Angry Metal Guy

Galar // Til Alle Heimsens Endar
Rating: 3.0/5.0 — Your sources are showing…
Label: Dark Essence Records
Websites: galar.no | myspace.com/galarmetal
Release Dates: EU: 01.03.2010 | US: 03.01.2010 [as download]

It would seem that Angry Metal Guy is actually forming review themes, like some sort of ongoing process wherein I discuss the ups and downs of the metal scene while reviewing records, and even debate them with some of the other reviewers. Because reviewing is an ongoing process here, often times things get lumped into groups in my head that others might not see. But what’s interesting is how during this big debate about whether or not bands should really be striving for an original and unique sound I am basically reviewing Nàttsòl‘s new record and Galar‘s new albums side by side. Like Nàttsòl, Galar is a young Norwegian band that is working in the footsteps of Ulver. Released by Dark Essence Records, Til Alle Heimsens Endar (“Until the End of All Worlds”) is the second album from the band, whose first record Skogsvad was released in 2006 and I, incidentally, have never heard it. The record itself is based on the work of Snorri Sturluson’s “Heimskringla”.  Continue reading

Ragnarok // Collectors of the King
Rating: 4.0/5.0 — If it ain’t baroque…
Label: Regain Records
Websites: ragnarokhorde.com | myspace.com/ragnarok
Release Dates: EU: 22.03.2010 | US: Never?

It’s about time someone took black metal to some new exciting levels. A music style can only go so far until it becomes somewhat stale, and for every album released, there are ten others that do the same thing – and almost none of the time is it markedly better. Black metal is no exception, and I have a lot of respect for bands that try something new and innovative. But there are some bands that don’t need to. Some bands, no matter how many albums they release of the same style, never grow stale and are always the best of the trade when it comes to the style of music they perform.

Among the ranks of bands that perform excellent black metal that never seems to grow stale is Ragnarok. Normally overlooked by fans of black metal, they’ve been going since 1994. Something I cannot understand is how a band that has been going for 16 years, with 6 full length albums (Which are all very critically acclaimed, may I add) can be so criminally overlooked by the general community of black metal fans. Judging by the quality of this record, fans of black metal really need to give this band some needed attention.

A lengthy six years had passed since their previous offering Blackdoor Miracle, a critically acclaimed album that is worshiped by their fans and I cannot see Collectors of the King disappointing anybody at all. Instead, Ragnarok really do show they know exactly what they are doing on this record with monolithic black metal riffs soaring through the air, a distinctive dark and brooding feeling, a blisteringly fast tempo on nearly every song, beautifully performed drumming and well written satanic lyrics. To top it off, Ragnarok add their highly competent songwriting to this angry, dark and frostbitten cake. Every song here is multi-layered and dynamic, which keeps the listener interested until the very end, giving you the urge to play the album again.

The melodies displayed in this album are a definite highlight. They lay on top of the thick, distorted chords beautifully. The melodies themselves have a distinct Windir (ca 1184) or Taake feel to them; there’s a subtle folk influence here – just not in the form of traditional folk. If these songs were at walking pace, you’d find yourself marching to them, preaching the gospel of Ragnarok. They’re engaging and memorable, to the point where I could even recommend this to folk metal fans that don’t really appreciate black metal.

Every track is a triumph in its own way (with the exception of “Resurrection”, which is the fairly useless intro clocking in at less than a minute). If you’re thinking of checking this out, I’d definitely listen to the title track—”Collectors of the King”—it’s probably the highlight of the album. The only criticism I have towards this track is the fact that it ends too soon, I feel like it could have been stretched a bit more and given more of a gradual ending rather than it coming as a surprise. Every song seems to have this feel – but it’s a small niggle.

It’s difficult to go so in depth about an album that doesn’t step a toe out of line. The bottom line is, if you like black metal, you’ll love this. If you’d like to start getting into black metal, this is an album I’d recommend to you. It’s accessible (as far as black metal goes), engaging and superbly executed. Perhaps this will give Ragnarok a place among the kings of black metal, I feel they have earned it. Fans of Taake, Windir and Tsjuder can rest easy with Collectors of the King. As far as modern black metal goes, this is the best you can get.

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.

To unfortunate disagreement with some of my friends, I was a huge fan of Enslaved‘s Vertebrae, a record I think may actually be their best ever. In any case, that means that I am waiting in avid anticipation for a new Enslaved record, which was announced to little fanfare on the band’s MySpace page yesterday by Ivar Bjørnson.

Hello there. This is a short blog from the studio; where we – Enslaved – have started to record our new album yesterday. We are doing the drums in Duper Studios here in Bergen – this time around we are recording everything in our hometown, something we last did with Isa. Iver Sandøy (Trinacria, Manngard, Emmerhoff & T.M.B.) is engineering the drum recording; and we feel we are in very good hands. The remaining instruments will be recorded in Herbrand and Ice Dale’s Earshot Studio, with a few small exceptions done in Peersonal Sound (my own studio). We’re starting off as we always do; with me and Cato going in first. The session started out beautifully with the perfect starting point for the drum sound and the first song being laid down by Cato. This song is a musical and lyrical contemplation on a rune – one associated with travel… We’ll get back to more on the songs later!

After Vertebrae it has been a hectic period, with shows, tours and everything that is going on around the band. Yet it has been a remarkably self-energizing process making this new album. For starters, the dynamics have never been better, both literally in the music – and metaphorically, meaning the working climate within the band. Writing music is rewarding when you know the other members will take your ideas seriously and give everything they’ve got to make the best out of every single idea. The amazing feedback we’ve gotten after Vertebrae hasn’t exactly made us more modest; we picked up some very valuable confidence from that. A third pillar of inspiration is the continuing ideological struggle against the dogmas: political, monotheistic, moral dogmas that keep getting a stronger and stronger chokehold on man. Some dangers are growing while others are on the rebound (for now). Enslaved is an ongoing project to channel alternative currents; resistance to those trying to force-fit the mind into the tiny squares of one-doms and tyrannies.

After all that hot air, I’ve asked Cato to provide some thoughts on the new material and the recording process:

“Hi there! We started yesterday to set the sound, and from there on the drums for two songs were nailed. Today, on the second day, we started at noon and worked our way through three more songs. Iver is very easy (to work with) and we are really getting payback for the work put in advance of the recording. I am in other words getting close to finishing my part of the album, and that’s fine by me-I would climb the walls if the whole session would take anything more than a week. The songs are, like always, pretty varied both in mood, speed and style. The cool thing is that none of us actually don’t know how it’s gonna turn out in the very end. What ideas Ice Dale has for guitar solos only he knows.
-Cato”

There’s a long journey ahead before the release, we’ll try and keep you posted on how it is coming along; including information about album title, track names, artwork, dates etc.

On the turning-away,

Ivar & Enslaved

So, that’s fucking awesome, innit?

Aspera // Ripples
Rating: 3.5/5.0 — Very good band, enjoyable record, but too derivative..
Label: InsideOut
Website: asperaofficial.com | myspace.com/asperaofficial
Release Dates: EU: 25.01.2010 | USA: 01.26.2010

Progressive metal isn’t an easy place to be. Let’s face it, much of the world of progressive metal is a tussle between an old guard of old fans (the Neanderthals of Metal) who really like bands that sound like Dream Theater, Queensryche, and so forth, and then there’s kind of everyone else. It’s disparate, difficult to define and often pretentious as hell with little logic as to what is in fashion with which group. This is the natural outcome of genrefication, in my opinion, and part of that is a question of where a band can actually progress to. You’re either not heavy enough or you’re too heavy and you never please anyone. Few bands ever really manage to fall outside of these well-worn ruts in the road, but there are some fantastic bands in those ruts—Aspera is one of those bands.

Aspera is not like much of the progressive metal that’s coming from Norway (which is where they’re from incidentally), but instead they sound a lot like Symphony X. This will not be the last time I say that—because Aspera sounds like Symphony X. Like, almost exactly like Symphony X. The music is great, heavy and riffy. The band is tight, with great keyboards and a lead guitarist that is just a hell of a player. The guitars and keyboards work together really well and are balanced out by a very excellent rhythm section. Like Symphony X, the writing is intelligent with excellent transitions, good dynamic movements, beautiful choruses and solid hooks litter every song. The choruses are amazingly catchy and will definitely get stuck in your head, and yet the arrangements of the songs are still progressive enough to make you feel nice and superior to your buddies who listen to non-prog bands. On top of all of that the record is beautifully produced—done by the marvelous Jens Bogren (Opeth, Ihsahn, Symphony X, etc.)—everything is neatly organized, tight as hell and the tone is really fantastic.

OK, so what are the problems? Well, I suspect that you probably already sense an issue. When the band’s bio says that the band “quotes bands like Pagan’s Mind, Pain of Salvation, and Symphony X” it’s actually a really nice way of saying “Aspera sounds like progressive metal, you know, progressive metal like you’ve heard before.” And while this is good in some ways, it feels comfortable, it also draws the listener back from the tracks thinking “Huh, don’t I know that riff?” Another major weakness is the vocalist. Unlike many progressive bands, singer Atle Pettersen isn’t a straight up bad vocalist. Instead, he’s a poseur. His performance on the record is spotty because he is at his roots a talented, choir boy singer who is trying his hardest to sound rock ‘n roll. Something his voice doesn’t have—and something that makes him a unique voice in my opinion. In a genre overrun with Rob Halford, Bruce Dickenson and Geoff Tate wannabes, Pettersen has a clean, clear voice that is strong and recognizable without needing to fake balls. Unfortunately, for whatever reason he has decided that in order to be a rock vocalist he has to have a wail and it makes him sound weak and silly, not tough and strong like he intends.

Another interesting point, which drops this record down a bit for me, is that the lyrics are not good. The Steve Harris School of Lyrics Writing is apparently still open in Scandinavia and whoever is writing the lyrics for Aspera has taken all his notes directly from these guys. There is no subtlety, hardly any poetry and nothing remotely new or interesting in them. Lyrics in metal tend to range between the unfortunately bad and the passable, rarely ever being good, and for Aspera, a reading list of good poets and lyricists might be in order. To be frank, I can understand why so many power and progressive metal bands have begun writing thematically (stories, concept records, etc.) because this record which seems a bit more personal, is really just filled with rock clichés.

In the end, however, Ripples indicates what I see to be a bright future for this band of Norwegian youngsters. This is their debut record and they make a really good show of it with catchy tunes, smartly written tracks and they’re tight, tight, tight. One hopes that they begin developing some personality, working on convincing their vocalist that he isn’t Russel Allen and keeps fighting on. These guys have a bright future ahead of them if they can keep it together.

Some may have read recently the post that made it on Blabbermouth, but was sent to anyone who was on Indie Recordings’ list about the restructuring and the fact that Borknagar and In Vain are going to have their records pushed back until 2010.  Of course, this is a bit of a shame as I was really looking forward to the new Borknagar record.  However, what I thought was definitely the coolest thing was getting to see the release list for 2010, honestly.  This is seriously fucking awesome.  Next year is going to kick ass for those of us who dig a lot of the Norwegian bands and the bands on Indie’s roster.  Here’s the list that was included:

You know what’s a stupid metal trend?  The 3.5 minute interlude with stupid soundscapes–these days, the trend is actually always involving the forging of iron or the angryness of trolls somewhere.  I don’t know where this started, so I’m going to blame Ulver.  Yeah, sure, Bergtatt was a great record.  It was really interesting and it had lots of cool stuff going on.  The stupid soundscape interlude, however, wasn’t.  Nope, just some guy running on crushed boxes (OK, maybe it was supposed to sound like snow, but it was definitely crushed boxes).  Vintersorg used it with great stupidity to interrupt one of his songs on Ödemarkens Son with the trickling of water because nothing screams metal like.. TRICKLING FOREST STREAM!!  (RAAAH!) It was used by Agalloch, but that was pretty much just them copying Ulver (actually, wasn’t The Mantel just them copying Ulver? Huh.  How ’bout that shit?).  In any case, in those cases it wasn’t super bad.  Just one or two places.. one could easily get through them without problem.  Just skip it, no biggy.  Right?

Well, the idiocy hit its zenith with Finntroll‘s very “interesting,” but immensely annoying, use of 4 minute interlude tracks  which were apparently of people eating beans around a fire on Visor om Slutet.  What. The. Fuck?  Seriously, what an incredible waste of fucking space, plastic and time.  It is obvious that the band had only 25 minutes worth of acoustic material to record, but instead of just putting out a cute little EP where Finntroll goes “folk” or whatever, they decided to make it.. I dunno… Annoying?  Yeah, pretty much.  Or stupid.  The annoyance that I had with this record, was fortunately tracked–that is, I can skip the crap.  On the other hand Ásmegin did them one worse and putting a fucking crying baby throughout the whole second half of their otherwise AMAZING album Hin Vordende Sod & Sø.  How irritating is that?  Totally irritating.  I mean, I know you guys are trying to be original and interesting.. but stop.  Please, stop.  It hurts my brain.

I’ve been listening to Crimfall‘s newest record, and it’s good.  But seriously, I’ve heard so much of this stuff before and it just makes me want to scream.  Since when did it become necessary and/or OK to put these stupid interlude tracks in everywhere?  Yeah, the album intro with the over the top orchestra or some stupid gore movie quote is now apparently obligatory.. I guess it’s not going anywhere, so I’ll have to live with it.  But can we stop with the “gazing into the past” sounds created in the studio in order to give your record some sort of stupid feel that doesn’t go at all with your over-produced orchestrations?  My god!  Just fucking stop it.  Not only that, if you’re going to include this stupidity for no apparent reason at all, then FOR THE LOVE OF THE METAL GODS: TRACK IT!  Make it different tracks so that I can skip your efforts to take yourself seriously as artists.  Stop it.  Stop. Stop. STOP!

I urge Steven Colbert to put these people on notice.  And I openly condemn this stupid metal trend.  Soundscape interludes: go fuck yourself!