Review of The Truth Is Dangerous by Reform The Resistance

So I love Opeth and Meshuggah and Machine Head and Metallica and Testament and Fear Factory and Oceansize and yadda yadda yadda. But strangely I also have a bit of a soft spot for Christian/positive thinking rock bands, too.

Weird, as I have less than no interest in religion. Maybe its the indefatigable cheeriness of a lot of these bands that appeals to me.

Anyhoo, today I've come across Reform The Resistance, a Christian three-piece who were called Justifide a few years back. I am assuming that the name change hasn't also meant an overhaul of their belief system.

I read on the web that The Truth Is Dangerous was recorded in 2010 so not sure how it has found its way to my door in the second half of 2012 but better late than never as its a reasonably strong album, featuring one song in particular that you simply must hear.

Read full review at This Is Not A Scene

Review of Silencing Machine by Nachtmystium

Another illegible band logo, another black metal band, this time Nachtmystium who, despite the name, are from the US and led by guitarist/vocalist Blake Judd.

I can't be any more specific because the band's bio neglects to mention anything useful like this. Hey ho. One of the web sites describes them as a psychedelic black metal. I'll have to leave it up to you to work out what that might mean.

First couple of tracks Dawn Over The Ruins Of Jerusalem and the title track seem to fulfill all the criteria you would want in a black metal band. They storm along in a hail of fierce growls, pounding drums and colourless guitars but are not disagreeable as such...

Read full review at This Is Not A Scene

Review of Seven Rages of Man by Blue Gillespie

This is one of the hardest reviews I've had to write, and I'm not sure quite why. I think its because this album is really tough to listen to, and its important to say that that is not because it's a bad album. On the contrary.

Blue Gillespie are an independent prog/metal band from Newport, South Wales and Seven Rages of Man is their second album. Evidently they see the character "Blue Gillespie" as a collective alter-ego who represents the hidden darker side of each of the band members.

Now, you might say that's a little pretentious, but let's put that aside for the moment and ask the important question: Is the music any good?

Oh my laws yes.

Opener Prologue - natch - introduces us to rumbling drums, strident guitars and the very forceful vocal presence of Gareth David-Lloyd...

Read full review at This Is Not A Scene

Review of Intersections by Mekong Delta

If I were a Mekong Delta fan I'd probably hate this album.

No self-respecting fan wants a band to re-record their old songs. It smacks of desperation and a lack of ideas and is just a bad idea all round. Also, they invariably miss out a couple of your favourites and include one or two you could quite happily live without.

But as I'm not familiar with Mekong Delta, a German metal band who have been going for 25 years, I'm going to put aside my scepticism and look upon this as an excellent chance to catch up on them.

These ten tracks are taken from the band's first few albums released in the mid-80s to mid-90s period.

After my first run through the obvious thing to hit me is quite how I have never heard of them. They must have well and truly kept themselves under the radar.

Which is crazy because they are a really good band.

Having started in the 80s you'd say Mekong Delta are at heart a thrash band but there is plenty more things going on to keep your interest. The guitars are mostly furious chainsaws but on track four The Healer, for example, there is almost a Rush feel, which is unexpected and highly agreeable. Vocalist Martin LeMar is very Bruce Dickinson-like but there's no shame in sounding like one of the most prominent metal vocalists ever. I read that LeMar only joined in 2008 so I have no idea how he compares with previous vocalists.

As well as the aforementioned reference points the other band I hear at various points throughout Intersections is Voivod, one of the most interesting, intriguing and enormously under-rated bands to come out of the thrash period. I hope Mekong Delta don't mind that comparison.

Throughout the album there are great moments; moments where you go, what about that bit where...

Shades of Doom has a great solo section, Sphere Eclipse has a fantastic fast riff that refuses to lie down, and final track Prophecy is the most heavenly thrash-fest.

Ultimately this album introduces me to a band I'd never heard of - which baffles me, but I guess I can't listen to every metal band that has ever existed - and makes me want to check out all their stuff.

On those terms I'd say Intersections is mission accomplished.

Review of The Weight of Oceans by In Mourning

Last week I reviewed the most anticipated metal album of 2012. This week I have the second most anticipated: In Mourning's third album The Weight of Oceans.

The band's first two albums, The Shrouded Divine and Monolith, are both supremely accomplished pieces of work in the melodic death metal / progressive black metal field so this third album has a lot to live up to.

After the first track, called Colossus - a nice link to Meshuggah last week - I sit back in my chair to reflect.

By heck, it is phenomenal.

Everything that is marvellous about In Mourning, everything that is marvellous about metal is encapsulated in this track.

Bass and drums start, with keyboards playing a refrain that conjures up the atmosphere of the movie Blade Runner. Then a guitar comes in playing an understated melody. Things begin to build and what sounds like about eleven guitar tracks explode into life.

It is utterly magnificent.

Colossus continues to be utterly magnificent for its entire nine and a half minutes. Indeed, the final section, the last 90 seconds or so, are so beautifully, brutally, brilliant that I make this assertion:

If there is a better metal track released in the rest of 2012 I will eat my hat.

I don't have a hat. Instead, I will eat my Oceansize T-shirt and post the video of me eating it on YouTube.

Right, now I've got the rest of the album to listen to.

A Vow To Conquer The Ocean, the second track, suffers only because it comes after Colossus. Apart from that, it is another excellent seven minutes of metal. An uptempo opening thunders into a slower passage with vocalist/guitarist Tobias Netzell roaring his head off.

Track 3 From A Tidal Sleep demonstrates In Mourning's complete mastery of dynamics and of craft. Even within such a brutal musical genre songwriting is all-important and In Mourning, continuing on from their first two albums, show accomplishment to match Opeth...and no finer compliment can be paid.

Fourth track Celestial Tear is a ballad. Sure, its got some noisy guitar towards the end, but basically it's a ballad. Tobias Netzell gets to show off some clean vocals and in the process makes us realise he is one of the best metal singers around.

Convergence bursts out of the speakers, featuring more excellent guitar work from Netzell, Björn Petterson and Tim Nedergård. It almost goes without saying that Christian Netzell's drumming and Pierre Stam's bass work are also exemplary. I don't usually mention individual band members in my reviews but it feels right and proper to do so this time.

Sirens completely changes the mood and is a minute and a half of piano. To coin the most appropriate cliche, it is the calm before the storm.

Final three tracks Isle Of Solace, The Drowning Sun and Voyage Of A Wavering Mind actually sound like a band with the power of the ocean behind them. I don't want to pick apart each track. I think you should savour them as I am doing. Revel in the collective majesty of these final three tracks and then immediately go back to the start, put on Colossus, and listen to the whole album again. And again.

This is modern-day metal at its very best. In Mourning deserve to be enormous.

Actually, it sounds like they already are.

I reckon my Oceansize T-shirt is safe.

Review of Koloss by Meshuggah

So here it is. The most anticipated metal album of 2012.

The Scandinavian monster that is Meshuggah deliver their seventh album, four years after the previous one, Obzen. I do not expect them to have mellowed much since then so I put Koloss on and brace myself.

I am not disappointed.

Opening track I Am Colossus pounds directly at my temporal lobe in a way that feels terrifying but necessary.

With Meshuggah perhaps more than any other current metal band there is nothing to be gained by describing the songs in terms of what is going on technically. That would take away the magic and wonder. You can only describe how listening to Meshuggah makes you feel.

And that doesn't mean simply saying it makes you feel like you want to rip your own head off.

Track 2 The Demon's Name Is Surveillance hammers at you, the bass drums a relentless barrage, the guitars doing all sorts of craziness. It makes me grit my teeth and clench my stomach muscles as I listen. I ask you, what other band can make you do that?

Do Not Look Down does not sound like an order. It sounds like a warning. It sounds like looking down would just be the worst thing I should do, so instead I keep my eyes firmly facing the front, my head nodding as I do my best to follow the unnervingly odd time signatures laid down by one of the great metal drummers of our time. Behind The Sun continues the pummelling but the guitars in the background offer beauty like a rose on a battleground.

The Hurt That Finds You First is an absolute face-melter and is my favourite after the first play of Koloss. It is fierce and wild and the extra layer of guitars makes its even heavier than Meshuggah usually are. If that is possible. There is also one of those quiet passages which Meshuggah do so brilliantly. It is haunting and finishes the track in an understated way. Understated is not a word you often associate with Meshuggah.

Marrow kicks off with a classic off-kilter guitar riff before crashing into a marvellous Meshuggah groove. For a band renowned for being so tight - and they still are, don't get me wrong - there is a rather wonderful louche, loose feel to this track and Koloss in general. There is a real organic feel to the material and I wonder if its that that makes Meshuggah stand out from the rest. There simply is no other band quite like them.

Swarm positively gallops towards you like a desert wind howling across the Sahara. The guitars are ferocious swarming scarabs eating everything in their path. Demiurge not only has a great title but is heavy as all get out. By now I actually do want to rip my own head off but Meshuggah have made that sound like a good thing.

Final track The Last Vigil is a cross between 70s Berlin-era Bowie and Oceansize in one of their ambient moods. Its a gentle end to what has been a ferocious 45 minutes yet still has the capacity to unsettle. I'm reasonably confident that its not a pointer to a next, completely ambient, Meshuggah album but it closes Koloss in an unexpected but nevertheless satisfying way.

It is nigh on impossible for such an anticipated album to totally live up to expectations but Meshuggah set the standards for what metal is in the second decade of the 21st century.

Meshuggah is Koloss.

Review of The Emptiness Within by De Profundis

De Profundis have a rubbish web site. Presumably they know that, but I felt it important to mention it up front rather than hide it away somewhere in this review. However, if they do already know, why aren't they doing something about it?

I always look at a band's web site when I'm about to review something. Mainly to find information on the band itself so that I can pass on that information to you, the reader, but also to get a feel for the band. As this web site doesn't work properly, I shall have to go elsewhere.

Their MySpace page tells me they are a progressive black metal from London. Excellent. I'm always looking out for British bands to get into; so much easier for me to go and see live. The MySpace page also says "the band continues to work hard to share its musical vision of despondency and negativity with the world."

Well, that's cheery.

Mind you, with a title like The Emptiness Within I guess I already had a clue.

Three tracks in and the first thing I've noticed is that there doesn't seem much bass, which is a bit odd for this kind of stuff. Track 3 Silent Gods is an enjoyable six-minute workout with surprisingly melodic guitars and pounding double bass drums but the bottom end is very underwhelming. Nevertheless, the track moves about nicely, in an almost Iron Maiden-like way, and comes to a satisfying conclusion.

Likewise the next couple of tracks.

In fact, by track 5 Twisted Landscapes I'm beginning to think De Profundis are nowhere near as bleak as they seem to think they are.

And I mean that as a good thing. Throughout the album the guitars soar and swoop brightly and the barked vocals add another texture rather than sounding like someone who just wants to bite your head off.

I wonder if De Profundis have parked their musical vision of despondency and negativity and emerged into the sunlight. I don't know how this album compares to the previous two but if this is a conscious effort to be less glum then I think they have made the right decision.

Heck, track 6 Release skips along positively brightly before the guitars kick in with a neat riff. This brightness continues for the next seven and a half minutes. There's even a jazz ending. Not very often you hear piano on a metal album. This is good stuff, it really is. Not earthshattering, but certainly interesting.

Track 8 Parallel Existence has more jazzy stuff but it works as a contrast to the blistering riffs elsewhere in the song.

Final track Unbroken (A Morbid Embrace) is doing more of the above but without sounding repetitive and at the end of the first full play of the album I have realised I like the album a great deal and am looking forward to playing it again. Not always the case with the albums I review.

De Profundis show much more promise than I originally expected from a band with a logo that looks like so many others and a web site that simply doesn't work.

I absolutely, whole-heartedly recommend this album to all you metal heads out there and I will be checking out their first two albums and seeing if they are playing anywhere local. They look pretty lively on YouTube and that's good enough for me.

Review of Incurso by Spawn of Possession

Third album, and first in five years, from one of Sweden's premier technical death metal bands. Sometimes I think that everyone in Sweden must be in a metal band. Which is a great notion.

First track Abodement is a short instrumental and is interesting. The guitars have a melodic ring to them and the drums complement them well. But immediately into track two and all the weapons of technical death metal jab you in the face and there they remain.

The but at the beginning of that last sentence highlights my misgivings with this kind of stuff.

There is honestly no need for me to do a track by track breakdown because they all sound the same. This is both its strength and its fundamental weakness.

For fans, all the tracks sound the same. Huzzah!

For non-fans, all the tracks sound the same. Doh.

I cannot distinguish between any of the tracks. They all hammer along at 1000 miles an hour with an occasional pause before the fury resumes.

Put simply, the better these people are at their instruments, the less I want to listen to them.

Is that so terrible?

Do you get what I'm saying?

Everything is impossibly fast, impossibly fierce, impossibly precise...yet its still possible to put this on and after ten minutes forget its there.

Considering the band are Swedish I wonder why they sing in English. I mean, it can't be for commercial reasons, can it? Actually forget that comment. They may well be singing in Swedish. Or Swahili. Or Klingon. Its impossible to tell and doesn't really matter either way. A guttural growl is a guttural growl.

Now that I come to think of it, Klingon would be a great language to sing metal in.

But I digress.

One thing that does intrigue me about Spawn of Possession is how they work out their material. Its all so complex, with lightning fast tempo changes every other bar, I wonder how they build it all up into a song. Maybe they create complex mathematical equations and then play them. That's what it sounds like. Fair play to them for that.

It sounds like I'm being harsh. I guess I am. But actually I don't dislike it. I just don't like it enough. I can't see how anyone can. You can admire it, sure, but music is not for admiring.

Music is to stir your heart and burnish your soul.

Isn't it?

Review of Astral Mantras of Dyslexia by Funeral In Heaven/Plecto Aliquem Capite

Now, if you're familiar with any of the above two bands then I apologise for telling you something you're already aware of. But I suspect, like me, you will not know them and thus a bit of background might help.

This is a line from the press release: Sri Lanka’s psychotic auditory terrorists and the legionaries of the 666th battalion of the Raavan cult have congregated to create, manifest and aid world spiritual warfare.

Okay, got that?

Me neither.

Basically, I think it means two bands have got together to make an unholy racket. I can't work out whether they all play on all the songs or whether they've got three each and then just link up on the last track.

Either way, I'll try and give you a flavour of what the whole thing sounds like.

The first track is mainly Sri Lankan ethnic instruments with, possibly, some guitars right at the back giving an extra layer. Its actually really quite agreeable although I've never been a fan of world music for longer than five minutes at a time.

The next track is more obvious slow-paced black metal with some chanting and familiar screeching vocals in the background. Again, its moderately interesting although it has made its case by about the 5 minute mark but actually lasts over 12.

Third track is a grinding heavy riff working with some ethnic drums and more chanting. Then it surprises me with some genuine vocals. Not quite singalong but getting there. Some really nice guitar work later in the track, too.

The fourth track I presume is played by some kind of violin-sounding Sri Lankan instrument. It might simply just be a violin, of course. Some information on the press release might have been a better idea, rather than some weird stream of consciousness blurb.

The fifth track is the "infamous" Stoned Guru Ramblings and a more accurate track title you could not hope to find, although I have no idea why it is "infamous". Again, why not use the press release to explain some stuff?

This track is almost the auditory version of a snuff movie. Some people might find that diverting. It kinda washed over me though.

We get more of the same on the final two tracks. They are not without merit but by now I'm beginning to think I need to get some ironing done.

So, a not wholly unpleasant experience. Probably sounds weird and scary in headphones but it does go on a bit. If you're into your black metal and shit then I'd give it a go, but I wish these bands could be more informative in a press release rather than read like a tormented teenager's effort in creative writing.

Review of The Shadows Compendium by Stephan Forte

Stephan Forte is the main man in Adagio, one of the leading lights of the neo-classically tinged metal genre. He is a technically stellar guitarist and boy does he want you to know it.

Widdle widdle widdle widdle widdle all the way through this album.

It almost seems churlish of me to point it out but playing a thousand notes a minute does not a great song make. (This whole album is instrumental but you get my drift.)

All the tracks are accomplished and utterly forgettable the moment they finish. In fact, they achieve the impossible. They are forgettable while you're still listening to them.

With reference to a previous blog of mine, I am happy to inform you that I listened to this album three times before completing my review.

Once would have been enough.

PS If you're thinking this is too short and too blunt, don't worry about it. Anything I say won't make a blind bit of difference to fans of this kind of stuff. Which is just as it should be.

In memory of Mark Reale

Only just discovered that 2012 has already claimed the life of someone who featured heavily (ahem) in my metal education.

Mark Reale was the main man in a band called Riot. In June 1977 Riot released their first album called Rock City and while its not a classic it does include three tracks that I regard as utterly essential: Warrior, Rock City and Overdrive.

There is not a metalhead alive who should not own this album for those three tracks. Remarkably, the album originally never got a US release and I think that's because at least on these three tracks Riot were ahead of their time.

Warrior is closest in spirit and pace to Exciter by Judas Priest, which was released nearly a year later, though Priest had released Sin After Sin a couple of months before Rock City appeared. I've always wondered whether Priest heard Riot or Riot heard Priest. I guess I'll never know.

So Warrior is the belt along. Rock City is the crunching mid-tempo rocker, and Overdrive has the slow start before it all kicks into gear and races along to the finish line. Both Warrior and Overdrive feature brilliant, melodic, soaring solos by Mark Reale.

These three songs are so much better than anything else on the album it is breathtaking. I always wanted to ask Mark Reale how these three came about in particular. Missed my chance on that, too.

Riot's next two albums (Narita and Fire Down Under) were stronger albums overall but neither contained any truly classic tracks, although if you haven't got them you must hunt them down. You really must.

Rock City is available to listen to on Spotify so if you're a rock fan and you don't know these songs check them out before you do anything else and smile wistfully at the marvellous guitar playing of the late great Mark Reale.

Review of The Oceans We Are Drowned In by One Star Closer

This album may be the most remarkable album I've reviewed since I started working for Alternative Matter.

Remarkable because it appears to be the work of Vlad Petkevich, a one-man-band post-rock/ambient project from Minsk, Belarus.

Remarkable because that previous sentence is the sum total of information on One Star Closer/Vlad I have managed to find on the internet. The band's Facebook page has just 14 likes. And all the text is in Russian so I have no idea what those 14 people are saying about the album. Lucky for me the album and track titles are in English.

Remarkable because the music is of exceptionally high quality, superbly played and well-produced, albeit with what I assume are deliberate crackles as if it were on good old vinyl.

First track Sorry, It's Not About Space And Universe is simply gorgeous. Absolutely heavenly-sounding guitars twinkling away before drums enter playing almost a marching beat. Then after a couple of minutes we get some noisier, layered guitar and the whole thing continues to be gorgeous. The only downside is that it only lasts a little over three minutes in total.

Second track starts with piano and strings. If Vlad Petkevich is playing all this he is a special talent.

Third track starts with more piano, playing a lovely, lilting melody. Fourth track is similar to the others but doesn't reel repetitive, at least not in a bad way.

Fifth track Her Name Was Tragedy is piano and strings but has sampled some Michelle Pfeiffer dialogue from the movie I Am Sam. This serves to highlight the soundtrack quality of the music, which is no bad thing at all.

Okay, so you get the idea. The rest of the tracks follow this established pattern but all have a unique quality that stops the album getting dull. And as mentioned before, the skill involved in every part of this makes it more than worthwhile.

I just wish I knew more about One Star Closer and Vlad Petkevich.

Did he compose all the music himself? Did he play all the instruments? If not, who did? And did he record and produce everything himself sitting in his bedroom, which seems unlikely, or did he go into a studio? Which studio? Who paid for it?

And did he get permission to sample dialogue from a couple of movies?

Anyhoo, my fervent hope is that Vlad gets to read this and provide some answers.

The man may well be a musical genius and in five years everyone will know his name. I wouldn't be surprised. It feels like being at the birth of the universe.

I can confidently say that if you consider yourself any kind of a post-rock/ambient fan - however you interpret the term - then you will love this album.

How many times should you listen to an album before you know whether it's any good?

I've been writing reviews of (mostly) metal albums over the past year or so and one thing that has bugged me is if there is a required number of times you should listen to an album before writing a valid review.

I mean, can you honestly learn enough from one play of an album to get fully engaged with it? You might say that when it comes to metal albums once is more than enough - and I can see where you're coming from even if I don't agree - but I'm not sure that I'm entitled to write a critique of 50 minutes of music that an artist has sweated blood over for 2 or 3 years, having only played it once.

So that got me thinking that all reviewers should inform readers how many times they've listened to the album they are reviewing.

An interesting idea? Or just daft? Maybe both.

That then led me to think about albums from the last 30 or 40 years. What on earth could I have written about OK Computer after just one listen? Can I honestly say that I knew after that first listen that it was a masterpiece and that I would come to regard it as the greatest album of the 90s?

Maybe...but maybe not.

And even if I had picked up on its genius after the first play, there is no chance that I picked up on all the nuances, all the layers, all the ultimate joys of OK Computer...unless I am really, really smart.

Which I'm not.

Mind you, I was pretty sure that Kid A was bloody awful after the first play and I still stand by that.

Thirty years ago Queen released Hot Space. I can still vividly remember the first time I put that on the turntable. Jeepers, what the hell were they doing? So had I reviewed that after one play it would have been spectacularly negative. Probably after ten plays, too.

But you see, now...now, I consider it to be my second favourite Queen album. After Queen 1, of course. I am quite sure you think me bonkers - but that's okay. The Elder is my second favourite Kiss album (after Destroyer, natch) and EVERYONE hates The Elder.

So should I publish how many times I've listened to the album when I publish my next review? I think I will. Can't do any harm, can it?

And what albums did you hate on first listen but grow to love?

Indeed, what albums did you love at first but swiftly lose interest in?

Answers on a postcard yadda yadda yadda.

Review of Manifest Tyranny by Andromeda

I'd forgotten all about this review, mainly because the album was so appalling. But I thought I might as well post it. If it encourages someone else to avoid this album then it will have achieved something! Mind you, if you think the album can't be as bad as I'm making out and feel tempted to check that out for yourself...well, on your head be it.

"Scandinavia has brought us the best metal over the last ten years or more. It staggers me how good is the metal coming out of Sweden alone.

So it really is a surprise to find an album that is genuinely, unremittingly pants.

I read that Andromeda appear to have done some good stuff in the past, but given how bad Manifest Tyranny is I find that hard to believe.

It starts off with Pre-emptive Strike which ought to be a hard-hitting belter to kick the album off but lacks any real oomph. Halfway through Lies 'R Us you are beginning to wonder what is going on, then you get the third track Stay Unaware. Its a terrible title. But its a truly terrible song, with probably the worst breakdown I have ever heard.

I have always said lyrics are inconsequential in metal. Yet on Manifest Tyranny it is blindingly obvious that the lyrics are dreadful, and sung in such an earnest, cringe-making way, that you cannot just gloss over them and concentrate on the music.

Technically, the playing is competent but but the more I listen to the album the more depressed I get, to the point where I can't write anymore about it.

Go listen to Opeth. Go listen to Soilwork. Go listen to Karmakanic. But don't listen to this."

Review of Spicilege by Belenos

There was a time when you wouldn't have held out any hope for a metal band from France but what with the likes of Gojira and Hacride around things are different now.

Belenos are a black metal band from Brittany who have been going for quite a while. SPICILEGE is a reissue of an original album from 2002 which has been remastered, and had 3 live bonus tracks and 4 unreleased versions added. They've even improved the artwork, it says here.

I've taken far too long writing this review but this has actually resulted in a more positive one than it started out as. Three weeks ago I was writing that Spicilege was routine black metal - pounding drums (albeit recorded muddily), screaming guitars, and screeching vocals sounding like they were recorded outside by the bike shed.

Although to a certain extent those things are still true, I now find them much more appealing than before.

And having listened to the album quite a few more times I can pick out nuances in each track which I couldn't when I'd only played it two or three times. This makes me wonder how many times should you listen to an album before you review it...but that's to ponder for another time.

The first three tracks on Spicilege are standard black metal stuff but do a job and do it well. The fourth track is all acoustic guitar and eerie chanting and its rather splendid. The next track starts with flute, not an instrument you hear very often on a black metal album.

Sixth track Mort Divine has more acoustic guitar to start with before it all kicks off. I think it was this track where I first acknowledged to myself that I was genuinely enjoying the album.

The live tracks are pretty fine and the unreleased tracks do enough different things to stand up on their own.

In the same way that the French do their cinema just a bit differently so French metal has a gallic slant that makes it interesting. I don't actually know why Belenos has re-released an album from ten years ago but its a pretty darn good one and if you get a copy, which I strongly suggest you do, you will - like me - be more than tempted to check out some of their other stuff and wonder why you'd never got into them before.