Paradise Lost : "Obsidian"

2017 found Paradise Lost returning to kick a bunch of ass and show the would be death doom bands how it is done. It is more likely a coincidence but since it's released there has been a deluge of death doom bands. This album finds the band raising the bar on themselves  and telling their "Medusa" album to hold their beer. More doom paced than death metal. It is not as heavy as "Medusa" , but darker and more melodic with the song writing  totally blowing my mind. They have expanded upon the more Type O Negative side of the band. "Ghosts" finds a more rock n roll mood rising up rising up and their drummer is really killing it on this songs. Yea this time around when I said the album is darker I meant goth. If you know me then you know I grew up a poor goth child so this is the shit I living dead for.

They have not gone full on Sisters of Mercy. There is a good balance between the macabre and having metallic balls. It is much more prominent than on not only the previous album, but most of the post "Draconian Times : albums . They are more straight forward metal on "Serenity" but not picking up the pace so much that it knocks them out of being doom., It still evolves into darker atmosphere. "Ending Days" has almost a Katatonia feel to it.  Holmes' voice has never sounded better, I guess doing double duty in Bloodbath he gets more than his fair share of growling so he wanted to sing some. They return to a more rock n roll direction with on "Hope Dies Young". Still dark, just more up beat and very melody driven .

They balance the rock n roll moments with going more metal on " Ravenghast" where the vocals do kind of a good cop / bad cop turn, growled on the verse and sung on the chorus. The gloomy guitars lines help make the song., I typically do not include the bonus tracks in my review, but these two songs are just as good as the others. In fact "Hear the Night " is drearier than the other songs, falling more in line with traditional doom, "Defiler" is more death n roll. It has a very deliberate stomp. Without question I will give this album a 10 . It's song writing is some of the bands best. It might not be their heaviest album in fact it is not as heavy as "Medusa" but it is more melodic and makes it an album worth listening to again and again. Out on Nuclear Blast.



 

-(16)- : " Dream Squasher"

These Volatile sludge merchants are back and angry as ever. These guys are the brand of sludge more
closely aligned with noise rock than doom. You can  also hear some hard core influence in their more explosive moments. I like the effects on the vocals . Lyrically it reminds me of the Melvins in their chaotic musings . They come at you with more punk momentum on "Me & the Dog Die Together". It's a love song about his dog. Musically this is a little more straight forward than what I normally listen to . More sardonic than it is dark. They do rumbles with a very claustrophobic mix. It reminds me of some of the bands from the 90s like Unsane and Fudge Tunnel. Very burly. Lumber jacks before being a lumber jack was cool. The keyboards layers into "Sadlands" is a smart move. The vocals are also sung rather than gruffly barked at you. This is just the kind of dynamic shift the album needed and the best of the first three songs.

They come back harder with " Harvester of Fabrication" that is accented like pumped version of Helmet . There are some pretty decent grooves here. This balances out the more abrasive elements. The first touch of doom is on "Acid Tongue". It is pretty fucking powerful. Darker but really compared to what we call doom here, closer to sludge , and that is fine with me. 'Agora" starts off more blues based and then kicks into their trademark crunchy stomp. :"Ride the Waves" is pounding but also has a more rock n roll groove to it. 'Summer of 96" is very head bang inducing and does in fact remind me of it's title. If I can really remember that year as there was a ton of drugs involved. There is some darker chaos to " Screw Unto Others" .

"Kissing the Choir Boy" closes out the album. It does a great job of balancing a more traditional metallic heaviness, that is given their own twisted spin, with some more melodic elements and makes for great song writing. This proves to be an album I can just leave on and let play, where that has not been something I can recall doing with these guys in the past. This speaks volumes in regards to the direction they have taken their song written and when you listen closely to the lyrics of this album you can find that they are very timely to the Corona world. I will round this one up to a 9.

the Used : "Heartwork"

I summed up my initial thoughts on this album by posting this on my Facebook page

Wait a second, I have all these so called former "scene kids" on my time line and no one is going to bring up the fact the Used's new album is a total pop record? So I guess you were just into the feathery bangs ?

Now the question I am going to answer is …"But is it good pop music" .

Obviously they do not make music in a vacuum . They have record label's to appease. Panic at the Disco! made a leap from being a Myspace emo band to a hug pop band. These guys wanted in on the band wagon. They wanted to do it with out totally alienating their fan base. This is first two songs are more pop punk. The singer Fever 333 helps them out with some lite screaming. "Big Wanna Be" is the first pop crossover. It is a decent song unless you are hoping for them to re-open a box of sharp objects. "Bloody Nose" doesn't suck either . Is it the band at their best ? No , but I can still accept this if I am being open minded .  "Wow, I Hate This Song" is when things go side ways. It sounds like they wrote it for a Muppets musical.

I am not opposed to electronic elements. I am opposed to wishy washy song writing. I am opposed to things getting as happy as they do on "Cathedral Bell" . They should have told their producer to save this one for the Weeknd. He would have done a better job. There is no way to make excuses for what happens here. Bert McCracken's voice does sound better. He is doing more with it from a singing perspective. "1984(Ifinite Jest" does have a pretty cool bass line . It reminds me of the Issues. Then things do not work as well for "Gravity's Rainbow".  Production wise they are going for the Panic at the Disco thing, no way to deny it. We are back to more electronic pop that is even dancier than before with "Clean Cut Heals" . Another one better suited for the Weeknd. As a song it is better than the previous one I said this about.

The title track...I am not going to rant about the Carcass album of the same name that came first. It's just a spoken word interlude. Bert's lyrics were never good enough to merit this to begin with. As far as pop goes "the Lighthouse" is the first that I really dig on this album. Mark from Blink 182, another sell out is in on this. Lucky for them I like pop music. The Blink 182 connection doesn't end there are Travis Barker appears on the song after than, which doesn't work as well. It is kinda boring. The singer from Beartooth shows up on "the Lottery" . "Darkness Bleed" that comes after it is far more interesting. I had to listen to " To Feel Something" three times in order to feel something about it, at the end of the day it reminds me of  "I Don't Want to Live Forever" by Taylor Swift. Which coming from me is more of a compliment than intended. I will give this one a 7, I know these guys can do better .

Goat Necropsy : " Bloody and Fresh"

If you ask me if I like gore grind I will tell you I like pre- "Heartwork" Carcass. To kids these days that might not count, but that is where it started. The reason I have not invested much into this sub-genre that falls somewhere between death metal and grind core is it tends to sound like shit production wise. That is a problem this band from Brazil doesn't have. They also can play their instruments well, rather than just bash at them with as much gain as they can muster. The higher pig squeal vocals might not be my thing, though it does seem to be a staple of this sub genre. I would say these guys care more about groove and song writing than having punk rock seizures so they are firmly on the death metal side of the equation even with the pig squealing.

They hold off at coming at you in a full frontal assault until "Anal Vomit" . I can not understand the lyrics so I am not sure what the logistics of anal vomit are. If it is vomit that comes from the anus. That is not my thing. I will also say not thanks to vomiting into an anus no matter how hot the girl is. Anal sex is not something I am super into but if that hot girl who I declined to vomit into their anus, wanted me to have anal sex with them til they vomited I would agree along as they kept their head out the window. Whatever the case this song is under a minute and a half so that is not time enough to get it up much less allow things to progress that far. Musically it is double bass driven and less groove oriented , much more about pounding you ear drums like they are an anus. These songs are short in length, which is the most grind core thing going, but where grind core tends to be spastic bursts that could have been ideas for fully formed songs , these songs are much more compositionally sound.

The album closes with "Devoured By the Hounds" . This song is  possessed by a pretty solid chug. I would suggest listening to this song with head phones as it brings out the drums , which on first listen were buried under the guitar. I stopped and put head phones in an now it makes more sense.  I can under stand the lyrics to this one better. I can also make out the bass which I did not listen for earlier in the album. The syncopated break down is pretty powerful and more of a metal core moment. Another sub-genre I do not give much time to unless it is say Converge. This album was a pleasant surprise.  Not something I would have sought out due to my preconceived notions about the genre, but I enjoyed. I even developed a tolerance for pig squeals over the span of these four songs. I will give this one a 9. If you are already into this sort of thing then it is a must to check out when it is released May 12th.

Sound VVitch : "Becoming"

After reviewing a bunch of metal so needed to switch it up. This project is based out of New York. It is an interesting blend of dark wave and industrial, though not neatly falling into either sub genre. It is too heavy for dark wave and works of slow slithering pounds rather than a neat dance floor ready groove. It does have a the siren like soprano that  casts an ethereal shroud over the song not unlike Switch Blade Symphony or even early Cocteau Twins. The industrial thump is more militant and machine driven than the more commercial Nine Inch Nails clones. I always stand by the fact that if some thing is dark enough it can be heavy without being metal . The first song on this ep proves that. There are metal elements to the album that crop up later on , but I would not that say this is a metal artist. There is a delightfully narcotic drone to the song that lulls you into it's hypnosis.

There is a more abrasive touch to "Covetous" . Though her vocal melodies start of more delicate. Then midway into the song she rips into tortured metal screams. They are still counter balanced by the lighter vocals and the effect is chilling. "Like Leather Like Flesh" has a similar pulse as the other songs with the nuances of the vocals helping to set it apart. It is also layered with sonics in more o a trippy swirl than the first two songs. However there is being to be a formula of song writing that is establishing more of a pattern here. The pattern does get broken when what sounds to be a violin is introduced into the mix. This adds another sonic color that gives a deeper sense of longing to the song and helps it stand out from the first three. The distorted bass rumbles under this .

The repetition of the vocal line on "Transformative Fire" gives the song more hook. There is a bigger more apocalyptic crunch underneath this one. The violin returns on this one to give a more sprawling sense of song color amid the stomp of the storming instrumentation .  "the Sun Will Rust Your Bones". This song finds her voice getting more breathing room to allow her to opening up and singing . The melody has more of a folky poppy undertone to it, but it doesn't drastically change the mood just offers more range . I will round this up to a 10. I want more than just these six songs, so I guess I am going to be checking out their earlier work. It is a good sign when an artist makes you want more rather than wears out their welcome. If you are into the darkwave or industrial strains of gothic music this album is a must.

Mogwai : " ZeroZeroZero"

I bought "Come on Die Young" after reading they were Robert Smith' favorite band back in 1999.  I have followed their career and the many turns it has taken. They are in my opinion the best at this whole post-rock thing. The reason being they bring so many sounds to the table. The first few songs of this album feel like they are trying on sounds. as they are in the three minute mark so the slow build to dynamics they normally use is not there making them feel like interludes rather than fully formed songs. It also makes the album play like it would if this was classical music where it is written in movements. "Chicken Guns" is the first that expands upon this in the normal way these guys write songs. It has a slow throb with the distorted bass rumbling in the distance. So far they have not touched on anything that is heavy in the way they do heavy though this song is darker than the first three. It is however heavy on atmosphere so much so that it never fully coagulates.

There are hints they have been crossing over into Kraut Rock and "Nose Pints" certainly is another sign of that. There were also vintage synth sounds on the second song, this however sounds like something that should be on the soundtrack to the Dune remake. Well it is a sound track to a Netflix show about drugs which is what I figured out have way into the  21 songs that make up this  double album. It is a lot to digest, though easy to swallow due to the more ambient nature of what they are doing you get something closer to rock music on "Fears of Mind" that shows what they do the best. They follow this with a light piano piece that is not what I think of when it comes to this band. They do everything so tastefully it is hard to find fault, not is that something I seek out with these guys. I often want more of a "Rock Action" feel when it comes to this band, but have learned to embrace their evolution. The one thing I will continue to ask from this album is more drums.

They begin to honor this request ten songs in. Still not making actual rock music no matter how experimental. But I can live with this compromise. I can work with the more synth wave pulse of " Lesser Glasgow". "Frog Marching" works off of this, but I can't under stand why the drumming is all about jazz tapping and won't lay into this fucking drums .  "Major Treat" has the groove doing a little more "Rivers Wanted" sounds like it could be the intro to a Nine Inch Nails song. The more ghostly side of the atmospherics here I am certainly down with. Then the album takes a turn into almost country like David Lynch music. The guitar tone is so wonderful I do not care about the minimal drums here. The guitars are more minimal for :the Winter's Not Forever"

My argument could be they did not have to compromise intensity and could have pulled this off more along the lines of what Godspeedyoublackemperor did for "28 Days Later" . However they have already been heading in this direction. There are moments that are more song oriented , I now understand they were doing what they were paid to do, for a movie about what looks to be cocaine, I would think more tension is in order, though I think of these guys as a more heroin band. That might just be because that is what I used them as the soundtrack for. This does not quite hold up to their actual albums , but is better than most who do this kinda of thing. I will give it an 8.5

Shitfucker : " Sex With Dead Body"

Raw dirty black n Roll coming from Detroit. It does owe perhaps more to the Stooges than Darkthrone, but only by a margin. I like the initial sting of their sound. It's dark. The vocals have a somewhat original flare of crazy to their scowl. Not the best produced album, that adds to the charm, Then the second song sounds pretty much like the first song and I get worried. The title track feels more punk than not except for the mean spirted growl to the vocal. The drums are lost behind the crashing of guitar. "Leather Lady Lover" is the best of the bunch...at least of the first four songs. It has a Venom vibe to it. The vocals serve more of purpose and the spoken part helps foster a more rock n roll feel to it. They are simplistic , but still chaotic when it comes to the clear cut path of the songs.  Much like punk the songs do not venture very far over the four minute mark.

"Serial Killer" takes the punk vibe they had going for them and force feeds it meth. The drums come more into focus, the guitar can be heard but losing track of what it is trying to do in this song When they get too fast for their own good things begin to blur and all the songs sound the same. Part of this is due to the vocals that do net a great deal of variation. Sometimes the vocal accent things in a more hooky way than others. Then there are songs where it just sounds like ranting. By the time we get caught into the storm swirl of "Splatter Master" it has become hard to tell the songs apart . "Splatter Master" has a more defined riff, but once they build speed it loses itself/. Their reckless enthusiasm can sometimes get the best of them when it comes to song writing , so they only thing that can compensate for this is much like punk attitude and energy.

There is more of the Venom feel again on "Touch Me I'll Scream".  The chorus has just enough hook to it to work amongst the noisy vomit of sound. They stop fucking around and get musical in a more conventional metal was at the end of this. Proving they can play their instruments when they try. I will give this album a 7.5, It is almost too punk for me , but if you are a punk who dabbles in metal you might find that this is for you. This is being released on Hell's Headbangers.