Ten-years-ago Dave stubbornly persists with the entire Cannibal Corpse discography, assuming it must get better or at least have a different song at some point. I was getting lazier now, not bothering with the pun titles any more, barely exceeding the minimum word count and sticking to the repetitive metal I was bored with because I knew the context and the terminology, so didn't have to learn and experience interesting new things.
Meanwhile, teenage Dave underrates the Cure's masterpiece, preferring his goths to squawk unintelligible vampire poetry, and student Dave enters a crazy world. Reviews of albums from bands beginning with C, written for dooyoo.co.uk from 2004–2008.
C
Go Off!
***
Written on 05.04.08
Cacophony's second and final album is a disappointment after the high quality of its predecessor, primarily for trading in most of its thrash and speed metal sound in favour of a more classic metal/rock direction in the standard songs. This serves to make it a little more enticing to casual listeners, but compromises its artistic integrity. On this album, it feels very obvious that the choruses are only there to draw in wary listeners before they're hit in the face by Marty Friedman and Jason Becker's guitar performance, and this makes for a less honest and less balanced album on the whole.
Peter Marino's vocals are still a high point, but he's mostly used to carry dull, over-repetitive choruses here rather than anything more interesting. Friedman and Becker's riffs are catchy but unmemorable in the early songs before finally starting to make their presence felt in the central section of 'Stranger' and then taking over for the title song, but even their duet sounds tame compared to the speed and intensity of the previous album. 'Images' interestingly favours melody, while 'Black Cat' features mad solos that sound like a video game of the time, but overall this album isn't really going to satisfy anyone to a large amount.
Guitar fans will find it lacking, while casual listeners will be turned off by the shred sections, but it's still a little better than the average shred album. There's more self-control than Michael Angelo Batio, more authentic rock than Yngwie Malmsteen, and it's just plain better than Axel Rudi Pell.
1. X-Ray Eyes
2. E.S.P.
3. Stranger
4. Go Off!
5. Black Cat
6. Sword of the Warrior
7. Floating World
8. Images
Cadaveria
The Shadow's Madame
***
Written on 05.04.08
Cadaveria is the sort-of solo project of singer Cadaveria, after she and drummer Flegias departed Italian symphonic black metal band Opera IX. It's a solo album in the way many solo albums aren't, in that she performs the adequate vocals while it's left up to an overlooked band of more talented performers to carry her along and actually make anything interesting out of it, which thankfully they achieve.
Opera IX's symphonic style meant that they were never one of the more authentic black metal bands, and this departure only increases the divide. While Cadaveria's vocals are mostly rooted in a harsh rasp, and Flegias still unleashes blast beats on occasion, this could only be termed black metal by those who consider Cradle of Filth or modern Dimmu Borgir to be black metal, and it unashamedly aims for a similar audience.
The main issue with this debut album is Cadaveria's performance, which is a bit of a shame as that's obviously the thing it's striving to highlight the most. While her rasp is inoffensive, it doesn't have a particular character of its own, certainly nothing that merits naming a band after her, but she performs extensive portions of the album in a more palatable singing style (especially later in 'Spell' and throughout 'Declaration of Spiritual Independence' and 'Black Glory'), and commendably doesn't try to aim for anything too self-consciously feminine.
There are metal fans out there who find a female singer to be reason enough to track a band down, which I consider pretty ridiculous as it should be more about the overall sound rather than the gender of the person behind the microphone. This is a distinctly average album on all counts, led by Frank Booth's enjoyable but uninspired riffs that mostly maintain a steady rhythm, but one that I find all the more satisfying for not trying to flaunt the female singer. At least, not to the extent of its successors.
1. Spell
2. Declaration of Spiritual Independence
3. In Memory of Shadows' Madame
4. Circle of Eternal Becoming
5. The Magic Rebirth
6. Black Glory
7. Absolute Vacuum
Cadaveria
Far Away from Conformity
***
Written on 05.04.08
The second "solo" album from Italian singer Cadaveria leaves behind most of its pretensions to black metal, instead favouring a more classic, doom-laden metal style now that guitarist Frank Booth has been properly integrated into the Opera IX alumni. This blackened doom style is most evident in the slow riffs that keep most songs compelling but do become rather stale after a while, and the greatest disappointment comes when Booth starts ripping off his own riffs in later songs.
The most noticeable change from the first album is that Cadaveria now sings for all she's worth, using a high singing voice that's surprisingly good, considering how well she strove to hide it in the raspy style of her previous band. Whether this was a decision made due to the newfound popularity of female-fronted metal acts in 2004, or simply natural evolution, I couldn't say, but the cynic that makes up quite a large part of me is practically convinced that it's the former.
'Far Away From Conformity' is nevertheless an entertaining album, one that's all the better for Cadaveria's sung performances, but one that's mainly hindered by the repetition of the riffs. The early songs are kept relatively distinct, with melodic sections breaking up 'Blood and Confusion' into an enjoyably diverse opener, 'Eleven Three O Three' following a slower, more doomy approach and 'The Divine Rapture' attempting to tie all of the previous styles together in a manner that almost works, but is a little long, but after this point the staccato riffs become tiresome and it's only the simple pleasure of 'Prayer of Sorrow' that holds up the latter half.
1. Blood and Confusion
2. Eleven Three O Three
3. Irreverent Elegy
4. The Divine Rapture
5. Omen of Delirium
6. Call Me (Blondie Cover)
7. Out Body Experience
8. Prayer of Sorrow
9. Vox of Anti-Time
Cadaveria
In Your Blood
**
Written on 06.04.08
Perhaps as an inevitable consequence of the female-fronted metal boom that saw distinctly average bands such as Nightwish and Arch Enemy become the biggest sellers in their respective genres merely because the singers have bosoms, Italian singer Cadaveria and her support band decided to chance their arm, and the result was last year's 'In Your Blood.'
Cadaveria was once a black metal singer, but to call this black metal would be like calling modern Cradle of Filth black metal... which a distressingly high number of people still do, I suppose. This is essentially groove-laden nu metal that attempts to make the most of the popular metal genres in order to produce something to appeal to the average angsty teen reader of 'Kerrang!' magazine, rather than anything to satisfy fans of more extreme or inventive acts.
Taken in this commercially-aware context, this is actually a lot better than most mainstream metal albums, but its greatest failure is that every song ends up sounding exactly the same. Cadaveria growls and sings over Frank Booth's steady, samey riffs and Flegias' machine gun outbursts from the drum kit, without the speed ever exceeding a medium tempo crawl. Booth takes some obvious inspiration from late Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell (not to speak ill of the dead or anything, but Dimebag's almost as overrated as Zakk Wylde), and the attempts to introduce melodic elements in the form of lead guitars in 'Queen of Forgotten' and flowery keyboards in 'The Dream' draw far too much attention to themselves. In fact, 'The Dream' is so desperately contrived as a single, it's almost embarrassing.
1. 100,000 Faces
2. The Dream
3. Anagram
4. Memento Audere Semper
5. Laying in Black
6. Queen of Forgotten
7. Exorcism to Chaos
8. Uneven Like Clouds
9. Before the Apes Came
10. Virtual Escape from Tragedy
11. Atypical Suggestions by a Dead Artist
12. Enlightened
Callenish Circle
Graceful... Yet Forbidding
****
Written on 04.08
On the surface, Callenish Circle seems to be just another routine melodic death metal band playing the style defined by the likes of In Flames, Dark Tranquillity and At the Gates in the mid-nineties, but 'Graceful... Yet Forbidding' has a lot to offer for fans of the genre who, quite justly, expect to have heard it all.
There's nothing groundbreaking here, but the guitar performance of Ronny Tyssen and Jos Evers is fairly exceptional, without going overboard and indulgent. Led by deep, heavy riffs that know when to evolve and when to repeat the same great melodic lines, these songs have a more resonant and even slightly more depressive quality than most melodic death metal, which tends to concern itself with an expression of aggression. Like the work of Opeth and October Tide, this is more carefully considered and emotive music, even if the harsh vocals and clichéd 1980s guitar solos may take a little getting used to.
Patrick Savelkoul's vocals are relatively standard and don't do anything to impress here, growling along without the need for oppressive rasps or clean singing that would impede the effect, while Gavin Harte's drums keep everything grounded in death metal, even during the slower songs. Even Roland Schuschke's bass is an important ingredient, fleshed out by the high production values and working excellently against the melodic guitars. Finally, guest keyboardist Bram Kortooms (if that's his real name, I'm pretty impressed and wish it was mine) makes his presence felt in the finale 'Alone...' without getting in the way elsewhere.
1. No Reason
2. Forgotten
3. Inner Battle
4. Beyond...
5. Broken
6. Oppressed Natives
7. Silent Tears
8. Passionate Dance
9. Caught By Deceit
10. Shadows of the Past
11. Alone...
Callenish Circle
Flesh-Power-Dominion
***
Written on 04.08
'Flesh Power Dominion' is a disappointing move away from Callenish Circle's previous amalgamation of melodic death metal stylings towards a harsher sound more directly traceable to At the Gates, specifically their landmark (albeit enormously overrated) 'Slaughter of the Soul' release. The music here is faster and more aggressive than it was on the appropriately titled 'Graceful... Yet Forbidding,' and in a decade when new At the Gates clones were springing up at an unstoppable pace, some even taking the horrendous plunge into metalcore, it wasn't a change of direction I was particularly delighted to hear.
The band is still as talented as ever, led by the guitar duo of Ronny Tyssen and Jos Evers, but the overall structure is less compelling and much more predictable. The melodic lines still don't feel forced as they do with some other bands, but songs do tend to throw in changes of pace and direction out of nowhere, which works more as a stumbling device than an effective example of progression. 'Take Me Along' has an appropriate name, considering it's led by a repeating melodic guitar line that works well but does get repetitive towards the end, while the album still contains enough variation in the form of the slower and more atmospheric 'Bleeding' before exactly the same thing is repeated to less effect as 'Suffer My Disbelief.'
The biggest mistaken the band made on this album was covering a song by Death, the original and definitive death metal band. Although the cover is very well executed, its ferocity and heaviness only serve to make the rest of the album's similar attempts sound noticeably weak by comparison, calling into question what exactly the point of angry melodic death metal is. I can't answer that, but this is still an above-average release in an otherwise stagnant genre.
1. Obey Me
2. For What It's Good For
3. Witness Your Own Oblivion
4. Take Me Along
5. Bleeding
6. Your Final Swansong
7. Suffer My Disbelief
8. They've Chosen
9. ...
10. Pull the Plug (Death cover)
11. When The Lady Smiles
Callisto
True Nature Unfolds
****
Written on 06.04.08
However diverse and intricate Callisto's albums may be on occasion, the first minute of 'True Nature Unfolds' reveals all of this Finnish band's clear influences from the international post-metal scene. Inspired by the likes of Isis, Neurosis and Cult of Luna in particular, with a dash of traditional Mogwai post-rock thrown in, this album won't hold any surprises for those versed in the genre, but it's still one of the finer examples I've heard outside of the aforementioned elite.
This is essentially mood music with a dynamic twist, more something to die to than settle down and relax, but the hardcore elements exemplified by Markus Myllykangas' yelled vocals are the main downfall in my opinion, or at least the main element that prevents me from becoming completely enveloped, however low they've been turned down in the mix. Although this album isn't slow throughout, that's certainly the lasting memory that's retained, and it's more effective when the band attempts to inject melodic elements than when they're simply ripping off Mogwai, slowly strumming the same power chord for ten seconds before shifting up a note and continuing.
The songs follow similar styles, but are kept different largely through contrived structures. 'Blackhole' and 'Like Abel's Blood Cried for Revenge' are content to be as cacophonous and ponderous as can be, while 'Limb: Diasporas' and others are kept lighter and more atmospheric by stifling the louder elements. There's even a distinct sludge-doom influence in the riffs of 'Storm' and 'Masonic' that cement the Neurosis comparison further, making this an interesting and satisfying amalgamation of post-metal influences, if not the most inventive album in the world.
1. 31 46'N, 35 14'E
2. Blackhole
3. Limb: Diasporas
4. Cold Stare
5. Storm
6. Caverns of Khafka
7. Like Abel's Blood Cried for Revenge
8. Worlds Collide
9. Masonic
10. The Great Divorce
Callisto
Noir
****
Written on 06.04.08
There's nothing inherently flawed in Callisto's approach to post-metal, but their reliance on established sounds prevents them from being one of the major players, while their music's emphasis on atmosphere and experience means that almost nothing will be memorable once the hour is over. The major difference between 'Noir' and the previous album is just how much the band seems intent on packing into each song here, something that makes it impossible to recall just which song is which without multiple repeat plays, especially as most tracks wind up in a completely different place to their beginnings.
One improvement that may or may not have been intentional is the diminished presence of vocals in this album, allowing for tracks that are entirely instrumental and others that just seem that way. Once again, the band balances heaviness and melody in a perfect fusion, demonstrated most succinctly in the opening song, while various points in the album choose to favour one style over the other. There's also a commendable tendency towards progression here, most expressly realised by the saxophone presence in 'Wormwood' and the changeable styles as the album continues, before the last two songs make a somewhat disappointing return to established form.
1. Wormwood
2. Latterday Saints
3. The Fugitive
4. Backwoods
5. A Close Encounter
6. Pathos
7. Folkslave
8. Woven Hands
Candlemass
Epicus Doomicus Metallicus
*****
Written on 07.04.08
Candlemass were one of the first and arguably the best doom metal bands, building on the work of bands like Black Sabbath in the seventies, but introducing a new mournful, foreboding and above all a monumentally epic dimension to create these albums of drawn-out, spellbinding elegies. There's some great guitar solos too.
The pompously but perhaps accurately titled 'Epicus Doomicus Metallicus' sets the tone for everything Candlemass would do throughout the rest of their career, apart from on the albums where they purposefully strove for something different, only to realise they carved their niche long ago. While this makes it a little less spectacular when compared to their later achievements, particularly its immediate successor 'Nightfall,' there really is nothing to fault this debut as a collection of epic doom songs, and it provides an exclusive opportunity to hear original vocalist Johan Lanquist before he was succeeded by the superior, albeit far more egotistical Messiah Marcolin.
Lanquist's vocals may be the decisive factor for many people, especially those approaching this album from other sub-genres of doom, such as the British death metal influenced bands or stoner bands of the Southern United States. He can wail with the best of the eighties metal scene, but possesses a satisfyingly nasal tone that prevents these dirges from ever sounding optimistic, the same way that Klas Bergwall's lead guitar melodies and solos strike a balance between despair and enjoyment. This certainly isn't music to make you cry; I see it more as something to play when walking contentedly through a graveyard, but the songs are kept individual enough to avoid becoming boring, an easy enough task considering there are only six of them.
'Solitude' is the most easily recognised take from this album thanks to Lanquist's fantastically over-the-top wailing performance in both choruses, while 'Under the Oak' allows Bergwall more leniency in showing off his skills. 'Demons Gate' opens with a fairly cheesy keyboard and distorted spoken word section that keeps this rooted firmly in the mid-eighties, 'Crystal Ball' even introduces some galloping riffs, 'Black Stone Wielder' is as close as they come to Sabbath, and grand finale 'A Sorcerer's Pledge' does everything that the previous song did, only with a greater air of pomposity that's only excusable with these Swedes.
1. Solitude
2. Demons Gate
3. Crystal Ball
4. Black Stone Wielder
5. Under the Oak
6. A Sorcerer's Pledge
Candlemass
Nightfall
*****
Written on 07.04.08
'Nightfall' is the archetypal Candlemass album, the ultimate doom metal album, and one of the defining works of heavy metal in general. This masterwork certainly has its flaws, but somehow manages to use these to its advantage much as the band's progenitors Black Sabbath achieved with their string of imperfect but infallible releases through the early 1970s.
New vocalist Messiah Marcolin is what will be remembered most about this album, though really credit is equally due to the guitar talents of Lars Johansson, whose elegiac melodies make the instrumental interludes every bit as compelling as the more substantial dirges. Marcolin's tone is similar to previous frontman Johan Lanquist, but with even more passion and presence, and could easily rival Ronnie James Dio in the stakes of most over-the-top eighties metal performance. Fortunately for all, this doesn't detract any credibility from the depressiveness of this release, which combines an overarching melancholy atmosphere with some tremendously enjoyable riffs and choruses, resulting in an album that's so bipolar, it really has to be experienced firsthand.
Every listen to this album has left me feeling bizarrely exhausted, and not in the way more emotive albums have the ability to. I think it's the sheer magnitude of the music, which is essentially no different from other heavy metal recorded in a studio during the decade, but somehow convinces of the graveyards it conjures and exotic locations it describes. 'The Well of Souls' and especially 'Bewitched' are the most memorable offerings here after even the most passive listen, dominated by Marcolin's bombastic choruses, but the performances throughout the rest of the album really don't let up one bit. There are four comparatively short interludes in the form of tracks one, three, six and ten, all of which are excellent and serve to make this an even more satisfying experience when listened to in full, rather than a mere collection of songs, and songs in the centre tend to favour fast galloping sections reminiscent of Iron Maiden.
Indeed, its hard not to compare 'At the Gallows End' directly with that other band's similarly themed 'Hallowed Be Thy Name,' and although this lacks the classic nature it's certainly the more believably atmospheric of the two, though anyone who felt Bruce Dickinson's squeaking vocals weren't entirely relevant to the sombre narrative is only going to experience further disappointment here.
1. Gothic Stone
2. The Well of Souls
3. Codex Gigas
4. At the Gallows End
5. Samarithan
6. Marche Funebre
7. Dark Are the Veils of Death
8. Mourners Lament
9. Bewitched
10. Black Candles
Candlemass
Tales of Creation
*****
Written on 07.04.08
Perhaps sensing that the niche they were progressively carving with each album would prove too difficult to climb out of before long, Candlemass began to diversify its approach, to a small but significant degree in this final album of the decade, and of the band's classic period.
Opening with an objective spoken word introduction over a guitar overture, it's clear that the band is experimenting with new ideas here, and though the subsequent 'Dark Reflections' is similar to their earlier album openers, it's still surprisingly fast and energetic for this band, though its one drawback is that Messiah Marcolin's chorus performance is perhaps a little too sing-song and over-the-top even by his standards, threatening to remain memorable for the wrong reasons. After this it's back to the usual fare with the oddly short 'Voices in the Wind' and a rather redundant re-make of 'Under the Oak' from the first album that nevertheless benefits from the improved production job and its greater relevance to the loose conceptual nature of this album on the whole, being name-checked in the later spoken word interlude 'Dawn.'
The production quality is one of the stand-out features of this album, as the difference really is noticeable when compared to the previous works, the debut album in particular. This causes the heavier riffs that lead 'Tears' and the incredible title song to pack an even greater punch, while the melodic side of the album also benefits from the greater contrast, something that's especially evident in the unprecedented instrumental shred-fest 'Into the Unfathomed Tower' where Lars Johansson really gets to demonstrate the classical influence on his guitar playing that was previously only hinted at. With its varied speeds, styles and moods, this is on an even par with the band's finest work, and only takes second place to 'Nightfall' for having the sour luck to be recorded two years later.
1. The Prophecy
2. Dark Reflections
3. Voices in the Wind
4. Under the Oak
5. Tears
6. Into the Unfathomed Tower
7. The Edge of Heaven
8. Somewhere in Nowhere
9. Through the Infinitive Halls of Death
10. Dawn
11. A Tale of Creation
Candlemass
Dactylis Glomerata
***
Written on 07.04.08
Recorded six years after Candlemass was confirmed dead by its songwriter, founder and bass player Leif Edling, 'Dactylis Glomerata' was released onto shelves to the extreme surprise and subsequent extreme disappointment of doom metal fans.
The main concern seemed to be that this doesn't sound like Candlemass at all, but there's really no reason it should; after all, most of the classic line-up has departed, Bjorn Flodkvist's vocals are in a completely different range than the fans were used to, Mike Amott handles all the guitars in a traditional rock style despite his background in melodic death metal (Carcass, Arch Enemy), and perhaps most tellingly of all, many of these songs weren't even written for a Candlemass album. Edling had been refused the option of a second Abstrakt Algebra release by the record company, which would much prefer to ship something with the familiar Candlemass name, thus this peculiar effort was born.
As was the case on 'Chapter VI,' this new direction wouldn't necessarily present a problem if only it had been better integrated, as the album still switches between this Black Sabbathesque rock sound and weak attempts to revive the old Candlemass style. These latter songs aren't particularly bad, but they don't stand out due to their similarity, and for the undisputed fact that Flodkvist is completely out of his depth with the soaring opera material, opting instead for a standard rock tone that suits the simpler songs but doesn't work as well here, in songs that scream out for Messiah Marcolin.
This album wouldn't be so bad if the new direction was actually any good, but unfortunately the experiments tend to fail, as is most evident in the latter three songs that just end up wasting time. Even the better material earlier on is spoiled slightly by the inclusion of distracting atmospheric keyboard passages, leaving this whole, oddly titled endeavour as a blemish on the band's reputation, but one that sounds a lot better if you pretend it wasn't recorded by Candlemass, which really isn't that far from the truth.
1. Wiz
2. I Still See the Black
3. Dustflow
4. Cylinder
5. Karthago
6. Abstrakt Sun
7. Apathy
8. Lidocain God
9. Molotov
Candlemass
From the 13th Sun
***
Written on 08.04.08
For the second album of Candlemass' reincarnation, Leif Edling, now the only original member from the early releases, made the rather odd decision to pay respect to his idols Black Sabbath by essentially ripping off their songs and rebranding them as new material, complete with snazzy 1990s sound effects technology. What ends up sounding pretty damn good on the CD is nevertheless entirely indebted to those Sabbath albums of the 1970s, often to the point where explicit comparisons are not only inevitable, but they're clearly being invited.
This similarity causes me to feel a little resentment at this album, in the same way I dislike albums of cover songs. While this material is still original in most senses, it tends to plunder the exact structures, styles and even the sound of Black Sabbath, most expressly in 'Tot' which is practically the same as the titular 'Black Sabbath,' from Bjorn Flodkvist's imitation Ozzy Osbourne whine to the rain effects to the tempo changes, and is disguised only by changing the order of notes played in the riffs. Immediately after this comes 'Elephant Star,' an excellent song and clearly the finest on the album, but one that's similarly comparable to 'Children of the Grave,' before others go on to plagiarise 'NIB,' 'Electric Funeral' and others from the first four classic Black Sabbath albums.
This is actually a really enjoyable album, but it's strange how it's being passed off as original when the copying is so blatant, and I'm sure (or at least I'd hope) that Edling would defend it as a "homage" (the polite word for plagiarism) rather than pretend he never noticed what he was doing. While this doesn't sound like Candlemass one bit, it's interesting to hear the reliance on synthesised effects that really bring this up-to-date for the time, and it's at least refreshing to hear Edling experimenting with a new direction, however unoriginal, rather than re-hashing the same formula again and again. This is the only Candlemass album to act as a real diversion from the main canon, and it's a lot of fun.
1. Droid
2. Tot
3. Elephant Star
4. Blumma Apt
5. ARX/NG 891
6. Zog
7. Galatea
8. Cyclo-F0
9. Mythos
Cannibal Corpse
Eaten Back to Life
***
Written on 11.04.08
Cannibal Corpse is as close to a household name as death metal was ever going to produce, a band notorious primarily for the shock value of its album art, song titles and often amusingly disgusting lyrics, but one that death metal connoisseurs tend to agree is fairly unimpressive when it comes down to the actual music. 'Eaten Back to Life' is the band's surprisingly good debut album, one that avoids the pitfalls of all subsequent releases by not getting too bogged down in the image at a cost to the music, which, while not original or a classic of the genre, is an enjoyable contribution to early nineties death metal.
The main difference here is the thrash influence, as was evident in much early death metal, leaving Jack Owen and Bob Rusay's guitars sounding similar to Slayer in tone and even execution. Chris Barnes' growl is more controlled and legible here than the gurgling tone he would later adopt, and even Alex Webster's bass makes several valid contributions.
While there's nothing inherently excellent about this album, it remains one of Cannibal Corpse' finest merely for being genuinely enjoyable rather than painful to listen to; while the performance is a less refined than 'Tomb of the Mutilated' and none of the riffs stand out in any way, the speed changes keep things interesting, even if all the songs end up sounding exactly the same. And even if they're all stolen from Slayer.
1. Shredded Humans
2. Edible Autopsy
3. Put Them to Death
4. Mangled
5. Scattered Remains, Splattered Brains
6. Born in a Casket
7. Rotting Head
8. The Undead Will Feast
9. Bloody Chunks
10. A Skull Full of Maggots
11. Buried in the Backyard
Cannibal Corpse
Butchered at Birth
**
Written on 11.04.08
With its harsh sound, vile lyrics and gruesome artwork by Vincent Locke, Cannibal Corpse's second album is undoubtedly the beginning of the New York band's continued obsession with shock value over quality content, a habit they would only break momentarily with their subsequent release 'Tomb of the Mutilated.'
When I describe this as "harsh," I don't mean that it's particularly extreme, at least not compared to other death metal, but that the sound quality is almost arrogantly poor to the point that the listening experience is painful for the wrong reasons, as the listener struggles to actually make out what's going on. Never mind that Chris Barnes' lyrics could never be deciphered through his low gurgle even if he was putting in a more dynamic performance, but Jack Owen and Bob Rusay's guitars are reduced to nothing more than a tedious hiss as they play the same style of riff over and over again. Perhaps worst of all are Paul Mazurkiewicz's drums, which hammer away ad nauseam before executing predictable speed changes that have none of the excitement of the previous album.
This is an album best avoided by music fans from any background, but young teenagers might get a brief kick out of the lyric booklet, before convincing themselves that it's the greatest CD ever recorded in a misguided attempt to appear cool. There are far more extreme albums out there if that's all you're after.
1. Meat Hook Sodomy
2. Gutted
3. Living Dissection
4. Under the Rotted Flesh
5. Covered With Sores
6. Vomit the Soul
7. Butchered at Birth
8. Rancid Amputation
9. Innards Decay
Cannibal Corpse
Tomb of the Mutilated
***
Written on 11.04.08
Loathe it or remain indifferent to it, 'Tomb of the Mutilated' is the definitive Cannibal Corpse album, and the one on which all of their later, increasingly lazy successes are based. The production has improved, the death metal riffs are louder, the band actually seems content to write well-structured music for a change, and most importantly of all: those song titles are now so ludicrously attention-seeking that I feel embarrassed having to censor them for a public website.
Death metal fans will probably enjoy this album, but not as much as they'd enjoy many of the earlier and later bands with a great deal more creativity. To accuse Cannibal Corpse of relying on the shock value of their lyrics and album art over actual musical content would be an accurate observation, but fortunately this album goes some way towards striking a balance, and is acclaimed as a classic of the genre by many death metal fans.
While the repetitiveness of the songs and the derivative playing styles don't allow me to praise it to that extent, there are still some choice cuts on here, and the album's infamous popularity is also significant in spreading other, better death metal to the masses. If they have the stomach for it. An unfortunate consequence is that the guttural roars and monstrously down-tuned guitars here were undoubtedly one of the key players in kick-starting the "brutal" death metal sub-genre, which occasionally offers wicked surprises but is mostly a bloated, festering corpse with, like, maggots in it and things. See, anyone can write this stuff.
1. Hammer Smashed Face
2. I Cum Blood
3. Addicted to Vaginal Skin
4. Split Wide Open
5. Necropedophile
6. The Cryptic Stench
7. Entrails Ripped From a Virgin's Cunt
8. Post Mortal Ejaculation
9. Beyond the Cemetery
Cannibal Corpse
Hammer Smashed Face
***
Written on 11.04.08
'Hammer Smashed Face' is really the only Cannibal Corpse song anyone needs to hear, easily the band's best and one of their relatively few successful attempts to combine extreme (albeit indecipherable) gore lyrics with some solid death metal. The speed changes are enjoyable at first, before the predictable slips back into the slower groove become a little tiresome, and the guitars are hardly original, but it's still an enjoyable and important piece of death metal history, even if Cannibal Corpse have never been a particularly strong band even at this peak of their career.
That brings us on to the remainder of the E.P., which is comprised of pretty good cover songs rather than original material, and for this reason is a lot more entertaining. Rather than go for some novelty covers that would only lessen my opinion of the image-centric band even further, they tackle an early death metal song from genre pioneers Possessed and do a wholly adequate job; with its frequent, high speed guitar solos and relentless pace, it serves as an example of what Cannibal Corpse could have been if they'd decided to concentrate a little more on the extremity of their music rather than relying too greatly on vile lyrics.
By contrast, the final song 'Zero the Hero' is a cover of Black Sabbath, and although it's fair to say the band butchers it to an extent (as almost any band attempting to cover Sabbath manages to, with only a couple of notable exceptions), its steady groove is the perfect counterpart to the previous song. The death metal take on Tony Iommi's riff is nothing special, but still instantly recognisable under the dark production values, and the only real issue here is the inferiority of Chris Barnes' gurgle to Ian Gillan's original hard rock wail. A nice little fifteen-minute E.P., but one that mainly serves to prove that Cannibal Corpse have only ever produced one worthwhile song.
1. Hammer Smashed Face
2. The Exorcist (Possessed cover)
3. Zero the Hero (Black Sabbath cover)
Cannibal Corpse
The Bleeding
**
Written on 11.04.08
Cannibal Corpse surprisingly toned down the gore content for their fourth album, though with song titles like 'F**ked With a Knife' this is still clearly targeted largely at impressionable, teenage fans of slasher films rather than serious metalheads. This slight tempering of lyrics doesn't bring about a new maturity that would certainly bring the band's career to a close, as the image is stripped away and their fans realise the band isn't all that good, but there's evidently a change in approach here that proves the band has been paying attention to shifting trends.
While 'Tomb of the Mutilated' varied between slow, fast and medium speeds with somewhat tedious regularity, 'The Bleeding' is grounded in a medium tempo groove of the type found in much nineties metal, thanks to Metallica slowing down and the rise of bands like Pantera. While this makes for a less thrilling ride for fans of the classic death metal style than the band's debut album for example, it at least adds a sense of consistency, and the songs only end up sounding similar to the extent they did on previous albums. Which is rather a lot.
This would be vocalist Chris Barnes' last album with the band, and perhaps their chance to drop this weak link. While none of the band members display exceptional talent outside of bass virtuoso Alex Webster (whose performance is nevertheless rendered timid by the shoddy production), Barnes' growl has become incredibly tiresome here, and never lives up to the ferocity of the subject matter even when he unleashes brief screams in the choruses.
1. Staring Through the Eyes of the Dead
2. Fucked With a Knife
3. Stripped, Raped and Strangled
4. Pulverized
5. Return to Flesh
6. The Pick-Axe Murders
7. She Was Asking for It
8. The Bleeding
9. Force Fed Broken Glass
10. An Experiment in Homicide
Cannibal Corpse
Vile
**
Written on 04.08
It's at this point in their relentless discography that Cannibal Corpse start to get really repetitive, but thankfully this album stands out as the introduction of new vocalist Corpsegrinder (less impressive real name George Fisher). Chris Barnes' vocals had always been the low point of this band, and Corpsegrinder injects a new ferocity that was a long time coming, even managing to be clearly understandable when screeching the choruses.
Sadly, this is the only real point of interest here, and only then if you've restricted yourself to Cannibal Corpse over other, more brutal death metal bands. Almost every song follows the same style, led by Paul Mazurkiewicz's tedious drum blasts that are noticeably lacking in both speed and power when compared to others in the genre, and the guitarists steal from themselves so much, it hardly matters whether you listen to this album all the way through or stop after the first track.
There are some reasonably entertaining speed changes, most effective in the breakneck pace of the 'Mummified in Barbed Wire' verses and comparatively short 'Puncture Wound Massacre,' but even this is provided an unsatisfying contrast in the dully slow 'Bloodlands.' Bizarrely, and undeservedly, this was the first death metal album to make its way onto the U.S. mainstream billboard chart at #122.
1. Devoured By Vermin
2. Mummified in Barbed Wire
3. Perverse Suffering
4. Disfigured
5. Bloodlands
6. Puncture Wound Massacre
7. Relentless Beating
8. Absolute Hatred
9. Eaten From Inside
10. Orgasm Through Torture
11. Monolith
Advantages: Corpsegrinder is better than Barnes.
Disadvantages: Getting really samey now.
Cannibal Corpse
Gallery of Suicide
**
Written on 04.08
'Gallery of Suicide' is a surprisingly disappointing album from Cannibal Corpse, surprising only because they had already set the bar fairly low. The departure of guitarist Rob Barrett and his replacement by the less imaginative Pat O'Brien robs the album of even its more satisfying death metal riffs, and the whole package really does sound like the band going through the motions.
On the other hand, there are some deliberate attempts to add diversity this time around, though few of them really work, and most ultimately count against the enjoyment. Opener 'I Will Kill You' has all the catchy enjoyment of early Swedish death metal from the likes of Dismember, but after this point there's really very little of interest.
The worst offenders are the three slower songs 'Gallery of Suicide,' 'From Skin to Liquid' and 'Centuries of Torment' which couldn't sound more like consciously slowed-down versions of the band's usual style in an attempt to bulk the CD out by an extra ten minutes (forty-five rather than their usual thirty-five). These songs aren't all that long, but the pace is incredibly tedious and lifeless, once again proving that the band's arguable talents lie within a specific and overly repetitive niche.
1. I Will Kill You
2. Disposal of the Body
3. Sentenced to Burn
4. Blood Drenched Execution
5. Gallery of Suicide
6. Dismembered and Molested
7. From Skin to Liquid
8. Unite the Dead
9. Stabbed in the Throat
10. Chambers of Blood
11. Headless
12. Every Bone Broken
13. Centuries of Torment
14. Crushing the Despised
Advantages: They try something different.
Disadvantages: Boy, is it dull.
Cannibal Corpse
Bloodthirst
***
Written on 17.04.08
After the comparative disappointment of 1998's 'Gallery of Suicide,' Cannibal Corpse return to mediocre form with 'Bloodthirst,' serving up eleven more repetitive, banal, needlessly gory assaults on all manner of depraved topics, much the same as they've done throughout their entire career. This isn't a particularly strong or weak album in the discography, and coming so far down the line it's all but entirely superfluous.
While these might as well all be the exact same song repeated, aside from some slower sections in 'Unleashing the Bloodthirsty' balanced by wild, fast solos, this at least allows for a sense of consistency, even if that only really means they don't attempt any of the unwise "experiments" that plagued 'Gallery of Suicide.' The production quality is a lot cleaner and clearer this time round also, finally affording the drums a level of power previously unheard, even if they still seem a little slow compared to the competition.
1. Pounded Into Dust
2. Dead Human Collection
3. Unleashing the Bloodthirsty
4. The Spine Splitter
5. Ecstasy in Decay
6. Raped by the Beast
7. Coffinfeeder
8. Hacksaw Decapitation
9. Blowtorch Slaughter
10. Sickening Metamorphosis
11. Condemned to Agony
Advantages: Improved production, consistent.
Disadvantages: Does nothing the previous albums didn't.
Cannibal Corpse
Live Cannibalism
***
Written on 04.08
I'm not a fan of Cannibal Corpse, but I was pleasantly surprised by this live album, which really does capture the band at its best and demonstrates that they aren't just a gimmicky, talentless, overrated band. They're still mainly that, obviously, but being drawn into this live experience, the relative lack of interesting or inherently enjoyable music doesn't become such an issue.
I have to commend the band on its commitment to the live performance, something I honestly didn't expect after the frankly lazy quality of much of their studio output. Songs are sped through to great appreciation from the crowd, and a wide range of material is covered that allows Corpsegrinder to further prove his superiority to Chris Barnes by tackling the early works such as 'Meat Hook Sodomy' and the classic 'Hammer Smashed Face.' Corpsegrinder is also amusingly frank about the subject matter, introducing track four by stating, "this song's about shooting blood out of you c**k."
With an hour's worth of music (though that term is perhaps open to debate), this is better value for money than the typical Cannibal Corpse album that runs to half of that, and the more aggressive take on formerly lifeless, endlessly repetitive studio tracks makes this a much more enjoyable and worthwhile purchase than anything else Cannibal Corpse has released, even if I'd still prefer you to check out other death metal bands first.
1. Staring Through the Eyes of the Dead
2. Blowtorch Slaughter
3. Stripped, Raped and Strangled
4. I Cum Blood
5. Covered With Sores
6. Fucked With a Knife
7. Unleashing the Bloodthirsty
8. Dead Human Collection
9. Gallery of Suicide
10. Meat Hook Sodomy
11. Perverse Suffering
12. The Spine Splitter
13. Gutted
14. I Will Kill You
15. Devoured By Vermin
16. Disposal of the Body
17. A Skull Full of Maggots
18. Hammer Smashed Face
Advantages: Enjoyable live performance, superior to studio performances.
Disadvantages: Songs still aren't particularly good, but at least you get a lot of them.
Cannibal Corpse
Gore Obsessed
**
Written on 04.08
By the time a band released its eighth album, it's always interesting to take note of just how far they've come on their musical journey. For some, each album will be treated as an independent entity, an experiment in itself before the band moves on in its ceaseless artistic exploration. But for others, such as Cannibal Corpse, it's merely the same thing over and over again, to increasingly dwindling effect and amusement.
'Gore Obsessed' is probably the most tedious album they've put out thus far. Every song sounds the same, there are no memorable guitars as they all follow standard grooves, and even Corpsegrinder's shrieking vocals become irritating on occasion at their peak of ferocity, while hearing him growl "zombies" in the over-repetitive chorus of the third song is almost embarrassing, lacking any of the class of Death's 'Scream Bloody Gore.' The most positive thing I can say about 'Gore Obsessed' is that it keeps the spirit of traditional death metal alive at a time when many bands were moving away from the genre, but this is merely because Cannibal Corpse can't play anything else.
The only truly enjoyable song is a predictable death metal cover of Metallica's 'No Remorse' on the special edition version of the CD, which is only interesting for being a comparatively obscure song choice, and one that works well considering Cannibal Corpse's sound is still strongly influenced by thrash.
1. Savage Butchery
2. Hatchet to the Head
3. Pit of Zombies
4. Dormant Bodies Bursting
5. Compelled to Lacerate
6. Drowning in Viscera
7. Hung and Bled
8. Sanded Faceless
9. Mutation of the Cadaver
10. When Death Replaces Life
11. Grotesque
12. No Remorse (Metallica cover)
Advantages: They haven't become a nu-metal band, at least.
Disadvantages: More of the same, worse than usual.
Cannibal Corpse
Worm Infested
**
Written on 17.04.08
Released as a stop-gap between 'Gore Obsessed' and 'The Wretched Spawn,' this six-song E.P. is merely an excuse to throw out some B-side material packaged in what is probably the band's most despicable cover art ever. These songs were all recorded in previous album sessions, mostly for 'Gore Obsessed' but some going back to 'Gallery of Suicide,' and as with their previous E.P. 'Hammer Smashed Face' there's over-reliance on covering other band's material in an overall unsatisfying way.
The two new songs are both fairly good examples of Cannibal Corpse, and superior to much of what made its way onto the previous album. 'Systematic Elimination' is straight-up death metal in the band's current style, while 'Worm Infested' itself is more entertaining, launching into some hilariously fast verses as Corpsegrinder struggles to keep up with the vocals. The other Cannibal Corpse original is a pointless re-recording of 'The Undead Will Feast' from their first album back in the eighties, which launches the thrash-influenced second half of this E.P. It's still their best song here.
The cover of Accept's 'Demon's Night' is perhaps the worst, not even sounding like a classic metal cover and coming off instead as the band simply playing at a tedious pace for too long, while the cover of Possessed's 'Confessions' is contrastingly performed with complete loyalty to the original, even down to Corpsegrinder toning down his roar into a thrash yell in places. While this makes it more enjoyable to me as a Cannibal Corpse non-fan, it's also completely redundant as you might as well listen to the superior original.
Finally, their predictable death metal cover of Metallica's 'No Remorse' is only interesting for being a comparatively obscure song choice, and one that works well considering Cannibal Corpse's sound is still strongly influenced by thrash.
1. Systematic Elimination
2. Worm Infested
3. Demon's Night (Accept cover)
4. The Undead Will Feast (Re-recording)
5. Confessions (Possessed cover)
6. No Remorse (Metallica cover)
Advantages: A couple of songs that could be considered good by Cannibal Corpse standards.
Disadvantages: Below-par cover songs.
Cannibal Corpse
The Wretched Spawn
**
Written on 17.04.08
'The Wretched Spawn' has been called the most technically proficient album Cannibal Corpse has released, leading to it occasionally being cited as a death metal masterpiece by people who have never heard anything else the genre has to offer. While it's clearly the band's best since Corpsegrinder came along in 'Vile' eight years earlier, it still shows all the signs of a band going through the motions and really offering nothing that hasn't been heard before.
Corpsegrinder puts in an impressive vocal performance here, leading the way in songs like the narrative 'Decency Defied' but also occasionally seeming overbearing, as is the case for much of the opener 'Severed Head Stoning.' As a consequence, the instruments are largely relegated to the background, especially the guitars which don't do anything interesting throughout the album apart from some daft-sounding harmonic pinching at the start of 'Psychotic Precision' that sounds like a weak attempt to compete with the likes of Machine Head or Pantera, mainstream bands that these guys really shouldn't be bowing down to.
Elsewhere, the band tries to pull off another slow song despite their previous failures on 'Gallery of Suicide,' but 'Festering in the Crypt' is more palatable, even if the guitars are extremely tedious when robbed of their one gimmick of being fast. If this is the only death metal album in your collection, it will really stand out. If you have at least one other, it really won't.
1. Severed Head Stoning
2. Psychotic Precision
3. Decency Defied
4. Frantic Disembowelment
5. The Wretched Spawn
6. Cyanide Assassin
7. Festering in the Crypt
8. Nothing Left to Mutilate
9. Blunt Force Castration
10. Rotted Body Landslide
11. Slain
12. Bent Backwards and Broken
13. They Deserve to Die
Advantages: Back on top form.
Disadvantages: Top form never meant all that much.
Cannibal Corpse
Kill
***
Written on 17.04.08
The most recent Cannibal Corpse release to date, 'Kill' surprised no one with its pounding drums, roaring guitars and enthusiastically rasped vocals, all sounding exactly the same as the band's other albums. But slightly different, because this time, producer Erik Rutan has increased the volume across the board and you can actually hear the guitar playing alongside Corpsegrinder's vocals, in all its mediocre glory.
There's a lyrical change too, which is only minor but still fairly substantial considering that the majority of this band's large fan base was doubtless attracted for the extreme gore of the lyrics (I guess they could have gained their immense popularity purely due to the musical quality, but that seems a little far-fetched). Rather than focusing on blood and guts - which they have presumably run out of ideas for, this far down the line - the focus is more traditionally death metal in its themes of carnage and violence, reminiscent of Malevolent Creation. And just in case the album cover doesn't scream its title at you with enough intensity, Corpsegrinder makes sure to remind you with an over-zealous, maniacal opening.
1. The Time to Kill Is Now
2. Make Them Suffer
3. Murder Worship
4. Necrosadistic Warning
5. Five Nails Through the Neck
6. Purification By Fire
7. Death Walking Terror
8. Barbaric Bludgeonings
9. The Discipline of Revenge
10. Brain Removal Device
11. Maniacal
12. Submerged in Boiling Flesh
13. Infinite Misery (Instrumental)
Advantages: Loud.
Disadvantages: Yawn.
Capharnaum
Fractured
***
Written on 12.04.08
Capharnaum are a technical death metal from Florida, the death metal Mecca, but this half-hour album of brutal, catchy riffs, hostile yells and great guitar solos really doesn't accomplish anything that many others haven't to greater effect.
The band's core is the Suecof brothers Jason and Jordan on guitar and drums respectively, and together they form a tight death metal outfit, Jason in particular being the real stand-out with his excellent melodic guitars that never sound forced in the way much melodic death metal tends to, especially nowadays. The album's second most significant problem is that the songs don't go anywhere particularly interesting, mostly being of average length with little in the way of the progressive tendencies expected of "technical" death metal, and there isn't an awful lot that stands out. The album's primary failing, however, is the vocal performance of Matt Heafy.
Heafy's hardcore-style yelling really doesn't sit well with death metal, especially of this variety which customarily features a deeper, more guttural tone to work alongside the heavier tones, rather than screaming out for attention in this way. Even the length of less than thirty minutes is disappointing; at first, I assumed this would be due to the songs packing enough content that extra time would be superfluous, but ultimately it just seems like a lazy excuse to avoid writing any more material.
'Fractured' won't be aggressive enough for brutal death metal fans, catchy enough for casual metal fans, or interesting enough for prog or guitar fans.
1. Ingrained
2. Fractured
3. Perpetuate Catatonia
4. Machines
5. Icon of Malice
6. Reins of Humanity
7. The Scourge Trial
8. Refusal
Advantages: Some great guitar work.
Disadvantages: Nothing particularly interesting here.
Carcass
Reek of Putrefaction
****
Written on 12.04.08
The aptly-titled 'Reek of Putrefaction' is the first and definitive grindcore album, but that's not to say it's a masterpiece. After all, it would sort of defeat the point if this was anything other than aurally offensive. The twenty-two songs that make up this forty-minute album are mostly under two minutes in length, making their vile points on various sickening aspects of biology gone ka-ka, and although it's predominantly the same chugging, down-tuned guitar riffs and guttural vocal vomitisations propelled by thudding drums hidden in the background of the shoddy production job, it still accomplishes more than any other grind album to come since. And boy, do they keep coming.
Everything about this album sounds completely right, within the depraved context. A more polished production job would spoil its effect, and the studio trickery that's used benefits from the somewhat amateurish sound of its execution, most evident in the vocal effects that change with every other song, reaching an all-time belching low in sections of 'Pyosisified.' There's even enough variety to please the metal snobs, like me; songs like 'Genital Grinder' and others feature some excellent death metal riffs, before the band would more fully commit to that genre, while there are occasional solos from the likes of 'Frenzied Detruncation.'
This fetid Scouse abomination certainly isn't for everyone, and may even scare you if you've only heard the band's later works, but it's still one of the most significant albums they recorded. Along with all the other genre-pioneering ones they did, of course.
1. Genital Grinder
2. Regurgitation of Giblets
3. Maggot Colony
4. Pyosisified (Rotten to the Gore)
5. Carbonized Eye Sockets
6. Frenzied Detruncation
7. Vomited Anal Tract
8. Festerday
9. Fermenting Innards
10. Excreted Alive
11. Suppuration
12. Foeticide
13. Microwaved Uterogestation
14. Feast on Dismembered Carnage
15. Splattered Cavities
16. Psychopathologist
17. Burnt to a Crisp
18. Pungent Excruciation
19. Manifestation of Verrucose Urethra
20. Oxidised Razor Masticator
21. Mucopurulence Excretor
22. Malignant Defecation
Advantages: The ultimate grindcore experience.
Disadvantages: Difficult to listen to.
Carcass
Symphonies of Sickness
****
Written on 12.04.08
'Symphonies of Sickness' does everything that a second album should, building on the success of Carcass' first and also radically improving it. Bringing more death metal influence to the surgical table this time round with a more concentrated performance from all musicians, the focus is no longer merely on extreme speed, as songs take time out for speed changes and structural progression to keep things interesting, like the excellent solo section of 'Exhume to Consume' that proves why their later acclaimed work 'Heartwork' wasn't quite as ahead of its time as people claim.
This was only released a year after the debut album, but the changes are immediately evident even from looking at the tracklist, which contains half as many songs for the simple reason that they're all twice as long as they used to be, the time being used to make each one more satisfying. The grindcore influence is still heavily present, but this is the point that Carcass resemble a death metal band to a greater extent, though a more extreme variety than fans of the genre were used to. I suppose the biggest difference between this and the first album is that the band is actually playing music now.
1. Reek of Putrefaction
2. Exhume to Consume
3. Excoriating Abdominal Emanation
4. Ruptured in Purulence
5. Empathological Necroticism
6. Embryonic Necropsy and Devourment
7. Swarming Vulgar Mass of Infected Virulency
8. Cadaveric Incubator of Endo Parasites
9. Slash Dementia
10. Crepitating Bowel Erosion
Advantages: Greater musical skill, more satisfying songs.
Disadvantages: May disappoint grindcore purists.
Carcass
*****
Written on 12.04.08
With a constantly evolving band like Carcass, fans will always have differing views on which period was the band's peak, specifically the frenetic gore-grind of their early days or the more contemplative and melodic death metal of their twilight phase, but most tend to agree that the band's third album is a successful meeting between the two styles, and also their finest.
'Necroticism' retains the extreme heaviness and surgical subject matter of the previous two albums, but the introduction of second guitarist Michael Amott (later of Arch Enemy) starts to take the band's music in a melodic direction that was only hinted at in brief passages of 'Symphonies of Sickness.' The balance between heaviness and melody has rarely been so perfectly executed, the only competitors being the early releases of Swedish melodic death metal giants Dark Tranquillity and In Flames, without it being allowed to take over in the way it would on later releases.
Colin Richardson's production job further perfects this fusion, rendering the entire performance audible for the first time at no cost to the atmosphere, and the songwriting process has become even more elaborate, with an average song length of over five minutes compared to the one and a half minute mean of the debut. These more progressive tendencies run the risk of the band alienating even more people than they naturally do already, but this final album from their classic period avoids seeming indulgent like the later ones would tend to, and is rightly recognised as one of the death metal classics.
1. Inpropagation
2. Corporal Jigsore Quandary
3. Symposium of Sickness
4. Pedigree Butchery
5. Incarnated Solvent Abuse
6. Carneous Cacoffiny
7. Lavaging Expectorate of Lysergide Composition
8. Forensic Clinicism/The Sanguine Article
Advantages: Perfect fusion of Carcass' two eras, with excellent and ferocious musicianship.
Disadvantages: Longer songs may deter some.
Carcass
Heartwork
****
Written on 12.04.08
'Heartwork' has always been a significant album for me, as it was the first death metal album I ever bought, but over time my increased familiarity with the genre has only led me to respect and enjoy it a lot less. The primary reason this album isn't as good as its predecessor is that it effectively represents the point at which Carcass sold out; not in the way Metallica's bland "black" album or Judas Priest's disco abomination 'Turbo' sold out by seeking a mainstream radio audience outside of heavy metal, but taken proportionally within the band's own context, they lose all their uncompromising, underground credibility here by giving in to that compromise.
'Heartwork' is widely acclaimed as a melodic death metal classic, which I suppose it is, as far as any work of a sub-genre could be accurately considered "a classic." It's certainly not as significant as their previous releases, especially 'Necroticism' which struck a much more satisfying balance between heaviness and melody, but this came along at the right time and had the right level of publicity to alert death metal fans to this new trend, which was mainly brewing in Sweden. Consequently, the main offender here is the Liverpool band's Swedish axeman Michael Amott, whose melodic guitars and slower riffing style rob this album of its intensity in favour of polished precision.
There are still plenty of enjoyable songs here, but most of them are spoiled to some extent by inserting inappropriate melodic elements for no real reason other than to show off the contrast. Even the vocals are less interesting now, handled by Jeff Walker alone and losing the crowded, schizophrenic fun of the earlier albums, with the lyrics now being more intentionally "mature," concerning politics and philosophy rather than gruesome medical tales. When I was younger, the staccato riffs of 'Blind Bleeding the Blind' and classic metal soloing of 'Carnal Forge' seemed like the coolest thing I'd ever heard. Now, it's all pretty bland.
1. Buried Dreams
2. Carnal Forge
3. No Love Lost
4. Heartwork
5. Embodiment
6. This Mortal Coil
7. Arbeit Macht Fleisch
8. Blind Bleeding the Blind
9. Doctrinal Expletives
10. Death Certificate
Advantages: Pioneering work of melodic death metal.
Disadvantages: Disappointingly commercial after previous efforts.
Carcass
Swansong
***
Written on 23.04.08
This self-conscious final offering from Carcass sounds very little like the Carcass of old, or even their previous radical turnaround on the more commercial 'Heartwork.' While still death metal at its core, and thus not seeking any kind of mainstream chart approval, the style here is much more relaxed and infused with a classic rock/metal style, resulting in a collection of mid-paced "death-'n'-roll" songs that are fun to listen to, but lack the excitement of previous works from the band.
Guitarist Michael Amott had returned to Sweden by this point to found Arch Enemy with his brother and continue the style he'd worked towards on Carcass' previous two albums, leaving Bill Steer and Carlo Regadas to come up with some distinctly rock-tinged riffs over Ken Owen's steady drums.
Most of the songs fail to stand out in any real way, outside of the catchiness of opener 'Keep On Rotting in the Free World' and closer 'Go To Hell,' as well as the album's one memorable guitar riff that leads the way in the otherwise average 'Child's Play,' but this is still an interesting experiment that could provide a gateway into death metal for newcomers, as long as they aren't expecting anything particularly gripping.
1. Keep On Rotting in the Free World
2. Tomorrow Belongs to Nobody
3. Black Star
4. Cross My Heart
5. Child's Play
6. Room 101
7. Polarized
8. Generation Hexed
9. Firm Hand
10. R**k the Vote
11. Don't Believe a Word
12. Go to Hell
Carcass
***
Written on 23.04.08
Although it can be seen, in a way, as a quick, posthumous cash-in after the demise of Carcass, this compilation is still of great interest to fans of the band throughout its highly influential career, featuring rare material that was previously only available on EPs, hidden in the BBC Radio 1 archives, or never heard before. This also inevitably means that much of it is far from the band's best work, as you'd expect from what is primarily a collection of B-sides, but for fans who lament the relatively small size of the Carcass discography, or those who thought the band lost its way towards the end, this is the perfect supplementary purchase that saves the trouble of having to locate those other, limited releases.
By far the most interesting section here (theoretically, if not musically) is the first five songs, out-takes from the 'Swansong' sessions that didn't make their way onto the band's final album. 'Swansong' itself was far from the band's best work, plagued by contractual obligations and band disagreements that ultimately saw Carcass disband even before its release, and the idea of B-side material from an already disappointing album isn't the most exciting prospect in the world, but fortunately it seems that much of it was down to random chance.
Some of this material is much better than the majority of the tracks that made their way onto the finished album,most notably the first two songs that feature greater ferocity and more impressive lead guitar work, but after this point it does just become a somewhat unnecessary continuation of the 'Swansong' mundanity, culminating in the self-deprecating apology of sorts, 'I Told You So (Corporate Rock Really Does Suck)' which is fittingly the worst of the lot.
The second section of the album (tracks six through nine) is a Radio 1 session from slightly earlier in the band's career, and the live performance makes for a satisfying listen, somewhere between studio polish and a raw demo. It sounds in places as if the source material wasn't even the original master tape, but the band still puts in the best performance it can, considering that none of the songs really allow the opportunity to impress: the material is mostly from 'Heartwork,' already a slightly disappointing album, and it's not even the finest cuts. Still, Jeff Walker's vicious rasp must have done an effective job scaring any casual listeners who tuned in at the time.
'This Is Your Life' and 'Rot 'n' Roll' formed the B-side material of the shorter 'Heartwork' E.P., and in this case it's easy to see why they were left off the album, only serving to accomplish what the other songs had already done to greater effect. The latter song is undeniably fun, but considering it has only recently been heard by the listener (three songs earlier), that counts against it in the context of this compilation. The overlap elsewhere is similarly irritating, with both 'Edge of Darkness' (1 & 9) and the later 'Hepatic Tissue Fermentation' (14 & 16) not being distinguished enough in each version to merit their inclusion in this way, though it's ultimately preferable as a more comprehensive replication of the original EPs. Still, if this is the case, they might as well have included the original version of the song 'Heartwork' prior to track ten in order to better represent that release.
It's after this point that the music makes a rapid change, from polished melodic death metal of the band's later years to the brutal death-grind of its earlier days. 'Tools of the Trade' is surprisingly ferocious even for the album it accompanied (1991's 'Necroticism'), and seems like a conscious reaction from the band against its own increasingly meandering style. This song is clipped, aggressive and fast, but still makes time for a brief melodic section later, albeit to a lesser extent that the other material the band produced around this time. Fans of early Carcass should see the 'Tools of the Trade' E.P. as an essential purchase, and thanks to this collection it's now readily available.
However superior Carcass' early works are alleged to be by many fans, the majority of the material here is still a little sub-par, and doesn't match up to anything from 'Necroticism' itself. 'Hepatic Tissue Fermentation' is a standard Carcass grind song that lasts for far, far too long at over six minutes, and it's actually more suited to the lower quality sound of its earlier incarnation at track sixteen, from Earache Records' 1989 compilation 'Pathological' that also contributes the satisfyingly slow and grindy re-make of 'Genital Grinder,' perhaps the best song here. Unfortunately, and a little bizarrely, the final song from the 'Grindcrusher' compilation actually goes too far on the lo-fi front, being quite difficult to listen to not only for its inferior sound, but also the surprisingly lacklustre performance from the band itself.
As a collection of lesser material, this doesn't work particularly well as an overview of Carcass' career path, despite showcasing their move from brutal grindcore to melodic death metal effectively. None of their best material can be found here, meaning a best-of would be a safer bet if that's what you're after, but as a comprehensive release of rare material it can't really be faulted, except that the 1989 'Peel Sessions' E.P. would have been a notable inclusion, and presumably would have been if CDs weren't limited to an eighty-minute playing time. The Kennedy autopsy photo is suitably morbid and shocking as a final statement from this legendary metal band, even if this has the rotten stench of corporate legacy-squeezing all over it.
1. Edge of Darkness
2. Emotional Flatline
3. Ever Increasing Circles
4. Blood Spattered Banner
5. I Told You So (Corporate Rock Really Does Suck)
6. Buried Dreams (Live)
7. No Love Lost (Live)
8. Rot 'n' Roll (Live)
9. Edge of Darkness (Live)
10. This Is Your Life
11. Rot 'n' Roll
12. Tools of the Trade
13. Pyosisified (Still Rotten to the Gore)
14. Hepatic Tissue Fermentation II
15. Genital Grinder II
16. Hepatic Tissue Fermentation
17. Exhume to Consume
Carnal Forge
Aren't You Dead Yet?
***
Written on 12.04.08
Carnal Forge are another enjoyably mediocre Swedish death metal band that offer more of the same for fans of the genre who maybe don't feel like listening to the more familiar and frankly better albums of similar bands. Carnal Forge's style mixes death metal with thrash and melodic elements in the style of... well, pretty much every other Swedish death metal band since the early nineties, but they're more accurately comparable to bands like The Haunted in their attempts to be genuinely fierce through shouty vocals. I've never been a particular fan of The Haunted, but these guys fit in the same niche.
While none of the songs are particularly memorable, there's enough enjoyable guitar work from Jari and Petri Kuusisto to keep it entertaining for metal fans, particularly in the solo sections of songs like 'My Suicide' that are backed up by a strong bass presence, but outside of this the songs all sound like others that have come before, and are mostly spoiled by Jonas Kjellgren's over-exuberant vocal performance. He's actually pretty good when performing in a more traditional, clean thrash style in the chorus of 'Waiting For Sundown,' so it's a shame this style wasn't used throughout, rather than the dull death roar that renders 'Burn Them Alive' incredibly tedious.
At the end of the day, this isn't a band that's going to appear in anyone's list of favourites, but it's nice to see imitators keeping these sub-genres alive, even if they can't contribute anything entirely original themselves.
1. Decades of Despair
2. My Suicide
3. Burn Them Alive
4. Waiting For Sundown
5. Exploding Veins
6. Sacred Flame
7. Inhuman
8. Final Hour in Hell
9. Totally Worthless
10. The Strength of Misery
Advantages: Fun thrash-death metal.
Disadvantages: Like a less good version of The Haunted.
Carnal Forge
Testify for My Victims
***
Written on 12.04.08
As late as their sixth album, Carnal Forge finally start to move on from a career of producing the same album again and again, and while 'Testify For My Victims' is still nothing to get excited about if you're already familiar with the Swedish death metal scene, it should pleasantly surprise those who only saw them as an inferior clone of Soilwork or The Haunted, as this album rates alongside the works of those bands. So now it's an adequate clone instead.
Perhaps the most significant change is the introduction of vocalist Jens C. Mortensen, whose angry yell is nevertheless more distinctive and legible than his predecessor Jonas Kjellgren, and makes each song far more compelling as the elements all seem to work together for the first time. Then there's the melodic elements, which are only applied in the same way as Soilwork, from sing-along choruses to melodic guitar solos, but make songs like 'Burning Eden' something of a guilty pleasure for old-time melodic death metal fans who claimed to stop liking the genre once it lost its artistic credibility.
The problem with this album is that the songs all follow exactly the same structure, and become easily predictable as early as the third song. This won't present a major issue if Carnal Forge continue to evolve their sound with each album, but it's more likely that they'll remain stuck in this new rut and release a slightly rearranged version of this album every couple of years for the next decade.
1. Testify For My Victims
2. Burning Eden
3. Numb (The Dead)
4. Godsend God's End
5. End Game
6. Questions Pertaining the Ownership of My Mind
7. Freedom By Mutilation
8. Subhuman
9. No Longer Bleeding
10. Biological Waste Matter
11. Lost Legion
12. Ante Mori
Advantages: Improved vocals.
Disadvantages: Outside of cheap gimmicks and different lyrics, all songs are the same.
Carnivore
Carnivore
****
Written on 13.04.08
Before he was a pin-up for teenage goth girls, Type O Negative's Peter Steel fronted one of the most prominent bands in the New York thrash/punk crossover scene, and was a lot angrier. Fortunately, his sense of humour still prevailed in the band's lyrics and image that seemed to construct them as barbarian warriors from a post-apocalyptic future dystopia of some sort, affording them the opportunity to shout about nuclear warfare, carnage and women like a cyberpunk version of Manowar, but one that shouldn't be taken as seriously.
On this debut album, the hardcore punk influences mix much more successfully with the Black Sabbathesque doom metal and thrash foundations, and the musicianship and song structures make this much more of a metal than a punk album, while Peter Steel's deep vocals further distance them from their contemporaries such as Agnostic Front and Biohazard. Fans approaching this band through Type O Negative may have some idea what to expect based on that band's first two albums before they fully committed to the gothic rock style, but the material here is still much fiercer, and potentially more controversial.
1. Predator
2. Carnivore
3. Male Supremacy
4. Armageddon
5. Legion of Doom
6. God Is Dead
7. Thermonuclear Warrior
8. World Wars III & IV
Advantages: Great mix of styles.
Disadvantages: Semi-tongue-in-cheek chauvinism may put some people off.
Carnivore
Retaliation
***
Written on 13.04.08
The second and final album before Carnivore disbanded is an even fiercer effort than its predecessor, abandoning the sci-fi image to concentrate more fully on contemporary social themes, albeit from the band's customary mostly-sarcastic perspective.
Beginning with a recording of someone puking out their guts on 'Jack Daniels and Pizza,' the album launches into a full-speed hardcore punk/thrash assault that only slows down on rare occasions, such as the end of the anti-racism song 'Race War,' with Peter Steel barking with a level of hatred that will surprise fans of his later work in Type O Negative. The most entertaining and creative parts of the album are his Henry Rollinsesque spoken-word rants, the likes of which dominate the commendably bitter 'Angry Neurotic Catholics,' but listeners who lack a sense of humour won't appreciate the band's attacks on everything from religion to homosexuality in songs such as 'S.M.D.' ('Suck My something').
Then again, it's always difficult with this band to tell just how seriously they intend to be taken. While it's clear from the context that the proclamations of 'Race War' are attacking racism rather than its victims, the band's view of women was pretty fairly summed up on the preceding album. Similarly, I'm sure Peter Steel means everything he says about religion, but it's obvious that some of it is exaggerated, and needs to be taken within context. But no worries, as it wouldn't be like religious devotees to blindly ignore context and irony, would it?
1. Jack Daniels and Pizza
2. Angry Neurotic Catholics
3. S.M.D.
4. Ground Zero Brooklyn
5. Race War
6. Inner Conflict
7. Jesus Hitler
8. Technophobia
9. Manic Depression (Jimi Hendrix Cover)
10. U.S.A. for U.S.A.
11. Five Billion Dead
12. Sex and Violence
Advantages: Angry, energetic crossover thrash.
Disadvantages: Lacks the variety of the previous album.
Carpathian Forest
****
Written on 24.04.08
Now officially re-released, Carpathian Forest's first E.P. from 1995 is a definitive statement of the band's early years, less comprehensive than the 1997 'Bloodlust and Perversion' demo compilation, but much more consistent.
The songs are all of a perfect length, lacking the self-indulgence that occasionally comes with the atmospheric black metal style, and in truth the band tempers these ambient tendencies with songs harking back to the simplistic, riff-based style of traditional black metal, the style they would eventually adapt to a more rock-oriented direction for their later works. This is a shame, as the songs that have a little more going for them - namely 'The Eclipse / The Raven' and 'Journey Through the Cold Moors of Svarttjern' - hint at a different direction the band could have pursued, one that could have been much greater.
The sound quality of this E.P. is superior to the demos, but still some way from a polished album. The guitars are a little quiet on occasion, and although the contrast between fast and slow sections in 'The Pale Mist Hovers Towards the Nightly Shores' makes it the most entertaining of the more typical black metal songs here, it's noticeably hindered by the sound quality and is never convincingly heavy. 'Carpathian Forest' is a short and effectively simplistic anthem, but one that doesn't really impress, while this release's finest offering is undoubtedly the perfect mix between atmospheric and harsh black metal styles in the brilliantly bipolar finale.
1. Carpathian Forest
2. The Pale Mist Hovers Towards the Nightly Shores
3. The Eclipse / The Raven
4. When Thousand Moons Have Circled
5. Journey Through the Cold Moors of Svarttjern
Carpathian Forest
Bloodlust and Perversion
Songs From the Woods
****
Written on 13.04.08
I'm a sucker for a really terrible quality black metal demo recording, and I often end up preferring them to the more polished and audible studio albums that come later on. I can't really explain it, but I suppose I love them for their genuine raw simplicity and the authentic gloomy atmosphere that can only come from recording on cheap equipment in your parents' cellar, rather than striving to achieve the same lo-fi sound through artificial means as many more fortunate bands with proper funding embarrassingly attempt to, in an effort to appear more D.I.Y. (Ulver's 'Nattens Madrigal' would be the defining example, if not for the rumours that the band spent the record company's money on cars, drugs and women, and had to hurriedly record the promised album in a forest).
Speaking of forests (marvel at my seamless review structuring), Carpathian Forest's demos all strike the perfect balance between endearingly awful production values and a solid black metal performance, and while they aren't up to the standards of Behemoth's '...From the Pagan Vastlands,' they're more enjoyable and less aurally offensive than the entire discography of Beherit. This 1997 compilation was released after the band's first E.P. 'Through Chasm, Caves and Titan Woods,' and is essentially a commercial release of the 1992 demo of the same name, generously supplemented with the entirety of 1993's 'Journey Through the Cold Moors of Svarttjern' and 1992's less elaborately titled 'Rehearsal Tape' to provide the comprehensive demo collection (the other demo release 'In These Trees Are My Gallows' contained the same songs as 'Svarttjern').
The material here is commendably mixed. The 1992 demos offer relatively slow black metal grooves in the spirit of the first wave bands that pioneered black metal before it sounded like black metal, most notably Bathory and Venom, both of whom are covered in the rehearsal warm-up that forms the latter section of the compilation, while the 1993 release showcases a more melodic, atmospheric and melancholic style with a prominent keyboard presence comparable to Burzum. At this point I have yet to listen to a Carpathian Forest full-length to see how they emerged from the other end, but the move away from repetitive and often frankly dull first wave black metal tribute to epic, folk-tinged black metal certainly seems like a step in the right direction, with tastefully overdone woodland ambience living up to the band's moniker.
'Bloodlust and Perversion' itself consumes the first five tracks, and displays its Bathory influence from the onset with its long, ambient introductory track, followed later by the even longer outro 'Wings Over the Mountain of Sighisoara.' Both of these pieces are enjoyable in their own tranquil way, but are still nothing more than interludes despite some acoustic plucking in the second, and as is often the case with these keyboard- and effects-driven tracks, there's a shocking shift of both volume and sound quality once the "real" songs kick in. Sadly, the band's music isn't up to all that much at this point beyond a few reasonably catchy groove riffs reminiscent of early Ancient, but the focus on atmosphere over fury and speed is established from the onset, which I've always found preferable to the all-out ferocity of bands like Mayhem. The title song is enjoyable enough, but after this the quality increasingly slips, with 'The Woods of Wallachia' plodding along at a particularly tedious pace.
The central section of the album is by far the most interesting and advanced, and surpassed my expectations. 'Journey Through the Cold Moors of Svarttjern' is an effectively subtle piece of atmospheric black metal that works brilliantly in establishing and retaining an atmosphere through overbearing keyboard, slow, ominous drums and background screams, with a satisfying fuzz tone for the guitar. This is a song that would benefit from improved production values to the point that it would be comparable to something by Ancient Rites, but it's still the finest song here. Interestingly, the follow-up songs 'The Eclipse / The Raven' and 'The Last Sigh of Nostalgia' forsake metal entirely in favour of keyboard, but Nattefrost's rasping vocals subtly continue. The first is another forest-based acoustic piece, while the latter is a somewhat overlong keyboard/organ piece that wants to be 'Tomhet' (Burzum) but is ultimately pretty bland.
The final section of the album is forgivably the least impressive, the rehearsal tape that was presumably never really intended for anyone but the band itself and whoever they needed to impress to secure a proper promo. The sound quality here is seriously poor, a little too bad even for my bizarre preference, mainly affecting the drums as the guitars and vocals can still be heard, albeit once again approaching the white noise of the tape hiss.
The songs pretty much all sound like Bathory, which makes it especially enjoyable to hear genuine Quorthon riffs as the band covers 'Call From the Grave' in even worse sound quality than Bathory's original, but there really isn't anything particularly impressive here apart from a satisfying speed change half-way through 'In the Circle of Ravens' that only serves to draw attention to how boring the song had been up to that point. The Venom cover is nothing special, but then Venom never were, and essentially this whole lacklustre reprise section can be overlooked as simply ensuring that anyone interested in the first two demos can have this little, slightly rubbish bonus performance as an extra.
1. Through the Black Veil of the Burgo Pass
2. Bloodlust and Perversion
3. Return of the Freezing Winds
4. The Woods of Wallachia
5. Wings Over the Mountain of Sighisoara
6. Journey Through the Cold Moors of Svarttjern
7. The Eclipse / The Raven
8. The Last Sigh of Nostalgia
9. Carpathian Forest
10. Call From the Grave (Bathory cover)
11. Return of the Freezing Winds
12. In the Circle of Ravens
13. Warhead (Venom cover)
Advantages: Insight into the band's early evolution and influences.
Disadvantages: Sound quality ranges from poor to shocking.
Carpathian Forest
Strange Old Brew
****
Written on 23.04.08
The title of Carpathian Forest's second album is rather apt, as the band continues to test the limits of black metal in varying degrees of success. The band's influence of classic black metal acts such as Bathory and particularly Celtic Frost really starts to shine through here, as the guitars follow steady, rocking paces rather than the typical black metal tremolo-plucking warble frenzy, but the band continues to look ahead and experiment with ambient keyboards, a strong melodic bass presence and even a saxophone in the atmospheric 'House of the Whipchord,' easily the most interesting deviation here.
Even the less elaborate songs are all pretty good, from the funereally slow pace of 'Thanatology' to 'Bloodcleansing' and all the other songs that effectively sound like a twenty-first century incarnation of Celtic Frost (more than the genuine twenty-first century incarnation of Celtic Frost has managed to achieve), but the album is still let down by a lack of consistency. The central section becomes far too slow for far too long, taking until the second half of 'Return of the Freezing Winds' to regain any semblance of energy, and there are a few too many keyboard instrumentals when compared to the "proper" songs, 'Theme from Nekromantikk' being a lacklustre soundtrack to some gore film while finale 'The Good Old Enema Treatment' is just a distorted sample of speech.
It would have been interesting to see Carpathian Forest pursue this experimental direction further, but sadly it would ultimately collapse in on itself and produce some of the dullest black metal around today.
1. Intro - Damnation Chant
2. Bloodcleansing
3. Mask of the Slave
4. Martyr / Sacrificulum
5. Thanatology
6. The Suicide Song
7. House of the Whipchord
8. Cloak of Midnight
9. Return of the Freezing Winds
10. Theme from Nekromantikk
11. The Good Old Enema Treatment
Carpathian Forest
***
Written on 23.04.08
'Morbid Fascination of Death' feels like a wasted opportunity from one of the more creative bands playing in the black metal genre, but a band becoming increasingly predictable and tiresome. There are comparably few touches of the experimental tendencies heard on 'Strange Old Brew,' only really coming to a head in the slightly lazy and overlong demo track 'Nostalgia' that they presumably couldn't be bothered to record a polished version of, while the majority is almost insultingly simplistic blackened thrash, played at a tedious tempo.
The only songs to stand out from the almost-radio-friendly host of repetitive songs are the more diverse and atmospheric 'Knokkelmann,' the melodic plodder 'A World of Bones' and the consciously different 'Cold Comfort' that ends up being one of the least interesting offerings of all, led by ambient keys and samples. Much better is its successor 'Speechless' that combines the ambient elements with electric guitar and Nattefrost's distinctive rasping vocals, while the standard Mayhem cover at track eleven only serves to prove how comparably weak Carpathian Forest's misanthropy sounds in comparison to the spiteful giants.
1. Fever, Flames and Hell
2. Doomed to Walk the Earth as Slaves of the Living Dead
3. Morbid Fascination of Death
4. Through Self-Mutilation
5. Knokkelmann
6. Warlord of Misantrophy
7. A World of Bones
8. Carpathian Forest
9. Cold Comfort
10. Speechless
11. Ghoul (Mayhem cover)
12. Nostalgia (Demo version)
Carpathian Forest
****
Written on 24.04.08
Rather than churning out a lazy "best-of" and selling fans a bunch of songs they already own, Carpathian Forest's first career retrospective combines previously unheard B-side material with some enjoyable covers, paying insightful homage to the band's influences, and two live performances from 2001 and 2002 tackling a wide range of material from their over-a-decade career.
Carpathian Forest's evolution from melodic/atmospheric black metal band to a blackened thrash band of sorts is seen by many fans as a disappointing career spiral, but fortunately there's enough high quality material here to please those who enjoy either phase, and released just before the band started to produce some really disappointing material. The most enjoyable surprise of all is the brand new material, presumably either outtakes from the 'Morbid Fascination of Death' sessions or created especially for this release, which manages to greatly exceed the content of the aforementioned album to the point that it hardly seems fair to consider these "B-sides" at all.
'The Angel and the Sodomizer' showcases Nattefrost's distinctive, rasping vocal style (that's somehow entirely legible) over some great, punkish guitar riffs and complete with a fun solo, and the subsequent two songs are similarly fun without compromising the band's integrity. The re-make of their old demo song 'Bloodlust & Perversion' is less fascinating, based entirely around a derivative riff that sounds like it's ripped straight from an early Bathory album, but it should please fans of old-school black metal as long as their expectations aren't too high.
Carpathian Forest's fading experimental side is highlighted with the continuation of 'The Good Old Enema Treatment' from their most creative album 'Strange Old Brew,' a song based entirely around sampled screaming and crying over a church choir singing hallelujahs, and it's so desperately strange that it somehow ends up good rather than embarrassing. The final song 'Death Triumphant' is an even greater oddity, beginning as a convincingly evil guitar instrumental before fading out and returning as a disturbing ambient piece, as keyboard and saxophone play softly over non-descript samples from unknown, obscure films. It makes for a nice ending to the album, even if mainly serving to prove how the band is increasingly losing its way by abandoning such strange experimentation entirely.
The cover songs all do the originals justice, and fit into the band's established style so well that they could easily be mistaken as original material. The choice of bands and even songs is particularly revealing of Carpathian Forest's influences, from their surprising cover of hardcore punks Discharge ('The Possibilities of Life's Destruction') that admit the band's punk tendencies, to the more predictable but perfectly executed take on Darkthrone's lengthy and genre-defining 'In the Shadow of the Horns.' Darkthrone's riff-based style is easily comparable to the direction Carpathian Forest has chosen for itself, and it's good to see this comparison validated in this way.
The Venom cover is disappointing compared to the rest, but still important as an indicator of just how far back the influence goes, though a Bathory cover (such as they've done before, as heard on the 1992 'Rehearsal Tape') would have been more honest and frankly more enjoyable. Venom was never really a black metal band, and this take on their slow, classic metal style makes for the most evident deviation here.
The live material forms half of this release, and while it's great to hear the songs performed with greater energy and more atmospherically raw sound quality, the material itself is weaker than that found earlier, mostly stemming from the recent, somewhat disappointing studio albums. Tracks nine through fifteen are from a 2001 show, and the lack of audible crowd noise indicates a soundboard recording, while 'He's Turning Blue' and 'Carpathian Forest' are from a later show where you can actually hear the crowd, and where the band's punk influence shines through to an even greater extent.
Nattefrost is entertainingly matter-of-fact as he introduces every single song simply by stating its title, and the band's performance really can't be faulted, as can be seen from watching this collection's later DVD companion, 'We're Going to Hollywood For This.'
1. The Angel and the Sodomizer
2. I Am Possessed
3. Bloody F**king Nekro Hell
4. Bloodlust & Perversion (New Version)
5. The Possibilities of Life's Destruction (Discharge cover)
6. In the Shadow of the Horns (Darkthrone cover)
7. In League with Satan (Venom cover)
8. The Good Old Enema Treatment (Part II)
9. Morbid Fascination of Death (Live)
10. Sadomasochistic (Live)
11. Mask of the Slave (Live)
12. Knokkelmann (Live)
13. Bloodcleansing (Live)
14. Return of the Freezing Winds (Live)
15. Doomed to Walk the Earth as Slaves of the Living Dead (Live)
16. He's Turning Blue (Live)
17. Carpathian Forest (Live)
18. Death Triumphant (Demo Version 1996)
Carpathian Forest
***
Written on 24.04.08
Carpathian Forest's most commercial album came along at the right time, when mainstream metal became entirely aware of bands like Dimmu Borgir and Emperor, bands that stretched black metal's credibility with their moves towards something a little easier to digest. Fortunately, despite its punk influence and horrendously generic, polished keyboard work, this is still a black metal album at the core, and would thus provide (similar to Dissection's 'Storm of the Light's Bane') a good entry point for metal fans interested in exploring black metal, but a little too weak-willed to delve right in to the classic works. It's certainly more worthwhile than anything released by Dimmu Borgir in the last ten years, but fans of that band would likely enjoy this too.
While the album is largely a disappointment in all respects, from the repetitive song structures to the comparative lack of decent riffs (apart from some melodic sections in 'Hymne Til Døden'), it's the keyboard work that let me down the most. Gone are the intriguingly odd interludes, replaced with generic ambience in the second half of 'Skjend Hans Lik' and relegated to generic, melodic polish elsewhere before finally getting their chance in the limelight with the absurd 'The Old House on the Hill,' which sounds like a black metal fairy tale gone embarrassingly wrong.
There's a greater punk influence here if you look behind the oppressive metal in the foreground, most prominent in the riffs of 'One With the Earth' which would be entirely plausible as a blackened cover of a hardcore punk song.
1. It's Darker Than You Think
2. Skjend Hans Lik
3. The Well of All Tears
4. Put to Sleep Like a Sick Animal!!!
5. Hymne Til Døden
6. Ancient Spirit of the Underworld
7. Spill the Blood of the Lamb
8. One With the Earth
9. Christian Incoherent Drivel
10. The Old House on the Hill
11. Necrophiliac, Anthropophagus Maniac
12. Cold Murderous Music
Carpathian Forest
Fuck You All!!!!
**
Written on 13.04.08
The most recent studio album from Carpathian Forest seems to confirm the rumour that they've been going increasingly downhill since their inception, moving ever further away from traditional black metal towards a strange and ultimately unsatisfying hybrid of black metal and hard rock that would be a pretty cool idea, if Darkthrone hadn't thought of it first.
The catchy guitars are pretty much all that stands out on this release, which presents song after repetitive song of slow riffs, creepily rasped vocals and tempo shifts that slow down just when you thought the song had already hit its slow nadir. Songs like 'Vi Åpner Porten til Helvete' seem to go on forever, milking the same riff for much longer than necessary, and even the brief respite of faster sections in 'The Frostbitten Woodlands of Norway' are soon tempered as the slow pace crawls back in.
Don't be fooled by the endearingly amateur look of the band logo and artwork, or the promise of catchy guitars; there are far purer and vastly more entertaining expressions of black metal than this lazy effort. Sod you, yourself.
1. Vi Åpner Porten til Helvete
2. The Frostbitten Woodlands of Norway
3. Start Up the Incinerator (Here Comes Another Useless Fool)
4. Submit to Satan!!!
5. Diabolism (The Seed and the Sower)
6. Dypfryst / Dette Er Mit Helvete
7. Everyday I Must Suffer
8. The First Cut Is the Deepest
9. Evil Egocentrical Existencialism
10. Shut up, There Is no Excuse to Live
Advantages: Guitar riffs can be fun for the first minute or so.
Disadvantages: Overlong and tediously samey.
Cathedral
Forest of Equilibrium
****
Written on 13.04.08
Arguably the start of death-doom metal, a direction that would be furthered by fellow Brits Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride and Anathema in subsequent years, the debut release from Coventry's Cathedral (the band, not the building) is a milestone in doom metal history, and the real point of convergence from what had previously been a fairly linear family tree from Black Sabbath and Trouble in the seventies through to Candlemass and St. Vitus in the eighties.
The death metal influence oddly seems like an accident, as if the band was unable to fully shake off its origins in Napalm Death, despite the obvious efforts to produce the most contrasting sound possible in Cathedral's arduously slow dirges. Vocalist Lee Dorrian in particular puts in a performance that's half-way between a low singing style and a death grunt, while the guitars are all extremely heavy and favour the bass range, as opposed to Candlemass' more ethereal plain.
The main problem with this album is how similar it all sounds, as the band works away at a niche and seems unable to escape it, with only the comparatively short and upbeat 'Soul Sacrifice' standing out as a momentary respite of stoner rock. For casual listeners, these songs will just be too damn long, and even doom connoisseurs may find some of the playing times tedious, particularly in the first and fifth tracks, the latter of which isn't even saved by a speed change after the half-way point.
'Forest of Equilibrium' is certainly dark, and often convincingly depressive ('Reaching Happiness, Touching Pain' in particular), but as a debut release it still seems somewhat like an obvious experiment to be as anti-Napalm Death as possible.
1. Picture of Beauty & Innocence (Intro) / Commiserating the Celebration
2. Ebony Tears
3. Serpent Eve
4. Soul Sacrifice
5. A Funeral Request
6. Equilibrium
7. Reaching Happiness, Touching Pain
Advantages: Milestone in the evolution of British (and international) doom metal.
Disadvantages: Long and drawn-out, even for doom.
Cathedral
In Memoriam
**
Written on 24.04.08
2000's 'In Memoriam' was the second time Cathedral's original 1990 demo had been officially re-released, but the first time its Latin name had been spelt correctly. While the previous 'In Memorium' (1994) was a cut-price E.P., this aims to be a more comprehensive release, adding the rare 'Live in Holland '91' performance to bulk it out to a full-length, but also bringing some significant drawbacks.
The main point of grievance here is the significant degree of overlap between the demo songs (tracks one to four) and the live material (five to nine), with three of the demo songs being complimented by a later live rendition. While it can be ever-so-slightly interesting to contrast the nuances between the band's style a year apart, it still seems cheeky to fill out the second half of the album with songs you've already played: best to consider this a strictly fans-only release that will doubtless delight the hardcore devotees.
The historical interest of the demo to doom metal fans is uncontestable, as it's very revealing to hear the band's sound inhabiting something of a middle-ground between their funereal take on traditional doom metal, and the death metal/grindcore influences left over from Lee Dorrian's former band Napalm Death, particularly evident in his harsh vocals. Overall, this sounds more like the early releases of Anathema than the subsequent material of Cathedral.
The lo-fi sound quality is particularly fitting to the dingy atmosphere, but it has to be said that most of the songs become tedious fairly quickly in their monotonous plodding, lacking the energy of the band's later material that's only really present on the live version of 'Commiserating the Celebration.'
1. Mourning of a New Day
2. All Your Sins (Pentagram cover)
3. Ebony Tears
4. March
5. Commiserating the Celebration (Live)
6. Ebony Tears (Live)
7. Neophytes for the Serpent Eve (Live)
8. All Your Sins (Live)
9. Mourning of a New Day (Live)
Cathedral
The Carnival Bizarre
*****
Huggy Bear, Oh Yeah
Written on 13.04.08
By the advent of their third full-length album, Cathedral had finally settled on their familiar sound and produced the defining album of their career, as well as one of the classic works of doom metal. Abandoning those pretensions to depressive melancholia that had never proved quite as successful as their contemporaries (and was more often dull than anything), the band here tends to focus on the fun side of sludgy stoner rock, their obvious Black Sabbath worship culminating in a satisfying guest appearance from Tony Iommi in 'Utopian Blaster.'
This upbeat direction is most evident in the first three songs, which trump pretty much anything produced in the stoner rock genre before or since. 'Vampire Sun' is the perfect simplistic opener, the aforementioned 'Utopian Blaster' has a great verse style with some of the band's typically deranged lyrics (a trait most apparent in 'Fangalactic Supergoria'), and their classic 'Hopkins' is a tribute to both the Vincent Price horror film that is sampled heavily throughout, as well as the oft-overlooked eighties heavy metal band that took its name. Fittingly, the song does have a distinct NWOBHM (New Wave Of British Heavy Metal) slant, and its immortal guitar work and incessantly catchy narrative verses make this deservedly Cathedral's most well-known song, as well as their finest.
The fun doesn't stop there, though the music does take a significant turn towards the long and laborious as the funeral doom style starts to creep back in. 'Night of the Seagulls' is a lyrical tribute to the Blind Dead films, the title song is a little lyrically dodgier but develops into a nice psychedelic-doom jam in its extended second half, while neither 'Fangalactic Supergoria' or 'Palace of Fallen Majesty' offer anything particularly interesting, but at least don't demand attention throughout their long playing times as songs from previous albums tended to. 'Blue Light' is surprisingly mellow and 'Electric Grave' brings the fun element back right at the end, making for one of the most solid, entertaining and loud doom metal recordings in existence.
1. Vampire Sun
2. Hopkins (The Witchfinder General)
3. Utopian Blaster
4. Night of the Seagulls
5. Carnival Bizarre
6. Inertias' Cave
7. Fangalactic Supergoria
8. Blue Light
9. Palace of Fallen Majesty
10. Electric Grave
Advantages: Classic doom metal in a variety of styles.
Disadvantages: Second half is a little less impressive.
Cathedral
***
Written on 13.04.08
Having come out of the doom metal debate as a stoner rock band, Cathedral record another enjoyable slab of contemporary Sabbathcore with 'Supernatural Birth Machine,' but for all its simplistic enjoyment, its sheer unoriginality and repetition mean it can't stand up to the band's finest.
The record is permeated by a satisfying groove present in Garry Jennings' stoner guitar, supported by Leo Smee's bass and Brian Dixon's drums, but aside from an abundance of pretty cool guitar solos, there's nothing here that hasn't been heard a thousand times before, usually from bands in the Southern United States, where they seem to claim ownership of Black Sabbath influence. The only songs that stand out as being different are the Candlemass-style 'Nightmare Castle' and the brief opener 'Cybertron 71 / Eternal Countdown' that moves from a stoner overture to something like a grunge song, with proper singing from Lee Dorrian until the band gives up and launches into its usual style on the other tracks.
Most of this album is repetitive filler that will nevertheless satisfy fans of the genre, but the only real contributions to the Cathedral canon are the excellent 'Stained Glass Horizon' and even better follow-up 'Cyclops Revolution' before the album settles into its groove.
1. Cybertron 71 / Eternal Countdown
2. Urko's Conquest
3. Stained Glass Horizon
4. Cyclops Revolution
5. Birth Machine 2000
6. Nightmare Castle
7. Fireball Demon
8. Phaser Quest
9. Suicide Asteroid
10. Dragon Ryder 13
11. Magnetic Hole
Advantages: Solid stoner rock album.
Disadvantages: Doom metal is largely absent, and most songs are fairly ordinary.
Cathedral
Endtyme
****
Written on 13.04.08
After heading in an increasingly stoner rock direction, Cathedral here elicit the aid of doom producer Billy Anderson to produce the dingiest and sludgiest album of their career, comparable to the distorted style of Eyehategod but still laden with the band's customary Black Sabbath influence, now more than ever.
Songs like 'Whores to Oblivion' pay effective homage to Sabbath without direct theft, while other sections borrow shamelessly - most notably the upbeat finale to 'Alchemist of Sorrows' that sounds more or less exactly like Sabbath's classic 'Electric Funeral.' Elsewhere, Gary Jennings' guitar has the distinctive Toby Iommi style to it more than usual, while the band employs the use of a cowbell and atmospheric soundscapes at various times (particularly with the more melodic 'Astral Queen') to produce a more psychedelic effect.
While other Cathedral efforts have sought mainstream rock approval, this album commendably targets a specific fan base, and anyone unaccustomed to doom in any of its various forms will likely be deterred by the lumbering ten-minute jams and occasional instances of distorted sound effects taking control ('Ultra Earth'). But like many works targeted at a specific audience, most people will hate it, but the ones who'll like it will reeeeeally love it.
1. Cathedral Flames
2. Melancholy Emperor
3. Requiem for the Sun
4. Whores to Oblivion
5. Alchemist of Sorrows
6. Ultra Earth
7. Astral Queen
8. Sea Serpent
9. Templars Arise! (The Return)
Advantages: More committed doom performance.
Disadvantages: Some songs don't know when to stop.
Cathedral
The VIIth Coming
****
Written on 13.04.08
Most of the doom metal bands originating in England in the 1990s (chiefly Anathema and Paradise Lost) eventually moved on to pastures new and inferior, but fortunately Coventry's Cathedral have remained consistent in terms of quality, despite ending up more squarely in the stoner rock field than anything resembling their doom origins. With 'The VIIth Coming' they manage to recapture some of the classic doom spirit and incorporate it into their more upbeat playing style, allowing for a fresh of breath air in an album that would otherwise consist of songs that all sound exactly the same. As it is, that's only the case for the majority of them.
There's a lot for doom fans here, from the psychedelic fantasy lyrics of 'Black Robed Avenger' and metaphors of 'Skullflower' to the great guitar work of Garry Jennings that continues to establish Cathedral as the modern equivalent of Black Sabbath. Most of the songs are shorter and more accessible than the band's previous offerings, and disappointingly many of them are similar to the point of extreme blurring thanks to their reliance on a steady groove throughout, but even through all its flaws (songs like 'The Empty Mirror' are far too long, and not really saved from tedium by the addition of an even duller atmospheric movement), it's sure to be a favourite among fans of stoner rock.
1. Phoenix Rising
2. Resisting the Ghost
3. Skullflower
4. Aphrodite's Winter
5. The Empty Mirror
6. Nocturnal Fist
7. Iconoclast
8. Black Robed Avenger
9. Congregation of Sorcerers
10. Halo of Fire
Advantages: More accessible.
Disadvantages: Repetitive.
Cathedral
****
Written on 24.04.08
The strange and hostile 'Garden of Unearthly Delights' seems almost like a conscious contrast to the more accessible doom rock style of Cathedral's previous album 'The VIIth Coming,' and while it's certainly much less instantly accessible, it's musically and stylistically the superior of the two, while also highly distinctive within the band's discography.
The sound is still heavily distorted stoner rock, with some songs employing new and unusual guitar effects, but this is the band's heaviest and most psychedelic album since 'Endtyme.' 'Upon Azrael's Wings' is based on a riff derivative of Metallica's 'Fight Fire With Fire' before moving into an atmospheric section employing a female singer, and this is furthered in the twenty-six minute 'The Garden,' an epic-length song that nevertheless sounds more like five or six separate songs rather than a coherent whole.
With its overarching lyrical and musical themes that nevertheless avoid being repetitive, this is oneof Cathedral's strongest albums and one that keeps me excited for their next full-length, whenever that may be. It's also probably the most difficult to get into, regardless of your musical background.
1. Dearth AD 2005 (Intro)
2. Tree of Life & Death
3. North Berwick Witch Trials
4. Upon Azrael's Wings
5. Corpsecycle
6. Fields of Zagara (Instrumental)
7. Oro the Manslayer
8. Beneath a Funeral Sun
9. The Garden
10. Proga-Europa
Cattle Decapitation
Human Jerky
**
Written on 13.04.08
Most needlessly gore-obsessed death/grind bands like to have their own little gimmick, and Cattle Decapitation's niche is vegetarian, animal rights, anti-human grindcore. It's won the band many fans in animal rights circles, though whether they actually enjoy the music is another question.
This eighteen-track release (on Satan's Pimp Records) clocks in at just over twelve minutes, which allows you to instantly recognise that many songs run to less than a minute in length, typical for grindcore but also a clear sign of a band without much to say - or perhaps with too much to say, but lacking the patience to follow each argument through - and indeed, each subsequent release would tend to feature longer and longer songs until they were almost radio friendly (if we lived on a different planet, that is).
The vocals are the typical mix of demonic shrieks and nauseating burps as all grind bands have performed since Carcass' debut, but credit has to be given here to one of the most disgusting vocal performances it's ever been my misfortune to experience. It's really horrible, sounding like genuine vomiting in track nine, which enhances the band's typically disgusting subject matter. Even more impressive are the death metal moments that work their way in, leading to some effective slow-downs in songs like 'Flesh-Eating Disease (Flu-Like Symptoms of E-Coli With Complete Digestive Shutdown)' which manages to be just long enough for a structural change to actually mean anything, but which still doesn't take as long to listen to as it does to read its title.
1. Cloned For Carrion
2. Parasitic Infestation (Extracted Pus, Mistaken For Yogurt, and Gargled)
3. Unclogged and Ready For Spewage
4. Gestation of Smegma
5. Mute Rain
6. Flesh-Eating Disease (Flu-Like Symptoms of E-Coli With Complete Digestive Shutdown)
7. The Decapitation of Cattle
8. Constipation Camp
9. Intro to Carnage
10. Cream of the Crop
11. Mad Cow Conspiracy (Bloated Bovine-Home to Flies and Anthrax Spores)
12. Veal and the Cult of Torture
13. Stench From the Dumpster
14. Body Snatcher (Viscrea Intact-Ripe For Devourment)
15. Roadkill Removal Technician
16. Bovine, Swine, and Human-Rinds
17. Bludgeoned, Beaten, and Barbequed
18. Colon-Blo
Advantages: Better guitars than most grindcore.
Disadvantages: It's still the same old grindcore excrement.
Cattle Decapitation
Homovore
*
Written on 13.04.08
The second E.P. from San Diego grindcore vegetarians Cattle Decapitation is less interesting than the first, as despite each song being almost twice as long, nothing particularly entertaining or original is done with the extra time. So they're essentially stretching songs designed for a thirty-second playing time far past their natural lifespan. You wouldn't have thought songs so short could be so tedious, but this band manages it by making them all sound exactly the same.
As well as being less musically inventive, even the sound quality of this recording is inferior to its predecessor, varying between songs but never reaching an entertaining peak. The drums are at the forefront and come off even less effectively than the treble-heavy guitars, and no one plays anything particularly interesting or memorable, leading me to question the purpose of this band's existence. If they had been manufactured as a sort of weird advert for animal rights, at least that would be amusing. As it is, their arguments are inaudible and ineffective, and buried in musical pat.
1. Mauled
2. Joined at the Ass
3. Open Human Head Experiments With Bleach Laquer and Epoxy
4. Diarrhea of the Mouth
5. Headcheese
6. Colostomy Jigsaw Puzzle
7. Pepe's Trepes
8. Release the Gimp
9. The Roadside Dead (Detrunked Stumpification Through Roadrash)
10. Carnal Fecophelia Due to Prolonged Exposure to Methane
11. Icepick Gag Reflex
12. Bathing in a Grease Disposal Unit
13. Molested / Digested
14. Wine of the Sanguine
15. Ride 'Em Cowboy
16. Human Jerky and the Active Cultures
Advantages: You may get a cheap laugh.
Disadvantages: Not fun.
Cattle Decapitation
To Serve Man
**
Written on 13.04.08
There's a fine line between an E.P. and an authentic full-length album when you're a grindcore band, but Cattle Decapitation's third offering just scrapes over the minimum playing time required for a full-price sale, not that anyone with discerning taste would ever purchase it.
This band's major flaw here is its lack of discipline, something that would thankfully be remedied on the far superior follow-up 'Humanure.' Josh Elmore is clearly a talented guitarist, churning out four or five creative and highly distinct riffs per song (and considering the average song length is under two minutes, that's really saying something), but none of them are combined or applied in any logical sense. The saying goes, that if you throw enough manure at a wall, some of it's bound to stick; here, it briefly clings on occasion before sliding sickeningly to the floor.
Much worse are the persistently blasting drums, which might as well be automated but are apparently played by a living, flesh-and-blood, stupefyingly boring human being. No real effort has been put in to making this an enjoyable listening expereince, not even for grind fans, as the overly clean production robs it of any character and makes the whole thing seem more like a collection of ideas that would all be pretty good if handled by a more disciplined group of musicians.
1. Testicular Manslaughter
2. I Eat Your Skin
3. Writhe In Putressence
4. Land of the Severed Meatus
5. The Regurgitation of Corpses
6. Everyone Deserves to Die
7. To Serve Man
8. Colonic Villus Biopsy Performed on the Gastro-Intestinally Incapable
9. Pedeadstrians
10. Long-Pig Chef and the Hairless Goat
11. Hypogastric Combustion By C-4 Plastique
12. Deadmeal
13. Chunk Blower
Advantages: Some good guitar moments.
Disadvantages: Songs lack any kind of coherent structure.
Cattle Decapitation
Humanure
***
Written on 13.04.08
While it's still a distinctly average slab of death/grind, Cattle Decapitation's second full-length album 'Humanure' is a much more impressive effort than their first, the word "effort" being key. Songs are now twice as long, meaning a standard three to four minute length rather than the pointlessly short outbursts of previous releases, and the band now uses this time effectively to keep songs relatively interesting throughout.
New drummer Michael Laughlin is much more talented and entertaining than his predecessor, varying his playing style rather than relying on the same tedious blast-beats all the way through, while Josh Elmore's typically impressive guitar work is now brought out more fully in the warmer death metal production. All of that being said, this is still primarily an album of angry, overly gory rants designed to appal, but also evidently aimed to educate in some respects, and it's merely another extreme metal album more infamous for its controversial cover art (ala Cannibal Corpse) than its actual, fairly mediocre content.
1. Scatology Domine (Intro)
2. Humanure
3. Reduced to Paste
4. Bukkake Tsunami
5. Cloacula: The Anthropophagic Copromantik
6. Chummified
7. Applied Human Defragmentation
8. The Earthling
9. Polyps
10. Lips & Assholes
11. Men Before Swine (Outro)
Advantages: More effort made to construct palatable songs.
Disadvantages: Entirely unoriginal.
Cattle Decapitation
Karma.Bloody.Karma
***
Written on 14.04.08
The third album from meat-is-murder San Diego band Cattle Decapitation is rather like their second, and once you've heard one song there's little need to play the rest of the album, unless this brand of extreme metal appeals to you. Taken strictly within its genre, which blends gore-grind with brutal death metal (I know, I'm a jargon whore - but you try reviewing a hundred heavy metal albums a week without using the terminology), this is really very good. Unfortunately, as tends to be the case, it offers very little for those who desire something more than speed and brutality in their music.
I appreciate a good brutal death metal album more than a good grindcore release, mainly because it can be hard to discern between the good and bad of an essentially careless genre, and I'm pleased to see Cattle Decapitation continuing to move towards metal in this way. The production job is great, arguably better than the band deserves but inevitable considering their relative popularity, and the performances have been tempered to better accommodate the style: Travis Ryan's vocals are now more in the style of a death grunt than a grind gurgle, and David McGraw's drums have an evident thrash influence, while Josh Elmore's guitar continues to impress as the instrument holding the band together.
It's not very original, and it won't convince you to stop eating meat, but it's still as good an album as can be expected from this breed of band.
1. Intro
2. Unintelligent Design
3. Success Is (Hanging By the Neck)
4. One Thousand Times Decapitation
5. The Carcass Derrick
6. Total Gore?
7. Bereavement
8. Suspended In Coprolite
9. Alone at the Landfill
10. Karma.Bloody.Karma
11. The New Dawn
12. Of Human Pride & Flatulence
Advantages: More of the same, for fans.
Disadvantages: More of the same, for everyone else.
Cavalera Conspiracy
Inflikted
***
Written on 14.04.08
Old-school Sepultura fans will either be delighted or disappointed by this recent reunion between the Cavalera brothers, as it effectively sounds just like that other band's material pre-'Roots,' which I suppose was the general idea all along (and will please those fans who are of the opinion that bands' material should never be allowed to vary).
Sepultura was never the same after Max Cavalera's departure, following a disappointing groove metal direction in the vein of Pantera and all the other metal bands that inexplicably slowed down in the mid-nineties, and Max's work in Soulfly wasn't much better. Sadly, this album fails to ignite a new spark for his musical career, having evidently been recorded in a rush and originally slated as a Soulfly album.
This leads to many sections having a distinctly Soulfly sound to them, inevitable considering the presence of Soulfly lead guitarist Marc Rizzo, but the material is still thrash at its core, with songs such as 'Ultra-Violent' possessing an ultra-fast tempo in comparison to more groove-based anthems like 'The Doom of All Fires,' which sounds more like the sort of thing an unimaginative rock club DJ would play.
It's no 'Arise,' but this is still the most palatable material Max Cavalera has put out in fifteen years. It's just a shame there are no new ideas.
1. Inflikted
2. Sanctuary
3. Terrorize
4. Black Ark
5. Ultra-Violent
6. Hex
7. The Doom of All Fires
8. Bloodbrawl
9. Nevertrust
10. Hearts of Darkness
11. Must Kill
Advantages: The Cavalera brothers playing thrash metal again.
Disadvantages: It sounds the same as their old work in Sepultura, weakened by Soulfly influence.
Celestial Season
Solar Lovers
****
Written on 24.04.08
Celestial Season is a doom metal band from the Netherlands, playing a more atmospheric and classically-influenced variant of the death-doom pioneered by England's My Dying Bride and Anathema, but managing to exceed even their finest early works in terms of emotiveness and beauty. The violins and cellos add a haunting extra dimension that not only enhance the slow, melancholic chugging of the rock instruments, but are frequently called upon to take over entirely, most notable in the brief, classical interludes 'Body as Canvas' and 'Fandango.'
The strange thing about this album is how far it swings in the other direction, with the contrasting instrumentals 'The Holy Snake' and 'A Tune From The Majestic Queen's Garden' favouring a stoner rock tone and style. While the fusion of these two separate strands of doom metal (atmospheric beauty and stoner fun) certainly aids this band's distinctiveness, it also weakens the overall effect and robs 'Solar Lovers' of the doom crown it may have inherited, comparable to the elite of My Dying Bride's 'The Angel and the Dark River' and Anathema's 'Serenades.'
Songs such as 'The Scent of Eve' and opener 'Decamerone' are both perfect works of atmospheric doom, but the album is a little too bipolar overall to afford an entirely engrossing experience.
1. Decamerone
2. Solar Child
3. Body as Canvas
4. Soft Embalmer of the Still Midnight
5. Will You Wait for the Sun?
6. The Holy Snake
7. Dancing to a Thousand Symphonies
8. Vienna (Ultravox cover)
9. Fandango
10. The Scent of Eve
11. A Tune From The Majestic Queen's Garden
Celesty
Mortal Mind Creation
****
Written on 25.04.08
After a couple of wholly mediocre albums, Celesty finally make their mark on the power metal scene with their third offering, 'Mortal Mind Creation.' Ditching most of the distractions that only ever hindered their music and made them seem like a Rhapsody clone (the pointless intro and the domineering keyboards in particular), the band concentrates more fully on the metal performance, making for one of the heaviest, fastest and ultimately more enjoyable power metal albums I've heard in some time.
By stripping down the superfluous elements, the band is free to concentrate on being more authentically progressive, in a manner similar (but not identical) to prog-power bands such as Adagio and Symphony X, particularly in songs like 'Demon Inside.' Also gone are the huge deviations into keyboard instrumentals and cheesy power ballads, the latter being replaced by slow songs that still pack a punch, in the form of 'War Creations' and 'Among the Dreams.'
Overall, this makes for a less predictable, less generic and more distinctive album from Celesty, far more entertaining than anything their Finnish contemporaries Sonata Arctica and Stratovarius have achieved in some considerable time.
1. Lord of Mortals
2. Unreality
3. Demon Inside
4. War Creations
5. Empty Room
6. Among the Dreams
7. Back In Time
8. Arrival
9. Last Sacrifice
Celtic Frost
To Mega Therion
****
Written on 15.05.08
Celtic Frost's first full-length album is regarded as a classic of early extreme metal, even if fans can't agree on exactly which genre it helped create (death metal? Black metal? Who cares). With its roots in thrash, the music here is the same fare as other late-eighties extreme bands, and despite the band's reputation and high standing in heavier circles, this album will likely be appreciated more by a fan of Slayer, Bathory or even Motörhead than an Immortal fan in corpse paint.
The production values are absolutely perfect to capture the convincingly hellish atmosphere, as the instruments are all clear and audible, but with an added sludgy tone. Opener 'Innocence and Wrath' pushes this a little too far by adding keyboards in a clichéd attempt to sound like a horror overture, but a later experiment with what sounds like a French horn in 'Dawn of Meggido' is much more satisfying and distinctive. This is all helped by the great artwork pinched from H.R. Giger.
Someone who bought the preceding EPs 'Morbid Tales' and 'Emperor's Return' would have been pleasantly surprised by the lack of overlap here, and although the style is similar in its shifting between tempos, the music here is more varied. 'Circle of the Tyrants' instantly became the band's best-loved song, but others are equally worth listening to, from the escalating 'Jewel Throne' to the doomy 'Dawn of Meggido' and the plodding finale 'Necromantical Screams.'
1. Innocence and Wrath
2. The Usurper
3. Jewel Throne
4. Dawn of Meggido
5. Eternal Summer
6. Circle of the Tyrants
7. (Beyond the) North Winds
8. Fainted Eyes
9. Tears in a Prophet's Dream
10. Necromantical Screams
Celtic Frost
Into the Pandemonium
***
Written on 15.05.08
'Experimental' is a term that many fans dread, as their favourite band becomes tired of playing the style of music they're best at, and instead trade in their usual kit for weird, exotic tribal instruments in an attempt to get back to basics, or something. Celtic Frost's career entered the experimental phase fairly rapidly, as soon as their second album 'Into the Pandemonium,' and it was a career move that enchanted as many fans as it alienated. I think it's pretty good, but there were undoubtedly some very lousy decisions made along the way.
The band's heavy thrash style is still present, expressed most clearly in 'Inner Sanctum' and 'Babylon Fell' which stand up to the best material from 'To Mega Therion' and feature greater production that really brings out the bass work, but the rest of the album really is quite different fare. The predominant style seems like a thrash version of The Fall, as songs are led with fairly loose riffs that Tom G. Warrior occasionally accompanies with a stoned vocal performance. It's good when it works, particularly in 'I Won't Dance' which has a nice vocal harmony in the chorus, but the last two songs become tiresome as they sound essentially the same.
The weirdest tracks depart from metal completely, and while this could conceivably present a fresh of breath air, it doesn't end up working like that. 'Sorrows of the Moon' is a soft orchestral piece narrated by a French woman, and the terrible 'One in Their Pride' is a sort of eighties hip-hop instrumental with a boring electronic drum beat and samples of the moon landing. 'Mexican Radio' is an unusual choice to start the album, an energetic cover of the Wall of Voodoo song, but it's also probably the highest point. Thrash fans should still find something to enjoy on this release, but fans of the avant-garde should stay away unless they want to hear it done really badly. At least they tried.
1. Mexican Radio (Wall of Voodoo cover)
2. Mesmerized
3. Inner Sanctum
4. Sorrows of the Moon
5. Babylon Fell
6. Caress Into Oblivion
7. One in Their Pride (Porthole mix)
8. I Won't Dance (Elder's Orient)
9. Rex Irae (Requiem: Overture - Fourth Version)
10. Oriental Masquerade
Celtic Frost
Vanity/Nemesis
***
Written on 15.05.08
Following the disappointment of 'Cold Lake,' Celtic Frost return to form to some extent, though the band's perseverance in reinventing their sound once again results in an album that's highly distinctive in the discography, if less sensational than their earlier efforts. Thrash metal is still at the root, but absent is the evil atmosphere that pervaded 'Morbid Tales,' more in line with the gritty experimentalism of 'Into the Pandemonium' while thankfully side-stepping the glam of 'Cold Lake' altogether.
As with many bands at the turn of the nineties, the music here is a little more laid-back and often more comparable to hard rock than metal, similar to Metallica's self-titled black album released the following year, but the thrash end of things is still maintained by some frenetically screaming solos and the occasional outburst track such as 'A Kiss or a Whisper.' There are still some experimental touches left over from 'Into the Pandemonium' only a little less enthralling, with acoustic flourishes in 'Wings of Solitude' and the overlong 'Nemesis,' and a female singer in the former.
This album won't be of any interest to those approaching Celtic Frost on the strength of their legacy to extreme metal, as this is all fairly accessible stuff, and predictably suffers for it in terms of creativity and general enjoyment. Even the covers of Bryan Ferry and David Bowie lack the fun and enthusiasm of their earlier cover of 'Mexican Radio,' the Bowie song in particular being unrecognisable apart from the lyrics, and in no way comparable to the original whether you enjoyed it or not.
1. The Heart Beneath
2. Wine in My Hand (Third from the Sun)
3. Wings of Solitude
4. The Name of My Bride
5. This Island Earth (Bryan Ferry cover)
6. The Restless Seas
7. Phallic Tantrum
8. A Kiss or a Whisper
9. Vanity
10. Nemesis
11. Heroes (David Bowie cover)
Cephalic Carnage
Anomalies
****
Written on 15.05.08
I don't expect much from death/grind albums, even those optimistically labelled as "technical," which usually means a guitarist speeding through as many unoriginal riffs and licks as he can in the name of showing off, but Cephalic Carnage pleasantly surprised me with their musical ability and whole attitude.
This music is indeed technical, but at no cost to the simple enjoyment. Death metal lead guitars still find plenty of opportunities to slip between the cracks, the vocals are varied and thoughtful, and there are even some radical departures with the atmospheric sections of songs like 'Inside Is Out' before the ten-minute finale turns the album on its head entirely. The songs are in a constant state of motion to remain compelling throughout their playing time, which is usually no longer than three minutes in any case, but never distract with pointless deviations. This really is a masterclass in how to put together a "technical" album without overdoing things.
Most impressive of all is the band's light-hearted attitude, something that used to be present in grindcore but became lost along the way. The song 'Dying Will Be the Death of Me' is the best example, a blatant parody/mockery of the metalcore trend that imitates it perfectly, right down to the cheesy solos stolen from the 1980s heavy metal scene, and a song that could easily be taken at face value for being of the same standard as the metalcore high-fliers. Not the easiest album to digest, but one that doesn't try to be confrontational just for the sake of it.
1.Scientific Remote Viewing
2.Wraith
3.Counting the Days
4.The Will or the Way
5.Piecemaker
6.Enviovore
7.Dying Will Be the Death of Me
8.Inside Is Out
9.Sleeprace
10.Kill for Weed
11.Litany of Failure
12.Ontogeny of Behavior
Charon
Downhearted
**
Written on 16.05.08
Charon is one of several relatively high profile gothic metal bands playing in the Finnish style, popularised by the likes of HIM and, to a lesser extent, The 69 Eyes. Of the three, Charon are certainly the most convincingly "metal," solely due to the efforts of the guitars that occasionally deliver a riff that wouldn't be out of place in a slow power metal song (such as that in 'At the End of Our Day' that's reminiscent of Therion). This aside, the style is still very much in the same overly sentimental, melodramatic gothic style as the band HIM, repackaging eighties glam as a pin-up for teenage goth girls.
The vocals are quite good, certainly less showy than some of the band's competitors and more indebted to the deep style of The Sisters of Mercy than The Cure, but the predictable song structure becomes irritating fairly soon, moving from consciously mellow and downbeat verses into highly strung choruses that all seem to sound the same. The keyboards dominate the proceedings with a light polish that isn't enough to hide the severe lack of substance in the majority of the album, as the drums plod dully along with the vocals in anticipation of the guitars returning in the chorus, their abstinence seeming like a desperate attempt to manufacture emphasis.
There aren't many deviations from the established mould in these songs, and they're unanimously lousy when they do arrive. 'Little Angel' experiments with a thrumming techno pulse that sounds out of place, while finale 'Sorrowsong' is an inevitable ballad that has the unpleasant task of going even further with the romantic gothic drivel than ever before, basically meaning that the band strips to piano and vocals. I'm sure I'd still prefer this to a HIM album, but I don't see this whole Finnish gothic metal genre as a successful experiment. The likes of doom bands such as My Dying Bride and Katatonia have always seemed like a more natural and convincing continuation of eighties gothic music to me, and they never feel forced like this does.
1. Bitter Joy
2. At the End of Our Day
3. Craving
4. Little Angel
5. Fall
6. Erase Me
7. Desire You
8. Come Tonight
9. All I Care Is Dying
10. Sister Misery
11. Sorrowsong
The Chasm
*****
Written on 10.06.08
The third album from the Chasm is just about as perfect and original as death metal could ever hope to get, and this surely partly down to the band's relative isolation from any sort of creatively restrictive 'scene' of the sort that hinders bands in more metallically prosperous countries. Hailing from Mexico, the Chasm don't audibly incorporate any of their nation's specific musical heritage into their style, but like Argentum and the other notable Mexican metal bands, their sound is entirely unique and not easily pigeonholed like their contemporaries.
'Deathcult for Eternity' is a flawless album, as long as you have a taste for death metal. Even if that's the case, its atypical song structures may be off-putting at first, though with the irresistible guitar performance of Daniel Corchado and Erick Diaz leading the way, it's an album that's a pleasure to get to grips with. None of the usual failings of death metal are here, such as sudden outbursts of speed or slower breakdowns to satiate fans of the generic and predictable, and the songs don't follow the expected verse/chorus pattern. That being the case, the style doesn't serve to alienate in the manner of technical or self-consciously 'progressive' death metal, it just means that each song remains compelling for its entirety.
There's a general tendency towards slower and more melodic touches as the album progresses, with the bipolar 'A Portal to Nowhere' paving the way for more fully realised melody in 'Possessed by Past Tragedies (Tragic Shadows),' 'In Superior Torment...' and the partly acoustic 'Apocalypse' before finale 'The Triumph (Of My Loss...)' brings back the high-speed death metal of the earlier songs. Even Corchado's vocals refuse to be pinned down, ranging from a standard grunt to a surprising shriek. This is a death metal album that really stands out from the crowd.
1. Revenge Rises / Drowned in the Mournful Blood
2. No Mercy (Our Time Is Near)
3. I'm the Hateful Raven
4. A Portal to Nowhere
5. Chanelling the Bleeding Over the Dream's Remains
6. Possessed by Past Tragedies (Tragic Shadows)
7. Apocalypse
8. In Superior Torment...
9. The Triumph (Of My Loss...)
The Chasm
****
Written on 10.06.08
Chasm's fourth album is no sequel to 'Deathcult for Eternity,' but as that was such a distinctive album, it's probably for the best that the band didn't try to recapture its style. Where its predecessor was innovative, this follow-up is a little more standard in its execution of the death metal style, but is still led by a flawless performance from all hands and some great structural ideas.
The immediate audible difference comes in the production, which moves on from the very thrash-based sound of the previous album to a clearer and louder style more suited to death metal, without being overbearing. This really helps to bring out features such as the bass drums, and helps them achieve equal prominence to the guitars of Daniel Corchado and newcomer Julio Viterbo, whose excellent solos are some of the highlights of the album.
Opener 'Spectral Sons of the Mictlan' is one of the best death metal instrumentals I've heard, opting for a mysterious, melodic approach rather than anything showy, and it works as such a perfect overture that it's almost disappointing to hear the inevitable fast death metal appearing in track two. Every song is great, if a little less distinctive than the band's earlier works, and despite the unfortunate comparisons to its illustrious predecessor, this was still one of the best metal releases from 1999.
1. Spectral Sons of the Mictlan
2. The Scars of My Journey
3. At the Edge of the Nebula Mortis
4. Fading...
5. Return of the Banished
6. Cosmic Landscapes of Sorrow
7. Architects of Melancholic Apocalypse
8. Storm of Revelations
Children of Bodom
Something Wild
****
Written on 16.05.08
Finland's Children of Bodom are perhaps deservedly one of the more well-known acts in extreme metal today, as well as one of the hardest to pin down musically by genre-spewing reviewers like me, at least in their early days. To illustrate with some name-dropping that won't help your understanding at al but will make me feel clever, Bodom's style is rooted in German speed metal (Helloween, Blind Guardian) with the ferocity of thrash (Megadeth, Testament), the symphonic keyboards of power metal (Stratovarius, Nightwish) and the harsh vocal rasps and smashing drums of black metal (Mayhem, Immortal). Just to confuse matters even further, they throw in the occasional unison punk yell.
Aiding Bodom's individuality (at least, until other bands such as Kalmah and Norther started to copy them) is the equal footing given to each band member, with clearly distinct roles for instruments such as the bass guitar and keyboard that are commonly overlooked or used merely to round out the sound.
Janne Warman's keyboard is every bit as important as the guitars of Alexi Laiho and Alexander Kuoppalla, shifting between irresistibly cheesy horror chords and a satisfyingly false harpsichord tone for many of the solos. The guitars themselves are comparable to melodic death metal, mixing heavy riffs with plenty of melody and some great dual solos, while Jaska Raatikainen's drums are often surprisingly ferocious, holding up the extreme side of things with Laiho's crow-like squawk.
This debut isn't Bodom's most polished release, but its slightly rushed and amateurish nature adds to its charm, balancing out some certified early classics with some obvious filler that's just as enjoyable. The lyrics were all improvised in the studio, which leads to intriguing repetition of themes and phrases that could deceive the attentive listener into thinking they're dealing with a concept album. The Lake Bodom murders touched on here, that gave the band its name, would continue to feature prominently as a staple of their albums, as much as the ever-present Grim Reaper cover art.
The most enjoyable thing about early Children of Bodom is just how much damn fun they are to listen to. Clearly taking delight in their haphazard concoction of styles and not getting caught up in attempts to prove their heaviness or creativity, the band is apparently combining its influences in the way that feels right regardless of how much sense it makes at the time, and the result is often sensational.
'Deadnight Warrior' is a frenetic opener that shows the band's thrash influence at a peak that wouldn't resurface until finale 'Touch Like Angel of Death,' before making way for longer and more involved offerings in the form of 'In the Shadows' and the 'Red Light in My Eyes' suite, in truth merely a pair of songs connected by title alone. These three songs all feature atmospheric breaks through Warman's gloomy keys, with plenty of opportunities for individual band members to strut their stuff with solos, always enjoyable and never crossing the line into indulgence.
'The Nail' is similarly multi-faceted to 'In the Shadows,' but a little meaner, while 'Lake Bodom' is perhaps the band's greatest song, or at the very least one of their all-time greats. It's the only song on here that really seems perfect and complete, setting the style for many later classics on the next couple of albums that are fundamentally variations. From the memorable opening melodies to the even greater riffs that kick in later and dominate, this is catchy, enthralling, downright ace metal that is guaranteed a prestigious place on the ultimate metal compilation album that I will force you all to endure one day.
1. Deadnight Warrior
2. In the Shadows
3. Red Light in My Eyes, Part 1
4. Red Light in My Eyes, Part 2
5. Lake Bodom
6. The Nail
7. Touch Like Angel of Death
Children of Bodom
Hatebreeder
*****
Written on 16.05.08
'Hatebreeder' (or, if you prefer, the green album) represents Children of Bodom's early peak, containing much of their finest material and rivalled only by its immediate successor 'Follow the Reaper' (which is blue). The style pioneered on the debut 'Something Wild' (red) is furthered here and taken to greater extremes, particularly in the area of speed. Rooted in the speed metal tradition and taking their other cues from a variety of fast metal sources, Bodom weren't exactly slow-pokes to begin with, but here it seems as if the band members are pushing themselves and each other to ever greater heights, most clearly audible in the frenetic keyboard work of Janne Warman on songs such as 'Silent Night, Bodom Night.'
Every song here is excellent with no weak links, even if the style becomes a little samey towards the end, but as ever there are a few songs that really stand out above their competitors. 'Warheart' is the perfect Bodom song, moving from a melodic intro to a great series of guitar riffs, a catchy chorus and some enjoyable solos, making time for each band member to show off their clear talents. The heavy 'Hatebreeder' is balanced by the steadier 'Bed of Razors' with its folk-tinged melodies, before my favourite offering 'Towards Dead End' brings back the cheesy horror film keyboards and a riff that's so catchy, it should be illegal.
This is arguably Children of Bodom's finest work, but I'd recommend curious metal fans to check out all of the handily colour-coded early albums from the band for a more comprehensive experience.
1. Warheart
2. Silent Night, Bodom Night
3. Hatebreeder
4. Bed of Razors
5. Towards Dead End
6. Black Widow
7. Wrath Within
8. Children of Bodom
9. Downfall
Children of Bodom
Tokyo Warhearts
****
Written on 10.06.08
Children of Bodom's first live album is a little pointless, coming so early in the Finnish band's discography as to essentially be a best-of from only two studio albums worth of material, but all the same it's one of the most impressive live performances I've heard in a long time, and far superior to their more recent efforts.
With only a slightly muddy production that makes the drums sound a little wet, these songs recorded on two nights in Japan promoting the then-contemporary 'Hatebreeder' album really capture the band at its best, and many of the songs end up sounding superior to the studio versions, particularly those from the debut 'Something Wild.' The band works tightly as a unit, and while the solo sections are a little disappointing, most prominent in the face-off between keyboardist Janne Warman and guitarist Alexi Laiho in 'War of Razors' that never feels like it goes anywhere, the increased energy makes all of the other songs a pleasure to listen to.
For the most part, these are identical to the studio versions and are thus slightly irrelevant for those who already own 'Something Wild' and 'Hatebreeder,' but there are still some subtle differences such as the inclusion of extra keyboard passages from Warman, usually quoting TV theme tunes, while 'Warheart' sounds oddly more aggressive than its melodic album counterpart. Most of the best songs are here, but the main nagging problem is how much better this would have been if the band had waited another couple of years to include material from the excellent 'Follow the Reaper.'
1. Intro
2. Silent Night, Bodom Night
3. Lake Bodom
4. Warheart
5. Bed of Razors
6. War of Razors (Solo Battles)
7. Deadnight Warrior
8. Hatebreeder
9. Touch Like Angel of Death
10. Downfall
11. Towards Dead End
Children of Bodom
Follow the Reaper
Respect Your Reaper
*****
Written on 05.09.04
I've always loved the Grim Reaper. From the humorous takes on the sinister servant of the afterlife in 'Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey' to the far less hospitable (but equally humorous) Reaper in Monty Python's 'The Meaning of Life.' Children of Bodom had produced an album dedicated to this fantastic hooded legend: I had to buy it. It's really good too.
Children of Bodom are a fascinating band for metal fans, as they incorporate elements of different styles to come up with a quite unique sound. Most commonly labelled as death metal, or melodic death metal if you want to nitpick, these loud Swedes reached their musical peak with 2001's 'Follow the Reaper.'
STYLE
Children of Bodom is:
Alexi Wildchild Laiho - vocals and guitars
Henkka Blacksmith - bass
Jaska Raatikainen - drums
Janne Warman - keyboards
Bodom's music is influenced heavily, and often dominated by, the keyboards of Janne Warman. Although the pounding drums scream throughout the tracks, not to mention to incredible guitar riffing and powerful vocals - both handled by the incredible talented "Wildchild" Laiho - it is this heavy keyboard presence on this album in particular that adds atmosphere to the music and also allows for some great horror film-esque melodies on occasion. This horror element is added to by the somewhat disturbing vocals following a black metal style, screeching and roaring speedy lyrics and never retreating into 'clean' voice, but these gothic elements are balanced out perfectly by the power metal-style guitars.
Without hearing the guitars juxtaposed with the heavy music it would be debatable whether something so melodic and uplifting would suit the style at all, but for me this is what makes Bodom so enjoyable. Classic solos and interesting high sections almost spanning the album make this a highly popular CD with guitar players who attempt to reproduce what they hear on the disc, with varying success I expect.
None of these tracks last for more than around five minutes, making this a great collection of enjoyable and speedy songs that take very little effort to enjoy: previous experience of death metal is still something of a prerequisite though. This is very heavy and overpowering music that would sound incredible aggressive were it not for the beautiful, harmonious string thrashing.
FOLLOW THE REAPER
1. Follow the Reaper
2. Bodom After Midnight
3. Children of Decadence
4. Every Time I Die
5. Mask of Sanity
6. Taste of My Scythe
7. Hate Me!
8. Northern Comfort
9. Kissing the Shadows
10. [Bonus track]
Many of these tracks sound similar, distinguished only by slight changes in speed and the melodies of the guitars and vocals, but this wasn't intended to provide a diverse listen: this is the Bodom experience. The opening title track FOLLOW THE REAPER highlights Bodom at their best and is littered with examples of the guitar harmonies, while the other tracks tend to incorporate these elements a little more into the overall tapestry of the songs.
While track one was the catchy high guitar track, tracks two and three rely more on the catchy rhythm of the choruses, the vocals of which can be discerned for a change. BODOM AFTER MIDNIGHT and CHILDREN OF DECADENCE are heavy and dark but still very uplifting through the sing-a-long choruses, if you can appreciate such things in a death metal context. This is the closest the album gets to being eighties heavy metal performed in a death metal style, apart from the bonus tracks of course.
EVERY TIME I DIE is based on a brilliant guitar melody and it was this song that attracted me to the band, and this album, in particular. Slower than what has come before, this is a song that I could easily get lost in if it were any longer: a classic. MASK OF SANITY on the other hand is not particularly beautiful and is based a little more on the pounding double bass drums, but the chorus is catchy once again, as are the sparse keyboard touches.
TASTE OF MY SCYTHE is an interesting progressive song that begins fairly slowly, moves into a fast and heavy area and then comes up with a great high keyboard section that highlights Warman's skill better than any other track on the disc. HATE ME! is a contender for a single release, if this band were ever popular enough to release such a thing that is, and returns to the heavy and catchy style of tracks two and three. Great use again of the keyboards in complimenting the chorus.
NORTHERN COMFORT is a bit of a forgettable track, but is one of the best for guitars on the album. Similarly, KISSING THE SHADOWS is easy to overlook as it doesn't bring anything new to the album at this point, but it is one of the better offerings that leads out with some more brilliant high guitar harmonies. The Nuclear Blast label have released several versions of this album, some of which feature a cover of an older heavy metal track done in the Bodom style: their version of Ozzy Osbourne's 'Shot in the Dark' is a treat that sounds like it could have been a Bodom original, although 'Hellion' could never be too impressive, considering it was composed by those glam idiots W.A.S.P.
VERDICT
This is my favourite Children of Bodom album due to the heavy presence of guitar and keyboard sections providing a haunting atmosphere to the album as well as an excellent harmonious contrast to the dingy, heavy backing instruments. It's the growling vocals that would take the most getting used to here, as anyone new to death metal would find this very distracting: in some ways the music would sound better with some clean vocal touches, but a more traditional vocal style throughout would not suit the tone or style as much as Wildchild's eerie screech.
Bodom’s earlier albums 'Something Wild' and 'Hatebreeder' sound less impressive than this, although the evolution to Follow the Reaper can be clearly heard, but their more recent 'Hate Crew Deathroll' disappointingly travelled to more thrashy death metal territory, losing many of the high sections and focusing more on aggression and over-the-top comedy violence lyrics and song titles, something that has never really done it for me. Follow the Reaper is, in my opinion, one of the metal classics of recent years, and my favourite death-power-black-speed-prog-thrash-grind-harmony album. That I know of, anyway.
This review is dedicated to the Grim Reaper. Keep it up.
Children of Bodom
Hate Crew Deathroll
***
Written on 16.05.08
The problem with a band having a sound as uniquely distinctive as Children of Bodom is that there may come a time when the band starts to naturally move away from their established style, but still attempts to shoehorn in those elements that are recognisably theirs. The first disappointment after a trilogy of excellent releases, 'Hate Crew Deathroll' sees Bodom moving more towards thrash and death metal, abandoning their speed metal roots but still retaining the horror keyboards and melodic guitars in a manner that now seems uncomfortably contrived. This is Children of Bodom trying too hard to sound like Children of Bodom.
There are still some fine songs, notably the well-known opener 'Needled 24/7' with its catchy riff and the successful experiment at a slow song in the form of 'Angels Don't Kill,' but the rest is largely mediocre. The guitars are less exciting now than ever, mainly relegated to the duty of heavy riffs in tandem with the hard-hitting drums, and Alexi Laiho's yell has now evolved from a black metal rasp to an even less pleasant hardcore yell. His new obsession with swearing all the time only adds to the disconcertingly metalcore vibe looming over this release that would be more fully realised in the band's later disappointments.
1. Needled 24/7
2. Sixpounder
3. Chokehold (Cocked 'n' Loaded)
4. Bodom Beach Terror
5. Angels Don't Kill
6. Triple Corpse Hammerblow
7. You're Better Off Dead
8. Lil' Bloodred Ridin' Hood
9. Hate Crew Deathroll
Children of Bodom
*****
Written on 16.05.08
I'm not normally a fan of "best-of" compilations, generally preferring to hear songs in their original context of the studio albums, but this collection of highlights from Children of Bodom's first three albums is surprisingly comprehensive, tasteful and value for money. If you live in Japan at least, otherwise for the prohibitive import cost you might as well buy all three albums on the cheap.
It seems that this collection was put together without direct involvement from the band, which essentially means that discerning fans get to choose their favourite songs without the pressure of promoting other releases. Indeed, the deliberate absence of any songs from that year's 'Hate Crew Deathroll' album makes it stronger as a result, whether this was due to record label concerns or merely good taste in focusing on its predecessors. Fortunately, by clearly stating in its title that this is only a compilation spanning a few years, the album avoids making any kind of admission that the band is now past its prime.
The songs on here are all excellent without exception, and the editing process really has excelled in selecting the finest songs from each release, even ones that I might not have considered myself. The live songs are taken from 1999's 'Tokyo Warhearts,' while the band's evolution is otherwise presented in a more or less chronological order, culminating in the tracks from my personal favourite, 'Follow the Reaper.'
At one hour and fifteen minutes, it's clear that the compiler/s really tried to squeeze as much on here as they could, and there's even a treat for those who already own the studio albums in the form of a Billy Idol cover. Sadly, Bodom's covers are never all that exciting, and this is one of the weakest of the lot, not sounding particularly Bodomed and making for a poor start to an otherwise impeccable collection.
1. Rebel Yell (Billy Idol Cover)
2. In the Shadows
3. Lake Bodom
4. Warheart
5. Silent Night, Bodom Night
6. Towards Dead End
7. Children of Bodom
8. Deadnight Warrior (Live)
9. Hatebreeder (Live)
10. Touch Like Angel of Death (Live)
11. Downfall (Live)
12. Follow the Reaper
13. Bodom After Midnight
14. Everytime I Die
15. Mask of Sanity
16. Hate Me!
17. Kissing the Shadows
Children of Bodom
***
Written on 16.05.08
Having released their first live album at a bizarrely early point, it was a number of years before a follow-up seemed appropriate, eventually arriving with the CD (and later DVD) 'Chaos Ridden Years: Stockholm Knockout Live.' Focusing on the five albums released up to that point with roughly even focus, this should technically please fans of the band both old and new, though the performance itself is somewhat lacking.
Most disappointing to someone who was turned off by the contemporary studio album 'Are You Dead Yet?', the band retains its near-metalcore style for the performance, which weakens the older songs that used to seem somehow jollier and more reminiscent of eighties speed metal, here rendered more hostile and less melodic than the originals. The band also makes a fair amount of slip-ups and very obvious mistakes, but this isn't necessarily a problem as Bodom's flair for improvisation has always been part of their charm.
Nevertheless, the tracks devoted to solos on this album are universally appalling and extremely dull, from the tedious and mostly silent drum solo 'Deadbeats I' to the alleged face-off of guitar and keyboard in 'Clash of the Booze Brothers' that's only slightly more palatable, and really has nothing going for it.
Disc 1
1. Living Dead Beat
2. Sixpounder
3. Silent Night, Bodom Night
4. Hate Me!
5. We're Not Gonna Fall
6. Angels Don't Kill
7. Deadbeats I
8. Bodom After Midnight / Bodom Beach Terror (Medley)
9. Follow the Reaper
Disc 2
1. Needled 24/7
2. Clash of the Booze Brothers
3. In Your Face
4. Hate Crew Deathroll
5. Are You Dead Yet?
6. Latvala (Guitar Solo)
7. Lake Bodom
8. Everytime I Die
9. Downfall
Chinchilla
Madness
***
Written on 10.06.08
By their second album, Germany's Chinchilla had settled into their role as practitioners of distinctly mediocre power metal, a title they still bear proudly today. The most noticeable changes here from the debut album are the replacement of singer/keyboardist Martin Obermeier with respective newcomers Thomas Laasch and Marc Steck handling each, and bringing a distinctly eighties glam metal sound to the proceedings that isn't particularly welcome.
Fortunately, the album also cuts down on the excess of ballads, with only the tell-tale 'Broken Heart' being completely awful, and 'Where the Brave Belong' and 'Anymore' merely aurally boring rather than especially offensive. The songs are mostly mid-tempo again, despite the deceptive fast drums of Steffen Theurer, but once again Urdo Gerstenmeyer fails to produce any memorable guitar riffs, relying instead on his skill at solos that are more often than not ripped off from other bands (the enjoyable one in the title song sounds like a Metallica copy).
Chinchilla are content to rely primarily on Laasch's singing talents, however much he sounds like an inferior clone of Edguy's Tobias Sammet (but who doesn't?), and this limited approach weakens their music as a whole.
1. Intro
2. Fight
3. Freedom
4. Queen of the Rain
5. Broken Heart
6. I Stole Your Love (Kiss cover)
7. Madness
8. Living On My Own
9. Where the Brave Belong
10. Tears
11. Dark and Light
12. Anymore
Chinchilla
***
Written on 10.06.08
'The Last Millennium' displays a promising career move for Chinchilla, as their music becomes slightly more energetic and thus entertaining. It's also the first album to feature nothing in the way of vomit-inducing ballads, the closest thing being the dull plodder 'After the War' that's nowhere near as aurally offensive.
The band has settled a little more into things now, with Urdo Gerstenmeyer unleashing his long-awaited first memorable guitar riff ever, with 'Demons We Call.' Unfortunately, Steffen Theuren's approach to creativity is to re-use exactly the same drum intro to several songs, as if we wouldn't notice, while most of the responsibility still falls on the singing talents of the quite-good Thomas Laasch, who keeps Chinchilla rooted in the same league of light, vocal-centric power metal bands as their equally mediocre contemporaries Brainstorm.
Their cover of 'The Boys Are Back in Town' is nothing special, and won't be of interest to those who are familiar or somehow unfamiliar with Thin Lizzie's original, and once again a pointless intro track must be sat through before the relative chore of the proper songs can begin in earnest.
1. The Last Millennium
2. War Machine
3. Demons We Call
4. Nighttrain of Death
5. Father Forgive Me
6. After the War
7. Victims of the Night
8. The Boys Are Back in Town (Thin Lizzie cover)
9. They Are Liars
10. The Highest Price
Advantages: No ballads.
Disadvantages: No memorable songs.
Chinchilla
Madtropolis
***
Written on 10.06.08
The cover art and thematically linked song titles may give the illusion of a futuristic concept album, but Chinchilla's fourth album is merely their usual fare of catchy but ultimately forgettable melodic power metal and failed epic slow songs.
The intro and outro tracks are nothing but dull keyboard orchestration that add nothing to the album, and are more likely to detract from the listening experience, while the rest are still chorus-based with enjoyable shredding guitar solos and less tolerable keyboard solos.
The overall quality is about the same as the band's previous 'The Last Millennium,' with a couple of notable failures dragging down the quality somewhat. 'Entire World' lacks the magnitude that its lofty title promises, being one of the dullest songs I've heard in some time, and the equally ambitiously titled 'Heavy Metal' fails to capture the heavy metal spirit in the way other stupidly titled metal odes have managed in the past, particularly in the catalogue of Manowar. To its credit, the slow 'Turn Around the Magic Table' attempts something different with a weird vocal style, but the result is only disconcerting at best.
1. The Arise of Madtropolis (Intro)
2. Our Destiny
3. A Dance With the Devil
4. When the Sand Darkens the Sun
5. Entire World
6. Satellite
7. Heavy Metal
8. Headless Fools
9. Turn Around the Magic Table
10. Money Rules Everything
11. Battle of the World
12. Madtropolis
13. The Fall of Madtropolis
Advantages: Inoffensive.
Disadvantages: Insubstantial.
Chinchilla
Take No Prisoners
***
Written on 10.06.08
Not an album of rock cover songs despite the misleading first impression of its tracklist, 2004's 'Take No Prisoners' is still Chinchilla's most recent album, and also their best, relatively speaking. The album dispenses with a rubbish intro track and gets straight into the good stuff, as Urdo Gerstenmeyer lets rip with his guitar talents for the first real time, producing riffs in songs such as 'The Almighty Power' that are actually memorable. For the first time, the band really seems to be working as a unit, rather than as a support act for the vocals of Thomas Laasch.
Curiously, while the misleading song titles don't signify cover versions, they seemed reminiscent of those respective earlier bands, though this could have been partly my imagination. 'The Ripper' sounds a lot like classic metal in the Judas Priest style, or more accurately like the Judas Priest imitators Primal Fear, 'Take No Prisoners' features a thrashy riff (even if it's not Megadeth), and 'Money Talks' has the AC/DC hard rock vibe about it, though lacks the immortal guitar work.
The only low point of the album is the ballad 'Silent Moments,' as bad as ever, but even for all this album's comparative strength, it's still rather average for modern power metal.
1. The Almighty Power
2. Death is the Grand Leveller
3. The Call
4. The Ripper
5. Take No Prisoners
6. Lost Control
7. Money Talks
8. Silent Moments
9. Stillborn Soul
10. Rich Hounds
Chthonic
Relentless Recurrence
****
Written on 10.06.08
Cthonic is an intriguing black metal band largely due to their foundation in Taiwan rather than Norway, which infuses their style with a slightly more culturally distinct sound than their obvious Scandinavian influences. These touches are less prominent on the comparatively early 'Relentless Recurrence,' but the emphasis on keyboards, even leading to three songs being devoted entirely to synthetic orchestral interludes, makes it a very different beast to traditional black metal concerned with aggression and evil. Despite their focus on the dark side of Taiwanese mythology, the music rarely sounds anything less than pleasant, assuming your ears are accustomed to the strains of melodic black metal.
Songs such as 'Be Ming Ge,' to use the phonetic approximation of the original titles, are based in a medium tempo with an equal focus on the guitar and keyboard, and while the style isn't really anything new, sounding reminiscent of early Arcturus or Dimmu Borgir, this at least catches the band before the introduction of an opera singer turned them into a Cradle of Filth soundalike. Er Hu's atmospheric wail is perfectly suited to the keyboard interludes 'Ye,' 'Hen Zang Lin Tou,' 'Li Shen Gui' and 'Lve Hun Ru Yan Yu,' and while his typical rasp in the other songs sounds less impressive by comparison, it at least doesn't scream for attention above the melody of the instruments.
There's also a distinct melodic death metal influence here in songs such as 'Sha Tu' that at least shows the band's willingness to combine influences, even if their lack of true creative touches is a little disappointing and surprising considering their obscure origin.
1. Ye (Nemesis)
2. Be Ming Ge (Onset of Tragedy)
3. Hen Zang Lin Tou (Obituary Tuning)
4. Ming He Yuan Fu (Grievance, Acheron Poem)
5. Fan Yang Jui Zu (Revert to Mortal Territory)
6. Li Shen Gui (Funest Demon Born)
7. Sha Tu (Vengeance Arise)
8. Hen Shi San Jie (Slaughter in Tri-Territory)
9. Lve Hun Ru Yan Yu (Grab the Soul to Hell / Relentless Recurrence)
Circus Maximus
Isolate
***
Written on 22.05.08
If it's possible to discern a trend from only two studio releases, it seems that Circus Maximus' brief stint as a promising new force in progressive metal has fully waned by the time of their sophomore 'Isolate.' With less of a power metal focus than before, generally shorter songs that fail to go anywhere interesting and an uncomfortable focus on power ballads in the vein of eighties glam metal (even down to some horrendous Van Halen style keyboards in 'Arrival of Love'), this album represents everything I dislike about bands labelled as 'progressive' that would be more accurately categorised as backwards-looking.
Michael Eriksen is a strong vocalist, here imitating the squeaky tones of Dream Theater's James LaBrie and Fates Warning's John Arch, but the rest of the band disappoints in comparison to 'The 1st Chapter' by opting for simpler, more commercial songs. Even the instrumental 'Sane No More' sounds like a weak attempt to replicate Dream Theater's style, and the longer songs 'Mouth of Madness' and 'Ultimate Sacrifice' don't hold the listener's attention by attempting anything genuinely interesting. Everything here has been heard before, and much better (or in the case of the ballads, equally terribly).
1. A Darkened Mind
2. Abyss
3. Wither
4. Sane No More
5. Arrival of Love
6. Zero
7. Mouth of Madness
8. From Childhood's Hour
9. Ultimate Sacrifice
Advantages: Keeping the classic prog metal spirit alive through imitation.
Disadvantages: Focus on commercial ballads is disappointing.
Cirith Gorgor
****
Written on 10.06.08
Holland's Cirith Gorgor seem to be one of the more overlooked black metal bands, at least in comparison to the big Norwegian names that metal reviewers like me throw around all over the place, and it's a shame because they're certainly one of the more interesting acts. With a strong focus on melody that is never allowed to interfere with the sheer ferocity of their traditional black metal approach, these songs sound a little different to most bands out there, and superior to those who they may have been imitating all along.
One of the interesting aspects of Cirith Gorgor is that the rasping vocals of frontman Nimroth can actually be understood for the most part, which is great if you're into the whole Tolkien/fantasy/anti-Christian thing that they are, and still pleasantly atmospheric if you're not. The guitar riffs of Astaroth Daemonum and Asmoday are suitably catchy, but it's their lead work that really stands out, occasionally reminiscent of melodic death metal bands such as Amon Amarth.
The production job is also as near to perfect as can be, avoiding the polish that would rob the album of its atmosphere but allowing all the instruments to be heard distinctly, including Lord Mystic's bass. The only reason it doesn't get five stars as a definitive example of black metal is because the next album is even better.
1. The Declaration of Our Neverending War
2. Winter Embraces Lands Beyond
3. Through Burning Wastelands
4. Sons of the New Dawn
5. A Hymn to the Children of Heimdall / Darkness Returns
6. Wandering Cirith Gorgor
7. Ephel Duath (A Warrior's Tale)
8. Shadows over Isengard
9. Thorns of Oblivion
Cirith Gorgor
Unveiling the Essence
*****
Written on 10.06.08
'Unveiling the Essence' could be considered one of the masterworks of melodic black metal, lying somewhere between the harsh, riff-based sound of Darkthrone and the more atmospheric stance of early Ancient and Dimmu Borgir, without being terrible like modern Dimmu Borgir and Old Man's Child. The music is still very vicious, but expresses this in a more controlled and genuine manner than merely relying on tricks of the trade such as relentless blast beats from the drum kit or an emphasis on volume over content, and the focus on catchy guitars keeps every song compelling throughout.
For black metal, this even manages to be slightly varied, not only in terms of speed but also with the adoption of surprising styles, such as the almost power metal approach of the riffs in 'Unveiling the Essence' and 'The Stormrulers' that could have seen the band head in the direction of Ancient Rites. The atmosphere is excellent, epic without drawing too much attention to itself, while some songs such as 'Northern Spell of Warcraft' are simply content to remain short, sharp and brutal for less adventurous black metal fans.
1. Conquering the Shadowworld
2. Unveiling the Essence
3. Bellum Germanicum
4. Northern Spell of Warcraft
5. Into a Nightly Silence
6. A Twilight Serenade
7. The Stormrulers (The Art of Megalomania)
8. Visions of a Distant Past
Cloven Hoof
Cloven Hoof
****
Written on 10.06.08
A fortunate latecomer to the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) scene, this allowed Cloven Hoof to expand upon the work of their progenitors in the overcrowded genre, rather than sounding exactly the same as every other Saxon clone of the early eighties.
This Wolverhampton-based band makes excellent use of an occult theme in a similar way to NWOBHM forebears Angel Witch and Denmark's Mercyful Fate, using the lyrics to enhance the dark and doomy atmosphere of songs such as opener 'Cloven Hoof' and finale 'Return of the Passover' without seeming like a cheesy gimmick, as it would later prove for many Satan-worshipping black metal bands. The most satisfying thing about this album is how distinctive it sounds, something I considered near-impossible for the genre, and while it doesn't quite live up to the genre greats such as Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, it's one of the best albums I've heard from the more obscure recesses of the NWOBHM.
The band is a very tight and creative unit, rarely seeming like they're playing to make a quick buck at a time when this sort of music was popular, prior to its rapid decline in favour with the onset of the nineties. Only 'Crack the Whip' feels like a disappointing piece of commercial, by-the-numbers hard rock in the style of AC/DC, the sort of song that Saxon or Priest would churn out on each album in search of a bland radio hit, but fortunately it's the only weak link of an otherwise strong tracklist. Steve Rounds puts in a compelling guitar performance throughout, with great solos in songs such as 'Gates of Gehenna' and the neoclassical interlude 'March of the Damned,' while David Potter's vocals are some of the most perfectly suited I've heard in heavy metal, sounding utterly convincing in his booming performance in songs like the opening track.
The longer songs are epic without being overbearing or overlong, and the hellish subject matter is just plain cool rather than childish.
1. Cloven Hoof
2. Nightstalker
3. March of the Damned
4. Gates of Gehenna
5. Crack the Whip
6. Laying Down the Law
7. Return of the Passover
Cloven Hoof
Dominator
***
Written on 10.06.08
Cloven Hoof were one of the more overlooked eighties heavy metal bands, and yet another to indulge in a comeback when the genre suddenly became cool again in recent years. Their 1988 album 'Dominator' is far from a classic of the genre, stilted by poor production and a tendency towards repetition, but with its catchy hooks and delightfully cheesy sci-fi subject matter, it's the perfect album to listen to if you're in the mood for eighties rock.
The shoddy sound quality really is surprising, especially when considering this was released the same year as Iron Maiden's (admittedly higher budget) 'Seventh Son of a Seventh Son,' one of the most over-polished metal albums of all time, and this weakens the effect to a severe extent. Only the high singing of Russ North is clearly audible at the forefront, and while he's no replacement for David Potter, his lighter style is entirely suited to the move towards sci-fi rather than hellish themes, even if he lacks a real sound of his own.
All of the songs are fairly similar and accessible, and more obviously influenced by bands of the early eighties, particularly Iron Maiden whose melodic guitar solo style gets a look-in with songs such as 'Reach for the Sky,' while 'Rising Up' features sections that can be traced directly to Maiden's early 'Killers' release. This isn't to say that the album's stuck in a time warp, however much that would suit the space age lyrics, as the instrumental performance often successfully predicts the upcoming boom in European power metal, it's just a shame you can't really hear it.
1. Rising Up
2. Nova Battlestar
3. Reach for the Sky
4. Warrior of the Wasteland
5. The Invaders
6. The Fugitive
7. Dominator
8. Road of Eagles
Cloven Hoof
Eye of the Sun
***
Written on 11.06.08
Cloven Hoof's 'comeback' album is something of a joke, arriving fifteen years after their last studio album and including only one recognisable band member in the form of bassist Lee Payne, who is frankly the least noticeable player here. Failing to recapture the spirit of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal, this is more of a mediocre melodic heavy metal album that feels outdated in some ways, and like a disappointing attempt to win favour with modern mainstream rock audiences in others, namely the vocals.
The songs are all distinctly average but fortunately not insulting, and it's only really the disappointment of the band's legacy that counts against it significantly; otherwise it would just be another forgettable but fairly enjoyable melodic metal album. The title song is the only real song of interest here, written and performed live during the band's classic period but never released in a studio form, and the rest sound like inferior versions of generic heavy metal styles.
1. Inquisitor
2. Eye of the Sun
3. Cyberworld
4. Kiss of Evil
5. Eye of the Zombie
6. Absolute Power
7. Whore of Babylon
8. Golgotha
9. King for a Day
10. Angels In Hell
Coldworker
Contaminated Void
***
Written on 11.06.08
Coldworker is an unsurprising death metal band from Sweden, lacking any sort of creativity but still remaining enjoyable for those with an interest in the more aggressive side of death metal. Led by fast, relentlessly hammering drums, a deep growled vocal performance and some heavy guitars riffs that occasionally veer into enjoyable solos, such as the one in 'D.E.A.D.,' this is death metal performed by-the-numbers for those with un-ambitious tastes.
The production job from Swedish death metal legend Dan Swanö (Edge of Sanity) is probably the best aspect here, and the worst aspect is just how samey all the songs sound. Once you've heard the first song, there's very little reason to continue ploughing through the near-forty-minute recording unless you desire more of the same, but while a bit of variety or creativity would be admirable, and certainly in line with the best the Swedish scene has to offer, it's important that there are some distinctly unmemorable death metal records brought out every once in a while, just for the sake of comparison.
1. The Interloper
2. D.E.A.D.
3. An Unforgiving Season
4. The Contaminated Void
5. Death Smiles at Me
6. A Custom-Made Hell
7. Return to Ashes
8. Strain at the Leash
9. Flammable
10. Antidote
11. They Crawl Inside Me Uninvited
12. Waiting for Buildings to Collapse
13. Heart Shaped Violence
14. Generations Decay
Communic
Conspiracy in Mind
****
Written on 11.06.08
Equally praised as one of the new forces in progressive metal and criticised as a Nevermore clone, both aspects are true to some extent in Communic's debut release 'Conspiracy in Mind.' Continuing to follow the rule decided in the early nineties that thrash metal has to be slow to be meaningful, this album is full of powerful medium tempo offerings that will appeal equally to fans of more experimental metal, or the simple bar-room-brawl style of Pantera. It's not a great album, but it's a fine collection of songs.
The most disappointing aspect here, especially in light of the band's subsequent triumph with their second album, is how much the sound is rooted in Nevermore. Oddleif Stensland's vocal performance sounds exactly like Warrel Dane throughout, and this isn't helped by a tendency for breakdowns and other thrash tricks-of-the-trade that make the comparison, obvious as it is, all the more accurate. Even if this is a Nevermore copy-cat, it's a damn good one, and a satisfying balance is maintained between the more aggressive metal songs and those with a lighter foundation, 'They Feed on Our Fear,' 'The Distance' and 'Silence Surrounds' incorporating acoustic touches to great effect.
All of the songs are fairly long, and comparatively uneventful, at least for progressive metal. It's clear that this band had something special to say, they just hadn't worked out what it was yet.
1. Conspiracy in Mind
2. History Reversed
3. They Feed on Our Fear
4. Communication Sublime
5. The Distance
6. Ocean Bed
7. Silence Surrounds
Conception
Parallel Minds
*****
Written on 11.06.08
'Parallel Minds' is an early classic of the power metal genre, not quite up to the standards of something like 'Nightfall in Middle-Earth' by Blind Guardian or Tobias Sammett's 'Avantasia,' but sowing the seeds for many of the genre's big players fifteen years ago. The improvements over Conception's previous album are immense, firstly in terms of the production job which now brings out the full force of the instruments, but also the band's creativity and performance.
These songs are genuinely heavy and progressive, traits often lacking even from the most ambitious power metal, and as such will easily be appreciated by those who have been turned off from the genre due to its lack of energy compared to the more extreme metal forms. Those who approach Conception from singer Roy Khan's subsequent band Kamelot will find this a drastic change, as the album only resembles his later material in its softer moments, such as the ballad 'Silent Crying.'
Epic finale 'Soliloquy' actually sounds epic this time round, and the other songs strike a fine balance between innovation and simplistic enjoyment that ends up wholly successful, and more convincing than the majority of bands that have succeeded them.
1. Water Confines
2. Roll the Fire
3. And I Close My Eyes
4. Silent Crying
5. Parallel Minds
6. Silver Shine
7. My Decision
8. The Promiser
9. Wolf's Lair
10. Soliloquy
Concerto Moon
Fragments of the Moon
***
Written on 11.06.08
Concerto Moon are one of the more prominent Japanese heavy metal bands, for no real reason other than the relative scarcity of Japanese groups. Their style is very much rooted in the melodic power metal tradition, with crossover into the shred genre of Yngwie J. Malmsteen and others, but oddly (though perhaps mercifully), this is not followed through with a focus on guitar virtuosity, despite the evident talents of axeman Norifumi Shima.
This first release from Concerto Moon holds no surprises for anyone who's ever listened to a heavy metal CD ever, and despite its occasional neoclassical flourishes, confined mainly to Osamu Harada's keyboards as in the atmospheric introduction to 'Alone in Paradise,' this is straight-up heavy metal in the classic style, reminiscent of bands such as Judas Priest, in 'Cry for Freedom' and 'Holy Child,' and occasionally even further back to Black Sabbath and Rainbow with songs such as 'One and Only.'
Takao Ozaki's vocals are a clear imitation of Judas Priest's Rob Halford, which is really nothing new in the power metal scene, but this at least avoids the band falling for the common problem of overly squeaky vocals in Japanese metal bands, exemplified by the likes of X-Japan, the precursors to Dragonforce. While it's refreshing to hear a band with such a talented guitarist not merely acting as a vehicle for his fret masturbation, this is still disappointingly bland and lacking in originality.
1. Alone in Paradise
2. Run to the Sky
3. Cry for Freedom
4. Holy Child
5. Hold On (To Feeling)
6. Midwinter Night
7. Over the Century
8. Take You to the Moon
9. The Last Betting (Live)
10. One and Only (Live)
11. Into the Fire (Live)
Concerto Moon
From Father to Son
***
Written on 12.06.08
Concerto Moon's second album is an improvement over their first, but still nothing special, and still potentially overrated among the Japanese metal scene. It's happy, fun and energetic, but very few songs really scream out, the only real exception (at least for me) being 'Somewhere in Time,' which possesses some of the only genuinely catchy and memorable guitar riffs of the album, and does so en masse.
Norifuma Shima still refuses to show off the full range of his guitar talents, but he contributes some nice slow-los to the slower songs 'Moonlight After the Rain' and 'One and Only,' and some neoclassical touches finally rear their head for a brief portion of 'Inside Story.' Takao Ozaki's vocals oddly lack the power of the first album, making this sound less like Judas Priest and more like the standard jolly power metal of Japan (though not to the prepubescent extreme of X-Japan).
1. Dream Chaser
2. Surrender
3. Moonlight After the Rain
4. Inside Story
5. One and Only
6. From Father to Son
7. Somewhere in Time
8. The Last Betting
9. Into the Fire
10. Change My Heart
Concerto Moon
***
Written on 12.06.08
Even Concerto Moon themselves seem a little confused by their appropriation of the traditional European metal style, addressing their native Japanese crowd in Standard Metal English rather than their common tongue that would make a lot more sense. Sadly, the subsequent vocals are all but lost in a rather rushed production job that brings out the talented instruments but is content to allow the less dynamic elements to slip into the background.
'The End of the Beginning' is Concerto Moon's second live release, and one of many albums released in a surprisingly short period of time by the group. Although a live album, there's nothing in the way of embellishment on the studio material, and this is both surprising and disappointing from a band containing such notable talent as guitarist Norifumi Shima. While this naturally makes the music more accessible, it could be argued that a live performance such as this more or less demands a degree of showmanship from the band member everyone came there to see, but all we have here are songs the fans already own, performed in a less definitive manner.
1. Time to Die
2. Fight to the Death
3. King of the Judas
4. Lonely Last Journey
5. Victim of Desire
6. Alone in Paradise
7. From Father to Son
8. Take You to the Moon
9. Surrender
10. Unstill Night
Concerto Moon
Rain Forest
****
Written on 12.06.08
With their third album, Concerto Moon finally start to show off the talents of guitarist Norifumi Shima, albeit not in a way that will damage the record's accessibility to a mainstream heavy metal audience. The title song is the only fully-fledged example of Norifumi's prowess, a substantial and multi-faceted instrumental that's as enjoyable as it is impressive, while the rest of the album falls back on the same eighties-influenced power metal style as the rest of their discography.
Most songs here are very enjoyable power metal, if a little simplistic, and reminiscent of bands such as Angra. Others, in particular 'Lonely Last Journey,' 'Live on the Memory' and 'Picture of an Old Man' are slower and more about mood, but even these are pulled off well without becoming cheesy or entering the realm of the power ballad.
Despite its comparative strength, the album still feels like something of a missed opportunity, the instrumental track and the tribal prologue hinting at more significant use that could have been made of the rain forest concept, but the band's preference for straightforward, fast and immensely fun power metal can't really be faulted.
1. Prologue
2. Time to Die
3. Lonely Last Journey
4. Fight to the Death
5. Half Way to the Sun
6. Rain Forest
7. Unstill Night
8. Live on the Memory
9. Victim of Desire
10. Picture of an Old Man
11. Break It Down
Confessor
Unraveled
****
Written on 12.06.08
Released fifteen years after their debut, Confessor's second album wasn't exactly worth the wait, with all the turbulence in-between, but it's still a highly enjoyable slab of traditional doom metal, if you're into that sort of thing. Slow, plodding and downbeat, this is song after song of powerful melancholia that doesn't exactly depress, but certainly drains the listener even as they enjoy the fine vocal performance of Scott Jeffreys, later of Watchtower.
Confessor are classed as technical doom metal, but I don't really see the technical side beyond some deliberately obtuse time signature tomfoolery, mainly down to the efforts of drummer Steve Shelton who is at least managing to be creative rather than merely setting the plodding tone throughout. Brian Shoaf and Shawn McCoy's guitar riffs are classic doom all the way, lacking a little originality in sounding so generic but still entertaining enough to keep each song moving forward, and despite most of them sounding pretty much the same, there are still a few deviations such as the Nevermore-style 'Sour Times.'
This album will bore you to tears if you're not accustomed to the slowed pace of doom metal, but it's a pretty good place to start, more approachable in its grunge style than the British death-doom of My Dying Bride or the Swedish cemetery epics of Candlemass.
1. Cross the Bar
2. Until Tomorrow
3. Wig Stand
4. Blueprint Soul
5. The Downside
6. Sour Times
7. Hibernation
8. Strata of Fear
Coroner
Punishment for Decadence
****
Written on 12.06.08
The most disappointing and ironic thing about these 'technical' metal bands is how similar they all tend to sound, at least in their application of the same guitar style in a misguided bid to appear distinctive. Fortunately, Coroner came early on before the movement really took off, and the fine performance of Tommy Vetterli dominates the proceedings, only sounding generic when taken out of historical context. Vetterli is given the instrumental 'Arc-Lite' to really show off his lead skills, but every song is full of great, unpredictable guitar sections.
Ron Broder's vocals are satisfyingly evil, keeping Coroner quite rightly aligned to the darker side of thrash, and the gloomy production quality enhances this wicked atmosphere further. With its predominantly fast pace, catchy choruses and enjoyable solos that never outstay their welcome, there's no reason that this album shouldn't be easily enjoyed by a fan of Slayer or Testament, while those with a taste for the progressive should still find much to appreciate. The only song that doesn't really work is the ill-advised cover of Jimi Hendrix's 'Purple Haze.'
1. Intro
2. Absorbed
3. Masked Jackal
4. Arc-Lite
5. Skeleton on Your Shoulder
6. Sudden Fall
7. Shadow of a Lost Dream
8. The New Breed
9. Voyage to Eternity
10. Purple Haze (Jimi Hendrix cover)
Corrosion of Conformity
Animosity
***
Written on 23.05.08
Clearly an important milestone in the history of thrash/punk crossover, Corrosion of Conformity's second album is a vast improvement over their first, without losing the reckless and angry attitude of their earlier years. At only twenty-five minutes, this isn't going to be any kind of magnum opus and it does feel rather insubstantial, especially in the shorter songs that don't even reach the two minute mark, but it's still an enjoyable ride.
The sound is now much more rooted in thrash metal than hardcore punk, sticking to the more vicious side of the genre as popularised by Slayer. This is mostly evident in Mike Dean's unhinged vocals, reminiscent of Megadeth's Dave Mustaine at times, but his impressive bass work keeps this from sounding too much like the other bands in that increasingly overcrowded genre.
The music here is mostly fast, but with some subtle hints towards the slower, more doom-laden style the band would later adopt, expressed most clearly in 'Positive Outlook' and the title song, and the band's ability to convincingly shift tempo in songs such as the great opener 'Loss of Words' makes their talents obvious - it's just a shame they don't show these off a little more.
1. Loss of Words
2. Mad World
3. Consumed
4. Holier
5. Positive Outlook
6. Prayer
7. Intervention
8. Kiss of Death
9. Hungry Child
10. Animosity
Corrosion of Conformity
Blind
*****
Written on 23.05.08
Emerging in the new decade as an alternative metal band combining their earlier hardcore punk, thrash and doom metal influences, Corrosion of Conformity released one of the classics of the genre with their magnum opus 'Blind.' Whatever that genre is, exactly.
This well-produced collection of songs is an example of an album where everything just sounds entirely right. The melodic guitar work of Woody Weatherman and newcomer Pepper Keenan interplays brilliantly with the strong rhythm section held up by creative drummer Reed Mullin, and the heavily instrumental sections (notably the ominous opening track 'These Shrouded Temples...') are just as exciting as the more standard verses and choruses with new vocalist Karl Agell.
This catches Corrosion of Conformity before they made the irreversible leap/downturn to a stoner rock band, but this style is incorporated successfully with songs such as 'Buried,' the lighter, Acid Bath style 'Echoes in the Well' and the bluesy solos of songs like 'Mine are the Eyes of God.' More dominant is the thrash influence, paving the way in the energetic 'Damned for All Time' and slower 'Break the Circle' and fusing with the sludge for the pleasant concoction 'Vote with a Bullet,' while the whole album avoids being off-putting to casual listeners by tapping, however coincidentally or intentionally, into the grunge/alternative rock boom of the early nineties.
The band would sadly never be this good again, but not many groups are able to produce a classic of this magnitude during their career.
1. These Shrouded Temples...
2. Damned for All Time
3. Dance of the Dead
4. Buried
5. Break the Circle
6. Painted Smiling Face
7. Mine are the Eyes of God
8. Shallow Ground
9. Vote with a Bullet
10. Great Purification
11. White Noise
12. Echoes in the Well
13. ...Remain
Corrosion of Conformity
Deliverance
****
Written on 23.05.08
After combining several genres with expertise on their classic 'Blind,' Corrosion of Conformity disappointing travelled down the well-worn path of stoner metal practiced by many bands in their Southern United States to varying degrees of success. The band's obvious talent keeps them ahead of the game, but it's still disappointing to hear this overly familiar sound in place of anything truly groundbreaking, and the period of adjustment between a thrash band fully-fledged Southern stoners is handled a little awkwardly.
Guitarist Pepper Keenan now handles vocal responsibilities as well, and his performance is a confusing mix of influences that never sounds uniquely his own. On the more obvious doom tracks he perfects the same drawl as his contemporaries, but on those with a more metallic foundation, he executes a blatant forgery of James Hetfield's style in Metallica. This album lacks the energy and creativity of its predecessor, but there's still a lot to enjoy if you're into the whole scene, even if every deviation designed to keep listeners on their toes is incredibly predictable, from the acoustic, lullaby-style plucking of 'Without Wings' to the harmonic lead work of 'Broken Man.'
1. Heaven's Not Overflowing
2. Albatross
3. Clean My Wounds
4. Without Wings
5. Broken Man
6. Senor Limpio
7. Mano de Mono
8. Seven Days
9. #2121313
10. My Grain
11. Deliverance
12. Shake Like You
13. Shelter
14. Pearls Before Swine
Corrosion of Conformity
Wiseblood
****
Written on 23.05.08
Perfecting the Southern metal style they attempted on 'Deliverance,' Corrosion of Conformity's 'Wiseblood' is a much more satisfying affair, and one of the best albums I've heard in the stoner rock style. Clearly indebted to Black Sabbath and other seventies acts, this is far removed from the band's early days as a hardcore punk outfit, pursuing a slow, heavy and distorted direction in place of their former speed and aggression.
Pepper Keenan's vocals have stopped ripping off James Hetfield, and now sound more like John Bush of Anthrax, which is at least more suited to the style. The most impressive thing about this album is how it keeps listeners on their toes with unusual structures, refusing to be pigeonholed as a generic copycat of the more well-known Southern acts, despite these being the source of much of its influence, such as the Acid Bath style ballad 'Redemption City' and the similarly soft 'Goodbye Windows' that refuses to sound wussy, being all-American, southern-fried and everything.
This album still aims to scare sway feeble listeners with an emphasis on distortion, though not to the extent of scarier doom bands like Eyehategod. Songs such as the title track are rife with discordant guitar solos, but it's the final offering 'Bottom Feeder' that really assaults the ears and brain with its sludgy, crawling, utterly stoned atmosphere.
1. King of the Rotten
2. Long Whip / Big America
3. Wiseblood
4. Goodbye Windows
5. Born Again for the Last Time
6. Drowning in a Daydream
7. The Snake Has No Head
8. The Door
9. Man or Ash
10. Redemption City
11. Wishbone (Some Tomorrow)
12. Fuel
13. Bottom Feeder (El Que Come Abajo)
Corrosion of Conformity
America's Volume Dealer
***
Written on 12.06.08
Four years after their well-received 'Wiseblood,' Corrosion of Conformity disappoint by treading down the same route Metallica went in the nineties with their 'Load' and 'Reload' releases, forsaking their heavy metal background in favour of more commercially viable Southern rock. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, and there's enough decent material on here to avoid it seeming like a 'sell-out' and more of a natural artistic decision, but it still lacks the energy and excitement of previous (and later) albums, even down to its rubbish minimalist cover.
'Over Me' starts things off well, a catchy rock song with traces of the previous album, but it's all downhill from there. Songs too often sound exactly alike, with over-reliance on distorted openings and bluesy solos that feel present more out of necessity than anything, while the songs that do attempt something different only end up failing miserably, namely the country ballads 'Stare Too Long' and 'Sleeping Martyr' that will turn away long-time fans in the same way Metallica achieved with 'Mama Said.'
1. Over Me
2. Congratulations Song
3. Stare Too Long
4. Diablo Blvd.
5. Doublewide
6. Zippo
7. Who's Got the Fire
8. Sleeping Martyr
9. Take What You Want
10. 13 Angels
11. Gittin' It On
Corrosion of Conformity
Live Volume
****
Written on 12.06.08
Recorded in 2001, this live album focuses entirely on Corrosion of Conformity's career from 1991 to 2000, ignoring their first decade as a punk/thrash crossover band which is probably for the best as that would spoil the consistency. This performance is tight and professional, without falling victim to the indulgent solos and deviations that usually come with 'stoner' bands, though some of this may of course be down to the editing that allows it to all fit on a single CD.
These songs blur together to some extent in their predictable stoner grooves, but there's still enough variety to keep things distinctive, admittedly mostly stemming from the classic 'Blind' album which loses out in favour of greater focus on the band's more recent works. Pepper Keenan's vocals are at their best here, full of energy even if he sounds like he's ripping off Metallica's James Hetfield throughout, and as an accurate 'best-of' covering the band's stoner rock period, it can't be faulted as the only essential purchase after 'Blind.'
1. These Shrouded Temples
2. Diablo Blvd.
3. Senor Limpio
4. King of the Rotten
5. Wiseblood
6. Who's Got the Fire
7. Albatross
8. My Grain
9. Congratulations Song
10. 13 Angels / 7 Days
11. Vote With a Bullet
12. Zippo
13. Long Whip / Big America
14. Shelter
15. Clean My Wounds
Count Raven
Storm Warning
**
Written on 12.06.08
Count Raven are the deservedly overlooked band of doom metal's second wave, firstly for arriving too late to make any kind of impact on the eighties scene, and more importantly due to their essential lack of any original traits, apart from an unhealthy preoccupation with keyboards in later releases. The main problem with their debut 'Storm Warning' is just how boring it all is - doom metal is slow and ponderous by its nature, the antithesis of fast metal genres, but here there's little in the way of an emotive or atmospheric justification for the speed, leaving every song sounding overlong and over-repetitive.
Christian Lindersson's vocals are in the style of Ozzy Osbourne, and are just as irritating, but lacking the odd charisma. Songs such as 'Inam Naudemina' and 'Within the Garden of Mirrors' are acceptable in their more commercial, potentially catchy appeal, but others, 'True Revelation' in particular, are some of the most tedious metal songs I've ever heard, genuinely irritating me as the plodding narrative fails to go anywhere and outstays its welcome by six minutes (the song is eight minutes long). There are some interesting touches, most notably the violin in 'Social Warfare,' but unlike the instrument's application in the work of My Dying Bride, it brings little resonance and feels tagged on for the sake of diversity.
1. Intro - Count Raven
2. Inam Naudemina
3. True Revelation
4. In the Name of Rock 'n' Roll
5. Sometimes a Great Nation
6. Within the Garden of Mirrors
7. A Devastating Age
8. How Can It Be
9. Social Warfare
Count Raven
***
Written on 12.06.08
The most striking aspect of this obviously Black Sabbath-influenced doom metal band at this point is just how precisely singer Dan Fondelius imitates Ozzy Osbourne's nasal tones. He never quite convinces that he's the mad Brummie, but he gives it his best shot by mimicking both Ozzy's low and high ranges, and I really don't see the point. It's not as if Count Raven were aiming to be a Sabbath tribute band, their sound being more rooted in the Swedish doom scene, so the imitation is distractingly pointless throughout.
Aside from the strange vocal issue, this album is an improvement over its predecessor in terms of interest, atmosphere and even tone, possessing a more satisfyingly crunchy sound to the guitars and two substantial dabbles in keyboards from the multi-talented Fondelius (who also supplies the guitar) in the form of 'Northern Lights' and 'Europa.' They're both different enough to justify their mutual existence, the first being more of a creepy black metal style interlude and the second a more optimistic, new age piece, but they still sound out of place, merely for being so starkly different to the dirgey doom metal that dominates the rest of the disc.
1. Until Death Do Us Part
2. Hippies Triumph
3. Destruction of the Void
4. Let the Dead Bury the Dead
5. Northern Lights
6. Leaving the Warzone
7. Angel of Death
8. The Final Journey
9. No One's Hero
10. Europa
Count Raven
High on Infinity
***
Written on 12.06.08
To their credit, Count Raven were evidently trying desperately to keep each of their albums unique, presumably aware of just how similar they sounded to their influences in the doom metal scene, and 'High On Infinity' is as contrived as it gets. Dan Fondelius still sounds like a low-rent Ozzy Osbourne, but in addition to his high and low singing, he leads the way in three odd spoken word pieces against his keyboard backing, the sinister 'Ode to Rebecca,' 'The Dance' and the lighter and more keyboard-centric 'Cosmos.' If there's an overarching concept connecting these, or indeed the whole album, I must have missed it, but the comparative isolation and varying styles of the more substantial songs would indicate otherwise.
'Jen' is the usual strong, dirgey intro song, and the band thankfully throws out a couple of more optimistic and energetic songs to prevent listeners getting too bogged down in the doom. 'Children's Holocaust,' despite its title, is positively glowing in contrast to the rest of the material on offer, apart from the even jollier 'High on Infinity' that sounds more like something from Ozzy's early solo albums than Black Sabbath. Less effective is 'An Ordinary Loser,' which would clearly be the token slow, depressive song on the album if every other song didn't plod along at the same pace and spoil the effect.
1. Jen
2. Children's Holocaust
3. In Honour
4. The Madman From Waco
5. Masters of All Evil
6. Ode to Rebecca
7. High on Infinity (Love Supreme)
8. An Ordinary Loser
9. Traitor
10. The Dance
11. The Coming
12. Lost World
13. Cosmos
Count Raven
Messiah of Confusion
***
Written on 12.06.08
Count Raven's final album is probably their best, but only by a narrow margin, and that's not to place it up there in the ranks of elite Swedish doom metal; it's still mostly mediocre. This album's comparative strengths lie in its inclusion of more fast sections than its predecessors, preventing the songs from becoming overly dull, and a better incorporation of the keyboards into songs (case in point being the long finale 'The Viking Sea') rather than standing alone (case against being the interlude 'Mountains Spirit').
'Prediction' is the most dynamic song the band ever put out, all performers really gathering momentum and having fun towards the end after the satisfyingly droning introduction, while other songs such as 'The Lie of Life' are potentially catchy enough to appeal to even a mainstream audience. Sadly, the band still fails to distance itself in any real way from its obvious influences, 'The Loneliest One' sounding much like a B-side from the early days of Black Sabbath, and they have a tendency to slow down and lose energy to the point of extreme tedium, as is the case in the wholly unremarkable 'Shine.'
1. Prediction
2. Shadow Box
3. The Loneliest One
4. Fallen Angels
5. Mountains Spirit
6. The Lie of Life
7. P.S.I. Power
8. Shine
9. The Divided World
10. The Viking Sea
The Coven
Blessed Is the Black
****
Written on 13.06.08
Heavy metal has always been a genre that lends itself well to parody, as the success of the well-intentioned 'This Is Spinal Tap' and the Comic Strip's 'Bad News Tour' memorably demonstrated in the early eighties, and it's always gratifying to hear a band having fun with a genre that shouldn't be taken too seriously, while at the same time concentrating on producing genuinely credible music.
Seattle thrash band Coven were never one of the high fliers, but their debut album 'Blessed is the Black' is a treat for fans of eighties metal of varying styles, loyally and creatively paying homage to various sub-genres while also drawing attention to their silly side, most notably through preposterous lyrics.
Principally a thrash band, Coven move through various sounds on this debut album, and the whole thing is saturated with a disconcerting, scratchy, treble-heavy tone comparable to early black metal. The atmosphere is convincingly evil and depraved despite the intentionally ludicrous lyrics, and the band clearly has its precedent in the dark side of eighties metal from the likes of Venom and Slayer, without going too far into the Scandinavian scene.
Songs such as the title track and 'The Monger' verge on an early speed metal style similar to many German bands at the time, 'Burn the Cross' smells distinctly of Black Sabbath gloom, 'Rock This Church' and 'Iron Dick' both have a more commercial hard rock vibe (though the chances of either being released as a radio-friendly single are laughable) and there are even a couple of convincing metal ballads with 'Out of the Grave' and 'Another Life,' more in the style of an atmospheric Iron Maiden song than the awful power ballads brought out by commercial American acts of the time, so memorably parodied by Anthrax's 'N.F.B.' ('Nice Effing Ballad').
These softer songs will be more approachable for metal newcomers, but if Jay Clarke's raspy shouts and vile lyrics elsewhere serve to turn off cautious listeners, that's sort of their point. Coven certainly shouldn't be associated with the wave of 'evil' bands gestating in the late eighties, as every celebration of Satan is balanced out by a cheap knob gag, coming the fore in the admittedly quite funny 'Iron Dick' that sounds like the song Motörhead always wished they'd written.
To accuse Coven of being a joke band would be equally unjustified, as the guitar performances of Dean Babbitt and Paul Hash are excellent, delivering memorable riffs and satisfying gallops in songs such as 'Creature of Duty' in particular, but also toning down for the acoustic and lead melodies of the ballads. It helps that most of these songs are really catchy and that none of them spiral into self-indulgence, keeping the solos short and to the point in the demonic sex account '6669' and maintaining equal prominence for all band members, including Gary Peebles' bass that's really brought out well by the contrast in the production.
Thrash fans should find this album convincingly angry, especially the heavier songs like 'McDonaldland Massacre,' and those whose tastes are more attuned to heavy metal and hard rock will doubtless enjoy the catchy riffs and choruses, even if 'Rock This Church' is far too repetitive. Coven released two more albums after this before seemingly calling it a day, both of which are presumably more polished and consistent than this one, and thus nowhere near as enticing.
1. Blessed is the Black
2. 6669
3. Burn the Cross
4. Out of the Grave
5. Rock This Church
6. Iron Dick
7. The Monger
8. McDonaldland Massacre
9. Another Life
10. Creature of Duty (and My Duty is Death)
Cradle of Filth
****
Written on 24.05.08
Despite being popularly (and erroneously) labelled as a black metal band, Cradle of Filth's debut album is the only pat of their discography that really deserves such categorisation, but even at this early point the band introduces the gothic elements that would subsequently take hold.
This isn't a black metal album in the tradition of Mayhem, Emperor, Darkthrone and the other evil Norwegian acts of the early nineties, but it adopts enough of their traditions - cackled vocals, tremolo-picking guitar riffs and blast beats from the drum kit - that it's clearly an attempt to provide an English alternative, one that was evidently successful given the band's initial favour with acts such as Emperor, before later releases saw the black metal community turn its back on the increasingly popular act.
This is less refined than some of the band's later works, but that also lends it an amateurish charm. Their vampiric and occult themes are clearly in their infancy, and the heavy emphasis on keyboards - leading to four of the thirteen tracks being little more than interludes, plus the stupid spoken word finale - is rarely incorporated into the more substantial songs in a meaningful way, the notable exception being the piano sections of 'The Black Goddess Rises.' 'Summer Dying Fast' is the ultimate expression of this amateurishness, its speedy pace still rooted slightly in the band's death metal days and the keyboards sounding unbearably cheesy in a Hammer Horror style, but this is still an enjoyable album with a few great offerings, mostly as the band moves towards the sound it would perfect on albums such as 'Dusk and Her Embrace.'
1. Darkness Our Bride (Jugular Wedding)
2. The Principle of Evil Made Flesh
3. The Forest Whispers My Name
4. Iscariot
5. The Black Goddess Rises
6. One Final Graven Kiss
7. A Crescendo of Passion Bleeding
8. To Eve the Art of Witchcraft
9. Of Mist and Midnight Skies
10. In Secret Love We Drown
11. A Dream of Wolves in the Snow
12. Summer Dying Fast
13. Imperium Tenebrarum
Cradle of Filth
***
Written on 24.05.08
Aka The Cradle of Filth Contractual Obligation E.P., 'Vempire' was the band's second official release, and not so much a bridge between full-length albums as an instantaneous leap into the definitive Cradle of Filth sound after a somewhat shaky start.
The production job here is much better, and lives up to the band's ambitions. Nicholas Barker's drums are slap-happy rather than stilted, Stuart Anstis' great lead guitar work resonates around and Damien Gregori's keyboards (perhaps not his real name) enhance the gothic atmosphere incredibly. Rounding off the release is female vocalist Lady Jezebel Deva in her first of many appearances, making songs such as the epic centrepiece 'Queen of Winter, Throned' essential staples of any Cradle of Filth collection, or at least more worthwhile than anything the band did after the year 2000.
Although billed as an E.P., and boasting only six tracks, this is still viable as a full-length album due to its near-forty-minute duration. 'Ebony Dressed for Sunset' is a fast and simplistic opener that nevertheless features some great riffs, 'The Forest Whispers My Name' is a slightly superior but mostly loyal re-make of the song from the previous album, 'She Mourns a Lengthening Shadow' is Damien's time to shine with a gothic keyboard interlude, and neither 'Nocturnal Supremacy' nor 'The Rape and Ruin of Angels' remain particularly distinctive or memorable in the band's canon. With a couple of extra songs, this could have been an early classic.
1. Ebony Dressed for Sunset
2. The Forest Whispers My Name
3. Queen of Winter, Throned
4. Nocturnal Supremacy
5. She Mourns a Lengthening Shadow
6. The Rape and Ruin of Angels (Hosannas in Extremis)
Cradle of Filth
Dusk... and Her Embrace
Odes to Lesbian Vampires
****
Written on 31.07.06
Cradle of Filth’s second full-length album, ‘Dusk… And Her Embrace’ sees the English gothic metal band at its creative and technical best, and one of the classic albums of the genre. ‘Dusk’ is far more symphonic than their previous releases due to the introduction of Damien Gregori on keyboards (are you sure that’s your real name?) and the classic guitar duo of Stuart Antsis and Gian Pyres. The band’s following album, 1998’s ‘Cruelty and the Beast,’ would draw heavily upon this release both musically and thematically, but lack the tight musicianship and nifty graveyard atmosphere.
Dani Filth pens the exquisite lyrics to this semi-concept album focused on erotic vampirism. Victorian horror writer Sheridan Le Feu is often credited as a primary influence, although his vampire novel ‘Carmilla’ is only indirectly referenced here, if indeed it is at all. The title song, and by association the album cover and artwork, would appear to deal with the true legend of Countess Elizabeth Bathory, the Hungarian ‘Blood Countess’ who bathed in and consumed the blood of virgins in an attempt to keep herself eternally young. This interest in Bathory would be further realised in ‘Cruelty and the Beast,’ a concept album based entirely on the Bathory legend, but this album gives more than a taster.
Cradle of Filth have been the focus of much criticism since their albums began selling well and proved popular with mainstream metal fans. This album finds the band well before its creativity began to slip, and before the arguable focus on image and theatrics over musical quality. At this point, ‘Cradle of Filth’ was still a struggling bunch of English and Scandinavian blokes with an interest in the gothic. Dani Filth’s trademark sarcastic humour is still present, but only to the extent of select puns; his poetic lyrics are impressive, if a little showy. It’s just a shame you can’t hear them through his crow-like, squawking vocals.
The CD booklet reflects this low budget, with an almost convincing centrefold of the gothed-up band devouring the bright red blood of a screaming, bound and resistant (but disappointingly clothed) female. The production quality is fairly good, a lot better than their self-produced efforts, but Nicholas Barker’s drums still come out sounding a little understated, like his drum kit’s covered in plastic bags or something. Nevertheless, this reduced focus on the drums suits the tone of the majority of the album, with its alternating guitar and keyboard leads and extensive use of both Dani’s and Sarah Jezebel Deva’s contrasting vocal ranges.
1. Humana Inspired to Nightmare
2. Heaven Torn Asunder
3. Funeral in Carpathia
4. A Gothic Romance (Red Roses for the Devil’s Whore)
5. Malice through the Looking Glass
6. Dusk and Her Embrace
7. The Graveyard by Moonlight
8. Beauty Slept in Sodom
9. Haunted Shores
Almost every song on here seems to take its cues from the keyboards, which tend to introduce each track, in an increasingly elaborate manner, before the other instruments kick in. ‘Humana Inspired to Nightmare’ is a brief and inconsequential piano piece, with accompanying thunderous sound effects, that builds the atmosphere impressively. The album features a similar, but more impressive piano instrumental, ‘The Graveyard by Moonlight,’ which is inoffensive in length and helps to break up the monotony of later tracks. Providing the opening melodies for tracks 2, 4, 5, 8 and 9, some of which are effectively extensive keyboard solos in themselves before vocals or guitars come to life, Damien works his way through typical piano and atmospheric synth to more obscure and dingy organ and harpsichord effects, the final of which is the most chilling and memorable. Both ‘A Gothic Romance’ and ‘Beauty Slept in Sodom’ rely primarily on the keyboards above all else, with the exception of Dani’s vocal theatrics in the former.
The album begins, properly this time, with ‘Heaven Torn Asunder,’ one of the most energetic songs and one that clearly owes a debt to Iron Maiden when it kicks into a galloping guitar riff. Some nice dual guitars and changes in speed and style throughout make this one of my favourites on the album, and it’s great to hear the opening riffs return on the bass at the end. My criticism is the same here as it is for the majority of the album: the song is a little too long, kicking back into more verses after sounding like it’s drawing to a close, and the vocals are nothing more than unintelligible screeches at many points. The other guitar-heavy songs on the album are the mediocre ‘Malice Through the Looking Glass,’ which nevertheless features a nice duet of Dani Filth’s high and low vocals and one of the album’s rare solos, and the title song ‘Dusk and Her Embrace.’ The latter is full of energy, dominated by the killer riff that could easily be a lost guitar line from the early days of Iron Maiden or Judas Priest. Deva’s choral backing vocals are at their best in this track, and really employed as an integral part of the music for a change.
The emphasis is on mood and melody rather than speed in ‘Funeral in Carpathia’ and ‘A Gothic Romance,’ both classic Cradle of Filth songs. ‘Carpathia’ boasts two of their greatest riffs, one on guitar and the other a haunting keyboard melody, while the keyboards of ‘A Gothic Romance’ owe something to the film soundtracks of Danny Elfman, especially ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ (of which the band are reportedly big fans). Both songs are overlong, but the atmosphere they create is excellent, and there are some very nice changes, such as unexpected heavy guitar sections in the latter song. ‘Beauty Slept in Sodom’ is something of a disappointment later, failing to reproduce this style in the latter half of the album, before the closing ‘Haunted Shores’ sees the band’s black metal roots coming to the fore. The focus is on speed and aggression, but Stuart and Gian still get some nice dual guitar work. The closing speech by Venom’s Kronos is a nice touch too, even if it is a little silly. Still, nice to see England get a mention – Dracula was set here too, you know.
‘Dusk… and Her Embrace’ maintains a gothic atmosphere throughout with far greater success than any of the band’s other releases, but the focus on keyboards and synthesised symphonic elements does detract from its immediate ‘fun’ value. Almost every song sounds too long, and things get dull as the album becomes weaker towards the end, yet the album lends itself to being played the whole way through, rather than as a selection of songs. At fifty minutes, ‘Dusk… and Her Embrace’ is only ten minutes longer than the ‘VEmpire’ E.P., but it feels like a lot more. ‘Haunted Shores’ and the title track prove that this is still ‘extreme’ metal; ‘A Gothic Romance’ is the band at its most gothic and poetic; ‘Heaven Torn Asunder’ keeps the English heavy metal spirit alive, and even ‘The Graveyard By Moonlight’ is a step above their later instrumentals.
Symphonic gothic metal won’t be to everyone’s taste, but Cradle of Filth have enjoyed more mainstream attention and devotion than their contemporaries in recent years, often seen as the boy-band of gothic metal due to their affection from many fans of Marilyn Manson and the like (I really struggle to see the similarity though). ‘Dusk’ is a nice, semi-independent release by a burgeoning band from Suffolk, and if nothing else it deserves to be remembered for beginning the band’s obsession with controversial clothing. The accompanying ‘vestal masturbation’ T-shirt, with its rather rude evaluation of Jesus, caused understandable controversy when the band wore it to the Vatican. Those naughty goth boys.
Advantages: Interesting and genre-defining gothic metal
Disadvantages: Erratic and drawn-out at times
Cradle of Filth
Cruelty and the Beast
*****
Written on 25.04.04
The black metal genre is one of the least popular musical forms for the general public, but bands such as England's Cradle of Filth have achieved revered cult status among a legion of loyal and spellbound fans. Black metal is characterised by heavy drums and guitars supplemented by keyboards and screeching vocals, creating something very different to the norm. The lyrics and subject matter are often of a demonic and sexual nature.
Cradle of Filth are possibly the most widely known example of black metal and have become fairly successful among metal fans over the last few years, however their earlier material is by far the most interesting. 1998's 'Cruelty and the Beast' is a concept album comprising ten excellent tracks, concerning the life story of the infamous Elizabeth Bathory; this insane European Countess became convinced that feasting off, and bathing in the blood of virgins would keep her eternally youthful, and this belief led her to slaughter a terrifying number of people from the nearby town. She was eventually discovered and executed, and her legacy as one of the first documented 'vampires' has inspired the film and music industry in a number of ways, including here.
THE MUSIC
Each track on this album feels like it has taken a great deal of planning and perfecting, and there is no sense of 'filler.' I always find concept albums interesting when there is a clear story to follow throughout, and both the lyrics and the music narrate this superbly.
The first track, 'ONCE UPON ATROCITY,' is a keyboard instrumental that slowly builds up to a thunderous climax, and sets the tone for the album straight away. The gothic nature of the album can be seen from this early point, and the subtle, organ-esque rhythms draw the listener in before the music really begins.
'THIRTEEN AUTUMNS AND A WIDOW' is one of my favourite tracks on the album, and showcases everything that makes Cradle of Filth unique. Alternating between fast and slow, energetic and relaxed, this really gets interesting when the guitar sections kick in towards the end, with a keyboard-led outro. Anyone who thinks Cradle can't play a good guitar piece should listen to this track foremost.
'CRUELTY BROUGHT THEE ORCHIDS' continues in a similar vein with a very recognisable guitar riff, a common trait to all this album's songs, but is somewhat slower and more gothic in nature, utilising Sarah Jezebel Deva's vocals in places.
'BENEATH THE HOWLING STARS' is one of the most atmospheric and involving tracks on the album and features some excellent bass playing and orchestral keyboards.
'VENUS IN FEAR,' the most controversial track on the album, is a three-minute interlude featuring subtle horror keyboards and occasional blood-curdling screams as Bathory defiles a female virgin. Disturbing and excruciating, this is not for the faint-hearted but does suit the style.
'DESIRE IN VIOLENT OVERTURE' is a very enjoyable track, if a little less atmospheric, but does feature some truly "wailing" guitars. A fairly easy song on the ears before the album takes the listener in much deeper.
'THE TWISTED NAILS OF FAITH' begins with some interesting keyboards and a ticking , ominous clock sound before one of the hardest riffs on the album begins. Long and complex, this is one of the album's finest tracks and has a great title.
'BATHORY ARIA' is not a track I am too fond of, although I know other people swear by it. Over ten minutes long, this slow, gothic number is divided into three sections and is one of Cradle's very different offerings.
'PORTRAIT OF THE DEAD COUNTESS' follows and is a short but beautiful keyboard interlude that conveys a great deal of sadness and melancholy and causes the listener to feel a little sorry for the Countess, despite her actions.
The album closes in style with 'LUSTMORD AND WARGASM (THE LICK OF CARNIVOROUS WINDS),' beginning with some great keyboards and offering one of the best and most energetic tracks on the album.
THE BAND
Cradle of Filth's line-up has undergone many changes over their ten-year career, but the talented musicians present on this fourth album are all flawless.
VOCALS - The most prominent member is the band's diminutive frontman DANI FILTH, an Englishman with an unnatural capacity for unearthly screams and growls that take a while to get accustomed to, but fit the atmosphere perfectly. His crow-like howls are much more finely tuned and understandable than on the previous album and he is able to alternate to eerie whispers and beastly growls in a way that keeps it interesting. Sarah Jezebel Deva adds welcome female vocals in some songs, while the occasional voice of the Countess herself is handled expertly by Hammer Horror veteran Ingrid Pitt.
GUITARS - The guitars are my favourite aspect of this album, (along with most others in my collection) and are executed equally by STUART and GIAN. The dark rhythms in every song sound excellent, while the solos and other interesting high sections never feel over-the-top or out of place. I love guitars.
BASS - ROBIN GRAVES, presumably not his real name, shines through as the "nocturnal pulse" of all the tracks, but is most notable when given a section to himself such as in the fourth track.
KEYBOARDS - LECTER is superbly talented at playing the keyboards on this album, and is far superior in terms of his ability and decisions than any of the band's other keyboard players earlier and later. The keyboard tracks are highlights of the album, and the constant support behind the more prominent instruments in the rest of the album really does make this album what it is.
DRUMS - The drums are less pounding on this album, which is due to its slightly poor production, but I don't find this a problem; it sets this apart from the rest of the black metal genre and actually sounds better because of it. NICHOLAS would soon leave the band for Norway's 'Dimmu Borgir,' but his incredibly fast playing is essential to this album
DESIGN
As with all of Cradle's albums, a lot of time and effort has been put in to making the album "perfect." The colour scheme is based on sepia brown with striking blood red in places and, although the cover design alone would repel and possible insult a lot of people, it does give an honest indication of what the album entails. With the concept idea of Elizabeth Bathory, the cover depicts the naked Countess, albeit with her knees raised to cover gratuitous nudity, soaking in one of her blood baths. The surrounding floor is cracked and old, with several skulls as decoration.
It is obvious that at first sighting this album cover could be seen as incredibly sexist or disturbing, if the observer misinterpreted it as a suicide scene or a cruel depiction of menstruation, however as it stands there is nothing inherently controversial about this cover; the colour scheme is very pleasing to the eyes, and the intriguing bathing woman is incentive to look further.
Inside the album the level of potentially disturbing violence increases with pictures showing the Countess at work, "harvesting" tied bodies, but this is all done very tastefully and not in a sexist fashion; in fact, the majority of Cradle of Filth fan tend to be female. There is an artistic photograph of the band as the album's centrefold, standing and sitting in what I presume to be a room of Bathory's castle, while each band member is given a "lowdown" at points throughout the booklet. From Robin Graves to Lecter, each member is described with a brief tongue-in-cheek passage describing some of their less savoury pleasures. As with the album's lyrics these deal with anti-Christian views and are often graphically sexual, but having seen the band "out of make up" on videos I can confidently say that this is all in the spirit of fun.
VERDICT
'Cruelty and the Beast' is an incredibly detailed, compelling and involving album, and one of the most atmospheric I have ever heard. The music and lyrics are dark, moving, exciting and erotic, and although this is certainly not a mainstream album I feel it would be enjoyed by many people if it were better known. I won't underplay its obvious negative aspects as it could be incredibly offensive to religious people, but this is truly an example of music as an art form. Whatever you opinion on the band and the genre, the artistic nature of this album cannot be overlooked- the music is excellent and the lyrics are beautifully and disturbingly poetic. Take thou heed and be thou warned.
Advantages: Incredibly crafted music and poetic lyrics, Varied style, Involving concept album
Disadvantages: Some lyrics would upset Christians, Graphic descriptions of sexual activity
Cradle of Filth
**
Written on 24.05.08
After releasing several albums of creative, talented and macabre gothic metal, Cradle of Filth started to slip disappointingly towards a mainstream bastardisation of their sound that would be sadly realised over the course of several years. 'From the Cradle to Enslave' is the start of this transformation, an E.P. of lacklustre covers, needless remixes and below par original material that pales in comparison to its illustrious predecessors 'Dusk and Her Embrace' and 'Cruelty and the Beast.'
The original material isn't entirely bad, but it's obviously screaming for acceptance by the readers of mainstream metal magazines such as 'Kerrang!' in its dilution of the band's gothic sound with radio-friendly structures and a tamed performance that tries desperately to be catchy. 'From the Cradle to Enslave' is over-repetitive and 'Of Dark Blood and F**king' is merely a horrible mess of the elements that previously made the band's music so engaging, from inappropriate keyboards and operatic female vocals to an overlong and tedious drum intro.
The re-make of 'Funeral in Carpathia' is inoffensive but pointless, and an overly clinical production job robs it of the atmosphere of the 'Dusk and Her Embrace' original. The cover material is a mixed bag: their take on the Misfits is disappointing to say the least, the band's gothic guitar style and rasped vocals failing to live up to the glory of 'Earth A.D.' in any way, Massacre's 'Dawn of Eternity' is malformed into a gothic piece that contrasts too sharply with its extreme elements, and their take on Anathema's classic 'Sleepless' sounds equally out of place, and spoils all the best bits. At least I didn't have to endure the alternative version of the E.P. that comes with the band's attempt at a techno remix with the song 'Pervert's Church,' that would just be hideous.
1. From the Cradle to Enslave
2. Of Dark Blood and F**king
3. Death Comes Ripping (Misfits cover)
4. Sleepless (Anathema cover)
5. Funeral in Carpathia (Be Quick or Be Dead version)
6. Dawn of Eternity (Massacre cover)
Cradle of Filth
Midian
****
Written on 11.08.04
British vampire enthusiasts Cradle of Filth are one of the most successful and prominent bands of the black metal genre, their extreme, heavy and intricate music and dark, erotic and (occasionally) very amusing lyrics earning the band an extremely loyal fan base. It was with their 2000 album ‘Midian’ that the band really hit their stride and became noticed by the general public, leading to mixed reactions: metal and gothic music fans had found a new favourite band, while hilarious TV personalities such as Jonathan Ross could pretend to be really clever and down with the kids by mentioning them pretty much every time I randomly channel surfed through his ‘Film 2001’ show.
STYLE
‘Black metal’ – another sub-genre to describe to the musically unconscious public. This is essentially as dark and heavy as it gets; to produce something more intense, one would find one’s music passing through infinity and coming out again as something like ‘New Kids on the Block.’ The usual instruments are still present – guitars, bass and drums – but these are all played to a much fuller extent and are complimented by atmospheric keyboards and growling vocals.
Dani Filth’s vocals are at their best here, finally achieving the desired mix between the crow screech of the previous album and the guttural roars of their early work. Many of the lyrics are spoken so fast or distorted that it’s admittedly hard to tell what’s being said, but excellent touches such as Sarah Jezebel Deva’s operatic female vocals add to the experience so fully that it doesn’t matter. And it’s great to hear a posh lady swear like that, although I don’t find it strangely erotic. Not much anyway.
In terms of the instruments, this is much heavier and more instrument-led than some of their previous offerings, which relied a lot more on atmospheric keyboards in places, partly thanks to that most talented of perverts Lecter. The band’s members have shifted with each consecutive album, but this is often seen as the ‘classic’ line-up (although I would disagree; ‘Cruelty and the Beast’ is still my favourite of their albums), and the main difference in the sound here is the re-introduction of guitarist Paul Allender, who appeared on the debut album but was replaced by Stuart Anstis.
The relentless double bass thumps add to the music rather than detracting as they did previously, due to the poor production values of their earlier albums, while the keyboards blend into the overall tapestry a lot more, only surfacing occasionally. This is symphonic black metal at is finest, ranging from roaring violence to reflection.
MIDIAN
1. At the Gates of Midian
2. Cthulhu Dawn
3. Saffron’s Curse
4. Death Magick for Adepts
5. Lord Abortion
6. Amor e Morte
7. Creatures That Kissed in Cold Mirrors
8. Her Ghost in the Fog
9. Satanic Mantra
10. Tearing the Veil From Grace
11. Tortured Soul Asylum
These eleven tracks form over an hour of music, despite several of them essentially being interludes – ‘AT THE GATES OF MIDIAN’ builds up with some great keyboards into the first real song, while ‘CREATURES THAT KISSED IN COLD MIRRORS’ is an incredible keyboard piece that sounds reminiscent of Danny Elfman’s scores from Tim Burton films, whether this was an influence or not. Unfortunately this excellence is balanced out by the appalling ‘SATANIC MANTRA,’ some repetitive a cappella chanting for a couple of minutes that is a definite skipper.
The first song is also the heaviest, the intense ‘CTHULHU DAWN.’ Great, memorable guitars and growling vocals make the tone of the album very clear to anyone who’s just put it in the CD player out of curiosity, and Dani’s vocals go through their full range here. ‘SAFFRON’S CURSE’ is similar but less impressive, using some melodic high keyboards that don’t really work, before one of my favourites on the album – grandiose doesn’t begin to describe ‘DEATH MAGICK FOR ADEPTS.’ Heavy and pounding, the real joy of this song comes in the last forty seconds following a monologue from an old man (who also appears on later tracks), leading into the greatest guitar riff the band have ever executed.
‘LORD ABORTION’ is the stand-out track for many people and is certainly an excellent example of the band right down to the needlessly offensive lyrics. This is much slower and focussed, but still features heavier sections. ‘AMOR E MORTE’ is fast and fun, if a little unimpressive in light of the promotional single ‘HER GHOST IN THE FOG.’ This was the song that got my friend into the band and led to me becoming familiar with their entire discography, and its use of Deva’s vocals and some more excellent guitars makes it one of the clear highlights.
A song that has grown on me over time to become possibly my favourite of the album is the penultimate offering ‘TEARING THE VEIL FROM GRACE.’ The first half is surprisingly melodic and verges on beautiful with the strong female vocals and light keyboards, before the definition of ‘letting rip’ when the other instruments erupt into life. ‘TORTURED SOUL ASYLUM’ is an average track that nevertheless closes the album nicely, and aside from the afore-mentioned Mantra, the tone and atmosphere is maintained throughout the musical experience.
THEMES
Vocalist and lyricist Dani Filth again decided on a themed concept album following the success of this approach with their previous ‘Cruelty and the Beast,’ which focussed on the life and death of Countess Elizabeth Bathory. ‘Midian’ is based primarily on Clive Barker’s book of the same name, with the Cthulhu mythos of horror writer H.P. Lovecraft infiltrating at a number of points. Lovecraft’s creation has strangely become a genuine cult worldwide, and has also provided inspiration for prominent bands such as Metallica in their early albums.
The themes of love, death, sacrifice, sex, perversion and the worship of evil are typical of black metal and Cradle of Filth in particular, but the enjoyment is always maintained by Dani’s turn of phrase, when it can be heard amongst his squawking. “The scimitar slash to the undergash,” “it’s rotting down – this carcass Maggotropolis” and my personal favourite, “Sodomy on the Bounty,” are balanced out by a great deal of sexual content that I couldn’t even begin to quote here, but rest assured there is little left undescribed. They aren’t a comedy band – they wouldn’t have got far if they were – but many people doubtless consider them to be more serious about all this than they actually are. (Dani’s favourite film is ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ for example. Sorry if I’ve ruined the mood for you).
Probably an album it’s best not to play when mother’s friends are round, although the untrained ear would only pick up the more obvious profanities.
VERDICT
This is obviously not an album that will appeal to everyone, and it took me a while to get into it. The band’s popularity suggests that anyone who enjoys heavy bands should find something they like here, while the atmosphere alone should be enough to tempt some fans of horror films and literature. Personally I don’t consider this to be the band’s finest album musically, although technically it is their most mature and likely their most accessible.
The heaviness does seem to be overdoing it at times at expense to the mood; the balance maintained on their previous album ‘Cruelty and the Beast’ was much more impressive, while also featuring more melodic guitars and keyboards that didn’t intrude so much as on this release. Nevertheless, with epic songs such as ‘Her Ghost in the Fog’ and ‘Lord Abortion,’ this was guaranteed to be a hit for the English gothic boys, and they must have had a sense that they were creating their ‘classic’ album during the recording. The band’s more recent albums have diverged little too much from their original intentions and are less atmospheric and enjoyable on the whole.
The computer-generated artwork is a little primitive, but the purple and brown colour scheme suits the tone perfectly. I don’t know if Lovecraft would have enjoyed black metal, but he probably would have given the lyric booklet a thorough read-through.
Advantages: Musically complex and artistic, Heavy and melodic, Interestingly blasphemous lyrics
Disadvantages: Too heavy for many peoples' taste, May upset, offend or confound, Not as melodic or hilarious as the 1998 album
Cradle of Filth
***
Written on 24.05.08
Cradle of Filth's popularity escalated as their music became more predictable and less imaginative, once again demonstrating the mediocre tastes of the masses (even those who misleadingly fancy themselves as alternative by reading such obscure publications as 'Kerrang!'), and 2002 saw several releases cashing in on this mainstream success in wont of a proper studio album.
'Lovecraft & Witchhearts' is an unashamed best-of compilation bulked out by some rare and unreleased material in the form of remixes and cover songs, and I'll admit that it's quite a good collection. Its avoidance of the band's earliest material is disappointing, but it fortunately doesn't include anything from the awful 'Bitter Suites to Succubi' release that would have decreased its quality immensely - presumably this is more due to record label issues than artistic choice.
The main problem here is that it's a fairly lifeless collection, jumping between eras and styles without grace and missing out some of the better examples of the styles on offer, preferring to insert a more modern equivalent when possible. It's still a fair representation of the band, especially at this point in its career before their sound deviated even further, but the cover songs on the second disc aren't particularly impressive, and even the remixes are lacking any real delights - the remastering of 'Thirteen Autumns and a Widow' doesn't even fix the shoddy production of the original.
This is fine as a collection of fairly arbitrary Cradle of Filth songs, but I'd still only recommend checking out the earlier portion of their discography.
Disc 1
1. Creatures That Kissed in Cold Mirrors
2. Dusk and Her Embrace
3. Beneath the Howling Stars
4. Her Ghost in the Fog
5. Funeral in Carpathia (Be Quick or Be Dead version)
6. The Twisted Nails of Faith
7. From the Cradle to Enslave
8. Saffron's Curse
9. Malice Through the Looking Glass
10. Cruelty Brought Thee Orchids
11. Lord Abortion
Disc 2
1. Once Upon Atrocity
2. Thirteen Autumns and a Widow (Red October mix)
3. For Those Who Died (Return to the Sabbat mix) (Sabbat cover)
4. Sodomy and Lust (Sodom cover)
5. Twisting Further Nails
6. Amor e Morte (Lycanthropy mix)
7. Carmilla's Masque
8. Lustmord and Wargasm II
9. Dawn of Eternity (Massacre cover)
10. Of Dark Blood and F**king (Stripped to the Bone mix)
11. Dance Macabre
12. Hell Awaits (Slayer cover)
13. Hallowed Be Thy Name (Iron Maiden cover)
Cradle of Filth
***
Written on 24.05.08
Unfortunately coming slightly too late to be the definitive live Cradle of Filth album, released well into the band's artistic decline, 'Live Bait for the Dead' still boasts an impressive range of material from the band's entire discography up to this point, even if their modern style will interfere a little too much with the classics for old-school fans' tastes. Balancing then-current songs such as the mediocre singles 'Her Ghost in the Fog' and 'From the Cradle to Enslave' with older, more violent offerings 'Ebony Dressed for Sunset' and 'Summer Dying Fast' and gothic extravaganzas in the form of 'Dusk and Her Embrace' and 'Queen of Winter, Throned,' this captures most of what was good about Cradle of Filth in their early career, with a few acceptable inclusions from more recent years that at least catch the band just before they became really bad.
The second disc is an odd inclusion, and although it helps to bulk out the set, it presumably did the same thing to the price, and isn't really worth it. The remixes are either pointless, as is the case for the near-identical 'No Time to Cry' and 'Born in a Burial Gown,' the latter clearly just being milked as the current single, or awful like the hideous industrial rock remix of 'From the Cradle to Enslave.' 'Deleted Scenes of a Snuff Princess' is an attempt at something radically different in the form of a fully-fledged underground dance track, but like the band's earlier 'Pervert's Church' it simply sounds too out of place and not particularly accomplished in any case, and the only truly decent songs here are the soundchecks of the classic 'Funeral in Carpathia' and not-quite-classic 'Nocturnal Supremacy,' which benefit from the extra energy of the as-live performance.
Disc 1
1. The Ceremony Opens (Intro)
2. Lord Abortion
3. Ebony Dressed for Sunset
4. The Forest Whispers My Name
5. Cthulhu Dawn
6. Dusk and Her Embrace
7. The Principle of Evil Made Flesh
8. Cruelty Brought Thee Orchids
9. Her Ghost in the Fog
10. Summer Dying Fast
11. Creatures That Kissed in Cold Mirrors (Interlude)
12. From the Cradle to Enslave
13. Queen of Winter, Throned
Disc 2
1. Born in a Burial Gown (The Polished Coffin mix)
2. No Time to Cry (Sisters of No Mercy mix)
3. Funeral in Carpathia (soundcheck recording)
4. Deleted Scenes of a Snuff Princess
5. Scorched Earth Erotica (original demo version)
6. Nocturnal Supremacy (soundcheck recording)
7. From the Cradle to Enslave (Under Martian Rule mix)
8. The Fire Still Burns (Twisted Sister cover)
Cradle of Filth
Damnation and a Day
***
Written on 24.05.08
Cries of sell-out were predictably thrown around as Cradle of Filth released their first album on a major record label, but whatever other criticisms can be levelled at the over-ambitious and ultimately unconvincing 'Damnation and a Day,' there's nothing insincere about it. Armed with a high budget and a full orchestra, the gothic metal got a little ahead of itself with this overlong, over-produced concept album based around Milton's epic poem 'Paradise Lost,' though you'd never know it if you didn't read the lyrics.
The orchestration is the major change here, and can be the album's main strength or weakness depending on your preference for orchestral metal. Disappointingly, the symphony seems to completely usurp the regular instruments, leaving the guitars in particular as a background rhythm instrument devoid of the band's usual flair for lead guitar work, and only Dani Filth's relentless crow screech really signifies that this is the same band responsible for 'Midian.' Adrian Erlandsson's drums are also slightly irritating, ticking away without any force thanks to the overly clean production and never sitting particularly well with the symphony.
This isn't necessarily a bad symphonic metal album, but it doesn't fuse the two styles as well as it could, and ends up sounding rather amateur as a result. At seventeen tracks it's also much too long for one sitting, and the uneven distribution of styles sees the contrived singles 'Babalon A.D.,' 'Mannequin' and 'Thank God for the Suffering' lumped together towards the end after the conceptual material has been done away with.
1. A Bruise Upon the Silent Moon
2. The Promise of Fever
3. Hurt and Virtue
4. An Enemy Led the Tempest
5. Damned in Any Language (A Plague on Words)
6. Better to Reign in Hell
7. Serpent Tongue
8. Carrion
9. The Mordant Liquor of Tears
10. Presents from the Poison-Hearted
11. Doberman Pharaoh
12. Babalon A.D. (So Glad for the Madness)
13. A Scarlet Witch Lit the Season
14. Mannequin
15. Thank God for the Suffering
16. The Smoke of Her Burning
17. End of Daze
Cradle of Filth
Nymphetamine
**
Written on 24.05.08
Billed as a return to form after the orchestral 'Damnation and a Day' went a little too far, 'Nymphetamine' fails to recapture the glory of Cradle of Filth's early career in any way, resulting in another generic mainstream metal release from Roadrunner Records. It's clear that the band went for a more stripped and simplistic sound here, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but sadly their creative abilities aren't enough to keep it from sounding bland and mostly tedious, its greatest crime being a complete lack of the atmosphere that the band used to create so well.
Some of the songs are catchy, such as the chorus of 'Gilded C**t' and the title song itself, but the others feel lacking in direction, with cheap Iron Maiden imitation lead guitars from newcomer James McKillboy and disappointing keyboards from the formerly impressive Martin Powell. Conflicting with the band's stripped-down intentions, many songs are simply too long, and attempts to recapture the gothic heights of older songs such as 'A Gothic Romance' with 'Gabrielle' and others only draw attention to the lack of atmosphere and conviction.
1. Satyriasis (Intro)
2. Gilded Cunt
3. Nemesis
4. Gabrielle
5. Absinthe with Faust
6. Nymphetamine (Overdose)
7. Painting Flowers White Never Suited My Palette
8. Medusa and Hemlock
9. Coffin Fodder
10. English Fire
11. Filthy Little Secret
12. Swansong for a Raven
13. Mother of Abominations
14. Nymphetamine (Fix)
Cradle of Filth
Thornography
**
Written on 24.05.08
Cradle of Filth's most recent album carries directly on from 'Nymphetamine' but is a little more accomplished in its execution of a stripped-down sound, even if the reintroduction of keyboard intros only serves to make them sound like a cheesy gimmick due to their absence in some songs. Dani Filth's vocals no longer scream for attention quite so much, even providing some clean singing in songs such as 'Tonight in Flames,' and although the band is clearly enjoying itself, playing a more simplistic and less atmospheric form of metal, they still aren't all that good at it.
The band's lead guitar position continues in its revolving door tradition, and Charles Hedger is perhaps the greatest deviation from the band's classic sound, making them sound more like a weak and raspy Iron Maiden. None of the songs are particularly loathsome, but none held my interest all the way through, and the album (and band at this point in its career) are staggeringly overrated in the metal scene. And the less said about the ridiculous cover of 'Temptation' (yes, that one), the better.
1. Under Pregnant Skies She Comes Alive Like Miss Leviathan
2. Dirge Inferno
3. Tonight in Flames
4. Libertina Grimm
5. The Byronic Man
6. I Am the Thorn
7. Cemetery and Sundown
8. Lovesick for Mina
9. The Foetus of a New Day Kicking
10. Rise of the Pentagram
11. Under Huntress Moon
12. Temptation (Heaven 17 cover)
God of Hellfire
***
Written on 19.07.06
This bizarre duet of organs and inhuman wails, with some drums and a bass guitar filling in underneath there somewhere, remains one of the classics of late 60s psychedelic rock. Deleted fairly swiftly on LP, this quirky oddity of rock and reason was released on CD in 1991 and is still readily available today, although you may have to look pretty hard.
Against all likelihood, this self-titled debut album from Arthur Brown’s first band spawned a hit (#2) single with the energetic ‘Fire,’ commonly regarded, by people who judge music in terms of popularity, as one of the strangest one hit wonders in music history. At least, before the 80s came along (‘Shaddap You Face’ anyone?) Unfortunately, nowhere else on the record is the energy so vibrant and the musicianship as frantic as in those (in)famous two-and-a-half minutes.
The Crazy World of Arthur Brown takes its cues from blues rock, evidenced by the cover of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ hit ‘I Put a Spell on You,’ as well as more laid back R ‘n’ B style. Again, this is supported by the album’s second cover song, ‘I’ve Got Money’ by James Brown. This album is psychedelic in a different way from the dreamy soundscapes and mellow singing of The Who, The Beatles and Pink Floyd, opting for a more concise and speedy mood most of the time.
The lack of guitar sets this album apart from those of its contemporaries, and the resulting over-compensation of Vincent Crane’s organ makes it sound particularly dated today, as well as weirdly compelling. The album’s main strength lies in the vocals of its frontman; Arthur Brown still reportedly possesses his famous four octave range, and he doesn’t shy away from demonstrating it throughout this record, occasionally moving through his whole range in the space of five seconds. Even if you don’t want The Crazy World of Arthur Brown to mean anything more to you than one stupid hit single, this proto-prog album at least has historical significance. And, um… not much else.
1. Prelude / Nightmare
2. Fanfare / Fire Poem
3. Fire
4. Come and Buy
5. Time / Confusion
6. I Put a Spell on You
7. Spontaneous Apple Creation
8. Rest Cure
9. I’ve Got Money
10. Child of My Kingdom
The first half of this album forms an infernal psychedelic suite that sees Arthur Brown indulging his theatrical side. For no reason whatsoever, these five tracks are added in monaural form as bonus tracks on the CD release and placed at the start of the album, meaning that listeners have to skip to track six. Crazy. In any case, this is the more impressive of the album’s two halves (or sides if you’re stuck in the days of vinyl), although its rather grand scope and repetition may cause the more chilled second half to be more suited to casual listeners. In this suite, Brown describes a pleasant riverside walk becoming a descent into fiery Hell. It’s sort of like Dante’s Inferno, but without the poetic justice and the moral; Brown seems more concerned with presenting Hell for Hell’s sake, although record burners can hold it right there, as the lyrics are never allied with the Satanic cause. Why is it so cold in here?
To enhance the scale of the piece, the band recruits what sounds like a small orchestra, but could easily be a couple of mates they brought into the studio. The ‘Prelude’ is an idyllic, pastoral orchestral opening before the organ and subsequently the vocals kick in, following sound effects that sound suspiciously like snoring (some kind of comment from the impatient, hyper-energetic vocalist?) A trumpet fanfare bridges the first and second songs, but no such transition is made from the spoken word poetics of ‘Fire Poem’ to the hit single that follows. Brown’s vocals become demented in track two, a nice precursor to the only famous song he has ever done.
Brown’s terrifying announcement opens the pointless but immensely enjoyable Hellfire anthem. His pseudo-croon that dominates thereafter is haunting and compelling, and works brilliantly alongside the piping organ, which is later usurped by parping trumpets. The break-off in the middle of the song builds anticipation for the reprise of the chorus, especially as the vocals become higher and higher as Arthur Brown’s soul burns in the fires of Hell.
“God brother, you lie.” As a striking contrast to the opening of ‘Fire,’ the longer, slower and calmer ‘Come and Buy’ works excellently in the arrangement and is one of the best songs on the album. The funky vocals as the song speeds up, and eventually the reprise of musical and lyrical themes from ‘Fire Poem’ and ‘Fire’ makes this a great proto-prog song. The same goes for ‘Time/Confusion,’ which begins slowly, aided by something like a xylophone, and features more poetic lyrics before reflecting back on the album thus far and drawing things to a fitting end. Of course, there’s still half an album to go.
‘Spontaneous Apple Creation’ boasts the uncontested best song title of the album, but is one of its weaker moments; I don’t know whether it’s intentional, but the old-fashioned organ and plodding bass and drums really retreat to seaside music territory here. Adding Brown’s fairytale lyrics to the mix, this sounds more like an old fairground ride at Blackpool Pleasure Beach than a song worthy of peoples’ time. By contrast, ‘Rest Cure’ is a pretty good song that anticipates David Bowie in its low range English croon and is led by the bass for a change, plucking along in place of the irritating organ. This song is perhaps the most inherently commercial on here, so it’s a shame it wasn’t given the same attention as the hit single.
The album concludes with the long and progressive ‘Child of My Kingdom,’ featuring everything from mellow vocals to an extended instrumental jam session that actually gives the drummer something to do for once. It’s nice to hear Brown whistling some of the alternating verse lines at seemingly random intervals, and it’s almost sad to hear the instruments fade out after seven minutes. The cover songs ‘I Put a Spell on You’ and ‘I’ve Got Money’ are covered well, to the extent that they sound like they belong on the album rather than on someone else’s, and although they fit in well when given the organ treatment, it would have been nice to hear some more original material.
This is a fairly unbalanced album, clearly divided into two uneven halves, neither of which comes anywhere close to perfection. The ‘Fire’ cycle isn’t particularly daunting, but does get a bit repetitive, and once it’s all over with and the mini-orchestra have been sent home, the resulting songs sound shallow and simple. Based on the listener’s orientation to this kind of thing, this will be a good or bad move; after all, most people will have bought this album based on a very short hit single, and probably didn’t anticipate its position in the middle of a ‘play.’
The impressively educated Brown’s mundane, Monty Python style English name may not draw in the kids as much as those of the shock rockers he would directly inspire, most notably Ozzy Osbourne and Alice Cooper, the latter of whom reportedly stole Brown’s make up ideas. Fortunately his stage presence and legendary theatrics with flaming helmets and cranes more than compensate, and have left a lasting impression: despite never achieving high sales of any albums hereafter, Brown still sells out every concert venue today.
Brown’s vocals are something pretty special, but are only supported by primitive instruments here. Vincent Crane may be admired for his organ skills, but it still sounds like a supporting instrument struggling to take the place of a guitar. Nevertheless, he and Brown came up with some great songs here, and never burdened themselves with trying to be sensible, coherent or popular. I wonder how the hell ‘Fire’ happened?
Advantages: A semi-classic
Disadvantages: Loses its appeal fairly quickly
Crematory
Illusions
****
Written on 13.06.08
Crematory's third album is a welcome change of pace, as the German gothic metal band starts to develop a distinct sound of its own. This is a strong and myriad collection of songs, from the instrumental opening and closing tracks that exude more atmosphere and complexity than on previous releases, to the mix of doom and gothic metal elsewhere.
Perhaps the most significant change is the dominance of clean vocals, which might take some getting used to for those unaccustomed to the thick German accent, as much of it tends towards spoken word with death metal growls to supplement. The songs vary between melodic guitar and keyboard dominance, and although I prefer the more traditionally doom metal songs such as 'Faces' and 'The Beginning of the End,' the lighter gothic moments of the hypnotic 'Tears of Time' and bass-driven 'The Atmosphere' diversify the album in a satisfying, rather than distracting way.
1. Reflexionen (Intro)
2. Faces
3. Tears of Time
4. My Way
5. Lost In Myself
6. An Other...?
7. The Atmosphere
8. The Beginning of the End
9. Sweet Solitude
10. Dreams of Dancing
11. ... Just Dreaming
12. Visions
Crematory
Act Seven
****
Written on 13.06.08
With the introduction of subtle electronic elements, Crematory's sound continues to expand and improve, making for one of the finest gothic metal releases of the nineties and the band's finest work. The mood is predominantly mellow, led by Katrin Goger's ever-more-talented keyboards, but songs such as 'I Never Die' still maintain the harder metal elements, this song in particular boasting elements reminiscent of Fear Factory.
The vocals are possibly the highlight, which is an unusual statement for me, especially when they're a little soppy. Nevertheless, Felix Stass' clean singing and growled styles compliment each other perfectly, and the addition of female vocals to 'Waiting' helps each song to stand apart. The band is working together in a more satisfying fusion than usual, all the instruments really complimenting each other in songs like the single 'Fly,' and there's still time out for more atmospheric moments with the crooning of 'The Game' and balladic finale 'Tale.'
1. Shining
2. I Never Die
3. Moonlight
4. Fly
5. Memory
6. The Holy One
7. The Game
8. Waiting
9. Awake
10. Tale
Crematory
Believe
***
Written on 13.06.08
2000's 'Believe' has a little too much self-confidence about it, as if German gothic metal band Crematory intended it to be their defining album when it's actually more of a step backwards. The electronic elements are still present from 'Act Seven,' even more prominent now, but a lighter style results in the album's few heavier moments sounding severely stilted, such as the guitar riffs in 'Endless.'
This is undoubtedly catchy, but there's not much to it beyond that superficial level. Songs like 'Take' and 'Act Seven' retain the electronic elements to a greater degree, 'Time for Tears' is predictably more melodic, and 'Perils of the Wind' is the compulsory synthesiser ballad, but apart from that, the album holds no surprises. This would be a much more successful album if the instruments balanced each other out to a greater degree, and the songs emoted rather than crawled along at a bland pace.
1. Redemption of Faith
2. Endless
3. The Fallen
4. Take
5. Act Seven
6. Time for Tears
7. Eternal
8. Unspoken
9. Caroline
10. The Curse
11. Why
12. Perils of the Wind
Crematory
Revolution
***
Written on 13.06.08
Their comeback album after a brief disbanding, Crematory's 'Revolution' once again sees the band moving forwards instead of back, even if the increased focus on electronic elements to supplement their industrial sound isn't exactly to my taste. The synthetic elements work excellently in the extended opening instrumental 'Resurrection,' but when combined with the groove metal style guitars of the majority of the album, they just sound sort of wrong.
Felix Stass' vocals are still strong, moving between a growl and singing style, and demonstrating an impressive range in songs like 'Wake Up,' and the ever-reliable Katrin Goger is still the driving force behind the band, providing atmospheric keyboards and more dominant touches such as the piano that pulls 'Reign of Fear' along. The electronic focus of songs like 'Open Your Eyes' may prove harder for metal fans to appreciate, but they're no less accomplished, and the opposite can be said for the groove metal style of 'Human Blood,' which could even be appreciated by a Pantera fan.
1. Resurrection
2. Wake Up
3. Greed
4. Reign of Fear
5. Open Your Eyes
6. Tick Tack
7. Angel of Fate
8. Solitary Psycho
9. Revolution
10. Human Blood
11. Red Sky
12. Farewell Letter
Crematory
Pray
***
Written on 24.05.08
Another band that began as death-influenced doom metal and evolved into something more accessible to receive the vague 'gothic' tag, Germany's Crematory have at least been more consistent than the more well-known Paradise Lost and Amorphis during their more recent career. 'Pray' is an inoffensive album of commercial industrial gothic metal with a large infusion of Soilwork-style melodic death metal, making for a result that could be considered a more cacophonous, powerful and energetic version of the Finnish gothic rock bands such as HIM. And much better, to boot.
Gerhard Stass moves between several vocal styles with ease, from whispers and clean singing to death metal growls in the louder sections, and the personal lyrics will still win the favour of many doom metal fans, even if the music is a little more predictable and polished than something like My Dying Bride. The guitars rely on very obvious structures such as breakdowns and short, quota-meeting solos, but fortunately the keyboards are more impressive, filling out the atmosphere and never descending into amateur electronic garbage as industrial metal bands tend to.
1. When Darkness Falls
2. Left the Ground
3. Alone
4. Pray
5. Sleeping Solution
6. Just Words
7. Burning Bridges
8. Have You Ever
9. Remember
10. Say Goodbye
Crimson Glory
Crimson Glory
****
Written on 13.06.08
Crimson Glory were an important band in the development of progressive and power metal in the second half of the eighties, though they didn't know it at the time. Their self-titled album is a confident and almost definitive debut release, offering some classic melodic heavy metal familiar to fans of Dio and the American scene, but infusing subtle atmospheric and neoclassical elements with introspective lyrics to help establish metal as a serious genre, an important crusade indeed when battling the ridiculous likes of Poison and Nitro dominating the mainstream metal charts.
Singer Midnight has an incredible voice, and this may be the deciding factor for many newcomers. His wails are entirely high-pitched, not going as far as the purposefully melodramatic King Diamond but exceeding most of his peers and perfectly complimenting Jon Drenning's high lead guitars. Despite being viewed as a progressive metal progenitor, the material here is fairly standard and predictable, though this doesn't count against it. Songs such as 'Valhalla' and 'Mayday' are fast, catchy and wholly enjoyable heavy metal, while 'Heart of Steel' and 'Lost Reflection' offer something lighter without becoming too cheesy.
1. Valhalla
2. Dragon Lady
3. Heart of Steel
4. Azrael
5. Mayday
6. Queen of the Masquerade
7. Angels of War
8. Lost Reflection
Crimson Glory
Transcendence
****
Written on 13.06.08
'Transcendence' should be viewed as an essential purchase for fans of progressive power metal - a seemingly obscure genre I know, but one with a number of high-profile acts such as Symphony X, Angra and Ayreon - as along with the work of Fates Warning around the same time, it helped to define and found the genre, despite not actually sounding all that much like it. This is thoughtful and creative melodic metal that retains a commercial appeal, and for every intricate guitar solo ('Red Sharks'), there's a catchy, almost pop-rock chorus to balance things out ('Lady of Winter').
Some of the songs here are instantly memorable, which will serve to count against the album if you despise it, and that's largely thanks to the vocal theatrics of Midnight. Interestingly, and slightly disappointingly for prog fans, the album follows the structure of its predecessor almost exactly, with slower songs in the form of 'Painted Skies' and the title song, and more traditional treats for metalheads such as the galloping 'Eternal World' and shrieking 'Red Sharks.'
1. Lady of Winter
2. Red Sharks
3. Painted Skies
4. Masque of the Red Death
5. In Dark Places
6. Where Dragons Rule
7. Lonely
8. Burning Bridges
9. Eternal World
10. Transcendence
Crimson Glory
Strange and Beautiful
**
Written on 14.06.08
Crimson Glory's discography is easy to divide down the middle, between the two early releases that were pretty great, and the two later releases that were rather awful.
'Strange and Beautiful' seems to be this band's answer to Metallica's black album, not in terms of sound but in its deliberate attempt to reach a wider audience by compromising the band's established sound and alienating its loyal fan base in favour of new, mainstream acceptance. I couldn't say whether this was a successful move or not at the time, but nowadays Crimson Glory are respected in the metal world for their early achievements by fans who pretend they disbanded before the 1990s kicked off.
The style here is predominantly glam metal, not as horrendous as Celtic Frost's 'Cold Lake' but comparable to the best of bands such as Warrant, Firehouse and all the rest, where 'best' isn't saying a lot. Radio-friendly power ballads aplenty ('Love and Dreams,' 'Song for Angels,' 'Deep Inside Your Heart' and 'Far Away,' ever so predictably), while the other songs lack the excitement and style of the earlier albums, partly due to the absence of Ben Jackson's lead guitars as Jon Drenning has to compensate all on his own with a stream of unmemorable riffs.
1. Strange and Beautiful
2. Promise Land
3. Love and Dreams
4. The Chant
5. Dance on Fire
6. Song for Angels
7. In the Mood
8. Starchamber
9. Deep Inside Your Heart
10. Make You Love Me
11. Far Away
Crimson Moonlight
The Convenant Progress
****
Written on 14.06.08
Crimson Moonlight are one of those frankly laughable oddities of the musical world, a Christian black metal band. A thematic sub-genre that seems mainly designed to allow Christians to enjoy the unparalleled experience of Scandinavian black metal music without worrying about going to hell, it's fair to say that most bands would fail to compare to the genre leaders, but fortunately for heathens, Crimson Moonlight's debut album is actually pretty damned good. I mean, darned.
Moving away from the earlier, keyboard-drenched style of their demo material, these songs are more typically black metal in their ferocity and execution, even if the melodic angle held up by the background keyboard (only coming to the fore in the finale 'The Covenant') and occasional lead guitars (as in the pleasant song 'A Painting in Dark'), aligns it more with early Dimmu Borgir and Dissection. This allows the album to act as another comparatively tame point of entry for black metal newcomers.
1. Mist of the Spiritual Dimension
2. The Pilgrimage
3. Path of Pain
4. Thy Wilderness
5. Eternal Emperor
6. A Painting in Dark
7. Eyes of Beauty
8. A Thorn in My Heart
9. The Covenant
Crimson Moonlight
***
Written on 14.06.08
I always enjoy listening to these assembled collections of scattered rare material from bands' early days, and even if Crimson Moonlight's older material doesn't live up to the high quality of their subsequent studio albums, this compilation of demos, live songs and promotional material at least offers an inexpensive opportunity for fans to access material that would otherwise be hopelessly obscure.
As a Christian black metal band, Crimson Moonlight evidently opted to follow a lighter sound more concerned with harmony in their early days, before largely packing that in for 'The Covenant Progress' and deciding it would be best to just sound like Dissection instead. The music here is predominantly keyboard-based, crafting slow and pleasant songs around the stilted harsh elements, and although a balance is often achieved, the unnecessary focus on the keyboards does become waring.
The first five tracks comprise the band's mediocre debut E.P. 'Eternal Emperor,' followed by the 1998 live album 'Live in Värsås' in its entirety, though with its poor sound quality and quiet, unedited discussions between songs, the quality is comparable to a bootleg. 2001's 'Heralding the Dawn' demo is a stark turnaround as Pilgrim now sings rather than growls, before the final tracks promoting the studio album 'The Covenant Progress' shift once again back to more traditional black metal.
1. Preludium
2. Where Darkness Cannot Reach
3. Symphony of Moonlight
4. Eternal Emperor
5. The Final Battle
6. Glorification of the Master of Light
7. From Death to Life
8. Alone in Silence
9. Skymingsljus (Light of Twilight)
10. Ljuset (The Light)
11. Eternal Emperor
12. Postludium
13. Fullmanen Skola Vndas Uti Blod (The Full Moon Will Turn Into Blood)
14. Blood Covered My Needs
15. Your Face
16. Touch of Emptiness
17. ...And Thus Rejoice
18. A Thorn in My Heart
19. The Pilgrimage
20. A Painting in Dark
Cruachan
The Middle Kingdom
*****
Written on 14.06.08
Cruachan's second album is the pinnacle of their career, catching them between their more vicious black metal days and their later, more successful releases as a band increasingly focusing on folk. The most impressive and unusual thing about this album is just how diverse it manages to be, a far cry from the repetitive flute melodies of its predecessor. Opener 'A Celtic Mourning' is a sombre bagpipe instrumental, 'Celtica' is something of a folk-thrash piece and 'Unstabled' even features a distinct reggae chorus.
Karen Gilligan is introduced as the band's secondary vocalist, and her clean singing works excellently against the black metal growls that still remain. This album also has a large instrumental focus, and achieves an excellent balance between the folk and metal elements in songs like 'The Fianna' before branching out to tackle each style in greater detail. The only real disappointment comes in the form of 'Is Fuair An Chroí,' which was almost certainly conceived as a single to appeal to mainstream rock fans, and steals its leading riff from Nirvana's 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' of all places.
1. A Celtic Mourning
2. Celtica (Voice of the Morrigan)
3. The Fianna
4. A Druids Passing
5. Is Fuair An Chroí
6. Cattle Raid of Cooley
7. The Middle Kingdom
8. Ó Ró Sé do Bheatha 'Bhaile
9. Unstabled (Steeds of Macha)
10. The Butterfly
Cryonic Temple
Chapter I
***
Written on 14.06.08
Sweden's Cryonic Temple are keeping the spirit of heavy metal alive, perhaps a little too self-consciously for their own good. Their debut album opens with two consecutive anthems celebrating the glory of metal in true Manowar style, and with lyrics like "men or women, black or white, together we rock," you know this is going to be something of a cheese-fest, which will either attract or repel listeners depending on their orientation. I think it's a hell of a lot of fun.
There's nothing original or groundbreaking about these songs, and that's just the way it should be. Cryonic Temple are content to sit in the shadow of their predecessors, with Iron Maiden style guitars, Grave Digger style wailing vocals from Glen Metal (perhaps not his real name) and anthemic choruses taken straight from Judas Priest, and all the songs sound pretty much the same which keeps it from being a stand-out release. 'Metal Brothers' is a satisfying plodder in the vein of Manowar, and only 'King of Transylvania' really tries something different, though unfortunately ends up a little on the glam metal side.
1. Heavy Metal Never Dies
2. Metal Brothers
3. Warsong
4. Gatekeeper
5. Rivers of Pain
6. King of Transylvania
7. Steel Against Steel
8. Mighty Warrior
9. Over and Over
Cryonic Temple
****
Written on 14.06.08
It's still nothing new in the heavy metal world, but 'Blood, Guts & Glory' (correct title, Amazon and dooyoo got it wrong - just read the artwork) is one of the most enjoyable classic/power metal releases I've heard in a long time. Fronted by the booming orations of Glen Metal, led by melodic twin guitars in the spirit of Iron Maiden and the pounding riffs of Helloween, this is a perfect forgery of late eighties metal resurrected fifteen years later for the loyal fans who remain.
As delightfully fun as these songs are, they do tend to over-run by a minute or so and become repetitive, which makes their simplicity a double-edged sword. 'Mercenaries of Metal' is one of the most instantly loveable, though the notion of a trilogy doesn't extend beyond the lyrics into anything musically recognisable, and 'Swords and Diamonds' is probably the most accessible to a mainstream audience for stealing all of its ideas from the more well-known Iron Maiden.
1. Morphine Dreams
2. Mercenaries of Metal - The Quest, Part 1
3. Inquisition - The Quest, Part 2
4. Swords and Diamonds
5. Thunder and Lightning
6. The Story of the Sword
7. Long Live the Warriors
8. Triumph of Steel
9. The Midas Touch (Samurai) - The Quest, Part 3
10. Through the Skies
11. Metal No. 1
Cryptopsy
Ungentle Exhumation
***
Written on 14.06.08
A fairly significant release in technical death metal, Cryptopsy's 1993 demo tape was granted official release in 2002. Similar to the work of Suffocation around that time, Cryptopsy's style succeeds in pushing the boundaries of death metal towards something more intricate, experimental and vicious, though not to the extent of their more specific contemporaries who concentrated on those aspects in greater detail.
The band demonstrates accomplished technical skill without the more elaborate moments sounding desperately shoehorned for the sake of showing off. The frantic lead guitars of Steve Thibault and Dave Galea are permitted to play out 'Abigor' as it becomes instrumental, while the respective bass and drum work of Kevin Weagle and Flo Mounier impresses in the erratic and constantly-shifting opening song 'Gravaged.' Special note must be made of Lord Worm's despicable vocals, which gurgle and shriek with the best of them, and the sound quality is surprisingly strong for a demo release.
1. Gravaged (A Cryptopsy)
2. Abigor
3. Back to the Worms
4. Mutant Christ
Cryptopsy
And Then You'll Beg
***
Written on 15.06.08
Entering the new millennium with a desire to show off their technical abilities more than their more extreme side, Cryptopsy make the full turnaround to progressive metal band here, retaining their death metal foundation but doing nothing to expand upon it. Sadly for prog fans, the 'technical' element here means much the same thing it does for other technical death metal bands, which extends to fast drums, deliberately chaotic time signatures and that ever-so-repetitive style of freeform guitar playing that makes all these bands sound essentially the same.
Mike DiSalvo's yelled vocals are still annoying, but at least he's relegated to the background for extended periods here, as the instruments are permitted to take over. This makes the comparatively short 'My Prodigal Sun' and 'Soar and Envision Sore Vision' a lot more enjoyable, to the point that I wonder whether the album would be more successful as an entirely instrumental affair. Of course, considering the band's lack of original ideas through much of its duration, these select samples are probably the best they could produce.
The time changes and prominent guitar noodling draw far too much attention to themselves for anyone hoping for a death metal release they can enjoy on any kind of simplistic level, but the band's technical abilities still keep this above much of the competition, at least within their select sub-genre.
1. ...And Then It Passes
2. We Bleed
3. Voice of Unreason
4. My Prodigal Sun
5. Shroud
6. Soar and Envision Sore Vision
7. Equivalent Equilibrium
8. Back to the Worms
9. Screams Go Unheard
Cryptopsy
****
Written on 15.06.08
At over fifty minutes with eleven songs (excluding the worthless 'Intro' crowd chant), this is the first Cryptopsy album to display value for money, and it's an impressive live performance from the Canadians in their home city. The band displays commendable energy and sincerity in performing these songs, but for any except for the most die-hard Cryptopsy fan, this is going to sound like a stream of similar, repetitive death metal songs with an incessant preoccupation with tangential solos.
Martin Lacroix is the new vocalist drafted in for the performance, and his guttural growling style is more reminiscent of Lord Worm than his direct predecessor Mike DiSalvo. He does his job well, even if he never really impresses, and curiously addresses the crowd in French throughout. Not being too familiar with the band's material I couldn't say whether they tend to go off on one during the performance, as would be expected from an ambitious, technical-minded outfit such as this one, but Flo Mounier is granted an extensive drum solos that should be enjoyed by drum solo fans, and despised by drum solo loathers such as myself and all right-thinking people.
1. Intro
2. Crown of Horns
3. White Worms
4. We Bleed
5. Open Face Surgery
6. Cold Hate, Warm Blood
7. Phobophile
8. Shroud
9. Graves of the Fathers
10. Drum Solo
11. Defenestration
12. Slit Your Guts
Advantages: Great live performance.
Disadvantages: For fans only.
Cryptopsy
Once Was Not
**
Written on 16.06.08
Cryptopsy's fifth album saw the return of vocalist Lord Worm and arrival of new guitarist Alex Auburn, making for something of a confused and ultimately disappointing reunion. The band is still obsessed with proving its technical credentials at a cost to the music, now more than ever, and any time that a song seems to be going somewhere interesting, its structure is usurped by pointless tech-death masturbation, something that will attract some to this album and deter others.
The songs now sound too long, having lost the morbid fascination of earlier releases such as 'None So Vile' in particular, and even the top-notch production job draws too much attention to the relentlessly clicking drums. Most frustrating of all, almost every song begins with an interesting experimental touch that hints at a new direction, most frequently the use of a traditional or tribal instrument, before every track collapses into the same old thing. Only 'Luminum' and 'The End' succeed in being radically different, and these are nothing more than atmospheric interludes.
1. Luminum
2. In the Kingdom Where Everything Dies, the Sky Is Mortal
3. Carrionshine
4. Adeste Infidelis
5. The Curse of the Great
6. The Frantic Pace of Dying
7. Keeping the Cadaver Dogs Busy
8. Angelskingarden
9. The Pestilence That Walketh in Darkness (Psalm 91 : 5-8)
10. The End
11. Endless Cemetery
Cubanate
Cyberia
****
Written on 16.06.08
Cubanate's second album leans more towards the electronic side of things than its balanced industrial metal predecessor, but this isn't necessarily a bad thing. Still retaining catchy guitar riffs, albeit shoved towards the back of the sound, and gravelly, Motörhead style vocals, this still possesses enough rock credentials to appeal to the 'Kerrang!' demographic, though its biggest fans will be those in the hardcore underground.
There's a greater range of styles here than on the previous album. The differences are often down to speed alone, 'Human Drum' and 'Build' being a little slower than the rest, but 'Transit' and 'Industry' are appropriately harsh industrial anthems and 'Hatesong' disappointingly not as aggressive as it should sound, even in the rather pointless remix. The only song that goes above and beyond is 'Oxyacetylene,' still techno on the grander scale but possessing a great rock chorus that wouldn't be out of place in Nine Inch Nails or White Zombie.
1. Cyberia
2. Oxyacetylene
3. Hatesong
4. Build
5. Transit
6. Skeletal
7. Human Drum
8. Das Island
9. Industry
10. Hatesong (Extended)
11. Oxyacetylene (Extended remix)
12. Skeletal (Remix)
13. Body Burn (Julian Beeston mix extended)
Cubanate
Barbarossa
***
Written on 16.06.08
The magic has gone by Cubanate's penultimate release, and with its high-speed techno rhythms and Marilyn Manson style harsh choruses, the songs are almost trying too hard to find their way onto a video game or action film soundtrack, sounding increasingly like the work of those industrial bands they inspired in the first place. The vocals and guitars are more distorted than ever, and really losing the battle against the electronic elements, but all the same this is an energetic industrial album from proficient innovators of the form.
The differences here mainly come in terms of speed, with 'Joy' being a slower rocker, 'Why Are You Here?' plodding along at a radio-friendly anthemic pace and 'Come Alive' seemingly reacting against them with a high adrenaline burst in the latter half of the album. There's no direct relation between the two 'Vortech' pieces, the first being a more rocking affair and the second purely electronic, but these latter two songs are at least more consistent with an undiluted dance style that demonstrates the group's talents.
1. Vortech I
2. Barbarossa
3. Joy
4. Why Are You Here?
5. Exultation
6. The Muscleman
7. Come Alive
8. Vortech II
9. Lord of the Flies
Cult of Luna
Cult of Luna
****
Written on 24.05.08
Sweden's Cult of Luna are one of the key players in the post-metal/post-hardcore/post-sludge/whatever genre that's gained popularity since the start of the new millennium, utilising a large band for a large sound that delights in cacophony. While this debut isn't their most definitive work, it's an interesting and enjoyable mix of styles that clearly shows where all the influence comes from, even if it doesn't integrate the elements as well as their contemporaries such as Neurosis and Isis.
The most glaring aspect here is the vocals, making me wish to some extent that the album was instrumental, a la Pelican. The hardcore shouting works well in the louder sections that dominate the first two songs, particularly the uncompromising ten minutes of 'Hollow,' but doesn't tame accordingly when atmospheric and melodic elements are introduced later on. The band strikes a fine balance between aggression and melody in the fourteen-minute 'Sleep' that's comparably apocalyptic to the work of Mogwai, and 'The Sacrifice' should satisfy fans of their original sludge metal sound.
1. The Revelation Embodied
2. Hollow
3. Dark Side of the Sun
4. Sleep
5. To Be Remembered
6. Beyond Fate
7. 101
8. The Sacrifice
The Cure
Three Imaginary Boys
***
Written on 26.05.08
The Cure's first album is much different to the gothic style they would subsequently become known for, rooted more in the post-punk style of bands like the Boomtown Rats, but actually any good. A far cry from the keyboard-drenched soundscapes they would be producing ten years down the line, these songs are fairly minimal and almost reggae in spirit, based around the repetition of simple guitar lines and lyrics for several minutes until the band decides to move on to the next.
Many of these songs still noticeably belong to the band's eighties sound, especially those such as '10.15 Saturday Night' with its lovelorn lyrics and the comparably atmospheric 'Three Imaginary Boys,' but the rest will be alien to those approaching this from something like 'Disintegration.' For a start, Robert Smith acts very unhinged, and clearly isn't taking himself seriously in songs like 'Meathook' and 'Fire in Cairo,' both of which feature seemingly random lyrics extrapolated from the title that see Smith repeat the title ad nauseam in the first until it loses all meaning, and merely spell out the title of the second over and over again.
His bluesy guitar solos also break the tone of many songs and keep them rooted in a rock base, and even the more melodic songs sound more like something a pop-oriented seventies punk band would produce.
1. 10.15 Saturday Night
2. Accuracy
3. Grinding Halt
4. Another Day
5. Object
6. Subway Song
7. Foxy Lady (Jimi Hendrix cover)
8. Meathook
9. So What
10. Fire in Cairo
11. It's Not You
12. Three Imaginary Boys
13. Untitled
The Cure
Boys Don't Cry
****
Written on 16.06.08
Somewhat bizarrely, the Cure's debut album 'Three Imaginary Boys' was repackaged, re-titled and rearranged for its delayed US release as 1980's 'Boys Don't Cry,' replacing some of its tracks arbitrarily with more popular singles and arguably making for a better, if less authentic version of the debut album. 'Boys Don't Cry' itself leads the way, an upbeat post-punk number that's remained popular to this day and doesn't get dragged into the melancholy gloom of the band's later works despite its pessimistic lyrics.
Robert Smith's drawl is entertaining to listen to in these more energetic songs, including the similar 'Jumping Someone Else's Train' and the typically punk 'Grinding Halt,' while other songs take a darker approach more in line with the band's later direction, such as the bassy and melodic 'Plastic Passion' and downbeat finale. 'Killing an Arab' is another song unique to this release (rather, it wasn't included on the original 'Three Imaginary Boys'), and it's one of the band's more memorable songs from this period, delivering dark lyrics in a compellingly minimalist environment.
1. Boys Don't Cry
2. Plastic Passion
3. 10.15 Saturday Night
4. Accuracy
5. So What
6. Jumping Someone Else's Train
7. Subway Song
8. Killing an Arab
9. Fire in Cairo
10. Another Day
11. Grinding Halt
12. Three Imaginary Boys
The Cure
Pornography
*****
Written on 26.05.08
Following directly on from the cold gothic detachment of 'Seventeen Seconds' and spiritual crisis of 'Faith,' the Cure's fourth album brings the increasingly personal music to a satisfying climax, and remains the gloomiest of their career. This remains the band's finest achievement after their 1989 masterpiece 'Disintegration,' and provides an effectively disturbed contrast to that later work's ethereal sentimentality, an album that it's easy to lose yourself in and get sad about even if you don't paint your face black and white.
The increased hostility is evident from the onset, with a more energetic performance all-round in 'One Hundred Years' that moves on from the apathy of 'Seventeen Seconds' by breaking down the emotional barriers and going straight to the heart of the matter, as Robert Smith expresses the belief that "it doesn't matter if we all die." The music itself is also more accomplished than that earlier work, with a greater emphasis on crafting memorable songs rather than merely setting an atmosphere, though the album proceeds to accomplish the latter equally well, from the warm, Eastern-tinged tribal jangle of 'The Hanging Garden' to the ominous gothic backdrops that dominate the album's second half.
It's songs like 'Cold' in particular that fully express the band's attitude through the music, with a strong keyboard presence comparable to 'Disintegration' before the final track collapses in on itself. Oddly, despite its title this penultimate song leaves me feeling quite warm and comfortable, but I suppose I've become accustomed to the frosty climes of Scandinavian black metal and risk becoming somewhat jaded.
1. One Hundred Years
2. A Short Term Effect
3. The Hanging Garden
4. Siamese Twins
5. The Figurehead
6. A Strange Day
7. Cold
8. Pornography
The Cure
****
Written on 17.06.08
The Cure's first live album isn't entirely satisfying, but it could have been a lot more disappointing if more care had been put into it. What we have here is a fairly raw recording of the band in action, playing the songs they wish to regardless of which are popular singles or current promotional material, and this makes for a more honest performance than something designed specifically with a live album in mind. At the same time, it also makes it fairly unremarkable.
The tracklist roughly traces backwards through the band's first five albums, beginning with rejuvenated gothic optimism and heading through despair to come right out again as merry post-punk, and while this covers a wide range of styles it perhaps misses out some of the key material from these formative years. So while it's refreshing that songs like 'The Lovecats' and 'The Caterpillar' aren't present to distract too much from the mood, 'Give Me It' and 'The Walk' essentially do the same thing, but less impressively.
1. Shake Dog Shake
2. Primary
3. Charlotte Sometimes
4. The Hanging Garden
5. Give Me It
6. The Walk
7. One Hundred Years
8. A Forest
9. 10.15 Saturday Night
10. Killing an Arab
The Cure
The Head on the Door
****
Written on 17.06.08
A more consistent album than 'The Top,' 'The Head on the Door' shows off a more experimental and intriguing direction for the Cure than has been heard since 'Pornography' three years earlier. Lol Tolhurst's keyboards share the limelight with the guitars of Robert Smith and Porl Thompson, effectively diving the album between the lighter, bouncier keyboard led songs with the more rock-oriented offerings.
The album still boasts a strong commercial awareness with the jolly romantic pop of 'In Between Days,' 'The Baby Screams' and the memorable, hand-clapping 'Close to Me,' but balances it out with harder material in the form of the distorted 'Screw,' the rocking 'A Night Like This' (complete with sax solo) and the catchy 'Push.' Even the more intricate material doesn't descend as far into indulgence as the band's music has tended to, the closest offender being the distinctly odd 'Six Different Ways' with its unusual keyboard touches and flippant disregard for keeping in time.
1. In Between Days
2. Kyoto Song
3. The Blood
4. Six Different Ways
5. Push
6. The Baby Screams
7. Close to Me
8. A Night Like This
9. Screw
10. Sinking
The Cure
Disintegration
****
Written on 06.07.04
The Cure achieved international success in the eighties with their infectious mix of pop beats and a darker, gothic style in both their lyrics and general appearance. Their 1989 release ‘Disintegration’ did not have the same instant success of their earlier albums due to its much different style, but many of the band’s fans consider it to be the pinnacle of their creative and musical achievement.
STYLE
I’ve never really been a fan of the Cure, but after hearing a couple of songs from this album I wanted to hear it in its entirety. In many ways this is atmosphere-heavy ‘mood’ music with occasional catchy rhythms and choruses, and as such it’s not really an album to listen to for specific tracks: the general feeling of the album experience as a whole is the Cure’s ultimate goal, and in that respect this is a very good album. The lyrics deal with loss, regret and sorrow, all of which are reflected in the music; while not bleak and depressing, the slow beat of the drums, the echo effect of the vocals and the soft melodies of the guitars and bass convey a melancholy and haunting atmosphere, the occasional keyboard tunes and more powerful guitars lifting the listener’s spirits every so often.
Robert Smith’s English voice is a trademark of the Cure, and although the tracks here are a large step apart from something like ‘Friday I’m in Love,’ his talents shine through more than ever, adding to the songs even when he essentially fades into the music completely. And impressionable teen girls probably find the calm voice and wild hair very sexy (I don’t, I’m not strange). The problems with this album are all subject to peoples’ opinions. But listening to this album does make you want to hug something and stare at the moon for a while.
‘The Cure’ were:
Simon Gallup - Bass, Keyboards
Robert Smith - Guitar, Keyboards, Vocals, Producer, Engineer
Porl Thompson - Guitar
Laurence Tolhurst - Multi Instruments
Boris Williams - Drums
Roger O'Donnell - Keyboards
DISINTEGRATING
1. PLAINSONG
A classic opener, the orchestration dominating this track introduces the mood of this album perfectly, and also results in one of my favourite songs on here. The vocals only begin towards the end of the song and suit the music perfectly: this is a huge-sounding track.
“I think it's dark and it looks like rain, you said
And the wind is blowing like it's the end of the world, you said
And it's so cold it's like the
Cold if you were dead”
2. PICTURES OF YOU
A more traditional track, this retains the slow rhythm of the last song (and the album in general) but the vocals and instruments can be heard much more clearly against the less intensive backing orchestration. The song does last longer than it should at almost eight minutes and although this is an album to ‘get lost in,’ this is a bit too lengthy for such an early track.
“I've been looking so long at these pictures of you
That I almost believe that they’re real
I've been living so long with my pictures of you
That I almost believe that the pictures are all I can feel”
3. CLOSEDOWN
Carrying on from ‘Pictures of You’ in a very similar style, this is essentially a bridge between that track and ‘Love Song.’ Not very memorable or impressive, but it keeps the tone and mood of the album flowing. The sombre atmosphere is alleviated a little to lead into the next song.
“I'm running out of time I'm out of step and
Closing down and never sleep for wanting hours”
4. LOVE SONG
One of the more commercially aimed tracks, this is driven by more upbeat drums and memorable keyboard rhythms, but the atmosphere is still somehow retained. Smith’s vocals are less melancholy with his statement “I will always love you,” and despite not sounding too original at the end of a romantic-ballad-obsessed decade, this is definitely a cut above the rest. It’s also the shortest track on the album, so doesn’t drag on in the way that others do.
“Whenever I'm alone with you you make me feel
Like I am home again whenever I'm alone with
You you make me feel like I am whole again”
5. LAST DANCE
A return to the more sombre sound with distant-sounding, echoing drums accompanying a soft, melodic guitar beat, the build-up of orchestration and subtle keyboards to some of the best vocals of the album may seem a bit lengthy, but listening to the album as a whole this doesn’t stand out as a problem. After the catchy and more poppy sound of the previous track this is less instantly gratifying, but is certainly not a filler track. It does bridge the gap between the singles though.
“I'm so glad you came I'm so glad you remembered
To see how we're ending our last dance together
Expectant too punctual but prettier than ever
I really believed that this time it's forever”
6. LULLABY
This excellent and strange song was my main reason for wanting to hear this album. Along with the dark, sepia music video, the symphonic arrangements, whispered vocals and haunting keyboard tune make this the stand out track of the whole album. At just over four minutes it wastes no time in getting started, and by the end the sound has been elevated to include even more orchestration over the keyboards, leading to a fantastic sound. The only song on the album that I can listen to repeatedly.
“And I feel like I'm being eaten by a thousand
Million shivering furry holes and I know that in
The morning I will wake up in the shivering cold
And the spiderman is always hungry”
7. FASCINATION STREET
A slightly heavier track than the rest, this follows the same formula as the longer tracks and as such fails to stay memorable after only one listen, apart from the chorus which unfortunately sounds like ‘that’ programme. The name, not the theme (thank God). This song seems to divide public opinion into those who love it and those who find it out of place, but I think it fits into the album perfectly. It doesn’t stand out for me though as it shares a very common sound with other tracks, such as the first track, which execute it better.
“Oh it's opening time down on Fascination Street
So let's cut the conversation and get out for a
Bit because I feel it all fading and paling and I'm
Begging to drag you down with me”
8. PRAYERS FOR RAIN
This is the point in the album when the songs start to become a little boring for me, due to the lack of real variety (with a couple of noted exceptions). The vocals again take almost two minutes of synth and slow drums to begin moving the song along and it’s mainly its place in the album that counts against this song. As a stand alone track it is one of the better offerings, with some very dark and interesting electronic sounds behind the excellent atmosphere of the keyboards, not seeming overdone at all. Smith’s vocals still suit the music a little too well however, and it would be easy for my mind to wander while this was playing.
“You shatter me your grip on me a hold on me
So dull it kills you stifle me infectious sense of
Hopelessness and prayers for rain”
9. THE SAME DEEP WATER AS YOU
The longest song on the album at almost ten minutes, this should be the ultimate exploration of the themes and moods of this album, but it drags on for far too long to remain musically interesting. The beat and guitar melodies are constant throughout, while Smith’s vocals again fail to truly impress in any way. This song would be a lot better if it had been tightened and cut down, as it doesn’t offer anything that hasn’t been done earlier (and better).
“Kiss me goodbye bow your head and join with me
And face pushed deep reflections meet
The strangest twist upon your lips and
Disappear the ripples clear”
10. DISINTEGRATION
The band don’t shy away from placing the two longest tracks together, certainly creating the most moody and atmospheric part of the album but also alienating casual listeners. This is a clear improvement on the last track as it manages to sound quite unique on the album rather than a re-hashing of what’s come before, the watery effect of the guitars and the very strong bass presence leading into some great keyboards in the middle. Smith’s vocals are also more forceful and varied for a change, giving this a much more improved sound but also rendering the last few repetitive tracks completely unnecessary.
“Oh I miss the kiss of treachery
The aching kiss before I feed
The stench of a love for a younger meat and
The sound that it makes when it cuts in deep
11. HOMESICK
This song doesn’t hide its tone with a dominant piano/keyboard rhythm throughout that is slowly joined by the other instruments. One of my least favourite tracks, but I can appreciate its diversity from the others, leading up to the end. This seems like an instrumental at first, as the vocals don’t begin until the three-minute mark.
“Hey hey! Just one more and I'll walk away
All the everything you win turns to nothing today”
12. UNTITLED
This epilogue begins with what sounds like an organ tune before the drums, guitars and bass begin. Strangely, this is probably the most positive sounding song that sounds like more of a celebration than a regret, but it isn’t one of the better tracks and does drag on towards the end. Maybe I only think this because I’m not used to this style of album, but this could have been better.
“Hopelessly drift in the eyes of the ghost again
Down on my knees and my hands in the air again”
VERDICT
This album would clearly be the soundtrack of choice for a Tim Burton film if Danny Elfman hadn’t already proved his incredible skills, and its popularity with Cure fans is understandable, as is its lack of popularity with the general public in comparison to their other work. There are several songs on here that are impressive in their own right (‘Lullaby,’ ‘Love Song,’ ‘Plainsong’), but the rest all sound very similar and only really serve to create a musical atmosphere when listening to an album. This is not a bad thing, it’s a great achievement, but I think it came with a cost to originality.
I love listening to albums in their entirety when they have been structured excellently, but the slow pace of Disintegration bores me towards the end. Robert Smith’s lyrics are very moving and easy to relate to, but they don’t really need the overlong interludes between them, and although the guitar layering is perfect and detailed it does become lost in the ‘atmosphere.’ Every so often one of the instruments will do something that grabs my attention, but this is quite a rare event.
I’d recommend this album to anyone who loves ‘mood music,’ or who is just a big Cure fan, but it takes some effort to listen to and may not be to your taste. But it is cheap.
Advantages: Haunting, emotional and involving, Some classic songs, Skilled instrumentation
Disadvantages: Not enough variety, Many songs drag on for too long, Some songs are very dull
The Cure
****
Written on 18.06.08
The logical successor to the Cure's first singles compilation that covered the years 1976 to 1986, 'Galore' picks up right where it left off to include all the singles from 1987 to 1997. The studio albums covered are 1987's 'Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me' (tracks 1 to 4), 1989's 'Disintegration' (5 to 8), 1992's 'Wish' (11 to 13) and 1996's 'Wild Mood Swings' (14 to 17), with additional tracks from the 'Mixed Up' remix album (9 and 10) and a brand new song (18).
This isn't as good as the previous singles collection, I might as well get that out of the way at the start. The Cure's output declined in both quality and quantity as it hit the nineties, with albums released in four-year intervals rather than the annual consistency of their earlier career, which was also supplemented by additional singles not included on the full-length albums. As all of these songs are readily available on five albums without the need to hunt down any rare releases ('Wrong Number' excepted), the compilation is automatically less essential than its predecessor 'Standing on a Beach,' before you even start to consider how the quality of the band's material was in a state of decline.
These aren't bad songs for the most part, but the only truly great works are from the band's 1989 magnum opus 'Disintegration,' ranking alongside their early albums as the Cure's definitive work, released just as the right time as figures like Tim Burton succeeded in making gothic cool. With their keyboard-drenched gothic atmospheres, the creepy 'Lullaby' and 'Pictures of You' are accurate representations of that album's sound in a way that the more consciously pop-oriented 'Lovesong' and 'Fascination Street' fail to be, highlighting the major problem I have with 'greatest hits' collections such as these, when compared to the original studio albums.
By presenting all of the songs designed to be released as mainstream singles, the style tends towards similarity and a level of mundane accessibility that the studio albums themselves often avoid, so even though the respective styles of each album are evident as the collection proceeds through the years, the songs aren't necessarily accurate samplers of the full-length albums, and may disappoint prospective buyers when they fail to find more of the same thereon.
On the other hand, it's equally likely that buyers will approach this collection for precisely that reason, not wishing to get bogged down in the band's artistic vision and feeling much more satisfied with the cheap thrill of a catchy three-minute single. In that regard, this collection works very well, though the noticeable similarity of songs later on does serve to highlight how the Cure started to rest on their laurels, content not to bother experimenting and pushing forward any more, once their image and generic sound became famous enough to sell albums in their own right.
This downturn can be seen with the tracks from the album 'Wish,' the most shamelessly pop-oriented material the band has ever put out. Both 'High' and 'A Letter to Elise' are bland and lacking in the band's usual depth, while 'Friday I'm In Love' is one of many songs here using the winning combination of catchy, repetitive love lyrics to shift some units to the sort of people who wouldn't be interested in the band's formerly gothic style.
It's disappointing to hear Robert Smith spewing forth such obvious lyrics lacking any of the subtlety of his earlier work, though it does fortunately seem that this was a phase the band overcame relatively quickly, much the same as 1987's 'Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me' that contributes the first four tracks of the album and presents a drastically different Cure from usual, trying too hard to be different by introducing elements of funk. 'Just Like Heaven' is another love song, but a better one this time that doesn't go overboard on corniness, but it's 'Why Can't I Be You?' and 'Hot Hot Hot!!!' that offer the greatest deviations here, and not necessarily for the best; the keyboards in the first song in particular sound distinctly like background music from Sonic the Hedgehog.
The 'Wild Mood Swings' album at least shows a continued willingness to experiment, with the dark and bass-driven 'Gone!' and the brass dominance of 'The 13th,' but this is balanced out by the bland, flitty keys of 'Strange Attraction' and the disappointingly generic 'Mint Car,' the perfect example of the Cure trying to sound like the Cure, losing any sense of individuality by conforming to public perception of what they ought to sound like.
The most interesting tracks for fans are those from the comparatively (but-not-really) obscure 'Mixed Up' collection, presenting a consciously different take on the band's sound. 'Never Enough' is the most rock-oriented song here, even more than 'Fascination Street,' and comes perilously close to being an industrial rock song with its heavy guitars and strong electronic presence, and this is also the style taken for the new song 'Wrong Number,' which sounds as average and unmemorable as any song created especially to add value to a greatest hits collection inevitably tends to.
In contrast, the remix of the Cure's eighties classic 'Close to Me' is made even stranger than the original, replacing the drums with a hip hop beat and adding blaring horns to pierce the minimalist soundscape. Anyone looking for a collection of easily approachable Cure songs (none of 'that moody soundtrack stuff') would doubtless enjoy this release, especially for covering their more commercially successful period, but the wane in quality after the first half is over should be noticeable to more discerning listeners.
The previous collection 'Standing on a Beach' is more consistent and valuable as an addition to the studio albums for containing largely original material, while the later 'Greatest Hits' supposedly offers a more concise edit of the two collections that still won't provide a wholly accurate presentation of the Cure's sound. At least there won't be any call for a third decade retrospective such as this, considering the band has only released two studio albums since.
1. Why Can't I Be You?
2. Catch
3. Just Like Heaven
4. Hot Hot Hot!!!
5. Lullaby
6. Fascination Street
7. Lovesong
8. Pictures of You
9. Never Enough
10. Close to Me
11. High
12. Friday I'm In Love
13. A Letter to Elise
14. The 13th
15. Mint Car
16. Strange Attraction
17. Gone!
18. Wrong Number
Peter Marino's vocals are still a high point, but he's mostly used to carry dull, over-repetitive choruses here rather than anything more interesting. Friedman and Becker's riffs are catchy but unmemorable in the early songs before finally starting to make their presence felt in the central section of 'Stranger' and then taking over for the title song, but even their duet sounds tame compared to the speed and intensity of the previous album. 'Images' interestingly favours melody, while 'Black Cat' features mad solos that sound like a video game of the time, but overall this album isn't really going to satisfy anyone to a large amount.
Guitar fans will find it lacking, while casual listeners will be turned off by the shred sections, but it's still a little better than the average shred album. There's more self-control than Michael Angelo Batio, more authentic rock than Yngwie Malmsteen, and it's just plain better than Axel Rudi Pell.
1. X-Ray Eyes
2. E.S.P.
3. Stranger
4. Go Off!
5. Black Cat
6. Sword of the Warrior
7. Floating World
8. Images
The Shadow's Madame
***
Written on 05.04.08
Cadaveria is the sort-of solo project of singer Cadaveria, after she and drummer Flegias departed Italian symphonic black metal band Opera IX. It's a solo album in the way many solo albums aren't, in that she performs the adequate vocals while it's left up to an overlooked band of more talented performers to carry her along and actually make anything interesting out of it, which thankfully they achieve.
Opera IX's symphonic style meant that they were never one of the more authentic black metal bands, and this departure only increases the divide. While Cadaveria's vocals are mostly rooted in a harsh rasp, and Flegias still unleashes blast beats on occasion, this could only be termed black metal by those who consider Cradle of Filth or modern Dimmu Borgir to be black metal, and it unashamedly aims for a similar audience.
The main issue with this debut album is Cadaveria's performance, which is a bit of a shame as that's obviously the thing it's striving to highlight the most. While her rasp is inoffensive, it doesn't have a particular character of its own, certainly nothing that merits naming a band after her, but she performs extensive portions of the album in a more palatable singing style (especially later in 'Spell' and throughout 'Declaration of Spiritual Independence' and 'Black Glory'), and commendably doesn't try to aim for anything too self-consciously feminine.
There are metal fans out there who find a female singer to be reason enough to track a band down, which I consider pretty ridiculous as it should be more about the overall sound rather than the gender of the person behind the microphone. This is a distinctly average album on all counts, led by Frank Booth's enjoyable but uninspired riffs that mostly maintain a steady rhythm, but one that I find all the more satisfying for not trying to flaunt the female singer. At least, not to the extent of its successors.
1. Spell
2. Declaration of Spiritual Independence
3. In Memory of Shadows' Madame
4. Circle of Eternal Becoming
5. The Magic Rebirth
6. Black Glory
7. Absolute Vacuum
Far Away from Conformity
***
Written on 05.04.08
The second "solo" album from Italian singer Cadaveria leaves behind most of its pretensions to black metal, instead favouring a more classic, doom-laden metal style now that guitarist Frank Booth has been properly integrated into the Opera IX alumni. This blackened doom style is most evident in the slow riffs that keep most songs compelling but do become rather stale after a while, and the greatest disappointment comes when Booth starts ripping off his own riffs in later songs.
The most noticeable change from the first album is that Cadaveria now sings for all she's worth, using a high singing voice that's surprisingly good, considering how well she strove to hide it in the raspy style of her previous band. Whether this was a decision made due to the newfound popularity of female-fronted metal acts in 2004, or simply natural evolution, I couldn't say, but the cynic that makes up quite a large part of me is practically convinced that it's the former.
'Far Away From Conformity' is nevertheless an entertaining album, one that's all the better for Cadaveria's sung performances, but one that's mainly hindered by the repetition of the riffs. The early songs are kept relatively distinct, with melodic sections breaking up 'Blood and Confusion' into an enjoyably diverse opener, 'Eleven Three O Three' following a slower, more doomy approach and 'The Divine Rapture' attempting to tie all of the previous styles together in a manner that almost works, but is a little long, but after this point the staccato riffs become tiresome and it's only the simple pleasure of 'Prayer of Sorrow' that holds up the latter half.
1. Blood and Confusion
2. Eleven Three O Three
3. Irreverent Elegy
4. The Divine Rapture
5. Omen of Delirium
6. Call Me (Blondie Cover)
7. Out Body Experience
8. Prayer of Sorrow
9. Vox of Anti-Time
In Your Blood
**
Written on 06.04.08
Perhaps as an inevitable consequence of the female-fronted metal boom that saw distinctly average bands such as Nightwish and Arch Enemy become the biggest sellers in their respective genres merely because the singers have bosoms, Italian singer Cadaveria and her support band decided to chance their arm, and the result was last year's 'In Your Blood.'
Cadaveria was once a black metal singer, but to call this black metal would be like calling modern Cradle of Filth black metal... which a distressingly high number of people still do, I suppose. This is essentially groove-laden nu metal that attempts to make the most of the popular metal genres in order to produce something to appeal to the average angsty teen reader of 'Kerrang!' magazine, rather than anything to satisfy fans of more extreme or inventive acts.
Taken in this commercially-aware context, this is actually a lot better than most mainstream metal albums, but its greatest failure is that every song ends up sounding exactly the same. Cadaveria growls and sings over Frank Booth's steady, samey riffs and Flegias' machine gun outbursts from the drum kit, without the speed ever exceeding a medium tempo crawl. Booth takes some obvious inspiration from late Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell (not to speak ill of the dead or anything, but Dimebag's almost as overrated as Zakk Wylde), and the attempts to introduce melodic elements in the form of lead guitars in 'Queen of Forgotten' and flowery keyboards in 'The Dream' draw far too much attention to themselves. In fact, 'The Dream' is so desperately contrived as a single, it's almost embarrassing.
1. 100,000 Faces
2. The Dream
3. Anagram
4. Memento Audere Semper
5. Laying in Black
6. Queen of Forgotten
7. Exorcism to Chaos
8. Uneven Like Clouds
9. Before the Apes Came
10. Virtual Escape from Tragedy
11. Atypical Suggestions by a Dead Artist
12. Enlightened
Graceful... Yet Forbidding
****
Written on 04.08
On the surface, Callenish Circle seems to be just another routine melodic death metal band playing the style defined by the likes of In Flames, Dark Tranquillity and At the Gates in the mid-nineties, but 'Graceful... Yet Forbidding' has a lot to offer for fans of the genre who, quite justly, expect to have heard it all.
There's nothing groundbreaking here, but the guitar performance of Ronny Tyssen and Jos Evers is fairly exceptional, without going overboard and indulgent. Led by deep, heavy riffs that know when to evolve and when to repeat the same great melodic lines, these songs have a more resonant and even slightly more depressive quality than most melodic death metal, which tends to concern itself with an expression of aggression. Like the work of Opeth and October Tide, this is more carefully considered and emotive music, even if the harsh vocals and clichéd 1980s guitar solos may take a little getting used to.
Patrick Savelkoul's vocals are relatively standard and don't do anything to impress here, growling along without the need for oppressive rasps or clean singing that would impede the effect, while Gavin Harte's drums keep everything grounded in death metal, even during the slower songs. Even Roland Schuschke's bass is an important ingredient, fleshed out by the high production values and working excellently against the melodic guitars. Finally, guest keyboardist Bram Kortooms (if that's his real name, I'm pretty impressed and wish it was mine) makes his presence felt in the finale 'Alone...' without getting in the way elsewhere.
1. No Reason
2. Forgotten
3. Inner Battle
4. Beyond...
5. Broken
6. Oppressed Natives
7. Silent Tears
8. Passionate Dance
9. Caught By Deceit
10. Shadows of the Past
11. Alone...
Flesh-Power-Dominion
***
Written on 04.08
'Flesh Power Dominion' is a disappointing move away from Callenish Circle's previous amalgamation of melodic death metal stylings towards a harsher sound more directly traceable to At the Gates, specifically their landmark (albeit enormously overrated) 'Slaughter of the Soul' release. The music here is faster and more aggressive than it was on the appropriately titled 'Graceful... Yet Forbidding,' and in a decade when new At the Gates clones were springing up at an unstoppable pace, some even taking the horrendous plunge into metalcore, it wasn't a change of direction I was particularly delighted to hear.
The band is still as talented as ever, led by the guitar duo of Ronny Tyssen and Jos Evers, but the overall structure is less compelling and much more predictable. The melodic lines still don't feel forced as they do with some other bands, but songs do tend to throw in changes of pace and direction out of nowhere, which works more as a stumbling device than an effective example of progression. 'Take Me Along' has an appropriate name, considering it's led by a repeating melodic guitar line that works well but does get repetitive towards the end, while the album still contains enough variation in the form of the slower and more atmospheric 'Bleeding' before exactly the same thing is repeated to less effect as 'Suffer My Disbelief.'
The biggest mistaken the band made on this album was covering a song by Death, the original and definitive death metal band. Although the cover is very well executed, its ferocity and heaviness only serve to make the rest of the album's similar attempts sound noticeably weak by comparison, calling into question what exactly the point of angry melodic death metal is. I can't answer that, but this is still an above-average release in an otherwise stagnant genre.
1. Obey Me
2. For What It's Good For
3. Witness Your Own Oblivion
4. Take Me Along
5. Bleeding
6. Your Final Swansong
7. Suffer My Disbelief
8. They've Chosen
9. ...
10. Pull the Plug (Death cover)
11. When The Lady Smiles
True Nature Unfolds
****
Written on 06.04.08
However diverse and intricate Callisto's albums may be on occasion, the first minute of 'True Nature Unfolds' reveals all of this Finnish band's clear influences from the international post-metal scene. Inspired by the likes of Isis, Neurosis and Cult of Luna in particular, with a dash of traditional Mogwai post-rock thrown in, this album won't hold any surprises for those versed in the genre, but it's still one of the finer examples I've heard outside of the aforementioned elite.
This is essentially mood music with a dynamic twist, more something to die to than settle down and relax, but the hardcore elements exemplified by Markus Myllykangas' yelled vocals are the main downfall in my opinion, or at least the main element that prevents me from becoming completely enveloped, however low they've been turned down in the mix. Although this album isn't slow throughout, that's certainly the lasting memory that's retained, and it's more effective when the band attempts to inject melodic elements than when they're simply ripping off Mogwai, slowly strumming the same power chord for ten seconds before shifting up a note and continuing.
The songs follow similar styles, but are kept different largely through contrived structures. 'Blackhole' and 'Like Abel's Blood Cried for Revenge' are content to be as cacophonous and ponderous as can be, while 'Limb: Diasporas' and others are kept lighter and more atmospheric by stifling the louder elements. There's even a distinct sludge-doom influence in the riffs of 'Storm' and 'Masonic' that cement the Neurosis comparison further, making this an interesting and satisfying amalgamation of post-metal influences, if not the most inventive album in the world.
1. 31 46'N, 35 14'E
2. Blackhole
3. Limb: Diasporas
4. Cold Stare
5. Storm
6. Caverns of Khafka
7. Like Abel's Blood Cried for Revenge
8. Worlds Collide
9. Masonic
10. The Great Divorce
Noir
****
Written on 06.04.08
There's nothing inherently flawed in Callisto's approach to post-metal, but their reliance on established sounds prevents them from being one of the major players, while their music's emphasis on atmosphere and experience means that almost nothing will be memorable once the hour is over. The major difference between 'Noir' and the previous album is just how much the band seems intent on packing into each song here, something that makes it impossible to recall just which song is which without multiple repeat plays, especially as most tracks wind up in a completely different place to their beginnings.
One improvement that may or may not have been intentional is the diminished presence of vocals in this album, allowing for tracks that are entirely instrumental and others that just seem that way. Once again, the band balances heaviness and melody in a perfect fusion, demonstrated most succinctly in the opening song, while various points in the album choose to favour one style over the other. There's also a commendable tendency towards progression here, most expressly realised by the saxophone presence in 'Wormwood' and the changeable styles as the album continues, before the last two songs make a somewhat disappointing return to established form.
1. Wormwood
2. Latterday Saints
3. The Fugitive
4. Backwoods
5. A Close Encounter
6. Pathos
7. Folkslave
8. Woven Hands
Epicus Doomicus Metallicus
*****
Written on 07.04.08
Candlemass were one of the first and arguably the best doom metal bands, building on the work of bands like Black Sabbath in the seventies, but introducing a new mournful, foreboding and above all a monumentally epic dimension to create these albums of drawn-out, spellbinding elegies. There's some great guitar solos too.
The pompously but perhaps accurately titled 'Epicus Doomicus Metallicus' sets the tone for everything Candlemass would do throughout the rest of their career, apart from on the albums where they purposefully strove for something different, only to realise they carved their niche long ago. While this makes it a little less spectacular when compared to their later achievements, particularly its immediate successor 'Nightfall,' there really is nothing to fault this debut as a collection of epic doom songs, and it provides an exclusive opportunity to hear original vocalist Johan Lanquist before he was succeeded by the superior, albeit far more egotistical Messiah Marcolin.
Lanquist's vocals may be the decisive factor for many people, especially those approaching this album from other sub-genres of doom, such as the British death metal influenced bands or stoner bands of the Southern United States. He can wail with the best of the eighties metal scene, but possesses a satisfyingly nasal tone that prevents these dirges from ever sounding optimistic, the same way that Klas Bergwall's lead guitar melodies and solos strike a balance between despair and enjoyment. This certainly isn't music to make you cry; I see it more as something to play when walking contentedly through a graveyard, but the songs are kept individual enough to avoid becoming boring, an easy enough task considering there are only six of them.
'Solitude' is the most easily recognised take from this album thanks to Lanquist's fantastically over-the-top wailing performance in both choruses, while 'Under the Oak' allows Bergwall more leniency in showing off his skills. 'Demons Gate' opens with a fairly cheesy keyboard and distorted spoken word section that keeps this rooted firmly in the mid-eighties, 'Crystal Ball' even introduces some galloping riffs, 'Black Stone Wielder' is as close as they come to Sabbath, and grand finale 'A Sorcerer's Pledge' does everything that the previous song did, only with a greater air of pomposity that's only excusable with these Swedes.
1. Solitude
2. Demons Gate
3. Crystal Ball
4. Black Stone Wielder
5. Under the Oak
6. A Sorcerer's Pledge
Nightfall
*****
Written on 07.04.08
'Nightfall' is the archetypal Candlemass album, the ultimate doom metal album, and one of the defining works of heavy metal in general. This masterwork certainly has its flaws, but somehow manages to use these to its advantage much as the band's progenitors Black Sabbath achieved with their string of imperfect but infallible releases through the early 1970s.
New vocalist Messiah Marcolin is what will be remembered most about this album, though really credit is equally due to the guitar talents of Lars Johansson, whose elegiac melodies make the instrumental interludes every bit as compelling as the more substantial dirges. Marcolin's tone is similar to previous frontman Johan Lanquist, but with even more passion and presence, and could easily rival Ronnie James Dio in the stakes of most over-the-top eighties metal performance. Fortunately for all, this doesn't detract any credibility from the depressiveness of this release, which combines an overarching melancholy atmosphere with some tremendously enjoyable riffs and choruses, resulting in an album that's so bipolar, it really has to be experienced firsthand.
Every listen to this album has left me feeling bizarrely exhausted, and not in the way more emotive albums have the ability to. I think it's the sheer magnitude of the music, which is essentially no different from other heavy metal recorded in a studio during the decade, but somehow convinces of the graveyards it conjures and exotic locations it describes. 'The Well of Souls' and especially 'Bewitched' are the most memorable offerings here after even the most passive listen, dominated by Marcolin's bombastic choruses, but the performances throughout the rest of the album really don't let up one bit. There are four comparatively short interludes in the form of tracks one, three, six and ten, all of which are excellent and serve to make this an even more satisfying experience when listened to in full, rather than a mere collection of songs, and songs in the centre tend to favour fast galloping sections reminiscent of Iron Maiden.
Indeed, its hard not to compare 'At the Gallows End' directly with that other band's similarly themed 'Hallowed Be Thy Name,' and although this lacks the classic nature it's certainly the more believably atmospheric of the two, though anyone who felt Bruce Dickinson's squeaking vocals weren't entirely relevant to the sombre narrative is only going to experience further disappointment here.
1. Gothic Stone
2. The Well of Souls
3. Codex Gigas
4. At the Gallows End
5. Samarithan
6. Marche Funebre
7. Dark Are the Veils of Death
8. Mourners Lament
9. Bewitched
10. Black Candles
Tales of Creation
*****
Written on 07.04.08
Perhaps sensing that the niche they were progressively carving with each album would prove too difficult to climb out of before long, Candlemass began to diversify its approach, to a small but significant degree in this final album of the decade, and of the band's classic period.
Opening with an objective spoken word introduction over a guitar overture, it's clear that the band is experimenting with new ideas here, and though the subsequent 'Dark Reflections' is similar to their earlier album openers, it's still surprisingly fast and energetic for this band, though its one drawback is that Messiah Marcolin's chorus performance is perhaps a little too sing-song and over-the-top even by his standards, threatening to remain memorable for the wrong reasons. After this it's back to the usual fare with the oddly short 'Voices in the Wind' and a rather redundant re-make of 'Under the Oak' from the first album that nevertheless benefits from the improved production job and its greater relevance to the loose conceptual nature of this album on the whole, being name-checked in the later spoken word interlude 'Dawn.'
The production quality is one of the stand-out features of this album, as the difference really is noticeable when compared to the previous works, the debut album in particular. This causes the heavier riffs that lead 'Tears' and the incredible title song to pack an even greater punch, while the melodic side of the album also benefits from the greater contrast, something that's especially evident in the unprecedented instrumental shred-fest 'Into the Unfathomed Tower' where Lars Johansson really gets to demonstrate the classical influence on his guitar playing that was previously only hinted at. With its varied speeds, styles and moods, this is on an even par with the band's finest work, and only takes second place to 'Nightfall' for having the sour luck to be recorded two years later.
1. The Prophecy
2. Dark Reflections
3. Voices in the Wind
4. Under the Oak
5. Tears
6. Into the Unfathomed Tower
7. The Edge of Heaven
8. Somewhere in Nowhere
9. Through the Infinitive Halls of Death
10. Dawn
11. A Tale of Creation
Dactylis Glomerata
***
Written on 07.04.08
Recorded six years after Candlemass was confirmed dead by its songwriter, founder and bass player Leif Edling, 'Dactylis Glomerata' was released onto shelves to the extreme surprise and subsequent extreme disappointment of doom metal fans.
The main concern seemed to be that this doesn't sound like Candlemass at all, but there's really no reason it should; after all, most of the classic line-up has departed, Bjorn Flodkvist's vocals are in a completely different range than the fans were used to, Mike Amott handles all the guitars in a traditional rock style despite his background in melodic death metal (Carcass, Arch Enemy), and perhaps most tellingly of all, many of these songs weren't even written for a Candlemass album. Edling had been refused the option of a second Abstrakt Algebra release by the record company, which would much prefer to ship something with the familiar Candlemass name, thus this peculiar effort was born.
As was the case on 'Chapter VI,' this new direction wouldn't necessarily present a problem if only it had been better integrated, as the album still switches between this Black Sabbathesque rock sound and weak attempts to revive the old Candlemass style. These latter songs aren't particularly bad, but they don't stand out due to their similarity, and for the undisputed fact that Flodkvist is completely out of his depth with the soaring opera material, opting instead for a standard rock tone that suits the simpler songs but doesn't work as well here, in songs that scream out for Messiah Marcolin.
This album wouldn't be so bad if the new direction was actually any good, but unfortunately the experiments tend to fail, as is most evident in the latter three songs that just end up wasting time. Even the better material earlier on is spoiled slightly by the inclusion of distracting atmospheric keyboard passages, leaving this whole, oddly titled endeavour as a blemish on the band's reputation, but one that sounds a lot better if you pretend it wasn't recorded by Candlemass, which really isn't that far from the truth.
1. Wiz
2. I Still See the Black
3. Dustflow
4. Cylinder
5. Karthago
6. Abstrakt Sun
7. Apathy
8. Lidocain God
9. Molotov
From the 13th Sun
***
Written on 08.04.08
For the second album of Candlemass' reincarnation, Leif Edling, now the only original member from the early releases, made the rather odd decision to pay respect to his idols Black Sabbath by essentially ripping off their songs and rebranding them as new material, complete with snazzy 1990s sound effects technology. What ends up sounding pretty damn good on the CD is nevertheless entirely indebted to those Sabbath albums of the 1970s, often to the point where explicit comparisons are not only inevitable, but they're clearly being invited.
This similarity causes me to feel a little resentment at this album, in the same way I dislike albums of cover songs. While this material is still original in most senses, it tends to plunder the exact structures, styles and even the sound of Black Sabbath, most expressly in 'Tot' which is practically the same as the titular 'Black Sabbath,' from Bjorn Flodkvist's imitation Ozzy Osbourne whine to the rain effects to the tempo changes, and is disguised only by changing the order of notes played in the riffs. Immediately after this comes 'Elephant Star,' an excellent song and clearly the finest on the album, but one that's similarly comparable to 'Children of the Grave,' before others go on to plagiarise 'NIB,' 'Electric Funeral' and others from the first four classic Black Sabbath albums.
This is actually a really enjoyable album, but it's strange how it's being passed off as original when the copying is so blatant, and I'm sure (or at least I'd hope) that Edling would defend it as a "homage" (the polite word for plagiarism) rather than pretend he never noticed what he was doing. While this doesn't sound like Candlemass one bit, it's interesting to hear the reliance on synthesised effects that really bring this up-to-date for the time, and it's at least refreshing to hear Edling experimenting with a new direction, however unoriginal, rather than re-hashing the same formula again and again. This is the only Candlemass album to act as a real diversion from the main canon, and it's a lot of fun.
1. Droid
2. Tot
3. Elephant Star
4. Blumma Apt
5. ARX/NG 891
6. Zog
7. Galatea
8. Cyclo-F0
9. Mythos
Eaten Back to Life
***
Written on 11.04.08
Cannibal Corpse is as close to a household name as death metal was ever going to produce, a band notorious primarily for the shock value of its album art, song titles and often amusingly disgusting lyrics, but one that death metal connoisseurs tend to agree is fairly unimpressive when it comes down to the actual music. 'Eaten Back to Life' is the band's surprisingly good debut album, one that avoids the pitfalls of all subsequent releases by not getting too bogged down in the image at a cost to the music, which, while not original or a classic of the genre, is an enjoyable contribution to early nineties death metal.
The main difference here is the thrash influence, as was evident in much early death metal, leaving Jack Owen and Bob Rusay's guitars sounding similar to Slayer in tone and even execution. Chris Barnes' growl is more controlled and legible here than the gurgling tone he would later adopt, and even Alex Webster's bass makes several valid contributions.
While there's nothing inherently excellent about this album, it remains one of Cannibal Corpse' finest merely for being genuinely enjoyable rather than painful to listen to; while the performance is a less refined than 'Tomb of the Mutilated' and none of the riffs stand out in any way, the speed changes keep things interesting, even if all the songs end up sounding exactly the same. And even if they're all stolen from Slayer.
1. Shredded Humans
2. Edible Autopsy
3. Put Them to Death
4. Mangled
5. Scattered Remains, Splattered Brains
6. Born in a Casket
7. Rotting Head
8. The Undead Will Feast
9. Bloody Chunks
10. A Skull Full of Maggots
11. Buried in the Backyard
Butchered at Birth
**
Written on 11.04.08
With its harsh sound, vile lyrics and gruesome artwork by Vincent Locke, Cannibal Corpse's second album is undoubtedly the beginning of the New York band's continued obsession with shock value over quality content, a habit they would only break momentarily with their subsequent release 'Tomb of the Mutilated.'
When I describe this as "harsh," I don't mean that it's particularly extreme, at least not compared to other death metal, but that the sound quality is almost arrogantly poor to the point that the listening experience is painful for the wrong reasons, as the listener struggles to actually make out what's going on. Never mind that Chris Barnes' lyrics could never be deciphered through his low gurgle even if he was putting in a more dynamic performance, but Jack Owen and Bob Rusay's guitars are reduced to nothing more than a tedious hiss as they play the same style of riff over and over again. Perhaps worst of all are Paul Mazurkiewicz's drums, which hammer away ad nauseam before executing predictable speed changes that have none of the excitement of the previous album.
This is an album best avoided by music fans from any background, but young teenagers might get a brief kick out of the lyric booklet, before convincing themselves that it's the greatest CD ever recorded in a misguided attempt to appear cool. There are far more extreme albums out there if that's all you're after.
1. Meat Hook Sodomy
2. Gutted
3. Living Dissection
4. Under the Rotted Flesh
5. Covered With Sores
6. Vomit the Soul
7. Butchered at Birth
8. Rancid Amputation
9. Innards Decay
Tomb of the Mutilated
***
Written on 11.04.08
Loathe it or remain indifferent to it, 'Tomb of the Mutilated' is the definitive Cannibal Corpse album, and the one on which all of their later, increasingly lazy successes are based. The production has improved, the death metal riffs are louder, the band actually seems content to write well-structured music for a change, and most importantly of all: those song titles are now so ludicrously attention-seeking that I feel embarrassed having to censor them for a public website.
Death metal fans will probably enjoy this album, but not as much as they'd enjoy many of the earlier and later bands with a great deal more creativity. To accuse Cannibal Corpse of relying on the shock value of their lyrics and album art over actual musical content would be an accurate observation, but fortunately this album goes some way towards striking a balance, and is acclaimed as a classic of the genre by many death metal fans.
While the repetitiveness of the songs and the derivative playing styles don't allow me to praise it to that extent, there are still some choice cuts on here, and the album's infamous popularity is also significant in spreading other, better death metal to the masses. If they have the stomach for it. An unfortunate consequence is that the guttural roars and monstrously down-tuned guitars here were undoubtedly one of the key players in kick-starting the "brutal" death metal sub-genre, which occasionally offers wicked surprises but is mostly a bloated, festering corpse with, like, maggots in it and things. See, anyone can write this stuff.
1. Hammer Smashed Face
2. I Cum Blood
3. Addicted to Vaginal Skin
4. Split Wide Open
5. Necropedophile
6. The Cryptic Stench
7. Entrails Ripped From a Virgin's Cunt
8. Post Mortal Ejaculation
9. Beyond the Cemetery
Hammer Smashed Face
***
Written on 11.04.08
'Hammer Smashed Face' is really the only Cannibal Corpse song anyone needs to hear, easily the band's best and one of their relatively few successful attempts to combine extreme (albeit indecipherable) gore lyrics with some solid death metal. The speed changes are enjoyable at first, before the predictable slips back into the slower groove become a little tiresome, and the guitars are hardly original, but it's still an enjoyable and important piece of death metal history, even if Cannibal Corpse have never been a particularly strong band even at this peak of their career.
That brings us on to the remainder of the E.P., which is comprised of pretty good cover songs rather than original material, and for this reason is a lot more entertaining. Rather than go for some novelty covers that would only lessen my opinion of the image-centric band even further, they tackle an early death metal song from genre pioneers Possessed and do a wholly adequate job; with its frequent, high speed guitar solos and relentless pace, it serves as an example of what Cannibal Corpse could have been if they'd decided to concentrate a little more on the extremity of their music rather than relying too greatly on vile lyrics.
By contrast, the final song 'Zero the Hero' is a cover of Black Sabbath, and although it's fair to say the band butchers it to an extent (as almost any band attempting to cover Sabbath manages to, with only a couple of notable exceptions), its steady groove is the perfect counterpart to the previous song. The death metal take on Tony Iommi's riff is nothing special, but still instantly recognisable under the dark production values, and the only real issue here is the inferiority of Chris Barnes' gurgle to Ian Gillan's original hard rock wail. A nice little fifteen-minute E.P., but one that mainly serves to prove that Cannibal Corpse have only ever produced one worthwhile song.
1. Hammer Smashed Face
2. The Exorcist (Possessed cover)
3. Zero the Hero (Black Sabbath cover)
The Bleeding
**
Written on 11.04.08
Cannibal Corpse surprisingly toned down the gore content for their fourth album, though with song titles like 'F**ked With a Knife' this is still clearly targeted largely at impressionable, teenage fans of slasher films rather than serious metalheads. This slight tempering of lyrics doesn't bring about a new maturity that would certainly bring the band's career to a close, as the image is stripped away and their fans realise the band isn't all that good, but there's evidently a change in approach here that proves the band has been paying attention to shifting trends.
While 'Tomb of the Mutilated' varied between slow, fast and medium speeds with somewhat tedious regularity, 'The Bleeding' is grounded in a medium tempo groove of the type found in much nineties metal, thanks to Metallica slowing down and the rise of bands like Pantera. While this makes for a less thrilling ride for fans of the classic death metal style than the band's debut album for example, it at least adds a sense of consistency, and the songs only end up sounding similar to the extent they did on previous albums. Which is rather a lot.
This would be vocalist Chris Barnes' last album with the band, and perhaps their chance to drop this weak link. While none of the band members display exceptional talent outside of bass virtuoso Alex Webster (whose performance is nevertheless rendered timid by the shoddy production), Barnes' growl has become incredibly tiresome here, and never lives up to the ferocity of the subject matter even when he unleashes brief screams in the choruses.
1. Staring Through the Eyes of the Dead
2. Fucked With a Knife
3. Stripped, Raped and Strangled
4. Pulverized
5. Return to Flesh
6. The Pick-Axe Murders
7. She Was Asking for It
8. The Bleeding
9. Force Fed Broken Glass
10. An Experiment in Homicide
Vile
**
Written on 04.08
It's at this point in their relentless discography that Cannibal Corpse start to get really repetitive, but thankfully this album stands out as the introduction of new vocalist Corpsegrinder (less impressive real name George Fisher). Chris Barnes' vocals had always been the low point of this band, and Corpsegrinder injects a new ferocity that was a long time coming, even managing to be clearly understandable when screeching the choruses.
Sadly, this is the only real point of interest here, and only then if you've restricted yourself to Cannibal Corpse over other, more brutal death metal bands. Almost every song follows the same style, led by Paul Mazurkiewicz's tedious drum blasts that are noticeably lacking in both speed and power when compared to others in the genre, and the guitarists steal from themselves so much, it hardly matters whether you listen to this album all the way through or stop after the first track.
There are some reasonably entertaining speed changes, most effective in the breakneck pace of the 'Mummified in Barbed Wire' verses and comparatively short 'Puncture Wound Massacre,' but even this is provided an unsatisfying contrast in the dully slow 'Bloodlands.' Bizarrely, and undeservedly, this was the first death metal album to make its way onto the U.S. mainstream billboard chart at #122.
1. Devoured By Vermin
2. Mummified in Barbed Wire
3. Perverse Suffering
4. Disfigured
5. Bloodlands
6. Puncture Wound Massacre
7. Relentless Beating
8. Absolute Hatred
9. Eaten From Inside
10. Orgasm Through Torture
11. Monolith
Advantages: Corpsegrinder is better than Barnes.
Disadvantages: Getting really samey now.
Gallery of Suicide
**
Written on 04.08
'Gallery of Suicide' is a surprisingly disappointing album from Cannibal Corpse, surprising only because they had already set the bar fairly low. The departure of guitarist Rob Barrett and his replacement by the less imaginative Pat O'Brien robs the album of even its more satisfying death metal riffs, and the whole package really does sound like the band going through the motions.
On the other hand, there are some deliberate attempts to add diversity this time around, though few of them really work, and most ultimately count against the enjoyment. Opener 'I Will Kill You' has all the catchy enjoyment of early Swedish death metal from the likes of Dismember, but after this point there's really very little of interest.
The worst offenders are the three slower songs 'Gallery of Suicide,' 'From Skin to Liquid' and 'Centuries of Torment' which couldn't sound more like consciously slowed-down versions of the band's usual style in an attempt to bulk the CD out by an extra ten minutes (forty-five rather than their usual thirty-five). These songs aren't all that long, but the pace is incredibly tedious and lifeless, once again proving that the band's arguable talents lie within a specific and overly repetitive niche.
1. I Will Kill You
2. Disposal of the Body
3. Sentenced to Burn
4. Blood Drenched Execution
5. Gallery of Suicide
6. Dismembered and Molested
7. From Skin to Liquid
8. Unite the Dead
9. Stabbed in the Throat
10. Chambers of Blood
11. Headless
12. Every Bone Broken
13. Centuries of Torment
14. Crushing the Despised
Advantages: They try something different.
Disadvantages: Boy, is it dull.
Bloodthirst
***
Written on 17.04.08
After the comparative disappointment of 1998's 'Gallery of Suicide,' Cannibal Corpse return to mediocre form with 'Bloodthirst,' serving up eleven more repetitive, banal, needlessly gory assaults on all manner of depraved topics, much the same as they've done throughout their entire career. This isn't a particularly strong or weak album in the discography, and coming so far down the line it's all but entirely superfluous.
While these might as well all be the exact same song repeated, aside from some slower sections in 'Unleashing the Bloodthirsty' balanced by wild, fast solos, this at least allows for a sense of consistency, even if that only really means they don't attempt any of the unwise "experiments" that plagued 'Gallery of Suicide.' The production quality is a lot cleaner and clearer this time round also, finally affording the drums a level of power previously unheard, even if they still seem a little slow compared to the competition.
1. Pounded Into Dust
2. Dead Human Collection
3. Unleashing the Bloodthirsty
4. The Spine Splitter
5. Ecstasy in Decay
6. Raped by the Beast
7. Coffinfeeder
8. Hacksaw Decapitation
9. Blowtorch Slaughter
10. Sickening Metamorphosis
11. Condemned to Agony
Advantages: Improved production, consistent.
Disadvantages: Does nothing the previous albums didn't.
Live Cannibalism
***
Written on 04.08
I'm not a fan of Cannibal Corpse, but I was pleasantly surprised by this live album, which really does capture the band at its best and demonstrates that they aren't just a gimmicky, talentless, overrated band. They're still mainly that, obviously, but being drawn into this live experience, the relative lack of interesting or inherently enjoyable music doesn't become such an issue.
I have to commend the band on its commitment to the live performance, something I honestly didn't expect after the frankly lazy quality of much of their studio output. Songs are sped through to great appreciation from the crowd, and a wide range of material is covered that allows Corpsegrinder to further prove his superiority to Chris Barnes by tackling the early works such as 'Meat Hook Sodomy' and the classic 'Hammer Smashed Face.' Corpsegrinder is also amusingly frank about the subject matter, introducing track four by stating, "this song's about shooting blood out of you c**k."
With an hour's worth of music (though that term is perhaps open to debate), this is better value for money than the typical Cannibal Corpse album that runs to half of that, and the more aggressive take on formerly lifeless, endlessly repetitive studio tracks makes this a much more enjoyable and worthwhile purchase than anything else Cannibal Corpse has released, even if I'd still prefer you to check out other death metal bands first.
1. Staring Through the Eyes of the Dead
2. Blowtorch Slaughter
3. Stripped, Raped and Strangled
4. I Cum Blood
5. Covered With Sores
6. Fucked With a Knife
7. Unleashing the Bloodthirsty
8. Dead Human Collection
9. Gallery of Suicide
10. Meat Hook Sodomy
11. Perverse Suffering
12. The Spine Splitter
13. Gutted
14. I Will Kill You
15. Devoured By Vermin
16. Disposal of the Body
17. A Skull Full of Maggots
18. Hammer Smashed Face
Advantages: Enjoyable live performance, superior to studio performances.
Disadvantages: Songs still aren't particularly good, but at least you get a lot of them.
Gore Obsessed
**
Written on 04.08
By the time a band released its eighth album, it's always interesting to take note of just how far they've come on their musical journey. For some, each album will be treated as an independent entity, an experiment in itself before the band moves on in its ceaseless artistic exploration. But for others, such as Cannibal Corpse, it's merely the same thing over and over again, to increasingly dwindling effect and amusement.
'Gore Obsessed' is probably the most tedious album they've put out thus far. Every song sounds the same, there are no memorable guitars as they all follow standard grooves, and even Corpsegrinder's shrieking vocals become irritating on occasion at their peak of ferocity, while hearing him growl "zombies" in the over-repetitive chorus of the third song is almost embarrassing, lacking any of the class of Death's 'Scream Bloody Gore.' The most positive thing I can say about 'Gore Obsessed' is that it keeps the spirit of traditional death metal alive at a time when many bands were moving away from the genre, but this is merely because Cannibal Corpse can't play anything else.
The only truly enjoyable song is a predictable death metal cover of Metallica's 'No Remorse' on the special edition version of the CD, which is only interesting for being a comparatively obscure song choice, and one that works well considering Cannibal Corpse's sound is still strongly influenced by thrash.
1. Savage Butchery
2. Hatchet to the Head
3. Pit of Zombies
4. Dormant Bodies Bursting
5. Compelled to Lacerate
6. Drowning in Viscera
7. Hung and Bled
8. Sanded Faceless
9. Mutation of the Cadaver
10. When Death Replaces Life
11. Grotesque
12. No Remorse (Metallica cover)
Advantages: They haven't become a nu-metal band, at least.
Disadvantages: More of the same, worse than usual.
Worm Infested
**
Written on 17.04.08
Released as a stop-gap between 'Gore Obsessed' and 'The Wretched Spawn,' this six-song E.P. is merely an excuse to throw out some B-side material packaged in what is probably the band's most despicable cover art ever. These songs were all recorded in previous album sessions, mostly for 'Gore Obsessed' but some going back to 'Gallery of Suicide,' and as with their previous E.P. 'Hammer Smashed Face' there's over-reliance on covering other band's material in an overall unsatisfying way.
The two new songs are both fairly good examples of Cannibal Corpse, and superior to much of what made its way onto the previous album. 'Systematic Elimination' is straight-up death metal in the band's current style, while 'Worm Infested' itself is more entertaining, launching into some hilariously fast verses as Corpsegrinder struggles to keep up with the vocals. The other Cannibal Corpse original is a pointless re-recording of 'The Undead Will Feast' from their first album back in the eighties, which launches the thrash-influenced second half of this E.P. It's still their best song here.
The cover of Accept's 'Demon's Night' is perhaps the worst, not even sounding like a classic metal cover and coming off instead as the band simply playing at a tedious pace for too long, while the cover of Possessed's 'Confessions' is contrastingly performed with complete loyalty to the original, even down to Corpsegrinder toning down his roar into a thrash yell in places. While this makes it more enjoyable to me as a Cannibal Corpse non-fan, it's also completely redundant as you might as well listen to the superior original.
Finally, their predictable death metal cover of Metallica's 'No Remorse' is only interesting for being a comparatively obscure song choice, and one that works well considering Cannibal Corpse's sound is still strongly influenced by thrash.
1. Systematic Elimination
2. Worm Infested
3. Demon's Night (Accept cover)
4. The Undead Will Feast (Re-recording)
5. Confessions (Possessed cover)
6. No Remorse (Metallica cover)
Advantages: A couple of songs that could be considered good by Cannibal Corpse standards.
Disadvantages: Below-par cover songs.
The Wretched Spawn
**
Written on 17.04.08
'The Wretched Spawn' has been called the most technically proficient album Cannibal Corpse has released, leading to it occasionally being cited as a death metal masterpiece by people who have never heard anything else the genre has to offer. While it's clearly the band's best since Corpsegrinder came along in 'Vile' eight years earlier, it still shows all the signs of a band going through the motions and really offering nothing that hasn't been heard before.
Corpsegrinder puts in an impressive vocal performance here, leading the way in songs like the narrative 'Decency Defied' but also occasionally seeming overbearing, as is the case for much of the opener 'Severed Head Stoning.' As a consequence, the instruments are largely relegated to the background, especially the guitars which don't do anything interesting throughout the album apart from some daft-sounding harmonic pinching at the start of 'Psychotic Precision' that sounds like a weak attempt to compete with the likes of Machine Head or Pantera, mainstream bands that these guys really shouldn't be bowing down to.
Elsewhere, the band tries to pull off another slow song despite their previous failures on 'Gallery of Suicide,' but 'Festering in the Crypt' is more palatable, even if the guitars are extremely tedious when robbed of their one gimmick of being fast. If this is the only death metal album in your collection, it will really stand out. If you have at least one other, it really won't.
1. Severed Head Stoning
2. Psychotic Precision
3. Decency Defied
4. Frantic Disembowelment
5. The Wretched Spawn
6. Cyanide Assassin
7. Festering in the Crypt
8. Nothing Left to Mutilate
9. Blunt Force Castration
10. Rotted Body Landslide
11. Slain
12. Bent Backwards and Broken
13. They Deserve to Die
Advantages: Back on top form.
Disadvantages: Top form never meant all that much.
Kill
***
Written on 17.04.08
The most recent Cannibal Corpse release to date, 'Kill' surprised no one with its pounding drums, roaring guitars and enthusiastically rasped vocals, all sounding exactly the same as the band's other albums. But slightly different, because this time, producer Erik Rutan has increased the volume across the board and you can actually hear the guitar playing alongside Corpsegrinder's vocals, in all its mediocre glory.
There's a lyrical change too, which is only minor but still fairly substantial considering that the majority of this band's large fan base was doubtless attracted for the extreme gore of the lyrics (I guess they could have gained their immense popularity purely due to the musical quality, but that seems a little far-fetched). Rather than focusing on blood and guts - which they have presumably run out of ideas for, this far down the line - the focus is more traditionally death metal in its themes of carnage and violence, reminiscent of Malevolent Creation. And just in case the album cover doesn't scream its title at you with enough intensity, Corpsegrinder makes sure to remind you with an over-zealous, maniacal opening.
1. The Time to Kill Is Now
2. Make Them Suffer
3. Murder Worship
4. Necrosadistic Warning
5. Five Nails Through the Neck
6. Purification By Fire
7. Death Walking Terror
8. Barbaric Bludgeonings
9. The Discipline of Revenge
10. Brain Removal Device
11. Maniacal
12. Submerged in Boiling Flesh
13. Infinite Misery (Instrumental)
Advantages: Loud.
Disadvantages: Yawn.
Fractured
***
Written on 12.04.08
Capharnaum are a technical death metal from Florida, the death metal Mecca, but this half-hour album of brutal, catchy riffs, hostile yells and great guitar solos really doesn't accomplish anything that many others haven't to greater effect.
The band's core is the Suecof brothers Jason and Jordan on guitar and drums respectively, and together they form a tight death metal outfit, Jason in particular being the real stand-out with his excellent melodic guitars that never sound forced in the way much melodic death metal tends to, especially nowadays. The album's second most significant problem is that the songs don't go anywhere particularly interesting, mostly being of average length with little in the way of the progressive tendencies expected of "technical" death metal, and there isn't an awful lot that stands out. The album's primary failing, however, is the vocal performance of Matt Heafy.
Heafy's hardcore-style yelling really doesn't sit well with death metal, especially of this variety which customarily features a deeper, more guttural tone to work alongside the heavier tones, rather than screaming out for attention in this way. Even the length of less than thirty minutes is disappointing; at first, I assumed this would be due to the songs packing enough content that extra time would be superfluous, but ultimately it just seems like a lazy excuse to avoid writing any more material.
'Fractured' won't be aggressive enough for brutal death metal fans, catchy enough for casual metal fans, or interesting enough for prog or guitar fans.
1. Ingrained
2. Fractured
3. Perpetuate Catatonia
4. Machines
5. Icon of Malice
6. Reins of Humanity
7. The Scourge Trial
8. Refusal
Advantages: Some great guitar work.
Disadvantages: Nothing particularly interesting here.
Reek of Putrefaction
****
Written on 12.04.08
The aptly-titled 'Reek of Putrefaction' is the first and definitive grindcore album, but that's not to say it's a masterpiece. After all, it would sort of defeat the point if this was anything other than aurally offensive. The twenty-two songs that make up this forty-minute album are mostly under two minutes in length, making their vile points on various sickening aspects of biology gone ka-ka, and although it's predominantly the same chugging, down-tuned guitar riffs and guttural vocal vomitisations propelled by thudding drums hidden in the background of the shoddy production job, it still accomplishes more than any other grind album to come since. And boy, do they keep coming.
Everything about this album sounds completely right, within the depraved context. A more polished production job would spoil its effect, and the studio trickery that's used benefits from the somewhat amateurish sound of its execution, most evident in the vocal effects that change with every other song, reaching an all-time belching low in sections of 'Pyosisified.' There's even enough variety to please the metal snobs, like me; songs like 'Genital Grinder' and others feature some excellent death metal riffs, before the band would more fully commit to that genre, while there are occasional solos from the likes of 'Frenzied Detruncation.'
This fetid Scouse abomination certainly isn't for everyone, and may even scare you if you've only heard the band's later works, but it's still one of the most significant albums they recorded. Along with all the other genre-pioneering ones they did, of course.
1. Genital Grinder
2. Regurgitation of Giblets
3. Maggot Colony
4. Pyosisified (Rotten to the Gore)
5. Carbonized Eye Sockets
6. Frenzied Detruncation
7. Vomited Anal Tract
8. Festerday
9. Fermenting Innards
10. Excreted Alive
11. Suppuration
12. Foeticide
13. Microwaved Uterogestation
14. Feast on Dismembered Carnage
15. Splattered Cavities
16. Psychopathologist
17. Burnt to a Crisp
18. Pungent Excruciation
19. Manifestation of Verrucose Urethra
20. Oxidised Razor Masticator
21. Mucopurulence Excretor
22. Malignant Defecation
Advantages: The ultimate grindcore experience.
Disadvantages: Difficult to listen to.
Symphonies of Sickness
****
Written on 12.04.08
'Symphonies of Sickness' does everything that a second album should, building on the success of Carcass' first and also radically improving it. Bringing more death metal influence to the surgical table this time round with a more concentrated performance from all musicians, the focus is no longer merely on extreme speed, as songs take time out for speed changes and structural progression to keep things interesting, like the excellent solo section of 'Exhume to Consume' that proves why their later acclaimed work 'Heartwork' wasn't quite as ahead of its time as people claim.
This was only released a year after the debut album, but the changes are immediately evident even from looking at the tracklist, which contains half as many songs for the simple reason that they're all twice as long as they used to be, the time being used to make each one more satisfying. The grindcore influence is still heavily present, but this is the point that Carcass resemble a death metal band to a greater extent, though a more extreme variety than fans of the genre were used to. I suppose the biggest difference between this and the first album is that the band is actually playing music now.
1. Reek of Putrefaction
2. Exhume to Consume
3. Excoriating Abdominal Emanation
4. Ruptured in Purulence
5. Empathological Necroticism
6. Embryonic Necropsy and Devourment
7. Swarming Vulgar Mass of Infected Virulency
8. Cadaveric Incubator of Endo Parasites
9. Slash Dementia
10. Crepitating Bowel Erosion
Advantages: Greater musical skill, more satisfying songs.
Disadvantages: May disappoint grindcore purists.
Necroticism: Descanting the Insalubrious
*****
Written on 12.04.08
With a constantly evolving band like Carcass, fans will always have differing views on which period was the band's peak, specifically the frenetic gore-grind of their early days or the more contemplative and melodic death metal of their twilight phase, but most tend to agree that the band's third album is a successful meeting between the two styles, and also their finest.
'Necroticism' retains the extreme heaviness and surgical subject matter of the previous two albums, but the introduction of second guitarist Michael Amott (later of Arch Enemy) starts to take the band's music in a melodic direction that was only hinted at in brief passages of 'Symphonies of Sickness.' The balance between heaviness and melody has rarely been so perfectly executed, the only competitors being the early releases of Swedish melodic death metal giants Dark Tranquillity and In Flames, without it being allowed to take over in the way it would on later releases.
Colin Richardson's production job further perfects this fusion, rendering the entire performance audible for the first time at no cost to the atmosphere, and the songwriting process has become even more elaborate, with an average song length of over five minutes compared to the one and a half minute mean of the debut. These more progressive tendencies run the risk of the band alienating even more people than they naturally do already, but this final album from their classic period avoids seeming indulgent like the later ones would tend to, and is rightly recognised as one of the death metal classics.
1. Inpropagation
2. Corporal Jigsore Quandary
3. Symposium of Sickness
4. Pedigree Butchery
5. Incarnated Solvent Abuse
6. Carneous Cacoffiny
7. Lavaging Expectorate of Lysergide Composition
8. Forensic Clinicism/The Sanguine Article
Advantages: Perfect fusion of Carcass' two eras, with excellent and ferocious musicianship.
Disadvantages: Longer songs may deter some.
Heartwork
****
Written on 12.04.08
'Heartwork' has always been a significant album for me, as it was the first death metal album I ever bought, but over time my increased familiarity with the genre has only led me to respect and enjoy it a lot less. The primary reason this album isn't as good as its predecessor is that it effectively represents the point at which Carcass sold out; not in the way Metallica's bland "black" album or Judas Priest's disco abomination 'Turbo' sold out by seeking a mainstream radio audience outside of heavy metal, but taken proportionally within the band's own context, they lose all their uncompromising, underground credibility here by giving in to that compromise.
'Heartwork' is widely acclaimed as a melodic death metal classic, which I suppose it is, as far as any work of a sub-genre could be accurately considered "a classic." It's certainly not as significant as their previous releases, especially 'Necroticism' which struck a much more satisfying balance between heaviness and melody, but this came along at the right time and had the right level of publicity to alert death metal fans to this new trend, which was mainly brewing in Sweden. Consequently, the main offender here is the Liverpool band's Swedish axeman Michael Amott, whose melodic guitars and slower riffing style rob this album of its intensity in favour of polished precision.
There are still plenty of enjoyable songs here, but most of them are spoiled to some extent by inserting inappropriate melodic elements for no real reason other than to show off the contrast. Even the vocals are less interesting now, handled by Jeff Walker alone and losing the crowded, schizophrenic fun of the earlier albums, with the lyrics now being more intentionally "mature," concerning politics and philosophy rather than gruesome medical tales. When I was younger, the staccato riffs of 'Blind Bleeding the Blind' and classic metal soloing of 'Carnal Forge' seemed like the coolest thing I'd ever heard. Now, it's all pretty bland.
1. Buried Dreams
2. Carnal Forge
3. No Love Lost
4. Heartwork
5. Embodiment
6. This Mortal Coil
7. Arbeit Macht Fleisch
8. Blind Bleeding the Blind
9. Doctrinal Expletives
10. Death Certificate
Advantages: Pioneering work of melodic death metal.
Disadvantages: Disappointingly commercial after previous efforts.
Swansong
***
Written on 23.04.08
This self-conscious final offering from Carcass sounds very little like the Carcass of old, or even their previous radical turnaround on the more commercial 'Heartwork.' While still death metal at its core, and thus not seeking any kind of mainstream chart approval, the style here is much more relaxed and infused with a classic rock/metal style, resulting in a collection of mid-paced "death-'n'-roll" songs that are fun to listen to, but lack the excitement of previous works from the band.
Guitarist Michael Amott had returned to Sweden by this point to found Arch Enemy with his brother and continue the style he'd worked towards on Carcass' previous two albums, leaving Bill Steer and Carlo Regadas to come up with some distinctly rock-tinged riffs over Ken Owen's steady drums.
Most of the songs fail to stand out in any real way, outside of the catchiness of opener 'Keep On Rotting in the Free World' and closer 'Go To Hell,' as well as the album's one memorable guitar riff that leads the way in the otherwise average 'Child's Play,' but this is still an interesting experiment that could provide a gateway into death metal for newcomers, as long as they aren't expecting anything particularly gripping.
1. Keep On Rotting in the Free World
2. Tomorrow Belongs to Nobody
3. Black Star
4. Cross My Heart
5. Child's Play
6. Room 101
7. Polarized
8. Generation Hexed
9. Firm Hand
10. R**k the Vote
11. Don't Believe a Word
12. Go to Hell
Wake Up and Smell the Carcass
***
Written on 23.04.08
Although it can be seen, in a way, as a quick, posthumous cash-in after the demise of Carcass, this compilation is still of great interest to fans of the band throughout its highly influential career, featuring rare material that was previously only available on EPs, hidden in the BBC Radio 1 archives, or never heard before. This also inevitably means that much of it is far from the band's best work, as you'd expect from what is primarily a collection of B-sides, but for fans who lament the relatively small size of the Carcass discography, or those who thought the band lost its way towards the end, this is the perfect supplementary purchase that saves the trouble of having to locate those other, limited releases.
By far the most interesting section here (theoretically, if not musically) is the first five songs, out-takes from the 'Swansong' sessions that didn't make their way onto the band's final album. 'Swansong' itself was far from the band's best work, plagued by contractual obligations and band disagreements that ultimately saw Carcass disband even before its release, and the idea of B-side material from an already disappointing album isn't the most exciting prospect in the world, but fortunately it seems that much of it was down to random chance.
Some of this material is much better than the majority of the tracks that made their way onto the finished album,most notably the first two songs that feature greater ferocity and more impressive lead guitar work, but after this point it does just become a somewhat unnecessary continuation of the 'Swansong' mundanity, culminating in the self-deprecating apology of sorts, 'I Told You So (Corporate Rock Really Does Suck)' which is fittingly the worst of the lot.
The second section of the album (tracks six through nine) is a Radio 1 session from slightly earlier in the band's career, and the live performance makes for a satisfying listen, somewhere between studio polish and a raw demo. It sounds in places as if the source material wasn't even the original master tape, but the band still puts in the best performance it can, considering that none of the songs really allow the opportunity to impress: the material is mostly from 'Heartwork,' already a slightly disappointing album, and it's not even the finest cuts. Still, Jeff Walker's vicious rasp must have done an effective job scaring any casual listeners who tuned in at the time.
'This Is Your Life' and 'Rot 'n' Roll' formed the B-side material of the shorter 'Heartwork' E.P., and in this case it's easy to see why they were left off the album, only serving to accomplish what the other songs had already done to greater effect. The latter song is undeniably fun, but considering it has only recently been heard by the listener (three songs earlier), that counts against it in the context of this compilation. The overlap elsewhere is similarly irritating, with both 'Edge of Darkness' (1 & 9) and the later 'Hepatic Tissue Fermentation' (14 & 16) not being distinguished enough in each version to merit their inclusion in this way, though it's ultimately preferable as a more comprehensive replication of the original EPs. Still, if this is the case, they might as well have included the original version of the song 'Heartwork' prior to track ten in order to better represent that release.
It's after this point that the music makes a rapid change, from polished melodic death metal of the band's later years to the brutal death-grind of its earlier days. 'Tools of the Trade' is surprisingly ferocious even for the album it accompanied (1991's 'Necroticism'), and seems like a conscious reaction from the band against its own increasingly meandering style. This song is clipped, aggressive and fast, but still makes time for a brief melodic section later, albeit to a lesser extent that the other material the band produced around this time. Fans of early Carcass should see the 'Tools of the Trade' E.P. as an essential purchase, and thanks to this collection it's now readily available.
However superior Carcass' early works are alleged to be by many fans, the majority of the material here is still a little sub-par, and doesn't match up to anything from 'Necroticism' itself. 'Hepatic Tissue Fermentation' is a standard Carcass grind song that lasts for far, far too long at over six minutes, and it's actually more suited to the lower quality sound of its earlier incarnation at track sixteen, from Earache Records' 1989 compilation 'Pathological' that also contributes the satisfyingly slow and grindy re-make of 'Genital Grinder,' perhaps the best song here. Unfortunately, and a little bizarrely, the final song from the 'Grindcrusher' compilation actually goes too far on the lo-fi front, being quite difficult to listen to not only for its inferior sound, but also the surprisingly lacklustre performance from the band itself.
As a collection of lesser material, this doesn't work particularly well as an overview of Carcass' career path, despite showcasing their move from brutal grindcore to melodic death metal effectively. None of their best material can be found here, meaning a best-of would be a safer bet if that's what you're after, but as a comprehensive release of rare material it can't really be faulted, except that the 1989 'Peel Sessions' E.P. would have been a notable inclusion, and presumably would have been if CDs weren't limited to an eighty-minute playing time. The Kennedy autopsy photo is suitably morbid and shocking as a final statement from this legendary metal band, even if this has the rotten stench of corporate legacy-squeezing all over it.
1. Edge of Darkness
2. Emotional Flatline
3. Ever Increasing Circles
4. Blood Spattered Banner
5. I Told You So (Corporate Rock Really Does Suck)
6. Buried Dreams (Live)
7. No Love Lost (Live)
8. Rot 'n' Roll (Live)
9. Edge of Darkness (Live)
10. This Is Your Life
11. Rot 'n' Roll
12. Tools of the Trade
13. Pyosisified (Still Rotten to the Gore)
14. Hepatic Tissue Fermentation II
15. Genital Grinder II
16. Hepatic Tissue Fermentation
17. Exhume to Consume
Aren't You Dead Yet?
***
Written on 12.04.08
Carnal Forge are another enjoyably mediocre Swedish death metal band that offer more of the same for fans of the genre who maybe don't feel like listening to the more familiar and frankly better albums of similar bands. Carnal Forge's style mixes death metal with thrash and melodic elements in the style of... well, pretty much every other Swedish death metal band since the early nineties, but they're more accurately comparable to bands like The Haunted in their attempts to be genuinely fierce through shouty vocals. I've never been a particular fan of The Haunted, but these guys fit in the same niche.
While none of the songs are particularly memorable, there's enough enjoyable guitar work from Jari and Petri Kuusisto to keep it entertaining for metal fans, particularly in the solo sections of songs like 'My Suicide' that are backed up by a strong bass presence, but outside of this the songs all sound like others that have come before, and are mostly spoiled by Jonas Kjellgren's over-exuberant vocal performance. He's actually pretty good when performing in a more traditional, clean thrash style in the chorus of 'Waiting For Sundown,' so it's a shame this style wasn't used throughout, rather than the dull death roar that renders 'Burn Them Alive' incredibly tedious.
At the end of the day, this isn't a band that's going to appear in anyone's list of favourites, but it's nice to see imitators keeping these sub-genres alive, even if they can't contribute anything entirely original themselves.
1. Decades of Despair
2. My Suicide
3. Burn Them Alive
4. Waiting For Sundown
5. Exploding Veins
6. Sacred Flame
7. Inhuman
8. Final Hour in Hell
9. Totally Worthless
10. The Strength of Misery
Advantages: Fun thrash-death metal.
Disadvantages: Like a less good version of The Haunted.
Testify for My Victims
***
Written on 12.04.08
As late as their sixth album, Carnal Forge finally start to move on from a career of producing the same album again and again, and while 'Testify For My Victims' is still nothing to get excited about if you're already familiar with the Swedish death metal scene, it should pleasantly surprise those who only saw them as an inferior clone of Soilwork or The Haunted, as this album rates alongside the works of those bands. So now it's an adequate clone instead.
Perhaps the most significant change is the introduction of vocalist Jens C. Mortensen, whose angry yell is nevertheless more distinctive and legible than his predecessor Jonas Kjellgren, and makes each song far more compelling as the elements all seem to work together for the first time. Then there's the melodic elements, which are only applied in the same way as Soilwork, from sing-along choruses to melodic guitar solos, but make songs like 'Burning Eden' something of a guilty pleasure for old-time melodic death metal fans who claimed to stop liking the genre once it lost its artistic credibility.
The problem with this album is that the songs all follow exactly the same structure, and become easily predictable as early as the third song. This won't present a major issue if Carnal Forge continue to evolve their sound with each album, but it's more likely that they'll remain stuck in this new rut and release a slightly rearranged version of this album every couple of years for the next decade.
1. Testify For My Victims
2. Burning Eden
3. Numb (The Dead)
4. Godsend God's End
5. End Game
6. Questions Pertaining the Ownership of My Mind
7. Freedom By Mutilation
8. Subhuman
9. No Longer Bleeding
10. Biological Waste Matter
11. Lost Legion
12. Ante Mori
Advantages: Improved vocals.
Disadvantages: Outside of cheap gimmicks and different lyrics, all songs are the same.
Carnivore
****
Written on 13.04.08
Before he was a pin-up for teenage goth girls, Type O Negative's Peter Steel fronted one of the most prominent bands in the New York thrash/punk crossover scene, and was a lot angrier. Fortunately, his sense of humour still prevailed in the band's lyrics and image that seemed to construct them as barbarian warriors from a post-apocalyptic future dystopia of some sort, affording them the opportunity to shout about nuclear warfare, carnage and women like a cyberpunk version of Manowar, but one that shouldn't be taken as seriously.
On this debut album, the hardcore punk influences mix much more successfully with the Black Sabbathesque doom metal and thrash foundations, and the musicianship and song structures make this much more of a metal than a punk album, while Peter Steel's deep vocals further distance them from their contemporaries such as Agnostic Front and Biohazard. Fans approaching this band through Type O Negative may have some idea what to expect based on that band's first two albums before they fully committed to the gothic rock style, but the material here is still much fiercer, and potentially more controversial.
1. Predator
2. Carnivore
3. Male Supremacy
4. Armageddon
5. Legion of Doom
6. God Is Dead
7. Thermonuclear Warrior
8. World Wars III & IV
Advantages: Great mix of styles.
Disadvantages: Semi-tongue-in-cheek chauvinism may put some people off.
Retaliation
***
Written on 13.04.08
The second and final album before Carnivore disbanded is an even fiercer effort than its predecessor, abandoning the sci-fi image to concentrate more fully on contemporary social themes, albeit from the band's customary mostly-sarcastic perspective.
Beginning with a recording of someone puking out their guts on 'Jack Daniels and Pizza,' the album launches into a full-speed hardcore punk/thrash assault that only slows down on rare occasions, such as the end of the anti-racism song 'Race War,' with Peter Steel barking with a level of hatred that will surprise fans of his later work in Type O Negative. The most entertaining and creative parts of the album are his Henry Rollinsesque spoken-word rants, the likes of which dominate the commendably bitter 'Angry Neurotic Catholics,' but listeners who lack a sense of humour won't appreciate the band's attacks on everything from religion to homosexuality in songs such as 'S.M.D.' ('Suck My something').
Then again, it's always difficult with this band to tell just how seriously they intend to be taken. While it's clear from the context that the proclamations of 'Race War' are attacking racism rather than its victims, the band's view of women was pretty fairly summed up on the preceding album. Similarly, I'm sure Peter Steel means everything he says about religion, but it's obvious that some of it is exaggerated, and needs to be taken within context. But no worries, as it wouldn't be like religious devotees to blindly ignore context and irony, would it?
1. Jack Daniels and Pizza
2. Angry Neurotic Catholics
3. S.M.D.
4. Ground Zero Brooklyn
5. Race War
6. Inner Conflict
7. Jesus Hitler
8. Technophobia
9. Manic Depression (Jimi Hendrix Cover)
10. U.S.A. for U.S.A.
11. Five Billion Dead
12. Sex and Violence
Advantages: Angry, energetic crossover thrash.
Disadvantages: Lacks the variety of the previous album.
Through Chasm, Caves and Titan Woods
****
Written on 24.04.08
Now officially re-released, Carpathian Forest's first E.P. from 1995 is a definitive statement of the band's early years, less comprehensive than the 1997 'Bloodlust and Perversion' demo compilation, but much more consistent.
The songs are all of a perfect length, lacking the self-indulgence that occasionally comes with the atmospheric black metal style, and in truth the band tempers these ambient tendencies with songs harking back to the simplistic, riff-based style of traditional black metal, the style they would eventually adapt to a more rock-oriented direction for their later works. This is a shame, as the songs that have a little more going for them - namely 'The Eclipse / The Raven' and 'Journey Through the Cold Moors of Svarttjern' - hint at a different direction the band could have pursued, one that could have been much greater.
The sound quality of this E.P. is superior to the demos, but still some way from a polished album. The guitars are a little quiet on occasion, and although the contrast between fast and slow sections in 'The Pale Mist Hovers Towards the Nightly Shores' makes it the most entertaining of the more typical black metal songs here, it's noticeably hindered by the sound quality and is never convincingly heavy. 'Carpathian Forest' is a short and effectively simplistic anthem, but one that doesn't really impress, while this release's finest offering is undoubtedly the perfect mix between atmospheric and harsh black metal styles in the brilliantly bipolar finale.
1. Carpathian Forest
2. The Pale Mist Hovers Towards the Nightly Shores
3. The Eclipse / The Raven
4. When Thousand Moons Have Circled
5. Journey Through the Cold Moors of Svarttjern
Bloodlust and Perversion
Songs From the Woods
****
Written on 13.04.08
I'm a sucker for a really terrible quality black metal demo recording, and I often end up preferring them to the more polished and audible studio albums that come later on. I can't really explain it, but I suppose I love them for their genuine raw simplicity and the authentic gloomy atmosphere that can only come from recording on cheap equipment in your parents' cellar, rather than striving to achieve the same lo-fi sound through artificial means as many more fortunate bands with proper funding embarrassingly attempt to, in an effort to appear more D.I.Y. (Ulver's 'Nattens Madrigal' would be the defining example, if not for the rumours that the band spent the record company's money on cars, drugs and women, and had to hurriedly record the promised album in a forest).
Speaking of forests (marvel at my seamless review structuring), Carpathian Forest's demos all strike the perfect balance between endearingly awful production values and a solid black metal performance, and while they aren't up to the standards of Behemoth's '...From the Pagan Vastlands,' they're more enjoyable and less aurally offensive than the entire discography of Beherit. This 1997 compilation was released after the band's first E.P. 'Through Chasm, Caves and Titan Woods,' and is essentially a commercial release of the 1992 demo of the same name, generously supplemented with the entirety of 1993's 'Journey Through the Cold Moors of Svarttjern' and 1992's less elaborately titled 'Rehearsal Tape' to provide the comprehensive demo collection (the other demo release 'In These Trees Are My Gallows' contained the same songs as 'Svarttjern').
The material here is commendably mixed. The 1992 demos offer relatively slow black metal grooves in the spirit of the first wave bands that pioneered black metal before it sounded like black metal, most notably Bathory and Venom, both of whom are covered in the rehearsal warm-up that forms the latter section of the compilation, while the 1993 release showcases a more melodic, atmospheric and melancholic style with a prominent keyboard presence comparable to Burzum. At this point I have yet to listen to a Carpathian Forest full-length to see how they emerged from the other end, but the move away from repetitive and often frankly dull first wave black metal tribute to epic, folk-tinged black metal certainly seems like a step in the right direction, with tastefully overdone woodland ambience living up to the band's moniker.
'Bloodlust and Perversion' itself consumes the first five tracks, and displays its Bathory influence from the onset with its long, ambient introductory track, followed later by the even longer outro 'Wings Over the Mountain of Sighisoara.' Both of these pieces are enjoyable in their own tranquil way, but are still nothing more than interludes despite some acoustic plucking in the second, and as is often the case with these keyboard- and effects-driven tracks, there's a shocking shift of both volume and sound quality once the "real" songs kick in. Sadly, the band's music isn't up to all that much at this point beyond a few reasonably catchy groove riffs reminiscent of early Ancient, but the focus on atmosphere over fury and speed is established from the onset, which I've always found preferable to the all-out ferocity of bands like Mayhem. The title song is enjoyable enough, but after this the quality increasingly slips, with 'The Woods of Wallachia' plodding along at a particularly tedious pace.
The central section of the album is by far the most interesting and advanced, and surpassed my expectations. 'Journey Through the Cold Moors of Svarttjern' is an effectively subtle piece of atmospheric black metal that works brilliantly in establishing and retaining an atmosphere through overbearing keyboard, slow, ominous drums and background screams, with a satisfying fuzz tone for the guitar. This is a song that would benefit from improved production values to the point that it would be comparable to something by Ancient Rites, but it's still the finest song here. Interestingly, the follow-up songs 'The Eclipse / The Raven' and 'The Last Sigh of Nostalgia' forsake metal entirely in favour of keyboard, but Nattefrost's rasping vocals subtly continue. The first is another forest-based acoustic piece, while the latter is a somewhat overlong keyboard/organ piece that wants to be 'Tomhet' (Burzum) but is ultimately pretty bland.
The final section of the album is forgivably the least impressive, the rehearsal tape that was presumably never really intended for anyone but the band itself and whoever they needed to impress to secure a proper promo. The sound quality here is seriously poor, a little too bad even for my bizarre preference, mainly affecting the drums as the guitars and vocals can still be heard, albeit once again approaching the white noise of the tape hiss.
The songs pretty much all sound like Bathory, which makes it especially enjoyable to hear genuine Quorthon riffs as the band covers 'Call From the Grave' in even worse sound quality than Bathory's original, but there really isn't anything particularly impressive here apart from a satisfying speed change half-way through 'In the Circle of Ravens' that only serves to draw attention to how boring the song had been up to that point. The Venom cover is nothing special, but then Venom never were, and essentially this whole lacklustre reprise section can be overlooked as simply ensuring that anyone interested in the first two demos can have this little, slightly rubbish bonus performance as an extra.
1. Through the Black Veil of the Burgo Pass
2. Bloodlust and Perversion
3. Return of the Freezing Winds
4. The Woods of Wallachia
5. Wings Over the Mountain of Sighisoara
6. Journey Through the Cold Moors of Svarttjern
7. The Eclipse / The Raven
8. The Last Sigh of Nostalgia
9. Carpathian Forest
10. Call From the Grave (Bathory cover)
11. Return of the Freezing Winds
12. In the Circle of Ravens
13. Warhead (Venom cover)
Advantages: Insight into the band's early evolution and influences.
Disadvantages: Sound quality ranges from poor to shocking.
Strange Old Brew
****
Written on 23.04.08
The title of Carpathian Forest's second album is rather apt, as the band continues to test the limits of black metal in varying degrees of success. The band's influence of classic black metal acts such as Bathory and particularly Celtic Frost really starts to shine through here, as the guitars follow steady, rocking paces rather than the typical black metal tremolo-plucking warble frenzy, but the band continues to look ahead and experiment with ambient keyboards, a strong melodic bass presence and even a saxophone in the atmospheric 'House of the Whipchord,' easily the most interesting deviation here.
Even the less elaborate songs are all pretty good, from the funereally slow pace of 'Thanatology' to 'Bloodcleansing' and all the other songs that effectively sound like a twenty-first century incarnation of Celtic Frost (more than the genuine twenty-first century incarnation of Celtic Frost has managed to achieve), but the album is still let down by a lack of consistency. The central section becomes far too slow for far too long, taking until the second half of 'Return of the Freezing Winds' to regain any semblance of energy, and there are a few too many keyboard instrumentals when compared to the "proper" songs, 'Theme from Nekromantikk' being a lacklustre soundtrack to some gore film while finale 'The Good Old Enema Treatment' is just a distorted sample of speech.
It would have been interesting to see Carpathian Forest pursue this experimental direction further, but sadly it would ultimately collapse in on itself and produce some of the dullest black metal around today.
1. Intro - Damnation Chant
2. Bloodcleansing
3. Mask of the Slave
4. Martyr / Sacrificulum
5. Thanatology
6. The Suicide Song
7. House of the Whipchord
8. Cloak of Midnight
9. Return of the Freezing Winds
10. Theme from Nekromantikk
11. The Good Old Enema Treatment
Morbid Fascination of Death
***
Written on 23.04.08
'Morbid Fascination of Death' feels like a wasted opportunity from one of the more creative bands playing in the black metal genre, but a band becoming increasingly predictable and tiresome. There are comparably few touches of the experimental tendencies heard on 'Strange Old Brew,' only really coming to a head in the slightly lazy and overlong demo track 'Nostalgia' that they presumably couldn't be bothered to record a polished version of, while the majority is almost insultingly simplistic blackened thrash, played at a tedious tempo.
The only songs to stand out from the almost-radio-friendly host of repetitive songs are the more diverse and atmospheric 'Knokkelmann,' the melodic plodder 'A World of Bones' and the consciously different 'Cold Comfort' that ends up being one of the least interesting offerings of all, led by ambient keys and samples. Much better is its successor 'Speechless' that combines the ambient elements with electric guitar and Nattefrost's distinctive rasping vocals, while the standard Mayhem cover at track eleven only serves to prove how comparably weak Carpathian Forest's misanthropy sounds in comparison to the spiteful giants.
1. Fever, Flames and Hell
2. Doomed to Walk the Earth as Slaves of the Living Dead
3. Morbid Fascination of Death
4. Through Self-Mutilation
5. Knokkelmann
6. Warlord of Misantrophy
7. A World of Bones
8. Carpathian Forest
9. Cold Comfort
10. Speechless
11. Ghoul (Mayhem cover)
12. Nostalgia (Demo version)
We're Going to Hell for This: Over a Decade of Perversions
****
Written on 24.04.08
Rather than churning out a lazy "best-of" and selling fans a bunch of songs they already own, Carpathian Forest's first career retrospective combines previously unheard B-side material with some enjoyable covers, paying insightful homage to the band's influences, and two live performances from 2001 and 2002 tackling a wide range of material from their over-a-decade career.
Carpathian Forest's evolution from melodic/atmospheric black metal band to a blackened thrash band of sorts is seen by many fans as a disappointing career spiral, but fortunately there's enough high quality material here to please those who enjoy either phase, and released just before the band started to produce some really disappointing material. The most enjoyable surprise of all is the brand new material, presumably either outtakes from the 'Morbid Fascination of Death' sessions or created especially for this release, which manages to greatly exceed the content of the aforementioned album to the point that it hardly seems fair to consider these "B-sides" at all.
'The Angel and the Sodomizer' showcases Nattefrost's distinctive, rasping vocal style (that's somehow entirely legible) over some great, punkish guitar riffs and complete with a fun solo, and the subsequent two songs are similarly fun without compromising the band's integrity. The re-make of their old demo song 'Bloodlust & Perversion' is less fascinating, based entirely around a derivative riff that sounds like it's ripped straight from an early Bathory album, but it should please fans of old-school black metal as long as their expectations aren't too high.
Carpathian Forest's fading experimental side is highlighted with the continuation of 'The Good Old Enema Treatment' from their most creative album 'Strange Old Brew,' a song based entirely around sampled screaming and crying over a church choir singing hallelujahs, and it's so desperately strange that it somehow ends up good rather than embarrassing. The final song 'Death Triumphant' is an even greater oddity, beginning as a convincingly evil guitar instrumental before fading out and returning as a disturbing ambient piece, as keyboard and saxophone play softly over non-descript samples from unknown, obscure films. It makes for a nice ending to the album, even if mainly serving to prove how the band is increasingly losing its way by abandoning such strange experimentation entirely.
The cover songs all do the originals justice, and fit into the band's established style so well that they could easily be mistaken as original material. The choice of bands and even songs is particularly revealing of Carpathian Forest's influences, from their surprising cover of hardcore punks Discharge ('The Possibilities of Life's Destruction') that admit the band's punk tendencies, to the more predictable but perfectly executed take on Darkthrone's lengthy and genre-defining 'In the Shadow of the Horns.' Darkthrone's riff-based style is easily comparable to the direction Carpathian Forest has chosen for itself, and it's good to see this comparison validated in this way.
The Venom cover is disappointing compared to the rest, but still important as an indicator of just how far back the influence goes, though a Bathory cover (such as they've done before, as heard on the 1992 'Rehearsal Tape') would have been more honest and frankly more enjoyable. Venom was never really a black metal band, and this take on their slow, classic metal style makes for the most evident deviation here.
The live material forms half of this release, and while it's great to hear the songs performed with greater energy and more atmospherically raw sound quality, the material itself is weaker than that found earlier, mostly stemming from the recent, somewhat disappointing studio albums. Tracks nine through fifteen are from a 2001 show, and the lack of audible crowd noise indicates a soundboard recording, while 'He's Turning Blue' and 'Carpathian Forest' are from a later show where you can actually hear the crowd, and where the band's punk influence shines through to an even greater extent.
Nattefrost is entertainingly matter-of-fact as he introduces every single song simply by stating its title, and the band's performance really can't be faulted, as can be seen from watching this collection's later DVD companion, 'We're Going to Hollywood For This.'
1. The Angel and the Sodomizer
2. I Am Possessed
3. Bloody F**king Nekro Hell
4. Bloodlust & Perversion (New Version)
5. The Possibilities of Life's Destruction (Discharge cover)
6. In the Shadow of the Horns (Darkthrone cover)
7. In League with Satan (Venom cover)
8. The Good Old Enema Treatment (Part II)
9. Morbid Fascination of Death (Live)
10. Sadomasochistic (Live)
11. Mask of the Slave (Live)
12. Knokkelmann (Live)
13. Bloodcleansing (Live)
14. Return of the Freezing Winds (Live)
15. Doomed to Walk the Earth as Slaves of the Living Dead (Live)
16. He's Turning Blue (Live)
17. Carpathian Forest (Live)
18. Death Triumphant (Demo Version 1996)
Defending the Throne of Evil
***
Written on 24.04.08
Carpathian Forest's most commercial album came along at the right time, when mainstream metal became entirely aware of bands like Dimmu Borgir and Emperor, bands that stretched black metal's credibility with their moves towards something a little easier to digest. Fortunately, despite its punk influence and horrendously generic, polished keyboard work, this is still a black metal album at the core, and would thus provide (similar to Dissection's 'Storm of the Light's Bane') a good entry point for metal fans interested in exploring black metal, but a little too weak-willed to delve right in to the classic works. It's certainly more worthwhile than anything released by Dimmu Borgir in the last ten years, but fans of that band would likely enjoy this too.
While the album is largely a disappointment in all respects, from the repetitive song structures to the comparative lack of decent riffs (apart from some melodic sections in 'Hymne Til Døden'), it's the keyboard work that let me down the most. Gone are the intriguingly odd interludes, replaced with generic ambience in the second half of 'Skjend Hans Lik' and relegated to generic, melodic polish elsewhere before finally getting their chance in the limelight with the absurd 'The Old House on the Hill,' which sounds like a black metal fairy tale gone embarrassingly wrong.
There's a greater punk influence here if you look behind the oppressive metal in the foreground, most prominent in the riffs of 'One With the Earth' which would be entirely plausible as a blackened cover of a hardcore punk song.
1. It's Darker Than You Think
2. Skjend Hans Lik
3. The Well of All Tears
4. Put to Sleep Like a Sick Animal!!!
5. Hymne Til Døden
6. Ancient Spirit of the Underworld
7. Spill the Blood of the Lamb
8. One With the Earth
9. Christian Incoherent Drivel
10. The Old House on the Hill
11. Necrophiliac, Anthropophagus Maniac
12. Cold Murderous Music
Fuck You All!!!!
**
Written on 13.04.08
The most recent studio album from Carpathian Forest seems to confirm the rumour that they've been going increasingly downhill since their inception, moving ever further away from traditional black metal towards a strange and ultimately unsatisfying hybrid of black metal and hard rock that would be a pretty cool idea, if Darkthrone hadn't thought of it first.
The catchy guitars are pretty much all that stands out on this release, which presents song after repetitive song of slow riffs, creepily rasped vocals and tempo shifts that slow down just when you thought the song had already hit its slow nadir. Songs like 'Vi Åpner Porten til Helvete' seem to go on forever, milking the same riff for much longer than necessary, and even the brief respite of faster sections in 'The Frostbitten Woodlands of Norway' are soon tempered as the slow pace crawls back in.
Don't be fooled by the endearingly amateur look of the band logo and artwork, or the promise of catchy guitars; there are far purer and vastly more entertaining expressions of black metal than this lazy effort. Sod you, yourself.
1. Vi Åpner Porten til Helvete
2. The Frostbitten Woodlands of Norway
3. Start Up the Incinerator (Here Comes Another Useless Fool)
4. Submit to Satan!!!
5. Diabolism (The Seed and the Sower)
6. Dypfryst / Dette Er Mit Helvete
7. Everyday I Must Suffer
8. The First Cut Is the Deepest
9. Evil Egocentrical Existencialism
10. Shut up, There Is no Excuse to Live
Advantages: Guitar riffs can be fun for the first minute or so.
Disadvantages: Overlong and tediously samey.
Forest of Equilibrium
****
Written on 13.04.08
Arguably the start of death-doom metal, a direction that would be furthered by fellow Brits Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride and Anathema in subsequent years, the debut release from Coventry's Cathedral (the band, not the building) is a milestone in doom metal history, and the real point of convergence from what had previously been a fairly linear family tree from Black Sabbath and Trouble in the seventies through to Candlemass and St. Vitus in the eighties.
The death metal influence oddly seems like an accident, as if the band was unable to fully shake off its origins in Napalm Death, despite the obvious efforts to produce the most contrasting sound possible in Cathedral's arduously slow dirges. Vocalist Lee Dorrian in particular puts in a performance that's half-way between a low singing style and a death grunt, while the guitars are all extremely heavy and favour the bass range, as opposed to Candlemass' more ethereal plain.
The main problem with this album is how similar it all sounds, as the band works away at a niche and seems unable to escape it, with only the comparatively short and upbeat 'Soul Sacrifice' standing out as a momentary respite of stoner rock. For casual listeners, these songs will just be too damn long, and even doom connoisseurs may find some of the playing times tedious, particularly in the first and fifth tracks, the latter of which isn't even saved by a speed change after the half-way point.
'Forest of Equilibrium' is certainly dark, and often convincingly depressive ('Reaching Happiness, Touching Pain' in particular), but as a debut release it still seems somewhat like an obvious experiment to be as anti-Napalm Death as possible.
1. Picture of Beauty & Innocence (Intro) / Commiserating the Celebration
2. Ebony Tears
3. Serpent Eve
4. Soul Sacrifice
5. A Funeral Request
6. Equilibrium
7. Reaching Happiness, Touching Pain
Advantages: Milestone in the evolution of British (and international) doom metal.
Disadvantages: Long and drawn-out, even for doom.
In Memoriam
**
Written on 24.04.08
2000's 'In Memoriam' was the second time Cathedral's original 1990 demo had been officially re-released, but the first time its Latin name had been spelt correctly. While the previous 'In Memorium' (1994) was a cut-price E.P., this aims to be a more comprehensive release, adding the rare 'Live in Holland '91' performance to bulk it out to a full-length, but also bringing some significant drawbacks.
The main point of grievance here is the significant degree of overlap between the demo songs (tracks one to four) and the live material (five to nine), with three of the demo songs being complimented by a later live rendition. While it can be ever-so-slightly interesting to contrast the nuances between the band's style a year apart, it still seems cheeky to fill out the second half of the album with songs you've already played: best to consider this a strictly fans-only release that will doubtless delight the hardcore devotees.
The historical interest of the demo to doom metal fans is uncontestable, as it's very revealing to hear the band's sound inhabiting something of a middle-ground between their funereal take on traditional doom metal, and the death metal/grindcore influences left over from Lee Dorrian's former band Napalm Death, particularly evident in his harsh vocals. Overall, this sounds more like the early releases of Anathema than the subsequent material of Cathedral.
The lo-fi sound quality is particularly fitting to the dingy atmosphere, but it has to be said that most of the songs become tedious fairly quickly in their monotonous plodding, lacking the energy of the band's later material that's only really present on the live version of 'Commiserating the Celebration.'
1. Mourning of a New Day
2. All Your Sins (Pentagram cover)
3. Ebony Tears
4. March
5. Commiserating the Celebration (Live)
6. Ebony Tears (Live)
7. Neophytes for the Serpent Eve (Live)
8. All Your Sins (Live)
9. Mourning of a New Day (Live)
The Carnival Bizarre
*****
Huggy Bear, Oh Yeah
Written on 13.04.08
By the advent of their third full-length album, Cathedral had finally settled on their familiar sound and produced the defining album of their career, as well as one of the classic works of doom metal. Abandoning those pretensions to depressive melancholia that had never proved quite as successful as their contemporaries (and was more often dull than anything), the band here tends to focus on the fun side of sludgy stoner rock, their obvious Black Sabbath worship culminating in a satisfying guest appearance from Tony Iommi in 'Utopian Blaster.'
This upbeat direction is most evident in the first three songs, which trump pretty much anything produced in the stoner rock genre before or since. 'Vampire Sun' is the perfect simplistic opener, the aforementioned 'Utopian Blaster' has a great verse style with some of the band's typically deranged lyrics (a trait most apparent in 'Fangalactic Supergoria'), and their classic 'Hopkins' is a tribute to both the Vincent Price horror film that is sampled heavily throughout, as well as the oft-overlooked eighties heavy metal band that took its name. Fittingly, the song does have a distinct NWOBHM (New Wave Of British Heavy Metal) slant, and its immortal guitar work and incessantly catchy narrative verses make this deservedly Cathedral's most well-known song, as well as their finest.
The fun doesn't stop there, though the music does take a significant turn towards the long and laborious as the funeral doom style starts to creep back in. 'Night of the Seagulls' is a lyrical tribute to the Blind Dead films, the title song is a little lyrically dodgier but develops into a nice psychedelic-doom jam in its extended second half, while neither 'Fangalactic Supergoria' or 'Palace of Fallen Majesty' offer anything particularly interesting, but at least don't demand attention throughout their long playing times as songs from previous albums tended to. 'Blue Light' is surprisingly mellow and 'Electric Grave' brings the fun element back right at the end, making for one of the most solid, entertaining and loud doom metal recordings in existence.
1. Vampire Sun
2. Hopkins (The Witchfinder General)
3. Utopian Blaster
4. Night of the Seagulls
5. Carnival Bizarre
6. Inertias' Cave
7. Fangalactic Supergoria
8. Blue Light
9. Palace of Fallen Majesty
10. Electric Grave
Advantages: Classic doom metal in a variety of styles.
Disadvantages: Second half is a little less impressive.
Supernatural Birth Machine
***
Written on 13.04.08
Having come out of the doom metal debate as a stoner rock band, Cathedral record another enjoyable slab of contemporary Sabbathcore with 'Supernatural Birth Machine,' but for all its simplistic enjoyment, its sheer unoriginality and repetition mean it can't stand up to the band's finest.
The record is permeated by a satisfying groove present in Garry Jennings' stoner guitar, supported by Leo Smee's bass and Brian Dixon's drums, but aside from an abundance of pretty cool guitar solos, there's nothing here that hasn't been heard a thousand times before, usually from bands in the Southern United States, where they seem to claim ownership of Black Sabbath influence. The only songs that stand out as being different are the Candlemass-style 'Nightmare Castle' and the brief opener 'Cybertron 71 / Eternal Countdown' that moves from a stoner overture to something like a grunge song, with proper singing from Lee Dorrian until the band gives up and launches into its usual style on the other tracks.
Most of this album is repetitive filler that will nevertheless satisfy fans of the genre, but the only real contributions to the Cathedral canon are the excellent 'Stained Glass Horizon' and even better follow-up 'Cyclops Revolution' before the album settles into its groove.
1. Cybertron 71 / Eternal Countdown
2. Urko's Conquest
3. Stained Glass Horizon
4. Cyclops Revolution
5. Birth Machine 2000
6. Nightmare Castle
7. Fireball Demon
8. Phaser Quest
9. Suicide Asteroid
10. Dragon Ryder 13
11. Magnetic Hole
Advantages: Solid stoner rock album.
Disadvantages: Doom metal is largely absent, and most songs are fairly ordinary.
Endtyme
****
Written on 13.04.08
After heading in an increasingly stoner rock direction, Cathedral here elicit the aid of doom producer Billy Anderson to produce the dingiest and sludgiest album of their career, comparable to the distorted style of Eyehategod but still laden with the band's customary Black Sabbath influence, now more than ever.
Songs like 'Whores to Oblivion' pay effective homage to Sabbath without direct theft, while other sections borrow shamelessly - most notably the upbeat finale to 'Alchemist of Sorrows' that sounds more or less exactly like Sabbath's classic 'Electric Funeral.' Elsewhere, Gary Jennings' guitar has the distinctive Toby Iommi style to it more than usual, while the band employs the use of a cowbell and atmospheric soundscapes at various times (particularly with the more melodic 'Astral Queen') to produce a more psychedelic effect.
While other Cathedral efforts have sought mainstream rock approval, this album commendably targets a specific fan base, and anyone unaccustomed to doom in any of its various forms will likely be deterred by the lumbering ten-minute jams and occasional instances of distorted sound effects taking control ('Ultra Earth'). But like many works targeted at a specific audience, most people will hate it, but the ones who'll like it will reeeeeally love it.
1. Cathedral Flames
2. Melancholy Emperor
3. Requiem for the Sun
4. Whores to Oblivion
5. Alchemist of Sorrows
6. Ultra Earth
7. Astral Queen
8. Sea Serpent
9. Templars Arise! (The Return)
Advantages: More committed doom performance.
Disadvantages: Some songs don't know when to stop.
The VIIth Coming
****
Written on 13.04.08
Most of the doom metal bands originating in England in the 1990s (chiefly Anathema and Paradise Lost) eventually moved on to pastures new and inferior, but fortunately Coventry's Cathedral have remained consistent in terms of quality, despite ending up more squarely in the stoner rock field than anything resembling their doom origins. With 'The VIIth Coming' they manage to recapture some of the classic doom spirit and incorporate it into their more upbeat playing style, allowing for a fresh of breath air in an album that would otherwise consist of songs that all sound exactly the same. As it is, that's only the case for the majority of them.
There's a lot for doom fans here, from the psychedelic fantasy lyrics of 'Black Robed Avenger' and metaphors of 'Skullflower' to the great guitar work of Garry Jennings that continues to establish Cathedral as the modern equivalent of Black Sabbath. Most of the songs are shorter and more accessible than the band's previous offerings, and disappointingly many of them are similar to the point of extreme blurring thanks to their reliance on a steady groove throughout, but even through all its flaws (songs like 'The Empty Mirror' are far too long, and not really saved from tedium by the addition of an even duller atmospheric movement), it's sure to be a favourite among fans of stoner rock.
1. Phoenix Rising
2. Resisting the Ghost
3. Skullflower
4. Aphrodite's Winter
5. The Empty Mirror
6. Nocturnal Fist
7. Iconoclast
8. Black Robed Avenger
9. Congregation of Sorcerers
10. Halo of Fire
Advantages: More accessible.
Disadvantages: Repetitive.
The Garden of Unearthly Delights
****
Written on 24.04.08
The strange and hostile 'Garden of Unearthly Delights' seems almost like a conscious contrast to the more accessible doom rock style of Cathedral's previous album 'The VIIth Coming,' and while it's certainly much less instantly accessible, it's musically and stylistically the superior of the two, while also highly distinctive within the band's discography.
The sound is still heavily distorted stoner rock, with some songs employing new and unusual guitar effects, but this is the band's heaviest and most psychedelic album since 'Endtyme.' 'Upon Azrael's Wings' is based on a riff derivative of Metallica's 'Fight Fire With Fire' before moving into an atmospheric section employing a female singer, and this is furthered in the twenty-six minute 'The Garden,' an epic-length song that nevertheless sounds more like five or six separate songs rather than a coherent whole.
With its overarching lyrical and musical themes that nevertheless avoid being repetitive, this is oneof Cathedral's strongest albums and one that keeps me excited for their next full-length, whenever that may be. It's also probably the most difficult to get into, regardless of your musical background.
1. Dearth AD 2005 (Intro)
2. Tree of Life & Death
3. North Berwick Witch Trials
4. Upon Azrael's Wings
5. Corpsecycle
6. Fields of Zagara (Instrumental)
7. Oro the Manslayer
8. Beneath a Funeral Sun
9. The Garden
10. Proga-Europa
Human Jerky
**
Written on 13.04.08
Most needlessly gore-obsessed death/grind bands like to have their own little gimmick, and Cattle Decapitation's niche is vegetarian, animal rights, anti-human grindcore. It's won the band many fans in animal rights circles, though whether they actually enjoy the music is another question.
This eighteen-track release (on Satan's Pimp Records) clocks in at just over twelve minutes, which allows you to instantly recognise that many songs run to less than a minute in length, typical for grindcore but also a clear sign of a band without much to say - or perhaps with too much to say, but lacking the patience to follow each argument through - and indeed, each subsequent release would tend to feature longer and longer songs until they were almost radio friendly (if we lived on a different planet, that is).
The vocals are the typical mix of demonic shrieks and nauseating burps as all grind bands have performed since Carcass' debut, but credit has to be given here to one of the most disgusting vocal performances it's ever been my misfortune to experience. It's really horrible, sounding like genuine vomiting in track nine, which enhances the band's typically disgusting subject matter. Even more impressive are the death metal moments that work their way in, leading to some effective slow-downs in songs like 'Flesh-Eating Disease (Flu-Like Symptoms of E-Coli With Complete Digestive Shutdown)' which manages to be just long enough for a structural change to actually mean anything, but which still doesn't take as long to listen to as it does to read its title.
1. Cloned For Carrion
2. Parasitic Infestation (Extracted Pus, Mistaken For Yogurt, and Gargled)
3. Unclogged and Ready For Spewage
4. Gestation of Smegma
5. Mute Rain
6. Flesh-Eating Disease (Flu-Like Symptoms of E-Coli With Complete Digestive Shutdown)
7. The Decapitation of Cattle
8. Constipation Camp
9. Intro to Carnage
10. Cream of the Crop
11. Mad Cow Conspiracy (Bloated Bovine-Home to Flies and Anthrax Spores)
12. Veal and the Cult of Torture
13. Stench From the Dumpster
14. Body Snatcher (Viscrea Intact-Ripe For Devourment)
15. Roadkill Removal Technician
16. Bovine, Swine, and Human-Rinds
17. Bludgeoned, Beaten, and Barbequed
18. Colon-Blo
Advantages: Better guitars than most grindcore.
Disadvantages: It's still the same old grindcore excrement.
Homovore
*
Written on 13.04.08
The second E.P. from San Diego grindcore vegetarians Cattle Decapitation is less interesting than the first, as despite each song being almost twice as long, nothing particularly entertaining or original is done with the extra time. So they're essentially stretching songs designed for a thirty-second playing time far past their natural lifespan. You wouldn't have thought songs so short could be so tedious, but this band manages it by making them all sound exactly the same.
As well as being less musically inventive, even the sound quality of this recording is inferior to its predecessor, varying between songs but never reaching an entertaining peak. The drums are at the forefront and come off even less effectively than the treble-heavy guitars, and no one plays anything particularly interesting or memorable, leading me to question the purpose of this band's existence. If they had been manufactured as a sort of weird advert for animal rights, at least that would be amusing. As it is, their arguments are inaudible and ineffective, and buried in musical pat.
1. Mauled
2. Joined at the Ass
3. Open Human Head Experiments With Bleach Laquer and Epoxy
4. Diarrhea of the Mouth
5. Headcheese
6. Colostomy Jigsaw Puzzle
7. Pepe's Trepes
8. Release the Gimp
9. The Roadside Dead (Detrunked Stumpification Through Roadrash)
10. Carnal Fecophelia Due to Prolonged Exposure to Methane
11. Icepick Gag Reflex
12. Bathing in a Grease Disposal Unit
13. Molested / Digested
14. Wine of the Sanguine
15. Ride 'Em Cowboy
16. Human Jerky and the Active Cultures
Advantages: You may get a cheap laugh.
Disadvantages: Not fun.
To Serve Man
**
Written on 13.04.08
There's a fine line between an E.P. and an authentic full-length album when you're a grindcore band, but Cattle Decapitation's third offering just scrapes over the minimum playing time required for a full-price sale, not that anyone with discerning taste would ever purchase it.
This band's major flaw here is its lack of discipline, something that would thankfully be remedied on the far superior follow-up 'Humanure.' Josh Elmore is clearly a talented guitarist, churning out four or five creative and highly distinct riffs per song (and considering the average song length is under two minutes, that's really saying something), but none of them are combined or applied in any logical sense. The saying goes, that if you throw enough manure at a wall, some of it's bound to stick; here, it briefly clings on occasion before sliding sickeningly to the floor.
Much worse are the persistently blasting drums, which might as well be automated but are apparently played by a living, flesh-and-blood, stupefyingly boring human being. No real effort has been put in to making this an enjoyable listening expereince, not even for grind fans, as the overly clean production robs it of any character and makes the whole thing seem more like a collection of ideas that would all be pretty good if handled by a more disciplined group of musicians.
1. Testicular Manslaughter
2. I Eat Your Skin
3. Writhe In Putressence
4. Land of the Severed Meatus
5. The Regurgitation of Corpses
6. Everyone Deserves to Die
7. To Serve Man
8. Colonic Villus Biopsy Performed on the Gastro-Intestinally Incapable
9. Pedeadstrians
10. Long-Pig Chef and the Hairless Goat
11. Hypogastric Combustion By C-4 Plastique
12. Deadmeal
13. Chunk Blower
Advantages: Some good guitar moments.
Disadvantages: Songs lack any kind of coherent structure.
Humanure
***
Written on 13.04.08
While it's still a distinctly average slab of death/grind, Cattle Decapitation's second full-length album 'Humanure' is a much more impressive effort than their first, the word "effort" being key. Songs are now twice as long, meaning a standard three to four minute length rather than the pointlessly short outbursts of previous releases, and the band now uses this time effectively to keep songs relatively interesting throughout.
New drummer Michael Laughlin is much more talented and entertaining than his predecessor, varying his playing style rather than relying on the same tedious blast-beats all the way through, while Josh Elmore's typically impressive guitar work is now brought out more fully in the warmer death metal production. All of that being said, this is still primarily an album of angry, overly gory rants designed to appal, but also evidently aimed to educate in some respects, and it's merely another extreme metal album more infamous for its controversial cover art (ala Cannibal Corpse) than its actual, fairly mediocre content.
1. Scatology Domine (Intro)
2. Humanure
3. Reduced to Paste
4. Bukkake Tsunami
5. Cloacula: The Anthropophagic Copromantik
6. Chummified
7. Applied Human Defragmentation
8. The Earthling
9. Polyps
10. Lips & Assholes
11. Men Before Swine (Outro)
Advantages: More effort made to construct palatable songs.
Disadvantages: Entirely unoriginal.
Karma.Bloody.Karma
***
Written on 14.04.08
The third album from meat-is-murder San Diego band Cattle Decapitation is rather like their second, and once you've heard one song there's little need to play the rest of the album, unless this brand of extreme metal appeals to you. Taken strictly within its genre, which blends gore-grind with brutal death metal (I know, I'm a jargon whore - but you try reviewing a hundred heavy metal albums a week without using the terminology), this is really very good. Unfortunately, as tends to be the case, it offers very little for those who desire something more than speed and brutality in their music.
I appreciate a good brutal death metal album more than a good grindcore release, mainly because it can be hard to discern between the good and bad of an essentially careless genre, and I'm pleased to see Cattle Decapitation continuing to move towards metal in this way. The production job is great, arguably better than the band deserves but inevitable considering their relative popularity, and the performances have been tempered to better accommodate the style: Travis Ryan's vocals are now more in the style of a death grunt than a grind gurgle, and David McGraw's drums have an evident thrash influence, while Josh Elmore's guitar continues to impress as the instrument holding the band together.
It's not very original, and it won't convince you to stop eating meat, but it's still as good an album as can be expected from this breed of band.
1. Intro
2. Unintelligent Design
3. Success Is (Hanging By the Neck)
4. One Thousand Times Decapitation
5. The Carcass Derrick
6. Total Gore?
7. Bereavement
8. Suspended In Coprolite
9. Alone at the Landfill
10. Karma.Bloody.Karma
11. The New Dawn
12. Of Human Pride & Flatulence
Advantages: More of the same, for fans.
Disadvantages: More of the same, for everyone else.
Inflikted
***
Written on 14.04.08
Old-school Sepultura fans will either be delighted or disappointed by this recent reunion between the Cavalera brothers, as it effectively sounds just like that other band's material pre-'Roots,' which I suppose was the general idea all along (and will please those fans who are of the opinion that bands' material should never be allowed to vary).
Sepultura was never the same after Max Cavalera's departure, following a disappointing groove metal direction in the vein of Pantera and all the other metal bands that inexplicably slowed down in the mid-nineties, and Max's work in Soulfly wasn't much better. Sadly, this album fails to ignite a new spark for his musical career, having evidently been recorded in a rush and originally slated as a Soulfly album.
This leads to many sections having a distinctly Soulfly sound to them, inevitable considering the presence of Soulfly lead guitarist Marc Rizzo, but the material is still thrash at its core, with songs such as 'Ultra-Violent' possessing an ultra-fast tempo in comparison to more groove-based anthems like 'The Doom of All Fires,' which sounds more like the sort of thing an unimaginative rock club DJ would play.
It's no 'Arise,' but this is still the most palatable material Max Cavalera has put out in fifteen years. It's just a shame there are no new ideas.
1. Inflikted
2. Sanctuary
3. Terrorize
4. Black Ark
5. Ultra-Violent
6. Hex
7. The Doom of All Fires
8. Bloodbrawl
9. Nevertrust
10. Hearts of Darkness
11. Must Kill
Advantages: The Cavalera brothers playing thrash metal again.
Disadvantages: It sounds the same as their old work in Sepultura, weakened by Soulfly influence.
Solar Lovers
****
Written on 24.04.08
Celestial Season is a doom metal band from the Netherlands, playing a more atmospheric and classically-influenced variant of the death-doom pioneered by England's My Dying Bride and Anathema, but managing to exceed even their finest early works in terms of emotiveness and beauty. The violins and cellos add a haunting extra dimension that not only enhance the slow, melancholic chugging of the rock instruments, but are frequently called upon to take over entirely, most notable in the brief, classical interludes 'Body as Canvas' and 'Fandango.'
The strange thing about this album is how far it swings in the other direction, with the contrasting instrumentals 'The Holy Snake' and 'A Tune From The Majestic Queen's Garden' favouring a stoner rock tone and style. While the fusion of these two separate strands of doom metal (atmospheric beauty and stoner fun) certainly aids this band's distinctiveness, it also weakens the overall effect and robs 'Solar Lovers' of the doom crown it may have inherited, comparable to the elite of My Dying Bride's 'The Angel and the Dark River' and Anathema's 'Serenades.'
Songs such as 'The Scent of Eve' and opener 'Decamerone' are both perfect works of atmospheric doom, but the album is a little too bipolar overall to afford an entirely engrossing experience.
1. Decamerone
2. Solar Child
3. Body as Canvas
4. Soft Embalmer of the Still Midnight
5. Will You Wait for the Sun?
6. The Holy Snake
7. Dancing to a Thousand Symphonies
8. Vienna (Ultravox cover)
9. Fandango
10. The Scent of Eve
11. A Tune From The Majestic Queen's Garden
Mortal Mind Creation
****
Written on 25.04.08
After a couple of wholly mediocre albums, Celesty finally make their mark on the power metal scene with their third offering, 'Mortal Mind Creation.' Ditching most of the distractions that only ever hindered their music and made them seem like a Rhapsody clone (the pointless intro and the domineering keyboards in particular), the band concentrates more fully on the metal performance, making for one of the heaviest, fastest and ultimately more enjoyable power metal albums I've heard in some time.
By stripping down the superfluous elements, the band is free to concentrate on being more authentically progressive, in a manner similar (but not identical) to prog-power bands such as Adagio and Symphony X, particularly in songs like 'Demon Inside.' Also gone are the huge deviations into keyboard instrumentals and cheesy power ballads, the latter being replaced by slow songs that still pack a punch, in the form of 'War Creations' and 'Among the Dreams.'
Overall, this makes for a less predictable, less generic and more distinctive album from Celesty, far more entertaining than anything their Finnish contemporaries Sonata Arctica and Stratovarius have achieved in some considerable time.
1. Lord of Mortals
2. Unreality
3. Demon Inside
4. War Creations
5. Empty Room
6. Among the Dreams
7. Back In Time
8. Arrival
9. Last Sacrifice
To Mega Therion
****
Written on 15.05.08
Celtic Frost's first full-length album is regarded as a classic of early extreme metal, even if fans can't agree on exactly which genre it helped create (death metal? Black metal? Who cares). With its roots in thrash, the music here is the same fare as other late-eighties extreme bands, and despite the band's reputation and high standing in heavier circles, this album will likely be appreciated more by a fan of Slayer, Bathory or even Motörhead than an Immortal fan in corpse paint.
The production values are absolutely perfect to capture the convincingly hellish atmosphere, as the instruments are all clear and audible, but with an added sludgy tone. Opener 'Innocence and Wrath' pushes this a little too far by adding keyboards in a clichéd attempt to sound like a horror overture, but a later experiment with what sounds like a French horn in 'Dawn of Meggido' is much more satisfying and distinctive. This is all helped by the great artwork pinched from H.R. Giger.
Someone who bought the preceding EPs 'Morbid Tales' and 'Emperor's Return' would have been pleasantly surprised by the lack of overlap here, and although the style is similar in its shifting between tempos, the music here is more varied. 'Circle of the Tyrants' instantly became the band's best-loved song, but others are equally worth listening to, from the escalating 'Jewel Throne' to the doomy 'Dawn of Meggido' and the plodding finale 'Necromantical Screams.'
1. Innocence and Wrath
2. The Usurper
3. Jewel Throne
4. Dawn of Meggido
5. Eternal Summer
6. Circle of the Tyrants
7. (Beyond the) North Winds
8. Fainted Eyes
9. Tears in a Prophet's Dream
10. Necromantical Screams
Into the Pandemonium
***
Written on 15.05.08
'Experimental' is a term that many fans dread, as their favourite band becomes tired of playing the style of music they're best at, and instead trade in their usual kit for weird, exotic tribal instruments in an attempt to get back to basics, or something. Celtic Frost's career entered the experimental phase fairly rapidly, as soon as their second album 'Into the Pandemonium,' and it was a career move that enchanted as many fans as it alienated. I think it's pretty good, but there were undoubtedly some very lousy decisions made along the way.
The band's heavy thrash style is still present, expressed most clearly in 'Inner Sanctum' and 'Babylon Fell' which stand up to the best material from 'To Mega Therion' and feature greater production that really brings out the bass work, but the rest of the album really is quite different fare. The predominant style seems like a thrash version of The Fall, as songs are led with fairly loose riffs that Tom G. Warrior occasionally accompanies with a stoned vocal performance. It's good when it works, particularly in 'I Won't Dance' which has a nice vocal harmony in the chorus, but the last two songs become tiresome as they sound essentially the same.
The weirdest tracks depart from metal completely, and while this could conceivably present a fresh of breath air, it doesn't end up working like that. 'Sorrows of the Moon' is a soft orchestral piece narrated by a French woman, and the terrible 'One in Their Pride' is a sort of eighties hip-hop instrumental with a boring electronic drum beat and samples of the moon landing. 'Mexican Radio' is an unusual choice to start the album, an energetic cover of the Wall of Voodoo song, but it's also probably the highest point. Thrash fans should still find something to enjoy on this release, but fans of the avant-garde should stay away unless they want to hear it done really badly. At least they tried.
1. Mexican Radio (Wall of Voodoo cover)
2. Mesmerized
3. Inner Sanctum
4. Sorrows of the Moon
5. Babylon Fell
6. Caress Into Oblivion
7. One in Their Pride (Porthole mix)
8. I Won't Dance (Elder's Orient)
9. Rex Irae (Requiem: Overture - Fourth Version)
10. Oriental Masquerade
Vanity/Nemesis
***
Written on 15.05.08
Following the disappointment of 'Cold Lake,' Celtic Frost return to form to some extent, though the band's perseverance in reinventing their sound once again results in an album that's highly distinctive in the discography, if less sensational than their earlier efforts. Thrash metal is still at the root, but absent is the evil atmosphere that pervaded 'Morbid Tales,' more in line with the gritty experimentalism of 'Into the Pandemonium' while thankfully side-stepping the glam of 'Cold Lake' altogether.
As with many bands at the turn of the nineties, the music here is a little more laid-back and often more comparable to hard rock than metal, similar to Metallica's self-titled black album released the following year, but the thrash end of things is still maintained by some frenetically screaming solos and the occasional outburst track such as 'A Kiss or a Whisper.' There are still some experimental touches left over from 'Into the Pandemonium' only a little less enthralling, with acoustic flourishes in 'Wings of Solitude' and the overlong 'Nemesis,' and a female singer in the former.
This album won't be of any interest to those approaching Celtic Frost on the strength of their legacy to extreme metal, as this is all fairly accessible stuff, and predictably suffers for it in terms of creativity and general enjoyment. Even the covers of Bryan Ferry and David Bowie lack the fun and enthusiasm of their earlier cover of 'Mexican Radio,' the Bowie song in particular being unrecognisable apart from the lyrics, and in no way comparable to the original whether you enjoyed it or not.
1. The Heart Beneath
2. Wine in My Hand (Third from the Sun)
3. Wings of Solitude
4. The Name of My Bride
5. This Island Earth (Bryan Ferry cover)
6. The Restless Seas
7. Phallic Tantrum
8. A Kiss or a Whisper
9. Vanity
10. Nemesis
11. Heroes (David Bowie cover)
Anomalies
****
Written on 15.05.08
I don't expect much from death/grind albums, even those optimistically labelled as "technical," which usually means a guitarist speeding through as many unoriginal riffs and licks as he can in the name of showing off, but Cephalic Carnage pleasantly surprised me with their musical ability and whole attitude.
This music is indeed technical, but at no cost to the simple enjoyment. Death metal lead guitars still find plenty of opportunities to slip between the cracks, the vocals are varied and thoughtful, and there are even some radical departures with the atmospheric sections of songs like 'Inside Is Out' before the ten-minute finale turns the album on its head entirely. The songs are in a constant state of motion to remain compelling throughout their playing time, which is usually no longer than three minutes in any case, but never distract with pointless deviations. This really is a masterclass in how to put together a "technical" album without overdoing things.
Most impressive of all is the band's light-hearted attitude, something that used to be present in grindcore but became lost along the way. The song 'Dying Will Be the Death of Me' is the best example, a blatant parody/mockery of the metalcore trend that imitates it perfectly, right down to the cheesy solos stolen from the 1980s heavy metal scene, and a song that could easily be taken at face value for being of the same standard as the metalcore high-fliers. Not the easiest album to digest, but one that doesn't try to be confrontational just for the sake of it.
1.Scientific Remote Viewing
2.Wraith
3.Counting the Days
4.The Will or the Way
5.Piecemaker
6.Enviovore
7.Dying Will Be the Death of Me
8.Inside Is Out
9.Sleeprace
10.Kill for Weed
11.Litany of Failure
12.Ontogeny of Behavior
Downhearted
**
Written on 16.05.08
Charon is one of several relatively high profile gothic metal bands playing in the Finnish style, popularised by the likes of HIM and, to a lesser extent, The 69 Eyes. Of the three, Charon are certainly the most convincingly "metal," solely due to the efforts of the guitars that occasionally deliver a riff that wouldn't be out of place in a slow power metal song (such as that in 'At the End of Our Day' that's reminiscent of Therion). This aside, the style is still very much in the same overly sentimental, melodramatic gothic style as the band HIM, repackaging eighties glam as a pin-up for teenage goth girls.
The vocals are quite good, certainly less showy than some of the band's competitors and more indebted to the deep style of The Sisters of Mercy than The Cure, but the predictable song structure becomes irritating fairly soon, moving from consciously mellow and downbeat verses into highly strung choruses that all seem to sound the same. The keyboards dominate the proceedings with a light polish that isn't enough to hide the severe lack of substance in the majority of the album, as the drums plod dully along with the vocals in anticipation of the guitars returning in the chorus, their abstinence seeming like a desperate attempt to manufacture emphasis.
There aren't many deviations from the established mould in these songs, and they're unanimously lousy when they do arrive. 'Little Angel' experiments with a thrumming techno pulse that sounds out of place, while finale 'Sorrowsong' is an inevitable ballad that has the unpleasant task of going even further with the romantic gothic drivel than ever before, basically meaning that the band strips to piano and vocals. I'm sure I'd still prefer this to a HIM album, but I don't see this whole Finnish gothic metal genre as a successful experiment. The likes of doom bands such as My Dying Bride and Katatonia have always seemed like a more natural and convincing continuation of eighties gothic music to me, and they never feel forced like this does.
1. Bitter Joy
2. At the End of Our Day
3. Craving
4. Little Angel
5. Fall
6. Erase Me
7. Desire You
8. Come Tonight
9. All I Care Is Dying
10. Sister Misery
11. Sorrowsong
Deathcult for Eternity: The Triumph
*****
Written on 10.06.08
The third album from the Chasm is just about as perfect and original as death metal could ever hope to get, and this surely partly down to the band's relative isolation from any sort of creatively restrictive 'scene' of the sort that hinders bands in more metallically prosperous countries. Hailing from Mexico, the Chasm don't audibly incorporate any of their nation's specific musical heritage into their style, but like Argentum and the other notable Mexican metal bands, their sound is entirely unique and not easily pigeonholed like their contemporaries.
'Deathcult for Eternity' is a flawless album, as long as you have a taste for death metal. Even if that's the case, its atypical song structures may be off-putting at first, though with the irresistible guitar performance of Daniel Corchado and Erick Diaz leading the way, it's an album that's a pleasure to get to grips with. None of the usual failings of death metal are here, such as sudden outbursts of speed or slower breakdowns to satiate fans of the generic and predictable, and the songs don't follow the expected verse/chorus pattern. That being the case, the style doesn't serve to alienate in the manner of technical or self-consciously 'progressive' death metal, it just means that each song remains compelling for its entirety.
There's a general tendency towards slower and more melodic touches as the album progresses, with the bipolar 'A Portal to Nowhere' paving the way for more fully realised melody in 'Possessed by Past Tragedies (Tragic Shadows),' 'In Superior Torment...' and the partly acoustic 'Apocalypse' before finale 'The Triumph (Of My Loss...)' brings back the high-speed death metal of the earlier songs. Even Corchado's vocals refuse to be pinned down, ranging from a standard grunt to a surprising shriek. This is a death metal album that really stands out from the crowd.
1. Revenge Rises / Drowned in the Mournful Blood
2. No Mercy (Our Time Is Near)
3. I'm the Hateful Raven
4. A Portal to Nowhere
5. Chanelling the Bleeding Over the Dream's Remains
6. Possessed by Past Tragedies (Tragic Shadows)
7. Apocalypse
8. In Superior Torment...
9. The Triumph (Of My Loss...)
Procession to the Infraworld
****
Written on 10.06.08
Chasm's fourth album is no sequel to 'Deathcult for Eternity,' but as that was such a distinctive album, it's probably for the best that the band didn't try to recapture its style. Where its predecessor was innovative, this follow-up is a little more standard in its execution of the death metal style, but is still led by a flawless performance from all hands and some great structural ideas.
The immediate audible difference comes in the production, which moves on from the very thrash-based sound of the previous album to a clearer and louder style more suited to death metal, without being overbearing. This really helps to bring out features such as the bass drums, and helps them achieve equal prominence to the guitars of Daniel Corchado and newcomer Julio Viterbo, whose excellent solos are some of the highlights of the album.
Opener 'Spectral Sons of the Mictlan' is one of the best death metal instrumentals I've heard, opting for a mysterious, melodic approach rather than anything showy, and it works as such a perfect overture that it's almost disappointing to hear the inevitable fast death metal appearing in track two. Every song is great, if a little less distinctive than the band's earlier works, and despite the unfortunate comparisons to its illustrious predecessor, this was still one of the best metal releases from 1999.
1. Spectral Sons of the Mictlan
2. The Scars of My Journey
3. At the Edge of the Nebula Mortis
4. Fading...
5. Return of the Banished
6. Cosmic Landscapes of Sorrow
7. Architects of Melancholic Apocalypse
8. Storm of Revelations
Something Wild
****
Written on 16.05.08
Finland's Children of Bodom are perhaps deservedly one of the more well-known acts in extreme metal today, as well as one of the hardest to pin down musically by genre-spewing reviewers like me, at least in their early days. To illustrate with some name-dropping that won't help your understanding at al but will make me feel clever, Bodom's style is rooted in German speed metal (Helloween, Blind Guardian) with the ferocity of thrash (Megadeth, Testament), the symphonic keyboards of power metal (Stratovarius, Nightwish) and the harsh vocal rasps and smashing drums of black metal (Mayhem, Immortal). Just to confuse matters even further, they throw in the occasional unison punk yell.
Aiding Bodom's individuality (at least, until other bands such as Kalmah and Norther started to copy them) is the equal footing given to each band member, with clearly distinct roles for instruments such as the bass guitar and keyboard that are commonly overlooked or used merely to round out the sound.
Janne Warman's keyboard is every bit as important as the guitars of Alexi Laiho and Alexander Kuoppalla, shifting between irresistibly cheesy horror chords and a satisfyingly false harpsichord tone for many of the solos. The guitars themselves are comparable to melodic death metal, mixing heavy riffs with plenty of melody and some great dual solos, while Jaska Raatikainen's drums are often surprisingly ferocious, holding up the extreme side of things with Laiho's crow-like squawk.
This debut isn't Bodom's most polished release, but its slightly rushed and amateurish nature adds to its charm, balancing out some certified early classics with some obvious filler that's just as enjoyable. The lyrics were all improvised in the studio, which leads to intriguing repetition of themes and phrases that could deceive the attentive listener into thinking they're dealing with a concept album. The Lake Bodom murders touched on here, that gave the band its name, would continue to feature prominently as a staple of their albums, as much as the ever-present Grim Reaper cover art.
The most enjoyable thing about early Children of Bodom is just how much damn fun they are to listen to. Clearly taking delight in their haphazard concoction of styles and not getting caught up in attempts to prove their heaviness or creativity, the band is apparently combining its influences in the way that feels right regardless of how much sense it makes at the time, and the result is often sensational.
'Deadnight Warrior' is a frenetic opener that shows the band's thrash influence at a peak that wouldn't resurface until finale 'Touch Like Angel of Death,' before making way for longer and more involved offerings in the form of 'In the Shadows' and the 'Red Light in My Eyes' suite, in truth merely a pair of songs connected by title alone. These three songs all feature atmospheric breaks through Warman's gloomy keys, with plenty of opportunities for individual band members to strut their stuff with solos, always enjoyable and never crossing the line into indulgence.
'The Nail' is similarly multi-faceted to 'In the Shadows,' but a little meaner, while 'Lake Bodom' is perhaps the band's greatest song, or at the very least one of their all-time greats. It's the only song on here that really seems perfect and complete, setting the style for many later classics on the next couple of albums that are fundamentally variations. From the memorable opening melodies to the even greater riffs that kick in later and dominate, this is catchy, enthralling, downright ace metal that is guaranteed a prestigious place on the ultimate metal compilation album that I will force you all to endure one day.
1. Deadnight Warrior
2. In the Shadows
3. Red Light in My Eyes, Part 1
4. Red Light in My Eyes, Part 2
5. Lake Bodom
6. The Nail
7. Touch Like Angel of Death
Hatebreeder
*****
Written on 16.05.08
'Hatebreeder' (or, if you prefer, the green album) represents Children of Bodom's early peak, containing much of their finest material and rivalled only by its immediate successor 'Follow the Reaper' (which is blue). The style pioneered on the debut 'Something Wild' (red) is furthered here and taken to greater extremes, particularly in the area of speed. Rooted in the speed metal tradition and taking their other cues from a variety of fast metal sources, Bodom weren't exactly slow-pokes to begin with, but here it seems as if the band members are pushing themselves and each other to ever greater heights, most clearly audible in the frenetic keyboard work of Janne Warman on songs such as 'Silent Night, Bodom Night.'
Every song here is excellent with no weak links, even if the style becomes a little samey towards the end, but as ever there are a few songs that really stand out above their competitors. 'Warheart' is the perfect Bodom song, moving from a melodic intro to a great series of guitar riffs, a catchy chorus and some enjoyable solos, making time for each band member to show off their clear talents. The heavy 'Hatebreeder' is balanced by the steadier 'Bed of Razors' with its folk-tinged melodies, before my favourite offering 'Towards Dead End' brings back the cheesy horror film keyboards and a riff that's so catchy, it should be illegal.
This is arguably Children of Bodom's finest work, but I'd recommend curious metal fans to check out all of the handily colour-coded early albums from the band for a more comprehensive experience.
1. Warheart
2. Silent Night, Bodom Night
3. Hatebreeder
4. Bed of Razors
5. Towards Dead End
6. Black Widow
7. Wrath Within
8. Children of Bodom
9. Downfall
Tokyo Warhearts
****
Written on 10.06.08
Children of Bodom's first live album is a little pointless, coming so early in the Finnish band's discography as to essentially be a best-of from only two studio albums worth of material, but all the same it's one of the most impressive live performances I've heard in a long time, and far superior to their more recent efforts.
With only a slightly muddy production that makes the drums sound a little wet, these songs recorded on two nights in Japan promoting the then-contemporary 'Hatebreeder' album really capture the band at its best, and many of the songs end up sounding superior to the studio versions, particularly those from the debut 'Something Wild.' The band works tightly as a unit, and while the solo sections are a little disappointing, most prominent in the face-off between keyboardist Janne Warman and guitarist Alexi Laiho in 'War of Razors' that never feels like it goes anywhere, the increased energy makes all of the other songs a pleasure to listen to.
For the most part, these are identical to the studio versions and are thus slightly irrelevant for those who already own 'Something Wild' and 'Hatebreeder,' but there are still some subtle differences such as the inclusion of extra keyboard passages from Warman, usually quoting TV theme tunes, while 'Warheart' sounds oddly more aggressive than its melodic album counterpart. Most of the best songs are here, but the main nagging problem is how much better this would have been if the band had waited another couple of years to include material from the excellent 'Follow the Reaper.'
1. Intro
2. Silent Night, Bodom Night
3. Lake Bodom
4. Warheart
5. Bed of Razors
6. War of Razors (Solo Battles)
7. Deadnight Warrior
8. Hatebreeder
9. Touch Like Angel of Death
10. Downfall
11. Towards Dead End
Follow the Reaper
Respect Your Reaper
*****
Written on 05.09.04
I've always loved the Grim Reaper. From the humorous takes on the sinister servant of the afterlife in 'Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey' to the far less hospitable (but equally humorous) Reaper in Monty Python's 'The Meaning of Life.' Children of Bodom had produced an album dedicated to this fantastic hooded legend: I had to buy it. It's really good too.
Children of Bodom are a fascinating band for metal fans, as they incorporate elements of different styles to come up with a quite unique sound. Most commonly labelled as death metal, or melodic death metal if you want to nitpick, these loud Swedes reached their musical peak with 2001's 'Follow the Reaper.'
STYLE
Children of Bodom is:
Alexi Wildchild Laiho - vocals and guitars
Henkka Blacksmith - bass
Jaska Raatikainen - drums
Janne Warman - keyboards
Bodom's music is influenced heavily, and often dominated by, the keyboards of Janne Warman. Although the pounding drums scream throughout the tracks, not to mention to incredible guitar riffing and powerful vocals - both handled by the incredible talented "Wildchild" Laiho - it is this heavy keyboard presence on this album in particular that adds atmosphere to the music and also allows for some great horror film-esque melodies on occasion. This horror element is added to by the somewhat disturbing vocals following a black metal style, screeching and roaring speedy lyrics and never retreating into 'clean' voice, but these gothic elements are balanced out perfectly by the power metal-style guitars.
Without hearing the guitars juxtaposed with the heavy music it would be debatable whether something so melodic and uplifting would suit the style at all, but for me this is what makes Bodom so enjoyable. Classic solos and interesting high sections almost spanning the album make this a highly popular CD with guitar players who attempt to reproduce what they hear on the disc, with varying success I expect.
None of these tracks last for more than around five minutes, making this a great collection of enjoyable and speedy songs that take very little effort to enjoy: previous experience of death metal is still something of a prerequisite though. This is very heavy and overpowering music that would sound incredible aggressive were it not for the beautiful, harmonious string thrashing.
FOLLOW THE REAPER
1. Follow the Reaper
2. Bodom After Midnight
3. Children of Decadence
4. Every Time I Die
5. Mask of Sanity
6. Taste of My Scythe
7. Hate Me!
8. Northern Comfort
9. Kissing the Shadows
10. [Bonus track]
Many of these tracks sound similar, distinguished only by slight changes in speed and the melodies of the guitars and vocals, but this wasn't intended to provide a diverse listen: this is the Bodom experience. The opening title track FOLLOW THE REAPER highlights Bodom at their best and is littered with examples of the guitar harmonies, while the other tracks tend to incorporate these elements a little more into the overall tapestry of the songs.
While track one was the catchy high guitar track, tracks two and three rely more on the catchy rhythm of the choruses, the vocals of which can be discerned for a change. BODOM AFTER MIDNIGHT and CHILDREN OF DECADENCE are heavy and dark but still very uplifting through the sing-a-long choruses, if you can appreciate such things in a death metal context. This is the closest the album gets to being eighties heavy metal performed in a death metal style, apart from the bonus tracks of course.
EVERY TIME I DIE is based on a brilliant guitar melody and it was this song that attracted me to the band, and this album, in particular. Slower than what has come before, this is a song that I could easily get lost in if it were any longer: a classic. MASK OF SANITY on the other hand is not particularly beautiful and is based a little more on the pounding double bass drums, but the chorus is catchy once again, as are the sparse keyboard touches.
TASTE OF MY SCYTHE is an interesting progressive song that begins fairly slowly, moves into a fast and heavy area and then comes up with a great high keyboard section that highlights Warman's skill better than any other track on the disc. HATE ME! is a contender for a single release, if this band were ever popular enough to release such a thing that is, and returns to the heavy and catchy style of tracks two and three. Great use again of the keyboards in complimenting the chorus.
NORTHERN COMFORT is a bit of a forgettable track, but is one of the best for guitars on the album. Similarly, KISSING THE SHADOWS is easy to overlook as it doesn't bring anything new to the album at this point, but it is one of the better offerings that leads out with some more brilliant high guitar harmonies. The Nuclear Blast label have released several versions of this album, some of which feature a cover of an older heavy metal track done in the Bodom style: their version of Ozzy Osbourne's 'Shot in the Dark' is a treat that sounds like it could have been a Bodom original, although 'Hellion' could never be too impressive, considering it was composed by those glam idiots W.A.S.P.
VERDICT
This is my favourite Children of Bodom album due to the heavy presence of guitar and keyboard sections providing a haunting atmosphere to the album as well as an excellent harmonious contrast to the dingy, heavy backing instruments. It's the growling vocals that would take the most getting used to here, as anyone new to death metal would find this very distracting: in some ways the music would sound better with some clean vocal touches, but a more traditional vocal style throughout would not suit the tone or style as much as Wildchild's eerie screech.
Bodom’s earlier albums 'Something Wild' and 'Hatebreeder' sound less impressive than this, although the evolution to Follow the Reaper can be clearly heard, but their more recent 'Hate Crew Deathroll' disappointingly travelled to more thrashy death metal territory, losing many of the high sections and focusing more on aggression and over-the-top comedy violence lyrics and song titles, something that has never really done it for me. Follow the Reaper is, in my opinion, one of the metal classics of recent years, and my favourite death-power-black-speed-prog-thrash-grind-harmony album. That I know of, anyway.
This review is dedicated to the Grim Reaper. Keep it up.
Hate Crew Deathroll
***
Written on 16.05.08
The problem with a band having a sound as uniquely distinctive as Children of Bodom is that there may come a time when the band starts to naturally move away from their established style, but still attempts to shoehorn in those elements that are recognisably theirs. The first disappointment after a trilogy of excellent releases, 'Hate Crew Deathroll' sees Bodom moving more towards thrash and death metal, abandoning their speed metal roots but still retaining the horror keyboards and melodic guitars in a manner that now seems uncomfortably contrived. This is Children of Bodom trying too hard to sound like Children of Bodom.
There are still some fine songs, notably the well-known opener 'Needled 24/7' with its catchy riff and the successful experiment at a slow song in the form of 'Angels Don't Kill,' but the rest is largely mediocre. The guitars are less exciting now than ever, mainly relegated to the duty of heavy riffs in tandem with the hard-hitting drums, and Alexi Laiho's yell has now evolved from a black metal rasp to an even less pleasant hardcore yell. His new obsession with swearing all the time only adds to the disconcertingly metalcore vibe looming over this release that would be more fully realised in the band's later disappointments.
1. Needled 24/7
2. Sixpounder
3. Chokehold (Cocked 'n' Loaded)
4. Bodom Beach Terror
5. Angels Don't Kill
6. Triple Corpse Hammerblow
7. You're Better Off Dead
8. Lil' Bloodred Ridin' Hood
9. Hate Crew Deathroll
Bestbreeder: From 1997 to 2000
*****
Written on 16.05.08
I'm not normally a fan of "best-of" compilations, generally preferring to hear songs in their original context of the studio albums, but this collection of highlights from Children of Bodom's first three albums is surprisingly comprehensive, tasteful and value for money. If you live in Japan at least, otherwise for the prohibitive import cost you might as well buy all three albums on the cheap.
It seems that this collection was put together without direct involvement from the band, which essentially means that discerning fans get to choose their favourite songs without the pressure of promoting other releases. Indeed, the deliberate absence of any songs from that year's 'Hate Crew Deathroll' album makes it stronger as a result, whether this was due to record label concerns or merely good taste in focusing on its predecessors. Fortunately, by clearly stating in its title that this is only a compilation spanning a few years, the album avoids making any kind of admission that the band is now past its prime.
The songs on here are all excellent without exception, and the editing process really has excelled in selecting the finest songs from each release, even ones that I might not have considered myself. The live songs are taken from 1999's 'Tokyo Warhearts,' while the band's evolution is otherwise presented in a more or less chronological order, culminating in the tracks from my personal favourite, 'Follow the Reaper.'
At one hour and fifteen minutes, it's clear that the compiler/s really tried to squeeze as much on here as they could, and there's even a treat for those who already own the studio albums in the form of a Billy Idol cover. Sadly, Bodom's covers are never all that exciting, and this is one of the weakest of the lot, not sounding particularly Bodomed and making for a poor start to an otherwise impeccable collection.
1. Rebel Yell (Billy Idol Cover)
2. In the Shadows
3. Lake Bodom
4. Warheart
5. Silent Night, Bodom Night
6. Towards Dead End
7. Children of Bodom
8. Deadnight Warrior (Live)
9. Hatebreeder (Live)
10. Touch Like Angel of Death (Live)
11. Downfall (Live)
12. Follow the Reaper
13. Bodom After Midnight
14. Everytime I Die
15. Mask of Sanity
16. Hate Me!
17. Kissing the Shadows
Chaos Ridden Years: Stockholm Knockout Live
***
Written on 16.05.08
Having released their first live album at a bizarrely early point, it was a number of years before a follow-up seemed appropriate, eventually arriving with the CD (and later DVD) 'Chaos Ridden Years: Stockholm Knockout Live.' Focusing on the five albums released up to that point with roughly even focus, this should technically please fans of the band both old and new, though the performance itself is somewhat lacking.
Most disappointing to someone who was turned off by the contemporary studio album 'Are You Dead Yet?', the band retains its near-metalcore style for the performance, which weakens the older songs that used to seem somehow jollier and more reminiscent of eighties speed metal, here rendered more hostile and less melodic than the originals. The band also makes a fair amount of slip-ups and very obvious mistakes, but this isn't necessarily a problem as Bodom's flair for improvisation has always been part of their charm.
Nevertheless, the tracks devoted to solos on this album are universally appalling and extremely dull, from the tedious and mostly silent drum solo 'Deadbeats I' to the alleged face-off of guitar and keyboard in 'Clash of the Booze Brothers' that's only slightly more palatable, and really has nothing going for it.
Disc 1
1. Living Dead Beat
2. Sixpounder
3. Silent Night, Bodom Night
4. Hate Me!
5. We're Not Gonna Fall
6. Angels Don't Kill
7. Deadbeats I
8. Bodom After Midnight / Bodom Beach Terror (Medley)
9. Follow the Reaper
Disc 2
1. Needled 24/7
2. Clash of the Booze Brothers
3. In Your Face
4. Hate Crew Deathroll
5. Are You Dead Yet?
6. Latvala (Guitar Solo)
7. Lake Bodom
8. Everytime I Die
9. Downfall
Madness
***
Written on 10.06.08
By their second album, Germany's Chinchilla had settled into their role as practitioners of distinctly mediocre power metal, a title they still bear proudly today. The most noticeable changes here from the debut album are the replacement of singer/keyboardist Martin Obermeier with respective newcomers Thomas Laasch and Marc Steck handling each, and bringing a distinctly eighties glam metal sound to the proceedings that isn't particularly welcome.
Fortunately, the album also cuts down on the excess of ballads, with only the tell-tale 'Broken Heart' being completely awful, and 'Where the Brave Belong' and 'Anymore' merely aurally boring rather than especially offensive. The songs are mostly mid-tempo again, despite the deceptive fast drums of Steffen Theurer, but once again Urdo Gerstenmeyer fails to produce any memorable guitar riffs, relying instead on his skill at solos that are more often than not ripped off from other bands (the enjoyable one in the title song sounds like a Metallica copy).
Chinchilla are content to rely primarily on Laasch's singing talents, however much he sounds like an inferior clone of Edguy's Tobias Sammet (but who doesn't?), and this limited approach weakens their music as a whole.
1. Intro
2. Fight
3. Freedom
4. Queen of the Rain
5. Broken Heart
6. I Stole Your Love (Kiss cover)
7. Madness
8. Living On My Own
9. Where the Brave Belong
10. Tears
11. Dark and Light
12. Anymore
The Last Millennium
***
Written on 10.06.08
'The Last Millennium' displays a promising career move for Chinchilla, as their music becomes slightly more energetic and thus entertaining. It's also the first album to feature nothing in the way of vomit-inducing ballads, the closest thing being the dull plodder 'After the War' that's nowhere near as aurally offensive.
The band has settled a little more into things now, with Urdo Gerstenmeyer unleashing his long-awaited first memorable guitar riff ever, with 'Demons We Call.' Unfortunately, Steffen Theuren's approach to creativity is to re-use exactly the same drum intro to several songs, as if we wouldn't notice, while most of the responsibility still falls on the singing talents of the quite-good Thomas Laasch, who keeps Chinchilla rooted in the same league of light, vocal-centric power metal bands as their equally mediocre contemporaries Brainstorm.
Their cover of 'The Boys Are Back in Town' is nothing special, and won't be of interest to those who are familiar or somehow unfamiliar with Thin Lizzie's original, and once again a pointless intro track must be sat through before the relative chore of the proper songs can begin in earnest.
1. The Last Millennium
2. War Machine
3. Demons We Call
4. Nighttrain of Death
5. Father Forgive Me
6. After the War
7. Victims of the Night
8. The Boys Are Back in Town (Thin Lizzie cover)
9. They Are Liars
10. The Highest Price
Advantages: No ballads.
Disadvantages: No memorable songs.
Madtropolis
***
Written on 10.06.08
The cover art and thematically linked song titles may give the illusion of a futuristic concept album, but Chinchilla's fourth album is merely their usual fare of catchy but ultimately forgettable melodic power metal and failed epic slow songs.
The intro and outro tracks are nothing but dull keyboard orchestration that add nothing to the album, and are more likely to detract from the listening experience, while the rest are still chorus-based with enjoyable shredding guitar solos and less tolerable keyboard solos.
The overall quality is about the same as the band's previous 'The Last Millennium,' with a couple of notable failures dragging down the quality somewhat. 'Entire World' lacks the magnitude that its lofty title promises, being one of the dullest songs I've heard in some time, and the equally ambitiously titled 'Heavy Metal' fails to capture the heavy metal spirit in the way other stupidly titled metal odes have managed in the past, particularly in the catalogue of Manowar. To its credit, the slow 'Turn Around the Magic Table' attempts something different with a weird vocal style, but the result is only disconcerting at best.
1. The Arise of Madtropolis (Intro)
2. Our Destiny
3. A Dance With the Devil
4. When the Sand Darkens the Sun
5. Entire World
6. Satellite
7. Heavy Metal
8. Headless Fools
9. Turn Around the Magic Table
10. Money Rules Everything
11. Battle of the World
12. Madtropolis
13. The Fall of Madtropolis
Advantages: Inoffensive.
Disadvantages: Insubstantial.
Take No Prisoners
***
Written on 10.06.08
Not an album of rock cover songs despite the misleading first impression of its tracklist, 2004's 'Take No Prisoners' is still Chinchilla's most recent album, and also their best, relatively speaking. The album dispenses with a rubbish intro track and gets straight into the good stuff, as Urdo Gerstenmeyer lets rip with his guitar talents for the first real time, producing riffs in songs such as 'The Almighty Power' that are actually memorable. For the first time, the band really seems to be working as a unit, rather than as a support act for the vocals of Thomas Laasch.
Curiously, while the misleading song titles don't signify cover versions, they seemed reminiscent of those respective earlier bands, though this could have been partly my imagination. 'The Ripper' sounds a lot like classic metal in the Judas Priest style, or more accurately like the Judas Priest imitators Primal Fear, 'Take No Prisoners' features a thrashy riff (even if it's not Megadeth), and 'Money Talks' has the AC/DC hard rock vibe about it, though lacks the immortal guitar work.
The only low point of the album is the ballad 'Silent Moments,' as bad as ever, but even for all this album's comparative strength, it's still rather average for modern power metal.
1. The Almighty Power
2. Death is the Grand Leveller
3. The Call
4. The Ripper
5. Take No Prisoners
6. Lost Control
7. Money Talks
8. Silent Moments
9. Stillborn Soul
10. Rich Hounds
Relentless Recurrence
****
Written on 10.06.08
Cthonic is an intriguing black metal band largely due to their foundation in Taiwan rather than Norway, which infuses their style with a slightly more culturally distinct sound than their obvious Scandinavian influences. These touches are less prominent on the comparatively early 'Relentless Recurrence,' but the emphasis on keyboards, even leading to three songs being devoted entirely to synthetic orchestral interludes, makes it a very different beast to traditional black metal concerned with aggression and evil. Despite their focus on the dark side of Taiwanese mythology, the music rarely sounds anything less than pleasant, assuming your ears are accustomed to the strains of melodic black metal.
Songs such as 'Be Ming Ge,' to use the phonetic approximation of the original titles, are based in a medium tempo with an equal focus on the guitar and keyboard, and while the style isn't really anything new, sounding reminiscent of early Arcturus or Dimmu Borgir, this at least catches the band before the introduction of an opera singer turned them into a Cradle of Filth soundalike. Er Hu's atmospheric wail is perfectly suited to the keyboard interludes 'Ye,' 'Hen Zang Lin Tou,' 'Li Shen Gui' and 'Lve Hun Ru Yan Yu,' and while his typical rasp in the other songs sounds less impressive by comparison, it at least doesn't scream for attention above the melody of the instruments.
There's also a distinct melodic death metal influence here in songs such as 'Sha Tu' that at least shows the band's willingness to combine influences, even if their lack of true creative touches is a little disappointing and surprising considering their obscure origin.
1. Ye (Nemesis)
2. Be Ming Ge (Onset of Tragedy)
3. Hen Zang Lin Tou (Obituary Tuning)
4. Ming He Yuan Fu (Grievance, Acheron Poem)
5. Fan Yang Jui Zu (Revert to Mortal Territory)
6. Li Shen Gui (Funest Demon Born)
7. Sha Tu (Vengeance Arise)
8. Hen Shi San Jie (Slaughter in Tri-Territory)
9. Lve Hun Ru Yan Yu (Grab the Soul to Hell / Relentless Recurrence)
Isolate
***
Written on 22.05.08
If it's possible to discern a trend from only two studio releases, it seems that Circus Maximus' brief stint as a promising new force in progressive metal has fully waned by the time of their sophomore 'Isolate.' With less of a power metal focus than before, generally shorter songs that fail to go anywhere interesting and an uncomfortable focus on power ballads in the vein of eighties glam metal (even down to some horrendous Van Halen style keyboards in 'Arrival of Love'), this album represents everything I dislike about bands labelled as 'progressive' that would be more accurately categorised as backwards-looking.
Michael Eriksen is a strong vocalist, here imitating the squeaky tones of Dream Theater's James LaBrie and Fates Warning's John Arch, but the rest of the band disappoints in comparison to 'The 1st Chapter' by opting for simpler, more commercial songs. Even the instrumental 'Sane No More' sounds like a weak attempt to replicate Dream Theater's style, and the longer songs 'Mouth of Madness' and 'Ultimate Sacrifice' don't hold the listener's attention by attempting anything genuinely interesting. Everything here has been heard before, and much better (or in the case of the ballads, equally terribly).
1. A Darkened Mind
2. Abyss
3. Wither
4. Sane No More
5. Arrival of Love
6. Zero
7. Mouth of Madness
8. From Childhood's Hour
9. Ultimate Sacrifice
Advantages: Keeping the classic prog metal spirit alive through imitation.
Disadvantages: Focus on commercial ballads is disappointing.
Onwards to the Spectral Defile
****
Written on 10.06.08
Holland's Cirith Gorgor seem to be one of the more overlooked black metal bands, at least in comparison to the big Norwegian names that metal reviewers like me throw around all over the place, and it's a shame because they're certainly one of the more interesting acts. With a strong focus on melody that is never allowed to interfere with the sheer ferocity of their traditional black metal approach, these songs sound a little different to most bands out there, and superior to those who they may have been imitating all along.
One of the interesting aspects of Cirith Gorgor is that the rasping vocals of frontman Nimroth can actually be understood for the most part, which is great if you're into the whole Tolkien/fantasy/anti-Christian thing that they are, and still pleasantly atmospheric if you're not. The guitar riffs of Astaroth Daemonum and Asmoday are suitably catchy, but it's their lead work that really stands out, occasionally reminiscent of melodic death metal bands such as Amon Amarth.
The production job is also as near to perfect as can be, avoiding the polish that would rob the album of its atmosphere but allowing all the instruments to be heard distinctly, including Lord Mystic's bass. The only reason it doesn't get five stars as a definitive example of black metal is because the next album is even better.
1. The Declaration of Our Neverending War
2. Winter Embraces Lands Beyond
3. Through Burning Wastelands
4. Sons of the New Dawn
5. A Hymn to the Children of Heimdall / Darkness Returns
6. Wandering Cirith Gorgor
7. Ephel Duath (A Warrior's Tale)
8. Shadows over Isengard
9. Thorns of Oblivion
Unveiling the Essence
*****
Written on 10.06.08
'Unveiling the Essence' could be considered one of the masterworks of melodic black metal, lying somewhere between the harsh, riff-based sound of Darkthrone and the more atmospheric stance of early Ancient and Dimmu Borgir, without being terrible like modern Dimmu Borgir and Old Man's Child. The music is still very vicious, but expresses this in a more controlled and genuine manner than merely relying on tricks of the trade such as relentless blast beats from the drum kit or an emphasis on volume over content, and the focus on catchy guitars keeps every song compelling throughout.
For black metal, this even manages to be slightly varied, not only in terms of speed but also with the adoption of surprising styles, such as the almost power metal approach of the riffs in 'Unveiling the Essence' and 'The Stormrulers' that could have seen the band head in the direction of Ancient Rites. The atmosphere is excellent, epic without drawing too much attention to itself, while some songs such as 'Northern Spell of Warcraft' are simply content to remain short, sharp and brutal for less adventurous black metal fans.
1. Conquering the Shadowworld
2. Unveiling the Essence
3. Bellum Germanicum
4. Northern Spell of Warcraft
5. Into a Nightly Silence
6. A Twilight Serenade
7. The Stormrulers (The Art of Megalomania)
8. Visions of a Distant Past
Cloven Hoof
****
Written on 10.06.08
A fortunate latecomer to the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) scene, this allowed Cloven Hoof to expand upon the work of their progenitors in the overcrowded genre, rather than sounding exactly the same as every other Saxon clone of the early eighties.
This Wolverhampton-based band makes excellent use of an occult theme in a similar way to NWOBHM forebears Angel Witch and Denmark's Mercyful Fate, using the lyrics to enhance the dark and doomy atmosphere of songs such as opener 'Cloven Hoof' and finale 'Return of the Passover' without seeming like a cheesy gimmick, as it would later prove for many Satan-worshipping black metal bands. The most satisfying thing about this album is how distinctive it sounds, something I considered near-impossible for the genre, and while it doesn't quite live up to the genre greats such as Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, it's one of the best albums I've heard from the more obscure recesses of the NWOBHM.
The band is a very tight and creative unit, rarely seeming like they're playing to make a quick buck at a time when this sort of music was popular, prior to its rapid decline in favour with the onset of the nineties. Only 'Crack the Whip' feels like a disappointing piece of commercial, by-the-numbers hard rock in the style of AC/DC, the sort of song that Saxon or Priest would churn out on each album in search of a bland radio hit, but fortunately it's the only weak link of an otherwise strong tracklist. Steve Rounds puts in a compelling guitar performance throughout, with great solos in songs such as 'Gates of Gehenna' and the neoclassical interlude 'March of the Damned,' while David Potter's vocals are some of the most perfectly suited I've heard in heavy metal, sounding utterly convincing in his booming performance in songs like the opening track.
The longer songs are epic without being overbearing or overlong, and the hellish subject matter is just plain cool rather than childish.
1. Cloven Hoof
2. Nightstalker
3. March of the Damned
4. Gates of Gehenna
5. Crack the Whip
6. Laying Down the Law
7. Return of the Passover
Dominator
***
Written on 10.06.08
Cloven Hoof were one of the more overlooked eighties heavy metal bands, and yet another to indulge in a comeback when the genre suddenly became cool again in recent years. Their 1988 album 'Dominator' is far from a classic of the genre, stilted by poor production and a tendency towards repetition, but with its catchy hooks and delightfully cheesy sci-fi subject matter, it's the perfect album to listen to if you're in the mood for eighties rock.
The shoddy sound quality really is surprising, especially when considering this was released the same year as Iron Maiden's (admittedly higher budget) 'Seventh Son of a Seventh Son,' one of the most over-polished metal albums of all time, and this weakens the effect to a severe extent. Only the high singing of Russ North is clearly audible at the forefront, and while he's no replacement for David Potter, his lighter style is entirely suited to the move towards sci-fi rather than hellish themes, even if he lacks a real sound of his own.
All of the songs are fairly similar and accessible, and more obviously influenced by bands of the early eighties, particularly Iron Maiden whose melodic guitar solo style gets a look-in with songs such as 'Reach for the Sky,' while 'Rising Up' features sections that can be traced directly to Maiden's early 'Killers' release. This isn't to say that the album's stuck in a time warp, however much that would suit the space age lyrics, as the instrumental performance often successfully predicts the upcoming boom in European power metal, it's just a shame you can't really hear it.
1. Rising Up
2. Nova Battlestar
3. Reach for the Sky
4. Warrior of the Wasteland
5. The Invaders
6. The Fugitive
7. Dominator
8. Road of Eagles
Eye of the Sun
***
Written on 11.06.08
Cloven Hoof's 'comeback' album is something of a joke, arriving fifteen years after their last studio album and including only one recognisable band member in the form of bassist Lee Payne, who is frankly the least noticeable player here. Failing to recapture the spirit of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal, this is more of a mediocre melodic heavy metal album that feels outdated in some ways, and like a disappointing attempt to win favour with modern mainstream rock audiences in others, namely the vocals.
The songs are all distinctly average but fortunately not insulting, and it's only really the disappointment of the band's legacy that counts against it significantly; otherwise it would just be another forgettable but fairly enjoyable melodic metal album. The title song is the only real song of interest here, written and performed live during the band's classic period but never released in a studio form, and the rest sound like inferior versions of generic heavy metal styles.
1. Inquisitor
2. Eye of the Sun
3. Cyberworld
4. Kiss of Evil
5. Eye of the Zombie
6. Absolute Power
7. Whore of Babylon
8. Golgotha
9. King for a Day
10. Angels In Hell
Contaminated Void
***
Written on 11.06.08
Coldworker is an unsurprising death metal band from Sweden, lacking any sort of creativity but still remaining enjoyable for those with an interest in the more aggressive side of death metal. Led by fast, relentlessly hammering drums, a deep growled vocal performance and some heavy guitars riffs that occasionally veer into enjoyable solos, such as the one in 'D.E.A.D.,' this is death metal performed by-the-numbers for those with un-ambitious tastes.
The production job from Swedish death metal legend Dan Swanö (Edge of Sanity) is probably the best aspect here, and the worst aspect is just how samey all the songs sound. Once you've heard the first song, there's very little reason to continue ploughing through the near-forty-minute recording unless you desire more of the same, but while a bit of variety or creativity would be admirable, and certainly in line with the best the Swedish scene has to offer, it's important that there are some distinctly unmemorable death metal records brought out every once in a while, just for the sake of comparison.
1. The Interloper
2. D.E.A.D.
3. An Unforgiving Season
4. The Contaminated Void
5. Death Smiles at Me
6. A Custom-Made Hell
7. Return to Ashes
8. Strain at the Leash
9. Flammable
10. Antidote
11. They Crawl Inside Me Uninvited
12. Waiting for Buildings to Collapse
13. Heart Shaped Violence
14. Generations Decay
Conspiracy in Mind
****
Written on 11.06.08
Equally praised as one of the new forces in progressive metal and criticised as a Nevermore clone, both aspects are true to some extent in Communic's debut release 'Conspiracy in Mind.' Continuing to follow the rule decided in the early nineties that thrash metal has to be slow to be meaningful, this album is full of powerful medium tempo offerings that will appeal equally to fans of more experimental metal, or the simple bar-room-brawl style of Pantera. It's not a great album, but it's a fine collection of songs.
The most disappointing aspect here, especially in light of the band's subsequent triumph with their second album, is how much the sound is rooted in Nevermore. Oddleif Stensland's vocal performance sounds exactly like Warrel Dane throughout, and this isn't helped by a tendency for breakdowns and other thrash tricks-of-the-trade that make the comparison, obvious as it is, all the more accurate. Even if this is a Nevermore copy-cat, it's a damn good one, and a satisfying balance is maintained between the more aggressive metal songs and those with a lighter foundation, 'They Feed on Our Fear,' 'The Distance' and 'Silence Surrounds' incorporating acoustic touches to great effect.
All of the songs are fairly long, and comparatively uneventful, at least for progressive metal. It's clear that this band had something special to say, they just hadn't worked out what it was yet.
1. Conspiracy in Mind
2. History Reversed
3. They Feed on Our Fear
4. Communication Sublime
5. The Distance
6. Ocean Bed
7. Silence Surrounds
Parallel Minds
*****
Written on 11.06.08
'Parallel Minds' is an early classic of the power metal genre, not quite up to the standards of something like 'Nightfall in Middle-Earth' by Blind Guardian or Tobias Sammett's 'Avantasia,' but sowing the seeds for many of the genre's big players fifteen years ago. The improvements over Conception's previous album are immense, firstly in terms of the production job which now brings out the full force of the instruments, but also the band's creativity and performance.
These songs are genuinely heavy and progressive, traits often lacking even from the most ambitious power metal, and as such will easily be appreciated by those who have been turned off from the genre due to its lack of energy compared to the more extreme metal forms. Those who approach Conception from singer Roy Khan's subsequent band Kamelot will find this a drastic change, as the album only resembles his later material in its softer moments, such as the ballad 'Silent Crying.'
Epic finale 'Soliloquy' actually sounds epic this time round, and the other songs strike a fine balance between innovation and simplistic enjoyment that ends up wholly successful, and more convincing than the majority of bands that have succeeded them.
1. Water Confines
2. Roll the Fire
3. And I Close My Eyes
4. Silent Crying
5. Parallel Minds
6. Silver Shine
7. My Decision
8. The Promiser
9. Wolf's Lair
10. Soliloquy
Fragments of the Moon
***
Written on 11.06.08
Concerto Moon are one of the more prominent Japanese heavy metal bands, for no real reason other than the relative scarcity of Japanese groups. Their style is very much rooted in the melodic power metal tradition, with crossover into the shred genre of Yngwie J. Malmsteen and others, but oddly (though perhaps mercifully), this is not followed through with a focus on guitar virtuosity, despite the evident talents of axeman Norifumi Shima.
This first release from Concerto Moon holds no surprises for anyone who's ever listened to a heavy metal CD ever, and despite its occasional neoclassical flourishes, confined mainly to Osamu Harada's keyboards as in the atmospheric introduction to 'Alone in Paradise,' this is straight-up heavy metal in the classic style, reminiscent of bands such as Judas Priest, in 'Cry for Freedom' and 'Holy Child,' and occasionally even further back to Black Sabbath and Rainbow with songs such as 'One and Only.'
Takao Ozaki's vocals are a clear imitation of Judas Priest's Rob Halford, which is really nothing new in the power metal scene, but this at least avoids the band falling for the common problem of overly squeaky vocals in Japanese metal bands, exemplified by the likes of X-Japan, the precursors to Dragonforce. While it's refreshing to hear a band with such a talented guitarist not merely acting as a vehicle for his fret masturbation, this is still disappointingly bland and lacking in originality.
1. Alone in Paradise
2. Run to the Sky
3. Cry for Freedom
4. Holy Child
5. Hold On (To Feeling)
6. Midwinter Night
7. Over the Century
8. Take You to the Moon
9. The Last Betting (Live)
10. One and Only (Live)
11. Into the Fire (Live)
From Father to Son
***
Written on 12.06.08
Concerto Moon's second album is an improvement over their first, but still nothing special, and still potentially overrated among the Japanese metal scene. It's happy, fun and energetic, but very few songs really scream out, the only real exception (at least for me) being 'Somewhere in Time,' which possesses some of the only genuinely catchy and memorable guitar riffs of the album, and does so en masse.
Norifuma Shima still refuses to show off the full range of his guitar talents, but he contributes some nice slow-los to the slower songs 'Moonlight After the Rain' and 'One and Only,' and some neoclassical touches finally rear their head for a brief portion of 'Inside Story.' Takao Ozaki's vocals oddly lack the power of the first album, making this sound less like Judas Priest and more like the standard jolly power metal of Japan (though not to the prepubescent extreme of X-Japan).
1. Dream Chaser
2. Surrender
3. Moonlight After the Rain
4. Inside Story
5. One and Only
6. From Father to Son
7. Somewhere in Time
8. The Last Betting
9. Into the Fire
10. Change My Heart
The End of the Beginning: Live in Tokyo
***
Written on 12.06.08
Even Concerto Moon themselves seem a little confused by their appropriation of the traditional European metal style, addressing their native Japanese crowd in Standard Metal English rather than their common tongue that would make a lot more sense. Sadly, the subsequent vocals are all but lost in a rather rushed production job that brings out the talented instruments but is content to allow the less dynamic elements to slip into the background.
'The End of the Beginning' is Concerto Moon's second live release, and one of many albums released in a surprisingly short period of time by the group. Although a live album, there's nothing in the way of embellishment on the studio material, and this is both surprising and disappointing from a band containing such notable talent as guitarist Norifumi Shima. While this naturally makes the music more accessible, it could be argued that a live performance such as this more or less demands a degree of showmanship from the band member everyone came there to see, but all we have here are songs the fans already own, performed in a less definitive manner.
1. Time to Die
2. Fight to the Death
3. King of the Judas
4. Lonely Last Journey
5. Victim of Desire
6. Alone in Paradise
7. From Father to Son
8. Take You to the Moon
9. Surrender
10. Unstill Night
Rain Forest
****
Written on 12.06.08
With their third album, Concerto Moon finally start to show off the talents of guitarist Norifumi Shima, albeit not in a way that will damage the record's accessibility to a mainstream heavy metal audience. The title song is the only fully-fledged example of Norifumi's prowess, a substantial and multi-faceted instrumental that's as enjoyable as it is impressive, while the rest of the album falls back on the same eighties-influenced power metal style as the rest of their discography.
Most songs here are very enjoyable power metal, if a little simplistic, and reminiscent of bands such as Angra. Others, in particular 'Lonely Last Journey,' 'Live on the Memory' and 'Picture of an Old Man' are slower and more about mood, but even these are pulled off well without becoming cheesy or entering the realm of the power ballad.
Despite its comparative strength, the album still feels like something of a missed opportunity, the instrumental track and the tribal prologue hinting at more significant use that could have been made of the rain forest concept, but the band's preference for straightforward, fast and immensely fun power metal can't really be faulted.
1. Prologue
2. Time to Die
3. Lonely Last Journey
4. Fight to the Death
5. Half Way to the Sun
6. Rain Forest
7. Unstill Night
8. Live on the Memory
9. Victim of Desire
10. Picture of an Old Man
11. Break It Down
Unraveled
****
Written on 12.06.08
Released fifteen years after their debut, Confessor's second album wasn't exactly worth the wait, with all the turbulence in-between, but it's still a highly enjoyable slab of traditional doom metal, if you're into that sort of thing. Slow, plodding and downbeat, this is song after song of powerful melancholia that doesn't exactly depress, but certainly drains the listener even as they enjoy the fine vocal performance of Scott Jeffreys, later of Watchtower.
Confessor are classed as technical doom metal, but I don't really see the technical side beyond some deliberately obtuse time signature tomfoolery, mainly down to the efforts of drummer Steve Shelton who is at least managing to be creative rather than merely setting the plodding tone throughout. Brian Shoaf and Shawn McCoy's guitar riffs are classic doom all the way, lacking a little originality in sounding so generic but still entertaining enough to keep each song moving forward, and despite most of them sounding pretty much the same, there are still a few deviations such as the Nevermore-style 'Sour Times.'
This album will bore you to tears if you're not accustomed to the slowed pace of doom metal, but it's a pretty good place to start, more approachable in its grunge style than the British death-doom of My Dying Bride or the Swedish cemetery epics of Candlemass.
1. Cross the Bar
2. Until Tomorrow
3. Wig Stand
4. Blueprint Soul
5. The Downside
6. Sour Times
7. Hibernation
8. Strata of Fear
Punishment for Decadence
****
Written on 12.06.08
The most disappointing and ironic thing about these 'technical' metal bands is how similar they all tend to sound, at least in their application of the same guitar style in a misguided bid to appear distinctive. Fortunately, Coroner came early on before the movement really took off, and the fine performance of Tommy Vetterli dominates the proceedings, only sounding generic when taken out of historical context. Vetterli is given the instrumental 'Arc-Lite' to really show off his lead skills, but every song is full of great, unpredictable guitar sections.
Ron Broder's vocals are satisfyingly evil, keeping Coroner quite rightly aligned to the darker side of thrash, and the gloomy production quality enhances this wicked atmosphere further. With its predominantly fast pace, catchy choruses and enjoyable solos that never outstay their welcome, there's no reason that this album shouldn't be easily enjoyed by a fan of Slayer or Testament, while those with a taste for the progressive should still find much to appreciate. The only song that doesn't really work is the ill-advised cover of Jimi Hendrix's 'Purple Haze.'
1. Intro
2. Absorbed
3. Masked Jackal
4. Arc-Lite
5. Skeleton on Your Shoulder
6. Sudden Fall
7. Shadow of a Lost Dream
8. The New Breed
9. Voyage to Eternity
10. Purple Haze (Jimi Hendrix cover)
Animosity
***
Written on 23.05.08
Clearly an important milestone in the history of thrash/punk crossover, Corrosion of Conformity's second album is a vast improvement over their first, without losing the reckless and angry attitude of their earlier years. At only twenty-five minutes, this isn't going to be any kind of magnum opus and it does feel rather insubstantial, especially in the shorter songs that don't even reach the two minute mark, but it's still an enjoyable ride.
The sound is now much more rooted in thrash metal than hardcore punk, sticking to the more vicious side of the genre as popularised by Slayer. This is mostly evident in Mike Dean's unhinged vocals, reminiscent of Megadeth's Dave Mustaine at times, but his impressive bass work keeps this from sounding too much like the other bands in that increasingly overcrowded genre.
The music here is mostly fast, but with some subtle hints towards the slower, more doom-laden style the band would later adopt, expressed most clearly in 'Positive Outlook' and the title song, and the band's ability to convincingly shift tempo in songs such as the great opener 'Loss of Words' makes their talents obvious - it's just a shame they don't show these off a little more.
1. Loss of Words
2. Mad World
3. Consumed
4. Holier
5. Positive Outlook
6. Prayer
7. Intervention
8. Kiss of Death
9. Hungry Child
10. Animosity
Blind
*****
Written on 23.05.08
Emerging in the new decade as an alternative metal band combining their earlier hardcore punk, thrash and doom metal influences, Corrosion of Conformity released one of the classics of the genre with their magnum opus 'Blind.' Whatever that genre is, exactly.
This well-produced collection of songs is an example of an album where everything just sounds entirely right. The melodic guitar work of Woody Weatherman and newcomer Pepper Keenan interplays brilliantly with the strong rhythm section held up by creative drummer Reed Mullin, and the heavily instrumental sections (notably the ominous opening track 'These Shrouded Temples...') are just as exciting as the more standard verses and choruses with new vocalist Karl Agell.
This catches Corrosion of Conformity before they made the irreversible leap/downturn to a stoner rock band, but this style is incorporated successfully with songs such as 'Buried,' the lighter, Acid Bath style 'Echoes in the Well' and the bluesy solos of songs like 'Mine are the Eyes of God.' More dominant is the thrash influence, paving the way in the energetic 'Damned for All Time' and slower 'Break the Circle' and fusing with the sludge for the pleasant concoction 'Vote with a Bullet,' while the whole album avoids being off-putting to casual listeners by tapping, however coincidentally or intentionally, into the grunge/alternative rock boom of the early nineties.
The band would sadly never be this good again, but not many groups are able to produce a classic of this magnitude during their career.
1. These Shrouded Temples...
2. Damned for All Time
3. Dance of the Dead
4. Buried
5. Break the Circle
6. Painted Smiling Face
7. Mine are the Eyes of God
8. Shallow Ground
9. Vote with a Bullet
10. Great Purification
11. White Noise
12. Echoes in the Well
13. ...Remain
Deliverance
****
Written on 23.05.08
After combining several genres with expertise on their classic 'Blind,' Corrosion of Conformity disappointing travelled down the well-worn path of stoner metal practiced by many bands in their Southern United States to varying degrees of success. The band's obvious talent keeps them ahead of the game, but it's still disappointing to hear this overly familiar sound in place of anything truly groundbreaking, and the period of adjustment between a thrash band fully-fledged Southern stoners is handled a little awkwardly.
Guitarist Pepper Keenan now handles vocal responsibilities as well, and his performance is a confusing mix of influences that never sounds uniquely his own. On the more obvious doom tracks he perfects the same drawl as his contemporaries, but on those with a more metallic foundation, he executes a blatant forgery of James Hetfield's style in Metallica. This album lacks the energy and creativity of its predecessor, but there's still a lot to enjoy if you're into the whole scene, even if every deviation designed to keep listeners on their toes is incredibly predictable, from the acoustic, lullaby-style plucking of 'Without Wings' to the harmonic lead work of 'Broken Man.'
1. Heaven's Not Overflowing
2. Albatross
3. Clean My Wounds
4. Without Wings
5. Broken Man
6. Senor Limpio
7. Mano de Mono
8. Seven Days
9. #2121313
10. My Grain
11. Deliverance
12. Shake Like You
13. Shelter
14. Pearls Before Swine
Wiseblood
****
Written on 23.05.08
Perfecting the Southern metal style they attempted on 'Deliverance,' Corrosion of Conformity's 'Wiseblood' is a much more satisfying affair, and one of the best albums I've heard in the stoner rock style. Clearly indebted to Black Sabbath and other seventies acts, this is far removed from the band's early days as a hardcore punk outfit, pursuing a slow, heavy and distorted direction in place of their former speed and aggression.
Pepper Keenan's vocals have stopped ripping off James Hetfield, and now sound more like John Bush of Anthrax, which is at least more suited to the style. The most impressive thing about this album is how it keeps listeners on their toes with unusual structures, refusing to be pigeonholed as a generic copycat of the more well-known Southern acts, despite these being the source of much of its influence, such as the Acid Bath style ballad 'Redemption City' and the similarly soft 'Goodbye Windows' that refuses to sound wussy, being all-American, southern-fried and everything.
This album still aims to scare sway feeble listeners with an emphasis on distortion, though not to the extent of scarier doom bands like Eyehategod. Songs such as the title track are rife with discordant guitar solos, but it's the final offering 'Bottom Feeder' that really assaults the ears and brain with its sludgy, crawling, utterly stoned atmosphere.
1. King of the Rotten
2. Long Whip / Big America
3. Wiseblood
4. Goodbye Windows
5. Born Again for the Last Time
6. Drowning in a Daydream
7. The Snake Has No Head
8. The Door
9. Man or Ash
10. Redemption City
11. Wishbone (Some Tomorrow)
12. Fuel
13. Bottom Feeder (El Que Come Abajo)
America's Volume Dealer
***
Written on 12.06.08
Four years after their well-received 'Wiseblood,' Corrosion of Conformity disappoint by treading down the same route Metallica went in the nineties with their 'Load' and 'Reload' releases, forsaking their heavy metal background in favour of more commercially viable Southern rock. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, and there's enough decent material on here to avoid it seeming like a 'sell-out' and more of a natural artistic decision, but it still lacks the energy and excitement of previous (and later) albums, even down to its rubbish minimalist cover.
'Over Me' starts things off well, a catchy rock song with traces of the previous album, but it's all downhill from there. Songs too often sound exactly alike, with over-reliance on distorted openings and bluesy solos that feel present more out of necessity than anything, while the songs that do attempt something different only end up failing miserably, namely the country ballads 'Stare Too Long' and 'Sleeping Martyr' that will turn away long-time fans in the same way Metallica achieved with 'Mama Said.'
1. Over Me
2. Congratulations Song
3. Stare Too Long
4. Diablo Blvd.
5. Doublewide
6. Zippo
7. Who's Got the Fire
8. Sleeping Martyr
9. Take What You Want
10. 13 Angels
11. Gittin' It On
Live Volume
****
Written on 12.06.08
Recorded in 2001, this live album focuses entirely on Corrosion of Conformity's career from 1991 to 2000, ignoring their first decade as a punk/thrash crossover band which is probably for the best as that would spoil the consistency. This performance is tight and professional, without falling victim to the indulgent solos and deviations that usually come with 'stoner' bands, though some of this may of course be down to the editing that allows it to all fit on a single CD.
These songs blur together to some extent in their predictable stoner grooves, but there's still enough variety to keep things distinctive, admittedly mostly stemming from the classic 'Blind' album which loses out in favour of greater focus on the band's more recent works. Pepper Keenan's vocals are at their best here, full of energy even if he sounds like he's ripping off Metallica's James Hetfield throughout, and as an accurate 'best-of' covering the band's stoner rock period, it can't be faulted as the only essential purchase after 'Blind.'
1. These Shrouded Temples
2. Diablo Blvd.
3. Senor Limpio
4. King of the Rotten
5. Wiseblood
6. Who's Got the Fire
7. Albatross
8. My Grain
9. Congratulations Song
10. 13 Angels / 7 Days
11. Vote With a Bullet
12. Zippo
13. Long Whip / Big America
14. Shelter
15. Clean My Wounds
Storm Warning
**
Written on 12.06.08
Count Raven are the deservedly overlooked band of doom metal's second wave, firstly for arriving too late to make any kind of impact on the eighties scene, and more importantly due to their essential lack of any original traits, apart from an unhealthy preoccupation with keyboards in later releases. The main problem with their debut 'Storm Warning' is just how boring it all is - doom metal is slow and ponderous by its nature, the antithesis of fast metal genres, but here there's little in the way of an emotive or atmospheric justification for the speed, leaving every song sounding overlong and over-repetitive.
Christian Lindersson's vocals are in the style of Ozzy Osbourne, and are just as irritating, but lacking the odd charisma. Songs such as 'Inam Naudemina' and 'Within the Garden of Mirrors' are acceptable in their more commercial, potentially catchy appeal, but others, 'True Revelation' in particular, are some of the most tedious metal songs I've ever heard, genuinely irritating me as the plodding narrative fails to go anywhere and outstays its welcome by six minutes (the song is eight minutes long). There are some interesting touches, most notably the violin in 'Social Warfare,' but unlike the instrument's application in the work of My Dying Bride, it brings little resonance and feels tagged on for the sake of diversity.
1. Intro - Count Raven
2. Inam Naudemina
3. True Revelation
4. In the Name of Rock 'n' Roll
5. Sometimes a Great Nation
6. Within the Garden of Mirrors
7. A Devastating Age
8. How Can It Be
9. Social Warfare
Destruction of the Void
***
Written on 12.06.08
The most striking aspect of this obviously Black Sabbath-influenced doom metal band at this point is just how precisely singer Dan Fondelius imitates Ozzy Osbourne's nasal tones. He never quite convinces that he's the mad Brummie, but he gives it his best shot by mimicking both Ozzy's low and high ranges, and I really don't see the point. It's not as if Count Raven were aiming to be a Sabbath tribute band, their sound being more rooted in the Swedish doom scene, so the imitation is distractingly pointless throughout.
Aside from the strange vocal issue, this album is an improvement over its predecessor in terms of interest, atmosphere and even tone, possessing a more satisfyingly crunchy sound to the guitars and two substantial dabbles in keyboards from the multi-talented Fondelius (who also supplies the guitar) in the form of 'Northern Lights' and 'Europa.' They're both different enough to justify their mutual existence, the first being more of a creepy black metal style interlude and the second a more optimistic, new age piece, but they still sound out of place, merely for being so starkly different to the dirgey doom metal that dominates the rest of the disc.
1. Until Death Do Us Part
2. Hippies Triumph
3. Destruction of the Void
4. Let the Dead Bury the Dead
5. Northern Lights
6. Leaving the Warzone
7. Angel of Death
8. The Final Journey
9. No One's Hero
10. Europa
High on Infinity
***
Written on 12.06.08
To their credit, Count Raven were evidently trying desperately to keep each of their albums unique, presumably aware of just how similar they sounded to their influences in the doom metal scene, and 'High On Infinity' is as contrived as it gets. Dan Fondelius still sounds like a low-rent Ozzy Osbourne, but in addition to his high and low singing, he leads the way in three odd spoken word pieces against his keyboard backing, the sinister 'Ode to Rebecca,' 'The Dance' and the lighter and more keyboard-centric 'Cosmos.' If there's an overarching concept connecting these, or indeed the whole album, I must have missed it, but the comparative isolation and varying styles of the more substantial songs would indicate otherwise.
'Jen' is the usual strong, dirgey intro song, and the band thankfully throws out a couple of more optimistic and energetic songs to prevent listeners getting too bogged down in the doom. 'Children's Holocaust,' despite its title, is positively glowing in contrast to the rest of the material on offer, apart from the even jollier 'High on Infinity' that sounds more like something from Ozzy's early solo albums than Black Sabbath. Less effective is 'An Ordinary Loser,' which would clearly be the token slow, depressive song on the album if every other song didn't plod along at the same pace and spoil the effect.
1. Jen
2. Children's Holocaust
3. In Honour
4. The Madman From Waco
5. Masters of All Evil
6. Ode to Rebecca
7. High on Infinity (Love Supreme)
8. An Ordinary Loser
9. Traitor
10. The Dance
11. The Coming
12. Lost World
13. Cosmos
Messiah of Confusion
***
Written on 12.06.08
Count Raven's final album is probably their best, but only by a narrow margin, and that's not to place it up there in the ranks of elite Swedish doom metal; it's still mostly mediocre. This album's comparative strengths lie in its inclusion of more fast sections than its predecessors, preventing the songs from becoming overly dull, and a better incorporation of the keyboards into songs (case in point being the long finale 'The Viking Sea') rather than standing alone (case against being the interlude 'Mountains Spirit').
'Prediction' is the most dynamic song the band ever put out, all performers really gathering momentum and having fun towards the end after the satisfyingly droning introduction, while other songs such as 'The Lie of Life' are potentially catchy enough to appeal to even a mainstream audience. Sadly, the band still fails to distance itself in any real way from its obvious influences, 'The Loneliest One' sounding much like a B-side from the early days of Black Sabbath, and they have a tendency to slow down and lose energy to the point of extreme tedium, as is the case in the wholly unremarkable 'Shine.'
1. Prediction
2. Shadow Box
3. The Loneliest One
4. Fallen Angels
5. Mountains Spirit
6. The Lie of Life
7. P.S.I. Power
8. Shine
9. The Divided World
10. The Viking Sea
Blessed Is the Black
****
Written on 13.06.08
Heavy metal has always been a genre that lends itself well to parody, as the success of the well-intentioned 'This Is Spinal Tap' and the Comic Strip's 'Bad News Tour' memorably demonstrated in the early eighties, and it's always gratifying to hear a band having fun with a genre that shouldn't be taken too seriously, while at the same time concentrating on producing genuinely credible music.
Seattle thrash band Coven were never one of the high fliers, but their debut album 'Blessed is the Black' is a treat for fans of eighties metal of varying styles, loyally and creatively paying homage to various sub-genres while also drawing attention to their silly side, most notably through preposterous lyrics.
Principally a thrash band, Coven move through various sounds on this debut album, and the whole thing is saturated with a disconcerting, scratchy, treble-heavy tone comparable to early black metal. The atmosphere is convincingly evil and depraved despite the intentionally ludicrous lyrics, and the band clearly has its precedent in the dark side of eighties metal from the likes of Venom and Slayer, without going too far into the Scandinavian scene.
Songs such as the title track and 'The Monger' verge on an early speed metal style similar to many German bands at the time, 'Burn the Cross' smells distinctly of Black Sabbath gloom, 'Rock This Church' and 'Iron Dick' both have a more commercial hard rock vibe (though the chances of either being released as a radio-friendly single are laughable) and there are even a couple of convincing metal ballads with 'Out of the Grave' and 'Another Life,' more in the style of an atmospheric Iron Maiden song than the awful power ballads brought out by commercial American acts of the time, so memorably parodied by Anthrax's 'N.F.B.' ('Nice Effing Ballad').
These softer songs will be more approachable for metal newcomers, but if Jay Clarke's raspy shouts and vile lyrics elsewhere serve to turn off cautious listeners, that's sort of their point. Coven certainly shouldn't be associated with the wave of 'evil' bands gestating in the late eighties, as every celebration of Satan is balanced out by a cheap knob gag, coming the fore in the admittedly quite funny 'Iron Dick' that sounds like the song Motörhead always wished they'd written.
To accuse Coven of being a joke band would be equally unjustified, as the guitar performances of Dean Babbitt and Paul Hash are excellent, delivering memorable riffs and satisfying gallops in songs such as 'Creature of Duty' in particular, but also toning down for the acoustic and lead melodies of the ballads. It helps that most of these songs are really catchy and that none of them spiral into self-indulgence, keeping the solos short and to the point in the demonic sex account '6669' and maintaining equal prominence for all band members, including Gary Peebles' bass that's really brought out well by the contrast in the production.
Thrash fans should find this album convincingly angry, especially the heavier songs like 'McDonaldland Massacre,' and those whose tastes are more attuned to heavy metal and hard rock will doubtless enjoy the catchy riffs and choruses, even if 'Rock This Church' is far too repetitive. Coven released two more albums after this before seemingly calling it a day, both of which are presumably more polished and consistent than this one, and thus nowhere near as enticing.
1. Blessed is the Black
2. 6669
3. Burn the Cross
4. Out of the Grave
5. Rock This Church
6. Iron Dick
7. The Monger
8. McDonaldland Massacre
9. Another Life
10. Creature of Duty (and My Duty is Death)
The Principle of Evil Made Flesh
****
Written on 24.05.08
Despite being popularly (and erroneously) labelled as a black metal band, Cradle of Filth's debut album is the only pat of their discography that really deserves such categorisation, but even at this early point the band introduces the gothic elements that would subsequently take hold.
This isn't a black metal album in the tradition of Mayhem, Emperor, Darkthrone and the other evil Norwegian acts of the early nineties, but it adopts enough of their traditions - cackled vocals, tremolo-picking guitar riffs and blast beats from the drum kit - that it's clearly an attempt to provide an English alternative, one that was evidently successful given the band's initial favour with acts such as Emperor, before later releases saw the black metal community turn its back on the increasingly popular act.
This is less refined than some of the band's later works, but that also lends it an amateurish charm. Their vampiric and occult themes are clearly in their infancy, and the heavy emphasis on keyboards - leading to four of the thirteen tracks being little more than interludes, plus the stupid spoken word finale - is rarely incorporated into the more substantial songs in a meaningful way, the notable exception being the piano sections of 'The Black Goddess Rises.' 'Summer Dying Fast' is the ultimate expression of this amateurishness, its speedy pace still rooted slightly in the band's death metal days and the keyboards sounding unbearably cheesy in a Hammer Horror style, but this is still an enjoyable album with a few great offerings, mostly as the band moves towards the sound it would perfect on albums such as 'Dusk and Her Embrace.'
1. Darkness Our Bride (Jugular Wedding)
2. The Principle of Evil Made Flesh
3. The Forest Whispers My Name
4. Iscariot
5. The Black Goddess Rises
6. One Final Graven Kiss
7. A Crescendo of Passion Bleeding
8. To Eve the Art of Witchcraft
9. Of Mist and Midnight Skies
10. In Secret Love We Drown
11. A Dream of Wolves in the Snow
12. Summer Dying Fast
13. Imperium Tenebrarum
Vempire (Or Dark Faerytales in Phallustein)
***
Written on 24.05.08
Aka The Cradle of Filth Contractual Obligation E.P., 'Vempire' was the band's second official release, and not so much a bridge between full-length albums as an instantaneous leap into the definitive Cradle of Filth sound after a somewhat shaky start.
The production job here is much better, and lives up to the band's ambitions. Nicholas Barker's drums are slap-happy rather than stilted, Stuart Anstis' great lead guitar work resonates around and Damien Gregori's keyboards (perhaps not his real name) enhance the gothic atmosphere incredibly. Rounding off the release is female vocalist Lady Jezebel Deva in her first of many appearances, making songs such as the epic centrepiece 'Queen of Winter, Throned' essential staples of any Cradle of Filth collection, or at least more worthwhile than anything the band did after the year 2000.
Although billed as an E.P., and boasting only six tracks, this is still viable as a full-length album due to its near-forty-minute duration. 'Ebony Dressed for Sunset' is a fast and simplistic opener that nevertheless features some great riffs, 'The Forest Whispers My Name' is a slightly superior but mostly loyal re-make of the song from the previous album, 'She Mourns a Lengthening Shadow' is Damien's time to shine with a gothic keyboard interlude, and neither 'Nocturnal Supremacy' nor 'The Rape and Ruin of Angels' remain particularly distinctive or memorable in the band's canon. With a couple of extra songs, this could have been an early classic.
1. Ebony Dressed for Sunset
2. The Forest Whispers My Name
3. Queen of Winter, Throned
4. Nocturnal Supremacy
5. She Mourns a Lengthening Shadow
6. The Rape and Ruin of Angels (Hosannas in Extremis)
Dusk... and Her Embrace
Odes to Lesbian Vampires
****
Written on 31.07.06
Cradle of Filth’s second full-length album, ‘Dusk… And Her Embrace’ sees the English gothic metal band at its creative and technical best, and one of the classic albums of the genre. ‘Dusk’ is far more symphonic than their previous releases due to the introduction of Damien Gregori on keyboards (are you sure that’s your real name?) and the classic guitar duo of Stuart Antsis and Gian Pyres. The band’s following album, 1998’s ‘Cruelty and the Beast,’ would draw heavily upon this release both musically and thematically, but lack the tight musicianship and nifty graveyard atmosphere.
Dani Filth pens the exquisite lyrics to this semi-concept album focused on erotic vampirism. Victorian horror writer Sheridan Le Feu is often credited as a primary influence, although his vampire novel ‘Carmilla’ is only indirectly referenced here, if indeed it is at all. The title song, and by association the album cover and artwork, would appear to deal with the true legend of Countess Elizabeth Bathory, the Hungarian ‘Blood Countess’ who bathed in and consumed the blood of virgins in an attempt to keep herself eternally young. This interest in Bathory would be further realised in ‘Cruelty and the Beast,’ a concept album based entirely on the Bathory legend, but this album gives more than a taster.
Cradle of Filth have been the focus of much criticism since their albums began selling well and proved popular with mainstream metal fans. This album finds the band well before its creativity began to slip, and before the arguable focus on image and theatrics over musical quality. At this point, ‘Cradle of Filth’ was still a struggling bunch of English and Scandinavian blokes with an interest in the gothic. Dani Filth’s trademark sarcastic humour is still present, but only to the extent of select puns; his poetic lyrics are impressive, if a little showy. It’s just a shame you can’t hear them through his crow-like, squawking vocals.
The CD booklet reflects this low budget, with an almost convincing centrefold of the gothed-up band devouring the bright red blood of a screaming, bound and resistant (but disappointingly clothed) female. The production quality is fairly good, a lot better than their self-produced efforts, but Nicholas Barker’s drums still come out sounding a little understated, like his drum kit’s covered in plastic bags or something. Nevertheless, this reduced focus on the drums suits the tone of the majority of the album, with its alternating guitar and keyboard leads and extensive use of both Dani’s and Sarah Jezebel Deva’s contrasting vocal ranges.
1. Humana Inspired to Nightmare
2. Heaven Torn Asunder
3. Funeral in Carpathia
4. A Gothic Romance (Red Roses for the Devil’s Whore)
5. Malice through the Looking Glass
6. Dusk and Her Embrace
7. The Graveyard by Moonlight
8. Beauty Slept in Sodom
9. Haunted Shores
Almost every song on here seems to take its cues from the keyboards, which tend to introduce each track, in an increasingly elaborate manner, before the other instruments kick in. ‘Humana Inspired to Nightmare’ is a brief and inconsequential piano piece, with accompanying thunderous sound effects, that builds the atmosphere impressively. The album features a similar, but more impressive piano instrumental, ‘The Graveyard by Moonlight,’ which is inoffensive in length and helps to break up the monotony of later tracks. Providing the opening melodies for tracks 2, 4, 5, 8 and 9, some of which are effectively extensive keyboard solos in themselves before vocals or guitars come to life, Damien works his way through typical piano and atmospheric synth to more obscure and dingy organ and harpsichord effects, the final of which is the most chilling and memorable. Both ‘A Gothic Romance’ and ‘Beauty Slept in Sodom’ rely primarily on the keyboards above all else, with the exception of Dani’s vocal theatrics in the former.
The album begins, properly this time, with ‘Heaven Torn Asunder,’ one of the most energetic songs and one that clearly owes a debt to Iron Maiden when it kicks into a galloping guitar riff. Some nice dual guitars and changes in speed and style throughout make this one of my favourites on the album, and it’s great to hear the opening riffs return on the bass at the end. My criticism is the same here as it is for the majority of the album: the song is a little too long, kicking back into more verses after sounding like it’s drawing to a close, and the vocals are nothing more than unintelligible screeches at many points. The other guitar-heavy songs on the album are the mediocre ‘Malice Through the Looking Glass,’ which nevertheless features a nice duet of Dani Filth’s high and low vocals and one of the album’s rare solos, and the title song ‘Dusk and Her Embrace.’ The latter is full of energy, dominated by the killer riff that could easily be a lost guitar line from the early days of Iron Maiden or Judas Priest. Deva’s choral backing vocals are at their best in this track, and really employed as an integral part of the music for a change.
The emphasis is on mood and melody rather than speed in ‘Funeral in Carpathia’ and ‘A Gothic Romance,’ both classic Cradle of Filth songs. ‘Carpathia’ boasts two of their greatest riffs, one on guitar and the other a haunting keyboard melody, while the keyboards of ‘A Gothic Romance’ owe something to the film soundtracks of Danny Elfman, especially ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ (of which the band are reportedly big fans). Both songs are overlong, but the atmosphere they create is excellent, and there are some very nice changes, such as unexpected heavy guitar sections in the latter song. ‘Beauty Slept in Sodom’ is something of a disappointment later, failing to reproduce this style in the latter half of the album, before the closing ‘Haunted Shores’ sees the band’s black metal roots coming to the fore. The focus is on speed and aggression, but Stuart and Gian still get some nice dual guitar work. The closing speech by Venom’s Kronos is a nice touch too, even if it is a little silly. Still, nice to see England get a mention – Dracula was set here too, you know.
‘Dusk… and Her Embrace’ maintains a gothic atmosphere throughout with far greater success than any of the band’s other releases, but the focus on keyboards and synthesised symphonic elements does detract from its immediate ‘fun’ value. Almost every song sounds too long, and things get dull as the album becomes weaker towards the end, yet the album lends itself to being played the whole way through, rather than as a selection of songs. At fifty minutes, ‘Dusk… and Her Embrace’ is only ten minutes longer than the ‘VEmpire’ E.P., but it feels like a lot more. ‘Haunted Shores’ and the title track prove that this is still ‘extreme’ metal; ‘A Gothic Romance’ is the band at its most gothic and poetic; ‘Heaven Torn Asunder’ keeps the English heavy metal spirit alive, and even ‘The Graveyard By Moonlight’ is a step above their later instrumentals.
Symphonic gothic metal won’t be to everyone’s taste, but Cradle of Filth have enjoyed more mainstream attention and devotion than their contemporaries in recent years, often seen as the boy-band of gothic metal due to their affection from many fans of Marilyn Manson and the like (I really struggle to see the similarity though). ‘Dusk’ is a nice, semi-independent release by a burgeoning band from Suffolk, and if nothing else it deserves to be remembered for beginning the band’s obsession with controversial clothing. The accompanying ‘vestal masturbation’ T-shirt, with its rather rude evaluation of Jesus, caused understandable controversy when the band wore it to the Vatican. Those naughty goth boys.
Advantages: Interesting and genre-defining gothic metal
Disadvantages: Erratic and drawn-out at times
Cruelty and the Beast
There is No Beast Without Cruelty
*****
Written on 25.04.04
The black metal genre is one of the least popular musical forms for the general public, but bands such as England's Cradle of Filth have achieved revered cult status among a legion of loyal and spellbound fans. Black metal is characterised by heavy drums and guitars supplemented by keyboards and screeching vocals, creating something very different to the norm. The lyrics and subject matter are often of a demonic and sexual nature.
Cradle of Filth are possibly the most widely known example of black metal and have become fairly successful among metal fans over the last few years, however their earlier material is by far the most interesting. 1998's 'Cruelty and the Beast' is a concept album comprising ten excellent tracks, concerning the life story of the infamous Elizabeth Bathory; this insane European Countess became convinced that feasting off, and bathing in the blood of virgins would keep her eternally youthful, and this belief led her to slaughter a terrifying number of people from the nearby town. She was eventually discovered and executed, and her legacy as one of the first documented 'vampires' has inspired the film and music industry in a number of ways, including here.
THE MUSIC
Each track on this album feels like it has taken a great deal of planning and perfecting, and there is no sense of 'filler.' I always find concept albums interesting when there is a clear story to follow throughout, and both the lyrics and the music narrate this superbly.
The first track, 'ONCE UPON ATROCITY,' is a keyboard instrumental that slowly builds up to a thunderous climax, and sets the tone for the album straight away. The gothic nature of the album can be seen from this early point, and the subtle, organ-esque rhythms draw the listener in before the music really begins.
'THIRTEEN AUTUMNS AND A WIDOW' is one of my favourite tracks on the album, and showcases everything that makes Cradle of Filth unique. Alternating between fast and slow, energetic and relaxed, this really gets interesting when the guitar sections kick in towards the end, with a keyboard-led outro. Anyone who thinks Cradle can't play a good guitar piece should listen to this track foremost.
'CRUELTY BROUGHT THEE ORCHIDS' continues in a similar vein with a very recognisable guitar riff, a common trait to all this album's songs, but is somewhat slower and more gothic in nature, utilising Sarah Jezebel Deva's vocals in places.
'BENEATH THE HOWLING STARS' is one of the most atmospheric and involving tracks on the album and features some excellent bass playing and orchestral keyboards.
'VENUS IN FEAR,' the most controversial track on the album, is a three-minute interlude featuring subtle horror keyboards and occasional blood-curdling screams as Bathory defiles a female virgin. Disturbing and excruciating, this is not for the faint-hearted but does suit the style.
'DESIRE IN VIOLENT OVERTURE' is a very enjoyable track, if a little less atmospheric, but does feature some truly "wailing" guitars. A fairly easy song on the ears before the album takes the listener in much deeper.
'THE TWISTED NAILS OF FAITH' begins with some interesting keyboards and a ticking , ominous clock sound before one of the hardest riffs on the album begins. Long and complex, this is one of the album's finest tracks and has a great title.
'BATHORY ARIA' is not a track I am too fond of, although I know other people swear by it. Over ten minutes long, this slow, gothic number is divided into three sections and is one of Cradle's very different offerings.
'PORTRAIT OF THE DEAD COUNTESS' follows and is a short but beautiful keyboard interlude that conveys a great deal of sadness and melancholy and causes the listener to feel a little sorry for the Countess, despite her actions.
The album closes in style with 'LUSTMORD AND WARGASM (THE LICK OF CARNIVOROUS WINDS),' beginning with some great keyboards and offering one of the best and most energetic tracks on the album.
THE BAND
Cradle of Filth's line-up has undergone many changes over their ten-year career, but the talented musicians present on this fourth album are all flawless.
VOCALS - The most prominent member is the band's diminutive frontman DANI FILTH, an Englishman with an unnatural capacity for unearthly screams and growls that take a while to get accustomed to, but fit the atmosphere perfectly. His crow-like howls are much more finely tuned and understandable than on the previous album and he is able to alternate to eerie whispers and beastly growls in a way that keeps it interesting. Sarah Jezebel Deva adds welcome female vocals in some songs, while the occasional voice of the Countess herself is handled expertly by Hammer Horror veteran Ingrid Pitt.
GUITARS - The guitars are my favourite aspect of this album, (along with most others in my collection) and are executed equally by STUART and GIAN. The dark rhythms in every song sound excellent, while the solos and other interesting high sections never feel over-the-top or out of place. I love guitars.
BASS - ROBIN GRAVES, presumably not his real name, shines through as the "nocturnal pulse" of all the tracks, but is most notable when given a section to himself such as in the fourth track.
KEYBOARDS - LECTER is superbly talented at playing the keyboards on this album, and is far superior in terms of his ability and decisions than any of the band's other keyboard players earlier and later. The keyboard tracks are highlights of the album, and the constant support behind the more prominent instruments in the rest of the album really does make this album what it is.
DRUMS - The drums are less pounding on this album, which is due to its slightly poor production, but I don't find this a problem; it sets this apart from the rest of the black metal genre and actually sounds better because of it. NICHOLAS would soon leave the band for Norway's 'Dimmu Borgir,' but his incredibly fast playing is essential to this album
DESIGN
As with all of Cradle's albums, a lot of time and effort has been put in to making the album "perfect." The colour scheme is based on sepia brown with striking blood red in places and, although the cover design alone would repel and possible insult a lot of people, it does give an honest indication of what the album entails. With the concept idea of Elizabeth Bathory, the cover depicts the naked Countess, albeit with her knees raised to cover gratuitous nudity, soaking in one of her blood baths. The surrounding floor is cracked and old, with several skulls as decoration.
It is obvious that at first sighting this album cover could be seen as incredibly sexist or disturbing, if the observer misinterpreted it as a suicide scene or a cruel depiction of menstruation, however as it stands there is nothing inherently controversial about this cover; the colour scheme is very pleasing to the eyes, and the intriguing bathing woman is incentive to look further.
Inside the album the level of potentially disturbing violence increases with pictures showing the Countess at work, "harvesting" tied bodies, but this is all done very tastefully and not in a sexist fashion; in fact, the majority of Cradle of Filth fan tend to be female. There is an artistic photograph of the band as the album's centrefold, standing and sitting in what I presume to be a room of Bathory's castle, while each band member is given a "lowdown" at points throughout the booklet. From Robin Graves to Lecter, each member is described with a brief tongue-in-cheek passage describing some of their less savoury pleasures. As with the album's lyrics these deal with anti-Christian views and are often graphically sexual, but having seen the band "out of make up" on videos I can confidently say that this is all in the spirit of fun.
VERDICT
'Cruelty and the Beast' is an incredibly detailed, compelling and involving album, and one of the most atmospheric I have ever heard. The music and lyrics are dark, moving, exciting and erotic, and although this is certainly not a mainstream album I feel it would be enjoyed by many people if it were better known. I won't underplay its obvious negative aspects as it could be incredibly offensive to religious people, but this is truly an example of music as an art form. Whatever you opinion on the band and the genre, the artistic nature of this album cannot be overlooked- the music is excellent and the lyrics are beautifully and disturbingly poetic. Take thou heed and be thou warned.
Advantages: Incredibly crafted music and poetic lyrics, Varied style, Involving concept album
Disadvantages: Some lyrics would upset Christians, Graphic descriptions of sexual activity
From the Cradle to Enslave E.P.
**
Written on 24.05.08
After releasing several albums of creative, talented and macabre gothic metal, Cradle of Filth started to slip disappointingly towards a mainstream bastardisation of their sound that would be sadly realised over the course of several years. 'From the Cradle to Enslave' is the start of this transformation, an E.P. of lacklustre covers, needless remixes and below par original material that pales in comparison to its illustrious predecessors 'Dusk and Her Embrace' and 'Cruelty and the Beast.'
The original material isn't entirely bad, but it's obviously screaming for acceptance by the readers of mainstream metal magazines such as 'Kerrang!' in its dilution of the band's gothic sound with radio-friendly structures and a tamed performance that tries desperately to be catchy. 'From the Cradle to Enslave' is over-repetitive and 'Of Dark Blood and F**king' is merely a horrible mess of the elements that previously made the band's music so engaging, from inappropriate keyboards and operatic female vocals to an overlong and tedious drum intro.
The re-make of 'Funeral in Carpathia' is inoffensive but pointless, and an overly clinical production job robs it of the atmosphere of the 'Dusk and Her Embrace' original. The cover material is a mixed bag: their take on the Misfits is disappointing to say the least, the band's gothic guitar style and rasped vocals failing to live up to the glory of 'Earth A.D.' in any way, Massacre's 'Dawn of Eternity' is malformed into a gothic piece that contrasts too sharply with its extreme elements, and their take on Anathema's classic 'Sleepless' sounds equally out of place, and spoils all the best bits. At least I didn't have to endure the alternative version of the E.P. that comes with the band's attempt at a techno remix with the song 'Pervert's Church,' that would just be hideous.
1. From the Cradle to Enslave
2. Of Dark Blood and F**king
3. Death Comes Ripping (Misfits cover)
4. Sleepless (Anathema cover)
5. Funeral in Carpathia (Be Quick or Be Dead version)
6. Dawn of Eternity (Massacre cover)
Midian
Abandon Hope, Ye Phallusteins Who Enter Here
****
Written on 11.08.04
British vampire enthusiasts Cradle of Filth are one of the most successful and prominent bands of the black metal genre, their extreme, heavy and intricate music and dark, erotic and (occasionally) very amusing lyrics earning the band an extremely loyal fan base. It was with their 2000 album ‘Midian’ that the band really hit their stride and became noticed by the general public, leading to mixed reactions: metal and gothic music fans had found a new favourite band, while hilarious TV personalities such as Jonathan Ross could pretend to be really clever and down with the kids by mentioning them pretty much every time I randomly channel surfed through his ‘Film 2001’ show.
STYLE
‘Black metal’ – another sub-genre to describe to the musically unconscious public. This is essentially as dark and heavy as it gets; to produce something more intense, one would find one’s music passing through infinity and coming out again as something like ‘New Kids on the Block.’ The usual instruments are still present – guitars, bass and drums – but these are all played to a much fuller extent and are complimented by atmospheric keyboards and growling vocals.
Dani Filth’s vocals are at their best here, finally achieving the desired mix between the crow screech of the previous album and the guttural roars of their early work. Many of the lyrics are spoken so fast or distorted that it’s admittedly hard to tell what’s being said, but excellent touches such as Sarah Jezebel Deva’s operatic female vocals add to the experience so fully that it doesn’t matter. And it’s great to hear a posh lady swear like that, although I don’t find it strangely erotic. Not much anyway.
In terms of the instruments, this is much heavier and more instrument-led than some of their previous offerings, which relied a lot more on atmospheric keyboards in places, partly thanks to that most talented of perverts Lecter. The band’s members have shifted with each consecutive album, but this is often seen as the ‘classic’ line-up (although I would disagree; ‘Cruelty and the Beast’ is still my favourite of their albums), and the main difference in the sound here is the re-introduction of guitarist Paul Allender, who appeared on the debut album but was replaced by Stuart Anstis.
The relentless double bass thumps add to the music rather than detracting as they did previously, due to the poor production values of their earlier albums, while the keyboards blend into the overall tapestry a lot more, only surfacing occasionally. This is symphonic black metal at is finest, ranging from roaring violence to reflection.
MIDIAN
1. At the Gates of Midian
2. Cthulhu Dawn
3. Saffron’s Curse
4. Death Magick for Adepts
5. Lord Abortion
6. Amor e Morte
7. Creatures That Kissed in Cold Mirrors
8. Her Ghost in the Fog
9. Satanic Mantra
10. Tearing the Veil From Grace
11. Tortured Soul Asylum
These eleven tracks form over an hour of music, despite several of them essentially being interludes – ‘AT THE GATES OF MIDIAN’ builds up with some great keyboards into the first real song, while ‘CREATURES THAT KISSED IN COLD MIRRORS’ is an incredible keyboard piece that sounds reminiscent of Danny Elfman’s scores from Tim Burton films, whether this was an influence or not. Unfortunately this excellence is balanced out by the appalling ‘SATANIC MANTRA,’ some repetitive a cappella chanting for a couple of minutes that is a definite skipper.
The first song is also the heaviest, the intense ‘CTHULHU DAWN.’ Great, memorable guitars and growling vocals make the tone of the album very clear to anyone who’s just put it in the CD player out of curiosity, and Dani’s vocals go through their full range here. ‘SAFFRON’S CURSE’ is similar but less impressive, using some melodic high keyboards that don’t really work, before one of my favourites on the album – grandiose doesn’t begin to describe ‘DEATH MAGICK FOR ADEPTS.’ Heavy and pounding, the real joy of this song comes in the last forty seconds following a monologue from an old man (who also appears on later tracks), leading into the greatest guitar riff the band have ever executed.
‘LORD ABORTION’ is the stand-out track for many people and is certainly an excellent example of the band right down to the needlessly offensive lyrics. This is much slower and focussed, but still features heavier sections. ‘AMOR E MORTE’ is fast and fun, if a little unimpressive in light of the promotional single ‘HER GHOST IN THE FOG.’ This was the song that got my friend into the band and led to me becoming familiar with their entire discography, and its use of Deva’s vocals and some more excellent guitars makes it one of the clear highlights.
A song that has grown on me over time to become possibly my favourite of the album is the penultimate offering ‘TEARING THE VEIL FROM GRACE.’ The first half is surprisingly melodic and verges on beautiful with the strong female vocals and light keyboards, before the definition of ‘letting rip’ when the other instruments erupt into life. ‘TORTURED SOUL ASYLUM’ is an average track that nevertheless closes the album nicely, and aside from the afore-mentioned Mantra, the tone and atmosphere is maintained throughout the musical experience.
THEMES
Vocalist and lyricist Dani Filth again decided on a themed concept album following the success of this approach with their previous ‘Cruelty and the Beast,’ which focussed on the life and death of Countess Elizabeth Bathory. ‘Midian’ is based primarily on Clive Barker’s book of the same name, with the Cthulhu mythos of horror writer H.P. Lovecraft infiltrating at a number of points. Lovecraft’s creation has strangely become a genuine cult worldwide, and has also provided inspiration for prominent bands such as Metallica in their early albums.
The themes of love, death, sacrifice, sex, perversion and the worship of evil are typical of black metal and Cradle of Filth in particular, but the enjoyment is always maintained by Dani’s turn of phrase, when it can be heard amongst his squawking. “The scimitar slash to the undergash,” “it’s rotting down – this carcass Maggotropolis” and my personal favourite, “Sodomy on the Bounty,” are balanced out by a great deal of sexual content that I couldn’t even begin to quote here, but rest assured there is little left undescribed. They aren’t a comedy band – they wouldn’t have got far if they were – but many people doubtless consider them to be more serious about all this than they actually are. (Dani’s favourite film is ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ for example. Sorry if I’ve ruined the mood for you).
Probably an album it’s best not to play when mother’s friends are round, although the untrained ear would only pick up the more obvious profanities.
VERDICT
This is obviously not an album that will appeal to everyone, and it took me a while to get into it. The band’s popularity suggests that anyone who enjoys heavy bands should find something they like here, while the atmosphere alone should be enough to tempt some fans of horror films and literature. Personally I don’t consider this to be the band’s finest album musically, although technically it is their most mature and likely their most accessible.
The heaviness does seem to be overdoing it at times at expense to the mood; the balance maintained on their previous album ‘Cruelty and the Beast’ was much more impressive, while also featuring more melodic guitars and keyboards that didn’t intrude so much as on this release. Nevertheless, with epic songs such as ‘Her Ghost in the Fog’ and ‘Lord Abortion,’ this was guaranteed to be a hit for the English gothic boys, and they must have had a sense that they were creating their ‘classic’ album during the recording. The band’s more recent albums have diverged little too much from their original intentions and are less atmospheric and enjoyable on the whole.
The computer-generated artwork is a little primitive, but the purple and brown colour scheme suits the tone perfectly. I don’t know if Lovecraft would have enjoyed black metal, but he probably would have given the lyric booklet a thorough read-through.
Advantages: Musically complex and artistic, Heavy and melodic, Interestingly blasphemous lyrics
Disadvantages: Too heavy for many peoples' taste, May upset, offend or confound, Not as melodic or hilarious as the 1998 album
Lovecraft & Witchhearts
***
Written on 24.05.08
Cradle of Filth's popularity escalated as their music became more predictable and less imaginative, once again demonstrating the mediocre tastes of the masses (even those who misleadingly fancy themselves as alternative by reading such obscure publications as 'Kerrang!'), and 2002 saw several releases cashing in on this mainstream success in wont of a proper studio album.
'Lovecraft & Witchhearts' is an unashamed best-of compilation bulked out by some rare and unreleased material in the form of remixes and cover songs, and I'll admit that it's quite a good collection. Its avoidance of the band's earliest material is disappointing, but it fortunately doesn't include anything from the awful 'Bitter Suites to Succubi' release that would have decreased its quality immensely - presumably this is more due to record label issues than artistic choice.
The main problem here is that it's a fairly lifeless collection, jumping between eras and styles without grace and missing out some of the better examples of the styles on offer, preferring to insert a more modern equivalent when possible. It's still a fair representation of the band, especially at this point in its career before their sound deviated even further, but the cover songs on the second disc aren't particularly impressive, and even the remixes are lacking any real delights - the remastering of 'Thirteen Autumns and a Widow' doesn't even fix the shoddy production of the original.
This is fine as a collection of fairly arbitrary Cradle of Filth songs, but I'd still only recommend checking out the earlier portion of their discography.
Disc 1
1. Creatures That Kissed in Cold Mirrors
2. Dusk and Her Embrace
3. Beneath the Howling Stars
4. Her Ghost in the Fog
5. Funeral in Carpathia (Be Quick or Be Dead version)
6. The Twisted Nails of Faith
7. From the Cradle to Enslave
8. Saffron's Curse
9. Malice Through the Looking Glass
10. Cruelty Brought Thee Orchids
11. Lord Abortion
Disc 2
1. Once Upon Atrocity
2. Thirteen Autumns and a Widow (Red October mix)
3. For Those Who Died (Return to the Sabbat mix) (Sabbat cover)
4. Sodomy and Lust (Sodom cover)
5. Twisting Further Nails
6. Amor e Morte (Lycanthropy mix)
7. Carmilla's Masque
8. Lustmord and Wargasm II
9. Dawn of Eternity (Massacre cover)
10. Of Dark Blood and F**king (Stripped to the Bone mix)
11. Dance Macabre
12. Hell Awaits (Slayer cover)
13. Hallowed Be Thy Name (Iron Maiden cover)
Live Bait for the Dead
***
Written on 24.05.08
Unfortunately coming slightly too late to be the definitive live Cradle of Filth album, released well into the band's artistic decline, 'Live Bait for the Dead' still boasts an impressive range of material from the band's entire discography up to this point, even if their modern style will interfere a little too much with the classics for old-school fans' tastes. Balancing then-current songs such as the mediocre singles 'Her Ghost in the Fog' and 'From the Cradle to Enslave' with older, more violent offerings 'Ebony Dressed for Sunset' and 'Summer Dying Fast' and gothic extravaganzas in the form of 'Dusk and Her Embrace' and 'Queen of Winter, Throned,' this captures most of what was good about Cradle of Filth in their early career, with a few acceptable inclusions from more recent years that at least catch the band just before they became really bad.
The second disc is an odd inclusion, and although it helps to bulk out the set, it presumably did the same thing to the price, and isn't really worth it. The remixes are either pointless, as is the case for the near-identical 'No Time to Cry' and 'Born in a Burial Gown,' the latter clearly just being milked as the current single, or awful like the hideous industrial rock remix of 'From the Cradle to Enslave.' 'Deleted Scenes of a Snuff Princess' is an attempt at something radically different in the form of a fully-fledged underground dance track, but like the band's earlier 'Pervert's Church' it simply sounds too out of place and not particularly accomplished in any case, and the only truly decent songs here are the soundchecks of the classic 'Funeral in Carpathia' and not-quite-classic 'Nocturnal Supremacy,' which benefit from the extra energy of the as-live performance.
Disc 1
1. The Ceremony Opens (Intro)
2. Lord Abortion
3. Ebony Dressed for Sunset
4. The Forest Whispers My Name
5. Cthulhu Dawn
6. Dusk and Her Embrace
7. The Principle of Evil Made Flesh
8. Cruelty Brought Thee Orchids
9. Her Ghost in the Fog
10. Summer Dying Fast
11. Creatures That Kissed in Cold Mirrors (Interlude)
12. From the Cradle to Enslave
13. Queen of Winter, Throned
Disc 2
1. Born in a Burial Gown (The Polished Coffin mix)
2. No Time to Cry (Sisters of No Mercy mix)
3. Funeral in Carpathia (soundcheck recording)
4. Deleted Scenes of a Snuff Princess
5. Scorched Earth Erotica (original demo version)
6. Nocturnal Supremacy (soundcheck recording)
7. From the Cradle to Enslave (Under Martian Rule mix)
8. The Fire Still Burns (Twisted Sister cover)
Damnation and a Day
***
Written on 24.05.08
Cries of sell-out were predictably thrown around as Cradle of Filth released their first album on a major record label, but whatever other criticisms can be levelled at the over-ambitious and ultimately unconvincing 'Damnation and a Day,' there's nothing insincere about it. Armed with a high budget and a full orchestra, the gothic metal got a little ahead of itself with this overlong, over-produced concept album based around Milton's epic poem 'Paradise Lost,' though you'd never know it if you didn't read the lyrics.
The orchestration is the major change here, and can be the album's main strength or weakness depending on your preference for orchestral metal. Disappointingly, the symphony seems to completely usurp the regular instruments, leaving the guitars in particular as a background rhythm instrument devoid of the band's usual flair for lead guitar work, and only Dani Filth's relentless crow screech really signifies that this is the same band responsible for 'Midian.' Adrian Erlandsson's drums are also slightly irritating, ticking away without any force thanks to the overly clean production and never sitting particularly well with the symphony.
This isn't necessarily a bad symphonic metal album, but it doesn't fuse the two styles as well as it could, and ends up sounding rather amateur as a result. At seventeen tracks it's also much too long for one sitting, and the uneven distribution of styles sees the contrived singles 'Babalon A.D.,' 'Mannequin' and 'Thank God for the Suffering' lumped together towards the end after the conceptual material has been done away with.
1. A Bruise Upon the Silent Moon
2. The Promise of Fever
3. Hurt and Virtue
4. An Enemy Led the Tempest
5. Damned in Any Language (A Plague on Words)
6. Better to Reign in Hell
7. Serpent Tongue
8. Carrion
9. The Mordant Liquor of Tears
10. Presents from the Poison-Hearted
11. Doberman Pharaoh
12. Babalon A.D. (So Glad for the Madness)
13. A Scarlet Witch Lit the Season
14. Mannequin
15. Thank God for the Suffering
16. The Smoke of Her Burning
17. End of Daze
Nymphetamine
**
Written on 24.05.08
Billed as a return to form after the orchestral 'Damnation and a Day' went a little too far, 'Nymphetamine' fails to recapture the glory of Cradle of Filth's early career in any way, resulting in another generic mainstream metal release from Roadrunner Records. It's clear that the band went for a more stripped and simplistic sound here, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but sadly their creative abilities aren't enough to keep it from sounding bland and mostly tedious, its greatest crime being a complete lack of the atmosphere that the band used to create so well.
Some of the songs are catchy, such as the chorus of 'Gilded C**t' and the title song itself, but the others feel lacking in direction, with cheap Iron Maiden imitation lead guitars from newcomer James McKillboy and disappointing keyboards from the formerly impressive Martin Powell. Conflicting with the band's stripped-down intentions, many songs are simply too long, and attempts to recapture the gothic heights of older songs such as 'A Gothic Romance' with 'Gabrielle' and others only draw attention to the lack of atmosphere and conviction.
1. Satyriasis (Intro)
2. Gilded Cunt
3. Nemesis
4. Gabrielle
5. Absinthe with Faust
6. Nymphetamine (Overdose)
7. Painting Flowers White Never Suited My Palette
8. Medusa and Hemlock
9. Coffin Fodder
10. English Fire
11. Filthy Little Secret
12. Swansong for a Raven
13. Mother of Abominations
14. Nymphetamine (Fix)
Thornography
**
Written on 24.05.08
Cradle of Filth's most recent album carries directly on from 'Nymphetamine' but is a little more accomplished in its execution of a stripped-down sound, even if the reintroduction of keyboard intros only serves to make them sound like a cheesy gimmick due to their absence in some songs. Dani Filth's vocals no longer scream for attention quite so much, even providing some clean singing in songs such as 'Tonight in Flames,' and although the band is clearly enjoying itself, playing a more simplistic and less atmospheric form of metal, they still aren't all that good at it.
The band's lead guitar position continues in its revolving door tradition, and Charles Hedger is perhaps the greatest deviation from the band's classic sound, making them sound more like a weak and raspy Iron Maiden. None of the songs are particularly loathsome, but none held my interest all the way through, and the album (and band at this point in its career) are staggeringly overrated in the metal scene. And the less said about the ridiculous cover of 'Temptation' (yes, that one), the better.
1. Under Pregnant Skies She Comes Alive Like Miss Leviathan
2. Dirge Inferno
3. Tonight in Flames
4. Libertina Grimm
5. The Byronic Man
6. I Am the Thorn
7. Cemetery and Sundown
8. Lovesick for Mina
9. The Foetus of a New Day Kicking
10. Rise of the Pentagram
11. Under Huntress Moon
12. Temptation (Heaven 17 cover)
The Crazy World of Arthur Brown
The Crazy World of Arthur Brown
God of Hellfire
***
Written on 19.07.06
This bizarre duet of organs and inhuman wails, with some drums and a bass guitar filling in underneath there somewhere, remains one of the classics of late 60s psychedelic rock. Deleted fairly swiftly on LP, this quirky oddity of rock and reason was released on CD in 1991 and is still readily available today, although you may have to look pretty hard.
Against all likelihood, this self-titled debut album from Arthur Brown’s first band spawned a hit (#2) single with the energetic ‘Fire,’ commonly regarded, by people who judge music in terms of popularity, as one of the strangest one hit wonders in music history. At least, before the 80s came along (‘Shaddap You Face’ anyone?) Unfortunately, nowhere else on the record is the energy so vibrant and the musicianship as frantic as in those (in)famous two-and-a-half minutes.
The Crazy World of Arthur Brown takes its cues from blues rock, evidenced by the cover of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ hit ‘I Put a Spell on You,’ as well as more laid back R ‘n’ B style. Again, this is supported by the album’s second cover song, ‘I’ve Got Money’ by James Brown. This album is psychedelic in a different way from the dreamy soundscapes and mellow singing of The Who, The Beatles and Pink Floyd, opting for a more concise and speedy mood most of the time.
The lack of guitar sets this album apart from those of its contemporaries, and the resulting over-compensation of Vincent Crane’s organ makes it sound particularly dated today, as well as weirdly compelling. The album’s main strength lies in the vocals of its frontman; Arthur Brown still reportedly possesses his famous four octave range, and he doesn’t shy away from demonstrating it throughout this record, occasionally moving through his whole range in the space of five seconds. Even if you don’t want The Crazy World of Arthur Brown to mean anything more to you than one stupid hit single, this proto-prog album at least has historical significance. And, um… not much else.
1. Prelude / Nightmare
2. Fanfare / Fire Poem
3. Fire
4. Come and Buy
5. Time / Confusion
6. I Put a Spell on You
7. Spontaneous Apple Creation
8. Rest Cure
9. I’ve Got Money
10. Child of My Kingdom
The first half of this album forms an infernal psychedelic suite that sees Arthur Brown indulging his theatrical side. For no reason whatsoever, these five tracks are added in monaural form as bonus tracks on the CD release and placed at the start of the album, meaning that listeners have to skip to track six. Crazy. In any case, this is the more impressive of the album’s two halves (or sides if you’re stuck in the days of vinyl), although its rather grand scope and repetition may cause the more chilled second half to be more suited to casual listeners. In this suite, Brown describes a pleasant riverside walk becoming a descent into fiery Hell. It’s sort of like Dante’s Inferno, but without the poetic justice and the moral; Brown seems more concerned with presenting Hell for Hell’s sake, although record burners can hold it right there, as the lyrics are never allied with the Satanic cause. Why is it so cold in here?
To enhance the scale of the piece, the band recruits what sounds like a small orchestra, but could easily be a couple of mates they brought into the studio. The ‘Prelude’ is an idyllic, pastoral orchestral opening before the organ and subsequently the vocals kick in, following sound effects that sound suspiciously like snoring (some kind of comment from the impatient, hyper-energetic vocalist?) A trumpet fanfare bridges the first and second songs, but no such transition is made from the spoken word poetics of ‘Fire Poem’ to the hit single that follows. Brown’s vocals become demented in track two, a nice precursor to the only famous song he has ever done.
Brown’s terrifying announcement opens the pointless but immensely enjoyable Hellfire anthem. His pseudo-croon that dominates thereafter is haunting and compelling, and works brilliantly alongside the piping organ, which is later usurped by parping trumpets. The break-off in the middle of the song builds anticipation for the reprise of the chorus, especially as the vocals become higher and higher as Arthur Brown’s soul burns in the fires of Hell.
“God brother, you lie.” As a striking contrast to the opening of ‘Fire,’ the longer, slower and calmer ‘Come and Buy’ works excellently in the arrangement and is one of the best songs on the album. The funky vocals as the song speeds up, and eventually the reprise of musical and lyrical themes from ‘Fire Poem’ and ‘Fire’ makes this a great proto-prog song. The same goes for ‘Time/Confusion,’ which begins slowly, aided by something like a xylophone, and features more poetic lyrics before reflecting back on the album thus far and drawing things to a fitting end. Of course, there’s still half an album to go.
‘Spontaneous Apple Creation’ boasts the uncontested best song title of the album, but is one of its weaker moments; I don’t know whether it’s intentional, but the old-fashioned organ and plodding bass and drums really retreat to seaside music territory here. Adding Brown’s fairytale lyrics to the mix, this sounds more like an old fairground ride at Blackpool Pleasure Beach than a song worthy of peoples’ time. By contrast, ‘Rest Cure’ is a pretty good song that anticipates David Bowie in its low range English croon and is led by the bass for a change, plucking along in place of the irritating organ. This song is perhaps the most inherently commercial on here, so it’s a shame it wasn’t given the same attention as the hit single.
The album concludes with the long and progressive ‘Child of My Kingdom,’ featuring everything from mellow vocals to an extended instrumental jam session that actually gives the drummer something to do for once. It’s nice to hear Brown whistling some of the alternating verse lines at seemingly random intervals, and it’s almost sad to hear the instruments fade out after seven minutes. The cover songs ‘I Put a Spell on You’ and ‘I’ve Got Money’ are covered well, to the extent that they sound like they belong on the album rather than on someone else’s, and although they fit in well when given the organ treatment, it would have been nice to hear some more original material.
This is a fairly unbalanced album, clearly divided into two uneven halves, neither of which comes anywhere close to perfection. The ‘Fire’ cycle isn’t particularly daunting, but does get a bit repetitive, and once it’s all over with and the mini-orchestra have been sent home, the resulting songs sound shallow and simple. Based on the listener’s orientation to this kind of thing, this will be a good or bad move; after all, most people will have bought this album based on a very short hit single, and probably didn’t anticipate its position in the middle of a ‘play.’
The impressively educated Brown’s mundane, Monty Python style English name may not draw in the kids as much as those of the shock rockers he would directly inspire, most notably Ozzy Osbourne and Alice Cooper, the latter of whom reportedly stole Brown’s make up ideas. Fortunately his stage presence and legendary theatrics with flaming helmets and cranes more than compensate, and have left a lasting impression: despite never achieving high sales of any albums hereafter, Brown still sells out every concert venue today.
Brown’s vocals are something pretty special, but are only supported by primitive instruments here. Vincent Crane may be admired for his organ skills, but it still sounds like a supporting instrument struggling to take the place of a guitar. Nevertheless, he and Brown came up with some great songs here, and never burdened themselves with trying to be sensible, coherent or popular. I wonder how the hell ‘Fire’ happened?
Advantages: A semi-classic
Disadvantages: Loses its appeal fairly quickly
Illusions
****
Written on 13.06.08
Crematory's third album is a welcome change of pace, as the German gothic metal band starts to develop a distinct sound of its own. This is a strong and myriad collection of songs, from the instrumental opening and closing tracks that exude more atmosphere and complexity than on previous releases, to the mix of doom and gothic metal elsewhere.
Perhaps the most significant change is the dominance of clean vocals, which might take some getting used to for those unaccustomed to the thick German accent, as much of it tends towards spoken word with death metal growls to supplement. The songs vary between melodic guitar and keyboard dominance, and although I prefer the more traditionally doom metal songs such as 'Faces' and 'The Beginning of the End,' the lighter gothic moments of the hypnotic 'Tears of Time' and bass-driven 'The Atmosphere' diversify the album in a satisfying, rather than distracting way.
1. Reflexionen (Intro)
2. Faces
3. Tears of Time
4. My Way
5. Lost In Myself
6. An Other...?
7. The Atmosphere
8. The Beginning of the End
9. Sweet Solitude
10. Dreams of Dancing
11. ... Just Dreaming
12. Visions
Act Seven
****
Written on 13.06.08
With the introduction of subtle electronic elements, Crematory's sound continues to expand and improve, making for one of the finest gothic metal releases of the nineties and the band's finest work. The mood is predominantly mellow, led by Katrin Goger's ever-more-talented keyboards, but songs such as 'I Never Die' still maintain the harder metal elements, this song in particular boasting elements reminiscent of Fear Factory.
The vocals are possibly the highlight, which is an unusual statement for me, especially when they're a little soppy. Nevertheless, Felix Stass' clean singing and growled styles compliment each other perfectly, and the addition of female vocals to 'Waiting' helps each song to stand apart. The band is working together in a more satisfying fusion than usual, all the instruments really complimenting each other in songs like the single 'Fly,' and there's still time out for more atmospheric moments with the crooning of 'The Game' and balladic finale 'Tale.'
1. Shining
2. I Never Die
3. Moonlight
4. Fly
5. Memory
6. The Holy One
7. The Game
8. Waiting
9. Awake
10. Tale
Believe
***
Written on 13.06.08
2000's 'Believe' has a little too much self-confidence about it, as if German gothic metal band Crematory intended it to be their defining album when it's actually more of a step backwards. The electronic elements are still present from 'Act Seven,' even more prominent now, but a lighter style results in the album's few heavier moments sounding severely stilted, such as the guitar riffs in 'Endless.'
This is undoubtedly catchy, but there's not much to it beyond that superficial level. Songs like 'Take' and 'Act Seven' retain the electronic elements to a greater degree, 'Time for Tears' is predictably more melodic, and 'Perils of the Wind' is the compulsory synthesiser ballad, but apart from that, the album holds no surprises. This would be a much more successful album if the instruments balanced each other out to a greater degree, and the songs emoted rather than crawled along at a bland pace.
1. Redemption of Faith
2. Endless
3. The Fallen
4. Take
5. Act Seven
6. Time for Tears
7. Eternal
8. Unspoken
9. Caroline
10. The Curse
11. Why
12. Perils of the Wind
Revolution
***
Written on 13.06.08
Their comeback album after a brief disbanding, Crematory's 'Revolution' once again sees the band moving forwards instead of back, even if the increased focus on electronic elements to supplement their industrial sound isn't exactly to my taste. The synthetic elements work excellently in the extended opening instrumental 'Resurrection,' but when combined with the groove metal style guitars of the majority of the album, they just sound sort of wrong.
Felix Stass' vocals are still strong, moving between a growl and singing style, and demonstrating an impressive range in songs like 'Wake Up,' and the ever-reliable Katrin Goger is still the driving force behind the band, providing atmospheric keyboards and more dominant touches such as the piano that pulls 'Reign of Fear' along. The electronic focus of songs like 'Open Your Eyes' may prove harder for metal fans to appreciate, but they're no less accomplished, and the opposite can be said for the groove metal style of 'Human Blood,' which could even be appreciated by a Pantera fan.
1. Resurrection
2. Wake Up
3. Greed
4. Reign of Fear
5. Open Your Eyes
6. Tick Tack
7. Angel of Fate
8. Solitary Psycho
9. Revolution
10. Human Blood
11. Red Sky
12. Farewell Letter
Pray
***
Written on 24.05.08
Another band that began as death-influenced doom metal and evolved into something more accessible to receive the vague 'gothic' tag, Germany's Crematory have at least been more consistent than the more well-known Paradise Lost and Amorphis during their more recent career. 'Pray' is an inoffensive album of commercial industrial gothic metal with a large infusion of Soilwork-style melodic death metal, making for a result that could be considered a more cacophonous, powerful and energetic version of the Finnish gothic rock bands such as HIM. And much better, to boot.
Gerhard Stass moves between several vocal styles with ease, from whispers and clean singing to death metal growls in the louder sections, and the personal lyrics will still win the favour of many doom metal fans, even if the music is a little more predictable and polished than something like My Dying Bride. The guitars rely on very obvious structures such as breakdowns and short, quota-meeting solos, but fortunately the keyboards are more impressive, filling out the atmosphere and never descending into amateur electronic garbage as industrial metal bands tend to.
1. When Darkness Falls
2. Left the Ground
3. Alone
4. Pray
5. Sleeping Solution
6. Just Words
7. Burning Bridges
8. Have You Ever
9. Remember
10. Say Goodbye
Crimson Glory
****
Written on 13.06.08
Crimson Glory were an important band in the development of progressive and power metal in the second half of the eighties, though they didn't know it at the time. Their self-titled album is a confident and almost definitive debut release, offering some classic melodic heavy metal familiar to fans of Dio and the American scene, but infusing subtle atmospheric and neoclassical elements with introspective lyrics to help establish metal as a serious genre, an important crusade indeed when battling the ridiculous likes of Poison and Nitro dominating the mainstream metal charts.
Singer Midnight has an incredible voice, and this may be the deciding factor for many newcomers. His wails are entirely high-pitched, not going as far as the purposefully melodramatic King Diamond but exceeding most of his peers and perfectly complimenting Jon Drenning's high lead guitars. Despite being viewed as a progressive metal progenitor, the material here is fairly standard and predictable, though this doesn't count against it. Songs such as 'Valhalla' and 'Mayday' are fast, catchy and wholly enjoyable heavy metal, while 'Heart of Steel' and 'Lost Reflection' offer something lighter without becoming too cheesy.
1. Valhalla
2. Dragon Lady
3. Heart of Steel
4. Azrael
5. Mayday
6. Queen of the Masquerade
7. Angels of War
8. Lost Reflection
Transcendence
****
Written on 13.06.08
'Transcendence' should be viewed as an essential purchase for fans of progressive power metal - a seemingly obscure genre I know, but one with a number of high-profile acts such as Symphony X, Angra and Ayreon - as along with the work of Fates Warning around the same time, it helped to define and found the genre, despite not actually sounding all that much like it. This is thoughtful and creative melodic metal that retains a commercial appeal, and for every intricate guitar solo ('Red Sharks'), there's a catchy, almost pop-rock chorus to balance things out ('Lady of Winter').
Some of the songs here are instantly memorable, which will serve to count against the album if you despise it, and that's largely thanks to the vocal theatrics of Midnight. Interestingly, and slightly disappointingly for prog fans, the album follows the structure of its predecessor almost exactly, with slower songs in the form of 'Painted Skies' and the title song, and more traditional treats for metalheads such as the galloping 'Eternal World' and shrieking 'Red Sharks.'
1. Lady of Winter
2. Red Sharks
3. Painted Skies
4. Masque of the Red Death
5. In Dark Places
6. Where Dragons Rule
7. Lonely
8. Burning Bridges
9. Eternal World
10. Transcendence
Strange and Beautiful
**
Written on 14.06.08
Crimson Glory's discography is easy to divide down the middle, between the two early releases that were pretty great, and the two later releases that were rather awful.
'Strange and Beautiful' seems to be this band's answer to Metallica's black album, not in terms of sound but in its deliberate attempt to reach a wider audience by compromising the band's established sound and alienating its loyal fan base in favour of new, mainstream acceptance. I couldn't say whether this was a successful move or not at the time, but nowadays Crimson Glory are respected in the metal world for their early achievements by fans who pretend they disbanded before the 1990s kicked off.
The style here is predominantly glam metal, not as horrendous as Celtic Frost's 'Cold Lake' but comparable to the best of bands such as Warrant, Firehouse and all the rest, where 'best' isn't saying a lot. Radio-friendly power ballads aplenty ('Love and Dreams,' 'Song for Angels,' 'Deep Inside Your Heart' and 'Far Away,' ever so predictably), while the other songs lack the excitement and style of the earlier albums, partly due to the absence of Ben Jackson's lead guitars as Jon Drenning has to compensate all on his own with a stream of unmemorable riffs.
1. Strange and Beautiful
2. Promise Land
3. Love and Dreams
4. The Chant
5. Dance on Fire
6. Song for Angels
7. In the Mood
8. Starchamber
9. Deep Inside Your Heart
10. Make You Love Me
11. Far Away
The Convenant Progress
****
Written on 14.06.08
Crimson Moonlight are one of those frankly laughable oddities of the musical world, a Christian black metal band. A thematic sub-genre that seems mainly designed to allow Christians to enjoy the unparalleled experience of Scandinavian black metal music without worrying about going to hell, it's fair to say that most bands would fail to compare to the genre leaders, but fortunately for heathens, Crimson Moonlight's debut album is actually pretty damned good. I mean, darned.
Moving away from the earlier, keyboard-drenched style of their demo material, these songs are more typically black metal in their ferocity and execution, even if the melodic angle held up by the background keyboard (only coming to the fore in the finale 'The Covenant') and occasional lead guitars (as in the pleasant song 'A Painting in Dark'), aligns it more with early Dimmu Borgir and Dissection. This allows the album to act as another comparatively tame point of entry for black metal newcomers.
1. Mist of the Spiritual Dimension
2. The Pilgrimage
3. Path of Pain
4. Thy Wilderness
5. Eternal Emperor
6. A Painting in Dark
7. Eyes of Beauty
8. A Thorn in My Heart
9. The Covenant
Songs from the Archives
***
Written on 14.06.08
I always enjoy listening to these assembled collections of scattered rare material from bands' early days, and even if Crimson Moonlight's older material doesn't live up to the high quality of their subsequent studio albums, this compilation of demos, live songs and promotional material at least offers an inexpensive opportunity for fans to access material that would otherwise be hopelessly obscure.
As a Christian black metal band, Crimson Moonlight evidently opted to follow a lighter sound more concerned with harmony in their early days, before largely packing that in for 'The Covenant Progress' and deciding it would be best to just sound like Dissection instead. The music here is predominantly keyboard-based, crafting slow and pleasant songs around the stilted harsh elements, and although a balance is often achieved, the unnecessary focus on the keyboards does become waring.
The first five tracks comprise the band's mediocre debut E.P. 'Eternal Emperor,' followed by the 1998 live album 'Live in Värsås' in its entirety, though with its poor sound quality and quiet, unedited discussions between songs, the quality is comparable to a bootleg. 2001's 'Heralding the Dawn' demo is a stark turnaround as Pilgrim now sings rather than growls, before the final tracks promoting the studio album 'The Covenant Progress' shift once again back to more traditional black metal.
1. Preludium
2. Where Darkness Cannot Reach
3. Symphony of Moonlight
4. Eternal Emperor
5. The Final Battle
6. Glorification of the Master of Light
7. From Death to Life
8. Alone in Silence
9. Skymingsljus (Light of Twilight)
10. Ljuset (The Light)
11. Eternal Emperor
12. Postludium
13. Fullmanen Skola Vndas Uti Blod (The Full Moon Will Turn Into Blood)
14. Blood Covered My Needs
15. Your Face
16. Touch of Emptiness
17. ...And Thus Rejoice
18. A Thorn in My Heart
19. The Pilgrimage
20. A Painting in Dark
The Middle Kingdom
*****
Written on 14.06.08
Cruachan's second album is the pinnacle of their career, catching them between their more vicious black metal days and their later, more successful releases as a band increasingly focusing on folk. The most impressive and unusual thing about this album is just how diverse it manages to be, a far cry from the repetitive flute melodies of its predecessor. Opener 'A Celtic Mourning' is a sombre bagpipe instrumental, 'Celtica' is something of a folk-thrash piece and 'Unstabled' even features a distinct reggae chorus.
Karen Gilligan is introduced as the band's secondary vocalist, and her clean singing works excellently against the black metal growls that still remain. This album also has a large instrumental focus, and achieves an excellent balance between the folk and metal elements in songs like 'The Fianna' before branching out to tackle each style in greater detail. The only real disappointment comes in the form of 'Is Fuair An Chroí,' which was almost certainly conceived as a single to appeal to mainstream rock fans, and steals its leading riff from Nirvana's 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' of all places.
1. A Celtic Mourning
2. Celtica (Voice of the Morrigan)
3. The Fianna
4. A Druids Passing
5. Is Fuair An Chroí
6. Cattle Raid of Cooley
7. The Middle Kingdom
8. Ó Ró Sé do Bheatha 'Bhaile
9. Unstabled (Steeds of Macha)
10. The Butterfly
Chapter I
***
Written on 14.06.08
Sweden's Cryonic Temple are keeping the spirit of heavy metal alive, perhaps a little too self-consciously for their own good. Their debut album opens with two consecutive anthems celebrating the glory of metal in true Manowar style, and with lyrics like "men or women, black or white, together we rock," you know this is going to be something of a cheese-fest, which will either attract or repel listeners depending on their orientation. I think it's a hell of a lot of fun.
There's nothing original or groundbreaking about these songs, and that's just the way it should be. Cryonic Temple are content to sit in the shadow of their predecessors, with Iron Maiden style guitars, Grave Digger style wailing vocals from Glen Metal (perhaps not his real name) and anthemic choruses taken straight from Judas Priest, and all the songs sound pretty much the same which keeps it from being a stand-out release. 'Metal Brothers' is a satisfying plodder in the vein of Manowar, and only 'King of Transylvania' really tries something different, though unfortunately ends up a little on the glam metal side.
1. Heavy Metal Never Dies
2. Metal Brothers
3. Warsong
4. Gatekeeper
5. Rivers of Pain
6. King of Transylvania
7. Steel Against Steel
8. Mighty Warrior
9. Over and Over
Blood, Guts & Glory
****
Written on 14.06.08
It's still nothing new in the heavy metal world, but 'Blood, Guts & Glory' (correct title, Amazon and dooyoo got it wrong - just read the artwork) is one of the most enjoyable classic/power metal releases I've heard in a long time. Fronted by the booming orations of Glen Metal, led by melodic twin guitars in the spirit of Iron Maiden and the pounding riffs of Helloween, this is a perfect forgery of late eighties metal resurrected fifteen years later for the loyal fans who remain.
As delightfully fun as these songs are, they do tend to over-run by a minute or so and become repetitive, which makes their simplicity a double-edged sword. 'Mercenaries of Metal' is one of the most instantly loveable, though the notion of a trilogy doesn't extend beyond the lyrics into anything musically recognisable, and 'Swords and Diamonds' is probably the most accessible to a mainstream audience for stealing all of its ideas from the more well-known Iron Maiden.
1. Morphine Dreams
2. Mercenaries of Metal - The Quest, Part 1
3. Inquisition - The Quest, Part 2
4. Swords and Diamonds
5. Thunder and Lightning
6. The Story of the Sword
7. Long Live the Warriors
8. Triumph of Steel
9. The Midas Touch (Samurai) - The Quest, Part 3
10. Through the Skies
11. Metal No. 1
Ungentle Exhumation
***
Written on 14.06.08
A fairly significant release in technical death metal, Cryptopsy's 1993 demo tape was granted official release in 2002. Similar to the work of Suffocation around that time, Cryptopsy's style succeeds in pushing the boundaries of death metal towards something more intricate, experimental and vicious, though not to the extent of their more specific contemporaries who concentrated on those aspects in greater detail.
The band demonstrates accomplished technical skill without the more elaborate moments sounding desperately shoehorned for the sake of showing off. The frantic lead guitars of Steve Thibault and Dave Galea are permitted to play out 'Abigor' as it becomes instrumental, while the respective bass and drum work of Kevin Weagle and Flo Mounier impresses in the erratic and constantly-shifting opening song 'Gravaged.' Special note must be made of Lord Worm's despicable vocals, which gurgle and shriek with the best of them, and the sound quality is surprisingly strong for a demo release.
1. Gravaged (A Cryptopsy)
2. Abigor
3. Back to the Worms
4. Mutant Christ
And Then You'll Beg
***
Written on 15.06.08
Entering the new millennium with a desire to show off their technical abilities more than their more extreme side, Cryptopsy make the full turnaround to progressive metal band here, retaining their death metal foundation but doing nothing to expand upon it. Sadly for prog fans, the 'technical' element here means much the same thing it does for other technical death metal bands, which extends to fast drums, deliberately chaotic time signatures and that ever-so-repetitive style of freeform guitar playing that makes all these bands sound essentially the same.
Mike DiSalvo's yelled vocals are still annoying, but at least he's relegated to the background for extended periods here, as the instruments are permitted to take over. This makes the comparatively short 'My Prodigal Sun' and 'Soar and Envision Sore Vision' a lot more enjoyable, to the point that I wonder whether the album would be more successful as an entirely instrumental affair. Of course, considering the band's lack of original ideas through much of its duration, these select samples are probably the best they could produce.
The time changes and prominent guitar noodling draw far too much attention to themselves for anyone hoping for a death metal release they can enjoy on any kind of simplistic level, but the band's technical abilities still keep this above much of the competition, at least within their select sub-genre.
1. ...And Then It Passes
2. We Bleed
3. Voice of Unreason
4. My Prodigal Sun
5. Shroud
6. Soar and Envision Sore Vision
7. Equivalent Equilibrium
8. Back to the Worms
9. Screams Go Unheard
None So Live: Montreal 2002
****
Written on 15.06.08
At over fifty minutes with eleven songs (excluding the worthless 'Intro' crowd chant), this is the first Cryptopsy album to display value for money, and it's an impressive live performance from the Canadians in their home city. The band displays commendable energy and sincerity in performing these songs, but for any except for the most die-hard Cryptopsy fan, this is going to sound like a stream of similar, repetitive death metal songs with an incessant preoccupation with tangential solos.
Martin Lacroix is the new vocalist drafted in for the performance, and his guttural growling style is more reminiscent of Lord Worm than his direct predecessor Mike DiSalvo. He does his job well, even if he never really impresses, and curiously addresses the crowd in French throughout. Not being too familiar with the band's material I couldn't say whether they tend to go off on one during the performance, as would be expected from an ambitious, technical-minded outfit such as this one, but Flo Mounier is granted an extensive drum solos that should be enjoyed by drum solo fans, and despised by drum solo loathers such as myself and all right-thinking people.
1. Intro
2. Crown of Horns
3. White Worms
4. We Bleed
5. Open Face Surgery
6. Cold Hate, Warm Blood
7. Phobophile
8. Shroud
9. Graves of the Fathers
10. Drum Solo
11. Defenestration
12. Slit Your Guts
Advantages: Great live performance.
Disadvantages: For fans only.
Once Was Not
**
Written on 16.06.08
Cryptopsy's fifth album saw the return of vocalist Lord Worm and arrival of new guitarist Alex Auburn, making for something of a confused and ultimately disappointing reunion. The band is still obsessed with proving its technical credentials at a cost to the music, now more than ever, and any time that a song seems to be going somewhere interesting, its structure is usurped by pointless tech-death masturbation, something that will attract some to this album and deter others.
The songs now sound too long, having lost the morbid fascination of earlier releases such as 'None So Vile' in particular, and even the top-notch production job draws too much attention to the relentlessly clicking drums. Most frustrating of all, almost every song begins with an interesting experimental touch that hints at a new direction, most frequently the use of a traditional or tribal instrument, before every track collapses into the same old thing. Only 'Luminum' and 'The End' succeed in being radically different, and these are nothing more than atmospheric interludes.
1. Luminum
2. In the Kingdom Where Everything Dies, the Sky Is Mortal
3. Carrionshine
4. Adeste Infidelis
5. The Curse of the Great
6. The Frantic Pace of Dying
7. Keeping the Cadaver Dogs Busy
8. Angelskingarden
9. The Pestilence That Walketh in Darkness (Psalm 91 : 5-8)
10. The End
11. Endless Cemetery
Cyberia
****
Written on 16.06.08
Cubanate's second album leans more towards the electronic side of things than its balanced industrial metal predecessor, but this isn't necessarily a bad thing. Still retaining catchy guitar riffs, albeit shoved towards the back of the sound, and gravelly, Motörhead style vocals, this still possesses enough rock credentials to appeal to the 'Kerrang!' demographic, though its biggest fans will be those in the hardcore underground.
There's a greater range of styles here than on the previous album. The differences are often down to speed alone, 'Human Drum' and 'Build' being a little slower than the rest, but 'Transit' and 'Industry' are appropriately harsh industrial anthems and 'Hatesong' disappointingly not as aggressive as it should sound, even in the rather pointless remix. The only song that goes above and beyond is 'Oxyacetylene,' still techno on the grander scale but possessing a great rock chorus that wouldn't be out of place in Nine Inch Nails or White Zombie.
1. Cyberia
2. Oxyacetylene
3. Hatesong
4. Build
5. Transit
6. Skeletal
7. Human Drum
8. Das Island
9. Industry
10. Hatesong (Extended)
11. Oxyacetylene (Extended remix)
12. Skeletal (Remix)
13. Body Burn (Julian Beeston mix extended)
Barbarossa
***
Written on 16.06.08
The magic has gone by Cubanate's penultimate release, and with its high-speed techno rhythms and Marilyn Manson style harsh choruses, the songs are almost trying too hard to find their way onto a video game or action film soundtrack, sounding increasingly like the work of those industrial bands they inspired in the first place. The vocals and guitars are more distorted than ever, and really losing the battle against the electronic elements, but all the same this is an energetic industrial album from proficient innovators of the form.
The differences here mainly come in terms of speed, with 'Joy' being a slower rocker, 'Why Are You Here?' plodding along at a radio-friendly anthemic pace and 'Come Alive' seemingly reacting against them with a high adrenaline burst in the latter half of the album. There's no direct relation between the two 'Vortech' pieces, the first being a more rocking affair and the second purely electronic, but these latter two songs are at least more consistent with an undiluted dance style that demonstrates the group's talents.
1. Vortech I
2. Barbarossa
3. Joy
4. Why Are You Here?
5. Exultation
6. The Muscleman
7. Come Alive
8. Vortech II
9. Lord of the Flies
Cult of Luna
****
Written on 24.05.08
Sweden's Cult of Luna are one of the key players in the post-metal/post-hardcore/post-sludge/whatever genre that's gained popularity since the start of the new millennium, utilising a large band for a large sound that delights in cacophony. While this debut isn't their most definitive work, it's an interesting and enjoyable mix of styles that clearly shows where all the influence comes from, even if it doesn't integrate the elements as well as their contemporaries such as Neurosis and Isis.
The most glaring aspect here is the vocals, making me wish to some extent that the album was instrumental, a la Pelican. The hardcore shouting works well in the louder sections that dominate the first two songs, particularly the uncompromising ten minutes of 'Hollow,' but doesn't tame accordingly when atmospheric and melodic elements are introduced later on. The band strikes a fine balance between aggression and melody in the fourteen-minute 'Sleep' that's comparably apocalyptic to the work of Mogwai, and 'The Sacrifice' should satisfy fans of their original sludge metal sound.
1. The Revelation Embodied
2. Hollow
3. Dark Side of the Sun
4. Sleep
5. To Be Remembered
6. Beyond Fate
7. 101
8. The Sacrifice
Three Imaginary Boys
***
Written on 26.05.08
The Cure's first album is much different to the gothic style they would subsequently become known for, rooted more in the post-punk style of bands like the Boomtown Rats, but actually any good. A far cry from the keyboard-drenched soundscapes they would be producing ten years down the line, these songs are fairly minimal and almost reggae in spirit, based around the repetition of simple guitar lines and lyrics for several minutes until the band decides to move on to the next.
Many of these songs still noticeably belong to the band's eighties sound, especially those such as '10.15 Saturday Night' with its lovelorn lyrics and the comparably atmospheric 'Three Imaginary Boys,' but the rest will be alien to those approaching this from something like 'Disintegration.' For a start, Robert Smith acts very unhinged, and clearly isn't taking himself seriously in songs like 'Meathook' and 'Fire in Cairo,' both of which feature seemingly random lyrics extrapolated from the title that see Smith repeat the title ad nauseam in the first until it loses all meaning, and merely spell out the title of the second over and over again.
His bluesy guitar solos also break the tone of many songs and keep them rooted in a rock base, and even the more melodic songs sound more like something a pop-oriented seventies punk band would produce.
1. 10.15 Saturday Night
2. Accuracy
3. Grinding Halt
4. Another Day
5. Object
6. Subway Song
7. Foxy Lady (Jimi Hendrix cover)
8. Meathook
9. So What
10. Fire in Cairo
11. It's Not You
12. Three Imaginary Boys
13. Untitled
Boys Don't Cry
****
Written on 16.06.08
Somewhat bizarrely, the Cure's debut album 'Three Imaginary Boys' was repackaged, re-titled and rearranged for its delayed US release as 1980's 'Boys Don't Cry,' replacing some of its tracks arbitrarily with more popular singles and arguably making for a better, if less authentic version of the debut album. 'Boys Don't Cry' itself leads the way, an upbeat post-punk number that's remained popular to this day and doesn't get dragged into the melancholy gloom of the band's later works despite its pessimistic lyrics.
Robert Smith's drawl is entertaining to listen to in these more energetic songs, including the similar 'Jumping Someone Else's Train' and the typically punk 'Grinding Halt,' while other songs take a darker approach more in line with the band's later direction, such as the bassy and melodic 'Plastic Passion' and downbeat finale. 'Killing an Arab' is another song unique to this release (rather, it wasn't included on the original 'Three Imaginary Boys'), and it's one of the band's more memorable songs from this period, delivering dark lyrics in a compellingly minimalist environment.
1. Boys Don't Cry
2. Plastic Passion
3. 10.15 Saturday Night
4. Accuracy
5. So What
6. Jumping Someone Else's Train
7. Subway Song
8. Killing an Arab
9. Fire in Cairo
10. Another Day
11. Grinding Halt
12. Three Imaginary Boys
Pornography
*****
Written on 26.05.08
Following directly on from the cold gothic detachment of 'Seventeen Seconds' and spiritual crisis of 'Faith,' the Cure's fourth album brings the increasingly personal music to a satisfying climax, and remains the gloomiest of their career. This remains the band's finest achievement after their 1989 masterpiece 'Disintegration,' and provides an effectively disturbed contrast to that later work's ethereal sentimentality, an album that it's easy to lose yourself in and get sad about even if you don't paint your face black and white.
The increased hostility is evident from the onset, with a more energetic performance all-round in 'One Hundred Years' that moves on from the apathy of 'Seventeen Seconds' by breaking down the emotional barriers and going straight to the heart of the matter, as Robert Smith expresses the belief that "it doesn't matter if we all die." The music itself is also more accomplished than that earlier work, with a greater emphasis on crafting memorable songs rather than merely setting an atmosphere, though the album proceeds to accomplish the latter equally well, from the warm, Eastern-tinged tribal jangle of 'The Hanging Garden' to the ominous gothic backdrops that dominate the album's second half.
It's songs like 'Cold' in particular that fully express the band's attitude through the music, with a strong keyboard presence comparable to 'Disintegration' before the final track collapses in on itself. Oddly, despite its title this penultimate song leaves me feeling quite warm and comfortable, but I suppose I've become accustomed to the frosty climes of Scandinavian black metal and risk becoming somewhat jaded.
1. One Hundred Years
2. A Short Term Effect
3. The Hanging Garden
4. Siamese Twins
5. The Figurehead
6. A Strange Day
7. Cold
8. Pornography
Concert: The Cure Live
****
Written on 17.06.08
The Cure's first live album isn't entirely satisfying, but it could have been a lot more disappointing if more care had been put into it. What we have here is a fairly raw recording of the band in action, playing the songs they wish to regardless of which are popular singles or current promotional material, and this makes for a more honest performance than something designed specifically with a live album in mind. At the same time, it also makes it fairly unremarkable.
The tracklist roughly traces backwards through the band's first five albums, beginning with rejuvenated gothic optimism and heading through despair to come right out again as merry post-punk, and while this covers a wide range of styles it perhaps misses out some of the key material from these formative years. So while it's refreshing that songs like 'The Lovecats' and 'The Caterpillar' aren't present to distract too much from the mood, 'Give Me It' and 'The Walk' essentially do the same thing, but less impressively.
1. Shake Dog Shake
2. Primary
3. Charlotte Sometimes
4. The Hanging Garden
5. Give Me It
6. The Walk
7. One Hundred Years
8. A Forest
9. 10.15 Saturday Night
10. Killing an Arab
The Head on the Door
****
Written on 17.06.08
A more consistent album than 'The Top,' 'The Head on the Door' shows off a more experimental and intriguing direction for the Cure than has been heard since 'Pornography' three years earlier. Lol Tolhurst's keyboards share the limelight with the guitars of Robert Smith and Porl Thompson, effectively diving the album between the lighter, bouncier keyboard led songs with the more rock-oriented offerings.
The album still boasts a strong commercial awareness with the jolly romantic pop of 'In Between Days,' 'The Baby Screams' and the memorable, hand-clapping 'Close to Me,' but balances it out with harder material in the form of the distorted 'Screw,' the rocking 'A Night Like This' (complete with sax solo) and the catchy 'Push.' Even the more intricate material doesn't descend as far into indulgence as the band's music has tended to, the closest offender being the distinctly odd 'Six Different Ways' with its unusual keyboard touches and flippant disregard for keeping in time.
1. In Between Days
2. Kyoto Song
3. The Blood
4. Six Different Ways
5. Push
6. The Baby Screams
7. Close to Me
8. A Night Like This
9. Screw
10. Sinking
Disintegration
On Candy Stripe Legs the Spider Man Comes
****
Written on 06.07.04
The Cure achieved international success in the eighties with their infectious mix of pop beats and a darker, gothic style in both their lyrics and general appearance. Their 1989 release ‘Disintegration’ did not have the same instant success of their earlier albums due to its much different style, but many of the band’s fans consider it to be the pinnacle of their creative and musical achievement.
STYLE
I’ve never really been a fan of the Cure, but after hearing a couple of songs from this album I wanted to hear it in its entirety. In many ways this is atmosphere-heavy ‘mood’ music with occasional catchy rhythms and choruses, and as such it’s not really an album to listen to for specific tracks: the general feeling of the album experience as a whole is the Cure’s ultimate goal, and in that respect this is a very good album. The lyrics deal with loss, regret and sorrow, all of which are reflected in the music; while not bleak and depressing, the slow beat of the drums, the echo effect of the vocals and the soft melodies of the guitars and bass convey a melancholy and haunting atmosphere, the occasional keyboard tunes and more powerful guitars lifting the listener’s spirits every so often.
Robert Smith’s English voice is a trademark of the Cure, and although the tracks here are a large step apart from something like ‘Friday I’m in Love,’ his talents shine through more than ever, adding to the songs even when he essentially fades into the music completely. And impressionable teen girls probably find the calm voice and wild hair very sexy (I don’t, I’m not strange). The problems with this album are all subject to peoples’ opinions. But listening to this album does make you want to hug something and stare at the moon for a while.
‘The Cure’ were:
Simon Gallup - Bass, Keyboards
Robert Smith - Guitar, Keyboards, Vocals, Producer, Engineer
Porl Thompson - Guitar
Laurence Tolhurst - Multi Instruments
Boris Williams - Drums
Roger O'Donnell - Keyboards
DISINTEGRATING
1. PLAINSONG
A classic opener, the orchestration dominating this track introduces the mood of this album perfectly, and also results in one of my favourite songs on here. The vocals only begin towards the end of the song and suit the music perfectly: this is a huge-sounding track.
“I think it's dark and it looks like rain, you said
And the wind is blowing like it's the end of the world, you said
And it's so cold it's like the
Cold if you were dead”
2. PICTURES OF YOU
A more traditional track, this retains the slow rhythm of the last song (and the album in general) but the vocals and instruments can be heard much more clearly against the less intensive backing orchestration. The song does last longer than it should at almost eight minutes and although this is an album to ‘get lost in,’ this is a bit too lengthy for such an early track.
“I've been looking so long at these pictures of you
That I almost believe that they’re real
I've been living so long with my pictures of you
That I almost believe that the pictures are all I can feel”
3. CLOSEDOWN
Carrying on from ‘Pictures of You’ in a very similar style, this is essentially a bridge between that track and ‘Love Song.’ Not very memorable or impressive, but it keeps the tone and mood of the album flowing. The sombre atmosphere is alleviated a little to lead into the next song.
“I'm running out of time I'm out of step and
Closing down and never sleep for wanting hours”
4. LOVE SONG
One of the more commercially aimed tracks, this is driven by more upbeat drums and memorable keyboard rhythms, but the atmosphere is still somehow retained. Smith’s vocals are less melancholy with his statement “I will always love you,” and despite not sounding too original at the end of a romantic-ballad-obsessed decade, this is definitely a cut above the rest. It’s also the shortest track on the album, so doesn’t drag on in the way that others do.
“Whenever I'm alone with you you make me feel
Like I am home again whenever I'm alone with
You you make me feel like I am whole again”
5. LAST DANCE
A return to the more sombre sound with distant-sounding, echoing drums accompanying a soft, melodic guitar beat, the build-up of orchestration and subtle keyboards to some of the best vocals of the album may seem a bit lengthy, but listening to the album as a whole this doesn’t stand out as a problem. After the catchy and more poppy sound of the previous track this is less instantly gratifying, but is certainly not a filler track. It does bridge the gap between the singles though.
“I'm so glad you came I'm so glad you remembered
To see how we're ending our last dance together
Expectant too punctual but prettier than ever
I really believed that this time it's forever”
6. LULLABY
This excellent and strange song was my main reason for wanting to hear this album. Along with the dark, sepia music video, the symphonic arrangements, whispered vocals and haunting keyboard tune make this the stand out track of the whole album. At just over four minutes it wastes no time in getting started, and by the end the sound has been elevated to include even more orchestration over the keyboards, leading to a fantastic sound. The only song on the album that I can listen to repeatedly.
“And I feel like I'm being eaten by a thousand
Million shivering furry holes and I know that in
The morning I will wake up in the shivering cold
And the spiderman is always hungry”
7. FASCINATION STREET
A slightly heavier track than the rest, this follows the same formula as the longer tracks and as such fails to stay memorable after only one listen, apart from the chorus which unfortunately sounds like ‘that’ programme. The name, not the theme (thank God). This song seems to divide public opinion into those who love it and those who find it out of place, but I think it fits into the album perfectly. It doesn’t stand out for me though as it shares a very common sound with other tracks, such as the first track, which execute it better.
“Oh it's opening time down on Fascination Street
So let's cut the conversation and get out for a
Bit because I feel it all fading and paling and I'm
Begging to drag you down with me”
8. PRAYERS FOR RAIN
This is the point in the album when the songs start to become a little boring for me, due to the lack of real variety (with a couple of noted exceptions). The vocals again take almost two minutes of synth and slow drums to begin moving the song along and it’s mainly its place in the album that counts against this song. As a stand alone track it is one of the better offerings, with some very dark and interesting electronic sounds behind the excellent atmosphere of the keyboards, not seeming overdone at all. Smith’s vocals still suit the music a little too well however, and it would be easy for my mind to wander while this was playing.
“You shatter me your grip on me a hold on me
So dull it kills you stifle me infectious sense of
Hopelessness and prayers for rain”
9. THE SAME DEEP WATER AS YOU
The longest song on the album at almost ten minutes, this should be the ultimate exploration of the themes and moods of this album, but it drags on for far too long to remain musically interesting. The beat and guitar melodies are constant throughout, while Smith’s vocals again fail to truly impress in any way. This song would be a lot better if it had been tightened and cut down, as it doesn’t offer anything that hasn’t been done earlier (and better).
“Kiss me goodbye bow your head and join with me
And face pushed deep reflections meet
The strangest twist upon your lips and
Disappear the ripples clear”
10. DISINTEGRATION
The band don’t shy away from placing the two longest tracks together, certainly creating the most moody and atmospheric part of the album but also alienating casual listeners. This is a clear improvement on the last track as it manages to sound quite unique on the album rather than a re-hashing of what’s come before, the watery effect of the guitars and the very strong bass presence leading into some great keyboards in the middle. Smith’s vocals are also more forceful and varied for a change, giving this a much more improved sound but also rendering the last few repetitive tracks completely unnecessary.
“Oh I miss the kiss of treachery
The aching kiss before I feed
The stench of a love for a younger meat and
The sound that it makes when it cuts in deep
11. HOMESICK
This song doesn’t hide its tone with a dominant piano/keyboard rhythm throughout that is slowly joined by the other instruments. One of my least favourite tracks, but I can appreciate its diversity from the others, leading up to the end. This seems like an instrumental at first, as the vocals don’t begin until the three-minute mark.
“Hey hey! Just one more and I'll walk away
All the everything you win turns to nothing today”
12. UNTITLED
This epilogue begins with what sounds like an organ tune before the drums, guitars and bass begin. Strangely, this is probably the most positive sounding song that sounds like more of a celebration than a regret, but it isn’t one of the better tracks and does drag on towards the end. Maybe I only think this because I’m not used to this style of album, but this could have been better.
“Hopelessly drift in the eyes of the ghost again
Down on my knees and my hands in the air again”
VERDICT
This album would clearly be the soundtrack of choice for a Tim Burton film if Danny Elfman hadn’t already proved his incredible skills, and its popularity with Cure fans is understandable, as is its lack of popularity with the general public in comparison to their other work. There are several songs on here that are impressive in their own right (‘Lullaby,’ ‘Love Song,’ ‘Plainsong’), but the rest all sound very similar and only really serve to create a musical atmosphere when listening to an album. This is not a bad thing, it’s a great achievement, but I think it came with a cost to originality.
I love listening to albums in their entirety when they have been structured excellently, but the slow pace of Disintegration bores me towards the end. Robert Smith’s lyrics are very moving and easy to relate to, but they don’t really need the overlong interludes between them, and although the guitar layering is perfect and detailed it does become lost in the ‘atmosphere.’ Every so often one of the instruments will do something that grabs my attention, but this is quite a rare event.
I’d recommend this album to anyone who loves ‘mood music,’ or who is just a big Cure fan, but it takes some effort to listen to and may not be to your taste. But it is cheap.
Advantages: Haunting, emotional and involving, Some classic songs, Skilled instrumentation
Disadvantages: Not enough variety, Many songs drag on for too long, Some songs are very dull
Galore: The Singles 1987–1997
****
Written on 18.06.08
The logical successor to the Cure's first singles compilation that covered the years 1976 to 1986, 'Galore' picks up right where it left off to include all the singles from 1987 to 1997. The studio albums covered are 1987's 'Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me' (tracks 1 to 4), 1989's 'Disintegration' (5 to 8), 1992's 'Wish' (11 to 13) and 1996's 'Wild Mood Swings' (14 to 17), with additional tracks from the 'Mixed Up' remix album (9 and 10) and a brand new song (18).
This isn't as good as the previous singles collection, I might as well get that out of the way at the start. The Cure's output declined in both quality and quantity as it hit the nineties, with albums released in four-year intervals rather than the annual consistency of their earlier career, which was also supplemented by additional singles not included on the full-length albums. As all of these songs are readily available on five albums without the need to hunt down any rare releases ('Wrong Number' excepted), the compilation is automatically less essential than its predecessor 'Standing on a Beach,' before you even start to consider how the quality of the band's material was in a state of decline.
These aren't bad songs for the most part, but the only truly great works are from the band's 1989 magnum opus 'Disintegration,' ranking alongside their early albums as the Cure's definitive work, released just as the right time as figures like Tim Burton succeeded in making gothic cool. With their keyboard-drenched gothic atmospheres, the creepy 'Lullaby' and 'Pictures of You' are accurate representations of that album's sound in a way that the more consciously pop-oriented 'Lovesong' and 'Fascination Street' fail to be, highlighting the major problem I have with 'greatest hits' collections such as these, when compared to the original studio albums.
By presenting all of the songs designed to be released as mainstream singles, the style tends towards similarity and a level of mundane accessibility that the studio albums themselves often avoid, so even though the respective styles of each album are evident as the collection proceeds through the years, the songs aren't necessarily accurate samplers of the full-length albums, and may disappoint prospective buyers when they fail to find more of the same thereon.
On the other hand, it's equally likely that buyers will approach this collection for precisely that reason, not wishing to get bogged down in the band's artistic vision and feeling much more satisfied with the cheap thrill of a catchy three-minute single. In that regard, this collection works very well, though the noticeable similarity of songs later on does serve to highlight how the Cure started to rest on their laurels, content not to bother experimenting and pushing forward any more, once their image and generic sound became famous enough to sell albums in their own right.
This downturn can be seen with the tracks from the album 'Wish,' the most shamelessly pop-oriented material the band has ever put out. Both 'High' and 'A Letter to Elise' are bland and lacking in the band's usual depth, while 'Friday I'm In Love' is one of many songs here using the winning combination of catchy, repetitive love lyrics to shift some units to the sort of people who wouldn't be interested in the band's formerly gothic style.
It's disappointing to hear Robert Smith spewing forth such obvious lyrics lacking any of the subtlety of his earlier work, though it does fortunately seem that this was a phase the band overcame relatively quickly, much the same as 1987's 'Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me' that contributes the first four tracks of the album and presents a drastically different Cure from usual, trying too hard to be different by introducing elements of funk. 'Just Like Heaven' is another love song, but a better one this time that doesn't go overboard on corniness, but it's 'Why Can't I Be You?' and 'Hot Hot Hot!!!' that offer the greatest deviations here, and not necessarily for the best; the keyboards in the first song in particular sound distinctly like background music from Sonic the Hedgehog.
The 'Wild Mood Swings' album at least shows a continued willingness to experiment, with the dark and bass-driven 'Gone!' and the brass dominance of 'The 13th,' but this is balanced out by the bland, flitty keys of 'Strange Attraction' and the disappointingly generic 'Mint Car,' the perfect example of the Cure trying to sound like the Cure, losing any sense of individuality by conforming to public perception of what they ought to sound like.
The most interesting tracks for fans are those from the comparatively (but-not-really) obscure 'Mixed Up' collection, presenting a consciously different take on the band's sound. 'Never Enough' is the most rock-oriented song here, even more than 'Fascination Street,' and comes perilously close to being an industrial rock song with its heavy guitars and strong electronic presence, and this is also the style taken for the new song 'Wrong Number,' which sounds as average and unmemorable as any song created especially to add value to a greatest hits collection inevitably tends to.
In contrast, the remix of the Cure's eighties classic 'Close to Me' is made even stranger than the original, replacing the drums with a hip hop beat and adding blaring horns to pierce the minimalist soundscape. Anyone looking for a collection of easily approachable Cure songs (none of 'that moody soundtrack stuff') would doubtless enjoy this release, especially for covering their more commercially successful period, but the wane in quality after the first half is over should be noticeable to more discerning listeners.
The previous collection 'Standing on a Beach' is more consistent and valuable as an addition to the studio albums for containing largely original material, while the later 'Greatest Hits' supposedly offers a more concise edit of the two collections that still won't provide a wholly accurate presentation of the Cure's sound. At least there won't be any call for a third decade retrospective such as this, considering the band has only released two studio albums since.
1. Why Can't I Be You?
2. Catch
3. Just Like Heaven
4. Hot Hot Hot!!!
5. Lullaby
6. Fascination Street
7. Lovesong
8. Pictures of You
9. Never Enough
10. Close to Me
11. High
12. Friday I'm In Love
13. A Letter to Elise
14. The 13th
15. Mint Car
16. Strange Attraction
17. Gone!
18. Wrong Number
Cacophony - Speed Metal Symphony ****
Callenish Circle - My Passion // Your Pain ***
Candlemass - Ancient Dreams ****
Candlemass - Chapter VI ****
Candlemass - Candlemass ****
Candlemass - King of the Grey Islands ****
Carcass - Choice Cuts ****
Carpathian Forest - Black Shining Leather ***
Carpathian Forest - Skjend Hans Lik **
Cathedral - The Ethereal Mirror ***
Celesty - Reign of Elements ***
Celesty - Legacy of Hate ***
Celtic Frost - Emperor's Return ***
Celtic Frost - Cold Lake *
Celtic Frost - Parched With Thirst Am I and Dying ***
Celtic Frost - Monotheist ***
Cephalic Carnage - Exploiting Dysfunction ***
Cephalic Carnage - Xenosapien **
Ceremonial Oath - Carpet ***
The Chasm - The Spell of Retribution ****
Children of Bodom - Are You Dead Yet? ***
Children of Bodom - Blooddrunk **
Chinchilla - Horrorscope **
Circus Maximus - The 1st Chapter ****
Communic - Waves of Visual Decay *****
Conception - Last Sunset ***
Conception - In Your Multitude *****
Conception - Flow ***
Control Denied - The Fragile Art of Existence *****
Coroner - No More Color ****
Corrosion of Conformity - Eye for an Eye **
Corrosion of Confomity - Technocracy **
Corrosion of Conformity - In the Arms of God ****
Cradle of Filth - Bitter Suites to Succubi **
Cranium - Speed Metal Sentence ***
Crematory - Transmigration **
Crematory - ...Just Dreaming ***
Crematory - Crematory ***
Crematory - Live at the Out of the Dark Festivals ****
Crematory - Awake ***
Crimson Glory - Astronomica **
Cronian - Terra ***
Crossbreed - Synthetic Division ****
The Crown - Crowned in Terror ****
Cruachan - Folk-Lore ****
Cruachan - Tuatha Na Gael ***
Cruachan - Pagan ***
Cryonic Temple - In Thy Power ***
Cryptopsy - Blasphemy Made Flesh ***
Cryptopsy - None So Vile ***
Cryptopsy - Whisper Supremacy ***
Cubanate - Antimatter ****
The Cult - The Cult **
The Cure - Seventeen Seconds ****
The Cure - Japanese Whispers ***
The Cure - The Top ***
