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13 --- Black Sabbath --- 2013 (Vertigo)

Apparently the worst-kept secret in metal, though of course I didn't know about it, was the reunion of metal pioneers Black Sabbath with their original vocalist and frontman Ozzy Osbourne, and the release of their first new album in eighteen years, their first proper with Ozzy in thirty-five. Sadly, it's not the full original lineup as "contractual problems", whatever they may be, prevented drummer Bill Ward from joining up, so he had to be replaced, both for the tour and the album. But what of the album? Many bands have reformed, ostensibly "for the money" --- Eagles, Deep Purple, Take that (?) --- and although Sabbath never officially split, this lineup has not been seen together since 1998, and really not since "Never say die", twenty years prior to that. So was this just one big publicity stunt? After years of prostituting himself to reality TV, did Ozzy still have it? Would this even sound like the Sabbath we knew and loved?

Right from the first chords we're back in 1970 and it's the emergence of a staggering new talent as Tony Iommi's dark, doomy powerchords introduce the perhaps appropriately-titled "End of the beginning". Even the echoey guitar riff is almost right out of the opener, and title track, to their debut. When Ozzy comes in with the vocal it's like he's never been away. So, then, is this a band trying to recapture former glories, copy-and-paste from their early albums, or is there anything new here? Well the riff soon gets uptempo and rocks along nicely, and I'm sorry Bill Ward but I couldn't tell you're not there: nothing against you but as I've mentioned before I can't tell a good drummer from an okay or even bad one. Good to hear Geezer Butler's controlling bass licks though. Also nice to see that the old guys (hey, they gotta be in their sixties now!) can still show the whippersnappers of today how it's done!

Those super solos Iommi rips off almost effortlessly are abundant of course, and the whole band chugs along like a well-oiled machine that's been working together for thirty years, not one that has been missing a component for longer than that. Sabbath always had a great way of fusing heavy riffs and power with proper melody and great lyrics, something many of today's metal bands could learn a thing or two from. "God is dead?", the lead single opens on a dark, ominous guitar riff, much slower than the opener, with attendant "spooky" sounds in the background. Iommi then hammers his way into the tune, suffusing it with a brooding, menacing presence while Ozzy's voice has seldom heard as eerie since that opening track on their first album. There's also an element of "War pigs" about the lyric as Ozzy sings "Swimming in sorrow/ They kill steal and borrow/ There is no tomorrow/ For the sinners will be damned."

Near the end it kicks up into a real boogie metal rocker on the back of Iommi and Butler's partnership, then "Loner" swaggers along as if it owns the street, and has quite a nod back to Led Zep in it. Slow laidback acoustic guitar then for "Zeitgeist", soft percussion which reminds me (and everyone else probably) of "Planet caravan" off "Paranoid", then we're back rocking with "Age of reason" and some great guitar histrionics from Tony Iommi. "Live forever" slows everything back down to that familiar Sabbath grind for a moment before taking off at a gallop, the beat driven by new guy Brad Wilk on the drumstool.

Sounding like something you'd expect to hear from Hendrix, "Damaged soul" has a great opening line: "Born in a graveyard" and swings with a real blues rhythm, accentuated by some great harmonica from Ozzy. Some fine interplay too between Butler and Iommi, but when I hear that guitar riff the first thing I think of is "Crosstown traffic"... We close then on "Dear father", with a powerful guitar riff and a recurrence of the motif from that first song all those years ago. The guys really go all out on this one, finishing on a high note and even throwing in the rain, wind and pealing bells from their very first track, turning the clock right back to 1970. Nice touch, lads.

TRACKLISTING

1. End of the beginning
2. God is dead?
3. Loner
4. Zeitgeist
5. Age of reason
6. Live forever
7. Damaged soul
8. Dear father

There was a lot of hype about this album, good and bad. Would it live up to its promise? Would Ozzy be able to cut it after so long? Would it end up being a parody and tarnish our memory of the godfathers of heavy metal? Would Bill Ward's absence spoil the album? After listening to this several times I can say that to me it's Sabbath back to their best. I'm a Dio guy, but even I can appreciate that Ozzy was the driving force behind this band, and the place he deserves in metal history. Here he does an excellent job as not only an ambassador for metal, but as an example that some things really can get better with age.

Back on the top of the pile, standing at the head of the metal army, returning to the throne --- whichever way you look at it, one thing is very clear from this album: Black Sabbath are back!

Read more here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sabbath

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There have certainly been some Metal standards, and songs, that have been covered by odd artistes, whom you would not associate with Heavy Metal at all, but occasionally a Metal band will cover a song that is just, well, so far removed from Metal that it beggars belief. In a recent review of the album "Are you dead yet?" by Children of Bodom, to be published later in the month, I was just totally amazed that they seemed to have recorded a cover version of Britney Spears' "Oops ... I did it again!" I couldn't for the life of me imagine what it would sound like. Surely they would send it up to high Heaven --- or in this case, down to low Hell? --- but could it be possible that they were closet Britney fans, and wanted to do the song justice? Is it even feasible that they might attempt a proper version of it?

Well, to my amazement they did a pitch-perfect copy of it, right down to ... nah, just yankin' your chain! They did however draft in the services of Jonna Kosenen, though who she is I don't know. Interesting use of the keyboard and it's just hilarious to hear Alexi Laiho's gutteral vocal with the hammering guitars battering the song to pieces. Just brilliant. You know the original probably --- how many of us will not admit to watching at least one Britney video for, ah, relief? --- but here are the two side by side. Finally, you can throw the horns while listening to Britney! Yeah yeah: we'd all like to throw something else...

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The Crusade --- Trivium --- 2006 (Roadrunner)

One of The Batlord's favourite bands (!), Trivium are high --- not number one but in there --- on his list of Poseur Metal Bands, and he really seems to hate them. This, it would appear, is their "most poseur" album, veering away from the death growls (thank the Metal Gods!) and metalcore influences of the previous albums, and containing a more mythological/fantasy line in lyrics and song subjects. I must say, "Ignition", the opener, sounds a lot less like I expected it to. Very raw, very sort of haphazard in its arrangement, a little amateurish if I'm honest. It settles down though and eventually has a nice hook in it that reminds me a little of Ten.

Trouble is then it takes off again, back more or less in the style it opened, and it's almost as if this is two songs: the verses sparse and raw, while the chorus is much more melodic, structured much better. As if they can't make up their mind what they want to be. Will this be typical of Trivium's music as the album goes on? Well, following "Ignition" we get "Detonation", which seems quite similar to the previous track, although it strides along with a certain swagger, driven on Travis Smith's drums and the twin guitar attack of Matt Heafy and Cory Beaulieu. Yeah, it's decent enough and seems to hold together quite well. Good guitar solo. "Entrance of the conflagration" (huh? Does that title even make sense?) rocks along with great enthusiasm and energy, thundering, rattling drums and screaming guitars, and you know, at least Heafy doesn't growl!

The pace doesn't slacken for "Anthem (We are the fire)" though there is a certain sense of derivativity about it. Rocks well though. "Unrepentant" is good too, though I'm not seeing too much here that really stands out. It's all pretty decent but nothing that really differentiates one track from another, and they're kind of blurring together a little. That's not really fair, but I am finding it hard to find interesting things to write as the album winds on. Well, "And sadness will sear" is slower, a bit grindy and seems to have some sort of sitar-like sound, so that's different. Sort of little progressive metal touches in the guitar riff, and a nice expressive solo too. I'd definitely list this as my favourite track on an album that, so far, has been mostly unremarkable.

There's a real power metal feel to "Becoming the dragon", and so far I've heard neither growl nor scream --- oh wait, there they are! Well, just sort of incidentally really. Great steamhammer drumming and powerful fretwork from the boys, but you kind of begin to wonder are their hearts really in it or are they just going through the motions? More fretburning on "To the rats" and the hammer is well and truly brought down as the band break the speed limit, thrashing along at breakneck speed, but they still manage to throw in a pretty catchy hook in the chorus. It's the same problem as with the opener: the main part of the song is chaotic and disorganised while the chorus seems to bear no resemblance to it.

It's more of the same for "This world can't tear us apart" --- good, or at least not bad, but nothing that blows my skirt up --- and "Tread the floods" more or less treads (sorry) the same path, though it can't be denied there's some great guitar histrionics going on. Trouble is, superhot fret madness on its own does not make great songs and while there are some good ideas here they're kind of muddled and not very well thought out. In my opinion. Yeah. The next two kind of just slide by for me, and the album ends on the title track, an eight-minute instrumental which is of course largely guitar wankery but pretty damn good.

TRACKLISTING

1. Ignition
2. Demolition
3. Entrance of the conflagration
4. Anthem (We are the fire)
5. Unrepentant
6. And sadness will sear
7. Becoming the dragon
8. To the rats
9. This world can't tear us apart
10. Tread the floods
11. Contempt breeds contamination
12. The rising
13. The Crusade

All in all, I'd have to say I don't have a huge amount of praise for Trivium, but neither do I think they're the worst out there. A lot of their material is very derivative, as I've said earlier, and for me they could be even more accused of being a poseur band than Dragonforce, so I see where His Batship is coming from. That said, they can play certainly and their singer is okay, but again the confused nature of their songwriting and the execution of their songs is a little hard to get my head around. Seems like they could have one or two really good songs if they tried, but they seem happier to kind of just dance around, wave guitars and not take their music too seriously.

I suppose that, in the end, could prove to be the undoing of them. If you don't take yourself seriously, then how can you expect anyone else to?

Read more here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trivium_%28band%29

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Twilight of the Gods --- Bathory --- 1991 (Black Mark)

Starting out as one of Scandinavia's first black metal bands, Bathory changed their style after 1990 towards a more viking/gothic metal approach, and this is where this album falls, their followup to "Hammerheart", on which the style is said to have changed first. At this point the band had shrunk to basically a one-man unit, comprising only Quorthon, founder of Bathory, who plays every instrument and sings on this album. Good man, Quorthon!

With only seven tracks, the album nevertheless falls just short of the hour mark, this being due to the opener running for fourteen minutes, while there is also a ten minute song on it. We open on the title track, mirroring the struggle at the end of the world in Norse mythology, called "Ragnarok", when the gods would war against each other, good versus bad, in a battle that would end up destroying both sides and leaving humans free of gods.

A howling wind blows across an icy plain, in the distance a guitar chimes out like a lonely sentinel, a witness left to observe the fall of the Gods of Asgard in their final climactic battle. Suddenly, heavy militaristic drumming booms out and deep choral voices add their lament; this is a battle chant, but a battle the participants know they are fated to lose. There's a sense of desperation, of finality and fatalism, but also heroism and stoicism, pride and determination to face the end with honour, and to fall bravely in battle. All has been foretold, there is no cheating prophecy and the Gods know that. Thor steps forth, his eyes flashing fire, his mighty hammer in his hand, and faces his half-brother Loki, smaller than him but in terms of evil twice his size. Bifrost, the Rainbow Bridge, shakes to the sound of battle, echoes with the screams of dying men, rings to the sound of steel clashing on steel. (Yes, I love Norse mythology, in case you were unaware!)

Quorthon's vocal breaks in now, joining the cry of the wounded, the lost, the dying, the music swelling behind him like a battle cry, a last fist raised in defiance as the Gods ride to war one more time and face their age-old enemy. I have to say, for a fourteen minute song, we're halfway through it and it hasn't really changed much, but it's certainly evoking the spirit of Ragnarok. Against an expressive guitar piece a spoken vocal opens "Through blood by thunder", which turns into another anthemic cruncher with a real feeling of pathos and tragedy with some great fretburning action, and on into the second long track.

Of seven tracks here, three have the word "blood" in their titles, but then when you're dealing with the final battle for Asgard I guess that's expected. "Blood and iron" opens with more introspective guitar, some acoustic, quite relaxed and moody, which takes it into the second minute of the song, after which the power chords churn out and percussion hits. Again, it's a slow, grinding marcher with another spoken vocal this time telling of Man's discovery, through the gods, of steel which could be forged into swords. And ploughshares. But mostly swords. "Under the runes" has a very Led Zep/Dio sound to it, very dramatic and powerful, bringing in the choir again and racking off a superb solo near the end.

Sounds sort of like a sitar at the beginning of "To enter your mountain", and you can see the deep effect of doom metal on this music. It's all slow and grindy though with a certain gothic and at times even progressive metal influence. "Bond of blood" is another plodder with heavy guitar and choral vocals, then "Hammerheart" is really clever, with lyrics given to Gustav Holst's "Jupiter, the bringer of Jollity" from "The Planets Suite". Great job, and an excellent closer. Perhaps odd that this is the title of the previous album, but there you go.

TRACKLISTING

1. Twilight of the Gods
2. Through blood by thunder
3. Blood and iron
4. Under the runes
5. To enter your mountain
6. Bond of blood
7. Hammerheart

Although this never got going with any even slightly uptempo tracks, my approval was always assured by the fact that it deals with Norse legend, and particularly Ragnarok. When you consider this is all the work of one guy it's pretty staggering. Quorthon certainly knows his Norse mythology and brings to life the world of Asgard and the Aesir here in a way I've seen few other bands manage. Although this was a change in direction for Bathory I certainly enjoyed it and I may look back into their catalogue --- or forward, from here --- they have twelve albums in all, and though some of the earlier ones may not be to my taste I feel sure I may find at least a few that will be.

For Asgard, Valhalla and Odin!



Note: I have just read that Quorton died from heart failure at the age of thirty-eight in 2004. A sad loss, considering the talent displayed here, and such a pity we will hear no more from him. Based on that, I definitely need to listen to more Bathory. RIP man.
Read more here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathory_%28band%29

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The shadowthrone --- Satyricon --- 1994 (Moonfrog)

We've had the primary Swedish black metal band in Bathory, now let's cross over the fjord and head to the darker lands. Satyricon are acknowledged as one of the driving forces behind the early black metal movement in Norway, and this is accepted generally as one of their finest albums. It's their second, and again my first introduction to the band. I think I got lucky with Bathory; I don't expect to be let off so lightly with a second black metal band. But as they sort of said in Futurama, you gotta do what you gotta do...

Well there's a gutteral growl which doesn't do anything to assuage my fears, then "Hvite Krists død" (which apparently translates as "White Christ's death") gets going, with hammering guitar, pounding drums and that black metal sound I love so much! Yeah, this is going to be a blast, I can tell! Well now let's not be too hasty. Things settle down for a nice keyboard passage and soft bass, over which Satyr speaks in I assume Norwegian for a few moments, but that doesn't last --- hoenstly, did we expect it to? --- and we're back chasing the devil with a guitar. Yeah well it's not the worst black metal I've ever heard this month. Hey, there's even some rather nice piano! Then a big gong sounds and sharp guitar takes us out.

Much faster then is "In the mist by the hills", with more gravelly, scratchy singing from Satyr and pound-you-into-submission guitar from Samoth and Satyr himself, who also plays the odd bit of keyboards for good measure. Frost, on the drums, goes total overkill here near the end, and keeps going into "Woods to eternity", with the guitar almost restrained in comparison. Almost. But then they surprise me again, smacking me upside the head with a really nice soft acoustic guitar passage which leads into a harder electric one but is still quite --- can I say this? --- pastoral? Certainly sounds like it. The fact that Satyr keeps his gob shut while it's playing is a plus too.

"Vikingland" has an interesting chorus and warrior-style backing vocals with I must admit a very sharp guitar that I really like. On the minus side, Satyr's back. "Dominions of Satyricon" then is the epic, a nine-minute track that goes through many changes over its length, opening as a sort of marching anthem and then changing to heads-down headbanger with shredding a-plenty before returning to a slightly sped-up anthem, and all this in the first two minutes! A triphammer drumbeat takes us into the fourth minute with, I'm glad to say, a minimum of singing from old Satyr. Sure he'll be back though: ah yes, here he is! "The king of the shadowthrone" keeps the energy pumping high with rattling guitar and thundering drums and then, just as it's trundling along nicely they pull out the old acoustic, send the drummer to make the tea and just chill, for a few seconds. Mind you, it's not any time before Satyr is pounding on the electric and then he does another one of those dark voiceovers that crack me up so much.

Oh. And that's the end. Of that song. And almost the album. There's a kind of horn intro and some rather nice piano --- played I believe by the devilish one --- to close out on "I en svart kiste", which Wiki tells me is Norwegian for "in a black coffin". Tore, if you're reading you can tell me if they're right. It's a nice symphonic/gothic piece, with deep bassoon or summat, probably synthesised I guess but it sounds well. Just hoping it may be instrumental, as we're about halfway in and no vocals yet. Well, choral vocals on the keys yes, but no singing. Not yet. Yeah, it's an instrumental, and a nice one to finish on too.

TRACKLISTING

1. Hvite Krists død
2. In the mist by the hills
3. Woods to eternity
4. Vikinglands
5. Dominions of Satyricon
6. The king of the shadowthrone
7. I en kvist svarte

Musically I can really dig these guys. I get where they're coming from. It's my old bugbear again, death vocals, that's turning me a little from listening to more of their music. Satyr has the kind of voice that makes you think of nails scraping down a blackboard, but he can certainly play the guitar and he does a fine job on the keyboards on the last track. This was not nearly as bad as I had led myself to believe, and given that it's an early album and very clearly black metal I think I did ok with it. Nevertheless, this subgenre is never going to be my thing, but I wanted to make sure that there was something for everyone across the wide wonderful spread of heavy metal, so there's some black metal for yaz. Next up, it's System of a Down.

Read more here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satyricon_%28band%29

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Toxicity --- System of a Down --- 2001 (American)

Something concerns me about this band. Wiki lists them as a "rock" band, not a "metal" band, but I believe they're accepted as part of the nu-metal scene? I don't know; like so many bands here this is my first encounter with SOAD, so forgive me if I'm introducing a band who should not be included, but I'm going on popular opinion, so let's see how this pans out.

Choppy guitar chords that start and stop, a whispered vocal, pauses, silence, more guitars then the melody kicks in properly as "Prison song" starts, with a vocal that sounds more like something out of a reggae song to be honest. Okay it's heavy but is it metal? Well, apparently SOAD are supposed to utilise an awful lot of different influences so let's not discount them right away. It slows down in the middle and we get some gratuitous growls while vocalist Serj Tankian carries on. It's energetic, it's almost funny in places. Not too sure if I'm meant to take this seriously? Anyhoo, next track is "Needles", with a big heavy drumbeat and churning guitars, vocal is sort of spoken/shouted almost in a punk fashion, then "Deer dance" has the reggae-ish vocal back, tripping along nicely then Tankian starts shouting again.

Is this metal? I still don't know. I wouldn't categorise it as such, personally. Not so far anyway. "Jet pilot" just flies along at Mach II, then slows down into an almost traditional format, like a folk song in arabic or something, then flies off again. SOAD seem to relish mixing different styles and genres in even one song, which to my mind makes it hard to decide whether or not you like them. Things don't change really until "Chop suey!" has a nice introspective guitar line, but then that becomes a harder one and the vocal is another rapid-fire delivery for part of the song, dropping back on soft piano to an almost balladic style before returning to the original delivery. Quite annoying really.

There's a sense of the innate silliness of some of the vocal performances of The Divine Comedy in "Bounce" and then a rising, sort of intense vocal in "Forest", while "ATWA" is kind of a mess with Tankian snarling "You don't care/ How I feel!" Sort of sums up my mindset on this album, I have to say. I think I'd rather listen to some doom metal. Or even black metal. Yeah. Even Venom would be preferable to this. Well, might be a close run thing. I really don't like this. SOAD are trying to be too clever, too wacky and it's as I said already very annoying. The title track runs on a nice chimy slow guitar run and a decent vocal but of course, as we'd expect by now, that soon gets kicked in the nuts as the rowdy shout breaks out and the guitars and drums go crazy. Sigh. At this point, heard it all before guys and it's not innovative or funny any more.

For me, SOAD doesn't stand for System Of A Down, it means Settle On A Direction! They seem to be constantly flying off at tangents, mixing rhythms, melodies and genres so much that their music just comes across as a confused, haphazard mish-mash, as if they're just trying ideas out to see how they work. Personally, I feel they don't more often than they do. It's exhausting just trying to keep up with the constant changes. There's some nice guitar work in "Psycho", and the closer "Aerials" has finally settled down into a decent tune; it's a pity they didn't just concentrate on playing to their strengths on this album, instead of just jumping around all over the place like a bunch of Tasmanian Devils on crack. By now though I really couldn't care less. Time to write the outro and forget all about this band.

TRACKLISTING

1. Prison songs
2. Needles
3. Deer dance
4. Jet pilot
5. X
6. Chop Suey!
7. Bounce
8. Forest
9. ATWA
10. Science
11. Shimmy
12. Toxicity
13. Psycho
14. Aerials

It's been said that it's hard to pigeonhole SOAD and I can see why. They really don't seem to be able to settle on one genre, musical style or idea and stick to it. Diversity is all well and good, but not in the same song! It's just too much of an effort to try to sort it all out, and really it is sad because right at the end of the album when they calm down and start playing and singing like a "normal" band, they do very well. But by then I'm already on the bus home and have missed the last few tracks of the encore.

Not a gig I'll be looking at ever returning to. As for the original question I posed at the outset: are System Of A Down metal? I still sure as hell don't know, however now I also don't care.


Read more here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_of_a_Down

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