
ABORTED:
- The
Necrotorous Chronicles
(1998, Demo)
- The
Purity of Perversion
(1999) 8 songs, decent production but quite bass heavy and somewhat
muffled. While all the usual elements are here, the songs aren't as
unique, fast or intense as the stuff that comes later (ie,
"Goremageddon"), so after a listen all the way through, chances are
you'll want to put on a different cd instead of hitting the repeat
button. Overall an average CD that's good but not great, check out
Goremageddon instead.
- Aborted/Christ
Denied (2000,
Split CD)
- Engineering the Dead (2002)
A
glimpse of the future, "Engineering" is far better than their earlier
"The Purity of Perversion" but not quite as good as "Goremageddon".
Same general sound as "Goremageddon", just not quite as loudly mixed
and a little dryer. The songs also don't have quite as many "That's a
great riff" moments to them, but it's still better than most of the
stuff out there. And plenty of horror film related sound clips to keep
things spooky.
- Goremageddon:
The Saw And The Carnage
Done (2003) I've had a number of Carcass influenced bands
drop on my desk recently, such as the new Exhumed, and an older Impaled
album, and I have to admit, of them all, Aborted is the one I find
myself most often placing in my CD player. And you know why, it's
because it has great and memorable riffs, and they are taking some of
the spirit and intensity of Carcass without really copying the band. We
have plenty of blasting, double bass, thick wall of sound guitars,
lowish vocals. A few songs are sort of reminiscent of Iniquity's "The
Hidden Lore" album, or Blood Duster, but not as wacky. Production is
great, thick without being too noisy. The album ends with a cover of
Carcass' 'Carnal Forge', which isn't super different from the Carcass
version, but different enough to be entertaining. The band has an
intensity to them which I'm really getting into, they're writing real
songs here, not just a collection of riffs, and it's performed with
such conviction you just want to hop up on a stage with them and scream
along. Good shit.
- The
Haematobic (2004, EP) 6 song EP, three new songs from
the band, in a similar style to "Goremageddon", although productionwise
some of the highend has been shaved off, but it's only a little tiny
bit. Also an entombed cover ('Drowned') played in the standard Aborted
style. It's well done, but I still prefer the original since it had
that patented Entombed wall-o-sound. Then 2 live tracks which are both
good, but very bass heavy with almost no treble. 4 videoclips come with
this cd as well, all avis, so you'll need a computer. 3 are live from
the same show as the cd portion, same very bass heavy production.
There's actually some decent camera work on this with plenty of
cameras, but the editing is a bit odd, they seem to linger far too long
on the same thing, or show static shots of the audience from high above
the stage as opposed to cutting things to the music a bit more. Also,
since they're avis, the quality of the video isn't perfect, although
certainly watchable. Last they have 1 avi of a music video, which is
basically a lot of shots of the band playing intermixed with shots of a
guy doing an autopsy on a girl (plenty of blood splattered about).
Worth getting.
- The
Archaic
Abattoir (2005) Does "More Of The Same" count for a review? A
bit too short? Ok, I'll elaborate, but that's basically what we've got,
the next installment in the "Goremageddon" series (even the covers have
similarities). And that's certainly
not a bad thing at all, since that album was awesome, and this album is
awesome too. Great song after great song comin atcha, lots of fantastic
riffs to be had by all from the main squawk riff of 'Gestated
Rabidity', to the thunderous main theme to 'Threading on Vermilion
Deception' to the fade in intro of 'Descend To Expiration', vaguely
reminiscent of Metallica's 'Eye Of The Beholder'. The songs overall may
be a tad slower and groovier than the last album, but only a tad,
there's still plenty of speed to be had. In a world without new
Carcass, I can truly say that this band fills that void, a void that so
many other bands have tried and failed to fill. Fantastic release, this
needs to be on your must buy list.
- The Auricular
Chronicles (2006, DVD)
- Slaughter
& Apparatus: A
Methodical Overture (2007) Another solid album from Aborted.
Really, if you enjoyed their last 2 cds, this is more of the same, with
only minor differences. One difference is this album seems lower than
their previous albums. I'm not sure if that's because they detuned
their guitars even further, if the production just favors the low end,
or if they're just playing more low notes, but either way, it's cool.
The drums are also a bit faster, what with session drummer David Haley
from Psycroptic behind the skins. The only real downside to the album
is that despite many many great riffs, the songs tend to blend together
a bit too much. Multiple listens improve the situation, but I think
their previous 2 cds are just a bit catchier. It's a small knit though,
overall, this is a kick ass album and a must buy.
- Strychnine.213
(2008) A good album, but not as good as their last few. My main beef is
there are too many riffs on this album where they rock out, with
simpler riff structures and chord progressions we've all heard before a
million times, like the second part of the solo in 'Ophiolatry On A
Hemocite Platter', or the main riff under the solos in 'Pestiferous
Subterfuge'. And their last album was overall faster and more vicious.
This is slower paced, and more meandering. There are still some good
riffs here, the middle of 'Enterrement Of An Idol' contains an awesome
doublebass part. But in general this album just seems kind of bland.
Decent, but their last 3 albums were better.
ABRAMELIN:
- Transgression
from Acheron
(1994, EP)
- Abramelin
(1995)
- Deadspeak (2000) 2nd
(and sadly last) album for the band. There's no one particular band
Abramelin sounds like, but they mix all of the sounds of the early 90s
death metal pioneers, much in the same way Bloodbath has tried to
capture the classic sounds of old school death metal. The production is
good, perhaps a tiny bit fuzzy, but the guitar sound is really chunky,
the palm muting really slugs your gut. The drums are done with a drum
machine, but you may not notice that on your first listen. It's not
that the drum sound is particularly organic (it isn't), it's just that
the drums were obviously programmed by someone who knows how to write
drum music. Many drum machines are setup very simply, with almost no
fills, wheras the drumming on this album has all of the fills, tricks
and flair of a real drummer (note: I have since been told that drum
parts were written by Blood Duster drummer Rizzo).
Vocals are midrange growling. The thing that
really makes this CD though are the riffs. Every song on the album has
at least one riff that just makes me jump out of seat, yell "fuck ya"
and then sends me off searching for something to slam into. Spectacular
material, it's so sad that the band dissolved after this release. This
CD is really hard to find, but it is so worth the money.
ABSENT
SOCIETY:
- Absent
Society
(2004, Demo) With influences ranging from Tool to Corrosion Of
Confirmity to Lung Brush to Korn, Absent Society exist in that
undefinable area of metal best described as simply "metal", not nu,
death or thrash. This 5 song demo is as professional as they get, with
basically perfect production (recorded at the plant in Sausalito of
Metallica and Joe Satriani fame). Vocal wise, lots of screamed stuff
mixed with some spooky sung vocals. Guitars range from heavy chunky
stuff to textural chords. Drumming is straight forward yet highly
effective at setting up a groove or a pounding beat. Basically think of
Korn's first album and you get the idea. The band is very talented in
the song writing department, writing some good clean, simple, angry
riffs. Not much more to say, this album kicks some serious ass, and I
assume a full length debut won't be far behind.
- The
Plastic Parade (2005) Another
demo from the band, this one with
9 songs though, so it's almost an album's worth. Pretty similar to
their former material with a bit of extra stuff, like for example this
cd seems to shift vocal wise far more into the hardcore screams, with
far fewer sung parts. Track 3, 'Never Trust a Preacher With A Boner' is
especially brutal in the vocals department, the screaming at the end
are pretty hard on the ears (in a good way). Also, the guitar tone is
even heavier than before, and it was already pretty heavy. As well as
track 3 which is quite memorable, track 2 'Plastic Parade' is a
standout for it's brutal guitar riffs, and track 8 'Oasis Slaughter' is
both cool and odd at the same time, sort of a Broadway style music
number but with crazy heavy guitars. The band may still have a little
bit of work to do taking all their influences and combining them into a
completely seamless package (they're already pretty close), but I feel
they are past the demo stage and are certainly ready to move to the
full length album part of their career.
ADRAMELECH:
- Human
Extermination
(1991, Demo)
- Grip
Of Darkness (1992, Demo)
- Spring
of Recovery (1992, EP)
- The
Fall (1994, EP)
- Psychostasia
(1996)
- Seven
(1998, EP) Not much to report here. Technical death metal
with all the
usual perks, fast drums, shouted lyrics, big thick guitar and bass
sound. Three new tracks and 2 live tracks round out the CD. It's good,
but nothing spectacular, and even though they try to include some more
melodious parts to the music, it won't save this band from being lumped
in with everyone else who's doing the same sort of thing.
AEON:
- Dark
Order (2001)
- Bleeding
The
False
(2005) Highly anti religious death metal. While the closest comparisons
I can come to are Origin and Krisiun, Aeon really sound like neither of
these two. Productionwise, the band sounds like Origin due to the
trebly nature of the music and the guitar riffing style. However, the
music is not nearly as fast, more midpaced (closer to Origin's first
album). The drumming style is like Krisiun in that there's basically
continuous double kicks underneath all the songs, however, unlike
krisiun, this guy has several speeds, so it's not quite as repetitive.
Guitarwise, some tremolo, some chunky bits, a few sweep picks etc.
Vocals are midrange and screams, mostly discussing how evil christians
are (lyrics like "I love you satan, my father, my pride" or "Join your
fagot god".) The band really does have a pretty distinct sound, which
is nice. The songs are well written, the choruses have enough variety
to give each song a distinct feel, although fighting against that is
the lack of variety to the doubebass patterns. I learned about the band
when Cannibal Corpse recommended them in several interviews, and I'm
glad I checked them out, I highly recommend you do the same, this is
great stuff.
- Rise
to Dominate (2007) Another impressive album from the band.
Similar in style and sound to their last album, although there's a
little more variety to the song speeds this time, with a few slow
chugging songs (vaguely reminiscent to material off of Morbid Angel's
"Covenant" album). The rest of the album is uber fast, with the same
trademark loud and precise doublebass. The songs are all really well
written. While this album continues the theme of anti-christianity, the
vocals aren't as immediately catchy. No awesome catch phrases like last
album's "God Gives Head In Heaven". But it's a small nit. Overall, this
album is brutal, fast, angry, and well produced. The extra variety to
the tempos really helps break the songs up a bit more. Impressive
stuff, this will be in my daily rotation for quite some time.
AGIEL:
- Dark
Pantheons Again
Will Reign
(2002) Death metal with a slight symphonic touch. As far as the metal
portion goes, lots of tremolo picking, sweeps and fast doublebass with
midrange/high vocals. Certainly a very fastpaced band with only minimal
use of slow riffs. Tim Yeung, apparently the newest blaster-for-hire
style drummer does a great job, he seems to be going the slightly more
complex route this time, and he seems a little less worried about super
robotic precision here, not to say he's not tight, but he does sound a
little more relaxed at the kit instead of being all "If I make a single
mistake, my whole family dies" kind of perfect. The symphonic touch
comes from the use of keyboards as a background instrument. So the band
will be screaming all kinds of stuff and blasting away, and off in the
distance you here these held chords. While not as integrated as in say
the band Nile, these elements do allow this cd to stand out a bit from
the other stuff, and certainly gives it that vaguely egyptian feel to
it, there's even a keyboard solo or two (Yngwie would be proud). Come
on, pyramids and death metal were meant to be together! Productionwise,
it's quite clear and powerful, with a slight touch of reverb, and
possibly a little too much highend (if there is a bass here, I can't
hear it except in very specific circumstances, and the guitars spend
most of their time on the higher strings, hence there isn't too much
bass from them either). Not bad, while none of the songs really
standout as super unique, the slightly different sound quality the
keyboards bring to the music will probably persuade me to play this
once in awhile to break up the usual grind.
AGONY:
- Eve
of Destruction (1003, Demo)
- Apocalyptic
Dawning (1995) I've seen Agony live a few
times, and
they have some potential. The songs on the demo have some interesting
riffs, technical, the production isn't bad. They also have some French
vocals here and there. It's worth the $5.
- L.I.F.E.
(1999) 6 new songs of brutal death, plus about 15
minutes of their earlier demo as a bonus track at the end. The new
songs are pretty good, some nice riffs, but they could have spent more
time writing some
more coherent song structures. Screams and growls, the super fast
switches
to slower, epic oriented held chord stuff and back again. The
production
is great at times (there are some parts where the guitar is super
chunky
and could peel paint off your wall), but other times it gets messy, or
all
the bottom end disappears. A complete lack of all reverb, especially on
the solos, makes the sound quite dry. L.I.F.E. sounds a lot like your
crazy
cousin who's set up some amps and a drum kit in your basement, works
through
some songs with his friends, and then performs them in front of a small
audience.
It's an enjoyable listen, but I feel it should have been polished a bit
more.
- Apocalyptic
Dawning (2007, Reissue) Their first demo "Eve of
Destruction" and first album "Apocalyptic Dawning", remastered and on
CD for the first time. Get this chunk of classic Montreal metal (you'll
love the song 'Death By Suffocation In a Vagina').
AKERCOCKE:
- Promo
Tape (1998,
Demo) This band reminds me of Gorguts (from
the "The
Erosion of Sanity" album). Good quality death metal with squawks, low
vocals,
double kicks and blast beats. The production could be better, but maybe
it's
just my tape copy, everything sounds really muffled. A little more time
EQing
everything would be well worth it. The band is very tight, there are no
bad
riffs here, but no spectacular ones either. I'm told these guys are
quite
evil and intense live, hopefully we'll see a longer demo from them
soon.
All in all, high quality, the best way to describe them is they've made
some
really good cake, now they need some icing. You can contact Akercocke
by
writing to akercocke@hotmail.com.
- Rape
Of The Bastard of Nazarene (1999) One of the most original
death metal releases
I've heard in awhile. They combine standard death metal (along with the
usual midrange angry male vocals), sound bytes of holy men, black metal
screams, some death-core, chanting, and all these symphonic vocals done
by a chorus of female voices. The female vibe is continued with lots of
scantily clad women all over the cover and interior art. Obviously a
concept album, that concept might get a little over the top sometimes,
but it holds together with
some good riffs, good song writing, and talented musicians. Production
wise,
the sound is pretty muffled with almost no treble at all, hope they
change
that in future releases. If you enjoy european death metal mixed with
symphonic
elements and some dominatrix inspired theatrics, check this out.
- The
Goat Of Mendes (2001) Once again, this black / death metal
hybrid
band slaps us around with their own personal mix of brutal riffs,
tremolo picking and soundclips of young virgins having sex with the
devil. Lots of triggered blasting, screams and low growling, these guys
do a great job of mixing the two styles. Production wise, still a
little bass heavy, but there's a little more treble this time. If you
like the black metal aesthetic, but prefer
to little more technicality than unending monotonous tremolo picking
and
blasts, check this out.
- Choronzon
(2003) Only minor tweaks to the direction of the band are
evident on
this album, another example that many metal genres can live together in
peace and harmony (or is that war and disharmony?) The sound has
slightly more reverb in general, a little bit of a louder mix with a
more live feeling drummer, the album shifts a little more to the black
metal direction than their last album, but there's still plenty of
variety here from black to death to symphonic. Several blasphemous
sound clips, basically, before you can get tired of any particular
direction they shift into something new. Good songwriting keep it all
together. Original and angry, a good combination.
- Words
That Go Unspoken, Deeds
That Go Undone (2005) While their last album was more black
metal influenced, this one is slightly more death metal oriented, with
less reverb and more low growls instead of shrieks. But that doesn't
mean there aren't plenty of gothic, black metal and melodic death metal
influences to enjoy. And some nice spooky instrumental interludes
between the crazy blasts as well. I think I'd have to rate this one
ever so slightly higher than "Choronzon" due to the slightly more
memorable songs, otherwise, no giant shift in style or expectations. If
you dig the variety the band has presented in their previous 3 albums,
you'll like this too.
- Antichrist
(2007) This album is a little more atmospheric than their
last outing,
but still a good mix of angry crazy death/black metal and evil
symphonic interludes. The most notable thing about this album compared
to their previous albums is the reduced production value. As an
example, at the end of the CD, they do a cover of Morbid Angel's
'Chapel Of Ghouls', and it sounds just like the original in both style
and sound. I have no idea why Akercocke would want their album to have
the production quality of a mid 80s band, but, that's what they got. 10
tracks which include a number of intros (although most of the intros
are folded into the songs, so you still get a good amount of music).
The riffs aren't quite as good as their previous album, but the
memorability of some of the interludes keeps the album from becoming
generic. As I mentioned, they do some covers, the Morbid Angel one
seems a bit redundant, although I did enjoy what they did to the solo
in the middle. They also do a cover of Death's 'Leprosy', which is
enjoyable, and a bigger departure from the original song. "Antichrist"
is a bit weaker than their last few albums, but still enjoyable,
especially the atmospheric bits, and fans should dig it.
A LIFE ONCE
LOST:
- A
Great Artist (2003)
Not
even a passing resemblance, this is Meshuggah, down to all the details.
The vocalist is a total ringer for Jens Kidman, honestly, if no one
told me, I'd assume this was the new Meshuggah record except it's
missing the spacey guitar solos. So you may not want to believe the
hype of this band having a sound all their own. That aside, this album
sounds a lot like "Chaosphere", a lot of repeated complex patterns, not
as riff based as what the band did on "Destroy Erase Improve", oh wait,
ya, I was not talking about Meshuggah, I'm talking about A Life Once
Lost, sorry about that, I got confused again. The riffs are ok, but the
riffs aren't sticking with me really, nothing stands out enough to
really grab my brain and hold on, so in the end, you feel like you've
had a lot of icing with no cake. The production is good and the band is
obviously tight, but considering the no originality factor, and riffs
that aren't all that memorable, I may have to recommend a miss unless
you just really love meshuggah's last two albums and want to hear
similar material.
A LIFE AWAY:
- From
Everything
(2005) In
the same vein as Eighteen Visions, Hum, On A Dead Machine, or
Hopesfall comes A Life Away, a thrashin hardcorish band with a focus on
solid songs. This 7 song demo/EP includes some nice riff based
guitarwork, possibly a little simple but it has good groove. The vocals
are primarily sung with a few hardcore shouts, the band's push is
definitely melody over aggression (although the song does have some
good strong energy like any of the Deftones' material) Productionwise,
the
sound is good, big thick guitars, everything else is clear and well
mixed, for future releases, especially a debut they may wish to be a
little less dry though, perhaps just a touch of reverb to give the
sound a little more dimension to it. Otherwise, some catchy songs, if
you're a fan of any of the above influences and are into the demo scene
(the production is good enough on this CD that I can barely even refer
to it as a demo) it's worth checking out.
ALL SHALL
PERISH:
- The
Price Of Existence (2006) Similar
in style to Job For A Cowboy, The Black Dahlia Murder, or any of the
other bands in the recent deathcore invasion (they also have some
elements of the Red Chord, but they're not as super crazy all the time
as those guys are). A great deal of speed variation between super fast
blasted parts and slow sludgy parts. Vocals are the usual mix of
screaming, low gargling and shouting. The selling point for this band
isn't that they're doing something new, it's that they do it so well.
With songs that are more memorable than most, excellent musicianship
and a good variation to their speed and mood, they manage to rise above
many of the similar bands in their class. Not a first tier band, but at
the very top of the second one. All they need is a bit of something to
distinguish their sound or songs and they'd be a major, major player.
ALL THAT IS
EVIL:
- Descend
| All That Is
Evil Split CD (2000, Split CD) A much more straight forward band
than the radical style shifting of their label-mate Descend. Standard
thrash / death metal, they have decent drumming, good production with a
nice mix, twin vocals ala carcass, and a tight performance. They're
obviously good at
what they do, however, all in all, I find the riffs to be a bit flat
and uninspired,
I've heard a lot worse, but there's nothing here to get excited about,
they
definitely need to work on the songs if they want to make it big.
Contact
the band at chrisdora@webtv.net, and write to their label Cutting Edge
Records
at POBox 770376 Cleveland, OH 44107 USA.
ALTAR:
- And
God Created Satan
To Blame For His
Mistake (1992, Demo)
- Youth
Against Christ (1994) Very similar to later releases from
the band.
Good riffs, tight production, lots of anti-christian sentiment here.
- Ego
Art (1996) The riffs are very brutal, very crunchy, fast,
pounding drumming. I'll be watching these guys more carefully in the
future. Excellent sound quality.
- Provoke
(1998) The standard Altar sound is there, lots of brutal riffs, crunchy
guitar, excellent production, etc., but their sound is a little
more commercial now. Some passages and solos remind me of something
MegaDeth
would release. Mind you, this album is also better than anything
MegaDeth
has produced in the last 3 years, so don't let this discourage you.
There's
still lots of good song writing, and it remains pretty abrasive even
with
the inclusion of some more melodic parts that Dave Mustaine only wishes
he
could write. Buy this if you liked the last CD.
- In
The Name Of The Father (2000) A lot closer to their Ego Art
cd. After
prolonged listening to Provoke, I sorta got bored with it, the riffs
were good but sounded too derivative. But this cd has a lot of original
riffs, and songs you keep wanting to listen to again and again. Good
production as well, and the doublekicks got a lot faster and larger in
the mix. So large in fact, it's hard to believe they're not computer
generated. I guess the drummer is
just using triggers now, but they sound so even, and his timing is
perfect, I don't know, human or machine? Anyways, I'm very impressed
with this cd, and glad to see Altar with such a strong release after a
mediocre last release, the band is obviously pissed, and so will you be
if you don't buy this album.
- Until
Heaven Forbids (2000, EP) EP with 2 covers (available as
bonus tracks
on "In The Name Of The Father"), 2 live tracks with decent production,
4 songs off of "And God Created Satan...", and a videoclip for those of
us who are computer enhanced. Well, since you can get almost the entire
cd as parts of their previous recordings, I say only get this if you're
missing the songs from your collection, it's worth getting if you don't
already have this material from somewhere else.
- Red
Harvest (2001) Weird, again, the altar sound is still there,
but this album overall isn't as pissed off sounding as their previous
album. It's like all their even numbered cds shows them more pissed
off, and their odd number cds are more laid back. The riffs are more
melodic overall, there's two songs in the middle where the band gets
fast again, but then right back to the melodic harmonized guitar stuff.
If you enjoyed "Provoke" over "Ego Art", you may like this cd better.
I'll probably wait for cd number 6.
AM I
BLOOD:
- Am
I Blood (1996)
- Agitation
(1998) Old school thrash (old-Metallica style) mixed
with cleaner vocals. Things remain rather mid-tempo the entire record,
with a few nice riffs and hooks. The singer sounds a lot like the guy
from Slapdash, but without the intensity. That seems to be the problem
with the whole CD in fact, a lack of intensity or aggression. The
production is good, there are some good songs and some excellent riffs,
but the cleaner symphonic parts mixed with the ultra-commercial vocal
style and singing makes the album
"rock" a it too much, and without any blasts of speed or anger, it just
falls flat. Still ok, but nothing spectacular.
AMAGORTIS:
- Abominable
(2004)
Pretty advanced death metal for such a
young band (the average age looks to be about 15 or so, the kids of
Switzerland must be sent down the dark path really early in life).
Style wise, something akin to early Internal Bleeding or the groovier
parts of Dying Fetus (Amagortis sticks to the low vocals route).
Production is good generally, but there is some variation to the
recording quality of the cd. While it was recorded in one studio, it
says it was recorded "live", which basically means some of the songs
are mixed higher than others, one has a more prominent bass, and some
are a little more fuzzy, etc. Each of the different "sounds" would be
fine with me, I just wish it were consistent between songs. Songwise,
this material is pretty good, with enough good riffs to keep you
interested, and playingwise, these guys do have plenty of talent all
round. I think it'll take another release or two before these guys (and
one gal) get really good, but for a self produced independently
released album from such a young band, there's a lot of good stuff and
a lot of promise for the future.
- Promo
2007 (Promo)
- Pre-Natal
Cannibalism (2007) A nice improvement over their debut album.
First, the production is a lot more consistent. Again, they did record
the album in two sessions, and you can tell if you really listen, but
it's not as instantly obvious. The sound is a little muffled, but it
has plenty of bass and is certainly professional sounding. The core
style is the same as their last CD, but the song writing is improved,
songs like 'Shatter The Spinal Chord', 'Severed In The Cemetery' or
'Chainsaw Ass Massacre' are more catchy and a step up from the material
on "Abominable". The usual silly sound clips between songs provide a
brief break from the crazy music. While nothing super new or inventive,
this cd is high quality low gargling death metal was good songs and
good sound, and well worth picking up.
ANACRUSIS:
- Suffering
Hour (1988)
- Reason
(1990)
- Manic
Impressions (1991)
- Screams
And Whispers (1993) Combining old school thrash and orchestral
keyboards, this is technical music with a strong groove. First off, the
orchestral parts are not soft by any means, the music doesn't jump
between thrashy guitars and then serene keyboards, the keyboards are
integrated into the high energy riffs, adding accents and mood, not
unlike Fear Factory in later years, although this band is a little more
concerned with melody in the guitars vs single note patterns. For
vocals, think of Testament's first 2 albums, although slightly less
agitated. While not exactly my favorite style, the memorable riffs, the
excellent dual guitar work and solid song writing makes this one of the
more impressive albums in the genre, these guys were the Arch Enemy of
the day, if not in popularity, then in skill and overall musical
direction.
ANAL
BLAST:
- Vaginal
Vempire
(1998) Straight ahead brutal grind with low growling
and high pitched screams. Tons of really short songs with titles that
put Cannibal Corpse to shame, and some really funny soundbytes. The
production is good with lots of bass, and the songs are generally well
written, check it out if you're into this style.
ANATA:
- The
Infernal Depths Of
Hatred
(1998)
- Dreams
Of Death And Dismay (2001)
- Under
A Stone With No Inscription
(2004) Reasonably standard death metal, but what makes this slightly
different is that the band loves using twin guitar harmonized scale
based riffs and repeated tapping riffs. Think Death, but the band
doesn't sound like Death. Think MegaDeth but the band doesn't sound
like MegaDeth. If I had to pick one band Anata sounds a little like it
would have to be Krisiun, in general song structure and attitude, and
in the sound of the vocalist, although the drummer here has a much
wider repertoire instead of just playing double kicks the whole time.
The result is both familiar and unique in it's own way. The guitar
parts can be a little playful at times, which interfere with the
seriousness of the music (it's hard to be evil when the guitars are
constantly going dee-dll-doo dee-dll-doo), but the good songs and
strong performance from the band members keep it all held together. Not
brilliant, but good stuff and well worth a listen.
- The
Conductor's Departure (2006) A big improvement over their last
album. Not that their last album was bad, but I just don't remember the
last album exciting me as much as this one did after I gave it a spin.
First off, the production is way better, the guitar sounds is far less
muffled. Second, the songs are a little more coherent without giving up
the complexity that is the foundation of the band. The album still has
that Death / Gorguts type of feel, but everything's more polished.
They've obviously put some serious time and effort into improving their
sound, songs and performance, and this album shows off that
progression. Really good stuff, if you enjoyed their last album, this
is similar but better across the board. And if you thought their last
album was so-so, try this one instead, you may be pleasantly surprised.
ANGELCORPSE:
- Goats
To Azazael
(1996, Demo)
- Hammer
Of Gods (1996)
- Nuclear
Hell (1997, EP)
- Wolflust
(1997, EP)
- Exterminate
(1998) Expecting something different? Nah, this is
Angelcorpse, it's all about consistency. If I had to pick a connection
between this cd and material already out there, I'd have to draw
parallels to Morbid Angel's "Alters Of Madness" or "Blessed Are The
Sick". Plenty of fast paced blasting and tremolo picking, good riffs,
slightly muffled production but fine for the style they're going for.
Features John Longstreth on drums (of Origin and now Skinless fame),
nothing as fancy as Origin, just straight ahead speedy and accurate.
- The
Inexorable (1999) Good high quality death metal. The
vocalist
sounds like the high pitched guy from Carcass, the guitar tone is razor
sharp, like a horde of attacking bees (which, unfortunately, means not
a whole lot of low end). Lots of double kicks and blasts as fast as
they come. And the
songs are all quite memorable (the song structures remind me of the
most
recent Monstrosity album, "In Dark Purity"). In short, nothing terribly
experimental or original, but what they don't have in originality they
have in good songs and a good performance.
- Of
Lucifer and Lightning (2007) New album from the band after an 8
year break. Again, a nice album from a speed and riff perspective, but
it's just amazing how single minded this group is. It's almost like you
could take their albums and place them back to back and it would be one
continuous cd. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing, some bands
evolve, some just continue doing what they do, Angelcorpse is
definitely in the later category. The only difference between this CD
and their others is the production, which I feel is kind of muffled and
thin, the mix on "The Inexorable" was much better. I found it enjoyable
even with the inferior production, many of the riffs are really cool.
"Of Lucifer" starts right where the band left off 8 years ago, so fans
should have plenty to enjoy.
ANIMOSITY:
- Shut
It Down (2003)
- Empires
(2005) Hard to believe that this band is made up of teenagers,
but it is, and they show a surprising level of rage and technical skill
for their age. The best way to describe them is imagine the groovy
parts of Dying Fetus mixed with a little metalcore, and maybe just a
touch of Blood Duster. Low gargled vocals mix with a few high screams
overtop of complex song structures, which actually is the only problem
I have with this cd. The songs are just a little too complex for my
liking, similar to a Disgorge release, at the end you have trouble
distinguishing one song from the next since riffs are rarely repeated
during the course of a song. But from a production and intensity
standpoint, this cd is top notch, and the band is really tight. If you
love brutal music and don't need specific song memorability, this cd is
just what the doctor ordered.
- Animal
(2007) This will be a pretty straight forward review, considering
"Animal" is more of the same from the band. Did you like the crazy
guitar work? Well, here it is again. The shifting time signatures? The
blasting drums? All here in spades. The differences? Well, the album is
produced a bit better. The sound is not quite as scooped, and it adds
some extra clarity to the riffs. And I feel the song writing is a bit
better this time around. It's still kinda random, but more memorable
(in a random way). If you dig bands like Dying Fetus or Despised Icon,
you'll really dig this album. Highly recommended.
ANKLA:
- Steep
Trails
(2006) Wow, Latin flavored metal. And I don't just mean people of Latin
decent playing metal, I mean music that contains full fledged
traditional latin instruments and influences. And why not? Nile has
been so effective at combining traditional Middle Eastern and Egyptian
influences into their music, it can really help make the music
distinct. So for Ankla, imagine a cross between Slipknot and Sepultura
with Congas! The vocalist sounds a lot like Cory Taylor from Slipknot
(his slight accent reminds me of Max Cavalera of
Sepultura/Soulfly), and the addition of the extra
percussion element also reminds me of Slipknot's first album. Lots of
good groovy metal, with a nice distorted guitar tone, and some good
doublebass. And the important part, the songs, are masterfully written
and performed. Super angry riffs, I wanted to jump put of my chair and
smash into something more than once during this album. And I really do
dig the latin parts, some nice Flamenco guitarwork, latin style
percussion, and some spanish shouting too. My only complaint is that
the band may wish to find ways to distance themselves from sounding too
much like Slipknot. I love that band, but they already exist, and so no
reason to copy them. But otherwise, this is an impressive metal album,
and a really great combination of styles.
ANTHRAX:
- Fistfull
Of Metal (1984)
- Armed
And Dangerous (1985)
- Spreading
The Disease (1985)
- I'm
The Man (1987, EP)
- Among
The Living (1987)
- State
Of Euphoria (1988)
- Penikufesin
(1988, EP)
- Persistence
Of Time (1990) Lots of catchy songs. Not much else
to say,
it's not brutal, but it rocks and it's full of energy. The sound is ok
for 1990, although weak by today's standards.
- Attack
Of The Killer B's (1991, EP) Probably the most wacky
metal CD of all
time. A mixture of crushing riffs and lyrics about milk, how could you
go wrong? Even some rap-metal songs. They've got variety all right.
- Sound
Of White Noise (1993) Although the guitar tone on the
album bugs me,
there's still some really good catchy songs on this album. And a few
songs that are god awful. A mixed bag, but still a worthy Anthrax album.
- Anthrax
Live The Island Years (1994, Live) For some reason, no
matter how good an
Anthrax album is, hearing them live is just that much better. They have
this energy live that just can't be captured in a studio, and this
album is an excellent example. 8 Tracks from a show in California, and
4 songs performed in front of a live studio audience, excellent
production and the usual Anthrax charm makes this a must have live
album for any fans. My only complaint is I
wish it had been longer, 70 minutes of music isn't enough :) Or maybe
they
could have removed the "Live studio audience" stuff and just included
more
of the live show, which is the better performance.
- Stomp
422 (1995) I wish I hadn't waited so long before
trying this CD. When their lead guitar player (Dan Spitz) left the
band, Scott Ian (the rhythm player) must have thought "Well, I'd better
fill up all those empty spaces with insanely brutal riffs". And that's
just what he did. Explosive bass, incredibly chunky sound, lots of
great riffs and hooks. Anthrax on
steroids. Excellent album.
- Volume
8: The Threat Is Real (1998) Sorry to say it, but after the
first few listens, I'm
not
terribly impressed. It's still Anthrax, but most of the riffs seem
unoriginal, and the guitar tone, while still bassy, seems tired and
unoriginal. There are still some nice songs here and there, like
'Crush', but it didn't impress me like their previous album did. A
mediocre album that, over time, will
probably strike me as a good album, but nothing terribly exciting or
fresh.
- Return
Of The Killer B's
A's (1999, BestOf) What can I say, it's a best of album. It
includes lots of songs from older albums, newer albums, and a few
unreleased or hard to find tracks. All in all, a good mix of most of
the songs that made Anthrax one of THE thrash bands of the 80s and 90s.
But the real question I suppose is should you buy this when you already
own all their previous albums? With CD copying and mp3 technology, the
novelty of having a "mixed album" using material from previous releases
is sort of no longer an issue, any of us can make a similar album in a
matter of an hour. And the two remixed tracks, and a short new songs
that only lasts about 2 minutes (right after the last track on the
album) is probably not a good reason to plop down the cash. "Killer
B's" was a great EP because it was filled with unreleased stuff,
this album really is a true BestOf, and as such, only consider it if
you
somehow missed buying their albums or your collection just needs the
best
stuff the band has released in one convenient disc.
- Return
Of The Killer B's
A's Video Collection (1999, Video DVD) Pretty much what
you'd expect from a video, 75 minutes, lots of music videos (I never
much liked music videos, so that doesn't excite me much), half a dozen
live performances from the Persistence Of Time tour (very high quality
professional camerawork and mixing), which are all great, I think the
band's live performances are what makes the band so cool. And of
course, lots of backstage and on tour stuff with the band doing weird
shit, jamming, running around etc., all to the overdubbed sound of
Anthrax songs. A decent video, I just wish they'd included some live
performances from some of their other more recent tours.
- We've
Come For You All (2003)
All
signs looked good. After a mediocre last album, a soundclip emerges on
the
net, the song 'What Doesn't Die', and shit it's good! Fast double bass,
a
catchy yet angry chorus, chunky guitar riffs. Anthrax is indeed back!
The
much anticipated album finally arrives at my doorstep, I quickly flip
to
track 3, then track 4, track 5, d'oh! What's going on? Acoustic
guitars?
Radio Friendly hits? Where are those really tasty songs I had imagined
would
immediately precede the new track I had heard? Fortunately, as I
continued
through the album, I did manage to find some other brilliant pieces,
like
'Nobody Knows Anything' which has a really nice drum/guitar start and
stop
riff, 'Black Dahlia' with blast beats (???), and even the strangely
named
'Strap It On' rocks with some of the better tunes off Stomp 422, but
there
are too many filler songs on the album for my taste like 'Safe Home' or
'Cadillac
Rock Box' or 'Taking Back The Music'. So the album gets a mixed review,
it
certainly grew on me a bit after multiple listening, and it's a must
own
due to a few really great songs on it, but it's not as consistently
good
as "Stomp" or "Persistence Of Time".
- Music
Of Mass Destruction (2004, CD / DVD) Live CD / DVD from the band
(in one glorious package). Does a great job in all the categories a
live album needs to be good in, first off, a good selection of newer
and older songs, we've got everything from the mind-blowing first song
off "We've Come For You All" 'What Doesn't Die' all the way to 'Got The
Time' and 'Antisocial'. Second, the production is great, very, very
clear and crisp, although I'll admit, some of that clarity probably
comes from the bass being ever so slightly low in the mix. So maybe
it's a 9 out of 10, not perfect but plenty good (the bassdrum sound on
this is exceptionally clean and fullbodied, like a good beer). And
third, you need to feel the band is really into the performance, and
this certainly gets high points in that category. Twelve songs on the
CD, the DVD contains these and six more tunes, including the encore
with 'Indians' and 'Bring The Noise', probably the most moshable song
ever (it got me thrashing around in my living room, that's for sure).
Also, you know I never really gave it to much thought, but Charlie is
one hell of a drummer, I mean this guy does a lot of fast and
complicated work, like the main riff in 'Nobody Knows Anything', when I
heard it on the cd I thought it was a cool drum riff, but then I
actually saw him play it, and god damn that's tough. My only complaint
is that whomever was in control of the cameras needed to be slapped
around. The camera angles themselves are fine, but they change angles
like 40 times a second, and use all the filters in the book. "Yah, I
know how to make everything greyscale! I know what button to press to
do split screen, or picture in picture. Aren't I cool?" The editor just
pisses me off, this is not your chance to show us how you read the
Adobe After Effects manual, this is your chance to make a DVD that
enhances the band's music. I'd like to say you eventually get used to
it after a few songs, but really it's not the case, at least at the end
we get two songs where we can watch from multiple angles and be our own
editor. Quite a contrast to the album artwork by Alex Ross, which is
absolutely brilliant (there's even an interview with him on the DVD).
Also, I do have to admit, I really wish you could squeeze more music on
the CD so we didn't need to play the DVD to hear the entire show. But
anyways, this is a very satisfying CD / DVD combo, and I highly
recommend it for all Anthrax fans.
- The
Greater Of Two Evils (2004) This album is meant to be a chance
to hear a lot of old classic Anthrax songs rerecorded with newer
vocalist John Bush doing the vocals instead of Joey Belladonna. My
first reaction to this cd is "why?" I mean, with the recent release of
a live album, we've all heard John sing 'Caught In A Mosh' and 'I Am
The Law', so the whole concept of the album doesn't strike me as
something really necessary. But after a good long listen to this 14
track album, I ended up saying "Well, why not". While not totally
necessary, they did it anyways, and so I might as well enjoy it, and
the album does everything to facilitate that enjoyment since the songs
are indeed classic and hearing them with a more modern production is
certainly fun. And a few of the songs such as "Keep It In The Family"
are perhaps even better than their originally recorded version, faster,
angrier, louder, chunkier. Yes, it's true! So I expected to be
underwhelmed, but came away with a big smile on my face, and perhaps
the same will happen to you.
- Alive
2: The Music (2005, Live) Does counting to 10 really help when
you're angry? Because I've counted to about a hundred and I'm still not
over this CD. For god sakes, why??? So we have a live album with John
Bush on vocals (CD and DVD). We then have a studio album with John Bush
singing most of the exact same songs. Now here we are with another live
album
(CD and DVD), and a best of album (CD and DVD), the same fucking songs,
just now we have the former vocalist Joey Belladonna doing the singing.
You know what? I don't care! There is nothing about this performance
that is better than their most recent live cd. Nothing different,
nothing special. It's the same songs performed in almost the exact same
way. Why do I want to buy this again? And why would I want to buy the
Anthology CDs that they just released? Stop being caught in the past,
you've released 7 pieces of media in the
past 2 years with the exact same old songs. Are they good songs? Yes,
amazing songs. But it's the same stuff over and over again. Stop it
guys! Write new material, move forward with your lives! You last REAL
album was good, take the energy from that and make some new stuff. But
please god stop producing live / best-of / whatever albums. Recommended
to no one except the most diehard fans.
- Alive
2: The DVD (2005, DVD) Ok, I know I just trashed the CD
something awful, but I'll go a bit easier on the DVD. First, it is a
well filmed concert, with great sound and good camerawork. Also, seeing
the band live with Joey and Danny, well, it's a lot different than
listening to them, the visual in this case does help it to be something
a bit different from the Bush era Anthrax. And second, it has a 45 min
documentary about the band's reunion, which includes some good and very
candid interviews, footage and stories from the old days, and is a step
above the usual "watch the band smash shit while on tour" sort of DVD.
Otherwise, I do have the same problems, the set list is almost
identical to the "The Greater Of Two Evils" cd, and I really don't
think it was necessary to release yet another live concert. The DVD is
certainly better than the CD, but it's still time to move on and get to
making some new music guys.
- Anthrology:
No Hit Wonders 1985-1991 (2005, Bestof)
- Anthrology:
No Hit Wonders 1985-1991 The Videos (2005, DVD)
APOCALYPTICA:
- Plays
Metallica With
Four Cellos (1996) Get this, a band that makes a Metallica
tribute album,
except all the songs are played on 4 cellos. It's definitely a fun
album,
the older stuff from Puppets and Justice are really the highlights of
the
album. Maybe this will finally prove to the older generation that metal
is
real music.
- Christmassingle
(1996, Single)
- Inquisition
Symphony (1998) Even though the novelty has worn
off, this is
still a good album. The band was presented with a problem, people
bought their first album because it was just so cool hearing Metallica
riffs done on cellos. So what to do now? The answer: some more of the
same, as well as Pantera, Faith No More and Sepultura covers, and
several original songs. It works. The band tends to experiment a bit
more this time, with distorted cellos, delay and other effects, and
some really strange sounds, but they still
manage to keep things quite classical (well, as classical as you can
get
playing power chords). Their cover of Refuse / Resist is really good,
those
cellos just sound scary. The original pieces are pretty good as well,
maybe
one day someone will arrange those pieces for guitar and drums
<G>.
- Harmageddon
(1998, Single)
- Cult
(2000) Well their first album was all covers, their second had covers
and
half original songs, so I guess it follows their 3rd album would be all
original material (not totally true, they have 3 bonus tracks which
include
a cover of 'Hall of the Mountain King' and Metallica's 'Fight Fire With
Fire'.) Overall, I really enjoy this cd, they experiment with
distortion
and thrash styles riffing without ever loosing sites of their classical
roots.
And, of course, there's some real music here, memorable riffs, this is
the
kind of stuff you want to play at 3 in the morning when you want to get
in
a slightly softer mood, and you've already heard all the music in your
ambient
collection a few too many times. If you enjoyed the last two cds,
there's
plenty to love here.
- Live
(2001, DVD) Four spotlights shine down on a blank stage, blank save for
four chairs. Suddenly, the band appears, and proceeds to give us over
90 minutes of fantastic music, music that manages to remain both angry
and beautiful at the same time. A very energetic concert, you can see
these guys are really into what they're doing, plenty of highly
inspired head banging, and they do leave their chairs now and again to
keep things from being too static. Will it be everyone's cup of tea
watching cellos for 90 minutes? Maybe not, but even if the video
doesn't keep you glued to the screen, this is fantastic to have on in
the background somewhere as music to enjoy while doing other stuff. The
audience really gets into it, frequently clapping along and singing the
lyrics to some of the covers, an enthusiastic addition to the otherwise
instrumental dvd. The audience also seem equally excited about the
band's own compositions as they are with the Metallica covers (which
included 'Fight Fire With Fire', 'Master Of Puppets', and a very
soulful version of 'One', whose intro sounds like it was always meant
to be played on a cello). As far as production goes, the sound is great
and the video is very professional. They close with 'Hall Of The
Mountain King', which just proves if Grieg were born today, he would
have been a metal head. 17 songs, and 7 music videos. Well
worth grabbing.
- Cult
Special Edition (2001, Digipak) A 2 disc set containing the
original
"Cult", followed by a bonus disk, the bonus disk includes 'Path' and
'Hope' with vocals, the vocals do a good job of complimenting the
music, although are quite mellow, don't expect any screaming or
yelling. Then 3 live tracks, which are produced quite well.
- Hope
Vol 2 (2001, Single) Contains a radio edit of 'Hope Vol2',
the original album copy of the song, Metallica's 'My friend of Misery'
and a Slayer medley of 'South Of Heaven / Mandatory Suicide'. All high
quality.
- Path
Vol 2 (2001, Single) Contains the copy of Path 2 that
include vocals (also available as part of the Cult Digipak), the
original path, and then two live tracks, 'Pray' and 'Romance'.
- Reflections
(2003) The first
thing that will strike you when putting this album on is, well, drums?
Yes, metal god Dave Lombardo adds drums to several tunes off this cd.
And while initially they may seem a little out of place, it's hard to
imagine many of these songs any other way. A collection of all original
compositions, you'll almost forget on some of these tracks that you're
listening to cellos, what with the distortion and the drums. But then
you're brought back to reality by the calmer ballads, where you're
reminded about how soulful an instrument a cello can actually be.
Always pushing the envelope, this band does it again, experimentation
and risk taking over top a strong foundation of solid songwriting and
performance.
- Faraway
Vol. 2 (2003, Single) Contains 2 tracks, Faraway with Linda
Sunbled on vocals, and the original instrumental version of the song
from the Reflections album. While Linda does a good job of adding
vocals to the song, in the end I find myself preferring the original
instrumental version, that may just be because I'm used to that
version, or it may just be that the song has a certain beautiful
simplicity to it that I like and I don't think it needs any extra
layers, regardless, if the price is right, picking this up isn't a bad
idea to see if you agree.
- Seemann
(2003, Single) Contains the album version and a radio
version of
'Seemann', which isn't all that great a song IMO, I think mainly
because of its use of keyboards, which aren't all that necessary. The
whole song comes off a little too melodic, and not enough metal. Not to
mention 90% of the song is the same chord progression over and over
again. Then the third track is a song called 'Heat', which is from
their "Reflections" album. I'm not sure if it's 100% the same song, but
close enough that I don't hear a big difference. Overall, I'd probably
rate this single a miss.
- Reflections
Revised (2003, Digipak). 2 disc set, the first starts off with
the original reflections cd, followed by two tracks off of "Faraway
Vol2" and "Seemann Single", then 3 new songs which are all very good.
The 2nd disc is a DVD with 5 live songs, 3 music videos, and a few
making of segments. The live songs are fun, I mean, when you first hear
this music, you sorta go "what the fuck?" Well you get that all over
again when you see these guys actually perform the music live. You get
long haired shirtless men thrashing around (ok, two of them do have
shorter hair), yet at the same time they're sitting on chairs and
playing the cello. All together now..."What the fuck?". They do
actually move around quite a bit, which keeps the stage shows
interesting, and include a live drummer in much of their music now.
Lets put it this way, after a few songs of a normal live show with
standard instruments, you basically know what to expect for the rest of
the show. These guys are jumping around, and sitting, and standing, and
throwing their instruments on the ground, and overall keep the audience
engaged with a lot of variety to the performance. These guys are REALLY
into the music and it shows. The recording quality is excellent as well
as the videotography. As usual, no opinion on the videos, they're fine,
but music videos just aren't my thing. The 3 making ofs are good (maybe
4 minutes a piece), although both the way the interviewees pronounce
certain english words, as well as the overall structure of their
sentences can make it difficult to understand them sometimes, but
they're trying their best, so I can't fault them for that. Even if you
have Reflections, I advise getting this enhanced version, there's
enough interesting material here to make it worth it.
- Bittersweet
(2004, Single) Just the fact the song is called
'Bittersweet' should give you some indication of what to expect. The
song is very calm, serene and haunting, and you get it 3 times! The
original, an acoustic version and an instrumental version without Ville
Valo and Lauri Ylonen singing on it. Then there's a final song called
'Misconstruction' that is more upbeat (and includes drums), but not as
angry as one might want to offset the first 3 songs. If you're a fan of
the band's "harder stuff", you're not going to find it here, so I'd
recommend this only if you've heard 'Bittersweet' already on the
website or somewhere and really dig the song.
- Apocalyptica
(2005) I've sort of come to expect certain things from Apocalyptica at
this point. It's not that they're repetitive, they've progressed in
their music any number of times from a cover band to their own
compositions to the introduction of drums. But through it all, they
have retained a certain quality level, and signature sound, a sound
that's thrown right out the window for the first song of the cd. What
we have instead is a rockin ski-movie song that could easily be in any
of those teen mischief movies from the early 80s (complete with silly
vocals). In fact, it takes you a moment to realize it is cellos being
played and not guitars. Thankfully track 2 goes back to their more
trademark instrumental compositions, although that track is a little
repetitive. Then track 3 is sort of derivative. Then track 4,
'Bittersweet', well, I don't dig the vocals and the song is only ok.
The album really starts for me on Track 5, 'Misconstruction', and the
good songs have returned, from the heartfelt 'Farewell' or the
fastpaced gallop of 'Fatal Error'. No more vocals thankfully, I
definitely prefer the instrumental songs. Only one other stumble occurs
with a riff in 'Betrayal/Forgiviness' that sounds an awful lot like
Metallica's 'Battery', before quickly moves on to far more original
material. Overall, a bit of an uneven cd, I really like the second half
of the album, the first half is pretty much a consistent miss, so be
forewarned, still worth getting for tracks 5-11. Stick around (or
don't) for a bonus song at the end, track 2 but with french vocals.
- Worlds
Collide (2007) Apocalyptica certainly have evolved over the
years. They started out as simply 4 cellos playing covers. Their second
album was a bit more experimental in their cello sound, and had a few
original songs on it. They further experimented in later albums with
guest vocalists, drums on a few songs, and the covers got fewer and
fewer. Which brings us to this album, which is almost all originals,
and every song has drums in it. For all intensive purposes, this might
as well be a regular metal band now, except that most of the songs are
instrumental, and there's a slightly different sound to their string
instrument of choice. This is also possibly their heaviest album yet,
with some really thunderous guit---errr cello riffs. There are a few
guest vocalists, Corey Taylor from Slipknot and Christina Scabbia from
Lacuna Coil. And Dave Lombardo from Slayer does drums on a track.
Plenty of memorable songs on this one, and, as mentioned before, I'm
really happy with the level of heaviness this album achieves. Much
better than their previous self titled album, I'd recommend picking
this one up instead.
ARCH ENEMY:
- Black
Earth (1996) First album for the band, similar to their second
album, but the production is a little rougher (still clear, but not as
slick sounding). A few really good songs here, if you're a fan of the
band's later work, this album mis worth picking up to hear the original
versions of some older material they play live once inawhile.
- Stigmata
(1998) This release, while technically excellent and
well produced, never manages to find it's own voice. Ex-Carcass
Guitarist / Songwriter Mike Amott leads the group, and so a lot of its
sound comes from Carcass, from riffs similar to stuff of "Heartwork" to
his distinctive soloing style. At the same time, there are Megadeth
style solos and more melodic, neoclassical solo passages with tons of
reverb that sound like something off an Yngwie record (or possibly
Marty Friendman's solo recordings). The overall impression is that the
band has taken elements from all kinds of different styles, from death
to black metal to symphonic, written a bunch of Carcass riffs around
these styles, added a bit of extra noise and reverb, and voila, Arch
Enemy. All in all, a good album with it's share of great moments and
killer riffs and hooks, but possibly a bit too derived and unoriginal
for my taste.
- Burning
Bridges (1999) Same
mishmash of stuff as last time, but the riffs are brutal enough to make
the
album worth a listen. Even more styles are touched on here, from black
to
death, and several riffs that sound like they could be straight off the
intro
of Beverly Hills 90210 or something, except they're being done using a
noisy
guitar tone. That makes for a very strange combination, you're sitting
there
saying "I'm watching an abc sitcom, and yet it's got people screaming
in
anger over top." All the songs have a very epic feel to them, lots of
reverb
and melodic parts more commonly seen in black metal but many riffs are
far
too chunky which places them more in a death metal area of riffage.
Excellent
production, good songs, nice performance. They're a little odd, but
check
it out.
- Burning
Japan - Live 1999 (2000) 11 tracks of live material from
their most
recent tour of Japan. The sound quality is studio quality, which makes
me wonder if any overdubbing was done, and for that matter, what good
is a live album if they sound exactly like their studio counterparts in
every way? But if you get over that fact, then this is a well done,
well executed live show that sounds great.
- Wages
of Sin (2001) I remember during the recording of this
album
the band claiming they'd come up with their best material yet. And I
have to agree. This album is definitely in my cd rotation for quite
some time. Still the same genre, sorta epic feel, lots of reverb, but
the guitars are still tight and crunchy. The drumming is excellent,
with a lot of good sustained clear double kicks. And the vocals. Damn!
The band now has a new female vocalist, and she just sounds fucking
evil. Her style is this really raspy gravely screech, you can really
tell she put her heart and soul into this performance. The riffs are
great too. I guess just imagine their previous material, but refined,
perfected, and focused like never before. Excellent album.
- Anthems
Of
Rebellion (2003) I hate it when expectations get too high. Their
last album, brilliant, fresh, fantastic on so many levels. This album
is great as well, but due to all the hype, you may start off being
slightly disappointed. But I really do recommend giving this cd several
listens, because the material does grow on you. The first listen it's
like "cool, not as good as "Wages of Sin"", then as you listen again,
you start hearing things like the low part in 'Instinct' with the fast
double bass and you go "fuck ya, that's what metal is all about." The
album has excellent production, the vocals are slightly drier this time
(not as much reverb), guitars as usual are excellent, technical but not
too technical. While not every song is brilliant, there's some
fantastic material on this. A double CD version exists with a 2nd audio
DVD that contains 3 live tracks and 3 songs in Dolby Digital 5.1. The
live tracks have great production without sounding too much like studio
tracks, and the band always had a good energy live.
- Dead
Eyes See No
Future (2004, EP) 7 song EP. First comes the title track,
originally from their "Anthems Of Rebellion" album. Then 3 live tracks
'Burning Angel', 'We Will Rise' and 'Heart Of Darkness' which don't
really sound all that different from the album version in either
production of execution (although you can hear the crowd during the
songs, which is a good thing). Then 3 covers, the first, 'Symphony Of
Destruction' from Megadeth is really cool, it's neat to hear the
usually snappy bassline performed with a highly distorted bass. Then
'Kill With Power' by Manowar, which is ok, but not a great song IMO.
Then they do a Carcass cover (which is amusing since Michael Ammott
used to be in Carcass, I guess he's covering himself as it where),
'Incarnated Solvent Abuse', which has a little more bounce than the
original. Basically, the only reasons I found to buy this was the
Megadeth and Carcass cover, so if you're not into either of those
songs, I'd give it a miss, otherwise, it's a fun little EP, and cheap
enough to not be a big deal.
- Doomsday
Machine
(2005) When you listen to a lot of albums, you eventually start
to see trends. For example, the Breakthrough-dip-rebound trend. As in,
a band will release a breakthrough album, then their next album isn't
as good, then without the pressure of trying to produce a follow-up to
a huge hit, releases a much better third album. This pattern is
certainly present here, except in this case, it's actually possible
that this third album in the trend is even better than their
breakthrough "Wages of Sin". No joke! I mean, yes, you don't have the
freshness of a brand new vocalist, but the band has managed to produce
some very heavy, very angry music, and it's probably their best song
writing and performance to date. After a big metal anthem beginning,
the band immediately jumps into a cool start-stop riff, which is then
expanded upon with the addition of some well placed harmonics. Then
Gossow comes in with some seriously vicious vocals (the vocals on their
last album were a bit too dry). Later the chorus gets reiterated with
machinegun style double bass underneath. Again, awesome! Moving on to
track 3, they start with this sick precision picking guitar riff, and
continue at breakneck speed for most of the song. Track 4 slows it down
just a bit, and its verse consists of this unsettling
bend-on-the-low-string riff on guitar that's very cool. What can I say,
each and every song has some standout quality to them (if not several)
which makes each track unique, and performance wise the band is super
tight, heavy, angry and still melodic in the way we've come to expect.
The group's song writing at its best. My only complaint is a few bits
seem to be grabbed from other sources, for example, there's this high
pitched screaming sample that's from Seance's "Salt Rubbed Eyes" (well,
more precisely, they probably stole it from the same place, but Seance
stole it first), and the beginning to 'Machtkamft' is the exact drum
part from the beginning of Sepultura's 'Territory' before going off
into something different. Ok, enough praise from me, go buy this thing
already, "Doomsday Machine" is bound to be one of the standout albums
of the year.
- Live
Apocalypse (2006, DVD) 2 DVD set, the first is 2 concerts, the
second is extras. The main concert is in London and it's well done. The
sound is excellent, and they have 4 to 5 million cameras it seems.
There are some annoying bits, mostly that they switch cameras too fast
a lot of the time to really digest what you're seeing. They also do
this strobe film effect that's super annoying, but thankfully they
don't do it too much. Still, if you're a musician and want to see any
of the licks and how they're played, this is not the show for you. The
concert is from 2004, so it's all material from "Anthems of Rebellion"
and earlier, and they play a really excellent mix of songs, don't think
they missed a single one of my personal favorites. Then there's 3 songs
from a show in 2005, all songs are off their new album "Doomsday
Machine". This show's production is a bit skewed in the treble
direction, but it's only 3 songs, so it's not too bad. The 2nd DVD is
sort of a write-off. They really don't do any in-depth interviews or
anything, mostly just quick clips of the band on tour running around
set to their own music. They do have a gear talk where the musicians
talk about their gear which is mildly interesting, otherwise I think
you'll be sticking to the first disc. The main concert is high quality
in both picture and sound, and should please all fans of the group.
- Rise
of the Tyrant (2007) Not quite as good as their last one, but
still a very worthy Arch Enemy
album. First off, the production is a little fuzzy this time, you get
used to it pretty fast, and it's not really that egregious, but I would
prefer the crystal clear and sharp production of "Doomsday Machine".
Songwise, the band delivers again. They're really good at making their
songs distinct, whether it's with an awesome riff, an interesting fill,
some bit of melody. Overall the songs are a little more melodic this
time, don't get me wrong, there's still plenty of brutal blasting and
angry guitars, but maybe an extra 10% angry riffs would have rounded
out the album better. Fans of the band should be pleased, there's a lot
of soon to be classic songs on this CD.
ARSIS:
- A
Celebration Of Guilt (2004) Fans
of Necrophagist or Death should know what to expect here, technical
death metal with flurries of fast picked scales incorporated into the
songs. The biggest difference however is the bigger sound Arsis goes
for on this recording, I want to use a word like sloppy or muddy, but
that's really not it. They're plenty precise, it's just they've
sacrificed a bit of clean picking perfection for a thick and powerful
overdubbed sound, and hey, that's fine by me, it takes all types and
the results speak for themselves. The songs are technical but still
with plenty of groove, the vocals are higher raspy stuff, not quite
black metal but headed in that general direction. Certainly nothing
here that's revolutionary, but it's well performed, well written, and
the crazy scale stuff keeps things interesting.
- A
Diamond For Disease (2005, EP) I think I like Arsis even more in
EP form. I liked their last album a lot, but I do have to admit that
there wasn't a lot to define one song from another. In EP form, your
concentration isn't as divided, it's like if you eat just a little bit
of cake, you'll savor the cake more then if you stuff your face with
cake. And with the title track being a 13 minute song, you get
repeating themes that help bind everything together. Apparently the
song is being used as a score for the NYC's Ballet Deviare,
which, in their own words, is "the beauty and grace of ballet combined
with the power and force of metal music". The song does have some
melody to it, but even so, there's blasting and screaming, so I'd be
very interested in seeing what sort of dance moves would work with this
sort of music. Gotta give it to the band to try something a bit
different. Style wise, basically the same sort of stuff as their last
album. Track 2 is an Alice Cooper cover which I'm sure sounds very
different from the original (I've personally never heard it), and
another quick 3min new track which is cool. Worth getting, especially
if you liked "A Celebration Of Guilt".
- United
In Regret (2006) Very similar to their last album, with
slightly
better production. The songs are decent, and they certainly do know how
to play their instruments, but, well, I just feel sorta like I've heard
it before. I don't want to rain on their parade, the band is obviously
very good at what they do, but I still feel they need something to
differentiate them from all the other metal out there. Whether it be
some really inventive riffs, some sort of odd gimmick, or such
astounding speed or brutality that you can't help but take notice. But
enough about that, I really don't want to sell this cd short, this is a
strong metal album, and this strikes me as one of those releases that
will grow on me the more I listen to it. Fans of technical death metal
should find this enjoyable, and fans of their last few albums will find
more to love.
- We
Are The Nightmare (2008) Much better than their last album.
First the production is excellent, the best the band has ever had (and
I can't imagine how it could get any better). And second, I feel the
song writing has gone up a notch. Still the same sort of music, their
style hasn't changed at all, but overall the songs seem more memorable
and interesting. Great album.
ARSONISTS
GET ALL THE GIRLS:
- The
Game Of Life (2007) Similar in style to
The Black Dahlia Murders or Between The Buried And Me. Lots of brutal
blasting and pounding guitars. A few more melodic passages (but no sung
vocals). Vocals are a mix of black metal screaming and more midrange
death metal growling. And, to add variety, some really odd synth stuff
that's probably best described as an old Atari system gone terribly
wrong. It adds a certain degree of silliness to the music, although
what should you expect with a band name like Arsonists Get All The
Girls, and funny song titles (including starting and ending the album
with a mullet reference). There's a number of super heavy and killer
riffs on this album that are really impressive, and while I'm not a
huge fan of the wackier side of the band, it does add variety to the
music, and it's not so silly as to totally destroy the mood. These guys
are certainly worth a listen, there's some really good bits and pieces
that will keep it near my cd player for the foreseeable future.
AS I LAY DYING:
- An
Ocean Between Us (2007) Basically,
this band sounds like In Flames, but with slightly more
hardcorish vocals. The album starts strong with a soft intro that
builds nicely (I am a sucker for a well done intro), then moves into
the first real song 'Nothing Left', which is fast, thrashy and brutal.
The rest of the album is a bit of a mixed bag. A few of the songs are
slightly generic with vaguely familiar chord progressions, and a few
lack energy. But a few of the songs stand out, I really enjoyed the
ballad 'I Never Wanted', and some of the fast songs work really well
(The beginning of 'Wrath Upon Ourselves' is especially awesome). Expect
lots of harmonized guitars, lots of fast scales and lower trashy bits.
Beyond the hardcore vocals, they keep the clean sung vocals pretty
grungy, which is a plus. The production on the album is also excellent.
If you're an In Flames fan, or maybe you dig Shadows Fall, this is a
good band to look into, although don't expect every song to be gold.
AUSTRIAN DEATH
MACHINE:
- Total
Brutal (2008)
Lets start this review by saying I have always been a huge Arnold
Schwarzenegger fan. It's just such a goofy story, a muscle-bound
Austrian with a thick accent becomes a huge movie star in America, and
eventually becomes the Governor of the 6th largest economy on the
planet. And
his movies have provided us with some of the best quotes and bad puns
the world has ever seen. So when I found out a bunch of guys from As I
Lay Dying are doing an Arnold metal tribute album, I was super excited.
It's like reeses peanut butter cups, combining two of my favorite
things. The results are both hilarious and brutal. First off, there's
plenty of fun banter from an Arnold impersonator who does intros to
many of the songs. Second, the songs all have fantastic titles based
off those wonderful quotes I mentioned earlier, classics such as "It's
Not A Tumor", "If It Bleeds We Can Kill It" and "Get To The Choppa".
And then there's the music, generally modern thrash style. While the
riffs won't win any awards for originality (and the band doesn't
pretend that they would), they are
certainly well played, well produced with a nice thick and powerful
sound, and the songs are short enough to avoid getting old. Very
enjoyable album, all fans of Arnold and metal will love this album, or
if you're just into humorous metal in the style of "Dethklok" or
"Zimmers Hole". It's
just so nice to know I'm not alone in my morbid fascination with our
favorite Governator of Cali-fornia.
AUTUMN LEAVES:
- Hope
Springs Eternal (1995, Demo)
- Embraced
By The Absolute (1997)
- As
Night Conquers Day (1999)
Melodic death metal from Europe. This band has all
the usual, huge guitar sound with lots of tremolo picking, reverb and
overdubs.
You can just picture in your head a battlefield of Norsemen killing
each
other as this CD plays in the distance. Excellent mix and production,
things
remain clear even taking all the reverb into account. Song wise, some
nice
riffs, the song writing is solid, but there are some points in the CD
that I
feel are a little too monotonous, and could use some extra spice to
keep
things interesting. This band certainly knows how to play their
instruments, I
found some of the solos especially well performed, quite fast but still
well
composed, not just a bunch of scales. I generally am not into this sort
of music,
but it's good quality for the genre.