2019 Best of Metal: #20 Vintersea-Illuminated

Release Date:  9/27/2019

Origin:  Portland, OR

Personnel:  Avienne Kiuttu-vox, Riley Nix-guitar, Jorma Spaziano-guitar, Karl Whinnery-bass, Jeremy Spencer-drums

Vintersea is a relatively new band that is adding to the legacy of other metal bands from the Northwestern U.S.  Whereas many of the bands from this area tend to either fall into the grunge or environmental pagan/black metal scene, Vintersea comes at it with a very slick progressive melodic death metal attack.  Featuring the combo angelic and demonic vocal stylings of Avienne Kiuttu, this second overall release for Vintersea made a fairly immediate impact on me and I really look forward to see where this band takes things in the future.  The title track from this album was one of the more memorable songs to come out in 2019.  Just epic in scope.

4 flip flops out of 5

The Year in Metal 2019

Hmmmm.  We’ve reach the end of the 2010s decade here in the land of metal.  Overall, this has been a really good decade for metalheads and the state of the genre is still very healthy.  However, 2019 was a bit of a disappointment in general for the state of new music.  Sure, there were some strong albums that came out and we’ll be reviewing those in the upcoming weeks, but looking at the entirety of releases spanning the year and the level of quality was a little down in comparison to past years.  Once again, the biggest trend for me was the amount of stellar material coming out of bands with debut albums or band that are just two or three albums into their career.  This trend towards younger blood bringing solid material provides a hefty dose of optimism for the health of the scene overall.  The more established bands are still cranking out decent material, but 2019 found these bands falling a bit behind the younger and hungrier up-and-coming bands.

On the live music scene, for me anyway, this was another jam-packed year of really good musical performances.  I got to scratch quite a few bands off of my “never seen” list this year.  Riverside, Panopticon (both acoustic and black metal sets), Demons and Wizards, Monolord, Windhand, Voivod, Robin Trower, Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats, Zeal and Ardor, Warforged, Spirit Adrift, The Claypool Lennon Delerium and Arkona were all first time concerts for me this year.  Other highlights were getting to seeing Saxon still defying the toll of time by giving one of their more energetic club shows I’ve seen by them, Rivers of Nihil playing last year’s masterpiece Where Owls Know My Name in full along with a touring saxophone player, Plague Vendor and their hyperkinetic vocalist Brandon Blaine making a case for becoming one of the more interesting frontmen going, witnessing Michael Schenker and his merry band of past vocalist joining together for a lovely evening of metal nostalgia, bonding with Panopticon’s Austin Lunn about the Galactic Cowboys, seeing critical darling Spirit Adrift up close and personal in a club the size of a large kitchen, witnessing an acoustic Chelsea Wolfe show in a church, and nearly losing a toe during the massive convergence of two tours consisting of Psycroptic/Voivod/Revocation/Sick of It All/Municipal Waste/Napalm Death. (Flip Flops Forever!)

The 2019 Top 20 Best of Metal album review begins tomorrow.  I know this is like the day before Christmas for you little metalheads.  Get to bed early tonight and it will be here before you know it.

Novembers Doom-Nephilim Grove

Man, Novembers Doom is one of those bands that I have just slept on for some reason.  There are so many damn fine bands in the world that its impossible to hit them all and there are bound to be some really good bands that just fall through the cracks for everyone.  I feel kind of bad admitting that Nephilim Grove is my first real exposure to this death/doom band out of Chicago that has been cranking out albums since the mid-90s.

The biggest thing that really hooked me on this album is vocalist Paul Kuhr.  Those of you that know me well know that I am a huge fan of Nevermore.  It still hurts that the world is never going to get to hear the plaintive wail of Warrel Dane since his passing a couple of years ago.  There are times on this album in which it feels that Kuhr is downright channeling the lower end range of Dane.  It’s just eerie.  The band itself reminds me a bit of Nevermore in places, but with less aggression and chaos.  Their sound is more of a slow burn and it is one of those albums that you should sit with a bit.  I feel like this one has grown on me with each listen.

4 flip flops out of 5

Nile-Vile Nilotic Rites

I may be wrong here, but I think Nile is the only ancient Egyptian themed death metal band in the world.  At the very least, they are the only ancient Egyptian themed death metal band to come out of South Carolina.  I’m think I’m on fairly solid ground on the second statement.

This is the first album Nile has put out since the departure of longtime vocalist/guitarist Dallas Toler-Wade.  The good thing here is that main songwriter/guitarist/vocalist George Sanders is still in charge of things and Vile Nilotic Rites doesn’t really miss a beat at all with the subtraction of Toler-Wade from the mix.  Even though the sound of Nile hasn’t changed at all on this latest album, it feels a bit less epic than past releases.  Granted, you’ve still got some of the best song titles going with selections such as “The Oxford Handbook of Savage Genocide”, “Snake Pit Mating Frenzy” and “Thus Sayeth the Parasites of the Mind” and the guitar and drum portions are a chaotic and frenzied as ever.  It just feels like this one of missing a little something extra that would push this one from the middle rungs of Nile’s discography to the upper reaches.

3.5 flip flops out of 5

Vanden Plas-The Ghost Xperiment- Awakening

If you’re familiar at all with Vanden Plas’ past catalog, you’ll know that subtlety is not a word these guys are familiar with.  Everything Vanden Plas does is done with a hefty dose of bombast and pomposity.

For those of you not in the know regarding Vanden Plas, they are basically the German version of classic-era Dream Theater.  They love them some concept albums.  They bask in the traditional prog metal sound of the early 90s and infuse this framework with a healthy dose of power metal.  From what I understand, many of their past works have been translated into lavish stage shows in Germany and a good chunk of the members of this band dabble in musicals when not performing in Vanden Plas.  So, you know, they’re flamboyant.  I guess you could kind of put them in the Trans Siberian Orchestra vein as well.

So, this latest platter is right in line with past Vanden Plas releases.  It is just slick as all hell and the musicianship is seriously top notch.  These guys have chops that can stand against anyone in the business.  However, I’m going to dock them a couple of point here.  First, for a progressive band, I don’t see a whole lot of progression in their core sound over the years.  You can stand this album up against any they released in the 90s and the basic sound structures are the same.  Same guitar tone.  Same keyboard tone.  Same drum tone.  This begs the question:  are these guys really prog or not?  Because the sound, whereas very ambitious on its own, shows a remarkable lack of growth or exploration over the years.  As ambitious as some of the albums are musically and conceptually, there is a definite formula in which these guys operate.  It’s not as simple as AC/DC’s formula, but you can definitely draw some similar comparisons if you stand all of their albums back-to-back.  The good thing is that their chosen formula doesn’t suck.  If you dig this kind of prog metal, you’ll be all over this album.  I find it very good and engaging, but it’s just a bit nagging at the lack of overall growth from such talented guys.  Second, I’m totally docking them for the title of this thing.  I grant that they are from Germany and English isn’t their first language, but come on!  The Ghost Xperiment!  Don’t spell words like this.  It isn’t clever or cool.  It comes across as very amateurish.  Pre-teens spell shit like Xperiment.  Just spell the damn word correctly.  The Ghost Experiment-Awakening would have been just fine.

Also, for those interested:  this is part one of a double album.  Part II is expected to come out in 2020.

3.5 flip flops out of 5

Cloak-The Burning Dawn

Feels like a very appropriate album cover and title for how things are going in the world.  Just a wasteland charred remains.  It’s honestly how things feel these days.

Cloak reminds me a awful lot of Tribulation minus the goth-inspired stage presence.  Theirs is a death metal sound, but it feels more rooted in the classic rock ‘n roll vibe than your traditional or grind death metal sound.  This feels like a really good gateway album for someone wanting to explore death metal.  It is very accessible sound-wise and has quite a bit of engaging melodic moments thrown in with the more aggressive riffs.  All in all, this is just a very capably produced album albeit one that never reaches those truly inspiring moments.  Good, but not great.

3.5 flip flops out of 5

The Great Old Ones-Cosmicism

If you read yesterday’s column, you may notice a theme running through that album cover to this one.  The band’s this week seem to have a fascination with towers of madness.  I’m not entirely sure what to read into that, but there you go.

A few weeks ago I mentioned that the metal scene in France was once virtually non-existent, but that in recent years the metal bands in France are starting to make some serious inroads internationally, especially with the success of Gojira.  You can really make that statement for all of the European countries that border the Mediterranean Sea.  Metal in Europe has traditionally been the province of the northern territories (Britain, Germany and Scandinavia) rather than the southern ones.  That is starting to change.  Along with France, Italy, Greece and Portugal are all seeing fairly vibrant metal scenes.

The band at hand is another one the newer bands to come out of France and they ply their trade in Lovecraftian influenced black metal.  I say black metal, but it really sounds more like black metal recorded in a death metal sort of vein.  It’s not the screeching underproduced black metal one associates with Norway.  No, the vocals and everything else are recorded clean and are right in your face.  This is The Great Old One’s fourth album overall and second for the Season of Mist label.  The album is my first experience with these guys and I found myself fairly impressed with their musical chops.  The interesting thing here is that this isn’t the only Lovecraft/Cthullu inspired metal band to come out of the Southern European area.  Italy’s Sulphur Aeon is more traditional black metal band that also loves them some Lovecraft.  It would be a downright shame if we can’t find someway to have these two bands tour together.

3.5 flip flops out of 5

Hour of Penance-Misotheism

Yeah, that’s kind of a blasphemous album cover.  Not a lot of good happening there.  Which matches up with the album title of Hour of Penance’s latest.  When I first read Misotheism, I thought they had just made up a word.  Was this about believing that miso holds the Almighty?  Is the album about the worship of soup?  No.  Let this be another example of metalheads being a lot smarter than they are given credit.  I went down a serious internet rabbit hole while looking up Misotheism.  Turns out that this is an ancient Greek concept regarding the hatred of God.  It takes the concept of atheism up a notch or two.  It’s not the belief that God doesn’t exist.  It’s a belief that God exists, but instead of worshiping and gaining comfort from him/her/it, you actually feel spite and hatred for the entity.  It seems like the philosophy is rooted in why God allows so many innocent people suffer unnecessarily if God is all powerful and omniscient.  Dark shit and feels like good fodder for a metal album.

Hour of Penance has always explored the darker sides of religion and in many respects this latest album reminds me of Behemoth’s work over the years.  Both bands use traditional Christian stories and texts and looks at them from a very different perspective.  I find this kind of shit fascinating since I was brought up in the church as a kid and am very familiar with Christian theology.  The music contained on here is pretty straight ahead technical death metal.  Very crisp and very cleanly recorded.  Just a professional metal album that doesn’t veer to far out of its lane, but gets props for being an engaging listen overall.

3.5 flip flops out of 5

Levitation Fest 2019: Chelsea Wolfe and Ioanna Gika at Central Presbyterian Church and Red Fang, Windhand, Torche and Monolord at Mohawk, Austin, TX 11/9/2019

Back in the days of yore, early November in Austin meant Fun Fun Fun Fest.  This was a glorious three day festival in Austin that melded the worlds of metal, punk, hip/hop and indie rock into a glorious Utopian mishmash of awesome.  It was a glorious fest that is sadly no more.  In its place on the calendar in Austin is Levitation Fest.  The lineups for this fest typically field a strong roster of metal bands, but the fest takes a hit overall since it doesn’t take place in one idyllic location, but is spread out among many of Austin’s small and mid-size downtown club venues.

I only attended one day of the festival this year.  Sadly, I won’t be reporting on the sets for Power Trip, High on Fire, Russian Circles or Deafheaven.  I decided to hit the Saturday afternoon set of Chelsea Wolfe and Ioanna Gika as my appetizer and then finished the day off with the main course Red Fang, Windhand, Torche and Monolord.

So, you read the description of the venue for the first show correctly.  It took place at a church.  Now, say what you will about organized religion, but one thing they do proper is architecture.  The arching roofs, the stained glass windows, the shadows thrown by the various candle displays.  Man, let’s face it:  Churches are gothic and creepy as fuck.  After witnessing this show, I really want more metal shows at churches.  This show was Chelsea Wolfe performing an acoustic set that highlighted her latest album, which was also an acoustic affair (shocker).  I didn’t take any video of her set because it just seemed like too intimate of a setting, but the light show and the stage props she brought really took advantage of the unique venue.  This was just one of those really magical performances and one of those I felt lucky to witness.  Opener Ioanna Gika (just a fantastic name) provided what seemed to be a very Chelsea-like inspired performance with a little more technical/industrial bent to her sound.  Props to the fine folks at Central Presbyterian Church of Austin for agreeing to host this awesome show that included a song about the Antichrist.

After cramming a couple of slices of pizza in my face after Chelsea finished her set, it was over to The Mohawk for a combo doom and stoner metal feast.  Monolord was the opener of the night session and they were honestly the main reason I was at this show.  I’ve been a pretty big fan of their occult stoner metal jam for some time now and their latest album, No Comfort, has been one of my favorite releases this year.  Their live show was right in line with what I had expected out of this power trio.  So much fuzz.  Fuzz for days.

Second up was Torche.  Torche is one of those bands that is kind of hard to categorize.  They’re just Torche.  Kind of punk.  Kind of hardcore.  Kind of pop/indie rock.  Catchy as all hell and just flat out cool riffs for days.  They came out and just ripped right through a nice tight set that contained no filler.

Windhand left the biggest impression of the evening.  I hadn’t really been much of a fan of theirs until their latest release, Eternal Return.  This was my first time to see them in a live setting and, wow, do they put on a good show.  I think we actually got fortunate to see them at all because they were actually subjected to a robbery while performing in Houston earlier in the week and lost most of their touring equipment.  The unfortunate events of the past week didn’t seem to affect the band’s performance at all.  Again, I can’t praise these guys enough for such a raw and present live experience they brought.

Closer was Red Fang.  Red Fang is one of those bands that flat out brings the fun.  It’s been a while since we have received any new material from these guys.  So, it was extra nice when they rolled out a couple of new tracks that are supposed to be featured on a new album coming out in 2020.  Both tracks really smoked and seemed to be a little more on the aggressive side of the Red Fang sound.

All in all, even though it was just one day for me personally, Levitation 2019 was a success.  Even though it doesn’t quite reach the level of epicness that was Fun Fun Fun, it’s still nice to have a festival in early November that caters to our chosen brand of music.

Monolord

Torche

Windhand

Red Fang

Alcest-Spiritual Instinct

French metal just keeps growing and maturing over the years.  Not long ago, France really didn’t have much of a metal scene to speak of.  But with the emergence of Gojira and a good chunk of black metal bands, it feels like the scene in France is becoming a forece.

Alcest comes back with a new album that just further solidifies them as one of the more consistent and classy bands going.  What you have here is sort of a mixture of post-metal, black metal and shoegaze that blends together into a hypnotic swirl of soundscapes.  This latest album feels like the band has embraced a little more of their black metal past with the addition of more black metal screams than on the past couple of records.  But even with the more frequent use of black metal elements, this album as a whole still retains that signature Alcest quiet melody over the harsh blast beats of traditional black metal bands.  The result is just a relaxing and meditative album.  Even though the lyrics are sung entirely in French, there is still plenty on here with which to engage (for us English speakers, anyway).  The emotion of the songs primarily comes through the delicate melodies.  In certain respects, this album reminds me a little of how Russian Circles goes about presenting their instrumental songs.

4 flip flops out of 5