robjekyll

Skylarking is a nice choice. Not too many people realize there is more to this band than Making Plans for Nigel and Mayor of Simpleton. With that said I do prefer Drums & Wires mostly cause I adore the tracks Helicopter & Ten Feet Tall. Now I think about it I should go back and listen to some Skylarking some more

OctaneHugo

Drums and Wires and Skylarking are their two best albums

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LoathsomePete

Originally I was all set to do Enslaved's 2003 progressive epic Below the Lights however I really had to give it to their newest releaseAxioma Ethica Odini, which was released little over a month ago. Why use an album that's barley over a month old instead of one of their many classics released over the last twenty years? Well because this is honestly their best album, in fact it might be the best album in metal right now.

It is no doubt that if you are even remotely connected to extreme metal that you have already heard the unanimous praise this album has been getting from every reviewer and fan. In fact this album already seems to have quite a following here, and I am sure that every fan of this album will agree with all the points I am about to make in favor of this album, not only that but totally agree with the absence of criticism, because there isn't any.

OK time to actually justify all this gushing. Axioma Ethica Odini is Norwegian black metal band's 11th release in little more than twenty years. While many members have come and gone in that lifetime, bassist/ vocalist Grutle Kjellson and guitarist Ivar Bjørnson (who was 13-years old when joining in '91) have remained the only founding members to remain. That said, Arve Isdal (rhythm guitarist), Cato Bekkevold (drums), and Herbrand Larsen (keyboard/backing vocals) have all been with the band since 2003 and the making ofBelow The Lights the album that really exalted Enslaved to a higher plane of existence in the metal world. Axioma Ethica Odini is the resulting efforts of five extremely talented and visionary musicians, pooling their resources and it showing in the results.

On Below The Lights (2003) Enslaved showed us just what could be gained from black metal if one let go of the traditionalist values that permeates in many of the metal scenes disposition. The resulting five albums have all been have all been building up on what gained from the previous album, progressing their sound and song writing capabilities, but also becoming mastering the ability to shake off any fear of deviating from a traditionalist mindset. The confidence in their musical ability allows the band members to implant 1970's David Gilmour-esque Dark Side of the Moon (1973) guitar solos as evidenced in the brilliant opener "Ethica Odini".

The album is just bursting with riff after riff, even turning something as simple as a thunderous galloping viking metal riff, they make it seem incredibly memorable. The song "Giants" probably has some of the most memorable riffs, adding a slight death/doom metal vibe with their slowed down drums. The album encourages multiple listens, with each one ending with another moment you didn't notice before. With that said the album is obviously best listened to with headphones, but either headphones or speakers your ears will be assaulted with incredibly organic and original guitar, drum, and bass riffs, all of them noticeable. Kjellson keeps you on the edge of your seat with vocal style changes making it incredibly hard to drift off far from the song. "The Beacon" deserves special props for delivering one of the catchiest ear hooks only 30 seconds in, it is impossible to not headbang to, and they repeat it multiple times throughout the song.

Do not misunderstand the fact that there are progressive elements to the songs, this is most definitely a black metal album. The album is littered with shrieked lyrics and tremolo picking, two of the most defining elements of black metal, but the band are not afraid to embrace the progressive rock albums from the 1970's, so be prepared with tone shifts, vocal shifts, and in many cases genre shifts in all nine songs. Enslaved are to black metal as what Opeth are to death metal, they stay true to the source, but are not afraid to fix things that don't work or try new things to see if they work. And in both cases they have really pushed the boundaries as far as bettering themselves with each passing album.

Normally I don't spend too much time focusing on the band's lyrics because lyrics have always come secondary to the music, but every now and then it's worth bringing up to further cement the fact that... a lot of black metal lyrics are actually quite well written and poetic. Enslaved have always stayed away from the more popular black metal topics, satanism and anti-christian, instead focusing on themes more akin to viking metal. Axioma Ethica Odini really does count as one of those albums where it's worth listening through while reading the lyrics, giving the album you fullest attention. The lyrics also smack of that great habit some bands have of releasing beautiful lyrics to act as a huge juxtaposition next to the music, Death did it on The Sound of Perseverance (1998) and Enslaved have done it here. Just reading the lyrics you would have no idea how the music that accompanies them sounds, and the shock really acts as one of those epiphany moments, that genres like black metal and death metal really do deserve the praise they get. Here's just a few examples:


Really the only question the album poses is whether or not this is the band's masterpiece or masterstroke? Enslaved are proud champions of a 5/5 on reliable releases in the last seven years. That is no easy achievement even for the best of bands, so they definitely have earned some trust. I remember musing in 2008 about how they were going to top Vertebrae (2008) and they have once again knocked me on my ass ever since I started listening to them in 2006. Axioma Ethica Odini (2010) is one of those albums that will go down in time as one of the best in that field. If the band were to fold up tomorrow, they would forever be immortalized as the quintessential black metal band. Forget Burzum and Mayhem, anyone wishing to turn someone into a black metal believer or to disprove someone's naive claim that black metal is nothing more than kids pretending they are smarter than everyone who believes in religion, will turn to this album.

The best album of 2010.

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Raust

Great review. It's good to see that your reviewing again. This is also my favorite album of '10 so far

RVCA

Did you really need to quote all of that, right after the very same post you're quoting?

MoonlitSunshine

listened to a couple of these at random, decided I liked them. This is exactly the thing I've been looking for lately, I've been running out of new music to listen to! will definitely be making my way methodically through this over the next while

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LoathsomePete

Thank you, I actually really enjoyed writing that review, it just seemed to come naturally to me, but I've also been listening to Axioma Ethica Odini non-stop for the last month now. I can't wait to see them live next month.

I think instead of trying to balance my list out and making sure to include as many genres so everybody can find something they like, I'll just write about albums that I want to write about. This is evidenced in my XTC review, I only included that album because I figured if I didn't include something that people knew about early on in this project, that many would lose interest. This attitude shows in the quality of the review I'm afraid, so I think from 77 onward it'll be more albums that are close to my heart, and not just popular albums that will invoke discussion.

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LoathsomePete

In some ways I think you really have to get into Ulver from their very first album and go in chronological order to truly appreciate what a masterpiece Perdition City is. I mean Ulver break into the black metal scene in 1994 with an impressive debut, then follow it up a year later with an entirely acoustic album. The band had then amazed us with an amazing black metal album worthy of following up their first. for their third album, then kind of fiddle around a bit with experimental metal for a fourth. Then just after you hear that Ulver have a new album coming out you think "oh gee what's the gimmick this time? A bluegrass album? *Smug laugh*".

You put on the headphones (because this is most definitely a headphones album) and instantly your ears are assaulted with... jazz? Electronic? Trip-Hop? I know! It's only now that you realize that Ulver really are one of those bands that are not barred by any limits and can take on any genre and walk away with an amazing album. And that's exactly what Ulver did on Perdition City, they proved to us that they really are the real deal. A band you never have to worry about reading reviews before buying again. "What's that? An Ulver album is coming out this year! Oh well there's an album I'm going to get no matter what". No matter what... that's kind of a big deal now I think. I mean I'll acknowledge that any high profile band will always have people go out and buy their $13 pieces of crap, but for many bands now they don't have that same audience that is so willing to part with the money before even trying an illegal download. Ulver have buyer's confidence, and that is a rarity these days, because this is a case where the buyer's confidence was earned, not just earned with marketing up the arse.

First off, trying to classify this album is almost next to impossible. The genre fusions work so well and the band pulls it off so naturally if it was a word it would be a very long and hard to pronounce word. For the sake of argument though, it's a pretty save bet to say the album is largely electronic. At times it has some very sexy heavy downtempo trip-hop going on, especially in the song "Tomorrow Never Knows", whereas in others the sound is more jazz orientated, like "Lost in Moments".

The production work on Perdition City is top notch, with every sound ringing through clearly, and with a nice pair of headphones you will really be able to absorb all the MANY sounds merging together. The album was produced by Ylwizaker and Audun Strype, who I had to look up on Wikipedia, but I haven't found anything else produced by them, but they did a killer job. I am not usually much of an audiophile, but this really is an album that has a noticeably high quality production.

My only big complaint about the album is that it doesn't really have any metal influences, except one part in "The Future Sound of Music", and even then it was metal-lite. I mean even their acoustic folk album still had a very similar feel to black metal, at least in atmosphere, but I really don't hear any metal influence on Perdition City. That doesn't stop the album from being mindblowingly awesome, but just a tinsy bit would have made it better.

Overall this is an album unlike no other and it's incredibly accessible to just about anybody. So if you like electronic music (which is pretty much all of us) you owe it to yourself to listen to this album.

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LoathsomePete

Jimmy Carter Syndrome has been album I've been really looking forward to reviewing because there's a lot to say about it. For one it's incredibly layered, very dark, and disturbing to say the least. Munly is no stranger to writing controversial lyrics, however he shows no remorse, fear, or ill intent towards the people he sings about, he just kind of says them. This is best illustrated in the song "The Denver Boot" in which he talks about how his demon spawn child lay between his true love's bloody thighs and how he needed to feed it goats milk from his "Denver Boot". Wholesome topics all around on this album.

One of the great things about Munly is that he seriously looks like the personification of death, I mean just look:


Even next to Steve Buscemi he wouldn't win a beauty contest, but besides looking the part, he plays the part quite well. His vocal delivery is varied enough from a mournful wail to a very deep drawl. Lyrically he draws a lot of inspiration from various places he's lived, Canada gets mentioned a few times, as was California and the Southern United States. You get the sense he is a well traveled man, which would make sense because he traveled quite a bit with the band Slim Cessna's Auto Club. It can also be noticed that Munly has amassed quite a wide array of musically inclined friends by the sheer number of guest musicians on this album. I haven't found an exact listing, but with the sheer number of female backing vocalists and unique instruments featured in each song, the list is quite grand.

Giving this album a genre label has also proven to be quite hard. I mean obviously it's a country album to the core, features instruments popular in that genre and the dark lyrical focus common in Gothic Country, but even then... it doesn't seem quite right. Two songs in particular, "Chant Down Cap'n" and "HaggieHennies Almost Dirty Dress" feature a quite hypnotic banjo, drum, and electric guitar combination that really draws you in, similar to the way the downbeat tempo of trip-hop sucks you in. Still the album contains elements of folk and country so for now that would be the best way to describe it, but if you harbor any disdain for either of those two genres don't let it deter you from checking out Jimmy Carter Syndrome because it really goes beyond the limitations of those two genres.

Going back to the lyrics, it can be hard to really tell what Munly is saying because of his drawl, but the lyrics are often non-secular. The two exceptions are "The Denver Boot" and "The Fabulous History of the Churchill Falls Barrel Races" which are very story driven songs, however each of the songs on the album seem to stem from a story, I just hope that none of them are based on personal experiences. The song "Censer From the Footlights" has an amusing section where Munly is singing as if he's reading a telegram, thus ending every line with "STOP". "The Fabulous History of the Churchill Falls Barrel Races" tells the story of a man who was shamed in his town abandons his family and attempts suicide by floating in a barrel of a waterfall, however he survives (much to his dismay) and attempts it again, only to inspire others to join him (minus the suicidal tendencies). Finding the lyrics have proven to be hard because nobody has felt particularly willing to transcribe them, and again his accent can make it hard to distinguish words.


Overall this is one of the more complex country albums I've heard in my life, and definitely gives you an appreciation for how well all the little instruments can make to the genre. I definitely wouldn't say Munly is the best introductory country musician, but if you have tried country and didn't like it, then this is definitely an album to check out. It's dark, eloquent, and completely unique. I had a tough time deciding between this album and Munly's 2004 album Munly & The Lee Lewis Harlots, however this album is a little bit more accessible, at least in terms of sound and length.

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MoonlitSunshine

Right. Personally feeling this thread isn't getting as much love as it should, so:

Autolux:

When I first listened to the Youtube links you posted, the songs grabbed me. They were interesting, slightly different to what I'd heard before (my music taste is woefully mainstream, largely due to a lack of exposure to much else), and I downloaded the album to listen to it more thoroughly. However, having done that, I found that the album wasn't grabbing me in the same way that the songs had, and it got left alone for some weeks. Last week, I randomly made a playlist of all the music I had got recently, which included this, and left it playing in the background while I did some work. Half way through this album I suddenly realised that in the time it had been on in the background it had grown on me so much that I ended up listening to it three times in a row.

Now, of course, I think it's a fantastic album, but definitely one that - for me, anyway - took listening to as background first, to get the overall feel of it, before I could start appreciating the details of it. It has such a wonderful mood of laid-back, mellow optimism, that emulates the way that the album grows on you. At first, it doesn't strike you as anything brilliant because there's nothing that jumps out and grabs your attention, but over time you realise how understatedly awesome it actually is. Thumbs up for this one!

The Tea Party

First of all, I will say now that I am guilty of not having downloaded and listened to this further, but I will state my reasons and if you think they're wrong, feel free to tell me to shut up and listen to it before I go any further :P

The first song, I enjoyed, very much so (listening to it again now). It's catchy, upbeat... welll, not quite upbeat. more Throbbing, if that makes any sense. It sounds like the kind of song that if you put it on in a club with epic bass-worthy speakers, it would rip through you for the ever so short 3 minutes that it lasts. if the album has more stuff like this on it, then I'm definitely up for getting it. The singer's voice fits the sound and the feel of it like a glove, and makes me wonder why I hadn't heard it before, considering how mainstream a sound it could be.

The second song... I got bored, to put it simply. I don't think his voice fits this kind of music so well, and it reminded me of some of The Cure's work that I tend to skip over quickly whenever it comes up on my random shuffling. The whole song never feels like it lifts off from the runway, it's repetitive, every part of the song sounds like it would be better off as part of another song, and my god is that jingly thing every 8 beats annoying. I understand that every album (well definitely of the sort these guys seem likely to make) needs to be balanced, to have its ups and downs, but in comparison to Temptation, this song feels like it just say down and died cause it was too much effort to be meaningful.

As I said: I'm more than happy to be told I'm wrong about the album, but if it's a lot of the second and not so much of the first, I'll probably give it a miss.

XTC

Now, I will admit that the main reason I downloaded this album was because I've always wanted to find a band I liked that began with X. Fortunately, I wasn't disappointed.


This album grabbed me fairly quickly (though I haven't listening to it as much as I should, just yet!). It's upbeat, in a friendly "hey! come with us and let's go on a crazy adventure!" sorta way. As it stands, it doesn't feel like anything particularly special, but I'm willing to bet that the more I listen to it, the more I'll be realising little bits in different songs that really stand out and grab my attention. It's funny, as i realise that I'm running out of things to say about this in the same way that your original review seems to be among the shortest that you wrote. It occurs to me that there's not much you can say about it other than that it's good, and I'm glad I downloaded it! I have a feeling that finding hard copies of these albums is going to be fun...

Failure

I am disappoint. This album does not exist on the internet, from what I can see, which is pretty damn annoying cause I really like both the songs that you linked to. They have a catchy but unique sound, and I see what you mean about the elements of other artists. I feel like I've heard a lot of it before, but not in the way that it's being presented. It's got a gritty personality that's similar to me in feel to Superunknown (but their sound overall is quite different to Soundgarden) That said, seeing as Soundgarden are one of my favourite bands, you can understand why this grabbed me so much as it did. Definitely hearing the Weezer that you mentioned on Bernie!

Definitely looking forward to the day that I finally track down a copy of this, as I have no doubt that it'll quickly find its way into my most listened-to albums. A failure this certainly isn't!

Slint

Apologies, but this one is being skipped for now, I'll come back to it when I've devoted some time to it, and I enjoyed the preliminary listen that i gave the links. It's on the list!

Morcheeba

Ahh Morcheeba, Big Calm has always been one of my "laid-back" albums, to listen to when I want to calm down and forget everything else. Charango seems to have that same feel of a mellow groove that feel slightly funky, but in a way that makes you want to sit down and relax rather than get up and dance. Always enjoy listening to these guys (though they can sometimes get a bit too... poppy? Some of their more famous songs seem a little like they were trying to hard to sell), thumbs up for this one!

...Damn, lectures. I'll continue this at some point!

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