Love or Hate?

Trollheart · 01-16-2016, 11:06 AM

Title: Vega
Artiste: Janvs
Genre: Black Metal
Familiarity: Zero
Recommended by: mythsofmetal

Expectations: I'm slowly getting more into black metal, and it's not one with twenty-minute tracks or even twenty tracks, so I'm cautiously upbeat about my chances here.

1. Torri di vetro: Kickin' it right from the off, with a big guitar assault and growled vocals, though in terms of some of the black metal I've heard this year this is pretty tame and even melodic. Some nice introspective guitar in the middle. Can black metal be relaxing? This is.
2. Saphire: Are you sure this is black metal? Cue Batty with another “where the **** do you get your ideas?” post: from Metal Archives, dude! This is so catchy and Matteo “Vincto” Barelli sings in a really recognisable voice, totally different to the growl he was projecting in the previous song. This is overall much more like progressive metal, with some lovely soft guitar passages, choral bits, the works. Love this. But it can't possibly be black metal! Can it? Is there such a subgenre as Melodic Black Metal?
3. Tarab: And now we have a spacey synth introduction! This just gets better, though slightly weirder, given its stated subgenre. Very dramatic, powerful, rolling drums and rising guitar behind the dark synth give the idea of something approaching, something imminent. There's that growl now, with slightly eastern sounding guitar hammering out behind it. It does build, and builds well, and the song is over before you even realise it, taking us to the only instrumental, and the shortest piece on the album.
4. Dazed: Played out on mostly church organ with violin accompaniment, it's unfortunately less than two minutes long. I could listen to a lot more of this.
5. Mediterraneo: Really kicking the stays out now as this hammers along from the beginning. The first piece I would really categorise or recognise as any sort of black metal, and that's no criticism. Fast, powerful, brutal. Then it slows right down in the middle to a very progressive, reflective guitar with whispered vocals before picking up again
6. Vega: And another gentle guitar kicks off the title track, with spacey synth swirling around. Seems like it may be a slower track, and has again that very clear vocal, in which you can see that Barelli really can sing. It's something of a pity he doesn't do this more. Oh no wait: I see I'm wrong. That's a guest vocalist doing the “clean” vocals, as it was another singing on the previous track. Okay then. Still a lovely song, and how often can you use that word about black metal?
7. Vesper II: The longest track on the album at just over eleven minutes, this too, oddly, begins with a soft, almost medieval guitar passage that then becomes stronger but still isn't anything close to what I would call really forceful. Very melodic still, though there is a long way to go. Clean vocals again, and though I don't see any separate credit for them, I would have to assume at this point that we're looking at one of the two guys who provided vox for the last two tracks. Whispering here too, over another very progressive passage, then it does pick up on the old black metal tropes as we head into the fourth minute, with growled vocals, but in truth the only thing really “black metalling” this up is the drums.

End result: Really, one of the best metal albums I've heard in recent times, certainly among the best black metal. Will have to dip more into their catalogue for sure. Myths comes up trumps yet again!

So, Love or Hate? I can only award this a True Love, really, can't I?

The Batlord · 01-16-2016, 11:55 AM

I think it's about time someone hit him with some black metal a bit harder. Maybe some Emperor or Satyricon?

Trollheart · 01-16-2016, 12:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Batlord

I think it's about time someone hit him with some black metal a bit harder. Maybe some Emperor or Satyricon?

Heard both.

The Batlord · 01-16-2016, 12:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trollheart

Heard both.

Which albums? And your opinions?

Trollheart · 01-16-2016, 12:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Batlord

Which albums? And your opinions?

The Shadow Throne (3 Cleavers in The Meat Grinder) : "Musically I can really dig these guys. I get where they're coming from. It's my old bugbear again, death vocals, that's turning me a little from listening to more of their music. Satyr has the kind of voice that makes you think of nails scraping down a blackboard, but he can certainly play the guitar and he does a fine job on the keyboards on the last track. This was not nearly as bad as I had led myself to believe, and given that it's an early album and very clearly black metal I think I did ok with it. Nevertheless, this subgenre is never going to be my thing, but I wanted to make sure that there was something for everyone across the wide wonderful spread of heavy metal, so there's some black metal for yaz."

Note: The above reflects my attitude to BM back then, which has radically, I say radically changed.

Emperor I may have been wrong about. Can't find a reference in my journal, and the word crops up a lot, especially when you write an article on the French Revolution...

Trollheart · 01-17-2016, 06:29 PM

Title: Danzig III: How the Gods Kill
Artiste: Danzig
Genre: Heavy Metal
Familiarity: Zero, but Batty never shuts up about them.
Recommended by: Oh, let me think... The Batlord, funnily enough!

Expectations: With cover art by Giger I'm already onboard, and the Wiki entry tells me they play in a “bluesy doom style, like Black Sabbath”, whereas I had assumed they were death metal. How wrong can you be? Could be a wild ride.

1. Godless: Goes from a bouncy, boogie oepning instrumental into a slow, crushing doom one in a heartbeat, and the vocals don't come in till two minutes into the song. I'm glad to hear that vocalist Glenn Danzig is clear and easy to understand, with if anything a kind of southern boogie style to his singing. Big Sabbath type groove kicking up now in the midsection as it takes off. The kind of high priest routine at the end is a bit lame though.
2. Anything: Starts very acoustic sounding, could be a ballad, but so soon? Nah, thought not. Picking up a little now on a good bouncy riff with a passionate vocal. Kind of reminds me of CCR and BOC at times, that riff.
3. Bodies: Great bassline with a truly hard rock guitar riff and a boogie feel about it. Powerful vocal.
4. How the gods kill: Nice gentle guitar intro to this, soft vocal but any thoughts of it having been a ballad are quickly dispelled as the drums crash in and the guitar shrieks, while Danzig's vocal intensifies and gets louder and angrier. Then it goes back to the original theme. Love the way it changes up, sign of real talent here.
5. Dirty black summer: Very dark atmospheric start before the guitar bites through. Good rocker. Hardly metal though. But still good.
6. Left hand black: This however is metal as ****.
7. Heart of the devil: And this is blues to the max. I read they wanted Willie Dixon on the song, but he died before he could honour that commitment. How selfish!
8. Sistinas: This is a real laidback, almost pop ballad. Like this a whole lot.
9. Do you wear the mark: Back to the punching heavy doom metal
10. When the dying calls: And this is kind of like metal meets Zep or Purple.

End result: Some very good tracks but not quite as heavy as I had expected it would be. Would probably not convert overnight but would not be averse to hearing more from Danzig. Good variety and I like the use of both blues and bits of soul in their music.

So, Love or Hate? I'll be happy to give it a Love.

The Batlord · 01-17-2016, 06:46 PM

Danzig really weren't a doom metal band. More blues rock/heavy metal, with touches of goth rock. They're not really a band that falls under any category. Blues metal, I guess.

Trollheart · 01-17-2016, 06:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Batlord

Danzig really weren't a doom metal band. More blues rock/heavy metal, with touches of goth rock. They're not really a band that falls under any category. Blues metal, I guess.

Pretty sweet though.

Tristan_Geoff · 01-17-2016, 11:01 PM

Mods? Any mods around?

Why can't the forum be that fast everyday?

The Batlord · 01-18-2016, 12:31 AM

?

01-16-2016, 11:06 AM	#2611 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,994	Title: Vega Artiste: Janvs Genre: Black Metal Familiarity: Zero Recommended by: mythsofmetal Expectations: I'm slowly getting more into black metal, and it's not one with twenty-minute tracks or even twenty tracks, so I'm cautiously upbeat about my chances here. 1. Torri di vetro: Kickin' it right from the off, with a big guitar assault and growled vocals, though in terms of some of the black metal I've heard this year this is pretty tame and even melodic. Some nice introspective guitar in the middle. Can black metal be relaxing? This is. 2. Saphire: Are you sure this is black metal? Cue Batty with another “where the ** do you get your ideas?” post: from Metal Archives, dude! This is so catchy and Matteo “Vincto” Barelli sings in a really recognisable voice, totally different to the growl he was projecting in the previous song. This is overall much more like progressive metal, with some lovely soft guitar passages, choral bits, the works. Love this. But it can't possibly be black metal! Can it? Is there such a subgenre as Melodic Black Metal? 3. Tarab: And now we have a spacey synth introduction! This just gets better, though slightly weirder, given its stated subgenre. Very dramatic, powerful, rolling drums and rising guitar behind the dark synth give the idea of something approaching, something imminent. There's that growl now, with slightly eastern sounding guitar hammering out behind it. It does build, and builds well, and the song is over before you even realise it, taking us to the only instrumental, and the shortest piece on the album. 4. Dazed: Played out on mostly church organ with violin accompaniment, it's unfortunately less than two minutes long. I could listen to a lot more of this. 5. Mediterraneo: Really kicking the stays out now as this hammers along from the beginning. The first piece I would really categorise or recognise as any sort of black metal, and that's no criticism. Fast, powerful, brutal. Then it slows right down in the middle to a very progressive, reflective guitar with whispered vocals before picking up again 6. Vega: And another gentle guitar kicks off the title track, with spacey synth swirling around. Seems like it may be a slower track, and has again that very clear vocal, in which you can see that Barelli really can sing. It's something of a pity he doesn't do this more. Oh no wait: I see I'm wrong. That's a guest vocalist doing the “clean” vocals, as it was another singing on the previous track. Okay then. Still a lovely song, and how often can you use that word about black metal? 7. Vesper II: The longest track on the album at just over eleven minutes, this too, oddly, begins with a soft, almost medieval guitar passage that then becomes stronger but still isn't anything close to what I would call really forceful. Very melodic still, though there is a long way to go. Clean vocals again, and though I don't see any separate credit for them, I would have to assume at this point that we're looking at one of the two guys who provided vox for the last two tracks. Whispering here too, over another very progressive passage, then it does pick up on the old black metal tropes as we head into the fourth minute, with growled vocals, but in truth the only thing really “black metalling” this up is the drums. End result: Really, one of the best metal albums I've heard in recent times, certainly among the best black metal. Will have to dip more into their catalogue for sure. Myths comes up trumps yet again! So, Love or Hate?** I can only award this a True Love, really, can't I? __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

01-17-2016, 06:29 PM	#2616 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,994	Title: Danzig III: How the Gods Kill Artiste: Danzig Genre: Heavy Metal Familiarity: Zero, but Batty never shuts up about them. Recommended by: Oh, let me think... The Batlord, funnily enough! Expectations: With cover art by Giger I'm already onboard, and the Wiki entry tells me they play in a “bluesy doom style, like Black Sabbath”, whereas I had assumed they were death metal. How wrong can you be? Could be a wild ride. 1. Godless: Goes from a bouncy, boogie oepning instrumental into a slow, crushing doom one in a heartbeat, and the vocals don't come in till two minutes into the song. I'm glad to hear that vocalist Glenn Danzig is clear and easy to understand, with if anything a kind of southern boogie style to his singing. Big Sabbath type groove kicking up now in the midsection as it takes off. The kind of high priest routine at the end is a bit lame though. 2. Anything: Starts very acoustic sounding, could be a ballad, but so soon? Nah, thought not. Picking up a little now on a good bouncy riff with a passionate vocal. Kind of reminds me of CCR and BOC at times, that riff. 3. Bodies: Great bassline with a truly hard rock guitar riff and a boogie feel about it. Powerful vocal. 4. How the gods kill: Nice gentle guitar intro to this, soft vocal but any thoughts of it having been a ballad are quickly dispelled as the drums crash in and the guitar shrieks, while Danzig's vocal intensifies and gets louder and angrier. Then it goes back to the original theme. Love the way it changes up, sign of real talent here. 5. Dirty black summer: Very dark atmospheric start before the guitar bites through. Good rocker. Hardly metal though. But still good. 6. Left hand black: This however is metal as **. 7. Heart of the devil: And this is blues to the max. I read they wanted Willie Dixon on the song, but he died before he could honour that commitment. How selfish! 8. Sistinas: This is a real laidback, almost pop ballad. Like this a whole lot. 9. Do you wear the mark: Back to the punching heavy doom metal 10. When the dying calls: And this is kind of like metal meets Zep or Purple. End result: Some very good tracks but not quite as heavy as I had expected it would be. Would probably not convert overnight but would not be averse to hearing more from Danzig. Good variety and I like the use of both blues and bits of soul in their music. So, Love or Hate? I'll be happy to give it a Love*. __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018*