Daniel's Reviews

I've had an up & down experience with French blackgaze outfit Alcest over the years. I've always liked the idea of what they represent more than the actual result but have certainly given them more than their fair share of chances. I think the long & short of it is that I simply prefer a more dark & imposing sound so I often find myself feeling a touch outside of my element while their ethereal & uplifting brand of post-metal washes over me & that's still very much the case with 2016's fifth full-length "Kodama" although I've definitely seen myself feeling more comfortable & accepting on this occasion. Perhaps I'm simply softening up in my old age but I suspect otherwise.

I can see why Xephyr has selected "Kodama" for feature release status because I consistently found myself asking an obvious question during each listen. Is this a metal release? It certainly seems to be universally regarded as one on other metal-related internet resources & RYM has this album tagged as Blackgaze (152-9), Shoegaze (126-27) & Post-Metal (62-20) primaries with Post-Rock (127-10) & Dream Pop (101-23) secondaries. Now, that's all well & good but I'm gonna throw a cat amongst the pigeons here by claiming that there's not more than a couple of minutes of actual metal on the whole album & even then it's borderline. The inclusion of the occasional black metal scream does not tie a record to metal in my opinion & that's about the extent of it here. The instrumentation is absolutely in line with the modern Post-Rock model with several of the tracks drawing on Shoegaze for inspiration too. I'd be happy with Post-Rock as the sole primary but can see the logic in a dual arrangement as well. I'm just not hearing where all of these people are picking up the metal thing from as there's not a sign of it here. In all honesty, "Kodama" sounds much closer to Coldplay than it does to Deafheaven & that's not meant as a criticism. If it was played straight after a Sigur Ros record you certainly wouldn't feel startled & likely wouldn't miss a beat.

Musically, this is every bit an Alcest release. It's dreamy & melodic with the primary focal point being the layers of jangly guitars & the soft & unintimidating male vocals which see the listener being transported to a warm & positive world that's very much in opposition to the one we generally associate with a clan like The North. The consistency of the tracklisting is excellent with no weak tracks included & I find the whole experience to be very rewarding even if I do inevitably feel the craving for something more savage afterwards. It's often nice to be taken outside of your musical comfort zone by a quality artist that knows their craft very well & executes their plans with precision & that's exactly what we have here. "Eclosion" sees me drawing comparisons with latter period Anathema while the final track "Onyx" sees Alcest continuing their trend of finishing their albums with something a little different from the rest of the tracklisting, this time a darker & beautifully textured instrumental piece that I find to be the highlight of the album.

"Kodama" is not the sort of thing that'll I'll find myself reaching for all that often however it'll no doubt provide me with ongoing rewards whenever I do stumble on it while looking for something more specific. In fact, it's left me wondering as to whether I may have been too harsh on Alcest over the years. Perhaps a revisit of some of their earlier releases is required as God knows my taste profile has never wider & been more diverse than it is now.

For fans of Old Silver Key, "Melting Sun"-period Lantlôs & the self-titled Amesoeurs album.

Ben & I came across Swiss outfit Samael very early on in their recording career through their early 90’s releases. Those records pushed a fairly raw, simplistic & primitive yet still quite dark & atmospheric brand of Celtic Frost-inspired black metal that took a similar approach to that explored by the Greek bands of the time like Rotting Christ & Varathron. 1991’s “Worship Him” & 1992’s “Blood Ritual” were both reasonably enjoyable releases however Samael wouldn’t really peak until their 1994 career highlight “Ceremony Of Opposites” album that saw them taking a step up in the black metal ranks & in doing so entitled them to a lot of repeat listens during the next year or so. 1996’s fourth full-length “Passage” would prove to be a very different prospect though as it would not only see Samael stepping away from their black metal roots but it would also see them creating a new sound that is still very hard to categorize today. We'd gained a taste of this new direction a year earlier with the band's stop-gap "Rebellion" E.P. seeing Samael dipping their toes in the water to see how people would react however "Passage" would see them cementing their new identity. It would be one that would stay with them for the remainder of their career too.

The shadow of RateYourMusic.com has always hung over the Metal Academy website. I mean I can’t deny that it was the inspiration for the initial concept for our site & it certainly stills holds a very dear place in my heart. But if recent months have shown us anything it’s that there are significant gaps in its audiences understanding of metal music with their genre-tagging arrangement proving to be consistently inaccurate & “Passage” is a prime example of this. On RYM we see “Passage” being tagged with both Industrial Metal & Symphonic Black Metal as primary subgenres however that’s simply not an accurate depiction of what you can expect to hear on this record. Sure, there are some industrial metal tracks included on "Passage" however there are more that don’t really show much of a trace of anything industrial. In truth there are just as many gothic metal tracks included but that subgenre doesn’t seem to get a mention despite some clear similarities with the likes of Moonspell & Tiamat at times. Plus, claiming “Passage” to be a black metal release is a big stretch. There are a few tracks that show glimpses of the symphonic black metal sound & Vorphalack’s vocals still maintain his extreme metal bite however this isn't enough for a primary vote & “Passage” would seem well out of place at the top of the release charts for The North in my opinion. The only consistent element here is the symphonic component which is clearly evident on every track & is a major driver for the album as a whole. For this reason I see the Symphonic Metal subgenre as being the logical home for “Passage” & it’s unfortunate that this doesn’t really align with our Metal Academy clan structure given that Symphonic Metal currently resides in The Guardians i.e. our traditional melodic heavy/power metal clan. Thems the breaks though I guess & I’d much rather have our releases tagged correctly than worry too much about whether someone might misguidedly select a Samael track for The Guardians playlist.

Given my statements on the correct gentrification for “Passage”, this brings us to the quality of the music & the impact Samael’s new sound had on my overall enjoyment. The production is excellent as it presents Samael’s trademark simplistic riff structures in a chunky & up-front fashion that accentuates their heaviness while the symphonics are positioned well in the mix & never overpower the guitars. It’s a really professional sounding package to tell you the truth & was a big fat feather in the band’s cap. The song-writing is also pretty strong although this is where personal taste comes into it. I’m not at all surprised to see someone like Andi jumping all over “Passage” as he’s more of a fan of symphonic metal & gothic metal than I’ll ever be & it’s important that you have a good grasp of those two elements if you’re to fully understand the charms of this record. I can’t say that I’m completely onboard with the symphonic component if I’m being honest & that’s been a sound that I’ve always battled with no matter what the basis of a band’s sound might be. It’s only been the absolute elite acts like Emperor that have managed to overcome that stigma to gain genuine classic status from me personally but for every one of those there are dozens of artists that I’ve cast aside along the way. Don’t get me wrong. Samael are a class act. There’s no question about that. It’s just that I can’t help but feel a level of disappointment that their musical direction on “Passage” doesn’t suit me quite as well as it did on its predecessor & for that reason “Passage” would see me getting off the Samael train & giving subsequent releases very little attention until I started putting together the monthly The Sphere playlist.

Despite the undoubted quality of the performances & execution on display here, there are a couple of failures included amongst the eleven tracks. I don’t have much interest in “Moonskin” or the straight-up gothic metal of “Shining Kingdom” which both sound pretty flat to me. The rest of this material offers me a pretty consistent level of appeal however the stylistic direction sees me unable to push for classic status on any of the individual tracks. The Slayer influenced opener “Rain” is probably the best of them along with the equally strong “Jupiterian Vibe” & “The Ones Who Came Before” but none of them manages to quite get me jumping out of my seat. Vorphalack’s blackened vocals are very well done but I don’t think there are any hooks that have me repeating them in my head for days afterwards. He shows his Swiss heritage pretty clearly as you can often hear elements of Tom G. Warrior (Hellhammer/Celtic Frost) & Ron Royce (Coroner) in his delivery, only with a bit more of a black metal edge.

Overall, I’d have to say that I have a lot of respect for “Passage” as an ambitious & original undertaking from a band that were looking to do something fresh & different. If that was their goal then they’ve certainly achieved it & the fact that I find it so difficult to pigeon-hole "Passage" into any clear subgenre is a testament to that. In saying that though, I can’t deny that it doesn’t fit in with my personal taste as well as “Ceremony Of Opposites” did & I don’t think I’ll ever regard it in the same terms as Ben or Andi do. That’s OK though. Those differences of opinion are a big part of the appeal of music & art in general, not to mention websites like this one.

For fans of The Kovenant, Godkiller & early …And Oceans.

1997’s “Born Of The Cauldron” debut album from Atlanta-based US power metal outfit Cauldron Born is a very interesting inclusion in our September batch of feature releases as it doesn’t sit all that comfortably alongside its more traditional sounding heavy metal & power metals peers in The Guardians. In fact, it may well have been ostracized from the group & forced to sit & eat in the corner of the lunchroom in complete isolation. The main reason for this is its consciously technical approach that sees it fitting much more comfortably in our The Infinite clan. Fuck knows how it’s not already labelled as progressive metal because this record is about as progressive as you’ll find. I mean this fucker sounds like Yes got blind drunk & decided to become a US power metal band & I think it’s fair to say that the results are very mixed.

I really struggled with “Born Of The Cauldron” to be completely honest. With the exception of some of the ultra-underground & super-necro sounding extreme metal, my background as a musician sees me being quite picky when it comes to performance, execution & musicianship & these are clear weaknesses for Cauldron Born. Despite the fact that the song-writing & composition is extremely ambitious for a debut release, some of the band members aren’t even close to being up to the task at hand & it leaves a lot of this material sounding like a bit of a mess. The secret to writing captivating & impressive progressive metal is to present rhythmically & melodically technical instrumentation & vocal arrangements in a way that flows smoothly & still enables the song-writing to dig its hooks into the listener’s memory bank. In fact, your less technically inclined listener should almost not notice the technique on display & be able to enjoy the music for what it is i.e. actual music rather than a medium for showcasing someone’s talents. Unfortunately, Cauldron Born don’t seem to have any sort of understanding of this requirement & have subsequently presented us with some highly complex compositions that don’t flow & sound very jerky which leaves tracks like “The Sword's Lament” & “In Fate's Eye a King” sounding like a bit of a mess really. This may not have been such an obvious problem if drummer Bill Parsons could play in time however this is unfortunately not the case with his kick drum work being consistently behind the beat & guitarist Howie Bentley regularly struggling to keep in time with him. Howie has his own issues to be fair as he really wants to be a shredding guitar virtuoso but his chops aren’t even close to being able to pull off what he’s attempted here. Thankfully bassist Shawn Kascak is a bit of a star & manages to recover things slightly with his Chris Squire influenced bass lines constantly shifting through run after run of inventive melodic noodling.

Vocalist Danny White is your classic US power metal front man. His operatic style & clear higher register tone sound a lot like virtually every other vocalist from the movement but he has a much more challenging task in front of him than any of his contemporaries. Trying to layer a workable vocal hook over music this rhythmically complex was always going to be immensely challenging & he’s done a reasonable job of it, despite falling in a heap on several occasions due to the lack of fluency in the instrumental performances. And this really does highlight the problem with “Born of the Cauldron” because the best material is clearly aligned with the less complex tracks. Songs like “The Final Incantation / In the Dreaming City” & the doomy closer & album high point “Unholy Sanctuary” are a clear indicator of what could have been achieved if the instrumentalists had stayed within the confines of their technical limitations & focused on writing some strong riffs for Danny to work over. Sadly, there’s not enough of this & I found myself struggling to make much sense of “Born Of The Cauldron” for the most part. There’s no doubt that it’s a consistently interesting experience though & I was sitting on the fence between a 2.5/5 & a 3/5 rating for some time but at the end of the day I can’t deny that the moments when I can honestly say that I’m genuinely enjoying myself are too rare for me to go with the higher score.

For fans of Slauter Xstroyes, Deadly Blessing & mid-80’s Fates Warning.

I can still remember the circumstances around my earliest significant experience with Californian post-sludge metal masters Neurosis. My brutal death metal band Neuropath had been rehearsing for an upcoming gig in the mid-90's & a fan had dropped by to watch us play after having been impressed by what he saw at a recent show. He was a true diehard death metal fanatic & well & truly looked the part too. After we finished rehearsing, a few of us went back to his place for a few beers & at the end of that drinking session he traded our drummer a Neurosis “Enemy Of The Sun” t-shirt for his Gorefest one. I remember wondering why our drummer was willing to accept such a trade given that my understanding was that Neurosis weren’t even an extreme metal band (*insert gasps of horror here). It certainly tweaked my interest however many years would pass before I would truly give them the attention required to fully grasp the genius behind a band that has gone on to become one of my all-time greats over the last decade or so.

Listening to a Neurosis record can be a pretty imposing task, even for their most devoted fans. Their music isn’t pleasant on the ear. It’s dense, nihilistic & full of pessimism & you almost certainly won’t come out of the experience feeling better about the world than when you went in. However, the potential for music to take me to dark & foreign places is something that I find very attractive & “Enemy Of The Sun” certainly does that. It’s arguably one of Neurosis’ most inaccessible releases as it seems like the band had very few fucks to give at this point in their career. I mean they couldn’t have produced something with less commercial potential than this record. It’s almost devoid of melody, it’s instrumentation & arrangements are intentionally drawn out but are inherently chaotic & there’s even a 15+ minute tribal ambient piece tacking onto the end of the album which doesn’t offer much in the way of hooks or variation. Neurosis really couldn’t have repelled the try-hards more if their lives depended on it as the savagery & discomfort this album offers up is even a challenge for me & I regard myself as a diehard fan these days.

“Enemy Of The Sun” sees Neurosis expanding on the sound they’d developed with 1992’s classic “Souls At Zero” album which is my personal favourite of their entire back catalogue. As with that record, the band can be seen to be pushing out into a wide range of experimental & atmospheric directions but never lose their grip on a filthy brand of post-apocalyptic sludge metal. You can clearly hear the influence of industrial metal artists such as Godflesh & Ministry on the wonderful opening track “Lost” with its use of dark samples being a real highlight while there’s a trippy, almost psychedelic feel to the first half of the post-hardcore inspired “Cold Ascending”. There’s very little melody on offer most of the time. You’re far more likely to be engulfed by dark tribal atmosphere or dissonant noise with Neurosis’ hardcore pedigree still well & truly worn on their sleeves & it seems like the band have gone to great effort to avoid presenting the listener with anything remotely resembling a comfortable environment.

I’ve always been a hhhuuugggeee fan of the vocals on Neurosis records & “Enemy Of The Sun” is no exception although the mix perhaps doesn’t allow them quite as much power as we would get on subsequent releases. Don’t expect any sweet vocal hooks here. You don’t even get any of those more introspective & laid back folky sections that would pop up in later years. Here we see the multi-vocalist attack targeting your cranium with a sledgehammer for almost the entire duration of the album in a relentless barrage of hate & misanthropy which leaves the listener feeling noticeably drained at its completion. This mental & emotional exhaustion is definitely accentuated by the unusual inclusion of the lengthy “Cleanse” as the albums final destination. It’s intended to be hypnotic & it certainly succeeds at that however there’s possibly not quite enough substance to warrant such an extravagant run time. I’m a big fan of tribal ambient music however even I find it to be a little over-ambitious.

Ultimately, Neurosis’ biggest strength is also its biggest weakness when it comes to “Enemy Of The Sun”. There’s so much quality & maturity in these complex & downtrodden soundscapes however their perennial quest to pull the listener into their dark & intimidating world can backfire at times. The intentional chaos in the song-structures can sound a bit jerky at times with the transitions not flowing all that well while the consistent intensity of this music can leave the audience with very little to grab onto & can subsequently go over your head if you're not paying close attention. As with all of Neurosis’ back catalogue, “Enemy Of the Sun” definitely requires multiple listens to fully understand & even then it’ll continue to open up new doors with every revisit. I love it for what it stands for as much as what it achieves. It’s an uncompromising & downright depressive take on sludge metal & is completely beyond the capabilities of the rest of the metal scene. I admire Neurosis for celebrating their own monstrosity & delivering a record with such depth & ambition even if it doesn't sit amongst their finest work.

For fans of Isis, Cult Of Luna & Amenra.

English metal phenomenon Paradise Lost are one of those bands that I became aware of very early on in their recording career as their musical timeline closely matched up with own early extreme metal development. In truth though, I wasn’t exactly blown away by their 1990 debut album “Lost Paradise” as I was discovering so much amazing new metal music every week at the time. It wouldn’t be until the band’s sophomore album that I’d become convinced of their credentials as I found the atmosphere that 1991’s “Gothic” pervaded to be something very unique for the time. I’d subsequently follow up that positive experience by purchasing Paradise Lost’s third album “Shades Of God” on cassette the following year but would struggle a bit with the wishy washy production job. Regardless of this, my expectations for their “Icon” album were still pretty high when I picked up my CD copy around the time of release in 1993. It would represent the successful culmination of a transition that would see Paradise Lost finally moving away from their death metal roots & into a more accessible but no less effective gothic metal direction. It would also be one that would offer me even more appeal than their suitably titled “Gothic” album did too. I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that “Icon” came as quite a shock on first listen though. Its vastly improved production job & crunchy guitar tone was a breath of fresh air however I wasn’t quite prepared for the James Hetfield style vocals & the stronger focus on song-writing. It would take me a week or two to adjust to the changes but over time I would grow to regard “Icon” as Paradise Lost’s most impressive release, even if I would stop short of placing it on the same lofty pedestal as Paradise Lost’s contemporaries My Dying Bride & Anathema’s best material. In truth I have always found Paradise Lost to sound a little simple in comparison but this brings us to 1995’s fifth album “Draconian Times” which is arguably Paradise Lost’s most celebrated release. I would pick up my cassette copy immediately upon release & would give it a few weeks of repeat listens to dig its teeth in, buoyed by my experiences with “Icon” which I’d found to be such a grower. The album cover immediately attracted me with its stunning use of colour giving me extra incentive to keep the album close at hand.

“Draconian Times” would see Paradise Lost returning with a new line-up for the first time following the departure of long-time drummer Matthew Archer. He would be replaced by Lee Morris from a relatively unknown Birmingham heavy metal band going by the name of Marshall Law & I’ve often wondered whether this had any impact on the result of the “Draconian Times” sessions given that this would be by far Paradise Lost’s most accessible release to the time. Although “Icon” was certainly a more palatable package for your average music fan, it still had an inherent darkness about it that I found particularly attractive. “Draconian Times” would see the band taking a similar approach but there’s little doubt that some of the material would offer an all-new level of accessibility that has a fair bit to do with the album’s generally obsessive fanfare. The band’s doom metal roots are still visible if you look hard enough however they’re presented with a stronger emphasis on melody & a distinct lack of riffs with the focus being pointed directly at the sort of catchy song-writing that the more traditional heavy metal genre had built its reputation on. The gothic component of the band’s sound isn’t as overt as on many gothic metal releases either although you can certainly hear the influence of artists like Sisters Of Mercy in the use of clean guitar melodies & deep male vocals. Perhaps the impact of those moments is just diluted a little by the rockier heavy metal influence that permeates some of the tracklisting.

There were parts of “Draconian Times” that had an immediate impact on me & repeat listens would see those track’s hooks digging their teeth in very deeply but there were certainly tracks that didn’t do much for me too. I tended to allow the strength of the highlights to guide my opinion though, seemingly ignoring my concerns around the rockier & more accessible inclusions in the hope that they’d eventually hit me in the same way as they seemed to everyone else. Front man Nick Holmes’ clean vocal style was initially a challenge for me on the “Icon” album but repeat listens would see me overcoming my initial hesitation & accepting his quest for new horizons. “Draconian Times” is a little different in this regard though & when I examine his performance closely in the modern day it’s pretty easy to see why. The darker direction of the “Icon” album would mask Nick’s failings a lot better than on some of the more commercially focused tracks on “Draconian Times” & this is one of the reasons that I struggle with those inclusions. “The Last Time”, “Yearn For Change” & particularly “Once Solemn” (which sounds like a pop punk stadium anthem to my ears) don’t do much for me at all & it was these songs that saw me reserving my adoration for quite some time before eventually committing to the album. Thankfully though, there are some seriously high-grade songs amongst the twelve on offer too though, only perhaps not the ones that most Paradise Lost fanboys will claim, mind you. And this is the crux of my “Draconian Times” quandary really. I absolutely adore some of the album but the fact that these moments are the ones that are generally regarded as the least impressive tracks by most fans is a sure sign that we’re looking for very different things. The A side is where the biggest ticket items can be found but I find the B side to be miles more impressive with “Elusive Cure”, “Jaded” & “Hands Of Reason” becoming huge anthems for me during the mid-90’s. There can be little doubt that these tracks are those that draw more heavily from Paradise Lost’s past which is a clear indication that I’m not quite onboard with the direction that the band (& the rest of the global metal scene) seemed to be travelling. Thankfully though, those stronger songs are so epic that I was able to allow them to cancel out the weaker ones & leave me with a positive overall impression.

Don’t get me wrong, “Draconian Times” is certainly a strong Paradise Lost album. Is it the pinnacle of their career though? Most underground metalheads will tell you that it’s not with “Icon” & “Gothic” tending to be the most common answers when I ask that question. “Draconian Times” is easily the most accessible of the band’s classic period albums though & it’s this easier listening quality that sees it being placed on a pedestal by the vastly increased fanbase it secured amongst an audience that was drawn into metal music via Metallica’s “Black Album” a few years earlier. There can be little doubt that I find it to be a bit of a mixed bag as far as overall quality goes & it’s hard to argue against it being a touch overrated however I can’t deny that it holds a strong position in the story of my youth as it contains a few epic masterpieces that will forever pull on my heart-strings & holds significantly more wins than it does losses.

For fans of Cemetery, Tiamat & late 90’s Katatonia.

I guess I fall into a unique category in that I’m one of the relatively few extreme metalheads that can actually stake a claim to having experienced Missouri-based death metal outfit Timeghoul’s early 90’s demo tapes in the format they were originally intended to be consumed & at a time when they were still relatively current. The tape trading scene saw me picking up literally hundreds of demo tapes like these which I’d progressively work my way through as I enthusiastically looked for the next big thing in extreme music. I can distinctly remember my first time listening to one of the two Timeghoul demos & it would be a mainstay in my Walkman for some time afterwards while the other tended to drift past without rewarding me with many longer-term memories.

The 2012 release of the very imaginatively titled “1992-1994 Discography” compilation saw Mississippi-based death metal label Dark Descent Records compiling the only two Timeghoul demo tapes (i.e. 1992’s “Tumultuous Travelings” & 1994’s “Panaramic Twilight”) into one six-track, 44 minute release that covers the entire recorded career of this much-heralded underground band & it showcases the development of the Timeghoul sound particularly well with the two releases possessing very different styles & production jobs. They also offer very different levels of appeal for me though it has to be said & the compilation served as a great reminder of why one of these tapes would have been so firmly etched in my memory bank while the other would have drifted away without having anywhere near the same sort of impact. Let’s take a look at the two individually.

“Tumultuous Travelings” is a four track affair that sports a much less appealing production job than its younger sibling but this can be easily forgiven as it was par for the course for first demos in the underground metal scene at the time. The track lengths are significantly shorter too, clocking in at an average length of around six minutes. You can easily hear that this was a transitional release as the band were clearly still finding their sound. Two of the four tracks are fairly traditional in nature & wouldn’t sound all that unusual to fans of the classic early 90’s US death metal sound while “The Siege” & “Infinity Coda” see Timeghoul experimenting with a more progressive sound & touching on similar territory to the likes of Atheist & Cynic at times. There are some doomier sections included here & there but these aren’t as frequent or as substantial as they would later become while the use of blast beats is also a little more prevalent. There’s a consistent quality to this material that sees me finding enjoyment in each of the four tracks however the weak production job unfortunately prevents it from having much replay value for me. The more progressive tracks are clearly the most interesting with the doomier “The Siege” being my pick of the bunch.

The highly regarded “Panaramic Twilight” demo sees Timeghoul returning as a much more ambitious & experimental artist than they’d first appeared & also donning a greatly improved production job. The expanded track durations provide an initial indication that the band had expanded on their earlier progressive leanings with the nineteen-minute run time made up of just the two lengthy tracks. Now we see Timeghoul fully incorporating the experimental sound they’d hinted at on “Tumultuous Travelings” & I’d actually go so far as to suggest that there’s an avant-garde edge to some of the more twisted sections. The use of clean vocals & atmospheric synthesizers adds an additional layer of interest while there’s a much stronger death/doom component with diSEMBOWELMENT & early My Dying Bride providing most of the influence. The song structures are still a little bit loose & I can’t help but feel a little disappointed that we never got the chance to see what Timeghoul might have done with a big name producer & a professional studio production job but there was certainly enough truly original extreme metal on offer to see me repeatedly devouring this demo for a couple of months afterwards. In fact, listening back to it now I’ve found myself unable to shake the feeling that I’m listening to an underground classic of sorts with the epic career highlight “Occurrence On Mimas” being a true underground gem.

When taken holistically, “1992-1994 Discography” really is a tale of two cities. It’s consistently enjoyable however the real meat of the release lies in the “Panaramic Twilight” demo with “Tumultuous Travelings” representing nothing more than an interesting precursor intended to showcase the huge potential that Timeghoul possessed even in their earliest configurations. Thankfully “Panaramic Twilight” presents the listener with an emphatic enough statement to make the whole compilation worthy of every death metal fans attention.

For fans of Blood Incantation, Demilich & Nucleus.

This might sound really strange but even though I’ve been familiar with Seattle’s Nevermore since the very beginning of their career & have generally regarded them as a class act, I’d never actually checked out their most celebrated release in 2000’s “Dead Heart In A Dead World” until now. In fact, it might just be the ONLY Nevermore album that I hadn’t checked out which is nothing short of mind-boggling. Don’t ask me why though because I have no idea. I guess circumstances have just conspired against me but better late than never. I didn’t get around to their amazing third album “Dreaming Neon Black” until a decade after it was released either but it totally blew me away & I still regard it as a genuine classic to this day so the idea of an even more highly praise-worthy follow-up was something that left me genuinely excited.

From the outset, there are a couple of things worth noting about 2000’s “Dead Heart In A Dead World”. Firstly, 1996’s “The Politics Of Ecstasy” & 1999’s “Dreaming Neon Black” were both dual guitar efforts however their fourth album would be the first Nevermore record since their self-titled debut where lead guitarist Jeff Loomis has been the sole axeman & this sees the band having never sounded more tight & focused. Jeff’s lead work is simply outstanding & is the clear highlight of the album with a lot of attention to detail having been shown in his note selection, tone, phrasing & the presentation of his lead work within the context of the production. It’s really paid off too although I struggle to see how this material would have been reproduced in a live environment without the assistance of a second guitarist. Perhaps they recruited one for the purpose. I’m not too sure.

The second thing worth mentioning is that “Dead Heart In A Dead World” would be the first Nevermore record to make use of seven-string guitars & this is important because not only has it changed the tone of the album but it’s also had a noticeable impact on the stylistic direction too. Don’t get me wrong. This is still pretty obviously a Nevermore release but the style of the riffs has moved away from the thrashier approach that was taken on previous works & has morphed into a heavily down-tuned & crushingly heavy groove metal monster that sounds a lot more like Pantera & Machine Head than it does Metallica or Slayer. It would seem pretty obvious to me that this is the result of Loomis having experimented with his new instrument & finding that a chuggier & more rhythmic bottom-string approach works a treat when trying to harness the additional lower register he now had available to him. Throw in a seriously tight & brilliantly executed rhythm section & present it with a vibrant & super-precise Andy Sneap production job & you’ve got a particularly potent metal arsenal on your hands. The only question is whether that particular sound appeals to you as much as Nevermore’s previous work. I think the answer to that is no for me personally. “Dead Heart In A Dead World” is certainly a high quality release in its own right & the tracklisting is not only extremely consistent but is also studded with genuine highlights. It’s just that those highlights rarely take me to the same stratospheric levels as the ones on its predecessor & I’d suggest that this is primarily a taste thing. Front man Warrel Dane does a great job at riding the wave of energy that the band were summoning but he can occasionally be over-shadowed by the ridiculous quality of the instrumentation going on around him. Drummer Van Williams has had an absolute blinder here & I particularly love his ride cymbal work. He really is a human metronome & Sneap has got the drum sound absolutely spot on for this type of music. In fact, the bass & drums are so tightly entwined & in sync that it’s hard to think of them as different instruments.

The end result of all of this is hard to categorize to be honest as it doesn’t seem to fit comfortably into any of the usual boxes. The common consensus seems to be that it sits somewhere between progressive metal & classic heavy metal though but I’d like to dispute that. If you put this album on next to Iron Maiden, Dio or Judas Priest then you’ll very quickly realise that they don’t have all that much in common. This music is much chunkier & heavier than 99% of the more conventional heavy metal bands you’ll find & the down-tuned tone & rhythmic approach to the riff structures sees it sitting much more comfortably under the groove metal tag. Is it progressive? Weeellll… not in the traditional sense of the term as it’s not particularly technical or spacey however I can’t deny that the clinical approach to the execution & the super-crisp production job give it a noticeably progressive feel & that’s enough for me to make a call on a progressive groove metal tag for this record. It reminds me of some of Devin Townsend’s records in many ways as I’ve often felt that his releases don’t sound particularly progressive but I fail to find any more suitable terms to describe them.

If you love impeccably produced & executed metal music then you’ll no doubt really enjoy “Dead Heart In A Dead World”. It’s a classy release from an extremely talented group of musicians who know exactly what they’re doing & go about flexing their creative muscles with an effortless charm. There are no weak tracks included but I can’t deny that there are a couple that don’t interest me as much as others (see “We Disintegrate” & “The Heart Collector”) which sees me stopping just short of reaching for my higher scores. The cover version of “The Sound Of Silence” was a real surprise though. I immediately assumed that I’d hate it given my general aversion for the original & similarly bad experiences with other attempts to tackle it however Nevermore's version takes an enormous amount of creative license in presenting itself as one of the heaviest inclusions on the tracklisting which results in it sitting just behind album highlight “Inside Four Walls” for my favourite track on a very strong & professionally put together release.

For fans of Communic, “Shadow Work”-period Warrel Dane & “The Year The Sun Died”-era Sanctuary.

To be honest this is the first time that I've been tempted to listen to a full Danzig record. I've obviously been aware of their existence since way back in the day as I was hearing "Mother", "Twist Of Cain" & "Long Way Back From Hell" all over metal radio programs but their style didn't really match up with my taste profile at the time so I've ignored them until now. In the interest of completism though, I thought it was about time that I corrected that glaring gap in my metal knowledge.

Now, let's get one thing straight right from the get-go, "Danzig II - Lucifuge" isn't a metal record & I'll be submitting a Hall entry later on today to indicate this. It's far more accurate to describe this a hard rock release. There are certainly metal influences being drawn upon in a few songs (see the early Judas Priest influence in songs like "Snakes Of Christ" & "Tired Of Being Alive" for example) but closer "Pain In The World" is the only track that I consider to be a legitimate metal track. In saying that though, there's definitely a doomy aesthetic to a lot of the material which is why this record is so often linked to our beloved metal genre. My best description of "Danzig II - Lucifuge" is to say that it builds its sound off the hard rock crunch of Bon Scott-period AC/DC & "Wheels Of Steel"-era Saxon, adds a taste of classic Led Zeppelin, layers the atmosphere of Black Sabbath's debut & Judas Priest's "Sad Wings Of Destiny" over the top & then scatters hints of late 60's blues rock & The Doors sporadically across the tracklisting. Glenn Danzig's Elvis Presely meets Jim Morrison vocal style is certainly unique but I'd imagine can be quite polarizing. I don't have any particular issue with his contribution here but find the instrumentation to be much more appealing which is a strong indication that the album would have offered me a little more enjoyment with a more traditional singer. I love Glenn's more subdued Morrison-esque moments (see the start of "Devil's Playground" for example) but struggle to connect with the more obviously Elvis-inspired stuff.

Look, "Danzig II - Lucifuge" is a pretty strong record overall to tell you the truth but I will say that I think the straight up blues & blues rock tracks let it down a touch. I don't really get much out "Killer Wolf (which sounds like AC/DC playing one of their early blues tracks) or the stripped back Stevie Ray Vaughan style of "I'm The One" & greatly prefer the heavier material (big surprise, I know). The warm 70's-focused production does a lot to enhance the authenticity of the music & I really enjoy it. I just don't think a Glenn Danzig fronted band is gonna be able to get me reaching for the higher scores. It's really that simple although it is worth noting that Danzig save their best for last with the ultra-deep traditional doom metal sound of "Pain In The World" thoroughly floating my boat. That monster sounds very much like an early Black Sabbath's take on Led Zeppelin's "Dazed & Confused" which can't be a bad thing now, can it?

For fans of AC/DC, Led Zeppelin & early Black Sabbath.

I think it’s fair to say that my relationship with Dutch outfit the Gathering got off to a particularly rocky start. I was tape trading with a couple of metalheads that lived in the Blue Mountains region of NSW (i.e. a couple of hours drive from where I live) in the early 1990's & both were obsessed with the new doom/death hybrid that had taken shape over the previous couple of years so I was picking up almost every global release of any note from that particular subgenre. On this occasion I’d been sent a cassette with The Gathering’s debut album “Always…” on one side & the self-titled debut E.P. from Germany’s Pyogenesis on the other. My interest in the death doom metal sound had already been well entrenched through bands like Paradise Lost & Winter however I struggled with “Always…” & decided fairly quickly that The Gathering weren’t for me. The news that they had gone for more of a gothic metal sound for their sophomore album only provided me with additional encouragement to keep my distance so I watched casually from afar as 1993’s “Almost A Dance” album crashed & burned with the underground diehards. However, the following year would see a new & exciting front woman heralding a new dawn for the band & 1995’s third album “Mandylion” would quickly become an underground classic. I was certainly aware of it at the time however I couldn’t quite muster the courage to entertain the idea of experimenting with a gothic metal release amidst the height of my extreme metal indulgence so I didn't get to it till many years later.

Now this takes us into the latter half of the 1990’s, a period with which I’ve been very open about my personal struggles & a time when I temporarily became disillusioned with the metal scene in general. By 1998 I’d decided to take my leave of metal altogether while I experimented with not only new styles of music but also with a new lifestyle. It would be a process of rebuilding for me & it was during this time that my brother Ben brought The Gathering’s 1997 fourth album “Nighttime Birds” to my attention. I was mostly listening to progressive rock, jazz fusion & trip hop at the time but there was something about The Gathering’s new sound that really hit a tender spot within me & began to mend the heart strings that I’d had so brutally torn & twisted by my broken de facto relationship. It would subsequently go on to become one of a few key records that helped to get me through those years &, as a result, holds a very dear place in my heart to this day. In saying that though, it’s been many years since I’ve mustered the courage to want to return to it & ever since we revisited “Mandylion” as a recent feature release I’ve been wondering just how well it would hold up without the emotional baggage that I was carrying with me back in the day.

Despite what many critics & fans will tell you, “Mandylion” wasn’t a perfect record. If you look at it closely you’ll find that it had its flaws. I went back to find out what all the hype was about in the late 2000’s & found myself being a little underwhelmed, despite recognizing it to be a very solid release & the point at which The Gathering would begin to define a relevant & artistically challenging sound. It wasn’t an immediate record for me as the most appealing material was so clearly held in the last few tracks so it took me getting used to the overall tracklisting before I could find some of the adoration that others seemed to feel for it. But in saying that, it was generally the first half of the album that was held up on a pedestal & I still fail to achieve those feelings. It was the deeper & more complex tracks that close the album that saw the band getting me close to pulling out my higher scores & “Nighttime Birds” takes this idea a little further again which offers me a greater level of appeal.

From the first seconds of opening track “On Most Surfaces (Inuit)” it becomes immediately apparent that The Gathering had satisfied some of my minor qualms with “Mandylion”. The production job & performances are vastly superior to its older sibling & there’s a more consistent level of complexity to all of the material. “Mandylion” was unquestionably a darker & heavier record than “Nighttime Birds” however the band’s new sound possessed a sophistication & class that represented a clear step up on its predecessor. The more generic & chuggy metal riffs have been replaced by more melodically expansive & atmospheric passages of musical exploration that have a dreamier quality to them that reminds me of The 3rd & the Mortal’s finest works. In fact, The Gathering’s transition in style reminds me a lot of that band’s musical journey over their first few releases in that they traded in some of their metal street credibility for a more ambitious approach which offered greater substance & depth. The simple Paradise Lost influenced guitar melodies are still intact but the execution is significantly better & the backing instrumentation is more fully realized which only increases their impact.

It’s interesting that the gothic component of the Gathering’s supposed gothic metal sound isn’t all that strong on this occasion. You can easily hear the influence of early 80’s goth rock bands like The Cure but there’s a lot more going on than that which makes The Gathering’s sound hard to categorize. They certainly don’t go overboard with the gothic theatrics like some of their competition do & that’s got a lot to do with their appeal for me personally. They have a progressive element to their sound that brings to mind Anathema’s later material even if they don’t sound all that much alike in my opinion. The fact that it’s not easy to categorize The Gathering into any clear subgenre is a feather in their cap actually as it’s a clear sign that they’ve achieved their own sound.

And this brings me to one of the most important elements in the appeal of a record like “Nighttime Birds” i.e. the stunning vocals of front woman Anneke van Giersbergen. Her performance carried the weaker moments on “Mandylion” & was the clear highlight of the record however on “Nighttime Birds” we see her reaching a whole new level with the material seemingly having been written to highlight her skill sets. The melodies & harmonies she achieves here are amongst the best I’ve heard in all of metal & the angelic hooks are greater in both number & impact. In fact, this record is the primary reason why I regard Anneke as the greatest female metal singer of all time & I can’t overstate the quality of her contribution here. The dreamier instrumentation is the perfect foil for her unique & powerful voice & the startling improvement in the technical proficiency of the musicians has enabled her to free herself of any shackles she may have maintained previously so that she can soar like a bird.

Unlike “Mandylion”, “Nighttime Birds” kicks off with one of the best couple of tracks on the tracklisting & the highlights come more regularly & consistently from there. The closing two pieces in the title track & “Shrink” are more devastating than the two wonderful closers on “Mandylion” with hooks that simply refuse to leave my brain & firmly command that I return to the album over & over again. There are no weak tracks included either. The more commercially focused & rocky “Third Chance” is certainly the least impressive of the bunch but even then Anneke manages to give it the oomph to overcome its more accessible direction. Plus, the middle of the album sports another couple of gems in “The Earth Is My Witness” & “New Moon, Different Day” which would be worthy of album high point status on most other albums.

Look, I don’t doubt that there’s an element of emotional & nostalgic attachment to “Nighttime Birds” that gives it an advantage over most of its competition but I can’t think of a gothic metal record that’s had as big an impact on me so I’m gonna go out on a limb & say that this is now my favourite release from that particular genre. I regard it as a genuine classic that has the unique potential to crossover into more commercial circles without losing any of credibility in the process. The fact that “Mandylion” will likely always be regarded as The Gathering’s finest hour is hard to understand for me personally as this album is so clearly superior in every way in my opinion.

For fans of Tiamat, The 3rd & the Mortal & Theatre Of Tragedy.

I was in dire need of some violence & brutality to revitalise my metal mantra when I finally returned to extreme music after a decade in the electronic music wilderness in 2009 & this requirement was promptly met in no uncertain terms by the 2000 third album from New Jersey grindcore act Discordance Axis. “The Inalienable Dreamless” unapologetically beat my brains in with a jackhammer & left me wondering if the entire scene had gone insane in my time away. Strangely, I haven’t returned to it since so a revisit has been well overdue for many years now.

In classic grindcore style, “The Inalienable Dreamless” comprises of a full 17 tracks but takes just 23 minutes to pummel you into submission. It doesn’t muck around either because this is some of the most ridiculously abrasive material you’re likely to find in extreme metal & this isn’t just due to the awesome blasting drum performance of talented skinsman Dave Witte whose amazingly powerful performance is highlighted by a brilliant understanding of how to use his ride cymbal to further accentuate his blast beats. Front man Jon Chang unsurprisingly screams his fucking guts out & there’s a spasmodic chaos to this record that borrows heavily from mathcore acts like The Dillinger Escape Plan in order to create an added layer of interest with the use of odd time signatures & more angular riff structures taking the album to new levels of interest & intrigue.

Despite pushing past the majority of its peers as far as pure savagery goes, this really isn’t your average grindcore record. It’s much more sophisticated than that & sports a production job that offers the perfect balance of clarity & extremity. The fact that I often find myself looking back at each track & wondering how the band have managed to stuff so much substance into such a short period of time is a sure sign of a superior grindcore act. It's worth mentioning that this is not the type of album that I feel like sticking on all that often though as it fits a very specific niche & does it particularly well to say the least as you’ll rarely find a release that possesses more energy, violence & chaos than this one. These are some of the primary requirements of good grindcore music too which makes "The Inalienable Dreamless" one of the most effective examples of its type. In fact, I’m gonna go so far as to say that it’s just slipped past Pig Destroyer’s “Prowler In The Yard” to snatch the honour of being my all-time favourite grindcore release these days so it should be essential listening for anyone interested in the genre.

For fans of Gridlink, Fuck The Facts & Antigama.

With all of the recent talk about the US power metal movement in The Guardians forum, I noticed that I hadn’t rated this highly regarded release from that particular scene, despite harbouring the distant memory of having given it a few spins over a decade ago now. Having sat through the album three times over the last two days though, I’m not so sure that my recollections are all that accurate as I can’t say that I’ve heard anything particularly familiar in The Lord Weird Slough Feg’s 2003 fourth album “Traveller”. There’s one thing that can’t be denied though & that’s the impressive pedigree of this band as they showcase a very solid understanding of several eras & movements that produced the fundamental building blocks of metal music in general.

Some of you may have read my recent whinge about how poorly the US power metal tag is used & defined. Well, “Traveller” is one of a relatively small percentage of releases that are genuinely deserving of the tag as it’s as metal as fuck & possesses a consistently epic atmosphere that rarely crosses over that dreaded cheese line. The warm rhythm guitar tone isn’t overly distorted & this restraint gives “Traveller” a noticeably 70’s feel that reminds me of Judas Priest’s classic material from the 1976-78 period. Black Sabbath is also strongly represented through several chunky doom sections that sit very much in line with some of the material from the Grand Magus record we featured recently. Iron Maiden & the NWOBHM receive more than the occasional dalliance too with the classic Maiden gallop & guitar harmonies being a major component in the Slough Feg sound although it has to be said that the harmonies in question often sound a little more dark & doomy than the Irons ever attempted.

Despite the obvious classic metal influences though, “Traveller” is categorically a US power metal release for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the riffs have an overarching weight to them that never veers from the metal course, even if they do occasionally head into territory that’s a little more melodic than I’d like. I mean there’s absolutely zero hard rock here & neither is there any hint of commercialism. These guys do what they do purely for the love of metal. Secondly, the vocals of Mike Scalzi (who also fronted San Francisco progressive metal outfit Hammers Of Misfortune at the time) have an epic quality to them that’s tailor made to encourage audiences to don their leathers & raise their metal claws to the sky in unison. To my ears, his tone sits halfway between the emotionally engaging styles of A.A. Nemtheanga (Primordial) & Vincent Cavanagh (Anathema) & the nasal story-telling of Manilla Road front man Mark Shelton & this really seems to work for Slough Feg as it provides further reinforcement to their whole ideal which appears to me to be a celebration of metal in general.

I can’t deny that there are some really attractive elements to the Slough Feg sound that I get a lot of enjoyment out of. The lead guitar tone offers plenty of shred & really highlights the skills of the musicians involved so the solos are always enjoyable. I also find the more organic rhythm guitar sound to be a refreshing side step from the usually heavily distorted one found in most modern heavy/power metal. It adds another layer of integrity/credibility & immediately saw my ears pricking up, particularly during the more crushing sections where those guitars have a lovely crunch to them. So I guess I generally like the band’s approach but the only problem is that I’m never quite onboard with Slough Feg’s overall musical direction. It’s just a touch too melodic for me & I’ve often struggled with the more epic sounding brand of heavy metal over the years. These concerns are probably responsible for me not being able to find any genuine classics amongst the twelve tracks included & are compounded by a three track run in the middle of the B side that leaves me completely cold (see “Gene-ocide”, “Curse Of Humaniti” & “The Final Gambit”). So overall I’m gonna place “Traveller” into the big box I keep at the back of my musical tasting room i.e. the one that I store records that I quite like but rarely find myself returning to.

For fans of Brocas Helm, Manilla Road & Eternal Champion.

I first became aware of Mexican outfit The Chasm through a South American tape trader way back in the mid 1990’s & didn’t mind their first couple of doom-laden death metal albums, particularly their 1996 sophomore effort “From The Lost Years…”. But it would be more than a decade before I’d return to the band & discover that they’d become somewhat of a cult artist in the underground extreme metal scene while I’d been busy indulging myself in the electronic music scene. 2000’s “Procession To The Infraworld” (arguably The Chasm’s most highly regarded work) would be the first of The Chasm’s classic period releases that I'd investigate & it didn’t make as big an impact on me as I’d expected upon first listen. Thankfully, I gave it some time & was warmly rewarded for my patience.

“Procession Into The Infraworld” isn’t the most clinical death metal record you’ll find. Instead, it goes for a much looser & more chaotic approach to both its production & execution. The musicianship isn’t amazing to be honest. Antonio León’s drumming is certainly pretty ambitious however the incredibly clicky kick drum sound is particularly unforgiving & showcases Antonio’s technical failings fairly obviously while the lead guitar work is performed at a pretty basic level & is one of the weaknesses of the album. The complexity of the song-structures is quite impressive though with The Chasm rarely sticking to the one riff for more than a few bars which gives the album an urgency that it might not have possessed otherwise. Daniel Corchado’s vocal performance offers great variety & a significant amount of menace which gives some of the less imposing tracks a little more underground credibility too. Those of you who are familiar with Incantation's "Diabolical Conquest" album might be pleasantly surprised at the alternative directions he takes here in comparison to the more consistently deep & guttural contribution he made to that particular late 90's classic.

Musically, “Procession Into The Infraworld” isn’t the most brutal death metal release you’ll find & it doesn’t have the darkest atmosphere either but neither of those comments should be taken as negatives. The Chasm’s more death metal inclined riffage sports a uniquely Mexican edge that’s got plenty of room for melody without ever crossing over into melodeath territory. It reminds me a lot of Corchado’s early 90’s band Cenotaph’s 1994 sophomore album “Riding Our Black Oceans” & also 2009’s “Sub Altris Caelis” record from fellow Mexicans Infinitum Obscure which was more than likely influenced by it. But if you allow yourself to ignore all of the genre-tagging you see online, close your eyes & focus on what’s really going on, you’ll notice something really interesting because at least half of the guitar work on this release sits more comfortably under the black metal banner than it does under a death metal one & I feel that this element is deserving of the "blackened death metal" label. There are loads of dissonant open-string arpeggios going on that wouldn’t feel out of place on a Satyricon or Burzum record & there’s a thrashy edge to some of it that’s not all that dissimilar to Immortal’s “At The Heart Of Winter” album too. But the major influence I pick up from “Procession To The Infraworld” is that of Swedish melodic black metal gods Dissection with the same sort of complex melodic movement being employed consistently across the tracklisting. It’s this ever-changing combination of accessible black metal melody & more meaty death metal chug that give this record its widespread underground appeal in my opinion.

On paper, “Procession To The Infraworld” isn’t exactly in line with my usual death metal preferences however it’s hard not to admire the integrity in its concept as it really is an unabashed statement on the strength of the underground extreme metal scene & it’s this characteristic that allows me to overlook its flaws. There are some really strong tracks included here but it’s really only closer “Storm Of Revelations” that sees me reaching tier one levels of admiration. The rest of the album is very consistent but the lack of precision & polish in the performances I mentioned earlier combines with a greater concentration on melody than I’m usually comfortable with to see me reeling my adoration in a bit. There’s no doubt that this is a strong record. It’s just not the classic that some people would have you believe it is.

For fans of Dissection, Cenotaph & Infinitum Obscure.

My nomination of the 1991 sophomore album from New Jersey artist OLD as our monthly The Sphere feature release was very much intended so that I could take a retrospective look at an album that I overlooked at the time. I’d become acquainted with OLD through their 1988 debut full-length “Old Lady Drivers” a short time before the release of “Lo Flux Tube” which was mainly due to the band’s link to the amazingly consistent Earache Records label. Unfortunately, the tongue-in-cheek brand of grindcore that the debut album presented me with hadn’t left a huge impression on me however I noticed that their follow-up effort seemed to be receiving an increased level of attention so gave it a casual once over. It didn’t hit the spot for me on that brief dalliance so I redirected my attentions towards releases that were more in line with my tastes at the time. Listening to the album now, I have to say that I’m not terribly surprised at this outcome given that I was completely obsessed with the darkest & most extreme death/black metal in the world back in the early 1990’s but there were also a couple of obvious obstacles for a young fella to overcome too. My musical palate is much better equipped to navigate those issues these days though so I think it’s time to see whether I’ve missed out on a rewarding artistic experience over the last three decades or not.

The first element that confronted me after pressing that little triangle on my iPhone screen is the weak production job & I was immediately reminded of the reasons for my having initially struggled with “Lo Flux Tube”. The guitars reside in a space that almost sounds like they’re in another room & have a very noisy & treble-heavy tone that reminds me a lot of early 80’s gothic rock & post-punk. In fact, those influences also play a role in the use of the bass guitar throughout the tracklisting with the bass being positioned quite forward in the mix even though it’s not afforded all that much actual bass from an equalization point of view. It took me a full listen to the duration of the album to become accustomed to production flaws but once I returned for my second visit I found that I was able to see past them & the album started to open up a bit. In saying that though, this is an unusually inaccessible record for other reasons too. To be more specific, the vocals of Alan Dubin (who was also in Khanate with band leader James Plotkin during the early 2000’s) take some getting used to as they amount to nothing more than a shrieking black metal scream that at first seems fairly out of place on top of the experimental noise going on beneath it. Again, this issue becomes much easier to deal with over time & I’m now a lot more comfortable with it but there’s no doubt it was a career-limiting move & I can’t help but think that these vocal & production traits are what prevented me from committing to “Lo Flux Tube” a good three decades ago now.

Instrumentally, the album openly highlights a couple of fairly obvious inspirations but utilizes them in a way that amounts to much more than simply being the sum of those influences. The first is that of English industrial metallers Godflesh with the consistent use of artificial harmonics & feedback over the top of mid-paced & mechanical sounding drum machine programming forming the basis of OLD’s sound. But it needs to be said that OLD take that sound to much more bizarre places than Justin Broadrick ever dreamt of with avant-garde Canadian progressive metal outfit Voivod playing a big part in the chaos that ensues at regular intervals across the tracklisting. In fact, it wouldn't be a stretch to claim "Lo Flux Tube" as a combination of "Streetcleaner" & "Dimension Hatross" really as there’s an unconventional & often alarming psychotic feel to the way that the riffs are structured & it seems like they’ve made a conscious decision to focus on messing with people’s minds as much as creating an enjoyable listening experience. OLD often employ the use of psychedelics in order to further dismantle the listeners mental state which works pretty well for the most part & is a characteristic that was always going to offer me a fair amount of appeal. It doesn’t always work of course but it’s hard not to admire the ambition even when things don’t quite gel.

“Lo Flux Tube” is undeniably a strange listening experience however it’s also an entertaining one with only the misguided instrumental psych-out “Dissassemble” failing to hit the mark. Its flaws were always going to prevent it from reaching the top tiers of the industrial metal genre however there’s a lot to take in here which sees it possessing a strong replay value that’s further enhanced by the sheer intrigue it offers with its avant-garde & cerebral approach.

For fans of Godflesh, Voivod & early Scorn.

This one has really surprised me. I wasn't expecting all that much going into it to be honest. I've had a very long relationship with Saxon after having first experiencing them through 1981's "Denim & Leather" album back in the late 80's & then exploring the remainder of their classic trio of 1980-81 records. It wasn't until Ben & I conducted the Metal Academy podcast three or four years ago that I took a focused look at their self-titled debut as well as the three records that immediately followed their classic period. The debut was the only one of Saxon's first seven records that I didn't have time for with 1983's "Power & the Glory" surprisingly becoming my personal favourite, closely followed by their 1982 live album "The Eagle Has Landed: Live" & 1980's legendary "Strong Arm Of The Law" record. Strangely, I've never gotten around to giving a single post-1985 Saxon release a chance until now however "Thunderbolt" has unceremoniously turned things on their head as I actually think it may be my new favourite Saxon release.

"Thunderbolt" is certainly the most metal Saxon release I've heard to date. In fact, it's a seriously metal record in general which was always going to be a feather in its cap with someone like myself. The AC/DC & Van Halen worship that was so prevalent on Saxon's 80's material is nowhere to be found while the Judas Priest influence has been beefed out significantly & is more focused on Priest's post-1970's material now. Bif Byford's vocals are surprisingly as strong as they've ever been & are a real highlight, as is the stunning lead guitar work of the ever reliable Paul Quinn & new kid on the block (well he's been there since 1995 but I've never heard him Saxon before) Doug Scarratt. There are a truckload of great riffs included & they're accentuated by a splendidly chunky production job that sees this release completely shunning any references to the NWOBHM. In fact, if this record came out of the USA then you'd be seeing it being labelled as US power metal, such is the weight of its riffage.

The tracklisting is impressively consistent with only the lacklustre & lethargic chorus of "Speed Merchants" failing to keep me entertained. The album opens with a beautifully executed & suitably imposing intro piece called "Olympus Rising" that sets the tone for the album nicely. Then you'll find yourself thrust into a world that's simply full to the brim with metal pedigree. The anthemic album high point "The Secret Of Flight" is as addictive as anything Saxon have done in their career while the dark majesty of "Nosferatu (The Vampires Waltz)" captured me from the word go. I'm not sure I really need the raw version of that track tacked onto the end of the album though. It may not include the synthesizers of the original version however it doesn't really add anything to my life. The less impressive tracks are generally those that take more of an old school approach that borders on speed metal. These are still fairly fun inclusions but are certainly less substantial than the more ambitious & noticeably meatier mid-paced material. On the other hand though, Saxon records have traditionally included the odd commercial dud & thankfully you'll find none of those on this occasion so it's hard to complain much.

I have to admit that I'm well impressed with just how relevant Saxon still sounded after 42 years of existence & that fact that they've managed to achieve a sound that's better suited to my personal tastes than their classic material was is a testament to that. I've always liked Saxon but I rarely loved them. It's nice to see a group of old codgers that aren't afraid to get with the times & are still so clearly influenced by great metal music.

For fans of Judas Priest, Accept & Grim Reaper.

Maryland-based avant-garde alternative metal outfit Dog Fashion Disco have been around for over 25 years now & I’ve seen their name floating about quite often in that time, usually in connection with their 2006 sixth album “Adultery” which seems to be regarded as their career highlight by a fair margin. The comparisons with Mike Patton & (in particular) Mr. Bungle have always intrigued me as Ben & I spent many an hilarious evening laughing our asses off to Bungle’s 1991 self-titled debut as teenagers in the early 1990’s. They certainly weren’t traversing an artistic space that I would usually have been interested in but god damn if they weren’t as fun as fuck & the same can be said for Dog Fashion Disco if this record is anything to go by.

Now let’s deal with the elephant in the room right from the get-go, shall we? Dog Fashion Disco really love Mr. Bungle & aren’t afraid to show it. In fact, “Adultery” is pretty much a variation on a theme that Patton & co. had already well & truly defined. However, it also has to be said that that statement isn’t something you hear all that often & there aren’t all that many alternatives for diehard Bungle fans in all honesty, particularly ones that are written, performed & executed as well as this one is. The film noir template they’ve based their themes around works beautifully & ensures that the listener is constantly being treated to new scenes & stylistic u-turns while always maintaining a wonderfully fresh energy & an uncanny understanding of a whole plethora of disparate genres.

Front man & band leader Todd Smith sounds a lot like Mike Patton most of the time. In fact, you could say that he’s a dead ringer for him but that doesn’t take away from the clear talent he has for a charismatic delivery of a whole bunch of different tones & techniques. There are a few jarring transitions here & there but they make perfect sense from a thematic point of view which sees you making excuses for them a lot of the time. I definitely enjoy the heavy alternative style guitar parts a lot & think that Dog Fashion Disco are at their best when they’re at their opposite extremes i.e. the chunkier & more up-tempo alternative metal material with the catchy vocal hooks & the much deeper film noir-driven ambience that sees me taking a swift chill pill or two.

The musicianship, song-writing & execution are all top notch & there are plenty of sections that leave me gasping at the sheer ambition on display. The consistency in the song-writing is also outstanding with only the country number “Desert Grave’ failing to engage me which is mainly due to my overarching issues with country music in general. The rest of the album ranges from pretty decent to very solid to absolutely mind-blowing with the peak of the album residing in the sexy stripped back lounge feel of “Private Eye” leading into the total banger that is “The Darkest Days” (i.e. the clear high point of the record for me personally). The themes are certainly intended to be in foreground but don't think that it's essential to follow them in order to enjoy the album. Lyrical content has never been something I've focused on terribly much & after giving this record a few spins I still have no idea what the storyline is about but it really doesn't matter all that much in the grand scheme of things because the music is of a high enough quality to easily stand on its own two feet.

Whether you’re a diehard member of The Gateway clan, a casual fan of alternative metal or simply a curious passer-by, “Adultery” comes thoroughly recommended from this jaded ol’ metalhead. If you ever feel that you need a time-out from the norm & are looking for a temporary escape to a dark & wonderful place filled with mystery & intrigue then Dog Fashion Disco may just have provided you with the perfect outlet.

For fans of Mr. Bungle, Stolen Babies & Polkadot Cadaver.

I didn’t have any prior experience with New York metalcore outfit Skycamefalling coming into this month’s feature release submission but have seen their 2000 debut album receiving consistently high praise from critics & fans over many years now so have been meaning to investigate it at some point. “10.21” is a lengthy undertaking clocking in at just over 63 minutes in duration however it never feels arduous & that run time is slightly extended by one of those needless four & a half minute periods of silence at the end of the tracklisting which only ends up resulting in a one-minute fading reprise of the closing number.

Skycamefalling’s sound is extremely well defined for a band that was only conducting their very first full-length recording effort & they’ve achieved a beautiful balance of consistency & creativity here to tell you the truth. They represent something much more than your generic metalcore fodder, despite the vocals of Christopher Tzompanakis sitting very much within the confines of the subgenre specifications. Christopher’s gravel-throated screams remind me quite a bit of Converge front man Jacob Bannon actually however the instrumentation is just as likely to draw from external influences as that of Jacob’s band. Unlike some of Converge’s more highly celebrated material though, “10.21” doesn’t offer the most imposing, urgent or extreme variety of metalcore you’re ever likely to hear. In fact, it’s pretty unintimidating is many respects & has chosen a very different tool set with which to slice its prey.

The production job of Jim Winters is a real highlight & on first listen you’d be forgiven for thinking that this album had only just hit the shelves last week. The guitar & bass tones are both warm & thick & maintain a suitable amount of heaviness without ever really feeling particularly metal. Sleepcamefalling actually sit much closer to the hardcore punk side of the metalcore equation than the metal one & that tone is well suited to the hardcore environment. Some of the riffs have a clear alternative rock edge to them too which is further complimented by the guitar tone & this results in even the more rocky & generic & sections presenting themselves in a lively & enthusiastic way.

As strong as the heavier tracks may be though, the most entertaining element of Skycamefalling’s sound is their use of post-hardcore experimentation with the majority of my album highlights aligning themselves with the band’s more ambitious undertakings & casting aside the heavy guitars & screamed vocals altogether. The opening intro piece is a great example as it sounds uncannily like something that Radiohead might have done. I always find myself waiting (even begging) for Thom Yorke’s nasal vocals to slither their way out of my speakers & into my eager ear cavities & it’s almost disappointing when one of the better heavy tracks “With Paper Wings” finally savages your expectations at its completion. Then you’ve got a lovely two-minute clean guitar driven post-rock instrumental that breaks things up nicely a few tracks into the album & the wonderfully epic ten-minute title track with its relaxed tribal rhythm & slowly building acoustic guitar work. You’ll rarely find a better example of the post-hardcore sound & it’s these elements along with the undeniable consistency of the tracklsting that sees my score sitting at such an impressive level.

Overall, “10.21” is fairly easy on the ears for a metalcore record. There are relatively few signs of the abrasive approach that the majority of their contemporaries pride themselves on however there’s simply not a requirement for it here as Skycamefalling have a much broader palate of influences to draw upon & have an acute understanding of the tools at their disposal & the dynamics required to keep the listener genuinely engaged. Throw in a tracklisting that’s completely free of blemishes & you get yourself a damn entertaining metalcore record that won’t disappoint its target audience.

For fans of Converge, Norma Jean & Cave In.

When I finally returned to the metal scene back in 2009 after a decade immersing myself in electronic music, I was very keen to see what my beloved death metal genre had evolved into. The late 90’s had seen my interest gradually starting to wane as death metal’s reign at the top of the extreme metal bubble had gradually started to burst however this hadn’t eroded my passion for the classics in the slightest so my curiosity was still high & I progressed into a period of frantic binging. Amongst the litter of pretenders & copy-cats, I stumbled upon the brand new sophomore album from New Zealand three-piece Ulcerate & was fascinated as to how a band from such a small & relatively local country had seemingly created such a buzz in the underground scene so I went into my first listen with an open mind & few expectations.

The first listen of a record like “Everything Is Fire” can be very challenging, even for the most hardened death metal fanatic. It’s an extremely inaccessible release & requires a level of patience to fully grasp. The first thing that hits you is the sheer density of the sound you’re presented with & it’s hard to believe the sonic assault you’re experiencing has come for just the three dudes. In fact, I’d be very surprised if most fans didn’t find their first run through the album to simply wash over them with very little actually sticking as the listener struggles to find something familiar to grab on to & that was very much the case with me. It was only on subsequent listens that the individual tracks started to open up & I began to realise why I’d struggled so much with it on first listen.

You see, “Everything Is Fire” is an extremely complex record. The level of technical skill required to create this music is astonishing. In fact, it’s so ambitious from a compositional & structural point of view that it often becomes its own worst enemy with its weakest moments proving to simply have too much going on for the listener’s brain to take it all in. It’s almost like the band members had too many ideas & tried to stuff them all into the shortest possible period of time. On some occasions this can come across as sheer genius while at others it becomes overpowering & sees the whole structure of the song-writing starting to break down. Thankfully though, the atmosphere that’s created has a darkness & a vitality that ooze of an elite class artist & this was enough to see me holding the album in high regard & placing it on high rotation for several weeks as I valiantly attempted to understand what was being presented to me.

As I would later discover, Ulcerate had begun life as a fairly generic technical/brutal death metal band & despite finding their 2004 “The Coming Of Genocide” demo to be much closer to my musical roots, I also found it to be pretty boring overall. Things would start to take shape with their 2007 debut album “Of Fracture & Failure” which kept me engaged with a little more ambition thrown into their sound however the stop/start nature of the song-structures made it sound a touch messy so it didn’t hold all that much replay value for me. Things would change drastically in the two years that followed though as “Everything Is Fire” is a very different beast & is very much the release that represents Ulcerate's coming of age. This time the band had harnessed the dissonant & chaotic brand of tech death that Canadian legends Gorguts had created earlier in the 2000’s but had combined it with the dark atmosphere of Immolation & some wonderfully engaging post-sludge influences that sound similar to Neurosis. So it’s essentially a concoction of a few of my very favourite sounds, all thrown into a blender & presented in a classy & refreshing way. That’s not to say that it’s all a resounding success though as the tendency to descend into overly complex muck is still occasionally at play here however every track has enough musical genius to comfortably transcend those obstacles.

It’s worth mentioning that the highlight of any Ulcerate record is most certainly drummer Jamie Saint Merat & “Everything Is Fire” is no exception in that regard, despite him  surpassing even these obscene levels of proficiency on subsequent releases Jamie's quite simply the most astoundingly talented drummer that I’ve ever witnessed in metal music & that includes all of the big names. In fact, when I saw Ulcerate live I found that I could happily have stood & stared at him playing completely solo for hours on end, such was the impression his incredible technique left on me. On this occasion, the clicky kick drum sound doesn’t do him any favours as it tends to highlight even the slightest blemish in a lightning-fast double kick run & that’s certainly not evident on subsequent releases however the sheer power & precision on display is mind-blowing. It’s really pretty easy to let Jamie’s performance overshadow the rest of the band but once you get comfortable with that element you’ll notice that the angular & twisting guitar work of Michael Hoggard is quite spectacular too & is further accentuated by an excellent tone that highlights every nuance whilst losing none of its menace. The use of more atmospheric post-metal sections is a master stroke &, despite all of the dazzling technical histrionics, I tend to find myself enjoying these parts as much as anything else on the album. In fact, it’s the two extreme ends of the Ulcerate sound that give me the most pleasure i.e. the sludgy, downtempo & wonderfully professional post-metal excursions & the more straight forward blasting parts. When they stick to those two extremes I find that everything comes together more consistently than it does when they’re trying to set new records for the amount of riffs they can cram into a few bars. Bassist Paul Kelland’s vocal performance reeks of Immolation’s Ross Dolan & tends to be pretty monotonous but that’s not such a bad thing within the context of Ulcerate’s sound as he provides some much needed consistency within all the chaos. This works better in the studio than it does live where he tends to sound a little samey.

To be honest, it took me years to fully grasp “Everything Is Fire” & for that reason I placed it behind each subsequent Ulcerate release which saw them further refining their sound to make it a more cohesive & generally palatable experience. I think that opening the album with the messiest & least impressive track in “Drown Within” probably wasn’t the wisest move either however spending some time apart has a tendency to see me going in with fresh ears & it’s resulted in me discovering the true genius in this album. It’s certainly not a perfect death metal record but there’s a wonderful consistency to the tracklisting & the overall class & ambition of the performances is a step up from 99% of their peers. What’s equally impressive is that the band have handled the production, engineering, mixing, mastering, artwork & layout entirely themselves so it’s a complete piece of art that’s the truest representation of what the band were trying to achieve. There’s definitely a case for saying that I really WANTED to love this record & perhaps that’s left me open to liking it more than I may otherwise have but I’m not sure that this matters in the grand scheme of things. Ulcerate may well have surpassed this supposed crowning achievement in their extremely solid back catalogue however this will always be an astoundingly dark & ambitious technical death metal release that will continue to bend my mind in unusual & uncomfortable ways for many years to come yet.

For fans of Gorguts, Baring Teeth & Artificial Brain.

You know what, despite my love affair with Bruce Dickinson’s incredible run of form with Iron Maiden throughout the 1980’s, I kinda ignored former front man Bruce Dickinson’s early 90’s solo albums. They weren’t exactly being hailed as modern-day classics at the time & my taste had moved into significantly more extreme areas by that stage so it wasn’t until 1997’s “Accident Of Birth” that I found enough encouragement to give Bruce’s solo work a chance & this was largely because of the mountain of praise his fourth album “Accident Of Birth” was receiving. The return of former Maiden buddy Adrian Smith on lead guitar was certainly a drawcard as well & the combination didn’t disappoint with many critics claiming the album as not only a return to form but one of the best metal albums of the year.

But those of you thinking that you’re in for a Maiden record under a different name better think again. “Accident At Birth” may feature those glorious higher register vocal hooks that we’re all so fond of however the instrumental component certainly doesn’t sound all that much like Maiden. There’s a down-tuned chug to the guitar tone that’s much more in line with the groove metal sound that was so popular during the 1990’s & the strong focus on melodic guitar harmonies is nowhere to be found. This was clearly a band that was looking to become relevant in a late 90’s market that had moved on from the classic heavy metal sound but still wanting to keep a foot in the camp of past glories through Bruce’s inimitable qualities.

I can’t say that the instrumentation is half as interesting as Maiden’s best work. It really does play a supporting role to the vocals which isn’t such a bad thing as Bruce is in fine form here but it does see the album’s potential to compete with his best 80’s work having a definite cap placed on it. The lead guitar work is obviously top notch & is often presented in a way that sees the solos creating crescendos that represent the climaxes of the songs. The strength of the album is in its general consistency & overall professionalism though. There’s only really one track that I struggle with in the fairly cheesy symphonic rock ballad “Man Of Sorrows” but the rest of the material ranges from quite enjoyable to genuinely mind-blowing. The two tracks that reside on the high side of that equation are “Taking The Queen” & “Welcome To the Pit” for me, neither of which sit amongst the more celebrated tracks on the album but I’m sure you’re all aware that I don’t run with the pack in that regard. Those are the songs where the chunky riffs hit me hardest &, more importantly, the anthemic vocal hooks grab my emotions in the most violent fashion. They’re prime examples of Bruce at his very best & I regard them both as sitting amongst the very finest heavy metal anthems of the 1990’s.

1998’s “The Chemical Wedding” album is generally regarded as Bruce’s best solo work & rightfully so in my opinion however “Accident of Birth” isn’t very far behind it with “The Chemical Wedding” winning out due to a greater quantity of genuine highlight tracks. They’re both very solid outings that do their level best to remind you of why you love classic Maiden so much but don’t quite hit you as hard or as long as those 1980’s albums from your youth did. But that’s not to say that these are disappointing records by any means, particularly if you’re a Maiden or Samson tragic. Both of them are high class efforts that should appeal to any fan of the classic heavy metal sound.

For fans of Iron Maiden, Dio & Halford.

Swiss atmospheric black metal solo project Paysage d'Hiver may be most well known for his 1999 self-titled demo however I've always questioned the validity of that particular release being his crowning achievement as I don't rate it amongst Wintherr's strongest material. 2020's epic "Im Wald" release is still my favourite after the second hour absolutely blew me away me away however 2001's "Winterkaelte" isn't far behind as it possesses one of the purest frost-bitten Scandinavian atmospheres you'll ever hear & doesn't taint it with ill-fitting clean instrumentation nearly as regularly as the self-titled.

This time we see Wintherr offering us six lengthy pieces that generally exceed the ten minute mark with the two strongest tracks opening proceedings. If you struggle with trance-inducing repetition then this won't be the release you're looking for but if you love nothing more than closing your eyes in pure darkness & being engulfed by a swarming mass of arctic winds then this will be right up your alley. The general ambience is further accentuated by well-executed field recordings that add further weight to the feelings of desolation & loneliness you'll inevitably be experiencing through the layers of guitars & distant drum pulses. It really does come at you in waves with Wintherr's insane screams being a real highlight. You would have to imagine that he would have completely burnt his voice out with this performance.

The last couple of tracks do see the quality dropping a touch which is mainly due to their faster tempos which see the drum machine becoming much more obvious & this element does take a little away from the atmosphere however it's not enough to see me pulled out of the foreign & intimidating place I've been transported to. The 79 minute run time is a little extreme too however the consistency of the tracklisting is excellent so it's very hard to argue against it, particularly when I don't have any problems taking in the whole release in one sitting.

All things considered, "Winterkaelte" is a glorious & majestic piece of black metal art that should captivate anyone regarding themselves as a black metal purist.

For fans of Burzum, ColdWorld & Darkspace.

It’s funny that I’d never bothered to give this little EP a go until now. I think much of the reason behind that stems from the idea of this release. I was a fan of Kyuss’ last three albums & the first few Queens Of The Age records but a short collection of odds & sods that didn’t make the cut doesn’t really sound all that appealing to me. However the extremely positive feedback I’ve read regarding its quality has enticed me to give it a shot at last. The six track EP (featuring three songs from each artist) was released in 1997 which was two years after Kyuss had split. Former Kyuss guitarist Josh Homme had formed a new band called Gamma Ray in 1996 but was later forced to change the name to Queens Of The Stone Age after threats of legal action from the German power metal band Gamma Ray. Some of that early Gamma Ray material has surfaced here.

The Kyuss material sounds very much like it was recorded during a single session. It features a similar bass-heavy production to their last album “...And The Circus Leaves Town” so it’s highly likely that these songs were recorded during those sessions. The EP opens with Kyuss’ version of Black Sabbath’s heavy metal classic “Into The Void” which Kyuss released as a single in 1996. The first three minutes are pretty faithful to the original but the major point of difference is that Kyuss have taken a completely different approach to the fast section in the middle. They’ve chosen to make it a more stripped back & casual affair with the drums being replaced by bongos. It develops into a cool little three minute jam session before things stop quite suddenly & return to the original format. The vocals are not as effective as Ozzy Osbourne’s or John Garcia’s usual style in my opinion. “Fatso Forgotso” was originally a B-side on the Into The Void” 7”. It’s a long, groovy stoner metal outing & Garcia’s vocals suit it much better than the cover version. The fuzzed out guitars are very appropriate for the style of the riffs. There’s again a changeup in the middle & another extended jam section which reminds me very much of 70’s fusion. The final Kyuss inclusion "Fatso Forgotso Phase II (Flip the Phase)" was originally included on the “One Inch Man” single from 1995 under the title of “Flip The Phase”. It’s a shorter, more up-tempo number that rocks fairly hard & again utilizes the fuzzed out guitars quite well.

The Queens Of The Stone Age material sounds very different to Kyuss. It’s in much more of an alternative rock style which is not surprising as the band have always leant further in that direction. The first two tracks were originally released as a Gamma Ray 7” single. “If Only Everything” & “Born To Hula” are both simple rock songs that lean heavily on Josh’s catchy vocal lines in contrast to the more riff-based medium that Kyuss prefer. Both songs are reasonably memorable. “If Only Everything” is in fact an early version of “If Only” which ended up on the debut QOTSA album. The final track on the EP is an instrumental piece entitled “Spiders & Vinegaroons”. The first four minutes feature some very atmospheric & trance-inducing psychedelic material which I consider to be the high point of the whole EP however things take a drastic turn after that with the introduction of some harsh electronic breakbeats that would sound more at home on an Aphex Twin record than a QOTSA one. It’s a weird way to finish the track & I can’t help but think that it was a bit of a waste after the first four minutes were so effective.

The EP was interesting as a whole however I find it hard to pick out any standout tracks. It’s very consistent & I genuinely get some enjoyment out of every song but it’s definitely lacking a couple of highlights. None of the six songs were good enough to make it onto their bands respective full-lengths (at least not in the format they appear here) & I think that says a little bit about their overall quality. I can’t say this is essential listening for fans of either band but there is definitely some merit for those willing to take the plunge. Both Kyuss & QOTSA are class acts & it seems that even the stray recordings they have lying around are of a very decent quality.

I dunno why it's taken me so long to get around to checking out Massachusetts metalcore legends Converge's 2009 seventh album "Axe To Fall" as they've been a pretty big band for me for a long time now & never leave me disappointed. There's no exception being made here either as we see the band presenting us with their most ambitious offering to the time & collaborating with a number of mutually-respected musicians to great effect. The album really sounds very fluent & well-defined despite covering a fair amount of musical territory & I particularly enjoy the contribution from Neurosis' Steve Von Till given my strong affiliations with the post-metal masters.

Converge's classic metallic hardcore sound receives good coverage & is complemented by some straight-up hardcore punk tracks ("Effigy", "Losing Battle", "Dead Beat" & "Slave Driver"), a sludge metal monster ("Worms Will Feed, Rats Will Feast") & even a couple of more atmospheric & cerebral post-sludge excursions ( "Cruel Bloom" which reminds me very much of Tom Waits meets Neurosis & the epic album high point that closes out the album "Wretched World"). They've included just enough compositional complexity to keep the listener on their toes & reminded of the elite class of the artist they're indulging in without ever feeling overly showy or pretentious which is a rare quality in this form of art. The production & musicianship are unsurprisingly spectacular too, particularly my man Ben Koller behind the kit who is always the highlight for me. Front man Jacob Bannon puts in one of his best performances too which is well appreciated given that I haven't always loved his delivery. He seems to have gotten better with age with more weight behind his screaming violence.

Unlike most fans, I've never regarded Converge's early 2000's classics as their creative peak, despite the undoubted quality they offer. I've always found the band's appeal to grow stronger as they started to take alternative routes & expand on their sound with 2012's "All We Love We Leave Behind" representing a real highlight for the metalcore subgenre & my personal favourite. "Axe To Fall" very much leaves the impression of being the entrée for that main course & I subsequently rank it as my second favourite Converge release these days. It should be essential listening for all fans of more serious metalcore/hardcore.

For fans of The Chariot, Every Time I Die & Norma Jean.

P.S. The album cover is absolutely stunning too & beautifully compliments the music in my opinion.

No matter how much of a devoted metal obsessive you might be, there’s always going to those bands whose names are very familiar yet you’ve somehow managed to completely overlook over many years & Swedish heavy metal outfit Grand Magus are one of those for me personally. I guess it mainly comes down to my preference for the more extreme end of metal but I’m still fairly familiar with most other prominent heavy metal bands so it’s more likely just coincidence as there’s certainly not been anything intentional about it. Still… the band’s reputation as a high-quality heavy metal act with a strong front man & a hard-hitting sound was certainly something I’ve been aware of for some time so I went into 2010’s “Hammer Of The North” was a reasonable level of expectation.

My immediate first impression of Grand Magus’ sound was a resounding positive. The production job on “Hammer Of The North” is really full, really heavy & metal as fuck. Plus, front man Janne "JB" Christoffersson is a genuine talent & possesses a wonderfully powerful voice that’s tailor-made for classic metal. Sure, the riffage on display is nothing revelational but the whole album has a professionalism & class about it that’s hard to deny. The band hit onto a groove & know exactly how to milk it for all its worth as they’re as tight a unit as you’ll find. The word “solid” continually comes to mind actually. Solid song-writing, solid production, solid performances, just…… solid all round I guess. The overall heaviness is no doubt strengthened by the band’s tendency to down-tune their guitars & this is probably a contributing factor in Grand Magus’ links with doom metal along with their slow-to-mid-range tempos although there’s not really any genuine doom metal tracks on offer here. The faster material showcases a strong 70’s Judas Priest influence with opener “I, The Jury” being a fine example as it seems pay homage to “Dissident Aggressor” pretty obviously to me. Some of the more lumbering tracks bring to mind a band like Manowar & this is accentuated further by the lyrical direction.

Christoffersson’s vocal performance is a clear focal point of “Hammer Of The North” as he’s a rare talent in my opinion. I’d describe his tone & attitude as sitting somewhere between Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell & Armored Saint/Anthrax front man John Bush & that comparison can only be a complement as far as I’m concerned as I hold those two in very high regard indeed. (In fact, Cornell is my all-time favourite singer.) JB really does give some of the less exciting song-writing a greater level of appeal than it probably had any right to command & I get the feeling that it’d probably be pretty hard for Grand Magus not to give me some level of enjoyment even at their weakest moments as long as he’s behind the microphone & the production is so thick & heavy. As a result, there are no failures amongst the ten tracks on offer with even the less impressive numbers still managing to leave me feeling well satisfied. Once again, it’s a “solid” tracklisting. That word just keeps popping back into my head when I reflect on “Hammer Of The North” & I think that’s a reflection of the fact that the whole record is of a high quality however it rarely reaches the upper echelons of the top tier through truly transcendent hooks. Yep, it’s a great little record but it’s just lacking that elusive x-factor in the song-writing that can take a “solid” record & make it into a genuine classic. Only album highlight “The Lord of Lies” sees me taken to those places & I’d need a couple more songs of that quality for me to be reaching for the higher scores. As it is, I find it to be a very enjoyable example of modern heavy metal & would be quite surprised if it failed to impress any fan of the genre.

For fans of Judas Priest, Manowar & Atlantean Kodex.

I came kinda late to the deathcore subgenre. It wasn’t really a thing during my 1980’s/90’s heyday & would only start to develop as I found myself losing interest in the scene & defecting to electronic music around 1998/99. The first I heard of it wasn’t until my return to metal in 2009 & I have to admit that I was more open to it than most extreme metal fans at the time. Despite the generic elements at play on most releases, I found it hard not to enjoy the high-quality musicianship & clear & precise production jobs &, when you added in the progressive approach of some of the more expansive outfits, I found myself kinda digging it. Not to the same extent as your more traditional death metal mind you, but enjoyment was had nonetheless. Fast forward another twelve or so years & you’ll find that not a lot has changed for me in this regard. I don’t find myself racing out to track down the latest deathcore release but, when the opportunity arises, I’m up for the task & can see the merit when the subgenre is done well (as it is here).

My first experience with Chicago-based six-piece Born Of Osiris wouldn’t come until shortly after the 2011 release of this album “The Discovery” which was the band’s third full-length & is generally regarded as the pinnacle of the band’s career to date as far as I can tell. And it’s not very hard to see why either to tell you the truth because this is one outstandingly well composed & executed piece of deathly metalcore with a penchant for the more spacey & progressive end of extreme art. I wouldn’t say that it ever transcends the subgenre because all of the signature deathcore elements are at play for most of the album but there’s been a strong push for expansion & development of that sound too. For this reason, I find “The Discovery” to stretch the boundaries of my taste palate a little further than I’m entirely comfortable with but to somehow manage to keep from ever bursting out. Let’s start with the positives because there are plenty for your more open-minded metalhead to enjoy.

As is so commonly the case with US deathcore outfits, Born Of Osiris are a shit-hot group of musicians. I mean these guys can all really shred like bastards & their performances here are outstanding. They occasionally hint at crossing over into self-indulgence but I think they actually do a really great job of reining themselves in just before that occurs. Guitarists Lee McKinney & Jason Richardson are particularly skilled & show themselves to not only have the chops to match most high class shredders on the market today but also to have an impressive sense of exotic melody with some of the lead work pushing Born Of Osiris out further into progressive metal territory than they already were. In fact, I’d be very surprised if the boys haven’t been influenced by early Cynic because they’ve taken a similar approach to much of the melodic content & this is a real feather in their cap as I love a more expansive & exploratory style of guitar solo. Drummer Cameron Losch proves himself to be extremely capable with his powerful & high-precision double-kick work keeping the band sounding punchy & tight at all times. The continued use of spacey synthesizers from full-time keyboardist Joe Buras is also worth mentioning as Joe’s contribution sees “The Discovery” sporting somewhat of a sci-fi atmosphere & his short interlude pieces serve to break the album up really well without ever sacrificing on its overall heaviness. In saying that, I do think that the occasional electronic beat could be hard to stomach for some of the more traditional members of the metal audience & in truth I don’t think they add a lot to the album. You won’t be able to fault the production job as “The Discovery” ticks all of the boxes in that regard. If anything, you may be tempted to say that it’s over-produced however I think that would be a harsh assessment as I think the result generally highlights the best elements of Born Of Osiris’ sound.

Now for the album’s challenges & we’ll start with the djent component. As with many of the more progressive deathcore outfits, there’s very little doubt that Born Of Osiris have been influenced by Meshuggah or bands that Meshuggah have influenced. Now that’s not a bad thing in itself because I fucking love Meshuggah as they really are in a league of their own when it comes to the whole djent thing. It’s just that a lot of the band’s they’ve influenced do sound very samey due to the continued use of high-precision & purely rhythmic off-beat single-note riffs & you get a whole shit-tonne of those here. Thankfully they’ve been filed down to the sharpest point imaginable so as to ensure that they hit as hard as possible but they still do sound pretty generic at times. As do the trademark deathcore breakdowns which still permeate “The Discovery”. The band try to disguise them through the use of progressive colouring & they’ve had a reasonable amount of success to be fair but I still think I could generally do without them. And lastly, the most challenging part of the album for me is the dual vocal delivery which is over-used & continuously thrust down the listeners throat. As far as I can tell, front man Ronnie Canizaro employs the deep guttural death growls while keyboardist Joe Buras regularly chimes in with silly metalcore screams in support. These vocal lines have been brought right to the front of the mix & are used so consistently that they can sound fairly monotonous a while. To be fair, I don’t really like that vocal style to begin with but this is more of a comment on the overall genre than it is about Born Of Osiris in general.

Regardless of these flaws, I can’t really fault the tracklisting which includes fifteen tracks ranging from good to excellent. Unsurprisingly, it’s the more deathly tracks that float my boat the most along with the synth-driven interludes which are particularly well done. It’s kinda difficult to explain but, even though I struggle with some of the elements I mentioned above, the overall class of Born Of Osiris somehow seems to transcend my misgivings & sees me throwing myself in head first after the first few tracks. I guess I’m just a sucker for well-produced & precisely executed extreme metal so I can’t help but see through the more generic elements so that I can grab on to the more expansive ones & this sees me finding it very hard to be too critical of Born Of Osiris who are unquestionably at the peak of their subgenre. I mean if you like high quality US deathcore then I can’t see that you won’t love “The Discovery” because it ticks all of the boxes while adding in some of its own for good measure & in doing so has created the strongest & most interesting example of the djenty progressive deathcore sound that I’ve ever experienced.

For fans of After The Burial, Veil Of Maya & Within The Ruins.

I first encountered popular Los Angeles-based industrial metal outfit Fear Factory in late 1992 following the release of their debut studio album “Soul Of A New Machine” which was gaining high rotation on my local underground metal radio programs at the time. The band’s sound wasn’t exactly my usual cup of tea as I was firmly entrenched in the more brutal end of the extreme metal scale by that stage however I hadn’t heard anything quite like Fear Factory before with their foundations seemingly sitting somewhere between the death metal I was so enamoured with & a futuristic industrial metal sound so I found myself intrigued. This quickly led to me handing over my hard-earned cash at the local record store & “Soul Of A New Machine” fast became a staple in the household diet of not only myself but also my younger brother Ben. I was much more wary of 1993’s remix E.P. “Fear Is The Mindkiller” given that electronic music was still universally regarded as a dirty word with metalheads but the idea of a follow-up album was definitely something that tweaked my interest.

Fear Factory’s sophomore album “Demanufacture” would finally see the light of day almost three years after their debut which was a very long time between drinks by the standards of the day. By that stage my tastes had sunken even further into the dark caverns of brutal death metal & blasting black metal so it wouldn’t see me racing to the shops to secure my copy on this occasion. Ben wouldn’t waste too much time in securing a copy though & I’d become exposed to “Demanufacture” on a daily basis from that point on, an exercise that became increasingly enjoyable over the first month or so as the hooks & concepts became more familiar. This certainly wasn’t the same Fear Factory that had made a significant dent on the metal scene a few years earlier. It was a more mature & refined Fear Factory that had cast aside most of its death metal roots & was now pushing a more accessible & melodic yet no less potent approach that would see them breaking down any remaining barriers that might have previously prevented them from becoming a household name in the world of every teenage metalhead. The machine-gun rhythms & precise execution that had made “Soul Of A New Machine” sound so fresh a few years earlier were all still there only this time there was a much stronger focus on song-writing with a combination of clean & more aggressive vocals being employed by front man Burton C. Bell which added an entirely new element to the mix. Bell’s gruntier efforts were a little less deathly than they had been previously but seemed to fit Fear Factory’s sound a little better while the clean chorus hooks gave Fear Factory an all-new accessibility as they maintained & expanded on the edginess that had made the debut so popular without ever losing artistic credibility.

Dino Cazares’ straightforward & predominantly rhythmic approach the writing riffs wasn’t anything new by this stage with the likes of Pantera having already popularized this technique over the previous five or six years & it was all fairly simple when you looked at it closely. However, Dino’s execution & timing was impeccable & this would see him taking some relatively simple riffs that were based on only a few notes & making them into something much more substantial than they would at first appear. A major component in his success in this regard was his incredibly tight relationship with his rhythm section & bassist Christian Olde Wolbers & drummer Raymond Herrera deserve a lot of credit here. All three musicians were focused on a single, incredibly well-defined outcome & we see them throwing their entire focuses into providing the listener with a physical reaction that sees their body tying in with the tight machine-gun rhythms. Herrera deserves some special credit here because this outcome could only be achieved through an exceptionally precise performance behind the kit. In fact, his use of kick drum is just as much as much of a protagonist in these riffs as Dino’s guitars are & this would become even more noticeable in a live environment (as I would find out on the accompanying tour). The intelligent integration of Reynor Diego's synthesizers & samples at key moments is also impressive as it provides additional layers of colour & contrast.

Interestingly, time has seen my affiliation with the album’s more highly celebrated tracks fading a little to the point that these days I actually regard the opening title cut as the weakest inclusion in the tracklisting. It’s a touch more accessible & obvious than the rest of the material with the other major anthem “Replica” sitting in a similar space. I’m not saying these tracks are poor though by any stretch of the imagination though, only that they offer me less appeal than the rest of the album & in truth this is probably more of a compliment for the overall consistency of the tracklisting than anything else. I mean there’s not a dud to found amongst this lot & I actually think the deeper cuts in the back end of the album are its real strength. In fact, these days I’m the most closely tied to the closing two numbers “Pisschrist” & “A Therapy For Pain” & these are the only cuts that I regard as genuine classics, particularly the epic goth rock-inspired final number which sees Fear Factory taking their most melodic leap of faith &, in doing so, achieving a triumphant & quite majestic outcome. Almost all of the other tracks sit at a very high standard however Fear Factory’s style was never closely aligned enough to my own tastes for me to become as excited as some of the fanboys out there. Sometimes this was to do with the clean choruses not quite cutting the mustard after some seriously great introductions & verse sections & when listening to the album with fresh ears I’d have to suggest that Bell’s clean delivery is both the strength & weakness of “Demanufacture” as his contributions at key junctures in each composition would either make or break the song’s chances of hitting the top tier. At other times it was to do with the strong groove metal component which is not really my forte if I’m being truthful. Pantera & Machine Head had clearly made a very strong impact on the band on the evidence of some of the more straightforward riffs on “Demanufacture” & this gave Fear Factory a real crossover opportunity given just how popular those bands were at the time.

At the end of the day though, it’s very hard to be critical of “Demanufacture”. It’s a high quality metal record in every respect & if my tastes were slanted a little more towards the more accessible end of metal then I feel that I’d probably rate it a little higher than I do. There’s very little doubt that it represents the high point of the band’s career & they’d struggle to recreate its incisive vitality & hook-driven memorability for the rest of their days. I’m very glad that I had the opportunity to experience the band while they were still very much in their prime as my subsequent experiences with a live Fear Factory have been generally underwhelming, mostly due to the Bell’s complete loss of any singing ability. “Demanufacture” should be essential listening for all fans of the industrial metal genre.

For fans of Strapping Young Lad, Nailbomb & Ministry.

I can be a strange fucking creature at times. I mean I was a huge fan of Boston-based progressive metal legends Dream Theater from the moment I first heard their 1992 sophomore album “Images & Words” & there was a time in the late 90’s/early 2000’s when they were right up there with my favourite bands. So why in the actual fuck has it taken me this long to check out their 2003 seventh album “Train Of Thought”? Well, I guess it has something to do with the fact that I became completely obsessed with electronic music around the turn of the century & tended to focus all of my attention on my new obsession until I returned to metal a decade later. Since that time, I’d suggest that the generally middling reviews of Dream Theater’s later works have never really encouraged me to investigate them for fear of disappointment although I did check them out their live shows in both 2008 & 2014 & have always really enjoyed myself.

There’s been a lot of talk about “Train Of Thought” online & it’s reputation as one of Dream Theater’s most divisive albums was certainly well known to me before giving it my first spin. Many people claim that it saw the band trying to tap into the nu metal craze that was the flavour of the week at the time while others suggest that it was simply an attempt to make a classic metal record after getting great crowd responses to their cover performances of Iron Maiden & Metallica albums as well as their heavier original material on the preceding tours. Some say that the album lacks the ambition of past works due to the consistent focus on a heavier sound too & even suggest that some of the artistic license the band have taken has simply fallen in a jumbled heap. Then you have those fans with a slightly heavier taste in metal who claim this as one of Dream Theater’s best works so I really did go into the album having made a very conscious decision to keep an open mind & develop my own opinion.

 The first thing I’ll say about “Train Of Thought” is that I can understand where ALL of those assessments are coming from. Dream Theater’s fan base is one of the most passionate & devoted you’ll find so it was almost inevitable that even the slightest change in direction would trigger some fairly extreme responses & whether they’re valid or not is really up the individual to decide. One thing that can’t be disputed though is that “Train Of Thought” was the band’s heaviest release to the time. John Petrucci makes full use of the lower register on his 7-string guitar & utilizes a bottom-heavy tone that you’d be more likely to expect from an alternative metal band than a progressive one. To capitalize on that, the band have given their heavier side an increased focus & you’ll get significantly less of the introspective atmospheric parts & poppier sections that perpetuated their past classics. This will no doubt please some metalheads & I probably fall into that category as I’ve always wondered what Dream Theater could accomplish if they simply tossed aside their shackles & went for broke. Unfortunately for your less open-minded fans though, there are a few sections that draw on nu metal for inspiration & those are generally the parts of the album that appeal to me the least however that only amounts to a riff or two here & there which isn’t out of line with Dream Theater’s history of toying with different subgenres, often within the context of the same track. The same could be said of the Metallica influence actually as there are some pretty blatant instrumental & vocal homages to them here, particularly their classic late 80’s period. I actually don’t think the band have even tried to disguise these parts as they’re so just so similar. To be fair, I’m not sure James LaBrie was up to a dirtier & more aggressive Hetfield style delivery though to tell you the truth.

But these moments are simply included to create interest in an otherwise very engaging & professional Dream Theater outing in my opinion. Despite what some people may have you think, “Train Of Thought” doesn’t really sound all that different to the Dream Theater of old. Mike Portnoy’s incredible drumming is as potent as ever with the unified rhythmic complexity being pulled off in a nonchalant fashion that thumbs its nose at the prog metal pretenders while the lead trade-offs between guitarist John Petrucci (my all-time favourite axe-man) & keyboardist Jordan Rudess are utterly ridiculous so there’s plenty here for the prog crowd as well as the metal one. So why isn’t “Train Of Thought” regarded as being in the same class as the classic Dream Theater releases of the 1990’s then? Well for me personally it’s about lack of genuinely anthemic vocal hooks. James LaBrie’s performance is certainly serviceable. In fact, he performs the role admirably however I can’t shake the feeling that he’s working within constraints these days & doesn’t explore his higher register unless there’s no alternative. This results in many of these long epics (there’s just seven tracks across the 69 minute run time) showing great promise but lacking the knock-out punch that would see you singing along with them in your head for the rest of the day like a “Pull Me Under” or “Take The Time”. You certainly enjoy them all while you’re listening to them & it’s hard to fault any of these tracks as this is a very consistent tracklisting but you have to wait until lengthy closer “In The Name of God” to reach the sort of heights you’ve become accustomed to from a top tier Dream Theater record. I actually feel like “In The Name Of God” is a magnificent piece of work that sits comfortably alongside the band’s best work but here it serves the additional task of reminding me that, while the rest of the tracklisting offered me some particularly solid progressive metal, it also fell a little short of what the band are capable of as song-writers. There certainly weren’t as many killer harmonized vocal hooks to dig their teeth in. Has the increased focus on the heavier aspects in their sound contributed to this? Perhaps but the closer certainly proves that the right balance can be achieved with that format.

So, the moral of the story here is that “Train Of Thought” is a rock-solid progressive metal outing that should well & truly satisfy both the prog & metal audiences if they can overlook the occasional inclusion of a simpler nu metal riff or laclustre attempt at more aggressive vocals. These moments are certainly the exception rather than the rule & have been overstated by many reviewers over the years. The rest of the album offers some chunky progressive metal performed by the very best in the business & if that’s not enough to float your boat then I feel that you’re hard to please.

For fans of Fates Warning, Haken & Pain Of Salvation.

I simply can’t understate the impact that West Yorkshire-based death doom metal outfit My Dying Bride had on a young & impressionable teenage me between 1992 & 1995. I’d discovered them very early in their recording career through their debut E.P. “Symphonaire Infernus Et Spera Empyrium” & had simply fallen in love at first sight/listen. Paradise Lost had already opened me up to the delights of death metal infused doom by that stage but the addition of grandiose violin/symphonics & a more consistent achievement of pure melancholy put My Dying Bride in front of them for me & the next few years would see my affiliation with the band only strengthening with 1994’s “Turn Loose The Swans” representing not only the absolute peak of that sound but also a pivotal moment in my musical evolution. So needless to say that the band were facing a huge challenge to follow that album up with something that would gain the same level of adoration from this stubborn metalhead but 1995’s “The Angel & The Dark River” would prove to be just what the doctor ordered, perhaps not in the way that I was expecting though.

“The Angel & The Dark River” represents a noticeable change of direction for My Dying Bride & over time it would prove to be one that would see them achieving the critical & commercial breakthroughs they’d been hoping for. Upon first listen it becomes immediately obvious that the album is significantly less imposing than the band’s previous material with the death metal component having been completely dropped with the exception of the bonus track that appears on some versions of the album. There’s a much stronger gothic streak running right through the centre of the tracklisting with front man Aaron Stainthorpe opting for a clean & considerably mournful delivery that reminds me of many an early 80’s goth rock outfit, minus the trademark lower registers that were so commonly employed in that scene. Aaron’s clean voice certainly seemed compelling enough during my first couple of listens &, despite the fact that I don’t find this approach to be anywhere near as exciting as Aaron’s inimitably dark death growls, I found myself going along for the ride to see where it’d take me. Looking back, I find it hard to believe that I didn’t experience any initial feelings of disappointment & dismay at this new vocal development but perhaps it’s just a sign that I was in a very enlightening time of my musical development where I was very receptive to new & adventurous sounds.

But it’s not just the vocal approach that changed with “The Angel & The Dark River” because My Dying Bride had made some less obvious instrumental adjustments too with all traces of their death metal roots having been shelved in order to open the door for a more melodic & inherently goth-tinged traditional doom metal sound that helped to highlight Aaron’s miserable odes to loss & disconsolation. The use of traditional goth tools such as piano, organ & symphonics are used tastefully to apply colour & highlights which give the material an added layer of melodic content & apply a nice contrast to Aaron’s quite insular & sorrowful performance. I have to admit that some of these elements do sound a touch dated by today’s standards, particularly the synthesized piano & electric violin sounds which were very much of their time, however the quality of the riffs & arrangements are strong enough to see those minor qualms being less significant than they might otherwise have been & all band members sound revitalized & right onboard with My Dying Bride’s new direction. Despite the limitations of the production tools I just mentioned, multi-instrumentalist Martin Powell (who handles the violins & keyboard) puts in a stellar performance which sees him pulling on my heart-strings at key moments whilst always maintaining a level of subtlety & sophistication & this is an element that was missing from some of My Dying Bride’s later works.

“The Angel & The Dark River” kicks off in emphatic fashion with two incredible examples of My Dying Bride’s new style. Epic opener “The Cry of Mankind” sees the band employing some interesting production techniques in the studio with the same continuous four-note finger-tapped guitar melody played repeatedly over the entire twelve minute duration & the use of an extended ambient section being refreshing inclusions. The quality drops back a touch for the middle part of the album which is still strong but lacks the sense of timelessness that the earlier tracks seemed to possess in spades. “Two Winters Only” then picks things up in a major way & represents not only the most stripped back track on the record but also the clear highlight in my opinion. It features the albums most introspective & heart-wrenching moments & the contrast of the clean, melodic guitar lines & chuggy church organ driven heavy sections is both stark & refreshing. Closer “Your Shameful Heaven” begins with probably the most beautiful & melancholic part of the record with Powell opting for a stunning solo violin part that transports the listener back to dark medieval times however the tempo increases drastically through the middle of the song to see it becoming the most bouncy & energetic number on the tracklisting, a fact that I find a little disappointing if I’m honest, despite my strong affiliation with the intro.

At this point I think I have to fess up that the version of the album I purchased immediately upon release was the one with the bonus track “The Sexuality Of Bereavement” i.e. a ridiculously dark death doom metal piece that draws inspiration from My Dying Bride’s earlier material & I believe was actually recorded during the "Turn Loose The Swans" sessions. Why is this so important to mention? Well, I have to admit that I think this track is not only a cut above the rest of the tracklisting but is also the clear high point of the band’s entire career for me personally. The sheer depressive grandiosity of this track is almost immeasurable & is further accentuated by the intelligent & artistic use of backwards reverb & decay on the drums. Why the band & its management have opted not to include this track on this or any other album is absolutely beyond me because it doesn’t sound so drastically out of place amongst the rest of the material that it compromises the flow of the album. If anything it’s only caused me to rate the overall album more even more highly than I already did & I just feel that it’s one of the world’s great travesties that some fans have had to go without this track for over twenty-five years & are probably none the wiser.

Regardless, “The Angel & The Dark River” is a fine example of an extreme metal band successfully reinventing themselves whilst losing none of their underground credibility. If I’m being particularly picky, I do find Aaron’s clean vocals to be a bit whiny & repetitive these days but this wasn’t such a big deal when I only had this record to contend with & the concept was still so fresh in my mind so I’m pleased to see that it hasn’t tainted my feelings whatsoever. I can’t deny the emotional attachment I have with these songs after all these years & will always remember the sense of strength & empowerment they gave me during some of the more challenging times of my life. Do I rate “The Angel & the Dark River” as highly as My Dying Bride’s previous album “Turn Loose The Swans”? Probably not these days but I certainly did back in the 90’s & that’s hardly a huge criticism given how highly I rate that particular album. This should be essential listening for all fans of gothic doom metal.

For fans of Paradise Lost, Type O Negative & The Foreshadowing.

P.S. Sorry to do this to you but is it just me or does the cover photo sit slightly further over to one side of the cover than it does to the other?

I got on the Incantation train as an unsuspecting but enthusiastic teenager when their 1992 debut album “Onward To Golgotha” entered my mail box via a US tape trader shortly after release & it made a significant impact on me. I really enjoyed its dense, murky atmosphere & deep, suffocating vocal delivery although I had to admit that the production & performances were a little looser than I was comfortable with at the time which prevented me from placing it on the pedestal that some of my death metal peers seemed to. But never fear… Incantation would return soon enough & would bring with them a similar if slightly more refined sound for 1994’s sophomore album “Mortal Throne Of Nazarene”.

Interestingly, the band’s label Relapse Records were reportedly unhappy with the results of the initial “Mortal Throne Of Nazarene” recording sessions & asked the band to re-record the album in its entirety which they reluctantly agreed to do. The final product is the result of those subsequent sessions but the whole fiasco clearly left a bad taste in band leader John McEntee’s mouth. The original recordings would be released as “Upon The Throne Of Apocalypse” the following year, an album that I eagerly but unsuspectingly snapped up at the local record store only to find that it was indeed the same album with a different production job & the tracklisting reversed. It probably served me right given that I’d again secured the “Mortal Throne Of Nazarene” release through tape trading & therefore didn’t have easy access to a tracklisting. To be fair though, I actually prefer the original recording despite the obviously over-pumped levels & slightly more cavernous feel. It just seems to have a little more depth & power but both versions have their positives.

Now, fans of “Onward To Golgotha” needn’t have been concerned when going into “Mortal Throne Of Nazarene” for the first time because, despite some small adjustments to the band’s sonic arsenal, this was still very much the Incantation that they’d grown to love & adore with the debut. The guitar sound is noticeably thinner & less bass-heavy which gives the riffs more definition & enables the performances to sound a little tighter. More importantly though, the doom/death component that I found so appealing on “Onward To Golgotha” has been accentuated further & (much like their brothers in gore Autopsy) those parts have inevitably always lined up with Incantation’s most captivating material for me personally. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that they easily compete with the elite masters of the death doom metal subgenre with Aussie legends diSEMBOWELMENT often springing to mind, particularly during the second half of opening cut “Demonic Incarnate” & the epic eight minute closer “Abolishment of Immaculat Serenity” which is the clear album highlight in my opinion. The vocal performance of second guitarist Craig Pillard certainly helps to accentuate the overarching feeling of dread as his delivery is significantly more oppressive & suffocating than on the debut which saw my levels of intrigue sky-rocketing. When you place those vocals over the doomiest moments on the record you get some truly intimidating music that could only be regarded as death metal for death metal purists. I mean if you kinda like death metal because your friend played you some At the Gates, Behemoth & Death records when you were drunk after a party one night then you’ve got a lot to learn because this band takes the death metal aesthetic to extreme levels.

Much like “Onward To Golgotha”, the dirty production job can see the faster material tending to fly past you in a blur if you’re not paying close attention on your first couple of listens & this makes the album significantly less accessible than your average early 90’s death metal release but repeat listens see the intricacies of the riffs starting to become apparent & you’ll soon discover that McEntee has mastered a more angular take on the tremolo-picked riff that doesn’t conform to traditional rhythmic templates. He takes an unusually off-beat & angular approach to his melodic yet undeniably brutal progressions that catches your ear & leaves you wondering what it is that’s different about it. Drummer Jim Roe tends to focus more on power & brutality than complexity in order to allow the layers of guitars & vocals the room to fully engulf you without ever descending into a pit of sludgy noise while the thick sound of Dave Niedrist’s bass guitar provides further weight to an already imposing wall of corpse-ridden death.

I probably didn’t realise the class of this release upon first listen. I just knew that it appealed to my underground death metal ethos on a level that I wasn’t used to experiencing & was overcome by the urge to return to it over & over. In time I’d come to the realisation that I’m simply a kindred spirit of McEntee’s when it comes to this sort of music. I feel the same thrill that he does when I hear his riffs for the first time & I crave the same sort of atmospheres that he strives to create. For that reason, I find it hard not to rate “Mortal Throne Of Nazarene” as a classic release despite the fact that tracks two through six tend to be hard to differentiate due to a combination of the murky production & the similar song-writing concepts. But sometimes you just have to go with your gut when it comes to music & you shouldn’t have to explain yourself when a record sees you buying into the composer’s original concept in a major way. As far as Incantation’s overall back catalogue goes, I’d suggest that 1998’s “Diabolical Conquest” might be the band’s pièce de resistance however this record isn’t too far behind it to tell you the truth & it should be compulsory listening for all fans of the purest, grimiest, most grisly death metal in existence.

For fans of Immolation, Dead Congregation & Disma.

The European brand of power metal & I have had a particularly rocky relationship over the years. There are elements of most of the classic releases that I find appealing but (with the exception of one or two bands) they’re generally squashed by a whole crap-tonne of cheese. However since the Metal Academy podcast reached the 1985 period three or four years ago I’ve been making a lot more of an effort to give the more highly regarded power metal records a bit more time & attention in the hope that I’ll finally be converted & I have to admit that, even though I’ve had mixed results to date, I’ve been pleasantly surprised to find that I can actually stomach a lot more releases than I would have previously thought. One of those releases was our December feature release for The Guardians clan in Gamma Ray’s 2000 “Blast From The Past” double album which offered enough appeal to me to overcome some of the more dairy rich content. I was particularly keen on the material that took more of a traditional heavy metal approach as the band really managed to pull off a few stellar Judas Priest imitations. So this left me thinking… is it time to revisit Gamma Ray’s classic 1995 album “Land Of The Free” to see if I’d been too harsh on it in the past? Or perhaps my taste has now broadened enough to cope with the elements that were previously deal breakers for me? Time would tell but it’s worth noting that I started with a 2.5 star rating from way back in the day.

The first thing I noticed when revisiting “Land Of The Free” was the excellent production & musicianship on display. I mean Gamma Ray were clearly a well qualified & established group of musicians by that stage & you can hear it pretty easily here. The dual guitar attack were particularly impressive & their lead solos represent many of the highlight moments across the tracklisting. It’s also worth noting that front man Kai Hansen’s vocal delivery had improved remarkably since his time in Helloween & I especially enjoy the parts where he draws his inspiration from Judas Priest front man Rob Halford. No doubt he’d get better at that over the coming years too.

It has to be said that Gamma Ray’s sound was metal as fuck on this record. In fact, “Land Of The Free” really is a glorification of everything it means to be metal. Much like “Blast From The Past”, there are a few tracks that crossover into your more traditional heavy metal territory & there was a sense of inevitability about the fact that my favourite numbers generally line up with the moments when the power metal-ometer displays its lower readings. Given my strong penchant for the more extreme end of metal, I’ve always found the European power metal that’s built around a speed metal backbone to be less appealing than that which leans more towards your Priests & Maidens. I think it’s got to do with the simplicity of the faster tremolo-picked backing & the noticeable lack of riffs to an extent but those sort of tracks also tend to favour your more uplifting & cheesy choruses which are really the big elephant in the room whenever I’m sitting down for a power metal session.

“Land Of The Free” opens & closes with its strongest material in my opinion with the epic nine minute opener “Rebellion In Dreamland” seeing Gamma Ray kicking off with their biggest gun. Unfortunately though, that early promise doesn’t lead to an album of consistent merit (at least not for me personally) & I was disappointed to find that my improved tolerance for power metal hasn’t in turn seen me finding this record to be much less of a struggle than I found it to be previously. The faster speed metal driven tracks fit very comfortably under the description in the last paragraph & I almost invariably find their choruses to be pretty hard going. The chorus from “Time To break Free” sounds like it was stolen from a poppy country & western hit for God’s sakes while the ballad “Farewell” lays the cheese on in thick slices that see my stomach struggling with lactose intolerance. “All Of The Damned” is a pretty decent number & so is the thirty-nine seconds of “The Saviour” however there wasn’t really much else here to interest me besides the two bookends, despite there not being any real garbage on offer.

Ultimately it just comes down to taste though to be honest. I can easily see why power metal fans hold “Land Of The Free” in such high regard as it’s extremely well written & executed but I can’t see a time when I’ll be able to accept some of the elements at play here. There’s merit in most of this material however too much of it is tainted by obvious attempts to sound epic or simplistic gang-vocal led melodic chorus hooks. I did quite like the “Blast From The Past” double album though so perhaps all is not lost with Gamma Ray yet & a little persistence may see me being rewarded in other parts of their back catalogue.

For fans of Helloween, Blind Guardian & Judas Priest.

Wichita-based epic heavy/power metal outfit Manilla Road have always been an interesting one for me personally. On the one hand, I always find their records to be intriguing, mainly because they've developed their own unique sound, image & mystique. On the other, I never seem to find myself getting past that point. I find them interesting but not overly engaging so I don't often feel the need to return to them. Anyway... I recently realised that I had a small gap in my coverage of Manilla's Road's classic era releases as I hadn't rated 1986's highly regarded 1986 album "The Deluge" despite having generally enjoyed the records either side of it so I decided to remedy that.

"The Deluge" very much represents the missing link between my two favourite Manilla Road records in 1985's "Open The Gates" & 1987's "Mystification". It still sounds inherently like Manilla Road & offers all of the characteristics they built their strong underground following on however it's also significantly thrashier than the band's earlier records. In fact, you'll find very little of the doomier material that was evident in years gone past & there's also less of a reliance on their psychedelic/progressive rock influences, despite the obvious hints at Rush that are still fairly evident. The track lengths are mostly very short with only three of the ten tracks on offer breaching the three minute mark. The impact of more aggressive thrash metal of Slayer's "Show No Mercy" album is easily identifiable however "The Deluge" never feels like legitimate thrash due to the more epic atmosphere Manilla Road always manage to create, mainly due to the unique contribution of front man Mark Shelton whose higher register voice & transcendental lyrics place the Road into a space that only they have access to.

But despite the unique Manilla Road sound, I do think that "The Deluge" suffers a little bit from repetition as much of it sounds pretty similar & familiar. Shelton's lead work is always a major component of the band's sound & he doesn't disappoint here however there's a samey-ness to some his contributions this time. Perhaps it's due to the consistently higher tempos that push this record out into US power metal territory when I've always questioned the validity of that term with the Road's earlier works. Randy Foxe's drumming is very raw & energetic but I don't think he delivers quite the precision that made such an impression on me with "Mystification" from the following year.

As is usually the case with Manilla Road, it's the longer & more expansive tracks that end up being the most gratifying with the eight minute title track being the most captivating & adventurous. But in saying that, I still don't think it ever gets me out of second gear & that's a point worth noting about "The Deluge". There's a lot of good material here but I can't say that any of these tracks reach great status for me personally. Without any genuine highlight tracks, the tracklisting just seems to fly past fairly quickly as you wait for something that never eventuates. Plus, the album kinda peters out at the end with a couple of the weaker inclusions on the tracklisting which doesn't leave me wanting to race back to start it all over again.

Still... "The Deluge" is yet another interesting if comparatively uneventful album from Manilla Road. The thrashier approach certainly gave it a more incisive edge however it was at the expense of some of the components that I most enjoyed about the band's sound so I'm left feeling fairly neutral about it overall.

For fans of Brocas Helm, Omen & Eternal Champion.

As many of you would likely know by now, Florida heavy legends Savatage have never offered me much appeal & I've always regarded their immense underground popularity as somewhat of a mystery. I've given their supposed classics revisit after revisit over the years but still seem to be no closer to figuring out what it is that people see in them. Sure, lead guitarist Criss Oliva is an absolute virtuoso of the highest order but that's really all that they offer as far as I can see & you'll rarely find a better example of that than their highly praised 1989 fifth album "Gutter Ballet".

Rightly or wrongly, Savatage have always been tied to the US power metal scene for one reason or another. The term was first devised to label an early-to-mid 80's US movement that saw many bands dropping the hard rock backbone that the NWOBHM had been holding on to & blurring the lines between heavy metal, speed metal & thrash metal via a chunkier guitar sound & more aggressive riffage. It's always seemed strange to me that Savatage were attached to that particular movement as (unlike bands like Metal Church & Omen) they simply aren't any heavier than most of your major NWOBHM acts. It seems like front man Jon Oliva's overly theatrical delivery & the band's more progressive approach have fooled people into believing that there's some reason to differentiate them from the heavy metal masses but if you really break it down there's absolutely no need for it, even with their earlier works which were significantly more metal than "Gutter Ballet".

But despite their previous links to US power metal, "Gutter Ballet" sees even those who clutch onto that ideal with the firmest grip starting to loosen it a little because it was this album that saw the band starting to drift away from the rest of their peers by experimenting in some fairly uncharted territory. It's been pretty widely publicized that this album was heavily influenced by an epiphany that came over Jon Oliva while watching a theatre performance of "The Phantom Of The Opera" & this led to Jon making a change in his song-writing style that resulted in Savatage taking on an increasingly theatrical style. There are definitely some songs where that is more obvious than others but I think it's fair to say that it's one of the more noteworthy features of the album. The other is the stronger influence of Pink Floyd's 1979-83 concept albums & The Beatles' later material on the Savatage sound as it sees "Gutter Ballet" taking on a similar aesthetic during the more introspective moments. But unlike those two super heavy-weights of progressive rock & psychedelic pop, Savatage don't quite seem to know where the line between artistic expression & self-indulgence is. I don't mind the greatly increased use of piano & symphonics in Savatage's sound but it's Jon Oliva's clear lack of understanding of his own technical limitations & apparent passion for camp Queen-style operatics that really get my goat.

It's not all doom & gloom though. There are several really decent track included here, particularly those that see Criss moving closer to the forefront at the expense of his brother. The clear highlights for me are the three minute instrumental excursion "Temptation Revelation" (which serves as a nice platform for Criss to showcase both his technical artistry & an impeccable sense of melody) & the closing track on the CD version of the album "Thorazine Shuffle" (which is about as heavy as Savatage get on the album & leaves me baffled as to why they'd leave it off the vinyl version). A couple of the heavier filler tracks like "She's In Love" & "The Unholy" are pretty good too, as is Criss' short folk guitar interlude "Silk & Steel". Interestingly, none of these are the tracks that "Gutter Ballet" is known for though & it's a very clear indication that you don't get on with a band when their most popular songs are the ones that you dislike the most. My ears simply can't tolerate the sheer pomp & cheese that goes on in the ballads on this album. The title track & "When The Crowds Are Gone" seem to sit amongst the most popular tracks of Savatage's career but they give me similar reactions to hearing fingernails being scraped down a chalkboard & "Summer's Rain" doesn't fair all that much better to be honest. Heavier material like "Of Rage & War" & "Hounds" certainly sounded a lot stronger on the "Ghost in the Ruins: A Tribute to Criss Oliva" live album (as did the title track to be fair) but here they suffer from some seriously inadequate chorus hooks that sound very forced & leave me a little dumbfounded as to how people deem them to be acceptable.

Given my score though, it's clear that I appreciate the effort that Savatage have made to do something a little different here & those four or five tracks that I enjoyed do tend to overcome the less appealing balladry to an extent but it's not enough to save "Gutter Ballet" from being yet another Savatage record that failed to captivate me. It would certainly represent somewhat of a turning point in their career as the elements that were initially incorporated here would be explored further in the coming years but I can't say that this is something that excites this ol' metalhead too much as I don't honestly think I'll ever be able to cope with a Jon Oliva-fronted Savatage record if I'm being completely open & transparent. Oh well.... where the fuck is my Bathory collection when I need it??

For fans of Circle II Circle, Queensryche & Virgin Steele.

It's been many years since I've revisited Swedish death metallers Necrophobic's 1993 debut album "The Nocturnal Silence" but I still find it to be a very solid piece of work. Whilst you'll harbor very few doubts that they hail from Swedish origins once the needle hits the wax, Necrophobic (who were led by Dark Funeral guitarist Blackmoon) had a lot more feathers in their caps than many of their contemporaries & you'll hear all sorts of influences popping up here as they do their very best to name drop almost every great death/thrash/black metal band of the early 1990's & do it all with great aplomb too.

The early Necrophobic sound seems to have been put together by combining the various different elements they were hearing from their local Stockholm scene at the time as far as I can see. You had the classic old-school death metal of Dismember, the melodic black metal of Dissection & the melodic death metal of Unanimated, all fused together & mixed in with regular Bathory references & one-off hints at international acts like Death, Deicide, Obituary, Bolt Thrower, Slayer, Emperor, etc. In fact, I'd suggest that they've borrowed their evil lyrical themes & imagery from Dissection & Deicide too if I'm not mistaken. I wouldn't say that this results in a product that's particularly focused or well defined but the band certainly had the skills to pull it off &, when combined with a production job that offers a good balance of underground rawness & melodic clarity, the result is a fairly accessible yet energetic extreme metal release that's tailor made for an audience that favours a melodic, crunchy & undeniably Swedish brand of death metal.

For fans of Dissection, Unanimated & Dismember.

I can still very vividly remember the first time I experienced the stunning intensity of New Jersey mathcore exponents The Dillinger Escape Plan. It was some time in the mid-2000’s & I was completely immersed in the techno scene after having grown tired of metal & taking a break from it completely around 1998. My brother Ben had come over to my apartment for a visit & he’d come armed with a collection of tracks he’d been wanting to show me in order to highlight the best work the metal scene had to offer at the time. I’m not sure if he was hoping to lure me back to metal or not but I have to admit that I wasn’t terribly open to returning at that stage. I did however have a strong interest in seeing what I was missing &, of all of the material that he showed me that night, one track stood out from the rest fairly comfortably & would stay with me for all of the years that have followed. The psychotic blast of energy that is The Dillinger Escape Plan’s “43% Burnt” completely blew my mind that night with its unbridled ferocity, over-the-top complexity & sheer ambition. It certainly didn’t fall into my musical comfort zone but it did manage to leave me questioning if the metal scene still had some fresh new ideas for me after all. I’d eventually return to metal in 2009 & made a point of familiarizing myself with the Dillinger back catalogue with extreme priority.

In general, I’ve enjoyed everything The Dillinger Escape Plan have put out without ever really feeling that I could fully relate to their sound enough to claim any individual release as a genuine classic for me personally. I’m not entirely sure why that’s the case as I’ve managed to overcome that obstacle with several other mathcore exponents but with Dillinger I inevitably find myself to be very impressed but can never seem to find a higher rating than 4/5 & that’s still the case with 2013’s classic fifth album “One Of Us Is The Killer”. It’s a different record to anything they’d produced previously without ever seeming to alienate the band’s existing fanbase. The technical complexity factor is as spasmatic as ever with the band experimenting with some incredibly off-beat & mind-bending rhythms but there’s somehow a greater level of accessibility at the same time. The incorporation of some strong melodic hooks on songs like the title track & “Nothing’s Funny” will likely see the well-informed listener reaching for comparisons with alternative metal legends Faith No More, particularly the vocal performance of Greg Puciato who seems to have been heavily influenced by the off-the-wall yet incredibly capable vocal stylings of Mike Patton. He's an enormous talent really. I can't possibly imagine how shredded his vocal chords must be after recording an album like this one as he truly screams his fucking lungs out across a large part of the run time but he also proves himself to have a great understanding of musicality & melody when he chooses to explore it.

If you really look at Dillinger’s delivery closely here you’ll find that the band’s sound is built on hardcore more than it is on metal. There’s an uncompromising urgency & aggression about everything they do that keeps the listener on the edge of their seat at all times. The incredible intricacy in their rhythms is both their strength & their enemy in my opinion as not only does it ensure that I’m always interested & engaged but it also sees me often struggling to find a groove that sees me banging my head like I want to do when listening to good metal. In a way I think this sees a lot of Dillinger’s material simply washing over me in a wave of vitriolic electricity without seeing as much of it sticking as I’d like & this is never made more clearly apparent than when they finally get the balance just right. The final two tracks on “One Of Us Is The Killer” (album highlight “Crossburner” & “The Threat Posed By Nuclear Weapons”) are absolutely killer & fall very much into this category. To be honest, I think the key reason I feel that way is because they have simpler, heavier metal riffs interspersed between the chaos & this gives this old metalhead a little more meat on the bones of Dillinger’s spasmatic hardcore sound. It’s strange that they left those two tracks till right at the end but this isn’t to say that there’s anything like a weak song or even a half-decent filler track amongst this lot. It’s all high quality stuff but it’s only the final climax that sees me fully letting go & succumbing to The Dillinger Escape Plan’s incredibly detailed plan of escape.

Overall, I think “One Of Us Is The Killer” is another very strong DEP record. It’s pretty incredible that they managed to maintain their screaming intensity & ridiculous technicality whilst simultaneously infusing their sound with an additional layer of accessibility but it’s paid off for them big-time here. Is it their best release? Perhaps… but it’s hard to compare their records as they’re all so similar in terms of quality. If pushed though, I’d suggest that I’d take this album over a record like “Irony Is A Dead Scene” which seems to be extremely highly regarded these days. Dillinger represented a breath of fresh air for a scene over-flowing with followers & I’m not sure that we’ve found anyone to fill that gap since their unfortunate departure. I’ll always have the fondest memories of experiencing this material in a live environment as there simply isn’t anything to compare to the violence & excitement of a Dillinger live show.

For fans of The Callous Daoboys, Botch & Rolo Tomassi.

As a fan of the more intense European thrash metal sound, last year's third album from Swiss five-piece Total Annihilation (entitled "...On Chains Of Doom") ticks a lot of my musical boxes. It's beautifully produced with a seriously brutal guitar tone that's more in line with death metal than it is thrash. It's also very tightly executed with the band working well within their technical limitations to give us a relentless brand of thrash that's not afraid to slow things down for some crunchy doom style sections on occasion. Front man Daniel Altwegg has a grindy & fairly monotonous European style of vocal delivery that keeps Total Annihilation firmly situated in the underground & the total run time is just about right for a modern thrash record. So it's needless to say that I quite enjoyed "...On Chains Of Doom".

What's stopping me from reaching for the higher ratings is a few things. Firstly, the composition is lacking in ambition & the construction of the riffs is relatively basic which brings some of these tracks an element of heard-it-all-before. The song-writing is also a little lacking in the way of memorability with none of these tracks standing out as particular highlights despite only one track falling short of an acceptable standard (see "Experience The Terror"). And finally, the guitar solos are very ordinary & don't really serve much of a purpose as they don't enhance the music in any way. It's pretty obvious that this is merely a technical limitation & if I were in the band I would have advised against including them at all.

But, all criticisms aside, "...On Chains Of Doom" is a very heavy & generally enjoyable thrash record that makes up for its flaws with pure aggression & a good understanding of what makes underground thrash special. In fact, I'd take it over the more highly regarded 2020 Warbringer & Hexecutor albums we featured recently.

For fans of Legion Of The Damned, late 80's Kreator & "Agent Orange"-era Sodom.

Ok, so it'll shock approximately no one that 1997's "Enter" debut from Dutch gothic doom metal exponents Within Temptation wasn't for me but perhaps not for the reasons that many of you might suspect. I did hear bits of Within Temptation back in their early days but never paid a lot of attention to them given that my taste in metal was on the polar opposite end of the metal spectrum & that's still essentially the case. I mean, despite the link to the gothic doom metal movement, "Enter" isn't all that far away from the band's later symphonic metal label given that around half of the tracklisting would likely qualify for that tag when examined in isolation. Sure, the strongest element at play & the most comfortable way to pigeonhole "Enter" is via the gothic metal subgenre but there sure is a lot of synth work going on around it. Also, any metal fan worth their studded battle vest would be remiss to overlook the fact that the majority of the riffage is based purely on 1990's death doom metal &, given the inclusion of cookie monster vocals in roughly half of the tracklisting, it's no surprise that "Enter" is often linked with doom metal.

Surprisingly, the female vocals of Sharon den Adel are the clear highlight of the album for me & I definitely prefer the sections where she takes centre-stage whilst accompanied by predominantly clean instrumentation. The more extreme end of Within Temptation's sound was still very much an evolving concept at the time & is far less convincing here. In fact, the musicianship on display is a significant stumbling block for me given that the instrumentalists were so clearly still learning their craft, particularly the guitarists who suffered from a poor production job & aren't exactly convincing with their re-enactments of these slow-paced & simple doom riffs. Keyboardist Martijn Westerholt also struggles for timing on occasion &, more often than not, his chosen synthesizers sound pretty dated too. This isn't an attractive look given my pre-existing repulsion towards synth-driven metal. And finally, the death growls of guitarist Robert Westerholt rank relatively poorly when compared with other half-decent cookie monster wannabes.

So it might sound like there's really not all that much going for "Enter" & that's true to an extent however I still find myself enjoying a good half of the eight tracks included & that enjoyment inevitably lines up with the tracks that utilize less of the synthesizers & death growls & more of Sharon's sweet vocal lines. There's no doubt that Within Temptation cross the line into being over-dramatic a little too often for my liking but when they hit on something with a little more maturity about it I find myself struggling to maintain my general feeling of apathy. One can tell that there are some good ideas in there somewhere but the band are still a little too green to know what to do with them. Then there are a couple of real shockers in "Gatekeeper" & "Blooded" which see me genuinely struggling to keep from offloading a cringe-faced look of revulsion.

Ultimately, there's little doubt that I'm not the target audience for a record like "Enter" but, at the same time, there are far too many flaws for it to overcome here & I can't see myself returning to the album any time soon.

Apparently I rated Canadian progressive metal maestro Devin Townsend's 2009 album "Addicted" (his second effort under the Devin Townsend Project moniker) around the time of release & wasn't much of a fan of it which really does show that my tastes in metal are still changing even 37 years after first becoming enamored with the genre. Or perhaps I've just developed the patience to give music that sits outside of my usual comfort zone a chance to dig it's teeth in. If I had to guess I'd suggest that it's a little bit of both but probably more that latter than the former.

Anyway... I've given "Addicted" a few revisits this morning & found that I quite liked it but wouldn't class it as essential listening. Sure it incorporates some new elements (like the electronic component & the addition of former The Gathering front woman Anneke van Giersbergen) but the end result still sounds like Devin with his trademark wall of melodic sound. Unsurprisingly, all of the various ingredients have been beautifully integrated. In fact, Devin really should send the album to Megadeth band leader Dave Mustaine so that he can see how albums like "Risk" & "The World Needs A Hero" should have sounded as the boys seem to have had similar ideas but produced vastly different results with a wide disparity in regards to quality.

Anneke has sat amongst my favourite female metal vocalists (if not THE favourite) for a very long time now so I welcomed the collaboration. She certainly sounds great here too but I do prefer to hear her voice being highlighted a little more than it is amidst Devin's huge soundscapes. The production is obviously outstanding though & this gives some of the middling tracks the grunt required to see them getting over the line. The guitar tone is heavy as shit while Ryan Van Poederooyen puts in a stellar performance behind the drum kit.

It's interesting that many fans seem to regard this album as an industrial metal record. Sure there are some electronic elements at play here but there's not a consistently industrial/mechanical atmosphere. "Addicted" is far more uplifting that that & I'm actually fine with the alternative metal tag as a lot of this material looks to remove some of the boundaries that separate metal from your more accessible styles whilst always maintaining a predominantly metal aesthetic. Despite the general consensus, when you examine the tracklisting as a whole you'll find that "Addicted" isn't really much poppier than Devin has dished out before either & I do think that saying it incorporates "dance music" is a stretch too as the electronics are used purely for colour & there aren't too many artificial dance beats included here.

Overall, I think "Addicted" had the potential to be a really great album given the quality of the production, performances & most of the hooks but there's a major flaw that prevents me from scoring it as highly as I'd like to. Unfortunately the tracklisting is let down by a couple of weak commercially focused tracks (i.e. "Bend It Like Bender!" & particularly the soppy ballad "Ih-Ah!") which combine to bring my score down by a half-star. Otherwise there's plenty of meat for Devin's fanatical audience to dig their teeth into here with the clear album highlight "Supercrush!" sitting amongst the best work of Devin's entire career.

So look... if you love highly technical, complex & precise yet still extreme metal then "Feeding The Abscess" should be a no-brainer as it's a beautifully composed, produced & executed record that almost defies genrification. If that doesn't sound like your bag then I'd advise you to steer well clear of it. Martyr are super talented & pull off some amazing rhythmic stunts but you really do have to be onboard with that idea or you'll likely struggle due to the reliance on showmanship over song-writing. Looking back now, Martyr do seem like a bit of a supergroup in that bassist front man Daniel Mongrain was formally of Cryptopsy & Gorguts & is currently with Voivod while drummer Patrice Hamelin is the current drummer in Gorguts & none of that is surprising when you hear "Feeding The Abscess" for the first time. These dudes fucking know their way around their instruments & the precision on display is nothing short of phenomenal.

I really do think the technical death metal tag is a little limiting here because Martyr's sound never feels constrained by the death metal genre. Sure there are blast beats, some grindy death metal riffs here & there & the occasional death grunt but the majority of the album is much more progressive than that & Daniel Mongrain's vocals generally sit much closer to thrash than they do to death metal. In fact, they're really the limiting factor with this release as Daniel's monotonous tone & phrasing sees Martyr failing to reach the top tier despite the band's clear credentials. This is an outstanding record from an instrumental point of view & I can't help but think that the band would have been better served by employing a) a higher register clean vocalist that adds a layer of melody & memorability to the equation or b) a full-on death grunter who can accentuate the brutality in Martyr's sound. What they've gone for here seems to have taken an each-way bet that hasn't quite satisfied either preference.

The production is spectacular, mind you, & if you're a fan of progressive metal in general then you'll likely get a fair bit of enjoyment out of the no-holds-barred approach "Feeding The Abscess" takes with regards to composition. There are very few rules being adhered to here & the level of musicianship required to achieve the final result is nothing short of mind-blowing. I particularly enjoy the drumming & lead guitar work, both of which are accentuated by the outstanding production. Just listen to the depth in those kick drums for example.

Overall, "Feeding The Abscess" is a great choice for a feature album & with some more interesting vocals it may just have gone on to be known as a classic release. I'm just not sure The Horde was the right place for it to be honest because it's more of a progressive metal record than it is a death metal one in my opinion. The Voivod cover version that closes the album could have been a little more adventurous too because it's really just a straight reenactment & doesn't offer any point of difference which leaves it standing out a little bit from the rest of the tracklisting.

For fans of Atheist, "Dimension Hatross"-era Voivod & Death's more progressive releases.

Wow! I had no idea what I was in for with this monster of a record. The scope & breadth of the "industrial metal" subgenre tag is simply not wide enough to encompass all of the elements at play here. I wasn't aware of it until now but God was essentially a supergroup project of sorts with approximately ten experienced musicians contributing to an epic 79 minutes of unapologetically experimental & highly challenging music made specifically for open-minded music fans with a taste for the cerebral & psychedelic. Most of the individual names were completely foreign to me but I can certainly hear the experience & talent in what they've delivered.

Many reviewers will probably suggest that "The Anatomy Of Addiction" is overly repetitive but I think that's just an indication that a lot of people don't have the patience required for this sort of art which aims directly for your cerebral cortex a lot of the time. Upon first listen you'll be left in no doubt whatsoever of the presence of Godflesh/Jesu mastermind Justin Broadrick as there are tracks here that sound exactly like classic Godflesh with some additional elements thrown into the mix. However possibly even more of the tracklisting is closer to the sound of Swans' more expansive experimental rock excursions with long, slowly-building & repetitive tracks that are full of tension & atmosphere. The jazz component is noteworthy with the more insane saxophone use reminding me of Naked City & the more laidback moments hinting at the influence of Miles Davis' late 60's/early 70's jazz fusion period. You'll also detect a significant dose of dub in the way that some of these pieces are structured, especially in the use of the bass guitar as a musical protagonist on some of the more extended & expansive tracks with the guitar & saxophone being used more for colour & texture than melody. There's a tribal percussion element at play too which really adds to the atmosphere without ever pushing things into ambient territory. Honestly, the vocals of Kevin Martin might as well by Justin Broadrick because they sound so similar that you'd be forgiven for thinking it was indeed him. Kevin's broken & repetitive phrasing & lyrical style is basically identical to Justin's trademark bark & it leaves me with a welcome feeling of familiarity a lot of the time.

This is truly intriguing & interesting stuff & I never find myself getting bored despite the excessive length of the album. There are no weak tracks with God exuding an air of class & consistency about everything they touch. The few highlight tracks are nothing short of magnificent & leave me disappointed that I can't rate the album a little higher than I have. I guess I just can't quite see "The Anatomy Of Addiction" becoming an all-time favourite despite the fact that I have difficulty in faulting it. I think that's because I find a good portion of the tracklisting to leave me thoroughly impressed with the ambition & execution but not quite drooling uncontrollably due to the lack of a knockout punch. Nonetheless, I can't recommend the album enough to people that are interested in a more cerebral & internally focused brand of experimental rock/metal music. That certainly won't be everyone & if you find that you don't get it then you'll likely be in good company. Those that do have the patience for a record like this one will being thoroughly rewarded for the effort though. And another thing... don't even think about giving it a one-off spin because it needs a little more time than that.

For fans of Godflesh, Swans & Naked City.

Manilla Road & I have had a hit-&-miss relationship over the years. I quite liked their progressive rock-driven 1980 debut album "Invasion" but found the follow-up "Metal" to be disappointing. Strangely, their third album "Crystal Logic" (which is generally regarded as their best work & an unmitigated classic) did even less for me but 1985's "Open The Gates" saw my interest being restored with several incredible pieces appearing across a generally inconsistent tracklisting. So I guess it's fair to say that I approached "Mystification" fairly tentatively which may be why I didn't give it a revisit until now.

"Mystification" may still sound very much like a Manilla Road album but it's also a very different beast to the other material I've heard from the band to date. For starters, this is the first time that I've had absolutely no question about a Manilla Road album's US power metal status. It's a noticeably thrashier affair than their early 80's records were with only a couple of tunes that fit comfortably under the heavy metal banner. The rest offer significantly more velocity & aggression than you'd usually expect from a classic metal band however Mark Shelton's higher register vocal performance generally keeps Manilla Road from completely crossing over into speed/thrash metal territory as he possesses a theatricality that definitely ties them to power metal. The short & high energy "Up From the Crypt" is probably the only exception with its slightly more grunty delivery & it's clear that bands like Slayer have had a significant impact on Mark & his band by this stage. Just check out that start of "Masque of the Red Death" if you don't believe me.

The performances are really quite brilliant, particularly Mark's lead guitar work & the exciting drumming of Randy Foxe who plays like a man possessed for the most part with his drum-rolls being a clear highlight. Unsurprisingly, I do struggle to connect with Mark's "epic" vocal delivery a little though & that's always been a bit of a stumbling block for me to tell you the truth. I'm always left wishing that he'd spend more time shredding away on his axe with that unpolished yet infectious technique of his rather than posing some dark & mystical question to me vocally. Some of his earlier works included more lower register grunt work than "Mystification" does & I think that's a shame as I do like that style a little better. Mark's guitar solos always sound like he's improvised the whole thing on the spot &, despite his clear command of his instrument, they're more to do with atmosphere than they are to do with chops which is something I have a lot of appreciation for. In fact, you could say similar things of the production job which gives Manilla Road that mid-80's underground authenticity that a lot of modern bands lack & that's always been a strength for the band.

Overall, this is clearly the most consistent Manilla Road record I've heard to date as there are no weak tracks included. But in saying that, I don't think we get the enormous highlights that a record like "Open The Gates" offered. I think perhaps the additional thrashiness of "Mystification" has seen Manilla Road losing a little bit of the psychedelia that I loved so much about their better earlier works. For that reason, "Open The Gates" still maintains the title of my favourite Manilla Road release however "Mystification" is another interesting album from a band that I generally maintain an appreciation for but are unlikely to ever quite connect with on the same level as the rest of the underground seem to.

For fans of Brocas Helm, Omen & Eternal Champion.

I'd suggest that 2007's "V: Hävitetty" album from Finnish folk metallers Moonsorrow is one of the most definitive releases for The North in that it really encapsulates elements of all three major genres housed by the clan. It never feels like black metal however it certainly borrows plenty of tools from its more evil brethren. To my ears it's just as much of a Viking metal record as it is a folk metal one though as it's not only got plenty of theatrical hints at longboats & the like but it's also got that rolling, epic feel you expect from Viking metal. You'll also find some progressive flourishes in the synthesizer use at times although anyone suggesting that this is a progressive release is overstating things.

I first encountered Moonsorrow very quickly after my return to metal in 2009. I'd noticed that their 2005 album "Verisäkeet" was very highly regarded so I thought I'd better check it out. Unfortunately I found myself struggling with it for all of the reasons that I struggle with folk metal in general. The folk melodies just don't appeal to me & I find that this takes most of the intensity out of the music for me. But after experimenting a bit more with the rest of Moonsorrow's back catalogue I'd find that they'd undergone a gradual transformation that would see me identifying more & more to grab onto with each subsequent release. I utterly despise their first couple of albums "Suden uni" & "Voimasta ja kunniasta" but 2003's "Kivenkantaja" & 2005's "Verisäkeet" both saw them edging progressively a touch closer to my affection without ever really threatening to become something I'd class as being genuinely enjoyable. Looking back now I can easily see that Moonsorrow's ability to provide me with any sort of value is generally dependent on what the ratio of folk-to-Viking is like. They seem to have gradually added more of the Viking-period Bathory influences in over time whilst toning back the folk metal cheese & that's definitely a good thing for me. And this bring us to their fifth album "V: Hävitetty" which finally sees Moonsorrow breaching my tough exterior & offering me some sort of appeal.

"V: Hävitetty" is a little bit of a frustrating album for me though. It starts off in the most awe-inspiring fashion with the first third of the immense 30 minute opener "Jäästä syntynyt / Varjojen virta" being nothing short of mind-blowing & leading me to question whether I'm in for a significantly more noteworthy experience. The next ten minute section sees the quality dropping back a bit but maintaining a solid level before the last third unfortunately signals the arrival of some of those cheesier folk metal extravagances that I find so grating. Overall it makes for an enjoyable listen but I can't help but feel that it was a missed opportunity. The other huge track "Tuleen ajettu maa" sees things dipping a little further with several sections that are just so consciously trying to sound epic & the heavier sections being almost cancelled out by the most unintimidating synthesizers & folk instrumentation. It's beautifully produced, performed & executed of course which is always the case with this band but it just sits so far outside of my comfort zone that I find myself squirming all the time even if I can appreciate the clear artistic value. So my main concern with "V: Hävitetty" is that I find it progressively less appealing across the span of its run time & it leaves me feeling a touch disappointed at the end even though I never feel my effort was wasted. Thankfully "Jäästä syntynyt / Varjojen virta" is strong enough to make this the first Moonsorrow album to offer me a reasonable level of appeal as an overall package.

For fans of Falkenbach, Finsterforst & Månegarm.

This relatively underground late 80's release offers some very raw Colombian black metal that draws influence from Parabellum, early Bathory & "In The Sign Of Evil" era Sodom. I seem to recall receiving this & fellow Colombians Parabellum's "Sacrilegio" E.P. on the same side of a cassette from a Peruvian tape trader way back in the day. Neither release did much for me if I'm honest but if pushed I'd suggest that I have a slight preference for the insanity-ridden Parabellum sound. Interestingly, Blasfemia share some band members with Parabellum & if you like "Sacrilegio" then you'll probably dig "Guerra total" as well.

Two of the four songs presented on "Guerra total" are really pretty good & those inevitably line up with the moments when the band can keep their shit together (see " Presagio" & "Más allá de la ignorancia"). The other two songs show promise but end up falling in a bit of a heap due to the band's technical & compositional limitations. The band can't play for shit obviously but that's par for the course with early South American extreme metal. I really love the Quorthon style vocals on three of the four tracks. They're evil as fuck & suit the primitive nature of the instrumentation beautifully. The other track "Postmortem" has more of a blackened thrash sound than the rest of the material which is pure black metal.  

It's so easy to hear where a band like Mayhem may have pulled the pieces of their genre-defining second wave black metal sound from when you hear a release like this as all the ingredients are already there, only they're presented in a much cruder format. The hardcore influenced sections are invariably the most relevant & over the years I've built a strong opinion that hardcore punk was the critical element in the creation of the modern black metal sound. I don't think the South Americans get enough credit for the role they played in that regard to be honest but that doesn't immediately mean that I have to like their music.