Let's get things rockin' rightaway then with a couple of albums released only this very year, as we take our first look at some Metal that has been
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Roads to the north --- Panopticon --- 2014 (Bindrune Recordings)

I knew nothing about this band --- not even of their existence --- until Goofle introduced me to “Kentucky”, where the unlikely blend of Death Metal and Country really impressed me, and allowed me to listen to half an album that was screeching, roaring vocals with blindingly fast guitars (you know, Death Metal!) and the other half that was a fusion of Folk and Country. It certainly surprised me. Whether or not their latest album is in the same vein I don't know, but here it is, so let's have a listen to it.

There are only eight tracks on the album, but two of them are ten minutes long, one twelve and one thirteen, so it's still good value for money. As I found out with “Kentucky”, Panopticon is basically one guy, Austin Lunn, who does literally everything on the album: in addition to writing and arranging all the songs he also plays drums, guitars, bass, flute, banjo, mandolin, resonator guitar, Dobro, keyboards, samples and sings all the vocals. Don't you just hate multi-instrumentalists? ;) Seriously, he's one hell of a one-man-band, and if this is anything like the previous album it's gonna be special.

There's a great atmospheric opening as “Echoes of a disharmonic evening” brings in the sound of wind, footsteps, dogs or maybe wolves or coyotes baying, then a punching guitar and apocalyptic drums get the track going, racing along but still with what I can see as a sense of definite melody. There's a bestial roar from Lunn, like something primeval, but nothing further until we hit the second minute, then he's bellowing but the vocal range is so low it's more like an animal growl and I have no idea what the lyric is, or even if there is one. It's almost pure expression of pain or anger here, like someone roaring out their agony and frustration to a world that doesn't care. The guitar work is exceptional though, so much so that I can sort of overlook the vocal --- there's no way I could attempt to listen to it anyway, so it sort of fades into the musical mix. Janszoon I think it was once advised me to treat death vocals as just another instrument, and though that doesn't work every time, here I find it may solve my discomfort with such gutteral vox.

Breaking down into a really nice instrumental passage now in the fifth minute, then the roar is back, even more raw than before, and the music rises to meet it, savage and uncompromising. “Where mountains pierce the sky” shows the dichotomy that exists in this man's music. One moment he can be kicking out the stays on a nine-minute Death Metal rant, roaring at the world, next he's playing a soft flute and acoustic guitar in a folky laidback tune. Hard guitar joins in and we hear that roar begin to rise again --- well, this song is over twelve minutes: I didn't expect it to be all relaxing and acoustic! But even when it amps up, there's still something of the basic melody, some connection to what has gone before, so that it all sounds like part of the same song, and once you get used to Panopticon, the change is not as juddering and jarring as I originally found it to be when I listened to “Kentucky”.

Only halfway through the song and Lunn has packed so much in already you begin to wonder what can he fill the other six minutes and change with? But then there's a doomy bass and the tempo changes somewhat, slowing and becoming a bit more sludgy while the vocals fade out for now, letting him give vent to his musical talent solely. A lot of feedback and hammering drums set up a real crescendo ending in some sort of warbly effect on the guitar, leading into another guitar creating an almost Lizzy sound. Really! It speeds up again as it heads towards the end, and I must say it's been a while since I've enjoyed something like that, but it was incredible.

And there are six more tracks yet to go! In fact, the next three are all part of the one composition, apparently, going under the umbrella title of “The long road”, with part one being titled “One last fire”, and opening on, of all things, a banjo with some slide guitar in attendance, making you think that this is the latest Oak Ridge Boys album, and indeed as it continues into something of a Country hoe-down you're expecting the sudden change to electric guitar and raging vocal, but so far it ain't come. Fiddle now, squealing like a thing alive and the banjo gets faster, showing just how much talent resides in this one man. Absolutely superb. It's four minutes in now and the song runs for just under six, so I think it's safe to assume this is an instrumental.

Part two is called “Capricious miles” and comes in on rolling, crashing drums, bitter hard electric guitar and a roar from Austin, everything speeding up and careening along like an out-of-control big rig on the highway. Then somewhere around the middle it becomes a laidback almost acoustic ambient piece of music, with sound effects and a much slower tempo, as if Lunn is catching his breath, or allowing us to, before the next salvo. Something like violin (probably violin, since he plays the fiddle) smooths its way into proceedings for a moment and then casually wanders off, leaving us wanting more. And there is more: it's back for another short passage --- ghostly, ethereal, almost abstract in its beauty, and although there's another roar let out of Austin we end not as we began, slowly and serenely floating into part three.

“Sigh of summer” sounds like it should be a really relaxing, gentle piece of music, and indeed this is what we get, at least at the beginning. I have no idea how it's going to develop. Which is, I guess, all part of the fun and the attraction of this singular artiste. You quite literally don't know what you're going to get, from one minute to the other, never mind track. But so far it's lovely and low-key, with soaring, lush keyboards and gentle guitar, slow soft percussion and thus far anyway no vocal. Spoke too soon: three minutes in and the drums have begun to hammer with energy and passion, and the growled, roared vocal is back as the electric guitars kick in full throttle. Somehow, at this point, it's not unexpected nor even unwelcome, just part of the great tapestry Austin Lunn is weaving here with expert precision and the vision of a true artist.

Three minutes later we're into a real rock-out boogie with a sweet bass pattern driving it, Lunn singing whatever it is he's singing with gusto and punctuating his indecipherable vocals with a fiery solo, and before we know it the whole trilogy is over and we're listening to another little laidback tune, as “Norwegian nights” gives us a rare chance to hear Austin actually sing in a normal voice, and he really can sing! Sorry, that's disrespectful. What he does on the rest of the album is of course singing, not just noise, but this is the first time I've been able to really appreciate his voice, and it's nice to know he can sing “normal” too. A lovely little tune, very acoustic, with guitar, violin and mandolin all playing a part, then revelling in irony, “In silence” begins with the sound of a train then explodes into one of the noisiest drum attacks I've heard to date. It's just like an earthquake must feel, and notwithstanding what I said above earlier, it is a little off-putting, as I had not expected this much of a shock.

The track is nearly ten minutes long so I hope it doesn't all go on like this, but knowing Lunn there'll be a change at least before the end. His ragged vocal comes in now as the music settles down a little, on the way towards the third minute. There's what sounds like a chanted backing vocal now too, but I have the feeling it's just his own voice multi-tracked, as he doesn't seem to work with anyone else. Now the guitar goes wild, cutting loose like a thing alive and savage before it settles into a sort of Sabbathesque riff which in turn becomes a slow, stripped-down blues one. But that doesn't last and we crash out of the song the way we began, with thundering drums and snarling guitar, Lunn roaring all the way.

The closer is a twelve-minute piece entitled “Chase the grain”, which opens with a sort of keyboard/violin medley while the drums hammer hard and fast in the backbeat, then a dark heavy vocal takes the tune, dragging it by the scruff of its neck into the third minute, where it undergoes yet another startling metamorphosis and becomes an introspective acoustic guitar passage with flute coming gently in to add its layer of sound with a slight amount of dissonance and discord, so that it always sounds just very slightly out of tune. Spooky. Things get heavy again as we hit the fifth minute, and the bellowing vocal destroys the moment of tranquility, though disturbingly the acoustic melody continues on in the background, giving a very surreal feel.

A tolling bell calls in flute as we reach the midway point in the song, strong guitar pounding in too and making the song sound somehow very dramatic as Lunn goes a bit wild on the vocal. Everything is building towards one final crescendo now as this stunning album draws to a close, one last barrage across the bows or even directly to the heart of the engine room before we're left with a typically low-key ending on acoustic guitar and banjo, and you can almost see, and feel, the knowing grin and the wink from Austin as he waves us farewell and goes back to his own inimitable world, where almost literally anything is possible.

TRACKLISTING

1. The echoes of a disharmonic evensong
2. Where mountains pierce the sky
3. The long road, part I: One last fire
4. The long road, part II: Capricious miles
5. The long road, part III: The sigh of summer
6. Norwegian night
7. In silence
8. Chase the grain

I have no idea whether this is a genre, subgenre or something totally unique, but in a way I'd like to think it's the latter, because I have never heard anything like this before. The mix of styles, the instrumentation, the ragged vocal and the occasional softer one, all parts of this amazing jigsaw that Austin Lunn has created and which continues to surprise, delight and at times dismay. Had it not been for my experience with “Kentucky” I feel I would perhaps have been drawn to this album's cover, liked the music but then as soon as the vocal cut in I would have hit the back button, deciding not to buy. I'm glad I chose otherwise.

I think I now need to listen to the rest of Lunn's catalogue, which should prove at the very least an interesting journey. For those of you who loved “Kentucky”, this is not quite the same but it's just as good. For those of you that don't know Panopticon, I urge you to do as I did and take the leap: it's quite a ride, and though you may be somewhat dizzy afterwards, I guarantee you will not soon forget it.

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The fateful dark --- Savage Messiah --- 2014 (Earache)

British thrash act Savage Messiah released their third album this year, and it's a doozy. If you like doomy lyrics with a thrash rhythm and feel then you'll love this. Savage Messiah have been about since 2007, formed out of the ashes of founder David Silver's previous band, Headless Cross. It opens with “Iconocaust” (no it's not a misspelling) with a big guitar intro and the sound of sirens before guitarist Joff Bailey (no it is NOT!) joins Silver on the axework and the two rock out in fine style, Silver supplying the rather falsetto vocal as the song cannons along. From what I can see from a quick glance down the lyric sheet their songs seem to focus on the same basic anti-Christianity/religion themes as the likes of Venom and Slayer, though they are a little more subtle in putting their ideas across. By the time the opener is over I'm already a fan.

“Minority of one” continues the basic religion-is-fooling-you idea, with another big guitar barrage, Silver proving himself a very capable vocalist as well as a great fretjockey. There are some scorching solos in this song, to say nothing of the next one, which has a much faster vocal delivery and thunders along like an avenging angel looking for victims. “Cross of Babylon” is, um, another anti-religion track, and though it has a great hook in the chorus, I find myself worrying that Savage Messiah may end up suffering from all or most of their songs being written on the same themes and subjects. I certainly hope not, cos I'm getting into this bigtime, and I don't want to have to criticise them. Although the ending of “Cross of Babylon” is ripped right out of Bruce Dickinson's vocal playbook.

Well, “Hellblazer” doesn't move too far from the basic premise they're working with here, but then I guess with songs this good maybe the lyrical content doesn't matter so much. Yes, I'm a hypocrite. No seriously: I want there to be other ideas here, but hope is fading when I check the titles of the songs yet to come. “Live as one dead”. “Scavengers of mercy”. “The cursed Earth”. Hey, might that be about our favourite futuristic lawman? Fingers crossed, though not in that much expectation really. Anyway, while I've been babbling on about song themes this music has been really winning me over. Yes it's very Maiden in places, but that's no bad thing. It's heavy as hell and not too fast for my tastes, though still pretty headbangin'.

There's a really nice atmospheric guitar to open “Live as one already dead”, and then it's a slow beat and I wonder could it be a metal ballad? The vocal is gentle and low-key, belying the apocalyptic lyric: ”I see a world that's losing hope/ Empty prayers of life evoke/ The setting down”, and indeed the title, but yeah, though there's been some hard guitar it's generally stayed slow and I'd call this a metal ballad certainly. Evocative solo now, getting more insistent as it goes on, really taking the track. Favourite track so far. Big surprise, Trollheart: on a thrash metal album you choose the ballad. Oh, you unpredictable writer, you! :rolleyes: I suppose the title could be interpreted to mean, as I think it does from the lyric, live as if you've nothing to lose. Great song.

The title track is up next, and I'm not really sure what it's about. Could be an anti-war anthem, could be about Stonehenge. But it's a heavy marching cruncher, there's no doubt about that. One thing it seems Savage Messiah do very well is build infectious hooks into their songs; I feel I'll be singing these long after the album has ended. They really stick in the mind. This kind of reminds me of Kamelot's “March of Mephisto”, though it's its own song certainly. I had hoped “Zero Hour” might be something else, but it appears to envisage Armageddon. Oh well; it's still a great song, full of energy and power, anger and a sense of inevitability. Some fine guitar work here by the two guys and it really builds up to a strong ending.

“Hammered down” goes right off the rails, hurtling along with aggression and passion, but at least it seems to be more politically than religiously based, with a sort of double vocal going on in some of the lines. An anthem for youth, perhaps? Stirring stuff: you can't stop your head from shaking, even someone with as little hair as me! There's also something really effective about the way Silver sings ”Hammered” and the backup vocalists yell ”DOWN!” “Scavengers of mercy” returns to the standard “religion is wrong” theme of most of the songs on this album, and again it rockets along with superb performances from both Bailey and Silver himself, and a thunderous attack on the drums as Andrea Gorio gives it all he has with Stefano Selvatico laying down a tight, tense bassline.

Disappointingly for me, though hardly unexpected, the closer is not about Judge Dredd's desolate wasteland, rather “The cursed Earth” is just a basic accusation levelled at the wickedness of Man and his stripping of the planet's resources. Rhythm and basic melody reminds me of Maiden's “The Duellist” in places, trips along nicely on a sort of march-for-revenge beat. Some more great backup vocals on this, some fine vocal harmonies too and then in the midpoint a very unexpected little guitar solo that pulls everything back for a moment before it fires up fully and takes the song on into its shattering conclusion, heralding the end of the album and perhaps the beginning of a new musical relationship for me.

TRACKLISTING

Iconocaust
Minority of one
Cross of Babylon
Hellblazer
Live as one dead
The fateful dark
Zero Hour
Hammered down
Scavengers of mercy
The cursed Earth

I should mention that on my copy there are four extra tracks, each one a cover of a standard, beginning with Iron Maiden's “Be quick or be dead”, then “Lightning to the nations” by Diamond Head, followed by Motorhead's “Killers” and finishing with a version of “Of wolf and man” by Metallica. Each one is carried off with precision and talent, but I would rather have had two or three (or four) more original songs. Still, they're a decent addition, if somewhat superfluous.

I find it a little hard to believe that I have never heard of Savage Messiah before. I don't know how successful they are, but they certainly have the potential to be pretty huge. If you wanted a version of Maiden or Helloween that focussed more on kind of “black metal” lyrics, you would have to go far to beat these guys. They take the best elements of speed, thrash, black and even some standard NWOBHM-style metal and just meld it together in a way I have seldom if ever seen any other band manage. One to watch, certainly.

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If I went to a foreign country and couldn't speak the language --- fair chance of that, as I only speak the one --- it would probably be very hard to communicate. But should I listen to music in that strange country, I might not be able to understand the lyrics but I could certainly enjoy --- or hate, or be bored by --- the music. Music is the one true global language. Anyone can understand it and anyone can speak it. That's what this section is about, in case you hadn't guessed.

The world over, music is essentially the same, and this goes double for Heavy Metal. Not that all bands in all countries play the same; of course they don't. But I could listen to an album by Rammstein or Baron Rojo or Moonsorrow without having to understand what they're singing about. The music, literally, does the talking. So here we're going to travel across the world, listening to the Metal from four different countries, not all that far apart in terms of culture but a world apart from each other in terms of language. We'll sample some of the Metal bands that play or come from there, and see for ourselves that Metal knows no boundaries, neither political nor geographical, and certainly language is no barrier to this music we love.

First up,
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The largest country in the continent of South America, Brazil has a rich history, having been settled (conquered, if you will) by the Portugeuse Empire in 1500, hence their native language being Portuguese. It is the fifth largest country in the world, and was of course in the news recently when the World Cup was staged there for the first time since 1950.

Look, I'm not going to give you the history of the country. You're not interested, are you? If you are, here's a link Brazil - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
but what we want to know about is the music; more specifically, the Heavy Metal music that comes out of this country. And so, let's dive into our first example.

Legacy of humanity --- Anubis --- 2010 (Distro Rock)
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I heard these guys by accident. I'm into another band called Anubis (I featured them on my now-defunct Trollheart's Fortress of Prog) but they're a prog rock outfit, and when I downloaded this album I expected it to be one of theirs. Imagine my surprise when I was assaulted by hammering guitars, thundering drums and growled vocals! Still, for what it was it didn't seem all that bad, and as we're exploring metal bands from Brazil Anubis fit right into the frame. I do find it odd, perhaps even a little disheartening that a band who have been together for twenty years now have only managed to churn out one demo album --- and that in 2006, over a decade after they were formed --- plus a single in 2010, with this being essentially their debut album. The sands of time, guys! The sands of time...

Anyway, what's it like? Well, as you'd probably expect, it's hard fast and heavy, with the usual twin guitar attack courtesy of Renato Costa and Vinicius Carvalho, who are good at what they do. Anubis sing in English, though sing is perhaps a little kind when you listen to vocalist Sandro Costa --- is he related to Renato? I don't know: perhaps Costa is a common surname in Brazil. “Armistice Day” opens proceedings, but it's anything but a surrender as the lads go for the throat, pounding and screaming in that special way thrash metal enjoys. There's something of Slayer and a lot of the big German thash bands here, the likes of Kreator and Destruction. “Forbidden game” keeps the tempo fast and heavy, though there's really nothing special about it, the guitar riffs basically repeated throughout the song. It does slow down about halfway but then returns to its previous groove, and it's really been and gone before you can even notice it.

“School of hate” is more of the same: low, growling guitars and a snarled vocal with steamhammer drums. It's possibly a little slower than the last two tracks, but not that much, while “Dark hope” has a long instrumental intro, about the only thing that distinguishes it from what has gone before. As a matter of interest, I see that later on “Under the influence” is an actual instrumental, so that may be something to look forward to: Costa's vocals are certainly not making this an easy album to like. That said, there's a pretty cool solo in “Dark hope” that shows the talent of the two axemen, but otherwise, like much of this album so far, it's rather unremarkable. Moving on, we head into “The last act” (shall I be unkind and say I wish it was? No, I won't, not yet) with a sort of galloping beat that almost hits boogie territory at times.

The title track is up next. Well, not really the title track --- there is none --- but the name of the band. Yeah, “Anubis” is also the longest track on the album by far, clocking in at over eight minutes. There's a reasonably long Sabbathish intro on the guitar before it all gets pumping and Sandro Costa roars in with the vocal, though after his growl it's back to instrumental really for another minute or so as the band take the song. When he comes back in he's singing in a faster, more rapid-fire delivery than he has done, and the music matches his vocal: fast, driving with much shredding. Well, at least it seemed to go in quicker than I expected, and we're on to “P.O.W” which rocks along nicely with some almost discordant guitar, taking us to that instrumental I mentioned earlier.

And it's been worth waiting for, with a sort of Gary Moore twist to the guitar, allied to a sound that I can only describe as Boston. Yeah. It gets heavier and punchier then, but retains the basic slow, almost balladic melody of the opening, putting it clearly in the running for standout on the album, as far as I'm concerned (not that it has much competition in my view!); a real pearl among the swine, and a great showcase for Carvalho and Costa, who really deserve to be in a better band than this I feel. “Slaves of misery” returns us to the banal and pedestrian, with a refrain a little too close to Maiden's similarly-titled “Chains of misery” for my liking, and the album ends on “Dream beyond the mirror”, a promising start with some laidback guitar that then comes through more heavily as the song gets going, but it's a nice introduction.

It's actually almost halfway through the track's six-minutes-plus length before we hear the vocals, but it's the guitars that carry the closer, with again some licks coming very close to Maiden territory, especially “The Trooper” and “Die with your boots on”. The problem here is that, like a broken fishing rod, this would be useless to an angler; in other words, there are no hooks in it, or very very few. Nothing is memorable, there's no Hum Factor and it's all pretty much more of the same. Not impressed, I must say.

TRACKLISTING

Armistice Day
Forbidden game
School of hate
Dark hope
The last act
Anubis
P.O.W
Under the influence
Slaves of misery
Dream beyond the mirror

I've had experience of Brazilian thrash before, when I came across on “The Meat Grinder”, and I really didn't like what I heard. Anubis have not done anything to change my mind on that score. I'm sure there are great metal bands in the land of Mardi Gras, but I've yet to encounter them.

As for Anubis, I think I prefer the progressive rock band, who are miles apart from this sort of music. Anubis was the guardian dog of the dead in Egyptian mythology, and stood watch not only over the bodies of pharohs and powerful people but no doubt their wealth too. I don't think he would be too bothered about guarding this particular tomb, as there's nothing new or innovative, catchy or even memorable here. Considering that this album took, technically, twenty years to record, you'd think they'd have come up with something better than this collection of tired metal cliches.

Pass.

Hey! It's the highest form of flattery you know! Anyway, don't you have Thor to read? ;)

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During the runup to Metal Month II I asked you guys to throw any albums my way you wanted to see me review. You responded in your ... um ... you responded --- well, some of you did --- and those albums will now be reviewed in this section. As I promised, I reviewed them in the order I received them, and this is also now how I will present them here.

Some people suggested more than one album. In those cases, that person's second (or in some cases, third) choice was relegated to the end of the line, after all the others to be reviewed. So if you asked me to listen to two or more albums and only see one here, don't despair: I got to it, and will post it, but after everyone else has had a chance. Fair? Tough.

This was the very first suggestion, and so it's the first one being posted here.
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Blood mountain --- Mastodon --- 2006 (Reprise)
Suggested by Frownland

Well, Frownland was first in with his request, and so it's thanks to him for the first recommendation. I say thanks because whether or not I end up liking it, he took the time to make the suggestion, and that deserves my gratitude. If nobody had suggested albums I would not even have this section, so thanks to all. But now we take a look at an album by a band who have been around since just before the turn of the millennium, and who within that time have produced six albums, of which this is the fourth. They have a new one out this year, and depending on how this goes I may see what that's like in the “Freshly Forged” section later. Right now though, it's 2006 and I am still working in my job of at this point twenty-six years, have a little more hair and have never even heard of Music Banter. The new millennium is six years old and the fear of Y2K is now a matter to laugh at and be embarrassed by, and the horror of 9/11 is very slowly fading, though never forgotten.

We open on “The wolf is loose”, a hard and tough track with a gutteral vocal from Troy Sanders but with some very acceptable backing vocals. It's fast and frenetic; there's no easing yourself into this album! Reading up on it, I see it's a concept album, following the progress of a character up the Blood Mountain atop which he wishes to place a crystal skull, for some reason: something to do with freeing his mind and moving on to the next stage of evolution, it says here. In fact, the next song , which features Scott Kelly of Neurosis guesting on the vocals, is called “Crystal skull” and I must admit I don't see a huge division between it and the previous, though often that's the way with concept albums. This is a little more of a boogie in some ways, some very good guitar work from Brent Hinds and Bill Kelliher, and like most of the tracks on the album it's quite short, only three minutes.

“Sleeping giant” is one of the longer ones, and begins with an extended instrumental that's quite progressive rock really. Although the vocals here are less harsh --- could be one of the others singing, as they seem to share vocal duties --- they're still hard to make out, but the music is pretty great. “Capilliarian crest” sees the return of the original vocals from the opening track and move along at a faster pace, almost shades of Death Metal in places. “Circle of cysquatch” (a cysquatch is apparently a Sasquatch wit one eye who's capable of seeing the future) continues the sort of breathless, death/thrash format of the previous song though with slightly clearer vocals, but it's all a little too raw for my sensibilities, and I say that having listened to, at the time of writing, the entire Slayer catalogue! Yeah, but of choice I would, so far, not listen to this. There's some sort of weird vocoder effect that quite honestly sounds like the guy is belching the vocal. Weird. Which kind of describes this album up to this point. There are two instrumentals on the album, the first of which is “Bladecatcher”, played on a nice picked guitar in a sort of folky/prog style --- no it's not. Started that way then exploded on fast electric guitar and seems to involve some sort of vocals taped and run at top speed, or some sample or something. Not what I'd have expected from a track labelled “instrumental”. Maybe the last half of that word. :rolleyes:

Not going well so far, Frown my man! I'm tempted to stop listening here, but we're only halfway through and I don't do that; when I say I'll listen to something I do it. Oh god damn it, I forgot I promised to give Cryptopsy a listen for The Batlord! May God have mercy upon my soul! Oh well, that's in the future for now, but at times I must admit I think I might be better listening to them than Mastodon. I really hated “Bladecatcher”, and though “The colony of birchmen” is said to be an homage to Genesis's “The colony of slippermen” off “The lamb lies down on Broadway”, I don't see it. Or hear it. But at least it's listenable. Mostly. Got a decent beat to it and the vocals aren't too bad, another guest performance this time by QOTSA's Josh Homme. Let's check out the lyric: no, still see nothing to connect this with the Genesis song. Moving on..

There's more of a marching style beat to “Hunters of the sky”, then it abruptly stops for a second and breaks into another superfast tempo with more annoying screamed vocals and guitars that really should be kept on a leash if they're out in public! I just find it so hard to make out any of the words here that it detracts from my enjoyment of the album, but given that I don't think much of the music either, it doesn't really matter in the end. There's so far nothing here I'd listen to again of choice. The guitars still haven't learned to behave as they usher in “Hand of stone”, with at least slightly more recognisable (though no prettier) vocals, but with three tracks to go I'm now just holding out till this ends, as it's become, literally, worse than listening to Slayer. At least I got used to them, and even got to like them a little. This I just hate and will never listen to again.

I don't know if it's going to last or not, but “This mortal soil” begins with some nice gentle guitar and may have fooled me into thinking it's going to be a ballad. Even if it doesn't stay that way, a minute or so of this is a nice break from the constant assault of punching guitars and kicking drums, which is wearing me out worse than listening to “Undisputed attitude”! The vocal is recognisable and thus far the song has remained relatively slow and laidback, and we're halfway through the song at this point. Well, it ended and resisted the temptation to kick up, so if I had to choose a favourite --- or, let's say, least hated --- track from this album i guess it would be that. “Siberian divide” brings in The Mars Volta's Cedric Bixler-Zavala on vocals, but it doesn't make that much difference to me; just sounds pretty much like everything else on this album. Don't really like any of it.

The closer is the second instrumental, (well, it's biilled as such but there are kind of drunken vocals running throughout most of it) and though “Pendulous skin” runs for officially just over twenty-two fucking minutes (!) most of that is silence, with a message inserted from Homme, a kind of band in-joke. I don't need to hear that, and I've never understood the idiotic process of putting in a ton of silence that extends a track which then has a tiny little snippet at the end. It's frustrating, when you think you're getting a really long, epic track and find you have been cheated. Kansas, Robbie Williams, even my prog gods Marillion have done it, and it boils my blood every time. Luckily, on this album I don't want – couldn't survive through --- a twenty-plus minute track, so I'm prepared to suffer five minutes that includes keyboard contribution from Isiah “Ikey” Owens, again of The Mars Volta, which is relaxing and closes the album well, possibly a second track I might listen to, if I had to, but overall this album bombed bigtime for me. Sorry Frownland: better luck next time, my friend!

TRACKLISTING

The wolf is loose
Crystal skull
Sleeping giant
Capilliarian crest
Circle of cysquatch
Bladecatcher
The colony of birchmen
Hunters of the sky
Hand of stone
This mortal soil
Siberian divide
Pendulous skin

Yeah, this is definitely not for me. It's a while since I suffered a sense of just gritting my teeth and hoping the album would end at some point, but that's exactly what I felt here. From the moment it began I had reservations, and they never really went away. One or two half-decent tracks aside, there's nothing on this album I want to revisit, and I guess that new album I was talking about will just languish on my hard disk now. I really don't want to experience Mastodon again. Next!
http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb2...ried_Marge.png

I missed this.
If it's any consolation when he was asked about it Simon Le Bon said he had no idea what the song was about either.

I'd like to see your opinion on Tool. Lateralus, for instance.

Yeah, I dunno. I'm drowning in albums and reviews yet to be written, so thanks for throwing the lifebuoy (no it's NOT pronounced "booey! It's "boy!") and hitting me right on the head! ;)

Anyway, on we go...

The Hunter and Mastodon's more recent album are a lot more restrained, and the singer changes his vocal style quite a bit. They're probably not up your alley still though.

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Last year was the inaugural one for Metal Month, which as I may have mentioned once or twice I plan to make an annual event, and it was great fun. But one thing it was definitely lacking was structure. It's not that I didn't have the time to put a special layout together, more that 2013 was to be seen as a sort of “introduction to Heavy Metal” in many ways, a chance for those who didn't know, disliked or even hated it to see what it was really all about. So I concentrated on reviewing albums from as many and as varied bands within the genre as I could find, resulting in some odd choices for me, everything from Slipknot and Possessed to Morbid Angel and Death. Of course, my own favourites were well represented too --- Maiden, Motorhead, Saxon, Tank et al --- but generally it was a bit of a grab-bag, a sampler of the genre, if such a thing could be achieved in such a short time. And of course it couldn't.

But this time out I wanted to have nore of an overall flow to the project, so in addition to, as already mentioned, each week of the month being dedicated to the Metal from a different country, we'll be featuring a particular artiste, and doing our damndest to get their whole catalogue (studio only; I rarely do live material) reviewed, or at least looked at. And who better to start us off than these guys? If you read my review of Mastodon’s “Blood Mountain” immediately before this, you may have picked up a clue or three as to who they’re gonna be. Ladies and gentlemen, the first Featured Artist on Metal Month, I give you...
http://www.jimwendler.com/wp-content...yer-_-logo.gif

Now, I'm not going to be doing an in-depth profile of the band. I know little enough about them anyway, and really, if you want the skinny on them there's a guy called The Batlord you should talk to. But what is generally accepted about Slayer is that they are “the real deal”: they self-financed their first album, toured in a battered old Camaro and rather quickly, through the underground metal grapevine, became not only known but respected and eventually worshipped as one of the “Big 4” of Thrash Metal, along with Metallica, Megadeth and Anthrax.

Their first album was “Show no mercy”, released in 1983, and I already reviewed it as part of the original Metal Month in 2013, so if you want to read what I had to say click here http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ml#post1378575, but before they went into the studio to record their second album they hit us with an EP which certainly earns The Batlord's seal of approval (which probably means I'll hate it and vice versa) as one of their dirtiest, grittiest and indeed shittiest (in the best possible usage of the term) recordings. It only has three tracks, though the version I found on Grooveshark includes the bonus track, so we have four to listen to and review.
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Haunting the chapel --- Slayer --- 1984 (Metal Blade)

I'm aware this was the beginning not only of Slayer's more “Thrash-oriented” approach, but also of their deeper descent into Satanic imagery; despite its dark cover, the debut was not really overly concerned with what I would term Black Metal lyrics. Oh, there was “Evil has no boundaries, "Black Magic” and of course “The Antichrist”, but the rest of the songs tended to tread more, shall we say, mundane thematic territory? You had war, war and, er, more war. But still what you would think of as general Metal fare. “Haunting the chapel” was, it would appear, almost the genesis of the “real” Slayer, for all the world as if the guys had tested the waters with “Show no mercy” and, having “gotten away with it”, so to speak, thought Now we'll REALLY show them what we're about!

And on this short EP, that's exactly what they did.

You know you're in for a bad, or good, depending on your tastes in Metal, time when “Chemical warfare” begins. A song that was to go on to become a staple at their gigs, and one of their most beloved by fans of the band, it hammers at you like a wild beast, the closest cousin I could attribute to it being Motorhead, but somehow it's more brutal even than Lemmy's famous trio. Perhaps it's the more snarly, angry voice of Tom Araya that adds an extra level of violence to the music, but at the same time, I must admit, I can make out the words, and I've heard worse singers certainly. Warfare is definitely a good theme for the opener though, as this is an all-out sonic assault on your ears, and believe me, you're gonna lose! Kerry King shows why he has gained such respect in the genre with a tight, if short solo, then goes back to helping Jeff Hanneman and Dave Lombardo musically kick the shit out of you.

There is, of course, not even the faintest semblance of finesse on this EP --- whether this continues throughout their albums or not time will tell as I listen to them --- but then you wouldn't really expect that would you? It's certainly great music to headbang to, and annoy the neighbours with. Pussies, as Batty would no doubt say. That's the longest track by far at just over six minutes, and at least on the copy I'm using, you can immediately detect the difference in the production as “Captor of sin” kicks off: it's much rawer, hollow compared to “Chemical warfare” and somehow lacks the punch of the former. That said, it's another fast, heavy track with a snarled vocal, with a definite Sabbath influence on it. During the original Metal Month I came across a lot of bands who almost made my ears bleed --- Morbid Angel, Death, Napalm Death, Possessed --- and compared to them Slayer are far and away the best in terms of musical technicality and --- dare I say it? --- melody! Gulp! Yeah, I'm surprised myself, but you know, I can listen to this. The title track is up next, and once again the production jumps in quality: much richer, deeper, more professional. It's very --- very! --- slightly slower than the first two tracks, and has an almost boogie feel to it. Well, I think it does.

Oh yeah, but then, as if Kerry heard me and snarled to himself “Slow you say? You fucker! I'll show you slow!” the tempo jumps and suddenly we're belting along at breakneck speed as the boys charge towards the ending of the song, Mr. King ripping off what can only be described as a searing solo to take us there. Wow!

And that would be it, and is it, if you don't have the extended edition. But I do. And with it comes “Aggressive perfector”, with a big, murky, brooding opening on the geetar that would bring tears to Tony Iommi's eyes. Tom's voice is the most coherent I've heard on this short album and he really does the song proud. Makes me wonder why it wasn't on the original pressings of the EP? Like I guess most Slayer songs it doesn't stay slow and broody for long, and leaps along towards the finish line as Hanneman and King blaze twin trails of fire down the middle of Lombardo's blistering fusilade. Emulaitng one of his heroes, Tom gives off a Dickinson-style scream as the song crashes to its, and the EP's, abrupt conclusion. I feel wrecked already!

TRACKLISTING

Chemical warfare
Captor of sin
Haunting the chapel
Aggressive perfector

Certainly a change from the debut album, this is faster, more powerful and a whole lot more aggressive than “Show no mercy”, and laid down the blueprint for what Slayer were to become, and indeed, the framework which would be copied by so many bands who would follow in their wake. Mind you, I'd think you would follow these guys at your peril: like Eddie on the cover of Maiden's second album, they look and sound like they'd whirl around, see you and pounce on you, rending you to shreds for daring to share the same air as them! Ah, but wouldn't it be worth it?

Woo-hoo! It’s Metal Month. Again. And that means not one, but four visits to
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Now, my luck has been, shall we say, less than salubrious with this section to date, so let’s hope that out of four sessions I can get at least one or two decent bands. But if the Curse of The Batlord doth hold true, I may find nothing but unsigned bands, demos and bands who split up and left nary a musical footprint on yon Web for me to track down. Ah well. Like they say, if you’re not in you can’t win. So let’s dive in.

Well my luck certainly runs true to form, or maybe Batty’s curse is more real than I had thought, as I unearth yet another unsigned band, and a death metal one into the bargain. They hail from la belle France, and call themselves
http://www.metal-archives.com/images...37442_logo.jpg
(Yeah, I thought it was Sepultura too at first. Cue big rush of excitement then a real deflation as the air was let out of my expectations)

Oh my mistake. I should have said they called themselves Sulphura. cos guess what? They broke up. Yep. And with one EP released in 1995, who’ll bet their beer money that I’ll be able to find anything --- anything --- of them on the net? Nobody? Wise men and women, all of you. Sigh. Let’s go through the motions then…

Spotify: negative. Grooveshark: negative. YouTube: neg --- oh wait. There’s one video. And here it is.

Yeah, they seem multi-talented all right. Mystery why they didn’t conquer the world. Lord almighty! Moving on…

Even better this time! :rolleyes: Not a death metal act, but a grindcore one! And one who are a) unsigned and b) have one demo and one EP to their name. On the plus (?) side, they’re still together, being relatively recent, only formed since 2011. Then again, both their releases came in that year and nothing since, so I’d say finding anything from them will be unlikely.
http://www.metal-archives.com/images..._logo.jpg?4014
Hailing from Sweden, they seem to have been in two minds about their debut EP. Should we title it, or shouldn’t we? They decided not to, and so it’s called “Untitled”. Either that, or they’re just lazy or unimaginative bastards. Oh, a hunting we will go, a hunting we will go…

Well, to my everlasting surprise, shock and not a little disappointment, about half of their EP is avaiable on YouTube (thanks a lot, guys!) so I guess this is the one we’re doing. No, there’s nothing running down my leg. Look, I don’t care what you smell…
http://www.metal-archives.com/images...photo.gif?4542
Hmm. Are these radioactive mutants? Why are they all green? I thought it was grindcore, not greencore! Oh ho ho ho! A little harmless levity serves to distract from the acrid stench of … look, just leave it ok! I’ll change when I get a chance. Right now it’s time to introduce you to one of my most hated subgenres, despite the fact that I haven’t heard anything from any band other than Napalm Death. Ladies and gentlemen, Trollheart does Grindcore!

Why do I hate it? Well, just look at what Wiki has to say about it: ”Grindcore is characterized by a noise-filled sound that uses heavily distorted, down-tuned guitars, grinding overdriven bass, high speed tempo, blast beats, and vocals which consist of growls and high-pitched shrieks.” Grindcore - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Like, it really sounds like my sort of Metal, don’t it? Look, can’t I just pretend I listened and say it’s crap? No? That’s not in the spirit of Metal Month II, nor indeed the idea behind The Meat Grinder? Who made these stupid rules up? I wanna talk to …. oh. Yeah. Right.

Fine then. Big deep breath and let’s break out the earplugs. But before we dive into the --- ahem! --- music, let’s give you the VS on these guys. Whaddya mean, what are VS? Ain’t ya never watched Miss World? Vital Statistics, man. Vital Statistics.

Band name: Crypt of the Zombilord
Nationality: Swedish
Subgenre: Grindcore (May the Lord have …)
Born: 2011
Status: Active
Albums: Untitled (2011)
Live albums: None
Collections/Anthologies/Boxsets: None
Lineup: Elk (Guitar, vocals) F
Bergman (Drums) F
Robban (Bass)F
(What? No cello or keybaords?) ;)

What else can I tell you about them? Well they certainly have a sense of humour, as this article INQUISITIVE ELKS Punk, Rock, Metal, Movies, Kvlt, Life.: CRYPT OF THE ZOMBILORD - INTERVIEW,masquerading as an interview, shows. so they’re not up their own arses, which is a good start. However I’m not fooled, and can feel the flesh beginning to crawl off my bones in anticipation of this ordeal. On the plus side for me, all their songs are very short and there are only eight on the EP, five of which I can find. So I guess that’s enough stalling. Hey ho --- let’s go!

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Untitled --- Crypt of the Zombilord --- 2011 (Independent)

The album opens with “Okazaka fragments”, which is just short of two minutes. This seems to be about standard length for their tracks. Well it’s fast, blisteringly fast guitar as expected, with the vocal alternating between high-pitched scream and gutteral growl. And it’s over. “Cultural hyphae” is next, and it’s just slightly over two minutes, with a big grindy guitar that takes up more than half of that, then the vocal is again split between agonising screams and a dark rumbling devilish snarl. And it’s over. Next we have “Deception of the scourge”, one and a half minutes and the only footage I could get was live, so it’s even less intelligible than it would be on a studio recording. Nah, it’s just noise to me. Sorry, can’t even make out the vocals if they’re there and the guitar just seems to be cranking the same chords out. See if you can do any better. Here’s the video.

The tasteful acoustic ballad “Government shit” is next, and the vocal drops to a low-key … yeah. It’s more of the same. Nobody was fooled by my clever ploy, were they? In reality, it only runs for fifty-three seconds, which is fifty-three seconds too long in my opinion. This really is terrible. I could never get into this. I’d get into death metal before I’d get into this. Hell, I’d get into black metal before it! Sadly, the next three tracks I can’t find, so we’re left with the closer, “Tombrider” (no, not Tomb Raider!) and it’s live again. Via cameraphone, no less! Ah, wouldn’t matter if it was in 1080 HD, this would still sound shit. What a mess.

TRACKLISTING

Okazaka fragments
Cultural hyphae
Deception of the scourge
Government shit
The lost trailblazers
Filled with spiders
Into the crypt
Tombrider

Well I’m glad CotZ have a sense of humour, because their music sucks. All right, let me just take these stilettos off and remove my false fingernails: there. Bitch mode cancelled. This may be someone’s cup of tea but it ain’t mine. I normally try to say something complimentary or at least not unkind about every band I review, but here I literally can’t say anything. Even death metal has a sort of melody, black has some decent lyrics on occasion. This just has nothing to me: toneless, tuneless guitars and vocals that sound like someone strangling a mongoose.

Other than that it’s fine. :rolleyes:
http://www.trollheart.com/cleaver1.jpg (And that's only because I can't award zero cleaver ratings...)

Last year I started this section, concentrating on the Metal albums which have either meant the most to me over the years or which enhanced my enjoyment of the genre after having listened to them. This year I intend to continue this small exploration with another look at some albums which certainly fall under the category of
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MSG --- Michael Schenker Group --- 1981 (Chrysalis)

Some people here might discount Schenker and the Scorpions as being more hard rock than Heavy Metal, and that’s probably a fair assessment, but this is my section and this album did have quite an effect on me. At the time, I believe I may have listened to one or two Scorpions albums (“Blackout”, “Animal magnetism” etc) and pretty much did not like them, and still don’t. For me, the screaming of vocalist Klaus Meines never really sat well, and I was not, nor probably ever will be, a fan of the Scorps. So why did I buy this album?

I’m not completely sure. It may have been one of those spur-of-the-moment purchases, it may have been cheap second hand or it may have been recommended by the Bible of Heavy Metal at the time, “Kerrang!” magazine. It’s even possible that Tommy at Sound Cellar, my local rock record shop, convinced me to try it. It’s over thirty years now, so don’t hold it against me if I can’t remember. But the main thing is that I really liked it, so much so that when the band came to town I went to see them, even though this was the only album I knew, and very little of the Scorpions’ output. And I really enjoyed it.

Of course, being the naive young kid I was at the time, I assumed that because it was the Michael Schenker Group that that was him singing, when of course it isn’t. Schenker was and is known for his expertise on the guitar, and here he does not disappoint, also participating in the writing of all but one of the tracks. There are only eight in all, but there are some really great ones.

With the rather unnecessary and perhaps rhetorical question in the title of the opener, “Are you ready to rock” starts us off with that trademark Schenker sound on the guitar, the late lamented Cozy Powell making his mark behind the drumkit. The song thunders along on rails of iron, giving the effect of a locomotive gathering speed as it heads off on its journey, and vocalist Gary Barden’s voice is a mixture of Heavy Metal and AOR, as we pile inot “Attack of the mad axeman”, which not surprisingly begins with a screaming solo from Schenker before Powell brings the beat, carrying the tune in a sort of blues/boogie style. Barden’s voice is slightly altered, almost as if filtered through something, but I think it’s just a sign of his versatility that he can achieve this.

To be honest, this is one of the tracks I liked least on the album. It’s quite catchy, almost too much so, and has a rather incongruous slow section in the middle, wherein rhythm guitarist Paul Raymond gets to display his prowess on the keys too, but Barden’s falsetto vocal is almost comical, especially given the harder-than-hard title of the track. Thankfully, Schenker rescues it at the end with a blazing solo that more or less takes it to its conclusion. Even the ending can’t really save the song though, and I found it quite disappointing and underwhelming. Not so “On and on”, which again affords Raymond the chance to fire up his synth in a faux gentle passage that introduces the track before Schenker’s guitar comes through slowly but surely and the song takes off in a very Rainbow/Dio vein.

The chorus sees Barden return to the slightly annoying falsetto, but this is offset by some lovely harpsichordical piano from Paul Raymond. There were probably never going to be any hit singles from this album, but if they chose to release one this would have been my pick. Sadly, they just went with the opening track which, good as it is, is not single material and certainly no candidate for radio airplay. Still, the album did get into the top twenty in the UK, no mean feat for a Metal album, even in the heady days of the NWOBHM. The only track on which all five members of the band collaborate, “Let sleeping dogs lie” has a marching beat, subtle AOR flavour to it and some fine basswork from Chris Glenn. It’s a bit of a Texas strut sort of song, touches of early ZZ about it, and Raymond’s keyboards add a lot to it.

Barden is also in fine vocal form here, with Powell restricting himself to a pretty basic beat which nevertheless drives the song along. Any song, any album, any band was nothing if not enhanced by the presence of one of the greatest rock drummers the world has ever known. Superb solo from Schenker as ever, but I feel the song is let down a little by the unimaginative chorus. It’s more of a vehicle for the man whose name the band bears than really “Attack of the mad axeman” should have been, and the album is really just getting into its stride now as we reach one of the standouts.

Another opportunity for Raymond to flex his muscles on the keys, “But I want more” has a very classical, dramatic opening that runs for over a minute before Schenker and Powell kick it up and prove that it’s possible to write an AOR song that still fits really well into the Heavy Metal sphere. It’s almost three songs in one, with the atmospheric intro, the guitar-led first verse and then the straightahead rock of the rest of it, on which Barden really excels. It’s also the longest on the album, just shy of seven minutes. Smooth and emotional solo that would bring tears to the eyes of the late Gary Moore, and very much in his style, just completes a really excellent track.

The only ballad on the album, and the only track written solo by Paul Raymond, it’s not surprising that “Never trust a stranger” is heavily piano-oriented, but it is a powerful, emotional song, and another of my favourites with a superb hook in the chorus. It’s certainly nice to hear the piano when up to now all we’ve heard is synth, but of course you would not expect Schenker to allow himself to be left out, and so we get a blistering and very expressive solo from the man. We’re back rocking then with “Looking for love” --- which you’d kind of expect to have been the ballad, but there you go --- which bops along really well even if it is a little on the poppy side of things. A great solo at the end by Schenker tries to inject some rock fire into the song, and mostly succeeds, but it’s still a tad weak. But if my memory serves me --- and it’s been decades since I last listened to this album --- I believe it closes very badly.

“Secondary motion” starts out with a crying guitar then picks up a little with a nice hard rock groove, with a kind of Bryan Adams/Def Leppard feel to it, nice upbeat piano from Raymond and some solid drumming from Powell. Of course Schenker rocks it as ever, but I’m just left with a vague feeling that they stuck this on at the end, weren’t too bothered. I would have finished on “Looking for love” personally.

TRACKLISTING

1. Are you ready to rock?
2. Attack of the mad axeman
3. On and on
4. Let sleeping dogs lie
5. But I want more
6. Never trust a stranger
7. Looking for love
8. Secondary motion

Michael Schenker built up a massive reputation for himself, first in UFO then the Scorpions and finally as a solo aritste in his own right. Although I enjoyed this album I somehow never felt the need to explore his, or their, catalogue any further. I think the point is I liked it, but I didn’t love it. Nevertheless, listening back to it now I can see why I was impressed at the time. It’s not too long nor too short, has just the one ballad and plenty of guitar, and as I mentioned earlier, at the time I really thought to myself “Wow! That Michael Schenker is one hell of a singer too!”

What a dweeb! :rolleyes:

I thought you wouldn't like the Mastodon album, they must be one of the most boring metal bands around, but most people would have you believe they're not.

http://www.trollheart.com/ilm2.png
No look at Brazilian Metal would of course be complete without checking out perhaps the biggest band to come out of there, and while I have reviewed one of their albums before, in the original Metal Month (anyone who calls it Metal Month I is going to receive a visit from me and my baseball bat!), I was told I had chosen possibly the worst example of their work. So I've researched a little further and I'm told this album, their fifth, broke the somewhat stale thrash rut they had been in for seven years and put them on a more experimental footing. This may of course turn out to be another mistake on my part, but hey, you can't please everyone and the title looks cool, so let's get into it.

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Chaos AD --- Sepultura --- 1993 (Roadrunner)

With a heavy tribal-style percussion intro, “Refuse/resist!” opens the album and straight away betrays the band's leaning towards politically-charged lyrics, with a heavy snarling guitar and Max Cavalera hoarsely shouting the vocal almost, before the song kicks into high gear on the twin guitars of Andreas Kisser and Max himself. It then slows down again but picks up for the ending, taking us into “Territory”, a song about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict (particularly relevant at the time of writing) with an angry vocal from Max and a slow, grinding feel to the melody, a sort of appropriately militaristic, marching rhythm. “Slave new world” is kicked off by a big guitar riff then hurtles along, um, well, it sort of starts fast, slows down to a crunching grind, speeds up again --- you know how these things go.

I'm not exactly sure if Max is placing himself in the persona of Jesus when he sings ”Forgive me father/Forgive me God” and ”In the name of God/ I'm the chosen one” but “Amen” seems to concern the Last Day (popular subject with Thrash bands, it would seem). Note: reading back, I see now that it's actually about the Waco, Texas siege and the “chosen one” is David Koresh. Things get really interesting though when we reach “Kaoiwas”. Apparently inspired by the story of a Brazilian native tribe who committed mass suicide as a protest against the government taking their lands (that'll show 'em, huh? :rolleyes:) it's an acoustic instrumental, which for the first minute is almost silence, then native-style percussion cuts in and guitar comes in too. This is where Sepultura show they're more than just a Thrash Metal band, that they can make other types of music too. Very impressive, and must have confused the hell out of their fans.

Things soon get back to normal though with “Propaganda” as the heavy guitar riffs slam out of Kisser and Igor's drumming batters down the studio like the approach of a German bomber squadron. Max called in the help of ex-Dead Kennedys and Guantanamo School of Medicine man Jello Biafra to write “Biotech is Godzilla”, another hard-hitting song about weaponised bacteria or something. It's a bit mad really, but quite short and piles into “Nomad”, another punching, crunching song which has to do with people being exiled from their homeland. “We who are not as others” has almost half its four-minute length taken up with a big, ponderous, growling guitar before Max snarls in with the vocal, basically just the title of the song. He chants this repeatedly as the song heads towards its conclusion, and it's either a lazy lyric or a masterclass in minimalism, you decide.

Flying along at top speed, “Manifest” returns the guys somewhat to their traditional thrash roots, but there's a personal connection there for Max, as it commemorates the massacre of over a hundred prisoners in a Sao Paulo jail, which his friend photographed. There's a cover version of “The hunt” by New Model Army next. I don't know them much at all, so can't say whether or not it's a good version, but it's a pretty decent song, almost incongruous among the harder, thrashier material Sepultura do, and they handle it well I think. The album then closes on “Clenched fist”, with a sort of industrial metal opening, echoing and hammering before it drops into a dark guitar groove and marches along proudly, defiantly, a fitting closer to the album.

TRACKLISTING

Refuse/resist
Territory
Slave new world
Amen
Kaoiwas
Propaganda
Biotech is Godzilla
Nomad
We who are not as others
Manifest
The hunt
Clenched fist

I don't honestly know enough about this band to say whether or not this album sounds all that different to the previous ones, or even whether or not they continued this evolution away from the pure thrash they had made their name on. It's certainly different to “Dante XII”, but how much is “Chaos AD” a step towards that later sound? You'd have to ask someone who knows more about the history and music of Sepultura.

But this was not a bad album, which is about as much as I can say about it with my limited knowledge of a band who are generally accepted as one of the biggest metal bands in Brazil, if not the biggest.

I've only heard their two most recent ones, and I didn't even give them all that much attention, so I couldn't name any of the tracks on either album if someone asked me. I just remember being bored while listening to them. Same goes for the Tool albums I've heard. Hyped snoozefests.

EDIT: Now I feel kinda bad for suggesting Tool to Trollheart. Well, he's a proghead, so he might dig them, but they bore me and their albums are ridiculously long.

Don't much care for Tool really (a band for trendy metal listeners):finger:

Members' Top Ten Metal Albums Lists
It’s time to take a quick look at some of the albums rated so highly by members here that they put them in their alltime top ten Metal albums list. As explained, before I started Metal Month II I received about ten of these, but as it was obviously impossible for me to listen to all of them I chose three, and this is the first of those choices.

I have no wish to downplay anyone’s ideas of what a good album is, or to rain on anyone’s choices, but given how much I have to listen to, how much time I have and the quite high possibility that many of these albums won’t chime with me, I’m going to listen to each once and then make some very short and basic comments on each which reflects my opinion only. You may think Godflesh is a great band or that some obscure German thrashcore album is the best ever made. You’re of course entitled to that opinion. I may not think the same. This does not mean I am dissing or denigrating your choice(s), merely voicing my own opinion on admittedly only one listen. As Francis Urquhart remarked: “You may very well think that; I could not possibly comment”.

So please, no wounded feelings or cries of outrage if my opinion differs from yours. And in all likelihood, in many of these choices, it will. Significantly.

So on with the first top ten list, which comes from
http://www.musicbanter.com/avatars/1...ine=1411353578

Janszoon was in fact one of the first to post a list (Goofle was the first: sorry yours didn’t get chosen) and I can see right away he has, as you would expect, some albums I have never heard of -- some bands I have never heard of! --- but perhaps surprisingly, on his list are two albums that not only have I heard of, but that I have heard, and reviewed! But let’s go in ascending order, beginning with his number
10.

http://www.metal-archives.com/images.../7208.jpg?3903
Elvenfris --- Lykathea Aflame --- 2000

Oh Jansz! How could you? Grindcore? My most hated of all subgenres of Metal. Sigh. Well, a little about this band. They’re from the Czech Republic, have been around since 1997 when they were known as Appalling Spawn, under which name they released one album in 1999. But this is their only release under the new name, so it would seem both their debut and their swan song.

It seems to have those most horrible of death growls, the ones that don’t even sound human --- do they call them “Cookie Monster” vocals? --- anyway I hate them. The music does nothing for me either, but this is Janszoon’s choice so I’ll just sit here and take it till this eleven-track behemoth ends. To be fair, there are some unexpectedly melodic moments, like in “Bringer of Elvenfris flame”, but they’re few and far between and usually battered aside by hammerpunch guitar and suicidal drums, with a big helping of “Your-soul-is-damned” vocals, so nothing there for me to hang my bra on I’m afraid.

Well now hold on a moment. They seem to have gone all kind of proggy with “Flowering entities”, not quite as br00tal as the previous tracks. Can’t say I like it per se, but I hate it less than the three that have gone before, so that’s a step in the right direction. Hey! The vocals are even discernible here! I actually find myself grooving to “On the way home” --- until Cookie comes in that is. Um, hold on: the song faded? A grindcore song faded? I didn’t even think they knew how to do that? I thought any producer who faded out a grindcore song was automatically crucified and made to listen to Justin Bieber on random repeat?

Wow. Now “Shrine of consolation” has a decent, understandable vocal. I guess I possibly like maybe 5% of this album, which is 5% more than I thought I would. Wouldn’t listen to it again though. Almost orchestral work on “Sadness and strength”, some eastern melodies too. Sitar? Some nice melody in “A step closer”: it even slows down! No, I am not making a sick joke! AND it FADES! An eleven-minute instrumental ends the album, so at least I won’t have to suffer those vocals. This is utterly beautiful, and the only one I could say I like --- love --- all the way through. A real surprise, and a stunning closer.

Where I can, I’ll be listing favourite tracks, but there’s just the one complete track I like on this, even if parts of some of them weren’t as bad as I expected them to be. That track is the closing one, “Walking in the garden of Ma’at”. Nevertheless, the album wasn’t quite the ordeal I had anticipated, so perhaps you’d be so good as to hand me back my bra now? No, that one, to the left. The blue lacy one. Yeah. Thanks. ;)

And so we move on to number
9
And another grindcore band. You know, I may have learned a little from the previous choice not to judge a book by its cover, but the tiny Wiki page on these guys says that their music was used to torture a prisoner in the series “Homeland”, so I’m not holding out too much hope.
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Amber gray --- Gridlink --- 2008

Nope, nothing here. Just noise, screams and more noise. At least the previous band had some --- compared to this lot, a whole pile of --- melody and some passages, even one full song I could enjoy. This is just torture, which is why I can see why they used it in the abovementioned show. Play this to me at full volume and you could have anything you want. Even hardcore Islamic terrorists couldn’t hold up to this. The only blessing is that none of the songs last over a minute almost, many less than that, so although there are eleven tracks they will soon all be played and I can get on to the next selection. Sorry Jansz but this is awful!

But thank the Metal Gods it’s all over in a few minutes and I can put this behind me, try to sleep at night…

So what have you for us next, Jansz? At number
8
we find
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Blackjazz --- Shining --- 2010

This one was not easy to track down. Not only are there several bands called Shining, there are two Metal bands named shining. Two Scandinavian metal bands! Anyway, we got there eventually and so this is an album by avant-garde metal/jazz fusion/experimental/Whatever-you’re-having-yerself band Shining, their fifth album. Now I have made no secret of my lack of love for jazz, and I have a tentative at best relationship with experimental music of any stripe, so this could be a banana skin (like I’m not already flat on my back and struggling for breath after Gridlink!) but we’ll see.

Oddly, of the eight tracks on show here, there are duplicates of two, albeit with differing lengths. This album is meant to mix extreme metal and jazz, and maybe it does: it’s certainly fast enough for the former and freeform enough (and annoying, to me, enough) for the latter, but it’s not for me. Again. Screechy, screamed vocals, blindingly fast guitars and too many horns, with no real melody I can ascertain. Meh. Frownland and bob probably love this. Sort of a Waitsish whispered vocal in “Fisheye”, which is a little better and “Exit sun” is a lot better --- well, for about half of it, till they start experimenting again. Even so, it’s the best I’ve heard on this album so far.

And that’s about it. The rest is, as I feared, mostly those annoying high-pitched horns I hate and a lot of other stuff jumbled together. Even the cover of Crimson’s “21st century schizoid man” can’t pull this album back from the brink for me. Not meaning to be dismissive; I’m sure this album is very close to Janszoon’s heart --- after all, it’s in his top ten --- and surely lots of others would enjoy and praise it. I’m just never going to be among them.

More of Jansz's list tomorrow! God help me... :shycouch:

About Sepultura

I'm surprised you didn't hate it. And it's definitely different to their early material. I suppose the closest thing you might be familiar with is Death. They were definitely an eighties death metal/thrash metal band. With that album they took on some Pantera influences, but I think it's overlooked how much, at the time, modern hardcore was there too. It's really not a million miles away from a band like Madball, or even Hatebreed.

:beer:

Sure, we all take our Metal seriously, but sometimes it's nice to just kick back and laugh at it all. Time to take
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Some Metal albums that will never be made...
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Oh Trollheart. Whether you enjoy it or not, surely you can hear that Gridlink songs are indeed tightly written and precisely played compositions consisting of riffs and beats which are only "just noise" to same extent to which all music is just organized noise.

At any rate, it's certainly interesting to read your take on my favorite metal albums and I appreciate you taking the time to listen to each of them. Also, I was happy to see that you enjoyed Lykathea Aflame's "On the Way Home" at least a tiny bit. That's probably my favorite song on that album.

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Okay then, that last one was a bust, let's hope this is better. Suggested by self-undelcared-but-being-a-fact guitar god Plankton (watch for a review of his new album before Christmas), I had not heard of this band (oh how surprising!) but on clicking the Wiki page and seeing the album cover panicked slightly, as it looked like a Nazi or neo-Nazi symbol. But now that I've read up on the band I see it's just two Cs back to back on a red background. Still, the shock was something, I can tell you. Not that I wouldn't review an album by a neo-Nazi band if I had to, I'd just rather not if it's all the same to you.

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Inflikted --- Cavalera Conspiracy --- 2008 (Roadrunner)
Recommended by Plankton

Born out of the ashes of Sepultura, Cavalera Conspiracy marks the end of a decade-long rift between brothers Max and Igor Cavalera, mostly centred around the efforts to replace the band's manager, Gloria, Max's wife. Following the tragic death of their son in a road accident, things became strained at Camp Sepultura and when Igor suggested firing Gloria Max stood up for her and quit the band. Igor continued on for another ten years then quit himself. A few months later the brothers reconciled and formed Cavalera Conspiracy. This is their debut album, with two more following it, the most recent released only this year.

The title starts off with screaming guitar and rolling drums, then explodes into a battering assault on the drumkit before Max comes in with the vocal. His voice is dark and growly but you can hear what he's singing, and he doesn't sing at twice the speed of light either. It's not the kind of singing I prefer to listen to --- too raw and ragged ---- but it's okay. The music acquires a kind of eastern tinge, perhaps to reflect the fact that this song was based on a self-harming ritual Max witnessed while in India. It's a good heavy song; “Sanctuary” brings us into the mind of a mad killer (again) with the tempo ramping up considerably as Marc Rizzo blows everyone away with extreme prejudice on the guitar before Max joins him and they trade licks.

“Terrorize” is something of a cruncher, with flashes of speed from the axemen and a hilarious lyric that gets right to the point: ”Fuck art --- let's kill! / Fuck this --- let's kill! / Fuck that --- let's kill! Fuck them --- let's kill!” but it's a little of a parody of the likes of a Slayer song, giving you the impression the Cavalera boys are trying a little too hard, while “Black ark” has a lot more about it, with an ominous, sort of held-back vocal for a few lines before it takes off. I like the idea though, and there's some stratospheric guitar work on display. I also like the line ”Whatever you are/ We're against it!” --- kind of reminds me of Anti-Nowhere League's “I hate ... people”. Cool. I wonder what “Ultra-violent” could be about? A thoughtful critique of the war in Iraq perhaps? A comment on the state of America's health system? Um, nice try. Seems like it's about the Apocalypse, with the words “dies irae” mentioned. A slow, punching, stomper with dark energy and hammering guitars, bellowed vocal and thunderous bass.

You would however expect a song titled “Hex” to be about witches and black magic, but in fact it seems to be a politically-charged accusation levelled at those in power, the idea of being held under their spell. Interesting. One of the fastest songs on the album so far, it just cannons along on the twin guitars and manic drumming, a short song, just over two minutes then we're into another short song, “The doom of all fires”, with some clever lines --- ”The song remains insane” is one I particularly like, and also the way they namecheck Igor's other project, Mixhell. It's fast, but not as breakneck as the previous track, with the lyric quite simple, repeating phrases but it works very well. One of my favourites on the album I would say. Kicks into high gear for the last minute or so and we plunge into “Bloodbrawl”, which I think may be the tale of soldiers coming back from the war and looking for something to expend their pent-up fury and testosterone on, maybe illegal cage fighting? A hard, mid-paced song with a really roared vocal from Max and a guitar assault that makes your ears bleed, perhaps appropriately.

Interestingly, of the last four tracks on the album, the titles of three are madeup words created by pushing two other words together ---”Bloodbrawl”, “Nevertrust” and “Mustkill”. There's an extended guitar passage --- not quite a solo, as Max is still bawling his vocal over it --- at the end of “Bloodbrawl”, then unaccountably it ends with a soft laidback guitar, almost acoustic, that takes us into the aforementioned “Nevertrust”, another two-minuter with a simple message: basically, never trust anybody. It barrels along, Max screaming in anger, Marc's guitar screaming in sympathy and agreement, but there's not a lot to say about it other than it's fast and heavy and angry. “Hearts of darkness”, by contrast, has a great infectious beat and seems to be an anti-war anthem with some scorching solos. Given that a famous novel was written about the Vietnam War called “Heart of darkness”, this may be referring to that. Or not. Strong song though, and it takes us towards the closer.

Again there's not much to really say lyrically about a song titled “MustKill”, and it may be another anti-war song, but it's hard to be sure. What we can be sure about is that it's the longest song on the album, just shy of six minutes, and blasts along at hyperspeed, bringing the album to a devastating and climactic conclusion.

TRACKLISTING

1. Inflikted
2. Sanctuary
3. Terrorize
4. Black ark
5. Ultra-violent
6. Hex
7. The doom of all fires
8. Bloodbrawl
9. Nevertrust
10. Hearts of darkness
11. MustKill

Not my sort of music, certainly, and my only real experience of their parent band was, I'm told, the wrong one, which I featured last year. But listening to Slayer over the past month has somewhat inured me to these ragged vocals and the faster, thrash melody to the extent that not only can I now stand it, I can even begin to enjoy some of it. This album was pretty good. Not that I'd necessarily seek out more of their work, but at least I'm not in the shower, scrubbing frantically while silently screaming “Still dirty! It won't come off!” And reading the story of the Cavalera brothers, it's always nice to see an end to a family feud, especially when they come together in the name of music and memory.

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Blood of legends --- Battleroar --- 2014 (Cruz del Sur)

With a name like Battleroar you're not really left in too much doubt as to what to expect, and if you still aren't sure, look at the cover. Expect powerfully driven songs about heroes, battles, gods and wizards and scantily-clad maidens. Yeah, this is power metal! But with a slight twist, as these guys hail from the gentle shores of Greece, famous for myth and legend certainly, but hardly a hotbed of power metal, or any metal. This is their fourth album, the guys having been together since 2001, with their first album released in 2003. It's the first I've ever heard from them, so let's jump right in.

We get an instrumental to start us off, perhaps predictably, with a rather grandiose yet intriguing title. “Stormgiven” opens on, well, a storm: thunder booms and rain falls, then a nice acoustic guitar is accompanied by choral vocals and something which will become a feature of Battleroar's music it would seem, and very welcome too, violin. Nothing quite so mournful or stately as a violin. The acoustic then changes to faster Spanish guitar and the violin picks up too, a sort of a gypsy rhythm coming into the music, and you can see this being played at a campfire as sparks jump into the night air and lithe women with dark hair and much cheap jewellery clinking at their necks dance and writhe before the flames. Very evocative.

Quite long for an instrumental, almost four minutes, and it takes us into “The swords are drawn”, as searing electric guitar punches its way in and we're off on a typical power metal trip, chugalong bass and rolling percussion providing the backdrop to vocalist Gerrit Mutz, who has a strong and powerful voice, joined by backing vocals from the others in the band. Effective instrumental passage in about the third minute adding in some fine solos from the two guitarists, Antreas Sotiropoulos and Kostas “HK” Tzortzis (whom we'll just refer to from now on as Antreas and HK. OK?) A cold wind blows in, ushering in “Poisoned well” on the crying violin of Alex Papadiamantis before the two axemen take the song, a slower, more crunching song than the opener.

Here Gerrit gets to show what he can really do behind the mike, backed almost only by sparse guitar and effortlessly rising to the occasion. Alex's violin, though a little subsumed in the mix, is still there, lamenting and calling, and overall it's a really good juxtapositioning after the speedy first track (leaving the instrumental to one side of course). Battleroar don't use keyboards, but there's a certain keyboard sound to the midsection here, with again nice backing vocals as Gerrit moans ”My heart's a poisoned well/ Enchanted by dark spells” --- not the most original of lyrics I'll grant you, but what do you expect with power metal? A good powerful ending then leads us, via Alex's violin into the title track.

The tale of a minstrel recording the deeds of fallen heroes, “Blood of legends” is something of an anthem, the double guitar working very well here as the song rocks along with a good hook and some machinegun drumming from Nick Papadopoulous. I'm beginning to wonder if there are keys on this album, even if not credited, as the opening to “Immortal chariot” definitely sounds like some sort of synth or organ. Chronicling the exploits of the ancient Greek hero Achilles, it's a fast, pounding number driven on the twin guitars of Antreas and HK, with Gerrit attempting a death vocal but not quite pulling it off, and sensibly very quickly returning to his own normal singing voice. Could have been embarrassing, that!

With an opening rather a little too close to Maiden's “Powerslave” for my tastes, “The curse of Medea” is the song of a woman who kills her children and is cursed by the gods. It's another tale from ancient Greece, so go look it up if you want to know more: I'm not your Wiki! ;) It's a slow, grinding tempo in sympathy with the pain of the narrator, and Alex's violin plays a prominent part in the song; I think this would qualify as “epic power metal”, if such a subgenre exists. If not, I claim its creation. It picks up speed and intensity in the last minute, resulting in a very satisfying and rip-roaring ending. The longest track then on the album is “Valkyries above”, and I think there are few among us who don't know what a Valkyrie was, yes? Running for almost nine minutes, it begins on a gentle picked guitar allied to a soft acoustic with soft, sussurating percussion before the song punches up, giving us the dying thoughts of a warrior on the battlefield who watches the sky for Odin's handmaidens to take him to Valhalla, but is deemed unworthy and left behind, a doomed lost soul, condemned to wander the Earth for eternity.

Great backing vocals here again, and I'm sure I hear female voices in there, though again they're not credited, at least not on the website I'm reading. More great work from Alex on the violin, backed by the two guys on the frets, and a thumping, funereal beat from Nick as Gerrit complains ”All meaningless/ Just utter lies/ They led us to our doom” perhaps realising there are no Valkyries, no Valhalla, no gods, nothing but death and darkness awaiting he and his comrades. I really like the angle on this song. It's seldom you hear ancient man questioning his beliefs, wondering if all his sacrifices were in vain, if he has fought and died for nothing, and it's a sobering rending of the fairytale as he realises there are ”No hymns of praise/ No words of grief.../ No help in sight.”

Another great rocker is “Chivalry (Noble armour)” with a very Manowar “protect the weak” ideal. Oh dear! Gerrit's going all death metal again. Really doesn't suit you, son. Give it up: you've a great enough voice as it is without forcing unclean vocals and grunts out of it. We walk in strange lands then, alone and far from home with the “Exile eternal” who laments his fate, and again it's Alex on the mournful violin who carries much of this bleak tale of a man cast out from his own kingdom, nevermore to see his family or loved ones again. There's a strong determination in the guitars though that speaks of a defiance, a refusal to give in and an abiding desire to remember the faces of those who matter most to him. Some dark vocals and cool chanting near the end part, then a big chorus and chant to take it to its triumphant finish.

And that's it. We end as we began, with an instrumental, this time titled “Relentless waves”, and somehow I doubt the guys are talking about a day at the beach! Although it does start off with the sound of surf ebbing and flowing, then a nice laidback guitar with Alex's gorgeous violin passage fitting right in. It's a slow, langorous melody, sort of in keeping with the movements of the tides. I must admit, I thought the title was going to refer to wave after wave of an army, but from what I'm hearing my “joke” was more on the money, as this seems to be an ode to the power of the sea. Unless there's one in there, Alex makes his violin sound like a sax at times, and there are some effects there that surely must be made on a synth? Kind of like the calm after the storm, the quiet after the battle, it's very relaxing, quite unexpected and a really cool way to end an album that has really impressed me.

TRACKLISTING

1. Stormgiven
2. The swords are drawn
3. Poisoned well
4. Blood of legends
5. Immortal chariot
6. The curse of Medea
7. Valkyries above
8. Chivalry (Noble armour)
9. Exile eternal
10. Relentless waves

When I first began reviewing this, as you may have guessed, the title, the band name and some of the lyrics glanced at led me to believe that Battleroar were just another sword-and-sorcery, we-are-warriors, riffing power metal band, but you know, they are actually so much more. I see that now. At least on this album. They've taken time and put a lot of thought and imagination into their lyrics and have chosen to steer away from some of the stock fare pursued by bands of this ilk. There are few if any songs about battles and glory, instead they tend to focus on the human aspect of war --- loss of life, faith in gods, defeat, the afterlife and so on --- and they certainly know their mythology. Their vocalist is a real find, and the use of violin lends this band a gravitas they might not otherwise possess, and serves in my mind at least to set them apart from the herd.

Very much more than the sum of their parts, this band from Greece merits further checking into, as they have three albums prior to this. I'm not saying they're going to put their homeland on the metal map, or take the world by storm, but Battleroar, despite the somewhat cliched and silly name, deserve more than just to be brushed aside with a whole lot of other copycat bands. These guys really have something, and I look forward to hearing more from them.

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To the Unknown --- Desert Lord --- 2014 (Under a Serpent Sun Records)

I’m not sure how well established stoner metal is in Finland, and Desert Lord have only really been together for four years now, with this being their debut album, but I’ve heard some pretty damn fine music come out of this part of Scandinavia and am interested in checking this one out. If nothing else the label name is cool --- kind of ironic that the catalogue reference becomes USSR! But this is a short album, only six tracks in total and none of them epic monsters: the longest is just under ten minutes. Still, the whole thing clocks in at a respectable fifty minutes total time. But who are Desert Lord?

That’s a really good question. I’ve mentioned before that I have a real problem with bands who have MySpace, Facebook, Soundcloud or Bandcamp pages but refuse to put any information about themselves there. Desert Lord appear to be another, more concerned with gig dates and selling their album than letting us in on who they are. We’re not all fans, you know, though maybe we will be. But it would be nice to know who you are! But no. Not a thing. Even the band members give only their first names, which we’ll get to. Other than that I’m in the dark. I’m assuming this is not the goth metal band Dessert Lord, whose debut album “Don’t trifle with me” was followed by the successful “Ice cream in the sun” …. okay, I’ll stop now.

Armed with absolutely no information other than vague references to Sabbath and words like “cool”, “great” and, yes, the eternally annoying and most overused word in the American language, “awesome”, let’s step away from the city walls and ride off into the desert, to see if we can meet this mysterious entity and figure out what it’s all about.

Good hard guitar to get “Forlorn caravan” underway, and while Sampo the vocalist has a raw, tough voice it’s certainly nothing on the lines of death growlers; sort of reminds me of Lemmy or Danny Joe Brown. Good punchy rocker with a lot of traditional Metal influences, sort of a 70s hard rock thing going on too. Actually, to be fair, this sounds rather dated. Not the best of openings I must admit. “Wonderland”, one of three nine-minute songs on the album, starts much slower, kind of a Doom Metal idea to it, the obvious comparison being Sabbath. Good work from Janne on the guitar, and slow steady percussion from Mika behind the kit. Instrumental for the first nearly three minutes then Sampo comes in with a sort of pained, wounded vocal.

Gets a little --- only a little --- faster, sort of slow boogie feel, but so far I’m a little disappointed and more than a little bored. Let’s hope it gets better. Okay. okay. A nice acoustic guitar opening to “Expanding egos” with more than a hint of Genesis’s “Horizons” in it, a slower, more laidback piece, though it’s another nine --- almost ten --- minuter, so I doubt it will stay this way all through the song. Decent sound effects, very ambient, then a harder guitar comes through on punching drums as we move into the second minute, and the tempo becomes grindy, doomy, thick and heavy. Vocals in the third minute, speeds up in the sixth, but for me it’s still pretty much a case of this band being a poor Sabs ripoff.

Some nice work on the bass there by Roni, but though there are extended guitar passages I haven’t really yet heard anything I could call a solo … oh. Now I have. Just near the end here. “New dimensions” is exactly the opposite, just more of the same and I’m getting really bored now. These guys need to try something different if they want to stand out, and right now they’re just fading into the background as yet another generic doom/stoner metal band. Nice bit of acoustic there again, with a sort of spoken vocal, but that’s soon pushed aside and we’re back to the grind, literally. Well, following this seems Sampo channels Nick Cave on “Manic survivor’s song”, and it’s not half bad. Kind of slow blues with a weary, doomed feel about it, acoustic guitar, slow drums, nice bassline.

Pretty damn good guitar solo and I think this is the first song where Desert Lord may have woken me up, nudged me and had me maybe begin to take notice. Mind you, it’s the fifth of six tracks, so unless the closer is phenomenal (and even if it is) they’ve probably left it too late. Yeah, they have. “Become aware” is just a rehash of everything else, bar the above, they’ve done on the album.

TRACKLISTING

1. Forlorn caravan
2. Wonderland
3. Expanding egos
4. New dimensions
5. Manic survivor’s song
6. Become aware

Nothing else to say really. A big let down. Just relieved there are only the six tracks, as I don’t think I could have sat through much more. Totally generic, nothing new, nothing stands out other than “Manic survivor’s song”, and that’s a bit of a pearl among swine, but the rest is completely derivative and this album gets a big fat MEH from me.

Members' Top Ten Metal Albums Lists

Time to continue the countdown selected by Janszoon, and a band I know The Batlord is also very fond of is at number
7
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Death is this communion --- High on Fire --- 2007

Is there a reason, I wonder, why so many of Jansz’s top albums are all from the 21st century? Four so far. Interesting. This may be a little more accessible for me. Maybe. Yeah, this is much better. I dig this kind of metal. Vocal is a little gravelly but not off-putting; anyway, I’m slowly learning to live with those sort of vocals. Really like “Khanrad’s Wall”, very eastern-sounding and some great guitar work that doesn’t shake my fillings loose. “Thorazine” is very good too, basically just a drum solo but cool. I also really like “DII” --- are they cellos at the end? “Ethereal” is quite excellent too. Yeah, really like this album. Nice one, Jansz!

And on to number
6
which is
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Angel dust --- Faith No More --- 1992

The first record in Jansz’s list that comes from the twentieth century! ;) What’s there to say about this that has not already been said? It’s a classic album, which I had not heard till last year when I reviewed in it my journal, so I’ll say no more except to report that I was not blown away by it, but then this mix of rap and rock never really sits well with me. Damn successful album though, and one of their most loved.

We now reach the mid-point, and for his number
5
Jansz has chosen
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Il secondo tragico --- Psychofagist (THAT gave the filter a problem!) --- 2009

I can’t find the album online, and though Jansz offered to send me any album I couldn’t locate, as I see this is grindcore I’m gonna be a little scared girl and wimp out here, use the excuse I couldn’t find it and move on. Sorry man!

And as we get closer to his number uno album, we check out number
4
on his list, to find
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Witchcult today --- Electric Wizard --- 2007

Now this is one I’m actually interested to hear. I’m getting a little into Doom Metal and though Jansz describes this more as Thrash Metal, well I like that too, so this may not be the worst album I’ve ever listened to. Well it’s only one track in and I already love this. Don’t see the thrash in it, not yet, but crushingly heavy and no Cookie Monster vocals. That’ll do for me. Yeah, there’s nothing bad I have to say about this album, and I can see why it’s high in Jansz’s list. Have to listen to more of these guys’ music.

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In stark contrast to their debut, Slayer's second album was professionally produced, this being possible as their label paid to finance it. In many ways I guess it could be said that this was their first real album, though of course many of their fans retain an admiration and love for the first salvo Slayer sent across the bows of the music world, announcing the arrival of a new power and a seachange in the world of Heavy Metal, especially in the USA.

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Hell awaits --- Slayer --- 1985 (Metal Blade)

Again, it's a short album, with only seven tracks --- nine on the special edition, but as they're two of the tracks off “Haunting the chapel” I don't feel that adds anything --- and it kicks off with the title track, another powerful guitar attack as King stamps his authority on the album, Araya's voice kind of more on a par with Brian Johnson or Biff Byford this time, a sort of higher-pitched tone to it. Another fast track following in the steps trodden by “Haunting the chapel”, it's nevertheless not on the same blistering pace as the likes of “Chemical warfare” or “Haunting the chapel” itself, though King fires off some impressive solos. At least, I assume it's him. This is always the problem with bands containing two guitarists: how do you know who's playing the solo? It's a constant conundrum for me when reviewing Iron Maiden albums --- is that Dave or Adrian, or indeed Janick? In the long run I guess it doesn't matter too much, but as he's seen as the main guitarist here I'm just gonna assume all the solos are by Kerry King. “Kill again” is even slower, in relation to the other tracks, or at least starts that way, with an extended guitar intro and some fine power drumming, and when the vocal comes in it's more almost spoken by Araya this time, dark and bleak. This, I feel, comes a little closer to punk rock, in the execution of the riffs and the almost manic drumming. I don't like this very much I must admit: it feels like it's just been thrown together.

You can definitely see the difference in the production though all through the album, especially on “At dawn they sleep”, one of the more progressively-leaning tracks on the album. It betrays to me a certain sense of Purple around the “In Rock” era, or maybe “Machine head”, a sort of blues feel to it. It's much more restrained than “Kill again”, even if King does prove there's (probably) nobody who shreds as well as him. This seems to be the first Slayer song on which Tom Araya has a songwriting input, and the difference shows. A long song --- over six minutes --- it goes through tempo changes and moods, building up an atmosphere and showing that Slayer can --- or could --- construct really quite well-written songs. Slayer as a prog metal band may seem highly unlikely at best --- and probably is --- but this song definitely displays many of the trademarks of that subgenre, while of course not losing the basic thrash and aggression and speed that this band built their fanbase upon.

“Praise of death” is back to the basic thrash, a ravening monster hurtling along at twice the speed of light, Araya snarling the vocal again and to hell (hah!) with time signature changes or any of that pansy nonsense! This is Metal: pure, brutal, fast as hell and loud enough to make your brain leak out of your ears. To underline the fact, King looses off another perfectly-timed solo, the kind of guitar work that starts revolutions and plants in young minds the sudden desire to buy a Fender and put a band together. No doubt a title that caused many a sleepless night among those who safeguard our morals and led to the almost coveted “Parental Advisory” label being hastily slapped on the cover of this album, “Necrophiliac” begins on a growly, stop-start guitar then takes off at speed, Tom at his darkest and revelling in the lyric, knowing how much it will bother certain people.

Of course, one thing about Slayer is that often the way Tom sings you don't need to worry about the lyrics, as you may not be able to make them out, but this is worth listening to, if for no other reason, to catch the superb solos from Kerry King and the tight-knit rhythm section blasting the song along. Sounding more like it belongs on a progressive rock album, at least from the title, “Crypts of eternity” seems to concern the Pyramids, possibly grabbing elements of “Powerslave” --- or maybe not. It's hard to say, but if something could be termed a crypt of eternity I think it would be the famous Egyptian monuments. It's a good song, and rocks along well without screaming off the rails, with some dark guitar work from Hanneman and King, kind of reminiscent of Lep at their rockin' best, and of course Maiden.

Yeah, reading through the lyric it's nothing to do with the Pyramids. Good song though and as usual superb solos, taking us into the closer, “Hardening of the arteries”, which brings the curtain down in powerful style, thundering along like an out-of-control freight train. Why not an out-of-control passenger train, you ask? Don't ask me: I don't coin these phrases, I just rob 'em. It's a short track in comparison to the previous, less than four minutes and it rockets along, taking us to the end of the album in a breathless dash for the finish, leaving us exhausted and drained again.

TRACKLISTING

1. Hell awaits
2. Kill again
3. At dawn they sleep
4. Praise of death
5. Necrophiliac
6. Crypts of eternity
7. Hardening of the arteries

There are, as I alluded to, two bonus tracks on certain versions but they're just the title track from the EP as well as “Captor of sin” from the same EP, and we've heard them already. For a second album this is definitely good, but it doesn't, to my mind, foreshadow the behemoth that was lurking on the horizon and that would take Slayer from the underground right into the glare of the spotlight, making of them bona fide superstars and gods of Metal. What a difference one year can make!

It was actually the High on Fire album that I described as thrashy, not the Electric Wizard one so not surprising you didn't hear any thrash in Witchcult Today. Glad you enjoyed both though.

You can't wimp out on the Psychofagist album though man! Come on, you can do it!

Awesome reviews, bro.

Wow! Praise from Caesar! Or are you being sarcastic...?
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Not sarcastic, but still trolling.

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If anyone wants to make the obvious comment go ahead, but remember that in 1980 I was seventeen years old, so it’s not that surprising that most if not all of the Metal albums that made an impression on me would come from that decade. As did this one.

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Metal on metal --- Anvil --- 1982 (Attic)

Second release from Canada’s premier Metal band, this was an album I loved and have continued to have great respect for. Unlike the previously featured “MSG”, I know exactly why I bought this, and it was indeed down to that tome of all things Metal, “Kerrang!” I read the review of this and I just knew I needed to buy it. With their debut album released in 1981, two years before two of the “Big Four” and three and four years respectively before the other two, Anvil have had a significant influence on many of the bigger metal bands, including these four giants, and are still going strong today.

Not surprisingly, we start off with the sound of, um, metal on metal as the idea of a hammer striking an anvil is recreated by drummer Robb Reiner (bet he gets lots of versions of “I loved the work you did on Lethal Weapon” etc!) as the title track gets us in the mood with a hard, grinding rocker with great snarling guitars from Dave Allison and also from vocalist Steve “Lips” Kudlow, whose voice is gravelly but understandable, giving you the real idea of someone perhaps toiling in a smithy while using his off-hours to crank out some furious riffs and sing about his work. Solid. There is of course nothing original or new in the lyric, but well that’s not really what Heavy Metal is about, is it?

One of my favourite tracks on the album, “Mothra” sees the boys pay homage to one of Godzilla’s enemies, the giant moth, and the tempo speeds up as Allison is let loose on the fretboard. The song really does a good job of capturing the excitement and yet basic silliness of the Japanese monster movies of the sixties, and you could almost imagine this translated into Japanese and being used in one of those classic battles. Hey, they could do worse! There are definitely elements of the music that characterised the NWOBHM over the far side of the world here, and “Stop me”, the longest song on the album opens on single, jangly guitar before cutting into a fine introductory solo from Allison, Kudlow putting in one of his best performances on the album.

To be fair, the song is really quite weak, almost wimpy with its lovesong lyric, but it’s nowhere near a ballad, and its hardness is reasserted by the flying fingers of Dave Allison. Even so, it’s a sad followup to “Mothra”, a very basic rock’n’roll track that I could have done without. If only they had taken their own advice! An instrumental is up next, the only one on the album --- and from what I can see, only one of two they have recorded to date --- as “March of the crabs” gets Anvil back some of their balls, Allison and Reiner thumping out a hard-hitting melody that rocks along like there’s no tomorrow. Reiner then leads in another of my favourites, the groove/boogie “Jackhammer” (no, not our beloved member!), driven on a machine-gun guitar and rolling, galloping drumbeat, it shows the boys right back on form after the embarrassing “Stop me”.

There’s little subtlety in the lyric --- ”Jackhammer pounding your pile/ Jackhammer you’re gonna cream” --- but who need subtlety when the music is this good? Anvil keep the pressure right up with “Heatsink”, another screaming rocker with scorching solos and a battering backbeat (yes, I like my alliteration, don’t I?) while “Tag team” slows things down but retains all the heaviness you’ve come to expect from these Canadian metalheads, with a punchy, marching song that no doubt has fists pumping the air at live gigs.There’s a full-out twin guitar assault then for the bitter “Scenery” --- ”Dyed blonde hair/ Makeup packed on thick/ The way you look/ Could make your mother sick/ Gave me that look/ That I've seen before/ Give up babe/ I find your type a bore.” --- heavy stuff guys! Real Lizzy vibe to the guitars here, then we’re into the slightly less than insightful “Tease me, please me”.

You don’t really expect too much from a song with a title like that, and what you get is a fast headshaker with formulaic lyric but riffs to die for, and a chance for bassist Ian Dickson to show what he’s made of. The last track I have something of an issue with. Having professed no interest in Satanism prior to this, Anvil’s decision to close the album with the thrashy speed monster “666” is an odd one. It seems to me that they were just trying to hitch a ride on the emerging Black Metal bandwagon driven by Venom and Bathory, while those two spin the wheel and try to shake them off, roaring "Fuck off! You're not real Black Metal!" It's true though; they're not, and despite the fact that Kudlow sings it well there is no real sincerity or belief in the lyric. It just seems like something they thought they could, or should do. They can’t, and they shouldn’t have.

TRACKLISTING

1. Metal on metal
2. Mothra
3. Stop me
4. March of the crabs
5. Jackhammer
6. Heatsink
7. Tag team
8. Scenery
9. Tease me, please me
10. 666

Even given the almost embarrassing “us too!” of the closer, this is a great album. If you're looking for deep meanings in lyrics or subtle nuances in playing, you had best search elsewhere. These guys don’t do subtle. But if you want a rollicking good ride, an honest-to-goodness metal free-for-all, you’ll get it here. Even though it’s over thirty years old much of “Metal on metal” has retained its relevance, and the fact that Anvil have had such an influence on some of the bigger bands as I mentioned in the intro, and that they’re still going strong, must say something for Canadian metal, eh?

Time to make our final return to the
Members' Top Ten Lists
for this week and conclude Janszoon's selection. We're now down to his top three, which start off with an album which I won’t be saying anything at all about at number
3
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Reign in blood --- Slayer --- 1986

For obvious reasons…

Which takes us to number
2
and another weird, unknown to me band with a strange name
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Idolum --- Ufomammut --- 2008

Well I find this good, but a little crushing and claustrophobic. Some of it is quite progressive rock in nature, lot of space rock of course, psychedelia and plenty of metal. Decent combination, but at times it gets so dark and muggy that it’s almost … boring? No that’s not the word, but it’s hard to keep your attention on it. Mine wandered and I found I was three tracks in already. I’ve stopped early, not necessarily because I don’t like it, but the closer is twenty-seven minutes long, and I do not have the time or energy to listen to a song of that length at the moment.

And so we arrive finally at the very top of the tree for Janszoon, his number
1
Oh for God’s sake man! ANOTHER Grindcore album? And a Japanese one at that! :rolleyes:
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Nise kyuseishu domo --- Swarrrm --- 2003

Well, it’s his list so who am I to put it down? But seriously: over half of this is grindcore, and I’ve yet to find any of that that’s listenable, never mind that I like. Oh dear! What a tragedy! I can’t find it on Spotify. Nor Grooveshark. Nor You --- ah. Damn. I mean, great great! :rolleyes: Some kind/sadistic soul has put up the whole album on YT, so I can review it. Whew! What a relief! For a moment there I thought I’d miss out on this opus…(Does anyone have an icon for shooting yourself in the head? Neapolitan?)

Seriously though, given that it’s his top album in this list it would have been unfair and childish of me to not review it, and if I couldn’t find it on YT I would have asked him for a link. I may ---probably will --- hate it but he deserves the respect of having his top album at least listened to and reviewed. So here it is.

Some disarming mandolin, I think, opening it with what could be Spanish guitar, but I’m sure it will burst into unholy life any time --- yeah. There it goes, and down goes my knob. VOLUME knob, you filthy-minded… :nono: The vocal is, as I expected, a manic scream that alternates with a savage growl and I can understand none of it, but I’ll leave it playing on the offchance something happens that will give me reason to talk about it.

It didn’t. I can honestly say that was, from my point of view, the worst thing I have suffered through since Crypt --- yeah I know. I’’ll stop referencing it Batty. Soon. Very soon. I’m definitely never ever getting into grindcore, I can confidently predict that. There is nothing in this subgenre that does not repulse me or just make me laugh at it. Still, to each his own.

And speaking of to each his own, we’ll be tackling the second members’ top ten lists next week. Thanks for sending them in, even if this one did give me a super evil migraine at times!

Three reviews skipped and one album half listened to, well I guess six and a half albums out of ten ain't bad. Thanks for mostly giving them listen. :laughing:

As far as Swarrrm go, I think the lyrics are in Japanese so you're probably not missing out on content with the vocal style. I'm a little surprised you didn't mention the stately piano that dominates "Don't Mess with Texas", the moody basslines in the second half of the album or the abundant very un-grindy riffing throughout. I kind of expected those things to stand out for you. I'm glad you at least gave it shot though.

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Oh, and strike Pig Destroyer off that list of torture albums I gave you. It's a grindcore album, and while I don't care about being nice to you, at this point it would just be redundant to hit you with another one. How about... Chocolate Starfish and the Hotdog-Flavored Water... by Limp Bizkit. http://www.atheistnetwork2.com/image...ace_smiley.png

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(Author's note: This section will contain some pretty close to the bone sexual innuendo and humour, and also graphic violence depicted through the written word. As such, I feel it only right to slap this sticker here, to warn you all. Over 18s only. You have been warned. :shycouch:
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The Batlord once mused “If I didn't have you to torture, Trollheart, this site would not be nearly as much fun for me as it is”. Or something close to that anyway. Well, always eager to please I'm happy to provide my Metal-obsessed buddy with an opportunity to do just that. Torture me. Musically, I mean! Musically! Our relationship isn't like that --- what? No it's not mine! How should I know? Look, what would I be doing with a rubber skirt, high-heeled boots and a leather hood, now come on! What? They all have “TH” stencilled in red thread on them? Well sure that could be anyone. Plenty of people with those initials I'm sure. Like ... like ... um .. like ... Stop stretching it! It's very tight yes. Made to measure. For someone with a very slim waist. What? Yes, I have a very slim waist, what of it? Oh stop it! You're getting finger marks on it! Do you know how long it took me to clean it the last time ---? Just put it down, okay?

God! As I way saying before someone started messing with a bondage outfit that is definitely, categorically not mine, this new section will allow Batty to run riot. He'll be suggesting the worst albums he can think of for me to listen to and seeing how much misery he can cause me. Here's how it will work:

I start off with 100% health. As the album progresses I rate each track on a scale of how much it sucks, and accordingly lose health. (This will be descriptive and is where the graphic violence comes in) So for track one let's say I lose 20%, track two 20%, track three 10%. By the time track four begins I've already lost 50% of my health. When it drops to 0% --- surprise, surprise! --- I'm dead. However, as some of the albums --- most of the albums? --- may kill me early, as Nick Cave once said, death is not the end. After my health drops to zero, I can continue losing health, which then goes into minus figures. When I am -100% I become a Proto-Zombie, but even then that's not the last of it. With a percentage health of -200% I become a True Zombie, -300% a Mega Zombie and -400% a Crypto Zombie (one of the worst kinds of living hell: a Zombie who enjoys Cryptopsy!)

The trends can of course reverse. If, before I drop to 0%, I hear a track I think is not all that bad, then my health could go from say 60% back up to 70 or 80, but once I hit True Zombie there is o going back. A Proto-Zombie state can be reversed, bringing me back to a simple corpse, and perhaps on from there back to life. But I'd really have to like the music for that to happen, and let's be honest, he's not going to pick any music that will help me survive. His mission is to kill me, kill me again and kill me some more.

Each album must be listened to in its entireity, but don't expect long in-depth reviews. There'll be just be enough to prove I have actually listened to the album, not just said I did. At the end of each track I'll post my Health Score, and at the end of the album we'll see whether I survive, die or become one of four types of zombie. If I survive, I can ask for an album that I might enjoy, or at least tolerate, and Batty has to honour that request. However if I become anything past a Proto-Zombie then he's free to go to town on his next selection. Somehow I feel I'll be enduring some pretty ear-tearing music...

Anyone who wishes to participate in my musical torture can do so, but this is Batty's Torture Chamber so you have to go through him. Just drop him a PM I guess. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a tight rubber miniskirt to wriggle into --- I mean, to return to its owner! Yes, that's it. That's what I meant to say.

Now, where did I leave that talcum powder?

Tomorrow: the torture begins as Trollheart suffers through a whole Cryptopsy album... :yikes: :jailed:

First of all, sorry I took so long to get back to you, but even with a lot of this stuff pre-written it's hard to get the time as I'm still in the process of writing a lot of the rest of it.

As for the above, no. No I can't. If you want to hear "tightly written and precisely played compositions" listen to "Big Generator" by Yes. Now there's a band at the top of their game, operating almost as one mind, tight as the proverbial duck's and with not a note dropped nor missed. Almost telepathic.

I fully understand that you rate and love this music, but I can't make it be anything to me other than noise, and loud, discordant, disorganised noise at that. Sorry. You'll never win me over to grindcore.



What three? I didn't do FNM because I had already done it, which is the same way I will treat the list of anyone who has albums I have reviewed. Slayer will be reviewed in depth of course today or tomorrow, and the other one I couldn't find. I don't think missing out on a 27-minute grindcore composition constitutes only half listening to it, but I just could not face any more.
There are lyrics??? ;)
I must be honest here. Once the album started up I pretty much tuned out. I lowered the volume in case my neighbours thought I was murdering my sister or something and if I had to leave the room I probably just left it playing, not worrying about missing anything. It's possible these passages of which you speak occurred while I was not in the room. Or it could just be that I heard them, but at that point was so grossed out by the album that I really didn't care.

Sorry if my reactions were quite negative, but at least they were honest, which is something I always strive to be.

Hey, if you think I skipped albums on yours, wait till you see Plankton's! ;)

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Pretty please?

Go through His Batness. His is the power to decide. Only his. :jailed: