Not even close. "Hallowed be thy name", "Flight of Icarus", "Powerslave", "Rime of the ancient mariner", "Aces high", "Holy smoke", "Fear of the dark", "Killers", Phantom of the opera" ... not in there. Nada. I do not rate it, although I don't hate it.

"Fear of the Dark" and "Flight of Icarus", especially "Flight of Icarus", can kiss the sweaty feet of "Revelations".

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During the last Metal Month I looked into three albums from Virgin Steele which were linked by a common theme, these being “The marriage of Heaven and Hell” trilogy, as it were. This year I want to step away from Power Metal and go completely the other direction, choosing a band which many may blink at and wonder why I would do such a thing, knowing my personal tastes. There are a few reasons for this, most of which revolve around it being difficult, insofar as I tried, to get three albums that have something to do with each other, outside of the power/progressive metal area, and I didn't want to be too predictable. I originally was going to do the first three Manowar albums, but I had already reviewed “Hail to England” and used “Battle hymns”, so that didn't leave much that I knew.


I quite honestly don't know what links these albums, but as I said when I started this section, the link could be as simple as all the albums being by the same band. I think though the idea here is that the trilogy chosen here shows a clear and interesting progression through the different influences on the band and the subgenres they pass through during the course of a mere two years. It's said that their sound altered radically during that time, so I'm interested to see how it did change. I've never heard, nor heard of this band before, but no doubt Batty will be chuckling evilly to himself that I don't know what I've let myself in for. Be that as it may, let's step towards the gates to Hell, shall we, and see if anyone's home.
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First spell --- Gehenna --- 1994 (Head Not Found)
Not an album but an EP, this still has five tracks and while none are monsters they all clock in around the six-minute mark, bar one, so it still runs an impressive half-hour plus. Formed in 1993 by guitarist Sanrabb and vocalist Dolgar, Gehenna have an odd take on their Satanist leanings. Unlike Watain, who professes to believe implicitly in a dark force known as Satan and pours bitter scorn on bands who claim the tag Black Metal while being nothing close to Satanists, Sanrabb explains that they see Satan more as a non-physical force, and scoff at the idea some people have that he would serve them, or indeed they he, as they say Satan hates every living being. And yet they sing about him. But to quote Sanrabb; “The thing is, it's (their lyrics) not purely based on Satanic beliefs or politics or whatever. Because we don't want to deal in propaganda for this or that. […] It's about music, it is - as I said - a medium for our thoughts and feelings. It is also ever-changing.”


Sanrabb does not believe in conducting Satanic rituals, real or otherwise, as he wisely says “absolutely nothing good will come of it.” It would appear that while they believe in Satan --- or at least, an ultimate evil in the universe --- they have no interest in calling it forth, and use Satan as merely a vehicle for their lyrics. To that end, they prefer not to be labelled as Black Metal --- or indeed, to have any label thrust upon them --- so we will have to see whether or not they have been unfairly or misguidedly branded.


There's certainly a sepulchral feel to the opening track, “The shivering voice of the ghost”, with a church organ taking the intro solo before some guitar wends its way into the proceedings, then the tempo ups and Sarcana on the keys runs off a very progressive metal riff --- hold on just one moment: did I say keyboards? On a Black Metal album? It would seem so, and therefore weight is already lent to the argument that Gehenna cannot fall under the same Black Metal banner as other bands with which they are grouped. The vocal from Dolgar is certainly what you would expect of a Black Metal singer: dark, growly, scary, almost indecipherable, but this jars sharply with the intricate keyboards of Sarcana and the frankly restrained guitars of Sanrabb, while Dirge Rep and Svartalv lay down the softest, relatively, rhythm I've ever heard on an album that purports to be from this subgenre. In fact, were it not for the vocals I would not even consider labelling this album --- at least, on the basis of this track --- as anything close to Black Metal.


It has a real hook in it too, and though there are no guitar solos and it's driven almost exclusively on Sarcana's keyboard melody, it's still heavy enough to qualify as proper metal. Just not Black. It's a great start for me, who was expecting something much harsher and rawer, and as we move into “Unearthly loose palace” that almost progressive/new wave keyboard continues to ply its trade, making this so much more a listenable album than I had thought it would be. The tempo, too, is far lower than you would expect from Black Metal, which usually, at least in the examples I've heard, is either crushingly slow or necksnappingly fast. Sanrabb's guitars start to make something more of an impression now, though again it's the keys that really hold court. Some great choral vocals coming in now (presumably on the synth) and a superbly evocative guitar solo from Sanrabb as the song begins to lose some momentum, but none of its quality, as it slows down.


It may be that Gehenna are not considered true Black Metal, but if they are, or can fit into that description, then this is the best Black Metal album I've ever heard, and if there are others of this ilk it could change my mind about the whole subgenre. I get the feeling though that they're more a blend of styles, with gothic, elements of death and black, and progressive and symphonic metal all in there, going to make something that is very much more than the sum of its parts. “Angelwings and ravenclaws”, the shortest track on the album, sound more like a new-wave song, the knd of thing you might hear if you allied metal guitar to Depeche Mode or OMD or Visage. Quite stunning really. Harder and a little more aggressive is “The conquering of Histir”, with a driving drumbeat from Dirge Rep and an almost incongruous keyboard sound that is close to pan pipes running through the tale of, it would seem, the end of days, a popular subject of course with those who fly the Black Metal flag.


Very dramatic, with an almost reflective midsection that rides as usual on Sarcana's expert keyboard lines, and very very listenable. “Morningstar”, the final track, is the only one that makes me think that maybe we're going to hear some “basic” Black Metal, with a grindy, slow, doomy beginning, but even that kicks up very quickly into a good riffing style and bops along on yet another bubbly keyboard line. At least the lyric is Black Metal 101: ”Before the sun, a star sends its light /Set your ritual.........right/ Streams of torment/ Streams of blood/ Fear for your flesh /Fear for your soul, your spirit .” But the lyric is almost belied by the uptempo, rocky, almost happy metal that underpins it. Really, if you ignore Dolgar, you can imagine this as any sort of prog/power/symphonic or any other subgenre metal you want. It really is the most listenable Black Metal album --- or an album masquerading as Black Metal --- that I have ever heard.


TRACKLISTING

1.The shivering voice of the ghost
2. Unearthly loose palace
3. Angelwings and ravenclaws
4. The conquering of Hirsir
5. Morningstar


On the reissued album there are a lot more tracks --- an additional nine --- but as I usually shy from including bonus tracks, and as there are so many of them here, with still two full albums to review and the sands of time slowly draining away on me, I'm going to put them on hold here. If I have time I will come back to them, but if not I'll leave this in the way it was originally intended, as a five-track EP, a record that has, quite unexpectedly, blown me away and made me want to hear more.


And here is more.
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Seen through the veils of darkness (The second spell) ---- Gehenna --- 1995 (Cacophonous Records)
I suppose now the question is, if Gehenna's sound changed so radically over the next two albums, am I in for a more Black Metal experience with this second one --- their first proper album, as opposed to an EP? Will the symphonic, even melodic elements be dropped in favour of a harder, more stripped-down approach? Well, let's see: Sarcana still does his keyboards and organs, so no worries there, and even Dirge Rep is bringing in ... tambourine? So is it possible we're going to be leaning further away from pure Black Metal, as opposed to towards it?


Well, opener “Lord of flies” opens with the sort of guitar that sounds like a train approaching, and the music is definitely harder now, more on the metal side of things, with fast, furious drumming and Dolgar's by-now familiar growling scream. I don't hear the keys much in the mix if at all, though now I do, with a sort of violin or cello sound, the frenetic rhythm slowing down into something of a pagan waltz, the drums cutting back too for a short while. But then it kicks back up again, so that it's swinging from one extreme to the other. Little hard to get your head around, I feel. Certainly a big step away from the pure melody of “First spell”. Whether it's progression or regression I'll reserve judgement on for now.


That sort of tuneful melody returns in part for “Shairak Kinnummh”, which has touches of Viking Metal about it, Sarcana's keys coming a little more to the fore now. The song has become much faster though, and is now more in line with what most people would probably recognise as Black Metal, of a sort anyway. There's still a sense of progressive metal in there though, mostly through the keyswork, especially the organ. There's a guest slot for Garm, vocalist for Sunn O))) as well as Ulver on “Vinterikket”, but to be honest they both sound the same to my untrained Black Metal ear. It's certainly a faster, thrashier song though, with energy and power. Kind of a chanted vocal in it too. Ends suddenly, then we're into “A witch is born”, which has a kind of Sabbath/Electric Wizard vibe to it and pulls back from the overall Black Metal direction in which the last few tracks have been going.


Still very guitar-driven though, so it's Sanrabb who takes control, unlike the EP, where his keyboard buddy called the shots. Oddly, I can actually make out most of what Dolgar is singing here, and yet he doesn't seem to have changed his style al that much: am I getting used to this kind of vocal, I wonder? Better able to interpret it? Or is it because I looked at the lyric sheet and can now transpose that to what I'm hearing? Either way, it makes the experience a little less frustrating. The title track is another hammering guitar tune, but with Sarcana adding his own touches on the keys, the tune itself slowing in the midsection then picking up again. Sounds like some nice rippling piano there, while “The mystical play of shadows” and “The eyes of the sun” are the two shortest tracks on the album, paving the way for the longest. The former is a fast, guitar-driven song with a lot of keyboard flourishes, and in fact contains the first guitar solo I've heard from these guys.


“The eyes of the sun” on the other hand is something of a return to the more melodic sound of the EP, slower and more dramatic with a lot of Sarcana's keyboard work, though there's some disturbing screaming --- sounds female --- near the end, like someone's being murdered. That takes us to the penultimate, and longest track, which kicks off with a real indie rock vibe on the guitar. I'm not kidding! This sounds sort of REM and trips along nicely but doesn't batter you down. “A myth...” runs for just shy of nine minutes, so I'm expecting it to change over the course of its run. And it does, but not that much. Gets a bit kind of I guess you could say rompy in the fourth minute and then falls right back to ambient territory with lush synth and effects, a whispered vocal from Dolgar and a real sense of waiting for something to happen.


Rather nice little bassline from Svartalv (whose name I have just now worked out means “Dark Elf”: cool!) and then it happens. Big scream, the drums explode into life and Sanrabb lets loose on the guitar as the song heads into its seventh minute, even throwing in a shot of reggae along the way. Piano from Sarcana joins the tune as we move into the final minute and it really starts to rock. The closer then keeps the tempo sort of mid-paced but pushes poor old Sarcana out of the picture really as Sanrabb takes the song. Apparently he sings on this one too, but again I don't hear any difference.


TRACKLISTING

1. Lord of flies
2. Shairak Kinnummh
3. Vinterriket
4. A witch is born
5. Through the veils of darkness
6. The mystical play of shadows
7. The eye of the sun
8. A myth...
9. Dark poems author


While there's not what I'd call a cosmic shift here, this second offering is very much different from Gehenna's EP. The melody and structure is still there but there's more of an emphasis, generally, on harder, tighter riffs and as I say Sarcana is only called upon when needed, where on “First spell” he more or less ran the show. No change in the vocals department: despite there being three different singers used on this album I heard no discernible difference. I can see why people say the band evolved though, and I'm interested to see how, or if, this evolution continued on into their second album.


So let's find out.

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Malice (Our third spell) --- Gehenna --- 1996 (Cacophonus Records)


Titled, I guess, that way because although it was their second album, technically it was their third recording, and the first one was called “First spell” with the second titled .... oh, you get it don't you? I don't need to explain this. The only lineup change I see here is that bassist Svartalv has been replaced by Noctifer, and while I don't wish to denigrate bassists, I don't see that as having a huge effect on the music. It's a dark and surly guitar that kicks off “She who loves the flames” but I also hear orchestral hits which I assume are made by Sarcana. The tempo pretty immediately kicks up though, Dirge Rep givin' it plenty behind the kit, and it's a much faster song that anything I've heard from the band to date. I still wouldn't call this straight Black Metal though; it's more a mix of thrash and black to me. For what little I know of the second subgenre.


Things march along nicely with “Made to suffer”, and I think I hear Sarcana getting in on the action there with some sprightly piano, though it's hard to hear behind the wall of guitars being put up. Powerful and energetic, certainly, and not half bad at all. He does however get a chance to wind up his organ again as “Touched and left for dead” opens, the song a slower, meandering kind of tune with a repetitive melody going through it, quite hypnotic at times. If there's such a thing as a Black Metal ballad, this probably comes the closest of what I've heard so far. Damn fine guitar riff holding it all together, and the rhythm section do well. Again, I manage to catch some of what Dolgar is singing: ”This is the way to Hell!” Thanks mate! Been driving around in circles for hours looking for it. Why don't they have it on these bloody Satnavs then, eh? ;)


Another big guitar line opens “Bleeding the blue flame”, then it takes off at lightspeed, rivalling the likes of Slayer and Anthrax in the speed stakes. Goes into some fairly freakish guitar histrionics in the last minute or so before sprinting for the finish, and taking us into “Manifestation”, which just goes for it, heads-down from the outset. A big rolling growl from Dolgar sets us on our way and Sanrabb shreds as fast and as hard as he possibly can, nearly crossing into neoclassical territory at times. “Ad arma! Ad arma!” is the longest Gehenna track I've experienced yet, a whopping fourteen minutes long, and like the previous one it charges right out of the gate, galloping on the hammering guitar of Sanrabb and the thunderous drumming of Dirge Rep. No room for keys here, at least not yet! It's pounding along into the sixth minute with no sign of a change, which in a song this long would I think be a missed opportunity, but we'll see.


The guitar work is certainly excellent and would rival any thrash guitarist you care to name. You can't help but move to it, and that's not usually my reaction to this subgenre. It's intense with a capital “I” and it just seems to keep going. Even though it's basically the same chord played over and over with Dolgar roaring over them, there's something about it that keeps it from being boring, perhaps the sheer energy it exudes. As we hit the eighth minute though it all stops and Sarcana takes over, with deep, doomy synth effects and lines, possible backwards masking (how very Black Metal of you, guys!) This however carries on well into the twelfth minute and though it's effective it does give the impression of just being there to stretch out the song. Some guitar does burst through near the end, and thankfully much of this song has been devoid of vocals, giving it a kind of progressive/thrash feel, but it is definitely way too long for what's in it.


Everything comes down to earth with a doomy crash as “Pentagram” hits, with cowbells (or some sort of bells anyway) and a nice slow searing guitar line, then Sarcana comes in and it takes off in almost an AOR or melodic metal direction for a moment before Dirge Rep and Dolgar grab it by the throat and floor the pedal, hurtling down the road with not a care who might be in their way. Not to be outdone though, Sarcana adds in some synth wails and moans as the song careens along, Sanrabb racking off some pretty sweet smokin' solos. The title track just batters you down with a heavy guitar, crushing drums and a nasty vocal that comes from the very bowels of Hell itself. Or Bergen. Wherever these guys are from. Stavanger. Yeah. The very bowels of Stavanger. And that's one cold place! It gets into something of a normal rock groove with a faint Arabic twist to it before it all goes to Hell --- or Stavanger --- again, and then some pretty proggy keyboards from Sarcana calm the tune down somewhat. It ends rather quietly, oddly enough, on a single guitar.


“The word made flesh” has a whispered growl to get it underway, dark rumbling synth and bass before it too flies off the handle as each of the band strives to outdo the other in speed. You know, it's weird: this kind of music is usually not my thing but I find myself grooving to this. Don't know why. I'm not a Black Metal aficionado at all. Maybe this is not Black Metal. But it sure sounds like it. Closer “Before the seventh moon” is just as fast as the last few tracks, perhaps faster, and yet there is melody in there. Keyboard flurries populate the music here and there, and the guitar is pretty bitchin', so I guess my final decision is still pending, but I know I don't hate this.


TRACKLISTING

1. She who loves the flames
2. Made to suffer
3. Touched and left for dead
4. Bleeding the blue flame
5. Manifestation
6. Ad arma ad arma
7. The pentagram
8. Malice
9. The word become flesh
10. Before the seventh moon


So, in the end, is this a band who have gone through a complete metamorphosis over the course of their first three releases? Well, yes and no. There's no questioning the fact that the debut EP was a far more melodic, restrained effort, and far removed from any Black Metal album I've ever listened to. The second came more towards perhaps what you might consider standard Black Metal and the third more or less reinforced that direction. Or to put it in the words of Tron_79 on the Metal Archives forum: “the styles changed quite a bit on these three albums from a primarily midtempo, almost soothing sound from "the first spell" to a raw gritty sound of "the second spell" to more of a polished sound which sounds like a combination of the first two releases on "the Third Spell.”


I'd agree with this, from what I've heard. I doubt anyone would challenge that statement. However I still think that the second and third albums (or to be more precise, since the first was an EP, the first and second albums) retained a lot of the melody and even mellowness at times displayed on the debut. Word has it that on their sixth album, “WW”, released in 2005, they went for a more melodic approach, though opinion seems to be divided as to how successfully that translated on the album. Indeed, after “Malice” Gehenna seem to have gone for a more death metal idea, so perhaps here are their three most melodic albums.


But it's certainly a journey, beginning with an album --- okay, okay! An EP! --- that surprised me pleasantly and ending with an album that kind of pulled the rug from under my feet, having got so comfortable with the sound I was getting from this band. Either way, and however they ended up, Gehenna have served to show me that there is more to Black Metal than just gutteral shouts and screams, blindingly fast guitars and hammer drums. You just have to open your mind, and your ears, and go looking for it.

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Monnos --- Conan -- 2012 (Burning World Records)
Recommended by Mojo and bob
According to their entry in EM these guys include the likes of Viking and Norse mythology in their lyrics. If that’s the case I should be off to a good start here. After a few EPs and a split with Slomatics the previous year, this is the first proper album from stoner/doom metal band Conan, although they have a new one out this year. An English outfit, they're based out of Liverpool, but I would guess they have more in common with beetles than Beatles! Interestingly, perhaps sounding a note of alarm, the lyric sheet to this album seems to show each song consists of barely a few lines each, with some of them simply made up of one-word sentences. But we’ll get to that soon enough.

There are only six tracks, with none particularly epic --- the longest, the closer, clocks in at nine minutes --- so this should in effect not take too long. Which is good as I’m ready to go to bed now, but want to squeeze one more in before I retire. Oh, you cheeky devil! ;)

A seriously downtuned guitar gets us started, plodding along at a pace that ensures one would never break, nor even endanger, one’s neck. Slow, crashing drums join the guitar, so low that it almost sounds like the low rumble of a very slow motorbike. Guess this is what they call Sludge? The vocal, when it comes in, is distant and almost moaning, to some degree a little lke someone who’s being forced to say or sing something they don’t want to: I don’t hear any passion here. Maybe that’s what this subgenre is like? The lyric consists of nine sentences, three of which are ”These skies are dead.” So’s my initial interest in this, mate!

Can’t say I’m enjoying this. Very dreary, very slow, very very boring. Things get a little faster (though not too much) for the “Battle in the swamp”, which this time has eight sentences, plus Under the water” repeated four times at the end. Not real big believers in sweating it on the lyrics department, Conan, are they? Swirling wind noises and a shuddering guitar introduce “Grim tormentor”, with a sort of mid-paced feel to it, while “Golden axe” is a six-minute instrumental that not surprisingly, given what I’ve heard here, crawls along at an agonisingly slow rate. It’s nice, in its way, but so slow it’s almost like hearing someone learn to play a guitar. Slowly.

Good percussion joining in, and if I had to pick a favourite this might be it, what I’ve said notwithstanding. It has a certain atmosphere that’s hard to pin down. I could see it being beefed up with synth or piano or dark violin but … none of that happened of course. Another crushing hard grinder in “Headless hunter”, which has exactly six lines in the lyric, none of which are any more than three words long, most are two. A long, plodding instrumental intro runs for almost three of the near-to eight minutes the song runs for, then when the vocal does come in it really doesn’t change the song that much. And now we’re into the closer, “Invincible throne”, without me even realising the track has changed.

This is nine minutes long, very very slow and its lyric almost consists entirely of one-word sentences, of which there are a total of twenty in the song. Talk about a minimalist approach! Kind of more life, or a little more life, in the vocal here, though not much. Touches of defiance, triumph and pride in the singing, but it’s hard for me to get excited about anything on this album. Just too damn slow.

TRACKLISTING

1. Hawk as weapon
2. Battle in the swamp
3. Grim tormentor
4. Golden axe
5. Headless hunter
6. Invincible throne

Like grindcore, it would seem that Sludge Metal is somethng I won’t be getting into, if it’s all like this. I tell you, I’m ready for some speed metal after that. It’s not that it was bad, just really not my sort of thing at all. Bring on the Slayerfest!

Speaking of which... ;)

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We've three albums left to go, and I've been having a hard time finding the last, so it may end up only being two. We'll see. Meanwhile, with such irony that proves or maybe disproves the existence of God, Slayer's ninth album hit the shops in 2001. In September. Eleven days into September. That's right: with stunningly bad timing, did they but know it, “God hates us all” was released on September 11 2001. That could surely not be a good omen. The album cover, showing a partially burned bible with the band's logo branded into it, could not have gone down well after the attacks and may mistakenly have been seen as some sort of tacit support for Islam. I don't know this of course, I'm just guessing here. But anyone who releases an album that decries and denounces God on the day so many people lost their lives in the worst terrorist incident of the twenty-first century (so far) is asking for trouble.
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God hates us all --- Slayer --- 2001 (American)
Not that Slayer would have cared about that I suppose. Perhaps the controversy just fuelled album sales. I don't remember hearing about Slayer albums being burned in the streets, so perhaps they weren't quite commercially famous or important enough for the general public to take notice, and metalheads wouldn't care: they'd know the score. So maybe Slayer dodged a bullet. Either way, the title was in fact not a slur against God as such: Hanneman explained that it was based on the fact that when things fall apart we all seem to blame God (whether we believe in Him or not) and it always seems like He's letting really bad stuff happen --- 9/11 being a good and relevant example. But with Slayer's reputation for being something less than choirboys, people would make the obvious assumption and jump to the wrong conclusion.

Again using backwards masking and sound effects for only the second time, “Darkness of Christ” starts off with a somewhat muddy, confused melody as King and Hanneman's guitars chop riffs and in the background voices talk and scream. The song lasts just one minute and thirty seconds and is really more an intro to the album, as Slayer blast into “Disciple”, with a powerful vocal from Tom Araya and the title of the album shouted in the chorus. Sort of mid-paced, it's slower than a lot of the usual Slayer material for about half its length, until on the back of a King solo it pumps up to full speed and crashes to the end, taking us into “God send death”, which alternates between sludgy, stomp-along rhythms and manic speed.

This album is very much the creation of Kerry King, having seven of the thirteen tracks written by him --- both music and lyrics --- and “New faith” shows his talent in a really rockin' powerblast of a song with, um, a hook? Yeah, it's there, believe it or not. Best track on the album so far. Really just pounds along and the vocal follows the rhythm rather than just seeming as if Tom is screaming or roaring in time. “Cast down” is another great one, supposedly watching society through the eyes of a fallen angel who has turned to drugs --- I don't see the fallen angel part myself really, but again what do I know? A great sense of anger and frustration in the lyric as Tom bellows ”America! Home of the brave! Land of fucking disenchantment!” Bit tame for Slayer, really. Powerful drumwork from Paul Bostaph on his last outing with the band.

There's a real sense of pain and the feeling of drowning in “Threshold”, as an overbearing love affair pushes a man to violence which spills out beyond the borders of his own doomed relationship, and the speed kicks right back up for “Exile”, as paranoia boils over into unimaginable violence, Tom bawling ”You self-righteous fuck!/ Give me a reason/ Not to rip your fucking face off!” and Kerry's guitar wails in counterpoint, like an avenging beast waiting to be set free, waiting to ravage rape and kill. In contrast to the ultra-violence and passion of the last two tracks, a laidback guitar opens “Seven faces” with a dark, heavy crunching beat and a scream from Tom before the vocal proper begins. Another powerful fusilade from Bostaph, his drums rolling and echoing, and a spoken vocal from Tom in the midsection as the song slows down to almost doom metal speed.

There's slow, dark guitar too to open “Bloodline”, which strides along with brash arrogance, crushing everything in its way, I think it's about vampires, though I could be wrong. “Deviance” seems to be another serial killer tale. Yeah, another one. Good song though, if not original: some really atmospheric guitar and more sound effects, great sense of brooding and very ominous aura about it. Jamming their feet down hard on the pedal Slayer open the throttle to full and blast off at incredible speed as “War zone” once again has Tom singing about the horrors of war. An angry, almost maniacal vocal and near-psychotic guitar work makes this something of an event on the album, one of the heaviest songs on “God hates us all”.

The longest track at four minutes thirty-two seconds, “Here comes the pain” delivers what it promises, with a crushing guitar assault from Kerry and Jeff, skullcracking drumming from Paul and a marching beat as Tom roars like the Antichrist revealed. Kerry does a very passable Tony Iommi here, while the raw brutal energy Slayer have made their trademark and become known for closes the album in “Payback”, which just puts its head down, charges blindly and goes for it. The vocal delivery is so fast it's hard to make out the words, but the intent is clear: someone's gonna die tonight!

There are two bonus tracks on the international version of the album, and the first is “Scarstruck”, with a sort of boogie beat to it and something of a mid-paced song, while “Addict” takes a somewhat different approach, with an echoey slow guitar building the atmosphere as the song crunches along, picking up speed as the beat increases and Tom roars the vocal. With a searing solo from Kerry we pound towards the end, with the shock revelation at the end being that the addiction being sung about is murder!

TRACKLISTING

1. Darkness of Christ
2. Disciple
3. God send death
4. New faith
5. Cast down
6. Threshold
7. Exile
8. Seven faces
9. Bloodline
10. Deviance
11. War zone
12. Here comes the pain
13. Payback
14. Scarstruck
15. Addict

The themes may generally remain the same, but this has turned out to be one of the Slayer albums I have most enjoyed so far. I'm not quite sure what it is --- the songs are basically nothing new and the playing is top-notch if sometimes a little too fast to appreciate --- but there's just something about the cohesiveness of this album that speaks to me. Who knows what it is that makes one album better than another, but this is for me their best effort since “Seasons in the abyss.” Great stuff.

That leaves us with two, maybe, before we wrap things up.

Ah, but wait. Before the tenth album was put out there was an EP, which we must also look at. Five years after “God hates us all” and two months before the new album came this little taster. After waiting patiently for half a decade for fresh material from their heroes this must have been like manna from Heaven (or Hell) to the legions of Slayer fans.

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Eternal pyre --- Slayer --- 2006

Okay, scratch that. Now that I research it further, the EP contained one --- one! --- track which would be available on the album later and the rest of it was made up of videos of live performances of tracks we've already reviewed. To quote Kerry King, fuck that shit. We'll press on.

How many friggin hours a day to you spend writing these journals, everytime I look you´ve written another detailed review, that would take mere mortals god knows how long to write? ;)

Well a lot of it has been pre-written, though as I speak I'm still writing new stuff. Overall, I think I began this around late August, when I knew that I was coming back. Some days I'd spend two or three hours a day doing stuff, somedays just one. Some days I wouldn't write anything at all.

Matter of fact, in the closing article I'm thinking of putting up stats: how many albums reviewed, how many words written etc. ;)

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So, after spending a week in Germany, here we are in sunny Spain. I know a few Spanish bands, but I'm going to try to develop my knowledge further as to what this country has to offer, and I want to start my look at Spanish metal with a rather obvious choice, though to be honest they're a band who, though I know of them, as everyone does, I have never heard any of their music. But they've been around for a long time, and I think may be one of the oldest metal bands in Spain. They've certainly been around longer than most.
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Volumen brutal --- Barón Rojo --- 1982

The story of Baron Rojo seems to be one of infighting and those ever-present “musical differences”. Unhappy with their original band's direction in a more pop vein, brothers Armando and Costas de Castro formed Baron Rojo, but to piss off the others in the band they had left they initially called their new outfit by the same name, Coz, until legal injunctions prevailed and they had to change the name. Playing with such luminaries as Iron Maiden, Golden Earring and Twisted Sister, they fragmented in 1989, with bassist José Luis Campuzano “Sherpa” and drummer Hermes Calabria leaving the band and setting up their own version of Barón Rojo, leading to the confusing situation of there being two Barón Rojos touring and recording, as the two de Castro brothers continued on with their version of the band.

However, all that was in the future and “Volumen brutal”, the second album from the classic lineup was to be their breakthrough album, due in no small part to their appearance at the Reading Festival, at the time one of the biggest rock festivals in the UK, and also to the assistance of Bruce Dickinson, who helped them translate their lyrics in order to be able to issue an English version of the album. This of course meant that “Volumen brutal” (need a translation?) ;) sold in much greater numbers than it would have had if it had been only sung in their native Spanish. Their label, however, would later dig its heels in and refuse to allow them out of their contract, scotching a deal with EMI that would have brought the Spanish metallers to the next level. As a result, Barón Rojo remain largely unknown outside of Spain.

I've managed to come across both the English and Spanish versions on Spotify, but to try to get the full Barón Rojo experience I've decided to go with the Spanish version. “Incomunicación” starts us off (English: “isolation ward”) and it's a hard fast rocker from the off, with the obvious comparisons to Maiden and Saxon, and perhaps a drop of glam metal icons The Sweet thrown in. Great guitar work from both the brothers de Castro (no way to know who is playing solo) and thumping, raucous drumming from Hermes Calabria. A big heavy finish takes us into “Los rockeros van al Infienro” (Rockers go to Hell --- strange thing to write about but anyway) with a somewhat slower beat but still heavy and the vocal from bassman Sherpa. Seems Barón Rojo switch, or switched their vocalists around; Carlos sang the opener, and Armando will sing the penultimate track. This has a nice hard rock feel about it with screeching guitars but sort of more rock than metal, then a boogie beat suffuses “Dame la opportunidad” (Give me the chance) again a slower song that swaggers along with a sense of Lizzy in the double guitar attack. Carlos is back behind the mike for this one.

I'm happy to take the translations offered from the Wiki page, to a point, and I'll tell you why later. But I would have thought (wrongly) this meant “Lady fortune”, which just shows how much Spanish I know. Still... Anyway, great solo here and Sherpa takes the vocal for “Son comos hormigas”. Great rock and roll track with sprightly upbeat guitar, but here is where I begin to take issue with the translations offered. It's supposed to be “termites”, but first of all there are three words, and I know “como” is “how” or “as” or something, so I don't see how it can be one word in English. Unexpected blast of sax comes in from the famous Mel Collins, and then a great guitar solo takes the song towards its conclusion.

“Las flores del mal” (Flowers of evil, even I knew that) is the most metal track so far, but it's really (and I mean really) close to a slowed-down version of Maiden's “Prowler”. It rocks along on a sort of three-chord boogie with great energy and purpose, easily my favourite on the album so far, Maiden comparisons notwithstanding. Another Carlos-driven effort, it's followed by “Resistiré” (Stand up), a great rocker with a pretty weird start that sounds like horns. Hmm. Then it powers up and just flies along, very catchy to be fair. Could have been a single. Sweet guitar solo, the kind you just expect to hear in the best metal, but often don't, then the next one up has a lot of old blues in it, but the translation problem rears its head again. Spanish title “Satánico plan (Volumen brutal)”, so essentially the title track, but the English translation would have you believe it's called “Someone's loving you”. What? I can only assume that some of the titles were changed when they were translated into English, for whatever reason. I read this as “Satan's plan (which may of course not be right, but “Volumen brutal” could hardly be anything else than brutal volume, could it?) Great vocal harmonies in this by the way, reminds me of, of all bands, Kansas!

There's a guest slot for ex-Gillan keyboards man and later film soundtrack composer Colin Towns on “Concierto por ellos” (Concert for them) and it really adds something to the song. Pity in a way they didn't have keys all through the album. Nevertheless, the brothers de Costa are unlikely to take a backseat, and there's plenty of fret action through the song too. “Hermano del rock and roll” is without question “Brothers of, or in, rock and roll”, but again someone would have you believe it translates to “You're telling me”. WTF? Anyway, it's a big hard, marching, punching rocker with slamming bass and ironclad drumming, the guitars working their magic on a song that betrays a certain flavour of AOR at times. It's also the only song on the album in which Armando gets to shine behind the mike, but to be perfectly fair to the band, it really doesn't matter who's singing, as all three are very good and you don't really notice any appreciable difference.

We close with “El Barón vuela sobre Inglaterra”, which at least correctly translates as “The Baron flies over England”, and I guess in a way that might be seen as their signature song? It's a blindingly fast, Maiden/Metallica influenced speed rocker (yes I know Metallica were only coming up at this time, but you know...) with one of the best guitar attacks on the album, and again the old Maiden thing pops up again. It's a great rocking instrumental to polish off the album, and surely went down a storm onstage.

TRACKLISTING

1. Incomunicación
2. Los Rockeros van al Infierno
3. Dame la oportunidad
4. Son como hormigas
5. Las flores del mal
6. Resistiré
7. Satánico plan (Volumen brutal)
8. Concierto para ellos
9. Hermano del Rock & Roll
10. El Barón vuela sobre Inglaterra

You can see why Barón Rojo have such respect in the metal community. At a time when really there was little or no metal coming out of the Iberian Peninsula, these four guys flew the flag --- possibly literally --- for heavy music in their native country, and with the help of one of the architects of the NWOBHM they became a force to be reckoned with, and people began to see that Spain was more than just a place to go for your holidays. In the end, as I mentioned, infighting tore the band apart and they split into two separate incarnations, each claiming to be the original. However in 2012 the four original members of the band did reunite for a rock festival im Barcelona. No news of their reforming the classic lineup is to hand though.

But in a time when to be a metal band --- or at least, a successful one --- really meant singing in English if you could, Barón Rojo bucked the trend and, though they did issue this album bilingually, their others were all in Spanish, and fans still bought them. If their label had let them out of their contract instead of selfishly and short-sightedly holding them back when the Big Name came knocking, who knows what they might have achieved?

Even at that, they put Spain on the metal map and laid the groundwork for all the bands who were to follow in their footsteps, some of whom we will be featuring in the next few days. For that at the very least they deserve our thanks. Well done senors, or as Basil Fawlty once remarked, “Oh, Arriba!”

Great write-up on Baron Rojo and that album just missed my list for 1982. You’re right there wasn’t that much coming out of the Iberian Peninsula around this time.

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No matter what country you look into there seems to be a glut of metal bands there. Yeah, I'm sure if I clicked Lichtenstein I'd find a few ... in fact, let's do that right now, for the craic. Wow. Eleven bands. Even if half of them are split up that means there's statistically more metal bands in Lichtenstein than there are taxis! Hope they don't all try to hail the same one at the end of a gig! But enough slagging of this tiny principality: should they ever enter Eurovision I'll certainly pounce on them for my “Eurovision Hell” slot. But for now, it just serves to prove a point. Like a disease everyone wants to catch, or a forest fire racing across the world, unstoppable, unquenchable, remorseless, metal is everywhere. And so when I tried to look up Spanish metal bands I was confronted by pages and pages of them, as indeed I was with the other two countries I've checked out so far.

Why do I tell you this? To forestall any whining about bands seen as “critical” to Spanish metal who I end up ignoring, not using or not even knowing about. I only have so much time, you know. And as for bands I know and have heard of --- Saratoga, Dark Moor, Cain's Dinasty --- I'm avoiding them, as this is supposed to be an exploration of bands I have never heard, or heard of. Which brings me to our second example. Admittedly, Barón Rojo were a must: you could no more ignore them when looking into Spanish metal than you could pass over Maiden if you were doing England, or Stratovarius if it was Finland you wanted to check out. But after them I didn't know where to turn, and so, Batty having proven strangely unknowledgeable about metal bands from Spain, I checked out some “top lists” and saw some other anonymous loser bleat “Tierra Santa is the shizzz!” (though with more z's than that) and thought, fuck it, why not?

And so here we are.

Formed in 1997, Tierra Santa (Holy land?) have been around the block a few times. They have nine albums to their credit, not including live and also two compilations, and have appeared on tribute records to Iron Maiden, Led Zep and even Barón Rojo themselves. This is their fourth album.
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Sangre de reyes --- Tierra Santa --- 2001 (Locomotive)

The good thing about Spanish is that, although I learned very little of it in school, it's not that hard to decipher basic phrases. Oh, I could never speak nor understand it, but I can take a pretty good stab at what short sentences mean. The title above, I'm sure you'll have worked out, is “blood of the kings”, and we get started with “David y el gigante”, which surely must be “David and the giant”, or to put it another way, David and Goliath. Dark thunder presages an ominous beginning but then soft tinkly piano is the first instrument we hear, and so we are introduced to Paco, who does the keyboards, nothing else. Throaty bass and guitar swirl in now as Roberto Gonzalo and Arturo Mallas respectively make their presence known, backed by drummer Iñaki Fernández as vocalist Ángel San Juan completes the quintet. And has he some set of pipes!

The song rockets along on a real Iron Maiden footing (sorry, but it does!) and though I have no idea what they're singing about I expect it may be that Biblical contest between boy and giant, or it could be a metaphor for something else. Either way it's damn impressive. As is “La ciudad secreta” (gotta be “Secret city”) which runs along on the driving rhythms of Fernández's drumkit, with San Juan's vocal a little more aggressive but still very clear. Great hook in the song, and I wonder how well known Tierra Santa are in their native country? On the strength of even these first two tracks they deserve to be famous. Again, “Pegaso” needs no translating, and gallops along like the very horse of legend, flying effortlessly through the air on the twin guitars as the drums reverberate like the mighty horse's white wings. Great sort of choir adding backing vocals, but the standout is Mallas's (or is it San Juan's?) steaming guitar solo near the end. Epic.

This band seem to have a great interest in myths and legends and incorporate them into their lyrics. We've already had the story of David and Goliath (whether it was an allegory or not), Pegasus and now we hear the tale of “Juana del Arco”, with some expressive keyboards and a galloping drumbeat. It very much sounds like there's a female vocal in there, let me check: yeah, there are two, Alicia Arguiñano and Mariví Echaniz. Great song, though it seems over too soon and we're into “La sombra de la bestia”, which I think is “the sleep of the beast”. That could be anything really, from a dragon in a cave to a gorgon or something more esoteric and cerebral , so I'll have to just leave it at that. It's another fast hard rocker, with again more input from Paco's keyboards, which have been sort of conspicuous by their absence up to now, at least I haven't heard them since the opener. This song, too, has one hell of a hook in it, and there's no doubt Tierra Santa know how to write catchy melodies while still remaining heavy as hell. Smoking guitar solo really fleshes the song out and San Juan's vocals are pinpoint precise, even if I could not tell you what he's singing. Does it matter? With music this good, no it does not. Music speaks its own language, metal even more so and you certainly don't need to understand the lyrics to be able to enjoy these songs.

Man, for a song over five minutes long that finished really quickly! Conversely, the next one is very short, in fact the shortest track on the album at just over two, to lead us into the next track. “Dos vidas (Prologo la Armada)” is a slow, swaying ballad that means, I think, “two lives (prologue to the armada)” and features some very accordion-like synth from Paco, with acoustic guitar from Mallas keeping the tone very gentle and relaxed. Of course then the track it precedes is a fast powerful, heads-down, kick-the-walls-down rocker which reminds me in places of Maiden's “Back in the village”. I assume the armada they're singing about is not the sixteenth century one that attacked England, as that was beaten and almost destroyed. Could be something to do with the Trojan War? Hell, could be anything. Who cares? Just shake that head man!

More incredible solos from the guys and again it drives along on the piledriver drumming of Iñaki Fernández, and again it's over far too quickly. One thing I do notice about Ángel San Juan is that he never needs to scream, or even really raise his voice to be heard over the music. He just seems to be a natural singer and takes it all in his stride. After all the death growls, grunts, screams and hisses I've endured in the last while it's nice to hear someone who can sing effortlessly and doesn't grate on my ears. “El laberinto del minotauro” surely retells the legend of Theseus and the Minotaur, and features the return of the two ladies on backing vocals. It's nowhere near as fast as “La armada invencible”, but it's still upbeat and powerful, and Paco's keyboards play a big part in the melody. The Maiden influence comes through on the “Woah-oh-oh-oh-oh!” in the bridge: guess they just can't help themselves, but I won't hold it against them.

Is there a ballad on the album? Glad you asked. Yes. Yes there is. And it comes in the form of “El amor de mi vida” (love of my life), driven by the soft piano of Paco and a gentle vocal from San Juan, strings synth joining the melody and carrying it through the first verse. Soft, bouncy percusson comes in then, with guitar fading into the mix and nice backing vocals adding a touch of colour too. Very passionate vocal, but again even when singing about his lover, or his broken heart, or whatever the hell he's singing about, San Juan hardly seems to break a sweat. Guitar solo in the mould of Poison's “Every rose has its thorn” or G'n'R's “November rain”, and the girls are back to add their underused talent to the song. I'd say one of the standouts, but to be fair there are no bad tracks on this album, at least so far.

“Mi tierra” (my land) hops everything back up to ten with a big guitar and keyboard opening and then rocks along like there's no tomorrow, and then the title track closes an album that has been pretty much amazing all the way through, a real revelation and a future favourite (looking to purchase their music as I type). “Sangre de reyes” has a big, powerful guitar to open it, then just kicks the gates open and runs for it, blazing a trail of quality and energy behind it as it goes, disappearing over the Spanish hills and leaving me wanting more, more, more!

TRACKLISTING

1. David y la gigante
2. La ciudad secreta
3. Pegaso
4. Juana de Arco
5. La sombra de la bestia
6. Dos vidas (Prologo la Armada)
7. La Armada Invencible
8. El laberinto del minotauro
9. El amor de mi vida
10. Mi tierra
11. Sangre de reyes

I'm sure they won't thank me for saying this, and it's really not fair, but if you're looking for a Spanish version of Iron Maiden you really need look no further than Tierra Santa. They have it all. They have obviously grown up listening to the music of one of the biggest and most popular metal bands on the planet, and while they certainly do not ape or copy Bruce and the boys, there's no getting away from the influence Maiden have had on this band. But Tierra Santa also have their own identity, and their talent for writing catchy hooks into powerful metal songs takes some beating.

Mind you, it is rumoured that they have a mascot called Eduardo.... Just kidding. Am I? Maybe. Or maybe not.

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As we continue our exploration of this subgenre I ask you to bear with me and cut me some slack. Some bands here may, possibly, not quite be Viking Metal (Amon Amarth were mentioned, even though they come up on Wiki's list) but as I'm not 100% certain what makes a pure Viking Metal band, I'm trying to choose examples who typify the Viking ethic in their lyrics more than the actual style of music, though if I can get both then great. I'm hoping I've chosen good examples here but if not don't hold it against me: I'm just now learning about this subgenre so I may make some dumb mistakes. With that in mind, let's press on.

Another band who are said to have been big on the Viking Metal scene, and who also evolved out of Black Metal beginnings, coming out of the wilds of Finland and so therefore conforming to our more or less formulaic geo-specifics, have at the time of writing eleven albums. I know I looked into Bathory in detail, and perhaps I should really do the same here, but as time marches on and Metal Month II heads into its second half, I want to be able to look at a few more bands, so will just grab one album from each. That may be a challenge, as I have no way of knowing if the one I pick for a specific band is typical of their output or indeed even their best Viking Metal album, but I'm going to do some research and see what I can manage.

Anyway, the first one I want to look at here is
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As I said, they began as a Black Metal band so I think I can discount their first few albums, and try to see where the change began. Okay, this is not as easy as it seemed it would be. Apparently, right from their debut album Enslaved seem to have had Viking Metal influences, but each album up to the fourth is said to have heavy Black Metal leanings. Even the one where they're said to have shifted towards Viking Metal is still described as a “violent black metal” album. So, whether I'm correct or not, I'm going for this one, the fifth in their discography and the one on which apparently they began to bring in progressive metal sounds. It is, however, like all their early albums, sung in Finnish, though I have translations for the titles of the songs, and they all look pretty Viking material to me.
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Mardraum - Beyond the within --- Enslaved --- 2000 (Osmose)

Now what exactly is “beyond the within” I can only imagine, but I see that EM have been kind enough to provide translations of the lyrics too, so I should be able to follow the storylines, even if I can't (as I somehow expect will be the case) understand the singer. The expected thunderstorm rages as a lone guitar sings softly, and I note this opener is over ten minutes long, so there's a little trepidation here. The soft guitar punches up as the percussion blasts in, and the tempo is slow and stately as we begin "Større enn tid – tyngre enn natt" which seems to translate to “Larger than time, heavier than night”. It does descend into something of a fast, hard, black metal groove for a short moment then comes back with more progressive guitar, the tempo picking up and we're now three minutes in and there hasn't been a sniff of a vocal. I've seen long instrumentals before, but I doubt this album would start off with a ten-minute one. Also, I see there are lyrics. So as we move into the fourth minute I'm surprised that there is still no singing?

Ah, and now it comes in, a sort of vocal harmony before vocalist Grutle Kjellson screams the main part, and it's quite black metal and completely indecipherable, as I more or less feared, but the music is powerful and dramatic and very good. The lyric, though I can read it, I don't understand, but it may be the words of Death when Kjellson roars ”Days ended, and the stars died/ Before the wanderers reached home/ But I knew the way.” Now it breaks into a mad speedfest that would make Slayer envious, and the vocal, never understandable anyway, gets totally lost as Kjellson sings rapid-fire. And then it slows down and the last minute is driven by a soft guitar tone and no percussion, till Kjellson roars again and it ends on a heavy guitar. “"Daudningekvida" (Deadhymn) is much shorter and faster, powering along on a real speed guitar with some really excellent solos from Ivar Bjørnson and then things slow down in a serious doom metal vibe for “Inngang-Flukt “ (Entrance-escape)” as the kind of keening vocal harmonies return for the first time since the opener.

This song, though almost eight minutes long, has only eight lines of lyric, two verses, and seems to concern someone trapped in limbo. Very Conan, I must say. It kicks up then in the third minute, though nothing like the previous track. Cool phased guitar from Richard Kronheim joins that of Bjørnson as they take over the track until it all falls back in the fifth minute with a single acoustic guitar melody. Heavy vocals then come in with what I guess is the second verse, and the drums, courtesy of our old friend Dirge Rep from Gehenna. Oddly enough, this seems to be the only song on the album sung in English, and hence the English title actually appears in the tracklisting. How strange! Some great work on the guitar there by the two lads, then it ends on those sad vocal harmonies, taking us into "Ormgard" (the hive), with a strangely mono sounding guitar, almost as if it's only coming out of one speaker or is very far away. This goes on for about a minute before the song explodes into life, and is another fast rocker with growled screamed vocals from our friend Kjelsson.

This appears to be a standard rant by the Vikings against their sworn enemies, the Christians, as Kjlellson bellows ”Only the slave owns his own freedom/ When kings follow the laws of christened men “ while the next track, “Æges draum” seems to relate a dream which foretells Ragnarok, the Twilight of the Gods, as the Norn warns “[/i]"everything will die and decay /Silence will once again prevail" [/i] It's another heads-down fretfest with Kjellson not only bellowing his head off but going into an even deeper register so that we get those dark beast, “Cookie Monster” vocals. There's a reflective dark crunching passage in the middle which then gives way to again acoustic guitar, completely unaccompanied, before it all hammers on again, this time with echoing choral vocals. The title track is up next, and it's quite short, just over three and a half minutes, and has even less lyrics than "Entrance-Escape" , with only three lines. Its literal tranlation being “nightmare”, you'd expect maybe a black metal-inspired roarfest, but it's actually more thrash with a marching guitar and of course very little in the way of vocals.

"Det endelege riket" (the finite empire) sneers with disdain at man's attempts to make himself immortal by creating empires, all of which must eventually fall. It flies along on Dirge Rep's galloping drums and the twin guitar attack, actually has a great melody when it gets going, very catchy, almost blues/boogie. Yeah. "Ormgard II: Kvalt i kysk høgsong" (The hive II: Strangled by purity) just lashes along, with much attendant screaming from Kjelsson, and your guess is as good as mine as to what it's about. However it would seem that in "Krigaren eg ikkje kjende" (Warrior Unknown) a warrior meets Death, but does not recognise him, and being unable to slay him is left standing at the banks of the river he must cross into the afterworld. Here, again, Viking myth gets a little mixed up with Greek, as the Norsemen believed, as we have already noted, that their souls were taken by Valkyries from the battlefield up to Valhalla. It was the Greeks who held that Charon the boatman of the dead (surely the figure referred to here, unless it's supposed to be Odin) took your soul across the river Styx to Hades the Underworld.

"Stjerneheimen" (Starhome) rattles along at a fine pace, the lyric of which seems to be an homage to Ikea --- ”I hail the living room with pride “ ;) , a driving beat that takes us to the closer, the only instrumental on the album, and the shortest track. "Frøyas smykke" (Freya's Necklace) runs for less than two minutes, with a big, dramatic finale on guitar and drums, a kind of triumphant warrior's march which brings the album to a close, though I'm disappointed at the sort of weak fade-out at the end.

TRACKLISTING

1. Større enn tid – tyngre enn natt
2. Daudningekvida
3. Entrance-Escape
4. Ormgard
5. Æges draum
6. Mardraum
7. Det endelege riket
8. Ormgard II: Kvalt i kysk høgsong
9. Krigaren eg ikkje kjende
10. Stjerneheimen
11. Frøyas smykke

I'm going to hold off commenting on any of these albums until I've completed this section. Next I want to look at a band who have, by their own admission, no real subgenre. As they say themselves, “Týr's musical mission is to break down the walls that are erected between all the kinds of metal that have arisen over the years. Power-, doom-, black-, progressive-, gothic-, Viking-, folk-, ethnic- and epic metal. Walls and labels do nothing but fill people with prejudice.” (Quoted from Wiki article Týr (band) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia). However for our purposes here they fit right into the Viking Metal slot, and have certainly been listed in some “top Viking Metal bands” lists I've read, so let's look into the music of
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Stylised as Týr , they hail from the Faroe Islands, and I have reviewed one of their albums already. They usually sing in their native Faroese, but this, their fifth album, is bilingual (?) and though I had intended to review “Ragnarok”, their third, which would have fit in perfectly with this section, I see with some disappointment and the rapidly-disintegrating memory of a man over fifty years old (!) that I already reviewed that, so instead we're going for this one.
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By the light of the northern star --- Týr --- 2009 (Napalm Records)

As their name is so short and only has the one accent, and as I'm likely to be using it a lot in this review I'm going to just write it as “Tyr”. I like normally to give the proper spelling of any foreign band, but it seems pointless to keep copy/pasting just for one little accent, so any fans of the band, I hope you'll understand. “Hold the heathen hammer high” (love that alliteration!) gets us going with strong guitar and drums, picking up pace shortly as it hammers (sorry) along, Heri Joensen a much more accessible singer to me. No deep animalistic growls, no high-pitched screams; in fact, this comes closer really to power metal, which I guess goes to strengthen Tyr's case that they can't be pigeonholed into one metal subgenre. This certainly isn't your typical Viking Metal album, nor indeed your average band who operate in that sphere.

Great fretwork from Terji Skibenæs, and even if the chorus doesn't quite scan properly, the delivery being a little too rapid-fire for me, it's a good strong opening. Tyr are however known to sing both in English and their native tongue, and for the tale of “Tróndur í Gøtu” they revert to Faroese, as with a traditional Faroe Islands melody which I have come to understand this band use quite a lot, they tell the story of one of the islands' greatest Viking heroes, the eponymous Tróndur. Despite the folk metal influences this is a rocking song, powering along nicely on the guitar lines and driven by the incessant drumwork of Kári Streymoy. “Into the storm” opens on fast guitar but quickly slows down (?) into a sort of doomy vibe as those folk metal tinges come back in. Sort of a choir-style vocal as the boys return to using English, pretty cool little fluid solo about halfway through from Skibenæs, and this song seems to be, rather in the same vein as Bathory's “One rode to Asa Bay”, about the coming of Christianity and the efforts of the Vikings to resist it. Joenson sings defiantly ”You may die on your feet or you live on your knees /When the raven is fed time will come for peace”

Another traditional hymn is sung acapella to open “Northern gate”, perhaps oddly as the lyric is in English other than that. After the chant has been sung, the track warps into a real power metal-style monster, with rippling guitar solos and chugging frets, which between them and the Faroese opening lyric take the song past its halfway mark, where it slows down into an almost Queen vibe before ending as it began, on the acapella chant. “Turið Torkilsdóttir “ sings of a powerful woman in Viking myth, and gallops along like an avenging army with a hint of Maiden in the guitars. Okay now I'm confused. I can see the track running is the one above, but it's quite clearly the next track, “By the sword in my hand”. That probably means, due to the Faroese that was in the lyric of the previous song that it was Turið Torkilsdóttir , and if so, then where is “Northern gate”? This must be investigated.

Okay, I don't know what the fuck Spotify is at, but I can't get it to play “Northern gate”, so had to look for it on YouTube. It turns out to be a mid-paed rocker with a “Whoa-oh-oh-oh!” chorus and some sharp guitar, and it's definitely in English. Sorry about the confusion above; I did wonder why a song with an English title seemed to be sung in Faroese! Then again, with Tyr it seems you never quite know what they're going to do. Part of their mission to break down all those boundaries I guess.

Anyhoo, this track is as mentioned “By the sword in my hand”, with an almost hilariously camp lyric: ”By the sword in my hand/ I will conquer the land/ I will decimate and decapitate/ Those who question the sword!” Dear god. :rolleyes: The next track should be “Ride”, but I'm beginning to doubt the running order now, so let me check the lyric --- no, that's right. Good rocking song, with a very catchy chorus and a sort of traditional jig or something in the melody. Ah, interesting. I see the music is based on Faroese and Irish traditional music. Guess that explains the jig then! Very melodic guitar here to be sure. “Hear the heathen call” ramps up the tempo as the Vikings charge into battle, heedless of the danger, their mantra ”Time will take us all/ And hear the heathen cry/ Finally we die.” More sort of power metal feel to this again, fretburning solo, one of the best on the whole album.

The title track takes us to the end, a pounding, galloping stormer that seems to bewail the passing of the Vikings and the rise of Christianity --- ”May the mighty Mjølnir nail the bleeding /And naked Nazarene upon the pagan planks/ Pound in the painful nails now and hang him high and dry” --- I recall when watching the excellent TV series “Vikings” recently a scene where the Vikings broke into a monastery and looked in disdain at the crucifix. “Your god is dead!” sneered one of them to a priest, just prior to killing him, “he cannot help you.” It's a good point, and yet at the end it was Christianity that won out as the pagan ways were driven out by the armies of missionaries that swarmed over Scandinavia and the north, seeking converts. Joenson seems to ruefully realise this, as his final words are ”Have we fallen too far to rise/ And closed our eyes?”

TRACKLISTING

1.Hold the heathen hammer high
2. Tróndur í Gøtu
3. Into the storm
4. Northern gate
5. Turið Torkilsdóttir
6. By the sword in my hand
7. Ride
8. Hear the heathen call
9. By the light of the northern star

Having last time picked a band I already knew, it seems only fair to conclude this part of the section with one I have never heard of, although I'm sure there are plenty of them around. I can't say for certain if this subgenre is for me --- vocals are hard to get around sometimes --- but the lyrical matter is like candy to someone like me, brought up on the myths and legends of the Norsemen and further, being a big fan of The Mighty Thor in Marvel comics when I was growing up. And so the band I chose happens to reflect that sort of songwriting, which I assure you is pure coincidence... ;)
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Hailing from Norway, perhaps the true spiritual home of the Vikings, Einherjer apparently means “one in an army” or “one who fights alone”. How those things are not mutually exclusive I don't know, but then I don't speak Norwegian, so maybe it's some weird idiosyncrasy endemic to that language. At any rate, Einherjer have been around since 1994, and unlike some or indeed most of the other bands in the subgenre they don't seem to have evolved from black metal beginnings. Some of their music does lean, I'm told, in that direction, but even their first album, “Dragons of the north” was a Viking Metal album --- well it would be wouldn't it, with a title like that? -- with songs about warriors, raids and gods. That however is not the one I'm going to take a look at.
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Odin owns ye all --- Einherjer --- 1998 (Century Media)
This is their second album, and thankfully for me, all the lyrics are in English. It opens, oddly enough, with a strong organ from Gerhard Storesund, and it's a slow, marching beat, very cinematic, almost reminiscent of one of those operas of Wagner, and yes it's a short intro before it breaks into a real guitar assault and the drums pound in as “Out of Ginnungagap” kicks its way into the album. The vocal is raw and hoarse but very listenable. The tempo remains hard but slow, and tells the story of creation according to Norse myth, where Ymir, he Frost Giant, is slain by his three sons, one of whom is Odin, who builds the earth, known as Midgard. For this reason vocalist Ragnarr Vikse tells us ”Odin owns us all, and we owe all to him.” Some great guitar work from Frode Glesnes, who then leads in “Clash of the elder” on a much softer guitar.

The vocal is cleaner too, the beat still heavy but slow, some very nice tinkling piano adding to the atmosphere of the song. Breaks into a sort of warrior chant for a while, getting into something of a groove before the keys come back in. There's kind of a progressive metal edge to the song, mostly due to the often incongruous-sounding keyboards. The song itself seems to tell of the rise to power of Odin and his war with the Vanir, their enemy gods. The title track then rides on a hard guitar line that continues to drive it as the vocal makes its entrance and with slightly neoclassical twists in the melody it tells the lament of an old warrior left to die, perhaps of old age, as his friends have all fallen in battle. Ol' Glesnes then rips off the opening riff from Maiden's “22 Acacia Avenue” as the song piles into an instrumental on which he demonstrates his dexterity on the guitar.

“Remember Tokk” refers to a disguised Loki, who refused to weep for Balder, the most beautiful of gods, and so condemned him to remain in the Underworld. It's a slightly faster track, with elements of power metal in the melody, although I must say I don't hear the keyboards here at all, where I would have thought they would have been quite prominent. Glesnes (no I will not call him Frodo!) makes up for their absence with a powerful and melodic solo, but then Storesund brings his rig in to add to the tune. It is a guitar-centric piece though, fuelled by the mocking laughter of Loki as he envisages the end: ”Hark! Is that the battle horn?/ Has Ragnarok been born?” An event that every other god in Asgard dreads and fears is that which the evil half-brother of Thor looks forward to with ghoulish glee, when he will lead his dark forces against Odin and the gods.

The greatest achievement a warrior can reach is celebrated in “Home”, as the brave are led into the halls of Valhalla. As you might expect, it's a fast, joyous tune, powering along on Glesnes's guitar, as a warrior chant welcomes the honoured dead to their final resting place. I can't say an awful lot about “The pathfinder and the prophetess” though: it's a little bog standard though it does have some pretty freaky 70s-style organ which almost saves it, and a decent warrior chorus. Yeah, not bad, just not as good as the tracks before it. “Inferno”, now, has a dark, menacing vibe about it as it strides along purposefully, like a warrior mowing down enemies on either side as Ragnarok finally descends upon the world. Touches of both Sabbath and Dio in the music, with a sort of Egyptian style riff that should really be out of place but somehow manages not to be.

Lush keyboards and serene bass drive the closer, “A new Earth”, as the gods are swept away and the only survivors, a man and a woman on Midgard, are left to rebuild the human race without the tutelage and/or interference of the Aesir. A triumphant march, perhaps glorifying the chance of man to stand on his own two feet, runs through this and it begins to gallop along, exulting in the birth of humanity, or at least a humanity that has its own destiny in its hands.

TRACKLISTING

1. Leve Vikingeaanden
2. Out of Ginnungagap
3. Clash of the elder
4. Odin owns ye all
5. Remember Tokk
6. Home
7. The pathfinder and the prophetess
8. Inferno
9. A new earth

This section seems to show in the end that there are many facets to Viking Metal, from the roaring, growling, unintelligible vocals of Enslaved to the more power metal approach of Tyr, and Einherjer manage the almost unimaginable feat of telling the entire history of the Norse gods, from the creation of the world to the Twilight of the Gods, in one album. Certainly a versatile subgenre and one that merits a lot more investigation, but I have not that much time so the next section will be the last before I wrap this up. So far though, I'm pretty impressed on the whole.

Tell me you're gonna throw in some Turisas for Viking metal? A bit like a combination of In Flames and power metal I guess. They do some screaming, but you can still hear what he's saying, and they've put out at least two concept albums, all about Viking stuff. Just steer clear of their latest one.

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From Sludgy doom and weird, stunningly beautiful ambient metal to my own favourite kind, melodic. This comes from a band called ReinXeed (not sure how that’s pronounced) who hail from Sweden, and this is their fourth of so far six albums. It’s a concept one, concerned with the tragic sinking of RMS Titanic in April 1912. Sounds like it could be right up my particular boulevard of broken dreams…
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1912 --- ReinXeed --- 2011 (Rival Records)
Recommended by Ki
The title track gets us going with a suitably dramatic and cinematic introduction, lots of synths, guitars and choral vocals, slowing down to perhaps symbolise the launching of the great ship, or perhaps, as guitars mimic hammers it’s more the construction of the vessel we’re hearing. Either way, it’s a powerful, stirring opening and bodes well for the rest of the album. I thought for a while it might be an instrumental but now the vocal comes in, courtesy of Tommy Johansson, and I’m glad to hear clear, clean vocals for once. The lyric concerns the disaster itself, and is perhaps setting the scene and will look back for the rest of the album? Either way, lines like ”Hear the children cry/ One more time before they'll die/ In the Atlantic sea” are harrowing as we move past the 100th anniversary of the greatest tragedy the sea has ever known.

“The final hour” shows I was mistaken, as the narrative does not look back but continues as the survivors struggle in the sea, desperate to be rescued but seeing no hope on the horizon as the cold waves sap the strength from their limbs and suck some of them under. Another fast, rollicking tune with great backing vocals --- a choir? --- helps to convey the sense of terror and despair that must have gripped all on board that terrible night. Johansson is certainly a powerful singer, and well able to keep up with the galloping drums of Viktor Oloffson and the chugging, racing guitars of I assume his brother Mattias, and Calle Sundberg, who now rack off some fine solos between them. “Terror has begun” keeps the tempo high, though with a more almost military drumbeat from Olofsson, and a little less emphasis on the choral backing vocals.

The amazing dexterity and virtuosity of the two guitarists is shown to great effect on “Spirit lives on”, although I must admit, glancing at the lyric sheet beforehand I thought this would be a slow ballad, a prayer to those lost in the ocean. But the beat goes on, hammering drums and screaming guitars as the song races along in true Power Metal tradition. I might argue that the keyboards, which are also played by Tommy Johansson, could be used to greater effect; the album seems to lean very heavily on the power of the axe attack, which is fine, as it’s a Metal album. But a Power Metal album often rides just as well on its keyboard passages, and I just haven’t heard any really great ones so far. They come in here a bit but they could be more to the forefront. A small complaint, as I’m really enjoying this album.

“Through the fire” details the panic aboard ship as people try to get to the lifeboats, and the heroic if somewhat pointless efforts of the band to continue playing as Titanic begins its slow descent below the waves. It’s another fast, energetic song, shorter than any of the others that have gone before, at only just under four minutes, then Johansson’s expert orchestrations with the synth come through with the opening of “The fall of Man”, recounting the launch and maiden voyage of the ship, and the terrible hubris that claimed it was unsinkable. Johansson sees the sinking of the Titanic as symbolic of Man’s impotence in the face of the often brutal and unforgiving forces of nature, proving that he is not the master of his own destiny.

I’m definitely enjoying this but it is becoming a little exhausting, and I could do with a ballad, a slow song, an instrumental, anything to arrest the blistering pace of this album. Nice little progressive touches in the keys and guitars and some radio signal sounds sprinkled over the tune, capped off with a searing solo from Johansson, with a Queen-style vocal harmony, as we power into “The Voyage”, which again turns the clock back to the start of the great liner’s journey. With a blast on the foghorn and soft keyboards could we be at last taking a breather? It’s somewhat reminiscent of the opener, with the choral vocals coming back in for a moment, but my hopes of a slower song are dashed as Mattias Johansson and Calle Sundberg wind up their guitars, Olofsson blasts out the drumbeats and we’re off and running again.

And with a title like “We must go faster”, I doubt this is going to slow things down at all. Of course it does not. As Captain Smith and his crew face the possible ignominy of arriving late at their destination on their maiden voyage, more speed is ordered and the huge cruise ship powers towards its date with destiny and death, icy teeth yawning in the darkness in the distance, waiting to bite into Titanic’s hull and bring her down, like some unimaginable massive hunter of the ocean stalking its prey. Some good keyboard work here from Tommy Johansson, and a fine vocal performance that never really dips below excellent.

As befits its title, “Challenge the storm” has a defiant, almost arrogant punch to it, as the story of the previous song is continued, the ship piling on the power as the captain ignores the danger and orders more speed, unaware of what awaits them in the inky darkness ahead. Man’s hubris and arrogance reveals itself in the chorus: ”Rise to the sky, in heaven we belong /We know what's been told/ Together we are strong/ We are on the biggest ship of history!” But the bigger they are, as we know to our cost, the harder they fall. Bit of a mixed bag on the metaphors at the end: "Atlantis, give me a second chance/ To show my paradise/ Here in neverland the majestic lightning/ Strikes again when the sword in stone.” Um. huh?

They can’t resist referencing the movie when Johansson sings ”Standing before the head of the ship /Feels like I'm the king of the world!” in “Reach for the sky”, and yes, it’s another fast rocker with an almost falsetto vocal from Tommy. Another Queen-like choral vocal and some nice moments on the keys, which also herald the opening of the final track proper, the appropriately-titled “Farewell”, but again, though you might expect ReinXeed to slow down for this last song, they keep it fast and powerful, although the music is tinged with a certain amount of gravitas, respect and regret as the tragedy is recalled: ”Ancient stories tell of curse /And damnation on the ship/ The voyage of their dreams /Turned into the nightmares.”

The album closes on an instrumental, again with an apt title, as “Lost at sea” basically reprises the main melody of “Farewell” on keys with big orchestral finish, closing the album as dramatically and grandly as it opened it.

TRACKLISTING

1. 1912
2. The final hour
3. Terror has begun
4. Spirit lives on
5. Through the fire
6. The fall of Man
7. The Voyage
8. We must go faster
9. Challenge the storm
10. Reach for the sky
11. Farewell
12. Lost at sea

I really enjoyed this album. It has all the qualities I like --- power, speed, melody, great lyrics, a concept --- but I do feel a little let down by the fact that there was no ballad. When handling a story as tragic as this, surely there could have been room for at least one lament, whether it was the plaintive cry of one of those in the water, the anguished recollections of someone who survived but lost a partner, or even --- and I’m obviously stretching it here --- the wounded roar of pain from the ship itself as it settled into the water like some gigantic building falling? But the tempo never slackened, not until the very end with the short closing instrumental.

This niggle aside though, this was a great album and shows once again that Scandinavia has a whole lot to offer to the world of Heavy Metal, be it Black, Doom, Death or even Power. Not that surprising really: it is the land where the mightiest of legends originated, and the home of the feared Vikings, as we have seen in my exploration of Viking Metal. I feel I may have to look into this band a little more, if all of their output is this good.

Thanks. I needed suggestions for the last part, so they're in for sure.

The Varangian Way would be your best starting point probably. It's the first part of a two-album concept, and it's just fantastic. The other half, Stand Up and Fight, is also fantastic.

Happy to see that 1912 did well for you, TH. It does take a lot out of you to listen to it fully as it doesn't slow down until the end. I always found that as a strength. Sort of shows that they can keep a fast and steady flow through the entire album. However I understand your remark completely. When I heard the album for the first time, Tommy's vocals blew me away instantly, which BTW, he's only in his late 20's.

If you liked that, you should give Welcome ToThe Theatre a listen. Its another concept album dealing with multiple movie references. Very well done lyrically.

Great review as always.

A new week, and as we head into the third week of Metal Month II, time to watch those sharp edges as we sidle past and once again enter
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Surely this time I can get something a little more palatable than grindcore, death or black metal? Out of the many thousands --- or more --- of metal bands there are, it seems ludicrous that I keep coming up with the same stale selection, to say nothing of the fact that a huge percentage of the bands who pop up are either disbanded or unsigned. Oh well, off we go! Again.

Yeah. Thanks for that. :rolleyes: Not only death metal, but brutal death metal! Oh, and the "G" word too! Fan-fucking-tastic! And to make things worse, this band has albums! That probably means I'll be able to find something by them, which in turn means that, right out of the gate, I'm going to end up featuring the first band to fall out of the Grinder. Well, let's have a look...
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Fleshgrind, eh? You know, I can hear Batty's cackling laughter even from here! Has he paid off the folks at EM to make sure I only end up getting selections from extreme metal bands? I do have to wonder. Maybe he's affiliated with them in some way. Meh, thought I was getting away with it but I had actually entered “efleshgrind” into Spotify which, while it sounds like a death metal band formed in Middle Earth, is in fact incorrect spelling and of course returned zero results. Quite to my chagrin, when I spelled it correctly, two albums came up, so I guess I'm stuck with these guys. Let's meet them, and hope they don't pull out our entrails and eat them in front of us: such table manners, gents!
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Band name: Fleshgrind
Nationality: American
Subgenre: Brutal Death Metal
Born: 1993
Died: 2005
Status: No longer active; split up
Albums: “Destined for defilement” (1997), “The seeds of abysmal torment" (2000) and “Murder without end” (2003)
Live albums: “Live in Germany” (2002)
Collections/Anthologies/Boxsets: None
Lineup: Steve Murray (Guitars)
Rich Lipscomb (Vocals)F
James Genenz (Bass)
Jesse Kehoe (Drums

Not a whole lot of information about these guys that I can give you, other than that they broke up in 2005 after founder Rich Lipscomb left the band. An interesting point is that Lipscomb actually owned a record label (United Guttural Records) though surprisingly, none of the band's three albums or even their demos were recorded on that label. Very odd. Lipscomb anyway sold the label after he quit the band.

As I say, Fleshgrind released three albums before their dissolution in 2005, and there are two on Spotify so I have decided to go with the last of the three, their final album before disbanding. Given that there is a grindcore label attached to them also, it may not really make that much difference which I review, but this is the one I've plumped for. Apparently they were pretty big in the subgenre before breaking up, playing with the likes of Cannibal Corpse and Suffocation, so let's see what all the fuss was about.

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Murder without end --- Fleshgrind --- 2005 (Olympic Recordings)

Such lovely song titles as “Perversions of innocence”, “Duct taped and raped” and “Holy pedophile” (sic) give me an idea of what I have to look forward to. Better strap myself in, cos this ain't gonna be pretty! Oh, so you think you can fool me with an ambient piano intro do you? Do you not realise I have been listening to all stripes of metal these last few months and I know what to expect --- and there it is. Hard, hammering guitar, a vocal you could cut stone with and we're off with the title track. Oh, this is fun! Well at least it's short, and we're into “Sycophantic”, which probably should be spelled “Sick-o-phantic”, if you look at the lyric, which I rather stupidly did. Well I surely can't make out the vocals, so why not? Why not indeed. Worse is to come though in “Duct taped and raped”, which is not only about a rape, but an incestuous one. Here is some of the lyric: ”Cunt this is a long time coming/ Daddy's home and he's not alone/ He's brought with him deviant plan/ And a roll of tape in his hand/ The girl looks on in horror/ At the man that lurks before her/ Her eyes widen with shock/ As the fiend unsheathes his cock! “ Yeah, I tried to listen but I honestly couldn't make out any words: it just sounds like this guy Rich is grunting like a pig. Oh, I can make out the chorus, such as it is. Another blindingly fast, crushing guitar assault with what I see as little or no melody. Slows down in the last minute or so, then picks up again for the finish.

Great! Now EM's website appears to have gone down! In protest at this crap music perhaps? Well I suppose I kid but man it's terrible, from the so-called music to the singing and from the lyrical content to the all-out aural assault I'm cowering under here. I think the next track is called “Enslaved to my wrath” --- yeah, it is --- but when I tried to call up the lyric sheet that's when the website folded on me. Coincidence I presume, but it knocks me off my stride. Not that I need the lyrics or anything, but since I can't glean anything from the singing I was intending to see if I could understand the songs by reading the lyrics. The second track, “Sycophantic”, did seem to have some sort of idea in it, where the singer was kind of disgusted with himself for being into this perverted porn, and wondered why he did it, then also wondered why the girls who engaged in it did so. At least there is some thought behind the songwriting then.

But without the lyric sheet I'm kind of stuck for anything to say, and without any way to perhaps pay Fleshgrind any kind of compliment, because they're sure not getting it for the music! Let's try again .. huzzah! Success! We're back. So now, what about this song? Well they may be talking about Satan here, as they speak of “thousands of victims”, but again yeah, there's some intelligence in the lyrics, as again the victim is blamed for (presumably) her torture, as Lipscomb growls ”Your overwhelming hunger / For punishment drives you.” Indeed. “Display my decay” is another Slayer-type serial killer song, with a decent enough beat to be fair and the first really good guitar solo I've heard on this album, displaying actual melody! Shock! Again Lipscomb blames the victim: ”Accept your fucking fate/ You have surely earned it.” Won't stand up in court, son!

Seems this band worked with a wide variety of lyrical themes, including murder, rape, sexual deviancy and, er, murder and rape. “Perversions of innocence” continues the trend, a more galloping beat and machinegun guitar, Lipscomb still sounding like a beast (is he putting in snorts and squeals there, or is this just how he sings?) while with the joyous exclamation ”Let the torture begin!” you know what you're in for as “In sickness intertwined” opens and cannons along, pretty much the same as most of the rest of the tracks here. And just to underline the point, “Libertine atonement” starts with the word “Whore!” but I must sort of compliment them on an interesting, if brutal turn of phrase in the lines ”Panties soaked with shit and piss/ Tongue the ass and clitoris.” Shakespeare would be proud! I must admit, it made me grin a little. They don't write 'em like that any more! ;)

It's actually a slower, doomier song with hard but not breakneck drumming and a dark guitar running things. Nah, even with the lyric sheet I can't make out more than a few words this guy is growling. Not that, looking at the lyrics, I'd really want to! Big guitar ending, slow and doomy to this song and then we're almost finished. “Pistolwhipped” at least has the violence being perpetrated by a third party, an interrogation of sorts, and like the other tracks carrens along on a hard, brutal guitar and we end on “Holy pedophile” (sic) which I think was their first single, so why it's on this album, their third and last, I don't know. Or care.The lyrics to this make any Slayer song against Christ seem tame by comparison, as Fleshgrind upbraid the Catholic Church for its policy of ignoring clerical abuse, though they couch it in stronger terms than that: ”Defecation covered cock/ Slicing through the young boys bowels/ Cries of pain, piercing screams/ Grunts of pleasure, cum in you!“ Another fast song, in case you couldn't guess, though it has moments where it slows down, in what I think is the chorus. Big hard (climactic?)::laughing: ending on guitar, not too bad really.

TRACKLISTING

1. Murder without end
2. Sycophantic
3. Duct taped and raped
4. Enslaved to my wrath
5. Displayed decay
6. Perversions of innocence
7. In sickness intertwined
8. Libertine atonement
9. Pistolwhipped
10. Holy pedophile

Yeah. I really enjoyed this. I guess it was interesting looking at the lyrics, and it did prove that, despite the music which I really didn't like very much (ya think?) and the completely indecipherable vocals, there was some decent songwriting on this album. Lyrics that were not so much close to the bone as cutting right through it, they did nevertheless at times reveal some thought and even some introspection on the part of the songwriter, who I think is Rich Lipscomb. But I found it virtually impossible to enjoy the music, being completely unable to make out the vocals and, in addition, realising what they were singing about. It was all just a little bit too much like creepy voyeurism. Although I must admit it was kinda fun... :shycouch:

Oh well, they're gone now and I need worry about them no more. One more edition of this to go before we close Metal Month II: let's hope I have better luck next week than I've been having so far throughout this month!

You know, even though the lyrics were really --- and I mean really -- X-rated, on some level they were quite amusing. At least if I ever want to rape my sixteen-year old daughter I've got a blueprint now. Let's see... duct tape? Yep! That's all I need! Fleshgrind's almost comical approach to a really harrowing ordeal --- which I hope nobody seriously thinks I'm making light of, nor in any way condone --- earns them an extra cleaver they probably don't really deserve, but what the hell?
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Intended for release on June 6 2006, (6/6/6) Slayer's tenth album was in fact delayed until August, and featured the return of Dave Lombardo on the drumseat. Once again Slayer were in the headlines for all the wrong reasons. First, the cover of the new album depicted a mutilated Jesus who looked stoned, floating in a sea of blood. Yeah, Walmart are gonna stock that, guys! Secondly, the song “Jihad” on the album looks at 9/11 --- surely still too raw and fresh in the minds of Americans a mere five years later? --- from the viewpoint of the terrorists, and thirdly, after invoking a National Slayer Day, the band were seen to have encouraged fans to desecrate places of worship by scrawling their logo and Slayer-related phrases on churches, mosques and synagogues.

Yeah, after five years, Slayer were back! The media must love them. Slow news day? Have Slayer released a new album? They have? Get a reporter over there!
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The Christ illusion --- Slayer --- 2006 (American)

Even more of a Kerry King enterprise than the previous album, “The Christ illusion” has him in sole control of seven of the ten tracks, though not at all involved in the other three or the two bonus tracks. Perhaps surprisingly, one of those he didn't write is the highly controversial “Jihad”, whose inclusion on the album not only caused a total recall (hah!) of the album in India, but led to all stocks of it being destroyed. Don't play Mumbai, guys! There is however plenty of controversy to go around on this album, and of course King is involved in much of it.

“Flesh storm” is yet another war song and begins almost as if there are keyboards --- of course there aren't --- then piles into another necksnappingly fast song to open the album, with a blasting solo from King, “Catalyst” keeps the speed going without a pause, then it's time to justify the title of the album with some more Jesus-bashing, and “Skeleton Christ” does just that. Now, I hold sacred anyone's right to think what they like, worship or not worship what they want, and I understand Slayer are atheists. They've said that from the start, made it clear with an upfront Satanic image, even if that's all it is, an image. But the message is now beginning to wear thin. Yes, we know you hate God --- don't believe He exists --- hate Christianity and the Church and the Pope. We get all that. Do you have to keep hammering it into us, guys? Or have you just no other ideas and have to keep rehashing the same ones over and over, getting angrier and angrier and, let's be honest, more frustrated with each album?

That said, it's a good speed rocker with a lot of energy and anger, and great guitar as always, but the subject matter is beginning to induce yawns. “Eyes of the insane” does at least look at a different aspect of the war, the problem of PTSD, as a soldier returning from perhaps Iraq sees ”Tortured spirits/ Will not let me rest/ These thoughts of mutilated faces/ Completely possessed”. With an understated opening, quite low-key for Slayer the tempo snaps to full speed and the song careers along on again an almost impossible-to-follow vocal delivery from Araya. Powerful certainly; I just wonder if some of the ideas in these lyrics are being lost in the mix? Do the fans who headbang and mosh to their songs know what Slayer are singing? Meh, they probably do, or don't care.

Now we come to the one that caused most of the controversy and really upset India. Wonder how it would have sold in Saudi Arabia? “Jihad”, as mentioned, envisages the September 11 attacks from the other side, from Al Quadea's point of view, as Tom rants ”Twins in the end/ Begin and let the brothers fall!” It's another fast, angry song and again you'd wonder that anyone could even make out the lyrics (but then that's what liner notes are for, aren't they? And lyric websites) that caused so much offence. Nobody likes to hear the other side of the story, for their enemies to be seen as other than ravening demons. Hey, the truth hurts, America, and Slayer love to cause pain, don'tcha know that by now?

The problem I have with “Jihad” is that it's a cartoon. It's obviously written for shock value and shock value alone. Tom Arya even said he expected an American backlash, and was seemingly nonplussed and surprised when none materialised. Ironically, the only ones who got upset were the muslims, while the Christians were more worried about protecting the honour of their god. But everything that's written in the lyric seems to be taken from any documentary on National Geographic or from muslim extremist websites. There's no new insight here, and Slayer are definitely not identifying with Al Quadea. Unlike Steve Earle when he wrote “John Walker's Blues”, they're not trying to get inside the heads of the terrorists and see what made them tick. They're just expressing a version of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”. They hate the US Government and so do Al Quadea, so, you know, fuck yeah!

The trouble is, the thing they fail to (or don't care to) realise is that muslims and Christians worship basically the same god, albeit under different criteria. So putting in a line like ”Fuck your god!/ Erase His name!” is nonsense: it's the same god, whether you call Him God or Allah. So writing something for shock value alone renders it somewhat pointless, and devalues your message, if indeed there is any there. Still, it has to be said it was incredibly insensitive to write this, given that America was still recovering from the effects of the attacks. What if some of their fans had people killed or hurt on 9/11? What sort of an example is that to set? Not that Slayer care about that of course, but maybe they should have given it some consideration before pouring paraffin on the fire and then dancing about like lunatic devils.

The other issue I have with this song is its authenticity. One of the lines reads ”Lady kneeling on the ground” but Islamist terrorists would never use that word. They'd say something like “western whore” or “mother of infidels”. So it's not authentic. Badly researched. And if it's not authentic it's not believable. And if it's not believable it's not worth worrying about.

“Consfearacy” (see what they did there?) spits hatred at the US Government, which again is not news: Slayer hate the men in power. It's another breakneck-paced song, and powers right into “Catatonic”, dark and murky with the brooding hatred of a killer, then we keep on this theme with “Black serenade”, a more marching style song with yet more images of necrophilia and torture --- ”Watching as I fuck your corpse” --- subtle guys, subtle! :rolleyes: At least you can hear the vocals this time. Another hard sludge cruncher that develops into a speed freak is “Cult”, the one track on that EP I decided not to review, and the “taster” for the album, released two months prior. Again we have the expected, as Slayer rage against religion, denying the very existence of Jesus --- ”There is no fucking Jesus Christ/ There never was a sacrifice/ No man nailed to a crucifix” but this time they do at least link religion with war and throw in a dig at American foreign policy --- ”The war on terror just drags along” but it's the same old song. We also get the title of the album in this song: ”Revelation, revolution” Tom spits. ”I see through your Christ illusion!”

Good for you, Tom. Good for you.

“Supremist” seems to be to be a misnomer, or maybe it's intentional, but I think the word is “Supremacist”. You know what to expect, and you won't be disappointed. I don't know how many times in Slayer songs the Antichrist has laid waste to the Earth, but we've certainly watched Armageddon through their eyes a few times! Seen one holocaust, y'know, seen them all. That's it for the album, but there's a bonus track if you're interested, and have the stamina. “Final six” opens on atmospheric guitar which I don't expect to last, then heads into a deep Sabbath riff, grinding and groaning all over the place, then it speeds up and we're once again witnessing the Apocalypse as Slayer exult in the death of priests and the destruction of the Earth. Not exactly tree-huggers, then.

TRACKLISTING

1. Flesh storm
2. Catalyst
3. Skeleton Christ
4. Eyes of the insane
5. Jihad
6. Consfearacy
7. Catatonic
8. Black serenade
9. Cult
10. Supremist
11. Final six

Another pretty great Slayer album, I'll readily admit, but are they trying too hard now? It's almost as if they want people to hate them, want to alienate people, want to court controversy. That's always been their style of course but the problem is that when you push that too far people get over it and start to ignore you. If Slayer keep this up I fear they may become a parody of themselves, and there's going to be nothing more sad than seeing the likes of Weird Al Yankovich do something like “Reign in mud” on one of his next albums. Slayer need, in my opinion, to take a hold of themselves, look in that mirror and ask themselves if they're still of an age to be doing this kind of shit? That was fine when they were in their twenties, angry young men. But there's nothing sadder than a bunch of angry old men trying to keep the fire and passion going and failing miserably.

I'm not for a moment suggesting Slayer should record with an orchestra, or do an acoustic album, or anything of that nature. But they've been angry now for thirty years: isn't their anger spent? Isn't it now time to take stock, to chill out a little and enjoy life instead of hating it? Not that they will of course: they'll continue down the same old road they've gone for the last three decades. And a whole new army of youngsters are no doubt discovering this brutal, angry band for the first time, so they'll never be short of fans. But their original fans must be as old as they are now. Don't they owe it to them to give them a rest? Don't they owe it to themselves?

Again, I make the point: what do I know?

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I'm always happy to see someone tackle metal outside of their own area of influence. I loved Hayseed Dixie's rendition of “Ace of spades”, and of course metal acquires a really deep sense of grandeur when it's performed by a full orchestra, whether instrumentally, as in the “Hooked on Classic Rock” series or the Vienna Symphonic Orchestra going metal, or indeed with a band, as Metallica proved with “S&M”. So in thisnew section I’m calling http://www.trollheart.com/wwc.jpg
I'll be looking at albums, mostly, where an established artist who was not anywhere near the usual metal arena took on the task of interpreting our favourite music, or where a metal band decided to give their songs that added oomph! Factor by calling in and working with an orchestra.

And the first one out of the gate, discovered entirely by accident when I was researching for another feature, to be published later, is this man, believe it or not.
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Yeah, the Christian crooner, the man with more Christmas albums than Perry Como and Val Doonican put together --- maybe --- and who would be more at home in my “Rocking Chair” slot than in Metal Month II. A man who has over seventy albums to his credit, and was the darling of American radio and TV in the 50s and 60s. The man who brought us “Speedy Gonzales” (Yee-hah! Hondalay! Arriba!), “Love letters in the sand” and many others, and whose fundamental Christian beliefs and persona would, you would think, have him spouting fire and brimstone from the pulpit at the godless music of the Devil. But he decided, in 1997, to take himself less seriously perhaps, or just reach out to the young 'uns, and cover metal songs.
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In a metal mood: No more Mr. Nice Guy --- Pat Boone --- 1997 (Hip-O)

Whatever possessed (!) then then-sixty-three year old Boone to do this I don't know, but at least he recognised his own limitations. He was hardly going to pick up a Fender and start blasting out killer riffs in a voice that sounded like he ate cigarettes for breakfast! No, he would stick to his traditional genre but, literally, jazz metal up by playing famous tunes in a big band style. How did it work out? You know something? I don't know. Let's take a listen.

He wasn't alone in his endeavour, pulling in star help from the metal community in the form of ex-Rainbow stalwarts Ritchie Blackmore and the late Ronnie James Dio, as well as Dweezil Zappa to realise this album. Almost every song on it is a metal standard, including obviously Dio and Purple ones. We get going with, perhaps oddly enough as he could have really kicked out the stays and made a mission statement for this project with “Breaking the law”, a track from Judas Priest's “Screaming for vengeance” album, one of the singles, “You've got another thing comin'”. With a big brass intro and then accompanied by uptempo trumpets, Boone takes the vocal himself on this song. I'm not that familiar with it so I don't know if he does a good job on it, but I think I heard it once or maybe twice, and he seems to not ruin it. Nice sax solo takes the place of, I assume, guitar on the original, while upright bass thumps away happily. More to the point is the second track, the acid test as it were, as he tackles stone-cold classic “Smoke on the water”.

Blackmore's guitar gets that familiar riff going (why would be be there if not to play that oh-so-famous intro anyway?) but softened by the addition of wailing organ and some saxophone, which definitely turns the metal classic into a jazz tune. Again Boone takes the vocal himself, and while he is of course no replacement for Gillan, and his vocal is lacking the anger and passion of the Purple man's at the tragedy of which this song speaks, it's still believable. Very jazzy guitar solo from Ritchie, and the timbales and bass carry the latter part of the song nicely. AC/DC's “It's a long way to the top (If you wanna rock'n'roll)” is up next, introduced on chunky organ then some really nice trombone as it strides along with a real boogie beat.

Nice female backing vocals from Merry Clayton, Clydene Jackson Edwards and Carmen Twillie, who we met on the “Cobra” soundtrack a while back. Well this certainly swings, and Boone sounds like he's really enjoying himself, and truth to tell, he probably got a kick out of annoying the stuffed shirts who watched this drama unfold in silent horror that their hero could get involved with “that sort of music”. Another great sax solo, but there are so many players here I couldn't tell you who's responsible for it. Again perhaps an odd choice if you're gonna cover a Val Halen song, “Panama” gets the full jazz treatment --- pity Boone couldn't have enticed Eddie to add his skills, but Blackmore puts in a seriously smoking solo at the opening of the song before the brass take over and the female backing vocals start the song off.

A harder, more sort of thumping rhythm to this, the closest you could say Boone has come to real rock on this album so far --- which is odd, given that he covered the Deep Purple classic, but that was jazzed up, whereas this is not, not so much anyway --- with a brash, almost AOR rhythm to it as Boone sings about the famous city once lauded by Dave Lee Roth. Traces of Manilow's “Copacabana” in here I feel, very latin in style, not surprisingly given the title. Very enjoyable. Next we have a real swing version of the title track, “No more Mr. Nice Guy”, originally by Alice Cooper. It could almost be a signature song for Boone, if you drop the first two words, but it makes sense here, because it's what he's saying: this is a side of me you ain't seen. You may never see it again, but fuck you cos I'm having a whale of a time! Fair play to him. The girls do really well with the backing vocals here, but again the brass have it all tied up. Great song, really cleverly arranged.

A ballad should be easy to put to a big band setting, and Nazareth's “Love hurts” is the only slow song on the album, riding on a superb little soft piano line and it must be said a deep, passionate vocal from Boone that never goes over the top; in fact, it's very restrained. Dave Siebels (who he?) must take credit for a sublime performance on the piano, while flutes or clarinets or something add an extra layer to the song, as do strings courtesy of Doug Cameron, Bruce Dukov and Michelle Richards on the violins, and Evan Wilson on the viola. Add in trombones and trumpets all building up the atmosphere and you have one smoky, jazzy lounge ballad that whispers rather than screams its sultriness.

Metallica's standard is introduced by Blackmore with the classic guitar riff but is quickly joined by trumpets and bones as Boone ups the tempo from the original, which pretty much crawled, but whereas that exuded a sense of menace and creeping fear, there's nothing about this version that evokes that sort of aura. It's actually like a lion with all its teeth pulled, and whereas he managed great with “Smoke on the water”, here I think he stumbles for the first time. I just think this does not work. Not to say it's not well treated, but it's made too light of. Dark bassoon, tuba, heavy bass might have been better. Here, the instruments are too light and airy to even come close to conveying the original feel of the song.

There is of course only one man who could do “Holy diver” justice, and it's really interesting to hear Ronnie sing --- oh no wait. It's Boone himself. Strange. The credits show Dio as being on vocals, so where is he? I think this was a mistake; if he had Ronnie there with him why did he not use him for the lead vocal, or at least duet with him? That's like having a shiny new Ferrari in the garage and going off in an old Camaro. No offence, Pat, but you're no RJD! Anyway, the song is played against a mournful violin opening that turns into a dramatic brass salvo that almost recalls “Jesus Christ Superstar” for me, then heavy trumpets and trombones usher the song in fully. It swings, but I'm disappointed there's no Ronnie. Boone also decides to recite the Lord's Prayer at the end over the violin, perhaps in an attempt to placate those fans who were rabidly against this experiment.

Great jazzy piano takes “Paradise City”, and he does a fine job on this, the brass again rising to the occasion. He does kind of sing it in almost a rap style though, which is a little odd. You can't help but tap your toe though! The upright bass also does really well here, and there's a super instrumental break near the end. Another which should on the face of it seem an easy transition to Boone's particular brand of soft jazz is “The wind cries Mary”. Soft trumpet opens the song, with acoustic guitar and bass. Of course it's missing Hendrix's weary growl, and there's none of the tension that came only from Jimi's nimble fingers. There's also an uptempo brass piece put in that I think kind of ruins the song. He's extended it by about a minute that in my opinion was not necessary.

Ozzy's “Crazy train” is again an odd one. If you want to include the big O, I would have taken a Sabbath song to cover. But it must be said that with a very few exceptions there's nothing wrong with the selection chosen here, and they give a good overall picture of the metal scene from the seventies to the eighties. This has a really swinging rhythm, lots of brass and a really nice bass, but I could do without the “choo choo” noises from the girls. And we close on the classic of classics, as Boone brings the curtain down climbing the “Stairway to Heaven”. This has been covered many times of course, but I don't think I've ever heard a version like this. Good or bad?

Well...

It opens on soft flute and strings, which is certainly evocative and substitutes the acoustic guitar well, although that itself comes in then with attendant piano. However it soon gets a little too jazzy, sort of striding along, which doesn't really work for me. It'll be interesting to see how the midsection --- originally taken by Page --- turns out. It gets very big band in the “It makes me wonder” section, then the horns take the tune. They work, mostly, but I'm not convinced. Nice work on the piano, and here comes the part where the guitar normally rocks out. And we get... um, nothing. He just cuts right to the vocal with “As we wind on down the road...” Boo! Nice sax solo near the end but I think he really missed a trick by cutting out the iconic guitar solo, even had he substituted it with horns, piano, violin --- hell, I'd have taken flute! But nothing?

Not the best of ways to end the album and while it's an interesting treatment of the classic we all grew up on, and I don't feel slighted or insulted by it --- Boone paid the proper respect, mostly, to the original --- I feel it was definitely an opportunity missed.

TRACKLISTING

1. You've got another thing comin'
2. Smoke on the water
3. It's a long way to the top (if you wanna rock'n'roll)
4. Panama
5. No more Mr. Nice Guy
6. Love hurts
7. Enter sandman
8. Holy diver
9. Paradise City
10. The wind cries Mary
11. Crazy train
12. Stairway to Heaven

It's always good to see someone step outside their comfort zone, and it's especially satisfying to see a man whose music is pretty much the antithesis of metal --- philosophically --- give it a chance and play around with it. I like picturing the faces of the Bible Belters who frowned in annoyance and disbelief when Boone announced this album, and the equal puzzlement of many metallers, myself included, when we heard of it. But one of the best things you can do with something you have no real truck with generally is to try to gently poke fun at it and if not understand it then at least appreciate and experience it.

Donny Osmond (yeah) tells a tale of when he played a rock festival and some bikers were giving him hell about the song “Puppy love”. In case you don't know or care, it's a soppy ballad that was a hit for him in the seventies. Rather than shout back, get annoyed or try to have them removed, he decided to play them at their own game, and instructed his band to play heavy metal, then sung the song in a total death vocal style. The bikers, apparently, ate it all up and laughed and applauded.

That's how to do it. Don't be afraid of or hate something just because you don't understand it. As an artist, a singer, you can reinterpret the music to fit into your own sphere of influence, and that's exactly what Pat Boone did here. Did it work? Not always. Did he alienate many of his longtime fans by going down this temporary route? Most likely. Did he enjoy it? I bet he did.

And so did I.

I'm just glad I don't subscribe to Last FM: it would be hard to explain all those Pat Boone songs on the list!

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Nattfödd --- Finntroll --- 2004 (Spikefarm Records)
Recommended by Briks
Wiki tells me the title of the album means “Nightborn” in Swedish, and although this Folk Metal band are from Finland, as you would expect from their name, vocalist Katla wanted to sing in his native Swedish and though he doesn’t sing on this album his successors have carried this idea on. Finntroll boast some hilarious names, like Skrymer on guitars, Beast Dominator on drums and the side-splittingly funny Trollhorn on keys. Oh stop it please guys! You’re killing me!

All well and good, but how does Finntroll’s music hold up? Well, lyrically I can’t help you obviously, though Wiki has kindly supplied me with translations of the song titles, but apparently their music seems to revolve mostly around the battles between the trolls of Scandinavian myth and the Christians, who are seen as invaders and usurpers. These themes carry across most of their six-album discography, of which this is their third.

Once again, dark thunder and winds usher in the first track, with what could be whispers and possibly very low keyboard chords echoing faintly in the distance. Suddenly a guitar cuts through powerfully and the drums cut in, then vocalist Tapio Wilska turns out to be another growler, perhaps fitting if he’s meant to be a troll. Sort of feeling of Black Metal meets Folk or Pagan Metal about it, and the stabbing keyboard chords from (oh please no! Don’t make me write his name!) Trollhorn (chortle) add a sense of drama and stately power to a track which fairly rockets along.

That’s actually the longest of the ten tracks here, then “Eliytres” opens with some sort of folk piano reel or something, then kicks into another fast rocker but with the traditional tune still running in the background. In the middle of the song it gets very cinematic on the back of Trollhorn’s (all right! I’ll stop now! Well maybe just one more!) :rofl: keyboards then picks back up again to speed to the end, running into “Fiskarens fiende” (Fisherman’s enemy, in case you need to know) which has a more boogie rhythm to it. It swaggers along on the twin guitars of Skrymer and Routa, led a merry dance by Trollhorn and driven along by the Beast Dominator. Oh come on please! My poor sides!

The music, when they really let loose, is actually quite good, and you can certainly detect the influence of their native folk music in it; this even gets slightly progressive in melody at one point. “Trollhammaren” (even I don’t need that translated!) starts off with a sort of fiddle sound, presumably on the keys, then bursts into another fast rocker, with again very evident folk tinges. Great sense of fun --- in the melody at least; lyric could be about disembowelling and eating your cousin --- in the title track. In the middle it goes all mellow with a nice soft guitar and slow drums, but I don’t expect it to last. Ol’ Tapio even tries his hand at some non-growling singing. Doesn’t really work. Nice vocal chorus on the keys from the Trollish one, very effective. One of the best tracks yet.

Things go a little crazy in “Ursvamp” (Ancient mushroom --- oh I see!) with Beast Dominator almost losing his arms in his exertions behind the drumkit, someone --- Trollhorn probably --- making a flutey sound and a sort of mad bouzouki one too, as the track cannons along and is over before I even have time to write this. Strange effects and ambient noises then bring us into “Marknadsvisan” (Market tune) which has no music really, but Tipio getting very upset when, it seems, he steps in something (!) and it too is over superfast, leaving nothing but birdsong --- yeah! --- behind as we pile into “Det iskalla trollblodet” (The ice cold troll blood), almost like Jonathan Richman on speed!

One thing I’m finding about these guys, which I had not expected, is that they come across as bloody funny! I don’t know if it’s intentional, but the melodies, the rhythms and Tipio’s growling angry voice, all just have me rolling on the floor laughing. Almost literally. Its’s not that the music is laughable or not good, it’s just the image conjured up in my mind as I listen to this music with lyrics I can’t understand, and it’s just so amusing to me. I guess a lot of it has to do with the trolls being the main subject matter, because these guys really sound to me what I think trolls would sound like if they formed a band (and existed). A much softer, restrained opening to “Grottans Barn”, with what sounds like jew’s harp and then a slower, grindier song than we’ve experienced up to now. Hmm. I assumed that was a literal translation --- a barn owned by Grottan --- but apparently it means “Children of the ice caves”. Indeed.

We end on an instrumental, the only one on the album, and “Rok” (Smoke) is another short track, as are most of the songs here. Nice introspective guitar accompanied by owl hoots (seriously) that really evokes a natural, pastoral atmosphere, possibly the calm after the battle? If there was a battle. I don’t know if there was a battle. But, you know, trolls…? Anyway it’s a nice closer and a chance to wind down after all the histrionics of the last half-hour, and it’s nice to see that Finntroll are capable of dialling it back when they want to.

Just don’t make them angry. You wouldn’t like them when they’re angry…

TRACKLISTING

1. Vindfärd / Människopesten
2. Eliytres
3. Fiskarens fiende
4. Trollhammaren
5. Nattfödd
6. Ursvamp
7. Marknadsvisan
8. Det iskalla trollblodet
9. Grottans barn
10. Rok

I guess I’m never going to shake the image of a bunch of trolls playing guitars, bashing drums, playing keyboards and roaring the vocals out, but you know, at the end of the day, though this may not really be the kind of music I’m into or would actively seek out, this was in fact very enjoyable and what Fintroll do they do well. I suppose I might get more out of it, seeing as there are myths and monsters involved, if I could understand the lyrics, but I’m not about to learn Swedish or Finnish any time soon. But it was something of a blast.

You trolls are all right, man!

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The next band has been suggested by a forum member, although admittedly with a knowing wink and an evil grin, and Mondo Bungle knows he would get me with this one way or the other, as they were on his top ten list. I avoided them there, but now I have no choice so I may as well give them a listen, see what I managed to put off last week. Anyway, I said when I began this short voyage through the metal of each country that I wanted to showcase and listen to metal of as many stripes as possible, so let's just hope they're not a grindcore band. They're a grindcore band, aren't they? Tell me they're not a grindcore band.

They're not a grindcore band.

Hold those sighs of relief though: EM describes them as death/black metal. Two of my least favourite subgenres. Sigh.

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Seven chalices --- Teitanblood --- 2009 (Norma Evangelium)

For a band who have been together since 2003 I find it odd that these guys have only two albums to their name, but as their latest was released this year and I want to try staying away from current albums so as not to compromise the “Freshly Forged” section, this is the other choice. And with song titles like “Morbid devil of pestilence”, “Seven chalices of vomit and blood”, and the opener, “Whore mass”, it looks like I'm in for a jolly old time, doesn't it? The album doesn't even have the decency to be short, with eleven tracks, one of which is twelve bloody minutes long! Oh thanks Mondo! I thought it was only me and Batty who were allowed into The Batlord's Torture Chamber?

So what can I tell you about these happy musicians? Well for a start they're yet another two-man-band, with the clever names of J (drums) and NSK (everything else, including what may pass for vocals) and they come from the capital, Madrid. Other than that, not much, except that I doubt they do much dropping around for tea and scones with the vicar on a Sunday afternoon. The aforementioned “Whore mass” takes us, screaming and blubbering, into their dark world as we find ourselves at some black ceremony, with a dark choir singing in (presumably) praise of Santa as atmospheric, cinematic and scary music swirls around us. I don't think Teitanblood do keyboards so I'm assuming this is a sample from some horror movie. A guitar bludgeons its way into proceedings as J lashes the drumkit in fury, NSK making his guitar screech and squeal like a damned soul in torment, but rather --- very --- surprisingly, I think this is pretty cool. Mind you, he ain't started singing yet! Now a big dark Sababthesque riff takes the song as it slows down more into sludge metal territory almost, and it seems the opening track is over with nary a vocal. That's remedied when “Domains of darkness and ancient evil” (these guys ever work for the tourist board I wonder?) sledgehammers its way onboard, and we get exposed to the vocal of NSK, which as expected is a snarly, growly, ragged death vocal.

But the music is good, and a lot faster than the previous track. Ol' NSK (can I call you N? No? Fair enough) can certainly handle that axe --- I meant guitar, NSK! Put that down! It's sharp! And the beat hammered out by J is quite hypnotic. Even though it's fast, the tempo is a lot more restrained than I've heard from other black metal bands. And just as I said that it goes into overdrive. Trollheart, when will you learn to keep your mouth shut? :rolleyes: Pretty smoking solo from NSK as the song pounds on, though I have of course no idea what he's singing. Probably doesn't matter. There are three short songs, all entitled “Interlude”, but each has a strange subtitle in parentheses, two of which look like they're in Arabic or Ancient Greek or Elvish or something. The first, “Interlude ((عين إبليس)”, starts off with what sounds like dark synth but may be feedback on guitar, then some bells and a dark voice muttering or something, the synth sound swelling like a black choir, sort of like a continuation of the opening track.

With a menacing whisper or sigh it's over and we're on to “Morbid devil of pestilence”, seeming to interrupt NSK on the toilet, as J develops four extra arms --- well, he must do, mustn't he, to be able to play that fast? --- and the guitar matches him for speed. NSK growls and snarls like Tom Waits when someone has woken him up without a drink, and I find it hard to find any melody in this song at all: it's just the one riff exploding along for about two minutes until finally it begins to settle down with an Iommi-like riff on the guitar, though the drummer seems to be off doing his own thing, oblivious to what his partner is playing. Very discordant. A shred to end all shreds now from NSK as the drums rumble on like uncontrolled thunder, or like a thousand bowling balls rolling down a steep incline and over a cliff. As the song blunders to its conclusion it sounds like NSK has been strapped into the electric chair.

The next interlude is up next, and this is called “Interlude (Ugaritic title)” ---dunno what that means --- but it's a far heavier one this time, with guitar punching all over it and a deep growling vocal and hold on a minute! This is supposed to be the interlude but I'm getting something called “Infernal dance of the wicked”? What is it with Grooveshark? Looking down I see the other interlude has been replaced by "Qliphotic necromancy”! WTF?? These aren't even mentioned on the album I read about. Are they bonus, or special edition tracks? What happened to the interludes? I can't even look for them on YouTube due to the weird Arabic or whatever writing in their titles, so I'm stuck with these, but where they came from I have no idea.

So now we're listening to “Infernal dance of the wicked”. Okay. As I said, it's another hammerfest with guitar and drums and evil bass, and a scowling vocal. Oh right! These tracks are on the album; it's just that for some reason this version omits the other two interludes. Odd, but it leaves me less of the album to listen to, so that can't be bad. Bit of an almost boogie to this tune in places, but again it's pretty chaotic, and it's not long before we're into the charming love song “Seven chalices of vomit and blood”, which surely should have been an international hit on the charts, with its incessant, grinding guitar assault and its even-deeper-than-usual roared vocal. Oh yeah, it's hard to see how the kids wouldn't be rushing out in their millions to buy this!

Look, I'm going to level with you: there's very little on this album I can even write about, so I'm listening to it in the background and making a few pithy comments, just waiting for it to end. I think there may be certain types of black metal I may be able to endure, or even like, but this is definitely not one of them. If I had to categorise it I'd say brutal black metal, though I an definitely see the reason for including the “death” part in the description. Just does nothing for me. Where are we? Oh yeah, coming to the end of this track and surprisingly it's all slowed to a crawl as NSK intones something like a prayer to Satan backed only by very low feedback guitar I guess and bass, in “Qliphotic necromancy” (what does that even mean??), a short track that then takes us into that one I've been dreading, the twelve-minute “The abomination of desolation”. Oh joy!

We're back on track (to Hell) now, as snarling guitar meets slow, pounding drums and NSK's sneering snarl, a slower, crunchy, grinding track that makes you feel as if the walls are closing in on you. Honestly, I don't mean to be smart but I've heard more coherent noises coming from the neighbour's dog! He can't play the guitar though... Okay, in the ninth minute all music drops way and we have a choral ensemble, again like a mass or lament, though I think I can hear NSK snarling almost quietly through it in the background. It does change things up slightly though. Sounds like dripping water echoing gives the effect of desolation and isolation, almost as if we're seeing into some poor wretch's cell, like The Ruins of Beverast on "Rain upon the impure". Then the choir too fades out and we've nothing but a dark rumbling sound as backdrop to the waterdrops falling, a sound which gets fleshed out a little more and almost becomes rushing water for a moment before it too fades away and the track ends.

Closer is another long one, with “The origins of death” weighing in at nearly nine and a half minutes with a big heavy Sabbath riff to start it off, then taking off at full speed with thick feedback guitar and cannoning drums, NSK's snarling vocal all over the song but completely indecipherable, to me at least. Goes all echoey near the end and then, I have to say thankfully, it's over.

TRACKLISTING

1. Whore mass
2. Domains of darkness and ancient evil
3. Interlude ((عين إبليس)
4. Morbid devil of pestilence
5. Interlude (Ugartic title)
6. Infernal dance of the wicked
7. Interlude (वामाचार )
8. Seven chalices of vomit and blood
9. Qliphotic necromancy
10. The abomination of desolation
11. The origin of death

So I guess the big question is, did I enjoy this? :rolleyes: Some of the subgenres I will never understand nor be able to get into, and I guess black metal --- certainly this kind of black metal --- will forever be one of them. There's not much I can say about this album. I'll give Teitanblood kudos for creating a soundscape with only two of them – mostly NSK, as all J does is bash on the drums like Animal from “The Muppet Show” --- and there was the odd slice of half-decent melody, but overall, too fast in most places, vocals completely incomprehensible and the subject matter is not one I am interested in exploring: too visceral and direct. I prefer my tirades against God to be more subtle, like Slayer. Seriously. Like Slayer.

So this is a big fat NO for me, though I do feel like I've been run down to ground like some animal. Mondo couldn't get me on this with his top ten, but he bade his time, let me twist in the wind and then --- BAM! Got ya! Kudos, man. Kudos.

You sick bastard.

Actually I'm pretty sure I picked up my copy at K-Mart (ghetto Wal-Mart). The only ones who give a **** about Slayer anymore are metalheads. Everyone else either doesn't know or doesn't care.

Dude, it's just another anti-religious song. It's not identifying with terrorists, it's attacking them. And I'm pretty sure most people were over 9/11 by then. We were into Iraq and we didn't know why and the country was just kind of tired of the whole thing. I don't know about New Yorkers, but I imagine most of the rest of the country had moved on.

It's always nice to have a guest reviewer, and to date we've had Briks and Buzz Killington. The Batlord has had some celebrity reviewers, with Hitler of all people turning up in one of his journals. That's pretty impressive, but during Metal Month II there really is only one star guest you could hope to ask to take part, and I've got him. The Big Daddy of them all, the being to whom so many of these bands write songs, the one who makes parents shiver in their beds as they listen to his praises being sung in their teenage son's bedroom.

Ladies and gentlemen, all the way up from the very depths of Hell itself, he's pleased to meet you and hopes you guessed his name! Will you please give a huge, Metal Month II rousing welcome to our star guest reviewer...
http://www.trollheart.com/satan1.jpg
Thank you, thank you Trollheart! It's great to be here. Longtime reader, first time contributer. I must say, I'm a little nervous: in fact, you might say I'm afraid of “Satan” the wrong thing! Bu-pish! Who groaned? Oh yeah? I'll see you later mate! You enjoy that burger and chips, you hear? Your heart is callin' time on ya!

Anyway, as I say I'm delighted to be here, where so many people are truly glorifying my music and making me bigger and stronger every day. You know, it's not just the music --- really, some of you sing in such a way (as Trollheart has observed already) that it's really difficult to make out what you're saying. So I'm glad that in addition to the music there's the more, ah, graphical side of your ventures. And this is what I intend to cover on this, my first ever guest review here. So without further ado, let me present...
http://www.trollheart.com/pissgodoff2.jpg

Yes, from the early sixties and before, parents and authority figures have shaken their head, tsked and in some cases tried to ban lurid album covers, depictions they believe are inappropriate and may corrupt their children or give them the wrong idea. But if any genre of music takes this to the nth degree it's Heavy Metal. Yeah! Just check out the first in my top ten countdown, and tell me you're not offended! Okay, okay! Tell me your parents would not be offended.

What? Really? Oh for the love of.... bloody censors! You just wait till I have you guys down here, I'll cut out your --- yes yes all right! Mutter! I'm apparently contractually obliged to display this sign
http://www.teezeria.com/images/designs/562img_29.png
in case anyone gets upset. Let me also warn you, in accordance with Trollheart's insurance policy, that if you are of a weak, aged, squeamish or overly religious nature, you may wish to leave the room. Trollheart? You think you're okay to stay? With your weak stomach? No, no, you're right: it's your journal. I just thought ... no, no. Fine. (Don't say I didn't warn you...)


At number
10
http://lefthandhorror.files.wordpres...over.jpg?w=620

Yes, you can always rely on Black Sabbath for a nice, clergy-scaring, dark as fuck, blasphemous album cover! Well no you can't: many of their album sleeves are just plain boring (O mean, come on! “Paranoid”? Some guy waving a sword at you who's out of focus? Give me a break!) but this one is anything but. Painted by the same guy who would later go on to design Alice Cooper's “Welcome to my nightmare”, the picture is of a man on a bed dying a particularly nasty death, aided by some of my faithful demons. Aren't they cute? Nice touch with the 666 on the headboard. Of course, the back of the album cover shows him dying a “nice” death, but who the hell cares about that? THIS is the cover that sold the album, not some wimpy fairy shit. This is rock! This is METAL!

At number
9
http://www.homebirth.net.au/wp-conte...on-rebirth.jpg

I really like this one; reminds me of my birth! Nah, not really. I was born an angel you know, until that sanctimonious fuck kicked me out for one little ... but I digress. Death metal is a subgenre of metal that often comes up with the most ugly, disgusting covers, and with this one they hit a home run, as you Americans tend to say. You know I have a lot of you Down Below, don't you? Yes, they thought God would save them, too. Newsflash: he didn't. God doesn't love Americans any more than any other race, and I tell you, every time he hears “God bless America”, well, you can hear the laughter all the way down in my office. Quite annoying. And you do say it so often, don't you?

But again I wander off my track. This album shows a demon baby --- ah, look at him there! Don't you just want to snuggle him up and tear his little throat out? No? You people are weird! --- being born while a rather ravishing (well, I think she is) demoness strains and a bunch of cowled figures stand around, possibly discussing names for the little darling. Or maybe how he's the Antichrist and going to bring about the end of the world, you know how cowled figures are. Anyway it's a cool sleeve and sure to put the frighteners up any square --- do you still say square these days? Anyway, as my good friend The Batlord would say, it's bitchin'!

Number
8

http://static.gigwise.com/gallery/celtric_controv.jpg
I can't quite put my talon on why I like this one ---- GUFFAW GUFFAW! Oh come on! Even you Christians have to admit it's a laugh --- what? Not even a titter? Evil Hell! You are a bunch of tightarsed, stuck-up wankers aren't you? Well I love it. Good on ya, Celtic Frost!

Moving on to number
7
and if you thought that was good, check this out!
http://www.laweekly.com/imager/the-t...ning_Bliss.jpg
At first glance, looks like a very pretty woman cradling a child, but then you do a double take and you notice --- if you're not blind --- that her insides are exposed and yeah, that's part of them that she has in her arms, wrapped in a blanket and shaped roughly into the form of a human child. Oh, Regurgitate, you really should take a trip down here. You'd just love it! Or maybe not.

Number
6
shows us what happens when you get the munchies and don't satisfy that craving! Well we all get hungry from time to time, don't we?
http://www.laweekly.com/imager/the-t...b_480x480.jpeg

So now we're halfway through our countdown, and thanks to this bloody annoying rule about ten images maximum per page, I have to cut this article in two (no pun actually intended: see my next pick!) so stay tuned for my top five, coming right up!

Fun fact: they speak Swedish in certain parts of Finland since they were part of the Swedish Empire (like the Roman empire, but less badass) for centuries. And I can understand Finntroll's lyrics, piece of cake. *smug grin* In case you were wondering, "Trollhammaren" is about a troll who rides around seeking "weak Christian blood". And he has a mighty hammer.

Ah! Welcome back to my domain --- oh no sorry, this is Trollheart's. I'm not used to being out and about you know. Still, does one good to get out of the office once in a while, stretch the hooves, let the scales breathe. Aah! Taste that fresh air. Dis-gusting! Give me brimstone in my nostrils or nothing! Where's my respirator? That's better. Now, where were we? Oh yeah: we've come to the halfway point, and here's where you can expect the art to get really gruesome!

Number
5
http://www.metal-archives.com/images...61071.jpg?4219
Ineed, this is where it starts to get a little stomach-turning. Hey, even the name of the band is nasty --- Vulvectomy. But with a title like “Post abortion slutfuck”, you know this isn't going to be pretty. And it ain't. There are a lot of body parts strewn around --- ah, reminds me of back home! --- but from what I can see this is a woman who has been torn literally in two --- that's the top half of her in the top right corner, impaled on a spike or something --- being, well, fucked by a guy who looks like he has also been torn to shreds --- zombie maybe? Meanwhile, to the left, an aborted fetus that is way too much like a full-grown baby hangs limply from his other hand, the one not impaling the woman's head. Hey, at least they only had to use three colours here: black, white and red. Must have saved on the printing costs!

And number
4
comes from my old pals Slayer. Ah, memories of those days I posed for the covers of their first albums. What? Well who the Hell (pun intended) did you think it was on the cover of “Hell awaits” and “Show no mercy”? Mary Tyler Fucking Moore? Yeah but this one I really like, and again it's pretty obvious why. Look! He ain't got no arms or legs! What's his name? Come on now, all together --- BOB! Oh sometimes I slay (wink) myself! I really ought to be on the stage!
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...t_Illusion.jpg

So now, prepare yourself! These are the top three album covers most likely to piss God off, and you can bet they'll be eeeee-vil! At number
3
may I introduce those charming Cannibal Corpse fellows, with this masterpiece of the macabre...
http://static.gigwise.com/gallery/Corpse_Butchered.jpg
Oh it just radiates bad taste, doesn't it? Although those skinny chappies don't seem to think so. Anorexic? Nonsense! A good feed will soon beef them up! Look it could be worse: they could be eating at McDonald's. Ugh! Now there's Hell on Earth! Always gives me heartburn. This is from the Corpseys' second album, the delightfully-titled “Butchered at birth” ---- Oh Trollheart! Is that you getting sick in the corner? I warned you to leave! Yes yes, sorry about that. Just wait outside, would you, till I'm finished? Believe me, it gets worse. BWA HA HA HA! ---- Anyway, as I was saying (why did he stay? He has no stomach for this sort of thing. I don't know, these hyper sensitive ones .... always trouble) the art on the album is bad (read, good) enough to earn a Parental Advisory sticker, but the title was also deemed unfit for impressionable eyes, leading to the sticker being placed over it. I ask you!

There might be some dissension about this one, but I never said, remember, that they'd all be gory bloodfests. I am choosing the album covers that would annoy himself the most, and this one certainly would, at number
2
http://www.nocleansinging.com/wp-con...oogly-eyes.jpg
I think I look rather well on the cover of this Behemoth album, without sounding cocky! Of course, I've been on so many album covers, but this one just grabs me for some reason. I thought about Maiden but you know, I don't like the way that Eddie is making a puppet out of me, even if I'm making a puppet out of a smaller him. The cheek of that Derek Riggs guy! And the fact that I look so cool and evil and in control is I think something that ol' God would really burst a blood vessel shouting at. He'd rather think of me as impotent, small, minor and a nuisance at best, when we all know I'd kick his ass in a real fight. Angels? I'd tear 'em in half and use them to beat him over the --- what? Why didn't I do that in the first place? Why did I take The Fall? Um, well, you see, it was this bad back, plays up at the worst ... actually, it's giving me twinges now. Better just finish this thing up, no time to answer awkward questions. Hey! I'm not on trial here!

And so we come to my number one album cover that would piss God off. And here it is.
1
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yuJCXr0dmm...r-1024x905.jpg
Oh the very idea! One day, I'll put this into practice, just you wait and ... what? No my back will NOT stop me from ... look, just leave me alone okay? Ahem. This is a 2012 album from the charmingly named Torn The Fuck Apart and the album is called, wait for it (what do you mean, you can read? Look, no need to be smart! I'm trying to build a sense of awe, of majesty, of horror ... oh have it your own way!) “The Dissection of Christ”! And just LOOK at the bad day he's having. Oh I tell you, God was NOT pleased with this album cover. Not that TTFA cared of course: I'm sure it was designed to insult and outrage as many people as possible, and send the faithful into paroxysms of fury. “Burn this album!” I'm sure they shouted as they crowded the streets, seeking ... no? Nothing? Nobody protested? Not even an irate letter to the label? Man, you people are NOT the same ones who stormed castles and burned witches! What has HAPPENED to you all?

Anyway, that's my list and I hope you enjoyed it. Thanks to Trollheart --- yeah, just keep breathing into that bag, son, you'll be okay --- for having me and I hope to be called upon again when next he invokes the mighty name of Metal Month. Thanks also to Chad, who of course taught me everything I know, praised be his name. Now I must return to --- what? YOU ARE FUCKING KIDDING ME! Someone is SUMMONING me on my day off? “Oh mighty Satan...”? Oh they're about to find out just how mighty I am, and how little I like to be called when I'm off the clock!

I'll rend them! I'll crucify them! I'll --- OW MY BACKKKKK!!!!

Anyone got any Bengay? :shycouch:

I know that you have forgotten more about Slayer than I will ever want to know, but I have to disagree with you. They're writing from the viewpoint of the terrorists and this was an attempt to piss people off by doing so. Tom even said he expected an American backlash, which never came. They hated it in India, though!

Obviously I can't speak for you Americans, but it seems like 9/11 is still very raw for people at this point. After all, let's not forget the ones who lost loved ones. And every year they have a commemoration don't they? Maybe yiz have moved on, but four years after the event, I think it still resonated with a lot of people.

Slayer would never side with a religious faction. Kerry King is far too outspoken for that. Besides, they've never been a band to do that kind of controversy. For the most part, they sing about Satan or anti-religious themes and the occasional social issue. That's pretty much it. It would be an anomaly for them to do that, whereas they attack organized religion almost constantly. You're ascribing a much more militant political agenda than they've ever shown. That last spoken word bit where they're talking about "striking above the neck and at all extremities" of the "non-believers" seems to be pretty clearly fear-mongering against extremist Islam. I honestly don't even know where you're getting the idea that they're attacking America. They never actually list any grievances that Slayer might have. It's just a description of how they view a Jihadi's mindset.

You have to remember that America has over three hundred million people all spread out over a country the size of a small continent. The vast majority of us have no connection to New York City, the Twin Towers, or the people who died there. It's hard to sustain that kind of anger when you're not actually being directly affected by it.

Just saw your... eh... Satan's album cover entries. Popping in to say that I have that Black Sabbath artwork on a t-shirt. The album itself is pretty neat too, underrated. Carry on. :D

You know you posted the googly eyes version of that Behemoth cover, right Satan?

RAAAGGGHHHHH! CURSE GOOGLE! CURSE IT TO THE DEEPEST HELL!!!!!!!!
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/i...kz6z0bNtJR88SA

Now I have a fucking headache! Gragghh! Where's my CD of relaxation music? What do you mean, you stood on it????

GRAWWWWWWWWWWWGGHHHHH!
http://images2.persianblog.ir/122613_Il5WEc2S.jpg

http://www.trollheart.com/ilm2.png

As we start to wind up our brief excursion into the metal of Spain, I'd like to change tack completely and go in a totally different direction. David Valdes began playing guitar at the tender age of thirteen, found he liked metal best and joined some bands of whom you nor I has ever heard. He then got into the neoclassical guitar of Yngwie Malmsteen, and through the virtuoso guitarist discovered a love for classical music, which he has imbued his own output with. All his compositions are instrumental, so no problem with trying to decipher lyrics, though as I have already pointed out many times reviewing an instrumental album is a lot harder than writing about one with vocals.

I had wanted to take his latest effort, 2013's “World i obscure”, but Spotify only have one of his albums --- to be honest, I'm surprised they even had one! --- and so this is the one I'm going with.
http://www.metal-archives.com/images/1/3/9/2/139276.JPG
Imhotep --- David Valdes --- 2006 (Heavencross)
Nice keyboard opening to “Beyond the universe”, then it kicks up on a heavy guitar with very much metal credentials, driving the piece along nicely. Some nice runs and solos, with percussion provided by Ferren Roch, fretwork acquires a touch of Arabic style in the last minute, and we move on into “Run up the melody”, where a real rippling solo takes the tune, much faster and more in the style of power metal here as Valdes lets himself go and Roch thunders along behind the drumkit. Things slow down in the middle with a pretty expressive piece of playing, double or triple-tracked guitars creating quite a wall of sound. “Return to the shadows” rocks everything along nicely, with a sort of dark growling guitar sound allied to a wailing keyboard. This man can certainly play! Touches of progressive metal about this, nice lush keyboard and acoustic guitar melding in the last minute with a hint of Gilmour thrown in there, not to mention some Spanish guitar --- well, you'd expect that, wouldn't you? ;)

The title track is up next, and it's a quiet, reflective opening with acoustic guitar and choral vocals on the synth, little or no percussion for the moment, then as we move into the first minute it growls up and becomes a hard stomping metal monster, Roch punching in the beat as he charges in on the drums. I'm really enjoying this, but so far I haven't heard anything that could be described as neoclassical. Still, we're only four tracks in, of thirteen, so plenty of time for that I guess. For now it's just straightahead heavy metal, and very satisfying it is too. Think he might be using a talkbox there, but it's very subdued if so. A return to the quieter tone of the opening in the third minute as it all slows down and the choral vocals rise to the fore, then we're back rocking with one hell of a solo to take us to the end of the track.

I'm sure a guitarist could wax lyrical for hours about the techniques used here, the equipment and the way the effects are employed, but I couldn't play a guitar to save my life and understand little of their workings, so I'm left to just try to describe the music and how well it's played. “Bouree”, the shortest track here at just over two minutes, sounds like it's played on a lute or lyre, and is very medieval in nature. I could almost hear flutes and whistles coming in as accompaniment. No? No. The piece is over pretty quickly, and I guess to a degree, with its somewhat baroque style could be said to be the first indications of neoclassical on the album. “Lake of silence” turns out to belie its title, as it's a romping rocker with galloping drums, while “In darkness” seems more of a candidate for a slow song, with its deep stately synth opening. It's not though, as it quickly ramps up to a serious metal fret-out with dark elements. It does slow down in the end though, floating out on a really nice pastoral acoustic guitar, bringing in “Heart of pharaohs”.

Another rocker, this one features some pretty dirty guitar and a rising synth line with some effect on the guitar that makes it sound like it's snarling a vocal, unless Valdes slipped a sneaky one in (stop it, Batty! Settle down...) and develops into a mid-paced kind of a tune with some really nice shredding, some of it quite Brian May in tone. Rather disappointingly though, there's nothing the faintest bit Egyptian about it. Maybe he felt it would be too much of a cliche, but I would have liked to have heard a “Powerslave” or even Santana-style riff, maybe a Dio? Seems a lot of Mike Oldfield circa “Tubular Bells II” in “Castle in Heaven”, but to be brutally honest it's a little boring. In fact, the whole album has sort of begun to peter out for me now --- it's always hard holding the interest in an instrumental album I know, much more so a guitar one, but still, it sounds like he's just on autopilot now --- so I hope we can get back to the quality for the last four tracks.

The next one up is called “1099 Adagio”, so I'm hopeful for some neoclassical, or even just classical, to come into Valdes's music, and indeed here it comes: one of the best tracks so far. He really handles the Greats so well, putting his own slant on music that has been around and enjoyed for centuries, that he should do more of it. He's a great guitarist, but some of his more metal stuff on this album has definitely started to bore me, as it's beginning all to sound too much the same. This is nice though, and an example of what he can do when he steps outside the often rigid boundaries he has constructed to work within. Rather surprised to hear “Speed metal cop” begin with a gentle flowing passage before it kicks up into something more akin to progressive then power metal, but it's pretty alright. Lot of tension in it and, oddly enough, I hear the Egyptian sound here! :yikes:

“Voices in a deep” starts with slow dark synth but that's quickly left behind as we head into another fretfest, the keys joining in and pursuing the guitar as it chugs along. Some screaming solos but then it quietens down nicely in the midsection, where Senor Valdes gets all reflective before knocking it back up a notch, and we close on “Far away”, a nice sort of relaxed atmosphere to it. I'm a little disappointed though that there were no real ballads on this, and as I said earlier, more neoclassical should have been a must. Started off very well indeed but pretty quickly got old and a little stifling. Guess it's hard to keep the interest unless you play yourself.

TRACKLISTING

1. Beyond the universe
2. Run up the melody
3. Return to the shadows
4. Imhotep
5. Bouree
6. Lake of silence
7. In darkness
8. Heart of pharaohs
9. Castle in Heaven
10. 1099 Adagio
11. Speed metal cop
12. Voices in a deep
13. Far away

I actually had expected to be raving about this guy, from what I had read and from my initial listens, but as it went on his music just seemed to get a little samey and I was waiting for something to happen. It didn't. He's still a great guitarist, of that there's no question, though he's hardly quite in the Plankton league just yet. Better than Neal Schon, certainly his solo work anyway. I didn't find myself falling asleep halfway through like I did when listening to “The calling”. But metal is either about (mostly) excitement, speed, aggression and power, or in some cases a cosmic shift towards the quiet, pastoral and quite often utterly beautiful. This had flashes of both, but really settled more on the former than the latter, and even that was a little cliched.

Hard to rate I'll admit, but for me this just didn't shine the way I had thought it would. I've said it before more than once: an instrumental album really has to work to keep my attention all the way through, and this one just started to coast along in the latter half, whereupon I began to care less. Finished well, and started well, with some good stuff in between, but sadly, just not quite enough good stuff.

Imhotep must be named after the ancient Egyptian medicine man.

http://www.trollheart.com/listen1.png
Hey! How freaky is this? Not only is the next album on the list by a Finnish band, recorded in the same year as Finntroll’s, but it has a logo which looks like that of ReinXeed, who I only reviewed a day or so ago!
http://www.metal-archives.com/images/5/0/9/3/50930.jpg
Wintersun --- Wintersun --- 2004 (Nuclear Blast)
Recommended by JustinJJustin
We are however back to melodic death metal, though with a symphonic thrown in too, so to be honest I’m not sure what to think! At least these guys sing in English, assuming I can understand the vocal, which given the subgenre is by no means certain. This is their debut album, and they’re a spinoff from some other Finnish outfit --- Ensiferum, I think: yeah, Ensiferum --- who are themselves a Folk Metal band, so there may be some interesting mixes in here. But I’ve not had the best luck with death metal --- melodic or otherwise --- so I’ll reserve judgement for now.

Starts off oddly enough like a Power Metal song, then dark but not (!) growly vocals intone some lines before they break into a big scratchy scream. But hey, it’s not too bad and “Beyond the dark sun” opens the album well. Some great guitar work from I would assume two axemen? Wow, no! It’s another two-man outfit, with mainman Jari Mäenpää taking everything bar the drums. That’s guitar, bass, keyboards and vocals. Impressive. “Winter madness” is a longer song, mostly riding on the frenetic guitar and blastbeat drums, but it’s a little hard to pick out any highlights as it’s all just fast and powerful with no specific melody or passage I can nail my flag to. Good though.

Seems Mäenpää was fired from his parent band when he tried to record this album, so I guess it’s very personal and important to him. As he told Metaleater.com: ” Lyrically it's quite a personal record, but there's a little bit of fantasy also. Actually, you can understand the songs by many ways and meanings, which is great. But underneath all the metaphors to stars, space, vast and cold winter landscapes, it's all about my personal life: my feelings, emotions, thoughts, dreams, visions and hallucinations. [...] Every song is a highlight and important to me in their own ways. "Beautiful Death" and "Battle Against Time" were therapeutic to write, because they deal with the negative sides of my life and it was good to get those feelings on paper and into music. "Death and the Healing", "Sleeping Stars" and "Sadness and Hate" are very old songs that still live on, so they have sentimental value.” (Copied direct from Wiki page Wintersun (album) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

“Sleeping stars” sees a departure from the frantic, breakneck speed of the first two tracks, with a slower, swinging rhythm that’s almost, but not quite, in ballad territory. Kind of like a saga or something, very stately and majestic with a lot of keyboards and more restrained guitar for the most part. There’s a really nice orchestral style keyboard to end and then we ramp the tempo back up as we engage in a “Battle against time”, with a very effective male chorus in the opening and a return to that dark, intoned vocal we heard at the beginning of the album. Picks up speed then and the vocal goes back to Mäenpää’s “normal” style, though the chorus/choir helps to dull the edges of that sharp, acerbic voice a little.

A very personal song to Mäenpää, “Death and the healing” recounts his own recovery from TB, contracted during his compulsory service in the Finnish military and which necessitated the removal of part of his lung. I may not like his singing, but he has a strong voice and you would not think he had anything wrong with his lungs, so fair play to him. Great guitar and keyboard intro with those choral vocals, and Mäenpää drops to the lower register for the vocal on this most intimate song. He compares himself to a wounded bird as he sings ”A windstorm dropped a bird from the sky/ It fell to the ground and its wings broke and died/ But when the time got by/ Back to sky it flied (sic)/ Cause the wings healed in time and the bird was I.”

Although only just short of eight minutes, Mäenpää has created his very own death metal version of “2112” by Rush in the five-part “Starchild”, with part I (“Wanderer of time”) opening with a big hammerfist guitar rocking along in a very Power Metal vein, then part II (“Burning star”) is much slower and more pastoral, with a hard guitar edge as Mäenpää drops momentarily to the more recognisable vocal before ramping back up for part III (“The Creation”). Letting loose on the keys he blasts along like some demented carny, Kai Hanto struggling to match him on the drums. Part IV (“The sea of stars”) seems to have a violin leading the melody, though I guess it’s on the keys and part V (“Finale”) wraps everything up in one last fretfest.

The two longest tracks close the album, with “Beautiful death” allowing Mäenpää to slip the leash and allow his fury full vent with the darker, higher vocal, guitar holding court as choral vocals swell in the background like a supporting army. Some really nice church organ is soon kicked aside by Hanto’s percussive fusillade, indeed Hanto really shines on this track, showing us what he can do when he’s given his head. The closer then is the longest track, just over ten minutes. “Sadness and hate” opens with a doleful guitar that quickly kicks up into a hard, angry one but when it gets going, with a big scream from Mäenpää, it has a really nice swinging melody, almost balladic, though not really. For a ten minute song there are not that much in the way of lyrics, so I expect some interesting musical interludes.

Happily, Mäenpää either changes his vocal style here or it is augmented by another as the lyric prepares to run out and swaying guitar takes the tune, getting sort of medieval at times with a lilting, almost pastoral melody. Actually it seems the lyric is repeated during the song, lasting up to the ninth minute, leaving us to fade out on a celestial, ethereal keyboard passage

TRACKLISTING

1. Beyond the dark sun
2. Winter madness
3. Sleeping stars
4. Battle against time
5. Death and the healing
6. Starchild
(i) Wanderer of time
(ii) Burning star
(iii) The creation
(iv) The sea of stars
(v) Finale
7. Beautiful death
8. Sadness and hate

I wouldn’t go so far as to say the vocals ruined this for me, but I would probably have appreciated it a lot more if I could have understood what was being sung. Okay that’s not fair: I could understand it (mostly through having a lyric sheet) but it wasn’t the sort of singing I like to listen to . That aside, there is some excellent music on this album and it’s well worth a listen if you are into this particular subgenre, or even if you’re not. For a man with a repaired lung, Jani Mäenpää sure knows how to give it his all, and I just wonder if his previous band are regretting the decision to let him go now?

When you’re a kid and have little or no disposable income, or when you’re a teenager with just as little, you don’t have the luxury of buying all the new albums. As I’ve mentioned before, when I was growing up there was no internet as such, and certainly no itunes, YouTube, Spotify or Grooveshark. There were no torrents. If you wanted to hear an album you either bought it, borrowed it or, if you were lucky, got to hear it at a listening post in a record shop. If that last sentence made no sense to you, you are too young. I officially hate you. ;)

So you had to be careful how you spent your money, and one of the ways I found to get the best bang for my Irish Pound was to buy compilation albums. This was a way to hear bands I did not know of, and see if I liked them. It meant there could be a lot of dross of course, but the chances were that I would get at least two or three decent songs off the record, and maybe an introduction to a new band or two I could follow later when I started earning properly. There weren’t too many Metal compilations about at that time, but three I recall having, and as they turned me on to many new artistes (and off others), over the next three days I will feature them as the final trilogy to wrap up
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Metal for muthas, Volume II --- Various Artists --- 1980 (EMI)

For years --- and I mean years --- I wondered idly what a mutha was? I thought it was pronounced “myoo-taw” and that it was some secret name of Heavy Metal heroes or something. Of course, I eventually got the joke. Strangely, I never bought or even heard volume I --- I think I bought this second hand with a pile of other records, in the days when you could go into the city with twenty quid and come back with a bag bursting with albums --- and it seems to be acknowledged as the better of the two, with contributions from Iron Maiden, Praying Mantis and Samson, whereas the bands here are all, or were all at the time, pretty much unknown to me. But in a way, that’s what made it such fun, discovering new music.

As well as briefly running through the tracks here, I’m going to be checking in on each artiste, to see how they did after this album. Did they go on to great things? Did they have a moderately successful career? Or did they vanish without a trace? Some I know the answer to, some I don’t. We open however on a band that not only bookended this album, providing both the opening and closing tracks, but who became a firm favourite with me. Which is unfortunate, as they never seem to have gone on to have released any albums and I never heard from them again.

Track one: “One of these days” by Trespass.
They were a short-lived band from Suffolk who all had day jobs. Of course, after the release of this single they all …. kept their jobs. Yeah, they were never even moderately successful, and recorded little material, making it all the weirder that they not only ended up having an anthology but also at least three compilations, most if not all of which were bootlegs. Still, I loved what I heard here, and “One of these days” gets the collection going with a jangly, Lizzyesque guitar before the guitars kick up and take the song into a rockin’ hard boogie rhythm. Oddly, this was their most famous (as such) and successful track, and while I like it I much prefer their other one. But I think this really shows a band who could have broken through but somehow just never got the breaks, despite being managed at one point by The Enid’s manager. Guess it was never meant to be.

it’s nothing revolutionary but it’s clearly good enough to stand beside the likes of Praying Mantis, Samson, Xero, White Spirit and the slew of others who rode the New Wave of British Heavy Metal in the early 80s, and with a few exceptions the contributions from Trespass stand head and shoulders above everything else on this album. But sometimes it just doesn’t happen, and barring the closing track, and despite much frenzied searching, I never found anything else by them until about a year ago when I pounced on their “anthology”, also called “One of these days”.

So where are they now?

Having failed to make the big time (or even the slightly smaller time) Trespass broke up and later three of the band members formed a new band, which itself broke up after about three years. The guys then released an album called “Head”, which is said to contain new Trespass material, but despite a lot of searching and many sacrifices offered to the metal gods, I have never been able to track it down. That came out, apparently, in 1993, since when the band have just fallen off the edge of the world, and have not been heard from since. If anyone has information on them I’d love to talk to you.

Track two: “Telephone man” by Eazy Money.
I’m always (was even back then) sceptical of bands who replace an “s” with a “z”. Can’t find much information on them, which probably means they’re no longer around. In fairness, from what I remember of their track here that was not too surprising because I recall it being distinctly under-par. Mind you, maybe I was just seriously disappointed after having heard Trespass to be shackled with a much inferior band. Perhaps time has changed how these ears will perceive this song. Let’s find out.

Interestingly, it opens on a soft keyboard and organ line, then the guitar cuts in and the song very much reminds me of Deep Purple. It’s not bad, very American sounding and the guy certainly has a good voice, though it’s not anything that terribly special. The constant beep-beep from the synth, mimicking the sound of a telephone, gets annoying after a while. Yeah guys, we got it: even ELO only used the sound of the phone once on “Telephone line”. No need to beat us over the head with it! Good chorus to be fair, but it’s much more verging towards AOR than NWOBHM. Picks up at the end with a fine guitar and keyboard solo which quickens up the tempo and helps the song end really well. You know, I need to revise my opinion even from a few lines ago: this is fucking awesome! Just shows how a song can develop and suddenly kick you right in the ----

So where are they now?

Well, as I said I can find nothing about Eazy Money, but their vocalist, Marc Storace, did go on to front one of the bigger rock/Metal bands of the 80s in Krokus. So in one way at least, the spirit of Eazy Money lives on.

Track three: “Cutting loose” by Xero

Now this band I have been finally able to dig up some information on, oddly enough through the Answers.com website, and thanks to a guy called Eduardo Rivadavia. Seems that Xero (pronounced “zero”) were set to break into the big time, being championed by rock’s biggest fan on the radio, DJ Tommy Vance, but they unfortunately ran afoul of Iron Maiden’s management when they tried to release a song they had played live but which was a cover version of a song which had had Brucey involved in (for the full story see here Xero: Information from Answers.com and their label dissolved under legal pressures. That was the end of Xero, and a salutory lesson in naivete.

A good heavy fast rocker, “Cutting loose” is a decent track with a lot of blues Rory Gallagher about it, and maybe early Free, kind of more hard rock than Metal really. It has perhaps one of the silliest lines ever in a Metal song (and that’s no easy feat!) --- ”They used to call me boomerang/ Cos I kept coming back!” Gods preserve us! Goofy lyric aside though this song shows a band who were just really getting it together and could have been big. With a guitar riff very reminiscent of NWOBHM giants Iron Maiden, this song keeps the quality high on the album, and singer Moon Williames certainly knows how to scream in a Dickinson style, while Bill Liesgang is no slouch on the guitar either.

So where are they now?

Well, as I mentioned Xero the band did not last beyond about 1983, but again thanks to Eduardo I have information on what happened to them in later life, and it’s a somewhat varied result. Moon Williams hooked up with prog rock icon and ex-Asia man John Wetton, while Liesgang got plenty of session work. Strangest of all, bass player Boon Gould joined Level 42!

Track four: “High on high” by White Spirit

Another band who released one album only and then split, but whose members all did okay for themselves afterwards. White Spirit also share the distinction of being the only artiste here, other than Xero, to appear on two out of three of the albums I have chosen to end this section. If they have a claim to fame it must surely be that from their ashes sprung later Maiden guitarist Janick Gers.

With an intro more out of something you’d expect to hear on a prog rock album than a Metal one, it’s a pumping, boppy start but you really would think you were listening to Kansas or REO Speedwagon here. It’s a good song but very wimpy in terms of metal. Don’t get it. I hear elements of Asia and Yes in it, but not Maiden or Motorhead. That said, it’s a great song, just not what I would consider a great Metal one. Vocalist Bruce Ruff certainly has an interesting voice, but then just to reinforce the prog rock idea there’s a very proggy keyboard solo in the song, and no guitar one really.

So where are they now?

Like so many bands, White Spirit became just another casualty of the NWOBHM, unable to capitalise on their debut album sales --- not surprising really, as it sounds like they wanted to be more a prog/AOR or even soft rock band more than a Metal one, and they were never going to survive among the likes of Leppard, Girlschool, Angel Witch and even Praying Mantis. In musical genre terms, White Spirit were the dolphins among the sharks, and they got torn apart.

But as I said, their big star was Janick Gers, and he went on to work alongside Ian Gillan in the ex-Deep Purple vocalist’s eponymous solo band, also spending time with Fish on his debut solo album and Bruce Dickinson on his before joining Iron Maiden proper, where he has remained to this day. Of the rest, Bass man Phil Brady joined Therapy, an English band not to be confused with the Irish one Therapy? while drummer Graeme Crallan can be heard playing on Tank’s 1984 album “Blood and honour” but left after that. He sadly then passed away after an accident in 2008.

Track five: “Lady of Mars” by Dark Star

Here we have finally a band who recorded more than one album, though in fairness they did split after the first, reforming in 1987, two years later, to record a second album. Having no luck with that they then split for good. Again this is more in the melodic, almost AOR vein than out-and-out Metal, and I doubt too many metalheads would rate it. However it became and remains one of my two favourite songs on the album, even beating out Trespass’s “One of these days”. I really loved this. Though it starts off with a good, punchy guitar and indeed rides on a heavy riff, and the vocalist has a great rough gravelly voice, there’s something too poppy about it to make it a proper Metal song. It’s infectiously catchy as Ebola in Sierra Leone (What? Too soon?) and there are great backup vocals. It also ends with a really heavy guitar and crashing drums.

So where are they now?

After the second split following the lack of success of their 1987 second album, Dark Star stayed together, minus their singer, who went on to management, while his bandmates formed a new outfit called Poker Alice, a primarily blues-based band.

It’s my recollection from my youth that from this point on the album dipped seriously in quality, though as has already been proven, my memory can’t always be relied on, as I thought “Telephone man” was crap and it wasn’t. Nevertheless, I have a clear remembrance of a sense of disappointment till we got to the closer, the second Trespass song. But we’ll see how time has treated that memory.

Track six: “You give me candy” by Horsepower

The only thing I can find out about them is that, uncharacteristically for an NWOBHM era band, they were not in fact English or even British, but relocated to the UK from Philadelphia. Perhaps they saw or heard of the burgeoning Metal scene across the ocean and thought “We’ll have some of that!” Well, this is more like it! Much as I loved Dark Star, this is more like the kind of Metal you’d expect to have found on an album like this. With a big, fast, rocking beat very reminiscent of the likes of ZZ, Horsepower rock unashamedly on with good-time guitars and who-gives-a-shit drumming.

It’s like Horsepower brought a sense of American fun and freedom to a subgenre that was often at this time in danger of taking itself too seriously. As bands struggled to get noticed, many aping or in some cases copying the established or rising bands --- often note for note and riff for riff --- some of the enjoyment in the music got left behind. These guys from the city of brotherly love remind us that music is to be enjoyed, and they’re like the best of Blindside Blues Band, ZZ and Lynyrd Skynyrd all rolled into one. With a healthy dose of Southern Boogie this track not only rocks but is enormous fun.

Let me see if I can encapsulate it in one sentence. Oh yeah. Fuck, I love this! How could I have thought this was the begining of the slide? The equine ones remind us this is supposed to be a party, and they’re makin’ sure everyone has a real good time! Sure, it’s not what I’d call NWOBHM in any way shape or form, but then neither were White Spirit, and if they belong here then sure as there’s shit on their shoes, Horsepower do too!

So where are they now?

Sadly, after setting our shores alive with their own brand of Yankee fun rock, Horsepower headed back over to the States, where they released their first album and obviously stayed together throughout the 80s and 90s, as they recorded a song in memory of the victims of 9/11.

Track seven: “Open heart” by Red Alert

Really, really hard to get any proper information on this band, as not only was there a punk band of the same name operating at the same time (the Wiki link on the album goes erroneously to their entry, which confuses things further) there were two Metal bands called Red Alert. Add to that the fact that it’s also the title of a song and it makes it next to impossible to find an entry on them. All I did find is that they were yet another of the jetsam of the movement, releasing just the one single, the song here, and then changing their name, after which nothing more is known of them.

It’s more straightahead metal this time. Whereas “She gives me candy” was a great rocking tune and a rollicking good ride, it could not really be called Metal, much less NWOBHM, but this can. With a killer riff driving the song and a singer who sounds like he chews cigarettes for breakfast, it’s rough and raw and just the right side of punk that would allow it to fit right in among the many hundreds of bands all pushing and shoving for a recording contract, or at least recognition, in those heady days. It has to be said that it’s nothing special, but it’s not bad. I remember it as a little forgettable, and this time it would seem my memory is pretty much right on the money.

So where are they now?

Absolutely no idea.

Track eight: “Chevy” by Chevy

For once, it’s nice to see that someone has compiled a decent amount of information on a band I hitherto knew nothing about, so I can tell you that Chevy began life as 4 Wheel Drive in the sixties and played pop songs until they caught the metal bug in the wake of the NWOBHM and decided to change their playing style. They released one album but were another band to fall prey to a clueless label who had no idea how to market them, and possibly no interest in doing so. They did play with some giants, Hawkwind and Gary Moore to name two, but split in 1983 after their first album “Taker”.

A big screeching guitar leads in a real three-chord boogie that just has your head moving right away, and with a lot of Springsteen in the feel. Odd that they would change their name to Chevy, a recognised symbol of American motor power, when they came from the metropolis of … Leamington Spa. But I suppose Transit or Vauxhall wouldn’t have had quite the same ring to it! I hear traces of Lizzy here, and again ZZ, even if the song is a little repetitive. I could see this having been very popular onstage though.

So where are they now?

Well again there’s a lot of information and I’m not going to bore you by telling you the separate path each band member followed, but suffice to say one still plays with Dr. Feelgood, one is a guitar teacher and the others all went on to play with well-established bands including Badfinger, Atomic Rooster and the Steve Marriott Band. Humorous aside: their record label, Avatar, who caused them so much trouble and possibly cost them a chance at fame and success, went bankrupt and apparently formed a company producing porn videos! Ah, revenge is sweet!

Track nine: “Hard lines” by The Raid

Actually called Jameson Raid (sounds like a heist at an off-licence!) the band had been around since 1973 and were annoyed that EMI remixed their song, without their permission, and according to them it was ruined. Apathy seems to have been the big killer of this band, and they began to fragment shortly afterwards, with two of the founders leaving. By 1983 the band was effectively dead.

The song opens on a thick bass line, and runs almost like a Metal version of bluegrass for a moment before it takes shape. I don’t really like the singer’s style, but if I had to compare him to anyone it might be Bowie? It’s a pretty intense number, almost claustrophobic with the heavy guitar riffs pounding down and the vocalist almost seeming like his voice is coming through a phaser or some effect. Seems to be based on an accident taking place in deep space, from what I can gather. A very dark, bleak song which belies its mostly uptempo style. Certain touches of the Clash or a slower, more restrained Tank about it.

So where are they now?

After the two founders quit the band in 1980, the remaining two members, Phil Kimberley and the man whose name should have been synonymous with Metal, Terry Dark, continued on the band. Although all four original members have now left, Jameson Raid continues with an entirely new lineup and is the only band on this compilation to be able to say they are still active.

Track nine: “Stormchild” by Trespass

They saved the best till last. This song will forever be in my top ten metal tracks, even though most people would look at it and say “Stormwhat? Who the hell are Trespass?” Despite that I’ll always love them and this remains one of the best Metal tracks I’ve ever heard. It opens with a lone guitar riffing, then another, harder single chord joins it, so two guitars are now riffing separately but in the same melody. Drums cuts in after a short moment and the song takes off, rising on a completely infectious guitar line. Vocals come in, though only after over a minute of guitar riffing, and just complete the song: strong, powerful, clear. Not a hint of rawness or roughness in the voice. A superb, fluid solo bisects the song and it ends in a storm of guitar riffs with a final fluttering cymbal and a vocal that sort of echoes out, leaving you wanting more, even though the song is easily the longest on the album, at just over five minutes. Shouuld have been an NWOBHM classic and a Metal standard. Life’s cruel, y’know?

So where are they now?

Already told you. Please check the writeup on the first track.

TRACKLISTING

1. One of these days --- Trespass
2. Telephone man --- Eazy Money
3. Cutting loose --- Xero
4. High upon high --- White Spirit
5. Lady of Mars --- Dark Star
6. You give me candy --- Horsepower
7. Open heart --- Red Alert
8. Chevy --- Chevy
9. Hard lines --- The Raid
10. Stormchild --- Trespass

When I bought this album as an impressionable teenager/passing over into twenties all I saw it as was a collection of Heavy Metal songs. I didn’t even know, probably, despite being in the middle of it, about the NWOBHM. But looking back on it now, thirty-some years later, I can see it for what it is: a partial encapsulation of that era, a showcase of some of the bands who never made it, and a repository of examples of how naive bands were back then, how greedy and often incompetent record labels were, and how unprincipled managers can be. If the labels and management teams behind some of these bands had been better, or cared more, or knew how to do their job, some of these artistes could have been huge, or at least survived.

Instead, we have a vinyl graveyard littered with the musical skeletons of those who were thrown in the deep end and found they either could not swim or were forcibly dragged down under the water by the incredible pressures put on them by those around them, fans, managers, labels and indeed the climate itself. To survive and make your mark in the NWOBHM you had to have something special, you had to be able to work hard (no problem there mostly) and you needed a good team around you, a team that could support, market and sell you.

Without these crucial elements, most of these bands were doomed to failure, and to be remembered only as a track or two on a compilation album that most people have forgotten about, or like me, remember with fondness. But ultimately, fame was never to be theirs and in the case of just about every band here, that really is the world of Heavy Metal’s loss.

Time for another look at linked songs as we again check out
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This time I'm going to group them under the subject of guns. Well, any sort of weapon really. We'll start off with A light-hearted one, this is Kiss, with “Love gun”.

Blast from my past with “Under the blade” by Twisted Sister

You wouldn't expect such a list not to include Manowar, now would you? This is “The power of thy sword”.

Saxon come in with “All guns blazing”

while Anthrax are “Armed and dangerous”

Motorhead have a “Sharpshooter”

and Pantera promise “We'll grind that ax for a long time”.

Gravedigger sing about the most famous sword in history with “Excalibur”

or maybe it would be “The sword of Damocles”, as referenced here by Judas Priest?

Entombed are more interested in being able “To ride, shoot straight and tell the truth”

And of course, where would we be without Maiden? Closing up this section, here's “Sun and steel”.

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For my final look at Spanish metal I want to take a Doom Metal band, so let's go looking for recommendations huh? OK, well Google was about as much use as a barber shop on the steps of the Guillotine, so back to my metal encyclopaediac friends I go. Just gonna have to choose one. Let's see... ippy dippy, my space shippy, on a course so true. Round Neptune's moons and Pluto too, the one I choose is .... you!

No it isn't. Man, this is not going well. Three bands chosen, all split up and only one with any sort of an album. I need a current, active band. Let's see. How about these guys? No, close though. Active but with only an EP to their name. Still, maybe ... can I find it? Ah no forget it: it has only four tracks, two of which are Pentagram covers. That's no use to me. Jesus! It's like The Meat Grinder all over again! :rolleyes: Another band, active but no sign of their one album. Sigh. Even better! My search for the next band crashed Spotify! Wonder if they're available on the shark wot grooves? YES! A few albums too. Great. They'll do then.
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Baal --- Orthodox --- 2011 (Alone Records)
These guys have an interesting way of focussing their audience apparently. They play their gigs dressed in nondescript black cloaks, and say they don't move onstage. In fact, here's what they say, in their own words: “`We play dressed as penitents of the Sevillian brotherhoods. For us is a way to annul the individual at the moment of playing live music. The only esthetic reference are three motionless figures in black. We force the audience to be centered in that side of our shows...`` (From an interview given to Riff fanzine, and taken from the Encyclopaedia Metallum website)

Sounds like an interesting idea. Can't see the crowd getting too out of control and throwing beer bottles at three guys who don't even move! Mind you, this album is pretty short, with only five tracks, although one is fourteen minutes long. That seems to be about normal for doom metal, I'm discovering. To my surprise, given that the song titles are all in Spanish, it looks as if Orthodox may sing in English. Of course, this being doom metal that could be more muttered or grunted in English, but at any rate I have translations so I should be able to tell you a little about their songs. The first one though looks to be an instrumental, as there are no lyrics provided. It's called “Alto padre”, which starts off with a big buzzy guitar and then a second one joins with more in the way of melody. One heavy drumbeat is followed about a minute later by another, before there's a roll and the song gets underway.

It's definitely a lot more tuneful than a lot of the doom metal I've heard up to now --- Conan, I'm looking at you! --- and augurs well for the rest of the album, unless this is a curveball I'm being thrown. Sounds like a violin there? None mentioned but you never know; sometimes these things are uncredited. Drums are really rolling now as Borja Diaz Vera gets into his stride, and the guitars are very tasteful from Ricardo Jimenez Gómez. Tune is a little disorganised, almost like a tuneup at the moment, but not unlistenable by any means. Fairly quickly though it's over and it's not a short song, about five minutes and change.

“Taurus” introduces us to the vocals of Marco Serrato Gallado, and I must say on this song at least they come across more like some sort of Native American chant, though still better than many I've heard. The guitars get going as he drops out and they actually ramp up quite well. I honestly can't say too much about the drummer; he seems to be just marking time rather than following any sort of melody, but again maybe that's how it's done in doom metal. Most of it is so slow, it doesn't exactly lend itself to dazzling displays of percussive genius. There's certainly plenty of talent on display at the frets though, as Gómez does his best to liven up proceedings, and mostly succeeds.

Yeah, the vocal remains as a kind of chant, getting a little more intense near the end, but it really detracts from the pretty good music overall being played. Okay, the guitars. “Intromantes” might read as “introduction” but it's just shy of nine minutes long, so no. I would quote some lyrics but I have no idea what these guys are singing about, and think it may be some druidic verse or maybe something from Lovecraft? Lot of names I don't know. Pace has slowed down a little --- yeah, slowed! --- as Gallado continues to chant, can't really call it singing, lending perhaps weight to my belief that this is some sort of pagan prayer. It's ironic that even though he's singing in English I still can't really make out the words!

Wow! Sounded like my PC had got jammed there for about a minute, or like someone was playing a jew's harp incessantly, but no, it was all part of the song. The end of it in fact. Now we're on to “Hanin Ba'al”, which I guess is as close to a title track as we're going to get. I must say, Gallado's vocal here is much better. Much. He stops the droning chanting and gets into a serious groove that actually makes me want to listen to rather than ignore or strain to hear him. Plus I can now make out the lyric. Still no idea what it's about, but wasn't Ba'al some ancient Sumerian god or something ? It's got quite a bouncy feel to it, almost a doom boogie? Sort of an Iommi-like solo breaking out here from Gómez.

Final track then is that monster, with “Ábrase la Tierra” clocking in at a mammoth fourteen minutes, and right away they throw away the almost carefree, fun spirit of the previous track and settle down to some serious dooming. Bringing the pace right back, it's slow, sludgy and plodding but, as Moe once remarked, not without its charm. Gallado's voice is back chanting but somehow it's even further down in the mix now, or maybe it's just that Gómez's guitar is too far to the front. Either way it's a blistering wall of sound, but for a track this long I hope it changes a little over its run.

Well, rather amazingly after a real crazy solo from Gómez that seems to use a lot of feedback or effect pedals of some sort we're already nine minutes in! I feel it's very much overextended though, running well into the twelfth minute, but then looking at the lyric (which appears to be in Latin) there are less words used here than in a Conan song, so I guess they need to fill up the time with music. But then, why fourteen minutes long? The song then ends on some moans and kind of weird guitar effects and then fades out. Slightly disappointing ending, I feel.

TRACKLISTING

1. Alto padre
2. Taurus
3. Intromantes
4. Hanin Ba'al
5. Ábrase la Tierra

Good for what it is, and not half as crushingly slow or (dare I say it) boring as some of the doom metal I've experienced. I wasn't quite sure what to expect but this was not at all half bad. When Marco Gallado raises his game he's an okay singer, but in fairness nothing much more than that, with the undoubted star here being Ricardo Jimenez Gómez. Orthodox have four albums to their name, with a live one released last year, so are obviously still doing okay. Not bad for three guys who stand on the stage and move as little as possible.

So that's Spain done and dusted. I'm sure there are plenty --- and I mean plenty --- of bands we missed out, but when you're skimming though the music of a country with such a rich musical heritage, you're going to end up, well, skimming through it I guess. If I missed out a band you think I should have included, well all I can say is you try doing the next Metal Month! It ain't easy, ya know!

Next week I'm gonna be right at home as I check out the surprisingly vibrant metal scene in my own homeland. Yeah, Paddymetal closes out Metal Month II, starting next Monday! Ya wide or wot?

I'd have gone with Judas Priest's "All Guns Blazing". I love Saxon, but at least up until Metalhead (which is the last modern Saxon album I listened to) they were kind of dull. Their guitarist just doesn't have any of the swagger or the killer riffs needed to set off Biff's vocals, so they come off as sterile. The guitarist doesn't do too bad with speed metal riffs though, but when he slows down his lack of personality becomes obvious. Hopefully they've fixed that or dropped him since.

That's one of my fav Anthrax songs though. Totally underrated. That album is also my fav vocal performance by Joey Belladonna. He went for a more punk approach after that album, but on Spreading the Disease he just goes full on Bruce Dickinson, with enough cheese thrown in to make it the ultimate sing-along metal album. It's not as well written as Among the Living, but it still might be my fav from Anthrax.