Category Archives: Album Reviews

Sons of Texas – Baptized In The Rio Grande

Posted on by

11755887_883455738371043_502157328686790946_n

Predictability is as underrated as a comfy old of pair of trainers for moochin’ around in, and if we were gambling peeps round Ghost Cult Towers even before picking up Sons Of Texas début Baptized In The Rio Grande we’d have had some pretty strong suspicions as to whether or not it would carry the expected Southern flavours of the Lone Star State.

And a seam of a Southern groove does indeed hit the back of the throat as strong as a slug of straight-up Bourbon from the outset, and is the underlying theme of each of the eleven songs. The initial impression is that Sons of Texas are a Face Off mixture of Down and Black Stone Cherry with Zakk Wylde picking up the tab, particularly on the opening and title tracks. Mark Morales manages to incorporate elements of both Anselmo and Chris Robertson to his delivery representing the band by mixing aggression where it’s needed (but without spilling over and losing the melody) with some quality choruses and hooks, in particular when things kick back during ‘Breathing Through My Wounds’ and ‘September’, two powerful, rocky balladic reflective moments that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Stone Sour album

Elsewhere there are touches of Disturbed or Shinedown, and ‘The Vestryman’ has NOLA (Elektra) etched into its’ spine, but these are mentioned more as pointers of where the band sit sound-wise and stylistically.  Clearly receiving the backing of Razor & Tie, Josh Wilbur (Lamb of God, All That Remains) is behind the production desk, bringing forth a full, thick and expertly balanced sound, it isn’t long before you embrace the appealing, honest enjoyability of Sons of Texas and accept Baptized In The Rio Grande in its’ own right as fine, Southern, hard rock album imbued with a song-writing maturity beyond the years of the contributing members all while retaining the requisite youthful energy to put the songs over.

You can rest assured, predictability isn’t the only thing that is welcome – giving people the big, stompin’ rock songs that put a grin on the face and an involuntary bob in the neck are too, and Sons of Texas have those in spades.

 

7.0/10

 

STEVE TOVEY

 


Grave Pleasures – Dreamcrash

Posted on by

Grave_Pleasures_-_Dreamcrash

It has been said that “the best way to predict the future is to invent it”. While I paraphrase The X-Files, there is nothing quite like an anti-hero with an existential crisis to detail that future in a chilling way. I am talking about singer Mat McNerney. Much was made the last few years of his band Beastmilk being the next great hope in underground music. They certainly acquitted themselves well over a demo, an EP and their full-length, the much-loved Climax (Napalm Records). Many bands have since picked up and jumped on the trend they started, bringing the romantic post-punk/No Wave (look it up) sound and style back in a heavy modern context. Few could do it as well as the masters. Of course such magical things cannot last and as the band gave way to lineup changes, and dissolved. What they mutated into is Grave Pleasures. While their début Dreamcrash has been out for a while in Europe, its proper release comes from Metal Blade on a more appropriate gloomy early November day.

Dreamcrash, in spite of the new players in the band is the spiritual child of Climax in many ways. The album plays with a sense of urgency and a dripping sexual swagger that makes you take notice on repeated listens. It is very consistent track after track and when you first hear it all the way through, it is a very satisfying feeling when you think of the progression from the old band to now. McNerney channels all of his energy to his rubber-voiced range, making some stunning melodic choices and killer phrasing per usual. It helps that his lyrics here are among his most biting, yet sad at the same time. Mat has all the dour charm that the Ian Curtis/Peter Murphy/Adam Ant wanna-bees all wish they had. At the same time his vocals have a deeply fragile psychosis about them, not unlike Roger Waters conveyed at his peak. Something tells me Mat would hate that I reached this comparison, but that is what is in my heart listening back to these tracks.

grave_pleasures_-_bw-37

Grave Pleasures, photo credit: Mark Hutson

The music is the real equalizer on this album. Although my own jaw dropped at the thought of Linnea Olson (ex-The Oath) joining the Dreamcrash dream-team, her contribution is only part of the special equation. Juho Vanhanen (Oranssi Pazuzu) was the real difference maker in the writing. Together Olson and Vanhanen crafted beautiful menacing tracks, with layers of riffs and motifs that pop up unexpectedly. Songs like ‘Utopian Scream’, ‘New Hip Moon’, ‘Futureshock’, ‘Crisis’, and ‘Lipstick On Your Tombstone’ play like the soundtrack to the end of the world, or at least the end of your love life. If you were somehow in a group of people who were not ready for the sooth-Sayers’ words to come true about the apocalypse, this music would cut right through you.

In terms of originality, Grave Pleasures are not trying to reinvent themselves or music here, and so over time you do feel a sameness in the songs that takes this down a slight notch. However, in the view of the band re-imagining itself a bit and fulfilling their earlier bands’ glorious promise, they get full marks. Hopefully the apocalypse is everything they ever wanted and more.

7.0/10

KEITH CHACHKES


Chron Goblin – Backwater

Posted on by

11954553_10153507498130675_175222545405521138_n

Canada’s Chron Goblin may be a new name on you (well, they were a new name on me, anyway) but they have plied their trade for a few years now and Backwater (Ripple), their third full length release, is a decent hopping-on point. Chron Goblin inhabit that strange hinterland, beloved of late, of attempting to inject new vibes and energy into tropes and styles that were current when flares were still resolutely in fashion.

Given that you’re reading this review on this website, it is a fairly good bet that you’re a fan of Black Sabbath in general and Tony Iommi in particular. As exercises in nostalgia and keeping up with how much Sabbath still influence today’s heavy bands, then you will find much to your liking on this record. The band’s love of the riff is highly in evidence, wrapped around a classic rock sensibility that, for once, sits well with the more obvious stoner and desert rock influences upon which the band have historically built their reputation. One suspects that the band’s membership of the Kyuss fan club is fully paid up.

Backwater sees a band that have honed their craft well and, for the most part, it’s delivered with gusto. The main issue with Backwater isn’t the obvious influences (if you don’t like Kyuss, you need to see me after school for some lessons), nor the all too derivative sleeve art (honestly, this could be from any one of dozens of their ilk). The real issue for Backwater is that the songs just aren’t that memorable. Everything is well put together and played with energy but, as for getting the hairs standing up on the back of your neck? Regrettably, I didn’t get any of those moments and the overall feeling was one of disappointment at what could have been. You know you’re in trouble when you’re thinking to yourself “I quite like track four, what’s that called again?”

Consequently, this is an album of what might have been rather than what is. Whilst there is a decent adherence to the riff rule book, there isn’t anything here that stays too long in the memory. Whilst you’re listening to it, you get the sense that, stoner sensibilities aside, not everything has clicked for them. As records of this ilk go, it’s pretty decent but it’s not quite the infectious and energised masterwork that you suspect the band are hoping for. A creditable record but, on this occasion, the cigars remain in the humidor.

 

6.0/10

 

MAT DAVIES


Swallow The Sun – Songs From the North I – III

Posted on by

12072832_10153622886894362_4707027502814475256_n

Alongside the unfathomable, harsh beauty of their back catalogue, Finnish emotional terrorists Swallow The Sun have proved themselves no strangers to risk. Sixth album Songs From the North (Century Media) is, at triple-disc length, ambitious at the very least and open to myriad accusations of self-indulgence. In effect developing its own little game of ‘Snog Marry Avoid’, if any of you pick either of the first two to hitch up to for life then there’s no fucking hope for any of us.

I’s opening track ‘With You Came the Whole of the World’s Tears’ is an oft-delicate, Funereal / Death / Folk amalgam with Black-edged riffs that is faithful to the band’s intention to flood the emotions. The ensuing ’10 Silver Bullets’ shows signs of the inventive MeloDeath of Septicflesh but the production, honing the sound to within an inch of sterility, renders this, the melancholy Prog of ‘Rooms and Shadows’ and more symphonic ‘Heartstrings Shattering’ almost lifeless; an apt state for an opening salvo which is also badly affected by Mikko Kotamӓki’s lethargic-sounding clean vocals and is ultimately beyond disappointment.

The tolling piano opening II is a mournful portent which promises more, as does the lilting Folk of ‘Pray for the Winds to Come’ with its truly haunting strings. That disturbing tendency towards flab and fatigue is, however, all too evident: ‘Away’ completely empty of feeling and ideas, really not helped by those feeble clean intonations. The heavenly rhythm and instrumentation of the stunning ‘66°50’N, 28°40’E’ and closer ‘Before the Summer Dies’ atmospheric jangle are this albeit livelier disc’s indicators of the possibilities largely wasted, and serves only to infuriate further.

A largely different and far superior element, III is also by far the darker and more aggressive: opener ‘The Gathering of Black Moths’ coming out as a less heavy, slower and more atmospheric Primitive Man. Here subtle sections thankfully drop the twee harmony for edgy, funereal passages pregnant with tension. ‘7 Hours Late’s blend of tortuously slow, harrowing melody and horrific vocal is sickly oppressive, its leads and cannoning drums an ideal juxtaposition; whilst the unnerving soliloquies, unexpected missed beats and mixed roars and screams of the staggering ‘Empires of Loneliness’ are positively devastating, still underpinned by sampled atmospheres and eerie melody which by now seem addictive rather than plain dull.

Despite a largely unflinching template this chapter is by far the most compelling listen of a triptych which fails miserably to stand up to the name this band has built for itself. If Swallow The Sun is not to travel so far up its colon that it is impossible to return, the larger part of this bloated nonsense should be consigned to memory and never, ever be repeated.   

 

5.5/10.0

 

PAUL QUINN


Firespawn – Shadow Realms

Posted on by

25356_1

The concept of the “Supergroup” may date back to the sixties with bands like Cream and Humble Pie, but it’s one which only began to infiltrate the heavier end of the music spectrum in the late ’80s. It wasn’t until Down arrived with NOLA (Elektra) in 1995 that Metal fans started to recognise its increasing validity.

These days, Supergroups have been popping up with such regularity that you can barely get out of bed for tripping over one. The term has also been stretched enough over the years to incorporate smaller bands as well as the more famous names, even reaching into unlikely genre-specific corners such as Black and Death Metal.

Hailing from sunny Sweden, Firespawn (known until recently as Fireborn) consists of guitarists Victor Brandt (Entombed AD) and Fredrik Folkare (Unleashed), bassist Alex Friberg (Necrophobic) and drummer Matte Modin (ex-Dark Funeral). However, it is vocalist L.G. Petrov who will be the most recognisable face, being the long-serving frontman of Death Metal legends Entombed.

Shadow Realms (Century Media) opens with ‘The Emperor’, a track which hisses and boils with pure Blackened Death Metal aggression. Those more at home listening to Petrov’s distinctive “Death’n’Roll” style vocals will be punched squarely in the ears by the bladder-loosening ferocity of his untamed Death Metal roar. The more mid-paced ‘Imperial Burning’ stomps its way across your face next, it’s punishing groove just as effective as the slashing speed of the preceding track. ‘Lucifer Has Spoken’ will be familiar to some listeners as the band originally released it back in August. Another slow to mid-paced affair, a nicely atmospheric chanted Latin section and a great guitar solo make this one of the better tracks on the album.

The unrelenting speed returns with the brutal but fairly forgettable ‘Spirit of the Black Tide’ and is followed by the short acoustic interlude ‘Contemplate Death’. ‘All Hail’ is up next with its big drums and bigger chorus, and things continue forward in a positive, albeit straightforward direction. ‘Ruination’ is all bluff and bluster, however. Fast and aggressive but leaving the memory the moment it  finishes, while ‘Necromance’ looks set to be another throwaway track until it suddenly kicks into life halfway through. Bizarrely, ‘Shadow Realms’ is one of the album’s weaker moments. Considering title tracks are so often the lynchpin of a whole album, this one just doesn’t grab you at any point. It’s fast and heavy, but contains nothing to really sink your teeth into.

Instrumentally speaking, the Behemoth-esque ‘Ginnunga’ sounds great, but Petrov’s vocals really don’t do the song justice. Not poorly performed or particularly weak, his voice is just nowhere near as fearsome as it should be for a song like this. Closer ‘Infernal Eternal’ is another decent, if unspectacular cut but it does feature a magnificent played guitar solo, quite probably the best on the album.

Although certainly not a bad record, Shadow Realms is pretty basic, generic stuff which never really pushes itself as far as you would like. It’s ferocious enough, tightly played with a strong production, and there are moments when everything sounds like it’s suddenly going to fall into place and move up a couple of gears. Unfortunately, it never quite does.

 

7.0/10

 

GARY ALCOCK


Intronaut – The Direction Of Last Things

Posted on by

11990385_10153534188497324_742353427575619074_n

Intronaut are a Prog Metal band who up until this point, it’s fair to say, have pretty much gone under the radar. With The Direction Of Last Things (Century Media) the band are on studio album number five and, not to completely suggest that it is only now they’ve finally hit the sweet spot, but with this record Intronaut have collated all of the best bits and pieces from their previous work and found the kind of inspiration which might just squeeze this into a few ‘Album of the Year’ lists.

Across the album we find Intronaut mixing expansive sounds with heavy brutality via a truly masterful level of precision. As far as wider inspiration is concerned, there’s definitely a bit of Opeth and Mastodon (Crack The Skye era) rooted at the core with all the barmy eclectic, yet ridiculously perfect, sounds you might expect from the likes of King Crimson. As a scene, Prog Metal has certainly been shooting out some great bands recently, and whilst album number five probably means they’re far more seasoned than some of the younger bands pushing through, The Direction Of Last Things will likely elevate Intronaut into a far wider consciousness, forming for many a complete introduction to the band.

The album kicks off with the track ‘Fast Worms’ which does in fact sound like a neurotic tribute to the popular computer game franchise Worms, as a little 8-bit sounding intro suddenly makes way for some absolutely crushing riffs. Even if it has absolutely nothing to do with it, if you’ve ever played Worms before this track actually perfectly epitomises the eerie atmospherics which capitulates into a blaze of chaos which you would tend to experience on screen. Its sudden grasp away from the powerful riffs into an atmospheric soundscape took some getting used to, but after a few spins you’ll be fully on board.

To be honest, this approach is true of the album as a whole; it’s not overly accessible and it’s therefore likely that along the way they may lose a few people. When some of the tracks veer off into the wilderness, you do find yourself longing for the next explosion of riffs, and may even fast forward till you find them. A die hard Prog Metal fan will be critical of that sentence, but the key to albums like this is to make every element interesting and frankly Intronaut are better at doing the heavy than they are the calm – for example in a head to head the tracks ‘The Pleasant Surprise’ and ‘The Direction Of Last Things’ highlights this perfectly.

Overall then, with their fifth studio release, Intronaut have certainly made their mark once again in the prog metal world. However, where so many of these bands fall down with these huge sounding albums is the fact that they need to ensure every single minute is as engaging as the last, and it is difficult to argue that they’ve actually achieved this. It needs repeat listens – it is “one of those” which does get better with each spin, but even so whilst a large section of the Prog Metal community will probably salivate all over it, an equal sized section will probably allow it to pass them by. That said, the strong production does make it an excellent listening experience, but the fact you’re left questioning whether it’s quite so great even after several listens says a lot.

 

7.5/10

 

TOM DONNO  


Gnaw Their Tongues and Dragged Into Sunlight – NV

Posted on by

a3231559323_10

Let’s be honest – collaborations in Metal almost never work. The point is surely to create something which combines elements of both bands into something both distinctive and familiar, but in practice it normally ends up as either a crude patchwork or simply a retread of whichever band has the most distinctive style.

Gnaw Their Tongues and Dragged Into Sunlight are in many ways the perfect combination of bands for this kind of collaboration – not only because of their shared theme and atmosphere, but because both bands occupy a shifting sonic territory whose boundaries are regularly reformed. GTT have long been in the habit of altering the exact balance of Noise and Black Metal between albums, whereas DIS’ two non-collaborative albums both explore notably different styles and tones. As a result, it’s not easy to identify exactly what each party has contributed to NV (Prosthetic) – this is very much its own thing, not a crude combination of the two.

Which is not to say that this is their surprise Polka album. The five tracks on NV explore the mixture of Black Metal, harsh Noise and grim Sludge/Doom that you’d expect from these two names, and it’s a genuinely effective mixture. It may be GTT mastermind Mories’ hand that keeps the balance on the atmospheric and sinister rather than outright brutal, and Dragged Into Sunlight may have written the crusty Black Metal riffs that slither out of the shadows throughout, but the elements unite into a genuinely effective whole. It may initially seem surprising that the Noise elements are relatively subtly played, often used to accentuate and highlight the Metal rather than entomb them in the style of Aevangelist, but both bands understand the value of not over-egging the pudding all the time.

Whether judged as a collaboration between two artists with similar aesthetic goals or as an album in its own right, NV is an unrestrained success, and – alongside Gnaw Their Tongues’ own Abyss Of Longing Throats (Crucial Blast) – one of the more interesting albums in this style that you’re likely to hear in 2015.

 

8.5/10

 

RICHIE HR


Enter Shikari – The Mindsweep: Hospitalised

Posted on by

hospitalised_albumart

I’m going to do something that bugs the crap out of me in music writing and break one of my own unwritten rules. I’m going to talk about myself.  I hope by the time you get to the end of the review you’ll see why.

I fucking hate remix albums. Can’t be fucking arsed, and I’ve only properly ever bothered with three of them, of which two I actually like (go figure) – Linkin Park’s ‘Reanimation’ and Die Krupps’ II – The Final Remixes, though the third, Remanufacture can bog right off. I don’t particularly “do” or care for dancey or electronic music, and I don’t really have the frame of references, so I’m not going to patronise you, or myself, by guessing or pretending to have more than a superficial understanding of the styles of music these tunes have been adapted to.

OK, stepping back behind the fourth wall and sitting back down… One of the (other) unwritten rules some smart arses love to pedal is that it truly shows that a song is a genuinely good one if you can rip it from its original trappings and endowments and present it in a different, usually barer format and it still stand true. So, all that bollocks said, and it comes down to this; The Mindsweep: Hospitalised don’t ‘alf prove them smart arses right. While The Mindsweep¸ a cracking album, is the better version, the new presentations, for the most part stripping the vitriol of the origin and refracting the tunes,  do showcase the quality songwriters Enter Shikari have developed into.

Following the original tracklist, first track ‘The Appeal and The Mindsweep I’ (Metrik), with guitars replaced, and with beats tricky, works superbly to ease the mind into accepting the styles incoming. Other highlights include, ‘The Anaesthetist’, the original albums’ tribute to The Prodigy, is spread out by Reso, now running through treacle, and becomes a warped spiral of a jogging on a treadmill tinnitus breakout, ‘Never Let Go Of The Microscope’ (Etherwood) grimes and judders and Hugh Hardie’s remix of ‘Torn Apart’ plays with the pop-epica of the original, nodding its way through to the end with an understated smile. ‘The Bank of England’ (Lynx) and ‘There’s A Price On Your Head’ (Danny Byrd) casually saunter, teaming up with a subtle ‘Dear Future Historians’ (London Elektricity) as a reflective, effective trio late on in the album, though perhaps the Erised remix of ‘Interlude’ is the best reinterpretation, bringing in a cool female vocal and working the basics into a whole new song.

The Mindsweep: Hospitalised sees artists from Shikari’s label, Hospital Records, rework their newest album, and while the quality and allure vary, it is actually a probing and stimulating release that further enhances the reputation of its originators as a group that has grown into a set of songwriters par excellence, and sees this curio as a valid sister release to the original.

So… guess that makes it three I can be bothered with, then.

 

7.5/10

 

STEVE TOVEY


Eradikator – Edge of Humanity

Posted on by

11164057_10153228643035470_5757722238394638952_n

Who loves Metallica? Eradikator love Metallica! The Birmingham, UK thrash quartet take no shame in paying tribute to James Hetfield & Co. on their new album, Edge of Humanity (Tribunal/Divebomb).

The Brummies’ second album, Edge of Humanity has strong overtones of Master of Puppets (Vertigo) with the occasional Annihilator-esque injection of melody and a penchant for flamboyant solos. Anyone who followed Trivium circa The Crusade (Roadrunner) will know be in familiar territory.

Opener ‘Mesmerised’ could easily be mistaken for a ‘Battery’/’Whiplash’ mashup, ‘Man Behind the Mask’ has a ‘Shortest Straw’-meets-Testament vibe, while ‘Astral Body’ is probably the highlight; catchy, aggressive and generous with the guitar histrionics. It’s fast, aggressive, and straight to the point; and thanks to vocalist/bassist Pat Cox’s bark the vocals are easy to sing along to.

These guys are clearly skilled musicians and are busting at the seams with quality riffs and solos – closing instrumental track ‘Kairos Passing’ makes that abundantly clear – but are occasionally found lacking on the song writing. Too often the band lock into a mid-tempo chug that makes a lot of the songs sound the same – the title track, ‘Fortress Unknown’ and ‘Seasons of Rage’ are all largely interchangeable.

They’re not subtle about who their influences are, but Eradikator know good thrash metal. If you like the old classics from the Big 4 and others, there’s little really to fault here. And UK thrash has always been second fiddle to the Bay Area (aside from Xentrix, Sabbat and Onslaught, there’s been very little to shout about), so it’s nice to see some home-grown talent making a good stab at things.

 

7.0/10

 

DAN SWINHOE


Jody Seabody and The Whirls – Holographic Slammer

Posted on by

10526018_10153693906394451_2285225855128427873_n

It is commonplace for bands to state their admiration and inspiration from a wide range of influences and styles, and rightly so, ranging from the classics to lesser known and the newer, but very few can take such a multitude and clearly work them into their fabric. Houston, Texas based Jody Seabody & The Whirls are one such esoteric example that have taken a wide palette and concocted what is an undoubtedly barmy concoction.

The cover for second album Holographic Slammer (Artificial Head) suitably illustrates the colourful, complex and multi-layered proceedings with its 60’s style, vivid psychedelic artwork; and proves a throwback to many of the influences on show. Album opener ‘Two Atmospheres’ is a short number, which clearly resembles some of The Beatles more avant-garde catalogue, before ‘Grassman’ opens up into a huge sonic range from Electric Light Orchestra vocal lines, psychedelic fuzz and prog rock’s unconventional time signatures. Later on there are even nods to Fleetwood Mac and blues rock, before both parts of ‘Charlemagne’ and album closer ‘Fucked Up Adventurous’ turns you on your head with a raw, punk like sound ala Black Flag, changing without warning or easing whatsoever.

Surprisingly, this off-kilter change of pace works very well, adding an extra dimension to the album and keeping in line with the band’s quirky and obscure nature, which shows that nothing is off limits to them. This may not invoke any real new sounds or styles as such, but on Holographic Slammer they have skipped genre boundaries and formed something that is progressive in its scope.

 

7.0/10

 

CHRIS TIPPELL