Record reviews
“I was going to begin this review by referring to Madder Mortem as one of Norway’s best kept secrets, but I had no idea if that were true. It’s hard to judge how well-known a metal band is outside of one’s own group of heavy metal compadres, which is probably why I’m so often surprised by the billing of certain acts at certain German festivals (Feuerschwanz, anyone?).” Now featuring a popularity contest!
“Makers of what they have referred to as “shadowy,” “blackened,” and “industrial” noise, T.O.M.B. ask in their own language of exploding synthesizers what would happen if, instead of making music haunted and cinematic, someone collected everything haunted and cinematic about metal and made it musical. Literally, this is a group that has crafted an entire album from samples recorded at famous insane asylums, and here on their newest release, Fury Nocturnus, they do their best to convince listeners they have found an even spookier space.” An experiment in terror?
“Though I’ll admit to having steered clear of “Christian metal” over the years due to some silly, small-minded prejudices, there have been exceptions that slowly opened my eyes. Trouble began life as a “white metal” act and I still loved them intensely, and little known Barren Cross caught me in a weirdly inescapable web of hooks with their Atomic Arena album back in 88. Much more recently I was completely blown away by Theocracy’s 2011 opus As the World Bleeds, which mixed bombastic power with prog and classic metal in a way that suited me down to my nonspiritual bones.” It’s high time to get some religion!
“Choosing what to do for Halloween is, in some sense, a lot like choosing how to be a metal band. You can try to deliberately frighten people, like Portal, be as provocative as possible, like Anal Cunt, flaunt your good feminine looks like the one member of Amaranthe anyone cares about, do something wacky and out-of-the-box like Troldhaugen, or you can throw on some old goblin mask and just go get drunk, loud and rowdy.” The goblins and ghosts are at the door.
“Listening to Enslaved, Deathspell Omega, or Immortal now makes it obvious that an evil tone and master is something you can achieve without sacrificing sound quality. A dynamic production suited for black metal can actually increase and enhance the inherent unease of the genre. Yet, there are still persevering atavists like Uburen, whose primary goal seems to be emulating the aural mutilation of Norway ca 1993.” Behold the Tree of Strife.
“Stylistically Quartz play traditional heavy metal in the vein of Judas Priest and Saxon, and Fear No Evil has a distinctively old school flavor. Everything about it, from the chord progressions and melodies to the warm, uncomplicated production sounds as though it was pulled straight from the early ‘80s, lending it a reassuringly authentic quality, and first impressions are positive.” Retro, Shaggy!
“As an unpatriotic Englishman, it’s not an issue for me to love Saor. From North of the border, Andy Marshall’s evocative vessel for Scottish pride and history hasn’t yet failed to impress, from Roots to Aura and now on to Guardians.” Feel the kilt!
“Okay, let’s get this out-of-the-way right off the top. This album cover gives me the creeps. It also makes me think of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. So I alternate between grimaces and laughter whenever I’m looking at this bizarre choice for sludgy avante garde collective Obake’s third album, Draugr.” Happy Halloween!
“Cannibal Corpse opened the gates for the pornogrind bukakke blast to come (sp) in the mid 1990s, they were and are a death metal band. Granted, Germany’s Gut was wallowing in depraved and murksome waters for a few years, but they always had more in common with a band like the Meat Shits dashed with a touch of Macabre than anything remotely malevolent. It was with Deranged’s debut, 1995’s Rated X, that the menace Cannibal Corpse lost appearing found a new, grindier and even more perverse host.” Glove up, peeps, this one is venal and vile (and sticky).
“‘…the universe is a flaw in the purity of non-being.’ It’s this thought by French poet and philosopher Paul Valéry that sprung into my mind while listening and re-listening to the latest record by Dutch ambient black metal duo Urfaust. Their style was always born out of a sense of desolation and isolation, a tribute to emptiness, owing equally to dark ambient and metal.” Of being and ambience.
