Bloodsoaked: Sadistic Deeds...Grotesque Memories

I am always on the lookout for some new metal, particularly in the genres of death and thrash. Well, I did not exactly find this album through my own searching, it's more like I stumbled into it. Sort of. You see, I placed an order with Comatose Records, a label I order from occasionally when looking for brutal death metal, and one of the CDs that I ordered was out of stock. So, the label head, Steve Green from Atrocious Abnormality, called me personally to tell me this and offer to send something else instead. Since I was not currently at my computer, I asked for his recommendation and he recommended this, so I agreed. That's customer service, ladies and gentlemen.

All of that would have meant nothing though if the album was not good. But it is. In fact, this was one of my sleeper contenders for my favorite album of 2009. Bloodsoaked is an impressive band combining old school death metal influences with more modern brutal death influences, there are even a few slams in here. The music sounds fresh and really captures the listener's attention with its bludgeoning riffs and deep sickening grooves.

But here's the kicker, the quirk of this band. There is only one member. This is a one man death metal band. On the plus side, that means no artistic differences of opinion, unless he's suffering from multiple personality disorder. A fact of which I am not aware. But, he had to learn all of the instruments himself and try to track them together. I think that would be exceedingly difficult. But, Bloodsoaked pulls this off.

You can often tell when a black metal band is just one person. Something sounds off, some area of the music is not as well-written or comes across as well, but I do not think I would have felt this way about this album, had I not known about it. Everything sounds complete and well-written. This sounds like a four-man death metal band had recorded it. The drums are impressive, but are used mostly as background. There is not a lot of experimentation going on with them. The riffs sound brutal and intense. The vocals are delivered in a standard death metal growl and sound very much like those of Immolation.

As I stated before, there are old school death metal influences, such as Immolation and Morbid Angel, and even Obituary thrown into a modern death metal style. The jagged riffs and crushing grooves are evidence that Bloodsoaked know the genre well. These old school elements mesh well with the brutal death overall style.

I really enjoy this album. I will have to try to get personal recommendations from label heads more often. Thanks Steve.

Nebraska Metal Pt. 4: Xenomorph: Empyreal Regimes

Well, well, well. What do we have here? There's a couple of reasons I picked this up.
1) Old school progressive/technical death metal band that was recommended on the Metal Archives boards;
2) Picture of the Alien on the cover (and obviously the band is named after the Alien), my favorite movie monster; and
3) Band from my home state of Nebraska. Omaha, more particularly.

So, is it any good? Oh, hell yes. It's extremely hard to believe that this came from Nebraska in 1995. It's like finding a fully formed fish in rock dating back to the Precambrian age. Quite the nerdy analogy, true, but it's apt. There is absolutely no way that this could have evolved out of Nebraska, because the state has not really had anything like it, before or since. It is like it came out of nowhere.

This is technical and filthy death metal. The production quality is fantastic, with a beefy sound which emphasizes every sick riff and snarled vocal. It sounds absolutely great, yet again, completely out of nowhere because this was not released on a big label, or even a medium-sized one. It just has a great sound that cannot be readily explained.

The music owes a lot to groups like Morbid Angel, Death, and Immolation, with a little more of a technical riffing style and more progressive song structure. The guitar riffs have the same otherworldly feel to them as Morbid Angel's. The leads sound more like something the late Chuck Schuldiner would have produced, with a strong tone, they are like the only light in an otherwise dark and dank room. The album creeps along like some Lovecraftian horror, slimy and cold. The drumming is intense and powerful, the bass rumbling along at the pace of the guitars.

There are frequent samples, which consist mostly of clips from horror movies. They go very well with the general sound of the album. Each of the songs is generally a little long, none of them being less than five minutes, but with the intricate and ever-changing song structures, things never drag.

As for the vocals, they sound like a slightly more malevolent, but overall not as deep version of David Vincent's vocals from the first few Morbid Angel albums. The vocals sound seriously unhinged and psychotic.

Like a fully-formed fish found in Precambrian rock, this twisted slab of progressive/technical death metal that puts many other bands even from the same time period to shame emerged out of the metal wasteland of Omaha, Nebraska. It's really extraordinary. It's a shame this band was not able to stay around and that so few people have been exposed to it.

Initial Impressions: Pathology: Legacy of the Ancients

I've been in a slam death mood for a little while again. These phases come and go I guess. I have been trying to avoid placing too many online orders for albums so finding this CD at Hastings was a pleasant surprise. As far as slam death goes, this group is surprisingly accessible and definitely not as gore-obsessed or misogynistic as other bands. Which means they are probably not well-received by some of the more hardcore fans of the genre.

One other strange note before launching into the music. This band is now on Victory Records, a label heretofore known as more of a hardcore label with groups like Hawthorne Heights, Atreyu, Taking Back Sunday, and lots of other terrible bands. So seeing a slam death band on the label is pretty shocking. This kind of thing usually gets released on Sevared, Comatose, Amputated Vein or occasionally Relapse.

Anyway, things start off melodically and eerie with a string intro and then it launches directly into the first slam early in the second track. The production is extremely beefy with lots of bass. It's otherwise clear and you could almost make out the lyrics if not for the incredibly deep guttural vocals at work. Fairly typical for slam so no complaints here. This album sounds great, it is not nearly as raw as many other slam albums.

As I mentioned before, this is a bit more of an accessible slam album. The slams are all still there, but they are complemented by slightly technical riffing and leads. The musicians are all talented and play well. The songwriting is impressive and these songs are surprisingly memorable and don't blend in with each other, which has sometimes been the downfall of many slam bands.

Lyrically, the band deals with horror themes, as evidenced by the zombie cover art. They do not have the same gore obsession or irritating misogyny as other bands, which is a big plus. Sometimes that makes it extremely difficult to listen to this style.

If I had to point to a new album to look into to get into this genre, this album by Pathology would be the one. It does not possess many of the elements that make slam an intense genre and it sounds close enough to technical brutal death to be interesting. This is a good gateway album into the world of slam.

Wastelander: Wardrive

Wastelander came out of nowhere to produce one of the biggest surprise albums from 2008. The band features a sound that calls to mind groups like Motorhead, Venom, Hellhammer, and Sodom. They play a combination of styles including crust punk and thrash metal, all played with a blackened style. Their sound is raw, intense, violent, and downright filthy.

Wastelander's music is fairly simple, but that is to be expected as the band is playing a primitive style of metal. The riffs are straightforward and not terribly complex, but they are presented in a high-octane energetic manner. There are guitar solos but they are often played very fast and over as quickly as they began. The vocals are sometimes delivered in an early black metal shriek, but are oftentimes shouted. These occasional vocals are the only real black metal influence on the album, although the riffs have an early Hellhammer/Venom feel to them at times.

The band's sound is heavily rooted in early punk and thrash metal. The guitar and bass riffs are heavily distorted, having a sound very similar to a much more punk-influenced Hellhammer. Even the vocals occasionally have the Tom Warrior grunting quality to them.

The album is short, being just over 36 minutes long and most of the songs are similarly brief. The band keeps their energy level up throughout, playing infectious and even somewhat bouncy songs throughout. The whole album feels like the band is having a great time playing. This sense of fun comes across to the listener very well making a very enjoyable listening experience.

The lyrics mostly deal with the apocalypse and post-apocalyptic situations. They are clearly influenced by movies such as Mad Max and other post-apocalyptic b-movies. Despite these bleak lyrical themes, the album is definitely not a downer.

Wastelander's debut album is an energetic travel through time. It is a combination of old school styles of punk and metal combined into something that feels fresh. It's an intriguing take on styles we have all heard before, but Wastelander pulls them off very well. This is a great first album for the band and they have a promising future.

Dusting Off a Cassette Pt. 46: Faith No More: King for a Day...Fool for a Lifetime

I am planning a longer post discussing the music of Faith No More's discography under the vocal theatrics of Mike Patton. It will probably be up next week some time, but here's a little precursor as I just listened to this cassette recently.

Faith No More is not an easy band to categorize, but they're not typically as difficult as they are on this album. The band has often used a variety of influences in their music, but they don't usually take over entire songs. Many songs on this album are from completely different genres, making this a bit of a shizophrenic listen. For instance, the band experiments with 1970's era R&B on "Evidence", country on "Take This Bottle", and big band funk on "Star A.D." Those are the two more outlandish examples. We even have saxophone solos on this thing.

However, the album is definitely based in metal. Half of the 14 songs are very clearly metal tracks. The band makes very good use of their always-present metal influences in presenting the metallic hardcore crunch of tracks like "Get Out" and "Digging the Grave". "The Gentle Art of Making Enemies" features one hell of an opening thrash metal riff, and probably the greatest metal riff Faith No More has ever written. Even less metal tracks such as "Last to Know" and "Just a Man" feature strong metal elements. Some of these songs are the catchiest tracks Faith No More has ever written.

Guitarist Jim Martin, who was basically a thrash metal guitarist, is no longer with the band at this point, but Trey Spruance did an admirable job filling in and showed that he knew a thing or two about metal riffs as well. The metal tracks are much more straightforward this time around and are simpler riffs, but they are still energetic and get the blood pumping and the head banging.

How could we discuss a Faith No More album without mentioning Mike Patton? You were getting worried, right? Patton is easily one of the best and most interesting vocalists in rock music overall. He presents a wide variety of vocal styles on this album, from soulful crooning to blood-curdling screaming. His vocals can be calming and relaxing one minute and then filled with a terrifying malevolence the next. His screams are well-done and scary and his softer vocals show a range of talent that Patton has become well-known for over the years.

The only real issue I have with this album is its length. It is a very long album with 14 tracks. Some of these feel like filler, but I'm not sure if the album would have the same effect if any of them were taken away.

While this is not my favorite Faith No More album by any means, it is a very interesting album. It keeps the listener's attention even though it is a little long. The variety of styles keep the listener guessing as to what's going to be heard next. Faith No More is a very interesting band, and this album is just one example of this fact.

Initial Impressions: Eluveitie: Everything Remains as it Never Was

I had very high hopes for this album. After releasing what I considered to be one of the best albums of 2008 (in fact it was #2 on my ranking of albums that year), my expectations were very high for this follow-up. The band teased us when they released a completely folk album in 2009, an album I did not check out. This was their return to their normal sound. Unfortunately, I came away disappointed upon hearing this. The band did not take a step back, let me make that clear. This is still an enjoyable album. It's just that they didn't take a step forward either.

Bands who release the same album time after time after time, often are difficult to have very strong feelings about one way or the other. Slayer and Six Feet Under are two such bands, and while I consider Slayer to be a great band, their material after Seasons in the Abyss is not nearly as high-quality. Essentially, Eluveitie released Slania again this year. And that's a disappointment because I already love Slania. Having another Slania diminishes my love of the first Slania and I do not want that to be the case. I wanted something more, or at the worst something worse so that I can say "Eluveitie may not be a good band, but that Slania was amazing". I just did not want something exactly like Slania.

Despite all that, this is still a very solid release. It is still a combination of Gothenburg-styled melodic death metal mixed with Celtic folk elements, including some very traditional Celtic instruments. Eluveitie members play the fiddle, bagpipes, tin and low whistles, mandola, flute, and hurdy-gurdy. These traditional instruments are often played along with the melodic death guitar riffs, adding a full Celtic feel to the entire song. There are still moments when the metal is the only sound heard, but the other instruments occupy a larger role overall this time around.

There are two vocalists in the band. One male providing mostly rough vocals which are not full-on death metal growls, but are definitely not clean either. There is also a female vocalist who shines through every once in awhile. She has a very pretty voice which lightens things up when she sings.

The riffs draw a lot of inspiration from the Gothenburg scene as mentioned earlier. Mostly, they sound a lot like Dark Tranquillity. Unfortunately, if the band were to strip away the folk elements, this band would just be a Gothenburg copycat, on this album anyway. It is the folk elements that help this band stand out. That's what makes this band different. Unfortunately, if they do not improve, the folk elements will not be enough to ensure them of a long career.

All of this sounds like I am very down on the album. It's true that I'm disappointed that it's virtually the same album. Hell the lead-in "Isara" to "Kingdom Come Undone" sounds exactly like "Anagantios" leading into "Bloodstained Ground". However, this is a decent release. It just will not make my Top 10 again this year. And that's disappointing.

Rusty Eye: Possessor

Rusty Eye is a band that originally formed in Mexico City, Mexico in 1995 and later relocated to sunny Hollywood, CA. I was recently contacted by bassist and singer Mr. Rust to introduce me to his band. It's just the kind of DIY strategy that the band has been utilizing to get themselves notice over the last few years. Sometimes, in the underground metal scene, that's the only way to accomplish things. Well, I have been won over. This album, the band's fourth, is surprisingly original and creative. Why have I not heard this band before?

The band is very interested in horror movies and this influence shines through like a beacon. The entire atmosphere of the album gives off a 1960's or 1970's psychedelic horror movie vibe. Everything about it feels dingy and unclean. Even the packaging of the album gives off that feel, with the well-done cover art and the inside artwork. The cover is colorful and sinister and chaotic, all at once. The CD itself is made to look like a vinyl record. Another nice touch.

The vocals are provided by the aforementioned Mr. Rust as well as drummer Miss Randall. Mr. Rust has a dirty, gravelly-sounding voice, which adds to the atmospheric tension of the overall sound. His extreme vocals could use a little work. They are not bad, just not as impressive as his full-throated snarls. His clean vocals on "The Serial Kind" sound like a demented Jim Morrison. Miss Randall provides backing vocals early in the album and as it progresses, she takes more and more of a lead vocal role. Miss Randall's vocals are typically delivered in femme fatale-esque sultry voice beckoning unwary men into danger.

Musically, it's not easy to pigeonhole Rusty Eye. Any given song may be different and a wide variety of musical styles are present on the album. The band seems to be rooted in a combination of thrash metal, progressive metal, and psychedelic rock. But again, this may be completely different from one song to the next.

The album opens up with an instrumental "At the House by the Cemetary" which builds into the uptempo "11.02 Day of the Dead" about the Mexican holiday. "Mondo Cane"'s opening riff sounds lifted from a garage band, but the song is fast and raw once it gets going. The pace is kept up until "The Serial Kind" which slows things down quite a bit and features Miss Randall on lead vocals. After that, the thrash attack comes crashing back through for a few more tracks before slowing down on the last two tracks.

As for the instrumentation, Rusty Eye features three very talented musicians. Miss Randall is an incredible drumming talent. Her fills and cadences capture the listener's attention and do not let go. Baron Murtland is a very talented guitarist and creates much of the atmosphere and soundscapes with his take on psychedelia-inspired metal. His solos sound as if they would be at home in any stoner doom metal band. Mr. Rust's bass talents are also on full display here as it rumbles along shaking the ground beneath.

The only disappointment I have with the album is its tendency to lose steam near the end. The songs are not as well-constructed after "Jerusalem Cricket Souffle" and lose the listener's attention a little bit. A strong album closer would have been a good way to end this album on a high point, but instead we have "Rituales de Sangre" which is more of a soundtrack to an old horror movie during a drug-induced ritual. It then descends into only an occasional ding. If the last song had been more of a barnburner, it may have awakened the listener, bringing them back more and more. That being said, the album as a whole is a quality listening experience.

This is a strong album by a band devoted to its craft and to making a name for themselves. The band certainly has a strong work ethic and a fierce desire to succeed. If the band keeps putting out albums like this one, they should be able to be successful. This is an overall very good album. It's varied and chaotic, but with enough of a common thread running through it so as not to completely lose any listeners. The whole thing feels dirty and grungy, but it's a good feeling.

Initial Impressions: Einherjer: Blot

Einherjer is often categorized in one of a couple of different genres: viking metal, symphonic black metal, or progressive black metal. Any of those genres is probably adequate to describe the band's music, but none of them individually tell the whole story. To really get an idea of what this band sounds like, the three genres must be combined.

The music on this album essentially sounds like latter-era Enslaved with symphonic flourishes and more use of melody. The riffs remain rooted in second-wave Norwegian black metal style. Einherjer was part of that movement. But added to the riffs are extremely melodic guitar leads and orchestral synth lines giving the whole feeling of the album an epic, grandiose feel. The structure of the riffs also has a more progressive flair to it, which brings in to mind the comparison to countrymen and progressive black metal masters Enslaved. The music is beautiful and captivating.

The production is extremely crisp and clear, allowing each of the riffs to be heard without straining. The drums and bass are also powerful in the mix. This album truly has a great sound quality to it. Somewhat unusual for the genre really.

The vocals are delivered in a fairly normal black metal rasp, though it is deeper than other such bands. The lyrics deal with Viking mythology and legends. The songs are reasonable in length with most songs clocking in between four and six minutes or so. The epic length "Hammer Haus" being the only exception. The music remains varied enough though that the album never drags, despite lasting over an hour.

This was a big surprise album. It was very cheap at my local music store, so I picked it up and was amazed at how well I enjoyed the album. I strongly recommend this for anyone who likes latter Enslaved.

Initial Impressions: Charred Walls of the Damned: Charred Walls of the Damned

Okay, here's the deal on this one. This band was created by Richard Christy, former drummer of Acheron, Death, and Iced Earth who has been on a metal hiatus for about five years since joining the Howard Stern show as a personality performing prank calls, song parodies, and all kinds of other bizarre stuff. That's quite the career. The name of the band is a reference to prank calls made on the Howard Stern show to a tradio show on a Christian radio show in which the host prayed for Christy's soul where he would be put in his "nails in the charred walls of the damned".

Despite the recent comedy background of its founder, this is serious music. Christy formed this band and recruited some of the musicians he regards as the best in the world: bassist Steve DiGiorgio (Sadus, Death, Autopsy, Testament, Iced Earth, etc.), vocalist Ripper Owens (Judas Priest, Iced Earth, Beyond Fear, Yngwie Malmsteen's Rising Force), and guitarist Jason Suecof (Capharnaum, producer for Trivium, All That Remains, etc.). That's quite the eclectic group of musicians, although three were in Iced Earth at one point, so that seems to be the jumping-off point from which this band's sound is derived.

The music on this album for the most part falls into the same general power/thrash metal as Iced Earth, but there are aspects that distinguish it. For one thing, the drumming and guitar riffs bear a closer resemblance to melodic death metal in parts. Indeed, oftentimes the only characteristic the music shares with power metal is the vocals of the very talented Ripper Owens, whose multi-octave range made him an ideal replacement for Rob Halford in Judas Priest at one point. The idea behind the music seems to be to combine some of the riffing style of more extreme metal with the power of early speed and traditional styles of metal. It works fairly well.

Richard Christy displays a remarkable gift for songwriting on this album. Despite being a very well-regarded and capable drummer, he has never really been the focus in a band before. The lyrics are well-written and do not venture into the silliness that Richard has staked his second career out of in recent years.

The guitar riffing of mostly metalcore producer Jason Suecof is another big surprise on this album. The only band he has spent considerable amount of time with from a music standpoint is the little-known technical death metal band Capharnaum with his brother and Trivium axeman/singer Matt Heafy. He displays his considerable ability for death and thrash metal inspired riffs on this album as well as strong solos.

Steve DiGiorgio and Ripper Owens are both known quantities and perform as well as expected. DiGiorgio is a big-name bass player in many old school death metal bands and brings this sensibility and playing style to the band. Ripper Owens's vocals are extremely powerful and melodic. He has had difficulty landing a long-term job, which is unfortunate as he remains one of the most gifted singers in modern metal.

This is a well-played, strong album from start to finish. It tends to drag a little bit in the second half, but it is fairly short meaning that this slight drag does not detract too much from the listening experience. It will be interesting to see where this band goes from here. Will they tour? Will they create another album? Or is this it for Charred Walls of the Damned?

Type O Negative: The Origin of the Feces

This is one of the most interesting, funniest albums I have heard. Type O Negative has always had a strange and twisted sense of humor. Nowhere is this more obvious than on this album. They have given us some strange liner notes at times, but this album really is the go-to point if you want to tell someone how weird this band is.

Let's start with the cover. This is allegedly a picture of vocalist Peter Steele's anus. Thankfully, people were angry and the cover was censored eventually. We do not need to really see Peter Steele's anus, thank you very much.

Now, the craziest part about this album is that it is supposed to be a live album. I say supposed to be because the band's label Roadrunner had it written in the contract that Type O Negative was to record a live album. However, the band allegedly took the money they were supposed to spend on producing the live album on cheap vodka instead. Realizing they needed to fulfill their contractual obligations, the band simply re-recorded their debut album Slow Deep and Hard, added a couple of songs and retitled some of the other songs and then added fake crowd noise.

But they did not stop there. It would be too easy to simply add in crowd noise. No, Type O Negative added in chants of "You Suck!" and improvised a fight between Steele and the fans with Steele yelling "You suck too" at one point in the album and then making fun of the crowd because he's getting paid to play and the crowd had to pay to get in. At about the midway point, the band claimed it had to stop playing because there was a bomb threat in the concert hall. After a few seconds of silence, they began playing again.

Beyond the insanity of the fake crowd, the music is very impressive and it does sound as if they are playing live. The first seven tracks are the fake concert and then the band adds in a very interesting cover of the Black Sabbath classic "Paranoid" for the final track. The musicianship is tight and is held together well despite the often changing tempos.

Type O Negative will never be mistaken for an incredibly musically talented act. But that is okay, because the band plays just well enough to sound fine playing the style of music they play. They have always been able to write long, multi-part epic songs and this has been their best musical quality. Here, for example, we have the fifteen minute opener "I Know You're Fucking Someone Else", which lays the groundwork for the rest of the album. The band's style is a form of gothic metal incorporating various influences such as Black Sabbath and The Beatles. They take those influences and slow them down and twist them to form a sound that is unlike any other band.

As for the instrumentation itself, the band has always relied quite a bit on the keyboards and vocals to drive the melodies home, in particular in the softer parts of the songs, of which there are many. This is true of this album as well. There is the occasional guitar solo and the riffs are plentiful, but they do not typically constitute the main melody of the song. The bass and guitar parts mostly lumber their way through the slower songs in a doom-laden dirge but are there to provide main support in the faster songs. The riffs drive the song forward, but it's the additional flourishes that shine through.

The major focus is on the vocals. Peter Steele has an extremely deep voice and it adds a haunting quality to the songs. Occasionally, Kenny Hickey or Josh Silver provide backing vocals to further emphasize the deepness of Steele's voice.

The songs themselves are mostly typical of Type O Negative: gloomy, dirge-like exercises in self-deprecation and depression. The songs deal with the betrayal of a cheating girlfriend and fantasies about killing her, and then actually going through with it. There are some other subjects too, but for the most part it details a relationship gone very wrong. The lyrics are often somewhat humorous despite the dark nature of the subject matter. This has become a well-known trait of the band that was in its infancy at the time of the release of this album.

Two songs are covers. The track "Hey Peter" is a rearranging of the Jimi Hendrix song "Hey Joe" about a jealous lover ready to kill his cheating girlfriend. Here Peter Steele replaces the gun with an axe. The last track is a morosely slow adaptation of the Black Sabbath classic "Paranoid". Somehow the band stretches it out more than twice as long as the original.

The production on the album is crisp and clean. It's the first real sign that this was not actually a live album. Most live recordings are not as clear as this album. That's fine though as it allows the music to be heard very well.

Overall, this is a very fun listen. The humor involved keeps things light and interesting, despite the very dark subject matter. Type O Negative never did record a real live album.

"Guilty Pleasures" and Some Random Thoughts from Heavy Metal Online Communities

The topic of guilty pleasures has come up quite a bit on the heavy metal forum I frequent. I really do not listen to anything besides metal and I am quite upfront about everything I listen to. Nevertheless, there are some bands that are often not well-received that are metal bands on that forum. Here's a few bands I listen to that are not well-liked in most metal circles.

MACHINE HEAD:
The problem with Machine Head is that they constantly alter their sound in order to stay relevant. They were groove metal when Pantera was the be-all, end-all of metal. They were nu metal when Korn was making waves. They were metalcore when Killswitch Engage and Lamb of God struck it big. Now they are thrash. They have always been gifted with the ability to write memorable songs though.

CRADLE OF FILTH:
I have no idea why this band is so hated. I enjoy them quite a bit. My particular favorite aspect of the band is Dani Filth's lyrics. They are like something out of gothic horror poetry. It's pretty amazing. The music matches the lyrics, bringing dark images to mind.

TRIVIUM:
They were lambasted when they changed their sound on The Crusade to sound like Metallica, leaving behind their metalcore sound. Now they have put some more of those metalcore aspects into their style from that album. Trivium has had a knack for truly infectious melodies and choruses. They are extremely gifted musicians. Sure they want to be Metallica, but they have some good stuff.

KILLSWITCH ENGAGE:
Another band that is just infectious as hell. I listened to a couple of their albums recently and was reminded how impressed I was with the band at one time. I have not heard their newest album, nor do I plan to, but their earlier material is still a decent listen today.

LAMB OF GOD:
They want so badly to be Pantera. Nevertheless, they have put out some memorable albums. Randy Blythe's voice is powerful and intense. Unfortunately, they seem to have run out of ideas now.

DEVILDRIVER:
I always enjoyed Dez Fafara's voice, even when he was in Coal Chamber. I'm glad to see he started a real metal band, and yes DevilDriver has much more in common with melodic death and groove metal than nu metal. Dez has resorted to only using the demonic vocals and that is just fine with me.

I used to listen to nu metal. I admit it. I have been to see Sevendust, Static X, Staind, Godsmack, and Cold in concert. But, my music tastes have changed. I don't listen to those bands anymore. I just wanted to clear the air.

-It's fucking annoying when younger metalheads like to try to show off by claiming they never "got" Metallica. It's even worse when they try some revisionist history claiming Metallica was never really all that important. Metallica's early albums were some of the best ever in metal. Case closed.

-No one really cares what music you listen to. Covering up the fact that you listen to some of the above bands or claiming you listen to really deep underground bands is pointless and impresses no one. I have been forthright with the bands I listen to here. Yes, I hate false metal bands, but I listen to stuff that is not exactly "cool" in metal terms. My previous post was about Nitro. There you have it.

-No one really cares about this post. No one wants to read the ramblings from a lawyer about music he likes and doesn't like. Nevertheless, it's my blog. I don't care what my readers (all two or three of you) think about my listening habits (other than my fiancee of course, whose opinions I take into consideration but don't really change my habits much). My goal is to hopefully turn some people on to good music. If I am successful, great. If not, so what?

Dawn of Azazel: Relentless

I have been waiting for this for quite awhile. Since the band is no longer on Ibex Moon Records and it was quite a while before they made a new record label announcement, I had to keep an eye on their Myspace for news about the impending release. Now that I have the album, I have just one thing to say: The title of the album is apt.

Relentless has always been one of the best terms to describe this New Zealand trio. The band is not as ferocious this time around, substituting some of their raw power for a more refined, but nevertheless, still earth-shaking approach. The underrated blackened death/thrash band brings the fury on this eleven track powerhouse of an album. The album should contend for inclusion on any year-end lists of the best metal albums, of course it probably will not due to the under-the-radar nature of the band.

The riffs are still razor-sharp and fast as hell. The drumming has gotten more technical and steady with the inclusion of Jeremy Suckling behind the kit (drums have been one of the weaker points in the band's history). The band has always used a variety of time signature changes and tempo shifts in their music. As such, a good drummer is essential to the band's sound. This time around, they have a really good one. Of course, Rigel Walshe's manic screams and shrieks are back at the forefront of the band's sound.

A couple of other things have been added to the band's sound this time around. First of all is a clean production. This has had the effect of taking some of that raw hostility out of the sound. The production is perhaps a little too clean. With this kind of metal, it is always preferable to have a dirty production and not smooth out or neutralize any of the band's innate aggression.

Another addition to the sound is the use of some surprisingly impressive guitar solos. Dawn of Azazel has stayed away from guitar solos quite a bit in the past, but some of these solos are almost Slayer-esque. Joe Bonnett has improved his playing significantly.

As for the songs, Dawn of Azazel did appear to make a concerted effort to write full songs. That was occasionally a problem with the band in the past as well, many of their songs did not have a clear direction and were simply exercises in aggressive riffing. The band clearly focused on their songwriting abilities this time around and there is therefore no filler on this album.

Dawn of Azazel smoothed out a few problems with their previous albums on this, their third full length release, and improved their sound noticeably. No, it does not have the same dirty production or raw thunder that the band has developed over the years, but it is nevertheless the first great full album the band has put out. This album should help propel the band into the genre's elite.

Inner Thought: Perspectives

This one is a little weird. I first heard this band on a Celtic Frost tribute album, playing "Morbid Tales". Their song was frenzied and violent but a little strange due to the use of a drum machine. I assumed this was due to not being able to find a drummer in time to record the song. Apparently not, as the drum machine is back on this album.

Inner Thought is a band founded by guitarist Bobby Sadzak, formerly of Slaughter (the good Canadian band, not the shitty American band), although the band does not bear much of a resemblance at all to his previous one. Inner Thought plays crunchy, choppy death metal with some interesting industrial metal moments. The drum machine is only one part of this. The drum machine is obvious in that the drums sound too perfect and sterile, not at all human and organic. The album also features some keyboard flourishes and other elements giving the overall sound a kind of mechanical vibe. The band sounds a little like Demanufacture-era Fear Factory, but with more of a pronounced death metal influence. The album basically feels like being inside a steel factory where all of the tasks are being performed by machines and robots. It's kind of an eerie feel.

The vocals for the most part are fairly typical of earlier death metal: deep, low-pitched growls, although there is the occasional blackened shriek from the vocalist, particularly on the second track "Sanctioned Situations". These unexpected moments serve to snatch the listener's attention before returning to the robotic riffs. They also incorporate some random female vocals which feature some heavy effects to give the music an occasional glimpse of light in the otherwise dank factory. The real "what the fuck?" moment comes in the sixth track with what sounds like a rapper contributing. I am not a big fan of the inclusion of rapping in metal, so this is kind of a turnoff for me.

The riffs are heavy, with a deep bottom end. The songs are mostly short, with the entire album clocking in at only about 34 minutes. That's pretty nice actually. If there's one thing Fear Factory could have improved on, it's shortening their albums and not meandering so much. There is the occasional moment where the only thing heard is a lilting guitar solo, but it will quickly revert to the mechanized riffing once again. The production is also clean, emphasizing the sterile environment forged by the riffs and drum machine. The album does not sound like anything humans could create.

The beginning half of the album is filled with decent songs and heavy riffs. The latter half tends to lag just a bit, which is the major thing keeping this from being rated more favorably. There is also the above mentioned rap part in the sixth song "Autodogmatic". This is made up for in the barn burner follow-up "Rack of Lethargy" which features a fast thrash riff underneath some keyboard noodling and frequent samples. The last song, the title track, then slowly fades out.

This album has a definite science fiction feel to it, again similar to the aforementioned Fear Factory. Inner Thought's factory is lot more fearsome though than the boys from California. And this is coming from someone who was a huge fan of the band in his formative years as a metalhead. Unfortunately, there just is not enough here to really grab hold of the listener and cause them to come back frequently. It's an interesting listen, just not essential.

Impetigo: Horror of the Zombies

Sick, twisted, and absolutely fucked up. Impetigo's Horror of the Zombies is one of the most fun albums to listen to when in the mood for horror and gore. This is easily the band's best album, and unfortunately the band chose not to try to follow this up to date. The band broke up after it was released and although they have reformed for some anniversary shows, have not put out another full length album.

Impetigo blends death metal and grindcore beautifully into one of the sickest sounds ever. The riffs are not fast but are groove-laden and catchy. The bass rumbles along underneath the riffs providing more earth shaking tremors. The drums are possibly the best musical attribute on the album. They are some of the most interesting patterns in extreme metal. The drums are not played particularly fast, but they are technically very impressive. They are constantly present and blend with the music extremely well.

The vocals sound as if zombies were actually recorded. There are some vocal effects that are used to great effect, enhancing the listening experience that much more. The vocals are double-tracked and are often deep, decayed growls that sound as if they are coming from the grave. Every once in awhile vocalist Scott Dobbins will unleash a blood curdling shriek or do something else unexpected which further adds to the horror of the music.

Lyrically, Impetigo deals with gore, horror, and more horror. The band incorporates several clips from horror movies into the album. I recognize Wizard of Gore and Let Sleeping Corpses Lie, but there are others along the way. This further adds to the storytelling aspect of the songs. The band references these obscure horror movies and provides clips to go with the references.

The production on the album is incredible. It is thick and dirty sounding, yet clean enough to hear everything that is happening on the album. If all grindcore sounded like this, I would probably enjoy the genre a little better.

This album is a ton of fun. If only Impetigo had stuck around a little longer to follow it up. The band is a cult favorite, but they could have gotten much more acclaim had they kept at it. As it is, this is a great, somewhat obscure album.

Dusting Off a Cassette Pt. 36: Besatt: Hail Lucifer

Very subtle. Besatt is a black metal band from Poland, which is a surprising hotbed for extreme metal. The band takes influences from second wave Norwegian black metal and first wave black metal bands such as Celtic Frost and Bathory. The band's sound is an unholy combination of its influences.

Besatt's riffs are delivered in a buzzing, tremolo style, befitting the genre. There are often only one or two riffs per song. Again, fairly typical for the cult style of the music. The drums are almost solely blast beats buried underneath the buzzsaw guitar sounds. The bass cannot be heard at all. The production is extremely lo-fi.

The vocals on the album are delivered in a typical black metal shriek. The lyrics are about Satanism, the occult, and Anti-Christianity.

As for the songs themselves, "War" is probably the best track. It features samples of medieval warfare throughout the entire song while the music is playing. It gives the overall effect of absolute, massive chaos. Hearing people screaming and sword clashes throughout the music somehow fits the style. It really must be heard.

All of this basically means that this album is representative of its style. It could also mean that the album is very cliche. It all depends on the listener and their enjoyment of this particular style of black metal. I happen to enjoy the style, and this is an underrated, unknown gem.

Metallattorney's Top Album of the 21st Century So Far: Destroyer 666: Cold Steel...For an Iron Age

Cold Steel is pretty much a perfect album. It is fast, intense, and aggressive and most of all, incredibly infectious. Destroyer 666 really outdid themselves on this album and they created an album that should go down as a classic in the heavy metal genre if there were any justice in the world. This album is amazing from beginning to end, but it does not get the respect it deserves because of the relative obscurity of this band. It’s a shame.

Destroyer 666 started out as a side project for K.K. Warslut of Bestial Warlust. It quickly evolved into its own entity, crushing everything in its path along the way. The band started as a relatively straightforward black metal band with occasional death metal influences. In other words, fairly similar to Warslut’s main band at the time and fellow Australian countrymen Abominator. As the band continued, more and more death metal influences began to show through, then even later strong thrash elements also presented themselves. Each D666 album is a little different from the previous one and this album is by far the band’s thrashiest, while still retaining some of their death and black metal influences.

This album features Destroyer 666 at their most stripped-down, aggressive, and razor-sharp. Everything about the album is tight and punchy and powerful. The band has discarded much of their grandiose, epic black metal in favor of a more simple thrash attack. Each of the individual elements are spectacular in their own way, but collectively, they add up to one extremely powerful listening experience.

Of course, the guitars are the most important aspect of the band. Shrapnel and Warslut play razor-sharp, jagged thrash metal riffs with the occasional tremolo line. The riffs come at the listener in a blinding fury. The blazing leads and solos coming out of nowhere are the true highlight of the album. The music will be very loud and workmanlike, when all of a sudden, a Slayer-esque solo will reach out and grab the listener’s attention. The leads on "Cold Steel" are particularly interesting, providing all of the melody, which is almost spine-tingling in the otherwise dark song. The riffs on "Raped" are very interesting, they have an unsettling feel, as if the composition of the riff is not quite right. It fits well with the song’s topic.

Warslut’s vocals mostly consist of a black metal rasp, although he has a couple of different pitches. He has a more high pitched rasp and a deeper, huskier growling rasp. The gang shouts that appear in some places further add to the dark and evil atmosphere of the music, while also making it seem a little more fun, particularly the spooky harmonic vocals on "The Calling". The lyrics are fairly simple, standard Satanic, anti-Christian, and warfare themes. The band does not feature great lyrics, with a couple of exceptions: "The Calling" and "Savage Pitch", but that’s not really the point of D666.

Mersus’s drumming is very prevalent in the mix. He is frequently pounding away, keeping the beat, but occasionally provides some nice fills when the riffs are repeating, especially on "Sons of Perdition". The drums are most interesting on "Cold Steel" where they really drive the song, pounding away and providing the energetic backbone of the powerful track. Berserker’s bass is audible, but for the most part he is playing the same riffs as the guitarists.

Some of the songs stand out for varying reasons. "Black City-Black Fire" opens up the album with a bang and sets the intensity level for the rest of the album. The band’s energy level never really wavers from this. "Cold Steel" slows things down at first, but keeps the intensity high. "Sons of Perdition" immediately speeds things back up after the cold, dark atmosphere of the previous track. "Raped" is a little more of a straightforward thrash metal song, with very few, if any, black metal influences. "The Calling" is perhaps the best song on the album. It also starts out slowly, building into a frightening frenzy. Once it does, it features the best leads, drums and vocals on the album, as well as the best interplay between the elements. "Savage Pitch" once again picks the pace back up, and the band does not relent until the end of the album, pausing only to provide unsettling vocal samples to close out the song "Witch Hunter". The band then works itself into a frenzy before fading out to end the album on "Shadow".

As for the flaws: there really are not any, other than things that have little or nothing to do with what is present on the album. The cover art is not very good, but reportedly the band did not approve it before the record company put it out, so they had no say in it. The album is a little on the short side, clocking in at barely over 35 minutes, but this is perfect length for such an album. It should not be too long and it should not be too short, and this album is just about right.

I bought this album after having heard the band’s name thrown around quite a bit on the Encyclopedia Metallum forums as a band to check out. I found this album at a used music store for fairly cheap. Not having actually heard the band, I decided to check them out anyway. It ranks as one of my best all time buys. This album quickly became one of my absolute favorites and I have checked out virtually everything else by this band I can find. None of the rest of their albums have quite the same explosiveness and power as this album. This truly should be a classic, not just for the band, not just for the scene, but the metal genre as a whole.

Heaven & Hell: The Devil You Know Review

Heaven & Hell is, of course, the lineup of Black Sabbath from when Ronnie James Dio was the singer. Or at least, most of the time, as Bill Ward was still Black Sabbath’s drummer on Heaven and Hell and was later replaced by Vinnie Appice who drums on this album. The band took the name Heaven & Hell in order to respect Black Sabbath who had recently been inducted into the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame. Tony Iommi, who at this time, owned the rights to the name "Black Sabbath" decided that this band should have its own identity and fans should not expect to hear "Paranoid" or "Iron Man" at a Heaven & Hell show. So thus, Heaven & Hell was born.

Prior to the name change, the lineup had gotten together for a tour and recorded three new songs for a Best Of compilation for the Dio-era Black Sabbath. These three new tracks laid the groundwork for the upcoming new album. But first, the band changed its name.

The album The Devil You Know is the first album of new songs recorded by the band, and is the first album of new songs recorded by any form of Black Sabbath. It was one of the most highly-anticipated albums of 2009 and for good reason. There had not been a new album from Tony Iommi since 2005 and from Ronnie James Dio since 2004. Knowing that these two icons had gotten back together and recorded new material was enough to send metalheads into a frenzy. When the new album artwork was posted, again fans were abuzz.

So, how is the new album?

Honestly, it’s something of a letdown. It is a perfectly good album, but it was a victim of its own hype. The interest in the album had risen to a fever pitch and very few albums could have adequately lived up to that hype. That is not to suggest that it was a bad album, very far from it. It just was not as good as everyone hoped it would be.

The band fits very neatly into the traditional doom genre. This was to be expected as Black Sabbath had been the purveyors of the doom metal sound. When Dio came on board, the band perfected that sound. Heaven & Hell is slow and extremely heavy and somber. There are some faster songs on the album, but even those still easily fit within the doom genre. The album does have a more traditional metal flavor to it as well, to go along with the doom elements. The album would not have been out of place coming out immediately after the Dehumanizer album, which also had Dio fronting Black Sabbath. It sounds that true to the style.

The music, as implied, is often very slow with lumbering riffs, and heavy bass. The bass is audible and is some of Geezer Butler’s best work in years. It is the driving force of the rhythms behind the riffs. Tony Iommi has not lost a step in his age. He is still very capable of writing some amazing riffs, and does so many times. It makes the album interesting to listen to and many of the riffs are infectious, getting stuck in the head and not leaving for days. Iommi also provides some great guitar solos, with a clean tone and good technique, particularly the solo on "Fear". The drumming is efficient but definitely not one of the major features of the band. It is there for rhythm only and filling in where needed, and while there are some interesting drum parts, it mostly takes a back seat for the riffs and vocals.

The music is mostly played in minor keys, obviously to take advantage of the natural tendency to sound more imposing. The band does do a decent job of staying away from standard verse-chorus-verse structure. This makes the individual songs stand out more and keeps the album from running together. Unfortunately, many of the songs do tend to stay at one speed. Some tempo changes would serve to make the songs stand out even more.

Ronnie James Dio is one of the all time great vocalists in metal, and perhaps any genre of rock music for that matter. His vocals are still great, despite his advancing age. He is still able to reach that awe-inspiring, rich tenor tone that he has become known for over the years, and his ability to continue to do so is one of the highlights of this album. His vocals also fit seemlessly with the music. He does not sound at all out of place as his higher vocals balance out the deep bottom end of the music. If anything, this interplay makes the music even doomier.

Lyrically, this is definitely similar to a Black Sabbath album. Many of the themes are dark. The only song that seems to have bad lyrics is "Rock and Roll Angel", which would have been a perfectly acceptable song in the 1980's but sounds pretty cheesy now.

The better songs on the album are "Bible Black" and "Eating the Cannibals". "Bible Black" starts out with a powerful, solitary guitar solo and the vocals of Dio. It then slowly builds upon this loneliness into a heavy power chord progression. The song is very similar to classic tracks like "Heaven and Hell" and "The Mob Rules". "Eating the Cannibals" is the fastest song on the album and is exactly the kind of song that fans expected out of the reunited lineup. It is a straight-ahead, classic metal track.

The album as a whole is a strong release and will probably be one of the better traditional metal albums released this year. However, it does not possess enough new and original ideas to match the hype that was built up for it. It is a very good, sometimes great album, that is a victim to its own impossible expectations.

Explanation for the Reviews

As I mentioned previously, last week I knocked out a ton of reviews. They have all been posted now so I will get back to normal posting. Last week on the Metal Archives, there was a contest to see if they could get a bunch of albums reviewed that had not been reviewed previously. I came in a very distant fifth place. The top four were all over 70 or so, my 24 (with two splits that counted as two reviews each) was way behind. Still though, I am glad I was able to help with the project and review some worthy albums. As you can see, some of the reviews were very positive such as Devastator, Cauldron, and Apophis, three albums I love. Others were not so positive such as Pitchshifter. Enough full reviews for now.

Devastator: Nuclear Proliferation Review

Devastator is a blackened thrash metal band from the United States that sounds like they would fit easily with the Australian “war metal” scene. They play quickly and precisely, almost mechanically. They sound like an industrial machine moreso than a thrash metal band. There are few tempo changes within a song keeping this almost inhuman precision going at all times.

The guitar riffs have the same sort of buzzsaw tone that has become a staple of Swedish death. However, they are not playing death metal riffs, but rather thrash riffs inspired by bands like early German thrash bands and Sepultura. The band frequently finds one particular riff on each track and plays the hell out of it for the full song, sometimes as much as eight minutes long. They do occasionally switch riffs but for the most part they stick to one main riff per song. There are guitar solos that crop up once in awhile, but the tone is not fully fleshed out, sounding more like an electrical short in keeping with the industrial machinery feel of the rest of the album.

The rhythm section plugs away as precisely as the guitars forming the backbone to the sound. The drums are often not doing anything terribly fancy, an occasional roll or fill, but for the most part the drums are there to keep time and keep the guitars on track. The bass drum is struck with force in places the band is trying to emphasize, bringing to mind the image of cannon blasts and explosions. The bass plays many of the same riffs as the guitars providing a full, bottom-heavy attack on the senses.

Vocalist Wulfnoth delivers his lines in a constant rasping growl. He does not waver from this approach, except for the occasional shriek which still maintains the raspy quality of his other vocals.

Lyrically, Devastator is all about war. Song titles like “Brothers in Arms”, “Bombardment” (an incredibly fitting name), and “Into Battle” keep these images active while listening.

Despite the use of the same riff over and over within each song, each song sounds distinct and not like the one previous to it. This is enough to keep the listener involved throughout the album.

The band is not as chaotic-sounding as the Australian bands like Destroyer 666, instead choosing precision and constant bombardment to chaos and destruction. However, the effect is the same. This band pummels the listener with a force and fury that is hard to fathom. The songs are long but never get tiring because they maintain their ferocity all the way through to the end. This is a great album and Devastator lives up to their name, completely wiping out the listener by the time the album is through.

Dreaming Dead: Within One Review

At one time, having a female in a metal band was a novelty. Later on, this started to wear off but there were still not many females in extreme metal bands. It was this novelty that lead the Angela Gossow-lead Arch Enemy into a huge amount of success for such an extreme metal band. There have been more and more extreme metal bands with female singers an it appears that some of these bands have been accepted and praised more for the musical talents than the fact that there is a woman singing. Estuary is one of these bands and now, with their 2009 release on Ibex Moon Records, Dreaming Dead joins those ranks.

Dreaming Dead formed in 2006 under the name Manslaughter. They released an EP under that name and then later changed it along with adding a couple additional members. They released their first full length album early in 2009. The hype machine really has not discovered the band yet despite the presence of Elizabeth Schall, a beautiful woman, fronting the band. Thus far, they have garnered attention mostly on behalf of their versatile musicianship. This is a step in the right direction for the metal community.

The band’s influences are pulled from death metal, melodic death metal, thrash metal, and black metal. The music is quick-paced and intense. It owes more to thrash than the other forms although it is a little more bottom-heavy than thrash. The bass is audible adding to the thunder at the bottom of the music. The drumming is fast and loud. There are the occasional blastbeats and some other times where the drummer truly shines, but for the most part he stays in the background.

The guitar riffs bear some similarities to those of Dissection, occasional tremolo riffs swirling around the increasingly pounding drums. Other times, the riffs are more similar to death metal or even to thrash metal. The band switches styles effortlessly from one subgenre to another making them difficult to classify. Every once in awhile the band slows things down with a somber melodic interlude. This changes the pace a little bit and keeps the interest of the listener.

Elizabeth Schall does sound a little like Angela Gossow, but she has a little more rasp to her vocals, seemingly more influenced by black metal style vocals. It is often difficult to tell that this is a woman singing, she does a fine job.

All in all, this is a good debut album for this up and coming band. It will be interesting to see how the band follows it up.