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.

Slayer : "Repentless"

If we are going to be honest Slayer is as much Slayer as Kiss is Kiss at this point. We have two original members with Tom and Kerry playing the respective roles of Paul and Gene. So I went into this with trepidation considering how bad they were live this summer. My faith is wavered ever since  I was a teen and they came out to evangelist Bob Larson saying they did not worship the devil and it was all a gimmick  The opening instrumental is however decent but it leads to the title track which just sounds like the rapid fire punk snare of "God Hates Us All". At some point in time , more than likely "Divine Intervention" Slayer became the entry way for punks to get into metal, "Undisputed Attitude" furthered this , while that element is understandable considering the cross over of 80s thrash and hardcore at the time, in 2015 Slayer is still trying to serve to masters. They are a little more metal riff wise on "Take Control" , but when Lombardo who plays with more nuances is not on the throne they lean more towards punk.

Tom's vocal style makes him the metal Lou Reed, as he talks his way through the songs making to attempt to sing or scream. They do lock onto to a good groove in "Vices" . The moshy nature might be due to Gary Holt's contribution. Though I have to imagine is the pretty much the Kerry King show at this point. "Cast the First Stone" find the production thickening, but the song writing seem a little more dialed in than some of the fire working with Holt might have injected into the previous songs. This is not a good argument for Slayer's more mid-paced sound, which is in fact superior to when they are trying to rush the riffs past you.

The go into their more creepy serial killer "Dead Skin Mask" moments for "When the Stillness Comes" .  Its one of those moment where you really see how bad Tom's voice has gotten as he makes no attempt to sing and this is the sort of song he would try to sing on. It's pretty color by numbers , but is marginally better than "Chasing Death" where the band recycles some of their better riffs. The opening groove to "Implode" is much better. They lead you to think it will  finds Slayer doing what they do best...well post-Seasons in the Abyss, but devolves into racing off into the annoying break neck snare. "Piano Wire" starts off with what would seem like a classic Slayer , but has some spotty bridges that hold together the riffs in a less than inspired manner. Similar could be said about the thrashier "Atrocity Vendor" , but it is more mired down in the boring punk monotony. Slayer are old pros so even them dialing it in will bang the heads of more meat and potato metal heads who just want something loud to drink and sniff glue to. By the time we are at "You Vs You" I am hearing the blur of riffs going nowhere that I heard at Mayhem fest."Pride in Prejudice" closes out the album. This is a fuck the police sort of song, not really  about white power more the racial tension in recent police news this which makes sense considering  Hannemann was the nazi fan in the band.

When it comes to music time will tell and when you look at what stands the test of time it might not be fair when considering the bands legacy to compare Slayer to Kiss isn't fair to Kiss, because by Kiss' 11th album they were putting out "Lick It Up" which is a work of a prolific genius compared to "Repentless" , but then again Kiss are just better song writers than Slayer. I'll give this one a 6 and doubt I will ever feel the need to see if it grows on me. If I were to put on "South of Heaven" right now it would make me want to round this down.

Nadiwrath : " Circle of Pest"

This French band combines thrash and death metal in a punk infused cauldron of rebellious blackness. The punk influence comes from the often straight forward chord progression that take twists and turns on a compositional level. The bass player has some prog leanings while we are dealing with a crusty blaster on the drum kit. The second song "Dominance of Negative Thoughts' finds them racing away at a raid blast that the vocals sometimes back off of to give a shout rather than the dry mid range rasp that dominates this album. There is only so far ou can go with such fire tremolo attacking your ear drums. A blast of trash tinged black metal roars to life on "Rebuilding your world". These song are very concise there are not sprawling with  the right amount of hook to draw a few people in who are not normally fans of black metal. Mid way the songs slows into a deliberate sway and then rampages off again.

They sound like a faster version of Nachtmystium on " Ashes of an Old Ruined World" which finds a catchier focus placed on the neck snapping riffs they are throwing at you. This trend continues on "No Pity For Your Kind" that also races along with a more punk fueled slant to their thrashing. "Breathless We Stand Upon Apocalypse". The vocals have more snarl to their rasp and have a more passion to their anger. But by this time many of the songs are relying on bulldozing with  their viciousness, reminding me of my interview with Ihsahn where we talked about how death metal only works of one emotion, and black metal has a wider scope of emotion, thus lending it self to less limits. It's not to say the drummer isn't blistering and the way the chords ring out don't have some melodic tendencies, but it's generally a straight forward in your face attack.

"No Praise to an Unknown..." finds it's groove a few snare hits before the midway point. Its starts off with their reliance on speed becoming more apparent even though it's the more galloped riff that really grabs you. I thought the last song was still "No Praise to an Unknown.."  it was not until a noticed how the bas was getting busy amid all the blasting that I looked up and took note, or it could have been the fact I thought this song is getting long. All the monk chanting that comes in during the final few minutes would have been better served if they worked into the actual song more. They do pulls out some interesting sounds to throw into the whirl wind of blasting chaos they thrash out so I'll give this album a 7 despite the fact that it falls prey to some of the one dimensional tendecies that plague many extreme metal bands, this band just happens to be good within the one dimension, the question then becomes how long can I stay in that dimension with out needing more melodic layers?

Destruction Unit : "Negative Feed back Resistor"

After some white noise this Arizona band kicks up the desert dust and bombards you with punk rock. Last time around these guys were more like garage rock that was emotionally rough around the edges , this time it's way more punk with little post to it aside from some noise that gives it more atmosphere than old school  one, two three go ...punk. The second song has more attitude and is even more punk than the first. The riff to "Salvation" holds the same blistered sleaze a the Stooges "1970". Lower more spoken vocals drift into the verse. In the songs last two minutes they take you down the rabbit hole into a dark more melodic passage with more modern psychedelic tendencies with under lying aggression. With song titles like "Chemical Reaction /Chemical Delight" it is not surprise that surreal doses of trippy atmosphere will haunt this album like unexpected acid flash back. The take a darker turn at times. The vocals are angrier even under the narcotic blanket of noise the songs are often under, perhaps this is foreshadowing to the fact that they are going to return to the punk blasting. The lower more post-punk vocals they have employed in the past are sporadic and more Iggy Pop and less Ian Curtis.

They dip down into a much darker place for "Animal". The moody bass line sets the stage for a more Nick Cave like vocal to snarl out from the dismal murk that they build up into a more driving rock fuzz. It is of course one of my favorite songs on the album. They strum a few chords before kicking in the door on "Judgement Day". The production is dense and the layers create a very claustrophobic feeling to the album, like not only are the wall melting but they are also closing in on you."If Death Ever Slept" is another burly punk number that starts off in your face and doesn't give you room to breathe until the end.

The album closes with "Upper Hand" that clocks in as the longest song, it add a bit of Butthole Surfers like groove to things as they bust into more desert punk. There is more of an old school punk sneer to this one than perhaps every one but the second. They do not lack energy on this album, but do not explore the sense of dynamics they have had on past albums in their need to pummel you with the primal power of punk. I like more post than punk, so that is the snag on this one for me. I'll still give it a 7 as they do throw together some unique sounds and if I am going to listen to punk then it will be something more along these lines.

Uncle Acid and the Dead Beats : " the Night Creeper"

My only real knowledge of this band going into this was that they came in one the heels of Ghost. So I had it my head they were going to be a more hippy take on occult rock rather than the dense and dirty desert rock that is being churned out here. While they are not reinventing the pentagram, their influences are more varied and blended into the thick fuzz that coats these songs. I would go as far as to say they are doom. There are several moments that musically remind me of Alice Cooper. The vocals are a layered tenor, that are more similar to Coopers more melodic moments, but if filtered through Sabbath and Blue Oyster Cult.

Whlie not doom they take on "Murder Nights"  an eerier creep to their post- flower power hard rock this give a darker melodic sound that gives this song an edge over the opener. They continue to flirt with the shadowy side of the 60s on "Downtown". Much like more modern Ozzy the singer's voice is always coated in effects. "Pusher-Man" is not the Steppen-wolf song, though it would make perfect sense for them to cover that. It grooves with  heavier throb to it's pulse. In some of the singer's phrasing I can here some Lennon influence. They indulge in a more mellowed out instrumental interlude on "Yellow Moon".


I like the sinister groove to " Melody Lane" which is the first song that clicked with me within the first few chords. It is one of the first songs where I hear strong metal leanings.The title track has an ominous groove , but the vocals but not so much that I would call it doom. The techno color coat of pyschedlia floats around the heady heaviness, as the vocals cry out with an insane trembling mixing John Lennon with Ozzy. There is dark strut to "Inside" that sounds like Alice Cooper terrorizing the Beatles on Spahn Ranch with a head full of bad acid in them. They take and even darker yet more mellowed approach to the hazy pulse of "Slow Death".The album goes out on a more drug induced whimper with "Black Motorcade" that is almost more of an outro than an actual song. While the album got off to a strong start and impressed me it began to fizzle out toward the end. I'll give it a 7 and hope it grows on me because due to the song I dug I want to like this more so we shall see how it stands the test of time, but right now it feels like King Dude, already fills this dark spot on my iPod.

6

Amorphis : "Under the Red Cloud"

These guys have been hit or miss with me. I liked "Silent Waters" as they took a darker turn. Now they are back on a cloud of double bass making something more like prog-powered power-metal, but with the growled vocals replacing the Helloween yodels. Not to say they don't have clean vocals as they do and they are often too happy for me much like some of these guitar harmonies. The effects slather vocal passage on the second  song works and there is a slight folk metal inflection in the synths. "Bad Blood" finds them frolicking in waters closer to their country men Night Wish. They lock onto a more commercial death metal groove think ... Dark Tranquility like stomp and then bring in the vocal hook that soars in more like prog metal of yesteryear. There are similar elements to "the Skull" , but they strike me a s being better executed and having a more dynamic range to their melodic sensibility. There is an increasing folk vibe in the intervals both the vocals and synths choose.

"The Death of A King" gets off to a good start with more exotic scales and  a tribal pound in the drums before going into the more nu-metal meets folk metal vibe bands like Equilibrium dabble in.The staccato stomp meets the hooky vocals as they singer really fine tuned his knack for putting his voice in the most epic places , thought riding the fine line towards the cheese that if unchecked this kind of metal lends itself to. "Sacrifice" is much closer to power-metal, it's not symphonic like Night Wish, but cut from the same cloth, though the fact a male vocal is featured it gives it less dramatics and more rock leanings. You gotta hand it Tomi, his vocals are on point for what he is trying to do. When they use a piano sound it brings them even deeper into the fairy land of Night Wish, until the growl off sets it. The guitar finds some harder punches as they band tries to regain their edge. The Myspace metal vocal come in on the chorus of "Dark Path' which just isn't as dark as the title would suggest.

There is a classic metal chug that puts Amorphis next other heavy weights of the metal game like Dream Theater and Queensyrche on "Enemy of the Gates". The singer really begins to soar here, but the music is a shade darker  finding the band tapping into what made "Silent Waters" work so well. "Tree of Ages" doesn't grow too much and instead finds it's self more of a sapling hindered by the folk metal cliches it stumbles over and comes across more like filler.I'll skip the bonus tracks and say that " White Night" is the last song on the album. This one opens with female vocals, to bring more comparisons that already have arisen. The song is alright, it is not as focused as some of their more fine edged moments the bands gave us earlier.

Overall the bands is taking a step in an even more polished direction. Some of their more progressive elements are toned down in order to serve the songs. I would not say this is a death metal album by any stretch of the imagination. I'll give it an 8 as it  is generally well crafted and certainly well produced and finds the bands stepping up a tier to join their more legendary peers of the metal world.It goes without saying they are head and shoulders over Opeths jam band wanking , despite the power metal moments.

John Zorn - The True Discoveries of Witches and Demons

Zorn continues on a prolific progressive streak with his second album this year. Right from the opener it's very King Crimson which is fine since Fripp is back in the shadows somewhere. This album features not only Trevor Dunn but a few of the other Secret Chiefs as well as Marc Ribot, John Medeski and Matt from Cleric who appeared on the other album Zorn released. Things get more angular and "Red" like on"psychomagia" with Medeski's keys coating over the sinewy twists and turns of this wacky ride that rock harder than most of Zorn's other output. Ribot's solos tend to be phrased with more of a rock feeling to them. "Imaginary Stations" picks up where the previous song left off, it goes into the sound of chaotically throwing their instruments down a flight off stairs versus a more straight up Crimson like prog. There is more of a seventies prog feel to the organ dominated "The Power of Runic Symbols". The shifting groove works well and the drums are well played around it if they don't give you motion sickness trying to keep up.


 "Dark Sacrifice" begins with a guitar solo and the other instruments simmering under it with spaced out dissonance. It remains largely abstract and only congeals at the end. I think there is a better combination of weirdness and musicality on "Sorcerer" that follows. In the rubbery groove of "Eccleiastes" there are some good punchy moments amid some of the dis harmonic wanking. "Gordian Knot" starts of with drums and converges into one of the more dizzying grooves. It even captures an darkly aggressive melody in the riff that is almost metal. "Phantasms" starts in a more abstract atmospheric place and then plays around in a disjointed free -form exploration, that the keyboards somewhat rescue in a similar manner to some of the Doors more acid crazed moments before the guitar's tender melody adds another layer of actual music to the noise. They end the album with a very straight forward jazz inflected song, that is melodic , but an odd choice considering what occurred earlier in the album.


 This is one of those albums where sure it is easy to appreciate the musicianship that went into pulling all of this off , but at the end of the day where King Crimson who along with Frank Zappa are the real deal when it comes to this, both have the edge on Zorn when it comes to songwriting, though on "Naked City" he proved he can write a song amid the chaos. Granted vocals allow Crimson to back off realize they are actually playing for other people and not being over indulgent. With out that audience then its a arpeggio falling in the forest. I'll give this one a 6 off the basis of the skill and some of the grooves that they do lock into. If you just like instrumental prog then you can masturbate along side this one as you round it up all the way to maybe even an 8.