Arson Panda

Enslaved-E

So, you’ve been in the dumps regarding Opeth’s move away from death metal and their full embrace of 70s era prog? Well, have no fear. Enslaved is here with a brand new album that will sate any longing you feel for forward-thinking death metal with a proggy twist. This latest album really captures the perfect balance of aggressive death metal with a lighter prog sound that was found in Opeth’s Deliverance and Ghost Reveries era.

This new album has a lighter touch than past Enslaved efforts. This is apparent from the melodic opening moment of album opener, Storm Son, with its birds chirping and horse neighing in the background. Once again, the lyrical contents look to contrast man’s relationship with nature. There’s almost a tribal aspect to the album as a whole. This album marks the introduction of a new keyboardist/clean vocalist in Hakon Vinje. He brings a little more dynamic range to the clean vocal portions of the songs than did previous clean singer, Herbrand Larsen. The combination of Vinje’s clean vocals with longtime bassist/death vocalist, Grutle Kjellson (he of the “demon gargle” vocals, as my non-metal listening sister described them), provide the perfect foil for Enslaved’s vision.

This latest album is a serious statement by Enslaved. I felt as though their previous release, In Times, was a little stagnant and a bit of a step back for the band. E represents the band finding their groove once again and re-establishing themselves as the preeminent death metal band going today. This is just so much more original than 98% of the metal coming out today. This is an album without fault.

5 flip flops out of 5

Primus at ACL Live, Austin, TX, 10/22/2017

The last and only time I witnessed Primus in concert was back in 1992 when they were touring off of the seminal Sailing the Seas of Cheese album and opened for prog legends Rush. I had just recently become a fan and I remember just being tickled by their combo of goofy stage presence and exquisite musicianship.

Flash forward 25 years and I’m just now getting to see a full headlining set by this idiosyncratic power trio. I’m not really sure why it took me so long to see them again. I’ve always been a fan. It just never seemed to happen. Primus is just a good ole’ fashioned slice of quirky Americana. Like something you would see in a traveling side-show during the 1920s. Come on out, boys and girls, to see the Bearded Lady, Yak Boy and Les play his Stupefying Magical Bass!!

Anyhoo, seeing them roll out the full stage show and a long set that even had an intermission was extremely gratifying. The first half of the set saw them roll through a good chunk of classic older material. It’s always cool when a band just says “fuck it” and opens with something a little more obscure as Primus did with set opener Those Damned Blue Collar Tweakers. Hearing Frizzle Fry live just transported me back to early college days. The second half of the set started with a full play through of the new album, The Desaturating Seven, which came across really well in the live setting.

All in all, it was just a really great show.

Hamburger Train

Elder and King Buffalo at Come and Take It Live, Austin, TX, 10/20/2017

This past Friday night my beloved Houston Astros were playing for their playoff life in Game 6 of the American League Championship Series against the hated Yankees. I also had tickets to see stoner/psychedelic metal masters Elder at the worst named venue in the history of metal venues. Oh, the dilemma. Luckily, we have invented the DVR. All I had to do was manage to make it through the evening without hearing anything about the score.

I’m glad I made it to this show. The last time that I saw Elder play live was at SXSW a few years ago. They were a band whose name I was familiar, but hadn’t really heard any of their music before that show. They played an opening slot of one of the metal showcases for a fairly small crowd that night, but they left an impression as a band to keep an eye on in the future.

Elder is one of the up-and-coming kind of bands that really has the potential to make it big if they get some breaks along the way. Their most recent release, Reflections of a Floating World, is sure to be on quite a few best of lists at the end of the year. I couldn’t help mark some of the similarities in Elder’s sound to the direction Mastodon has been going through the past few years. It almost seems as though Elder is the band that Mastodon aspires to be when they grow up. Lead singer/guitarist Nicholas DiSalvo’s vocals remind me quite a lot of the clean tenor of Mastodon’s Brann Dailor. It was really nice to see that their audience has grown exponentially in size since their past SXSW performance.

An added bonus to the evening was getting to see Rochester, New York’s King Buffalo. These guys were a perfect companion band for Elder in that they played a very similar style. This is another three-piece band in the stoner tradition to keep an eye on. Much like my first exposure to Elder, I hadn’t heard anything from King Buffalo before this evening and I walked away a fan after witnessing their set.

It seems like the stoner metal brand is alive and well in the hands of these two bands.

And, luckily, I managed to make it through the evening without having the baseball game spoiled (even though it was being aired in the upstairs portion of the club) and my Astros are on their way to their second World Series. Win-Win all around.

Elder-Santuary

Elder-Compendium

King Buffalo

Nine Inch Nails-Add Violence

Add Violence [Explicit]

Man, I really hate EPs. They just aren’t as satisfying as a full album. Every once in a while a cool one will come down the pike (see Mastodon’s Cold Dark Place), but by and large, they are either a tease that leaves you wanting more or they are just cobbled together throwaway tracks from the recording sessions of a real LP. Either way, it just leaves me wanting more in terms of quality and quantity. I fear the day that bands start moving away from the full album form to focus more on singles and EPs. Luckily, I think most metal bands are pretty committed to the LP form.

Which brings us to Mr. Reznor and this latest EP he and his collaborator, Mr. Ross have dropped upon us. I hate to do this because Reznor is an innovator and was one of the pioneers of the industrial movement, but it really needs to be said: This is kind of a mailed in performance. You’ve got five tracks total and only the opener, Less Than, a cool and infectious dance oriented piece and album closer, The Background World, a haunting piece that ultimately fades out into a series of static white noise, leave any sort of lasting impression. Sadly, this thing kind of feels like filler.

Go back in the studio, boys, and don’t come back out until you have a proper album to release.

2.5 flip flops out of 5

Zaius-Of Adoration

Yes, I know that looks like a Journey album cover. No, this is not a Journey cover band. No, I will not play Don’t Stop Believin’. Will you leave me alone and let me finish typing this thing out? OK, yes, I agree. Steve Perry is a very pretty man. Can I get back to this now?

Jesus, where was I going with this?

I remember back in the day when debut albums were just raw as fuck. Go back and listen to Killing Is My Business by Megadeth or the first Iron Maiden album. Both are great albums, but the production value is just prehistoric. Hell, New American Gospel by Lamb of God is rendered almost unlistenable because of the poor production value. Whenever I would hear a promising debut album, it always led me to wonder, “Jeez, it’s going to be amazing a few albums down the road to see how far these guys have progressed.”

This is not really the case these days with the advances in digital music recording technology. There are so many bands putting out debut albums that just sound amazingly polished and professional. This is one positive aspect for bands starting out these days. At least they get that one thing, because it seems like everything else about trying to break into the music business is so much harder these days.

In this light, I bring you the debut of Zaius, a new instrumental band in the vein of If These Trees Could Talk and fellow Chicagoans, Russian Circles. Listen to this thing and it is just amazing that this is the debut. Based on the level of musicianship and the polished sound on this album, you’d guess that these guys have been at this game for 20 years or so. There has got to be something in the water or air in the midwest region of the United States because the amount of quality instrumental metal bands coming out that general region is just amazing. Zaius has tapped into that well of inspiration in which they can craft a song with no vocals and still be able to convey a message without words. It’s impressive. Even though they’ve mastered the production value on this debut, I’m still looking forward to see how far these guys progress three to four albums down the road. Maybe they’ll even pull out a cover of Don’t Stop Believin’ for you.

4 flip flops out of 5

Spotlights-Seismic

You know what metal doesn’t have? It doesn’t have a power couple. There’s no Sonny and Cher of metal. No Ike and Tina of metal. The closest thing I can think of is Alyssa from Arch Enemy and Doyle from the Misfits dating. Well, I think things is about to change. Let me be the first to introduce you to the new power couple of metal: Mario and Sarah Quintero of Spotlights!! Yay!

OK…I’ll stop with the dork routine. Seriously, though, this group is the brainchild of a real life married couple. How has this not happened before? A full on metal family affair. Mario lays down the guitar riffs. Sarah brings the bass. They both provide vocals.

I actually caught these guys perform live a little more than a year ago when these guys opened up for If These Trees Could Talk. I hadn’t heard of them before and I remember after witnessing their set that they were pretty cool. However, if I’m being completely honest, I hadn’t really given them another thought since that show, but remembered them when I saw their new album pop up on the release calendar.

Their sound is kind of a mixture of grudge, shoegaze, sludge and post-metal. Fans of If These Trees Could Talk, Isis, Russian Circles and the like will probably dig their sound. This is one of those albums I honestly checked out more out of curiosity than anything else. I think I kept expecting not to like it as much as I did. I’m not really sure why that is. But after a couple of listens, you can count me as a fan. This is just a downright solid ball of jams. It’s melodic and heavy and introspective and angry all at the same time. This is really one of the surprise albums of the year so far for me.

Now, we just need to start marketing this whole Power Couple of Metal idea.

4.5 flip flops out of 5

The Black Dahlia Murder-Nightbringers

Take a couple of deep breaths. Hold it. Aaaaaaaaannnnnddd…..hit play NOW!

You’re gonna need to hold on to your butt as soon as this one kicks in and I think you’ll be happy that this is a pretty short album. It is pure chaos from the word “go” and it doesn’t really stop until the closing note hits.

The Black Dahlia Murder is one of those bands that I really want to like. They are critical darlings. They’re very popular amongst the death metal scene. They all seem like really normal guys…dudes that you wouldn’t mind hanging out with. Their singer is kind of carrying a little extra weight and wears glasses….which I can relate to. Sadly, though, I just haven’t been able to embrace their sound wholeheartedly.

The current album reminds me a lot of the rest of their earlier catalog. It’s technically proficient. It’s very angry. It’s aggressive as it can possibly get. The guitar solos are very creative. They are just a professional machine of a metal group. But, there is just something missing. I can’t even really put a finger on it what it is that is holding me back with these guys. Maybe if they pulled back on the reigns a bit? Put a little more groove in the proceedings? I don’t know. But, after listening to this one a couple of times through, I can’t say that any of the tracks really stand out or have wormed their way into my brain in any memorable manner.

Maybe it’s just me. I mean, yeah. It’s probably me.

3 flip flops out of 5

Primus-The Desaturating Seven

It looks like Les and the gang decided to double down on the children’s stories. After giving the music from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory soundtrack the Primus treatment back in 2014, Primus has provided a musical journey based on the children’s book The Rainbow Goblins by Ul de Rico for their current release. Since Primus has always been the Tim Burton of the alternative metal world, their exploration of these slightly warped children’s tales really comes as no surprise.

The current album doesn’t stray very far from what one would expect from a latter-era Primus release. You’ve got your crazy meandering bass lines from Les. You’ve got your random sprinkling of erratic guitar riffs from Mr. LaLonde. You’ve got your downright mastery of Tim Alexander laying down the foundation for the whole enterprise on the drums. You’ve got Les’ vocals sounding more and more Vaudevillian over the years. The songs don’t provide any infectious classics like Tommy the Cat or Jerry Was a Racecar Driver, but there is plenty of innovative playing to keep things interesting throughout. This one is less bombastic than earlier Primus albums which speaks to the age/maturity of the parties involved. This feels more like an introspective Primus than past efforts. Solid, if not always inspired, effort that feels very brief in its 35 minute running time.

3.5 flip flops out of 5

Monolord-Rust

Three fuzzy dudes from Sweden playing a fuzzy guitar, fuzzy bass and pounding drums. This isn’t a sound that one normally associates with metal coming out of Sweden. I would have pegged these guys as coming out of the southeastern U.S. or maybe out of the desert rock scene that spawned Kyuss. Regardless of origin, this is a fantastic release.

This is one of those albums that on the first pass didn’t register much. Typical doom record with an extra dash of distortion was my first impression. However, on the second pass, there seemed to be a little more depth and nuance going on. This is really a subtle album and one you should not dismiss on first glance. It certain respects this kind of reminds me of a doom version of Caress of Steel by Rush. You’ve got four shorter (relatively) songs on the front end of the album with two monumental epic closers to round things out.

Monolord is another of these bands that are just starting out. I really like my first taste of their sound. This is definitely a band to keep an eye on going forward.

4 flip flops out of 5

Khemmis and Oceans of Slumber at The Brash Brewery 2nd Anniversary Party, Houston, TX-10/7/2017

Metalhead breweries are a thing. There’s something about the craft brewing culture that just lines up nicely with metal culture. Meld the two together at an event and a good time is sure to follow. I hadn’t even heard of Brash Brewing until this event posted online, but I knew they had to be good people if they were connected enough to the underground metal scene to invite Colorado doom band Khemmis to headline their second anniversary shindig.

I had to get up early for this road trip to Houston due to a 1pm show time for opening act Oceans of Slumber. I kind of figured that since we had reached October that it would be a pleasant day outside. Silly me! I forget how oppressive the humidity in Houston can be. I already had sweat dripping down my butt crack standing in line to get into the brewery. On the good side, the stage set up was inside the brewery so we weren’t in the sun all afternoon. On the bad side, this was a metal warehouse with no air conditioning and little airflow.

Oceans of Slumber started promptly at 1pm and powered through a nice set that showcased one new song and a nice Candlemass cover as the finale. These guys are a Houston doom metal band that you should definitely check out. Their female singer brings a really strong and sultry voice to some crushing doom riffs.

Headliner Khemmis did not disappoint at all. These guys are newcomers to the doom scene and are still touring on their second album overall. I stumbled upon them last year with the release of Hunted, which I had in the top five albums from last year. The only reason I drove to Houston was to see them do their thing live. They definitely have the live chops to go along with their studio work. Crushing riffs and nice twin leads combined with the dueling clean and death vocals provided for a nice soundtrack to this celebration of quality beer.

Oh, and the beer was pretty good as well. Metal themed beers were the order of the day (Hammer Smashed Face and Vulgar Display of Power were two examples). Brash Brewing seems like a cool place to hang in you live in the Houston area. Lots of vintage video games, all kinds of heavy metal artwork and metal tunes galore.

Khemmis- Above the Water