches the excellence of the title track, but it all adds up to a great EP and a top class debut performance for My Dying Bride.

The second EP, The Thrash of Naked Limbs, came in 1992 between the first studio album As the Flower Withers and the amazing Turn Loose the Swans. This was really where the band started to ease up a little on the death metal and really concentrate on building up atmosphere in each and every track. Aaron was at this stage sticking to death metal vocals and wouldn't introduce his unique clean style until the next album. The violins are present as always but only perform small flourishes rather than the major role they would play once Martin came onboard full time. Once again it's the opening title track that steals the show, being immensely heavy and haunting. The second track is actually a dark ambient piece which is not something the band would ever attempt again. It's not half bad either with good use of sound effects and a general feeling of unease, and would pave the way for ambient sections in their work down the track. The final track Gather Me Up Forever is also solid My Dying Bride, but doesn't manage to meet the high standard of the opening title track.

The last EP on the compilation is I am the Bloody Earth. Certainly the least interesting of the three due to there being only one new track that's really worthwhile, but what a cracking track it is! I am the Bloody Earth showcases the band at their very peak, being recorded around the time of their brilliant Turn Loose the Swans album. Increased involvement of Martin Powell in the writing process had been stupendously successful and all members of the band were at the top of their game. This is where whoever put Trinity together made a decision to remove one of the tracks. I can't say the decision is all that controversial either as the original second track on the EP was a disastrous dance influenced remix of material from Turn Loose the Swans. It was a terrible idea to begin with, so I'm very pleased that its presence doesn’t stain Trinity. This leaves only a very slightly remixed version of The Crown of Sympathy to finish things off. The original track was a highlight off Turn Loose the Swans, but this remix added nothing of note while cutting a minute from the running time.

But wait, there's more! Not satisfied with three important EPs all packaged together, Trinity is topped off by the inclusion of what I consider to be one of the very best tracks the band has ever recorded. The Sexuality of Bereavement was originally released as a bonus track on The Angel and the Dark River as well as a vinyl only single, and it's simply gut wrenchingly beautiful. Martin's violin work is exquisite, the riffs are crushing and the vocals are awesome. As a big fan of death doom metal in general, I can honestly say it doesn’t get any better than this. In the end, if you're a fan of My Dying Bride but don't own Symphonaire Infernus et Spera Empyrium, The Thrash of Naked Limbs and I am the Bloody Earth, then do yourself a favour and go track down Trinity immediately. It's not a case of "for serious fans or completists only". Just about everything My Dying Bride touched in the early nineties turned to gold and this compilation is a wonderful journey through their early evolution. Thanks to Peaceville for making them available once again.

A beautiful album that brought My Dying Bride to a wider audience without shedding their identity.

You can always tell that a band is making a transition towards a new style when they change their logo. The fact that The Angel and the Dark River contained an at least half naked woman on the cover wasn’t particularly surprising. After all, both As the Flower Withers and The Thrash of Naked Limbs contained nudity in some form on their front display. What was particularly noticeable when viewing this release for the first time, was that the eerie, death metal themed logo that had adorned previous My Dying Bride albums had been replaced with a far more conventional font. This alteration alone suggested that The Angel and the Dark River might find the band attempting to reach a broader audience, and what better way to do that than to shed their ties to death metal. This was a very scary idea for me personally, as the band’s previous full length Turn Loose the Swans was (and still is) one of my absolute favourite albums of all time. I didn’t want them to change. I wanted more of the incredibly atmospheric death doom that was built around haunting riffs, crushing drums and violin romanticisms. Disappointment seemed to be the only result possible if the band had indeed taken this route. It took approximately 90 seconds of opening track The Cry of Mankind to know that I was about to be convinced otherwise.

I should have known better too, as both the opening and closing tracks off Turn Loose the Swans (Sear Me MCMXCIII and Black God) were amazing despite not containing guitars or drums in the slightest. These Brits seem capable of creating melancholic magic at will and they’ve done so consistently throughout their existence while still attempting to expand and evolve their sound. This is the album where they were confident enough to base their song structures around Martin Powell’s keyboard and violins rather than using him as simply a finisher. The Cry of Mankind is such a stunning track that starts off with the simplest of melodies before building up to a gorgeous orchestra of doom riffs, cascading drums, deep crooning vocals and exquisite piano. Not satisfied with the obvious genius of all the above, the track eventually breaks back down to only the original melody (the one you’d probably hadn’t noticed was continuing through the whole track), before fading out into ambient bliss complete with distant horns. It’s My Dying Bride at their best and it’s hard to imagine how the rest of the album could possibly be this impressive. As it turned out I’m not sure that it ever reaches these heights again (at least not the official release but more on that later), but it’s still nothing short of excellent.

From Darkest Skies is where fans first experienced Aaron at his most weepy and sorrowful. After years of listening to his aggressive death growls and deep clean vocals, this theatrical attempt at melancholy certainly took some getting used to. Fortunately for Aaron, the music is so deeply despondent and doom filled that his naked attempts at vulnerability work perfectly well in this environment. I should point out that he’s by no means limited to one style, varying his vocals throughout the album to fit the mood. I think his performances on later albums would sound a bit less awkward, but he’s nothing short of captivating throughout The Angel and the Dark River. After having such a powerful influence on the opening track, the piano doesn’t resurface for the rest of the album, with Martin utilising the violin instead. Every track has beautiful moments of exquisite melancholy and while Your Shameful Heaven’s guitar driven finale could be considered upbeat, this is one of the more depressive albums you’ll come across. Two Winters is another highlight with a really tender acoustic foundation combined with Aaron’s heartfelt vocals and Martin’s violin making for an almost overwhelmingly touching experience. Aaron has stated in interviews that this track is his favourite of all My Dying Bride’s work and it’s unquestionably one of the most moving.

There is one thing that makes rating The Angel and the Dark River a bit perplexing for me. Back in 1995 I purchased this album in the digipak form, which had The Sexuality of Bereavement as a bonus track. I think it would be at least ten years before I would be informed that this track was not actually part of the album the way it was originally intended. Yes, it did always seem a bit strange to me that there would be a huge death doom track complete with death growls to finish an album where the band had moved away from that sound, but the album sleeve made no mention of it being bonus material so I just took it as part of the package. The thing is...I think The Sexuality of Bereavement could very well be my favourite My Dying Bride track ever! It’s immensely emotionally moving and I don’t think the band integrated violins into their death doom any better than they did on this track. To me, The Sexuality of Bereavement will always be part of The Angel and the Dark River, and nowadays it’s a bonus track on every subsequent re-releases of the album. If I rate this album with its inclusion, I can’t give it anything but full marks. Without it...well, it just falls short due to my personal preference towards the band’s death doom material. It’s a beautiful album though that I listen to regularly and one that brought multitudes of new fans into contact with one of metal’s most esteemed bands.

The title track is fantastic but the remainder is disappointing.

I Am the Bloody Earth is the third EP by My Dying Bride and was released in January 1994, only three months after the bands classic Turn Loose the Swans album. This was a golden period for the Brits and I for one was chomping at the bit for anything the band wanted to send my way. The first two EPs, Symphonaire Infernus et Spera Empyrium and The Thrash of Naked Limbs, both contained three original tracks that were firstly, not available anywhere else, and secondly, of a very high quality. The same cannot be said for I Am the Bloody Earth, but that doesn’t mean there is nothing of value here. On the positive side, the title track is fantastic! With its heavy riffs, dark atmosphere and beautifully integrated violin, it certainly wouldn’t have seemed out of place on Turn Loose the Swans. While I can’t confirm it anywhere on the net, I can only imagine I Am the Bloody Earth was recorded in the same sessions as the album, as the tone and techniques are really very similar. The raspy guest vocals by Ghost (from industrial label mates Global Genocide Forget Heaven) work really well, particularly when combined with Aaron’s deep growls. In short, this is classic My Dying Bride!

As for the remaining two tracks, well that’s an entirely different story. Transcending (Into the Exquisite) is an attempt to put My Dying Bride’s death metal tinged gothic doom to dance music. I’m sure anyone that’s experienced the band’s music would know just how bad an idea that is, and yet someone called Stevie Dachau has given it a shot. Basically it’s several sections taken off the Turn Loose the Swans album (mostly from The Songless Bird) patched together and given a house music beat with looping electronics. It’s just as bad as that description sounds and I have to wonder who thought it was a good idea to begin with. The final track is a remixed version of The Crown of Sympathy off Turn Loose the Swans. I love the original track immensely so hearing it in any form is nice, but this remix makes so little difference to the track apart from a looped vocal line at the beginning and a minute missing from the running time. It adds absolutely nothing of note to the original meaning this EP is only worth hearing for the title track. Thankfully that is worth checking out, but the I Am the Bloody Earth release is undoubtedly the worst of the trilogy of early My Dying Bride EPs.

As with the first two EPs, there’s no real reason to track down I am the Bloody Earth in its original form. It’s far easier, and no doubt cheaper, just to pick up the Trinity compilation Peaceville put out in 1995, which combines all three EPs in one neat package. Strangely, although not unjustifiably I guess, the label replaced Transcending (Into the Exquisite) with The Sexuality of Bereavement on Trinity. It would not be particularly surprising if this decision was made due to the generally negative response this track received by fans, and considering how magnificent The Sexuality of Bereavement (originally released as a 7” vinyl single and as a bonus track on The Angel and the Dark River) actually is, it’s hardly a bad substitution. It does mean though, that if you want to hear this EP the way it was originally intended, you will have to shell out for the out of print original release, or track down the limited to 3000 box-set called The Stories that contained all three separate EPs. I highly recommend you track down the title track if you’re a fan of My Dying Bride, but in which format probably depends on how much of a completist you are. I’m sure you know where you sit.

I simply don't have enough superlatives to describe how wonderful this album is. Sublime romantic melancholy!

Turn Loose the Swans is the second full length album by British legends My Dying Bride. Their debut was a generally positive experience, being an effective mixture of gritty death metal, heavy doom riffs and gothic embellishments. It lacked a little in the production department, especially the drum sound, but I consider it to be a groundbreaking and entertaining album. After that release and the two EPs the band had created thus far, I was well and truly a fan of the band by the time I got my hands on Turn Loose the Swans. But I was certainly unaware that what I was about to experience would become something of an obsession for me. Martin Powell (violins and keyboards) had finally joined the band as a full time member rather than just a session musician, so he now took part in the creation of the tracks as opposed to adding violin touches to otherwise complete works. It only takes a few seconds of opening track Sear Me MCMXCIII for it to become apparent that this change has had a huge impact on the overall sound, and that Turn Loose the Swans is not your average metal album. Gorgeous violin and piano combines to create such extraordinarily moving music. Then Aaron's tender vocals kick in and I'm already in melancholic heaven before a guitar has been switched on or a drumstick picked up.

Turn Loose the Swans is a much more delicate affair than the debut. It still contains massive death metal influenced riffs and intense death growls, but the majority of the album is spent exploring the depths of melancholy, building up the atmosphere to levels previously unreached. Huge sections of tracks leave any sort of heaviness aside to delve into exquisite melodies and atmospheric landscapes. The band had toyed with dark ambience on the track Le Cerf Malade on The Thrash of Naked Limbs EP and that experience clearly gave them the confidence to integrate ambient sections into epics such as The Crown of Sympathy with great success. Everything is so precise and as it should be throughout the album, and every ingredient comes together to form the most perfect whole. Aaron's vocals are stunning! His clean passages are filled with emotion and tenderness, his death growls overflowing with anger and lust, yet every word is completely intelligible. The lyrics are serenely poetic and romantic (in fact, the last eight lines of Black God are taken directly from a poem called Ah! The Shepherd’s Mournful Fate by the 18th century Scottish poet William Hamilton), perfectly matching the tone. I can’t praise Aaron’s work on this album enough, although I must question his design for the album cover. Is that what the swans did once they were loose?

The riffs and melodies that Andy and Calvin create are epic and moving, covering the full spectrum of emotion seemingly at will. There are no throwaway riffs at all with tracks like Your River showcasing gem after gem in an endless flow of awesomeness. Rick's drumming is also a highlight, combining the perfect amount of restraint while getting the production he deserves this time around. Martin's violin and keyboard always made early My Dying Bride something truly special, not to mention unique, and his performance here is that of a master craftsman. He takes what would already be fantastic death doom metal and gives it a majestic, ageless boost. It must be apparent by now that Turn the Loose the Swans is an important album to me. It was my favourite album the first time I heard it back in 1993 (possibly still is!) and it moves me immeasurably every single time I hear it. Opener Sear Me MCMXCIII and closer Black God are exquisitely romantic bookends to five massive death doom masterpieces, and while Your River and The Crown of Sympathy are my personal favourites, every track is perfect in my opinion. Out of the thousands of albums I have experienced, if I could only give a select few of them full marks, this would be one of them. I’m not sure I can give a bigger compliment than that.

Far more death metal influence than on later My Dying Bride material, but an original and underrated debut!

After the staggering Symphonaire Infernus et Spera Empyrium EP in 1991, it was yet to be seen whether My Dying Bride could live up to the obvious promise they displayed. After all, it was really only the exceptional title track on that particular release that caused all the excitement, with the other two tracks taking a more traditional death metal path that wasn’t particularly revolutionary. Was that epic track merely a fluke or were we about to experience something truly breathtaking? As the Flower Withers answered the question in no uncertain terms and I thoroughly believe that the album doesn’t get the admiration it deserves for the simple fact that most listeners came across it after hearing the bands later work. There’s absolutely no doubt that Turn Loose the Swans in particular is a far superior album, so anyone listening to As the Flower Withers after experiencing that example of perfection is likely to be a tad disappointed. But when you place this album into its correct context, being that it was released in 1992 when death doom was in its absolute infancy, there’s just no denying that As the Flower Withers is a groundbreaking and classic album.

My Dying Bride were very much still a death metal band at this stage and were still figuring out the best ways to combine their ambitious mixture of heavy doom metal, raw death metal, classical elements, guttural vocals and surprisingly poetic lyrics. Probably the thing that makes As the Flower Withers stand out from the band’s later efforts is the production. It’s raw and dirty which certainly aren’t words you could apply to modern My Dying Bride, but it works quite well given the more death metal influenced material here. The guitars have a lot of weight to them and Aaron’s vocals are as vicious as they would ever be. Unfortunately, the drum sound is not ideal and given Rick’s rather pedestrian performance, come across as very flat throughout. The violins on the other hand have an immense impact every time they are utilised. Martin Powell was not an official member of the band at this stage but his presence is felt in a huge way, particularly on the three epics of the album, Sear Me, The Bitterness and the Bereavement and The Return of the Beautiful. There’s no doubt that this aspect helped make My Dying Bride so exciting, so it was no surprise that the band recruited him full time for the next album.

As with the EP, As the Flower Withers excels when the band ramp up the atmosphere and let the gothic flourishes kick in. The Return of the Beautiful is undoubtedly the highlight and it’s no surprise that the band chose to re-record this track on The Dreadful Hours. Interestingly, the final track Erotic Literature was originally a bonus track found on the CD and cassette versions of the album, but it seems to be considered part of the official track listing these days. Even the My Dying Bride official homepage has it listed as part of the album with not mention of it being a bonus track, so I guess it should be included when reviewing As the Flower Withers. I personally think the album functions better when finishing with The Return of the Beautiful, but Erotic Literature doesn’t seem out of place in the slightest and brings things to a close nicely enough. As the Flower Withers doesn't deserve to be considered purely the humble beginnings of a great band. It deserves to be considered a hugely important and successful attempt to do something truly original and an essential part of any death doom metal fan's collection.

Another great My Dying Bride EP with some classic material and important experimentation.

The Thrash of Naked Limbs is the second of the three great EPs that My Dying Bride released in the early 90s and it really helped tide over those of us impatiently waiting for the next full length release. As the Flower Withers had been a solid debut album and the band showed immense promise that they might create something truly astounding in the near future. That would happen soon enough with Turn Loose the Swans in 1993, but The Thrash of Naked Limbs is an important transitional piece in the My Dying Bride puzzle, and certainly not to be ignored. It contains the same line-up as the debut and has a total running time of only 18 minutes, but there’s some gold material here as well as some important experimentation that helped develop the band’s sound. There seems to be some confusion as to when Martin Powell officially joined My Dying Bride. There’s no doubt that he was a full time member of the band during the creation of Turn Loose the Swans, but my guess is that he will still acting as a session musician when The Thrash of Naked Limbs was recorded. At this stage, he’s still adding perfectly executed flourishes to pre-existing death doom metal, rather than the fully fledged integration that occurred on later releases.

The title track was responsible for gaining the band a much larger fan base. The guys made a fairly crappy video for it that includes a girl writhing in her bed, a lot of close-ups of eyes, and the band members walking through the woods with lit torches. Somehow during the making of the video clip, drummer Rick Miah had a very nasty fall and broke something or other, causing the band to cancel their upcoming tour. Despite how amateur the video is, it gained a lot of attention on MTV and the EP moved high into the Kerrang charts. The track itself is classic My Dying Bride with heavy doom riffs, death metal drumming, gorgeous classical flourishes and some of Aaron’s most brutal vocals. Rick’s drumming shows good signs of improvement after a lacklustre performance on the debut, but it helps that he gets a much crunchier sound this time round. Final track Gather Me Up Forever contains a purely death metal tone for the majority, but drops down to more typical My Dying Bride velocity in sections. It’s perhaps less impressive than the title track, but it does bring the album home in fine style, with the last moments containing more force and passion than most albums contain in their entirety. But I skipped a track here, so let’s take a backward step.

Le Cerf Malade (which means The Sick Stag in English) takes its cue from the fable of the same name, which was written by French poet Jean de la Fontaine in the 17th century. While it’s next to impossible to actually make out the lyrics, they are taken directly from the poem and are in French. This track is a rather experimental effort for My Dying Bride, being an entirely ambient track. From reading other reviews of the album, this track doesn’t appear to have satisfied many of their fans, who were likely disappointed that the EP contained only two “real” My Dying Bride tracks. As a fan of ambient music I entirely disagree with that sentiment as I think Le Cerf Malade is a really good effort that contains great depth and atmosphere. The bells and rhythmic beats combined with the chanting bring to mind some sort of ancient monastery and the six and a half minutes don’t drag at all due to the changes in textures throughout. While I’m not suggesting that the band should put more completely ambient tracks into their albums, I do think that Le Cerf Malade gave them confidence to include ambient sections within their doom, as can easily be heard in tracks such as The Crown of Sympathy, The Cry of Mankind and The Whore, the Cook and the Mother.

The amazing title track makes this groundbreaking EP worth tracking down in some form.

My Dying Bride, along with fellow Brits Paradise Lost and Anathema, played a huge role in the establishment of death doom metal in the early 90s. It’s quite incredible that all three bands were formed within such close proximity of each other and even more astounding that all of them are still active 20 years on. Out of the trilogy it is My Dying Bride that has stayed closest to their roots and even they have broken out into new territory along the way. Forming in 1990 with Aaron Stainthorpe (vocals), Andrew Craighan (guitar), Calvin Robertshaw (guitar) and Rick Miah (drums) making up the band, My Dying Bride quickly established themselves as an act to watch. Both the Towards the Sinister demo (which can now be heard spread across the Meisterwerk compilations) and the God is Alone single sold out quickly and gained the attention of Peaceville records who signed them up immediately. They managed to recruit Adrian "Ade" Jackson to play bass before entering the studio to record their first official release. The rest as they say is history with My Dying Bride going on to be one of the most popular and successful bands in metal, with no sign of the journey concluding any time soon.

Symphonaire Infernus et Spera Empyrium may contain three tracks and it may be considered an EP, but it will always be remembered for the epic title track. Not only does it run for over half the EP’s 20 minute running time, it’s also of a much higher quality than the remaining two tracks. Symphonaire Infernus et Spera Empyrium was the first My Dying Bride track I ever heard way back in 1992 and I’ve pretty much been obsessed with the band ever since. The gothic and romantic tone of the track is beautifully combined with a haunting sexuality which is a theme the band would return to time and time again, peaking with The Sexuality of Bereavement. In fact, the album where most fans believe My Dying Bride temporarily lost their mojo is 34.788%...Complete, which is simply where the band pushed this almost morbid sexuality a bit too far for comfort. Aaron’s vocals are certainly rooted in the death metal mould, but his lyrics were far more poetic and romantic than the typical gore and anti-religious template. Instead of Hammer Smashed Face style lyrics we get “Please put off your veil, your heart is blameless, and I shudder for knowing it”, and who could ever forget “make yourself all honey and the flies will devour you”!?

This track was groundbreaking stuff in 1991 to say the least. When doom metal was becoming more and more operatic and death metal bands were intent on outmuscling each other, My Dying Bride switched seamlessly between aggressive death metal and wonderfully dark passages of death doom. The addition of violin was both brave and scene-changing and the success of the track would lead to far more experimentation with instruments not normally associated with extreme metal. But as pioneering as the title track was, the other two tracks on this EP just can’t maintain the quality. God is Alone and De Sade Soliloquay are both decent enough with some really nice riffs to bang your head to, but their purely death metal structures seem like a let-down after such glorious beginnings. Still, this little EP commenced an immensely exciting time in my life where I longed for each and every My Dying Bride release with an impatience perhaps increased by my youth. I still listen to it today, although I’m much more likely to do so by spinning the Trinity compilation that combines all three of the bands early EPs in one neat little package. If you don’t own this EP you’ll struggle to find it as it’s long out of print, so I suggest picking up Trinity as soon as you can.

An underground classic! Spectrum of Death is brutally intense thrash metal that takes no prisoners.

Morbid Saint is about as cult as you can get! They’re one of those underground bands that received next to no recognition while they were active, only to gain masses of fans and critical praise in the years since their demise. Pat Lind (vocals), Jim Fergades (guitar), Jay Visser (guitar), Mike Chappa (bass) and Lee Reynolds (drums) formed Morbid Saint in 1986 in Sheboygan, Wisconsin with the goal of creating the most deadly metal music imaginable. They had the good fortune in these early years of sharing a manager (Eric Greif) with Chuck Schuldiner’s pioneering Death outfit and even opened numerous concerts for that legendary band. They released a demo called Lock Up Your Children in 1988, complete with crappy cover artwork drawn by Visser’s sister which was then coloured in by the band members themselves. It was limited to 200 copies that sold out very quickly and I can only assume that one of those cassettes made its way into the hands of someone at Mexican label Avanzada Metalica and that said person very much liked what they heard. In 1989, the label re-issued Lock Up Your Daughter as an album called Spectrum of Death, meaning that the band’s only official release was never intended to be anything more than a demo.

I’m not going to claim that I’m one of the few out there that worshipped this album when it was first released. The lack of Internet back in the day meant that I only really became aware of the more major releases and without the ability to “try before you buy” it was rare that I’d take a punt on a little known album by some unfamiliar band. It’s not like the album cover screams of quality either, with a very Eddie inspired demon figure that looks like it was scribbled down in just a few minutes (turns out this was not the cover the band had selected, so they were totally surprised when it came out). But word of mouth, and in particular sites like Rate Your Music, have spread the message that Morbid Saint should not be ignored. One look at the current thrash metal charts finds Spectrum of Death sitting in fifth position for all time and when you consider that the only bands above them on that list are Metallica, Megadeth and Slayer, that’s a seriously lofty position in the company of gods. Could it possibly live up to those expectations?! Damn straight it can! Spectrum of Death is thrash metal at its most venomous with shredding riffs, full speed drumming and vocals that could tear the flesh from a polar bear from long range.

Spectrum of Death is like Dark Angel, Kreator and in particular early Sadus combined and then turned up to eleven. Despite the chaos that this description brings to mind, Morbid Saint manage to keep things relatively together throughout and offer some truly memorable and moshworthy tracks along the way. As you would expect for an album that was never meant to be an album at all, the production is not all that great, but everything is audible enough and the abrasive impact suits the intensity of the music like a glove. As much as the thrashing riffs and leads kick my ass, it’s Lind’s vocals that really stand out. While other thrash bands were adding more and more melody on the vocal front, this guy ripped the genre a new hole with his throat destroying performance. Check out Damien, Lock Up Your Children or the classic Assassin if you want to find out whether you can cope with the extremity on offer here, but be prepared for what is a harsh, uncompromising release from both production and musical points of view. It’s great that after all these years of listening to metal music there are still hidden gems to be uncovered and if you haven’t found this one yet, the band’s recent reuniting makes it a perfect time to start digging.

Groundbreakingly intense yet entertainingly memorable, Altars of Madness is the best death metal album of all time.

Morbid Angel is the first band that comes to mind when anyone asks me to list my favourite death metal bands. In their prime they recorded albums that very few bands can come even remotely close to, not to mention how amazing their live performances are. But I’m getting way ahead of myself here! After all, I’m reviewing the band’s debut album released some twenty-two years ago (fuck I’m getting old!). How did this infamous band come to be in the first place, and can Altars of Madness possibly live up to its current status on this site as number one death metal album of all time? Formed in Tampa, Florida in 1984, Morbid Angel was originally made up of Dallas Ward (vocals, bass), Trey (George Emmanuel III) Azagthoth (guitar, keyboards) and Mike Browning (drums, vocals). Anyone with any Morbid Angel experience will recognise Azagthoth’s name, being the sole member that has remained with the band to this very day, and one of the finest guitarists to ever play the heavy stuff. If you know your death metal, you might also recognise Mike Browning, who would eventually go on to play a major role in sci-fi influenced technical death metal band Nocturnus. Don’t feel bad if the name Dallas Ward doesn’t ring any bells though, as his involvement with the band was short-lived, and he appears to have disappeared from the scene altogether after his departure.

The first significant change in line-up would come in 1985 when Richard Brunelle and John Ortega were brought in to replace Mr Ward, and this new line-up was responsible for the first Morbid Angel recordings in 1986. A couple of demos appeared titled Bleed for the Devil and Scream Forth Blasphemies, but the most important recording that year was to be called Abominations of Desolation. Intended to be Morbid Angel’s debut full length album, the nine track self-financed recording was to be released on their own record label, Gorque Records, but the band was so unsatisfied with the result they decided not to release it at all (eventually it was released by Earache Records in 1991). Any hopes for a hasty re-recording ended when Ortega and Browning quite the band before the year was out, with the latter apparently leaving because Azagthoth was sleeping with his girlfriend. Their replacements were Wayne Hartsell (nope, I’ve never heard of him either) on drums and a charismatic vocalist/bassist named David Vincent (real name David Struppnig), who had the uninspiring history of having produced the ill-fated Abominations of Desolation. The Vincent, Azagthoth, Brunelle, Hartsell line-up would stick together for a couple of years, recording another demo entitled Thy Kingdom Come in 1987, from which two tracks would make up the 7” single of the same name released by Swiss label Splattermaniac Records in 1988.

They hadn’t quite found the ultimate line-up however and towards the end of 1988, for whatever reason, Hartsell was replaced by Pete Sandoval from grindcore band Terrorizer. This would turn out to be the key to Morbid Angel finally being ready to record (and release) a long overdue debut album. Having already made a name for himself as an extremely talented drummer, it would be the juvenile taunting of the other members of Morbid Angel that would push Sandoval into a realm all his own. Legend has it that they would play recordings of music containing drumming that was faster than he was capable of, which drove the competitive (not to mention gullible) Sandoval to practice to such extreme levels that he would regularly be found asleep in a pile of sweat on the floor. Of course the drums on the material played to him were entirely computerised, but the end result was that Sandoval raised the bar on death metal drumming to a level unparalleled at that time. With Earache Records impressed enough with the material produced so far to offer the band a record deal, Azagthoth, Vincent, Brunelle and Sandoval entered Tampa’s Morrisound Studios early in 1989 to record Altars of Madness. It would be the fourth in a long line of important death metal releases to be recorded in the studio during this period with the first three being Atheist’s Piece of Time, Death’s Leprosy and Sepultura’s Beneath the Remains, although the latter was only mixed at Morrisound.

One can’t underestimate the effect Altars of Madness had on the world of extreme metal when released in May 1989. While other bands, in particular Chuck Schuldiner’s Death, had begun to craft death metal into a genre of its own and not just an intensity-modified version of thrash metal, Morbid Angel took it to a faster, darker and far more evil place. I highly recommend anyone that doubts the above comment to listen to pre 1989 material from the likes of Death, Bolt Thrower, Sepultura and Possessed, and compare it with tracks like Suffocation, Maze of Torment or Blasphemy. The pure intensity and aggression mixed with incredible musical ability and Azagthoth’s interests in the occult, ancient magic and the Necronomicon all combined for a life-changing, not to mention frightening, experience. I distinctly remember as a young teenager being both horrified and morbidly fascinated with photos in the album sleeve of a demonic looking Azagthoth playing guitar with blood all over his face and running down his arms on stage. It felt blasphemous and wicked to be listening to Altars of Madness and the individuals behind it were very clearly messing with unnatural forces beyond my understanding to be able to produce such sounds. I felt dirty after every listen, but I couldn’t help but press play again and again. I still feel the same urge today over twenty years later, and while I may be fairly immune to the discomfort I felt in my unexposed youth, the album is no less effective.

Probably the most amazing thing about Altars of Madness is how memorable and distinctive each track is given the insane level of energy and darkness emanating from each and every one. There are very easily distinguishable features that make up classics such as Immortal Rites, Suffocation, Blasphemy, Evil Spells and the infamous Chapel of Ghoul, and Dave Vincent’s easily decipherable vocals make them all surprisingly sing-along friendly. I’m by no means suggesting that Altars of Madness should be anyone’s choice for karaoke night, but tell me you don’t find yourself raising the horns, scrunching up your face in an apparently evil grimace before roaring “crush the priest, the feeble church, the family of dog, lust upon my altar” before coughing your guts up because only 1% of the world’s population can possibly produce sounds this intense without destroying their vocal chords within seconds! Speaking of Vincent’s vocals, he certainly sounds a lot deeper on future releases, yet his more raspy growls here somehow work perfectly with the Altars of Madness material, so much so that it just doesn’t sound quite right in the live environment when the man roars from the depths. Not that I’d ever complain though, as in my opinion Dave Vincent is hands down the number one death metal vocalist, which makes his recent rejoining into Morbid Angel cause for much excitement.

I could bang on about Azagthoth’s leads, Sandoval’s incredible time changes, the pioneering chunky mid paced rhythms, or any other number of elements, but I’ll cut to the chase and lay it out there nice and clear. Considering the performances of all involved, the unrelentingly intense atmosphere, the memorable songwriting and the sheer groundbreaking ferocity found on Morbid Angel’s debut full length album, I don’t have any hesitation in calling Altars of Madness the best straight death metal album ever created (and by straight I’m intentionally excluding the more progressive subgenre for which there’s no real comparison). So much of what comes out these days, including the band’s own work unfortunately, simply pales in comparison, making its formation so early in the game an amazing achievement. I can’t finish this review without finally mentioning that the cover artwork was the first major piece by the now infamous Dan Seagrave (he had previously only produced work for little known bands Hydra Vein, Lawnmower Deth and Metal Duck). Apparently representing all the different moods of man, the Altars of Madness cover is by no means his best work and in some ways fails to represent the contents within thematically. It is however a warped and mesmerizing piece of work that reveals more every time you experience it, which is a description that can easily be applied to this masterpiece death metal album. Damn essential!

Almost too comprehensive, this live collection has much to offer fans of early Metallica.

It’s actually pretty amazing that Metallica hadn’t already released a live album by 1993, considering the band had already produced five exponentially successful full length albums by that time. When they did get around to doing it, they certainly didn’t pull any punches. Live Shit: Binge & Purge contains no less than three CDs and three videos, all of which contain live recordings from various concerts. Released in a miniature road box, the collection also contained a bunch of handwritten notes, a copy of a Snakepit pass and an impressive booklet. Thankfully, given the sheer size and weight of this spatially challenging package, the set was re-released in 2002 in DVD format. Any Metallica fan that can get through all of this material in one sitting is a far more dedicated fan than me, that’s for sure. That’s especially true since I generally don’t enjoy live albums as much as studio recordings, so the idea of submitting myself to close to eight hours, including tracks that appear multiple times, is daunting to say the least. This is Metallica however, and almost all of their best work can be found spread throughout Live Shit, so it’s actually pretty hard not to be entertained. It’s not without flaws though, and I’ve really tried hard to judge this release for what it is, rather than just being wowed by its overly generous magnitude.

The three audio only discs were recorded at the Sports Palace in Mexico City on February 25, 26, 27, and March 1 and 2, 1993. Being part of the Nowhere Else to Roam tour that followed the massively successful self titled album, it’s not surprising to find a lot of the tracks (seven to be precise) from that album included. This might not sound ideal to a lot of Metallica fans, but it has to be said that these tracks hold up really well in the live environment, in many cases holding more power than their album counterparts. It’s not like they ignored their earlier albums either, with a decent selection of tracks taken from Kill ’Em All, Ride the Lightning, Master of Puppets and ...and Justice For All, as well as a few covers to boot. If I was going to be picky about track selections, I’d mention the lack of personal favourites such as Ride the Lightning, Damage Inc. and Dyers Eve (none of these are included on the videos either), along with the fact that they merged a bunch of awesome tracks off Justice into one medley instead of giving them the attention they deserve. But this complaint seems a bit superfluous given the masses of classics that are present in all their glory, performed by a band at the top of their game. The production is pretty damn perfect too, giving a pretty accurate idea of what Metallica are like live in concert.

There’s absolutely no doubt that the audience are totally into the band and they can be heard throughout most tracks singing along with impressive fervour. It’s actually really great to hear a live album that hasn’t been overly produced to sound like there’s no audience there at all, only raising their voices between tracks. They also managed this without this element taking over proceedings and becoming distracting (think Slayer’s Live Undead). There is however no getting around the fact that Metallica fucks around a bit too much during the concert for my liking. The banter between tracks is certainly amusing and gives you an insight into James’ personality, but the eighteen minute guitar and bass solo that finishes disc one is way beyond excessive, as is the crowd participation that stretches Seek & Destroy to the same length. This type of improvisation is more suited to the videos, as watching the band toy with the audience and having fun with their instruments works much better in that medium. Others on this site have suggested these are the parts of Live Shit they enjoy the most, so perhaps this is just a matter of personal preference. All things considered, the CD concerts are really very good, covering Metallica’s whole career with passion, power and fun. They’d be good enough on their own to be worth tracking down, but their only half the story.

I’ll admit straight off that I’m far more likely to listen to the CDs than watch the videos. It’s just so rare that I will sit still in front of the TV to actually watch a concert, yet I will happily have one playing in the background while I’m on the bus, surfing the net or whatever. That being said, there’s no doubt that the three videos are significantly more rewarding than the audio-only aspect of the box set, given the extra dimension and spectacle that they offer. Watching James, Lars, Jason and Kirk in their youth, seriously enjoying the adoration of thousands of fans, while flawlessly performing multitudes of classic tracks, is just damn entertaining. The first two videos were taken from concerts recorded on January 12 and 14, 1992, at the San Diego Sports Arena. This is pretty much the same set list as appears on the CDs, making it nice but not wholly essential. The third video however was recorded during the Damaged Justice tour in the Seattle Coliseum on August 29 and 30, 1989, which is a couple of years prior to the controversial black album. It’s this DVD that Metallica fans will want to see, and the youthful energy the band display (particularly Lars) is evident throughout. The track listing is much more to my liking due to the period of the release, making it one of the few video concerts I’ll return to from time to time.

Metallica's flawed masterpiece and one of the defining moments of my life.

Most fans of metal music can easily look back on a particular band that first inspired them to delve into what can be a fairly inaccessible genre of music. I’m sure that in the majority of cases, the band in question was not from one of the more extreme styles of metal such as black metal, death metal or grindcore. The reason for this is that most people need an entry point where they can come to grips with a more accessible level of extremity before being equipped to take the next step. For me, there’s no question that Metallica were the band that kick-started my obsession. It would only be a matter of weeks from the time my brother (to whom I will be forever grateful!) handed me a cassette containing ...And Justice For All back in the late eighties, that I would be delving into the likes of Slayer and then Sepultura, followed shortly by Deicide, Morbid Angel and Bathory. These days there’s pretty much nothing that I find inaccessible from an extremity point of view (I'm not suggesting I find enjoyment in every style I hear), so I’m fairly unlikely to find many metal albums out there that are simply unapproachable given my experience. Yet despite this development of boundary limitations, my love for the band and the album that started it all has never diminished. The shining light of Metallica may have faded to black (sorry) long ago, but their heritage can never be taken away from them, or their fans.

Released on August 25, 1988, ...And Justice For All is the first full length album by Metallica after the tragic death of bassist Cliff Burton in a bus accident during the Master of Puppets tour. Jason Newsted had been selected from a long list of auditioning hopefuls to fill Cliff’s massive shoes and had displayed decent enough skills on the Garage Days Re-Revisited EP that the band had recorded as a test run for their new line-up and studio. The amount of effort that the band went through to find the right guy along with the significant preparation they put in to make sure they were ready before re-entering the studio makes it astounding that the blaringly obvious flaw with ...And Justice For All is that Jason is almost entirely inaudible. It’s a shame too, as this lack of low end, plus a generally sterile production overall, is a blemish on what is otherwise a fantastic and landmark album. Master of Puppets had already shown signs of the band adding a bit more complexity to their sound, but these progressive elements really came to the fore on its follow-up. The tracks are far greater in length than on previous releases which the band utilised to play around with complicated structures, branching off on technically adept tangents before returning to earlier established themes. As an album it makes for a fascinating journey, but it’s not surprising that the band rarely play these lengthy and complex tracks (such as the title track and To Live is to Die) in the live arena.

Lyrically, the album’s subject matter relates to injustice in the legal system (the bound and broken Lady Justice on the cover should give that away), freedom and war, and this sort of political and social commentary in Metallica’s music helped to establish these themes as “the new Satan” of metal music. While the level of complexity and increase in running time set ...And Justice For All apart from Master of Puppets, the band were forming a successful template of starting and finishing their albums with bursts of aggression, placing a ballad midway through to change things up, and including an epic instrumental in the bottom half. It’s a structural flow that works perfectly, running the gauntlet of emotions between two blood-pumping bookends. That being said, the album does have that midpoint lull (The Shortest Straw through to Frayed Ends of Sanity) that the band never seemed to be able to eradicate from their albums, but considering the general level of quality and surrounding classics like Blackened, the title track, One, To Live is to Die and Dyers Eve, it’s easy to forgive them. Over two decades have passed since Metallica changed my world, which is plenty of time for me to come to the realisation that ...And Justice For All is not the holy grail of all things metal that it so apparently was in my teenage years, but it holds a nostalgic place in my being and is just too damn important on a personal level for me to rate it anything below full marks.

Really fun all-cover EP that displays Metallica's influences while giving their own fans something to smile about.

After the tragic death of bassist Cliff Burton, there was some discussion between the remaining members that perhaps Metallica should also be put to rest. Eventually it was agreed that Cliff would never have thrown in the towel and would want Metallica to continue in his absence. It was agreed, after an intense period of mourning, to begin what would turn out to be a very long search for a replacement. Around forty bassists auditioned, including Hammett’s childhood friend Les Claypool from Primus, Troy Gregory from Prong, and Jason Newsted from Flotsam and Jetsam. As strange as it may seem, Claypool was apparently rejected for the simple reason that he was too good, but I can only assume there was more behind the decision than we’re led to believe. The band were very impressed with how prepared Newsted was, having learnt Metallica’s entire set list, and it was decided he would be the one to fill the enormous shoes of Cliff Burton. The band wasted no time and began touring immediately with the new line-up clicking nicely. On their return they set about recording an EP of covers to test out both their new recording studio and their new bassist. The EP was to be named The $5.98 EP: Garage Days Re-Revisited and would contain covers of some the NWOBHM and hardcore songs that had inspired the members of Metallica, and which the guys had rehearsed in Lars Ulrich’s garage.

I generally despise the use of cover songs within full length studio albums. Unless they fit tightly within the tone and themes of the album, they often merely distract and detract from the flow of the album (Megadeth had a bad habit of doing this on their early releases). I’ve always thought they should be limited to bonus tracks, compilations and EPs, which is why I have no issue at all with Garage Days Re-Revisited. Besides, not only are the tracks they chose really entertaining, but everything Metallica touched at this stage immediately turned to gold. It’s not surprising to find a Diamond Head track opening proceedings with Metallica consistently listing the British heavy metal band as one of their biggest influences. Helpless is one of the many Diamond Head tracks that Metallica have covered over the years with Am I Evil? being the first official one when it appeared on the Creeping Death EP in 1983. It’s a good, fist pumping track and it’s not hard to hear how songs like this helped develop the early Metallica sound. Second track The Small Hours was originally performed by Scottish progressive heavy metal band Holocaust. Its purposeful beats and slow heavy riffs gave Newsted a chance to be heard and while the basic structure is much simpler than something Metallica would produce at this stage, it’s a cool track with a haunting tone and has a great breakout lead section in the middle.

The third track was found on the majority of pressings, but it was omitted from the UK version due to local music industry laws regarding the maximum length of EPs. It’s a shame that anyone out there might have a copy that lacks The Wait, as it’s probably the highlight of the release. Killing Joke’s post-punk and industrial edge influenced innumerable bands from Nirvana to Napalm Death. It’s Newsted that really shines in this cranking track, laying down a variety of cool bass grooves, but Hetfield’s digitally effected vocals and long held chorus line are also perfectly executed. The wonderfully titled Crash Course in Brain Surgery was originally by pioneering early metal band Budgie way back in 1971. Once again from England, along with Black Sabbath, they really helped get metal off the ground and Metallica do justice to their influence with yet another enjoyable rocking cover. Garage Days Re-Revisited finishes with Last Caress/Green Hell, which is two separate tracks by American hardcore punk band The Misfits pasted together. It probably should stand out as the weak point of the release, but the lyrics are so distasteful and it’s performed with such vigour that it can’t help raising a smile. Any fan of Metallica should track this EP down, if only to hear some of the music that inspired them to pick up their instruments. You’re unlikely to find it for the $5.98 that’s listed on the cover so I suggest purchasing the Garage Inc. compilation that contains the entire EP plus stacks of other rare and unreleased material.

One of the finest albums recorded in any genre, Master of Puppets raised metal music to new heights!

Metallica’s third album, Master of Puppets, was released in March 1986. Following up the groundbreaking Ride the Lightning album was always going to be a difficult task, but Metallica were never a particularly ordinary band. These guys had ambition that far surpassed being an underground metal band. Kirk, Lars, James and Cliff will always be the ultimate Metallica line-up and this would tragically be the last time they would record material in the studio together. Their sound consistently progressed with each release in the 80s and Master of Puppets is undoubtedly the band at the peak of their powers. The evolution from raw thrash metal to technically impressive and structurally progressive metal, which was first hinted at on Ride the Lightning, can be found in full effect here. That’s not to say that Metallica didn’t thrash hard at this stage, as tracks like Battery and Damage Inc. are as brutal as the band would ever be. But in between these ripping bookends can be found masses of compositionally impressive music, talented musicianship and surprisingly thought provoking lyrics. Running through the tracks one by one is like a nostalgic trip through my impressionable teenage years. I thought this album was completely awesome back then and nothing has changed my mind since.

Kirk and James’ guitar work is exceptional throughout and nowhere is it more impressive than on the title track. It’s probably the highlight of the band’s career, but then with other classics included here such as Welcome Home (Sanitarium), colossal instrumental Orion and the aforementioned rippers that start and finish proceedings, that’s not such a clear cut statement. Just as on Ride the Lightning, there are a couple of tracks that are slightly less quality (Leper Messiah in particular), but this time they’re still good enough to keep the momentum going. Master of Puppets was the first Metallica album to gain a gold record (awarded for sales of over five hundred thousand) and would eventually be certified platinum six times over (selling six million copies in the States alone!). It not only made Metallica a household name, it still ranks today as one of the greatest metal albums of all time, topping numerous polls over the years, even making non metal specific lists such as Time magazine’s All Time 100 albums and Rolling Stones’ 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. If those sorts of accolades don’t impress you, then nothing I say will. No matter what material Metallica excrete upon their fans in modern times, albums like this one will always put the band at a level simply unreachable by all but the very elite.

The story of Cliff Burton’s death is a tragic one indeed. Metallica were touring through Sweden during the European leg of the Damage Inc. tour to support the Master of Puppets album. Sleeping on the tour bus had been difficult due to uncomfortable cubicles, so each night the guys would draw cards to see who would get to pick where they slept for the evening. On September 26, 1986, Cliff drew an Ace of Spades which gave him first choice. This fateful decision would result in his death at a few minutes before 7am the next morning, when the bus apparently ran over black ice (or so the driver claimed, avoiding criminal action) and flipped onto the grass near Dörarp in Southern Sweden. While all other passengers had only minor injuries, Cliff was thrown through the window of the bus and crushed under the vehicle. He was eventually cremated and his ashes were scattered at the Maxwell Ranch while Orion fittingly played in the background. “…cannot the Kingdom of Salvation take me home?” is written on Cliff’s memorial stone which would end up in the lyrics on To Live is to Die on the …And Justice For All release. Burton was deservingly inducted posthumously into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the rest of Metallica on April 4, 2009 where his father Ray made a speech on his much loved son’s behalf.

Where Metallica really took off, Ride the Lightning took metal to new heights!

Metallica's debut Kill ‘Em All was an angry thrashing beast that displayed an abundance of youthful aggression, while hinting at more subtle possibilities within its underbelly. It was far from flawless, but certainly displayed the promise that these ambitious and talented youngsters contained. Just over 12 months later and the band would enter Sweet Studios in Copenhagen, Denmark to record its follow-up. Released in August 1984, Ride the Lightning would send Metallica’s popularity skyrocketing and simultaneously progress the genre of thrash metal from entertaining attempts at breaking down the walls of extremity, to a form of music that simply demanded to be taken seriously. While still thrashing hard at times with grand metal flair, Ride the Lightning is a far more mature release than the debut, and is the real commencement of the hugely commercially successful Metallica institution. This is the Metallica that managed to be both critically praised for their musicianship and inspired song writing, while unearthing their lofty position within a whole generation of adoring fans. This was not just rebellious teenagers bashing their instruments and screaming irrationally like so many outsiders would try to suggest of the metal genre in general, but something to be truly proud of.

Ride the Lightning contains intelligently crafted music, with genuine themes (the death sentence, suicide and even the plagues that were visited upon the Egyptians in the biblical story of the Hebrews exodus from slavery) and creatively fashioned tracks with varying tempos and feel. The production is far superior to Kill ‘Em All, which certainly takes that dirty edge out of their music, but suits the evolution in compositions perfectly. While there was still a way to go to reach the progressive thrash hybrid the band performed on Master of Puppets and ...And Justice For All, Metallica had already started toying with lengthy, more complex efforts such as Ride the Lightning and The Call of Ktulu. Interestingly it’s these two tracks that Dave Mustaine is credited as a co-writer on the album sleeve, although considering his departure occurred over 12 months prior, one could assume the songs had transformed dramatically since his work on them. James’ vocals improved dramatically between albums as he gained confidence in a field he reluctantly took on in the first place. He may not have exceptional range, but tracks like Fade to Black show that he can hold his own with emotionally charged, cleanly sung vocals that are filled with conviction.

Ride the Lightning has lost none of its power today over twenty five years after its release. The title track, Fade to Black, Creeping Death and The Call of Ktulu are some of the finest tracks Metallica would ever create and all would play a part in the band's staple live set for years to come. Considering the album has sold well over five million copies in the U.S. alone, there’s no denying how important it is to both Metallica’s development and the genre of thrash metal. Yet despite all these facts and praise that I’ve just thrown at Ride the Lightning, the band would convincingly top it in just a couple of years, and the slightly less drool inducing Trapped Under Ice and Escape section of the album does temporarily stunt its momentum . It’s worth pointing out though that these two tracks are far better than anything the band has recorded in the last 15 years, so I am perhaps being a bit harsh in my judgement. Still, James, Kirk, Lars and Cliff made history with this album and no metal fan should be without it. It's one of those exceptionally rare moments where a few individuals can join so seamlessly, all playing a vital role in fulfilling a vision in unity. An undeniable metal classic!

A worthy, exciting debut from "the band" that brought so many of us to metal music. Priceless if not flawless!

"Drummer looking for other metal musicians to jam with Tygers of Pan Tang, Diamond Head and Iron Maiden." This was the advertisement that was responsible for the creation of one of the most successful bands in music history. When Lars placed the ad, I’m sure he had no idea of the journey he was about to undertake, nor would one James Hetfield who answered it in late 1981. Metallica would shortly be born! Well, at least it would be once Lars decided upon the name which was originally an idea his friend had for the title of a fanzine. After that first advertisement had so much success, Lars thought he’d see whether lightning would strike twice, with the end result being the recruitment of Dave Mustaine. These three enthusiastic youths went about recording Hit the Lights for the Metal Massacre I compilation before recruiting Ron McGovney on bass (James had been playing bass up to this point) so they could perform live. This four man line-up was responsible for the infamous No Life 'til Leather demo in 1982 and while Ron would not remain with the band for long, he is the man responsible for the Metallica logo that adorns the majority of their releases.

In November 1982, the band would take a trip to San Francisco which would turn out to be quite beneficial. Not only did they witness Exodus playing live with Kirk Hammett on guitar, they also attended a Trauma gig where they were thoroughly impressed with bassist Cliff Burton. Lars and James immediately tried to convince Cliff to play for Metallica (one can only assume that they had not been particularly impressed with the performance of Ron McGovney) and he accepted if the band would relocate to San Francisco. All was agreed and it appeared the band had finally come to a suitable line-up until Dave was kicked out of the band in April 1983 due to a combination of drug and alcohol abuse and violent behaviour (he’d then go and form Megadeth). The remaining members contacted Kirk Hammett and he was all too happy to join Metallica that very afternoon. It had taken a couple of years, but the classic Metallica line-up up Lars Ulrich, James Hetfield, Cliff Burton and Kirk Hammett had finally come together. In May 1983 they travelled to Rochester, New York to record their debut album which would be called Metal Up Your Ass. Or so they thought!

As one might expect, the label Megaforce Records and distributors had an issue with the name of the album the boys had chosen and the original cover that depicted a hand thrusting a knife out of toilet, so the band were forced to change their plans. The resulting title Kill ‘Em All came about when Cliff referred to the labels decision by remarking “just fuckin’ kill ‘em all”! That’s typical of the youthful rebellion and aggression that these guys contained and you can hear it all over Kill ‘Em All. They took the metal that they’d grown up loving and gave it a raw and hostile overhaul. Listening to it in 2010 you might be excused for thinking it’s not particularly nasty or heavy, but it sure as hell was in 1983. Thousands of adolescents went crazy for it and while it was yet to be seen whether the band could develop into a mainstream and commercially viable entity, they’d certainly stirred up the underground and given bands like Slayer, not to mention Megadeth and Exodus, an opening to unleash their own forms of thrashing madness upon a willing audience. None of this was a fluke however, nor were Metallica just in the right place at the right time. These guys had the talent to go with their ambition!

Cliff was a great bassist that helped change the way the instrument was utilised. Lars may never have been particularly technical, but his drumming was both tight and powerful, doing all the right things at the right times to get the blood pumping. James’ vocals were aggressive and hostile, as were the lyrics he so venomously spat out. Both he and Kirk created riffs that were far more shredding than fans of metal were used to at the time and the leads displayed immense talent. Of course, the band would get much, much better than this over the next few albums and tracks like Motorbreath and Phantom Lord perhaps don’t hold up all that well when compared to their more celebrated material, yet others such as The Four Horsemen and Metal Militia will have you smiling with more than just nostalgia even over 25 years after they were first put to vinyl. There’s no doubt that Metallica would continue to be “the band” that got people into metal for years to come and while I can’t say Kill ‘Em All was the album for me (it was 1988’s ...And Justice For All), there’s absolutely no question that my obsession with metal music can be traced back to the name Metallica, for which I’m eternally grateful.

There is indeed some treasure to be found here, but it's very well hidden.

Megadeth’s Youthanasia album, with its radio friendly, accessible metal tunes, further increased the bands popularity across the globe. In March 1995, they released a special edition of the album for European fans, which contained a bonus disc entitled Hidden Treasures. Given their fans obsessive nature, it wasn’t surprising that those outside Europe got a little bit distressed that they didn’t get the same treatment, which resulted in Megadeth releasing Hidden Treasures as a separate EP in the US and Japan three months later. It’s actually the only official Megadeth EP to go with their twelve full length studio albums and three official live releases at the time of this review. Hidden Treasures is basically a collection of tracks the band had originally recorded for soundtracks and tribute albums over a period of six years, all brought together in one neat little package. I can’t say the idea excited me all that much given my general disdain towards the cover versions Megadeth included on past releases such as These Boots (on Killing is My Business...and Business is Good), I Ain’t Superstitious (on Peace Sells...But Who’s Buying?) and Anarchy in the UK (on So Far, So Good...So What?). Then again, only three of the eight tracks on Hidden Treasures are covers with the other five written by Mustaine and co., meaning there was every chance I’d find something I like along the way.

Things don’t start promisingly however with No More Mr. Nice Guy. Recorded for the aptly titled Wes Craven film Shocker in 1989, this opener is a cover of an Alice Cooper track from his 1973 album Billion Dollar Babies. While it does remind me of the more playful Megadeth from years long past, it doesn’t really add anything to the original apart from a nice lead. After that upbeat start, Breakpoint brings a bit of normality to proceedings, being the first Megadeth written track on the EP. Originally appearing on the terrible 1993 Super Mario Bros. movie, this is quite a nice little piece with a very audible bass drive and stacks of great leads kicking in and out. Third track Go to Hell was one of the tracks I was really looking forward to, for no other reason than it was recorded in 1991 when the band were at their peak. Appearing on Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey, there’s no doubt that this was a direct attack on the band’s arch enemies Metallica. Containing many of the same lyrics as Enter Sandman, Go to Hell is clearly a piss-take, with moments like “Now I lay me down to sleep, blah, blah, blah my soul to keep, if I die before I wake, I’ll go to hell for heaven’s sake”. With an obvious emphasis on keeping things metal, with a sound similar to the Rust in Peace album, this track not only convincingly tells Metallica to go to hell, it’s also one of the highlights of Hidden Treasures.

Angry Again was recorded in 1993 for the Schwarzenegger driven Last Action Hero movie. Feeling like a leftover from Countdown to Extinction, its mid paced rhythm and accessibly melodic chorus are pleasant enough without being much to get excited about. The same can’t be said about 99 Ways to Die, which was recorded for The Beavis and Butt-head Experience, also in 1993. Finding Mustaine back to his more aggressive vocal style, this track really packs a punch with a heavy thrash element and intense chorus that will still get stuck in your brain. Megadeth’s cover of Paranoid, recorded for the Nativity in Black tribute to Black Sabbath in 1994, is perfectly acceptable, but plays it extremely safe by being pretty much an imitation of the original. Seventh track Diadems was recorded for the 1995 horror flick Demon Knight (another bad movie). It’s a slower track with more of a doom emphasis than Megadeth are known for, and stands out as an example of the band branching out just a little. Unfortunately, Hidden Treasures finishes with another cover, this time of Problems by the Sex Pistols. As with all Megadeth covers, there’s nothing wrong with the performance, it just doesn’t add anything of note to a track that’s fairly detached from my tastes to begin with. All things considered, Hidden Treasures is a mishmash of rarities and covers that does indeed contain a couple of gems. They’re probably a bit too hidden for it to be essential however.

An impressive and exhilarating, if not completely flawless, thrash metal classic.

Megadeth’s third album, So Far, So Good...So What?, had been an inconsistent and not particularly satisfying effort. It wasn’t all that surprising either given the drug and alcohol abuse going on within the band, not to mention the instability of the line-up involved. Things didn’t get any better afterwards either and in 1989, Mustaine fired both drummer Chuck Behler and guitarist Jeff Young. Ironically, given the same thing occurred for him a couple of years earlier, Behler was replaced by Nick Menza, his drum technician. Finding a replacement guitarist proved much more difficult however and during the auditioning period, Mustaine was arrested for driving while intoxicated and possession of narcotics. He would be forced to clean up under court ordered rehab and got sober for the first time in ten years. The search for a guitarist continued with quite a few big names such as Lee Altus of Heathen, Eric Meyer of Dark Angel, Dimebag Darrell Abbott of Pantera and Jeff Loomis of Sanctuary (and eventually Nevermore). Dimebag Darrell was actually offered the position but would not accept unless his brother Vinnie could also join the band. Since Menza had already been selected as drummer, this was not possible and he had to be turned away. Mustaine had been very impressed with 16 year old Loomis but was not willing to hire him due to his age. It would be Loomis that would find Megadeth’s solution, informing Cacophony’s guitarist Marty Friedman that he should audition at a concert.

Of course it wasn’t as simple as that. Mustaine initially rejected Friedman for the simple reason that his hair was multicoloured. It would take Friedman to undergo what Mustaine called Rock School 101 before he would be allowed to join the Megadeth ranks and finally a full line-up was complete in February 1990. This union would become the longest standing and most successful Megadeth line-up of all, remaining together for close to a decade and recording four albums (three of which would go platinum in the States). But it was in March 1990 that Mustaine, Ellefson, Friedman and Menza first entered the studio together to record the infamous Rust in Peace album and for the first time in Megadeth’s existence, they would do it completely sober. It’s a good thing they were too as the resulting album is considered not only Megadeth’s most praised release, but also one of the very best thrash metal albums of all time. Much tighter than their previous albums, Rust in Peace showcases some incredible musicianship and highly complex structures throughout. Not only does Mustaine finally display just how good he can be when he’s not off his tree, but Friedman’s heroic performance is truly one for the ages. This album contains a whole host of awesome thrash riffs and countless exhilarating, not to mention technically astounding, leads from both guitarists. Most importantly though, and unlike all previous Megadeth albums, the band don’t tarnish this one with an inappropriate cover version.

Mustaine came up with the title Rust in Peace after reading a bumper sticker that stated “may all your nuclear weapons rust in peace”. He thought it would not only make a great title for an album, but that it would fit perfectly with the political discontent that was a popular theme within Megadeth’s material. The majority of the lyrics of Rust in Peace take on a more serious note than before, with Mustaine switching between real world issues such as the Northern Ireland conflict (Holy Wars), prisoners of war (Take No Prisoners), and nuclear war in general (Dawn Patrol and Rust in Peace...Polaris) and more personal issues such as heroin addiction (Poison Was the Cure) and dysfunctional relationships (Tornado of Souls). Of course he still manages to get some sci-fi/b-grade horror stuff in there as usual with Hangar 18, Five Magics and Lucretia, making Rust in Peace as entertaining as it is relevant. There will always be people that suggest the album suffers due to Mustaine’s vocal performance, but while I admit he doesn’t always sound comfortable or technically correct, I just can’t imagine any of these songs being performed by anyone else. His inimitable style just screams Megadeth and somehow combines perfectly with the themes within. Speaking of themes, once again artist Ed Repka nailed the cover artwork, managing to combine mascot Vic Rattlehead, the band’s political criticism and album theme Hangar 18 in perfect union.

Considering all the worshipping at the altar of Megadeth that I’ve just completed, you might be wondering why my rating for Rust in Peace is missing half a star. The answer is that despite how incredible the musicianship and overall package is, there are a few tracks on the album that slightly miss their mark. If all nine tracks were as good, or even nearly as good, as Holy Wars...The Punishment Due, Hangar 18 and Five Magics, then I’d probably try to give Rust in Peace six stars. These three tracks are majorly ass kicking and the majority of the album’s high points can be found within them. Five Magics in particular would have to be my favourite Megadeth track ever with its dark atmosphere, progressive timings and potent duel solos. Unfortunately, the second half of the album can’t quite keep the high standard going and while things do finish on a high note with the title track, I can’t ignore the let down. Poison Was the Cure heads back to the NWOBHM influenced Killing is My Business period which just doesn’t sit too well with me, Tornado of Souls is not particularly attention-grabbing despite having one of the finest solos you will ever hear courtesy of Friedman, and the less said about Dawn Patrol the better. I’m not suggesting for a second that Rust in Peace is not one of the most important and enjoyable albums in thrash metal, but I simply can’t rid myself of the feeling that it’s far from perfect. It is however, as close as Megadeth would get.

A huge step up from the debut, Peace Sells is a defining album for one of thrash metal's legends.

I wasn’t particularly impressed with Killing is My Business…and Business is Good! Megadeth’s debut had some nice thrashing moments, but was too inconsistent and immature to be labelled an essential album. Band leader Dave Mustaine seemed too intent on bettering Metallica to succeed in forming an identity for his own band and fell short in that original pursuit anyway. Despite having numerous line-up changes prior to their first album being recorded, and guitarist Chris Poland’s temporary exodus on tour with Exciter, Megadeth managed to hold the same arrangement in place long enough to enter the studio to record a follow-up in late 1985. Unfortunately, things wouldn’t go completely to plan, as the small recording budget offered by Combat Records resulted in a less than satisfactory end result. Frustrated with the lack of funds, Megadeth jumped ship and signed on to Capitol records who subsequently bought the rights to the new album off Combat and set about remixing the recordings. In November 1986, Peace Sells...But Who’s Buying? was finally released over a year after the band first started recording it. All the extra effort was no doubt worth it as Peace Sells is a classic thrash metal album that really kick-started the band’s commercial and critical success.

From the very first minutes of Wake Up Dead, it’s apparent that this is a very different beast to the debut. In what has to be one the best starts to a thrash metal album in history, Megadeth combined humour, several superb mosh-worthy riffs and numerous kickass leads before the listener has had time to pick their jaw off the floor. Any production issues and awkwardness that blemished Killing is My Business are forgotten immediately and Megadeth have successfully left their poor man’s Metallica phase well and truly behind them. This is the most fun you can have listening to music and while I don’t have an issue with metal bands taking themselves too seriously (I take metal seriously too!), it’s refreshing to hear a band clearly having fun and making sure the listener does too, without sacrificing quality. Surprisingly given that the line-up is unchanged and the small amount of time between albums, the musicianship on show here is far superior to their previous effort. While Gar Samuelson (drums) and David Ellefson (bass) get the job done more than adequately, Chris and Dave’s guitar work is absolutely stellar throughout. Solos seem to be a dying art these days and its hard to understand why when you listen to Megadeth’s best work. Dave’s vocals also improved dramatically as he found a style that compliments his unique and limited range.

Along with the apparent huge step up in musicianship and production, the band really nailed their audience thematically. As much as the metal youth had lapped up all the pro Satanic imagery (Slayer) and philosophy of death / suicide (Metallica) related lyrics, they found it far easier to relate to a guy trying to sneak into his own house after cheating on his wife so he doesn’t Wake Up Dead. For the rest of the album the subject matter swings between a tongue in cheek social commentary and B grade horror / science fiction elements. Both would become customary ingredients of the Megadeth blueprint and even be seamlessly combined on Rust in Peace with government cover-ups of alien visitations. Interestingly, the Satan in Megadeth’s work appears to be the villain as opposed to an entity worthy of praise, as is the cliché of extreme metal. The Conjuring seems to be describing some sort of ritual with the end result being Satan claiming the soul of some poor bastard that’s made a deal with the devil. Bad Omen seems to portray a group of people worshipping Satan in the hope he will give them his blessing, only for demons to rape and destroy them before Satan takes their souls. The modern Dave Mustaine claims to be a born again Christian but it seems to me that his fear of God could be detected right from this early stage.

The majority of Peace Sells...But Who’s Buying? is damn entertaining thrash metal, although I have to say that Devil’s Island isn’t quite as impressive and I Ain’t Superstitious continues the dubious selection of covers that Megadeth marred all of their first three albums with. Wake Up Dead, The Conjuring, Good Mourning/Black Friday, Bad Omen and My Last Words are all Megadeth classics that put this album high on any all time thrash metal list. Even the overly accessible title track with its chugging riffs and playful leads is undeniably enjoyable, not to mention how much it helped the band reach a whole new audience with the video getting airtime on MTV. Of course I can’t finish without mentioning that cover. After the last minute botch together (after the real artwork was lost) that adorned Killing is My Business, the band needed someone to not only produce a great cover, but also give character to Megadeth’s chosen mascot Rattlehead. Edward J. Repka was the man who came up with the goods, not only forming the basis of so much of the bands future identity, but also completely encompassing the tone and theme of the album by suggesting that peace itself had become a commodity. It’s just the cherry on the cake for one of the many great albums to come out of the golden era of thrash metal.

The modern Katatonia era emerges with possibly the gloomiest, most depressive album of their existence.

By the time Discouraged Ones reached my ears, I was already well aware of the transformation that Katatonia had undertaken. After the incredible Brave Murder Day album and the almost as good EP follow-up Sounds of Decay, the band shed themselves of all doom death metal influences and began a fresh journey into the realm of depressive rock. While many of their fans were shocked the first time album opener I Break tried to dampen their day, I was fortunately fully prepared after getting my hands on one of the very limited Saw You Drown EPs a couple of months prior. I was glad I had too, as I’d already transitioned from downright shock through to acceptance, and then eventually found myself really enjoying Katatonia’s new sound, all before placing Discouraged Ones into my CD player. The differences between Brave Murder Day and Discouraged Ones are not limited to genre alone, with Opeth’s Åkerfeldt no longer contributing vocals as drummer Renkse moved back behind the microphone, and bassist Micke Oretoft joining the band after guitarist Nyström had handled both duties on the previous album. It’s always a serious risk for any band to dramatically change their sound between albums, but for a blatantly metal band to move frighteningly close to something resembling pop is near suicide. So how is it that Katatonia not only managed to keep a fair portion of their fan base, but also received an overall positive critical response?

The answer is that despite the contrasting style of Katatonia’s first three albums, there is one main ingredient that remains present throughout. The desolate, sorrowful tone! The band has a knack for taking very real feelings of loss and despair and turning them into blissfully melancholic music. The approach of Discouraged Ones is far more contemporary than one might have expected given their past, but the result is strikingly similar. If anything, Renkse’s dreary vocals and the more plodding nature of this material give it an even gloomier outcome, with both the riffs and leads as beautiful as they are miserable. Renkse’s vocals are certainly a surprise, considering his fairly weak performance on the track Day on Brave Murder Day. I certainly wasn’t convinced at the time that he would ever be able to lead the band, but with a bit of experience and confidence, his distinctive style would end up suiting Katatonia’s material like a glove. It probably helped that Åkerfeldt acted as vocal producer for the album, assisting the band to move onto new pastures for which his borrowed presence would no longer be necessary. Norrman and Nyström are the main event however, producing track after track of hypnotic and effortlessly depressive riffs and melodies. They use a lot of the same techniques that made Brave Murder Day so emotionally engaging, yet with little sharpness or intensity, resulting in a warmer experience that still effectively plays with your heartstrings.

As enjoyable (that doesn’t feel like the right word at all) as Discouraged Ones has become for me, there’s still something slightly awkward about it. It’s hard to put into words, but it would be a few years still until Katatonia would lose that uncomfortable edge. If anything, the vulnerability and uncertainty that it adds to the atmosphere works in the band’s favour as it goes hand in hand with their exposed lyrical themes. There’s no doubt however that a couple of tracks (Gone in particular) push the glumness just a bit too far to be truly effective, which unfortunately stops Discouraged Ones from reaching the heights of Brave Murder Day and the like. That being said, the highlights are breathtaking, with I Break, Deadhouse, Relention and Saw You Drown in particular really hitting their mark, the latter of which really sums up the tone of the album overall with “in the water, I saw you drown, down the water, saw you drown”. Discouraged Ones kick-started a new era for Katatonia and while future releases would increase in maturity and add additional dimensions, the blueprints for their sound was drawn up right here. As much as I personally love the albums that preceded it (and bands like Finland’s Rapture would carry that torch ahead after Katatonia relinquished it), I’ve always remained a fan of this great Swedish band, who have become one of the most consistently excellent outfits even remotely connected to the metal scene.

A nice little farewell to the death doom metal form of Katatonia and essential for Brave Murder Day fans.

The Sounds of Decay EP was a Katatonia release that eluded me for many years. While it can now be found in its entirety easily enough on the 2004 Brave Yester Days Compilation, or on the Peaceville re-release of Brave Murder Day as bonus tracks (not to mention be downloaded at the click of a button), I was at one stage left to scour the likes of EBay to try and get my hands on it. Given my love of Brave Murder Day, and the fact that Sounds of Decay is the only other recording that features the same Katatonia line-up, this was one release that I was very keen to track down. While I thoroughly enjoy the softer depressive rock direction these Swedes chose to take from this point onwards, I’ve always been a sucker for death doom metal, and Brave Murder Day is one of the highlights of the genre, not to mention one of my favourite albums of any style. Its hypnotic and despondent melodies move me immeasurably, so the idea of more of the same seemed like a perfectly good proposition to me. That’s exactly what you get with Sounds of Decay, so the day I unwrapped my precious digipak copy, sent from some obscure international location and for which I paid an exorbitant amount of cash for, was an exciting one indeed. Can’t say I’ve ever regretted the purchase either!

Speaking of the digipak, it seems to be the only official version that was released, although there are a few slipcase editions floating around the internet. It’s suitably gloomy cover displays a grainy still from an underground film titled Begotten. Having not seen the film, I can’t judge its quality, but IMDB’s plot summary mentions God disembowelling himself with a straight razor, the spirit-like Mother Earth emerging into a bleak and barren landscape, and the Son of Earth being set upon by faceless cannibals. One can only assume that this experimental art-house film gave the members of Katatonia some particularly depressing inspiration to work with, or perhaps they just thought the tainted image of a decrepit God was cool. While I may never know the answer to that question, I can answer whether Sounds of Decay contains music as great as can be found on Brave Murder Day. The answer is probably best summed up as “almost”, but you won’t hear any complaints from me regardless. It would be a couple more years until Finnish band Rapture would clone this sound (very effectively I might add), so these three tracks helped me through the harsh withdrawal symptoms nicely. I always assumed that this material was just unused recordings from the Brave Murder Day sessions, but the official Katatonia website put that theory to rest.

After a successful debut tour of Europe in the autumn of 1996, the band was raring to get back in the studio to record something new. Unfortunately, Dan Swanö’s Unisound Studio, which they’d used for all previous releases, had closed its doors for good, so they’d have to find a new home. The most logical alternative was Sunlight Studio, which also happened to be located in their home city of Stockholm. Knowing this information, it’s surprising just how much Sounds of Decay sounds like Brave Murder Day and apart from a couple of dodgy lead sections, these 18 minutes of blissful hopelessness contain all the qualities that worked so well on that album. Opener Nowhere is probably the highlight, but all three have enough to offer to make this EP well worth hunting down in whatever format you can get your hands on. Apparently, there was a fourth track called Untrue recorded during this session but left off Sounds of Decay for unknown reasons. It does appear on the Brave Yester Days compilation though and I can't help thinking it would have been a great finish to this release and would have given it just a little bit more substance. Still, as a farewell to the death doom styled Katatonia, Sounds of Decay is a fitting goodbye and should hold its place in any fan's collection.

Hypnotic genius that would change the perception of death doom metal. Essential!

It’s always difficult to write a review for a favourite album. Expressing how much music means to you in words can be a daunting prospect, as the thought of not doing an album justice weighs heavily on the mind whenever attempting it. Brave Murder Day is such an album for me and I hope that I manage to convey my adoration for it over the next few paragraphs. These Swedes had already impressed me greatly by the time I came across this treasure, with their debut full length album Dance of December Souls and the following For Funerals to Come EP both containing hauntingly atmospheric death doom metal, with fantastic melodies and passion-filled vocals. However, as much as I found their music to be moving and entertaining, there’s no doubt that it displayed some signs of immaturity, with less than tight musicianship on occasion and room for improvement in the way their tracks were structured. Taking all this into account, I figured Katatonia would be all the better for the experience, and that their next album would in all likelihood overcome these awkward moments and deliver something very special indeed. Little did I know that this next album would come very close to never eventuating at all, and how dramatically different it would be once it finally did.

After the success of Dance of December Souls, Renkse and Blackheim were not only struggling to find a stable line-up, but they were also finding it difficult to decide exactly where to take their sound. They had toyed with the idea of performing gothic rock with the Scarlet Heavens recording (eventually appearing on a split vinyl with Primordial) before ditching the idea and reverting back to their original sound. This indecision appears to have come to a head after the For Funerals to Come session in 1994, which led to these long term friends putting Katatonia on hold for an indefinite period of time. Blackheim used the sabbatical to explore other genres of metal, putting his energy into the black metal carnival that is Diabolical Masquerade (creating the amazing Ravendusk in My Heart in the process), and also taking part in a thrash metal band called Bewitched. Renkse on the other hand combined with Fredrik Norrman to form October Tide, recording Rain Without End before the end of 1995. It has to be said that October Tide’s debut album, which wouldn’t be officially released until 1997, is where the Brave Murder Day sound was really established, and one has to wonder whether Katatonia would have gone down this path at all had this short hiatus not taken place.

In early 1996, the duo reformed Katatonia and significantly brought Norrman into the fold. There was however one more issue they needed to deal with before getting down to business. Jonas could no longer perform the harsh vocals he was known for due to the extensive damage it was doing to his throat. They’d have to find a replacement vocalist and what better place to look than amongst your own country mates. In steps Mikael Åkerfeldt from Opeth fame. While the man may receive criticism from a growing number of Opeth bashers (as is the case with anything popular it seems), there’s just no doubt in my mind that Mikael is one of the finest vocalists in metal. His performance on Brave Murder Day may not demonstrate the extent of his capabilities, but the controlled anger and melancholy he brings suits the musical themes perfectly. Blackheim and Fredrik produce multitudes of sumptuous melodies throughout, but the other technique that they utilise to achieve their goal is repetition. These tracks have such a calming, hypnotic effect on the listener, despite the extreme despondency that this sound conveys. The album has influenced so many other bands (not least of all Finnish band Rapture) and changed the perception of what doom death metal is capable of. After all, there’s nothing romantic or gothic about Brave Murder Day. It’s mid paced, droning and raw!

Brave Murder Day’s title is taken directly from the first three tracks on the album, but there are six tracks in all totalling just over forty minutes. The first of these (Brave obviously) is the best of the lot in my opinion, being a ten minute classic built around constant rhythmic riffs and Mikael’s grief-stricken vocals. Murder, Rainroom and closer Endtime come awfully close to matching Brave and are all brilliant, but their lesser running times don’t quite allow them the room to outshine it. 12 stands out as having a slightly different structure to the rest, which isn’t surprising considering it’s actually a reworking of an earlier Katatonia track called Black Erotica, originally recorded for the W.A.R. Compilation Volume 1 for Wrong Again Records in 1995. There’s no question that it’s third track Day that causes the most controversy amongst fans of the band. This depressing little “ballad” was the first track to contain entirely clean vocals from Renkse and many consider his performance here to be a bit weak, despite the fact that he would take over full time clean vocals on all albums from this point onwards. While I agree that he would go from strength to strength with each subsequent album, I still think this track gives the album a much needed shift in intensity and his emotional, vulnerable style only adds to the melancholy.

One of the other things of note when discussing Brave Murder Day is that the album was originally released completely un-mastered. Why this happened is anyone’s guess (perhaps the band felt no need to tinker with the result) but it wasn’t until 2006 that Peaceville would re-release the album in mastered form for the very first time. I haven’t heard this updated version, but to be honest, I see no need to. The production on the original has nothing of note that needs adjusting and the organic sound of the instruments works in its favour rather than against it. The thing that does make the Peaceville release appealing is that it also includes the fantastic EP Sounds of Decay. This three track EP contains the only other material recorded with this line-up and therefore sits perfectly alongside Brave Murder Day, unlike the For Funerals to Come EP which is included on the Century Media version. That being said, both of these EPs can be found on the Brave Yester Days compilation (along with stacks of other rare and unreleased material), so there’s no real reason in my mind to upgrade from the original pressing of this classic album. In the end, Brave Murder Day is an album that all fans of depressive metal should own, regardless of which version you choose. It’s an album I can never get sick of and is thoroughly deserving of five stars.

A couple of great tracks in the style of Dance of December Souls, make this EP well worth checking out in some form.

I get the feeling that the members of Katatonia were a little confused back in the mid nineties. After a more than decent death doom metal debut in Dance of December Souls, I’m not sure that these Swedish musicians were all that keen to continue on doing exactly the same thing. The first thing they did after receiving loads of praise for their unique and highly depressive (if not oppressive) sound was consider changing it altogether. In early 1994, they entered Unisound Studio to record a single ten minute track known as Scarlet Heavens. While it still contained a similar guitar sound to earlier material, Scarlet Heavens is pure gothic rock, similar to something that Sisters of Mercy produced back in the eighties. The upbeat drumming, groovy bass and crooning vocals were all a far cry from Dance of December Souls and while it would take many years for this track to finally see the light of day (it was eventually released as part of the split 10” with Primordial in 1996 before also being included on the Saw You Drown EP in 1998), it undoubtedly displayed Katatonia’s willingness to try new things, and their desire to not stagnate. In Spring 1994, Wrong Again records asked the band to contribute to a compilation they were putting together called W.A.R. Compilation Vol. 1 at around the same time that Avantgarde Music offered them a new record deal, convincing them to continue with metal, at least for now.

Armed with a new determination to take Katatonia to the next level, the guys once again entered Unisound in September 1994 to record six new tracks, two of which would end up on W.A.R. Compilation Vol. 1, while the other four would make up the For Funerals to Come EP. While these recordings chronologically split the melody filled, expansive Dance of December Souls album and the hypnotic, effectively repetitive Brave Murder Day, they are much more in the vein of the former than the latter. Even Black Erotica, one of the tracks included on the Wrong Again compilation (along with Love of the Swan), which would be re-recorded for Brave Murder Day as 12, was less about repetition and more about despondent melodies. Anyway, this review is supposed to be about For Funerals to Come, so I’ll get to the point (for once). The short of it is that this is an enjoyable EP that will unquestionably be of value to anyone that enjoys early Katatonia. Both Funeral Wedding and Shades of Emerald Fields in particular include numerous fantastic riffs and melodies, with that sorrowful atmosphere the band have always been renowned for. Listening to these tracks brings to mind Orchid / Morningrise period Opeth, not so much in style (although there are some similarities) as in the way the band throw a constant stream of fresh ideas and techniques at the listener, with no real care for overall composition.

That last statement might sound like a negative, and in the case of early Opeth I think it can be at times, but neither Funeral Wedding nor Shades of Emerald Fields cross the ten minute mark, meaning things don’t get out of hand. The gorgeous lead around the two minute mark and the double bass kicking section around five minutes in make Funeral Wedding the highlight of the two for me. I haven’t mentioned the third or fourth tracks yet simply because they total only four minutes running time, which is one of the reasons I can’t rate this EP any higher. The title track is a nice little atmospheric piece for sure, but closer Epistel is basically just white noise with what I assume is Blackheim doing his best Blaze in the Northern Sky impersonation. Neither really adds much, making For Funerals to Come an interesting yet not completely satisfying release all up. If you want to check it out, I don’t really recommend trying to track down the original EP, as it’s long out of print. You do have the option of purchasing one of the Brave Murder Day versions that includes it as a bonus, but I’ve never thought that was a very suitable way to experience it. You’re better off getting your hands on the Brave Yester Days compilation which not only contains the whole EP, it also includes the aforementioned Scarlet Heavens, Black Erotica and Love of the Swan, making it an invaluable option to any Katatonia fan that doesn’t own all their hard to find early releases.

A sorrowful collection of melancholic death doom that never fails to move me.

As impressive as Katatonia’s first release (the Jhva Elohim Meth... the Revival EP) was, it had in fact never been intended as anything other than a demo. While Vic Records clearly felt it was good enough to have an official release (they re-released it on CD with no changes to the demo recording), there were certainly some uncomfortable moments throughout, with sloppy musicianship and slightly off musical choices marring what was an otherwise emotionally engaging and thoroughly unique sound. When it came to producing a more deliberate Katatonia album, the Swedes made a few small yet significant changes, resulting in more defined and consistent material. The Paradise Lost inspired death doom is still well and truly present, as are the distinctively melancholic melodies and the raw agonised vocals, but the minor black metal element of earlier work has been removed altogether. The band also added an extra member, with Guillaume Le Huche (aka Israphel Wing) taking bass duties out of Blackheim’s hands, not only giving him the chance concentrate on guitar, but also allowing the band to perform live for the first time. Katatonia entered Unisound Studios (still going by the name Gorysound at the time) on the 4th of April, 1993, with Dan Swanö once again producing, mixing and engineering the album, not to mention performing all keyboards under the name Day DiSyraah, which is the pseudonym he was using at the time for his Pan-Thy-Monium project.

Exactly five days later, Dance of December Souls was completed, but for whatever reason it took a further eight months to be released. It would be easy to assume that the band’s new label No Fashion Records wished for the album to hit the shelves in December as a marketing tool, but that’s not particularly likely given the underground status of the band at the time. When it did finally see the light of day, it was met with instant praise from the metal scene at large, and Katatonia’s lengthy evolution was truly set in motion. I have to admit that Dance of December Souls didn’t make such an immediate connection with me, and it took quite of few listens before the melodies really worked their magic. Despite the album having far superior production than Jhva Elohim Meth... the Revival along with much tighter musicianship (it’s still a bit loose mind you), there’s something very raw and harsh about this debut full length. I can only put it down to the unprocessed nature of the production and the exceptionally honest emotion that Blackheim and Lord J. Renkse (he no longer went by the name Lord Seth) managed to squeeze out of these tracks. Renkse’s vocals in particular are tortured and angst-ridden, and while his clean modern style still contains a certain level of despondency, his output here reaches much greater depths of sorrow and rage. It’s not surprising to hear that every one of these misery-filled cries was seriously damaging his throat, which is why this is the only full length Katatonia album to incorporate them.

In the end though, it’s Blackheim that really deserves credit for this wonderful album. There are a constant flow of doomy riffs, deeply moving melodies and nice acoustic sections in every track, and while his style is still recognisable on the post millennium albums, he would rarely display this sort of variety again. It’s a pretty consistent album all up, but the highlights for me would have to be the two thirteen minute tracks, Velvet Thorns (of Drynwhyl) and Tomb of Insomnia, where the band get the room to explore their gloomy themes to the max. As good as Dance of December Souls is, I don’t think it’s wise to assume that you will find it to your liking just because you enjoy recent albums like The Great Cold Distance. All of their albums are based around depressive, emotionally charged tones, but then the means in which they produce them has varied dramatically since their inception. The harsher qualities of this debut are far less accessible, so I recommend checking it out prior to purchasing. If that’s what you choose to do, it’s worth noting that there are a few different versions available. The pick of the bunch would have to be the 2007 special digipak released by Peaceville, that also contains the entire Jhva Elohim Meth... the Revival EP, all remastered with exclusive liner notes. There’s also a re-issue from label Black Lodge that has totally different artwork, but the band has stated that “we do not support this re-issue and take complete distance from its existence”, so you might want to avoid it.

Originally only intended as a demo, this rare EP is a sorrowful artefact from the band's death doom era.

Katatonia have changed dramatically over the nearly twenty years since their formation. Their modern sound, while still retaining some minor elements from their early period, can generally be classified as alternative metal or even alternative rock. Back in the early nineties however, they were one of the pioneering bands in the death doom metal genre along with My Dying Bride, Anathema and Paradise Lost. Yet while the connection between those three British bands was clearly apparent, the Swedish Katatonia produced a unique spin on things, forging their own brand of depressive music that was both distinctive and emotionally engaging. There is talk that the band’s origin goes back as far as 1987, under the moniker Melancholium, but long time friends Anders Nyström (aka Blackheim) and Jonas Renkse (aka Lord Seth) officially formed Katatonia in Stockholm in 1991. At this early stage, Nyström handled all guitars and Renkse vocals and drums, and they rehearsed for over a year before entering Gorysound Studios in July 1992 to record their first demo. This demo was limited to 500 copies and was produced by scene legend Dan Swanö, who also performed keyboard and clean vocals on the recording under the name Day Disyhrah, which was the name he used on all Pan.Thy.Monium releases.

The demo was titled Jhva Elohim Meth, which means God is Dead, a quote first found in Friedrich Nietzsche’s The Gay Science, and then further explored throughout his subsequent books. Given that the phrase was not literally suggesting that God was once alive and then died, but instead that humanity has surpassed the need for a higher supernatural power, it’s certainly an apt title for an extreme metal album. Yet after reading the lyrics of Katatonia’s Without God, it doesn’t appear that the band were affiliated with, or completely understood, the context of Nietzsche’s words, as lines such as “Satan laughs” and “the lambs shall bleed, eternally bleed” suggest a more literal interpretation. Either way, the demo sold out almost immediately and captured the attention of Dutch label Vic Records. Convinced that Jhva Elohim Meth didn’t require re-recording, they simply re-released it on CD, making what was meant to be a demo the first official Katatonia release. I’m not sure whether it was the band’s decision or the label’s, but you have to question the choice of title for the EP, which was modified to Jhva Elohim Meth...The Revival. A revival of the demo it may be, but it ends up suggesting the revival of God, which implies more of a Christian message than the anti one they were going for.

Apart from the name change, the only other noticeable difference between the demo and the EP is the title of the first track. Originally titled Midwinter Intergates, the band obviously realised there was no such word as Intergates and changed it to Gates. It’s a neat little prologue too, with really pleasant acoustic guitar and a subtle keyboard backdrop calmly inviting the listener into the album. Without God is the first real track of note though, and undoubtedly the highlight of the Jhva Elohim Meth...The Revival EP. It’s really a perfect example of the early Katatonia sound which contains an almost overwhelmingly sorrowful and desperate tone. It’s hard to describe exactly what it is about the melodies that Nyström produces, but he seems to be able to tap into the depths of human vulnerability, seemingly at will. When Katatonia combine these heartbreaking melodies with Renkse’s tortured vocals and Swanö’s moving layers, it can only equal doom death gold. The vocals are not at all standard fare for doom metal, having a much raspier harshness to them, which is possibly, along with the band members’ chosen names, why some consider the band’s early work to be loosely connected to black metal. It’s worth noting that fourth track The Northern Silence does actually contain a black metal riff, so that association can be understood to some extent.

Unfortunately, there are numerous reasons why Jhva Elohim Meth...The Revival isn’t an essential part of the Katatonia discography. Firstly, Without God would be re-recorded for the debut full length Dance of December Souls, meaning there’s no real reason to track this rare EP down for that alone. Secondly, neither Palace of Frost nor The Northern Silence are quite up to the same standard and have some dubious musicianship on the odd occasion. In particular, the lead in Palace of Frost is truly atrocious, causing me some discomfort every time I hear it, and Renkse’s drumming isn’t exactly tight throughout. I guess it’s important to remember that this recording was only ever intended to be a demo and when you take that into consideration, the compositions, the production and the performances are all more than adequate, and display real promise that Katatonia would thankfully deliver on in no uncertain terms. If you want to check out the origins of a great band that would evolve through various styles while still remaining relevant, then Jhva Elohim Meth... The Revival is certainly worth checking out. You might just want to pick up the Brave Yester Days compilation instead of tracking this EP down though, as not only will you save some cash, you’ll get a fantastic collection that covers the whole death doom era of the band across two discs.

An ecelectic mix of viking styled black metal that's always interesting if not always successful.

Enslaved certainly didn't muck around back in 1994. They managed to release two full length albums within the same year and it appeared at the time that they were going to be an immensely prolific band. As it's turned out they slowed their schedule down somewhat, but the band have managed an excellent, long career already (10 studio albums so far) and I can't imagine they'll stop any time soon. The strange thing about the two albums way back in 1994 is how different they are, but then how were we to know that Enslaved's evolution would drift so far from their roots.

The wonderful debut Vikingligr Veldi was made up of 5 drawn out yet fascinating black metal tracks that had a lot of emphasis on keyboards and repetitive structures. Follow-up Frost takes a different approach, with much shorter tracks in general, not to mention that there are 9 of them. The music is still well within the confines of black metal, but there is a lot more variation to proceedings, and while the repetitive structures pop up every now and then (such as on Svarte Vidder), for the most part Frost is a much more energetic and diverse affair. But while all of this may sound very positive, I admit that I enjoy the debut more than this one by a fair margin. It's not that Enslaved have lost what made them so interesting on Vikingligr Veldi. It's just that with all this variety comes with a level of inconsistency.

The opening instrumental is beautiful to say the least and Loke is a ripping black metal track that kicks things off nicely also. The previously mentioned Svarte Vidder is the track that’s most like the debut and works just as well as that material, but then things start to get just a little underwhelming. Yggdrasil finds the band entering folk metal territory which many may find very satisfying, but I sure don't. It's obviously an area that Enslaved wanted to delve into to take their viking influences somewhere fresh, but it just sounds awkward and just a bit embarrassing to me.

Thankfully the rest of the album follows more black metal paths with Jotunblod and Wotan being particularly aggressive and venomous. Both Gylfaginning and Isoders Dronning are a bit more atmospheric and have some really nice parts to them, but I can't help feeling that all these tracks are just a bit below the excellent standard that Enslaved have managed to hold for the majority of their creations. Frost is still a 4 star album as Enslaved is never anything but captivating, but I do consider it to be one of the lesser albums by an astonishingly creative and consistently amazing band. It's by no means an album to be ignored, but neither is it one to be showered with praise.

One of Enslaved's finest albums and their best within the more pure realms of black metal.

Enslaved had already displayed what they were capable of on the Hordanes Land half of the Emperor / Enslaved split release a year earlier than this. We're talking long black metal tracks with Viking inspired themes, with keyboards adding atmosphere to already epic sounding riffs. I distinctly recall picking up Terrorizer magazine back when this was released to find Vikingligr Veldi given a rating of 0 out of 5. Considering the magazine was really my only source of information on metal at the time, I can't explain to you why I still grabbed this the next time I visited the metal store in Sydney. I guess there were not really that many black metal albums to choose from back then and I decided it was a risk worth taking. Damn it, I don't think they've ever got a review more wrong than that one as this album is one of the finest in Enslaved's long and distinguished career. I think that was an important lesson to learn. That I should never rely on one source for recommendations, which is why I find Rate Your Music to be of so much value.

There are only 5 tracks on Vikingligr Veldi but 4 of them go well past the 10 minute mark so there's plenty of value to be had. This also gives each track plenty of breathing space to get under your skin and believe me, these riffs will dig their way in. The production is great, allowing each instrument to shine through without any taking over proceedings. As mentioned in many of the reviews for this album, there's a lot of repetition in Enslaved's early work which I think is both a strength and a weakness. On the one hand, they created some great riffs and when combined with extremely solid drumming and Grutle's high pitched screams, the repetition makes for some truly hypnotic sections. But then occasionally the band push the boundaries of what is reasonable, such as on the track Vetrarnott where the same riff continues for what appears an eternity. For the most part though, I think they got it exactly right, changing things up enough to keep boredom at bay while returning to strong themes and catchy melodies regularly.

It's tough to pick highlights on a 5 track album of this length, but I think Lifandi Liv Undir Hamri would be my personal favourite. That being said, a mention for the 11 minute instrumental Norvegr should definitely be made. This track manages to have quite a melancholic feeling to it due to the acoustic instrumentation, beautiful keyboard work and Grutle's moving bass lines and finishes off the album very nicely indeed. All up I'd say Vikingligr Veldi is a very fine album from a band that refuses to stay in the same place for very long. They'd release another very different album within just a few months and this evolution would continue onwards and upwards to the very progressive, yet still majestic ground that they populate in modern times.

How to shatter the expectations of thousands of metal fans in six sugary minutes!

The wait was finally going to be over! After the disappointment of finding out that Dissection were going to be having a lengthy hiatus due to guitarist and vocalist Jon Nödtveidt being imprisoned for murder, fans of the band had waited impatiently for seven long years. During that time, snippets of information would come our way, suggesting that Jon had every intention of continuing Dissection’s bloody reign immediately after his release. When the day finally arrived in autumn of 2004, Jon did appear to be fulfilling his promise, and had begun the process of rebuilding the band. Davide Totaro (AKA Sethlans Teitan), known for his work with Aborym and Unanimated, was chosen as the second guitarist, while Tomas Asklund from Dark Funeral and Dawn would take on drumming duties. It doesn’t appear that an official bassist was added to the band at this time, with Brice Leclercq from Nightrage acting as a session musician for the time being. These guys set about rehearsing and trying to bring the vision that Jon had spent the last few years planning to fruition. What the result would be was anyone’s guess, but there was no doubt that Jon had something seriously evil and brutal in mind. At least, that’s what he told us!

Reading the interviews that Jon conducted after his release is a humorous experience to say the least. Like a man possessed, he spouted proclamations that Dissection were going to be stronger than ever. “Dissection will return on the full grand scale! What we were in the past is nothing compared to what we will become! Dissection will return, ravage, conquer, dominate and take what is ours! We want blood and our hunger is insatiable! For too long the unworthy have thrived! Bathing in the blood of the unworthy, Dissection will celebrate total victory. Expect no mercy! The coming dark aeon is ours!” is one example of the sort of chest beating the anti-cosmic Satanist was performing, but my personal favourite has to be “Dissection shall burn the scene of today to ashes! We will bring Chaos to the world! We shall initiate the darkest epoch in music-history and open the gates to the coming dark aeon! There shall be no escape!” I may not have been completely convinced at the time, but I couldn’t help but get excited that one of the great black metal bands was preparing something so obviously blasphemous and destructive. On November the 10th 2004, I and the rest of the Dissection army finally got to experience the first example of this newly formed force of darkness.

From the very first seconds of the Maha Kali EP, it was clearly apparent that something was very, very wrong. After expecting a torrent of freezing cold melodic black metal, we were instead being subjected to a horrible In Flames style riff with stupefyingly simplistic drumming. Thousands of metal fans around the world shook their heads in disbelief as Maha Kali shattered their expectations in six minutes of spongy melodic death metal. By the time the female vocals kicked in and a pleasantly melodic solo broke up the catchy repetitive chorus, I for one was wildly pinching myself in an attempt to wake up from this horrifying nightmare. The re-recording of Unhallowed was the only other thing on offer, and that at least gave us all hope that the title track was just some sort of anomaly, but even this version of a classic track lacked the biting edge that was prevalent in the band’s early work. In hindsight, I guess Maha Kali isn’t completely disastrous. The title tune is unquestionably (perhaps annoyingly) catchy and there’s nothing technically wrong with anything the band did with it. The real issue is that this is just not Dissection, and it’s a perfect example of when a new band name should have been utilised rather than pissing off a whole legion of well established fans in one foul swoop.

Nuclear Blast gave a decent bootleg a boost in power, resulting in one of the better black metal live albums available.

By 1997, Dissection was on a roll. The band’s two studio albums had garnered massive acclaim from critics and fans alike, and their live performances were attracting hundreds of dedicated metal fans that were as devoted to the Swedes as they themselves were to Satan (apparently). Labels had even started trying to make the most of the band’s burgeoning popularity by releasing a superfluous EP (Where Dead Angels Lie) and compilation of rare material (The Past is Alive) that no-one really needed. They sold, as expected. Then guitarist and vocalist Jon Nödtveidt went and got himself arrested for murder, and all that promise and excitement came to an end as quickly as it had begun. Promises of a new Dissection album would have to be put on hold for at least seven years, and chances of the band ever being the same after that time were slim to say the least. It’s in desperate times like this that bootlegs really come into play, and the Dissection live bootleg titled Frozen in Wacken was just the thing fans needed to ease the pain. A live recording of the band’s performance at the Wacken Open Air festival in Germany on the 8th of August 1997, Frozen in Wacken had better quality production than is normally attributed to such unofficial recordings, which is no doubt why it eventually came to the attention of Nuclear Blast.

The German label, realising that the band had never managed to produce a live album before things turned nasty, got their hands on the recording and set about turning it into an official Dissection release. Being the clever marketers they are, they waited until a year prior to Nodtveidt’s release from prison, before reminding everyone of just how potent an outfit Dissection were and would be again (or so they wanted us to think). On February the 17th 2003, Live Legacy was released, and I think it’s fair to say that there are few fans that care about the album’s less than ideal history. The production of the bootleg has been improved on dramatically for Live Legacy, with the drums and vocals in particularly having a very powerful and clear sound. The guitars don’t have quite the same emphasis, but they are still adequately audible throughout and contain a strikingly similar tone to The Storm of the Light’s Bane session. The crowd appears totally into it and you do get a good sense of what a Dissection concert might have been like during this golden era, which is not something I can say about some of the overproduced and excessively filtered discs coming out these days. I’m not a big fan of live albums in general, but Live Legacy is one of the few that I do come back to from time to time for this reason alone.

I have to say it’s quite humorous to hear Jon speaking between tracks in exactly the same vocal style he uses to spit forth Dissection lyrics. Either the guy refuses to lower the veil of evil that his musical persona grants him, or his recent promotion to Priest of Satan in the MLA has given him the “Permanent Voice of Satan +1” attribute. Despite the Live Legacy material being lifted straight from the same recording as Frozen in Wacken, the tracklisting is actually quite different. The order of a few tracks have been switched around for whatever reason, but the biggest difference is that Night’s Blood was removed altogether from Live Legacy due to irreparable flaws in the recording. Other than the obvious disappointment this causes due to the excellence of that track, it also creates a major hole in the flow of the album, with the At the Fathomless Depths intro just stopping all of sudden, just when the band were about to launch into Night’s Blood. I think Nuclear Blast would have been better served to remove the intro as well, as the constant reminder of what’s missing is more affecting than the intro alone. Regardless, the other six tracks present are all great, and while this selection may seem on the small side, the running time of over forty minutes is more than adequate to convey the power Dissection had in their prime.

A bunch of old demos and an EP packaged in annoying fashion. For die hard fans only!

The Past is Alive (The Early Mischief) was released in July 1997 by Necropolis Records, and is yet another example of a label trying to make the most of the band’s rapid rise to popularity. It throws together tracks off three early demos and the band’s first EP, most of which have since been re-recorded in superior form. The only demo not included is the 1993 promo which contained Where Dead Angels Lie and a cover of Tormentor’s Elizabath Bathory, but Karmageddon’s 2005 re-release of The Past is Alive added those tracks to complete the set. The material is not presented in chronological order which is a bit annoying, but it’s even more frustrating that the compilation jumps around with tracks placed in seemingly random order. I’ve decided to review the material chronologically to appease my own pedantic personal preferences so here goes. The Grief Prophecy demo tracks are very death metal, with low tuned sludgy riffs and far more guttural vocals than later Dissection releases. It’s certainly not groundbreaking stuff for 1990 but it’s not too bad at all, with The Call of the Mist in particular having a nasty tone indeed. I’m not sure why they reversed the order of the two tracks here, nor why they removed the intro from Severed Into Shreds, but even more strange is that they left third track Consumed off altogether. The short closer did have a very different feel to the rest of the original demo, so it’s possible it was a cover??

Next there’s the Satanized material, which is an untitled rehearsal / demo from 1991. It’s the only thing this project ever released before calling it a day due to their other commitments. Containing three members of Dissection (Jon, Johan and Tobias) and two from other well known Swedish bands (Nifelheim and Lord Belial), Satanized performed a more brutal mix of death and black metal than anything their main band would ever put out. Unfortunately these two tracks suffer from atrocious production, so while you can hear some nice enough riffs, the vocals are almost inaudible throughout and the whole thing is just too shoddy to really enjoy. I’ve reviewed Into Infinite Obscurity elsewhere, so I won’t spend too much time on it here. It’s certainly where the first signs of the Dissection sound originated, so is worth a listen or two. That being said, two of the three tracks would be re-recorded on The Somberlain and the other would appear on Where Dead Angels Lie, so once again it’s not particularly essential. All that’s left are four tracks taken from a demo version of The Somberlain. These rough versions were recorded in early 1992 and distributed on cassette in an attempt to get label attention. Since all four tracks would end up on The Somberlain full length with much better production, I once again don’t see how this can be of that much interest to all but the most fanatical Dissection fans.

As much as I’m a fan of Dissection’s classic albums, I just can’t see why anyone would listen to this compilation for any other reason than mere curiosity. It has no flow whatsoever due to the choppy nature and the inconsistencies in production make it a chore more often than not. Storm of the Light’s Bane is on another planet compared to anything on here, so just go listen to that again if you can’t get enough Dissection. Before I let you do that though, it’s worth mentioning the reason why we will never be able to get enough of this band. At the same time that this compilation was put together, Dissection had been preparing a new album with the intention of a 1998 release date. Unfortunately for all involved, band leader Jon Nödtveidt was arrested and eventually imprisoned for his hand in the murder of a 38 year old homosexual Algerian man named Josef Ben Meddaours in Gothenburg. It appears that Josef approached Jon and his friend Vlad, claiming to be interested in occultism and Satanism. Jon and Vlad found Josef to be very amusing, but Instead of simply turning him away, they got drunk and high before beating and torturing him with a taser. When Josef tried to escape, Jon shot him in the head, killing him instantly. Jon was arrested in 1997 and sentenced to only ten years prison for these horrific acts of violence, and with him went any chance of Dissection continuing their temporary reign at the top of melodic black metal.

An obvious grab for cash by Nuclear Blast that will be of interest to only the most dedicated fans.

Given the immense success of 1995’s Storm of the Light’s Bane album, Nuclear Blast was no doubt eager to cash in on Dissection’s growing popularity. While I’m sure they had no idea of the true urgency of their cause (Dissection were about to have an extended break due to Nödtveidt’s incarceration), a quick fire EP seemed the obvious thing to do during the impatient wait for more significant material. The result of this apparent money making endeavour is the Where Dead Angels Lie EP, which cheekily contains absolutely no new material by the band whatsoever. Still, there’s little doubt Dissection fans were hungry to get their hands on anything they could, and Where Dead Angels Lie at least packages a few of their rarer tracks together in one place. It was initially released as a shaped CD in the form of the Dissection cross, but these days it’s included as bonus tracks on Storm of the Light’s Bane (albeit with slightly rearranged track listing), meaning there’s no real reason to track down the original release. Functioning more like a single, Where Dead Angels Lie contains two separate versions of the title track, two covers and two rare demo tracks, making it a mildly intriguing little release that’s unlikely to be considered essential by anyone but the most dedicated fans.

While it might seem an obvious choice to get things under way with Where Dead Angels Lie, the decision to use an alternate demo version is less so. It’s fairly evident that this is not the version that ended up on Storm of the Light’s Bane, with small variations and slightly lesser production, but it has to be said that there’s nothing of note to justify its inclusion here. It’s also worth pointing out that Where Dead Angels Lie worked really well on the full length because its slower pace gave the album some much needed variety. It just doesn’t have the same effect as an opener and even less so when it’s basically repeated in less than twenty minutes time. The two covers are thankfully more interesting and while neither manages to surpass the originals, the Swedes certainly do them justice. Elisabeth Bathori was originally one of the more memorable tracks on Hungarian band Tormentor’s classic Anno Domini album back in 1988. This cover version seems to have been recorded for the Nordic Metal compilation that Necropolis Records put out in 1995 as a tribute to the recently murdered Euronymous from Mayhem. Dissection gives it a much cleaner coat of varnish, but it somehow lacks the cult quality of the original, despite Nödtveidt doing his best Attila Csihar impersonation.

Likewise, there’s nothing technically wrong with their cover of Slayer’s Anti Christ, but you just can’t beat Slayer at their own game, and neither the harsh vocals nor the leads can capture the rabid aggression of the thrash legends in their prime. The Anti Christ cover was recorded as part of Black Sun Records Slatanic Slaughter tribute to Slayer which also came out in 1995. After these two mildly entertaining covers we have two altered versions of early Dissection tracks that, one which I believe was originally set to appear on Storm of the Light’s Bane before being left off the final album. Most would recognise Feathers Fell as the closing classical piece on The Somberlain, but this is an all piano version with nice added whispered vocals. I personally much prefer the re-recorded version as it’s far more hauntingly effective than the original, but at less than a minute in length, it’s once again nothing to get too excited about. All that’s left is the remastered version of Son of Mourning before the album version of Where Dead Angels Lie brings the EP to a close. Son of Mourning originally appeared on, and was the highlight of, the Into Infinite Obscurity EP back in 1991, and the beefed up sound here give this death metal track far more authority this time round. Do these rare and unreleased tracks make Where Dead Angels Lie worth tracking down? I guess the answer depends on just how much of a fan you are. It’s interesting stuff for sure, but far from essential.

Sidenote: While there’s no doubt that vocalist Jon Nödtveidt had been involved in Satanism for some time already, it was only during 1995 that he officially became a member of the MLO (Misantropiska Lucifer Orden). It’s always been fascinating to me that anyone out there could literally claim to be a Satanist (in the true sense), as surely the acceptance of Satan in turn accepts the existence of God. I decided to attempt to understand exactly what it is that people like Nödtveidt associate themselves with. I think I lost numerous brain cells in the process and am far from enlightened. “Misantropiska Lucifer Orden is an Order dedicated to the anti-cosmic powers and to the fortification, liberation and ultimately the reaching of the divinity of the inner black flame.” If you struggle with that as much as I do, check out what Nödtveidt had to say on the subject! “Our goal is to create a synthesis between the dark traditions of all aeons, this way creating the occult keys that shall open the gates to the forthcoming endless dark aeon. My status within the order is the one of a full member of the second grade and a Priest of Satan. To become a candidate one must first of all already be an Anti-cosmic Satanist and actively practicing black magician. He/she must wholeheartedly sympathize and share the misanthropic and anti-cosmic values of the order, and then be ready to dedicate his/her entire existence to following his/her true will in accordance to the dark gods.” Anyone convinced?

Dissection achieved perfection with this release. An icy, melodic masterpiece that upholds the spirit of black metal.

One of the reasons I love Rate Your Music so much is because it's so damn reliable. Of course there are times when I find it difficult to understand why a particular album rates so highly, but more often than not, the sheer number of ratings for each album combined with Sharifi’s tinkered Bayesian formula means top twenty charts for most genres are pretty hard to argue with. Dissection's Storm of the Light's Bane is a perfect case where the masses have voted and the results speak for themselves. This album not only sits atop the melodic black metal subgenre chart, but it currently holds a top three position for the entire black metal genre. Considering the almost endless black metal albums out there, plus the fans dedication and obsessive nature (myself included) towards this wonderful form of musical darkness, this is quite an achievement to say the least. The Somberlain took the black metal blueprint and infused it with melody at a time where this was almost unthinkable. The reason Dissection were so successful at this task wasn't simply due to technicality or catchiness, although both of these features were present. Their triumph came because they managed this concoction without losing any of the unadulterated malice or darkness that black metal requires. They opened the eyes of multitudes of fans and musicians that black metal had a future with diverse dimensions that could be achieved without ever disregarding the very spirit of the genre.

Storm of the Light's Bane exceeded their pioneering debut in almost every facet, simultaneously producing the very apex of melodic black metal that to this very day hasn't been surpassed by any other album. One of the features of The Somberlain that I thought held it back from perfection was the use of John Zwetsloot’s classical guitar interludes. They were pleasant enough I guess but they felt more than just a bit out of place positioned between such darkly atmospheric black metal tracks. His absence from Storm of the Light’s Bane (he was replaced by Runemagick’s Johan Norman between albums because he lacked the commitment the band required) was still concerning though as he was undoubtedly vital in the development of Dissection’s melodic sound. As it turned out I got the best of both worlds, as not only were the cold harmonies still intact, but the more acoustic elements were now seamlessly mixed into the black metal, giving the album greater flow and keeping the blood pumping for the entire running time. The other obvious area of improvement is on the production side with the drums in particular having vastly superior sound that's perhaps a little less organic, but much more powerful in the long run. If you play The Somberlain and Storm of the Light’s Bane back to back, it’s not hard to appreciate the step up in clarity and precision that signing with Nuclear Blast accomplished for Dissection prior to recording.

Storm of the Light's Bane is an album of immense conviction that remains just as entertaining and thrilling today as it did when released in 1995. It deserves all the praise that’s been thrown at it over the years and will always hold a very precious place in my personal music collection. There are really only six full tracks to experience (which are neatly bookended by an appropriately foreboding distorted intro and a haunting piano outro performed by Alexandra Balogh), yet every single one of them is brilliantly executed and intensely captivating. Picking highlights seems a shame but I can’t go past Night's Blood, Unhallowed, Thorns of Crimson Death and Soulreaper as the pick of the bunch. Of course I'm most likely preaching to the converted with this review, but if there are any remaining black metal fans (or death metal fans for that matter) out there yet to experience Storm of the Light’s Bane, do yourselves a favour. Run out and grab it, lock yourself in a dark room, and let Dissection's icy genius cleanse your soul of all that disagreeable piety. Just as with The Somberlain, the version to track down is the two disc edition released by The End Records in 2006 that not only contains the Where Dead Angels Lie EP from 1996, but also includes an alternate mix of Storm of the Light’s Bane, completely remastered from the original master tapes by Håkan Åkesson at Cutting Room Studio, Stockholm.