Arson Panda

Khemmis-Desolation

Khemmis feels like it is the underground metal world’s band for whom everyone is rooting. They seem like that little band that could. I can’t think of any negative press I’ve seen associated with them. I tend to find myself grouping them in with fellow doomsters, Pallbearer. Whereas Pallbearer transacts in what I’ll call “dooooooooom metal”, i.e. reeeeeaaalllly slow songs and thoroughly bleak outlook, Khemmis’ brand of doom is a little lighter. Not in the sense that its songs about puppies and rainbows. They are definitely a doom band, but one that seems to have a significant traditional metal influence on their sound. I hear lots of Dio and Iron Maiden coming through in both the presentation, sound and imagery of the band. The guitar sounds and song structures are not so much a dirge as other doom bands of our current era. There is a liveliness to the songs that differentiates their music from the coffin-like suffocation that can inflict some doom bands.

This latest album finds the band with their third full length release. Their previous album, Hunted, ended up very high on many year-end lists in 2016. So, the pressure to match or surpass that album had to be high. After a couple of listens, I feel like the latest album is in the same ballpark as their first two albums, but might be a tad behind their other releases. It is definitely exploring the same ground that their first two albums tilled. You’ve got six songs in total. All lengthy and all epic in scope.

4 flip flops out of 5

Orange Goblin-The Wolf Bites Back

Orange Goblin feels blue-collar. Like if denim were music, it would be Orange Goblin. They’re gritty. They belong in a dank bar filled with lowlifes and cigarette smoke. I like to think Lemmy would dig Orange Goblin quite a bit.

By and large, you kind of know what you’re in for with the Goblin. They have a sound and they don’t stray too far from it. It’s that mash of doom, sludge and classic rock riffs with the gruff, world-weary vocals of Ben Ward anchoring tales of machismo and hard-edged livin’. Seriously, if dude doesn’t have a three-pack-a-day Camel unfiltered habit, I will be seriously upset. His voice just sounds like someone went to town with a sander on his vocal chords. And it’s the perfect foil for this band. Like I said, blue-collar all the way.

The current album just sounds a little more raw than some of their recent albums. The production is gritty and it lends this album more of a bar band feel. It’s bluesy in places. Rockin’ out in others. There’s even an interesting track late in the album called The Stranger than involves a bit of spoken word style vocals. It’s different, but grew on me a bit during my second pass with the album.

All in all, this is a fairly solid outing. I don’t think it’s going to make any year-end lists, but it will provide them with some solid new material to perform in a live setting.

3.5 flip flops out of 5

Tomb Mold-Manor of Infinite Forms

Honestly, when this band and album cover popped up on my release calendar, I was a tad hesitant. This thing just seemed a tad too much on the nose as far as death metal clichés go. Completely unreadable logo? Check. Sinister gross-out band name? Check. Grotesque, nightmare inducing album artwork? Check. I really felt like this was going to be another generic paint-by-numbers Cannibal Corpse worshiping slag amongst the great rabble of death metal noise coming from the masses.

Well, let this be a lesson to ya, dammit! This is about as perfect a death metal album to come down the pike in quite some time in my humble opinion. And I listen to a shitload of death metal. These dudes from the lovely town of Toronto (Go Leafs Go!) have crafted a pristine slab of death metal as it should be performed. Sometimes death metal bands just hit the gas and go for the jugular sonically from the opening notes. Others tend to get bogged down in a sludgy heap where it is difficult to pull out the intricacies from the performances on the album. Tomb Mold has found that happy medium. Every riff is clean and articulated. The pace is not break neck. It stays in that perfect area where everything is heavy as shit, but the speed and sludge doesn’t overwhelm the songs.

I just can’t recommend this one enough for you death metal mavens. It feels like I’ve been waiting for this album for a really long time without even realizing it. I suspect there are many of you out there that will feel the same upon hearing this one.

4.5 flip flops out of 5

Zeal & Ardor-Stranger Fruit

One of the current trends weaving its way into the metal world is to blend sub-genres of metal with a completely different style of music. Earlier this year, we’ve already been treated to a blending of black metal and bluegrass with Panopticon’s The Scars of Man Upon the Once Nameless Wilderness and the hybrid of Americana/folk with sludge metal in Huntsmen’s American Scrap. Hell, you’ve even got the J-Pop/Metal coupling of Baby Metal out there. On paper, these hybrid variations just don’t sound like they would work all that well. However, the practitioners who have come up with these new stylings obviously see something that the rest of us don’t and the results have been some of the more inspired albums to come out of late.

Which leads us to today’s album review. Zeal & Ardor is another of these blending of styles to create an entirely new sort of sound. This project is the brainchild of a man named Manuel Gagneux. It seems as though this whole idea took root when Gagneux solicited suggestions for genre mash-ups from people on 4chan. Honestly, doing this on 4chan could have (and probably did) resulted in some heinous suggestions. In the end, Zeal & Ardor became a hybrid of old black spirituals and black metal. He has stated the idea is centered around the question of what it would have sounded like if the American slaves had turned to Satan instead of Jesus in their quest for salvation. Yeah. It sounds like a fucking weird idea.

But, as in many of the other explorations of combining different styles of music, this thing honestly works pretty well. I think the bluegrass and Americana styles actually lend themselves to blending with metal a little better than the black spirituals, but it still results in some really unique and cool sounds. In many respects, it kind of reminds me of something Jack White might come up with. This music is really pushing the envelope as far as incorporating new ideas into the metal world. And that’s really cool. Sometimes metal can get a bit stagnant. A bit paint-by-numbers. These kind of records shake things up a bit and I think in the long run can help the metal scene grow.

3.5 flip flops out of 5

Lago-Sea of Duress

Lago is a newer death metal band out of Arizona. They seem to be one of those bands that trades in straight ahead no-nonsense death metal. This album seems like it would be right in line for fans of Suffocation and Immolation. This album is very similar in sound and construction to both of those bands. You’ve got lengthy songs that are downright leaden in their density.

The album is not bad and the players have chops, but the songs seem to be missing a bit of dynamics that might set it a bit apart from being just another death metal release. There just wasn’t anything that made this one stand out in my mind after a couple of listens.

3 flip flops out of 5

Spock’s Beard-Noise Floor

I’ve always viewed Spock’s Beard as this generation’s incarnation of Yes. In the 1970s, Yes was in the forefront of ambitious and fantastical prog. It was nerd music for music nerds. And it was glorious. Once the 1980s hit, Yes took a turn to a more pop/AOR prog approach. It may not have been as glorious, but it still had some sparks of cool. Spock’s Beard, to me, is the direct heir to the Yes legacy. Spock’s Beard started out as the brain child of Neal Morse and their Morse-era albums are in the same vein as the 1970s-era Yes. Long ass songs. Epic arrangements. Glorious as fuck. In the early 2000s, Morse found Jesus and decided to step away from the band to focus on a solo career where he could fully concentrate on crafting songs to glorify his new found savior. (And if you haven’t done so, you should check his solo stuff out. Best Christian prog metal you’ll ever hear). The remainder of Spock’s Beard decided to forge ahead. Interestingly, the post-Morse albums for Spock’s Beard remind me an awful lot of the 1980s version of Yes. The sound is a little more pop oriented than their earlier albums, but they still have a lot of cool and progressive movements.

Hence, we arrive at the latest Spock’s Beard album. This is album 13 in all for these guys. I can’t say this one is ever going to supplant their classic period pieces, but it is right in line with the albums they have been putting out during this era of the band. It’s bright. It’s catchy. There are individual musical highlights for every member of the band on here. I can’t say there really anything out of place on this record, but there is still just something missing. Nothing really reaches that level of awesomeness that results in a “Wow!” moment. After a couple of listens all the way through, I honestly can’t say that any one thing really stood out or left a truly lasting image with me. It’s like a lot of albums that come out. It’s not bad nor good. It’s just kind of somewhere in them middle.

3 flip flops out of 5

Yob-Our Raw Heart

This will forevermore be known as The Diverticulitis Album.

Last year a nasty episode of diverticulitis damn near killed Yob’s frontman Mike Scheidt. Luckily, he went through two successful surgeries to repair his intestines and clear out a serious infection. I hate that he had to go through this ordeal, but I’m glad he made it through in one piece.

I’m also glad that the episode resulted in the inspiration for this latest Yob album. Does it make me a selfish asshole to view Scheidt’s brush with death through the lens of the resulting masterpiece of an album that came out of it? Or does that just make me someone who is simply relishing in the bright side of a horrible incident? Lemonade out of lemons, if you will. I don’t know. But for some reason, I kept feeling a bit guilty over liking this album so much. Because the dude almost died. And I’m like, “yeah, but all that suffering really paid off on the quality of this album.” It feels kind of fucked up, you know? Yeah, you’re right. I am probably being a bit of a selfish prick.

At any rate, go listen to this album. This will definitely be in the running for album of the year. It is so expansive. So emotional. This is one of those albums where I just found literal goosebumps popping up on my arms multiple times. The hairs on the back of my neck were on edge. There are so many layers on this thing that it is still going to take many more listens to fully embrace it all.

Also, a word of warning before you sit down to listen. Give it some time. The first half of the record is really good. It’s Yob. You’re going to like it. But, when you get to the second half, starting with Beauty in Falling Leaves, hang on to your butts. The last three songs on this album are of a different realm of amazing. Listening to these songs, I just felt the entire weight of the world just fall away. I haven’t been pulled under like that by an album in quite some time.

This is one of the special ones. Don’t let it get by you.

5 flip flops out of 5

Gruesome-Twisted Prayers

Once upon a time, in an ancient land called Florida, there was a little band who called themselves Death. This band of longhairs was lead by a charismatic visionary guitarist named Chuck Schuldiner. Through the course of their career, Death were one of the forefathers of American death metal. Sadly, Mr. Schuldiner passed away in 2001 due to a cancerous brain tumor and complication due to pneumonia. The band ceased to be after his death.

Which brings up to the group and album at hand. Gruesome was developed solely as a project headed by Exhumed’s Matt Harvey in which the group would write original songs solely in the same vein as Death. It’s not a cover band, but more of an ultimate homage band in an attempt to keep the Death concept alive. The songs are structured like Death’s songs. Harvey’s vocals are performed in Chuck’s style of death growl. Hell, even the album artwork harkens back to the album art from early Death albums. It’s a celebration of Death, if you will.

All in all, it’s a pretty enjoyable ride. I think Chuck would probably nod in approval if he came across any of these songs. If you were a fan of Death back in the day, you should probably give this thing a listen. Or if you’re a traditionalist, you could just go put on Scream Bloody Gore.

3.5 flip flops out of 5

Vinnie Paul Abbott 3/11/1964 – 6/22/2018 R.I.P.

Image result for vinnie paul and dimebag

Damn. Both brothers taken way too soon. Just tragic.

Vinnie Paul reportedly died in his sleep from a massive heart attack at the age of 54. Vinnie was the rock foundation upon which the legendary Texas groove thrash metal band Pantera was built. Vinnie along with his brother Dimebag Darrell, Phil Anselmo and Rex Brown created one of the shining lights that helped metal survive the turbulent era of the 1990s. Their combination of the thrash metal of the mid-1980s with a slower mid-tempo groove inspired countless number of bands going forward. Vinnie’s creative use of double bass rhythms were a key component to Pantera’s brutal sound.

I think Vinnie is probably going to be remembered more for his big-hearted personality even more than for his musicianship. Tribute after tribute has poured in from across the metal community over the weekend attested to his constant focus on making sure all those around him were having a good time. It truly seems like this man was universally loved by everyone in which he can into contact. The Abbott brothers were known far and wide for their ability to party harder than anyone else. It is a testament to Vinnie that he was always able to maintain his passion for life even after seeing his brother, Darrell, murdered on stage in front of him.

Condolences to his surviving family and loved ones.

Slayer, Lamb of God, Anthrax, Behemoth and Testament at Austin360 Amphitheater, Austin, TX 6/20/2018

So, if you set out to construct an ultimate metal showcase, you’d be hard pressed to come up with a harder hitting lineup than this one. You’ve two members of the so-called Big Four thrash bands, one of the stalwarts of the Bay Area thrash scene, probably the biggest band to come out of the New Wave of American Heavy Metal and one of the premiere European black metal bands all crammed into one chaotic mess o’ metal. These are the days that make it worth dragging my creaky ass out of bed in the morning.

So, if we are to take them at their word (and I do…I really think Tom is just tired and wants to go be an old retired fart), this is the final world tour that Slayer is going to embark upon. And if this is the last time that I see Slayer live, I am completely satisfied. They brought it hard and loud and they played every single song that you would have wanted to hear. Slayer live is really just an endurance test for all involved. There aren’t really any chances to catch your breath. It’s just pummeling riff after pummeling riff. Songs about Satan and war and torture and all kind of fucked up shit. It’s a fucking death march, man.

Oh, and did I mention the fire. SO MUCH GODDAMNED FIRE!! Somewhere Beavis is losing his goddamn mind. I’ve seen fire displays before, but this was just awesome. They had pits of fire. They had their eagle and sword shield logo engulfed in fire. They had these crazy flame throwers all across the back of the stage. They even managed to choreograph a couple of the flame throwers to throw out an upside down cross flame. It was creative and over-the-top. Just a perfect backdrop for their final show.

Slayer. They were just one of those bands, you know? They helped create the most important sub-genre within the world of metal (thrash) and the world is a better place because of them. Metallica was the pioneer and foundation builder. Megadeth was the rascally little brother using their inferiority complex as motivation to push the foundations further. Anthrax brought the east coast hard core vibe and raucous sense of humor to the proceedings. Slayer was, well, fucking Slayer. No bullshit. Pure aggression. Evil as shit. Perfect blending of hard core punk and the twin leads of the NWOBHM. In many ways, Slayer was the AC/DC of the bunch. You always kind of knew what you were getting with a Slayer album. There wasn’t a ton of diversity. But, it never mattered. The sound they created was so unbelievably amazing that the formula always worked. Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman’s guitar work (and their sound…that fucking evil as shit guitar sound…no one gets a guitar to sound like that…seriously, go put on South of Heaven right now…I’ll wait) will always stand the test of time. Tom Araya’s screamed vocals were the perfect foil for the dark lyrics of King and Hanneman. I can’t imagine these songs being sung by another voice. Dave Lombardo holding it altogether as one of the true masters of laying down a foundation with classic fill after classic fill. Major kudos as well to the new guys Paul Bostaph filling in for Lombardo on the drums and Gary Holt of Exodus filling in for Hanneman on guitar. These two guys are so talented that you can’t even tell that the two original members aren’t present during the live show.

Farewell, Slayer. You are a national treasure. Thanks for the tunes and memories.

So, as to the rest of the bill: Damn. What a great supporting cast. These are some big bands playing shortened sets during the daylight hours and they all managed to make their mark on the evening.

Lamb of God just came out and solidified why their stature just continues to grow in the metal world. I’m just downright goofy for these guys. I still think Mark Morton and Willie Adler are one of the best guitar tandems to come down the line in a long time. Random fun moment during the end of their set when the dudes in Behemoth came out in lamb masks (get it?) and proceeded to dance around the stage like idiots.

Anthrax is just all hectic energy and good times. The band is just hitting their second stride since Joey came back to front the band and he sounds better than ever live. Seeing Anthrax live is like watching an ADD kid hopped up on Red Bull and pop rocks. Frank and Joey are in constant motion bouncing all over the stage. Scott is furiously headbanging and doing his patented little mosh dance. The band is constantly berating the crowd to cut loose. This is the very definition of what a rock show should be.

Behemoth was kind of the outlier for the evening. The four other bands primarily fall in the thrash scale of things. Behemoth was the only band from Europe and the lone black metal band of the bunch. Seeing as though it is June in Texas, I was really looking forward to seeing how dudes in corpse paint and black costumes would come across in the hot Texas sun. Luckily, we had a pretty solid line of thunderstorms in the distance so Behemoth at least had some appropriate atmosphere for their set. It was a very short, but solid set. It was kind of hard to gauge exactly how well they were going over with the crowd at large, but it was cool getting to see them on such a large stage and getting exposed to such a large crowd of folks who were probably new to their sound.

Lastly, show opener Testament. Damn, when you’ve got a band as established as Testament opening the festivities, you know you’ve got an impressive lineup. They do what they do. It was nice to see them hit The New Order album hard.

So, all in all, this was a show for the ages. One to remember for a long time.

Slayer-War Ensemble