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Saros – Acrid Plains (Profound Lore Records)

David E. Gehlke
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Saros – Acrid Plains (Profound Lore Records)

We’ll forego any silly metaphors in regards to Acrid Plains and how unbelievably awesome its opening title track is and how the rest of the album pales in comparison. Guess that’s what an opening track is for – to show off your best song and man, “Acrid Plains” is Saros’ best song, hands-down. A darkly-lit, spatially melodic concoction of post-BM and haunting, ominous guitar lines, “Acrid Plains” set up the second album from these American metallers in a big way. Then the bottom dropped out.

The main beef with Acrid Plains is how far-reaching it is. It covers lots of terrain and some of it’s just not necessary, like the meandering female vocals that constitute a vast portion of the album. While it’s a great thing they resemble Hammers of Misfortune, this might not be Saros’ strong suit. Additional epic metal avenues are also explored, to varying degrees of success on “Devouring Conscience” and “Reversion.”

When the band keeps matters gritty and on-target (see: the title track, and “The Sky Will End Soon”), Acrid Plains emerges as a better-than-most dark metal affair, which might be the only suitable tag for a band as varied and multi-dimensional as this.

In this day and age where single songs matter more than albums, there is some value with Acrid Plains. The killer momentum and suspense built by the opening track might find its way onto many iPod’s across the land and it should – the song rules. Can’t stress that enough. As for the rest of the album, it’s give or take. Your call.

www.profoundlorerecords.com

(This content originally appeared on Blistering.com)

Therapy? – Crooked Timber (DR2 Records)

David E. Gehlke
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Therapy? – Crooked Timber (DR2 Records)

Twelve albums in (if you include EP’s Babyteeth and Pleasure Death) and Northern Ireland rockers Therapy? are still going strong. Better than ever actually when you get down to it and really start to feel comfortable with Crooked Timber. Their last few albums came in quick succession but they took a bit of a break before this one. That extra bit of time and care really shines through. Crooked Timber as an album is fuller, more rounded and definitely their most experimental and darkest work since 1999’s Suicide Pact – You First ten years ago, their most complete album since High Anxiety in 2003. Anyone who’s familiar with this band knows that their odd, awkward albums are the ones that stand the test of time best and Crooked Timber is one of the strangest.

Opener “The Head That Tried To Strangle Itself” has a churning start, sparse verse then snappy, weirdly melodic chorus. The drawn out scraping, electronic mid-section puts you on a wrong footing, before thrusting back into the fray. The absolutely genius “Clowns Galore” is going to be savage live. Hard snapping beats, a big chugging bass, a drilling guitar riff that’ll take your head off and sharply hooked vocals make this the album’s standout track – worth the entrance fee alone. In a way, it harks back to the early days of Nurse and to a lesser extent Troublegum.

One thing that fans shouldn’t be worried about though is Therapy? relying on the past. This band exists outside of normal timelines and with nothing to prove to anyone else can seemingly do what they like. That it’s still fresh and exciting after so many years together makes Crooked Timber an absolute joy to listen to, each track unfurling before you as you constantly remain unsure where it’s going to turn next. “Enjoy The Struggle” is built on a big, rolling riff that pushes and pulls, like the rock the referenced Sisyphus battles with. Andy Cairns’ sharp, sometimes witty, sometimes biting, vocals work perfectly throughout the album. Apart from “Magic Mountain,” the huge and meandering, 10-minute instrumental, which instead of building up to something majestic instead ambles around, sounding a little like Placebo, this album is almost flawless. Sure it starts off really well, like a big summertime rock song, but once it gets to the five-minute mark it would have been better off being cut.

So there’s “Exiles” built on a bass line similar to Muse’s “Muscle Museum” and a weird, softly, softly type of vocal delivery, with Neil Cooper’s hi-hat/snare interplay keeping things moving nicely. The less than perfect “Blacken The Page” sounds a bit out of place, more of a poppy-punky-rocky song than anything else on here. In fact with too many highlights to mention in the middle (infectious choruses “I Told You I Was Ill” brilliant big riff rock “Somnabulist” odd rock “Crooked Timber”) we’ll just skip to the end and album closer, “Bad Excuse For Daylight,” which dominates.

Once you’ve listened to Crooked Timber through once from then on it sits waiting for you, at the back of a dark alley all teeth and claws. Built on an almighty, massive, dirty riff and sheer sludgey heaviness it’s as if Charger or The Melvins have found their way onboard somehow. Therapy? have not been this metal in a long time as it pulses along, especially the chugging part before the vocal comes in, “One of these days when nature spring cleans I’ll be part of the flotsam that goes” Andy Cairns drones, almost uncaringly. The outro simply goes its own way giving no regard to either time nor key signature, but before that there’s still the wicked melodies and hooks they always manage to infuse things with.

An absolute curveball to be thrown at the end, but one which keeps you guessing and will have you coming back for more and more. Therapy? aren’t going to pander to you and they’re certainly not going to make things easy, which means there are flaws, but in a world where perceived perfection is set as a goal everywhere we look, it’s nice to get a bit of ugliness chucked in to keep it real. Therapy?, it’s good to have you back.

www.therapyquestionmark.co.uk

(This content originally appeared on Blistering.com)

Wolves In the Throne Room – Black Cascade (Southern Lord Records)

David E. Gehlke
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Wolves In the Throne Room – Black Cascade (Southern Lord Records)

Their stance as nature-worshiping, old-fashioned heathens (the kind, civilized ones) now fully exposed and understood, WITTR proves they are of equal substance and style with Black Cascade. Not like they weren’t before, but unlike several “name” bands that receive higher-than-before exposure, Wolves don’t appear to be taking a dive anytime soon…

The follow-up to 2007’s world-beater Two Hunters, Black Cascade sees Wolves make an even more concerted attempt at bringing those cold, home-spun BM melodies to the fore, allowing for that indispensable atmosphere to take full form. There is a little more wiggle-room for those calculated, Northern US riffs to take hold, as evidenced by lead-off track, “Wanderer Above the Sea Fog.”

Like its predecessor, Black Cascade is only at four songs, but these are long, tenured jams that roll on and on and on. Just look at “Ahrimanic Trance” where an almost hypnotic blast-beat (done in half-time) provides the foundation for psychedelic riffage and churning melodies. This goes on for the entire song, mind you, and it’s nothing short of epic.

“Ex Cathedra” begins with a slow fade-in and shifts to a winding, somber guitar line that ranks among the band’s finest moments to date. It will almost drain you, this after the pummeling we took with “Ahrimanic Trance.” In fact, Wolves never hesitate to pick up the tempo. They do it in “Ex Cathedra” and album closer “Crystal Ammunition” follows suit, but contains a well-placed folk interlude that allows Black Cascade to bow out with more dignity and class than 80 Norwegian BM bands.

American black metal has totally upped the ante this year in the two-pronged attack of Absu’s simply devastating self-titled album and Black Cascade. The beauty of it all is that both bands are operating in different plains and universes and bear little, if any resemblance to each other sonically. If we had to pick, we’ll go with Wolves, only because these Olympia, WA-based lads have yet to peak. If they have, Black Cascade is one friggin’ high mountain to scale.

www.myspace.com/wolvesinthethroneroom

(This content originally appeared on Blistering.com)

Khors – Mysticism (Paragon Records)

David E. Gehlke
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Khors – Mysticism (Paragon Records)

Hard to peg this one down, something we’ve grown accustomed to when tackling the wide assortment of bands on Paragon Records. Khors call the Ukraine home and claim black metal is their forte, but that might be a tad misleading, as Mysticism shouldn’t limit itself to being tied in with the rest of BM goons and clowns.

What it is, is the type of BM that Agathodaimon rolled out in the late 90’s; it’s more reserved than it should be and lays off the speed, yet each of Mysticism’seight cuts have something of value. In fact, the Gothic metal undertones cultivated in “Raven’s Dance” and “In the Cold Embrace of Mist” are quite memorable, bolstered by a crisp, jagged production job that again, reminds one of Agathodaimon or Graveworm.

Gut-wrenching acoustic guitars highlight “Pagan Scars” and “Red Mirrors” while delicate keyboard tinklings add a wreath of darkness around “Milk of Heavens” and “Mysticism.” The band proves itself to be formidable songwriters, thus resisting the temptation to speed things up, which would probably soil this well-plotted land of Gothic BM gravestones.

Across the board, Mysticism gets high praise here, as it’s the type of release that ultimately props up black metal and keeps the subgenre fresh and varied. However, don’t mistake this as your dyed-in-the-wool Cradle of Filth “Goth” BM outing – this is darkness, a dish best served cold, Ukrainian-style.

www.myspace.com/khorspagan

(This content originally appeared on Blistering.com)

My Dying Bride – For Lies I Sire (Peaceville Records)

David E. Gehlke
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My Dying Bride – For Lies I Sire (Peaceville Records)

The violin is back and almost instantly, you can’t help but surrender to its enormous weight and depth. No band has made better use of the instrument (sorry Kansas), so its return from an 11-year absence is totally welcome and frankly, awe-inspiring. And so is My Dying Bride’s newest and 10th release, For Lies I Sire, the second best post-“Classic Six” album, right behind 1999’s Light At the End of the World.

The band wastes no time in hauling out the aforementioned woodwind on “My Body, A Funeral.” Slow and sobbing, the track makes excellent use of the interplay between guitarists Andrew Craighan and Hamish Glencross’ melodic riffs and Katie Stone’s mournful violin lines. From there, the band travels back to familiar ground (think a mix between Angel and the Dark River and Like Gods of the Sun) on “The Lies I Sire,” which sees MDB wrestle with its now patented slooow tempo and tortured vocals from singer Aaron Stainthorpe.

New drummer Dan Mullins turns in an inspired performance, even getting colossal drum roll treatment on “My Body, A Funeral” and the death metal-tinged “A Chapter In Loathing.” Stainthorpe’s introspective poetry is traveling down some seriously morose paths this time out, as he grumbles, spits, and moans his way through the excellent “Bring Me Victory” and somber “Echoes From A Hollow Soul.”

If anything, For Lies I Sire is an instant charmer, something 2006’s The Line of Deathless Kings wasn’t and to lesser degree 2001’s The Dreadful Hours could never quite achieve. But this time they’re presenting it all, right front and center; the style and sound so many have been clamoring for. Talk about appeasing everyone, eh?

www.myspace.com/mydyingbride

(This content originally appeared on Blistering.com)

God Is An Astronaut – God Is An Astronaut (Revive Records)

David E. Gehlke
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God Is An Astronaut – God Is An Astronaut (Revive Records)

Okay, so they might not be a metal band in the strictest sense but metal can be a rather malleable substance. If you’ve yet to discover this Irish trio but are a fan of Isis, Red Sparowes, Grails, 65daysofstatic or even Neurosis and Jesu, you’ll will find a whole heap of aural surprises here to caress and soothe your ear-holes. Experts at creating beautiful, instrumental landscapes from sound, a criticism that previously could have been leveled at them was that their songs didn’t go on long enough, reaching the apex and instead of holding there, stopping. Not this time around. Now four full-lengths in and road veterans they know what works, especially with No Return, their finest composition to date.

Opening on a low keyboard swirl “Shadows” then comes into an Adore-style Smashing Pumpkins drum pattern, which drives onto an airy 65daysofstatic body moving section, ringed with fluttering guitar notes. It sounds like stars flying past at high speed, long lines of light. ‘Post Mortem’ is a more icy, gentle path. “Snowfall” has echoes of quieter Placebo, circa Without You I’m Nothing utilising similar guitar tones and tandem bass/guitar work. Of course the nasal Brian Molko vocal is absent. The ghost of GIAA past is present on “Echeos,” an electro-like beginning submerges itself in a bubble of easy, chill-out waves. You could try and listen to this as a wind-down, but your body would still end up shaking, tapping out a beat not only to the drums, but also the flowing guitars, ending on what could probably be classed as a freak-out.

Throughout there are plenty of spaces, gas-leak sounding noises filling the backgrounds, piano dipping in and out adding texture, as such it’s generally the plateau which God Is An Astronaut do so well. Instead of always plunging forwards, taking it from merely loud to soft, GIAA take something of a more meandering, space-faring journey, one that’s hugely romantic. That romanceis prevalent throughout this self-titled record, making it perfect headphone music when walking the streets, causing you to see both nature and architecture in a new way. That could be taken as being pretentious but there’s something absolutely captivating in this music as you loll along softly with it, caught up in its stream. It imposes itself ever-so-gently on your subconscious, dredging up memories and feelings, thoughts you haven’t had for a while. Not always depressing ones either. “Shores Of Orion” opens with an almost retro-futuristic drum sound before the song moves into rises slowly though ending in a strangely hopeful, almost uplifting place.

Without being classed as a metal band, GIAA have the freedom to not simply explode into slabs of distortion, instead the songs build, rising upwards to often fireworks like finales. Take “No Return,” the finest cut, which starts off gently, light drum taps marking a path. By the time it reaches the high point, it’s got a flurry of drum work pushing it forwards around ringing guitars, throbbing bass when suddenly the drums drop to half-time. It’s like a door’s been opened and air has rushed in, giving a whole new sense of space to the track, the guitar and bass continuing with the same motif as before. It’s an astonishing piece that’ll stay with you long after it’s over.

www.myspace.com/godisanastronaut

(This content originally appeared on Blistering.com)

Crimfall – As the Path Unfolds… (Napalm Records)

David E. Gehlke
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Crimfall – As the Path Unfolds… (Napalm Records)

Good lord, another Pagan/epic metal band. They’re coming out of the woodwork and fast, almost too fast. This stuff is going to burn out pretty quickly, something we mused about last year, but hey, can’t fault a band like Crimfall for trying to get in while the getting is good. After all, metal is now more than ever a copycat league (yet another thing we dished on quite often in ’08), so if one band is doing something that works (see: Eluvietie, and for comparisons sake, Epica), someone else might be able to do it just as well.

As the Path Unfolds…, the band’s debut album (thank you, Napalm Records promo voice-over) runs the gamut from gushing, swooning female-focused excursions (see: “The Crown of Treason” and “Aubade”), to muscular, momentous battle metal surges that are pulled off admirably during “Wildfire Season” and “Shadow Hearth.” The juicy vocals of Helena Haaparanta are what heroic metal dreams are made of, apparently, and she sends us all away on a magical journey on “Hundred Shores Distant,” a tried-and-true ballad.

Still, can’t help but get worn out on this album pretty quickly, as it traces over a lot of what is being done in the aforementioned Pagan/epic metal field. Some duds abound in the form of “Sun Orphaned” and “Non Serviam” and it causes As the Path Unfolds… to taper off a bit, which is a why we threw a 7 at it.

Nevertheless, the ever-expanding market for bands of Crimfall’s style will no doubt find something of value in this band. Haaparanta’s vocals are an easy selling point, but the band hasn’t quite hit the bullseye with its stock interpretation of all things epic in metal.

www.myspace.com/crimfall

(This content originally appeared on Blistering.com)

The Agonist – Lullabies For the Dormant Mind (Century Media Records)

David E. Gehlke
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The Agonist – Lullabies For the Dormant Mind (Century Media Records)

Gotta hand it to the Agonist: they’ve taken a now very familiar template (cute female singer + metalcore) and turned it into something more expansive, slightly deranged, far more off-the-cuff than one would expect. Their 2007 debut, Only Once Imagined failed to leave much of a mark, but Lullabies For the Dormant Mind strikes early and often, and is sure to arouse many based on singer Alissa White-Gluz’s banshee roars and devilishly elegant persona.

Like the new God Forbid, this thing is ugly (what’s up with that, by the way?) and it skips past the now rudimentary Swede-melodies so many of the Agonist’s peers are drawn to. Aside from White-Gluz, the real star here is guitarist Danny Marino, whose intricate, shape-shifting riffs keep this album in motion, just refer to his riff gymnastics in “…And Their Elegies Sang Me To Sleep” (the groove riff at 2:41 is a keeper) and “The Sentient.”

White-Gluz’s vocals dominate most of the album and she relies heavily on her growls, which are slightly stronger than her clean vocals. Her background harmonies are quite solid (see: “The Tempest” and “Thank You, Pain”) and should be exploited to a greater degree down the road, methinks, as they have some serious potential when paired with more melodic ventures.

Thanks to our good friends at Century Media, we were provided with the lyrics and it reads more like deranged (savage?) poetry than your run-of-the-mill, pissing-in-the-wind prose that usually comes from a band with a chick at the helm. Clearly, a lot of thought went into these and it’s becoming a lost art nowadays, even though following along amidst the battering-ram music was a task onto itself.

Not sure how this one is going to land, as it eschews the radio-friendly vibes of label-mates In This Moment, isn’t front-loaded with Swedish death metal heritage (i.e. Arch Enemy) and is without any pandering, pointless pretense (i.e. the thousands of female-fronted Goth metal acts). White-Gluz alone makes this an easy sell, but bands like the Agonist that diametrically oppose the sway of current metal trends are often met with furrowed brows and scratched heads. Good for them – people need to be challenged. Quality stuff.

www.myspace.com/theagonist

(This content originally appeared on Blistering.com)

Ignominious Incarceration – Of Winter Born (Earache Records)

David E. Gehlke
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0
Ignominious Incarceration – Of Winter Born (Earache Records)

Less than three years old as a band, British death metal-heads Ignominious Incarceration are already unleashing their debut album through Earache. That sets the standard pretty high before the play button’s even been pressed, you’re already wondering what won the Earache folk over. Well wonder no more, stop wasting time and caress your ears with this delightful noise. Start at the beginning or pick a song at random (“Dynasty Damnation” comes highly recommended) – it’s all gold. Frozen, heavy, gold.

Despite their status as newcomers, Ignominious Incarceration (there’s a mouthful right there) have talent beyond their years and they really know how to display it. Where lesser bands might decide to chuck everything full blast at you these boys show some restraint. “In The Face Of Absolution” is a whirlwind, “Dynast Damnation” a building thunderhead cloaked in spiralling guitars and trigger-happy drums, later nipping in a flighty solo over what almost sounds like the Knight Rider theme tune. “Elegance In Aggression” starts off on a sliding time signature, Meshuggah-ish riff before slipping nicely into more familiar death territory, albeit one wrapped in cold winds. The clean production works tremendously in their favour, adding crispness to the proceedings and stopping the whole thing becoming swamped.

While their fellow countrymen and one time tour partners Trigger the Bloodshed batter you continuously about the head, I.I. are a little more subtle, it’s a sharp thud in the snow and then the slow drag back to camp, where inevitable death awaits cloaked in fur and flame. The title “Of Winter Born” in fact couldn’t be more apt. You can hear the ice, close your eyes and you can picture the fog clouding in front of their mouths, icicles forming on hair as they play. That coolness gives depth, which means you can observe properly, instead of having to squint through the usual flood of red.

Sure there’s a debt to their death metal forefathers in the shape of Deicide and to a lesser degree Death, even Hate Eternal are owed some gratitude, but there are also technical moments which Opeth at their heaviest would be proud of. The closest band you could probably compare Ignominious Incarceration to would be The Black Dahlia Murder. They both favour that clean sound, carrying everything clearly, making sure nothing remains buried. Hell, the title track has something of a Primordial tinge in sections, “Solitude” though remains a full frontal assault without resorting to stupidity or simplicity yet they simply refuse to be straightforward. Andy Wardle’s vocal delivery throughout is spectacular, the guitar work between Steve Brown and Danny Guy intricate, yet never flashy, the drums and bass simply refusing to come to the fore, remaining at the core holding I.I. together.

Of Winter Born is of course not the ultimate death metal album (that was the last Bloodbath record), but by Christ, it’s not too far behind. Thoroughly modern, they never descend to the deathcore level which has claimed so many others. This is not just a great album because of the relative youth of its creators; it’s a great album regardless.

www.myspace.com/ignominiousincarceration

(This content originally appeared on Blistering.com)

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