Angry Metal Guy

These last couple weeks have been pretty crazy for this Angry Metal Guy.  I’ve moved south from the fair city of Umeå, to the much bigger (and arguably fairer) city of Uppsala.  While I miss Norrland, I do have to say that I’m quite enjoying certain aspects of the student culture in the city of Uppsala.   I haven’t had a lot of music time, but here’s some of what I’ve been listening to in the last week.

Weekly suggestion: Guilt Machine – On This Perfect Day — Yeah, this record was seriously solid and I strongly suggest you pick it up.

The Black Dahlia Murder – Deflorate — Oh, this is good.  I wasn’t super impressed with Nocturnal, so I’m pleased.  Watch for a review coming soon.
Gwyllion – The Edge of All I Know — Definitely heard better, but a pretty alright record.  Good vocals.
Insomnium - Across the Dark — Watch for this review.  Out on the 7th of September in Europe.
Isis – Wavering Radiant — These guys are ridiculously overrated.
Havok – Burn — See the review.  Great fucking riffs.
Amorphis – Skyforger — Best album of 2009?  So far.
Anaal Nathrakh – The Constellation of the Black Widow — \m/
Propagandhi – Supporting Caste — It ain’t the glory days, but these guys are still the smartest political band around.
Marduk – Rom 5:12 — I’m getting psyched for the new record, are you?
Falkenbach – Ok Nefna Tysvar Ty — Excellent viking/folk metal record.. addictive melodies.
The Dear Hunter – Act III: Life and Death — Excellent.
Amon Amarth – Live in Bochum 30/12/08 — Seriously, worth buying the reissue for this live record.

Havok – Burn
Rating: 3.5/5.0 (Great riffing offset by bad, bad lyrics)
Label: Candlelight Records
Website: myspace.com/havok
Release Dates: Out now (apparently)

How could Havok be anything but thrash?  One doesn’t even have to listen to the band to get an idea of what they sound like when one looks at the coloration and logo of the band’s debut album: Burn.  And Havok truly lives up to their predecessors—need I name them?  Kill ‘Em All era Metallica, Testament, and so forth.. actually, these guys sound like a re-birth of America’s most famous metal scene of all time: the bay area thrash scene.

That said, Havok certainly isn’t just rehashed suck.  Sure, they’re part of this ever-growing but never-developing neo-thrash scene, but they’ve got something a lot of these new bands never have had: chops.  The riffing on Burn is fucking killer.  It’s not your average thrash riffing, but instead it’s like taking Reign in Blood and putting it on meth—face-ripping, kick ass riffing that makes you want to thrash like crazy (though, I still don’t want to wear shoes with puffy tongues like I had in 3rd grade).  On top of that, these guys are pretty technical, too.  Sure, it’s not mind-blowing, but it’s cool enough that you’re left thinking, “yeah, these guys were a good pick-up.”

Unfortunately, despite great riffing, good tone and grooving tightness, Havok suffers from one thing: totally retarded lyrics.  I mean, yeah, they could be worse.. They could be Ravage, but instead, they’re just ironically silly at times or worse.  The track “Identity Theft” is a perfect example of this.  These lyrics are just outright bad and should never have been put on a record.  Frankly, that jackass from Slipknot wouldn’t have even used these.  “Identity theft! Who are you? Identity theft! Find something new. You think your different?  To try to fit in…”  “I don’t try to lead, others just like to follow me.”   Seriously, my middle school band had bitter lyrics than this.  This stuff is just sad and silly and it really detracts from the record as a whole.¹ While the music is fucking fantastically interesting and fun, the guitar playing is stellar and the feel of the album is great, I think they should’ve used some black metal vocals or something to hide how totally dumb their lyrics are.

Of course, the bad lyrics don’t stop this record from kicking ass.  There are stellar tracks on here, particularly “Path to Nowhere,” “Scabs of Trust” and the seriously excellent “Afterburner” which is easily the best track on the album.   When it comes to thrash, there sure as hell isn’t a lot coming out these days that I think is any good, so let me be perfectly clear when I say that Havok is the most convincing neo-thrash band that I’ve heard.  They’ve got the edge, the technicality, the chops and the all around presentation that make them a band to watch.  And I’ll sure as hell be watching.