Angry Metal Guy

Hate // Erebos
Rating: 3.0/5.0 — Good, but Behemoth wants their skirts back…
Label: Listenable Records
Websites: hate-metal.com | myspace.com/hatepoland
Release Dates: EU: 2011-02-25 | US: 11.15.2010

In the early days Hate was a death metal band. A pretty solid one, sort of in the same vein as Vader, pretty blasty and not super melodic. As they developed with time, they actually got arguably better and started putting out some pretty good stuff—groovy, a little bit more black metal influenced but still solid death metal. This development pretty much peaked in 2005 with Anaclasis – A Haunting Gospel of Malice and Hatred, which is widely considered their best record. While 2009′s Morphosis was a pretty good follow-up it didn’t live up to Anaclasis for many fans. However, Erebos offers some new life for the band, but also some unfortunate and appropriate comparisons to Poland’s biggest heavy metal phenomenon. Continue reading

Votum // Metafiction
Rating: 2.0/5.0 — Some good things, but largely forgettable
Label: Mystic (PL)
Websites: votumband.pl | myspace.com/votumband
Release Dates: PL: 19.11.2009 | Rest of the World: 03.21.2010

Poland’s progressive rock and metal scene has definitely been strong of late. In the last year I’ve discovered some really great bands, particularly Indukti and Riverside which have just blown me away from the Polish scene. Turns out Poland doesn’t have just black metal and death metal in their veins, but instead there are a good number of proggy dudes who really dig the new wave of prog that has been pushing its way into metal in the last decade. Votum‘s second album is another one of these Polish prog rock records that’s definitely influenced by neo-prog bands like Porcupine Tree, Opeth and Anathema. In 2008, Votum released their first album Time Must Have a Stop, which impressed some but left me cold. Metafiction is the next step in the band’s development, but still doesn’t impress.

Metafiction is an LP friendly 45 minutes of progressive rock that is really meant to appeal to fans of the aforementioned bands. And while it is an admirable attempt at creating the same kind of intelligent, interesting music as those other bands it doesn’t have the same kind of depth, originality and clean approach that the other bands do well. While Porcupine Tree, Opeth and Riverside all are able to walk the fine line between prog and pop music, which keeps the listener interested in their songs despite them being long sometimes, Votum has trouble with their songs feeling drawn out, simplistic and repetitive at times. On top of that, this record is remarkably weak vocally and especially lyrically. Vocalist Maciej Kosinski is remarkably talented, but his voice feels like it doesn’t fit the music at all. He sounds like he would be way more comfortable in a progressive metal band along the lines of Dream Theater than this post-rock kind of progressive rock. While this isn’t the end of the world, it’s sort of like rubbing cloth in the wrong direction. It just feels weird after a while.

I truly enjoyed several parts of several songs, but there wasn’t an entire song on the entire album that I found to be truly gripping. Instead, the tracks slip through one ear and out the other back into obscurity. The things that actually stand out for me are not the good, but instead the bad. The lyrics are not very good, seeming oddly trite and unpoetic at times, reaching their peak of bad with the final track “December 20th,” which is a poorly executed attempt at writing about synchronicity. The stuff that  really stands out in a good way is when these guys show off their metal influences, like at the beginning of “Glassy Essence” or in “Stranger than Fiction” which is easily the best song on the record. But unfortunately these things are too few and far between to keep things fresh.

This could be a case of sophomore slump, as this is the band’s second album. Or, I could entirely be missing the point as I’m really not a fan of Porcupine Tree, either, who Votum has quite a lot of similarities to. But really Metafiction is not the impressive display of musical and pop sensibilities that we have witnessed from other Polish prog bands over the last few years. Hopefully they’ll hit their stride with their third album, but this is probably one you can pass on and not be missing a whole heck of a lot.

Behemoth – Evangelion
Rating: 3.0/5.0 – Good, but lacks the energy from earlier releases
Label: Nuclear Blast (USA | EU)
Websites: behemoth.pl | myspace.com/behemoth
Release Date(s): USA: 8.11.2009 | EU: 07.08.2009

Maybe I’m alone in this, but Behemoth‘s tremendous success over the last few years, starting with the record Demigod has long been a great surprise to me.  Not that the band isn’t good and doesn’t deserve the success. Frankly, they are great and they do deserve the success, but just the idea that a blackened death metal band from Poland would be causing such a stir wasn’t something that had crept into my mind a few years ago, before they released their first real popular “opus.”  Demigod of course was followed up by a weaker The Apostasy which, while good, couldn’t possibly have lived up to the expectations of the earlier material.  And, unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it—it’s probably never bad to be hotly anticipated) for the band, Evangelion is one of the most hotly anticipated records of the year.  I’ve been trying to get my hands on it for a while and now that I’ve finally got a promo version of it, I’ve been playing the hell out of it.

And frankly, I’ve been fairly impressed.  Behemoth consistently writes heavy (brutal even) tracks that pummel the listener into submission.  The riffs are primal, heavy and the drums are  a violent attack of extreme precision.   Tracks like “Transmigrating Beyond  Realms ov Amenti” rip your face off with their killer Egyptian sounding riffs and while the band isn’t really very technical the music is never boring (I particularly enjoy the orchestrations).  Evangelion has just enough melody to keep you hooked, and enough brutality to make you want to turn it up as loud as you can and piss off your neighbors.   The production on this record is slick, but thick, though not as thick as The Apostasy or Demigod, which I found to be surprising.  And, from a songwriting perspective, it seems like there’s a lot more slow tracks, even “Ov Fire and the Void” is much more plodding than the band’s previous work as well.

Of course, since the band went from being “Christ Raping Black Metal” to being “Ra Raping Death Metal,” their records have been consistently great, but Evangelion seems to lack the energy of earlier records.  While certain tracks and riffs might stand out, the whole album lacks the real visceral feel from Behemoth‘s two classics Demigod and Satanica.  And while I was assured by Nergal that I would love the band’s “new opus,” I find that record feels a little blasé at points.   It feels, unfortunately, that while the image and the presentation gets bigger and bigger, the quality and originality are becoming less stand out.  This might be due to fatigue, from working straight and hard for the last few years.

However, don’t be fooled by the fact that I didn’t immediately latch onto every moment of this record.  Frankly, while it’s not the band’s new opus, it’s still a pretty good record and a lot better than much of the stuff that’s coming out this summer.  Behemoth seem to have a very good feel for what they’re doing and walking the fine line between good groove, brutality and melody.  The vocals are raw and riveting, the lyrics are as evil as ever and the approach is excellent (not to mention probably the coolest cover art on a record that I’ve seen in a long time–never underestimate the power of cool cover art), despite the use of the word “ov” in nearly every song, which I think is quite possibly the silliest black metal trend of all time.

Behemoth pretty much kicks ass and Evangelion is no exception to this, even if it’s not quite as good as some of their earlier material.  Pick it up and go see these guys live.