Stuff

Hey!
So, I'm not dead, I just haven't had much time to do anything with this since the beginning of the school year.  Got some other reviews on the way, just need to find the time.
Albums I'm listening to at the moment:
Bethlehem - Sardonischer Untergang im Zeicher irreligiöser Darbietung
Opeth - Heritage
Bethlehem - Dictius te Necare
Dissection - Storm of the Light's Bane
ColdWorld - Melancholie²Wolves in the Throne Room - Celestial LineageWolves in the Throne Room - Malevolent Grain EPAn Autumn for Crippled Children - Lostand a bunch more I can't remember...Stay Tuned!

Enslaved - Monumension

01. Convoys to Nothingness
02. The Voices
03. Vision: Sphere of the Elements - A Monument Part II
04. Hollow Inside
05. The Cromlech Gate
06. Enemy I
07. Smirr
08. The Sleep: Floating Diversity - A Monument Part III
09. Outro: Self-Zero
(10. - BONUS) - Sigmundskvadet






Enslaved is a band that has never been afraid to push the envelope.  They arose out of the 2nd wave of Norwegian black metal, along bands like Mayhem, Burzum, and Darkthrone.  Enslaved at first played much the same kind of black metal - viking themed straight-ahead blast-beat filled black metal.  Enslaved, however, unlike the rest of their ilk, was never content to keep playing the same kind of music for any length of time and began to experiment with other sounds and themes to their music, constantly growing and changing - something that has both gained and lost them many fans.  Enslaved today cannot really even be called a black metal act, as they have been slowly evolving further and further away from the kind of sound that they started off with, moving further and further into the world of progressive metal while still retaining an air of their viking roots.  The change has not been swift by any means, and they have released many albums between 1991 and the present with a heavy black metal vibe but some really interesting influences and experimentation.  Between 2001-2003 they released 3 of the most compelling works in their library - Mardraum: Beyond the Within, Monumension, and Below the Lights.  All 3 are brilliant works in their own right, but today I'll be reviewing Monumension, which I picked up at War on Music in Winnipeg.

Monumension is a wall of an album.  There is so much going on here that it's hard to know where to start when comprising an opinion, let alone a critical review on such an album.  Nothing quite like this has been made before or since in my knowledge, so there is not a lot to compare it to.  Monumension is essentially what happens when Norwegian Vikings with a flair for the experimental listen to way too much Pink Floyd.  Yeah...exactly...

Enslaved have brought something to life here that is truly special.  It retains a lot of the viking black metal style that helped make Enslaved popular, but blends it so perfectly into a 70's prog type feel that it's hard to believe no one has done this before.  Everything just flows smoothly, like a bunch of tie-dye wearing vikings smoking a hookah on an ice flow riding down a river of blood.

It would take more than the space I have to go into each track in depth, so I'll pick some moments I found particularly memorable.  The second track, "The Voices", begins with a killer black metal riff that continues to surface throughout the song, tying together the metal "majority" of the song with the bluesy riffs and synthesizer melodies that emerge throughout.  The song maintains the feeling of an ass-kicking viking metal track, but also begins to reveal some of what is to come later on in the album.  "Hollow Inside" is the first real dose of the Floydian influences at play here.  Vocalist Grutle Kjellson takes on a very ethereal, dreamy tone as his vocals float about proggy blues riffs and keyboard melodies.  It reminds me of kind of a Steven Wilson channeling Roger Waters voice, that suits the music perfectly.  Half way through the song it builds and suddenly explodes in a very heavy version of what was previously playing accompanied by heavy, intricate drumming, guitars, and Grutle's very doomy sounding vocals.  The change in pace is sudden, but flows so perfectly it gives me the chills every time I hear it.

"The Cromlech Gate" is probably my favourite track on the album.  This track is heavy in a doomy sort of way, with vocals more reminiscent of doom/stoner metal than black metal a slow, prodding series of riffs that truly give you a mental image of the aforementioned tie-dye vikings coming across a monumental stone gate, adorned with gargoyles, impaled corpses, and a foreboding message of doom to any who traverse it, while being a little too high to deal with the situation.  This song is just brilliant and serves as the perfect central point to the album.  "Enemy I" has some really interesting overlays of spoken word with growled vocals, as well as harmonizing of high and low harsh vocals, over a very straight ahead viking metal style riff.

"The Sleep: Floating Diversity" is the other true standout track on the album.  This song has a lot of sounds and vocal sections that sound straight off of "The Wall" and truly encompasses the influences behind the album as a whole.  Grutle sounds exactly like Roger Waters in some parts of this song, so much so I thought it was a different vocalist at first.  This song perfectly plays out the album and trails off into "Outro: Self-Zero" (which didn't need to have its own track IMO).

(Oh, there's also that weird viking chanting track, "Sigmundskvadet", that totally doesn't fit the album, but it's a bonus track, so I'm not counting it)

In closing, this album is the embodiment of genius when it comes to blending two very separate genres of music.  It's works like this one that go to show how far separated Enslaved is from their peers in the Norwegian music scene - a band that has evolved, while still remembering their roots, bringing progressive viking metal to life in new ways with each release.  If you're new to Enslaved I would recommend this album or their 2003 "Below the Lights" as a starting point, as both albums really show off their instrumental and compositional chops.  Whichever you would choose doesn't change the fact that Monumension is a landmark album and should be owned by any progressive metal enthusiast.

95% - Editor's Choice Recommendation

Mutilation Rites - Empyrean

01. A Season of Grey Rain
02. Realms of Dementia
03. Ancient Bloodoath
04. Fogwarning
05. Dead Years
06. Broken Axis










Mutilation Rites is a band from NYC.  They are kind of a cross-over band, blending Black Metal with Thrash, Crust Punk, and Doom.  They have been together since 2009 and already gone through numerous lineup changes.  Finally, this year, they released their debut LP, "Empyrean". I picked up their new album at Profusion Records in Montreal while on vacation and was intrigued, yet slightly disappointed.  This band shows great potential, but there are several issues, which I will discuss.

There are a lot of interesting things going on here.  The blending of Crust Punk and Black Metal always works well, IMO, and MR does a decent job of this.  They are always throwing in other influences as well, such as some very DSBM* passages and some really doomy riffs occasionally.  They even throw in some Stoner Metal sounding stuff from time to time, with a really Early Mastodon/High on Fire type feel.

The drummer here is obviously fairly technically skilled, switching between different speeds of blast beats, double bass, punk beats, fills, and slow doomy smashing.  There was only one time on the album I really got the feeling that the drummer kind of lost his finesse, and was actually kind of amazed they left it on the album, but I guess it lends to the overall "raw" feeling of the production (albeit more Crusty "raw" than BM "raw").

There are some really great riffs on the album, and the guitars in general sound good.  Songs such as "Fogwarning" are packed with awesome riffs and really get you paying attention.  Even some songs that aren't really riffy are enjoyable due to the creation of atmosphere through the guitar, such as "Dead Years" and the depressive atmosphere it creates.

There are some serious issues with the album however, that really keep me from loving it.  Starting with the vocals.  Now the vocals aren't all bad, in some of the Crust sections they seem to work perfectly, but in the majority of the music the vocals feel hollow and flat.  If I were to draw a comparison I would compare them to Varg Vikernes' vocals off of the self-titled Burzum album, but with the raw power and body scooped out of the center, leaving only the raspy, hollow shell.  They aren't horrible but they're not very good either.  I caught myself wishing the vocals weren't even there at some points, so I could  better enjoy the guitar work, and THAT is a big issue in my opinion.

Another serious issue is the composition.  I love variety, and I love blending of styles, but it has to be done consistently and smoothly.  The way the styles are blended, especially in the "A Season of Grey Rain" and "Realms of Dementia", leaves the album feeling non-cohesive and clunky.  It's like a jar of chunky peanut butter, but the chunks of peanuts have been replaced with chunks of raw onion, it's unexpected and it just doesn't work, leaving a bad taste in your mouth.  You can tell that the band has great ideas, and great potential to do something very interesting, but just doesn't know how to put it all together yet.  Even the best songs on the album suffer from these issues albeit a bit less.  I feel like these sections weren't planned well but the band just got lucky in a few spots.

The other issue here is the length of the album - it's too short.  If I'm paying $20 for an album and it only has 6 songs and slightly over 30 minutes of music I feel ripped off.  It feels more like a long EP than a full length album.

In conclusion this is an album that shows potential for a new band.  They have good ideas and obviously have a lot of influences and interesting concepts to bring to the table, they just have to figure out how to put them together in a more coherent way.  Their technical skill is fairly good, but there are a few serious offenses that need to be corrected as well.  In my opinion this band was not really ready to release a full length album, they needed to put more time into forming a solid concept of a sound before just hitting record and selling the results.  Given time however, I believe Mutilation Rites can become a wonderful band with some really interesting music.

65% - Potential shown but needs improvement

Drudkh - Кров у Наших Криницях (Blood in Our Wells)

01. Навь (Nav')
02. Борозни Богів (Furrows of Gods)
03. Коли Пломінь Перетворюється на Попіл (When the Flame Turns to Ashes)
04.  Самітність (Solitude)
05. Вічність (Eternity)
06. Українська Повстанська Армія (Ukrainian Insurgent Army)








Drudkh is a band from the Ukraine.  Their main style is Black Metal, but they incorporate folk, rock, and post-rock influences as well, lending to their trademark sound.  Their lyrics are usually Ukranian poetry written by famous poets such as Taras Shevchenko.  The two albums that have gotten the most acclaim are 2004's Autumn Aurora and this, 2006's Blood in our Wells.

Blood in our Wells is an interesting beast to conquer.  From my personal experience, the first time I heard it I felt it sounded very similar to Filosofem-era Burzum(not that I don't love Burzum), and wasn't incredibly impressed.  Oh how my opinion has changed.  I was determined that there had to be more to this album, as I had heard great things, and I forced myself to listen to it again and again.  After about 4-5 listens I began to understand why this album has received such praise.

Once one can listen past the initially overwhelming droning sound of the production quality a whole new world of riffs and chord progressions begin to surface, creating what I now see as a brilliant sonicscape.

Drudkh's primary vessel is black metal, but they weave so many other styles into their sound on this album.  The first song, "Nav'", is simply a folky intro with acoustic guitars and some Ukrainian folk instruments I can't identify.  This track is short (only 2:30ish in an album of 10:00'ers) and leads into the breathtaking track "Furrows of Gods".  This song has...so much going on.  Of course it has the wonderful droney ambience of the rest of the album, but also incorporates wonderful acoustic guitar interludes and even acoustic guitar over blastbeats and chugging bass riffs, which surprisingly don't drown it out at all.  This is very unique, seldom do you hear acoustic guitar in black metal, especially alongside blastbeats, and it works surprisingly well.  There are also some incredibly melancholic electric guitar solos inserted at the perfect moments, bringing some climactic moments to this altogether epic track.  The one riff, at around 7:10ish, has been stuck in my head for a good week now with no sign of leaving any time soon.

"When the Flame turns to Ashes" takes a bit of a different turn, starting off with a much more straight-line ambient black metal feel.  It does still feature the occasional guitar solo and has a very interesting acoustic interlude in the middle of the track, but maintains a much more consistently ambient feel overall than the previous track.  The vocals on this track are great, and remind me of some of Quorthon's vocals from "Blood Fire Death" or "Hammerheart".

"Solitude" starts with a deceptive little folky riff, which soon breaks into probably the fastest riff on the album (albeit not incredibly fast by black metal standards).  This song slows down fairly quickly, however, and gets to the point of the track, which is evoking the feeling of it's title, "Solitude".  There is still a lot going on here, however, with constant solos and some very doomy and melancholic feeling riffs.  The vocals match perfectly here as well.  Roman Saenko's gruff growls seem to act like a chameleon, blending perfectly into the mood and tone of every track on the album.  Here the vocals remind me quite a bit of other "wilderness metal" acts, such as Agalloch.

"Eternity" is the second real standout track on the album.  Starting with a really strange folky intro and dropping into a straight ahead rock riff, which then evolves into a fairly metal sound with double bass and a soaring guitar solo.  This song is a ton of fun, with a kind of rock/post-rock atmosphere that at some moments reminds me of the Pixies, others of gy!be, and on and on.  This track is an unexpected departure from the pace of the first 3(discluding Nav', which is an intro) songs and acts to reinvigorate the listener for the last part of the album.  It definitely still has the "Drudkh" sound however, and isn't different enough to disrupt the cohesion of the tracks on the album.  The ending of this track is something to point out on it's own as well, as the progressive nature of the riffs seem to build and build to a climactic finish.

"Ukranian Insurgent Army" is an instrumental outro, with by far the doomiest feel of all the tracks.  In my opinion I would have named this track "Solitude", as it has an incredibly depressive and lonely feel to it.  (Which I guess could be how it feels to be part of a Ukrainian Insurgent Army).  This song slowly leads the album to a close, and leaves the listener wanting more, leading me to have this album on repeat for the greater part of 3 weeks.

In all, this album is a wonderful composition of ambient folky black metal and deserves it's acclaim.  Drudkh flawlessly intertwines numerous genres and instead of disrupting the flow, as some other attempts by other bands have done, brings it all together into a brilliantly cohesive piece of art.

This album may be a tough nut to crack for some, but it's well worth cracking.  It's like breaking open the hardest walnut only to find gold inside.  I definitely recommend this album to any serious listener and advise you to give it 7-8 listens before you fully form an opinion on it.

I'm switching up the rating system I've been using as well, as I feel that a rating scale from 1-6 is a bit hard to apply to all releases and will be dropping it in favour of a % system.  Also, I'll be putting tracks of note in red and the rating in yellow, for those skimming over my reviews.

In light of this I'd like to give this album a rating of

90% - Editor's Choice Recommendation

Disforterror - Impalement and Holocaust Stench EP

01. The Armoured Bestial Black Goat War
02. Bloodshed
03. Infernal Blasphemous Attack From Black Wrath
04. Impalement of Jesus and Their Followers
05. Brutality and Orgy
06. March to the Apocalypse
07. Possessed by Fire





Ok, where to start.  Disforterror is a Brazilian Death Metal act that's currently made up of one dude named Vagner Warrior Impaler, because in Brazil one invented "kvlt" name isn't enough apparently.  They have yet to release a full length album and this is technically an EP, even though it has as many songs as many full length metal releases.

So the first 30 seconds of the album had me going "Fuck Yeah!",

DISCLAIMER:If you're a Disforterror enthusiast or don't like reading long reviews you may want to stop reading now,

My elation fell off faster than a limbless bullrider.  At about 30 seconds in 2 things happen, things get real relentless real fast and the vocals start.  Oh god the vocals, where to begin, imagine the tard-hulk that was in your high school (everyone had one), now imagine getting him hammered, now imagine that his entire vocabulary was comprised of Satanic lingo, now imagine getting him real pissed off and having him start screaming random Satanic words from his vocabulary over and over while sounding hammered and real pissed off...there you go!  Seriously, I haven't heard vocals this bad since...ever!  Not only does he sound like a constipated kid with downs syndrome, but this guy is to metal lyrics what Kurt Cobain was to lyrics if you cut out everything but the parts of songs where he yelled the same words over and over for like a minute.

You honestly hear such gems as:
DISFOR
DISFOR
DISFOR
TERROR
TERROR
TERROR
DISFOR
DISFOR
DISFOR
TERROR
TERROR
TERROR
blahblahGOAT WAR
blahblahGOAT WAR
blahblahGOAT WAR
blahblahGOAT WAR

and such others as:
SATANLORD
SATANLORD
SATANLORD
SATANLORD
SATANLORD

over and fucking over in every goddamn song.  The kicker, the parts that actually had me laughing out loud in my car was when the vocalist started doing little back-and-forths with himself which were obviously edited in.  He'd start in a low voice and be interrupted by himself with a higher voice, which would then be interrupted by his low voice again, over and over, yelling the same words, like:
SATAN
satan
SATAN
satan
SATAN
satan

Seriously, what the actual christfuck?  Ok, I know, they're from Brazil and maybe don't know much english.  SO DON'T USE ENGLISH LYRICS!  Other bands that I love from other countries use their native languages and I still love them, even if I don't understand, like Taake singing in Norwegian and Alcest singing in French or Drudkh in Ukrainian!  Here's the funny part, I've read interviews with Mr. Impaler and he does know quite a bit of English, so there's really no excuse other than retardation for this trainwreck of vocal compositions.

Enough about the vocals, they're not the only offender here (albeit the worst offender).  The guitar is bland, generic, and uninspired.  I've listened to this album no less than 20 times trying to decide how much I hate it and I counted all the "good" riffs I could.  There are 5...FIVE on the WHOLE ALBUM.  The first 30 seconds counts as one, and the others are short and easily missed.  The guitar is at this really irritating pitch too, it stays in the same key and the same range the entire album and plays a total of like 6 different notes, it's like they were playing with a guitar where most of the frets were missing and just decided to wing it.  And the solos (oh yes, there were solos) are so painful, it sounds like Mr. Impaler literally just hit random notes and wanked the whammy-bar as hard as he could through all of the solos on this album hoping it would sound like he knew what he was doing.  Well if that was the plan it fucking failed like Boris Yeltsin's liver.  You can also barely hear the guitar at times thanks to the awful mixing and the overly loud drums and bass.

The drums were decent at best, but so unbelievably monodimensional(like the whole album really).  It literally interchanged between laboured sounding blast-beats(mostly these, more blast-beats than most black metal releases) and double-pedaling with a lot of unnecessary symbol work for the entire album.

"ITS SUPPOSED TO BE LIKE THAT, IT'S RAW!" you say.  Ok, I get raw, I love raw, when it's backed up with decent material.  Albums like Darkthrone's Transylvanian Hunger and Immortal's Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism were raw as hell, but were backed up with excellent riffs, vocals, and interesting musical concepts throughout.  Simply being RAW doesn't justify being otherwise shitty as well.  I'll give you a visual comparison:

Both of these are uses of raw fish, certainly raw is not the factor that's driving you to enjoy the one example over the other, it's how it's compiled and presented.  If raw were good enough for fish you'd be getting an unscaled dead fish on your plate at the sushi restaurant and certainly no wasabi and ginger.

To sum it up this album sucks like a thousand-horsepower Hoover™ and will most likely never grace the inside of my stereo or my ears again.  I'll give it 1.5 for having 5 good riffs and being short.

TL;DR - RATING 1.5/6 - FUCKING AWFUL

Tsjuder - Desert Northern Hell

01. Malignant Coronation
02. Ghoul
03. Possessed
04. Lord of Swords
05. Helvete
06. Mouth of Madness
07. Unholy Paragon
08. Sacrifice
09. Morbid Lust





Ok, none of this "for the uninitiated" crap this time, because I'm just discovering this band myself.  They're from Norway and seem to draw influences from just about every other BM band out there.  Straight to the album...

This album is defined by Tsjuder's (pronounced Shoe-der) dogma of "no compromise" and there is definitely NO compromise.  From the first second of "Malignant Coronation" to the last second of "Morbid Lust" this album kicks your fucking ass.  This relentless black metal assault is nothing but 50 minutes of head-banging ass-kicking good times.  Right off the bat I'm reminded of early Immortal, Darkthrone, and Mayhem, but with a much more modern production quality.

The guitars are clear and excellently played.  There is no shortage of riffage in this album, that's for damn sure, and the guitars never get lost in a endless drone.  There is precise tremolo picking, wonderful sweeps, and excellent technical work over all. There is definitely some punk and thrash influences in the guitars here, which also lend to the earlier Darkthrone comparison I made.  Many of the songs have sections with high, fast, discordant riffs that are very reminiscent of early Mayhem and bring back wonderful feelings related to that era of black metal.  Overall, nothing bad to say about the guitars at all, grade A black metal guitar work. (Bass is pretty much the same, and I'm happy that you can actually hear it [due to the decent production quality])

Vocals on this album aren't really anything extraordinary, though they are executed flawlessly.  The voice of the singer is somewhere between Abbath(Immortal) and Hoest(Taake) and the vocals work perfectly with the riffs and passages.

Drumming is fast and precise and basically shares a lot of the same traits as the guitars in terms of influences.

Overall the album is a non-stop onslaught and if you like aggressive music period you should find something you can rock out to here.  For me it's a spot-on black metal release with almost 0 room for criticism, I simply can't find anything to bitch about here.  Definitely recommending this one, it'll be staying in my CD player for a while, that's for fucking sure!

Some things to note are the wonderful progression of "Mouth of Madness", the super thrash-punk feeling "Sacrifice", and the riffs throughout the middle of "Morbid Lust" which to me were very reminiscent of "De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas"-era Mayhem.

I said I probably wouldn't do it ever again, but here it is, the very next review :s

Rating: 6/6 - FUCKING AWESOME!

Taake - Noregs Vaapen

01. Fra Vadested Til Vaandesmed
02. Orkan
03. Nordbundet
04. Du Ville Ville Vestland
05. Myr
06. Helvetesmakt
07. Dei Vil Alltid Klaga Og Kyta






Ok, for the uninitiated again, Taake is a one-man Norwegian Black Metal project, the creative project of Ulvhedin Hoest.  Hoest blends thrashy black metal with some punk influences and all sorts of other influences.  This lends to creating the BEST current Black Metal band...there... I said it.

I've loved Taake since I first heard the Ummeneske single a couple years back, and everything I check out by this guy is solid fucking gold.  Noregs Vaapen is no different.

 From the epic intro riff to "Fra Vadested Til Vaandesmed" to the epic outro riff of "Dei Vil Alltid Klaga Og Kyta" there is no let down here.  Every song has it's own genius and all are worth listening to.

Hoest's trademarked vocal sound is at it's best here; the high piercing vocals screaming like a banshee out of hell with a serious vendetta against someone.  Never do you feel that he's straining to maintain the wonderfully evil sounding screech he has perfected and never fails to impress.  Hoest's vocals aren't the only ones worth mentioning though, as this album has an all-star lineup of guest vocals.  Fenriz from Darkthrone on "Fra Vadested", Attila Csihar from Mayhem on "Nordbundet", Demonaz from Immortal on "Du Ville Ville Vestland", can it really get any better than that?  Fenriz' contribution is the most notable for sure and really works perfectly with the pace of "Fra Vadested", creating a kind of punk feeling that is reminiscent of current Darkthrone material.

The guitars on this album sound better than they ever have on a Taake album, and the level of production is almost "sacrilegious" in the world of Black Metal, but really allows the listener to hear all the layers of guitar and bass work that are going on here.  The same can really be said for the drums, everything sounds great and the production quality is unmatched so far in Taake's catalog.

A few specific moments I want to point out.  As I've mentioned, the beginning riff of the first song is epic and wonderfully grips the listener and drags them kicking and screaming straight into the onslaught that is this album.  The tone of "Orkan" is much different, providing a brooding feeling that contrasts beautifully with the first songs upbeat nature.  The crazy soaring solo that ends "Du Ville Ville Vestland" is beautiful as well and lends something that is very lacking in Black Metal (awesome solos).  The next thing I'm going to mention is probably the most noted on this album and something that is reallllly fucking cool.  The banjo solo at 3:20 of "Myr" is possibly the best thing I've ever heard done with Black Metal and made me burst out laughing and mess my pants at the same time.  It's so fun and random, yet works flawlessly with the black metal atmosphere.  It's something that makes you go "Fuck Yeah!" and just kicks the track from the realm of "Great" to "Orgasmic" in an instant.  Seriously, go listen to it, now.  The soaring shrieking guitar work of "Helvetesmakt" is great too and worth noting.  Well...what isn't worth noting in this album?

TL;DR - this album is perfect...simply perfect...and even Taake is gonna have a hard time topping it (then again I thought that about Taake's 2008 self-titled).  If you haven't heard Taake yet and you love Black Metal you need to stop whatever you are doing right now and go listen to this album.

I may never do this again, because it's hard for me to do for any album, but I'm doing it for this album.

Rating: 6/6 - BEST ALBUM OF 2011.

Mayhem - A Grand Declaration of War

Track Listing:
WHO THE FUCK KNOWS











Ok, for the uninitiated.  Mayhem is one of THE founding father bands of Norwegian Black Metal.  They started up in the late 80's/early 90's along with other bands such as Burzum, Darkthrone, Immortal, Ulver, and the like.  Their first vocalist, named "Dead", shot himself in the fucking face and Euronymous, the original guitarist and one of the "greats" of Black Metal took photos and made necklaces out of Dead's skull, which he then gave to those he considered worthy.  Anyways, couple of years later Varg Vikernes of Burzum offed Euronymous with a knife in the face and went to prison.  After numerous lineup changes mostly due to deaths we arrive at the late 90's lineup of Mayhem, Necrobutcher (the only remaining original member), Blasphemer on Guitar, Maniac on Vocals(who also actually did vocals earlier on Deathcrush), and Hellhammer on Drums.

So, in 1999, we end up with this, Grand Declaration of War, with Maniac at the creative helm. This is an album that has remained highly divisive among Mayhem fans, and Black Metal fans in general.

The album starts with what seems like a call to war, a call to war against Christianity, which seems like a great premise for a Black Metal concept album, especially one by one of the forefather bands of Black Metal.  The image of war drums and Colonel Maniac rallying the troops to war with propaganda and hatred whilst riding atop a Satanic steed is intriguing and backed by a relentless Black Metal assault, which continues for the first 5 tracks.  The savagery of the drums and guitars evoke mental imagery of hell-scorched wastelands and warfare.  At the end of track 5 we are met with the sound of an explosion, and then quietness.  So far the vocals have been wonderful, the guitars have been clear, yet not overproduced, and the drums have been precise and strongly evoking the idea of marching with the Satanic horde towards battle.

The only problems with the album so far may be a slight excess of spoken word verse vs. actual vocals and some slight over usage of certain riffs, but this is totally excusable due to the wonderful cohesion of the album so far, and the great technical work by all members of the band.

Now if the album had stopped here and was just an EP with 5 tracks I'd be giving it 6/6 as a wonderful Black Metal concept recording.  But it didn't end here...

Suddenly, from the hell-scorched wastelands and the war against the Christian menace we are transported to... a goth nightclub... with the most out of place industrial track ever.  A drum machine and heavy vocal-synthesizers, along with keyboards and electronic sounds.  It's like Maniac decided to channel Marilyn Manson halfway through the album.  Now, as I said in my Gorod review I love stuff that makes you go "What the fuck man?"........ WHEN IT STILL WORKS WITH THE ALBUM.  This track has no place anywhere within 20 miles of the Satanic warmachine we've so far encountered, and sullies the middle of the album with it's mall-goth atmosphere.

Well, after it ends, we go back to Black Metal, and decent Black Metal at that, similar to the first half of the record.  Track 8 has a similar feel to the first half of the album, and track 9 has a nice progression which seems to be leading to something a little different.  Track 10 follows up with that, then we hit Track 11, which is nothing but Maniac stating "I remember the future, a new beginning of time."  Which I thought was leading to something...but didn't.  Apparently that's the end of the album... atleast for 4:30 of fucking silence, then a 7 second track with nothing in it, then Track 13, which is just apparently a riff they forgot to put in a different song, because it just plays the one section for 2 minutes and then ends the album.  Done, nothing else, no proper ending in sight.  Apparently Maniac remembers the future (which probably doesn't mean anything, I'm not giving this guy a lot of intellectual credit), but didn't remember to finish the album.

The way this album ended makes no sense at all, NONE.  The layout of the album, track wise made no sense, NONE.  They don't even really tell you which song is which.  This is the back of the album.
By normal logic, one would assume there are 8 tracks on the album

01. A Grand Declaration of War
02. In The Lies Where Upon You Lay
03. A Time To Die
04. View From Nihil
05. Il Principe Part a) A Bloodsword and a Colder Sun
06. b)  Crystalized Pain in Deconstruction
07. c) Complettion of Science in Agony
08. d) To Daimonion





Now, this would make sense if there were 8 tracks...but there are 13.  WHAT ARE THE NAMES OF THE SONGS MAYHEM?  ARE WE SUPPOSED TO GUESS?  It seems elementary to tell your listeners what they're listening to, and Mayhem's done it before on previous albums, but apparently either no one conveyed the proper instructions to the printers or there are songs with multiple parts that aren't marked on the case.  Either way, it's confusing.

Now, here's how this album SHOULD have been layed out.
Track 1
Track 2
Track 3
Track 4
Track 8
Track 9
Track 10
Track 5

In that order, that way we'd not break the concept that the majority of the tracks hold, and end with the same riff we started with (which is on track 1 and track 5).  This would have made the album flow perfectly, and I probably would still be giving it a 5 or 5.5/6.

But folks, the fact of the matter is that they DIDN'T lay it out that way.

The weird industrial section in the middle of the album, the weird ending to the album, the lack of cohesion between parts of the album, and the excess of the spoken word verses make the album fall short of what it should have been.  Maniac's excessive dicking around with creative license seems to have butchered this masterpiece.  It's like a plastic surgeon having a supermodel on the operating table and going "Hmmm, how can we make her better," then the surgeon suddenly has an aneurysm and thinks it's a good idea to cut the big, hairy mole off her ass and stitch it into her forehead.

So yeah, I like most of the tracks off this album, but kinda hate the album as a whole, which is a hard feat to pull off, but Mayhem seems to have accomplished it.  The horrid stitching together of the whole thing kind of leaves a bad taste in your mouth that sullies the rest of what could be a great album.

They didn't do this with Deathcrush, Des Mysteriis Dom Sathanas, or even Wolf's Lair Abyss (all of which I fucking love), but apparently something tragic seems to have happened in 1999 and we have this.

I recommend this album still, for fans of Mayhem and just die-hard Black Metal fans, but I suggest skipping tracks 6, 7, 11, 12, and 13, and play song 5 at the end, because it's the ending the album should have had.

TL;DR 3.5/6

Storm Corrosion - Storm Corrosion

01. Drag Ropes

02. Storm Corrosion
03. Hag
04. Happy
05. Lock Howl
06. Ljudet Innan

Ok, so again, for the uninitiated.  Storm Corrosion is comprised of two of the greatest songwriters and musicians of the last couple of decades, Michael Akerfeldt of Opeth fame, and Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree fame.  These two have been long time friends and have lent to each others works over the years, Steven Wilson producing many Opeth albums and Michael helping Steven with some PT stuff.  Anyways, they decided that finally the two of them would collaborate on a project independent of their bands(other than drummer Gavin Harrison, from Porcupine Tree, who did the drumming on this album).

This album is kind of what I imagine a drug-induced coma to be like, in every positive sense of that statement.  It's dreamy, it's creepy, it's brooding, it's proggy, it's everything I love in a "chill" album.

Right from the get go you know it's going to be something special with the wonderful string harmony and the sirenesque vocals of Akerfeldt that bring you into "Drag Ropes".  The vocal work of both Akerfeldt and Wilson is Grade A in general and Grade A on this album, they fit the atmospheres perfectly.  Akerfeldt's vocals in "Drag Ropes" accent the creepy darkness of the off-tune notes that jar the dream-like atmosphere.  Wilson's vocals provide a relief from the darkness, and when used together with Akerfeldt's create a wonderful harmony.

From the slow creepy progression of "Drag Ropes" we move on to "Storm Corrosion", where Steven Wilson takes sole control of the vocals.  This piece is the perfect example of why I love Steven Wilson's voice and Akerfeldt's acoustic guitar work.  Everything about this song just lends to the image of sitting at a window in a dark room and watching the raindrops roll down the glass with the soft roll of thunder in the background.  (In fact this image could almost apply to the album as a whole, but especially on this track).  I've listened to this album probably 30 times since I got it and this song never fails to give me a shiver at some point in the listen through.

"Hag" continues with an almost heart-beat like bass rhythm that continues throughout the piece, pacing it like a steam-engine that just keeps on rolling, eventually hitting an aural hill of some of the only distorted guitar parts on this album.  Over the hill it continues, with flutes and the bass line, rolling on and on.  While not the most interesting track, it's still worth a listen, and keeps the album moving through it's midway point.
 

The least aptly named track, "Happy", is one of the more intriguing.  The vibe on this track is far from "Happy", with a very eerie harmony of Steven Wilson's vocals and what I think are Akerfeldt's falsetto vocals.  There is also a very discordant  kind of break, that leads into the main body of the song, which consists of more of Akerfeldt's beautiful acoustic guitar work and the meandering vocals of Wilson, intertwined with repeateded appearances of the eerie harmony from the beginning.  This track is beautiful, but disturbing, ending with some very odd industrial noises that kind of make you feel like you're staring uncomfortably long into the eyes of a mannequin, almost expecting it to blink.

"Lock Howl" may be my favourite song on the album, if not it's a close second to "Drag Ropes", I can't decide.  The track again begins with a kind of chugging acoustic guitar line which flows throughout the entire song.  There's more of the same wonderful vocals and guitar work here as in the rest of the album, but what makes it stand out happens about halfway through the track.  We encounter a section with a clapping rhythm and a guitar/flute section that is very reminiscent of moments on Opeth's "Ghost Reveries" album, which I also love.  The use of chimes and multiple layers of acoustic guitar on this track is just wonderful, and the flutes add a wonderful air of mystery to the whole thing.

"Ljudet Innan" is a kind of dissapointing end to the album.  I'm not going to say it's bad, but it could be better.  After all the wonderful work that went into tracks like "Drag Ropes" and "Lock Howl" it feels like they kind of just shit the bed on the outro and said "I dunno, we need another track, so let's just have Michael do some awkward falsetto and then kind of let this boring rhythm meander for ten minutes aimlessly to end it off?"  It does kind of have a bit of a Pink Floydy spacey vibe which some people could appreciate, but it just seems to go on forever and ever and does nothing interesting in the ten minutes it takes to end.

So, to sum up, I loved this album in (almost) it's entirety.  I've had it on repeat the entire evening and have no plans of turning it off anytime soon.  If you love Akerfeldt's softer work or really any of Steven Wilson's work you'll love "Storm Corrosion".  In terms of a rating, I'll give it 5/6, because that's how many tracks I loved off of this album.

RATING: 5/6

Gorod - A Perfect Absolution

01. Birds Of Sulphur
02. Sailing Into The Earth
03. Elements And Spirit
04. The Axe Of God
05. 5000 At The Funeral
06. Carved In The Wind
07. Varangian Paradise
08. Tribute of Blood

Ok, a little background for the uninitiated.  Gorod is a tech-death band from France that's always kind of stood apart from the pack in my opinion.  Ever since I heard their first album, Neurotripsicks, back in 2006 I was hooked.  Their trademark sound is comprised of very technical guitars intertwined between heavy bass chugging and excellently precise drumming.

Where to start with this album, well the vocals are a good place.  Guillaume Martinots death vocals are replaced by Julien "Nutz" Deyres on this latest album.  The first thing you'll notice is the range of different sounds in the vocal arsenal of Deyres.  A lot of the mainline vocals don't sound horribly different from what Martinot brought to the table, but there are lots of exceptions.  From the pig-squealy intro to "The Axe of God" to the low, spoken-word style vocals in "5000 at the funeral" to the excerpts of actual singing ( a rare instance for Gorod up till now) in a couple of the tracks it is clear that "Nutz" is a decent vocalist with a good range of tricks in his bag.

In terms of guitar work not much has changed since "Process of  a New Decline".  The guitars are technical as ever, without going into the realm of "technical masturbation" which is easy as hell for tech-death bands to fall into.  The thing I love about Gorod, and have loved ever since their first album is their songwriting ability.  The guitars flow with the song and help pull the pieces together, instead of just presenting meaningless chunks of riffing and chugging.  The bass guitar is just as detectable as the leads in the mix and it all just fits together so well.  A bunch of "trademark" riffs return from older albums as well, in certain songs, and you'll never doubt you're listening to a Gorod album.  

I've always used the term "groovy" to describe Gorod, and this album is just as "groovy" as anything else in their catalog.  Death metal DID in fact evolve from blues to a degree, and the bluesy groove has not been lost by Gorod.

Now, the crazy stuff, exactly why I love Gorod more than the other contenders in this crowded genre.  Gorod brings a lot more to the table than just chugga-chugga-riff-riff, and throw in some stuff that may make some metalheads go "what the fuck man?", but in the best way possible.  From the slow meandering bluesy riffs of pianos, guitars, and what I think is a cello at the beginning of "5000 at the funeral" to the wacky "Starsky and Hutch" style rattles and guitar wah-wah-ing and eventually what my brother referred to as "Death-Mamba" in the middle of the same track, with sounds that almost make you think you're headbanging in the Caribbean, Gorod never fails to amuse.  Throughout their discography you can grab little snippets of things that make you go "what?" and that's what I love the MOST about them.

My only complaints at all would be that some of the vocal work gets a bit boring at times, and as cool as the "Death-Mamba" and "Starksy and Hutch" stuff was, it was a little out of place.  I gotta say  something negative, don't I?

So, to conclude, this album definitely did not disappoint this long time Gorod fan, and even makes a great place to start for curious listeners.  This album is technical, but flows in a way many other tech-death bands could learn from.  Gorod is consistently improving, and have been with every album since their debut.  Definitely pick this one up if you're a fan of tech-death or just groovy metal in general.

RATING: 5/6

Intro

Well, here's the first post.  My name's Dave, I'm 23, from a small shitty town in central Canada, and I'm a music addict.  I listen to whatever I can get my hands on, from Black Metal to Folk Music, Punk Rock to Ambient Noise, Jazz to Rap, everything in between.

I have a lot of opinions when it comes to music, and I'd like to share them, thus I'm making a fucking review blog.

If anyone cares, Zushakon is a deity from Henry Kuttner's 1939 short story "The Bells of Horror", and is a gigantic, black, winged leviathan god that descends from the darkness and persuades through madness the unfortunate few who uncover his tomes to tear out their own eyes.  I've always liked the story and figured it was "kvlt and grim" enough for a blog that's mostly going to be metal.

So yeah, this shit will be updated from time to time when I feel like it, but don't expect any regularity, if anyone actually finds and reads this shit.