Skunk Anansie : "Anarchytecture"

If you aren't familiar with this band, you are more than likely American or born after 1990. In the States, the brushes with mainstream came from Skin lending her voice to a Deftones song and Kevin Bacon singing along to them in the car in the movie "Hollow Man".The opener is smooth electro rock with a cool vocal hook that made me forget the harder rock elements of "Post Orgasmic Chill" are still intact, and this is perhaps more along the lines of the Gathering's current state of the union. Electronica has always been an influence; they have just made more of a transition. The guitar that is present is hardly overdriven until the second verse of "Victim". It all is riding on Skin's voice, which is a good place to hedge your bets from. She isn't flexing her pipes in the quite as dramatic a manner as she once did , but she still has the goods.

The pop rock of "Beauty is Your Curse" might be better than most of the new rock music that surfaces on the radio. "Death to the Lovers" is an effective pop ballad that is sugar free and well done. The next song that really grabs me like their earlier work is "In the Back Room" that plays of a disco like tension similar to "Edge of Seventeen". The thick bass line to "Bullets" gives the song a more Nine Inch Nails like thump. There is a more punk strut to "That Sinking Feeling" that finds her voice going up from her more sultry mid range into her upper register. The riff reminds me of something Hole might have done, Skin's voice give it much more bite than the likes of Courtney Love could every muster.

Things drop back down into a more introspective and minimalist electro with her capable voice bared until the chorus, when it builds up into something more akin to A Perfect Circle. The bass joins her on the second verse, and they add sonic layers from there. The beat gets harder for the more 90s alternative styled interlude "Suckers!" that finds them with a more fuzzed out stoner rock guitar tone. They stay in this harder rock mode for "We Are the Flames," which seethes with a slow build. The way into goes into the chorus seems like they have been taking notes from Muse. They close the album with the more ballad-like "I'll Let You Down". While her voice sounds great here, I'm waiting for the song as a whole to congeal into something tangible. I'll give this one a 9.5 and see how songs like this last one grow on me, no question this is more of a return to form for them, even if they have mellowed with age.

Jesu / Sun Kil Moon

I love when odd things collide, like Disco era Kiss, New-Wave Alice Cooper, hair metal Celtic Frost and Ryan Adams covering Taylor Swift, so it should come as no surprise that I might be into Justin Broadrick of Godflesh fame being in collision with the slow core folk of Sun Kil Moon. The bi-polar sometimes highly emotive yet low mumbled  vocals of former Red House Painter's front man Mark Kozelek.  I can hear this album appealing more to Godflesh/Jesu fans perhaps more than Sun Kil Moon devotees. Broadrik lays down the back drop for Kozelek's narrative style that ranges from sometimes highly emotive rants to low key mumbled musings. If some of the backing vocals sounds familar that's because Isaac Brock and Wil Oldham contribute them. They are not the only guests as in the album's third act the members of Low contribute vocals to the previously released song 'Exodus" about the death of Nick Cave's son.

The album adheres to my philosophy that a great artist is going to be a great artist no matter what stage you put them upon. Meaning Mick Jagger is going to be Mick Jagger no matter if you put the Rolling Stones behind him or Burzum. Here both artists are both doing what they do best, with Kozelek adapting the most as his vocal lines tend to be spat out at somewhat more brisker pace than if left to his own devices. Broadrick indulges his more Pale Sketcher side with the electronics of "Last Night I Rocked the Room Like Elvis and Then Had Them Laughing Like Richard Pryor". It's in the final minutes of this song that Kozelek reads a letter from a fan from Singapore. The first song that is decidedly more in Mark's wheel house is "Fragile" which is an ode Yes bass player Chris Squire. It's a little cloudy as Broadrick's role in this song is.

On "Father's Day " the album returns to Broadrick's more electronic side as he lays down a backing track that might remind you of some of Nine Inch Nails more ambient moments. The guitar is coated in delay and trickles behind the programmed drums. For the bulk of the album the vocals are always way up front in the mix. The familiar down tuned guitar tone crunching into "Sally". The more rambling spoken word approach to the verse begins to feel a little redundant at this point and the chorus flows better as he actually sings. The more relaxed melody of "America's Most Wanted Mark Kozelek" find his running down the list of feeling and experiences he had over the last few days before stepping into the vocal booth. He also reads another fan letter on this song, which now must have become a thing for him. It's an ego booster and takes the pressure off having to constantly come up with snappy lyrics.

The album ends with the 14 minute "Beautiful You" which has an opaque ambiance that Kozelek lays more of a spoken word over it where he recalls wading into the ocean and having his balls frozen. Overall I think this is a success, I'm not sure that some of the longer songs where Marks is rambling about what ever he observed that day are going to make it onto the iPod and the album has more steam in it's first half, but I'll still round it up to a 9 as when it works it's strangely stellar.



the album can be streamed via the link below http://www.sunkilmoon.com/jesuskm.html

Tiny Knives : "Black Haze"

This band creates an ominous brand of angular fuzzed out crust punk. The female three piece from Portland is pretty burly. Singer Jai is often versatile able to go from a punk melody to a nastier growl. They are more Anarchro punk on past tense, but don't try to rush through the songs in a one-two-three go fashion. "Magic Xians" finds both sides of their dynamic in play , though is a rushed and rugged, but this is punk. Her voice and their song writing show more potential on the more melodic post-punk of "Silk in the Water".  "Cowschwitz" finds their singer in more of a spoken word rant over a staccato riffs that bobs back and forth, before she goes into her more gruff growling voice.

They return to the darker post-punk sound where she carries more of a croon, which if you know my tastes here, I am going to prefer over spastic. When they do speed up into punk it has more of a late 70s feel. There is more of a chaotic punk feel to  the  two minute "The Fuck I" . The closing song "Winter" finds many of their differing elements colliding in something that is both dark and melodic , but doesn't fit neatly into even post-punk.

Punk might be the most fitting label for this band as it would encompass every one from Crass to the Plasmatics to even Siouxsie in the Banshees, they are at times heavier than your average punk band, and for me to like them darker too. I'll give this album an 8.5. If you are looking for something rowdy yet thoughtful with varied moods and a lot of drive then this is well worth your time.

Oranssi Pazuzu : "Värähtelijä"

The Finnish band's fourth album finds the band having drifted further out this time into the sonic seas of the psyche. The vocals scream out from the jangling chaos that still manages to be as heavy as black metal, perhaps even more so than the previous album. If you are going to open an album with a 12-minute song this is how you do it. It keeps building like a flood that is washing you away. At the nine minute mark things break down, but stay very dark and driven. They take on a droning groove not unlike one Swans might employ on "Lahja" the low rasped gurgle of the vocals scowl up from the darkness, before they take you into a much more chaotic abyss. The fact things stay so dark really helps the case for the title track. The guitar lets up even further on the tone and strays away from the typical metal over drive which is a welcome change and allows the guitar lines to develop more melody. But where the two songs that follow the opener don't live up is in the compositional sense. They are looser jams that tend to hang on the one them, it works better on the title track than the previous song and isn't a complaint as much of an observation.

They return to a more black metal attack on "Hypnotisoitu Viharukous". This doesn't let up until past the song's midway point and the guitar backs off into a shoe-gazing-like slathering of effects with the fuzzed-out bass left to do most of the dirty work. The song that follows this one finds the bass player once again as the song's cement providing a strong rubbery groove for all the other craziness to erupt over. This is heavier in more of a sludge-like manner than black metal, the only element that remains black metal lies in the vocals. The song does descend into a sprawl of white noise that might have been time put to better use. The builds back up into a slow crazy noise-covered groove, that makes me think of the supergroup Twilight. "Havuluu" keeps things on the crazy train, as it spirals into a dizzy drone that slowly gets heavy each cycle downward. They prove they haven't forgotten about black metal, and even if they revert to the blast beat it's an effective use of the dynamic.

They back off into more exotic tones for the closing song. This is largely noise and droning until midway into things as it builds up and grow darker. The beats are more tribal and less groove-oriented, if you are on a ton of drugs I suppose it would put you in a trance. I like the mood they create, but it's not as engaging as the first song. This album comes on strong and the band has forged a new path for themselves that finds this closer to black metal than their last album, but sometimes gets lost in the confusion of its own sonic maze. This is an impressive feat in and of it self and your perspective of this depends on if you need songs or you need a trance-like state for yoga on acid. I'll give it a 8.5, the first song has everything I could want from black metal, so it sets the bar too high for the rest of the album. Check the song below and decide for yourself when 20 Buck Spin unleashes this on Feb 26th. 

1349 & Tombs @ the Basement

Here’s my first concert of the year. It came on the day I found out David Bowie died so it served as a catharsis to vent out some of the depression hanging in my chest. Normally I would have had a harder time getting motivated to get out of the house at 9:30 at night but I had been wanting to see both bands for some time. And since my family over at Cvlt Nation was sponsoring the “Chaos Raids” tour, I felt even more obligated to make it out.

My wife had to work late so we got to the Basement right when Tombs was doing their sound check. We missed local openers the Vimur and Full of Hell. The latter I have previously seen with Mutilation Rites. Bassist Ben Brand from Woe was still in the band and had a pretty mean tone. The big surprise in the unexpected line up changes is the addition of Fade Kainer from Batilus/ Statiqbloom he often splits the vocals duties with Hill and has his own personality when it comes to his stage presence which honors the more black metal elements of the band, but also brings forward the more industrial influence that has been simmering under their surface. These cast a larger shadow in the live sound and the more post-punk moments were toned down, obviously touring with a band like 1349 they have had to bring it in the most furious fashion possible. Addition to the band and adds a lot to their sound. His synth work added punch to the low end as he accented certain hits.

First off before we get into their set, which cares what you think of black metal's more theatrical elements, these guys are the real deal and played with dead serious conviction. The stage was set for the ritualistic pageantry of black metal. The drummer first came out in a hoodie and full corpse paint on to adjust his drums before returning to the stage covered in sigils scrawled over his bare torso. Frost was no able to make it over so they employed Jon Rice of Job For A Cowboy, and I can’t imagine Frost being better than this guy who didn’t even break a sweat, but for a little guy hammering everything out with power and machine like precision . Singer Ravn brandished Gwar like gauntlets on his forearms and had a stage presence that was commanding and engaging. The mix shifted and the vocals were much more audible from the house p/a, so the closer you stood to the stage the more his croaks and screams faded behind the buzz saw guitar.

The band’s energy and intensity keep the momentum of their set flying by you no matter if they were playing blast beats or not. They won the Atlanta audience over due to the fact they have a punk rawness to them live. With Archaon handling all the guitar duties by himself, some of the layers that are on the album were given a more stripped down and straightforward treatment. From behind his cowl their bassist kept the rumble going for the occasional run up the neck Archaon took, but these happened so quick the wall of razor sharp sound kept it’s lacerating attack. While the material from “Cauldron of Chaos” dominated the set they came out and for their first three songs crammed “I am Abomination” , “Nathicana” and “Sculptor of flesh” in your face . If you have not caught these guys yet and call yourself a fan of black metal you are doing yourself a disservice. In fact both bands are a must as they approach their respective sounds with all the passion of their black hearts.

Voivod :"Post Society"

Voivod has always been light years ahead of their time. Since "Target Earth" the band has locked into a sound that takes the classic tones from "Dimension Hatross " and pushes it forward in a modern production. This ep is the quality of both songwriting and production as "Target Earth" in fact the arrangements might be even more progressive,  like the surreal breakdown on the title track that kicks the ep off. They have always been able to shift in a very organic manner from one movement to the next . What amazes me more upon hearing this is how true they are to their legacy even though half of the original members are not on this recording. Chewy and Rocky did comprise the live band on their last pass through the states with Napalm Death and both really do justice to the Voivod legacy.

"Forever Mountain" was released as a single last year and carries a pretty heavy chromatic crunch. Snakes vocals sound even better than he did on "Target Earth" . He actually sings more. Rocky's bass line twist around the riffs with perhaps a cleaner tone than "Blacky" used, but he displays the needed dexterity and melodic sense to pull of their sound. "Forever Mountain" finds Snake placing some times angular vocal lines the twisting sinew of guitar before they go into a melodic metal section that doesn't have their trademark dissonance. It all works and Voivod certainly has a sound that is uniquely theirs.

They dip into more off of their psychedelic space rock days with "Fall" that recalls more of the "Angel Rat" era at first before they get into a heavier groove. Rocky really earns his place in the band with this one. "We Are Connected " was first premiered on tour , then released as a single so it's might not be new but would rather own it as part of this album, as my ocd side dislikes having random mp3's hanging out in need of a folder of their own. This song takes its twists and turns through all of the facets of the band's sound.  I love the really dark riff that slithers in at the three minute mark. Chewy's guitar playing really stands out on this song and the solo really ripped live. They close things out with a cover of Hawkwind's "Sliver Machine" .  A song that is not even more timely since Lemmy is handled the vocals on the original song. It was one of the band's rare hits and Lemmy  cut the vocals for it in a last minute attempt to save the session after lead singer Robert Calvert who suffered from bi-polar disorder had an episode during his takes. It makes sense for Voivod to cover this song since the lyrics are about riding on a space ship. So I am sure it was recorded well before Lemmy's death. It's actually the most straight forward song they have done in some time, which aside from the Bat-man theme song their other covers have been Pink Floyd, King Crimson songs.V oivod once again doesn't disappoint or dial it in. They balance out all the sides of their multi -faceted sound and give fans of the band what they expect. This is obviously a 10.

Black Wizard : "New Waste"

If you were thinking "Great another retro flavored stoner rock is just what we need" then you might be happy to know this isn't exactly the case with these guys. They are more of a throw back to the 90s to me than the 70s metal they are supposed to be students. In fact it's more like how 80s metal band adapted to the 90s. Bands like the Hellacopters, Mind Funk and Mother Love Bone are bands I hear shades of , this is put through a more modern filter of heaver The Sword and Mastodon to bring the more bong worshipping elements. Midway into this album and I might not be blown away by what that sounds like , but they are talented . Off all the NWOBHM band's that are referenced in regards to these guys I hear Iron Maiden the least. I do hear traces of Andrew Wood on "Unnecessary Evil" . It's these more melodic moment that play to their strengths as a band, though they do break out more of a convincing snarl earlier in the album. There closest to the NWOBHM, comes in the more Diamond Head attack of the closing anthem "Final Ripper". Their singer often sounds like a grittier version of Sean Harris.

Right from the first song there is more atmosphere than most of the classic metal band 's typically indulged in. Even though they build up into a brisk chug they often ride the line between being hard rock and metal. Some of their hooks sink in deeper than others. There is more grit to "Harsh Times" which is like Mind Funk stripped of all the alternative rock leanings . They are not just limited to hard rocking as they drop down into a blues crooner on " Laughing and Lost" that almost sounds like a Jeff Buckley ballad in places. "Vivian Girls " finds the band charging into the song with more of a a galloping metal power to them, though this is not  power metal. "Eliminator" finds the vocals cracking into more of scream as the pound away a a higher speed boogie.

"The Priest" is the another of the band's heavier flirtations with metal and even crossing the line into as the song build. The only draw back to their sound is when they put the pedal down and really hit the gas on the tempo some of the songs begin to sound the same. Vocally many of the songs are similar with the slower more blues based moment the best times for their singer. I'll round this one down to an 8 for now , as I don't really see myself being compelled to give this a ton of listens aside from the three passes through I gave this album this afternoon, it did make me want to go back and dig up my old Diamond Head albums. If you like straight forward hard rocking with a touch of 80s and 90s metal then this might be the album you have been waiting for.