Movies And Metal

Posts Tagged ‘Doom’

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.

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.

Based upon the theory that the world as we know it will end in 2012 (hence the title), Massachusetts-based metallers Ichabod have offered up a real sonic tapestry with their latest album. With tracks that fuse together heavy sludgecore riffing,trippy trance, psychedelic spazz-outs and melodic prog-rock, Icahbod truly defy classification and refuse to be pigeonholed. Indeed, the easiest way to describe this album would be that if you were one of those people who preferred Mastodon’s latest ‘Crack the Skye’ opus to their earlier, more metal approach then you’d probably appreciate where this lot are coming from. As if to prove their point, Pink Floyd’s ‘Nile Song’ is given the Ichabod treatment and stretched from a three-minute hard rocker to a ten minute epic experimental, cosmic jam-session.

‘2012’ is a difficult, but ultimately rewarding listen. Not something to put on casually, it is an album that demands – and deserves – to be listened to as it does have some truly outstanding moments that may not be obvious on the first play. However, the album does veer off track a bit towards the end, and if flute solos and random samples aren’t your thing then you may wish to give it a miss.

Rating: 7/10

Standout Tracks: Giving Up the Ghost, Gentlemen of the Choir, Nile Song.

For Fans of: Mastodon, Neurosis, Jethro Tull, My Dying Bride, Alice in Chains, Today is the Day.

Click on album cover to purchase.

Well, what a year it’s been for the beast known as metal. There have been many highs and lows, triumphs and tragedies and most of all, some cracking music that really shows the world-beating power of metal in the 21st century. It also means that next year – with expected albums from Iron Maiden, Soulfly, Fear Factory, Ihsahn, Rob Zombie and, fingers crossed, Anthrax – is shaping up to be even better.

Anyway, as is the trend for the end of the year, here are my top 20 albums from the last twelve months. As with my movies list, the criteria is I have to have actually heard it; Gallows had some good reviews this year, but as I haven’t heard it I haven’t included it (although if somebody wants to send it to me I would certainly appreciate it). You may agree, disagree or not even care, but please feel free to leave feedback, and here we go:

20. Lamb of God ‘Wrath’ – Rapidly working their way up the metal hierarchy without compromise, Virginia’s Lamb of God proved their worthiness by bagging the support slot on Metallica’s ‘World Magnetic’ tour and releasing their fifth studio album to rapturous applause. At a point in their career where most bands would start to soften their sound and move towards mainstream acceptance, LOG have done the opposite and gone more brutal, minimising the groovier overtones of previous album ‘Sacrament’ and going straight for the jugular with a full-on metal attack. Just listen to the short, sharp, shock of ‘Contractor’ for proof.

19. Neverborne ‘In Absence of Fear EP’ – Alright, it may not be a full album but this debut EP by London-based metallers Neverborne deserves to be on this list, such is the strength of their material and the promise of greater things to come. Combining the muscle of American metalcore and the harsh melodies of Swedish death metal, Neverborne have actually written songs that stay in your head as opposed to just having a solid production and a few throwaway riffs. If you were disappointed by recent effort by Killswitch Engage or In Flames, this is definitely one to get hold of and the forthcoming full-length debut promises to be something great.

18. Clutch ‘Strange Cousins from the West’ – Darker and bluesier than previous albums but still undeniably Clutch, ‘Strange Cousins…’ is one of those albums that needs to be played a few times to sink in. You may argue that if an album needs to be played a few times to be appreciated then it can’t be that great, but Clutch have never been a band to make songs for instant gratification (or hit singles, if you like), and this album, while not drastically different from previous album ‘From Beale Street to Oblivion’, does benefit from having a few different influences that aren’t immediately obvious.

17. Napalm Death ‘Time Waits for No Slave’ – Returning with an album of acoustic folk ballads was never going to be a wise move for these Brummie legends, so it’s just as well they didn’t do it! You know what to expect from a Napalm Death album and they don’t mind giving it to you – in spades. Schizo riffing, blast beats, socio-political diatribes and Barney Greenway growling over the top of it all. Still brilliant, still relevant and still played with a fury and passion that belies the bands near thirty-year history, Napalm are still the final word in extreme metal…

16. Hatebreed ‘Hatebreed’ – …Although this lot may be up for challenging them. Hardcore heroes Hatebreed returned with their self-titled fifth studio album and pretty much blew away everybody with how furious yet catchy they could be. Showing off a more metallic edge than previous albums, songs like ‘In Ashes They Shall Reap’ and ‘Merciless Tide’ immediately became moshpit favourites and, as with Lamb of God, if they carry on in this vein, Hatebreed could soon be sharing stages with some of the bigger names from the metal spectrum.

15. Judas Priest ‘A Touch of Evil: Live’ – After releasing their most ambitious album yet – the concept double-album ‘Nostradamus’ – last year, it was likely that British metal legends Judas Priest would record some kind of live document to follow it up. Foregoing the obvious and releasing a full live set with all the hits included, the band instead opted to release this collection of rarely played album tracks with a few newies thrown in, all recorded over the last two world tours. Including ‘Dissident Aggressor’ from 1977’s ‘Sin After Sin’ and a handful of tracks from 1990’s ‘Painkiller’, as well as a few more underrated classics, this was really a ‘for the fans’ album and showed that although they’re rapidly approaching their sixties, Judas Priest still have the live intensity of old and can match the power of those pesky kids.

14. Saxon ‘Into the Labyrinth’ – All hail the old school! NWOBHM stalwarts Saxon continued a run of high quality albums with this stormer released back in January. Although there are few surprises from Saxon these days, songs about demon barbers, Egyptian kings and the power of rock n’roll played with such conviction can never fail, and these purveyors of amped-up trad metal can still pull it off with style.

13. Kiss ‘Sonic Boom’ – Judas Priest? Saxon? And now Kiss? Is it 1988 again? American glam rockers Kiss returned in typically flamboyant style with a re-energised line-up and an album chocked full of great songs. Looking at what made Kiss albums appeal to fans in the past, the band put together eleven tracks of sheer anthemic goodness that take the best of the band’s history and put it all on one album. Even the bonus disc of re-recorded classics (a practice that I’m not too fond of) sounded brilliant.

12. Candlemass ‘Death Magic Doom’ – It’s all in the title, really. Swedish doom legends Candlemass followed up the rather rushed ‘King of the Grey Islands’ (rush-recorded with vocalist Robert Lowe after previous singer Messiah Marcolin left the band – again!) with this epic return to form. Fusing their Sabbath worship with a greater sense of dynamics and a crushing production, tracks like ‘Hammer of Doom’ and ‘The Bleeding Baroness’ were awesome in their scope and made Candlemass sound like a cohesive unit once again. Play very loud!

11. Mastodon ‘Crack the Skye’ – Virtually creating a musical sub-genre of their own, Mastodon followed-up 2006’s ‘Blood Mountain’ with this epic piece of pseudo-progressive metal. Bringing in even more diverse influences than before – certain band members have confessed to listening to Frank Zappa every day – the album is a trippy, yet focused tour-de-force of off-kilter time changes and vocal hooks that will still resonate in your head for days after listening, bringing to mind the best works of Neurosis, Hawkwind, the aforementioned Frank Zappa and even some of the more epic Metallica tunes. An important album from an important band.

10. Katatonia ‘Night is the New Day’ – Slipping under the radar slightly, Sweden’s Katatonia released their eighth full-length studio album in November and immediately reminded why this band are so highly revered in metal circles. Fusing the best elements of death metal, doom and prog rock, the band have produced a rich, melancholy soundscape that flows from beautiful progressive passages to edgy metal riffing that deserves to played in full, rather than cherry-picking tracks. With obvious nods to Opeth and Paradise Lost, this could (should?) see Katatonia reaching out from the underground and reaping some of the rewards their hard work should be earning them.

9. Devildriver ‘Pray for Villains’ – Isn’t it marvellous when a band who really ought to be bigger finally start getting the recognition they deserve? 2009 was definitely Devildriver’s year, as frontman Dez Fafara’s past in nu-metal loons Coal Chamber was finally laid to rest and Devildriver stepped up to the plate and delivered an album that was as brutal as anything they’ve done so far, yet had the melodic hooks that the band had hinted at on previous albums. The title track, ‘Back With a Vengeance’, ‘Fate Stepped In’, ‘Resurrection Blvd.’, ‘Another Night in London’…the list of new moshpit anthems goes on, and Devildriver are definitely leading the charge. Can’t wait for the next one!

8. Slayer ‘World Painted Blood’ – Following on from the disappointing ‘Christ Illusion’, Slayer released their eleventh studio album in November and showed that they could still make albums that, although maybe not as consistently brilliant as their glory days, could still compete for sheer intensity and heaviness. There’s nothing here that reinvents the wheel, but unlike ‘Christ…’, it doesn’t sound so flat and uninspired, and although they’ll probably never make another ‘Reign in Blood’ or ‘Seasons in the Abyss’, this is the most ‘Slayer’ album they’ve released for some time.

7. Iron Maiden ‘Flight 666’ – Does the world need another Iron Maiden live album? Hell yeah! One look at the track listing is enough to make the most cynical gumby weep into his pint, as the 80’s glory days are relived through tracks like ‘Moonchild’, ‘Powerslave’, Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ and ‘Heaven Can Wait’. Of course, the ubiquitous ‘Run to the Hills’, ‘The Trooper’ and ‘Number of the Beast’ are still there, but had they not been then people would have gone ‘where’s the hits?’ It may have worked for Judas Priest on their latest live opus, but the Maiden are a slightly different beast and wouldn’t have got away with it. Like Priest, a full set from one gig may have been better as you would have a flavour of the whole event, but being handpicked from different gigs, at least the songs all have a high energy level throughout. With a sound this tight, maybe their next album should be recorded from the stage…

6. Firebird ‘Grand Union’ – A very different band from his previous two outfits, former Napalm Death/Carcass guitarist Bill Steer put together Firebird in the late 90’s as a blues-based power trio and have been busying themselves ever since releasing a handful of cracking albums. ‘Grand Union’ is their fifth release and, quite frankly, is a stormer. Comparable to classic blues/rock bands such as Cream, Free and The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Firebird not only know how to pen classic riffs and solid, thumping rhythms but can make each song as catchy as hell and make headbanging compulsory. And Steer’s vocals sound uncannily like Maiden-era Paul Di’Anno, so good stuff all round.

5. Cannibal Corpse ‘Evisceration Plague’ – Carrying on where astounding last album ‘Kill’ left off, Cannibal Corpse are now over twenty years into their career and show no signs of letting up. With song titles such as ‘Skewered from Ear to Ear’, ‘Priests of Sodom’ and ‘Shatter Their Bones’ you know where they’re coming from, and the blast beats, schizo riffing, demented solos and George ‘Corpsegrinder’ Fisher’s bowels-of-Satan vocals are still there, all wrapped up in Morbid Angel/Hate Eternal man Eric Rutan’s heavy production. Not overly ambitious in the progression department, but who wants it to be? It’s Cannibal Corpse, it’s death metal and it’s bloody great.

4. Heaven & Hell ‘The Devil You Know’ – Resurrecting the Dio-era line-up of Black Sabbath under a new name was always an exciting prospect, and even though the musical pedigree of this band is beyond question, there was still the question of whether any new material would be able to stand up against the audio goodness of Black Sabbath’s ‘Heaven & Hell’, ‘Mob Rules’ and ‘Dehumanizer’ albums. Well, it did – and then some. As heavy as you would expect, everybody involved seemed to have upped their game – Tony Iommi, a man known more for his riffs than his solos, was all over the fretboard with the sort of hand action only usually displayed by teenage boys on a promise, Ronnie James Dio sang like a man possessed, Geezer Butler showed why he is so highly regarded by bass players the world over and Vinnie Appice neatly underpins everything in his own unique style. Lead single ‘Bible Black’ was easily one of the catchiest slabs of doom in recent memory, and as long as the band members can all get along this time around, then the prospect of another original Sabbath line-up reunion will just have to wait.

3. Megadeth ‘Endgame’ – One of the most anticipated releases of the year, Dave Mustaine and his band of merry men were under a fair bit of pressure to top what they achieved with 2007’s excellent ‘United Abominations’ – and they only went and bloody did it! ‘Endgame’ can justifiably claim to be one of Megadeth’s best albums; not just since the so-called ‘glory days’, but ever. First single ‘Head Crusher’ showcased how well new(ish) guitarist Chris Broderick and Mustaine have gelled as players, whilst the title track could be one of the most venomous political rants Mustaine has penned. All wrapped up in metal maestro Andy Sneap’s streamlined production, Megadeth – unlike certain other metal giants who seem to make metal albums that sound a little too contrived – have shown that they’ve still got what it takes to lead the pack.

2. Paradise Lost ‘Faith Divides Us – Death Unites Us’ – Having now seemingly gotten their experimental tendencies out of their system, Halifax doomsters Paradise Lost are continuing down the raw, metallic path they started with 2005’s self-titled album and carried on with 2007’s ‘In Requiem’. More brutal than either of those albums, some of the songs nod back towards their gothic death metal days, although some of the rich melodies and snaking riffs do echo the glories of their ‘Draconian Times’ album from 1995. Now using seven-string guitars, the overall sound is a lot heavier than previous efforts and Nick Holmes’ vocals just get better with each album. Check out the title track for one of the year’s best singles and a future PL classic that encompasses everything that the band are about nowadays. Put quite simply, it’s brilliant.

1. The Resurrection Sorrow ‘Hour of the Wolf’ – Well, this one crept up on me, I don’t mind admitting. The Resurrection Sorrow hail from New York and feature former members of Malstrom and Murphy’s Law, although that doesn’t really prepare you for what’s on offer here. Taking the heavy doom approach of Cathedral and melding it to the swagger of ‘Deliverance’-era COC with a touch of classic Metallica, TRS quite proudly admit that they aren’t offering up anything original, but what they are doing is playing heavy and catchy metal anthems without compromise and without any pretentions to anything else. Opening track ‘Resurrect the Sorrow’ lays out the template for the rest of the album, and each track offers up a different take on anthemic heavy metal without repetition, with the rocking ‘Soul of the Soulless’ and the instrumental ‘Shadow of a Vampire’ being obvious standouts. Stripped of the excesses that such albums can lose themselves in, only one song exceeds the five minute mark meaning that the song never outstays its welcome, and swiftly moves onto the next before you get a chance to get too familiar with it. Roll on album number two!

Click on album covers to purchase.