Black Metal History Month- Watain : "the Agony and Ecstasy of Watain"

 Glad it worked out that I got to review one of my all-time favorite Black Metal bands for Black Metal History Month. They might be my favorite tough call between these guys and Emperor.    Now with their 7th full length Watain continues to show how they change and yet stay the same with each album. The first song is a color by numbers ripper from these guys, the production is crisp and big without losing what makes them sound like themselves. In fact, if you stripped away a lot of the symphonic tones from Dimmu Borgir's earlier work comparisons can be drawn sonically. "Howling" has some catchy riffing that makes this more apparent.  There is some dark and tasty guitar work on "Serimosa". 

'Black Cunt" is not what I thought it would be like. With that title I assumed it would be a blasty punk thing, but instead there are goth moments. The blasting fury does not occur until "Leper's Grace".  This one I can see these guys playing live as they tend to focus more on the fast in your face ripping moments from their albums. They have a cool thrashing riff toward the end. "Not Sun Nor Man Nor God" is a melodic piano interlude.  "Before the Cataclysm" is another fast blaster. Then about a minute and thirty seconds in is one of the coolest riffs I have heard these guys summon yet. They do not hang on it long and back thrashing before this song wanders off into a dark breakdown. This sense of dynamics is what puts the band above their peers when it comes to today's Swedish Black Metal. Their  game has stepped way the fuck up with this album. 

Farida of Devil's Blood lends her voice to the eerie "We Remain".  In comparison the in-your-face speed driven rage of "Funeral Winter" is not as compelling, but that is because they already raised the bar for themselves pretty high here. The song does still have some melodic moments. While up-tempo the last song is more deliberate and the tremolo guitar that coasts over it does not seem like they are defaulting to the conventions of the genre as the tempo riffs under it. I will give this album a 10 it shows the band willing to grow while being true to who they are. Not sure how they hell a black metal band is going to put out a better album this year, and it's only February   

   

 

the Top 10 Stoner Rock Albums of the Decade

The decade began before this blog was started , I can not just rely on sorting through previous reviews. This is not something I can just thumb back through reviews for , I am just embedding video clips to support the reasoning for these albums to be listed as such, since I already did a best of the year list for each sub-genre. Stoner rock in past years was often lumped in with sludge and doom, but this year I seperated everything out. Maybe these are not the hippest albums of the decade when it comes to this genre, btu what matters more is the fact these are the albums I listened to the most when it came to this sort of thing. ; Any ways here are the Top 10 Stoner rock  albums of the decade.



10- Uncle Acid & the Dead Beats - "Wasteland"-2018 








9-Blood Ceremony- "the Eldritch Dark " 2013




 




8-Electric Wizard - "Black Masses"- 2010








7-Atomic Bitchwax -"Force Field " 2017





 



6-Hippie Death Cult-"111"- 2019 








5- King Woman- Created in the Image of Suffering"-2017


 




4-Windhand- "Eternal Return"-2018








3- Queens of the Stoneage- "Villains"-2017 









2-the Devils Blood- "the ThounsandFold Epicentre" /2011 -









1-Clutch- "Psychic Warfare" -2015 





 

The Top 50 Metal Guitarists - 10 to 1

Here we are at the end of our Top 50 Metal Guitarists list, The death of a guitarist I played with turned my thoughts to what makes a good guitarist great. Metal finds the stakes for guitarists high. Shredding can come before playing a fucking song. While all of these guitarists can play a solo, I was also looking for tone, impact on the genre as a whole and how their personalities came through in their playing. So this list of the top 50 Metal Guitarists. If you don't find your favorite guitar player here then know they were just wankers.

 10-Adrian Smith

His Band is primarily propelled by the galloping bass, but they are also known for their twin guitar harmonies. His partner in crime Dave Murray could be on this list too, but Adrian Smith's playing always struck me as being a little more nuanced.


 9-Dimebag Darrell 

His vulgar display of riffing hits you like a cowboy from hell. His solos embrace chaos and melody. He has influenced modern metal tremendously,  his original styling and chops that managed to place him above his hero Ace, when it comes to metal Dimebag is just more fucking hostile.


8-Jerry Cantrell

Some of the more melodic and mournful grunge thanks to the drugged trappings of his band that killed their lead singer. Equally blues base as he is a technical shredder his metal chops can slip out of any run
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7-KK Downing

Until their peers Iron Maiden, Downing's band was not driven by the bass. They were less technical and sometimes more aggressive. It was their album "PainKiller" that really put un-believers to rest.




6-Piggy/ Denis D’Amour

 His sound evolved from dissonant thrash into a space age prog metal sound that defined his band's weird and wonderful brand of metal. While they took influence from bands like Killing Joke and Discharge, Piggy blended that with a angular metallic aggression to create one of the most unique sounds ever.


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5- Alex Lifeson

Lifeson beat out Piggy, due to the fact if his band did not exist then metal and progressive rock might not find themselves so often hand in hand. You might question how metal is Rush, so I suggest getting back to me after hearing "2112" and "Caress of Steel" this is not to say they were metal for the duration of their career as they became radio rock , but those two albums alone solidify his place here.

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 4-Selim Lemouchi 

 He died on my birthday four years ago. Seeing this guy live made me a believer as he was one of the best guitarists I have ever seen live. His band the Devil's Blood, played a jammy style of retro doom boogie. He has two other guitarists in his band that he had to play around and still found the space to do some amazing things.


 

 3-Randy Rhodes

 Some times his tone is too bright for me and I'll blame that on his days with Quiet Riot. He inspired a decade of shred, more tasteful than all the Yngwies , he blended the neo-classical touches in a hard rock context.



2-Andy Larocque

Andy beat out Randy because Rhodes' weakness is his strength, he plays darker. Andy also has a more aggressive playing style making him a much more metal player than Rhodes. Andy's style of playing fit perfectly with the horror motif of King Diamond's writing making them the perfect match.

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 1-Toni Iommi 

There was a second I had him at number two, but them I thought about the "Mob Rules" and "Heaven and Hell" albums where he plays with the same firey precision that Andy does and summons a similar darkness years before , not to mention his use of the devil's note created heavy metal so there is that.


 

Gold : "No Image" album review & "Servant" video

This band from the Netherlands features one of the guitarists from the Devil's Blood,which peaked my interest as I am curious as to what became of the surviving members of that band. The first song the band comes across like a darker version of Mew.The vocals are so androgynous that is was not until the second song that I was sure the singer was a woman . Not metal they do rock pretty hard at times they even create a dark pounding that creates the kind of drone that can be found on earlier Swans albums to compliment when singer Milena Eva is chanting like a more crazed version of Jarboe. When they step on the gas it reminds me a little of the Devil's Blood."Old Habits" carried more of a rock stomp to it."O.D.I.R" takes a similar stomp and drones over it before launching into a more punk like attack. Her melody has more of a Debbie Harry touch to it, which is a welcome departure from the legions of Siouxsie clones.


 Things continue to get darker on "Shapeless"finds the guitar taking a darker pulse, but the band heading in a more hooky and straight forward direction, which in this case works. Her voice wraps itself around the song like the hypnotizing snake from the "Jungle Book"."Tar and Feather" finds her vocals maintains an alluring quality while the rest of the band hits a more straight forward punk rock sound with noisy edges and angular turns. The are almost like a harsher version of Garbage here. "the Controller" drones on a static guitar line which is picked in a similar fashion to some black metal. The song kicks into something with more form in a pretty explosive fashion. Things speed up on the punk fueled "the Waves" that find all of the elements coming together almost more like a metal band, so some of the guitarists past catches up with him here.

"And I Know" pretty much has every element I need from this type of music. It's sonic, dark and has a dream like quality to it. It has a swaying groove that her melody falls over perfectly. There is an Apocalypse rising in the tension of "Don't". Vocally she backs off a little and sits back into the boiling riff.They close out the album with an oddly straight forward proto-punk drone of "Taste Me". This albums sounds great some of the more punk leaning moments do not always sit best with me, but overall these guys have something unique going and I am curious as to where they will go from here. I'll give it an 8.5.


 

The Top 15 Rock Albums of 2013

It's been a somewhat iffy year for rock music, but here is the cream of the current crop. Keep in mind this is limited to just rock music and I will be posting the metal and goth/industrial lists throughout the week.

15-Iggy and the Stooges - Ready to Die

The fact this was not half bad gets it the honorable mention spot of number 15, if Iggy had left his secret love of country to a solo album rather than slap the Stooges name on it, this would have scored higher.



14-Hollow Sunshine- Held Above

A great droney throw back to the 90's . The indie leanings keep it from making the metal list.



13-Dumb Numbers-s/t

Another hard hitting dose of shoe gazing, this time from a super group of 90's veterans.



12-Blood Ceremony - the Eldritch Dark

Female fronted stoner rock that conjures up Jethro Tull albums from hazy drug summers long forgotten.



11- the World is A Beautiful Place & I am No Longer Afraid to Die - Whenever, if Ever

Emo is alive and well on this stunning debut. They left the haircuts at home and are focused on writing dynamic songs.



10- Kylesa-Ultraviolet

Just because they evolved away from being metal it isn't a bad thing given the darker direction this album takes.



9- Nouns- Still Bummed

If Hot Water Music got stoned with Modest Mouse the results might be similar put less noisy.



8-Iceage-Your'e Nothing

Your favorite Icelandic punkers are growing up and they are depressed about it.



7- The Devil's Blood- Tabula Rasa

Their swan song is pretty epic.



6-Selim Lemouchi & His Enemies - Earth Air Spirit Water Fire

Selim didn't make us mourn the Devil's Blood for long. The guitarist takes you on the darkside of his moon.



5-the Black Heart Rebellion-Har Nevo

Really dark and primal, heavy but not quiet metal , this former hard core bands matures in the best way possible.



4-Merchandise-Totale Nite

Normally I don't like e.p.s , but I will take whatever I can get from this Florida band.



3- Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds-Push the Sky Away

Cave is keeping it classy.



2-Sigur Ros - Kveikur

The Icelandic band comes down from the clouds to add some balls to their new album.



1-David Bowie - The Next Day

It's not Bowie's best album, but it's pretty impressive that he still has it at 66. Some of these songs do stand up against his classics and that is more than anyone else on this list or any other list can do.

Selim Lemouchi & His Enemies : "Earth Air Spirit Water Fire"

It's o.k you don't have to mourn the loss of the Devil's Blood, the new release by the band's mastermind Selim Lemouchi , picks up where the band left off. The album is a move into a an even more organic and jammy direction than Devil's Blood. The high light of the album is his guitar playing as he is one of the best players out there today.

Before you expect the total second coming of The Devil's Blood, the opener "Chiaroscuro"lets you know it's not exactly the case. Milko Bogaard shares vocal duties with the Lemouchi clan. This creates a minor key harmony on the vocals that conjures up Alice In Chains like vibrations. In addition to Bogaard, The band consists of ... drummers, Ries Doms,Micha Haring,Hans van de Perre and Hansz Deijnen. No word on if this is the touring lineup, as the band had three guitarists in the past but I can't imagine that many drummers on stage at once, so these are more than likely session guys per track. The bass duties are filled out by Job van de Zande, with additional guitars and f/x lent by Robby Geerings and Oeds Beydals.

"Next Stop Universe B" is like a more Dark side of the Moon like shuffle, think Money if covered by a more psychedelic Alice in Chains. It builds into the drive of "One of These Days" sort of thing , which is one big difference from Devils Blood is it is much more Pink Floyd than Jefferson Airplane.


They take a darker turn on "The Deep Dark Water" the vocals take on a more mysterious tone,is a better description than calling it goth as it touches on a Syd Barret era Pink Floyd, which is arguably one of goth's earliest influences. The seven minutes of ambient noise that comprises " The Ghost of Valentine" isn't really a song and seems an odd inclusion, but oh well.

"Molasses" pours out slowly with a moog dripping over an elastic bass line. The song floats in a more fiery air than Pink Floyd, though it does remind me of something "Obscured By Clouds" . This introductory jam coast on for around four minutes, when it coagulates from his sister's vocals, the tempo picks up into more of a Zeppelin pace, if we are thinking "In Through the Out Door" one of the best guitar solos  I have heard this year pulls it altogether. His playing is fluid and precise knowing when to pull the shred out at the right moment. I'll give this one a 10 easy , hard to say which is better this or the last the Devil's Blood album, I think the song writing and production here are more fully realized, the playing and conceptual ele,emts to these jams are pretty breath taking as far as the sonics go.

The Devil's Blood : 'The Tabula Rasa or Death and the Seven Pillars"

The Devils' Blood had a strange break up. A tasteful one , but it left many questions and many more are raised on their post-break up release. One of them being if this album had seen the light of day before the break up would it still have occurred? Because rather than the freedom rock , Fleetwood Mac syrupy rock anthems of " the Thousandfold Epicenter". This album while not as slickly produced pushes the creative boundaries in a more progressive rock direction that would have I think put them in Opeth territory as far as the audience it could reach. It certainly slays the new Ghost album, and delivers the classic rock sound but with more balls. Its a darker album so maybe it reflect where their heads were at in terms of what lead to the break up, suggesting drugs and depression but not creative burn out.

Boldly the album opens with a 20 minute opus called "I was Promised a Hunt" which opens with vocal layers and winding slowly up into a heavier section which even includes forceful , though not growled male vocals, which come from Selim. His sister's voice opens up more and is not all belted out in the same Grace Slick manner as it tended t be on other albums. There are plenty of guitar solos from Selim , who is one of the best live guitarist I have ever seen so its not cumbersome unless you don't have the stomach for solos at all then they were never the band for you to begin with.

The do return to their trademark sound on " Lullaby of the Burning Boy" though even here the darker tone settles over the song, the guitars roll over one another but still leave lots of space. "If not a Vessel?" has a classic seventies boogie to it, with guitar solos blazing from the beginning, but not being overly Foghat there is still a lot of punch it. The Devil's Blood might have always only been metal by association, live they had enough drive to hang with metal bands though even there they would wander off into psychedelic jams. The post chorus chant on "If Not a Vessel?" is cool and the bass player really earned his paycheck on this one, though I often suspect on their albums Selim did more than just play guitar so I tend to look at these as a single product rather than whose doing what.

I might even like this album more than the ones they released while together, due to the fact it is so much darker there are moments where it could be Siouxsie and the Banshees until the guitar solos come in. "In the Loving Arms of Lunacy's Secret Demons" has a Moody Blues swing to it think " I'm Just a Singer In A Rock n roll band". The way the guitar rolls around the snare hits on this is really innovative on Selim's part showing he knows what to do when he is not soloing and I hope he continues to explore other creative outlets outside of his current gig with Watain.

"Dance of the Elements" simmers into its pulsing build, it has a Tool-like quality though I would be surprised if any one in the band listened to much Tool ,so older heavier Pink Floyd might be a better comparison. The majestic nature when the bas drives the song with the wall of guitars creating ambiance behind it reminds me of early King Crimson as well. The guitar dances around the bass where keyboard parts would have been found in early prog.

A biog step of growth is the use of so many varied guitar tones and effects. They form a mystical back drop behind the vocals on a "White Storm of Teeth". There is still a Tool-like brooding to the riffs on this one. The guitars come in a paint a coat of feedback over the tribal pulse, before it allows the song to relax back into the hypnotic movement. The title track, starts off with more of jam like feel, but with harder accents than the Phish crowd would be able to stomach. Not generally a fan of instrumentals these are so well played that guitar work wins me over.

As of right now I'll give this one a 9.5 as some of the more jammy instrumental portion could be trimmed to make this album perfect and are not the sort of songs I see getting lots of constant rotation on my end though would have transitioned well live if we had gotten a change to see them preformed.