Daniel's Forum Replies

Here's my review:

It’s been fifteen months since I boldly opted to select New Jersey industrial metallers O.L.D.’s 1991 “Lo Flux Tube” sophomore album for feature release status here at the Metal Academy. I was familiar with their 1988 debut album “Old Lady Drivers” from my early tape trading days & it was essentially a fairly uneventful novelty grindcore release but their second effort saw the trio taking a succession of bold creative risks whose combined merits amounted to a unique & much more challenging avant-garde industrial metal record. It wasn’t without its faults of course but I generally enjoyed the experience & became interested to see where O.L.D. might take things from there given their undeniable passion for the obscure & unusual.

1993’s “The Musical Dimensions of Sleastak” album definitely takes things to the next logical level with the psychedelic cover artwork giving the listener a pretty accurate impression of what lies beneath. The production job is greatly improved from “Lo Flux Tube” which is a definite plus given that record’s obvious flaws in that department. This time most of the tracks are given a lot more scope to create layers of mind-bending noise with your cerebellum being tweaked by high-pitched electronic wails & bizarre dissonance with great regularity. The influence of Godflesh in the beats & bass guitar work is still plain to see but I can’t say that “The Musical Dimensions of Sleastak” is as obviously industrial as its predecessor. Some tracks definitely push that sound harder than others but to my ears there’s more in the way of avant-garde metal & experimental rock included here with the rock-to-metal ratio finishing in fairly even proportions. Voivod is also still a huge player in the O.L.D. sound & it’s hard to imagine a record like this one being created without records like “Dimension Hatross” having first existed.

Front man & former Khanate vocalist Alan Dubin’s blackened scream is consistent with his approach on “Lo Flux Tube” but don’t expect to hear much in the way of traditional metal guitar work on this album because Phantomsmasher/Khanate axeman James Plotkin uses his instrument in ways that it was never originally intended & in the process makes one hell of a feedback-drenched racket. He also goes to town on the electronics which play the role of the protagonist on most occasions. The vast majority of the album absolutely oozes of space rock style psychedelia with the use of noise being a strong feature. It’s interesting that I pick up a Kraftwerk influence in some parts too which wasn’t something I was expecting at all. Does it work? Well yeah it does if being honest but I’m not too sure I want it to if I'm being honest.

The first fifteen minutes of the record are really interesting & I found myself immediately engaged but things don’t really reach their full potential until the amazing fourth track “Peri Cynthion” & the cerebral drone of “Creyap’nilla”, both of which are genuine classics of whatever bizarre amalgamation of subgenres this fucking record might be pushing. It’s really unfortunate though that the tracklisting finishes on such a weak note with the eleven minute “Backwards Through The Greedo Compressor” being not only the longest track but also a real stinker. I can’t help but think that O.L.D. could easily have left that track out given the lengthy 66 minute duration of the album & we would all have been happier campers for it. As it is though, “The Musical Dimensions of Sleastak” seems to tamely peter out after promising so much for an audience that’s actively looking for drug-fuelled shenanigans. Thankfully I was able to see past that error in judgement because the rest of the album sees O.L.D. producing sounds that are as much art as they are music.

Once again O.L.D. have produced an intriguing & highly original record that certainly won’t be for everyone. I fully appreciate the effort the band members have gone to to come up with such a whacked-out sound & when they get all of their ducks in a row it can be pretty fucking mind-blowing. It’s too bad that they can’t hit that mark consistently enough to see me wanting to come back for return visits in the future & some of that can be put down to the terrible way they’ve elected to close the album out. If pushed I’d probably suggest that “Lo Flux Tube” is still my O.L.D. record of choice but there’s very little in it so if you liked that release then you shouldn’t hesitate to check this one out too.

For fans of Voivod, Godflesh & Disharmonic Orchestra.

3.5/5

Here's my updated Top Ten Technical Death Metal Releases of All Time list:

01. 7 Horns 7 Eyes - "Throes Of Absolution" (2012)

02. Death - "Human" (1991)

03. Suffocation - "Despise The Sun" E.P. (1998)

04. Suffocation - "Pinnacle Of Bedlam" (2013)

05. Death – “Individual Thought Patterns” (1993)

06. Gorguts – “Colored Sands” (2013)

07. Cynic - "Focus"

08. Ulcerate – “Everything Is Fire” (2009)

09. Ad Nauseam - "Imperative Imperceptible Impulse" (2021)

10. Death – “Symbolic” (1995)

https://metal.academy/lists/single/148

Ulcerate - "Stare Into Death & Be Still" (2020)

New Zealand death metal trio Ulcerate have been somewhat of a mainstay at the top of my musical ladder since first discovering them through their classic sophomore album “Everything Is Fire” back in 2009. It may have taken me some time to fully come to grips with the dissonant arm of the death metal scene at the time as it still sounded fairly foreign to my old-school ears but once I’d become accustomed to the more textural sonic palate with which these artists draw from I quickly became engulfed in a journey of discovery that found me ultimately placing the niche subgenre up on one of my higher musical pedestals. Ulcerate haven’t released anything that wasn’t of a sublime quality since those initial impressions either which certainly hasn’t hurt. The more traditional brutal tech death of their 2004 “The Coming of Genocide” E.P. may not have been anything terribly flash & their 2007 debut album “Of Fracture & Failure” might well have been more of an interesting transitional release than a record to be particularly revered but ever since that time the band have been in devastating form & have destroyed a great many fragile minds in the process.

Dissonant death metal bands like Ulcerate will inevitably always be at a higher risk of sounding “samey” than bands from other genres. When you make extreme music that doesn’t conform to traditional theoretical structures or melodic sensibilities then it can often be hard to give the song-writing the unique elements required to differentiate themselves from one another. I have to admit that I’ve kinda been waiting for Ulcerate to fall over in that regard but they just never seem to even stumble. With their 2020 sixth full-length “Stare Into Death & Be Still” we find Ulcerate sticking to their tried-&-tested dissonant model but infusing it with enough melody to make it appear to be a complete contradiction of terms. The use of open strings & dissonant chords is undeniably still the root of the band’s evil however they’ve managed to make it sound almost beautiful at the same time which is really pretty remarkable. There’s plenty of variation in tempo with a number of exploratory & introspective post-sludge sections adding layers to the glorious atmosphere. In fact, the slower & more stripped back post-metal sections are inevitably my favourite parts of the album & are responsible for giving each inclusion in the tracklisting its own identity.

The production job on “Stare Into Death & Be Still” is nothing short of splendid with the layers of dissonant guitars sounding full & lush & the drums offering plenty of clarity, power & brightness. If I had to be critical, I’d suggest that the bass guitar could have been louder in the mix but I don’t think it detracts from the overall product. The composition & execution are simply stunning with the three musicians being given the freedom to take expansive & quite intricate excursions through some of the band’s most ambitious yet strangely accessible material.

The vocals of Paul Kelland are aggressive & powerful, perhaps more so than I remember them being which is a nice contrast to some of the more stripped back material. Sole guitarist Michael Hoggard must have some major challenges on his hands when it comes to live performance as I’m honestly not sure how he could pull off the many layers of dense guitar work that are presented here. I really love the interplay between the different guitar tracks actually & find them to possess an artistic flair that’s pretty rare in extreme metal. While it may be Hoggard who ensures that Ulcerate always maintain some level of accessibility while never losing an ounce of integrity, it’s drummer Jamie Saint Merat that steals the show in no uncertain terms as he’s quite simply unparalleled in skill & creativity. Sure, he can blast 99% of the opposition away with relative ease but it’s the more subdued moments which offer him the most room to move & his cymbal work during these more atmospheric sections is nothing short of astounding. What a drummer this guy is! I’m not sure we’ve seen better in metal music to tell you the truth.

“Stare Into Death & Be Still” is yet another wonderful example of modern death from one of the absolute elite exponents of the craft. It's undoubtedly Ulcerate’s most melodic album to date but its also their most creatively advanced too. I count myself as being a big fan of the dissonant death metal sound these days but I’m not sure I’ve hear a better example of it than this one right here & that includes Ulcerate's most highly celebrated releases like "Everything Is Fire".

For fans of Gorguts, Portal & Baring Teeth.

4.5/5

I've just adjusted my Top Ten Dissonant Death Metal Releases of All Time list following this week's spectacular revisit of Ulcerate's "Stare Into Death & Be Still" album:

01. Ulcerate - "Stare Into Death & Be Still" (2020)

02. Gorguts - "Colored Sands" (2013)

03. Ulcerate - "Everything Is Fire" (2009)

04. Ad Nauseam - "Imperative Imperceptible Impulse" (2021)

05. Gorguts - "From Wisdom To Hate" (2001)

06. Ulcerate - "The Destroyers Of All" (2011)

07. Ulcerate - "Vermis" (2013)

08. Gorguts - "Obscura" (1998)

09. Portal - "Seepia" (2003)

10. Flourishing - "The Sum Of All Fossils" (2011)

https://metal.academy/lists/single/181

Here's the schedule for the December feature release nominations:

THE FALLEN: Ben, Daniel, Sonny

THE GATEWAY: Andi, Saxy

THE GUARDIANS: Daniel, Xephyr

THE HORDE: Vinny, Ben, Daniel

THE INFINITE: Xephyr, Saxy, Andi

THE NORTH: Daniel, Ben, Vinny, Xephyr

THE PIT: Vinny, Daniel, Ben

THE REVOLUTION: Daniel, Andi

THE SPHERE: Andi, Daniel

Here's my submission for the December playlist Andi:

Godflesh - "Anthem" (from "Hymns", 2001)

Here's my submission for the December playlist Andi:

Bleeding Through - "Buried" (from "Love Will Kill All", 2018)

Here are my submissions for the December playlist Vinny:

Agent Steel - "Mad Locust Rising" (from "Mad Locust Rising" E.P., 1986)

Liege Lord - "Rapture" (from "Master Control", 1988)

Rage - "Deceiver" (from "Reign of Fear", 1986)

Midnight - "Telepathic Nightmare" (from "Let There Be Witchery", 2022)

Speedwolf - "Ride With Death" (from "Ride With Death", 2011)

Black Viper - "Hellions of Fire" (from "Hellions of Fire", 2018)

Bewitcher - "Death Returns..." (from "Cursed Be Thy Kingdom", 2021)

Here are my submissions for the December playlist:

Cryptopsy - "Carrionshine" (from "Once Was Not", 2005)

Deicide - "Revocate The Agitator" (from "Legion", 1992)

Ulcerate - "There Is No Horizon" (from "Staring Into Death & Be Still", 2020)

Here's my submission for the December playlist Xephyr:

King Diamond - "Behind These Walls" (from "The Eye", 1990)

Here's my submission for the December playlist Saxy:

Coldrain - "Boys & Girls" (from "Nonnegative", 2022)

Here's my submission for the December playlist Sonny:

Elder - "Gemini" (from "Dead Roots Stirring", 2011)

November 2022

01. Amken – “Somewhere Past the Burning Sun” (from “Passive Aggression”, 2022) [Submitted by Vinny]

02. Sodom – “Nicht mehr mein Land” (from “Genesis XIX”, 2020) [Submitted by Vinny]

03. Demoniac – “Equilibrio Fatal” (from “So It Goes”, 2020) [Submitted by Sonny]

04. F.K.Ü. – “Corpse Mania” (from “1981”, 2017) [Submitted by Vinny]

05. Ghoul - “Off With Their Heads” (from “Transmission Zero”, 2011) [Submitted by Vinny]

06. Mace – “Drilling for Brains” (from “Process of Elimination”, 1985)

07. Concrete Sox – “No Trust No Faith” (from “Whoops Sorry Vicar”, 1987)

08. Fusion Bomb – “Bird of Prey” (from “Concrete Jungle”, 2019)

09. Machine Head – “Davidian” (from “Burn My Eyes”, 1994)

10. Texas Hippie Coalition – “Hands Up” (from “Peacemaker”, 2012)

11. Sepultura – “We Who Are Not As Others” (from “Chaos A.D.”, 1993) [Submitted by Daniel]

12. Ektomorf – “Fury” (from “Fury”, 2018)

13. Krushhammer – “Evil Domain” (from “Blood, Violence & Blasphemy”, 2022) [Submitted by Vinny]

14. Intent – “Victims of Conquest” (from “Exile”, 2022) [Submitted by Vinny]

15. Traitor – “Total Thrash” (from “Exiled to the Surface”, 2022) [Submitted by Vinny]

16. Wraith – “Seven Serpents” (from “Faster Than The Fucking Devil”, 2020) [Submitted by Vinny]

17. Mezzrow – “Then Came the Killing” (from “Then Came the Killing”, 1990)

18. Mordred – “State of Mind” (from “Fool’s Game”, 1989)

19. Lucifuge – “Infernal Power” (from “Infernal Power”, 2021)

20. Maze of Terror – “Angels of Acid” (from “Offer to the Fucking Beasts”, 2021)

21. Killing – “Kill Everyone” (from “Face the Madness”, 2021)

22. Znöwhite – “Bringing the Hammer Down” (from “All Hail to Thee”, 1984)

23. Airwolf – “Victory Bells” (from “Victory Bells”, 1988)

24. Pessimist – “The Massacre of Nanking” (from “Call to War”, 2010)

25. Nuclear – “Eleventh Block” (from “Ten Broken Codes”, 2008) [Submitted by Sonny]

26. Dead Head – “Helhuizen” (from “Swine Plague” 2017)

27. Comaniac – “1,2 Rage” (from “Return to the Wasteland”, 2015)

28. Coroner – “Son of Lilith” (from “Mental Vortex”, 1991)

29. Vektor – “LCD (Liquid Crystal Disease” (from “Terminal Redux”, 2016)

November 2022

01. Deathsiege – “Throne Of Heresy” (from “Throne Of Heresy”, 2022) [Submitted by Vinny]

02. At The Gates – “The Swarm” (from “Terminal Spirit Disease”, 1994)

03. Nocturnus – “Possess The Priest” (from “Nocturnus” E.P., 1993)

04. Brujeria – “Marijuana” (from “Marijuana” E.P., 1997)

05. Cynic – “Celestial Voyage” (from “Focus”, 1993) [Submitted by Daniel]

06. Genghis Tron – “Thing Don’t Look Good” (from “Board Up The House”, 2008)

07. An Abstract Illusion – “In The Heavens Above, You Will Become A Monster” (from “Woe”, 2022)

08. Autopsy – “Stab The Brain” (from “Morbidity Triumphant”, 2022)

09. Drumcorps – “Botch Up & Die” (from “Grist”, 2006)

10. Pharmacist – “Gardening On Human Soils” (from “Medical Renditions Of Grinding Decomposition”, 2020)

11. Demilich – “When The Sun Drank The Weight Of Water” (from “Nespithe”, 1993) [Submitted by Daniel]

12. Rotten Sound – “Dominion” (from “Under Pressure”, 1997)

13. Hypocrisy – “Reborn” (from “The Fourth Dimension”, 1994)

14. Rectal Smegma – “Hitler Only Had One Ball” (from “Keep On Smiling”, 2009)

15. Metrorrhagia – “Animalistic Defecation of Partially Digested Human Remains” (from “Metrorrhagia”, 2020)

16. Tribal Gaze – “And How They Wept For Eternity” (from “The Nine Choirs”, 2022) [Submitted by Vinny]

17. Celestial Sanctuary – “Trapped Within The Rank Membrane” (from “Perilaxe Occlusion/Fumes/Celestial Sanctuary/Thorn” split E.P., 2022) [Submitted by Vinny]

18. Portal – “Omnipotent Crawling Chaos” (from “Outre”, 2007)

19. Negativa – “Chaos In Motion” (from “Negativa” E.P., 2006)

20. Houkago Grind Time – “Bakyunsified (Moe To The Gore)“ (from “Bakyunsified (Moe To The Gore)”, 2020)

21. Mortuous – “Graveyard Rain” (from “Upon Desolation”, 2022) [Submitted by Vinny]

22. Short Bus Pile Up – “Ball-Peen Beating” (from “Repulsive Display Of Human Upholstery”, 2010)

23. Brutal Truth – “Stench of Prophet” (from “Extreme Conditions Demand Extreme Responses”, 1992) [Submitted by Daniel]

24. 1 Body 6 Graves – “Cleaved In Half” (from “1 Body 6 Graves” E.P., 2022) [Submitted by Vinny]

25. Dying Fetus – “Ideological Subjugation” (from “Wrong One To Fuck With”, 2017) [Submitted by Daniel]

26. Pathology – “Code Injection” (from “Legacy Of The Ancients”, 2010)

27. Mortician – “Zombie Apocalypse” (from “Zombie Apocalypse” E.P., 1998)

28. Deeds of Flesh – “Feeding Time” (from “Inbreeding The Anthropophagi”, 1998)

29. Extreme Noise Terror – “One Truth, One Hate” (from “Being & Nothing”, 2001)

30. Inhume – “Gargling Guts” (from “Decomposing From Inside”, 2000)

31. Nails – “No Surrender” (from “Abandon All Life”, 2013) [Submitted by Daniel]

32. Fluids – “Hounded” (from “Nunslaughter/Fluids” split E.P., 2022) [Submitted by Vinny]

You need to click the little picture of the video camera above the text box & paste your link in there.

Welcome to the club Vinny! 

Deicide - "Legion" (1992)

The 1990 self-titled debut album from notorious Florida death metallers Deicide came into my life at a time when I had only recently become infatuated with the genre so it enjoyed the perfect conditions to maximize its impact on my life & I think it’s fair to say that it couldn’t have been more influential on this young metalhead. I’d certainly never heard anything so evil before but despite the utter blasphemy & devastating brutality of the music, the song-writing was some of the catchiest you’ll find in death metal which gave “Deicide” the endurance to still reside in my top ten for the genre today. So by the time the follow-up album was released in 1992 I was absolutely chomping at the bit to throw myself into it. “Legion” certainly had a hard act to follow but I was very confident that it would deliver & there's no doubt that it did to an extent.

It’s probably been over a decade since I last revisited “Legion” but I listened to it enough in my teenage years to know very well what to expect. I’ve traditionally always regarded it as a classic death metal record but have never placed it alongside the debut at the very pinnacle of the genre. This revisit was something I’d planned for some time with the intention of being able to more accurately place “Legion” within the myriad of early 90’s classics & I had a little inkling that it might not be as good as I’d once thought. I knew it’d be full-on & confronting but would it be complete enough to play with the Morbid Angels of the world? Let’s see, shall we?

The first thing I noticed upon digging my teeth into “Legion” was the messy production which is a little surprising given the involvement of Scott Burns behind the mixing desk. The rhythm guitar tone is pretty noisy which makes the whole album seem a little more chaotic than it might otherwise have appeared & this is amplified by the exhilarating opening track “Satan Spawn, The Caco-Daemon” which is completely off the hook from a structural point of view. Each song possesses a number of drastic tempo-changes with chuggy mid-paced riffage giving way to blast-beat driven annihilation & returning again quite often. The riff structures are much more technical than the debut which seems to have been a conscious decision but I’m not sure that Deicide were quite up to the task just yet as there are number of sections across the tracklisting that find the song structures falling apart. Drummer Steve Asheim is the main culprit here & (despite the fact the Steve was held up on a pedestal by most of the extreme metal scene at the time) he struggles a bit for control across the whole duration of the album. He’s certainly not helped by the production but I tend to think that he’d pushed himself a little farther than his capabilities could support at the time with some of this material.

On the positive side though, the enraged vocals of head Satanist Glen Benton sound positively demonic on “Legion” as he leads his band to Hell & back multiple times during the short 29 minute run time. The screamed backing vocals aren’t as effective but are helped by the intelligent use of delay for some cool effects at key moments. The rhythm guitar work is actually very solid & there are some ripper death metal riffs on offer with Deicide's real strength being in the mid-paced chuggers which sound genuinely evil. The highlight of the album for me though is the controlled chaos that is the lead guitar work. I’ve always loved the lead tone these boys achieved on the early Deicide albums & you won’t find a better example than the searing mid-range of these ultra-shredding efforts. In fact, I’d suggest that the solos represent the climax of many of the eight tracks included & I’m often reminded of Slayer & Morbid Angel in the way both brothers maintain their focus on face-ripping insanity rather than complementary melody.

Despite the flaws I mentioned above, there can be no denying that “Legion” slips very easily into my musical comfort zone & I don’t have to try very hard to get my jollies out of it. However the reason that it doesn’t compare all that favourably alongside the debut can be found in its consistency. None of the tracks are weak as such but I can’t deny that there are some lighter-weight sections in “Behead The Prophet (No Lord Shall Live)” & “In Hell I Burn” that see me dropping my score from the lofty heights of a good half of the album. The shorter & more focused tracks are the strongest with the unwavering brutality of “Trifixion” & “Revocate The Agitator” being the most successful in their unholy mission. There's no time for mucking around on those tracks which makes it clearer that Deicide's weaknesses generally appear when they have more time on their hands & become guilty of trying too hard to sound evil (see the unintelligent chorus from "In Hell I Burn" for example).

So, ultimately I think my suspicions that I may have overrated “Legion” were pretty accurate even though I still very much enjoyed revisiting this high quality death metal release from my youth. It’s not the classic I tried so hard to make it into back in 1992 (& I do remember really wanting it to be just quietly). It’s an over-the-top & relentless experience that will satisfy the vast majority of its audience though & shouldn’t be scoffed at by any means. It’s funny how sloppy it sounds when I listen to it today but that element also gives it an endearing quality that reminds me of a simpler time in my life when such concerns weren’t worth bothering about.

For fans of Vital Remains, Cannibal Corpse & Amon.

4/5

Andi, I've removed this release from The Horde, added it to The North & created a Hall of Judgement entry to have it added to the Sphere.

for those looking for a mix of Dimmu Borgir, Agathodaimon, and Fear Factory:

Isn't everyone?

Rainbow - "On Stage" (1977)

I have to admit that, despite the steady stream of unanimous praise that seems to be heaped on them, London supergroup Rainbow have never been my cup of tea, at least not when looking at their back catalogue holistically. Sure, their classic 1976 sophomore record “Rising” is certainly a very solid effort & I’m not denying that I get a lot of enjoyment out of it but the only other one of the band’s eight studio albums that I find much appeal in is 1982’s “Straight Between The Eyes” which is arguably Rainbow’s least popular release. This is a pretty good sign that Rainbow simply don’t play in the same playgrounds as I frequent & I’ve kinda found myself subconsciously accepting that I may never achieve the same sort of adoration that many of my metalhead peers do over the years. Recently though, I found myself in need of something to listen to while looking after my two young kids for the day & Rainbow’s 1977 “On Stage” live album popped up in my Spotify feed. For some reason I thought to myself “You know what? Everyone else seems to gush about this record. What can it hurt giving it a few spins, eh?”. So here I am…. full of high hopes & the promise to at least fill an obvious gap in my knowledge of rock/metal music history.

“On Stage” is made up of live tracks that were recorded between September & December 1976 when Rainbow were on tour in Germany & Japan so it’s not a showcase for a single performance but the best of several. Interestingly though given the timing of the shows, the tracklisting includes virtually nothing from the “Rising” album that the band were touring for at the time with only a short snippet of “Starstruck” (clearly the weakest track on “Rising” in my opinion) being represented. The majority of the record is made up of material from 1975’s “Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow” debut album with the addition of a cover version of Deep Purple’s “Mistreated” (which Ritchie obviously wrote) & a sneak peak at a future classic in “Kill The King” that wouldn’t see a proper album release until 1978’ “Long Live Rock ‘n’ Roll” record. Most of the tracks are extended & include lengthy improvised jam sections which see the six tracks stretching out to a 64 minute run time.

The clear & organic production job is very good for a live album from that period & it does exactly what any good live production should do by giving the listener the feeling of actually being there in the audience. I could have done without the silly “Over The Rainbow” intro from the “Wizard Of Oz” but once the band kicks into gear you’ll be treated to some of the finest rock performances you’re ever likely to hear, highlighted of course by the legendary talents of Ritchie Blackmore & Ronnie James Dio. Now, let me get something else off my chest. Despite being a guitarist myself, I’ve never actually had a lot of time for Blackmore from a technical point of view. I’ve always appreciated his creativity but he seemed a little sloppy to me in comparison to some of my more favoured axemen. But here we see Ritchie confidently pulling the wool from over my eyes so that I can finally see what I’ve been missing & by George he pulls off quite the triumphant victory over my stubbornness in the process. I can very easily hear where people like Yngwie Malmsteen have cloned certain parts of his technique here & it’s hard to argue that Ritchie was ahead of his time after experiencing this record. RJD’s contribution is simply perfect as always. I don’t think there’s a musician alive that could have taken the limelight away from Ronnie as he’s a star among stars & you’re unlikely to find a better example of that than you do here.

Now a warning for all you diehard metalheads that are stuck in your ways, “On Stage” is NOT a metal record &, to be fair, it never tries to be. Contrary to popular opinion, Rainbow were never a metal band. They were a hard rock group that contained unique elements that heavily influenced metal. Hell, a lot of the jam sections of “On Stage” aren’t even rock with Rtichie & co taking their audience into a wide array of different territories from blues right through to classical & it’s worth noting that his ambitions have ultimately produced the definitive versions of many of these songs in the process. The 15 minute version of “Catch The Rainbow” is really quite stunning & has taken one of the couple of tracks that I found enjoyment in from the debut & transformed it into an epic centrepiece that rewrites the book on melody & atmosphere. I’ve never liked “Sixteen Century Greensleeves” but this version comes a little closer to being interesting while the new packaging of closer “Still I’m Sad” has seen me paying attention for the very first time.

Perhaps a release like this one is tailor made for an old musician like myself. I'm more than open to the idea of extended improvisation, I live to hear musicians pushing themselves & succeeding & I love to see an artist take their art & give it a fresh coat of paint. Rainbow may still not quite fit into my taste profile from a stylistic point of view but boy have they pulled off an entertaining release here. It’s really pretty surprising how successful “On Stage” is when you consider that I don’t have any time for the “Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow” album that most of the material is drawn from. How is it possible that they’ve not only managed to pull off an acceptable live album without drawing on any of the best material from clearly their best album in “Rising” but have actually gone one step further by forcing me to consider whether “On Stage” may just have pipped “Rising” out of the top spot for my favourite Rainbow release. Well done gents. This is a very fine performance indeed.

For fans of Deep Purple, Scorpions & Thin Lizzy.

4/5

Cryptopsy - "Once Was Not" (2005)

In previous reviews I’ve been very open about the fact that, despite the brutal death metal subgenre being arguably my favourite sound in all of metal, I’ve never rated Canadian legends Cryptopsy’s supposedly classic first couple of albums as highly as almost everyone else on Earth seems to with a large portion of my issues lying with the two major drawcards in front man Lord Worm & influential drum virtuoso Flo Mounier. To be honest I just don’t think either are half as good at their craft as they’re made out to be. Hell, I didn’t even like the band’s highly regarded debut album “Blasphemy Made Flesh”. But 1998’s “Whisper Supremacy” brought with it a new & more traditional vocalist in Mike DiSalvo & also saw the band heading in a flashier & more technical direction which appealed to my taste significantly more than their supposedly genre-defining sophomore album “None So Vile”. “Whisper Supremacy” finally saw me getting onboard the Cryptopsy train with some level of confidence & I was hopeful that this revisit to Cryptopsy’s 2005 fifth album “Once Was Not” would provide further emphasis to my preference for slightly later Cryptopsy than most people are willing to admit to. Did it deliver in that regard? Well… kinda. Let’s take a look at one of the Canadian’s more underappreciated albums.

“Once Was Not” saw the return of Lord Worm to the fold after two albums with DiSalvo & I have to admit that I’ve probably taken longer than I might otherwise have to plan a revisit for that very fact alone as I’ve never been terribly enamoured with the Lord's over the top & often unintelligible death growls. He doesn’t waste any time at all in reminding as to why I’ve struggled with him over the years here either as his ranting, rabid-dog style delivery sounds pretty thin & unconvincing to my ears. In fact, he’s easily the weakest element of the album & I don’t doubt that DiSalvo’s more conventional approach to death growls played a strong role in my preference for an album like “Whisper Supremacy” over Cryptopsy’s classic releases.

Instrumentally though, we have a very well-produced, creative & artistic record on our hands here & one that I’d suggest no longer fits comfortably under the brutal death metal banner. “Once Was Not” is a highly technical effort sporting an impressively broad scope. It doesn’t always make sense mind you & can sound a little like a collection of good ideas that have been pasted together at times rather than a cohesive & fluent piece of artistic expression. I do really enjoy the jazzier moments, particularly those that feature ride cymbal work that sounds like it’s been borrowed from progressive rock or the early progressive death metal bands like Atheist or Cynic.

Extreme metal drummer extraordinaire Mounier puts in another blinding performance but he still can’t convince me that he’s the real deal here. His endurance seems to have improved over the years & his sheer velocity is no less impressive than the first time I heard him back in the early 1990's but unfortunately he’s still pretty messy with his timing as far as his ability to perfectly synchronize his kick drums & snare during the hyper-speed blast-beat sections go. He often sounds more like a possessed typewriter than a tight & clinical tech death time-keeper & it baffles me to see the consistent adoration he seems to draw at times when there are so many extreme drumming gods about these days. Perhaps it's all about his influence as he was certainly one of the first to be attempting the sort of speeds he's made his calling card throughout his career.

In saying that, it’s pretty hard to be too critical of “Once Was Not” as the tracklisting is extremely consistent with no weak tracks included among the eleven on offer. Unfortunately there aren’t any genuine standouts though & I find myself wondering if Cryptopsy have simply tried to be too clever with this record as the best parts usually come when they go in a more classic death metal direction rather than trying to be as wacky as they possibly can without breaking the death metal mold. The musicianship of Flo & Worm's counterparts is of a very high standard & it’s rare that I find myself getting bored across the relatively lengthy (for a record this extreme) 50 minute duration. The band don’t seem to be short of ideas & it’s hard to imagine that they’d fall from grace in such a dramatic fashion with their very next album when listening to this one so I’d suggest that most fans of the more brutal end of the technical death metal subgenre will find a fair bit to enjoy here. "Once Was Not" isn't as strong as "Whisper Supremacy" was by any means but I'd probably still take it over Cryptopsy's first two records nonetheless (yep I said it alright).

For fans of Lykathea Aflame, Origin & Wormed.

3.5/5

I've decided to pass this Hall nomination based on the conclusive YES 6 NO 1 vote tally. "Know Your Enemy" has been added to The Guardians under the eavy Metal genre.

Bleeding Through - "Love Will Kill All" (2018)

I’d heard quite a bit of Californian metalcore outfit Bleeding Through while preparing the monthly The Revolution playlists but had never felt the need to investigate them further upon until this point. Perhaps I’ve been put off by their associations with the more melodic side of the genre or it may be because they simply don’t seem all that likely to appeal to my taste. I’m not too sure but my commitment to the Hall of Judgement & a site with the highest level of accuracy in regard to our genre-tagging has finally brought me face to face with my very first Bleeding Through album & I’m gonna do my best to keep an open mind.

As is very much the norm with the more well-known metalcore acts, “Love Will Kill All” is a really well-produced & executed record with polished & shiny performances from all of the band members. It’s a big, in-your-face collection of short & catchy metal tunes that’s made to appeal to a particular audience. You see, while Bleeding Through certainly integrate various external influences into their sound to good effect, they also showcase all of the signature traits of the metalcore genre at the same time so fans will never find themselves feeling the slightest bit alienated. I wouldn’t describe Bleeding Through as sticking to the conventional metalcore model here but neither would I say that the album is a melodic metalcore release either. It kinda sits in the middle with the band jumping from a straight down the line aggressive tune to a more melodic one with a clean-sung chorus hook quite consistently. If anything I’d probably suggest that the melodic side wins out in the end but a dual tagging is probably the most appropriate result.

The points of difference for “Love Will Kill All” are twofold. On the one hand you have a clear melodic death metal influence with At The Gates seeming to be the obvious point of reference through the driving, up-tempo yet melodic tremolo-picked riffage. Then we also see a clear melodic black metal influence in the use of gothic symphonics & well-executed blast-beats. Cradle of Filth is undoubtedly the source of those sounds. Having never been the biggest Cradle of Filth fan, I have to admit to struggling a bit with the overly melodramatic gothicisms on offer even though they do make for something a little different which is certainly required with a record like this one. The clean choruses on the more melodic tracks remind me quite a bit of Fear Factory so I wouldn’t be at all surprised to find that they were somewhat of an inspiration too.

One of the problems here though is the more generic elements of Bleeding Through’s sound as they kinda overshadow their more creative ones. The breakdowns are very much the standard model for metalcore & whenever they pop up I find myself snoozing a bit. The vocals of front man Brandan Schieppati are also terribly common. I mean he sounds EXACTLY like every other metalcore vocalist in America & that’s a big detractor for me personally. There are a couple of really enjoyable tracks here though & they generally occur when Bleeding Through simply release the shackles & go for broke like they do on album highlight “Buried” or the pretty decent “Cold World”. The rest of the album seems to drift into areas of insignificance though I’m afraid, even though there’s nothing particularly terrible here either.

At the end of the day I just don’t think I’m the target audience for a record like “Love Will Kill All”. I'd imagine that it’s exactly what the band were trying to achieve & that it’s disappointed very few of their rabid fanbase but it’s simply not something that would generally appeal to me. In fact, the only reason I’ve even found myself listening to it is to assist Andi with his Hall of Judgement entry to have it removed from The Horde & in that undertaking Andi will be receiving a resounding YES vote from me as (despite the At the Gates influence) there’s absolutely no way that this is a death metal record.

For fans of Unearth, The Agonist & early Shadows Fall.

3/5

I completely agree with you here Andi. This record has no business in The Horde despite the clear At The Gates influence.

This is an interesting one Andi as I've never felt that "Energetic Disassembly" was a thrash metal record to tell you the truth. To my ears it's a progressive metal release with a few thrashy parts. I can't say that I remember much in the way of speed metal though so I've gone with a YES on one Hall entry & a NO on the other.

These two submissions have been posted in the Hall of Judgement.

To be fair Andi, most of the releases you mentioned in your earlier post about speed metal's heavy/power metal credentials were hybrids with The Guardians genres which does tend to skew your outcomes. For example, I regard "Walls Of Jericho" as the earliest European power metal release so it's not a good sample case in my opinion. That's why I elected to investigate only releases that were tagged solely as speed metal. It's a difficult one to decide on anyway as it became very clear to me quite early in the process that speed metal is pretty much a combination of heavy metal & thrash metal.

In regard to Neoclassical Metal, I consider Yngwie Malmsteen to be a heavy metal artist as I disagree that a genre should be created based on its aesthetics rather than its core roots. If we take Yngwie's sophomore album "Marching Out" for example, the base roots of that record clearly sit in heavy metal with a bit of early power metal. Yngwie doesn't change the genre by playing neoclassical guitar over the top of those roots because you can play neoclassical guitar over any style of metal. Fleshgod Apocalypse used neoclassical influences in their solos & structures & I'm sure that you'll agree that they should sit under a vastly different genre to Yngwie Malmsteen.

So this brings me to the end of my speed metal deep dive after analyzing ten releases that generally only receive the speed metal tag (i.e. without other accompanying tags) & I have to say that I've been left with some fairly inconclusive results. A couple of the ten releases clearly weren't Speed Metal records & fell into either the Thrash Metal or Heavy Metal camps while the rest were evenly split as far as which clan they'd sit more comfortably in. In saying that though, I do feel that there a number of different ideas about what speed metal really is & the clan I ended up selecting generally depended on which bucket the release fell into:

1. Albums that contain both thrash metal & heavy metal tracks so people choose speed metal as a happy medium even though there's not really any genuine speed metal on offer.

2. Thrash metal with operatic vocals & melodic guitar harmonies. Too melodic for many people to call thrash so they reach for speed metal as it seems more appropriate.

3. Sped-up Iron Maiden/Judas Priest heavy metal that doesn't utilize thrash tools.

4. Dirty/punky Motorhead/Venom worship that often isn't all that fast (sometimes with blackened vocals).

5. Fast metal that utilizes predominantly thrash metal techniques only the riffs are kept a lot simpler in order to act as an accompaniment for the vocal hooks rather than to act as a rhythmic protagonist. Stronger focus on song-writing & often offers a bit more melody than thrash. This is the brand that European power metal borrows from the most.

I've always felt that the truest example of speed metal is the last of those five options as I believe that the palm-muted, tremolo-picked guitar work is essentially the main speed metal tool. Options three & four don't require the use of that tool & are the two that fall more regularly into The Guardians camp so I can't help but maintain my position that when you get a pure speed metal release it usually feels more comfortable in The Pit (at least it does for me). Therefore, the final outcome is that I'm reluctant to make any change to the clan that Speed Metal resides in as I don't feel there's any clear reason to. Thoughts guys?

Bewitcher - "Cursed Be Thy Kingdom" (2021)

I quite enjoyed my initial experience with Portland trio Bewitcher last week. Their 2019 sophomore album “Under The Witching Cross” proved to be an infectiously fun collection of well-produced & executed speed metal with a noticeably blackened edge so I’ve come into their follow-up album (2021’s “Cursed Be Thy Kingdom”) with hope for similar rewards. Unfortunately though, despite some strong similarities with its older sibling, there are some stylistic differences between the two that leave me unable to muster the same level of enthusiasm for Bewitcher’s latest effort.

Tracks like “In The Sign Of The Goat” from “Under The Witching Cross” hinted at a black ‘n’ roll sound that never quite transpired but on “Cursed Be Thy Kingdom” we see Bewitcher fully indulging in that side of their creative ambition & that element plays the role of the protagonist across the ten tracks included. A good half of the tracklisting also utilizes the speed metal of Bewitcher’s roots but there’s more space & openness to some of these songs which sees them leaning harder towards the traditional heavy metal sound of Judas Priest than it does any velocity-addicted speed metal outfit. The vocals of front man Unholy Weaver of Shadows & Incantations (his parents might have needed TWO birth certificates to fit that one in) may not be the nastiest you’ll find but his blackened snarl is enough to push me over the edge into black ‘n’ roll territory this time whereas I felt that subgenre was more of an influence on the previous Bewitcher album. Perhaps that’s because I found much less up-tempo Motorhead worship on this one with heavy metal tracks like album highlight “Valley Of The Ravens” tending to rock as much as they roll. I’d suggest that this is likely why I find less appeal in “Cursed Be Thy Kingdom” too actually as I can’t say that I’ve ever really enjoyed that sort of thing. The inadequate cover version of Pentagram’s “Sign Of The Wolf” that closes the album out doesn’t help much either.

“Cursed Be Thy Kingdom” isn’t a bad record for what it is & I’m sure it’ll have its audience but that doesn't include me I'm afraid. I look for more adventure & danger in my music & Bewitcher's latest effort comes across as being a little unimposing & lacking in genuine depth when compared with the more substantial acts in the modern metal scene.

For fans of Midnight, Venom & Hellripper.

3/5

This one definitely sits closer to the Guardians than it does The Pit which has likely contributed to me not enjoying it as much as I'd hoped.

Agent Steel - "Mad Locust Rising" E.P. (1986)

I’ve long regarded Los Angeles five-piece Agent Steel’s 1985 debut album “Skeptics Apocalypse” as one of the top few speed metal records I’ve ever experienced so it’s fair to say that I didn’t hesitate in considering the band’s next couple of releases for inclusion while putting together an outline of the records I’d investigate as a part of this month’s speed metal deep dive. Agent Steel’s debut kinda fell into the speed metal tag due to it being made up of tracks that belonged in either the thrash metal or heavy metal camps so speed metal seemed like a happy medium, particularly given the extra melody in the vocals & guitar lines that wouldn’t normally be associated with genuine thrash. My review of 1987’s “Unstoppable Force” sophomore album last week found that the band hadn’t diluted their commitment to velocity in the slightest & I’d describe it as a relentless assault on the senses although the production & vocal performances left a fair bit to be desired & a lot of the more aggressive material is more speed metal focused than it is thrash. Having now closed that chapter in my understanding of Agent Steel’s essential releases I’m left only to fill the gap between the two albums with 1986’s “Mad Locust Rising” E.P., a twelve-minute affair that makes full use of it’s short run time.

“Mad Locust Rising” is made up of just the four tracks with the first being an insignificant 17 second intro piece that might as well have been a part of the first proper song as it serves no purpose on its own. The opening title track however is an absolute rip-snorter & takes a super aggressive thrash metal approach that’s far more similar to Slayer & Kreator than it is to Exciter or Helstar. Even polarizing front man John Cyriis’ whiny performance seems to fit the music beautifully & I’m not sure that Agent Steel could have come up with a better opener to be honest. Why the hell this track wasn’t deemed worthy of inclusion on a proper album is anyone’s guess. Next up we get a very solid & well executed cover version of Judas Priest’s “The Ripper” which is pretty faithful to the original but adds some modern-day oomph with a delivery that’s more in line with the US power metal sound. And finally, the E.P. is closed out with another thrasher in “Let It Be Done/The Day At Guyana” which is the more complex of the three proper songs & offers some fantastic riffs, particularly the Slayer-esque outro section from “The Day At Guyana” which would become a highly praised instrumental track on the “Unstoppable Force” album.

The production job is nice & raw but possesses a wonderful energy that beautifully highlights the strengths of the consistently high quality tracklisting. The performances are all excellent too with the over the top shredding of Juan Garcia & Kurt Colfelt being a definite highlight, particularly their Kerry King/Jeff Hannemann style effort on the title track which takes an already superb track to another level altogether. It’s really very hard to fault this little E.P. & I have to say that I’m surprised that it hasn’t gained more notoriety over the years. I can only suggest that the short run time is the main reason behind that but the other may be that fans weren’t quite prepared for the onslaught of aggressive thrash as there’s not really any speed metal on offer here with thrash metal & US power metal being far more appropriate genre tags.

I have to say that “Mad Locust Rising” has torn off my face & handed it back to me in pieces in many respects. I wasn’t in any way prepared to enjoy it as much as I have & now regard it as my favourite Agent Steel record by a clear margin. Is that due to the fact that it takes a direction that’s much more in line with my personal taste profile? Well… yes it certainly is but isn’t that how we all judge the merits of our music? It certainly is for me & I’m very glad to have discovered this short but very sweet little E.P. from a very important band in the US power metal movement.

For fans of Metal Church, Lååz Rockit & Destructor.

4.5/5

This one obviously sits better in The Pit than it does in The Guardians.

Despite your feelings to the contrary Andi, I can assure you that Ben & I have never had any sort of urge to want you to explore any particular styles or subgenres of music & haven't seen any examples of anyone else pushing you in any sort of direction either. The perceived encouragement to move into The Guardians was simply a suggestion on a clan that we thought would fit your tastes well after your decision to relocate & was based on the clear evidence that was at hand at the time i.e. your consistently high ratings & rave reviews of Guardians releases. Even after your move into The Guardians you were still rating every Guardians-related band I suggested extremely highly & often frothing about them big-time in the forums which only provided us with further encouragement to recommend more music of that style. I'm honestly not concerned with what you or anyone else listen to as everyone's journey is their own so you shouldn't feel that you have to justify your musical decisions to anyone else. There's no expectations attached to being part of clans. They're simply a representation of where people's musical knowledge & preferences lie. I'm very glad that you're feeling comfortable in your current clans & are embracing the opportunity to fully explore the full scope of the music they contain.

This one should have qualified for inclusion in The Infinite so I've just added it under the Djent subgenre.

This submission has been posted in the Hall of Judgement.

This nomination has been posted in the Hall of Judgement.

This release has been posted in the Hall of Judgement.

Randy Holden - "Population II" (1970)

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

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

3.5/5

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

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

Black Viper - "Hellions of Fire" (2018)

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

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

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

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

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

For fans of Mystik, Chevalier & Agent Steel.

3.5/5

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

Boris - "flood" (2000)

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

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

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

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

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

4/5

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

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

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

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

Exciter - "Unveiling The Wicked" (1986)

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

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

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

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

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

For fans of Raven, Acid & Anvil.

2.5/5

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

Speedwolf - "Riding With Death" (2011)

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

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

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

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

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

For fans of Motörhead, Midnight & Venom.

3.5/5

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

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

Abattoir - "Vicious Attack" (1985)

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

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

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

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

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

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

3.5/5

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

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Midnight - "Let There Be Witchery" (2022)

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

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

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

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

For fans of Motörhead, Speedwolf & Venom.

3.5/5

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