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.
Saturday 31 March 2012
Monday 19 March 2012
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.
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.
Tuesday 13 March 2012
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.
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.
Thursday 1 March 2012
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?
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?
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