Frownland

Well, maybe not Metal Machine Music, but how about Metal Music Machine?

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

Trollheart

From here
Burn the Priest - Encyclopaedia Metallum: The Metal Archives

No more changes though. You've made my bed of nails and I'll lie in it. Still, exciting news to come. Watch this space. Actually don't; watch the main forum....

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Trollheart

April is the cruellest month, they say, but not for metal albums. One of the foremost bands in the NWOBHM, and one of the handful still around at this point, Raven released their twelfth album in this month. So has the fire gone out or are they just as hard and “athletic” (as they like to describe themselves) as ever?

ExtermiNation --- Raven --- 2015 (Steamhammer)

Introduction: Although drummers have changed over the forty years Raven have been in existence, the core lineup of the band, in brothers Mark and John Gallagher (yes, two very different Gallagher brothers!) remains to this day, and they continue to be the driving force behind the band. Even when a wall collapsed on Mark and crushed his legs in 2001, he fought on and even did some gigs in a wheelchair --- now that's metal! --- before making a full recovery, and the band only took four years off to allow him to recuperate. The album was crowdfunded (seems to be the way things are going these days) and has been hailed as a modern classic.

Track by track

1. Destroy all monsters: Powerful guitar intro with of course the sound of Godzilla and friends in the background, then we're off and running, and it might as well be 1979 again. Sweet. Chorus is bitchin'. Love the shouts of “Exterminate!” too. Powerful, in-your-face ending.
2. Tomorrow: More grinding, fast but not as frenetic as “Destroy all monsters”. John's voice is certainly still in fine shape.
3. It's not what you got: And they just keep rockin'! Bit of a tired idea if I'm honest, and for guys who are now in their fifties it doesn't quite ring true. Still, it's good fun and they obviously have the energy and passion required for such a song.
4. Fight: Kind of doing a Tank/Motorhead hybrid here. Decent song. I like the line “Gonna hear this lion roar!” which perhaps glorifies their British rock credentials in the face of so much American metal, and reminds the young 'uns who started it all. Slows down with considerable menace later in the song, then kicks back up again for the ending. Great shredding from Mark: he's still got it.
5. Battle march/Tank treads (The blood runs red): Speaking of menace, this is loaded with it. Kind of reminds me of Metallica around the Master of Puppets era.
6. Feeding the monster: You can certainly feel breathless listening to this album. It just doesn't let up even for a second. Another fast, uptempo rocker with a great vocal line from John.
7. Fire burns within: Just a thumping, stomping rock anthem.
8. Scream: Flies along at speed with some great percussion
9. One more day: Yeah, another good rocker but it's kind of sounding all the same to a degree now.
10. Thunder down under: I think this is a tribute to AC/DC. Its okay but nothing too special to be fair. Losing interest a little now.
11. No surrender: Another fast rocker, good shredding, but nothing special.
12. Golden dawn: Okay, finally! Something different. Seems like it might be a ballad, with a nice soft chimy guitar --- no. Just an instrumental, and a very short one at that. Nice though: it breaks up all the hard rockin' headbanging.
13. Silver bullet: And back we go to it. Will this be anything better? No, it's decent but again just straightforward metal. Nothing wrong with that, but nothing to really keep my attention.
14. River of no return: This sounds so much better. Is this an actual ballad? Nice slow kind of moany guitar with an ominous feeling to it. No, this is really good. Finally. As we reach the end of the album.
15. Malice in Geordieland: This is an extra track. I normally don't do these, but I like the title so will give it a chance. On the basis of most of what I've heard though I don't expect much. Funny Geordie-speak at the beginning, then it becomes another mad rocker. They're singing in that Newcastle accent so there's that. Not half bad. Way-aye man!

Conclusion: I don't know why people say this is the best Raven ever did. I much prefer their earlier material, and I get the impression the Gallaghers are trying to regain their youth and live and play as if they were twenty again. They certainly have the energy and the commitment, but to be perfectly honest, one or two tracks aside, they don't seem to have the songwriting chops to be putting out albums still. Quite disappointed really, and I liked Raven.

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British steel (1980)

I guess you could say this might be where the tide begins to turn, certainly in my case anyway. This is only one of two Priest albums I had heard before beginning this discography, and I reviewed it in my journal “Classic Albums I have never heard”, where I was very impressed with it. That was a short review though, so here we'll be going into it in some more detail. The first of their albums to give them a high placing in the UK (number four) and a decent enough showing in the US (38), it also features three of their biggest hit singles.

“Rapid fire” is a song I first heard on the compilation album “Killer Watts”, which I featured in last year's Metal Month presentation. I wasn't impressed at it then, but on listening to the album I like it a lot better. It really grinds along on the twin guitars, driven on the galloping percussion of new drummer Dave Holland, and Halford is by now established in his characteristic growl. The songs have got progressively (!) shorter and snappier, with nothing on this album over five minutes, bar one which just overshoots by four seconds. It's no real wonder that there were singles from this; much of Priest's former output was too long and rambling to lend itself well to radio airplay. There's great aggression in this opener, and it continues into “Metal gods” (what a great title!) as the song is taken by a great thumping, marching beat and reminds me of Saxon at their height. Great guitar work too. The chorus could have a bit more life in it though, I have to say.

OK, who doesn't know “Breaking the law”? Even I, with my minimal experience of Priest, knew that song when I were a lad. It's just one of those songs, and even got parodied recently on The Simpsons when the band played it as “Respectin' the law --- copyright law!” even if they mistakenly called Priest a Death Metal band! It just gets the blood flowing, trundling along like an unstoppable thing that can't be stopped, and the chorus, though simple, is perfectly suited to the song. Of course, I guess there would be controversy around the sort of “teaching our kids bad lessons”, but then, that's metal, and people's perception of it outside the genre. Good use of the guitars as police sirens. It's a great example of how a song can be such a classic and yet so short: it only runs to just over two and a half minutes.

“Grinder” does what it says on the tin, snarling and snapping though it's not as slow as the title would suggest. The next single I've never liked; I find “United” a real dirge, always have and always will. The sentiment is fine, but it just lacks any energy, anger or sincerity, not to mention the lyric is bargain-basement beginner songwriter. Well, that's just me. It did well as a single so what do I know? I must admit, I find the title of the next one a bit odd: “You don't have to be old to be wise”? I'm not sure “the kids” want to be seen to be wise, and aren't Judas Priest all about havin' a good time? Still, it rocks well, kind of harks back a little to the Plant-influenced first two albums to a degree, but doesn't seem too much out of context musicwise.

Again, most of us would know “Living after midnight” as it was another successful single, quite a bit of the old seventies rock/southern boogie in it I feel, but you probably are familiar with it so I don't need to describe it. Great rocker. Things slow down then as we near the end of the album and head into “The rage”, with a big growling guitar intro and a slouching, staggering rhythm with a powerful vocal from Halford. Killer guitar solo. We end then on “Steeler” (I believe that was also the name of one of the bands we featured earlier?) which kicks out the stays and brings everything to a frenetic close. Fantastic choppy guitar ending, just love that, then the single chord finishes it off perfectly.

TRACKLISTING

1. Rapid fire
2. Metal gods
3. Breaking the law
4. Grinder
5. United
6. You don't have to be old to be wise
7. Living after midnight
8. The rage
9. Steeler

The feeling I got when I short-reviewed this for CAIHNH remains: so far my favourite JP album by a long shot, and I hope that's not just because there are three singles on it that I know. It's punchier overall than the albums that have gone before, there's little of the darker imagery that hung around them like a pall in some cases, and the band sound like they're really having fun. Whether or not this would last we'll see when we review their next album.

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The Batlord

Notice that grindcore is at the very end of "post-thrash/death metal/grindcore". And yet you hone on it. Use your head, man.

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Long before they were famous, before they made those epic albums and became a major part of the American power metal scene, I can honestly say I saw potential in Virgin Steele. I loved their second album and knew they would go on to great things. Well, I would say that, wouldn't I? But the truth is that I did hear of them through Kerrang! and took the advice of that bible of metal, shelling out for this. I never regretted it.

Guardians of the Flame --- Virgin Steele --- 1983 (Music For Nations)

This was of course the last album to feature founder member and guitarist Jack Starr, as David DeFeis tightened his grip on the band and pushed them in a musical direction that Starr did not agree with, but that would, in time, prove to be the right one as Virgin Steele wrote their name in fire across the heavy metal firmament. Poetic, eh? Whaddya mean, you don't care? I don't know, some people ... I go to all this trouble, don't know why I bother... Anyway, this then is one of the two albums that show how Virgin Steele could have gone.

The keyboards of David DeFeis are already clearly in evidence as we open with “Don't say goodbye (tonight)” and his voice, though a little rough here, is still one that you can tell is going to be ringing out across the metal firm --- oh, I said that already didn't I? Well, let's just say you could be sure you were going to be hearing this guy again! That powerful romping beat that would become a staple of power metal is there, and for the moment Starr is held back a little in check, then he rips off a fine solo and you can tell just how good a guitarist he is. I guess you could say it's a little repetitive, now that I listen to it, but “Burn the sun” is a pure metal rocker, with plenty of histrionics both from Starr and DeFeis, the latter utilising that operatic style of vocal that was being pioneered by the likes of Halford and Dickinson, and would be taken up by Eric Adams, then “Life of crime” is kind of more in the Kiss mould, with a big swaggering strut as DeFeis snarls out the vocal with proud defiance.

It's got quite a hook in it, the keys not as prominent as they were on the first track, DeFeis stamping nevertheless his personality all over the song, though Starr takes charge of course for the guitar solo. Always seems like these two are trying to one-up each other, though we know who won that eventual war in the end. The keys are back for the dark, dramatic intro into the seven-minute epic “The Redeemer”, which shows a glimpse into what would be the future of this band as their path sort of dovetailed with that of Manowar into sweeping sagas of battle and retelling of the stories of heroes of legend. Oddly enough, the lyric on this one seems to suggest a corruption of the tales of Moses coming down from Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments, and whether they're poking fun at religion or are in earnest I don't know, but the song features a totally smoking solo from Starr and then, of course, just because he can, a superb keyboard run from DeFeis. There's room in this seven-minuter for them both to set out their stalls, and they certainly do.

“Birth through fire” is a short instrumental that leads into the title track, which opens with a big dirty guitar and rocks along with purpose and again shows the idea of where Virgin Steele were heading, a direction Starr, not happy with, would fight against and end up being fired from his own band. Like Manowar's “Into glory ride” or “Battle hymn”, the song is full of grandiose self-importance and boasting --- “We are the guardians of the flame/ Masters of the ancient rites” --- but this is something that would go on throughout power metal and is I suppose never to be taken that seriously. A great keyboard solo by DeFeis kicks off a sort of warrior chorus while Starr burns up the frets as the song reaches its triumphant climax.

The introduction to “Metal City” shows the range of DeFeis as he hits notes I've only really heard Gillan and Adams hit before, then the song trundles along and in comparison to the title track it's pretty basic and perhaps reflects the band's own struggles as they catalogue the obstacles they have overcome: ”We used to be nice but times got tough.../ Paid our dues, got burned a few/ Now we want action!” The pace speeds up for “Hell or high water” with the lyric making for perhaps disturbing reading: ”I won't let you leave me/ Cos I've got too much pride/ You better believe me/ I'll never let you go.” Obsessive much? This idea of “I get what I want” continues into “Go all the way” and perhaps the two songs tell us more than we would want to know about Jack Starr's attitude towards women. Neither songs are that great, to be honest, but then we get the closer and things change completely.

“A cry in the night” is one of only two on the album (not counting the instrumental) penned by David DeFeis solo, and there surely is something in that they're the opening and closing tracks, and also by far the two best on the album. Lyrically, both songs are the polar opposite of Starr's, with DeFeis much more vulnerable and prepared to listen to his lover, with none of the arrogant bravado and braggadacio of Starr's writing. Unsurprisingly, “A cry in the night” is based around a solid piano melody, a power ballad on which DeFeis exercises the tender side of his vocals, and also manages to write quite an anthem, with a great hook in the song. Whereas “Go all the way” and “Hell or high water” are, on the whole, forgettable and formulaic, “A cry in the night” utilises a classical piece, Canon in D Major by Pachelbel, and therefore makes a much better impression and closes the album as well as it was opened.

TRACKLISTING AND RATINGS

1. Don't say goodbye (tonight)
2. Burn the sun
3. Life of crime
4. The Redeemer
5. Birth through fire
6. Guardians of the flame
7. Metal City
8. Hell or high water
9. Go all the way
10. A cry in the night

It's not hard to see where the two men's visions for Virgin Steele diverged sharply. While both are excellent musicans, you can note in Starr's lyrics a very basic, metal-and-roll idea, with the usual subjects such as living the life, women and beer taking centre stage, whereas DeFeis concentrates more here on more esoteric, fantasy elements, which is the path the band finally took and which allowed them to reap such wide rewards in the metal community, leading to such albums as The House of Atreus, Invictus and of course The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. The only time Starr and DeFeis seem to agree and share a vision is when they write together, as in the title track, but the rest of the time they're diametrically opposed lyrically, and this tug-of-war would eventually be won by DeFeis, who would fire the founder of the band, and who would be proven right to do so, as Virgin Steele went on to become one of the pillars of American power metal in the following decades.

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So we move on to the first selection of two from Violet. This one looks interesting. The band sound like they're fun --- trampolines on stage, a rapping wizard at the shows, boogey boards for crowd surfing --- to say nothing of their drummer dressing like a shark! --- but will their music match their madcap antics I wonder? I notice all the tracks are very short, nothing over two and a half minutes, with some straining to even reach one minute, so what can I expect musically? Not a clue, but let's check them out.

Hazardous Mutation --- Municipal Waste --- 2005 (Earache Records)

A fast, thrashy guitar opens “Intro: Deathripper” then it gets even faster, if that's possible, and the vocal is fired off with machinegun rapidity, the song over before I can really get to grips with it and into “Unleash the bastards”, which, reading the lyric sheet, appears to be about a “rise of the machines”-style robot revolt, with a sly stab at corporate greed. I suppose it's music best suited to mosh pits and indeed crowdsurfing, headbanging and crazy dancing, shouting and fist-pumping rather than sitting down trying to analyse the lyrics or deconstructing the melodies, of which there seem to be few. “The Thing” seems to be based on the John Carpenter horror film, though in fairness so far all the tracks have sounded pretty much the same.

“Blood drive” does at least sound a little different, and even includes a guitar solo! Mind you, in the time it's taken me to write that we've piled (and I mean piled) into “Accelerated vision” (with the emphasis on the first word!) then “Guilty of being tight” (see what they did there?) is another chaotic, superfast mess. I can't actually believe there are so many words in the lyric of a song that lasts less than two minutes, but this guy sings like there's a demon on his tail. There's even time for a clip from some horror movie before the song begins, and yes, there's a solo in this one too. Not a long one, but then the song lasts as I say less than two minutes, while the next one is one second over two minutes, but “Set to destruct” is the last of the long (!) tracks for a while, as the title track, up next, is a minute twenty, the next one a minute thirty, then one minute right up to the shortest track on the album, where “Black ice” lasts a total of twenty-four seconds!

I guess this is the next best (worst?) thing to listening to punk, but it's all just a blur to me and there's nothing I can really write about it. There's a rather nice little guitar piece there about halfway through “Hazardous mutation”, but it's soon lost in the overall chaos of the song, then “Nailed casket” just hammers along with a psychotic lyric about an obsessed killer (now that's new!) but at least “Abusement Park” (clever) has some thought put into its lyric. Again though, it's a minute long, so what can you do with that? More I guess than with “Black ice” which appears to be a tribute to Metallica's Cliff Burton and runs for as I said a total of twenty-four seconds, then they go for a bit of an epic in “Mind eraser”, a full two minutes and seventeen seconds long. That leaves us with “Terror shark”, with its completely misinformed lyric and totally wrong conclusions about sharks (I'm sure they care, and it's a chance for the drummer to don the shark suit no doubt) the hilariously-titled “The thrashin' of the Christ”, where for a moment they actually SLOW DOWN (it doesn't last of course) and closing on “Bangover”. I am exhausted just listening to that.

TRACKLISTING AND RATINGS

1. Intro/Deathripper
2. Unleash the bastards
3. The Thing
4. Blood drive
5. Accelerated vision
6. Set to destruct
7. Guilty of being tight
8. Hazardous mutation
9. Nailed casket
10. Abusement park
11. Black ice
12. Mind eraser
13. Terror shark
14. The thrashin' of the Christ
15. Bangover

Nothing I can say. Too fast, too unfocussed and too all over the place for me to even make an attempt at an opinion. A mess, plainly and simply. Awful.

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Back to Ninetales's Members' Top Ten and at number six we find

The Mantle --- Agalloch --- 2002

I always assumed Agalloch was the name of some demon from the darkest hells, but turns out it's actually the genus of a particular wood. Hardly heavy metal now is it? More like heavy wood! Oh well, enough jokes (whaddya mean, what jokes?) --- let's have a listen to this, their second album. Ooh! Acoustic guitar! Well this is a nice change after the muddy nothingness and despair of Incantation. Instrumental, which carries on into the first vocal track, itself fourteen minutes long. A great relief to hear that, after some hoarse death vocals, there are clean ones taking over. The song is just brilliant, never seems to flag and before I even know it we're eleven minutes in. Even the harsher vocals have a kind of sibilant whispering quality that, while dark and unsettling, is easily understandable. Next track is also great, seems to be an instrumental. No complaints about this album so far.

Gets rocking again with “I am the wooden doors”, then “The Lodge” features some sound effects including what sounds like boots walking in the snow, followed by a really nice slow acoustic guitar, yet another great instrumental and into one of the longer tracks, with “You were but a ghost in my arms” clocking in at over nine minutes, though the next one is two minutes longer. This is another fantastic instrumental, which just continues to demonstrate the versatility and talent of this band. A lovely acoustic with a chanting vocal lament for “... And the great cold death of the Earth”. There has not been one single bad track on this album yet, nor will there I feel be. No, there weren't. Ten out of ten for this album.

His number five then is from a band I have heard once, who actually appeared in I think Mondo Bungle's top ten last year, though this of course is a different album.

Through Silver in Blood --- Neurosis --- 1996

Some long tracks on here again, though in total we're only looking at nine tracks. Interesting guitar motif on the first track, with the vocals kind of shouted but very intelligible. For a twelve-minute track that was not bad at all. In contrast, “Rehumanize” is less than two minutes and, well, terrible, mostly just speech. “Purify” is another twelve-minuter. Bit of a roared vocal but it goes in quicker than expected, so it can't be that bad. Certainly some very good guitar work in it. Also sounds like bagpipes, oddly enough, which contrast with the guitar just enough to be interesting without being dissonant. “Strength of fates” is nearly ten minutes but very restrained, very slow and almost funereal in its pace, though it does get a lot more intense and loud in the last two minutes.

A short minute-and-a-half kind of interlude and then the album closes on two epics, the first, “Aeon”, almost thirteen minutes long, starts quietly but then ramps up with an angry vocal and tough guitar. Really gets going with a great powerful guitar and keyboard motif that lasts up to about the ninth minute, then fades away to mostly just percussion, then a beautiful cello melody takes it into the final section. “Enclosure in flame” rides on a soft, hypnotic, repeating piano and guitar line, before the ambience is shattered by a wracked, wounded howl which continues mostly through the rest of the song, and then it fades out as it begun.

All in all, not a bad album though it's not really something I'd be tending to go back to, unlike the Agalloch one.

Number four gives us another band I've heard before:

Autumn Aurora --- Drudkh --- 2004

To date, I've heard two albums from this Ukrainean black metal band and I've loved both. This is their second album, and opens on a short acoustic song with a very pastoral feel, including the sound of birdsong before “Summoning the rain” ups the ante with hard electric guitar and trundles along in that somehow folk metal vein that Drudkh seem to explore so well and meld with their own black metal influences. “Glare of autumn” returns us to those golden fields, with acoustic guitar and the reappearance of birdsong, together this time with the sound of babbling streams, then electric guitar punches through but does not ruin the ambience.

The last three tracks all exceed nine minutes, but I'm not worried. I've yet to hear a Drudkh song I did not love. “Sunwheel” is visceral but really great, and again seems to have bagpipes in the melody. “Wind of the night forests” is a driving pagan anthem that sets the blood pumping, and the album closes on “The first snow”, with a very atmospheric feel to it, some really nice keyboard work adding to the overall flavour of the song. Seems to be an instrumental, which is a perfect way to close the album, bookending it with the opener.

Another perfect album from this Ukrainean band who never fail to impress and so far, have never even come close to disappointing me.

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The Batlord

I feel contempt for Violet for having suggested that album, rather than for you for not liking it. Modern thrash bands by and large are ****, and even the good ones aren't on the same level as the best eighties bands. The thrash revival is one of the most pointless things to ever happen to metal.

**** you for liking this album, Violet.

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Depressive Suicidal Black Metal, or DBSM (not to be confused with BDSM! ) is a subgenre I've never had much interest in. I generally prefer my music to be, if not upbeat, at least cheerful enough that I don't feel like stringing myself up. However it seems appropriate perhaps to bring our short journey across this troubled country to a close with an artiste who specialises in just such music, as without wishing to judge a place I have never been or taking everythign the news says as gospel (I'm sure there are aspects of Iran that are unutterably beautiful) it does seem that the prevailing attitude there is a sort of sullen resentment, a low-key wish to rebel and the idea of a people held barely in check by a brutal, repressionist regime.

So is it any wonder then that thoughts would turn to darker, more unwholesome avenues? If you play your music in a country where, I did hear at one point, music itself is frowned upon unless it's for the glory of Allah, and where metal, being seen as “the devil's music” everywhere and most surely particularly here, is virtually banned, then it would seem you're going to be less disposed towards rocking out and ****ing the system and will withdraw into the protective coccoon of dark ambient solitude and reflection, as it would seem is the modus operandus of this guy.

Desolate Eden --- Zakhm --- 2010 (Thorn Laceration Records)

Before you ask, “zakhm” apparently means “wounded” in Persian, and it's actually a word so commonly used there that there's apparently a TV soap by the same name, so I had some difficulty finding this album even on YouTube (no chance of getting it anywhere else of course) and yes, irt is a one-man operation, a guy who goes by the ironically appropriate name of Sad. That could be his real name, or it could be a corruption of something like Said, but you don't really care about that do you? This is more an EP than an album, but it runs for as long as the Helzgloriam one did, so it's much of a muchness really. Total time just under twenty-nine minutes.

A low, moaning synth perhaps (or it could be a guitar) with the sounds of wailing and crying, kind of reminds me of the imam calling to prayers, and speaking of prayers, there are tolling bells and also the sound of women screaming. Nice. This opener is called “Adhan in blackness” oh! And he's using Grieg's “Aase's death” as part of the melody. That's clever and insightful. Points for that certainly. Perhpas not as many points though, as it seems the entire melody is based around that piece. Skilfully used though, but I'd prefer to hear his own music. As we do now, in the title track, and there's a powerful, romping guitar and thundering drums before his vocals come in, such as they are. I have never listened to DBSM before, so I suppose this is typical of the vocal style, but again it's Black/Viking/Pagan metal, that screech, a tortured wail that precludes any attempt at making out any sort of words, so I couldn't tell you if he's singing in English or not, though the titles of the songs are all written in it.

I guess it's more about creating a feeling, an atmosphere, an emotional connection (or lack of one) than actually being able to understand what's being sung, and in that our man Sad succeeds well. The music itself is slow but powerful, not as slow as Funeral Doom but certainly with a dark grandeur all of its own. “60 seconds after die” is more ambient, more restrained with a rising guitar and perhaps keyboard line (I can't tell what he plays as, as is usual with these one-man efforts, all that's credited to him is “all instruments”) with another screaming vocal, almost spoken this time, and another, lower, darker one behind it. Whether that's someone else, a tape effect or him multitracking his own voice is again something I'll leave up to you to decide if you listen to this. More sounds of wailing and general human misery (I feel the darker voice may be meant to be Satan, or even God, who knows, and reflecting the belief that there is in fact nothing to look forward to when you die) and the music keeps more or less the same basic chords right through.

Nice sort of reflective guitar opens “Unholy earth” with a vocal so stretched it sounds like it's actually mechanised, almost like Grindcore slowed down to a snail's pace. It's actually quite relaxed and there's not too much singing at all in it. More uptempo, so to speak, is “Fancy”, shortest track here at just barely over two minutes, and with an actual hook in the melody, hell with an actual melody! Sounds like there may be some synth here too. It's followed by “God called devil”, which has a ringing guitar motif and a sort of evil-sounding vocal. It's a slow, ponderous piece that seems to owe much to Doom Metal, not mad about it to be honest. Thick black bass opens “A pain with the name of mortal” and there are more assorted screams, but there's not a lot in it to be honest.

And that leaves us with the closer, with much agitated screaming and a pounding guitar and drumbeat, as “Dark room” allows us to bid farewell to this troubled soul, with a rather nice and expressive guitar outro to end the song.

TRACKLISTING

1. Adhan in blackness
2. Desolate Eden
3. 60 seconds after die
4. Unholy earth
5. Fancy
6. A God called devil
7. A pain with the name of mortal
8. Dark room

It's probably the best way to leave this country, too, with one man shouting out his pain and anguish to an uncaring world, his cries falling on deaf ears and failing to touch stone hearts. It's the most traditional (and probably wrong) view of this enigmatic country, but short of going there or finding someone who has, and who can correct me, I'm left with only the impressions news corporations feed me about Iran. And its music, by and large, tends to support this in many ways. Certainly, I can say that there is some diversity and the hope that some of these bands may become known outside the walled city of Teheran, but in a country not really given to ideas of freedom and personal expression this seems a remote hope at best.

But I have certainly been impressed by the talent here, the music and the songwriting: a whole lot more than I had expected to be. While it's true that the largest percentage of bands here are of the Black/Blackened/Depressive Black Metal stripe, there are those who step outside those somewhat rigidly drawn boundaries and dare to sing of other things than how miserable they are and how they hate their country. The potential here seems to be pretty damn big, and you do tend to wonder what will happen if this particular genie ever bursts out of its bottle, and how the Ayatollahs and the hardline Islamists are going to be able to return it there. Here's hoping for a jailbreak real soon!

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