Arson Panda

The Spirit-Cosmic Terror

The Spirit is a band I stumbled upon a few years ago with their debut album, Sounds From the Vortex. I thought it was a very promising debut. You’ve got a German band that sounds very much like a Scandinavian blackened death metal band.

Album number two doesn’t stray too far from the framework laid down on their debut album. It is pretty much a straight-ahead, no-nonsense type of metal album. Lots of blastbeats, growling vocals and the like. It’s aggressive and in your face, but they manage to work in some nice melodies throughout to keep the proceedings from feeling stale. Not a lot of growth from the debut, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. If you’re into this kind of metal, this is one to check out.

3.5 flip flops out of 5

Sylosis-Cycle of Suffering

Back to the metals! It is so good to see Sylosis put out a new album. Sylosis has been one of my favorite bands putting out a modern version of thrash metal. They have been on a long hiatus since their last album came out in 2015. Vocalist/guitarist Josh Middleton had filled in and subsequently joined the band Architects after the death of their guitarist Tom Searle. Middleton had maintained at the time that Sylosis would remain an active band, but as the years crept by I honestly worried that we may have seen the last of this promising band.

So, once I saw this one pop up on the release calendar, I was super stoked. Sylosis has been leading the charge along with Revocation in complex guitar driven thrash with a heavy dose of death vocals. In many respects, these guys remind me of early Lamb of God in that the arrangements Middleton puts together are simply unique. The riffs just go in interesting directions that aren’t predictable like a lot of metal riffs. The new album isn’t quite as strong as past efforts, but as stated before, it is simply awesome to have some new Sylosis songs to jam. If you like your metal aggressive and uncompromisingly in your face, do yourself a solid and check this one out.

4 flip flops out of 5

A Fan’s Dilemma

Advisory: This is a non-metal post. I have personal story to tell. It’s kind of a confessional and sort of a mental exercise of sorting out my own thoughts about the Houston Astros cheating scandal and how it has affected me and my identity as a fan. Indulge me, if you will, but this has been weighing on me for some time and I think I just need to get it out.

I have other interests than just metal. One of my other loves is the sport of baseball and, more particularly, I have been Houston Astros fan for most of my life. My fandom comes from the fact that I was born in the city of Houston and the Astros ball club was always a scrappy little underdog of a team with the most amazing technicolor rainbow uniforms. Sure they didn’t have the glorious history as the blueblood franchises like the Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers or Cubs. But it was always a point of pride that they weren’t the type of club trying to throw as much money as they could at as many free agents as they could to win a championship. It always felt like the Astros were going about it the right way. It always felt as though they were a decent set of guys and I, for the most part, felt good about having the Astros as my team. Sure, there were rumors of Mike Scott scuffing the ball in ’86 and you had whispers surrounding the Astros in the 90s during the heydays of the steroid scandals, especially when Ken Caminiti revealed his long term drug use. In hindsight, it’s hard to look back on those teams and not suspect that either member of the club’s iconic duo, Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell, weren’t tainted in some manner during this time especially given their close friendships to Caminiti. However, as a fan, it was easy to look the other way during this time because the steroid and human growth hormone issue was so prevalent during this time.

I believe the first time that I really started feeling a tad conflicted about my fandom with the Astros started when they made one of their more blatant splash into the free agent market when they signed both Andy Petitite and Roger Clemens from the hated Yankees. At the time of the signing, Clemens, along with Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire, was one of the poster children of the steroids era and really represented the shitty side of professional sports (i.e. putting wining at all costs above everything else). However, I, being the loyal fan, brushed aside any concerns about his possible cheating when the team began to win and even managed to make the World Series in 2005. It was all awesome until it ended up coming out later that Petitite had tested positive for human growth hormone and his statement implicating Clemens as well.

So, let’s skip ahead a few years to this current crop of Astros. You had to be a dedicated fan to be a fan of the Astros during the lean years. The ball club changed ownership and the new regime brought in a new GM, Jeff Luhnow, to try and turn the team around. The strategy resulted in the stripping of the club of all of its valuable parts and starting from scratch through the draft. It was a wasteland on the field because the team was basically fielding a team made up of Triple A talent. However, the strategy ultimately worked because the Astros had several successful drafts that resulted in a core group of young players that were extremely talented. Sticking with the team through the lean years made it all the more satisfying when the team began to win. And it is hard to discount how great these players seemed. They always looked like they were having fun playing this game and it felt as though they all really enjoyed each other’s company as well. It felt like a band of brothers in the best sense. I got a lot of joy watching these guys play and I felt proud to show off my Astros colors wherever I was. It just felt cool to be a fan of the Astros. When they won the World Series in 2017, I was just beside myself with joy. I never thought I would see the day that my scrappy little team would be crowned champions. What made it even sweeter was that we weren’t the fucking Yankees. We did this the right way. Built from the ground up with a good group of dudes.

At least that’s what I thought….

I feel like I should have seen this coming. My first sense that things weren’t as cool as they seemed in Astros land was when Yuli Gurriel made a slanty-eye gesture regarding Dodger pitcher Yu Darvish after he took Darvish deep in Game 3 of the 2017 World Series. I was shocked and embarrassed by the gesture. Now, for his part, Gurriel seemed contrite and genuinely sorry for the gesture and repeatedly stated that the gesture wasn’t malicious in intent. But, c’mon, man, that’s just not something you do. Then, in 2018, my fandom took another hit when the team traded for Roberto Osuna in 2018. Osuna as a member of the Blue Jays had been serving a 75 game suspension from MLB after being arrested for beating up his girlfriend and mother of his son. This was the first public face of the win-at-all-costs mentality that had gripped this team. The Astros had a publicly announced zero tolerance policy against domestic violence by any of its players or staff. Yet, here they were, signing a dude who was just coming off a serious suspension for a credible report of domestic violence. It is very possible that the only reason Osuna wasn’t in jail was the fact that the victim had returned to Mexico and refused to cooperate with police in Toronto. Houston’s management team gave lip service to doing due diligence in regard to the incident and Osuna’s off-field behavior and declared themselves satisfied that Osuna was working to change his future behavior and that there had been no further incidents since the alleged abuse took place. It was just a coincidence that Osuna was one of the best young relievers in the game and Houston had a gaping hole in the back end of their bullpen. Fuck our values and integrity. We need a closer! This really felt like a sellout by the team in my opinion. But, they were still winning and I rationalized the move as being OK as long as Osuna didn’t get in anymore trouble. Second chances and all that. And from all reports, Osuna hasn’t had any off-field issues since he came to Houston. But, I felt like shit every time he came into a game and helped them win. It just felt dirty. It stopped being a feel-good story.

And then at the end of last season as the Astros were attempting to win their second World Series title, rumors starting swirling about a pitching signal cheating scandal through the use of a replay camera and video feed that was located off of the Astros’ dugout. Once again, I tried to rationalize it away. These guys aren’t cheaters. Look at Altuve, Correa and Springer. No possible way these guys would stoop to cheating.

Well, I was wrong. And they were wrong. And I am fucking pissed. The 2017 World Series Championship doesn’t mean shit. It’s gone in my opinion. Never happened. Reading the Commissioner’s Report on the scandal shows that this rot infected every level of this organization. MLB took decisive action by suspending GM Jeff Luhnow and Manager A.J. Hinch for not stepping into to stop the cheating. The Astros themselves decided to take this punishment further by firing both Luhnow and Hinch. I think the action taken in both instances was more than justified and a step in the right direction. However, as the Commissioner’s Report noted, this was a player driven cheating scheme. The only two members of the Astros named personally as being direct participants and ringleaders of the scheme were former bench coach, Alex Cora, and reserve veteran player, Carlos Beltran. Cora is currently under investigation for his possibly using the same sort of cheating scheme in 2018 after he took the managing job with the Boston Red Sox. Beltran had been hired this offseason as the new manager of the New York Mets, but was subsequently released after the report. Both Cora and Beltran have been fired by the Red Sox and Mets respectively for their part in the cheating scandal.

Since the report didn’t single out any other players, there is no telling which guys were involved in this scheme. As a consequence, they are all culpable. There have been a few players who were with the Astros in 2017 that have come forward and offered apologies and statements saying that they should have stepped up and stopped it. The four players that have made such statements, Joe Musgrove, Dallas Keuchel, Charlie Morton and Marwin Gonzalez, are all no longer with the Astros. Musgrove, to his credit, went as far as to say that it is hard to deny that the 2017 championship isn’t tainted. There aren’t any current Astros that were on the 2017 team that have come forward with any comparable statements. And I know there are legal issues and their agents have probably instructed them to not make any statements, but I find it fucking cowardly that no current players have made any statements of explanation or regret. Alex Bregman gave a standard legal-speak during an Astros Winter Caravan stop with the lame, “The Commissioner came out with a report, MLB did a report and the Astros did what they did….I have no thoughts on it.” That kind of shit is not going to cut it in repairing a damaged relationship.

So, where does that leave fans of the Astros? Do we simply move forward as if nothing ever happened? Do we still celebrate the 2017 championship? Do we forgive the players for their deceit? Do we stay in a state of denial and claim that everyone cheats and that the Astros were simply doing what everyone else in the league was doing?

I don’t really have an answer. But my feelings for my team have changed. I can’t look at this group of guys the same way. Maybe I’m just being naive, but I want to believe that what I see on the field is real. I want it to be the product of fair play. I want to be proud to be a fan and have confidence that when they win that they are doing in a fair and just manner. As of right now, I’m not there. Every story I see about the Astros seems to be in this la-la land where the scandal never happened and they are expecting all of us to simply rally around the team with no questions asked or explanations given. And I don’t want to hear excuses like, “Everyone else is doing the same thing.” I don’t give a shit if they are. I want my team to be better than everyone else. Even yesterday, owner Jim Crane announced that there will be a team meeting to discuss a strategy in handling the matter going into the 2020 season. I think we deserve better than “a strategy”. I think every single player needs to come out and publicly own this shit. There needs to be an unequivocal “We fucked up. We cheated. We apologize to the Dodgers and to their fans and to our fans for the deceit. It will not happen again.” And, honestly, even if they do come out in Spring Training and offer explanations and acknowledgment of fault, I’m not sure it is enough to make me feel better about my continuing affiliation with this ballclub.

This has been a really sad period for me. I feel like I’m on the verge of a break-up. I’m not sure where I go from here. I’ll probably keep an eye on the team this year and see how the players react to the scandal going forward. Maybe they can make amends. I just don’t know. But, there is a real possibility I move on to a new team. Which also feels terrible.

It feels as though this is just a symptom of the time we live in. Everything is terrible and everyone is looking for the quickest route to success at all costs regardless of the consequences or how many people it ends up hurting. From Wall Street and the economy to our political system, there is a rot that is destroying everything good and decent. When I can’t even find solace in rooting for a baseball team as a respite from the outside bullshit the world throws at me on a daily basis, I have to question what the hell are we doing wrong.

At least metal is still fucking awesome. Nobody mess with that. Please.

Addendum: The Astros just had a press conference this morning to address the scandal. Owner Jim Crane apologized, but actually said that he didn’t feel as though the cheating by his team affected the outcome of the 2017 World Series. He said that they had a good team and seemed to imply that they would have won it even if they hadn’t cheated. Then why did they do it, Jim? And why did you fire Luhnow and Hinch? If the cheating made no difference in the outcome, why have any repercussions within the organization at all? Alex Bregman and Jose Altuve also gave extremely brief statements that basically sounded like canned answers. We’re sorry. We were wrong. But we’re moving on to 2020. Everybody rally around the family! Yay!! This just isn’t going to cut it with me. I think I may be done with this team.

Caspian-On Circles

We’re going to end this week on a slightly more mellow trip than usual. Caspian isn’t exactly what you would categorize as a traditional metal band. More metal adjacent than anything. But I place them in the metal world for their musical chops and their occasional forays into heavier post-rock territory. Plus, they’ve played the New England Metal and Hardcore Festival before. That has to count for something.

Anyway, my first exposure to these guys was when they opened for Katatonia a few years ago and their live show my a fairly positive impression. Their sound kind of reminds me of a blending of more recent Katatonia fare and kind of in line with the instrumental band If These Trees Could Talk. It’s melodic and moody. There is quite a bit of variety in the tracks presented on here. With six members in the band, there are layers upon layers of sound presented in these songs. All in all, this is just a good album for your more introspective moods.

4.5 flips flops out of 5

Kirk Windstein-Dream In Motion

This album was a refreshing surprise. There are a lot of bands out there that seem to be mainly driven by one person. So much so that it becomes difficult to separate the band from the person. I’m thinking of Mikael Akerfeldt and Opeth. Dave Mustaine and Megadeth. Nergal and Behemoth. That sort of thing. When this person decides to release a solo album separate from their main gig, I often wonder what the point is of such an endeavor. I mean, if you are the controlling creative force for a band, wouldn’t that entity provide enough of a creative output for you.

Well, it turns out that I’m wrong. Kirk Windstein is Crowbar. He sings the songs. He writes the songs. Crowbar is essentially Kirk. So, when I saw that he was putting out a solo album, I thought, “What is the point of this? It’s probably going to sound like Crowbar. Why not just release a Crowbar album?” Well, Kirk obviously had a creative urge that didn’t fit within the Crowbar framework and decided to put these songs out under his name alone.

And I am so happy that he did. I’m a Crowbar fan, but not a huge one. They always felt like a reliable sludgy doom band, but not one that has ever completely blown me away. I’ve honestly been more of a fan of Kirk’s work in Down than I have been with Crowbar. This new album is more low-key, melodic and introspective than his work in Crowbar. It’s heavy, but there is just a nice relaxed vibe running through the album that really connected with me. His vocals are reigned in a bit and they aren’t quite as hoarse sounding as his Crowbar persona. Plus, he throws in a capable cover of Jethro Tull’s Aqualung to finish the album.

I don’t know if it’s whether I just wasn’t expecting a whole lot out of this album that it resonated so much with me or not. For whatever reason, I just found this to be one of the strongest albums of his career. It’s one of those albums that I just can’t wait to listen to again. To me, that is simply the sign of a fantastic album.

4.5 flip flops out of 5

Konvent-Puritan Masochism

It’s getting to the point where I guess we really shouldn’t be surprised at the number of female metal bands. But, there’s still something about these bands that just impresses me and I still feel like it’s important to note the bands that are female driven. I come from an age where female metal bands just weren’t taken all that seriously. Vixen was the primary female band of the 80s hair metal heyday and they honestly just weren’t that good of a band. I honestly don’t remember seeing anyone at shows sporting Vixen tour merch.

Konvent is very representative of female metal bands going today. Their music is uncompromisingly brutal and heavy. There’s no gimmick here. It is heavy dark music of the doom and death metal variety produced by talented individuals. There’s nothing to differentiate this band from their male counterparts. It’s just a solid metal album. And I think that’s just fucking great. The music on here leans towards the fuzzy doom side of things, but the sound is further darkened by the brutal death vocals of Rikke Emilie List. To me, Konvent sounds like what would happen if Electric Wizard had death vocals. This is simply a stellar debut album by an up-and-coming band to watch.

3.5 flip flops out of 5

Nero Di Marte-Immoto

Nero Di Marte is on to album number three of their career and this one sees the Italian post-metal group exploring the outer-reaches of the “post” aspect of the genre. I was a really big fan of this band’s first two albums in that it was right in line with the best of some of the more prominent practitioners of post-metal such as Intronaut and Isis. There sound was multi-textured and adventurous, but it still retained a solid song structure that made the albums fairly accessible. This latest album feels quite a bit of an ambitious swing in direction by Nero Di Marte. This is still very much in the post-metal, so it’s not a complete restructuring of their sound. However, the focus on this one feels more atmospheric and less structured than their past efforts. There’s more of a meandering going on with these songs. There was also the decision to sing the lyrics on more than half of the songs in Italian instead of English. The end result is a pretty challenging listen. I’ve got to be completely honest in that I still haven’t completely made up my mind on how I feel about it. It’s good, but it hasn’t grabbed my full attention as their past albums. However, this album just feels like one that needs to marinate in my brain for a while more. It’s just so different and the abstract nature of it is holding me back somewhat. I think I’m just going to have to listen to it some more. For now, I’m saying it’s a solid effort and I really respect the decision to not stand pat with a formulaic approach. It just hasn’t completely won me over yet.

3.5 flip flops out of 5

Sean Reinert 5/27/1971-1/24/2020 RIP and Reed Mullin 2/12/1966-2/27/2020 RIP

So, 2020 has definitely started in a truly terrible manner, especially in the world of rock/metal drummers. The past few days has seen the passing of two more noted drummers. Obviously, neither of these gentlemen are going to inspire the worldwide mourning that Neil Peart did, but both deserve a shout out for their contributions to the art form that we love.

Sean Reinert was primarily known for his work with the groundbreaking death metal/atmospheric fusion band, Cynic. Cynic was a heralded cult underground band that was one of the first death metal bands to incorporate a variety of other musical genres and elements to death metal. The foundation for Cynic was laid when Reinert and long-time musical partner Paul Masvidal joined Chuck Schuldiner in the seminal death metal band Death on their acclaimed album, Human. Reinert’s drumming style incorporated a creative style into the traditional death metal sound that influenced countless death metal drummers as to the different boundaries that could be pushed in this genre. Equally important to his musical legacy was the fact that Reinert was among the small minority metal musicians to come out as a gay person. His death is particularly jarring for me personally simply for the fact that we were the same age.

Reed Mullin was a founding member of the cross-over punk band Corrosion of Conformity. COC started out punk, but eventually evolved into one of the mainstay bands trading in American sludge/grunge rock. Mullin was one of those drummers that wasn’t flashy, but he had his own sound that was just solid and recognizable. His work on their albums released throughout the 90s were some of the highlights in a time when metal was struggling to find its way after the 80s heyday. Mullin’s battles with alcohol dependency and health issues in recent years had led to his stepping away from the band in recent years.

Cheers to you both and thanks for sharing your musical talents with us all.

Sons of Apollo-MMXX

Not exactly the first album release of 2020, but it’s the first one I’m going to review. Sons of Apollo enter 2020 with the adventurously named MMXX, the Roman numeral for 2020. See, it’s 2020 and they have named their album released this year “2020”. It just doesn’t get more inspired than that.

So, this is another one of these proggy mercenary albums. The number of exes in the musical bios for the members of this group are massive. This started out as the brain child of Mike Portnoy (ex-Dream Theater) and Derek Sherinian (ex-Dream Theater) getting back together in what feels kind of like an attempt to recapture the sound of the Dream Theater era in which they were involved. They have wrangled in Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal (ex-Guns N Roses) and Billy Sheehan (ex-David Lee Roth) and Jeff Scott Soto (ex-Yngwie J. Malmsteen) to round out the band.

As with a lot of these all-star bands, it seems as though forging an original identity is always the biggest struggle. They play less like a cohesive unit than a showcase of individual talents. Hey, let’s have Portnoy go nuts on this song. This song we’ll let Bumblefoot show his chops. And so on and so forth. As a result, the songs tend to suffer.

So, the final product on this one feels a little more cohesive than their debut album, Psychotic Symphony, from a couple of years ago. Foundationally, you’ve still got that prog metal sound that Dream Theater perfected in the 90s. However, it does feel like the sound on this one is a bit of a throwback in feel to bands like early Rainbow and classic era Deep Purple. Sherinian’s keyboard work is definitely the highlight on the album. Even though it feels like this album is a step in the right direction in the band finding its sound and it is more than capably performed, it just doesn’t inspire any lasting impression. I have a feeling that this is going to be another album that is forgotten by the time we reach the end of MMXX.

3 flip flops out of 5

Lucifer at Come and Take It Live, Austin, TX 1/17/2020

And away we go!! First concert of 2020. Man, it’s been a while since my last show and it was nice to get my middle-aged ass back into the pit. 2020 starts out with Lucifer strolling into town. No, not that Lucifer. Not the big man. Head honcho. Prince of Darkness and all that jazz. No, this Lucifer is a retro, Sabbath worshiping, 70s era occult rocking band out of Sweden who is still touring in support of their second album. Lucifer is probably more known for its key players former bands than their current incarnation. Vocalist Johanna Sadonis was the frontwoman of the short lived, but super cult fave The Oath and her main songwriting partner and husband, drummer Nicke Andersson, is more known for his work in Entombed and The Hellacopters. Ultimately, Lucifer is a continuation of what Sadonis started with The Oath. In a nice shout out to their main influence, Sadonis was rocking a purple velvet jumpsuit with fringes along the sleeves that would have made a young Ozzy very proud. The band hit a good chunk of their latest album with a few surprise tracks off their new album which is supposed to drop sometime later this year. They even worked in a nice cover of Sabbath’s Snowblind and one of ZZ Top’s Beer Drinkers and Hellraisers, which was a nice shout out to the Texas crowd.