Writing "consumer" reviews was my full-time job in early 2008 while I half-heartedly looked for a proper job, working through alphabetical band lists and committing blindly to discographies for better or (usually) worse. I can't say I've spared a thought for many of these artists in the decade since, apart from the ones I liked already.
Reviews of albums from some bands beginning with B, written for dooyoo.co.uk in 2007–2008.
B
War of the Worlds
Evil's Overrated
**
Written on 25.02.08
This is a fun little release, a split E.P. between Bad Astronaut and the lesser-known Armchair Martian that sees each band covering three of the other's songs, before a final collaboration on a cover of Deminer's '17 Years.' This is the kind of release that's unapologetically released for the die-hard fans alone, and probably more for the band members themselves to own than anything else, but even though I'm not particularly a fan of either I still appreciate it as a marginal release.
The most satisfying thing here is that the level of pop has been reduced significantly from the standard Bad Astronaut fare, as their own material is tempered by the slightly harder edge of Armchair Martian's performance, while the other band's material doesn't lend itself to such embellishment anyway - except for the notable example of 'Jessica's Suicide' which has some pretty terrible lyrics, and it doesn't help that they're piped through Joey Cape's singing. Armchair Martian's songs are slightly more traditional in their punk rock riffs, though their tendency towards power ballads is a little irritating, but this probably wouldn't be such an issue on their own studio albums judging by the singer's performance on Bad Astronaut's 'You Deserve This,' which he even manages to make into a sort of grunge piece.
The final song is a disappointing finale, using the two singers to some extent by mainly relying on Armchair Martian a little surprisingly (and thankfully), but the song itself is too over-repetitive in its country groove to be of great interest. This was never intended as a release to be taken too seriously in any case, and had Bad Astronaut not amicably disbanded so soon due to Derrick Plourde's death, it probably would have faded into obscurity rather than become the collector's piece it is today.
1. Not a Dull Moment
2. Crestfallen
3. Grey Suits
4. Statler 2000
5. You Deserve This
6. Jessica's Suicide
7. 17 Years
Advantages: Armchair Martian temper Bad Astronaut's pop direction.
Disadvantages: Bad Astronaut exacerbate Armchair Martian's irritating ballads.
Bad Astronaut
**
Written on 25.02.08
The "hilariously" titled 'Houston: We Have a Drinking Problem' (how do they come up with this stuff?) is the first full-length release from Bad Astronaut, side project of Lagwagon's Joey Cape and former members of the Ataris, and it's unfortunately a slight step down in quality from their debut E.P., which had the advantage of being a lot cheaper despite nearly being as long.
There's still a fine balance between piano melancholia and pop rock, but the latter ends up winning out by an enormous margin, which is rather disappointing if you happen to find that sort of music a tad screechy and irritating. Even when the band attempts to reign it back in towards the end, this backfires and results in three consistently poor ballads or near-ballads in a row, which abandon the reasonable lyrics of earlier material and go the full way into sickening sentimentality.
There are still some enjoyable aspects to this release. Some of the guitars are quite good when they stick to a more traditional style, or attempt something melodic as is the case at the end of 'Break Your Frame,' the piano is always welcome, and towards the end it even seems to feature a harmonica which is a nice additional touch, but essentially this fails to find the middle ground that their early release just about achieved.
'Single' is a strong song, comparatively speaking, and more substantial than the rest, but the quality is dragged down significantly by the boring pop rock of 'You Deserve This,' sounding much worse here than when Armchair Martian covered it on the earlier E.P., and the cheesy power ballad 'Another Dead Romance' that wouldn't even make the most fickle teenage Him fan cry. Bad Astronaut was always going to have a tough job convincing people on both sides of its target market, but it ends up rather unsatisfying.
1. These Days
2. Clear Cutting
3. Single
4. Break Your Frame
5. Disarm
6. Not a Dull Moment
7. You Deserve This
8. If I Had a Son
9. Solar Sister
10. Off the Wagon
11. Another Dead Romance
12. Killers and Liars
13. Our Greatest Year
14. The Passenger
Bad Brains
Rock for Light
****
Written on 20.03.08
Hardcore punk pioneers Bad Brains are a pretty strange outfit, playing a mix of furious punk and chilled-out, traditional reggae with no delusions that the two contradictory styles can ever be rruly combined. While punk rock has always had a soft spot for reggae, Bad Brains take this, and just about everything else in the genre, to an extreme, and the whole thing is shrouded in their Rastafarian philosophies. In a genre that frequently suffers from sounding the same, it's refreshing to see something so radically and ludicrously different.
'Rock for Light' was the band's second album, and although it's a little cheeky for reproducing much material from the first, it's also clearly a classic of the genre, provided your tastes are a little broad. The punk rock itself is faster and harder than other bands were playing at the time, mostly delivered in short bursts of less than two minutes a time, and H.R.'s vocals add a distinctively manic flavour to the whole thing, screeching like a berserk animal. The music is satisfyingly energetic, and songs like 'Right Brigade' and 'At the Movies' even seem to combine heavy metal influence to some extent, with solos and riffs reminiscent of later thrash.
Of course, the reggae strand of the album is a completely different story, and to say it sits uncomfortably alongside would be an understatement. There's no way to combine these two different approaches in any meaningful way, so the listener merely has to expect the occasional jump from short, sharp punk to long-winded, mellow reggae, and 'I and I Survive,' 'The Meek' and 'Rally Round Jah Throne' all inevitably sound similar. While I'm not a reggae fan, and these are my least favoured songs on the album, I enjoy the oddness and stubbornness of their inclusion, and they're more than made up for with the performances of the other songs, particularly in the final section of the album that roars consistently towards an eventual, low-key finale of a one-minute reggae 'Jam' that's worth the wait.
This is an album dedicated to extremes, and although it doesn't make a whole lot of sense, it's all the better for it.
1. Big Takeover
2. Attitude
3. Right Brigade
4. Joshua's Song
5. I and I Survive
6. Banned in D.C.
7. Supertouch
8. Destroy Babylon
9. F.V.K. (Fearless Vampire Killers)
10. The Meek
11. I
12. Coptic Times
13. Sailin' On
14. Rock for Light
15. Rally Round Jah Throne
16. At the Movies
17. Riot Squad
18. How Low Can a Punk Get?
19. We Will Not
20. Jam
Bad Brains
Build a Nation
***
Written on 28.02.08
After thirty years of inconsistent, on-off releases and name changes, Bad Brains released their eighth album 'Build a Nation' to surprising mainstream success. Even without the benefit of having heard the transition albums in-between this and 1983's 'Rock for Light,' I was able to keep up to speed; mainly because this still sounds pretty much exactly the same, only a little less compelling.
Bad Brains are probably best known for their oil-and-water mix of hardcore punk and reggae, and this album jumps on this dichotomy by devoting over a third of its tracks to the latter style, which is a bit disappointing if you're not into the reggae so much, and mainly saw it as a nice eccentric interlude between tracks on older releases. Also largely absent are H.R.'s formerly manic vocals, here relegated to a more traditional punk yell in punk rock songs that are still enjoyable, but sound oddly uninteresting for being so rooted in the sound of the past. Guitarist Dr. Know still gets plenty of chances to show off, such as the minute-long guitar squealing of 'Pure Love,' and the only real difference between this and the older release is the presence of spacey, electronic elements to bulk out the reggae minimalism, which to me sort of ruins its point.
There are still some good punk songs on here, and the style is varied enough that it isn't merely two minutes of roaring and squealing each time, tracks like 'Expand Your Soul' being delivered in a steadier and more thoughtful manner. To be honest, I probably would have enjoyed it more if the roaring and squealing quotient had been increased, but it's nice for the influential band's long-time fans to have another release to enjoy over ten years after the seventh album, even if it only ends up sounding the same, but lesser compared to what has come before.
1. Give Thanks and Praises
2. Jah People Make the World Go Round
3. Pure Love
4. Natty Dreadlocks 'pon the Mountain Top
5. Build a Nation
6. Expand Your Soul
7. Jah Love
8. Let There Be Angels (Just Like You)
9. Universal Peace
10. Roll On
11. Until Kingdom Comes
12. In the Beginning
13. Send You No Flowers
14. Peace Be Unto Thee
Bad Religion
Bad Religion
***
Written on 08.02.08
This first, self-produced release from legendary Southern Californian punk band Bad Religion is a mere nine minutes in length, with pretty poor sound quality, but is still enough to introduce the beginnings of the so-called So-Cal sound. Guitarist Brett Gurewitz, later producer of major punk rock label Epitaph, doesn't really get a chance to display his talents in these very short songs, which tend to be less than a minute and a half in length if you do the math(s), but each one is distinguished by a distinctive riff and vocal melody from Greg Graffin... if very little else.
Only 'Drastic Actions' can boast the epic duration of two and a half minutes (get outta here!), and it uses the extra time to pull off a slower and steadier piece with a nice, staggered chorus that becomes a little angrier later on. Other songs that distinguish themselves are the jangly 'Sensory Overload' with its memorable chorus, and the finale 'World War III' simply for being even faster and burning out more quickly than the rest, but the others are still enjoyable in a samey way. As proto-So-Cal punk, this is predominantly melodic and catchy stuff in the style of the Ramones rather than the anger of some British bands, and Bad Religion prefers to tackle social, political and moral injustice of the day while remembering to stay fun.
With only six short songs, most of which fail to really stand out, 'Bad Religion' isn't a necessary purchase unless you're a die-hard fan, and should be seen as an optional extra to the classic debut album 'How Could Hell Be Any Worse?' released the following year, particularly as all the songs here are unique to this release. The production sound isn't particularly good, about that of a particularly good demo without any volume problems, and while Jay Zisterout's drums lack a punch as a result, and Jay Binkley's bass is completely inaudible, this gives Gurewitz's guitar a nice extra crunch.
1. Bad Religion
2. Politics
3. Sensory Overload
4. Slaves
5. Drastic Actions
6. World War III
Bad Religion
No Control
*****
Written on 08.02.08
Although 'Suffer' is widely praised as Bad Religion's crowning achievement, it's the follow-up 'No Control' that really impresses with its increased energy and greater variety, as well as even better sing-along choruses. Clocking in at only twenty-five minutes, these fifteen songs more than make up for the time in quality, and are again mostly medium-speed accessible punk, though with a distinctly harder and more authentic edge than many of the later bands they inspired.
The guitar duo of Greg Hetson and Brett Gurewitz is at is most creative and powerful here, introducing scratchier and heavier riffs alongside their customary style, lending a darker tone to songs such as 'Big Bang' and 'Sometimes I Feel Like...', and really going all-out on the briefly pulverising finale to 'Automatic Man.' The faster pace of some of these songs sees Greg Graffin forced to jump into gear and succeeding admirably, though his speedy delivery does sound a little funny on 'Big Bang' and finale 'The World Won't Stop,' but there's no way this album will alienate fans of the older, more melodic style, as that's still present in full force in the slowly chugging 'Sanity' and other songs in the latter half of the album, particularly the enjoyable 'You' and 'Progress' that feature soft backing singing for added atmosphere.
The Generation X social themes here are pretty much the same as ever, dealing with the government, ennui and apathy, and including the usual brief character study in the form of 'Billy,' but the ingredients are all right here to make one of the finest punk albums of the late eighties. It's still not perfect, it wouldn't be punk otherwise, but it should be considered compulsory listening for fans of later bands it directly inspired, such as the Offspring.
1. Change of Ideas
2. Big Bang
3. No Control
4. Sometimes I Feel Like... *?!%+!*
5. Automatic Man
6. I Want to Conquer the World
7. Sanity
8. Henchman
9. It Must Look Pretty Appealing
10. You
11. Progress
12. I Want Something More
13. Anxiety
14. Billy
15. The World Won't Stop
Bad Religion
Generator
****
Written on 08.02.08
Having long since established themselves as the driving force in American punk rock, Bad Religion went through the inevitable experimental phase in the early nineties that was largely successful, or at least never awful. Of the two albums in question, 'Generator' is by far the superior. Although it lacks some of the simple enjoyment of the earlier releases, the songs feel more substantial in terms of length and ideas, and the new style is evident right from the onset as Brett Gurewitz unleashes some hard-edged riffs in the style of 'No Control,' but with more of a blues approach to the solos, more prevalent here than ever before. The increase in volume and intensity comes to a head in the impressive closing jam of 'Atomic Garden,' one of the best songs here but unfortunately also one of the only ones to really stand out as an individual piece.
The main problem with 'Generator' is that it doesn't really sound like a Bad Religion album, with only the distinctive vocals of Greg Graffin anchoring it in the discography. This isn't necessarily a problem, but it does require the band to forsake much of the style they had perfected thus far, and in the end the experimental tendencies don't really stretch beyond a bit of structural messing-around and some interesting guitar riffs in songs like 'Two Babies in the Dark.' At only thirty minutes this seems very short even for a punk album, but there's enough decent material packed in here to permit it to be considered in the same light as some of the other Bad Religion near-classics. It also has the advantage of standing apart in an increasingly samey discography.
1. Generator
2. Too Much to Ask
3. No Direction
4. Tomorrow
5. Two Babies in the Dark
6. Heaven Is Falling
7. Atomic Garden
8. The Answer
9. Fertile Crescent
10. Chimaera
11. Only Entertainment
Bad Religion
Stranger Than Fiction
****
Written on 08.02.08
Tensions were high as Bad Religion sold out to the mainstream and released their first album on major label Atlantic in 1994, but fortunately for everyone, 'Stranger Than Fiction' made no compromise and stuck rigidly to the band's popular punk sound, with an even greater authenticity than had been heard since the eighties. Regularly cited as one of their classic releases, I find it a little disappointing compared to their earlier classic period, and in the wake of the experimental 'Generator' and 'Recipe for Hate' it's almost disappointingly consistent, but the songwriting ability is still as strong as it ever was, or would be again until Brett Gurewitz's eventual return, this being his final album with the band for now.
The higher budget is clearly evident in the greater production sound, which now seems somehow louder and clearer, and although there's a distinctly melodic orientation on many songs, you only have to look into the past with albums such as 'Suffer' and 'Against the Grain' to see that Bad Religion has possessed this sense of accessibility all along, and it doesn't represent an attempt to snag new fans by changing their sound. The title track in particular is a great mellow song in the band's tradition, complete with backing singing that was so definitive of their releases until other bands started to imitate it, and it's nice to hear the country style from the previous album finding its way into 'Hooray' in a small fashion.
There are more memorable songs here than has been the case for some time, but as expected, there's quite a wide gulf between those that work, and those that don't, depending on each listener's taste. I personally find the guest performance of Rancid's Tim Armstrong in the otherwise fun 'Television' to be annoying in its near-rap style, while it's fairly obvious that 'Infected' has received a little greater attention to detail for its release as a single, with its catchy riff and slow chorus. The inclusion of '21st Century (Digital Boy)' at the end is the only real sign of record label coercion evident here, as the song was originally released on the 'Against the Grain' album but was allegedly re-recorded here in order to provide a suitable single, as the rest of the songs weren't up to the task. It proved successful, but also unfortunately demonstrated that Bad Religion were now, to some extent, bitches.
1. Incomplete
2. Leave Mine to Me
3. Stranger Than Fiction
4. Tiny Voices
5. The Handshake
6. Better Off Dead
7. Infected
8. Television
9. Individual
10. Hooray for Me...
11. Slumber
12. Marked
13. Inner Logic
14. What It Is
15. 21st Century (Digital Boy)
Bad Religion
The Gray Race
***
Written on 08.02.08
The only real dip in the quality of Bad Religion's output coincided with the departure of guitarist Brett Gurewitz prior to 'The Gray Race.' Although his replacement in the form of Minor Threat's Brian Baker was always more than capable of filling his shoes, and indeed chose this band over more high profile offers from R.E.M. and others around the same time, it was left to vocalist Greg Graffin to write all the songs this time round, and the album suffers a little from repetition and average output as a result.
The predominant style here continues to be medium speed and fairly accessible as punk goes, still avoiding any claims of being a sell-out but also noticeably lacking the punch of earlier releases. Some songs can easily be added to the list of classic material, but these are few and far between, and it's only really those that attempt something different - such as the country-tinged punk of 'Them and Us' and 'Victory' in the choruses and guitars - that manage to stand out. The band is tight and consistent, but 'The Gray Race' is an easily overlooked album that should only really be approached by die-hard fans, or someone vaguely interested who doesn't mind owning an inferior example of the legendary band. Even the single 'A Walk' doesn't manage to impress, being far too repetitive even in its short playing time, and the band's political themes are less prominent and thoughtful than usual, despite the quite cool concept of the outer artwork.
1. The Gray Race
2. Them and Us
3. A Walk
4. Parallel
5. Punk Rock Song
6. Empty Causes
7. Nobody Listens
8. Pity the Dead
9. Spirit Shine
10. The Streets of America
11. Ten in 2010
12. Victory
13. Drunk Sincerity
14. Come Join Us
15. Cease
Bad Religion
The New America
***
Written on 08.02.08
In an ever-expanding discography like that of Californian punk rockers Bad Religion, it's important that each album stands apart to distinguish itself, and although 'The New America' is my least favoured offering from the band's recent period, it still manages to stand out through its more melodic direction and more personal lyrical style, allowing it to be reasonably dubbed "the Greg Graffin album," particularly as his singing style has noticeably improved after years of sounding exactly the same.
This is a solid album as ever, if a little dull comparatively, and would be the band's last on Atlantic records before returning to Epitaph. The importance of melody stressed in the lyrics to track three seems to have been a primary concern during the songwriting process, and right from the onset it's clear that Graffin can now actually sing in addition to his usual, almost spoken style, and he's backed up by Brian Baker's melodic guitars in songs like 'It's a Long Way to the Promised Land' and the pleasant solo of the title track. Even Brett Gurewitz makes a cameo return in 'Believe It,' though it passes by without incident as a muted foreshadowing of his later return, and with the greater focus on Graffin this time round it's the more lyrical songs that work the best and remain the most memorable, most notably 'A Streetkid Named Desire.'
It's commendable and extremely satisfying that Bad Religion were continuing to experiment with new directions even after twenty years, and while not every album is going to please everyone, 'The New America' has the potential to be their most accessible to a wider audience without compromising the band's punk credentials.
1. You've Got a Chance
2. It's a Long Way to the Promised Land
3. A World Without Melody
4. New America
5. 1000 Memories
6. A Streetkid Named Desire
7. Whisper in Time
8. Believe It
9. I Love My Computer
10. The Hopeless Housewife
11. There Will Be a Way
12. Let It Burn
13. Don't Sell Me Short
Bad Religion
The Process of Belief
****
Written on 08.02.08
Bad Religion's return to Epitaph saw them reunite with the record label's founder and their former guitarist Brett Gurewitz, and the music corresponds with a very satisfying return to form. The band's now customary steady and melodic style is still predominant, but balanced out by some shorter, faster punk rock songs, the likes of which haven't been seen for a number of years, while others continue to experiment with different styles to great effect. Although Gurewitz's departure wasn't the crippling blow that some may have perceived it, it's notable that this is their finest album since his last appearance back on 'Stranger Than Fiction.'
The only real reason this material doesn't seem quite up to the level of the old classics is because it comes so late, when hordes of imitation acts are already producing Bad Religionesque material and stealing their thunder, but many of these songs would have made worthy additions to even the best of the old-school releases, while some would have seemed strangely alien without the years of experimentation loosening up fans' expectations and toleration. 'Broken' even features some acoustic touches, adding to the mellow style that now works a treat, considering it's no longer present in every single song as has been the case with the previous albums, and Gurewitz plays around with some Ennio Morricone sounding guitars at the start of 'The Defense,' clearly relishing the chance to work with these guys again.
'Sorrow' is probably the most well-known song here, a culmination of the mellow punk style the band has been working towards for years that finally gets everything perfect within the space of a few minutes, but there are numerous other treats here in the form of the catchy and simplistic 'Evangeline' and the progression from a soft opening to a heavy conclusion in 'Epiphany.' This easily ranks among Bad Religion's finest, and is second only to their undisputed eighties classics.
1. Supersonic
2. Prove It
3. Can't Stop It
4. Broken
5. Destined for Nothing
6. Materialist
7. Kyoto Now!
8. Sorrow
9. Epiphany
10. Evangeline
11. The Defense
12. The Lie
13. You Don't Belong
14. Bored and Extremely Dangerous
Bad Religion
The Empire Strikes First
****
Written on 09.02.08
Punk rock had a satisfying ambitious surge in 2004, with Green Day's celebrated rock opera 'American Idiot' being provided a more traditional So-Cal punk companion in the form of 'The Empire Strikes First,' Bad Religion's not-quite-concept album that sees the band continuing to improve now that Brett Gurewitz is back in the fold. With its heated political edge, even more prominent than in the band's past works, the lyrics are more compelling than ever, and despite a couple of missteps this is one of the best punk albums of recent years and proof that Bad Religion can still cut it alongside the newer acts.
All of these songs are surprisingly satisfying even when coming in at under two minutes, but I was slightly disappointed that the fast and furious, almost heavy metal style of 'Sinister Rouge' was confined to that song alone, as this would have made for a particularly interesting and different album comparable to the classic 'No Control.' The rest of the album varies between a slow, mellow style and a faster punk tempo, similar in essence to its immediate predecessor 'The Process of Belief,' but the songwriting feels tighter and more successful on the whole. 'Overture' is the deceptively prog opening that soon lets up in the face of simple, enjoyable punk rock, while other songs such as 'All There Is,' 'To Another Abyss' and the classic punk style of 'Los Angeles is Burning' all hold up the lighter and more commercial end of the spectrum, the latter even being released as a single.
'The Quickening' features some squealing guitar work that's always nice to hear, leading into a great riff in the title song and somehow ending up in heavy ska for the Orwellian 'Boot Stamping on a Human Face Forever' before the album ends on a slightly disappointing note with 'Live Again,' a decent song in its own right, but one that owes its chorus entirely to the previous album's classic 'Sorrow.' Once I got past these initial disappointments, I found 'The Empire Strikes First' to be a fairly fantastic album from Bad Religion, and perhaps even their third best after the obvious 'No Control' and 'Suffer,' leaving me with very high expectations indeed of what the future has in store (they have released an album since, but I don't have that one).
1. Overture
2. Sinister Rouge
3. Social Suicide
4. Atheist Peace
5. All There Is
6. Los Angeles is Burning
7. Let Them Eat War
8. God's Love
9. To Another Abyss
10. The Quickening
11. The Empire Strikes First
12. Beyond Electric Dreams
13. Boot Stamping on a Human Face Forever
14. Live Again (The Fall of Man)
Angelo Badalamenti
****
Written on 09.02.08
David Lynch and Mark Frost's 'Twin Peaks' was one of the defining television series of the nineties, its success and surprising popularity opening up the possibilities for supernatural-themed drama that followed, from series such as 'The X-Files' and 'Buffy' to more recent works like 'Lost' that still share a distinct serialised format. Its unique atmosphere, in the first season at least, was a mix of clichéd soap opera parody and a distinctly darker edge exploring the seedy, secretive life beneath the surface of a close-knit community also evident in Lynch's earlier success 'Blue Velvet,' and the soundtrack succeeds admirably in capturing this bipolar fusion in Angelo Badalamenti's electronic jazz themes and the pleasantly eerie original songs from Julee Cruise, with lyrics written by Lynch. The job was never going to be an easy one, and it's interesting to ponder how the series would have been affected if a different composer had been drafted, but for the most part these compositions are perfectly suited to the scenarios they were originally prescribed in the early episodes, before being repeated endlessly thereafter to varying degrees of relevance.
The 'Twin Peaks Theme' itself is a great piece of music that's soothing and also somewhat joyous in its overture of soft horns, and of course the listener receives the added benefits of early nineties nostalgia and pleasant nature imagery through the mental recollection of the opening titles that accompanied it in its edited form (that little robin, ahh). For containing the more memorable and prominent scores, this first section of the album is the most appealing and entertaining, and while it's a little odd to hear the opening theme stretched out to a full five minutes, the subsequent 'Laura Palmer's Theme' is a very revealing and intricate piece familiar to most viewers as three or four separate themes, so it's a real surprise to learn that the opening, middle and closing sections of the major movement (repeated a few times over five minutes) were all part of the same extended piece. The opening keyboard bars would come to characterise any night-time establishing shot aimed towards a sinister mood, and once the powerful piano melody reaches its full strength, it brought back the memory of Laura's parents sobbing in grief over their daughter's death, just before Leland Palmer went crazy ape bonkers.
When it comes to scene-specific themes, the next track is the most offending, memorably used to introduce the sultry and similarly unhinged Audrey in the pilot but afterwards cropping up in the most random places. It's the first of Badalamenti's jazz pieces, performed on piano, xylophone, sax and clicking fingers, but certainly isn't the last; tracks five and nine both follow pretty much the same course but with less distinction, though the latter has the advantage of being tied to the series' most famous scene of all, and has a Pink Panther style sax solo for people who like that sort of thing. The problem of repetition affects much of the album in its second half, the 'Love Theme' being essentially a slightly different version of Laura's theme performed in a Vangelis-style Oriental flute keyboard melody that doesn't particularly serve to conjure feelings of love at all, while Laura's theme also forms the foundation of 'Freshly Squeezed.'
The other major thread running through this album is Julee Cruise, the show's in-house singer, whose haunting, angelic style is of the variety that reminds you that angels are dead people. 'The Nightingale' is her finest achievement here, memorable from the show itself and also catchy in a commercially viable manner than her later, more atmosphere-based songs fail to attain. It's great just how well she does fit in to Badalamenti's sound (thank god they didn't go for a rock singer for coolness), but she's also sadly responsible for the album's sole abomination, the closing 'Falling' that attempts to butcher the Twin Peaks theme by adding lyrics in the way Anita Dobson butchered the 'EastEnders' titles, a show I'm naturally too interesting to watch but that I'd have to endure the sound of my mum singing along to three times a week as a child. Listening to this album too frequently could have the same effect, if you ever find yourself supplying Cruise's lyrics of love and friendship or whatever it was to a great theme song that was never designed to have vocals, so I'd urge you to be like me and try your best to erase them from your short-term memory as soon as the album has reached the end.
Apart from the finale, this is a decent soundtrack album from a great TV show that becomes very repetitive but at least aims to be comprehensive, though I have no idea whether there's material missing that was used in the show but not present on the soundtrack, I don't have the recall power and attention to detail of dooyoo's soundtrack guru berlioz II. The lounge jazz stuff may put some people off, but this is a great album for relaxation if you're partial to a bit of synth, and it conjures pleasant pastoral images of waterfalls, robins and dead teenage girls wrapped in plastic.
1. Twin Peaks Theme
2. Laura Palmer's Theme
3. Audrey's Dance
4. The Nightingale (Julee Cruise)
5. Freshly Squeezed
6. The Bookhouse Boys
7. Into the Night (Julee Cruise)
8. Night Life in Twin Peaks
9. Dance of the Dream Man
10. Love Theme from Twin Peaks
11. Falling (Julee Cruise)
Angelo Badalamenti
**
Written on 10.02.08
Sometimes a bad film is saved by a particularly brilliant soundtrack, but that's not the case for Angelo Badalamenti's score for the messy Twin Peaks movie 'Fire Walk With Me,' an attempt to redefine the popular series as a feature film franchise following its TV cancellation that ultimately failed because the film was so unsatisfying. It's not completely awful, but in presenting the events in the last week of doomed teenager Laura Palmer's life that were slowly and tantalisingly revealed over the course of about twenty episodes, it's redundant and demystifying while trying to offer something new to fans in the form of over-the-top David Lynch weirdness jut for the sake of it, in the process alienating any casual filmgoers who may not have kept up diligently with the series from its illustrious beginnings to its bland, tedious, early end.
For some reason, Badalamenti's score (which also features several contributions written or performed by others) almost entirely follows the jazz style that formed part of the series' atmosphere, but increases it beyond the point of relaxation to something much more randomised, experimental and annoying for anyone other than experimental jazz fans - and even those are bound to despair at its comparatively mainstream direction when compared to stuff like John Zorn that they pretend to like. Absent are the sinister keyboards that flowed throughout the TV series, replaced by more prominent saxophones and deranged narrative musings in the Thought Gang pieces, while even Lynch himself has a crack at composing with the boring 'The Pink Room' and the uncharacteristically pleasant 'Best Friends' that marks the very late turning point of the album from terrible to somewhat good.
The final four tracks eschew the jazz in favour of more melancholy piano-driven sounds (including a cello in the nice 'Moving Through Time') that actually go some way to approaching the original style of the TV series, and for listeners who can't recall the glorious original themes, they're presented in a very neatly edited medley that draws attention to some of the series' greatest hits, though in a much more brief and less satisfying manner than on the TV show's own soundtrack album. Earlier on the CD, series regular Julee Cruise gets to provide another song in the form of 'Questions in a World of Blue' that isn't particularly inspiring but is an island of calm amidst the ocean of commotion, and there's also a slight resurgence of Badalamenti's 'Audrey's Theme' in track four featuring the same finger-snapping and xylophone that's probably more down to a lack of originality than anything.
The album starts disappointingly by serving up a main title theme that isn't in any way memorable, and only ends up drawing attention to its own failings by going back to Badalamenti's earlier material that stands out as by far the best music here. Part of the failure of 'Fire Walk With Me' comes in its unsupervised excess compared to the more confining strictures of the TV series, and while Lynch indulged himself through stripping Sheryl Lee bare on numerous occasions and writing a cameo for David Bowie that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, Badalamenti just went crazy with a jazz band and made some boring songs.
1. Theme from Twin Peaks - Fire Walk With Me
2. The Pine Float
3. Sycamore Trees (Jimmy Scott)
4. Don't Do Anything (I Wouldn't Do)
5. A Real Indication (Thought Gang)
6. Questions in a World of Blue (Julee Cruise)
7. The Pink Room (David Lynch)
8. The Black Dog Runs at Night (Thought Gang)
9. Best Friends (David Lynch / David Slusser)
10. Moving Through Time
11. Montage from Twin Peaks: Girl Talk / Birds in Hell / Laura Palmer's Theme / Falling
12. The Voice of Love
Meg Baird
Dear Companion
***
Written on 25.02.08
The debut solo release from Philadelphia folk singer Meg Baird is vastly different from her more well-known work in Esper, free of the psychedelic and distorted electronic elements and stripped down to folk in its purest, simplest form of a woman strumming an acoustic guitar. Boasting a mix of "folk classics and traditional songs," people like me who don't have a lot of knowledge on the subject won't be able to discern too much between her original material, covers of comparatively recent works in the genre (such as Fraser & Debolt's 'Waltze of the Tennis Players' and New Riders of the Purple Sage's 'All I Ever Wanted') and those oft-covered, traditional folk pieces such as 'The Cruelty of Barbry Allen' that are over five centuries old.
This is to the album's credit as well as its failing, as the repetitive sound of the guitar plucking in particular can become a little tedious unless you've mentally prepared yourself to enjoy something as simple and primeval as this. Baird's singing fortunately varies between a slight country twang on the title track to a lighter and more ethereal performance on 'River Song,' 'Do What You Gotta Do' and others, and there's even a bonus track that will be to some peoples' taste (but not mine) in which even the guitar is removed, and she reprises her title song a capella. Personally, I find this sort of thing a little embarrassing to listen to.
As a pure folk album this is a worthwhile purchase, but it obviously doesn't offer anything new to the genre, which I suppose is sort of the point. Harking back to the acoustic heyday of the sixties and seventies when everyone was releasing albums like this, it will make a nice trip down memory lane for some or an interesting and ever-so-slightly new take on old favourites for more discerning fans, but for the general consumer it really does depend whether you fancy a little more to your music.
1. Dear Companion
2. River Song
3. The Cruelty of Barbry Allen
4. Do What You Gotta Do
5. Riverhouse in Tinicum
6. Waltze of the Tennis Players
7. Maiden in the Moor Lay
8. Sweet William and Fair Ellen
9. All I Ever Wanted
10. Willie O'Winsbury
11. Bonus track
Advantages: Authentic folk performance.
Disadvantages: Repetitive.
Bal-Sagoth
****
Written on 18.02.08
Bal-Sagoth is an unusual band indeed, a trio of Yorkshiremen whose adherence to the Monty Python tradition of competitive one-upmanship has led to an incredibly distinctive band that takes fantasy-themed heavy metal to a new extreme. 'Starfire Burning Upon the Ice-Veiled Throne of Ultima Thule' is their second album, but the first to really define the band's distinctive sound by incorporating Jonny Maudling's synthetic orchestration as a major instrument and enhancing the epic atmosphere for the stories told by Byron Roberts in a mixture of distorted spoken word and less legible black metal roar, and while Jonny's brother Chris still impresses with frequent slow and moody lead guitars, the rock instruments are essentially a backing rhythm to set the various scenes.
This isn't the most approachable metal, already serving to alienate many with its black metal base despite not being particularly heavy or aggressive, and the heavy focus on narrative runs the risk of attracting only a small crowd of Dungeons & Dragons fans, but fortunately the music is up to scratch and as stated earlier, incredibly distinctive. No other band sounds like this, or at least didn't back in the mid-nineties, the fanfares and sweeping classical themes serving to distance it from metal entirely in the interludes, and even the faster combo passages of Chris' riffs and Jonny's double bass drums essentially sound like the rock section of the orchestra, the guitar possessing an enjoyably dingy and gritty tone throughout that's a far cry from the light and melodic power metal bands that usually characterise these fantasy themes. The unrelenting lyrical approach will be laughable to those who aren't into it, but even from a purely aesthetic, superficial aspect the booming voice still sounds cool, and for me the only real problem with the sound is how samey it starts to get after a while.
Either in response to this fear or purely by coincidence, the band has shoved the finest songs towards the end of the album in the form of the near-instrumental track seven that directly references and is based around several themes composed by Basil Poledouris for 1981's 'Conan the Barbarian,' my favourite film soundtrack of all time (and a damned entertaining film too). Track nine is the best of the lot (I'm avoiding using the song names for a reason that will be clear if you check out the end of this review), with the most majestic and accomplished lead guitars of the album and a nice, slow solo (or slow-lo) to boot, though it does sound rather a lot like track two. The orchestral introduction, intermission and epilogue are all very skilfully executed considering this is primarily a metal album with no aspirations to becoming a classic of classical, and ends up inevitably sounding quite like a film score, though without being too bombastic or stealing thunder from the rest of the tracks.
With their predominant dark fantasy themes (based on the Conan stories and H.P. Lovecraft among others), dynamic instrumentation and amusingly elaborate song-titles, Bal-Sagoth are the kind of band that isn't for everyone - but at the same time, for the minority of people who are really into it, it's the most incredible thing in the world. This is an album I enjoy, but one I couldn't listen to more than ten times in one lifetime.
1. Black Dragons Soar Above the Mountain of Shadows
2. To Dethrone the Witch-Queen of Mytus K'unn (The Legend of the Battle of Blackhelm Vale)
3. As the Vortex Illumines the Crystalline Walls of Kor-Avul-Thaa
4. Starfire Burning Upon the Ice-Veiled Throne of Ultima Thule
5. Journey to the Isle of Mists (Over the Moonless Depths of Night-Dark Seas)
6. The Splendour of a Thousand Swords Gleaming Beneath the Blazon of the Hyperborean Empire
7. And Lo, When the Imperium Marches Against Gul-Kokoth, the Dark Sorceries Shall Enshroud the Citadel of the Obsidian Crown
8. Summoning of the Guardians of the Astral Gate
9. In the Raven-Haunted Forests of Darkenhold, Where Shadows Reign and the Hues of Sunlight Never Dance
10. At the Altar of the Dreaming Gods
Bal-Sagoth
Battle Magic
***
Written on 26.02.08
After the dark and compelling epic narratives of Bal-Sagoth's previous two albums, the generally lighter and jollier direction taken on 'Battle Magic' comes across as quite a disappointment, and sees the band enter a comparative lapse in their career that's still greatly superior and infinitely more fascinating than that of many of their contemporaries. The album title should be revealing enough of this album's style for those in the know, and it does bear similarities to earlier and later metal albums that attempt something similarly epic and triumphal, most notably Turisas' later 'Battle Metal' that seems to take much of its influence from here.
'Starfire Burning...' saw an increase in the prominence of Jonny Maudling's keyboards, and here they are pretty much permitted to lead the way, second only to Byron Roberts' inimitable narration. While anyone approaching Bal-Sagoth for the first time will obviously find the lyrical focus to be the major make-or-break quality, it's the keyboards here that will allow fans to rate this album more specifically, and for the most part I almost hate them. Gone is the dark, brooding atmosphere, replaced with synthesised fanfares that seem to signal a perpetual state of victory, and there are some truly horrible fantasy touches in 'A Tale from the Deep Woods' and the seriously overlong 'Blood Slakes the Sand at the Circus Maximus' that remind me more of Disney than anything, on the whole making for my least favoured Bal-Sagoth album.
But there's still an awful lot to love about this release. Firstly, it's some more ludicrously pompous narrative epic metal performed by the masters, and any fantasy nerds who got a real kick out of the guitars quoting Basil Poledouris' 'Conan the Barbarian' score in the previous album will be as delighted as I was to hear it subtly reprised in the middle of 'Naked Steel.' Roberts' vocals still vary between a black metal rasp that sounds less appropriate in this jollier music, and his customary spoken style that also seems to be lacking its usual punch, but anyone approaching Bal-Sagoth from similarly over-the-top fantasy metal bands such as Rhapsody or Turisas will likely find this a more convenient point of entry than their darker material, though I found the latter a lot more satisfying.
1. Battle Magic
2. Naked Steel (The Warrior's Saga)
3. A Tale from the Deep Woods
4. Return to the Praesidium of Ys
5. Crystal Shards
6. The Dark Liege of Chaos is Unleashed at the Ensorcelled Shrine of A'Zura Kai (The Splendour of a Thousand Swords Gleaming Beneath the Blazon of the Hyperborean Empire Part II)
7. When Rides the Scion of the Storms
8. Blood Slakes the Sand at the Circus Maximus
9. Thwarted by the Dark (Blade of the Vampyre Hunter)
10. And Atlantis Falls...
Bal-Sagoth
The Power Cosmic
****
Written on 26.02.08
There was never a more appropriate time for Bal-Sagoth to release something refreshingly different to save fans from the increasingly stale tendencies of their albums, and 'The Power Cosmic' succeeds brilliantly in interrupting the flow of their narrative saga by injecting some contradictory science fiction themes and even a slight space opera musical style, though not to the extent of something like Ayreon. The move to experienced metal label Nuclear Blast also allowed for an improvement in the production sound and even the artwork, making this a much more satisfying affair than the albums that surround it, even if it has the potential to turn many old-school fans off.
This is still far from the band's past glories, the instruments mainly being used as a backdrop for Byron Roberts' narrative and new tendency towards character drama (it sounds like he adopts the persona of an old man in several songs), and there are sadly no stand-out guitar moments as has been the case on past albums such as 'Starfire Burning,' but this is still authentically Bal-Sagoth. Jonny Maudling's keyboards are excellent, vastly improved from the Disney style of 'Battle Magic' and once again evoking epic atmospheres whether in an ancient, Hyperborean landscape or out in the cosmos, and Dave Mackintosh's drums have sufficient power to propel this music along at breakneck pace without making it overly heavy.
The main problem here is a lack of variation, as once the songs get going, they're pretty much confined to the usual speed metal sound of repetitive riffs washed over with varying vocal styles and symphonic keyboard arrangements, with nice touches like the piano intro to 'Callisto Rising' and lead guitar opening of 'The Scourge of the Fourth Celestial Host' being too short-lived. This is also noticeably shorter than the typical Bal-Sagoth release, coming in at only forty minutes in what seems to have been a deliberate decision not to labour over symphonic interludes, and to cut straight to the chase. While it was never destined to be one of their very best, this odd sci-fi opus came along at the right time to keep fans on their toes, it's just a shame its legacy didn't inspire the subsequent release to try something equally challenging.
1. The Awakening of the Stars
2.The Voyagers Beneath the Mare Imbrium
3.The Empyreal Lexicon
4.Of Carnage and a Gathering of the Wolves
5.Callisto Rising
6.The Scourge of the Fourth Celestial Host
7.Behold, the Armies of War Descend Screaming from the Heavens!
8.The Thirteen Cryptical Prophecies of Mu
Bal-Sagoth
Atlantis Ascendant
***
Written on 26.02.08
To anyone approaching Bal-Sagoth for the first time, 'Atlantis Ascendant' would likely strike them as one of the most creative and bizarre metal albums they had ever heard, even if not a particularly strong one. But for anyone versed in the epic musical tales of these Yorkshiremen, this fifth release is a disappointingly samey one, that adds nothing new to the band's regular, ever-so-slightly-evolving sound.
The whole thing just seems generally weak and lacking in ideas by comparison, and attempts have clearly been made to revisit elements from the previous albums to provide some sort of 'best-of' effect, but one that ultimately ends up being distinctly average. The only real quality this album has going for it is a newfound melodic direction, even more so than on 'Battle Magic,' and for the most part this integrates well in the form of lead guitar melodies in most songs, though it also comes at a cost to the heaviness elsewhere. The band's early death metal style resurfaces on songs such as 'In Search of the Lost Cities of Antarctica,' and the final part of the extremely long-winded 'The Splendour of a Thousand Swords Gleaming Beneath the Blazon of the Hyperborean Empire' trilogy manages to almost live up to its illustrious predecessors, and is probably the best individual song here, featuring some nice Egyptian touches.
One major disappointment here comes in Byron Roberts' vocals, the primary element of Bal-Sagoth's musical narratives, which seem to lack the intensity of his usual performance, and essentially fail when they try something new, such as the Cradle of Filth style whispering of 'Atlantis Ascendant' and the odd staccato style of 'The Dreamer in the Catacombs of Ur.' Bal-Sagoth is always an interesting band, mainly for being so damn different, and although this isn't a bad album by any means, it's probably their weakest work overall.
1. The Epsilon Exordium
2. Atlantis Ascendant
3. Draconis Albionensis
4. Star-Maps of the Ancient Cosmographers
5. The Ghosts of Angkor Wat
6. Cry Havoc for Glory, and the Annihilation of the Titans of Chaos (The Splendour of a Thousand Swords Gleaming Beneath the Blazon of the Hyperborean Empire, Part III)
7. The Dreamer in the Catacombs of Ur
8. In Search of the Lost Cities of Antarctica
9. The Chronicle of Shadows
10. Six Keys to the Onyx Pyramid
Bal-Sagoth
The Chthonic Chronicles
*****
Written on 26.02.08
After a few years' break, the masters of over-the-top epic metal Bal-Sagoth returned with the finest release of their career, one that completely blows away their previous disappointments and returns to their glory days of old, while at the same time sounding satisfyingly different. 'The Chthonic Chronicles' is the heaviest and darkest album since 1996's 'Starfire Burning...' and boasts comparable death metal influence to the debut, while retaining the melodic and symphonic elements that the band has developed and slowly refined since. Best of all, there's a newfound sense of structure that makes this truly progressive, as songs pass through internal movements and feature some excellent instrumental breaks as opposed to the customary backseat usually reserved for the guitars, which is certainly no longer the case. In essence, this is the album fans have been waiting for all along.
The only real problem with combining so many influences is that the album does tend to veer between styles occasionally and this can be a little distracting, as the majestic symphony of track nine, a vastly improved take on the 'Battle Magic' sound, is followed up by some genuinely evil and scary stuff in 'Beneath the Crimson Vaults of Cydonia,' but for being more demanding on the listener, this is ultimately far more rewarding in the long term than albums like 'Atlantis Ascendant' that never scream out for a repeat play in the same way. It's so satisfying to finally hear some actual guitar lead sections and solos between Byron Roberts' narration in songs like 'Shackled to the Trilithon of Kutulu' and the excellent 'The Obsidian Crown Unbound,' and Roberts himself has been revitalised since his lacklustre performance on the previous album, enhancing the atmosphere of both the symphonic and heavy styles accordingly.
The lyrics are a little less impenetrable than usual, and a lot better integrated into the music than on previous albums, where it often felt like Roberts was merely screaming so fast in order to fit it all in, and this gives a greater sense that these are proper, authentic songs rather than something daft, though those who appreciate this band from a daft point of view will still find a lot to satisfy them (even if it may be disappointing to finally concede that they are actually pretty damn good). If there isn't another Bal-Sagoth release until 2011, it will hopefully be juas as worth the wait.
1. The Sixth Adulation of His Chthonic Majesty
2. Invocations Beyond the Outer-World Night
3. Six Score and Ten Oblations to a Malefic Avatar
4. The Obsidian Crown Unbound
5. The Fallen Kingdoms of the Abyssal Plain
6. Shackled to the Trilithon of Kutulu
7. The Hammer of the Emperor
8. Unfettering the Hoary Sentinels of Karnak
9. To Storm the Cyclopean Gates of Byzantium
10. Arcana Antediluvia
11. Beneath the Crimson Vaults of Cydonia
12. Return to Hatheg-Kla
Balzac
The Last Men on Earth
**
Written on 27.02.08
Balzac are essentially a Japanese rip-off of the Misfits, and for this reason alone it's difficult not to view them with slight contempt and disdain. Imitating the more famous band's sound, horror theme and image to a disappointingly commercial extent that has even seen the release of action figures, this is a band that threatens to be more about gimmick than musical quality, and that just about sums them up.
The Misfits have always been my favourite punk rock band, primarily in their original, turbulent incarnation with Glenn Danzig but even in the more recent and even more turbulent reunion works with new singer Michale Graves, but their clichéd, campy horror appearance and horror film obsessed lyrics were bound to attract hordes of imitators, most notably AFI in the early years before they moved onto their own sound and became much worse. Although later albums would show a small amount of competence in living up to the ideal of a nineties/zero-zeroes punk band, 'The Last Men on Earth' stinks of below-par Misfits tribute that fails to capture anything that was great about their heroes.
Hirosuke Nishiyama's singing occasionally imitates Glenn Danzig, most noticeably in 'Diabolos,' before he develops his own irritating style that will see him through the rest of the band's releases, with only a very slight influence of the Japanese rock style. The backing vocals replicate the famous "woah" choruses of the Misfits but destroy its effect through over-use in every single song, and the only really enjoyable thing about this album is the dirty tone of the guitar, something that was presumably only a flaw due to the low production values at this point before the band became inexplicably big.
Unlike later albums that tend to follow a specific internal style, this one carelessly moves between imitations of different Misfits phases, from the minimalist, 'Static Age' style of '13 Ghosts' to the darker, bass-led, 'Halloween'-style 'God of Mercy III,' with most songs landing squarely in the more upbeat style of 'Walk Among Us' and missing out the band's heavy metal phase of 'Earth A.D.' Only a couple, such as 'Vanishes in Oblivion,' manage to imitate the Misfits sound without directly ripping off a specific song, and there are no stand-out songs in this rather weak excuse for an album. An album of straightforward Misfits covers would have been more honest and more enjoyable.
1. Night of the Blood Beast
2. Diabolos
3. 13 Ghosts
4. Day the Earth Caught Fire
5. Long Way - Before the Day Goes Over the Night
6. God of Mercy III
7. Fiendish Ghouls
8. Night Tide
9. Vanishes in Oblivion
10. From Hell It Came
11. Psycho in 308
12. Monster III
13. Girl from Horrorwood
Balzac
Atom-Age Vampire in 308
***
Written on 27.02.08
As well as being a notable early release from Balzac, 'Atom-Age Vampire in 308' is also the band's semi-official subtitle, or at least one that always appears in conjunction with Balzac name on each release. This 7" E.P. contains four original Balzac songs from their early career rooted in the style of a Misfits tribute act, and as it mostly represents the best of their material at that time, it makes for a more pleasantly consistent release than some of their enormously varied early albums. The sound quality is also enjoyably raw and primitive, which aids the atmosphere to a great extent.
'Atom-Age Vampire in 308' begins with a slow, Black Sabbath style doom riff and a spoken word incantation, and this very same section reappears as the finale to 'Eerie Night' in a contrived but successful bid to impose a sense of structure without the flamboyancy found in some of the thematically linked song titles of the full-length releases. There isn't much to this opening song beyond an overly repetitive chorus interspersed with a short guitar solo, but that's good enough for me.
Next is the finest offering of the release and the most popular song of the band's early period, 'Day the Earth Caught Fire,' which features the greatest influence of Japanese rock on the vocal style that would ever be seen in Balzac, and drifts in and out of covering the Misfits' classic 'Where Eagles Dare,' specifically Glenn Danzig's "better think about it baby" refrain. It's a fun song, if a little too indebted to the Misfits style, and this version even features what may be a keyboard piercing the atmosphere that works quite well.
'Fiendish Ghouls' is another song taken from 'The Last Men on Earth' album, but it's by far the less impressive of the two, attempting a heavier style that ultimately fails and being spoiled by too great a reliance on Misfits-style "woah-oah-oahs." 'Eerie Night' is similarly uninspired but makes for a nice, downbeat ending with minimal guitars and an ominous drum before the intro riff returns, and on the whole this is a fun, simple and consistent early release that beats the rest of the early Balzac catalogue by a fair way. I still have no idea what the title thing is all about.
1. Atom-Age Vampire in 308
2. Day the Earth Caught Fire
3. Fiendish Ghouls
4. Eerie Night
Balzac
***
Written on 27.02.08
I was thankful to hear Balzac evolving from terrible Misfits copycats to fairly average, if uninspired horror punk band with their second full-length release, but fortunately they would improve in the end. The cleaner production sound brings out the guitars more fully than before, and the new alternation between two vocalists adds a nice dynamic element, but most impressive of all is how the Misfits influence has now been relegated to secondary position behind a desire to compete with modern punk bands.
There's a greater energy here than was present on the debut, especially in faster songs like 'The Human Blood,' and the slightly slower songs such as 'Black Sunday III' are no longer spoiled by whining vocals (not until the next album, anyway). Although the band isn't blessed with many creative ideas of its own beyond the skeleton costumes and other gimmicks that don't translate to audio form, there are some nice touches here, particularly in the beginning of what would ultimately become a suite of oddness with the first part of 'Monster,' a strange song led by carnival-style guitar, upbeat bass and non-descript, screaming vocals that leaves me hopeful that this band at least has something original to offer fans at a live show before they move on to more well-received Misfits covers.
1. Psyche Dungeon When the Fiendish Ghouls Night
2. Wall
3. The Human Blood
4. Legacy
5. Black Sunday III
6. Deep
7. Non Resistance Isolation from No. 13 (Occulta Mix)
8. Space Vampire in Silent Noise
9. Violent Paradise
10. Monster I
11. Taste of Fear
Balzac
**
Written on 27.02.08
Balzac's third album is disappointing for two major reasons: firstly, the band opts for an irritating, overly happy direction confined to this particular album that makes it less effective as a horror punk release, and secondly because there's not a lot to it. Seriously, eight songs and only twenty-three minutes for a full-length release? That's just plain lazy.
The good news is that Balzac is continuing to move its sound forwards, even when the direction doesn't end up working that well, and as well as being their overly jovial album, this is also their most industrial, thanks to the distorted riffs of opener 'Atomic-Age' and particularly 'Legacy II' with its programmed techno drums and overall headache-inducing fuzz. This will likely make the album more accessible to the Japanese mainstream, as will Hirosuke Nishiyama's piercing singing, but anyone who approaches this band as the self-proclaimed "Japanese Misfits" (a term even endorsed by the Misfits themselves, who inexplicably selected Balzac as their opening act at one point) would be best investigating elsewhere.
The band still plays fast and energetic punk, but in an even lighter and more melodic manner than AFI around this period, the comparison coming to a head in track three, and the final song 'The Bleeding Light' gives a hint that Balzac have heard, enjoyed and studied the new album released by the Misfits themselves around this point, implying an even greater similarity in the future.
1. Atomic-Age
2. Nowhere # 13
3. Sad Nos. 99
4. Legacy II
5. Tomorrow
6. The Slaughter House
7. Destruction Another Wall
8. The Bleeding Light
Balzac
***
Written on 27.02.08
Balzac's unpronounceable fourth album is a satisfyingly more bad-ass affair than their previous works, with most songs taking on a heavier and more aggressive, almost hardcore punk tone that's no longer so reminiscent of the Misfits, or is at least confined to the other band's 'Earth A.D.' period, without being as good. There are still some minor examples of studio trickery such as film samples and a strange lapse into a piano rendition of what sounds like Xavier Cugat's 'Brazil' at the conclusion of the title track, but for the most part this is straight-up punk rock with less focus on gimmicks and more on the intensity of the performance. Unfortunately, the material itself doesn't really hold up to scrutiny.
This isn't a bad album, but it's distinctly average and it can't be a good thing when the major track to stand out, 'Day the Earth Caught Fire,' is a re-make of earlier material. 'Maybe the Future' will satisfy those who enjoyed the previous album's lighter and more melodic style, while the rest even approaches the level of Rancid and other contemporary punk acts based in the classic style, but ultimately this fails to make a mark and if anything, only serves to prove that Balzac without the make-up and costumes is really nothing to get excited about.
1. While I Await My Second Death
2. Day the Earth Caught Fire
3. Unvarnished Facts
4. Zennou-Naru Musuu-No Me Ha Shi Wo Yubi Sasu
5. Hands of 9 Evils
6. Blood Bath = Blood Mind
7. Teenage Vampire 49
8. The End of the Century
9. To Kill Your Master
10. Break F**kin' Yourself
11. Into the Light of the 13 Dark Night
12. Maybe the Future
Balzac
**
Written on 27.02.08
Just when I thought Balzac's career may be on the rise as a serious punk outfit, they release the disappointing 'Terrifying! Art of Dying,' coupled up with their debut album as an excuse to avoid writing much new material. While the first album has an excuse to be lacklustre due to the band's age at that point, 'Terrifying!' comes in the wake of several experimental releases that saw Balzac trying various punk styles and evidently failing to come up with any definitive conclusions. After two wasted minutes of an introduction, 'Out of the Blue' comes out of the blue with a classic punk guitar sound and the resurgence of Misfits-style backing vocals to reveal a Balzac more in touch with its disappointing roots, having abandoned the harder direction altogether.
There are a couple of obvious attempts to prove that the band's hardcore style remains intact, and these invariably make for the least satisfying parts of the album. Track three features a brash and irritating drum sound similar to the one Lars Ulrich used on Metallica's 'St. Anger,' in the delusion that making the drums sound like bins somehow equates to heaviness, and the guitars correspondingly squeal out of tune for similar reasons. Most of these songs end up being too long and running out of steam before their five minutes are up, especially the latter two, and by contrast the only song that really succeeds is the forty-four-second fourth track appropriately titled 'In Your Face,' which is the only one to really demonstrate any true punk energy.
Tagging the debut album onto the end was an odd move, presumably to make that release more readily available to new fans, but at least it doesn't upstage the new material by being significantly better and hinting that the band is in a state of decline. It has more or less always been this shoddy.
1. Thirteen
2. Out Of The Blue
3. Soko-De Miteita Yami-No Mukou-No Subete-Wo
4. In Your Face
5. The Silence of Crows
6. A Day in the Darkness
7. Vanishes in Oblivion / Out of the Blue (Reprise)
Balzac
Beyond the Darkness
***
Written on 27.02.08
Despite the availability of all of the obscure Misfits albums from the late seventies and early eighties today, their 'Collection' and 'Collection II' releases remain the most popular for the more comprehensive overview they provide of the band, and also for containing proportionally more material. It makes sense then, that Japanese Misfits imitators Balzac would eventually release their own collection, 2003's 'Beyond the Darkness,' and at sixty minutes in length it's almost three times the length of some of their shorter albums, while also allowing for some of the less mediocre material to be weeded out of the truly awful stuff, presumably in the opinion of the Misfits' own Jerry Only, who supervised as executive producer.
As the most generous and comprehensive Balzac release yet, this is the only one up this point that I would recommend to anyone interested in the band's sound, as although they're never really all that good, the varied styles present here as they tackle horror punk from more melodic and aggressive vantage points can make for an interesting listen if you're a fan of the genre, beyond the silly costumes. Material from the fourth album such as 'Into the Light of the 13 Dark Night' is comparably angry to the Misfits' later period, 'Nowhere #13' and other material from '13 Stairway' is a little excruciatingly upbeat but still fun (unlike 'Tomorrow' which is just piercing), and there's even greater diversity from the likes of the electronically-influenced 'Yami-No Mukuo-No Subete-Wo' that sounded odd on the original album, but works better as the exception here.
Track eight is too long and track nine is too short, and overall the main difference between this collected release and the Misfits collections is that the material that made it onto the Misfits collection was all excellent, while the material that didn't make it was similarly excellent. Here, the best is only quite good and some is fairly poor, but at least most of the really terrible works were kept on the cutting room floor. Viewed as a standard album rather than a best-of, it's bound to be more satisfying.
1. Thirteen
2. Day The Earth Caught Fire
3. Wall
4. Into The Light Of The 13 Dark Night
5. Black Light Shines In '99
6. Nowhere # 13
7. Yami-No Mukou-No Subete-Wo
8. Out Of The Blue II
9. In Your Face
10. The Silence Of Crows
11. Tomorrow
12. Vanishes In Oblivion
13. The End Of Century
14. Monster II
15. Beware Of Darkness
16. Violent Paradise
17. Bleeding Light
18. Diabolos
19. 13 Ghosts
20. Day The Earth Caught Fire
Balzac
Came Out of the Grave
****
Written on 27.02.08
My first reaction on hearing 'Came Out of the Grave' was an enormously positive one: Balzac have somehow become good! After a turbulent but mostly weak string of albums ranging from Misfits rip-off to pop punk embarrassment, the band has finally found its sound on this seventh full-length release - or at least, returned to the sound that showed so much promise back in the fourth album but was somehow abandoned since.
This is catchy, heavy and aggressive punk rock delivered in an energetic and compelling performance, from Atsushi Nakagawa's furious guitars to Hirosuke Nishiyama's screaming yells, and even the more upbeat songs like 'Season of the Dead,' 'Inside My Eyes' and 'Beyond Evil 308' avoid being annoying in any way, the latter featuring a guiltily enjoyable lead guitar melody that could easily provide the feel-good intro theme for an American teen drama series. The heavy side of the album occasionally goes a little too far into hardcore territory, though this isn't strictly a problem, while I was pleasantly surprised that the title track opted to follow a classic heavy metal style in addition to punk, complete with a melodic guitar solo finale.
The long songs feel justified for the first and last time here on what remains Balzac's finest offering, and it's nice to see their experimental edge continuing in the light electronic touches of 'I'm Losing You' without taking over as they have in the past. 'I Know' is a melodic finale that works so well because it's the exception this time round, rather than the rule, and just for old time's sake there's the typical Misfits rip-off song in the form of 'Art of Dying' which might as well be a cover of 'Hatebreeders.' The quality of this album is so high that for once this doesn't irritate me, and it seems there may be a little more to Balzac than a Misfits rip-off artist after all. Not a great deal more, but a little bit that makes this worth horror punk fans checking out.
1. The Grave - Dreizehn
2. Zetsubou No Ano Basyo E
3. Season of the Dead
4. Inside My Eyes
5. Shi Wo Yubi Sasu
6. The Pain is All Around
7. Came Out of the Grave
8. Beyond Evil 308
9. Art of Dying
10. The World Without End / The Pain is Not Around (Reprise)
11. I'm Losing You
12. Beware of Darkness (2004 version)
13. I Know
Balzac
****
Written on 27.02.08
I was only able to come by Balzac's eighth album 'Dark-Ism' in conjunction with its predecessor in this collected volume, and was disappointed to see just how easily the two fit onto one CD; as 'Came Out of the Grave' was surprisingly substantial for a Balzac release, that unfortunately means that 'Dark-Ism' is less than thirty minutes in length, the first signal that the band has once again slipped into a state of relative decline.
It's not all bad though, and essentially the only problem with this album is one of unimaginative consistency that sees most songs sounding the same. The songs all feel long-winded again after the success of the previous album, which forms the first fourteen tracks here and is the much better more-than-half of the release, and 'Dark-Ism' would have been improved by opting for a greater number of shorter songs rather than these occasionally lengthy, dull affairs. 'D.A.R.K.' sees the band complete its transition to full-on hardcore punk, with vocals screamed against a fairly melodic backdrop, and there's an oddly mechanical atmosphere surrounding the whole thing, culminating in the electronically-tinged second part of 'Beyond Evil 308,' another of the band's occasionally indecipherable cross-album suites that would still go straight over my head even if I spoke Japanese.
'Gyakusatsu-No-Mukougawa' is an old-school-sounding punk track which is quite fun, and at least a respite from all the aggression that can get a bit too much, and 'I Can't Stand It Anymore' at least includes some nice lead guitars, but on the whole this second album is the less satisfying of the two. By contrast, 'Came Out of the Grave' is as close as the band has come to recording a magnum opus; not particularly enthralling, but a decent enough punk album that provides solutions to many of the issues raised in the second album, which the band was for some reason unable to apply further down the timeline.
1. The Grave - Dreizehn
2. Zetsubou-No-Ano-Basyo-E
3. Season of the Dead
4. Inside My Eyes
5. Shi-Wo-Yubi-Sasu
6. The Pain is All Around
7. Came Out of the Grave
8. Beyond Evil 308
9. Art of Dying
10. The World Without End / The Pain is Not Around (Reprise)
11. I'm Losing You
12. Beware Of Darkness (2004 version)
13. I Know
14. Gimme Some Truth
15. Beyond Evil 308, Pt. 1
16. D.A.R.K.
17. Blood Inside '68
18. Beyond Evil 308, Pt. 2
19. Gyakusatsu-No-Mukougawa
20. XXXxxx
21. I Can't Stand It Anymore
22. Yami-No-Hikari-E
Balzac
***
Written on 27.02.08
The oddly-named 'Deep Blue: Chaos from Darkism II' (nevertheless, still one of the Japanese band's more decipherable titles) is another solid horror punk release from Balzac, but suffers the same problem of repetition that affected its predecessor 'Dark-Ism.' At sixty minutes in length it's by far the most generous release the band has put out so far, over twice the length of its immediate predecessor, and even including a couple of re-recordings of earlier material in the form of 'D.A.R.K.' and 'XXXxxx,' it's a fairly satisfying album on the whole - just not one to get too excited about listening to all in one sitting.
The more standard fare like 'Godless,' 'Horrorock' and 'Deep Blue' is starting to get a little old now despite being highly enjoyable, and is still better than many Misfits imitators like AFI, but it's the tracks that attempt something more distinctive that prove the most interesting, whether they succeed or (more consistently) fail. 'The Gaze' is heavier with a riff borrowed from the world of thrash metal, the customary intro is stranger than ever, and '(#2)' is just plain odd. 'Japanese Chaos' is really short, fast and aggressive as is the tendency for Balzac's shorter offerings, and by contrast, songs towards the end such as '(#1)' and 'I Can't Stand It Anymore' are slower and softer, but only comparatively speaking; this never deviates from its core punk sound.
The best song here is 'The Scare,' which stands as one of the best songs Balzac has recorded and a defining example of their horror punk style, but the majority of the album fails to stand out in the same way. Even their cover of David Bowie's classic 'Ziggy Stardust' is disappointingly similar to the original in the inferior way that would be expected from a punk band, Hirosuke Nishiyama's vocals sounding rather strange and distracting and not really satisfying. You have to wonder why they covered this song when they weren't planning on bringing anything new to it, or even living up to its spirit, but I suppose a punk cover would have been too obvious; this band has always been about keeping fans guessing, mostly through bizarre song titles, and I wouldn't expect anything so predictable of them.
1. I Bring Death and Confrontation
2. Godless
3. The Scare
4. In Those Days
5. D.A.R.K.
6. Horrorock
7. Ziggy Stardust
8. The Gaze
9. (#2)
10. Deep Blue
11. Japanese Chaos
12. XXXxxx
13. (#1)
14. Japanese Trash
15. I Can't Stand It Anymore
16. I'm Alone
Banco del mutuo soccorso
***
Written on 12.02.08
Classic Italian progressive band Banco del mutuo soccorso released an esteemed trilogy of sorts in the early seventies, the only overarching theme being that all followed a fairly similar style of classically-influenced progressive rock, and that they were the band's first three full-length releases. The self-titled debut is possibly the weakest of the three, and as I can't really think of an appropriate analogy off the top of my head, you can imagine for yourself the first part of a film trilogy that got better and more sophisticated with the second film, before returning to the same level of confused quite-good mediocrity with the finale ('Star Wars' doesn't count, because 'Return of the Jedi' was pretty rubbish, and I didn't have the patience to sit through 'Lord of the Rings' so I wouldn't know about that).
The key players here are the Nocenzi brothers Gianni and Vittorio, who play a variety of keyboard-style instruments between them to vary between prog rock in the classic symphonic style, similar to Genesis or Yes, and chamber music in the classic classical style, similar to the olden days. It's a talented and interesting mix, and the concept only becomes strained when the respective organ, keyboard and piano solo sections, among others, interfere with the overall structure of a song, as happens most significantly in 'Metamorfosi,' while the grand finale 'Il Giardino Del Mago' is more or less a complete mess of disjointed ideas that are good in their own right, but don't make for a strong eighteen-minute song to hold the listener's attention.
Francesco Di Giacomo's voice is that of an opera singer, which works very well in more classically-styled songs like 'R.I.P.', clearly the strongest material here by a long way, but is less successful in the proggier offerings, where he tends to take a back seat until returning at the end. This is very original and supremely talented music, but it lacks restraint and a sense of logical structure that prevents it from really impressing, not to mention that the whole sound is so explicitly rooted in the early 1970s for that specific audience's (presumed) tastes. The singing is great, and the keyboards excellent when they're used for a sensible purpose, but any album that opens with a clarinet of all things could never go on to become a true classic.
1. In Volo
2. R.I.P. (Requiescant In Pace)
3. Passaggio
4. Metamorfosi
5. Il Giardino Del Mago
...a) Passo Dopo Passo
...b) Chi Ride E Chi Geme
...c) Coi Capelli Sciolti Al Vento
...d) Compenetrazione
6. Traccia
Banco del mutuo soccorso
Darwin!
****
Written on 12.02.08
The emphatically titled 'Darwin!' is apparently a concept album, one I'm assuming is to do with Charles Darwin rather than one of his lesser-known brethren, but one I'd have to learn Italian to properly understand. Musically, this is a vast improvement over the band's debut, more or less perfecting their synthesis of classical chamber music and early prog rock without really favouring either one too greatly over the other, but at the same time it may be of less interest to classic prog fans for its mostly instrumental nature. Francesco Di Giacomo hardly gets a look-in on many of the songs, led once again by the brothers Nocenzi.
Opener 'L'Evoluzione' is the longest and strongest song here, beginning in a manner reminiscent of Pink Floyd's (later) classic 'Shine On You Crazy Diamond' with a grand prog overture, before the emotive opera singing comes in and the song moves into some impressive guitar riffs. There's a central section of fast, upbeat prog that Gentle Giant fans should enjoy and a piano finale with wider reaching potential, and though it still lacks an overall sense of order and structure, it's one of the finest long songs they would ever produce.
The album inevitably goes downhill to some extent hereafter but lacks any real weak links, 'La Conquista Della Posizione Eretta' remaining dynamic with its guitar and keyboard duets and the third track 'Danza Dei Grandi Rettili' falling more in line with traditional prog to a less ambitious but more palatable effect. 'Cento Mani E Cento Occhi' begins in complete contrast with an over-the-top fanfare effect leading to some screaming synth, but is slightly made up for with a nice Genesis-style vocal movement later on, and the oddly-titled '750,000 Anni Fa ... L'Amore?' resists deviating too far from its piano ballad core despite shoehorning in an irrelevant and distracting organ section, before that instrument leads the way in the jam of track six that's not really to my taste, but isn't necessarily a bad example of the style.
'Darwin!' would be re-released many years later in a slightly different form, and seems to be the band's most acclaimed and ambitious work, meaning I shouldn't really explore any further into the gaping well that's only going to lead to disappointment. But that's never stopped me before.
1. L'Evoluzione
2. La Conquista Della Posizione Eretta
3. Danza Dei Grandi Rettili
4. Cento Mani E Cento Occhi
5. 750,000 Anni Fa ... L'Amore?
6. Miserere Alla Storia
7. Ed Ora Io Domando Tempo Al Tempo Ed Egli Mi Risponde ... Non Ne Ho!
Bannerwar
Centuries of Heathen Might
***
Written on 12.02.08
Bannerwar's traditional black metal strives for an epic sound by incorporating acoustic folk touches of their native Greece, and the gimmick works to some extent. With a minimalist acoustic section bisecting each of these dully-roaring performances, the album is raised significantly above the mildly irritating and generic sound it would otherwise be condemned to, following the D.I.Y. traditions of black metal either by budgetary necessity or choice, and ending up as one of the most treble-heavy and fuzzy releases I've heard outside of demos.
The low sound quality is the key failing of this album, but it's something that can be looked past without much effort. It's widely considered that black metal performed in the traditional style can benefit from the harsh, tombic production sound pioneered by bands like Bathory and embraced by the second wave, but while Behemoth's 'Pandemonic Incantations' suffers from too high a budget, this album could really have done with a more concentrated effort to better achieve the epic sound it often strives for, and to elevate most of it above mere tinny feedback. Even listening to this album on an expensive set of speakers, it would still sound like the noise pollution from someone else's headphones, and as the band list doesn't include a drummer I presume it's a drum machine being used; either way, you can hardly hear it for cymbals.
So while the majorityof the album is rendered uninteresting at worst, and merely unoriginal at best, there are still enough nice touches to make it a worthwhile listen for black metal fans, if only for the pleasant acoustic parts. Opener 'The Return of the Twelve Gods' has a distinct folk edge that passes from its acoustic introduction into Erevos' lead guitar once the song hits its stride, and Arkhon performs the most enjoyable sing-song black metal scream outside of Viking metal, backed up in the chorus by some similarly Viking singing. This style is unfortunately dropped in favour of a more typical black metal direction for the majority of the album until the somewhat epic finale 'White Mountains' and cover of Graveland's 'Ancient Blood,' but the acoustic sections permeate each song in a slightly different manner such as the spoken word in 'Symbols of Solar Might' and 'Warspirit,' the latter of which even allows Vorvoros' bass to become audible, something that's completely impossible elsewhere when the other instruments are all buried in fuzz. Vorvoros also gets to introduce the fun 'Pagan Bane' with a bassline that sounds lifted straight from Jeff Wayne's 'The War of the Worlds,' and acting as the relief in this shorter, sharper and faster nod to the black metal old-school.
I've always wondered whether the band name was supposed to be a sort of a black metal joke version of Manowar, but they don't strike me as the joking type.
1. The Return of the Twelve Gods
2. Symbols of Solar Might
3. Warspirit
4. Unchaining the Wolf
5. Pagan Bane
6. White Mountains
7. Ancient Blood (Graveland cover)
Barren Cross
Atomic Arena
***
Written on 18.02.08
Barren Cross were one of the more prominent Christian metal bands of the eighties, in a futile attempt to provide a strong competing force to the ever more nefarious black metal bands emerging from Scandinavia at the time, as well as something for right-wing Christian parents to jump at the opportunity to buy in the hope that their impressionable children's souls will be spared. Especially if they were considering something dastardly like abortion, dealt with here in track two before the album returns to the band's usual praise of the Almighty.
It would be unfair to jump on the Christian theme if the band wasn't so clearly all about flouting it, and to be honest it's pretty much the only reason anyone will remember them today. This album is enjoyable for fans of eighties metal, based in the Judas Priest style with impressive singing from Mike Lee that's been compared to Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson but really sounds more like Queensrÿche's Geoff Tate, and despite the irritating and partially unavoidable glam influence that affected most American metal bands of the time, it features some great heavy metal amidst the mediocrity and the downright rubbish of the compulsory power ballad 'Heaven or Nothing.'
The old-style production values rob this album of some of its power which is a shame, but all the same it keeps it authentically and nostalgically eighties, and songs such as the hotly political 'Killers of the Unborn' and 'Dead Lock' rival Judas Priest's heavy material of that period, while 'Cultic Regimes' goes some way towards being considered thrash in its full-pelt riffs and screaming vocal performance. Guitarist Ray Parris hasn't left any kind of legacy, but he's good enough at his job here and serves up some reasonable solos that are sadly hidden by the production, while Steve Whitaker's drums are merely competent, especially considering the steady pace of songs like 'Terrorist Child' and 'King of Kings.'
Only a couple go in for something creative and different, Jim LaVerde smartening up 'In the Eye of the Fire' with some bass work and the finale 'Living Dead' sounding more consciously epic with a melodic central section, but overall this is just another eighties metal album that will please some people and annoy purists. And that album cover's really bad.
1. Imaginary Music
2. Killers of the Unborn
3. In the Eye of the Fire
4. Terrorist Child
5. Close to the Edge
6. Dead Lock
7. Cultic Regimes
8. Heaven or Nothing
9. King of Kings
10. Living Dead
Barren Cross
State of Control
****
Written on 18.02.08
The penultimate album from Barren Cross, and the final one before their first hiatus, 'State of Control' is an improvement over its predecessor but still falls victim to some of the horrible trends of eighties heavy metal. Fortunately, for every disappointing and generic power ballad such as 'Cryin' Over You' and the piano finale 'Escape the Night,' there are at least two excellent metal performances keeping up the harder edge, and the band's sound has clearly developed over the course of a single year to produce a tighter outfit overall, and tight outfits were a heavy metal staple too.
Mike Lee's Bruce Dickinsonesque singing predicts the changing trend of the Iron Maiden singer by modulating his high wails to a lower and more traditional hard rock style in the verses before letting rip in the choruses, and this adds greater variety to the songs, something that's sadly countered by the annoying tendency towards high unison singing that smacks of glam metal. The lyrical themes are less exclusively religious this time round, but still possess a strong social conscience in dealing with alcoholism and violence among other issues, and it's a lot easier to take this album seriously now that the band isn't pushing its Christian image to the fore.
As always there are some filler tracks that don't really make the grade, but only 'Out of Time' and 'Love At Full Volume' really feel like out-of-place glam metal pieces, and the rest usually have a lot more to offer. Even the opening title song that was released as a single, and would thus be expected to follow a simple path, features an interesting melodic break and change of verse style half-way through that focuses on Jim LaVerde's bass work, while 'The Stage of Intensity' moves from an acoustic introduction to a thrashing body.
The problem with this new tendency towards elaborate structure is that some songs now feel significantly overlong, especially the seven-minute 'Two Thousand Years' that's led by the same Maidenesque, galloping rhythm as 'Inner War' but becomes very repetitive towards the end, but this album's finer songwriting skills and more competent lyrical focus could have signalled greater things from this band in the future. Assuming they didn't follow the trend of all other American bands and strip down to a grunge sound in 1991.
1. State of Control
2. Out of Time
3. Cryin' Over You
4. A Face in the Dark
5. The Stage of Intensity
6. Hard Lies
7. Inner War
8. Love At Full Volume
9. Bigotry Man (Who Are You)
10. Two Thousand Years
11. Escape the Night
Syd Barrett
Barrett
***
Written on 12.02.08
Slightly mad ex-Pink Floyd frontman Syd Barrett has left a strong legacy on generations of musicians that might be hard to understand when first confronted with his whimsical ballads of gnomes, scarecrows and mice named Gerald, but there's a great poetic simplicity in his minimalist ditties that was captured excellently (so I hear) on his post-Floyd debut 'The Madcap Laughs,' and slightly less well on this immediate successor before he gave up songwriting altogether, perhaps only for the satisfaction of confounding and upsetting the general public. He seemed like quite a fun man.
Many of Barrett's songs are so simple and throwaway that it's occasionally a little unnerving and requires a reality check to confirm this is the proclaimed genius, and while it's obvious that his style was influential, and some of his works are genius, a lot of it is just rubbish, but enjoyable rubbish. 'Effervescing Elephant,' for instance, is a light-hearted tale about animal characters that sounds like a children's song, but that isn't patronising as I probably would have liked it as a child. The rest of the album varies in intensity from the manic performance of 'Wolfpack,' reminiscent of the first Pink Floyd album, to more downbeat and atmospheric pieces like 'Dominoes,' and thankfully never venturing into the world of "hilarious" joke music, even if Barrett is prone to self-parody on occasion, whether intentional or not.
This seems to be a slightly less personal album than its predecessor, partly due to the prominence of the backing musicians, including Pink Floyd's Richard Wright on keyboards and occasionally distracting organ, and David Gilmour on guitar and drums. The piano helps 'Love Song,' and there's a pleasant guitar solo in 'Gigolo Aunt,' but on the whole it gets a little distracting when Barrett fades into the background at the end of 'Dominoes' and in parts of the funkier 'Rats,' making the more minimalist pieces the most entertaining, even if some of them, like 'Maisie,' aren't particularly good.
This album sounds more optimistic and less troubled than other works I've heard from Barrett, and at times he seems downright stable, particularly in the calm 'Wined and Dined' and 'Waving My Arms in the Air,' the latter of which is about as stereotypically Barrett as you can get. The opener 'Baby Lemonade' even proves that he could have had a successful pop career if he'd been interested in that sort of thing, but the rest slide a little too far into obscurity for the same mainstream appeal. This is a nice album, but not Barrett's best work.
1. Baby Lemonade
2. Love Song
3. Dominoes
4. It Is Obvious
5. Rats
6. Maisie
7. Gigolo Aunt
8. Waving My Arms in the Air
9. I Never Lied to You
10. Wined and Dined
11. Wolfpack
12. Effervescing Elephant
Syd Barrett
Opel
***
Written on 12.02.08
Although Syd Barrett only recorded two official albums, both in 1970, his tendency towards improvisation in the studio, and the numerous alternate takes produced due to his tendency to change what he was playing every time (much to the chagrin of his collaborators like David Gilmour, who preferred to approach experimental music from a conservative vantage point), have allowed record companies to release a string of compilations over the decades purporting to fill the gap left by Barrett's departure from the music scene. Of all of these, 1989's 'Opel' is the most interesting and the closest thing to a comprehensive lost third album that Barrett fans can hope for.
About half of the material consists of original pieces not present on the two 1970 albums, some of which are satisfyingly recorded in a single, slightly puzzled take complete with brief introduction from the singer-songwriter proving just how clearly he's making things up on the spot, while the rest are alternate versions of Barrett's comparatively well-known songs. While this inevitably makes for a weaker and less concise release than the two earlier albums, it's also a very nice addition to a casual Syd Barrett collection that allows collectors to avoid the trouble of tracking anything else down, as songs like 'Opel' are the only extra Barrett material you'll ever need.
It's refreshing that most of these songs fall back on Barrett's singing and acoustic guitar exclusively, after the slightly diluted band flavour of his second album, and this is one of those rare releases where the songs that are completely rubbish or just experimental to a fault ('Word Song' features stream-of-consciousness lyrics consisting of single, usually unconnected words) end up being as entertaining and valid as the stronger material like the darkly poetic 'Opel' and the refreshing 'Lanky (Part 1),' a psychedelic instrumental entirely in the style of 'Interstellar Overdrive' for people who've heard that other song a little too much and require something slightly different, which I'm guessing is most people who own this album in the first place.
This is an entertaining album, but doesn't hold together as well as the official albums managed to, largely thanks to the deliberation of Gilmour and the other studio personnel who must have struggled to make a coherent record from Barrett's sessions, and at times it's almost disappointingly amateur, as if Barrett doesn't really care. The guitar work certainly isn't anything impressive, even in the celebrated title track which is a little messy at times, especially towards the beginning (god forbid he'd just make it up as he went along), and 'Clowns and Jugglers' strikes me as more of a self-parody of his whimsy than anything. Anyone who enjoyed Barrett's two proper albums will probably enjoy this too, even if the overlap is slightly disappointing, but newcomers would be best off avoiding the messy post-1970 discography altogether and heading right back to the start where the important stuff lies.
1. Opel
2. Clowns and Jugglers
3. Rats
4. Golden Hair
5. Dolly Rocker
6. Word Song
7. Wined and Dined
8. Swan Lee (Silas Lang)
9. Birdie Hop
10. Let's Split
11. Lanky (Part 1)
12. Wouldn't You Miss Me? (Dark Globe)
13. Milky Way
14. Golden Hair (Instrumental version)
Bathory
Bathory
****
Written on 15.07.07
Bathory’s early albums are revered as landmarks of the dark side of metal, paving the way for the Scandinavian black metal explosion and, later, mellowing out and adding some folk touches to pioneer so-called ‘Viking metal.’ The first three albums all followed a very similar style before Quorthon’s artistic vision expanded to epic frontiers, preferring the claustrophobic atmosphere of a dank and echoing tomb. Although this isn’t black metal in the modern sense of the term, owing far more to the grittier side of British heavy metal such as Motörhead and particularly the Satanic band Venom (though the late Quorthon denied having heard them previously), the dingy production, snarling voice and thunderous drums create a distinctly blackened and hopeless atmosphere that encourages intrigue and morbid fascination to overshadow the relatively primitive musicianship.
The original title for this release was to be the exuberant ‘Pentagrammaton,’ until several people with either dyslexia or a short attention span mis-read it as ‘Pentagon.’ Bathory’s name is taken from the Hungarian Countess Elizabeth Bathory, also a popular subject in the lyrics of Cradle of Filth, who drank the blood of around seven hundred virgins over the course of a few years in order to remain eternally youthful. The man behind the band is the late Quorthon, whose real name is the subject of some debate even on his tombstone, and for these early releases a drummer and bass player form part of the band, in the form of Stefan Larsson and Rickard Bergman here, in the years before Quorthon took full control of the performances himself.
He isn’t the greatest guitarist in the world by any means, occasionally seemingly recycling Motörhead riffs and playing simplistic guitar solos, and his snarling vocals aren’t the most riveting, but his skill lies in the enthusiasm and genuine unsettling atmosphere of evil that’s created. Bathory’s self-titled debut set the competitively low standard that many modern bands struggle to attain by downgrading their accidentally-hi-tech equipment or trying to forget how to play. None of the songs on ‘Bathory’ are complex beyond a mere speed change, and none get anywhere near the four minute mark, relying on speed and violent aggression, with a little focus on catchiness, where Quorthon’s later compositions favoured a more thoughtful pace and eloquent tone. If Bathory’s discography does indeed show a process of maturity, at least until the mid-nineties when things went into a bit of a mid-life crisis, 1984’s ‘Bathory’ is without a doubt the most juvenile, but far more convincing than any of the more recent shouty, angsty bands that dominate the kids’ rock charts.
1. Storm of Damnation
2. Hades
3. Reaper
4. Necromansy
5. Sacrifice
6. In Conspiracy With Satan
7. Armageddon
8. Raise the Dead
9. War
10. Outro
The introductory track, like all Bathory intros to come, is far too long-winded, but perhaps necessary for ‘method listeners,’ if such a thing exists (I’m pretty sure it does, as I’ve been one on occasion) to allow their trivial and quite happy life to slip away and be replaced with a more solemn and depressing demeanour, to prepare them for the twenty five or so minutes that follows. The sound of a slowed-down Big Ben is mixed with muffled wind sound effects and what may or may not be voices , or just more wind. It’s all quite unsettling and understated, setting a more authentically creepy mood than some of the other kitsch horror film inspired songs I’ve written about recently. The first real song scratches its way into existence as the sound effects fade out, and the style soon becomes standard fare: a roaring guitar accompanied by blasting drums, both sounding distant and muffled at the far end of the crypt, while Quorthon snarls and rasps in-between playing riffs. The style is very reminiscent of Venom’s archetypal song ‘Black Metal,’ released a few years earlier, but given a significant kick and replacing the stupid rock-n-roll lyrics with a descriptive scene-setting of Hades. There’s not enough in this song to really make it stand out with the exception that it comes first, but it defines Bathory’s early sound.
‘The Reaper’ returns to perhaps my favourite subject matter in the whole of heavy metal, that of the inimitable Grim Reaper. The lyrics, written in the first person, don’t do a disservice to Death, and one of the most incredibly cool moments of the album comes when Quorthon yells ‘I’m coming to take you!’ and breaks into a guitar solo. Nice! The vocals are more legible this time than in the last song, and oddly the vocals and guitars both sound a lot like Dave Mustaine of American thrash band Megadeth, even though their first album wouldn’t be released for another year. Eerie. ‘Necromansy’ manages to be the most satisfying song thus far, taking a slightly slower pace that allows for more emphasis on heavy riffs and an admittedly catchy drum beat. Quorthon’s vocals sound oddly further back in the mix here, which actually sound pretty good, though this does mean that the band has to rely on a crashing of cymbals to add emphasis in the chorus, which comes out sounding rather less than excellent in the tinny production. The guitar solo sounds more fitting on this one, playing alongside the other instruments rather than doing its own thing, and the song benefits from being a little longer than average in this regard.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for ‘Sacrifice,’ which feels drawn out and repetitive in the middle of the album, sounding a lot like the first song and even more reminiscent of Venom’s ‘Black Metal’ than that was. ‘In Conspiracy With Satan,’ despite the great title, also suffers from being a little uninteresting after time, and the vocal growls are almost impossible to discern this time. As I said earlier, the album doesn’t try to impress with its technical ability, but this middle section disappoints me by being too predictable and samey, lacking the driving enthusiasm of the faster songs and the enjoyable pace of the ever-so-slightly-slower ones. The remainder of the album is a lot more rewarding and even a little varied, with the immortal ‘Armageddon’ epitomising Bathory’s aggression and seeming to beckon an apocalypse with the impressive sonic scape at the end, filled with distant wailing guitars. The bass even gets a miniature solo spot, which is always nice to hear especially as it’s relegated to covering Quorthon’s back the rest of the time, and although the main guitar riff could easily be found on a Motörhead album, it works perfectly. The only issue is that the relentless pounding of the drums has significantly lost its impact at this point in the album, meaning that this song would work better standing alone or separated from similar-sounding pieces on a compilation, which is how I first came across it spliced between slower Bathory pieces on the excellent posthumous collection ‘In Memory of Quorthon.’
My favourite song on the album is the comparatively epic ‘Raise the Dead,’ returning to the tolls of Big Ben (though not an exact sample as that would make it at least fifteen o’clock due to the number of chimes), and fading into a quiet heartbeat. This is a far cry from Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side of the Moon,’ where the heartbeat builds anticipation of a pleasant, dreamy guitar intro coming along any second now, and more along the lines of hearing footsteps approach your room in an empty house. When the song starts, it’s clear that things have mellowed out slightly, even more than ‘Necromansy,’ and it’s clear that the emphasis is going to be on enjoyment more than violence as Quorthon yells ‘dust to dust’ before the verse begins. Everything about this song is early Bathory at its best, slowing down a little to create an even better atmosphere and to allow the vocals to be understood and the guitar solo really enjoyed. After a gong crash ends the song abruptly, the downbeat finale ‘War’ brings things right back to speed, abandoning the progression of the previous song in favour of Quorthon’s fast comfort zone, and why not? The guitar makes some cool mistakes that I’m glad weren’t rectified in the studio, and the song is pretty simple, just yelling about war. The track-list boasts an ‘Outro’ at track ten which is in many ways the adverse of the introduction, doing the same thing but only lasting for twenty seconds.
Bathory’s debut is far from the most impressive example of Quorthon’s artistry, but it made a significant impact on its 1984 release. At only twenty-seven minutes it should seem far too short, but somehow doesn’t, and even if this was only the first side of an LP I think a significant break would be called for before playing the reverse. This raw, dirty and wicked style, which is arguably called black metal, would be continued over the next two albums and perfected in ‘Under the Sign of the Black Mark,’ balancing the aggression and sheer catchiness present in this album into Bathory staples such as ‘Woman of Dark Desires.’ Nevertheless, it was the fourth album, ‘Blood Fire Death,’ where Quorthon really started getting interesting, perhaps looking back over his works and noticing the higher quality of slower songs such as ‘Raise the Dead’ in order to craft yet another significant sub-genre...
Advantages: Unprecedented raw aggression, speed and wickedness from a small Swedish studio.
Disadvantages: Repetitive and unimaginative in places.
Bathory
The Return......
****
Written on 17.02.08
Bathory's second album is much the same as the first, only ever so slightly more refined. The forefather of black metal, Bathory's style continues in the vein of an evil Motörhead, with grisly guitar riffs and relentlessly crashing drums and cymbals echoing around whichever tomb or recording studio Quorthon hired for this despicable spectacle. Quorthon's snarled, guttural vocals are still as effective even in the wake of the hordes of imitators, and perhaps the most singularly vile aspect of this first-wave black metal is how incessantly catchy it is.
While later bands Mayhem and Emperor arguably committed greater sin when killing people in woods and stabbing each other in the back in a metaphorical as well as literal sense, at least their depraved music was confined to a select audience of impressionable youths. Here, Bathory continue to make accessible evil that, while not exactly being Top 40 material, could cause even the most ardent Calvinist to unconsciously tap his foot along to the catchy beat.
A little longer than the debut release, 'The Return......' also has greater artistic aspirations, with its partitioned songs and amusingly elaborate album title, which Quorthon admits was more or less a gimmick to encourage curious onlookers to turn the album over for reasons of closure. The music is still the same as that of the first album though, and while the most aggressive moments don't quite hold up to the bar already established by 'Armageddon,' and nothing is quite as incessantly addictive as 'Reaper,' it's more consistent on the whole. Most songs come in at just under three minutes, and some use this short allotted time to a surprisingly creative extent, particularly 'Bestial Lust' with its cackling vocals and squealing guitar solo, and the more atmospheric backing lead guitars of 'Possessed' that really show off Quorthon's speed, but the longer songs tend to follow a steadier pace accordingly.
'Revelation of Doom' is the typical Bathory ominous intro, vaguer than the wind-swept churchyard of its predecessor in 'Storm of Damnation' but similarly effective at establishing the evil mood before the blaring opening chords of 'Total Destruction' rear their delightfully ugly heads, and the remainder of this seven minute incantation consists of consistently changing guitar riffs and a mess of cymbals, all captured in the nostalgic fuzz of the low production values that give these albums much of their charm. A similar cacophony is built up throughout the similarly ambitious 'The Rite of Darkness / Reap of Evil,' while the closing title song is less vicious and more atmospheric, but still disturbing enough even before the murdered girl's scream tears through the speakers.
1. Revelation of Doom / Total Destruction
2. Born for Burning
3. The Wind of Mayhem
4. Bestial Lust
5. Possessed
6. The Rite of Darkness / Reap of Evil
7. Son of the Damned
8. Sadist (Tormentor)
9. The Return of the Darkness and Evil
10. Outro
Bathory
*****
Written on 17.02.08
The classic 'Under the Sign of the Black Mark' marks the end of Bathory's early black metal period before Quorthon became absorbed in Viking themes and pioneered a second genre. As the culmination of Bathory's sinister slant on traditional heavy metal stylings, this third album both improves upon the band's earlier successes and boasts greater variety, no longer unleashing a relentless series of repetitive, three-minute, sadistic outbursts one after the other, but still making time for these when appropriate (and how could they not be?)
Every song here is up to the classic Bathory standard, excluding the brief, atmospheric intro and outro tracks recycled between each album of this early period, but some are more timeless than others. 'Massacre' starts the proceedings with a full-on, violent assault in the style of 'Armageddon' but with greater intensity, roaring through raw and fast guitar riffs and verses too fast for Quorthon's to articulately rasp his lyrics without really spitting them out. Rather than being repeated ad nauseam (it certainly has nauseating potential) for the rest of the album, the style is used sparingly between slower offerings, and only resurfaces in 'Chariots of Fire,' 'Of Doom...' and the blaring 'Equimanthorn,' also featuring a steadier chorus where Quorthon yells the title with increasing ferocity and a closing guitar solo section that squeals so loud it can be painful to listen to. Even for me, and I'm well 'ard when it comes to this sort of stuff.
The other end of the scale is perhaps the more interesting side of the album, with the longer and slower 'Call from the Grave,' 'Enter the Eternal Fire' and '13 Candles,' all of which subtly introduce the elements that would come to be termed "Viking metal," despite popular claims that the subsequent 'Blood Fire Death' is the real start of this period. Keyboards and a steadily tolling bell are used for atmosphere in some of these songs, and a greater emphasis is placed on melodic and creative guitar riffs that nevertheless still possess the raw heaviness of the faster tracks.
'Call from the Grave' is the most consistent with the established Bathory style, and it's only with the classic 'Enter the Eternal Fire' that the signs of change really start to ring; this song uses its seven minutes to the full, even when this merely means well-considered repetition of Quorthon's first immortal Viking riff, and the final minutes are handled with a cleaner guitar sound that starts to crawl out of the tomb that served these early efforts so well, but now threatens to become stale and is starting to pong a bit. With his future career now decided, Quorthon experiments with a more melodic singing style on the calmer '13 Candles,' with whispers and choral backing vocals that prove he can't sing, but that it never really mattered.
Oh yes, I almost forgot. 'Woman of Dark Desires' is undoubtedly one of the most enjoyable sing-along anthems black metal would ever produce, with its simple and fun chorus, energetic guitar solo and Hammer horror organ accompaniment. It's not strictly black metal, but we can pretend, and it's certainly the most accessible song Quorthon would ever record in this otherwise dark and terrifying stage of his illustrious career. This really is a classic of nefarious albums.
1. Nocturnal Obesiance
2. Massacre
3. Woman of Dark Desires
4. Call from the Grave
5. Equimanthorn
6. Enter the Eternal Fire
7. Chariots of Fire
8. 13 Candles
9. Of Doom...
10. Outro
Bathory
Hammerheart
*****
Written on 17.02.08
The real start of Bathort's Viking metal era, 'Hammerheart' is the classic archetype of the genre, a slower and more atmospheric off-shoot of Scandinavian black metal infused with neofolk elements to strive for an authentic and historically accurate Viking sound, because everyone knows the ancient Norsemen had electric guitars and amps (it's all in the Völuspá). Bathory was a mere pseudonym for the multi-talented Quorthon by this point (obviously his own stage name was a pseudonym itself, but his real name is Ace so it doesn't get much better than that), and the shift in focus to deal with more explicit themes of Ancient Norse culture and mythology inspired him to create several classic albums over the turn of the nineties, one of which (the fabled 'Blood on Ice') received a severely delayed release at the end of the next decade, subsequently prompting Quorthon to stop messing around with rubbish thrash and go back to his true calling by realising the truly ambitious four-album 'Nordland' project, but unfortunately passing into Valhalla when it was only half complete. 'Hammerheart' is his real Viking victory, as definitive of Bathory's second phase as 'Under the Sign of the Black Mark' was to the first, and equally polarising in its extreme approach.
With only one notable exception, 'Hammerheart' is composed of lengthy, thunderous, grand metal songs carried along by slowly pounding drums and a series of creative and highly infectious guitar riffs. Quorthon comes up with a legendary Viking riff in each song, accompanied by squealing, extended outbursts of lead guitar and frantic solos, while the atmosphere is enhanced further by concise and relevant sound effects. Aside from the significantly slowed pace that only speeds up in the instrumental sections, the most significant change from the previous album comes in Quorthon's vocals; no longer does he screech against a wall of sound in the gurgled grunt of a man possessed (though that was always pretty cool), but now fully embraces his distinctive and admittedly, brilliantly amateur singing style, becoming more impassioned and pained in the more dramatic moments of 'Valhalla' and backed up in most songs by a slow and atmospheric chorus singing along to the guitar melody. The relationship between guitar and vocals is clearly of paramount importance to Quorthon's playing style, which leads to some endearingly desperate vocal attempts to keep up with the faster riffs he's written, most prominently displayed in the excellent chorus to his finest song 'One Rode to Asa Bay,' a narrative that contains just a few too many words to squeeze into a paltry eleven minutes...
I admit that some of these songs are overlong, sometimes (especially in the case of the earlier tracks) unnecessarily, but what they lack in dynamic and progressive content they more than compensate for in atmosphere. The sound effects could be seen as a little clichéd or unnecessary - surely the music should be enough, without the sampling of waves crashing to the shore and crackling fire; thunder; a bustling, ancient marketplace; seagulls; and the chirruping of birds and galloping of horses, respectively (tracks three and six don't have any sound effects) - but I feel... sorry, I've forgotten how that sentence began now. 'Shores in Flames' and 'Valhalla' are both pushing it at ten minutes apiece, dazzling as they are with gloomy riffs, nicely-incorporated acoustic passages and incredible screaming solos, but after this the album really gets into its stride and doesn't let up. 'Baptised in Fire and Ice' boasts another in a long line of immortal Bathory riffs with its dominating lead guitars that give way to an atmospheric sing-along chorus carried off by Quorthon's choral voice, and the slightly shorter 'Father to Son' favours incessant catchiness with its swinging, heavy riff and irresistible sing-song verses.
The major stand-out track is the not-quite-central 'Song to Hall Up High,' Quorthon's passionate hymn to his Allfather Odin, which stands out so prominently for being the only short song (at two and a half minutes) as well as the only one to completely forsake metal in its unplugged, pastoral beauty. His voice impresses here in a way it doesn't always manage when yelling the longer narratives, and this really is the only song Bathory had released up to this point that could conceivably be played on mainstream radio, however much I'd push for 'Woman of Dark Desires' to reach a wider audience. 'Home of Once Brave' is necessarily low-key as the follow-up to avoid stealing any of its thunder, but still manages headbangingly good riffs in its somewhat tedious march towards a finale that's blatantly plagiarised from Metallica's 'For Whom the Bell Tolls,' but that's okay because they and most other prominent, loud bands of the era cite early Bathory as an influence.
The grandest of all finales is well worth waiting for, and has been one of my favourite songs since I first heard it, undoubtedly Quorthon's finest legacy and one that even his second- and third-best songs of later releases are still essentially variations on ('Twilight of the Gods' is similarly great, but it's basically a longer and slower version of the same song with more acoustic guitar and a less dynamic chorus). Anyone who doesn't enjoy it could conceivably claim that it ought to end at seven minutes when it seems like it might, before plodding on for three further minutes of excellent milking, but those people are idiots who'd probably argue that 'Into Glory Ride' wasn't Manowar's best album, as it's similarly indulgent and overlong. What do they know about music? I am best.
'Hammerheart' is a damn fine album that's a little let down by the overlong and less exciting songs taking up space at the beginning, but is more than made up for with its excellent later offerings and an overall atmosphere that would be unrivalled until the next Bathory album. If only all born-again disciples of implausible ancient religions would put their passions to constructive use like this, rather than self-righteously condemning others to eternal damnation because they happened to be born in a country that chose the wrong version of the divine figurehead/s to follow (imbeciles!) rather than the one your parents happened to believe in that's obviously the right one, then the world would be a much better place and there would be even more kick-ass music for everyone to enjoy in our final remaining years together, before the Mayan alien gods come and annihilate us all in 2012.
1. Shores in Flames
2. Valhalla
3. Baptised in Fire and Ice
4. Father to Son
5. Song to Hall Up High
6. Home of Once Brave
7. One Rode to Asa Bay
Bathory
Twilight of the Gods
****
Written on 17.02.08
Perhaps as an inevitable consequence of the more atmospheric tendencies of its predecessor, the final album of Bathory's long-lived classic period is a significantly less metallic affair that anything that would come before or after, expanding on the folk elements of Quorthon's innovative Viking metal style and coming up with an epic and majestic album that may alienate some of Quorthon's long-time followers, but is equally capable of attracting newcomers.
While 'Hammerheart' slowed Bathory's breakneck pace down considerably, it grinds to a standstill in 'Twilight of the Gods,' which largely relegates Quorthon's guitars to a backing instrument and increases the focus on keyboards. These seven songs are similarly long to those on the previous album, and once again an oddball acoustic hymn is thrown in to take the neofolk elements to an extreme. This finale 'Hammerheart,' not to be confused with the title of the previous album (why do bands do that?), is a straightforward performance of Holst's 'Jupiter, the Bringer of Joy,' a song that has been largely appropriated in this country as a hymn to England's majesty seemingly just because the middle section is particularly upbeat, but the Swedish Quorthon is able to escape this influence and instead makes it into a sort of hopeful death march that's a nice finale to the album, if more than a little plagiarised and not as effective as the previous album's 'Song to Hall Up High.'
Direct comparisons with the previous album are inevitable as this is fundamentally a direct sequel to 'Hammerheart,' having nothing at all in common with earlier Bathory releases when they were a primeval black metal band. This direct contrast works to the album's credit, and its shame. It's clear that the basic style pioneered on classic Hammerheart songs such as 'One Rode to Asa Bay' has been duplicated more or less exactly here, the chorus melody from that song showing up in 'Through Blood by Thunder' and the epic opener 'Twilight of the Gods' being more or less a remix with a slower tempo, less energetic vocal performance and a whole load more acoustic guitar. It's the acoustic strumming that really places this at the height of this release, adding a distinctly mournful and tranquil element that was a little absent from the last album and had to be compensated for with sound effects. At fifteen minutes it will be far too long for some, especially as the opening and closing sections are nothing but a few minutes of wind noise, but it's an excellent performance from Quorthon and deservedly acclaimed as one of his finest songs.
The other tracks tend to replicate these more successful elements to some extent, featuring acoustic introductions and interesting prominence for the usually overlooked bass guitar now Quorthon's own guitar is out of the limelight, and the choruses are brilliantly sing-along in a gloomy folk manner, particularly in 'Under the Runes' and the more dynamic 'To Enter Your Mountain.' If I'm being completely honest I probably rate 'Twilight' as highly as Hammerheart in terms of its unparalleled mood and Viking innovations, but it does tend more towards tedium and atmosphere and came a year later, after all. Bathory unfortunately went downhill from here, at least for a while.
1. Prologue - Twilight of the Gods - Epilogue
2. Through Blood by Thunder
3. Blood and Iron
4. Under the Runes
5. To Enter Your Mountain
6. Bond of Blood
7. Hammerheart
Bathory
Requiem
***
Written on 17.02.08
'Requiem' was the most surprising album Bathory ever released, entirely abandoning the Viking style that had worked so well on the previous two albums and seeing Quorthon reinvent his sound once again, this time in imitation of 1980s European thrash from the likes of Kreator and Celtic Frost, rather than the less evil style practiced by more high-profile American acts. The return of snarled vocals and anti-Christian lyrics were perhaps an attempt to win back some of the early fans that Bathory had lost with the move towards a folkier sound at the end of the eighties, but for being so entirely unoriginal and frankly messy it doesn't really do the trick.
Some of the old Quorthon touches are still present here, and keep this from being completely mediocre. His guitar riffs are as enjoyable as ever, supplemented by great solos, and the ominous, chiming bell of the early black metal releases makes way for an equally effective air siren dominating 'War Machine' and a subtle chanting section in the centre of 'Pax Vobiscum' that provide an incredible atmosphere. Unfortunately, this is where the inventiveness ends, and the listener is left with nine songs of primitive, dirty thrash metal ranging from pretty good to pretty dull. Vvornth's drums are the key player in this monotony, placed far too prominently in the mix and never doing anything interesting outside of the repetitive and often irritating bashing, and while the prominence of Kothaar's bass makes for a nice sludgy sound, it does tend to overshadow Quorthon himself.
It's alleged that the previous 'Twilight of the Gods' was intended as Bathory's final album, and although that would have made for a fitting legacy, it's at least fortunate that he continued to release albums through the nineties so that this retro thrash period would be comparatively buried and not left as the final statement on Quorthon's ever-evolving musical approach, one that took its only faltering step in the middle of this decade. It's just a shame that the follow-up was ever worse.
1. Requiem
2. Crosstitution
3. Necroticus
4. War Machine
5. Blood and Soil
6. Pax Vobiscum
7. Suffocate
8. Distinguish to Kill
9. Apocalypse
Bathory
Octagon
*
Written on 17.02.08
I wanted to start by saying that the most positive thing that can be said about 'Octagon' is that it's not quite as bad as some people claim, but that would be untrue. If this had been a terrible first release from an unknown band it would be easy to dismiss, but as the seventh album in the mostly perfect Bathory chronology (yeah I know, the seventh - an octagon has eight sides, it doesn't even make sense) this is one of those albums that it physically hurts to listen to. To this day I can't even look at an octagon without screaming in despair and pummelling the ground with my bloodied fists, which is why they threw me out of the University of Sheffield's conference centre. What an obscure joke.
While its predecessor 'Requiem' was content to replicate the sound of European thrash bands such as Kreator, keeping more in line with the evil Bathory ethos, this follow-up sounds like nothing more than a cheap and lousy attempt to imitate Slayer, and none of it works. Quorthon's usually exceptional guitars are only decent when directly stealing from that other band, as is the case in 'Century,' and Vvornth's drums have achieved the unfeasible and actually become significantly more annoying than on the previous release, starting the proceedings as they mean to go on with a far-too-long drum roll on some bins, or whatever it is he's using. The production sound here is terrible - not good-terrible, like the early Bathory albums that reeked of an evil tomb, but practically unlistenable, and the double bass drums ticking away in the background almost sound like a CD fault. But most tragic of all is that the flaws can't be placed solely on the production, but more squarely on Quorthon's lousy performance, songwriting and lyrics.
While 'Requiem' attempted a sort of snarled approach to the vocals, here Quorthon opts for the singing style that worked so well on 'Hammerheart' and 'Twilight of the Gods,' where it didn't even matter that he can't sing. Here it matters a great deal, especially as songs like 'Grey' basically see him talking over fast thrashing riffs that should probably be conveying a sense of power and urgency, rather than a bored Swede spouting ridiculous lyrics like "your clothes will always bite big chumps right out of their concrete ass." 'Schizianity' (nice pun there, Quorth) attempts something different, which at least shows some hope, but ends up being even less coherent than the rest in its near-doom style with the worst vocal performance of the lot. And there's a Kiss cover that's even worse than the original, figure that out for yourself. And now it's in my head, goddammit.
This is a horrible album that should never have been released, but at least things only got better from here on, to the point where the final two Bathory releases rank among the best Quorthon would ever record. I love Quorthon, in fact he's probably my favourite dead guy after Graham Chapman, but I have no idea what possessed him to release this. Certainly not the inspiring demon that influenced his classic early works.
1. Immaculate Pinetreeroad #930
2. Born to Die
3. Psychopath
4. Sociopath
5. Grey
6. Century
7. 33 Something
8. War Supply
9. Schizianity
10. Judgement of Posterity
11. Deuce (KISS cover)
Bathory
Blood on Ice
*****
Written on 17.02.08
With his two mediocre thrash albums rendering Quorthon something of an embarrassment and a tragedy to those who admired the born-again Viking's pioneering early work, his casual revelation during an interview that there was an entirely original, unheard album recorded in the mysterious year's gap between the classics 'Blood Fire Death' and 'Hammerheart' inevitably led to enormous fan pressure and a change of heart seeing the fabled lost Bathory album finally coming to light, and it's a real cracker. A concept album in the tradition of Ancient Norse sagas performed in a slightly more energetic variant of the folk-tinged sound of 'Hammerheart,' this was a radical departure from the earlier Bathory style and it's understandable why Quorthon was a little hesitant to release it originally.
Chronologically recorded before Hammerheart then, this was the first album where Quorthon replaced his demonic grunt with a clean singing voice, and backing choral vocals started to substitute for guitar melodies as a rhythm instrument, though Quorthon still throws out some excellent riffs. There's a nice mix here between slightly faster, more rocking songs a little in tune with the old Bathory style, and more drawn-out and atmospheric epics that tend to work better. It's clear that returning to this album in the late nineties was a major inspiration for Quorthon to return to the Viking style with his later 'Nordland' albums, which are based far more on the dynamic established here than the somewhat grander style of the early nineties stuff.
That's not to say that this album lacks the atmosphere of 'Twilight of the Gods,' and the unique notion of an overarching narrative not otherwise seen in Bathory makes for a compelling and entertaining listen, even if the spoken word sections of some songs, particularly the old man's lengthy exposition in track four, may irritate people not overly fond of concept albums like this. It reminds me a lot of Blind Guardian's later Tolkienian epic 'Nightfall in Middle-Earth,' particularly as Quorthon's voice resembles Hansi Kursch and the actors drafted in to provide voice work are equally bad in both, and although the story itself is only really a little diversion to add another slight layer of enjoyment to the album, it does make for a nice sense of continuity as the listener is taken on a journey through the woods in what may be the album's finest, central section, in the excellent 'The Woodwoman' and 'The Lake' that rank among Bathory's finest material.
The harder edge of this album is maintained with consistent pounding drums, but only really becomes prominent in songs like the slightly punky 'One Eyed Old Man' and the galloping, Manowar-style metal of 'Gods of Thunder, of Wind and of Rain.' Despite a couple of short interlude tracks clouding perception of the album from the tracklist alone, the songs tend to be shorter than the more grandiose and lethargic Viking albums produced around the same time, with only the closing song approaching the ten minute mark. This ranks among my favourite Bathory albums and is certainly distinctive for its more power metal leanings (and anticipations), but even with its intriguing concept it lacks some of the beauty of 'Hammerheart' and its twin, though anyone who enjoyed the later 'Nordland' albums should certainly check it out.
1. Intro
2. Blood on Ice
3. Man of Iron
4. One Eyed Old Man
5. The Sword
6. The Stallion
7. The Woodwoman
8. The Lake
9. Gods of Thunder, of Wind and of Rain
10. The Ravens
11. The Revenge of the Blood on Ice
Batmobile
Buried Alive
**
Written on 20.03.08
Batmobile's second full-length release is actually just a collection of demo tracks and live versions, but considering the quality of both is comparable to the studio releases of the time, the only problem presented here is overlap of material for those who already own the previous album. The demo songs are generally slightly inferior to the recordings on 'Bambooland,' even for songs like 'Killers Crew' which impresses less here than it did originally, and the material that wasn't present on the album was presumably thus because it's just so bad
'The Cat' is the primary example, a very poor quality recording of screaming and daft antics that occasionally form themselves into music, but are mainly just an annoying waste of time. It's nice to see the band trying something experimental to drag them out of their repetitive rockabilly sound, but this is just wortheless. In fact, all of the demo songs are a little different to each other, which makes for a more interesting listen if you're looking for a diverse album (as I was), but ends up less successful due to the band's forced contrivances. 'Sweet Love on My Mind' seems to use a different vocalist, though is otherwise much the same as ever, 'Bring All My Love' is led by a solid, repeating guitar riff, 'Mad At You' features acoustic strumming that adds a nice extra flavour, and 'Rock 'N' Roll Party' adds some embarrassment in the form of hand-claps and an unconvincing call to rock out.
The live songs are of sufficient quality to enjoy, even if the material isn't quite up to scratch, and the best song is probably the more frantic 'Gorilla Rock' that would make its way in a more definitive form onto the next album. The cover of 'Ballroom Blitz' is also pretty good, but was already present on the previous album and loses out because of it. The vocals are slightly buried beneath the general white noise of these recordings which isn't really a problem as you still get the general idea through the breathy delivery, and although most of the songs are reasonably dull, 'I'm a Lover, Not a Fighter' is at least a little energetic and grooving despite sounding the same as everything else ever.
1. Killers Crew (Demo)
2. Sweet Love on My Mind (Demo)
3. The Cat (Demo)
4. Bring All My Love (Demo)
5. Mad At You (Demo)
6. Rock 'N' Roll Party (Demo)
7. Hello, Hello, I'm Back Again (Live)
8. Night Without Sleep (Live)
9. Gorilla Rock (Live)
10. Calamity Man (Live)
11. I'm a Lover, Not a Fighter (Live)
12. Ballroom Blitz (Live)
Batmobile
Amazons from Outer Space
***
Written on 20.03.08
'Amazons from Outer Space' marks the major turning point in Batmobile's admittedly not very original or particularly interesting musical career, as their subject matter looks towards vintage B-movies for inspiration in a manner similar to the Misfits, only significantly less excellent and more rockabilly. The problem with this frivolous subject matter is that the silliness level noticeably increases, as the vocals tend towards character imitations towards the end in songs like 'Sex-Rays,' 'Hammer Killing' and the fairly fun, but also daft 'Jungle Night.'
The B-movie sound doesn't really come into play until the title track half-way through the album, where the guitars attempt to mimic the classic soundtracks in a manner reminiscent of early Pink Floyd songs like 'Astronomy Domine' and 'Interstellar Overdrive.' The majority of the album is the standard rockabilly fare, with a worrying penchant for animal themes (gorillas making another comeback here) and easily being divided into songs that are slightly mellow (2, 3, 5, 10, 12) and ones with a little more energy (1, 4, 6, 11).
The latter style works more successfully with the psychobilly direction, the slower songs like 'Aardvark Blues' smacking too much of traditional country and 'Grab the Money & Run' going for a previously untested acoustic style that doesn't really impress, and 'Hard-On Rock' commendably avoids sounding too much like a dumb comedy song despite clearly being one. All the same, this isn't the revolutionary album some fans may claim it to be.
1. Ice Rock
2. Gorilla Beat
3. Aardvark Blues
4. Dead (I Want Them When They Are Dead)
5. Sinners Rock
6. Ravin' Women
7. Amazons from Outer Space
8. Sex-Rays
9. Hammer Killing
10. Hard-On Rock
11. Earthquake
12. Grab the Money & Run
13. Jungle Night
Batmobile
Sex Starved
Uranium Love
***
Written on 20.03.08
'Sex Starved' inaugurates a new era of (comparative) maturity for Dutch psychobilly rockers Batmobile, but one that sees them ditching none of the foolishness of their lyrics, exemplified in the title 'Haemmorrhoid Rock.' With clearer production than before, allowing the drums to be heard more clearly and for a more expansive atmosphere, this is clearly the strongest album so far from the band, but despite having a clear identity it still feels too indebted to the rockabilly canon.
The early psychedelic influence is even more present than before, first seen in the distinctly Syd Barrett guitar style of 'Uranium Love' and later in the other sci-fi-themed songs 'Rock This Planet' and 'In Orbit,' the latter of which features an unhinged guitar noddling away throughout, and some unfortunately silly vocal stylings that make it more tongue-in-cheek than necessary. The traditional rockabilly sound is still the driving force of many songs, but thankfully less than it's been in the past, with only 'Roll On' and 'Rockin' Rooster' reallty disappointing with their blandness.
There's more of a modern influence in the crunchy guitars of some songs and the modern rock chorus of 'King's Evil,' while 'Police at the Door' could easily be a Motörhead cover song, adding nice variety to this album. The title track and 'Mean Ugly Mama' are interestingly downbeat and minimalist in contrast to the lively 'S.P.O.C.K.' and distinctly Spinal Tap finale 'Gimme Some Pussy,' and although the repetition of themes and ideas is still a little irritating - especially the number of songs with "rock" in the title that end up less convincing each time - this manages to be a decent psychobilly album, rather than basic rockabilly with some Pink Floyd guitars thrown in as has been the case previously, songs like 'The Living Have More Fun' acting as a definitive example of the style.
1. Uranium Love
2. S.P.O.C.K.
3. King's Evil
4. Rock This Planet
5. Can't Stop That Rock
6. Roll On
7. Police at the Door
8. Haemmorrhoid Rock
9. Sex Starved
10. In Orbit
11. The Living Have More Fun
12. Rockin' Rooster
13. Mean Ugly Mama
14. Gimme Some Pussy
Batmobile
Hard Hammer Hits
Thwack!
***
Written on 20.03.08
Batmobile's sixth album aims to be even more refined than its predecessors, evidenced by the longer song lengths (none are under two minutes any more), and a reduced level of silliness overall that robs the songs of some of their charm, but is ultimately for the best. This is the album where Batmobile are most expressly striving for the accolade of "the psychobilly Motörhead," with heavier riffs and distinctly hard rock verses in 'Hammering,' the aggressive 'Raw Dick' and 'A-Bomb Boogie' among others, and there's less variation from the standard sound throughout, unfortunately to the extent that most songs fail to distinguish themselves at all.
'The Man in Black' seems to be another of the B-movie inspired pieces that are always a treat and see the psychedelic elements come to the fore, and it's pretty interesting with its ominous guitars and downbeat verses, while 'The Rocket' takes this to a greater extreme and injects elements of fun with the solo, drums and faster pace. 'I Need the Heat' is slow and minimal, 'Pay the Price' is fast and energetic and 'Superdick' has a nice, long solo, but otherwise this is a somewhat bland offering from Batmobile that will please fans of the genre but won't get any newcomers excited about exploring further as its more enjoyable predecessor may have achieved.
Franco Battiato
Fetus
*
Written on 28.02.08
Franco Battiato is a semi-celebrated Italian singer and progressive musician, but if his first full-length album 'Fetus' is anything to go by (which it isn't necessarily, considering his extensive discography since), his talents clearly lie squarely in the singing department alone, and even these are hardly used to any effect. This is a heavily keyboard-driven album in a seventies pop style, more like Jean-Michel Jarre than Vangelis but ultimately sounding a lot more like the bad, ironic synthesisers spoofed in the opening titles of the modern-day TV series 'Look Around You.' The album's opening melody reminded me of this more than anything else, and it never gets particularly better.
Although this is experimental music to some small extent, the experiments themselves are all very weak and often nonsensical, as movements cease for no apparent reason, only to resume a few seconds later or follow an unconnected style, such as a switch from keyboard melody to an acoustic guitar and singing section, and then back. There's also an irritating tendency towards repetition even down to specific melodies being reprised in the subsequent song, and inevitably it's only the couple of tracks that avoid synthesisers completely that end up being palatable, though these pieces ('Energia' and 'Meccanica') are sadly completely dull. In the end, this album's only value is its cheese factor for anyone interested in laughing at what a group of Italian musicians thought might have sounded quite good in 1971.
The only truly exciting synthesiser section comes in the second track where it builds to a scream, and those in 'Fenomenologia' could be most accurately described as desperate, as if they're running from something or struggling to impress. The worst song of the lot (which is some commendable feat) is 'Anafase,' which literally sounds like someone playing an early Namco arcade game like Galaxians or PacMan, but oddly predates them by a decade. At least now we know where they got their kerrazy ideas from; an album called 'Fetus.'
1. Fetus
2. Una Cellula
3. Cariocinesi
4. Energia
5. Fenomenologia
6. Meccanica
7. Anafase
8. Mutazione
Battle of Mice
A Day of Nights
***
Written on 26.02.08
The only full-length release so far from sort-of-post-metal band Battle of Mice is similar to most other modern releases by bands whose genre begins in post-, following a repeating structure of mellow, quiet segments intersecting more violent, thunderous and heated passages. In this instance it's entirely appropriate to the lyrical themes, apparently based around the turbulent relationship between band founders Julie Christmas (of Made Out of Babies) and Josh Graham (of excellent post-metal pioneers Neurosis), whose love life is so similar in structure to a post-metal song that it's borderline cheesy.
There's a strong hardcore element balancing out the minor metal elements here, the latter of which are only really present in some of the heavier guitar riffs in songs like 'Salt Bridge,' as Christmas moves from a standard, almost depressive singing style to a full-blown, scary scream when the louder sections kick in. Fans of post-rock, post-hardcore, post-metal and post-traumatic stress syndrome will likely enjoy this as a shining example of the combined genre, and an interesting one for having a female singer, but it does drag on significantly towards the end, as the songs become even longer at just the point where I really could have done with them becoming shorter.
Despite some eerie backing keyboards in track one, this is mostly standard, no-frills post-whatever music performed by regular rock instruments at a significantly slowed tempo, although there are some nice guitar slowlos and acoustic sections to keep things from becoming too overly repetitive, though my strained use of "too overly" should indicate the level to which it's already present. 'Bones in the Water' takes far too long to get started, attempting to use silence as a tool but making the mistake of placing it at the beginning so the listener has to wait before anything exciting or musical happens, and after the half-way point, Christmas' screams start to lose some of their effectiveness through over-use. All the same, it's a fine example of whatever genre listeners decide it belongs to, and will satisfy fans of emotive music provided they have a long attention span.
1. The Lamb & the Labrador
2. Bones in the Water
3. Sleep and Dream
4. Salt Bridge
5. Wrapped in Plain
6. At the Base of the Giant's Throat
7. Cave of Spleen
Battleaxe
Burn This Town
**
Written on 12.02.08
There's nothing new, clever or particularly interesting about Battleaxe, one of the many New Wave Of British Heavy Metal bands that sprung from the ground at the beginning of the eighties, but I enjoy this album all the same. With lyrics about bikes, rock and women, a focus on solid but repetitive speedy guitar riffs and drums, you probably already know whether or not you'd enjoy this release, and even if you would, there's no way it would become one of your favourites unless you've lived a very sheltered life away from the likes of Saxon, the primary imitation here.
No songs really stand out at all, but then again the album is consistent, meaning that any NWOBHM DJ in 1983 could choose a track at random and show off his slightly obscure taste to the approval of the gathered, leather-clad, hairy crowd, before they became restless and requested a reprise of 'Breaking the Law' instead. This is catchy and fun in a hard rock / early heavy metal way, with none of the structural and stylistic experimentation of bands like Iron Maiden, but thankfully free of the commercial, Americanised approach being practiced by Judas Priest to great financial success and Saxon to a wall of silence, making it a true NWOBHM release that nevertheless fails to make its mark.
Dave King yells his way through these pieces in a seventies style, which should at least grant the band some points from those who despise operatic eighties metal vocals (you idiots), but there's really no point checking out this release when there are so many out there that are similar, but better. Or similar, but worse, but funnier by consequence, such as Grim Reaper.
1. Ready to Deliver
2. Her Mama Told Her
3. Burn This Town
4. Dirty Rocker
5. Overdrive
6. Runnin' Outta Time
7. Battleaxe
8. Starmaker
9. Thor Thunder Angel
10. Hands Off
Battleheart
Battleheart
***
Written on 12.02.08
Now re-branded as Alestorm, the Scottish power metal band that started out as Battleheart are sure to be a big thing with the kids for their entertaining and dedicated pirate theme, especially as those teens won't have any idea that Running Wild already did the same thing in the eighties, but fortunately these Scots have the ability and creativity to pull it off without ever seeming like a cheap gimmick. Well, at least on their later releases.
The self-titled 'Battleheart' is the less impressive of their two 2006 E.P.s, only for focusing on the band's more mellow and narrative side as opposed to the speedy thrashing of its successor. The band at this point consisted only of singer and keyboard player Christopher Bowes, whose pirate impression is pretty cool but still can't avoid seeming overly put-on when it vanishes in the faster finale 'Journeyman,' and guitarist Gavin Harper who mainly relies on a classic heavy metal style here. It's easy to forget that the rhythm is provided by a drum machine most of the time, apart from the distractingly artificial drum rolls of the first and last tracks, and as a debut E.P. this contains a generous and wide variety of material across its twenty minutes, from the opening overture that shows off Bowes' synthesised orchestral skill and the fast jig-metal instrumental 'No Quarter' to the band's core epic metal sound in the rest of the tracks.
Even for an early, low budget release, there's very little to fault this album, apart from minor issues in the production that see the keyboard orchestra tending to overpower the sound of the guitars, though sceptics who approach this self-described "true Scottish pirate metal" looking for signs of cliché and gimmick will find them in greater quantity than on later releases. A consistent theme of maps and trezer hunting is balanced out by the lighter side of pirate life in their classic sea shanty 'Nancy the Tavern Wench,' but my only real problem with this band is its continual use of keyboard solos that really shatter the ancient nautical atmosphere that's somehow contrived so well through equally anachronistic rock instruments. Harper's guitar solos are better, even though they're pretty routine, but this debut release seems more intent on expressing the band's ideology and versatility more than its metal credentials, something left over for its successor.
Although it shows signs of a first release - overly bombastic Hollywood orchestration, generic guitar riffs and some sillier pirate lyrics - this is still a strong debut from Battleheart/Alestorm, and the songs 'Over the Seas' and 'Nancy the Tavern Wench' would later find their way onto this year's debut full-length 'Captain Morgan's Revenge.' The other songs are a little less accomplished but still make nice extras and keep this worthy of hunting down by fans of the album, as although 'Heavy Metal Pirates' is more or less a weaker version of 'Over the Seas,' 'Journeyman' is a strong speed metal song with a fun synthesised fiddle, and 'No Quarter' is a nice jam.
1. The Glorious Battle
2. Heavy Metal Pirates
3. Over the Seas
4. No Quarter
5. Nancy the Tavern Wench
6. Journeyman
Battleheart
Terror on the High Seas
****
Written on 12.02.08
Battleheart's (now called Alestorm) second E.P. is a vast improvement over the first as far as the metal performance goes, and with its rousing sea shanty 'Wenches and Mead' it even manages to match its predecessor's sense of a true pirate atmosphere, not just relying on a glamorous Hollywood perspective perhaps offered in those 'Pirates of the Caribbean' films or whatever (I wouldn't know). While the first release explored particularly clichéd pirate themes of trezer huntin' and drinking, this faster and more aggressive E.P. focuses more directly on the favourite heavy metal theme of battle. And drinking as well.
Christopher Bowes and Gavin Harper are supplemented by new bass player Dani Evans in Battleheart's gradual evolution into a full band, and once again the drum machine doesn't draw too much attention to itself by remaining fairly low-key, unfortunately preventing these earlier versions of 'Set Sail and Conquer' and 'Terror on the High Seas' from attaining the level of power eventually found on Alestorm's 2008 album 'Captain Morgan's Revenge.' This release's similarly themed opener 'The Curse of Captain Morgan' is the only song not to find its way onto the full album and is merely another orchestral overture, but it already shows a less grandiose and more refined approach from the band than on the previous release, which was a bit more frivolous. Listen to me, it's like I want to suck all the enjoyment out of pirate metal.
Like Running Wild long before them, Battleheart/Alestorm unleash powerful speed metal anthems in the central two songs of this album, relying on galloping rhythms, hard, fast riffs and Manowar-style lyrics but still retaining the atmosphere with Bowes' keyboard that isn't distracting until he plays a solo. He also manages to keep up the pirate pretence in his voice throughout, which is impressive if a little false, and the all-important choruses fulfil their function perfectly, causing even a slight glance at the tracklist to immediately bring back the vision of the Scottish pirates playing their instruments on deck while simultaneously slitting the throats of scurvy curs and things like that. 'Terror on the High Seas' is still their best song, but 'Set Sail and Conquer' boasts interesting touches such as a synthesised accordion effect, something that comes into its own in the cheery misogynist finale 'Wenches and Mead.'
This is a less essential purchase than its predecessor for those who already own Alestorm's full-length, but still permitted earlier access for people like me who could point out how they knew Alestorm when they were still called Battleheart, and that in fact it all goes back to Running Wild anyway. You know, fun people like me.
1. The Curse of Captain Morgan
2. Set Sail and Conquer
3. Terror on the High Seas
4. Wenches and Mead
Battlelore
Sword's Song
The Riddle of Steel
**
Written on 21.03.08
Finnish metal bands have a tendency for striking the perfect balance between a satisfying metal performance and something that can be enjoyed by a wider audience, for example the melodic power metal of Sonata Arctica and Stratovarius, but then there are some bands like Battlelore that weakly try to combine a more commercial approach into their dull atmospheric Tolkienian music and fail miserably. Even worse are the times they indulge in the delusion of being a metal band, resting their hopes in the second part of 'Khazad-Dum' that a tediously clicking pair of double bass drums will equate to heaviness.
'Sword's Song' is a slight improvement over the debut only in terms of the keyboard orchestration, which now sits more comfortably with the fantasy theme apart from in songs like 'Buccaneers Inn' which still features an irritating, shiny keyboard solo. The main focus is once again on the duet between Patrick Mennander's weak growls, which haven't improved in the two years since the last album, and Kaisa Jouhki's singing that works a lot better, but still sounds the same as every other female gothic singer. Her task of singing explicitly Tolkienian lyrics also makes this a little embarrassing for listeners like me who aren't 'Lord of the Rings' fans, but as this is probably their target audience it's permissible.
The most infuriating thing about this music is how it threatens to become interesting, only to slide into a bland atmospheric section without warning, and this spoils many songs that at least had the potential to be standard power metal fare. There's a slight experimental angle, but unfortunately this only comes through in the form of a really bad industrial slant to 'Attack of the Orcs,' seemingly in an attempt to enact the vicious attack of the lyrics through some sub-Rob Zombie electronic metal that doesn't even fit into the fantasy theme. Overall, 'Sword's Song' is the second in a long line of unconvincing releases from Battlelore; anyone with a serious interest in narrative, epic metal would be better searching for Bal-Sagoth, while those interested in a more fun and flighty take should stick with Blind Guardian and Rhapsody.
1. Sons of Riddermark
2. Sword's Song
3. The Mark of the Bear
4. Buccaneers Inn
5. Attack of the Orcs
6. Dragonslayer
7. Khazad-Dûm (Part II - Silent Caverns)
8. Horns of Gondor
9. The War of Wrath
10. Forked Height
11. Starlight Kingdom
12. The Curse of the Kings
Battleroar
Battleroar
****
Written on 21.03.08
Although Battleroar only began this side of the new millennium, their epic heavy metal sound is entirely rooted in the eighties, but has the advantage of hindsight in selecting the most effective acts to imitate for their battle-themed style, seeming to settle on that of Omen. I've always had an embarrassing soft spot for this sort of metal, and although I'd argue that it wasn't anything to do with the lyrics of conquest and glory, there's a little too much evidence for me to hold out such unrealistic hopes any longer. When I first heard this album I was immediately hooked, but prepared myself for disappointment: after all, the last time I was so instantly hooked on a band like this was when I first heard Saxon's epic 'Crusader' and instantly decided they would be one of my favourite bands from that point on, before being incredibly disappointed by all the other songs on that album that weren't that one, single good one. Fortunately, there was no such disappointment here, and Battleroar have the distinction of being my new favourite Greek band (they must be so proud).
This is essentially heavy metal in the classic style, without any of the bombastic symphonic elements that have taken over the genre in recent years, and thanks to a slightly cheap production job it even manages to sound convincingly dated, which I see as a complete bonus. It grants the guitars a nice, distinctive sound that avoids sounding too much like modern power metal, and the only drawback is that the drums sound rather tinny, especially when called in for heavy duty service in 'Mourning Sword' which unfortunately jeopardises that song, but the style only becomes a little Manowar-style pompous in the finale. Marco Concoreggi's vocals may take some getting used to as they're predictably stuck in the high end, but I can't imagine this music being more convincingly delivered through any other style. I repeat that it is fairly embarrassing just how much I love this variety of music, but I stand by my beliefs, despite knowing in my heart that I'm an idiot.
Any fans of classic metal from the likes of Iron Maiden, Manowar and Judas Priest in their better days would probably enjoy this, particularly as the Steve Harris gallop is replicated authentically and to great effect in 'Victorious Path,' and there's a great balance between more melodic offerings ('Megaloman') and harder, thrashing efforts ('Morituri Te Salutant') without the style ever seeming to vary to a distracting extent. Even the longer songs aren't too long, and while 'Egyptian Doom' is likely to lose some credibility points for falling back on all-too-predictable Egyptian-sounding lead guitars, its extended length allows for some nice rhythm changes somewhat reminiscent of Maiden's 'Powerslave,' only recorded twenty years down the line. The folk element isn't as present here apart from in the introductory song, making this a little more primitive than the band's later material, but for a modern equivalent of classic metal that gets all the ingredients right, you don't need to look any further than these Greeks.
1. Swordbrothers
2. Victorious Path
3. Egyptian Doom
4. Mourning Sword
5. Almuric
6. Battleroar
7. Morituri Te Salutant
8. Megaloman
9. Berzerker
Battleroar
Age of Chaos
*****
Written on 21.03.08
Battleroar's second album is a vast improvement on the first, and sees the band move from enjoyable heavy metal throwback to serious competitor in the epic metal leagues in the space of two short years. After proving competent and entertaining on the debut album, guitarists Kostas Tzortzis and Manolis Karazeris here unveil their true potential in leading the way with some killer riffs and dual harmonies while the rest of the band fills out the sound with a satisfying heavy metal gallop and even the occasional touch of folk metal that brings this up to date. The only real problem the album suffers for is that the lead guitars hit on such a great sound so early on, that the majority of songs end up following a very similar style.
The folk influence on this album (in an atmospheric, Bathory manner, rather than the jolly polka of Finntroll) is most prominent in the opening and closing songs, the first of which shouldn't really be considered a Battleroar song at all, considering it's written and performed by Manila Road's Mark Shelton. Featuring flutes (or at the very least, a synthesised flute) and soft singing, this is a great introduction that remains consistent for four minutes without feeling the need to jump into a heavy riff as an immediate crowd-pleaser, and the finale 'Dreams on Steel' is comparably grand and mournful. This hardly sounds like the same band at all, but fortunately the folky style is incorporated intelligently into the bulk of the album to keep things consistent, mostly entwined in the lead guitars as demonstrated in the overwhelmingly enjoyable 'Sword of Crom.'
Marco Concoreggi's high singing will still serve to make or break this band to some peoples' ears, and although I found him a little disappointing in the early songs, his classic wail managed to grow on me. Despite the battle lyrics, this isn't daft heavy metal in the style of Manowar - apart from a whip-cracking sound effect being produced on command in 'Vampire Killer' which is about as Manowar as you can get - and there's an excellent sense of composition to all of the songs. 'The Tower of the Elephant' is a slow song that embraces its tempo and follows it through to a natural conclusion without breaking into a gallop half-way through in the manner that spoiled some of Iron Maiden's greatest slowies, and although songs tend to overrun as the album plays on, this doesn't present a problem if you're as engrossed in the sound as I was, though compared to the debut album it seems that around fifteen minutes could have been easily shaved off in a final edit.
All of these songs have something special going for them, whether it's the steady, catchy pace of 'Dyvim Tvar' or the thrashing finale of the grand and appropriately titled 'Calm Before The Storm,' and I'm already far more excited than I should be about the next album from Battleroar that was allegedly recorded at the end of last year. You can't really get more my-kind-of-thing than this.
1. The Wanderer
2. Vampire Killer
3. Siegecraft
4. The Tower of the Elephant
5. Deep Buried Faith
6. Dyvim Tvar
7. Sword Of Crom
8. Narsil (Reforge The Sword)
9. Calm Before The Storm
10. Dreams On Steel
Bauhaus
In the Flat Field
****
Written on 12.02.08
The debut release from Northampton goth pioneers Bauhaus sounded a lot different from my preconceptions, as I'd always imagined them as a sort of Sisters of Mercy clone with annoying electro backing. I was pleasantly surprised to be confronted with an intelligent, creative and occasionally eerie album more reminiscent of the stream-of-consciousness style of The Fall with more than a little inspiration from David Bowie's contemporary Berlin period, something that would feature with even greater prominence in later works once Brian Eno was brought into the fold.
Peter Murphy's vocals are a stand-out feature of the band, mostly confined to a croon in the style of Jim Morrison, Glenn Danzig and others, but frequently succumbing to an increase in energy and vibrancy as the songs move towards a crescendo of sorts, and surpassing Mark E. Smith's often tedious delivery in the more spoken word songs like 'St. Vitus Dance,' where the flat oration evolves into a yelled chorus. Murphy and Daniel Ash's guitars are satisfyingly crunchy and vary between cacophony and mellow, proto-goth jangles, while even imitating a Western sort of sound in the minimalist 'God in an Alcove,' and even the occasional solos in songs like the aforementioned track and finale 'Nerves,' which takes forever to get going but is ultimately enjoyable.
'In the Flat Field' is a great debut from Bauhaus and remains (in my obviously correct opinion, as always) the second best release of their short career. It's a little dark and distorted without alienating casual listeners, and the various stylistic, musical and thematic influences make for an entirely original sound, even if it quite obviously stemmed from the beginning of the eighties. But the beginning of the eighties was cool, it was only subsequent years that rendered that ten-year period so embarrassing.
1. Double Dare
2. In the Flat Field
3. God in an Alcove
4. Dive
5. Spy in the Cab
6. Small Talk Stinks
7. St. Vitus Dance
8. Stigmata Martyr
9. Nerves
Bauhaus
The Sky's Gone Out
****
Written on 13.02.08
With the release of the darker and multi-faceted 'The Sky's Gone Out,' it was almost as if Bauhaus' mediocre sophomore release never happened, as many songs and styles here sound like direct continuations and perfections of those attempted in the debut. Vocalist Peter Murphy is at his best here, starting off energetic and shouty in the opening song before returning to the Mark E. Smith style on 'In the Night' before that song heads towards a more satisfying punk finale, and even attempting a near-ballad in 'Spirit' that avoids the pitfalls of usual ballads which, as you no doubt know, are rubbish. He still sounds a lot like Bowie, but thankfully in a good way.
The more experimental side of this album is primarily held up by the 'Three Shadows' trilogy that opened the second side of the original LP (I'm guessing; I wasn't cool enough to be alive in those days), and although it doesn't really work as a single, extended epic, it's still one of the more interesting pieces here. The first part is a nice, ambient instrumental in the style of Brian Eno (just to cement the Berlin-Bowie comparison in case anyone hadn't noticed yet), the second is a little more disturbing lyrically and almost a self-parody of the band's darker tendencies, and the finale is a completely ludicrous, mostly fish-based tale with accompanying piano. But for all these experimental tendencies that strange people like me enjoy, there's still enough on offer here for normies, most successful in the depressive melodic song 'All We Ever Wanted Was Everything,' which seems to be one of the band's best-known, and the energetic 'Third Uncle' which remains compelling throughout and features some nice double-tracked vocals for added effect.
This is still far from a perfect album despite being the finest example of this type of music I've heard (whatever exactly I mean by that), as some songs are still a little structurally lacking, especially the confused finale 'Exquisite Corpse' which features some really great stuff amidst a sea of confused ramblings and overlong silences. There's also a tendency to rely on volume trickery to bring songs to a conclusive crescendo, most evident in 'Spirit' which is noticeably quieter at the beginning and returns to a louder sound at the end. This is Bauhaus' best album, and the last to be of any real importance, and it strikes a slightly uncomfortable balance between mainstream appeal and self-indulgence that makes it all the more satisfying for me.
1. Third Uncle
2. Silent Hedges
3. In the Night
4. Swing the Heartache
5. Spirit
6. The Three Shadows, Pt. 1
7. The Three Shadows, Pt. 2
8. The Three Shadows, Pt. 3
9. All We Ever Wanted Was Everything
10. Exquisite Corpse
Bauhaus
***
Written on 13.02.08
Originally tagged on to the third studio release 'The Sky's Gone Out,' Bauhaus' first live album was later sold as an independent entity in its own right, and fares less well in this stand-alone form. Recorded in pieces between 1981 and '82, the material played here stems from the first two studio albums and the singles released between, making for an interesting and not entirely predictable set that at least offers something new in the form of B-side material for those who are only familiar with the full-length releases.
On the negative side, it doesn't really work as a live album, and although the extended instrumental jam of early hit 'Bela Lugosi is Dead' might have been quite a fun event on the night, similar to how the Cure tend to stretch 'A Forest' massively beyond its natural end point, it doesn't offer an awful lot for newcomers or casual listeners, who are only satiated by the shorter 'Mask' material that works more successfully, but ends up all sounding pretty much the same. Songs like 'In Fear of Fear' have some nice sax squeals that mark them out as unusual, always a bonus, while the other non-album track 'Rose Garden Funeral of Sores' doesn't really work in the live environment with its spoken word section and low-key instrumental jam. Never mind, there would be plenty further live albums to cash in on the band's popularity after its separation.
1. In the Flat Field
2. Rose Garden Funeral of Sores
3. Dancing
4. The Man With X-Ray Eyes
5. Bela Lugosi is Dead
6. The Spy in the Cab
7. Kick in the Eye
8. In Fear of Fear
9. Hollow Hills
10. Stigmata Martyr
11. Dark Entries
Bauhaus
Burning from the Inside
**
Written on 13.02.08
Bauhaus' final album is ridden with problems and disappointments that are more easily understood when considering this was ultimately a posthumous release once internal difficulties had seen the band go their separate ways, and it fails to capture the dark, experimental, gothic style of its predecessors in favour of bland and repetitive radio-friendly rock. This is the first album to lack any kind of overall consistency, as some songs are still pretty good, particularly the openers 'She's in Parties' and 'Antonin Artuad' which are the only ones to truly sound like Bauhaus songs, the latter even featuring a repeating backing woof reminiscent of later works by Type O Negative, but most are pretty rubbish, or merely fall victim to bad creative decisions.
Despite the ballads and spoken word songs often proving to be the least successful on earlier releases, this album is rife with such mediocre material. 'Who Killed Mr. Moonlight?' is a piano song that conveys none of the usual darkness but doesn't replace it with any other recognisable kind of emotion, 'Kingdom's Coming' does a similar thing but on acoustic guitar, and 'Honeymoon Croon' is another attempt to sound like the Fall that falls flat. There's even a weak attempt to provide an interlude song in the form of the pointless 'Wasp' as an ever more pointless introduction to 'King Volcano,' a dull and overlong acoustic jangle with some chanting towards the end that seems to be targeting an audience base that I'm not familiar with at all.
The progressive style seems to be evident when taking a look at the tracklist and eyeing up the nine-minute 'Burning from the Inside,' but this turns out to be the dullest of the lot, making poor use of its tedious playing time by repeating the same guitar riff over and over, and not featuring anything of real interest in the form of the other instruments and vocals. There's no way this song should be this long, I presume it was merely stretched out to avoid the band having to fill the space with another bland composition, but fortunately the finale diffuses some of this irritation; although 'Hope' is a break with tradition by being uncharacteristically optimistic, it's a nice closing note to end their career with, even if some fans will be ironically upset by it.
1. She's in Parties
2. Antonin Artuad
3. Wasp
4. King Volcano
5. Who Killed Mr. Moonlight?
6. Slice of Life
7. Honeymoon Croon
8. Kingdom's Coming
9. Burning from the Inside
10. Hope
The Beat Farmers
Best of the Beat Farmers
***
Written on 25.02.08
Jumping the gun of a posthumous release ever so slightly, this inconclusive 'Best of the Beat Farmers' was released in the year that would later see the band's final album 'Manifold' and subsequent fatal heart attack of singer Country Dick Montana, effectively ending the band. The Beat Farmers were an acclaimed alternative rock band with country influence, but I get the feeling that this compilation, arranged and released by the record label without the band's consent, hardly represents what they would truly consider the cream of the crop (that's a sort of farmers-based pun).
The Beat Farmers' style is allegedly difficult to pin down, but this collection has no trouble in focusing almost exclusively on their mellow country style, a genre they tackle expertly and with greater enthusiasm than most in songs like 'Riverside' and 'Gun Sale at the Church,' but that still ends up sounding a little dull and unimaginative on occasion, as in 'Make It Last.' The band's harder and more sinister edge creeps in a little with the derivative 'Blue Chevrolet' and gritty 'Key to the World' with their torturously slow and dirty riffs, the latter made even more unusual and interesting through screaming guitars and vocals towards the end, but to balance this out there's also what feels like a compulsory offering of jangly pop material in the form of 'Girl I Almost Married,' which is still enjoyable but doesn't feel like it deserves to be in this top ten.
Alongside the vocals, it's the guitars that really make these songs stand out and occasionally elevate them above mere country rock, with great solos in tracks one and two, and a strong riff supplemented by sax in 'Socialite.' Demonstrating the band's open attitude, there's even a cowbell in 'God is Here Tonight' and questionable kazoo and gargling in the finale 'Happy Boy' that add to the Southern atmosphere immensely, though the live recordings of the latter two songs are slightly inferior due to sound quality, something almost made up for in Montana's addresses to the hugely appreciative crowd. Without any real frame of reference I'm unable to say whether these ten songs accurately represent the Beat Farmers at their best, but I have a nagging suspicion that it would have been a lot different and less immediately accessible if the band themselves had been involved in its creation.
1. Riverside
2. Blue Chevrolet
3. Gun Sale at the Church
4. Socialite
5. Girl I Almost Married
6. Make It Last
7. Key to the World
8. God is Here Tonight
9. Lucille
10. Happy Boy
Beatsteaks
Living Targets
Ich bin ein Beatsteaker
***
Written on 21.03.08
The third album from German punk band Beatsteaks invariably disappoints with its more conscious mainstream direction, watering down the punk elements with melodic hard rock to make this more appealing to an international market. Vocalist Arnim Teutoburg-Weiss sounds exactly the same as every other generic American hard rock singer, without a trace of a German accent - and really, what's the point of that? Even the album art is based around U.S. culture, this sort of thing really irritates me.
With a generous budget being allotted by record label Epitaph, the sound quality is impressive, even if the guitars are a little too polished and quiet to really be considered punk in any way, though the actual music itself doesn't try to deceive listeners that punk rock is its intention. Rather, this is fairly bland, mediocre hard rock with occasional melodic punk guitars balanced out by an equal presence of softer sections presumably aimed at chart success. Only 'God Knows' and 'To Be Strong' really cross over into punk rock, albeit in a lighter and more accessible version than their German contemporaries, and the speed varies between a more enjoyable fast tempo in these songs to a more standard and somewhat tedious middle pace elsewhere.
With songs like 'Disconnected' and 'Soothe Me' counteracting this album's few attempts to be a little more energetic and aggressive, the Beatsteaks' third release doesn't convince me of their anarchistic ideals. Putting JFK's face on the front of an album as a reference to his assassination is certainly a bold political move, especially as you have to remember it had happened so recently back then, but compared to something like the corresponding cover of the Misfits' 'Bullet' E.P. or Carcass' 'Wake Up and Smell the... Carcass,' it's clear that this band is practicing a palatable, conservative version of punk anarchy.
1. Not Ready to Rock
2. God Knows
3. Let Me In
4. Soothe Me
5. Above Us
6. This One
7. Disconnected
8. A-Way
9. Run Run
10. Mirrored
11. To Be Strong
12. Summer
Beatsteaks
10 Jahre Fritz: Die CD
***
Written on 21.03.08
I don't know the backstory to this live album from German punk band Beatsteaks, but assuming it documents a special tenth anniversary gig with more freedom to mess around, and not just a standard performance which would make it extremely disappointing, it wasn't the finest decision to put it out on CD.
The original Beatsteaks songs that are played don't give any signs that this is a punk band, exclusively representing their melodic hard rock style as seen on the contemporary studio release 'Living Targets,' while their choice of cover songs is strange indeed. The Cure doesn't strike me as the first band that a punk outfit would choose to cover, especially not something as mellow as 'Just Like Heaven,' while an initially promising Manowar cover is spoiled by the silly decision to turn it into a country piece. This might have been slightly amusing if it was limited to a brief ditty, but they play and spoil the entire thing, when it surely would have been much more amusing to simply reproduce the original style of that daft song in all its heavy metal glory.
The sound quality is a little poor, which is always a good thing for punk gigs and impresses me a lot more than their horribly polished studio output, but the tracklist is deceptive thanks to the inclusion of brief segments of dialogue as full tracks, namely tracks five, eight, ten and fourteen. Even with these included, the album comes in at a disappointing half-hour in length, and is mostly rather tedious too.
I guess this album, and the Beatsteaks' music in general, would be more appealing to those who didn't expect a band popularly labelled as punk to actually sound anything like a punk band, as what at first seemed like a promising riff in 'Let Me In' is subsequently spoiled by the crowd being invited to sing the cheery, poppy chorus, and judging by the sound of it, the audience is mainly comprised of teenage girls. Only 'Shut Up Stand Up' is a little bit faster and more enjoyable, but that all too soon turns into bland indie riffs, and 'Summer' sounds the same as every other melodic hard rock song produced in the United States, which I suppose is the point.
1. Intro
2. Let Me In
3. To Be Strong
4. Just Like Heaven
5. Kings of Metal
6. Wollt Ihr Tanzen?
7. Shut Up Stand Up
8. Tommy Wosch
9. Shiny Shoes Part 1
10. Wette Verloren
11. Shiny Shoes Part 2
12. Hey Du
13. Summer
14. Take the Take Out Now
Advantages: Beatsteaks having fun, and the crowd seems to like it.
Disadvantages: If someone recommended this to you as a punk album, you should smash their face in.
Beautiful Sin
The Unexpected
***
Written on 13.02.08
It's always refreshing to hear a band trying something new in an otherwise stagnant genre, and although Norway's Beautiful Sin don't bring anything particularly original to power metal, their dedication to maintaining a level of heaviness dispels any preconceptions that all female-fronted metal is weak and overly melodic. Most of it is, intentionally I presume, but in this instance, drummer and songwriter Uli Kusch provides a fierce backing that pushes the rest of the band on to heavier extremes, even if Magali Luyten's voice does turn almost comically raspy in some of the later songs.
The main failing here is the production, which sounds so clinical and lifeless that the soul is drained from most of the songs, and only compensated for in slower offerings like 'I'm Real' that are drenched in Axel Mackenrott's symphonic keyboards. While this makes it sound borderline melodic-death-metal at times in the more aggressive 'Pechvogel' and 'Metalwaves,' there's enough of a traditional power metal influence in the happy lead guitars and verse styles of songs like 'Take Me Home' to keep things optimistic, along with a tendency for high quality instrumentals in the form of 'Brace For Impact,' which features excellent guitar and keyboard sections and only occasionally descends into eighties cheese, and the finale 'The Beautiful Sin' where Mackenrott goes it alone.
It isn't all good news however, and there are a couple of major points that turn me off this band. Firstly, 'Closer to My Heart' undoes a lot of the good work they've put in to convincing listeners that a female-fronted band is just as valid as one with a male singer, by serving up a bland and dull portion of soppy ballad. Plus, and I don't mean to be sexist but this is a valid observation, the band name and sparkly logo aren't exactly hiding the presence of a female member as much as flouting it to those teenage female metal fans who insist on only listening to bands with a girl singer, no matter how good, bad or mediocre. What a confused bunch.
More importantly, and this really irritated me, the best song by far is the opener 'Lost' which impressed me with its catchy guitar hooks and chorus style that I was sure I'd heard somewhere before, until I realised it was a direct rip-off of Helloween's 'The Departed (Sun is Going Down),' one of my favourite songs from 'The Dark Ride' album. The identical music makes it clear that this is a homage/cover rather than basic theft, but the case isn't made any stronger by the band writing entirely new lyrics, re-titling it and omitting any mention of '(Helloween cover)' on the tracklist. By the time their second album comes around, I hope they've learned how to compose their own classics rather than reworking those of others.
1. Lost
2. This Is Not the Original Dream
3. Take Me Home
4. I'm Real
5. The Spark of Ignition
6. Closer to My Heart
7. Give Up Once For All
8. Brace For Impact
9. Pechvogel
10. Metalwaves
11. The Beautiful Sin
Jason Becker
Perpetual Burn
****
Written on 13.02.08
Jason Becker is among the lesser known but highest respected of the heavy metal guitar virtuosos, recording his only album of neoclassical guitar theatrics at the age of eighteen before ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) robbed him of his ability to play, to talk or even to breathe without assistance. It's a real shame that the world couldn't hear more of Becker's music the way he intended it (there have been further releases, but mostly consisting of demo material), as although it's more or less the same flamboyant classical instrumental shredding as Yngwie Malmsteen and the others in the field, Becker's solos feel more authentically from the heart, and he doesn't rely on cheap gimmicks like a pop singer in an attempt to reach a wider market.
As a purer expression of the shred genre, the only other instruments aside from Becker are occasional guest solos from his former collaborator Marty Friedman (later of Megadeth), drumming by Atma Anur that keeps up the pace and helps to ground the sound, and brief keyboard moments in more ambient songs like 'Air.' The mood here ranges from the excitement of full-pelt shredding to more thoughtful and atmospheric sections, mostly within the same song, and there's also commendable variety between the tracks; 'Perpetual Burn' is a little more ominous with its deep riffs, 'Mabel's Fatal Fable' starts with some pretty weird effects, the aforementioned 'Air' and 'Dweller in the Cellar' are more relaxed, and 'Eleven Blue Egyptians' tackles the Egyptian theme in a predictable but entertaining way.
There isn't a lot for the casual listener here it has to be said, and anyone who has been turned off by Malmsteen and his kin in the past should give it a wide berth, but Becker's noodling is some of the most soulful and emotive I've heard, and this album strikes a perfect balance between self-indulgence and broader appeal without going too far in either direction as his contemporaries tend to, resulting in fairly ridiculous albums and live shows. There's very little tomfoolery here.
1. Altitudes
2. Perpetual Burn
3. Mabel's Fatal Fable
4. Air
5. Temple of the Absurd
6. Eleven Blue Egyptians
7. Dweller in the Cellar
8. Opus Pocus
Jason Becker
Perspective
***
Written on 13.02.08
'Perspective' is an interesting and unique album that may never have happened, and although it doesn't stand up to Becker's guitar-oriented work, it's still a testament to his skills that he was able to compose these tracks despite being afflicted by debilitating ALS. As Becker can no longer play the guitar, this is largely an album of synthesised atmospheres, and this adds a much greater variety and potentially wider-reaching appeal than the pure shred of his previous works, even if some of his attempts to join the elite ranks of Vangelis and other electronic composers are never quite as convincing.
Although Becker's noodling guitar finds its way into a couple of songs, namely the eleven-minute piano and guitar duet 'End of the Beginning' and the appropriately bluesy 'Blue,' this is more of a full-band endeavour featuring multiple instruments and even vocals in an interesting move.
It's fortunate that this isn't a moping or regretful album considering Becker's condition, and indeed much of it sounds pretty optimistic. 'Primal' begins with an Eastern vibe and gospel type backing singing, 'Higher' features a full female choir and seventies-style synthesisers, and the later 'Life and Death' and 'Empire' both strive for the epic heights of a fantasy film score, though ultimately end up among the less successful experiments of the disc. The strangest deviation of all is the final track 'Meet Me in the Morning,' which abandons the instrumental genre entirely and features blues singing and some fairly uninteresting guitars, making for a very unusual end to an enormously varied album that prog fans may enjoy, but doesn't represent the peak of what this musician was capable of achieving.
1. Primal
2. Rain
3. End of the Beginning
4. Higher
5. Blue
6. Life and Death
7. Empire
8. Serrana
9. Meet Me in the Morning
Jason Becker
The Raspberry Jams
***
Written on 13.02.08
Released over a decade after his only real shred album 'Perpetual Burn,' 'The Raspberry Jams' is a self-proclaimed "Collection of Demos, Songs and Ideas on Guitar" presumably recovered from the personal and studio archives of Jason Becker prior to ALS removing his ability to perform in the early nineties.
As a satisfyingly slapdash collection of assorted things, this is exclusively an album for shred fans, as the repetitive and ceaseless guitar solos and experiments would put off casual listeners. Although I've never been the biggest fan of this type of music, I appreciate a good B-sides collection, or even a bad one, and the arbitrary pick 'n' mix style of this release is a lot of fun, even if some of the material is a bit dodgy. The main thing to remember is that none of this was ever intended for commercial release: the listener is instead being invited into the intimate compositions of the talented musician.
Only occasional drums and style changes add any variety here, as Becker moves between a typical, brief heavy metal shred assault in songs ('When You Wish Upon a Star,' 'Amarnath') to instrumental ideas for full songs ('If You Have to Shoot,' 'Ghost to the Post,' 'Blood on the Traches') and electric guitar takes on classical themes ('Amma'). Unlike some of his contemporaries, Becker also has a prominent blues influence that rears its head in 'Jasin Street' and makes extensive use of clean electric and acoustic guitars in songs like 'Grilled Peeps.'
This is the definition of an uneven album, with some performances just sounding terrible and others inspired, and even the sound quality varies from crystal clear to muddy, which is a nice sign that some real digging around was involved in its composition. Songs range from a few seconds long to around five minutes depending on their purpose, and there's even a ridiculous finale piece accurately described as 'Vocal Silliness' that sounds like Sesame Street characters performing an a capella improv. Not an album that will entertain many people, but a fascinating insight into Becker's creative process that should be of immense interest to guitar fans everywhere.
1. Becker-Ola
2. Mandy's Throbbing Heart
3. Amma
4. When You Wish Upon a Star
5. Jasin Street
6. Beatle Grubs
7. Grilled Peeps
8. If You Have to Shoot... Shoot - Don't Talk
9. Purple Chewable Fern
10. Black Stallion Jam
11. Amarnath
12. Angel Eyes
13. Throat Hole
14. Dang Sea of Samsara
15. Urmila
16. Thousand Million Suns
17. Clean Solo
18. Too Fast, No Good for You!
19. Sweet Baboon
20. Shock Tea
21. Ghost to the Post
22. Blood on the Traches
23. Oddly Enough
24. Crush
25. Vocal Silliness
Becoming the Archetype
Terminate Damnation
****
Written on 13.02.08
Becoming the Archetype are a progressive metalcore band combining very obvious influences from the worlds of metalcore and melodic death metal but still ending up with an interesting and characteristic sound of their own, for this first album at least. The progressive elements aren't so much representative of this band innovating beyond their metalcore base, but rather an attempt to basically imitate what Opeth are doing in a metalcore fashion, something already achieved with aplomb by Disillusion in their classic 'Back to Times of Splendor,' but reasonably reproduced here in songs like the eleven-minute 'Elegy' and 'The Epigone,' retaining the acoustic style for the Latin interludes 'Night's Sorrow' and 'Denouement' that fit in well but don't exactly impress, such acoustic touches having been an almost essential part of melodic death metal since In Flames and Dark Tranquillity's 1995 albums.
This is highly proficient metalcore/melodic death that falls for a few of the pitfalls, such as the tendency for breakdowns rather than decent riff sections and a reliance on screaming vocals when some songs demonstrate all too fleetingly that a nice, thoughtful growl will do just as well, and the drums follow the same pattern of relentless double bass pummelling seemingly practiced by all bands without a particularly inventive drummer, but the structural progression in songs like 'March of the Dead' from a fast opening through an acoustic section into a slower, heavier finale makes this infinitely more appealing than the typical metalcore bands concerned with aggression over musical talent.
Perhaps it's all a part of the band's Christian message, something communicated a little too explicitly in some of the lyrics but nonetheless refreshing after all the talk of Satan, though to be honest I've always found the Devil to be the more entertaining fictional character.
1. March of the Dead
2. Into Oblivion
3. One Man Parade
4. Elegy
5. Night's Sorrow
6. The Epigone
7. Beyond Adaptation
8. No Fall Too Far
9. Ex Nihilo
10. Denouement
11. The Trivial Paroxysm
Becoming the Archetype
The Physics of Fire
***
Written on 14.02.08
The second full-length release from Christian metalcore band Becoming the Archetype is a little disappointing after the strength of their debut, and despite the progressive elements that continue to be plagiarised from melodic death metal bands such as Opeth, the music here is all far too repetitive to be of interest as the album plods onwards. The melodic death metal lead guitars have now become more or less a cliche, standing out too prominently amidst the yelled verses just as the mellow sections of every single song act more as a jarring interruption than a seamless central movement. This album also sees the inevitable move away from death metal growls to include clean singing, which just as predictably sounds fairly poor.
The piano that worked so well in past songs such as 'Elegy' makes a less impressive return here in several tracks, notably leading the way in the instrumental 'Nocturne' alongside the lighter rock instruments, and in other songs such as the four-part title suite, the keyboard is modulated to an atmospheric style that doesn't work wholly successfully. This is an average quality album that's still above and beyond the quality of regular, angst-ridden metalcore, but isn't a patch on what the band could have been if it had tried, but I'm sure their Lord will forgive them for their trespass (God much preferred their earlier melodeath stuff).
1. Epoch of War (The Physics of Fire, Pt. 3)
2. Immolation
3. Autopsy
4. The Great Fall (The Physics of Fire, Pt. 1)
5. Nocturne
6. The Monolith
7. Construct and Collapse
8. Endure
9. Fire Made Flesh (The Physics of Fire, Pt. 2)
10. Second Death
11. The Balance Of Eternity (The Physics of Fire, Pt. 4)
Behemoth
From the Pagan Vastlands
****
Written on 19.02.08
The third and final Behemoth demo was recorded by Nergal when he was sixteen, and is another classic of Polish black metal despite its inferior sound quality. Its predecessor 'The Return of the Northern Moon' was a huge step beyond the previous year's demo 'Endless Damnation' in term of production, and the style continues here, taking influence from eighties black metal like Sweden's Bathory as well as the contemporary second wave of Norwegian bands such as Mayhem.
Without the intro and interludes of previous demos, '...From the Pagan Vastlands' offers six substantial songs of raw, mid-speed black metal that you can even forget is a demo recording as long as you really crank up the volume and ignore the occasional stumbling volume. Averaging over five minutes each, these songs are all high quality and mostly different enough to stand out, from the epic opener 'From Hornelands to Lindisfarne' with its acoustic touches and slow, moody atmosphere to the more straightforward Bathory-style blackened rock of 'Thy Winter Kingdom' and later songs that ditch the keyboards in favour of the core musicians, all led by classic riffs from Nergal. The finest song 'Summoning (Of the Ancient Ones)' is a re-make from the previous demo, clipped a little shorter here by removing the intro and suffering from a murkier production sound, but still possessing fantastic guitars from the main riff to variations later on in the faster and more aggressive centre.
As gritty black metal, this is still essentially terrifying stuff for the casual listener, but is kept a lot more melodic and atmospheric than some of the more aggressive bands like Mayhem and Darkthrone, sticking to the more or less constant medium tempo of earlier black metal and using keyboards effectively (if blaringly) to enhance the mood, especially in the second half of the demo. I've always enjoyed this dingy and contemplative style of black metal far more than the monstrously fast and heavy black/death style of Behemoth's later years, and although the volume issues can be annoying, the atmosphere is really enhanced by the lousy sound quality, which wouldn't be an awful lot clearer even if this was a proper studio release.
Baal's drums sound disappointingly like they're made of paper when he's blasting away, but the slower speed means he's mostly relegated to the less distracting duty of keeping up the pace, while the keyboards and especially the acoustic guitar of track one are far more prominent in the mix than anything else. These problems all fade away as the demo continues though, and by the excellent finale 'Fields of Haar-Meggido' with its drawn-out melodic guitar solo, you've all but forgotten that this is recorded in a kid's parent's garage.
1. From Hornelands to Lindisfarne
2. Thy Winter Kingdom
3. Summoning (Of the Ancient Ones)
4. The Dance of the Pagan Flames
5. Blackvisions of the Almighty
6. Fields of Haar-Meggido
Behemoth
Grom
****
Written on 25.02.08
Behemoth's second album is a very mixed bag of black metal and neofolk touches that often don't quite work, and due to its inconsistency, it's easily the album that divides fans the most. Predictably, it's also my favourite.
What makes this album stand out so prominently is the way the traditional black metal is frequently interrupted by acoustic guitar, light keyboard or clean singing in a manner that more often than not fails to correspond to what's come before and after, and the first and last songs even feature female singing from Celina. These folk touches make it all the more endearing for me, even if they're clearly more on the amateur side and don't hold up to the likes of Bathory and more seasoned folk metal bands, but it's the proficient and highly distinctive sound of the black metal itself that's the real winner here, exuding a fantastic, if confused atmosphere of ancient lands and dark sorcery, and Nergal's guitars receiving a unique sound thanks to the raw and fuzzy production that makes the whole thing work so much better.
The main failing of these songs, now that I've somehow convinced myself that the lack of consistency is a bonus, is that most of them are severely on the long side, and run out of steam and ideas long before their end point. This isn't the case for all, 'The Dark Forest' and 'Dragon's Lair' in particular remaining compelling throughout, but despite the excellent and inventive nature of the leading guitar riffs, they aren't immune to tedium when repeated ad nauseam. Nergal takes some influence from classic metal just to annoy genre purists further, making 'Spellcraft and Heathendom' and 'Lasy Pomorza' (among others) extremely catchy, though the attempt at incorporating a chorus into black metal in the former only ends up proving why that's usually avoided.
Nergal's Darkthrone-style gurgly rasp is perfect for the music, but just to be even more controversial he attempts to sing in a deep, folk style on half of the songs, which never sounds particularly good but is still valuable for adding diversity. Baal Ravenlock's drums are slightly inaudible at times thanks to the production, and really aren't all that interesting unless they're doing something other than maintaining an extreme tempo, and mention should be made of Les' bass intro to the title track, not because it's particularly impressive, but because I wanted to make sure I included his amusingly normal name alongside the pseudonyms of his bandmates. Behemoth sounds nothing like this today, which is sad.
1. Intro
2. The Dark Forest (Cast Me Your Spell)
3. Spellcraft and Heathendom
4. Dragon's Lair (Cosmic Flames and Four Barbaric Seasons)
5. Lasy Pomorza
6. Rising Proudly Towards the Sky
7. Thou Shalt Forever Win
8. Grom
Behemoth
Pandemonic Incantations
****
Written on 19.02.08
Behemoth's third album marks the Polish band's turnover point between the textbook second-wave black metal of their earlier releases and the devastating death metal influence of their later works, and combines the two styles to great effect. With recruitment of new drummer Inferno, the music is fiercer and more engaging than previous album 'Grom,' enhanced by the higher production values, but the prominent keyboards and vocal style, often reverting to spoken word incantation, keeps the sound grounded in a black metal sensibility.
Nergal's stream of great guitar riffs drives the whole thing along as ever, and the entire album performance flows together from track to track in the manner of a single long song, though with more than enough variety to keep each track interesting and distinctive. As a roughly conceptual work, this makes for a strong album with a nicely epic atmosphere in places, only getting lost in its own pomposity in the penultimate spoken word track before returning to form for the great finale. The improved production values detract a little from the album's tombic authenticity, but it helps to flesh out the grander sound while also drawing attention to the new death metal tendencies of Nergal's riffs and lead work, though his occasional solos as seen in 'Driven By the Five-Winged Star' are still pleasant and melodic rather than aimlessly squealed.
It would have been interesting to hear pieces like 'The Past is a Funeral' and the slower 'In Thy Pandamaeturnum' in the older, rawer style, but more aggressive and pounding tracks like 'With Spell of Inferno' would sound significantly weaker. Of course, then 'Satanica' came along and made this whole thing sound like Chopin.
1. Diablena
2. The Thousand Plagues I Witness
3. Satan's Sword (I Have Become)
4. In Thy Pandamaeternum
5. Driven By the Five-Winged Star
6. The Past is Like a Funeral
7. The Entrance to the Spheres of Mars
8. Chwala Mordercom Wojciecha
9. With Spell of Inferno
Behemoth
Thelema.6
****
Written on 19.02.08
Although I wasn't too fond of the direction change on 'Satanica,' Behemoth really surprised me with its furtherance in 'Thelema.6,' their first album of the new millennium and one of the most devastating death metal albums it's ever been my misfortune to enjoy. This is an improvement over 'Satanica' due to the greater technicality of Nergal's guitars, which run through varied riffs and leads in songs like 'The Act of Rebellion' while making plenty of time for the headbanging crowd brave enough to attend their live shows. With only minimal pauses between tracks offering respite from the skull-splintering torment, this isn't for the faint hearted unless you really want to go out with a bang.
Although this is more or less pure death metal now, Behemoth retains a black metal mentality, both in inferno's incredible drum work and most explicitly in the anti-Christian lyrics and statements, which go so far as to be laughable at times ('Christians to the Lions' for example). While this will put off as many listeners as it attracts, this is some of the most divisive music in existence, with almost everyone on the planet likely to consider it unbearable noise, and the small minority of fans embracing its unbearability.
Nergal's scream meets somewhere in the middle of a black metal screech and a death metal growl and suits the music perfectly, and there are even minimal clean vocals in tracks four and five to add a little diversity to an album that's already unpredictable and far from repetitive, even provided the listener is able to endure right to the end. If I was as passionate about death metal as I am about other stupid genres, this would probably be one of my favourite albums of all time. Unfortunately, I guess I'm a bit of a wuss after all, but this is Behemoth's strongest and most creative release up to this point.
1. Antichristian Phenomenon
2. The Act of Rebellion
3. Inflamed With Rage
4. Pan Satyros
5. Natural Born Philosopher
6. Christians to the Lions
7. Inauguration of Scorpio Dome
8. In the Garden of Dispersion
9. The Universe Illumination (Say "Hello" to My Demons)
10. Vinvm Sabbati
11. 23 (The Youth Manifesto)
12. The End
Behemoth
Zos Kia Cultus
****
Written on 25.02.08
Behemoth's evolution from black- to death metal band is complete by the time of this sixth release, meaning that anyone who enjoyed the band for its original style will find no familiarity here whatsoever. So while this is a bit of a disappointment for me, I can't deny that 'Zos Kia Cultus' (aka 'Here and Beyond') is a faultless example of brutal death metal, with the volume and intensity to blow the listener's brains out. If that's all you ask from an album, it doesn't come any finer. Fortunately for the rest of us, there are enough interesting musical touches to keep this from being an overly repetitive display of how hard and fast Inferno can beat his kit. By which I mean his drums; if you thought that was a euphemism, you're just weird.
I'm not sure how Behemoth's subject matter moved from Satan to Egyptian mythology, but it's both entertaining and incredibly clichéd to hear the theme pronounced in the form of Arabian-style electric and acoustic guitars in 'Horns ov Baphomet' and more explicitly in 'Here and Beyond,' before things would get out of hand on the next album. Songs such as the latter that feature an overload of lead guitar and solo melodies are the ones I can appreciate the most, as something has to balance out the sheer aggression of the rhythm section, but the majority of the album follows a riff-driven style of brutality comparable to Aborted, but without the surgical malpractice gimmick.
While it's admittedly a disappointment to hear the final traces of black metal fade away, even down to Nergal's roars which are now rooted entirely in the death tradition, this is still a supreme example of a black metal band turning to death metal and doing it incredibly well, arguably even better than their original style. There's enough variety in the riffs to keep it from being too repetitive, but it's certainly not an album I could comfortably listen to regularly, and one I'm sure I'll never subject myself to in its entirety ever again.
1. Horns ov Baphomet
2. Modern Iconoclasts
3. Here and Beyond (Titanic Turn of Time)
4. As Above So Below
5. Blackest ov the Black
6. Hekau 718
7. The Harlot ov the Saints
8. No Sympathy for Fools
9. Zos Kia Cultus
10. Fornicatus Benefictus
11. Typhonian Soul Zodiack
12. Heru Ra Ha: Let There Be Might
Behemoth
Demigod
***
Written on 25.02.08
Seemingly trying to outdo Nile and Melechesh as the kings of Egyptian-themed extreme metal, Behemoth's seventh album embraces the theme with greater passion than before, which inevitably leads to some gimmicky reproduction of those same "authentic" Ancient Egyptian guitar riffs and solos that appear on every metal band's Egyptian song and are almost an embarrassing cliché. This is mostly prominent in the first two songs before the album sadly descends into repetitive hammering led by Inferno's drums at the expense of the other musicians, as Behemoth try once again to win the accolade of the most brutal metal performance, something I'm sure will continue to be granted to them as long as they continue to focus squarely on aggression over musical accomplishment.
The death metal of the earlier songs is still excellent, with some heavy, slow riffs and those damn Egyptian melodies that I'll admit still sound incredibly cool despite being so overdone, but the only songs to attract my attention outside of 'Sculpting the Throne ov Seth' and 'Demigod' are 'Towards Babylon,' for its more classic death metal performance, and 'XUL' for its sheer, unadulterated abundance of guitars. The grand finale 'The Reign ov Shemsu-Hor' can't avoid comparison to the more well-known Egyptian-themed death metal band Nile, who have been writing songs with a similar style and similar titles for ten years, but although it's still great (though incredibly Nilesque), it still sounds much like an extended and less fun version of the opening song.
'Demigod' has been vastly overrated by those who only desire brutality from their music, but for fans of extreme death metal I'd recommend the previous two releases which hold a lot more of interest. And Melechesh for a superior version of the same thing.
1. Sculpting the Throne ov Seth
2. Demigod
3. Conquer All
4. The Nephilim Rising
5. Towards Babylon
6. Before the Æons Came
7. Mysterium Coniunctionis (Hermanubis)
8. XUL
9. Slaves Shall Serve
10. The Reign ov Shemsu-Hor
Beherit
Drawing Down the Moon
****
Written on 15.02.08
Another reputed classic of early black metal, Beherit's second album (or more appropriately, their first full-length release) is a huge improvement of the careless and often terrible quality of its predecessor. The songs are fuzzy, badly produced and repetitive as Hell, but some of the riffs and dark ambient keyboard melodies are enjoyable and surprisingly memorable enough to make this comparable to the other black metal bands of the early nineties, occasionally sounding much like a less intense, less catchy, less eerie and less good Burzum.
The atmosphere of this recording is dark, stinking and vile in the way only first-wave black metal ever really achieved, and the sound of the guitars and drums particularly are more rooted in the classic metal tradition than the treble-heavy discordance of more stereotypical bands of the genre, which makes it that slight bit more accessible for casual listeners. If it weren't for the cheap and fuzzy sound quality and the vomit-inducing guttural croaks of Nuclear Holocausto of Bloody Vengeance, my personal favourite of all the stupid black metal pseudonyms. Nuke's vocals are one of the features that keep Beherit distinctive and are very effective even if failing to accounting for taste, alternating between a standard growl, whisper, chanting and even clean singing of sorts in 'The Gate of Nanna,' a song about the hero of the evil gods rather than a tale about visiting his granny, which would have been fun.
Oddly, it's the ambient intro and interludes 'Nuclear Girl' and 'Summerlands' that end up sounding the most musically accomplished, especially the latter with its tribal wood instruments that may be synthesised or genuine, but either way sound appropriately spooky in the mix. Some songs stand out merely for being a little slower or evolving into a steady, plodding rhythm as is the case for the Venomesque 'Sadomatic Rites' and 'Thou Angel of the Gods,' while the rest vary between faster and slower guitar- and drum-led sections with ol' Nuke occasionally spewing forth his Satanic lyrics. It's all good stuff if you're into that sort of thing, which I predict no one reading this will be, but it's nothing particularly special and doesn't deserve the plaudits it's received from the black metal community when compared to the Norwegian scene evolving at the time.
1. Intro (Tireheb)
2. Salomon's Gate
3. Nocturnal Evil
4. Sadomatic Rites
5. Black Arts
6. The Gate of Nanna
7. Nuclear Girl
8. Unholy Pagan Fire
9. Down There...
10. Summerlands
11. Werewolf, Semen and Blood
12. Thou Angel of the Gods
13. Lord of Shadows and Golden Wood
Beherit
H418ov21.c
*
Written on 15.02.08
Left alone without his untrustworthy band members, Nuclear Holocausto of Bloody Vengeance (catchier real name Marko Laiho, but don't tell anyone) elected to go the way of many of his black metal contemporaries and continue Beherit as a one-man band with a new, ambient-based direction compensating for the lack of a full band with synthesised instruments that sound just as convincing... right? Although he would make a surprisingly successful comeback with the follow-up album, 'H418ov21.C' is a real stinker, and possibly one of the worst albums I've ever heard in both an aural and compositional sense. Say what you will about Beherit (there is much to be said), but their discography certainly leaves a lasting impression, for better or worse. Worse, mainly.
The theme here seems to be ritual music, working along similar lines to Count Grishnackh's hypnotic trance pieces in Burzum, but the result is infinitely inferior. The only real positive aspect of the album comes in its variety, which is a real surprise considering how repetitive earlier Beherit releases have been, but nothing is any good. 'The Gate of Inanna' and 'Paradise (Part II)' are both led by distractingly false-sounding electronic drum beats and bad keyboard melodies with Nuclear Holocausto's nasal tones over the top and the occasional, stifled growl, and are kept from being truly ambient by the prominent rhythm section. 'Tribal Death' is an initially more interesting, vocal-led piece, with whispers and what sounds like a yodel providing the backing atmosphere, and the return of the tribal instruments after the previous album's 'Summerlands' makes this perhaps the most interesting offering here, even though it's still overlong and overdull.
Despite its rather pompous title, 'Emotional Ecstasy' is a really bland attempt at something heavenly, driven by over-polished keyboards melodies that would have sounded embarrassing even in the early eighties, and the rest of the album after this point attempts a more atmospheric and repetitive sound, perhaps under the pretence of lulling the listener more deeply into the trance that none of them will have achieved, and lacking any kind of atmosphere whatsoever. 'Fish' is by far the worst of the lot, beginning with a chiming bell that resurfaces in 'Mystik Force,' but giving over its final minutes to a single repeated tap of the electronic drum accompanied by nothing. It's the most tedious thing I've ever heard.
Anyone who enjoys the atmospheric ambience of ex-black metal artists like Burzum and (first-era) Mortiis will have good reason to laugh in this album's incomprehensibly titled face. It's completely terrible, attractive to no kind of audience whatsoever.
1. The Gate of Inanna
2. Tribal Death
3. Emotional Ecstasy
4. Fish
5. 21st Century
6. Paradise (Part II)
7. Mystik Force
8. Spirit of the God of Fire
9. E-scape
Beherit
Electric Doom Synthesis
***
Written on 15.02.08
I'm finally beginning to understand all the fuss that's made about Beherit as one of the defining early black metal bands, as although their releases are never higher on the scale than "quite good I guess, if a bit repetitive," the diverse styles present across the band's brief discography make them highly distinctive, even if the distinction lies in their lack of defining characteristics.
'Electric Doom Synthesis' was the second solo release of remaining band member Nuclear Holocausto, and it's such an enormous improvement over its awful predecessor that I can't help but be curious about the different drugs he was using during the composition and recording process of each; if that investigation were ever published, it could be very revealing of how to succeed in the dark ambient music industry. The atmosphere here actually exists, which instantly scores over the blank preceding album, and is effectively eerie in the softer songs, before being modulated with equal skill to a harder-edged industrial vibe in 'Beyond Vision' and 'Drawing Down the Moon,' neither of which would sound entirely out of place on 'The Matrix' soundtrack, and Mortiis-like nostalgic reverie in 'Deep Night 23rd.'
Everything here is handled with greater skill and consideration than the previous album, the growled vocals subtly fading into the keyboard melodies and songs like the opener 'Ambush' ending in something of a crescendo, and like many successful black-metal-turned-dark-ambient projects, the music manages to retain the black metal sensibility without using any of the instruments, especially in pieces like 'We Worship.' 'Dead Inside' is a slow monstrosity, but perhaps chilled enough to have broader appeal like the industrial offerings, and even the return of the usually clichéd tribal drums in 'Sense' sounds less forced than it has on the previous two albums, though this marks the last point at which the album is of any interest, before it fades into silence and non-ishness out of politeness as the listener falls into a pleasant, Satanic sleep. I haven't sacrificed any virgins since listening to this, but it has the potential to be far more subconsciously unsettling than 'H418ov21.C.' That one was rubbish.
1. Ambush
2. We Worship
3. Dead Inside
4. Beyond Vision
5. Deep Night 23rd
6. Drawing Down the Moon
7. Sense
8. Temple ov Lykos
Advantages: A far superior attempt at dark ambience.
Disadvantages: Industrial songs get in the way, and it's all still pretty boring.
Adrian Belew
Here
Nostalgiavision
**
Written on 21.03.08
Thankfully the final album of Adrian Belew's mostly disappointing era of throwback sixties pop-rock, 'Here' is also slightly superior to its predecessors, mainly for featuring more experimental touches - even if most of these were admittedly experimented with by the Beatles thirty years earlier. Indeed, some songs are clear Beatles imitations, particularly 'Burned By the Fire We Make,' the ethereal 'Fly' and the Eastern-tinged 'Survival in the Wild' that features George Harrison style sitar, while others vary between generic outdated imitation and quite good guitar touches that really should have been used more extensively.
The style here is mostly similar upbeat, energetic, light rock that's thankfully moderated by the softer elements to avoid becoming too repetitive. 'Dreamlife' is a welcome acoustic song that works well with the surrounding tracks, and it's as late as 'Brave New World' that the electric riffs make their long-awaited comeback, leading the rest of the album out in style until the downbeat, soft conclusion 'Postcard from Holland' that couldn't be more literal if it tried.
Even the early, poppy songs feature enough in terms of changeable structure to appease music fans, but those who are more expressly interested in Belew's progressive side will doubtless enjoy the latter songs the most, particularly 'Brave New World' and 'Futurevision' that highlight his guitar abilities. The rest of the album isn't that bad either - it just isn't anything to write a postcard to Holland about.
1. May 1, 1990
2. I See You
3. Survival in the Wild
4. Fly
5. Never Enough
6. Peace on Earth
7. Burned by the Fire We Make
8. Dreamlife
9. Here
10. Brave New World
11. Futurevision
12. Postcard from Holland
Adrian Belew
Op Zop Too Wah
Sketches of Noodles
***
Written on 22.03.08
Finally, Adrian Belew has stopped trying to gain favour with a mainstream audience that would never really accept him, and has thrown himself fully into creating experimental, avant garde and primarily weird music to give orgasms to his fan base. 'Op Zop Too Wah' is Belew's most experimental record up to this point, and it doesn't even matter that so much of it is obviously forced when the end result is this entertaining and amusing. This is just the sort of avant garde I like: music that messes around, doesn't take itself too seriously, and at some points is even possible to appreciate on a musical level.
It should be obvious what you're getting from the title; twenty-one wildly unbalanced tracks of Belew playing music in his home studio with seemingly little regard for the conventions of the genre, whatever exactly that is. As ever, it's his guitar work that remains the most distinctive and inspired, but the prevalence of speedy tribal percussion, farting fretless bass and Belew's admittedly quite good vocals also help to make this a highly enjoyable and accomplished album, with many songs that would be enjoyable by a wider audience (such as 'I Remember How to Forget' and the Beatlesesque 'Time Waits') if only they weren't buried amidst the other oddities.
Odd is the only real word to apply to the shorter tracks that bulk out the playlist (2, 4, 7, 9, 11, 13, 14 and 15), and average at around one minute each. These are brief ideas and experiments more than songs, some being traditional musical interludes, namely the two-part instrumental 'What Do You Know?' that moves from acoustic to electric guitar, while others such as 'Word Play Drum Beat' in particular are curious for curiosity's sake; this track plays out much as its title suggests, with a drum beat and various voices chipping in to finish each other's sentences.
I'm not so much a fan of the music as a whole, as I am of the album's attitude, but saying that there are still some very good songs. 'Of Bow and Drum' is a great freestyle instrumental piece that eventually forms into a proper song (of all things, I ask you), while 'High Wire Guitar' is one of the most amusing things I've ever heard, clearly aiming for the very literal image of Belew playing his long and zany, King Crimson style guitar solo on a high wire above a roaring and appreciative circus crowd. This is not the most original or ground-breaking experimental album ever, but it allowed the musician to break free of the monotonous blandness of his previous discography, and paved the way for the heights he would subsequently achieve. You would probably hate this.
1. Of Bow and Drum
2. Word Play Drum Beat
3. Six String
4. Conversation Piece
5. All Her Love Is Mine
6. I Remember How to Forget
7. What Do You Know?, Pt. 1
8. Op Zop Too Wah
9. A Plate of Words
10. Time Waits
11. What Do You Know?, Pt. 2
12. Modern Man Hurricane Blues
13. In My Backyard
14. A Plate of Guitar
15. Live in a Tree
16. Something to Do
17. Beautiful
18. High Wire Guitar
19. Sky Blue Red Bird Green House
20. The Ruin After the Rain
21. On
Adrian Belew
**
Written on 22.03.08
The first 'Acoustic Adrian Belew' release was a huge disappointment mainly for being so boring, but it's obvious that the musician's return to an experimental agenda with the previous year's 'Op Zop Too Wah' has impacted on this second "acoustic" collection, in which Belew digs more self-assessed "classics" from his archive and gives them the unplugged treatment. Except that his acoustic guitar is plugged in, supplemented by electric guitar on occasion (as in 'Never Enough'), as well as a whole load of other instruments including piano, percussion and a string section, to the point that this might as well be considered an album of alternative versions rather than bare-bones acoustic renditions. It's slightly better for it.
The main problem here is the clashing of styles, as Belew tries to arrange simplistic, light pop-rock songs alongside pointless experimental interludes in the form of 'Things You Hit With a Stick,' 'Return of the Chicken' and finale 'Nude Wrestling With a Christmas Tree.' These frivolous songs were fun on the previous studio release, but here just seem out of place and immature. Perhaps even weirder is the on-off presence of other instruments, as Belew tackles a few songs in the same dull style as the last acoustic album, while others overload on piano and drums, with seemingly no pattern to which songs end up in which style. 'Men in Helicopters' once again starts things off with a Greenpeace anthem criticising man's short-sightedness, and this is rendered palatable and even enjoyable thanks to the dominant string section, but these extra musicians vanish completely for the remainder, leaving 'Big Blue Sun' sounding diluted without their input, which was one of the only reasons it was considered a good song in its original form.
This album is still entrenched in the camp of Belew's commercial rock era, with the minor problem that parts of it are so unappealing to either of his fan bases that it's likely no one ever bought it at all. There are some good songs here, especially '1967' and 'Cage' which actually make use of the acoustic style rather than suffer for it, but this is ultimately one of many Adrian Belew albums that you'd be better off without.
1. Men in Helicopters
2. Cage
3. I Remember How to Forget
4. Young Lions
5. Never Enough
6. Things You Hit With a Stick
7. Everything
8. Big Blue Sun
9. Bad Days
10. One of Those Days
11. Return of the Chicken
12. Dinosaur
13. 1967
14. Free as a Bird (Live)
15. Nude Wrestling With a Christmas Tree
Advantages: Better material than the previous acoustic collection, and more variety.
Disadvantages: Not really an acoustic album, and suffers from a weird dichotomy.
Adrian Belew
Coming Attractions
**
Written on 22.03.08
No one could say that Adrian Belew is averse to releasing shoddy, half-assed compilations in place of genuine studio albums, and 'Coming Attractions' is a fine example of this shoddiness. Reputedly released to offer fans a taster of what was to come (and ultimately never would), this is merely an excuse to put out a couple of unimpressive works-in-progress alongside live and studio performances of old material, for no real reason that I can see.
Belew's obsession with animals is again prominent in this release, from the declaration that his 'Inner Man' is an animal in the opening song through to the finale 'Animal Kingdom,' essentially a tediously extended version of the same jungle ambience stuff he's always doing that lasts for twelve minutes, but ultimately none of this material is really satisfying. The new songs are predictable and disappointingly mainstream-oriented, considering his experimental leanings during this period, and the old songs were never particularly good in the first place for being based in much the same style.
'Predator Feast' uses the same guitar sound effect for animals that Belew has been using since 'Elephant Talk,' '117 Valley Drive' is simply dull, and 'Inner Man' even cuts off at the end, suggesting that it's literally incomplete. Elsewhere, 'No Such Guitar' is a disappointingly apt instrumental that features hardly anything in the way of guitar, which is what most people will be approaching these albums to hear.
1. Inner Man
2. Predator Feast
3. 117 Valley Drive
4. Inner Revolution
5. Time Waits
6. I Know What I Know and That Is All I Know and I Know It
7. People
8. No Such Guitar
9. Bird in a Box
10. House of Cards
11. The Man in the Moon
12. Animal Kingdom
Advantages: If you were desperate for an Adrian Belew release in 2000.
Disadvantages: Unfinished, disappointing new songs and pointlessly reproduced old ones.
Adrian Belew
Side One
I
****
Written on 22.03.08
After a long hiatus, Adrian Belew returned in fine form to release a trilogy of albums over the course of a year. The first of these, imaginatively titled 'Side One' (you can guess how imaginative the other two will be), is a glorious return to Belew's wild guitar style that characterised eighties King Crimson, perhaps even going too far in its homage on occasion, but is made even more successful by the addition of guest musicians in the form of Primus' Les Claypool on bass guitar and Tool's Danny Carey on drums, both of whom appear on the first three tracks.
The addition of Claypool and Carey really does suit Belew's notion of the "power trio" and serves to make these early songs easily the most satisfying on the album, though the remainder are still impressive as Belew customarily takes control of all instruments. Most songs manage to stand out by being slightly different, from the Crimsonesque guitar screaming of 'Ampersand' to the funk of 'Writing on the Wall,' the softer 'Matchless Man' and the racing electronic percussion of 'Beat Box Guitar,' and this is certainly an album that will please guitar fans and progressive music fans alike, far more than any of the artist's previous solo releases.
There are still a few issues hindering this album's acceptability as a "classic" prog release, primarily the unoriginality of some of the pieces that seem far too much like what Belew was doing with King Crimson twenty years earlier, but also what Robert Fripp was doing with the band ten years before Belew even came along (particularly the 'Red' album). Instrumentals like 'Madness' tend to be overlong and droning, lyrics are fairly pointless and repetitive ('Ampersand' especially), and to top it off, the whole thing is only thirty-three minutes long.
If Belew had packaged these three albums as a genuine three-sided release it would have been one of the most impressive musical feats of modern times, but at least divided in this way it's easier to tell the subtle (or not so subtle) differences between them.
1. Ampersand
2. Writing on the Wall
3. Matchless Man
4. Madness
5. Walk Around the World
6. Beat Box Guitar
7. Under the Radar
8. Elephants
9. Pause
Adrian Belew
Side Two
II
***
Written on 22.03.08
I was surprised at how well the central part of Adrian Belew's musical trilogy worked, considering that many veteran musicians who turn their hand to electronic composition end up as an embarrassment, like someone's Nan break-dancing. Belew certainly has a knack for it, his synthesised percussion loops suiting the more laid-back guitar style employed here, and never seeming like they're trying to be cool and modern just for the sake of it, but all the same the music does end up rather repetitive and dull, especially for lacking the energy that made its predecessor so entertaining.
It's gratifying to see Belew breaking out of the King Crimson influence for the most part, but all the same it's nice to know that this is more of a single-album experiment than anything. Relaxing and melodic for the most part, supplemented by nice Eastern touches in 'Sex Nerve' and dominant piano in 'I Wish I Knew,' Belew's guitar melodies are reminiscent of the solo albums of other prog performers such as David Gilmour, though his distinctive playing style is all his own. The only song I really dislike on this album is the finale 'Sunlight,' which seems too happy and bouncy in its near-techno for my tastes, and at only thirty-three minutes this is another of Belew's albums that could have been expanded a little - but then, it was already the second of three releases within the space of a year.
1. Dead Dog on Asphalt
2. I Wish I Knew
3. Face to Face
4. Asleep
5. Sex Nerve
6. Then What
7. Quicksand
8. I Know Now
9. Happiness
10. Sunlight
Advantages: A different approach that works surprisingly well.
Disadvantages: Songs tend to sound the same.
Adrian Belew
Side Three
III
****
Written on 22.03.08
The final instalment of Adrian Belew's trilogy, which I'm sure is supposed to represent some high musical concept or other, takes the best elements from its predecessors as well as a very obvious influence from Belew's work with King Crimson, to make it the strongest of the three - by a little bit.
The spoken word stylings of the first two songs and the presence of electronic percussion make this instantly comparable to King Crimson's 'The Power to Believe,' and Robert Fripp even comes over to assist as a background player along with former Crimson alumnus Mel Collins and, most significantly, the rhythm section of Les Claypool and Danny Carey who made the first half of 'Side 1' so memorable. Claypool's bass is especially noticeable on 'Whatever,' while Belew continues the 'Side 2' synthesiser experiments with the enjoyable 'Beat Box Car' and the less enjoyable 'The Red Bell Rides a Boomerang Across the Blue Constellation,' and overall it's this mixing of eclectic styles that makes this such a satisfying listening experience, even if some of it is inevitably below par.
It's presumably intentional that this "finale" album features a clash of styles, but Belew's distinctive guitar sound still wins out, even when modulated to funk ('Incompetence Difference') or something more ethereal ('Water Turns to Wine'). His vocals are less prominent here than before in this largely instrumental album, only really coming to the fore in the narrative of track two (the first being handled by The Prophet Omega), and as a progressive album it's nice to see call-back references to earlier parts, mostly from the first album, without these being overdone.
Belew's trilogy is a vanity project that transcends ego and proves highly enjoyable for those of a progressive or experimental mind-set, and even though it will only ever seem like a secondary career to modern King Crimson (itself hugely diluted from the band's golden era in the seventies, before Belew was even a member), it's nice to know that the musician is still going strong with his innovative works, rather than relying on past successes.
1. Troubles
2. Incompetence Difference
3. Water Turns to Wine
4. Drive
5. Whatever
6. Men In Helicopters v4.0
7. Beat Box Car
8. The Red Bell Rides a Boomerang Across the Blue Constellation
9. &
Advantages: Satisfying conclusion, building on its predecessors and introducing new elements.
Disadvantages: Clear overlap with Belew's concurrent work in King Crimson.
Beneath the Massacre
Mechanics of Dysfunction
*
Written on 28.02.08
Technical death metal is perhaps the most corrupted metal genre after melodic death metal, as both have fallen far from their original splendour thanks to the efforts (or rather, lack of effort) of imitation acts that decided to abandon their progenitors' more creative tendencies in favour of a focus on extreme brutality and heaviness that often doesn't even measure up to the competition even by those shallow terms.
Canada's Beneath the Massacre is one such act popularly labelled as "technical death metal," a term which nowadays seems to be applied to any band playing with fast guitars drowned out in a sea of tediously repetitive, machine-gun style drums that fail to vary their sound at all across the half hour of the recording, and often make it sound like the CD is skipping. This is a far cry from Atheist, Death and even the lesser, copy-cat acts who followed the ideology that endlessly changing guitar riffs and tempo changes amounted to more interesting music, and simply serves to blur the line more between modern technical death metal and modern brutal death metal, both of which are sickeningly overrated by angsty metal fans who require their music to be loud and abrasive, and nothing else.
This really is half an hour of exactly the same, mindlessly hammering rubbish, making it impossible to discern specific songs, especially as many skip all but unnoticed over the track divide when the listener zones out. Elliot Desgagnés' guttural growls will only be impressive if you've never heard the style before, and don't convey any of the emotion found in superior acts of a similar style like Suffocation, but perhaps worst of all is that, despite its focus on speed and aggression over technical accomplishment... it's not even that fast. Not even compared to an average metal band.
This only becomes worse with 'The Stench of Misery,' perhaps the only song to attempt something slightly different, as the riffs slow down even further and introduce a dull bass and spoken word section that doesn't serve to make this any more "technical" to my ears. There are numerous superior bands that can satisfy the few criteria that Beneath the Massacre are striving for, but disappointingly this band seems to possess a comparatively high profile at the moment.
1. The Surface
2. Society's Disposable Son
3. The System's Failure
4. The Stench of Misery
5. Untitled
6. Modern Age Slavery
7. The Invisible Hand
8. Better Off Dead
9. Long Forgotten
10. Sleepless
Benediction
Grind Bastard
****
Written on 15.02.08
Benediction are a death metal band originating from Birmingham, the hallowed home of heavy metal, and while 'Grind Bastard' is nothing particularly special, it's a fine slice of thrashy death metal that makes up in irresistibly catchy guitar riffs what it lacks in originality.
Guitarists Darren Brookes and Peter Rew have been the only consistent core of the band since its inauguration in the late eighties, and their dirty, loud riffs and rare but fine solos (especially notable in tracks three and four, despite being so short) keep this album compelling throughout its slightly lengthy hour-long playing time. Neil Hutton's drums are another excellent feature, crashing all over the kit in a typical grindcore fashion rather than more typical death metal blasting, and every song here is an enjoyable journey without being overly concerned with aggression or speed, as is the fault of much death metal.
While all of the songs are pretty good, it's the cover songs that tend to stand out, merely for being so well-known in their prior incarnations, as if the band is taking delight in bastardising others' works to the presumed distress of their fans. There's no need for concern, as the Twisted Sister cover is handled reasonably well as a slower offering, and though I haven't heard the original I can guarantee that I would enjoy this version more, merely for not spewing from the mouth and lacquered hair of Twisted Sister. The cover of fellow Brummies Judas Priest's classic 'Electric Eye' (including introductory guitar solo 'The Hellion') I can vouch for, and although it's inevitably inferior in this form as classic metal always tends to be when covered in a death fashion, it still has comparable energy to the original, despite lacking the coolness of the guitars and Rob Halford's screams.
The title song is overlong at seven minutes and features a bass solo in what seems like a desperate attempt to set it apart, and some like 'We the Freed' up the ante by approaching hardcore in their aggression. The other songs aren't all the same, but nevertheless there are few that end up standing out due to the quantity and repetitive styles; it's more a selection of riffs that will stay with the listener, more than is typical for death bands.
1. Deadfall
2. Agonised
3. West of Hell
4. Magnificat
5. Nervebomb
6. Electric Eye (Judas Priest cover)
7. Grind Bastard
8. Shadow World
9. The Bodiless
10. Carcinoma Angel
11. We the Freed
12. Destroyer (Twisted Sister cover)
13. I
Benedictum
Seasons of Tragedy
Nod to the Old School
****
Written on 15.02.08
The new album from San Diego's Benedictum is helping to keep the spirit of classic heavy metal alive, but at the same time takes enough influence from more recent power metal trends to keep if from sounding dated. The only times this band seems stuck in a time warp are the fun but daft unison yells of some of the choruses ('Dawn of Seasons') and of course, yet another cover of Accept's popular 'Balls to the Wall' that will satisfy old-timers more than new fans.
The most interesting and surprising element of this band is its female singer Veronica Freeman, who tries her best to disguise her femininity behind a raspy metal yell before throwing off the cloak in the softer songs 'Bare Bones' and 'Steel Rain,' and shocking the headbanging metalheads who would suddenly pretend that they were never really enjoying it, and knew it was a guy all along, before booing this chick off the stage meant for men. I hate heavy metal fans, they're such idiots. Pete Wells' guitars are as entertaining as should be expected for the genre, frequently indulging in overlong solos of the best kind and mainly relying on grooving riffs similar to early Anthrax, but the only unfortunate drawback here is that no matter how enjoyable the riffs are in songs like 'Beast in the Field,' they do partly serve to draw the listener's attention to the fact that it's now 2008, and the world is fast running out of original guitar melodies.
Chris Morgan's keyboards are generally restricted to the longer songs, particularly the grand finale of the eleven-minute title track, in order that the whole thing remains defined as classic heavy metal rather than power metal, which is how it ends up sounding in 'Beast in the Field' and 'Legacy,' the fastest and arguably best songs here. This isn't an album dedicated to original ideas in its reproduction of a thirty-year-old sound, but at the same time there are enough modern influences to keep it from sounding dated, and the female frontwoman is an interesting touch for not feeling like a cheap gimmick to appeal to the femme-metal fans, who are marginally more bigoted than the sexist blokes.
1. Dawn of Seasons
2. Shell Shock
3. Burn it Out
4. Bare Bones
5. Within the Solace
6. Beast in the Field
7. Legacy
8. Nobodies Victim
9. Balls to the Wall (Accept cover)
10. Steel Rain
11. Seasons of Tragedy
Advantages: Modern heavy metal in the classic style, without sounding dated.
Disadvantages: Nothing new here.
The Berzerker
Animosity
Australian Earache
***
Written on 22.03.08
The Berzerker are among the most appropriate bands to grace Earache Records, but these Australians have as many detractors as they do supporters in the metal world, which is to be expected since they're something of a gimmick band. Berzerker's sound is characterised by the mix of generic death metal, played at an impossibly fast speed thanks to drummer Todd Hansen, with elements of techno that mostly fail to impress and only serve to weaken the effect, but with their most recent release 'Animosity' it seems that the band is finally starting to expand its repertoire beyond relentless drum blasts, unintelligible vocals and stolen guitars riffs. Though it is still mainly that.
At only twenty-eight minutes this is perhaps mercifully short, and although all ten tracks inevitably sound pretty much the same, it still made for a more palatable listen than I expected. Hansen's drums are obviously the major selling point to technical music fans, as he can hit that kit at a phenomenal speed (allegedly nineteen times per second), but for me this doesn't make for entertaining music. Indeed, at points where Hansen goes all-out - particularly for much of 'False Hope' - it merely sounds to me like the CD's skipping. He can play fast, but he never varies his performance one bit, reminiscent of the way guitar legend Michael Angelo Batio could noodle his way around an unnecessarily X-shaped guitar, but created music that was absolutely abominable (he was in the band Nitro, for god's sake).
The electronic elements are similarly unappealing, mainly manifesting themselves as a distracting fuzz above the rest of the music in the opening song and most of the later tracks, probably at its most irritating in 'Evolution' when backed up by those CD-skipping drum beats. The only song that really works in this way is 'The Cancer,' which still suffers from the same problems of incompatibility, but at least seems like effort and thought has been put in, a rarity for this band as you can imagine. Other songs differentiate themselves a little too self-consciously through slower riff sections before the inevitable slip back into the same old speed and aggression, and it would be a lot more impressive if these riffs didn't all sound like they'd been selected from the popular death metal canon.
There's a special edition version that comes with an extra 'Live in London' CD with about twenty tracks on it, if half an hour of brain-smashing, endlessly repetitive blast beats weren't enough to satisfy you. You are strange.
1. Eye for an Eye
2. Purgatory
3. False Hope
4. Evolution
5. No More Reasons
6. Retribution
7. The Cancer
8. Weapons of War
9. Heavily Medicated
10. Lonely World
Beto Vázquez Infinity
Beto Vázquez Infinity
Femme-Metal Heaven
***
Written on 22.03.08
Beto Vázquez Infinity is the somewhat pompous name chosen by ex-Nepal bass and keyboard player Beto Vázquez to describe a band consisting of him, a couple of session members, and a bunch of famous vocalists from the world of symphonic power metal. This first release doesn't sound so much like an impressive and confident debut as a compilation of B-sides from the likes of Nightwish, Edenbridge, Rhapsody and Blackmore's Night, as it's the vocalists from these bands who pretty much dictate the way each song will end up sounding.
Thus, Tarja Turunen's impressive tenure across tracks 1, 2, 4, 10 and 11 causes those songs to take on a distinctly operatic flavour, most retaining the melodic rock background but some such as 'Sadness in the Night' going all the way to piano-driven, synthesised string orchestration. I've never been a big Nightwish fan, though I'm not averse to operatic vocals in bands with greater creativity (I bloody love Therion), but these songs never sound as impressive as even the least inventive Nightwish anthem from their later years.
Candice Night is next up, being given the customary duty of Medieval-styled folk revival rock type music exemplified by Blackmore's Night, which ends up sounding rather out of place amidst the melodic rock and spacey synthesisers of the surrounding songs here. The three-part 'Through Times' doesn't really convince as a trilogy, the first being a mere acoustic and flute introduction and the others being separated unnecessarily by the intervening songs, and 'Golden Hair' might as well be included as a fourth part - the same way every single Blackmore's Night song sounds the same.
Rhapsody's Fabio Lione puts in his usual reliable performance in 'The Battle of the Past,' a song that's very clearly trying to sound like Rhapsody in its fanfare-style keyboards and optimistic double bass drumming, but doesn't have the energy or force to really see it through, though fantasy metal geeks will probably still love it. I was similarly pleased to hear Vazquez go overboard on the spacey synthesisers in the opening of 'Until Dawn' and the self-explanatory instrumental 'Infinity Space,' bowing to Arjen Lucassen's work in Ayreon to some degree, but still sounding mighty fine if you're a complete nerd like me.
Meanwhile, Edenbridge's Sabine Edelsbacher performs a satisfactory but uninspired duet with Turunen on the dull fantasy narrative 'The Wizard' before the three ladies all get together to sing out the finale, which is a bit of an anticlimax. There's nothing truly original or distinctive about this album, but fans of female-fronted rock should find it a pleasant little collaboration with some esteemed alumni.
1. Until Dawn (Angels of Light)
2. Wizard
3. The Battle of the Past
4. Sadness in the Night
5. Through Times Part I (Instrumental)
6. Through Times Part II
7. Golden Hair
8. Infinity Space (Instrumental)
9. Through Times Part III
10. The Laws of the Future
11. Promises Under the Rain
The Silent Circus
**
Written on 19.02.08
Between the Buried and Me is an interesting band, particularly as their albums become increasingly refined as their career continues, as they gradually learn to overcome their faults. The band's main problem in these earlier releases is how jarring their diverse influences sound when juxtaposed in the same song, lacking any kind of coherent structure as they move from grindcore style riffs and deep guttural vocals one moment to melodic emo the next, without any of the style or class of melodic death metal which essentially does something pretty similar, but is somehow much better. I don't make the rules, but as a brainwashed metal fan, I follow them obediently.
'The Silent Circus' is a noticeable departure from its more death metal influenced predecessor, this style only showing up as late as 'Ad a Dglgmut,' while the rest is more in the tradition of grind and hardcore, most reminiscent of something like Dillinger Escape Plan. That said, Between the Buried and Me possess a sound all of their own, however shoddy it may be at times, leaping between extremes with very little in the way of a satisfying mix. It's songs that stick to a single style, such as the surprising acoustic 'Shevanel Take 2,' that end up working the best, but the band has cried wolf so many times that it's still hard to enjoy even these lighter songs without fear that they'll soon explode into an angsty roar, as happens the majority of the time.
1. Lost Perfection: a) Coulrophobia
2. Lost Perfection: b) Anablephobia
3. Camilla Rhodes
4. Mordecai
5. Reaction
6. Shevanel Take 2
7. Ad a Dglgmut
8. Destructo Spin
9. Aesthetic
10. The Need for Repetition / The Man Land
Alaska
***
Written on 19.02.08
'Alaska' is the first truly enjoyable album from this American progressive metalcore band, oddly solving the problem of chaotic inconsistency by bringing even more diverse styles into the mix. The new post-rock element, mainly confined to the instrumental 'Medicine Wheel' and 'Laser Speed,' would take over significantly in the future, and as a genre that routinely balances light and darkness, power and melody, its application works as a catalyst in bridging the gap between the heavier metal elements and more melodic singing. I can't believe I just used the word "catalyst."
It's impressive to see the band returning to its earlier ferocity, perhaps with even greater force than on the debut release with the melodic death metal style of 'All Bodies' and unadulterated aggression and speed of 'Croakies and Boatshoes.' Each style also tends to be sustained for longer, as the band starts to relent in its restless "mathcore" values, but once again the end of the album starts to slip somewhat - in this case, mainly in the form of attempted melodic death metal lead guitars that come off sounding pretty cheesy in 'The Primer' and even worse in 'Autodidact.'
The songs lengths have calmed down now, with fewer feeling overlong, and the band is finally in a position to be truly appreciated for its talents now that they're being applied more effectively.
1. All Bodies
2. Alaska
3. Croakies and Boatshoes
4. Selkies: The Endless Obsession
5. Breathe In, Breathe Out
6. Roboturner
7. Backwards Marathon
8. Medicine Wheel
9. The Primer
10. Autodidact
11. Laser Speed
Colors
***
Written on 19.02.08
It's satisfying to see a band evolve positively from a clashing melting pot of genres into a unit that manages to combine the best elements of their diverse influences, and 'Colors' is undoubtedly the finest album from Between the Buried and Me thus far. The singing is less whiney, and works alongside the heavier riffs whenever it's called for, rather than requiring its own special, remedial section elsewhere, and the greater influence of post-rock and classic prog rock once again helps to meld the other styles all together in a manner that works surprisingly well. No wonder it took the band so long to develop a successful formula.
The other aspect of this album that makes it stand out from the discography is the sheer length of some of the songs. Overlong tracks running out of steam was a problem that affected the first couple of albums especially, but here 'Ants of the Sky' tends more towards bland, tedious repetition (and includes Hammond organs, which earns immediate negative points), while 'White Walls' uses its fifteen minutes to explore the full spectrum of sound from brutal death metal to emo, in a manner that still doesn't sound right, no matter how skilfully it's executed.
This isn't an album for metalcore fans with short attention spans - which I'm guessing is most of them - but it's an effective album if you're in the right state of mind, and will likely appeal to those who enjoy the similarly drawn-out works of Tool. For me it's just a little too dull, the incorporation of classic prog being nothing I haven't heard before, and better, seeming more like a bandwagon-jumping thing after bands like Porcupine Tree and Opeth highlighted its potential for contemporary music over the last few years.
1. Foam Born: a) The Backtrack
2. Foam Born: (b) The Decade of Statues
3. Informal Gluttony
4. Sun of Nothing
5. Ants of the Sky
6. Prequel to the Sequel
7. Viridian
8. White Walls
Beyond Fear
Beyond Fear
***
Written on 22.03.08
When a prominent vocalist departs a rock band, the replacement invariably has a difficult time winning over the established fans, and is subjected to much undue criticism when the band's profile fades from the limelight. While Black Sabbath were able to pull it off by replacing an increasingly unreliable Ozzy Osbourne with Ronnie James Dio and changing their style to suit his epic elf tone, others such as Iron Maiden and Judas Priest were less successful under their replacements. Blaze Bayley's gruffer tone helped steer Iron Maiden in a direction that many fans were unhappy with before he was eventually ejected and Bruce Dickinson made a triumphal return, but Rob Halford's decision to leave Judas Priest around the same time was met with a different response, as the band launched a search to find the closest thing they could to a direct replacement, eventually recruiting Tim Owens from a Judas Priest tribute band of all things.
Owens (affectionately known as "The Ripper" by the minority who had any affection for him) was a suitable replacement for Halford, and possessed a distinctive voice, even if it was clearly rooted in Halford's high wailing style. When Halford returned and the Ripper became freelance again, he made another fan base angry by replacing Matt Barlowe in Iced Earth for a couple of years, before fan pressure once again saw the perpetual substitute kicked back on the proverbial street. I'm aware that I'm mixing metaphors, let's just get on to the review, alright?
Beyond Fear is the Ripper's new band, and is predictably based in the classic heavy metal style, immediately comparable to Judas Priest or more specifically the other high-profile speed metal acts that have made a career over the last decade or so from basically re-working the 'Screaming for Vengeance' and 'Painkiller' albums in their own style. I'm talking about Primal Fear. The comparison is obvious but necessary, as every song on here sounds much like a Primal Fear release, or failing that, harks right back to Priest itself: 'Scream Machine' ends in a guitar solo that goes right back to seventies Priest, the near-ballad 'Your Time Has Come' can be similarly traced back to the classic 'Beyond the Realms of Death,' and even the songs that take on a more modern, dark and heavy variant of the classic metal style sound like they're taken from 'Jugulator,' the Ripper's first album as Judas Priest singer.
The band is competent, and is in fact pretty damn impressive in places, especially drummer Eric Elkins who performs powerfully on 'The Human Race' among others, though the slower songs do tend to feel painfully drawn-out (especially 'I Don't Need This'). The Ripper himself is as reliable as ever, though he's arguably already peaked in Iced Earth's 'Gettysburg' trilogy and only ever sounds like he's re-hashing that success to me. Beyond Fear is a band that can be easily enjoyed if you're a fan of old-school heavy metal performed in a new-school way, if that makes any sense, and with its screaming guitars, awful lyrics and high wailing vocals, it makes no apologies for giving the fans what they want. They may never be as good as modern Judas Priest, or even Primal Fear, but Beyond Fear are better than the average Judas Priest rip-off band playing in your local area. A bit.
1. Scream Machine
2. And... You Will Die
3. Save Me
4. The Human Race
5. Coming At You
6. Dreams Come True
7. Telling Lies
8. I Don't Need This
9. Words of Wisdom
10. My Last Words
11. Your Time Has Come
12. The Faith
Beyond the Embrace
Against the Elements
****
Written on 15.02.08
The debut release from American melodic death metal band Beyond the Embrace holds no surprises for anyone with even a fleeting knowledge of the genre basics, taking most of its cues from mid-nineties In Flames ('The Jester Race' and 'Whoracle' albums) but with more dominant sung vocals that are uncharacteristically impressive for a death metal vocalist. While it's a little disappointing that this band isn't striving to push the boundaries of melodic death in the way of some of their American contemporaries such as Arsis, there's something to be said for keeping the now-classic traditional spirit alive, especially in the face of this decade's metalcore trends that have corrupted the genre.
As expected, there's the usual mix between light, melodic lead guitars and harmonies indebted to classic metal (or rather, the early melodeath bands' takes on classic metal), with squealing solos and harmonies lying a little uncomfortably on top of harder backing riffs that would make death metal purists tear their hair out (and those guys have a lot of hair). The more obvious In Flames influence can be seen in the acoustic sections of the instrumental 'Drowning Sun' and the finale of 'Release,' but it isn't direct plagiarism as much as a devoted imitation of style, and Shawn Gallagher (presumably no relation) makes the whole thing stand out from the crowd with his thrash-inspired clean vocals, sharing roughly half of the limelight with his more standard death growl.
As I said, there's nothing truly creative or exciting about this band, but it's another decent entry into the melodeath canon for the US market, and one that will hopefully aid in the quest to exterminate the metalcore infestation. No matter, it'll probably run out of steam some time soon. My biggest disappointment here is that 'The Riddle of Steel,' although an interesting, extended instrumental, wasn't a death metal cover of Basil Poledouris' theme from 'Conan the Barbarian.' That would have been great.
1. Bastard Screams
2. Mourning in Magenta
3. Compass
4. Rapture
5. Drowning Sun
6. Against the Elements
7. Release
8. The Bending
9. Embers Astray
10. The Riddle of Steel
Bikini Kill
Pussy Whipped
Enter the Riot Grrrls
***
Written on 22.03.08
Bikini Kill were a prominent band in the so-called "riot grrrl" movement of the early nineties, mixing third-wave feminism with punk rock. I know, a pretty terrifying concept. 'Pussy Whipped' would eventually become their first full-length album, after a number of cassette demos and shorter releases, and its assault of short and sharp feminist punk... or whatever it is, clearly owes much of its sound to contemporary grunge, particularly Nirvana.
Kathleen Hanna's vocals are predominantly based in a female punk yell, but frequently cross over into lighter singing, though never in an attempt to reach a wider market as many female-fronted "punk" bands despicably attempt. This is loyal and committed punk through and through, which also means it's satisfyingly poor on occasion, with the emphasis being placed on the emotional outburst rather than technical accomplishment. That said, there are still plenty of touches that make certain songs stand out, from the bass-driven 'Magnet' and 'Star Fish' to the explosive 'Speed Heart' and 'Hamster Baby' and the thoughtful closing instrumental 'For Tammy Rae,' the only song to overstep the three-minute mark.
This won't appeal to everyone, especially if you're averse to angry punk or yelling girls, but the latter only presents a real problem on the occasions that the band deliberately go for an irritating schoolgirl whine. The guitar is consistently interesting throughout, from the grunge drone of 'Blood One' to the obtuse wrong notes of 'Speed Heart' and the very Nirvana-esque 'Star Bellied Boy,' proving that this wasn't just a group of angry feminists using the underground rock stage to spread their message. It was mainly that, but not only that.
1. Blood One
2. Alien She
3. Magnet
4. Speed Heart
5. Lil Red
6. Tell Me So
7. Sugar
8. Star Bellied Boy
9. Hamster Baby
10. Rebel Girl
11. Star Fish
12. For Tammy Rae
Bikini Kill
Rejects All American
No Backrub For You
**
Written on 22.03.08
'Reject All American' was Bikini Kill's last album before the riot grrrls disbanded in 1998, and it disappointingly heads into the very directions that I'd been delighted to see completely absent on the previous album. While it's debatable whether or not they sold out, the inclusion of what are essentially soft pop-rock songs on here, using a soft female singing style rather than the standard yell, are only the worst symptom of an album full of such nods to the mainstream, generally toning down its aggression and arrogance in favour of a clean and polished punk tone more suited to MTV.
Right from the onset, it's disconcerting to see Bikini Kill flaunting their female image with annoyingly playful "na na na" backing vocals over Nirvana plagiarism riffs, and I'm still not entirely sure whether they're being deliberately irritating, or if that's just the way it came out. The majority of the album is still enjoyable, even if it pales in comparison to their earlier, more hostile work, with enjoyable melodic guitars in 'Jet Ski' and 'Tony Randall' making those songs stand out, but others comparably lacking in direction. 'R.I.P.' just seems far too long at three and a half minutes (considering their former average was just under two), and even when the energy finally returns in 'No Backrub,' it's soon dispelled again, before the last couple of songs attempt to win the fans back.
The most offensive tracks here, from a punk point of view (certainly not from a mainstream point of view which would find them greatly preferable), are 'False Start' and 'For Only.' Lacking any kindof punk credibility at all, these are light pop songs that see Kathleen Hanna singing softly over bland backing instrumentation, in performances that wouldn't be out of place in that TV-friendly-rock bar in 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer.'
1. Statement of Vindication
2. Capri Pants
3. Jet Ski
4. Distinct Complicity
5. False Start
6. R.I.P.
7. No Backrub
8. Bloody Ice Cream
9. For Only
10. Tony Randall
11. Reject All American
12. Finale
Bikini Kill
The Singles
Anti-Pleasure Dissertation
***
Written on 23.03.08
At only seventeen minutes and nine tracks in length, there's no way that this posthumous singles collection should be considered an essential purchase, but it does catch Bikini Kill at their very best, before later works veered towards the mainstream market. Whether or not this is genuinely a collection of singles or just some sort of ironic joke I couldn't say (though the band did find relative fame in later years, so the former is likely), but the quality is consistently high throughout.
The vocals and guitar share the limelight equally here, even if it's the singing that will catch most peoples' attention (blow me tight, it's a girl singing punk rock!), and songs like 'New Radio' and 'Rebel Girl' demonstrate the guitar's ability even when the vocals aren't quite up to the same level - the drums in the latter song are particularly dull, merely slapping slowly throughout its duration. 'In Accordance to Natural Law' and 'Rah! Rah! Replica' are short outbursts of speed and aggression that work very well, even if thirty seconds and fifty-nine seconds apiece arguably don't count as actual songs, but placed elsewhere these could make very good intro tracks.
'Strawberry Julius,' 'I Like F**king' and 'I Hate Danger' are all good punk songs that use the band's feminine status to their advantage, particularly in the mix of yelling and singing vocals, and the latter even harks back to the classic punk tradition. 'Anti-Pleasure Dissertation' is a lighter and more melodic offering, though not to the extent of the disappointing pop songs on the 'Reject All-American' release, and uses softer singing to supplement the aggression rather than wimping out entirely.
There's only really one part of the album that I don't like, namely the stupid hand-clap game skit type opening thing that takes far too much time in 'Demirep,' but I can't rate this album any higher than three stars purely because it's so short.
1. New Radio
2. Rebel Girl
3. Demirep
4. In Accordance to Natural Law
5. Strawberry Julius
6. Anti-Pleasure Dissertation
7. Rah! Rah! Replica
8. I Like F**king
9. I Hate Danger
Bile
Suckpump
**
Written on 15.02.08
Bile is an appropriately named New York industrial band that seems principally concerned with creating unsettling but catchy atmospheres, with more than a little influence from Nine Inch Nails and the other industrial bands that rose in prominence around the time the film 'The Crow' was released. This means that the sound can be a little too easily dated to the mid-nineties, but the early Bile releases are worthy competitors to the big-name acts of the time, conveying a more convincingly disturbed listening experience even if the frequent interruptions of catchy electronic rhythms aimed at the underground club market are quite distracting.
All of the usual elements are here, from distorted samples of random television shows and public service announcements to repetitive guitar riffs and drum rhythms with discordant synthesiser stuff all over the place. Krztoff's vocals are processed through some electronic gizmo or other and range from whispers to oppressive yelling depending on context, and anyone who enjoys Ministry, Nine Inch Nails or even White Zombie will be able to appreciate the (slightly) more commercially-oriented stuff like 'I Reject,' 'Feeling Like S**t' and the overly repetitive 'Get Out,' the radio edit of which is basically an inferior version of the same thing to bulk out the tracklist.
For the more hardcore fans of the genre, the title track and 'Burnt' offer dark ambience that's bound to make any children within earshot cry, but these tend to be on the long side, and elsewhere the album suffers from an overly processed sound all-round (especially to the clinical drum beats), lazy sound effects (there's a flushing toilet in 'I Reject') and, in the case of 'Ura F**king Loser' especially, really bad lyrics. Even the samples feel quite clichéd and don't have the same attitude of obscurity as many similar bands, the anti-LSD propaganda report quoted in 'Burnt' having appeared in numerous electronic albums I've heard over the years, most notably Porcupine Tree's 'Voyage 34' from earlier in the decade that bases its entire concept around it. This feels like a slightly confused mix of dark ambience and catchy rhythms that would only have gained any popularity during the brief period when industrial was cool.
1. Head
2. Burnt
3. Ura F**king Loser
4. I Reject
5. Feeling Like S**t
6. Get Out
7. Suckpump
8. Get Out (Radio edit)
Bile
Teknowhore
***
Written on 15.02.08
Bile's second album is a more mature and coherent effort than its predecessor, as Krztoff makes a conscious decision to aim more towards unsettling dark ambience propelled by electronic rhythms to keep this a viable option in underground clubs... with a couple of very clear exceptions such as the jarring 'Green Day' that sounds exactly like a Placebo song, right down to the nasal tone of the singing that replaces Krztoff's typical distorted roar.
The problem with targeting this more specific industrial market is that the songs lose some of the appeal they would otherwise have to the casual listener, which is probably the reason for the contrived singles. Songs tend to be overlong and repetitive to a fault, unless you're into the atmosphere of course, with electronic white noise being harder to pin down, particularly in 'Weather Control' and the non-ish 'Suckers.'
On the other hand, there are still some traditional industrial rock offerings complete with the ever-popular duet of hard guitar riffs and buzzsaw imitation synthesisers , making the shorter 'Teknowhore,' 'Habitual Sphere' and 'Compound Pressure' more refined examples of the sound that dominated the previous album, even if they invite inevitable comparisons to Nine Inch Nails (and Marilyn Manson when he's ripping off Nine Inch Nails in the future, which was the only time Manson was any good anyway - no real need for that rant here, but it's in brackets so it can merely count as additional information not entirely related to the main body).
The oddest and most interesting aspect of the tracklist for fans of more experimental music is the merging of the later tracks into an overarching 'You Can't Love This' suite, but sadly in reality it's less of an extended industrial epic and more like two solid industrial rock songs (parts two and four) connected by two inconsequential, ethereal interludes. It makes for a good ending to the album, before braver listeners plunge into the torturously slow agony of 'Solitude is Bliss,' but my main reaction at the album's conclusion was slight disappointment at boredom at its overlong duration. Disappointingly, I didn't even feel sick.
1. Intro
2. Teknowhore
3. Weather Control
4. No One I Call Friend
5. Habitual Sphere
6. Compound Pressure
7. Interstate Hate Song
8. Green Day
9. No I Don't Know
10. Suckers
11. Lowest Form
12. You Can't Love This (Pt. 1)
13. You Can't Love This (Pt. 2)
14. You Can't Love This (Pt. 3)
15. You Can't Love This (Pt. 4)
16. Solitude is Bliss
Bile
Biledegradable
**
Written on 15.02.08
'Biledregadable' is technically an E.P., but its substantial length and incorporation of the previous 'The Darkbeat E.P.' as its second half makes it more of a compilation, though certainly nothing approaching the level of a full studio album. The music here is an assortment of weird covers (Krztoff's industrial take on The Who's 'My Generation' is unrecognisable apart from the chorus), dark ambience and overlong, underground club themes, and it's something I would only recommend to serious fans of late nineties industrial rock rather than casual listeners who merely fancy trying something a little daring to increase their alternative street cred, who should stick with the more accessible industrial offerings of 'The Matrix' soundtrack.
'My Generation' isn't a particularly good cover, certainly not one that merits being played twice, especially as the "original intro" version is exactly the same but with - that's right - a slightly different intro. Nevertheless, the louder and more upbeat style of this song makes it one of the most immediately enjoyable here along with the superior 'Fascion,' a guitar-based song with catchy verses that benefits from the primitive atmosphere evoked by the demo sound quality, making it the best song here by far.
The others tend more towards dark ambience, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but they aren't particularly fine examples of it; 'Rubber Love' and 'Degradable' are fairly typical B-sides, and the two closing tracks from 'The Darkbeat E.P.' are essentially extended versions of the kind of generic thing you might hear if a movie character walked into an unconvincing underground rave club. I prefer it when Bile stick to their name and make music that's satisfyingly repulsive rather than merely tedious.
1. My Generation
2. Rubber Love
3. Degradable
4. Fascion (demo)
5. My Generation (original intro)
6. The Phantom God
7. Planet Weather Control
Bile
Sex Reflex
**
Written on 15.02.08
Bile's first album of the new millennium sees the band (or more appropriately its songwriter and only consistent member Krztoff) opting for a more mainstream take on their industrial style that mostly abandons the dark ambient leanings that worked to mixed success in previous releases. Due to the state of the "industrial rock" scene at the time, speaking in very broad terms, this means that the more radio-oriented songs like 'World War Four,' 'Betty Page' and 'There Is No You and Me' have something of Marilyn Manson about them, around his 'Antichrist Superstar' / Trent Reznor wannabe phase, while Nine Inch Nails itself forms the basis for some of the darker and more considered offerings such as 'When the Dead Come Home.'
While it's disappointing to see Krztoff take such a bland, mainstream approach, there are still elements of this album to appeal to long-time fans, not accounting for tastes of the general consumer. 'To Belong, My New Uniform' and 'It'll Never Happen to Me' are both overly long and weird, while a bunch of songs - namely 'Sex Reflex,' 'In League,' 'Double Fang' and 'Relix' - are more refined and progressive to the point that they seem to mimic the style of Devin Townsend's work, though of those, only the title track (and by consequence, its almost identical remix) really lives up to the tribute, featuring a stronger guitar presence. I've no doubt that the 'Sex Reflex' album will have more appeal to the average mainstream rock fan than Krztoff's more intense work, but those looking for experimental industrial will be disappointed.
1. World War Four
2. Betty Page
3. Wet Dream
4. Sex Reflex
5. There Is No You and Me
6. To Belong, My New Uniform
7. In League
8. Double Fang
9. Vampyre Hunter K
10. When the Dead Come Home
11. It'll Never Happen to Me
12. Relix
13. The Hunger, the Feeding, the Afterglow
14. Rock is Dead (In Bed)
15. Sex Reflex (Un-lubed, Red and Raw mix)
Bile
Nightmare Before Krztoff
**
Written on 15.02.08
'Nightmare Before Krztoff' is an interesting and considerate release from Bile's Krztoff, which seems to be intended as supplementary to his band's primary canon of works. Rather than a mere collection of B-sides and off-cuts, these songs were mostly composed for the preceding 'Sex Reflex' album, but were deemed not to suit its more mainstream direction, and are thus inevitably all the more appealing to those like me, whose brains and aural taste-buds are wired incorrectly from those of the general public. But who is really wrong? A: It is me, clearly.
In fact, the songs here aren't necessarily more obscure or less approachable, but are mostly longer, more downbeat and more experimental, albeit in a way pretty much entirely derivative of acts like Ministry and Nine Inch Nails. 'The Serial Killer Blues' and 'Love Stinks' bookend the album in a more accessible fashion that ends up sounding like mellow Marilyn Manson, but the rest has much to offer for more seasoned fans of the genre, 'In My Eye' sounding like grunge-industrial if such a thing exists, and the more intricate and discordant trio 'The Day the Aliens Landed,' 'Death Buzz Lust' and 'Venom on My Breath' being comparable to Ministry's best work.
There's an odd but enjoyable central section of the album that seems aimed towards mass appeal without "selling out," increasingly exponentially from the atmospheric 'Melas Chasm' through to 'You Don't Turn Me On' and its ultimate expression in the soft 'Submission,' but this is all counteracted by the frankly weird as hell 'Dr. Quogue's Methodone Reducer,' which only those with extensive field experience in the industrial realm will really be able to appreciate, and went right over my head. While this is less instantly approachable than 'Sex Reflex,' which also scored in terms of its sex appeal title, it's the superior album of the pair, and not as self-indulgent as you might expect from a record that even features the guy's name (perhaps not his real name).
1. The Serial Killer Blues
2. In My Eye
3. Melas Chasm
4. You Don't Turn Me On
5. Submission
6. The Day the Aliens Landed
7. Death Buzz Lust
8. Venom on My Breath
9. Extremities
10. Dr. Quogue's Methodone Reducer
11. Love Stinks (The J. Geils Band cover)
Bile
Copy Machine
**
Written on 16.02.08
As a collection of covers performed in an industrial rock style, this album isn't only poorly conceived, but it's downright lazy as well. Not only does it allow Krztoff to make some money off the backs of other artists' work (only a little money admittedly, as this stuff isn't exactly a big seller), but as some of the material has been around for at least a few years and has frequently appeared on earlier releases, would it really have taken an enormous effort to include more than nine songs?
Despite his usual flair for the genre, Krztoff really brings very little to these covers, the sole exception being the Who's 'My Generation' which is messed around with to reflect a much darker tone and is largely unrecognisable, but even this was previously available as the leading track from the 'Biledegradable' E.P. The rest are predictable and uninventive re-hashes of commercial rock and mellow pop songs performed in a style that's more reminiscent of Marilyn Manson's own covers than anything, which should give you some idea as to the quality you can expect from this release.
Grinding guitars and irritating keyboards are the key players here in reminding of the much better sounds of the original performances, and it's only Krztoff's vocals that impress to any degree in his takes on Alice Cooper, Mike Patton, Kurt Cobain and even Gary Glitter. It's fortunate that most of the songs are based in catchy rock, as this at least prevents the listening experience from being too boring, but the sound does become incredibly samey, especially in the more inherently repetitive songs like 'Do You Wanna Touch Me There' and 'Creep.' I'm never really a fan of cover albums, unless they take a radically different and enlightening view of the earlier material that earns them the right to exist as separate entities. This doesn't.
1. Clones (We're All) (Alice Cooper cover)
2. Do You Wanna Touch Me There (Oh Yeah) (Gary Glitter cover)
3. Love Stinks (J. Geils Band cover)
4. We Got the Beat (The Go-Go's cover)
5. My Generation (The Who cover)
6. Midlife Crisis (Faith No More cover)
7. Scentless Apprentice (Nirvana cover)
8. Not to Touch the Earth (The Doors cover)
9. Creep (Black from the Dead cover)
Biohazard
Urban Discipline
****
Written on 16.02.08
Biohazard's second album was their debut on heavy metal label Roadrunner Records, bringing the band greater attention to the point that they felt the need to reproduce some of their earlier material in case anyone didn't hear it the first time. It's quite revealing that the songs chosen - 'Wrong Side of the Tracks' and 'Hold My Own' - were the most hip hop-influenced of the previous release, as it seems that the band was struggling slightly to incorporate those elements more successfully into their new songs, which display a greater fondness for hardcore punk and thrash metal that I can't help but be more fond of, even if it isn't quite what the fans were after.
The rap influence feels more natural than on the debut, mostly evident in the drums but also in the verse styles that frequently display a hip hop mentality (as in 'Business') or full-on rap delivery from Evan Seinfeld and Billy Graziadei in 'Chamber Spins Three,' 'Disease' and 'Mistaken Identity.' The best thing about this fusion is how well both sides hold up, as the rapped songs tend to feature the heaviest and most metal-influenced riffs almost as an apology, or an attempt to preserve the yin-yang of the cosmos, 'Disease' even starting out sounding like Black Sabbath.
The other, more prominent direction of this varied album is the hardcore punk that works excellently and is enormously enjoyable, even if you couldn't care less about the social consciousness of the lyrics. The songs are all convincingly angry, and the only time something misleadingly optimistic arrives is in 'We're Only Gonna Die (From Our Own Arrogance),' merely for sounding so much like classic punk of the late seventies. As usual there are a couple of obscure elements thrown in to diversify the album in a slightly forced manner that it didn't really need considering its existing variety, but I can't argue with the gloomy acoustic and singing that opens 'Loss' or the Egyptian-sounding guitar solo of 'Punishment' that's endearingly pointless.
1. Chamber Spins Three
2. Punishment
3. Shades of Grey
4. Business
5. Black and White and Red All Over
6. Man With a Promise
7. Disease
8. Urban Discipline
9. Loss
10. Wrong Side of the Tracks
11. Mistaken Identity
12. We're Only Gonna Die (From Our Own Arrogance)
13. Tears of Blood
14. Hold My Own
Biohazard
State of the World Address
***
Written on 16.02.08
Opening with the self-important declaration "It's the State of the World Address, motherf--" it was immediately obvious that Biohazard's third album wasn't going to be entirely my cup of tea. On the positive side, there's an increase in the thrash metal influence that comes along with the greater rap elements, and the whole thing is a lot more successfully fused than previously, properly defining the band's sound for the first time. On the negative side, this really isn't an album for those who dislike hip hop in general, as a guest performance from the guy from Cypress Hill who opens 'Tales from the Hard Side' by declaring that he is indeed the guy from Cypress Hill, not to mention the similarly overlong rap intro of 'Five Blocks to the Subway,' only end up reminding me of some of the reasons I've never enjoyed hip hop, which is weird as I expected its influence here to be more from the heart.
The best songs for rock fans are the heavier offerings such as 'Down for Life' and 'What Makes Us Tick,' which respectively remind of eighties thrash bands Anthrax and Testament, and are excellent fusions of punk-thrash. The hip hop drums sit nicely alongside the lead guitars to make songs like 'How It Is' and 'Five Blocks to the Subway' enjoyable outside of the mindless rap declarations, and there are even a couple of songs that attempt something different and push the envelope of previous attempts-to-be-something-different; 'Each Day' opens with an acoustic guitar, as is customary for one song from each album, but is joined by unprecedented synthetic orchestra. More worrying is 'Love Denied,' which threatens to be a power ballad for an unnervingly long time before relenting and delivering another heavy offering.
It's easy to see Biohazard's confidence, talent and recognition grow with each of these early releases, but to be honest I preferred the more scattered sound of the previous album.
1. State of the World Address
2. Down for Life
3. What Makes Us Tick
4. Tales from the Hard Side
5. How It Is
6. Remember
7. Five Blocks to the Subway
8. Each Day
9. Failed Territory
10. Lack There Of
11. Pride
12. Human Animal
13. Cornered
14. Love Denied
The Birthday Party
Junk Yard
****
Written on 23.03.08
'Junkyard' is the third album from Australian post-punk rockers The Birthday Party, and it's certainly the most drugged-up album I've heard in a long time. Nick Cave croons and screams in an endlessly repetitive, often schizophrenic style while Rowland S. Howard occasionally forgets he's supposed to be playing guitar at all. The end result is confused, somewhat disturbed, and much fun.
I suppose the main problem with this album is that it probably requires the listener to be in a similar state to the performers in order to really appreciate it, as much of it just sounds tedious and samey to me, especially songs like 'She's Hit' that seem to go on forever. The country influence is interesting, and never permitted to usurp the dark post-punk style, while the energy is kept up by every other song featuring a screamed outburst from Cave for pretty much its entire duration, most prominent in the mania of 'Blast Off,' 'Big Jesus Trash Can' and the two versions of 'Dead Joe,' the second being more of a continuation than an alternate take. After repeating the choruses ad nauseam for several minutes, Cave eventually stops bothering to enunciate the individual words altogether.
With its screamed vocals, painful dustbin drums and hammering attitude, this is an album that could easily cross over in appeal to fans of many extreme music genres, and certainly doesn't have the same bouncy commercial quality as other post-punk bands of the era such as the Boomtown Rats.
1. Blast Off
2. She's Hit
3. Dead Joe
4. The Dim Locator
5. Hamlet (Pow, Pow, Pow)
6. Several Sins
7. Big Jesus Trash Can
8. Kiss Me Black
9. 6" Gold Blade
10. Kewpie Doll
11. Junkyard
12. Dead Joe (2nd version)
13. Release the Bats
The most satisfying thing here is that the level of pop has been reduced significantly from the standard Bad Astronaut fare, as their own material is tempered by the slightly harder edge of Armchair Martian's performance, while the other band's material doesn't lend itself to such embellishment anyway - except for the notable example of 'Jessica's Suicide' which has some pretty terrible lyrics, and it doesn't help that they're piped through Joey Cape's singing. Armchair Martian's songs are slightly more traditional in their punk rock riffs, though their tendency towards power ballads is a little irritating, but this probably wouldn't be such an issue on their own studio albums judging by the singer's performance on Bad Astronaut's 'You Deserve This,' which he even manages to make into a sort of grunge piece.
The final song is a disappointing finale, using the two singers to some extent by mainly relying on Armchair Martian a little surprisingly (and thankfully), but the song itself is too over-repetitive in its country groove to be of great interest. This was never intended as a release to be taken too seriously in any case, and had Bad Astronaut not amicably disbanded so soon due to Derrick Plourde's death, it probably would have faded into obscurity rather than become the collector's piece it is today.
1. Not a Dull Moment
2. Crestfallen
3. Grey Suits
4. Statler 2000
5. You Deserve This
6. Jessica's Suicide
7. 17 Years
Advantages: Armchair Martian temper Bad Astronaut's pop direction.
Disadvantages: Bad Astronaut exacerbate Armchair Martian's irritating ballads.
Houston We Have a Drinking Problem
**
Written on 25.02.08
The "hilariously" titled 'Houston: We Have a Drinking Problem' (how do they come up with this stuff?) is the first full-length release from Bad Astronaut, side project of Lagwagon's Joey Cape and former members of the Ataris, and it's unfortunately a slight step down in quality from their debut E.P., which had the advantage of being a lot cheaper despite nearly being as long.
There's still a fine balance between piano melancholia and pop rock, but the latter ends up winning out by an enormous margin, which is rather disappointing if you happen to find that sort of music a tad screechy and irritating. Even when the band attempts to reign it back in towards the end, this backfires and results in three consistently poor ballads or near-ballads in a row, which abandon the reasonable lyrics of earlier material and go the full way into sickening sentimentality.
There are still some enjoyable aspects to this release. Some of the guitars are quite good when they stick to a more traditional style, or attempt something melodic as is the case at the end of 'Break Your Frame,' the piano is always welcome, and towards the end it even seems to feature a harmonica which is a nice additional touch, but essentially this fails to find the middle ground that their early release just about achieved.
'Single' is a strong song, comparatively speaking, and more substantial than the rest, but the quality is dragged down significantly by the boring pop rock of 'You Deserve This,' sounding much worse here than when Armchair Martian covered it on the earlier E.P., and the cheesy power ballad 'Another Dead Romance' that wouldn't even make the most fickle teenage Him fan cry. Bad Astronaut was always going to have a tough job convincing people on both sides of its target market, but it ends up rather unsatisfying.
1. These Days
2. Clear Cutting
3. Single
4. Break Your Frame
5. Disarm
6. Not a Dull Moment
7. You Deserve This
8. If I Had a Son
9. Solar Sister
10. Off the Wagon
11. Another Dead Romance
12. Killers and Liars
13. Our Greatest Year
14. The Passenger
Rock for Light
****
Written on 20.03.08
Hardcore punk pioneers Bad Brains are a pretty strange outfit, playing a mix of furious punk and chilled-out, traditional reggae with no delusions that the two contradictory styles can ever be rruly combined. While punk rock has always had a soft spot for reggae, Bad Brains take this, and just about everything else in the genre, to an extreme, and the whole thing is shrouded in their Rastafarian philosophies. In a genre that frequently suffers from sounding the same, it's refreshing to see something so radically and ludicrously different.
'Rock for Light' was the band's second album, and although it's a little cheeky for reproducing much material from the first, it's also clearly a classic of the genre, provided your tastes are a little broad. The punk rock itself is faster and harder than other bands were playing at the time, mostly delivered in short bursts of less than two minutes a time, and H.R.'s vocals add a distinctively manic flavour to the whole thing, screeching like a berserk animal. The music is satisfyingly energetic, and songs like 'Right Brigade' and 'At the Movies' even seem to combine heavy metal influence to some extent, with solos and riffs reminiscent of later thrash.
Of course, the reggae strand of the album is a completely different story, and to say it sits uncomfortably alongside would be an understatement. There's no way to combine these two different approaches in any meaningful way, so the listener merely has to expect the occasional jump from short, sharp punk to long-winded, mellow reggae, and 'I and I Survive,' 'The Meek' and 'Rally Round Jah Throne' all inevitably sound similar. While I'm not a reggae fan, and these are my least favoured songs on the album, I enjoy the oddness and stubbornness of their inclusion, and they're more than made up for with the performances of the other songs, particularly in the final section of the album that roars consistently towards an eventual, low-key finale of a one-minute reggae 'Jam' that's worth the wait.
This is an album dedicated to extremes, and although it doesn't make a whole lot of sense, it's all the better for it.
1. Big Takeover
2. Attitude
3. Right Brigade
4. Joshua's Song
5. I and I Survive
6. Banned in D.C.
7. Supertouch
8. Destroy Babylon
9. F.V.K. (Fearless Vampire Killers)
10. The Meek
11. I
12. Coptic Times
13. Sailin' On
14. Rock for Light
15. Rally Round Jah Throne
16. At the Movies
17. Riot Squad
18. How Low Can a Punk Get?
19. We Will Not
20. Jam
Build a Nation
***
Written on 28.02.08
After thirty years of inconsistent, on-off releases and name changes, Bad Brains released their eighth album 'Build a Nation' to surprising mainstream success. Even without the benefit of having heard the transition albums in-between this and 1983's 'Rock for Light,' I was able to keep up to speed; mainly because this still sounds pretty much exactly the same, only a little less compelling.
Bad Brains are probably best known for their oil-and-water mix of hardcore punk and reggae, and this album jumps on this dichotomy by devoting over a third of its tracks to the latter style, which is a bit disappointing if you're not into the reggae so much, and mainly saw it as a nice eccentric interlude between tracks on older releases. Also largely absent are H.R.'s formerly manic vocals, here relegated to a more traditional punk yell in punk rock songs that are still enjoyable, but sound oddly uninteresting for being so rooted in the sound of the past. Guitarist Dr. Know still gets plenty of chances to show off, such as the minute-long guitar squealing of 'Pure Love,' and the only real difference between this and the older release is the presence of spacey, electronic elements to bulk out the reggae minimalism, which to me sort of ruins its point.
There are still some good punk songs on here, and the style is varied enough that it isn't merely two minutes of roaring and squealing each time, tracks like 'Expand Your Soul' being delivered in a steadier and more thoughtful manner. To be honest, I probably would have enjoyed it more if the roaring and squealing quotient had been increased, but it's nice for the influential band's long-time fans to have another release to enjoy over ten years after the seventh album, even if it only ends up sounding the same, but lesser compared to what has come before.
1. Give Thanks and Praises
2. Jah People Make the World Go Round
3. Pure Love
4. Natty Dreadlocks 'pon the Mountain Top
5. Build a Nation
6. Expand Your Soul
7. Jah Love
8. Let There Be Angels (Just Like You)
9. Universal Peace
10. Roll On
11. Until Kingdom Comes
12. In the Beginning
13. Send You No Flowers
14. Peace Be Unto Thee
Bad Religion
***
Written on 08.02.08
This first, self-produced release from legendary Southern Californian punk band Bad Religion is a mere nine minutes in length, with pretty poor sound quality, but is still enough to introduce the beginnings of the so-called So-Cal sound. Guitarist Brett Gurewitz, later producer of major punk rock label Epitaph, doesn't really get a chance to display his talents in these very short songs, which tend to be less than a minute and a half in length if you do the math(s), but each one is distinguished by a distinctive riff and vocal melody from Greg Graffin... if very little else.
Only 'Drastic Actions' can boast the epic duration of two and a half minutes (get outta here!), and it uses the extra time to pull off a slower and steadier piece with a nice, staggered chorus that becomes a little angrier later on. Other songs that distinguish themselves are the jangly 'Sensory Overload' with its memorable chorus, and the finale 'World War III' simply for being even faster and burning out more quickly than the rest, but the others are still enjoyable in a samey way. As proto-So-Cal punk, this is predominantly melodic and catchy stuff in the style of the Ramones rather than the anger of some British bands, and Bad Religion prefers to tackle social, political and moral injustice of the day while remembering to stay fun.
With only six short songs, most of which fail to really stand out, 'Bad Religion' isn't a necessary purchase unless you're a die-hard fan, and should be seen as an optional extra to the classic debut album 'How Could Hell Be Any Worse?' released the following year, particularly as all the songs here are unique to this release. The production sound isn't particularly good, about that of a particularly good demo without any volume problems, and while Jay Zisterout's drums lack a punch as a result, and Jay Binkley's bass is completely inaudible, this gives Gurewitz's guitar a nice extra crunch.
1. Bad Religion
2. Politics
3. Sensory Overload
4. Slaves
5. Drastic Actions
6. World War III
No Control
*****
Written on 08.02.08
Although 'Suffer' is widely praised as Bad Religion's crowning achievement, it's the follow-up 'No Control' that really impresses with its increased energy and greater variety, as well as even better sing-along choruses. Clocking in at only twenty-five minutes, these fifteen songs more than make up for the time in quality, and are again mostly medium-speed accessible punk, though with a distinctly harder and more authentic edge than many of the later bands they inspired.
The guitar duo of Greg Hetson and Brett Gurewitz is at is most creative and powerful here, introducing scratchier and heavier riffs alongside their customary style, lending a darker tone to songs such as 'Big Bang' and 'Sometimes I Feel Like...', and really going all-out on the briefly pulverising finale to 'Automatic Man.' The faster pace of some of these songs sees Greg Graffin forced to jump into gear and succeeding admirably, though his speedy delivery does sound a little funny on 'Big Bang' and finale 'The World Won't Stop,' but there's no way this album will alienate fans of the older, more melodic style, as that's still present in full force in the slowly chugging 'Sanity' and other songs in the latter half of the album, particularly the enjoyable 'You' and 'Progress' that feature soft backing singing for added atmosphere.
The Generation X social themes here are pretty much the same as ever, dealing with the government, ennui and apathy, and including the usual brief character study in the form of 'Billy,' but the ingredients are all right here to make one of the finest punk albums of the late eighties. It's still not perfect, it wouldn't be punk otherwise, but it should be considered compulsory listening for fans of later bands it directly inspired, such as the Offspring.
1. Change of Ideas
2. Big Bang
3. No Control
4. Sometimes I Feel Like... *?!%+!*
5. Automatic Man
6. I Want to Conquer the World
7. Sanity
8. Henchman
9. It Must Look Pretty Appealing
10. You
11. Progress
12. I Want Something More
13. Anxiety
14. Billy
15. The World Won't Stop
Generator
****
Written on 08.02.08
Having long since established themselves as the driving force in American punk rock, Bad Religion went through the inevitable experimental phase in the early nineties that was largely successful, or at least never awful. Of the two albums in question, 'Generator' is by far the superior. Although it lacks some of the simple enjoyment of the earlier releases, the songs feel more substantial in terms of length and ideas, and the new style is evident right from the onset as Brett Gurewitz unleashes some hard-edged riffs in the style of 'No Control,' but with more of a blues approach to the solos, more prevalent here than ever before. The increase in volume and intensity comes to a head in the impressive closing jam of 'Atomic Garden,' one of the best songs here but unfortunately also one of the only ones to really stand out as an individual piece.
The main problem with 'Generator' is that it doesn't really sound like a Bad Religion album, with only the distinctive vocals of Greg Graffin anchoring it in the discography. This isn't necessarily a problem, but it does require the band to forsake much of the style they had perfected thus far, and in the end the experimental tendencies don't really stretch beyond a bit of structural messing-around and some interesting guitar riffs in songs like 'Two Babies in the Dark.' At only thirty minutes this seems very short even for a punk album, but there's enough decent material packed in here to permit it to be considered in the same light as some of the other Bad Religion near-classics. It also has the advantage of standing apart in an increasingly samey discography.
1. Generator
2. Too Much to Ask
3. No Direction
4. Tomorrow
5. Two Babies in the Dark
6. Heaven Is Falling
7. Atomic Garden
8. The Answer
9. Fertile Crescent
10. Chimaera
11. Only Entertainment
Stranger Than Fiction
****
Written on 08.02.08
Tensions were high as Bad Religion sold out to the mainstream and released their first album on major label Atlantic in 1994, but fortunately for everyone, 'Stranger Than Fiction' made no compromise and stuck rigidly to the band's popular punk sound, with an even greater authenticity than had been heard since the eighties. Regularly cited as one of their classic releases, I find it a little disappointing compared to their earlier classic period, and in the wake of the experimental 'Generator' and 'Recipe for Hate' it's almost disappointingly consistent, but the songwriting ability is still as strong as it ever was, or would be again until Brett Gurewitz's eventual return, this being his final album with the band for now.
The higher budget is clearly evident in the greater production sound, which now seems somehow louder and clearer, and although there's a distinctly melodic orientation on many songs, you only have to look into the past with albums such as 'Suffer' and 'Against the Grain' to see that Bad Religion has possessed this sense of accessibility all along, and it doesn't represent an attempt to snag new fans by changing their sound. The title track in particular is a great mellow song in the band's tradition, complete with backing singing that was so definitive of their releases until other bands started to imitate it, and it's nice to hear the country style from the previous album finding its way into 'Hooray' in a small fashion.
There are more memorable songs here than has been the case for some time, but as expected, there's quite a wide gulf between those that work, and those that don't, depending on each listener's taste. I personally find the guest performance of Rancid's Tim Armstrong in the otherwise fun 'Television' to be annoying in its near-rap style, while it's fairly obvious that 'Infected' has received a little greater attention to detail for its release as a single, with its catchy riff and slow chorus. The inclusion of '21st Century (Digital Boy)' at the end is the only real sign of record label coercion evident here, as the song was originally released on the 'Against the Grain' album but was allegedly re-recorded here in order to provide a suitable single, as the rest of the songs weren't up to the task. It proved successful, but also unfortunately demonstrated that Bad Religion were now, to some extent, bitches.
1. Incomplete
2. Leave Mine to Me
3. Stranger Than Fiction
4. Tiny Voices
5. The Handshake
6. Better Off Dead
7. Infected
8. Television
9. Individual
10. Hooray for Me...
11. Slumber
12. Marked
13. Inner Logic
14. What It Is
15. 21st Century (Digital Boy)
The Gray Race
***
Written on 08.02.08
The only real dip in the quality of Bad Religion's output coincided with the departure of guitarist Brett Gurewitz prior to 'The Gray Race.' Although his replacement in the form of Minor Threat's Brian Baker was always more than capable of filling his shoes, and indeed chose this band over more high profile offers from R.E.M. and others around the same time, it was left to vocalist Greg Graffin to write all the songs this time round, and the album suffers a little from repetition and average output as a result.
The predominant style here continues to be medium speed and fairly accessible as punk goes, still avoiding any claims of being a sell-out but also noticeably lacking the punch of earlier releases. Some songs can easily be added to the list of classic material, but these are few and far between, and it's only really those that attempt something different - such as the country-tinged punk of 'Them and Us' and 'Victory' in the choruses and guitars - that manage to stand out. The band is tight and consistent, but 'The Gray Race' is an easily overlooked album that should only really be approached by die-hard fans, or someone vaguely interested who doesn't mind owning an inferior example of the legendary band. Even the single 'A Walk' doesn't manage to impress, being far too repetitive even in its short playing time, and the band's political themes are less prominent and thoughtful than usual, despite the quite cool concept of the outer artwork.
1. The Gray Race
2. Them and Us
3. A Walk
4. Parallel
5. Punk Rock Song
6. Empty Causes
7. Nobody Listens
8. Pity the Dead
9. Spirit Shine
10. The Streets of America
11. Ten in 2010
12. Victory
13. Drunk Sincerity
14. Come Join Us
15. Cease
The New America
***
Written on 08.02.08
In an ever-expanding discography like that of Californian punk rockers Bad Religion, it's important that each album stands apart to distinguish itself, and although 'The New America' is my least favoured offering from the band's recent period, it still manages to stand out through its more melodic direction and more personal lyrical style, allowing it to be reasonably dubbed "the Greg Graffin album," particularly as his singing style has noticeably improved after years of sounding exactly the same.
This is a solid album as ever, if a little dull comparatively, and would be the band's last on Atlantic records before returning to Epitaph. The importance of melody stressed in the lyrics to track three seems to have been a primary concern during the songwriting process, and right from the onset it's clear that Graffin can now actually sing in addition to his usual, almost spoken style, and he's backed up by Brian Baker's melodic guitars in songs like 'It's a Long Way to the Promised Land' and the pleasant solo of the title track. Even Brett Gurewitz makes a cameo return in 'Believe It,' though it passes by without incident as a muted foreshadowing of his later return, and with the greater focus on Graffin this time round it's the more lyrical songs that work the best and remain the most memorable, most notably 'A Streetkid Named Desire.'
It's commendable and extremely satisfying that Bad Religion were continuing to experiment with new directions even after twenty years, and while not every album is going to please everyone, 'The New America' has the potential to be their most accessible to a wider audience without compromising the band's punk credentials.
1. You've Got a Chance
2. It's a Long Way to the Promised Land
3. A World Without Melody
4. New America
5. 1000 Memories
6. A Streetkid Named Desire
7. Whisper in Time
8. Believe It
9. I Love My Computer
10. The Hopeless Housewife
11. There Will Be a Way
12. Let It Burn
13. Don't Sell Me Short
The Process of Belief
****
Written on 08.02.08
Bad Religion's return to Epitaph saw them reunite with the record label's founder and their former guitarist Brett Gurewitz, and the music corresponds with a very satisfying return to form. The band's now customary steady and melodic style is still predominant, but balanced out by some shorter, faster punk rock songs, the likes of which haven't been seen for a number of years, while others continue to experiment with different styles to great effect. Although Gurewitz's departure wasn't the crippling blow that some may have perceived it, it's notable that this is their finest album since his last appearance back on 'Stranger Than Fiction.'
The only real reason this material doesn't seem quite up to the level of the old classics is because it comes so late, when hordes of imitation acts are already producing Bad Religionesque material and stealing their thunder, but many of these songs would have made worthy additions to even the best of the old-school releases, while some would have seemed strangely alien without the years of experimentation loosening up fans' expectations and toleration. 'Broken' even features some acoustic touches, adding to the mellow style that now works a treat, considering it's no longer present in every single song as has been the case with the previous albums, and Gurewitz plays around with some Ennio Morricone sounding guitars at the start of 'The Defense,' clearly relishing the chance to work with these guys again.
'Sorrow' is probably the most well-known song here, a culmination of the mellow punk style the band has been working towards for years that finally gets everything perfect within the space of a few minutes, but there are numerous other treats here in the form of the catchy and simplistic 'Evangeline' and the progression from a soft opening to a heavy conclusion in 'Epiphany.' This easily ranks among Bad Religion's finest, and is second only to their undisputed eighties classics.
1. Supersonic
2. Prove It
3. Can't Stop It
4. Broken
5. Destined for Nothing
6. Materialist
7. Kyoto Now!
8. Sorrow
9. Epiphany
10. Evangeline
11. The Defense
12. The Lie
13. You Don't Belong
14. Bored and Extremely Dangerous
The Empire Strikes First
****
Written on 09.02.08
Punk rock had a satisfying ambitious surge in 2004, with Green Day's celebrated rock opera 'American Idiot' being provided a more traditional So-Cal punk companion in the form of 'The Empire Strikes First,' Bad Religion's not-quite-concept album that sees the band continuing to improve now that Brett Gurewitz is back in the fold. With its heated political edge, even more prominent than in the band's past works, the lyrics are more compelling than ever, and despite a couple of missteps this is one of the best punk albums of recent years and proof that Bad Religion can still cut it alongside the newer acts.
All of these songs are surprisingly satisfying even when coming in at under two minutes, but I was slightly disappointed that the fast and furious, almost heavy metal style of 'Sinister Rouge' was confined to that song alone, as this would have made for a particularly interesting and different album comparable to the classic 'No Control.' The rest of the album varies between a slow, mellow style and a faster punk tempo, similar in essence to its immediate predecessor 'The Process of Belief,' but the songwriting feels tighter and more successful on the whole. 'Overture' is the deceptively prog opening that soon lets up in the face of simple, enjoyable punk rock, while other songs such as 'All There Is,' 'To Another Abyss' and the classic punk style of 'Los Angeles is Burning' all hold up the lighter and more commercial end of the spectrum, the latter even being released as a single.
'The Quickening' features some squealing guitar work that's always nice to hear, leading into a great riff in the title song and somehow ending up in heavy ska for the Orwellian 'Boot Stamping on a Human Face Forever' before the album ends on a slightly disappointing note with 'Live Again,' a decent song in its own right, but one that owes its chorus entirely to the previous album's classic 'Sorrow.' Once I got past these initial disappointments, I found 'The Empire Strikes First' to be a fairly fantastic album from Bad Religion, and perhaps even their third best after the obvious 'No Control' and 'Suffer,' leaving me with very high expectations indeed of what the future has in store (they have released an album since, but I don't have that one).
1. Overture
2. Sinister Rouge
3. Social Suicide
4. Atheist Peace
5. All There Is
6. Los Angeles is Burning
7. Let Them Eat War
8. God's Love
9. To Another Abyss
10. The Quickening
11. The Empire Strikes First
12. Beyond Electric Dreams
13. Boot Stamping on a Human Face Forever
14. Live Again (The Fall of Man)
Soundtrack from Twin Peaks
****
Written on 09.02.08
David Lynch and Mark Frost's 'Twin Peaks' was one of the defining television series of the nineties, its success and surprising popularity opening up the possibilities for supernatural-themed drama that followed, from series such as 'The X-Files' and 'Buffy' to more recent works like 'Lost' that still share a distinct serialised format. Its unique atmosphere, in the first season at least, was a mix of clichéd soap opera parody and a distinctly darker edge exploring the seedy, secretive life beneath the surface of a close-knit community also evident in Lynch's earlier success 'Blue Velvet,' and the soundtrack succeeds admirably in capturing this bipolar fusion in Angelo Badalamenti's electronic jazz themes and the pleasantly eerie original songs from Julee Cruise, with lyrics written by Lynch. The job was never going to be an easy one, and it's interesting to ponder how the series would have been affected if a different composer had been drafted, but for the most part these compositions are perfectly suited to the scenarios they were originally prescribed in the early episodes, before being repeated endlessly thereafter to varying degrees of relevance.
The 'Twin Peaks Theme' itself is a great piece of music that's soothing and also somewhat joyous in its overture of soft horns, and of course the listener receives the added benefits of early nineties nostalgia and pleasant nature imagery through the mental recollection of the opening titles that accompanied it in its edited form (that little robin, ahh). For containing the more memorable and prominent scores, this first section of the album is the most appealing and entertaining, and while it's a little odd to hear the opening theme stretched out to a full five minutes, the subsequent 'Laura Palmer's Theme' is a very revealing and intricate piece familiar to most viewers as three or four separate themes, so it's a real surprise to learn that the opening, middle and closing sections of the major movement (repeated a few times over five minutes) were all part of the same extended piece. The opening keyboard bars would come to characterise any night-time establishing shot aimed towards a sinister mood, and once the powerful piano melody reaches its full strength, it brought back the memory of Laura's parents sobbing in grief over their daughter's death, just before Leland Palmer went crazy ape bonkers.
When it comes to scene-specific themes, the next track is the most offending, memorably used to introduce the sultry and similarly unhinged Audrey in the pilot but afterwards cropping up in the most random places. It's the first of Badalamenti's jazz pieces, performed on piano, xylophone, sax and clicking fingers, but certainly isn't the last; tracks five and nine both follow pretty much the same course but with less distinction, though the latter has the advantage of being tied to the series' most famous scene of all, and has a Pink Panther style sax solo for people who like that sort of thing. The problem of repetition affects much of the album in its second half, the 'Love Theme' being essentially a slightly different version of Laura's theme performed in a Vangelis-style Oriental flute keyboard melody that doesn't particularly serve to conjure feelings of love at all, while Laura's theme also forms the foundation of 'Freshly Squeezed.'
The other major thread running through this album is Julee Cruise, the show's in-house singer, whose haunting, angelic style is of the variety that reminds you that angels are dead people. 'The Nightingale' is her finest achievement here, memorable from the show itself and also catchy in a commercially viable manner than her later, more atmosphere-based songs fail to attain. It's great just how well she does fit in to Badalamenti's sound (thank god they didn't go for a rock singer for coolness), but she's also sadly responsible for the album's sole abomination, the closing 'Falling' that attempts to butcher the Twin Peaks theme by adding lyrics in the way Anita Dobson butchered the 'EastEnders' titles, a show I'm naturally too interesting to watch but that I'd have to endure the sound of my mum singing along to three times a week as a child. Listening to this album too frequently could have the same effect, if you ever find yourself supplying Cruise's lyrics of love and friendship or whatever it was to a great theme song that was never designed to have vocals, so I'd urge you to be like me and try your best to erase them from your short-term memory as soon as the album has reached the end.
Apart from the finale, this is a decent soundtrack album from a great TV show that becomes very repetitive but at least aims to be comprehensive, though I have no idea whether there's material missing that was used in the show but not present on the soundtrack, I don't have the recall power and attention to detail of dooyoo's soundtrack guru berlioz II. The lounge jazz stuff may put some people off, but this is a great album for relaxation if you're partial to a bit of synth, and it conjures pleasant pastoral images of waterfalls, robins and dead teenage girls wrapped in plastic.
1. Twin Peaks Theme
2. Laura Palmer's Theme
3. Audrey's Dance
4. The Nightingale (Julee Cruise)
5. Freshly Squeezed
6. The Bookhouse Boys
7. Into the Night (Julee Cruise)
8. Night Life in Twin Peaks
9. Dance of the Dream Man
10. Love Theme from Twin Peaks
11. Falling (Julee Cruise)
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me
**
Written on 10.02.08
Sometimes a bad film is saved by a particularly brilliant soundtrack, but that's not the case for Angelo Badalamenti's score for the messy Twin Peaks movie 'Fire Walk With Me,' an attempt to redefine the popular series as a feature film franchise following its TV cancellation that ultimately failed because the film was so unsatisfying. It's not completely awful, but in presenting the events in the last week of doomed teenager Laura Palmer's life that were slowly and tantalisingly revealed over the course of about twenty episodes, it's redundant and demystifying while trying to offer something new to fans in the form of over-the-top David Lynch weirdness jut for the sake of it, in the process alienating any casual filmgoers who may not have kept up diligently with the series from its illustrious beginnings to its bland, tedious, early end.
For some reason, Badalamenti's score (which also features several contributions written or performed by others) almost entirely follows the jazz style that formed part of the series' atmosphere, but increases it beyond the point of relaxation to something much more randomised, experimental and annoying for anyone other than experimental jazz fans - and even those are bound to despair at its comparatively mainstream direction when compared to stuff like John Zorn that they pretend to like. Absent are the sinister keyboards that flowed throughout the TV series, replaced by more prominent saxophones and deranged narrative musings in the Thought Gang pieces, while even Lynch himself has a crack at composing with the boring 'The Pink Room' and the uncharacteristically pleasant 'Best Friends' that marks the very late turning point of the album from terrible to somewhat good.
The final four tracks eschew the jazz in favour of more melancholy piano-driven sounds (including a cello in the nice 'Moving Through Time') that actually go some way to approaching the original style of the TV series, and for listeners who can't recall the glorious original themes, they're presented in a very neatly edited medley that draws attention to some of the series' greatest hits, though in a much more brief and less satisfying manner than on the TV show's own soundtrack album. Earlier on the CD, series regular Julee Cruise gets to provide another song in the form of 'Questions in a World of Blue' that isn't particularly inspiring but is an island of calm amidst the ocean of commotion, and there's also a slight resurgence of Badalamenti's 'Audrey's Theme' in track four featuring the same finger-snapping and xylophone that's probably more down to a lack of originality than anything.
The album starts disappointingly by serving up a main title theme that isn't in any way memorable, and only ends up drawing attention to its own failings by going back to Badalamenti's earlier material that stands out as by far the best music here. Part of the failure of 'Fire Walk With Me' comes in its unsupervised excess compared to the more confining strictures of the TV series, and while Lynch indulged himself through stripping Sheryl Lee bare on numerous occasions and writing a cameo for David Bowie that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, Badalamenti just went crazy with a jazz band and made some boring songs.
1. Theme from Twin Peaks - Fire Walk With Me
2. The Pine Float
3. Sycamore Trees (Jimmy Scott)
4. Don't Do Anything (I Wouldn't Do)
5. A Real Indication (Thought Gang)
6. Questions in a World of Blue (Julee Cruise)
7. The Pink Room (David Lynch)
8. The Black Dog Runs at Night (Thought Gang)
9. Best Friends (David Lynch / David Slusser)
10. Moving Through Time
11. Montage from Twin Peaks: Girl Talk / Birds in Hell / Laura Palmer's Theme / Falling
12. The Voice of Love
Dear Companion
Solo Albums Don't Get More Solo Than This
***
Written on 25.02.08
The debut solo release from Philadelphia folk singer Meg Baird is vastly different from her more well-known work in Esper, free of the psychedelic and distorted electronic elements and stripped down to folk in its purest, simplest form of a woman strumming an acoustic guitar. Boasting a mix of "folk classics and traditional songs," people like me who don't have a lot of knowledge on the subject won't be able to discern too much between her original material, covers of comparatively recent works in the genre (such as Fraser & Debolt's 'Waltze of the Tennis Players' and New Riders of the Purple Sage's 'All I Ever Wanted') and those oft-covered, traditional folk pieces such as 'The Cruelty of Barbry Allen' that are over five centuries old.
This is to the album's credit as well as its failing, as the repetitive sound of the guitar plucking in particular can become a little tedious unless you've mentally prepared yourself to enjoy something as simple and primeval as this. Baird's singing fortunately varies between a slight country twang on the title track to a lighter and more ethereal performance on 'River Song,' 'Do What You Gotta Do' and others, and there's even a bonus track that will be to some peoples' taste (but not mine) in which even the guitar is removed, and she reprises her title song a capella. Personally, I find this sort of thing a little embarrassing to listen to.
As a pure folk album this is a worthwhile purchase, but it obviously doesn't offer anything new to the genre, which I suppose is sort of the point. Harking back to the acoustic heyday of the sixties and seventies when everyone was releasing albums like this, it will make a nice trip down memory lane for some or an interesting and ever-so-slightly new take on old favourites for more discerning fans, but for the general consumer it really does depend whether you fancy a little more to your music.
1. Dear Companion
2. River Song
3. The Cruelty of Barbry Allen
4. Do What You Gotta Do
5. Riverhouse in Tinicum
6. Waltze of the Tennis Players
7. Maiden in the Moor Lay
8. Sweet William and Fair Ellen
9. All I Ever Wanted
10. Willie O'Winsbury
11. Bonus track
Advantages: Authentic folk performance.
Disadvantages: Repetitive.
Starfire Burning Upon the Ice-Veiled Throne of Ultima Thule
****
Written on 18.02.08
Bal-Sagoth is an unusual band indeed, a trio of Yorkshiremen whose adherence to the Monty Python tradition of competitive one-upmanship has led to an incredibly distinctive band that takes fantasy-themed heavy metal to a new extreme. 'Starfire Burning Upon the Ice-Veiled Throne of Ultima Thule' is their second album, but the first to really define the band's distinctive sound by incorporating Jonny Maudling's synthetic orchestration as a major instrument and enhancing the epic atmosphere for the stories told by Byron Roberts in a mixture of distorted spoken word and less legible black metal roar, and while Jonny's brother Chris still impresses with frequent slow and moody lead guitars, the rock instruments are essentially a backing rhythm to set the various scenes.
This isn't the most approachable metal, already serving to alienate many with its black metal base despite not being particularly heavy or aggressive, and the heavy focus on narrative runs the risk of attracting only a small crowd of Dungeons & Dragons fans, but fortunately the music is up to scratch and as stated earlier, incredibly distinctive. No other band sounds like this, or at least didn't back in the mid-nineties, the fanfares and sweeping classical themes serving to distance it from metal entirely in the interludes, and even the faster combo passages of Chris' riffs and Jonny's double bass drums essentially sound like the rock section of the orchestra, the guitar possessing an enjoyably dingy and gritty tone throughout that's a far cry from the light and melodic power metal bands that usually characterise these fantasy themes. The unrelenting lyrical approach will be laughable to those who aren't into it, but even from a purely aesthetic, superficial aspect the booming voice still sounds cool, and for me the only real problem with the sound is how samey it starts to get after a while.
Either in response to this fear or purely by coincidence, the band has shoved the finest songs towards the end of the album in the form of the near-instrumental track seven that directly references and is based around several themes composed by Basil Poledouris for 1981's 'Conan the Barbarian,' my favourite film soundtrack of all time (and a damned entertaining film too). Track nine is the best of the lot (I'm avoiding using the song names for a reason that will be clear if you check out the end of this review), with the most majestic and accomplished lead guitars of the album and a nice, slow solo (or slow-lo) to boot, though it does sound rather a lot like track two. The orchestral introduction, intermission and epilogue are all very skilfully executed considering this is primarily a metal album with no aspirations to becoming a classic of classical, and ends up inevitably sounding quite like a film score, though without being too bombastic or stealing thunder from the rest of the tracks.
With their predominant dark fantasy themes (based on the Conan stories and H.P. Lovecraft among others), dynamic instrumentation and amusingly elaborate song-titles, Bal-Sagoth are the kind of band that isn't for everyone - but at the same time, for the minority of people who are really into it, it's the most incredible thing in the world. This is an album I enjoy, but one I couldn't listen to more than ten times in one lifetime.
1. Black Dragons Soar Above the Mountain of Shadows
2. To Dethrone the Witch-Queen of Mytus K'unn (The Legend of the Battle of Blackhelm Vale)
3. As the Vortex Illumines the Crystalline Walls of Kor-Avul-Thaa
4. Starfire Burning Upon the Ice-Veiled Throne of Ultima Thule
5. Journey to the Isle of Mists (Over the Moonless Depths of Night-Dark Seas)
6. The Splendour of a Thousand Swords Gleaming Beneath the Blazon of the Hyperborean Empire
7. And Lo, When the Imperium Marches Against Gul-Kokoth, the Dark Sorceries Shall Enshroud the Citadel of the Obsidian Crown
8. Summoning of the Guardians of the Astral Gate
9. In the Raven-Haunted Forests of Darkenhold, Where Shadows Reign and the Hues of Sunlight Never Dance
10. At the Altar of the Dreaming Gods
Battle Magic
***
Written on 26.02.08
After the dark and compelling epic narratives of Bal-Sagoth's previous two albums, the generally lighter and jollier direction taken on 'Battle Magic' comes across as quite a disappointment, and sees the band enter a comparative lapse in their career that's still greatly superior and infinitely more fascinating than that of many of their contemporaries. The album title should be revealing enough of this album's style for those in the know, and it does bear similarities to earlier and later metal albums that attempt something similarly epic and triumphal, most notably Turisas' later 'Battle Metal' that seems to take much of its influence from here.
'Starfire Burning...' saw an increase in the prominence of Jonny Maudling's keyboards, and here they are pretty much permitted to lead the way, second only to Byron Roberts' inimitable narration. While anyone approaching Bal-Sagoth for the first time will obviously find the lyrical focus to be the major make-or-break quality, it's the keyboards here that will allow fans to rate this album more specifically, and for the most part I almost hate them. Gone is the dark, brooding atmosphere, replaced with synthesised fanfares that seem to signal a perpetual state of victory, and there are some truly horrible fantasy touches in 'A Tale from the Deep Woods' and the seriously overlong 'Blood Slakes the Sand at the Circus Maximus' that remind me more of Disney than anything, on the whole making for my least favoured Bal-Sagoth album.
But there's still an awful lot to love about this release. Firstly, it's some more ludicrously pompous narrative epic metal performed by the masters, and any fantasy nerds who got a real kick out of the guitars quoting Basil Poledouris' 'Conan the Barbarian' score in the previous album will be as delighted as I was to hear it subtly reprised in the middle of 'Naked Steel.' Roberts' vocals still vary between a black metal rasp that sounds less appropriate in this jollier music, and his customary spoken style that also seems to be lacking its usual punch, but anyone approaching Bal-Sagoth from similarly over-the-top fantasy metal bands such as Rhapsody or Turisas will likely find this a more convenient point of entry than their darker material, though I found the latter a lot more satisfying.
1. Battle Magic
2. Naked Steel (The Warrior's Saga)
3. A Tale from the Deep Woods
4. Return to the Praesidium of Ys
5. Crystal Shards
6. The Dark Liege of Chaos is Unleashed at the Ensorcelled Shrine of A'Zura Kai (The Splendour of a Thousand Swords Gleaming Beneath the Blazon of the Hyperborean Empire Part II)
7. When Rides the Scion of the Storms
8. Blood Slakes the Sand at the Circus Maximus
9. Thwarted by the Dark (Blade of the Vampyre Hunter)
10. And Atlantis Falls...
The Power Cosmic
****
Written on 26.02.08
There was never a more appropriate time for Bal-Sagoth to release something refreshingly different to save fans from the increasingly stale tendencies of their albums, and 'The Power Cosmic' succeeds brilliantly in interrupting the flow of their narrative saga by injecting some contradictory science fiction themes and even a slight space opera musical style, though not to the extent of something like Ayreon. The move to experienced metal label Nuclear Blast also allowed for an improvement in the production sound and even the artwork, making this a much more satisfying affair than the albums that surround it, even if it has the potential to turn many old-school fans off.
This is still far from the band's past glories, the instruments mainly being used as a backdrop for Byron Roberts' narrative and new tendency towards character drama (it sounds like he adopts the persona of an old man in several songs), and there are sadly no stand-out guitar moments as has been the case on past albums such as 'Starfire Burning,' but this is still authentically Bal-Sagoth. Jonny Maudling's keyboards are excellent, vastly improved from the Disney style of 'Battle Magic' and once again evoking epic atmospheres whether in an ancient, Hyperborean landscape or out in the cosmos, and Dave Mackintosh's drums have sufficient power to propel this music along at breakneck pace without making it overly heavy.
The main problem here is a lack of variation, as once the songs get going, they're pretty much confined to the usual speed metal sound of repetitive riffs washed over with varying vocal styles and symphonic keyboard arrangements, with nice touches like the piano intro to 'Callisto Rising' and lead guitar opening of 'The Scourge of the Fourth Celestial Host' being too short-lived. This is also noticeably shorter than the typical Bal-Sagoth release, coming in at only forty minutes in what seems to have been a deliberate decision not to labour over symphonic interludes, and to cut straight to the chase. While it was never destined to be one of their very best, this odd sci-fi opus came along at the right time to keep fans on their toes, it's just a shame its legacy didn't inspire the subsequent release to try something equally challenging.
1. The Awakening of the Stars
2.The Voyagers Beneath the Mare Imbrium
3.The Empyreal Lexicon
4.Of Carnage and a Gathering of the Wolves
5.Callisto Rising
6.The Scourge of the Fourth Celestial Host
7.Behold, the Armies of War Descend Screaming from the Heavens!
8.The Thirteen Cryptical Prophecies of Mu
Atlantis Ascendant
***
Written on 26.02.08
To anyone approaching Bal-Sagoth for the first time, 'Atlantis Ascendant' would likely strike them as one of the most creative and bizarre metal albums they had ever heard, even if not a particularly strong one. But for anyone versed in the epic musical tales of these Yorkshiremen, this fifth release is a disappointingly samey one, that adds nothing new to the band's regular, ever-so-slightly-evolving sound.
The whole thing just seems generally weak and lacking in ideas by comparison, and attempts have clearly been made to revisit elements from the previous albums to provide some sort of 'best-of' effect, but one that ultimately ends up being distinctly average. The only real quality this album has going for it is a newfound melodic direction, even more so than on 'Battle Magic,' and for the most part this integrates well in the form of lead guitar melodies in most songs, though it also comes at a cost to the heaviness elsewhere. The band's early death metal style resurfaces on songs such as 'In Search of the Lost Cities of Antarctica,' and the final part of the extremely long-winded 'The Splendour of a Thousand Swords Gleaming Beneath the Blazon of the Hyperborean Empire' trilogy manages to almost live up to its illustrious predecessors, and is probably the best individual song here, featuring some nice Egyptian touches.
One major disappointment here comes in Byron Roberts' vocals, the primary element of Bal-Sagoth's musical narratives, which seem to lack the intensity of his usual performance, and essentially fail when they try something new, such as the Cradle of Filth style whispering of 'Atlantis Ascendant' and the odd staccato style of 'The Dreamer in the Catacombs of Ur.' Bal-Sagoth is always an interesting band, mainly for being so damn different, and although this isn't a bad album by any means, it's probably their weakest work overall.
1. The Epsilon Exordium
2. Atlantis Ascendant
3. Draconis Albionensis
4. Star-Maps of the Ancient Cosmographers
5. The Ghosts of Angkor Wat
6. Cry Havoc for Glory, and the Annihilation of the Titans of Chaos (The Splendour of a Thousand Swords Gleaming Beneath the Blazon of the Hyperborean Empire, Part III)
7. The Dreamer in the Catacombs of Ur
8. In Search of the Lost Cities of Antarctica
9. The Chronicle of Shadows
10. Six Keys to the Onyx Pyramid
The Chthonic Chronicles
*****
Written on 26.02.08
After a few years' break, the masters of over-the-top epic metal Bal-Sagoth returned with the finest release of their career, one that completely blows away their previous disappointments and returns to their glory days of old, while at the same time sounding satisfyingly different. 'The Chthonic Chronicles' is the heaviest and darkest album since 1996's 'Starfire Burning...' and boasts comparable death metal influence to the debut, while retaining the melodic and symphonic elements that the band has developed and slowly refined since. Best of all, there's a newfound sense of structure that makes this truly progressive, as songs pass through internal movements and feature some excellent instrumental breaks as opposed to the customary backseat usually reserved for the guitars, which is certainly no longer the case. In essence, this is the album fans have been waiting for all along.
The only real problem with combining so many influences is that the album does tend to veer between styles occasionally and this can be a little distracting, as the majestic symphony of track nine, a vastly improved take on the 'Battle Magic' sound, is followed up by some genuinely evil and scary stuff in 'Beneath the Crimson Vaults of Cydonia,' but for being more demanding on the listener, this is ultimately far more rewarding in the long term than albums like 'Atlantis Ascendant' that never scream out for a repeat play in the same way. It's so satisfying to finally hear some actual guitar lead sections and solos between Byron Roberts' narration in songs like 'Shackled to the Trilithon of Kutulu' and the excellent 'The Obsidian Crown Unbound,' and Roberts himself has been revitalised since his lacklustre performance on the previous album, enhancing the atmosphere of both the symphonic and heavy styles accordingly.
The lyrics are a little less impenetrable than usual, and a lot better integrated into the music than on previous albums, where it often felt like Roberts was merely screaming so fast in order to fit it all in, and this gives a greater sense that these are proper, authentic songs rather than something daft, though those who appreciate this band from a daft point of view will still find a lot to satisfy them (even if it may be disappointing to finally concede that they are actually pretty damn good). If there isn't another Bal-Sagoth release until 2011, it will hopefully be juas as worth the wait.
1. The Sixth Adulation of His Chthonic Majesty
2. Invocations Beyond the Outer-World Night
3. Six Score and Ten Oblations to a Malefic Avatar
4. The Obsidian Crown Unbound
5. The Fallen Kingdoms of the Abyssal Plain
6. Shackled to the Trilithon of Kutulu
7. The Hammer of the Emperor
8. Unfettering the Hoary Sentinels of Karnak
9. To Storm the Cyclopean Gates of Byzantium
10. Arcana Antediluvia
11. Beneath the Crimson Vaults of Cydonia
12. Return to Hatheg-Kla
The Last Men on Earth
**
Written on 27.02.08
Balzac are essentially a Japanese rip-off of the Misfits, and for this reason alone it's difficult not to view them with slight contempt and disdain. Imitating the more famous band's sound, horror theme and image to a disappointingly commercial extent that has even seen the release of action figures, this is a band that threatens to be more about gimmick than musical quality, and that just about sums them up.
The Misfits have always been my favourite punk rock band, primarily in their original, turbulent incarnation with Glenn Danzig but even in the more recent and even more turbulent reunion works with new singer Michale Graves, but their clichéd, campy horror appearance and horror film obsessed lyrics were bound to attract hordes of imitators, most notably AFI in the early years before they moved onto their own sound and became much worse. Although later albums would show a small amount of competence in living up to the ideal of a nineties/zero-zeroes punk band, 'The Last Men on Earth' stinks of below-par Misfits tribute that fails to capture anything that was great about their heroes.
Hirosuke Nishiyama's singing occasionally imitates Glenn Danzig, most noticeably in 'Diabolos,' before he develops his own irritating style that will see him through the rest of the band's releases, with only a very slight influence of the Japanese rock style. The backing vocals replicate the famous "woah" choruses of the Misfits but destroy its effect through over-use in every single song, and the only really enjoyable thing about this album is the dirty tone of the guitar, something that was presumably only a flaw due to the low production values at this point before the band became inexplicably big.
Unlike later albums that tend to follow a specific internal style, this one carelessly moves between imitations of different Misfits phases, from the minimalist, 'Static Age' style of '13 Ghosts' to the darker, bass-led, 'Halloween'-style 'God of Mercy III,' with most songs landing squarely in the more upbeat style of 'Walk Among Us' and missing out the band's heavy metal phase of 'Earth A.D.' Only a couple, such as 'Vanishes in Oblivion,' manage to imitate the Misfits sound without directly ripping off a specific song, and there are no stand-out songs in this rather weak excuse for an album. An album of straightforward Misfits covers would have been more honest and more enjoyable.
1. Night of the Blood Beast
2. Diabolos
3. 13 Ghosts
4. Day the Earth Caught Fire
5. Long Way - Before the Day Goes Over the Night
6. God of Mercy III
7. Fiendish Ghouls
8. Night Tide
9. Vanishes in Oblivion
10. From Hell It Came
11. Psycho in 308
12. Monster III
13. Girl from Horrorwood
Atom-Age Vampire in 308
***
Written on 27.02.08
As well as being a notable early release from Balzac, 'Atom-Age Vampire in 308' is also the band's semi-official subtitle, or at least one that always appears in conjunction with Balzac name on each release. This 7" E.P. contains four original Balzac songs from their early career rooted in the style of a Misfits tribute act, and as it mostly represents the best of their material at that time, it makes for a more pleasantly consistent release than some of their enormously varied early albums. The sound quality is also enjoyably raw and primitive, which aids the atmosphere to a great extent.
'Atom-Age Vampire in 308' begins with a slow, Black Sabbath style doom riff and a spoken word incantation, and this very same section reappears as the finale to 'Eerie Night' in a contrived but successful bid to impose a sense of structure without the flamboyancy found in some of the thematically linked song titles of the full-length releases. There isn't much to this opening song beyond an overly repetitive chorus interspersed with a short guitar solo, but that's good enough for me.
Next is the finest offering of the release and the most popular song of the band's early period, 'Day the Earth Caught Fire,' which features the greatest influence of Japanese rock on the vocal style that would ever be seen in Balzac, and drifts in and out of covering the Misfits' classic 'Where Eagles Dare,' specifically Glenn Danzig's "better think about it baby" refrain. It's a fun song, if a little too indebted to the Misfits style, and this version even features what may be a keyboard piercing the atmosphere that works quite well.
'Fiendish Ghouls' is another song taken from 'The Last Men on Earth' album, but it's by far the less impressive of the two, attempting a heavier style that ultimately fails and being spoiled by too great a reliance on Misfits-style "woah-oah-oahs." 'Eerie Night' is similarly uninspired but makes for a nice, downbeat ending with minimal guitars and an ominous drum before the intro riff returns, and on the whole this is a fun, simple and consistent early release that beats the rest of the early Balzac catalogue by a fair way. I still have no idea what the title thing is all about.
1. Atom-Age Vampire in 308
2. Day the Earth Caught Fire
3. Fiendish Ghouls
4. Eerie Night
Deep Teenagers from Outer Space
***
Written on 27.02.08
I was thankful to hear Balzac evolving from terrible Misfits copycats to fairly average, if uninspired horror punk band with their second full-length release, but fortunately they would improve in the end. The cleaner production sound brings out the guitars more fully than before, and the new alternation between two vocalists adds a nice dynamic element, but most impressive of all is how the Misfits influence has now been relegated to secondary position behind a desire to compete with modern punk bands.
There's a greater energy here than was present on the debut, especially in faster songs like 'The Human Blood,' and the slightly slower songs such as 'Black Sunday III' are no longer spoiled by whining vocals (not until the next album, anyway). Although the band isn't blessed with many creative ideas of its own beyond the skeleton costumes and other gimmicks that don't translate to audio form, there are some nice touches here, particularly in the beginning of what would ultimately become a suite of oddness with the first part of 'Monster,' a strange song led by carnival-style guitar, upbeat bass and non-descript, screaming vocals that leaves me hopeful that this band at least has something original to offer fans at a live show before they move on to more well-received Misfits covers.
1. Psyche Dungeon When the Fiendish Ghouls Night
2. Wall
3. The Human Blood
4. Legacy
5. Black Sunday III
6. Deep
7. Non Resistance Isolation from No. 13 (Occulta Mix)
8. Space Vampire in Silent Noise
9. Violent Paradise
10. Monster I
11. Taste of Fear
13 Stairway – The Children of the Night
Written on 27.02.08
Balzac's third album is disappointing for two major reasons: firstly, the band opts for an irritating, overly happy direction confined to this particular album that makes it less effective as a horror punk release, and secondly because there's not a lot to it. Seriously, eight songs and only twenty-three minutes for a full-length release? That's just plain lazy.
The good news is that Balzac is continuing to move its sound forwards, even when the direction doesn't end up working that well, and as well as being their overly jovial album, this is also their most industrial, thanks to the distorted riffs of opener 'Atomic-Age' and particularly 'Legacy II' with its programmed techno drums and overall headache-inducing fuzz. This will likely make the album more accessible to the Japanese mainstream, as will Hirosuke Nishiyama's piercing singing, but anyone who approaches this band as the self-proclaimed "Japanese Misfits" (a term even endorsed by the Misfits themselves, who inexplicably selected Balzac as their opening act at one point) would be best investigating elsewhere.
The band still plays fast and energetic punk, but in an even lighter and more melodic manner than AFI around this period, the comparison coming to a head in track three, and the final song 'The Bleeding Light' gives a hint that Balzac have heard, enjoyed and studied the new album released by the Misfits themselves around this point, implying an even greater similarity in the future.
1. Atomic-Age
2. Nowhere # 13
3. Sad Nos. 99
4. Legacy II
5. Tomorrow
6. The Slaughter House
7. Destruction Another Wall
8. The Bleeding Light
Zennou Nara Musuu No Me Wa Shi O Yubisasu
***
Written on 27.02.08
Balzac's unpronounceable fourth album is a satisfyingly more bad-ass affair than their previous works, with most songs taking on a heavier and more aggressive, almost hardcore punk tone that's no longer so reminiscent of the Misfits, or is at least confined to the other band's 'Earth A.D.' period, without being as good. There are still some minor examples of studio trickery such as film samples and a strange lapse into a piano rendition of what sounds like Xavier Cugat's 'Brazil' at the conclusion of the title track, but for the most part this is straight-up punk rock with less focus on gimmicks and more on the intensity of the performance. Unfortunately, the material itself doesn't really hold up to scrutiny.
This isn't a bad album, but it's distinctly average and it can't be a good thing when the major track to stand out, 'Day the Earth Caught Fire,' is a re-make of earlier material. 'Maybe the Future' will satisfy those who enjoyed the previous album's lighter and more melodic style, while the rest even approaches the level of Rancid and other contemporary punk acts based in the classic style, but ultimately this fails to make a mark and if anything, only serves to prove that Balzac without the make-up and costumes is really nothing to get excited about.
1. While I Await My Second Death
2. Day the Earth Caught Fire
3. Unvarnished Facts
4. Zennou-Naru Musuu-No Me Ha Shi Wo Yubi Sasu
5. Hands of 9 Evils
6. Blood Bath = Blood Mind
7. Teenage Vampire 49
8. The End of the Century
9. To Kill Your Master
10. Break F**kin' Yourself
11. Into the Light of the 13 Dark Night
12. Maybe the Future
Terrifying! Art of Dying – The Last Men on Earth II
**
Written on 27.02.08
Just when I thought Balzac's career may be on the rise as a serious punk outfit, they release the disappointing 'Terrifying! Art of Dying,' coupled up with their debut album as an excuse to avoid writing much new material. While the first album has an excuse to be lacklustre due to the band's age at that point, 'Terrifying!' comes in the wake of several experimental releases that saw Balzac trying various punk styles and evidently failing to come up with any definitive conclusions. After two wasted minutes of an introduction, 'Out of the Blue' comes out of the blue with a classic punk guitar sound and the resurgence of Misfits-style backing vocals to reveal a Balzac more in touch with its disappointing roots, having abandoned the harder direction altogether.
There are a couple of obvious attempts to prove that the band's hardcore style remains intact, and these invariably make for the least satisfying parts of the album. Track three features a brash and irritating drum sound similar to the one Lars Ulrich used on Metallica's 'St. Anger,' in the delusion that making the drums sound like bins somehow equates to heaviness, and the guitars correspondingly squeal out of tune for similar reasons. Most of these songs end up being too long and running out of steam before their five minutes are up, especially the latter two, and by contrast the only song that really succeeds is the forty-four-second fourth track appropriately titled 'In Your Face,' which is the only one to really demonstrate any true punk energy.
Tagging the debut album onto the end was an odd move, presumably to make that release more readily available to new fans, but at least it doesn't upstage the new material by being significantly better and hinting that the band is in a state of decline. It has more or less always been this shoddy.
1. Thirteen
2. Out Of The Blue
3. Soko-De Miteita Yami-No Mukou-No Subete-Wo
4. In Your Face
5. The Silence of Crows
6. A Day in the Darkness
7. Vanishes in Oblivion / Out of the Blue (Reprise)
Beyond the Darkness
***
Written on 27.02.08
Despite the availability of all of the obscure Misfits albums from the late seventies and early eighties today, their 'Collection' and 'Collection II' releases remain the most popular for the more comprehensive overview they provide of the band, and also for containing proportionally more material. It makes sense then, that Japanese Misfits imitators Balzac would eventually release their own collection, 2003's 'Beyond the Darkness,' and at sixty minutes in length it's almost three times the length of some of their shorter albums, while also allowing for some of the less mediocre material to be weeded out of the truly awful stuff, presumably in the opinion of the Misfits' own Jerry Only, who supervised as executive producer.
As the most generous and comprehensive Balzac release yet, this is the only one up this point that I would recommend to anyone interested in the band's sound, as although they're never really all that good, the varied styles present here as they tackle horror punk from more melodic and aggressive vantage points can make for an interesting listen if you're a fan of the genre, beyond the silly costumes. Material from the fourth album such as 'Into the Light of the 13 Dark Night' is comparably angry to the Misfits' later period, 'Nowhere #13' and other material from '13 Stairway' is a little excruciatingly upbeat but still fun (unlike 'Tomorrow' which is just piercing), and there's even greater diversity from the likes of the electronically-influenced 'Yami-No Mukuo-No Subete-Wo' that sounded odd on the original album, but works better as the exception here.
Track eight is too long and track nine is too short, and overall the main difference between this collected release and the Misfits collections is that the material that made it onto the Misfits collection was all excellent, while the material that didn't make it was similarly excellent. Here, the best is only quite good and some is fairly poor, but at least most of the really terrible works were kept on the cutting room floor. Viewed as a standard album rather than a best-of, it's bound to be more satisfying.
1. Thirteen
2. Day The Earth Caught Fire
3. Wall
4. Into The Light Of The 13 Dark Night
5. Black Light Shines In '99
6. Nowhere # 13
7. Yami-No Mukou-No Subete-Wo
8. Out Of The Blue II
9. In Your Face
10. The Silence Of Crows
11. Tomorrow
12. Vanishes In Oblivion
13. The End Of Century
14. Monster II
15. Beware Of Darkness
16. Violent Paradise
17. Bleeding Light
18. Diabolos
19. 13 Ghosts
20. Day The Earth Caught Fire
Came Out of the Grave
****
Written on 27.02.08
My first reaction on hearing 'Came Out of the Grave' was an enormously positive one: Balzac have somehow become good! After a turbulent but mostly weak string of albums ranging from Misfits rip-off to pop punk embarrassment, the band has finally found its sound on this seventh full-length release - or at least, returned to the sound that showed so much promise back in the fourth album but was somehow abandoned since.
This is catchy, heavy and aggressive punk rock delivered in an energetic and compelling performance, from Atsushi Nakagawa's furious guitars to Hirosuke Nishiyama's screaming yells, and even the more upbeat songs like 'Season of the Dead,' 'Inside My Eyes' and 'Beyond Evil 308' avoid being annoying in any way, the latter featuring a guiltily enjoyable lead guitar melody that could easily provide the feel-good intro theme for an American teen drama series. The heavy side of the album occasionally goes a little too far into hardcore territory, though this isn't strictly a problem, while I was pleasantly surprised that the title track opted to follow a classic heavy metal style in addition to punk, complete with a melodic guitar solo finale.
The long songs feel justified for the first and last time here on what remains Balzac's finest offering, and it's nice to see their experimental edge continuing in the light electronic touches of 'I'm Losing You' without taking over as they have in the past. 'I Know' is a melodic finale that works so well because it's the exception this time round, rather than the rule, and just for old time's sake there's the typical Misfits rip-off song in the form of 'Art of Dying' which might as well be a cover of 'Hatebreeders.' The quality of this album is so high that for once this doesn't irritate me, and it seems there may be a little more to Balzac than a Misfits rip-off artist after all. Not a great deal more, but a little bit that makes this worth horror punk fans checking out.
1. The Grave - Dreizehn
2. Zetsubou No Ano Basyo E
3. Season of the Dead
4. Inside My Eyes
5. Shi Wo Yubi Sasu
6. The Pain is All Around
7. Came Out of the Grave
8. Beyond Evil 308
9. Art of Dying
10. The World Without End / The Pain is Not Around (Reprise)
11. I'm Losing You
12. Beware of Darkness (2004 version)
13. I Know
Out of the Grave and Into the Dark
****
Written on 27.02.08
I was only able to come by Balzac's eighth album 'Dark-Ism' in conjunction with its predecessor in this collected volume, and was disappointed to see just how easily the two fit onto one CD; as 'Came Out of the Grave' was surprisingly substantial for a Balzac release, that unfortunately means that 'Dark-Ism' is less than thirty minutes in length, the first signal that the band has once again slipped into a state of relative decline.
It's not all bad though, and essentially the only problem with this album is one of unimaginative consistency that sees most songs sounding the same. The songs all feel long-winded again after the success of the previous album, which forms the first fourteen tracks here and is the much better more-than-half of the release, and 'Dark-Ism' would have been improved by opting for a greater number of shorter songs rather than these occasionally lengthy, dull affairs. 'D.A.R.K.' sees the band complete its transition to full-on hardcore punk, with vocals screamed against a fairly melodic backdrop, and there's an oddly mechanical atmosphere surrounding the whole thing, culminating in the electronically-tinged second part of 'Beyond Evil 308,' another of the band's occasionally indecipherable cross-album suites that would still go straight over my head even if I spoke Japanese.
'Gyakusatsu-No-Mukougawa' is an old-school-sounding punk track which is quite fun, and at least a respite from all the aggression that can get a bit too much, and 'I Can't Stand It Anymore' at least includes some nice lead guitars, but on the whole this second album is the less satisfying of the two. By contrast, 'Came Out of the Grave' is as close as the band has come to recording a magnum opus; not particularly enthralling, but a decent enough punk album that provides solutions to many of the issues raised in the second album, which the band was for some reason unable to apply further down the timeline.
1. The Grave - Dreizehn
2. Zetsubou-No-Ano-Basyo-E
3. Season of the Dead
4. Inside My Eyes
5. Shi-Wo-Yubi-Sasu
6. The Pain is All Around
7. Came Out of the Grave
8. Beyond Evil 308
9. Art of Dying
10. The World Without End / The Pain is Not Around (Reprise)
11. I'm Losing You
12. Beware Of Darkness (2004 version)
13. I Know
14. Gimme Some Truth
15. Beyond Evil 308, Pt. 1
16. D.A.R.K.
17. Blood Inside '68
18. Beyond Evil 308, Pt. 2
19. Gyakusatsu-No-Mukougawa
20. XXXxxx
21. I Can't Stand It Anymore
22. Yami-No-Hikari-E
Deep Blue: Chaos From Darkism II
***
Written on 27.02.08
The oddly-named 'Deep Blue: Chaos from Darkism II' (nevertheless, still one of the Japanese band's more decipherable titles) is another solid horror punk release from Balzac, but suffers the same problem of repetition that affected its predecessor 'Dark-Ism.' At sixty minutes in length it's by far the most generous release the band has put out so far, over twice the length of its immediate predecessor, and even including a couple of re-recordings of earlier material in the form of 'D.A.R.K.' and 'XXXxxx,' it's a fairly satisfying album on the whole - just not one to get too excited about listening to all in one sitting.
The more standard fare like 'Godless,' 'Horrorock' and 'Deep Blue' is starting to get a little old now despite being highly enjoyable, and is still better than many Misfits imitators like AFI, but it's the tracks that attempt something more distinctive that prove the most interesting, whether they succeed or (more consistently) fail. 'The Gaze' is heavier with a riff borrowed from the world of thrash metal, the customary intro is stranger than ever, and '(#2)' is just plain odd. 'Japanese Chaos' is really short, fast and aggressive as is the tendency for Balzac's shorter offerings, and by contrast, songs towards the end such as '(#1)' and 'I Can't Stand It Anymore' are slower and softer, but only comparatively speaking; this never deviates from its core punk sound.
The best song here is 'The Scare,' which stands as one of the best songs Balzac has recorded and a defining example of their horror punk style, but the majority of the album fails to stand out in the same way. Even their cover of David Bowie's classic 'Ziggy Stardust' is disappointingly similar to the original in the inferior way that would be expected from a punk band, Hirosuke Nishiyama's vocals sounding rather strange and distracting and not really satisfying. You have to wonder why they covered this song when they weren't planning on bringing anything new to it, or even living up to its spirit, but I suppose a punk cover would have been too obvious; this band has always been about keeping fans guessing, mostly through bizarre song titles, and I wouldn't expect anything so predictable of them.
1. I Bring Death and Confrontation
2. Godless
3. The Scare
4. In Those Days
5. D.A.R.K.
6. Horrorock
7. Ziggy Stardust
8. The Gaze
9. (#2)
10. Deep Blue
11. Japanese Chaos
12. XXXxxx
13. (#1)
14. Japanese Trash
15. I Can't Stand It Anymore
16. I'm Alone
Banco del muto soccorso
***
Written on 12.02.08
Classic Italian progressive band Banco del mutuo soccorso released an esteemed trilogy of sorts in the early seventies, the only overarching theme being that all followed a fairly similar style of classically-influenced progressive rock, and that they were the band's first three full-length releases. The self-titled debut is possibly the weakest of the three, and as I can't really think of an appropriate analogy off the top of my head, you can imagine for yourself the first part of a film trilogy that got better and more sophisticated with the second film, before returning to the same level of confused quite-good mediocrity with the finale ('Star Wars' doesn't count, because 'Return of the Jedi' was pretty rubbish, and I didn't have the patience to sit through 'Lord of the Rings' so I wouldn't know about that).
The key players here are the Nocenzi brothers Gianni and Vittorio, who play a variety of keyboard-style instruments between them to vary between prog rock in the classic symphonic style, similar to Genesis or Yes, and chamber music in the classic classical style, similar to the olden days. It's a talented and interesting mix, and the concept only becomes strained when the respective organ, keyboard and piano solo sections, among others, interfere with the overall structure of a song, as happens most significantly in 'Metamorfosi,' while the grand finale 'Il Giardino Del Mago' is more or less a complete mess of disjointed ideas that are good in their own right, but don't make for a strong eighteen-minute song to hold the listener's attention.
Francesco Di Giacomo's voice is that of an opera singer, which works very well in more classically-styled songs like 'R.I.P.', clearly the strongest material here by a long way, but is less successful in the proggier offerings, where he tends to take a back seat until returning at the end. This is very original and supremely talented music, but it lacks restraint and a sense of logical structure that prevents it from really impressing, not to mention that the whole sound is so explicitly rooted in the early 1970s for that specific audience's (presumed) tastes. The singing is great, and the keyboards excellent when they're used for a sensible purpose, but any album that opens with a clarinet of all things could never go on to become a true classic.
1. In Volo
2. R.I.P. (Requiescant In Pace)
3. Passaggio
4. Metamorfosi
5. Il Giardino Del Mago
...a) Passo Dopo Passo
...b) Chi Ride E Chi Geme
...c) Coi Capelli Sciolti Al Vento
...d) Compenetrazione
6. Traccia
Darwin!
****
Written on 12.02.08
The emphatically titled 'Darwin!' is apparently a concept album, one I'm assuming is to do with Charles Darwin rather than one of his lesser-known brethren, but one I'd have to learn Italian to properly understand. Musically, this is a vast improvement over the band's debut, more or less perfecting their synthesis of classical chamber music and early prog rock without really favouring either one too greatly over the other, but at the same time it may be of less interest to classic prog fans for its mostly instrumental nature. Francesco Di Giacomo hardly gets a look-in on many of the songs, led once again by the brothers Nocenzi.
Opener 'L'Evoluzione' is the longest and strongest song here, beginning in a manner reminiscent of Pink Floyd's (later) classic 'Shine On You Crazy Diamond' with a grand prog overture, before the emotive opera singing comes in and the song moves into some impressive guitar riffs. There's a central section of fast, upbeat prog that Gentle Giant fans should enjoy and a piano finale with wider reaching potential, and though it still lacks an overall sense of order and structure, it's one of the finest long songs they would ever produce.
The album inevitably goes downhill to some extent hereafter but lacks any real weak links, 'La Conquista Della Posizione Eretta' remaining dynamic with its guitar and keyboard duets and the third track 'Danza Dei Grandi Rettili' falling more in line with traditional prog to a less ambitious but more palatable effect. 'Cento Mani E Cento Occhi' begins in complete contrast with an over-the-top fanfare effect leading to some screaming synth, but is slightly made up for with a nice Genesis-style vocal movement later on, and the oddly-titled '750,000 Anni Fa ... L'Amore?' resists deviating too far from its piano ballad core despite shoehorning in an irrelevant and distracting organ section, before that instrument leads the way in the jam of track six that's not really to my taste, but isn't necessarily a bad example of the style.
'Darwin!' would be re-released many years later in a slightly different form, and seems to be the band's most acclaimed and ambitious work, meaning I shouldn't really explore any further into the gaping well that's only going to lead to disappointment. But that's never stopped me before.
1. L'Evoluzione
2. La Conquista Della Posizione Eretta
3. Danza Dei Grandi Rettili
4. Cento Mani E Cento Occhi
5. 750,000 Anni Fa ... L'Amore?
6. Miserere Alla Storia
7. Ed Ora Io Domando Tempo Al Tempo Ed Egli Mi Risponde ... Non Ne Ho!
Centuries of Heathen Might
***
Written on 12.02.08
Bannerwar's traditional black metal strives for an epic sound by incorporating acoustic folk touches of their native Greece, and the gimmick works to some extent. With a minimalist acoustic section bisecting each of these dully-roaring performances, the album is raised significantly above the mildly irritating and generic sound it would otherwise be condemned to, following the D.I.Y. traditions of black metal either by budgetary necessity or choice, and ending up as one of the most treble-heavy and fuzzy releases I've heard outside of demos.
The low sound quality is the key failing of this album, but it's something that can be looked past without much effort. It's widely considered that black metal performed in the traditional style can benefit from the harsh, tombic production sound pioneered by bands like Bathory and embraced by the second wave, but while Behemoth's 'Pandemonic Incantations' suffers from too high a budget, this album could really have done with a more concentrated effort to better achieve the epic sound it often strives for, and to elevate most of it above mere tinny feedback. Even listening to this album on an expensive set of speakers, it would still sound like the noise pollution from someone else's headphones, and as the band list doesn't include a drummer I presume it's a drum machine being used; either way, you can hardly hear it for cymbals.
So while the majorityof the album is rendered uninteresting at worst, and merely unoriginal at best, there are still enough nice touches to make it a worthwhile listen for black metal fans, if only for the pleasant acoustic parts. Opener 'The Return of the Twelve Gods' has a distinct folk edge that passes from its acoustic introduction into Erevos' lead guitar once the song hits its stride, and Arkhon performs the most enjoyable sing-song black metal scream outside of Viking metal, backed up in the chorus by some similarly Viking singing. This style is unfortunately dropped in favour of a more typical black metal direction for the majority of the album until the somewhat epic finale 'White Mountains' and cover of Graveland's 'Ancient Blood,' but the acoustic sections permeate each song in a slightly different manner such as the spoken word in 'Symbols of Solar Might' and 'Warspirit,' the latter of which even allows Vorvoros' bass to become audible, something that's completely impossible elsewhere when the other instruments are all buried in fuzz. Vorvoros also gets to introduce the fun 'Pagan Bane' with a bassline that sounds lifted straight from Jeff Wayne's 'The War of the Worlds,' and acting as the relief in this shorter, sharper and faster nod to the black metal old-school.
I've always wondered whether the band name was supposed to be a sort of a black metal joke version of Manowar, but they don't strike me as the joking type.
1. The Return of the Twelve Gods
2. Symbols of Solar Might
3. Warspirit
4. Unchaining the Wolf
5. Pagan Bane
6. White Mountains
7. Ancient Blood (Graveland cover)
Atomic Arena
***
Written on 18.02.08
Barren Cross were one of the more prominent Christian metal bands of the eighties, in a futile attempt to provide a strong competing force to the ever more nefarious black metal bands emerging from Scandinavia at the time, as well as something for right-wing Christian parents to jump at the opportunity to buy in the hope that their impressionable children's souls will be spared. Especially if they were considering something dastardly like abortion, dealt with here in track two before the album returns to the band's usual praise of the Almighty.
It would be unfair to jump on the Christian theme if the band wasn't so clearly all about flouting it, and to be honest it's pretty much the only reason anyone will remember them today. This album is enjoyable for fans of eighties metal, based in the Judas Priest style with impressive singing from Mike Lee that's been compared to Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson but really sounds more like Queensrÿche's Geoff Tate, and despite the irritating and partially unavoidable glam influence that affected most American metal bands of the time, it features some great heavy metal amidst the mediocrity and the downright rubbish of the compulsory power ballad 'Heaven or Nothing.'
The old-style production values rob this album of some of its power which is a shame, but all the same it keeps it authentically and nostalgically eighties, and songs such as the hotly political 'Killers of the Unborn' and 'Dead Lock' rival Judas Priest's heavy material of that period, while 'Cultic Regimes' goes some way towards being considered thrash in its full-pelt riffs and screaming vocal performance. Guitarist Ray Parris hasn't left any kind of legacy, but he's good enough at his job here and serves up some reasonable solos that are sadly hidden by the production, while Steve Whitaker's drums are merely competent, especially considering the steady pace of songs like 'Terrorist Child' and 'King of Kings.'
Only a couple go in for something creative and different, Jim LaVerde smartening up 'In the Eye of the Fire' with some bass work and the finale 'Living Dead' sounding more consciously epic with a melodic central section, but overall this is just another eighties metal album that will please some people and annoy purists. And that album cover's really bad.
1. Imaginary Music
2. Killers of the Unborn
3. In the Eye of the Fire
4. Terrorist Child
5. Close to the Edge
6. Dead Lock
7. Cultic Regimes
8. Heaven or Nothing
9. King of Kings
10. Living Dead
State of Control
****
Written on 18.02.08
The penultimate album from Barren Cross, and the final one before their first hiatus, 'State of Control' is an improvement over its predecessor but still falls victim to some of the horrible trends of eighties heavy metal. Fortunately, for every disappointing and generic power ballad such as 'Cryin' Over You' and the piano finale 'Escape the Night,' there are at least two excellent metal performances keeping up the harder edge, and the band's sound has clearly developed over the course of a single year to produce a tighter outfit overall, and tight outfits were a heavy metal staple too.
Mike Lee's Bruce Dickinsonesque singing predicts the changing trend of the Iron Maiden singer by modulating his high wails to a lower and more traditional hard rock style in the verses before letting rip in the choruses, and this adds greater variety to the songs, something that's sadly countered by the annoying tendency towards high unison singing that smacks of glam metal. The lyrical themes are less exclusively religious this time round, but still possess a strong social conscience in dealing with alcoholism and violence among other issues, and it's a lot easier to take this album seriously now that the band isn't pushing its Christian image to the fore.
As always there are some filler tracks that don't really make the grade, but only 'Out of Time' and 'Love At Full Volume' really feel like out-of-place glam metal pieces, and the rest usually have a lot more to offer. Even the opening title song that was released as a single, and would thus be expected to follow a simple path, features an interesting melodic break and change of verse style half-way through that focuses on Jim LaVerde's bass work, while 'The Stage of Intensity' moves from an acoustic introduction to a thrashing body.
The problem with this new tendency towards elaborate structure is that some songs now feel significantly overlong, especially the seven-minute 'Two Thousand Years' that's led by the same Maidenesque, galloping rhythm as 'Inner War' but becomes very repetitive towards the end, but this album's finer songwriting skills and more competent lyrical focus could have signalled greater things from this band in the future. Assuming they didn't follow the trend of all other American bands and strip down to a grunge sound in 1991.
1. State of Control
2. Out of Time
3. Cryin' Over You
4. A Face in the Dark
5. The Stage of Intensity
6. Hard Lies
7. Inner War
8. Love At Full Volume
9. Bigotry Man (Who Are You)
10. Two Thousand Years
11. Escape the Night
Barrett
***
Written on 12.02.08
Slightly mad ex-Pink Floyd frontman Syd Barrett has left a strong legacy on generations of musicians that might be hard to understand when first confronted with his whimsical ballads of gnomes, scarecrows and mice named Gerald, but there's a great poetic simplicity in his minimalist ditties that was captured excellently (so I hear) on his post-Floyd debut 'The Madcap Laughs,' and slightly less well on this immediate successor before he gave up songwriting altogether, perhaps only for the satisfaction of confounding and upsetting the general public. He seemed like quite a fun man.
Many of Barrett's songs are so simple and throwaway that it's occasionally a little unnerving and requires a reality check to confirm this is the proclaimed genius, and while it's obvious that his style was influential, and some of his works are genius, a lot of it is just rubbish, but enjoyable rubbish. 'Effervescing Elephant,' for instance, is a light-hearted tale about animal characters that sounds like a children's song, but that isn't patronising as I probably would have liked it as a child. The rest of the album varies in intensity from the manic performance of 'Wolfpack,' reminiscent of the first Pink Floyd album, to more downbeat and atmospheric pieces like 'Dominoes,' and thankfully never venturing into the world of "hilarious" joke music, even if Barrett is prone to self-parody on occasion, whether intentional or not.
This seems to be a slightly less personal album than its predecessor, partly due to the prominence of the backing musicians, including Pink Floyd's Richard Wright on keyboards and occasionally distracting organ, and David Gilmour on guitar and drums. The piano helps 'Love Song,' and there's a pleasant guitar solo in 'Gigolo Aunt,' but on the whole it gets a little distracting when Barrett fades into the background at the end of 'Dominoes' and in parts of the funkier 'Rats,' making the more minimalist pieces the most entertaining, even if some of them, like 'Maisie,' aren't particularly good.
This album sounds more optimistic and less troubled than other works I've heard from Barrett, and at times he seems downright stable, particularly in the calm 'Wined and Dined' and 'Waving My Arms in the Air,' the latter of which is about as stereotypically Barrett as you can get. The opener 'Baby Lemonade' even proves that he could have had a successful pop career if he'd been interested in that sort of thing, but the rest slide a little too far into obscurity for the same mainstream appeal. This is a nice album, but not Barrett's best work.
1. Baby Lemonade
2. Love Song
3. Dominoes
4. It Is Obvious
5. Rats
6. Maisie
7. Gigolo Aunt
8. Waving My Arms in the Air
9. I Never Lied to You
10. Wined and Dined
11. Wolfpack
12. Effervescing Elephant
Opel
***
Written on 12.02.08
Although Syd Barrett only recorded two official albums, both in 1970, his tendency towards improvisation in the studio, and the numerous alternate takes produced due to his tendency to change what he was playing every time (much to the chagrin of his collaborators like David Gilmour, who preferred to approach experimental music from a conservative vantage point), have allowed record companies to release a string of compilations over the decades purporting to fill the gap left by Barrett's departure from the music scene. Of all of these, 1989's 'Opel' is the most interesting and the closest thing to a comprehensive lost third album that Barrett fans can hope for.
About half of the material consists of original pieces not present on the two 1970 albums, some of which are satisfyingly recorded in a single, slightly puzzled take complete with brief introduction from the singer-songwriter proving just how clearly he's making things up on the spot, while the rest are alternate versions of Barrett's comparatively well-known songs. While this inevitably makes for a weaker and less concise release than the two earlier albums, it's also a very nice addition to a casual Syd Barrett collection that allows collectors to avoid the trouble of tracking anything else down, as songs like 'Opel' are the only extra Barrett material you'll ever need.
It's refreshing that most of these songs fall back on Barrett's singing and acoustic guitar exclusively, after the slightly diluted band flavour of his second album, and this is one of those rare releases where the songs that are completely rubbish or just experimental to a fault ('Word Song' features stream-of-consciousness lyrics consisting of single, usually unconnected words) end up being as entertaining and valid as the stronger material like the darkly poetic 'Opel' and the refreshing 'Lanky (Part 1),' a psychedelic instrumental entirely in the style of 'Interstellar Overdrive' for people who've heard that other song a little too much and require something slightly different, which I'm guessing is most people who own this album in the first place.
This is an entertaining album, but doesn't hold together as well as the official albums managed to, largely thanks to the deliberation of Gilmour and the other studio personnel who must have struggled to make a coherent record from Barrett's sessions, and at times it's almost disappointingly amateur, as if Barrett doesn't really care. The guitar work certainly isn't anything impressive, even in the celebrated title track which is a little messy at times, especially towards the beginning (god forbid he'd just make it up as he went along), and 'Clowns and Jugglers' strikes me as more of a self-parody of his whimsy than anything. Anyone who enjoyed Barrett's two proper albums will probably enjoy this too, even if the overlap is slightly disappointing, but newcomers would be best off avoiding the messy post-1970 discography altogether and heading right back to the start where the important stuff lies.
1. Opel
2. Clowns and Jugglers
3. Rats
4. Golden Hair
5. Dolly Rocker
6. Word Song
7. Wined and Dined
8. Swan Lee (Silas Lang)
9. Birdie Hop
10. Let's Split
11. Lanky (Part 1)
12. Wouldn't You Miss Me? (Dark Globe)
13. Milky Way
14. Golden Hair (Instrumental version)
Bathory
Making Love to the Pagan Queen
****
Written on 15.07.07
Bathory’s early albums are revered as landmarks of the dark side of metal, paving the way for the Scandinavian black metal explosion and, later, mellowing out and adding some folk touches to pioneer so-called ‘Viking metal.’ The first three albums all followed a very similar style before Quorthon’s artistic vision expanded to epic frontiers, preferring the claustrophobic atmosphere of a dank and echoing tomb. Although this isn’t black metal in the modern sense of the term, owing far more to the grittier side of British heavy metal such as Motörhead and particularly the Satanic band Venom (though the late Quorthon denied having heard them previously), the dingy production, snarling voice and thunderous drums create a distinctly blackened and hopeless atmosphere that encourages intrigue and morbid fascination to overshadow the relatively primitive musicianship.
The original title for this release was to be the exuberant ‘Pentagrammaton,’ until several people with either dyslexia or a short attention span mis-read it as ‘Pentagon.’ Bathory’s name is taken from the Hungarian Countess Elizabeth Bathory, also a popular subject in the lyrics of Cradle of Filth, who drank the blood of around seven hundred virgins over the course of a few years in order to remain eternally youthful. The man behind the band is the late Quorthon, whose real name is the subject of some debate even on his tombstone, and for these early releases a drummer and bass player form part of the band, in the form of Stefan Larsson and Rickard Bergman here, in the years before Quorthon took full control of the performances himself.
He isn’t the greatest guitarist in the world by any means, occasionally seemingly recycling Motörhead riffs and playing simplistic guitar solos, and his snarling vocals aren’t the most riveting, but his skill lies in the enthusiasm and genuine unsettling atmosphere of evil that’s created. Bathory’s self-titled debut set the competitively low standard that many modern bands struggle to attain by downgrading their accidentally-hi-tech equipment or trying to forget how to play. None of the songs on ‘Bathory’ are complex beyond a mere speed change, and none get anywhere near the four minute mark, relying on speed and violent aggression, with a little focus on catchiness, where Quorthon’s later compositions favoured a more thoughtful pace and eloquent tone. If Bathory’s discography does indeed show a process of maturity, at least until the mid-nineties when things went into a bit of a mid-life crisis, 1984’s ‘Bathory’ is without a doubt the most juvenile, but far more convincing than any of the more recent shouty, angsty bands that dominate the kids’ rock charts.
1. Storm of Damnation
2. Hades
3. Reaper
4. Necromansy
5. Sacrifice
6. In Conspiracy With Satan
7. Armageddon
8. Raise the Dead
9. War
10. Outro
The introductory track, like all Bathory intros to come, is far too long-winded, but perhaps necessary for ‘method listeners,’ if such a thing exists (I’m pretty sure it does, as I’ve been one on occasion) to allow their trivial and quite happy life to slip away and be replaced with a more solemn and depressing demeanour, to prepare them for the twenty five or so minutes that follows. The sound of a slowed-down Big Ben is mixed with muffled wind sound effects and what may or may not be voices , or just more wind. It’s all quite unsettling and understated, setting a more authentically creepy mood than some of the other kitsch horror film inspired songs I’ve written about recently. The first real song scratches its way into existence as the sound effects fade out, and the style soon becomes standard fare: a roaring guitar accompanied by blasting drums, both sounding distant and muffled at the far end of the crypt, while Quorthon snarls and rasps in-between playing riffs. The style is very reminiscent of Venom’s archetypal song ‘Black Metal,’ released a few years earlier, but given a significant kick and replacing the stupid rock-n-roll lyrics with a descriptive scene-setting of Hades. There’s not enough in this song to really make it stand out with the exception that it comes first, but it defines Bathory’s early sound.
‘The Reaper’ returns to perhaps my favourite subject matter in the whole of heavy metal, that of the inimitable Grim Reaper. The lyrics, written in the first person, don’t do a disservice to Death, and one of the most incredibly cool moments of the album comes when Quorthon yells ‘I’m coming to take you!’ and breaks into a guitar solo. Nice! The vocals are more legible this time than in the last song, and oddly the vocals and guitars both sound a lot like Dave Mustaine of American thrash band Megadeth, even though their first album wouldn’t be released for another year. Eerie. ‘Necromansy’ manages to be the most satisfying song thus far, taking a slightly slower pace that allows for more emphasis on heavy riffs and an admittedly catchy drum beat. Quorthon’s vocals sound oddly further back in the mix here, which actually sound pretty good, though this does mean that the band has to rely on a crashing of cymbals to add emphasis in the chorus, which comes out sounding rather less than excellent in the tinny production. The guitar solo sounds more fitting on this one, playing alongside the other instruments rather than doing its own thing, and the song benefits from being a little longer than average in this regard.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for ‘Sacrifice,’ which feels drawn out and repetitive in the middle of the album, sounding a lot like the first song and even more reminiscent of Venom’s ‘Black Metal’ than that was. ‘In Conspiracy With Satan,’ despite the great title, also suffers from being a little uninteresting after time, and the vocal growls are almost impossible to discern this time. As I said earlier, the album doesn’t try to impress with its technical ability, but this middle section disappoints me by being too predictable and samey, lacking the driving enthusiasm of the faster songs and the enjoyable pace of the ever-so-slightly-slower ones. The remainder of the album is a lot more rewarding and even a little varied, with the immortal ‘Armageddon’ epitomising Bathory’s aggression and seeming to beckon an apocalypse with the impressive sonic scape at the end, filled with distant wailing guitars. The bass even gets a miniature solo spot, which is always nice to hear especially as it’s relegated to covering Quorthon’s back the rest of the time, and although the main guitar riff could easily be found on a Motörhead album, it works perfectly. The only issue is that the relentless pounding of the drums has significantly lost its impact at this point in the album, meaning that this song would work better standing alone or separated from similar-sounding pieces on a compilation, which is how I first came across it spliced between slower Bathory pieces on the excellent posthumous collection ‘In Memory of Quorthon.’
My favourite song on the album is the comparatively epic ‘Raise the Dead,’ returning to the tolls of Big Ben (though not an exact sample as that would make it at least fifteen o’clock due to the number of chimes), and fading into a quiet heartbeat. This is a far cry from Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side of the Moon,’ where the heartbeat builds anticipation of a pleasant, dreamy guitar intro coming along any second now, and more along the lines of hearing footsteps approach your room in an empty house. When the song starts, it’s clear that things have mellowed out slightly, even more than ‘Necromansy,’ and it’s clear that the emphasis is going to be on enjoyment more than violence as Quorthon yells ‘dust to dust’ before the verse begins. Everything about this song is early Bathory at its best, slowing down a little to create an even better atmosphere and to allow the vocals to be understood and the guitar solo really enjoyed. After a gong crash ends the song abruptly, the downbeat finale ‘War’ brings things right back to speed, abandoning the progression of the previous song in favour of Quorthon’s fast comfort zone, and why not? The guitar makes some cool mistakes that I’m glad weren’t rectified in the studio, and the song is pretty simple, just yelling about war. The track-list boasts an ‘Outro’ at track ten which is in many ways the adverse of the introduction, doing the same thing but only lasting for twenty seconds.
Bathory’s debut is far from the most impressive example of Quorthon’s artistry, but it made a significant impact on its 1984 release. At only twenty-seven minutes it should seem far too short, but somehow doesn’t, and even if this was only the first side of an LP I think a significant break would be called for before playing the reverse. This raw, dirty and wicked style, which is arguably called black metal, would be continued over the next two albums and perfected in ‘Under the Sign of the Black Mark,’ balancing the aggression and sheer catchiness present in this album into Bathory staples such as ‘Woman of Dark Desires.’ Nevertheless, it was the fourth album, ‘Blood Fire Death,’ where Quorthon really started getting interesting, perhaps looking back over his works and noticing the higher quality of slower songs such as ‘Raise the Dead’ in order to craft yet another significant sub-genre...
Advantages: Unprecedented raw aggression, speed and wickedness from a small Swedish studio.
Disadvantages: Repetitive and unimaginative in places.
The Return......
****
Written on 17.02.08
Bathory's second album is much the same as the first, only ever so slightly more refined. The forefather of black metal, Bathory's style continues in the vein of an evil Motörhead, with grisly guitar riffs and relentlessly crashing drums and cymbals echoing around whichever tomb or recording studio Quorthon hired for this despicable spectacle. Quorthon's snarled, guttural vocals are still as effective even in the wake of the hordes of imitators, and perhaps the most singularly vile aspect of this first-wave black metal is how incessantly catchy it is.
While later bands Mayhem and Emperor arguably committed greater sin when killing people in woods and stabbing each other in the back in a metaphorical as well as literal sense, at least their depraved music was confined to a select audience of impressionable youths. Here, Bathory continue to make accessible evil that, while not exactly being Top 40 material, could cause even the most ardent Calvinist to unconsciously tap his foot along to the catchy beat.
A little longer than the debut release, 'The Return......' also has greater artistic aspirations, with its partitioned songs and amusingly elaborate album title, which Quorthon admits was more or less a gimmick to encourage curious onlookers to turn the album over for reasons of closure. The music is still the same as that of the first album though, and while the most aggressive moments don't quite hold up to the bar already established by 'Armageddon,' and nothing is quite as incessantly addictive as 'Reaper,' it's more consistent on the whole. Most songs come in at just under three minutes, and some use this short allotted time to a surprisingly creative extent, particularly 'Bestial Lust' with its cackling vocals and squealing guitar solo, and the more atmospheric backing lead guitars of 'Possessed' that really show off Quorthon's speed, but the longer songs tend to follow a steadier pace accordingly.
'Revelation of Doom' is the typical Bathory ominous intro, vaguer than the wind-swept churchyard of its predecessor in 'Storm of Damnation' but similarly effective at establishing the evil mood before the blaring opening chords of 'Total Destruction' rear their delightfully ugly heads, and the remainder of this seven minute incantation consists of consistently changing guitar riffs and a mess of cymbals, all captured in the nostalgic fuzz of the low production values that give these albums much of their charm. A similar cacophony is built up throughout the similarly ambitious 'The Rite of Darkness / Reap of Evil,' while the closing title song is less vicious and more atmospheric, but still disturbing enough even before the murdered girl's scream tears through the speakers.
1. Revelation of Doom / Total Destruction
2. Born for Burning
3. The Wind of Mayhem
4. Bestial Lust
5. Possessed
6. The Rite of Darkness / Reap of Evil
7. Son of the Damned
8. Sadist (Tormentor)
9. The Return of the Darkness and Evil
10. Outro
Under the Sign of the Black Mark
*****
Written on 17.02.08
The classic 'Under the Sign of the Black Mark' marks the end of Bathory's early black metal period before Quorthon became absorbed in Viking themes and pioneered a second genre. As the culmination of Bathory's sinister slant on traditional heavy metal stylings, this third album both improves upon the band's earlier successes and boasts greater variety, no longer unleashing a relentless series of repetitive, three-minute, sadistic outbursts one after the other, but still making time for these when appropriate (and how could they not be?)
Every song here is up to the classic Bathory standard, excluding the brief, atmospheric intro and outro tracks recycled between each album of this early period, but some are more timeless than others. 'Massacre' starts the proceedings with a full-on, violent assault in the style of 'Armageddon' but with greater intensity, roaring through raw and fast guitar riffs and verses too fast for Quorthon's to articulately rasp his lyrics without really spitting them out. Rather than being repeated ad nauseam (it certainly has nauseating potential) for the rest of the album, the style is used sparingly between slower offerings, and only resurfaces in 'Chariots of Fire,' 'Of Doom...' and the blaring 'Equimanthorn,' also featuring a steadier chorus where Quorthon yells the title with increasing ferocity and a closing guitar solo section that squeals so loud it can be painful to listen to. Even for me, and I'm well 'ard when it comes to this sort of stuff.
The other end of the scale is perhaps the more interesting side of the album, with the longer and slower 'Call from the Grave,' 'Enter the Eternal Fire' and '13 Candles,' all of which subtly introduce the elements that would come to be termed "Viking metal," despite popular claims that the subsequent 'Blood Fire Death' is the real start of this period. Keyboards and a steadily tolling bell are used for atmosphere in some of these songs, and a greater emphasis is placed on melodic and creative guitar riffs that nevertheless still possess the raw heaviness of the faster tracks.
'Call from the Grave' is the most consistent with the established Bathory style, and it's only with the classic 'Enter the Eternal Fire' that the signs of change really start to ring; this song uses its seven minutes to the full, even when this merely means well-considered repetition of Quorthon's first immortal Viking riff, and the final minutes are handled with a cleaner guitar sound that starts to crawl out of the tomb that served these early efforts so well, but now threatens to become stale and is starting to pong a bit. With his future career now decided, Quorthon experiments with a more melodic singing style on the calmer '13 Candles,' with whispers and choral backing vocals that prove he can't sing, but that it never really mattered.
Oh yes, I almost forgot. 'Woman of Dark Desires' is undoubtedly one of the most enjoyable sing-along anthems black metal would ever produce, with its simple and fun chorus, energetic guitar solo and Hammer horror organ accompaniment. It's not strictly black metal, but we can pretend, and it's certainly the most accessible song Quorthon would ever record in this otherwise dark and terrifying stage of his illustrious career. This really is a classic of nefarious albums.
1. Nocturnal Obesiance
2. Massacre
3. Woman of Dark Desires
4. Call from the Grave
5. Equimanthorn
6. Enter the Eternal Fire
7. Chariots of Fire
8. 13 Candles
9. Of Doom...
10. Outro
Hammerheart
The Viking Metal Classic
*****
Written on 17.02.08
The real start of Bathort's Viking metal era, 'Hammerheart' is the classic archetype of the genre, a slower and more atmospheric off-shoot of Scandinavian black metal infused with neofolk elements to strive for an authentic and historically accurate Viking sound, because everyone knows the ancient Norsemen had electric guitars and amps (it's all in the Völuspá). Bathory was a mere pseudonym for the multi-talented Quorthon by this point (obviously his own stage name was a pseudonym itself, but his real name is Ace so it doesn't get much better than that), and the shift in focus to deal with more explicit themes of Ancient Norse culture and mythology inspired him to create several classic albums over the turn of the nineties, one of which (the fabled 'Blood on Ice') received a severely delayed release at the end of the next decade, subsequently prompting Quorthon to stop messing around with rubbish thrash and go back to his true calling by realising the truly ambitious four-album 'Nordland' project, but unfortunately passing into Valhalla when it was only half complete. 'Hammerheart' is his real Viking victory, as definitive of Bathory's second phase as 'Under the Sign of the Black Mark' was to the first, and equally polarising in its extreme approach.
With only one notable exception, 'Hammerheart' is composed of lengthy, thunderous, grand metal songs carried along by slowly pounding drums and a series of creative and highly infectious guitar riffs. Quorthon comes up with a legendary Viking riff in each song, accompanied by squealing, extended outbursts of lead guitar and frantic solos, while the atmosphere is enhanced further by concise and relevant sound effects. Aside from the significantly slowed pace that only speeds up in the instrumental sections, the most significant change from the previous album comes in Quorthon's vocals; no longer does he screech against a wall of sound in the gurgled grunt of a man possessed (though that was always pretty cool), but now fully embraces his distinctive and admittedly, brilliantly amateur singing style, becoming more impassioned and pained in the more dramatic moments of 'Valhalla' and backed up in most songs by a slow and atmospheric chorus singing along to the guitar melody. The relationship between guitar and vocals is clearly of paramount importance to Quorthon's playing style, which leads to some endearingly desperate vocal attempts to keep up with the faster riffs he's written, most prominently displayed in the excellent chorus to his finest song 'One Rode to Asa Bay,' a narrative that contains just a few too many words to squeeze into a paltry eleven minutes...
I admit that some of these songs are overlong, sometimes (especially in the case of the earlier tracks) unnecessarily, but what they lack in dynamic and progressive content they more than compensate for in atmosphere. The sound effects could be seen as a little clichéd or unnecessary - surely the music should be enough, without the sampling of waves crashing to the shore and crackling fire; thunder; a bustling, ancient marketplace; seagulls; and the chirruping of birds and galloping of horses, respectively (tracks three and six don't have any sound effects) - but I feel... sorry, I've forgotten how that sentence began now. 'Shores in Flames' and 'Valhalla' are both pushing it at ten minutes apiece, dazzling as they are with gloomy riffs, nicely-incorporated acoustic passages and incredible screaming solos, but after this the album really gets into its stride and doesn't let up. 'Baptised in Fire and Ice' boasts another in a long line of immortal Bathory riffs with its dominating lead guitars that give way to an atmospheric sing-along chorus carried off by Quorthon's choral voice, and the slightly shorter 'Father to Son' favours incessant catchiness with its swinging, heavy riff and irresistible sing-song verses.
The major stand-out track is the not-quite-central 'Song to Hall Up High,' Quorthon's passionate hymn to his Allfather Odin, which stands out so prominently for being the only short song (at two and a half minutes) as well as the only one to completely forsake metal in its unplugged, pastoral beauty. His voice impresses here in a way it doesn't always manage when yelling the longer narratives, and this really is the only song Bathory had released up to this point that could conceivably be played on mainstream radio, however much I'd push for 'Woman of Dark Desires' to reach a wider audience. 'Home of Once Brave' is necessarily low-key as the follow-up to avoid stealing any of its thunder, but still manages headbangingly good riffs in its somewhat tedious march towards a finale that's blatantly plagiarised from Metallica's 'For Whom the Bell Tolls,' but that's okay because they and most other prominent, loud bands of the era cite early Bathory as an influence.
The grandest of all finales is well worth waiting for, and has been one of my favourite songs since I first heard it, undoubtedly Quorthon's finest legacy and one that even his second- and third-best songs of later releases are still essentially variations on ('Twilight of the Gods' is similarly great, but it's basically a longer and slower version of the same song with more acoustic guitar and a less dynamic chorus). Anyone who doesn't enjoy it could conceivably claim that it ought to end at seven minutes when it seems like it might, before plodding on for three further minutes of excellent milking, but those people are idiots who'd probably argue that 'Into Glory Ride' wasn't Manowar's best album, as it's similarly indulgent and overlong. What do they know about music? I am best.
'Hammerheart' is a damn fine album that's a little let down by the overlong and less exciting songs taking up space at the beginning, but is more than made up for with its excellent later offerings and an overall atmosphere that would be unrivalled until the next Bathory album. If only all born-again disciples of implausible ancient religions would put their passions to constructive use like this, rather than self-righteously condemning others to eternal damnation because they happened to be born in a country that chose the wrong version of the divine figurehead/s to follow (imbeciles!) rather than the one your parents happened to believe in that's obviously the right one, then the world would be a much better place and there would be even more kick-ass music for everyone to enjoy in our final remaining years together, before the Mayan alien gods come and annihilate us all in 2012.
1. Shores in Flames
2. Valhalla
3. Baptised in Fire and Ice
4. Father to Son
5. Song to Hall Up High
6. Home of Once Brave
7. One Rode to Asa Bay
Twilight of the Gods
****
Written on 17.02.08
Perhaps as an inevitable consequence of the more atmospheric tendencies of its predecessor, the final album of Bathory's long-lived classic period is a significantly less metallic affair that anything that would come before or after, expanding on the folk elements of Quorthon's innovative Viking metal style and coming up with an epic and majestic album that may alienate some of Quorthon's long-time followers, but is equally capable of attracting newcomers.
While 'Hammerheart' slowed Bathory's breakneck pace down considerably, it grinds to a standstill in 'Twilight of the Gods,' which largely relegates Quorthon's guitars to a backing instrument and increases the focus on keyboards. These seven songs are similarly long to those on the previous album, and once again an oddball acoustic hymn is thrown in to take the neofolk elements to an extreme. This finale 'Hammerheart,' not to be confused with the title of the previous album (why do bands do that?), is a straightforward performance of Holst's 'Jupiter, the Bringer of Joy,' a song that has been largely appropriated in this country as a hymn to England's majesty seemingly just because the middle section is particularly upbeat, but the Swedish Quorthon is able to escape this influence and instead makes it into a sort of hopeful death march that's a nice finale to the album, if more than a little plagiarised and not as effective as the previous album's 'Song to Hall Up High.'
Direct comparisons with the previous album are inevitable as this is fundamentally a direct sequel to 'Hammerheart,' having nothing at all in common with earlier Bathory releases when they were a primeval black metal band. This direct contrast works to the album's credit, and its shame. It's clear that the basic style pioneered on classic Hammerheart songs such as 'One Rode to Asa Bay' has been duplicated more or less exactly here, the chorus melody from that song showing up in 'Through Blood by Thunder' and the epic opener 'Twilight of the Gods' being more or less a remix with a slower tempo, less energetic vocal performance and a whole load more acoustic guitar. It's the acoustic strumming that really places this at the height of this release, adding a distinctly mournful and tranquil element that was a little absent from the last album and had to be compensated for with sound effects. At fifteen minutes it will be far too long for some, especially as the opening and closing sections are nothing but a few minutes of wind noise, but it's an excellent performance from Quorthon and deservedly acclaimed as one of his finest songs.
The other tracks tend to replicate these more successful elements to some extent, featuring acoustic introductions and interesting prominence for the usually overlooked bass guitar now Quorthon's own guitar is out of the limelight, and the choruses are brilliantly sing-along in a gloomy folk manner, particularly in 'Under the Runes' and the more dynamic 'To Enter Your Mountain.' If I'm being completely honest I probably rate 'Twilight' as highly as Hammerheart in terms of its unparalleled mood and Viking innovations, but it does tend more towards tedium and atmosphere and came a year later, after all. Bathory unfortunately went downhill from here, at least for a while.
1. Prologue - Twilight of the Gods - Epilogue
2. Through Blood by Thunder
3. Blood and Iron
4. Under the Runes
5. To Enter Your Mountain
6. Bond of Blood
7. Hammerheart
Requiem
***
Written on 17.02.08
'Requiem' was the most surprising album Bathory ever released, entirely abandoning the Viking style that had worked so well on the previous two albums and seeing Quorthon reinvent his sound once again, this time in imitation of 1980s European thrash from the likes of Kreator and Celtic Frost, rather than the less evil style practiced by more high-profile American acts. The return of snarled vocals and anti-Christian lyrics were perhaps an attempt to win back some of the early fans that Bathory had lost with the move towards a folkier sound at the end of the eighties, but for being so entirely unoriginal and frankly messy it doesn't really do the trick.
Some of the old Quorthon touches are still present here, and keep this from being completely mediocre. His guitar riffs are as enjoyable as ever, supplemented by great solos, and the ominous, chiming bell of the early black metal releases makes way for an equally effective air siren dominating 'War Machine' and a subtle chanting section in the centre of 'Pax Vobiscum' that provide an incredible atmosphere. Unfortunately, this is where the inventiveness ends, and the listener is left with nine songs of primitive, dirty thrash metal ranging from pretty good to pretty dull. Vvornth's drums are the key player in this monotony, placed far too prominently in the mix and never doing anything interesting outside of the repetitive and often irritating bashing, and while the prominence of Kothaar's bass makes for a nice sludgy sound, it does tend to overshadow Quorthon himself.
It's alleged that the previous 'Twilight of the Gods' was intended as Bathory's final album, and although that would have made for a fitting legacy, it's at least fortunate that he continued to release albums through the nineties so that this retro thrash period would be comparatively buried and not left as the final statement on Quorthon's ever-evolving musical approach, one that took its only faltering step in the middle of this decade. It's just a shame that the follow-up was ever worse.
1. Requiem
2. Crosstitution
3. Necroticus
4. War Machine
5. Blood and Soil
6. Pax Vobiscum
7. Suffocate
8. Distinguish to Kill
9. Apocalypse
Octagon
The Retro Thrash Disappointment
*
Written on 17.02.08
I wanted to start by saying that the most positive thing that can be said about 'Octagon' is that it's not quite as bad as some people claim, but that would be untrue. If this had been a terrible first release from an unknown band it would be easy to dismiss, but as the seventh album in the mostly perfect Bathory chronology (yeah I know, the seventh - an octagon has eight sides, it doesn't even make sense) this is one of those albums that it physically hurts to listen to. To this day I can't even look at an octagon without screaming in despair and pummelling the ground with my bloodied fists, which is why they threw me out of the University of Sheffield's conference centre. What an obscure joke.
While its predecessor 'Requiem' was content to replicate the sound of European thrash bands such as Kreator, keeping more in line with the evil Bathory ethos, this follow-up sounds like nothing more than a cheap and lousy attempt to imitate Slayer, and none of it works. Quorthon's usually exceptional guitars are only decent when directly stealing from that other band, as is the case in 'Century,' and Vvornth's drums have achieved the unfeasible and actually become significantly more annoying than on the previous release, starting the proceedings as they mean to go on with a far-too-long drum roll on some bins, or whatever it is he's using. The production sound here is terrible - not good-terrible, like the early Bathory albums that reeked of an evil tomb, but practically unlistenable, and the double bass drums ticking away in the background almost sound like a CD fault. But most tragic of all is that the flaws can't be placed solely on the production, but more squarely on Quorthon's lousy performance, songwriting and lyrics.
While 'Requiem' attempted a sort of snarled approach to the vocals, here Quorthon opts for the singing style that worked so well on 'Hammerheart' and 'Twilight of the Gods,' where it didn't even matter that he can't sing. Here it matters a great deal, especially as songs like 'Grey' basically see him talking over fast thrashing riffs that should probably be conveying a sense of power and urgency, rather than a bored Swede spouting ridiculous lyrics like "your clothes will always bite big chumps right out of their concrete ass." 'Schizianity' (nice pun there, Quorth) attempts something different, which at least shows some hope, but ends up being even less coherent than the rest in its near-doom style with the worst vocal performance of the lot. And there's a Kiss cover that's even worse than the original, figure that out for yourself. And now it's in my head, goddammit.
This is a horrible album that should never have been released, but at least things only got better from here on, to the point where the final two Bathory releases rank among the best Quorthon would ever record. I love Quorthon, in fact he's probably my favourite dead guy after Graham Chapman, but I have no idea what possessed him to release this. Certainly not the inspiring demon that influenced his classic early works.
1. Immaculate Pinetreeroad #930
2. Born to Die
3. Psychopath
4. Sociopath
5. Grey
6. Century
7. 33 Something
8. War Supply
9. Schizianity
10. Judgement of Posterity
11. Deuce (KISS cover)
Blood on Ice
*****
Written on 17.02.08
With his two mediocre thrash albums rendering Quorthon something of an embarrassment and a tragedy to those who admired the born-again Viking's pioneering early work, his casual revelation during an interview that there was an entirely original, unheard album recorded in the mysterious year's gap between the classics 'Blood Fire Death' and 'Hammerheart' inevitably led to enormous fan pressure and a change of heart seeing the fabled lost Bathory album finally coming to light, and it's a real cracker. A concept album in the tradition of Ancient Norse sagas performed in a slightly more energetic variant of the folk-tinged sound of 'Hammerheart,' this was a radical departure from the earlier Bathory style and it's understandable why Quorthon was a little hesitant to release it originally.
Chronologically recorded before Hammerheart then, this was the first album where Quorthon replaced his demonic grunt with a clean singing voice, and backing choral vocals started to substitute for guitar melodies as a rhythm instrument, though Quorthon still throws out some excellent riffs. There's a nice mix here between slightly faster, more rocking songs a little in tune with the old Bathory style, and more drawn-out and atmospheric epics that tend to work better. It's clear that returning to this album in the late nineties was a major inspiration for Quorthon to return to the Viking style with his later 'Nordland' albums, which are based far more on the dynamic established here than the somewhat grander style of the early nineties stuff.
That's not to say that this album lacks the atmosphere of 'Twilight of the Gods,' and the unique notion of an overarching narrative not otherwise seen in Bathory makes for a compelling and entertaining listen, even if the spoken word sections of some songs, particularly the old man's lengthy exposition in track four, may irritate people not overly fond of concept albums like this. It reminds me a lot of Blind Guardian's later Tolkienian epic 'Nightfall in Middle-Earth,' particularly as Quorthon's voice resembles Hansi Kursch and the actors drafted in to provide voice work are equally bad in both, and although the story itself is only really a little diversion to add another slight layer of enjoyment to the album, it does make for a nice sense of continuity as the listener is taken on a journey through the woods in what may be the album's finest, central section, in the excellent 'The Woodwoman' and 'The Lake' that rank among Bathory's finest material.
The harder edge of this album is maintained with consistent pounding drums, but only really becomes prominent in songs like the slightly punky 'One Eyed Old Man' and the galloping, Manowar-style metal of 'Gods of Thunder, of Wind and of Rain.' Despite a couple of short interlude tracks clouding perception of the album from the tracklist alone, the songs tend to be shorter than the more grandiose and lethargic Viking albums produced around the same time, with only the closing song approaching the ten minute mark. This ranks among my favourite Bathory albums and is certainly distinctive for its more power metal leanings (and anticipations), but even with its intriguing concept it lacks some of the beauty of 'Hammerheart' and its twin, though anyone who enjoyed the later 'Nordland' albums should certainly check it out.
1. Intro
2. Blood on Ice
3. Man of Iron
4. One Eyed Old Man
5. The Sword
6. The Stallion
7. The Woodwoman
8. The Lake
9. Gods of Thunder, of Wind and of Rain
10. The Ravens
11. The Revenge of the Blood on Ice
Buried Alive
**
Written on 20.03.08
Batmobile's second full-length release is actually just a collection of demo tracks and live versions, but considering the quality of both is comparable to the studio releases of the time, the only problem presented here is overlap of material for those who already own the previous album. The demo songs are generally slightly inferior to the recordings on 'Bambooland,' even for songs like 'Killers Crew' which impresses less here than it did originally, and the material that wasn't present on the album was presumably thus because it's just so bad
'The Cat' is the primary example, a very poor quality recording of screaming and daft antics that occasionally form themselves into music, but are mainly just an annoying waste of time. It's nice to see the band trying something experimental to drag them out of their repetitive rockabilly sound, but this is just wortheless. In fact, all of the demo songs are a little different to each other, which makes for a more interesting listen if you're looking for a diverse album (as I was), but ends up less successful due to the band's forced contrivances. 'Sweet Love on My Mind' seems to use a different vocalist, though is otherwise much the same as ever, 'Bring All My Love' is led by a solid, repeating guitar riff, 'Mad At You' features acoustic strumming that adds a nice extra flavour, and 'Rock 'N' Roll Party' adds some embarrassment in the form of hand-claps and an unconvincing call to rock out.
The live songs are of sufficient quality to enjoy, even if the material isn't quite up to scratch, and the best song is probably the more frantic 'Gorilla Rock' that would make its way in a more definitive form onto the next album. The cover of 'Ballroom Blitz' is also pretty good, but was already present on the previous album and loses out because of it. The vocals are slightly buried beneath the general white noise of these recordings which isn't really a problem as you still get the general idea through the breathy delivery, and although most of the songs are reasonably dull, 'I'm a Lover, Not a Fighter' is at least a little energetic and grooving despite sounding the same as everything else ever.
1. Killers Crew (Demo)
2. Sweet Love on My Mind (Demo)
3. The Cat (Demo)
4. Bring All My Love (Demo)
5. Mad At You (Demo)
6. Rock 'N' Roll Party (Demo)
7. Hello, Hello, I'm Back Again (Live)
8. Night Without Sleep (Live)
9. Gorilla Rock (Live)
10. Calamity Man (Live)
11. I'm a Lover, Not a Fighter (Live)
12. Ballroom Blitz (Live)
Amazons from Outer Space
***
Written on 20.03.08
'Amazons from Outer Space' marks the major turning point in Batmobile's admittedly not very original or particularly interesting musical career, as their subject matter looks towards vintage B-movies for inspiration in a manner similar to the Misfits, only significantly less excellent and more rockabilly. The problem with this frivolous subject matter is that the silliness level noticeably increases, as the vocals tend towards character imitations towards the end in songs like 'Sex-Rays,' 'Hammer Killing' and the fairly fun, but also daft 'Jungle Night.'
The B-movie sound doesn't really come into play until the title track half-way through the album, where the guitars attempt to mimic the classic soundtracks in a manner reminiscent of early Pink Floyd songs like 'Astronomy Domine' and 'Interstellar Overdrive.' The majority of the album is the standard rockabilly fare, with a worrying penchant for animal themes (gorillas making another comeback here) and easily being divided into songs that are slightly mellow (2, 3, 5, 10, 12) and ones with a little more energy (1, 4, 6, 11).
The latter style works more successfully with the psychobilly direction, the slower songs like 'Aardvark Blues' smacking too much of traditional country and 'Grab the Money & Run' going for a previously untested acoustic style that doesn't really impress, and 'Hard-On Rock' commendably avoids sounding too much like a dumb comedy song despite clearly being one. All the same, this isn't the revolutionary album some fans may claim it to be.
1. Ice Rock
2. Gorilla Beat
3. Aardvark Blues
4. Dead (I Want Them When They Are Dead)
5. Sinners Rock
6. Ravin' Women
7. Amazons from Outer Space
8. Sex-Rays
9. Hammer Killing
10. Hard-On Rock
11. Earthquake
12. Grab the Money & Run
13. Jungle Night
Sex Starved
Uranium Love
***
Written on 20.03.08
'Sex Starved' inaugurates a new era of (comparative) maturity for Dutch psychobilly rockers Batmobile, but one that sees them ditching none of the foolishness of their lyrics, exemplified in the title 'Haemmorrhoid Rock.' With clearer production than before, allowing the drums to be heard more clearly and for a more expansive atmosphere, this is clearly the strongest album so far from the band, but despite having a clear identity it still feels too indebted to the rockabilly canon.
The early psychedelic influence is even more present than before, first seen in the distinctly Syd Barrett guitar style of 'Uranium Love' and later in the other sci-fi-themed songs 'Rock This Planet' and 'In Orbit,' the latter of which features an unhinged guitar noddling away throughout, and some unfortunately silly vocal stylings that make it more tongue-in-cheek than necessary. The traditional rockabilly sound is still the driving force of many songs, but thankfully less than it's been in the past, with only 'Roll On' and 'Rockin' Rooster' reallty disappointing with their blandness.
There's more of a modern influence in the crunchy guitars of some songs and the modern rock chorus of 'King's Evil,' while 'Police at the Door' could easily be a Motörhead cover song, adding nice variety to this album. The title track and 'Mean Ugly Mama' are interestingly downbeat and minimalist in contrast to the lively 'S.P.O.C.K.' and distinctly Spinal Tap finale 'Gimme Some Pussy,' and although the repetition of themes and ideas is still a little irritating - especially the number of songs with "rock" in the title that end up less convincing each time - this manages to be a decent psychobilly album, rather than basic rockabilly with some Pink Floyd guitars thrown in as has been the case previously, songs like 'The Living Have More Fun' acting as a definitive example of the style.
1. Uranium Love
2. S.P.O.C.K.
3. King's Evil
4. Rock This Planet
5. Can't Stop That Rock
6. Roll On
7. Police at the Door
8. Haemmorrhoid Rock
9. Sex Starved
10. In Orbit
11. The Living Have More Fun
12. Rockin' Rooster
13. Mean Ugly Mama
14. Gimme Some Pussy
Hard Hammer Hits
Thwack!
***
Written on 20.03.08
Batmobile's sixth album aims to be even more refined than its predecessors, evidenced by the longer song lengths (none are under two minutes any more), and a reduced level of silliness overall that robs the songs of some of their charm, but is ultimately for the best. This is the album where Batmobile are most expressly striving for the accolade of "the psychobilly Motörhead," with heavier riffs and distinctly hard rock verses in 'Hammering,' the aggressive 'Raw Dick' and 'A-Bomb Boogie' among others, and there's less variation from the standard sound throughout, unfortunately to the extent that most songs fail to distinguish themselves at all.
'The Man in Black' seems to be another of the B-movie inspired pieces that are always a treat and see the psychedelic elements come to the fore, and it's pretty interesting with its ominous guitars and downbeat verses, while 'The Rocket' takes this to a greater extreme and injects elements of fun with the solo, drums and faster pace. 'I Need the Heat' is slow and minimal, 'Pay the Price' is fast and energetic and 'Superdick' has a nice, long solo, but otherwise this is a somewhat bland offering from Batmobile that will please fans of the genre but won't get any newcomers excited about exploring further as its more enjoyable predecessor may have achieved.
Fetus
*
Written on 28.02.08
Franco Battiato is a semi-celebrated Italian singer and progressive musician, but if his first full-length album 'Fetus' is anything to go by (which it isn't necessarily, considering his extensive discography since), his talents clearly lie squarely in the singing department alone, and even these are hardly used to any effect. This is a heavily keyboard-driven album in a seventies pop style, more like Jean-Michel Jarre than Vangelis but ultimately sounding a lot more like the bad, ironic synthesisers spoofed in the opening titles of the modern-day TV series 'Look Around You.' The album's opening melody reminded me of this more than anything else, and it never gets particularly better.
Although this is experimental music to some small extent, the experiments themselves are all very weak and often nonsensical, as movements cease for no apparent reason, only to resume a few seconds later or follow an unconnected style, such as a switch from keyboard melody to an acoustic guitar and singing section, and then back. There's also an irritating tendency towards repetition even down to specific melodies being reprised in the subsequent song, and inevitably it's only the couple of tracks that avoid synthesisers completely that end up being palatable, though these pieces ('Energia' and 'Meccanica') are sadly completely dull. In the end, this album's only value is its cheese factor for anyone interested in laughing at what a group of Italian musicians thought might have sounded quite good in 1971.
The only truly exciting synthesiser section comes in the second track where it builds to a scream, and those in 'Fenomenologia' could be most accurately described as desperate, as if they're running from something or struggling to impress. The worst song of the lot (which is some commendable feat) is 'Anafase,' which literally sounds like someone playing an early Namco arcade game like Galaxians or PacMan, but oddly predates them by a decade. At least now we know where they got their kerrazy ideas from; an album called 'Fetus.'
1. Fetus
2. Una Cellula
3. Cariocinesi
4. Energia
5. Fenomenologia
6. Meccanica
7. Anafase
8. Mutazione
A Day of Nights
***
Written on 26.02.08
The only full-length release so far from sort-of-post-metal band Battle of Mice is similar to most other modern releases by bands whose genre begins in post-, following a repeating structure of mellow, quiet segments intersecting more violent, thunderous and heated passages. In this instance it's entirely appropriate to the lyrical themes, apparently based around the turbulent relationship between band founders Julie Christmas (of Made Out of Babies) and Josh Graham (of excellent post-metal pioneers Neurosis), whose love life is so similar in structure to a post-metal song that it's borderline cheesy.
There's a strong hardcore element balancing out the minor metal elements here, the latter of which are only really present in some of the heavier guitar riffs in songs like 'Salt Bridge,' as Christmas moves from a standard, almost depressive singing style to a full-blown, scary scream when the louder sections kick in. Fans of post-rock, post-hardcore, post-metal and post-traumatic stress syndrome will likely enjoy this as a shining example of the combined genre, and an interesting one for having a female singer, but it does drag on significantly towards the end, as the songs become even longer at just the point where I really could have done with them becoming shorter.
Despite some eerie backing keyboards in track one, this is mostly standard, no-frills post-whatever music performed by regular rock instruments at a significantly slowed tempo, although there are some nice guitar slowlos and acoustic sections to keep things from becoming too overly repetitive, though my strained use of "too overly" should indicate the level to which it's already present. 'Bones in the Water' takes far too long to get started, attempting to use silence as a tool but making the mistake of placing it at the beginning so the listener has to wait before anything exciting or musical happens, and after the half-way point, Christmas' screams start to lose some of their effectiveness through over-use. All the same, it's a fine example of whatever genre listeners decide it belongs to, and will satisfy fans of emotive music provided they have a long attention span.
1. The Lamb & the Labrador
2. Bones in the Water
3. Sleep and Dream
4. Salt Bridge
5. Wrapped in Plain
6. At the Base of the Giant's Throat
7. Cave of Spleen
Burn This Town
**
Written on 12.02.08
There's nothing new, clever or particularly interesting about Battleaxe, one of the many New Wave Of British Heavy Metal bands that sprung from the ground at the beginning of the eighties, but I enjoy this album all the same. With lyrics about bikes, rock and women, a focus on solid but repetitive speedy guitar riffs and drums, you probably already know whether or not you'd enjoy this release, and even if you would, there's no way it would become one of your favourites unless you've lived a very sheltered life away from the likes of Saxon, the primary imitation here.
No songs really stand out at all, but then again the album is consistent, meaning that any NWOBHM DJ in 1983 could choose a track at random and show off his slightly obscure taste to the approval of the gathered, leather-clad, hairy crowd, before they became restless and requested a reprise of 'Breaking the Law' instead. This is catchy and fun in a hard rock / early heavy metal way, with none of the structural and stylistic experimentation of bands like Iron Maiden, but thankfully free of the commercial, Americanised approach being practiced by Judas Priest to great financial success and Saxon to a wall of silence, making it a true NWOBHM release that nevertheless fails to make its mark.
Dave King yells his way through these pieces in a seventies style, which should at least grant the band some points from those who despise operatic eighties metal vocals (you idiots), but there's really no point checking out this release when there are so many out there that are similar, but better. Or similar, but worse, but funnier by consequence, such as Grim Reaper.
1. Ready to Deliver
2. Her Mama Told Her
3. Burn This Town
4. Dirty Rocker
5. Overdrive
6. Runnin' Outta Time
7. Battleaxe
8. Starmaker
9. Thor Thunder Angel
10. Hands Off
Battleheart
***
Written on 12.02.08
Now re-branded as Alestorm, the Scottish power metal band that started out as Battleheart are sure to be a big thing with the kids for their entertaining and dedicated pirate theme, especially as those teens won't have any idea that Running Wild already did the same thing in the eighties, but fortunately these Scots have the ability and creativity to pull it off without ever seeming like a cheap gimmick. Well, at least on their later releases.
The self-titled 'Battleheart' is the less impressive of their two 2006 E.P.s, only for focusing on the band's more mellow and narrative side as opposed to the speedy thrashing of its successor. The band at this point consisted only of singer and keyboard player Christopher Bowes, whose pirate impression is pretty cool but still can't avoid seeming overly put-on when it vanishes in the faster finale 'Journeyman,' and guitarist Gavin Harper who mainly relies on a classic heavy metal style here. It's easy to forget that the rhythm is provided by a drum machine most of the time, apart from the distractingly artificial drum rolls of the first and last tracks, and as a debut E.P. this contains a generous and wide variety of material across its twenty minutes, from the opening overture that shows off Bowes' synthesised orchestral skill and the fast jig-metal instrumental 'No Quarter' to the band's core epic metal sound in the rest of the tracks.
Even for an early, low budget release, there's very little to fault this album, apart from minor issues in the production that see the keyboard orchestra tending to overpower the sound of the guitars, though sceptics who approach this self-described "true Scottish pirate metal" looking for signs of cliché and gimmick will find them in greater quantity than on later releases. A consistent theme of maps and trezer hunting is balanced out by the lighter side of pirate life in their classic sea shanty 'Nancy the Tavern Wench,' but my only real problem with this band is its continual use of keyboard solos that really shatter the ancient nautical atmosphere that's somehow contrived so well through equally anachronistic rock instruments. Harper's guitar solos are better, even though they're pretty routine, but this debut release seems more intent on expressing the band's ideology and versatility more than its metal credentials, something left over for its successor.
Although it shows signs of a first release - overly bombastic Hollywood orchestration, generic guitar riffs and some sillier pirate lyrics - this is still a strong debut from Battleheart/Alestorm, and the songs 'Over the Seas' and 'Nancy the Tavern Wench' would later find their way onto this year's debut full-length 'Captain Morgan's Revenge.' The other songs are a little less accomplished but still make nice extras and keep this worthy of hunting down by fans of the album, as although 'Heavy Metal Pirates' is more or less a weaker version of 'Over the Seas,' 'Journeyman' is a strong speed metal song with a fun synthesised fiddle, and 'No Quarter' is a nice jam.
1. The Glorious Battle
2. Heavy Metal Pirates
3. Over the Seas
4. No Quarter
5. Nancy the Tavern Wench
6. Journeyman
Terror on the High Seas
****
Written on 12.02.08
Battleheart's (now called Alestorm) second E.P. is a vast improvement over the first as far as the metal performance goes, and with its rousing sea shanty 'Wenches and Mead' it even manages to match its predecessor's sense of a true pirate atmosphere, not just relying on a glamorous Hollywood perspective perhaps offered in those 'Pirates of the Caribbean' films or whatever (I wouldn't know). While the first release explored particularly clichéd pirate themes of trezer huntin' and drinking, this faster and more aggressive E.P. focuses more directly on the favourite heavy metal theme of battle. And drinking as well.
Christopher Bowes and Gavin Harper are supplemented by new bass player Dani Evans in Battleheart's gradual evolution into a full band, and once again the drum machine doesn't draw too much attention to itself by remaining fairly low-key, unfortunately preventing these earlier versions of 'Set Sail and Conquer' and 'Terror on the High Seas' from attaining the level of power eventually found on Alestorm's 2008 album 'Captain Morgan's Revenge.' This release's similarly themed opener 'The Curse of Captain Morgan' is the only song not to find its way onto the full album and is merely another orchestral overture, but it already shows a less grandiose and more refined approach from the band than on the previous release, which was a bit more frivolous. Listen to me, it's like I want to suck all the enjoyment out of pirate metal.
Like Running Wild long before them, Battleheart/Alestorm unleash powerful speed metal anthems in the central two songs of this album, relying on galloping rhythms, hard, fast riffs and Manowar-style lyrics but still retaining the atmosphere with Bowes' keyboard that isn't distracting until he plays a solo. He also manages to keep up the pirate pretence in his voice throughout, which is impressive if a little false, and the all-important choruses fulfil their function perfectly, causing even a slight glance at the tracklist to immediately bring back the vision of the Scottish pirates playing their instruments on deck while simultaneously slitting the throats of scurvy curs and things like that. 'Terror on the High Seas' is still their best song, but 'Set Sail and Conquer' boasts interesting touches such as a synthesised accordion effect, something that comes into its own in the cheery misogynist finale 'Wenches and Mead.'
This is a less essential purchase than its predecessor for those who already own Alestorm's full-length, but still permitted earlier access for people like me who could point out how they knew Alestorm when they were still called Battleheart, and that in fact it all goes back to Running Wild anyway. You know, fun people like me.
1. The Curse of Captain Morgan
2. Set Sail and Conquer
3. Terror on the High Seas
4. Wenches and Mead
Sword's Song
The Riddle of Steel
**
Written on 21.03.08
Finnish metal bands have a tendency for striking the perfect balance between a satisfying metal performance and something that can be enjoyed by a wider audience, for example the melodic power metal of Sonata Arctica and Stratovarius, but then there are some bands like Battlelore that weakly try to combine a more commercial approach into their dull atmospheric Tolkienian music and fail miserably. Even worse are the times they indulge in the delusion of being a metal band, resting their hopes in the second part of 'Khazad-Dum' that a tediously clicking pair of double bass drums will equate to heaviness.
'Sword's Song' is a slight improvement over the debut only in terms of the keyboard orchestration, which now sits more comfortably with the fantasy theme apart from in songs like 'Buccaneers Inn' which still features an irritating, shiny keyboard solo. The main focus is once again on the duet between Patrick Mennander's weak growls, which haven't improved in the two years since the last album, and Kaisa Jouhki's singing that works a lot better, but still sounds the same as every other female gothic singer. Her task of singing explicitly Tolkienian lyrics also makes this a little embarrassing for listeners like me who aren't 'Lord of the Rings' fans, but as this is probably their target audience it's permissible.
The most infuriating thing about this music is how it threatens to become interesting, only to slide into a bland atmospheric section without warning, and this spoils many songs that at least had the potential to be standard power metal fare. There's a slight experimental angle, but unfortunately this only comes through in the form of a really bad industrial slant to 'Attack of the Orcs,' seemingly in an attempt to enact the vicious attack of the lyrics through some sub-Rob Zombie electronic metal that doesn't even fit into the fantasy theme. Overall, 'Sword's Song' is the second in a long line of unconvincing releases from Battlelore; anyone with a serious interest in narrative, epic metal would be better searching for Bal-Sagoth, while those interested in a more fun and flighty take should stick with Blind Guardian and Rhapsody.
1. Sons of Riddermark
2. Sword's Song
3. The Mark of the Bear
4. Buccaneers Inn
5. Attack of the Orcs
6. Dragonslayer
7. Khazad-Dûm (Part II - Silent Caverns)
8. Horns of Gondor
9. The War of Wrath
10. Forked Height
11. Starlight Kingdom
12. The Curse of the Kings
Battleroar
The New Greek Hope of Battle Metal
****
Written on 21.03.08
Although Battleroar only began this side of the new millennium, their epic heavy metal sound is entirely rooted in the eighties, but has the advantage of hindsight in selecting the most effective acts to imitate for their battle-themed style, seeming to settle on that of Omen. I've always had an embarrassing soft spot for this sort of metal, and although I'd argue that it wasn't anything to do with the lyrics of conquest and glory, there's a little too much evidence for me to hold out such unrealistic hopes any longer. When I first heard this album I was immediately hooked, but prepared myself for disappointment: after all, the last time I was so instantly hooked on a band like this was when I first heard Saxon's epic 'Crusader' and instantly decided they would be one of my favourite bands from that point on, before being incredibly disappointed by all the other songs on that album that weren't that one, single good one. Fortunately, there was no such disappointment here, and Battleroar have the distinction of being my new favourite Greek band (they must be so proud).
This is essentially heavy metal in the classic style, without any of the bombastic symphonic elements that have taken over the genre in recent years, and thanks to a slightly cheap production job it even manages to sound convincingly dated, which I see as a complete bonus. It grants the guitars a nice, distinctive sound that avoids sounding too much like modern power metal, and the only drawback is that the drums sound rather tinny, especially when called in for heavy duty service in 'Mourning Sword' which unfortunately jeopardises that song, but the style only becomes a little Manowar-style pompous in the finale. Marco Concoreggi's vocals may take some getting used to as they're predictably stuck in the high end, but I can't imagine this music being more convincingly delivered through any other style. I repeat that it is fairly embarrassing just how much I love this variety of music, but I stand by my beliefs, despite knowing in my heart that I'm an idiot.
Any fans of classic metal from the likes of Iron Maiden, Manowar and Judas Priest in their better days would probably enjoy this, particularly as the Steve Harris gallop is replicated authentically and to great effect in 'Victorious Path,' and there's a great balance between more melodic offerings ('Megaloman') and harder, thrashing efforts ('Morituri Te Salutant') without the style ever seeming to vary to a distracting extent. Even the longer songs aren't too long, and while 'Egyptian Doom' is likely to lose some credibility points for falling back on all-too-predictable Egyptian-sounding lead guitars, its extended length allows for some nice rhythm changes somewhat reminiscent of Maiden's 'Powerslave,' only recorded twenty years down the line. The folk element isn't as present here apart from in the introductory song, making this a little more primitive than the band's later material, but for a modern equivalent of classic metal that gets all the ingredients right, you don't need to look any further than these Greeks.
1. Swordbrothers
2. Victorious Path
3. Egyptian Doom
4. Mourning Sword
5. Almuric
6. Battleroar
7. Morituri Te Salutant
8. Megaloman
9. Berzerker
Age of Chaos
They Will Know the Power of My Sword
Written on 21.03.08
Battleroar's second album is a vast improvement on the first, and sees the band move from enjoyable heavy metal throwback to serious competitor in the epic metal leagues in the space of two short years. After proving competent and entertaining on the debut album, guitarists Kostas Tzortzis and Manolis Karazeris here unveil their true potential in leading the way with some killer riffs and dual harmonies while the rest of the band fills out the sound with a satisfying heavy metal gallop and even the occasional touch of folk metal that brings this up to date. The only real problem the album suffers for is that the lead guitars hit on such a great sound so early on, that the majority of songs end up following a very similar style.
The folk influence on this album (in an atmospheric, Bathory manner, rather than the jolly polka of Finntroll) is most prominent in the opening and closing songs, the first of which shouldn't really be considered a Battleroar song at all, considering it's written and performed by Manila Road's Mark Shelton. Featuring flutes (or at the very least, a synthesised flute) and soft singing, this is a great introduction that remains consistent for four minutes without feeling the need to jump into a heavy riff as an immediate crowd-pleaser, and the finale 'Dreams on Steel' is comparably grand and mournful. This hardly sounds like the same band at all, but fortunately the folky style is incorporated intelligently into the bulk of the album to keep things consistent, mostly entwined in the lead guitars as demonstrated in the overwhelmingly enjoyable 'Sword of Crom.'
Marco Concoreggi's high singing will still serve to make or break this band to some peoples' ears, and although I found him a little disappointing in the early songs, his classic wail managed to grow on me. Despite the battle lyrics, this isn't daft heavy metal in the style of Manowar - apart from a whip-cracking sound effect being produced on command in 'Vampire Killer' which is about as Manowar as you can get - and there's an excellent sense of composition to all of the songs. 'The Tower of the Elephant' is a slow song that embraces its tempo and follows it through to a natural conclusion without breaking into a gallop half-way through in the manner that spoiled some of Iron Maiden's greatest slowies, and although songs tend to overrun as the album plays on, this doesn't present a problem if you're as engrossed in the sound as I was, though compared to the debut album it seems that around fifteen minutes could have been easily shaved off in a final edit.
All of these songs have something special going for them, whether it's the steady, catchy pace of 'Dyvim Tvar' or the thrashing finale of the grand and appropriately titled 'Calm Before The Storm,' and I'm already far more excited than I should be about the next album from Battleroar that was allegedly recorded at the end of last year. You can't really get more my-kind-of-thing than this.
1. The Wanderer
2. Vampire Killer
3. Siegecraft
4. The Tower of the Elephant
5. Deep Buried Faith
6. Dyvim Tvar
7. Sword Of Crom
8. Narsil (Reforge The Sword)
9. Calm Before The Storm
10. Dreams On Steel
In the Flat Field
****
Written on 12.02.08
The debut release from Northampton goth pioneers Bauhaus sounded a lot different from my preconceptions, as I'd always imagined them as a sort of Sisters of Mercy clone with annoying electro backing. I was pleasantly surprised to be confronted with an intelligent, creative and occasionally eerie album more reminiscent of the stream-of-consciousness style of The Fall with more than a little inspiration from David Bowie's contemporary Berlin period, something that would feature with even greater prominence in later works once Brian Eno was brought into the fold.
Peter Murphy's vocals are a stand-out feature of the band, mostly confined to a croon in the style of Jim Morrison, Glenn Danzig and others, but frequently succumbing to an increase in energy and vibrancy as the songs move towards a crescendo of sorts, and surpassing Mark E. Smith's often tedious delivery in the more spoken word songs like 'St. Vitus Dance,' where the flat oration evolves into a yelled chorus. Murphy and Daniel Ash's guitars are satisfyingly crunchy and vary between cacophony and mellow, proto-goth jangles, while even imitating a Western sort of sound in the minimalist 'God in an Alcove,' and even the occasional solos in songs like the aforementioned track and finale 'Nerves,' which takes forever to get going but is ultimately enjoyable.
'In the Flat Field' is a great debut from Bauhaus and remains (in my obviously correct opinion, as always) the second best release of their short career. It's a little dark and distorted without alienating casual listeners, and the various stylistic, musical and thematic influences make for an entirely original sound, even if it quite obviously stemmed from the beginning of the eighties. But the beginning of the eighties was cool, it was only subsequent years that rendered that ten-year period so embarrassing.
1. Double Dare
2. In the Flat Field
3. God in an Alcove
4. Dive
5. Spy in the Cab
6. Small Talk Stinks
7. St. Vitus Dance
8. Stigmata Martyr
9. Nerves
The Sky's Gone Out
****
Written on 13.02.08
With the release of the darker and multi-faceted 'The Sky's Gone Out,' it was almost as if Bauhaus' mediocre sophomore release never happened, as many songs and styles here sound like direct continuations and perfections of those attempted in the debut. Vocalist Peter Murphy is at his best here, starting off energetic and shouty in the opening song before returning to the Mark E. Smith style on 'In the Night' before that song heads towards a more satisfying punk finale, and even attempting a near-ballad in 'Spirit' that avoids the pitfalls of usual ballads which, as you no doubt know, are rubbish. He still sounds a lot like Bowie, but thankfully in a good way.
The more experimental side of this album is primarily held up by the 'Three Shadows' trilogy that opened the second side of the original LP (I'm guessing; I wasn't cool enough to be alive in those days), and although it doesn't really work as a single, extended epic, it's still one of the more interesting pieces here. The first part is a nice, ambient instrumental in the style of Brian Eno (just to cement the Berlin-Bowie comparison in case anyone hadn't noticed yet), the second is a little more disturbing lyrically and almost a self-parody of the band's darker tendencies, and the finale is a completely ludicrous, mostly fish-based tale with accompanying piano. But for all these experimental tendencies that strange people like me enjoy, there's still enough on offer here for normies, most successful in the depressive melodic song 'All We Ever Wanted Was Everything,' which seems to be one of the band's best-known, and the energetic 'Third Uncle' which remains compelling throughout and features some nice double-tracked vocals for added effect.
This is still far from a perfect album despite being the finest example of this type of music I've heard (whatever exactly I mean by that), as some songs are still a little structurally lacking, especially the confused finale 'Exquisite Corpse' which features some really great stuff amidst a sea of confused ramblings and overlong silences. There's also a tendency to rely on volume trickery to bring songs to a conclusive crescendo, most evident in 'Spirit' which is noticeably quieter at the beginning and returns to a louder sound at the end. This is Bauhaus' best album, and the last to be of any real importance, and it strikes a slightly uncomfortable balance between mainstream appeal and self-indulgence that makes it all the more satisfying for me.
1. Third Uncle
2. Silent Hedges
3. In the Night
4. Swing the Heartache
5. Spirit
6. The Three Shadows, Pt. 1
7. The Three Shadows, Pt. 2
8. The Three Shadows, Pt. 3
9. All We Ever Wanted Was Everything
10. Exquisite Corpse
Press the Eject and Give Me the Tape
***
Written on 13.02.08
Originally tagged on to the third studio release 'The Sky's Gone Out,' Bauhaus' first live album was later sold as an independent entity in its own right, and fares less well in this stand-alone form. Recorded in pieces between 1981 and '82, the material played here stems from the first two studio albums and the singles released between, making for an interesting and not entirely predictable set that at least offers something new in the form of B-side material for those who are only familiar with the full-length releases.
On the negative side, it doesn't really work as a live album, and although the extended instrumental jam of early hit 'Bela Lugosi is Dead' might have been quite a fun event on the night, similar to how the Cure tend to stretch 'A Forest' massively beyond its natural end point, it doesn't offer an awful lot for newcomers or casual listeners, who are only satiated by the shorter 'Mask' material that works more successfully, but ends up all sounding pretty much the same. Songs like 'In Fear of Fear' have some nice sax squeals that mark them out as unusual, always a bonus, while the other non-album track 'Rose Garden Funeral of Sores' doesn't really work in the live environment with its spoken word section and low-key instrumental jam. Never mind, there would be plenty further live albums to cash in on the band's popularity after its separation.
1. In the Flat Field
2. Rose Garden Funeral of Sores
3. Dancing
4. The Man With X-Ray Eyes
5. Bela Lugosi is Dead
6. The Spy in the Cab
7. Kick in the Eye
8. In Fear of Fear
9. Hollow Hills
10. Stigmata Martyr
11. Dark Entries
Burning from the Inside
**
Written on 13.02.08
Bauhaus' final album is ridden with problems and disappointments that are more easily understood when considering this was ultimately a posthumous release once internal difficulties had seen the band go their separate ways, and it fails to capture the dark, experimental, gothic style of its predecessors in favour of bland and repetitive radio-friendly rock. This is the first album to lack any kind of overall consistency, as some songs are still pretty good, particularly the openers 'She's in Parties' and 'Antonin Artuad' which are the only ones to truly sound like Bauhaus songs, the latter even featuring a repeating backing woof reminiscent of later works by Type O Negative, but most are pretty rubbish, or merely fall victim to bad creative decisions.
Despite the ballads and spoken word songs often proving to be the least successful on earlier releases, this album is rife with such mediocre material. 'Who Killed Mr. Moonlight?' is a piano song that conveys none of the usual darkness but doesn't replace it with any other recognisable kind of emotion, 'Kingdom's Coming' does a similar thing but on acoustic guitar, and 'Honeymoon Croon' is another attempt to sound like the Fall that falls flat. There's even a weak attempt to provide an interlude song in the form of the pointless 'Wasp' as an ever more pointless introduction to 'King Volcano,' a dull and overlong acoustic jangle with some chanting towards the end that seems to be targeting an audience base that I'm not familiar with at all.
The progressive style seems to be evident when taking a look at the tracklist and eyeing up the nine-minute 'Burning from the Inside,' but this turns out to be the dullest of the lot, making poor use of its tedious playing time by repeating the same guitar riff over and over, and not featuring anything of real interest in the form of the other instruments and vocals. There's no way this song should be this long, I presume it was merely stretched out to avoid the band having to fill the space with another bland composition, but fortunately the finale diffuses some of this irritation; although 'Hope' is a break with tradition by being uncharacteristically optimistic, it's a nice closing note to end their career with, even if some fans will be ironically upset by it.
1. She's in Parties
2. Antonin Artuad
3. Wasp
4. King Volcano
5. Who Killed Mr. Moonlight?
6. Slice of Life
7. Honeymoon Croon
8. Kingdom's Coming
9. Burning from the Inside
10. Hope
Best of the Beat Farmers
***
Written on 25.02.08
Jumping the gun of a posthumous release ever so slightly, this inconclusive 'Best of the Beat Farmers' was released in the year that would later see the band's final album 'Manifold' and subsequent fatal heart attack of singer Country Dick Montana, effectively ending the band. The Beat Farmers were an acclaimed alternative rock band with country influence, but I get the feeling that this compilation, arranged and released by the record label without the band's consent, hardly represents what they would truly consider the cream of the crop (that's a sort of farmers-based pun).
The Beat Farmers' style is allegedly difficult to pin down, but this collection has no trouble in focusing almost exclusively on their mellow country style, a genre they tackle expertly and with greater enthusiasm than most in songs like 'Riverside' and 'Gun Sale at the Church,' but that still ends up sounding a little dull and unimaginative on occasion, as in 'Make It Last.' The band's harder and more sinister edge creeps in a little with the derivative 'Blue Chevrolet' and gritty 'Key to the World' with their torturously slow and dirty riffs, the latter made even more unusual and interesting through screaming guitars and vocals towards the end, but to balance this out there's also what feels like a compulsory offering of jangly pop material in the form of 'Girl I Almost Married,' which is still enjoyable but doesn't feel like it deserves to be in this top ten.
Alongside the vocals, it's the guitars that really make these songs stand out and occasionally elevate them above mere country rock, with great solos in tracks one and two, and a strong riff supplemented by sax in 'Socialite.' Demonstrating the band's open attitude, there's even a cowbell in 'God is Here Tonight' and questionable kazoo and gargling in the finale 'Happy Boy' that add to the Southern atmosphere immensely, though the live recordings of the latter two songs are slightly inferior due to sound quality, something almost made up for in Montana's addresses to the hugely appreciative crowd. Without any real frame of reference I'm unable to say whether these ten songs accurately represent the Beat Farmers at their best, but I have a nagging suspicion that it would have been a lot different and less immediately accessible if the band themselves had been involved in its creation.
1. Riverside
2. Blue Chevrolet
3. Gun Sale at the Church
4. Socialite
5. Girl I Almost Married
6. Make It Last
7. Key to the World
8. God is Here Tonight
9. Lucille
10. Happy Boy
Living Targets
Ich bin ein Beatsteaker
***
Written on 21.03.08
The third album from German punk band Beatsteaks invariably disappoints with its more conscious mainstream direction, watering down the punk elements with melodic hard rock to make this more appealing to an international market. Vocalist Arnim Teutoburg-Weiss sounds exactly the same as every other generic American hard rock singer, without a trace of a German accent - and really, what's the point of that? Even the album art is based around U.S. culture, this sort of thing really irritates me.
With a generous budget being allotted by record label Epitaph, the sound quality is impressive, even if the guitars are a little too polished and quiet to really be considered punk in any way, though the actual music itself doesn't try to deceive listeners that punk rock is its intention. Rather, this is fairly bland, mediocre hard rock with occasional melodic punk guitars balanced out by an equal presence of softer sections presumably aimed at chart success. Only 'God Knows' and 'To Be Strong' really cross over into punk rock, albeit in a lighter and more accessible version than their German contemporaries, and the speed varies between a more enjoyable fast tempo in these songs to a more standard and somewhat tedious middle pace elsewhere.
With songs like 'Disconnected' and 'Soothe Me' counteracting this album's few attempts to be a little more energetic and aggressive, the Beatsteaks' third release doesn't convince me of their anarchistic ideals. Putting JFK's face on the front of an album as a reference to his assassination is certainly a bold political move, especially as you have to remember it had happened so recently back then, but compared to something like the corresponding cover of the Misfits' 'Bullet' E.P. or Carcass' 'Wake Up and Smell the... Carcass,' it's clear that this band is practicing a palatable, conservative version of punk anarchy.
1. Not Ready to Rock
2. God Knows
3. Let Me In
4. Soothe Me
5. Above Us
6. This One
7. Disconnected
8. A-Way
9. Run Run
10. Mirrored
11. To Be Strong
12. Summer
10 Jahre Fritz: Die CD
Beatsteaks Live Disappointment
***
Written on 21.03.08
I don't know the backstory to this live album from German punk band Beatsteaks, but assuming it documents a special tenth anniversary gig with more freedom to mess around, and not just a standard performance which would make it extremely disappointing, it wasn't the finest decision to put it out on CD.
The original Beatsteaks songs that are played don't give any signs that this is a punk band, exclusively representing their melodic hard rock style as seen on the contemporary studio release 'Living Targets,' while their choice of cover songs is strange indeed. The Cure doesn't strike me as the first band that a punk outfit would choose to cover, especially not something as mellow as 'Just Like Heaven,' while an initially promising Manowar cover is spoiled by the silly decision to turn it into a country piece. This might have been slightly amusing if it was limited to a brief ditty, but they play and spoil the entire thing, when it surely would have been much more amusing to simply reproduce the original style of that daft song in all its heavy metal glory.
The sound quality is a little poor, which is always a good thing for punk gigs and impresses me a lot more than their horribly polished studio output, but the tracklist is deceptive thanks to the inclusion of brief segments of dialogue as full tracks, namely tracks five, eight, ten and fourteen. Even with these included, the album comes in at a disappointing half-hour in length, and is mostly rather tedious too.
I guess this album, and the Beatsteaks' music in general, would be more appealing to those who didn't expect a band popularly labelled as punk to actually sound anything like a punk band, as what at first seemed like a promising riff in 'Let Me In' is subsequently spoiled by the crowd being invited to sing the cheery, poppy chorus, and judging by the sound of it, the audience is mainly comprised of teenage girls. Only 'Shut Up Stand Up' is a little bit faster and more enjoyable, but that all too soon turns into bland indie riffs, and 'Summer' sounds the same as every other melodic hard rock song produced in the United States, which I suppose is the point.
1. Intro
2. Let Me In
3. To Be Strong
4. Just Like Heaven
5. Kings of Metal
6. Wollt Ihr Tanzen?
7. Shut Up Stand Up
8. Tommy Wosch
9. Shiny Shoes Part 1
10. Wette Verloren
11. Shiny Shoes Part 2
12. Hey Du
13. Summer
14. Take the Take Out Now
Advantages: Beatsteaks having fun, and the crowd seems to like it.
Disadvantages: If someone recommended this to you as a punk album, you should smash their face in.
The Unexpected
***
Written on 13.02.08
It's always refreshing to hear a band trying something new in an otherwise stagnant genre, and although Norway's Beautiful Sin don't bring anything particularly original to power metal, their dedication to maintaining a level of heaviness dispels any preconceptions that all female-fronted metal is weak and overly melodic. Most of it is, intentionally I presume, but in this instance, drummer and songwriter Uli Kusch provides a fierce backing that pushes the rest of the band on to heavier extremes, even if Magali Luyten's voice does turn almost comically raspy in some of the later songs.
The main failing here is the production, which sounds so clinical and lifeless that the soul is drained from most of the songs, and only compensated for in slower offerings like 'I'm Real' that are drenched in Axel Mackenrott's symphonic keyboards. While this makes it sound borderline melodic-death-metal at times in the more aggressive 'Pechvogel' and 'Metalwaves,' there's enough of a traditional power metal influence in the happy lead guitars and verse styles of songs like 'Take Me Home' to keep things optimistic, along with a tendency for high quality instrumentals in the form of 'Brace For Impact,' which features excellent guitar and keyboard sections and only occasionally descends into eighties cheese, and the finale 'The Beautiful Sin' where Mackenrott goes it alone.
It isn't all good news however, and there are a couple of major points that turn me off this band. Firstly, 'Closer to My Heart' undoes a lot of the good work they've put in to convincing listeners that a female-fronted band is just as valid as one with a male singer, by serving up a bland and dull portion of soppy ballad. Plus, and I don't mean to be sexist but this is a valid observation, the band name and sparkly logo aren't exactly hiding the presence of a female member as much as flouting it to those teenage female metal fans who insist on only listening to bands with a girl singer, no matter how good, bad or mediocre. What a confused bunch.
More importantly, and this really irritated me, the best song by far is the opener 'Lost' which impressed me with its catchy guitar hooks and chorus style that I was sure I'd heard somewhere before, until I realised it was a direct rip-off of Helloween's 'The Departed (Sun is Going Down),' one of my favourite songs from 'The Dark Ride' album. The identical music makes it clear that this is a homage/cover rather than basic theft, but the case isn't made any stronger by the band writing entirely new lyrics, re-titling it and omitting any mention of '(Helloween cover)' on the tracklist. By the time their second album comes around, I hope they've learned how to compose their own classics rather than reworking those of others.
1. Lost
2. This Is Not the Original Dream
3. Take Me Home
4. I'm Real
5. The Spark of Ignition
6. Closer to My Heart
7. Give Up Once For All
8. Brace For Impact
9. Pechvogel
10. Metalwaves
11. The Beautiful Sin
Perpetual Burn
****
Written on 13.02.08
Jason Becker is among the lesser known but highest respected of the heavy metal guitar virtuosos, recording his only album of neoclassical guitar theatrics at the age of eighteen before ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) robbed him of his ability to play, to talk or even to breathe without assistance. It's a real shame that the world couldn't hear more of Becker's music the way he intended it (there have been further releases, but mostly consisting of demo material), as although it's more or less the same flamboyant classical instrumental shredding as Yngwie Malmsteen and the others in the field, Becker's solos feel more authentically from the heart, and he doesn't rely on cheap gimmicks like a pop singer in an attempt to reach a wider market.
As a purer expression of the shred genre, the only other instruments aside from Becker are occasional guest solos from his former collaborator Marty Friedman (later of Megadeth), drumming by Atma Anur that keeps up the pace and helps to ground the sound, and brief keyboard moments in more ambient songs like 'Air.' The mood here ranges from the excitement of full-pelt shredding to more thoughtful and atmospheric sections, mostly within the same song, and there's also commendable variety between the tracks; 'Perpetual Burn' is a little more ominous with its deep riffs, 'Mabel's Fatal Fable' starts with some pretty weird effects, the aforementioned 'Air' and 'Dweller in the Cellar' are more relaxed, and 'Eleven Blue Egyptians' tackles the Egyptian theme in a predictable but entertaining way.
There isn't a lot for the casual listener here it has to be said, and anyone who has been turned off by Malmsteen and his kin in the past should give it a wide berth, but Becker's noodling is some of the most soulful and emotive I've heard, and this album strikes a perfect balance between self-indulgence and broader appeal without going too far in either direction as his contemporaries tend to, resulting in fairly ridiculous albums and live shows. There's very little tomfoolery here.
1. Altitudes
2. Perpetual Burn
3. Mabel's Fatal Fable
4. Air
5. Temple of the Absurd
6. Eleven Blue Egyptians
7. Dweller in the Cellar
8. Opus Pocus
Perspective
***
Written on 13.02.08
'Perspective' is an interesting and unique album that may never have happened, and although it doesn't stand up to Becker's guitar-oriented work, it's still a testament to his skills that he was able to compose these tracks despite being afflicted by debilitating ALS. As Becker can no longer play the guitar, this is largely an album of synthesised atmospheres, and this adds a much greater variety and potentially wider-reaching appeal than the pure shred of his previous works, even if some of his attempts to join the elite ranks of Vangelis and other electronic composers are never quite as convincing.
Although Becker's noodling guitar finds its way into a couple of songs, namely the eleven-minute piano and guitar duet 'End of the Beginning' and the appropriately bluesy 'Blue,' this is more of a full-band endeavour featuring multiple instruments and even vocals in an interesting move.
It's fortunate that this isn't a moping or regretful album considering Becker's condition, and indeed much of it sounds pretty optimistic. 'Primal' begins with an Eastern vibe and gospel type backing singing, 'Higher' features a full female choir and seventies-style synthesisers, and the later 'Life and Death' and 'Empire' both strive for the epic heights of a fantasy film score, though ultimately end up among the less successful experiments of the disc. The strangest deviation of all is the final track 'Meet Me in the Morning,' which abandons the instrumental genre entirely and features blues singing and some fairly uninteresting guitars, making for a very unusual end to an enormously varied album that prog fans may enjoy, but doesn't represent the peak of what this musician was capable of achieving.
1. Primal
2. Rain
3. End of the Beginning
4. Higher
5. Blue
6. Life and Death
7. Empire
8. Serrana
9. Meet Me in the Morning
The Raspberry Jams
***
Written on 13.02.08
Released over a decade after his only real shred album 'Perpetual Burn,' 'The Raspberry Jams' is a self-proclaimed "Collection of Demos, Songs and Ideas on Guitar" presumably recovered from the personal and studio archives of Jason Becker prior to ALS removing his ability to perform in the early nineties.
As a satisfyingly slapdash collection of assorted things, this is exclusively an album for shred fans, as the repetitive and ceaseless guitar solos and experiments would put off casual listeners. Although I've never been the biggest fan of this type of music, I appreciate a good B-sides collection, or even a bad one, and the arbitrary pick 'n' mix style of this release is a lot of fun, even if some of the material is a bit dodgy. The main thing to remember is that none of this was ever intended for commercial release: the listener is instead being invited into the intimate compositions of the talented musician.
Only occasional drums and style changes add any variety here, as Becker moves between a typical, brief heavy metal shred assault in songs ('When You Wish Upon a Star,' 'Amarnath') to instrumental ideas for full songs ('If You Have to Shoot,' 'Ghost to the Post,' 'Blood on the Traches') and electric guitar takes on classical themes ('Amma'). Unlike some of his contemporaries, Becker also has a prominent blues influence that rears its head in 'Jasin Street' and makes extensive use of clean electric and acoustic guitars in songs like 'Grilled Peeps.'
This is the definition of an uneven album, with some performances just sounding terrible and others inspired, and even the sound quality varies from crystal clear to muddy, which is a nice sign that some real digging around was involved in its composition. Songs range from a few seconds long to around five minutes depending on their purpose, and there's even a ridiculous finale piece accurately described as 'Vocal Silliness' that sounds like Sesame Street characters performing an a capella improv. Not an album that will entertain many people, but a fascinating insight into Becker's creative process that should be of immense interest to guitar fans everywhere.
1. Becker-Ola
2. Mandy's Throbbing Heart
3. Amma
4. When You Wish Upon a Star
5. Jasin Street
6. Beatle Grubs
7. Grilled Peeps
8. If You Have to Shoot... Shoot - Don't Talk
9. Purple Chewable Fern
10. Black Stallion Jam
11. Amarnath
12. Angel Eyes
13. Throat Hole
14. Dang Sea of Samsara
15. Urmila
16. Thousand Million Suns
17. Clean Solo
18. Too Fast, No Good for You!
19. Sweet Baboon
20. Shock Tea
21. Ghost to the Post
22. Blood on the Traches
23. Oddly Enough
24. Crush
25. Vocal Silliness
Terminate Damnation
****
Written on 13.02.08
Becoming the Archetype are a progressive metalcore band combining very obvious influences from the worlds of metalcore and melodic death metal but still ending up with an interesting and characteristic sound of their own, for this first album at least. The progressive elements aren't so much representative of this band innovating beyond their metalcore base, but rather an attempt to basically imitate what Opeth are doing in a metalcore fashion, something already achieved with aplomb by Disillusion in their classic 'Back to Times of Splendor,' but reasonably reproduced here in songs like the eleven-minute 'Elegy' and 'The Epigone,' retaining the acoustic style for the Latin interludes 'Night's Sorrow' and 'Denouement' that fit in well but don't exactly impress, such acoustic touches having been an almost essential part of melodic death metal since In Flames and Dark Tranquillity's 1995 albums.
This is highly proficient metalcore/melodic death that falls for a few of the pitfalls, such as the tendency for breakdowns rather than decent riff sections and a reliance on screaming vocals when some songs demonstrate all too fleetingly that a nice, thoughtful growl will do just as well, and the drums follow the same pattern of relentless double bass pummelling seemingly practiced by all bands without a particularly inventive drummer, but the structural progression in songs like 'March of the Dead' from a fast opening through an acoustic section into a slower, heavier finale makes this infinitely more appealing than the typical metalcore bands concerned with aggression over musical talent.
Perhaps it's all a part of the band's Christian message, something communicated a little too explicitly in some of the lyrics but nonetheless refreshing after all the talk of Satan, though to be honest I've always found the Devil to be the more entertaining fictional character.
1. March of the Dead
2. Into Oblivion
3. One Man Parade
4. Elegy
5. Night's Sorrow
6. The Epigone
7. Beyond Adaptation
8. No Fall Too Far
9. Ex Nihilo
10. Denouement
11. The Trivial Paroxysm
The Physics of Fire
***
Written on 14.02.08
The second full-length release from Christian metalcore band Becoming the Archetype is a little disappointing after the strength of their debut, and despite the progressive elements that continue to be plagiarised from melodic death metal bands such as Opeth, the music here is all far too repetitive to be of interest as the album plods onwards. The melodic death metal lead guitars have now become more or less a cliche, standing out too prominently amidst the yelled verses just as the mellow sections of every single song act more as a jarring interruption than a seamless central movement. This album also sees the inevitable move away from death metal growls to include clean singing, which just as predictably sounds fairly poor.
The piano that worked so well in past songs such as 'Elegy' makes a less impressive return here in several tracks, notably leading the way in the instrumental 'Nocturne' alongside the lighter rock instruments, and in other songs such as the four-part title suite, the keyboard is modulated to an atmospheric style that doesn't work wholly successfully. This is an average quality album that's still above and beyond the quality of regular, angst-ridden metalcore, but isn't a patch on what the band could have been if it had tried, but I'm sure their Lord will forgive them for their trespass (God much preferred their earlier melodeath stuff).
1. Epoch of War (The Physics of Fire, Pt. 3)
2. Immolation
3. Autopsy
4. The Great Fall (The Physics of Fire, Pt. 1)
5. Nocturne
6. The Monolith
7. Construct and Collapse
8. Endure
9. Fire Made Flesh (The Physics of Fire, Pt. 2)
10. Second Death
11. The Balance Of Eternity (The Physics of Fire, Pt. 4)
From the Pagan Vastlands
****
Written on 19.02.08
The third and final Behemoth demo was recorded by Nergal when he was sixteen, and is another classic of Polish black metal despite its inferior sound quality. Its predecessor 'The Return of the Northern Moon' was a huge step beyond the previous year's demo 'Endless Damnation' in term of production, and the style continues here, taking influence from eighties black metal like Sweden's Bathory as well as the contemporary second wave of Norwegian bands such as Mayhem.
Without the intro and interludes of previous demos, '...From the Pagan Vastlands' offers six substantial songs of raw, mid-speed black metal that you can even forget is a demo recording as long as you really crank up the volume and ignore the occasional stumbling volume. Averaging over five minutes each, these songs are all high quality and mostly different enough to stand out, from the epic opener 'From Hornelands to Lindisfarne' with its acoustic touches and slow, moody atmosphere to the more straightforward Bathory-style blackened rock of 'Thy Winter Kingdom' and later songs that ditch the keyboards in favour of the core musicians, all led by classic riffs from Nergal. The finest song 'Summoning (Of the Ancient Ones)' is a re-make from the previous demo, clipped a little shorter here by removing the intro and suffering from a murkier production sound, but still possessing fantastic guitars from the main riff to variations later on in the faster and more aggressive centre.
As gritty black metal, this is still essentially terrifying stuff for the casual listener, but is kept a lot more melodic and atmospheric than some of the more aggressive bands like Mayhem and Darkthrone, sticking to the more or less constant medium tempo of earlier black metal and using keyboards effectively (if blaringly) to enhance the mood, especially in the second half of the demo. I've always enjoyed this dingy and contemplative style of black metal far more than the monstrously fast and heavy black/death style of Behemoth's later years, and although the volume issues can be annoying, the atmosphere is really enhanced by the lousy sound quality, which wouldn't be an awful lot clearer even if this was a proper studio release.
Baal's drums sound disappointingly like they're made of paper when he's blasting away, but the slower speed means he's mostly relegated to the less distracting duty of keeping up the pace, while the keyboards and especially the acoustic guitar of track one are far more prominent in the mix than anything else. These problems all fade away as the demo continues though, and by the excellent finale 'Fields of Haar-Meggido' with its drawn-out melodic guitar solo, you've all but forgotten that this is recorded in a kid's parent's garage.
1. From Hornelands to Lindisfarne
2. Thy Winter Kingdom
3. Summoning (Of the Ancient Ones)
4. The Dance of the Pagan Flames
5. Blackvisions of the Almighty
6. Fields of Haar-Meggido
Grom
****
Written on 25.02.08
Behemoth's second album is a very mixed bag of black metal and neofolk touches that often don't quite work, and due to its inconsistency, it's easily the album that divides fans the most. Predictably, it's also my favourite.
What makes this album stand out so prominently is the way the traditional black metal is frequently interrupted by acoustic guitar, light keyboard or clean singing in a manner that more often than not fails to correspond to what's come before and after, and the first and last songs even feature female singing from Celina. These folk touches make it all the more endearing for me, even if they're clearly more on the amateur side and don't hold up to the likes of Bathory and more seasoned folk metal bands, but it's the proficient and highly distinctive sound of the black metal itself that's the real winner here, exuding a fantastic, if confused atmosphere of ancient lands and dark sorcery, and Nergal's guitars receiving a unique sound thanks to the raw and fuzzy production that makes the whole thing work so much better.
The main failing of these songs, now that I've somehow convinced myself that the lack of consistency is a bonus, is that most of them are severely on the long side, and run out of steam and ideas long before their end point. This isn't the case for all, 'The Dark Forest' and 'Dragon's Lair' in particular remaining compelling throughout, but despite the excellent and inventive nature of the leading guitar riffs, they aren't immune to tedium when repeated ad nauseam. Nergal takes some influence from classic metal just to annoy genre purists further, making 'Spellcraft and Heathendom' and 'Lasy Pomorza' (among others) extremely catchy, though the attempt at incorporating a chorus into black metal in the former only ends up proving why that's usually avoided.
Nergal's Darkthrone-style gurgly rasp is perfect for the music, but just to be even more controversial he attempts to sing in a deep, folk style on half of the songs, which never sounds particularly good but is still valuable for adding diversity. Baal Ravenlock's drums are slightly inaudible at times thanks to the production, and really aren't all that interesting unless they're doing something other than maintaining an extreme tempo, and mention should be made of Les' bass intro to the title track, not because it's particularly impressive, but because I wanted to make sure I included his amusingly normal name alongside the pseudonyms of his bandmates. Behemoth sounds nothing like this today, which is sad.
1. Intro
2. The Dark Forest (Cast Me Your Spell)
3. Spellcraft and Heathendom
4. Dragon's Lair (Cosmic Flames and Four Barbaric Seasons)
5. Lasy Pomorza
6. Rising Proudly Towards the Sky
7. Thou Shalt Forever Win
8. Grom
Pandemonic Incantations
****
Written on 19.02.08
Behemoth's third album marks the Polish band's turnover point between the textbook second-wave black metal of their earlier releases and the devastating death metal influence of their later works, and combines the two styles to great effect. With recruitment of new drummer Inferno, the music is fiercer and more engaging than previous album 'Grom,' enhanced by the higher production values, but the prominent keyboards and vocal style, often reverting to spoken word incantation, keeps the sound grounded in a black metal sensibility.
Nergal's stream of great guitar riffs drives the whole thing along as ever, and the entire album performance flows together from track to track in the manner of a single long song, though with more than enough variety to keep each track interesting and distinctive. As a roughly conceptual work, this makes for a strong album with a nicely epic atmosphere in places, only getting lost in its own pomposity in the penultimate spoken word track before returning to form for the great finale. The improved production values detract a little from the album's tombic authenticity, but it helps to flesh out the grander sound while also drawing attention to the new death metal tendencies of Nergal's riffs and lead work, though his occasional solos as seen in 'Driven By the Five-Winged Star' are still pleasant and melodic rather than aimlessly squealed.
It would have been interesting to hear pieces like 'The Past is a Funeral' and the slower 'In Thy Pandamaeturnum' in the older, rawer style, but more aggressive and pounding tracks like 'With Spell of Inferno' would sound significantly weaker. Of course, then 'Satanica' came along and made this whole thing sound like Chopin.
1. Diablena
2. The Thousand Plagues I Witness
3. Satan's Sword (I Have Become)
4. In Thy Pandamaeternum
5. Driven By the Five-Winged Star
6. The Past is Like a Funeral
7. The Entrance to the Spheres of Mars
8. Chwala Mordercom Wojciecha
9. With Spell of Inferno
Thelema.6
****
Written on 19.02.08
Although I wasn't too fond of the direction change on 'Satanica,' Behemoth really surprised me with its furtherance in 'Thelema.6,' their first album of the new millennium and one of the most devastating death metal albums it's ever been my misfortune to enjoy. This is an improvement over 'Satanica' due to the greater technicality of Nergal's guitars, which run through varied riffs and leads in songs like 'The Act of Rebellion' while making plenty of time for the headbanging crowd brave enough to attend their live shows. With only minimal pauses between tracks offering respite from the skull-splintering torment, this isn't for the faint hearted unless you really want to go out with a bang.
Although this is more or less pure death metal now, Behemoth retains a black metal mentality, both in inferno's incredible drum work and most explicitly in the anti-Christian lyrics and statements, which go so far as to be laughable at times ('Christians to the Lions' for example). While this will put off as many listeners as it attracts, this is some of the most divisive music in existence, with almost everyone on the planet likely to consider it unbearable noise, and the small minority of fans embracing its unbearability.
Nergal's scream meets somewhere in the middle of a black metal screech and a death metal growl and suits the music perfectly, and there are even minimal clean vocals in tracks four and five to add a little diversity to an album that's already unpredictable and far from repetitive, even provided the listener is able to endure right to the end. If I was as passionate about death metal as I am about other stupid genres, this would probably be one of my favourite albums of all time. Unfortunately, I guess I'm a bit of a wuss after all, but this is Behemoth's strongest and most creative release up to this point.
1. Antichristian Phenomenon
2. The Act of Rebellion
3. Inflamed With Rage
4. Pan Satyros
5. Natural Born Philosopher
6. Christians to the Lions
7. Inauguration of Scorpio Dome
8. In the Garden of Dispersion
9. The Universe Illumination (Say "Hello" to My Demons)
10. Vinvm Sabbati
11. 23 (The Youth Manifesto)
12. The End
Zos Kia Cultus
****
Written on 25.02.08
Behemoth's evolution from black- to death metal band is complete by the time of this sixth release, meaning that anyone who enjoyed the band for its original style will find no familiarity here whatsoever. So while this is a bit of a disappointment for me, I can't deny that 'Zos Kia Cultus' (aka 'Here and Beyond') is a faultless example of brutal death metal, with the volume and intensity to blow the listener's brains out. If that's all you ask from an album, it doesn't come any finer. Fortunately for the rest of us, there are enough interesting musical touches to keep this from being an overly repetitive display of how hard and fast Inferno can beat his kit. By which I mean his drums; if you thought that was a euphemism, you're just weird.
I'm not sure how Behemoth's subject matter moved from Satan to Egyptian mythology, but it's both entertaining and incredibly clichéd to hear the theme pronounced in the form of Arabian-style electric and acoustic guitars in 'Horns ov Baphomet' and more explicitly in 'Here and Beyond,' before things would get out of hand on the next album. Songs such as the latter that feature an overload of lead guitar and solo melodies are the ones I can appreciate the most, as something has to balance out the sheer aggression of the rhythm section, but the majority of the album follows a riff-driven style of brutality comparable to Aborted, but without the surgical malpractice gimmick.
While it's admittedly a disappointment to hear the final traces of black metal fade away, even down to Nergal's roars which are now rooted entirely in the death tradition, this is still a supreme example of a black metal band turning to death metal and doing it incredibly well, arguably even better than their original style. There's enough variety in the riffs to keep it from being too repetitive, but it's certainly not an album I could comfortably listen to regularly, and one I'm sure I'll never subject myself to in its entirety ever again.
1. Horns ov Baphomet
2. Modern Iconoclasts
3. Here and Beyond (Titanic Turn of Time)
4. As Above So Below
5. Blackest ov the Black
6. Hekau 718
7. The Harlot ov the Saints
8. No Sympathy for Fools
9. Zos Kia Cultus
10. Fornicatus Benefictus
11. Typhonian Soul Zodiack
12. Heru Ra Ha: Let There Be Might
Demigod
***
Written on 25.02.08
Seemingly trying to outdo Nile and Melechesh as the kings of Egyptian-themed extreme metal, Behemoth's seventh album embraces the theme with greater passion than before, which inevitably leads to some gimmicky reproduction of those same "authentic" Ancient Egyptian guitar riffs and solos that appear on every metal band's Egyptian song and are almost an embarrassing cliché. This is mostly prominent in the first two songs before the album sadly descends into repetitive hammering led by Inferno's drums at the expense of the other musicians, as Behemoth try once again to win the accolade of the most brutal metal performance, something I'm sure will continue to be granted to them as long as they continue to focus squarely on aggression over musical accomplishment.
The death metal of the earlier songs is still excellent, with some heavy, slow riffs and those damn Egyptian melodies that I'll admit still sound incredibly cool despite being so overdone, but the only songs to attract my attention outside of 'Sculpting the Throne ov Seth' and 'Demigod' are 'Towards Babylon,' for its more classic death metal performance, and 'XUL' for its sheer, unadulterated abundance of guitars. The grand finale 'The Reign ov Shemsu-Hor' can't avoid comparison to the more well-known Egyptian-themed death metal band Nile, who have been writing songs with a similar style and similar titles for ten years, but although it's still great (though incredibly Nilesque), it still sounds much like an extended and less fun version of the opening song.
'Demigod' has been vastly overrated by those who only desire brutality from their music, but for fans of extreme death metal I'd recommend the previous two releases which hold a lot more of interest. And Melechesh for a superior version of the same thing.
1. Sculpting the Throne ov Seth
2. Demigod
3. Conquer All
4. The Nephilim Rising
5. Towards Babylon
6. Before the Æons Came
7. Mysterium Coniunctionis (Hermanubis)
8. XUL
9. Slaves Shall Serve
10. The Reign ov Shemsu-Hor
Drawing Down the Moon
****
Written on 15.02.08
Another reputed classic of early black metal, Beherit's second album (or more appropriately, their first full-length release) is a huge improvement of the careless and often terrible quality of its predecessor. The songs are fuzzy, badly produced and repetitive as Hell, but some of the riffs and dark ambient keyboard melodies are enjoyable and surprisingly memorable enough to make this comparable to the other black metal bands of the early nineties, occasionally sounding much like a less intense, less catchy, less eerie and less good Burzum.
The atmosphere of this recording is dark, stinking and vile in the way only first-wave black metal ever really achieved, and the sound of the guitars and drums particularly are more rooted in the classic metal tradition than the treble-heavy discordance of more stereotypical bands of the genre, which makes it that slight bit more accessible for casual listeners. If it weren't for the cheap and fuzzy sound quality and the vomit-inducing guttural croaks of Nuclear Holocausto of Bloody Vengeance, my personal favourite of all the stupid black metal pseudonyms. Nuke's vocals are one of the features that keep Beherit distinctive and are very effective even if failing to accounting for taste, alternating between a standard growl, whisper, chanting and even clean singing of sorts in 'The Gate of Nanna,' a song about the hero of the evil gods rather than a tale about visiting his granny, which would have been fun.
Oddly, it's the ambient intro and interludes 'Nuclear Girl' and 'Summerlands' that end up sounding the most musically accomplished, especially the latter with its tribal wood instruments that may be synthesised or genuine, but either way sound appropriately spooky in the mix. Some songs stand out merely for being a little slower or evolving into a steady, plodding rhythm as is the case for the Venomesque 'Sadomatic Rites' and 'Thou Angel of the Gods,' while the rest vary between faster and slower guitar- and drum-led sections with ol' Nuke occasionally spewing forth his Satanic lyrics. It's all good stuff if you're into that sort of thing, which I predict no one reading this will be, but it's nothing particularly special and doesn't deserve the plaudits it's received from the black metal community when compared to the Norwegian scene evolving at the time.
1. Intro (Tireheb)
2. Salomon's Gate
3. Nocturnal Evil
4. Sadomatic Rites
5. Black Arts
6. The Gate of Nanna
7. Nuclear Girl
8. Unholy Pagan Fire
9. Down There...
10. Summerlands
11. Werewolf, Semen and Blood
12. Thou Angel of the Gods
13. Lord of Shadows and Golden Wood
H418ov21.c
*
Written on 15.02.08
Left alone without his untrustworthy band members, Nuclear Holocausto of Bloody Vengeance (catchier real name Marko Laiho, but don't tell anyone) elected to go the way of many of his black metal contemporaries and continue Beherit as a one-man band with a new, ambient-based direction compensating for the lack of a full band with synthesised instruments that sound just as convincing... right? Although he would make a surprisingly successful comeback with the follow-up album, 'H418ov21.C' is a real stinker, and possibly one of the worst albums I've ever heard in both an aural and compositional sense. Say what you will about Beherit (there is much to be said), but their discography certainly leaves a lasting impression, for better or worse. Worse, mainly.
The theme here seems to be ritual music, working along similar lines to Count Grishnackh's hypnotic trance pieces in Burzum, but the result is infinitely inferior. The only real positive aspect of the album comes in its variety, which is a real surprise considering how repetitive earlier Beherit releases have been, but nothing is any good. 'The Gate of Inanna' and 'Paradise (Part II)' are both led by distractingly false-sounding electronic drum beats and bad keyboard melodies with Nuclear Holocausto's nasal tones over the top and the occasional, stifled growl, and are kept from being truly ambient by the prominent rhythm section. 'Tribal Death' is an initially more interesting, vocal-led piece, with whispers and what sounds like a yodel providing the backing atmosphere, and the return of the tribal instruments after the previous album's 'Summerlands' makes this perhaps the most interesting offering here, even though it's still overlong and overdull.
Despite its rather pompous title, 'Emotional Ecstasy' is a really bland attempt at something heavenly, driven by over-polished keyboards melodies that would have sounded embarrassing even in the early eighties, and the rest of the album after this point attempts a more atmospheric and repetitive sound, perhaps under the pretence of lulling the listener more deeply into the trance that none of them will have achieved, and lacking any kind of atmosphere whatsoever. 'Fish' is by far the worst of the lot, beginning with a chiming bell that resurfaces in 'Mystik Force,' but giving over its final minutes to a single repeated tap of the electronic drum accompanied by nothing. It's the most tedious thing I've ever heard.
Anyone who enjoys the atmospheric ambience of ex-black metal artists like Burzum and (first-era) Mortiis will have good reason to laugh in this album's incomprehensibly titled face. It's completely terrible, attractive to no kind of audience whatsoever.
1. The Gate of Inanna
2. Tribal Death
3. Emotional Ecstasy
4. Fish
5. 21st Century
6. Paradise (Part II)
7. Mystik Force
8. Spirit of the God of Fire
9. E-scape
Electric Doom Synthesis
Nuclear Holocausto of Bloody Vengeance IV: This Time It's Quite Good
***
Written on 15.02.08
I'm finally beginning to understand all the fuss that's made about Beherit as one of the defining early black metal bands, as although their releases are never higher on the scale than "quite good I guess, if a bit repetitive," the diverse styles present across the band's brief discography make them highly distinctive, even if the distinction lies in their lack of defining characteristics.
'Electric Doom Synthesis' was the second solo release of remaining band member Nuclear Holocausto, and it's such an enormous improvement over its awful predecessor that I can't help but be curious about the different drugs he was using during the composition and recording process of each; if that investigation were ever published, it could be very revealing of how to succeed in the dark ambient music industry. The atmosphere here actually exists, which instantly scores over the blank preceding album, and is effectively eerie in the softer songs, before being modulated with equal skill to a harder-edged industrial vibe in 'Beyond Vision' and 'Drawing Down the Moon,' neither of which would sound entirely out of place on 'The Matrix' soundtrack, and Mortiis-like nostalgic reverie in 'Deep Night 23rd.'
Everything here is handled with greater skill and consideration than the previous album, the growled vocals subtly fading into the keyboard melodies and songs like the opener 'Ambush' ending in something of a crescendo, and like many successful black-metal-turned-dark-ambient projects, the music manages to retain the black metal sensibility without using any of the instruments, especially in pieces like 'We Worship.' 'Dead Inside' is a slow monstrosity, but perhaps chilled enough to have broader appeal like the industrial offerings, and even the return of the usually clichéd tribal drums in 'Sense' sounds less forced than it has on the previous two albums, though this marks the last point at which the album is of any interest, before it fades into silence and non-ishness out of politeness as the listener falls into a pleasant, Satanic sleep. I haven't sacrificed any virgins since listening to this, but it has the potential to be far more subconsciously unsettling than 'H418ov21.C.' That one was rubbish.
1. Ambush
2. We Worship
3. Dead Inside
4. Beyond Vision
5. Deep Night 23rd
6. Drawing Down the Moon
7. Sense
8. Temple ov Lykos
Advantages: A far superior attempt at dark ambience.
Disadvantages: Industrial songs get in the way, and it's all still pretty boring.
Here
Nostalgiavision
**
Written on 21.03.08
Thankfully the final album of Adrian Belew's mostly disappointing era of throwback sixties pop-rock, 'Here' is also slightly superior to its predecessors, mainly for featuring more experimental touches - even if most of these were admittedly experimented with by the Beatles thirty years earlier. Indeed, some songs are clear Beatles imitations, particularly 'Burned By the Fire We Make,' the ethereal 'Fly' and the Eastern-tinged 'Survival in the Wild' that features George Harrison style sitar, while others vary between generic outdated imitation and quite good guitar touches that really should have been used more extensively.
The style here is mostly similar upbeat, energetic, light rock that's thankfully moderated by the softer elements to avoid becoming too repetitive. 'Dreamlife' is a welcome acoustic song that works well with the surrounding tracks, and it's as late as 'Brave New World' that the electric riffs make their long-awaited comeback, leading the rest of the album out in style until the downbeat, soft conclusion 'Postcard from Holland' that couldn't be more literal if it tried.
Even the early, poppy songs feature enough in terms of changeable structure to appease music fans, but those who are more expressly interested in Belew's progressive side will doubtless enjoy the latter songs the most, particularly 'Brave New World' and 'Futurevision' that highlight his guitar abilities. The rest of the album isn't that bad either - it just isn't anything to write a postcard to Holland about.
1. May 1, 1990
2. I See You
3. Survival in the Wild
4. Fly
5. Never Enough
6. Peace on Earth
7. Burned by the Fire We Make
8. Dreamlife
9. Here
10. Brave New World
11. Futurevision
12. Postcard from Holland
Op Zop Too Wah
Sketches of Noodles
***
Written on 22.03.08
Finally, Adrian Belew has stopped trying to gain favour with a mainstream audience that would never really accept him, and has thrown himself fully into creating experimental, avant garde and primarily weird music to give orgasms to his fan base. 'Op Zop Too Wah' is Belew's most experimental record up to this point, and it doesn't even matter that so much of it is obviously forced when the end result is this entertaining and amusing. This is just the sort of avant garde I like: music that messes around, doesn't take itself too seriously, and at some points is even possible to appreciate on a musical level.
It should be obvious what you're getting from the title; twenty-one wildly unbalanced tracks of Belew playing music in his home studio with seemingly little regard for the conventions of the genre, whatever exactly that is. As ever, it's his guitar work that remains the most distinctive and inspired, but the prevalence of speedy tribal percussion, farting fretless bass and Belew's admittedly quite good vocals also help to make this a highly enjoyable and accomplished album, with many songs that would be enjoyable by a wider audience (such as 'I Remember How to Forget' and the Beatlesesque 'Time Waits') if only they weren't buried amidst the other oddities.
Odd is the only real word to apply to the shorter tracks that bulk out the playlist (2, 4, 7, 9, 11, 13, 14 and 15), and average at around one minute each. These are brief ideas and experiments more than songs, some being traditional musical interludes, namely the two-part instrumental 'What Do You Know?' that moves from acoustic to electric guitar, while others such as 'Word Play Drum Beat' in particular are curious for curiosity's sake; this track plays out much as its title suggests, with a drum beat and various voices chipping in to finish each other's sentences.
I'm not so much a fan of the music as a whole, as I am of the album's attitude, but saying that there are still some very good songs. 'Of Bow and Drum' is a great freestyle instrumental piece that eventually forms into a proper song (of all things, I ask you), while 'High Wire Guitar' is one of the most amusing things I've ever heard, clearly aiming for the very literal image of Belew playing his long and zany, King Crimson style guitar solo on a high wire above a roaring and appreciative circus crowd. This is not the most original or ground-breaking experimental album ever, but it allowed the musician to break free of the monotonous blandness of his previous discography, and paved the way for the heights he would subsequently achieve. You would probably hate this.
1. Of Bow and Drum
2. Word Play Drum Beat
3. Six String
4. Conversation Piece
5. All Her Love Is Mine
6. I Remember How to Forget
7. What Do You Know?, Pt. 1
8. Op Zop Too Wah
9. A Plate of Words
10. Time Waits
11. What Do You Know?, Pt. 2
12. Modern Man Hurricane Blues
13. In My Backyard
14. A Plate of Guitar
15. Live in a Tree
16. Something to Do
17. Beautiful
18. High Wire Guitar
19. Sky Blue Red Bird Green House
20. The Ruin After the Rain
21. On
Belew Prints: The Acoustic Adrian Belew, Vol. 2
Thing You Hit With a Stick
**
Written on 22.03.08
The first 'Acoustic Adrian Belew' release was a huge disappointment mainly for being so boring, but it's obvious that the musician's return to an experimental agenda with the previous year's 'Op Zop Too Wah' has impacted on this second "acoustic" collection, in which Belew digs more self-assessed "classics" from his archive and gives them the unplugged treatment. Except that his acoustic guitar is plugged in, supplemented by electric guitar on occasion (as in 'Never Enough'), as well as a whole load of other instruments including piano, percussion and a string section, to the point that this might as well be considered an album of alternative versions rather than bare-bones acoustic renditions. It's slightly better for it.
The main problem here is the clashing of styles, as Belew tries to arrange simplistic, light pop-rock songs alongside pointless experimental interludes in the form of 'Things You Hit With a Stick,' 'Return of the Chicken' and finale 'Nude Wrestling With a Christmas Tree.' These frivolous songs were fun on the previous studio release, but here just seem out of place and immature. Perhaps even weirder is the on-off presence of other instruments, as Belew tackles a few songs in the same dull style as the last acoustic album, while others overload on piano and drums, with seemingly no pattern to which songs end up in which style. 'Men in Helicopters' once again starts things off with a Greenpeace anthem criticising man's short-sightedness, and this is rendered palatable and even enjoyable thanks to the dominant string section, but these extra musicians vanish completely for the remainder, leaving 'Big Blue Sun' sounding diluted without their input, which was one of the only reasons it was considered a good song in its original form.
This album is still entrenched in the camp of Belew's commercial rock era, with the minor problem that parts of it are so unappealing to either of his fan bases that it's likely no one ever bought it at all. There are some good songs here, especially '1967' and 'Cage' which actually make use of the acoustic style rather than suffer for it, but this is ultimately one of many Adrian Belew albums that you'd be better off without.
1. Men in Helicopters
2. Cage
3. I Remember How to Forget
4. Young Lions
5. Never Enough
6. Things You Hit With a Stick
7. Everything
8. Big Blue Sun
9. Bad Days
10. One of Those Days
11. Return of the Chicken
12. Dinosaur
13. 1967
14. Free as a Bird (Live)
15. Nude Wrestling With a Christmas Tree
Advantages: Better material than the previous acoustic collection, and more variety.
Disadvantages: Not really an acoustic album, and suffers from a weird dichotomy.
Coming Attractions
Or, My Pathetic Excuse for an Unfinished Album
**
Written on 22.03.08
No one could say that Adrian Belew is averse to releasing shoddy, half-assed compilations in place of genuine studio albums, and 'Coming Attractions' is a fine example of this shoddiness. Reputedly released to offer fans a taster of what was to come (and ultimately never would), this is merely an excuse to put out a couple of unimpressive works-in-progress alongside live and studio performances of old material, for no real reason that I can see.
Belew's obsession with animals is again prominent in this release, from the declaration that his 'Inner Man' is an animal in the opening song through to the finale 'Animal Kingdom,' essentially a tediously extended version of the same jungle ambience stuff he's always doing that lasts for twelve minutes, but ultimately none of this material is really satisfying. The new songs are predictable and disappointingly mainstream-oriented, considering his experimental leanings during this period, and the old songs were never particularly good in the first place for being based in much the same style.
'Predator Feast' uses the same guitar sound effect for animals that Belew has been using since 'Elephant Talk,' '117 Valley Drive' is simply dull, and 'Inner Man' even cuts off at the end, suggesting that it's literally incomplete. Elsewhere, 'No Such Guitar' is a disappointingly apt instrumental that features hardly anything in the way of guitar, which is what most people will be approaching these albums to hear.
1. Inner Man
2. Predator Feast
3. 117 Valley Drive
4. Inner Revolution
5. Time Waits
6. I Know What I Know and That Is All I Know and I Know It
7. People
8. No Such Guitar
9. Bird in a Box
10. House of Cards
11. The Man in the Moon
12. Animal Kingdom
Advantages: If you were desperate for an Adrian Belew release in 2000.
Disadvantages: Unfinished, disappointing new songs and pointlessly reproduced old ones.
Side One
I
****
Written on 22.03.08
After a long hiatus, Adrian Belew returned in fine form to release a trilogy of albums over the course of a year. The first of these, imaginatively titled 'Side One' (you can guess how imaginative the other two will be), is a glorious return to Belew's wild guitar style that characterised eighties King Crimson, perhaps even going too far in its homage on occasion, but is made even more successful by the addition of guest musicians in the form of Primus' Les Claypool on bass guitar and Tool's Danny Carey on drums, both of whom appear on the first three tracks.
The addition of Claypool and Carey really does suit Belew's notion of the "power trio" and serves to make these early songs easily the most satisfying on the album, though the remainder are still impressive as Belew customarily takes control of all instruments. Most songs manage to stand out by being slightly different, from the Crimsonesque guitar screaming of 'Ampersand' to the funk of 'Writing on the Wall,' the softer 'Matchless Man' and the racing electronic percussion of 'Beat Box Guitar,' and this is certainly an album that will please guitar fans and progressive music fans alike, far more than any of the artist's previous solo releases.
There are still a few issues hindering this album's acceptability as a "classic" prog release, primarily the unoriginality of some of the pieces that seem far too much like what Belew was doing with King Crimson twenty years earlier, but also what Robert Fripp was doing with the band ten years before Belew even came along (particularly the 'Red' album). Instrumentals like 'Madness' tend to be overlong and droning, lyrics are fairly pointless and repetitive ('Ampersand' especially), and to top it off, the whole thing is only thirty-three minutes long.
If Belew had packaged these three albums as a genuine three-sided release it would have been one of the most impressive musical feats of modern times, but at least divided in this way it's easier to tell the subtle (or not so subtle) differences between them.
1. Ampersand
2. Writing on the Wall
3. Matchless Man
4. Madness
5. Walk Around the World
6. Beat Box Guitar
7. Under the Radar
8. Elephants
9. Pause
Side Two
II
***
Written on 22.03.08
I was surprised at how well the central part of Adrian Belew's musical trilogy worked, considering that many veteran musicians who turn their hand to electronic composition end up as an embarrassment, like someone's Nan break-dancing. Belew certainly has a knack for it, his synthesised percussion loops suiting the more laid-back guitar style employed here, and never seeming like they're trying to be cool and modern just for the sake of it, but all the same the music does end up rather repetitive and dull, especially for lacking the energy that made its predecessor so entertaining.
It's gratifying to see Belew breaking out of the King Crimson influence for the most part, but all the same it's nice to know that this is more of a single-album experiment than anything. Relaxing and melodic for the most part, supplemented by nice Eastern touches in 'Sex Nerve' and dominant piano in 'I Wish I Knew,' Belew's guitar melodies are reminiscent of the solo albums of other prog performers such as David Gilmour, though his distinctive playing style is all his own. The only song I really dislike on this album is the finale 'Sunlight,' which seems too happy and bouncy in its near-techno for my tastes, and at only thirty-three minutes this is another of Belew's albums that could have been expanded a little - but then, it was already the second of three releases within the space of a year.
1. Dead Dog on Asphalt
2. I Wish I Knew
3. Face to Face
4. Asleep
5. Sex Nerve
6. Then What
7. Quicksand
8. I Know Now
9. Happiness
10. Sunlight
Advantages: A different approach that works surprisingly well.
Disadvantages: Songs tend to sound the same.
Side Three
III
****
Written on 22.03.08
The final instalment of Adrian Belew's trilogy, which I'm sure is supposed to represent some high musical concept or other, takes the best elements from its predecessors as well as a very obvious influence from Belew's work with King Crimson, to make it the strongest of the three - by a little bit.
The spoken word stylings of the first two songs and the presence of electronic percussion make this instantly comparable to King Crimson's 'The Power to Believe,' and Robert Fripp even comes over to assist as a background player along with former Crimson alumnus Mel Collins and, most significantly, the rhythm section of Les Claypool and Danny Carey who made the first half of 'Side 1' so memorable. Claypool's bass is especially noticeable on 'Whatever,' while Belew continues the 'Side 2' synthesiser experiments with the enjoyable 'Beat Box Car' and the less enjoyable 'The Red Bell Rides a Boomerang Across the Blue Constellation,' and overall it's this mixing of eclectic styles that makes this such a satisfying listening experience, even if some of it is inevitably below par.
It's presumably intentional that this "finale" album features a clash of styles, but Belew's distinctive guitar sound still wins out, even when modulated to funk ('Incompetence Difference') or something more ethereal ('Water Turns to Wine'). His vocals are less prominent here than before in this largely instrumental album, only really coming to the fore in the narrative of track two (the first being handled by The Prophet Omega), and as a progressive album it's nice to see call-back references to earlier parts, mostly from the first album, without these being overdone.
Belew's trilogy is a vanity project that transcends ego and proves highly enjoyable for those of a progressive or experimental mind-set, and even though it will only ever seem like a secondary career to modern King Crimson (itself hugely diluted from the band's golden era in the seventies, before Belew was even a member), it's nice to know that the musician is still going strong with his innovative works, rather than relying on past successes.
1. Troubles
2. Incompetence Difference
3. Water Turns to Wine
4. Drive
5. Whatever
6. Men In Helicopters v4.0
7. Beat Box Car
8. The Red Bell Rides a Boomerang Across the Blue Constellation
9. &
Advantages: Satisfying conclusion, building on its predecessors and introducing new elements.
Disadvantages: Clear overlap with Belew's concurrent work in King Crimson.
Mechanics of Dysfunction
*
Written on 28.02.08
Technical death metal is perhaps the most corrupted metal genre after melodic death metal, as both have fallen far from their original splendour thanks to the efforts (or rather, lack of effort) of imitation acts that decided to abandon their progenitors' more creative tendencies in favour of a focus on extreme brutality and heaviness that often doesn't even measure up to the competition even by those shallow terms.
Canada's Beneath the Massacre is one such act popularly labelled as "technical death metal," a term which nowadays seems to be applied to any band playing with fast guitars drowned out in a sea of tediously repetitive, machine-gun style drums that fail to vary their sound at all across the half hour of the recording, and often make it sound like the CD is skipping. This is a far cry from Atheist, Death and even the lesser, copy-cat acts who followed the ideology that endlessly changing guitar riffs and tempo changes amounted to more interesting music, and simply serves to blur the line more between modern technical death metal and modern brutal death metal, both of which are sickeningly overrated by angsty metal fans who require their music to be loud and abrasive, and nothing else.
This really is half an hour of exactly the same, mindlessly hammering rubbish, making it impossible to discern specific songs, especially as many skip all but unnoticed over the track divide when the listener zones out. Elliot Desgagnés' guttural growls will only be impressive if you've never heard the style before, and don't convey any of the emotion found in superior acts of a similar style like Suffocation, but perhaps worst of all is that, despite its focus on speed and aggression over technical accomplishment... it's not even that fast. Not even compared to an average metal band.
This only becomes worse with 'The Stench of Misery,' perhaps the only song to attempt something slightly different, as the riffs slow down even further and introduce a dull bass and spoken word section that doesn't serve to make this any more "technical" to my ears. There are numerous superior bands that can satisfy the few criteria that Beneath the Massacre are striving for, but disappointingly this band seems to possess a comparatively high profile at the moment.
1. The Surface
2. Society's Disposable Son
3. The System's Failure
4. The Stench of Misery
5. Untitled
6. Modern Age Slavery
7. The Invisible Hand
8. Better Off Dead
9. Long Forgotten
10. Sleepless
Grind Bastard
****
Written on 15.02.08
Benediction are a death metal band originating from Birmingham, the hallowed home of heavy metal, and while 'Grind Bastard' is nothing particularly special, it's a fine slice of thrashy death metal that makes up in irresistibly catchy guitar riffs what it lacks in originality.
Guitarists Darren Brookes and Peter Rew have been the only consistent core of the band since its inauguration in the late eighties, and their dirty, loud riffs and rare but fine solos (especially notable in tracks three and four, despite being so short) keep this album compelling throughout its slightly lengthy hour-long playing time. Neil Hutton's drums are another excellent feature, crashing all over the kit in a typical grindcore fashion rather than more typical death metal blasting, and every song here is an enjoyable journey without being overly concerned with aggression or speed, as is the fault of much death metal.
While all of the songs are pretty good, it's the cover songs that tend to stand out, merely for being so well-known in their prior incarnations, as if the band is taking delight in bastardising others' works to the presumed distress of their fans. There's no need for concern, as the Twisted Sister cover is handled reasonably well as a slower offering, and though I haven't heard the original I can guarantee that I would enjoy this version more, merely for not spewing from the mouth and lacquered hair of Twisted Sister. The cover of fellow Brummies Judas Priest's classic 'Electric Eye' (including introductory guitar solo 'The Hellion') I can vouch for, and although it's inevitably inferior in this form as classic metal always tends to be when covered in a death fashion, it still has comparable energy to the original, despite lacking the coolness of the guitars and Rob Halford's screams.
The title song is overlong at seven minutes and features a bass solo in what seems like a desperate attempt to set it apart, and some like 'We the Freed' up the ante by approaching hardcore in their aggression. The other songs aren't all the same, but nevertheless there are few that end up standing out due to the quantity and repetitive styles; it's more a selection of riffs that will stay with the listener, more than is typical for death bands.
1. Deadfall
2. Agonised
3. West of Hell
4. Magnificat
5. Nervebomb
6. Electric Eye (Judas Priest cover)
7. Grind Bastard
8. Shadow World
9. The Bodiless
10. Carcinoma Angel
11. We the Freed
12. Destroyer (Twisted Sister cover)
13. I
Seasons of Tragedy
Nod to the Old School
****
Written on 15.02.08
The new album from San Diego's Benedictum is helping to keep the spirit of classic heavy metal alive, but at the same time takes enough influence from more recent power metal trends to keep if from sounding dated. The only times this band seems stuck in a time warp are the fun but daft unison yells of some of the choruses ('Dawn of Seasons') and of course, yet another cover of Accept's popular 'Balls to the Wall' that will satisfy old-timers more than new fans.
The most interesting and surprising element of this band is its female singer Veronica Freeman, who tries her best to disguise her femininity behind a raspy metal yell before throwing off the cloak in the softer songs 'Bare Bones' and 'Steel Rain,' and shocking the headbanging metalheads who would suddenly pretend that they were never really enjoying it, and knew it was a guy all along, before booing this chick off the stage meant for men. I hate heavy metal fans, they're such idiots. Pete Wells' guitars are as entertaining as should be expected for the genre, frequently indulging in overlong solos of the best kind and mainly relying on grooving riffs similar to early Anthrax, but the only unfortunate drawback here is that no matter how enjoyable the riffs are in songs like 'Beast in the Field,' they do partly serve to draw the listener's attention to the fact that it's now 2008, and the world is fast running out of original guitar melodies.
Chris Morgan's keyboards are generally restricted to the longer songs, particularly the grand finale of the eleven-minute title track, in order that the whole thing remains defined as classic heavy metal rather than power metal, which is how it ends up sounding in 'Beast in the Field' and 'Legacy,' the fastest and arguably best songs here. This isn't an album dedicated to original ideas in its reproduction of a thirty-year-old sound, but at the same time there are enough modern influences to keep it from sounding dated, and the female frontwoman is an interesting touch for not feeling like a cheap gimmick to appeal to the femme-metal fans, who are marginally more bigoted than the sexist blokes.
1. Dawn of Seasons
2. Shell Shock
3. Burn it Out
4. Bare Bones
5. Within the Solace
6. Beast in the Field
7. Legacy
8. Nobodies Victim
9. Balls to the Wall (Accept cover)
10. Steel Rain
11. Seasons of Tragedy
Advantages: Modern heavy metal in the classic style, without sounding dated.
Disadvantages: Nothing new here.
Animosity
Australian Earache
***
Written on 22.03.08
The Berzerker are among the most appropriate bands to grace Earache Records, but these Australians have as many detractors as they do supporters in the metal world, which is to be expected since they're something of a gimmick band. Berzerker's sound is characterised by the mix of generic death metal, played at an impossibly fast speed thanks to drummer Todd Hansen, with elements of techno that mostly fail to impress and only serve to weaken the effect, but with their most recent release 'Animosity' it seems that the band is finally starting to expand its repertoire beyond relentless drum blasts, unintelligible vocals and stolen guitars riffs. Though it is still mainly that.
At only twenty-eight minutes this is perhaps mercifully short, and although all ten tracks inevitably sound pretty much the same, it still made for a more palatable listen than I expected. Hansen's drums are obviously the major selling point to technical music fans, as he can hit that kit at a phenomenal speed (allegedly nineteen times per second), but for me this doesn't make for entertaining music. Indeed, at points where Hansen goes all-out - particularly for much of 'False Hope' - it merely sounds to me like the CD's skipping. He can play fast, but he never varies his performance one bit, reminiscent of the way guitar legend Michael Angelo Batio could noodle his way around an unnecessarily X-shaped guitar, but created music that was absolutely abominable (he was in the band Nitro, for god's sake).
The electronic elements are similarly unappealing, mainly manifesting themselves as a distracting fuzz above the rest of the music in the opening song and most of the later tracks, probably at its most irritating in 'Evolution' when backed up by those CD-skipping drum beats. The only song that really works in this way is 'The Cancer,' which still suffers from the same problems of incompatibility, but at least seems like effort and thought has been put in, a rarity for this band as you can imagine. Other songs differentiate themselves a little too self-consciously through slower riff sections before the inevitable slip back into the same old speed and aggression, and it would be a lot more impressive if these riffs didn't all sound like they'd been selected from the popular death metal canon.
There's a special edition version that comes with an extra 'Live in London' CD with about twenty tracks on it, if half an hour of brain-smashing, endlessly repetitive blast beats weren't enough to satisfy you. You are strange.
1. Eye for an Eye
2. Purgatory
3. False Hope
4. Evolution
5. No More Reasons
6. Retribution
7. The Cancer
8. Weapons of War
9. Heavily Medicated
10. Lonely World
Beto Vázquez Infinity
Femme-Metal Heaven
***
Written on 22.03.08
Beto Vázquez Infinity is the somewhat pompous name chosen by ex-Nepal bass and keyboard player Beto Vázquez to describe a band consisting of him, a couple of session members, and a bunch of famous vocalists from the world of symphonic power metal. This first release doesn't sound so much like an impressive and confident debut as a compilation of B-sides from the likes of Nightwish, Edenbridge, Rhapsody and Blackmore's Night, as it's the vocalists from these bands who pretty much dictate the way each song will end up sounding.
Thus, Tarja Turunen's impressive tenure across tracks 1, 2, 4, 10 and 11 causes those songs to take on a distinctly operatic flavour, most retaining the melodic rock background but some such as 'Sadness in the Night' going all the way to piano-driven, synthesised string orchestration. I've never been a big Nightwish fan, though I'm not averse to operatic vocals in bands with greater creativity (I bloody love Therion), but these songs never sound as impressive as even the least inventive Nightwish anthem from their later years.
Candice Night is next up, being given the customary duty of Medieval-styled folk revival rock type music exemplified by Blackmore's Night, which ends up sounding rather out of place amidst the melodic rock and spacey synthesisers of the surrounding songs here. The three-part 'Through Times' doesn't really convince as a trilogy, the first being a mere acoustic and flute introduction and the others being separated unnecessarily by the intervening songs, and 'Golden Hair' might as well be included as a fourth part - the same way every single Blackmore's Night song sounds the same.
Rhapsody's Fabio Lione puts in his usual reliable performance in 'The Battle of the Past,' a song that's very clearly trying to sound like Rhapsody in its fanfare-style keyboards and optimistic double bass drumming, but doesn't have the energy or force to really see it through, though fantasy metal geeks will probably still love it. I was similarly pleased to hear Vazquez go overboard on the spacey synthesisers in the opening of 'Until Dawn' and the self-explanatory instrumental 'Infinity Space,' bowing to Arjen Lucassen's work in Ayreon to some degree, but still sounding mighty fine if you're a complete nerd like me.
Meanwhile, Edenbridge's Sabine Edelsbacher performs a satisfactory but uninspired duet with Turunen on the dull fantasy narrative 'The Wizard' before the three ladies all get together to sing out the finale, which is a bit of an anticlimax. There's nothing truly original or distinctive about this album, but fans of female-fronted rock should find it a pleasant little collaboration with some esteemed alumni.
1. Until Dawn (Angels of Light)
2. Wizard
3. The Battle of the Past
4. Sadness in the Night
5. Through Times Part I (Instrumental)
6. Through Times Part II
7. Golden Hair
8. Infinity Space (Instrumental)
9. Through Times Part III
10. The Laws of the Future
11. Promises Under the Rain
Between the Buried and Me
The Silent Circus
**
Written on 19.02.08
Between the Buried and Me is an interesting band, particularly as their albums become increasingly refined as their career continues, as they gradually learn to overcome their faults. The band's main problem in these earlier releases is how jarring their diverse influences sound when juxtaposed in the same song, lacking any kind of coherent structure as they move from grindcore style riffs and deep guttural vocals one moment to melodic emo the next, without any of the style or class of melodic death metal which essentially does something pretty similar, but is somehow much better. I don't make the rules, but as a brainwashed metal fan, I follow them obediently.
'The Silent Circus' is a noticeable departure from its more death metal influenced predecessor, this style only showing up as late as 'Ad a Dglgmut,' while the rest is more in the tradition of grind and hardcore, most reminiscent of something like Dillinger Escape Plan. That said, Between the Buried and Me possess a sound all of their own, however shoddy it may be at times, leaping between extremes with very little in the way of a satisfying mix. It's songs that stick to a single style, such as the surprising acoustic 'Shevanel Take 2,' that end up working the best, but the band has cried wolf so many times that it's still hard to enjoy even these lighter songs without fear that they'll soon explode into an angsty roar, as happens the majority of the time.
1. Lost Perfection: a) Coulrophobia
2. Lost Perfection: b) Anablephobia
3. Camilla Rhodes
4. Mordecai
5. Reaction
6. Shevanel Take 2
7. Ad a Dglgmut
8. Destructo Spin
9. Aesthetic
10. The Need for Repetition / The Man Land
Between the Buried and Me
Alaska
***
Written on 19.02.08
'Alaska' is the first truly enjoyable album from this American progressive metalcore band, oddly solving the problem of chaotic inconsistency by bringing even more diverse styles into the mix. The new post-rock element, mainly confined to the instrumental 'Medicine Wheel' and 'Laser Speed,' would take over significantly in the future, and as a genre that routinely balances light and darkness, power and melody, its application works as a catalyst in bridging the gap between the heavier metal elements and more melodic singing. I can't believe I just used the word "catalyst."
It's impressive to see the band returning to its earlier ferocity, perhaps with even greater force than on the debut release with the melodic death metal style of 'All Bodies' and unadulterated aggression and speed of 'Croakies and Boatshoes.' Each style also tends to be sustained for longer, as the band starts to relent in its restless "mathcore" values, but once again the end of the album starts to slip somewhat - in this case, mainly in the form of attempted melodic death metal lead guitars that come off sounding pretty cheesy in 'The Primer' and even worse in 'Autodidact.'
The songs lengths have calmed down now, with fewer feeling overlong, and the band is finally in a position to be truly appreciated for its talents now that they're being applied more effectively.
1. All Bodies
2. Alaska
3. Croakies and Boatshoes
4. Selkies: The Endless Obsession
5. Breathe In, Breathe Out
6. Roboturner
7. Backwards Marathon
8. Medicine Wheel
9. The Primer
10. Autodidact
11. Laser Speed
Between the Buried and Me
Colors
***
Written on 19.02.08
It's satisfying to see a band evolve positively from a clashing melting pot of genres into a unit that manages to combine the best elements of their diverse influences, and 'Colors' is undoubtedly the finest album from Between the Buried and Me thus far. The singing is less whiney, and works alongside the heavier riffs whenever it's called for, rather than requiring its own special, remedial section elsewhere, and the greater influence of post-rock and classic prog rock once again helps to meld the other styles all together in a manner that works surprisingly well. No wonder it took the band so long to develop a successful formula.
The other aspect of this album that makes it stand out from the discography is the sheer length of some of the songs. Overlong tracks running out of steam was a problem that affected the first couple of albums especially, but here 'Ants of the Sky' tends more towards bland, tedious repetition (and includes Hammond organs, which earns immediate negative points), while 'White Walls' uses its fifteen minutes to explore the full spectrum of sound from brutal death metal to emo, in a manner that still doesn't sound right, no matter how skilfully it's executed.
This isn't an album for metalcore fans with short attention spans - which I'm guessing is most of them - but it's an effective album if you're in the right state of mind, and will likely appeal to those who enjoy the similarly drawn-out works of Tool. For me it's just a little too dull, the incorporation of classic prog being nothing I haven't heard before, and better, seeming more like a bandwagon-jumping thing after bands like Porcupine Tree and Opeth highlighted its potential for contemporary music over the last few years.
1. Foam Born: a) The Backtrack
2. Foam Born: (b) The Decade of Statues
3. Informal Gluttony
4. Sun of Nothing
5. Ants of the Sky
6. Prequel to the Sequel
7. Viridian
8. White Walls
Beyond Fear
Always the Bridesmaid, Never the Rock God
***
Written on 22.03.08
When a prominent vocalist departs a rock band, the replacement invariably has a difficult time winning over the established fans, and is subjected to much undue criticism when the band's profile fades from the limelight. While Black Sabbath were able to pull it off by replacing an increasingly unreliable Ozzy Osbourne with Ronnie James Dio and changing their style to suit his epic elf tone, others such as Iron Maiden and Judas Priest were less successful under their replacements. Blaze Bayley's gruffer tone helped steer Iron Maiden in a direction that many fans were unhappy with before he was eventually ejected and Bruce Dickinson made a triumphal return, but Rob Halford's decision to leave Judas Priest around the same time was met with a different response, as the band launched a search to find the closest thing they could to a direct replacement, eventually recruiting Tim Owens from a Judas Priest tribute band of all things.
Owens (affectionately known as "The Ripper" by the minority who had any affection for him) was a suitable replacement for Halford, and possessed a distinctive voice, even if it was clearly rooted in Halford's high wailing style. When Halford returned and the Ripper became freelance again, he made another fan base angry by replacing Matt Barlowe in Iced Earth for a couple of years, before fan pressure once again saw the perpetual substitute kicked back on the proverbial street. I'm aware that I'm mixing metaphors, let's just get on to the review, alright?
Beyond Fear is the Ripper's new band, and is predictably based in the classic heavy metal style, immediately comparable to Judas Priest or more specifically the other high-profile speed metal acts that have made a career over the last decade or so from basically re-working the 'Screaming for Vengeance' and 'Painkiller' albums in their own style. I'm talking about Primal Fear. The comparison is obvious but necessary, as every song on here sounds much like a Primal Fear release, or failing that, harks right back to Priest itself: 'Scream Machine' ends in a guitar solo that goes right back to seventies Priest, the near-ballad 'Your Time Has Come' can be similarly traced back to the classic 'Beyond the Realms of Death,' and even the songs that take on a more modern, dark and heavy variant of the classic metal style sound like they're taken from 'Jugulator,' the Ripper's first album as Judas Priest singer.
The band is competent, and is in fact pretty damn impressive in places, especially drummer Eric Elkins who performs powerfully on 'The Human Race' among others, though the slower songs do tend to feel painfully drawn-out (especially 'I Don't Need This'). The Ripper himself is as reliable as ever, though he's arguably already peaked in Iced Earth's 'Gettysburg' trilogy and only ever sounds like he's re-hashing that success to me. Beyond Fear is a band that can be easily enjoyed if you're a fan of old-school heavy metal performed in a new-school way, if that makes any sense, and with its screaming guitars, awful lyrics and high wailing vocals, it makes no apologies for giving the fans what they want. They may never be as good as modern Judas Priest, or even Primal Fear, but Beyond Fear are better than the average Judas Priest rip-off band playing in your local area. A bit.
1. Scream Machine
2. And... You Will Die
3. Save Me
4. The Human Race
5. Coming At You
6. Dreams Come True
7. Telling Lies
8. I Don't Need This
9. Words of Wisdom
10. My Last Words
11. Your Time Has Come
12. The Faith
Against the Elements
****
Written on 15.02.08
The debut release from American melodic death metal band Beyond the Embrace holds no surprises for anyone with even a fleeting knowledge of the genre basics, taking most of its cues from mid-nineties In Flames ('The Jester Race' and 'Whoracle' albums) but with more dominant sung vocals that are uncharacteristically impressive for a death metal vocalist. While it's a little disappointing that this band isn't striving to push the boundaries of melodic death in the way of some of their American contemporaries such as Arsis, there's something to be said for keeping the now-classic traditional spirit alive, especially in the face of this decade's metalcore trends that have corrupted the genre.
As expected, there's the usual mix between light, melodic lead guitars and harmonies indebted to classic metal (or rather, the early melodeath bands' takes on classic metal), with squealing solos and harmonies lying a little uncomfortably on top of harder backing riffs that would make death metal purists tear their hair out (and those guys have a lot of hair). The more obvious In Flames influence can be seen in the acoustic sections of the instrumental 'Drowning Sun' and the finale of 'Release,' but it isn't direct plagiarism as much as a devoted imitation of style, and Shawn Gallagher (presumably no relation) makes the whole thing stand out from the crowd with his thrash-inspired clean vocals, sharing roughly half of the limelight with his more standard death growl.
As I said, there's nothing truly creative or exciting about this band, but it's another decent entry into the melodeath canon for the US market, and one that will hopefully aid in the quest to exterminate the metalcore infestation. No matter, it'll probably run out of steam some time soon. My biggest disappointment here is that 'The Riddle of Steel,' although an interesting, extended instrumental, wasn't a death metal cover of Basil Poledouris' theme from 'Conan the Barbarian.' That would have been great.
1. Bastard Screams
2. Mourning in Magenta
3. Compass
4. Rapture
5. Drowning Sun
6. Against the Elements
7. Release
8. The Bending
9. Embers Astray
10. The Riddle of Steel
Pussy Whipped
Enter the Riot Grrrls
***
Written on 22.03.08
Bikini Kill were a prominent band in the so-called "riot grrrl" movement of the early nineties, mixing third-wave feminism with punk rock. I know, a pretty terrifying concept. 'Pussy Whipped' would eventually become their first full-length album, after a number of cassette demos and shorter releases, and its assault of short and sharp feminist punk... or whatever it is, clearly owes much of its sound to contemporary grunge, particularly Nirvana.
Kathleen Hanna's vocals are predominantly based in a female punk yell, but frequently cross over into lighter singing, though never in an attempt to reach a wider market as many female-fronted "punk" bands despicably attempt. This is loyal and committed punk through and through, which also means it's satisfyingly poor on occasion, with the emphasis being placed on the emotional outburst rather than technical accomplishment. That said, there are still plenty of touches that make certain songs stand out, from the bass-driven 'Magnet' and 'Star Fish' to the explosive 'Speed Heart' and 'Hamster Baby' and the thoughtful closing instrumental 'For Tammy Rae,' the only song to overstep the three-minute mark.
This won't appeal to everyone, especially if you're averse to angry punk or yelling girls, but the latter only presents a real problem on the occasions that the band deliberately go for an irritating schoolgirl whine. The guitar is consistently interesting throughout, from the grunge drone of 'Blood One' to the obtuse wrong notes of 'Speed Heart' and the very Nirvana-esque 'Star Bellied Boy,' proving that this wasn't just a group of angry feminists using the underground rock stage to spread their message. It was mainly that, but not only that.
1. Blood One
2. Alien She
3. Magnet
4. Speed Heart
5. Lil Red
6. Tell Me So
7. Sugar
8. Star Bellied Boy
9. Hamster Baby
10. Rebel Girl
11. Star Fish
12. For Tammy Rae
Rejects All American
No Backrub For You
**
Written on 22.03.08
'Reject All American' was Bikini Kill's last album before the riot grrrls disbanded in 1998, and it disappointingly heads into the very directions that I'd been delighted to see completely absent on the previous album. While it's debatable whether or not they sold out, the inclusion of what are essentially soft pop-rock songs on here, using a soft female singing style rather than the standard yell, are only the worst symptom of an album full of such nods to the mainstream, generally toning down its aggression and arrogance in favour of a clean and polished punk tone more suited to MTV.
Right from the onset, it's disconcerting to see Bikini Kill flaunting their female image with annoyingly playful "na na na" backing vocals over Nirvana plagiarism riffs, and I'm still not entirely sure whether they're being deliberately irritating, or if that's just the way it came out. The majority of the album is still enjoyable, even if it pales in comparison to their earlier, more hostile work, with enjoyable melodic guitars in 'Jet Ski' and 'Tony Randall' making those songs stand out, but others comparably lacking in direction. 'R.I.P.' just seems far too long at three and a half minutes (considering their former average was just under two), and even when the energy finally returns in 'No Backrub,' it's soon dispelled again, before the last couple of songs attempt to win the fans back.
The most offensive tracks here, from a punk point of view (certainly not from a mainstream point of view which would find them greatly preferable), are 'False Start' and 'For Only.' Lacking any kindof punk credibility at all, these are light pop songs that see Kathleen Hanna singing softly over bland backing instrumentation, in performances that wouldn't be out of place in that TV-friendly-rock bar in 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer.'
1. Statement of Vindication
2. Capri Pants
3. Jet Ski
4. Distinct Complicity
5. False Start
6. R.I.P.
7. No Backrub
8. Bloody Ice Cream
9. For Only
10. Tony Randall
11. Reject All American
12. Finale
The Singles
Anti-Pleasure Dissertation
***
Written on 23.03.08
At only seventeen minutes and nine tracks in length, there's no way that this posthumous singles collection should be considered an essential purchase, but it does catch Bikini Kill at their very best, before later works veered towards the mainstream market. Whether or not this is genuinely a collection of singles or just some sort of ironic joke I couldn't say (though the band did find relative fame in later years, so the former is likely), but the quality is consistently high throughout.
The vocals and guitar share the limelight equally here, even if it's the singing that will catch most peoples' attention (blow me tight, it's a girl singing punk rock!), and songs like 'New Radio' and 'Rebel Girl' demonstrate the guitar's ability even when the vocals aren't quite up to the same level - the drums in the latter song are particularly dull, merely slapping slowly throughout its duration. 'In Accordance to Natural Law' and 'Rah! Rah! Replica' are short outbursts of speed and aggression that work very well, even if thirty seconds and fifty-nine seconds apiece arguably don't count as actual songs, but placed elsewhere these could make very good intro tracks.
'Strawberry Julius,' 'I Like F**king' and 'I Hate Danger' are all good punk songs that use the band's feminine status to their advantage, particularly in the mix of yelling and singing vocals, and the latter even harks back to the classic punk tradition. 'Anti-Pleasure Dissertation' is a lighter and more melodic offering, though not to the extent of the disappointing pop songs on the 'Reject All-American' release, and uses softer singing to supplement the aggression rather than wimping out entirely.
There's only really one part of the album that I don't like, namely the stupid hand-clap game skit type opening thing that takes far too much time in 'Demirep,' but I can't rate this album any higher than three stars purely because it's so short.
1. New Radio
2. Rebel Girl
3. Demirep
4. In Accordance to Natural Law
5. Strawberry Julius
6. Anti-Pleasure Dissertation
7. Rah! Rah! Replica
8. I Like F**king
9. I Hate Danger
Suckpump
**
Written on 15.02.08
Bile is an appropriately named New York industrial band that seems principally concerned with creating unsettling but catchy atmospheres, with more than a little influence from Nine Inch Nails and the other industrial bands that rose in prominence around the time the film 'The Crow' was released. This means that the sound can be a little too easily dated to the mid-nineties, but the early Bile releases are worthy competitors to the big-name acts of the time, conveying a more convincingly disturbed listening experience even if the frequent interruptions of catchy electronic rhythms aimed at the underground club market are quite distracting.
All of the usual elements are here, from distorted samples of random television shows and public service announcements to repetitive guitar riffs and drum rhythms with discordant synthesiser stuff all over the place. Krztoff's vocals are processed through some electronic gizmo or other and range from whispers to oppressive yelling depending on context, and anyone who enjoys Ministry, Nine Inch Nails or even White Zombie will be able to appreciate the (slightly) more commercially-oriented stuff like 'I Reject,' 'Feeling Like S**t' and the overly repetitive 'Get Out,' the radio edit of which is basically an inferior version of the same thing to bulk out the tracklist.
For the more hardcore fans of the genre, the title track and 'Burnt' offer dark ambience that's bound to make any children within earshot cry, but these tend to be on the long side, and elsewhere the album suffers from an overly processed sound all-round (especially to the clinical drum beats), lazy sound effects (there's a flushing toilet in 'I Reject') and, in the case of 'Ura F**king Loser' especially, really bad lyrics. Even the samples feel quite clichéd and don't have the same attitude of obscurity as many similar bands, the anti-LSD propaganda report quoted in 'Burnt' having appeared in numerous electronic albums I've heard over the years, most notably Porcupine Tree's 'Voyage 34' from earlier in the decade that bases its entire concept around it. This feels like a slightly confused mix of dark ambience and catchy rhythms that would only have gained any popularity during the brief period when industrial was cool.
1. Head
2. Burnt
3. Ura F**king Loser
4. I Reject
5. Feeling Like S**t
6. Get Out
7. Suckpump
8. Get Out (Radio edit)
Teknowhore
***
Written on 15.02.08
Bile's second album is a more mature and coherent effort than its predecessor, as Krztoff makes a conscious decision to aim more towards unsettling dark ambience propelled by electronic rhythms to keep this a viable option in underground clubs... with a couple of very clear exceptions such as the jarring 'Green Day' that sounds exactly like a Placebo song, right down to the nasal tone of the singing that replaces Krztoff's typical distorted roar.
The problem with targeting this more specific industrial market is that the songs lose some of the appeal they would otherwise have to the casual listener, which is probably the reason for the contrived singles. Songs tend to be overlong and repetitive to a fault, unless you're into the atmosphere of course, with electronic white noise being harder to pin down, particularly in 'Weather Control' and the non-ish 'Suckers.'
On the other hand, there are still some traditional industrial rock offerings complete with the ever-popular duet of hard guitar riffs and buzzsaw imitation synthesisers , making the shorter 'Teknowhore,' 'Habitual Sphere' and 'Compound Pressure' more refined examples of the sound that dominated the previous album, even if they invite inevitable comparisons to Nine Inch Nails (and Marilyn Manson when he's ripping off Nine Inch Nails in the future, which was the only time Manson was any good anyway - no real need for that rant here, but it's in brackets so it can merely count as additional information not entirely related to the main body).
The oddest and most interesting aspect of the tracklist for fans of more experimental music is the merging of the later tracks into an overarching 'You Can't Love This' suite, but sadly in reality it's less of an extended industrial epic and more like two solid industrial rock songs (parts two and four) connected by two inconsequential, ethereal interludes. It makes for a good ending to the album, before braver listeners plunge into the torturously slow agony of 'Solitude is Bliss,' but my main reaction at the album's conclusion was slight disappointment at boredom at its overlong duration. Disappointingly, I didn't even feel sick.
1. Intro
2. Teknowhore
3. Weather Control
4. No One I Call Friend
5. Habitual Sphere
6. Compound Pressure
7. Interstate Hate Song
8. Green Day
9. No I Don't Know
10. Suckers
11. Lowest Form
12. You Can't Love This (Pt. 1)
13. You Can't Love This (Pt. 2)
14. You Can't Love This (Pt. 3)
15. You Can't Love This (Pt. 4)
16. Solitude is Bliss
Biledegradable
**
Written on 15.02.08
'Biledregadable' is technically an E.P., but its substantial length and incorporation of the previous 'The Darkbeat E.P.' as its second half makes it more of a compilation, though certainly nothing approaching the level of a full studio album. The music here is an assortment of weird covers (Krztoff's industrial take on The Who's 'My Generation' is unrecognisable apart from the chorus), dark ambience and overlong, underground club themes, and it's something I would only recommend to serious fans of late nineties industrial rock rather than casual listeners who merely fancy trying something a little daring to increase their alternative street cred, who should stick with the more accessible industrial offerings of 'The Matrix' soundtrack.
'My Generation' isn't a particularly good cover, certainly not one that merits being played twice, especially as the "original intro" version is exactly the same but with - that's right - a slightly different intro. Nevertheless, the louder and more upbeat style of this song makes it one of the most immediately enjoyable here along with the superior 'Fascion,' a guitar-based song with catchy verses that benefits from the primitive atmosphere evoked by the demo sound quality, making it the best song here by far.
The others tend more towards dark ambience, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but they aren't particularly fine examples of it; 'Rubber Love' and 'Degradable' are fairly typical B-sides, and the two closing tracks from 'The Darkbeat E.P.' are essentially extended versions of the kind of generic thing you might hear if a movie character walked into an unconvincing underground rave club. I prefer it when Bile stick to their name and make music that's satisfyingly repulsive rather than merely tedious.
1. My Generation
2. Rubber Love
3. Degradable
4. Fascion (demo)
5. My Generation (original intro)
6. The Phantom God
7. Planet Weather Control
Sex Reflex
**
Written on 15.02.08
Bile's first album of the new millennium sees the band (or more appropriately its songwriter and only consistent member Krztoff) opting for a more mainstream take on their industrial style that mostly abandons the dark ambient leanings that worked to mixed success in previous releases. Due to the state of the "industrial rock" scene at the time, speaking in very broad terms, this means that the more radio-oriented songs like 'World War Four,' 'Betty Page' and 'There Is No You and Me' have something of Marilyn Manson about them, around his 'Antichrist Superstar' / Trent Reznor wannabe phase, while Nine Inch Nails itself forms the basis for some of the darker and more considered offerings such as 'When the Dead Come Home.'
While it's disappointing to see Krztoff take such a bland, mainstream approach, there are still elements of this album to appeal to long-time fans, not accounting for tastes of the general consumer. 'To Belong, My New Uniform' and 'It'll Never Happen to Me' are both overly long and weird, while a bunch of songs - namely 'Sex Reflex,' 'In League,' 'Double Fang' and 'Relix' - are more refined and progressive to the point that they seem to mimic the style of Devin Townsend's work, though of those, only the title track (and by consequence, its almost identical remix) really lives up to the tribute, featuring a stronger guitar presence. I've no doubt that the 'Sex Reflex' album will have more appeal to the average mainstream rock fan than Krztoff's more intense work, but those looking for experimental industrial will be disappointed.
1. World War Four
2. Betty Page
3. Wet Dream
4. Sex Reflex
5. There Is No You and Me
6. To Belong, My New Uniform
7. In League
8. Double Fang
9. Vampyre Hunter K
10. When the Dead Come Home
11. It'll Never Happen to Me
12. Relix
13. The Hunger, the Feeding, the Afterglow
14. Rock is Dead (In Bed)
15. Sex Reflex (Un-lubed, Red and Raw mix)
Nightmare Before Krztoff
**
Written on 15.02.08
'Nightmare Before Krztoff' is an interesting and considerate release from Bile's Krztoff, which seems to be intended as supplementary to his band's primary canon of works. Rather than a mere collection of B-sides and off-cuts, these songs were mostly composed for the preceding 'Sex Reflex' album, but were deemed not to suit its more mainstream direction, and are thus inevitably all the more appealing to those like me, whose brains and aural taste-buds are wired incorrectly from those of the general public. But who is really wrong? A: It is me, clearly.
In fact, the songs here aren't necessarily more obscure or less approachable, but are mostly longer, more downbeat and more experimental, albeit in a way pretty much entirely derivative of acts like Ministry and Nine Inch Nails. 'The Serial Killer Blues' and 'Love Stinks' bookend the album in a more accessible fashion that ends up sounding like mellow Marilyn Manson, but the rest has much to offer for more seasoned fans of the genre, 'In My Eye' sounding like grunge-industrial if such a thing exists, and the more intricate and discordant trio 'The Day the Aliens Landed,' 'Death Buzz Lust' and 'Venom on My Breath' being comparable to Ministry's best work.
There's an odd but enjoyable central section of the album that seems aimed towards mass appeal without "selling out," increasingly exponentially from the atmospheric 'Melas Chasm' through to 'You Don't Turn Me On' and its ultimate expression in the soft 'Submission,' but this is all counteracted by the frankly weird as hell 'Dr. Quogue's Methodone Reducer,' which only those with extensive field experience in the industrial realm will really be able to appreciate, and went right over my head. While this is less instantly approachable than 'Sex Reflex,' which also scored in terms of its sex appeal title, it's the superior album of the pair, and not as self-indulgent as you might expect from a record that even features the guy's name (perhaps not his real name).
1. The Serial Killer Blues
2. In My Eye
3. Melas Chasm
4. You Don't Turn Me On
5. Submission
6. The Day the Aliens Landed
7. Death Buzz Lust
8. Venom on My Breath
9. Extremities
10. Dr. Quogue's Methodone Reducer
11. Love Stinks (The J. Geils Band cover)
Copy Machine
**
Written on 16.02.08
As a collection of covers performed in an industrial rock style, this album isn't only poorly conceived, but it's downright lazy as well. Not only does it allow Krztoff to make some money off the backs of other artists' work (only a little money admittedly, as this stuff isn't exactly a big seller), but as some of the material has been around for at least a few years and has frequently appeared on earlier releases, would it really have taken an enormous effort to include more than nine songs?
Despite his usual flair for the genre, Krztoff really brings very little to these covers, the sole exception being the Who's 'My Generation' which is messed around with to reflect a much darker tone and is largely unrecognisable, but even this was previously available as the leading track from the 'Biledegradable' E.P. The rest are predictable and uninventive re-hashes of commercial rock and mellow pop songs performed in a style that's more reminiscent of Marilyn Manson's own covers than anything, which should give you some idea as to the quality you can expect from this release.
Grinding guitars and irritating keyboards are the key players here in reminding of the much better sounds of the original performances, and it's only Krztoff's vocals that impress to any degree in his takes on Alice Cooper, Mike Patton, Kurt Cobain and even Gary Glitter. It's fortunate that most of the songs are based in catchy rock, as this at least prevents the listening experience from being too boring, but the sound does become incredibly samey, especially in the more inherently repetitive songs like 'Do You Wanna Touch Me There' and 'Creep.' I'm never really a fan of cover albums, unless they take a radically different and enlightening view of the earlier material that earns them the right to exist as separate entities. This doesn't.
1. Clones (We're All) (Alice Cooper cover)
2. Do You Wanna Touch Me There (Oh Yeah) (Gary Glitter cover)
3. Love Stinks (J. Geils Band cover)
4. We Got the Beat (The Go-Go's cover)
5. My Generation (The Who cover)
6. Midlife Crisis (Faith No More cover)
7. Scentless Apprentice (Nirvana cover)
8. Not to Touch the Earth (The Doors cover)
9. Creep (Black from the Dead cover)
Urban Discipline
****
Written on 16.02.08
Biohazard's second album was their debut on heavy metal label Roadrunner Records, bringing the band greater attention to the point that they felt the need to reproduce some of their earlier material in case anyone didn't hear it the first time. It's quite revealing that the songs chosen - 'Wrong Side of the Tracks' and 'Hold My Own' - were the most hip hop-influenced of the previous release, as it seems that the band was struggling slightly to incorporate those elements more successfully into their new songs, which display a greater fondness for hardcore punk and thrash metal that I can't help but be more fond of, even if it isn't quite what the fans were after.
The rap influence feels more natural than on the debut, mostly evident in the drums but also in the verse styles that frequently display a hip hop mentality (as in 'Business') or full-on rap delivery from Evan Seinfeld and Billy Graziadei in 'Chamber Spins Three,' 'Disease' and 'Mistaken Identity.' The best thing about this fusion is how well both sides hold up, as the rapped songs tend to feature the heaviest and most metal-influenced riffs almost as an apology, or an attempt to preserve the yin-yang of the cosmos, 'Disease' even starting out sounding like Black Sabbath.
The other, more prominent direction of this varied album is the hardcore punk that works excellently and is enormously enjoyable, even if you couldn't care less about the social consciousness of the lyrics. The songs are all convincingly angry, and the only time something misleadingly optimistic arrives is in 'We're Only Gonna Die (From Our Own Arrogance),' merely for sounding so much like classic punk of the late seventies. As usual there are a couple of obscure elements thrown in to diversify the album in a slightly forced manner that it didn't really need considering its existing variety, but I can't argue with the gloomy acoustic and singing that opens 'Loss' or the Egyptian-sounding guitar solo of 'Punishment' that's endearingly pointless.
1. Chamber Spins Three
2. Punishment
3. Shades of Grey
4. Business
5. Black and White and Red All Over
6. Man With a Promise
7. Disease
8. Urban Discipline
9. Loss
10. Wrong Side of the Tracks
11. Mistaken Identity
12. We're Only Gonna Die (From Our Own Arrogance)
13. Tears of Blood
14. Hold My Own
State of the World Address
***
Written on 16.02.08
Opening with the self-important declaration "It's the State of the World Address, motherf--" it was immediately obvious that Biohazard's third album wasn't going to be entirely my cup of tea. On the positive side, there's an increase in the thrash metal influence that comes along with the greater rap elements, and the whole thing is a lot more successfully fused than previously, properly defining the band's sound for the first time. On the negative side, this really isn't an album for those who dislike hip hop in general, as a guest performance from the guy from Cypress Hill who opens 'Tales from the Hard Side' by declaring that he is indeed the guy from Cypress Hill, not to mention the similarly overlong rap intro of 'Five Blocks to the Subway,' only end up reminding me of some of the reasons I've never enjoyed hip hop, which is weird as I expected its influence here to be more from the heart.
The best songs for rock fans are the heavier offerings such as 'Down for Life' and 'What Makes Us Tick,' which respectively remind of eighties thrash bands Anthrax and Testament, and are excellent fusions of punk-thrash. The hip hop drums sit nicely alongside the lead guitars to make songs like 'How It Is' and 'Five Blocks to the Subway' enjoyable outside of the mindless rap declarations, and there are even a couple of songs that attempt something different and push the envelope of previous attempts-to-be-something-different; 'Each Day' opens with an acoustic guitar, as is customary for one song from each album, but is joined by unprecedented synthetic orchestra. More worrying is 'Love Denied,' which threatens to be a power ballad for an unnervingly long time before relenting and delivering another heavy offering.
It's easy to see Biohazard's confidence, talent and recognition grow with each of these early releases, but to be honest I preferred the more scattered sound of the previous album.
1. State of the World Address
2. Down for Life
3. What Makes Us Tick
4. Tales from the Hard Side
5. How It Is
6. Remember
7. Five Blocks to the Subway
8. Each Day
9. Failed Territory
10. Lack There Of
11. Pride
12. Human Animal
13. Cornered
14. Love Denied
Junk Yard
Welcome to My Car Smash
****
Written on 23.03.08
'Junkyard' is the third album from Australian post-punk rockers The Birthday Party, and it's certainly the most drugged-up album I've heard in a long time. Nick Cave croons and screams in an endlessly repetitive, often schizophrenic style while Rowland S. Howard occasionally forgets he's supposed to be playing guitar at all. The end result is confused, somewhat disturbed, and much fun.
I suppose the main problem with this album is that it probably requires the listener to be in a similar state to the performers in order to really appreciate it, as much of it just sounds tedious and samey to me, especially songs like 'She's Hit' that seem to go on forever. The country influence is interesting, and never permitted to usurp the dark post-punk style, while the energy is kept up by every other song featuring a screamed outburst from Cave for pretty much its entire duration, most prominent in the mania of 'Blast Off,' 'Big Jesus Trash Can' and the two versions of 'Dead Joe,' the second being more of a continuation than an alternate take. After repeating the choruses ad nauseam for several minutes, Cave eventually stops bothering to enunciate the individual words altogether.
With its screamed vocals, painful dustbin drums and hammering attitude, this is an album that could easily cross over in appeal to fans of many extreme music genres, and certainly doesn't have the same bouncy commercial quality as other post-punk bands of the era such as the Boomtown Rats.
1. Blast Off
2. She's Hit
3. Dead Joe
4. The Dim Locator
5. Hamlet (Pow, Pow, Pow)
6. Several Sins
7. Big Jesus Trash Can
8. Kiss Me Black
9. 6" Gold Blade
10. Kewpie Doll
11. Junkyard
12. Dead Joe (2nd version)
13. Release the Bats
Bad Astronaut - Acrophobe ***
Bad Religion - How Can Hell Be Any Worse ***
Bad Religion - Into the Unknown *
Bad Religion - Back to the Known ****
Bad Religion - Suffer *****
Bad Religion - Against the Grain ****
Bad Religion - Recipe for Hate ***
Bad Religion - No Substance ****
Bal-Sagoth - A Black Moon Broods Over Lemuria ****
Banco del mutuo soccorso - Io sono nato libero ***
Bathory - Blood Fire Death *****
Bathory - Destroyer of Worlds ***
Bathory - Nordland I *****
Bathory - Nordland II *****
Batmobile - Bambooland **
Batmobile - Bail Was Set at $6,000,000 **
Batmobile - Blasts from the Past ***
Franco Battio - Il Vuoto ***
Battlelore - Where the Shadows Lie **
Battlelore - Third Age of the Sun **
Battlelore - Evernight **
Bauhaus - Mask ***
Jeff Beck - You Had It Coming **
Jeff Beck - Jeff **
Jason Becker - The Blackberry Jams **
Beheaded - Resurgence of Oblivion ***
Behemoth - Satanica ***
Beherit - The Oath of Black Blood **
Adrian Belew - Mr. Music Head **
Adrian Belew - Desire of the Rhino King ***
Adrian Belew - Inner Revolution **
Adrian Belew - The Acoustic Adrian Belew Vol. 1 *
Bella Morte - Bleed the Grey Sky Black ****
Between the Buried and Me - Between the Buried and Me **
Beyond the Embrace - Insect Song ***
Beyond the Sixth Seal - Earth and Sphere **
Bile - Demonic Electronic ***
Biohazard - Biohazard ***
Biohazard - Mata Leao ***
Biohazard - No Holds Barred: Live in Europe ***
Biohazard - New World Disorder **
Biohazard - Tales from the B-Side ***
Biohazard - Uncivilization **
Biohazard - Kill or Be Killed **
Biohazard - Means to an End **
