Black Hole are one of the earlier bands to latch onto that Sabbath sound and then morph it into something new with a heavy dosing of 70s prog rock influences, and Land of Mystery is almost a singular piece of inspiration from that mid-80s period where bands were more about the glam or intensifying heaviness that was being ushered in through the thrash metal, crossover and proto-death. I say 'almost', because we did have the Death SS and Paul Chain stuff, but this band definitely had their own style to it which has grown on me over the last several decades since I first heard it. No, this wasn't a record I picked up on its first run, but even in the earlier days of the internet metal buzz I remember it being referred to on numerous occasions and ultimately got a listen in.
This is definitely a spooky one due to all the sound effects and experimentation they use, in fact it does parallel the fellow Italian band Goblin if you sort of mashed them together with some old Sabbath. The vocals of 'Mysterious Future' Robert definitely emulate an Ozzy-like inflection, with some of the syllabic patterns similar, but the melodies and accent in the voice differentiate it, and he also plays around with it a lot more in the upper register, as if voicing different characters; and gets a pretty wistful, wasted sounding middle range when it tapers off. What really keeps it fresh though is how the instruments play along with it, both the guitars and bass are pretty intricate, the synthesizers, organs and pedalboard also play a bigger factor then you'd think. They'll just jam out on these little breaks as in the title track where all those instruments get to shine beyond the heaviness, and these are the parts in which you truly feel like you're in some old forgotten 'giallo' film being pursued by the mysterious killer and/or revelations.
They do have plenty of more evil, 'doom' riffs here as in "All My Evil" or "Blind Men and Occult Forces" which all might have appeared as B-sides from the Iommi camp a decade earlier, but even here there are embellishments like the creeping organs, elevated choir-like chants and that bass playing which felt like no other at the time outside of the prog rock. Another band I'd liken this one too would be the Japanese Flower Travellin' Band, they are a little more cinematic and instrumental and gave me more Iron Butterfly vibes, but I think fans of one of these would enjoy checking out the other. In fact, if you've got some patience, some love of any of the other groups I've mentioned here, or just old Italo horror soundtracks in general, then I would highly recommend giving your chance to experience this album. The songs are all aired out well, all 6+ minutes long, with interesting rhythmic breaks that give the impression of turbulent cinematic scenes, and it's genius enough that, had the band stayed the course, might have developed into something monolithic. They did reunite for some albums in 2000 and 2017, and they weren't bad, but a case of too little, too late. Land of Mystery was simply transcendent, but transcendent into a gloomy nether-realm of graveyards, demons, and masked necromancers.
Verdict: Epic Win [9/10]
https://www.facebook.com/blackholedarkdoom/
Monday, October 13, 2025
Black Hole - Land of Mystery (1985)
Tuesday, June 4, 2024
Armored Saint - Delirious Nomad (1985)
I can't paint as vivid a picture of Delirious Nomad as I could for the debut album, because I simply never got it until much later in life. I just never stumbled the cassette or record for this thing out in the wild, and had only heard of it, though I did remember the title itself sticking out in my mind as pretty unique. It might have been high school before a buddy of mine let me dub this, and I had already been reared on March of the Saint and Raising Fear, two albums that remain high up in my regards, so this one just felt like a transitional bridge between the two, not that they are so different themselves, but the songs here just didn't bury themselves into my memory quite like those. Nowadays, I have given this one more attention and come to appreciate it, though it's not the first Armored Saint disk I'm going to reach for.
The estimable Max Norman jumps on board to record and produce this one, and in a nutshell, it feels like a slightly more serious-toned sequel to March of the Saint, as if the band traded in their suits of armor for some work clothes, rolled up their sleeves and got to work. The musicianship and structure isn't a lot different, you've got mostly choppy mid-speed thumpers like "Conqueror", "Nervous Man" and the more atmospheric and moody "Aftermath" carrying most of the weight, but those are good enough, and to be fair there aren't any duds in the bunch, just a few that are easy to gloss over because they're not written with the most memorable chorus hooks or verse riffs. Some tracks like "In the Hole" remind me of a more melodic W.A.S.P. sans the lewdness and glam asshole attitude (which totally fit that band, don't get me wrong); and "For the Sake of Heaviness" doesn't quite live up to its namesake, but it's also a catchy song and you can't go wrong with the lyrics proselytizing its genre. Still hearing a lot of hard rock grit to the writing, almost like this band could have spun themselves off into something like L.A. Guns, from the same scene, but I think we're all happy they kept upping the irons instead.
The performances here are comparable to the debut, but I'd say Gonzo gets a little more thunderous with his fills, and Joey Vera definitely stands out a lot more, maybe not in the mix, but in the lines he's laying out; in fact I think this is the album where you can hear him becoming the bassist that would be so sought out later by other bands and projects. The guitar leads here are pretty solid, and John gets even dirtier than March of the Saint, growing a lot more comfortable with the style, and there aren't really any throwaway cheesy lines either. The production is still very resonant, very 80s, and maybe not as smooth as the debut, but just as clear and powerful. There's just something about these old records that feels so timeless and genuine against the more overproduced mixes of contemporary times, and you need to do very little tweaking or mastering to ensure its immortality, and once again, Armored Saint are not playing the heaviest stuff compared to other West Coast luminaries like Slayer or Metallica, but it still felt rebellious enough as an alternate to the later stuff of the British wave that was closing out around this time.
Of the first four Armored Saint records, this is my least favorite, but over time I've grown to dig it nearly as much as the debut, and it's for sure worth picking up if you enjoyed the surrounding records, though much as it didn't stand out for me, this one seemed to be overlooked often. Well-constructed, driving, honest heavy metal with more ironclad riffs and raving, distinct vocals...and a really douchey looking cover photograph which looks like a younger Guy Fieri if he was in the CIA or something?!
Verdict: Win [8/10]
https://www.armoredsaint.com/
Monday, February 5, 2024
Megadeth - Killing is My Business...and Business is Good! (1985)
Say what you will about the drama with Metallica that birthed this band, its status as arguably the most high profile 'revenge act' in metal, or the long and problematic history of one David Scott Mustaine. Even at a young age for me, it was obvious that this dude was going to make huge waves, not only for his distinction and talent as a guitarist, but the aura of sheer attitude that always surrounded him. From junior high to the real deal, he was one of the most often discussed musicians in the genre among not only my metal fan peers, but a larger audience of hard rock and glam fans whose underground dive went about as far as...Megadeth. So as I cover this debut, I'm not going to kick up a stink about what riff was taken from where, who wrote what, but just the work as it stands alone, and then maybe some meta-comparisons to Dave's alma mater.
Killing is My Business... was a fun, energized kick in the ass that was also a bit of a clutter, but excels when it hits its more accurate stride. While it exhibits a lot of the same roots as peers like Kill 'Em All or Show No Mercy, British-influenced heavy metal dirtied up in technique and meted out with a far nastier disposition, Dave's unique writing and riffing shines as something that you really hadn't heard on either of those seminal West Coast works. He's got a lot more game on the higher strings, and there's also a lot more of a hyper-bluesy groove on tracks like the titular "Killing", which certainly existed on tracks like "Jump in the Fire" or "The Antichrist", but it's in service to more complex, flashy rhythm guitars that characterize this band's sense of excess and indulgence. In many ways, this album serves as a prototype to one that you'd certainly have heard half a decade later, the same sense of finesse and momentum, but here the ore is just less processed and refined. Still, Dave in particular turned a lot of heads with this material, just because he was one of the most lethal six-stringers around at the time.
Now the leads here from Mustaine and Poland don't fare for me as well as the riffs themselves; they have that loose, frilly feel that you'd associate with Slayer and other early thrash bands, but even there I'm barely remembering the patterns or how they ever quite elevate anything else. They're functional and raw, but too straight-to-the-face with little payoff. It's the rhythm guitars that impress, but also the furious rhythm section, with some of David Eleffson's loosest and most effective playing mooring the whole production with a darker bottom end. Revisiting this once again, I have to say that I am also pretty floored by Gar Samuelson's work here, he's hitting the kit so hard that I feel like certain drums are about to fall off the thing, and yet it's well-controlled and pretty intense for 1985 with some nice kick and loads of strong fills. Mustaine's voice itself is already formed as a more nasally and angsty alternative to Hetfield's control, thriving in both that gravely constipated mid-pitch as well as the higher howls.
As far as the songs, I do think that not all the transitions are created equal, and occasionally there's a smidgeon of that clunkiness which can simply come with inexperience. For example I don't think the album starts out on its best foot...once "Loved to Deth" gets going, it has some magnificent riffs in between the verses, but the lurching rhythm of the verse itself seems a mess, and I also thought the "Last Rites" piano and guitar intro was really forgettable and the two don't complement each other in succession. That said, there is certainly foreshadowing in this track for betters to come, and once you get more into the 'meat' of the album, things become more consistent. "Killing...", "The Skull Beneath the Skin", "Rattlehead", "Chosen Ones", the atmospheric "Looking Down the Cross", and "Mechanix" make for quite a kickass 20-25 minutes, each of them also giving me prototype vibes in retrospect, but the opener doesn't always click with me, and I couldn't care less about the Nancy Sinatra cover beyond the fact that it does at least viably offer you that in a speed metal context. To be fair, it doesn't stand out too sorely from the originals, but it's a little goofy and unnecessary here. It's not nearly as cool as covering "Am I Evil?"...I had to say it.
So how does this hold up to the debut of Dave's previous associates? It's certainly more ambitious and advanced, even two years out, where Kill 'Em All toiled with its NWOBHM roots a little less glaringly as it began transmuting them into thrash. This was something more charged-up. Fresher. However, I've come to love every second of that 1983 masterpiece, it's one of my favorite Metallica records, whereas this one seems less consistent and something I'm less apt to revisit, especially if the choice is against some of Megadeth's later 80s material. It's certainly iconic, with the great cover photograph that introduces us to Vic Rattlehead, and belongs in a fan's collection, most of the tracks have plenty of rewarding replay value, but it's just not as seamless and developed as its successor. Also, perhaps an unpopular opinion, but I actually prefer The Final Kill remaster that dropped about a decade ago, I just dig the balance of the more muscular rhythm tone and vocals a little more than on this, but then again, that's not a deal breaker since this still holds its own. But if we're evaluating that version you might adjust my rating a few points upward.
Verdict: Win [8/10] (and I know just what to do)
https://www.megadeth.com/
Monday, July 12, 2021
Helloween - Helloween EP (1985)
Ah, the original EP with the green logo and the hideous face inside the smashed pumpkin. Helloween has evolved so much through it's 36 years that occasionally I forget just how good they were in the first place. In the middle of the 80s they were arguably aggressive as they'd ever be, and that was the rule, not the exception. Sure, they've had plenty of fast and comparable tracks throughout their catalog, but most of the stuff prior to Keeper of the Seven Keys gives off a vibe very similar to a lot of the other speed and thrash metal acts of the time, only with the catch that it was much more precise and I daresay even technical. I often liken this s/t EP to the earlier Exciter albums, or a lot of the old stuff populating the rosters of Combat, Noise and Metal Blade, only Helloween played it faster and with a virtuosity that was dizzying when I was a kid.
It's not always going all-out in the mph department, but the 27 minutes rarely ever let up, whether it's the frenetic and head-spinning of "Starlight" and "Murderer" or the trotting Maiden-on-Crank of "Warrior", the last of which sets up a lot more Gamma Ray than you'd think. I'd say for most people, "Victim of Fate" is the best known track here, it's certainly got the catchiest chorus with the vocals that shift into that scream, and then that mellower breakdown (again, very Maiden) with the whispers, but this one's not much less savage than its neighbors, just a fraction more melodic and built to be the classic that it has become. "Cry for Freedom" is also worthy, the soft intro escalating into another frenzied melodic piece with the great chorus vocal accompanying the shrieking. Obviously one of the most distinct features here was the vocal ability of Kai Hansen, who had this pinched, nasally timbre, with plenty of range to it, but definitely rough around the edges and coming across almost as psycho as stuff Slayer in the day. His narrative stuff is also a treat as he's snarling and growling out the lines before the bluesy lead busts out in "Victim of Fate"; another trait he'd use again in his post (and pre-) Helloween output...
Most people forever equate the band with Michael Kiske due to his presence on their breakout albums, and Andi Deris has had his lengthy and iconic presence within the roster, but it's hard for me to put either of their styles above Kai's...nd when you add his incredible guitar playing and songwriting abilities? Fo'get about it. Kai is the True Metal God+++ of the Helloween canon, and there couldn't be a stronger initial exhibition of that than this EP. That's not to say the others are slouches...Michael Weikath matches his playing quite well, and contributes to the writing. Markus has always been a bassist's bassist, playing to the song but managing to get a few hints of his own skill level, and poor Ingo was highly energized here with fast beats and fills that support all the mayhem. Like so much of the material put out during the 80s, this one sounds eternal, I don't think it has aged at all as I listen through it again; Helloween remains just as exciting and 'next level' and awe-inspiring as I felt when I was a kid, and its still as great a place to start as any in their catalogue.
Verdict: Epic Win [9.25/10]
https://www.helloween.org/
Thursday, June 3, 2021
Helloween - Walls of Jericho (1985)
To try and drive home just how great Walls of Jericho was at the time it was taken off the leash, take a look at what else was going on that same year in traditional European metal. You had Running Wild's Branded and Exiled, Warlock's Hellbound, Grave Digger's Witch Hunter, and Stormwitch with Tales of Terror. All albums I dig, by bands I dig, one of which would even go on to put out a couple albums worship even more than anything Helloween has done, if you can believe that...but not in 1985. When I compare this record to anything sort of the outbreak of thrash metal around the same time, they almost all fall flat, whether it's that German scene of the time of heavy metal abroad. The iconic cover artwork, still one of their finest to this day, makes a great analogy for this album running up against the others in its field. There's both a raw intensity and level of songwriting polish here that must have been the envy of so many other metal gods in its day, and an atmosphere that one just doesn't simply forget...I will be in 2' wide, 6' deep afterlife and my skeleton will still be jabbering out "Ride the Sky" until it becomes dust.
Amusingly enough, while the style is largely comparable to the EP preceding it that spring, I'd say they had already lost a fraction of intensity. Not that the results are any less well-written or well-rounded, but there's clearly a more grounded approach that flirts more with conventional metal rhythms and then spins them off in its own direction with Kai's vocals, a sparse and effective use of keyboards, and a lot of fist pumping anthems like "Reptile" to go along with the EP-level onslaught of "Ride the Sky" or "Metal Invaders". The bass playing here is off the chart for its time, clearly Grosskopf was a fan of Steve Harris and Geddy Lee, who really made the instrument count, and Markus is all over this thing, and ever curve he takes, every fill STICKS THE LANDING. The drums might not have gotten as extreme as what was starting to emerge out of the newer, more sinister underground sub-genres, but Ingo Schwichtenberg sounds like a living storm, and when you combine the high impact percussion with that washed out 80s style of atmosphere created through the reverb and recording process of the time, Walls of Jericho just has a magic about it that isn't produced much if at all these days, one that's really only present in some of the formative works of other German power, speed and thrash metal acts like Rage, Paradox, Scanner, etc. This is one of the records that put Harris Johns on the map, and deservedly so, because the guy just had an ear for keeping metal honest and vicious without leeching it of its melodic potential.
The album is nowhere near as dynamic as its two better-known successors, but that's alright, this is the one you turn to when you want the molten steel Helloween and not the radio-ready version. It's like a more hyperactive Iron Maiden, all sped up but using the same penchant for triplets and melody, with this anthemic side to it which would prove almost as influential as the English legends. Certainly you take a track like "Ride the Sky" or "Guardians" and there are like a million other bands that would go out hunting for those same exact styles of chorus builds, only they'd probably lay on the cheese with more orchestration and a more 'professional' sounding singer. But that's another thing that stands out, beyond his excellent guitar playing, Kai Hansen's nasally, unique vocals. Plenty of range, but he sounds like he's a soldier battling his way through the apocalypse. I mean Andi Deris can get fairly aggressive with his own style later on, but Kai's just had an 'attack' to them, when merged with the meaner sounding riffs, that really immortalized him, and that aesthetic does persist with his own band Gamma Ray; he's awesome in general, but the nastier and more intense the riffs, the better the voice works.
People...this album has a badass song about a fucking PINBALL MACHINE from 1979...do I have to say anything more? They also took the intro from the Silver Shamrock "Happy Happy Halloween" jingle, which is based on "London Bridge is Falling Down". How cool is that for myself and the other fifteen people on Earth who enjoy Halloween III: Season of the Witch? What I'm essentially getting at is that anyone who doesn't like Walls of Jericho is not your friend, and you should not trust them.
Verdict: Epic Win [9.5/10]
https://www.helloween.org/
Thursday, May 17, 2018
Headstone - Excalibur (1985)
It does not hurt that Excalibur opens with an epic synth piece in that cinematic, cheesy but reverent Tangerine Dream fashion which immediately tempers expectations towards full-on escapism. You are suddenly in a land where 'some moistened bint lobs a scimitar at you', ready to clash against foul witchery and steel-clad traitors. Now, I won't promise you that the metal content of the album lives up to this intro, but it definitely doesn't disappoint all that much in terms of power and volume. I will note that the rhythm section here is so dramatically improved over Burning Ambition...the bass lines are pumping and actually important to many of the tunes, especially when "Burnt in Ice" erupts from the synthesizer intro. The drums sound far more forceful, potent, and provide a bedrock of electric energy over which the rhythm guitars can charge alone. Granted, while the riffs themselves are more mighty than those of the debut...thicker and delivered with authority, they are still rather generic even by the standards of their day, and not often catchy or interesting unto themselves. But as a part of the 'whole package' deal of Excalibur, they are for sure functional and will get your head banging. The vocals also sound better because they are mixed at a better level against the guitars, where you can make out their pitch and strength but not some of their flaws.
Still getting a higher pitched Klaus Meine impression, but also they reminded me a lot of the Dave King performance on the Trick of Treat soundtrack by Fastway, which is a good thing because I rather enjoy much of that album. He also pulls off some really shrill screams in parts that give you the impression he could achieve a Halford-ish range if he put some work in...although his voice is not quite that unique or impressive in general. What's even better is that the songs here are fluid and consistent, mostly paced at the same fist-bumping and stadium bench-stomping speed, and dowsed in that same washed-out atmosphere which I thought was one of the strong points of the debut. But this is just such a mightier representation of Headstone that one should simply ignore Burning Ambition and head straight for this if you're able to find one of the reissues and have an interest in this scene and period of trad metal. Even the ballad here, "Well of Love", with its slightly medieval feel, is a boost over its counterpart on the debut. It's not without a few flaws and a lot of predictable riffs, and doesn't quite place with German's top tier metal acts of its day, but if you're into the archaeological quest for atmospheric obscurities that can transport you back to that nostalgia beating at the strings of your heart, or you're younger and pine for that feel you get from the 80s records and films, this one is a satisfactory swan song for an act that nobody ever seems to have been listening to.
Verdict: Win [7.75/10]
Friday, September 22, 2017
Witch - Salem's Rise (1985)
In fairness, this record is a lot less crude than I thought it would be from looking at it. That's not to say that I hate its cover artwork, as it exudes a certain type of base nostalgia and charm around this time of year; but there's no denying that it looks like a high school project; the wispier hair of its subject almost at odds with the finer detail of its eyes and eyebrows, I am almost reminded of DC's Klarion the Witch Boy character if he were a little older, high and paranoid off a fat spliff, and having a disagreeable hair day. But it's got the pentagram straight in the bottom center, the primitive logo and title which look like they were some attempt at stenciling an old English font, and perhaps its most important detail, the Eargasm Productions iconography in its bottom left corner. Ugly as sin, indeed, but all things considered, transports me back to a time in which I'd scribble and color witches and warlocks from my 1st edition AD&D adventures into my notebooks, which, coincidentally, was around the same time this album dropped.
Musically, I was fairly impressed by how polished Salem's Rise is sounding, especially when you consider the limited resources and distribution, and lower budget that must have gone into this. The guitar tone is clear and workmanlike, the bass-lines throbbing and evident, and the percussion has a nice, old school sound to it which pops along with the rhythm guitars. Leads are simple but chosen well, and just bright enough to remain distinct from the backdrop. Vocals are well represented in the mix, and in strict adherence to the practices of their era, placed much in the forefront of the album, especially when you consider that they are hands down the weakest component of the recording. At best, you're getting blue collar, bar-band level quality which wouldn't have stood a chance in hell against the charismatic greats of the 80s, but even prove lackluster in terms of honest hometown, homegrown heavy metal, a mid-range, ambition-less delivery which becomes all the goofier when the singer 'Ace' tries to pitch out a few screams. He's not particularly terrible, and certainly knows how to frame a chorus, but he's just never interesting enough to remember here.
Another flaw on the recording is in its mild stylistic consistencies. Much of the music is a laid back heavy metal or hard rock style redolent of Judas Priest, Steppenwolf and Accept, if lacking the punch and power of the band's precursors. Occasionally, though, some sleazier, lame duck rock groove pollutes the tracks as in "Beckon", which is also one of the tunes where the vocals are experimented with a lot more and sound corny as hell, especially where he seems a little unable to finish hitting the pitch while belting out the song title in the chorus. They also experiment with a little of the proggy synths circa early Ozzy, as on "Will I See You Tonight", but once again the music is spoiled by the higher pitched vocals whose reach cannot exceed their grasp. Salem's Rise is the sound of a band just getting its feet wet, not quite positive where it's going to end up, and there's a lack of confidence and delivery that drag it well below the hidden gem category, not to mention that, even at their most functional, the riffs are just nothing special whatsoever in a year which produced works like Metal Heart, Branded & Exiled, Walls of Jericho and The Specter Within.
I was drawn to check out the record years ago by its potential theme, however, since I'm a huge fan of cult horror, and the band definitely seems to share this passion with anthems of monsters, mythology, and black magic, with subjects ranging from "Loki" and "Lady Medusa" to "Teen of Darkness" and the title track. The bad new is that, beyond the titles and lyrics and the fact that it's heavy metal in the first place, it just doesn't cultivate these topics well enough, or the vocals are just so vapid in their delivery that they ruin the rest, such as the peppy doom grooves of "Salem's Rise" itself, or the pitch issues in closer "Something Evil", which otherwise is perhaps the strongest song on the album. It's never capable of cashing in on its nostalgia with creepy melodies or atmospheres, or evil sounding lyrical lines, and ultimately there's just so little point to listening to when I could just spin Fatal Portrait or Love You to Pieces for the millionth time each and be infinitely more engaged.
Witch was not complete garbage, though, and there are clearly dreams, ideas, and riffs here which with further molding and a better front man might have developed into something cult. There are thousands of such records out there by bands who met for a couple years, in a garage, in a basement, in an attic loft, a studio space, and riffed out some heavy fucking metal, smoked and drinked, played for their friends, their ladies, their dudes, and lived it...if just for a little while, during the Golden Age of the medium. And, whatever their flaws, whatever hurdle they couldn't leap, you can't ever take that away from them. Why would you?
Verdict: Indifference [5/10]
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Voivod - War and Pain (1985)
To claim that War and Pain feels underdeveloped compared to later records like Killing Technology, Angel Rat or Nothingface would be an understatement, because this is the antithesis of eloquence and experimentation. This music is not about progression, it's about abuse. Though drummer Away's unique artistic perspective and the hostile, post-apocalyptic lyrics set it apart from quite a number of other speed, thrash or crossover records of its day, you could say Voivod had a lot in common with bands like Cryptic Slaughter and Corrosion of Conformity just as much as it mirrored Venom or Slayer. In fact, despite the fact that the Canadians incorporate a bruising NWOBHM shuffle to some of the riffs here in tracks like "Suck Your Bone" or "War and Pain" itself, with a few heavier muted metal passages, this is pretty much a punk album, with simplistic chord patterns that are half the time predictable, half the time spinning off into something more unusual. Mad Max anarchy unfolds throughout the track list, but then there seems to be that added edge of ambition and musicianship which separated the two strains of extremity.
But, as crude as this debut felt, even for the year of its release, there is something tangibly charming about the Canadians. For one, the vocals of Snake here were intense, placing a strained, growling edge on that post punk inflection he would hone through the rest of the band's career (1987 and beyond). The bass is far more prominent and repulsive than most punk music, making it feel more like a caustic, ghetto grind. The guitar tone is quite choppy here, and really the whole album feels like a mess, but there was already something about Piggy's playing that set him apart. The leads in tunes like "War and Pain" were more or less your average blues wailing, but then he'd explode off into other techniques that were more redolent of an Eddie Van Halen if he had been soaked in rust and radiation. The overall aesthetic to the album is one of anger and darkness, it never feels bright or even remotely enthusiastic, but there are a few more psychedelic passages like the end of the title track, or the echoed intro to "Voivod" itself" which foreshadow the band's future.
War and Pain is a great record to throw on if you're in the mood for something unfettered by the burdens of polish and professionalism. I actually like to shuffle these tunes in a playlist with Corrosion of Conformity's Animosity, Repulsion's Horrified, and selections from the Misfits, GBH, The Exploited, maybe some early stuff from The Accused; a giant, splatterific, Cold War terror and gore grinding punk-metal paean that really stirs up the blood. It's also got some parallels to Venom's first few records in terms of just that raw level of theatrical aggression, not to mention the bass-driven foundation for the songs is highly similar to that of the mighty Motörhead. I don't want to deceive anyone, though, this is pure primacy compared to even the band's sophomore Rrröööaaarrr, and I'm far more of a fan of their 1987-1989 material than anything else. That said, I've grown to appreciate this debut forever for its repugnant innocence, bleak world view and utter disregard for subtlety and taste. The 3-CD reissue from 2004 is fucking phenomenal, packed with live demos, videos, and whatever you'd want from this period other than locks of Blacky's hair.
Verdict: Win [8.25/10] (no gods give you the guts)
http://www.voivod.net/
Monday, September 10, 2012
Savatage - Power of the Night (1985)
Some accused this album very early on of being a 'sellout' which veered a little too closely to the more mainstream hard rock sounds of its day, but I find the notion to lack some credibility, since there were already some similar riffing patterns on the older releases, not to mention the cheesy sex lyrics. Of course, Power of the Night seems rather obsessed with the subject, with the pole-dancing Zeppelin-esque rock of "Hard for Love" with its melodic backing chorus vocals; or the smutty speed metal of "Skull Session", or the corpse-copulating grooves of "Necrophilia", but what do all three of these songs have in common? They're actually pretty goddamn catchy, as much as I might cringe to admit it (in the case of "Hard for Love") when I hear a line like 'I like when we move faster/that's why I'm gonna blast ya!'. And it's not like there aren't a handful of the more 'serious' songs here which have similarly goofy lyrics. 'Raise the fist of the metal child', indeed. Despite the estimable camp, though, Power of the Night seems pretty heartfelt, a misty, midnight street alternative to Sirens' claustrophobic sewer catacombs.
Thanks to the crisp mix, Criss Oliva's guitars absolutely smolder here through both the rhythm licks and the incendiary leads, both of which seem to have developed quite nicely from the earlier records. Guitar tone in general is far easier to follow than the clunkier production of Sirens, and where the grooves merge with Jon's keyboards in pieces like "Unusual", the album is genuinely creepy, or at least it seemed that way in the mid 80s. Collins' bass lines are more standout here, and 'Doc's' drums also delivered in a better ratio to the vocals and rhythm guitars, but the brothers Oliva are still the champions here, whether they're lashing out the dirty stripper-pole grooves in "Stuck On You" or the street fighting overtures of "Warriors". Influences run the gamut from Queen (intro to "Warriors") to Judas Priest ("Washed Out"), and each of the tunes has a readily defined, distinct chorus sequence which separates it from the rest. You also get an early incarnation of the band's 'rock opera' here: "In the Dream"; once more smacking of Queen, and my least favorite on this album, but certainly a premonition for much of the material on Gutter Ballet or Streets.
All told, I still find the album pretty irresistible thanks to the songwriting, production, and perhaps most importantly, the guitar playing. It's as sincere as it looks, a metal gauntlet thrust through a sheet of glass beneath a chrome-tinted logo. The riffing in tunes like "Power of the Night" or "Unusual" is unforgettable, and I can recall weeks of going through these old Savatage records and learning the individual licks, so enamored was I to Criss' sense of flare and style. This was one of Max Norman's earlier metal records, along with the work he was doing with Japan's Loudness, and he really brought the group out of the Dark Ages so you could really appreciate their ample wizardry. I can understand how a few fans might have found this dry, or less inspired than The Dungeons Are Calling, but if you don't mind a little mix of 70s and 80s hard rock influence in your bowl of metal flakes, and a few amusing, dated lyrical passages, there's no reason not to join in the fun. Not their best, perhaps, but I'd easily take this over anything else they've released in the past 20 years and change.
Verdict: Win [8.25/10] (the witch has been conceived)
http://www.savatage.com/
Monday, September 3, 2012
Razor - Evil Invaders (1985)
Don't misunderstand me, the sheer velocity and the vocal inflection between the first two records were close enough that the band could easily interchange songs in any set list and satisfy the same crowd of followers, but unlike their countrymen Exciter, whose evolution never really veered away from the primal speed/power metal sphere, Razor made a quick career course correction which they continued to hone until their 'artistic' peak, 1988's unforgettable, chainsaw wielding Violent Restitution, a record so swollen with violent, ripping acceleration and pent up, everyman gallantry that it's one of the best in its entire field. Of course, while Evil Invaders is a much beloved record in the underground, due largely to its formative and 'cult' placement in the thrash pantheon, I constantly find myself comparing it to that later effort, and that has somewhat crippled my appreciation. For all its strengths, this sophomore feels like a foreshadowing of that stronger effort to come, and on a song to song basis, it also fell short of Executioner's Song. Tracks like "City of Damnation", "Fast and Loud", and "Take This Torch", among many others on the debut, have resonated with me for decades, whereas this song gets substantially less airplay beyond a handful of cuts.
Nonetheless, Evil Invaders is feral and fun, as any of the Razor albums with Stace 'Sheepgod' McLaren fronting Dave Carlo's monstrous riffing section. For me, it was this duo that really 'made' the band's style something special. While competent, and even consistent, the later records with the Bob Reid vocals have never had a fraction of the same charm. McLaren's delivery is basically a blunt barking (thus the nickname) in a low to mid-register, which occasionally veers off into screaming, like those nasty bits in the bridge of "Legacy of Doom". He's not incapable of carrying a melody, but the emphasis here is always on percussive intonation that brings the music straight to the butcher block. To the dingy city streets. Cigarette-smogged nightclubs.Vomit-strewn drunk tank jail cells. Paired with Carlo's blustering, chunky tone, which moves so quickly that the distortion almost feels like it can't catch up here, you've got a pretty destructive foundation for some flying axe handles, stage dives and body slams in the audience. Though the band's sheer dexterity was roughly on par with Exodus, Destruction, Slayer and other titans of the time, the inebriated grime of this record reminds me more of the first two Venom records, the Indestroy debut, Hallows Eve or fellow Canadian scum Piledriver.
"Evil Invaders" itself is one of tracks I most enjoy here, opening with a pretty filthy mid-paced stock speed metal riff before picking up frenzy with its splattered, thrashing verses that almost exhibit a modicum of crossover influence. "Iron Hammer" is the band's own "Iron Fist", or "Iron Dogs" (Exciter), or "Iron Gang" (Voivod), with some punk-injected bass lines setting up a frothing, vicious frenzy. Other favorites include the mighty "Cut Throat" and the excellent "Tortured Skull", both of which are loaded with the sorts of ferocious, adept riffing passages that would later dominate Violent Restitution. Carlo's speed picking is simply intense throughout, with pretty powerful muting skills, so I can imagine the guy must have had quite the crushing grip. The leads harbor that same wild-as-fuck aesthetic that bands like Slayer had helped pioneer, never all that memorable, but suited to the raucous songwriting; and drummer 'M-Bro' is likewise a beast, laying out the splashes and crashes with a raw, hardcore pileup fervor. The one instrument which doesn't always shine is the bass, since it often just sort of subsists on the guitar progressions, but there are points where he's given his time to stand alone.
There are a handful of weaker tracks throughout the album which definitely limited its value, not the least of which is the opening mosh instrumental "Nowhere Fast" (another strategy the band would refine for the far better Violent Restitution and its intro "The Marshall Arts"), or the closer "Thrashdance" which has a less interesting riff count than its neighbors. Ultimately, though, if you're looking for speed and abuse, I won't deny that this hits paydirt. Not my favorite of their works, clearly, but strong enough that I'd place only its predecessor and Violent Restitution above it. Razor makes the slight, but successful transition here to a more lethal level of muscle and hostility, providing a burlier atmosphere than Execution's Song, but to some degree losing some of those killer choruses that lashed themselves to your ears. A damn good record for the 80s thrasher to cherish, with its Terminator-inspired cover, but not nearly as amazing as its high cult status might lead one to believe.
Verdict: Win [8.25/10] (death deception in the night)
http://come.to/the.razor.pages
Monday, July 2, 2012
Overkill - Feel the Fire (1985)
Where the East Coast was largely recognized for its prominent hardcore scene, from which many of the emergent thrash acts took a shovelful of influence, Overkill seemed to mirror early Anthrax in that they drew more heavily on a slew of NWOBHM influences like Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, and Motörhead. I'm sure they rubbed elbows with a lot of punk and NYHC groups at gigs and by the virtue of their native geography. Clearly they enjoyed the stuff, since several of them came from underground punk groups and their stage names were often tributes to that field. They also included a cover of the Dead Boys' "Sonic Reducer" as a finale, but rarely on this album do I feel like the influence leaves too much of an imprint. Most of the chord progressions, triplets, and leads seem to be hail directly from across the pond, and while there's a bit of a hardcore surge behind a tune like "There's No Tomorrow", they don't integrate such aesthetics as consistently as, say, Nuclear Assault. Then again, the band's violent and inspirational lyrics and relative street savvy ensured that they could be taken seriously by either the longhairs or the skins, because they simply oozed the sort of urban unrest city dwellers could relate to.
Strangely enough, it wouldn't even matter all that much to me what most inspired the guitars, because despite the fact that Bobby Gustafson had some killer riffs and fun leads across the first four records, it is the vocals and bass that have always stood out to me as the most prevalent elements in Overkill's sound. Bobby 'Blitz' chews this terrain up like a hellfire-powered garden tiller, evincing more personality out of his performance than you'd hear out of a half dozen other singers. I suppose a baseline comparison might be drawn to Bruce Dickinson, in terms of the operatic angst in his mid register, but where the Iron Maiden front man always favored solid, climactic melodies, Ellsworth zips and zags like some passive/aggressive lunatic let off the leash at your local madhouse. He screams, he laughs, he mock the listener like some capricious, petulent imp that even the devil wanted nothing to do with, booting the critter on up to mortal purgatory. In any other situation besides an energetic explosion of thrash, you might wanna strangle Blitz, but in the context of Overkill it makes for genuine, enthusiastic entertainment.
In particular, I'd point out the scream near the end of "Raise the Dead" or the barks of "There's No Tomorrow", as examples of such unrestrained, feral inflection, but he's also pretty good at retching out these more melodic, unnerving lines as with "Kill at Command", and Overkill are no stranger to using backups, gang shouts and chants like a horde of thugs about to go at you with switchblades, broken bottles and spiked chains. Perhaps his most common technique is to instantly shift pitch within a line, like an agitated housewife having a meltdown on her significant other when he gets home from work. Add to this the volatile and unapologetic mesh of horror, street wisdom and domestic violence in the lyrics and you've got a beating you will not soon forget. The line in "Feel the Fire" where he shouts 'there's nothing I despite more...than a bitch!' gets me every time...chilling and hilarious in equal measure.
D. D. Verni also makes his mark on this thing with a clearly Steve Harris-inspired bevy of blunted bass lines which pop and bounce along at about the same level of power as the rhythm guitar. Similar to Dan Lilker, he ensured that his generally underestimated instrument would retain a voice in this niche, and it really adds a course and clamoring power to the proceedings (like the buzzing fills in "Feel the Fire" itself), even though this is not the best produced of their records. The guitar tone, admittedly, could have used some more meat on its bones, an issue I also have with the s/t EP, but when multiple tracks or leads are implemented it does seem to improve. In general, though, even where Gustafson mixes it up between surgical chugging patterns, chords and tempos, the riffs here are not one of the album's strongest points. They rule in a classic like "Rotten to the Core", "Second Son" and "Hammerhead", but elsewhere they feel like mere reconfigurations of the writing off earlier British records. That said, the processed distortion of the guitar, which reminds me also of early Savatage, at least feels fresh and punchy.
I could go either way on Rat Skates' drums here, which are solid, snappy and belligerent but occasionally a bit of a mess (like the intro fill before "Raise the Dead" kicks in, it just never sat well with me). Once the band gets rocking, he sounds fine, but I think they might have been mixed a little loudly throughout and the tom fills often detract from the guitars. In all, the production to this record doesn't evoke the same level of nostalgia in me that other dirtier speed/thrash records of this period did, like the Canadian trifecta of Razor (Executioner's Song), Exciter (Long Live the Loud) or Piledriver (Metal Inquisition) that also came out in 1985, but Feel the Fire is still pretty authentic and dark. I also like the touches of atmosphere the band incorporated to create a cheesy 80s horror miasma, like the percussion and heart beat leading off "Raise the Dead" or the 'creepy' riffing and wind that heralds the first chapter in their eponymous saga "Overkill".
All told, pretty great fucking record. I don't enjoy all the songs or individual riffs equally, but anchored by the storming and maniacal presence of Bobby 'Blitz', this is an album that spent several years in rotation in the tapedecks of myself and numerous friends. Personally, I prefer Taking Over for the more face ripping and explosive chorus sequences, not to mention the more muscular production and construction of the guitars, but I'd certainly take this over anything the band has released beyond the 80s. My attention was drawn more towards Hell Awaits, Bonded By Blood, and those Canadian speed metal records I mentioned above, not to mention Fates Warning's The Specter Within, quite possibly the greatest East Coast metal record of that decade, but Feel the Fire was wholly reliable to stir the blood and help induce puberty.
Verdict: Win [8.5/10] (laughing as you bleed)
http://wreckingcrew.com/Ironbound/
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Lizzy Borden - Love You to Pieces (1985)
On the other hand, as a METAL band, Love You to Pieces elevated the quintet into one of the best West Coast outfits of its type. Thrash might have been in session by this time, with groups like Metallica, Exodus, Possessed and Slayer taking off, but Lizzy had fully capitalized on the Give 'Em the Axe material with richer, vibrant production values and stronger songwriting, mindful of keeping an 'edge' of aggression here which could cleanly delineate them from the sissy leather 'n lace hard rock acts they paralleled in appearance. This might not be the pinnacle of intricacy for their craft, but a damn fine full-length debut which manages to distinguish itself on nearly every track, while further expanding the ideas and atmosphere manifest in the first two years of their existence. For a band so known by its front man's presentation and piercing timbre, the music is remarkably well structured and delivered, dramatic and explosive enough to place them in the ranks of other hopefuls like Savage Grace, Omen and Liege Lord.
You've got thundering speed metal like "Council for the Caldron" in which the hammering of the drums and the glass ceiling of Borden's vocal patterns create an eloquent and unexpected contrast through which the raving guitar licks and glorious shredding burst like a dragster running laps and burning tires. The emotional and livid desperation of "Warfare" with its flowing melodic chords and unforgettable chorus. If Iron Maiden or the 'Ryche had released that song, it might have generated a hit single, but Lizzy was just too far down on the totem pole. "American Metal" is another barnstormer, a cheesy and effective mid paced anthem slung with microscopic speed licks, eminent percussion and excellent notation building to its sing-a-long climax, and some of the wildest screams the front man had yet pulled off. As laugh out loud as the lyrics might seem, I also really enjoy the music for "Flesheater", while "Godiva" returns to that rapid fire pacing of the opener.
Borden is almost outclassed by his guitarists Gene Allen and Tony Matuzak here, both returning from the EP (alongside the rhythm section). There is constantly some frenetic, playful pattern erupting somewhere above or below the primary chords, or they'll just let the strings resonate atmospherically. This expresses a level of ambition rarely scene out of the borderline glam/metal crowd, and it gives Love You to Pieces this almost incessant replay value which, 27 years later stills seems to hold up. The bass is great, well separated from the six-stringers and Harges' drumming is loaded with fills and muscle that place him well beyond your standard Strip basher. The only caveat to the album is that there are one or two tunes, like "Save Me" or the evolving, titular power ballad which don't seem nearly as catchy as their neighbors.
There were better records in its class for 1985, like Fates Warning's masterpiece The Specter Within or Helloween's vicious melodic speed metal relic Walls of Jericho, but outside of the cover art, there's a true sense of timelessness here which continues to thrill and entertain well beyond the predicted expiration date. I wouldn't say I prefer it to Lizzy's flawless 1987 effort Visual Lies or the ensuing rock opera Master of Disguise, but it's got long legs to stand on and I return to this far more often than the sophomore.
Verdict: Win [8.75/10] (you can't walk out on me now)
http://www.lizzyborden.com/
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Heavy Load - Monsters of the Night (1985)
"Monsters of the Night" is another horror party track, with an opening not unlike that of the title cut from Stronger Than Evil. Unlike "Thriller", or Tankard's "Zombie Attack", this one seems to think it can get by on having almost no interesting riff patterns and a bunch of cheesy effects of wolves howling, creeking doors, decrepit grunts, 80s hard rock synthesizers and a fuck ton of shout along vocals that too often drown out the significance of the lead singer. But really this is about as close as the Swedes every got to bland mainstream rock radio and it's a complete waste of time. The other piece, "I'm Alive" sounds like the bastard child of Black Sabbath's "Neon Knights" and Golden Earring's "Radar Love", perhaps too much so. Uplifting heavy/ power metal, sure, but once more we're dealing with a derivative and weak guitar progression and vocals that are hardly as inspiring as what we experienced on Death or Glory and Stronger Than Evil.
The real tragedy is that this was put out as a 7" through the Warner group, so Heavy Load was possibly on the brink of breaking into the bigger market at last, but for whatever reason, label pressure or just a personal choice, they decided to move in a more banal and mass audience friendly direction not unlike Quiet Riot, or other bands who walked the margin between hard rock and heavier metal, but the results would prove mediocre at best, miserable at worst, and not a fond farewell from a band so capable of greater. To their credit, they probably realized this themselves.
Verdict: Fail [4.75/10]
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Heavy-Load/209514325984
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Grim Reaper - Fear No Evil (1985)
Otherwise, Fear No Evil is pretty much anything you liked about See You In Hell, only sounding a whole lot slicker and more appropriate. The raw volume of the guitars has been dialed back to really fit the drums, and they were approaching a level of quality fit to the hard rock and 'eavy metal bands like Def Leppard and Iron Maiden that were the more smashing successes of this particular scene. More importantly, Grimmett had improved as a vocalist between 1983 and 1985, with a more delicate restraint to his vocals overall, but still not afraid to shout his damned lungs out where it feels more appropriate, and some better proportioned screams. The simpler chord progressions remained, tempered with a fraction of chugging heaviness ("Fear No Evil") and Bowcott's knack for screaming, classy little melodies like the tapping intro to "Never Coming Back", lead in the bridge of "Lord of Darkness (Your Living Hell)" or the gleaming neo-power metal that inaugurates "Lay It On the Line".
The riffs were still very much in line with what was hip and hot in its day. For instance, "Matter of Time" is similar to something like "Breaking the Law", and a lot of other note progressions are similar to the "Neon Knights" style Black Sabbath, Judas Priest circa 1980-1984 or even a dash of Holy Diver or Accept's Metal Heart. Well enough written, but nothing exemplary or all that unique. In fact, I feel like Grim Reaper were relying pretty heavily on the personality of Grimmett to carry the band. The rhythm section here sort of follows alongside the guitar, the bass sounding a little less noticeable than even the debut, but never standing out despite the better production values. Wherever Bowcott flexes a little creativity and rises to the fore, the music becomes admittedly more interesting, but even though songs like "Fear No Evil", "Lay It On the Line" and the ripping "Fight for the Last" are among their best, this is still not top shelf material during that whole NWOBHM period which was being subsumed by the faster, more aggressive genres like speed and thrash that were taking over in the mid 80s.
No outright terrible tracks, but certainly "Rock and Roll Tonite" feels a little limp with the lame chorus cycle. I'm also not that fond of the closer "Final Scream", since the vocals seem a lot less memorable or inspired than the rest of the album. The other seven, however, are about as tight as Grim Reaper would ever sound, and ultimately I think Fear No Evil edges out its followup Rock You to Hell in terms of its sum strengths. This was good enough to get the band onto a bigger label (RCA), but not enough to place them among the ranks of their more recognizable countrymen. It's also decidedly less 'cheesy' than the other albums, beyond the cover art, since nothing here seems quite so awkward as "Suck It and See" or "The Show Must Go On". Just some solid, relatively consistent heavy metal and still fun to break out once in a while.
Verdict: Win [7.75/10] (fear will take you when it likes)
http://www.myspace.com/thestevegrimmettbandgrimreaper
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Exciter - Feel the Knife EP (1985)
"Feel the Knife" is more or less a song that feels as if it were recorded at the same time as those of Long Live the Loud, but for whatever reason, whether it was set aside for promotional and commercial purposes or just not good enough to overcome a sense of redundancy with its neighboring creations, it wound up here. Thick, pummeling speed metal with some competent if not memorable riffing and Dan Beehler's new focus on screaming out nearly all his lines. Like the full-length, Ricci's lead here shows a more seasoned burst of activity than the spurious passages strewn about Heavy Metal Maniac, but it also doesn't really distinguish itself beyond its blazing blues base and frenzied antipathy. In short: I don't really think this was worth basing an entire release around, and it might have served just as well on the intended full-length.
"Violence and Force" and "Pounding Metal", on the other hand, both being performed off the Violence & Force album, sound quite entertaining here, and I think I might even prefer Dan Beehler's vocals to their studio incarnations, as he seems far more sure of himself. Both were solid songs to begin with, and the levels here are quite strong, in particular the drums and guitar but the bass is also acceptably juicy. As a temptation to go see them live, it works rather well, and having seen them since (with later lineups) I can attest that they leave nothing to the imagination, simply rocking your face off like an industrial strength steel wool scrubber. That said, I will reiterate that tracking down the actual vinyl is best left to the hardcore collectors who I presume would either stare at it on their wall, pass it along or commit it a museum; for anyone else, who just wants to experience the material, it's a nice little bonus to Long Live the Loud but fails to really stand out on its own.
Verdict: Indifference [5/10] (just when you think you're safe)
http://listen.to/exciter
Friday, March 2, 2012
Exciter - Long Live the Loud (1985)
To my ears, though, Long Live the Loud has proven the most definitive of Exciter experiences, a puerile but focused rush of intensity that delivers the pure speed metal rush I so loved about bands of this period like Savage Grace, Razor, Lizzy Borden and so forth, with comparable high pitched vocals and testosterone to spare. It might lack some of the innocence of Heavy Metal Maniac or Violence & Force, and the band's enigmatic, switchblade wielding hesher mascot had been handed his walking papers in favor of a cheesy, Manowar-like fantasy misogyny (though the Feel No Knife EP offers a brief role reprisal) but musically this is the most fun I've ever had with one of their albums, and the first I'd recommend to anyone seeking them out for the first time, inching just past the sophomore.
Still a three-piece, with John Ricci, Alan Johnson and Dan Beehler returning, the most important change between this and Violence & Force is probably the vocal quality. Where Beehler had a previous tendency to shift between mid-ranged yelling and higher-pitched shrieks, the latter seem to have become the norm here, and he's become capable of sustaining that range for a longer period of time. He's still not got the mightiest pipes on the scene, falling below the high standards set by your Rob Halfords, Lizzy Bordens and such, and at times I feel as if they come off a little fragile or depthless when leveled against the powerful drums and guitars, or cater to the 'screaming at the top of my lungs' caricature many often apply to similar bands, but I found them far less distracting than the less than fine-tuned performance of the sophomore.
Musically, Long Live the Loud is well structured and just beats the shit out of you once the dust from the guitar driven intro "Fall Out" subsides. "Long Live the Loud" and "I Am the Beast" rip out some punk-fueled, classic speed circa Venom and Motörhead but with the added perks of the shrill, banshee-like wailing of Beehler and the strong support of the gang shouted backing vocals. The guitar tone is loud and grating, the impulsive velocity incessant, and the leads here burn with a spirit that surpasses the previous albums. In particular I love how they open "I Am the Beast" with just the guitar raging off and then the rhythm section bursting in while Dan goes absolutely insane. After that, "Victims of Sacrifice" and "Beyond the Gates of Doom" maintain the solid momentum of familiar but forceful riffing, stopping only for the eerie organ intro to the latter and some punishing drum breaks.
Having never gotten the chance to see this band during their early years (I was like 11 when this came out), I can only imagine what they might have been like with the original lineup on stage. Beehler is a monster on his kit. He might not be technically the most gifted drummer playing in the genre at the time, but the mix of the beats has a phenomenal balance of voluminous crashing and sheer bravado that reminds me of other scorchers like Lizzy Borden's Love Me to Pieces or Razor's Executioner's Song. What's even better, he never really lets up. The entire album is quite consistent in quality, and even the band's first attempt at a 'proper' epic (they had songs around 7 minutes before), "Wake Up Screaming" fills outs its 10 minutes of bulk with a mix of iron-wrought chords, bass grooves and bluesy, airy leads that howl off into the steaming city pavement of an urban summer night.
Some might lean towards Heavy Metal Maniac for setting Exciter's stylistic standard, but this album just reeks of confidence and ass kicking. It's not perfect: not every individual guitar progression stands out as insanely memorable, nor do the lyrics often avoid the old cliches that so many bands fell into, almost repeating one another. But it's not like these three gentlemen ever set up to write a symphony, just drag their influences into a louder and bolder new era of leather, spikes and sweat, and Long Live the Loud is another admirable contender for the short list of top speed/heavy metal exertions of 1985. I think that in the long term it might have been dwarfed by Razor's twin accomplishments Evil Invaders and Executioner's Song, the latter of which I think has catchier songwriting than this, but like it's two predecessors, this deserves a spot in the collection of any discriminating denim diehard.
Verdict: Win [8.75/10] (my music is loud)
http://listen.to/exciter
Friday, February 3, 2012
Celtic Frost - To Mega Therion (1985)
Beyond this, To Mega Therion is an album I also hold dear due to its influence upon my own development on my second (and later primary) instrument, the guitar. Officially, I was studying under an instructor who thankfully customized his lessons towards my taste through a lot of hard rock tunes (Dokken, Scorpions etc), and a brief conceit to teach me "Jump in the Fire"; but in the company of my 13 year old thoughts, with an old Peavey amp in the basement and a mutant Kramer Striker, I was plugging away to the inspiration of Celtic Frost, among a few others. The slower chugging and expressive but simple power chord patterns used in Tom G. Warrior's composition provided the perfect initiation to novice thrashing. Simple to ascertain and execute with standard tuning, and heavier than most terrestrial planets, To Mega Therion was an infallible seduction to a darker musical sphere, and I can't be alone in thinking this: countless thrash, heavy, doom, black and death metal bands over the course of decades would use its content as an aesthetic blueprint for their varied careers.
Stylistically, the lion's share of the material written for the full-length does not deviate greatly from Morbid Tales and Emperor's Return. Or for that matter, Hellhammer. The focus is far greater on slower, crushing numbers in the vein of "Procreation (of the Wicked)", "Return to the Eve" and such than the hardcore-infused punk riffing prevalent on several of the EP tracks, but you can still clearly here the roots from which the Swiss legends sprung, and many of the chord patterns found on cuts like "Jewel Throne", "Eternal Summer" and "Dawn of Megiddo" clearly reflect the same balance of punctilious, primal composition with eloquent lyrical despair. Celtic Frost was always been a band aware of its technical boundaries, as far as musical ability. They weren't forcing the borders of the genre so much as their German and Bay Area contemporaries, but they took what they had and made it work, conjuring aggression through the atmosphere that the thick picking implied, to compensate for this general lack of speed...
What this album might lack in machine gun drumming and complex string wizardry, it more than makes up for in its several brilliant decisions to incorporate orchestration via the use of a French horn (Wolf Bender), shrill operatic female vocals (Claudia-Maria Mokri) and Reed St. Mark banging on a timpani in addition to his normal kit. The intro piece, "Innocence and Wrath" feels like a European answer to the classic Godzilla theme, and it's no accident: the piece instantly sets a mood for the remainder of the track list, and when the general motif returns in "Dawn of Megiddo", or culminates in the operatic chorus to "Necromantical Screams", the whole of To Mega Therion is bound together in a pervasive, drowning and depressive atmosphere that to its day was incredibly novel and immediately unforgettable. I can't say that I love all of the sparse female shrieks throughout the album. They often grate a fraction more than intended. But how many Gothic, doom and black metal bands today rely so heavily this technique in their 'beauty and the beast' interplay?
Despite its deathly demeanor, which arguably peaks in the doomed gait of "Dawn of Megiddo", To Mega Therion is not an album lacking in puerile, rampant energy. Tracks like "Jewel Throne" and "Fainted Eyes" are rife with primordial, thrashing energy and intense grooves anchored by St. Mark's muscular throughput. I'm not trying to advocate for the jock mosh sect, which has transformed through the decades from an innocent and mutual release of testosterone to alpha male preening, but if you can't sway your fists (or at least your head) to the riff set of "Jewel Throne", it's likely you just hate thrash metal. Walk away, man. Just walk away. To boot, this is one of the tracks which accelerates itself, culminating in some of the punk pacing of their earlier releases. "Circle of the Tyrants" was also drafted to this album from the Emperor's Return EP, and while I have maintained a slight preference towards the original, the brighter, raw treatment here fits well into its neighbors. Another example of how the album can shelf its weighty Gothic atmosphere to flex some brute strength at the audience. Yet another: Dominic Steiner's loud bass chords during "Necromantical Screams".
Tom's vocals are superb here, and arguably the best they've ever felt on any of the full-lengths. Dark, tense, and cumbersome, his accent and timbre barking out the dark prose like the noblest of savages. An exception might be the bonus studio jam "Return of the Eve", on which the vocals are so heavily effected that they can feel as silly as they are charming, but this was not a core component of the original album and thus easily brushed off. What's more, the lyrics retain the serious nature of the earlier works. Slayer was singing about Satan and psycho killers, Venom about Satan and cocaine, Destruction about Satan and the meat packing industry, but there was something so ominous, grandiose and mature about Celtic Frost's paeans to avarice, pride, and the lessons inherent in the occult and mythology. The sequential, conceptual bindings of "The Usurper", "Jewel Throne" are also interesting. Once again, a huge source of inspiration, this time for tens of thousands of black metal bands to follow (notably Emperor and the earlier Darkthrone canon).
All this aside, I must admit that I have never found The Mega Therion to be the most flawless of jewels. A huge part of this is that I don't really care for the instrumental "Tears in a Prophet's Dream", an electro/ritual/ambient track which feels even less coherent than "Danse Macabre" on the Morbid Tales EP. It's not that I don't appreciate Celtic Frost's desire to experiment, but the random bass chortling, percussion and goofy wails here have always conspired to take me straight out of the experience. It seems like they threw it together and placed it on the album just because 'they could' rather than to pursue an honest artistic abstraction from the metal surroundings. Thankfully, the track that follows "Necromantical Screams" is so damned good, or "Tears..." would seem even more of a souring anticlimax. Otherwise, a few of the shrill vocals and the fact that "Circle of the Tyrants" feels mildly redundant being here would be the only nitpicks I could launch against this timeless behemoth, and for the latter...I will begrudgingly admit that, as one of their best songs, it belonged on a full-length so more could hear it.
Coverage of this staggering monstrosity could never be complete without a nod to the choice in cover art. Though Geiger's Satan I had been originally conceived in the 70s, it was the perfect match for Frost's ungodly lyrical explorations. The cynical, sacrilege of its imagery would prove iconic to generations of metal fans, atheists, occultists, and it was also nice of Warrior to 'keep it in the family' (aka country) by collaborating with the Swiss surrealist. What's more, it to me represents that Celtic Frost wanted to hint at a wider range of classicism and art beyond the metal spectrum, almost as if they were prompting the audience to smarten up, expand ourselves and look further into other fields of depth and vision (a tactic they'd repeat with the use of the Hieronymous Bosch painting for Into the Pandemonium). I'm sure for many of us, it worked. By extension, so does the album. As grim an enlightenment as nearly anything that came out of this formative, important period in aural extremes, and in my opinion, one of the best Swiss works in the entire genre (excepting only Coroner's 1988-89 masterworks and Samael's underrated Passage, all of which are of course either related to or directly inspired by this very band).
Verdict: Epic Win [9.75/10] (you won't see the coming fall)
http://www.celticfrost.com/
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Celtic Frost - Emperor's Return EP (1985)
Perhaps the writing here represents one of the most marginal evolutions in the Tom G. Warrior canon, for the riffing structure is not a far cry from previous tracks like "Return to the Eve" or "Procreation (Of the Wicked)". I found the production on these five tunes to sound less ruddy, though that strangely grisly and fulfilling guitar tone remains intact. Simple and effective chord sequences which rarely deviate from the band's prior curriculum, but they seem to bear a bolder sense of darkness, an inescapable and suffocating sense of being stuffed into a crypt where the dead dance by day and necromantic rituals and forsaken eros are performed by the few traces of moonlight that filter through the stone cracks of the ceiling. What I'm trying to express in such crowded and colorful hues is that Emperor's Return rocks: pretty much from the first notes of "Dethroned Emperor" to the faster paced speed/dirt of "Visual Aggression", you are getting your ass kicked.
"Circle of the Tyrants" is my favorite of this lot, and arguably the band's career highlight, fully cognizant of the punk and hardcore aesthetics that informed Frost's roots, with a percussive use of chorus to split the verses, and some of their most immense grooves, like the dark and potent riff that erupts about 1:40 into the tune. As usual, Tom G. Warrior places just the right amount of echo on his vocals so he seems to be drifting into your ears from the dust of decay, and there are also some garbled pitch shifted incantations here which add nicely to the context. "Morbid Tales" features a prominent, thudding bass courtesy of Martin Eric Ain, and another classic, unforgettable heavy palm mute in the verse riff, with some of Warrior's unmistakable rock star swagger in the 'ows' and 'yeahs' found therein. Reed St. Mark offers a more muscular double bass in the bridge of the track, and overall I'd consider the drums more consistent and rock solid than those of Morbid Tales, and Celtic Frost proves yet again why they're so influential upon the decades of extreme metal to follow.
The latter tracks on the EP like "Suicidal Winds" and "Visual Aggression" have always held a slightly less important place in my memory than the first three, though they've also got a more grimy interface and rely on some of the faster riffing that I wasn't always so thrilled with on the first EP. In a way, the grooves that often manifest in Frost tunes would not be so effective without a change up from this almost pure dirtcore momentum (the NY band Sheer Terror would later channel this into excellence on their classic LP Just Can't Hate Enough), but I just never found the note sequences to be so enduring. That said, both of the tunes are admittedly consistent in disposition to the forerunners, and they certainly don't break the 21 minutes of bludgeoning, grooving and driving momentum.
Hands down, Emperor's Return is the best of Celtic Frost's non full-length fare (unless you're experiencing it in conjunction with the first EP on the CD reissue), and the ramp up towards the band's most brilliant album. Normally it might lose a little luster in the fact that "Circle of the Tyrants" would also appear on To Mega Therion, but I honestly prefer this less atmospheric version for its earthly charms, and alongside "Dethroned Emperor" and "Morbid Tales" it belongs on any highlight reel of their stronger work. I also love the cover art, the immortal lyrics ("are you morbid?"), and the truly oblique atmosphere the band is able to evoke through the riffing and bare minimum of other effects: it feels tangibly, invariably evil, like the musings of a mummified despot who longs to slake his thirst on the sanguine essence of the world once more. Whether you've got an original tape or LP or picture disc or you're loving it up alongside its older sibling, it belongs wherever there is good taste. Blood and concubines optional.
Verdict: Win [8.5/10] (locked forever in a veil of shame)
http://www.celticfrost.com/