Gaahls WYRD-GastiR-Ghosts Invited

Former Gorgoroth frontman Gaahl is one of these near-mythic personalities from the Norwegian black metal scene and he’s back with a new band entitled Gaahls WYRD.  From his one world answer “Satan.” in explaining Gorgoroth’s main influence during his infamous Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey interview to his open endorsement of church burnings to multiple convictions for assault to becoming an openly gay man in the black metal scene, Gaahl is simply one of more interesting characters to come out of the Norwegian metal scene.  The latest incarnation of Gaahl’s creative vision is still very much rooted in the black metal world, but finds his delivery of such in a much more progressive manner than his work in Gogoroth.  You’ve got about a 50/50 split between traditional black metal vocals and his more croonish regular singing voice.  Musically, there is quite a bit of this album that is extremely melodic and downright accessible.  If given an actual shot, it really feels as if this album could have some crossover appeal to fans of less extreme forms of metal.  Lyrically, this one is still rooted in the usual misanthropic themes that form most of black metal’s stomping grounds, but the many stylistic changes found throughout the album make this one an interesting listen overall.  It may not be for everyone, but I found this about as engaging an album in which Gaahl has been involved.

4 flip flops out of 5

Darkthrone-Old Star

Damn.  Album #17 for these frostbitten and blackened souls of the north.  Darkthrone’s style has come a long way from their early albums as one of the forefathers of the Norwegian black metal scene.  Whereas the music has become a little more accessible over the years and has strayed from the true formula of those early black metal traditions, the music presented here is still putridly dark and grimy.

The latest album is a brief one in length, but it’s styles are kind of all over the place.  I hear elements of the blackened crust punk sound they have embraced in recent years and also a little more of a traditional heavy metal sound overall.  At its core, however, is that same old Nocturno Culto and Fenriz collaboration that has pushed this vehicle forward for all of its years of existence.  Seriously, these guys are the Astbury/Duffy of the black metal world.  A two-man team of creativity that just keeps churning out solid music year after year.

October Tide-In Splendor Below

October Tide is one of those former side project that has since evolved into a main gig band for one of the original members.  This band started as a side gig for Jonas Renske and Fred Norrman of Katatonia.  I never really understood the purpose of this band since it sounded quite a lot like old Katatonia, but I guess it gave Fred and Jonas a death metal outlet as Katatonia evolved into a more melodic and melancholy entity over the years.  At any rate, Fred eventually left Katatonia and has since had October Tide as his main creative outlet and Jonas has left October Tide.

In Splendor Below sees October Tide ditching their old minimalist logo for this latest release and going with the new old-schoolish death metal logo for this one.  Not sure I really care for the new look, but it does kind of fit for the album enclosed.  This new platter feels a little more of an embrace of the death metal aesthetic than their previous album, Winged Waltz.  Even though this new album feels grittier and contains a bit more edge than their prior album, I still think the material doesn’t quite reach the level of quality of the previous album.  I can’t exactly pinpoint what is holding this current batch of songs back a bit, but overall, it just feels a tad rote.  Like there just wasn’t a grand bout of inspiration pushing the creation of this one.  It’s not bad.  It just feels a little middle of the road style death metal.

3.5 flip flops out of 5

Rodrigo Y Gabriela-Mettavolution

Yeah, yeah.  Settle down.  I realize this isn’t technically a metal album.  However, I would posit that Rodrigo Y Gabriela are metal as fuck.  You can feel free to disagree with this take, but you will be wrong.

So, this is album number six for this consummate guitar duo out of Mexico.  Their acoustic, flamenco-influenced instrumental albums are in a musical universe all their own.  Whereas the style is Spanish, let’s get right down to it:  the foundation of this band is metal.  Metal was a huge early influence on the young Rodrigo Y Gabriela and their first attempt at a band was actually a bona-fide metal band.  You can hear the influence of the power chord strumming of Gabriela along with the percussive beats that she lays down and of the searing leads that Rodrigo provides over top.  Together these two are just absolute technical pros.  My dream is that some day they finally say “fuck it” and pick up a couple of electric guitars and truly come up with a full-bore metal album.  I think it would end up being absolutely amazing and would blow the lids of many a hotshot guitar hero.

The latest album is good on the whole, but feels very brief and doesn’t seem to cover much new ground in relation to their past albums.  This is pretty much a straight-ahead Rodrigo Y Gabriela album.  They do work in a few electric guitar flavorings here and there and that provides a bit of a funky spice to the proceedings.  The album closes out with a cover of Echoes by Pink Floyd.  As we’ve seen with their covers of Orion and Stairway to Heaven, RyG have a really wonderful way of covering songs that honor the original while completely making the song their own.  This is true of this version of Echoes as well and it stands out as the high point of this album.

3.5 flip flops out of 5

 

Austin Terror Fest at Barracuda and Empire Control Room & Garage, Austin, TX June 7-9, 2019

Austin just can’t get enough fests.  This city just wallows in them.  If you happen to dig something, you can pretty much be certain that this city has figured out a way to make a fest out of it.  On the metal/punk front, our festing needs took quite a bit of a hit with the demise of Fun Fun Fun Fest/Sound on Sound.  Left in its wake to pick up the pieces is Levitation fest, which primarily caters to the more psychedelic and stone aspects of metal, and our focus of today, Austin Terror Fest.  Austin Terror Fest feels more like the true heir apparent to FFF/SOS in that it celebrates the underground over the mainstream in metal/punk/hardcore/industrial styles of heavy music.  This year’s version saw the fest move into a couple of larger clubs and sported a multitude of groups from around the world including Panopticon, Alcest, Pig Destroyer, Goatwhore, and Bongripper to name a few.

The big draw of this year’s fest for me was the inclusion of Panopticon.  Panopticon is essentially a solo black metal/bluegrass project from a man named Austin Lunn.  I have been fascinated by the blending of different styles of music by a few other up-and-coming bands (Zeal and Ardor and Huntsmen come to mind) and the mixing of bluegrass/country/protest songs from the early 1900s with black metal done by Panopticon is one of the more unique approaches I’ve come across.  The fact that this is ultimately a one man gang results in Panopticon not doing extensive touring and I was stoked that the organizers of Austin Terror Fest were able to secure his presence at the fest.

Saturday’s day acoustic set was opened by Windhand’s Dorthia Cottrell performing songs by Townes Van Zandt.  Austin Lunn of Panopticon followed with a set of Blaze Foley covers (who it turns out Lunn is a huge fan of) and then ending with a few of the acoustic songs from Panopticon’s latest The Scars of Man Upon the Once Nameless Wilderness.

One personal fanboy story:  As stated above, Panopticon was the main draw for me.  I’ve been a really big fan of this band and have been hoping to see Lunn perform his songs live for a number of years now.  So, in between Cottrell’s and Lunn’s sets on Saturday, Lunn gets on stage and is setting up his gear.  I’m typing notes to the punk rock wife on my phone and not really paying attention.  I hear, “Hey, dude!  Dude on your phone!  Hey, phone dude!”  I look up and Lunn is talking to me.  “Hey, dude, that shirt you’re wearing is fucking amazing.”  I’m wearing a Galactic Cowboys shirt from their first album.  Lunn proceeds to go on about how they are one of his favorite bands and tells me about seeing them open for King’s X with his dad when he was growing up.  He also says that one of his go-to riffs during sound check is If I Were a Killer from the Space in Your Face album and he proceeds to rip right into it.  Just a really cool moment and I probably had a big dumb grin on my face.  I never would have pegged the mastermind of Panopticon of being a big fan of Galactic Cowboys or that we would bond over that fact, but there you go.  I just absolutely love it when you meet an artist that you’ve looked up to for a number of years and they end up just being salt-of-the-earth, nice as hell folks.

On Sunday night’s show, one of the highlights of the fest for me was seeing Denver’s Dreadnought perform for the first time.  Dreadnought plays what has to be described as very progressive post-metal with two female vocalists, a guitarist that occasionally breaks out a flute and a drummer who is able to play the drums and the saxophone at the same time.  This was simply an intense set by a band with some serious chops and a definite sense of originality.

Unfortunately for those of us who were eagerly awaiting Panopticon’s black metal set, a serious set of thunderstorms rolled through town and put a halt to the proceedings.  The band was able to play an abbreviated set once the torrential rain eased.  Even with the shortened set, it was amazing to see some of these songs performed live.  The set had a perfect naturalistic feel to it with no overhead lighting of the stage.  The illumination of the stage was from light situated on the floor of the stage which resulted in the band members being illuminated from below with lots of shadows.

France’s Alcest finished out Sunday night’s show with a nice rendition of their shoegaze/black metal classics.  It felt appropriate that Alcest’s more melodic fare would take to the stage right after the massive storms passed.  The tempest past; the calm after the storm.

Kudos to the organizers of the fest for assembling a great lineup this year and for keeping things from spinning out of control during the storms on Sunday night.  Communication was great during the entire time during the disruptions of the bands’ sets.  It really feels like this fest is coming into its own.  It will be interesting to see where this thing is for 2020’s version.

Panopticon

Dreadnought

Alcest

Warforged-I: The Voice

Have I mentioned how enamored I am with the metal scene in Chicago?  Well, if not, let me clarify for the record:  I am really enamored with the metal scene in Chicago.  I don’t think there is a city in America right now that is producing such a plethora of quality bands across such a broad spectrum of styles.  Pelican, Russian Circles, The Atlas Moth, Without Waves, and Huntsmen are just a few of the classy bands just killing it of late.  Add to this list Warforged.

I really don’t entirely know what to make of this album or band, but I can say that I really, really like it.  At its core is a death metal band, but not you’re ordinary run-of-the-mill death metal band.  There is a progressive touch to this thing that keeps the listener on their toes throughout.  One minute, you’re blasting along in full death metal grinding glory and then, BLAM!  You’re in a piano interlude.  Or BLAM!  You’re on to an acoustic passage.  Songs zig and zag all over the place to where you’re left with this blending of death, progressive, technical and black metal that somehow coalesces into this ingenious thing that is Warforged.  These are the albums I dig.  Albums I can’t figure out on a first listen.  Albums that throw curveballs and have multiple layers of things going on.  Sure, an AC/DC album is a treasure, but it ain’t a challenge.  Warforged is a unique and weird and wonderful challenge.

4.5 flip flops out of 5

Suldusk-Lunar Falls

It’s really cool to see that in recent years women are starting to make some serious inroads on the metal landscape. By and large, for whatever reason, metal music in the 70s, 80s and 90s was primarily made by men for a primarily male audience.  You had a few women heavy metal groups, but for the most part they all seemed to be of the hair metal sort and none of them ever really reached any level of real respectability musicianship-wise.  Sure, you had Joan Jett and the Runaways in the 80s and L7 and some of the other female-led alternative rock bands in the 9os, but there just weren’t any really true metal bands that featured females in prominent roles.

In the 2000s and 2010s, you’ve got all sorts of bands with female vocalists, guitarists and drummers.  It’s cool to see the metal world beginning to embrace the inclusion of female voices to the proceedings because it just gives the music we all love another viewpoint and different flavorings.  And that’s always a good thing.

One type of female-fronted metal projects we’ve seen in recent years is the rise of the one woman metal projects.  Suldusk is the musical brainchild of Emily Highfield.  Much in the similar fashion of Mykur, this is a pagan influenced amalgam of folk metal, black metal and gothic metal.  I know, not much of a surprise given the album cover.  Very much a celebration of the natural world, Lunar Falls is a soft and dark atmospheric meditation of an album with a few bleak passages that verge into a black metal sound.  Overall, this one is fairly engrossing and gives a promising debut for this solo project.

3.5 flip flops out of 5

Spirit Adrift-Divided By Darkness

So, this is a sit up and take notice kind of album if there ever was one.  Everything about this one is BIG!  Big guitars.  Big anthems.  Big ambition.  If this thing had come out in 1984, you could bet that Spirit Adrift would be in line to be playing stadiums.

When I first encountered Spirit Adrift, it really felt as if this was going to be a little side gig for Gatecreeper’s Nate Garrett.  Hell, the first album was essentially a total solo effort with Garrett doing all the instrumentation and vocals himself.  Now, here we are on album number three for Spirit Adrift and the project has blossomed into a full blown band and it honestly feels like this is becoming more of a main gig with Gatecreeper being relegated to side project.

As I said, the music on this thing is big and bold and a serious statement of intent by the band.  I was fairly impressed by their first two albums, but wasn’t completely blown away.  Whatever was missing on those first two albums has definitely been found on album number three because this one is treading in masterpiece territory.  It feels as though Garrett spent some time listening to old Dio, Accept and late-era Sabbath (Mob Rules comes to mind) and decided to transplant those types of guitar riffs and ideas onto the doom template he laid out on the first couple of Spirit Adrift albums.  The resulting platter is just an inspiring and refreshing blending of old and new school metal.  In addition to the amazing guitar work, it really sounds as if Garrett’s confidence in his vocal style is starting to take shape and the album really showcases his growth in this area.  I can’t imagine this one not being near the top of a lot of year-end lists.

They are currently out on a headlining tour as I type this.  Get out and see one of the bands that is probably destined to blow up big while they are still playing in small clubs.

4.5 flip flops out of 5

MONO and Emma Ruth Rundle at Barracuda, Austin, TX 5/30/2019

From bombastic swells to quiet interludes, MONO’s set last night ran the gamut of post-metal soundscapes.  I’m new to MONO only having purchased their latest album, Nowhere Now Here, a couple of months ago.  From my limited exposure to their sound and from last night’s extravaganza, I have to put them in the same sort of category as Mogwai and Explosions in the Sky, but just way, waaaaaayyyyy heavier.  You’ll notice that the video sample of their set below was shot from fairly far back in the crowd.  I’m not ashamed to admit that I was way up close for their first two songs and then had to retreat from the absolute sonic assault that issued forth from this fearsome foursome from Japan.  Damn, this was the loudest show I can remember in recent memory.  My ears are damn near destroyed already from years of doing this shit, but Jesus, I felt downright pain when they started in on the heavy shit.  The very definition of a wall of sound.

“My name is Emma and I’d like to share some songs with you.”  Opening up the show this evening was Emma Ruth Rundle and her backing band.  Rundle has been in a few other projects (Marriages and Red Sparowes) over the years, but seems to be focusing mainly on this cool solo effort of late.  Her latest album, Dark Horses, is somewhat following in the early Chelsea Wolfe footsteps in laying out an almost dark and gothic folk style of music.  In a way, I could see her solo material fitting right in on a soundtrack of a western movie directed by Jim Jarmusch, if that makes any sense at all.

At any rate, this was a cool and unique double bill.  It was cool to see a couple of bands that provide a little something different than what I normally get into.

MONO

Emma Ruth Rundle

Dreadnought-Emergence

This is some serious art-house shit right here.  This is not for your everyday run-of-the-mill metal fan.  This is some downright avant-garde intellectual metal type shit.  You want clean female vocals.  Check.  You want demonic female screeching vocals.  Check.  You want layers of dark atmospheric guitar and bass work.  Check.  You want a drummer that also plays sax and a guitarist that rocks out on the flute.  Check and check!

Yeah, Dreadnought is an interesting beast and makes it feel as though Colorado’s legalization of weed is really starting to pay off in the creative arts scene.  This is a difficult album to grasp.  It doesn’t really go for hooks or catchy melodies.  No gang choruses like “Balls To The Wall!!” here.  Rather, the album challenges the listener to wade into the deep end of an emotional and bleak slab of metal.  It isn’t a quick fix of feel good metal.  This is like a well-worn copy of a novel that you curl up with on a rainy afternoon.

I wish I could say that I’m fully on board with this one, because it has a lot going on.  Unfortunately, I’m writing this review after only a couple of listens.  This is one of those albums that I might have to write up a new review a year or so down the road once I can fully let it absorb.  This kind of happened with Dreadnought’s last album, A Wake In Sacred Waves.  The new album is kind of a continuation of the sounds and feelings conveyed on its predecessor and that album took me a while to warm up to as well.  If you are of the more adventurous type metal fan, check this one out and give it some time to breathe.  I have a feeling the longer it airs, the better it’s going to seem.

3.5 flip flops out of 5