Angry Metal Guy

Whitechapel // A New Era of Corruption
Rating: 3.5/5.0 — Deathcore bad. Whitechapel … good!?
Label: Metal Blade
Websites: whitechapel.com | myspace.com/whitechapel
Release Dates: EU: 04.06.2010 | US: 06.08.2010

At the center of every shitty, irritating trend made up of forgettable, annoying bands is usually a core (no pun intended) of interesting bands that aren’t shitty and that do the music with conviction and may have even been on the front end of the whole trend. The Gothenburg sound had At The Gates and In Flames which have been imitated thousands of times. Metalcore (incidentally which is ripping off At The Gates and In Flames) had Unearth (who had one really great album before they got signed to Metal Blade). As far as I can tell Whitechapel is one such band. I have never listened to them, having been pretty much turned off of any band labeled deathcore because of a slough of shitty fucking bands that have been passed off in my direction (see the “related reviews”, I’m sure you’ll see how I feel about the genre/trend).

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Diabulus in Musica // Secrets
Rating: 2.0/5.0 — Super derivative, some great melodies
Label: Metal Blade
Websites: diabulusinmusica.com | myspace.com/diabulusinmusicaband
Release Dates: EU: 24.05.2010 | US: 05.25.2010

Diabulus in Musica is a band that you’ve heard before dozens of times in different forms. There was a while when like every single band on Napalm Records sounded like them, but it is not a sound that is terribly popular in the year 2010. So while the band could be commended for releasing an album that sounds like Theatre of Tragedy or Epica in 2010 because they’re bucking the trend and doing their own thing, they could also be heavily criticized for sounding exactly like Theatre of Tragedy or Epica (more the latter than the former). I’m sure that the members of Diabulus in Musica are sick of being compared to Theatre of Tragedy and Epica, if they’re sick of that they should probably not read this review, because I am about to launch into a 500 word diatribe about how there has to be something new that can be done with the chick in a metal band thing, but that no one seems to be doing it. Continue reading

Fatal Embrace // Empires of Inhumanity
Rating: 3.0/5.0 – Thrash like its still 1985
Label: Metal Blade
Websites: fatal-embrace.net | myspace.com/fatalembracemetalberlin
Release Dates: EU: 04.06.2010 | US: 06.08.2010

Trends often start off with a good idea or at least a respectable inspiration. However, through imitation and copying, that original idea becomes a trend and the trend gets boring, overdone and ultimately becomes a joke. The retro 80’s power metal trend is in full bloom and many would say the 80’s retro thrash movement has been overdone for years already. As someone who grew up in the 80’s metal era, I may possess more tolerance for this whole “retro” thing since it does this old heart good to hear a quality metal album that truly captures the sound, energy and spirit of a time long gone. Therefore, my review of The Empires of Inhumanity, the new release by German thrashers Fatal Embrace will be more charitable than what it would have received from other angry metal guys. In all fairness, these Teutonic shredders have been around since 1993 so they could rightfully be considered part of the original thrash movement rather than a retro band. Either way though, over four albums Fatal Embrace have demonstrated an unwavering dedication to the 80’s thrash style of Slayer and Sodom while foregoing all modern styles and current trends completely. Continue reading

Skyforger // Kurbads
Rating: 4.0/5.0 — A remarkable blend of elements
Label: Metal Blade
Websites: skyforger.lv | myspace.com/skyforgerofficial
Release Dates: EU: 23/26.04.2010 | US: 05.11.2010

Skyforger is Latvia’s answer to folk metal and they’ve been giving it a go for quite a while. Despite having been around since 1995, however, they’ve not produced a terribly huge discography. In fact, Kurbads is the first Skyforger album since 2003, when they self-released a folk album that was mightily well-received by their fanbase—even, apparently, more so their metal album from the same year Thunderforge. The band, for the record, has also been involved in a bit of controversy surrounding the use of, what the band calls a thundercross, and what the rest of us call a swastika in their logo. But it seems the band has worked very hard to distance themselves from any of the controversy surrounding this and should be approached from a non-political stance.

And pure folk metal Kurbads certainly is. Written with an eye towards ancient Latvian mythologies about men becoming heroes, every song on this record is basically about people standing up to the evil confronting them and defeating them. Think about it as the Baltic equivalent of the great national epics of Germany, Sweden, England or anywhere else for that matter. To back up this admirable and interesting concept the band has once again attacked the subject with their breed of doomy (or at least mid-paced) blackened folk metal. As I’ve been listening to this album I’ve had some issues placing exactly who the band sounds like, which is a thing to be admired, really, but I guess the best way to describe Skyforger‘s sound to newcomers is a blend of 80s thrash, Iron Maiden and Bathory with a healthy dose of folk melodies. It is a sound that is both familiar and comfortable, yet unique and interesting. Normally not a fan of mid-paced bands, Skyforger spoke to me on a completely different level.

This appeal has largely to do with the well-structured and interesting songwriting which combines all these different elements into a strong alloy. For example, the track “Black  Rider” mixes a Blind Guardian-esque riff, using bagpipes as lead instead of overly layered guitars, with an old school style Motörhead riff. While “The Nine-Headed” blends folk metal with Kreator-like German thrash and Iron Maiden‘s dual guitar leads. Each one of these songs offers a beautiful blending of these different metal styles and makes them cool, cohesive and crushing. My personal favorite song, and the one that convinced me that Kurbads was going to be a good record after all was definitely “Son of the Mare”, which starts out slow but turns into a speed metal track of amazing quality, with some of the most addictive melodies being carried by the bagpipes towards the end. This track set the standard for the album, which most of the record really lives up to.

Listening to Kurbads I’m really reminded of what it is about being a metalhead that I like so much. Sure, there seems to be a ridiculous amount of genrefication that’s gone on in the last few years. There are very few bands that are universally loved by metalheads in the same way that an Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Black Sabbath or a Metallica once were. But the ability of bands to take these various different genres, blend them together and get something new out of it is definitely something that is worth our admiration. Every metalhead has his or her own idea of what The Best Fucking Band Ever should sound like, and most of the time it’s not one band, but several. Skyforger has managed to mix all of these things together to write one of the more interesting folk metal albums you’ll hear these days and something I guarantee you doesn’t sound anything like Eluveitie, Turisas or Finntroll—and that’s what makes it awesome.

The Ocean // Heliocentric
Rating: 4.5/5.0 — Inventive and interesting!
Label: Metal Blade
Websites: theoceancollective.com | myspace.com/theoceancollective
Release Dates: EU: 12.04.2010 | North America: 04.13.2010

Apparently everyone but me has heard of The Ocean Collective and has been all stoked about them for the past few years and talking about how cool they are. Apparently they’ve even opened up for bands like Cult of Luna and Opeth and have toured the world doing tons of shows and going through a bajillion members on the way! Who knew!? Apparently everyone but me! So let me say that this record was a shot in the dark. Metal Blade is distroing another more underground band through their label and while this hasn’t always done them well, this was definitely a good choice.

Heliocentric is a record that borders onto what I think most people would probably call post-hardcore at this point. These guys belong right in the same league as Cult of Luna, Ghost Brigade, Burst and others who have deftly blended hardcore, metal and alternative rock into something its own. Heliocentric offers one of the most cogent and inventive additions to this legacy with an orchestral approach that hasn’t been seen with the other bands. The songs here are varied in their rhythms and sounds, with solid bass and vaguely progressive hints and jazz influences from time to time.

One of the biggest complaints that I’ve encountered about this album has been that the band has changed their sound. “Why does a band have to include clean vocals to ‘go progressive,’” complained one Straw Man on the Internets. I think there’s a pretty good answer to that, actually. See, clean vocals have a dynamism that harsh vocals of any kind do not have. In this case, it allows The Ocean to build more chords, harmonies and layers into their music, adding another dimension that would absolutely have been missing from Heliocentric otherwise. While the music on here is borderline prog and there are orchestral pieces that are very cool, were it not for the clean vocals this album would be a lot less interesting. Vocalist Loïc Rosetti performs admirably, giving melodic dimension the songs and giving voice to the beauty and the conceptual depth of the album.

The records soft underbelly may be the lyrics. While I don’t have the lyric sheet in front of me, those things that I did make out were pretty week. It sounds like the band is giving voice to Galileo’s struggles with discovery and the ensuing battle with the Catholic church. This ended in his recanting and being put on house arrest. This is a fascinating topic and it’s cool to use as a thematic piece, and for a band known for their massive projects, it’s makes sense that they’d go this route. But the lyrics often come off as simple, lacking depth and a little cheesy at times. This is partially because trying to write from someone’s point of view and do internal dialogue is just really tough, so it’s no surprise that the lyrics fall short in those cases. A for effort, but these guys aren’t going to be winning a Nobel Prize is poetry or anything.

Taken in its entirety, however, Heliocentric is a very cool, interesting and forward thinking record. It’s nice to see bands thinking big and aiming at these huge concepts and this record is well-executed and loaded with great tracks. In my opinion some of the best stuff on here are tracks like “Ptolemy Was Wrong” and “Catharsis of a Heretic” which have a lot of clean vocals and nice depth to them. But every song has cool parts and this makes me want to dig deeper into the band’s discography.

Bison B.C. // Dark Ages
Rating: 4.0/5.0 — Way cool record
Label: Metal Blade
Websites: myspace.com/bisoneastvan
Release Dates: EU: 9.04.2010 | US: 04.12.2010

Another record from Metal Blade’s Canadian installation and the third record from Canadian 70s-metal-meets-hardcore band Bison BC. This record took me totally by surprise, as I’d never heard of this band before and wasn’t really sure of what to expect. Honestly, all I had to go with was the look of the record and it looked very 70s. That fact alone hasn’t been very reassuring, while there are some bands out there trying to push the sound a bit, it just feels like another nostalgia movement that isn’t going anywhere to me so I tend to be pretty skeptical of such records.

Dark Ages, however, is maybe that white buffalo of the herd, then. While maintaining the fundamental foundations that you hear from bands like High on Fire or Barn Burner, that is, the thick low end and doomy feel, Bison BC pushes the envelope with a much more hardcore oriented vocal approach. The sound is also characterized by some old school sounding death metal riffs and some deceivingly proggy moments which I could have done with even more of actually. While the indie scene is getting their 70s prog on, the metal scene seems to be more interested in emulating the simplicity of Motorhead and Black Sabbath and less with some of the more progressive roots of the scene—something that is slightly remedied here.

I might be wrong, but there is definitely the feel that these guys were also a bunch of former crust punks or something. The record is produced much more like an old hardcore or metal album than most of the modern stuff that’s coming out and it’s a sound that I really like. The tones are thick and meaty, the drums are nothing but beef and the guitar tone is like smooth like butter while still being totally fat. This is one of the best features of the album, as you sort of zone in and out of their riffs, it really stands out how fucking heavy old school production really  sounds when you compare it to a lot of the modern production tricks and techniques that we’re hearing these days. All-in-all, the earthy tone from this Canadian foursome is a refreshing change of pace and Dark Ages has all the heavy riffs that a modern metal head could possibly want. For me, the highlights were definitely “Stressed Elephant”, which has a cool horn section at the beginning, some acoustic work at the end and is just generally totally epic, and the track “Die of Devotion” which is almost thrash, except that the chord and melodic choices are way more interesting. But “Wendigo Pt. 3″ which seals the record up is definitely the finest moment and it culminates in all that prog that’s missing from the more straight hardcore and metal stuff.

Honestly, the biggest complaint that I have about this record is probably that it’s not proggy enough. They sound like they want to prog it up, but then they always break it back down to the more simplistic hardcore and crusty stylings. While it definitely works and is definitely enjoyable, it left me frustrated waiting for Rush or Kansas to burst through all the “raaaah!” that was going on here. Fans of the neo-70s stuff, crusty punk and hardcore should definitely check this out. Though, I think most people should at least give these guys a listen, because Dark Ages is interesting, thick and heavy as the nearly extinct land mammal from which they take their name.

Those Who Lie Beneath // An Awakening
Rating: 2.0/5.0 — Lacking substance and direction
Label: Metalblade / Rise
Websites: myspace.com/ThoseWhoLieBeneath
Release Dates: US: Out | EU: 29.03.2010

A wise man once told me that you should never, ever refuse to do something just because someone else has done it before you and done it poorly. I think that this is very good advice. It’s advice that really counts when it comes to breakdowns, for example, which have been considered to be the death knell for deathcore and metalcore since they became irritating and out of fashion in the underground. An Awakening is the debut record from the Portland, Oregon based Those Who Lie Beneath and they have certainly not shied away from the standards of the deathcore scene—something that has been has done very badly before them..

I’ve done a lot of thinking about the genre (and ripped on it quite a bit), but I think I know partially what’s going on here. See, fundamentally, whether death metal guys want to admit or not, deathcore is heavy as hell. It is just as heavy as many of the heaviest death metal bands you can name. Those short haired kids and Luke Skywalkers have out death metaled death metal at its own game with the use of riffy as hell guitar, blasty drums, inaudible bass and borderline pukey cookie monster growls. Those Who Lie Beneath shares all of the elements that really make me as a death metal fan excited, but yet somehow it rubs me the wrong way.

The problem occurred to me as I was listening to An Awakening and it became clear. Aside from the production issues that I don’t like: the songwriting on An Awakening is just sub-par. Not only does it lack direction, but it lacks other dimensions. 95% of the time it is either amelodic grind style riffs with lots of trem picking and widdly widdly on the high strings in order to be technical, but rarely is a theme ever given time to gestate in a song. Riffs are rarely repeated, but neither are they given the attention that they deserved in the first place. The sporadic riffing doesn’t lead to something that is mentally engaging, but instead it’s just a big turn off. The chug chug scream scream chug chug breakdowns are boring (with the exception of the breakdown in “Frozen Feastings” which was righteous) and there are scarcely good hooks. Break it all down to its bare bones: and there is very little substance here, just style.

Those Who Lie Beneath actually do shine at moments, however, when they let their melodic side shine and get more dynamic in their writing style. The track “Through His Eyes” has some amazing guitar work in the beginning and has a real sense of a semblance of structured songwriting, instead of being a vehicle for a breakdown (which you do eventually get—and may I add is boring as fuck.) The musicianship is great, and the band shows this off on the final couple of tracks on the album (“As the Vultures Circle” and “Still Breathing”) which flow nicely into each other, the former probably being one of the more dynamic tracks on the album and the latter being a 7 minute guitar solo that closes out the album with some beautiful melodies that were missing throughout the whole thing.

It is not the throwaway breakdowns that ruin this record for me, it is the rock hard dedication to conforming to the standards of a scene. These guys are obviously talented and good songwriters when it actually shows through, but instead of using that talent to create interesting, progressive and fascinating metal, which they are capable, they play to the lowest common denominator. This band has all the makings of excellent metal that could push death metal in a different direction—but it falls short because it is unfocused and cliché. Better luck next time, dudes.

Aeternam // Disciples of the Unseen
Rating: 3.5/5.0 — Solid debut, can’t wait for more!
Label: Metal Blade
Website: myspace.com/aeternammetal
Release Date(s): EU: 15.02.2010 | US: 02.16.2010

Egyptian metal is apparently a genre now! I didn’t have any clue! I just thought it was kind of a thing that Nile did. And then it was Nile and Behemoth. And then it was Nile, Behemoth and SepticFlesh. And now it’s Nile, Behemoth, SepticFlesh and Aeternam! I think that counts as a genre! So, that’s pretty cool in and of itself. Oh, and it turns out that Aeternam is pretty cool themselves, leading to a generally all around happy feeling for a few fleeting moments before the general irritants that keep me so angry all the time come crashing back in.

Though, really, Egyptian Metal doesn’t describe much except the mode the band plays in all the time, so as a responsible reviewer it is my job to elucidate what exactly it is that this band is doing and what they’re doing well (and not-so-well). Like many other bands, Aeternam is fundamentally a melodic death metal band. Though, they border the line into what I would call “progressive” death metal, due to the use of acoustics, tribal drums and other not-necessarily-metal kind of things to build atmosphere and songs in general. But fundamentally Aeternam still whips out the melody, guitar harmonies and mid-paced riffs and growls enough to make you feel comfortable calling them melodic death metal. The other side to the band’s sound is a blasty death metal style that is definitely Nile influenced. However, due to differences in production and writing style (an ear more towards melody and drums much lower in the mix), the band manages to differentiate itself from the Egyptian metal giants pretty easily.

The writing on here is solid and dynamic, as well. Not only is the band obviously influenced by death metal bands, there is a pop sense and power metal sensibility on here that very rarely shows up in death metal. On tracks like “Esoteric Formulae” and “Goddess of Masr” you can definitely hear power metal influences (the two that spring to mind repeatedly are Iced Earth and Symphony X). One could say that this is partially due to the band’s vocalist, who has a great baritone range and is not afraid to show off his pipes. However, he’s also not overly showy with his vocals and they only grace a few tracks on the whole album, keeping them sparse and effective. However, there is a distinctively power/classic metal guitar approach on a lot of these songs.

Disciples of the Unseen is a fantastic debut record for this Canadian quintet. While the band isn’t breaking a whole lot of new ground, they are melding some sounds into something that is definitely their own! The more melodic take on Egyptian Metal with the fantastic grooves (like on “Ouroboros”) and excellent vocal performances, as well as a great band performance is definitely a recipe for success.  Some of the tracks on here (most notably “Through the Eyes of Ea”) are a bit too spotty, in my opinion, but in general the flow and consistency of Disciples of the Unseen are very good. In an era when metal is desperately seeking a new take on melodic death metal to take it into the future, a band like Aeternam might just have what it takes to work us in that direction with work like Disciples of the Unseen.

Barn Burner // Bangers
Rating: 1.5/5.0 — Pretty good album marred by very banal, lackluster vocals
Label: Metal Blade
Website: myspace.com/theinfamousbarnburner
Release Dates: EU: 15.02.2010 | US: 02.16.2010

I don’t know about you, but when I think about classic rock I think about vocalists. Guys like Steve Perry, Steven Tyler, Robert Plant, Geddy Lee.. you know, big voices, amazing melodies, and sure while you might not like every single person there, you appreciate what they offered in the sense of their huge influence and their technical skill. Hell, even look at early metal vocalists, guys like Paul Di’Anno, Rob Halford and Bruce Dickinson were all very different stylistically, but had gripping melodies, great presence and pushed forward with their sounds. So what fascinates me is that any band with sort of a classic rock influence and approach would ever select a vocalist with a 4 note range.. but I have now encountered it on Barn Burner‘s Bangers.

I do not begrudge a band its style. No, every band has its own style, for better or worse, and should be accepted for that style. And stylistically there are some very compelling things about the band Barn Burner, which is releasing their debut record on Metal Blade in about a week. The record is heavy and thick with a nice, old fashioned analogue sound that is pleasing to the ears and that is reminiscent of a time when men were men and bell bottoms were hip. The riffing is iron clad and enjoyable, pumping out excellent classic rock influenced licks that build tension and make you want to rock on tracks like “Medium Rare” and “Brohemoth”.  The foundation here is worth a listen to, really, ’cause this Canadian foursome has some pretty serious chops.

However, despite the record being rock solid and thick there’s this guy who drones over it. I’m actually not kidding about the vocalist’s 4 note range. I think it literally is like four notes. I didn’t count them to be sure, so I might be showing some kind of terrible bias here, but honestly it feels like ONE note the whole time, so I’m being generous by saying that he has a four note range. I could publish my notes for this review, but I think it would just add insult to injury because they all say things like “Monotone melody. Band has great chops. Four note chorus.” and “Vocalist sucks.” Or my personal favorite: “Band good. Vocalist bad.”

Honestly, I’ve been trying to figure out who this guy sounds like but I really can’t come up with it. So imagine a guy with the range of Blaze Bayley and the delivery of Bob Dylan. And actually, he kind of reminds me of the vocalist from that stupid band 3 Doors Down, except that (shock!) that guy has a better range. That probably explains it. Sure, one could say that this is sort of punky and raw, but I don’t think that’s really true. Guys in punk can sing like Bad Religion or NOFX or Propagandhi and the list goes on. Paul Di’Anno was a punky, raw metal vocalist and he has some serious fucking chops when he wanted them! No, this dude pretty much just drones at the listener for 40 minutes and at the end you’re left thinking, “Who let that guy out of the bar bathroom?”

Now, I know that this is stoner rock and I have never claimed to be a fan of stoner rock. With tracks like “Brohemoth” and “Beer Today, Bong Tomorrow” you know what we’re dealing with here. But I’m pretty sure that the dudes from Led Zeppelin were stoned like ALL THE TIME and somehow Robert Plant still manages to be a compelling vocalist. I’ve heard death metal growls with more diversity and range than this dude. I want to say for the record so that it doesn’t seem like I’m just taking cheap shots at the dirty hippies that musically, aside from the vocals this band has a ton of potential. I really enjoy the sound and the production, it’s beautiful, old school and meaty. Those are things that are missing in a ton of modern metal and rock and so I feel kinda bad for these guys that they’ve been saddled with such a vocalist. If they could get someone who has a little bit more range and personality, these guys would probably do well enough that they could buy some really good weed.

Charred Walls of the Damned // Charred Walls of the Damned
Rating: 3.0/5.0 — Music is really great, but the vocals just kill this record for me
Label: Metal Blade
Website: charredwallsofthedamned.com
Release Dates: EU: 29.01.2010 | US: 02.01.2010

Charred Walls of the Damned has two distinct honors from the get-go: not only is it the longest band name EVER, but it’s also the first thing in which excellent drummer Richard Christy has surfaced in since going to the Howard Stern show and leaving American power metallers Iced Earth in the dust. I think everyone was wondering when he was going to jump back into metal, myself included. It’s hard to imagine that the former Death and Iced Earth drummer was just going to leave everything behind. Given his background it was only a matter of time. And not just his background: homeboy has contacts, too! He brings with him the mighty Jason Suecof, mostly known for his production (Trivium, Luna Mortis, God Forbid and so on), but who is also a fucking wicked ass guitar player (seriously, dude can shred). On bass, of course, is the mighty Steve DiGiorgio who played with Christy in Iced Earth and Death. How can this project possibly lose?

To answer that question, enter vocalist Tim “Ripper” Owens. I have a bit of a grudge against this guy—and it’s not because of the fact that he replaced any big vocalists. I gave him a chance in both Judas Priest and Iced Earth and I have come to a conclusion: he was never meant for a vocal life beyond cover bands. His voice is thin and his tone is really frustrating, but most of all his phrasing is really terrible and he borders on torturous because his vibrato is so wide that he goes flat, so his harmonies just send shudders up my spine. He is not the dude who should be doing vocals on this record and it is an absolute shame.

The reason it’s a shame is pretty simple: the music on this record is awesome traditional/power metal. Christy’s writing and playing are unparalleled and I love the blending between the death metal style blasting on which the album starts, and the more straight metal that pounds out throughout the album. The guitars, of course, are fantastic and Suecof is a star, ripping it up with the best and giving some of the coolest arpeggiation (that’s right, Angry Metal Guy likes to verb!) and harmonies that I’ve heard and Steve DiGiorgio is Steve DiGiorgio: probably the best bass player in metal.

So I have good news for fans of Ripper Owens, which there are some out there, this is unequivocally the best project he’s ever been involved with. The song writing is awesome, the band is tight and powerful and if you’re a fan of his vocals then you will absolutely love this album. If, however, you’re like me you will feel a great sense of grief  coupled with anger every time he opens his mouth. Because instead of adding power to the arrangements and making this record what it should be, he basically adds a generally frustrating, tuneless siren over every song. I’m going to give this record a 3/5 because I think that it deserves the respect for the musical content in spite of the vocal performance.. but man, I personally can’t fathom why anyone would ever use him as a vocalist.