Angry Metal Guy

Djerv // Djerv
Rating: 4.0/5.0 — Cool as a cucumber
Label: Indie Records
Websites: myspace.com/djervmusic | facebook.com/djervmusic
Release Dates: Out Now Worldwide

So here’s an old record that has been out since June (so I guess it’s not old, but in the world of reviewing that’s a motherfucking eternity). I’ve been meaning to get to it and I just really haven’t had the time or level of mental stability to do it. But now that we’re on a more even keel and the urge to kill is lessening a bit, I’ve been able to come back to this one. And boy am I glad I’ve come back to this one. Because as I said when I reviewed their EP: Djerv is something that is actually truly cool and unique. Continue reading

Sarke // Oldarhian
Rating: 2.5/5.0 — Darkthrone meets Cemetary in a garage
Label: Indie Recordings
Websites: myspace.com/sarkeofficial
Release Dates:  EU: 2011.04.15 | US: N/A

This is an odd one indeed. Basically, Sarke is a side project for Thomas Berglie (Old Man’s Child, Khold) and he handles all the instruments here. He recruited Nocturno Culto (Darkthrone) to do the vocals and together they released Vorunah in 2009 and now they’re back with Oldarhian. Although both men come from black metal backgrounds, Sarke is not a black metal band. Instead they play a mix of traditional heavy metal, Cemetary, Tiamat and new Darkthrone with some extra punk tossed in for good measure. The music is very stripped down, simplistic and not exceptionally heavy. At least for Nocturno, this material isn’t a big departure since it’s similar to Darkthrone albums like Circle the Wagons and F.O.A.D. Keeping their sound fairly consistent with the Vorunah album, Oldarhian offers more of their basic metal-punk fusion and while it has some enjoyable, rocking songs, it doesn’t completely work for me as a whole. Continue reading

Insense // Burn in Beautiful Fire
Rating: 1.5/5.0 — Quoth the Raven, ‘No more core!!’
Label: Indie Recordings
Websites: myspace.com/insense
Release Dates: EU: 2011.04.08 US: 04.08.2011 [Digitally]

Reviewing albums like this is how I pay my debt for getting the Amon Amarth review. My inbox will become a wasteland of the very worst metalcore, deathcore, screamocore and whatever soulless rubbish Angry Metal Guy can hurl at me in an Oden-like rage (thank God I didn’t ask for the upcoming Amorphis review). As part of my community service, I’m here to enlighten you about Norway’s Insense and their fourth album Burn in Beautiful Fire. If you never heard of them, these guys play third-rate metalcore with all the emo/screamo pap that goes along with that craptastic style. Their bio says Anders Fridén of In Flames thinks they’re the next big thing to hit the scene. Well, if this is what Anders thinks is good music, that explains why In Flames has sucked so thoroughly since Colony. All apologies and respect to Mr. Fridén but even by metalcore standards this is super shitty and irritating. It’s boring,  annoyingly unoriginal and painfully below average in every aspect. I even hate the freaking album cover. Continue reading

Solefald // Norrøn Livskunst
Rating: 5.0/5.0 — Fuck yes.
Label: Indie Recordings
Websites: solefald.no
Release Dates: EU: 15.11.2010 | US: Unknown

Solefald is just a cool band and they have been for a long time. I first got into their stuff with the epic Red for Fire: An Icelandic Odyssey which came out in 2005 and that record has maintained a standard place in my discography because of its amazing blending of black metal, progressive metal and rock and unique Norse sounds. While I was not equally as impressed with Black for Death and I’ve been a bit hit or miss on some of the band’s older material, I’ve always appreciated the band’s unique approach to the music they produce and their intensely creative outputs. Nothing they have put out has really disappointed me, it’s just a matter of being more or less into it. Continue reading

Enslaved // Axioma Ethica Odini
Rating: 4.0/5.0 — Great, but a bit forced…
Label: Indie Recordings (EU) | Nuclear Blast (US)
Websites: enslaved.no
Release Dates: EU: 27.09.2010 | US: 09.28.2010

It is not hard to accept one fundamental axiom of the post-black metal Norway that I have referred to recently: Enslaved is easily Norway’s finest band. From the beginning the band has always been strong; grown-ups in a room filled with angry teenagers. This sense has not lessened with the passage of time. While certain members of the scene will forever be singing their equivalent of Alice Cooper ridiculous teen hits as 45 year olds (or older, like the man himself), Enslaved will continue to push the boundaries of black metal with a mature and progressive sound. Starting with the release of Below the Lights in 2003, Enslaved has produced four modern classics of “progressive, psychedelic black metal.” The fourth of this string of amazing albums was Vertebrae, which was released in 2008 and landed the band a tour with Opeth as well as more recognition than they had ever received worldwide. And with good reason: it was the best record the band had written to date. Continue reading

Sahg // III
Rating: 4.0/5.0 — The Norwegian scene is dead, long live the Norwegian scene!
Label: Indie Recordings
Websites: sahg.no | myspace.com/sahg
Release Dates: EU: 30.08.2010 | US: Unknown (09.14.2010?)

Retro is the new new, apparently. Everyone and their dog is doing retro bands doing old school things with better (or at least louder) production and with the sensibilities of generations who have listened to a lot of music and decided that it’s time to come back to the thing that really seems to unite them: the 1970s. I, myself, have been listening to a lot of stuff from the 1970s lately, and especially the progressive rock movement that influenced many of the musicians from Scandinavia seems to be rearing its head in an interesting combination of traditional hard rock, heavy metal sensibilities and dudes who used to play black metal. Sahg‘s III embodies this movement sonically—and does it very, very well. Continue reading

Djerv // Headstone EP
Rating: 3.5/5.0 — Highly entertaining and pretty unique
Label: Katapult Music (Indie Distro)
Websites: myspace.com/djervmusic
Release Dates: August 3rd, 2010

I don’t make a real habit of reviewing an EP because EPs aren’t really considered to be a “happening” in the musical sense of the word. They aren’t an event in the traditional sense that an LP is—rarely longer than about 15 or 20 minutes it’s hardly not anything to get too excited about. But Norway’s Djerv, a combination of vocalist Agnete Kjølsrud (Animal Alpha), Erlend Gjerde (Wardruna) and Stian Kårstad of the mighty Trelldom, have created a fascinating fusion of sounds that was something that I didn’t want to pass up. Continue reading

1349 // Demonoir
Rating: 4.0/5.0 – A good balance between dark and darker
Label: Indie Recordings
Websites: myspace.com/1349official | legion1349.com
Release Dates: EU: 26.04.2010 | US: 04.27.2010

I first became acquainted with 1349 at their landmark Hellfire album which marked them as leaders of the post-90′s Norwegian black metal scene. It seems with their subsequent release, Revelations of the Black Flame, they lost a lot of support from their “true” supporters for their favoring more ambient passages and relying more on atmospherics than blistering black metal. Luckily, 1349‘s latest offering attempts to strike a balance between the two extremes in the genre and Demonoir looks like a very solid album, treading the waters between dark ambient and black metal to great effect.

On Demonoir the much maligned ambient passages are back, punctuating the black metal songs throughout. However, after giving the record a number of listens, I feel both “halves” of the album should be examined separately, as different entities, and then evaluated as a whole. The “Tunnel of Set” ambient pieces are irregularly numbered, starting (in Roman Numerals) at eleven and working up to seventeen. It is only once these seven tracks are rearranged in order that they actually make sense – and when they do you are confronted with some of the nastiest, most evil-sounding dark ambient to grace a record in a long time. The “Tunnel of Set” as a single piece is almost nauseating; creating an eerie, guitar tinged atmosphere that literally makes your skin crawl. Listening to each piece reminded me a lot of the soundtracks to horror movies, and even more of the popular survival horror series, Silent Hill. Frequencies rise and sag; indescribable sounds creep through the static and noise and silence only accentuates feelings of dread! Something is very wrong in these ambient pieces and as a result they stick with you, crawling into the back of your mind, ready to be played during the most visceral of nightmares and cultivating impending doom between each song.

“Atomic Chapel” is the first track after a brief “Tunnel of Set” introduction. After some fast paced riffing to kick the song off, it settles into a rather pedestrian pace, favoring spoken oration over other forms of vocals. Ravn’s vocals are the usual throaty rasp, and the two vocal styles switch back and forth until we are greeted with what sounds like a madman bashing on a piano – albeit musically. The piano feels very out of place in the guitar-driven sound, but it ushers in an increase in pace that reaches back, very noticably, to Hellfire. This sound continues through “When I Was Flesh” and “Pandemonium War Bells”, though the latter feels horirbly stretched out, approaching boring.

“Psalm 7:77″ is where 1349 really show their colours. High-speed, thrash-inspired riffs coupled with hyper-aggressive drums create a maelstrom of really evil sounding metal. The guest solo from Norwegian guitar master, Ronnie leTekrö, creates a great atmosphere over the razor sharp riffing that compliments the thrash sound perfectly (sounding very Kirk Hammet-ish in places). My only gripe would be with the vocals, which have a rather annoying distortion filter over them. This distortion comes and goes between songs and I found it a serious downer to an otherwise excellent song.

The aforementioned piano returns on “The Devil of the Desert” and adds to the energetic atmosphere by sending it delightfully off-kilter while remaining majestic and Big! In the wake of Dimmu Borgir and company, piano in black metal feels horribly overdone, but 1349‘s use of the instrument, however brief, is refreshingly unorthodox and it contributes to the feeling of unease created by the ambient tracks. Finally, the title track—before a lengthy ambient outro—is quite slow by 1349‘s standard, using whispered vocals and ambient effects. It feels solid though and is a fitting end to the album.

Considering the band’s recent career, I would say that Demonoir is 1349‘s watershed album. They will possibly alienate a lot of fans due to the ambient passages, but could win more due to the balance of dark and darker music gracing the album. The presence of the “Tunnel of Set” on the album should not put more hardline fans off: there is nearly forty minutes of quality black metal on the album and I guarantee that it will not disappoint. Demonoir strikes a healthy balance between black metal atmospherics and the more aggressive, evil riffing that attracts fans to the genre in the first place. This is a solid release from a band that has not fallen into irrelevance in the wake of the Norwegian black metal scene of the 90′s and that clearly has a firm idea of where they are going!

Audrey Horne // Audrey Horne
Rating: 3.5/5.0 — Ozzy meets modern rock! Catchy, well-produced, commercial.
Label: Indie Recordings
Websites: myspace.com/audreyhornemusic
Release Date: EU: 01.03.2010 | US: 03.01.2010 (?)

It’s been a long time since a sort of standard modern rock or traditional metal band really showed off anything that this Angry Metal Guy appreciated. For the most part, modern rock has been rehashed BS and overrated post-Seattle scene leftovers. The bands that have tried to convert their sounds (see: the remnants of Guns N’ Roses meets STP or Europe‘s latest incarnation) have really failed at it because the sound is, at its root, boring as hell. Rehashing rock again with thicker guitar tone and a vocalist who will never live up to the classics is pretty much a good way to guarantee that your vocalist buddy goes to rehab, but not much more. Whatever happened to Buckcherry again? Oh right. Flash in the effing pan.

So, it was with great surprise that Audrey Horne is none of these things. Instead, Audrey Horne is a smartly packaged modern rock band with pop, pizazz and some seriously above par songwriting skills. And where are they from? Oh, you guessed it: NORWAY! Wait, you didn’t guess that? That’s right, Audrey Horne, my metal brethren, is made up of a bunch of Norwegian metal dudes who apparently are also suckers for trad rock and metal and who, instead of going the “let’s try to be Iron Maiden” route, went the “let’s make pop rock” route in their quest to pay homage to traditional metal. And they pull it off. It’s just funny to see that Ice Dale (Enslaved) is in this band. ‘Cause he’s in like every project on Indie Recordings. Anyone else notice that? Honestly, I think it’s one of their signing requirements. “Well, we only sign Norwegian bands and you gotta use Ice Dale on guitar.”

But on to the music. This is not a metal album. This is modern rock with pretty good riffs, great melodies and no shortage of wall of sound guitars. This is the kind of thing your buddy would show you and you’d say “Oh, yeah, that’s alright.. but have you heard…”. It’s the kind of thing you’d pick up, but your girlfriend would listen to more than you. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if these guys got picked up by Roadrunner and sent on tour with Nickelback. This is not meant to be an insult (because honestly, these guys put Nickelback to shame in terms of talent, song writing, originality and non-annoyingness), but the sound is palatable, sweet and catchy as hell. However, the listener feels like they’ve heard this before.. but just can’t place it.

That said, we like it! While the record drags on a little at the end, the songs on here are well composed and catchy. The opening track “Charon” bursts out the door to open the record (after the intro track “Vultures”) and had me immediately hooked, largely because of vocalist Toschie’s mix between Ozzy and Scott Weiland and his adhesive melodies—you will have this chorus stuck in your head for days afterwords. The introductory Ozzy channeling isn’t the only time it happens. Instead it can be easily seen on tracks like “Blaze of Ashes” and “Bridge and Anchors”. But these guys are really at their best when they’re doing something that’s a little bit more akin to Tool‘s sound, with sort of atmospheric, melodic verse parts and big, memorable choruses like on the song “Pitch Black Mourning” and “Firehose”. The  only major misfires are ballads. This record contains a couple of them and they are no good.. just no good. Let what is dead stay dead, guys. (Really? “Sail Away”? REALLY?)

Audrey Horne is really good at what they do, but what they do is going to strike different metalheads in different ways. I can see this being really popular with sort of older, more traditional metal fans who are probably in the same age group as the guys in this band. They’re going to find everything they want: catchy choruses, good guitar solos, retro keyboard sounds and highly melodic vocals that harken back to when men were men and they had frills on their jackets. If you’re into that, or into post-grunge modern rock, then we suggest you check this out. ‘Cause, these Norwegians do it better than any American band this Angry Metal Guy has heard in .. well .. years.

Borknagar // Universal
Rating: 3.5/5.0 — Very good, feels unfocused at times and its definitely a grower..
Label: Indie Recordings
Websites: myspace.com/borknagar
Release Dates: EU: 22.02.2010 | US. 03.02.2010

Borknagar is a class act and has been for a long time. Reaching all the way back to their first, self-titled release, this band has separated itself from the herd by being just plain more interesting and unique. Eventually they just separated themselves from the modern black metal scene altogether, heading towards more progressive pastures. Universal continues a trend away from the raw and simple towards the highly complex, dynamic and progressive—but the question is whether or not the band’s fans and general public will want to follow the band in this direction. Well, and whether or not where the band is leading is somewhere worth going.

Make no mistake about it Borknagar is a seriously talented and fantastic band. Even with the departure of longtime drummer Asgeir Mickelson, the band didn’t miss a beat (oh, hahahaha, I’m so funny) when they picked up American drummer David Kinkade who performs admirably while filling some of metal’s biggest drumming shoes. Vintersorg sounds fantastic as well, though he’s mixed quite far back on this record, more so than on previous albums. On a close listen, Universal is a record of incredible layers. All of the instruments are painting complex, elaborate, detailed and beautiful portraits which come together sometimes to create a grand tapestry of sound.

Unfortunately, all this epicness and detailed playing also leads to what I see as the biggest problem from which this record suffers: a lack of focus. While every song on the record has shining moments of beauty and clarity, Universal seems messy and hard to follow at times. Intros to tracks can feel like total non sequiturs when the verse actually starts, (see: “For A Thousand Years to Come”) or sometimes the instruments seemingly clash with each other instead of working together to create beautiful chords and harmonies. Particularly in my normal speakers, I found myself just wandering off mentally when this record started overload my ears with information that seemingly clashed. However, a deeper listen with earphones helped me see through this sort of foggy mix (metaphorically speaking) and helped me come to a better understanding of these tracks.

And let me say: there are some really strong tracks on this album. The opener, “Havoc” is sort of your standard Borknagar opener, but it has done its job and stuck in my head. “My Domain” which features a guest appearance from Simen Hestnæs is another track that stands out for its epic build, particularly to the end of the song and stands as a reminder of what a fantastic vocalist Simen really is (and what Dimmu Borgir lost). “Abrasian Tide” is probably the most reminiscent of Quintessence and Empiricism on the whole record, and it’s just a solid track from start to finish. But my personal favorite track on the album is probably “Fleshflower” which, while quite short by metal standards, features a fantastic neo-classical kind of melody and some really convincing vocal performances. All of these awesome tracks point me to the same conclusion, when the band stays focused, they are able to produce epic, fascinating and powerful tracks. The big problem is when they let their progressive urges get ahead of themselves and the tracks start to wander.

Of course, the above tracks are not the only ones on the album I like. Every song on here has stand out moments, but I still do feel like I just get lost at some points and really, this is the first album by Borknagar where I’m able to say that. I admittedly had some issues with Epic at times, but even that one I felt like had a lot more good than bad and I can honestly say that I never had to work at liking that record. Universal, on the other hand, is a record that I have put a ton of effort into dissecting and trying to enjoy because of the high regard I hold this band in. While in the end I still think that this is a pretty good record, it certainly didn’t manage to live up to my expectations and had I not been forced to write a cogent review of it, I don’t know whether or not I would have given it more than just a couple listens.