Review of Machine Head's new album "Unto the Locust"

So, here we are then. Four years on since the magnificent Blackening, which in turn was four years on from the stunning Through the Ashes of Empires, we have the new Machine Head album, Unto The Locust.

In contrast to virtually everything I've reviewed recently, Machine Head are a band I am very familiar with and have loved for a long time so I am quaking with excitement at hearing the album and writing about it.

Assuming it's not rubbish.

I just had a 49 minute break to listen to it all in one go.

It's not rubbish.

The first play of a new album is sacrosanct. You can never listen to an album for the first time twice, so the first run through holds a special place for you. More so if the album subsequently turns out to be a good one or a great one or a life-changing one. I'm thinking Van Halen's debut in 1978 or Ride The Lightning in 1984. Or even Burn My Eyes in the early 90s.

My first play of Unto The Locust told me no more than that I couldn't wait to play it again; to play it over and over again. No track stood out in the way that Clenching the Fists of Dissent did on The Blackening but every track sounded strong and powerful and all seven tracks appeared to have moments of utter Machine Head gloriousness.

When Robb Flynn and the guys are on their game they are such a brutal, beautiful force.

On to the second play, the first track, and a typically in-your-face title: I Am Hell. This starts with a choral passage for a minute or so before the guitars and drums crash in and Robb Flynn roars "I am Death". You gotta love him, haven't you?

The slow, crunching pace then gives way to a lightning drum fill and everything is full on in that Machine Head way we love so much. The guitar interplay between Flynn and Phil Demmel is as exemplary and as thrilling as ever while drummer Dave McClain manages to not sound like every other metal drummer around. I think its because he doesn't feel the need to bludgeon you into submission with relentless double-bass drums. Sure, he uses them but he uses them well and only when the time is right for each passage of each song.

Its a great opening, but we've come to expect that from Machine Head.

Moving through second track Be Still and Know and third track Locust I'm hearing all the things I want to hear on a Machine Head album. I don't want to dissect every track - that's for you to savour for yourself when the album comes out - but cumulatively I'm experiencing a warm glow that comes from one of my favourite bands clearly still firing on all cylinders.

I'm not sure Machine Head have been fully appreciated over the years. The first album was one of the great metal debuts of all time but a lot of people never forgave them for The Burning Red and Supercharger was a bit of a disappointment - although I guarantee if you go back and play either album tomorrow you'll find some classic Machine Head moments on both of them.

But I still remember playing Through the Ashes of Empires for the first time and being completely blown away by its focus, its fearlessness, its sheer strength of material. I'm not sure we had any right to expect such a spectacular return to form. Then of course everything was reinforced with The Blackening.

So, three truly great albums out of six. I think that's pretty fucking impressive.

Back to the seventh.

Fourth track on Unto The Locust is This Is The End on which Robb Flynn sounds especially pissed off, which is always a good sign for us fans. Fifth track Darkness Within is probably the most intriguing track on the album. An insistent strummed guitar builds behind Robb Flynn's most plaintive vocal on the album. He's actually a pretty darn good singer, an under-rated feature of most metal bands.

Penultimate track Pearls Before The Swine piles riff upon riff in a smorgasbord of metal fury which leads directly into...some kids singing.

Okay, not exactly what I expected but Machine Head have earned the right to do as they please and so final track Who We Are seems to be their version of Judas Priest's United. In between the kids singing and the strings that close the track we get more Machine Head mayhem so I'm happy enough.

Darn. Looks like I have dissected the whole album after all. Hey ho.

I tell you this. I cannot wait to get the CD. Downloads and iPods are all well and good but metal was made to be enormous and I am already anticipating playing Unto The Locust on a proper system through my huge fuck off speakers so I can really enjoy the power and fury of Machine Head.

It may not be quite as good as The Blackening or Through The Ashes...but it succeeds admirably on its own terms and confirms Machine Head as one of the great metal bands.

As if they weren't already.

In praise of singing that would not, thank fuck, win X Factor

I really loathe the kind of singing that wins X Factor. That Mariah Carey-type caterwauling makes me vomit. It all sounds the same - think Leona Lewis and that Burke girl - and its all shite.

So as I sit here listening to the fourth Peter Gabriel album, one of the greatest albums of the 80s and any other decade frankly, I started thinking about singers who would be booed off the X Factor stage because their voice doesn't fit the norm but whose voice can, at times, make me weep with joy.

Here's just a few to be going along with:

David Bowie - Teenage Wildlife off Scary Monsters. You could pick virtually anything by Bowie but his singing on this particular track is wonderful.

Peter Gabriel - The Family and the Fishing Net from the aforementioned fourth album. Obviously, I could choose any number of Gabriel tracks.

Thom Yorke - Let Down off Radiohead's OK Computer - in my opinion the album of the 90s. How anyone can find Yorke's gorgeous, plaintive, heartbreaking voice tedious or depressing is beyond me.

Paul Buchanan - absolutely the whole of the Hats album by The Blue Nile. This man has the voice of an angel. If you've never heard of The Blue Nile seek them out immediately. Hats is in the top five albums of the 80s to be sure.

There you go, just four. Four wonderful vocal performances that would have the X Factor judges looking at each other in bemusement, ignorant fuckwits that they are.

That's a bit harsh. I guess they're just doing what they're told.

Feel free to suggest some more. If nothing else, it makes you play some things you might not have played for a while, and that's gotta be a good thing.

The Fierce And The Dead – If It Carries On Like This We Are Moving To Morecambe

The Fierce And The Dead – If It Carries On Like This We Are Moving To Morecambe

Review of The Last Caress of Light by Darkest Era

Ooh, proper singing. I'd forgotten what that sounded like.

Much as I've come to terms with cookie monster growling et al it makes a nice change to hear someone actually singing their heart out. And on The Last Caress of Light, Darkest Era's excellent debut album, we get heart as big as a house.

The band are from Northern Ireland and their Celtic roots provide the foundation to everything they do, infusing the music with passion, honesty and conviction.

First track The Morrigan teases before a rousing roar kicks things off. The double-bass drums pound along merrily and there's a great guitar break. A morrigan appears to be a "a goddess of battle, strife, and fertility", giving a clue to where Darkest Era's lyrical inspiration comes from. This is the perfect opening statement.

Next track An Ancient Fire Burns launches straight in and already you realise that this band believe implicitly in what they do and they do it superbly.

The middle three tracks contain more soaring guitars, pounding drums and convincing vocals in an immensely satisfying way but then Darkest Era pull out the stops for the final three tracks.

The epic start of To Face The Black Tide is full of fire and brimstone before settling back into a more reflective passage. Then the band really hit their straps. Krum's vocals are superb...best new rock vocalist I've heard in a long time; plus we have a new female-drummer hero. Stand up Lisa Howe...not literally though.

Poem To The Gael is a traditional-type Irish folk song and its beautifully done. It paves the way for the closer, The Last Caress Of Light Before The Dark, all 11 minutes of it. An acoustic start continues the feel from the previous track but then the guitars and drums fire up and we are on a journey, drawn along by the force of Darkest Era's will. Its an adventure, fraught with danger but with redemption and glory in sight.

The playing by the whole band is exemplary and this is a magnificent way to finish. I will have to pootle along to the Barfly in September if they are half as good live as they are in the studio.

Other reviews have mentioned Thin Lizzy, in particular Black Rose, but I think the band that this album most reminds me of is Amon Amarth. Not that Darkest Era are remotely black metal but because it is obvious that they, like Amon Amarth, are very proud of their heritage. I read that Darkest Era remind other reviewers of Primordial, another Irish band, but I know nothing about them so I'll have to leave that one hanging.

Furthermore, Darkest Era are rousing and jolly in much the same way as Amon Amarth are. Jolly is probably not a cool epithet for a metal band but what the hey.

Its pointless to predict that a metal band is going to be "big" because it doesn't mean much anymore but I reckon Darkest Era will be a hit with metal heads around the world but are also accessible enough to have a more widespread appeal. And I mean that very much as a good thing.

This is splendid, epic rock music played with an passion and intensity that is remarkable for a first album.

Darkest Era have made their mark.

Review of Mammal by Altar of Plagues

Okay, so the only thing I know about this band is that they are Irish. I’ve not heard anything by them before so we’ll have to see whether that’s a good or bad thing for the purpose of this review.

If you’ve read anything else I’ve written you’ll notice I don’t like to use genres as a simple way of describing a band. For a start, most of them are too simplistic but also I don’t understand half of them.

You’re either a metal band or you’re not.

Altar of Plagues are a metal band. The guitars are for the most part grungy and noisy, the drums are often ferocious and the vocals are…well, the human equivalent of grungy, noisy and ferocious.

First track “Neptune is Dead” lasts, good grief, over 18 minutes long. It starts off with some atmospheric guitar then kicks off with some frantic drumming and shouting and riffing. I wonder if this if this is Altar of Plagues’ MO. Halfway through we move into a less ferocious phase. There’s not a great deal of light and shade as such but to be fair its not unenjoyable. What this band seem be doing is creating a landscape, an atmosphere of uneasiness, of darkness, and I found it pretty agreeable. Its not what I routinely want my metal to be, but sometimes its good to be out of your comfort zone.

“Feather and Bone” features some impressive-sounding ambient guitar before getting pretty crunchy. Its also got an interesting, unsettling quiet passage with some piano and acoustic guitar. This has turned out to be my favourite track on the album although its hard to say what elevates it above the others.

“When the Sun Drowns in the Ocean” begins with some traditional Irish keening (vocal lament) which really establishes the haunting atmosphere. The track is like a soundtrack for a movie you really wouldn’t want to watch on your own.

“All Life Converges to Some Center” closes the album and follows a path now established through the previous three tracks: unsettling, challenging, bold. And the guitars are terrific. Altar of Plagues seem to know the path they want to be on and are striking out admirably.

After a couple of plays I have now gone on the web to try and find some context for Altar of Plagues and the other band that keeps cropping up is Wolves in the Throne Room. I don’t know anything about them either but listening to some tracks on YouTube I can recognise that Altar Of Plagues are somewhere in the same ballpark.

For the purpose of this review I’ve now listened to Mammal more than half a dozen times and its getting better every time I play it.

Go immerse yourself…but don’t play the album in the dark, on your own.

Which, of course, means do.

Review of Everyone Into Position by Oceansize

Writing a review for an album that came out six years ago is a lot harder than I thought it was going to be.

Instead of listening to each track and jotting down some notes about odd time signatures, explosive guitars, tender vocals and layers upon layers upon layers, I am just sitting back with my eyes closed soaking it all in  and marvelling – for the umpteenth time – at how fantastic Oceansize are.

Were. Still can’t get used to that.

I mean, if I tell you that track four ‘Music for a Nurse’ starts with guitar using a delay effect, how can that possibly convey the utterly mesmeric quality of it and how beautiful the entire 8 minutes of the track are?

If I say that track three ‘A Homage to a Shame’ explodes from the speakers / headphones in a fury of guitars and off-kilter beats does that in any way describe how totally thrilling it is? No surprise that this track has been one of the high points of the live set ever since.

And as for the closing track, ‘Ornament/The Last Wrongs’…I’m not sure any words can do justice to its grandeur. As it turns out, it was this track that they closed with when I saw them last year, so it is this track that will be the last track I see Oceansize ever play live. Which is fitting.

Released in 2005 Everyone Into Position was Oceansize’s second album and shows the band becoming even more adventurous and ambitious. There’s also some commercial success with fourth track ‘Meredith’ being used in the TV show The O.C. and the aforementioned ‘Music for a Nurse’ used in an O2 advert for a while. I still recall the first time I realised I was hearing Oceansize on the telly. My first thought was, I hope they are getting paid enough to guarantee a third album.

Lyrically the album is as impenetrable as a lot of modern rock lyrics but that could just be me being a bit dim. And, after all, when have rock fans ever worried about lyrics. With the exception of Rush, of course.

I don’t need to detail every track. I’ve mentioned some highlights but truth be told, Everyone into Position is pure Oceansize all the way through and probably the one you’d play to a mate to try and get them into the band.

Review of Effloresce by Oceansize

This is how I got into Oceansize:

I was flicking TV channels when I stopped on VH-1 or something similar. A video was playing. The drums were choppy and the guitars crunchy. I watched until the end but that was no more than 45 seconds. The title and artist came up. ‘Catalyst’ by Oceansize.
Meant nothing to me, but instead of shrugging and moving on there had been something in those 45 seconds that made me immediately get on the computer where I discovered the band was from Manchester and the track was from an album called Effloresce, which had come out the year before.

I called a friend who worked in a record shop and asked if he had a copy. He did and he said he’d pop one in the post. The following day Effloresce arrived.

My life changed.

After the initial play, my first thought was Tool meets Radiohead. Tool for the noisy bits and odd time signatures and Radiohead for the understated passages.

By the second play of Effloresce it was obvious that that description barely scratched the surface of what was actually a bold, ambitious, dense, heavy, tender, teasing, thrilling album. And that Oceansize were a bit special.

Second track ‘Catalyst’, where this all began, starts with broody, crunchy guitars that you hope presage a monster riff…and boy do they. Then the guitars drop out and tender, crooning vocals make an appearance before another build up, another drop out, always keeping you interested, always fooling you about where the track will go next.

Fourth track ‘Massive Bereavement’, a second shy of ten minutes, trips along merrily for the first half then explodes into a frenzy of tormented vocals and furious guitars before the last minute or so is just a glorious riff-fest building to an abrupt, dramatic climax.

Bear in mind this was Oceansize’s debut album. But instead of merely showing promise or potential Mike Vennart (vocals/guitar), Steve Durose (guitar/vocals), Gambler (guitar), Jon Ellis (bass), and Mark Heron (drums) gave us a band already fully in control of its destiny, brimming with self-belief and confident in its desire to push rock into fascinating places.

Some of this must come from having such a magnificent drummer as Heron, whose skilful and creative playing underpins everything Oceansize do, both when they are blowing out your speakers and whispering softly into your headphones, both of which they do brilliantly.

Gentle, sometimes quirky, passages punctuate the album, creating a seamless flow of music and making you aware that the running order, an often under-appreciated aspect of the whole listening to an album experience, is absolutely perfect, complementing the light and shade of all the twelve tracks as well as within individual tracks themselves.

Amputee shows Oceansize’s effortless grasp of dymanics as well as capacity to rock out and quickly became a live favourite while the album finishes with three tracks, all over eight minutes, that leave you slumped in your seat, speechless at Oceansize’s genius.

Its maybe not as immediate as later albums but that’s no bad thing. Effloresce’s layers upon layers mean it requires a lot of plays to take in and fully appreciate everything that’s going on.

You feel Oceansize could be capable of writing a soundtrack for the fiercest, action-packed Hollywood blockbuster or for the most subtle, understated of movies. A soundtrack for life itself.

At various points throughout Effloresce it feels like Oceansize already has.