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Album Review: Pelagial by The Ocean
Pelagial – adj. \pə̇ˈlājēəl\ : 1. of or pertaining to the open seas or oceans. 2. living at or near the surface of the open seas.
If the album title or tracks separated into suites named Epipelagic, Mesopelagic, Bathalpelagic, etc didn’t cue you off to deducing that The Ocean are really putting their namesake at the forefront on their new album, a good listen will. On the Epipelagic level (surface level) this seems like it could end up being a corny and pretentious idea. “Oh, The Ocean are writing a concept album about the ocean. How very clever. snark snark snark”. Coming off of their less than well received Anthropocentric and many fans not too happy about the bands change to a more ‘lighter’ mood, attempting to take on such a project filled with pretense is a risky and daring move that could make or break this German quintet. Would they rise above the waves into the fresh and salty air or be cast down to Hadopelagic level (deepest part of the ocean) to be crushed by the freezing waters which exert 2 tons per square inch? Well, given that I have now listened to Pelagial about 20 times over the course of a few days, the answer on whether the record is a success or not is pretty obvious. But just how good is it?
Album Review: Blood Drive by ASG
There are 3 big points I’ve noticed that really sways my enjoyment of an album, the first and most important how catchy the songs on it are. Whether it be a great vocal hook or a groove that I won’t get out of my mind a songwriters aptitude for writing something that sticks is what will have me keep returning to an album time and time again. Just give a listen to some of my favorite bands like Iron Maiden, Clutch, Black Sabbath, and Opeth. Each album they release contains elements of catchy songwriting that has been engaging me for years on end and don’t show any signs of slowing up. Some genres of rock and metal genres lend themselves better to having more opportunities for damn catchy songs, so, being a stoner hard rock band, today’s band under the microscope happen to already have a few points in their favor. Fortunately, ASG doesn’t rest on their laurels and let the natural catchiness of the genre carry them along. Their new album Blood Drive also features the other 2 bullet points for what I consider a great album; depth and performance. It’s also a fun and uplifting record filled with nice twists and turns that poke at prog rock tendencies and has a nice bit of diversity to keep things interesting. So after my initial spin of the album it was easy for me to say All Systems Go on this highly enjoyable album.
Album Review: The Circle and the Blue Door by Purson
I really have to tip my hat lately to the metal community for being so accepting and embracing of this psychedelic occult rock resurgence taking place within our preferred genre right now. Really, I would have never imagined a your traditional modern metal head ever getting down to bands like Blood Ceremony or Jess and the Ancient Ones, but alas, that is the case. It may be that the often Satanic and Wiccan theme’s resonate with us and they give us an excuse to really dig of the hallucinogen fueled tunes or that we catch that this style of music has deep roots in the early beginnings of metal and we enjoy it on that level or that we’ve finally found a listenable form of non-growling female vocals in our genre (I personally can’t stand the symphonic Gothic metal crap, and I’m sure I’m not the only one). What ever the case may be, labels have been scooping up occult rock acts like there’s no tomorrow and they’ve been selling quite well. So, occult rock is back for now and seems to be the in-fad. Will its welcome wear out like djent, the retro-thrash revival, and metalcore? Most likely, but of all the fads to hit the scene, this one really hits me hard as a style that is more than a fad to me with many bands I’ve actively sought out, enjoy, and will continue to listen to until I return to the Earth. So, since the occult rock thing is really my bag at the moment, you can see the excitement I had when I found that, amid the copious amounts of power metal and death metal that bombards the Metal State inbox, to find the debut album by a band called Purson (not a misspelling of the word ‘person’, but one of the many names of Mr. Satan himself) that had tags like Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath, Coven, and Led Zeppelin selling the music to me. The inner-hippie in me lit up with excitement as I rushed to pop the record in and now having given it the obligatory 3 spins, I am here to tell you that Purson’s debut record The Circle and the Blue Door is pretty damn groovy.
Album Review: The Mouths of Madness by Orchid
I may be a bit premature in saying this, but I think that the best Black Sabbath album to be released this year will not come from Black Sabbath, but from the Black Sabbath inspired band Orchid. If I didn’t know any better I would swear that their new album, The Mouths of Madness, was released in the 1970s in between the bevy of other iconic Black Sabbath albums and Ozzy was just trying out a new vocal style. From the riffs, the grooves, song structures, down even to the cover art that definitely has a Master of Reality crossed with Vol. 4 look to it, this album is pure Sabbath. And with such blatant stylistic similarities to the fathers of metal, you would imagine that a band could never reach the heights that Black Sabbath did during their peak. Well, if The Mouths of Madness was a legit Black Sabbath album, it would rank as one of my all time favorites up there with Sabbath Bloody Sabbath and the landmark self-titled album. And coming from the huge Black Sabbath fan I am, that’s saying quite a lot.
Album Review: The Moth Gatherer – A Bright Celestial Light
The Swedish duo The Moth Gatherer’s debut album is quite interesting with its unconventional style of experimental/sludge/post metal. They have created an ambitious and tasteful mix of different music styles combined with lots of effects, which results in heavily atmospheric songs that aren’t always an easy listen. This is haunting and hypnotic music suited for fans of ISIS, Cult of Luna and Neurosis. It’s very difficult to describe it due to the pure emotional nature of the songs.
Album Review: Soilwork – The Living Infinite
Just buy it.
Soilwork has been one of my favourite melodic death metal bands for a long time, almost since they first started out. Like every band, they have had their ups and downs; good releases, fantastic ones and in the middle there were a couple of mediocre ones. However, this album more than exceeded all my expectations. It’s like they have wrapped up their entire music career, a little bit of everything they have done and more, in this one. ‘The Living Infinite’ is their ninth studio album and with it they have certainly managed to prove to the metal world that they are still a force to be reckoned with.
Quicky Reviews: Tombstone Highway, Finntroll, Malnatt, Gloryhammer
Sometimes writing up a full review for an album tends to be a daunting task, especially when I highly enjoy something but can’t come up with enough words to fit a full review. And if I were just to bloat up a review with rephrasing the same theme over and over again I’m sure you’d not read it and in turn the band who worked hard on the album in question would not get a listen. So here are some nice and short album reviews for some records I either bought or were sent to us in the inbox that I feel deserve your attention. So check out some kick ass music! Enjoy! Peace Love and Metal!!
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Album Review- Infestissumam by Ghost
Two years ago when my ear drums caught the crunchy Satanic grooves of Ghost’s debut album Opus Eponymous it was a bit of a musical revolution for me. First off, there was just no band that I had known about making modern music like them with that heavy 70′s vibe mixed with Black Sabbath style doom metal and a generous sprinkling of Mercyful Fate. The right amounts of heaviness and catchiness won me over immediately and to this day Opus Eponymous is one of my most frequented haunts at minimum getting a playthrough a week. Second off is the lyrical content. Ghost sings about Satan and Satanism pretty much to the point where it’s so over the top it becomes absurd and humorous. You can’t help but chuckle at how they were able to twist the words of the Our Father prayer into an Our Satan prayer on the tune “Ritual” or how they turn the much used Christian phrase ‘Stand By Him’ into meaning ‘Stand by Satan’. And they do all this with a perfectly straight-face trying to make you believe that they are serious in their Satanism, but you know deep down, they aren’t. And that is where I find the real fun in the genius of Ghost, if you give a listen to any Christian or faith filled band you will also easily hear how over-the-top it is with all of cheesy Biblical quotes and professing that ‘God’ is the only way and yadda yadda yadda. It’s such a fun little parallel. Finally there is the contrast of their themes and their musical output. On one hand you could call Ghost a metal band, but since there is a crap-ton of pop influence by way of bands like ABBA one does have to question Ghost’s metal cred. That contrast of super hammy yet infectious melodies and tunes to the super Satanic themes creates such a contrast that one has to wonder how it even works in the first place, let alone find an audience that could bring popularity to the band. Though one would think that the metal fans would find them too soft and poppy for metal stardom and the pop fans find their Satanic themes a bit too dark. Oddly enough, they did find an audience with this contrast as they became one of the biggest rising stars in the metal realm gaining big support from fellow metal artists like James Hetfield and Phil Anselmo and in the pop scene gaining lots of coverage in big name publications like Rolling Stone.
Album Review: Resonance Room – Untouchable Failure
Resonance Room from Italy released their second album Untouchable Failure last week. It’s an elegant mix of heavy prog and dark gothic metal with a strong influence from bands like Pain of Salvation, Katatonia and Evergrey. That sounds like a good thing, right?
Yeah, for the most part it is! I enjoy every single one of the ten tracks on the album; they are easy to listen to and follow. The melancholic atmosphere, heavy guitars, the soft passages and melodies with keyboards in the background, just like it should be. Untouchable Failure is a nice step forward from their previous release Unspoken. This time they managed to create a more diverse, warm and deep sound, even though I wish it would be a bit more consistent and dynamic. The singer’s Italian accent can clearly be heard in most of the songs and it can be a problem if you want to listen to the lyrics and hear what he’s singing. Fortunately, he has a very pleasant voice that suits this type of dark, gothic music.
Album Review: Moth – Endlessly In Motion
Reverse what we’ve been building for, destroy any progress
We’ll turn ourselves into machines
Hard to realize the depth and low that we’re reaching
Erase the steps to evolve into something with meaning
Reverse our evolution cycle; declining minds prevail to shun the will of expanding insight.
Grow no longer. The light has died, in this form we can’t survive.
We reverse design through time. We reverse the flow of life.
I have found a lot of fantastic debuts from bands lately and ‘Endlessly In Motion’ by Moth is another impressive one. It was released only two months ago and I knew this record was a must-buy after the first time I heard it. It’s hard to put this music into a genre and to describe their sound. I would say Moth has a Gojira-like influence on their songs, a kind of proggy death, with similar emotional vocals, repeating guitars and heavy, fast-paced drumming. They added ambient moments together with some clean sections and the result is an album with complex music that is easy to listen to and like.
