Wpnfire

That's literally the only think I like about Black Sabbath. Once Iommi lost that tone I lose interest in the band permanently.

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Plankton

It did get a bit nasally, but I've always thought it was brilliant. Here's a good read:

Tony Iommi’s ‘Mob Rules’ Gear Details : WoodyTone!

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Wpnfire

It's not just the tone either, he started writing riffs differently after Ozzy left as well.

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Traveling_Alone

As a big fan of doom and gloom sounding stuff (and doom metal)-- Ozzy era Sabbath speaks to me more than the Dio-era stuff, but I don't dislike Dio, either.

Plus early Sabbath was the band that started my metal obsession when I was really into metal so I guess nostalgia comes into play too.

Trollheart

Like Martin said in The Simpsons, "I'm aware of his work." Who wouldn't be? I've just never felt the urge to actually review or listen to an album in full, but I understand and respect the contribution he has made to metal and to hard rock.
Ah yes, I remember it well. The coffin ships, the lines of needy individuals stretching from the coast all the way back to the city centre, the defiant old men in their thatched cottages bellowing "What's wrong with carrier pigeons!?" We've come so far...
I believe that may actually be written into our constitution. Yes, we have one.

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Trollheart

Almost everyone here will have heard more Judas Priest than I have. I only relatively recently heard any of their albums, and although I know of course the singles --- "Living after midnight", "Breaking the law", "United", "You got another thing coming" and so on --- I've never been a fan. And yet they're one of the oldest and most respected metal bands in history, so perhaps it's time I took off my biased goggles and got to grips with their music. Which is why they are this year's

So let's jump right in and check out their first album, released a staggering forty-one years ago.


Rocka rolla (1974)

Very blues-edged rock kicks off the debut album, reminds me of ZZ and Led Zep with touches of Purple, which is not too surprising as they would have been coming up as those bands were releasing some of their seminal albums and taking control over heavy rock music at the time. Bit of a stomper, good guitar work but nothing terribly special really to be fair. Even Rob Halford is still trying to find his voice, as here he's a mix of Plant and Gillan. You can certainly hear the power in his vocal chords though, which would come screaming to the fore in later years, but right now he sounds like a poor copy of the big heavy rock vocalists of the time. The song is okay, a bit dull with no real identity though, but the title track when it hits next has a least a lot more bite about the guitars. Again though it's pretty basic blues rock and I don't find it stands out in any real way.

What does stand out, and is different, with its progressive overtones, is a suite of three songs on the album that comes next, kicking off with “Winter”, which has a dark, slow, crushing, very Sabbath vibe, right down to the guitar riff from K.K. Downing, very short though and runs into “Deep freeze”, which seems to be mostly that crushing guitar riff played through as an instrumental passage .. no it isn't. Most of it, yes, but here comes Halford at the end as it piles into the longest of its sections, “Winter retreat”, with a big feedback guitar taking centre stage and kind of copying Zep's “Whole lotta love” I must admit, then of all things a soft mellow acoustic guitar takes the final section. Sort of Floydy in its way. Nice vocal harmonies and some smooth synthesiser from Tipton too. “Cheater” then gets everything rocking again with a big angry guitar chugging along and the Zep blues vibe firmly back in place. There is some harmonica on it though, but then again that only reinforces the Zep comparison.

“Never satisfied” is a decent rock song, but again there's nothing terribly original or indeed memorable about it. It's a bit heavier than some of the tracks that have gone before, or to be more accurate, has a crunchier heaviness about it, but that's about all. Surprisingly then, “Run of the mill” is anything but, with a progressive rock/blues hybrid thing going, and indeed it's the epic on the album, at over eight minutes long. Certainly the standout for me, with its slow, almost doomy feel and some fine work from K.K. Downing, not to mention a pretty excellent and passionate vocal from Halford. Definitely the most progressive rock of the tracks here, with some fine drumming from John Hinch, whose debut and swansong at once this album would be. Halford goes into full Gillan mode near the end, proving he has the vocal chops that would be able to stand toe-to-toe with the best in metal over the decades.

There's a sweet little bass line to open “Dying to meet you” before the guitar growls through and takes control, then tones right down into an almost acoustic style while Halford sings almost as if in the distance, more blues evident in this song, which seemed like it was going to be a big power cruncher but has so far slipped into a soft, relaxed groove. There's a big sliding guitar then and the beat kicks up, but I believe this is another track called “Hero, hero”. It gallops along nicely, but my god the vocals are poor here! I can hardly hear Halford, and that's not something you normally can say about the man; love him or loathe him, he is loud! But here he's almost inaudible. Song's decent though, and to be fair there isn't much in the way of vocals really; it survives on Downing's superb fretwork that drives the whole thing. That just leaves an instrumental for the closer, a short track called “Caviar and meths”, which I'm told is cut down from a fourteen-minute version! Here though it's just a slowly rising guitar line and percussion; a nice little guitar passage that forms a coda to the album.

TRACKLISTING AND RATINGS

1. One for the road
2. Rocka rolla
3. Winter
4. Deep freeze
5. Winter retreat
6. Cheater
7. Never satisfied
8. Run of the mill
9. Dying to meet you/Hero, hero
10. Caviar and meths

I can see why this album sold so poorly its first time out, and why, for a time, Judas Priest must have wondered if they might try some other career or genre? It just didn't take off for them right away, and their label didn't seem to be interested (surprise, surprise!), and when their second album performed as badly the band parted company with Gull and signed to CBS, and history was made. But I have to admit, if I had heard this in 1974 (well, I would have been eleven at the time, so maybe not) I would not have been impressed. It would be a massive stretch to call this metal of any stripe, and there is nothing really there to indicate that not only would Judas Priest survive and thrive, but that they would become one of the biggest, most influential and revered and longest-lived metal bands in the world.

Before that though, there was another three years of obscurity, living life on the breadline and struggling to make their mark before their third album would finally catapult them into the spotlight and put them on the stage as heavy metal superstars, where they have remained ever since.

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Trollheart

This year I had definitely intended to tackle Funeral Doom. I'd heard an album or two and liked what I heard. Sadly though, once I started really getting into the bands involved I found there was one glaring problem: they pretty much all sounded the same. Slow, crushingly slow guitars and drums, long-drawn-out roars and howls and snarls substituting for vocals, and really, very little to write about. I grew bored and decided I'd made a mistake, and there was no way I was going to, or would be able to, write a whole series based around that particular subgenre.

But sometimes it takes courage to realise you got it wrong, which is another way of saying I'm flip-flopping madly and changing my mind. I thought about other subgenres I could explore, and came up with this one, which has ended up working out quite nicely. Yes, it conjures up the darkest, bleakest kind of vistas you can imagine, but it's also where you find some of the most stunningly gorgeous music Metal has to offer.

So what is Atmospheric Black Metal? Well, obviously, it's an offshoot of Black Metal, which has to be one of the rawest, most savage and uncompromising subgenres in Metal. Those of you who know Black Metal know what I'm talking about: guitars set to kill, snarled or screamed or growled vocals, hammering drums, tempos often beyond the scale of measurement, and of course usually lyrics that deal with the devil and hell and Satanism. Atmospheric Black Metal keeps most of these elements (though sometimes they can be dialled back, or even absent altogether) but adds in more ambient textures, often bringing in the likes of cellos, violins, pianos, even sometimes full orchestras. It's not unusual either to hear acoustic guitar, flute, harp even in ABM. Mind you, some of it is very harsh anyway, but some is quite mellow.

Over the next few weeks I'll be exploring this interesting subset of Black Metal, and looking at what I'm told are some of the better albums within in. For these choices I have to thanks mythsofmetal and Grindy for pointing me in the right direction and setting me on to some amazing ABM albums. This section, then, is dedicated to, and created with the assistance of, the two of you.

And now, without further ado, our first album, a true classic, I'm assured, of the subgenre.

You have to admire a band whose name translates to wolves. Norway is or was the gateway for the blackest of Black Metal, so hopefully this will not be that kind of harsh version as that's not what I'm looking for for this section, but I've heard a lot of praise for this album and it comes among many top ten lists I've received, so here goes.


Bergtatt – Et eevebtyr i 5 capitler --- Ulver ---1995 (Head Not Found)

This is their debut album, and though they've been said to go through many phases over their career and are strictly categorised as an experimental band, I'm told this is pure ABM. I'm also advised the title translates to “Spellbound: a fairytale in five chapters”. So let's go. A slow, kind of groaning guitar opens “Capitel I: I Troldskog faren vild” (Which apparently translates as "Chapter I: Lost in a forest of trolls” --- hope they're not all spamming their penis-enlarging pills!) and the vocal when it comes in is nothing like you normally expect with Black Metal; there's no harsh screams, no guttural roars, it's more like a sort of folky, clear approach. All in Norwegian of course so no idea what's being sung but it's very pleasant. Not quite as atmospheric as I would prefer, but still very palatable. There's a second vocal now, and metal fans shudder, but if I had to compare the vocal stylings here I'd call them a metal Simon and Garfunkel! Yeah, it's just how it sounds to me.

Really nice acoustic solo now as the drums stop completely, then the electric guitar comes back in as the drummer kicks his way back in too, but there's nothing terribly invasive about it, and in fact it's really sounding more like almost traditional metal to me at this point. The album only has five tracks, but if they're all this good I'll be happy. Great start. “Soelen gaeer bag aase need” (Chapter II: The sun goes down behind the hills) opens with acoustic guitar and flute, nice and slow, then kicks in with harder electric guitar and drumming, and the first harsh vocal. Still great though. The tempo then changes to a kind of romping one similar to the vein in which the album opened, and the vocal goes back to that style too. Oh, that's Garm, is it? I've heard of him. The two guys on the guitars, Håvard Jørgensen and Torbjørn Pedersen are really good at what they do, and maintain the atmosphere really well, switching from one to the other as the music requires.

Another deceptively gentle start before we blast into “Graablick blev hun vaer” (She noticed she was being watched) with a hammering guitar and a growling vocal. Now the music fades out almost entirely and we hear someone walking, while behind some sort of keyboard melody is swirling, but very much in the background, so much so in fact that you almost don't hear it. I think there's soft guitar there too and maybe organ? Here comes the hard electric guitar now, and Garm is back roaring his head off. But you see, listening to harder Black Metal has prepared me for this, and I no longer find it impossible to listen to nor, if I'm honest, even really that harsh. I think this next one is an instrumental, guitar mostly, and “Een stemme locker” (A voice is calling) is also the shortest of the tracks, a mere four minutes and change.

The title track then, as it were, “Bergtat: Ind i fjeldekamrene” (Spellbound: Into the chambers of the mountain) is the longest and also, initially anyway, the fastest and most energetic of the tracks, though within a minute it slows to a nice acoustic and what sounds like harp (probably synth) with absolutely no percussion at all. Electric comes in then with a sort of vocal chorus as the drums return and the guitar more or less leads it out on a harsh vocal from Garm, winding down slowly before an acoustic guitar takes it for the final minute giving it a nice folky ending.

TRACKLISTING AND RATINGS


1. Capitel I: I troldskog faren vild
2. Capitel II: Soelen gaeer bag aase need
3. Capitel III: Graablick blev hun vaer
4. Capitel IV: Een stemme locker
5. Capital V: Bergtat – Ind i feldjkamrene

As a progenitor of the Atmospheric Black Metal movement and also as a major force in Norwegian Black Metal, this is a very important album from a band who went on to influence and even shape the next few decades of Black Metal, within and without their native land. Ulver were very careful to take a different path though from their contemporaries, preferring not to utilise anti-Christian messages and sentiments in their lyrics (apparently) and sticking to a more traditional, historical depiction of famous folklore tales, thus enabling them to paint, for those who understand Norwegian, a picture of the myths and beliefs of their people, and to recall these tales through musical expression for those who had grown up on them. Using metal allowed them to place a new, almost modern slant on the fairy stories while still retaining the inherent majesty, wonder and attraction that we all have for such things.

In terms of music, Ulver were probably one of the first bands, at least in Norway, to utilise such things as flutes and pianos in a metal setting, something that would be taken up by pagan and Viking metal bands for years to come.

Of course, Black Metal flourishes in Germany too, as we saw in last year's “The International Language of Metal”, and it's to here that we're directed for our second band, who go by the name of Dammerfaben (there's an umlaut there over the first a but I'm damned if I'm going to keep copying and pasting for one accent!) who began life as a solo project for Patrick Urban (who goes by the name of Nostarion) in 2005 as Schattenwindes Dammerfaben, and released one demo before acquiring some band members, dropping the first part of the name and releasing their first album in 2011.

Im Abendrot --- Dammerfaben --- 2011 (Northern Silence Productions)

Beginning with the sounds of birdsong and then one guitar note, which grows with a sort of dramatic flair, like an archer standing on a hill and shooting arrows into the air defiantly, “Wandernd” proves to be an instrumental to open proceedings. Some dark cello joins in, this played by Nostarion, who also takes vocal duties later, and he more or less takes the tune solo then to its end, as we move into “Nebel und Regen”, which starts with another expressive guitar solo, then grows into a full guitar passage, percussion coming in now as the tempo speeds up slightly, then slows down again with a quite majestic and grand feel. We're now about four minutes in and no vocals, so is this going to be another --- oh. There they are. Standard screechy, scratchy roar, but the music is very melodic indeed. Some more lovely cello and then we're into “Graues land” which runs along nicely on a very Maidenesque guitar line, as Nostarion comes in with a big snarly vocal.

Things calm down a little later in the song (can't be that specific as I had to find the album on YouTube, and whoever put it up helpfully failed to list playing times) with a really nice gentle ending, leading into an equally gentle opening to “Oktobersturm” (even I can translate that!) with what sounds like a hollow organ sound, slow and stately, then joined by guitar as it gets a little more intense, this helped as Nostarion starts singing. The organ is back through for a really nice quiet passage, a nice chimy guitar and a very sotto voce spoken vocal ends the track. “Einsamkeit” opens with another soft gentle guitar, with violin and cello, and this would appear to be another instrumental, very folk-tinged, very laidback and pastoral. A big roar and some thumping drums herald the arrival of “Regen in der dammerung” (which I think means “Regen in Hell” or something like that). Nice use of keyboards, and it's something of a showcase for Nastorian's harsh vocal style. He rises to the challenge well. There's something of an air of panic and despair here, but it ends softly enough, as if some sort of resolution has been achieved.

The title track then gives a sense of rising after some terrible fall (if the hero was in Hell I guess there can be no worse or further fall) and keyboard and guitar driven it runs triumphantly along. I can speak and read German almost as well as I can speak and read Norwegian, so I may be interpreting this completely wrong, but this is the impression my limited understanding of the themes gives me. The last vocal track is “Nachtgedanken”, and it romps along nicely in a mid-paced way on guitar for a minute or so before the vocal comes in, sort of gives me the idea of an army on the march. We end then on one more instrumental as “Hinaus in die nacht” closes the album really nicely.

TRACKLISTING AND RATINGS

1. Wandernd
2. Nebel und Regen
3. Graues land
4. Oktobersturm
5. Einsamkeit
6. Regen in der dammerung
7. Im Abendrot
8. Nachtgedanken
9. Hinaus in die nacht

Great album, very atmospheric and I can see why it's a revered German ABM album. Pity I couldn't understand the lyrics, but I get the impression it's based on some old Teutonic myth or play, as folklore tends to play quite a prominent role in most of this music. Enjoyable though even if you haven't got a clue what's going on lyrically, as in my case.

Heading further east now, we reach the kingdom of Belarus, which of course used to be part of the Soviet Union, so you can expect some pretty harsh, tough stories to be coming out of this country which only relatively recently shook off the chains of oppression. Folkvang. The name sounds at once both folky and hard, and it's hard to know what to expect. Mind you, this is their fourth album and the one prior to that was actually titled Atmospheric Black, so unless they changed their sound wildly --- and given this is one of mythsofmetal's recommendations for this section, I would not expect them to have done --- this should be pretty atmospheric, pretty black and certainly metal.

Six Stories Without Keys --- Folkvang --- 2011 (Wintersunset Records)

“Your broken crown” gets us underway with sharp guitar and then either very dark vocals or a rumbling synth in the background. It then breaks loose with a big heavy riff and pumping drums, taking us into the second minute before the vocals come in, and though they're scratchy and evil I can actually make out what the guy is singing. Who is he? Let's see: ah, yes. Another one-man outfit, and an individual who goes by the enigmatic name of Wind (that'll be the curry, probably) does everything here. Decent vocals to be fair, and he can certainly play guitar. Gets quite frenetic now as we reach the midway point of the song, kicking up well and really rocking towards the end. Some almost Big Country guitar there in the final minute, which takes us on a fadeout into “Dead flower”, with a nice acoustic guitar opening, certainly putting the “folk” in Folkvang.

Sounds like there may be some flute in there too, and it starts to speed up a little then punches through on hard electric guitar and drums, bringing in the vocal, then “Childhood dreams” is one of the two longer tracks, at over eight minutes running time. It has a great hook in the melody, and the work Wind does on the guitar here is really quite exceptional, but I have to complement his vocals too, which are totally understandable, a rare thing in Black Metal of any stripe. It falls back to acoustic guitar in the second minute, and this is the first ABM song I've listened to where I will actually be humming the melody later on. It's just that catchy. “The mountain song” is the real epic, just shy of ten minutes, and opens with hard riffing guitar and thundering drums, then takes up a galloping beat as it goes along.

Halfway through the guitar fades right down and away, and a cold wind blows as some other instrument, I don't know what, could be dobro, maybe not, comes in and takes the melody in a very dark and melancholy, mournful direction, joined then by a slower guitar and the incoming percussion in quite a progressive-leaning slant on the tune. “Coldness and madness” starts off right in-your-face, with a big guitar and drum assault, while “King (The sound of thunder)” closes the album very differently, with a superfast guitar more in the mould of punk than metal really, or if metal then it definitely belongs in the arena of speed metal or even closer to grindcore!

TRACKLISTING AND RATINGS

1. Your broken crown
2. Dead flower
3. Childhood dreams
4. The mountain song
5. Coldness and madness
6. King (The sound of thunder)

Again, you have to be impressed when this is all the work of one guy. He certainly has some serious talent, and the fact that though he has a guttural voice, or at least vocal style, I can understand what he's singing is a big plus. Other than the final track, this album is a pretty good example of what you can do when you fuse folk, Black and ambient metal.

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Trollheart

Well, Metal Month would not be Metal Month without our four trips to that realm of randomness, that citadel of chance, that mansion of maybe that rebuffs my attempts as often as I've been turned down for dates. Hopefully, this being Metal Month and all, the Gods of Metal will be happy with me and will treat me kindly, showering me with decent bands (or at least bands I can review) and few if any refusals. Here's hoping, as we make our first visit of Metal Month III to


Okay, perhaps the Metal Gods did not hear me. This is Metal Month III. I am doing your bidding. A whole month devoted to the best metal of all --- heavy --- and this is what you start me off with? Seriously?

What's wrong with them? You want a list? First of all, Panikroham are from Hungary. Hun-ga-ry. They are unsigned. Not only are they unsigned, they only have a fucking five-track demo to their name. Not only that, the fucking five-track demo in question is not available! Completely useless. Here, let me sacrifice this poseur virgin to you, and see if we get better luck on our second attempt.

Oh-kay! Looks like that did the trick! Thank you! I;ve actually heard of these guys, and I can see they have albums --- not demo tapes, not CD-Rs, not EPs, but proper albums. And a lot of them too. Yep, they'll do just nicely.

Band Name: Exhumed
Nationality: American
Subgenre: Death Metal
Born: 1990
Status: Active
Albums: Gore Metal (1998), Slaughtercult (2000), Anatomy is Destiny (2003), Garbage Days Re-Regurgitated (2005), All Guts, No Glory (2011), Necrocracy (2013)
Live albums: None
Collections/Anthologies/ Boxsets: Platters of Splatter (2004), Gore Metal: A Necrospective 1998-2015 (2015)
Lineup: (current) Matt Harvey (Guitar, Vocals) (F)
Bud Burke (Guitar, Vocals)
Matt Ferri (Bass, Vocals)
Michael Hamilton (Drums)


Well, I asked for it and I got it. I've suffered what I would call some pretty intense bands in this series but I feel this will in fact tax me more. Not only do Exhumed play what they call “old school death metal”, eschewing the more technical aspects as not being their thing, their lyrics concentate on horror and gore, and human body parts. Lovely. They got going in 1990, when founder and only remaining original member Matt Harvey was a fresh-faced fifteen-year old (!) and spent almost the next ten years issuing demos, Eps, splits, leading to their first proper album only hitting the shelves in 1998. Influenced by raw acts like Carcass, Terrorizer, Repulsion and some early Entombed (from whom perhaps Harvey got the idea for the band name), their early sound had a lot of grindcore in it also (so we won't be looking into their debut then) but their sound seems to have matured and developed as the years went on. Well, I read that it did, but I'm expecting it'll be mostly just noise and power and violence really, but we'll see.

The album I've chosen from their catalogue (the thrill of for once having a choice as to which album to listen to, not just taking the only one there is and then searching to see if I can actually find it!) is one which is said to be their most acclaimed, and comes around the midpoint of their career.

Anatomy is Destiny --- Exhumed --- 2003 (Relapse Records)

Following this album, co-founder and bass player Bud Jones left the band, which seems to have impacted badly on Harvey initially, and led to a hiatus after they put out a covers album, with a reunion and a new album in 2010. There's a short instrumental, the title track in fact, mostly a rising guitar riff and melody before we explode into “Waxwork” as the guitars shriek and howl, and everything goes to hell. No surprise there then. If this is what's seen as “melodic” by this band I shudder to think what the debut was like! Anyhoo, there's a scream from Harvey, then the vocal begins. To be fair, it's almost intelligible but not quite, so let's take a goosey at the lyric sheet. Well yeah that's interesting. Kind of a John Christie idea here: people killed and then preserved as living (dead) waxworks. I like the line ”Mouths agape with terror but breathless to scream” and his dark warning to onlookers: ”If their eyes seem to follow your gaze as you gawk/ Know that in the eyes of the dead, in their shadow you walk.” Creepy.

Exhumed seem to use a strange but effective vocal style, with what I assume is Harvey's voice hissing and shrieking, while another voice (no idea whose) has a dark, deep, throaty growl that is completely impossible to interpret. Works quite well though. This guy can really write lyrics too, and it's surprising that there are so many lines for so short a song, but to ignore the lyrics does Harvey a disservice, and though I suspect some will make me very queasy I do want to try to read them if I can. I love how he nods to Nietzsche when he growls ”Take care not to stare into their eyes/ Whatever you do/ When you look deep into death/ It sees back into you too.” It's a pretty horrifying portrayal of a serial killer who has some very different ideas about preserving his victims, and I must say it's a surprise to see lyrics of this depth in what seems on the surface just a pounding, thrashing death metal song.

“The matter of splatter” doesn't have too much to offer me personally, with its list of definitions of different terms to do with gore obsession I suppose, and it's another breakneck speed track, though it does slow down a little but not for long. Pretty nice solo coming up now, nice to hear. Not too much for me in “Under the knife” either; the lyric is a little visceral for me, though I do admit I like the way he couches the act as a dance. A dark, macabre one to be sure, and I like the line ”May I have this last dance/ As I take your last breath?” Very clever, but the music does nothing for me I'm afraid. I have to compliment Harvey though on his hilarious dark humour in “Consuming impulse”, where he makes the truly horrendous idea of someone being force-fed their own flesh truly funny. Just listen to the poetry and satire in lines like ”You truly are what you eat” not to mention ”What's eating you?” and my favourite ”Severed and severely served on a platter of splatter" and you can't help but laugh.

If it wasn't for the lyrics I'd be discounting this as just crass, fast, brutal noise, but I'm really getting this guy's humour (unlike in the song, where he's getting the guy's humerus! Oh, I can do it too you know! Yes, I'll stop now) --- oh dear god! ”Sometimes survival will cost you an arm and a leg!” This is fucking priceless! Oh wait! There was a bit of melody stealing in about halfway through “Grotesqueries”, which unfortunately is not as funny as the previous track, since it kind of uses the same idea in the lyric. Someone find that melody and flay it! There, it's gone. Fuck it: where's it think it is? A Motorhead song? Right, back to the aimless thrashing. I do like the line ”We grind our bones to dust every futile step we take”: well written. Oh, there's a solo there at the end, not bad.

This verse in “In the name of gore” is so good I have to reprint it all. The rhyming is just amazing! ”In the name of gore, we'll set right this bloody score/ The grave can't hold us anymore,/ We'll kick in the mausoleum doors/ Even sicker than before, we enjoy this gruesome chore/ Revealing the ghastly horror, the face of death that you deplore/ Rotting through the core, this slaughterous carnage you abhor/ Is the vocation we adore, as we drain another oozing sore/ Bringing revulsion to the fore, as the vomit stains on the floor/ Foreevermore -in the name of gore!”

Look, can someone PLEASE track that bloody melodic bit down and rip its heart out? I thought we chased it off before but it's fucking back again and it's ruining our song. THANK you! Oh come on now! You have to give props to a song who opening word is FUCK! For no apparent reason. “Arclight” is, of course, just like the seven tracks before it, though someone rolled off a bit of a drum solo there and now someone has ideas about doing the same on guitar. And the dark humour raises its crazed head again on “Nativity obscene – a nursery chyme” as it seems Harvey takes on the serious matter of stillborn childbirth, or possibly abortion, or maybe both, or neither. No, it's definitely stillborn birth. The usage of a children's choir singing ”Hush little baby don't say a word/ Mama's gonna have to get a casket reserved/ But if your body is too decomposed/ The coffin door will have to stay closed” almost made me piss myself with laughter. I know, I'm a bad person. But come on, tell me that you don't see ghoulish humour in ”When the water breaks, the cradle will rot/ A nursery chyme with no happy ending/ Left in the wastebasket, dead and forgot”?

That pesky melody just won't die! It's back in a really quite nice guitar run, but it soon runs off and hides before it's found. That's kind of the end of the humour though. “Death walks behind you” is a frenetic, visceral rendering of Iron Maiden's “Killers” in lyrical content, while there is some very clever usage of words in the final, and longest, track (seven minutes: can you believe it?) “A song for the dead”. Though insightful and well-written, I just find reading the lyric too depressing, and I'm not really in a mood to be depressed, so let's just leave it at that. What? The music? Oh yeah...

Well it starts off promisingly for about three or four seconds, when it sounds like there's actually a keyboard going, then punches up into, in fairness, a pretty good guitar solo, but this soon disappears under the usual guitar and drum assault, though we do get some sort of melody about halfway on the guitar. They thought it was dead, but it crept back in on broken knees, now it's being dragged backwards screaming and clawing the ground with its fingernails, and I think we all know what its final destiny is going to be. I suppose the only thing you can say about this kind of music is that even a relatively long song flies in really quickly, so you don't have to endure it for as long as say a funeral doom metal song.

Oh wait! There in the fifth minute the children's choir coming back in, and something like a flute as everything --- guitar, drums, vocals --- all drop completely away, and we're left with a kind of repeating screech on what I guess is the guitar, then a slow, doomy passage to take it to its end. Interesting. Did not expect that.

TRACKLISTING AND RATINGS

1. Anatomy is destiny
2. Waxwork
3. The matter of splatter
4. Under the knife
5. Consuming impulse
6. Grotesqueries
7. In the name of gore
8. Arclight
9. Nativity obscene (A nursery chyme)
10. Death walks behind you
11. A song for the dead

Nobody will be in the least surprised, I'm sure, to hear that this kind of music is not my cup of tea at all. It's too fast and too frenetic, but at least looking into the lyrics has allowed me to appreciate these guys (or at least, their songwriter) a lot more than I would otherwise have done. He certainly has a great handle on dark humour, and I can see how, when he mentions that often the gore in his lyrics is allegorical and metaphorical, that works very well, particularly in the likes of “Consuming impulse”, where he's obviously talking about a society feeding on itself and unable to stop. Good stuff.

Musically though, no. Nothing really to talk about there. All the ratings above, bar the introductory instrumental, are awarded based on what I thought of the lyrics, as I really can't rate the music, or if I did, everything would be red. Which would probably suit Matt Harvey, come to think of it....

All of which rather surprisingly to me earns this album a solid rating of

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Trollheart

Time to look at your own contributions to Metal Month III now, as for the first time this year I listen to your advice when you say

I'm going to do these in the order I received them, however where someone has suggested more than one album, I will only do one, and then come back to their selection when I have addressed the recs of everyone else who put ideas forward. And the first one, as ever, to come up with something for me to listen to (and you can be sure it was not just one album, but we'll get to his others later) was Frownland, whose first choice is this:

Ecate --- Ufomammut --- 2015 (Neurot Recordings)
Suggested by Frownland

Haven't heard a thing from these guys, but given that we're talking about Frownland here I expect weirdness! An Italian stoner/sludge metal band, this is their eighth album in a career spanning fifteen years. First track is just short of ten minutes, and it's not the only one, though in fairness there are only six tracks in all. Very spacey, very progressive/electronic --- I'm interested. Hard guitar biting through now in the fourth minute, getting heavier, no vocals yet. Intensity really ramping up now as we approach the end, and I suppose then this must be an instrumental? Pretty good opener and didn't seem like ten minutes. Oh, how odd: there are some sort of wailed vocals just there before the end.

That seems to continue on to the second track, as “Plouton” is much harder and more aggressive, and again has those vocals that are just almost out of earshot, or at least decipherability. Good heavy guitar and a much shorter track, then that leads into another long one, another ten-minuter in fact, with basically slow, focussed percussion and a feedback guitar with some whispered vocals. Very much bass-driven with some audiotrack going and the vocals now grumbling in the background. Okay, now “Temple” sounds very like “Chaosecret” to me; I'm sure there are differences, they're just not apparent enough for me to see them. It's all a little heavy and buzzy and reminds me in some ways of the rambling, wandering nature of a certain album I'll be talking about some time later, has to do with not being awake, hint hint...

The progressive, ambient style that initially impressed me at the beginning of the album returns for “Revelation”, the shortest track at just four minutes, and a nice change from the somewhat pounding, ponderous guitar and drums combination, but the album then ends on one more ten-minute composition, “Daemons”, which brings them roaring back. I still can't really say I've heard any proper vocals I could identify as such; there have been sounds, moans, chants, wails, but nothing I could really make out so to a degree this album could almost be said to be an instrumental one. Nice outro on the organ.

TRACKLISTING AND RATINGS

1. Somnium
2. Plouton
3. Chaosecret
4. Temple
5. Revelation
6. Daemons

Not the worst thing I've ever heard, but a bit samey for most of the tracks, with a few changes here and there. Not enough individuality, and the vocals, if they were indeed vocals, were impossible to make out. Not quite down my alley, but not totally off my radar either.

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Trollheart

Last year we took a look at the lighter, less serious side of metal, and also what happens when it crosses over into genres not normally associated with it, when it treads unfamiliar and unexpected ground. This year I want to expand on that, by looking at albums that have either been made by people who you would not expect to be into metal, or who skew the idea of metal into other areas. Originally I had this featured as part of "A lighter look at the Darkside", and while pretty much everything here qualifies as being funny, and certainly gave me a few chuckles to say the least, I want to swing away from that and allow this its own section, something I will be returning to in future years. It's not that the albums aren't funny --- some or most of them are, some hilariously so --- but then you have one or two occasions where someone from the Metal world wants to seriously or semi-seriously crossover into an unfamiliar genre, or vice versa, and while we may laugh at their efforts, or the very idea of two such genres meeting, I think a little respect is due them for trying, so while much of this is funny, some of it needs to be treated with a little bit more seriousness, as we watch what happens

Such as this, the first one I want to examine, which on the face of it sounds pretty amusing, but as we will see is actually a serious effort to pay respects to a totally different genre than that in which the artiste usually works.

Welcome to Carcass Cuntry --- Jeffrey Walker Und Die Fluffers --- 2006 (Fractured Transmitter)

Jeffrey Walker is of course best known as vocalist and bass player for death metal band Carcass, and is not someone you would in any way, shape or form think of when considering who might cover some of the Country greats. Yet here, this is exactly what he does, bringing in assistance from members of Faith No More, Anathema and H.I.M., to place his own slant on some of the greatest songs given us by one of music's most maligned (and often, rightly so) genre.

The interesting thing is, unlike the guys who got together to “pay tribute” to Frankie in the album Sin-Atra, here Walker does not piss all over these songs or caricature them. He says himself “The idea was hardly original, but I don't think anyone from my background has done it, and done it with a bit of respect, not making a piss-take out of it”. So here he is really and sincerely covering what I assume to be his favourite songs from the golden age of Country and Western.

It kicks off with Cash's classic “The man comes around”, complete with Biblical quote and acoustic guitar, with Walker sounding sort of like a cross between Earle and Lemmy, electric guitar biting in now and giving the song of course a metal tinge, picking up speed as it goes but still retaining the basic feel of the original. I'm not a fan of Hank Williams (I, II or III) so I don't know “I can't help it if I'm still in love with you” but it's fun to hear sharp electric guitar where I assume pedal steel would be, and what sounds like fiddle (?) plus a great guitar solo that really metals up the track. As it happens, Walker seems to have the perfect voice for Country, that gravelly, wretched, whiskey-soaked drawl that so many of the genre's legends have attained. I also don't know “You're still on my mind”, but it's a good hillbilly rocker and it's nice to hear piano for once, played by Cradle of Filth's Les Smith. Great fun.

Now I certainly do know “Sunday mornin' comin' down”, and it's underpinned by a great snarly guitar from Anathema's Danny Cavanagh, a barely restrained anger vocal from Walker, and the whole thing just smoulders and gives a whole new feeling to the song made famous by Kris Kristofferson, with a great guitar solo from Cavanagh and I'd swear again there's fiddle playing, though I can't find a credit for one. “Mississippi”, meanwhile, flies along really nicely on a sweet guitar line and really is I think the closest Country comes to pop on this album, so we're almost seeing a death metal Country version of a pop song. Trippy! The “hoo-hah-hoo-hah!” backing vocals are hilarious, even if they're not meant to be, and when he lets himself go for a few seconds with a vocal more familiar to Carcass fans and a sudden burst of death metal guitar, I almost wet myself laughing.

It's of course better if you know the songs, and I could have wished for Walker to have picked some more famous ones, though there are classics here, but “I just dropped in (To see what condition my condition was in)” is not one of them. Or at least one I know. It is interesting that they use a sitar and there are female vocals from ... I don't know. Doesn't say. Quite a heavy song, though again as I say I don't know the original at all. Everyone of course knows “I'm so lonesome I could cry”, and the guys really ham this one up --- intentionally or not --- so that it really sounds like a crying-into-your-beer song, and proceeds on heavy slide guitar (which again I assume is normally pedal steel) contributed by Walker's Carcass bandmate Bill Steer, then it's heads-down boogie for “Once a day”, which was apparently Connie Smith's first hit, but I don't know it. It's good fun though and gives the guys a chance to kind of rock out. Steer even gets on the lap steel for this.

Skeeter Davis's “End of the world” is next up, driven on a beautiful piano by Les Smith, and it really sounds sort of like one of those songs you sing when you've had too many beers with your mates and you're just jamming. Fun though. Great guitar solo halfway from Mikko Lindström from H.I.M. Very cleverly, the song ends on the word “ended” and the sound of footsteps walking out. Acoustic guitar from Cavanagh and steel guitar from Steer take in John Denver's “Rocky Mountain high”, the longest track on the album at just over five and a half minutes. They do a great job on this, and while I wouldn't quite consider Neil Young to be Country, you can't I guess blame them for wanting to include his “Keep on rocking in the free world” and it ends the album really well, even bringing in keyboards from Cavanagh as well as Hammond Organ (!) from Santeri Kallio and allowing the boys to close on a more rocking note.

TRACKLISTING AND RATINGS

1. The man comes around
2. I can't help it (If I'm still in love with you)
3. You're still on my mind
4. Sunday morning comin' down
5. Mississippi
6. I just dropped in (to see what condition my condition was in)
7. I'm so lonesome I could cry
8. Once a day
9. The end of the world
10. Rocky Mountain high
11. Keep on rocking in the free world

It's nice to see someone pay their dues. Often, these things turn into parody, where either the attempt is too comical to succeed or the artiste tends to lampoon rather than cover the songs. Sometimes, albums like this are used as a sales ploy, a device to prop up a flagging career. Carcass are as popular with their own fans as they ever were, so this is certainly not the case with this album. It genuinely seems like Walker was trying to give respect to some of the men and women who have blazed a trail in whose wake bands like his have, consciously or not, followed, and though sometimes the idea of these serious metalheads crooning Country love songs sounds too ludicrous to be taken seriously, when we laugh at them we're not ridiculing them, rather sharing a joke that is probably not meant to be one, but can't help coming off that way.

I enjoyed the treatment of the songs and, for those I knew, they seemed to stay true to the original and yet inject each one with new fire. What Carcass fans thought of this record though I can only guess.

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