Not Metal

This should be in the Art Institute.

All hail The Scrambled Egg Rooster Ladies!

Second records are always risky for bands whose first were considered achievements in their own right. There tends to be higher expectations and in turn more pressure. As such the second record can go three possible ways:

1. They can maintain their creative force and make a record that eclipses the first record in greatness.
2. They can hold the line and while enjoyable, it record won’t have the same emotional impact as the first.
3. Or they can make a rushed follow up that just stinks and the band will most likely be never heard from again.

Sadly the latter two are what typically seem to happen.

Not this time though thankfully. Baroness come back to the plate after knocking one out of the park with The Red Album back during the summer of 2007. With it’s undeniable classic rock motif, groove infused guitar shoot-outs, and Jesus-hooked-to-a-car-battery-while-on-the-mount vocal delivery it was a record that felt more like a homecoming than an entry into the fray of extreme metal. With all homecomings there comes a time to leave and venture forth one more time and with this vibe I’d say that these savants from Savannah have succeeded.

With all good journeys there are moments of excitement and reflection to take in all that may or may not have just happened. For every “Swollen and Halo” with its harmonized dual guitar lines and thunderous peaks there is a “Ogeechee Hymnal” or “Blackpowder Orchard” to bring all the events full circle and allow for their impact to be truly accepted.

Savannah has the Savannah College of Art and Design and these guys

Baroness release music that makes this reviewer take the tact that it is a full scope art project, and not so much just a piece of music. To break it up into singles is like watching a scene from a play with no explanation to what happened before or after. It can be enjoyed on it’s own, but when included with the other accompanying scenes it becomes that much more powerful and awesome.

To good art!

We’ve added our imeem.com NotMetal.net playlist to the right side of the site.  The playlist will be constantly updated with our recommended tracks as well as any tracks relevant to what we’re reviewing, writing about, etc.

Enjoy and let us know what you think!

Don’t forget to pack your beer bong

Massive Brooming!

If “thrash band A” leaves the gig on “tour bus B”, and “thrash band C” with the same looking logo leaves the gig at the same time only with more cases of beer on “tour bus D”, how many more times do you need to listen to “thrash band B’s” record before you start to remember how good D.R.I.’s records were?

How many goddamn bands have spawned in the past couple years sporting the same spiky neon infused logos? Are we experiencing a thrash revival overload? Maybe. But goddamn, if there isn’t a band among them all whose material starts to leave a lasting impression on me like Municipal Waste does.

For six songs less than a minute you have seven others more than two minutes that actually are worth the riffs put into them. The reason being is that each song longer than 1:30 has an extra minute of song to allow it to breathe. (Yeah, I know I just said “breathe” in a description of a thrash band) There is some great variety in the songs they let slow down for a passage, speed it up a bit, really speed it up, add gang vocals, then throw in a good short solo for spice. These are the elements to a few songs on this record that make them memorable and digestible. See “Wolves of Chernobyl” and “Relentless Threat” for an example of these fine points.

"Acceptable grafitti!" - said in weekend nachos vocal style

So then my crusty metal friends: how many riffs does it take to get to the center of the good riffs?

Answer: about 154 in 7 songs. Which would bring us to “Upside Down Church”. Where upon first listen, sounds like the album literally blows its thrashy hot beer foam all over the walls. The song is fucking thrash metal defined. The rest is downhill from there.

Deliciously bland.

Crunchtaculary marginal.

Stupid Internet hype! This happens from time to time and it never surprises when it does. The blog-o-sphere, this little skid mark of a site included, gets its panties real wet over a single put up on myspace by a band that that is defunct or soon to be from an album that is coming out in a couple of months. I have a theory that if people know that the upcoming album in question is the last of its kind they tend to think higher or get more excited about it. I guess everybody just wants to remember things in rose light rather than the harsh light of reality.

Heart of Darkness by Burnt by the Sun is a great example of this phenomenon in action. For at least three months leading up to this there were sporadic posts on various sites when new songs were put up. “This is a great definition of brutality” or, “this is the heaviest thing I’ve heard recently” were typical descriptors. I didn’t actually go over to said myspace and listen to these songs, but I was anticipating this album a great deal from the recommendations coming out. So on release day I head up to Colfax and one of the three record stores up there and pick up this little nugget of great album art, get home, put it on and turn it up as it was 2 PM and none of my neighbors were home.

Under whelmed is a one way to put how I felt. Another way to put it would be like going out with a super hot girl for like three months before she lets you see her naked. You have endured dating nightmares like craft fairs and farmers markets, helped her give her annoying dog a bath, and maybe sat through a episode or two of Lost. The only thing keeping you going is the fact that you are going to get in there and tear shit up like it’s the Graf Orlock pit. And then it turns out that she has been wearing body-enhancing clothing the whole time. Boobs and booty are not as cool as advertised. You are still getting laid, but it’s nowhere as cool as it was anticipated.

BbtS bring the atonal metalcore like it’s still the early 00’s. There are breakdowns, the guitar tone is perfectly Grey and boring, and the lead singer talks slowly in parts and enunciates every syllable like spazzes do when they are really angry. He also whispers in parts. Christ, remember when nu-metal bands did the same thing? It wasn’t brutal then and it is not brutal now.

With all hype aside this album is competent and totally generic. “A Party to the Unsound Mind” has a really good riff and “The Great American Dream” actually picks the pace up from the usual out-of-shape-white-dude metal pace. Two decent songs do not an album make unfortunately and I would have a hard time telling anybody that they needed to buy this. Or should buy it even.

I didn’t gain much from hearing this besides learning that I need to download more before buying.

Pathologic Tech-Death Insanity

Autopsies Rule

As their myspace indicates, Viraemia (pronounced Vi-ray-me-ah) is the presence of a virus in the bloodstream. Which is appropriate, because these guys have some infectious music. This is some insane, complex and compelling stuff. The guitarist and bassist shred with immense precision, proficiency and intensity. It’s as if Eddie Van Halen and Necrophagist had a baby with 8 hands, 2 guitars, 1 bass and an insatiable urge to tap and sweep pick. Check this vid of the bassist tearing apart his 10-string for a taste.

The vocalist is also good, alternating between death growls, black-metally screeches and grind chirps and pig grunts.  And the drummer is good enough to keep up and add to the cacophony.

Also, the influence of early Carcass is apparent, not only from the autopsy art album cover, but also with medical text song titles such as “Disseminated Intravascular Coagul” and “Necrotizing Fasciitis”.

They only have a self-titled EP out which only has 5 songs (3 of which are streaming on their myspace) but is good enough to warrant attention.

An Alternative Perspective

There isn’t a single song on here that holds a candle to “Conquer All”. Go buy Demigod and put “Conquer All” on repeat.

You have just made a Behemoth album that is better than Evangelion.

Congratulations.

New metal, not Nu-Metal.

Snap judgements are like assholes.

Mortal Kombaaaat!

It’s new to me, and new to you. Here’s a review of two new songs from Revocation’s forthcoming full-length, “Existence Is Futile”.

1. Dismantle the Dictator: Vocals sound a lot like Burnt By The sun. Very technical, catchy riffs. This is like Necrophagist, but doesn’t sound totally impossible to play and learn for yourself. Drumming is pretty sick. Gang chorus vocals before a “make it rain” solo at 2:50 is the highlight here. Very cool stuff going on throughout the entire track. The whole outro sounds like a damn Satriani outtake. And, strangely this works quite well!
2. The Brain Scramblers: Maybe I was bit hasty with thinking it was like Necrophagist but not totally impossible to play…these guys make a trio sound like 5 people. When it comes to technical sounding metal, the production needs to be clear but not overglossed. The drums are a tad too trigger happy on this track, but the guitars and bass are brought up to their level to compete for listening space.  The best thing going on here is a short length. Their not filling a song full of shitty riffs, it’s just enough past a 3 minute mark to remain memorable.

Bottom Line: If you’re into tech-death metal give this band a shot. You can tell these songs apart, which is saying a lot for most tech-metal bands that just fill each song with a flurry of speed picking sweep solos in every song. Bonus points for having Baraka included in the album art.

A Companion Piece to the Previous Article

In the previous post, my notmetal.net cohort Viking Beard mentioned that he is, “more inclined to like doom metal bands with singers who do super low guttural growls.”

I concur, and with that in mind, I want to introduce three of my favorite doom metal bands who employ this type of vocals.

Draconian: Despair Ridden, with a hot chick to boot

Draconian: These guys are doomy enough to make you want to slit your wrists and drown in the blood. Not only are they doom metal, but they are funeral doom (as are the other 2 bands mentioned in this post), which is obviously metal as fuck as implied by the referencing of death. Check out the wonderfully titled track “She Dies” from the album “The Burning Halo”.

Mourning Beloveth: Now these are some sorrowful and morose motherfuckers. Slow and doomy as a train headed for Auschwitz in the early 40s. Check out the song “Disintegrate” from the album “The Sullen Sulcus” for 10 minutes and 38 seconds of slow, doomy goodness.

Funeral: Could a band be more aptly titled? Their songs are like any good funeral procession: slow as molasses, has some bitch screaming and some guy growling. At least, that’s how I want my funeral to go.

Now with less yawn!

Sounds like someones been listening to a lot of old Sabbath.

I gotta say I never really got into these guys that much. I’m more inclined to like doom metal bands with singers who do super low guttural growls or the screaching bellow of Electric Wizardry. I think the best thing and difference I hear in the mix of this song is more bass. As a trio, I felt their last record really pushed the bass lower into the mix.

Your dad is here to pick you up from school.

Let’s hear that fucking thing rumble! I want the doom to split mountains many leagues away! I want to hear reverb and echo and a big fat viking doom tone that was given life from the very after birth of Tony Iommi himself!

I hear all of these traits in “The Bringer Of War”.

In honor of the new Baroness record

Here’s a new Baroness track

It’s posted up on their myspace. The “Blue Record” art is of course, of the highest quality (courtesy of the talented Mr. John Dyer Baizley). The new song has a sweet wailing guitar lead that is something new to the Baroness sound. I’m getting a really good Thin Lizzy vibe from it. Which is awesome because I love Thin Lizzy.

Oh, and here’s a G.I. Joe video.