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."
Sunday 22 January 2012
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.
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.
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