DISPATCHES FROM THE VOID

I’m kind of torn on writing up this review. Oceans of Slumber is a band out of Houston that I’ve seen a number of times opening up for other bands and I’ve been a fan of their unique spin on metal. In a way, these guys are a difficult band to peg into one specific genre because they span quite a few. They have sort of blended doom, prog, goth, a sort of theatrical metal and a dash of death metal into one entity. This myriad of styles works in some respects and kind of hinders them in others.

The latest album is beautiful, but I’m just not certain yet whether it really stands together as a cohesive piece. By and large, this is a showcase for vocalist Cammie Gilbert. And shine, she does. She’s got a very unique and powerfully epic voice. And the band is doing everything that they can to craft some epic song for her to sing over. My issue is that the epicness of this thing starts to verge into the land of over-the-top melodrama and histrionics that just leaves me feeling flat. The songs are so grand in their production that the feeling is just squeezed completely out and it just starts to feel stale and antiseptic after a while. With a song title such as “I Mourn These Yellowed Leaves”, “The Adorned Fathomless Creation”, and “The Soundtrack to My Last Day”, you can kind of get a sense of where this record is headed thematically. It’s fucking epic, man. Plus, it’s also long as fuck. Seriously, pack a sack lunch before starting this journey because you’re going to need a snack halfway in.

I don’t know. Maybe this one just caught me on the wrong day, but I just kind of wish these guys would cut loose a little more. There’s talent in this band, but this latest effort just seems to wallow a bit too much in its own grandiosity for it’s own good.

3.5 flip flops out of 5

Plague Years provides a nice entry into the old school crossover thrash metal canon. This one reminds me in so many ways to Power Trip in the recording techniques used and the structure of the songs. The vocals sound as if they were recorded in a deep, dark underground bunker. It sounds as if there is an echo effect used to make vocalist Tim Englehardt voice sound as if he is located far away from the remainder of the band. Englehardt doesn’t have quite the dynamism of Riley Gale, but the recording effect gives him the same sort of sound that Gale used. The guitars are also in that same sweet crunchy riffs and whammy bar heavy solos that Power Trip favored. In addition to Power Trip, it feels like old school Sepultura might be a big influence on these guys. The biggest variation that Plague Years brings to the crossover school of metal is a lot longer songs than one normally finds in this genre. As a result, this one feels a little more meatier than you’re typical minute and a half to two minute scorchers that are typical of this genre. Ultimate verdict, this is a keeper if you’re still feeling the loss of Riley Gale and are looking for the next band to pick up the mantle set by Power Trip. This feels like a promising band.

4 flip flops out of 5

I think we may have a winner for album/album title/album cover that captures the spirit of 2020 perfectly. It seems fitting that Napalm Death would be the band that accomplishes this feat.

Honestly, this album presents a bit of a dichotomy. On the one hand, it’s subject matter is bleak as fuck. Barney Greenway remains one of the most pointed and vitriolic lyricists going today and the present endtimes have given him plenty of material in which to issue some scathing polemics. On the other hand, musically this album is about as accessible as Napalm gets. I really feel that this would be a great album to use as an introduction to the Napalm Death curious. There are quite a few songs on here that hover in that mid-tempo groove and are almost pop-oriented in their structure. Shit, there are quite a few songs on here that are downright danceable.

It’s always nice to see a band this far into their career pull out what feels like a very relevant and timely release. It doesn’t feel like the dudes of Napalm have lost a bit of their fire or spite. The world is a better place for it.

4 flip flops out of 5

If you had Marilyn Manson and Shooter Jennings collaborating on an album on your 2020 Bingo card, congrats. You are the big, big winner.

I can’t say that I’m a huge Manson fan, but I’ll admit that I always find myself curious about what direction he’s going in whenever he puts out something new. I was really curious about this new album with the inclusion of Jennings on the writing and production side of things. Was this going to be Manson with a southern rock/country twang? Because that could get interesting.

Sadly, there’s no such mash-up on this thing. This is kind of a straight-ahead Manson album and it kind of reinforces my thought that the dude really just wants to be David Bowie when he grows up. The main thing on here is that it’s a very piano/keyboard driven album and that there is a surprisingly lack of abrasion. It’s got a pretty mellow gothic feel going on throughout. Which is surprising after you get hit with the album opener, Red Black and Blue, which is very heavy and one of Manson’s better songs in some time, in my opinion. Overall, I think this is an album Manson diehards are probably going to enjoy. It’s fine for what it is, but I really wished there would have been a bit more experimentation and boundary pushing. All in all, I’m not sure this is an album that will be remembered as one of his better efforts.

3 flip flops out of 5

I’m not sure why I always feel like I need to roll out a disclaimer about an album or band having a Christian bent, but it’s just something that’s there. It’s not like Christianity and Metal are diametrically opposing forces, but it’s just that normally Metal is firmly in the darker side of things. I’ve always said that I don’t really give a shit about where a band is coming from as far as religion just as long as they have sufficient musical chops to back up whatever message they feel like rolling out into the world. Jesus. Satan. I don’t give a fuck. Just make it jam.

Neal Morse is just a relentless force. It really feels like he’s at least putting out one or more albums every year under his various entities. I’m not really sure where the dividing line between The Neal Morse Band and his solo releases come down. Musically, they really cover the same sort of ground. It does feel like his solo releases have more of an overt “Jesus Is Lord!” message and the albums are usually composed by the trio of Morse, Mike Portnoy and Randy George. This latest release also sees appearances by the other two members of The Neal Morse Band…which kind of blurs the line between the two entities even further. If you’re already a fan of Morse’s solo work and past Spock’s Beard material, this latest album won’t be much of a surprise. It’s a solid slab of modern sounding Yes-inspired prog rock/metal. There’s really not much to complain about on here. I’m not sure it is quite up to the level of the past two double albums of The Neal Morse Band albums, but I think it is right up there with anything else he’s put out under his solo banner.

4 flip flops out of 5

It feels like a major trend in metal these days is to look backwards and pay homage to the masters of the genre. By and large, a lot of the bands going this route tend to fall into the copycat realm of things rather than using their influences to bring something new to the table. Not so with All Them Witches.

All Them Witches feels like a modern spin on classic rock/southern rock/blues rock tropes. The thing that I really like about these guys is that their sound, albeit feeling familiar, is quite unique. Even though you can hear influences, their music sounds like All Them Witches. Compare that to other bands where you can tell “This is a Sabbath clone.” or “Obviously, they’ve listened to a shitload of Skynyrd.” You can tell where All Them Witches are coming from, but everything they have put out has their distinctive spin on it.

This latest album is something that I would love to hear on the radio. It makes me so mad that staid classic rock stations don’t roll out bands like All Them Witches or Clutch or Baroness into their rotation. The songs on this latest album are pure classic rock gold and would fit right in place in between cuts of Zeppelin or Thin Lizzy on your local FM rock station. These songs just feel like they are clamoring for a large audience. Great guitar work, hooks for days and great vocals/lyrics. And they’re a power trio. Everybody loves a power trio. Go buy this album.

4 flip flops out of 5

“How does it feel to be you?”, she once asked me. I said, “I feel like a panther trapped in a dog’s world.”

Yeah, I don’t know what the fuck that means either. However, this lyric has been stuck in my fucking head the past three days and it’s starting to slowly drive me mad. Therein lies the mad genius of Daniel Gildenlow.

Look, every Pain of Salvation album is a fucking crapshoot. There’s no telling what direction Daniel is going to lead us and whether or not the endeavor is going to work or not. On this latest platter, I think I’m still in my “Hmmmmmm…….” phase. I’m still kind of letting this one swim around in my brain and I really haven’t come up with a concrete way of expressing exactly how I feel about it.

First thing I think you’ll notice is the surprising lack of guitar on this album. This doesn’t really feel anywhere close to a metal album. The music on here is propelled by synths and loops and other such programming. However, it doesn’t really feel like an industrial album. I’m really having a hard time pegging it exactly and ultimately, I guess that puts this thing squarely in the prog universe for lack of a better phrase. Overall, you’ve got a total of nine songs with one being a short banjo dominated instrumental track and one sparse piano driven piece. The other tracks are all kind of disjointed electronic heavy songs that are all kind of capped off by the hip/hop heavy title track. The title track is a little jarring at first listen because it is such a departure for Pain of Salvation and it’s kind of weird hearing Daniel rap (although, to be fair, he did kind of hit some of those influences on Scarsick…albeit in a more metal manner). The song Panther is kind of in the same vein as Disco Queen was in that it’s a song that shouldn’t work for a metal band, but it kind does. As stated at the beginning of this piece, I haven’t been able to get the damn chorus of that song out of my damn head since the first listen.

Overall, I don’t think this is going to ultimately end up ranked with the stronger Pain of Salvation releases, but there is still enough quality on here to enjoy. As always, Pain of Salvation albums take time and I really feel like this one needs to marinate in my brain some more. I give Daniel credit for never sitting still or falling back on previous sonic territory tread. He’s always pushing things forward. That gets my respect even when it’s not a mammoth home run.

3.5 flip flops out of 5

Always cool to find a great band hailing from your hometown. I have to feel like that album cover is a bit of a statement of the all-consuming onslaught of high-rise condos that seem to be crowding out every single aspect of uniqueness of our city. Seriously, that looks like every single corner of town.

After hearing Death of the Cosmic, I never would have pegged Hinayana as a band being based in Austin, TX. Sure, we’re a music town, but this sounds like something conjured from the frozen north of Scandinavia than the sweltering hot Hill Country of Central Texas. This is melodic death metal done in the style of Insomnium and Amorphis. It’s an epic sound these guys are going for and it has a bit of an Eastern flair to the sound. Even though this is an EP, it still carries enough heft to feel like a proper release. If we weren’t in a state of shutdown on the live music front, I would be pumped to see these guys live. I’m kind of kicking myself for not having seen them already.

4 flip flops out of 5