Trollheart

Let's get things rockin' rightaway then with a couple of albums released only this very year, as we take our first look at some Metal that has been



Roads to the north --- Panopticon --- 2014 (Bindrune Recordings)

I knew nothing about this band --- not even of their existence --- until Goofle introduced me to “Kentucky”, where the unlikely blend of Death Metal and Country really impressed me, and allowed me to listen to half an album that was screeching, roaring vocals with blindingly fast guitars (you know, Death Metal!) and the other half that was a fusion of Folk and Country. It certainly surprised me. Whether or not their latest album is in the same vein I don't know, but here it is, so let's have a listen to it.

There are only eight tracks on the album, but two of them are ten minutes long, one twelve and one thirteen, so it's still good value for money. As I found out with “Kentucky”, Panopticon is basically one guy, Austin Lunn, who does literally everything on the album: in addition to writing and arranging all the songs he also plays drums, guitars, bass, flute, banjo, mandolin, resonator guitar, Dobro, keyboards, samples and sings all the vocals. Don't you just hate multi-instrumentalists? Seriously, he's one hell of a one-man-band, and if this is anything like the previous album it's gonna be special.

There's a great atmospheric opening as “Echoes of a disharmonic evening” brings in the sound of wind, footsteps, dogs or maybe wolves or coyotes baying, then a punching guitar and apocalyptic drums get the track going, racing along but still with what I can see as a sense of definite melody. There's a bestial roar from Lunn, like something primeval, but nothing further until we hit the second minute, then he's bellowing but the vocal range is so low it's more like an animal growl and I have no idea what the lyric is, or even if there is one. It's almost pure expression of pain or anger here, like someone roaring out their agony and frustration to a world that doesn't care. The guitar work is exceptional though, so much so that I can sort of overlook the vocal --- there's no way I could attempt to listen to it anyway, so it sort of fades into the musical mix. Janszoon I think it was once advised me to treat death vocals as just another instrument, and though that doesn't work every time, here I find it may solve my discomfort with such gutteral vox.

Breaking down into a really nice instrumental passage now in the fifth minute, then the roar is back, even more raw than before, and the music rises to meet it, savage and uncompromising. “Where mountains pierce the sky” shows the dichotomy that exists in this man's music. One moment he can be kicking out the stays on a nine-minute Death Metal rant, roaring at the world, next he's playing a soft flute and acoustic guitar in a folky laidback tune. Hard guitar joins in and we hear that roar begin to rise again --- well, this song is over twelve minutes: I didn't expect it to be all relaxing and acoustic! But even when it amps up, there's still something of the basic melody, some connection to what has gone before, so that it all sounds like part of the same song, and once you get used to Panopticon, the change is not as juddering and jarring as I originally found it to be when I listened to “Kentucky”.

Only halfway through the song and Lunn has packed so much in already you begin to wonder what can he fill the other six minutes and change with? But then there's a doomy bass and the tempo changes somewhat, slowing and becoming a bit more sludgy while the vocals fade out for now, letting him give vent to his musical talent solely. A lot of feedback and hammering drums set up a real crescendo ending in some sort of warbly effect on the guitar, leading into another guitar creating an almost Lizzy sound. Really! It speeds up again as it heads towards the end, and I must say it's been a while since I've enjoyed something like that, but it was incredible.

And there are six more tracks yet to go! In fact, the next three are all part of the one composition, apparently, going under the umbrella title of “The long road”, with part one being titled “One last fire”, and opening on, of all things, a banjo with some slide guitar in attendance, making you think that this is the latest Oak Ridge Boys album, and indeed as it continues into something of a Country hoe-down you're expecting the sudden change to electric guitar and raging vocal, but so far it ain't come. Fiddle now, squealing like a thing alive and the banjo gets faster, showing just how much talent resides in this one man. Absolutely superb. It's four minutes in now and the song runs for just under six, so I think it's safe to assume this is an instrumental.

Part two is called “Capricious miles” and comes in on rolling, crashing drums, bitter hard electric guitar and a roar from Austin, everything speeding up and careening along like an out-of-control big rig on the highway. Then somewhere around the middle it becomes a laidback almost acoustic ambient piece of music, with sound effects and a much slower tempo, as if Lunn is catching his breath, or allowing us to, before the next salvo. Something like violin (probably violin, since he plays the fiddle) smooths its way into proceedings for a moment and then casually wanders off, leaving us wanting more. And there is more: it's back for another short passage --- ghostly, ethereal, almost abstract in its beauty, and although there's another roar let out of Austin we end not as we began, slowly and serenely floating into part three.

“Sigh of summer” sounds like it should be a really relaxing, gentle piece of music, and indeed this is what we get, at least at the beginning. I have no idea how it's going to develop. Which is, I guess, all part of the fun and the attraction of this singular artiste. You quite literally don't know what you're going to get, from one minute to the other, never mind track. But so far it's lovely and low-key, with soaring, lush keyboards and gentle guitar, slow soft percussion and thus far anyway no vocal. Spoke too soon: three minutes in and the drums have begun to hammer with energy and passion, and the growled, roared vocal is back as the electric guitars kick in full throttle. Somehow, at this point, it's not unexpected nor even unwelcome, just part of the great tapestry Austin Lunn is weaving here with expert precision and the vision of a true artist.

Three minutes later we're into a real rock-out boogie with a sweet bass pattern driving it, Lunn singing whatever it is he's singing with gusto and punctuating his indecipherable vocals with a fiery solo, and before we know it the whole trilogy is over and we're listening to another little laidback tune, as “Norwegian nights” gives us a rare chance to hear Austin actually sing in a normal voice, and he really can sing! Sorry, that's disrespectful. What he does on the rest of the album is of course singing, not just noise, but this is the first time I've been able to really appreciate his voice, and it's nice to know he can sing “normal” too. A lovely little tune, very acoustic, with guitar, violin and mandolin all playing a part, then revelling in irony, “In silence” begins with the sound of a train then explodes into one of the noisiest drum attacks I've heard to date. It's just like an earthquake must feel, and notwithstanding what I said above earlier, it is a little off-putting, as I had not expected this much of a shock.

The track is nearly ten minutes long so I hope it doesn't all go on like this, but knowing Lunn there'll be a change at least before the end. His ragged vocal comes in now as the music settles down a little, on the way towards the third minute. There's what sounds like a chanted backing vocal now too, but I have the feeling it's just his own voice multi-tracked, as he doesn't seem to work with anyone else. Now the guitar goes wild, cutting loose like a thing alive and savage before it settles into a sort of Sabbathesque riff which in turn becomes a slow, stripped-down blues one. But that doesn't last and we crash out of the song the way we began, with thundering drums and snarling guitar, Lunn roaring all the way.

The closer is a twelve-minute piece entitled “Chase the grain”, which opens with a sort of keyboard/violin medley while the drums hammer hard and fast in the backbeat, then a dark heavy vocal takes the tune, dragging it by the scruff of its neck into the third minute, where it undergoes yet another startling metamorphosis and becomes an introspective acoustic guitar passage with flute coming gently in to add its layer of sound with a slight amount of dissonance and discord, so that it always sounds just very slightly out of tune. Spooky. Things get heavy again as we hit the fifth minute, and the bellowing vocal destroys the moment of tranquility, though disturbingly the acoustic melody continues on in the background, giving a very surreal feel.

A tolling bell calls in flute as we reach the midway point in the song, strong guitar pounding in too and making the song sound somehow very dramatic as Lunn goes a bit wild on the vocal. Everything is building towards one final crescendo now as this stunning album draws to a close, one last barrage across the bows or even directly to the heart of the engine room before we're left with a typically low-key ending on acoustic guitar and banjo, and you can almost see, and feel, the knowing grin and the wink from Austin as he waves us farewell and goes back to his own inimitable world, where almost literally anything is possible.

TRACKLISTING

1. The echoes of a disharmonic evensong
2. Where mountains pierce the sky
3. The long road, part I: One last fire
4. The long road, part II: Capricious miles
5. The long road, part III: The sigh of summer
6. Norwegian night
7. In silence
8. Chase the grain

I have no idea whether this is a genre, subgenre or something totally unique, but in a way I'd like to think it's the latter, because I have never heard anything like this before. The mix of styles, the instrumentation, the ragged vocal and the occasional softer one, all parts of this amazing jigsaw that Austin Lunn has created and which continues to surprise, delight and at times dismay. Had it not been for my experience with “Kentucky” I feel I would perhaps have been drawn to this album's cover, liked the music but then as soon as the vocal cut in I would have hit the back button, deciding not to buy. I'm glad I chose otherwise.

I think I now need to listen to the rest of Lunn's catalogue, which should prove at the very least an interesting journey. For those of you who loved “Kentucky”, this is not quite the same but it's just as good. For those of you that don't know Panopticon, I urge you to do as I did and take the leap: it's quite a ride, and though you may be somewhat dizzy afterwards, I guarantee you will not soon forget it.

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The fateful dark --- Savage Messiah --- 2014 (Earache)

British thrash act Savage Messiah released their third album this year, and it's a doozy. If you like doomy lyrics with a thrash rhythm and feel then you'll love this. Savage Messiah have been about since 2007, formed out of the ashes of founder David Silver's previous band, Headless Cross. It opens with “Iconocaust” (no it's not a misspelling) with a big guitar intro and the sound of sirens before guitarist Joff Bailey (no it is NOT!) joins Silver on the axework and the two rock out in fine style, Silver supplying the rather falsetto vocal as the song cannons along. From what I can see from a quick glance down the lyric sheet their songs seem to focus on the same basic anti-Christianity/religion themes as the likes of Venom and Slayer, though they are a little more subtle in putting their ideas across. By the time the opener is over I'm already a fan.

“Minority of one” continues the basic religion-is-fooling-you idea, with another big guitar barrage, Silver proving himself a very capable vocalist as well as a great fretjockey. There are some scorching solos in this song, to say nothing of the next one, which has a much faster vocal delivery and thunders along like an avenging angel looking for victims. “Cross of Babylon” is, um, another anti-religion track, and though it has a great hook in the chorus, I find myself worrying that Savage Messiah may end up suffering from all or most of their songs being written on the same themes and subjects. I certainly hope not, cos I'm getting into this bigtime, and I don't want to have to criticise them. Although the ending of “Cross of Babylon” is ripped right out of Bruce Dickinson's vocal playbook.

Well, “Hellblazer” doesn't move too far from the basic premise they're working with here, but then I guess with songs this good maybe the lyrical content doesn't matter so much. Yes, I'm a hypocrite. No seriously: I want there to be other ideas here, but hope is fading when I check the titles of the songs yet to come. “Live as one dead”. “Scavengers of mercy”. “The cursed Earth”. Hey, might that be about our favourite futuristic lawman? Fingers crossed, though not in that much expectation really. Anyway, while I've been babbling on about song themes this music has been really winning me over. Yes it's very Maiden in places, but that's no bad thing. It's heavy as hell and not too fast for my tastes, though still pretty headbangin'.

There's a really nice atmospheric guitar to open “Live as one already dead”, and then it's a slow beat and I wonder could it be a metal ballad? The vocal is gentle and low-key, belying the apocalyptic lyric: ”I see a world that's losing hope/ Empty prayers of life evoke/ The setting down”, and indeed the title, but yeah, though there's been some hard guitar it's generally stayed slow and I'd call this a metal ballad certainly. Evocative solo now, getting more insistent as it goes on, really taking the track. Favourite track so far. Big surprise, Trollheart: on a thrash metal album you choose the ballad. Oh, you unpredictable writer, you! I suppose the title could be interpreted to mean, as I think it does from the lyric, live as if you've nothing to lose. Great song.

The title track is up next, and I'm not really sure what it's about. Could be an anti-war anthem, could be about Stonehenge. But it's a heavy marching cruncher, there's no doubt about that. One thing it seems Savage Messiah do very well is build infectious hooks into their songs; I feel I'll be singing these long after the album has ended. They really stick in the mind. This kind of reminds me of Kamelot's “March of Mephisto”, though it's its own song certainly. I had hoped “Zero Hour” might be something else, but it appears to envisage Armageddon. Oh well; it's still a great song, full of energy and power, anger and a sense of inevitability. Some fine guitar work here by the two guys and it really builds up to a strong ending.

“Hammered down” goes right off the rails, hurtling along with aggression and passion, but at least it seems to be more politically than religiously based, with a sort of double vocal going on in some of the lines. An anthem for youth, perhaps? Stirring stuff: you can't stop your head from shaking, even someone with as little hair as me! There's also something really effective about the way Silver sings ”Hammered” and the backup vocalists yell ”DOWN!” “Scavengers of mercy” returns to the standard “religion is wrong” theme of most of the songs on this album, and again it rockets along with superb performances from both Bailey and Silver himself, and a thunderous attack on the drums as Andrea Gorio gives it all he has with Stefano Selvatico laying down a tight, tense bassline.

Disappointingly for me, though hardly unexpected, the closer is not about Judge Dredd's desolate wasteland, rather “The cursed Earth” is just a basic accusation levelled at the wickedness of Man and his stripping of the planet's resources. Rhythm and basic melody reminds me of Maiden's “The Duellist” in places, trips along nicely on a sort of march-for-revenge beat. Some more great backup vocals on this, some fine vocal harmonies too and then in the midpoint a very unexpected little guitar solo that pulls everything back for a moment before it fires up fully and takes the song on into its shattering conclusion, heralding the end of the album and perhaps the beginning of a new musical relationship for me.

TRACKLISTING

Iconocaust
Minority of one
Cross of Babylon
Hellblazer
Live as one dead
The fateful dark
Zero Hour
Hammered down
Scavengers of mercy
The cursed Earth

I should mention that on my copy there are four extra tracks, each one a cover of a standard, beginning with Iron Maiden's “Be quick or be dead”, then “Lightning to the nations” by Diamond Head, followed by Motorhead's “Killers” and finishing with a version of “Of wolf and man” by Metallica. Each one is carried off with precision and talent, but I would rather have had two or three (or four) more original songs. Still, they're a decent addition, if somewhat superfluous.

I find it a little hard to believe that I have never heard of Savage Messiah before. I don't know how successful they are, but they certainly have the potential to be pretty huge. If you wanted a version of Maiden or Helloween that focussed more on kind of “black metal” lyrics, you would have to go far to beat these guys. They take the best elements of speed, thrash, black and even some standard NWOBHM-style metal and just meld it together in a way I have seldom if ever seen any other band manage. One to watch, certainly.

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If I went to a foreign country and couldn't speak the language --- fair chance of that, as I only speak the one --- it would probably be very hard to communicate. But should I listen to music in that strange country, I might not be able to understand the lyrics but I could certainly enjoy --- or hate, or be bored by --- the music. Music is the one true global language. Anyone can understand it and anyone can speak it. That's what this section is about, in case you hadn't guessed.

The world over, music is essentially the same, and this goes double for Heavy Metal. Not that all bands in all countries play the same; of course they don't. But I could listen to an album by Rammstein or Baron Rojo or Moonsorrow without having to understand what they're singing about. The music, literally, does the talking. So here we're going to travel across the world, listening to the Metal from four different countries, not all that far apart in terms of culture but a world apart from each other in terms of language. We'll sample some of the Metal bands that play or come from there, and see for ourselves that Metal knows no boundaries, neither political nor geographical, and certainly language is no barrier to this music we love.

First up,


The largest country in the continent of South America, Brazil has a rich history, having been settled (conquered, if you will) by the Portugeuse Empire in 1500, hence their native language being Portuguese. It is the fifth largest country in the world, and was of course in the news recently when the World Cup was staged there for the first time since 1950.

Look, I'm not going to give you the history of the country. You're not interested, are you? If you are, here's a link Brazil - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
but what we want to know about is the music; more specifically, the Heavy Metal music that comes out of this country. And so, let's dive into our first example.

Legacy of humanity --- Anubis --- 2010 (Distro Rock)

I heard these guys by accident. I'm into another band called Anubis (I featured them on my now-defunct Trollheart's Fortress of Prog) but they're a prog rock outfit, and when I downloaded this album I expected it to be one of theirs. Imagine my surprise when I was assaulted by hammering guitars, thundering drums and growled vocals! Still, for what it was it didn't seem all that bad, and as we're exploring metal bands from Brazil Anubis fit right into the frame. I do find it odd, perhaps even a little disheartening that a band who have been together for twenty years now have only managed to churn out one demo album --- and that in 2006, over a decade after they were formed --- plus a single in 2010, with this being essentially their debut album. The sands of time, guys! The sands of time...

Anyway, what's it like? Well, as you'd probably expect, it's hard fast and heavy, with the usual twin guitar attack courtesy of Renato Costa and Vinicius Carvalho, who are good at what they do. Anubis sing in English, though sing is perhaps a little kind when you listen to vocalist Sandro Costa --- is he related to Renato? I don't know: perhaps Costa is a common surname in Brazil. “Armistice Day” opens proceedings, but it's anything but a surrender as the lads go for the throat, pounding and screaming in that special way thrash metal enjoys. There's something of Slayer and a lot of the big German thash bands here, the likes of Kreator and Destruction. “Forbidden game” keeps the tempo fast and heavy, though there's really nothing special about it, the guitar riffs basically repeated throughout the song. It does slow down about halfway but then returns to its previous groove, and it's really been and gone before you can even notice it.

“School of hate” is more of the same: low, growling guitars and a snarled vocal with steamhammer drums. It's possibly a little slower than the last two tracks, but not that much, while “Dark hope” has a long instrumental intro, about the only thing that distinguishes it from what has gone before. As a matter of interest, I see that later on “Under the influence” is an actual instrumental, so that may be something to look forward to: Costa's vocals are certainly not making this an easy album to like. That said, there's a pretty cool solo in “Dark hope” that shows the talent of the two axemen, but otherwise, like much of this album so far, it's rather unremarkable. Moving on, we head into “The last act” (shall I be unkind and say I wish it was? No, I won't, not yet) with a sort of galloping beat that almost hits boogie territory at times.

The title track is up next. Well, not really the title track --- there is none --- but the name of the band. Yeah, “Anubis” is also the longest track on the album by far, clocking in at over eight minutes. There's a reasonably long Sabbathish intro on the guitar before it all gets pumping and Sandro Costa roars in with the vocal, though after his growl it's back to instrumental really for another minute or so as the band take the song. When he comes back in he's singing in a faster, more rapid-fire delivery than he has done, and the music matches his vocal: fast, driving with much shredding. Well, at least it seemed to go in quicker than I expected, and we're on to “P.O.W” which rocks along nicely with some almost discordant guitar, taking us to that instrumental I mentioned earlier.

And it's been worth waiting for, with a sort of Gary Moore twist to the guitar, allied to a sound that I can only describe as Boston. Yeah. It gets heavier and punchier then, but retains the basic slow, almost balladic melody of the opening, putting it clearly in the running for standout on the album, as far as I'm concerned (not that it has much competition in my view!); a real pearl among the swine, and a great showcase for Carvalho and Costa, who really deserve to be in a better band than this I feel. “Slaves of misery” returns us to the banal and pedestrian, with a refrain a little too close to Maiden's similarly-titled “Chains of misery” for my liking, and the album ends on “Dream beyond the mirror”, a promising start with some laidback guitar that then comes through more heavily as the song gets going, but it's a nice introduction.

It's actually almost halfway through the track's six-minutes-plus length before we hear the vocals, but it's the guitars that carry the closer, with again some licks coming very close to Maiden territory, especially “The Trooper” and “Die with your boots on”. The problem here is that, like a broken fishing rod, this would be useless to an angler; in other words, there are no hooks in it, or very very few. Nothing is memorable, there's no Hum Factor and it's all pretty much more of the same. Not impressed, I must say.

TRACKLISTING

Armistice Day
Forbidden game
School of hate
Dark hope
The last act
Anubis
P.O.W
Under the influence
Slaves of misery
Dream beyond the mirror

I've had experience of Brazilian thrash before, when I came across on “The Meat Grinder”, and I really didn't like what I heard. Anubis have not done anything to change my mind on that score. I'm sure there are great metal bands in the land of Mardi Gras, but I've yet to encounter them.

As for Anubis, I think I prefer the progressive rock band, who are miles apart from this sort of music. Anubis was the guardian dog of the dead in Egyptian mythology, and stood watch not only over the bodies of pharohs and powerful people but no doubt their wealth too. I don't think he would be too bothered about guarding this particular tomb, as there's nothing new or innovative, catchy or even memorable here. Considering that this album took, technically, twenty years to record, you'd think they'd have come up with something better than this collection of tired metal cliches.

Pass.

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The Batlord

Thief!!!

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Trollheart

Hey! It's the highest form of flattery you know! Anyway, don't you have Thor to read?

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Trollheart

During the runup to Metal Month II I asked you guys to throw any albums my way you wanted to see me review. You responded in your ... um ... you responded --- well, some of you did --- and those albums will now be reviewed in this section. As I promised, I reviewed them in the order I received them, and this is also now how I will present them here.

Some people suggested more than one album. In those cases, that person's second (or in some cases, third) choice was relegated to the end of the line, after all the others to be reviewed. So if you asked me to listen to two or more albums and only see one here, don't despair: I got to it, and will post it, but after everyone else has had a chance. Fair? Tough.

This was the very first suggestion, and so it's the first one being posted here.

Blood mountain --- Mastodon --- 2006 (Reprise)
Suggested by Frownland

Well, Frownland was first in with his request, and so it's thanks to him for the first recommendation. I say thanks because whether or not I end up liking it, he took the time to make the suggestion, and that deserves my gratitude. If nobody had suggested albums I would not even have this section, so thanks to all. But now we take a look at an album by a band who have been around since just before the turn of the millennium, and who within that time have produced six albums, of which this is the fourth. They have a new one out this year, and depending on how this goes I may see what that's like in the “Freshly Forged” section later. Right now though, it's 2006 and I am still working in my job of at this point twenty-six years, have a little more hair and have never even heard of Music Banter. The new millennium is six years old and the fear of Y2K is now a matter to laugh at and be embarrassed by, and the horror of 9/11 is very slowly fading, though never forgotten.

We open on “The wolf is loose”, a hard and tough track with a gutteral vocal from Troy Sanders but with some very acceptable backing vocals. It's fast and frenetic; there's no easing yourself into this album! Reading up on it, I see it's a concept album, following the progress of a character up the Blood Mountain atop which he wishes to place a crystal skull, for some reason: something to do with freeing his mind and moving on to the next stage of evolution, it says here. In fact, the next song , which features Scott Kelly of Neurosis guesting on the vocals, is called “Crystal skull” and I must admit I don't see a huge division between it and the previous, though often that's the way with concept albums. This is a little more of a boogie in some ways, some very good guitar work from Brent Hinds and Bill Kelliher, and like most of the tracks on the album it's quite short, only three minutes.

“Sleeping giant” is one of the longer ones, and begins with an extended instrumental that's quite progressive rock really. Although the vocals here are less harsh --- could be one of the others singing, as they seem to share vocal duties --- they're still hard to make out, but the music is pretty great. “Capilliarian crest” sees the return of the original vocals from the opening track and move along at a faster pace, almost shades of Death Metal in places. “Circle of cysquatch” (a cysquatch is apparently a Sasquatch wit one eye who's capable of seeing the future) continues the sort of breathless, death/thrash format of the previous song though with slightly clearer vocals, but it's all a little too raw for my sensibilities, and I say that having listened to, at the time of writing, the entire Slayer catalogue! Yeah, but of choice I would, so far, not listen to this. There's some sort of weird vocoder effect that quite honestly sounds like the guy is belching the vocal. Weird. Which kind of describes this album up to this point. There are two instrumentals on the album, the first of which is “Bladecatcher”, played on a nice picked guitar in a sort of folky/prog style --- no it's not. Started that way then exploded on fast electric guitar and seems to involve some sort of vocals taped and run at top speed, or some sample or something. Not what I'd have expected from a track labelled “instrumental”. Maybe the last half of that word.

Not going well so far, Frown my man! I'm tempted to stop listening here, but we're only halfway through and I don't do that; when I say I'll listen to something I do it. Oh god damn it, I forgot I promised to give Cryptopsy a listen for The Batlord! May God have mercy upon my soul! Oh well, that's in the future for now, but at times I must admit I think I might be better listening to them than Mastodon. I really hated “Bladecatcher”, and though “The colony of birchmen” is said to be an homage to Genesis's “The colony of slippermen” off “The lamb lies down on Broadway”, I don't see it. Or hear it. But at least it's listenable. Mostly. Got a decent beat to it and the vocals aren't too bad, another guest performance this time by QOTSA's Josh Homme. Let's check out the lyric: no, still see nothing to connect this with the Genesis song. Moving on..

There's more of a marching style beat to “Hunters of the sky”, then it abruptly stops for a second and breaks into another superfast tempo with more annoying screamed vocals and guitars that really should be kept on a leash if they're out in public! I just find it so hard to make out any of the words here that it detracts from my enjoyment of the album, but given that I don't think much of the music either, it doesn't really matter in the end. There's so far nothing here I'd listen to again of choice. The guitars still haven't learned to behave as they usher in “Hand of stone”, with at least slightly more recognisable (though no prettier) vocals, but with three tracks to go I'm now just holding out till this ends, as it's become, literally, worse than listening to Slayer. At least I got used to them, and even got to like them a little. This I just hate and will never listen to again.

I don't know if it's going to last or not, but “This mortal soil” begins with some nice gentle guitar and may have fooled me into thinking it's going to be a ballad. Even if it doesn't stay that way, a minute or so of this is a nice break from the constant assault of punching guitars and kicking drums, which is wearing me out worse than listening to “Undisputed attitude”! The vocal is recognisable and thus far the song has remained relatively slow and laidback, and we're halfway through the song at this point. Well, it ended and resisted the temptation to kick up, so if I had to choose a favourite --- or, let's say, least hated --- track from this album i guess it would be that. “Siberian divide” brings in The Mars Volta's Cedric Bixler-Zavala on vocals, but it doesn't make that much difference to me; just sounds pretty much like everything else on this album. Don't really like any of it.

The closer is the second instrumental, (well, it's biilled as such but there are kind of drunken vocals running throughout most of it) and though “Pendulous skin” runs for officially just over twenty-two fucking minutes (!) most of that is silence, with a message inserted from Homme, a kind of band in-joke. I don't need to hear that, and I've never understood the idiotic process of putting in a ton of silence that extends a track which then has a tiny little snippet at the end. It's frustrating, when you think you're getting a really long, epic track and find you have been cheated. Kansas, Robbie Williams, even my prog gods Marillion have done it, and it boils my blood every time. Luckily, on this album I don't want – couldn't survive through --- a twenty-plus minute track, so I'm prepared to suffer five minutes that includes keyboard contribution from Isiah “Ikey” Owens, again of The Mars Volta, which is relaxing and closes the album well, possibly a second track I might listen to, if I had to, but overall this album bombed bigtime for me. Sorry Frownland: better luck next time, my friend!

TRACKLISTING

The wolf is loose
Crystal skull
Sleeping giant
Capilliarian crest
Circle of cysquatch
Bladecatcher
The colony of birchmen
Hunters of the sky
Hand of stone
This mortal soil
Siberian divide
Pendulous skin

Yeah, this is definitely not for me. It's a while since I suffered a sense of just gritting my teeth and hoping the album would end at some point, but that's exactly what I felt here. From the moment it began I had reservations, and they never really went away. One or two half-decent tracks aside, there's nothing on this album I want to revisit, and I guess that new album I was talking about will just languish on my hard disk now. I really don't want to experience Mastodon again. Next!

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Urban Hat€monger ?

I missed this.
If it's any consolation when he was asked about it Simon Le Bon said he had no idea what the song was about either.

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Isbjørn

I'd like to see your opinion on Tool. Lateralus, for instance.

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Trollheart

Yeah, I dunno. I'm drowning in albums and reviews yet to be written, so thanks for throwing the lifebuoy (no it's NOT pronounced "booey! It's "boy!") and hitting me right on the head!

Anyway, on we go...

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Frownland

The Hunter and Mastodon's more recent album are a lot more restrained, and the singer changes his vocal style quite a bit. They're probably not up your alley still though.

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Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth.