Basement Galaxy

Melvins, Rush, Maiden, Rush, Maiden, and Maiden

Mon, 05 Jul 2010 05:12:00 EDT

Lots and lots of stuff to cover today, so here we go...

First off, review-wise my piece on the excellent new Melvins album finally appeared at PopMatters, more than a month after I'd written the thing. But better late than never, because The Bride Screamed Murder is a great little album. wait, what am I saying...little? Nah, this thing is gargantuan. I'm a huge, huge fan of the current Melvins-meets-Big-Business incarnation of the band, the dual drums suiting this band perfectly, and the expanded lineup has also resulted in some of the most daring and genuinely fun music the band has put out in a long, long time. I loved (A) Senile Animal but thought Nude With Boots played it a little too safe. The same cannot be said for the new CD, though, as it's loaded with insane moments, the nuttiest of which being the raucous, truly weird opening track "The Water Glass", which devolves from a cool stoner jam into some inexplicable military cadence-meets-Adam Ant loopiness that pulls the rug out from under you. From the ferocity of the aptly titled "Evil New War God", to the sludgy reading of the Who's "My Generation", to the surprisingly tender interpretations of a Canadian folk song on "PG x 3", this album, to use a hackneyed phrase, delivers. It's a blast, and is mandatory listening for 2010, that's for sure. And personally, I'm amazed that both Pitchfork and Decibel are down on this fine, fine record. It's baffling.

At Hellbound, to celebrate Canada Day we had a gigantic tribute to Rush, and being a huge Rush nerd, of course I participated! I wrote a big ol' review of Behind the Lighted Stage, which along with Cannibal Corpse's Centuries of Torment is the best heavy rock band documentary ever made, and if you haven't seen it yet, by all means do so at once. The DVD's pretty cheap, too. I also wrote pieces about my favourite Rush album (Grace Under Pressure) and favourite Rush song ("Subdivisions"). It's also really cool to see what all my fellow writers at Hellbound have chosen as their faves...we all have our own unique reasons, and in the end, there are really no wrong choices. Rush is one of those few bands I never tire of writing about...it's hard to explain, I have such an interest in so many details about the band's storied and diverse career that there are always new angles to take.

Another band I never, ever tire of writing about, of course, is Iron Maiden. And goodness knows that declaration has been put to the test this past month. But although I'm about 500 words away from finishing my gigantic cover story for Decibel, I could still go on and on. If they wanted 12,000 words instead of 5,000 I could have pulled that off easily (I have so many good unused quotes it's painful!). My review for France's Metallian magazine has indeed surfaced, although it does have an egregious factual error that for a longtime fan like myself is inexcusable, and I've been beating myself up all weekend for it. You don't even have to know French to see it. Argh. Anyway, it's still cool to see, and I do know my feature on the band turned out great. I hope to get the new issue right away. In addition, that story will also appear in the new EMP mail order catalog in France this summer as well. Hey, I'll take it, anything to get my name out there even more.

If that's not enough, I wrote a big review of Maiden's show here in Saskatoon last Tuesday. Now that was a crazy time. My review touches on it, but here's a more detailed explanation...I had two floor tickets already, but wound up getting an additional pass arranged by Live Nation and Universal because I was doing the Decibel story, so I thought great, I'll give the extra ticket to my sister, because I've always wanted to take her to a huge metal show, and what better one to see than the greatest metal band on the planet? So we headed out to Credit Union Centre nice and early, getting there at about 6:00. They had an outdoor merch tent set up, which was brilliant, because I was able to quickly get my long-coveted Maiden football jersey (I got the claret one, which is a gorgeous colour), and after that was taken care of, I went to get my third ticket at willcall. Only they essentially said, "You're not on the list, go away freeloader guy." I was indignant, I had two confirmation emails saying otherwise, but stupid me, I forgot to print them out. Luckily my brother has an iPhone thingy and was able to pull up said emails and show them. No dice, they said forget it. Go away. So I went a little further, calling my buddy at Live Nation in LA, and he said, "Hold on, let me make a few calls." Five minutes later, the ticket staff were suddenly going, "Oh look, we do have your name on the guest list after all!" You don't say. So that was nice to actually stand my ground and have things work out in the end. Plus my sister thought that was pretty awesome, seeing the rude staffers put in their place like that.

But the headaches weren't over just yet. We gave my sister the extra ticket, and she went right in, but or us, who had "paperless" tickets, we had to go back in line. A really, really, really big line. The venue only had a few credit card scanners to take care of several thousand people, and by the time the guest list snafu was rectified we wound up way, way, way back at the end. It was not 7:00, and there was no hope we'd get in to see Dream Theater's opening set. At willcall I saw a lot of upset people whose cards wouldn't scan, and while talking about the ineptness of the venue I said, "You should have seen all the people who were told to go to the ticket office after their cards wouldn't scan." My brother said, "Wait a minute, why don't I just do that?" He ran back to willcall, said his new credit card wouldn't read (which was a legitimate fear as his old card was recently stolen), and whaddya know, they immediately printed out the two tickets for us. So we were able to run past hundreds of people and get in not five minutes before the show started.

Things were falling into place so perfectly, it was nuts. My sister's comped seat was incredible, three rows up about three sections away from the stage, just a flawless view. I usually prefer floor tix so I can move around from location to location, but I liked that vantage point so much I decided to stay in the seat beside her until someone kicked me out. Only nobody did...how lucky is that? And if that wasn't enough, my brother, who managed to wriggle his way to the barrier, got one of Nicko McBrain's drumsticks at the end of the show. The metal gods were smiling on us that night.

As for the show, like my review says, it was incredible. Every time I see Iron Maiden, it seems the show's even better than the previous one. 2009's show was very special because they played all the classic songs from my own era in the mid-80s, but it was just as great to see them play so many newer songs on this night. And amazingly, the crowd was into it from start to finish as well. They're a phenomenal live band and their recent albums have all been excellent, so those new songs do hold up in a live setting. It was a fabulous, thrilling show, and if it's the last time I ever see Maiden, I'll be thankful I got to see a show as flawless as this one was. Here's the setlist:

The Wicker Man
Ghost Of The Navigator
Wrathchild
El Dorado
Dance Of Death
The Reincarnation Of Benjamin Breeg
These Colours Don't Run
Blood Brothers
Wildest Dreams
No More Lies
Brave New World
Fear Of The Dark
Iron Maiden

Encore:
The Number Of The Beast
Hallowed Be Thy Name
Running Free

Normally this is the time when I list my favourite albums and singles of the year so far, but I'll be posting that tomorrow. I promise!!!

maiden, Mares of Thrace, Primordial, Processeans...

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 06:19:00 EDT

My Iron Maiden month starts to wind down today, as I finally get a chance to see their Final Frontier show. But the work's far from over, I have to slap together a review for Hellbound and then commence work on the massive story for Decibel. Regarding the latter, I'm confident everything's going to fall into place. I have an absolute wealth of quotes to work with, so that helps immeasurably.

Also, my exclusive feature for the new issue of France's Metallian magazine comes out today (Avant-Premi�re : Rencontre exclusive � Dallas avec Bruce Dickinson, Steve Harris, Dave Murray et Adrian Smith!!!), and considering the obsessive nature of Maiden fans worldwide, someone should be posting scans within the next 24 hours. I believe it'll be the first feature and review to come out...Kerrang posted a quick Q&A, but I think that's it.

There's no shortage of new reviews to mention right now, that's for sure. First and foremost is an album I cannot get enough of these days, Restored to One by a band called Sabbath Assembly. Featuring singer Jex Thoth, whose retro doom stylings have gotten her a fair bit of attention in the last year or so, this record is all about the peculiar, mysterious Process Church of the Final Judgment, a cult that worshiped Jehovah, Satan, Christ, and Lucifer equally. They were well known in the late-60s and early-70s, an established church, and people from Marianne Faithfull and George Clinton to Charles Manson were linked to them, but after falling apart in the late-70s there doesn't seem to be much documentation other than print material. They even had a complete hymnal, and that's where Sabbath Assembly comes in, as Thoth and musician Dave Nuss offer their own interpretations of nine hymns. There's a heavy dose of psychedelic rock on these tracks, which fits very well with the music, but at the same time the original melodies of the songs (which I've been able to follow on the original sheet music found in my research) are simple enough for Thoth and Nuss to remain faithful to the melodies while being allowed plenty of room to get a little creative. Not only that, but Thoth is so straight-faced, so devoid of irony that it not only sounds convincing, but at times it's downright creepy. It's an enthralling piece of work, and I highly recommend it. Here's my review.

Over at PopMatters, my review of Yakuza's brilliant Of Seismic Consequence was published. I've liked the band ever since hearing Samsara way back when, and as good as their music was, it always felt they were still coming just short of a truly great album. The new one, though, is the closest they've ever come, a really cohesive, fluid collection of songs that balances crushing metal, ambient music, and modern jazz. Yes, there's saxophone, but Bruce Lamont is a genius at integrating that instrument into the metal milieu. Better yet, though, his vocals are much improved, placing more focus on clean singing, and coupled with Sanford Parker's production (the guy can do no wrong this year!), it makes for a thrilling record. It's a lock for my year-end metal list.

What's not a lock for my year-end list is the new Ozzy Osbourne album, but that's no surprise. What is surprising is that for all its overproduction and the frustrating lack of songwriting contributions by talented new guitarist Gus G, I genuinely enjoyed about four or five of the new songs, especially "Diggin' Me Down", which has Ozzy sounding his most impassioned on record in a very long time. In my opinion it's not exactly a buyer, but at least this is a move in the right direction. Next time let's have some Gus G riffs and shredding instead of those boring active rock arrangements. Ugh, that stuff is awful.

Back at Hellbound I reviewed the new DVD by pagan metal greats Primordial. They're a phenomenal live band, and they're only just now starting to peak creatively and commercially, so this is a great time for them to treat fans to a live document. The concert disc is excellent, with its artsy camera work adding to the mood of the Celtic-themed music, while the documentary on the second disc is appropriately exhaustive. Though singer Alan Averill does the huge majority of talking. Quite the motormouth, that guy. He'd be a good interview, I've always thought. Anyway, their new album can't come soon enough.

Lastly, I reviewed a cool new DVD of last year's Fall Into Darkness festival in Portland, Oregon, which features performances by such cool bands as YOB, Ludicra, Earth, Agalloch, Saviours, and a slew of others. It's a nicely put together DVD, and it's only been printed in a limited number of 300 copies, so if you like any of the aforementioned bands, you should go here and order yourself a copy. I think I would enjoy Portland...West coast, liberal, mild weather, humid air, really good music scene.

About eleven days ago I dragged myself out to Amigos with the express purpose of checking out a Calgary band I'd learned about a week prior called Mares of Thrace. Usually these days I get impatient with "post-metal" bands, but while these two ladies are clearly influenced by Neurosis, they do things a little different. Crushing riffs are offset by a mathy intricacy, a huge Jesus Lizard vibe creeping in. Screams give way to tenderly sung passages. Primal beats segue into lithe, jazz-like fills. And refreshingly, despite being very progressive-leaning at times, The Moulting is a very direct album. These are actual songs, it doesn't go through the motions. Live, the music translates very well (I can just picture their music recorded by Steve Albini), Therese Lanz is like Boris guitarist Wata, in that you can't believe such monstrous riffs and screams can come from such a slight person, while drummer Stefani MacKichan is as powerful a female drummer as I have ever seen, yet at the same time seems to walk a flawless line between groove and incredible technical ability. She moves like Meg White, but drums like she can play the Dillinger Escape Plan in her sleep. They're definitely the best new Western Canadian metal band to come along in a while, and I'll be writing more about them in the near future.

An interview with Across Tundras.

Fri, 18 Jun 2010 06:07:00 EDT

One review that was published right before I went on my trip a couple weeks ago but never got around to plugging here is my piece on the new one by Soulfly. Although their best years are far behind them, I'm still always curious to see whether or not Max Cavalera is able to put out a consistent Soulfly record, and sadly that's not the case with Dark Ages. Actually there is a handful of tracks that is some of the best stuff he's done in a while, but far too often it feels like he's coasting, the worst offender being the horrible "Jeffrey Dahmer". Seriously, does he expect to have audiences shouting, "Jeffrey Dahmer!" along with him during the choruses? Please, dude, a little taste and restraint. Ugh. Anyway, enjoy the track with Dillinger's Greg Puciato, but in the end, don't spend your money on this. I sure hope the next Cavalera Conspiracy album will be better than this.

By now you probably have seen (and hopefully bought) the current issue of Decibel. You know which one, the one with Watain's Erik Danielsson looking goofy. On a selfish note I have a ton of material in this issue, the biggest being a good-sized feature on Yakuza, whose new album is incredible, easily the best one they've ever put out. And that's saying something, I've been into this band for a long time now. That was a fun piece to do, vocalist/saxophonist Bruce Lamont is a really nice guy, and we had a fun conversation. My raving about the new Yakuza isn't over either, as I have a review all set to be published at PopMatters any day now.

And for what I think is the first time ever, I have a lead review at Decibel that's not a death metal album (I don't know why that always happened, I just found it a bit weird), that being a nice, big write-up about the excellent new album by Nevermore. I've admired the band for ages now, about ten years (forgive me for not paying attention earlier, it was their "Love Bites" cover that initially got me into them around 1998 or so when I heard it on Music Choice), and seeing how I really dug their last one I had high expectations for The Obsidian Conspiracy. And indeed, they delivered, but not in the way I or anyone else for that matter was expecting. It's a lot more streamlined and subtle than any of their previous stuff. It still sounds like Nevermore, Warrel Dane as powerful a singer as ever, Jeff Loomis as shreddy as ever, but the histrionics are dialed down just enough to let the songs breathe. As a result it's an album that reminds me of Queensryche's Empire, a fully fleshed-out, more accessible version of their signature sound. There are some great tracks on there, but none better than the new single "Emptiness Unobstructed", the catchiest tune they've ever put on record. Watch for this album to make my year-end metal albums list.

Then there's Dew-Scented, a band that's pretty good at what they do, but I always have trouble getting into their stuff. Their new CD is their first in three years, and as I say in my review, it's more of the same: capably performed thrash metal high on speed and brutality but low in the hooks department. Not a massive disappointment, but it's not exactly going to set the world ablaze either.

London band Haken, on the other hand...now there's a good one. Comprised of members of To-Mera (a talented band in their own right), they're progressive rock in the old school sense of the word, heavily influenced by early Genesis and Marillion, and although it revolves around a rather absurd storyline about mermaids, the music floored me, it's as complex as you expect it to be, but the band never forgets to write actual songs instead of noodle away for 78 minutes. This is a very fun album, another great discovery by the always-reliable Sensory label.

I really thought I would like the dreampop-infused black metal of Svarti Loghin, but although it had a couple good moments, I wound up so frustrated by it I had to cry, "FALSE!" My problem? It doesn't commit. It dabbles in nice shoegaze tones but the band tosses in Burzum-like screams that don't accentuate the music at all. It's okay to employ harsh vocals amidst lushly melodic arrangements (Alcest and Caina are some of the best at this), but not like this, it's like tossing used motor oil on a Cezanne painting. In fact I spend half of the review telling the reader they'd be better off listening to For Against's 1988 dreampop masterpiece December, which was much darker than anything this band could pull off. Which I still stand by. I was ornery when I wrote this review, I have to confess, it was right in the middle of when I was at my sickest this spring, I was having asthma attacks and could barely sit up straight at the computer, let alone keep myself from coughing for 30 seconds. Really rough shape. So although I was in no mood or condition to write a fair review I tried my best and made sure it was a proper assessment of the music and not just me indirectly complaining about my physical state. I think I did that.

Lastly, there's a feature that was a pet project of mine. I've always been a fan of Across Tundras, going back to their first album and had since become friends with one of the band's collaborators. One day on the Decibel forum someone asked why there hadn't been an Up Front feature on the band. After checking to see if that was indeed the case, I thought, yeah, why hasn't there been an Across Tundras story? So I pitched it, got in touch with Tanner Olson, heard the new album (which is terrific by the way), and conducted a fun interview with the band. It made for a good feature, but there was so much material to work with that it would be a shame to let it go unread, so I figured I'd post it here. So here you go!

***

Old World Wanderer has by far the most clarity I have ever heard on an Across Tundras album�Why did you decide to go in that direction?

Tanner Olson (guitar, vocals): I recorded all the past albums myself and for this one I personally wanted to have someone else do it so I could focus on playing and the tunes. All the credit for the sound of the recording has to go to our instruments, amps, Rob McKinney who recorded it, and Matt LeGrow who mastered it.

Matt Shively (bass): There is a lot going on so the clearer the better!

Nate Rose (drums): I felt like there were some things in our jams that a recording like that could bring out a little more. Some subtleties and weird stuff that we were able to do that turned out really well, I think.

Were the more lo-fi sounds of Dark Songs of the Prairie an aesthetic choice or merely out of necessity? A lot of bands whose lo-fi recordings are worshiped often admit they'd always wanted to make a big, professional sounding record.

Tanner: All the sounds of those recordings were definite aesthetic choices we made at the time by recording with different formats - like 8 track tape machine for Dark Songs; to random locations like the warehouse with 30 foot ceilings we tracked Western Sky Ride in. Sometimes lo-fi, unique, or more vintage sounding recordings are tough for some to swallow at first, but if the quality of the songs are there, a unique recording can really give the album a cool quality that can age well.

Your lead vocals seem to sound clearer than ever�was that a case of you becoming a more confident lead singer on record?

Tanner: I am definitely always practicing hard both playing and singing so I am stoked if you hear some progression there! Vocals used to be more of an afterthought or something we used to enhance the atmosphere of the music, but alot of the new tunes were written with stronger, more upfront vocals in mind so I have been taking singing a bit more seriously these days.

Matt: I dig em! Good job Tanner.

As cool as your early albums were, Lonesome Wails From the Weeping Willow was a real eye-opener�for me, anyway! Why did you decide to abandon that quieter side of Across Tundras for the huge sound of the new album?

Nate: Abandon is not really how I would put it. We wanted to make a big, loud, heavy rock record so that's what we tried to do. We try not to get pigeon-holed to a particular sound, because we have a lot of different influences and that ultimately that is what guides you when you're just jammin' out tunes and writing. Wanderer is definitely a different record than wails, but I don't think that our influence by more traditional sounding stuff is absent from it.

Tanner: We like to keep everyone including ourselves guessing, so we just kinda go with the flow and do what comes naturally. I am sure you will see us indulge back in some country fried folk in the near future though. I have also been working on more of that style stuff with longtime contributor Shannon Murphy on her songs and project Brightstar which is coming along nicely (plug!!!)

From day one I've heard a lot of Crazy Horse in your music, but on the new album it's more dominant than ever (especially "Vanguard Battle Hymn"). How big an influence was Neil Young & Crazy Horse on your music and especially Old World Wanderer?

Tanner: I know we all dig on Neil Young quite a bit and I personally really just dig the vibe his music gives off and those nice slow foot stompin' tempos and buzzsaw guitars. I would personally like to extend a jamming invitation out to him anyplace, anytime, we will be there! Lots of influences on this record though: I really view music and influences as this huge ever evolving tradition and I am just happy to be a part of it.

Nate: I mean, I like Crazy Horse, I think we all do, and it shows up from time to time..haha; but it's not a thing like we're set out to emulate it really. it's just a heavy influence and a common ground for all of us so that influence is pretty clear to see and hear.

Matt: I love Neil Young. Also totally influenced and in love with Geezer and Sabbath. Lets do lunch brother!
Scottie Gilbert (electric sitar): Neil Young was a huge influence on me as guitar player He has one of the most distinctive vibratos ever and he pours so much into every note there is a lot of emotional content in his solos, in my opinion The score for the movie Dead Man which is all just sparse Neil Young guitar stuff is excellent proof of why he is so important as a guitarist not to mention as a singer, song writer, and every thing else.

You often dip into traditional American music on your albums, either referencing or straight-up covering�did you do any of that on the new one?

Tanner: The new one is 99 percent original. There are some references and influences in the lyrics for sure though and always has been. "Life on the Grain Belt" is kinda my version of Woody Guthrie's "Buffalo Skinners" and follows the same story line. "Stone Crazy Horse" has some historical and geographical influences from my home state of South Dakota.

I read you were considering getting Sanford Parker to produce the record. Was that the case? How did the recording process go overall? How did the experience compare to your past albums?

Nate: We considered it and he does great stuff obviously, but in the end we just decided for this record to try and stay local and really spend some time with it, and we have good friends in Nashville that were more than willing to help us do just that. The environment was really chill and kind of like a party, so it was relaxing and fun to do it. We'd like to work with Sanford on something and i feel like we probably will at some point.

Tanner: Ended up staying in town for monetary and relaxation purposes. Rob McKinney and his crew who housed, engineered, and produced has a great DIY operation in Nashville called Meltface. Been trying to record with Sanford for along time though and hopefully will someday.

Is there any meaning or concept behind the album's title? Do the rest of the songs follow a similar lyrical theme?

Tanner: Its about the old mindset and way of doing things that is becoming less present in our modern world. Simpler life and times. Traveling, exploring, drifting, just living life as it comes and goes. Doing what you want to do and what feels best.

Matt: *Destroys technology with his bare hands*

Is there any one track one the new album you're most proud of, and if so, why?

Nate: I like "Battle Hymn" and "Rainmaker" a lot for almost opposite reasons, so it's tough to choose. "Battle Hymn" we worked on a lot and sort of took super seriously, and "Rainmaker" came out in a a completely different way. It was just a jam that came together without much effort and within a week we were playing it as well as we are now, probably. I think it's appropriate those tracks ended up bookending the record, because it kind of represents the polar opposites of our personalities and how we end up writing.

Matt: "Vanguard Battle Hymn" is pretty damn fun to play.

Tanner: I am proud of the album as a whole and the work everyone did. It was really a super collaborative writing process and I think we got a good formula going we can build upon.

Scottie: Well for me personally I will say that "Rainmaker- Floodreaper" for sure is the track I'm most proud of. I was asked to come in and lay down some Electric Sitar by my old friend Matt Shively and I just showed up having been a fan of the band already but without knowing the songs I would be playing on. After just a few passes I started getting the feel for Rainmaker and I just improvised over the whole thing and Rob Mckinney the engineer went back and kept the best parts. I am proud of what came out of that and more importantly I am extremely grateful for that song because I'm pretty sure its what got me in this band.

To me it always felt that AT tries to convey musically the vast expanse of the Great Plains. Is that the case? How much does your environment and landscape influence your songwriting?

Tanner: I spent a huge chunk of my life growing up in the middle nowhere on the Plains and later in Denver; so it has for sure influenced me as a writer and musician. I have also spent a lot of time out on the road and I really love every inch of this country. Now I call Nashville home and I cherish the rich musical history of these lands and try to tap into that. In the end I think we are an American band. Kinda like the Guess Who, but not really!

Nate: no matter what you are doing, your physical environment is going to affect you. you could be a painter, a song-writer, a construction worker....your environment affects your mood. Not one of us grew up in a metropolitan environment, we're all kind of country people, and there's something about those kinds of environments that sticks with you.

You've put out albums with incredible consistency these past five years�are there plans for the next one yet, or do you have any idea what direction AT will head in next?

Matt: It'll happen naturally!

Nate: We've really just gotten Wanderer done and completely taken care of, so for the immediate future i think we're just glad to relax and sort of get it out of our hair. we're working on projects now that will be around in the next few months, but for now we're just gonna hit the road and play some cool towns. we'll probably start thinking about that more when we get back from the west coast.

Tanner: Wheels are always turning and riffs popping up here and there. We have a few splits and a short soundtrack in the works as we speak. We don't prescribe to the one studio release every two year magazine. We are a DIY band and like to put out random experimental releases and CDR's. So just keep your eyes peeled. We are more solid than we have ever been as band and hopefully we can keep building off of Old World Wanderer.

Scottie: I can't say for sure but something tells me the next album is gonna change the course of Rock History forever!

(Be sure to order the excellent Old World Wanderer here!)

The eventual downfall is just a bill from the restaurant.

Wed, 16 Jun 2010 04:19:00 EDT

Last week part of me really wanted to hang around in Dallas for the first show of Iron Maiden's tour (only international press got to do that, which was odd), but another part of me didn't want to miss a much smaller but nearly as exciting show back at home, as the New Pornographers were returning to Saskatoon for the first time in four years. Although the band has a very big following in Western Canada, they're in such high demand that they don't come out here very often, so when they do, you cannot miss it. Especially this time too, as for the very first time they're touring with the complete band lineup, including the always great Neko Case and oddball/destroyer frontman Dan Bejar. Over the years the New Pornographers' audience has been steadily growing: in 2003 they played in front of more than 200 people at a sold-out Amigos, in 2006 there was a big, exuberant crowd of under 1000 at the Odeon, and this time around the same venue was jam-packed. Shockingly so, I was quite amazed. And the people were there to have fun, which was evidenced by the very warm reception they gave opening band the Mountain Goats. Now there's a band I really should get into more. I greatly admire John Darnielle the writer (author of my favourite 33 1/3 book and fellow Decibel contributor), but I never got around to giving his music much attention. Which is a shame, because he and his two bandmates were incredible live, very tight, and intense when they had to be. I don't know the setlist, but it was all very engaging, Darnielle feeding off the energetic audience. The only song of theirs I knew was one of the only Mountain Goats songs I know, that being "Woke Up New". If anything, I'd definitely go see them if they came back here in a headlining role.

It was great seeing the New Pornographers again. You can't not have fun at their shows, they've turned into a tremendous live band...and to think that they started out as strictly a one-off project. The main core of the band, leader Carl Newman, keyboard dude Blaine Thurier, guitarist Todd Fancey, bassist John Collins, and the ever-entertaining drummer Kurt Dahle sounded as excellent as ever (though Dahle's kick drum had to be replaced ont he fly after three songs), but this band's shows are always highlighted by the vocals, and with both Neko Case and Kathryn Calder handling lead and backing vox, it was a huge improvement over the two previous times I saw them. They're both phenomenal singers, and together they harmonized beautifully on all the songs. And what a treat it was to see Bejar popping in and out, looking mildly tipsy, beer constantly in hand, singing songs we never get to hear live, like "Jackie" and "Myriad Harbour". The 90+ minute set was positively epic, the band carting out song after song...so deep has their catalogue become that they left a lot of great tunes out, such as "All For Swinging You Around", "The Fake Headlines", "From Blown Speakers", and the classic "Letter From an Occupant". Actually, if there was one clunker, it was "Moves", which works on record but doesn't quite translate as well in a live setting. I won't lie, I wanted to hear "Letter" more than any other song, but with all the songs they played, it was hard to complain. As for personal highlights, I'd have to say they included "The Laws Have Changed", "Sing Me Spanish Techno", "My Slow Descent Into Alcoholism", and "The Bleeding Heart Show", which brought the show to a wonderful climax. It's painful to think that the band might not come back here for another three or four years, but if that's the case, I along with everyone else thoroughly dug every minute of this show. Here's the setlist (order 90% accurate):

Sing Me Spanish Techno
Up in the Dark
Myriad Harbour
Challengers
Use It
The Laws Have Changed
Crash Years
Jackie, Dressed in Cobras
All the Old Showstoppers
Sweet Talk, Sweet Talk
Testament to Youth in Verse
Your Hands (Together)
My Rights Versus Yours
Silver Jenny Dollar
Twin Cinema
My Shepherd
Moves
Mass Romantic
The Bleeding Heart Show

Encore:
Jackie
It's Only Divine Right
My Slow Descent Into Alcoholism

The stars at night! Are big and bright!

Mon, 14 Jun 2010 04:07:00 EDT

Okay, things have finally settled down enough to put together a big ol' entry here. Last weekend's trip to Dallas went extremely well...If you saw my twitter posts you might know that I went there to interview Iron Maiden. Which, being a fan of the band for 26 years and counting, was the biggest thrill. Actually I was there covering the band's international press event for two publications; for Decibel (where I had pitched hard to get this white whale of an assignment), and for France's Metallian magazine, who needed a big feature fast but didn't have a writer out here. So after working on my interview questions for a week and getting things in order the only way I know how to do (very, very obsessively), I headed out at 3:45 last Saturday morning to catch my early morning flight to Minneapolis. There aren't many airports that I really enjoy killing time in, but with two and a half hours to pass by, Minneapolis-St. Paul is an awesome place to loiter. It's huge, circumnavigating the sucker can kill nearly an hour right there, and what I like most is how the ceilings are really high, so even if it's busy you don't feel claustrophobic. My connecting flight to Dallas-Fort Worth actually went so smoothly that we got there much earlier than expected, nearly half an hour early. Not too keen on spending 46 bucks cabbing it to downtown Dallas, I was glad to get there early enough to take the dirt-cheap train into the city.

I knew going in that it was going to be mega-hot...it was the first time I'd ever flown anywhere without a jacket on me, which was really unsettling for this Canadian, and true enough, the heat once I got out of the hyper-air-conditioned terminal was crippling. Not a cloud in the sky, well over 100 degrees. I quickly caught the two free shuttles (first to the south lot, then to CentrePort station), things going so efficiently I found myself sitting in the middle of nowhere in an inexplicable outdoor station, literally roasting for 45 minutes. I've been that hot two times previously in my lifetime: Scottsbluff, Nebraska in 1987, and Kansas City in 1994. Ungodly, crippling heat. But it wasn't too bad, the hot air was easy to breathe (more on that later), and I got a kick out of looking at the oak trees (which don't grow where I live) and the orangey-red soil (jet black where I live) across the tracks.

The Dallas area has a very good rapid transit system, covering a huge area and really, really cheap compared to other cities, but it's amazing how few people actually use it. Of course, when you ride the freeways around there (which I eventually did), it's easy to understand why everyone drives, it's the most amazingly planned freeway system I've ever seen. So because everyone drives, the TRE commuter train from Fort Worth to Dallas runs only intermittently on Saturdays and none at all on Sundays. You can't even take the trains out to Arlington for a ballgame, for crying out loud, something I would have done if I had the chance.

And the TRE is pretty cool, a big, double-decker train (as opposed to light rail) that takes you through ugly Irving into Dallas. And tacky as it might seem, when the skyline popped into view, that song popped into my head. While the other parts of Dallas I saw were either boring suburbia or kind of grubby, the downtown is pretty nice, surprisingly clean for an American city and full of those shiny, light-reflecting skyscrapers. I hopped off at Southern-looking Union Station and caught the DAT train to the Westin, which was a ten minute ride away. As we drew closer, some weird looking kid wearing costumes and wielding various forms of plastic toy weaponry got on, which struck me as rather odd. Then a block away from Pearl station I saw a clump of teen girls similarly adorned striking poses on the street. I got off the train, turned the corner, and saw even more of these kids, hooting and hollering, acting goofy with their plastic swords, coloured wigs, and whatnot. I shook my head in bewilderment, went through the revolving door at the hotel, and what did I see but dozens and dozens and dozens of these kids. It was nuts. It took me forever to check in, and not only that, the kids were acting so bratty and belligerently that the four elevators were going every which way, leaving a gigantic line-up in the lobby waiting to go up. It took me half an hour from getting off the train to plopping my bags in the room. Insane. I went back to attempt the elevator to see if I could duck away for some of the local food I was craving so badly (BBQ, Cajun, Tex-Mex), and that again took for-flippin-ever. On the way I bumped into Adrian Smith and Janick Gers, funnily enough. But of course all the hundreds and hundreds of kids int he building couldn't care less. When I got down I found out they were there for the massive A-Kon, an anime-cosplay conference, the hub of which was the Westin/Sheraton galleria thingy adjacent (which draws about 16,000 people ever year I learned). While I like a lot of anime and am willing to let cosplay nerds have their harmless fun, that day those stinking brats with nothing better to do than to press all the floor buttons on a 16 floor elevator, cost me a freakin' meal that day. It was too late to explore, the fast food joints were packed with kids, and to top things off the Canadian cell phone wouldn't work in Texas for some dumb reason,so I had no choice but to loiter in the lobby until I could track down anyone linked to the Maiden presser. Argh.

But enough griping, once things settled it quickly became a very fun stay. That night we were bused out to a studio up in Plano (as it would happen, the same studio where Baroness and St. Vincent recorded their cool recent albums) to hear the new album. We're contractually forbidden from publishing anything about The Final Frontierfor the next month, so I have nothing to say about the matter. But it was very cool to be one of just a handful of people in the world outside the band who had heard the record. We were given two thorough listens of the album, all of us hurriedly taking notes...being a long album, though, near the end of the second listen it was getting a little tough to stay awake. But new interview questions were sprouting up in my head constantly, and when we got back to the hotel and waited in line for another elevator (an ungodly 90 degrees at nearly midnight, would you believe), I stayed up a few hours finalizing all my questions. With three half hour interviews set up I was really paranoid about having not enough questions, and I tried desperately to have all bases covered (there's my obsessive attention to detail again), winding up with pages and pages of handwritten questions in my notebook.

In the end, I had nothing to worry about. Every interview went splendidly and I had far, far too many questions. I talked to guitarists Adrian Smith and Dave Murray first...Murray is a very warm, laid back fellow, always in good humour as his perpetual smile always indicates. Smith is more reserved, easily the coolest dude in the band, and I expected him to be a on the prickly side, but that wasn't the case at all. Talking to both was great fun. Bruce Dickinson, meanwhile, was awesome. Very engaging, very funny, very honest...it was easy to get involved in conversations with these guys who happened to be my favourite band of all time, but at times I did find myself thinking, yikes, am I really doing this? I was expecting a tougher interview with bassist Steve Harris, who always comes off as ultra-serious and sometimes rather terse in interviews, and that was the case for the first few queries, but as the interview went on he warmed up more, to the point where he was giving these very detailed and forthright responses. Of the three interviews, I got the most quotes from Harris by far, which I was not expecting at all. In all, everyone was so kind and professional...they know just how important these pre-release press days are, and everyone was talkative, and I think I got some killer material for my story.

Having finished after 3:30 and gone back up to back up my recording files on the laptop and email them to myself as well (again, obsessive and very paranoid), I had some free time on my hands, so I made the short trip downtown to the book depository and the infamous grassy knoll. The entire sixth floor of the depository building has been turned into a Kennedy museum, and it was an enthralling 90 minute visit. You get a cool audio tour to lead you along as it chronicles the JFK presidency and goes through all the details of November 22, 1963. The very corner of the building where Lee Harvey Oswald made his shots has been preserved, book boxes arranged exactly how it was that day, and it's amazing to look through that window down to Elm Street, seeing the two Xs marked on the road where the shots landed. It's interesting how the museum always says he "allegedly" shot JFK, acknowledging all the other conspiracy theories as well, which is surprisingly broad-minded. It was enthralling walking through the museum and around Dealey Plaza, which has not been altered a bit since that day.

After that I walked over to the rather pedestrian Kennedy Memorial and back towards the West End where I FINALLY got my BBQ at Sonny Bryan's, which was mercifully open, a rarity on a Sunday downtown. Brisket, ribs, sausage, beans, fried okra, and gargantuan onion rings with three huge glasses of unsweetened iced tea. I was famished, and it hit the spot like nothing else. I had to leave at 3:20 to catch the shuttle to the airport, so it was either go to bed early or just stay up all night, and me being the perpetual night owl, I chose the latter. Tiring as the weekend was, I felt pretty good, I got to the Delta counter just after four in the morning (that airport is a long, long way out of Dallas). Of all the things I saw, what made me most aware that I was in the South was the fact that it was still dark out at six in the morning. In Saskatoon the sun rises at 3:30 in the morning in June! After enduring the hopelessly farcical chaos that is the self-check-in (seriously, America, this is supposed to make it quicker?) and the patently unfair $25 fee for checking bags, I was finally ready to head back. The 6 a.m. flight out was crowded but smooth, and after making the exhausting sprint from concourse G to concourse B at Minny (probably the worst concourse connection you can make at that terminal), I had a nice, half full plane to take me home, and I dozed idly the rest of the way. Finally! A week later, the interviews are transcribed (12,000 words!), the Metallian feature is done (in French stores on June 28, French metal dudes!), and the massive Decibel story awaits, which I will start writing probably right after I see Maiden on the 29th. Once I get going, I bet it'll pretty much write itself...

The new Pavement book ist surprisingly rad.

Thu, 03 Jun 2010 05:57:00 EDT

It's been a couple years since I've gone on the road to do a story, and goodness knows it can get stifling cranking out the music-related articles from the same small space time and again, so it goes without saying that I am really, really looking forward to my little trip this weekend. In more ways than one. We're entering dream-come-true territory here. But more on that when I get back. Or who knows, maybe I'll post on twitter while away. Hopefully everything goes well.

In the meantime, more articles have been sprouting up as quickly as those darn dandelions in the park across the street that the city won't do anything about. First off, at PopMatters this past Friday my review of the new 30th Anniversary Edition of Judas Priest's British Steel was published. I've always had a few reservations about that album. It was very popular, achieving exactly what the band wanted to achieve (to break into the US market), and the band is clearly very, very fond of the record, but I've never felt it was as great an album as other people think. It has a lot of classic songs like "Metal Gods", "Breaking the Law", and "Living After Midnight", but certain parts of it always struck me as being rather ordinary. Tom Allom's glossy production stifles the speedy tracks, and "United" is one of the dumbest songs they've ever recorded. In fact, I've always preferred Hell Bent For Leather and Point of Entry. But it's by no means a bad record, and it's nice to see it repackaged here, even as oddly packaged as it is. My review goes into it in more detail, but what they've basically done is made the live DVD the focal point and the actual album more like a bonus toss-in. Not only that, but it's exactly like the 2001 remaster, so if you already have that reissue, your only reason for buying this is for the DVD. Luckily, the DVD is excellent, a complete live performance from last summer's tour, where they played British Steel in its entirety. And "Freewheel Burning". I've always been nuts about "Freewheel Burning", and would flip if I ever got to see them play that one live. "LookbeforeyouleaphasneverbeenthewaywekeepourroadisFREE! ChargingtothetopAndnevergiveinneverstopsthewaytoBAY!" Anyway, as I've said, if you have the 2001 reissue, you'll want this for the DVD, if you don't own the album, this is the one to get. Oh, and as for the 8 rating, that's overall, for the whole package. I'd give the actual album a 7.

I also reviewed the new album by Misery Index. It was weird, during the Bush Administration's reign of terror it was the perfect time for some good protest music, but despite the efforts of some good folks, the idea never really took off. Especially in metal...sure there was the usual moaning and groaning about the usual vague topics, but few pointed diatribes. Misery Index, though, is an exception. They're a very politically aware band, and not only do they put out some of the best death/grind you'll hear, but their lyrics are always interesting. And Heirs to Thievery is no exception, an album that's as face-melting as it is thought-provoking. I highly recommend it. Hopefully they come around here again...I need a new shirt, I've been wearing the one I have for four years now.

Over on the DVD side, I also have a review of the awesome new release by Clutch. I'm always a sucker for Clutch, I think they've become one of the best rock bands in America today, and what better way to celebrate an amazing live band than putting out a killer live DVD? While I think they're at their best doing their notoriously unpredictable setlists, it's really cool seeing them perform their 1995 self-titled album in its entirety. I'd even go as far to say that I'd rather hear these 2009 performances of the Clutch album than the original, simply because the band brings so many different variables to the music now than they did 15 years ago. They've improved as musicians that much...I actually find their last four albums more interesting than their previous four, good as those ones are. Anyway, if you dig this band like I do, you need this DVD.

At Hellbound, which is one year old, I might add, I whipped up a quick review of the two new Rush songs that came out on Tuesday, "Caravan" and "BU2B". It actually turned into a pretty good write-up I think...there aren't many bands that could compel me to write 600 words about two songs, but Rush is one of them! At any rate, both songs are really, really good, continuing right where Snakes and Arrows left off, which certainly bodes well for the actual album, which comes out about a year from now.

On a side note, I'll be seeing the long, long-awaited Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage on the 11th. Speaking of which, I'd better go get my ticket asap!

Ever since it was announced a couple years ago (or was it more?), I was very excited at the prospect of a 33 1/3 book about Pavement's classic 1995 album Wowee Zowee. It finally came out recently, and I read it a couple weeks ago. And ten, 20 pages in, I was less than impressed, as the author dwelled on and on about his post-college days. When I read a 33 1/3 book, I want to learn about the album, not the life of the author (I prefer the approaches Zeth Lundy and Bill Janovitz took)...a little memoir for context is okay, but this book was veering toward overkill. When it did focus on the actual album, it was presented in a frustratingly sloppy way. He'd go into all these 'meta' tales about the writing of the book and basically post transcriptions of his phone interviews. The thing was a gigantic mess. But you know what? I thought Wowee Zowee was a gigantic mess when it first came out, I was one of those who were a little disappointed it didn't follow the example the band's seminal first two albums set. But it grew on me just like it did for the author. So not only could I relate to his self-indulgent memoir, but the structure of the book actually complements the album surprisingly well. And in the end I did learn a lot about this wonderful, confounding album. It's a worthy entry in the book series, a fun read.

Nachtmystium interview out-takes!

Wed, 26 May 2010 04:45:00 EDT

There's a lot of stuff to mention this week, but I'll keep things simple today, because this is a biggie. My 49th installment of Blood & Thunder is up over at PopMatters, which focuses on one Blake Judd, the madman visionary behind two of the year's finest metal albums, Nachtmystium's Addicts: Black Meddle Part 2 and Twilight's Monument to Time End. I'd read articles about Judd in past years, but had never interviewed the guy, so I didn't know what to expect when I called him a few weeks ago. It turns out he's a really nice guy, and quite the motormouth. We had a very entertaining 45 minute chat, and I was left with a mother lode of quotes. So many, in fact, that I had to ditch about half of them. But that's what blogs are good for, so I'll take this opportunity to post some of the better leftovers here. The excellent Twilight record is out now at Southern Lord, while Addicts, which is the best metal album if the year thus far, comes out in two weeks.

***

On producer/collaborator Sanford Parker:

Blake Judd: Sanford Parker is just in a fucking stride right now, every record that guy makes�I'll check out bands I've never heard just to see what Sanford has done this time. He's so good at what he does, I think he's taking on more of a role as a producer, not even intentionally and not being hired as one, but he knows his gear so well, and he's starting to really develop his own kind of brand identity. I think of him as a young Steve Albini almost, where it doesn't matter what band you are, you can tell, his stamp is on those records. It was great working with those guys, and I'm totally satisfied with the way both of those records turned out.

He's a busy guy, and that's why we can never get him to tour with us. He's constantly got shit booked up for studio time at Volume. Which is great, he's making a hell of a lot more money doing that than he would be running around the country with us playing fucking keyboards every night and hitting the little venues.

I wouldn't say that Nachtmystium couldn't make a good record without Sanford Parker, because we did quite a few records that I liked and other people seem to enjoy as well without him. But at this point it's kind of effortless working with him, whereas I might have to go in with somebody else who has all the same equipment available, but they're not going to have that kind of instinctual directionary impulse that Sanford has, where he's like, 'Man, I know exactly what you're trying to do here and I have this idea.' I'll always sit down for a half hour, and Sanford's like, 'I have an idea, let me fuck around for a little bit an see if I can make this work.' He might not be able to explain to me exactly what he's going to try to do, but I'll always take time out from what we're doing and go, 'You have an idea? Let's hear it, man.' Because nine out of ten of his ideas are pretty fucking good and often times wind up being part of whatever we're working on.

Seeing that Assassins was titled Black Meddle Part 1, did you have Part 2 planned out well in advance?

When Nachtmystium signed to Century Media and Candlelight, we were only under contract for two records. We didn't know if we would wind up staying there or not, and probably expected at the time that we wouldn't since we've always jumped around from label to label, worked with different people all the time to see what different companies could do for us. Our producer Chris Black and myself were talking about it, he was, 'Why don't we make these two records cohesive in some way, we'll figure out how once we're in the creative process, but we'll call 'em part one and part two and that'll be our Century Media years or whatever.' That was kind of the initial idea, it wasn't really planned out to be some grandiose, artistic, fucking pretentious thing or some shit like that. [laughs] But we've connected the two more in themes and in lyrics versus the music.

I think everybody might have been expecting us to come out with another real psychedelic, Pink Floyd-inspired record because of the part one and part two thing, and also because Assassins did really well, significantly better than any record we'd ever made before. I thought that would have been very predictable, had we gone into the studio on this one and just kicked out another Assassins. It would have been really easy to do too, honestly. We did it once, I'm sure we could do it again in that style. We wanted to challenge our listeners and surprise people a little bit, like this is another trick that we have that we didn't do pretty well, so check this one out and see what you think. We just connected the two mostly through the lyrics and the themes, things like that. The artwork is somewhat similar as well, it's kind of a continuation of the first cover, which is animated as you know, and then this new one is actual photography. The head on the front of it is a sculpture, it's not a doctored-up, photoshopped photograph or anything. It came out really good, I like it.

On the much-discussed Killing Joke influence on the new album:

That's just what I've been listening to, man. It's just like any other record of ours, it's pretty reflective of what we've been getting into at the time. I've been listening to a lot of Killing Joke, Queens of the Stone Age, Kyuss, pretty much anything Josh Homme is involved in. 'Ghosts of grace' on Assassins is definitely me trying to write a black metal Queens of the Stone Age song, so we tried to continue on and incorporate some more of that driving, tambourine-driven rock. Like garage rock style stuff.

The one that's captivated me the most is Hosannas from the Basements of Hell, which is their more recent record. That's the first one I've heard. Sanford actually played it for me when we were getting ready to record Assassins, the night before we went into the studio. We were loading everything in and he pulled me into the control room and was like, 'Hey man, listen to this. This is what I want your record to sound like production-wise.' What he was going to try to imitate on that record. That album has a great recording, it's real slick but it's still got some grit to it. I was obviously like, 'Okay cool, I get what you're saying, but who the fuck is this band? This is awesome.' And of course I had heard of Killing Joke but they were just one of those bands that I never got into. They fall into a category of bands like Helmet. I recently had some friends say, 'You ever get into fucking Helmet back in the day?' And I'd be like, no, I remember them being around and all my friends liking them, it's just a band I never really checked out. So both of those bands, I'm digging into their catalogs now, and it's pretty cool. It�s like having a wealth of music from 20 years ago that I missed the boat on.

On Collaborating with Wrest of Leviathan:

We work really well together too. That Twilight record, that was the easiest album I ever made in my life, just because it�s a group of people I've worked with so much over the years and know so well personally. It was a situation where we'd be showing each other parts for songs and we wouldn't even have to talk, we would just think, 'Okay, that's what happens there, of course you knew to do that already, we don't even have to tell you.' We were all on the same wavelength creatively I think. It was the same story for this record, and I'm so happy that I asked him to be involved and that he was willing to do it. And he's really happy with the record too, which is cool because he's notorious for not being totally satisfied with his albums after he's done. [laughs] He can always pick them apart, and he really seems to like [Addicts] and the Twilight album.

Can you explain the Addicts intro, 'nothing hurts more than being born'?

Chris Black made that intro for us. I always give him a little room to get creative with intros and outros. He did the piano track in the middle of Assassins, on 'Your True Enemy'. I just asked him if he was going to include any lyrics or anything that fits with the record. I can't say exactly what he's referencing because I didn't write it myself, but when he explained it to me, the little that he did, it seemed to make sense. Being born opens up the opportunities to destroy your own life. Without birth there is no potential for failure or suffering.

It feels like you're having so much fun exploring new sounds these days�do you still find it gratifying to just hammer out more straightforward black metal songs, or are you growing bored with that?

I like to do it once in a while. I think 'High on Hate''s a good example of that, it's about as black metal as it gets. Those songs are really fun to play live, and it really reconnects me with the roots of this band. I think I can write those style of songs pretty well, so when I decide to do it I'm generally pretty pleased with the outcome. I'm never going to deny that's where we come from at all, and throwing that in there every once in a while to be like, we still do this, we still connect with this, and we can connect this raw, aggressive black metal song to this completely poppy song. I don't think it interrupts the albums at all. I think you'll continue to hear other elements of that as long as we're a band.

Goldfrapp goes black metal!

Fri, 21 May 2010 06:37:00 EDT

I won't deny it, a big reason why I was and still am an enormous fan of Harvey Milk's masterful Life...The Only Game in Town is because it was so darn bold. I loved how it teased listeners, walking the tightrope between conventional songwriting and crushing sludge. It was one of the most pop-savvy metal albums I have ever heard, if that makes sense, and if there's one thing I'm a total sucker for, it's heavy music that likes to think outside the box, music that's not afraid to try new things, and that album was as unique and adventurous as it got. However, I knew full well that the classic Harvey Milk, the band that won over listeners in the late 90s and early last decade, specialized in pure ugliness, and it would only be a matter of time before they went back to that core sound. What i didn't expect was the way the band would go about doing it on their new album. They crank up the ugliness, the misery, the despair to an exponential degree on A Small Turn of Human Kindness, a backwoods sludge metal murder ballad-slash-rock opera. A simple, poetic narrative told over the course of a little over 35 minutes, it's stark, minimalist, and unbelievably sad. Certainly not the easiest thing to listen to, but in a way it's just as experimental as Life was, only in the complete opposite direction. It won't be my album of the year, but I still admire it greatly, and I was more than happy to write a review for PopMatters. By all means give this album a listen, but don't expect to feel very sprightly afterwards. It's a gut-wrencher.

On a much happier note, on Tuesday night I headed out to Louis' over on the university campus (the first show I've seen there in years, as it happens) to catch 3 Inches of Blood and Goatwhore. Those are two bands I love to see live, and they certainly make an effort to play this part of the country several times in a tour cycle. I last saw 3 Inches of Blood last fall and Goatwhore last summer. I was all set to see Goatwhore and Bison back in February, but of all the dumb luck that show fell on the same night as the Olympic men's hockey semifinals, so there was no way I was going out. But Goatwhore plays Saskatchewan so much they should buy houses here, and lo and behold, they returned yet again.

One thing I really like about Goatwhore is they're so darn professional. Want an interview done? Cool, they'll be ready for you on time and provide some thoughtful, friendly answers. Got a guest list spot arranged with the label? No sweat, they'll make sure you're on it. Want merch? They'll sell it at a fair price. And most impressively, they do changeovers more efficiently than anyone. After Vancouver band Savannah played a rather unmemorable set and got their gear off the stage, the Goatwhore guys got going, and man, were they swift. I just sat watching them get ready, it was amazing. Everybody chipping in and lugging stuff, plug in, line check, monitor check, boom, done in less than 15 minutes and we're off to the races. No phoneybaloney leaving the stage, playing dramatic entrance music, and posing away, just get ready and play. As someone who's used to going to shows alone, quick changeovers are wonderful things. Unlike Saturday at Fucked Up's show, where the second last band took FOREVER to set up and get offstage. A punk band. With a tiny trap kit, guitars, no pedals. Total hacks. It was agonizing to witness. Anyway, Goatwhore came, and Goatwhore slayed yet again, playing a crisp 50 minute set of their blue-collar, Celtic Frosty black metal. I can't remember the entire setlist, but they started with "The All Destroying", and also played "Carving Out the Eyes of God", "Shadow of a Rising Knife", "In Legions I am Wars of Wrath", "Alchemy of the Blood Sun Cult", "In the Narrow Confines of Defilement", oldie "Sky Inferno", and ended with a raucous performance of the great "Apocalyptic Havoc". There were a couple others, I think, but for the life of me I can't recall what they were. It was a terrific set by a band that now has a solid fanbase in this part of the country.

3 Inches of Blood was as solid as ever. With four albums behind them they now have a pretty deep back catalogue of music to draw from, and it was very cool to see them mix up the setlist the way they did. They made a lot of people happy by playing some older stuff, including "Ride Darkhorse Ride" and the ever-popular "Destroy the Orcs", but I was happy to hear some newer material like "Call of the Hammer", "Rock in Hell", "Snake Fighter", and "The Preacher's Daughter", which despite never being played last time here has turned into quite the fan favourite, it went over huge. It's wonderful to have a traditional metal show like this to go see, I never tire of this band, every time I see them it takes me back to the mid-80s when the rowdiest a crowd got was pumping their fists. No pushing each other around like morons like the kids do today. Singer Cam Pipes was in fine form on this night...I like watching people's reactions the first time he lets loose his falsetto, the smiles are wide, not in a "this is so ridiculous" way, but "this is so cool!" It was nothnig but a fun vibe at this show, and after they played "Deadly Sinners" for the bazillionth time (I will never tire of that tune) I was so glad I was able to make it out to this show. There's nothing like some good trad metal to put you in a good mood, and both bands delivered mightily. Here's 3IOB's setlist:

Battles and Brotherhood
Silent Killer
Ride Darkhorse Ride
Forest King
Demon's Blade
Call of the Hammer
Wykydtron
Rock in Hell
Trial of Champions
Destroy the Orcs
Snakefighter
Night Marauders

Encore:
Preacher's Daughter
Deadly Sinners
The Goatriders Horde

If you haven't seen Goldfrapp's new video for "Alive", do so at once. Not only is it a snazzy clip for a great little song, but it's the most hilarious send-up of black metal I have ever seen. Alison Goldfrapp never takes herself too seriously, but unlike other artists, she resists the temptation to wink at the audience and just plays it straight-faced. Which is the best way to do it. With her gold fangs and glittery blood she just might have invented a new term: tr00 gl4m kvlt!

Jump! Jump! Jump on the tiger...

Tue, 18 May 2010 05:36:00 EDT

By now you probably know that the mighty Ronnie James Dio passed away early Sunday morning. The internet has been abuzz, tributes pouring in from fans and peers alike, and for good reason. The man was a metal giant. An icon. There is just a small handful of living individuals who fit that bill (off the top of my head, Ozzy, Iommi, Lemmy, Halford), and because the genre of heavy metal is so young and they're still making music today, we've come to consider these artists to be ageless. Dio had cancer, we all knew that, but somehow we expected him to "slay that dragon" as his wife Wendy put it. After all, he sounded as indomitable as ever on his recent tours with Heaven and Hell. But no, Ronnie James Dio was mortal after all, and his death came truly shocked the metal community to its core. Many metal figures have died in the past, but those were all at relatively young ages, so the image of the tragic hero has been foisted upon the likes of Rhoads, Schuldiner, Dimebag, et cetera. Yes, cancer got Dio, but 67 years old you'd have to think his age had somethnig to do with his vulnerability to the disease, so I suppose you could consider this to be metal's very first significant death of old age. And that gets to anyone who's into metal...as vibrant as the music is, we're all not getting any older. Lemmy is going to be 65. Tony Iommi is 62, Ozzy 61. Rob Halford is 58. The members of Iron Maiden are all in their 50s. Metallica and Slayer are in their late 40s. Heck, as a fan I turn 40 this year. Life is fleeting, even for metalheads.

Dio's passing was so significant that I couldn't let it go by without writing a proper tribute of my own, so I spent all of Sunday afternoon and evening piecing together what I hope is a dignified piece. And thanks to Sarah my good editor at PopMatters, we were able to get it published first thing Monday, so if you haven't seen it, by all means give it a read. The feedback I've gotten on it so far has been tremendous, which I really appreciate. But it's not about me, it's about the man and his music, and man oh man, did he ever make a lot of great music. He was in the business for more than 50 years, and didn't start singing true heavy metal until the age of 32, which is mind-boggling.

I wanted to keep myself out of the article and focus on Dio's career, offering a critical perspective of his body of work. But since this blog is meant for self-absorbed rants, I might as well put something down here. I didn't get into Dio until 1984 when I saw "The Last in Line" on Friday Night Videos, that silly video with the goofy kid riding the bike with the basket. He was awesome, it was clear. That voice was something else. However, unlike Maiden, Metallica, or W.A.S.P. I didn't become a hardcore fan of his. Instead, like the rest of my headbanger peers, we respected the music greatly. I listened to those songs, the singles especially, a ton during the mid-80s, from "Neon Knights" to "Hungry For Heaven". He toured Canada, but not thoroughly, so he never hit my part of the world, and consequently that artist-to-fan connection was never quite there. It wasn't until the late-90s that I started exploring his music more, gradually going back in time, to his Black Sabbath albums, to his wonderful records with Rainbow. The critical moment was when I found out just how GREAT an album Rainbow's Rising was...when I heard him simply dominate "A Light in the Black" and especially the timeless "Stargazer", that was when his greatness was hammered home. By the time I finally got the chance to see and hear Dio live in 2007 at the start of the Heaven and Hell tour, it was the perfect time, I was a lot more appreciative of the man's legacy than I was 25 years ago, and I think I enjoyed the experience a whole lot more as a result. He sounded phenomenal, a consummate showman, and though his hair was thinning and wrinkles were visible, he indeed seemed ageless. We had every right to believe we'd get another chance to see him perform again. Sadly that's not the case, but I'm ever thankful for getting that one chance. They say that life's a carousel, spinning fast, you've got to ride it well..and Ronnie James Dio rode it better than anyone. He'll be forever missed.

For the record, here are my ten favourite songs that feature Dio:

1. "Stargazer"
2. "Heaven and Hell"
3. "We Rock"
4. "A Light in the Black"
5. "Holy Diver"
6. "Neon Knights"
7. "Tarot Woman"
8. "The Last in Line"
9. "The Sign of the Southern Cross"
10. "Voodoo"

Okay, back to the present. Exodus has a new album. Five years ago I wouldn't have cared too much, they hadn't put out anything really exciting since Fabulous Disaster in 1989, and re-starting with a new lead singer in the unknown Rob Dukes just didn't feel right to this old fogey. But a funny thing happened along the way, Dukes started to settle into his role as frontman and the band started putting out some reliably good music again. The new album is no exception...in fact it's pretty darn great at times. Gary Holt is still dishing out the classic thrash riffs, the songs are for the most part catchy (which has always been a strength of Exodus), and Dukes puts in his best vocal performance to date. At 74 minutes it's a very tough slog, and there are a couple of throwaways, but strong stuff like The Ballad of Leonard and Charles" and "Class Dismissed (A Hate Primer)" are their best songs in years and years. My review is up today at PopMatters...if you love the old school thrash, you know you need to hear this one.

Over at Hellbound I review the new album by Swedish death dudes Laethora. They're a band led by Dark Tranquillity guitarist Niklas Sundin, focusing on a much more aggressive sound than his main band, and I really enjoyed their first one a few years ago. This new album is even better, the production is punchier and the songwriting is much more cohesive, even dipping into d-beat hardcore from time to time. It sounds like the work of a fully formed band this time as opposed to just another side project by a famous guy who wants to get back in touch with his musical roots. It's great stuff.

Suriving Fucked Up.

Sun, 16 May 2010 07:04:00 EDT

Even though Saskatoon is one of the better indie rock cities in the country, and even though punk and hardcore is a better draw than underground metal here, it's astonishing that Canada's great Fucked Up had never played a show here. That's just not right. Needless to say I've been waiting a long, long time for this band to play their first show here, and when they announced their show at Amigos I wasted no time getting my ticket. And at $13, this show wound up giving people more bang for their buck than any big arena show.

The band has always had a reputation for being rather unpredictable at shows, thanks in large part to the inimitable Damian "Pink Eyes" Abraham, and with this show being in the cozy confines of Amigos, with its tiny stage, rows of tables, limited floor space, and 230 capacity, mayhem was bound to ensue. And that it most certainly did...

I arrived intentionally late, at 11:30, because I didn't have any inclination to see the opening bands and I didn't want to waste time and energy with so much writing to do this weekend. Anyway, it was good I waited as long as I did before going there, because the first band was just packing their gear when I got there. The second band played an inconsequential set of straight-ahead punk, and after a 20 minute change-over Fucked Up unceremoniously started playing around 12:40, launching into the rip-roaring "Son the Father" from my 2008 album of the year, The Chemistry of Common Life. The place wasn't sold out (I thought it would be), but the crowd was big and lively, as was Abraham, who doffed the shirt before the second song, spending the rest oft he night performing in all his beer gutted, hairy-backed glory. At one point he walked along he tables on one side of the room while singing, something you rarely see at such a laid-back venue. He's great at engaging crowds, playing up the hardcore camaraderie shtick, letting people shout along into the microphone, slapping hands, etc. But it never seemed contrived, it feels genuine coming from this band. While Abraham was as magnetic as expected, the five other members of the band were phenomenal. While the big dude goes nuts, the others settle in and launch into some incredibly tight grooves, be they double-time speed or straight-up d-beats. The rhythm section of bassist Sandy Miranda and drummer Jonah Falco is especially impressive, they keep everything from flying off the rails, the beats taut, the basslines surprisingly melodic.

As for the songs played, I can't remember everything, but one thing is certain: every song from Hidden World killed. "Crusades", "David Comes to Life", "Invisible Leader", "Baiting the Public", "Two Snakes", they all blazed with intensity, so much more cathartic than on record. It was unreal. As for any Chemistry material, the only song other than "Son the Father" that was performed was "Black Albino Bones". As for their non-album material, there are dozens and dozens of songs in their discography, and the only ones I can remember offhand are "I Hate Summer" and the incendiary "Police". There were about three I couldn't place. After a wicked cover of the Sex Pistols' "Bodies" and the aforementioned "Police", they were jsut going to end things there, they're clearly not ones for somethnig as cheesy as an encore, but the crowd was so great (even stage-diving off the comically low, foot-high stage) Abraham dragged everyone back onstage to play a rousing cover of the Ramones "Blitzkrieg Bop". Prefacing it by saying, "This is a song by the greatest band to ever come out of New York...and I'm not talknig about the Rapture," it brought the house down. These days the song is so ubiquitous that it's easy to get tired of it, but they played it with such sincerity, it was easy to give into the now-cliche lines on a completely unironic level. Hey ho, let's go indeed.

A funny footnote, I received more positive comments on this night about my Lester Bangs t-shirt than I ever have, including Abraham, who stopped me and gave me kudos, and it wasn't until I'd left that I realized that the "freedom or death" slogan is actually a line from Fucked Up's "Generation". I didn't even make the connection at all when I put it on earlier yesterday. So there you go, I had no idea just how cool and appropriate my attire was for this show. Also, you've got to love this band when it comes to merch. They are fully aware that you can sell more $12 shirts and CDs than you can $35 shirts...and I never pass down good cheap band merch, especially when a) they're brilliant musically, and b) they're some of the nicest people you'll meet. So I picked up a snazzy t with all their 7" singles printed on it, A-sides on the front, B-sides on the back. Anyway, it was great to see the band so warmly received (Abraham said he spent $450 buying records at our fine stores today), and here's hoping they'll be back soon. Don't ever miss a chance to see this great band.

Because of the way it's spelled, I habitually pronounce Torche "torsh".

Fri, 14 May 2010 06:49:00 EDT

The new Decibel magazine is out, the June issue I believe, and I have a number of pieces in it. First of all, and one that is not online, is my studio report on Torche. It was funny, we all thought we'd be getting an update on the making of their third album, which a lot of people, yours truly included, are very, very excited to hear. So I gave bassist Jon Nunez a call, and he proceeds to drop a bombshell...they're in the studio, alright, but there won't be a proper album, only a seven song, 20 minute EP. Uh, okay. Thanks for that after we've committed a 3/4 page article to your band. But that's okay, any new music from Torche is always a good thing. And the whole interview made for a good little article, so go pick up a copy of the issue and give 'er a read.

As for reviews, there are a few that have appeared in annoyingly truncated form online. First off, I review the new album by Lair of the Minotaur, and I won't mince words, I am just nuts about this one. I've always dug these guys, they're one of the more fun "battle metal" bands around, their albums always consistently good, but there's somethnig about Evil Power that really strikes a chord with me. The band's approach has always been a touch on the primitive side, but their sound is even more stripped down than usual on this one, going for a sound that totally evokes pre-1984 metal. You've got NWOBHM aggression, proto-thrash, the epic influence of Hellhammer and early Celtic Frost, the classic metal of Maiden and Priest, and the hardcore punk of the Misfits and Discharge. As Steve Rathbone told me a few weeks ago (more on that article soon enough), this is a total party album, meant to sound like a victory celebration after the bloody War Metal Battle Master. Simple, catchy riffs, loads and loads of shout-along choruses, and some suitably crushing production courtesy Sanford Parker. It's a total blast and I'm not sick of this album yet...in fact I wouldn't be surprised if this makes my 2010 favourite metal albums list come fall. And if you haven't seen the ultra-violent, NSFW video for "Evil Power", do so now.

One band that's really grown on me is Ohio band Woe of Tyrants. One of my last assignments for Metal Edge before it was tragically shuttered was to interview these guys, and at the time I thought that the music seemed promising enough, but it didn't exactly knock me out. However, it soon became apparent that these youngsters have a knack for melody in extreme metal that so very few bands their age have, tossing in power metal flash amidst technical death metal. And their new album really starts to deliver on that initial promise...it's a bit on the busy side, so it takes a few listens to digest, but wow, these kids can play, and their songwriting is really starting to show some glimpses of greatness. Anyway, I gave the album a pretty good write-up, and if you like the slicker, more technical side of extreme music, you might want to give this album a listen.

Last and certainly not least is the stupendous Addicts: Black Meddle Part 2 by the adventurous and always great Nachtmystium.It knocked me out the first time I heard it, and I've played it countless times since. It's definitely the best metal album I've heard so far this year, and has a good chance of being at or near the top of my overall list of faves. Its two key tracks, "Nightfall" and "No Funeral", have surfaced, and without question those are the two go-to tracks on the album, a total shock especially when heard right after the pure black metal of "High on Hate". Later on in the album "Blood Trance Fusion" is one of the second half's highlights, I really dig all the mad scientists blips and bleeps that go with that mechanical Ministry beat. The band liked my review and have posted it in its entirety, which was nice of them. Incidentally, I had a terrific conversation with frontman/visionary Blake Judd last week, and that interview will be the focus of this month's Blood & Thunder column, so watch for that in the next couple weeks. And you can bet I'll be posting some cool quotes that didn't make it into the gigantic, 3000 word article.

With Polaris long list ballots due soon, I've been trying to catch up in the Canadian music department, and one album that's knocked me out is the new CD by Hannah Georgas. She's the first in what will likely be a post-BSS wave of female singer-songwriters influenced by the likes of Emily Haines, Feist, and Amy Millan, and This is Good is an absolute charmer, especially this song. Considering that Polaris has a bit of a proclivity towards singer-songwriters (which I find frustrating), I would say she has a good shot at making the long list, if not the short list as well. Anyway, she's playing at Amigos tonight and I'd really like to go, but I'm busy, I'll be tired, plus there's the huge Fucked Up show tomorrow night at the same place that's going to tear the roof off the joint, so I'll probably save my energy. But this artist is going to be big, just watch.

I still can't stop writing about Alcest.

Thu, 13 May 2010 06:17:00 EDT

It's been a busy time these days with too many distractions to boot. The usual interviews and reviews, as well as some very interesting new music either hitting stores or arriving in the mail, the greatest playoff fun by the Canadiens since 1993 (and we all know what happened that year!), and on top of that a pretty darn big business trip in less than a month. Well, "big" is an understatement. But more on that in the coming weeks.

So now that the Habs have rebounded from a frustratingly wishy-washy, injury riddled season and have done away with Ovie and the Capitals and Sid and the Penguins, earning themselves a crucial three days off after 14 games in 28 days, I can set my hockey fandom aside for a bit here, take a breather, and focus on this page a little bit. Which includes plugging some writing. So here we go...

As I've said here and elsewhere, I adore the new Alcest album, but after reviewing it for Decibel a few months ago I still felt like I had to write about it in greater detail. So I took a different approach and put together a piece for PopMatters as well, which you can read here. The album continues to sound as strong as when I first heard it way back when, and I find it amazing how a record can sound so much darker than the pastoral and innocent Souvenirs d'un Autre Monde yet sound so much more refined. The production, the arrangements, Neige's singing voice, everything sounds stronger on the new CD. Will it be my album of the year like Souvenirs was three years ago? I doubt it. That one had a special X-factor that was impeccably timed, and as much as I love this one the emotional attachment won't be as overwhelming. Top ten, though? You can count on it.

As I Lay Dying has always bugged me. Here's a band that is insanely popular with the metal kiddies, yet they don't have an ounce of creativity. Their music is boring, their vocalist is boring, and ye gods, their live show is boring. I don't ever want to endure one of their sets ever again, it's just a complete waste of time. Though I'm familiar with their albums, they only have one song that I can identify from memory (okay, there's this one too, but I hate that song). The rest is just metalcore by numbers: screamy-screamy, twiddly-widdly, chuggy-wuggy. So you can imagine my surprise when their new album turned out to be rather engaging. There's no change to the formula whatsoever, but this time they actually sound comfortable. The riffs are catchier, they toss out the twin harmonies and melodies with the confidence of a veteran band, and the melodic vocals are the strongest they've ever sounded. Sure, Tim Lambesis still sounds as devoid of charisma as ever, but three out of four ain't bad. And these new songs aren't bad either, good enough to compel me to give The Powerless Rise a mild, politely positive recommendation. It's still inconsistent, but for once it sounds like these guys are on the right track. There might be hope for them yet.

At the other end of the spectrum is Jucifer, who are always awesome. I've really grown to love this band over the years, and their new album Throned in Blood is quite the shocker. Usually there's a clear divide between Jucifer the album artist and Jucifer the live band...their albums are always open to exploration within heavy music, displaying a lot of nuance, but their live shows are completely the opposite, a massive, hyper-amplified exhibition of sonic catharsis. With this record, though, we hear Amber and Edgar trying to truly translate that live sound on to record, and although I was initially disappointed there wasn't any of the slinky melodic fare that they do so well, it's still a very strong, very good piece of work, the songs at times echoing the likes of Darkthrone and Hellhammer. In other words, pretty darn intense. Go give my review a look-see, and check this sucker out, it'll floor you.

I'll try to stay on the ball and post some more tomorrow!

A Montreal band named after a place in Saskatchewan...

Thu, 06 May 2010 06:22:00 EDT

As you know, I'm big into Alcest and pretty much whatever music Neige is putting out for that matter, but for all the attention he's been getting with his projects, it's time to give his former Amesoeurs bandmate Fursy Teyssier his due as well. The two guys are longtime best friends (Teyssier has been playing second guitar on Alcest's first tour, which ended recently), and they've always complemented each other very well on record in the past, and as his new band les Discrets shows us, Teyssier is perfectly capable of fronting a band of his own. I first learned of Les Discrets when I interviewed him early last year for my Amesoeurs feature and I really liked what I heard, not to mention the split CD with Alcest that came out late last year, but Septembre et ses Dernieres Pensees sounds even more confident than I'd expected. It mines the same territory that Agalloch does, and at times it approaches that band's greatness, but for the most part Teyssier keeps things relatively close to the vest, and while the music gets predictable, it's clear this band has its own sound, and it certainly won't be long before they put out something truly transcendent. In the meantime, though, we have a wonderful debut album that is well worth listening to. So by all means, read my review and go hunt this record down.

Also over at PopMatters I review the second album by Vancouver faves Bison BC. I was supposed to go see them back in February when they were touring with Shadows Fall and Goatwhore, so I could so a little write-up for this blog, but the show fell on the same night as the Olympic men's hockey semi-finals. Needless to say there was no way I was going to miss that game, so the show had to be sacrificed. Which was a shame, because I missed Bison playing the terrific new song "Stressed Elephant", which kicks off Dark Ages on a rousing, triumphant note. The album doesn't waver from the formula set on Bison's first two albums, only this time around everything is done a lot better, thrashy sludge mixed with crust punk with catchy vocals and progressive touches. Sure, it's a Mastodon/High on Fire knock-off, but these guys do it extremely well. And I'm sure they'll be rolling through my city a couple more times this year with a trail of empty beer bottles coming from their battered van.

One band that I'd been wanting to see for years but never got a chance to was Canadian indie darlings the Besnard Lakes. I loved their 2007 album Are the Dark Horse, as did many other people, but strangely enough they didn't play a single show in Saskatoon. They went to Regina, which is very weird because a) Regina's more of a metal/hard rock town and b) indie rock draws very well here, but nope, despite having one of the best indie venues in the country, the band totally skipped us. So it goes without saying that a lot of people were anxious to see the Besnard Lakes in person, the anticipation heightened by the masterful Are the Roaring Night, which if you ask me is one of the best albums of the year so far. And it was a good thing I got my ticket for Friday's show a month early, because it was sold out, the most jam-packed I've seen Amigos since Broken Social Scene in 2005. The constant rain forced everyone inside, and it was wall to wall people, making for an extremely humid room, water dripping from the ceiling due to the condensation. Not particularly excited to see the two opening bands, I got there just as Hollerado was winding up a rockin' little set, and after quickly snagging an LP copy of the new album and running it back to the car (this band is meant to be heard on vinyl) I squeezed my way back in and secured a good vantage point for the headlinders. At Amigos the stage is only a foot or so high, so if you want to see anything you have to get right up there close to the stage, and even though the changeover had just started, there were already nerds like yours truly staking out spots (which is a very rare thing for such a laid-back venue). Anyway, the band went on at about 12:15 AM, smoke machine on full blast, amps turned way up high, and they practically blew the roof off the place with their sumptuous blend of Beach Boys vocals, progressive rock tones, and deafening shoegaze. For a band that balances the delicate with the crushing as the Besnard Lakes do, the sound mix was impeccable, the guitars deafening (thank goodness I'd remembered my earplugs!) but the vocal mikes very prominent in the mix. Even bassist Olga Goreas (who is so small she could be knocked over by her own bass tone) could be heard clearly, which is a rare thing...soft female voices rarely sound good under loud guitars live. Their setlist leaned heavily on the new material, as the band played all but one of the new album's songs. Opener "Like the Ocean, Like the Innocent" was outstanding, "Chicago Train" and "Albatross" were gorgeous, "Land of Living Skies" got a big cheer from the crowd when Olga sang the line (it's our province's license plate slogan), and "And This is What We Call Progress" sounded so much more intense than on record. As for older stuff, "Disaster", "For Agent 13", "And You Lied to Me", and the cool "Devastation" were the Dark Horse selections, while the encore tune "Thomasina" was the only track from their first album. It was a tremendous 90 minute set, and we all staggered out of the sweaty club thankful for fresh air. Here are some photos from the show.

One slight criticism of the band I have is that they shouldn't be so genial between songs. After those majestic, soaring songs of theirs they turn into your typical friendly indie rock band and do the witty stage banter, band members trading one-liners. Which is okay, it's cute and endearing, it shows that they're nice people. But as someone who covers metal and heavy music, it's a better idea to play up the mystique that their music creates. it's big, it's grandiose, it's seductive and mysterious, and you should play it straight-faced. get stoic onstage, go up there and destroy the crowd with the heavy riffs and dulcet vocals. Let the New Pornographers be funny onstage; there's no real need for that with the Besnard Lakes.

Face To Face With Rob Zombie, or Smells Like Shock Rock

Wed, 28 Apr 2010 05:55:00 EDT

I knew going in that the big Gruesome Twosome Tour would be really great fun, and by the end of the night I was not disappointed in the least. Seriously, Alice Cooper, Rob Zombie...how could you go wrong? Although both artists are definitely linked, the elder influencing the younger, stylistically they couldn't be more different, and it would be interesting to find out who would have the better performance on this Tuesday night in front of four or five thousand enthusiastic people.

Well, right off the bat, the answer is Alice Cooper, by quite a margin too. He was the first of the co-headliners, coming on just after 8:00, and even though he and his four-piece band had only 75 minutes to work with, wow, did they ever cram a lot of material into that time frame. No pauses, no banter, just tightly performed music from start to finish, the work of consummate proffesionals, not to mention a dude who's a born entertainer.

The last time I'd seen Coop was in 1990 when he was promoting the wildly popular Trash album. Much of that show's focus was on the new material, and while there was a cool 20 minute portion where he brought out the horror shtick and psychodrama, the theatricality was definitely downplayed in favour of his more pop-oriented fare. This time, though, his "Theatre of the Dead" set was all theatrics. With a simple yet very cleverly designed stage that included the letters "alice" hung at various depths to create a very cool three-dimensional effect, the man in question led the way through a whoppingly stacked setlist that was divided into four distinct parts. The opening part was all teen anthems ("School's Out", "Department of Youth", "I'm Eighteen", "Wicked Young Man"), leading to the classic "Ballad of Dwight Fry", after which he was decapitated by the goold old guillotine. The second act was much darker, "Go to Hell" and "Guilty" (was I ever glad to hear those tracks) giving way to "Cold Ethyl" and "Poison", and during the latter track he was killed again with a gigantic hypodermic needle.

Part three saw Cooper playing up his notorious alcoholism with "From the Inside", eventually taking a nasty turn with "Nurse Rozetta" (in which the comely nurse taunts him), "Be My Lover" (in which Alice murders said nurse), and the fantastic one-two of "Only Women Bleed" and the wonderful, highly underrated "I Never Cry", which ended abruptly with Alice's hanging. The final act played up the whole revenge and money thing with "Dirty Diamonds" and "Billion Dollar Babies", ending with a nifty medley of "Killer" and "I Love the Dead". An encore with "No More Mr. Nice Guy" and "Under My Wheels" brought it all to an exuberant close. It was just non-stop entertainment and great tunes, the huge bulk of them coming from his 1970s material, and the band was hard-edged but very slick as well, the musicians (including former Y&T and Megadeth drummer Jimmy DeGrasso) taking a very classic approach to the older songs, adding backing vocals and acoustic guitar, echoing the original songs. Actually one really cool bit was the extended jam by the band, in which they tore through "Black Widow". Alice himself was in very strong vocal form...at 62 he looks and sounds as good as ever has. It was a brilliant set with a lot of my favourite songs (and what a neat thing it was to hear two from From the Inside!), and if I'd left right then I would have left happy. Here's the full setlist:

School's Out
Department of Youth
I'm Eighteen
Wicked Young Man
Ballad of Dwight Fry
Go to Hell
Guilty
Cold Ethyl
Poison
From the Inside
Nurse Rozetta
Be My Lover
Only Women Bleed
I Never Cry
Black Widow (jam)
Vengeance is Mine
Dirty Diamonds
Billion Dollars Babies
Killer
I Love the Dead

Encore:
No More Mr. Nice Guy
Under My Wheels

After a rather long 45 minute changeover, it was Rob Zombie's turn. You know exactly what you're going to get from the guy time and again: all the crowd-pleaser songs, cool video screen clips of everything from horror flicks, to Manson Family footage, to gory cartoons, to hentai, to Russ Meyer flicks, to the Munsters, to clips from Zombie's own films, and lots and lots of fire. Unlike the nuance of Cooper's material, Zombie's is much blunter: massive, danceable beats (which draws a surprisingly high number of female fans), simple, gigantic riffs, and plenty of gigantic shout-along choruses. If you don't know Zombie, you'd find his show to be pretty darn repetitive, but personally I get a real kick out of his music, always have, and I dug it all. Vocally he was alright, sometimes a tiny bit out of step with the beats, but he was charismatic enough. Slipknot drummer Joey Jordison was a capable replacement for the very talented Tommy Clueftos, but he's a bit stiff compared to his groovy peer. Plus, is he ever short...he must be 5'2". Guitarist John Five is quite amazing, as it turns out, pulling off cool effects and delivering quite the shred-fest during an extended solo (quoting "Eruption" at one point).

Actually it was during J5's solo that Zombie pulled of a funny stunt, taking a flashlight, heading offstage and sneaking through the crowd, most people unaware who went by them until he'd passed After going up and down a couple aisles he came down to the floor (where most people still hadn't figured out what was going on), and he made his way to right in front of the mixing board, where I was. So for a second I was face to face with the guy. I nodded and said hey, and he walked by. I actually think I'm taller than him.

Anyway, while the similarly 75 minute performance wasn't as great as Cooper's, it was still a blast, literally and figuratively. All the staples were played, the three new songs sounded great (though no "Sick Bubble-Gum", darnit), and though I would have liked to have heard "American Witch" and a White Zombie track or two along with than the requisite "More Human Than Human" and "Thunder Kiss '65", I couldn't complain. The arena floor hadn't quite sold out, so while it was crowded there was still room to maneuver every once in a while, and with the mosh factor practically nonexistent (a bit of a surprise) I was able to get nice and close during "Dragula". Which, I'm not ashamed to say, is still an awesome little tune. Oh, and I should add that the stage and PA were a little small for a full arena ahow, but that was kind of good, because the volume was very comfortable in the big building...plenty loud, but loud enough to hear comfortably without earplugs. That was a very welcome change. Anyway, here's the setlist:

Call of the Zombie
What Lurks on Channel X?
Superbeast
Scum of the Earth
Living Dead Girl
Let it all Bleed Out
Mars Needs Women
More Human Than Human
House of 1,000 Corpses
Never Gonna Stop (The Red, Red Kroovy)
Demonoid Phenomenon
What?
Thunder Kiss '65

Encore:
Werewolf Women of the SS
Dragula

One more funny thing about this show...I've been terribly sick for more than three weeks now, first with allergies and very band asthma, then a brutal, throat-ripping cough, an inability to speak at length (making phone interviews very hard) and then a horrible, stubborn head cold on top of that. Anyway, in addition for the last six days I hadn't been able to smell or taste anything, even when my head wasn't congested. It was so weird it was scary, I was actually quite worried about it, that's never happened for that length of time before. But during Alice Cooper's pop metal classic "Poison" a light suddenly went off in my head...I smell a cigarette! I smell people! I taste my Fisherman's Friend!!! It was a moment of pure, goofy jubilation on my part, so that great song will have another happy memory to go along with it.

Are you ready for some big fun?

Mon, 26 Apr 2010 04:50:00 EDT

I've been going on and on about the new Ratt album for months now, and I still have yet to tire of it. Other 80s pop metal bands have come through with some pleasant surprises in recent years (most notably Dokken and, trust me on this one, Stryper), but no matter how hard Nikki Sixx tries, no band from that era has been able to come through with a record that not only is a respectable addition to their discography but actually manages to stand up against that band's greatest early work. That's always been part of pop/hair metal's appeal, it had it's fun little window of success ('83-'90, from Cum on Feel the Noize" to "Poison"), but never anything since, and for those of us who grew up with that music, it's always been a case of looking back, never caring about the present. Sure, many of those bands are dusting off the axes for Rocklahoma every year, but let's be honest, nobody cares about their new music because it simply doesn't have the same kind of energy, sense of fun, and swagger of 25 years ago. Well, give Ratt tons of credit, they've managed to command our attention in the here and now with an album that captures exactly the kind of vibe that their first albums exuded. When you're pushing 50 it has to be hard to nail a sound that was as fueled by youthful enthusiasm as pop metal was, but the guys did it. It's like they took they wayback machine to 1985: it's sleek, ultra-catchy, silly, good-naturedly misogynist at times, and loaded with the kind of crisp, sharp riffs that the best bands excelled at in the early to mid-'80s. "Eat Me Up Alive", "Best of Me", "A Little Too Much", "Lost Weekend"...these songs are totally convincing. Stephen Pearcy sounds the strongest on record since Invasion of Your Privacy, still cranking out that lecherous sneer of his (one of the more unique voices you'll hear in rock music), while Warren DeMartini is once again unleashing the kind of solos that made him a young phenom way back when. There's not a throwaway track here. Anyway, my full review is here, and to be honest, I really should have given this album an 8 instead of a 7. But the sentiment is all the same. If you liked Ratt 25 years ago and wish hard rock and melodic metal was more genuinely fun, you NEED to get this.

Over at Hellbound I reviewed an interesting tribute album called Hawkwind Triad, on which three bands (Minsk, US Christmas, and Harvestman) offer their own interpretations of classic songs by the great Hawkwind. Usually tribute albums bore me; they always mean well, but the end result rarely measures up to those good intentions. This one, though, is really cool. All three bands are heavily influenced by Hawkwind, and they take on the eleven tracks with gusto. Sure, the differences to the originals is often marginal at best, but those bands really nail that space rock sound, the ring modulators in full force, whooshing away. In my opinion Minsk's three songs are the strongest, they put together grandiose, sweeping renditions of "7x7", "Assault and Battery/The Golden Void", and "Children of the Sun". Anyway, I highlyrecommend this album, especially if you dig Hawkwind, but you don't have to be a fan. If anyhting, this'll serve as a great gateway to one of the great bands of the 1970s. My good bud Phil Freeman has a cool introduction to Hawkwind on his blog, as well as a wicked clip of Lemmy's classic "Silver Machine". You might also want to watch the BBC4 documentary on the band on YouTube, it's very entertaining. Oh, and for good measure, here's the great tune "Master of the Universe" from the classic live album Space Ritual. They just smoke on that track.

Being as big a fan of the Drive-By Truckers as I am, it's high time I wrote something about their new album The Big To-Do since I chose not to pitch a review for PopMatters (my writin' plate was too full at the time). I was a bit down on Brighter Than Creation's Dark, something I still stand by, it was 2/3 phenomenal and 1/3 filler, and I was hoping the band tightened things up on album number eight. And indeed they did, delivering an album that's much more focused, not to mention loud. The focus is specifically on their live, hard-rockin' sound, and there honestly isn't a dud on this one. It's mostly the Patterson Hood Show again...he's been on a nice creative roll these days, and he serves up some strong tracks in "Daddy Learned to Fly", "This Fucking Job", "After the Scene Dies", and the chilling "The Wig He Made Her Wear", always in storyteller mode, something I always enjoy. Mike Cooley's a bit low-key this time around, but his three tracks are superb: "Go Downtown" is a fun Chuck Berry knock-off, the touching "Eyes Like Glue" is the album's only acoustic tune, and "Birthday Boy" is flat-out the best song on the whole darn record. Cooley is a master lyricist, and he delivers a knockout of a verse in the latter song: "The pretty girls from the smallest towns / get remembered like storms and droughts / that old men talk about for years to come / I guess that's why they give us names / So a few old men can say they saw us rain when we were young." Shonna Tucker continues to improve; "You Got Another" is a dusky ballad with a powerhouse vocal turn by Tucker, while the lively "(It's Gonna Be) I Told You So" has a classic California country feel to it, reminiscent of Lone Justice and mid-70s Linda Ronstadt. In addition, artist Wes Freed pulls out all the stops in the snazzy gatefold and the lavish booklet, with illustrations for each song. This is a very welcome return to form, an album I would very much like to hear live...hopefully they come around here like they did two years ago.

One DBT track I really love is actually an LP-only bonus track called "Girls Who Smoke". To be honest I know why it was left off the CD, as it feels somewhat trite compared to the rest of the album, but on its own it's a cool little tune, an upbeat track in the same vein as their cover of Tom Petty's "Rebels", complete with snazzy "woo-ooh" backing vocals near the end. It's well worth seeking out.

Late tomorrow night I'll be posting a full recap of the big Alice Cooper/Rob Zombie show. Coop revealed a little bit about his new stage show, which will be much more focused on the theatrics than when I last saw him in 1990. There are plenty of shows I look forward to, but this one has me especially pumped, it appeals to the 14 year-old part of me that refuses to go away. It's going to be a blast.

On the new Cathedral album...

Tue, 20 Apr 2010 04:49:00 EDT

Sometimes I have an idea for my Blood & Thunder column decided months in advance, and sometimes I'm totally stuck until the very last second. This month, it was a pretty easy decision, as UK doom greats Cathedral came along and put out the extraordinary double album The Guessing Game. It's one of those records that people either love or hate, and most of the hate seems to be coming from the stauncher side of the metal crowd who disapprove of all the leanings toward progressive rock and psychedelic rock, wishing the band had stuck to the lumbering, heavy sounds of their 1990s output. Of course, I always like it when a band bucks trends, thinks outside boring genre parameters, and dares their fans to have more of an open mind. And normally double albums are gigantic, self-indulgent messes, more often tiresome than great, but much to my surprise I find The Guessing Game fascinating. All 84 minutes of it (or however long it is) keeps me interested, from the truly bizarre "Funeral of Dreams" to the whimsical "Journeys Into Jade", the latter a song that many people are calling embarrassing. I think lee Dorrian's little Cliffs Notes history of his band is fun, and thematically it's actually a good fit with the rest of the album.

Anyway, I had a very enjoyable chat with Dorrian a couple weeks ago. He's a very nice guy and a great interview, the kind of fast talker who actually knows how to form coherent sentences. In other words, very easy to transcribe and piece together an article on. And said article is now up at PopMatters, so I strongly suggest you give it a read, and hopefully it'll compel you to give the new album a listen. You might find it as cool as I do.

One part of the interview that I couldn't squeeze into the final draft is where Dorrian talks about collaborating with artist Dave Patchett, who has painted Cathedral's album covers pretty much forever. So I thought there's no better place to post that excerpt than here...

***

You've collaborated with Dave Patchett for so long now�how does your creative relationship work? Do you give him ideas, does he hear the new music beforehand?

"He's already started work on the next album now. I always have the idea way in advance. In fact I have the idea of the way the artwork's going to look before I've even written a song or have a song title. The two things trigger each other off. I go to Dave with the idea and the vision I have had, and we build upon that idea and he starts doing the artwork, and then as the idea and the concept for the artwork starts coming more and more together it triggers off ideas for me for lyrics. It works for me in a kind of strange way, but the artwork always comes first, then the riffs, then the lyrics. It is a weird way of doing it. It's one of those things, we've been together for so long, just doing things our own way, it�s kind of molded into this thing that seems to just works for us. It would be pretty hard for us to be a band and start from scratch and come up with stuff we do musically and artistically. It's just the way that we've disciplined ourselves and made it that much more cohesive by sticking at it over all this time.

"The Carnival Bizarre, that was the one that broke him down I think. [laughs] Because I told him that one had to be a masterpiece. I think he spent nine months working on that one every day. The new one, I think it took him three or four months, but he wasn't working on it constantly. He takes his time. Dave's a self-taught painter as well, I think he went to art college and lasted two weeks. Because of that I think it makes him more unique. A lot of people in the art world would probably not rate his art because it's not seen as contemporary, it�s more surrealistic. Even though the meanings are so significant. But because it's not considered to be modern art, he doesn�t get the praise he deserves. Maybe Dave's one of those days who's destined to get the praise in years to come."

Miscellany

Mon, 19 Apr 2010 06:16:00 EDT

My quote-unquote official review of Friday's Amon Amarth/Eluveitie show is up today at Hellbound. Go take a look!

It took a long time for America to catch up with the rest of the world, but the new album by Aussie rockers Airbourne is finally out this week. Metal labels seem to piling on the releases this week, most likely because Tuesday falls on that idiotic marijuana holiday. Anyway, I really had a blast with Airbourne's first album a couple years ago, and it's good to see absolutely nothing has changed with this band. They're good at ripping off vintage Australian barroom rock like AC/DC, Rose Tattoo, and Angel City, and they give us more of the same on No Guts. No Glory. With 13 songs on this one, though, they bite off a little more than they can chew. This stuff is always best enjoyes in 30-40 minute blasts, and any longer is just overkill. Hey, even the venerable AC/DC made the same mistake on Black Ice. Strip that album down to 35 minutes and it'd be killer. But Airbourne nevertheless keeps things fun enough on their second record, another big, goofy celebration of big goofy rock 'n' roll. here's my review, which had actually been sitting on the shelf for a month and a half because of that pushed-back release date. Actually for all the comparisons I make, another obvious band I forgot to mention is Krokus. When they were at their best they were a tremendous AC/DC rip-off band, as this great (and joyously stupid) song attests.

Late last week PopMatters also ran my review of the outstanding new Doves best-of. I've been a fan of that band from the beginning, ever since John Sakamoto was plugging their early singles on the Anti-Hit List, and it was great fun writing about that band yet again (my fourth Doves piece for PopMatters). I think they're the best singles band to come out of the 2000s...while their albums have become progressively less consistent over the years, their singles are always knockouts, and this collection proves it. Plus a few very astutely selected album tracks have been tossed in as well. If you don't own a Doves album yet, this is a fantastic place to start. If you've never heard Doves before, you really should listen to this song. And then this one. What a great band.

I also have a review of the new album by Swedish doom band Kongh. It's out on Seventh Rule, a label I always enjoy, and with a reputation like theirs you'd expect their taste in a doom band to be good, and indeed, Kongh has a lot of potential. Unlike most doom bands from over there, they have a decidedly American sound to them, often bearing quite a resemblance to YOB, the best doom band in America right now. So if you're into doom at all, you owe it to yourself to check this album out.

One recent review I forgot to mention is my piece on Raven's new one. It's weird, in my years of music writing I had not done anything on Raven, a band I was really, really into back around '85-'86. They're largely remembered now as one of the most infamous cases of major labels totally ruining a great underground metal band, but once upon a time those guys were great, albums like Rock Until You Drop and the classic All For One not only some of the most high-energy albums to come out of the NWOBHM era, but some of the most unique sounding as well. They had such a bizarre sound that it was an acquired taste for many, you had John Gallagher's strange voice that either sounded like a troll with a really bad sinus infection or that quitting time bird on the Flintstones (go to the 0:35 mark, you'll see what I mean), and his brother Mark had a very weird style, as if it was physically impossible for him to stop playing fast staccato riffs, sounding like a rhythm guitar player with severe ADD. But I dug it back then (Live at the Inferno was another fave, and I'll always defend "On and On") and I still do now. However, Raven hasn't been putting out much great music since 1987's respectable comeback Life's a Bitch, and when their new album Walk Through Fire came out not too long ago I wasn't exactly anxious to hear it. But when I did finally give it a listen I was very surprised, as it turns out to be a very spirited return to form, definitely the best thing I've heard from them in 20 years at least. John sounds as maniacal as ever, Mark's riffs are as loopy as he's ever sounded, and the new songs hold up quite well, so I was more than pleased to give it a good write-up.

Peter Steele, the hulking, inimitable frontman for goth metal pioneers Type O Negative and Brooklyn thrashers Carnivore, passed away last week at the painfully young age of 48. The tributes have been pouring in, which is really nice to see, but although his influence, especially with Type O Negative, cannot be denied, I was never a fan of that band. Back in the 80s I was into the darker, theatrical side of the gothic rock sound, stuff like Bauhaus, Sisters of Mercy, and the like, and I dug Danzig and the Misfits as well. Type O Negative just struck me as a big rip-off of all that stuff, too derivative of Danzig, playing up the goth thing to a ridiculous degree, and as "Black No. 1" blew up in 1993, it bored me, I'd heard that shtick before. I just didn't get it, right up until their last album Dead Again. If you ask me, I actually prefer Carnivore's stuff a lot more. But no matter what I think of the band, their influence was huge, and they were loved by many. The coolest thing about Steele was his very unique, dry sense of humour, which he projected both in his lyrics and in interviews. Unlike other clowns like Marilyn Manson who take themselves far too seriously, Steele had no problem poking fun at himself and his music, which is always welcome in such a bombastic genre. I have an old copy of Metallion magazine from 1986 which has a letter sent in from Steele, thanking the mag for their positive review of the first Carnivore album, saying, "With recommendations like yours, it won't take us long to get out of Brooklyn." He sure made it out, alright, and along the way he helped change a part of metal music forever.

I will readily admit, though, that "Unsuccessfully Coping With the Natural Beauty of Infidelity" is one of the most ridiculous songs I have ever heard, a strangely catchy, sometimes offensive, and often profane melodramatic piece that's not unlike something Jim Steinman would write, that is if he had severe emotional problems. It's like a car wreck you can't tear your eyes away from.

In other news, it's a week until the big Alice Cooper/Rob Zombie show. Yes, I am quite excited.

Ragnarok awaits!

Sat, 17 Apr 2010 05:04:00 EDT

With my present condition not getting much better, it would take one heckuva concert bill to compel me to spend 4 hours away from my medication, humidifier, and reflexology stuff. Nine times out of ten, if there was a show in town that I didn't have a ticket to, I wouldn't even bother in the state I'm in. But with Amon Amarth and Eluveitie playing at the Odeon last night, there was no way I was going to miss this. So I brought loads of extra strong mints (pretty much the only thing that can keep me from having a severe coughing fit these days) and headed out to see two of my favourite live bands.

However, first up was LA's Holy Grail, a traditional metal band formed by three former members of White Wizzard. Their set was adequate enough, definitely a refreshing change from the usual deathcore bands that plague these opening slots. These guys know their stuff, sounding like a combination of Armored Saint and Tokyo Blade, with a little speed metal tossed in, a lot better than White Wizzard sounded on their mediocre first EP from last year. Singer James Paul Luna was off and on, though...he can carry a tune, but he lacks the persona you need with this kind of music. He often seems in his own little world, shaggy hair always obscuring his face when he should really be getting the crowd involved, and although his intentions are obviously sincere, he sort of looks like a scene kid "playing" at classic metal. Still, the band was tight, the two guitarists did the twin solos and harmonies really well, and they even pulled out their cover of "Fast as a Shark", which all the kids probably thought was an original composition. They did one song that was absolutely ace...it's not on the EP I got in the mail a couple months ago and I can't remember the title. Bah. I'll recognize it when I hear it on their album later this year, I know that. It certainly wasn't dull, which is pretty much all you can ask for an opening band like that.

Next was Eluveitie, who I haven't seen since I toured with them two years ago on assignment for Metal Edge. On that little stint, seeing them every night was a real treat, I was just blown away how they can combine melodic death metal with acoustic instruments like violin, hurdy-gurdy, tin whistle, and bagpipes, and so was every crowd they played in front of. That was their first US tour, and they floored everyone who came out to see them. Two years later, they're a well-oiled machine. With eight band members and so many instruments, line checks have to be done swiftly, which was a bit of a problem on the first tour because so many venues employed total dolts who didn't know what they were doing. But now they're running a much tighter ship, and it was fascinating to watch. And funny too, as big cheers would go up every time a new, weird-for-metal instrument would be played. Their sound guy/tour manager Dave (quite the character, I had a lot of fun chats with the guy on the bus) has been touring with them for years, so he knows exactly how to get the right mix, and man, did he ever get it right on this night.

It's also amazing how word of mouth has spread regarding Eluveitie, as there were a lot of people there to see them, the floor was packed before their set started. People know that not only are they a cool band on record (destined to remain intact long after the "folk metal" fad has died), but they absolutely bring it live, and it's really nice to see them so warmly received now. I remember their first US show was at the New England Metal & Hardcore fest in Worcester, and the kids in the crowd were very skeptical of all the nerdy instruments. But half an hour later, they were all dancing like crazy. Everyone knew what to expect this time around, though, and the place erupted from the second they started. It was a very good 45 minute set, the highlights for me being "Quoth the Raven" (the best song off their new album), "Inis Mona" (of course), and the rousing, epic closer "Tegernak�", which had the place absolutely jumping. Here's the setlist, which I think is 99% accurate:

Otherworld
Nil
Thousandfold
Bloodstained Ground
Grey Sublime Archon
The Somber Lay
Inis Mona
Quoth the Raven
(Do)minion
Tegernak�

As opposed to the combination of muscle and nuance that Eluveitie excels at live, Amon Amarth is always strictly about brute force. Well, brute force and sounding catchy as all get-out as they do so. I'd liked them for years, but seeing them for the first time in 2008 was a real eye-opener. They destroy live. Some of their older songs feel a little stale on record, but egads, do they ever sound phenomenal live, one great example being "The Pursuit of Vikings", which sounded okay on The Fate of Norns. Performed live it's a totally different story, it's an enormously fun tune that the entire crowd gets into. They are just a phenomenal act, and their 90 minute set, led by the swarthy, bearded Johan Hegg, had me and many others grinning ear to ear. It was also great to see them playing a longer set this time around, 16 songs compared to 13 in 2008. And although they focused most of their attention on the last two albums (six from Twilight of the Thunder God and five from ,i>With oden on Our Side) and ignored The Crusher and The Avenger, it's a decision I am perfectly fine with, as the last two albums are by far their most consistent work. Especially Thunder God...the quality of that album is so high, every time they played a track from it the place went nuts, each song is a perfect balance of brutality and melody. Those six songs were obvious highlights for me, but my favourite was the ubiquitous "Death in Fire", which is arguably their finest track ever. It's one of those killer live songs, it's made to be played LOUD, meant to sound thunderous. And the yellow/orange/red lighting they used during the song was a clever visual effect, it looked like they were playing right smack in the middle of Mount Doom. It was hot enough to be Mount Doom too, the place was sweltering, and when the show ended I hobbled back out to the car, glad I'd endured sore feet and a handful of coughing fits. It was a very fun way to take my mind off my stupid debilitating condition. Viking metal is always the perfect prescription! Here's the complete setlist (and what a setlist!):

Twilight of the Thunder God
Free Will Sacrifice
Valkyries Ride
Asator
Varyags of Miklagaard
Dragon's Flight Across the Waves
Guardians of Asgaard
Under the Northern Star
Tattered Banners And Bloody Flags
Valhall Awaits Me
Death in Fire
Runes To My Memory
...And Soon the World Will Cease to Be
Live for the Kill

Encore:
Cry of the Black Birds
The Pursuit of Vikings

And just because I like the song so durn much, here's "Death in Fire" performed at Wacken last summer. Complete with real fire!

More to come tomorrow, I promise...

Back, finally.

Tue, 13 Apr 2010 05:21:00 EDT

A thousand apologies for the lack of activity here as of late, but right up until a couple hours ago I was absolutely swamped with interviews, writing assignments, interview transcribing (which I am the worst at), new music to listen to and quickly assess...plus if that wasn't enough I was walloped by a devastating bout of asthma, and merely sitting at the computer was, and to a lesser extent still is, a battle. So considering much of the last ten days involved sitting at the computer, it was not much fun at all. Consequently any time I could spend away from this darn machine I took advantage of, and so the blogging had to take a backseat. I've since offset the medication with the holistic route, so in addition to struggling to breathe I reek of eucalyptus, tea tree oil, and menthol. Bleh. But I have to get back on the horse sometime, so why not now?

There are a couple of new reviews I have to mention over at PopMatters, which if you haven't seen it yet, has been completely redesigned, beautifully so if you ask me. Very clean, not cluttered by distracting ads, allowing more room for the actual text, which is so key, my columns in the past looked so darn narrow. Anyway, my two reviews are actually of bands whose debut EPs I reviewed for Hellbound late last year. How's that for odd? I really, really dug Black Breath's last one, and knowing that Kurt Ballou was going to produce the Seattle band's debut full-length only sweetened the deal more. You knew this album would deliver, and lo and behold, Heavy Breathing does just that. I was actually surprised at just how varied it is. I was expecting nothing but good old, straight-ahead d-beat hardcore and old-timey thrash, but they've now tossed in some very cool groove passages reminiscent of Entombed's Wolverine Blues into the mix. Coupled with some improved songwriting (see "Virus" for a particularly awesome example), and you've got one of my favourite albums of the year so far. This thing scorches. Here's my review.

On the other end of the extreme music spectrum is Barren Earth, whose first EP I also enjoyed, but for different reasons. The band is led by two former members of Amorphis and fronted by the singer from the always-good Swallow the Sun, and the influence of the classic Tales From the Thousand Lakes is more than apparent, as the band injects some cool Slavic melodies into their Opethian take on progressive metal. The new album continues right where the EP left off, full of classy, tastefully performed compositions that are so well-developed that you'd think this is the band's fifth album, not their first. Not only that, but Mikko Kotamaki turns in the strongest, most varied vocal performance we've ever heard from him. This band is far too good to be a one-off...here's the review.

Meanwhile, the new issue of Decibel is out...you know, the one with you-know-who on the cover. I haven't gotten it yet (I'm really interested in reading J Bennett's piece...it's gotten an interesting reaction so far), but I might as well plug some of my own writing that appears in the issue. First off, I have a cool feature on doom band Hour of 13. Their last album placed highly on Decibel's top 40 list in 2008, and I fully expect The Ritualist to do the same. It's actually the superior record, a really cool combination of traditional doom (with a huge emphasis on melody) with some very effective shock rock leanings. I talked to singer Phil Swanson, and he went into great detail about how much he admires the lyric writing of the likes of King Diamond, Alice Cooper, and Coven: over the top, theatrical, and with a strong tendency toward the Satanic. If you want the best example of what these guys are all about, "Naked Star" is the track to listen to (sorry, I can't find a link!). It sounds like it came right off of Black Sabbath's Heaven and Hell. Only you can rest assured Phil's definitely not singing about evil women and rainbows.

As for reviews, I was glad to get the Alcest assignment once again. This band is very near and dear to me as you probably are well aware of, and it was fun writing a piece about the follow-up. I'll always give Souvenirs d'un Autre Monde the nod for purely sentimental reasons, but speaking objectively, Ecailles de Lune is actually the better record. Neige just nails those shoegaze/dreampop influences even better this time around, and not only that, but the little tinge of darkness gives the new album an even more mysterious vibe, the black metal vocals even brought out from time to time to accentuate the bleakness. In the end this album is again all about that pastoral beauty, only this time around the clouds have descended a lot more significantly than last time.

Oh, and if you were wondering just what I'm blathering about in the deck of the Alcest review, it's a quote from "Wales Visitation", my favourite Allen Ginsberg poem. Alcest always, always reminds me of that poem, the music complements Ginzy's words so effectively. So on the Souvenirs review I used the line, "heaven balanced on a grassblade" (so perfect), and on the new one I quoted, "a solid mass of heaven, mist-infused." Yeah, that's right, for all the metal coverage I'm just a bleeding-heart wuss deep down.

Back to the decibel stuff, I also review the hotly anticipated new album by Landmine Marathon. I absolutely loved their last one, but the new CD falls flat in many respects. Much of it sounds good enough, but it still feels like a bit of a disappointment. Besides, everyone says they kill live, so why can't they ever translate that intensity onto record? I was far too kind, they don't deserve a 7, I should have given it a 6.

One good thing about my illness as of late is that it gave me a good chance to plow through Ozzy Osbourne's excellent autobiography. My expectations going in were pretty low, as with the man's deteriorating condition over the years I didn't expect there to be many revelations, what with the chemically-induced memory loss and all, but it turned out to be quite an enthralling read. He goes into great detail about his youth in Aston, his first incarceration, the formation of Black Sabbath, and the wild, decade-long ride that band endured. Of course there are a lot of salacious details and very funny stories, but I'm always interested in the stories behind the music, and he does provide a lot from the Sabbath years. By the time he gets to his solo career, not so much. The Randy Rhoads years get a lot of detail, he clearly loved the guy like a son and the story of the fatal plane crash is harrowing, but from 1983 on, it becomes all about his addiction, his life spiraling out of control, and how his wife Sharon time and again bailed the guy out, often figuratively and sometimes literally. And wow, did he ever spiral out of control. We always known he was messed up in the '80s, but just how much was beyond us. In fact, I had no idea just how hard he'd fallen off the wagon as recently as seven years ago. It hasn't been until just recently that Ozzy's been totally (so he claims) clean, which is just amazing. How that guy is still alive amazes Ozzy as much as it does the rest of us. Anyway, it's a terrific, highly entertaining book, you'll get a huge kick out of it, as I certainly did.

Ozzy's stories about the legendary California Jam in 1974 were interesting, how Sabbath went on and destroyed in the sunshine, how Deep Purple was positively incendiary, and how Emerson Lake & Palmer pulled out all the stops, including a flying grand piano, one of the most ludicrous things you will ever see. Thank goodness the show was broadcast on radio and TV, because the audio bootleg is great, and there are some phenomenal YouTube clips out there...Sabbath is wickedly good here, they're coming off a career high in Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, they sound sleeker (probably because Tony Iommi had shorn his 'stache), and Ozzy is wearing some absolutely ridiculous Ronald McDonald pants. Do yourself a favour and watch them tear through "Killing Yourself to Live" and "Children of the Grave". Ozzy is on, both vocally and involving who knows what chemicals.

Pop metal goes meta.

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 06:39:00 EDT

Sudden severe changes to a band's lineup is always a dicey idea, but in metal it seems the anxiety among fans is amplified a hundredfold whenever that happens. Just look at what happened to Cryptopsy in 2008, they had to ride out a veritable tsunami of bad PR when they underwent a significant personnel overhaul. This year, it's Romania's Negura Bunget that is on the receiving end of a ton of negative vibes from fans. Who could blame the fans, either? After all, two members of the trio abruptly left the band a year ago, assuming that both parties would go their separate ways. However, drummer Negru decided to keep the Negura Bunget brand alive, bringing in a bevy of new musicians to tour and write and record a new album. Needless to say, there are a lot of metal fans up in arms over this...here you have a band that put out one of the finest extreme metal albums of the 2000s in the incredible Om, two crucial members, including the vocalist split, and this dude still has the gall to put out another album? On paper, this is akin to Doug Yule putting out the notorious Squeeze album under the Velvet Underground name, one of the most disastrous moments of hubris in rock history. That said, we shouldn't be so quick to condemn Negru's actions until we've heard the new album in its entirety. I haven't heard it yet, but I'm willing to give it a chance. The whole situation made for an interesting article, so I put something together for PopMatters, resulting in my new column, in which I grill Negru about the whole kerfuffle, the new album and (yet another gimmick that ticks metal fans off) the re-recording of their second album. I have to give the guy credit, he answered a lot of tough questions graciously and eloquently, and I think the piece turned out very well.

On a side note, I'll readily admit I had no idea who Negura Bunget was until Terrorizer put Om near the top of their best-of-2006 list, but it didn't take long for me to find out what all the fuss was about. It's a very ambitious, diverse, sonically rich piece of atmospheric, pagan-themed black metal, one of those records where you discover something new with each listen. If V�rstele Păm�ntului is half as great as that album, it'll be a small miracle. We'll just have to wait and see...

Also over at PopMatters I reviewed the new album by the Dillinger Escape Plan. And I have to tell you, that's a pretty darn generous seven out of ten I gave it. The fact is, after having Option Paralysis for well over two months, it doesn't knock me out like Calculating Infinity, Miss Machine, and the masterpiece Ire Works did. Like I say in the review, it's their own fault for setting the bar so high each time out. Sooner or later you're going to either run out of surprises or merely stick to one particular sound, and that's happened here. It's not a Bad album at all, there are times where they come up with some exceptional pieces (like "Farewell, Mona Lisa"), but for the first time the DEP sounds predictable, even complacent. In fact, I can't see myself revisiting this album much in the future, it doesn't grab me like all their previous stuff has. The fact that the Dillinger Escape Plan will not make my best of 2010 list just might go down as the year's biggest surprise.

I also reviewed the new Helloween album, but the less said about that one, the better. It's one of the worst albums by a metal band I have ever hears. Ever. Worse than Cold Lake, worse than The Pack is Back, worse than Gods of War, worse than Bruce-less Maiden. The band has been on a downward spiral for a while now, but with this collection of, erm, re-imagined classics, they've truly hit rock bottom. They might as well give up, each new album tarnishes the legacy of their groundbreaking first three albums.

As for my Hellbound content, I tackled the hugely enjoyable new one by Unleashed. I always like these guys, they're like the Bachman Turner Overdrive of death metal, they have a formula, they like that formula, and as goofy as they sometimes sound, they sell that formula with passion every single time. And As Yggdrasil trembles is their best record in quite some time. Normally a chorus of "VIKING DEATH METAL!!!" would have us rolling our eyes, but Johnny Hedlund does it with such passion that we want to shout along with him. I'd get a kick out of seeing these guys live, I know it.

One metal album that has people very, very anxiously awaiting is the new one by the great Nevermore. It's been five long years since the excellent This Godless Endeavor (to this day I hate spelling that word the American way, I greatly prefer the classy "endeavour", which in turn evokes fond childhood memories of the Endeavour, Saskatchewan Perogy Festival, but I digress), and Nevermore is one of the most consistent, not to mention underrated American metal bands of the last 15 years, so needless to say expectations are through the roof for the new one. Well, I was lucky enough to get an early advance of The Obsidian Conspiracy, and I really like what I hear. Although it just might rub some die-hards the wrong way. Nevermore is the absolute best at balancing melody and heaviness, the powerful and contemplative singing of Warrel Dane offset by the prodigious riffing of Jeff Loomis, and that's what we want to hear brutal riffs, cannonading drumming, and the commanding presence of Dane leading the way. And we do get such moments, as on the brilliant title track, "Moonrise (Through Mirrors of Death)", and "Termination Proclamation", phenomenal examples of their mastery of the form. But we're also privy to some surprising examples of restraint rather than bombast, and that's going to catch a lot of people off guard. Many of the songs are streamlined; "Your Poison Throne" is dark but Loomis eases up on the complex flourishes, "Emptiness Unobstructed" is downright poppy in its directness, "The Day You Built the Wall" is not unlike the approach of the classier moments of Queensryche's Empire album, and horror of horrors, "The Blue Marble and the New Soul" is an unabashed power ballad. In fact I'd go as far as calling this the boldest Nevermore album to date...just not in the way that many of us would have expected. It's the sound of a band realizing that you don't always have to beat your audience over their heads, sometimes it's better to toy with them, to explode out of the gate, to bring the mood down, then to absolutely clobber the listener again. There's top-notch songwriting going on here, and right now my favourite song is "She Comes in Colors", in which Loomis and Dane tinker with dynamics with a skill and confidence they'd only hinted at before. Overall, this is a very concise album (clocking in at a tidy 45 minutes) that doesn't overstay its welcome, yet another exemplary piece of work by this great band. I was hoping I'd like it, but I'm quite surprised at how much I'm enjoying this thing.

Lastly, I'm surprised that nobody is mentioning the incredible meta-moment on the new Scorpions album. There's a song called "Sly" that at first comes off as just your everyday power ballad, albeit one with a rather odd title. But pay attention to the lyrics: "She was born with a song in the air / In the summer of '85." Hmm, I wonder what was a huge song in the summer of 1985? "Still Loving You" perhaps? Not only that, but in Martin Popoff's book The Top 500 Metal Songs of All Time he has a quote from Rudolf Schenker, in which the Scorps guitarist talks about "Still Loving You": "This song was unbelievably big in France. We sold 1.8 million singles, just that song...we met this guy and this woman and they came up to us and said they were big fans and they said, 'We named our daughter Sly' and we said, 'Sly, why?' 'Because of "Still Loving You", S-L-Y.'" So there you go, a Scorpions power ballad named after a girl who was named after another Scorpions power ballad. Amazing.

Metal, not metal, who cares, I just crave good music.

Fri, 26 Mar 2010 06:10:00 EDT

Celtic Frost might have died a sudden, rather ugly death when Tom Fischer abruptly severed his ties with the band a couple of years ago, this coming on the heels of the monumental 2006 comeback album Monotheist, but with his new band Triptykon Fischer doesn't miss a beat whatsoever. In fact, the incredible new album Eparistera Daimones (Crowleyspeak for, "To the left, demons") is a logical follow-up to that final Celtic Frost record...which, if you're like me and was completely blindsided by Monotheist four years ago, can only be a really, really good thing. And not only is this directly related, it's actually even heavier, as Fischer continues to indulge his doomier side more and more. If there's one difference, it's that Triptykon's approach is a lot blunter, and you get the feeling that Martin Ain played a big role in creating the lavish, ornate atmosphere of Monotheist. The new record does have its pensive moments (I just love the contrast between Fischer's distinct, ravaged growl and his cleaner, Peter Murphy-style singing), as well as a couple ambient pieces featuring female vocals, but for the most part this is one bruising, primal album, and coupled with the incredible H.R. Giger artwork, this is a package you need to experience in full. Of course, I had to review it. So make sure you pick this sucker up...but my Canadian buds will have to wait until next week, as distribution ineptitude by EMI has led to an unexpected delay.

And speaking of bruising and primal, that's a pretty good way to describe death greats Immolation. They've been putting out some very good albums as of late, and the trend continues with Majesty and Decay...it's nothing new, basically the kind of uber-brutal, blue-collar death metal they've been churning out for ages, but this one has some particularly good songs, it's not just in one ear and out the other, there's texture and dynamics going on here. My review's here...if you're sick of deathcore children getting all the attention, this is proof gain that the old death bands will always reign supreme.

Meanwhile, if you like your doom metal to be of the traditional variety, if you yearn for another Epicus Doomicus Metallicus or Nightfall, you absolutely have to hear the new album by Apostle of Solitude. Don't let the cover fool you, either, this is some high class music by a band that's not only capable of some killer Sabbatherian riffs, but also some of the more engaging melodic vocals you'll hear these days. In fact, so good is Last Sunrise that I think it's superior to the last couple records by the Gates of Slumber, a band I like a lot. It's all in those vocals, Chuck Brown is a total throwback lead singer, convincing and powerful, exactly what the style demands. And if this album wasn't good enough, they toss in some great covers at the end, including a rip-roaring run-through of the Misfits' "Astro Zombies". So read my review, sample some tracks, and head on over to Profound Lore to order a copy of this fine little CD.

Whenever I decide to devote more time to one side of my music writing, another side inevitably falls behind. That's definitely the case this year as I've been working hard at churning out the metal reviews and articles, and as a result I haven't been spending much time with the non-metal stuff. Of course it's also because there hasn't been much that's blown me away so far this year. Charlotte Gainsbourg's IRM is at times great and others merely okay (I'm really sick of Beck), Marina & the Diamonds goes too far over the top too often, These New Puritans' new album isn't as great as the single, and I'm not sold on buzz bands like Beach House and Yeasayer. And I don't buy into Joanna Newsom's gimmick for a second. Of course, some biggies are on the horizon, such as Canadian heavyweights Caribou, Broken Social Scene, New Pornographers, Arcade Fire, and Stars, so all hope is not lost yet. If there's a clear indie rock winner so far, it's the Besnard Lakes' Are the Roaring Night, an album that could very likely top my Polaris ballot come June. I'll get into that more int he future...plus there's no way I'm going to miss their stop here next month, I've been waiting a long time for them to come here.

One album that I haven't written about here yet that I love is Goldfrapp's Head First. As you may or may not know, I'm a total fanboy when it comes to Goldfrapp, from day one, and Alison & Will would have to put out a real turkey to make me not like it. With this album, I was a little concerned, as lead single "Rocket" turned out to be a lot more pedestrian sounding than anything else they'd done before: "Jump" synths, bassline reminiscent of "Xanadu", a shamelessly upbeat pop hook. As accessible as Goldfrapp has become over the last decade, there still has always been a mystique to their music, a touch of darkness, but this time around it's all about the immediate, on-the-surface pleasures. Or at least that's our initial reaction. While La Roux and Little Boots take on 80s synth pop in a blunt, almost shrill fashion, Goldfrapp shows the youngsters how it's done, and as middle-of-the-road as these songs feel, they are superbly, immaculately crafted. I guess that's what makes Goldfrapp so intoxicating time and and again. They don't just dabble in different styles, they dive in (oh no, sorry for this) head first. They're embracing everything from Giorgio Moroder, to Laurie Anderson, to Dirk Diggler, and while it's not their most cutting-edge release, it's definitely their most subversive and daring.

Oh, and Goldfrapp's on Jonathan Ross in the UK tonight, and I'll post the YouTube link here later today.

I don't know why so many critics are down on the new album by Sweden's jj. Last year's jj no 2 was a sublime little album that came out from nowhere and charmed us all (my goodness, "From Africa to Malaga" is still drop dead gorgeous), but because the duo's follow-up was rushed out a year later with no real new ideas, that feeling of discovery isn't there anymore. It always happens, sometimes justifiably, but this time around I don't think people are being very fair to the new record. Yes, they're covering that Lil Wayne guy once again, but Elin Kastlander takes the Game's atrocious, vocoder-ridden "My Life" and turns it into a beautiful, murky piano ballad. And those gentle Balearic touches persist, which some might find repetitive, but I find it all endearing. The big reason I continue to like jj is in Kastlander's vocals...like Camera Obscura's Tracyanne Campbell there's a slight detached quality that I really dig, the sound of a girl trying hard to hide her devastation but not doing a very good job of it. If that makes any sense. "Let Go" is the single of the moment, but in my opinion the real keeper is "Voi Parlate, Io Gioco". At any rate jj no 3 is a wonderful complement to the previous album (apparently the tracks on both albums were written at the same time)...there's no reason to feel jaded, just let this album grow on you. Because given the chance it'll do just that.

Burzum.

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 05:06:00 EDT

For the longest time I couldn't be bothered to listen to Burzum. Why even bother? Varg Vikernes is a convicted murderer, arsonist, anti-Semite, homophobe, and all-around sociopath, so why on earth should I even begin to investigate this music if it was made by such an idiot? I'd see the odd person at a metal show sporting a shirt with the ubiquitous Burzum logo and think, either that fella has serious problems or he's just some hipster looking for some sort of reaction. The idea of developing an appreciation of Burzum's music seemed completely impossible to me. If you show your support for Burzum, you're supporting Varg Vikernes and every evil and horribly misguided ideal he stands for. It wasn't worth the time, I figured, and when I met a large group of fellow metal writers in Europe, those who actually heard of Burzum (I was amazed that there were people who hadn't), they didn't hesitate to say they would never, ever give that music any attention whatsoever. That sentiment was especially strong among the German contingent, and I was regaled with stories about how careful one has to be over there, as far as attracting attention from National Socialism goes. Neo-Nazi paranoia is rampant, and most metal writers, at least the ones writing for the glossy magazines, won't even broach the subject of Burzum.

I had only heard Vikernes's music in passing, and like so many others in North America, the first time I heard Burzum was during the pretentious, patently awful Harmony Korine atrocity Gummo in 1997 or 1998, where an excerpt from "Rundgang Um Die Transzendentale S�ule Der Singularit�t" was played (at the 1:26 mark of this clip for those interested). It's a haunting, minimalist piece, but it certainly wasn't enough to compel me to track down his records. It wasn't until 2006 where I started to get more curious about the subject. I was looking for the best album of his to start off with, and was recommended the 1996 album Filosofem. It started off in surprisingly understated fashion, first with the brooding "Dunkelheit" (those haunting synth notes simply echoing the melody of the riff) and the more straightforward black metal of "Jesus' Tod", but it was "Erblicket Die T�chter Des Firmaments" that got me, big time. That stately intro that goes on for 65 seconds, then that absolutely killer riff that snakes along for the better part of seven minutes. Right then and there any prejudice about Burzum went out the window. Coupled with the slow crawl of the drums, it was trance-like as Vikernes snarls lyrics that, while not necessarily the most poetic you'll read, were incredibly effective in conveying the feeling of desolation and isolation: "I wonder how life will be / With a death that I shall never see / I wonder why life must be / A life that lasts eternally."

That was the moment I realized that I could appreciate Burzum the band separately from Varg Vikernes the person. While his notorious acts were only sporadically referenced in his art (the cover of the Aske EP features a photo of the scorched remains of Fantoft stave church, which he burned down), Burzum's music itself never feels connected to Vikernes's criminal acts. The lyrics either dwell on Tolkien-inspired fantasy themes, introspective themes, and explorations into Nordic mythology and heritage. For a guy with such right-right-wing political views, the music is surprisingly apolitical.

It's just like regular people�take a bunch of musicians and you're bound to find one or two that are total jerks. But that has never stopped people from showing appreciation for talented musicians who turn out to be despicable human beings. Miles Davis is the most obvious example; he was a notorious abuser of women, yet that never stopped fawning fans and critics from piling on the accolades. People don't bat an eye about listening to classic albums by Judas Priest even though the drummer is now a convicted child molester. When Vince Neil killed Razzle Dingley of Hanoi Rocks in 1984 in a drunk driving accident, that didn't stop Motley Cr�e from becoming an even bigger band. Ike & Tina Turner created some of the most timeless R&B ever recorded, but we all know what a monster Ike was. And how many rap artists have cashed in on their criminal activity?

With Vikernes it's considerably different, though. First of all, he killed someone, his former friend, bandmate, and peer, and was convicted of first degree murder. Second, he was responsible for the destruction of two historic buildings, and even though a lot of people have justifiable qualms with Christianity and organized religion in general, that's no excuse for burning down a marvel of human craftsmanship. Third, he has never shut up about his racist and homophobic views, he keeps going on and on about it to anyone who will listen. Lastly, and most disturbingly, he seems completely without remorse. To this day he makes no apologies for his actions. This guy isn't just a jerk, he's a sorry excuse for a human being, and it's very easy to see why many people would have a problem with supporting this man's art by buying his CDs or t-shirts.

Yet to this day I listen to Burzum and feel comfortable in knowing that I'm able to separate the art from the artist. As long as you're aware of just what kind of person is behind this music, there's nothing wrong with saying you enjoy Burzum. I'm not ashamed in the least to say I do. From the ingenious blend of abrasion, anguish, and ambience on the ingenious Filosofem (easily his best work), to the less refined but equally compelling Hvis Lyset Tar Oss, to the all-out rawness of his early work, namely Det Som Engang Var (the Celtic Frost-esque string bends on "Lost Wisdom" are wicked), I find more depth in Burzum's music than I do in such other classics from the Norwegian Black Metal heyday as De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas, Transilvanian Hunger, and In the Nightside Eclipse, great as those albums are. Burzum excelled in so many areas where his peers couldn't nail as well: economy, atmospherics (okay, Mayhem is right up there in that department too), discipline, melody, and of course mystique. Vikernes's guitar-less albums Dau�i Baldrs and Hli�skj�lf , which were recorded in prison are rather boring forays into neo-classical music, but that insanely prolific period from 1992 to 1993 is an incredible achievement, four albums and an EP's worth of highly influential, intense, and yes, at times even beautiful music.

When Vikernes announced he was going back to guitar-based music after his release from prison in early 2009, even though I like that early-90s stuff, it's not like I was excited at the prospect. After all, his last two albums gave no indication that any future music Burzum put out would be of worth. And even though they're completely unrelated, I kept thinking of just how disappointing Dissection's final album Reinkaos was after Jon N�dtveidt was released from jail after serving seven years for being an accessory to manslaughter. Compared to something as seminal as The Somberlain, Reinkaos was totally pedestrian melodic death metal and devoid of any good ideas, and I sort of expected the new Burzum album to be in a similar vein, out of step with that early melodic black metal discography and out of touch from what extreme metal has become over the last 15 years. And it sure didn't help when Vikernes announced the album would be called, of all things, The White God Although Vikernes insists the album is about the "white gods" of European mythology (Apollo, Belus, Baldr, etc.) and not conveying some sort of Aryan message, the announcement led to a furious backlash, to the point where Vikernes abandoned the original idea for the more tasteful title (and album cover) of Belus

Even though I was slated to get an advance copy (along with nearly 200 members of the metal media), I was still curious enough to give the album a listen when it was leaked a month ago (a whole other can of worms, as everyone from Earache Records owner Digby Pearson to my fellow writers openly posted download links in protest to Vikernes's general pigheadedness), and not only was I struck by just how respectable Belus sounded at first, but this album has a lot more going for it than I had ever expected.

In a way Burzum is regressing and progressing at the same time. Vikernes went back to the famed Grieghallen studio in Bergen, where all his best work was recorded, and used pretty much the same method as he did in the early 90s: just him, a very raw guitar sound, and he himself handling the drums in very simple fashion. On the other hand, this is clearly an attempt at reinvention, with plenty of subtle changes tossed in that go beyond the rather obvious logo alteration. There are no synths this time, which is hammered home on "Belus' Doed", which is a complete reconstruction of "Dau�i Baldrs", guitars replacing MIDI files. Vocally it's different as well, Vikernes settling for a more controlled snarl as opposed to the anguished screams that helped make his early work so unsettling. Not only that, but he even delves into actual clean singing on the eleven-minute standout "Glemselens Elv" and although he's no Mikael Akerfeldt-style crooner, his rather simple vocal delivery works surprisingly well on a track that brilliantly hearkens back to the buried melodies of Hvis Lyset Tar Oss.

"Kaimadalthas' Nedstigning" is arguably the best track on the album, built around a dense, atonal, noisy riff that sounds more industrial-derived than anything else, but goes on to make terrific use of dynamics during its six minutes. The second half of the album carries on in a more workmanlike fashion (I guess you could read that as a polite way of saying he's coasting a bit), not as experimental as the first half, "Sverddans" and "Keliohesten" taking off in a more primal direction, but "Morgenroede" carries on in that hypnotic, almost modal fashion we expect from Burzum, eventually morphing into the closing instrumental "Belus' Tilbakekomst (Konklusjon)", which essentially follows suit with more of the same, a rather straightforward but catchy chord progression atop a modal rhythm guitar track with minimally plucked bass and a metronomic kick drum beat. In the end it's a shockingly strong, spiritedl album by a guy whose best years I thought were well behind him. If I were to give Filosofem a 9, Belus would definitely warrant a good, solid 7.

It was a cool stroke of luck that I got to spend some time in Norway right as my interest in Burzum was starting to peak, and as I explored Oslo I was amazed at just how readily available all the albums are over there. We all know he's the most notorious musical figure in the country, so his reputation alone must sell records, because I found copies of his CDs everywhere: mall record stores, mainstream shops on Karl Johansgaten, stores that otherwise specialize in cool indie rock, and of course the metal stores. In fact, spelunking away in the metal treasure trove that is Neseblod Records, it was quite amazing to see all the loving tributes to Mayhem mastermind �ystein "Euronymous" Aarseth on the walls, yet at the same time there was no shortage of memorabilia that centered on the man who murdered him in 1993. Sure, a Burzum demo tape or press release can fetch a pretty penny, but the vibe I also got was that although the store is run by people who either knew or greatly admire the work of Euronymous, but they feel like they have to give the musical influence of Burzum its due as well.

I know there will be some black metal scenesters out there who will look at this lengthy rant and roll their eyes, thinking, okay, here's another hipster delivering yet another long-winded, hand-wringing attempt to justify his enjoyment of Burzum. Well, there are reasons why every single article not written by an underground metal blog or zine addresses Varg Vikernes's past crimes and present beliefs. First, it's genuinely fascinating to try and figure out why we like the music that we do. But most importantly, the music of Burzum and the actions of Varg Vikernes the man must be addressed at the same time. He brought that on himself, those two sides will be inextricably linked for good, and to simply sweep all the terrible things he has said and done under the rug just because it's been written about to death is just plain irresponsible. What Varg Vikernes did and what he still believes in that twisted head of his cannot be forgotten. It's when the rest of us, folks who do know the difference between right and wrong, become fully aware of what makes that dude tick that we can give his music a listen and decide for ourselves whether we as individuals can accept the music of Burzum for what it is or decide that it's impossible to get past Varg the scumbag. Personally, I know where I stand. And I think I'm going to give Filosofem another listen right now. It's up to everyone else to decide for themselves.

Change? What's that?

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 06:53:00 EDT

Early this week you might have noticed this blog had vanished completely. It was as big a surprise for me as well, and it turned out that whoever owns the Pitas domain had failed to renew it, so the entire thing went kablooey. It took a few days, but the same person (who supposedly lives in Ontario) renewed Pitas.com for another year, and everything slowly returned to normal. But it did give me a bit of a scare. Until then I didn't really know just how I rely on this silly blog...most of this page is me spouting off about inconsequential subjects and plugging my writing, but then there's other stuff like concert setlists, interview excerpts, accounts of the few trips I've made, little personal anecdotes, and of course, my year-end lists, the most fun thing about running this blog. I've put a lot of time in this page over the past nine years, and to see it vanish suddenly had me down in the dumps for a while there.

It also got me wondering if I should just cave and move the blog over to something like wordpress. Pitas predates all those other blog things like blogger, blogspot, and wordpress, and doesn't have any of the bells & whistles that all the more cutting edge blog sites boast. If I wanted to design the page, I had to learn code. If I wanted to add an RSS feed, I had to figure out how to do that. I archive it all practically by hand. There's nothing automatic about Pitas. And forget about enabling comments! But the fact is, I like the primitiveness, the simplicity of this page and the Pitas interface. I can keep it completely spartan and clean, it's extremely easy to manage. Hilariously, if this isn't a prime example of what I am as a person I don't know what is: when I like something I stick with it for good. No messing about. I like my routines, and if it ain't broke, I'm sure not going to fix it. And to be honest I don't need the typical blog bells & whistles. Though I might comment off and on at Cosmo's blog, I don't like comment boxes at blogs, I don't do this to fish for sycophantic comments by readers (nor do I want to have to deal with the inevitable trolls), plus if someone wants to contact me, they're more than welcome to, my email address has always been prominently displayed at the top of the page. There was no ambition behind this blog, it's always been me nattering along, wondering if anyone's reading but not really minding either way. From day one I have no idea how many people read this page (there's another example of just how antiquated Pitas is!), and I sort of like that. However, if you do stop by here regularly, I thank you, and hope you'll continue to do so at this address. I can see myself winding up making the switch, as the blog wipeout was infuriating, but for now, I'll be here like I always have.

Okay, so back to the routine. Ah, routine, what would I do without it? Anyway, there's been more writing to mention since all this bidness went down. At PopMatters I tackle the amazing new album by Bay Area greats Ludicra. I got into them back in 2006 when Fex Urbis Lex Orbis appeared in my mail and proceeded to blow me away, and The Tenant is even better. I actually had several months to let this album settle, which is always a good thing when you have an adventurous progressive extreme metal band rolling out multiple nine minute tracks. And this album does indeed reward multiple listens. It's as classy a metal album as you'll hear, and like I mention in the piece, it's not unlike the last Enslaved album, a significant move into "cleaner" territory while at the same time still remaining rooted in black metal. Not that they're black metal at all; instead they've become somethnig entirely original, whether it's the folk-ish passages, the female vocals that range from snarled to hauntingly sung, or totally indebted to the NWOBHM (John Cobbett unleashes some incredible old school riffs and solos on this record, something we haven't really heard on a Ludicra record before). Simply a wonderful release by Profound Lore (the artwork and design is gorgeous), so by all means, seek it out.

Meanwhile, there's the new EP by Acrassicauda. If you're not familiar, they're the band from the great documentary Heavy Metal in Baghdad (and if you haven't seen it, make sure you do). In the film when we do get to hear them play they show promise, but they're clearly a long way off yet. However, in the past year they've moved to the US and have been working with Testament guitarist Alex Skolnick, refining and tightening their sound, and while their debut EP isn't terribly original, there are definitely signs of bigger things to come, namely the ace tune "Garden of Stones". Don't let their association with hipster mag Vice scare you off, either; this is good, solid, honest, credible metal. And when you see their movie, you just want them to realize their dream when all's said and done. Nobody has suffered and battled for their music quite like these guys have, the journey has only just begun.

Over at Hellbound I had a rather fun project. I got the new deluxe reissue of The Formation of Damnation and decided to drop all the current new projects I had on the burner and do a bit of a critical reassessment of the album two years later. The fact is, it has grown on me immensely these past couple years, and even though there are still a couple things on it that bug me, I'm just nuts about it, so much that I regret not putting it on my year-end lists. So having realized the slight error of my ways, the least I could do was give the album a good write-up.

Although the new issue of Decibel is out, I haven't gotten it yet, but I do know I have a pile of reviews in the issue. No features, to my knowledge anyway. There's the re-release of Montreal band Barn Burner's debut album...I was pretty impressed by what I heard and saw from them back last summer and had been regretting not buying their vinyl for a measly ten bucks, so instead of helping their financial situation I gave them a good, deserving review. Who knows, maybe the review will help sell a couple more copies for them. They deserve it, they're a fun band. Much better than Priestess.

I also review the new CD by Dark Tranquillity, always one of the classier bands out there. They're predictable, but they work that formula so well, and I think We Are the Void is excellent, an improvement over their last album. I really should write a longer review for PopMatters. Then there's Danish band Mnemic, who I'd given up on after their catastrophic 2007 album, but it turns out the new one sees them going back to what they do best. Which is shamelessly ripping off Fear Factory, but when they're on, these boys do it decently enough. And although I've always dug underground weirdos WOLD, their new album takes their lo-fi white noise gimmick a little too far. I could have easily given it a 5/10, but was in a charitable mood and settled for a 6 instead.

I should mention that the new album by Nachtmystium has been knocking me out these last few weeks. I liked the blend of prog, psychedelic, and metal on Assassins, but the new Addicts: Black Meddle Part II is so much better. So much better. Instead of alternating genres on a record, they have an actual identity on the new album, one that is seriously, shamelessly, and shockingly indebted to post-punk. I couldn't believe it when I heard it, but tracks like "Nightfall", "No Funeral", and "Ruined Life Continuum" absolutely bowled me over, they go so far into unexpected territory: synths, 80s snare triggers, backing vocals, tambourines, dance grooves, guitar lines that feel lifted from The Breakfast Club, yet at the same time retaining its metal quality. I'm not kidding. This album is extraordinary, and is my favourite of 2010 so far. It's out in June, and I'll probably be raving about it more between now and then.

If I can find the time this weekend I'll post something on the new Burzum album, which I've been listening to for the last month. Always a touchy subject...

Children by the millions mourn for Alex Chilton.

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 05:32:00 EDT

As I've mentioned here many times in the past, there were a lot of bands I was really late getting into. Although I dug a handful of their songs, I didn't become a huge fan of the Replacements until 1992, a couple years after they'd broken up. It was hard to track down there stuff where I lived, and I always went on big sprees whenever I hit bigger cities. During a spring trip through the States, I finally scooped up a couple of the 'Mats albums I'd been craving, Tim and Pleased to Meet Me. Both were spectacular records, but I gravitated towards Tim more, as the angst and ferocity of that album was just too contagious to bear. I spun that thing over and over that year. However, Pleased to Meet Me got under my skin, thanks to tunes like "Skyway", "Can't Hardly Wait", "Valentine", and one really, madly, incessantly pesky little number by the name of "Alex Chilton".

I had no idea who this Alex Chilton fella was. But listening to the way Paul Westerberg waxed rhapsodic about him piqued my curiosity: "Cerebral rape and pillage in a village of his choice / Invisible man who can sing in a visible voice...Children by the million sing for Alex Chilton when he comes 'round / They sing "I'm in love / What's that song? / I'm in love with that song." I did further investigating (which, pre-internet in a small city in Canada, was not easy), and learned that Alex Chilton not only sung that oldie "The Letter" in the '60s (which to this day makes me think of of that 1986 parody Vanna White tribute...but I digress), but fronted a band in the early-70s called Big Star that pretty much set the template for all the power pop that I was so into in '92. Naturally, I had to hear it. But how? The record stores were lousy, the vinyl section at my otherwise reliable local library didn't have squat...I was stuck. I was listening to a lot of late-night CBC FM radio at the time, especially Brave New Waves and Nightlines, and it wasn't long until I heard David Wisdom play "September Gurls" on the latter show one weekend. It was such an immediately affecting song, I could hear the Byrds, the Beatles, and yes, a huge Replacements vibe as well, the song rich in vocal harmonies, driven by that great Rickenbacker riff, and climaxing with the prettiest, most devastating guitar solo I had ever heard. I didn't manage to tape the song, but the seed had definitely been planted. I had to hear more.

Nightlines had a cool feature they used to do every Saturday night, I forget what Wisdom called it, the "special feature album feature" thingy, where he'd spin an album in its entirety. In the spring of 1993, he played a brand new album, Big Star's live album Columbia: Live at Missouri University. Yes! I was over the moon. Never mind the fact that it was basically Chilton with Big Star drummer Jody Stephens and a couple guys from the Posies, nor the fact that it wasn't the original album versions...this was the Big Star compendium I'd been craving. The performance of "September Gurls" sounded fantastic to these ears (and still does today), but the first six songs of the set got me in nearly as huge a way as the other song did. What a run: "In the Street", "Don't Lie to Me", "When My Baby's Beside Me", "I Am the Cosmos" (a Chris Bell song, but I'd learn that soon enough), "The Ballad of El Goodo", "Back of a Car". Oh my. In six songs Chilton proved he and his band could rock surprisingly hard, be achingly beautiful, incredibly profound, and simultaneously sad and wistful. And what glorious, glorious hooks. I had that tape recording of the broadcast for a long time, studiously listening to it, but especially those seven tracks. By the time I was able to get acquainted with the band's three albums, I was a huge, huge fan.

I'll readily admit, I've never cared for Chilton's solo work. In my opinion, what he did on Big Star's three classic albums is a towering achievement in itself. Third/Sister Lover is one of the greatest "dark night of the soul" albums ever made, right up there with Pink Moon, but to this day I have a hard time listening to it, as Chilton is in such a desperate emotional place on that record, it feels to me like snooping in someone's diary. "Holocaust" and "Kangaroo" are simply gut-wrenching. So needless to say, I have always gravitated towards #1 Record and Radio City (my personal fave) more. On those albums Chilton captures adolescence better than any songwriter I have ever come across.
The awkwardness.
The tenderness.
The camaraderie.
The swagger.
The desperation.
The lust.
The disillusionment.
The joy.

Chilton also has a phenomenal voice, perfectly suited for power pop. Interestingly, if you listen to "The Letter", it feels a bit like a put-on, another persona. On the other hand, there's a sincerity to his vocals with Big Star that's undeniable. It sounds youthful and innocent, but also capable of coming off as detached and jaded. And when you heard Chilton in recent years, not much had changed at all. The dude sounded ageless. He went on to have a career with ups (producing the Cramps' first album, which included this classic) and more than a fair share of downs, but it's that 1971-73 period I and many others keep gravitating toward.

Despite all this rambling, it's really, really hard for me to put into words just why Alex Chilton has meant so much to me these last 17 years. Maybe it's because I didn't have a very happy adolescence at all, and his beautiful portraits of youth on #1 Record and Radio City represent a quixotic, rosy-hued view of one's teen years that I always feel I might have missed out on a little bit. Or maybe his songs are so smart, economical, and eloquent, always knowing just how to manipulate the listener, to coax, to entice, only to deliver a brilliant knock-out line deeper in the song. Or maybe it's because of the plain, unavoidable fact that the hooks he came up with on those Big Star records are some the most innately powerful hooks you will ever hear; he was one of very, very few songwriters who could manipulate chords and notes in a way that could make you weep, smile, or laugh. His music is life-affirming. Daisy Glaze" is playing as I write this, and I can't help but smile, that tempo change ("Now I'm in a bar / That's got to be where they are / Going to dance in the bar / They're going to fight on the floor") sounds like the greatest thing in the world right now. He knew how to make a catchy song, and sometimes that subconscious, primal emotional reaction that his music inspires is the best way to explain just how special an artist he was.

That's right, was. Early yesterday evening word started to surface from Memphis that William Alexander Chilton passed away due to heart failure at the tragically young age of 59. Musicians die all the time, and while it's always sad, I always keep it in perspective. It's sad, but people die. I might know the art, but I'm not the artist's friend or family, I don't have any real reason to get all mopey about it. Let's pay tribute and move on. But Chilton's passing is like that of Joey Ramone or Allen Ginsberg, this is a situation where I am so emotionally bound to his art that it's hard to shake. All I can do is put Big Star on repeat (and darnit, I'm going to try his solo stuff on Spotify ASAP), type away on this dumb blog, and conclude it by thanking him for giving the world some of the best rock 'n' roll it's ever seen, for giving me many of my favourite songs of all time, and most importantly, somehow taking that talent of his and making all of our lives just a little bit better by sharing his gift. No, thank you, Alex.

September Gurls"

September gurls do so much
I was your butch and you were touched
I loved you, well, never mind
I've been crying all the time

December boys got it bad

September gurls, I don't know why
How can I deny what's inside
Even though I'll keep away
Maybe we'll love all our days

When I get to bed, late at night
That's the time she makes things right
Ooh when she makes love to me...

MetalMetalMetalMetalMetalMetal

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 05:03:00 EDT

Okay, time for a big ol' update. Monday night was a fun one, as the Megadeth/Testament/Exodus triple bill came through my city...this was a classic geezer pleaser show, as Megadeth is currently playing Rust in Peace in its entirety in celebration of its 20th anniversary, Testament is following suit by playing their classic debut The Legacy in its entirety, and Exodus isn't disappointing us oldsters either, playing material primarily from their 1985-89 period. It was a great show all around. Exodus was very well received and proceeded to tear up the place, Testament was plagued by glitches and a muddy mix (granted, the acoustics at Prairieland never help things), and as for Megadeth, it was the most consistent live set I've seen by them. Everyone seemed in great spirits, and the band looked and sounded rejuvenated with bassist Dave Ellefson back in the fold. It was great hearing all those old tunes, especially the Rust deep cuts like "Lucretia" and "Poison Was the Cure", as well as the three from Exodus's Fabulous Disaster, which remains my favourite Exodus album. It was really nice of Testament to toss in "Into the Pit", too, especially since they didn't play it when they last played here in 2008. Anyway, instead of rehashing all of the night's events all over again, I'll just direct you to my big review I wrote for Hellbound, where you can also see some cool photos of the show taken by my brother. However, just for posterity's sake, here are the setlists:

Exodus:

Bonded By Blood
The Last Act of Defiance
Fabulous Disaster
A Lesson in Violence
Piranha (I think!)
Brain Dead
War is My Shepherd
The Toxic Waltz
Strike of the Beast

Testament:

Over the Wall
The Haunting
Burnt Offerings
Raging Waters
Curse the Legions of Death
First Strike is Deadly
Do or Die
Alone in the Dark
Into the Pit
Apocalyptic City

Megadeth

Set The World Afire
Wake Up Dead
In My Darkest Hour
Holy Wars...The Punishment Due
Hangar 18
Take No Prisoners
Five Magics
Poison Was The Cure
Lucretia
Tornado Of Souls
Dawn Patrol
Rust In Peace...Polaris
Headcrusher
Trust
Symphony Of Destruction
Peace Sells
The Punishment Due (reprise)

Interestingly, Megadeth's official site caught wind of my Hellbound review and mentioned it on their front page, which has led to a bevy of page views, something we can always use! While I'm at it, remember to either subscribe to the RSS feed, follow on twitter, or just bookmark the site and visit it every weekday. We've got a good little crew going there and could always use more readers.

Oh, a couple more Exodus tidbits...I would have gotten the clever FedExodus shirt, but 40 bucks?! You kidding me? Also, I cannot get "Brain Dead" out of my head these days.

As for new reviews, they're coming fast and furious, so far my plan to churn out more record reviews is working out nicely. First up today is my piece on the new album by folk metal faves Eluveitie. A lot of people are down on the whole pagan metal thing, but if it's done well I don't get sick of it, and Eluveitie are arguably the best such band going right now. Their last acoustic album was a cool departure, but Everything Remains marks a return to their more metallic side, and for the most part it delivers. The title track, "Thousandfold", and "Quoth the Raven" rank among their very best songs, but along the way they lose track a little bit, as three songs stray from that nice acoustic/electric balance they usually pull off so effortlessly. However, the album doesn't derail, and turns out to be a good one despite the misfires. For more details, here's the full review. Funnily enough, I got another sticker quote, as a line from my Decibel review from last year is on the little promotional sticker put on the CD by Nuclear Blast. Silly, but I always get a kick out of when that happens. I look forward to seeing them open for Amon Amarth next month, I haven't seen them since traveling with them two years ago. They're nice folks.

If you like the metal, especially when the metal is melded beautifully with world music, you have to hear the new Rotting Christ album at once. As I say in my review, it succeeds in every way where the recent Orphaned Land album fails, traditional instrumentation and folk singing never overwhelming the songs, the band never overstaying its welcome. "Demonon Vrosis" is a killer tune, but top marks go to "Orders from the Dead", which features an incredible performance by the great Diamanda Galas, who recites her composition of the same name atop a dignified metal backdrop. It's a harrowing climax to a truly enthralling record.

What's enthralling at all is the new live album by System of a Down's Serj Tankian. Not that perofrming with a symphony is a bad idea, but Tankian's songs don't lend themselves to the classical genre very well at all, and his voice proves to be better suited for the rock/metal genre. It's not a total trainwreck, but it sure isn't the most fun way to spend an hour. Here's my review. Curious listeners would be better off sticking to Elect the Dead instead.

Late last week we Iron Maiden fans got some great news, as not only is the band set to release their new album later this summer, but they're touring North America (with Dream Theater opening...ugh, I'd almost rather see Lauren Harris again), including a stop here in Saskabush on June 29th. Which, of course, pleases me to no end. Two Maiden shows in just over two years? I'm getting spoiled! Anyway, floor tickets have been procured (let me state for the record that I am not a fan of Ticketmaster's paperless system), so that day can't arrive soon enough.

I'm actually tempted to go into the Iron Maiden show completely blind, with no prior knowledge of the setlist, just to be surprised for once. And that got me thinking again, what songs would I most love to see Maiden perform? I made an attempt to answer that question in June 2008 (check the archive on the left), but here's a more detailed list:

"Prowler": Kind of an underrated tune from the first album.
"The Phantom of the Opera": I saw them play it in '87, but it's one of my top Maiden songs, and never tire of it.
"Wrathchild": I know, I know, totally ubiquitous, but I've never seen them do that one in person. So just once would be cool.
"Killers": That intro...CLASSIC.
"22 Acacia Avenue": The second best song off The Number of the Beast.
"Still Life": Such a haunting song.
"Back in the Village": Impossible, but a guy can dream, can't he?
"Be Quick or Be Dead": A scorching track that never gets its due.
"Sign of the Cross": Bruce sounded incredible doing this on Rock in Rio.
"The Clansman": Ditto. This song would kill.
"The Wicker Man", "The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg": Two classic latter-day Maiden tunes.

The Saint Marches Again

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 05:44:00 EDT

To this day I can't understand why John Bush wastes his time with Anthrax. His years with the band wound up winning over a new generation of metal fans, but for old dummies like me, it just didn't compare to the Belladonna years. He's a phenomenal metal vocalist, but it's not really the guy's fault, as Anthrax really slipped into a subpar period as far as songwriting went. Amazingly, his on-off relationship with that band is on again after their farcical 2009 when they didn't know exactly who their lead singer was, but while some fans are happy he's with Anthrax yet again, to me John Bush will always be the dude from Armored Saint.

I loved Armored Saint back in the mid-80s. It was good, honest, blue-collar heavy metal that wasn't as extreme as Slayer but heavier than Iron Maiden. There was a swagger to the band, wicked NWOBHM-inspired riffs underscoring the charismatic vocal work by Bush, plus I really dug their worn-leather, armor style gear. They were a total anomaly in the LA metal scene, yet March of the Saint's brilliant single "Can U Deliver", one of my absolute favourite metal songs of the 1980s, won over a lot of us kids thanks to its video. Unfortunately, because they were such an odd fit in the popular metal scene they never found the massive fanbase they deserved. Of course it never helped that Chrysalis Records never promoted their second album, 1985's very underrated Delirious Nomad, as well as they should have, not even putting out a video, which at the time in '85 was practically a death sentence, sales-wise (Metallica being the one exception). Still, they kept plugging away, and while 1987's Raising Fear was a lot less consistent than the first two albums, it still had its moments, including the title track and the cool "Chemical Euphoria". By the time guitarist Dave Prichard passed away from leukemia, however, my interest in Armored Saint had waned, which was a shame, because their fourth album, '91's Symbol of Salvation is hands down their best work, the definitive Armored Saint record. I didn't realize this until some ten years later. But better late than never...besides, "Reign of Fire" kills!

So why all this babbling about Armored Saint, you ask? Well, in a couple weeks their long-awaited sixth album, their first in ten years, comes out, and it is a good one. Really good. It took a couple spins to sink in, but La Raza is definitely on par with the band's best work, yet at the same time takes quite a surprising turn, as songwriter Joey Vera adds a very strong Latin flavour to about half of the songs. For a band that has always excelled at no-frills, fist-bangin' metal, it comes as a surprise to hear them launching into Santana-esque jams, yet they marry the two styles very well on this album, especially on the title track, "Bandit Country", and my personal favourite track "Chilled". Don't get me wrong, either, there's plenty of good old school metal stuff, namely the first four tracks ("Left Hook From Right Field", for instance), but there's a lot more to La Raza than that. If Armored Saint had a fault on their last two albums it's that they've made them too long, but at 51 minutes, the new CD is a lot more focused and never wears out its welcome. So watch for it later this month, it's a good one. For the time being, here's my big Hellbound review.

I've always found Richard Christy kind of annoying. I don't get that whole Howard Stern humour, never have in fact, and Christy's appearances on Sirius Liquid Metal grated on me. Still, the guy played drums on Death's classic final album The Sound of Perseverance, so that lends him instant credibility in the metal world, but even when he announced his new supergroup with singer Ripper Owens, bassist Steve DiGiorgio, and ace shredder/producer Jason Suecof, I remained skeptical. Supergroups rarely work, Them Crooked Vultures being one rare exception, and when I heard the rather awkward "Ghost Town" I thought we were in for a real stinker of an album. Strangely, and quite incredibly, though, the thing grew on me, to the point now where I enjoy it enough to give it a hearty recommendation. It's not unlike that "hybrid" metal sound I mentioned yesterday when describing Into Eternity, Scar Symmetry, and Destinity, touches of death metal, thrash metal, traditional heavy metal, and power metal all put together neatly thanks to some good, concise songwriting. If that stuff is up your alley, you'll definitely dig this one. My PopMatters review can be read here.

Hockey, High on Fire, and Ratt 'n' roll!

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 03:36:00 EDT

Well, that was some weekend for us Canadians, eh? An incredible Olympic medal run after officials conceded the country was underachieving, climaxing with one of the greatest hockey games ever played. The men's hockey tournament was incredible to watch over the course of two weeks...and it wasn't just fretting over Team Canada, either. The competition was phenomenal, and in the end, the right teams wound up playing for the gold medal, with the right team coming out on top. But still...Sid Crosby scoring the overtime winner? Come on. Like something that storybook would ever happen.

Ever since Canada won their round robin game against the US, I kept saying how Canada could use the loss to their advantage just as the US did after losing to Canada in the round robin of the world junior championship here in Saskatoon a couple months ago. And unbelievably, it turned out to be exactly like the WJC, only with the roles reversed. In the WJC the US used the extra playoff game to gel as a team and get into sync, while Canada was not tested at all on the way to the final. In the Olympics, Canada used the extra playoff game to gel as a team and get into sync, while the US was not tested at all on the way to the final. In the WJC final, the US squandered a third period lead in the dying seconds, only to win in overtime. In the Olympics, Canada squandered a third period lead in the dying seconds, only to win in overtime. Amazing! Anyway, I'm mighty proud of the boys, every player made a significant contribution, the line chemistry in the second week was incredible to watch (Crosby-Iginla-Stall, the Sharks, Getzlaf-Perry-Morrow, Toews-Richards-Nash), and the young defense played beyond their years, especially the astounding drew Doughty, all of 20 years old. And to think that core of players are all under 24 years old. But you know what? The US is just as young, and this is going to make for an epic rivalry over the next ten years or so. You just know the Americans will get their revenge.

One more Olympic note, I have to mention just how great CTV's online broadcast was. The picture was crystal clear, and it was so easy to navigate. If I was sitting at the computer working on reviews and saw on Twitter that there was an amazing play, goal, performance, or interview, I'd just head over to the site and see said event mere seconds later. I don't know if NBC's online coverage was as good (somehow I doubt it), but CTV's work was darn near revolutionary, the best online broadcast I have ever seen. I was skeptical at first, but taking the Olympics out of the CBC's hands was the right decision.

So now I'm left with the mother of all hockey hangovers. It's not going to be easy getting back into the NHL after that thrilling fortnight! But the trade deadline is today, so you can bet I'll be glued to the proceedings all day.

Okay, more writing to plug. So do you have the new High on Fire album yet? If no, why on earth not??? Go get it at once! It's the mighty Matt Pike, for crying out loud. The dude is incapable of making a bad record, and although Snakes For the Divine takes a very different direction production-wise, opting for cleaner tones rather than a wall of sludge, it's a smart move for a band on the cusp of the big time. Plus who cares when the songs are all this good? The title track, "Frost Hammer", and "Bastard Samurai" are all High on Fire classics in the making, and the rest of the album doesn't let up either. If you like good, honest, true heavy metal, there's no way you'll dislike this. Unless you're a jaded contrarian who doesn't like it when metal bands go mainstream. If that's the case, go back in your bedroom and keep listening to lo-fi underground black metal demo cassettes and hating the world. At any rate, here's my review.

As great as Snakes For the Divine is, though, Blessed Black Wings will likely remain my favourite High on Fire album. But you can't go wrong with any of their stuff. It's all essential.

Meanwhile, over at Hellbound I slapped together a couple of reviews. One is by the new CD by French band Destinity, probably my favourite band on the Lifeforce label. They tend to go for an all-inclusive sound, drawing from various styles of extreme metal, and slap it all together in an accessible, listener-friendly package, and the new album is no different. If you like other "hybrid" bands like Into Eternity and Scar Symmetry, you'll enjoy this one. Though I've always wanted to ask the band where they got their name from, it comes off as an English word invented by someone who doesn't speak English. It's kind of distracting.

I also have a review of the comeback album by Heathen, of all bands. It's odd, Heathen's a band from the 80s that not many of us have missed (they barely made a dent 23 years ago), their best-known contribution to the metal pantheon being Lee Altus, who would wind up joining Exodus in 2005. But here they are, and much to my surprise, the new album gets off to an ambitious, blazing start with a trio of thrash epics that makes you wonder where they've been hiding this material all this time. However, at 73 minutes the record is far, far too long for its own good, and it doesn't take long before your interest wanes. And the jingoistic track and the sappy ballad don't help things, either. But as it is, it's a decent return by a band few of us had even thought of over the past two decades.

I cannot believe how good the new Ratt album is. This has been happening a lot these days, as pop metal bands from the 80s like Dokken, Whitesnake, Scorpions, and Stryper have learned to embrace what made those bands so much fun 25 years ago instead of trying to keep up with the times and have put out their best work in eons. Infestation is the exact same thing, and just might be the best pop metal comeback to date. It absolutely nails the feel of 1986's Dancing Undercover: gigantic hooks, slick production, the lecherous, leering snarl of Stephen Pearcy, and the sharp riffs and solos by Warren DeMartini. In fact, lead single "Best of Me" is practically begging to be a classic summer anthem. Or at least a summer anthem for those of us old enough to know a good summer anthem when we hear it. They just don't make hooks like Ratt used to 25 years ago, but this song and this album for that matter come pretty darn close. I'll have a full review of the album for PopMatters in April, but take my word for it now, this album's a buyer.

And because I can't get that 1986 Ratt record out of my head, here's that album's best song. Enjoy!

Playing catch-up again.

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 02:43:00 EDT

The last week or so have been totally nuts, a weird mishmash of Olympic hockey, nieces, and interviews, so please forgive the blog silence. Anyway, seeing as it's been a disastrous weekend for Canada in the Vancouver Olympics (we had problems already, but with the loss to the US in hockey we're now a nation in crisis), I might as well hunker down here and do some housecleaning, as a pile of my reviews were published recently.

First off, there's my latest Blood & Thunder installment, in which I tackle three forgotten Alice Cooper albums from the early 1980s. And "forgotten" is the key word...not only have casual listeners avoided this rather bizarre career turn by Cooper some 30 years ago, but as Phil Freeman mentioned a while back, the man simply has no recollection of ever recording these albums. And I was definitely guilty of ignoring those releases as well. The first time I ever heard of Alice Cooper was in 1985, and by then he was a has-been, a guy who drank his career away and never sounded relevant compared to younger acts out there. Actually it was on Twisted Sister's "Be Chrool to Your Sceul" that I first heard Alice...as I've mentioned before, my rural upbringing kept me away from practically all 1970s metal and classic rock for the first 12 years of my life, and Alice was no exception. I was big into W.A.S.P. and other shock rock bands, though, so when Alice made that cameo and subsequently launched his big comeback with this great little tune a year later, I was more than intrigued, and it wasn't long before I was delving into his early discography. But over the years I just glossed over his turn-of-the-80s material. I wasn't interested in hearing Alice do new wave, punk, and artsy stuff at all, I wanted heavy rock. It wasn't until I actually gave Flush the Fashion (and especially the wonderful "Clones (We Are All)" an apprehensive spin that I found out that this stuff was actually pretty good. His next three albums, 1981's Special Forces, 1982's Zipper Catches Skin, and 1983's DaDa are even weirder and more adventurous I discovered, and when I learned those albums were to be re-released last month, I thought it would be fun to offer a bit of a critical re-thinking of three very, very underrated records. Of the three, the bizarre DaDa is my favourite, a pretentious piece of art rock in which Cooper has completely gone off the deep end, relying heavily on producer Bob Ezrin and guitarist/co-songwriter Dick Wagner. it's a total mess, but listening to it nearly three decades later, somehow it manages to work in a weird way. It's theatrical, it's disturbing, it's funny, and it's even poignant, as "Pass the Gun Around" really does sound like an artist truly hitting rock bottom. Anyway, give the piece a read, it was a lot of fun to write, a nice little detour from the usual extensive interviews I do.

Still keeping with the shock rock, I've always had a soft spot for Rob Zombie (and White Zombie for that matter), I've always felt that if I was 14 years old when he came around, I would have been crazy about that stuff. His music has become so predictable, but it's a brilliant formula he's perfected: simple, groovy riffs, insanely catchy choruses, fun cartoonish lyrics, and some very cool movie samples. So when his new album came along, I couldn't let it go by unreviewed. For the most part, it's a good one. The approach is far more stripped down than ever before, he and his band simply hammering out the tracks in garage rock fashion, but at its best, Hellbilly Deluxe II does it well. However, the deeper into the record you go, the more inconsistent it becomes, that is until the last track "The Man Who Laughs" makes things interesting again. So it's not as good as I would have liked, but at its best (like this track, for instance), it's enormous fun. Which in Mr. Zombie's case, is all that matters. My full review is here.

It's always been weird how Meshuggah never put out either a full live album or a comprehensive DVD, the bonus disc on 2007 reissue of Nothing the closest they ever got. Well, the wait is finally over, as the mighty Swedes have come through with Alive, a two disc extravaganza that features a 90 minute concert film. The live footage, shot in Tokyo, New York, Montreal, and Toronto, is exceptional, beautifully shot and recorded, but typically, it's as enigmatic as the band can be. While the live footage is amazing, the documentary bits in between performances are mundane. Inexplicably, despite filming at four different shows, they chose not to include live staple and signature track "Future Breed Machine". And even weirder, as immaculate as the performances and the stereo mix are, there is no surround mix to speak of, which for such a cutting edge band, is a truly bizarre decision. But as it is, it's a great live document, one well worth buying, in spite of the complaints by obsessive fans. I reviewed it for both PopMatters and Hellbound, trying to take different approaches for each piece. I think it turned out well.

For some 25 years, I have never really liked Overkill. They're one of East Coast thrash's progenitors, but I've always felt they've been a step or two behind all the other great bands to emerge in the thrash era, a little too simplified, a little too hardcore-oriented. I've like dtracks here and there, but none of their albums ever sounded consistent enough to me. So imagine my shock when I spun their new CD Ironbound a while back, and found myself completely floored by what I heard. "The Green and Black" especially...what a track! Epic, catchy, intense, tight, and extremely focused. It's without hyperbole the best thnig they've ever done, and remarkably, the band keeps the momentum going throughout the entire album. It's one of the biggest surprises of this early year so far...read my review here!

Meanwhile, Profound Lore has blown me away yet again, this time with the primitive death metal of Vasaeleth, which marks a return to the raw, primal, filthy sounds of the early days of the genre. Dense, dank, muddy, with reverb-drenched vocals spewing some truly disturbing lyrics, it's a far, far cry from the Behemoths and Whitechapels of the world. The polar opposite, in fact, the riffs more Tom Warrior than Chuck Schuldiner, with a shocking amount of diversity, too, best exemplified by "Adorned & Iridescent", which somehow transitions from pure ugliness to something rather beautiful. In an horrific kind of way. Read my review to learn more, and be sure to pick up the album at Profound Lore.

As for the other bevy of capsule reviews I wrote, there's the solid new one by Dream Evil (who are sounding like Firewind more and more), the middling second album by Valkyrja, a decent third album by Through the Eyes of the Dead, the surprisingly strong comeback album by German prog rock veterans Eloy, and the very, very impressive debut by Quebec band Aeternam, which if you like Behemoth and Melechesh, you really should check out. These dudes are promising.

I took my nieces to see Panique Au Village (A Town Called Panic) last week, and we all got a huge kick out of it. It's insanely funny and completely wacky, feeling like as manic and outlandish as a story told by an eight year old wielding the kinds of figures with bases that feature so prominently in the movie. Total lunacy. Don't miss out on it.

"What is this that stands before me?"

Sat, 13 Feb 2010 05:18:00 EDT

"Still falls the rain, the veils of darkness shroud the blackened trees, which contorted by some unseen violence, shed their tired leaves, and bend their boughs towards a grey earth of severed bird wings. among the grasses, poppies bleed before a gesticulating death, and young rabbits, born dead in traps, stand motionless, as though guarding the silence that surrounds and threatens to engulf all those that would listen. Mute birds, tired of repeating yesterdays terrors, huddle together in the recesses of dark corners, heads turned from the dead, black swan that floats upturned in a small pool in the hollow. there emerges from this pool a faint sensual mist, that traces its way upwards to caress the chipped feet of the headless martyr's statue, whose only achievement was to die to soon, and who couldn't wait to lose. the cataract of darkness form fully, the long black night begins, yet still, by the lake a young girl waits, unseeing she believes herself unseen, she smiles, faintly at the distant tolling bell, and the still falling rain."

Black Sabbath's first album turns 40 years old today. Everyone in metal is talking about this momentous anniversary, and I'd been planning to as well despite the ubiquity of the subject. It's just something you can't not acknowledge. After all, for all intents and purposes, it is the Rosetta Stone of heavy metal: no matter how diverse and eclectic metal music has become four decades later, everything, every single piece of music in the entire genre is directly derived from that eponymous Sabbath album in some way shape or form. Every musical genre has its progenitors, but Black Sabbath is arguably the only instance where they can be legitimately credited with launching an entire genre on their own. Of course, the history of heavy metal is a lot murkier, its roots traceable further back in time, to Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Steppenwolf, Blue Cheer, Cream, the Kinks, and even back to Link Wray, Robert Johnson, and Richard Wagner. However, it was Black Sabbath that brought everything together into a sound that at the time was the most succinct encapsulation of what eventually came to be more commonly known as heavy metal.

It's dark, as murky and thick as a Birmingham fog. It's larger than life, a very loud record loaded with monumental riffs and pounding, primal drumming. It's sinister, either dabbling in the occult or creating mental images enigmatic enough to let our imaginations run wild. It's scary, both musically and visually, boasting one of the most unsettling cover photos in rock 'n' roll history. More than anything, it's that classic tritone riff on side one, track one that makes use of "diabolus in musica" just as the early blues artists did decades before. Three notes that spawned a genre, a culture, and a global phenomenon.

It's all there in that opening track, "Black Sabbath": the sound of pouring rain, a bell's toll, thunderclaps, and blammo, a simple, three-note riff by Tony Iommi, on that tuned-down Gibson SG, his prosthetic fingertips muscularly bending the strings, as Geezer Butler repeats the riff with minimal enhancements, and Bill Ward crashing down on his cymbals. Then one John Michael Osbourne enters, and drones ominously, "What is this that stands before me?/Figure in black that points at me/Turn round quick and start to run/Find out I'm the chosen one...OH NOOOOOOOO!" Its power is absolutely devastating, as the song reaches its coda, where Iommi takes the song on a throttling gallop, getting more and more ferocious as it nears its cacophonous conclusion. To this day it's a thrilling, singular piece of music that never fails to send chills down my spine.

But there's so much more to Black Sabbath than the seminal first track. The band's roots in the blues are actually more apparent the deeper we go into the album, whether it's the harp-enhanced groove of "The Wizard", not to mention the nine and 14 minute suites that make up the bulk of the album. The four song combo of "Wasp/Behind the Wall of Sleep/Bassically/N.I.B." is a total groovefest, highlighted by "Sleep"'s laid back, swinging bassline and minimal lead fills, and the flat-out classic riff of "N.I.B." The fourteen minute "A Bit of Finger/Sleeping Village/Warning" (part one, part two) features a brief verse sung by Ozzy (with mouth harp continuing the strong blues/folk influence), before taking off into the extended jam "Warning", a cover of a song previously recorded by journeyman drummer Ansley Dunbar. "Evil Woman" feels a bit tacked on, but although it's a rather note-for-note reading of the horns-driven the original track by Crow and nowhere near as heavy as the rest of the album, its swing, led by Ward and Butler, is undeniable.

In addition, there's another significant quirk on this record that's not on any other Sabbath disc: Ozzy's voice. He sings in a much lower register than on any other album he ever went on to sing on since, and it's such a contrast from his subsequent signature style that it feels like his voice has been slowed down to 33 1/3 from 45 rpm. It's a lethargic, perpetually stoned-sounding moan that just adds to the mystique of Black Sabbath, making it stick out even more. It remains one of the most original pieces of rock music you will ever hear, and today is as perfect a day as any to drop whatever you do on a normal Saturday and spend some time with the record that started it all. And if you have the fully remastered version from the Black Box, it'll be even better.

Of these four, get the Harvey Milk and White Wizzard.

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 03:57:00 EDT

I've always been on the fence when it comes to Fear Factory. They were without a doubt one of the most important American metal bands of the 1990s, and Demanufacture is a hands-down classic from the era, but aside from that one big groundbreaking moment, not much about the band has grabbed me. These days, it's easy to just lump them in with all the other "dood" metal you hear on Sirius Liquid Metal ad infinitum, like Pantera, Korn, Hatebreed, and just tune it all out. Not exactly fair, I know, but when you repeat yourself for some 15 years, you no longer sound innovative, you sound boring. And when Transgression came out five years ago, that was the ultimate sign that these guys were passe. When you're reduced to doing a lifeless, by-the-numbers U2 cover, you've officially run out of ideas. So when I got Fear Factory's new album in January, I had no interest in hearing it. None. Even though guitarist Dino Cazares had returned and the band was bolstered by the great drummer Gene Hoglan. But word among us jaded writers got out that this album actually wasn't half bad, and, disbelieving, I decided to give it a spin. And it's not half bad. Not great, mind you, but certainly their most respectable album in years. It's definitely their most vitriolic album in ages, but when Fear factory works, it's because of the juxtaposition of those industrial-inspired riffs and triggered drum beats with Burton C. Bell's soaring melodic choruses, and Mechanize delivers that in a big way, highlighted by "Powershifter", "Fear Campaign", and especially the stately "Final Exit", the latter as good a song as they've ever done. The lyrics are often really dumb, and again the album does ten to repeat itself, but despite the fact that this won't be on my best-of list, it's definitely a return to form. I certainly won't get sick of these songs on Sirius...for now, anyway. For a more detailed account, take a look at my review, which is up at PopMatters today.

It's not every day you get a band who records a full debut album only to see it shelved, never to see the light of day, save for dicey quality bootlegs. But that's what happened with Harvey Milk, as their 1993 album was in the can, but their label went under and the masters disappeared. Those recordings, which came to be known as the "Bob Weston Tapes", named after the producer and Shellac bassist, went on to earn quite a reputation among sludge aficionados, and some 16, 17 years later, the fine folks at Hydra Head have finally put out a proper release, complete with a full remastering job by Weston himself. And the end result is fantastic. Sure, the band was still finding its own identity at the time, a few songs still sounding incomplete, but much of this album sounds amazing, and sonically this one obliterates their subsequent full-length, 1995's My Love Is Higher Than Your Assessment of What My Love Could Be. "My Father's Life's Work", especially. If you like Harvey Milk at all, you need to hear this reissue. You won't be disappointed. Here's my PopMatters review.

Going into 2010 one album I was really looking forward to was the new one by Israel's Orphaned Land. A phenomenal band, they fuse progressive metal with very strong Middle Eastern influences and lyrical themes that touch on their heritage, and 2004's Mabool simply blew me away when I first heard it back in early '05 when it came out in North America. It was so adventurous, so exotic, so full of life, it was impossible to dislike, the traditional melodies meshing beautifully with the heavy arrangements. I expected more of the same on the new one, and indeed it gets off to a tremendous start with the good "Sapari", but it's not long before the entire thing derails. Songs that meander for seven, eight minutes, no real payoffs, and some of the most overbearing narration I have ever heard on a record, at least this side of Manowar. And this album simply drags on and on and on for 79 minutes, making it an unbearable slog, especially considering how mediocre a lot of these songs are. Sure, there are some good ones, like "The Path Part 1 - Treading Through Darkness" and especially "New Jerusalem", but yikes. I don't care how much of this convoluted concept album story you want to tell, you've got to trim the fat. Cut this down to 45 minutes, and maybe this would work. But as it stands, it's a big mess, not to mention a significant disappointment. It's an album I really wanted to like, but after two months, it didn't take at all. Anyway, here's my full review.

Meanwhile, over at Hellbound I've reviewed the new album by Chris Jericho's Fozzy. I've always liked Jericho, he's one of the more engaging, fun pro wrestlers to come along in the last 25 years, and he's also a big metal fan. When it came to his band Fozzy, though, I never really took it too seriously. The covers they did were enjoyable, but when it came to their original stuff, my reaction was, meh. well, their first album in five years is out, and I have to say, this thing is good. granted, it's the kind of shallow stuff like Black Label Society and Godsmack, but they make no apologies, they know this style, and they pull it off very well. I had no expectations whatsoever, and Y2J (do they still call him that?) and his mates came through and surprised me. Good on you, duder.

So because Jericho grew up in Winnipeg, does this mean that Fozzy qualify as Canadian Content? Hmmm...

Catching up on Decibel stuff, my White Wizzard review, or at least the first half of it, has been posted over there. If you've seen the new video and were left a bit unimpressed by the song (like I did, it feels a little too stilted with the stop-and-start chorus), take my word for it, the album gets a whole lot better. They've got the NWOBHM thing going, big time...more like late-era NWOBHM, the stuff from circa '84 such as Tokyo Blade, Grim Reaper, etc., with plenty of Maiden-style twin guitars to keep us old fogies happy. LA's Lizzy Borden, too. "40 Deuces" is killer, as is "Out of Control', but the kicker is the epic "Iron Goddess of Vengeance", which isn't so much a paean to old-timey Brit metal but as dead-on an imitation of the current incarnation of Iron Maiden as I you will ever hear. It totally smacks of Steve Harris. Good stuff! Oh, and did I mention the new lead singer is a dead ringer for Metal Church's Mike Howe? It's true!

Saxomophoooooone.

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 04:27:00 EDT

Apologies for the inactivity, but I've bene on an absolute tear as far as the music writing goes, which is a good thing. I've decided to stop doing the little review sidebars in my monthly columns and focus more on doing more Short Takes review for PopMatters. I really should be reviewing as many albums as I can, so I'm going to try to do so. Hopefully it'll work out with minimal burnout.

Besides, 2010 is really starting to heat up, with lots of key releases set for the next three months, especially when it comes to metal. Yesterday I heard the new albums by Alcest, Les Discrets, and Landmine Marathon, three metal albums I was very excited about going into this year. Especially Alcest, which was right up at the top of my mental "most anticipated" list, and I'm thrilled to say the new record is a knockout. I'll be reviewing it in the next couple weeks for a certain metal mag, but I'll be sure to post more extensive thoughts on it here too.

Anyway, as far as published pieces go, a biggie is up at PopMatters today, that being the new Shining album. My whole experience getting into the Norwegian progressive rock band was a bit odd, not to mention lucky. I was recommended their amazing 2007 album Grindstone late that year, and then a few months later I found myself standing in a theater in Oslo watching that band destroy the place, trying to pick up my jaw off the floor. They were also the only band at the conference smart enough to sell their merch, it so happened. Compared to the broader sounds on their albums, I couldn't believe how visceral this band turned out to be live, I just loved the fusion of prog, math metal, and free jazz. Well, they must have known their live shows were on to something, because the new Blackjazz is closer to that live Shining experience than any of their studio output prior ot that. It's loud, it's abrasive, it's abstract, and best of all, it's thrilling to listen to. They're unlike any other young band these days, and I sure hope they get some wider recognition.

Oddly enough, it's so weird how two of the best metal albums feature prominently the work of saxophonist Jorgen Munkeby...

I also recently reviewed the second album by Montreal rockers Priestess. It continues to garner a lot of praise north and south of the border, but I cannot buy that at all. I love the traditional metal direction much of the album takes (a few of the harder songs are killer), but too many of the vocal melodies sound mediocre at best, so much so that I cannot bring myself to fully recommend the album. When the middling "Raccoon Eyes" is the catchiest track, you know you've got a problem. Hello Master was so much better...in retrospect I should have given it a 7 instead of a polite 6.

Then there's the new covers album by death metal bores Six Feet Under. You look at the tracklisting for Graveyard Classics 3 and can't help but admire the band's taste in metal oldies. They do Anvil and Exciter for crying out loud! How can you not love that? But as ably played as the instrumental tracks are, perpetually baked gurgler Chris Barnes always ruins things with his boring, self-parodical cookie monster vocals. He was good in Cannibal Corpse (though Corpsegrinder is far better), somewhat of an innovator in death metal, but as time goes on his style sounds more and more ridiculous. And when he dares to perform Mercyful Fate's timeless "A Dangerous Meeting", as good as the rest of the band is, you know it;s going to be a trainwreck. Ugh. Stick to the original material, dude.

Also, the new issue of Decibel is now out. Of course I haven't seen it yet and won't for another couple weeks, but the site's been updated, so I might as well plug away. Even though they've gone back to showing only the first paragraphs of the features and reviews. Bah. Anyway, I have a feature on Canadian thrash metal greats Sacrifice. It was a pleasure to talk to Rob Urbinati, and it's great to see a band come back from the dead and put out one of the finest comeback albums you'll ever hear. As for reviews, I cover the new ones by Ihsahn, which I've been plugging a lot these last couple months, and Miseration, the much-improved second album by the band led by the talented former vocalist from Scar Symmetry. I'm convinced there should be a White Wizzard review in the new issue, but it's not on the site yet, so I'll just have to wait and see. But int he meantime, take a look at their fabulous new video, which is just too cool for words.

And speaking of retro metal/hard rock, check this out. I can't get enough of this stuff. Dead-on. More on that in a day or two!

Shovel headed review machine.

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 00:19:00 EDT

Time for another update, this coming after spending a good chunk of the day trying to dig out of the biggest snowfall since the blizzard to 2007. At the very least, this isn't half as cold as a year ago, which was just brutal.

Last Wednesday the Village Voice put out its annual Pazz & Jop Critics' Poll...this year marks the fifth straight year I've participated. It's always fun, and I always say this, but having followed the P&J for a long time before doing the writing thing, it's still a great honour to get the chance to participate. My ballot can be found here. Glenn McDonald's annual statistical breakdowns of the P&J results are always great geeky fun, and I always get a kick out of seeing how my votes trend and which other voters are most similar to me. My centricity is 0.283, as opposed to last year's 0.208...this year's ballot included several higher consensus indie picks (Fever Ray, Camera Obscura, Bat For Lashes, Baroness, etc.) while only two titles were of the esoteric variety (Cobalt, Katatonia), so that's not a surprise.

Interestingly, on ILX's big 2009 metal albums poll, my centricity is a whopping 0.793. Yikes! I'm getting too predictable. Well, I stand by all my recommendations.

Anyway, on the writing front I have a big review of the new Exodus DVD. With Cannibal Corpse pretty much setting the standard two years ago, it's clear early on that Shovel Headed Tour Machine won't be quite as well-made, but it turns out to be a very fun set in the end, which was a pleasant surprise. The band is quite rejuvenated these days, thanks to frontman Rob Dukes, who has really settled into the role, and even though the Wacken 2008 setlist on disc one is skewed too heavily towards the band's post-2004 output (with four Bonded By Blood songs tossed in), the new stuff holds up tremendously well when stacked against such classics as "A Lesson in Violence" and "Piranha". The big documentary on the second disc is really sloppy, haphazardly sequenced and edited, but if you keep watching, you find you'll learn a lot about each band member. The DVD kind of encapsulates my long-standing opinion of Bonded By Blood: sloppy, not quite as good as I would have hoped, but still oddly endearing.

Still on the Exodus subject, it's great to see that they'll be joining Megadeth and Testament on what will be a glorious vintage thrash tour, which hits my city in early March. MegaDave will be leading his band through the entirety of Rust in Peace, while Testament will be performing the seminal The Legacy in its entirety as well. So you know Exodus has to be wondering if they should perform all of Bonded By Blood. If not that, I'll settle for Fabulous Disaster! At any rate, it should be an incredible show, full of good friendly violent fun for all.

If you know me at all, I've been a big Pavement nerd for a very long time, and I was just like all the other geeks who were interested in finding out what the tracklisting for the band's best-of compilation would be. Well, it came out today, and for the most part it's a good mix, but it's far from perfect, and at times it's quite befuddling. First of all, Wowee Zowee has been unfairly snubbed, with only "Grounded" and "Fight This Generation" making the cut, with "We Dance", "Kennel District", "Half a Canyon", and the great "Rattled By the Rush" all ignored. Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain's "Elevate Me Later" deserved to be there, too. As for tracks that made it but shouldn't have, I would have lopped off "Date With Ikea" (catchy but not in keeping with the band's style), "Two States" (too obvious a Fall rip-off for comfort), and "Embassy Row" (good but far from the best on Brighten the Corners). I will say it's great that "The Unseen Power of the Picket Fence" made it. Classic, oft-overlooked track, that one. If I was reviewing the comp, it'd get a polite 7/10. Or by Pitchfork standards, 7.8.

Three tracks from the upcoming new albums by three of my favourite bands have surfaced in the last few days, which has been fun. Goldfrapp's new single "Rocket" is a fascinating departure, completely embracing Xanadu-era Olivia Newton John and early-80s Giorgio Moroder pop, the synths totally reminding me of Dirk Diggler's "You Got the Touch". A very good, airy, ebullient pop tune, but it's weird hearing Goldfrapp so slavishly follow a formula like this. I'm hoping the rest of Head First will be a little more adventurous. Meanwhile, at the other end of the spectrum, the Drive-By Truckers have returned with "This Fucking Job", a solid blue-collar rocker courtesy Patterson Hood. More of the same from DBT, but that's always a good thing. The Big To-Do is out in March. Canada's Dan Snaith is returning with the first Caribou album in three years, and the first single "Odessa" is a real departure, doing away with the psychedelic/krautrock feel of the past three albums, in favour of a more straightforward dance approach. There's a huge Junior Boys feel to the track, not as minimalist as the JBeez, but definitely some of the most bare-bones music Snaith has created to date. It's a strong track which bodes well for the rest of the album, which is due in April.

New writin' to plug...

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 03:14:00 EDT

It's time to get back on that horse again. I've been piling up the articles and reviews as of late, with more to come as usual, and the first biggie of 2010 has been published today, that being my latest Blood & Thunder column, which this month is a gigantic profile of the talented Ihsahn. For those reders who aren't metal fans, Ihsahn (real name Vegard Tveitan) fronted Emperor, one of the finest black metal bands to ever come out of Norway. After the band split in 2001, his solo career took a while to get going, but over the course of three albums he's sounded more and more comfortable on his own, and with the release of After, it finally feels like he's created a real identity separate from his former band while acknowledging his past as well. What's especially cool about this record is the heavy use of saxophone melodies and solos instead of the usual guitar, and Ihsahn chose the perfect collaborator in Jorgen Munkeby, the leader of the insanely talented Norwegian prog band Shining (whose excellent new CD I am reviewing this week, coincidentally). It's a tough blend to create, but they nail it, creating a record that's as graceful as it is heavy. Anyway, I had a wonderful chat with Ihsahn the week before Christmas, and it went so well that I had to include as many of his responses as I could squeeze in. He's super-nice and an eloquent speaker, one of the most pleasant and easy interviews I've done lately, and I think that reflects in the article. So by all means give it a read, and be sure to pick up the album when it hits stores next week. It's a knockout.

The new issue of Decibel has been out for a while and finally appeared in my mail yesterday, so now's as good a time as any to selfishly plug my own contributions to the issue. First off, I have a small studio update with the great Chicago band Yakuza, whose new album will be out on Profound Lore later this year. I loved Samsara but wasn't wild about Transmutations, and I fully expect the new one to be a gigantic return to form. But that piece hasn't been posted online, so you'll have to buy the issue to read all 199 glorious words.

What has been posted is my feature piece on Between the Buried and Me. As you might or might not know, I'm a big admirer of the band, and it's been fascinating to watch their evolution over the past six years or so, but I hadn't yet interviewed the band until now. I came away impressed by frontman Tommy Rogers, he's a nice guy who's capable of smart, thoughtful answers instead of spouting the usual cliches. Plus the fact that when it comes to listening to music he craves great variety, which was I definitely understood. Anyway, it made for a fun, easy article, and if you dig BTBAM, I'm sure you'll get a bit of a kick out of the piece.

As for record reviews, there's a nice stack in this issue. I wrote the lead review this month, which is always fun...this time it's the new one by Arsis, a record that's bound to polarize audiences. Technical death metal geeks will not be impressed with the band's new direction, which leans heavily towards traditional heavy metal. In fact, I keep hearing a lot of Arch Enemy in Starve For the Devil, and seeing that I like Arch Enemy a lot (Mike Amott is probably my favourite lead guitarist in metal right now...well, he and Frederik Thordendal), this album is definitely right up my alley. And regarding the cover of Alice Cooper's great 1987 song "Roses on White Lace" that I mention in the review, if you haven't heard it, you're missing out on something amazing. So here you go, give it a listen. Good bud Cosmo Lee was the one who hooked me up with the A Diamond For Disease EP in 2005, so he gets full credit for getting me into this fine band in the first place.

I also wrote a piece on the new one by Russian pagan metalers Arkona. I really like this band and especially their talented singer/screamer/songwriter/warrior Masha Scream, and the new CD doesn't disappoint (check out the truly epic new video for the title track!), but at 75 minutes it does start to drag on. Albums that long are rarely rousing successes. Then there's the goofily named but unquestionably brootal Mr. Death, a band formed by former members of Tiamat. If you like simple, traditional Swedish death metal like Entombed, Grave, and Unleashed, you'll like this one. lastly, there's the new one by Finnish doom sourpusses Swallow the Sun...it came out right when Katatonia's brilliant Night is the New Day was released, which was the worst timing, because as I put it somewhere, going back to the formulaic new Moon after the lavish Night is the New Day is kind of like going from prime rib to Spam. But you know what? When done properly, Spam's not that bad, and neither is New Moon. Even if it lifts its title from that awful sparkling vampire movie.

Meanwhile, over at Hellbound, I have a review of the new one by Epica. I've always been on the fence with Epica, I do enjoy symphonic metal when it's done well, and the Dutch band is certainly above average at times. In addition, they're capable of some decent, flouncy, hooky singles like this one and this one. However, they've never really been able to translate all that into a good, cohesive album, always winding up too overblown for their own good. I was hoping that would change with their fourth album, but it's gotten even worse, as at times Design Your Universe is a complete trainwreck, the sound of a band trying far too hard to impress. Thumbs way down on this one.

Neil Young's 'Weld' Revisited

Sat, 16 Jan 2010 06:00:00 EDT

Spending my pre-teen years in a tiny isolated town in the 70s and early 80s had many great advantages. A kid with a bike had so much more freedom than any kid who lived in a city. But living in that kind of cultural bubble doesn't exactly prepare you for life as a teen in a city, especially when it comes to popular music. The first 12 years of my life were spent solely in AM radio land, and by the time we moved to a much larger place, going to junior high and hearing of all these bands I had never heard of before, it was clear I was in way, way over my head. These days it's astonishing to think of just how out of touch I was, especially when it came to what would be known as classic rock. I didn't hear AC/DC, Bruce Springsteen, or Pink Floyd until 1984, when I was 13. I didn't hear Rush or Black Sabbath until I was 14. It still boggles my mind that I didn't hear Led Zeppelin until I was 16! Needless to say, I had a heckuvalot of catching up to do as my interest in music grew.

Worst of all was my knowledge of the work of Neil Young. It's not that I was totally unfamiliar; in fact songs from such folk and country-themed records as Harvest and Comes a Time were staples of Canadian AM radio. But by the time he started experimenting in hte early to mid-80s, Young seemed completely irrelevant to us teens at the time. No matter how hard he tried ("This Note's For You", for instance), he still came off as a dinosaur. The plain fact was I had no idea that once upon a time this guy knew how to rock, and it wasn't until "Rockin' in the Free World" broke in 1989 that I started to take notice. But that was new music, and as subsequent singles like 1990's "Over and Over" continued to draw my mild interest, I still had no interest in his older material, which I still assumed was of the folky variety. It's embarrassing to admit, but it wasn't until I was 21 that I learned just how awesome, how visceral, how loud old Neil Young songs could be.

Weld was the album that did it. A double live album recorded on Young's 90-91 tour with Crazy Horse, it absolutely blew my mind when I heard it on the radio. By then Neil Young had taken to the "godfather of grunge" tag in a huge way, and that tour, with Sonic Youth opening a lot of those shows, was all about the volume of the performances. The band of guitarist Poncho Sampedro, bassist Billy Talbot, and drummer Ralph Molina was at its raggedly glorious best, but it was all about Young, who stuck to his classic black Les Paul and hammered out gigantic riffs, searing, soaring solos, and wave upon wave of drone and feedback. Much to my amazement, the 16 track album had songs that dated back to as early as 1969. I had no idea! Suddenly an entire musical realm had opened itself up to me, thanks to the scorching, impassioned performances on this record.

Nearly 20 years later, Weld has aged beautifully. "Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)" sounds ferocious thanks to the heavily distorted crunch of Old Black. "Cortez the Killer" and "Like a Hurricane" are epic in every sense of the word, the latter featuring one of my all-time favourite guitar solos. "Tonight's the Night" is darker and more vicious than the original, while "Welfare Mothers" seethes with cynicism and "Roll Another Number" and "Farmer John" are pure garage rockers. The material from the great Ragged Glory album is superbly performed, especially "Love to Burn" and "Love and Only Love", but out of all the tracks, it's the two from 1989's Freedom that steal the show. The album version of "Crime in the City" is subtle and brooding, but here Young transforms it into an almost metallic anthem, the rhythm guitars galloping during the verses. Better yet is "Rockin' in the Free World", which is actually slower than the original, Crazy Horse making it rawer, much more primal as Young spits his acid-tongued lyrics, a perfect State of the Union address for Gulf War America. And speaking of Bush Sr.'s war, the cover of "Blowin' in the Wind" was powerful then, and with things even worse these days, it's just as powerful now.

An interesting bit of trivia I have always known, after listening to Young's fascinating appearance on Rockline in late '91, was that all the harmony vocals have been overdubbed in the studio. Purists would consider that insulting, and it's never fun to learn just how much studio doctoring goes into classic live albums, but from day one I've felt the retouched backing vocals work extremely well on Weld, especially on tracks like "Mansion on the Hill", "Blowin' in the Wind", and "Rockin' in the Free World". Had they not been retouched and the backing vocals turned out to be sloppy, there's no doubt it would have been far too distracting to bear. It was a gamble by Young, but one that worked brilliantly, at least in my own opinion.

Weld was the album that kicked off a serious Neil Young fixation, as I started to search out his old records, and although I enjoy the full range of his music, to this day I am drawn to Neil Young the Rocker more than anything else in his diverse catalogue: "Mr. Soul", "Everybody Knows This is Nowhere", "Down By the River", "Cowgirl in the Sand", "Southern Man", Tonight's the Night, Rust Never Sleeps, Live Rust. His music can be as hard edged as the heaviest of metal at times, and it's something I'm continually drawn towards. After all these years I finally replace my old worn cassette with the CD version of the album, and my interest in it has been reborn in recent weeks. It's a record that was glossed over by Young's baby boomer fanbase (Jimmy McDonough barely gives it a mention in his fascinating but flawed biography), but it had a much bigger impact on my own generation, and I'm pretty sure I wasn't the only Gen Xer who was amazed to find out that there was more to Neil Young than Harvest. Under that heart of gold lurks a lot of darkness, and Weld exudes that darkness perfectly.

It's always a good day for High on Fire.

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 05:30:00 EDT

Cleaning up more loose ends, I should mention some recent writing that got lost in the shuffle over the holidays. First off, the new one by Immortal, which I reviewed for PopMatters. It's been getting varied reactions, some people love it (enough to place it surprisingly high on Decibel's 2009 top 40), others are totally bored with it...personally I enjoy it, it's harmless fun, an admittedly watered down album that holds true to Immortal's formula from their albums with Peter Tagtgren. And speaking of fun, it's impossible to hate Dethklok, and the cartoon band's second album is tremendous. Show creator/songwriter Brenden Small continues to improve as a metal songwriter and vocalist, and Dethalbum II is a lot more ferocious than its predecessor, doing away with the jokey shtick and going for full-throttle, fist-pumpin' metal. Of course it never hurts to have Gene Hoglan holding the fort on drums, and he makes this record ultra-tight. They might be on Cartoon Network, but you can't listen to "Bloodlines" and "Laser Cannon Deth Sentence" and dismiss this as a mere novelty. This is good music, plain and simple.

Over at Hellbound I reviewed Dark Tranquillity's cool new DVD, which includes a very slickly shot club show from their last tour in 2008, as well as a very enjoyable band documentary and amazing early live footage, including rehearsal clips with Anders Friden on vocals before he joined In Flames. Better yet, though, is the debut EP by Seattle's Black Breath, just some good, old-fashioned metal in the vein of Celtic Frost's Morbid Tales and Slayer's Show No Mercy. They have a new album coming out this year, produced by Kurt Ballou no less, and you can bet I'm excited for that one.

One thing I didn't get a chance to mention was Decibel's special Top 100 Greatest Metal Albums of the Decade issue. It turned out excellent, it's a great discussion starter, which is always good. But I was a bit nonplussed about how much hardcore there was on a list that purported to be "metal". Converge, Botch, Trap Them, yeah, those can count, but not Fugazi, Shellac, Fucked Up, or Melt-Banana...I like those bands a lot, but we all know they're not metal. And neither is Queens of the Stone Age, for that matter. But who am I to complain? I had Alcest at #8 on my ballot, for crying out loud! I could bicker about the choices, but Phil Freeman did a much better job of that a month ago. I will say it was disheartening to see a lot of melodic metal ignored...DragonForce, Nightwish, Nevermore, Arch Enemy, even Lamb of God all made a very big impact on metal over the last ten years, and that deserves acknowledgment. I could slap together my own list of 100 metal albums, but that'd just be overkill right now. Decibel's list is controversial, but that's good, it got people talking.

Every December I run off a list of albums from the previous year that I missed out on when I did my end-of-year project, but in 2009 I couldn't think of many that I felt deserved mentioning. I can't say the same in 2010, though, as I missed out on a few biggies from 2009. First off, and don't laugh, but the CD by Them Crooked Vultures wound up blowing me away. I knew about the hype from day one, but I ended up cooling on the notion of QOTSA's Josh Homme, Dave Grohl, and John Paul Jones jamming away for an hour or so. Supergroups rarely if ever work, so why should this? Well, this album does work, even if it is three guys having a lossey-goosey jam session. All three musicians are on equal footing, Jones providing those fluid basslines and keys, Grohl doing what he ought to be doing (instead of, say, singing and playing guitar), but Homme really comes through with some quality riffs and vocal hooks, as the album is every bit as good as the last couple Queens records. It does stumble for a bit on "Interlude With Ludes" and "Warsaw", but as for the rest, I love it.

Another album wound up growing on me immensely. When I first heard it, Micachu's Jewellery sounded like merely ordinary indie rock with a lot of clatter stuck on top. But very much like Can's weirder, more playful sonic excursions, those off-kilter melodies and oddball arrangements just wound their way into my head, like the Fall-esque riff on "Lips", the whimsical "Golden Phone", or "Calculator". I should know better than to immediately dismiss something, but sometimes I need the odd reminder, and this wonderful little CD did just that.

Another grower was St. Vincent's Actor. I'd heard "Strangers" and "Actor Out of Work" all year long, but it was actually the clever integration of indie and electronic on the single "Marrow" that ultimately commanded my attention, compelling me to look past that admittedly annoying cover art. Seriously, her album covers freak me out. Thankfully the music doesn't.

But hey, it's a new year, enough looking back. What about the new stuff? Just a week ago I was lamenting that my physical and virtual stacks of 2010 albums were looking unusually scant, both in number and quality, but things were set right very quickly this week, thanks to the arrival of two of my most-anticipated records of the year, Dillinger Escape Plan's Option Paralysis and High on Fire's Snakes For the Divine. My initial reaction to the Dillinger record is positive, and we all know just how much their music can grow on a listener, so I'll be giving this plenty of time to settle in. I like it, it's a good, consistent balance of everything they've been doing as of late (insane technical tracks offset by more restrained melodic passages), but my gut's telling me that it won't end up being better than Ire Works. That one knocked my socks off from my first listen...if the last three albums felt like 9 outta 10 records, this one feels like a 7 or 8. Still very good, but not as mind-blowing.

High on Fire's Snakes For the Divine, however, sounds like a winner as soon as you hear it. Granted, there's no such thing as a bad High of Fire album, Matt Pike is too talented to let that happen, but it feels like Snakes really raises the bar. Some folks prefer the density of Surrounded by Thieves, the glorious Steve Albini sound of Blessed Black Wings, or the more adventurous Death is This Communion, and I cannot see how anyone will dislike Snakes. First and foremost, it gets down to brass tacks after the somewhat more measured pace of Communion: it's all riffage, all aggression for 46 spectacular minutes, every single track a barnstormer, seven songs averaging 6-8 minutes in length, early faves the first three tracks actually: the epic "Snakes For the Divine", the rampaging "Frost Hammer", and the menacing, Sabbatherian "Bastard Samurai". Greg Fidelman's production is terrific, achieving the same dry tone as he did on Slayer's World Painted Blood, and he does somethnig that no other producer dared try yet: put Pike's vocals right up front. His strangled growl is one of the more unique voices in metal, and he really puts in a charismatic performance, making an already excellent album even better. Out of all the January-March releases I've heard thus far, this is easily the best of them. Better circle February 23rd on your calendar...

Welcome to 2010...WJC thoughts

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 04:03:00 EDT

Well, it's about time I got back at the blog, no? October to November gets so crazy that once I get my year-end thing all done before Christmas, I just have to take a break. So I did. But this year the break was extended because I was off on my own little hockey holiday, attending the World Junior Championships here in Saskatoon. It was something I couldn't pass up, I went to a few games the last time the tournament was held in Saskatchewan in 1991 and just loved it (I got to see many future NHL stars as well), and even though ticket prices were super-inflated, I splurged on the medal round package. It was exhausting...eleven games in four days was tough, and in the end heavily-favoured Canada didn't win, but the whole experience was fantastic, and I'm so glad I went. In an effort to keep things relatively concise, here are some thoughts from the dozen (in total) games I saw:

- The gold medal final was one of the best games I have ever seen in person, in hundreds and hundreds of games I've never been in that crazy a hockey crowd, and when Jordan Eberle worked his magic in the last few minutes to cap an incredible comeback, it was unreal.

- I saw the US victory coming from a mile away. Having attended four of their games, they played like a unit, a team, while Canada just got by on raw talent...placing second in their pool galvanized the US, while Canada was very rusty after earning the first place bye. No matter how much Don Cherry whines, the US flat-out took it to Canada over and over in this tournament and fully deserved to win.

- Canada deserved to be brought down a peg. All the media hype and expectations of the fans just made this country look too arrogant, and as much as I wanted them to win (decked out in my Team Canada jersey of course!), John Carlson's OT winner didn't leave me anywhere near as shattered as other folks in the building.

- The second best game was the Switzerland-Russia quarterfinal, in which the Swiss goalie put on a clinic against the very aggressive Russians and we all witnessed the emergence of one Nino Niederreiter.

- Jordan Eberle, Taylor Hall, Alex Pietrangelo, John Carlson, Jordan Schroeder, Danny Kristo, Cam Fowler, Matthias Tedenby, Magnus Paajarvi-Svensson, and Adam Larsson all were incredible to watch.

- It was nice how the city embraced the Latvia team after they were mercilessly slaughtered 16-0 in the first game against Canada. Everyone cheered for them even though they were horribly overmatched, and when they won their final relegation game against Austria, they looked so happy and grateful for the support. That's Saskatchewan right there, never mind the mean-spirited anti-American sentiment when the US played.

- This was the best organized event I have ever seen Saskatoon stage. The public transportation was perfect, buses had priority over cars, so getting in and out was so much faster than driving, and when I did park, traffic flow was coordinated as well as it could be, everyone did a super job.

- World Fest was awesome. Game ends, head out the east doors, hop on the bus (the longest I waited was 30 seconds), drive two minutes to the venue, get dropped off right at the door, grab something good to eat, look at the memorabilia displays (I am such a nerd when it comes to old senior hockey sweaters from Saskatchewan), and basically take it easy for an hour before heading back to the next game.

- Pepsi's corporate slogan disguised as a cheer was a complete and utter failure, something I'm very proud happened. They started off aggressively pushing it on the crowds at games, but by tournament's end people booed whenever someone brought it up, and the hired "fans" and announcers just gave up trying to do it by the semifinal and final. It's like an advertiser trying to make somethnig go viral: it's impossible. These things happen organically, not by force-feeding the public. We didn't buy into it. Eh, oh, I'd rather drink Coke.

- The 50/50 was NUTS, featuring a very cool ticker that just compelled folks to buy more tickets. The New Year's Eve game nearly topped $200,000, while the final came within a couple hundred of $300,000. Staggering.

- The Family Fest the week before Christmas was awesome, with loads of exhibits and interactive stuff for the kids, and best of all, it gave my niece and I a chance to spend some quality time with the Stanley Cup. We went at a time when we knew there wouldn't be a line-up (6 pm on a Tuesday), and were able to take our time with it and snap some photos.

- It was a great time to people watch. Just walk on the concourse of Credit Union Centre, and you'd practically bump into someone famous. Saw lots of hockey people, but the biggest geek moment for me was seeing Mark Messier, who still looks like he can go out and play. Plus the fact that he spent an entire intermission signing stuff and saying hi to kids speaks volumes.

-My seat was awesome. 18th row upper deck doesn't sound great, but I was right on a blue line and the sight lines from there in the cozy rink are amazing. $558 well spent, I tell you!

More catching up tomorrow!

The Album and Single of the Year

Thu, 24 Dec 2009 03:46:00 EDT

We Were Hungry Before We Were Born

Album of the Year:
Fever Ray - Fever Ray
I was already a big admirer of Swedhish electro-pop band the Knife, 2006's Silent Shout turning out to be one of the biggest growers I have heard this past decade, and when it was announced that the duo's female half, Karin Dreijer Andersson, was going to be putting out her first solo album, I was intrigued to say the least. But also a little cautious; after all, more often than not solo efforts by members of established bands tend to be horribly self-indulgent affairs as the artist relishes more artistic freedom than usual. When Fever Ray's first single "If I Had a Heart" came out, all apprehensiveness vanished instantly, and it was clear that this was going to be a very good album. As it turned out, however, Fever Ray would actually surpass anything the Knife had put out prior, a staggering work that left me initially shattered and never left my subconscious all year long.

This record is so minimal, extraordinarily so. The music still operates within a similar electronic niche as the Knife, but the synths and beats are far less intrusive; in fact, the arrangements are stripped down so much that it's like the songs are only in skeletal form at best, yet the music never feels raw. Just simply restrained. And that in turn lends Fever Ray a dark, brooding, enigmatic quality that's impossible to shake. And considering the unique quality of Dreijer Andersson's voice (not to mention her rather peculiar lyrics), that's the perfect musical backdrop for her to have. Using pitchshifters and vocal filters she creates multiple disembodied personae, sounding hauntingly low one moment ("If I Had a Heart", "Dry and Dusty"), sweet and innocent the next ("Seven", "When I Grow Up"), while her arrangements alternately channel dark ambient ("If I Had a Heart") and Giorgio Moroder ("Coconut"). It's a fascinating, entrancing blend, one that comes to a head on the stunning "Keep the Streets Empty For Me", the one song that resonated with yours truly the most in 2009, desolate, contemplative, puzzling, and utterly beautiful, perfect music for solitary night owls. I sensed as far back as March that this would be my album of the year, and indeed, nothing topped it. A dark, minimalist tour de force.

Single: 1. Fever Ray � "Keep the Streets Empty For Me"

#2

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 03:34:00 EDT

2. Cobalt - Gin
By December of 2008 I'd been expecting very big things from Cobalt for well over a year, especially considering just how strong their second album Eater of Birds was and how intriguing the stopgap Landfill Breastmilk Beast turned out to be, but when I was treated to an unmastered advance that month, I was floored. Could it be, I thought, that I've heard the best metal album of 2009 before 2009 has even started yet? Here was the kind of metal album that thrills me to no end, the kind of heavy music I crave the most: an album that is absolutely towering sonically, epic in scope, and completely unafraid to remain within the confines of a single subgenre, primal, poetic, experimental, and cathartic all at the same time. Cobalt might be rooted in American black metal, but Gin extends its reach even further. We get a very strong crust punk influence in the raw guitar riffs, subdued passages and powerful crescendoes reminiscent of Tool, the kind of atmospherics that made Swans so unique, and even a little Johnny Cash-style darkness as well. Multi-instrumentalist Erik Wunder and lyricist/vocalist Phil McSorley have put together an extraordinary piece of work here; throughout all of 2009, Gin was my measuring stick for all metal and extreme music, and although I heard plenty of good records, nothing could come close to topping this nihilist, primitivist, literate, audacious, pulverizing masterpiece. This is the kind of metal I live for.

Single: 2. Bat For Lashes � "Daniel"

#3

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 02:53:00 EDT

3. Katatonia - Night is the New Day
Considering that it's taking Katatonia longer and longer to put together their albums, slowly writing songs (some often taking weeks to construct) and meticulously, painstakingly recording and mixing them, it's no surprise at all that their last three full-lengths have gotten more and more elaborate and lavish sounding. Nobody complains about production as much as metal fans, with many claiming that sounding pristine or elegant goes against everything the traditional definition of metal stands for, but in Katatonia's case, it suits them perfectly. They've been inching towards a true genre-straddling sound for the past ten years, and with their eighth album, it actually sounds fully realized. The doom metal riffs and goth atmospherics remain ever present, but Night is the New Day is also adorned with moody electronic touches and contemplative, subtle keyboard work, everything forming a luxurious backdrop for singer Jonas Renske, who continues to buck convention, singing in a subdued croon instead of trying to sound larger than life like other metal frontmen. It's his strongest vocal performance to date, as he carries the entire record, which is highlighted by his performances on "Nephilim", "Departer", and the shattering "The Longest Year". 1996's Brave Murder Day will always be regarded as Katatonia's most influential album, but in my opinion, anyway, this is their true magnum opus, one that was definitely worth the long wait.

Single: 3. Dirty Projectors � "Stillness is the Move"

#4

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 03:15:00 EDT

4. Bat For Lashes - Two Suns
We all knew Natasha Khan was on to something big when she put out her first album under her pseudonym Bat For Lashes back in 2007, and with heightened expectations two years later, she came through with a stunner. In fact, I'd go as far to describe her work on Two Suns as the most beautiful female vocal performance since Goldfrapp's Felt Mountain. You can draw a lot of parallels between the two albums actually: both are lavishly produced, heavily indebted to Kate Bush, tastefully arranged, alternately mellow, pensive, and enigmatic, and feature a singer who knows exactly what to add to a song without completely overplaying her hand. The wonderful lead single "Daniel" is the main draw, and for good reason, but delve deeper and you'll unearth even more riches, be it the schizophrenic "Pearl's Dream", the adventurous "Siren Song", the entrancing opener "Glass", and the dark, brooding, passionate "Sleep Alone". The atmosphere of Two Suns is extraordinary, the production by Khan and David Kosten sumptuous, but in the end it's all about Khan's breathy, understated delivery, which convincingly sounds as "arty" as her music demands, but neither veers into melodrama nor pretentious vocal theatrics. It's a masterful album, one that was robbed of the Mercury Prize earlier this year.

Single: 4. Camera Obscura � "French Navy"

#5

Sun, 20 Dec 2009 04:10:00 EDT

5. Converge - Axe to Fall
Converge has been around for nearly 20 years, and despite putting out one of this past decade's most jarring metal/hardcore albums in 2001's Jane Doe, they've just keep pushing forward. This is one band who is clearly driven to outdo themselves with each new record, and incredibly, that's what they've done, transforming their already ferocious sound every single time. It's one thing to boast that you're going to put out a landmark album time and again, but few if any bands are able to put their money where their mouth is as Converge has done, and while Jane Doe continues to get all the accolades, I am convinced it's far from their best work. That honor goes to Axe to Fall, one of the most viscerally intense listening experiences you will ever hear. As opposed to their previous work, there's a tiny hint of accessibility this time around thanks to a heavy d-beat influence, that simpler, more direct formula allowing Kurt Ballou to let loose with some of his greatest riffs to date. As bracing as songs like "Dark Horse" and "Cutter" are, though, the jarring sonic detours "Worms Will feed", "Cruel Bloom", and "Wretched World" prove again there's far more to this band than many people realize.

Single: 5. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart � "Young Adult Friction"

#6

Sat, 19 Dec 2009 00:20:00 EDT

6. Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Career
Glasgow's Camera Obscura has been slowly growing on me over the entire last decade. After starting off as a strikingly similar band to twee nerds Belle and Sebastian, Tracyanne Campbell and company has been gradually forming their own musical identity, firmly rooted in 1950s pop and centered on Campbell's acerbic, self-deprecating confessional songwriting style. 2006's Let's Get Out of This Country was a big step in the right direction, led by the knockout single "Lloyd, I'm ready to be Heartbroken", but although there have been no changes to the formula on their fourth album (right down to the production), the wryly titled My Maudlin Career feels like the most complete Camera Obscura album to date. It's one of those records that feels confidently executed from the get-go, the pop classic-in-the-making "French Navy" instantly sounding timeless, Campbell's vocal delivery sweet and understated, her lyrics half-tortured, half neurotic, the underlying strings not so much high gloss as simply refined. With an album so preoccupied with retro pop, that immediacy, that contagiousness is crucial, and every track on the album nails it, be it the tender "Careless Love", the adoring "The Sweetest Thing", the rousing Motown of "Honey in the Sand", or the insanely hooky "Swans".

Single: 6. Miranda Lambert � "Dead Flowers"

#8

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 00:06:00 EDT

8. Baroness - Blue Record
In direct contrast to fellow Georgians Kylesa, Baroness wasted no time in fulfilling expectations; three really good EPs, and blammo, an absolute knockout of a debut full-length in 2007's Red Album. Baroness's swift rise to prominence was remarkable to witness: just like that you had a fully-realized band establishing itself among the very best in American metal. So it goes without saying that expectations for the follow-up were astronomical, but this time around, Baroness did things a little more subtly. While Red Album was a quantum leap from the band's early material, the aptly-titled Blue Record is not much of a departure at all, and can easily be seen as a companion piece to its predecessor: big, galloping riffs, those coarse yet melodic vocals by John Baizley, slight nods to Fugazi. However, the palette from which they draw is so much richer this time around, with a great deal of the credit going to producer John Congleton and new guitarist Pete Adams, as the record is infused with a strong acoustic element, songs like "Steel That Sleeps the Eye" and "O'er Hell and Hide" brilliantly offsetting such more aggressive fare as "Jake Leg", "A Horse Called Golgotha", and the stupendous "The Gnashing".

Single: 8. R�yksopp � "This Must Be It"

#9

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 00:40:00 EDT

9. Kylesa - Static Tensions
I always liked Kylesa's music, but never really loved it. It was a cool variation on Southern sludge metal and groovy crust punk, but it always felt like something was missing. In fact, when their third album Time Will Fuse its Worth placed on Decibel's list of the best albums of 2006, I was actually baffled�the Savannah band had its moments and had enormous potential for big things, but at the time it certainly was nothing worthy of year-end accolades. Well, that all changed this year. It's always a great feeling to see a band fully live up to its promise, and Kylesa did just that on Static Tensions. So what's the big difference this time around, you ask? For one, everything gels perfectly, whether it's rampaging garage rock ("Scapegoat"), stoner/psychedelic ("Only One"), or well crafted melodic heavy rock ("Running Red"). The producton is also exceptional, the hard-panning of the band's two drummers an inspired idea, adding extraordinary texture to such tracks as "Said and Done" and "Perception". Best of all, though, is that this album is insanely catchy from start to finish, a near perfect balance of aggression and accessibility, the sound of a hard working band finally coming into its own.

Single: 9. Florence + the Machine � "Rabbit Heart (Raise it Up)"

#10

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 00:50:00 EDT

10. Sunn O))) - Monoliths & Dimensions
It's easy to understand why the duo Sunn O))) has so many haters. You've got two guys in hooded robes (that is, if you can see them through the thick fog of dry ice) playing over-amplified tritone riffs at a snail's crawl, the drones, distortion, and feedback so overwhelmingly loud that it's hard to distinguish one track from the next. It's metal at its most pretentious. However, while they're a completely visceral force live, their albums are often immaculately constructed, and in the end that's what matters most. Their last three studio full-lengths have been an especially intriguing journey, but while the uber-dark Black One and the Boris collaboration Altar were excellent, the aptly titled Monoliths & Dimensions is Sunn O)))'s most revelatory record yet. Divided neatly into four sides of a mammoth double album, it's a spellbinding experience. "Aghartha" is typically ominous, thanks in large part to Attila Csihar's muttered doomsday poetry, "Big Church" is a theatrical blend of a female choir and harrowing incantations, "Hunting & Gathering" is a great exercise in Celtic Frost-style riffing, while show-stopper "Alice" starts off ominously, only this time gradually letting the sun in until the 16 minute track feels more graceful than lumbering.

Single: 10. Delorean � "Seasun"

#11

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 02:39:00 EDT

11. Amesoeurs - Amesoeurs
Heading into 2009, the debut full-length album by France's Amesoeurs was among my most eagerly anticipated albums of the new year, and for very good reason. A side project of Alcest mastermind Stephane "Neige" Paut, Amesoeurs had hinted at huge, huge potential on two EPs, a fascinating combination of ferocious black metal and contemplative darkwave, and the fact that the new album was to focus heavily on the latter sound, influenced by Joy Division and the Cure, was extremely enticing. When it finally came out, the self-titled record didn't disappoint at all, and although it was being serviced almost exclusively to metal writers, one could make a very convincing case that it, save for the straight-up black metal of "Trouble (Eveiles-Infames)", could hardly qualify as metal whatsoever. It's a stupid debate in metal circles, and ultimately pointless, because regardless of genre, this is a bleak, beautiful little album. Though this is Neige's baby, bassist Audrey Sylvain is front and centre, her girlish, detached singing the perfect complement to the melancholy arrangements ("Les Ruches Malades", "Faux Semblants", "Video Girl", "Amesoeurs"), her tortured, primal screams on the show-stopper "La Reine Trayeuse" having an effect no man could ever pull off so convincingly.

Single: 11. Fever Ray � "If I Had a Heart"

#12

Sun, 13 Dec 2009 04:55:00 EDT

12. Isis - Wavering Radiant
With the decade coming to a close, everyone who is making a list of the most important metal albums of the last ten years is going to name Isis's 2002 breakthrough Oceanic. And rightfully so. It's a seminal work, one that spawned a wave of imitators, but as the years have gone on, though, what I've most come to admire about Isis is their stubborn refusal to just stop there. It's been a continual search for a different musical identity in the wake of Oceanic, a journey that I've found particularly intriguing, and with Wavering Radiant it finally feels like the band has successfully reinvented itself, to the point where I sincerely think this album is superior to that record from seven years ago. The band is no longer all about big, crushing waves of guitars and that rather basic soft-loud-soft-loud formula; the arrangements are richer, the songwriting less predictable. Producer Joe Barresi brings a coziness that we haven't heard from Isis before, which accentuates the record's improved dynamics immensely, its key performance by keyboardist Bryant Clifford Meyer, who brings a very strong progressive rock and krautrock influence to such tracks as "Ghost Key" and "Stone to Wake a Serpent".

Single: 12. Saviours � "Slave to the Hex"

#13

Sat, 12 Dec 2009 01:59:00 EDT

13. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
Animal Collective's rise to prominence in the last half of this decade coincided with my growing disconnect from American indie rock, which to me just kept sounding more and more full of itself, precious and pretentious, with lots of showing off and little substance, and the hype surrounding Animal Collective was simply baffling to me. To this day I still consider albums like Sung Tongs, Feels, and Strawberry Jam near unlistenable. It always came off as the sound of a bunch of guys who thought they were cleverer than they actually were, half-baked ideas masquerading as experimental, cutting edge music. But then Merriweather Post Pavilion came along in December of 2008, and the ecstatic reaction on the internet compelled me to give these dummies one last shot. So I listened; it sounded surprisingly cohesive and fully-formed, and after a few weeks it had grown on me enormously. It's a small miracle of a record, really, the sound of a band finally getting it right after twiddling around for so long, with richly layered production, beautiful vocal harmonies, the songs' unconventional structures also enormously catchy. This is as much a psychedelic landmark as Mercury Rev's Deserter's Songs was eleven years ago.

Single: 13. Animal Collective � "My Girls"

#14

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 00:22:00 EDT

14. Funeral Mist - Maranatha
Whether you want to call him Mortuus or Arioch, Daniel Rosten has had a monstrous year. Not only has he played a very significant role in the creative rebirth of Swedish black metal veterans Marduk (their Wormwood album is one of the year's better metal releases), but his side project Funeral Mist came along and floored critics and fans alike, yours truly included. Visually, this album is stunning, the incomprehensibly grotesque images immediately drilling into our heads, their visceral impact coming before the music sinks in. And when those eight tracks do come and go, the effect is shattering. Maranatha encapsulates what many purists feel are the most important aspects of black metal: primitive, ugly, provocative, Satanic, and above all else, staunchly anti-Christian. Instead of merely tossing out those criteria as mere clich�s, Rosten sounds absolutely inspired within that template. His songs range from your typical, wickedly fast, blastbeat-driven fare ("Sword of Faith") to monolithically slow, lurching crawls ("White Stone"), while his vocals are extraordinary, grunting, spitting, groaning, howling his surprisingly eloquent verses. As strong as the entire album is, it peaks during the mid-record trifecta of "Jesus Saves!", "A New Light", and the astounding, 12 minute groove piece "Blessed Curse".

Single: 14. Metric � "Sick Muse"

#15

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 00:43:00 EDT

15. Slayer - World Painted Blood
I've been listening to Slayer since 1984 and greatly admire the band for being as resilient as they have, but although they've been churning out consistently good music this past decade, I never really thought they'd be able to elevate their game as much as they wound up doing on World Painted Blood. For the first time in ages, since Seasons in the Abyss actually, Slayer sounds, well, bloodthirsty. Nothing has changed in their sound whatsoever: it's still the same slicing riffs and dive-bombing solos by Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King, the same malevolent vocals by Tom Araya (who remains metal's great enunciator), and that unmistakable Dave Lombardo swing is there. However, we feel genuine passion this time, their eleventh album. The key on this record is the contributions of Hanneman; he's the man behind virtually all of Slayer's best-known riffs and songs, and after barely contributing to the songwriting on 2006's Christ Illusion, he's back in a huge way, writing six of the new album's eleven tracks. All of them are standouts, especially the Reign in Blood-worthy "Psycopathy Red", the mid-tempo stomp of "Human Strain", and the brilliant title track, proof that there's plenty of inspiration in this band yet.

Single: 15. Passion Pit � "The Reeling"