Personnel: Neil Fallon-vocals, Tim Sult-guitar, Dan Maines-bass, Jean-Paul Gaster-drums
Origin: Germantown, Maryland
They’ve done it again. Clutch isn’t what I would quantify as the best or most talented band around. But what they are good at, they do really, really well. What they are good at is crafting really catchy songs set to vocalist Neil Fallon’s playful lyrics. I’m generally not a big lyric guy, but Fallon is really one of the best at creating these little short stories and just selling them perfectly in his performance. He’s really the closest thing we currently have to a Bon Scott type persona (minus the self-destructive streak) in rock/metal music today. Cheers for being a bastion of consistency and reliablity. Cheers also for giving us the lyrical phrase of the year in “Weaponized Funk!”
4 flip flops out of 5
The list so far:
18. Clutch-Book of Bad Decisions
19. Harakiri For The Sky-Arson
20. Behemoth-I Loved You At Your Darkest
Personnel: Matthias “MS” Sollak-guitars/bass/drums and Michael “JJ” V. Wahntraum-vocals
Origin: Salzburg and Vienna, Austria
This is the first appearance for Harakiri For The Sky on one of my end of year Best Of lists. Still a relatively young band, Arson is the fourth official album released by the band. Although they hail from Austria, this album feels like it should have been crafted in the frozen winterlands of Scandinavia. This is a very melodic death metal album that contains some very personal and emotional lyrical content. Depression and heartbreak are main themes. This thing is downright emo in places and the music, though harsh, has a very soothing quality to it overall.
4 flip flops out of 5
The list so far:
19. Harakiri For The Sky-Arson
20. Behemoth-I Loved You At Your Darkest
Damn. It feels like I just got finished compiling last year’s list. 2018 has been a bit of a blur, but it has once again been filled with some amazing metal albums to divert our attention from the ever-expanding shit show that is our beloved United State of America. We’re all going to die, but at least the soundtrack is fucking killer. You’ll also notice that I’m running this list out a bit early this year. I normally like to run the list out so we end the last day of the year with the announcement of my pick for album of the year. However, my attention is going to be elsewhere the last week of the year (i.e. the punk rock fiance and I are finally getting married. We’re doing our part to bring punk and metal closer together. You’re welcome.). So, let’s start this sucker rolling now.
Out of the gate is Polish blackened death metal outfit Behemoth. Behemoth is a prior winner of album of the year back in 2014 with The Satanist. I Loved You At Your Darkest was the follow-up album to that masterpiece. So, Behemoth really had their work cut out for themselves in attempting to live up to such a monumental release. The new album wasn’t quite as strong as The Satanist, but it has enough choice moments on it to land it on the final spot of this year’s Best Of list. I still feel that this album will help Behemoth’s attempts at further mainstream appeal.
From the outside looking in, band layoffs can be hard to understand. We fans are selfish bastards by nature. We love our bands and we crave new material from said bands. It’s hard to understand how a creative unit of people aren’t able to produce new content on a regular basis and when a band goes years without producing anything new, it can be frustrating for fans. However, there is no telling what is going inside of the collective unit. Personal things happen. Personnel changes happen. Life gets in the way. Now, sometimes a fan’s irritation can be justified, such as in the cases of Tool and Metallica, who are both notorious procrastinators when it comes to producing new songs. It seems some bands that reach a level of mega-success can afford to rest on their laurels and coast making a living as mainly a touring nostalgia act. For bands residing further in the underground, I’m sure it is a daily struggle to simply keep the band going as an active entity in this era of the music business.
In the case of Into Eternity, it has been ten years since their last album release. Part of the reason for this delay was due to some key personnel changes. Lead singer Stu Block left the band to take the same position with Iced Earth and officially left the band in 2013. However, it was announced that the band had found a replacement in Amanda Kiernan relatively quickly. From there, it was announced by the band that a new album was in the works and would be released around late 2014 or early 2015. And then nothing. No news. No updates. No album. I have no idea what happened. Whether it was personal or business issues holding up the progress of this band is just unknown. And it is really a shame because the buzz on these guys before their extended hiatus was really starting to grow. They had coveted opening slots on Megadeth’s Gigantour and were a handpicked opener for Dream Theater on their Chaos in Motion Tour in 2007. It really seemed like things were looking good for these guys and then their progress just hit a brick wall. It’s one of those stories in the music business that truly makes me sad.
Well, finally, the long-talked about album has come out. The Sirens is a rebirth for the band in more ways than one. First, it is the first new music from the band that we have heard in ten years. Second, the addition of a female vocalist in the form of Amanda Kiernan supplies a new fabric to Into Eternity’s sound. The weird thing is that, at its core, it still sounds like Into Eternity. This album is a direct progressive thread from The Incurable Tragedy. You’ve still got the ambitious guitar licks. The blending of progressive and death metal. You’ve got the multiple vocals of Kiernan, lead guitarist and head honcho Tim Roth and death gutturals of bassist Troy Bleich. It’s good to have these guys back as an active entity. I hope the layoff wasn’t too long and that people still remember them. They have a long of ground to regain. This album is a good start.
I really find it kind of strange that Bloodbath is still a viable entity. When this project first started, it really felt like a simple outlet for death metal dudes whose main gigs had started to pull away from their original gritty death metal roots into more respectable and proggier death metal bands. For those not familiar with Bloodbath, this started as a side gig of Mikael Akerfeldt of Opeth, Katatonia’s Jonas Renske and Anders Nystrom and all around death metal guru/producer/drummer/guitarist Dan Swano. Swano and Akerfeldt dropped out a few albums past and has been replaced by Opeth drummer Martin Axenrot and Paradise Lost vocalist Nick Holmes.
I like the fact that the guys in the band are really embracing their dark roots on this one. Renske and Nystrom have reverted by to their early Katatonia nom-de-guerre of Lord Seth and Blakkheim, respectively. Axenrot is simply Axe and Holmes is going by Old Nick. They are also living true to their name by basically bathing in (fake?) blood for every appearance/photo shoot they do. It’s really become quite the spectacle of a band.
Musically, this new one is exactly what you have come to expect from Bloodbath. Any niceties have been stripped away from this one. It’s death and gore and apocalypse and a little more death for good measure. The guitar tones have this odd gritty sound to them. They are definitely playing to the early 90s sound of the early wave of Scandinavian death metal bands. This music isn’t for the prog nerd who have latched onto Katatonia and Opeth’s current output. This is music for the gutters and the morgues.
Also, that album cover is just perfect. So very Rosemary’s Baby of them. I love it!
Another tidbit is that they were able to get Jeff Walker of Carcass, Karl Willetts of Bolt Thrower and John Walker of Cancer to provide guest vocals on one track.
I enjoy a shitload of different bands. Each time one of these bands releases a new album, I get excited to see what sort of new music they come up with or direction they head in. There are a select few bands that are in a different category from the great rabble of bands that I normally listen to. When I hear news of these bands releasing a new album, it creates in me a kind of anticipation I normally associated with myself as a youngster in the days leading up to Christmas morning. The Ocean (or The Ocean Collective as it seems as if they have reverted back to on this album) is one of these bands. The Ocean is one of the forefront bands of the post-metal scene and their work in generally is just heads above the unwashed masses of the modern metal world. Their work is complex. Their work is challenging. Their work is downright inspiring. In a world where a great majority of the music released is of the cookie cutter variety, The Ocean stands out as one of the true unique visionary bands going.
This latest album is an important one for a couple of reasons. First, it has been five years since The Ocean has released a full album of new material. Second, this is the follow-up to what I feel is The Ocean’s masterpiece album, Pelagial. That album is one of those stellar releases that just surpasses general mediocrity of most music created. These types of landmark albums are always difficult to follow and may be part of the reason for the lengthy wait for this latest album.
So, how did they do this time out? Overall, pretty good. My first impression was a slight negative. This is to be the first part of a two-part album. I’m generally not a fan of a band releasing an album in two parts because it just fractures the entirety of the flow of the album (see Between the Buried and Me’s Automata I and II from earlier this year. I still don’t understand why that couldn’t have been released as one album). Now, setting aside that semantic complaint, the music contained on the album is simply as superlative as anything else The Ocean has produced up to this point. My first impression is that the material isn’t quite as legendary as Pelagial was, but it is damn close. It feels as though the band has lightened up the claustrophobic elements of their sound and things feel a bit more melodic and lighter. This element is evidenced by having Jonas Renske of Katatonia provide the guest vocals on one track. Even though the music doesn’t feel as dark, the subject matter of the lyrics are still very bleak. It feels like the main theme running through the album are the constant cycles of upheaval and cataclysmic destruction our world and our species seems to be caught in. It’s not a rosy picture of things to come. At least the soundtrack for our demise is pretty fucking great. It will be good to hear what Part II brings to the table and how it all fits in with Part I.
I’ve got to believe that there are other metal bands from Taiwan, but the only one of which I am aware is Chthonic. Chthonic is a breed of band that proves that metal is one of those art forms that truly transcends national borders and that each new region that metal touches brings their own distinctive style to the proceedings. Chthonic can primarily be seen as a death metal band with theatrics and symphonic elements combined with the use of traditional Taiwanese instruments and lyrics drawing upon the folklore of Taiwan and their struggle for independence from China. Chthonic is also one of those bands whose interests in promoting human rights issues is as paramount as the craft of their music. This is evidenced by lead singer Freddy Lim’s recent election to Taiwan’s legislative body in 2016. Think of that. This would be like James Hetfield being elected to the House of Representatives. Bizarre and cool.
I’m honestly kind of surprised to see Chthonic releasing an album in light of Freddy’s political duties. Freddy is still screaming in full bloody death metal style and the band is still providing the same theatrical style of death metal they are known for. I’m not sure that this latest album is breaking any new ground for the band, but it’s a solid effort and fans of the band should be pleased with the result.
Ted Nugent is a dick. ‘Tis true, ’tis true. Even you gun freaks know he’s an asshole. But I’m going to the Nuge well of witticisms to start this review because I think it sums up this album perfectly. Nugent sucks as a human being, but dammit, I have to admit he did come up with some pretty riffs in the 70s and I’m a pretty damn big fan of Double Live Gonzo. When you’re putting out decent music, it is a lot easier to look past an artist’s failings as a human being. It becomes hard to do so when you are Numero Uno NRA apologist and Trump butt-licker and you haven’t had anything relevant to add to the musical world since said 1970s era. At any rate, I digress. Let me get back to the whole reason of bringing up the Nuge. On the aforementioned Double Live Gonzo, he has a lengthy intro to the song Hibernation (righteous classic rock jam) which he ends with, “If you bear with me, I’m going to see if I can let this one melt into your mouth.” Honestly, now that I type it, it sounds gross. Especially coming from Nugent. But, still, this is the phrase that popped into my head when I first heard King Buffalo’s new album, Longing To Be the Mountain. It’s so cool and so chill and so stonery that it absolutely melts into your mouth and makes everything…..mellow.
King Buffalo, for the uninitiated, is a three-piece outfit from upstate New York. I’d call them a power trio, but they just never really get all that powerful. That’s not a knock. Their music is definitely in the stoner jam band space. Their songs sort of meander here and there and they usually build into something approaching rocking status. But, overall, it’s chill music. And it is really, really good. Longing To Be the Mountain builds upon the sound that was established in their previous release, Orion.
I’d be remiss not to issue a PSA that these dudes will be playing in Austin at Hotel Vegas this Friday evening. It’s going to be cold as shit, but come out and check them out. I don’t want to hear any excuses. I already know that you don’t have any plans. We can huddle together and let this one melt into our mouths.
It’s election day here in the States. Hooray. I have zero faith in my fellow Americans to do anything right. Let’s just burn this fucker down and start again, shall we?
Anyway, I went to a rock show on Friday because nothing else in the world matters. It was rocking. It was grooving. It was good. All Them Witches hit the legendary Austin blues club Antone’s. This was cool for a couple of reason. First, I’m new to the All Them Witches bandwagon. I just stumbled across them a couple of weeks ago when their new album, the unfortunately named ATW, came out. I dug it quite a bit (there’s a review in the archives somewhere if you are so inclined) and I gathered up a group of friends to see them perform their songs live. Second cool thing was seeing a show at Antone’s. I’ve lived a good majority of my life in this town and you would have thought that I would have seen a show at a famous club like Antone’s before. Well, if you did think that, you would have been wrong. Now, it’s not like this was the original home of Antone’s. This place has moved multiple times all over town. Stevie Ray Vaughan never played at this location. So, it’s not like this location has a great deal of history in it. It is ultimately just another club in downtown Austin that caters to live music and just happens to have a famous name in the history of the Austin music scene attached to it. I guess what I’m saying is “meh” on my overall impression of the club. It’s a decent venue, but it just doesn’t really have anything special attached to it. But, at any rate, I finally saw a show at a club with “Antone’s” on the marquee. Yippee.
Anyway, enough rambling. This show was great. All Them Witches ditched their keyboard player somewhere between the recording of the new album and this current tour. So, you’ve got a tight little power trio going. I was really impressed with the guitar playing of Ben McLeod and the low-key sardonic vocals and in-between song banter of bassist/vocalist Charles Michael Park, Jr. Not to overlook the great foundation laid down by drummer Robby Staebler. These guys are a power live. Go check them out if they roll through your town.
This was a cool way to spend an evening. Brownout is a local Latin-inspired funk and jazz band. They are composed of a pretty good chunk of Grupo Fantasma and they have a penchant for creating Latin-flavored covers of other bands. Their most current album is Fear of a Brown Planet which re-imagines songs from Public Enemy’s Fear of a Black Planet. Last night’s show featured Brownout’s legendary renditions of some of Black Sabbath’s songs.
I had heard a lot of raving reviews about these shows and I was not disappointed in the slightest. You’ve got an 8-man band (vocals, guitar, bass, drums, percussionist, trumpet, trombone and saxophone) crammed onto a tiny stage and they just killed it. It was amazing to me how seamless the addition of a horn section and Latin percussion to Black Sabbath anthems was. The horns just added punch and some cool flavorings to what are simply classic metal songs. And the costume changes. Lead singer Alex Marrero came out in his Halloween’s finest sporting a blood spattered apron, rubber gloves, goggles and an axe. He managed to change into a matador’s outfit, a poncho and cat mask combo and finally, a pig’s head and suit for War Pigs (obviously). This was a lot of fun. Definitely go check these guys out if they play in your neck of the woods.
DISPATCHES FROM THE VOID 