Members' Top Ten Lists
And so we move on to
Wpnfire, who has his number ten as this:
This Place Where the Living Speak With the Dead --- Annimal Machine --- 2014
I know absolutely nothing about this band, but they're described as Stoner Metal, come from Mexico, and this is their first album. And the first track is twelve minutes long. There are only, to be fair, only six tracks, but of those, four hit well over the ten-minute mark and one is a massive sixteen, so there'll be a lot to listen to, to love or to hate, depending on how they impress me. “War” is the simply-titled first track, and half of it is just effects and feedback before we finally get to hear the first actual guitar chords in about the sixth minute. Heavy bouncy drumming comes in then too as we move into the seventh and then we get a kind of melody in minute eight, when the vocals, such as they are, come in. Mostly a roar of “War!” but at least you can make them out. “Condenando” is sung in their native tongue (Spanish?) so I can't tell you what the song is about, but at least it has a more boogie-like beat and you can pick out a melody here.
Yeah, fair enough. I had to take a break in the album to go get my sister her dinner and I was humming the tune on the way. There's a good driving rhythm to “A fistful of dollars”, though again the vocals aren't a part of it until the third minute, but as it runs for ten I guess this is okay. To be honest, I'd have been happier without the vocals: I mean, the guy just basically roars, although he's certainly more intelligible than some singers I've heard. But I couldn't really call what he's doing singing. Not really. At least I don't have to worry about that with “Lord of shadows”, a twelve-minute doom metal instrumental. Some seriously downtuned guitars here. I do have to say though that it's very repetitive, but for all that it doesn't seem to drag out, which is always a good sign.
That leaves us with two tracks to go, the first being the longest on the album by some way, just slightly over sixteen and a half minutes and which, containing as it does the title of the album, can I guess be seen to be the title track. Looking at the lyric, I would hazard maybe that it's about Orpheus's descent into the Underworld of Hades in pursuit of Eurydice, the nymph, who in Greek legend was taken by Hades and whom Orpheus was told he may return with, as long as he did not look behind him all during the long climb back up to the world of the living. Anyone want to guess what happened? Anyway, it starts off with those dark, downtuned guitars and plods along for about five minutes before any vocals come in. Well, more like eight really, as that was just a roar and not followed by any actual words until we're more than halfway through the song and the guitars start getting a bit choppy.
To be honest, the first time the album really gets a kick up the arse is on the final track, the small-by-comparison “Rage”, which runs for nine minutes, though it's not long before they're off slowing it down again with those dark, detuned guitars. The vocal is better here, or maybe I've just got used to the guy. Either way, it's a good closer. Oh, and before I finish, mention mus tbe made of the drummer's chosen name of Fat Bastard. Fu
cking class.
At number nine, I've heard mention of this album but know nothing about the band.
Slaughter in the Vatican --- Exhorder --- 1990
The debut album from New Orleans's Exhorder, you'd have to wonder what they've been doing since then. Another album released in 1992 and nothing since. Are they disbanded? Nobody seems to know, and the last actual recording of them seems to have been a live album in 1994. That's twenty-one years ago! Surely we won't be hearing from them again? But they appear to have been one of the progenitors of what became known as groove thrash metal, and this album has been an influence on others. Interesting start, kind of creepy atmospherics then it sounds like something is rising from the depths. The guitars punch in as “Death in vain” kicks the album off, then it really speeds up and takes off and the vocals kick in. Raw and ragged yes, but not too hard on the ear. Very fast, almost tripping over his words, Kyle Thomas spits out the lyrics but the music sort of alternates between blisteringly fast and mid-paced grind. “Homicide” doesn't seem that much different, to be honest. Some pretty crazy shredding going on.
Meh, too fast and too chaotic for me to really comment on anything. The next time I take interest at all is in “The tragic period”, when the winds and beat-of-a-heart drum make me think they're covering “Powerslave”, but it soon ramps up into another fast rocker and then, um, I think they use a Black Sabbath riff at the end of “Legions of death”. It's all very fast and heavy and br00tal, but doesn't lend itself well to reviewing. All right, they make me laugh with the prayer at the start of the title, and closing track, and it's well done; they imbue it with its own sense of dark majesty and twisted humour but let's be honest, Slayer do it so much better. Not really for me. Odd little ending; after all that pummelling guitar and speed, we end up with an acoustic guitar outro and a baby crying...
Hopefully more to my taste will be his number eight, which I believe I may have heard briefly at some point, though in fairness it doesn't look familiar. Maybe I was planning to do it on something like CAIHNH? Anyway, we're doing it now.
Don't Break the Oath --- Mercyful Fate --- 1984
A good powerful start, really more traditional metal than anything. For some reason I have always associated Mercyful Fate with the likes of Venom and other black metal artistes, but though lyrically they leaned in that direction, the music is certainly as far from black metal as you can get, with the vocals of King Diamond, though strangely falsetto at times, nothing like the growl or scream of a bm singer. Interestingly too, the lyrics for the opening track, “Don't break the oath”, seem to hint more at avoidance of Satanism, as Diamond's “seven people” are warned not to take on the powers of darkness and die for ignoring his warnings. Not quite what I would expect to hear from someone trying to advocate the worship of dark gods.
“Nightmare” features a dream wherein Diamond sees himself within a witch's coven, and again the overall emotion is of fear and dismay; he wants to get away from this coven rather than join it. Some very Maidenlike guitar here but again we're looking at your basic trad metal really, and with titles like “Desecration of souls” and “Night of the unborn” you would think we're talking hardcore black metal here, but it reads more as almost an attempt by someone to write black metal while not wanting to or being able to address the hard, punishing rhythms of that subgenre. Kind of like some kids playing with a ouija board, you know? Doing it for a laugh but not really wanting to or expecting to be dealing with dark powers. It's as if Diamond wants to play normal metal but use black metal lyrics. I suppose it's a way of experiencing black metal without actually fully experiencing it. Reminds me of a story.
Boss of mine used to tell the story of how he went to the USA and his mate wanted to see Harlem. The only way they were allowed to do so was in an armoured car, driving quickly through the streets! This was in the late seventies, of course. Still, it underlines the point. What can you learn about any people, any community, any race by sealing yourself up in metal and driving through in a very obviously frightened/belligerent manner? If you want to experience black metal, as I've found, you have to immerse yourself in it: listen to the raw screams, the pounding guitars, the thick, evil basslines. Get into the proper lyrics and hear people who are actually committed to, or at least write as if they are committed to, their subject. This, for me, for all its being easy on the ear in comparison with, say, Gehenna or Blut Aus Nord, is nothing more than black metal lite. If you take it as black metal at all. Remove the rather cartoony lyrics, to be honest, and Mercyful Fate are just another metal band, no more, no less, and their only real USP is the operatic voice of King Diamond, which I have to admit, gets on my nerves after about four tracks.
As we hit the title track, (well, it's called “The Oath”, but it's as close to a title track as you're going to get) there's finally a dark bass and guitar melody to take us in, complete with crashing thunder and synthesised chorus and, oh yes of course, tolling bells. Could they be more formulaic? Well yes they could: here comes a church organ! Gimme strength! And a black mass chant. And dark “Satanic” laughter. But after all this it then develops into yet another straightforwrd metal song, with which there is of course nothing wrong, but you know, if I want this I can listen to Priest, Maiden or Saxon. While looking for something more to write, I decided to check out some reviews of this album. It's amazing how much arselicking about it there is, and how everyone who has reviewed it has ignored the cartoon nature of Diamond's lyrics. Oh well, each to their own, but for me this is the kind of album hardened black metal musicians would listen to and say “What the fu
ck is this s
hit?” I suppose it's not meant to be black, in the same way tracks like “Disturbing the priest”, “Hallowed be thy name” and so on are not black, but at least they don't pretend to be.
Taken on its own this is a decent album, but I don't really see anything to justify the love and devotion it seems to get. It's competent, the songs are good and the solos are fine, but to me it's like any other metal album of the mid-eighties, and really the only thing that makes it stand out are the annoying vocals of King Diamond and the hilariously un-black black metal lyrics. I do like the groove on “Welcome princess of Hell”, has a very Maidenesque feel to it, though there seems to be some confusion as to whether that's the title, as I find references to “Princes of Hell” all through the lyrics (which may of course be misquoted) and GPM has the track so named. Just shows the difference leaving one “s” off can make! The instrumental “To one far away”, with its echoes of Poe, is nice but very short, and then “Come to the Sabbath” closes the album. Like the little harpsichord flourishes that are dropped in now and again, but overall another pretty generic song with silly lyrics. Oh my god! To think that I used to fear these guys and equate them with Venom!
Wpnfire's choice for number seven is Death's
Human and then
Reign in Blood is at number six, two great albums but they've been reviewed before so we'll be picking this up in the next entry at his number five.