Angry Metal Guy

So here’s a special fucking treat if ever there was one. Ed motherfucking Warby (as he’s known to friends) is writing for this blog to give updates on his HIGHLY anticipated (by this Angry Metal Guy) follow up to Burden of Grief which is one of my favorite doom records ever. He’ll be periodically checking in with the written word as watching him in his studio would be about as exciting as watching Ihsahn was in his (i.e., not fucking entertaining at all; watching flies fuck; paint dry; corpses decay without time-lapse). Enjoy! - AMG

Saturday may 14th

I’ve been working on this album for about 2 months but it feels like 2 years already (which is actually true since I started writing these songs almost immediately after Burden of Grief was released in 2009). I’m still doing rhythm guitars, progress is slow partly because I’m a huge perfectionist and I’m also not the greatest guitarist in the world. I can’t pick up a guitar and do a great take just like that, I really have to work hard to get what I want to hear, which is a massive wall of guitars without too much dirt or noise (inevitable with this much gain and a low tuning) that’s mostly in tune. Not an easy mission to accomplish, I must say. For this album I decided to go even lower than my favored B tuning, so there’s 2 songs in standard A. For this I use my beloved Schecter 7 string ATX (its 6 string brother twin is used for the rest of the album) which behaves very well in A but not before I found the right string gauge… more on that later! Continue reading

Subrosa // No Help for the Mighty Ones
Rating: 2.0/5.0 — No Help for My Attention Span
Label: Profound Lore
Websites: subrosaonline.com | myspace.com/subrosatheatre
Release Dates: EU: 2011.03.04 | US: 03.01.2011

I consider myself a pretty open-minded guy. Sure, I’m angry and a tad dogmatic at times, but I’m certainly not unwilling to engage in new ideas or to follow along with people when they do innovative things. But one trend, or musical movement if I’m going to be polite about it, in the metal underground that I just have never been able to get on board with is sludge or funeral doom. As I’ve said before, I just get bored. My attention span isn’t up for this stuff. There is a mind-numbing simplicity that I think you can only appreciate if you’re really stoned and I, frankly, don’t touch the stuff. Continue reading

Mose Giganticus // Gift Horse
Rating: 3.0/5.0 — Sludgedoomstonersynthrock
Label: Relapse Records
Websites: mosegiganticus.com | myspace.com/mosegiganticus
Release Date: July 20th, 2010

Every now and then, a band comes along and I’m utterly at a loss for how to classify them in the official Steel Druhm Book O’ Metal [That's what you get for not using the Angry Book o' Metal Classifications™, n00b. — AMG]. Generally, this causes me anger and vexation, but I always give a nod of appreciation for the bands that resist easy classification. The latest recipient of the nod is Gift Horse, the second album by Mose Giganticus, for they have truly baffled my considerable pigeonholing acumen. They have forced even me to admit I’m stumped. Mose Giganticus is apparently a one-man entity created by Matthew Garfield, a staple of the Philly punk rock scene for some time. While some of that punk ethos is apparent on Gift Horse, this isn’t exactly a punk album. What is it then? Good question!! Let’s try to piece this puzzle together shall we?

Continue reading

Netherbird // Monument Black Colossal
Rating: 3.5/5.0 – Crappy name, but this bird can fly.
Label: Scarecrow Recordings
Websites: netherbird.com | myspace.com/netherbird
Release Dates: EU: 09.07.2010 | US: 07.20.2010

One thing that I love about heavy metal is that every time you think you have a pretty thorough knowledge of the overall scene, some band you never heard of slithers out of some crevasse and bites you in the ass. Sweden’s Netherbird is just such an ass biter and their second full length, Monument Black Colossal seemingly came out of nowhere and surprised me with some impressively done melodic black metal, despite the really crappy band name and nonsensical album title. What is it with Sweden and metal these days anyway? That place is crawling with quality, ass biting bands! Continue reading

Cathedral – The Guessing Game
Rating: 2.5/5.0 – It’s Cathedral, Jim, but not as we know it…
Label: Nuclear Blast (EU | US )
Websites: myspace.com/cathedral | cathedralcoven.com
Release Date: EU: 26.03.2010 | US: 04.20.2010

After five long years, doom metal fans everywhere are graced with a new record from Coventry occultists, Cathedral. At thirteen tracks on two discs, The Guessing Game seems a fitting followup to 2005′s doom epic, The Garden of Unearthly Delights, which this angry metal guy thinks was their finest offering since their first three albums. All the elements are here – the same line up since Carnival Bizarre; groovy riffs; trippy cover art by Dave Patchett; the usual mix of mythology, literature and occultism that makes Cathedral‘s lyrics so much fun to listen to and read – but does that guarantee a stellar album?

Upon first listening to The Guessing Game, it is evident that Cathedral have decided to look back to their traditional doom metal roots: the tracks are more subdued and even in the most groove-laden riffs, there is a feeling that something is being held back. It sounds to me like Cathedral are trying to break out of their formula by adding new elements to the fray and bringing the old from left-field. Tracks twist and turn through familiar and uncharted territory, a good example of this is in opener “Funeral of Dreams” where a classic sounding Cathedral riff gives way to Lee providing rhythmic spoken words over a passage that would not sound out of place on Sgt. Peppers’ Lonely Hearts Club Band. Another example is in “Cats, Incense, Candles & Wine” where a psychedelic acoustic passage with simple crooning suddenly mutates into a high-octane, disco-tinged belter.

These changes keep the songs fresh and this album is certainly not boring but at the same time there is still something lacking, even in the much more pedestrian dooming of “Death of an  Anarchist”, “Edwidge’s Eyes” and the eerie “Requiem For the Voiceless”.

Despite this missing X-Factor, one thing that cannot be faulted is the instrumentation. Everyone is on top form for this album: the guitars are precise, the bass solid and rhythmic, the drums in time and varied and Lee does some impressive vocal gymnastics for his age. Other critics have bulleted Dorrian for his usual tunelessness on this effort, but I feel it adds to the character of the album, making it dirtier and more twisted and ultimately if you are a Cathedral fan, you should not really notice. The way the vocals drag through “Requiem for the Voiceless” and “Edwidge’s Eyes”, my two stand-out tracks, makes them dark and unpleasant; and at the end of the day, isn’t that what doom metal is all about?

While the album spans two CDs, the actual running time of the album is only a few minutes over a single CD. This is horribly frustrating, especially faced with “filler” tracks like “Immaculate Misconception” and “One Dimenstional People” opening each disc. Of course, they add to the album experience, but are they really necessary? The double-disc feature feels more like a gimmick than anything else; a way of dressing up the album as “bigger and better” than its predecessors. When I get a double-disc, I want one hundred-plus minutes of mind-blowing music, not be forced to have a brief interval between halves.

My other gripe with The Guessing Game is that the groove of Cathedral‘s music seems to have been forsaken, favouring more progressive psychadelia. This album lacks a “Hopkins”, a “Midnight Mountain” or a “Tree of Life & Death”, which really upsets me as a long time Cathedral fan. One of the things that makes their earlier albums so enjoyable is the catchy, singalong choruses filled with simple, punchy, groovy riffs. That “classic” Cathedral sound seems to have been left by the wayside with The Guessing Game and as a result, the album feels poorer for it.

I want to like The Guessing Game. I really do. I am desperately hoping that it is a “grower”, but this is a prime example of where the hype has surpassed the album and fans are left with a slightly substandard product. All of the noise and excitement created by the presentation and the predecessors means that this rather lackluster album falls flat.