DISPATCHES FROM THE VOID

East of the Wall- NP-Complete

So, this thing came out waaaayyyy earlier this year. However, they only released the damn thing digitally and on vinyl. I am one of these dorks that switched to CDs in 1990 and I am fully invested in the format at this point. There’s honestly no looking back unless they just stop making the damn things altogether. Well, it looks like this nightmare scenario just might ending up coming to fruition. So, after patiently waiting for months on end, I just bit the bullet and bought the digital copy.

So, enough about me and my tortured existence. How’s the damn album? Well, I have to say that it is pretty damned skippy. This is album number five for East of the Wall. My only exposure to them was their last release, Redaction Artifacts, from 2013. I remember being pretty impressed with their post-metal sound on that album, but honestly, it is one of those albums that I haven’t played much since it first came out. I seem to remember their sound being quite a bit more harsh than the music contained on this latest album. The new album feels more prog oriented than post-metal in the vein of Intronaut or Mouth of the Architect, which are kind of who this band originally reminded me of. The vocals on the latest album are more of the clean variety than the harsh side and the instrumentation throughout feels more confident and focused than the last album. Seriously, the music on here can easily rival some of the heavy hitters in the progressive metal field. It’s just a really slick and well-crafted set of songs.

4 flip flops out of 5

Imperium Dekadenz-When We Are Forgotten

If you’re wondering about the odd spelling of their name, these dudes are German. Specifically, they claim to hail from The Black Forest region of Germany. Yes, a black metal band from The Black Forest. It does not get anymore metal than this. Everyone else can just quit.

So, this was my first exposure to Imperium Dekadenz and I’ve got to be honest that the name alone didn’t really inspire much confidenz in the material contained on this album. But there was just something about the album cover and the title of the album that drew me in. And I’m glad that I did because this is a slab of black metal performed in the manner that I prefer my black metal served. This isn’t your blast of frozen blastbeats, icy drill bit riffery and Satanic lyrics. What you have here is a very smart and mature sounding album that focuses more on building these bleak and dreary atmospheres. There are passages on this album that are simply beautiful. I mean, don’t get me wrong. This thing is dark. But it’s more dark in a morose and melancholy manner where the focus is on death, loss and despair than on being evil as fuck. This is black metal all grown up in a manner of speaking. The music is simply very creative and reminds me in a way of Agalloch.

Not only is this probably the best black metal album I’ve come across this year, but is also probably going to end up being one of the better albums to come out this year period. Give these guys a shot.

4 flip flops out of 5

Cloudkicker-Unending

Cloudkicker is basically a bedroom project from the fertile mind of a dude named Ben Sharp. Cloudkicker is one of those bands that has a serious underground cult following and is given credence by the number of established metal musicians that count themselves as fans. Hell, the guys in Intronaut so loved this guy’s music that they agreed to act as his backup band so he could go out on a tour around the States.

Things have been quiet on the Cloudkicker front for some time and it was a surprise when Sharp dropped this new set of songs out recently. What you have here feels more like an EP than a full fledged full length. It contains five proper songs with a couple of short interludes. It basically falls in line with past Cloudkicker output in that it’s instrumental fare in the style of post-metal. Kind of like a more laid back version of Russian Circles. Good layers and atmospherics. Should be a perfect album for your more introspective moods.

3.5 flip flops out of 5

Killswitch Engage-Atonement

Killswitch Engage has always occupied a weird space for me. On the one hand, they craft some really intricate guitar riffs and can generally write really hooky melodies that easily worm their way into your brain. On the other hand, they are primarily one of those early aught American metalcore bands that has always been just a little hit and miss with me. Generally, metalcore bands just don’t offer anything substantive in my opinion. However, Killswitch is one of the metalcore bands whose albums I have found myself enjoying in the past. So, in a way, I guess take this review with a bit of salt. If metalcore be your thing, then this album is probably going to do wonders for you.

So, the last two Killswitch albums saw the return of original vocalist Jesse Leach and I think both of those albums have probably been my favorite period for this band. So, my hopes for this new album were favorable. However, I can’t say that the band has really capitalized on their past momentum on this latest album. First, the album just feels breezy. I’m not entirely sure how long it is, but it’s one of those albums that just flies by and seems to end shortly after you first put it on. Second of all, Killswitch has always had a bit of an emo-type streak in their sound, especially when it comes to lyrical content and the clean choruses that most of their songs contain. This latest album really plays up this emo feel in songs like I Am Broken Too and I Can’t Be The Only One. Granted, compared to non-metal music, this album is still heavy as fuck. But, in the metal world, some of the passages in these songs just sound more like something you would hear in the indie pop world than from a metal band. And, at the end of the day, that’s really the conundrum that this band presents for me. Cool riffs. Heavy guitars. Nice gutturals. But, the weak choruses and lyrics just sort of lose me and temper any true enthusiasm I feel for this album.

3 flip flops out of 5

Arkona and Metsatoll at Come and Take It Live, Austin, TX 9/7/2019

So, you head out for a metal show on a Saturday night and a fucking renaissance faire breaks out. Seriously, the number of denim metal battle vests were seriously outnumbered by the amount of cloaks, capes and all manner of leather contraptions on display at this show. This is when you know you have entered the realm of pagan metal.

This was an interesting double bill not only in that it was a prime display of larping pagans, but you had two bands from some somewhat non-traditional metal places. Headliner Arkona hails from Russia and Metsatoll is from Estonia. It’s been a theme since this blog started in that metal is a global phenomenon and that it is really force that gives people from disparate locales all over the world a common language and culture to share. Most of the lyrics in Arkona’s songs aren’t in English, but that didn’t act as a barrier at all for the music and the emotion of their performance to connect with the audience.

Arkona brought out a set that showcased their blending of black metal with pagan metal. Their frontwoman, Masha, combined melodic vocals with a very effective black metal scream. Many of their songs center around rhythmic chants and are given that pagan sound with the use of traditional instruments such as bagpipes and various flutes and recorders.

Metsatoll was a band that I wasn’t familiar with at all prior to this evening, but they gave a rowdy performance that put a premium of crowd participation. The entire performance felt like it was taking place in a drunken tavern right after a great victory had been had on the battlefield. I have never seen that many metal head dancing arm-in-arm in the pit during a show in my entire history of seeing shows.

Evergrey at Come and Take It Live, Austin, TX 9/3/2019

Swedish progressive power metallers Evergrey rolled into town last night. Evergrey is one of those bands that I was a really big fan of in the early 2000s. They had a run of albums during that time span that were downright glorious (In Search of Truth, Recreation Day and The Inner Circle). Unfortunately, they didn’t really do serious touring in the States during that time. Which is a shame because I never really got to hear those albums showcased in a major way in a live setting.

So, flash forward to today, and Evergrey has managed to carve out a nice little fanbase in America and they are touring over here on regular basis. The past couple of times that I’ve seen them play, including last night, the set list focused primarily on their most recent three albums. Which are all fine and have some good songs on them, but I can’t say that they contain the band’s strongest material. From a selfish viewpoint, I really wish they would pepper the setlist with more songs from their older and more classic albums. Look, I get it. You’re busting your ass on the road to help showcase the new album and try to sell some records. But, if you view the response from the crowd last night, the response was much louder and excited for the older songs than they were for the new stuff. The atmosphere from the crowd was honestly fairly lackluster overall. It was a good show and was professionally performed. But it just lacked that special something that takes a show to a different level.

Evergry-The Grand Collapse

Orange Goblin, The Skull and Mothership at Come and Take It Live, Austin, TX 9/1/2019

“We don’t care about politics, religion or race. All we care about is Black Sabbath and Motorhead.” -Ben Ward

Yeah, that sounds about right. Good time rock n’ roll in the name of Sabbath and Lemmy ruled the evening when Orange Goblin came rollicking into town Sunday night. Ben Ward is just a whirling dervish of a frontman. He took control of the stage from the moment he stepped upon it and commanded the up-to-that-point laid back Austin crowd into a good time frenzy. Even if you are that dude who just stoically stands in one place and gives a slight head nod at the proceedings (I’m looking at myself), you felt the call to cut loose and really engage the infectious call of rock n’ roll. I’ve had a few of these shows of late in which I really didn’t want them to end. The show was just that engaging and fun. It’s nice to have a band refresh one’s normally jaded outlook.

At the center position of the evening was a big reason why I came out to this show. The Skull is the remnants of classic 80s doom band Trouble. The Skull sports vocalist Eric Wagner, and bassist Ron Holzner from Trouble. Presumably, guitarists Bruce Franklin and Rick Wartell are still carrying on with the Trouble moniker, but I can’t honestly remember them doing anything with the band in many years. So, in my mind, The Skull is the current living embodiment of Trouble. And that spiritual continuation of Trouble was evident in last year’s The Endless Road Turns Dark and the show they put on Sunday night. Wagner is looking like a sage prophet as he has gotten older and, for a moment, when he first stepped on stage I thought Robert Plant was gracing us with his presence. He’s not hitting the high notes as effortlessly as he once did, but overall his craggy siren vocals of doom is still recognizable. Serious treat in that they rolled out a couple of classic Trouble tracks.

Opening the evening was Dallas based Mothership. Mothership is a power trio in the vein of a heavy version of stoner metal. It has been some time since I’ve seen these guys in person and there non-stop touring is really starting to pay off. The band is as tight as I’ve seen them and there is a level of confidence that is taking their live performance up a notch. Guitarist Kelly Juett continues to remind me of an Angus Young clone in his stage presence. There’s no goose step and his sound is different, but there is just something mischievous about the look on his face that just brings forth the joy of performing that I see in Angus. Plus, he likes shirts just as much as Matt Pike.

Orange Goblin-Sons of Salem

Orange Goblin-The Fog

The Skull-The Tempter (Trouble)

The Skull-Till the Sun Turns Black

Mothership

Murder in the Front Row-The San Francisco Bay Area Thrash Metal Story

Murder in the Front Row: The San Francisco Bay Area Thrash Metal Story (2019)

Here’s my first film review on here. Luckily I live in the birthplace of Alamo Drafthouse Cinema and they are cool enough to show some metal-related movies and documentaries. Last night, they screened the above documentary about the birth of the Bay Area thrash scene. It was so damn good that I damn near squirted some tears at a couple of points during the screening.

So, my formative metal years were smack dab in the middle of the 80s. Iron Maiden, Priest, AC/DC, Saxon, Van Halen were all gateway drugs for my transformation from shy, scrawny and geeky pre-teen into a shy, scrawny and geeky metalhead. And then my friends and I found Metallica. And nothing was ever the same. These guys weren’t of the hair metal Sunset Strip bands that were hot in the early-mid 80s. They were aggression and intricate musicianship personified. I had never heard such aggressive riffs nor heard such lyrics filled with such rage and angst and horror. And the dudes producing the music were just a bunch of fucking badasses. No spandex. No hairspray. No makeup. Just long hair, jeans and tour shirts. They looked just fucking like us. Fuck, they were us. And then came Megadeth, Slayer, Exodus and Testament following Metallica’s lead and thrash metal was birthed. And there was much rejoicing.

This documentary is a love letter to the early thrash scene centered in the East Bay area of the San Francisco Bay. It is filled with interviews, photos and live footage from everyone that was there. It’s funny. It’s inspiring. It’s a nostalgic look back to a golden age of metal. All you heroes are here. Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Testament, Death Angel, Forbidden, Vio-lence, Laaz Rocket, Possessed. And Exodus. Fucking Exodus. Exodus is the real star of this thing and it’s nice to see them get ample credit for being the mainstay of this scene. Metallica may have gone on to become the biggest metal band ever, but Exodus is the heart and soul of the Bay Area scene. And if you don’t end up tearing up a bit during the parts about Cliff Burton and Paul Baloff’s deaths, well, I just don’t know about you as a human. I honestly didn’t realize Burton was fucking 24 when he died. Just a baby. Such a sad loss.

Seek this one out if you came of age during this time. Hell, seek it out if you didn’t. Seek it out even if you don’t like metal. I doubt you’ll be able to see it on the big screen. I think they are doing some one-off screenings of it around the country, but your best bet is to try and find it on your favorite streaming service. I know you have to be internet savvy if you ended up on my rinky-dink little site. Go find it now.

10 flip flops out of 5

Horseburner-The Thief

I’ll admit it. I kind of based this purchase solely on this album cover. Very Baroness-esque in its look. And you know what? I’m the big, big winner. Because Horseburner has release a very capable proper debut album. I say proper debut, because I really don’t know a lot about these guys. It looks like they self-released two albums prior to this one, but this is the first to get a label release.

It’s nice to see another band join Byzantine in the ranks of metal bands hailing from the lovely state of West Virginia. The sound contained on here reminds me in places of Baroness, in others of Crowbar and still in others of Mastodon. It feels like every song on here has it’s own distinct personality and/or influence. The aspect that feels like it changes the most from song to song is the vocal performance of drummer Adam Nohne and guitarist Jack Thomas. I honestly can’t tell if the vocals are a joint venture or if they are trading off from song to song, but the vocals just feel as if they are specifically crafted to whatever sort of vibe they are going for on each song. It really works for the diversity of the presentation on the whole and keeps things interesting.

Anyway, cool new band of the scene. These are dudes to keep an eye on.

4 flip flops out of 5

Demons & Wizards, Lizzy Borden and Tyr at Gas Monkey Live!, Dallas, TX 8/26/2019

This would have been a good show for someone who had never been exposed to heavy metal at all because everything about this evening was turned up to eleven. The three bands involved brought a little bit of everything to the table this evening, but it all was in the service of classic heavy metal in its purest form.

First up was Demons & Wizards. This was a show I never expected to see in person. Demons & Wizards is a long-dormant side project of Jon Schaffer of Iced Earth and Hansi Kursch of Blind Guardian. These guys came together in an attempt to blend the more aggressive musical style of Iced Earth with the fantasy lyricism of Blind Guardian. Many times collaborations between artists don’t always gel as well in practice as it would seem they would on paper. The two albums these guys cobbled together in 1999 and 2005 were absolutely perfect in realizing their goal and, in many respects, outperformed the guys’ main gigs in terms of quality. They have played a few one-off shows in Europe during the festival circuits, but I really never thought they would get enough logistical support to actually pull off a tour of the U.S. Well, damn near 20 years from the release of the debut album and we get an awesome surprise. For the touring band, Schaffer and Kursch brought along Blind Guardian rhythm guitarist Marcus Siepen to play bass and current Iced Earth lead guitarist Jake Dreyer to tackle lead guitar. The set list was an absolute blistering rendition of songs from both albums with selected numbers from Iced Earth and Blind Guardian. Even though he is starting to look more and more like a Confederate General from his beloved Civil War days with his freshly shorn grey hair and increasingly interesting facial hair choices, Schaffer remains one of the best rhythm guitarist going. He’s right up there with Hetfield in crafting these speedy, clean and crunchy riffs. If these guys have dates set in your town on this current tour, go see this show. This was one of those special moments that we probably won’t get a chance to see again.

In the middle slot of the evening, we got to bathe in a wave of nostalgia in a very satisfying set from 80s shock rocker Lizzy Borden. Yep, Lizzy is still cranking them out and he still has the pipes to make Geoff Tate jealous and the myriad of costume and mask changes to make Rob Halford feel like it’s all a bit over the top. Lizzy looked a little hefty in his black and silver sequined body suit, but dammit, he absolutely nailed all of the high notes with ease. His band is made up of youngsters that I have to believe none of which were alive when most of the songs in the setlist were written. This was a great visit to the Murderess Metal Roadshow complete with him brandishing the axe and spewing blood all over the audience members next to the stage.

Opening the evening was Faroe Island Viking/folk metal band Tyr. This was my first exposure to these guys and they put forth a rousing opening set full of songs that seemed perfectly suited for a rowdy alehouse full of drunken Vikings. Lots of hearty sing-along chorus that had a good chunk of the early crowd calling back and forth with the band. Perfect opener.

Demons & Wizards-Poor Man’s Crusade