Spotlights is a surprise entry on to the list this year. As I stated in my initial review from earlier this year, I had seen these guys open up for another band last year and I thought that they were OK. When Seismic came out, I gave it a listen just out of curiosity more than anything. I’m really glad I did. The husband and wife team of Mario and Sarah Quintero have crafted a very infectious slab of catchy grunge metal. Give this one a spin. I swear it will worm its way into your brain.
Release date: 10/6/2017
Personnel: Mario Quintero-vocals/guitars; Sarah Quintero-bass/vocals; Chris Enriquez-drums
Origin: Brooklyn, NY
Rating: 4 flip flops out of 5
The list so far:
17. Spotlights-Seismic
18. Cavalera Conspiracy-Psychosis
19. Ancient Ascendant-Raise the Torch
20. Galactic Cowboys-Long Way Back to the Moon
So, I just gave this one a full review not too long ago. You can go back and read it if you’d like a fuller rundown, but ultimately what you need to know about this one is that the Cavalera brothers finally decided to revisit the classic Sepultura sound. If you were a fan of the Chaos A.D. or Roots-era Sepultura, this album will be right in your wheel well. Max is angry. Angry Max makes me happy.
Release date: November 17, 2017
Personnel: Max Cavalera-vocals/guitar; Marc Rizzo-guitar; Arthur Rizk-bass; Igor Cavalera-drums
Origin: Phoenix, AZ/Brazil
Rating: 4 flip flops out of 5
The list so far:
18. Cavalera Conspiracy-Psychosis
19. Ancient Ascendant-Raise the Torch
20. Galactic Cowboys-Long Way Back to the Moon
It’s never easy coming across a news story about someone for whom you have a great deal of respect passing away suddenly. Warrel Dane, vocalist of the bands Sanctuary and Nevermore, died earlier this morning in Brazil due to what is suspected to be a heart attack.
Dane was one of a kind. He had a very polarizing voice. It was one of those voices that people either loved or hated. His early work with the progressive thrash band Sanctuary was known for his trademark high pitch screeches that were prevalent throughout the 80s metal scene. He just looked how a heavy metal frontman should look. He sported this super long white/blond hair that made him look much like a witch when he would swing it around on stage. Plus, there was just his name: Warrel Dane. It just sounds menacing. Even without knowing what he looks like, the name just sounds like someone who is not to be taken lightly. (OK…in full disclosure, his given name was Warrel Baker. Granted, not as menacing.)
Sanctuary is one of those bands that only the really seasoned metalheads knew about. They only had two proper albums that came out in 1988 and 1990, but man, both of them are just barnburners. Sanctuary ended up being one of many heavy metal casualties after the grunge craze hit in the early 90s. The band ended up breaking up because some band members wanted to try to cash in on trying their hand at grunge. Dane, bassist Jim Shepherd and new guitar wiz Jeff Loomis all decided to stay true to the metal vision started in Sanctuary and formed a new band called Nevermore. Nevermore ended up being one of the unsung heroes of keeping metal healthy and alive during the grunge years. Dane’s vocals took a decided deeper tone during the Nevermore years. He just had a depth and an emotional style that just isn’t found in most vocalists. There was just a power there. I would put Nevermore easily in my top ten favorite bands of all time.
Lyricists in music have never really been a major focus point for my interest in music. I’m usually all about the musicianship rather than the poetry of the lyrics. However, Dane was one of heavy metal’s true poets. There are countless lyrics from Nevermore’s albums that always seemed to hit a personal note with me.
This loss is going to linger with me for some time. Cheers to you, Voyager. Thank you for all of the music you left behind.
Is gnarly still a term we are using? Because it’s really the first word that is popping into my head when I think of this album. This one belongs in a dingy, dimly lit pub in a dirty part of old town London. This is the kind of death metal that you would expect to come out of England. It’s a super blend of NWOBHM riffs and Scandinavian frosty death metal structures. Maiden meets Insomnium, if you will. And, to top it all off, it’s fun!! Go back to my original review of this one and you’ll see how much I fell over myself about the addition of hand claps to death metal. This one is an all-around party. Gnarly, man. Just gnarly.
Release date: April 28, 2017
Personnel: Alex Butler-guitar/vocals; Nariman Poushin-guitar; Alan Webb-bass; Dave Moulding-drums
Origin: London, England
4 flip flops out of 5
The list so far:
19. Ancient Ascendant-Raise the Torch
20. Galactic Cowboys-Long Way Back To the Moon
2017 and it’s time to PUMP! UP! THE! SPACE! SUIT! and once again visit the Ranch on Mars.
The Galactic Cowboys were one of my darling little bands from back in the early 90s. They were one of the earliest casualties of the grunge explosion. They had the terrible misfortune to be signed to Geffen Records at the same time as Nirvana. Their debut album came out right before Nirvana released their juggernaut, Nevermind. As a result, Galactic’s debut album kind of got shoved to the side by the A&R arm of Geffen and the band just never was able to gain a foothold in any crossover appeal.
These guys came out of the same vein of the King’s X inspired proggy-style rock that was taking place in Houston in the late 80s and 90s. The Cowboys were the heavier cousin of King’s X. I always described them as the perfect melding of the goofy thrash antics of Anthrax with the perfect pop harmonies of The Beatles. Their live shows were just full of infectious enthusiasm. They were one of those bands that if you saw perform live, you’d be a fan for life.
The Cowboys hung up their spurs back in 2000. They had played a few select reunion shows throughout Texas, but it seemed as though these were just going to be all the remaining Galactic Cowboys fans could expect from the band. Count me as one of the people who were absolutely tickled when news leaked that the original lineup would be releasing a branding spanking new album.
It’s like these guys never left. The sound is quintessential Galactic Cowboys. I can’t say that this release tops some of their earlier classic albums, but it sure is nice to have such a cool surprise of new music from a band that I thought was permanently gone.
All hail Kaptain Krude and the return of the Mont-ster Bass!
Release date: November 17, 2017
Personnel: Ben C. Huggins-vocals/acoustic guitar; Dane Sonnier-guitar/vocals; Monty Colvin-bass/vocals; Alan Doss-drums
Well, here we are again, loyal readers. Another trip around the sun is almost complete. While 2017 has been in general a gigantic dumpster fire (I mean, seriously…nuclear war is a real possibility again. Hooray! People are awesome!), the World of Metal has just slugged itself along and produced some very quality moments once again. I would have thought that the output would be a little more on the angry side of things in light of everything in the world seemingly going to shit all at once. Maybe 2018 will be the year of Angry Metal.
Reviewing the great mass of metal album released, this year has belonged to smaller up-and-coming bands and bands releasing their debuts albums as opposed to the more established acts. This gives me quite a bit of hope for the overall health of the genre. New bands just keep coming and are producing quality music.
On the sad side of things, 2017 is the year that we saw the last of live performances by Black Sabbath and the end of The Dillinger Escape Plan as an entity altogether. 2017 wasn’t quite the graveyard that 2016 was, but we did say goodbye to Chris Cornell, Chester Bennington, Paul O’Neil, Martin Eric Ain and Malcolm Young.
It looks like the album release schedule for 2018 is going to be fairly strong with new albums due from Judas Priest, Saxon, Corrosion of Conformity, Behemoth, and Tribulation.
The 2017 Best of Metal list will begin tomorrow and run through December 31.
Judas. Vermin. Pariah. Scum. If that’s not a mantra for 2017, I’m not really sure what is.
Max and Igor have blasted back to their Sepultura roots (Yeah, that’s right. What?) in a very bold manner. Max’s post-Sepultura career had been full more misses than hits. Ever since Roots and his Soulfly discography, he’s always had a weird soft spot for some nu-metal leanings. That’s not to say there haven’t been some good moments, but he’s never really approached the monumental pinnacles of the early Sepultura albums.
Well, that just changed with Psychosis. This is album number four for the reunion of brothers Max and Igor and it looks like they finally decided to give all of us fanboys of Sepultura what we have all been clamoring for. This is as close to a proper Sepultura album the world has seen since Roots was released in the mid-1990s. From the first track out, you can tell that something is different. These are the Brazilian thrash metal riffs that you’ve been looking for. Now, Max does dip his toes into some nu-metal stylings here and there toward the tail end of the album, but overall, these did nothing to wipe the smile off of my face during the first listen. It just feels good to have Max fully embrace his legacy and just surrender to it. This is a great album to wind up the total shitstorm that has been 2017.
Here you’ve got another of these bands that seemed to be going good. They were putting out albums that were well received and then…poof. Nothing. For whatever reason, they just ceased to be.
Flash forward 20+ years and the dudes have gotten back together to release a proper new album of tunes. I can’t say I was a fan the first time through for these guys, but damn, this thing is really outstanding. I know the band members went on to different projects and such during the 20 year hiatus, but I just have to wonder what exactly goes on regarding the Quicksand entity during that time. Are the members writing things with Quicksand in mind and squirreling them away just in case the band is ever resurrected? Or is the band just an afterthought and these new songs have just coalesced at the point the band members come together and decide to record something new? These are the things that intrigue me. This album is just so well put together from track one until the final note that it just seems like it is something that has been in the works for some time. I may be wrong, but I think that some of these songs have been marinating in the creative juices for a really long time and that’s why this platter is so sumptuous. It kind of makes me wish more bands would take a little more time and care in crafting their albums.
Of course, I could be dead wrong on the process. They may have cobbled this thing together over the course of a weekend binge. Which would also be very impressive in light of the quality.
At any rate, if post-punk rockers with a dash of pop sensibility are your thing, give this thing a listen. I was really surprised by how much I really enjoyed this thing because it is definitely not really in the metal world. It’s catchy and it just rocks.
Well, this is just a shame. You’ve got a group of folks who are obviously very talented and have spent a lot of time learning their craft and they have pooled their creative forces to create an original piece of art. And it just fizzles.
I hate writing this review. I know a lot of work and effort went into to creating this album. However, it just doesn’t work. This is a band whose members have some pretty strong resumes with other bands (Animals as Leaders and Scale the Summit). Their sound is pretty well in the Animals as Leaders and Periphery vein of bands. It’s sort of very technical progressive djent with an overlay of death metal vocals. It’s not a bad base. However, they have added some really weird technological elements to the sound that just don’t work in any manner. One element is the use of an effect on the vocals from time to time that makes the vocalist sound very robotic. The other is the use of electronics/keyboards that tend to veer into something that sounds like it belongs on a Mario Bros. or Sonic the Hedgehog soundtrack. I get what they are striving for with these two choices in that they provide a sense of technology overwhelming our world. But in practice, these sound effects just jar the songs out of themselves. They really make the album hard to listen to.
I had really expected to like this album. I’m really sad to say that it just didn’t make a positive impression on me at all.
The Georgia metal scene has really blossomed into something special over the past decade or so. Add to that vibrant scene a wonderfully crusty death and roll band called Cloak. Their music seems like it should be coming out of a frozen fjord in Sweden instead of the Southeastern United States, but it is what it be.
Honestly, these guys remind me a helluva lot of fellow throwback rock n roll influenced death metallers Tribulation and Witchery (both appropriately from Sweden). Instead of the pummeling Cannibal Corpse-style death metal, these guys bring a bit of groove and swagger to their odes to the darkness. It’s not exactly classic rock boogie, but you get the sense that these guys have rocked out to Bad Company and Foghat before and it has sort of bled into the inspiration for these songs.
This is a really solid debut album and it’s a nice dose of diversity to Georgian metal.
DISPATCHES FROM THE VOID 