»The Big Music Round Up
This is the Big Music Round Up and is where I review a load of music I like.
Occasionally I award medals to albums which should all be fairly self-explanatory. But just because I care for you so much, here's a break-down of the various medals I award.
'Clever Metal' is basically awarded to albums which I think are 'clever' in some way. What that means in practice is that albums which I think are doing something original, adding meaningful diversity into their sound, pushing the envelope for metal in a direction I'd like to see it go, get a medal. Clever Metal is for smart people, so give yourself a pat on the back because you must be clever if you're reading this. |
'Forgotten Classic' is awarded to albums which I think have either been largely ignored or unfairly condemned by critics (see: (other) Idiots.) These albums may already be fairly old or they may be fairly recent and so are about to become forgotten classics. This is basically me playing at being all revisionist. If you argue in favour of a Forgotten Classic then anyone else who has read this page is duty-bound to jump into the fray on your side as well. There's often something wrong with Forgotten Classics which is no doubt the reason they were forgotten about in the first place, but that's where you come in. |
Here is a list of links to the bands I review, to give your scroll-wheel a break.
AkercockeAmon Amarth
Black Sabbath
Chrysta Bell
David Lynch
Death
Dimmu Borgir
Dismember
Ennio Morricone
Entombed
The Exploited
Genius
How To Destroy Angels
ISIS
Lamb of God
Manticora
Mastodon
Megadeth
Metallica
Mouth of the Architect
Napalm Death
Nile
Nine Inch Nails
Paradise Lost
Sabaton
Skeletonwitch
Slayer
Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross
Turisas
Vangelis
Wolf
Yngwie J. Malmsteen
Akercocke - Antichrist (2007)
Akercocke are frequently labelled as 'progressive death metal' which get them right to the top of my music priority list. This album alternates between weighty atmospheric thumpers and blastbeat-laden riff attacks. Akercocke's drummer is absolutely insane. If you don't find the guitar riffs at 0:32 and 3:52 in 'Summon The Antichrist' absolutely fantastic then there is something profoundly wrong with you. I wouldn't be that impressed by the mad-as-fuck death metal blast beat sections if it weren't for the contrasting bits. 'Axiom' kicks off with a melodic accoustic guitar riff, clean vocals, and bizarre 'accoustic' blastbeats. I've not heard anyone else doing anything like that, it even has a decent chorus. 'The Promise' is an incredibly heavy, slow song featuring Terrence Stamp-like spoken words at the beginning, and cult-like tribal wails: it's just great. I heartily recomend this album.
01:27 14/11/2010
Amon Amarth - Twilight of the Thunder God (2008)
The Scandinavians have their shit together when it comes to Vikings, after all, they did invent them for saturday morning cartoons in the nineteen seventies. Amon Amarth have been on the go for a while now, this is their eighth album on a major label since 1996's 'Sorrow Throughout the Nine Worlds', so they're a hard working bunch. Twilight of the Thunder God's cover artwork naturally depicts, Thor--the thunder god--battling the Migard fucking serpent, probably just because he feels like it. Obviously, with such a front cover I naturally assumed the band was power metal, but lo and behold, they are instead part of that Swedish tradition of melodic death metal. The first song, and title track, is a torrent of melodic lead parts which break down into some top notch death metal guitar and drum work. The vocal delivery is not the harshest out there, but is more of the growled variety than the tiresome Cookie Monster nonsense. The lyrics are just great, it's a kind of Norse history and mythology 101, Thor would approve. Edumetal! The album features a couple of collaborations. Someone from Apocalyptica (scandinavian cello-metal band who started off doing Metallica covers, the thumb: mostly up) on 'Live for the Kill', the string section works well with the nice melodic line. The second collaboration is with LG Petrov, of Entombed, on the third track 'Guardians of Asgard', and of course gets immense praise from me. This track is somewhat different from the others on the album, having a much more Entombed-esque riff and also being mid-tempo. It's a real killer riff and chorus though. WEEE AARRRRGHHH GUARRDIANS OFF ARRRRSSGAARRRDGHHH! GUAARDIARHHHHNS! I seen these guys at Slayer, they were very good live.
18:22 05/11/2008
Black Sabbath - Dehumanizer (1992)
I don't know why this album isn't really big. It's Dio-Sabbath in full effect. The first thing you'll notice is how FUCKING HEAVY the thing is. The first track is so good and indicative of the quality of the rest of the album that it deserves detailed discussion. 'Computer God' has a frankly dangerous drum intro so good I ripped it right off and it leads into a swaggering, lumbering verse with Dio soaring and exploding all over the vocals as you'd expect. As I'm growing to appreciate, real weight in heavy metal comes with confident use of silence. Guitar lines tear into the speakers and then stop, leaving only some thunderous drums, there's even some SICK bass fills in these gaps. It's like a tiger or something, deft, agile, power. Yep, I'm really turning on the bullshit with this review. Other album highlights are 'I' and 'After All (The Dead)' which is classic Sabbath GLOOM and HEAVINESS and was good enough to be ripped off for one of the tracks on Doom. Yet another cross-reference to something cool giving this album another boost. If you don't like Dio-Sabbath then you have a serious problem and you'll be missing out on this awesome album. I don't know why this isn't on the same pedestal as 'Heaven and Hell'.
02:14 07/07/2007
Chrysta Bell - This Train (2011)
Chrysta Bell is the smoking hot new muse of David Lynch. She specialises in sultry, sleazy, sexy, haunting (yeah, that doesn't start with s) songs that sound like the David Lynch songs from the Mullholland Drive sountrack. This is basically the same idea as Crazy Clown Time.
'Real Love' is my favourite.
Did I also mention she's fucking hot?
04:24 03/01/2012
David Lynch - Crazy Clown Time (2011)
David Lynch's 'solo'? album, isn't quite as consistent as Chrysta Bell's. The first track, 'Pinky's Dream' is a sleaze-rock (new genre?) banger with guest vocals by........ Karen O! Yeah, if you want a good guest vocalist to make your song win, get Karen. The better songs on the rest of the album follow this filth-blues (I'm going to stop now) formula.
However, a few of the songs are all dancey and loaded with vocoder vocals. These are not good. Don't let them spoil the good songs on this album though.
'Pinky's Dream' and 'Football Game' are my favourites.
04:26 03/01/2012
Death - Scream Bloody Gore (1987)
This is a much blunter and more direct offering from Death than Sound of Perseverence. But it was their debut back in 1987 so they can be let off for that. There is much similarity with what Slayer were up to at the same time however the vocals of course bear the then relatively new 'death grunt' style and there is less of Slayer's more riff oriented sections and more focus on guitar lines similar to what can be heard on fellow death metal pioneers Possessed's album Seven Churches. Scream Bloody Gore has a more accomplished feel to it than the raw sound of Possessed with more show-off guitar solos and better production. The songs are all around the 3:30 to 4:30 mark, so are comparatively brief, they also have such delightful titles such as 'Regurgitated Guts' and 'Zombie Ritual'. Of course, thematically Death were still feeling their way with what to sing about in death metal, hence the focus on horror, the occult and gore. You can't say they don't make descriptive album titles. A nice slice of 80s extreme metal and a key album in the evolution of death metal as a genre.
02:14 07/07/2007
Death - The Sound of Perseverence (1998)
This is just great. The opening song, 'Scavenger of Human Sorrow' is a fine slice of ridiculous progressive death metal, with the emphasis firmly on progressive. The song frequently segue's from one CRUSHING riff to the next. The result is something resembling the battle music from a japanese RPG. This would of course be a totally bad ass japanese RPG that was... I really don't know where this is going. The Sound of Perseverence has lots of long, complicated songs with lots of tempo and time signature changes. Solos come from nowhere and punch you in the face, before retreating into a forest of breakdowns and drum solos, like some insane dwarf from a german folk tale. I listened to this album on the journey between my old flat in Leeds and home in Heckmondwike, suddenly waiting at the bus stop became an epic toil against pain and endurance, the 219 bus became a lumbering behemoth of suffering. This album makes whatever you're doing suddenly seem significant, like the main quest in an RPG.
02:14 07/07/2007
Dimmu Borgir - In Sorte Diaboli (2007)
Bought as part of my research for Download. This is proper Scandinavian Symphonic Black Metal and as such is incredibly silly and takes itself far more serious than you'd think possible. The mixing of the drums is a bit odd as the bass drum- which sounds triggered and not how I usually like it- completely drowns out the snare. Aside from that, the orchestral parts are really awesome, it's like someone stuck the Warcraft II soundtrack over a metal band. If you aren't sure, that would be a GOOD thing.
02:14 07/07/2007
Dismember - Dismember (2008)
Shrouded in a year-long darkness, the chief export of the Dismember foundry is death metal. Dismember are a no-nonsense Swedish death metal band. Unlike their contemporaries (and one of my favourite bands) Entombed, they haven't fucked around with the template. Maybe if I had heard more of their stuff I'd find this tiresome. However this is my one and only Dismember album and I'm very happy with it. The album is a big slab of unremitting grimness. Only once in the album does the sound penetrate the choking brimstone atmosphere and rise above the clouds like that really cool bit in whichever Matrix film it was; and that is on 'Under A Bloodred Sky' funnily enough, which has an outro that wouldn't sound out of place on an Iron Maiden album. The rest of the album is death metal, the sort of death metal that actually deserves to be called brutal. The guitars are downtuned, atonal and hollow-sounding buzz-saws, proper Swedish death metal-style.
And for those who don't know, 'brutal' isn't simply how technical can you play, it's not how fast your blast beats are. This album isn't some sophisticated technician who frets over how fast their fretboard is, this album breaks a glass over a table and slashes at your face right after calling your girlfriend a slut after trying to feel her up. This album is too brutal to cry (obviously), but if it could, it would cry about all those viking metal poseurs, for this album was raping and pillaging your own town about 1,100 years ago, not just singing about it.
21:22 05/07/2011
Ennio Morricone - Movie Masterpieces (2004)
I never realised how many Ennio Morricone tunes I'd heard before I got this. There's the obvious ones from the Sergio Leone westerns that we all know but then there's 'Paying Off Scores' which is totally awesome with an excellent gothic church organ climax which you'll recognise from some car advert. Then there's the music from the mission which I've heard and played enough at various concert bands but never made the connection with the same composer. This is some suitably atmospheric and emotive film music and is endorsed by Metallica of all people. I tend to stay away from greatest hits which too often are hit and miss, but this is nicely selected sadly only missing 'Ecstacy of Gold' the first track on Metallica's S&M.
02:14 07/07/2007
Entombed - Left Hand Path (1990)
Entombed are the latest band that I have added to my list of four star bands, that is bands whose entire back catalogues and side projects I seek to collect and whose trivia I seek an endless knowledge of. This is their first album, and the second Entombed album which I heard. It's a landmark death metal album and brought the Gothemburg Sound to a world audience and made the careers of blah blah. The title track is absolutely fantastic and for close-minded fools is the only thing that Entombed have made of any value. For you, my open-minded and thoughtful non-existant audience, it is simply the distortion soaked clarion call that merely marked the arrival of an awesome band. The outro to Left Hand Path is fantastic and features the only use of keyboards (which are listed under 'gay' and 'for pussies' in the Death Metal Glossary) on the album. Left Hand Path is like a great overture to introduce the rest of the album which is comprised of sickeningly heavy drums, buzz-saw guitars and Lars-Göran Petrov's growled vocals. What makes this album so great for me is the relentlessly bleak sound and the strength of the individual songs. Each song is distinctive but still feels part of the whole. The album's sound is cold but also ferocious.
16:47 21/10/2008
Entombed - Morning Star (2001)
This album has been described by others as 'Entombed's 'Reign In Blood' moment', which was reason enough for me to track it down. I don't have their previous album for reference, but I'm guessing that the 'Reign in Blood moment' is the fact that this showcases Entombed's modern sound seen later on 2004's Unreal Estate and 2006's When In Sodom/Serpent Saints EP/LP. The retarded Death Metal Fan would say that Entombed 'did a Metallica' with their 'sell-out 'new' sound' but this is bullshit, the sound is vital, powerful and brutal as ever. Chief Rebel Angel opens the album with a raucous slice of Entombed's-now-trademark 'Death 'n Roll' sound. Other highlights include 'City of Ghosts' with its outro riff that sounds very Slayer and its seamless fade into 'About to Die', 'Mental Twin' and 'I For An Eye'. Strongly recomended.
17:14 21/10/2008
Entombed - Unreal Estate (2004)
This was the first Entombed album I heard, I picked it up in HMV as it was about to close. As I remember it, I was trying to find an album from a band I hadn't heard before that I thought I'd like. I was running out of time so I went for this album because the cover grabbed my attention and the name Entombed sounded familiar. As it turned out, I had previously downloaded a couple of their songs, one of them being Night of the Vampire, a marvelous and wonderful song.
Unreal Estate is a live album, and I have a thing for live albums. I enjoy the stripped down, powerful sound that usually results. I first got into Nine Inch Nails in a big way thanks to their live album And All That Could Have Been. This isn't your average live album, for a start it was recorded in an opera house and was accompanied live with an avant garde ballet troupe. At this point you're probably thinking 'what the fuck', in the liner notes, the band admit they felt the same initially. Some crazy guys at the Swedish Royal Ballet wanted to do a performance centred around Entombed's music, the band initially thought it was some joke but soon came round to the idea when it proved to be genuine. I need to get the DVD of this thing (sadly there isn't one). Anyway, the resulting sound of the album is cold and crisp. This clinical sound really works for the album. What makes this album so great is the fact that monstrous guitars and howled vocals sit alongside pianos, church organs and samples from old horror films. This massive contrast in sound makes for what I have--on various MSN convos--labelled 'clever metal' and 'the perfect metal album.' Whilst I can't really stand by that last comment, this album is so good that it makes you say crazy shit like that.
The album is brief, which is fine, no one song goes over the same ground, songs seemlessly bleed into eachother so that the thirty five or so minutes feel like one entire performance, like one piece of music. The nearest comparison album really is Metallica's S&M, which has the same blend of the classical and the metal world, however, Unreal Estate is a tighter album than S&M with its oh-so-disappointing middle section and lack of some obvious tracks (namely Creeping Death, why the fuck isn't it there?) To best sum up the great contrast of this album and to highlight a few tracks, try 'In The Flesh', 'Say It In Slugs' and 'DCXVI/Intermission'. I can't recomend this album any stronger.
17:05 21/10/2008
Entombed - Wolverine Blues (1993)
I've become a real cock-rider for Entombed, I honestly can't understand why they aren't a *lot* bigger than they seem to be. Anyway, this was the first album where they marked first marked a departure from their early death metal sound and moved to what has been called a 'Death 'n' Roll' style. Basically, that means they kept the guitar tone, vocal style, guitar riffs, and most of the drumming from death metal... except they started having more conventional song structures. It's a pretty subtle and academic difference really. The result was very good indeed. 'Eyemaster' and 'Out Of Hand' are particular highlights. Also, this album proves how much Entombed need L.G. Petrov.
00:42 14/11/2010
The Exploited - Troops of Tomorrow (1982)
This is a bit of REAL punk for you perhaps it's even hardcore punk, none of that poppy softcore nonsense. The Exploited came from Glasgow in the early 1980s and it really shows. They're pissed off and probably pissed for good measure too. The songs are acerbic and biting, there are catchy riffs and a good dose of high energy with a distinct lack of bullshit. Listening to this album one of the first things you will notice is the way it's like being in some rough pub in Glasgow with some drunk Glaswegian shouting at you, it's great. Album highlights are 'War', 'UK 82' and 'Disorder' which were the songs Slayer covered in their Exploited medly 'Disorder' with Ice T which was how I first encountered the band. The tempo is generally fast and there's a swagger and brashness which carries the powerful songs. Probably best enjoyed amongst the working class in Thatcher's Britain.
02:14 07/07/2007
Genius - Liquid Swords (1994)
In the spirit of diversity and seeing as I do actually like some hip hop I might as well review probably my favourite hip hop album. Liquid Swords has the classic Wu-Tang sound and features The 'Tang's most intricate MC, the Genius or the GZA (that's pronounced jizza for those who aren't OG's down with the 'hood, yo... or whatever the devil you kids call it now). The title track, '4th Chamber' and 'Living In The World Today' are all bona fide classics with great beats courtesy of RZA. 'Labels' is a particular highlight being about the EVIL RECORD COMPANIES and intermingling record company names into the lyrics. That is the sort of thing the GZA excels at, deft wordplay, double entendres and the like. Intellectual hip hop? Maybe. I think it's the shizzle fo' dizzle, rizzle, fizzle... I really don't know what I'm talking about.
03:05 03/08/2007
How To Destroy Angels - How To Destroy Angels (2010)
I'm a massive NIN cock-rider, I'll buy pretty much anything Trent Reznor gets even partial credit for. This is no exception. HTDA the band is basically NIN with a female singer, i.e. TR's hot new wife Mariqueen Maandig. The sound is probably more stripped down than a NIN album, it's hard to tell really. I pretty much like every song on this album. If I had to drop one it would be the disco-happy 'Fur Lined' which is a bit too much like 'Only'. 'BBB' is just awesome; great chorus, vocals, beat. 'A Drowning' closes the album in style, the token 'ballad' on the EP. I really hope HTDA tours. I've been listening to this album a lot.
01:04 14/11/2010
ISIS - Wavering Radiant (2009)
ISIS call themselves 'post hardcore' I think. Everyone else, including me, call them 'post metal'. Post Metal basically is like Post Rock... but metal, are you following this? It's basically all about long spaced out songs that build up and aren't very vocals-heavy. ISIS are probably the band who did the whole Post Metal thing first. They are pretty cool. This album is pretty cool. They overuse the chorusy bass sound a little bit too much for my liking (though that's something every ISIS song seems to have (why is ISIS always capitalised?)) My favourite song from here at the moment is the last one, Threshold of Transformation. There are quite a lot of colours on this album, it's very good.
00:37 14/11/2010
Lamb of God - Sacrament (2006)
This was more Download research. I heard these previously at Unholy Alliance but had been putting off getting this album. Walk With Me In Hell is a outstandingly awesome track, I've not really given the rest of the album as much attention as that. This is agreeable American metal, the riffs are all good but songs can sound similar at times. These guys were awesome at Download.
02:14 07/07/2007
Manticora - Roots of Eternity (1999)
Oh man this is absolutely ridiculous. Power metal ridiculous. These guys are epic, all in capitals. 'When Forever Ends' is the first song on the album ignoring the intro which is just some weird keyboard bubbling, it is absolutely over the top as may be surmised by just looking at the title. This is the sort of music that is going through the heads of the people who illustrate the covers of AD&D supplements. This album does musically what the Bat Out of Hell covers do visually. Vocals soar (like an eagle!), as do lead guitar parts, the kick drum is almost exclusively playing 6/8 semi-quavers, if that doesn't give you a good enough idea what happens in this music then nothing will. You aren't doing justice to this album if whilst listening to it you aren't battling a dragon with flaming sword whilst riding a griffon above snowy mountain peaks. Lars F. Larsen (yep, he's Danish alright) has a really good, powerful voice, he really makes the whole thing work. These guys rightly claim to be 'progressive power metal' and unsurprisingly they hail from Denmark, as such they are wholly obscure but will net you major props if you casually drop them into conversation with other power metal fans.
19:41 21/10/2008
Mastodon - The Hunter (2011)
Mastodon have clearly listened to my criticism of their previous albums. They've finally started putting the best riff in a song into the chorus instead of some throwaway instrumental noodling section. This album is the 'poppiest' thing they've done so far. That's 'poppy' in the sense that the songs aren't weighted down by concept album pretension ('too arysy, too intellectual'), and there are finally a prevalence of brilliant riffs and choruses given centre stage. Basically, they're just better songs.
Brann Dailor is a brilliant drummer, especially live, and he finally gets his own song to sing on this album (previously, it's been the odd verse here and there, like Phil Collins in Gabriel-era Genesis). The comparison to Genesis really is a viable one to make, and if Brann decides he's going to take over the reigns of the band and take them down a more 'poppy' route, I'd be all too happy.
'Black Tongue', 'Curl of the Burl' and 'Creature Lives' are my personal favourites. The former two were performed to a bewildered and deafened audience on Later... With Jolls Holland to utmost hilarity whilst the later is a genre-breaking, early-Collins-era-Genesis fanfare with Brann Dailor's lead vocals. Brilliant!
02:14 07/07/2007
Megadeth - United Abominations (2007)
Hardcore Megadeth shit, a definite improvement over The System Has Failed, which I also liked. Sleepwalker was awesome at Download. The riffing is complex as ever, a tour-de-force of virtuosity, behind this Mustaine has got a clearer more focused theme in keeping with Megadeth's previous work. Musically, the closest comparison is a more efficient System Has Failed, thematically there are closer ties with the classics of yore like Peace Sells... and Rust in Peace.
02:14 07/07/2007
Megadeth - Thirteen
Dave Ellefson is back on bass duties and is seemingly the only person capable of telling Dave Mustaine to 'Fucking cool it with the super-dense solo sections, already!' You can tell that 'deth have been on the Big Four Tour for a bit too long because this is a very nostalgic record. It's very Countdown To Destruction-like. That's not necessarily a bad thing since it means that actual songs are back instead of Endgame-era riff-dumps.
The nostalgia is further increased by the presence of supposedly 'complete' versions of songs that were demo'd during the Countdown era and have already appeared on the deluxe editions of those albums. Seriously, what has been really added to 'Millenium of the Blind' over the demo? I do like this album, it's another 'step in the right direction'. Still, the world (well, maybe just myself) waits for a true follow-up to Rust In Peace.
04:27 05/01/2012
Metallica - ...And Justice For All (1988)
I've had this album ages but I have been eager to review it for a while. I think this is a really under-appreciated album, people complain about the production, particularly the inaudible bass, however I challenge you (that's right YOU) to tell me they can hear bass parts clearly in the majority of metal music anyway, people seem to forget that there are vast swathes of even Burton-era Metallica where the bass follows what the rhythm guitar is doing so it for all practical purposes indistinguishable. Anyway, onto the album, the opener is 'Blackened' and it's one of Metallica's most contained songs, in my opinion. It's fast, it's got some catchy riffs and cool vocals; thematically, it's got a social conscience singing about damage to the environment; and it's also a display of the band's virtuosity. Track two is the title track and follows the trends set on Ride The Lightning of having the title track on second, and the trend set on Master of Puppets of having a really long and awesome title track.
The drumming across the whole album is superb, but particularly on the title track. After this opening salvo the run of Metallica classics doesn't let up, 'Eye of the Beholder' is a great mid-tempo track with a memorable chorus. Whilst criminally overplayed on radios and music television, which you should avoid anyway, 'One' is still a great track and justify Metallica including what would otherwise be 'fucking gay' ballads. That's right metal fans, ballads can be good and not the preserve of 'pussies', pull your head out of your arse and appreciate some good fucking music. Having said that, Metallica do had the right idea on this album: you only need one ballad.
The crushing apex (I only really wanted to review to review this album so I could say 'crushing apex') of the album is without a doubt 4:43 in 'Harvester of Sorrow' which surprisingly is the quietest part of the album. If I had to elect a greatest moment on the album it would be that part. 'Harvester of Sorrow' is a great song, it makes you want to use words like CRUSHING and stick words in the middle of other words like IN-FUCKING-TENSE. Such a song is not merely a slow song, but a GRIM, LUMBERING LEVIATHAN OF CRUSHING INEVITABILITY. Yeah I'm a total ...AJFA fan-boy, I apologise.
'To Live is to Die' is my second favourite Metallica instrumental after Ride the Lightning's 'Call of Ktulu', it checks all the boxes for a cool metallica instrumental- long, complex, epic etc. ...AJFA is a comparatively mid-tempo offering from Metallica when compared to earlier albums, so less frantic thrashing is required with grim-faced head-banging the order of the day. To get the correct expression for slow head-banging to this album, suck on half a lemon and be let down by public transport or a loved one. 'Dyer's Eve' brings the album to a close in typical much-faster-than-the-previous-two-songs fashion.
Unreserved praise and adulation aside, this album does have one problem, and it is the production. Compare this to Slayer's Angel of Death and, well, you can't compare it, there is just no comparison. You have to crank the volume up a lot to wake up the guitars in this song. The shiny, clicky drums showcase Lars Ulrich well but are possibly a little too polished. I guess it would be nice to hear a bass now and again but I don't think the album really suffers too much from that.
So in conclusion, this album is really good and one of my favourites as you've no doubt gathered from my gushing review. Though heavy metal always sounds better turned up, this album really needs the extra boost which seems to negate the prevailing woolliness. A great album too often overshadowed by the likes of genre classics Master of Puppets or Ride the Lightning.
02:14 07/07/2007
Metallica - St. Anger (2003)
So to celebrate Metallica releasing their first album in five years, I'll go ahead and review their previous album... the one from five years ago. Everyone hates St. Anger, 'metlicca sold out on the black album, froflamo', Napster, Load, Reload... From about 1991 to 2003 you had an almost uninterrupted period of Metallica not being totally awesome all of the time, which people had become used to in the eighties. But you know all this, you also know that the snare drum on this album can be downright irritating. Well shut up and listen, St. Anger cuts through all the bullshit that happened in the build-up to it. It's like the moment in the Two Towers when King Theoden shakes off all the cobwebs and removes the cataract contact lenses and then gives the slimy agent of Saruman a swift boot down the steps of the throne room.
This album is obviously stripped down, the sound is raw and punchy, yes, the snare drum sounds like a frying pan, but that just shows how accustomed you've become to the whole 'studio sound'. Some of the songs go on too long, but having said that, the weakest song 'Purify' is also the shortest at 5:13. Now, onto the positives. First, this album has in my opinion some of the strongest vocals that Metallica have ever come up with, James Hetfield's vocals are nothing short of a renaissance in the Metallica sound, he runs the whole gamut from low whispers, contemplative mid-range parts, roars, screams... it's turned up to ten, things are pushed well beyond the comfort zone, things are coming undone... that's exactly what should be happening in an album like this, and this is just the vocals. Still don't believe me? Listen to 'The Unnamed Feeling', that is a great, great song and that has a lot to do with both the vocals and also the lyrics.
Lyrically, this album is mature and self-reflective, the 'Monster' of Metallica is taken to pieces, the band look inwardly and don't like what they see, there is a self destructiveness eating away at everything. To contrast with the chaos of the vocals, the guitars and drums in this album are rock solid and powerful. Chainsaw guitar riffs are thrown against a barrage of drums, as seen on the album opener 'Frantic', when the speed is taking down, the result is the titanic behemoth riff that runs through 'Some Kind of Monster', certainly one of the best tracks on the album.
St. Anger as an album dispenses with the progressive leanings of 'Lightning Puppets For All' golden-age Metallica and strips things back to the manic, 'Frantic' sound that came twenty years earlier with 1983's 'Kill 'Em All'. Most people I've spoken to who didn't like this album had either not listened to it, or were the sort of idiot metal fans that spoil it for everyone. If you do buy this album, make sure you get the special edition with the DVD showing the rehearsal footage, it's a note-perfect live rendition of the album but without that bloody snare sound if you really can't get over that, it's really good.
There is a comparison to be made between Metallica and Megadeth. Megadeth's 1999 album 'Risk' is barely a Megadeth album, it's barely a metal album, and it was almost the death-knell for the band. Megadeth have now turned things around, but it taken them three albums to do that. 'The World Needs A Hero', 'The System Has Failed' and 'United Abominations', the later being one of Megadeth's best albums since 1991's Rust In Peace. For Metallica, as a band that had no doubt lost their way somewhat, St. Anger achieved in one album what taken Megadeth three albums, which is all the more important as Metallica have always been subject of far greater scrutiny than any other metal band, Megadeth included. St. Anger brushed away twelve years of disappointment and shit in one move and set everything in place for the band to begin somewhat anew in a renaissance that would culminate in Death Magnetic today.
22:09 22/10/2008
Mouth of the Architect - Time and Withering (2004)
MotA (I can't be arsed typing that name) call themselves 'Atmospheric Sludge Metal', I call them 'Post Metal'. They plough a similar furrow to ISIS, which is a good thing in my book. In some ways they're indistinguishable from ISIS, but then again, most Post Metal bands are. This entire album is grim and miserable, appropriately enough, it was the soundtrack to some of my last visits to the job centre. The first song 'A Vivid Chaos', sets out what the band intend to do for the rest of the album, it's grim, absolutey miserable, featuring crushing guitars, sparse vocals, quiet/accoustic bits, and is long, clocking in at over twelve minutes. At nearly eleven minutes, 'The Worm' closes the album in style, and is probably the best track from the album. The middle two tracks are okay, a little bit samey, basically, after the first track you're waiting for the last one, you might think that's a good thing, or not. The thumb: up.
01:47 14/11/2010
Napalm Death - The Complete BBC Sessions (2000)
I've been getting into Napalm Death a lot recently. This is a collection of the three Radio 1 sessions they've done, the first two for the John Peel Show. This is intense and awesome. The production is a bit odd at first, very reverby and the guitar solos seem to come in at twice the volume of everything else, but the energy is so high it more than makes up for it. Highlight: Unchallenged Hate which has a great shouted intro from Mark 'Barney' Greenway. I didn't know they bothered playing good music on Radio 1 any more.
02:14 07/07/2007
Napalm Death - Smear Campaign (2006)
I've been growing increasingly fond of British metal acts recently. Napalm Death are the creators and champions of grindcore, which in theory is hardcore punk+thrash metal (bear in mind thrash was supposed to already be metal+hardcore punk). Whilst now they're more of a death metal act, they still retain the core ideas of grindcore, the incredible intensity and energy, and the social conscience and non-conformist attitude. Smear Campaign kicks off with 'Weltschmerz' which explodes with some DOOM-LADEN bell action. That sounds pretty gay I know, but it truly isn't. It's the horrific prelude to full noise distortion of the rest of the album. Those are blindingly fast drums, dischordant guitar riffing and Mitch Harris' incomprehensible screams accompanying the guttural growl of Mark 'Barney' Greenway. These guys were amazing at Download, and surprisingly polite and friendly between songs, considering the GRIM tone of their music. Smear Campaign is EXTREME and you'd expect nothing less from the co-precipitated alluminium salts of naphthenic and palmitic acids death.
02:14 07/07/2007
Nile - Ithyphallic (2007)
I'd been aware of Nile for a long time, always noticing their albums due to their proximity in record shops to Nine Inch Nails. I picked this album up mainly because it had recently been released and could possibly review it for the paper. If I had sent in a review it wouldn't have been printed. This sort of music would have shit all over Ramzy. Technical. Death. Metal. A ludicrous sub-genre if ever there was. I have a big hard-on for Nile because I can put them under my rather pretentious 'clever metal' banner. Why is that? Well Karl Sanders, driving force in Nile, really likes Egyptian stuff, and he released an album under his own name which was basically dark ambient Egyptian music, like the kind of music you'd expect to hear in a sequel to Quake 1--i.e. fucking awesome music. Ithyphallic intersperses ear-bleeding death metal with similar ambient sections, the final track, 'Even the Gods Must Die' starts with horns. 'Horns in death metal?! wha!?' says the idiot Death Metal Fan as Karl Sanders slaps him in the face with a tambourine. The drums on this album are insane, so fast, so heavy. This album is full of such great death metal, with a little colour and diversity thrown in to keep things fresh, there are also some great titles. Highlights of the album include, 'As He Creates So He Destroys' and 'What Can Safely Be Written'.
17:29 21/10/2008
Nine Inch Nails - The Slip (2008)
It used to be the way of things that you'd have to wait five years between nine inch nails albums, with a whole host of interesting side-projects to keep you occupied in the meantime (See: Natural Born Killers, Lost Highway, Quake) but now that he's free of the EVIL RECORD COMPANIES Trent Reznor seems to be knocking out entire albums faster than I can come up with one song. 2008 has so far seen two Nine Inch Nails albums, one a 'four part' (basically a double CD) instrumental album 'Ghosts I-IV', The Slip, and also a semi-official (though that word is having less and less meaning with regard to NIN now) promotional EP to showcase some of the supporting acts for a North American tour (hint for Trent: come to the Manchester Apollo again, or better still, the new Leeds Carling Academy... SOON!) Now that's more than we could expect for an entire decade if we're talking about NIN in the NINties, sorry I meant nineties. Whilst I do fear that the quality control button may have been left 'off' for a little too long during the recording of Ghosts, and that not enough people were telling Trent to 'maybe think about some of the track-orders more carefully' I do think that The Slip is a very solid NIN album as a whole and certainly on a par with previous 'regular' NIN album (i.e. one with vocals) 2007's Year Zero... Hang on, so that's three albums in less than twelve months? Ho-ly shit Trent!
Anyway, enough contextual bullshit, what do I like about this album? '999,999' the 'intro track' is cool and ambient and sums up in 1:25 what happened for about the first nine minutes of Ghosts I-IV, probably more than that. First 'proper' track '1,000,000' is pure Year-Zero-era NIN in their 'live drums' mode (actually that drum beat was last heard on disco-banger 'Only' back on 'With Teeth' now I think about it), you can tell this because the song starts with a drum beat that is clearly played by a real drummer, in this case, Josh Freese, unless I'm horribly mistaken. There are heavily distorted bass parts that we heard a lot during Year Zero, and there is a big, satisfying sing-a-long chorus that will sound fucking sweet live. One of the hookiest, and also the heaviest, song on the album is the third track 'Letting You' which is very similar to With Teeth's 'You Know What You Are', only faster, and heavier, and without Dave Grohl, three things I always welcome. Probably my favourite non-instrumental track on the album is 'Head Down', which could so easily have been NIN's first bingo-themed song 'Eyes Down', but here's not the place to talk of missed opportunities. 'Head Down' has more of a 'With Teeth' sound to it (remember that album? It was 2005, back when NIN's release schedule was on a par with the aircraft fuselage release schedule of your average glacier in the French Alps.) By 'With Teeth' sound, I am of course referring to that heavily processed, muffled lead guitar line that was on just about every track.
Whilst the first half of this album has a bit too much of 'poppy' NIN, the second half is where the real action is. 'Lights In The Sky' is a really solid 'Trent and piano' NIN song and bleeds wonderfully into the fantastic ambient track 'Corona Radiata' which really would have no excuse to suck, it's not as if he hadn't had enough practice doing ambient on Ghosts... 'Conrona' then leads into another great instrumental 'The Four of Us Are Dying' which truly reaches 'Further Down the Spiral' levels of awesomeness. The album closes with what initially sounds like a Slayer song 'Demon Seed' but which is instead a satisfying drum and bass tinged outro that neatly draws the album to a close.
Overall, 'The Slip' is a welcome addition to the Nine Inch Nails canon, it is direct and accessible and whilst it features perhaps too many pop-mode tracks, the second half more than makes up for this. Trent has already indicated that the next album will be more studio-heavy, a la The Fragile, which I welcome as NIN are probably at their best when there is the conflict between instrumental-exploration-style songwriting in the studio, and dist-pop songwriting on the tour bus.
22:42 22/10/2008
Paradise Lost - In Requiem (2007)
I discovered these guys at Download. They got a big cheer when they shouted 'is anyone here from Yorkshire?', it turns out they're from Halifax, and their singer sounds like James Hetfield. They're apparently doom metal, but having heard Cathedral, I can't really see how they slot into that genre. The tone is certainly pretty grim, but there isn't the misery and self-pity of Cathedral. This is a really solid straight up metal album, plus they have the 'fax factor.
There are the expected CRUSHING guitars but the sound is expanded with steady use of string pads on keyboards and even harpsicords, which instantly brings a few points of awesome. This album is best experienced whilst grimmacing and staring into the wind, preferably atop some hill in northern England.
02:14 07/07/2007
Sabaton - Primo Victoria (2005)
I'd bumped into Sabaton a while ago via download.com's music section. I downloaded the track 'Primo Victoria' which is a great song and finally drove me to buy the rest of the album. This is BATTLE METAL which for the rest of you is a sub genre of power metal. As we all (should) know, power metal aspires to be EPIC and does so with choir pads on keyboards, concept albums about swords and battles, and sing-a-long choruses. Battle metal unsurprisingly is concerned with songs about war and battles, Sabaton seem to stick to World War Two as opposed to the usual fantasy themed stuff. Primo Victoria is a ridiculous song, the first few seconds of the song can be summed up as "To the gates of hell, as we make our way to heaven, through the NAZI LINES!!! [BOOOOOOOMMMMMM] (male choir vocals)PRIMO VICTORIA!" Words fail to convey quite how fantastic this beginning is. You're confused by the mention of nazis? What? Surely they can't sing about killing nazis? Wha? My friend, this is BATTLE METAL it's for men, and for beer swilling, that sort of thing. Punching the air with your fist, being angry, you know the drill.
Primo Victoria covers all aspects of conflict, you have a song about landing on an enemy occupied beach and establishing a beach-head (The overtly D-Day themed Primo Victoria), submarine warfare ('Wolfpack'), tank and mechanised warfare ('Panzer Battalion' - Sabaton don't do subtlety, that's not very MANLY), urban warfare ('Stalingrad') you even a little on the cost of war ('Purple Heart')- of course, it wouldn't be very MANLY to dwell on that. It might as well be on the reading list for the Military History MA at Leeds. Sabaton is of course the part of knight's armour covering the foot. Sabaton's singer sounds like a viking warrior, it's a pity that the WWII theme precludes some songs about Valhalla and the like. Whilst Turisas claim to have been the founders of battle metal, you really can't fault Sabaton's effort on Primo Victoria. Time for some words to sum up. EPIC POMPOUS HUGE MAJESTIC SWAGGERING
02:14 07/07/2007
Skeletonwitch - Forever Abomination (2011)
Skeletonwitch - Forever Abomination. I'm sounding like a broken record now, but Skeletonwitch have brought the ruckus again with this new album. Better songwriting, yet more lean and ripped riffs. Yes, please.
04:30 05/01/2011
Slayer - Diabolus in Musica (1999)
This album is unfairly relegated to the position of 'Slayer's unfortunate foray into nu metal'. That is bollocks. Another reviewer aptly dismissed that argument saying, if that's what nu metal sounded like, nu metal wouldn't suck. What I think sets this apart from other Slayer albums is the slow start of the opener 'Bitter Peace'. However if the idiots would just give the album a chance it would reveal to not only be a cracking Slayer album but also the only Slayer album where the bass guitar feels on a par with the drums and guitars. Oh so an audible bass is nu metal? Fuck that. This album is closer to God Hates Us All than Divine Intervention which preceded it, with Paul Bostaph's drumming style more at home within the overall sound. Perhaps the oddest song on this album, and probably on any Slayer album, is 'Scrum', which is about rugby. Now when I think of rugby I think of games lessons, Bradford Bulls and Posh Union Beefcakes from Uni. Evidently Kerry King's experience of rugby whilst touring New Zealand is what led to bizarre lyrics mixing rugby with general violence. YOUR TRY IS CRUSHED! NO BLOOD, NO GLORY!!
01:40 19/07/2007
Slayer - South of Heaven (1988)
I'm a total Slayer fanboy so it's not a surprise that I find another one of their supposedly more obscure to be an absolute delight. South of Heaven kicks off with the title track which has one of the best intros in all of heavy metal (seriously, the only other competitor is maybe Hell Awaits: Slayer know how to write an intro.) What follows an amazing opening track is a further 30 or so minutes of perfect 80's Slayer.
The album only really falters on two songs toward the end of the album, 'Cleanse the Soul' (which Kerry King famously hates) and a Judas Priest Cover 'Dissident Aggressor' which I just don't get. The album is bookended with the accoustic intro of 'Spill the Blood'. The drums on this album are absolutely brilliant. If you don't believe that the drums in a heavy metal album are as important it not more than the guitars, listen to this album. 'Silent Scream' features some of my favourite vocals and lyrics in metal.
If you still need convincing. At least two of the songs on this album were directly 'ripped off' included in DOOM/DOOM 2's MIDI soundtrack. Case closed.
16:22 20/08/2011
Slayer - World Painted Blood (2009)
Slayer really stepped up their game on this one. I really liked Christ Illusion but this goes that extra mile. There's something about this album which reminds me very much of South of Heaven, which is a very good album indeed. There's more of the mid-tempo Slayer than on Christ Illusion. The first song, 'World Painted Blood', is just crazy and great, it's a minimal thrash beat from Dave Lombardo and Tom Araya just ranting over it, that's all you need. You can hear the bass guitar in the guitar solo! What the fuck?! I especially like the middle section which has a very Angel-of-Death-esque riff. 'Human Strain' and 'Beauty Through Order' are both great tracks, very God Hates Us All/South of Heaven. 'Playing With Dolls' has practically the same riff as South of Heaven's closer 'Spill The Blood', not a bad thing in my opinion. The outro to the last song 'Not Of This God' goes into some weird Marilyn Manson type groove, very unexpected, but very cool.
If the album has any weak track, it would actually be the lead song/single 'Psychopaty Red' which is another ode to some serial killer you've never heard of. It's just a full-on blast like Cult minus the awesome intro riff, I just don't get it. Slayer aren't going to win any innovation awards, but they don't have to since they pretty much singlehandedly invented all subsequent extreme metal that isn't Death or Black, and they stand like titans amongst Death bands regardless.
00:56 14/11/2010
Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross - The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo Soundtrack (2011)
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo Soundtrack. Sorry but I'm a NIN whore. The acronym is cumbersome (TGWTDTWSHTHSFBT) but this is a definite improvement over The Social Network soundtrack which I found just a bit too synthy and dancey. Three hours is probably a bit too long, but this is some bleak stuff.
I've heard comparisons with personal favourite the Quake Soundtrack but that ship has sailed and this is nowhere near as industrial as that. Still, it's very good, and certainly closer to the NIN sound I want. Plus, it's book-ended by brilliant covers.
Immigrant Song could have easily been a total disaster, but Karen O on vocals totally works. The new How To Destroy Angels (HTDAHTHDA) song is a Bryan Ferry cover, 'Is Your Love Strong Enough?' ('Errrr, what?') It was originally on the Legend soundtrack (which I fucking owned years before Drag Tatt came out! Score hardcore points for me!) It's great, I love HAHDTHAHDA.
04:39 05/01/2012
Turisas - The Varangian Way (2007)
I first bumped into Turisas on one of the rather nice free CDs that come with Rock Sound magazine. They are Finnish folk metal, battle metal or just plain old power metal depending on your sources. I later seen them at Download knowing how awesome they are. These guys have an ACCORDION and an electric violin player. Which is TOTALLY AWESOME. The folk aspect comes from the fact this album is a concept album telling the story of a group of travelers sailing down a river from scandinavia down across the Black Sea and ending in Constantinople- VIKING STYLE. The battle metal comes from the fact they have an album of the same name and they happen to dress like vikings and wore RED WAR PAINT at Download. The opening song 'To Holmgard and Beyond' is the one I heard on the Rock Sound CD- albeit in an edited form- and is FUCKING IMMENSE. It ticks all the boxes, there's an ACCORDION INTERLUDE with a narator. There's russian-style male voice choirs, polka-inspired songs about getting drunk and drinking from horns. Do I need to say any more?
01:31 19/07/2007
Vangelis - Blade Runner (1994)
This is a great soundtrack. It's one which manages to tell the story of the film on its own which is always a good sign (The Natural Born Killers soundtrack is better than the film in that respect.) It's a very relaxing and quite melancholy album. Highlights 'Blush Response' which bleeds into 'Wait For Me'; 'Damask Rose'; and Demis Roussos' impassioned wailing over 'Tales of the Future'. This album often wakes me up in the morning on my CD alarm clock - quite bizarre.
01:15 14/11/2010
Wolf - The Black Flame (2006)
I'm sorry but this is just a top album. I don't like phrases like 'balls to the wall' but this kind of music was the reason they came into existence. This is straight up metal of the non-grunted vocals variety. Whilst I have grown to appreciate the more extreme metal vocals, I was first lured to all this satanic shit by the likes of Metallica and Hetfield's great vocals. Wolf's vocalist is of the Bruce Dickinson variety which comes with two speeds, high and higher. If Iron Maiden had formed in 2000 I'm sure they'd have a sound like Wolf. There are harmony lead parts aplenty and sing-along choruses (well you'll be singing along an octave or so lower than they are). The music is direct, there is little in the way of lengthy songs, complicated songs or strange intros/outros hence my comparison with early Maiden. Thematically it's in safe metal territory with songs covering asylums for the criminally insane ('I Will Kill Again') or addrenaline songs about drink driving women ('Steelwinged Savage Reaper'). An album highlight would be 'Make Friends With Your Nightmares'. What I found most surprising was that this band is from Sweden, but as far as I'm concerned in music expectations are there to be confounded. To really appreciate this music properly you need the wind blowing in your face. I really wish these guys had been at Download.
02:14 07/07/2007
Yngwie J. Malmsteen - Trilogy (1986)
1986 was a good year for metal, it was the year that brought us Metallica's 'Master of Puppets', Slayer's 'Reign in Blood', Dark Angel's 'Darkness Descends', Megadeth's 'Peace Sells... But Who's Buying?', and also this little gem.
Never the one to leave out a minor harmonic lead part because it would be 'showing off', this album--as with all Malmsteen albums--showcases the talents of the show-off swede virtuoso in all his baroque-metal glory. Like several others, this album was bought on the basis of the artwork alone, it depicts Yngwie battling a dragon on top of a mountain with his guitar... which is emitting flames--I was sold immediately. I'd heard one of Yngwie's songs before from an ILLEGAL DOWNLOAD!!! of a later song and so I already knew he was up to scratch. Note to record companies: illegal downloads are free fucking advertising.
The vocals on this album are really strong and there's some really good riffs to be had as well as a prominent keyboard part which really gives the album a special sound. The 'baroque' element of Malmsteen's sound is probably not as prominent here as in later albums, despite the awfully pretentious (though also technically brilliant) instrumental that closes the album, 'Trilogy Suite'. Malmsteen really is embarassing at times, not content with a mere 'suite' he felt the need to tack 'Op: 5' onto the end as well, but I try not to take him as seriously as he does himself.
Highlights include album opener 'You Don't Remember I'll Never Forget' with it's totally awesome lead keyboard part and sing-a-long chorus, 'Liar' if only for the blindingly high note vocalist Mark Boals hits during the chorus, and 'Dark Ages' for its totally epic, slow, doomy riff.
21:26 22/10/2008
Extar, over, out.
79. If someone is especialy brutal say "HAIL MOTHERFUCKER"