AS I LAY DYING: “AWAKENED”

 Album Reviews  12 Responses »
Sep 212012
 

(DGR reviews the new album by As I Lay Dying.)

As I Lay Dying are one of the few metalcore bands who still have new releases to look forward to. While the first two releases from this group may have been somewhat mixed, the quality and sheer heaviness that the band aimed for on the following releases, An Ocean Between Us and The Powerless Rise, is almost undeniable.

They’re able to take some fairly standard metalcore writing and advance it by adding elements of thrash, death metal, and even moving into the realm of groove. Though they’ve never been the perfect song-writers, I have often believed that As I Lay Dying were one of the few bands who could work well within the boundaries of the metalcore realm, because they’ve mastered what they can do for it and clearly have an understanding of what elements of that genre are boring, and how to spice things up. Very few bands can do that, and it really does require a love and reverence of the material that you’re working on in order to pull it off.

Now we have Awakened, a new As I Lay Dying disc with album art that veers dangerously close to Paradise Lost’s Tragic Idol in its color scheme, and that has seemingly sneaked up on us since, holy crap, this thing is out in a few days. Even though I really hadn’t heard anything from As I Lay Dying’s latest release prior to this review outside of the song “Cauterize” once or twice (and I have gained somewhat of a reputation for rarely liking the lead-off from any new disc because CHANGE IS BAD, GRAH!, though “Cauterize” is pretty alright), there was still reason to be excited. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: EARLY GRAVES, THE TONY DANZA TAPDANCE EXTRAVAGANZA, AND ARCHONS

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  10 Responses »
Sep 202012
 

Here’s a quick round-up of new things that caught my eye this morning.

EARLY GRAVES

I’m very fucking stoked for the new Early Graves album, Red Horse, which will be out October 30 on No Sleep Records. The title track debuted at the end of August, and I included it in this feature. Now, NPR has premiered a second song — “Pure Hell”.

According to NPR, the band’s new vocalist John Strachan (Funeral Pyre) wrote the song for Makh Daniels, Early Graves’ original vocalist who tragically died in a van accident a little more than two years ago: “He always had that pure hell back patch. So I wrote this for him and the way he lived.”

The song title has a second meaning, too: Sonically, it’s pure hell, too — an explosive, violent, smoking-hot rush of grindcore insanity with a massive, skull-crushing breakdown in the back half. Go HERE to get smashed by this music. Continue reading »

OKERA: “A BEAUTIFUL DYSTOPIA”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Sep 202012
 

(I originally wrote this review as a guest piece for Metal Bandcamp and am re-posting it here, just in case Metal Bandcamp collapses under the weight of all the words.)

When MaxR asked me to write a guest review for Metal Bandcamp, he said he wanted to give me something a little out of my usual comfort zone, and specifically, something connected to the realm of doom. When I agreed, the album he picked was A Beautiful Dystopia, released earlier this year by Okera from Melbourne, Australia. I’m afraid Max failed in his mission. Not only am I comfortable in the company of A Beautiful Dystopia, I’m ready to marry it and have kids.

As a genre term, “doom” is a big tent, encompassing a wide range of music, particularly when it’s joined through a hyphen with other styles of metal. A Beautiful Dystopia is one of those hybrids. All of the music is wrapped in the blanket of night, moving in an atmosphere that is often suffused with sensations of melancholy or even the energized bleakness of agony. But the music is also heavy and compulsively rhythmic at the same time as it’s wonderfully melodic. To varying degrees, depending on the song, Okera meld together melodic death metal and doom to produce dramatic, memorable songs.

Every one of the sevens tracks share certain hallmarks: Most of them are long, with three of them lasting more than nine minutes and three others ranging between almost seven minutes and eight — which means they depend on changes in pacing and intensity. Okera establish core melodic themes and then weave them through a course that drops and rises, with soft, contemplative, occasionally acoustic passages and sudden enormous crashes of might and power. The music ebbs and flows, and ultimately the songs build toward an almost overpowering surge of emotion. Continue reading »

DYING FETUS / JOB FOR A COWBOY / REVOCATION — LIVE IN BIRMINGHAM, SEPT. 18, 2012

 Concert Reviews  1 Response »
Sep 202012
 

(Andy Synn journeyed to Birmingham, UK, to take in The Womb To Waste Tour and wrote this review of the experience. Andy has also provided us with video of each band’s performance.)

So here’s the thing. Myself and my good buddy Tim (also of Bloodguard fame) decided, kind of at the last minute, to head to this show over in Birmingham (those who pussied out know who they are, but I won’t shame them by naming them…). Now Birmingham isn’t all that far from where we live, except in rush-hour, which pretty much doubles your travelling time. I’m telling you this to explain why we missed Cerebral Bore, who I know have a fair few fans on this site. As it stands, we got there just as they were starting their last song, so I took the chance to hit the empty bar and check out the merch stand, before finding a good spot to watch Revocation.

 

REVOCATION

Revocation being the only band I hadn’t had the pleasure of seeing live before, I wasn’t sure what to expect, particularly as the band’s insane fusion of day-glo techno thrash, proggy song-structures, and black/death hybrid heaviness is the sort of foolhardy mixing and matching that often leaves me cold in the live arena. Thank god then for the band’s boundless confidence and enthusiasm, which certainly helped each song come across as more than just a series of good ideas thrown together, every track delivering an array of heavy, head-banging riffs, wild, madcap drumming, and sizzling solo work, while jumping around all over the metal map. Continue reading »

KATATONIA: “DEAD END KINGS”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Sep 202012
 

(In this post DGR gives us the second of our two reviews of the new album by Sweden’s Katatonia. The first one is here.)

Katatonia are fast becoming a cornerstone around these here parts. Despite the fact that the band are pretty much completely clean singing, we’ve still covered them quite a bit. Aside from the fact that we here at No Clean Singing have excellent music taste, I am also a massive fan of the group, coming into the fold during a time just prior to the release of The Great Cold Distance and riding that wave of darkness ever since.

Katatonia are even reaching the point when they aren’t just a really great underground band, a trsnaformation that has been excellent to watch as more and more people discover just how good their music is. When you’re receiving shout-outs in main quest lines on million-selling video games, your profile tends to increase pretty dramatically.

It was a little hard to speculate about where the band would go with the impending release of their latest disc, Dead End Kings, as they began slowly to release songs to the public. Were they going to try to return to the fuller, more band-oriented sound of their earlier works or were they going to continue with the sparse, cold, and vocally driven music that they revealed on Night Is The New Day?

The song “Dead Letters” hinted at some really strong potential, but coming into the full album without having followed every step the band have taken, I have found Dead End Kings to be a pleasant surprise. It’s an excellent combination of everything I’ve heard from the band before, with the quality cranked up as high as the band could make it, and nary a stinker on the whole disc. Continue reading »

MORE SEEN AND HEARD: FORGOTTEN TOMB AND BECOMING THE ARCHETYPE

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Sep 192012
 

I already wrote one of these round-up posts early this morning, but hours have passed since then and I’ve found more new things worth sharing.

FORGOTTEN TOMB

This Italian band is one whose name I’ve heard or seen before but whose music I don’t recall ever delving into. I gather from my reading that their sound has evolved over the course of five albums, the last of which was Under Saturn Retrograde (2011), starting out as fast black metal, moving to depressive, doom-oriented black metal with a lyrical focus on suicide, and then eventually settling into a kind of blackened goth-oriented mix of metal and rock with clean production and a predominance of clean vocals.

The band have a new album slated for release by Agonia Records on October 30 in Europe and November 6 in North America. Its title is …And Don’t Deliver Us From Evil…, and today Agonia started streaming a new song from the album called “Deprived”, which will be released separately as a 7″ single with a second acoustic track.

I don’t know how well this song represents the rest of the album, but it’s really good. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: ARCH ENEMY, ARKAIK, OAK PANTHEON, THE SECRET

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Sep 192012
 


 

Here’s a grab bag of things I saw and heard over the last 24 hours that I thought were good enough to pass your way. I saw and heard other things that I’m keeping to myself, for your own protection.

ARCH ENEMY

Laboratory testing of animals is a hot-button issue for lots of people. On one side are those who view it as utterly unethical, as a vestige of humanity’s barbarism that should be abandoned as quickly as possible. On the other side are those who argue that animal testing is essential for the development of things like new medicines that will save lives (of course, animals are also used to test products that have nothing to do with human health).

But I suppose there are lots of people who give the issues no serious thought at all, which is unfortunate. Sweden’s Arch Enemy are trying to get more people to think about the treatment of animals in laboratory testing through a video they released today. The video is for “Cruelty Without Beauty”, a song from their latest album, 2011’s Khaos Legions. It effectively mixes disturbing film clips of animal testing with animation — and of course shots of Angela Gossow venting her rage.

I had mixed feelings about the album, because I thought the quality of the songs was a mixed bag. For me, “Cruelty Without Beauty” is one of the stronger tracks, though I should confess that I lean toward the side of the debate that the song represents. Check out the video, which gives a voice to the voiceless, after the jump. Continue reading »

SYBREED: “GOD IS AN AUTOMATON”

 Album Reviews  5 Responses »
Sep 192012
 

(DGR reviews the new release by Sybreed.)

Sybreed, the four-piece hailing from our favorite land of neutrality known as Switzerland who manage to combine elements of groove metal, industrial, electronica, and melodeath into one package are back again. Three years removed from the group’s album The Pulse Of Awakening (written about in an incredibly ridiculous manner here), we find ourselves ready to dive headlong into another four-word titled album God Is An Automaton.

If there is one thing that we can gather from Sybreed’s discography so far it is that although the band have some unifying themes, each disc has sounded different. Antares was pretty heavy the whole way through, and Pulse Of Awakening whiplashed back and forth between a catchy pop-oriented sound and some the more violent metal aspects that lay at the heart of Sybreed. God Is An Automaton is a different beast from these two because it is a heavier, more vicious album than what Sybreed have done before. If you’re one of those people who have been aching for the band to get back to beating the hell out of everyone, then God Is An Automaton may just be your cup of tea.

God Is An Automaton actually opens with a fairly familiar version of Sybreed, one that bounces between a hooked chorus and catchy riffs before quickly taking a turn toward the slower-paced songs that make up a large part of this disc. In the three years between albums, Sybreed have attained a sense for a really heavy groove and sound, more machine-like than they have ever been before. Maybe having Seth design your album artwork two times in a row has rubbed off on them, but God Is An Automaton is a much darker album than its predecessors. Continue reading »

A BAG FOR YOUR DICK

 IQ Subtraction  14 Responses »
Sep 192012
 

If Condom Commercials Were Honest — powered by Cracked.com

(Sorry about the ad.)

It will come as no surprise to our readers that of all my many Facebook friends, most of whom undoubtedly have mistaken me for someone else, it was Phro and Phro alone who posted a link to the above video on his page. By being straight-forward and direct, it serves as a pointed reminder of how much bullshit we put up with in advertising. It made me think of how refreshing it would be if promotional campaigns for metal albums followed a similar formula.

Don’t get me wrong. I have cordial relations with many label representatives and PR folks, and I generally enjoy reading their album descriptions because they write better than I do and I admire good writing, except when I don’t enjoy their writing because they write better than I do. Also, I depend on them for advance access to music, which I appreciate because there’s not really a quid pro quo, given that even when I whip my lazy ass into writing a review it’s difficult for me to imagine anyone actually relying on my opinion in deciding what music to buy. This is why I always include music with the reviews. I may be stupid, but I’m not dumb.

Still, after seeing that video, I couldn’t help but fantasize about what the “Bag For Your Dick” approach to promotion would mean for metal PR:

“This album sounds like thousands of other deathcore albums with a few weedily riffs thrown in to make it sound “progressive”. It gave me diarrhea by the second track, but brainless teenagers will think it’s brutal. If any brainless teenagers read your blog, pimp the crap out of these hacks. Make sure you have the quart-sized Pepto Bismol on hand before you listen to this shit.”

“Here’s the long-awaited and highly anticipated new album by this band whose name I’d give my left nut to forget. And by ‘long-awaited and highly anticipated’ I mean these assholes have been auto-tuning and pro-tooling the living shit out of this pile of putrescence for the last year while getting high every night and bitching about their gf’s, who must be as retarded as the deluded dudes in this band. Whatever.” Continue reading »

ARKHAMIN KIRJASTO: “TORCHES ABLAZE”

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Sep 182012
 

To operate effectively on your brain stem, extreme metal doesn’t require catchy melodies or viral riffs. You don’t have to find yourself humming the songs in your head hours or days later in order to enjoy the listening experience. In fact, as we all know, music in which the instrumentalists deliver nothing but down-tuned brute-force percussion, especially when accompanied by ravenous howling or bear-like roaring, can strike all the right chords even when you can’t reconstruct the songs in your mind a day later.

Yet I think it’s undeniable that clever melodic hooks and instantly headbangable rhythms are a big part of what makes classic heavy metal “classic”. Those are key ingredients (though not necessarily essential ones) that give songs staying power. Match that up with extremity in the vocal department, and you’ve got something that has the potential for real appeal to listeners (like me) who enjoy a memorable, neck-snapping song but also have a thirst for musical bestiality with a seasoning of the occult. And if you discover a band who do that while also delivering surprising variety and lyrical themes involving Lovecraftian horror, then you’ve got yourself a real winner.

And that’s what I’ve found in Torches Ablaze by the Finnish duo known as Arkhamin Kirjasto. They’ve pulled off a neat trick on their virally infectious debut album: combining throwback heavy metal riffs, death metal vocals, atmospheric guitar touches, and Lovecraftian lyrics in a way that’s as interesting as it is irresistible.

In a nutshell, Arkhamin Kirjasto (“The Library of Arkham”, in Finnish) is the project of Jussi Lehtisalo, who manages the eclectic Ektro Records label and has been involved in numerous other bands (including Circle, Pharoah Overlord, and Split Cranium) and solo artist Samae Koskinen. Lehtisalo brought to the project his interest in extreme experimental music as well as hard rock, glam, and punk, while Koskinen was driven by interests ranging from Maiden-esque heavy metal to early death metal. Continue reading »

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