Kall : "Brand"

I used to love Lifelover, so when I heard they were kind of back together in this band , it made me happy., This album is more of a blatant black metal direction compared to the first one. There is more of a gallop than blast beats, which is fine with me. There is a more of a modern Darkthrone feel to this than anything that depressive. Things get darker on the second song. More emotive. Perhaps not outright depressing, but tormented for sure. Sax is the odd unsung instrument. It is interesting how much of a prescence it has in black metal over the past few years. There is more of a rock n roll feel to the wonderfully written groove of "Eld" . It is both melodic and dynamic. Not the most black metal moment of the album in fact it is more indie rock like Hum than anything. That is except for the angry scowl of the vocals.

"Fukta din  Aska"  or "Moisten your ashes" has a great deal of metallic kick going into it then allows it's self to drift off into a dark place. I would be all about it except for the fact the song is over 17 minutes which is excessive. What goes down is sprawling and beautiful. Not something you can listen to on the way to the store. Is there fat that could be trimmed from this song? Yes. The sax solo is cool , but some of this could have been edited down and then they could jam out as they see fit on stage. They go full on blast beat by the end, though it does not end up sounding like everything else. For all my criticism of blast beats they can be effective when used sparingly. There is a whole jammy section that while it has impressive guitar playing and is pulled together nicely, is more than I am going to listen to on a regular basis. The song after this one is almost 13 minutes and leads in with another jammy section. Once again great guitar playing that makes it more forgivable. Almost five minutes in before the vocals commit to anything more than a sparse scream. The musical scope of what they are kicking up sonically impresses me. It explodes with more of a rock n roll drive.

The drop things back into a darker creeping groove for the last song "Fall" . It's eight and a half minutes long ,which at this point in the album doesn't seem like very long. At the two minute mark it kicks in with the distortion. The sax comes in over a big sludgey riff that they jam out on . I will round this down to a 9.5 ,because it is not a perfect album due to some of the jammy bloat. It might not be perfect, but is it still pretty fucking awesome with the massive sounds they bring to the table here and the places this album takes you are pretty epic as well. Out on Prophecy.

Death is June - Looking Back in Anger at Hypocrisy 's "the Fourth Dimension"

As I sort through albums for the top 50 death metal albums of all time list , we are going back to take a listen at some album highly regarded to hear if they really belong there, This refresher course has offereed some eye opening facts about how well certain albums have stood the test of time. Here we find this band has  slowed things down and focused on the songs. This 1994 same year as At the Gates most popular album. Both bands are from Sweden.These guys have sung vocals in places, none of the good cop bad cop dynamic. It is just about whatever fit where it should fit. The doom paced opener borders on what we might call death doom today. The pace picks up on the second song going more into death metal. The vocals hold more purpose than your average growling. "Reborn" holds more groove.

The guitar parts on thsi album are very nuanced. "Black Forest " rages full speed ahead in a more deliberate fashion. "Never to Return" is more straight forward though it does have a slight swing to it. The solo section is more rock n roll , but everything else is very stompy mid paced death metal.
"Slaughtered" goes beyond just being a mean riff . Yes the rule here is ...cool riffs alone does not a good song make, yet the way they ride this riff is what makes it. "Orgy in Blood" is more typical for Swedish death metal in terms of the tightly coiled thrash influence in the riff. But will they stay mired in this sort of death metal ? The opening rif to " the North Wind" suggests otherwise, and even despite the more straight forward gallop, they give a little more groove to things. "T.E.M.P.T" is alos pretty groove heavy though not as compelling since it pretty much focuses on just speed.

Thankfully the title track backs off on some of the speed and focuses more on the dark mood we found earlier in the album. Overall this is a solid album, it does stick to death metal conventions more than I remembered , but has held up over time so I will give it a 9. Does that mean it is to be numbered among the top 50 death metal albums of all time? Not likely.

Dark Tranquility : " Atoma"

Well right from the opening song I did not go into this confused as to if this was Killswitch or not, so that is a good sign. Granted these guys are often to At the Gates in terms of what I personally want from death metal, as At the Gates to me is more of a thrash band, I want my death metal to be a little darker. The title track starts off sounding like a H.I.M song and keeps tapping that vein during the verse, though the sung vocals are not as dramatic. This song doesn't have any surprises hiding behind them corner and is pretty much late 90's dark metal. They get a little darker on "Forward Momentum", but are more much of the hard rock coming out of Europe in the late 90s. It ramps up to about Kataonia speed before the 2nd verse.  I kind get lost on the two songs after this as they blend into on another, "Force of Hand" is the better of the two and is more dynamic causing me to focus back in and not relegate this to background music.

'Faithless By Default" reminds me a little of Samael. The lyrics are a little on the cheese heavy side. This is better than what the "the Pitiless" offers me which is boredom. "Our Proof of Life" is still pretty middle of the road, but more engaging even with the sung vocals. There is a cool galloped section in this song. The intro to "Clearing Skies" sounds like it could be a Lacuna Coil song. It does get heavier, the snare is a little stiff on the verse. The go into almost a break down like section while you are waiting for a big chorus that doesn't really come, which at least means they are breaking from the formula. Even though it is more driving "When the World Screams" just blandly passes me by. When I go back to try and figure out why it didn't make more of an impact, the second listen isn't much more inspiring. There is a darker intro to "Merciless Fate". The sung vocals are really well used for a change here.

"Caves and Embers" is ok, melodic in the right places, but not as focused as some of the album's stronger moments. This is better than their last album, but far from perfect, but the band is heading in a better direction even in their more middle of the road moments I'll round this one up to a 7.5, but don't feel the need to listen to it again.

Meshuggah : "the Violent Sleep of Reason"

Here is what I want going into this album. I want to hear some new and interesting sounds from Meshuggah. I know that are great musicians. But I do not want to hear them just clocking in for another dense angular chug fest. Do I get this? The drumming on the opener is impressive, and if you are keeping count I'm sure they befuddle your metronome, but what about the actual song ? It's ok, nothing new. The production is better than "Koloss" . We are on their 9th album, so they know the sound they want. I heard this is them in a room together on this album rather than just flying tracks back and forth on line. We have already hear the chug fest that is "Born In Dissonance", while this one is nothing new it reminds me of the album "Nothing" which is my favorite so I am willing to over look some of the business as usual aspects, as the guitar solos provide the needed atmosphere and there are some cool melodic chord progressions. "Monstrocity" is the first song that really caught my ear on the first listen. The chorus is about as hooky as these guys get.

All too often the term prog gets through around without ever hearing a song progress beyond sprawling over indulgence. Here they work best when they allow things to progress into some kind of atmospheric breathing room. "By the Ton" finds the weighty grooves going to the tricky place that turned into a genre called djent, but on their own terms. By this point in time the vocals are becoming one dimensional so I am turning to the guitars to keep me entertained. They dish out a catchy pounding that comes from their well honed bag of tricks. They come at you a lot harder on the title track. It can almost make you dizzy until they lock into the groove. There is a pretty cool Zappa like guitar line that is somewhere between a solo and a melody. I like this album better than the last already because there are some contrasting sonics. "Ivory Tower" is a good example of this put into motion. They don't really back all the way off , but allow enough of an expand and retract to provide depth. This doesn't save the vocals from being monotonous as fuck, but this song is pretty decent otherwise.

They plow into their normal stomping grounds on "Stifled". This does succeed in creating a powerful tank like groove. The vocal is another mid range bark of a cyborg drill sargent. Two minutes in and the four minutes that remain seem a long way off so I am not sure how the normal stomping grounds hold up after being trod upon in such a manner. There is a guitar solo that breaks up this and will impress those of you into that sort of thing. By the four minute mark I have begun to write this one off as filler and the last minute feels a little too late. Nothing really stands out to me on "Nonstrum" . It is not a bad song it is just blandly nondescript for them. There is almost a thrash feel to the onset of "Our Rage Won't Die" making it one of the album's more powerful grooves. The vocals fall in the right spots to make the most of the riffs.It slows into their usual bull dozing only to be pulled from the mire by the guitar solo. They continue to pulse with the low frequencies of deep space on ""Into Decay". There is a cool melodic bridge going into what sounds to be the verse. The vocals are up to the same old same old. Did they give me what I wanted? Yes, but not every song. They did clock in upon occasion though when they hit the mark you really feel it. I'll give this an 8.5, but if you are a die-hard fan then you will believe the can't do any wrong once again, so why are you even reading this in the first place. If you are on the fence, with these guys , this album is pretty solid and captures what they do well, but the wheel is not re-invented here.


8.3

Ghost : "Popestar"

I have become more disgusted with this band over the years, and I actually liked their first album. But I am willing to give them the chance at redeeming themselves. The new song "Square Hammer" is a well written pop song, that is in no way metal. Shakira has song that are as rock as this one. The rest of this ep is covers. The first being Echo & the Bunnymen's " Nocturnal Me". Poppa Smurferitus, is incapable of inflecting the same kind of morose darkness into his voice that Ian McCulloch has. The guitar tone chugs in a more hard rock way than Echo & the Bunnymen's version, but you are leading people to believe you are metal band and you have to work to get more heft into your guitar tone than a new wave band from the 80s  then there is a problem. The fact the song is way over produced doesn't help.

They chose an obscure dance song from Simian Mobile Disco to cover next. This is more of a ballad. I could heard Justin Timberlake. I hope they get a house re-mix of this song so it can play in gay clubs everywhere because that is where these guys truly belong. Poppa Smurf's voice sounds better here, but I think I would preferred them to have covered a Pet Shop Boys song if we were going in this direction.  His voice is lacking on "Missionary Man" , Annie Lennox has way more balls to her voice than this guy. I am guessing he not used to being in the missionary position. They picked an obscure Swedish pop song to cover to close this ep and it sounds like a song that got cut from "Hedwig and the Angry Inch". I have no clue how even the most devote fans of the band could defend what sounds like a shitty 80's pop from Australia.

I'll give this album a 4, there are few moments and Poppa Smurfette's voice sounds better here, but over all it's pretty awful and Ghost fan's that stick with this band should be ashamed of themselves if they are not already dancing to the house re-mix of the Simian Mobile song at a club whose name could also double for the name of a steak house.

Pain : "Coming Home"

After collaborating with Rammstein vocalist Till Lindemann, Peter Tagtgren has elevated himself in experience not only as a musician, but as a producer and songwriter. There is a more more commercial leaning to the opening song that has less of the typical industrial metal sound and more rock n roll to it. That big industrial metal that even Dimmu dips into can be felt on the second song "Call Me". Lindemann makes an appearance here as well.  The lyrics to this song are a lot of fun. "A Wannabe" backs off and has almost a H.I.M if a dose of super-slickly produced radio metal was pumped into the emotional rock. Symphonic strings and strummed guitars fill the spaces , though it doesn't feel as inspired to me.

There is a more driving chug to "Pain in the Ass".  The chorus fills a little cluttered. On paper I am sure this song works more than it does  here.  There are similar problems on "Black Knight Satellite" where is just more upbeat and polished than I like my industrial. The melodic content of the title track takes the edge off. I guess over dramatic goth girls might like this as it's in the same realm of heaviness as Night Wish. By the time we get to the title track I am thinking how it's a shame that this album gave us glimpses of how pop inflected industrial strength metal can work, yet that fun is shattered by a larger display of what it doesn't work. There are just no balls to the title track, yet some of the melodies and grooves could work if they were not slathered in cheese filled synths.

"Absinthe Phoenix Rising" reminds me of Blur at first. It's too happy and upbeat. It does improve for a second when it slows into more of a groove. If you were in Hypocrisy then you are expected to be able to bring heavier than a "Beautiful People" rip-off like "Final Crusade". The intro to "Natural Born Idiot" gives me a little more hope. This hope is popped like a balloon when it breaks down into the verse.The chorus to this song is terrible fluff. The heavier riffs can't save it. Going into the last song "Starseed" I was pessimist after the turn the album had taken and it was really make or break for this band.The chorus is where they lost me rather than hooked and made me come to the conclusion that what this band does Mindless Self Indulgence does better. I'll give this album a 6 because it gets off to a strong start before choking you on this sonic cotton candy that is more fluff than not.

Pyramido : "Vatten"

Is a Swedish metal band who created a hybrid style of heavy that wants to be doom, but ends up sounding more like sludge. The vocals are more from the sludge school as they are throaty rasp that gargles enough poison to have a  faint after taste of black metal to them.  The interplay and layering of guitar is this band's strength. The riffs coalesce into something with enough heft to please most metal fans. There is an emotional current running through the opening that might try to convince you they are a doom band, but if they are doom then that would make Neurosis doom. Metal has been pushed to such extremes that the melodic nature of what this band does threatens to give them a more middle of the road feel in terms of heaviness. To their credit it doesn't feel like they are trying to be all things to all people and the opener goes into each movement in the most organic fashion possible, Isis is a good frame of reference in where this is going sonically, but not the proggy Tool years.

They slow down to take another stab at doom on the second song. This one is a better argument in that direction, the guitar melody crying out in the background makes me think they used to be into indie rock at some point in time over the course of their musical development. By the second song the vocals become a little one dimensional for me. Some lows or highs to switch it up would be nice, after all growling is this guys only job. The shoe-gazing side begins to color the song. Something is amiss because on paper I should be more into this song than the first, but that is not the case. The post-rock bass line that starts off " Tempus" is one of the album's more memorable moments before the song goes on cruise control. The vocals at this point are just human static being voiced with the guitar in the driver's seat.

There is more menace in the sludge filled pound of "Aktion" . Midway into the song a melancholy and very metal melody surfaces as the song plods along. It's well played, the dynamics just don't grab me enough to really serve as more than background music. Funny enough everything I listen to a new band I think somewhere out there is someone who is going to say this is there favorite band. They must be between the ages of 12 and 16 to have not heard the bands this pulls from.  The closing song opens with clean jangling indie rock guitar before the distortion is stomped on. Two minutes in and it's clear this is the same formula different melody. This is a few degrees darker and I like how it ebbs back down at the six and a half minute mark, but it rides a similar groove until building back up. Overall, this is nothing new, but is well done and smoothly written sludge, if you are just itching for something new or too young to know the difference this is worth your time, I'll give it a 7.5, as it's ground I have already covered.

Mephorash : "1557 Rites of Nullification"

This Swedish black metal is an odd beast. Featuring a choir of vocalists, three and a guitarist who also sings backing vocals, and one of the singers was in Ofermod. No drummer is credited as being in the band. They have a big sound, think Behemoth. Watain is the closest of their country men they could be compared to, but they do not have that rawness to their attack even in the sparse blasting sections. There is chanting and symphonic keyboards layered about the vast cavern this sounds like it was recorded in. Despite the big almost arena sized sound, they still maintain a somewhat ritualistic element to their music. The vocals are low gurgled rasp and some times chanted over a stacatto pound. At one point it sounds as if the vocals even go into throat singing. After they have crawled down into the serpentine levels of the abyss the blast beats can be a bit of a buzz kill, yet they can flow out of them with a creepy passage of clean guitar and a distant organ.

The second song breaks the ten minute mark, but they do not drone on or take too to long to get to the point. There is a fair amount of ambiance leading into "Cheidolun" but less than a minutes worth and a slow beat crashes into with a depressive meter.  Not that they are bad at blast beats, its just that the band is so good at other things it seems like they are just throwing them in because its expected.  "Phezur" has a very Mayhem like feel to the vocals that are almost sung in a bellow more than rasped. The excel at creating an evil atmosphere and then jarring you out of it with blast beats. Some of colder and more stark guitar passages could use a little less minimal drumming to support them. The drip of rain and the ringing of a bell, links the closing song to "Cheidolun". They go out with a more feral roar, but this too is given a catchy groove and larger than life boom.

The distorted throb of bass that they use to as a bridge in one part is one of the albums best moments and even though it leads to a more typical torrent of double bass proves to be an effective transition. These guys are not predictable. They are very dark as black metal should be , but when aligning itself too closely to punk can loss that feeling and become preoccupied with raw speed. The synths are well placed on this album and it has an elegance to it's depressing introspection the songs often fall back onto. Lyrically you can sometimes get an understandable glimpse into their grimoire. Its very occult based, but not in an obnoxius stab for attention. Sure there are some similarites to Mayhem and Watain, at times it is like you mixed the two together but when it comes to black metal those are good influences to wear on you spike gauntlets. I'll give this album an 8.5 it was very enjoyable and if you are looking for good tortured yet darkly ritualistic black metal that doesn't sound like it was recorded in a tine can this is worth your time.

Broken Cross: "Through Light to Night"

Imagine if you found the long lost demo tapes of Celtic Frost that Tom Warrior recorded in his grand mother's basement. Broken is not far from this. It's pretty lo-fi, though aside from the pots and pans sound of the drums that adds to some of the charm. A one man band , he pulls from the rawer side of metal coming across as more of a punk thing  that has roaring metal vocals on "World Demolition". The perhaps intentionally rough hewn production works at some points better than others. The songs are typically more punk in length most under three minutes. On songs where they do head in the five minute direction the songs have more room to build a range of dynamics.  Some times there are more thrash guitar harmonies, some times its at a more dragging dirge pace. Samples and almost industrial sounds are scrawled like bath room graffiti on the songs. After the muddy samples when the melodies on "Total Isolation" float out of the underground stomp they seem like beautiful accidents amid the ugliness. "Path to extinction" could have one of the more Frosty riff. "Into the Fire" has a smoky cloud of melodies drifting over the wreckage the drums bang over .

One of the most Celtic Frost ridden moments is the bass line that stirs up the circle pit on" Path to Extinction". The blues tinged guitar seems like it is being thrown into the same trash compactor that is crushing all the other sounds that make up this song. I am sure this production is just this guy's thing , but there is some pretty decent guitar work buried under some of this sonic wreckage. The thrashy pace "the Age of Deceit" brings doesn't seem to break any new ground like the other song s attempt to in their own depraved fashion. When the song slows down and catches it breath for the inhuman growls to gurgle in , before it breaks all the way down almost like a depressive black metal  in the final thirty seconds.

Sometimes the atmosphere is more blatant than others. While very obvious on "Open the Black Hole" it is one of the albums best songs. Sure some of the sonic clutter throws every thing at you at once in certain places.The weird clanging sounds sit oddly against the very polished guitar lines bubbling under the cesspool. When the song defaults into speeding up it's a little disappointing and for this to go in the more conventional direction. At over seven minutes the album's lengthiest song give them room to experiment. The vocals take on a more sung breathy quality and some of the sounds they have colliding with one another are quite haunting. The doomy riffs midway in are a good call. The thing that works best about the album is the fact influences can be heard but the over all sound is one of a kind. I'll give it an 8.5, better production might have made certain parts work better with in the context of these songs , but it is what it is.

Black Metal History Month : Bathory's "Under the Sign of the Black Mark"

Break out your matches it's time to torch churches as I think we have direct link to the black metal sound of today first from the first song of Bathory's " 1987 album "Under the Sign of the Black Mark". Blast beats and all . The vocals are way more rasp and wretched than any thing Tom Warrior grunted out. Now does that make this a good album? We shall see as we put this one under the microscope and see how well it stands the test of time. The keyboards paved the way for early Dimmu and help switch up the dulling pound  of the drums that gets rather repetitious . I have always like the rather simple phrasing of the catchy chorus to "Woman of Dark Desires". Even more melody is injected into the darker and more atmospheric "Call From the Grave".

Things get angrier on "Equimentthron". Then comes the sound that influenced bands like Primordial. It has a epic  majesty to the way the chords are allowed to ring out.This is a much reduced speed than the previous song, but much more powerful.by "Eternal Flame it's back to the blast beats, the vocals take on the kind of croak that Immortal imitates to this day. "13 Candles" exudes more of it's influence on what we think of as pagan metal, the sung vocals sit back into the mix.The riff is simple almost , like the punk rock rawness of early Celtic Frost. Though when the screams start it pounds even more heavily.

This is the root of music I love so I can appreciate  the elements that provide the inspiration, however , the drums sound like shit and the production over all is iffy at best, sometimes it does touch on atmospheric moment in the winds of the heaviness not unlike the early Darkthrone it inspired, but it take the later albums like "Hammerheart "to win me over, I'll round it up to a 7 as it is way ahead of its time. Give me Quorthon's more epic Lord of the Rings styled albums any day ending in y. He does the whole pagan/ folk metal thing right with a darkness the bands that came after who are more preoccupied with swilling beer never have been able to obtain.