Glorious Depravity : "Death Never Sleeps"

This band features members of Woe, Pyrrhon, and Gravesend. It takes you back to the days when death metal had just emerged from thrash, so the knack for songwriting with hooks over sheer brutality was still intact. Doug Moore's guttural growls are articulated enough that they emerge from being just a gurgle into something articulate enough to give you a hint of what the songs might be about. The riffing on "Stripmined Flesh Extractor" is coherent enough to give it an almost Megadeth-like groove. They tap into the darker tension that fuels Slayer's vibe for " Freshkills Poltergeist". They are not doing anything new here; they are just doing it right. 

The feeling I am getting from this album as these guys, and I know the bands they are from, are jsut metal nerds who in real life are not aggressive people. Lyrically, I am getting this, and it is also what sells Cannibal Corpse a little differently, though Corpse Grinder is a big WoW-playing teddy bear of a guy; he at least appreciates violence in a fantasy setting. This might make him a more aggressive person; maybe they are also just larger dudes with more testosterone, whereas these guys are eating tofu in Brooklyn. The chugs begin to run together midway through the album. There are a few gallops that make my ears perk up here and there. 

'The Devouring Dust' has enough hook to get me back invested, even if it leans in a blast direction at times. "Carnage at the Margins" finds the vocals digging into a lower gurgle at times on the verses, and a more Slayer-tinged aggression in other places. The title track that closes the album is more deliberate than the previous song, which tried too hard. I will give this album a 9; it's very solid and captures the feel they were going for and cares about songwriting, though it's a very competitive year for this genre, so it will likely get overlooked in some circles. It drops on Transcending Obscurity. 

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Black Metal History Month- Woe : "Hope Attrition"

Woe has been one of my favorite American black metal bands. They don't settle for just blast beats and Chris Grigg understands he has to write songs first. When the vocals come in on the first they give them space to roar. The recording captures a dense and dark sound that still has clarity to it. They know when to lock into a powerful chug to create a dynamic kick. Grigg's snarl still allows for you to make out most of the lyrics. They throw themselves into a more thrashing speed for "No Blood Has Honor". He drops down into a more death metal roar at times on this song. Their hard-core roots help the breakdown toward the end of the song reach a more emotional climax. They get into a more blasting form of traditional black metal on "the Din of the Mourning". There is a more melodic section that kicks in with clean vocals that are not too over the top. There is a more death metal tone to "the Ones We Lost". It is the album's most aggressive moment thus far. The vocals are more of a husky growl. It paints a portrait with sweeping swathes of darkness, that makes you forget this is nor coming to you by way of Sweden. The vocals are angry , but there are more introspective emotions in the guitar harmonies. They launch back into the blasting for "Drown Us with Greatness" the guitar work on this song is very mature and nuanced.The bass playing creates a very tasteful under current. The song builds into a more punk like charge forward. Their drummer really earns his pay on the closing "Abject in Defeat" which smoothes out from the avalanche of fills and blasting into a more fluid gallop into battle. The vocals trade off between the scowling higher pitch of black metal and lower death metal like snarls. The guitar melodies really make this one soar nicely. Nicely seems like a funny adjective to use for a black metal review, but it's very flowing and clean and feels like a little stream is guiding you down this otherwise post-apocalyptic landscape. I'll round this album up to a 9, it's slightly more straight forward than past releases, but the song writing has stepped up a notch.

Woe: "Withdrawal"

Not sure why it's taken me so long to review this one, so maybe it's needed sometime to digest. This band has big shoes to fill in following up their previous album "Quietly, Undramatically ". Three years later and that album is still in rotation. While this was once more of a solo project for Chris Grigg has certainly congealed into more of a band on what's their third full length. I guess he got pissed for the whole shoes gaze label being thrown round in reference with the last album because this one is pissed with little that could be misconstrued as post-rock...post-hardcore maybe when it comes to some of the clean vocals that still sound a litte like Cave-in to me , which I'm fine with as I use to like those guys.

The album opens with more technical guitar than previous albums, while their previous album has more of an organic warmth in the production this album is bigger and more in your face. The onset of the blasty mc nasties here carries a different delivery as Disma drummer Shawn Eldridge plays on this album. The initial impression is this going to be Krallice like Black Metal until the more hardcore influence complete with those Cave-in vocals comes in at the three minute mark. It works with what these guys do , granted I'm use to it from the last album so newcomers that are close minded Cvltists might take offense, and there is a break down of sorts and gang vocals to further set them off, but the drumming is a vast improvement and really puts what they are doing up in your grille.

On "Carried By Waves to Remorseless Shores of the Truth" we are back to a blasting drone, until a minute in the riff takes on more of a thrashing gallop. This thrashes along in an Absu like fashion, building back into a cascading blast and flowing into more of a stomp, with the vocals lowering back into the kind coarse growl I'm used to than the higher black metal screech. The guitar harmony in the last minute brings it all home rather epically.

Acoustic guitar leads into "All Bridges Burned" it finds it's self back into another rapid tempo that more warped out thrash than black metal, though the blasties don't wait long to come back into the picture. The double bass builds a case for the thrash feel underneath. I think the really sharp accents are where the guitar shines in this sort of thing. The tribal drum roll midway set against the ringing chords is what the song needs to change gears into more galloped section and the guitar solo, that sits back In the mix rather than putting the foot up onto the monitor. The lower death metal vocals give a fuller sound and keep the vocal attack varied.

This album is in someways more straight forward and has a rawer feel than "Quietly Undramatically" . The thrash groove grooves towards the beginning of " Ceaseless Jaws " are blink and they are gone flashes where the bulk of the song is forward propulsion by double bass until the the clean guitar break that is ten seconds at most before they throw you back into the storm. the drumming continues to take the overall intensity level up a notch.

There is almost a Kiss feel to the drums that open "Song of my Undoing" then the guitars take it in an eighties punk direction.the guitar give some breathing room to the clean vocals which still have that Cave-in smoothness to their croon. This alternates with the harsh vocals but doesn't come across like a cheesy Killswitch Engage game of good cop / bad cop. The guitars take on a mean chug, even though the songs stays at a mid tempo with the double bass bubbling under it.

There's a very raw almost to the point of being punk feel to the start of "Exhausted" though the double bass flourishes break it up, the song takes a dramatic turn midway through when it slows down for the guitar solo,mthats slightly more showcased than the previous one, the riff modulates into something that reminds me a little of Hot Water Music here and there and then gets angrier till the blast out.

The bass rumble , which leads into the title track and yes, this a black metal album where you can actually hear the bass the majority of the time, the bass here drives the song forward even as the guitar churn the chords ata slower pace. Their is a depressive feel to this song but it is a wide mix of emotions rather than being DSBM.

It's refreshing that when the trend in black metal is to put out albums of two twenty minute songs these guys prove that good songwriting can be more intresting and cover just as much ground and in some cases even more. I think that while some of the more blasting sections sounded similar at times overall the album goes on to rally show case why these guys are at the top of the heap when it comes to American Black Metal, they rock with as much malice in their riffs as any of their American peers while conveying a broader range of emotions than just numbing you out wights white noise of a drone. I'll give this album 9 out of 10 and highly recommend it to all metal fans not just of black metal as I think the chops and songwriting will translate across the genre lines.