Ihsahn : "Artktis"

Ihsahn has brought back the metal is back in a big way on his 6th solo album.  You won't forget Ihsahn was in Emperor. I suppose he felt he took the experimentation as far as he could without losing sight of where he came from. This makes for an album that is in line with his earlier solo work. Captures more of an Opeth like feel...that is when Opeth actually played metal.The electronic elements are still there just set back behind the guitars. The guys from Leprous are still around with  Einar Solberg, helping out with vocals . I really like the melody that closes in on the song's three minute mark. If you are going go from growls to clean vocals this is the way to do it. "Mass Darkness" finds Matt Heafy from Trivium stepping out of the where are they now files to lend a hand in the shredding department.  It's a darker more ominous song. He is back in full force with the harsher vocals.

There is a punchy almost Deep Purple like riff to "My Heart is of the North" . It really goes into an unexpected place, that almost made me think it was another song. If you think prog is about wanking then you need to learn something and give this album a listen. That's not to say Ihsahn doesn't flex his chops and he has them as one of metal most under rated guitarists. I'm not even going to tell you what happens at the three minute mark. The keyboards on this album are on point and production wise everything is dialed in perfectly. Things take a much darker turn into more Skinny Puppy direction on the incredible "South Winds" which still finds electronica in play but being used in context of what Ihsahn does best. The Opeth like clean vocals do show up, but somehow it all meshes. "In the Vaults" finds more of a tug of war between the influence of black metal and prog metal. The prog wins out.

"Until I Too Dissolve" finds him fighting off the Dream Theater temptation. The awesome chorus of "Pressure" is what really brings it all home and pulls the twisted verses together. "Frail" really takes the concept of being a musical oddity in the right direction.  The Nordic Shining's Jorgen Munkeby to chime in on" Crooked Red Line" . It's cook to hear him play something less spastic than his band, there is more straight up jazz to the melodies here, though it's worked smoothly into the type of dark thinking man's metal that makes up this album.  They balance is tipped into straight up balladry on "Celestial Violence". It kicks in right on time a minute and a half into it, which any longer would have wandered into power ballad territory. When the clean vocals come back in they prove you can really sing in 2016 and still have a sense of commanding power without coming across like you are in Primal Fear. For the sake of this review I am not going to count the bonus track which is the weird spoken word "Til Tor Ulven", it sounds like something from the Metallica & Lou Reed "Lulu" album. The rest of the album kicks ass and finds him back in fine form I'll give it a 10.

Rotten Sound : "Abuse to Suffer"

I went into 2016 saying this is the year grind core is going to break bigger and here is a band that will help lead the cause . Even"Cursed" was the first album by this Finnish band that I really paid attention to, these guys are no strangers to the game.  How much of a song can you establish in 47 seconds? Not much it just sounds like someone is demoing song ideas to the rest of their band to write something off of. It takes at least two minutes to get into the brutal groove of these guys which "Fear of Shadows' does a better job of accomplishing. These bursts of songs are very punishing so its hard to image not being numbed out by the type of beating a song like "Trashmonger" dishes out if it were to have go over the two minute mark.

The production is very dense. The guitars hit you like a wall, with the drums sometimes getting lost in the storm of distortion.The vocals are mid to low range growls. There is a cool riff in "Crooked", but you know the rule here is cool riffs alone do not make a good song. The first song that breaks the two minute threshold is the slower grinding pulse of "Time For the Fix". This allows for the song to feel like it is more fully realized than the songs that proceeded it. The most effective under a minute burst is "Slave to the Rats". It goes from a blast to thick neck crushing groove in under 52 seconds. They hit two minutes again with "Brainwashed" which is more straight forward for these guys. The drumming is impressive throughout the album, but this song might be on the album's high light reel.

At times the more hard core side of the band comes out as displayed on "Cannon Fodder' that also find the band adopting an almost Entombed like thickness to the riffing.Without question this is heavy as all fuck. Sometimes this heavy get's the benefit of varied tempos on the more sludge like trudge of "Yellow Pain". The vocals on this one go up into a higher curdling shriek. The mood over all on this song stands out from the nine songs before it. A song like "Machine"takes the album title literally. It's pretty effective even into the spastic out bursts of insane speed. Burly bass leads into the beastly blast of " the Clerk" that possesses a mammoth rumble, the following song "Caged" could have been the next logical progression if this was a more adventurous genre .

The minute long "Retaliation" is all teeth, which works if there was somewhere else to go, but their economic sense of song writing leaves the band frequently painted into a corner. "Inhumane Treatment" finds the band much more effective at crushing you when given two minutes to work with. When they kick up the gears too fast for their own good the song does stumble a little.The last song has a cool ending, but this song is the exception to the rule and the band doesn't make the most with the time they are given. I'll give this one a 7.5. Some of these little ditties are compact grenades of heaviness the rest are cool riffs here and there, but need more to them. If this is your thing and you are really ADD, then not only has this review been to long for you, but you can round it up.

Grave Miasma : "Endless Pilgrimage"

This band from the UK, once had their name thrown around when the sub-genre occult death metal began to crop up on the inner webs. This was characterized by a very cavernous sound and lots of eerie atmosphere, the bulk of these bands also owed a lot to Incantation's earlier work. The atmospherics are still in play they are just handled differently this time around. It's been three years since first full length and for an ep this clocks in 35 minutes making it an album in my book. The first song find them locking into a more machine like hammering that evokes more mainstream death metal bands. They still have enough weirdness at the fringes to keep their sound relatively intact. there are some twists and turns on the opener which might be one of the album's most atmospheric songs, but even then this is more about mauling you with power than smoke and mirrors. The second song "Utterance of the Foulest Spirit" is even more straight forward with it's groove before the ambiance comes haunting around the 3 minute mark. It has a pretty solid stomp with the undercurrent of double bass keeping the song flowing like a ride down the river Styx. The vocals cry out from their guttural bowels with more intelligible roars on this song.There is also a blackened edge to things.

The pounding "Purgative Circumvolution" has more of an old Morbid Angel feel to it. The drummer is still a monster and this fact might be highlighted even more by the fact he is playing some more conventional metal grooves. There is some ranting about Shiva , but the song doesn't really stand out to me and feels like everything else in the land of death metal. There is more spastic chaos to the blast that kicks off "Glorification of the Impure". The verses stick with me a little more the Shiva thing is a theme to this song too. It turns into a blur of blasting . A very dense and foreboding on, but doesn't really show the band's identity.Things get better on "Full Moon Dawn" but the band finds themselves falling in the same mire that most death metal bands waddle in. Being such a big fan of "Odori Sepulcrorum" it feels like the band has conformed to closely to where death metal already is rather than living up to the promise they seemed to make on the first record of taking it somewhere it has yet to go. This album is still an enjoyable listen, I think they are capable of more. I'll give it a 7.5.

This is being released on Profound Lore Records May 6th.

Mantar : "Ode to the Flame"

The German duo is back with their dense brand of often blackened metal. It's equal parts dark and raw with the grime stained sonics of sludge. This is my first go at these guys and I like the fact these guys don't  try to steam roll you , but  are able to stick and move rather than just hit you like a tank. Sure make no mistake heaviness that is clearly their stock and trade. "Praise the Plague' is more metal in some respects in others it has a crusty roughness. "Era Borealis" has a rough hewn groove to it with echoes of punk stomping through it's veins. The vocals stay at raspy bark. They let the chords breathe allowing the song to develop a sludgey seething. This vibe carries over in to "the Hint" taking a steady chug and riding it out into a more stacatto punched verse. The vocals  are layered so an more sung vocal line lies under the rasp. There is more of a bong bubbling stoner groove to " Born Reversed" . They return with more of a punk punch on " Oz".



The drummer plays with a lot of restraint very careful to serve the song which benefits songs' like "Oz" where the groove is such a focal point. The whole Entombed brand of d-beat is an undercurrent that runs under these songs, but they don't really join those bands to create something with that kind of thrash drive. "I Omen" has the raw power of Motorhead, but churns in more of a throb than just banging away with the band on of a punk band. They pound out a pretty powerful brand of black n roll on "Cross the Cross". When placing more emphasis in beating your ear drums into submission on "Schwanenstein" they lose a little of the menacing charm that gave personality to the songs earlier in the album.  "Sundowning"  closes out the album with more of a doomy slumber. They pick up into a gallop before dropping back down into the shadow of the valley of deathly beatings.

I'm pretty impressed by this one. They are going to need a few more listens, but as of right now I'll let it sit at an  8.5  and see if it compels me to return for more listens. If you need some sludge filled black n roll in your life this German band is certainly onto something on their sophomore effort. Nuclear Blast is blasting this out April 15th.

Surgical Meth Machine :"s/t"

Al is back, this time with a new project that is not under the Ministry banner, though the end result is something not far from the land of rape and honey. He doesn't dip into politics as much this go around and takes jabs at today's internet culture. "I'm Sensitive" looks at thin skinned world of social media, before exploding in a fury of industrial strength blasting, where he exclaims' he doesn't fucking care and he will un-friend you. Littered with samples their is a similar brisk pacing to "Tragic Alert" with almost a gang vocal chiming in. The riff to "I Want More" opens the song with the kinda creepy serial killer love song vibe that Slayer uses before accelerating . "Rich People Problems" is dominated by a chant of the song's title with solo from the late Mike Scaccia tossed in. "I Don't Wanna" has a Jello Biafra like rant to it where Al says he doesn't want to  be a be a rock star he wants to be a beer ad. "Smash and Grab" is still pounding but finds Al in more of a Killing Joke like chant and electronic waves crashing around him. It's the first song where the production really wows me.

 Lyrically it's hard to say if the spastic "Un-listenable" is about pop music or not, until they start asking Al about Iron Maiden, Megadeth, Lamb of God and Nickleback and then he says he hates industrial bands. The Cure, Morrissey  also get shot down but Devo rules, so we have a slight difference in taste. There is more punk and less metal on "Gates of Steel" which has an "Anarchy in UK" feel mixed with multi-layered party chant of a vocal."Spudnik" is a guitar soloing transition out of "Gates of Steel" and feels more like a jammed out extension of that song. This preps you for the come down that closes out the album."Just Go Home" is more of a glitched out version of Revolting Cocks as the samples play a very dominant role in the song. The electro experimental continues at more of a break beat on "Just Keep Going". Then "I'm Invisible" closes out the album with a David Lynch like take on trip hop. Al's voice sound great when He decides to take a stab at actually singing.

I'll round this album up to a 9 and see how it sits on me. The second half does take an odd turn so it lives up to Jourgensen's claim that this album is bi-polar. Even though it comes close in terms of aggression it's not a Ministry album and in many ways is more like a punk infused version of Revolting Cocks as the production is not as dense as a Ministry album. Nuclear Blast is releasing this April 15th.

 

Arkhe : "A"

If you are a fan of the Hungarian ban Sear Bliss then get ready for something that is a big departure from what that band. The whole point of this in the first place was for them to try on sounds they had not been able to delve into with Sear Bliss. Bands such as Sentenced , Opeth and Katatonia can be a reference point for this brand of melodic metal with a progressive edge to it. there are plenty of clean vocals and the angrier vocal tones are not at a full growl rather Celtic Frost like exclamation. Some of the vocal melodies are pretty impressive and then don't come in the most expected places. There is an almost 90's pop industrial tone to "Meditation in the Woods" .  "Ferteg Hava" has more of a an alternative metal feel. It's more of a European thing then a descent into nu-metal, almost like a metal version of Inxs. The chugs that do come in are catchy and well placed.They are more fully committed to industrial on the darker "Lelekolok". The vocals take on a more KMFDM like grit.

The atmosphere on 'Space Derelict" shows this willingness to experiment with different sounds pays of in a big way, even though it's more of an instrumental interlude. It marries jazz to space rock in a very original fashion. The pull of a very interesting cover of "Scum" by Napalm Death. It's much slower than the original and has clean singing rather than rabid barking, the pre-verse riff is really the most recognizable factor from the original. "Eredet" continues this breeding of electronic sounds with melodic metal in a fashion that grows increasingly dark as the album progresses. The trip hoppish ballad " Alom Hava" is not a shabby song it carries a slight Pink Floyd influence, but it is not the album's strongest song. The also close with a similarly paced dream filled ballad. This one is a little closer to Porcupine Tree. I'll give this album a 9 it's darker than most progressive rock coming out these days and melodic in a similar sense as Killing Joke, which puts it right up my alley.

Reckless Love : " InVader"

I grew up listening to cock rock. So I have been there and done this.  With band's like Vains of Jenna in early 2000's it threatened to make a comeback, but that had the breaks put on it and even Buckcherry has since been forgotten. These guys are making a more blatant pop stab at the genre. It's more like Pop Cock or even Pop Tarts here than Motley Crue. They have some arena gang vocals and shred solos. The song writing feels like Def Leppard, who is fun music, so these kids are onto something. My only qualm is the sheen of sterile plastic that gelds some of the sleeze from these songs. I can't complain with the Britney Spears influence that surfaces on "Monster", because I don't hear much fusion of boy-band pop with 80s hair metal.

It makes sense that they hail from Finland which is the same country that brought us the love metal of H.I.M. So if you took all the goth out of H.I.M and replaced with Britney Spears you would have these guys. Granted a sound that is not for everyone. The lighter tone to "Child of the Sun" is too One Direction, even with the few tastes of Aqua like Euro pop that are thrown in."Bullettime" finds the closer to the Sunset Strip circa 89. Def Leppard still being the most obvious influence despite the slick chorus.  The keyboards that open "Scandinavian Girls" sets the tone for them to head into a much poppier place. Lyrically it touches on the place spoken of in Spinal Tap... the fine line between clever and stupid. The odd coupling of pop dynamics works for them on "Pretty Boy Swagger". This formula really varies on a very fragil song by song basis , as the balance of pops tips the scales on "Rock It " and it doesn't work as well.

Some of the elements are in place on "Destiny" but then they go and blow it on the chorus. However  if you are a typically a fan of Steel Panther, then it might work for you. But the production strikes me as being a bit Linkin Park. They hit their most metal moment on "Let's Get Cracking", but then the chorus is too happy which is the same reason, I'm not the biggest Van Halen fan either. I can also hear some Ratt mixed into the vocals, but the Van Halen wins this tug of war. The riff to "Keep It Up All Night" sounds like it could have been played by Zakk Wylde, but the almost Jap-pop glee of the chorus flushes  any hope down the toilet. Sometimes this hybrid works, but it's more often too happy for me than no I'll give it a 6.5.