Trollheart

But it's not all doom and gloom in the land of the Ayatollahs. There does seem to be a real preponderance of Black Metal of various stripes in Iran, yes, but I've come across the odd more, shall we say, traditional metal band hiding out there. These guys even play Power Metal!

Suicide in B Minor --- Whispers in Crimson --- 2014 (Independent)

Another band with just the one album, Whispers in Crimson must feel a little like the one guy who doesn't like to play baseball/football (delete as appropriate to your geographical location) at school. While everyone else is off praising Satan and getting on the Ayatollah's wick, they reserve their lyrics for more esoteric, at times even political themes. The opener on this album is pure Power Metal, with fluting keyboards, growling guitars and galloping drums, as the title track rocks along really nicely from the start, some great shredding from Amarali Nourbakhsh, vocal duties taken by Herbie Langhans, and he has a good voice too, sort of a cross between Biff Byford and Timo Kotipelto from Stratovarius. Great keyswork from Hadi Kiani, and the rhythm section of Arash Moghadam on drums and Jalal Gholami keep everything ticking over nicely.

This opener is quite long, over eight minutes, and goes through some changes over the course of its run, with some very strange lyrics which I'm not even going to attempt to interpret (I'm just happy they sing in English!), but “Nightmare within a dream” is even longer, the longest track in fact at just over ten and a half minutes. It opens on a rippling keyboard line and then takes a very progressive metal slant, with keys and guitar working in tandem, and in fact it's two minutes before any vocals come in. It drives along really well, slowing down for a quite melancholy moment in the sixth minute, with something like violin or cello coming in, and then a fine guitar solo, very evocative and emotional. Looking at the lyric, it seems to be about Saddam Hussein, with a very telling final line from him: ”Betrayed by the House of the White” Indeed. Very deep, guys, and a clever little idea: hit the Great Satan while actually also insulting your hated neighbour. Two with one stone. Like it. Also props for paraphrasing Edgar Allan Poe in the line ”All that we see or seem/ Is but a nightmare within a dream”. I'm impressed. This is some top level writing.

Slowing down now for “Project sinister”, with of all things, Blair's confession. Man, these guys are more political than Orphaned Land, and that's saying something! And they can play. This reminds me of an Iron Maiden semi-ballad, with added Bush for good effect. The song speeds up halfway with some great guitar and some fine bass, and I must say, the more I listen to this band the more they grow in my respect. They really know what they're doing. Sounds like some sort of ethnic instrument there (oud?) and we're off into a big guitar solo, while Christianity gets it in the neck as they power into “Do you believe?” Very anthemic with mournful, majestic guitar and fluting keys, acoustic guitar also joining the melody and supplemented by strings keyboards. Sung in a ballad style, I could see this going down very well on stage, particularly in their home country. It has just enough dismissal of Christians while still hinting that the “other side” may not be right just because the enemy is wrong. Great song.

Some lovely piano too then another fine guitar solo, the shortest track at just over six minutes and it leads into one almost as short, as vocal duties are handed to Nourbakhsh for “Coming home”, with some really beautiful guitar and piano, a little discordant which makes it sound somewhat ominous. It picks up into a big angry, triumphant guitar riff as the piano continues behind, then takes the limelight for a great solo, and again we're two minutes in before we hear the vocals of Nourbakhsh, and if this is an example of what he can do the guys should let him sing more. There's some real talent in this band. Mind you, his vocal style would be more suited to AOR I feel; there is something of a tremor in it and there are some notes he simply can't hit, but he gives it a great shot.

The next track seethes with anger against the repressionist regime of their home country, as they roar ”The genie in the bottle is gay/ The president denies it before he goes to pray” and “Us for fools (To Iran)” does indeed seem to be a note of hatred to their government. It's a fast paced, sprightly, uptempo number driven on peppy keyboard from Kiani, and with Langhans back behind the mike there's a powerful angry delivery. In fact, looking more deeply into it, and without knowing the sexual preferences of these guys, the song seems to be a backlash against the intolerance towards homosexuals in Iran, where I believe being gay can get you a death sentence. But there seems to be an undercurrent here too, that it's well known that major political figures may not be as straight as they make out, when Langhans snarls ”We don't have that kind around here/ But the Vice and the President/ Well that's what people say.” Strong stuff, and they underline the traditional historical view of Iran from storybook tales in two ways: by using sort of Arabian arpeggios in their music and by demanding ”Does this seem like the land of Aladdin to thee?”

Returning to their love of Poe, the closing track is an interpretation of one of his greatest stories, the tale of revenge, betrayal and eventual burial alive that is “The cask of Amontillado”. With a heavy rock motif running through it, it's given a sharp, raging feel by the vocal of Langthans as he relates the story, taking the role of the killer. There's a great energy in the song, mostly driven on the keys of Kiani, very progressive indeed, and some fine solos from Nourbakhsh. IN the fifth minute of the seven it runs for, a dark little bassline becomes an almost funky guitar run as the song slows down and acquires extra menace, with the sound of metal striking stone, presumably meant to represent the cellar being bricked up as Fortunado (with classic Poe irony in the name of his victim) sleeps, unaware he is being entombed alive. A fine and somewhat frenetic guitar flourish, which I take to be the murderer's descent into madness, finishes the song but I feel it's a little rushed and abrupt, my one criticism of the song, and indeed the album, because when you've been going as well as this you really need to end well, and sadly this does not.

TRACKLISTING

1. Suicide in B Minor
2. Nightmare within a dream
3. Project Sinister
4. Do you believe?
5. Coming home
6. Us for fools (To Iran)
7. Cask of Amontillado

Another truly tremendous album from a criminally ignored band. Whispers of Crimson could easily hold their own against anyone on the world stage, but the fact that they're caught in a web of religious intolerance and theocratic tyranny means the chances that their music might reach beyond the dark, suspicious borders of Iran is remote to say the least, and that is indeed a crime.

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Trollheart

Metal Massacre II, released 1982

Yeah, two albums of unsigned bands in the one year. Metal Blade were busy in '82!

Track one: “Lesson well learned” (Armored Saint)

Yeah, about that: Armored Saint went through some lineup changes, including one forced upon them when their guitarist died from leukemia, and another when vocalist John Bush joined Anthrax, and in fact they disbanded in 1992, reformed in 1999, went on hiatus in 2001 and finally reformed again in 2005. They have released eight albums to date.

The track: The production is terrible, but the rawness kind of adds to the song's appeal. It's a good rollicking rocker, driven on powerful guitar and with a strong vocal.

So where are they now? Still around, still recording.

Track two: “Mind invader” (3rd Stage Alert)

Yeah, about that: Oddly enough, these guys seem to have released just one EP in 1984, which did not have this song on it. They were another band from LA.

The track: A much better track than the first one, with elements of Sabbath, Rainbow and Uriah Heep in it, great guitar work and what sound like keyboards. Really strong and powerful vocal. Fun fact: two ex-members of Steeler, whom we met on the first volume, played with 3rd Stage Alert. Actually one of the best tracks I've heard on either volume to this point.

So where are they now? Well, they were talented, good songwriters and a cut above anything else here, so naturally they split and were never heard from again.

Track three: “Rivit (sic) head” (Surgical Steel)

Yeah, about that: Well, when all you can manage in two years is to release two demos, one of which contains ninety percent of the other, don't expect stardom to come knocking on your door. It didn't.

The track: I guess it's sort of early thrash, which is odd when you see a picture of the guys, who are serious poster boys for hair metal! Not too bad a track but a little hard to take the tough-as-nails lyric seriously when you can see who's singing!

So where are they now? Split up I guess. Never even got an album out.

Track four: “Shadows of steel” (Obsession)

Yeah, about that: Seems Obsession are famous for bringing to fame vocalist Michael Vescera, who went on to head up such bands as Loudness and Dr. Sin, and worked with Yngwie as well as getting into production. They've also provided songs for various slasher movies, including the third instalment of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

The track: Interesting echo effect on the vocals. Reminds me of an early Iron Maiden, though a bit more polished. I can see why Vescera was highly sought after as a vocalist.

So where are they now? Still going, having released their last album so far in 2012.

Track five: “Sceptres of deceit” (Savage Grace)

Yeah, about that: Not a whole lot of interest I can tell you about Savage Grace, other than they once employed Randy Rhoads's brother on vocals and that their original vocalist and guitarist, and founder of the band, disappeared “mysteriously” before they reformed in 2010.

The track: Decent song, but the vocalist seems to be straining a little? Nothing overly special about the song, but it's not crap either. Holy shit! Is there a woman joining him or is his range actually that wide? Maybe I should rethink my idea on this track.

So where are they now? After the disappearance of Chris Logue, the co-founder of the band, they decided to carry on with a new vocalist, but their last real album was out in 1986, so whether you can say they're still around technically or not I'm not so sure.

Track six: “No holds barred” (Overkill)

Yeah, about that: Right. You're joking, yes? We all know who Overkill are.

The track: It's a little raw compared to the kind of thing they would later do, and to be honest listening to this you actually can't get the same idea that you did from the likes of Metallica and, later in this series, Slayer. It's a good song but I feel it's a little below par.

So where are they now? Still going, with their last album, their sixteenth, released last year.

Track seven: “Lucifer's hammer” (Warlord)

Yeah, about that: Anything you need to know about Warlord, see The Batlord. He loves them.

The track: Despite Batty's enthusiasm and his belief that they would be right up my alley, I couldn't get as excited about Warlord as he did. I thought what I heard was okay but not remarkable, and it just did not impress me. Here, it just sounds like a sub-Gary Moore song to me. Okay but again nothing special. This would later appear on their debut album, Deliver Us, released the next year.

So, where are they now? Warlord were another band who suffered from ever-fluctuating lineups, and disbanded in 1986, with a brief reformation in 1997 and then in 2011 they reformed properly, releasing a new album in 2013. Point of interest to no-one but me: Shadow Gallery guitarist Gary Wehrkamp is now playing bass for them.

Track eight: “Such a shame” (Trauma)

Yeah, about that: Trauma's claim to fame is that they once numbered Metallica bass player Cliff Burton (RIP) in their ranks. They seem to have had a stop/start career, being around since 1984 but only releasing one album until this year, when they released their second, making a thirty-one-year gap between the two!

The track: They've been compared to Maiden, and I can see the similarities. Impressive guitar work.

So where are they now? Have no idea where they've been for three decades since their debut, but now apparently they're back with their, um, second album...

Track nine: “It's alright” (Dietrich)

Yeah, about that: Again, nothing much I can tell you. They had one demo and one EP and that seems to have been about it for them. Oh, they were presumably named for guitarist and founder Brad Dietrich.

The track: Sounds like they had some talent too. Good rocker with an impressive vocalist. Not the most imaginative of lyrics, but you can't have everything. As indeed, they did not.

So where are they now? Split up, it would seem. Very little information on them.

Track ten: “Inversion” (Molten Leather)

Yeah, about that: Can't tell you a thing. No information at all.

The track: Good song, not as bad as some of the ones here. Odd how they didn't survive.

So where are they now? Search me, but as there's zero information on them around the interweb, I assume they never made it and split up.

Track eleven: “Kings” (Hyksos)

Yeah, about that: I'm gonna go out on a limb here and assume they were Greek, or had some Greek members? No, from LA. And given the fact that both guitarists were Gonzaleses, I'd think more Spanish than Greek. Other than that, can't tell you much except they cut one album in 1982, and this was on it.

The track: Another decent rocker, even if the vocalist's range is a little screechy for my tastes. Nice kind of progressive feel to it in the later minutes. Pretty good actually; really improves in the latter half.

So where are they now? Again, I assume they're split up but I can't confirm.

Track twelve: “Heavy metal virgin” (Aloha)

Yeah, about that: Bit of confusion here. Metal Archives says they worked under the name Vixen from 1981-82, then changed to Aloha and became Hawaii from 1983-1986. If they changed their name so much it's not that surprising they had no chance to make it. Looks like they got out two albums under the latter name though, which is more than they managed as Aloha!

The track: Well it's the only one on the whole compilation to feature a female vocal, which is interesting in itself. Lisa Ruiz has a decent voice, though it doesn't knock me over.

So where are they now? After three years under the name Hawaii it seems they ran out of names and decided to call it a day.

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Trollheart

Last year, the intended culmination of The Batlord's Torture Chamber was to have been this artiste, and both he and Frownland gleefully told me they were sitting back awaiting my complete nervous and psychological breakdown, as well as perhaps losing control of my bodily functions. I'll be honest: going into the thing, I was scared. I had prepared myself for the worst, and every moment I flinched in anticipation of ... I don't know ... something ... happening. But it never did. The album finished, I heaved a sigh of relief and asked incredulously, was that it? Was that what I had feared, been threatened with, had nightmares about experiencing? That? That? That had been a cakewalk!

So amazed were they that Frownland actually (I assume either in jest or just disbelief, and as a way to explain to himself my totally unexpected reaction) accused me of only having pretended to have listened to the album, which is why I now intend to delve further into the music that was supposed to emotionally scar me. In fact, I'm doing a

as I attempt to answer the question that was on many lips last year: did I accidentally listen to the wrong album (no I did not) and was this some kind of twisted fluke that the universe throws up from time to time, where Batty had chosen an album I should have hated, but had inadvertently chosen the wrong one, or at least the one least likely to affect me? Well that is possible, and it's a question I'm now pondering and indeed endeavouring to test as I listen to three completely different albums from the one-man horror show who goes by the stage name of

Interestingly, in preparation for this odyssey into darkness, I've been reading what I can about the man who is to black metal and dark ambient music what Merzbow is to noise rock, but I've foudn it rather difficult to ge ttoo much information on him. I know his name is Maurice deJong, comes from Surinam but is resident in the Netherlands (appropriately enough!) and goes by the single name of Mories. I know he does all this music himself --- composes, writes, produces, plays and sings everything with no input from anyone else --- and that he has occasionally partnered up with other artistes on “split” albums, all of which have given him a catalogue comprising a staggering thirty-four releases (including EPs, some of which are as long as his albums, and splits but not including compilations) over the course of a mere ten years.

With such a wealth of material available it's hard to know what to pick, but I've tried to go for as varied a selection as is possible, given my lack of knowledge about the man and his music. Were I not an Iron Maiden fan, I would have no idea that for instance Powerslave is a far superior album to Virtual XI, or that the debut self-titled bears little resemblance to their new release. In the same way, I have very little on which to base my decision, so I've tried not to shy from the longer albums, nor let the titles put me off. I've also noticed that though GTT tends to concentrate on some pretty horrible topics (necrophilia, scatology, bondage etc) the music, at least from my own extremely limited experience, does not seem to mirror that in terms of lyrics, so that for instance you may be about to listen to a song which is titled “Human skin for the messenger's robe” or “Healing open wounds with salt”, but the music does not seem as if it will consist of a man singing about those subjects.

Rather, it seems that Mories is more interested in creating an ambience, a feeling, an overall atmosphere of dread, fear, revulsion and insanity, reflecting what he believes to be the general image of the human condition. As he said in an interview I read, and as I remarked in my piece on Cattle Decapitation in one of my other journals, “I hate humanity and yet I am a human”. Paradox or what? So I think it would appear that in his latter years, Mories has become a little more relaxed, a little less angry and liable to rant at everything and see only the darkness, and perhaps his music will reflect this, as we will see later, when we look into his very latest release, only out this year.

Then again of course, there could be those of you who are very familiar with his music sitting back and laughing to themselves about how I have no idea what I am getting myself into. And you may be right. When I listened to An Epiphanic Vomiting of Blood last year, maybe I was lucky. I had set myself up for it to be so horrible, so unendurable, so soul-destroying, that maybe I oversold it to myself, and as a result the reality was nowhere near as bad as the imagination made me feel it would be. Maybe I heard the easiest of his albums to digest, maybe i twas dumb luck or bad (from their point of view) judgement on the part of Batty and Frown, and maybe I am in fact about to descend into a hell I will regret ever setting foot in. Everything I've read about his albums speaks of the kind of music I hate --- noise, shrieks, black metal, off-tuned instruments, drums out of sequence, movie clips coming and going --- and yet, I remember quite enjoying the album I did hear and being really surprised it wasn't worse. So who knows what I'll find?

Here I go then. Down into the pit I go; will I emerge with my sanity intact? Will I even make it through one album, never mind three? Or will I wish I had never heard of Gnaw Their Tongues, wish I had not been so cocky and overconfident? I guess in a few hours' time I'll know; we all will.

But remember this: if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.


Spit At Me and Wreak Havoc On My Flesh --- Gnaw Their Tongues --- 2006 (Independent)

I suppose if we're going to take a trip through Hell, we had better buy our ticket at the ticket booth, in other words, start at the beginning. This was the first offering from GTT and it certainly has an abrasive and disturbing title, but what is the actual music like? As this is this first effort, and by his own admission, he was really angry and desolate at the start, I'm expecting this to be pretty black, dissonant, off-putting.

Hmm. Well, neither of my two streaming services have it (though they have others by him) so that's a little disquieting. Was it considered too graphic, too abrasive, too dark for them to carry? I guess it's off to YouTube then. Ah, they never let me down. But will I be praising or cursing them some fifty minutes from now, I wonder? We open on the sound of dripping water, presumably in a dungeon or cellar somewhere, then dark organ cuts in, sort of off-key and a voice says something but I don't know what. This then is the start of “A burned offering”, and it runs for just over eight minutes. Now chaotic percussion crashes in with what sounds like orchestral keys, the sounds of a woman crying and somewhere in there an audio clip from some movie I presume. It's certainly upped the intensity now as guitar drives the tune, although just as I say that it slows right down on kind of nails-on-blackboard guitar and then exploding screamed vocals. Kind of a doom metal thing happening now, grindy and black and very slow, while at the same time other elements are racing along. We're three minutes in.

Everything fades away now and we can hear the water dripping again with just a single guitar strumming, then a spoken vocal --- sounds like he's describing a black mass maybe --- I've looked for the lyrics to this album but probably unsurprisingly there are none available, so unless I can really make something out I can't comment on the lyrics themselves. The music, meanwhile, has now taken up a sort of dramatic, powerful orchestral punch which is pretty sweet, with some effects and sounds going on too, and we're now almost at the end, seven minutes in. Big ambient kind of echoey sound like walking backwards out of a cathedral as the sound of the mass recedes behind you, and then into the title track. A heavy feedback guitar merges with crashing drums to almost create the sound of breaking glass, and I guess that's a screeched vocal going on; that gets deeper and darker in a few seconds, and it's a big roar like a wounded beast or a soul cast into the Pit for all eternity.

Now there's ambient synth that brings in a sort of choral vocal before the guitar smashes back in with a really powerful, even catchy riff before it fades out and almost cushioned drums take over, with dark ambient chanting and wind sounds, the drumbeat hitting about once every twenty seconds or so, very slow and precise, like a metronome or a clock measuring out the minutes. Looks like it will continue in this mode up to the end, as there's only about a minute to go. Oh, the drums stopped completely and we're left with the dark chanting. Next up is “Stabmovement and skinning essay”, another feedback guitar with an audio clip playing over it, something from the Bible maybe, hard to say. Harder guitar now in a doom metal vein, very slow and crushing, joined by drumming and now someone is speaking again, but I have no idea what he's saying. Something about surgical procedure. I guess given the title we're talking scientifically about skinning a body. Nice.

This is pretty cool. There's just the hard, smashing guitar and some percussion while the narrator goes on with his lecture. Sounds like violins now, very frenetic and urgent, very classical, an organ (hah!) in there too I believe, maybe. Hard to be sure, as there seems to be a lot going on. Some of this could also be sampled music I guess. The lecture (essay?) has now stopped, and we have dark, hollow sounds and now a quote from the Bible, think it's about The Great Flood. More violins, which is funny as he's now saying “The Earth is filled with violence” but he could be saying “violins”! Sounds like the theme from some old Hollywood movie now, then sort of native drums, played very fast, a dark breathing voice as we head towards the end of the piece (Earth's last breath?) and into “... Gnaw their tongues in pain”, a Biblical quote and I guess where Mories got his inspiration for the name for his project.

A massive drumroll opens this with what sounds like --- I don't know --- lasers firing? Probably some guitar effect, who knows, but it certainly gives the impression of an apocalyptic end approaching. More speech; whether it's Mories or taped audio I don't know. Big roaring scream (which I assume is Mories) and a great guitar riff playing now. Sounds like quotes from Revelations now against a hammering sound and echoey drums, finishes on a choral vocal and slower, but still echoed drums and the title repeated to end. “Healing open wounds with salt” is probably the most straightforward brutal track I've heard on this album yet. It just explodes across the speakers with a raw, visceral, almost (well, completely) unintelligible snarled vocal and guitars that just break your neck and then come back to check and make sure you're dead, stomping on your face and then dropping their trousers to dump on you for good measure. If there's a track I don't like on this album then this is it. Just don't see anything in it. Energetic, yes, brutal certainly, aggressive without a doubt, but no real structure that I can see, unlike the rest of his material.

At least it's only three minutes long, the shortest track on the album, and leads into the penultimate, “Seven heads and ten horns”, which quite in contrast to the previous track starts .... exactly like it. Crazy, frenzied drumming and shuddering guitar, but this time there's another audio track going (is that Mories talking, just reading the stuff out? I don't know, but I get the feeling it's samples) with some keyboard thrown into the mix. This one is longer, a full eight minutes and change, and certainly amps up the energy on the album. There's a strangely hypnotic, almost reassuring quality though about this track that the other one did not possess.I can't explain it; I'm sure it's meant to horrify, disturb, scare, but it does none of these things for me. Now we have what sounds like slow, dull explosions going off one by one and a dying echo. More Biblical quotation as the echoes continue; this time the audio sample (if such it is) is double-tracked so that it sounds like two people speaking, one a half second behind the other.

Now we have that fast, native-style drumming, like bongos or congas or some goddamn thing anyway, and a chant which sounds like it's mostly female voices, a spitting guitar and now faster, harder percussion as the tempo from the beginning of the song returns in the last few minutes. Really builds up to, again, a totally hypnotic rhythmic crescendo and then just fades away, ushering in the final, and longest track, “Death, suffering and death”. Low, muted, echoing sounds with what appears to be slow breathing, a few ringing guitar notes and then another audio sample, a woman's voice, who talks about drugs, alcohol and becoming a hooker, before a snarling guitar kicks her out of the way and the Biblical quotes come back in. Tiny taps on the drums and a few louder kicks of the bass drum, then a big snarl which elongates like a dark snake out over the music and the continuing speech. Then the speech falls away and in a very interesting piece of juxtapositioning, a sort of male choral vocal backs the screeching roar as the guitar pounds away slowly. Oh, there's the Biblical stuff again, but it's very hard to hear over the loud music, which is now fading back and the voice is getting louder until there is only the speech, with bells pealing slowly behind him. Now a woman's voice is giving out about some people who “deny God”, though she doesn't say who “they” are: unmarried mothers and gays, probably.

The bells counterpoint everything she speaks about, and there's a deep, rolling kind of feedback or effect going on too. Now someone is whispering, a male voice, as she still goes on, and now a guitar is taking charge as both sets of voices fall away and we move into the final two or three minutes. Oh, she's still rambling on: just we can't really make her out over the guitar. Just as well, say I. Finally she shuts up and we're left with the guitar kind of groaning out feedback to the end.

TRACKLISTING AND RATINGS

1. A burned offering
2. Spit at me and wreak havoc on my flesh
3. Stabmovement and skinning essay
4 ... Gnaw their tongues in pain
5. Healing open wounds with salt
6. Three heads and ten horns
7. Death, suffering and death

In much the same way as I was nonplussed by An Epiphanic Vomiting of Blood (the thing that most affected me was the title) I find this debut album by GTT to be interesting but not anything I would shrink from listening to. I of course don't know what future releases from him are like, and truth be told, this could be the “easy” album, if such a thing exists. But considering that he says himself that he is mellowing in his older age, I would think the music would reflect that, be less angry, less cacophonic, less chaotic, so that as each album is released you should find a slightly gentler, more acceptable and accessible tone to them. Could be totally wrong and the next album could wreck my head of course, but so far so good.

I'd also like to take a moment to talk about the album cover. Given how lurid and visceral, even downright disgusting, some of the later ones are, this one is oddly sterile. Showing as it does what I thought at first to be an ambulance but can now see to be a morgue freezer, it fails to inspire the kind of horror and revulsion that, say, Eschatological scatology (where we're headed next) does. Maybe he engaged another artist down the line, or just realised the cover wasn't controversial enough, or maybe conversely he thought it was too controversial, rooted as it is in what we would see to be an everyday object, and not a vision of Hell. Or at least, Amsterdam. Whatever, I just think the cover is nowhere near as scary or shudder-inducing as other, later albums are, so maybe I have it all wrong. If the progression of his album covers mirrors that of his music, then I could be in big trouble!

But so far, my sanity remains intact and I haven't yet had to change my underwear. Whether that will remain the case after the next album, we'll know soon enough. One down, two to go and I'm still kicking. For now.

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Trollheart

But now we move into the perhaps darker, scarier, certainly more stomach-churning territory as we check out this album from 2012. You can tell by some of the titles this is not nice stuff; I just hope that the album title, and that of the tracks, is more metaphorical or at least symbolic than literal, otherwise this could be a very nasty, to say nothing of messy, ride.


Eschatalogical Scatology --- Gnaw Their Tongues --- 2012 (Independent)

All right, well we all know what scatology is, yeah? Shit, we sure do! And if anyone had any doubts then the album cover is about as direct as you could wish for, and definitely pulls no punches. If any album of Mories's is going to upset me I have a feeling this is the one. If I get through this, then my hope would be that the worst is past and we can continue on with a relatively lighter heart and a belief that we may actually survive this. If not, then I guess I'll be drowning in a mountain of shit, not the way I had pictured going, and not an end I would wish on anyone. However, I willingly went into this so let's get it over with.

The title track gets us underway and throws us headfirst into the vat with a massive pounding guitar and hammering drums, a roar from Mories and this time it would seem no clever movie clips or audio samples, not yet anyway. I do hear a violin in the background there, though the guitar, resembling more a jackhammer punching the road on a Sunday morning, lets little through and jealously hogs the soundscape. Some synth is getting itself heard though, if only for a moment, and, well, we're halfway through the track and my head has not yet exploded, so that's progress. Sort of a wailing going on there too, and now the jackhammer guitar is starting to take some shape, actually forming a basic melody. Of sorts anyway. Hah: everything stopped --- and I mean everything --- there for just one second, and I finally get the phrase “deafening silence”.

“The Messianic downfall” isn't much of a change right off, that heavy, unfocussed (to me; I know he knows what he's doing, or I assume he does) guitar pounding over and over and the drums battering out the death knell of the earth as Judgement Day approaches, while what sounds like sirens are going off, lost somewhere in the maelstrom of sound. Okay, now everything has slowed right down and there's a deep, growly, evil voice merging with the more usual high-pitched screech Mories tends to use. Sudden stop and then a vocal chorus that shimmers, holds, as a rising guitar note suddenly falls upon them like an avenging demon and we cannon off again with various growls and screams. Ends on a kind of descending orchestral line and slow steady drums, and now some quote is happening but there's no way I can tell what it is, though I assume it's probably something from the Bible again.

Hollow drumroll than gives way to fast powerful guitar as we pile into “Deepwood bodytrap”, with another big scream and some attempt by Mories I think to form actual words here, but don't ask me to even guess what they are. Could be the song's title. Think it may be. Now everything has slowed down and there's a strong sort of synth line going with much more measured drumming, quite cinematic in its way, and the first time on this album so far that I've discerned what I could truthfully call any kind of melody. Quite beautiful, you may be surprised to hear. Anthemic and with a sort of dark, funereal solemnity that makes you think of the death of some hero perhaps. Then it quite suddenly stops and something very classical, kind of reminds me of the opening to Rimsky-Korsakov's “Flight of the bumble bee” is joined by a fast (and getting progressively faster) guitar and drumbeat until the original instrument is all but drowned out. Then it falls back to choral vocals and a growl, then kicks up again, then slows down. Somewhat exhausting, keeping up with it all.

Kind of a rising almost angelic chorus (sorry for all the “Sort of” and “kind of “ and “Reminds me of” and “May be”, but I really am just guessing here. When someone plays “all instruments” and there's little reference or research on them, you just have to give it your best guess, which is what I'm doing here) then that guitar blasts it all apart and everything smashes directly into “Master I am done” which has a definite orchestral feel to it, strings and maybe brass, hard to tell. Very ominous but also very fast, hard to catch your breath. A melody os developing now, a marching, rolling one almost akin to some power metal, but now the hammering guitar is cutting it all to shreds again. By the way, I should point out I'm not putting down the brutal guitar; I'm just writing my impressions as they come, and since I can't really discern too much melody I'm being a little more literal in describing how the music develops. It shouldn't be misinterpreted to believe I don't like this; I don't love it but I certainly don't hate it and it's not like listening to Merzbow's unrelenting noise. There's a lot of interest and indeed quite some savage beauty here, if you know where to look and how to approach the music.

Now that orchestral theme is back, the sad one from earlier, and the mad guitar is more or less letting it have its say, while Mories growls and hisses and spits beneath it. Oh good lord! Now a soft acoustic guitar is playing a pastoral melody! If I hear flutes I think I'm going to faint. No, that's the end of the track and we're back with a vengeance for “A sinister lurking grave”, which ups the br00tality and the speed and the passion and the power and, well, everything that's intense and unremitting about this album. It's just so fast you wonder he can even play! Now it's slowing down and ... now it's speeding back up. Yeah, but now I can hear an actual melody --- are those trumpets? Surely not! This is bloody manic! And here comes that acoustic guitar, with an almost Floydesque electric beside it, and I think another one too! Oh and now it's gone all chaotic again. Well it was nice for the few seconds it lasted. Good god in Heaven, that sounds almost like Genesis!

Two tracks left to go, both ten minutes or close to. “The golden altar burns” is first up, with a sort of thrash metal guitar riff, joined by a second guitar doing the same riff slightly lower and then again it sounds like a third one coming in. Setting up one hell of a triple guitar riff now as the drums crash in, and this is pretty wild really. Now we get the scream, like something in torment dying, darker growls too, before it all slows down and descends into a really dark, low guitar riff with no percussion at all --- okay, a few beats, but not much --- and then everything clears away for a clean and slow guitar occasionally interrupted by the odd roar, but generally left alone as the song nears its end. As intense and powerful as it began, the track ends relatively slow and low-key.

The final track is “The atrocious angel of scatology” and opens with a female quote before barrelling into another hard-hitting guitar and drums combination, then I think I hear a growled vocal and there's some sort of choir exulting in the background. Now it stops and fades back to what sounds like muted shrieks and echoey drums, then even that fades away and a doomy, bouncy but very slow drum plays counterpoint as that speech about this particular angel, again read by a woman, repeats but longer this time. Then the guitar punches back in bu tthis time there is melody in what Mories is playing; stark, savage, primal melody but melody nonetheless. He starts singing now, well screeching and roaring, but there are actual words there, till it descends to a guttural growl and we head towards the final minutes of the song. A softly strummed guitar takes over then in the dying gasps of the song, joined by a harder, more forceful one and together they bring the last track, and the album, to a shuddering close, attended by choral vocals.

TRACKLISTING AND RATINGS

1. Eschatological scatology
2. The Messianic downfall
3. Deepwoods bodytrap
4. Lash cultus
5. Master I am done
6. A sinister lurking grave
7. The golden altar burns
8. The atrocious angel of scatology

Well, would you look at that! I'm still here, breathing, alive, sane. If that's the worst GTT have to offer then I think I can walk in the valley of the shadow of death and fear no evil. Of course, it may not be, but I've now got through two of his albums without feeling the need to stop or reconsider my decision, and while yes, at times they have been somewhat hard going, I've never once though this is a bad idea, why did I do this, or I can't finish this. Maybe all this black metal I've been experiencing over the last two years has toughened me up, or maybe I've just been lucky. I'd say Gnaw Their Tongues is maybe overhyped, but all the comments I've read on YouTube and all the reviews all say the same thing, that it's scary, horror-filled, claustrophobic music that makes you feel like a demon is after you. Oddly, I've not felt that. Weird huh?

Note: After writing this I felt pretty pleased with myself, but in the weeks since I have experienced a sense of creeping dread any time I think of this album. I think its title, the cover, the overall bleakness, dread and in some cases pure disgust evidenced in the music may have actually got to me, and once it has sunk in, this kind of thing does remain with you, like a tick burrowing under your skin; you can't get at it but it's always there, and so like a dark shadow the memory of this album has hung over my life and somewhat unnerved me when recollected in the small hours. Had Batty chosen this for the Torture Chamber, I feel I would not have come out of there as bright and breezy and disbelieving as I did.

Anyway, with a new sense of emboldenment, I stride confidently on to the final part in our trilogy of terror, and as we begun at the beginning, so shall we finish at the end.

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Trollheart

Mories released his first new album in three years this year, and as it happens, setting aside EPs and collaborations, it comes directly next after the one we have just listened to. So, what has he been up to in the interim, and can we expect more black metal, harsher themes, or a perhaps gentler, maybe more ambient approach?


Abyss of Longing Throats --- Gnaw Their Tongues --- 2015 (Independent)

This one is, finally, on Google Play, so I don't need to keep adding track lengths up. That drives me crazy: particularly on albums where some tracks flow into each other, if you don't watch the times (and if there's no running order on the video) you can get really lost, so you spend part of your review checking back the lengths of tracks, adding them, calculating where the current one should end and the next begin, to the point where often you miss making comments you want to, and going back on a YT where there's no running order is asking for trouble. Arrrgh! So at least this one is properly split into recognisable, quantifiable tracks, so that headache is lifted from me.

The album sleeve sort of nods back to the debut too, kind of closing the circle, with its move away from darker, abstract and murky paintings and impressions, presenting a bold, black-and-white cover with a pretty simple depiction and yet managing to convey a sense of dread and unease through the picture itself. So, the best/worst of both worlds, and will this be reflected in the music we are about to hear? Well as I say, the interview I read made mention of the fact that Mories is mellowing a little, taking time to do “ordinary things, like go to the pub with my friends” (you'd have to wonder about the topics of conversation, wouldn't you?) so I'm sort of hoping for or expecting a slightly more relaxed tone.

Not that I would be surprised if it did nothing but blast crushing guitar riffs and thundering drums over screeched vocals of course, but here's hoping.

We get going with “Lick the poison from the cave walls”, which he says is based on a nightmare he had, so no real surprise that there's the sound of wailing voices, heavy booming drums and Mories's by-now trademark screech, and you get the sense of the music building, rising, coming towards a climax, although after what I've heard on the last two albums this is pretty tame. Were it my first introduction to GTT I would probably be a little worried, but this almost seems normal at this point. I can hear bells ringing now, which also fits in with the idea of being tortured and unsure of where you are, or if you will ever get out again. Either the room is shaking from the bass or there's an aircraft outside my window ... there's an aircraft outside my window. Helicopter in fact. Gonna pause this now as it's hard to hear all the little nuances of the music while some fucker is buzzing the house, probably the cops.

Okay, it's buggered off, flown away to annoy someone else. Seems back in GTT Land, everything is as it was, the dark synth notes keeping the tension tight and paranoid, and we're heading towards the end of the track now so I think it will probably stay that way more or less to the end. Dark, booming drums and the sound of glass breaking, along with a deep choral vocal introduce “Through flesh”, and then what could be violin before Mories begins screeching again, a powerful but muted guitar riff backing him. Get the idea of a steam engine slowly coming to a halt, then of a sudden it begins to pick up speed again and there's another guitar phrase, with some assorted voices sprinkled over it as the engine again slows down, almost to a complete stop now. It's like it's idling now, and there's no indication as to whether it's going to stop or gain speed again. It stopped.

Now we have wailing voices almost on their own, like a chorus from Hell, with darker less distinct voices behind them and now a guitar comes in, though nowhere near as brutally as it has been up to now. Speed is beginning to increase a little though it's more or less maintaining an even keel as it heads towards the end, then one final slowdown and we're into the title track which opens with that pounding guitar again, though once more it's not as pummeling as it has been. Hard, forceful drumming accompanies it and then a long drawn-out wounded scream echoes across the track, the guitar forming a basic melody this time and keeping it going into the fourth minute, when suddenly everything falls back and we have an audio sample of what appears to be something about martyrs and torture, spoken in a female voice, though I don't believe it's the same one as on the previous album. The guitar winds back up again now, but in an almost gentler way (though it's still strong; thre's just not the anger and intensity that Mories sometimes, even often, brings to his playing, that sort of feeling of being battered into submission by the music) and we're moving into the last minute.

“From the black mouth of spite” has a kind of crackling dark energy about its beginning, almost like lightning arcing across a dark, dolourous sky but without any thunder. A slow, doomy guitar punches in and Mories begins screeching and shrieking again, and this basically continues for in or around three minutes, when it then settles down to a slightly less intense atmosphere, with what sounds like steel being struck by steel and slow but measured drumming, could be a bassoon or French Horn or something in there too. The shrieking has turned into a moan, almost a lament, and now fades out completely as guitar and keys take the song into its sixth and final minute. Sharp, heavy percussion, quite hollow and echoey opens “The holy body” with maybe an orchestra hit or two sliding across the melody, or it could be a bow across a violin's strings. Very slow, very doomy, very portentous, in its way perhaps reverential or at least sepulchral. Mories begins screeching now as the melody remains slow and funereal.

Now there's some kind of slow, low feedback and at this point what this really sounds like to me is the footsteps of some huge, malevolent giant, blindly stepping where he will and crushing all in his path. Maybe it's a metaphor for the blind trust of man in his faith and his god, though probably not. I guess this music could really be interpreted any way you like, which is likely one of its greatest strengths. This track has pretty much remained in the same vein as when it began, no real change other than now we hear some bells, everything stops and Mories rants, then it picks up again after about a second or two, the bells now woven into the fabric of the melody very well. The last twenty seconds of the song sound ike someone dragging a heavy metal sheet across concrete. Another sepulchral tune, “And they will be cast out into utter darkness” has again a slow pace, doomy grinding guitar and I think some piano, just a few notes. Stopping halfway for some groans, growls and what I think may be a choir, then almost completely grinding down to snail's pace, like the eventual slowing and stopping of a beating heart.

Then out of nowhere, a fast, blistering guitar and a rapid-fire delivery screech from Mories, back to the funeral pace, walking with the cortege, head bowed, in the final procession of man as humanity heads towards its place of interment, its last burial and resting place. A big rush at the end and the album ends on “Up into the Heavens down into the Circles of Hell”, with a rattling guitar but a very slow pace, a roar of pain and the guitar melody takes a downward turn, everything kicking off then as cellos and violins paint a dark and disturbing picture, and Mories puts the final dreadful touches on his masterpiece of Hell and Damnation. A last guitar run, some powerful and heartfelt screams and growls, and the gates of Gehenna slam shut, and all we fortunate ones left standing outside are left with is the whiff of brimstone, terror and blood.

TRACKLISTING AND RATINGS

1. Lick the poison from the cave walls
2. Through flesh
3. Abyss of longing throats
4. From the black mouth of spite
5. The holy body
6. And they shall be cast out into utter darkness
7. Up into the Heavens down into the Circles of Hell

I won't deny I'm shuddering a little, but it's actually not from the music, which didn't bother me at all. I quite enjoyed some of it. It's the album sleeves. They're pretty repulsive in the main. But then, that's the whole point I guess.

As for my little trip to Hell on the batwings of his hate (twisted little Waits paraphrase there, for those in the know), how has it affected me? Well, I'm not saying I'd put on a GTT album to relax to or even for pleasure, but if someone had it on I wouldn't ask for it to be taken off. I think I would know or at least recognise Mories's music when I heard it, and I'm maybe a little proud to say that I can listen to it mostly with impunity, when so many people seemed to think it would, I believe the phrase was, leave me catatonic. Pah! Nothing of the sort!

Mind you, I can't say with any conviction that I love or even like his music, but I can see how it needs to be experienced as an overall event, that listening to separate tracks is mostly just pointless; you need to immerse yourself in his dark visions and give yourself over to them. I probably, to be fair, have not done this, nor have I approached the GTT albums as I should have, but I've done my best with what I have, and overall I'd have to say I'm pretty satisfied with the results. I did think, as I said earlier, that I might be biting off more than I could chew, or indeed swallow, by undertaking this little odyssey into Mories's dark soul, but I seem to have weathered the storm okay.

So I guess it proves one thing at least: An Epiphanic Vomiting of Blood was no fluke; I didn't get lucky, I didn't skip through it and as anyone reading these reviews can see, I've totally experienced these three very different albums, and can now profess myself a little more versed in this kind of music. Score one for Trollheart.

Meh, like the song says, once you try it and see, Hell ain't a bad place to be!
Still, it's more of an interesting place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there...

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

The Batlord

I think I might have discovered the problem. You probably listen to this on bitchass computer speakers, don't you? This is headphones music, man. If you having to be able to hear your sister means that you can't properly immerse yourself, then it's like trying to drown while wearing a scuba tank.

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Trollheart

Staying in the former Soviet Union, kind of, we cross west to Hungary, where we find a band who have been going since 1993, so therefore know all about Black Metal, but also use instruments like trumpets and trombones in their music. Sounds interesting, and we've been directed to this, their second album...

The Haunting --- Sear Bliss --- 1998 (II Moons)

A big growling guitar greets us, running off one single riff at a time for a few seconds before it gets going properly, as drums and keyboards come in and “Tunnels of vision” opens the album. The vocal is sibilant, almost a hiss, discernible but I'm not sure what he's singing. This is the founder and brainchild of the band, András Nagy, who also plays bass, while his two mates János Barbarics and Viktor Max Scheer take care of guitar duties, with Gergely Szücs on both trumpet and keyboards. There's a real sense of running, of panic in this track, sort of reminds me in structure of Floyd's “On the run” from Dark Side of the Moon. Some very effective organ now taking control of the tune as we head into the sixth minute of the eight it runs for and then it slows down again on a grindy, harsh guitar line, and ends on some really pretty piano.

“Hell within” has an odd mix of snarly guitar, peppy synth and choral vocals, then stops halfway --- completely stops --- and then takes up again with a guitar solo and the first sound we hear of the trumpet, which certainly adds a new dimension to the song. Almost gives it a Mariachi sound! “Land of silence” has a really nice acoustic guitar which quickly gives way to a harder electric and then rocks along nicely, while “Unholy dance” is another long one, over eight minutes and has some really almost AOR keyboards work on it. It's really very catchy, and the keys as I say work really well, the tempo a good bit slower than has been the case so far on this album. The trumpet also makes its presence felt again. One of the best tracks here, at least so far.

Now I almost feel like I've put on some dark ambient/darkwave album or something, music by people who wear long dark coats and mascara and who wouldn't know how to smile if their lives depended on it. And now the trumpet. These guys are nothing if not versatile. And the weird and creepiness continues in the title track, which certainly lives up to its billing with a spooky, Twilight Zone-like riff, dark hard guitar which sounds like someone battering at the door trying to get in, something crying in the corner, and a pretty bitchin' riff all round. Just superb. To partially quote TechnicLePanther, this is amazing.

We come to the end of the album then with “Left in the dark”, and it's another powerful semi-ballad with grinding guitar and strong keyboards. Halfway through it bursts into life on that drilling guitar, then slows down into a real boogie/blues groove before it slows to pure piano and a spoken vocal, trumpet and guitar then taking the tune towards its conclusion with keyboards adding those important flourishes and then the whole thing fades out, leaving me with a feeling of having experienced something really special.

TRACKLISTING AND RATINGS

1. Tunnels of vision
2. Hell within
3. Land of silence
4. Unholy dance
5. Soulless
6. The haunting
7. Left in the dark

Leaving behind the cold, often inhospitable and grey landscape of Eastern Europe for now, we take a jetliner across the Atlantic Ocean to land in America, where we then hop on a greyhound heading towards Utah, the heartland of America and stronghold of the Mormons, not a place you would expect “the devil's music” to thrive, but there's an ABM band based there in Salt Lake City, and this is their first and to date only album.

Echoes of Battle --- Caladan Brood --- 2013 (Northern Silence Records)

Interesting that this band, based in the US, should be on the same label as the German Dammerfarben, whom we listened to earlier. This band is a two-piece, consisting of the equally ludicrously-named Shield Anvil and Mortal Sword, who seem to split the playing and indeed the vocal duties more or less equally between them. The album only has six tracks, but three of them are over thirteen minutes long, with the longest edging almost into fifteen, so lots to get through.

“City of azure fire” starts us off, with picked guitar and piano, lush dark synth sliding in and joined by violin before percussion hits and the guitar gets a little more worked up. Even the short tracks are long, as it were, and this one is just over ten minutes, two of which are used in the instrumental buildup before the vocals hit. Another scratchy, snarly vocal --- whether it's Sword or Anvil (really?) --- supplying them I don't know as they're both credited with vocals, neither seen as lead. Obviously they're not the kind of vocals I like, but then this is that type of music and I guess I should expect it by now. Dolorous, pealing bells add to the sense of dark despair and then a choir starts up too. All very atmospheric, and in general slow and stately in tempo. For a ten minute song it doesn't seem that long, and soon enough we're into the title track, which runs for over nine minutes. It's a little more chaotic than the opening track, though it does settle into a really nice mellotron-or-something passage for a short time before burning up the frets again. Very good use of the choir again.

Two seriously long tracks next. Clocking in at almost fourteen minutes is the very melodic “Wild autumn wind”, which somehow sounds familiar, I don't know from where. There's some really good instrumentation in this, particularly violin, and it has an eerie, haunting, sad feel about it for most of the track. Lovely melody. Great powerful ending and then it's like trumpet or clarinet or something before the guitars and drums pound back in. Sterling stuff. “To walk the ashes of dead empires” has a beautiful, slow, majestic keyboard and measured drumming driving it that even the howled vocals can't destroy. There's some very almost cinematic music here, kind of John Williams/ John Barry kind of thing. Very stirring, very breathtaking.

Sounds like a mandolin solo in the seventh minute, really excellent. Another fine performance from the choir, with accompaniment from what could be harpischord and trumpets and trombones, then it goes kind of celtic/Viking near the end with a warriorlike chorus, pipes and acoustic guitar, very folky. A really nice organ line opens “A voice born of stone and dust”, where the vocal is for once not screaming, but a kind of growling whisper. A military-style drumbeat carries the song along, and there's a really great piano solo there near the end. Speaking of the end, we've arrived with the longest of the songs, almost fifteen minutes of “Book of the Fallen”, and it opens with a strong acapella choir, then a church organ and piano before guitar bursts through with the vocals. A real tribute to the dead as well as a resignation to the futility of war, it's a powerful closer, lots of energy and passion, gets really intense about halfway through its run. Great final performance from the choir to take it to its conclusion.

TRACKLISTING AND RATINGS

1. City of azure fire
2.Echoes of battle
3.Wild autumn wind
4.To walk the ashes of dead empires
5. A voice born of stone and dust
6. Book of the fallen

A fine example of American ABM, with added folk elements thrown in. It's really impressive how so many of these bands are one or two-man operations, and yet can manage to sound like a full ensemble. I know with modern recording techniques, synthesisers, sequencers and computer software these days that's achievable, but you must have a core of talent before you can even think of recording, so kudos to everyone we've heard so far who have made it by themselves or just with one mate. Proves numbers are not everything.

Where are we off to now? Oh, back to Germany.

Songs of Moors and Misty Fields --- Empyrium --- 1997 (Prophecy)

Seems that one thing that is becoming clear as we journey through the often dark and mysterious land of Atmospheric Black Metal is that its reliance on and relation to folk metal, and folk music, is almost undeniable. All the bands we've looked into so far, from Ulver to Burzum, seem to utilise the precepts and themes that have characterised folk music for centuries, ever looking backward in order to look forward, paying respect to the past in order to create the future. Though there is certainly metal in it, much of it is more rooted in the deeper, more spiritual and often gentler rhythms of nature, human emotion and history or folklore.

Empyrium were formed in 1994 but only had their first album released in 1996 --- again, interestingly, the title of that album, Wintersunset, seems to have been taken for one of the labels who release this music, as we saw with Folkvang --- and this is their second. They're still around as of the time of writing, but oddly have only put out a total of five albums over nearly twenty years, with a twelve-year gap between their last, 2002's Weiland and last year's The Turn of the Tides.

The opener is a nice pastoral piece, very short and so I assume an instrumental, but I'm wrong as a choir comes in and a spoken voice takes “When shadows grow longer”, then “The blue mists of night” kick everything up as the tempo begins to romp along on guitar and drums, with a dark screechy voice belonging to Ulf Schwadorf, who also plays guitar, bass and drums! Some lovely piano from the appropriately-named Andreas Bach then frames a much deeper, but clearer voice as Ulf sings of, I think, a longing to return to the simplicity of nature and an agrarian life. Very nice guitar backing him in the third minute (well, backing himself I guess, as he plays the guitar) and the tune slows down to something of a dirge, then returns to the almost medieval feel of the opener, with flute and acoustic guitar.

That's the end of the shorter tracks, as the next four all reach over nine minutes, one stretching to almost ten. “Mourners” is, as you would probably expect, slow and doomy, with a real lament in the vocal. These guys seem to use a choir too and it works well. “Ode to melancholy” features a really stentorian vocal and is again (not surprisingly given the title) a slow and brooding song. Very sedate really, and even when the guitar comes in it's more expressive than aggressive (hey that's good!) though the melody is mostly driven by the keyboards, and the song is through its almost nine minutes before I even realise it. “Lover's grief” (anyone else picking up on a theme here?) comes in on what appears to be slow flute before the percussion hits and takes guitar with it, the vocal another deep one with lush keyboard backing it. Some really powerful, stirring music here: kind of makes you want to salute a flag or at the very least fire up Call of Duty...

Beautiful instrumental fadeout, especially with the piano right there at the end, and we're into the final track, “The ensemble of silence”, led in on flute and acoustic guitar in a slow, relaxed tune with literally a whispered vocal, so low you can barely even make it out. The guitar does kick up in the third minute, but still we're looking at almost completely instrumental here. As I say, there are vocals but they're so low as to be almost inaudible. They're actually becoming a little more distinct now as we head into the fourth minute. After a brief foray into heavier territory the music has settled down into that quiet, pastoral vein now, and the vocals, again whispered, are now spoken, almost like narration. Choir coming in now, raising the level of drama and emotion.

Kicking up now for the big finish, with the screechy voice replacing the stentorian one, but the music is still really emotional and atmospheric, and it fades out on a lovely acoustic guitar backed by soft keys.

TRACKLISTING AND RATINGS

1. When shadows grow longer
2. The blue mists of night
3. The mourners
4. Ode to melancholy
5. Lover's grief
6. The ensemble of silence

__________________
Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Trollheart

Nah, I listened to it well enough. I can't use headphones, true, but I have a decent amp and powerful speakers, so sorry, no, you don't get to rain on my parade that way. There's no problem: I just don't find this guy that disturbing, for the most part. And once you read the interviews with him and realise he's a living, breathing human being, it's much easier to relate to his music and not be appalled by it, though the second album did shrivel my soul a little, so take heart!

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Trollheart

I find it perhaps odd that Batty has chosen a grindcore album for his next attempt, as he knows what I think of the grind; still, I suppose there are only so many subgenres he can choose from, and again maybe he's holding back the best (worst) till last. Whether that is the case or not, it seems we have approximately forty minutes of this album to get through, and nobody will, I think, be surprised at a) my reaction and quite likely b) the dearth of things I can say about it. Oh well, let's get it over with huh? An Iron Maiden album review awaits...

Burn the Priest --- Burn the Priest --- 1999

Scary album cover eh? Talk about doing exactly what it says on the tin! Not sure why the nuns are frying up Father Wotsit though: maybe he touched them up? Or more likely, didn't. Maybe they're possessed by the Devil, or worse, PMS. Maybe he opined that their arses looked too big in those cassocks. Whatever, they're pissed obviously and it looks like they're certainly giving him their warmest regards.

So, enough nervous humour to delay the actual listening of the album, let's hit play and see just how bad this is. It's bad. Right away there's those hammering guitars, apocalyptic drums and someone screeching as if his balls have been caught in a revolving door and nobody has noticed as he goes around and around, screaming in pain. Sure let's see if they have any interesting lyrics. Hah! Thought they were referring to our guys there when they write “Bitterness fuels the mods”, but it's mode, not mods. Meh. Not much in the lyric really. Hold on a moment! Is that ... is that ... melody I hear? Jesus! It's slowing down and the guy is actually making an attempt to sing! Well, a proto-attempt, doomed to failure, but still. It's sped up now but just for a minute or so I could actually hear the guitars playing and not just firing cannons of riffs at me. Very interesting. Hmm. “With just a flick of the opal banded finger I will throw you into a concentric mental decline”? Come over here and say that. Er, I mean...

Yeah, there's some decent riffing here. I have no idea where we are, think it's the third track, but it's not as brutal as the legendary Cryptopsy that nearly blew me to shards last year.

Oh come on! Now they're slowing down with a doomy bass and it's crunching along. This is not half bad, for grindcore that is. Better than what I heard of Swarmmm anyway (sorry Jansz) and a nice sort of hybrid of grindcore, death and doom metal. Quite a long song too, at over five minutes. These things normally blast by at about a minute, two being seen as an epic. Oh I have to check out the lyric to “Goatfish”! Aw, how disappointing. It's not about a half-goat, half-fish creature at all, and they only mention the name as the last word. Boo. I want goatfish! Vote goatfish! You know, I can actually make out this guy's voice at times. Vote goatfish! “Salvation” has the most stripped-down percussion I've ever heard, now we're back to growling. He needs a void in his life, it would seem, but she's taken all his nothing. Greedy cow. Vote goatfish!

Well, two albums in and I'm quite enjoying myself. Guess I'm becoming a little inured to music I would never have suffered through before. Not that I like this, but it doesn't disturb or scare me the way it would have last year. Another long one in “Autumn lies” (no I will not take it for “Trollheart's Theme Park”!) with again a slow, doomy guitar line leading in the intro. Got to give them credit for the line “As the leaves fall yellowing like faded paper”. Quite poetic. No doubt the falling leaves will be compared to his heart, soul or penis. No, something to do with crucifixion apparently. Vote goatfish! Percussion really gets going here and it trundles along nicely. Nearly halfway through now; not fun but not torture either.

I guess Batty had hoped the title of the next track would refer to me, but “Suffering bastard” doesn't bother me; it just comes and goes, and it's only just over two minutes long. It also has, rather amazingly, a very Iron Maiden riff in it. Even more astoundingly, it's the first time I hear the singer speak, and you can make out what he says. It's only for a moment, but still. “Buckeye” is something of a mess though: the vocalist alternates between screaming and growling, unless there are two of them? No, just the very unassumingly-named Randy Blythe, so I guess I have to give him some credit for range if nothing else. Music has slowed a little now too. Vote goatfish! The opening lines of “Lame” could really apply to most of these lyrics: ”Whine, whine, whine!” Guess there isn't a grindcore band that you could characterise as happy with their lot. Like a bunch of angsty teenagers, though there are some good lines in “Preaching to the converted”: ”A Trojan Horse full of Zyklon”, ”Judas's coffers overflow” and they even nod to The Jam with the opening line ”The public wants what the public gets” however they fail to continue on with what would surely be an appropriate second line: ”But I want nothing this society's got”. Vote goatfish!

Another slower, almost boogey rhythm to this, much slower than the bulk of their material, though of course it does soon kick up, while “Departure hymn” is really more thrash than grindcore, actually not bad at all. The album ends then on “Duane”, which I had feared was fifteen minutes long, but Batty tells me (surprisingly kindly for him; think he would have left me to stew) that the length of the track is due to a “hidden” one at the end: in reality, it's the standard two minute fare. With a surprisingly reflective guitar to start, though that of course gets kicked aside fairly quickly and we're off, hurtling towards the end. The hidden track should probably have remained hidden!

Oh, I see now that this band is the same Lamb of God whose As the Palaces Burn I reviewed previously; they changed their name. Kind of makes more sense now. Meh, I sort of hated it but it wasn't quite what I'd call torture. Halfway there and again I ask

Oh, and vote goatfish!

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

The Batlord

Don't know where got the idea that this was a grindcore album. It's a conglomeration of groove metal (like Pantera), thrash, 90s hardcore, along with elements of death metal, and yes, a bit of grindcore. But this is most certainly not a grindcore album.

And it's kind of hard to followup Merzbow. There's not much if any metal that can compete. Maybe if I could trick you into thinking that Metal Machine Music was metal...

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