Requiem for Oblivion: EP 2011

This one is a little bit outside my box as far as metal goes.  I typically listen to the more aggressive strains of metal, so this Pennsylvania-based project and their much more atmospheric style is probably not one that I would have sought out on my own.  However, I think there is enough going on musically that it is fairly impressive.

Requiem for Oblivion's sound is a very dramatic atmospheric one with crashing riffs breaking things up and adding a sense of danger and hostility to the mix.  There are elements of doom and death metal thrown in to spice things up a little bit.

The first track is a little more ethereal and dreamlike with nightmarish moments.  It reminds me very much of Decoryah.  There are ambient sounds and aggressive riffs together.  The second track is much more of a straightforward metal track with occasional softer moments.  Unfortunately I have not been able to listen to the third track due to recording issues, so I only have the first two to go on.

I was fairly impressed with this band.  I think they have some interesting ideas and would be interested to hear a full-length from them.

Testament: The Legacy

Even though Testament is one of my favorite bands, for some reason I never really got around to picking up their first two albums.  I really have no idea what the hell that is all about.  So, recently I decided to rectify that and get their debut album.  And what a debut it is.

Their later albums sound a little bit more refined.  The band had found its sound and ironed out any flaws.  That was not quite the case on this release.  This one is rawer and more energetic.  That is oftentimes preferred with thrash metal.  This album definitely grabs attention early on and refuses to let go.  It is incredibly fast with riffs blazing by.

This album has a number of classic tracks from the band.  "Over the Wall", "Alone in the Dark", and several others are Testament classics.

This is an older album that many people have probably already formed an opinion on, so there is really not much else to say.  I am late to this one, but I would have to say it is likely one of Testament's best albums.

FMA Reviews: Circle II Circle: Seasons Will Fall

Originally reviewed here.

A couple of bands have formed over the last couple of decades from former members of Savatage. Of course there is the big one, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, featuring Jon Oliva, Al Pitrelli, and Chris Caffery, all of whom were major parts of the band. Then there is Circle II Circle and Jon Oliva's Pain. Circle II Circle was created when Zak Stevens, Savatage's singer that took over when Jon Oliva stepped away after the death of his brother, left the band. Stevens was the vocalist for most of the 1990's and was in the band when they started drifting toward the TSO sound.

Stevens was not really my favorite singer that Savatage has had. Part of that is perhaps due to the fact that I generally liked the music better on the albums with Jon Oliva as vocalist. Stevens is a decent vocalist, he just never really clicked with me on the later era Savatage material. On this album though he sounds great. He has a powerful voice with a lot of character in it. He is definitely the best part of this album.

As far as the rest of the album, this is a standard album straddling the border between hard rock and American power metal. The band's focus is on creating well-crafted and catchy songs without a lot of filler or superfluous music that is out of place in the songs. Circle II Circle do have some longer songs on this album, and the album is quite lengthy reaching 70 minutes, but everything flows together reasonably well.

The only real problem is that the album gets boring. At 70 minutes, it better be really good at keeping attention from drifting and it just does not do a real good job at that. Some of the individual songs are certainly standouts and serve to draw the attention back, but it drifts in other parts. The music is typically mid-paced with some faster tracks here and there and the occasional ballad.

All told this is not appreciably different than the later era Savatage material, other than not being as cinematic. This is just a straightforward, hard-rocking album, but its inability to hold the listener's attention makes it a little tedious.

Voivod: Target Earth

This is quite possibly my most anticipated album of 2013.  If not, it is pretty damn close.  I have become a huge Voivod fan in the last year or so.  The band at one point had called it quits entirely.  Denis "Piggy" D'Amour had died of cancer and, even though he had recorded a lot of riffs prior to his death, those riffs had since dried up.  The last two albums were made up almost entirely of stuff that he had written prior to his death and it looked like that was the end.

It did not work out that way though.  Blacky came back on bass, replacing former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted, and they brought in a new guitarist, Chewy, formerly of Canadian tech-death underdogs Martyr.  The band was rejuvenated and recorded an entirely new album.  Well I was excited so I pre-ordered it complete with a t-shirt.

This album is a little bit of a grower.  The first time I heard it, I was somewhat impressed with the twisting, futuristic riff work, but it did not really sink in.  After several more listens, I can honestly say I love this album.  It is easily the best album Voivod has released since Nothingface.  And that is saying something because I love a lot of the albums the band has released since then.

Voivod has proven that they still have it on this release.  The band really does sound rejuvenated.  Chewy's riff work bears a striking resemblance to Piggy's without sounding like he has copied his predecessor.  Blacky back on bass sounds terrific, and Snake's snarling vocals sound as good as ever.

Voivod has released an early frontrunner for Album of the Year.  It is great to have them back.

FMA Reviews: Ensiferum: Unsung Heroes

Originally reviewed here.

Ensiferum were kind of at the forefront of the whole folk metal wave of the 21st century. They took a sound that had been experimented with and twisted it and perfected it. Prior to Ensiferum breaking through there were very few bands that could be considered folk metal bands. Not to say that they were the first, but they definitely helped bring about the wave of bands that emerged in the years to come.

Folk metal has never been one of my favorite genres. I certainly enjoy some bands, but I typically do not go out of my way to seek out new bands unless they are doing something that interests me. Despite this, I have found that I generally enjoyed Ensiferum in their early days, but I have not liked much of their material after Jari Mäenpää left the band. He seemed to be the major element that drew me to Ensiferum's work. This is the first album I have heard from Ensiferum in quite awhile. Unfortunately it may be a while before I check them out again.

Folk metal is supposed to be lively and exciting. At least the type that Ensiferum plays. But most of this album comes across as somewhat boring and uninspired. There are some decent tracks on here, but it just does not move me the way that folk metal should. Many of the songs are incredibly slow and those that are faster-paced do not really add anything that Ensiferum or any of the litany of other folk metal bands have not done before, and much better I might add. It is just stale and lifeless for the most part.

All of the individual elements are basically okay. The instrumentation sounds good, the vocals are impressive, and the production is definitely slick. Ultimately it is all about the songwriting. It is just somewhat lackluster. The other problem is that it just drags on and on. Particularly final track "Passion, Proof, Power" which does not feature any of those things and changes gears three times completely before mercifully ending.

Ultimately this is just flat. There is nothing really bad about it. It just does not stand out at all. Jari left the band several years ago to form Wintersun. This seemed to have killed Ensiferum.

Desolator: Last Wish

Poland is not really a country that is well-known for its metal scene.  Obviously it has a few big name bands to call its own, the most obvious being Behemoth and Vader, but it has never really gotten the level of notoriety of some of the other European countries.  This is a shame because many of the bands from Poland are particularly vicious, which lends itself very well to death, thrash, and black metal in particular.

Desolator is an older Polish band that actually had its start in 1989.  They released one demo in 1992 before breaking up in 1994.  Recently, original member Kosciej re-formed the once-dead entity, this time as a one-man project.  Kosciej performs all of the instruments and takes over the vocal duties this time around.  This is technically the group's debut full-length.

Desolator fits in well with Vader and other Polish groups due to a raw and intense energy infused into their own brand of merciless death metal.  They have a rather organic brutal and fast-paced style that reminds of some of the earlier death metal bands, before groups began cleaning up their sound.  This is fitting because, as mentioned previously, Desolator originated early on in death metal's history.

I found myself very impressed with this release.  It has the kind of energy and intensity that is missing from a lot of death metal bands these days.  Desolator is certainly a throwback to a more visceral time in death metal's history.  There is a place for that still.

FMA Reviews: Devourment: Conceived in Sewage

Originally reviewed here.

Despite my seemingly intellectual exterior, I am a lawyer after all, I love slam death metal. I know it is mostly stupid and juvenile, an excuse for bands to get as brutal as they want with ridiculously filthy lyrics. And even though I admit that it is ridiculous and juvenile, I still can not get enough of it. It is a dichotomy that perplexes me. Some slam bands are surprisingly talented musically with some well-written lyrics, just look at Wormed and Defeated Sanity. But then there are groups like Devourment, who were instrumental in giving slam death metal a formula.

Despite the fact that Devourment had a large deal to do with the inception of slam death metal as a valid subgenre, they themselves have been distancing themselves from the genre in a lot of ways. Their sound is much more rooted in standard brutal death metal these days, and especially since their last album. That does not mean that the slam parts are entirely absent, they can still be heard in a number of places throughout this release, but they are not as important to the structure of each individual song, and there are even some songs that do not appear at all.

Not that all that is out of the way, this is an okay release. It really does not forge any new ground in a genre that is already fairly stale and bereft of anything truly interesting. Devourment certainly make a lot of noise, that is to be expected. You pretty much know what to expect from a Devourment record. It is not going to be pretty. They are going to offend a lot of people ("Legalize Homicide", "Fucked with Rats"). They are going to blast away on the drums, which is kind of impressive time and again, though I would not argue their drummer is incredibly talented, but he is fast. The vocals actually show a little bit of differentiation, with vocalist Mike Majewski alternating between his deep guttural croaks and a higher-pitched more stereotypical death metal roar. The band does actually have some decent riffs on this thing, which is something that they have ignored in the past in an effort to bring in more slam parts.

The production was done by Hate Eternal leader Erik Rutan and actually sounds quite good, which is somewhat rare for Devourment. It is clean enough to clearly hear the vocals and riffs. But it is not so clean that it comes off as sterile.

This is basically a run-of-the-mill brutal death metal release. It is not likely to earn Devourment any new fans, nor is it likely to turn off any old ones. It just sort of exists.

R.I.P. Bagheera (1997-2013)

I had to put one of my cats to sleep today.  I have had him for a very long time, since I was a junior in high school.  I named him after the panther in the Jungle Book and he definitely lived up to his name.  He was just like a miniature panther.  Constantly stalking and playing.  It is a very sad day.  He was the first real pet that I could call my own.  Heavy metal can wait for a day.

FMA Reviews: Convulse: Inner Evil

Originally reviewed here.

Convulse has been missing in action for years now. The band once released one of the most interesting death metal albums ever at a time when death metal was still fresh and new. As such, they were often thrown in the same conversation as groups like Demilich, groups that brought something strange and exciting to death metal. They released one more album after World Without God and were seemingly lost to time. They re-emerged this year.

Owing to the re-release of their stunning debut album and the revitalization of old school death metal, Convulse have come back from the dead. This is just a teaser unfortunately, a very brief two-song return to the fold. With any luck it does mean that we will be seeing a new full-length from the Finnish death metallers.

One thing that Convulse did well in their first go-around was marry death metal and doom metal into a sickening and chaotic sound that had not really been done before. This was well before there was such a thing as death/doom. Convulse always stuck clearly on the death metal side of things, it is just that they had the occasional slower, down-tempo moment. But their music still sounded as if it was rising out of a deep and dank pit leading to hell. It was dark and disturbing. They have proven with this release that the years have not caused them to lose their touch. This sounds like it should have come shortly after their last album was released in 1994. Age has not caused them to lose any of their gift for crafting rotting and putrid death metal.

Hopefully Convulse can translate this impressive two-track EP into a full-length album. This thing sounds pretty damn good and there just are not enough bands that sound like this.

FMA Reviews: Denouncement Pyre: Almighty Arcanum

Originally reviewed here.

Those who have been following me for awhile probably know that I am a big fan of the Australian extreme metal scene. You know the one, the bestial thrash/black/death mix that come to be referred to as the "war metal" scene. That scene had started to lose its lustre over the last several years but there are signs that there may be a revitalization at work lately. Groups like Denouncement Pyre, Vomitor, Black Jesus, and Mongrel's Cross have all emerged in a major way over the last few years. Though Denouncement Pyre and Vomitor have been around for quite awhile, Denouncement Pyre since 2003 and Vomitor since 1999, they have really gotten notice recently. These are likely the bands that are leading the Australian extreme metal scene for years to come.

If anything, this sophomore full-length from the Aussie crushers is an improvement over their debut release. This is mostly due to the improvement in the production quality. Their last album was murky, and while it sounded good for the type of chaotic metal that was on that disc, it is nice to hear that they have cleaned things up a little bit without going too far and sounding sterile. This is just about right where it should be for a raw black/death/thrash metal album.

The title track is a true barnburner, kicking things off with a thrash metal riff that would make even the members of Destroyer 666 stand up and take notice. Much of the rest of the album also goes for the dirty, hell-raising blackened thrash that D666 perfected on Cold Steel. That is one of my favorite albums of all time, so I am definitely intrigued by this release. There are some truly impressive moments on this album. The closing moments to "The Deceiver" had me tapping my foot and banging my head. But Denouncement Pyre also know how to slow things down to make the faster moments seem even faster. The interlude track "Drakon: All is One" is a perfect example. It is an instrumental track that acts as a bridge between two very fast songs but it builds atmosphere incredibly well at the same time.

Atmosphere is one thing that Denouncement Pyre excels at. Every track on this release has such a dark and evil vibe to it. It is something that is strived for on a lot of albums but few are able to make it connect as well as Denoucement Pyre. This is another place that the improvement in production values has really helped the band. Instead of sounding like a muddled mess, the atmospheric moments shine through cleanly and crisply.

Denouncement Pyre released a hell of a good debut album a few years ago, but they have topped it with this release. This is incredible.

Sorry for the Lack of Posts

I will get back to normal posting tomorrow.  I was scheduled for a jury trial today, which did not end up going, but preparation over the last few days has taken priority.  Trial scheduled at the last minute today.

Cataloguing My Metal Collection Pt. 124

ARTIST:  Iron Maiden
ORIGIN: London, England
TITLE:  Best of the Beast
LABEL:  EMI Records
YEAR:  1996
GENRE:  Heavy Metal
FAVORITE SONG:  "The Evil That Men Do"
NOTES:  When doing some research on this release, I found a double CD listed.  Mine is just one CD with a lot fewer songs than the double disc release.  I picked this one up after being so taken with their latest album.  It covers the first album with Bruce Dickinson through the Blaze Bayley era.  It lead me to pick up several more albums from Iron Maiden.

Cataloguing My Metal Collection Pt. 123

ARTIST:  Iron Maiden
ORIGIN:  London, England
TITLE:  Brave New World
LABEL:  EMI Records
YEAR:  2000
GENRE:  Heavy Metal
FAVORITE SONG:  "The Wicker Man"
NOTES:  I had gotten a couple of Iron Maiden albums by this point, but this one really opened the door to the band for me.  After getting this one I began a little bit of an obsession with the band which resulted in me buying several of their albums in a very short time.  So look for a few more Iron Maiden albums over the next couple of weeks or so.  I was so obsessed with this album that I chose to write a review of it for my History of Rock Music review project.  I got an A+.  I also love the book it is named after.

FMA Reviews: Defeated Sanity: Passages Into Deformity

Originally reviewed here.

This year is shaping up to be a decent one for brutal death/slam death metal. Devourment and Katalepsy both have new albums this year, but there are two that I am looking forward to above all others. Defeated Sanity and Wormed.

Defeated Sanity's last album was an incredibly interesting take on slam death metal by incorporating a lot of technical and progressive death metal elements. It ranks as one of my favorite slam death metal albums of all time. That has typically been the case with Defeated Sanity. They are difficult to pigeonhole into one genre because they frequently mix things up a little bit in their compositions. That all continues on this release. Defeated Sanity has once again proven that they are one of the better bands going in the vast brutal death metal genre.

This album marks the debut for new vocalist Konstantin Luhring. His vocals are fairly typical for the style, very deep and guttural, with the occasional gurgling roar and higher-pitched shriek. As is typical for Defeated Sanity, one of the most interesting members to listen to is bassist Jacob Schmidt, who brings a technical mastery to the instrument that is exceedingly rare in brutal death metal. The band acknowledges this by having the bass high in the mix and giving him occasional moments to shine through. The drumming is another often-overlooked instrument for which Defeated Sanity seems to be blessed with an incredibly talented musician.

Defeated Sanity bring an impressive amount of musicianship to a genre that is often bereft of this level of talent. And that is coming from someone who generally enjoys slam death metal and brutal death metal. There is just something about what Defeated Sanity brings to the table that is sadly lacking from a lot of other bands in the genre. There is technicality there, but the band uses that technicality to accentuate their brutality, rather than as a means to garner attention. There is brutality, but the band does not try to out-pummel other brutal death and slam death metal bands. They do not try to show off, they just come out and play. That is what makes Defeated Sanity unique. That is what makes Defeated Sanity so damn good.

Cataloguing My Metal Collection Pt. 122

ARTIST:  Megadeth
ORIGIN:  Los Angeles, CA (United States)
TITLE:  Risk
LABEL:  Capitol Records
YEAR:  1999
GENRE:  Heavy Metal/Hard Rock
FAVORITE SONG:  "Prince of Darkness"
NOTES:  Oh good Lord, what happened to Megadeth?  This album is horrendous, there is no better way to put it.  I think Megadeth really tried to capture the success that Metallica was able to achieve with their softer stuff.  Well they failed miserably.  This is easily one of the worst albums in my entire collection.  I rarely listen to it.

Cataloguing My Metal Collection Pt. 121

ARTIST:  Pantera
ORIGIN:  Arlington, TX (United States)
TITLE:  Reinventing the Steel
LABEL:  Elektra
YEAR:  2000
GENRE:  Groove Metal
FAVORITE SONG:  "Uplift"
NOTES:  Ah yes Pantera.  This would turn out to be the band's last full-length album.  They broke up in a flurry of bad blood soon after.  I actually liked this album pretty well for awhile.  I would place it above Vulgar Display of Power personally, but below Far Beyond Driven.

Neferion: The Primordial Mode

Lately I have been getting some completely random promos sent to me from bands in Finland.  I have not been contacted beforehand and have only a vague idea of how these bands have my address.  I am not complaining, but it is kind of weird.

Anyway, Neferion is the first of these bands.  I had not heard of the band before receiving the promo in the mail, so this was my first exposure to them.  Their sound is kind of a groove/heavy metal and it rumbles along at a mid-tempo pace.  The music is competent and well-played but it does take a back seat to the real star of the band.

Meija Saari is one hell of a vocalist.  She really draws most of the attention with her incredible range and tone.  She can easily alternate between an absolutely breathtaking clean vocal style to much more of a death metal styled growl.  Her voice reminds me a lot of Benedictum vocalist Veronica Freeman.  That is definitely a compliment as she has one of the greatest, most underrated voices in all of metal.

This is a fairly short demo, with only four songs on it.  With the impressive vocals and the decent music, this increases the re-playability of the release.  I have listened to it four or five times in a row already today and it just does not get old.  This band should be signed soon.

Grand Magus: The Hunt

I am late on Grand Magus every year for some reason.  It is unfortunate because Grand Magus is good enough to make my Top Ten every year.  Seriously.

So this is the latest album by the band, the third one that I have heard.  The basic sound has been the same for years.  Grand Magus plays heavy metal in the style of bands from the early 1980's.  It is melodic, fast-paced, and as infectious as the plague.  They just churn out great song after great song.  Each song is anthemic.  It's the kind of music that can easily get you banging your head or pumping your fist along with it.

Of course being able to write decent songs and being able to play an instrument are two distinct skills.  Luckily Grand Magus are incredibly talented musicians as well.  Each member of the band is a terrific talent. The music is propelled forward by the riffwork of JB with the impressive bass of Fox Skinner and drumming of Ludwig Witt covering the rhythm sections.  JB is also one hell of a vocalist and is easily one of the best clean vocalists in metal today.

The big highlights are "Storm King", "Valhalla Rising", and "Silver Moon".  Each one of them catchier than the last.

There really is not much to say about this album.  If you enjoy heavy metal, you should be listening to Grand Magus.

Cataloguing My Metal Collection Pt. 120

ARTIST:  Drain STH
ORIGIN:  Vasteras, Sweden
TITLE:  Freaks of Nature
LABEL:  PolyGram Records
YEAR:  1999
GENRE:  Heavy Metal
FAVORITE SONG:  "Black"
NOTES:  They had to add the "STH" to their name due to a trademark issue, otherwise they are known simply as Drain.  They definitely achieved more notoriety due to the makeup of the band, four beautiful Swedish women, rather than their musical talent.  Which is a shame since they are actually very competent musicians.  Unfortunately this album is more of a product of its time.  It fit in well with the nu-metal scene.  It has not aged well.

FMA Reviews: Hour of Penance: Sedition

Originally reviewed here.

Hour of Penance is another band that really does technical death metal well. They combine brutality with technicality with some fantastic results, ending up sounding like a more technical version of Nile. The brutality never lets up on this album either. Hour of Penance kick things into high gear in the second track, after a melodic introduction, and never lose their energy. The result is a punishing and intense album that threatens to crush the skull for about a half an hour or so before it is finally over. The only reprieves are the few seconds in between tracks.

What Hour of Penance do well on this release though is to weave some incredibly melodic guitar leads throughout the otherwise colossally heavy riffing. And the lead guitar has a terrific tone to it as well, adding to the distinctiveness. It is almost beautiful in an otherwise ugly sound.

The songs on the album do tend to sound somewhat the same by the end. The nice thing about Hour of Penance is that they do not overstay their welcome though. The songs are all reasonably short, none of them are longer than five minutes. The album itself is fairly short as well. The band just kicks the listener's ass over and over for half an hour and then calls it a day. That detracts somewhat from the fact that the songs kind of run together. So at least if they are not totally original, they make things quick and move on.

I enjoyed this quite a bit. I think I would still prefer Spawn of Possession and Gorod over Hour of Penance from technical death metal albums released last year. But Hour of Penance is plenty good.

Cataloguing My Metal Collection Pt. 119

ARTIST:  Alice in Chains
ORIGIN:  Seattle, WA (United States)
TITLE:  Nothing Safe: Best of the Box
LABEL:  Columbia Records
YEAR:  1999
GENRE:  Grunge Metal
FAVORITE SONG:  "Man in the Box" (Live)
NOTES:  Alice in Chains released a box set in 1999 as well as this album which basically collected the best tracks from the box set.  I picked it up because, other than the self-titled album and the acoustic album, I did not have any full-lengths by the band, despite loving most of their music.  So I got this.  The best track is actually on the short bonus disc with a live version of "Man in the Box" with an incredibly sludgy main riff.

Cataloguing My Metal Collection Pt. 118

ARTIST:  Metallica
ORIGIN:  San Francisco, CA (United States)
TITLE:  S&M
LABEL:  Elektra
YEAR:  1999
GENRE:  Thrash Metal/Heavy Metal
FAVORITE SONG:  "One"
NOTES:  This is of course the live album featuring the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Michael Kamen, who died just a few years later.  For a long time this became the definitive Metallica that was played on the radio.  Hell they even played with the orchestra again for an awards show performance.  It actually works pretty well and I really enjoy this one.

Cataloguing My Metal Collection Pt. 117

ARTIST:  Testament
ORIGIN:  Oakland, CA (United States)
TITLE:  Souls of Black
LABEL:  Atlantic Records
YEAR:  1990
GENRE:  Thrash Metal
FAVORITE SONG:  "Face in the Sky"
NOTES:  It was time to start looking back into Testament's earlier albums.  I had really enjoyed everything I had heard from the band to this point.  Most of their material before Low is fairly interchangeable, not to say that there is not some great stuff there, but it all kind of runs together.

Cataloguing My Metal Collection Pt. 116

ARTIST:  Type O Negative
ORIGIN:  New York, NY (United States)
TITLE:  World Coming Down
LABEL:  Roadrunner Records
YEAR:  1999
GENRE:  Gothic/Doom Metal
FAVORITE SONG:  "Everyone I Love is Dead"
NOTES:  Type O Negative has always been somewhat depressing, but this one really takes the cake.  The gloomy group focuses on death and loss throughout the album.  The result is an album that, while good, can sometimes be very difficult to listen to.  This is not one of my favorite albums by the band, but that is mostly due to the sadness and gloom that permeates the entire thing.

Cataloguing My Metal Collection Pt. 115

ARTIST:  Machine Head
ORIGIN:  Oakland, CA (United States)
TITLE:  The Burning Red
LABEL:  Roadrunner Records
YEAR:  1999
GENRE:  Groove Metal
FAVORITE SONG:  "The Blood, The Sweat, The Tears"
NOTES:  This is definitely closer to a nu-metal album than it is a groove metal album, but that is most likely due to the fact that Machine Head has always been a trend-hopping band.  The aggression of this album was definitely a turn-on at this point in my life, but not as much anymore.  I did enjoy this album quite a bit at the time I bought it though.