(Andy Synn is hoping to cover as many in as possible before “List Week”… so here’s four you may not have checked out)
As the last edition of “Things You May Have Missed” before my epic, week-long round-up of “the year in Metal”, this particular article has a fair bit of pressure on its shoulders, and deciding who to feature wasn’t easy.
Suffice it to say, however, that I’ve done my best to once again cover the spread as well as I can, which this time means a late-in-the-year highlight from the Hardcore scene, an absoutely killer Death Metal debut, some gloriously riff-happy Blackened Stoner Metal from Canada, and a slab of deathly Slovakian Tech/Prog extremity from a band who have, from my perspective at least, flown under the radar for far too long!
So, withour further ado, let’s get to it. After all, time is running out…
EXCIDE – BASTARD HYMNS
Look, sometimes you just have to bow to the wisdom of the crowds… because when I saw someone refer to Excide‘s new album as “the tormented child of Quicksand and Snapcase” I honestly couldn’t resist stealing it (or, at the very least, directly referencing it).
Oh, sure, there’s a bit more to it than that – I can hear some Only Living Witness and Helmet (“Worth Your Salt”, “Your Flowers”, “Call Box”), and probably some …Ambulance period Thrice and Ugly-era Life of Agony (“Cauterized”, “Heartware”) too, and maybe even some Stone Temple Pilots here and there – but it’s such a succinct and accurate summation of the band’s distinctive blend of Hardcore, Grunge, late-90s Alt-Metal, etc (the combination of which, on songs like “Ruiner ’95” and “Void of Function”, strongly reminds me of Project 86), that it will likely tell you immediately whether or not you’re going to like Bastard Hymns.
Or, maybe it won’t… after all, I try not to underestimate or stereotype our readers, who have – upon many occasions in the past – proven themselves to be impressively open-minded and varied in their listening tastes and habits (the fact that a website called NoCleanSinging actually features a surprising amount of “clean singing” doesn’t seem to have put many of you off, for which we are all very thankful), so I’m hopeful that at least some of you who aren’t expecting to like this will still give it a chance (and be converted).
Because one of the things that I like most about Bastard Hymns is that while it isn’t afraid to be infectious as hell – 90% of “Shine Thru Blues”, for example, could pass for one of Alice In Chains‘s more sombre, radio-ready anthems – it also doesn’t hesitate to drop-kick you in the chest when the moment feels right (“Down In The Mouth” is as hard-hitting as it is humongously hooky), strongly suggesting that integrity still means much more to the band than popularity.
That being said, if these guys blow up into “the next big thing” (and a song like “Bastard Hymn” absolutely has the potential to maximise their mainstream accessibility without sacrificing their underground credibility in the process) I absolutely would not be at all surprised… and you can quote me on that.
PRIMAL SCOURGE – END OF EDEN
Whether by hook or by crook, by luck or design, sometimes a band just seems to possess that x-factor, that indefinable je ne s’ais quoi, that helps them stand out from the pack.
And, however, they’ve come by it… Primal Scoure definitely have it.
I’m not saying that they’re doing anything new here – End of Eden is Death Metal with a capital DEATH from start to finish, balls to brow – but they are doing it in such a way that it feels vital and vibrant and thrumming with overwhelming power.
Reminiscent, spiritually at least, of the likes of Bæst and Ashen in the way it modernises an array of “classic” Death Metal influences (opener “Abyssal Imprisonment”, for example, combines ripping, writhing, Cannibal Corpse-esque riffage with passages of doomy, Asphyx-ian ground ‘n’ pound) and embraces not only the genre’s monstrous heaviness (the guitar and bass tones on this record are absolutely massive) but also its inherent hookiness (just take a listen to the neck-wrekcing, Obituary-meets-Blood Red Throne stomp of second track “Morbid Gestation” for a prime example).
The duo’s unassailable confidence also means they aren’t afraid to toy with a touch of melody (such as during the ominous opening bars of “Visceral Crown” or the moody mid-section of the absolutely brutal “Breath and Bone”) or gloomy atmosphere (“Temple of the Hollow Star”) amidst all the gut-wrenching riffage and bone-rattling blastbeats, as these elements and embellishments only serve to strengthen the group’s already impressive sonic identity.
Absolutely packed, from start to finish, with unrelentingly crushing, yet unapologetically catchy, songwriting – the grinding churn of “Cavalry of the Damned” is the sort of thing that the Tribal Gaze boys will probably be mad they didn’t write themselves – End of Eden is easily one of the best Death Metal debuts of the year, and hopefully it will manage to find its audience despite being a little late to the party!
SKEKSIS – SKEKSIS
If there’s two things that Canadian crew Skeksis love it’s big, fat riffs and… The Dark Crystal (if the name didn’t already give that away).
And by combining them on their self-titled debut they’ve managed to make a striking first statement that immediately – with the grimy, groovy, unashamedly catchy “Possession of Immortality” – lets you know exactly what to expect from the rest of the record… namely a beefy blend of rugged, smoke-wreathed riffage, stompy, sludgy rhythms, and biting, blackened vocals that puts catchy songwriting and concise storytelling at the heart of everything it does.
Sure, the group aren’t totally reinventing the wheel here – there’s obviously a fair bit of High On Fire influence bubbling away under the hood, while the more “blackened” moments (such as during early favourite “Dimensional Drifter”) remind me a fair bit of the likes of Cormorant or The Flight of Sleipneir (albeit with more stoner swagger) – but they’re definitely laying down a firm foundation for their future all the same.
And while not every track hits the spot – the disjointed Blackened Stoner Punk of “Shard of the Division” just doesn’t seem to hang together anywhere near as well as it probably should do (which, I suppose, is always a risk when you’re mashing together genres like this) – the group’s unwavering love for what they do (even when delivering lines like “Breath of ash and acid rain / Ancient Gelfling wreathed in flame” during “Field of Fire”) should be apparent to even the most jaded of ears.
I’ll grant you that I’m not sure how much more mileage (lyrically or creatively) the band can get out of their core theme – and, to be fair to them, tracks like “Frostmourne Hungers” and “Beer Mage” do find them expanding their subject matter, for better or worse – but if there’s one thing you should know about Skeksis (both the band and the vulturine puppet-creatures) it’s that they’re always looking for ways to renew themselves, so chances are (especially after hearing proggier, doomier closer “The Essence”) we haven’t heard the last of them!
WAYD – REINVENT
It’s always fascinating, in my opinion at least, that no matter how long or how deeply embedded you’ve been in the Metal scene there’s always bands you’ve never heard of but who, nevertheless, have built a career for themselves entirely on their own terms.
Technical/Progressive Death-Thrash Jazz-Fusion (try saying that three times fast) quartet Wayd – three quarters of whom have been part of the band since 1994 – are one of them, having produced four underappreciated albums between 1997 and 2007, before taking a break and then returning with album #5 just last month.
And while they may not be as well known as the likes of Atheist, Cynic, or Sadus – with whom they share a fair bit of, albeit distantly-related, DNA – that clearly hasn’t deterred them from pursuing their own creative path (indeed, if anything, it may well have emboldened them).
At their best, tracks like high-velocity, high-intensity opener “Algorithms of Hate” and the disturbingly, discordantly hypnotic “Marble” (the former of which also throws in some squalling saxophone for good measure) epitomise the band’s rich blend of limber, looping fretwork, lithe, artfully agile bass-lines, and punchy, powerful (yet also subtly proggy) riffage in a way which recalls sadly defunct underground legends Hieronymus Bosch more than any of either group’s more (in)famous peers.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing here as stunningly catchy as the latter’s “Fingerprint Layrinth” (though “Five Senses”, especially during its last minute or so, comes reasonably close), but what they might lack, in comparison, in terms of outlandish hookiness they largely make up for in introspective moodiness on numvers such as the shamelessly melodic “Walpurgas” and the chunky, chattering “Paved By Slaves”.
And if not every track works as well as was intended (when it comes to the likes of “Chains of Tradition” and “Disparity” perhaps the band should have heeded the advice of their own song that Less Is More”) the highlights – which include penultimate powerhouse “Nocturnal Shredding”, which should please anyone who likes their Death Metal taut, toned, and tough-as-nails – certainly make this one more than worth your time.