Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Peste Noire - Lordure a letat pur

Ok finally got it done , maybe not the night i said i would but i'll write it off as being dragon-con week. Ok i'm going to skip right over the controversy and who used to be in the band , because i think the music is really all that matters here. This is a unique album in many ways, the french have made some outstanding black metal and experimentation seems to be their signature, there are things like drum machines on this that work in ways morbid angel could have only dreamed about, but it comes across here as something more dangerous like the ghettos' of paris roll with black metal gangsta's and i mean that in the most o.g. dr. dre way that doesn't imply metal metal. you know i kept reading these reviews saying haow the disma album had a filth to it , i neve heard it but here i dirty in a much different way, there is a sleaze to that makes you realize this guy famine is,'t fucking around and is more likely wearing a ski mask rather than corpse paint.
being from france their are some real edith piaf moments as well, it has the swagger of vaudeville, then there are beautiful moments of meticulously picked acoustic guitar before the slinky barrage cimes back in. the vocals are tortured and crazed with the expected rasp, their craze is no unlike that of sigh in more departments than vocals alone the high theatrics of controlled chaos run rampant over this album, the bass playings is a real stand out as traditional blakc metal bands the bass is very low in mix . i'm convinced , from the sampled gun cocking to the porn samples. their is more human perversity here than i remember hearing from any metal flavored album since the first mr bungle, . can't recommend this enough to the more adventurous black metal fans .

Saturday, August 27, 2011

calling you out ...monstro

when you are a metal head you can smell a poseur a mile away, their is a knowing they get it or they don't, the same goes for bands who want to market themselves as metal but aren't the real deal, there are some local guys with connections , brothers in bands like mastodon, sure they have put in the leg work with bands like torche, bloodsimple , skrew, .... ok skrew should clue you in as they put out a couple of good ones are descendants of angkor wat but largely a solo project armed with hired guns, which is what monstro reeks of hired guns , produced by alice in chains new singer , some of the band came out of band called piece dogs , who also spawned the drummer of sevendust ...a nu metal bands who lost it years ago, there's that element of trying to redefine your 90's alternative roots, so stoner metal is the target here, do you think any one on the tour with the sword and kyuss lives are going to be fooled? ok they guy from torche is in... they were heading into foo-fighters territory on their last album and that is what it reeks of , so very middle of the road bland and uninspiring , i'm sure you can find some distortion some where but not a pair 0f balls . would josh homme wipe his ass with this ? what would wino think? or steven von till ? not fucking much , this is a hype machine on a rampage and any one who buys into are the same people who would defend judas priest for appearing on american idol

the next level of hell

Ok , i am going to sit down tonight and bust out a review of the peste noire album, i need another listen to really approach the dirty beast. After a blazing summer, which heat for me makes metal harder to engulf myself in as every thing is already irritating me. now as the cusp of fall i feel another layer of discoveries are opening themselves up to me , a new album by an autumn for crippled children, and a new one from glorior belli, which has a late September release date, so i doubt that one will be popping up online anytime soon.
I also stumbled across Hypomanie's newest release which came out with very little fanfare to fade into an undeserved obscurity. while many bands get the post rock they actually deserve it and sound as if they might have spun daydream nation a time or two . Life post -dragon con always bears a certain bleakness the transient nature of my personal life high lights this so my sound track need to reflect this. i wish could find ash borer online but seems to be no luck , i might make another attempt to tonight. some people have suggested they are analog only. i know that's a trend in the hip underground to stay true but i have an 80 gig ipod classic i am slowly filling .
Last fm reminds me i need to give a forest of stars a harder listen, i am currently listening to a station based of an autumn for crippled children so stumbling across many little gems from bleak shadows of hell.
i am noticing alot of german and russian music in this vein doesn't do much for me like this band liam playing now why they are tagged with black metal i don't know , they have more in common with mogwai
all this is to say there is alot of review coming to this blog after the con- we'll kick things off with peste noire before the night is over

Friday, August 19, 2011

Vader- Welcome to the Morbid Reich

In case i'm not covering enough brutal stuff on here , i needed to hit the new Vader album, a band i have a sporadic history with. My first exposure to them was when they opened more Morbid Angel on the domination tour, and i was so stoned i was perplexed why they were so angry, i remember thinking the reminded me of Kreator.
My first thought when checking out their newest effort is this is the album Morbid Angel should have made. Maybe these guys were thinking this as well when they titled the album. To be honest straight forward death metal hasn't been my thing probably since Domination came out. Though some bands ...Ulcerate , would i'm not sure i would call straight forward and Disma, who are getting enough coverage with out my two cents. So for Vader to hook me in is an accomplishment in it's self. Granted i'm have a all brutal day to get pumped for Conan tonight and thought an Unleashed song from 2008 sounded killer ,so we will see when the barbarian buzz wears off.
My other knowledge of Vader is they loan out their drummer to Dimmu Borgir, and he plays with as much fury in Vader as he does in Dimmu, and stacks up well against the likes of Hellhammer. The production on the album stands out the guitar tone in the solo sections is well blended while putting the spot light where it needs to be . The Vocals are more intelligible than anticipated in fact he reminds me of Oderus from Gwar as they are produced with similar effects as those on the scum dogs of the universe album, though think more horror of yig , he never goes into a croon.
Death Metal can become a wall of white noise , the pummeling tends to make all the songs sound the same, this is not the case here,though i can't really say their any tracks that stand out more than others, each has it's own shining moment, if pressed to pick a favorite , would go with come see my sacrifice, the tracks they are coming and ultima thule are segues in the day of the ipod could be avoided. i can see Behemoth comparisons being made and of course those who are still in shock from the great betrayal of morbid angel go find this now .