Krampus :Survival of the Fittest

Since its dragon con weekend I thought it appropriate to load some folk metal into my iPod. In my other reviews of this sort of thing we discussed how I play D&d and read Conan and game of thrones styled epic fantasy so I'm the target audience for this type of thing but for some reason it never seems to click the right way , most of the time due an ovabundance of frolicking. I don't like happy music , if the name of this blog didn't clue you into that so dancing a jig at the highland games has no appeal. Folk metal when it should be the soundtrack to the dark ages or Viking pillages turns into dancing around the maypole.the dark ages were to as jubilant as these bands think , they were filled with plagues and rather dismal piss scent squalor led deaths. So I want music which conveys the desperate bleakness of this time.

For what I had heard of Krampus is that they were dark and looked forward into bleak living, sounds good sign me up. Now I'm a goth for way back so when you say dark I'm not fucking around, so I have a high standard for low. "Survival of the fittest " starts of with a symphonic string build that is the soundtrack for final fantasy more so than opening the gates to the netherworld. Then things get rather Eluvietie from their. Before I knew if I was five songs in so like a lot records it seems I'm reviewing theses days we are getting the feel of one long work rather than songs with distinct personalities , the fith song " the bride" breaks from that in some ways it sounds like a singer I can expect to hear this weekend , maybe if the dude from Cruxshadows fronting a Nu metal band. The more Cruxshadows part I like Becuase while this is the most clean vocal prominent song I have noticed, there a different quality to his voice than say Amorphis or Tyr, who are more dramatic in tone.

This album is well produced though in a problem similar to what Eluvietie encounters I think the folk instrumentation could stand a more organic feel, though there is an in flames or dark tranquility feel to some of the guitar it doesn't come off as mall metal as Eluvietie. The absence of the Lacuna coil type cheese melted on some of the last Eluvietie helps out , though some weird electronics elements haunt the corners.

The track " the dance of lies" also stood out on the first listen as the chorus jumped out in one of those bad cop good cop trade offs. The coarse vocals I better than most bands of this sub genre who employ them with little conviction. Though it is here I I notice all folk metal bands seem to be under the impression flutes ,lutes and bag pipes only have a range of certain river dance like intervals to which I can only prescribe a steady diet of Jethro Tull who schools these types of bands on a regular when it comes to summoning the fey. If their is not a folk metal tribute album to Tull. It needs to happen.

So for the sake of rating this rather mixed bag lets look at the rest of the album , the first real song "beast within" blazing along that Swedish Nu metal ...inflames mode until, the little lute break and then jack hammers, the guitar tone is a little to processed nd makes it sound like those 8 bit thrash spoofs, the triumphant gallop in the windup at the end need to extended, well executed just not feeling it. From there the slowed down riff of "rebirth" still moves quickly and the first clean almost emo ore vocals come I. Though by the chorus they are more forgivable and this songs is an improvement from the MySpace metal opener.

There's nothing here I haven't heard before, the point is driven home on "aftermath" which all the lady hawke fiddling can keep from being a little boring even the samples included. This song started making me wonder how the bands p/r people had so well infiltrated metal press. As we have every tired new metal cliched krammed into this one.

By "bride" first song I liked on here it's one wonder It stands out is by "aftermath" I was tuning it out. "Redemption" is heavy at least on paper something out this type of riff age just doesn't make me feel like it is , yes it is well played it heavy is in how it feels oppressive or crushing and here I envision All Shall Perish or some equally as glue sniffing slinging their guitars around like it's tought when it's really hot topic Dokken. There are little shades of things I like being done on this one just not enough.

The last two songs which follow one of the albums other moments "dance of lies" tend to stick to the Eluvietie blue print with liberal doses of guitar slinging. It's shame because I want to like folk metal but you are killing me with the break downs for teenagers. Listening to "tears of stone" I want them to show me again they aren't Eluvietie tribute band, but they can't seem sell me on that despite my wishful thinking. So they get a big fat four for the three goods songs which I can live with out if I need to make space on the hard drive.

Krallice: Years Past Matter

I think by now we all know Colin's connection to behold the Arctopus and Gorguts, So skipping the metal family tree and going into the work at hand. First off their are going to be those who are resistant to some of the more melodic elements involved here. Far from the kind of compromising selling out would entail for these guys, it is a more interesting and palatable listen as some of the jarring shred pyrotechnics found on the last album are toned down to offer more dynamics.

The album starts full on blasting the nasty, the way some of the chords ring to begin to bring Liturgy to mind.The patterns still carry the almost free form jazz like nature of hipster black metal as the forum boards will lament. Mainstream metal press will remain pretty clueless as how to approach this as its progressive in some sense but not djent or Opeth .

By the second song, the changes become more discernible to my ears although this one still drives full speed ahead. The bass is more prominent in the mix here, the accents later in the song are in and out , go to the bathroom and youll miss them especially on a ten minute song that establishes a speedy drone early on. At the seven minute mark it breaks up into more epic proggy territory before darkening into a thunderhead before they storm of speed with lingering feedback.

Vocals are not the bands forte, I can appreciate it's a different frequency of harsh a lower coarse howl more common place in sludge. They do get close to singing on the third track all of the albums songs are named in the same roman numerals, though by counting them this one would be nine, but I'm ignoring this element altogether as it's silly.

The guitar tone is much warmer and like i mentioned earlier it seems as if they have taken a page from Liturgy's play book. The notes ring out more and it's not a tappy and tech sounding as the previous albums. This gives it the breathing room need for the sense of movement which becomes established in moments which book end some of the more blasty bursts.

I think as far as this sort of thing goes, Liturgy and Woe have a more focused sense of indentity. There is an under lying current of technical death metal shoved down below the sonics of the maelstrom here. The tempest fugit of riffs lost at sea here is astounding if you are able to differentiate them . With ten and eleven minutes songs where this type of intensity is maintained over the course of such time, they are lucky to hold my attention, but still managed to. However the three mins of ambiance at the end of this track breaks the album up it doesn't really add to the song in and of its self.

The fourth song starts with tenderly picked guitar and boils over into jack hammer styled cunt pounding already established though their are some rhythmic accents four minutes in and the washes of octaves cascading into the drone are a nice touch and contrast the almost trashy riff following this section. The slower doom paced riff is a relief at this point and feels like I'm listening to a song rather than having the kitchen sink thrown at me.

The fifth song which really begins to sound like the fifth movement , until it establishes its indentity with more of an ascendant gallop. The mix is generally pretty precise and best heard on headphones however the drum mix at times on his one sounds like its powered by the bass, which is unique of this style of music and I'm sure the double bass on this one will impress more technically minded listener the last couple minutes of this one really gets great.

Then on the sixth song we are back to the hyper powered blasting. The riffs morph into something more epic , though on my fourth pass through on this album I'm beginning to understand what doesn't click for me on this. The playing is great , these are no doubt excellent musicians a point I have not really stressed thus far, because the staying power and the timelessness of music doesnt rely on those things, while I dig the gallop of this last song, it's not speaking to me. I don't think it's a coincidence the vocals aren't really given much thought here, is because these guys don't have anything to say. I'm sure in interview views they will default to the old..." we let the music do the talking and the listener brings their own interpretation " which is a cop out for we know how to play notes but we don't know how to say anything with them.

I will give this one a 5.5, even though it's an improvement in production and the sound of what they do is more melodic it's just empty calories. Sure the execution and playing is outstanding it's generally soul less and I would go as far as saying their older material was heavier to had some faked fury to it so you almost believed thee guys were angry tech geeks at least, instead we get math and mechanics.

Xibalba : Hasta La Muerte

These guys have gotten a lot of buzz, from sources like my friend Anrhony over at the Needle drop and frankly I'm surprised how much beat down style hardcore is in this as lot of what I has read about this was calling these guys a death metal band and comparing them to Disma.

Greg Anderson of Sunno))) is on this record and had some production input. But don't be fooled by that as there isn't any hipster indie doom going on. This is like one breakdown building off of another breakdown. In some ways this reminds me of Bloodlet and the time whe. All of those victory records bands were picking up change and starting lawn mowers in the pit back in the mid 90s. They always just seemed like metal bands with short hair and no guitar solos with hurt feelings and social agendas. With time all of that has faded Converge is the only band from that time period who stood the test of time unless we are going to count Hatebreed. So as times change all the things I disliked about the victory records hardcore bands has faded and we just have Xibalba slamming this metal core thing , with out the fashion sense of themyspace metal core bands, this is the real deal no suicide silence or white chapel bullshit here.

This is going to take a few listens as songs have a similar cadence to them. The drums that kicked off the third track " Laid to rest" got my attention. it's impossible not to nod your head to this, though my neck is swaying forward in the same time signature through out, the album does find some variation in the descent into sludge. Is there a genre called sludge core already ? Is it different than the box bands like Eyehategod are in ? Because this feels like southern California and there is no traces of swamp or blues to this.

Again and again the hammer drops here, I kept listening so something must be working,by the end of this I'm going to listen again to separate the songs out in my heads if you have not read how I come up with my scores it's the percentage of songs I like for the most part I compact them into a single number, with albums where it's one slab of heavy like this one it's hard. The more I listen the grasp I am beginning to get on this beast, the bass tone is a major player here as it manages to thump past these guitars which sound like they are tuned down to c, don't quote me on that one as I haven't picked up a guitar to check yet. But this whole albums has ,more rumble to it than your average bear.

I do think this album hits it's best moments when balance with ambiance and the experimental shades like the female vocals on the title track. The powerhouse drumming helps pummel some of these songs through. This is similar in someways to post "Divine Intervention" Slayer song writing is who needs attention to detail in song writing whenwe can just juggernaut our way through, which works on some songs most notably the brutal " Sentenced". But the Sepultura feel to the tribal drumming at the beginning of " the flood" is a good example how if more colors were added this album could have been much darker. The melodic single not drone slathered atop the roomy pound creates a heavier feel to me than coming at you straight on.

I can round this one up to an 8 , Becuase it's moments are so strong and I like the heaviness through out even the blunt nature of this album I respect and foresee is making through the rest of the year on my iPod , it's a good replacement for Ringworm and seems to be growing on me as I have been listening to this a helluva lot more than the Khors album I got of the same night, recommended for fans of this new wave of extra rough hardcore.

Khors : Wisdom of Centuries

I guess the fifth time is the charm for this Ukrainian metal band who in my opinion wears the black metal label loosely and ever looser the pagan metal tag, unless I missed the memo from Mordor and pagan metal is not similar to folk metal and means caught somewhere in between power metal and black metal. I tried on their previous album "Return to Abandoned" for size and at the time it didn't do a lot for me but I think I was coming off of an Agalloch kick . Their most recent release "Wisdom of centuries" is pretty impressive.

To me "return to abandoned" struck me as something more closely akin to Dark Tranquilty than black metal and there were these pseudo signing parts than I dunno, just felt cheesed out. While comparisons to fellow country men Drudkh, will be drawn Ifeel this album is superior to the bulk of of Drudkh's work. While this is my first time giving this one a listen , I'm surprised how seamless the flow of these songs are . Carried by moody melodic guitar, this is not cvlt black metal but large lush and allows the dark edges to spread out like fog in the night.

in some ways their epic proportions remind me of Moonsorrow , though the are less Lord of the Rings, which baffles me why this keeps being called pagan metal aside from the fact they are named after the sun god of their homeland. The riffs are well written and fit together like puzzle pieces meant for each other rather than being forced or having any awkward transitions , asthe one two three go time to get blasty, when then drums do build its the next logical step and the more relaxed passages move just as smoothly. So the arrangements are the albums strong point, all most to a fault as the songs they are stand alone pieces but all parts of one long monolithic composition.
So in the Albums tone, they don't use a wide palate of colors ,we have varied shades of gray and blood red cast on a pitch black back ground.

This similarity of tone makes for a easy listen but hard for me to score this one song by song. I can say the first song comes on pretty balls out, at first this is to the point where I thought they had just picked up for where they left off with their previous album, until the chorus or where a chorus would be which here means time to turn up the epic.from this epic turn the album doesn't look back only inward.

The beginning of "the last leaves" is some of the albums heaviest riffage, the chords are more tenderly picked out in what would be the chorus as guitar is layer in some interesting patterns which almost border on the post rock feel Drudkh leans towards but more majestic and without the drone. Also on this song I was able to pick out the bass where on other songs it got a little lost despite the evenness of the mix.

This song is followed by an interlude which they try to pass off as a song it's barely two minutes of drums and synth,but it leads into "horizon glassy" an instrumental that still feels like another part though the guitar work gives nods to pink Floyd so it forgivable, but could have been a lighter intro to the darker turn the title track takes.the whispered hiss of the vocals is the first time they switch it up vocally as the vocals are delivered with a Nargal like roar through out and this song even has a behemoth like build in the guitars that reminds me of the song "lucifer". Though after I started hearing Behemoth there the I started to hear it every where, though there's a much more organic feel to what they do than Behemoth,and the break down I the second verse of " only time will take it away" took the Behemoth comparisons from mind mind ,though it's safe to say if you are a fan of Behemoth who only flirts with the idea of black metal Khors are a gateway drug to take you a step close to Taake or old Enslaved.

The album end with a minute of ambiance ,so if we are going to count the pink floyd interlude there are six songs or five metal songs however you want to see it. The more I listen to the album, the more i can pick the songs apart, as the wheel isn't being reinvented here. Some of their influences are more more blatantly on their tunics than others so I feel a 7.5 is being generous as the moodier moments I really like.

A Metal Head's Guide to Drugs

I've done something like this before with sex and this came up while I was pondering Dead Can Dances pharmaceutical past times, so here is my experiences with various sounds and chemistry as well as my educated sepeculations as to what artist might make for a fitting sound track with these chemicals, while I have a wide array of experience with this area you can assertain the time period in which I quit injecting these due to the time period most of these are from.

O.k, the term psychedelic was derived from l.s.d use ao we will star with that and work are way sideways

Acid/l.s.d- tripping and heavy music has had mixed results for me , some times thing harder than black sabbath came across as unsettling due to the intensity a lot of thrash guitar riffs also sounded like they were being played back wards, testaments practice what you preach album a case in point , I tended to prefer industrial music skinny puppy's last rites album sounded great as did any psychic t.v which sounds like it ws made for the sole purpose of tripping. The more intensive period of time spent with this drug in high school, I commonly used the first mr. Bungle, pink Floyd's animals and the butthole surfers, I think my last trip I listened to Tools lateralus to good effect as well as my bloody valentine, coming Down Alice in chains jar of flies seemed perfect.Under no conditions listen to the song ego the living planet by monster magnet while playing with a ouija board.

Ecstasy - I can understand the appeal of techno here, but no surprise I preferred rock like the cure and radio head whose kid a album seemd perfect, the first time I used the drug I was listening to collision's coarse album which seemed like the gods had intended for me to hear it at that moment. Type o negatives bloody kisses album was great to roll to along with Marilyn mansions portrait of an American family.

Mushrooms-Cocteau twins - heaven of las Vegas album, swans worked to good effects well anything involving Brian eno.

Other hallucinogens ( peyote, mescaline, absinthe) - with these for the most part I was outside listening with head phones seem to recall negative land, neurosis, sonic youths " day dream nation" album and pretty hate machine providing excellent accompaniment. Sepulturas roots album was also a wise choice.

Cocaine - Was never my thing and times I did not mix it with other drugs was uncommon though I seem to remember listening to very up beat music, Depeche Mode seemed common place, danzigs first album , i remember having more of an appreciation for the first wide spread panic while coked up one night which leads me to believe this drug lends it self to bad taste.

Crack- most of the time this was smoked with weed, cannibal corpses the bleeding and the first system of a down, I think the one time I heard insane clown posse I was smoking crack, makes perfect sense.

Heroin- the first time I did it while listening to Kmfdm, so they held a rotten place in my heart, the cures disintegration album, life of agonys second album, Depeche mode, David Bowie's album "outside" genesis "abacab" for some reason

Other opiates... The first Korn album, the navity in black tribute to sabbath most of thE time I couldn't get off the floor so was at the mercy of others when it came to the stereo though the down ward spiral seemed prominent.

Quaaludes ...this is going to be a blanket term to cover every thing including xanex bars ... Radio head , life of agony, Alice In chains,

Marijuana - didn't get stoned and realized music sucked to often, I preferred listening to sabbath, slayer and king crimson, type o negatives October rust was a good choice, dream theater however seemed homo erotic, smoked a lot to neurosis, stark weather, tool,sonic youth, I remember seeing dinosaur junior live and they were too much had to retreat and listen to secret chiefs

Drinking, the basic rock rolls works best as you are more Neanderthal , I think this is why punk rock appeals to so many you never say I wanna get drunk and listen to poly rhythms , so kiss, motley Crüe, guns n roses, ozzy solo, slayer, misfits,

Of course varied combinations cause different results, and I am sure I have forgotten something so other artists I liked to get fear and loathing to are... Massive attack, morbid angel, down, acid bath, bloodlet , ministry, electric hellfire club, white zombie, kyuss, queens of the stone age, outkast, tricky, sisters of mercy,

Ash borer : Cold of Ages

Even with the four and a half minutes of ambiance leading the opening song "Descended Lamentations" I find the California bands new album to be a much more focused effort than say the last Wolves in the throne room. Comparisons between the two band will be drawn, as they are American black metal bands whose songs tend to be more exploratory journeys than their peers in bands like Woe or Liturgy.

The biggest change here is the greater presence of keyboards in the mix and the descent into more roomier passages, making the feral blasty nasties more accented in transition rather than causing you to block out the ferocity as it washes in white noise. Not say those frenzied paces aren't here, they are and done rather well.

Another big change is the production value. This album was released on profound lore, so is not going to be in the too cvlt for school limited to 300 pressings on cassette club, so if that destroys the bands mystique for you then go seek hipster validation elsewhere as you really Won't be intrested on the musical advancements being made here. With better sound quality the band hasn't lost the coldness or bleakness of what they do , it has made the more musical elements decipherable so this makes the songs more accessible. However by the time you reach the last song some of the clarity presented earlier onis drown in favor for the more murky wash of the lo if cult sound,as the drums drop lower in the mix.

The vocals are still howled from the distance, the lyrics won't be included in any deluxe packaging because I doubt there are any. The tormented wails and croaks are like an abrasive glaze over the songs. They are delivered in similar fashion throughout never really varying in any type of rhythmic pattern.

The second song "phantoms" slides right out from the first as if this is once complete work which isn't surprising as their last album felt the same way.The slowed guitar is eerie and would appeal to fans of depressive suicidal black metal as well as adventurous fans of sludge and doom, who have never quite found an entry point into blackmetal

The third song the almost twenty minute "convict all flesh " really bludgeons midway through dropping into a half time power gallop and the simmering into the drone of guitar layered with spooky picked out chords that hover in reverb. The drums build like a blast beat. spawned by free form jazz, they simmer to a boil before spilling over into the chaos. If. I listen to it while laying down with less than three cups of coffee in me the droning nature of this one will literally lull me to sleep.

The closer "removed forms" is very cinematic in the more reserved passages, Ash Borer should score a 28 days later styled zombie movie, Becuase it gives the very bleak feeling like you are wandering a desolate city , lonely as you look up into the empty buildings with windows staring back like hollow eyes. This feeling is then plunged into the more typical tremolo picked blast section , at one point they use a very Motörhead beat which came across as sloppy but not sure if the recklessness is the feel he was going for, over all the drumming is greatly improved from their previous efforts.

The guitars are the stars of this one was the slower sections in the first songs are the only places I took notice of the bass being present. The guitar sound is a pretty dead on mix of having the cavernous reverb to creat the darkthrone coldness, to much better results than most American black metal. The choice of melody the chose to layer is very haunting , in some ways they are more relaxed and tend to gallop and chug at little less.

Coming up with a score for this four song album which is far from an e.p. as these are all lengthy excursions. So I decided in scoring this to look at the moments which grabbed me in each song. A lot of it is aurally numbing and falls into the hyborean method of becoming a drone of blast, in contrast the slower doomy sections come across as stronger and more distinct. I think I will give this one a seven due to the fact while I see this as a step forward for the band, some of the atmospheric builds drone on to long and the sticking to the conventions of black metal in the blasty sections bring a sense of monotony, the band has shown me too many great moments here and makes the blasts seem like they are giving me filler when drawn out for too long, other than these guys are poised to usurp the wolves from their throne room and have in many ways captured the sound of bleakness and made it their own.

Dead Can Dance : Anastasis

Even though I have tickets to see them in couple of weeks I had no clue this was coming out until stumbling across the torrent for this so lets get into the first album in 16 years.

Right off the bat on the opener "Children of the Sun" Brendan Perry's voice sounds great, sure there's the whole new age lounge music vibe it conjures. The synth brass in the last minute creates a nice build and as you can expect a collage of varied instrumentation begins to color the edges of the song.

Lisa first sings on the second track "Anabasis" it's no "host of the Seraphim" but slightly moody. This one has taken the most listens to drag me into it, further listens cause me to appreciate the layers in the percussion,I would like to have been a fly on the wall for these sessions as it's often hard to make a clear differentiation as to what instruments are electronically generated and which are acoustic. After 16 years I would have like for a more dramatic return from Lisa and might not have minded if this song fell later in the album.


"Agape" brings out the opium den slink I was waiting for and is automatically classic Dead Can Dance.

"amnesia" starts off in a straight forward piano and drum pattern, very western in feel and lending credence to any goth label they have accumulated or if Leonard Cohen was covering a Sade song.

Kiko- builds from an almost trip hop beat into a sensual slither of sitar.

ironically the percussive "Opium" picks up the pace ever so slightly, Brendan's croon returns and though the lyrics aren't about drug use, they are about escape I do find myself wondering in the songs ethereal pulse about what their drug consumption has been like over the years because like all their other albums this one would be perfect to either get high or have sex to. I have already written a sex and music blog so look for a druggies guide to metal perhaps? Which brings us to why aside from the fact they are awesome am I writing a review on a very non-metal band who at first listen has even less in common with metal than Swans who are at least heavy just in another sense.

Well this along with the rest of Dead Can Dances body of work is dark enough for me to qualify it for this blog, so if the Cure or Fields of Nephillim puts out another album expect for it to get reviewed as well. Dead Can Dance has influenced a multitude of folk metal, and doom metal bands like My Dying Bride, Night Wish, Rotting Christ, and most that have any sort of gothic influence to their sound.

"Return of the She-king" sounds like a pulp fantasy novel with a drag queen Conan as it's protagonist, it has a languid majesty to like the love them from Conan and moves like a procession piece. The effects on the vocal mix gives Lisa's voice more of a Cocteau Twins feel. I was won over on this one where Perry's vocals come in, have always wanted to hear more interplay between their voices.

Perry's voice goes into more dramatic places on this one than Lisa, the crescendo he brings to the first verse of "all in good time" is impressive for a singer of his age to belt like that and his voice has a very warm resonance to it. A simple arrangement of strings behind his voice. In some ways it might be considered anti climactic, but this album is dynamically subdued , I wouldn't call it flat, in some ways it reminds me of Sade's "lovers rock" album in tone as both are subdued through out.

In scoring this album , the only competition Dead Can Dance has is themselves, so measuring this up to their previous work it is indeed comparable, the production value might even be better, in terms of mood it seems more sensual than the transcendental nature of other albums, so I could argue it doesn't have the epic lord of the rings soundtrack feel, perhaps this is due to where in their lives Perry and Gerrad are. I could certainly have stood to have hear Perry playing more guitar, his sense of Bardic Americanna I felt alway created an interesting juxtaposition of sound to their albums. There is something very enduring and bittersweet about listening to this knowing this is more than likely the last time I will hear studio work from them, so it's a very relaxed goodbye. I would have to give this one a 9.5, as I feel when put up against their other other more dynamic albums, it might not be as consistant bwent he marks they do hit side side by side with their best. It could grow on me over time and will probably not be thought of in any different light than the rest of their discography,and let's face even mediocre Dead Can Dance is still better than almost everything else.