Uncategorized – Page 7 – DISPATCHES FROM THE VOID

2018 Best of Metal: #14 Panopticon-The Scars of Man on the Once Nameless Wilderness

Release Date: April 20, 2018

Personnel: Austin Lunn-all vocals and instruments

Origin: Somewhere in the woods of Minnesota

Best damn bluegrass black metal band in all the land. Well, probably the only bluegrass black metal band in all the land. This is one of those albums you are either going to embrace wholeheartedly and really love or it’s not going to speak to you in the slightest and you’re going to hate it. I am firmly in the camp that loves what Panopticon is doing. It’s another of these blending of non-metal styles of music into an extreme subgenre of metal. In the past, Panopticon has blended the two seamlessly within the same album. This recent release is more regimented in that it is a double album with Part I being more focused on the black metal side and Part II being all bluegrass/Americana/folk. Underlying the whole is a lament of humankind’s wretched history with nature. This is a special one.

4 flip flops out of 5

The list so far:

14. Panopticon-The Scars of Man on the Once Nameless Wilderness
15. Arkona-Khram
16. Agrimonia-Awaken
17. Between the Buried and Me-Automata I & II
18. Clutch-Book of Bad Decisions
19. Harakiri For The Sky-Arson
20. Behemoth-I Loved You At Your Darkest

2018 Best of Metal: #15 Arkona-Khram

Release Date: January 19, 2018

Personnel: Maria “Masha Scream” Arkhipova-vocals, Sergei “Lazar” Atrashkevich-guitar, Ruslan “Kniaz” Rosomaherov-bass, Vladimir “Volk” Reshetnikov-wind/ethnic instruments, Andrey Ishchenko-drums

Origin: Moscow, Russia

Pagan metal and folk metal are a couple of sub-genres in which the line between cheese and awesome is very thin. There are a lot of bands in these sub-genres that completely jump the shark in their embrace of a weird mixture of over-the-top power metal tropes with traditional native and ancient style instruments. A lot of time these bands are just a little too jaunty and goofy for me to take all that seriously.

Arkona, on the other hand, deliver the goods as far as pagan metal goes. They manage to blend traditional Russian instruments with a dark death metal sound and the result is something meaty. Their latest album, Khram, does a really nice job of using traditional instruments and pagan tales with a forward thinking and progressive sound to the metal elements on the album. There is a ton of diversity on this record and I really think that it is one of mine favorite all-time pagan albums.

4 flip flops out of 5

The list so far:

15. Arkona-Khram
16. Agrimonia-Awaken
17. Between the Buried and Me-Automata I & II
18. Clutch-Book of Bad Decisions
19. Harakiri For The Sky-Arson
20. Behemoth-I Loved You At Your Darkest

2018 Best of Metal: #16 Agrimonia-Awaken

Release Date: January 26, 2018

Personnel: Christina Blom-vocals, Magnus-guitar/keyboards, Pontus Redig-guitar, Martin Larsson-bass, and Bjorn Eriksson-drums

Origin: Gothenburg, Sweden

It really seems like you can’t have a credible year-end list without including at least one Gothenburg band. Agrimonia carries on the tradition of their forefathers of pounding melodic death metal. This one is full of creative riffs and songwriting that has depth that a lot of the death metal albums that came out this year were solely lacking. Vocalist Christina Blom gives a performance that should have her recognized as one of the preeminent voices in the death metal game. She is just harsh in her delivery and it provides the perfect voice for the music that is flat-out ominous. In a just world, this is another band that should be enjoying a much larger stage.

4 flip flops out of 5

The list so far:

16. Agrimonia-Awaken
17. Between the Buried and Me-Automata I & II
18. Clutch-Book of Bad Decisions
19. Harakiri For The Sky-Arson
20. Behemoth-I Loved You At Your Darkest

Best of Metal: #17 Between the Buried and Me-Automata I & II

Release Date: March 9, 2018 and July 13, 2018

Personnel: Tommy Rogers-vocals/keyboards, Paul Waggoner-guitar, Dusty Waring-guitar, Dan Briggs, bass, and Blake Richardson-drums

Origin: Raleigh, North Carolina

I’m counting this damn thing as one complete album. For some reason, Between the Buried and Me decided to release their latest album in two parts. I’m going to put the blame on this one squarely on the label because I just can’t see a reason for splitting this thing up into two separate entities. Even length-wise, it really doesn’t make sense to split it up. Anyway, if you take both of these semi-albums as a whole, you end up with a pretty solid outing. BTBAM is another past winner of my album of the year award with 2015’s Coma Ecliptic. As with Behemoth’s album this year, the new BTBAM doesn’t quite measure up to their previous masterpiece, but it is still among the top releases of the year. The dudes really pushed the sound further into a proggier direction and it really feels as if BTBAM is overtaking Dream Theater as the preeminent prog metal outfit going today.

4 flip flops out of 5

The list so far:

17. Between the Buried and Me-Automata I & II
18. Clutch-Book of Bad Decisions
19. Harakiri For The Sky-Arson
20. Behemoth-I Loved You At Your Darkest

2018 Best of Metal: #18 Clutch-Book of Bad Decisions

Release Date: September 7, 2018

Personnel: Neil Fallon-vocals, Tim Sult-guitar, Dan Maines-bass, Jean-Paul Gaster-drums

Origin: Germantown, Maryland

They’ve done it again. Clutch isn’t what I would quantify as the best or most talented band around. But what they are good at, they do really, really well. What they are good at is crafting really catchy songs set to vocalist Neil Fallon’s playful lyrics. I’m generally not a big lyric guy, but Fallon is really one of the best at creating these little short stories and just selling them perfectly in his performance. He’s really the closest thing we currently have to a Bon Scott type persona (minus the self-destructive streak) in rock/metal music today. Cheers for being a bastion of consistency and reliablity. Cheers also for giving us the lyrical phrase of the year in “Weaponized Funk!”

4 flip flops out of 5

The list so far:

18. Clutch-Book of Bad Decisions
19. Harakiri For The Sky-Arson
20. Behemoth-I Loved You At Your Darkest

2018 Best of Metal: #19 Harakiri For the Sky-Arson

Release Date: February 23, 2018

Personnel: Matthias “MS” Sollak-guitars/bass/drums and Michael “JJ” V. Wahntraum-vocals

Origin: Salzburg and Vienna, Austria

This is the first appearance for Harakiri For The Sky on one of my end of year Best Of lists. Still a relatively young band, Arson is the fourth official album released by the band. Although they hail from Austria, this album feels like it should have been crafted in the frozen winterlands of Scandinavia. This is a very melodic death metal album that contains some very personal and emotional lyrical content. Depression and heartbreak are main themes. This thing is downright emo in places and the music, though harsh, has a very soothing quality to it overall.

4 flip flops out of 5

The list so far:

19. Harakiri For The Sky-Arson
20. Behemoth-I Loved You At Your Darkest

2018 Best of Metal: #20 Behemoth-I Loved You At Your Darkest

Release Date: October 5, 2018

Personnel: Nergal-vocals/guitar, Orion-bass/vocals, Inferno-drums, Seth-guitar/vocals

Origin: Gdansk, Poland

Damn. It feels like I just got finished compiling last year’s list. 2018 has been a bit of a blur, but it has once again been filled with some amazing metal albums to divert our attention from the ever-expanding shit show that is our beloved United State of America. We’re all going to die, but at least the soundtrack is fucking killer. You’ll also notice that I’m running this list out a bit early this year. I normally like to run the list out so we end the last day of the year with the announcement of my pick for album of the year. However, my attention is going to be elsewhere the last week of the year (i.e. the punk rock fiance and I are finally getting married. We’re doing our part to bring punk and metal closer together. You’re welcome.). So, let’s start this sucker rolling now.

Out of the gate is Polish blackened death metal outfit Behemoth. Behemoth is a prior winner of album of the year back in 2014 with The Satanist. I Loved You At Your Darkest was the follow-up album to that masterpiece. So, Behemoth really had their work cut out for themselves in attempting to live up to such a monumental release. The new album wasn’t quite as strong as The Satanist, but it has enough choice moments on it to land it on the final spot of this year’s Best Of list. I still feel that this album will help Behemoth’s attempts at further mainstream appeal.

4 flip flops out of 5

Brownout Presents: Brown Sabbath at The Mohawk, Austin, TX, 11/1/2018

This was a cool way to spend an evening. Brownout is a local Latin-inspired funk and jazz band. They are composed of a pretty good chunk of Grupo Fantasma and they have a penchant for creating Latin-flavored covers of other bands. Their most current album is Fear of a Brown Planet which re-imagines songs from Public Enemy’s Fear of a Black Planet. Last night’s show featured Brownout’s legendary renditions of some of Black Sabbath’s songs.

I had heard a lot of raving reviews about these shows and I was not disappointed in the slightest. You’ve got an 8-man band (vocals, guitar, bass, drums, percussionist, trumpet, trombone and saxophone) crammed onto a tiny stage and they just killed it. It was amazing to me how seamless the addition of a horn section and Latin percussion to Black Sabbath anthems was. The horns just added punch and some cool flavorings to what are simply classic metal songs. And the costume changes. Lead singer Alex Marrero came out in his Halloween’s finest sporting a blood spattered apron, rubber gloves, goggles and an axe. He managed to change into a matador’s outfit, a poncho and cat mask combo and finally, a pig’s head and suit for War Pigs (obviously). This was a lot of fun. Definitely go check these guys out if they play in your neck of the woods.

N.I.B.

Into the Void

War Pigs

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.

Orphaned Land-Unsung Prophets & Dead Messiahs

Orphaned Land is a metal band from Israel. The main focus of this band has been the downright kooky idea of unifying people of Jewish, Muslim and Christian faiths. Yeah, that’s right. A metal band with a goal of peace in the Middle East. Suck on that, Jared Kushner. Next time someone tells you that metalheads are just a bunch of devil-worshiping troglodytes, you tell ’em to stick Orphaned Land in their pipe and smoke ’em. I’m not really sure what that means, but you get the picture.

Musically, you’ve got a mixture of traditional and death metal combined with traditional Middle-Eastern instruments and melodies. I love metal bands that come from non-traditional locales because they general bring some of their local flavor to the traditional tropes of metal and they create something wholly unique. Lyrically, the songs are fairly ambitious. The current album is an allegorical tale that cautions one against sitting on the sidelines when confronted with injustice and authoritarian regimes. So, you know, topical if you happen to live on Earth. I don’t think the new album quite lives up to Orphaned Land’s epic The Never Ending Way of the ORWarriOR, but it is definitely a stronger effort than their last release, All Is One. Added bonus on the album of notable guest spots by Blind Guardian’s Hansi Kursch, At the Gates’ Tomas Lindberg and Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett.

3.5 flip flops out of 5