Angry Metal Guy

Into the Moat – The Design (Metal Blade, 2005)

Rating: 3.5/5.0

“Holy shit,” I thought to myself when I put this record in, “what the fuck is this?” It all got better from there.  Every swirling, sporadic beat on this album is put perfectly into place, so that it’s practically impossible to groove to, but also impossible to turn off.

I think the best way to describe Into the Moat, for those of you who are unfamiliar with the band, is to put it like this.  Imagine that you had the craziest grindcore you can think of (Gore Beyond Necropsy, for example), with it’s 30 second ideas all thrown into 5 minute songs.  Now, top this off with lyrics about war, and what seems to me to be some sort of gladitorial combat, that are thrown atop this insanity in sporadic bursts, sometimes splitting words into syllables to make it fit the never constant rhythm. Take this technicality, add hardcore breakdowns and fantastic, crisp production (courtesy of the lads in the band and Erik Rutan).  This, my friends, is Into the Moat.

This album is huge on so many levels.  While taking root in traditional grind and hardcore, it merges them in a sporadic foray of incredible musicianship.  Not once does they stop to give you time to breathe or think about the technicality, the brutality, the sheer genius of the song writing until the record is over and your looking at the CD player wondering what the hell just hit you.

What makes this all more impressive is that this is really a debut album from a very young band.  Their first incarnation was a formation in 2001 where the drummer wrote all the music. They were signed to Lovelost Records in 2003, but they only produced an EP.  So for a first time full-length, they’ve produced a monster of a record.

If you’re at all into technical music, buy this record.  You might not listen to it that often, but you will certainly be blown away by what you hear, and anyone who is a fan of genre progression, originality and sheer talent should get their hands on this.

Interview Taken from Unchain the Underground – Written by me in 2005

Overlord’s Perpetual - S/T (Sonic Age, 2005)

Rating: 1.5/5

Some albums are glimmer with light when they’re played.  They radiate with the genius of a prodigy guitarist, they invigorate the speakers from which the colorful, intense luminssence flows. OVERLORD’S PERPETUAL‘s debut (self-titled) record is not one of these records. While there are glimmers of hope that shine through, this is a string of tired metal cliches, excessive sweeping, triplets, and just general self-gratification.

Built on the basis of traditional neo-classical guitar rock (it’s hard to believe that this genre was once revolutionary), OVERLORD’S PERPETUAL go through all the motions of being a neo-classical guitar rock band, the shrill vocalist (with the bad-to-mediocre lyrics), the “rock-beat-plus- double-kick” drummer, the “what-they-have-a-bassist?” bassist, and the “aslo-a-prodigy” keyboard player. Oh, of course, let’s not forget Overlord, himself, the Ego-in-training (who happens to look just like a skinny YNGWIE MALMSTEEN, complete with cross, cream Fender Strat and all).

These guys, however, have a glimpse of hope. A couple of the songs on this record were pretty good. There were times when they broke away from the boring chord based riffing and the excessively shrill guitar solos to do some very cool, technical guitar (and keyboard work) that really showed a modicum of taste and respect for the art of metal.  The fifth track, which lacks vocals, is probably the best one on the record. The keyboards really shine through, and good ol’ Overlord puts his guitar tracking to good work to come up with a fine blend of technicality and melody that made me appreciate the moment.

Of course, aside from a couple of tracks, this was just another piece of the same-ol’ from the neo-classical genre.  The vocals are the traditionally bad, ESL vocals that tend to mar these records. Really, the only redeeming quality in any of the other tracks is the keyboard solos.  The keyboardist can really play, and he also has a good under- standing of theory, while not being a total wanker (and being able to do it well, when he is playing a fast solo).

I’d say, watch and see with this Overlord kid. He’s only 20, and if he can realize that he’s not YNGWIE MALMSTEEN and that he has the talent to really do something unique and interesting, he’ll put out some great records in the future.  However, if he continues down this path of masturbatory self-gratification (and leopard print), I suspect he’ll only be playing with himself in the future.

Written 2005 for Unchain the Underground by AMG

Shade Empire – Sinthentic (Magick Records, 2005)

Rating: 4.0/5

There’s an old adage that you might know that says, so eloquently, “don’t judge a book by its cover.” While this may be applicable to books, it often isn’t applicable to music. I can generally look at the cover of a band’s record and be able to tell what kind of metal it is, who they sound like, and whether or not they suck. I’ll always give stuff a chance to not suck, but it’s usually a pretty fair bet that my initial impression will be correct. So I looked at the SHADE EMPIRE cover, saw the devil face with a little ’666′ neatly tucked into the corner behind the eye, and more importantly the sticker that says ‘For fans of DIMMU BORGIR.’ Immediately I was struck by that panic that happens when you know that you’re going to have to sit through 60 minutes of shitty rip-off artists trying to sound like DIMMU.

Shade Empire Pose it Up

I was absolutely wrong.  This is one of those few cases where that doesn’t upset me.

In fact, I was blown away by this release. SHADE EMPIRE have managed to bring together all the best qualities of melodic, symphonic black metal and Swedish death into a cohesive, melodic onslaught of extreme metal that anyone with an ear for talent will be impressed with. Like some unholy union of (yes) DIMMU BORGIR, AT THE GATES and DARK TRANQUILLITY, this band deftly put forth melancholy melodies, backed up with a stunning drum assault and a heavy rhythm that keeps you rocking for the whole record. Spiced up with guest vocal appearances by Marco Hietala (NIGHTWISH and TAROT), and Spellgoth (TROLLHEIMS GRÅTT), Sinthetic (ok, the cheesy name didn’t help the initial impressions, either) offers a dynamic, exciting aural assault that actually left me wanting more!

While this band is tight, what I noticed most was the keyboards and the vocals really carry this record. The guitar work, while good, isn’t stand out, and the guitars play more of a support role.  But the awesome melody and (brace yourself) all the hooks came through the keyboards, which border on the gothic side sometimes, and at other times almost having a THE KOVENANT feel (though only for a short time).  The vocals are pretty standard, but there are glimpses of deep, baritone/bass clean parts that really add a dynamic to otherwise good vocals.

Dynamics, as I’ve said before, play such a huge part in metal records. The clincher here is that they work their way deftly through the record never getting boring, while never changing the dynamics so much that they sound like a different band.  There is not a weak moment on this album. The whole while there is a distinctive feel, a distinctive sound and a sonic barrage that leave you with one of those shit-eating grins on your face. Mark down an incredible debut for these Finns.

This interview written originally for Unchain the Underground by me.

Note: This was the first interview I did, and it wasn’t really my best.  I found this dude to be not exactly stoked about doing an interview.  My guess is that they drew straws and he got stuck with it.  Taken from Unchain the Underground, from when I wrote for them.

For many, the name UNEARTH is synonymous with everything they like about metal-core; hardcore breakdowns mixed in among technical, melodic guitar lines, topped by sometimes-political, sometimes-personal screaming that’s always lined with angst. Having always been a metal kid, I’d never really given any of these “Luke Skywalker” types who “sound like AT THE GATES” any credence until I heard UNEARTH.  So, of course, I was thrilled at the chance to sit down with Ken Susi over a beer and have a quick chat before their show in Minneapolis (w/TERROR, BLACK DAHLIA MURDER, and REMEMBERING NEVER). Here’s a bit of that conversation.

So why did you choose to work with Adam D. [KILLSWITCH ENGAGE] on the new record?

Ken: He’s my best friend, and we’ve done all our other albums with him, so we just decided to keep it together.

Why did you choose to sign with Metal Blade as opposed to staying with a more hardcore label?

Ken: The hardcore label wasn’t really working out for us, we were hitting roofs and basically we couldn’t stay there because we were bigger than the label. Nothing against Eulogy in any way, shape or form, but we needed more promotion, we need more money to do recording in order to make it sound well [sic] and to be an established band. So we decided to take the next step, there were other labels that wanted to sign us but we chose Metal Blade because it was an honest deal and those guys have always been cool.  We could’ve shot higher and been on Road Runner or whatever, but we didn’t want people stepping into our music and telling us what to do.

Ok, cool.  Personally I think that The Oncoming Storm has a much cleaner production than your last two, at least your last full length The Stings of Conscience…

Ken: It’s more time, it’s more time in the studio. We spent a month on that album, versus four or five days on Stings.   So, you can tell by that.

Do you think the more technical aspects, the more “Metal” aspects of your music, the sweeping, the solos, etc., are going to isolate your more Hardcore fan base?

Ken: No, not in any way, shape or form, because we’ve always integrated it tastefully into our music.   We’ve kept the happy medium between the two, we are a metal band, but we are a hardcore band, there’s no separating the two.  We’re a true metalcore band, kids who like hardcore will like us, and kids who like metal will like us as well.

You do clean vocals on this record, don’t you?

Ken: Yeah.

Why did you choose to include them?

Ken: The parts called for it. There’s a couple parts that called for some parts, and we’re not afraid to do stuff like that.  It’s not like we’re trying to mold or shape our music to be anything mainstream or anything like that, it’s just like the CAVE IN approach, if the part calls for a good clean part, then we’re going to do it.

Right on!  So then why did you choose to re-record Endless?

Ken: Because it was only on an EP, and that song needed to be on an album so that the world could hear it.

So as far as your sound goes, you’ve got kind of that AT THE GATES, IN FLAMES, Swedish Death sound. Do you think you’ve gone over better in the US, where the sound is more of a new thing, a commodity, or in Europe where the sound has been around a lot longer?

Ken: The sound has been pretty big in the US for quite a while now but as far as Europe goes, it’s working out on both spectrums, I mean, we’re doing well in both markets.  I think if anything this is becoming a new style, a new form of music, the way we integrate IRON MAIDEN parts with the CROWBAR stuff, we don’t really worry about specific points of our music, we’re taking the big picture and throwing it out there.   Some people will be like, “Oh, you sound like HATEBREED at parts,” and then someone will be like “Oh, well you sound like IN FLAMES, or AT THE GATES, or IRON MAIDEN.”  It’s like “Well, that’s cool, those are our influences” but we’re going for that other type of thing, and that’s the UNEARTH sound.

Why do you think this sound is taking off, why do you think it appeals to people?

Ken: The style that we’ve been doing for the past six years is unique, not many people have done the IRON MAIDEN meets hardcore stuff, a lot of kids have jocked us throughout the years, which is OK, but, I mean it’s time for the band who started doing that kind of stuff to start progressing and make things happen.

Alright, cool. So now, onto politics!   The new record obviously has a political undertone to it…

Ken: Yeah.

So how influential have the war in Iraq and the Patriot Act been on the lyrics?

Ken: I mean, the war in Iraq, we’ve got friends and people who are being shipped off to war.  In the band there are dudes that are pro-Bush and there are dudes that are against Bush.  It’s not really like the band came together and said “Oh, we believe in this and we believe in that.” It’s not like we’ve had any of these in depth conversations about it.  But what we do is that we understand this one general thing, that the world in general, not Iraq, not Afghanistan and all these other places that we’re invading or that people are invading every day.. it’s just that we’re adamant about people in general, and the way that society and humans act in this time, y’know, in this period of time and even in the past.

History, basically, is one of those things that foretells the future and after WWII, after we dropped the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki people should’ve understood that war is an awful thing and that we should stay away from this and shy away from it, but it seems like it’s been on hiatus for a few years and now it’s all back, like, everything is escalating, everything’s happening.  Countries need to get together and people need to get together in order to sort out their differences, because education is.. I mean, we’re very educated people, the world is very educated, not all places, but people should know better and work out their differences.   If we don’t, we’re all going to be fucking wiped off, so, the way we see it is, y’know, it’s not about like, this war or that war, or the right or wrong war, it’s about people in general starting within their families, raising their kids right, being home, spreading it throughout their community, and have their community start to spread it elsewhere.   The more positive means of living and culture, or whatever, is excellent .  That’s what’s going to prosper, that’s what’s going to make the world a great place.

So, did you pick up the new SONATA ARCTICA record Winterheart’s Guild?

Ken: I love SONATA ARCTICA, they’re fucking amazing!

Yeah, they should’ve been on Ozzfest.  Speaking of which, who were you most excited to play with on Ozzfest?

Ken: Um, I was most excited to play on the same bill as JUDAS PRIEST and OZZY and BLACK SABBATH, because they’re main influences in my life.

Did you hear about the thing with DIMMU where they were kicked off the air for calling saying that anyone talking shit about Rob Halford being gay was “Fucking Bullshit?”

Ken: Well, I never heard about it, but I can say that dude is brutal as fuck and whether he’s sucking someone’s dick or eating a pussy, I could care less.  He’s a good dude, he’s a great singer, and he’s inspired a lot of people. So, y’know, race, or sexual orientation has nothing to do with metal or hardcore music in general, music is a feeling, music is an emotion, it’s not race or sex.

Kris Kross will make you…

Have you seen any changes in your success since going on Ozzfest?

Ken: No, we’re still broke-ass motherfuckers.  [laughter] We still play the same show we’ve played the last six years.

You were forced to shut down a show earlier on this tour because of ‘too many fights that broke out’ during TERROR’s set. What happened?

Ken: Oh, it was just a riot.   It happens. Yeah, it was just fights and shit like that, we didn’t have to shut it down, the club shut it down, the police shut it down, so, you roll with the punches.  Y’know, there’s a ton of shows where people have gotten stabbed or hurt, y’know, it happens.   It’s part of heavy and aggressive music.

Righto, cool man, thanks for the interview, and good luck tonight dude.

Ken: Cool, thanks man.