Alcest: Spiritual Instinct (2019)

This album made it to third place on my Albums of the Year list, so I am going to spoil the end of the review by saying that I love this album.  It is however, the biggest surprise from that list, because I never thought that I would truly enjoy an Alcest album.  That is how good this album really is.  It made it past any preconceived notions I had about this band.

The reason for my skepticism about Alcest is their status as one of the leading bands in the mostly regrettable "blackgaze" subgenre, which includes bands like Deafheaven.  The bands combine black metal with ultra-mellow indie rock.  Previous releases from Alcest have been so mellow and focused on the less metal aspects as to be mostly unlistenable to me.  So I never really thought this album would be up my alley.  But then I heard "Protection" and "Sapphire".

What makes this release so impressive is the renewed focus on the more metal aspects.  There are black metal screams here as well as a far more aggressive riffing style.  But it fits in seemlessly with the lush, ethereal and melancholic melodies.  The result is a dark album that is at the same time breathlessly beautiful.  The only downside is that it drags just a little bit in the second half, but the first half is utterly flawless.

I was blown away by this release.  I still highly doubt I will enjoy much of their prior material, and I am by no means going to start checking out other blackgaze bands.  But this album is indeed incredible. 

Initial Impressions: Testament: Titans of Creation (2020)

I am interrupting my current and ongoing pile of albums to review to jump this one way ahead.  Why?  Well, because it's fucking Testament.  That's why.  As longtime readers know, Testament is my favorite band.  I came to this realization a few years back, though they have always been high on the list.  I just love everything from the band.  And they are one of the few bands whose every new release I grab right away.  This was no exception.

So how is it?  Fucking.  Awesome.  I love this album.  This is quite possibly Testament's best album since The Gathering, which was an absolute monster itself.  To begin with, the current iteration of Testament is one of the greatest collections of talent in metal right now.  The rhythm section itself is peerless, consisting of human metronome Gene Hoglan and fretless bass master Steve DiGiorgio.  And then there is the guitar duo of Alex Skolnick and Eric Peterson who play off of each other better than anyone since Iron Maiden's heyday.  Skolnick deserves special mention as a one-of-a-kind talent.  Finally Chuck Billy has one of the most distinctive voices in thrash metal and sounds better than he has in years.  Probably again since The Gathering.

A band can have all of the talent in the world, but if the songs are not great, the album will be a failure.  Luckily here we have some amazing songs.  Each one of them dynamic and intriguing in their own ways.  The standouts are "Night of the Witch", which is reminiscent of the aforementioned The Gathering.  That is to say an exceptionally dark song.  "Catacombs", the album closer, is a short instrumental built around the opening riff to "Low", which is a nice callback.  And finally, and most importantly, "Dream Deceiver" is quite possibly Testament's best song in years.  With a Priest-esque chorus and an exceptional Skolnick solo, it makes an immediate and lasting impact.

I have loved every release by Testament, but it is clear that the band has been on an upswing over the last few years.  Each release since their reunion album The Formation of Damnation has been better than the one before.  The biggest improvement on this one is Skolnick's playing.  He seems rejuvenated somehow.  And what results is an absolutely terrific album from the thrash titans.  This album will be tough to beat at the end of the year.  An early contender for Album of the Year.

On a personal note, Steve DiGiorgio, Chuck Billy and his wife have apparently recently tested positive for COVID-19.  I wish them all the best of luck getting through this.

Municipal Waste: The Last Rager (2019)

Municipal Waste's 2019 EP already made it to number three on my Top EPs of 2019, so it is pretty easy to see what I think of it.  I was pretty late getting into this band, for reasons I am not sure about.  A crossover/thrash metal band would seem to be up my alley, yet it took a long time before I checked them out.  This is only the second release I had heard from the band.

The Last Rager is a short, crunchy EP that flies by in just a hair over ten minutes.  There are four songs on the album led off by the repetitive, but fun "Wave of Death" which sounds like an S.O.D. track.  "Car-Nivore (Street Meat)" is my favorite song on the album as it speeds by at 100 mph with the best riff on the album and some furious back-and-forth shouting between the two vocalists.  Plus, the pun is just awesome.  "Rum for Your Life" is a bit more groove-oriented but still packs a punch and generally features the best vocal performance and a blazing solo.  Finally, the title track hits hard to close things out with some more terrific thrashy riffwork.

This is a short, but fun release from a band that has made a career out of beating down the door, thrashing hard and leaving just as quickly.  This will not be my last Municipal Waste release. 

Exhorder: Mourn the Southern Skies (2019)

Reunion albums can be hit or miss.  Sometimes, the band gets back together and it is like nothing ever changed and some great music results.  Personally, Testament is one such band for me.  Other times, it can be a massive flop, the band has changed so much that the result is basically pissing on the band's legacy.  I'm looking at you, Sadus.  I was certainly intrigued when I had heard Exhorder was going to release a new album.

Exhorder is a noteworthy band in that they may have been one of the founders of the oft-maligned genre groove metal, which sound Pantera took and ran with in the early 1990's.  Exhorder released two terrific albums in the early 1990's: the thrashier Slaughter in the Vatican and the much more straightforward groove of The Law.  Despite their status as groove metal pioneers, they have largely been exempted from criticism for the genre's failings in subsequent years.  Perhaps that is because they did it so well.  It was going to be interesting to see what the band could do, 17 years after their last album.

Of course, before I begin, I must caveat any talk of a reunion by stating that only one member of the defunct band has returned.  That member is vocalist Kyle Thomas.  The rest of the band is filled out with entirely new members, so this is not really a true reunion album so much as a comeback album with a bunch of new members and the original singer.

Well, so how is it?  Quite simply, the band picks up right where the former Exhorder left off.  The album is an incredibly dynamic one, with the kind of Southern-style groove that made the band's earlier material so damn good.  The album features several blazing fast thrashers, such as the appropriately-titled face-melting track "Ripping Flesh".  It closes on a high note with the bluesy title track.  And there are of course those tracks that call back to The Law, such as the stomping groove of "Asunder".  And every single track on this album is fantastic. 

While this is not exactly a reunion album, it is all killer and no filler.  This album came really damn close to my top ten of the year.  It really is that damn good.  There are very few truly great groove metal albums out there, but this is definitely one of them.

Destruction: Born to Perish (2019)

Destruction is one of the Big Three of German thrash metal, however they have generally been my least favorite of the three.  That is not to say that I do not enjoy them.  Release from Agony is a fantastic album and their first three albums are absolute classics from the scene.  It is just that I have typically preferred Kreator and Sodom over Destruction.  All that being said, Destruction's later albums have been the best of the three bands.  That is certainly true when comparing each band's most recent album.

This is the band's fourteenth full-length album of original material (they did release two albums of re-recorded tracks).  And very little has changed in the band's sound.  Founding members bassist/vocalist Schmier and guitarist Mike Sifringer remain with the band, forming the backbone and crafting the sound that has served Destruction well for almost forty years.  So what have here is typical for the band: rampaging riffs, blazing leads and sneering vocals.

Destruction has once again released an album full of catchy-as-hell songs.  Tracks like "We Breed Evil", "Butchered for Life" and the title track are bound to get stuck in listeners' heads.  The only real complaint I can make is that there is not much variation between the tracks and the band has basically released this exact same album every time for the last fifteen years.  That being said, Destruction knows what they are doing and they do it quite well. 

I always enjoy a new Destruction album.  While they do not really ever reinvent the wheel these days, they still pack a wallop in each new release and they have been amazingly consistent over the years.  This is unlikely to rate on my top albums list, but there is something to be said for some good, old-fashioned thrash metal.

Vader: The Empire (2016)

What is there really new to say about Vader?  This is the Polish band's 14th studio album and they show absolutely no signs of letting up.  Vader has one of the most consistently great discographies in all of metal.  And yet they have never really achieved the kind of notoriety that some of their peers have.  In particular, Behemoth (who credit Vader as an influence) have blown past them in popularity.  But, metal is not really a popularity contest ultimately.

With the music being so consistently great, it really is hard to distinguish one Vader album from another in any meaningful way.  Vader has never really changed their sound.  They have always been an ultra-aggressive extreme metal band that blurs the line between thrash metal and death metal.  This particular album leans a bit more to the thrash metal side of things.  This album is more about the churning, frantic riffing and pounding rhythms than anything melodic or complex.  It is a bludgeoning tour de force of an album, one that fits in nicely with the Vader discography.

There really is not much to say about Vader.  They are consistently great and have yet to release a disappointing album.  This is a short burst of aggressive mayhem, a sound that Vader have perfected over their long careers.  People should be more aware of Vader.

Gamma Ray: Land of the Free (1995)

A few weeks back I reviewed a tribute album to German power metal masters Gamma Ray which featured a number of up and coming groups from the genres of heavy, doom and power metal.  I was familiar with Gamma Ray, but had only checked out one album by the band previously.  Most of that was due to the difficulty in tracking down the older, more highly regarded albums.  Even the one I had (Somewhere Out in Space) was expensive.  But I was blown away by one song in particular off of that tribute album and I decided to see if I could track down the album it appeared on.  This is that album.

The song I was referring to is "Rebellion in Dreamland" and it is the first song on this album.  The cover was pretty damn good, but the original is so much better.  Seriously, this is a power metal masterpiece.  It is extremely dynamic, going through a number of musical sections, but it remains at an extremely high quality throughout.  It is one of the catchier power metal songs I have ever heard, and that is truly saying something.  This song is absolutely terrific.  It is very hard to top.

Unfortunately Gamma Ray is never able to quite match the bar they set on the opening track, but that does not mean that this album is a letdown, far from it.  In fact, this is probably one of the finest examples of a power metal album out there.  There are a number of great songs on the rest of the album, including "Man on a Mission", the title track, "Abyss of the Void" and "Salvation's Calling".  The music is generally fast-paced power metal that clearly resembles the type of music Kai Hansen was writing with his previous band Helloween.  And if this album sounds a lot like Helloween's Walls of Jericho, well there is a reason for that.  Hansen sings on this album, just as he did on Helloween's aforementioned debut.  So we have Hansen writing the music and singing.

There are very few weak moments on the entire album.  I will point out that "Fairytale" is so short as to be mostly irrelevant and "Farewell" tries hard to be Gamma Ray's version of Blind Guardian's "Bard's Song", but mostly fails.  And finally "Time to Break Free", which features Helloween's Michael Kiske, ironically the singer who replaced Hansen in Helloween, comes across a little clumsy.

This album is an absolutely essential power metal album, and should be held in the same esteem as albums like Walls of Jericho, both Keeper of the Seven Keys albums and Tales from the Twilight World.  It is an absolutely incredible album from start to finish, even if it never really comes close to matching "Rebellion in Dreamland".

Death Angel: Relentless Retribution (2010)

After being blown away by some of the recent Death Angel releases after their reformation, in particular their 2019 album Humanicide, I decided to dig a little bit deeper into their music.  I targeted this one first because it was the first of the "Wolf Trilogy" and the only one I had not previously owned.  It made it a necessary pick-up.

I am probably going to repeat myself quite a bit in my praise of this album.  A lot of the things that make this album great are also present on Humanicide.  And let me be clear, these albums are indeed great.  Death Angel is one of the few thrash metal bands from the 1980's to reform and actually be BETTER than they were previously.  The band has always been noteworthy for having a terrific vocalist and an exceptional lead guitarist and, if anything, their respective skills have improved significantly, which is really saying something. 

There are some oddities here.  There is an acoustic guitar interlude performed by the famous flamenco guitarists Rodrigo y Gabriela.  And "Volcanic" is a rare ballad for the band.  Death Angel did these a little more often in their first incarnation, but have moved away for the most part, preferring relentless aggression (see "Death of the Meek"), though they remain capable of softer moments.  It is just rare for them to stretch it into an entire song any more.

I really think there is an argument to be made for this album being Death Angel's best.  The heavy tracks are truly monstrous and the lighter tracks are extremely powerful.  This is as consistently amazing as this band has ever been.  For a long time, they were kind of afterthoughts in the Bay Area thrash metal scene, but they have had a truly impressive second career that has catapulted them into the conversation with Exodus as the best the Bay Area has to offer.  And yes, they are better than Metallica now, that's just plain obvious. 

Death Angel: Humanicide (2019)

Earlier this year I went back and checked out the first two albums released by Death Angel, after long meaning to do so.  I enjoyed those releases quite a bit, in particular The Ultra-Violence.  Frolic Through the Park was very much a product of its time however and does not hold up nearly as well.  Afterwards, the band released the dynamic and genre-bending Act III before splitting up.  But Death Angel eventually reformed and are noteworthy because I think their second stage material is even better than the albums they released in their first go-around. 

This brings us to Humanicide and this release is a fucking monster of an album.  It is part of a trilogy of albums that has come to be known as the Wolf Trilogy, mostly because each of the albums has a wolf on the cover.  This trilogy includes the 2010 release Relentless Retribution (which I also just recently picked up) and the 2013 release The Dream Calls for Blood.  It skips the 2016 release The Evil Divide. 

The album starts off with a bang with the electrifying title track and refuses to let up on the throttle for the rest of the album.  Of particular note is the frenetic, punky speed metal of "I Came for Blood" and "The Pack".  Death Angel have crafted an incredible collection of songs once again on this release, getting seemingly better with each new release.  The band has long been highlighted by the duo of vocalist Mark Osegueda and guitarist Rob Cavestany and these two continue to be the heart and soul of Death Angel.  They play off each other incredibly well and continue to drive this band forward. 

Death Angel is one of those rare bands that actually seem to be getting better with age.  Unlike a certain other Bay Area thrash metal band, Death Angel continues to get heavier and release unrelentingly powerful albums thirty years after their supposed prime.  This is quite possibly my favorite Death Angel album so far.  And that is really saying something.

Memoriam: Requiem for Mankind (2019)

Memoriam is the band created by former members of Bolt Thrower formed as a tribute to former drummer Martin Kearns.  The band has now released three albums and the cover art on all three releases seems to tell some sort of story.   The band has been reasonably well-received, though there are a lot of Bolt Thrower fans out there that do not seem taken with the band.  I have never quite understood that.

The major criticism of Memoriam seems to be the mid-paced riffing style that the band seems to get locked into at times, instead of the more dynamic style of Bolt Thrower.  That seems to have fallen by the wayside with this release.  This is the kind of album fans have really been waiting for since the announcement of the formation of this new group.  The band does a fantastic job of recapturing the spirit and aggression of the old band.

The improvement is evident from the very beginning of opening track "Shell Shock", which would have fit in well on Those Once Loyal.  The riffs are melodic and aggressive and even Karl Willetts's vocals have improved, after being somewhat lackluster on the previous two albums.  That intensity continues throughout the album, with highlights being "Undefeated", "Refuse to be Led" and the title track.

I am a big fan of Memoriam personally.  Obviously they will never truly be able to get out of the shadow of Bolt Thrower and will likely never eclipse the best albums by the legendary forebears, but Memoriam is quite good in their own right.  And this is their best album so far.

The Abyss: The Other Side (1995)

I really have no idea why it is that I am just recently hearing about this band.  The Abyss is the black metal project of members of Hypocrisy, including the legendary Peter Tägtgren, Michael Hedlund and Lar Szöke.  Of course Hypocrisy was not quite as big as they are now (still pretty damn important though), but still, it is surprising that such a project remained somewhat obscure.

The music here is fairly representative of Swedish black metal in general, rather than sounding like Hypocrisy playing black metal.  There is obviously the dark and evil-sounding atmosphere that groups like Dissection perfected and it is generally much more focused on the riffs and the music, with fairly fast-paced songs.  It is similar musically to groups like Lord Belial, Naglfar, Marduk and Dark Funeral.  Just for good measure The Abyss tosses in a cover to Hellhammer's "Massacra". 

Where this release really surprises is it is not all punishing riffs all the time.  There are moments of genuine beauty and melancholy.  There is an extended sequence during "Tjänare Af Besten" where it is simply keyboard and guitar playing a tender and extremely pretty melody.  It happens more often than that, but those are the moments where this album truly shines. 

The Abyss did not last long.  They only put out one more album, but when Hypocrisy is the main band the members are in and one of the members is the incredibly busy Tägtgren, I guess that makes sense.  I do intend to check out that other release.  I am not sure why I have not heard of this band before, but I am glad I found them now. 

Municipal Waste: Slime and Punishment (2017)

For reasons that are not at all clear to me, this is actually the first time I have checked out Municipal Waste.  Based on my typical listening habits and my love of crossover/thrash metal, it would seem like Municipal Waste would be high on my list of bands to check out.  Hell, I'm perplexed as to why this has taken so long.  It is not as if I was unaware of the band.  I have been aware of them since 2007's The Art of Partying.  And yet, here we are.

As mentioned, Municipal Waste plays a crossover, though much more on the thrash metal side of things.  Given my love of Nuclear Assault, S.O.D., Suicidal Tendencies and Power Trip, among others, this would be an ideal band to check out.  I don't know why it has taken so long, but I will be going back after hearing this release.

The songs on this album are all fast and short.  Not a single one makes it to the three minute mark and the entire album is over in less than half an hour.  In the meantime, Municipal Waste makes sure to fully utilize as much of that time as possible, filling it with riffs upon riffs and the manic shouting of vocalist Tony Foresta.  There is not much time for melody, though the band does throw in some blazing guitar solos at times.  The punk energy of the band is on full display throughout and there is not a dull moment on the album.  It is true that the songs kind of blend together after awhile as Municipal Waste do not really change up the tempo much throughout. 

Municipal Waste does not reinvent the wheel on this album.  There is really nothing here that cannot be found on other crossover bands' albums.  Yet, their manic energy is infectious and this is a fun album to listen to, and I have found it makes good workout music.  It may be formulaic, but it is still damn fun.

One and Done? Pt. 14: Control Denied

Control Denied was an ambitious new project created by Chuck Schuldiner of Death to explore more progressive styles of metal.  He brought on world-class metal musicians and frequent collaborators Steve DiGiorgio (he of the bewildering fretless bass) and Richard Christy on drums.  He also brought on Shannon Hamm to play guitar and Psycho Scream's Tim Aymar for vocals.  It was an incredible collection of musicians.

The band released one album, 1999's The Fragile Art of Existence.  Unfortunately, it would be Schuldiner's final album as he succumbed to brain cancer in 2001.  But it was a terrific album.

The album is so obviously a Schuldiner project.  His very distinct style of progressive, extreme metal riffs is on display throughout the album.  It sounds very much like the direction Death was logically heading after the very progressive The Sound of Perseverance.  It also provides multiple opportunities for the other musicians, particularly DiGiorgio, to shine.  The songs sound incredible with some truly amazing musical moments.

The only weak point in the album is some of the vocals.  Aymar is obviously a talented singer and has some great moments on this release.  However, when he is attempting to shriek at the top of his lungs, it sometimes comes out sounding flat and powerless.  I wonder what the album would have sounded like had Schuldiner provided the vocals.

There were plans to release a second album and several songs were recorded, but after the death of Schuldiner, the band abandoned plans to release it out of respect for him.  This album is a testament to the immense talent the metal world lost when Schuldiner died.

Belphegor: Blood Magick Necromance (2011)

I like Belphegor, but I have never considered them an essential band.  I like the albums I have heard from the band, but I do not really go way out of my way to pick up new releases from them.  And here I am reviewing an album from the band that was released eight years ago, but hey, it's new to me.

Belphegor is not a band to take seriously, though that has not stopped Russia and several other countries from forbidding the band to play concerts.  Their lyrics are mostly cartoonishly evil.  They are often obsessed with deviant, fetishistic sex and blasphemy.  The result has been albums like Bondage Goat Zombie and Goatreich - Fleshcult.  And of course we have this album.  Just look at this album cover and song titles like "Impaled Upon the Tongue of Sathan" for the evil and "Discipline Through Punishment" for the sex.

The band definitely accomplishes a grim and evil atmosphere.  It takes form from the very beginning with "In Blood - Devour this Sanctity" which has a powerful Egyptian/Middle Eastern main riff.  Melechesh does this better generally, but Belphegor has done a pretty good job of it.  The rest of the songs are generally slower and plodding, which is a little unusual for Belphegor.  The riffs are generally terrific though, blending black metal tremolo riffs with heavy death metal seemlessly.  The highlights of the album are the aforementioned "In Blood - Devour this Sanctity" and "Impaled Upon the Tongue of Sathan", which is just plain evil as fuck.

Ultimately, this is probably my favorite album I have heard from Belphegor to date.  There have not been many and the other ones kind of blend together.  This one stands out a bit more for the impressive evil atmosphere.  One of these days, I may decide to check out more of the band's material, but for now I am fine with what I have heard.  This one has definitely captured my attention though.

Possessed: Revelations of Oblivion (2019)

We are kind of beyond the point where it is surprising when bands reunite.  That has been a trend over the last 10-15 years or more so the only surprising reunions would be groups like Death and Dissection where the principal member is currently dead.  Even then, Static-X pulled it off.  So it is unsurprising that Possessed is back with their first album of new material since 1986's Beyond the Gates.

Truthfully, this is not a complete reunion.  Bassist/vocalist Jeff Becerra is the only original member.  Most of the other band members have been in other death metal bands like Sadistic Intent and Gruesome.  Possessed is of course notable for being one of the earliest death metal bands, and many would argue the first.  Their debut Seven Churches is a landmark for the death metal genre.  With so much time passed though, it was questionable how new material would sound from the band.

The album starts off in similar fashion to their previous releases, with an ominous bell ringing and atmospheric sound producing a dark and sinister tone.  Eventually this gives way to some classical-sounding music that would be at home in The Exorcist.  That then is punched through by one hell of a death metal riff and we are off.  The first song is called "No More Room in Hell" and possesses all of the hallmarks that one would expect from a Possessed song, including fast, razor-sharp riffs, pounding drums, Becerra's rabid snarl and blasphemous lyrics.  From that point forward, it is clear that even though a lot of time has passed, Possessed still sounds as fresh and vital as they did in the mid 1980's.

Some of the lyrics on this album are a little ridiculous.  Obviously in this genre we have a lot of lyrics that attempt to sound evil and scary.  This would have turned some heads in 1985, but it is no longer ground-breaking.  I am not really singling Possessed out because this is fairly normal for the genre, but sometimes it does sound a little tired.  Luckily I can overlook that when the music is as good as it is on this album.  This really does sound like something the band would have released to follow up their last proper full-length.

I was much more impressed with this album than I thought I was going to be.  It is a terrific return of a legendary pioneer in death metal and a worthy follow-up to the band's prior work.  It is also possibly an Album of the Year contender.

Enforcer: Zenith (2019)

I have been a huge Enforcer fan since hearing Diamonds for the first time in 2010.  It was their blend of NWOBHM style riffs with the pop sensibilities of groups like Def Leppard, particularly on songs like "High Roller" and "Running in Menace".  It was definitely a retro sound, and even a little cheesy at times, but goddamn they were fucking good at it.  The songs were catchy as hell.  And as good as Diamonds was, Enforcer kept getting better on each new release.  Their last album, From Beyond was their best yet.  And so, I was definitely looking forward to a new Enforcer album.

Unfortunately, as good as this album is, it is not as good as any of the three previous releases.  Maybe Diamonds, but not Death by Fire and definitely not From Beyond.  Enforcer is trying to do something different here, perhaps not wanting to get too stale.  Unfortunately, that messed with the formula that had made Enforcer so impressive before.  Now I mentioned before that Enforcer always had pop melodies on occasion.  What changed on this release was that the band became more and more focused on these melodies, to the detriment of the obviously more metal riffing.  This is apparent from the beginning with the gang vocals leading into "Die for the Devil".  The accompanying riffs are just a little too much like the kind of rock and metal that infested the airways in the 1980's.  A lot of the aggression is gone for a much more radio-friendly sound.  The ballads in particular are maybe a step too far away from what this band used to do so well, particularly the piano-driven "Regrets". 

There is still some good stuff on this release and I do not want to give the impression that I truly dislike this album.  Liking and album and being disappointed by it are not mutually exclusive.  "Searching for You" is something of a return to form for the band, capturing the speed metal intensity that marked some of the best moments from their earlier albums.  There are also moments such as "The End of a Universe" and "Forever We Worship the Dark" which come close to the band's prior material. 

This is probably the most varied and dynamic Enforcer album to date.  The band has taken a lot of risks with this release, departing from what made their previous albums so great.  Unfortunately, they have gone a bit too far.  This would be really bad for most bands except for one thing: the songs are still catchy as hell.  So even though I was disappointed by the direction the band took on this release, I still find myself singing a lot of these songs in my head well after I have finished listening to the album.  Enforcer is coming to Nebraska soon in support of Warbringer and I will have to attend.  I have liked this band for a long time, and I still like this album.  Time to see them live.

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.

Crematory: Believe (2000)

A couple of months ago, Crematory made big news (well, in the field of metal news anyway which is to say not much notice anywhere else) when drummer Markus Jüllich delivered an epic rant about revenue as a metal band.  Specifically, he was pissed about a lack of pre-sales for the band's tour, which is an odd thing to be pissed about.  He said the band would cancel the tour if sales did not improve.  He also complained about downloading and streaming and begged fans to buy the CD and the vinyl of the new album.  And then he topped it off by calling the fans lazy.  Now I don't want to spend a lot of time dealing with this stuff, I do believe in supporting bands by buying physical copies of albums (or at least paying for downloads, though to a lesser extent), and I certainly enjoy going to concerts and buying merch.  The rant did capture my attention though and I decided to check them out.

This is the band's 2000 album, during which time they were more of a gothic metal band, as opposed to their earlier gothic/death metal and their latter industrial gothic metal.  It is one of the higher-rated albums on the Metal Archives, which is why I decided to check it out instead of some of their other material.  It was basically between it and the band's debut album, which was much harder to find at a decent price.

And how is it?  Well, it's not great.  Maybe it is the fact that I have outgrown this style of music a long time ago.  Maybe it really is just kind of bland.  There is really nothing inherently wrong with gothic metal.  Some bands do it quite well.  Moonspell is incredible on just about everything.  Cradle of Filth is a much more extreme gothic metal band but I am a huge fan of them.  And there are groups like Tristania and others.  I still like a lot of those bands, even though I do not listen to much gothic metal anymore.  So gothic metal is not a deal-breaker for me. 

This though just does not really do it for me.  It reminds me most of middle-era Lacuna Coil just before the group really changed their sound to more gothic rock and with death growls replacing the sultry vocals of Cristina Scabbia.  It is clearly metal based on the riffs, but none of the songs really do all that much, and some are positively cringe-worthy ("Act Seven").  Most of the songs simply do not build to anything interesting and stay at one tempo, without much variety.  That is kind of a problem over all with the album.  There are a couple of slower songs, but those are just kind of awful, as opposed to the just boring remainder of the album.  And the vocals on those slower songs resemble those of Tiamat after they started to suck. 

I do not hate this album, I just find it kind of bland.  There is nothing really wrong with most of it, it just does not capture my attention much.  19-year-old me probably would have loved it, but now it simply does not do much for me.  I would not mind hearing it once in awhile and I do not regret buying it, I just do not think I will listen to it often.

Nuclear Blast Reissues Testament

Despite the fact that I have long considered Testament one of my favorite bands (and, in fact, if pressed I would probably name them my favorite band of all time), I never picked up every single one of their releases.  It has only been over the last couple of years that I picked up The Legacy and The New Order, even though those are arguably their most popular albums.  I blame part of that on the fact that I grew up with their mid-paced stuff like Low and The Gathering and part of it on the fact that I had numerous compilations and live albums that covered most of that era.

Even after picking up those two early albums, I was still missing a few things.  Not any more.  Nuclear Blast reissued a bunch of Testament's stuff on cassette and vinyl and I was able to fill the holes in my collection.  There were three major releases that I had to grab, each with new artwork.

DEMONIC (1997)
I am honestly not sure how I never picked up Demonic.  It was the band's next album after Low, an album I absolutely adore and still consider my favorite by the band.  Demonic is probably the band's weakest release, and maybe that was part of it.  I enjoyed the title track when I heard it (it was on one of the aforementioned compilations), though not to the same level as any of their other stuff.  So I really do not know why I never picked it up.  After hearing it, I can see why it is not well-received, though I do enjoy it.  Testament was definitely trying to alter their sound to keep up with the groove metal style popularized by Pantera, yet also trying to get heavier to keep up with the rise of death metal.  What results is kind of a confused album with some decent tracks that call to mind thrash-era Testament ("Hatreds Rise") and other tracks trying to be more modern (the explosive title track).  Like I said, I do enjoy this album, but I would definitely pick up any of their other releases before it.

FIRST STRIKE STILL DEADLY (2001)
I stayed away from this one for awhile, mostly because it seemed so unnecessary.  This came out at a time when a bunch of bands were re-recording a lot of their early work.  It led to mistakes like Exodus's Let There be Blood, a re-recording of their landmark debut Bonded By Blood.  Testament re-recorded a number of songs from their first two albums with more modern recording equipment and techniques.  It is actually not all that bad.  A couple of the songs are not nearly as good, in particular "The Preacher" which has some questionable decisions.  The most unusual and interesting aspect of this release though is the last two songs "Alone in the Dark" and "Reign of Terror" which feature Steve "Zetro" Souza on lead vocals instead of Chuck Billy.  Souza of course made his name with Exodus but was actually Testament's first singer.  These songs are an interesting look at what might have been had Souza stayed with the band and are the major reason to check out this album.

LIVE AT EINDHOVEN '87 (2009)
Yes, this is a reissue of a reissue of the band's first live album released shortly after their debut album.  I think the reason I missed out on this way is a combination of my general disdain for live albums and the fact that I just did not know about it.  But, I do love Live at the Fillmore, and I have been enjoying going to concerts a lot more lately, so I took a chance on it.  This is early Testament and it is clear that the band is very raw, but the performance is nonetheless quite impressive.  Testament has always been a very good live act and it appears as if that was something they became very early on in their careers.  This is by no means an essential pick-up for anyone other than a huge fan of the band, but Testament is my favorite band, so I had to pick it up.

I would be hard-pressed to recommend any of these albums to casual fans, but for huge fans of the band like myself, they are definitely worthwhile.

Memoriam: For the Fallen (2017)

Bolt Thrower were one of the most influential death metal bands of all time.  Unfortunately, the band never released a follow-up to their 2008 album Those Once Loyal, despite a few attempts to do so.  But then, after the unexpected death of drummer Martin Kearns, the band gave up the ghost and went their separate ways.  Iron-throated vocalist Karl Willetts formed Memoriam in tribute to the former drummer and the band has released a few singles and demos before finally releasing this full-length album.

There are a couple of competing expectations one would have upon seeing this album cover and knowing the story of the band.  On the one hand, the album cover with the drab colors and imagery of the funeral procession would seem to indicate that this would be more of a doom metal album.  On the other hand, Willetts is in the band and Bolt Thrower was a very aggressive death metal band, dealing mostly with warfare.  So which side would win out?

Ultimately, they kind of both did.  This is very clearly a death metal album, but the violent and aggressive nature of Willetts's previous band was tempered somewhat with more of an emphasis on slower, grinding riffs and precision.  It is less focused on the glory of warfare, but about the atrocities and, of course, those who do not make it back.  This is amplified by the more restrained, yet still razor-sharp riffwork and the downcast lyrics.  Willetts's voice has aged as well, giving his sound a more bleak and dreary tone to it that matches well with the somber concept.  This is not to say that Memoriam do not bring the speed occasionally.  Songs like "Corrupted System" and "Flatline" do sound more like they would have been at home on one of Bolt Thrower's prime albums.

I feel like I have mentioned Bolt Thrower entirely too often in this review, and maybe I have.  But for now, Memoriam remains inextricably linked to Willetts's former band.  They were formed as a means of paying tribute to the band's now deceased drummer, and sound sonically similar, if a little slower.  This was a very hyped album and it definitely delivered.