Diablo Swing Orchestra: Pandora's Piñata (2012)

Smash It Open

I've been talking a lot lately about the names that bands choose to define themselves. There simply is no better-named band than Diablo Swing Orchestra. It's perfect because they sound exactly like a band with that name should sound. Instantly, you can understand their attitude and their musical approach. You can Google it easily. You can remember it. And it's awesome.

Likewise, their third LP has a perfect name. Pandora's Piñata is of course a humorous spin on Pandora's Box, suggesting all the sweet candy that will come pouring out of the album, as well as the strong Latin element of the music.

Nate Hall: A Great River (2012)

Sounds Just Like a Shotgun Tastes

Nate Hall of U.S. Christmas is the latest musician from Neurot to go for the stripped-down, folk singer-songwriter approach. I have loved every album of this kind (Steve Von Till moreso than Scott Kelly), and A Great River is no exception.

At heart, this is just that kind of album, although it's ornamented somewhat. The vocals (which have more than a little Bob Dylan in them) have plenty of reverb. In fact, just about every sound on this has been put through some reverb, giving it a somewhat eerie aspect. Combined with the repetition of the acoustic rhythm strumming, and the drawn-out distorted chords, it gives the record a psychedelic twist to dark Americana.

Iron Maiden: Fear of the Dark (1992)

Motion for Reconsideration
20th Anniversary

If you ask the average person to rattle off the names of five classic metal bands, you can be reasonably certain Iron Maiden will be one of them. The band is almost universally beloved by metalheads. Their output from The Number of the Beast through Seventh Son of a Seventh Son is considered one of metal’s few sacred cows.

I grew up in a very small town without any friends who knew more about metal than I did. first learned of the band from a book. See, before Wikipedia, Allmusic, and Metal Archives, there were actually books that listed thousands of albums and had ratings accompanied by short descriptions of the bands. My mom had one of these, and I pored over it looking for metal bands. I never got around to getting any of their albums for a long time, and finally got into the band while in law school. Since I came to them relatively later in life (compared to most metalheads), it should mean something when I say their output from 1982 through 1988 absolutely deserves that sacred cow status.

But they are not without their faults. Tomorrow, May 12, marks the 20th anniversary of Fear of the Dark. The record follows No Prayer for the Dying, and between the two of them they constitute what is considered the low point of the Bruce Dickinson years. It’s easy to dismiss a bad record as the result of a bad lineup, but that excuse can’t be applied here as Adrian Smith was not a primary songwriter, nor is the rhythm guitar a serious problem.

What's in a Name?

What makes a good metal band name? What makes a bad one? What does it matter?

Like it or not, a band's image matters. How they dress, how they interview, the album art they use, all of these are part of what is, in a sense, a marketing package. It's not quite so crass as pure marketing, in the same way that music is not precisely a "product" as much as it is "art," but at the core the two are hard to differentiate.

Perhaps the single most important element of that identity is the band's name. After all, you can't talk about a band without mentioning their name, and given the way that you find out about metal bands, their name is the first thing you'll know about them. Not their sound, their philosophy, or anything else, but their name. According to a recent poll on this site, at least 78% of you admit the name is important. Some of the rest of you are lying to yourselves. A full 11% will most likely avoid a band with a stupid name, unless you are thoroughly convinced of their excellence.

Metal Briefs: Clearing the Docket #2

Keeping Up

Have I mentioned that, so far, every band or label that's contacted me has been reviewed on the site? Well, except for the occasional item that doesn't come anywhere near what this blog usually covers. So far, I've been able to keep that up. Obviously, that sometimes entails giving a brief review and lumping two or three albums together.

Here are a demo and two EPs that I've been asked to review.

Void Forger: Ruined Demo (2012)

Hailing from Romania of all places, Void Forger play a tough-to-define extreme metal style that's sort of a crusty blackened sludge/doom. Short of defining it any more closely, I'll just say it should appeal to fans of Withered, Tombs, or (in a stretch) Dragged into Sunlight. It's heavy, and there's plenty of experimentation in how they compose their riffs. This led to the incredible "Relief"—which contains what may be my favorite riff of the year. If they can replicate that success, Void Forger is bound to be a name you'll hear a lot in the future. I give the Ruined Demo 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Acephalix: Deathless Master (2012)

Left Hand Highway

By now, that left hand path is looking more like an eight-lane highway. There are probably more Swe-death bands outside Sweden than inside. That's not without good reason. The buzzsaw guitar tone is irresistible.

When we last heard from Acephalix, the San Francisco foursome dropped Interminable Night, a compilation that showcased their gradual transition from crust to Swe-death. Their sophomore full-length, Deathless Master, continues that trend. Any evidence of a crust influence is virtually gone.

Black Mad Lice: It's Going Deeper (2012)

Why does my scalp itch?

My favorite exchange in the Mel Brooks film Robin Hood - Men in Tights is where Prince John is talking to the witch Latrine, and he inquires about her name. She says she changed it. Incredulous, he asks, "You changed it to Latrine?" She responds, "It used to be Shithouse."

And so Black Mad Lice used to be Black Pocket Lice. As death metal band names go, it's still not that threatening, but at least it doesn't sound like some kind of weird Tamagotchi spinoff. For their first release under the new moniker, they are going deeper, presumably deeper into your scalp to avoid the effects of prescription shampoo.

Bar Review: Super Nova Summer Fest

Local Brew

Every city of significance has its own hometown band, that people love more than it deserves. For Lincoln, that's Dirtfedd. I know, not great.

Each city has its own hometown brewery. We have Empyrean Brewing Co. Again, not great. I've never been particularly impressed by anything they've brewed, although none of it has been particularly disappointing either.

Super Nova is Empyrean's summer festival ale. Like all Empyrean brews, it comes in a 6-pack of 12 ounce bottles for about $7. Like all Empyrean brews, it's just OK. It has that summery flavor, all mild and somewhat sweet with a hint of citrus, but nothing really special about it.

The Verdict: We could really use a better brewery. I give Super Nova 3 out of 5 stars.

Gods of Chaos: March into Perdition (2012)

Grindcore . . . I think

Every now and again I'll get an album in some genre I'm not terribly familiar with. Grindcore, for instance, as in the case of March into Perdition by Croatia's Gods of Chaos. When I get these albums, I'm afraid I won't have much to say, or I'll miss some connection that's obvious to fans of the genre and come across as ill-informed as I actually am.

So maybe this will come out sounding stupid. But it seems to me Gods of Chaos have created something unique here, combining grindcore with a strong flavor of modern US black metal.

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.