Yes, after all that boyband nonsense I'm just about in the mood for some skullcrushing, heartpounding, headshaking metal! So let's see what the old randomiser brings up for us on our old friend
Encyclopaedia Mettalum, your one-stop source for the best in heavy metal, shall we? Er, guys? Sorry to bring it up at this time, but that last cheque, y'know, bounced? What? Well there are plenty more metal sites out there ... good enough, in the post Monday, yeah? That's what I like to hear.
Oh, sorry about that: little business misunderstanding to clear up. Now where was I? Oh yeah, the next random band for the Meat Grinder. Well, it hasn't gone that swimmingly, I must report. See, attempting something like this has its own attendant problems. If the band isn't that well known, I'm unlikely to have or be able to get any of their music. Now, some bands I could probably buy albums of, yes, but assuming it's a band I have a fairly good idea I'm not going to like, that's just not going to happen. I'm not going to spend money just to hear a band I will probably listen to once, and never again. So in general what I look for is downloads, torrents, YouTubes and the like. Often this can be a fruitless search, and if I can't find anything, or enough, on the band to review them, then I sadly have to move on. Case in point below. Well, two cases in point, as it happens.
First I got a band called Obskurum, from Chicago, who, true to their name, are damn obscure! So much so in fact that I could find nothing about them online to play: no downloads, no torrents, no albums to purchase, not even a bloody YouTube! Well, okay,
one video, but it's only just over two minutes long, and you can't base a whole review around one track, now can you? They are also apparently broken up, but reformed as Bloodoath. Yeah. Nothing on them either. So reluctantly I “spun the wheel” again, this time coming up with Fighing Warriors, a power metal band from Italy. Ah, I thought! Much more like it!
Sadly, same thing. The genericity of their bandname led me to many fighting videos, not to mention one about Hammerfall, but nothing of theirs could be found online. So once again I was forced to spin. Third time lucky, eh?
Look, just what the hell is it with these black metal bands? First we had Sauron (what an ordeal that was!) then I could have been listening to Obskurum, who are/were another band in that vein, now I'm looking at a band whose name surely puts them in the category of symphonic power metal? Luciferi Excelsi. Sure. Sounds tuneful.
Another black metal band (Venom, you have much to answer for!) and even described as “anti-Christian”! This'll be fun IF I can find anything about them. Yeah, they're also split up, and they come from Austria.
Okay, well, not much but enough to do some sort of a review. I've got about half an album on YouTube, so let's dive in --- oh wait, where's me goat's mask and that cup of virgin's blood I poured before “Ice Road Truckers”? Whaddya mean, she wasn't a virgin? You did? Oh. So I went to all that trouble for nothing... ah, who will know? Keep shtum, yeah?
Okay, I'm ready. Hail Santa! I mean, well, you know what I mean...
There's no getting away from the fact that these guys are, or were, black metal purveyors. I mean, with a name like that, what else could they be? You know of course what it means: even with my very limited knowledge of latin, that has to be “Praise Satan”, or Lucifer to be exact. Or maybe “glory to Lucifer”? Either way, it's a safe bet they're not going to mass, unless it's a black one! Whether they were truly into Satanism or not I don't know: they could be tongue-in-cheek like Venom, or just using it as a prop like Sabbath, and as it would appear they sang (if sang is the proper word, we'll see) in their native langauge and it's likely to sound gutteral, I don't expect to learn anything from the lyrics of their songs. I am intrigued though to note one of the Yts mentions a “piano instrumental” of one of their songs, which is something I'd equate about as much with black metal as harps or accordions, but we shall see, we shall see. Oh wait, that's from their other band. Oh well, no pianos for me, it would seem.
Band name: Luciferi Excelsi
Nationality: Austrian (Upper Austria)
Subgenre: Black metal (again!)
Born: 1999
Died: 2010
Status: Broken up but reformed mostly in another band as Integritlie
Albums: Heiliger krieg (2002)
Live albums: None
Collections/Anthologies/Boxsets: None
Lineup: Bertie (Real/full name unknown) (Guitar)
Tom ( Real/full name unknown) (Vocals, bass)
F
Fuxi ( Real/full name unknown) Drums
Bernie W (Real/full name Bernhard Wiedlroither) (Guitars)
F
Bernie M (Real/full name Bernhard Maurer) (Guitars)
(Note: Bernie M only played with the band from 2009 until their breakup in 2010, and although Bernie W was a founder member, it seems he left in 2001, returning in 2003, inexplicably therefore missing their one and only album, on which he was replaced by Bertie. He (Bernie M) then stayed on until 2010, sharing for one year, it would seem (2009-2010) the guitar duties with Bernie W. Clear?)
Well, they look a fine bunch of fellows, don't they? Any of them someone you'd be proud to see your daughter bring home. Perhaps with that in mind, it would seem obvious that the members of Luciferi Excelsi were never particularly big on sharing personal information, for the most part going by their first names.
Now, as we've noted above, it would seem that the last Bernie, he who appends “W” to his name, was only with them for the last two years of their existence, 2009-2010, so prior to that they had other members, and just to make things even more confusing, there was also a Berti, who played guitar on what seems to have been the most of their recordings, from 2001-2009 (presumably replaced by Bernie W). They seem to only have had the one album released prior to breaking up, that being 2002's “Heiliger krieg”, which is the one we'll be concentrating on, even though I could only find about half of it on the You of Tubes.
Most if not all of them appear to have gone on to form another band called Integritlie, which at the moment seems to be still going. I must say though, although I have little hard information about them, for a supposedly tough black metal satantic band, the pictures of each individual member don't give you that impression: in every shot they're smiling, and look, well, normal! Weird or what? So perhaps the black metal tag is undertaken without too much seriousness, though again as I say since their music is sung in Austrian (or German maybe) it seems unlikely we will ever know. Speaking of the music though, let's give it a listen.
Heiliger Krieg --- Luciferi Excelsi --- 2002 (Black Empire)
Right, well I'm going to take a stab at this (no pun intended!) --- most of us know “heil” is hail in German, so assume the same in Austrian (I'm guessing this is sung in Austrian, though I could be wrong: I know little enough of each language to recognise the nuances between them, if indeed there are any) and “krieg” is war, so “heiliger”? Hailing? Hailing war? Glorifying war? Something about praising war anyway.
This album is their only one, as it happens. There was another one due to be released but it never saw the light of day, then Luciferi Excelsi (gonna call them LE for handiness' sake) broke up, so this is the only recorded output from them, other than a demo. Like the previous Sauron album, this is only a short one, with eight tracks in total. I've been able to find five of these on YouTube, so although I won't be able to review the whole album, we'll be able to make a decent go of it.
It starts off with “Antropophagie”, and I have to admit I don't know if that's an English or German (or Austrian) word, but it's a slow skullcruncher, with yet again those horrible death vocals, though this time they're more a nasty scream, like someone with a sore throat cursing at you. Can't make out the lyric, so I'm not sure if it's in English, but I don't think so. Guitar-driven, and the guitar seems pretty good, thundering drums as Tom, the singer, goes a bit mad in the meantime. Sort of very heavy Sabbath or Venom sound to the music, such as it is. I actually think this could be relatively enjoyable without the screeching --- sorry, singing --- of Tom, but there it is. This goes on for over five minutes, so excuse me if I do other things while LE amuse themselves.
Oh well, here's a quite decent guitar solo in almost an Iron Maiden vein, and yeah, when Tom shuts his yap you can enjoy the music and appreciate it a bit more. It's neither Bernie though who plays the guitar here, but another person with no real name, simply known as Bertie. He can certainly play, and there's no Venom-like attempts at being able to hit notes and play chords that are beyond them. Heavy, but not overly so, and without the singing it's not too bad. Okay, next up is “Insanity of death”. Being an English title I have to assume the lyric is sung in English, but again Tom's vocals make this really hard to confirm. Starts off with a great hard guitar, some pretty frenetic drumming and then it takes off at lightspeed, slowing back down again to allow poor old Tom to come back in with a few screams, picking up speed again on the back of Bertie's powerful guitar and then falling back into a slow cruncher rhythm.
Finishes abruptly and leads into the title track, on which it's vaguely unsettling to hear the words “Heil! Heil! Heil!” being shouted, then a steamhammer drumbeat takes over, with doomy guitar and Tom's growling and screeching making it impossible to hear any lyrics, even if I could understand them, which I wouldn't be able to, as they're obviously in Austrian or German. Seems to have a lot of powerful energy though, I'll give it that, and there are certain Iommi influences in Bertie's guitar work, with a damn fine solo near the end. That takes us to “The last wolf”, which I assume is sung in English, though sorry to keep harping on it, but Tom's vocal makes it impossible to differentiate what language he's, er, singing in. Again, great guitar work though: it's a real pity these guys didn't hook up with someone who sung a little more, uh, coherently, as I think they could have been pretty good, but the death vocals make it almost impossible (for me anyway) to see anything in the band or enjoy the music much at all.
Sort of a boogie beat behind this one, you can actually sway and tap your feet to it to an extent! It's followed by “Gottes vergeltung”, but I couldn't find that anywhere so can't make any comment on it. The last track, in fact, that I have from them is “Gotterdammerung”, but I kind of doubt we're going to hear any Wagnerian opera here! I do shudder though, as it's the longest track on their album, clocking in just a few seconds short of eight minutes. Yeah, I said eight. Oh dear. Okay then, let's listen. It opens with a marching drumbeat and a rather interesting guitar line, but Tom is growling and spitting all over it so I've no idea what's going on.
About two minutes in, it goes into a sort of almost progressive melody against which Tom intones something, possibly telling a story, then it all fires back up again and takes off like a rocket. It goes along like that and then fades down to a single guitar line for the last minute, which is at least unexpected: oh wait, no it doesn't. Tom's not about to be left behind, and he and the drummer explode back into the song again for the last few seconds. Really, how he doesn't damage his throat is beyond me. Must keep a big pack of Strepsils in his pocket at all times.
There are two more tracks on the album, but I don't have any way of finding them, and to be honest, having heard what I have, I'm in no hurry to. I don't mean to insult those who enjoy this sort of metal --- nothing I say is likely to matter to you anyway --- but it's never going to be for me. The music I could get into, certainly, but those vocals just kill it for me, and not in an “X Factor” way either! I just hate vocals I can't understand, not due to language but delivery, and “death vocals” or “death grunts” or “unclean vocals”, or call them what you will, will never impress me and will always drive me away from any band who utilises them, no matter how great their music may be (Haggard come to mind).
TRACKLISTING
1. Antropophagie
2. Insanity of death
3. Heiliger krieg
4. The last wolf
5. Gottes vergeltung
6. Gotterdammerung
7. Pesthauch
8. Der erloser
So that's Luciferi Excelsi, the second random pick from the Meat Grinder. And it certainly has been a grind, so far. Hopefully next time around I'll get something a bit more, shall we say, palatable? Death and black metal are huge of course, and I could end up getting something similar, but then, that's the fun of the Meat Grinder! Fun?? Yeah, well, you only have yourself to blame. Bloody hell! After listening to that I'm almost ready to listen to another boyband album! Almost...