Southern sludge metal is just so damn comforting to me for some reason. It just feels like a security blanket or a nice plate of comfort food. I’m not sure if this is the purpose of southern sludge, but that’s the job it accomplishes for me.
This is my first exposure to Forming the Void and I’m quite happy that I’ve stumbled upon these Louisiana sludge merchants. This feels like an album that lands somewhere between the poles of All Them Witches and Crowbar. Heavier than the former, but more hook-laden and less depressive than the latter. I’m somewhat ashamed of myself for not finding these guys sooner seeing as though this is proper album number four for these guys. At any rate, the music is fuzzed and the vocals howl. This would be the perfect soundscape for a night out camping under the stars during a humid summer evening.
The melding of two punk scenes. Fake Names is a new side project of Refused’s vocalist Dennis Lyxzen and Bad Religion/Dag Nasty’s guitarist Brian Baker. The result is a pretty good chunk of pop punk. If you’re looking at it from the Dennis side of things, this one slots somewhere in between Refused and Invsn. It’s not nearly as aggressive and caustic as Refused, but not as emotive at Invsn. You’ve got a lot of the same revolution and anti-capitalistic themes as Refused, but it’s performed in a much less in-your-face manner. From the Brian perspective, you’ve got much more of a Bad Religion feel on here than his Dag Nasty sound. There are hooks and catchy melodies throughout this album that are pretty expected from something that was creative by two punk vets. Just a professional sounding album. If we ever end up having live concerts again, this would be a band I’d like to see in a sweaty, shithole club.
We’ve got a fairly unique project with this release from Triptykon. Ultimately what you have here is a live album performed by Triptykon at the 2019 Roadburn Festival that is the culmination of a three part epic song entitled Requiem. The genesis of this song dates back to 1987 from Tom G. Warrior’s former band Celtic Frost. The first part of Requiem, entitled Rex Irae, was released on Celtic Frost’s album Into the Pandemonium. The third and final part of the song, Winter, was released on Celtic Frost’s final album, Monotheist, in 2006. The new middle section of the song, Grave Eternal, has never had a proper release until now. In honor of former Celtic Frost bassist Martin Eric Ain, who passed away from a heart attack in 2017 and artist H.R. Giger, who provided the artwork for many Celtic Frost and Triptykon album covers and who passed away in 2014, Triptykon came up with an orchestral version of the entirety of the Requiem trilogy. The orchestral parts were performed by the Metropole Orkest of the Netherlands.
It feels like this is a release mainly for diehard Celtic Frost/Triptykon fans. The song obviously feels more like an orchestral piece than your typical Triptykon fare. It’s not nearly as harsh and has a very 70s prog feel overall. It’s an ambitious musical statement that finally sees the light of day after over 30 years of gestation. It’s a cool piece to have.
Remember when Katatonia was a fairly brutal death metal band? Yeah, me neither.
Those death metal days are a really long way from here. City Burials is another entry into the morphing of Katatonia into a full blown melancholic alternative band. I say morphing, but let’s be honest, Katatonia has been in the alternative realm for some time now. And I don’t think they would be offended by that characterization at all. This is not a metal record. Sure, there are some heavy and complex riffs thrown in here and there, but they aren’t the focal point of the music at all anymore. It feels like this album is more of a showcase for vocalist Jonas Renske more than anything else. And he still encapsulates all that is morose and melancholy in his understated vocal delivery like no one else can. Musically, this album sees the band embracing programming and synths/keys more and more. It feels like the sound is almost a 50/50 split between the lead musical focus being between the guitars and programming. It is a very sparse record sonically, with the weird exception of second track Behind the Blood which feels like an out-of-place rocker complete with a fist-pounding rhythm break straight out of something Accept would pull.
Overall, I’m still kind of torn on this album. I love Katatonia and have for a very long time (since those early death metal days). I wholeheartedly embraced their turn into more melodic fare and some of those early attempts are my favorite Katatonia albums (Last Fair Deal Gone Down, Viva Emptiness, The Great Cold Distance). And I really, really want to like this album. Buuuuuttttt. I’m just not feeling it. There are parts that I really like, but overall it just feels a little too sparse for my taste. It could very well be that this is an album that really needs time to breathe and I just haven’t given it sufficient time yet. This isn’t like a Van Halen record where it just hits you over the head with infectious hooks. So, I think my ultimate number rating is going to be a little higher than I actually feel about it right now. Consider the score one that gives it room for growth. Maybe I’m just being a softy because I have a soft spot for these Swedes.
Here’s another one of these kind of strange band reunions. Cirith Ungol was a fairly underground metal band who had a brief career in the 80s and released their last album back in 1991. I’m guessing the whole retro-metal fad that has had a bit of a run in metal of late is fueling some of these reunions. At any rate, it looks like a number of the guys that played with the original incarnation of Cirith Ungol are along for the ride on the 2020 version of the band.
I’ll admit that I grew up during the heyday of this band and I honestly can’t remember ever hearing any of their songs. I think they were an unsung band who was toiling in the brand of power metal pioneered by Dio. Lots of fantasy tales delivered in that NWOBHM flavored metal. This latest album doesn’t really do much in changing that formula. This album could have definitely been released in the mid to late 80s and it would fit right in. There are some catchy riffs and hooks found on here, but overall it is kind of easy to see why these guys never really broke through to the masses. They’re a nice solid band if you’re into this kind of metal, but I can’t say that you’d be missing much if you decided to let this one pass you by.
Trivium is one of those bands that I have always had a hard time placing in the hierarchy of current metal bands. Talent-wise, they are great. Frontman Matt Heafy is just as slick as any guitarist going today and his supporting cast round out a very tight band. However, there has always been this nagging sense that Trivium has never quite figured out exactly what kind of band they want to be when they grow up. In some respects, they remind me of a metalcore band in the vein of Killswitch Engage. In other, they feel like a band trying to hold high the flame of the traditional metal heroes from the 80s. Other times, they give an impression of trying to become a death metal band in the vein of Gojira. This seeming lack of identity has kind of led their discography to jump all over the place in terms of cohesion and quality. There are always bright spots on Trivium albums, but more often than not, a lot of the good stuff gets wrapped up in middling material that lacks the focus of their better songs.
What the Dead Men Say is right in line with this lack of identity, but it does feel like the quality songs on this album outweigh the middling stuff. I think overall that this is one of the stronger albums they have released in some time. Genre-wise, it is kind of all over the place. The title cut is right out of the Gojira playbook and it is done really, really well. Heafy seems to be using a little more of his death growl on the choruses this time around and I feel like that is a wise choice. Heafy has a really strong clean voice, but, in my opinion, it doesn’t always translate well with the aggression of the music. I really feel like Trivium is a band that would be well served to use more death vocals than clean ones. The clean vocals just give the songs a bit of a sanitized shine. The riffs contained on here and on other Trivium releases just scream for a bit more of a dirtier and grittier element. In a way, I think this aspect might be the missing piece to Trivium. I would really like to see it if they would just do a straight death metal album. I think What the Dead Men Say would have worked so much better as a death metal album. The music is right there. Embrace your inner demon, Matt, and let your vocals rip, man.
How adventurous are you feeling? Are you looking for something other than the standard 3-4 minute traditionally structured song? Well, if so, you’re in luck because I’ve got a doozy for you.
Oranssi Pazuzu feels like the spiritual offspring of 70s psychedelic/gothic soundtrack masters Goblin. This album feels less like a traditional album than a terrifying descent into a psychedelic nightmare. This album should rightfully take its place as the soundtrack of the 2020 pandemic quarantine. It captures all of the despair and hopelessness that has come with the collapse of our social, economic and government structures over the past few months. Its sound is an abrasive atmospheric journey punctuated by some of more grotesque and guttural vocals you will ever come across. The album feels like a horrendous car wreck that you can’t look away from. I’m not entirely sure this thing is completely listenable, but it is an album that I haven’t been able to stop thinking about since I first spun it. It’s superbly crafted, but it really takes a strong constitution to fully immerse oneself in it. Honestly, I am not really in favor of warning stickers on albums, but it kind of feels as if this one should come with a trigger warning. It’s dark as fuck and it is relentless. It culminates in a final track that feels like what insanity should sound like.
You’ve been warned. I give this album my full recommendation. But be careful. This one will fuck you up.
This is probably going to be a fairly short review. Why, you ask? Well, it’s a The Black Dahlia Murder album. Kind of like the AC/DC of death metal. You kind of know what you’re getting on your way in the door.
OK, maybe I’m just a cynical ass. I know there are a like of people out there that absolutely adore these guys. I find myself in the camp of folks who respect what they do, but have never really fully jumped on the bandwagon. All of their albums have good songs, but none have really ever stopped me in my tracks and made me give a hearty fist pump and yell, “Fuck yeah!”. And that’s kind of where Verminous lies (lays…lies…fuck, I don’t know which one it is, but you get the picture). As a friend of mine likes to say, “It’s fine.” It’s not bad at all, but it’s not in the upper echelon of metal either. It’s fine. There’s kind of an underworld of the rats theme going on and that’s cool.
This is my first experience with Abysmal Dawn. This Los Angeles-based metal group is one of many, many American bands trading in the highly competitive technical death metal sub-genre. If you’ve read this column at all before, you know I really have a love-hate relationship with this particular brand of metal. On the one hand, these bands are simply impressive on a pure technical musicianship level. Many of these riffs and blast beats are just so insane that it is hard to wrap one’s mind around how it is physically possible to pull them off. Now, to be sure, there are studio tricks that can be used, but overall the technical chops these bands possess is simply nuts. On the other hand, sometimes the quality of the songs themselves suffer as a result of the focus on the technicality. There is a tendency for some of these bands’ albums to become simply exercises in showing off rather than coming up with complex riffs that actually serve the greater purpose of construction a quality memorable song. This is a really tough balance to achieve and there are TONS of bands in this sub-genre that simply fail to service the songs sufficiently for them to stand out from the remainder of the rabble of technical whiz-kids.
So, how does Abysmal Dawn stack up with Phylogenesis? Pretty damn good, I’d say. All of the technical bells and whistles are present. Super complex riffs and solos and insanely speedy double kick drum. There’s plenty on here to satisfy the dudes that love flash. But, more importantly, there are some really quality songs on here that lift the technical brilliance to a different level. The songs have some groove. There are some memorable hooks for the listener to grab upon. It feels like this is a technical death metal band that gets it and has constructed an album that rips. Take note, death metal dudes. Abysmal Dawn has made a nice fucking statement.
Sometimes it takes a few listens to fully realize the magnitude of an album. Other times, an album will simply knock one on one’s ass from the first few notes. Omens by Elder is one of those albums whose quality and importance simply jumped right out of the speakers and slammed me to the floor. Slammed to the floor not by heaviness, but floored simply by the ambition and execution of one of the more creative albums to come down the road in quite some time. This is a very special album and one you would do well to give a listen.
Elder is a band from Massachusetts that has recently expanded from a power trio to a quartet. Their brand of metal is a blending of atmospheric psychedelic doom with a heavy dose of progressive leanings and a smattering of jam band sensibilities. This latest album is simply a culmination of all that has come before from Elder and is just breathtaking in its scope and transcendence. Textures and melodies abound. A nice element that has been added is the element of keyboards that really seem to make Elder’s sound much more large than they have in the past. There is not a weak moment on this album. From beginning to end, this is a statement of aural complexity and a beautifully texture sonic landscape. It’s an album in which one can simply escape and lose oneself for its duration. This will more than likely be a hard album to beat come the year end best-of lists.
DISPATCHES FROM THE VOID 