Hot Water Music : "Light It Up"

This Florida band has returned, one of the staples of the post-hardcore scene that once got referred to as emo when it was about emotion rather than hair cuts. Their new album find the band back with a stronger sense of melody and song writing than I remember them leaving off with. Their singer's husky voice reaches further than before. They are not as aggressive but it is a fair trade off in terms of maturation. It's when they really speed things up into a punk place on the title track that they lose me. "Show Your Face" returns to the more melodic sense of emotion injected into a brand of punk that leans more into the rock side of the equation. This means a strong chorus that is more likely to get stuck in your head. "Never Going Back" feels more like a punk version of Bruce Springsteen. With that said it also equates with finely tuned songwriting and thoughtful lyrics.

The rambling almost Americana take on punk rolls on with it's very organic lyrical sensibility. Here it begins to retread some of the ground it feels like they have already covered and finds this formula beginning to wear thin on me as they no longer have the darker sense of desperation that used to ride the underbelly of their sound back in the day. They come closer to touching on this with "Sympathizer" , but turn around and lose me again with the more Ramones like punk of "Vultures". While they don't suck at this kind of punk, I don't think it's truest to who they are as a band. "Bury Your Idols" finds them splitting the difference and bringing a more familiar melodic side to the punk energy. It's not until "Overload" that I begin to hear a New Model Army influence that must have been their all these years but I never gave any thought to until now.

The Bruce Springsteen thing returns to a greater extent on "High Class Catastrophe" . But this is fine with me as is it is one of the album's more passionately sung songs."Hold Out" is melodic punk filler, the chorus is strong but kind breezes past without really sticking to me. With these guys it's all about the feeling from the vocal and they sell me more on that during this album's more rock n roll moments like the closing anthem "Take You Away" which is what the Boss would sound like if he went up to 11. Speaking of numbers I'll give this album an 8, mainly due to the fact some of the more brisk punk numbers just don't make me a believer. Fans of the band might be more forgiving, I used to like this guys but haven't listened to them in 18 years.

Pillorian : " Obsidian Arc"

Unsure why it took so long to get around to this album. Listening to Agalloch's"Ashes Against the Grain" album I began wondering what Don Haughm was up to and a few clicks later here we are.This came out back in march and also features members of Infernus and Arkhum. Vocally it still has the trade mark sneer we heard in Agalloch though he might be screaming out with even more anguish here. I like the fact there is plenty of room to be melodic and they are not pounding you with blast beats. The drummer uses double bass to bring the thunder right from the opener. Its more bombastic drumming that was used in Agalloch. When the blast beats do come they are made more tolerable by the fact that the guitar doesn't feel the need to fall in line behind them.This is however more overtly metal than the bulk of what Agalloch did. This is not to say there is not clean vocals or guitar tones, they are just less frequent that what commonly comes to mind when I think of Agalloch.

From a songwriting perspective their are plenty of punchy hooks in the riffs. The guitars on this album have varied tones and are well produced with plenty of melody. Lyrically there is some fantasy dancing around with talks of wielding swords in the face of the gods. Though things don't accelerate to far out of bounds on the first song I prefer the more deliberate pace of the second song. Though when it comes to the whispered part midway into it I find myself not as engaged and having to regain focus. Things continue to darken with "the Vestige of Thorns". I have already heard people say that these guys could be better than Agalloch, and I think that is a pretty wishful could. This song is melodic for black metal, but doesn't touch the scope of dynamics that Agalloch encompassed.
The guitar playing and the drumming are both top notch for what these guys are doing, but still rather monochrome when it comes to the range of colors they approach,

They devolve into more mundane black metal launching into "Forged Iron Crucible". This is a more aggressive take on black metal that might prove to more staunch fans of black metal they can go a more Marduk route, it is not as interesting as some of the previous songs. "A Stygian Pyre" is also more straight forward black metal but more from a darker Dissection school of thought where it takes from the catchy grooves of thrash.  One of the most interesting songs is the darker depths of the melodic "Dark is the River of Man". It opens with clean vocals and uses moments of the more whispered rasps that marked early Agalloch. I can say this album feels darker than most Agalloch. If we are going to really weigh in on if this album is better than Agalloch I'm giving this album an 8.5 and Agalloch's albums have all scored higher than that , so that answers that one. However that is a high bar and this album is pretty entertaining.


 

Zud : " A Wilderness Left Untamed"

I was under the impression I had covered these guys before , but after a search that proved not to be the case, so here we go. This is the Portland band's second album. The first song is called "Thundercats Don't Play Dead" which lets you know they are just here to have fun and are not taking the black metal part of what they do very seriously. The vocals and the low key blast beats are really the only thing that is black metal in this bitch. Black metal is more about mood than any one thing and this is more like snarling punk. Like Grumpy Cat black metal is not about having fun. Fun is too mundane for black metal. The song that follows sounds more like old Slayer, and as a general rule thrash is another fitting label for this band. Lyrically it seems like a mish mash of metal silliness.

They are good at what they do. What they do begins to blur for me by the third song as everything begins to sound the same. Even the clever name of "For A Few Fucks Left to Give" is not enough from keeping the song mired down in riffs that have become uniform. The guitar solos are ego strokers with nothing to generally contribute. There are a few that add some flair , but considering the vast number of them they are outweighed. The ten minute "Off the Map" find the band slowing down and stopping the party enough to care about songwriting and is a welcome change of pace. They pick the pace back up yet not as manically after this. Though I find myself kind of tuning it out. They are back with the kind of snarling thrash that embodies this album, and have enough energy in the riffs to sell it better and reengage me. The fact the the mood a marginally more grim helps.

Thing have a more dynamic moodiness to them going into "Chasing the Dragon's Tail". They expand upon this with the interlude that follows. It's a mixed bag on the last song which loses my attention more often than it pulls me in. It is well played and has more though put into that some of their more frantic punk paced party thrash. I'll give this album a 7, a little too upbeat and beer drinking for my personal taste. But I think for those specifications they would do well in Atlanta. Will update this with a link to the current album is availible until then if you just want to get an idea what they sound like try the link below.

Deaf Kids : "Configuração Do Lamento"

So these guys from Brazil got signed by Neurot Records on the merits of a Cvlt Nation article. While I write for Cvlt Nation we do not always see eye to eye on certain qualities of music, though it could be that they typically approach things from more of a punk perspective while I grew up listening to metal so , things like punk production value don't fly with me most of the time. Here that is a factor along with songwriting. I know it's vulgar to ask someone making music to write actual songs no matter what angle they are working their novelty. I had to listen to this album twice to figure out what was going on. They open with a percussive ditty that has a more industrial feel to it falling somewhere between Ministry and Devo. But it never turns into an actual song. Then comes a barrage of drumming. I have never been one to hang out in drum circles so it's not all that impressive of an interlude though might work as part of an actual song. There is more of that confrontational industrial punk on the 3rd  song which is the first song that sound like real song. That doesn't mean it progresses beyond the initial attack though the attack they make is strong enough to pretty much stand on it's own.

This is followed up with a noise center punk drum beat and shouting under the pretense of being a song that never really gets out from under the noise in a way that really allows it to become one. After this you reminded that you don't have to have any talent or musical ability to be hyped. They prove this by wasting two minutes and forty seconds of everyone's time with just noise and not a single note of music. While the production has been rough for the bulk of what I guess we are trying to call an album here, it gets worse at their next attempt at a song which devolves into noise. Sepultura came out of Brazil so we have heard some actual music there, though for industrial post-punk, it is not something in their genetic make up. They allow some monkeys to beat on pots nad pans that were left out in the rain and then have the audacity to title it like its a song.

We are back to a somewhat more conventional attempt to make music with the last song, though song is still being used as a very loose term here. There is a drum beat, and vocals buried under a blanket of noise with a guitar riff that sounds like it is being played by someone who is still trying to learn how to hold a pick. Overall this is a new low for even punk. I will round this down to a 3. That is minutes of my life I will never get back and if performance art is worth that to you I suppose that is your business , though I think their name refers to the audience that would really get what they do.

With the Dead : "Love From the Dead"

With a similar heft the new album from Lee Dorian of Napalm Death/ Cathedral fame relieved right from the the first few notes. Like a more hard core version of Tom Warrior the vocals are exclaimed with a shout and sometimes sung. It' hard to hear where the bass begins and the guitar ends as it's been mixed into one fuzzy frequency. There is less of a doom feel to "Egyptian Tomb" and more of a crusty sludge feel with the vocals shouted in more of a militant punk manner. It has more momentum, but I am sure that they are really giving us nothing that we have not heard before. This is disappointing as as the mood of their previous album was much more unique. There is a similar density to the fuzz that fills "Reincarnation of Yesterday". The pace is picked up and the guitar provides a little more depth. Mostly this song also works off the same kind of stomp this band favors.

You would imagine a song called "Cocaine Phantoms" to move at a more frantic pace, but instead they slow down . The music takes a darker turn and the vocals are not as shouted so it provides a little more color to the album. "Watching the World Go By" feels more like an interlude as the vocals are more of a spoken narrative. It doesn't build up into a song til much later in the piece. The vocals on "Anemia" return to that almost hard core type of shout , though a few degrees more relaxed. I do like the darker guitar melody that flows through this song. Midway into the song, I do begin to wonder where the hell are they going to be able to go from here. They close the album without veering off course from the familiar frequency they stick pretty close to . It might be the production choices , but I preferred the more apocalyptic sense that haunted their first album. Though there is nothing that really justifies this song for being seventeen minutes, they do add the ambiance I like ater but really that more of a case of ...why the hell didn't you do that earlier.

There is not doubt this is am ore raw and straight forward follow up that doesn't cater to what I first liked about this band. I'll be generous and give this a 8, as it does have some strong moments, I just prefer my doom to be more dynamic and layered but there is something for every one and these guys are still good at what they do.

Myrkur : 'Mareridt'

The title track that opens with an atmospheric folk piece that feels more like an intro for the song that follows that a sung in and of it self. At first blast beat you might expect this just to be same kind of black metal that we heard on her debut full length, this is not the case. There is an even greater blending of folk and ambiance in the songs ebb and flow. There is a darker tone to "the Serpent" that builds tension , with her singing with a more sultry manner that holds a sexuality not explored in her previous work. Production wise the vocals are going through a distorted filter, but this more spacious, without feeling pretentious and overblown, however not the kind of lo-fi affair fans of black metal might prefer. This is not always black metal. Get ready for this,  sometimes this album is not metal at all. "The Serpent" is totally out of left feel from what a band like Lacuna Coil might do if they felt adventurous.

Strings color "Crown" which is more along the lines of Marissa Nadler. I like the varied layers of vocal and at the end of the day the interesting vocal preference makes up for the fact this is not metal. The vocals are extremely well done, though more conventional.We do not get back something closer to black until "Elleskudt". The time the black metal has more of a symphonic flare. I would say it is certainly not what the more cvlt minded black metal fan would accept as being truly black metal. "De Tre Piker"is another folk song that feels more like an interlude and not something I would feel to keep around on my iPod. Already on this album that have been moments that felt inspired by Chelsea Wolfe, it's not until "Funeral" that they actually sing a duet. Their voices work well together . The song is more at a sludged out doom pacing that Wolfe would favor.

The darker intervals of black metal are applied to "Ulvinde" though the song it self is more like dark indie rock . The distorted chord just lurk under the melancholy melodrama until they snarl out of it midway though. But if you are wanting this to be more of a black metal album, don't get your hopes up as it's only a an odd break away into the scowling vocal or less than a minute. Not that it's not a good on it's own merit, the black meta is just getting shed to make room for a more mature song writing approach. I live blast beats are just  the under current for the ethereal folk of "Gladiatrix" which might be my favorite song on the album.The songwriting is very concise no sprawling drones to bore you. Nor would these songs need the extra time as she knows how to make everything fit in the frame given to the songs.

Not only does another folk interlude follow this song, but something weird and theatrical that could be the intro to a King Diamond closes out the album. It's like a little girl talking about demons. I appreciate the though but once again not something I need on my iPod. So when you strip away some of the atmospheric interludes and just look at this album in terms of songs it's really strong. I'll give it a 10 as they most outstanding moments compensate for the more odd Lacuna Coil like steps into convention which are not bad just not what I was warmed up for. This album will without a doubt bring her a larger audience and this was not done by really selling out even though the black metal was dialed back to make room for it. This comes out September 15th.

Spirit Adrift : "Curse Of Conception"

When the first song opened I had to go check and make sure this wasn't the singer from In Solitude. There seems to be more of a longing in his wail this time, he lets his voice crack right from the first phrase. The melody to  the title track comes dangerously close to ripping off Sabbath's "Megalomania" ,but it breaks away from this when they pick up the pace. "To Fly On Broken" is the first song that really speeds up out of what I consider doom tempo and leads them more in the direction of NWOBHM bands. The twin guitar harmonies further enforce this. Around the songs' four minute mark there is an excellent dynamic shift towards a more melodic introspection. Then things go even further into a melodic direction. This reminds me or Judas Priest's more blues tinged side. The vocals have great clear resonance to their tone. There is a slight power ballad mood to the song though like say "Beyond the Realms of Death" or "Fade to Black" it's done with more of a melancholy.

One thing about this record that I like are all of the guitar solos are in context of the song and tasteful for what they are rather than using the song as bookends for adolescent wanking. Things get heavier for "Graveside Invocation" now they are more of an early thrash tempo and have forsaken doom altogether . This brings In Solitude back to my mind. The vocals have begun to win me over , as much of the more power metal like singing that pays homage to the greats like Halford and Dio come across too polished and feel more like Journey. This is an instant turn off for me. Nate Garrett doesn't venture up into the metal yodel, and keeps an angry tension to his vocal chords most of the time. There is more of a mid-temp swing to "Spectral Savior" which is more of a straight up rocker.

They get some interesting tones and it's certainly well executed as a stand alone song I think "Wakien" would have worked better as part of a larger work. "Onward, Inward" is heavier and darker. The guitar tone gets pretty fucking dense for these guys. The vocals sit over the riff more like something Candlemass would do. Garrett reaches down into his guts for a lower more forceful gruffness for the chorus. The only slightly obnoxious moment on the album is the brief solo burst preceding the breakdown. This is quick so largely forgivable. The end result is this album rocks pretty hard, I mean I am putting it on my iPod for Dragon-con so that has to be worth something and by sheer merits of that fact alone I can round it up to a 9.5. It comes out Oct 6th on 20 Buck Spin.