Drop Dead, Gorgeous - Worse Than A Fairy Tale

Genre: Post-Hardcore
Name: Drop Dead, Gorgeous
Album: Worse Than A Fairy Tale, 2007


Welcome to Saylor Lake

Firstly, I should just point out that this is not metal. So don't complain that it isn't.

This is, by a long way, one of my favourite albums of all time. It is nothing short of a masterpiece. It is not tuneful. It is not melodic. It is not harmonic. But, by gum, it's pretty much perfect.

Its a concept album based around a serial killer, who lives in the (fictional) town of Saylor Lake. His - or her - murders are each the subject of a single track. And, with that in mind, you can perhaps understand why harmony or melody are not top of the list in writing this - it's designed, much like Psycho Killer by Talking Heads, to get inside the mind of someone who's slightly insane. You need discordance to create that effect.

The album's first killer track, if you'll pardon the pun, is the second track, Drawing The Devil. It has the perfect combination of chaotic drums and squealing guitar, but then eerie hushes as the vocalist whispers words which whisk down your spine ans send shivers sliding down your shirt. It's brilliant.

Another example of what Drop Dead, Gorgeous are capable of - when they're not in school - is found in the closing track. Once again, there is a combination of haunting lyrics with echoing bass, and then the crashing of cymbals and shrieking of slaughtered guitars. Then, with the piano, the aforementioned shivers once again return, and you spend the next week checking behind doors, and keeping clear of all water, just in case it's Saylor Lake.

The album continues in similar fashion, which creates a twofold effect: First, it means you can listen to the album straight through completely content, and second, if you're one of those blasphemers who use the 'shuffle' function - which I cannot condemn enough - then it means that if any of these songs comes up, your fingers don't fly instantly to the skip button.

Summary: A horrifying album which will have you listening to track after track on repeat.
Lyrical Themes: Serial killing
Rating:9/10
Track listing:
1. Red Or White Wine?
2. Drawing The Devil
3. The Pleasure To End All Pleasures
4. Worse Than A Fairy Tale
5. They'll Never Get Me (Word With You)
6. It Sounded Like An Accident
7. 45223
8. It's Pretty Hard To Beat The King
9. Donner Party Of Five
10. Saylor Lake
11. Bye Bye Blues (The Whole West Coast Is Ruined)
12. I Want To Master Life And Death

Myspace
Download

Website
This is definitely worth a visit. Very helpful in exploring the songs.

Trancelike Void - Destroying Something Beautiful

Dual Review:




















Genre: Black Metal
Name: Trancelike Void
Album: Destroying Something Beautiful (2008)and Silhouettes of Misery (2010).
Deep Thought II

Thirteen posts and already I'm resorting to the same artists. Ah well.

Anyhoo, you may remember that last time I reviewed these Belgians, all the way back in April, I reviewed an EP of theirs, and, whilst it was good, it wasn't particularly great: 22 minutes and about 6 riffs. However, various sources informed me that I had picked a particularly unusal output for the duo, and I wasn't showing them in their true glory, so I promised a review of something else of theirs shortly.

And, as always, I forgot.


However, I went through my posts the other day to see what I'd promised you, and, sure enough there it was. A quick trip to the internet, and I have two reviews for you: the one I owed, plus interest.

Destroying Something Beautiful is Black Metal, but not in the syle of Abigail Williams. This is more abstract, more like Burzum or Lupus Nocturnus (both coming soon - well, soon-ish. Maybe a month). It's a mix of the heavy, pounding, slow, repetitious chords, distorted and layered on top of simple drums and new-age-esque, harmonious, abstract interludes, much shorter than their grittier partners. Also, for once, tracks labelled as interludes actually act as interludes, rather than just being a short sound clip they liked but couldn't actually fit anywhere else (I'm looking at you, Enter Shikari).

It is certainly more diverting than The Stone Pond, and keeps the attention far more easily. While it is perhaps slightly simpler - okay, significantly simpler in composition than that EP, which used more than three strings, I prefer it. This is mostly because it's just my thing - (mostly) instrumental, heavy, fairly depressing - and I can certainly see that people might not agree with me. However, this album has an advantage over its predecessor because it's possible to hear it without the volume raised to the maximum possible level.

Despite the interludes, which certainly create interesting diversions - and, in fact, even including them - this album remains probably far too simple for most people. The chords follow mostly the same patterns, with only the occasional diversion, the drums are simple and certainly aren't "driving", and the whole thing seems almost willing to fade into the background. Even the interludes only get your attention because they're not the same sequence on repeat. However, as I've said, this is what I like. It's my cup of tea (Earl Grey, no milk, no sugar, a little bit of lemon). I enjoyed it, especially the exceptionally atmospheric epilogue, which is closer to a none-acoustic Where The Trees Can Make It Rain


Silhouettes Of Misery, however, is much closer to that EP than Destroying Something Beautiful. For starters, it's acoustic, and therefore doesn't have those pulsing chords of Destroying Something Beautiful. It's based a lot more on simple, repeated riffs than heavy and distorted chords, although there are acoustic equivalents. But there is nothing to say on this album, really. I have just sat through the three-quarters of an hour it took me to play it through, and found nothing worth commenting on that makes it any different from Where The Trees Can Make It Rain. The only thing I can think of - and I'm really grasping at straws here - is that the drums appear more, but that's mostly because it's longer. There's nothing wrong with it, I didn't actively dislike it, but it just didn't do anything to grab my attention. It just made me sit and think (in this case, about html - how do I get one link to open two tabs?), and I that's probably the point. It certainly was a lot more effective in this regard than Destroying Something Beautiful, and I'm sure a lot of people like it. However, I'd only have it on as white noise, or as something peaceful if I were a hippy and wanted to meditate.

Overall, Trancelike Void are a band that, if not obsessively introspective themselves, certainly encourage their listeners to be. They do compose music that holds the attention like a sieve holds water, but when you return from the ether of your thoughts, you emerge into a calm and controlled auditory landscape, sterilised and peaceful, and fairly pleasant. That is what it's about, I suppose, and I'm sure many people find this helpful. However, I'm capable of thinking deeply without musical supplements, so certainly Silhouettes Of Misery isn't for me.

Summary: Calm thought-provoking music, but not something you can rock out to.
Rating: 7/10 and 6/10

Track listing:
Destroying Something Beautiful
1. Prelude: Descent
2. Part I: Everything Falls
3. Interlude I: Daydream
4. Part II: Fragile Conciousness
5. Interlude II: Nightmare
6. Part III: Total Desolation
7. Epilogue: Escape

Silhouettes Of Misery
1. Paranoid Melancholy
2. One Bridge Drowned
3. Blood
4. An Essence Of Tragedy

Myspace

Download
Download 2

Abigail Williams - Legend EP

Genre: Black Metal
Name: Abigail Williams
Album: Legend (2007)
And mark this — let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you.

This was a landmark moment for me. Back in the good old days, when the HMV metal section was three units wide, and they had bands other than the big four and Taking Back Sunday, I found this for but a trifle and snapped it up. I later found where I'd heard the name before - Arthur Miller's The Crucible, based on the Salem Witch Trials, hence the quote above (On a side note, it's a good play. Go out into the real world and see it some time). Anyway, I had my first black metal album, and I've never regretted it.

It is, unfortunately, quite short - 20 minutes, 5 songs - but it is brilliant. The Conqueror Wyrm is, for me, the flagship track. Its introduction catches you like a sever dose of cholera, and the sudden slow section stop your heart with sorrowful sublimity. Then as the song fades away and you are left with a crackling recording of an aged man, your pulse slowly fades away, flat-lining into the silence. Yes, this song probably isn't good for your health, but nothing fun ever is. Like catching bullets in the gap between your ear and your skull. That would explain why, with only one full-length release, they've already got 18 ex-members.

But its not just the one track that's awesome. The piano in Watchtower is exquisite, the vocals permanently sound just like a banshee "sucking a scream to stab me with", the drummer is probably the first octopus-human hybrid, and the guitar lines are simply superb. The lyrics aren't perhaps the most unique, but they're certainly not bad.

As always, however, there are moments where you suspect that they felt obliged to make the track longer but couldn't come up with anything, so just put some notes together and played them really fast. But fortunately these moments are few and far between, and even when they do occur, they're blissfully brief, and, at any rate, no worse than plenty of other bands.

In short, the whole thing is rather good, and is what got me into Black Metal in the first place. Go have a listen, and you'll see why they have always been in my ten favourite bands.

Summary: Melodic Black Metal, done very well
Lyrical Themes: Nonsensical metaphors in general, based on death, darkness and the cosmos. Some simply based around quotes.
Rating: 8/10

Track listing:
1. From A Buried Heart
2. Like Carrion Birds
3. The Conqueror Wyrm
4. Watchtower
5. Procession Of The Aeons

Myspace (no songs from this EP)
Download

Changes to Format.

Hey,

This is mostly a general administrative post, for my own benefit as much as yours.

Point the first:
I am aware that I have promised much an delivered little. As a result, with as many as possible in the next week (before Friday), I will review the following, which I have promised before:

Abigail Williams - Legend (oft mentioned, but never actually reviewed)

Celtic Frost - Monotheist

Cult Of Luna - Salvation

Drop Dead, Gorgeous - Worse Than A Fairy Tale

Throes Of Dawn - The Great Fleet Of Echoes

and

A full-length release by Trancelike Void

Point the Second:
Following these reviews, I will then no longer review everything I upload. I will probably do about one a week, and this will be on the Friday. The reason for this is twofold - firstly, it means I only need to review albums I actually have something interesting to say about, rather than everything that I'd like to put up, and secondly, it will enable me to post more music. This means I can put up discographies, or more famous albums that you can find better reviews of elsewhere online.
For the music which I am not reviewing, however, I will still write a paragraph or two so you know what you're downloading, rather than just clicking the link and hoping.
This will start some time in September.

Point the third:
You may have noticed that, as of my Lamb Of God review, I have moved to Mediafire to store my files. This is because Rapidshare and Megaupload, my previous hosts, do not allow parallel downloads, and force wait times before and after file downloads. Mediafire does not, so I assumed you would prefer it. To see everything that I have uploaded from 19/07/2010, go to http://www.mediafire.com/echoswolf
I have also gone to scores out of 10, rather than 100, because 100 was fairly arbitrary: what's the difference between 85 and 86?
However, if I were to use decimal points, that would defeat the point, so, from now, only integer scores out of ten.

/admin

Echo's Wolf out
\m/\-.-/\m/

Lamb Of God - Sacrament

Genre: Death Metal

Name: Lamb Of God

Album: Sacrament (2006)

Virginia: where Death Metal is good

Now, as you may have guessed from previous reviews, I am not the biggest fan of Death Metal. I have the odd band that deserves its place on my iTunes - Opeth, for example, or Lair Of The Minotaur (although the latter is mostly because of the names - I mean, "Assassins Of The Cursed Mist" is just hilarious), but as a general rule, I shun Death Metal, making sure that it is kept alone in the corner of the room with the Dunce hat on its head. I don't like it much. In fact, that is somewhat of an understatement. I think Death Metal did for Metal what Stalin did for Communism.

There are, on Encyclopaedia Metallum over twenty-six thousand Death Metal bands, accounting for over 35% of the total number of bands on the website. By contrast, Thrash Metal has only 17 thousand, Heavy has only 11 and Power a mere 5 (they have 11 genres in total, so the mean value is about 6,000. Death metal has over 4 times this amount).
This is, of course, not counting the thousands more bands out there, as yet unsigned. The true figure is probably over thirty thousand, even being conservative. Death Metal is saturating its own market. To bring it closer to home, a friend of mine quit the band purely because it was Death Metal, and he realised that it was never going anywhere.

But why does this subgenre proliferate, whereas others remain confined to the shadows and lurk in the depths of obscurity? I think the answer is fairly simple - it's easy to play.
Most Death Metal songs are in commontime and are played in straight quavers, semiquavers and crotchets. Most Death Metal songs are riff-based and use repeated power chords as their main tune. Most Death Metal songs are short, most Death metal songs have a bass copying the guitar and most Death Metal songs have, in some form or another, the beat blast drumming. It is this kind of simplicity that often drives people to metal in the first place – they’re sick of hearing the same I-IV-V-I chord structure on the radio, with whichever band happens to be popular at the moment droning over the top about whichever girl the singer saw on the train going to the recording studio.

Let me assure you that I accept this is a generalisation. I know that not all bands are play in 4-4, not all bands keep to the same chord pattern for the whole song and not all bands have unoriginal and ancillary drums, but it is perfectly true for most Death Metal bands, and that cannot be disputed.
Everything about the songs is designed to sound difficult: Yes, the songs are fast, and yes, it is difficult to get up to that speed, but not that difficult – most guitarists or drummers can play at these speeds, and whilst they should be proud of this, it is not a unique feature – these are not a “select few” by any stretch of the imagination. The vocals are designed to sound hard to replicate, and yes they are – you can damage your vocal chords significantly by doing this, even to the point, supposedly, of throat cancer. They are difficult to do, in the same what that it’s difficult to swallow a live grenade whole – that doesn’t mean that it’s impressive.

But besides this, everything seems added-on to the main piece. Let’s look at it on an instrument by instrument basis. The Guitar is often just the same one or two simple riffs on repeat. The bass usually is just mirroring the guitar, and the drums are just there to add to the noise. The vocals – well, I’ll get onto them in a minute, if you can bear the suspense.

In short, the entire thing is just noise, with these things added on to give the pretence of music. Every instrument is there simply because it “needs” to be there. You couldn’t have a band without a guitar, so let’s throw something in for that. The same for bass, and the same for drums, and the same for vocals.

But the vocals themselves demand attention in their own right. Firstly, unlike most other genres, they are not poetic, nor are they designed to be. They are, often, prose. There is nothing wrong with that at all. But look at the contents:

My Latex Queen, by Dark Funeral
Latex queen - feel my tongue in deep
Whirls around - climax is almost found
I rise to my feet - erection slides in deep
I pound you hard - latex queen feels so sweet
Feels so sweet...

Psychopathologist, by Carcass
I like to slide my hand inside your stomach
And rip out the putrid remains,
Drink the pus and munch on the internal organs
Until all the casket is drained.

Necropedophile, by Cannibal Corpse
I begin the dead sex, licking her young, rotted orifice
I cum in her cold cunt, shivering with ecstasy
for nine days straight I do the same
She becomes by dead, decayed child sex slave
her neck I hack, cutting through the back
I use her mouth to eject

Another song, from the aforementioned band of my friend, was called “Trepanation”. For those of you who don’t know, that’s the practice of drilling holes in people’s heads to relieve headaches. And yes, it was described in graphic detail.

These lyrics are disgusting – intentionally so. And that is part of the problem. The whole point of Death Metal is “sticking it to the man”. It’s about dragging up the sordid elements of humanity, about the hypocrisy of society, about breaking free from social norms and doing your own thing – Anarchy. (Ironically, you’re not, because there are twenty six-thousand other bands doing the same thing, but that’s already been said). There’s nothing wrong with that. But instead of pointing out these problems, or commenting on them, they instead simply try to shock people. They want people to be revolted. They feel obliged to, as a Death Metal band. Occasionally, they put on a facade of intelligence by using long or scientific words – Putrefaction, enzyme, lecherous – but overall these add nothing – they are describing these things for the sake of it. They are easy to write about, and they have great effect. When you’re trying to add lyrics to a song, why not just fall back on this generic and unoriginal topic? It’s a quick, simple fix.

Now, I coul abide all this – I don’t complain about the Satanism or National Socialism abundant in Black Metal. I don’t complain about My Dying Bride’s “erotic” lyrics. I don’t complain about the more simplistic and dull melodies found in much Thrash metal – if it were not for one thing. Death Metal is seen as representative of all metal. And this infuriates me.

Ask any fan of The Killers or of Jay-Z or of Eminem what metal sounds like, and they will always, without fail, say that it is screaming and fast and loud. Never mind the fact that Metallica, the most famous metal band in the world (open to dispute, but I would say so) are not representative of this. Death Metal makes its mark – it crops up in the news as the reason why some teenagers have murdered some other teenager, for example, and people assume that all metal is like that. And that is simply not true. Not all metal is angry. Not every metalhead is a Satanist. We don’t all run round in corpse paint with knives in our hands trying to mutilate defenceless old ladies in Tesco before devouring the beaten heart with our recently-bought ketchup and chips. We are all tarnished with the same brush. And that is unfair.

So, in summary, the reasons I hate Death Metal are as follows:
1. It’s simple to the point of being boring
2. It’s far too dominant for its own good
3. It is designed purely to shock, and no thought that goes into either the lyrics or the music
4. It is seen as a representation of all metal, and hence people have preformed opinions about you when you say you listen to “metal”.
5. It’s not very good.

My apologies for this somewhat excessively long rant and for who disjointed it is. I will come back to it and edit it at some point. Now, onto the main business of the post.

After all this, you may be wondering why I have put Lamb of God up for your listening pleasure. It’s this simple: they don’t suck. They are one of the few Death Metal bands who, for one reason or another, don’t actually sound like the defacatory matter which their song is describing. The reasons in Lamb of God’s case are as follows. The riffs, whilst they are riffs, are interesting, and aren’t just simple chords on repeat. The lyrics actually have required some thought, and are about something the writer actually knows about, or has experienced (which I hope so much can’t be said about Cannibal Corpse). But, most of all, the drummer is a god.
This album in particular embodies all these features, so that is why I have posted it. Yes, it’s fairly old , but for those of you who haven’t heard any Lamb Of God before (do you live in a cave?), it’s a good starting point. But most of all, it proves that there is such a thing as good death metal
Enjoy!



Summary: Death Metal sucks, except for this album, and a very few others.
Lyrical Themes: Anger, Why Various Unnamed People Suck, Posers
Rating: 8/10

Track listing:
1. Walk With Me In Hell
2. Again We Rise
3. Redneck
4. Pathetic
5. Foot To The Throat
6. Descending
7. Blacken The Cursed Sun
8. Forgotten (Lost Angels)
9. Requiem
10. More Time To Kill
11. Beating On Death's Door

Myspace
Download

Saturnus - Martyre

Genre: Doom Metal

Name: Saturnus

Album: Martyre (2000)

Who says metal can't be soothing?

Saturnus, as far as I can discover, have very little particularly interesting or noteworthy about them, so I cannot fill this post with my usual random useless titbits of information, except for the fact that they have had 8 ex-guitarists, which, all things considered, is quite a lot.

Anyway, on to the main business of the day: the album itself. Whilst the band may not be noteworthy, the music certainly is. This starts, like all good Inspector Morse episodes, with a choir, vocalising an exceedingly plaintive tune, which immediately grabbed my attention - I'm a sucker for choirs, not least those who sing in Latin. This artfully arranged piece, cryptically named "7" is followed by the equally excellent "Inflame Thy Heart", which changes styles significantly - no more the choral majesty, but rise the growled death vocals, complete with obligatory raven and night references. The guitar line is exactly slow enough to maintain interest while inviting contemplation (compare with Sunn 0))) ). But the excellently stately fretwork is swiftly surpassed by the piano, wrapping up the song with ornate and sorrowful ease.

Track 3 is more brash and abrasive, and brings to mind My Dying Bride with its temptress-based lyrics, and, in short, is a sharp turn from the past tracks. This is followed by another contrast, and another, and the whole is soon less than the sum of its parts. Whilst this album is made up of excellent songs, they do not fit together - they are great individual songs, but this album has the feel more of a compilation than an album in its own right.

"Lost My Way" is, for example, close to thrash (not quite, but getting there), and whilst it is an excellent track, with amazing backing vocals and guitar riffs which demand, and receive, undivided attention, it's not quite what the album left you expecting.

The closer, however, does precisely what is required. The acoustic intro, followed by keyboard backing and suitably whispered devotions to some bright-eyed girl. It gives an excellent sense of closure, whilst leaving you wanting more (if you'll excuse the somewhat cheesy oxymoron).

As a whole, the album is worth a listen. The vocals, be they choir, clean or cathartic growls, are not, as on other albums, an obligitary addition, but complement the music very well; the drums are simplistic but effective; the guitar carries mournful music with ease and efficiency; in short, excellent doom metal.

Summary: A great introduction to Doom Metal. If you haven't heard any before, or are being recommended it, try this.
Lyrical Themes: Sorrow, Loss, Death, Temptresses
Rating: 7/10

Track listing:
1. 7
2. Inflame Thy Heart
3. Empty Handed
4. Noir
5. A Poem (Written In Moonlight)
6. Softly on the Path You Fade
7. Thou Art Free
8. Drown My Sorrow
9. Lost My Way
10. Loss (In Memoriam)
11. Thus My Heart Weepeth for Thee
12. In Your Shining Eyes

Myspace

Download

Carach Angren - Death Came Through A Phantom Ship

Genre: Symphonic Black Metal

Name: Carach Angren

Album: Death Came Through A Phantom Ship (2010)

Don't listen to this alone

It's back.

Sorry for the delays. As I said, I had a lot on my plate. But it's all finished now, so expect more of these.

Now, the main business. I'll make no bones about it: Carach Angren are, by a long, long way, my favourite Black Metal band. They haven't done a huge amount: a couple of EPs and a pair of full length albums, but what they have done is astounding.
This album is certainly their best work, and I'll tell you why.

When I first heard of this band, I didn't expect much of them: the subject matter didn't seem particularly unique, their names were obviously fake, and they just seemed pretty much standard: nothing notable, but possibly worth a listen.

I set off that night, plugged in my headphones and set the album running. Electronic Voice Phenomena seeped into my ears like blood through a rotten floorboard. My heart raced and I had scarcely rounded the corner before I was checking over my shoulder for cursed daemons of the night or other beings from the netherworld and dragging my twitching hand from the skip button. My shadow had become a doppelganger, intent on devouring me. The street lights flickered as if controlled by some malevolent force. The very air had frozen, in anticipation of my impending bloody slaughter. In short, the atmospheric opener scared me more than any thoughts of a serial killer ever had, would or could. Quite a good start.

I no longer paid any attention to where I was going; my feet took over as I focused on this audible ambrosia that was filtering into my ears. I was shocked to discover myself in the park when I looked up. The Sighting Is A Portent Of Doom kept up this unsurpassed style, with brilliantly arranged orchestral movements blending seamlessly into the driving guitars and double-bass drums. The brass comes in to close it, perfectly timed, with echoes of the Wolf theme of Prokofiev.

But it only got better. The third track is practically a horror movie in itself - I never thought that I would class shotgun blasts and falling corpses as music - and there on the tale of the nautical psychopath is mirrored perfectly by the backdrop of excellent orchestration and just general musical brilliance. Themes are played that are practically perfect, and I cannot find a single bad note or undeveloped phrase in the entire thing. Not once do they resort to blast-beat drumming, nor to simplistic rhythyms for but an instant. Yes, they do sometimes base themselves, briefly, on straight 16th bass drums, but never at the expense of the song, and never with every thing else made simple: always they have something interesting, something that seizes your ear and props it open with matchsticks.

But what makes this so special is that it is, in the absolute meaning of the word, unique. No other band could come up with this, nor would be able to do it justice when covering it, and I don't say this lightly. This is most easily shown by the lyrics. During Bloodstains On The Captain's Log, they list the cargo of the ship. Now, I know that sounds dull, even on a par with The Catalogue Of Ships (if you don't get the reference, get out. Now.), but it isn't. Somehow, "ivory and opium" is exactly what you want to hear. You realise that it's a "glimpse in his eyes", not a glint, that would be different. "A vicious false dog" is the perfect description. As you can see, the lyrics are certainly different. My personal opinion is that they were written in Dutch originally, and then translated. Certainly, that would explain "Weigh the anchor and hoist the sails!
Work harder you drunken snails!
For treasury like pepper as gold.
Let this nautical voyage begin.
We are powered by strong European winds."

But if you want a true measure of their individuality is the 6th track, which acts as an interlude: Al Betekent Het Mijn Dood (Even if it means my Death). The entire song uses just one tom (or perhaps timpani). There are sound effects of the ship, and you can even hear actual singing (not shrieks) - and it's rather good singing too. It exquisitely conveys fear, without need for screams or speed, but simply with a few violins and some trombones. It show their skill at arrangements, if nothing else. It is, in short, the perfect example of why Carach Angren should be a lot more famous than they are.

Summary: The pinnacle of Black Metal. Think Abigail Williams meets Beethoven at the cinema whilst watching a Ghost Ship. Oh, and they're both on LSD.
Lyrical Themes: It's a concept album about ghost ships, possession and divine curses.
Rating:9/10

Track listing:
1. Electronic Voice Phenomena
2. The Sighting Is A Portent Of Doom
3. And The Consequence Macabre
4. Van Der Decken's Triumph
5. Bloodstains On The Captain's Log
6. Al Betekent Het Mijn Dood
7. Departure Towards A Nautical Curse
8. The Course Of A Spectral Ship
9. The Shining Was A Portent Of Gloom

Myspace

Download

Posts have dried up...

Hey:

I haven't posted anything in a while, but there are more coming soon, I promise

The next three will be:

Cult Of Luna - Salvation

Carach Angren - Death Came Through A Phantom Ship

and

Throes Of Dawn - The Great Fleet Of Echoes (Wolf)

Unless anything else awesome comes up.

I've just got a lot on at the moment. Sorry

\m/\-.-/\m/

Giant Squid - Monster In The Creek

Genre: Sludge Metal, Post-Metal, Progressive/Experimental

Name: Giant Squid

Album: Monster In The Creek (2005)


Sludge without distortion...

I came across this band after re-igniting my interest in Sludge/Post-Metal after buying a CD. Not just any CD, but a CD that spins. More on that another time, however. I heard about Giant Squid, who seemed to fit my criteria completely: I'd never heard of them, nor had anyone I'd spoken to, they were obscure, had a cool name and were, for the most part, impossible to find.
There were no CDs to be found anywhere, and a cursory search of the internet revealed nothing. Eventually, I found what I was looking for: a passworded .rar. After much detective work, with just a user name, I found myself in Portuguese webspace, and, with my (not so) excellent linguistic skills, found the original file, complete with password. And my gosh, was it worth the wait.

Now, personally, I wouldn't class Giant Squid, or at least this EP, as metal. Maybe not as Progressive. Probably not as Post-Metal. Definitely not as Sludge. But clearly I must have my definitions wrong as everyone else seems to think they are. But I adamantly say that they're not.

Now, why would I say that? Well, let's cycle through the genres one by one.
Progressive is out the window because most of it is in simple time signatures. Admittedly, they have a keyboard, but that's not enough. A keyboard alone doesn't make your band progressive.
Post-Metal... well, they're not quite arcane enough. Post-Metal needs to be cryptic and odd and just generally slightly unnerving, like seeing a chainsaw lying around untended in a psychopathic ward in an asylum, or that bit in a level where it's really quiet and empty and there's nothing to kill, but you know that any second the zombie hordes will show themselves. It isn't quite that unusual, or at least, not in that way.
And as for sludge, well, let's just say that distortion has never been important to them, and they don't scream.

So I have dubbed them with the catch-all term "experimental" (the equivalent for rock is that most annoying of terms "Alternative"), and leave it up to you as to what to term them.

Anyway, back to the music.
When listening to this, I'll admit I had to force myself through the first track. Aurielle Zeitler's vocals aren't brilliant, to say the least. She can't carry a song. However, when she reappears in other songs, she makes up for it, and sounds a lot better. But, if you can grin and bear it, "Monster In The Creek" is a good song.

The EP itself has an interesting basis: it's mostly about the the Jersey Shore Shark Attacks of 1916, upon which the novel Jaws was based. It was also self-released - they called themselves Tyrannosaurus Records, which is rather good, as names go.

The best song is by far "Dare We Ask The Widow?", which is typical of the album - it's mysterious, with a haunting opening guitar line that wouldn't seem too out of place a Zelda game. I haven't quite worked out specifically what it's about, but I'm not sure I want to - It can be about anything, and sounds like it should be. The chorus is exquisite, and it's here that Ms. Zeitler comes to her prime. Indeed, this song could be Post-Metal, now I think of it - it's haunting, and odd, and definitely sounds like that bit where the zombies are hiding round the corner.

The EP generally does itself proud: the keyboard and guitar alternate the melody well, and, although the drums sometimes jar slightly, the simplicity makes a change (especially from Tool - 6.5/8 makes for interesting drumming sessions, let me tell you). But, in general, it's very good. It has a somewhat relaxed air about it - none of the songs are particularly fast, nor do they need to be. Occasionally the vocals do break into near shouts, but not enough to make it a trend, and again, they don't need to. The whole EP is clean as a whistle: clean guitar, clean vocals, clean keyboard (can you have a dirty keyboard?) and even clean drums, with open hi-hats being the norm, and I mean that - I think his pedal must be broken. Or he needs double bass for very slow rhythms.

In conclusion, this EP is well worth a listen. It's perfect for that space in a playlist where you need a breather, or an interlude, but it also is perfectly capable of being what you rock out to, or even, at a push, headbang. Fortunately, you don't have to go to Portugal to hear it.

Summary: Not quite mystic, but getting there. Clean, simple, minimalist.
Rating: 7/10

Track listing:
1. Monster In The Creek
2. Dead Man's Creek
3. Age Of Accountability
4. Throwing A Donner Party
5. Dare We Ask The Widow?
6. Lester Stillwell

Which genre would you say they were? Do leave a comment (The bit where it says "X guitarists have auditioned for the band")

Myspace

Download (from a non-Portuguese and non-passworded website)

Netherbird Dual Review

Genre: Melodic Black Metal

Name: Netherbird

Album: The Ghost Collector (2008) and Covered In Darkness (EP, 2009)


Malice Through the Looking Glass

I have good news and bad news: The bad news is that I won't be able to buy a Netherbird CD this weekend. The good news is that they offer two available for download on their website! With the booklets as .PDF files! They, my friends, are awesome, which is only further proven by the fact that, on their facebook page, if you ask a question, leave a comment or just headbutt your keyboard, they reply. Awww, shucks... ain't that just dandy?

Netherbird, until very recently, had no line up - that was, apparently, part of the point. The vocalist, guitarist and keyboardist shared "a vision on how to write and record metal music without the limitations of a set line up or metal". They, however, have now procured a bassist, presumably from some form of lost-and-found, and have set themselves to release their second full length CD on May 15th (besides this, they have three each of EPs and Singles).

I plugged my ears in and bathed in the intro to The Ghost Collector. This track, "Dead Grid Incantation", has lyrics worthy of Carach Angren, and music just as good. The postponement of the final whisper of terror only adds to the tension, which is shattered by the sonic violence (and we all love gratuitous violence) of "The Blackest Breed", the first song of theirs I heard, and the only song I needed to hear to get hooked. The sublime blending of high-pitched black metal shrieks and deep death-metal doom-laden vocals create a chorus of epic sonic attributes, and the pair of tracks set the perfect tone for the following songs.

And not only are the vocals good, but the lyrics are poetry par excelence. The epitome of this can be found in the second track - "The darkness is our salvation now, / We have all become malice in wonderland" is simply exquisite. Ever since I heard it, I've been cursing myself for not having thought of it first.

The rest of the songs do not disappoint. The exemplary examples of black metal are rounded off brilliantly with the strings of an orchestra, and are interspersed with the occasional atmospheric piece, the most notable, and probably my favourite, being "Boulevard Black (Reprise)".

This excellent track is preceded by the centrepiece of the album, "Boulevard Black": 14 minutes of snares, bass drums, guitars, keyboards, piano, an orchestra second to none (well, maybe London Philharmonic) and, of course, screams which pierce your very soul and drag you down to the lowest levels of Beelzebub's palace of punishment and pain. And following this dramatic track, you are met by my aforementioned favourite: the piano is simply excellent, once again bringing back memories of "Electronic Voice Phenomena". In short, these guys really need to tour with Carach Angren.

Having now turned my attention to the EP, "Covered In Darkness" (nice pun), I found myself desperate to find out who these bands were. Annihilator and Paradise Lost are just outside my musical circle, with the former only existing on a Painkiller live album and the latter constantly nearly breaking in, but always superseded by someone else. However, this EP has been the greatest propaganda on behalf of the four bands covered that I've ever met. Paradise Lost are covered to begin it, with the quite scary intro to "As I Die" rattling the bones before we move on, and eventually we reach "Alison Hell", by Annihilator, which has captured my ear and my heart. All the covers are excellent, and inspire me to both explore the covered bands music, none of which I have heard before, and also to buy more Netherbird. Anyone who can cover something so well (especially songs not originally made for black metal) clearly has a very musically talented mind.

Summary: Excellent examples of why keyboards should be compulsory for any Black Metal band. Instantly shooting up to at least my top three, if not higher.
Rating: 8/10
Track listing:

The Ghost Collector
1. Dead Grid Incantation
2. The Blackest Breed
3. Carcass Symphony
4. Adrift On The Sea Of Misery
5. LightHouse Eternal (Laterna Magika)
6. Hidden Beneath Flesh Pest Ridden
7. The Beauty Of Bones
8. Forever Mounful
9. Adrift Towards Eternity
10. Blood Orchid
11. Ashen Nectar
12. Boulevard Black
13. Boulevard Black (Reprise)

Covered In Darkness
1. As I Die (as made famous by Paradise Lost)
2. Nepenthe (as made famous by Sentenced)
3. Alison Hell (as made famous by Annihilator)
4. Firmament Vacation (as made famous by The Soundtrack Of Our Lives)

Myspace

Download

Netherbird (Promo)

Hey guys,

Facebook adverts are an awesome way to find crazy bands: I found Moss (there's another promised review) that way, and now have found "Netherbird", a Swedish (they're always Scandanavian in some form or other) black Metal ban. I think that, from what I've heard so far, they're absolutely epic. Expect a review shortly, as soon as I've pieced the money together to get the CD (most likely not prior to this weekend).

Until then, to sate your appitite, here is their youtube page: Listen to that and tell me it's not absolutely awesome.

Abigail Williams have some tough competition, methinks.

Echo's Wolf out.

Coheed And Cambria - Year Of The Black Rainbow

Genre: Debateable. Supposedly Post-hardcore or Punk, I say Progressive Metal

Name: Coheed And Cambria

Album: Year Of The Black Rainbow (2010)

And the speakers played black...

Coheed and Cambria have been one of my favourite bands ever since a friend played me one song - just one - from the album "Good Apollo I'm Burning Star IV, Part One: From Fear Through The Eyes Of Madness" (yup, it's a long title). I eagerly anticipated this album, and, dashing into my HMV snapped it up as soon as I could.
My expectations had been high for this album, having recently bought my own copy of the aforementioned album (their best, in my opinion) and The Sheep, a Rock Band fanatic having told me that "Guns of Summer" was now officially the hardest song on Drums. I was, in short, setting unreal expectations. After all, Coheed & Cambria are, unfortunately, only human.

Before playing the CD, I noticed the lack of any 'Suites': There were no songs all under the same name, as their had been for the Velourium Camper (In keeping Secrets Of Silent Earth), the Willing Well (Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Part I) and The End Complete (Part II: No World For Tomorrow). This was a disappointment for me: I had found that C&C reached their pinnacles in these sagas of sorrow. In addition, the artwork was mostly abstract, rather than the detailed, if bizarre, images of before. The only image I can remember is the "ashen crow", and there were others, but they weren't pictures of anything, especially not of the story: they were simply images.

I seated myself in front to the CD player and awaited the excellence. After a very atmospheric intro track, The Broken leapt forth with lyrics of the type I'd come to expect from Claudio Sanchez - "Your red lips speak of painted figures, The teeth of mangles little listeners, The thoughts that hide your rusty scissors and hooded men" is a prime example: it's dark, nearly nonsensical and creates the perfect image in your mind. Alas, that's all that seemed to seize my heart: The guitar seemed to have been stolen from another track and, for reasons I've never quite worked out, I've never really listened to, or though much of, Coheed & Cambria's drummer, which is foolish, because he's really quite good.

The song was good, don't misunderstand, but it wasn't Coheed & Cambria. I simply took it in my stride as a blip, and listened to the eagerly-awaited Guns of Summer. Alas, it seemed to be more of the same: Sanchez' lyrics, but guitar from a combination of Tool and Metallica, with maybe just a hint of Megadeth, all merged into a synthesizer-like machine, which seemed too fast for its own good, not like the usual shredding of the twin guitars. It was very, very odd. And it continued in this vein, even progressing by the fourth track to screams. Coheed & Cambria never scream - their lyrics are too poetic for such a thing. I desperately checked the CD, but I had not been mistaken: it was Coheed and Cambria blaring through my speakers.

The fifth track - "Far" - brought to centre stage something that had been annoying me the whole time, nipping at my heels. I ignored my worries that this was possibly the mellowest song on the album (misplaced) and focused on the music. It was like the other three bands I've mentioned, but not really: it only bore a passing resemblance to them. But nonetheless, it sounded familiar. It was as this song faded in that I realised: This entire album was actually Cult Of Luna! Somehow, during the recording process, the whole thing had been sped up. This came all the more evident during "This Shattered Symphony": the guitar line in the Chorus is nearly stolen from Leave Me Here, my favourite Cult Of Luna song.
But besides the speed of the songs, there was another key difference. If you listen (or at least, when I listen) to Salvation by Cult Of Luna, the entire album, despite the distortion, gives off an aura of minimalism, and a clean, uncluttered sound; much like the album cover: The speakers seem to play 'white'. This album was living up to its name, however: It was ridiculously dark. Coheed & Cambria had been serious before, but not spooky, not actively verging on the point of horror. This album sounds like the mind of a serial killer, or the thoughts of a scizophrenic madman. That's not bad, but, my gosh, it's not Coheed & Cambria. As I listened to this, I began to dread the oncoming apocalypse, the end of humanity and all bad things that are fated to pass. In short, this album was amazing: the album played 'black'.

Eventually, Coheed & Cambria seemed to have muscled their way into the recording studio, and you can hear them warming up in tracks such as "World Of Lines" and "Made Of Nothing (All That I Am)", with excellent backing vocals, a trademark of theirs, but the apocalyptic feel returned towards the end, after the partially acoustic love song "Pearl Of The Stars" (well worth a listen), even with their presence, evident in the names of the songs: "When Skeletons Live" and "The Black Rainbow".

The album ends brilliantly on said track, a very typical ender for C&C in the form of a long, spooky, dark and slow piece (See "The Willing Well IV: The Final Cut"), and I was just about believing that Coheed & Cambria had, if nothing else, at least overseen the production of the album, and maybe jotted down the lyrics. But I was not sure why this was how they had opened the Amory Wars saga (inside knowledge required here, I'll explain in a footnote): the end-of-the-world, dystopic feel was more suited to the ending, surely, after the destruction of the keystone?

I love the album - it haunted me more than my black metal whispers of ghost ships, tales of zombies and even my favourite post-hardcore album "Worse Than A Fairy Tale", which describes, in graphic, if poetic, detail the deeds of one invented serial killer in and around a certain Saylor Lake. It had the atmosphere of a doomed mission to reignite the sun, and was brilliantly written and excellently played, with guitar lines to rend hearts and licks that could kill the weak of heart in an instant. It just wasn't Coheed & Cambria, though, and I wasn't sure at first. But if this is the direction that C&C are going in, post Amory Wars, then I'm all for it. As soon as the CD finished I played it again, and a third time, not moving from my seat, just revelling in the sheer majesty of it.

In short, I would recommend this album to anyone, but, if you want to know what Coheed & Cambria are really like, then get hold of a copy of either of the "Dear Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV"s, which are by far their best pieces.

Rating: 9/10

Summary: Apocalyptic, nightmarish visions of doom and filiacide.

Lyrical Themes: The opening of the Amory Wars (Parents try to kill their children for complex reasons, and the kids flee to destroy the universe, obviously)

Track listing:
1. One
2. The Broken
3. Guns Of Summer
4. Here We Are Juggernaut
5. Far
6. This Shattered Symphony
7. World Of Lines
8. Made Of Nothing (All That I Am)
9. Pearl Of The Stars
10. In The Flame Of Error
11. When Skeletons Live
12. The Black Rainbow

Myspace
Download blocked by DMCA, twice. Therefore, buy it from here.

Steel Panther - Feel The Steel

Requested Review:


Genre: Hard Rock, Metal, Glam

Name: Steel Panther

Album: Feel The Steel (2009)


My apologies for the vulgar language below..

Talk about a one-track mind...

Well, I think that Metacritic has got it dead right for once: They gave a review (at time of press) of 55/100. Steel Panther have been around since 2001, and this is their second release (the first that is all music) and fourth name (the others being Danger Kitty, Metal Shop, and Metal Skool). If you glance at the track listing below, I think you'll get an idea about what their songs are about.

The album can be summed up by the fact that the first word is "fuck". If Corey Taylor can be lampooned for his overuse of particular four letter words, I fail to see why Steel Panther can get away with it: there a 32 uses of "Fuck" or derivatives in the album, excluding repetitions (in choroi, for example), and those are only the ones in the booklet. In total there are 77 words that have been obscured with at least one asterisk, by either the record company or Steel Panther themselves, though I fail to understand why: it's not as if anyone who's reading this is going to decide not to complain because of a couple of asterisks.

Even if you do not find this annoying, the lyrics aren't exactly imaginative: "I wanna f*ck you, you f*cking wh*re" (their asterisks) is standard, and the fiery torments of Beelzebub and all of his minions take place in an area described as "really really really really really hot" (which takes up two lines). To be honest, if you asked my dog, he could probably come up with better lyrics than that.

There is only one song that is not based around what the vocalist would like to do to members of the opposite sex, and only one of those that's not completely vulgar (Eyes Of A Panther, which is, aside from "Death To All But Metal", the only actually acceptable song on this). I can understand songs making fun of things - Two acquaintances of mine have done a pair of songs, one of which is called "Two Fatties On A Bench" (but the title of the other one eludes me), based on this. I remember fondly the song "London Underground" which made the circuits in 2005. But this is "an exercise in taking jokes too far."

There are occasional moments of musical flair when "Satchel rips it up", and the hammered dulcimer at the start of the second track is an interesting touch. Party All Day sounds, for the most part, a little like Bon Jovi (take that how you will). There are these occasional moments, but not enough to compensate for the sheer lack of even vaguely interesting acoustics elsewhere: the bass is incoherent, the drums could fit any song, and the riffs are more often than not predictable, dull, or simply standard. In short, their is no prowess to be found in this veritable peal of pandemonium.

But I could abide all this - I'd never listen to it again, but I wouldn't actively hate it - if they hadn't brought down a variety of other people with them: hidden on the CD are Brett Anderson and Allison Robertson of The Donnas, Matt Nelson, Justin Hawkins from The Darkness, Anthrax's Scott Ian and one of the Atomic Punks; namely, Joe Lester. None of those particularly annoy me either. But then they brought in the aforementioned Corey Taylor on three - three! - tracks and M. Shadows on another. That's a total of eight guest musicians (far too many, in my opinion) and
lowered two of my favourite metallic heroes to their level, thus incurring my wrath. I know, it's terrifying. But at least you guys won't damage your ears. Please, take my advice and burn any copies of this CD you may happen to see. If you don't take them out of the shop first, it's not stealing!

And just to show that I'm not the only one who finds this atrocious, I thought I'd give you a few other quotes:
"Steel Panther's ability to create songs that sound like they came from 1987 is commendable. That's about as close to clever as it gets, though. As David St. Hubbins said, "It's such a fine line between stupid and clever," and Saenz's locker-room humor wears thin quickly." - Allmusic - NME
"only those with a retarded grasp of comedy would want to sit at home and listen to fifth-rate, crass glam-metal parodies with titles such as ‘Asian Hooker’ and ‘Stripper Girl’."
"They can still be fun dealing with other topics than sex." - TheLineOfBestFit.com

Rating: 2/10
(Below that, and it's classed as hip-hop, R'n'B or rap)

Summary: It's vulgar, unimaginative and is much like the "Girl From Oklahoma" - she sucked, too.

Track listing:
1. Death To All But Metal
2. Asian Hooker
3. Community Property
4. Eyes Of A Panther
5. Fat Girl (Thar She Blows)
6. Eatin' Ain't Cheatin'
7. Party All Day (F*ck All Night)
8. Turn Out The Lights
9. Stripper Girl
10. The Shocker
11. Girl From Oklahoma
12. Hell's On Fire

If, despite all this, you really want to hear this atrocity:
They don't have Myspace, but here's their website
You want to download them? Really?
All right, if you insist... Download

Trancelike Void - Where The Trees Can Make It Rain

Genre: Doom

Name: Trancelike Void

Album: Where The Trees Can Make It Rain (2010)

If this EP were a font, it would be Minima Sans Serif

Now, first, let me make one thing clear: I thought that trees did have some affect on precipitation. I still believe that they do, in some weird scientific way, but having been informed by the in-house fashion designer that they don't, I shall admit that I am currently losing this battle.

Onto the music. It is, to say the absolute minimum, minimalist. The bass and vocals have been scrapped, the drum kit has been coated in several layers of cotton wool and there are long periods of silence. However, it is not necessarily bad.

The opening track on this twenty-two-and-a-half minute acoustic journey has a slow, melancholy intro, with pauses, which seems repetitive, but after only one-and-a-quarter minutes you get a new theme. That's right, we've got two now! There are even drums for a while. I know, shocking, right? We then return to the original riff, which isn't actually too dissimilar from the second - it's just slower and missing one note. We then get the second riff again, in another "faster" (speed is relative) section. It is only towards the end of the tenth minute that we are shown a new idea, but we soon return to the second lick once more.

The second, and final track is similar: Within an instant you see where the guitar is going, and it simply repeats itself moving up or down an interval each time. We get a hint at a change after one-and-a-half minutes, but only for an instant, and we get three minutes of the same repeated riff. We get a new idea at 3:45, but after that, I'll admit, my attention wavered a little, and I have no further comments to make. It is just more in the same vein.

Now, don't get me wrong: I did enjoy this. The music is pleasant, if not interesting: it doesn't exactly grab you, and it certainly isn't a "blink and you'll miss it affair". There are no moments that you anticipate for the entire song: no excellent fills, no lyrical twists (no lyrics at all) and no expert guitar playing that leaves you weak at the knees. It's simplistic: there aren't even any chords underneath the melody. It is the music I would use to fall asleep (in the nicest way possible), or perhaps listen to if I needed to think deeply about something.

Having written this review, I did a little research. The Belgian duo that is Trancelike Void have supposedly done four other releases, and this is "an incredible risk for TLV. It's entirely acoustic and considerably less dark in both tone and aesthetic than its predecessors" (Courtesy of Cory from emotionallyvoided.blogspot). It appears that this is unusual for this band, and they perhaps are more prone to heavier music. I shall certainly make sure my opinions are informed, and you can anticipate a review of one of their full length releases in time.

Rating: 6/10
Summary: Peaceful, pleasant but perhaps a trifle plain.

Track Listing:
1. The Stone Pond
2. Ghost Mountain

Myspace (No songs from this EP)
Download

Ne Obliviscaris - The Aurora Veil Demo

Genre: Metal: Death/Doom

Name: Ne Obliviscaris

Album: The Aurora Veil (2007)

Drums: Fast = Good ?

Now, Australia is somewhat cut off from the world: Many of you will not know that they have managed to lose a Prime Minister, one Harold Holt, who, upon strolling down the beach one evening "plunged into the surf and disappeared". The fact that they managed to lose a Prime Minister is somewhat impressive - if only we could achieve the same. But I use this to illustrate that there is a lot in this country that you will never have heard of.

Ne Obliviscaris is but one of these. They have only one release and this is it: A three track, thirty-three minute long demo.

The first track, Tapestry Of The Starless Abstract, opens with a fantastic drum fill: alas, it is the best we shall hear (but more on that later). The melody glides in over the top and is strangely enchanting. But then comes the first flaw: despite the brilliant singer, since they are a death metal band, they feel obliged to add some screams. Although I am usually in favour of such things, this particular time I am not. They add nothing to the song, they aren't even very passionate shrieks and they quite literally follow the singing. In short, they are utterly pointless.

Another annoyance in this band is the drums. Drummer Daniel 'Mortuary' Presland won the Australian Final for the Worlds Fastest Drummer Competition, crowning him as the Fastest Feet in Australia in 2006. Now, that isn't necessarily bad. But the band's thought process seemed to go something like this:
"Aha! We've got the one of the world's fastest drummers! Clearly every second of the song must be full of pointlessly fast drums that are really very, very bad.""
Drums are not all about speed. Speaking as a drummer myself, I can attest to that although it is hard, nigh impossible to play that fast, it is more challenging, and possibly sounds better to play in 27-32 time. Having attempted both, I can speak from experience.

Fortunately, both those ills are cured by the triplet-filled acoustic bridge, where you are allowed to relax, take a few breaths and prepare yourself for the next burst of speed. And, while receiving this audible massage, my ears were pricked by a new sound. Could it be? Surely not! Yes - It's a violin. Usually, violins are thrown in at the last minute in a somewhat vain (in all senses of the word) attempt to seem cultured. Most often, it is pointless: it is either inaudible or harmonically pathetic. However here, the strings are perfect: brilliant melodies and it never falls back on repetition.

Having seen that they are not just a standard death metal band, I awaited the new break to speed with eager ears. My more favourable outlook was rewarded with more violins and a much less riff-based section. Alas, the drummer seemed intent to make me lose my faith in the world of drummers by using the much-overused "Blast Beat": 16ths or 32nds (or, as I prefer, semiquavers and semidemiquavers) are played on the bass drums, 8ths or quarters (quavers or crotchets) on the ride and a snare once a bar. It's dreadfully dull and a standard 4/4 bar is all this really fits. Admittedly, I am slightly biased, having come from an introduction to metal based on Mike Portnoy, Lars Ulrich and 'The Rev' (R.I.P.), so have come to expect more, but really: to all budding musicians out there, never fall back on Blast Beating.

After a melodic outro there is the next (effectively) self-named track. It breaks in with an acoustic intro which seamlessly fades in percussive rolls, violins and then an electric guitar, so brilliantly that you don't even notice until suddenly you realise it's happened. Although the violins here seem a little discordant at first, it's soon back to its usual standard.
Unfortunately the blast beat rears its ugly head again, after another section similar to the intro, the screams are fewer and farther between and the guitar dares to stray from the bottom three strings. Unfortunately, the bass drum is constantly pounding out 16th notes which most certainly do not add to the piece.
Screams come in towards the end, but much better this time.

The third track has another minimalist intro with soothing, if I can say that, drums. The shortest track, it is more riff-based, bar the violin, and with the obligitary blast beat in the middle, it ends in a similar manner to that with which it began.

On the whole, Ne Obliviscaris are very good: they use interesting, if not necessarily innovative, melodies and the violin is exemplary. The drums leave a lot to be desired, and the screaming is quite clearly something they were obliged to put in. But aside from those few flaws, they have potential. If they address these matters, their album, should it come out (no signs yet, alas) would fly onto my shelves.

Rating: 6/10
Summary: Death/Doom with a twist, but leaves something to be desired
Lyrical themes: As yet unknown, but caught references to paternal relations (As Icicles Fall) imply family chaos.

Track Listing:
1. Tapestry Of The Starless Extract
2. Forget Not
3. As Icicles Fall

Myspace

Download

Triptykon - Eparistera Daimones

Genre:
Metal: Doom, Funeral, Sludge

Name:
Triptykon

Album:
Eparistera Daimones, (2010)

Only Death Is Real

Celtic Frost were a - well, not a household name, but they were the Pioneers of their genre. They have fallen apart time and time again, but their last release, Monotheist (which I shall review in due course), reached new pinnacles of sheer brilliance. But more on that another time.

It seemed that, upon the "obliteration of Celtic Frost", we had lost a brilliant musician: Tom Gabriel Warrior. But no, I rejoiced upon hearing that, nearly instantaneously, Triptykon was in the works. And when I heard that their album was to be like Monotheist, I knew that this was going to be either brilliant or a failure in all forms.

It did not disappoint. From the first riff I was hooked. The opener, Goetia, is a tirade against "the feeble human quest for salvation within the mass-delusion named 'religion'" is eleven minutes of pure bliss, bar the subject matter, and it is followed by more in the same vein. But it gets even better.
It is when you reach track seven, Myopic Empire, that you realise just how amazing this band is. The lyrics, chanting the name, are strangely hooking, and the "grand piano section" is brilliant, showing that Triptykon are not exclusively stuck to the bottom three strings of the guitar (although they show extensive skill there), but can flit to other instruments. This exquisite track is followed by the best of the album: My Pain. I'm a bit of a sucker for tragic love songs, so this naturally captured my heart, but Simone Vollenweider's vocals once again seize my ears and hold them to the speakers. In short, this is acoustically, lyrically and completely brilliant.
It ends on the longest track of the album, approaching twenty minutes long: Prolonging. This is lyrically very typical of the album, showing Warrior's bubbling hate (this can also be seen in the 'Gratitude' section, included at the end of this post). It is a brilliant ending, with guitar lower than Hermes Conrad's limbo pole that captivates and compels and courses with venom.

Now, the album itself is brilliantly presented, with cover art by H. R. Geiger (Who also did the cover for To Mega Therion and some work for the Alien movies), named 'Vlad Tepes'. Each song also has comments, which, although informative, are a little patronising, arrogant and a tad too elevated for my liking: "It is often the neophytes, the inexperience and unproven ones, those who shine solely by means of a carefully crafted and yet utterly inflated act, who ultimately and unwittingly reveal themselves to be the ingrate vermin" is but one sentence.
But the overall feel of the album is that of anger: Warrior is still caught up with collapse of Celtic Frost. And here is an obvious clue as to the boiling vat of pure hatred that is fuelling Warrior (and doing it rather well): "Those who opposed us, those who lied to tarnish our name, those who interfered, those who lacked faith, may they relish being pathetically self-appointed divinity and continue to decay within their own festering ignorance". And that's from the gratitude section. Remind me never to piss this guy off.

Rating: 10/10
Summary: Dark, dark album very well expressed.
Lyrical Themes: Anger, Religion, More Anger, Love (just the once), Even More Anger.

Track Listing:
1. Goetia
2. Abyss Within My Soul
3. In Shrouds Decay
4. Shrine
5. A Thousand Lies
6. Descendant
7. Myopic Empire
8. My Pain
9. The Prolonging

Myspace
Or: Alternative
Download
But I'd recommend actually getting a hard copy of the CD. The commentary is very interesting and eyeopening, and (unintentionally) downright amusing. Plus, it's legal.