Magic Circle: Journey Blind (2015)

This is about as retro as retro metal can get.  Magic Circle is a heavy/doom metal band from Massachusetts that sounds as if they started out in the early 1980's.  It is surprising then to find out that the band has only really been around since about 2011.  This is the band's second album, and the first one by Magic Circle that I have checked out, but not the last.

The music here is an intriguing blend of a number of the early doom metal bands such as Trouble and Pentagram, and of course Black Sabbath, with more traditional styles of heavy metal.  The riffs are hard-driving with some killer fuzzy guitar tone.  The production overall is spectacular, clear and crisp with just the right amount of distortion to lend an authenticity to the band's sound.  It also allows all instruments to be heard perfectly.

One of the best songs on this album is second track "The Damned Man", which has a heavy, rumbling riff that Tony Iommi would have been proud to write.  The combination of that riff and singer Brendan Radigan's howling vocals make this a difficult song to resist getting swept up in. 

Magic Circle is at their best when they are playing faster-paced songs.  The slower ones sometimes tend to fail to keep the listener's attention, such as the lumbering "A Ballad for the Vulture".  Admittedly, that is an awesome song name however.  The latter part of the song, when the band gets locked into a heavy groove though is terrific. 

There is a lot of talent in this band.  Magic Circle manages to sound retro, without sounding dated.  There are some damn good songs on this thing and a lot of good riffs.  I was impressed enough to check out their 2019 release.  That will be reviewed soon.

Saint Vitus: Saint Vitus (2019)

A lot of bands have a self-titled album among their releases.  Not many bands can say that they have two.  Saint Vitus can though.  This is the band's second self-titled album, with the first one coming way back in 1984.  That was the band's debut and is a landmark album.  Saint Vitus was one of the first bands that took what Black Sabbath was doing in the early 1970's and really ran with it, becoming one of the first doom metal bands in the process.

This album sees the second return to the fold by original vocalist Scott Reagers.  Guitarist Dave Chandler has been the only member of Saint Vitus to stick with the band throughout their history.  The band has featured the legendary Scott "Wino" Weinrich in the past, during times in which Reagers has not been in the band.

With the Sabbath comparison from before, one can get the impression of what this band sounds like.  Dark, fuzzy riffs and slow tempos with mourning, soulful vocals with a harder edge.  The band does sometimes lock into a rumbling, faster-paced groove which breaks up the slower songs.  The band sounds absolutely raw, like they just woke up from a massive hangover and rolled into the studio to record.  There is nothing pretty here, just whiskey-fueled mayhem.

The minor quibble that I have is the guitar tone on the solos.  I do not have a ton of experience listening to Saint Vitus, but my god, Chandler uses an ugly, squealing guitar tone on his solos.  It fits reasonably well with the music because it is not the kind of thing that a well-trained classical guitarist would play.  It is ugly and gritty and it definitely matches the attitude of the band.

Saint Vitus has been around for a long time and their sound is truly timeless, sounding like a band who has been through some hard times and learned some tough lessons.  It is gritty and dark, doomy and gloomy.  But fuck, if I don't love it.  Pass the whiskey.

Paradise Lost: Medusa (2017)

Paradise Lost is very similar to Amorphis in that it is a band that has experimented with a variety of disparate styles over the years and, despite that, I absolutely love everything I have heard from them.  Paradise Lost started out as one of the progenitors of the doom/death metal sound in the U.K. along with My Dying Bride.  Over the years, they added more and more gothic metal elements and began to lose the death metal elements.  Then suddenly, they were just a gothic rock/metal band.  But then, they began returning to their roots more and more.

That brings us to this album, which is basically a doom/death metal album with only occasional gothic metal moments.  So they are back where they started.  From the opening strains of "Fearless Sky", it is clear that Paradise Lost have brought back the slow, lumbering doom.  And that continues throughout the album, with only occasional moments when the band locks into a rollicking groove.  But they never get close to anything like "Once Solemn" from Draconian Times.  It is an extremely dark and slow release that recaptures what made Paradise Lost so great from the very beginning.

The best moments from the album are those in which the vocals alternate between the dry, spine-tingling clean vocals and the gruff, death vocals.  The clean vocals call to mind the time when Paradise Lost experimented with more gothic rock, which they did a lot better than other bands who attempted the switch (looking at you Tiamat).  This comes together perfectly on the gloomily beautiful "The Longest Winter".

Paradise Lost was a band I fell for fairly early on in my metal collecting days, getting Draconian Times for Christmas when I was 15.  That album still ranks as my favorite from the band and one of my favorite albums of all time.  Medusa is a terrific album (Decibel made it their Album of the Year in 2017) that does not come quite close to matching that one, but may very well be my second favorite album by the band.  And beating Gothic is not easy, so that shows the high quality of Medusa.

1914: The Blind Leading the Blind (2018)

Just last week I covered an EP from 1914 during which I lamented that it was not a great representation of the band's sound.  Well, here is 1914's second full-length album that was released last year.  And so this then, is an accurate representation of what 1914 sounds like.  And it is brutal.

Most of the songs on this album are morosely slow with grinding, gargantuan riffs.  The effect is that of a heavily-armored tank slowly creeping across the battlefield.  And to drive that point home, several moments feature samples of just that.  As a result of the songs being so slow and the riffs so heavy, the entire album is definitely a downer.  That fits in well with the lyrical themes though.  It just works for 1914.

There are occasionally moments of light, such as an almost melodic lead during "High Wood.  75 Acres of Hell".  The band also picks up the pace occasionally, such as during the rollicking cover of The Exploited's "Beat the Bastards".  They do put their own spin on it, but it is faster-paced than most of the rest of the songs.

1914 has an obsession with World War I.  Every song by the band deals with the extremely deadly war.  Tanks, trench warfare, mustard gas are all given their due.  The album starts off with what might actually be a recruitment song from the time period.  It also features samples from the movie All Quiet on the Western Front, including a moment in which Ernest Borgnine (who was poorly cast in this) espouses the virtue of using a shovel to decapitate an enemy in lieu of a bayonet.

Other bands have done the World War I theme.  The first band to come to mind is God Dethroned who released the soul-shattering Passiondale.  That album featured the previous best metal song about WWI in "No Survivors" which included a spine-tingling guest vocal performance by Marco Velde.  But no other band quite captures the hopelessness and dismay of the war quite like 1914.

This album was in a lot of peoples' top albums of 2018 lists.  It was due to that that I wanted to check it out, and I am glad I did.  This is a terrific album, though I think one would probably have to be in the mood for it.  It is definitely a dark album, moreso by the fact that everything 1914 sings about really happened.  I have a hard time watching war movies based on real events (Black Hawk Down is particularly rough), and this album hits that same nerve.

Acid Witch: Stoned (2010)

The other day I covered Vanik and referenced Acid Witch.  Now that was not because the bands are musically similar, they are not, but because both bands have a similar aesthetic.  They are old-school-sounding bands with a fascination for horror themes.  But where Vanik is more of a speed/heavy metal band, Acid Witch plays a much slower form of psychedelic doom metal.

Probably the best comparison for Acid Witch is a more aggressive, snarling Electric Wizard, without the affinity for lengthy trance sections.  While both bands' drugs of choice are likely marijuana, Acid Witch prefers it laced with cocaine and LSD. 

The album kicks off with a suitably creepy intro featuring a Halloween-sounding keyboard melody and some voiceover talking about Satanic masses.  It then segues into "Witchfynder Finder", a song that pays tribute to Cathedral, a major influence on the band, and the classic Vincent Price movie.  It sets the tone for the rest of the album.  The songs are usually somewhat fast-paced, simple and never carry on too long, which is a significant departure from Electric Wizard's sound.  The riffs are generally fuzzy with a lot of reverb and awash with doom and gloom.  The vocals are typically delivered in an almost black metal-sounding growl, which is an interesting stylistic decision that is somewhat unique to such a doom metal band.

This is now the second album I have heard from Acid Witch.  I think I probably prefer the previous one, Witchtanic Hallucinations, but this is still a damn fun ride.  It would make the perfect soundtrack for a Halloween night in.   

Tar Pit: Tomb of Doom (2018)

Here we have the debut full-length from true doom merchants Tar Pit.  The band hails from the fertile metal breeding ground of Portland, Oregon and features two members of underground death metal band Coffin Rot.  Always on the lookout for some fresh doom metal bands, I decided to take a flyer on the band.  Plus, the album cover caught my attention.

The first thing to note is the appropriateness of the album's title.  This is a very slow-paced album for the most part.  And with just five songs, but a near 40 minutes run-time, the songs are quite long, as well as being slow.  That being said, there are moments where the band speeds things up or gets locked into a Sabbathian groove, and those are definitely the highlights of the album.  Tar Pit's sound reminds me of a kind of combination of The Reverend Bizarre and The Gates of Slumber, with a little Cathedral thrown in for good measure.

Opening track "Rune" features several movements where the band alternately plays a slow section, followed by a stoner-esque groove riff, followed by another slower section.  It also features a lengthy almost psychedelic instrumental section.  The best songs on the album are "Bruja" and the title track, both of which tend to be a little faster in pace and catchier. 

This is an extremely impressive debut from a young band.  I am looking forward to hearing more from them.   

Caustic Vomit: Festering Odes to Deformity (2018)

I still consider going back to a subscription to Decibel Magazine.  Just to have something to read and possibly discover some new bands.  Though it is true that my tastes in metal do not always align with Decibel (man, I miss Metal Maniacs), I still like reading it.  I really enjoy the Hall of Fame selections and articles, though again, my tastes do not always align (one month that I had a subscription their pick was The Jesus Lizard which baffled me since the band was never considered close to metal).  I do check out the website fairly often these days and one of my favorite features is the Demo: Listen.  That is how I discovered Caustic Vomit.

Caustic Vomit is a Russian death/doom metal band who released their first demo in the last couple of days of 2018.  Their demo is made up of just three songs, each of which is around ten minutes in length.  Eschewing any sort of traditional song structure, each track lurches and crawls through several distinctive segments.  For the most part, the songs are slow-paced with swampy riffs and a deep sense of foreboding and a waterlogged, gurgling vocal style.  Occasionally, the band breaks into a faster-paced riff that sounds like some great primordial beast shaking itself off after arising out of a murky cesspool.  

This is an absolutely terrific slab of filthy and grimy death/doom metal from Russia, of all places.  Russian metal is typically known for pagan black metal bands, so it is nice to see a damn good extreme metal band from there.  I will be interested in hearing more from this group. 

Khemmis: Desolation (2018)

Khemmis is a band that seemed to acquire a following overnight.  I am not sure when exactly it happened.  I think it was some time in 2016/2017 when I was not as occupied with metal that their album Hunted suddenly achieved some attention and became something of a darling for Decibel magazine.  It was the magazine's Album of the Year.  Khemmis at that time had only released one other album and an EP and been together for four years.  That is quite a bit of success early on.  The question was whether the band could keep it up.

Yes, yes they can.  This is the band's first album since the incredible critical success of Hunted, and if anything, the songs are even more infectious.  Khemmis is a traditional doom metal band, playing songs that are somewhat lengthy, but move at a decent clip and have quite a bit going on musically.  Then there is the fact that the band is simply incredible at writing songs.  The musicianship is incredibly impressive with heavy doom-laden riffs and the vocalist has a terrific melodic croon that matches quite well.

"Isolation" and "Maw of Time" are the highlight tracks.  "Isolation" moves by at a fairly quick clip and has some of the catchiest hooks and rhythms on the album.  "Maw of Time" features some impressively nasty death metal snarling in addition to the clean vocals.

I have checked out all three of Khemmis's albums thus far and honestly this one is my favorite.  I think the band has really found its sound here.  They are easily one of the better bands in doom metal going right now and deserve the attention they have been getting.  Just recently it was announced they were signing to Nuclear Blast Records, so having a decent-sized label behind them can only help propel them forward.  Looking forward to their next album. 

Orchid: The Mouths of Madness (2013)

For some reason I never reviewed this album when I first obtained a digital copy of it.  Now that I have a physical copy I figured it was time to do so.

Orchid is named after a Black Sabbath song and they wear that influence on their sleeve.  It is extraordinarily obvious that this band's primary influence is the pioneering metal band from the moment the album begins.  It is obvious in the artwork on the cover, the band photos, the production, and of course the music.  There is really nothing inherently wrong with being highly influenced by a band and attempting to sound somewhat like them.  Orchid though takes it to a new level.  

Each of the songs on this album is essentially a deconstruction of Black Sabbath songs.  I am not going to go through track by track but some highlights are "Mountains of Steel", which is essentially "A National Acrobat" and the opening riff from "Leaving it All Behind" is absolutely taken from "After Forever" while the song basically morphs into "Killing Yourself to Live" later on.  I have read a number of reviews of this album that talk about it being influenced by Sabbath, however no one really has touched on the fact that this is basically a Black Sabbath tribute.  The songs really are that close.

I will give the band credit that they are quite convincing at this.  The music sounds authentic and genuine.  Vocalist Theo Mindell does a great Ozzy impression and Mark Thomas Baker nails the down-tuned riffs of Tony Iommi.  I do thoroughly enjoy listening to the songs on this album.  They are catchy and I find myself singing along to them.  I would not have bothered tracking down a physical copy if I did not enjoy the album.  I just wish Orchid had a little more originality on this release.

Pallbearer: Heartless (2017)

Doom metal has been going through a massive resurgence over the last few years.  One of the top bands in the center of this resurgence has been the Arkansas natives Pallbearer.  Pallbearer released a monster of a debut album in 2012 and are on their third album with this year's Heartless.

Pallbearer's sound is epic, slow-moving, melancholic, and melodic.  The songs are typically longer with rather atypical song structures.  The songs are not in standard verse-chorus-verse compositions, and in fact they typically do not have choruses at all.  Therefore, the songs are not really catchy in the traditional sense.  Rather, they are infectious in their own ways.  The songs are typically dreary, with clean, heart-wrenching vocals and razor-sharp guitar leads.  The album is incredibly heavy and yet heart-breaking.  The vocals are so pained and tortured and the guitar melodies are so somber, that the emotion is impossible to not be contagious.  It is beautifully tragic.

The only real issue is that the album does tend to drag in places.  This is mostly to be expected with such a slow-moving release that is focused more on sorrow.  By and large, the depressive tone works quite well with the dragged out songs, but on occasion it seems to lose focus and meander a bit.  But the band does a great job of pulling things back together quickly.

It took me a while to get into Pallbearer initially.  There was a lot of hype for their debut release which often tends to turn me off.  But once I checked them out, I was hooked.  And this album hooked me almost instantly.  It is a terrific doom metal release with a ton of heaviness and emotion, two things that are often difficult to combine in such an effective manner as Pallbearer does here.

Albatross/Vestal Claret: The Kissing Flies/Black Priest (2012)

Originally reviewed here.

If you can parse this title then I am impressed.  I think I represented it correctly.  Essentially, this is a split album from Indian heavy metal outfit Albatross and the former vocalist of Hour of 13's new band.  Now Indian metal is not something I am overly familiar with.  I was not aware there was much of a scene in India.  I have a lot of mental associations with India, mostly due to my first real girlfriend being from there, but metal music is not one of them.  Anyway, enough of that.  Only one band from this split is Indian anyway.

Albatross kicks things off with four out of the five songs on the split.  Why so many?  Well Vestal Claret's song is 18 minutes long, that's why.  Albatross's music strongly resembles King Diamond's solo work and that seems to be the major influence.  The songs generally tell some sort of horror story and feature very impressive lead guitar melodies weaving through traditional heavy metal riffs.  The vocals are higher-pitched and include a lot of wailing and the occasional blood-curdling shriek.  Singer Biprorshee Das does not have the range of King Diamond, but his voice is effective enough to match the horror atmosphere produced by the eerie melodies.

As previously mentioned, Vestal Claret is the new band from Philip Swanson, formerly of Hour of 13.  I am well-familiar with Hour of 13, being one of my favorite recent traditional doom metal bands.  They had a strong gift for songwriting, putting out some truly catchy material.  I am not sure what happened to them but seeing Swanson in a new band makes me feel better.  Sure enough, that is exactly what this song is, catchy, traditional doom metal.  It is slow but demands attention.  Swanson's voice is terrific, exhibiting the gothic horror quality it has always had.  The song is a trip.

I enjoyed both parts of this split.  Vestal Claret probably did a little bit more for me on initial listens, mostly due to the fact that Das's vocals are definitely a grower.  Both bands are impressive though.

FMA: Coffins: The Fleshland (2013)

Originally reviewed here.

Coffins is what you would get if you played Hellhammer at half speed on your record player. Seriously. The Japanese death/doom trio plays a slow, sludgy, dirgey style of metal that sounds like the soundtrack to the darkest, most disgusting zombie movie imaginable. Coffins is one of the most prolific bands going and releases multiple recordings every year. It has to be exhausting to have to write and record new music this often, but it does not seem to bother Coffins much. Each new album sounds fresh, in a rotted, exhumed corpse sort of way.

This is actually only Coffins' fourth full-length album since their formation in 1996. They typically release their material in the form of EPs and splits. This is also the band's first full-length on a label with a wider audience as Relapse has picked up the band for this release. Whether this results in the band becoming more well-known remains to be seen.

Coffins presents their typical album here. Their songs tend to alternate between the slow deathy dirges with a ton of distortion and a tense atmosphere to songs with more of a galloping, faster-paced crunch. The one constant is the decayed, rumbling croak of band mainstay Uchino. The best songs are typically the ones that combine the groove-driven, faster sections with the disturbingly creepy atmosphere present in the slower tracks. "No Saviour" stands out as one such track. Then there is "Dishuman", which is the fastest track I have yet heard from Coffins, and comes perilously close To Mega Therion-paced Celtic Frost early in the track before descending into the murky sludgy pace the band typically uses.

This is one of the tighter recordings that I have yet heard from Coffins. Oftentimes the band tends to drift a little with the slower tracks into an almost hypnotic, trance-inducing sound and long drawn-out sections. Those are largely absent on this release. Instead each song flows about as well as this type of metal is capable of. The band has a better grasp on what they want to achieve this time around and are able to do so effectively. That makes this a much more enjoyable overall listen than albums past.

I have been a fan of Coffins for quite a long time, but this is undoubtedly one of the best albums I have heard from the band. Coffins has ceased to be a band in search of an identity. They have embraced their Hellhammer-laced-with-valium style and tightened up their sound.

Murder Cafe/Earth Burnt Black: Desperate (2013)

When something is billed in my email as "the most interesting split EP of the year", I am fairly skeptical.  And with good reason, I am a cynic after all.  This is a short, five-song split that was sent to me by To the Head Records, a small label out of Colorado.  Here we have two bands, neither of whom I had heard before.  So this should be fun.

First up is Murder Cafe, a band from Grand Junction, Colorado.  Grand Junction has some really bad associations for me.  If this were more of a personal blog, I would share my reasons.  It isn't, so I won't, but know that I cringe a little with the mention of that town.  Murder Cafe is kind of an interesting doom metal band.  The bass and drum rhythms are not really typical for metal.  It sounds jazzier than is typical for metal.  The songs are kind of a strange take on metal in general, with some spoken word vocals at times, and the ever-present bass riffs driving everything.  The intro track is a complete waste of a minute and a half.  This side of the split is just very strange.  I am not sure what to think of this band.

Next, we have Greeley's Earth Burnt Black.  This band is heavy.  But the first song is ridiculously slow and does not really do much of anything other than feature power chords and screaming.   The second track is a little bit more conventional, and certainly a lot more interesting in that there is actually some progression and semblance to an actual song, rather than some random rhythmic strumming and singing.  It is definitely the best track on the album, but that is not really saying an awful lot here.

This might be grower material.  Both of these bands are taking somewhat unorthodox takes on doom metal.  On initial listens, it is not terribly impressive, but if you asked me after repeated listens, perhaps my mind will change.  Or perhaps not.

Metal Briefs: Slovenian Bands

This is another catch-up post in which I put several bands together in one post.  These bands were all sent to me by the same promoter and they have one thing in common: they are all from Slovenia.  Slovenia is not exactly a metal hotbed.  According to Metal Archives, there are 217 documented metal bands from Slovenia.  Here are three of them:

ARMAROTH: FALSE VISION (2013)

Here we have a fairly young death metal band, releasing their first EP in 2013.  Armaroth plays a somewhat unique combination of slow and fast death metal.  At times, the riffs plod along at a snail's pace, but they often complement that with some surprisingly fast sections.  The slower parts are fairly typical for modern death metal, heavy, down-tuned riffs, and deep, grunted vocals.  The faster parts that connect verses or choruses to verses are often the most interesting parts musically.  The band is able to shift tempos fairly seemlessly, and do so quite often.  "Labyrinth of Greed" is the standout here, with its generally faster pace and rampaging riffs, along with an impressive solo.  This is a solid death metal EP from a rising group.

MIST: DEMO (2013)

Mist is a group of five Slovenian women playing doom metal in the vein of Black Sabbath, Candlemass, and other masters of the genre.  This is the band's first release, a demo of two songs.  Mist play real doom metal, the way that it was played when the genre was conceived.  It is slow and heavy, but with a lack of distortion so that the riffs really shine through.  The vocals of singer Nina Spruk are clean and haunting, adding to the occult feel of the songs.  This is an extremely impressive first recording.  I am anxious to see what else this band can do.

MOTHERMOUND: THE BURDEN OF TOMORROW (2013)

Mothermound was previously known as Expulsion and were active from 1995 to 2005.  In that time period, they only released on full-length.  After a hiatus, the band re-formed in 2009 under the name Mothermound.  Reference points for the band's sound start with the early bands at the forefront of combining doom metal and death metal, groups like Paradise Lost and My Dying Bride, with a little bit of progressive metal thrown in a la Opeth.  The band kicks things off with the epic length "Aurora Awaken", which is a little unusual.  Typically the epics come at the end of the album, so right away it is clear that Mothermound thinks a little outside the box.  The band typically utilizes clean riffs, with the occasional acoustic section, very much like Opeth.  The band does not follow the typical verse-chorus-verse progression, another similarity to Opeth and the other aforementioned bands.  Vocals are alternated between a gravelly growl and a clean wail which sounds very much like Layne Staley at times.  Not a bad album, although it does tend to drag a little at times, which is not unusual with this brand of metal.

Talbot: Scaled (2013)

Increasingly, I find myself in the mood for some good sludgy doom metal.  I am not sure what that says about my current mindset.  Maybe it's okay though because my usual choices are death and thrash metal.  Lately I have been listening to a lot of Cianide, Morgion, Lord Dying, and High on Fire.  So this one hit me at just the right time.

If you haven't guessed already, Talbot play some sludgy, murky doom metal.  What is most impressive though is the varying influences that can picked out of it.  At times they have the poppy sensibility of Type O Negative at their Beatles-obsessed best.  At others, the music is almost terrifying, true doom.  At still others, the band is heavily groove-laden and gallops along at a frenetic pace.  In short, there is a lot going on on this release.

Talbot is a very promising doom metal duo from Estonia, which is honestly not one of the first places I think of when I think of doom metal.  Such is the proliferation of metal in general I suppose.  And that is one of the most fascinating aspects of being a metal fan, finding metal from different countries.

The majority of the album is made up of some hard-hitting doom riffs.  There is the occasional bit of experimental and almost psychedelic moment here and there, but for the most part it keeps thundering away.  The vocals are impressive, typically clean and shouted, but once in awhile they are performed with a decently frightening death growl.  The real star of this album though is the bass.  It is high enough in the mix to be constantly heard and sounds amazing.  More bands should make this effective use of the often-overlooked instrument.

The only real complaint is that the second half tends to drag a bit.  The psychedelic and slower parts are almost all relegated to that half and it does tend to lose focus at times.  The title track in particular drags and the vocals take on a Perry Farrell-esque quality.

Nevertheless, this was a fairly impressive release from an up and coming band.  It definitely fit my recent mood.

FMA Reviews: Schattenbrandung: I - Apophänie

Originally reviewed here.

Blackened doom metal is kind of an odd concept. Some of the earliest better-known black metal bands were often very fast-paced with thrash metal and punk influences. Think Immortal and Gorgoroth's earlier work for examples. Doom metal on the other hand is quite the opposite. Obviously over time the atmosphere became the major element in black metal and that is where black and doom metal were able to eventually find a common ground. Blackened doom would not have worked in the mid 1990's. It works better now. 

Meet Schattenbrandung, a German blackened doom metal band. This is the band's debut album after forming in 2009. Their songs on their album are not named, but instead represented by Roman numerals that are weirdly out of order and missing VI. Their inability to count notwithstanding, this is some surprisingly decent stuff in places.

The songs often alternate between heavy and faster-paced riffing and more melodic noodling. It is quite the contrast and it probably would come across better if it was not done so frequently. I find myself enjoying the heavier material much more than the lighter stuff. Oftentimes when they go lighter there just is not anything else really going on. Very few vocals, just some light drumming and melancholic guitar chords. There is not too much to the melodic soft sections.

The songs on this are often very long. The shortest one is almost seven minutes long. The band tries to break up the monotony by switching gears somewhat frequently with tempo shifts and the aforementioned alternating hard and soft sections. Sometimes this is effective, sometimes it feels as if the band is having troubles figuring out what to do next and ending the song is not one of the options.

I do not want it to seem like this is a bad album, it is just a little overdone at times. The good parts are very good and they do outnumber the bad. It would be nice if the band would cut down on the soft sections, or at least shorten them. The rest of the material does sound pretty good.

Reader Submissions: Nonsun: Good Old Evil

Nonsun is a Ukrainian duo that plays an amalgamation of sludge metal, doom metal, and drone metal.  They recently released this EP and contacted me to take a listen.

I will admit that this one took a little while to get into.  The band switches gears somewhat frequently between sludgy doom metal, which I enjoyed, to moments of random feedback and noise, which I really did not care for.  Nonsun is a very harsh listen.  There is nothing particularly pretty about anything that the band does.  When they are playing the more metallic parts, the tone is muddy and hostile and the vocals are rough.    The noise parts are very grating on the ears as well.  Of course, all of this is the point.  Nonsun is not trying to be particularly pleasant.  They are trying to be as loud and painful as possible.  And in that respect they certainly succeed.

There are moments on the second track "Rain Have Mercy" that border on the catchy.  As such, that is probably my favorite track on the EP.  It also has far fewer noise moments.  Of course with the good comes the bad, and third track "Message of Nihil Carried by the Waves of the Big Bang" is a complete noise/drone track.  The final track makes up for it with its very slow burn leading into nothingness.

As I said, this one took a couple of listens to get into.  There are some moments I did not care for, but by and large they were outnumbered by the good parts.

Nonsun bandcamp page.

Witch Mountain: Witch Mountain

I am beginning to really like Scion A/V.  They put out a bunch of free EPs from some damn good bands.  Over the last year and a half or so there have been terrific EPs from Immolation, Revocation, and Corrosion of Conformity.  This time I decided to check out Witch Mountain, a band I had only a passing familiarity with.

Witch Mountain is a traditional doom metal band from the U.S. featuring a female lead singer.  There is a large discussion over on the Metal Archives forum which is dissecting the merits of having a woman in a metal band.  A large consensus seems to be that many bands use it as a gimmick.  I really do not think that is the case with Witch Mountain as Uta Plotkin possesses an extremely impressive voice.  It is powerful and really gives the band a unique quality that makes them stand out from many of the other retro doom metal bands out there.  Seriously she is one of the most talented vocalists I have heard in a long time.

The music on the EP is somewhat lumbering traditional doom.  It is slow-paced but it allows Plotkin a chance to really shine.  The music is very impressive though and it does not get bogged down in its slow pace.  It remains interesting enough to keep the listener's attention even when Plotkin is not wailing away.

Plotkin is definitely the star here though.  Without her, the band probably would not merit much mention.  I am not suggesting that Witch Mountain uses the fact that they have a female lead singer to achieve any measure of notoriety.  It is not the fact that Plotkin is a woman that makes the band stand out.  It really is her voice.  She is that good.

Reader Submissions: Arkham Witch: Legions of the Deep

One thing that never fails to grab my attention for albums is Lovecraft-inspired artwork.  So of course the cover of the sophomore album from the U.K.'s Arkham Witch jumped out at me right away.  Of course the name Arkham Witch also contains a Lovecraft reference, as do several of the song titles.  So it was with great anticipation that I looked into this album.

Arkham Witch is a very traditional-sounding metal band combining 1980's style metal with doom metal.  Oftentimes, the band sounds like a cross between faster-paced Reverend Bizarre and Iron Butterfly.  Think about the Reverend Bizarre covering "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" and that's probably an accurate representation of Arkham Witch's style.

This is a very entertaining and varied album with a lot of highlights.  The album features some slower-paced and epic, plodding doom metal tracks (e.g. "David Lund"), some mid-paced, crunching stoner doom tracks (e.g. "Infernal Machine"), and some angrier, fast-paced tracks that border on thrash metal (e.g. "On a Horse Called Vengeance").  The variation in the individual tracks make this a highly interesting album.  It is never boring and captures and holds attention.  The album sounds like it would have made a terrific soundtrack to 1970's horror b-movies.  And yes that is a compliment.

The instrumentation is well-done, with a heavy, crunchy sound to the riffs.  The production is clear and allows all of the individual instruments to come out cleanly.  Arkham Witch does a terrific job of catching the sound and feel of heavy metal in the late 1970's and early 1980's.

The only complaint that I have is with some of the spoken vocal lines.  Particularly with the mostly forgettable "We're from Keighley".  The opening line in that track is regrettable and mars an otherwise highly impressive album.  But then I just rewind it to the rocking "On a Horse Called Vengeance" and all is forgiven.

Cataloguing My Metal Collection Pt. 25

ARTIST:  Black Sabbath

ORIGIN:  Birmingham, England

TITLE:  Forbidden

LABEL:  I.R.S. Records

YEAR:  1995

GENRE:  Doom Metal/Heavy Metal

FAVORITE SONG:  "Shaking Off the Chains"

NOTES:  To date, this is the last full-length album of new material that Black Sabbath has released.  It features Tony Martin once more on vocals.  This however is not a terribly noteworthy album.  It only features Tony Iommi from the original lineup on it and features a guest appearance from Ice-T.  Yeah.  I actually bought this one on a church trip with a couple of other albums.  All of which had inappropriate album covers for when I bought them.