A blog dedicated to all things heavy, groovy and generally kick-ass. No boundaries, no regards for particular trends. Everything featured here is just what we dig at the time.
Unless you've been living under a rock or are perhaps in a country not as obsessed with football as we are, you'll be well aware that after 44 long, painful years in the shadow of their arch-rivals across the street, after spending millions (billions?) of pounds and many other ups and downs, including a demoralising relegation to League One, Manchester City finally clinched the Premier League title by pipping the previous champions Manchester United on goal difference, courtesy of a 3-2 victory over Queens Park Rangers in which they were still losing 1-2 the 90th minute of the match. United's 1-0 victory at Sunderland would have been enough, but City were in luck – five minutes of added time brought about by a moment of madness from QPR's Joey Barton allowed City to finally make their tidal wave of pressure count, as goals from Edin Dzeko and Sergio Aguero clinched City victory from the jaws of defeat.
This is one of the most fun videos I've come across in a while. Not quite the most bonkers, but still. This delightfully titled track from sludgy Belgian rockers Steak Number Eight has come to my attention as these guys have received some kind press attention in the UK through one or two metal publications – although when you're doing videos like this in this day and age you're bound to get noticed.
It features a bunch of animal mascots pursuing a heinous banana who seems intent on pranking his chasers as a means of escape. That includes slinging turds at them. The mucky pup. In any event, it's a chuckle and certainly one that keeps your attention. The lyrics are slightly brainless but there's an undeniable quality to the song thanks to its riffage which I feel improves as the song progresses towards its final moments.
I must say as well, it's really hard to believe that this band has an average age of just 18! Lyrics to this song aside, they sound really mature for their age, a notion I haven't had since I first clapped ears on Decapitated in 2002. You're sure to be hearing more about these guys in future.
More info on the band can be found at their official site.
Ufomammut's sound defies any natural explanation of doom. Intrinsically the core elements are there, the body hammer riffs, the booming drums, the thick sludgy grooves. The ethereal vocals, the spacey effects and the mystery with the band serve to convolute matters. Not that's it's a bad thing – everyone loves a bit of mystery. And then there's their lofty ambition to stand out from the rest of the pack. Be this their collaboration with Malleus to provide their stunning visuals or the concepts they employ, and you can see why Steve Von Till was keen to make them an addition to the Neurot family. Following on from the success of 'Eve', Ufomammut's next step is to unleash a two-part opus entitled 'Oro'. The first of those parts 'Opus Primum', has dropped like a proverbial atom bomb, and even the highest of expectations for the new relationship between Neurot and Ufomammut have been blown away thus far.
Last year we reviewed Hampshire sludge rockers XII Boar and identified a band with work to do, but with plenty of potential. Now they're back with 'Split Tongue, Cloven Hoof', another four tracks of raw power that signify a huge step up from the band.
Feist/Mastodon 'Feistodon': Black Tongue/A Commotion
Warner Bros.
I just thought I'd add my two pennies on this given that despite not attending Record Store Day (due to personal responsibilities, not lack of support for the cause), I have managed to listen to this limited release 7" that caused quite a commotion (pun very much intended) building up to its release, not least because of the unlikely connection between Canadian songstress Feist and Atlanta, Georgia metal titans Mastodon, which developed following their respective appearances at the same recording of the Jools Holland Show last year.
Seattle's hardcore thrashers Black Breath have whipped up such a frenzy in the last two or three years after unleashing 'Razor to Oblivion' and debut album 'Heavy Breathing', while touring the blue hell out of both of them. Such is the fervour generated in this short space of time has inevitably led to 'Sentenced to Life' becoming one of 2012's most anticipated albums, but at the same time it's anticipation that should be tempered with caution. No doubt there are still a few people sniping with the 'Entombed-lite' tag, not just at Black Breath, but at the entire hardcore/d-beat movement that has recently been forged with huge backing, particularly from Southern Lord. And the surprise that Black Breath caught people with on 'Heavy Breathing' is no longer that. I hate to refer to that 'difficult second album' cliché, but it's true.
Within many walks of life, age is seen as a potential barrier to any further progress or indeed success. Within music and indeed heavy metal, it couldn't be any more the opposite. Showing absolutely no signs of letting up even as they get well into their fifties, New Jersey thrashers Overkill have unleashed sixteenth album 'The Electric Age' to the masses, off the back of the incredibly well-received and thoroughly awesome 'Ironbound', which no question was a huge shot in the arm for the band which arrived just as the thrash revival began to run out of steam.
By now, the law of averages says that Every Time I Die ought to have a bad album by now. With each album comes a further upward swing in a seemingly endless trajectory skywards, and the amount of awesomeness their previous releases have brought coupled with their fans rabid enthusiasm and indeed, expectation, you could argue there might be one or two expecting ETID to hit a snag somewhere. Yet within moments of Keith Buckley yelling 'I want to be dead with my friends!' in the opening to 'Underwater Bimbos from Outer Space', its business as usual, setting the tone for 'Ex Lives' to become the best album of ETID's career to date.
I could easily leave it there having pretty much summed up that you need this album right now. But that wouldn't do the album's many highlights any justice. Keith Buckley's trademark wit is still rife: 'I refuse to be the only man/put to rest in a mass grave' ('Underwater'…) is one such delight from many and his voice lends itself to many other the album's catchy moments, of which I'm sure you'll be able to pick out.
Every Time I Die - Revival Mode (official video)
'Ex Lives' displays a huge range of ETID's influences old and new merging themselves to blistering effect. 'Holy Book of Dilemma' ups the speed and intensity, one of the heaviest songs on the record. The rockabilly beginnings to 'Partying is Such Sweet Sorrow' offer a brief respite but by and large this is perhaps the heaviest ETID record yet – Keith Buckley's howl at times conjures pure hell, evidenced by a blistering roar of 'I have declared a war' on 'Drag King'. For all its intensity, at times 'Ex Lives' does change the pace, and while fairly melodic in contrast to the majority of the record, the darkness of 'Revival Mode', with its catchy refrain of 'Thanks Lord/but I don't need any more/poor advice', is one of the record's stand-out tracks, while 'Indian Giver' even sees the band steering into Melvins territory with a hypnotic psych-tinged sludge riff.
It's still the same Every Time I Die we know and love six albums in, fourteen years down the line. Arguably their defining album, they're still loaded with swagger and packed with more answers than any questions that could be asked of them at this stage of their career, whilst making one unholy din. 'Ex Lives' is, to repeat, ETID's most accomplished album to date, still managing to stay one step ahead of everyone else when it comes to merging heavy-ass grooves and punk rock intensity with a bloody good time.
You may remember when I reviewed Dutch tech-metallers Textures' new album 'Dualism' a while back, I refused to use a certain 'word' aimed to encapsulate their sound. This stance remains today. That doesn't mean I won't stop covering such bands, as evidenced by this particular review of the latest EP from Chimp Spanner, the project created entirely by guitarist Paul Ortiz. Ortiz does shy away from that particular label and prefers to describe Chimp Spanner as 'ambient/progressive metal'. 'All Roads Lead Here' is Chimp Spanner's second release for Basick Records, following 2010's 'At The Dream's Edge'.
Liverpool hasn't been short on top quality bands of late, with acts like SSS, Voorhees, Lifeless, Iron Witch and The Bendal Interlude all coming up with the goods over the year. All of them know how to play nasty too when required, and the chaps in The Bendal Interlude have certainly delivered a video nasty here in the form of 'Odourama', taken from their forthcoming EP of the same name. The video itself has a real 90's feel to it – maybe it's the way it's shot that does it for me – and its mired in a mixture of jiggery pokery and sickening sights. Crafted from the twisted genius that is Tom Lee Rutter at Carnie Film Productions, prepare to be disgusted and abhorred at the sights you're about to see – while grooving out to a thoroughly righteous, heavy stoner metal jam. And yes, that is an NSFW label I'm using. It's not the most shocking, just proper graphic. If you like that sort of thing. Which you obviously do. After the jump.
In a storied career spanning 28 years, it's a testament to Corrosion of Conformity to see themselves standing where they are today. From the original hardcore punk styling, through to crossover thrash, Southern metal and beyond, they've managed to survive a number of sound changes and line-up alterations that would kill many a band in the modern era. Indeed, most bands seem to get stick for daring to evolve their sound, unjustified as that sounds. But perhaps the biggest threat to Corrosion of Conformity, if it could be called that, was the unstoppable rise of NOLA-supergroup Down, featuring their lead vocalist and guitarist Pepper Keenan. After the demise of Pantera, thanks to inner turmoil and 'Dimebag' Darrell's tragic death, Down appeared to become the number one priority for its members and despite releasing 'In the Arms of God' in 2005, it does feel like Corrosion of Conformity became the side-project, rather than the frontline band it deserves to be.
I hadn't heard much from Coilguns before, despite their links to The Ocean, so when around two minutes in to the opening track, 'Parkensine', my ears and my mind were suddenly alert, that had to be a good sign. 'Stadia Rods' is some heavy shit indeed, mixing elements of Dillinger Escape Plan-esque mathcore, sludge metal and more. It's slightly disappointing that this is just an EP - I'd love to hear a whole album of Coilguns if this is the sort of quality we're going to get from them.
It was announced last Sunday evening (26th
February) that the team behind music venue The Well in Leeds
are to pull out of running the venue and that their doors will close for the
final time on Saturday 10th March. A statement by The Well’s
general manager Kevin Berry was put out explaining their reasons for the
closure:
‘Hi
all, with deepest regret, we as a team are going to be pulling out of The Well
music venue after March 10th. We’ve loved helping rebuild this once great
venue’s reputation back up these past few years, and would like to thank
all who mucked in.
I’ve just switched jobs in
a move that will saw me chop my commute time by at least two thirds. Clearly
this is going to leave me little time to digest, say, a Dream Theater album in
full. I headed into the new job full of optimism, suffice to say I’m less
likely to get bedded down in the negativity that I often did in my now previous
job and because my commute will no longer last an hour, I doubt I’ll get the
chance to be in reflective mood very often. I’m not ashamed to admit that at
times over the last couple of years, and indeed for a significant part of 2010,
I felt pretty low. But what it taught me was the true value and power of music.
I’ll take you back to a
late September’s morning in 2009. My job had relocated, and I had no choice but
to follow it, quadrupling my commute time in the process through the one viable
route from my home town. This consisted daily of a 10-minute walk to the train
station, a 22-minute train journey (when running to schedule) to Morley, near
Leeds, and then a 20-25 minute walk to my place of work (in reverse, the walk
to Morley rail station was 20 minutes, with a 25-30 minute train journey). I
didn’t exactly get off to the best start – I ended up running back to grab my
mobile phone which I’d left behind, only to leave my walking directions from
the middle-of-nowhere rail station to work at home. I just about reached my
local rail station in time. I switched on my MP3 device as I reached the
platform, the train arriving shortly afterwards. The first song? 16’s ‘Throw in
the Towel’. How apt. Because if I’d have seen the person I was about to have
become right there and then, I could well have turned around and not boarded
that train. Hence, my life changed temporarily for the worse.
But that single moment
changed the way I looked upon music, be it metal or not, and how it impacted
upon me. Quite literally, it was becoming a soundtrack. One night, all the
trains were cancelled and I had no option but to take the long slog back home
on the bus. As my quickest passage of transport home, I suddenly felt isolated
and headed back up the hill to Morley town centre to catch a bus. I normally
left Morley at 6:22pm on a good night. Today I was leaving at 7:15pm at the
earliest, to return home for around 8:30pm. I’d left work in a shitty mood and
that just made things worst. The song I heard shortly just as the bus pulled in?
Andrew W.K’s ‘You Will Remember Tonight’. I’ve had many rough experiences with
abysmal public transport since but for that song to appear during my sigh of
relief seemed unreal.
I’m genuinely not lying
about those songs. They happened to be shuffled to my MP3 player at the time
and it was plain spooky how they appeared, yet entirely appropriate for the
occasion. I spent a lot of 2010 wallowing, and every now and then I’d find a
song to affect me or sum up the situation I was in. Towards the end of 2010 I
did find myself finally accepting there was no easy escape from my current
situation, regardless of how much I tried, and I stopped looking for excuses to
pity myself. The playlists became a little more random and varied, but it wasn’t
until the terrible winter of 2010/2011 did I actually finally realise how well
metal worked as a descriptor or soundtrack to a particular situation. Look at
the post I did on the 2011 England Riots, namely a musical analysis of the
situation. It wasn’t an attempt to make light or entertainment from what was an
abhorrent situation. But wherever I went, even in what I consider a relatively
sleepy commute, the air felt electric, and suddenly, songs like ‘Entrenched’ by
Bolt Thrower and ‘Hello Pricks’ by Sick of it All completely and wholly summed
up the mood. I still maintain to this day that British society can learn a lot
from ‘Hello Pricks’. You can read that whole post if you like when I link to it
at the end of this post.
It’s Amazing what the cold
weather can do for your ears too. I was listening to My Dying Bride’s ‘A Doomed
Lover’ as I arrived at Morley Rail Station; the snow had already bedded in and
any hope of getting away on time disappeared quickly as the trains ended up
delayed and the snow came down in blizzard fashion. That moment when ‘A Doomed
Lover’ reaches its climactic finish as it picks up pace and the guitars crunch
apocalyptically summed up the hopelessness of trying to escape winter’s icy
grip to perfection – hence its eventual inclusion in the ‘Winter songs’ list I
posted recently.
Admittedly, soundtracking
works better in cold and darkness and than it does when the sun is shining and
everything around is bright, although there’s plenty of songs about chilling
and doing nothing, or possessing that care-free, bouncy vibe that do such a job.
There’s seemingly hundreds of songs that befit the chill, and some bands sound
so cold they fit perfectly. Batillus are a good one, thanks to their
atmospheric blending of black metal, doom/sludge and ambience, and bands like
Shining (NOR), YOB or pretty much any Norwegian black metal band make the
perfect fit too.
As I switch my job from Morley
to Huddersfield, and with a lot more going for
me now than against me, I’m not sure this feeling of a soundtrack to my life
will last. But undoubtedly the experiences of the last year and a half in
Morley have made me realise what a powerful medium certain parts of heavy music
are, and without question that’s an avenue I really wouldn’t mind exploring yet
further.
I’m interested to know
whether anybody else has this approach to music, be it soundtracking their
commute or even their daily life. I wouldn’t go as far to say I soundtrack my
whole life – it’s not ‘The Truman Show’,
and indeed you could just say that much of what I’ve just written is what I
happened to be in the mood for at the time. That much is true, but I believe
there’s more to it than that.
I had a personal epiphany about Lamb of God whilst watching them at Download 2010. Having watched them devastate the festival three years prior to that, on this occasion I wound up with an enormous sense of underwhelment about their set. I perhaps put this down to my evolution in musical tastes, but even so, it was perhaps a sign that I had tired of the Roadrunner approach to metal, that being to make it as mainstream and friendly as possible in the majority. I don't for a second consider Lamb of God to be friendly and they haven't really compromised much to get to where they are. But the last couple of records haven't exactly blown me away either, or at least made me go 'damn!' to the extent where I could care too much about them.
So would 'Resolution', their new album, change any of that? It starts promisingly enough, with opener 'Setting of the Sun' an all too short sludgy number that had me dooming out like never before to LoG, before getting nitty-gritty with 'Desolation' and 'Ghost Walking'. The latter is the lead-off single and its easy to see why - its as good a song as Lamb of God have ever pulled out of their repertoire, with a chorus that will stick with you.
The problem is that as per the last couple of LoG records, it inevitably ends up feeling very samey, one-track and a little uninspiring. Occasionally there's a standout moment here, 'King Me' being one example with its operatic backing, but these times are too few. What they're doing isn't necessarily bad, but there's not to make you sit up and take notice. Songs like 'The Number Six' and 'Invictus' are all well and good but for sounding like a discarded cut from 'Wrath' or 'Sacrament', which had their fair share of filler themselves.
Of course, what does my opinion matter? The mainstream will still inflate it to and lap it up in unimaginable levels. Lamb of God's status as one of the biggest metal bands of the modern era than most, and they make a damn better fist of it than most as well. In this day and age though, bands have really got to push themselves to excel. Lamb of God appear to have got themselves to the top and simply accepted it, rather than striving for all out domination. 'Resolution' is a solid record - just not one to get me overly excited about Lamb of God again, and like it or loathe it, the shackles of 'As The Palaces Burn' still grip them tightly.
Formed in 2006, Seattle ragers Black Breath have blazed a trail into the metal consciousness, particularly over the last couple of years, thanks to the blistering EP 'Razor to Oblivion', which brought them to the attention of Greg Anderson, who promptly signed them to Southern Lord. Their 2010 debut 'Heavy Breathing' is a standout record, featuring ferocious hardcore/d-beat intensity and razor sharp metal shred. After a series of successful tours, they recently completed their follow-up record 'Sentenced to Life'.
I've been trying to get this interview for a while and now we finally have it. Enjoy.
How did you find the UK and European tour for ‘Heavy Breathing’? Was it everything you expected or anticipated?
We
toured the UK and Europe twice for 'Heavy Breathing' and there were
definitely some great shows amongst them all. We didn't anticipate much
the first time over (November 2010) but some of the responses were
pretty overwhelming. I was definitely surprised by how willing the
crowds were to get wild, so that made it fun as hell! We don't expect
anything at a show, we just get on stage and play loud and hard and the
rest usually falls into place. Ideally some people dig it, and it seems
that has been the case for both trips over the pond. The second time
back in July 2011 was cool because we got to met up with some friends we
made on the first trip, debuted some new stuff, got to play some
festivals, and generally had a killer time. Even more heads banged.
How do you manage to keep yourself busy during the downtime, on the road and off it?
There
is a lot of book reading on tour by the more learned of us... sci-fi,
serial killer biographies, fantasy shit. I haven't learned to read yet
so I rarely partake, but I pass time driving a lot (if we're in the
U.S.), jamming tunes, and sleeping. In Europe there seems to be more
sleeping during the days and staying up too late at night.
How do you feel things have changed for you since the release of ‘Heavy Breathing’?
Well,
we woke up the day after it was released and had more money than we
knew what to do with. Just completely rich,
over night. So that was cool, but then we blew it all and were back to
square one, which leads us to the rest of the answer. Having our first
LP out sort of legitimized the band in some ways. I don't mean to say
bands that never put out an LP weren't serious, but people were willing
to put in more work on our behalf for sure. That LP being sent to a few
different people solidified some touring opportunities we wouldn't have
had otherwise, and got us on some awesome shows. Also, more people
seem to have an opinion on us since 'Heavy Breathing' came out, ha!
You’ve got a new album due out very soon, ‘Sentenced to Life’. Any story or reasoning behind the title?
'Sentenced
to Life' is also the title of the 2nd track on the record, but as an
album title it can be taken a few ways. I'm sure people will come up
with more metaphors than we could provide.
What can we expect from the new record in
comparison to your past efforts?
More riffs, more fast, more bringing down the hammer.
Kurt
Ballou is again at the helm for the production of ‘Sentenced to Life’,
as he was for ‘Heavy Breathing’– was it an easy choice to work with him
again?
It was a pretty easy choice for most of us. One guy was
opposed at first but quickly came around when he realized he didn't want
to make a weak-ass record. There are plenty of talented producers and
engineers, but we figured building on the last experience there with
Kurt would be a good idea. It wasn't necessarily easier this time
around, but we're pleased with the results.
I heard you wrote the
new record in a short time following the European tour – did you feel
any pressure to get the album out at all, or was the time just right?
Well,
we almost jumped the gun and tried to book time well before we ended up
being ready. Luckily we held-off
until March '11 before we went to the studio, so it was pretty much a
four month span of time when the bulk of the record was put together
after the first European tour. A serious chunk of that, maybe half, was
done in the last month so there was some pressure toward the end of
writing to get everything finished. We didn't want to show up with half
an album and be expected to record a full one, you know? That
definitely forced us to trim the fat in some spots and not over think
everything. We can get a bit caught up in second-guessing stuff and not
actually improving anything in the end, so it was a test in being
concise. We were still writing stuff while recording, which we never
do, but I think in the end the time spent staying up all night at the
hotel phrasing lyrics or arranging riffs helped add to overall intensity
of the record. Running low on sleep and high on adrenaline knowing the
clock was
ticking...
‘Heavy Breathing’ was a stand-out record for many
people in 2010. I was particularly grabbed by the occult themes and the
sheer intensity of it all. Was that the sort of vibe you were after from
the start or was there more to it than simply thrashing away?
With
'Heavy Breathing' there wasn't too much of a plan. We just wrote a bunch
of songs, mostly rippers with some jammers, kept the ones we liked and
recorded them. The only ideas were to make it loud, fast, heavy, dark.
We were pushing what we could physically pull off at the time, and this
time around we did the same thing. Just so happens we can play a
slightly faster and tighter now!
One thing that intrigues me is
the artwork and imagery you employ. The images always seem very
striking, particularly the cover art for ‘Heavy Breathing’. Is that a
further part of the appeal you draw from occult territory?
Glad
you like that
cover. Even though it's unassuming up front, it definitely gets a
little creepier the longer I look at it. A lot of imagery associated
with darker shit, death, the occult, religion, etc. is pretty striking
so it follows that if we use anything related to these things our
imagery becomes more striking too, right? We didn't make up the
formula, just using it.
I was personally slightly surprised when
you signed to Southern Lord a few years back, as I knew them, as I’m
sure many people did, for being traditionally a doom/ drone label. But
they seem to have supported you pretty well?
We were surprised at
the time as well! I thought it was a cool label, and we were excited
that they had any interest in us given their previous output was a
little different than what we were doing. That was before they started
signing more fast bands though and now all of a sudden we don't stick
out like a sore thumb!
Haha. They've done pretty well by us overall. Good people with good
intentions run the label and we're happy to have them as pals.
Black Breath live at Tuska Open Air 2011
There
seems to be a tendency from one or two people who point towards the
Swedish death metal influence and use it as a bit of a stick towards one
or two bands, particularly since Southern Lord picked up all these
hardcore/d-beat style bands. Do those sorts of comments bother you at
all, or do you feel that’s just negativity on their part?
I'm a
bit confused as to whether this is a stick that's being pointed or if
the pointing is independent of the sticking, but I'm not too worried
about comments from elsewhere. If we took every negative comment to
heart we'd be a fucking wreck! It is interesting to think that we are
being lumped in with any other bands or "scenes" or sounds or whatever,
because we just write stuff that satisfies our basic desire to play
fast, head bang, and get wild
with people that like loud shit too. If the kids like it, then more
fun for everyone. If they don't, then they don't.
Are there any influences you count that might surprise people?
Absolutely
not. We only listen to the heaviest and hardest, all day and all
night. And then when we get bored of that we probably spend more time
listening to power pop and serious hook-driven stuff than a lot of
bands, but you're not supposed to tell anyone that. Also our singer is
highly influenced by AM talk radio.
What’s your thoughts on the state of the music industry today, in particular the underground extreme music scene?
Right
now I'm into more new underground stuff than I have been in quite a
while. There are some cool metal bands, hardcore bands, people making
good records without much care for how well they sell or how many hits
their website gets. Seems like at this point most everything is
"underground" though, and at the same time totally accessible thanks to
modern technology, so I'm not sure what to make of all that. Mediocre
side note, I suppose. The general music industry is pretty fucked, but
they have known that for some years so that's not new. I'm actually
starting to think some of these newer pay-subscription internet music
services may help turn things around on a larger scale, because kids
that grow up in ten years may actually come up believing in a monetary
value to music and art, rather than expecting it to always be free as
kids of the Napster era seem to think. It's not ideal, but it's better
than nothing I suppose. Who knows, maybe it'll all just go completely
downhill and people will only listen to computer noises.
Do you see yourself back in the UK any time later this year?
We will be there in April!
Finally, were there any crazy experiences you wouldn’t mind sharing
from the recent UK/European tour run?
Well, at the end of
tour our driver's appendix blew up or some shit, and the other dudes had
to catch a £400 cab ride to the airport. Luckily he survived and they
arrived in time to catch their flight home! By that point I was on
vacation and ran into Sepultura at a random bar in Amsterdam the night
before I was scheduled to fly home. I ended up staying out a bit too
late and missed my flight the next morning so that turned out to be an
expensive evening! Other than that, playing Tuska Festival in Helsinki
was an all-around rad time, and Sonisphere in the UK was great as well. High-fiving Metallica, playing at the same time as Slayer and having
people actually watch us, and riding bumper cars til 5am were all pretty
cool.
I'd personally like to thank Black Breath for answering these questions. 'Sentenced to Life' is released on Monday 26th March and a UK tour with Victims has just been announced as this goes to press.
The last few 'Visions' posts, bar the Venom clip which was just buffoonery, seem to have focused on videos with some crazy ass scheme that simply has you asking what the directors of each were on when they made them. This next one is no different. I'm not even going to attempt to explain the meaning behind the numerous masks, symbols, colours and the Asian lady that fly out of the screen over the course of this song. All I know is that a) this would've been cool in 3D, and b) the YouTube haters are fools. Better this than a straightforward performance vid.
Whatever the meaning behind the imagery, Mastodon's 'Dry Bone Valley', taken from 'The Hunter', is another incredible video from these guys and an impressive song all the same, from an album that continues to get better with every listen.
Australian metal bands are like diamonds. I personally find quality ones rare, not because they're bad - more to do with my relative lack of knowledge on the scene Down Under, coupled with the flood of metal bands I hear about from just over the Atlantic Ocean. But when I do stumble upon one, wow is it a thing of beauty, of rare quality. And Serious Beak, featuring Adrift For Days guitarist Lachlan Dale, with their unpronouncable album 'Huxwhukw' prove to be quite a valuable find.
'Huxwhukw' is a varying instru-metal assault over 10 tracks, and fans of bands like The Mars Volta, Meshuggah, Mastodon, etc. will sure find something to like here, whether they're flexing their heavier muscles, akin to the razor sharp talons carried by larger avian varieties, or spreading their progressive wings, which they have a tendency to go for on several occasions, particularly on the jazz/metal/gonzo fest that is 'Sporas'.
They remind me, in some ways, of fellow Aussies Akaname - whose 2010 EP, 'As Above So Below' is well worth seeking out - and perhaps that's down to the guitar tone, particularly at foot to the floor time. That said, its more expansive and other influences are prevalent at various points, particularly on 'Fljóta', which contains a tribal vocal, the only voice heard throughout the record.
I for one hope Serious Beak get some serious acclaim for this record and get their name put out a bit further. Instru-metal records can fall into the trap of becoming backing music pieces or some sort of soundtrack form. Not 'Huxwhukw', which firmly soars over those pitfalls with little difficulty. Another cracking find from the Australian goldmine.
Without question, Shining
(NOR) were one of 2010’s top emerging bands. Although they began in 1999 (as a
jazz quartet), and later embraced metal fully with 2005’s ‘In The Kingdom of Kitsch You Will Be A Monster’, 2010 was the year
that, for me, they truly impacted with the imperious ‘Blackjazz’. Melding black metal, jazz and more in a more intense
fashion than ever before, Shining landed themselves in many people’s top albums
of 2010 list way before the year had even ended. It was strange, malevolent,
gonzoid and somehow cohesive.
‘Live Blackjazz’ isn’t a performance of that album in full, although
the bulk of material from the album is present here. It compiles a full Shining
performance comprising of material from that album plus older albums including
‘Kitsch’, and manages to do the rare
job of doing what most live albums simply cannot, which is capture the raw,
volatile energy of a band at the peak of their game. None of the craziness that
manifested the studio album of the same name is lost, with frontman/saxophonist
Jørgen Munkeby still screaming the ‘one
three seven five’ out of ‘Fisheye’ and sounding nothing short of on the
edge on the likes of ‘Madness and the Damage Done’ and ‘Exit Sun’. The closing
cover of King Crimson’s ‘21st Century Schizoid Man’ is just as
apocalyptic as it was on ‘Blackjazz’, enhanced by its domineering live presence
If you haven’t yet checked
out Shining then you really owe it to yourself to immerse yourself right away
into one of the most original bands of our time. Rarely does metal lend itself
to diversity as much as it does with Shining, and without question this is an opportunity to grab with both hands and ears.
