Movies And Metal

Posts Tagged ‘Black Sabbath’

Ever since the classic Danzig line-up disbanded in 1994, it could be argued that the bands output has been, at best, patchy.  1996’s Danzig 5: Blackacidevil was a pretty terrible cacophony of industrial bleeps and forgettable songs, whilst 1999’s Danzig 6:66 – Satan’s Child had a few glimmers of hope, but ultimately failed due to a lack of a proper guitar player (frontman Glenn Danzig himself handled most of the guitar duties) and a severe lack of the atmospherics of old.  Danzig 777: I Luciferi and Circle of Snakes followed and nodded towards a more traditional Danzig sound, but it all seemed to be too little too late.

And now we get Deth Red Saaoth.  Along with the Evil Elvis, the band now feature former Prong guitarist Tommy Victor, Glenn’s former Samhaim bandmate Steve Zing on bass and ex-Type O Negative drummer Johnny Kelly, so the band’s pedigree is without question.  And it doesn’t take very long for opening track Hammer of the Gods to put you back in those early 90’s glory days, with Glenn’s clean, bluesy vocals underpinning one of the most stomping cuts that Danzig (the band) have done for some time (it could also be said that the heavier end of Rob Zombie’s output would be a good reference point, but let’s remember who was doing this first).  Second track The Revengeful does lean towards the band’s latter output with its pinched riffing and clunking pace, although it’s still better than anything from the previous few albums.  It’s also on this track where the album’s most obvious flaw starts to reveal itself, and that is the uneven production job, courtesy of Mr. Danzig himself.  There just seems to be very little oomph in some of the songs when you expect there to be some, and Danzig albums with little in the way of dynamics have become a bit too commonplace in recent years.

Anyway, regardless of sound issues, there are a few faith-restoring gems to be had here; lead single On a Wicked Night oozes an erotic swagger that has been sorely missing for a long time, and sounds a little like classic The Cult before Glenn’s powerful pipes crank the song up a gear, whilst Pyre of Souls: Incanticle sounds like it’s straight from a movie score, with the main man harmonising over a strummed acoustic passage before the song’s part two – Pyre of Souls: Seasons of Pain – kicks in with it’s epic, brooding verse and wicked guitar solos.

Overall, Deth Red Sabaoth can be called a huge step in the right direction rather than the complete return to form that many were expecting.  Much like Ozzy Osbourne’s recent Scream album, it starts off well and ends solidly but somewhere in the middle there’s a bit of a lull where some of the songs start to sound like filler material, or could even be labelled self-parody.  Considering the combined talents of all the band members there is a sense that they seem a bit underused here, but hopefully that will remedy itself if the line-up can stick together for a while and then maybe, just maybe, Danzig will become a cohesive unit that can make consistently great albums again.  On this showing, they’re on their way but not quite there yet.

Rating: 6/10

Standout Tracks: Hammer of the Gods, Rebel Spirits, Black Candy, On a Wicked Night, Pyre of Souls: Incanticle, Pyre of Souls: Seasons of Pain.

For Fans of: Rob Zombie, Ozzy Osbourne, The Misfits, The Resurrection Sorrow, Heaven & Hell, Type O Negative, Paradise Lost, Volbeat, Black Sabbath.

For more information on Danzig go to: www.danzig-verotik.com

Click on images to purchase Deth Red Sabaoth.

Does anybody really care that there’s a new Ozzy Osbourne album out in 2010?  Admit it – when Ozzy became an unlikely reality television star in the early part of the last decade and suddenly started appearing at all manner of events, you thought it was all over didn’t you?  And when his former Black Sabbath bandmates went on to cement their reputations as metal lords with their excellent Heaven & Hell project, as well as Ozzy’s long-time guitarist Zakk Wylde getting replaced by the largely unknown Gus G. (Firewind) and the knowledge that the last few Ozzy albums have treaded water a bit, it added more fuel to the argument that the Prince of Darkness should hang up his crown and gracefully retire.  Well, shame on you ‘cos Scream is the best album the Double O has put his name to since 1995’s majestic Ozzmosis.

It takes approximately 20 seconds of opener Let it Die to play before you realise that you’re hearing probably some of the heaviest solo Ozzy material ever.  Although Gus G.’s style doesn’t veer too much from Wylde’s (close your eyes and it could be the bearded one at the fret board) there are less of the squeals and pinched harmonics that Wylde was keen on peppering everything with, and as such the guitars sound a bit more focussed.  Still, Zakk Wylde is a hard act to follow so we’ll just have to hear how Gus G. progresses in the future.

First single Let Me Hear You Scream has been around for a while now and still sounds great as a rocking piece of modern mainstream metal, but it’s when Ozzy veers off into less straightforward territory that things start sounding a bit more interesting; Ozzy’s Beatles – and Paul McCartney in particular – influence comes to the fore in the acoustic passages of Life Won’t Wait before giving in to a hook-laden chorus that showcases Osbourne’s gift of creating glorious melodies, whilst the modern metal sheen of Latimer’s Mercy shows that even at 61, the great man can do intense and contemporary without sounding desperate.  Elsewhere, Soul Sucker harks back to the apocalyptic thud of Black Sabbath’s Iron Man before breaking into a thrashy mid-section that’s sure to send the dandruff flying if given a live airing.

It may not be up there with the aforementioned Ozzmosis, 1991’s career-highpoint No More Tears or 1980’s classic Blizzard of Ozz, but Scream is definitely an improvement over his previous two original studio albums, namely 2001’s Down to Earth and 2007’s Black Rain.  There are moments on here when the over-produced vocal effects and processed riffs do start to sound a little soulless, and one or two of the tracks around the halfway mark could be described as filler material, but considering how lame this album’s predecessors were it doesn’t drag the overall effect down.

Overall, this is a better album than expected from a singer that many had written off as past it.  Having always surrounded himself with the best musicians (his band completed by bassist Blasko and former Rob Zombie/Alice Cooper drummer Tommy Clufetos) and songwriters available at the time, Ozzy has delivered a set of rollicking tunes that are all played with renewed energy and a sense of adventure that has been sorely lacking from a lot of the Brummie legend’s output for the best part of nearly two decades.

Rating: 7/10

Standout Tracks: Let it Die, Let Me Hear You Scream, Soul Sucker, Life Won’t Wait, I Want it More, Latimer’s Mercy.

For Fans of: Black Sabbath, Heaven & Hell, Black Label Society, Danzig, Rob Zombie, Marilyn Manson, Judas Priest, Alice Cooper.

For more information on Ozzy Osbourne go to: www.ozzy.com

Click on images to purchase Scream

It has just been confirmed that legendary heavy metal singer Ronnie Jame Dio has sadly passed away today. Beginning his singing career back in the 1950′s, Dio came to prominence fronting Rainbow from 1975 to 1979 before replacing Ozzy Osbourne in Black Sabbath. After leaving Sabbath in 1982 he formed his own band called Dio and recorded such metal classics as ‘Holy Diver’ and ‘The Last in Line’ before rejoining (and subsequently leaving) Sabbath again in the early 1990′s. In recent years Dio rejoined his Sabbath bandmates under the moniker Heaven & Hell (named after the classic Black Sabbath album) and recorded the critically acclaimed ‘The Devil You Know’ album, whilst still touring with his own band.

A statement from his wife/manager Wendy Dio reads:

British doom legends Cathedral’s ninth album The Guessing Game sees the band in familiar territory, with the same hip-swivelling grooves that have characterised most of their output since 1995’s The Carnival Bizarre, but with a few stylistic tweaks here and there.  First track proper Funeral of Dreams contains pretty much everything that makes Cathedral great - mellotrons, proggy time changes, stomping psychedelic instrumental passages, a healthy dose of what sounds like sixties and seventies kids t.v. theme tunes (they aren’t, but there’s a definite Magic Roundabout vibe throughout) Lee Dorrian’s distinctive vocal groaning, including some neat spoken word breakdowns that for some reason bring to mind Bill Bailey on one of his musical experiments – and is all executed in the band’s typically eccentric style.  There seems to be an emphasis on throwing a few curveballs just when you think you know where each song is going; for example,   La Noche del Buque Maldito starts off all weird and trippy before kicking in with one of the most upbeat tunes a so-called doom band has ever produced.  That said, there is plenty of traditional Cathedral fare on offer here too; Edwige’s Eyes pounds and grinds (and even contains the riff to Black Sabbath’s Hole in the Sky) like it was 1993 all over again.

The production, again courtesy of Down/Crowbar collaborator Warren Riker, is a bit slicker than their last couple of albums, but as there is so much going on here with regard to layers of sound then a bit of clarity is most welcome.  With the band having been going for over twenty years, and this line-up (completed by guitarist Gaz Jennings, bassist Leo Smee and drummer Brian Dixon) together for fifteen, there’s still no shortage of ideas on how to twist the band’s core sound and keep things fresh.  Still innovative, still relevant and still brilliant, this is a cracking album from one of the UK’s most unique and underrated bands

Rating: 9/10

Standout Tracks: Funeral of Dreams, Death of an Anarchist, Edwige’s Eyes, Casket Chasers, La Noche del Buque Maldito (aka Ghost Ship of the Blind Dead), Requiem for the Voiceless, Journey’s into Jade.

For Fans of:  Black Sabbath, Corrosion of Conformity, Danzig, Sheavy, Church of Misery, The Resurrection Sorrow, Candlemass, Heaven & Hell.

For more information on Cathedral go to: www.cathedralcoven.com

Click on images to purchase.

Ever since Black Sabbath put Birmingham on the musical map in the late sixties there have been countless bands from the region picking up the gauntlet and trying to be heavier than the last.  Judas Priest followed Sabbath and stepped up the aggression until the thrash/grind explosion in the 80′s with bands like Godflesh and Napalm Death reshaping the extreme metal landscape.  I Am Colossus also hail from the Black Country and can justifiably claim to be one the most punishingly heavy bands to emerge in recent times.  

The press release states that the band was formed with ‘an almost tunnel vision goal of forming the heaviest, filthiest and scariest live band’, and if their live shows are anything like this album then they’ve probably achieved their goal.  Wallowing in the snail-paced misery that Cathedral made their name with, I Am Colossus brings nothing new to the table in terms of style, but what is does do is reinforce the point that heavy doesn’t necessarily mean playing as fast as you can.  Put it this way, the album only picks up the pace slightly during a semi-acoustic near-instrumental placed at track number six; after that there’s only two songs left, and they total nearly half an hour of the some of the doomiest riffing heard since Tony Iommi first said “Hey lads, I wonder what it would sound like if I tuned my guitar to C#?”.  Combine the deathly-slow grinding with vocalist Karl Lane’s guttural howl, and what we have is the audio equivalent of pure gloom and funereal atmosphere.

The one problem plagued by metal bands since the dawning of time has always been to try, and usually fail, to capture their live sound and energy in a studio, and I Am Colossus are no different.  The production, although suitably grimy, doesn’t seem to add any dynamics when the song really needs it, resulting in any big booms or crashes sounding fairly flat, but this is their first full-length album so hopefully this can be put down to inexperience.  To make an album as defiantly uncommercial as this takes dedication, and if the band have got what it takes to stay the course then hopefully there will be more great albums to come.

Rating: 8/10

Standout Tracks: Still Life, In the Name of the Father, Moss Icon.

For Fans of: Candlemass, Cathedral, The Resurrection Sorrow, Kingdom of Sorrow, Crowbar, Black Sabbath.

For more information on I Am Colossus visit: www.myspace.com/iamcolossus

I Am Colossus is released on February 22nd by Casket Music.