Basement Galaxy

Children by the millions mourn for Alex Chilton.

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 05:32:00 EST

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 EST

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 EST

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 EST

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 EST

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 EST

"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 EST

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 EST

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 EST

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 EST

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 EST

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 EST

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 EST

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 EST

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 EST

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 EST

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 EST

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 EST

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 EST

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 EST

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 EST

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 EST

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 EST

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 EST

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 EST

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 EST

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 EST

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"

#16

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 00:35:00 EST

16. Florence + the Machine - Lungs
We always get these types of albums, debuts by a female singer-songwriter who does everything she can to show she's FEARLESS and AUDACIOUS and flamboyantly PROFOUND. It happens so much that we have every reason to be jaded when the next bombastic lady troubadour comes along, but once in a rare while, there's a record that truly deserves our attention. And in Florence Welch's case, she sure pulls out all the stops on her Mercury Prize-nominated first album, so much so that it comes perilously close to total overkill. Never mind the fact that she uses her big, booming voice so ostentatiously that you wonder if she's ever heard of the word "understated", but the arrangements are completely over the top in their eclecticism and Kate Bush worship, the latter influence most blatant on tracks like "Between Two Lungs", "Cosmic Love", "Drumming Song", and the excellent single "Rabbit Heart (Raise it Up)". Impressive as those moments are, it's the curveballs she and her band toss our way that make this album so compelling, be it the tongue-in-cheek garage rock of "Kiss With a Fist", the gorgeous "Dog Days Are Over", and the spellbinding album closer "You've Got the Love".

Single: 16. Bat For Lashes � "Sleep Alone"

#17

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 05:05:00 EST

17. La Roux - La Roux
When electropop duo La Roux appeared on the BBC's Sound of 2009 list early this year, I gave a listen to then-current single "Quicksand", and thought, It's okay, nothing too special here. Then four or five months later, I decided on the spur of the moment to sample an online promo of the band's debut full-length I'd been granted access to, and "Bulletproof" grabbed me, hook, line, and sinker. Bouncy, extremely catchy, boasting an arrangement that hearkens back to the days of Human League and Yazoo, and with just the right amount of sass, it was an absolute knockout of a single. Much has been made of Elly Jackson's in-your-face demeanor and her rather shrill voice, but while a track like "In For the Kill" is a fair bit harsher than your usual chart-toppers, the rest of the record delves into more subtle territory. On "Colourless Colour" she employs a deeper, gentler voice which works wonders with the arrangement by Ben Langmaid, "As if By Magic" has an unmistakable Goldfrapp influence, while the slinky "Reflections Are Protection" and the very pretty ballad "Armour Love" hints at just how much untapped potential La Roux has. Avery strong, confident first album.

Single: 17. Phoenix � "1901"

#18

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 00:36:00 EST

18. Metric - Fantasies
Although I enjoyed 2005's Fantasies, it was clear that Metric wasn't exactly the happiest of bands. The album was too centered on harsh guitar riffs instead of finding a nice balance between guitar-driven power pop and electro-pop, the hooks were more dark than ebullient, and although the foursome was still plenty capable of putting on a good, tight show, their performances looked and felt a little on the chilly side. However, some time after the band took a little break and Emily Haines put out her nice but even more morose solo debut, something changed: the mood brightened, the passion returned. The shimmering new single "Help I'm Alive", released in November 2008, was a tremendous return to form, and the band's Christmas charity tour across Canada in mid-December was wonderful, the happiest they'd looked onstage in a long time. The eight new tracks they performed on that -35 degree night here sounded very strong, immediately memorable, and indeed, when it hit stores this past April, Fantasies sounded as good as the band and their performance had promised, subsequent singles "Sick Muse" and "Gimme Sympathy" going over huge with fans, "Collect Call" and "Twilight Galaxy" experimenting more with textured electronic arrangements.

Single: 18. Blacklist � "Flight of the Demoiselles"

#19

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 01:29:00 EST

19. Rammstein - Liebe Ist F�r Alle Da
The fact that Rammstein has been able to put together a good, lengthy career in the wake of the worldwide success of 1998's Sehnsucht and the "Du Hast" single is very admirable, but as good as Mutter, Reise, Reise, and Rosenrot were, something was missing from those records. I really dug their continually broadening sound, but it seemed to come at the expense of the attitude, the swagger. It felt safe instead of provocative and incendiary. Well, that's all changed with Liebe Ist F�r Alle Da, as after 11 years, it feels like we finally got the proper follow-up to Sehnsucht. We still get some cool forward-thinking moments (the lovely, Edith Piaf-referencing "Fr�hling in Paris", the ballad "Roter Sand"), but this album is more about the return to that simple formula that made "Du Hast" and "Engel" so popular: gigantic, catchy riffs, huge Ministry-inspired beats, textured synths, and graphic lyrics, sung in German by the baritone-voiced Till Lindemann, highlighted by the rampaging title track, "Ich Tu Der Weh", the grisly "Wiener Blut", and controversial single "Pussy". Sometimes it's better when a band sticks primarily to its strengths, and in so doing Rammstein has hit one out of the park.

Single: 19. Surfer Blood � "Swim (To Reach the End)"

The xx - xx

Sat, 05 Dec 2009 00:37:00 EST

20. The xx - xx
Of all the heavily hyped bands to come out of the UK over the past few years, London foursome the xx is definitely the most peculiar. Not that they're odd by any stretch, but their music is completely devoid of the kind of gimmicks that the British press continually gets suckered into. This band's approach is subtle and simple, so much so that the first time you hear it, it practically goes in one ear and out the other unless you give it your undivided attention. However, pinning down the xx's sound isn't exactly easy. The minimalist pop of Young Marble Giants is the most obvious influence at first, but it's not as stripped down, the low-key electronic touches adding tremendous depth and resonance to the 11 tracks. The hushed tones provide a perfect backdrop for guitarist Romy Madley Croft and bassist Oliver Sim's tender, seductive vocal interplay, Sim singing detachedly, Madley Croft breathy and tender, which works brilliantly on such standout tracks as "Crystalised", "Infinity", "Stars", and "VCR". What starts off sounding sterile and impersonal slowly, gradually turns into a remarkably warm, confident, immaculately conceived and produced debut album, one that becomes more and more rewarding with each spin.

Singles: 20. The Sounds � "No One Sleeps When I'm Awake"

15 albums that didn't crack my top 20

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 00:32:00 EST

Honourable Mentions of 2009:
(The best of the rest, in alphabetical order)

3 Inches of Blood - Here Waits Thy Doom
The Vancouver retro-metalers just keep getting better on record, and their fourth album, produced by Jack Endino, is enormously fun traditional heavy metal, packed with the kind of fist-pumpin' anthems that I ate up 25 years ago. Nothing has changed!
Essential tracks: "Battles and Brotherhood", "Call of the Hammer"

Akron/Family - Set 'Em Wild, Set 'Em Free
Akron/Family is as eclectic as ever, but there's something different about their fourth CD, rooted more in classic rock, progressive/psychedelic rock, and funk than ever before. It's a wild ride, but not for a moment does it ever get tedious.
Essential tracks: "Everyone is Guilty", "MBF"

Lily Allen - It's Not Me, It's You
Proving that her debut was no fluke, Lily Allen hooked up with Greg Kurstin from the Bird and the Bee and put together a confident follow-up that eschewed the eclecticism of Alright, Still in favour of a more consistent, electro-pop sound.
Essential tracks: "The Fear", "I Could Say"

Between the Buried and Me - The Great Misdirect
The reigning kings of progressive metal returned with an album every bit as challenging as 2007's Colors, but as crazy as these epic tracks all seem at first, there's a cohesiveness to the songwriting that's just remarkable. Jaw-dropping at times.
Essential tracks: "Obfuscation", "Swim to the Moon"

Blacklist - Midnight of the Century
People tend to forget how bombastic goth rock was back in the late-'80s, but Blacklist certainly hasn't, reveling in the garish, gigantic, stadium-friendly sounds of Sisters of Mercy and the Mission and completely nailing the aesthetic on their debut album.
Essential tracks: "Flight of the Demoiselles", "Shock in the Hotel Falcon"

BLK JKS - After Robots
While I refuse to buy into Vampire Weekend's phony Afro-pop, South Africa's BLK JKS is more up my alley, combining those indigenous sounds with the experimentalism of TV on the Radio and the progressive rock noodling of the Mars Volta.
Essential tracks: "Molalatladi", "Lakeside"

Cannibal Corpse - Evisceration Plague
The death metal greats are on a mighty impressive creative roll these days, and their eleventh album is one of their finest, the songs typically brutal yet incessantly catchy, while the production by Erik Rutan is simultaneously clean and crushing.
Essential tracks: "Evisceration Plague", "To Decompose"

Handsome Furs - Face Control
This side project by Wolf Parade's Dan Boeckner and his partner Alexei Perry started off as a decent sounding band, but their second album made a tremendous leap, a cool, contagious blend of raw garage rock and thrumming electronic touches.
Essential tracks: "All We Want, Baby, is Everything", "I'm Confused"

Krallice - Dimensional Bleedthrough
Mick Barr and Colin Marston wasted no time in putting together a follow-up to last year's outstanding debut, and while it's not quite as revelatory, it feels like more like a band effort, emphasizing ambient black metal over crazed soloing.
Essential tracks: "Aridity", "Monolith of Possession"

Liturgy - Renihilation
This debut by the Brooklyn band makes Krallice sound tame by comparison, hitting us straight in the face with blasts of mind-bogglingly fast black metal. Cacophonous, yes, but it quickly achieves a trance-like quality thanks to the songs' subtle melodies.
Essential tracks: "Pagan Dawn", "Ecstatic Rite"

Marduk - Wormwood
It's amazing how these guys can still carry on with the same Satanic black metal and still sound fresh on record, but Wormwood has the Swedish veterans sounding as incendiary and malevolent as ever, led by Mortuus's wicked, charismatic snarl.
Essential tracks: "Funeral Dawn", "To Redirect Perdition"

Mastodon - Crack the Skye
The best American metal band of the past decade took a sharp turn towards prog on their newest album, which took some adjusting to, but eventually provided them with the commercial breakthrough they deserved, "The Czar" their best song to date.
Essential tracks: "The Czar", "Oblivion"

Revocation - Existence is Futile
If there's one band that should become the next big thing in metal, it's Revocation, who take Lamb of God's rapidly stagnating sound and inject it with energy, technical death metal wizardry, and competent songwriting, immediately establishing them as a major talent.
Essential tracks: "Pestilence Reigns", "Across Forests and Fjords"

Saviours - Accelerated Living
They're not innovative in the least, but Saviours' third album grabs me on an instinctive level that's impossible to ignore, pounding out a filthy, swaggering, booze-fueled brand of NWOBHM-inspired metal that we haven't heard since Tank. Too awesome for words.
Essential tracks: "Slave to the Hex", "Acid Hand"

Worm Ouroboros - Worm Ouroboros
This one really crept up on me, a dreamy excursion into dark ambient music led by the seductive singing of Lorraine Rath, the San Francisco trio often sounding like Alison Goldfrapp fronting Katatonia. Which, if you know me, is totally up my alley.
Essential tracks: "A Birth a Death", "Riverbed"

Best Reissues, Compilations, and DVDs, Part 2

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 00:29:00 EST

The Best Ineligible Releases of 2009:
(collections of previously released material, like live albums, reissues, compilations, music DVDs, etc.)

1. Neil Young - Archives, Vol. 1: 1963-1972
I first learned of Neil Young's gigantic archives project in late 1991, right when I was developing a serious obsession with the guy's back catalogue, and after an excruciating wait for the first volume, after countless delays, false starts, and pushed-back release dates, the unthinkable finally happened this past summer: we finally got it. And it turned out to be just the kind of treasure trove that die-hard fans have been craving, a completely immersive multi-media experience, its expandable blu-ray format groundbreaking. Much has been made of all the video extras, press clippings, photos, record sleeves, lyrics, production notes, and seemingly endless ephemera, but at the heart of it all, and what is most important to me anyway, is the original music, the remastering of which sounding superb on CD, even better on DVD, and utterly spectacular on blu-ray. While we do get the odd curious inclusions and exclusions (why he put on a dicey mono version of "Mr. Soul" instead of the blistering stereo version heard on Decade, I'll never know), Young's meticulously-arranged guided tour through his formative years is nonetheless enthralling, from his days with Winnipeg's Squires, to Buffalo Springfield, to his budding solo career, to Crazy Horse, to the Harvest-era Stray Gators. And to think this is only the tip of the iceberg! Plus you can't help but think that Volume Two, which will cover his greatest, most prolific period, will be even better. I can't wait for it, but wait we most likely will have to do!

2. The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses: Legacy Edition
The entire world was flipping out over the heavily-hyped Beatles remasters, but personally, the sonic improvements on those CDs have nothing on what was done to the Stone Roses' classic 1989 debut album. The Stone Roses was already one of the greatest albums of my generation, there was never any question of that, but John Leckie's remastering on this new reissue was astonishing. Instead of sounding thin like every other UK album did at the time, it now sounds as full as it should, John Squire's inimitable riffs beefed up, Ian Brown's vocals now richly layered, the rhythm section, such a crucial part of that Madchester sound, now as punchy as it's supposed to sound. This three-disc reissue comes with a CD of demos, a DVD featuring videos and a cool live performance, and nicely put together liner notes, but it always comes back to that original album, songs like "I Wanna Be Adored", "She Bangs the Drums", "Made of Stone", and "Fool's Gold" resonating even more than they already did, if that's even possible. And for what it's worth, I agree, this record is better off without "Elephant Stone".

3. Iron Maiden - Flight 666
I've said it time and again, nobody treats their fans as well as Iron Maiden does, especially when it comes to live documents. 2008 was a special year for both the band and us longtime fans, as Maiden toured the world playing songs from their classic era, traveling in their customized 757 with singer Bruce Dickinson piloting, with Canadian documentarians Samm Dunn and Scott McFayden along for the ride, there to capture every moment. The end result is a wonderful, often revealing documentary, a far cry from the usual vanity pieces most bands churn out, full of spectacular live performances from all over the globe, candid interviews with band and crew, and most importantly, profiles of the fans. No matter what the country, the devotion to this band is the same throughout, something truly unique in the world of music. If you're looking ofr a perfect explanation of why Iron Maiden is my favourite band of all time, this DVD/CD is it.

4. Def Leppard - Pyromania: Deluxe Edition
From day one, I've considered Pyromania to be a really top-heavy album, its spectacular singles far outshining the album tracks, and I still feel the same, but as the years and (eeps) decades have gone by, those deep cuts have aged surprisingly well, to the point now that I can begrudgingly enjoy the otherwise asinine "Rock Rock 'Til You Drop" as much as "Photograph" or "Foolin'". The plain, undeniable fact is, this is a classic record through and through, and Universal has done a marvelous job of reissuing it. Not only is the original album very nicely remastered, but it's appended by a scorching live CD recorded in late 1983. It's the dealbreaker of this reissue: originally intended to be released as a double live album, it's a brilliant performance, the young band sounding explosive, full of so much contagious energy that they can barely contain themselves during the slower numbers. Although I still contend that Hysteria is the superior album, this deluxe edition ranks as one of the definitive snapshots of 80s pop metal at its most glorious.

5. Serge Gainsbourg - Histoire de Melody Nelson
Two of my more curious musical discoveries this past decade were Can and Serge Gainsbourg. I kept seeing Gainsbourg's 1971 concept album referenced back in 2002 or so, and when I did eventually hear MP3s ripped from the out-of-print record, it wasn't hard to hear the influence the album had on some of my favourite contemporary artists, namely Jarvis Cocker. It's such a peculiar album, rife with contradictions: barely 28 minutes long yet epic in scope, the story both loving and lecherous, the arrangements minimalist and lavish, the style gentle folk one minute, wickedly heavy funk the next. However, it wasn't until Melody was finally released in North America this year that it really had an impact on me: superbly remastered to the point of sounding pristine, it's a stunning piece of work, Gainsbourg weaving his scandalous tale as Jean-Claude Vannier assembles a backdrop that's just as melodramatic and seductive. This classic just got even better.

Best Reissues, Compilations, and DVDs, Part 1

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 00:07:00 EST

The Best Ineligible Releases of 2009:
(collections of previously released material, like live albums, reissues, compilations, music DVDs, etc.)

6. Leonard Cohen - Live in London
Funny how a financial catastrophe can catapult the mellowest dude into action. And honestly, the last thing the 75 year-old Leonard Cohen should be doing at his age is hitting the road for gigantic tours around the world. But give the dude credit, not only has he shown astonishing resilience ever since staging his comeback in 2008, but he sounds as impassioned, as classy as he ever has. Recorded in June of last year in front of a sold-out arena crowd in London, this live CD and DVD was perfectly timed for his gigantic tour across Canada and the US, and while it's a relatively bare-bones package (the DVD is basically a non-HD capture of his in-concert video screens), it's absolutely sublime in every way. The band is pitch-perfect throughout, tasteful and just a tiny bit schmaltzy, his background singers complement him beautifully ("Ah, tell 'em, angels"), and best of all, that gravely, inimitable voice is in fine form during the entire spellbinding two and a half hour performance.

7. Big Star - Keep an Eye on the Sky
Now this is how to put together a box set. Classic studio recordings, demos, alternate mixes, and a full live set, arranged in such a way that it gives us an illuminating glimpse of the fleeting career trajectory of one of the greatest rock bands to ever come out of the 1970s. Keep an Eye on the Sky is doubly successful, either as an introduction to Big Star or as an undeniable fan-pleaser. No worries, either, as none of the band's finest songs have been tinkered with or replaced with skeletal demos, and besides, the demos that we hear are phenomenal, whether it's Alex Chilton's aching acoustic take on the Velvet Underground's "Femme Fatale" or his emotionally raw performance of "Holocaust". Whether it's the pristine sounds of #1 Record, the classic power pop of Radio City, the tortured Third/Sister Lovers, or Chris Bell's gorgeous "I Am the Cosmos", Big Star's recorded output was nothing short of perfect between 1972 and 1978, and this is as good a look as we'll ever get.

8. Drive-By Truckers - Live From Austin, TX/The Fine Print: A Collection of Oddities and Rarities
America's greatest rock 'n' roll band closed out its relationship with New West Records with a pair of collections, but unlike your usual contractual obligation albums, these two have nothing but substance. Filmed and recorded at PBS's Austin City Limits, the CD/DVD combo Live From Austin, TX features a very fun, impeccably mixed, hour-plus live set, a great showcase of the band's versatility. Meanwhile, The Fine Print is a real treat, serving up a bunch of touched-up leftover tracks, some of which we've heard before ("Talkin' George Jones Cell Phone Blues", "Like a Rolling Stone"), others which hadn't seen the light of day, such as the passionate re-recording of "Uncle Frank", a phenomenal cover of Warren Zevon's "Play it All Night Long", and a rendition of Tom Petty's "Rebels" that many of us DBT fans had been waiting years to hear in full. How can you not love this band? Even their ephemera is great.

9. Jawbox - For Your Own Special Sweetheart
Jawbox's third album was a big, big one for me back in 1994. I was right smack in the middle of a major obsession with American indie rock, and For Your Own Special Sweetheart was not only my introduction to that distinct post-hardcore sound that Dischord specialized in, but to this day I consider it the best album from that scene's heyday. There was a lot of controversy when Jawbox left Dischord for Atlantic Records, but did the band ever come through, as this album not only was as ferocious as anything Fugazi was putting out ("Breathe", "FF=66"), but unlike the great majority of their peers, it had hooks up the wazoo on tracks like "Cooling Card", "Motorist", "Whitney Walks", and the timeless "Savory", one of the very best songs of the 1990s. This new reissue, now owned by Dischord, boasts some phenomenal mastering, the punchier bass and drums giving an already formidable album even more muscle.

10. The Vaselines - Enter the Vaselines
I won't lie, I'm just like everyone else, I first heard of the Vaselines when that Cobain dummy carted out his ably performed covers on Incesticide and the horribly overrated Unplugged, but at the time I never even considered investigating the original material any further. Which is odd looking back, because this Scottish duo was definitely up my alley circa 1993-94. But that's fine, it's better late than never, and the Vaseline's entire studio output from 1987 to 1990 (which amounts to about 55 minutes of music) was conveniently repackaged by Sub Pop for a 2009 release, this time as a double CD, with a special bonus disc of live performances. While the live stuff is nothing earth-shattering, the original studio recordings (which comprised the 1992 compilation The Way of the Vaselines) are terrific, Eugene Kelly's deadpan delivery offset by the charming, completely unpretentious Frances McKee. And the originals destroy the Nirvana covers.

It's That Time of Year Again.

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 04:17:00 EST

The Best Albums of 2009
Introduction

Introduction

Well, yet another year over and done with, hundreds of albums, thousands of songs. What does it all amount to? On the metal side, it was a spectacular year. Overall, though, it was only merely decent. Looking at this year's new releases it's quite amazing how few non-metal albums truly engaged me a lot�my top 20 has quite an even balance, but go beyond that, and the non-metal pool gets very, very thin. It reminds me of how 1999 ended the 90s on a bit of a downbeat note; if it wasn't for all the heavy stuff I listen to, I don't think I could have come up with a very good year-end list at all. That said, my album of the year isn't a metal record! So go figure. Anyway, there was no shortage of colossal disappointments (Muse has plummeted faster than any band I have ever seen), big-budget catastrophes (Chris Cornell's hilarious trainwreck), and overhyped indie bands (hello, Wavves), metal bands whose popularity is both befuddling and frightening (Suicide Silence), and popular trends that have us wondering if this is the end of music altogether (crabcore? Screamo crunk?!), but average year or not, there was still a might impressive array of new music for me to obsess over, and this ninth annual project is a celebration the good stuff, and nothing but.

As far as the writing profession goes, yours truly and many other fellow scribes were dealt a huge blow with the sudden, unfortunate demise of Metal Edge and Metal Maniacs magazines. It especially stung for me since I was starting to get some really amazing assignments for Metal Edge and my overall writin' gig was really starting to pay off, and to not get full pay by the parent company for my first cover story was a real slap in the face. But that's how it is these days, the print media is dying a horrible death, and it was inevitable that the metal publications would get hit hard. In addition, Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles went kablooey, while Revolver is now a bimonthly. Still, when one door closes another one opens, as Hellbound.ca was started up by a bunch of us fellow Canadian metal writers. In addition, my production at Decibel really started to pick up, I had some great feature assignments, and I put together my all-time pride and joy, a Hall of Fame feature piece on the legendary band Accept, which was an absolute joy to put together from start to finish. And the PopMatters thing is still going strong, of course, tons of reviews and columns being churned out. It's not all bad.

As for live shows, it's not like I was anywhere exotic in 2009, but I did see some doozies. I finally got to see Neil Young and Leonard Cohen after all these years, and those two shows from this past spring are probably the best I've seen all year. Mastodon and Kylesa were great to see, Paganfest in Edmonton was a blast with Korpiklaani and Primordial, Clutch was as fun as ever, AC/DC was quite the overblown stadium extravaganza (a far cry from seeing them play arenas twice in the 80s), Franz Ferdinand was super-tight, In Flames was as satisfying as ever, the Hold Steady was an absolute blast, DragonForce and Sonata Arctica were joyously garish, Children of Bodom played here twice, 3 Inches of Blood and Saviours brought the old school metal, Metric delivered as they always do. For someone who doesn't get to the number of cool shows as writers in Toronto or New York, that's not a shabby year at all.

Anyway, when this daily countdown kicks into gear, be sure to watch for my top 20 singles countdown in the right margin, which will begin at the same time as my album countdown. There will be MP3 links posted for each track, so don't hesitate to sample (and then buy)! So thanks for reading this page for another year, and I hope you have as much fun reading this stuff as I do writing it. If I can introduce you to at least one piece of music you might have otherwise missed out on, then the whole project will have been totally worth it. Enjoy!

(Usually this is the part of the year-end retrospective where I run down four or five releases from the previous year that I foolishly missed out on, but looking back, there isn't a single 2008 album that I loved that I listened to for the first time in 2009. Actually the one that comes closest is Erykah Badu's New Amerykah Part1, which is a really extraordinary album that floored me when I heard it around New Year's. But that's pretty much it!)

My top ten albums of 2008:
1. Fucked Up - The Chemistry of Common Life
2. Harvey Milk - Life�the Best Game in Town
3. Glasvegas - Glasvegas
4. Portishead. - Third
5. Opeth - Watershed
6. Lykke Li - Youth Novels
7. Disfear - Live the Storm
8. Goldfrapp - Seventh Tree
9. Black Mountain - In the Future
10. Lukestar - Lake Toba

Past albums of the year (uh, please bear in mind I was sixteen when I started this):
1986: Iron Maiden - Somewhere In Time
1987: Def Leppard - Hysteria
1988: Queensryche - Operation: Mindcrime
1989: Voivod - Nothingface
1990: Megadeth - Rust In Peace, Led Zeppelin Box Set (tie)
1991: Soundgarden - Badmotorfinger
1992: R.E.M. - Automatic For The People
1993: Nirvana - In Utero
1994: Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
1995: Elastica - Elastica
1996: Pulp - Different Class
1997: Bob Dylan - Time Out Of Mind
1998: Monster Magnet - Powertrip
1999: Metallica - S & M
2000: Yo La Tengo - ...And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out
2001: Bob Dylan - Love And Theft, The Langley Schools Music Project - Innocence & Despair (tie)
2002: The Streets - Original Pirate Material
2003: Manitoba - Up in Flames
2004: Arcade Fire - Funeral
2005: Opeth - Ghost Reveries
2006: Mastodon - Blood Mountain
2007: Alcest - Souvenirs d'un Autre Monde
2008: Fucked Up - The Chemistry of Common Life

Twigadeaf.

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 04:53:00 EST

Any other time of year, I might have passed up on achance to see Trivium and Chimaira. I'm not the hugest fan of either band and I've seen them already in years past, and I knew full well I wouldn't be missing much at all. But when you're stuck in front of the computer writing a slew of year-end blurbs, something that can just drive you nuts when you're, say, on blurb #20 of 25, when a potential free live show presents itself, you take it, if only to just go clear your head for a bit. So I figured why not, and headed out a week ago to the Odeon. And whaddya know, it turned out to be quite a fun show. I missed the first band Dirge Within (a passable Throwdown knockoff), but the next band Whitechapel was shockingly good...musically it's nothing very original at all (this was clearly the running theme of the night), but the formulaic quality seemed to work, they did it very well and they had a good frontman, always a plus for an opening band. Chimaira was Chimaira, tight enough, predictable enough, nothing too extraordinary, but man, do the kids love this band. 45 minutes was about the right set length for this band, although they could have easily headlined. Keep the repetition and cliche to a minimum, and their shtick works nicely. As for Trivium, you have to give 'em credit, they try doggedly to prove they have old school cred, and as skeptical as oldsters like me can be, hearing them play Flotsam and Jetsam's "Hammerhead" before their set was pretty darn impressive. They still pull out all the audience participation gimmicks (you don't jump at a metal show. You just don't), but they've really become confident performers since the last time I'd seen them, and although they were at the tail end of their year-long tour cycle, their exuberance and sense of fun was palpable. Plus it didn't hurt that most of their 75 minute set focused on the Ascendancy album, which is clearly the best. And I have to say, "Like Light to Flies" and "Gunshot" hold up very well four years later. Also, it's really cool that Trivium is offering downloads of each of their live shows. Unlike the Pixies and Metallica, however, they only charge $9.99, and get this, it's free for all ticketholders, who are given a download code at the door before the show. Nice! Hopefully this show will be posted soon, it was more enjoyable than I'd expected. Anyway, I reviewed it for Hellbound (it's the least I can do), which can be read here.

One more thing about that show, it was impeccably mixed, which is always welcome, but wow, was it ever loud. When you have to use earplugs during each line check, you know you're in trouble. There are times during metal shows where I'll take out my good earplugs just to hear the full live mix for a couple minutes, but on this night I went to that well a couple times too many, and paid for it dearly. I was in tremendous pain a few hours later, my inner ear was killing me, and the damage didn't dissipate until a few days later. Not good. Why bands feel they have to lay that loud, I'll never know.

The next big show around these parts, for me anyway, is Cannibal Corpse on December 7th. That's going to be incredible, It's been two and a half years since I've last seen them live, which is far too long.

One of my leftover reviews at PopMatters has surfaced this week, more specifically my piece on the weird covers collection by Children of Bodom. Bodom covers are always good for a larf, as they always drag out some renditions that are either really cool or total headscratchers, but that disposable quality vanishes when you build an hour-long CD of nothing but a bunch of goofball covers. It's just too much...these tracks are good for a download, one listen, and that's it. One McDonald's cheeseburger in a couple months is yummy, two is pretty great, but any more than that, and it becomes nauseating. This CD is just the same. Bleh. Pass the alka-seltzer.

I won't be getting the big year-end issue of Decibel until mid-December when this page is in the middle of the big daily Best of 2009 countdown, but since my Katatonia feature has been posted already, I might as well put in a plug while I still can. I was glad to snag the assignment, and I had a couple of good conversations with founding members Jonas Renske and Anders Nystrom, and I think it made for a very good piece. Both nice guys (I'd interviewed Nystrom about two and a half years ago), and they had some interesting comments. As for the new album, it continues to sound as strong as ever, and is an absolute lock for my top three come December. Sadly, the Stateside sales just aren't there...2200 units in its first week is not a number befitting a band of this stature. Epica debuted with 2000 copies sold two weeks ago! Katatonia's number is inexcusable, and if they were on a label that did a better job pushing their product, the band would have doubled their total, I'm certain. Well, I hope the inevitable year-end accolades can boost their sales a little bit.

It's now three days until December, which means I have to get my lists organized! The big dealy will commence on the 1st as usual, and remember, be sure to follow me on twitter for new article links and endless other ephemera.

Sterben!!!

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 04:55:00 EST

It's always fun reviewing box sets for PopMatters. My editors have always had terrific connections, and more often than not we writers get what we're assigned. That said, when I volunteered to cover the big new AC/DC set, I wasn't expecting to hear from the label at all, especially considering the sheer size of the darn thing. Well, imagine my surprise when Backtracks appeared at my door. Granted, it wasn't the full "guitar amp" package, just copies of all five discs, but I was still mightily impressed...besides, the amp, coffee table book, and posters don't need reviewing, you know they're going to be cool, and what matters in the end is the quality of the tunes. And I have to tell you, while the collection is a real mishmash, I still came away impressed, especially with the first Studio Rarities CD, which collects all the fully remastered Australian versions of their early material that had never come out internationally, and also the Live at the Circus Krone DVD, a terrific full set recorded in a refreshingly intimate venue. Based those alone I'd give the set a thumbs-up. Then a few weeks later another package arrives, this time containing the full retail version of the smaller Standard Edition...I thought, cool, this package is actually pretty snazzy, but I was surprised to find out that a) the Studio Rarities CD had been trimmed from 78 minutes to a mere 45, with the best tracks (alternate Australian versions of about six early classics) only on the pricey deluxe set, and b) it didn't come with the Circus Krone DVD. What a waste. So in addition to painstakingly reviewing the full five disc set and make it all seem lucid, I had to explain how much the cheaper version sucks. Anyway, if you're a big fan of the band, you will LOVE the Deluxe...I think all the bells & whistles (including the cute but wimpy one-watt amp with no volume control), it really is worth the 250 bucks. If you're a casual fan, though, don't pay for the 30 buck version. Not worth it, just find a torrent of the Deluxe discs. Anyway, my full review is here.

If you haven't heard it yet, the new album by Krallice is outstanding. I first heard it a few months ago, and while I was quite taken aback by just how immense the whole thing is, it's grown on me nicely since then. It's not as immediate as the first album, primarily because guitarists Mick Barr and Colin Marston don't place anywhere near as much emphasis on mellifluous soloing as before. Instead, the melodies are buried in the riffs, and take time to emerge. But when they do, it's mesmerizing, and the record is a more than worthy follow-up to the debut. Anyway, the timing was perfect to devote my column to the band, and I was able to wrangle interviews with the very friendly Marston, the enigmatic Barr, and bassist Nick McMaster as well, and I think the resulting piece turned out very well. They're a fascinating band. Read the full piece here, and be sure to pick up the album.

Back in 1998, I played the heck out of Rammstein's Sehnsucht. Me and a bazillion other guys worldwide that year. It was a brilliant combination: massive, simple, hugely catchy riffs, primal, industrial-influenced beats and synths, and those imposing German vocals. Since then people have tried to file Rammstein under "90s one hit wonder", but not only did they refuse to go away, they continued to evolve, putting out a series of very strong records. As much as I enjoyed Reise, Reise and Rosenrot, though, the fury of that 98 album just wasn't quite there. Well, with Liebe Ist Fur Alle Da, the menace is back. The sound is much more streamlined, the attack more primal, the hooks enormous. It's an absolutely brilliant album, simple enough to appeal to those who still love "Du Hast" ("Wiener Blut" is so obviously about Elisabeth Fritzl, which makes it truly horrifying), but adventurous enough to show everyone that they haven't copped out at all, as on the gorgeous "Fruhling in Paris", which actually sees Till Lindemann quote Edith Piaf as he sings in a (gasp!) vulnerable voice. And I can't not mention the awesome artwork by photographer Eugenio Recuenco. I love this album to bits...but why does it cost 25 bucks in stores here? I don't get it. Anyway, here's my full review.

It's a bit overdue, but I also have a smaller review of the excellent new Skeletonwitch album. It's great to see them finally make some serious strides on record...you could always tell they were almost there, and they finally got it right on this one. And like I said last month, wow, what a great live band these dudes are.

I'm halfway through writing my big Best Metal of 2009 piece for PopMatters...this is probably the strongest top 20 I've put together yet, I had to leave out some great titles. And speaking of lists, Decibel's top 40 has surfaced (even though I wrote the Cobalt piece and Krallice blurb, I still had no idea how the overall list turned out), and I'm impressed. Should Baroness be #1? I don't think so, I really thought Converge would take it in a walk, and I wish Katatonia was higher, but overall, it's a very strong list. No inclusions are terribly bothersome. Six titles I voted for (Amesoeurs, Between the Buried and Me, Liturgy, Cannibal Corpse, Portal, Megadeth) didn't make the cut, but that's fine. Some folks' reactions are quite funny, especially the ones who automatically think that if one writer gives an album a 9 rating in the magazine that automatically qualifies it for the top 40. There are dozens of editors and writers with differing opinions on all sorts of bands and subgenres, and that's why Decibel's lists are always so cool, they always turn out to be so eclectic. Some kids put way too much stock into numerical ratings. Who cares if it's an 8 , 9, or 10? It's still a positive rating, right? But who am I kidding, I probably acted the same way when I was 15. Metal fans are passionate...how can you not love that?

Liturgy's Renihilism

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 04:40:00 EST

Gigantic update today after a very hectic week! Nine articles to mention. Where to begin...

Might as well start with my favourite record of this fall. Katatonia's the perfect autumn band come to think of it...their downcast, melancholy songs immediately conjure thoughts of grey skies, biting winds, dead leaves, bare trees, fading grass, 5:00 sunsets. At least for me. It's my favourite time of year, and when autumn miraculously stretches out for us on the prairies as it's doing right now, every day a crisp five degrees (40 F), I just relish it, and it's always great to have a piece of new music to be a fitting soundtrack for that season. And that's certainly the case with Night is the New Day, which I first heard on the first day of fall, and has only gotten better over these past two months. Considering the steady improvements the band has made with each new record, I had high expectations for the new one, and they were all exceeded. It's gorgeous, plain and simple, a perfect balance between Jonas Renske's languorous vocal melodies, the band's tasteful arrangements, and electronic-tinged production. It was fussed over for years, the songwriting painstakingly slow and careful, the recording and mixing arduous, and boy, is that ever reflected int he music, it's just immaculate. I had the pleasure of interviewing guitarist Anders Nystrom while they were recording the album at the dingy Ghost Ward in Stockholm, and then he and Renske a month later when it was all finished for my piece in the next issue of Decibel, so watch for that in the next few weeks. In the meantime, though, here's my full review of the album...I'm quite happy with how it turned out. Though an astute commenter mentioned how I compared it to the Cure's Disintegration (not so much musically as a moment of perfection after years of evolving), but he compared it to Roxy Music's Avalon, something I really agree with now. Dead-on.

Over at Hellbound I whipped up a review of the debut EP by Finnish supergroup Barren Earth. Formed by two former members of Amorphis and fronted by the singer from Swallow the Sun (two excellent bands), not surprisingly this bears a strong resemblance to Amorphis circa 1994, which considering the more streamlined sound Amorphis has taken on these last five years, is not exactly a bad thing. They have a full-length album due out in early 2010, and if these four tracks are any indication, it's going to be a good one.

In the current issue of Decibel I have a ton of content, more than usual. I had pitched a feature piece on Saviours because their new album back in the summer because their new album turned out to be far better than I'd expected, and the boss said cool, so I wound up having an entertaining conversation with drummer Scott Batiste and guitarist Austin Barber. And of course, when you have a couple of gregarious guys serving up choice quotes nonstop, putting together an article is always a breeze, and this one was no exception. On a side note the article wound up putting me in contact with the guy who recorded the three demo singles that I mention at the beginning of the piece, and he was kind enough to hook me up with the full album in demo form, and considering how much I loved the six tracks on the singles, hearing the other five was very gratifying. I just love the loose, sloppy, filthy feel of those recordings, it goes perfectly with the rampaging NWOBHM of the band. Awesome stuff to be sure.

In the reviews department, I wrote my first feature review in a while, for the excellent new Nile album. The last one of theirs was a big disappointment, and it was great to hear that Karl Sanders had returned to form in a gigantic way. When I was writing the review on extremely short notice, Sanders was extremely kind enough to forward me his full lyrics and liner notes...if you know Nile at all, you know the lyrics and notes play a big, big part in the full album experience, and to have that to work with made writing the review so much easier. It's awful having to write about extreme metal without lyrics, especially when it applies to bands that supposedly put a great deal of emphasis on the lyrical side of things, so this kind of cooperation from artists is invaluable, not to mention hugely appreciated.

It feels like ages since I had a couple days to form an informed opinion on the new Between the Buried and Me album, a daunting task if there ever was one, but I think I did a decent job of it. Great album, that one. I actually wrote a feature on BTBAM for an upcoming issue (February I think), so watch for that in a couple months. Ignitor is an interesting trad-metal band from Austin that recently employed the vocal services of the dude from sleaze faves Dangerous Toys, and their new CD is spirited, harmless fun. Morrigu, on the other hand, isn't interesting at all, its blend of Soilwork-style melodeath and post-hardcore whingeing too much to bear for a full album. Profound Lore finds Worm Ouroboros, on the other had, is a really, really cool discovery...like I say in the piece, it's like Alison Goldfrapp fronting Atavist. You've got to love anything that sounds like that. That album comes out later this month, I believe, so keep your eyes peeled.

Lastly, I wrote a short feature piece on Brooklyn black metalers Liturgy, which turned out quite well I think. Their new album is wicked, a barrage of insanely fast blastbeats and waves of guitars. A little similar to Krallice, but not as focused on melody, instead going for a more cacophonous, enveloping sound, which I find works extremely well. Anyway, I conducted an email interview with guitarist Hunter Hunt-Hendrix, and came away so impressed, I thought I'd post the interview in its entirety. So here you go...enjoy, and don't forget to check out the music!

***

You and your band certainly don't look the part, you're not flamboyantly satanic, your form of black metal feels more uplifting than grim, and to top things off, you're from Brooklyn. Just how much heat have you had to take from those purists and 'scene police' who only like their black metal a certain way?

Hunter Hunt-Hendrix: It's always been palpable that there isn't a readymade audience for us. We switch back and forth between playing metal shows and more brooklyny art/psych/experimental shows, and feel a little out of place in either situation. But I've found that most people are open minded, even if they can't quite place us. People who only like their black metal a certain way don't have to listen to us of they don't want. We're trying to be as authentic as possible, making the music that it feels most urgent to make. So I'm happy to do that and let others judge according to whatever criteria they want.

"Transcendental Black Metal" immediately comes off as a positive description, and I've always felt that way hearing the blend of melody and dissonance, be it in black metal, krautrock, or shoegaze. Plus there's the cover photo of the eclipse. Is it wrong to feel some sense of optimism in Liturgy's music?

I've always felt that the most legitimate time in the history of counterculture was the 60s, back before punk and metal had fully developed, when it had a lot to do with revolutionary politics and a critique of western society and norms, but driven first and formost by a utopian vision for the future - however vague or contradictory that vision may be. I think even in Black Sabbath there was something in this. But now metal is fallen and is about solipsistic despair - a nihilism with no redemption. I think that's valid too, but Liturgy's project is to reinvent metal in a way that reconnects it with its roots in utopianism and liberation. And I think this is an tendency that is already immanent to and latent in black metal. I'd like to think we're drawing out something that's already there, or emphasizing an aspect which isn't talked about so much.

Do you feel black metal shouldn't have to be so preoccupied with acting and sounding morbid?

I that musically black metal has a close connection to the romantic period of classical music in the 19th century - when Brahms, Wagner, Scriabin and others were using triadic harmony in a way that activates a very wide range of emotion, from deep despair and anguish to mystical ecstasy. Music doesn't usually map onto emotions in such a concrete, specific way, and I'd say this is something the Romantics invented. Black metal is the only kind of rock music that uses the same kinds of harmonies - it's the style of rock music with the widest emotional range. As opposed to, say, death metal, which is firmly locked into a sort of monochromatic, a subjective brutality. I think it's cool that black metal reconnects with western tradition in this way - all I'd say is that it ought to utilize the full emotional range that is available to it - not just the "bottom end". Black metal should and can be both morbid and ecstatic, it is inherently capable of producing the lowest and the highest emotional states, and ought to be utilizing its full potential. I want to make music that is as True as possible.

With a name like Liturgy many of us would expect a black metal band to view the name with a great deal of irony, yet judging by the song titles it feels that the choice was a sincere one on your part. So why did you choose to call your band Liturgy?

Ultimately a liturgy comes down to a group of people coming together and recognizing the human bond between them by participating in a ritual. To me that's what music has always been about, and especially rock music. that's why I go to shows. It's a sort of sacred space. Metal is the most sacred music of all in my view.

The label did not give us writers lyrics, your MySpace doesn't reveal them, and of course it's impossible to tell what your saying. That said, just how important are Liturgy's lyrics?

The lyrics will be printed in a booklet that goes with the vinyl release. I don't know, I'd say they are important but not essential. If people just want to hear the music, that's great too.

What sort of topics do the songs on Renihilation touch on?

Basically they're all about the meaning of life...

On a more specific note, can you explain the meaning behind "Beyond the Magic Forest" and "Ecstatic Rite"?I hope you don't mind if i quote a little bit from previous interviews:

"Ecstatic Rite" relates to the status of transcendental experience in the contemporary world, as shaped by the dialectic between advanced capitalism and the counterculture. The lyrics will be published in a booklet that goes with the vinyl release: The most important line goes, "Ecstatic rite/Divide the father."

Beyond the magic forest is basically about the idea that life is ultimately meaningless, and we are ultimately alone, but there's a sort of half-meaning in the act of striving towards something impossible, believing in something that you also can't really believe in. "Brother, sister, tear through the forest" is the key line.

What exactly does Renihilation mean?

I like the idea of a second nihilism or a double nihilism, a sort of annihilation of an annihilation amounting to something altogether different from a return to what was originally destroyed. That's what renihiliation is.

"I choke the apocalyptic trumpet with my power / resounding through the arcangel like marrow" Is the key stanza.

How was it working with Colin Marston? How did you get in touch with him?

I knew him prior to recording with him, just through the music scene in brooklyn. I know people in lots of bands that have recorded with him (extra life, zs, ocrilim, stats, genghis tron) and he's got a great reputation, and is great to work with. The recording session was a real whirlwind - we did all the tracking, mixing and mastering in only 4 days.

You mentioned being influenced by people like Angelo Badalamenti and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan�What is it specifically about their music that is so important to you, and how did they influence Liturgy?

I'm a huge David Lynch fan, and the scores to his movies and shows are very important. Badalamenti is able to write in a way that is simultaneously truly moving and at the same time dripping with irony, and insane. His music touches on the kind of impossibility I mentioned in relation to beyond the magic forest ... though it's hard to put into words what I'm trying to get at.

Your mentioning G�rard Grisey is particularly fascinating. What is it about his music that had such a big impact on you? Are there any correlations between spectralism and your form of black metal?

There was a time when I considered doing contemporary composition rather than play metal. I studied spectral music, but ultimately decided that it had already been exhausted as a musical language by Grisey and Murail, or anyway that it wasn't right for me. But I feel Liturgy is attuned to the same kind of experience that Grisey's music creates. Grisey, but also Ligeti and Xenakis, and post-integral-serialist composition generally I think is really wonderful, both primordial and transcendent. Of course there's little we share with any of these composers in terms of technique, although the chant at the beginning of the record travels the overtone series and is a sort of homage to Grisey. Perhaps we have more of a similarity to Xenakis in his use of crossing thresholds between different gradients and patterns - I think of the blast beat and tremolo guitar as unique in rock in that it creates the same kind of continuous drone that one finds in contemporary composition. We're very interested in working with this drone aspect of black metal, and we try to make it ebb and flow, expand and contract.

Greg Fox's drum set-up is pretty much as minimal as it gets, which seems like more of a Sonic Youth or free jazz influence than metal. Is he strictly a metal drummer, or is his background a lot more varied?

Greg and I went to highschool together, and would go to a lot of shows. Back then we'd listen to tons of metal by way of the internet, but the live shows we were going to see were more in the vein of the diy experimental/art/hardcore scene. Lightning Bolt was a big influence on his style, I think, and yes jazz as well. So we were always mixing those influences together. Definitely a varied background.

Though for Liturgy he's doing something very specific - a new kind of blast beat I developed called the "burst beat". The burst beat differs from the blast beat in two ways: 1. It uses accelerations and decelerations, expansions and contractions in tempo to create an organic ebb and flow. 2. It crosses thresholds between different kinds of beats mid-song and even mid-phrase. In much the way a horse goes from walk to canter to trot, or water goes from ice to liquid to steam, or the body goes from REM sleep to dreaming to waking - in the same way the burst beat abruply crosses threshold between different blast/grind beats. In my view the burst beat is the heart of what's really original about Liturgy. Initially I was doing this on a drum machine - just accelerating and decelerating the tempo mostly. Greg and I worked together to actualize it live, and he really put his unique stamp on it.

All the live YouTube clips sound incredible�when and where did you find all your bandmates?

As I said, Greg and I went to highschool together in the bronx, and we went to college in different places. When he moved back to new york, it was obvious we'd start playing music together again. I'd already been doing Liturgy as a solo project, and wanted to expand it to a full band. He was already in a stoner metal band called Family of Love with the bassist, Tyler, and the two of them also played in Bernard's math rock/metal band Architeuthis. I already knew Bernard independently through another friend. It all fell into place smoothly and quickly.

How much has the band improved since first forming?A lot! With our band especially, pratice makes perfect. With the free tempos we use, the only way to be tight is to play the songs together over and over again. These days we're playing as often as possible.

Will the band be involved in the songwriting from now on, or is that still all done by you?

Still all done by me.

How do you envision Liturgy evolving musically on the next record, and in the future for that matter?

In my view, black metal as a genre has enormous stores of potential that have never been touched. And I think that the relationship between black metal and american independent music is extremely alive and fertile. I still have enough material that sounds like the music on Renihilation that we could put out another album that sounds just the same, but I may not use it - instead the the new material will be very different, traveling further down the iceberg. I think there are a lot of exciting points of resonance between black metal and minimalism, spectralism, shoegaze, free jazz, krautrock, drone/noise, romanticism, medieval music. In a way black metal is resistant to innovation - personally I like very little black metal that doesn't basically sound like darkthrone, and I think there have been a lot of attempts at originality that have failed because they weren't listening closely enough to the possibilities immanent to black metal. But genres have lifespans, and I think at this stage black metal is ready for true cross fertilization.

Another year, another Metric show.

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 03:49:00 EST

I've always been on the fence when it comes to the Black Dahlia Murder. They've got the death metal chops, but they never seem to be able to make music with much staying power, at least enough to make up an entire album's worth. Flashes of inspiration, but that's it. With Deflorate, though, it feels like the Detroit band has turned a corner. It's potent enough to send the moshpit children into a frenzy (as yours truly witnessed last month), but this time around the music is actually catchy. You actually remember the riffs instead of having everything go in one ear and out the other. It's nothing very inventive, but there's a lot worse metal bands kids could be listening to (like these dummies). Thumbs up from me. Here's my review.

I'll get to this month's Decibel issue in the next post, whenever I'm not hammering out columns and reviews and when I can tear myself away from the new Ellroy book. And there's plenty of PopMatters stuff still waiting to be published, too.

a little more than ten months after seeing an absolutely charming performance during their cross-country Christmas charity tour, I headed out to catch Metric again. Fifth time for me...for some dumb reason it's not cool to like Metric anymore, but I could care less. Fantasies is their best album yet, and they never disappoint in concert. I was hoping they'd still be on the same high note that they were on last December, as the entire band seemed so happy to be playing again after coming off a bit icy the last couple times I'd seen them, and while the packed Odeon was about five times too small (people had been begging for tickets online for weeks) and seemed to lack the real joie de vivre of the Christmas tour, the energy was still decidedly positive. The band was as tight as ever, Emily Haines was as manic and charismatic as ever, the sound mix was very good, the effects were cool (projected images on a big silver screen). Heavy, heavy emphasis on the new record, with nine of its ten songs performed, which I was perfectly fine with considering how good the record is. Highlights included the one-two of "Gimme Sympathy" and "Sick Muse", a version of "Empty" with an extended, dancey breakdown, "Collect Call", and a cute acoustic performance of live staple "Combat Baby". A great time overall, but they're going to have to graduate to bigger venues sooner than later. They're becoming a very popular band, which quite frankly is great to see. Here's the setlist:

Twilight Galaxy
Help I'm Alive
Satellite Mind
Poster of a Girl
Handshakes
Gold Guns Girls
Empty
Collect Call
Gimme Sympathy
Sick Muse
Dead Disco
Blindness
Stadium Love

Encore:
Monster Hospital
Combat Baby (Acoustic)

It's November, so that means the year-end doin's are in full swing. Blurbing left and right, more blurbing in the coming weeks, and capped off with my annual blurb extravaganza on this page. I'm still trying to play catch-up (why am I only finding out about this now?), and some titles are still getting better as the months go by (ahem) but this year's best-of list is set to be a really, really good one, a great way to cap off a decade. I'd better get cracking.

F.G.T., indeed.

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 05:42:00 EST

Monday's 3 Inches of Blood/Saviours show was one I'd been really looking forward to for the past couple months. As much as I completely enjoy more cutting-edge metal sounds, traditional heavy metal has always been my first musical love, so that interest is always there when a young band comes along and pulls the sound off convincingly. While both of these bands' early years were sketchy to say the least, they've earned credibility by a) creating an audience the old-fashioned way through massive touring, and b) improving greatly with each new record, and both bands are peaking creatively these days, 3IOB with the excellent fourth album Here Waits Thy Doom (PopMatters review coming soon, I promise!), Saviours with the stupidly good third full-length Accelerated Living. And not surprisingly, both bands delivered one of the most genuinely fun shows I've seen this year.

Of course the charming confines of Amigos never hurts, especially when juxtaposed with a rowdy metal show. Theres something about metal at Amigos that's so enjoyable...the vibe is always positive, there's no ugliness to speak of, everyone's all smiles. And 3IOB was clearly thrilled to be back there after a couple years, as they had some very nice things to say about the place. Anyway, like I said, both bands were terrific, Saviours stressing their exceptional new material, which bears striking similarities to grittier NWOBHM bands as Tank and Jaguar, while 3IOB played a rollicking hour and a quarter set featuring songs from their last three albums (come on dudes, I know the first album kinda sucks, but we'd like to hear "Balls of Ice" just once!). All of their live favourites were played (save for "Destroy the Orcs", which people kept screaming for), and while I never tire of "Deadly Sinners" and "Night Marauders", the new material sounded fantastic, a clear indication of how Jack Endino so expertly captured the band's live sound on record. And speaking of which, they also covered BOC's "Cities on Flame", a bonus track on the swanky limited vinyl edition, which I picked up after the show. It's nice stuff, heavy green vinyl that matches the cover artwork...it's awaiting its maiden spin, though. Busy time of year for me. At any rate, for further minute details, read my full review of the show over at Hellbound. And for the record, here are the setlists for both bands:

Saviours:
Acid Hand
F.G.T.
Slave to the Hex
We Roam
Livin' in the Void
Narcotic Sea
Burnin' Cross

3 Inches of Blood:
Battles and Brotherhood
Silent Killer
Demon's Blade
Wykydtron
At the Foot of the Great Glacier
All of Them Witches
Trial of Champions
Execution Tank
Call of the Hammer
Swordmaster
Night Marauders

Encore:
Cities on Flame (Blue �yster Cult cover)
Deadly Sinners
The Goatrider's Horde

I can't stop shutting up about the new Converge album, which is the band's masterpiece in my opinion, and typical of me, one piece on the band wasn't enough, as I felt I had to provide a more in-depth review of the record. So I did, and the thing went up late last week. Give it a read and go buy the CD, if you haven't already. I don't know what's wrong with the distribution of Axe to Fall, though...HMV only had one copy last week and one this week (out of two locations), and CD Plus, usually a very metal/hardcore-friendly chain, looked to be the similar. Why this album isn't getting a bigger push in Canada by Epitaph, I'll never know. We'll see later today how the album's first-week US sales are. I'm guessing in the 1,500-2,000 range.

Also reviewed at PopMatters is the latest album by the inexplicably popular Anvil. I found it a bit frustrating that the movie doesn't really give you a good sample of what the album they're working so hard to complete actually sounds like, so when I did finally hear it, I was amazed at just how respectable it really is. This is a band that was playing tiny shows for a reason, it had been a long, long time since they last put out a truly great record, but This is Thirteen is a very cool comeback, and it's awesome to see these Canadian headbangers sell a thousand units a week down south. An Oscar for best documentary feature would be the capper, would it not?

I spent the last few days playing the new Brutal Legend PS3 game, and have gotten a real kick out of it. A silly but involving storyline with plenty of metal references and parodies, and absolutely KILLER soundtrack, some cool vocal performances by Jack Black, Rob Halford, and Lemmy, plenty of nicely designed environments, characters and whatnot. Just top-notch all around. That said, though...if a videogame dummy like me can finish the main storyline this fast (the main bad guy took only two tries), just how challenging will it be for the kids who play this battle/fantasy/whatever stuff all the time? It comes with a hefty price tag of 70 bucks here in Canada...I sure was glad I only paid eight to rent the thing. Still, though, it's $8 well spent. Plus you've got to love any videogame savvy enough to put Slough Feg on its soundtrack!

After being stuck with a really annoying stream for reviewing purposes, I got an actual copy of Anneke van Giersbergen's new album in the mail yesterday all the way from the Netherlands (her manager appears to be just as nice a lady as Anneke herself), and my opinion hasn't changed: In Your Room is a real charmer. No metal influence to speak of, no similarities to the Gathering whatsoever, just simple, middle of the road alt rock/pop, but done without an ounce of pretension. There's a joy to this record that's undeniable. Sure, it's no Mandylion or how to Measure a Planet?, but she and her band have found their own identity and are clearly enjoying what they do, and it sure reflects in the music. Simple but rewarding.

Then there's Pelican, The Most Boring Metal Band on the Planet. Yeah, the instrumental Isis thing was nice for a while there, but the longer they go on, the more pedestrian they come across. It's not that they aren't capable of nice passages, it's just that it's so monotonous, full of boring, textureless riffs and boring, textureless, borderline inept drumming, that to stretch these songs out past the three minute mark is an exercise in futility. Never mind how lovely the production on What We All Come to Need is...this is just "Suicide & Redemption" done over and over again. Compare this to Wavering Radiant, and Isis wins in a walk. Someone described the new Pelican CD as "a musical version of Picasso's Guernica"...the dude's welcome to his own opinion, but personally, I feel this album is about as deep and exciting as a hippy-dippy painting of sun rays peeking through clouds.

Learning to speak music...

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 06:01:00 EST

I've long been an admirer of John Crossingham, who is best known for being part of the Broken Social Scene collective, but has put out some of the most underrated Canadian music of this decade with his band Raising the Fawn. After a strong run of albums, I'd been wondering what became of Crossingham and his band, and while RTF has been silent on all fronts for a couple years now, Crossingham has been hard at work on another project...yes, it's music-related, but it's a completely different medium. It turns out the guy's written a book. A kids' book.

Published by the folks at Canada's Owl Kids (who didn't read Owl as a little kid?) Learn to Speak Music is aimed at the nine to 12 year old set, as Crossingham offers a beginners' guide to creating music. And the scope of this 96 page book is remarkably wide...he takes the reader through the processes of choosing and learning an instrument, forming a band, writing your own songs, setting up live performances, recording your music, promotion and merchandising, and myriad other little tips. Most importantly, he promotes a strong DIY indie aesthetic that serves as an extremely refreshing counterpoint to the mainstream's preoccupation with instant, pre-fab, American/Canadian Idol fame. It's all about the joy of creating, and I can't think of a better message for little kids these days. In fact, reading Crossingham's friendly, lucidly-written advice, for example learning to be fair to your bandmates and treat them with respect or how to organize a well-run, financially responsible concert, there are plenty of grown-up musicians who could even learn a thing or two from this book.

One of the coolest things about the book is all the little sidebar tips from various well-known Canadian indie artists, as people like Feist, Emily Haines, Dallas Green, Buck 65, Melissa Auf der Maur,Kevin Drew, Brendan Canning, Andrew Whiteman, and many others offer their own advice for young readers. Also, scattered throughout are excelleently chosen playlists that offer terrific examples of such things as dynamics, cover tunes, unusual arrangements, lyrics, classic live performances, and lo-fi versus hi-fi. Jeff Kulak provides plenty of eye-catching illustrations that help explain what Crossingham is getting at, but in the end it's Crossingham's personable writing style, not to mention his years of experience writing and performing music, that makes Learn to Speak Music so enjoyable. It's not so much a "how to write an incredible song" book as it is a "how to be yourself through music" book, and no matter what style of music a kid wants to play, Crossingham shows that the entire process can be extremely rewarding if you're willing to put in the effort. It's an absolute pleasure to read for kids and grown-ups alike.

Brought to you by the number...

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 06:19:00 EST

More new stuff to plug! And in Baroness's case, plug again. I don't normally write two reviews of the same album, but seeing that I write my Decibel review way back in August after just a week or two of listening to it, I felt fine with the idea. Not only had the CD grown on me more, but I was more able to put together something a lot more detailed than just 250 words having listened to the album for a couple months since. Anyway, my PopMatters review is now up, , so if you need further convincing, be sure to give it a read. It's yet another to file in the Year's Best department...Baroness is a very innocuous band, they don't go out there to make your jaw hit the floor. It's unassuming in an unpretentious indie rock sort of way, but also loaded with enough hooks to keep us riveted. Oh, and don't bother asking why my Decibel review has a 10 score while PopMatters gets an 8. They're just numbers. 8, 9, 10, whatever, it all means high praise in the end, and you really shouldn't be without the Blue Record.

Out later this month is the fourth album by deathcore greats the Red Chord...this one kind of got lost in the shuffle for me, as I've been completely wrapped up in albums by Baroness, Converge, Katatonia, Immortal, Krallice, Portal, Liturgy, Saviours, and on and on. But Fed Through the Teeth Machine does not deserve to be ignored, as it's an excellent, excellent CD. Quite a bit different than their last two especially, thanks to their being stripped down from a quintet to a four-piece, but also because their songwriting is improving greatly. The new record is as brootal as ever, but also loaded with memorable riffs. Unlike the current wave of "scene"-pandering deathcore bands like Suicide Silence and Winds of Plague, they knew how to write actual songs and not just go through the motions for 35 tiresome minutes. If you've found the Red Chord to be on the impenetrable side before, this one might surprise you. My full review has been posted over at Hellbound.

I'm very picky when it comes to prog metal/rock. Love Cynic, hate Dream Theater. Love Subarachnoid Space, hate Coheed and Cambria. Love Between the Buried and Me, despise the Mars Volta. So when I first spun the album The End is Begun by New Yorkers 3, I wasn't sure what to expect, but its very catchy melodies and tremendous discipline amidst such technically sound playing impressed me to no end, to the point where now I'm greatly looking forward to their new one. It's not due for a little while yet, but in the meantime they've put together a little odds & sods collection as their final release for Metal Blade before moving on to Roadrunner. Interestingly, they chose to re-record those rarities, hence the title Revisions, but while the whole re-recording thing has become such a tired gimmick these last few years (which reminds me, I really should review the Arch Enemy do-overs this week), this CD benefits from a) the improved recordings and b) the strength of the band circa 2009 versus five, ten years ago. A lot of the songs are on the safe side, teetering precipitously towards mainstream pop, but the album never derails, and by the end I was quite impressed yet again. A few keepers, some not so much, but if you enjoy 3 at all, you'll like this one. So go read my Hellbound review, and pick up the CD when it's out in the next week or two.

Lastly, a small reminder to follow me on Twitter! That thing actually isn't that bad at all, it's a good blog supplement.

Beware of Falling Axe

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 06:13:00 EST

The articles continue to s l o w l y appear at PopMatters, but at least it's starting to happen now. First up is my full review of the new Sonata Arctica album...ever since the band started to move away from the effective but repetitious formula of their first four albums there's been a lot of grumbling from stodgy fans (stodgy fans in metal? fancy that), but I found 2007's likeable Unia to be an admirable move. The oddly titled The Days of Grays continues in the same vein, stressing wildly arranged prog metal epics ("Deathaura"), brooding pop numbers ("The Last Amazing Grays"), even-keeled power ballads that play up mood rather than melodrama ("Breathing"), and moments of surprising darkness ("Zeroes"). However, they do throw the fans a bone with the terrific "Flag in the Ground", a simple rehash of the old upbeat power metal tunes they used to specialize in, but they do it as convincingly as ever, the chorus's Celtic-tinged melody enough to make power metal geeks swoon and everyone else cringe. Sonata Arctica isn't for everyone, but if you love hooks, these guys never fail. Here's hoping they come out here on their upcoming headlining tour of North America.

I expected the new Converge album to be good. We all did. They're that kind of band, you always know they'll deliver. However, I wasn't expecting Axe to Fall to be the best album of Converge's career, but it's true, they've done it, topping Jane Doe, You Fail Me, and No Heroes. Nobody plays with as much ferocity and anger as Converge. Nobody is as imposing on record. And the new songs really deliver in a way that the band has never pulled off before...of course, much will be made about how there are tons of guest collaborators, including members of Coalesce, Genghis Tron, Cave In, and Neurosis, but never does it become distracting. There's a cohesion here that feels like the work of masters of their craft. Plus it doesn't hurt to have a guy like Kurt Ballou on guitar. The dude's a genius, and his riff on "Dark Horse" is just nuts. Anyway, a couple weeks back I had a cool conversation with vocalist Jacob Bannon for my column, and just in time for next Tuesday's release date, it's now up. He's a very nice guy, very honest and well-spoken, and I think it turned into a nice piece.

Around this time of year I always get a sneaky little album that comes in from out of nowhere, appears in my mailbox, and knocks my socks off. And it's always a Sonic Unyon mailout for some reason. There was Jens Lekman in 2004, Magic Numbers in 05, Love is All in 06, Gang Gang Dance in 08...and this year it just might be Music Go Music, a weird indie pop collective from Los Angeles. I knew nothing about this band, but I had some free time the other day to give the CD a shot, and what I heard left me thoroughly impressed. Their style is all over the place...one minute they're channeling disco as well as the Scissor Sisters did on their debut, the next they're sounding like the Mamas & Papas, the next they're evoking ELO, ABBA, and the Carpenters at the same time. It's pure pop at its most trite, and nothing but. So when you're making this kind of music, the hooks had better be brilliant and gigantic, and indeed, MGM bring it from start to finish, the highlights being the disco slow-burner "Warm in the Shadows" and the incredible "Light of Love", the latter as good a pop tune I've heard all year. As far as exercises in pop music song craft goes, this record is note-perfect. Just don't expect to hear anything profound. With songs as catchy and contagious as these, what else do you really need, anyway?

I thought I'd missed my chance to see Metric for a fifth consecutive time when the show swiftly sold out, but thankfully I came across a super-nice guy on kijiji who sold me a couple at face value. Whew. Don't know why they're playing the Odeon, though, that venue is far too small. At any rate, the place is going to be jumping on the 29th.

Everyone's going to do their best-of-the-decade lists, and I've been hemming and hawing about whether or not to do it, but I think I just might do a really me-centric album and singles list, maybe write them over a period of time and post them as gigantic one-off posts in January. Just a matter of finding the time during and after the annual holiday madness. Anyway I got think of this just now while listening to Spiller's "Groovejet", one of my absolute favourite singles of 2000, and the song that introduced me to the wonder that is Sophie Ellis-Bextor...

Revocation. Remember that name.

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 06:16:00 EST

Lots of catching up to do, so here we go...

First of all, a week ago I caught the big Children of Bodom show at the Odeon. It was my fourth time seeing Bodom live, and they continue to win me over each time, and the Black Dahlia Murder, who are becoming more and more popular with the kids, played a decent but often ordinary set. The huge surprise wasn't that Skeletonwitch was good, I've long known that, but I really didn't know just how great they are live. They played for only half an hour, and absolutely killed, wasting no time, a high energy, raucous, tight performance that really turned me into a fan. Anyway, for further details, I suggest you take a look at the review I wrote for Hellbound. A fun time was had by all. For good measure, though, here's Skeletonwitch's setlist:

East Into the Open Sea (I think)
Fire From the Sky
Crushed Beyond Dust
Upon Wings of Black
Beyond the Permafrost
Submit to the Suffering
Soul Thrashing Black Sorcery
Despoiler of Human Life
Within My Blood

Here's a 90% correct approximation of the Black Dahlia Murder's setlist:
Everything Went Black
Black Valor
Closed Casket Requiem
Necropolis
What A Horrible Night to Have A Curse
Christ Deformed
A Vulgar Picture
Statutory Ape
Funeral Thirst

...And here's Children of Bodom's setlist. It was cool to finally see these guys play a full headlining show. Tons of old stuff played on this tour, which had the fans ecstatic:

Living Dead Beat
Hellhounds On My Trail
Silent Night, Bodom Night
Hate Me!
Follow The Reaper
Lake Bodom
Bodom After Midnight
Are You Dead Yet?
Blooddrunk
Angels Don't Kill
In Your Face
Children Of Decadence
Bodom Beach Terror
Downfall

Encore:
Everytime I Die
Hate Crew Deathroll

I was busy this past weekend putting together my October column (which, to paraphrase Jonah Hill, rhymes with "shmon-shmerge") and basically randomly selecting unopened CDs in an affort to decide what to include in my little review sidebar. I reached for the new album by recent Relapse signees Revocation, plunked it in the CD player, and was immediately bowled over. Do you think Shadows Fall is one of the most boring bands out there? Did the last Killswitch Engage album leave you disappointed? Do you with Lamb of God would stop sounding so darn lazy on record? Do you wish Five Finger death Punch should just die, already? If you answered "yes" to at least one of those questions, you need to hear Existence is Futile, the first album to come out in a long while that restores hope in good American mainstream metal. They're accessible and catchy, but they can also pull off technical death metal exceptionally well, and they've got one heck of a shredder on guitar. I've been kicking myself for not listening to this album before submitting my 2009 ballot to Decibel. Whoops. Anyway, if you're at all intrigued, I suggest you read my full review at Hellbound, which got a very nice number of hits...good to see!

As for PopMatters, trust me, I have plenty of irons in the fire, with three reviews just collecting dust and three more set to be written this weekend, so hopefully some stuff will be popping up there soon. Over at decibel, though, the new issue is out (as I mentioned in yesterday's post), and I have no fewer than four reviews to go along with my Hall of Fame article. First is the new Baroness album, which is spectacular. The interesting thing with that one is that it's not too far removed from the Red Album, but every facet of the record is a significant improvement over the last one, superbly written, beautifully paced, and nicely arranged and produced. Funnily enough, I originally gave it a 9 rating, but it was bumped up to a 10, something I'm perfectly fine with, because a) the review really does read like a 10, and b) the album has only gotten better over the last couple months. Year-end list bound, no question about that. I'm pretty much always fine with ratings bumps...it's just a number, it doesn't change the overall sentiment of the review whatsoever.

Also up is my review of the new one by Black Cobra, a very cool guitar/drums duo that actually sounds as heavy as the Melvins, a very enjoyable CD. Then there's the collection of early demos by Swedish death metal veterans Necrophobic, which is pretty solid. And lastly, the biggest surprise of that issue's assignments, the latest by a Finnish band called Ghost Brigade, a band as punishing as Neurosis, but with a knack for the kind of sumptuous melodies you'd expect from Katatonia.

And speaking of Katatonia, oh my, is Night is the New Black ever a beautiful album. I had high expectations, and they were all exceeded. What a great time for new music, as all the gigantic releases I've been eagerly awaiting have all arrived in my mail (or in some cases, email)...the jaw-dropping new one by Converge, the new Immortal which for all its cartoonishness is a real blast, the new Shrinebuilder is killer, et cetera, et cetera. Too many great albums, way too little time.

If there ever was a harsh reminder for writers to PROTECT their watermarked advance copies of albums, it was this week's Converge controversy, which was dealt with in typically hardcore fashion by the band via twitter. That's my worst nightmare, and even though I don't know the writer, or whether the album was intentionally shared or if he was hacked, I still feel awful for him. I actually had a big scare last week...there was one album which I had access to an advance stream of, and I was told, "There's a download option, just click it, get the files, and you don't need the stream anymore." Okay. So I tried, and it didn't work. Tried again, tried again. And again. Streams are awful ways to listen to albums if you're writing about them, so if there's a download option, you can bet I and every other writer do it. Besides, nobody has any access to my files whatsoever, my stuff is well protected. But a couple days later I was accused by the label of allowing other people to download the album elsewhere, which is ludicrous, I work exclusively from a desktop, and I'm so far removed from anybody even remotely interested in the kind of music I write about to begin with. I was furious, not to mention a little worried. As it turned out, any attempt to download the album more than one time, even if every attempt failed, kicked into gear a glitch in the system that had all the alarms going off. Sheesh. So I was exonerated and apologized to, which was a relief after being falsely accused. But anyway, like the story of the Converge leak, if there ever was a reminder to be extra careful about where you listen to watermarked advances and who has access to your computer, it was this past week.

On a non-music related note, the other night I bit the bullet and bought the 11 game medal round ticket package for the upcoming World Junior Hockey Tournament here this coming January. The relegation games, all quarter-finals, both semi-finals, the 5th place game, the bronze medal game, and the gold medal game...11 games of world class hockey in four days! That, my friends, is hockey heaven. I saw three games the last time the WJC was held in Saskatchewan and saw tons of players who would go on to be NHL stars, and that won't be any different this time around. The competition will be incredible, and there's nothing like watching the world juniors in Canada during the holidays, the atmosphere is unreal. Can't wait!

Be Prepared For the Shock!

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 06:14:00 EST

I still laugh about having to ask for a sample copy of Decibel magazine when they first asked me to join their group of contributing writers...I'd heard of the mag, but we didn't get it here back in 2005, so I was genuinely curious as to what it looked like, content-wise. Needless to say, the second I saw the Hall of Fame section, I immediately wanted to one of my own. As time went by, the big conundrum for me was figuring out which classic metal album to write about. First of all, there was the Hall of Fame criteria: the album had to be more than five years old, it had to reflect Decibel's "extreme" theme, there would be only one HoF entry per artist, and every musician who played on the record had to be interviewed, which meant if a band had a deceased member playing on a record, there was no hope of doing it. Personally, I'm more emotionally attached to 80s metal than 90s metal, so I really wanted to do a record that was from my era. And hardcore was right out, I really don't care for any of the hardcore HoF entries, save for Stormtroopers of Death (and I'd heartily endorse the induction of the first Suicidal Tendencies album). I'd tossed a few ideas out to our intrepid editor Albert, but either it a really good fit or it had been attempted/published already, and every time an 80s album was written about (Lightning to the Nations, The Legacy, Nightfall, Heaven and Hell, Morbid Tales), I'd be going, "Agh, why didn't I think of that one???" Then back in late June, I thought, What about Accept?"

I've been a big admirer of Accept for nearly 25 years, Balls to the Wall being one of my favourite all-time 80s metal albums and Restless and Wild not too far behind. So I sent an e-mail off to Albert suggesting Restless and Wild, thinking it would be a better fit for Decibel, and whaddya know, the folks at headquarters were intrigued. Funny thing is, while the suggestion was being mulled over, I started to waffle between Restless and Wild and Balls to the Wall...I love the slick, cold production of BTTW, not to mention the overall weirdness, sensuality, and ambiguity of the lyrical themes, which were completely unlike anything in metal at the time, so I started to think I could come up with more compelling questions for that one. Eventually it was decided that R&W was the more fitting entry, and by July, the project was in full swing.

I'll say it right off the bat, I have never had more fun working on a writing project as I did on this Hall of Fame entry. It was a joy from start to finish...I'd heard many horror stories about how someone else's piece would be 90% done, but one stubborn member would refuse to be interviewed, and in Accept's case, three of their members were still in the band (guitarist Wolf Hoffman, bassist Peter Baltes, guitarist Herman Frank), while the other two (vocalist Udo Dirkschneider and drummer Stefan Kaufmann) are doing their thing in U.D.O., so I was prepared for the worst. However, once I got in touch with the folks at AFM Records and Accept's longtime manager Gaby Hoffmann, I was amazed how everyone was thrilled to participate in the project, and they all bent over backwards to help out. The interviews were all conducted in early August, including several 3 a.m. phone calls to Germany. It was cool to talk to a legendary frontman like Udo, who's a nice fella, kind of like talking to an old German uncle. Wolf Hoffmann was my most crucial interview, as he's been the musical leader of the band for decades, and he was terrific, very honest and articulate. Kaufmann was a total blast, the dude's got an amazing memory, and he had tons of funny stories. Herman Frank's interview was a strange one, since technically he didn't play on the record but was listed in the credits, but he was very happy to help out, not to mention eccentric in a likeable way (I called him while he was tinkering in the studio, and after the interview he said enthusiastically, "Hey! Wanna hear the song I'm working on?" "Uh, sure." (super-loud guitar playback on a fuzzy trans-Atlantic phone call) "BWAAH BWAAAAHHH BWWAAAAAH." "Uh, that's pretty cool, Herman.") Baltes was my last interview, and he did a great job filling in some of the blanks.

I'm usually fanatical when it comes to piecing together articles, I'm a relentless editor, always revising, and I was so excited to get going after the final interview that as soon as I finished transcribing, I dove right in. I had some practice with the "oral history" format doing my Manowar piece a year ago for Metal Edge, so I really love creating an in-their-own-words story that flows nicely. And I'm not exaggerating when I say that it took me less than two hours to assemble the 4500 word body of the article. It was that easy...everything fell into place, I was amazed. After that, I slapped together an introduction, got some very wonderful testimonials from Alex Webster of Cannibal Corpse and Schmier from Destruction (I actually used Martin Popoff's The Top 500 Metal Albums of All Time to find out which famous musician loved Restless and Wild!), and voila, it was done. And I consider it the best thing I've ever created as a music writer, I'm immensely proud of the final product. Anyway, the article is in stores now as part of the November 2009 issue (Baroness cover)...You can read my intro here, see a small scan of the opening two-page spread here, and if you can't find Decibel where you live, you can order a copy here.

Once in a rare while you end up interviewing a band from your youth and find yourself coming away an even bigger fan than you ever were before, and that was definitely the case with Accept. It was a very rewarding experience, and I hope any Decibel readers who drop by here enjoy reading the piece as much as I did researching, writing, and assembling it. Plus if you've never heard Restless and Wild before, I hope you give it a shot, it's a truly great record. Anyway, huge thanks go out to Gaby Hoffmann, Timo Hoffmann, Michael Borwitzky, Dave Brenner, Alex Webster, Schmier, and of course, all the guys from the band for making one of the greatest metal albums of all time and being so darn gracious enough to talk about it.

***

One more Accept tidbit...people always talk about the song "Fast as a Shark" when describing Restless & Wild, but for my money, "Princess of the Dawn" is its finest moment. It's one of the weirdest songs to ever come out of early-80s metal, and for good reason. It went against pretty much everything that defined heavy metal at the time. It was brooding and subtle instead of larger than life, it was an exercise in groove instead of a full-throttle rocker, it was more studio experimentation than the sound of a band hammering out a song like it was live. Interestingly, in the past seven years that I've delved into the sounds of 1970s German Krautrock, namely Can, Kraftwerk, and Neu!, I started to notice an uncanny similarity between that form of experimental rock and "Princess of the Dawn". Kaufmann's drum beat is incredibly reminiscent of the "motorik" drum beat of "Hallogallo" and the hypnotic groove of "Mother Sky". Hoffman's guitar work as increasingly abstract and adventurous, all layered and layered on top of each other as the song progresses. And the entire band carries on like they could play this riff for hours, and part of me wishes that they did instead of cutting the song off suddenly at the 6:16 mark. But when I asked the band about any possible Krautrock connection, they denied it, stating that their primary German influence was Scorpions' The Tokyo Tapes. Hoffmann did say that he had been inspired by the hypnotic, repetitive quality of The Sensational Alex Harvey Band's "Faith Healer", which is interesting, because that song was heavily derivative of Krautrock. And Kaufmann did admit in retrospect that his drumming on "Princess" did bear some distinctly German sensibilities. But that's about it. And you know what's really weird? At the time, Accept shared the same label (Brain Records) as some of the great Krautrock bands, including Neu!, Popol Vuh, Amon Duul, and Tangerine Dream! Some weird, subconscious influence by mere association, perhaps? Either way, "Princess of the Dawn" is a phenomenal song, one that I never, ever tire of hearing. In fact, I've played it about five times in a row while writing this! In fact, here's a killer live performance from Japan in 1985. Enjoy!

Keytar Heroes!

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 06:22:00 EST

It's not the coolest form of metal out there, but I was really looking forward to the DragonForce/Sonata Arctica show that rolled into town this past Friday, if anything, because it was a welcome change from the usual metal fare we tend to get here. Not that I'm complainin', I like Lamb of God and Bodom as much as anyone, but it sure would be nice to get some power metal every once in a while. Last year's surprisingly awesome Iced Earth show was a breath of fresh air, and as it turned out, so was this one. As it happened, despite making all the arrangements my name wasn't on the guest list for this show (first time such a mistake was made in a long time), but instead of getting all snippy over it, I just sucked it up and shelled out for a ticket. Which is fine, this was one show I was willing to pay full price to cover, anyway.

It's fun to see all the power metal fans that come out of the woodwork for these kinds of shows...your usual headbanger dudes, nerds in Sonata t-shirts, tough looking guys who would otherwise never be caught dead wearing a Nightwish shirt at a metal show, lots of girls, parents with pre-teens, and even older folks who love highly melodic metal. A total mixed bag. And everyone had a blast, including yours truly. In fact, my full review is up today, so I'm a bit reluctant to go through everything a second time, but I'll try to fill in the blanks. Taking Dawn was exuberant but forgettable. Sonata Arctica was terrific, in fact they were the better band by far, in every respect. It was only a six song set, but the mix was great, Tony Kakko's singing was dead on, and the band seemed chomping at the bit after building up to the release of their cool new album (which I really want to review for PopMatters...maybe I can hammer something out in the next couple days). Plus it was cool to finally hear personal favourite tunes like "Fulllmoon" and "Don't Say a Word" in person. Here's their brief but quite rewarding setlist:

In Black and White
Flag in the Ground
8th Commandment
Last Drop Falls
Fullmoon
Don't Say a Word

DragonForce was as goofy as expected, but although I was sort of expecting the band to sound sloppy live, that certainly wasn't the case at all. The mix was a bit dicey, not very loud, the guitar solos and vocals a little too low, but these guys came a lot closer to nailing their ridiculously complex songs than I'd expected. I got a real kick out of watching guitarists Sam Totman and Herman Li...the two complement each other very nicely. Li is one of the best, if not the best shredder I have ever seen in person, full of gimmicky moves that are undeniably cool, like the bit where he does a whammy bar squeal, tosses up his guitar, bounces it back up off his hip, and catches it in time to continue noodling away. I would have eaten that right up back when I was 14, so i found all that shtick endearing. Totman, meanwhile, is more of a loose cannon out there...like Adam Dutkiewicz of Killswitch Engage, his antics bring a sense of levity to the overly pompous proceedings, and whether it was his garish spandex pants, his gigantic straws for his beer (held in handy mike stand cupholders), his goofy tornado jumps, or his mocking of his bandmates' solo turns, he never failed to keep things loose. That said, though, the dude can keep up with Li in the shredding department, and his songwriting cannot be underestimated...he's responsible for most fo the band's best-known songs, including this one and this one, both of which were the two highlights of the hour and a half set. Oh, and I wasn't familiar with "Strike of the Ninja", but after seeing them play it in the encore, I love it. Great 80s vibe on that one. Anyway, it was a grwat, fun time overall. 37 bucks well spent! The setlist:

Fury of The Storm
Heroes of Our Time
Operation Ground and Pound
Reasons To Live
Starfire
Where Dragons Rule
Fields of Despair
Keyboard Solo
Disciples of Babylon
Last Journey Home
Valley of The Damned

Encore:
Strike of The Ninja
Through The Fire and Flames

"She played 'Heaven is a Truck'..."

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 05:53:00 EST

After a summer that consisted of completely un-summerlike weather, September has rebounded with a vengeance out here. In fact, it looks set to be the hottest September ever recorded, which is nuts. And while I'm usually moaning baout how I'd rather it was 12 degrees outside instead of 32 this late in the year, it does seem to make other folks happy, and that was more than evident last night as I headed downtown at 8:00 (normally a pretty dormant time in the middle of the week in September) and found the area to be totally buzzing. Of course one big reason to be jubilant on this night was that after waiting fer-flippin-ever, the Hold Steady finally paid my city a visit. Like the Drive-By Truckers, the Minneapolis band has developed a reputation for being one of the finest live acts in American rock music today, but they tend to stick to the same markets in the States, never making a huge effort to tour north of the border, save for a token Toronto stop. It might have taken them four albums to finally get up here, but I sure was grateful, and so were the 500 or so punters who made their way to the Odeon on this pleasantly warm night.

Opening band Sill Life Still turned out to be a pleasant surprise. Onstage they tend to lack charisma, even coming across as a little shy, but the music it far more colourful than their demeanor would indicate. The Broken Social Scene influence is more than obvious, right down to their being on Arts & Crafts, with the music possessing that layered, loose, yet exuberant sound that BSS made famous, making heavy use of multiple vocalists. It's formulaic, and a cynic might deem it generic, but it's at times incessantly catchy, and I quite enjoyed such performed tunes as "Knives in Cartoons", "Danse Cave", "Kid", "Pastel", and "Neon Blue". They might not look like a band that's out to conquer the world, but there's real potential in the music, and their set convinced me to follow these guys a little more closely (the album is very solid).

At first I thought the Odeon would be too big for this show, as the place was really empty about 15 minutes before Still Life Still went on, but the place gradually filled over the following hour. It certainly wasn't packed like it was for Franz Ferdinand or will be for DragonForce tomorrow night (going to that one too!), but it was nice to be in a comfortably full venue and still have a little space between yourself and the next person. And the enthusiasm was definitely there, the crowd joyous for the entire 22 song set.

Not surprisingly, the band sounds tremendous live, but what caught me off-guard was just how lively a frontman Craig Finn is. His mannerisms are unique to say the least, devoid of any rock star posing whatsoever, but still embracing the bombast of the lead singer role. He's a very magnetic, energetic dude onstage, which in turn made it all the more fun. He clearly is having fun up there, and how can you not like that? Anyway, the band has been throwing their fans a lot of curveballs on this run, and there were a bunch of surprises on this night. They opened with "Yeah Sapphire" from Stay Positive, tossed in older fare like "The Swish" and "Knuckles" ("I've been trying to get people to call me Sunny D/I've got the good stuff kids go for/People keep calling me Five Alive/Because the last guy didn't really die/I just lied, and the first four didn't really die"...love that line), did "Girls Like Status" from that Aqua Teen thingy, and dragged out a bunch of new tracks, the highlights being "Hurricane J", "Separate Vacations", and soon-to-be-classic "Heaven is Whenever". And it was so great to hear "Ask Her For Adderall", a jumpin' little bonus track that I like better than a good portion of the last album. I was hoping to get "First Night" and "Killer Parties", but the substitutes, "Southtown Girls" and "How a Resurrection Really Feels" were great to hear. New stuff like "Constructive Summer", "Sequestered in Memphis", and "Stay Positive" went over huge, and I especially loved anything off Boys and Girls in America, like "Hot Soft Light" and "Chips Ahoy!". However, the two big ones for me were probably the band's most ubiquitous tracks. "Your Little Hoodrat Friend" was the first Hold Steady that won me over big time, while I'm unusually attached to "Stuck Between Stations" a track that hold enormous sentimental value. So I was very thankful these over-played tracks were played once again...and so was everyone else, as "Stations" brought the house down. The show ended oddly early, I got back home at 11:20, but that's good, it gave me enough time to wind down and get this entry down. Just a super show tonight. Those fellas delivered. Here's the setlist:

Yeah Sapphire
Constructive Summer
Hot Soft Light
Separate Vacations
Sequestered In Memphis
Navy Sheets
Banging Camp
Girls Like Status
Heaven Is Whenever
Knuckles
Magazines
Our Whole Lives
Your Little Hoodrat Friend
Chicago Seemed Tired
Chicago Seemed Tired Last Night
Hurricane J
Southtown Girls
Stay Positive
Ask Her For Adderall
Slapped Actress

Encore:
Stuck Between Stations
Chips Ahoy!
How a Resurrection Really Feels

Big, goofy power metal extravaganza in store on Friday, so watch for thoughts/setlists in a day or two! That show's going to be a very refreshing deviation from the norm out here, I'm sure.

Two great new albums and last year's best

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 06:01:00 EST

It sure is nice to decompress for a day or two after the writing craziness of the last month, but it won't be long before it's back to bidness. I'm contemplating my October column, which will be written in ten days or so. I have a ton of cool options, but I think I've figured out what it's going to be about. In the meantime, though, it's going to be a fun few days...tonight is the hugely-anticipated (by me anyway) show by the Hold Steady, who I've been waiting to see for a really long time now, and Friday is the big Sonata Arctica/DragonForce power metal extravaganza (Sonata Arctica is another band I've been waiting years to see). Two very different shows in very close succession, at the same venue. Very different crowds, obviously! I'll post a Hold Steady recap (hopefully with setlist, they've really been mixing it up on this Western Canadian tour) in 24 hours.

No new writing to mention yet, but word has it the new issue of Decibel is floating around. Not only does it have my first-ever Hall of Fame entry, but it also has my first '10' rated review (granted, I didn't know it would be a 10 when I wrote it, but the score fits perfectly). I'll wait until I get the actual issue, or at least until it goes online, before I go into greater detail. One thing I will do is tell the story of how my Hall of Fame entry came into being. It was probably the most rewarding writing adventure I've ever had, a true labour of love, an absolute pleasure. But yeah, more on that in a couple weeks.

A few days ago I tried compiling a 2009 best-of rough draft in anticipation of the call for lists, and this year's list turned out to be a lot bigger than I'd imagined, somewhere int he neighbourhood of 50 or 60 titles I would deem noteworthy. Whittling it down to 20 will be very, very difficult. And nicely enough, I've heard nearly every metal album I wanted to hear, which doesn't always happen. There are some exceptions, like the upcoming Immortal album, which is not being serviced to the press at all, and of course there are always surprises waiting to be discovered, but it's really looking like my top 20 will be impenetrable as the year comes to a close.

I was really hoping to hear two BIG ones asap, and on Monday and Tuesday I got my wish. I know Converge's Jane Doe is going to get a lot of attention when people start naming the best extreme albums of the decade, but I'm of the opinion they're an even better band now. They just keep improving with each new record, and the new one Axe to Fall is definitely their best album to date. There are a lot of ways to gauge the impact of a metal band, but Converge is without a doubt the single most intense band in the genre. They put so much anger into every vocal line, every drum fill, every riff, that no one else can ever hope to match it, and hearing a song like "Dark Horse", your jaw just drops. They're a cut above the rest, simple as that, and the new tracks are unreal. It's one fast album, that's for sure, tons of D-beats. And Kurt Ballou's guitar work is darn near masterful. I'll have more on this album once I let it settle some more, but no question, this one's list-bound.

The one I was waiting for most eagerly, though, is the new one by Swedish sourpusses Katatonia. Like Converge, they really evolve with each new release, but Katatonia is far more subtle and graceful. And on Night is the New Day they're totally on top of their game. As always, its approach is quite understated, but this time it's more so than ever before. Opening track "Forsaker" is about the closest we ever come to something as insistent and immediate as "Ghost of the Sun" or "Leaders"...the rest of the record really gets brooding, with a mix that I can only describe as sounding luxurious, with synths, electronic effects and beats, and other innocuous bells and whistles adding to the overall mood. So carefully crafted is the album's atmosphere and ambiance that at times it feels like Will Gregory from Goldfrapp had a hand in the production. It's still metal, the doomy chords are still there, but it's not just dour, it's drop-dead gorgeous. Jonas renske turns in a magnificent vocal performance...he's really become a great singer on the last three albums, but this one's his finest hour. "The Longest Year" is absolutely breathtaking. It's amazing how he was forced to abandon harsh vocals for clean singing, and how that in turn gradually turned Katatonia into truly one of the most unique bands in all of metal. This is one beautiful piece of work, and will place very high on my list come December, no question.

I can't say how pleased I am that Fucked Up won this year's Polaris Music Prize! I was listening to CBC Radio 3 on Monday night, hoping like crazy that the band would take the award...they had some very good competition (Metric, K'NAAN, Chad Van Gaalen, Elliott Brood) and some very ordinary opponents (Joel Plaskett, Hey Rosetta, Great Lake Swimmers), and I didn't want the jury to take the safe route, because they've been accused of doing so in the past. Plus a lot fo much more deserving bands were snubbed from the short list (Handsome Furs, Japandroids, La Patere Rose, Coeur de Pirate<, Junior Boys, A.C. Newman). The Chemistry of Common Life was far and away the most exciting Canadian album of the last 12 months, and I was elated when Dan Snaith made the announcement. The band's raucous performance of "Son of the Father" sounded amazing, and it was fun reading the twitter updates as it was happening, photos of Pink Eye stripped down to his underwear posted by incredulous audience members. All the performances from the show should pop up on YouTube over the weekend when the show is aired on tv.

Article dump!

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 05:42:00 EST

As promised, here's the review of the In Flames/Killswitch show from Sunday night. I think it turned out well. It was definitely fun to write, I pounded that out in an hour or so after I got back home. Fun time for shows right now...Hold Steady next week, which I'm extremely pumped for, DragonForce/Sonata Arctica in a very rare helping of power metal in my city, Children of Bodom.Black Dahlia Murder/Skeletonwitch at the start of October, Metric once again (have to get tix, can't forget), 3 Inches of Blood/Saviours (a great pairing), Trivium/Chimaira (okay, I'm not overly thrilled, but I might go review this one), and the mighty Cannibal Corpse in December. Not to mention all the interesting punk shows that are hitting here in the fall. Spring and fall, that's when things really pick up here.

I might as well mention the stuff I have appearing in the new issue of decibel before I forget. There's a tiny little studio report on Katatonia that's not online, but that's pretty minor. No features, but I do have four album reviews. The new one by 3 Inches of Blood is right up my alley...they've ditched their former lead screamer and focus completely on old-fashioned heavy metal, and the results are stellar. Had it for about three months, and I'm still not sick of it. Just as good, or maybe a little bit better, is the second album by Quebec's Augury, the first technical death metal album to really grab my attention and keep me enthralled from start to finish. This just might squeeze on to my ballot for the year-end issue (ugh, speaking of which, I really should try to sort out my 2009 faves one of these days). Then there's the new one by Danish NeurIsis clones The Psyke Project, which got pretty tiring awfully fast. If you can't sound better than Neur and Isis, why even bother? Lastly, and I do mean lastly, is the disastrous new album by Ensiferum. I'm not picking on the band or their music, I'm a bit of a fan and they're all nice guys, but they completely lose focus on this one, and I'm just amazed at all the slavering reviews it's been getting. They're just randomly throwing ideas at the wall to see what sticks instead of simply sticking to what they do best. When they keep it simple, they're terrific. When they try to be ambitious, it's not pretty.

I've been listening to the new CD by Brooklyn black metal band Liturgy a lot lately. It's just insane, it's got some of the fastest black metal drumming you will ever hear, and it whips itself into a trance-like state, creating a dense wall of sound that first feels jarring, but quickly feels comfortable, and at times euphoric. There's not much to it, the production is bare-bones and the length is rather economical for the genre (38 minutes), but it achieves what the band sets out to do with surprising confidence. Awesome stuff. I did an interview with their main dude, and it came out really, really well, he's a smart and articulate guy. But more on that in November when the issue comes out!