Brutus: Behind the Mountains (2013)

Reflections on Thin Lizzy and Wondering Why Others Can't Match Them

Review by joanismylover, the third metal attorney.

In the movie "Once", about star-crossed lovers in modern day Ireland, the protagonist is a musician. It's all serious but comic relief comes in the form of a Thin Lizzy cover band, who like any band if it sounds like Thin Lizzy. They only liked Thin Lizzy. At the time I thought that was amusing, but I didn't really get it. I'd only known the band through the much over played now on a Citibank credit card commercial, "The Boys Are Back in Town." Well, I've been discovering Thin Lizzy for the last couple of years and now I want to watch that chick flick again. Now I understand the obsession.

Kvelertak: Meir (2013)

Forventning

I’ll spare you the pedantic lecture on the meteoric rise of Kvelertak, because everyone already knows it. I’ll skip to the question at hand: Can they capture lightning in a bottle a second time?

The band has not changed direction in the slightest, and I don’t think anyone expected them to. They are still Norway’s answer to Baroness, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and pure fun in metalpunk form (complete with the blackened touches inherent in their country’s DNA). They’re still loads of fun, they’re still high energy, and they still make you want to sing along despite the mother-tongue lyrics. But their debut was the result of saving up the best songs of their several years of existence without releasing any material, while the sophomore effort is the result of two years dedicated to touring the world. So, Meir is no Kvelertak, but it’s still worth the price of entry for those of us who’ve been losing our minds in anticipation.

Fatal Impact: Esoteria (2012)

Keep on Runnin'

A scathing, song-by-song review by joanismylover, the third metal attorney.

Here is my stream of conscience review of Esoteria, song by song, as it happened while listening at work:

[A New Era] Some cool riffing but then devolves into some incongruous singing with a plodding guitar line, “progressing” to some chug-a-chug-a-chug-a riffing. Then some KSE type toned metalcore, but without their heft or emotion. Tolerable.

[Where the Alders Grow] Pick my head up midway through because it’s so bad, I ask myself the question, “Who listens to this kind of drivel?” Honestly, it’s so saccharin – Journey and REO Speedwagon blow this out of the water.

High Priest of Saturn: High Priest of Saturn (2013)

Wheelhouse

Now, I'm not saying they're my favorite band or anything like that. What I'm saying is that, if you scoured the Internet for the one reviewer who's most likely to give a positive review to High Priest of Saturn, you wouldn't be wrong if you picked me.

The band's self-titled debut consists of 43 minutes in four tracks of slow-rolling, mellow stoner doom. Electric Wizard wouldn't kick them out of bed, if that gives you an idea. They use the organ perfectly, adding flavor without ever becoming the main event, and they have female vocals. So, yes, they are fully secure within my wheelhouse. This is the stuff I love.

Dark Americana Briefs, Part 6

Still in a Dark Place

Josh T. Pearson: Last of the Country Gentlemen (2011)
1 out of 5 stars

Josh T. Pearson is a critical darling, and his only solo LP Last of the Country Gentlemen was featured on several prominent end-of-year lists in 2011. I can enjoy a song or two of this subtle, acoustic guitar folk, but the album as a whole is interminably long. Other than a couple violin parts and the album's only crescendo, there are no dynamics to speak of. If you think it's tough to listen to a half-hour black metal record with constant blastbeats, try hearing an hour-long, slow, acoustic folk album with no percussion. Actually, don't. As much as I like to proselytize my fellow metalheads into dark folk music, this is not the right record for our demographic, with or without Pearson's epic beard.



But there are others.

Darkthrone: The Underground Resistance (2013)

How It Works

Let me tell you a little something about how reviewing works in this world. I get a lot of promos. Most of them are pretty decent, overall, but the more you hear, of course, the more "pretty good" just sounds like shit. I begin culling the herd based on convenience rather than merit, just deleting anything that's at 128 kbps, or if the tags are in ALL FUCKING CAPS or if the music isn't tagged with anything at all.

And I don't always put something into my library the minute I download it. So I was about to delete this untagged album. I had no idea what it was. But I thought, well, I could listen to a little bit on the off chance I could identify it. In this rarest of instances, I listened to about 5 seconds and said, "Oh, that's the new Darkthrone." It was a one in a thousand chance, but there's no mistaking Darkthrone.

Vreid: Welcome Farewell (2013)

Expectations

With success come expectations. Vreid’s incredible V was lavished with praise from all corners; making my own top 10 of 2011 was probably the least significant. I don’t envy the position where the Norwegian black ‘n’ rollers found themselves in following that success. Do you follow it with more of the same, cursing yourself to the handicap of easy comparisons and betting on your ability to become even better (Master of Puppets)? Or, do you change direction (South of Heaven)?

Vreid certainly did not change direction. For the uninitiated, Vreid’s brand of black ‘n’ roll is the super-slick kind typically found on Indie Recordings, but it would be equally at home with Century Media or Roadrunner. The “for fans of” sticker would include Satyricon in big and bold, with Borknagar and Dark Fortress in smaller print. They can re-use the leftover stickers on their latest release.

God Seed: I Begin (2012)

So You Do at Last

Review by Metallattorney. He is the law.

Any discussion of God Seed will necessarily include some discussion about the band's origins. The album title here is particularly apt because of this. God Seed is made up of King ov Hell and Gaahl, formerly of black metal psychos Gorgoroth. In actuality, these two members attempted to carry forward with the name Gorgoroth after splitting from Infernus. A lengthy court battle ensued with Infernus actually being granted the rights to the name Gorgoroth. In the meantime, God Seed formed for a couple of months and then disbanded when Gaahl retired temporarily. King used the material written for God Seed for a project with Dimmu Borgir's Shagrath which was called Ov Hell. Gaahl eventually returned and God Seed was formed.

God Seed has already released a live album from Wacken and a single. This is the debut full-length however and the first exposure that a lot of people will get to the band. Expectations are certainly high as Gorgoroth has been a stalwart in the Norwegian black metal scene for a very long time.

Enslaved: RIITIIR (2012)

The Sleeping Gods

Enslaved need no introduction.

Let’s get this out of the way up front: RIITIIR is BOORIING. By any standard you can use to judge a band like Enslaved, anyway. The Norwegian legends have been on a winning streak for so long that it’s easy to think they can do no wrong. Judging by some of the reviews I read before I decided to buy RIITIIR (I have yet to receive any promos from Nuclear Blast), many journalists must have seen fit to write based on that assumption, without really listening to it. I seriously doubt the band got lazy; their work ethic is as legendary as their discography. It’s more likely that after years of effusive, universal praise, they started to buy into their own legend.

Folk Briefs, Part 4

Folk It

I hope you're getting as much out of my folk explorations as I am. Or at least, that you're getting something out of them. Since my posts in this vein have gotten a positive response so far, I think you do. I recently decided to split the Americana from the rest of folk music, so this is purely outside of the 16 Horsepower realm.

Din Brad: Dor (2012)
3 out of 5 stars

Negură Bunget, without the metal parts. That's the best way to describe Din Brad, a folk project that features three members of the famous Romanian pagan metal band. The music features many traditional instruments, such as drums, flute, and some kind of lute (plus synths), as well as mostly female vocals. The drums are often tribal-sounding, and most of the music is atmospheric in nature, although album highlights like the title track and "Durere" can get much more interesting, the latter ending on a kind of war dance. The biggest drawback to Dor is the handful of a capella songs, mostly with male vocals, because they offer absolutely no interest.



Buy Dor

Stagnant Waters: Stagnant Waters (2012)

Massive Steel Asylum for Self-Aware Robots

Guest review by Patrick, proprietor of Beards, Etc.

Stagnant Waters are apparently of mixed French and Norwegian origin, and this month will see the release of their self-titled debut album. I'm not totally sure how to classify their style, but I think the closest label would be something like avant-garde industrial metal.

First and foremost, this band has three outstanding qualities. They are extremely creative, extremely energetic, and extremely diverse. The group employs an enormous amount of electronic sampling and distortion throughout the record, with sounds ranging from outright aural assaults of pure noise to quiet and spooky passages of mellow background sounds to squawking saxophone pieces. Sometimes this record is loud and aggressive beyond measure, other times it's remarkably soft. Throughout it all everything is very alien, impersonal, mechanical, and slightly unnerving. The vocals which crop up are heavily processed and distorted, as are the bulk of the instruments, so that when something makes it through the mix untouched by electronic interference the very organic nature of its existence is a shock to the senses, like a vine growing up through a crack in the floor of a massive steel asylum for self-aware robots.

Okkultokrati: Snakereigns (2012)

Krust

With all the buzz surrounding Kvelertak a couple years ago, many people were trying to find something similar. One of the brightest hopes was their fellow Norwegians, Okkultokrati. Or darkest hopes, as it were. I swear I had written a review of the band’s No Light for Mass back then, but if I did, I must have scrapped it before publication. Since I can’t link you to my keyboard abortion, here’s the excellent Monkey Defies Gravity review. The choice quote: “The two bands may mix punk and black metal but the results couldn’t be more different.”

Some things have certainly not changed for the band. But some things have changed, and for the better.

Vesen: This Time It's Personal (2012)

This Time It's Impaled Nazarene

Guest review by Metallattorney. He is the law.

What a ridiculous album title. Seriously, this is the kind of thing you would expect from some Nickelback clone or rap artist, but for a long-running blackened/thrash metal band, it comes off as juvenile and embarrassing.

The first track kind of continues with a little bit of this juvenile style. It's much more of a teaser for the album as a whole with the band building in intensity toward the very end. The vocals are presented in a layered format which gives off the impression that they are actually yelling at the listener. So subtlety appears not to be Vesen's strong suit at this point.

Dark Americana Briefs

Darker

Previously I've covered the "dark Americana" vibe mostly through the folk genre, but it goes beyond just folk (and beyond just America). The term "Americana" more generally refers to any uniquely American form of music, whether folk, country, blues, and more.

Crippled Black Phoenix: (Mankind) The Crafty Ape (2012)
4.5 out of 5 stars

Crippled Black Phoenix is a supergroup of members made famous through work with Electric Wizard, Iron Monkey, Mogwai, and others. The prog rock of (Mankind) The Crafty Ape does not strictly fall within the confines of dark Americana, but it is as much 16 Horsepower and Ennio Morricone as it is Pink Floyd. But it explores even outside that wide swath, getting extremely epic at times, introspective at others. It's hard to imagine they could cram this many ideas into anything less than a spectacular 87 minute double-album.



Buy (Mankind) the Crafty Ape

Ihsahn: Eremita (2012)

After After

Ihsahn’s After was easily the best progressive metal album of 2010 for most of that year—until Enslaved showed up right at the time that everyone began putting together their end-of-year lists. Still, the Norwegian metal veteran had a strong showing on many of those lists. I personally didn’t spend a lot of time with that album; while I recognized its excellence, there were simply other things that occupied my attention. Yet whenever I do put it on, it digs its tendrils a little deeper into my skull.

Eremita continues the progressive, saxophone-infused extreme prog of the last album, not straying too far from the formula. It differs in a few respects, however.

Tombstones: Year of the Burial (2012)

Wizard, Without Electricity

Jus Oborn totally pulls off the silk scarf. Wearing it, the Electric Wizard mastermind looks like an eccentric cult leader from the 1960's or a Satanic bon vivant. It doesn't hurt that he's surrounded by people who look like Anton LaVey, Jinx Dawson, and a dude that's going to do the hands-on part of a human sacrifice. They look like some kind of comic book supervillain ensemble. In a promo photo, Norway's Tombstones is apparently trying to pull of the same thing. One of them--presumably frontman Bjørn-Viggo Godtland--is trying the silk scarf look. But he comes off like he just disembarked from his yacht. And the other two look like unremarkable, regular metal dudes. I don't ordinarily bring up image, but I mention this comparison for a reason.

Taake: Noregs Vaapen (2011)

Black Metallers with Manhood Intact

There are so many bands out there today practicing the Second Wave style of Norwegian black metal that it's hard to know which one is going to be worth your time. It's no help that there are plenty of reviewers out there who care more about troo-ness than about musical quality. So if you want a dose of that style, how are you supposed to know what to get?

I chose Taake because of the controversy. I admit it. Apparently there's a line offensive to Muslims, which caused quite a stir. Had it been about Christians, no one would have blinked. I support anyone who's going to dare some extremist Muslims to plot their death. It takes balls to do it, and it serves the important purpose of desensitizing some touchy people.

Metal Briefs: "Unblack" Metal

Christian Black Metal

I love black metal. Today, thankfully, it seems to be the most forward-thinking and flexible subgenre within metal. This is definitely a good thing. If it means I can have Botanist and Cobalt, then I will tolerate the existence of Liturgy.

But it hasn't always been that way. And in some corners it's still not that way. There are those who have a very narrow conception of what black metal is. I could bear that narrow-mindedness if it stuck to the music itself, but it goes into ideology as well. I have repeatedly harped on the stupidity of drawing musical genre lines based on non-musical characteristics. You may as well kick a band out of the black metal club if they don't wear corpse paint, or if they're from the wrong part of the world, or if they don't have the right logo.

This is not to say that Official Black Metal Ideology is an extremely narrow field. In fact, the genre nazis will accept just about any ideology within black metal, from neo-Nazism to paganism to theistic Satanism to atheism. There is only one exception: To them, you can't be black metal if you follow one of the Abrahamic religions. In this case, your Metal Archives genre will almost never be listed as black metal, but instead as "black" metal (with quotes) or unblack metal.

Well, let the genre nazis be butthurt. I'm going to talk about Christian black metal.

Horde: Hellig Usvart (1994)

Satanism--at least as it's found in black metal--is a parody of Christianity. The symbolism, lyrical content, and even the music are all in many ways Christian traditions turned on their heads (in some cases quite literally). Horde took that, and then righted it. Hellig Usvart (said to be the first "unblack" metal album) is a parody of a parody, as titles like "Invert the Inverted Cross" demonstrate. Musically, it's pure Norwegian style black metal, with fantastic (and gorgeous-sounding) drums and the occasional tasteful synth. Thematically, it was taken as a deep insult by the black metal community. In a sense, it's more black metal than thou, designed to insult them on their own terms and show that not everyone takes them seriously. As a result, it's said that some people demanded to know who was behind the project (it was an Australian) and death threats were supposedly made. That could just be the label trying to generate controversy, but in any case the album stands on its own in terms of quality. I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

Svikt: I Elendighetens Selskap (2011)

Review

A lot of extreme metal reviews will contain some kind of comment about how the album will piss off "genre purists" or the "genre nazis", especially when it comes to black metal. I generally tend to associate with more forward-thinking metalheads, so after a while I start to wonder whether these becorpsepainted people actually exist, painstakingly typing out diatribes against rule-breakers whilst mangling computer desks with gauntlet spikes.

Well, apparently they exist somewhere, or we wouldn't have bands like Svikt. Their debut I Elendighetens Selskap caught my attention because it was entirely in their native Norwegian. It sounds exactly like Norwegian black metal is supposed to sound: trebly and epic, with harsh rasped vocals, aggressive drums, and inaudible bass. They do break one rule, I suppose, but I think the preference for crappy production is fading even among these mysterious purists.

Communic: The Bottom Deep (2011)

Review

I've mentioned before that I love American-style power metal. The more aggressive, less cheesy cousin of the Euro variety does exactly what I want it to do. And Norway's Communic is about the only European band to do it the American way.

The Bottom Deep is the band's fourth full-length. If you've heard them before, you know what to expect. If not, chances are you've heard Nevermore, and that will put you in the right frame of reference. Jeff Loomis-style thrashy power metal riffs with the occasional pinch harmonics, peppered with the occasional undistorted section, with an operatic, emotional vocal performance. Cool riffs, big drama.