Angry Metal Guy

Woebegone Obscured // Deathstination
Rating: 3.0/5.0 — A thick, meaty helping of doom
Label: I, Voidhanger Records
Websites: myspace.com/woebegoneobscuredband
Release Dates: 24.01.2011

Doom metal is a sub-genre that gets a lot of flak from orthodox metal fans for being “boring” or “too slow”, even more so for the processionary pace of funeral doom. Enter Denmark’s Woebegone Obscured, self-described as a “blackened funeral doom” band, with their debut full length Deathstination (self-released in 2007 and now re-released by I, Voidhanger records) – a crushingly slow doom album punctuated by high-energy black metal flourishes and a very apparent progressive mentality. Continue reading

It’s hard to make this kind of broad list, I just want to say that from the get-go. How do you do this? Do you choose your favorites, or do you choose the genre defining records? Because saying, for example, that some of the following records are really genre defining wouldn’t be true. On the other hand, these are the records that when I go back and look at the 2000s I think of pretty immediately as some of the best stuff and the things that I keep coming back to.

But the 2000s have been an interesting time for metal in a lot of ways. One of the things that happened was that death metal and death metal-influenced music really hit the mainstream in a lot of ways. For the first time since the 1980s there were larger groups of young people who really started getting into metal and there is an entire generation of musicians who have been influenced by the heavy metal of the 80s and the underground of the 1990s (particularly black and death metal). While I believe that metal is on the ebb again (in a popular music sense) and will once again retreat underground to lick its wounds and come up with something fascinating, interesting and new, the 2000s have been a great time to be a fan of the genre.

This list is going to take a lot of hits. I can already hear some of them, and some of them will come out of left field. But, as usual, I refuse to apologize for my taste. The focus on “magazine metal” bands will probably irritate some, and others will argue that my choices from one genre or another aren’t representative of the best of that genre during the period (specifically death metal in this case). But when I look back on the last 9 years, these are the ones that stand out. And trust me, there’s some stuff that I wish I could get on there, but I didn’t include an honorable mentions section since I expanded the list to 15. But there are some amazing records (Moonsorrow‘s Hävitetty, Anata‘s Under a Stone with No Inscription and The Conductor’s Departure, Agalloch‘s The Mantle, Turisas‘ The Varangian Way, Necrophagist‘s Epitaph, Ásmegin‘s Hin Vordende Sod & Sø, Absu‘s Tara, Rhapsody‘s Power of the Dragonflame, Anathema‘s A Fine Day to Exit, Nile‘s Black Seeds of Vengeance, Otyg‘s Sagovindars Boning, Obscura‘s Cosmogenesis, Watain‘s Sworn to the Dark, Akercocke‘s Antichrist, Enslaved‘s Below the Lights are just a few of my major oversights) that came out during this period that haven’t ended up on this list and I’m aware of that.

Anyway, I hope you find this list enjoyable, shocking, provocative and maybe even dead on. Backwards this time…

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Dimmu Borgir // Abrahadabra
Rating: 3.5 — Massive improvement
Label: Nuclear Blast [EU | US]
Websites: dimmu-borgir.com | myspace.com/dimmuborgir
Release Dates: EU: 24.09.2010 | US: 10.12.2010

It’s that time again! Dimmu Borgir is releasing a new album. It’s been a while, actually, and after having a scruff in the media with former keyboardist Mustis and having the mighty vocalist and for show bassist Simen Hestnæs leave the band (to the joy of Arcturus and Borknagar fans), there was actually a bit of anticipation to see what would happen with this album. I, like many, believed what Mustis said about writing all the music in the band and not getting the credit he deserved—and Abrahadabra proves that I think—but instead of being an indictment of the band, it may have been an idictment of Mustis’ writing.

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Pain of Salvation // Road Salt pt. 1 – Ivory
Rating: 5.0/5.0 — A stellar re-invention that should bring you to tears
Label: InsideOut
Websites: painofsalvation.com | myspace.com/painofsalvation
Release Dates: SE: 14.05.2010 | EU: 17.05.2010 | US: 06.08.2010

One would assume that an Angry Metal Guy wouldn’t be handing out high scores willy nilly, something I seriously try to avoid doing. But apparently 2010 is a year filled with really fantastic albums by bands doing the things that, as a reviewer, and more specifically, as a music-lover, I have trouble not totally falling for. Pain of Salvation has never been a band that I personally fell for. Scarsick, the band’s 2007 release, was a record that I had issues with and I’ve had some personal gripes about Daniel Gildenlöw’s vocals on the older material (specifically his wannabe Mike Patton rappy/talky vocals). But, that said, Pain of Salvation has long been the darling of the progressive rock and metal scene, with legions of fans who love their technical prowess and pop sensibility.

Road Salt, then, stands to be a great disappointment for a large number of fans who are looking for neo-progressive sensibilities. This is simply not the same band that put out The Perfect  Element (Part I). There is nothing on this record that should outright appeal to metal heads and fans of tech music. But there’s something else, and something that in my opinion places this album on a different plane than 99% of albums released this year, an emotional depth, beauty, fragility and, lastly, dirtiness that makes this album a fantastic journey and easily my favorite Pain of Salvation to date.

Road Salt is still a prog record, however, it’s just way more a 70s rock influenced album that places the band into the same arena as bands like Porcupine Tree, Anathema, Guilt Machine and their ilk. And when I say “70s rock influenced”, let me be totally clear: this is an album that is built to sound like it was recorded on analogue equipment in a room with brown shag carpeting, made by bearded men in bell bottoms who’d smoked a little bit too much hash. The guitar tone screams Hendrix, the vocal harmonies mimic the soul harmonies of folk musicians like Kris Kristofferson and the moog organ is something that you’ve heard a million times while digging through your dad’s record collection. Hell, even the build at the end of the first track “No Way”, sounds like it came off a Trettioåriga Kriget record. And there’s nary a technical wank solo to be found on this album. No, instead the album is based a lot around blues rock—a thing that this Angry Metal Guy hates with a total passion.

But from the opening notes of this album, I was moved emotionally in a way that I think no record has done almost ever. Gildenlöw’s vocal performance is perfect—it is emotionally evocative, huge and sweeping and amazing. His emotional performance reshapes good (or excellent) music into something that is epic and transformative. By bringing his prog and non-blues rock influenced sensibilities to the entire genre and then placing his vocal perfection over songs like “She Likes to Hide”, “Sisters”, “Linoleum” and probably the most evocative of  all the tracks on the album “Road Salt”, Gildenlöw and Pain of Salvation create a sound all their own in what is easily the most overdone genre in the history of mankind. Turning the sounds of 60s and 70s rock and blues into something unique in 2010 is a magical feat, honestly. I have trouble wrapping my mind around how it was done.

In the end, this is an album that should make your heart ache. There is a sadness that really permeates the album. And in an era when hard rock and metal is so incredibly impersonal, when every other record is faux hate and anger or clichéd nonsense, it is beyond refreshing to have band produce material that is so emotionally poignant and beautiful. On top of that, of course, is the fantastic production of this album, mixed with the superb quality of musicians involved in the whole production and you have the formula for what is easily one of the best albums of the year—and one of the best albums I have heard in a really, really long time.

So happy, that Kvarforth...

Shining – V / Halmstad (Niklas Angående Niklas)
Rating: 5.0/5.0
Band Website: http://www.myspace.com/shininghalmstad
Label: Osmose Productions

I’d start like I knew who this band was 3 days ago, but that would be a lie. You’d think that a band like these guys, i.e., “suicide black metal” with all the lyrics in Swedish wouldn’t have passed under my radar. Unfortunately, my radar is all muddled with other things these days and I never really pay as much attention as I should. So, forgive me my surprise when I discovered this band which is on their 5th album and apparently commands some respect among the “avant garde black metal” guys. With most of Scandinavian black metal pretty much pushed underground, made a joke of or, worse, now techno, it’s terribly refreshing to hear a band with interesting ideas, raw sound and some serious misanthropy that permeates every chord on this excellently written album.

V / Halmstad is a dirgey amalgamation of plenty of different aspects of black metal, ranging from the near doom feel of Xasthur-like passages, to the acoustic work that is reminiscent of Bergtatt/Nattens Madrigal era Ulver. The vocals are harsh but not your traditional high-pitched Emperor or Darkthrone style black metal vocals. Ranging between gut-wrenching screams and some almost thrash-like clean vocals (that make few appearances) Shining manages to get across the deepest of emotional angst, stress and depression using dynamics to their advantage unlike many black metal bands who are so obsessed with kvlt extremity that they forget that black metal is about being evil and anti-human, not necessarily a satanic noise-fest.

V / Halmstad is also a very well produced record for the sound. While not polished to an overpriced shine like so many modern metal records (of which Dimmu Borgir may well be the biggest offenders in the scene), it’s obvious that they spent enough time to get the correct ambiance. This means well-recorded acoustics, great guitar tone and vocals that aren’t overdone with ridiculous amounts of reverb so that the vocalist doesn’t sound like he should be yelling “Briiiiing meeee the tooooooilet paaaaaaaaaaperrrrr!” from the bathroom down the hall. In fact, in terms of production and ambiance, it’s actually quite similar to My Arms, Your Hearse by Opeth; which suits the album perfectly.

All told Shining have put together a record that, in my book, will definitely compete for one of the best albums of the year. It’s well-written, cohesive and nearly seamless. You zone into it and before you know it the whole thing is over and you want another listen. The dynamics of the record and the excellent song writing really pull the whole thing together and definitely will put it up for contention against such powerhouse records of the year like Hävitetty by Moonsorrow and Finntroll‘s excellent new record Ur Jordens Djup.