Guiltless : "Teeth to Sky"

This band's EP earned an 8.5, as it sounded almost too much like Neurosis. I love Neurosis, but I also own all those albums already. Featuring members of Intronaut and A Storm of Light, they are established sludge veterans. The challenge here is going to be able to do something aside from paying tribute to Neurosis. Those elements are present, but the guitars are doing more to add a layer of atmosphere that shows you more of who they are. The throaty howl of the vocals might be the most limiting element of what they are doing. Even Neurosis uses varied vocal approaches. By the second song, this is starting to cast a more uniform haze over the songs. It is a little heavier and crunching, but that is not enough of a dynamic shift to maintain for the album.

Some people will become enamored by the heavy guitar tone they captured here. They write angular riffs that are weighty. But a song is a story and every story needs to go somewhere. "Our Serpent in Circle" finds the vocals shift. It is a bellow, that comes closer to singing. The song itself slows to a doomier pace. This works better, while there is more brooding in the title track, the atmosphere does put things in a more Neurosis-like place. "Lone Blue Vale' trudges down a similar dark path as the previous songs with the painful howl of the vocals. 

The drummer remains impressive on this album, but they need to get away from this guitar tone for the sake of writing songs is it takes things back to the same place all too often. The last song has a chance to break from what they have been doing though it is almost too little too late. There is a little more ebb and flow and almost has an industrial feel, though plods along with a purpose more like doom. I will give this one an 8.5, as well, so they perform at a very consistent level and it sounds less like Neurosis than the previous album but churns with a predictable fury.Ironically released on Neurot Recordings, so it's Neurosis approved.  

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Guitless : "Thorns"

 A new band formed by A Storm of Light and Intronaut members is bound to meet expectations for sludge fans. The lumbering stomp that opens this EP only confirms this, The vocals are a throaty bellow. The drumming is very deliberate. guitarist Josh Graham handled the visuals for Neurosis, so there is no surprise their influence weighs heavy on this. They have certainly keyed in a specific sound for what they do, which is somewhere between "Souls at Zero' and "Through Silver and Blood". There is a dark menacing stomp to "All We Destroy" which features some stellar drumming, that keeps this song in motion.  While dialing in a certain sound, they are still writing songs, not just riding the sonic choices they have picked here. The second song has more ebb and flow even if they use atmospheric noise to create this space. 

There is a more brooding feel to "Dead Eye' which gets more room to breathe, allowing the vocals to be more purposeful than just an obligatory roar. More credit goes to their drummer for making smart choices, and not overplaying, but also not just holding the beat. The rumble of the bass is impressive. This album is really well produced, and you get the feeling they captured things they intended here. With sludge, you want this big apocalyptic sound and they certainly knocked that off the charts. 

There is a lingering creepiness that leads into the last song. The drumming wastes no time to get it moving and never allows this album to get dragged into a drone. bark out his last wishes. His vocals have more form and function here as they  One of the main problems is this is just an ep rather than a full album which they might have had more room to experiment and bring new colors of sound to the table, instead of being so devoted to the sludge color by numbers unravelled here. The final minutes find an interesting dissolution into a dark ambiance. I will give this album an 8.5, as it sounds great and they do well with what they have created here. but it resembles Neurosis so much, which can not be by mistake since one of the guys was in Neurosis. But perhaps you are not as familiar with Neurosis and in that case it will be a surprise for your. 

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Karyn Crisis' Gospel of Witches

I was a fan of Karyn's band in the 90's this was back when the only other female fronted band that played dark and heavy music was Fear of God. So i was looking forward to this album. First thing that stands out is Her melodies sound more assured and her voice is even more powerful now than it was on the first Crisis album. "Alchemist" is the first real song following the brooding intro piece, showcases her She  assemblage of great music guys from Tombs, Vaura, and Danny Walker of Intronaut sitting behind the kit. Her husband Epel Duath guitarist Davide Tiso handles the bulk of the guitar on this album. This was not what I expected as it  carries more of an organic big rock sound  Her melodies slither between the chord placement. The more organic rock feel of "Ancient Ways", sounds more like Intronaut than any of the other components making up this band.

There is there a weird blend of alt-rock and thick chuggy metal on "Aradia" . It has hints of System of Down, in the tight slickness.  The songs are smoother rides than Crisis. She jumps around from register to register and focuses more on singing than she did in Epel Duath. There is a slight nu-metal meets doom element to the creepy feel of "Mother". Ross Dolan of Immolation's backing vocals are most effective in the chorus of this song. Logically the next branch on her family tree is "Father". Rather taking the Jonathan Davis route she goes a more spiritual route looking at some of the father figure deities. There is a power ballad quality to "Goddess of Light".

She displays her keen sense of making odd angular melodies work in her favor and the entire sound finds just the right balance in the process on "Howl at the Moon". At three minutes "Pillars" proves to be timed for rock radio and it's not too crazy that it wouldn't fit along side Flyleaf or the Gathering. The almost pop hooks is not what I was expecting, but the songs are very well written, so it has an almost an A Perfect Circle quality in that regard. I find my self pretty forgiving of commercial qualities when they are handled this way though, I am not sure if it would fly with the kids over at Cvlt Nation or even No Clean Singing.

Despite the excellent vocal performance "the Secret" feels like it  is more of an interlude/ intro into "Salem's Wounds".  It would not be either fair nor accurate to compare the song to Chelsea Wolfe even though they both incorporate dark electronics and ghostly vocals. The guttural vocals serve as a good cue for the song to build with a throb. The flow of double bass on "The Sword and the Stone" off set the almost shoe gazey glaze that throws more of this dark pop against a more ominous Cocteau Twins dynamic.The vocal melodies are sugary sweet even with deathly gutturals as the undercurrent beneath.

It ends with a slow dark drift layered with more of her subtler , yet still amazing melodies, she lets the guitar do more of the heavy lifting here, at times making me feel like I am listening to a satanic version of Muse. Karyn's vocals continue to go from a belt into a growl as needed . I'll go ahead and round this one up to a 10 and see how it sets with me , because all of the songs are pretty much perfect , I was just caught off guard at how un-metal some of the melodies are, but they work and it's great music no matter what genre it is or isn't . It's hard to be a marginal fan of hers , but if you are familiar with her work in any way or that of the musicians backing her then this album is worth your while.

Intronaut : Habitual Levitations

Intronaut now occupies a rather middle of the road position as the shift into prog rock, not unlike other bands which were once considered metal like Mastodon, Opeth , Tool and Neurosis, who are now all hard rock as the climate changes and what it means to be heavy elevates. It's hard to keep up, you'll never win at the who's the heaviest race,Becuase for every Batilus album that comes out something LikeThe Nails is meaner and beats your face with low tones swinging at you with more anger than the first guy . It's kind of like the old say you hear people tell bullies that there's always some one bigger and badder out there than you. So if you are a bully you can take this two different ways you can either go looking for that bigger badder guy under the idea the food chain might end with you or you can give up on that all together and chill out , smoke a joint and read a book. This California band did the latter.

One thing that can be said of thinking in Los Angeles is its easy to get caught up in the hustle and the marketing mentality, so even if you aren't thinking " Hey I'm going to go sell out" you are round so much pitching and sales outruns off like the pitch for this could have been "o.k we are taking the grit tht got Mastodon big and combine with Opeth's mellowed out jams and throw a little Tool in..." sounds like a plan they could play Bonneroo.

The album opens with some mid tempo stacatto what could now be described as post-metal riffing and then wanders into more melodic Toolish territory the vocals remind me of Porcupine tree or Isis' better vocal moments. The bass and drums are more adept than the guitar. Some of the patterns might even appeal to fans of djent though they don't have the slick mall metal sound. The guitar goes into a very Adam Jones sonic solo as the drums are coming around the kit in very Danny Carey rolls. It's not a bad song and would have a cool feel to it'd the influences don't glare of almost plagiarism. The last minute and a half the seem to find their own personality .

"The Welding" rougher edges , gruff ear vocals still sung more along the lines of Mastodon. Has more of an indie math rock feel. I can also here some Helmet mixed in, however this sounds more original than the first song, the hints of say Mastodon are I the back ground melodies in the guitar and the vocal the vocal harmonies are arranged. I Like drift of the melodic jam in the songs middle section, it sounds original. "Steps" they begin to take a darker and heavier turn but it has a blatant Meshuggah feel, melodic vocal redeem it, as I often wish Meshuggah had them as their vocalist bores me . Though when they branch out from this the song loses form. The melodic vocals while tuneful keep a very neutral indie metal midrange , the kind where they are like Justin Broadrick and dont want it to seem like they are trying to hard to sing and float in a lazy haze over the music.

By this point I can appreciate while the guitarist is no shredder he knows his way around his pedal board and is more interested in making soundscapes. On songs like " Sore sight for eyes" the guitars coil around tight Tool like patterns, but neve reach a chug or gallop to convince me this is heavy music. The Meshuggah mimicry are the only heavy moments. When Sore sight goes into the space jams midway and then creconvene for some rocking it soundalike they have found themselves.

"Milk Leg" starts off with the off time flirtation with djent, but keeps the post hardcore second clothing feel.
The bass is pretty impressive on the song and I suppose some listener who aren't prog mind could find it overindulgent at times but regular readers know one of my favorite bands is King Crimson so I have a pretty high threshold for this sort of thing. Saying this song has some heavier points would mean heavier than there normal post rock prog, it's mainly just accents. In the last two two and a half minutes the Tool thing gets a taste of what I think these guys are about and morphs into something their own. The trend on this album is cool parts but not songs.

"Harmonomicon" well...I don't think they are capable of making anything dark enough to wink at the Necronomicon, some take a fleeting issue with that. This is in Jesu like territory with Tool ish accents. I know at the. Heart of any band is a soup of influence you hope comes out tasting like something new, the key is throwing in peanut utter smothered is something that doesn't just blend in with the other ingredients and these guys are pulling for to close of zip codes. This but be the codex for the bland as the song really only invokes sleep, I think if I still smoked pot I might appreciate it more and this album As a whole.

At last a children of the grave type chug comes out, though it could be by way of a more modems source and goes all Tool on us again. The tribal nature of the drums are from the jungles of Los Angeles. The Troy Sandersgruffness of the vocals, we know can be traced to other sources as Mastodon aren't terribly original in and of themselves but have a smart sense of hook that this album tends to lack. I remember hearing more Opeth on my initial listens and hear less of that now a few times through this one. I think on some of the songs where the fat could be trimmed if some of the name that band game wascut out and we took all the parts that sound likethey are being authentically them we might be onto something.

From the first minute of "Blood from a Stone" I think if this kicks in then it means the power ballad is not dead. Bit instead. They just get touchy feely for three minutes , doesn't sound bad but more like a middle section to another song rather than a standalone piece or an intro for the following song but intro it's naut.

"The Way Down" the effects are heavy almost Pink Floyd, which I can respect ripping off Floyd much more than say Mastodon. The attempt to get heavy arises but it's almost like some guy bragging out benching two hundred pounds unless you are twelve it's not much weight...you are into lifting. If you are into metal then this is not that heavy either and boring more often than not. I'll give it a 5.5 there's some great playing but every other riff while not a direct rip off is colored by their influences too closely for me get into it , if you just like great playing and are o.k with middle of the road stuff round it up a point. I don't see the rather bland middle path holding much ground on my ipod despite the few melodies which caught my ear and stellar bass work.