Frownland

You could've written how Gorguts is actually pretty awesome and has a lot of structure and melody in its music.

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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.

Anteater

Maybe I should submit a short top 10 for my metal releases this year. At the very least, I think you'd enjoy reviewing them more than what's been featured so far in the Torture Chamber.

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Anteater's 21 Fav Albums Of 2020

Anteater's Daily Tune Roulette

The Batlord

Probably killed himself when it finally hit him who he really was.

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Trollheart

A band I know I always enjoy is Kamelot, though a lot of people hate them, not quite sure why. Given that, their last release, Silverthorn, really tested me as it was just so goddamn depressing. I hope they've cheered up a little for their new one, which also hit the shelves in May.

Haven --- Kamelot --- 2015 (Napalm Records)

Introduction: This is the second Kamelot album to feature new vocalist Tommy Karevik, whose work I really had no chance to evaluate on the previous album due to being so saddened by it, but there are guest vocalists here too, as well as a turn by Nightwish's Troy Donockley.

Track-by-track

1. Fallen star: This appears to be a dramatic, balladic piece which immediately showcases Karevik's voice before ramping up on the dependable guitars of Thomas Youngblood and the expressive keyboards of Oliver Palatoi, and rocking along in a mid-paced vein. Sounds like Kamelot are back! Suck it, haters, as Batty would grin, were this a Manowar album.
2. Insomnia: More uptempo, with urgent, racing keys
3. Citizen Zero: Very spacey, atmospheric guitar opens the song, then there's a definite sense of the dystopian that reminds me of bands like Shadow Gallery here. Slow, kind of anthemic beat with the guitars snapping like dogs at your heels. That famous Kamelot choir comes in now, very progressive rock style keys from Palatoi. Casey Grillo's pounding drums and Sean Tibbet's steady bass drive everything along, and above it all Tommy Karevik puts in a sterling performance behind the mike. Favourite track so far.
4. Veil of Elysium: Given the title, I thought this might be a ballad. Wrong. It hammers along in the vein of songs like “Descent of the archangel” from Epica and “When the lights are down” from The Black Halo; lots of energy and passion here.
5. Under grey skies: Here comes Troy on the tin whistle. Nice little song, very pastoral; I guess you'd call it the first ballad, with a guest appearance from Charlotte Wessels, who duets with Karevik. Kamelot do ballads very well, and they don't disappoint on this one.
6. My therapy: Back to the hard rockin' tracks, another catchy melody and some real machinegun guitar from Youngblood. Orchestral style keys, sweeping and elegant.
7. Ecclesia: Nothing more than an interlude, less than a minute long, choral vocals and keys. Quite nice for what it is.
8. End of innocence: Swaying sort of rhythm, powerful guitar and again orchestral keys; lyric robs the Marillion line “Where do we go from here?” that introduces “White Russian” on Clutching at Straws. Don't know if that's intentional but you never know.
9. Beautiful apocalypse: Very odd beginning, sounds like a sitar? Kicks right up soon afterwards with hard guitar and piano. Doesn't, to be fair, make that much of an impression.
10. Liar liar (Wasteland monarchy): Bringing in guest vocals from Arch Enemy's Alissa White-Gluz, this rockets along on a very powerful vocal from Karevik, gorgeous strings interludes from Palotai and absolutely apocalyptic drumming from Grillo. Very Black Halo-ish. Have to be honest though: so far I don't really hear Alissa's contribution. Some superb runs from Palatoi. Okay, I hear her now but it's about a minute to the end of the song. Bit of a waste perhaps?
11. Here's to the fall: Just a gorgeous orchestral instrumental opening. The second ballad, and well worth waiting for. Well placed too. Great vehicle for Tommy Karevik's voice, almost breaking with emotion. Lovely piano from Oliver Palatoi.
12. Revolution: Another hard rocker, definitely more echoes of The Black Halo, and with a reprise performance from Alissa White-Gluz. Slows down on the back of lush keyboards near the end.
13. Haven: Short atmospheric, dramatic instrumental to close.

Conclusion: Although I believe Kamelot attained their peak in the period 2003 – 2007, and their albums after this have struggled to compare to their “golden age”, this goes a long way towards helping them reclaim their former glory, and could be a step in the right direction as they try to find their way back into the light after two rather lacklustre albums. At least it doesn't leave me with tears in my eyes and feeling suicidal!

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Trollheart

Next up is a band suggested by Mondo Bungle. They're Black Metal, but hey, with less than thirty bands known to exist in Syria this beggar can't be a chooser. This is their only album, though Mondo did actually recommend the single that isn't on this. I may get to that. I may not. I must say though, you have to pat their heads and say “Aw! Bless!” when you see their attempt at a “controversial” album cover. A corpse holding a baby. Ahhh! They try, don't they? But it's hardly Cannibal Corpse or Vulvectomy now, is it?

The funny thing is that they seem to claim their name means something like “intimidation from Hell” and that it's mentioned in the Qur'an, but look at it. It just says “abide therein”, as in, live there. Whether this is some really weird quirk of translation, or the band are taking the piss, I don't know, but let's see if their musical ability is better at least than their choice of cover art.


Paralysis Engulfed the Myth --- Abidetherein --- 2012 (Independent)

Don't even ask me what the title is meant to mean. At least it has an interesting opening, with the sound of a baby crying while dark, bassy piano plays slowly and a guitar wails and screams into life (or is that the vocal? Hard to say) then it drops out again, as does the baby, leaving just the piano playing solo before guitar (actual guitar this time) pounds in and a standard Black Metal vocal begins. This is “Begotten”, which hammers along nicely, but the track is over nine minutes long, and I wonder if it's going to attain any sort of variety over its run? Okay, yes, there is some ethic instrument there certainly; sounds like a sitar but probably has some mad name. Does make a difference though. Nice one guys.

“Oscenità” opens with a sort of breathing sound then hammers into another guitar assault. There are only two guys in this operation, so mostly we're hearing Hazem “Goraal” Mallah, who plays guitar, bass and also sings. The other guy handles guitars and drums, and goes by the name of Typhon. Indeed. This track is shorter --- a mere three minutes --- and has a nice slower more reflective guitar in it later on. Another nine-minuter then in “Ninety-nine names”, with a big roar that sounds like someone throwing up and then fast guitar, but nothing terribly interesting happening up till about the midway point when we get ... I don't know what. Some sort of ethnic drums? Or it could be a Syrian instrument, hard to say, but it sounds pretty cool. Yeah but then it's pretty boring right to the end.

I suppose English is not their first language so I shouldn't slag, but come on: “Lachrymation murder”?? Okay, it's nothing special up until about the third minute (it runs for eight), then we get some really nice acoustic music (guitar I think, maybe piano) as everything slows down in a really relaxed and almost pastoral vein. Now there's something like mandolin added in; it's almost like I've accidentally jumped to another album. I wonder will it all punch in at the end like the last one? Yeah, here it comes. “A marvel of faith” has a short acoustic guitar intro before it pounds in with the electric guitar, but even then, there's more about this song than many of the previous ones. There's a certain atmosphere, a feeling that's not totally lost once Hazem gets going. Pretty impressive really.

Something I can't really say about “Sin sculptor”, which doesn't speak to me; just something of a noisy mess really. And so on to “The winds that scattered”, which quite honestly sounds to me like a continuation of the previous track. We'll see if it gets any more interesting or diverse. No, it doesn't. And that leaves us with one track to go, and I must admit this is giving me something of a headache. The album closes with another stupid title, but at least “Sphacelate metastasized” (huh? Is sphacelete even a word??) starts with nice acoustic guitar. Doesn't last though. This one is eight minutes long. Sigh. Yeah, there's some interesting stuff there halfway with the ethnic instruments again but then they go back to form, and to be quite completely candid and honest, it's, to me, boring as hell.

TRACKLISTING

1. Begotten
2. Obscetia
3. Ninety-nine names
4. Lachrymation murder
5. A marvel of faith (The sun and the moon)
6. Sin sculptor
7. The winds that scattered
8. Sphacelate mestasized inevitable

Well you know what? Mondo was right: the album isn't that great. It has its moments but by and large I was just bored and it seemed very similar all the way through. So I guess to some degree, their talent in picking album covers is kind of matched by their musical talent, or to be fair, not their talent but maybe their ambition. B is for Boring.

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Defenders of the faith (1984)
After releasing an album pretty much every year since Sad wings of destiny, the previous album marked the point where Priest began a two-year release schedule that would last up to 1990's Painkiller. So two years after they finally hit the big time and cracked America with Screaming for vengeance, the boys were back with the new album. It kicks off at full speed, more or less when SfV left off, as “Freewheel burning” sees Halford and Dickinson again seem to merge as one entity; if I heard this out of context I could imagine it an Iron Maiden song. It certainly rocks hard, with screaming guitars, a rapid-fire vocal delivery, and some really good hooks in the guitar work, to say nothing of shimmering solos.

There's a darker, more grindy feel to “Jawbreaker” but it doesn;t really slow down much at all, while “Rock hard ride free” makes it three in a row that have impressed me so far. Great melody with a really hard edge, a screaming vocal from Halford, chorus to die for and punch the air for, and surely a ready-made anthem for bikers. Oh, did I mention smoking guitar solos? There are smoking guitar solos. “The sentinel” keeps things going, rocketing along at a fine pace, slowing down halfway through as Judas Priest recall their earlier progressive rock roots to a degree, but it picks up again for the blistering finale. “Love bites” has something of a punch to it, but is about the first time this album has dipped slightly for me. It's not that it's a bad song, it just sounds not as strong as the rest of the tracks I have heard up till now.

Machinegun guitar leads “Eat me alive” and it has a real sense of tongue-in-cheek humour about it, and there's a grindy growl to “Some heads are gonna roll”, can detect both Queen and Motorhead (!) in there; Halford's voice is a little more restrained here, by which I mean he doesn't scream but keeps it fairly low. Well, after “Love bites” this album is right back on track. It's like we just hit a small bump in the road but now we're screaming on down the highway again. Still on course to be my favourite Priest album so far. “Night comes down” takes it all down to a snarling, moody grinder that slouches along with murder in its eyes, and it's the perfect change from the fast, hard-rocking tracks we've been enjoying up to now. Not in any way a ballad, but definitely slower than the rest of the album and with a killer groove.

But if you thought that was hard and grindy, you have yet to hear “Heavy duty”, which redefines and reaffirms the term “heavy metal”. Like the best of Saxon melded to classic Sabbath and with a good dose of Metallica added for good measure, this song literally shakes the room when you turn it up loud, as if some sort of metallic robot monster was coming for you. As Batty would say, the crushing guitar groove just slays, and the percussion thumps its way right into your brain and sets your eyes rattling. A menacing, growled vocal from Halford sets the seal on definitely one of the heaviest Priest tracks I've heard yet, then we're into the closer, and title track, which basically segeues directly from “Heavy Duty”, retains its melody and thumping beat but has only the title as the lyric. A great way to end, even if it's less than a minute and a half long.

TRACKLISTING

1. Freewheel burning
2. Jawbreaker
3. Rock hard, ride free
4. The Sentinel
5. Love bites
6. Eat me alive
7. Some heads are gonna roll
8. Night comes down
9. Heavy duty
10. Defenders of the faith

I found it! At last! I loved British Steel, yes, but even then I was a little dubious and wondered if there was an album that would really make me think this band could be for me. Up to now, I haven't been overly impressed. But this album just simply blew it out of the water for me. The weak link of “Love bites” aside, this is an album with no bad tracks. Even that one is not bad, it just isn't as great as the rest. But from start to finish, there's nothing here I would not listen to again. And again. For me, this is the Priest albums, and others may not agree (I'm sure you won't, and in very vocal terms too) but this will be my go-to album when it comes to this band.

Count me, finally, as one of the defenders of the faith!

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Trollheart

Originally posted August 24 2011

Diary of a madman --- Ozzy Osbourne --- 1981 (Jet)


Ah, Ozzy! Back in the days when he was just a rock singer and not a reality TV star! This was the only solo Ozzy album I ever bought, not because it was terrible --- it's actually really good --- but somehow I just never felt the urge to follow it up. I liked him in Sabbath, and solo he was okay too, but never one of my favourite performers. Truth to tell, I preferred Sabs under Dio, but then that's another story. This was his second solo album, and the last to feature guitar supremo Randy Rhoads, who was tragically killed the following year.

There are no huge surprises on this album. It's Sabbath, it's Ozzy, it's heavy metal. Opener “Over the mountain” sets the scene well enough, great guitar from Randy Rhoads chugging along at a decent lick, Ozzy's inimitable vocals well suited to the material for the most part. Much better though is “Flying high again”, where Rhoads gets to really express himself and give us a glimpse of the musical talent he was heading towards becoming.

The longest track on the album at just under seven minutes, “You can't kill rock and roll” starts off very similar to Iron Maiden's “Prodigal son” from Killers: a nice semi-acoustic guitar intro to a song which becomes something of an anthem as Ozzy sings ”Rock and roll is my religion/ And my law.” Indeed. The guitar throughout this song is something special, some of Randy Rhoads' best work, given that his career was so cruelly cut short.

There's not a lot you can say about Ozzy's singing. You may love or hate his style, but basically he's the same as he was in Black Sabbath, which is no surprise, so if you didn't like him in that band then don't come here expecting anything different. I've always found his singing to be a little on the whiny side, but that's just me, and it didn't stop me buying this album, nor We Sold our Soul for Rock and Roll, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath or Paranoid.

“Believer” is the first of the slower tracks, though not by any means a ballad. This is more in the vein of the likes of “The wizard” or “War pigs” --- what I like to term a “cruncher”, with a slower, more insistent and pounding beat and guitars more thumping and grinding than screeching or squealing. Ozzy's never going to win any accolades for original lyrics: ”I'm a believer/ I ain't no deceiver/... Destiny's planned out/ I don't need no handouts.” Ah, rock and roll!

There's only the one ballad on the album; “Tonight” is driven on a piano line with guitar backing, but to be honest it seems a little tacked on. Ozzy is at his best when freaking out on hard rockin' tracks, and I don't really think his voice is suited for the slower, more tender end of the spectrum. Still, he tries. A great guitar solo fades out the track, but it never really recovers. Then we're back to what Ozzy does best: headshakin' metal, with the enigmatically titled S.A.T.O, which in fact comes across as the best track on the album with its pounding beat, singalong melody and excellent solos with Ozzy back on the top of his game, then it's on to a big finish with the title track.

Introduced on an almost classical guitar passage, it soon kicks into high gear with Iron Maidenesque axework from Randy Rhoads and we get a peek into Ozzy's tortured soul as he reads us a page from his diary. This is a long song, at six minutes plus the second-longest on the album, and it really is a tour-de-force, going through a few changes as the song winds on, the classical theme retained throughout and giving it a very epic and dramatic feel. It's like Ozzy and the band pulled out all the stops for this last track, and it really works, especially the choir at the end. Very gothic.

As an album this is not bad. There are a few low points, and as I said it's never going to win any prizes for innovation or original thinking, but it's not a Black Sabbath album, that's for sure. And sometimes that's all a solo artist can hope for, when he or she spreads their wings and explores new avenues.

TRACKLISTING

1. Over the mountain
2. Flying high again
3. You can't kill rock and roll
4. Believer
5. Little dolls
6. Tonight
7. S.A.T.O
8. Diary of a madman

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Trollheart

Nah, I write my impressions of an album, not someone else's, and I did not see any of that in it. Mind you, there are two weeks left of Metal Month III: you're perfectly welcome to submit a companion piece on it if you want to, tell us why you think it's so great.
That would be very welcome.
No, we worked that bug out around number 350. SO many clone corpses to dispose of...

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Members' Top Ten Lists
And so we move on to Wpnfire, who has his number ten as this:

This Place Where the Living Speak With the Dead --- Annimal Machine --- 2014

I know absolutely nothing about this band, but they're described as Stoner Metal, come from Mexico, and this is their first album. And the first track is twelve minutes long. There are only, to be fair, only six tracks, but of those, four hit well over the ten-minute mark and one is a massive sixteen, so there'll be a lot to listen to, to love or to hate, depending on how they impress me. “War” is the simply-titled first track, and half of it is just effects and feedback before we finally get to hear the first actual guitar chords in about the sixth minute. Heavy bouncy drumming comes in then too as we move into the seventh and then we get a kind of melody in minute eight, when the vocals, such as they are, come in. Mostly a roar of “War!” but at least you can make them out. “Condenando” is sung in their native tongue (Spanish?) so I can't tell you what the song is about, but at least it has a more boogie-like beat and you can pick out a melody here.

Yeah, fair enough. I had to take a break in the album to go get my sister her dinner and I was humming the tune on the way. There's a good driving rhythm to “A fistful of dollars”, though again the vocals aren't a part of it until the third minute, but as it runs for ten I guess this is okay. To be honest, I'd have been happier without the vocals: I mean, the guy just basically roars, although he's certainly more intelligible than some singers I've heard. But I couldn't really call what he's doing singing. Not really. At least I don't have to worry about that with “Lord of shadows”, a twelve-minute doom metal instrumental. Some seriously downtuned guitars here. I do have to say though that it's very repetitive, but for all that it doesn't seem to drag out, which is always a good sign.

That leaves us with two tracks to go, the first being the longest on the album by some way, just slightly over sixteen and a half minutes and which, containing as it does the title of the album, can I guess be seen to be the title track. Looking at the lyric, I would hazard maybe that it's about Orpheus's descent into the Underworld of Hades in pursuit of Eurydice, the nymph, who in Greek legend was taken by Hades and whom Orpheus was told he may return with, as long as he did not look behind him all during the long climb back up to the world of the living. Anyone want to guess what happened? Anyway, it starts off with those dark, downtuned guitars and plods along for about five minutes before any vocals come in. Well, more like eight really, as that was just a roar and not followed by any actual words until we're more than halfway through the song and the guitars start getting a bit choppy.

To be honest, the first time the album really gets a kick up the arse is on the final track, the small-by-comparison “Rage”, which runs for nine minutes, though it's not long before they're off slowing it down again with those dark, detuned guitars. The vocal is better here, or maybe I've just got used to the guy. Either way, it's a good closer. Oh, and before I finish, mention mus tbe made of the drummer's chosen name of Fat Bastard. Fucking class.

At number nine, I've heard mention of this album but know nothing about the band.

Slaughter in the Vatican --- Exhorder --- 1990

The debut album from New Orleans's Exhorder, you'd have to wonder what they've been doing since then. Another album released in 1992 and nothing since. Are they disbanded? Nobody seems to know, and the last actual recording of them seems to have been a live album in 1994. That's twenty-one years ago! Surely we won't be hearing from them again? But they appear to have been one of the progenitors of what became known as groove thrash metal, and this album has been an influence on others. Interesting start, kind of creepy atmospherics then it sounds like something is rising from the depths. The guitars punch in as “Death in vain” kicks the album off, then it really speeds up and takes off and the vocals kick in. Raw and ragged yes, but not too hard on the ear. Very fast, almost tripping over his words, Kyle Thomas spits out the lyrics but the music sort of alternates between blisteringly fast and mid-paced grind. “Homicide” doesn't seem that much different, to be honest. Some pretty crazy shredding going on.

Meh, too fast and too chaotic for me to really comment on anything. The next time I take interest at all is in “The tragic period”, when the winds and beat-of-a-heart drum make me think they're covering “Powerslave”, but it soon ramps up into another fast rocker and then, um, I think they use a Black Sabbath riff at the end of “Legions of death”. It's all very fast and heavy and br00tal, but doesn't lend itself well to reviewing. All right, they make me laugh with the prayer at the start of the title, and closing track, and it's well done; they imbue it with its own sense of dark majesty and twisted humour but let's be honest, Slayer do it so much better. Not really for me. Odd little ending; after all that pummelling guitar and speed, we end up with an acoustic guitar outro and a baby crying...

Hopefully more to my taste will be his number eight, which I believe I may have heard briefly at some point, though in fairness it doesn't look familiar. Maybe I was planning to do it on something like CAIHNH? Anyway, we're doing it now.

Don't Break the Oath --- Mercyful Fate --- 1984

A good powerful start, really more traditional metal than anything. For some reason I have always associated Mercyful Fate with the likes of Venom and other black metal artistes, but though lyrically they leaned in that direction, the music is certainly as far from black metal as you can get, with the vocals of King Diamond, though strangely falsetto at times, nothing like the growl or scream of a bm singer. Interestingly too, the lyrics for the opening track, “Don't break the oath”, seem to hint more at avoidance of Satanism, as Diamond's “seven people” are warned not to take on the powers of darkness and die for ignoring his warnings. Not quite what I would expect to hear from someone trying to advocate the worship of dark gods.

“Nightmare” features a dream wherein Diamond sees himself within a witch's coven, and again the overall emotion is of fear and dismay; he wants to get away from this coven rather than join it. Some very Maidenlike guitar here but again we're looking at your basic trad metal really, and with titles like “Desecration of souls” and “Night of the unborn” you would think we're talking hardcore black metal here, but it reads more as almost an attempt by someone to write black metal while not wanting to or being able to address the hard, punishing rhythms of that subgenre. Kind of like some kids playing with a ouija board, you know? Doing it for a laugh but not really wanting to or expecting to be dealing with dark powers. It's as if Diamond wants to play normal metal but use black metal lyrics. I suppose it's a way of experiencing black metal without actually fully experiencing it. Reminds me of a story.

Boss of mine used to tell the story of how he went to the USA and his mate wanted to see Harlem. The only way they were allowed to do so was in an armoured car, driving quickly through the streets! This was in the late seventies, of course. Still, it underlines the point. What can you learn about any people, any community, any race by sealing yourself up in metal and driving through in a very obviously frightened/belligerent manner? If you want to experience black metal, as I've found, you have to immerse yourself in it: listen to the raw screams, the pounding guitars, the thick, evil basslines. Get into the proper lyrics and hear people who are actually committed to, or at least write as if they are committed to, their subject. This, for me, for all its being easy on the ear in comparison with, say, Gehenna or Blut Aus Nord, is nothing more than black metal lite. If you take it as black metal at all. Remove the rather cartoony lyrics, to be honest, and Mercyful Fate are just another metal band, no more, no less, and their only real USP is the operatic voice of King Diamond, which I have to admit, gets on my nerves after about four tracks.

As we hit the title track, (well, it's called “The Oath”, but it's as close to a title track as you're going to get) there's finally a dark bass and guitar melody to take us in, complete with crashing thunder and synthesised chorus and, oh yes of course, tolling bells. Could they be more formulaic? Well yes they could: here comes a church organ! Gimme strength! And a black mass chant. And dark “Satanic” laughter. But after all this it then develops into yet another straightforwrd metal song, with which there is of course nothing wrong, but you know, if I want this I can listen to Priest, Maiden or Saxon. While looking for something more to write, I decided to check out some reviews of this album. It's amazing how much arselicking about it there is, and how everyone who has reviewed it has ignored the cartoon nature of Diamond's lyrics. Oh well, each to their own, but for me this is the kind of album hardened black metal musicians would listen to and say “What the fuck is this shit?” I suppose it's not meant to be black, in the same way tracks like “Disturbing the priest”, “Hallowed be thy name” and so on are not black, but at least they don't pretend to be.

Taken on its own this is a decent album, but I don't really see anything to justify the love and devotion it seems to get. It's competent, the songs are good and the solos are fine, but to me it's like any other metal album of the mid-eighties, and really the only thing that makes it stand out are the annoying vocals of King Diamond and the hilariously un-black black metal lyrics. I do like the groove on “Welcome princess of Hell”, has a very Maidenesque feel to it, though there seems to be some confusion as to whether that's the title, as I find references to “Princes of Hell” all through the lyrics (which may of course be misquoted) and GPM has the track so named. Just shows the difference leaving one “s” off can make! The instrumental “To one far away”, with its echoes of Poe, is nice but very short, and then “Come to the Sabbath” closes the album. Like the little harpsichord flourishes that are dropped in now and again, but overall another pretty generic song with silly lyrics. Oh my god! To think that I used to fear these guys and equate them with Venom!

Wpnfire's choice for number seven is Death's Human and then Reign in Blood is at number six, two great albums but they've been reviewed before so we'll be picking this up in the next entry at his number five.

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Frownland

Sigh. Trollheart, it is there.

The melodies on Obscura may not be the same type of melodies that you may hear on, say, a Taylor Swift or a Genesis album, but they are melodies nonetheless. They are not pretty little melodies you can pop into your pocket and hum to yourself without getting looks, of course, but it's closeminded (there's that word again) to think that they are not melodies just because you don't like them (which I understand entirely, even though I love it and **** you for thinking otherwise ). You could say the same for structure. The band is incredibly tight and there are repeated motifs regardless of how much you enjoy what they are playing. To imply that the music is freeform or structureless is as ludicrous as saying that Buddy Rich doesn't play drums on any of his songs just because you don't like jazz.

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