Borknagar-True North

Borknagar has always been a bit of a strange beast.  You’d have to place them somewhere on the fringes of the Norwegian black metal scene because they come at the black metal scene at a completely different angle than most of the bands from this corner of the world.  It is still a frozen landscape (see above album cover) that the band celebrates, but it describes these environs in more of a progressive metal vein of black metal that verges into power metal terrain in places.

Borknagar has always been more of a collective than a steady lineup of members and this album sees more changes afoot.  Once again, the proceedings are helmed by mastermind guitarist Oystein G. Brun, but this album sees the departure of longtime vocalist Vintersorg.  Into his shoes steps bassist ICS Vortex.  I was a little concerned about his taking over the lead vocal duties since he has mainly been known for backing vocals in both Borknagar and Dimmu Borgit, but he seriously knocks it out of the park with his performance on this album.  His soaring clean vocals work extremely well with the almost 70s prog inspired nature of a lot of the songs on here.  It almost feels as though this is the album that would result of Deep Purple ever decided to pull off a black metal influenced album.  Lots of keyboards and melancholy melodic passages are intermixed with blast beats and more traditional black metal verses.  The result is a heady mixture of styles that coalesces into something quite magical and inspiring.  Just an ambitious piece of art that reaches a pinnacle of metal quality not matched by many this year.

4.5 flip flops out of 5

Opeth-In Cauda Venenum

I’ll admit it:  I kind of feel a bit of trepidation whenever a new Opeth album shows up on the release calendar.  I feel somewhat like the proverbial grumpy old guy bitching about how much more awesome the days of old were, but I feel it’s true in this case.  Opeth was a better death metal band with proggy influences rather than becoming the full-blown prog-fest in their current incarnation.

The albums released since the death metal days ended have all been fine.  But they are all still kind of missing something that would really make them special.  Ask yourself this question:  When was the last time you actually pulled out Heritage, Pale Communion or Sorceress?  I know I don’t remember the last time I pulled any of those albums out.  And, again, it’s not that they are bad records.  There are some really good songs on all three of those albums.  But all of them kind of follow the same sort of sequence in my opinion.  They are all very top heavy.  What I mean is that the albums all start out really strong with the first two or three cuts being barnburners.  Classic fuck-yeah Opeth moments.  But then the remainder of the albums just sort of meander along and feel like they lose focus.  The result is that the albums just don’t leave as much as an impression as say Blackwater Park or Still Life did and do.

So, the new album.  So, I think I want to slot it as the best thing that they have produced since we have entered the full prog era.  This album still feels like it has a bit of the top heavy structure, but the remainder of the album contains enough subtle gems that I think this one may have more staying power in the long run.  At least, I hope it does.  Opeth records are tough to peg after only two to three listens.  Dignity and Heart In Hand are going to be killer tracks live.  The last two track on the album, Continuum and All Things Will Pass both contain some of the more chilling and inspiring passages on the album.  One interesting tidbit is that they released both a Swedish and an English version of the album.

Look, I was and am still a huge Opeth fan.  I’ll buy whatever they put out because it is always interesting to hear where Mikael and the guys are going to explore.  But I still pine for the Blackwater days.  I don’t even care about the lack of death vocals.  Just crank the guitars a bit more for me in places.  That’s not too much to ask is it.

4 flip flops out of 5

Monolord-No Comfort

This album feels like a major step forward for Monolord.  This Swedish trio has been around for a few years now and has always put out a nice solid stoner metal sound, but they haven’t quite created anything that had catapulted them out of the underground.  I’m really hoping that this album helps break them to some new fans because this one is something special.

I’m not sure what exactly they stumbled upon on this album.  They have managed to keep their core fuzzed-out bass-heavy slow-rumbled stoner sound of old, but there is something about the melodies combined over-top that really makes this set of songs stand apart.  Also, you really need to dig into these songs.  All of them are extremely long (six songs total).  They all start with a basic riff and the song structure follow it for quite a while, but then at some point, the songs will just take a different turn and things get really interesting.  The result is stoner metal that doesn’t get boring.  Look, this isn’t party music.  This is a dirge, but it is a dirge that is extremely infectious.  It certain respects it reminds me of some of the more recent Pallbearer output.

Also, just a killer album cover.  I’m not exactly sure I get the inclusion of the space shuttle, but the superimposed image of the clouds making up the owl’s wings is just fantastic.

All around this is a superb album.

4.5 flip flops out of 5

Exhorder-Mourn the Southern Skies

The first time I looked at this album cover I honestly thought the little skulls at the end of the sticks impaling the voodoo dolls were little marshmallows.  Like it was a weird voodoo s’more maker.  I don’t know, man.  I should probably get out of the house more.

At any rate, this album isn’t about cookout treats, but is a blistering return of underground Louisiana thrashers Exhorder.  These guys were seen as one of the first bands to employ a groove heavy component to the classic 80s thrash sound and were seen as a direct influence on Pantera.  Unfortunately, they just never really broke through to the mainstream.  They put out two albums in the 90s and then broke up.  After a couple of reunions, the band has now finally put out their third studio album.

This one is fairly straight ahead thrash metal.  I hear some of the Pantera-ish sound from time-to-time on this one.  This is going to be a bit of an off-the-wall comparison, but the vocals of Kyle Thomas remind me quite a bit of Symphony X’s Russell Allen when he performed with the Mike Portnoy/Mike Orlando side project Adrenaline Mob.  In fact, the album’s lyrical content kind of reminds me of Adrenaline Mob as well with it’s macho don’t-mess-with-this attitude, but it comes off across as more genuine and real by these guys than it does coming from the normally frilly prog metal guys.  Guitar riffs are straight ahead crunchy and effective and the rhythm section is really solid.  This one isn’t breaking any new ground, but what it does, it does well.

3.5 flip flops out of 5

Napalm Death, Municipal Waste, Sick of It All, Revocation, Voivod and Psycroptic at Mohawk, Austin, TX 10/4/2019

Now, this was a show!  An all out assault on all of the senses.  Sound (blistering), sight (raging), smell (mixture of B.O, weed and shitty vape scents), touch (sweaty man bodies hurtling through the pit and into my unfortunate toe) and taste (mmmm….beer).

First week in October in Austin means the start of the most vanilla and safe of all festivals, Austin City Limits Fest.  Overpriced and overbearing, it is usually just a shitshow of middle-aged assholes who have no real interest in music absent the pop flavor of the moment and the usual group of legacy artists and retreads.  Needless to say, I was extremely happy to have a fantastic underground bill of metal’s finest as a more satisfying live music experience.  What you had this evening is two separate metal tours playing Austin on the same evening and just doubling up the lineups at a single venue.  The first half of the show was the Revocation/Voivoid/Psycroptic tour with the Napalm Death/Municipal Waste/Sick of It All lineup rounding out the evening.

Tasmania’s Psycroptic started out the evening’s festivities and started their set with a shout-out to ACL’s Friday night headliner, Guns N’ Roses.  They thanked us all for deciding to attend their set instead of the Gunners and said that they were going to give us a full set of Guns N’ Roses covers as a salute to our sacrifice.  Each song was preceded with an intro along the lines of  “Let’s open up this pit because here’s “Welcome To the Jungle!!”  and then proceeding into one of their ripping death metal tunes.  Funny guys, these dudes.

Canada’s favorite sci-fi thrash weirdos Voivod took the stage next with a set that focused primarily on their latest album, The Wake.  Although the guys are starting to show their age, their live show hasn’t lost a beat and the newer songs sound as alive and relevant as their older classic material.

Revocation found themselves in the weird position of playing the first headline set of the evening even though there were still three additional bands yet to play.  I say it was a headline set because they were given an hour to play and they spent this time playing the entirety of their latest platter, The Outer Ones.  Revocation is kind of a strange beast in that they are a thrash/death metal hybrid, but one that features a Berklee College of Music attendee in David Davidson.  The result is that you have a a guy who creates some of the most note dense riffs and solos that you will find in the death metal genre.

Opening up the second set of bands was New York hardcore stalwarts Sick of It All.  I’m not a big punk or hardcore guy, but I will say that there is something to seeing these bands perform live.  The energy is infectious.  The last time I saw Sick of It All was a number of years ago at an awesome festival we used to have in Austin called Fun Fun Fun (no longer a thing thanks in large part to C3 and ACL Fest being jealous little bitches).  I had never heard any of their music before, but before I knew it, I was headlong raging in the middle of the circle pit (I say “raging…let’s be honest, it was more of a leisurely jog.  This misadventure ended with me throwing my back out.  Getting old sucks.)  Bodies and middle fingers flying, this show was more of the same and was even more chaotic due to the tight confines of The Mohawk.  I felt the urge to jump into the pit again, but put my physical well-being first this time around and just hung around the edges of the pit.  The other weird thing I noticed during their set was the appearance of a number of shirtless bald men flailing about the pit.  I didn’t see any of these individuals prior to Sick of It All’s set.  It was as if these gentlemen simply rose up from the concrete floor once the first notes of hardcore came blasting out of the speakers.  Punk is fucking weird.

Throughout the week leading up to this show, a friend of mine kept sending me messages along the lines of “They’re gonna fuck you up!”  “Damn, man!  Give me some credit.” is all I could think.  Then Municipal Waste exploded onto the stage and it full import of his message fully hit home.  Municipal Waste is going to fuck you up, indeed.  And my policy of wearing flip flops to every show I attend was put to the test and my big toe unfortunately paid the price.  I do my best to hang around the outskirts of the circle pit itself, but this particular pit was not to be contained and it took out a number of innocent bystanders in its wake.  I’m certain I wasn’t the only bleeding patron during this set.

Ending the evening was the brash British grindcore legends, Napalm Death.  I always find the between song banter by vocalist Barney quite the contrast to the bile fueled death metal this band produces.  Like anything presented in a British accent, the introductions to songs of war, death and destruction just sound so proper and polite.  It just makes the fuzzy sonic obliteration that follows all the more jarring.  Barney has got to be one of the more interesting metal characters going because everything about is just so non-metal.  He’s kind of doughy.  He was sporting a white T-shirt and jorts Friday night.  And he just has this dorky sort of awkward flailing stage presence.  But then there is that growl of his and it all just comes together.

All in all, this was one of the most satisfying shows I’ve attended this year primarily because of the energy each band brought to the stage.  Plus, it was a nice mixture of styles from thrash to death metal to crossover thrash to hardcore punk.

The Agonist-Orphans

The Agonist find themselves in a bit of a controversy upon the release of their latest album.  It’s hard to know if this was just an attempt by the band to get their name bantered about on the metal blogs prior to the release of the album or if they have a legitimate beef on their hands.  A little background for the uninitiated.  The Agonist first vocalist, Alissa White-Gluz, left the band in 2014 to join Arch Enemy.  The split was an acrimonious one and there are differing takes on who was at fault from both White-Gluz and the remaining members of The Agonist.  Subsequently, The Agonist moved on with a new singer, Vicky Psarakis, and they had since put out two albums with her at the helm.  Cool.  Everything groovy.  Then, a few weeks prior to the release of Orphans, Psarakis stated in an interview that the band feels that White-Gluz has been using her influence to hold the band back as far as record deals and basically bad-mouthing the band at every turn.  The statement didn’t offer much in the way of proof for the allegations and seemed to be more speculation more than anything.  White-Gluz subsequently released a statement refuting the allegations.  So, was this a publicity grab or legitimate beef?  Probably a bit of both, but the timing of Psarakis’ statement seems a little suspect.

Anyway, The Agonist have a new album out.  Aside from the drama surrounding it, how’d they do on the merits?  It’s OK.  In my mind, the jury is still kind of out on this band.  They do some things that I like and some that I don’t.  The musicianship of the band is very tight and aggressive, but it feels like a majority of the songs on here just don’t quite reach that level of infectiousness that would take this band to the next level in the melodic death metal world.  Similarly, Psarakis’ vocals are kind of hit and miss for me.  Her death growls are great.  I absolutely love her style in this area.  Also, she possesses a great mid-range vocal that pairs nicely with the death growls.  It’s almost sultry in its character.  I think where she loses me a bit is when she goes all out for the high pitched vocals.  There are times on here where she almost pushes her voice to its limit and it sounds as if it is on the verge of cracking.  The resulting sound a lot of the time when she reaches this area is an almost screeching kind of sound that just doesn’t really work.  I’d like to see her keep her delivery a little more contained and less extreme on the high side of things.

Overall, I’d slot this album below their first album with Psarakis on vocals, Eye of Providence, but ahead of their last release, Five.  The talent in this band is there.  It just hasn’t resulting in an album that will send these guys up to the next level in the death metal realm.

3 flip flops out of 5

Cult of Luna-A Dawn To Fear

This is, if anything, a perfect soundtrack for the darkness of our times.  Whether you want to focus on the coming catastrophe to our environment or the downright descent into autocracy/plutocracy many western democracies across the globe find themselves in, this is an album in which to wallow in the despair of such matters.

A Dawn To Fear.  Just think about that title.  Normally, one equates morning with rebirth, renewal or the brightness of the coming day.  It harkens a chance for a new beginning.  The title to this album just turns the concept on its head.  Instead of optimism, the breaking of dawn brings fear.  It brings uncertainty.  It brings darkness.  I fucking love it.

Sound-wise, the album is what you would expect from Cult of Luna.  It’s their trademark thickness of sludge.  Thickness.  It’s really the most appropriate term for this sort of sound.  There are just so many layers of distortion from the guitars, bass and even drums with textures of cleaner keyboards over top.  There is no other band out there that provides this massive of a sound.

For those of you into the physical form of the album and are of the ilk that still purchase CDs, the band put together a neat format.  The CD version of the album contains Side A on one disc and Side B on a separate disc.  It seems as though the album as a whole could have been put on a single CD (8 songs total), but the album is presented as though in vinyl form.  You actually have to get up and “flip” the album midway through.  Kind of a neat little throwback to the vinyl era.  I know.  I’m the only guy on the planet still buying CDs and no one reading this cares.  Anyway, I thought it was neat.

I’m hopeful that this is the touring cycle in which I finally get to see these guys perform live.  They are right at the top of bands that I have still to see live.

4 flip flops out of 5

Eagle Claw-Vallis

Image may contain: one or more people

Hey, hey, hey!  Look who’s back on the scene!  This is a little bit of a local shout out for me since these guys hail from my hometown, Austin, TX.  The last we had a proper release from our local instrumental metal heroes was back in 2012.  So, this latest platter has had plenty of time to gestate.

It’s apparent from the get-go that all that time away from the studio has led to quite a bit of growth in the band’s ability and sound.  Things are a little tighter.  The songs feel like they have a bit more urgency and pop than on the previous album.  This is just a flat out crunchy feast of guitar riffs.  That’s really about it.  These guys have mastered the art of shred without becoming overbearing or having things devolve into a musical wankfest.  Everything serves the song.  Feast on these meaty riffs, my friends.

3.5 flip flops out of 5

KXM-Circle of Dolls

I think with the release of album number three we have to consider this a proper band at this point.  When these guys first came together, I really figured this was going to be a one-off project with all three dudes busy with main gigs of their own.  KXM, for the uninitiated, consists of Doug Pinnick of King’s X, George Lynch of Dokken/Lynch Mob and Ray Luzier of Korn.  It’s kind of a different pairing on paper, but their previous two releases have provided a very fresh modern rock sound and some of the more creative guitar work to come out of Lynch in quite some time.  I’ve kind of felt like the first two albums sort of capture the essence of what-if scenario if Lynch had been the guitarist of King’s X.  It fills that void of not having any new King’s X music for so long (which is supposed to change at some point this year).

Unfortunately, the latest album doesn’t quite reach the level of quality of the first couple of albums.  There are still some fairly catchy stabs at some modern sounding rock and some fairly progressive arrangements throughout, but it just doesn’t quite achieve that extra something special that the earlier material did.  Now, that’s not to say there isn’t still a lot to like on here.  Dug’s vocals are still deep, soulful and substantive.  I mean, this guy just turned 69 recently.  Just unreal that he’s still this productive and relevant at his age.  Honestly, if I’m not pooping myself at 70, I’ll consider it a win.  Lynch as well sounds great.  He really seems to have found a good spot since we’ve gotten well into the 2000s.  He seems comfortable not having to live up to the hotshot 80s guitar god image he had during the heyday Dokken and Lynch Mob years and is just focusing on riffs and leads that are unique and creative.  Holding it all together is a solid and impressive performance by Luzier.  Really, the individual parts on here are all really good.  There is just a little something missing.  Still good and worthy of a spin on your part.

3.5 flip flops out of 5

Tool-Fear Inoculum

Man, if you’re going to make people wait this fucking long for an album, you damn sure better deliver a bad motherfucking slab of wax (Um, Chinese Democracy, anyone?).  So, after near constant rumors and speculation over the past 13 years, these guys finally managed to complete their fifth album.  So, how’d they do?

Simply put:  It’s Tool.  This is a Tool album.  If you expected a lot of tinkering in their sound or were expecting a complete change in direction, you would be dead wrong.  The guitar sound is the same.  The bass sound is the same.  The drum sound is the same.  There are still the same trance-inducing rhythms propelling the listener into a weird state of transcendence.  Most of the songs are in that typical Tool formula of starting quiet and building to a pummeling crescendo.  There are a number of songs on here that could be slotted right into 10,000 Days and you wouldn’t even notice much of a difference.  And you know what?  I’m perfectly fucking fine with it.  Adam Jones’ guitar sound is one of the crunchiest, most evil sounding thing ever put to tape.  Why would you change something like that?  Seriously.  It’s just awesome.  Danny Carey has to win the shining star performer on this album with his drumming on here.  He’s always in top-notch form, but it is an absolute chore to wrap one’s brain around some of the intricate fills and rhythms he creates to propel this album forward.  The most interesting choice on the album is probably the vocals of Maynard.  This feels like a more reserved and introspective Maynard than past albums.  Excepting the album closer 7empest, there aren’t really any moments of unhinged sounding Maynard.

All in all, this will probably end up being one of the best albums to come out this year.  Any complaints I have about it (formulaic song structure and not much experimentation) are nitpicky at best.  On the one hand, I would have liked them to branch out a bit more in some of the choices they made on here, but on the other, it’s kind of nice to have a band give their fans want they really want: a traditional Tool album.  One that feels like a warm blanket.  I mean, just listen to Invincible.  This may be the best song to come out this year.  Just a colossal chunky slab o’ pounding progressive metal.

4.5 flip flops out of 5