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Chronicles of Chaos Issue 035
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CHRONICLES OF CHAOS e-Zine, November 19, 1998, Issue #35
http://www.interlog.com/~ginof/coc.html
Editor-in-Chief: Gino Filicetti <mailto:ginof@interlog.com>
Coordinator: Adrian Bromley <mailto:energizr@interlog.com>
Contributor/Copy Editor: Pedro Azevedo <mailto:ei94048@tom.fe.up.pt>
Assistant Copy Editor: John Weathers <mailto:grief@bellsouth.net>
Contributor: Andrew Lewandowski <mailto:kmvb73c@prodigy.com>
Contributor: Alain M. Gaudrault <mailto:alain@gaudrault.net>
Contributor: Brian Meloon <mailto:bmeloon@math.cornell.edu>
Contributor: Adam Wasylyk <mailto:macabre@interlog.com>
Contributor: Paul Schwarz <mailto:saul@mcmail.com>
Mailing List provided by: The University of Colorado at Boulder
NOTE: For more Chronicles of Chaos information, check out the
'Details' section at the end of this issue.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Issue #35 Contents, 11/19/98
----------------------------
* Loud Letters
* Deadly Dialogues
-- My Dying Bride: The Bride No Longer Wears Black
-- Malevolent Creation: Malevolent Mass Murdering Maniacs
-- In Ruins: Repairing the Ruins
-- Jag Panzer: Mastering Their Metal
* Album Asylum
-- 00 Species - _Anatomy of a Robot_
-- Absu - _In the Eyes of Ioldanach_
-- Avenger - _Shadows of the Damned_
-- Bastard Noise - _If it Be Not True_
-- Benighted Leams - _Astral Tenebrion_
-- Blood Axis - _Blot: Sacrifice in Sweden_
-- Bob Marinelli / Flutter - _Fun & Games_
-- Centinex - _Reborn Through Flames_
-- Ciborium - _Colossal Crags_
-- Crackdown - _Rise Up_
-- Dementia - _Answer_
-- Deranged - _High on Blood_
-- The Dillinger Escape Plan - _Under the Running Board_
-- Dimmu Borgir - _Godless Savage Garden_
-- Earthtone9 - _lo-def(inition) discord_
-- The Elysian Fields - _We... the Enlightened_
-- Enslaved - _Blodhemn_
-- Enthroned - _Gothic Disturbance '98_
-- God - _From the Moldavian Ecclesiastic Throne_
-- Gooseflesh - _Welcome to Suffer Age_
-- Gothic - _Touch of Eternity_
-- Gothic Sex - _Laments_
-- Grief of Emerald - _Nightspawn_
-- Various - _GRRRR!!: Extreme Music From Vancouver_
-- Hexecution - _Beyond All Evil_
-- In tha Umbra - _Descend Supreme Sunset_
-- Infamy - _The Blood Shall Flow_
-- Interitus Dei - _Lonely White Idols_
-- Iron Monkey - _Our Problem_
-- Legenda - _Eclipse_
-- Lucid - _Lucid_
-- Makrothumia - _The Rit of Individuation_
-- Malevolent Creation - _The Fine Art of Murder_
-- Mundanus Imperium - _The Spectral Spheres Coronation_
-- My Dying Bride - _34.788%... Complete_
-- Naglfar - _Diabolical_
-- Nasum - _Inhale/Exhale_
-- Night in Gales - _Thunderbeast_
-- Nothingface - _A Guide to Everyday Atrocity_
-- Odhinn - _From a Splendorous Battle_
-- Queens of the Stone Age - _Queens of the Stone Age_
-- Radakka - _Requiem for the Innocent_
-- Raise Hell - _Holy Target_
-- Resurrecturis - _Nocturnal_
-- Sad Legend - _Sad Legend_
-- Savior Servant - _Savior Servant_
-- Suppression w/ Facialmess - _Collaboration_
-- Thy Serpent - _Christcrusher_
-- Training for Utopia / Zao - <Split EP>
-- Twin Obscenity - _For Blood, Honour and Soil_
-- Vanilla Ice - _Hard to Swallow_
-- Zimmer's Hole - _Bound by Fire_
* Chaotic Concerts
-- Enchanting Draconian Melodies: Moonspell, Therion and Darkside
* What We Have Cranked
* Details
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
M""MMMMMMMM dP
M MMMMMMMM 88
M MMMMMMMM .d8888b. dP dP .d888b88
M MMMMMMMM 88' `88 88 88 88' `88
M MMMMMMMM 88. .88 88. .88 88. .88
M M `88888P' `88888P' `88888P8
MMMMMMMMMMM
M""MMMMMMMM dP dP
M MMMMMMMM 88 88
M MMMMMMMM .d8888b. d8888P d8888P .d8888b. 88d888b. .d8888b.
M MMMMMMMM 88ooood8 88 88 88ooood8 88' `88 Y8ooooo.
M MMMMMMMM 88. ... 88 88 88. ... 88 88
M M `88888P' dP dP `88888P' dP `88888P'
MMMMMMMMMMM
This is the column where we print those lovely letters our readers
decide so graciously to write us. Whether they be positive, negative,
ignorant or just plain spelled wrong, you can rest assured that
they'll be here in their original form. If you'd like to see your own
letter here, e-mail it to <mailto:ginof@interlog.com> and enter
'Attention Loud Letters' in the subject field. Hopefully all letters
received will be featured in upcoming issues of Chronicles of Chaos.
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1998 01:45:51 EDT
From: Trendend2@aol.com
Subject: Your Death Across America Review
Hey, I haven't ever had a problem w/ your mag...until now. First off,
I saw the Death Across America tour, and I thought Oppressor blew
them Cryptopsy off the stage. But, the main point I wanted to make
was the Oppressor now has 3 albums out, just like your Cryptopsy...so
before you go knocking a much better than mediocre band like
Oppressor, get your facts straight man!!! Later..
chris
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1998
From: Napoleon Buonaparte <darkest_flower@hotmail.com>
Subject: "Attention Loud Letters"
Hail!
If you guys there from Coc were only from Croatia you would give alot
of hehe to Castrum and not 8 of 10. I wish that there was some law
against copying mellodies of another groups and old national
mellodies here in Croatia... I think that I have made myself quite
clear. That`s all.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Correction
~~~~~~~~~~
Last month, if you recall, I reviewed a band "called" Lycanthropic.
They are -actually- called Lycanthrope; sorry for that unfortunate
mistake, guys. I had also misplaced their contact address, which is
as follows:
Contact: P.O. Box 085531, Racine, WI, 53408, USA
WWW: come.to/lycanthrope
mailto:mc42@rocketmail.com
My sincerest apologies go to the band for any ground they may have
lost due to my error. It was unprofessional and should not have
happened. Sorry.
-- Paul Schwarz
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T H E B R I D E N O L O N G E R W E A R S B L A C K
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CoC chats with Aaron Stainthorpe of My Dying Bride
by: Pedro Azevedo
In the past, the bride could have been described by words such
as Mary Shelley's: "She was dressed in mourning; and her countenance,
always engaging, was rendered, by the solemnity of her feelings,
exquisitely beautiful." However, the bride has now forsaken her
antique black dress of delicate lace and sensual shape by far less
engaging modern everyday clothing. She appears to no longer be
dressed in mourning, nor do her feelings seem solemn; her beauty can
only be seen occasionally and does not seem unique in the way it used
to be.
Leaving these metaphors behind, you may wish to read my review
of My Dying Bride's new album _34.788%... Complete_ in this same
issue before you indulge in my phone interview with the very nice
person that vocalist Aaron Stainthorpe seemed to be. You will find in
this review my reasons for writing this last paragraph and also for
the title of this interview: indeed, it is as if the bride no longer
wears black, and only time will tell if she ever will again. The
title of the interview could also be explained by simply looking at
the new album's colorful artwork, though. Nevertheless, regardless of
my feelings about the new album, everything My Dying Bride did in the
past, especially up to _The Angel and the Dark River_, guarantees
that this rather huge interview would always have to focus more on My
Dying Bride itself than on this new album and line-up changes in
particular.
CoC: First, I'd like to know what you aimed to become, as a band,
about six or seven years ago, in your early days as My Dying
Bride, while playing that peculiar style of doom/death metal in
_Symphonaire Infernus et Spera Empyrium_ and _As the Flower
Withers_.
Aaron Stainthorpe: Nothing, really. We didn't have any goals or
dreams, we just formed like any other band and we
thought "wouldn't it be cool to do a demo tape",
and then we did one, and then we thought "wouldn't
it be cool to do a record", and we did one as
well. It just seemed everything we thought would
be cool was coming true! We were really very
lucky, but we never dreamed that we'd ever go on
tour in foreign countries or sell thousands of
records worldwide, we never dreamt about that. So
I guess because we never thought it would ever
happen, that's one of the reasons why we've never
been accused of being arrogant rock starts. We
still hope the next album does well, but we're not
that bothered if it doesn't do very well. It's
like a hobby for us. We enjoy doing it, but our
lives don't depend on the band. We don't take it
-that- seriously; we do love being in it, of
course, and if the band would split up we would
all be very unhappy, but we thought, "we'll get
together, write some interesting music and see how
it goes"... that's been the way we've always
thought. When we finish an album, we think it
sounds good, we like what we've created, let's
just see if other people like it.
CoC: With _Turn Loose the Swans_, the band introduced a much greater
element of dark romanticism to their doomy music; what was it
that made you choose that path?
AS: I'm not really sure; we knew that when Celtic Frost disappeared
and turned into a glam rock band, we knew there was a market
there for this sort of over-the-top avant-garde band, someone who
were doing something a bit weird and unusual. Paradise Lost were
doing similar-ish kind of things, but I don't think they had this
more romantic edge. We definitely worked for that gothic appeal,
and I'm not really sure why. It was just an interesting theme. Of
course with the violin being there as well, that always had a
very romantic, very sombre feel to it. So we were always going to
sound like that, really.
CoC: Many say that _Turn Loose the Swans_ is the best My Dying Bride
album ever [it still is my favorite], and most of those who say
it agree that your mix of death vox and clean parts, together
with the especially emotional, bleak and desperate instrumental
side, was what made it so special. What do you think about that
praise of your mixing of death and clean vox and why did you
never repeat it?
AS: I wanted to try something like that, with the clear vocals and
the death metal vocals. It was just an experiment that I enjoyed
doing, because I can't play an instrument, so I need to vary the
vocals a bit to try and make them more interesting. That was just
our second album, so we were still a very young band, and we
didn't really know what the future held in store, we didn't
really think about it. We weren't really concerned how well we
were doing. It was quite an experimental album; a lot of people
could have hated it, we didn't really know, we just played music
we liked to listen to and hoped we would do OK. A lot of people
say that was one of our best albums, I think because of the time
it came out -- there was very little like that in the scene, and
people like unusual things, people like very interesting bands.
Again, it's quite similar to Celtic Frost, who were a bit
over-the-top, with some operatic parts, big heavy keyboards,
massive chords, everything. Celtic Frost and Candlemass
disappeared, these were some of our biggest influences. We
basically took some of their ideas and re-mixed them into our own
ideas and we just came out with the My Dying Bride sound, which
was great for that time, that particular era in 1993. People just
weren't used to that, because at that point death metal was
probably at its height; you had bands like Death and even Slayer,
I think they were much bigger back then than they are now.
Everybody was in a death metal band and we were doing this really
weird shit. I think it blew some people away, they really thought
it was fantastic, really unusual, really original. But the reason
why I haven't done that again [the clean/death vox combination]
is because we don't like to repeat ourselves too many times,
we're always trying to find new ideas, trying to be a bit more
original, trying to keep fans interested all the time. I don't
want to keep doing albums over and over again. With the due
respect, we could record an album that sounded like _Turn Loose
the Swans_ tomorrow, but we don't want to because we've done that
now; we want to move on and obviously some fans are going to say
"that was their best moment, now they're not so good", but they
will say that about every band. We're no different; we're trying
our best. That was a different era, this is a new era we're in
now, that's the way it goes for every band.
CoC: With _The Angel and the Dark River_ came a more experimental
version of My Dying Bride, but still a very sorrowful one; back
then, you played some excellent concerts (such as the one
featured in the _For Darkest Eyes_ video), and it may very well
be that the blend of songs from _TLtS_ and _TAatDR_ portrayed My
Dying Bride's finest years. What is your opinion on that? What
are your memories of those times?
AS: Very good memories; we've hardly had any bad shows, we've always
enjoyed ourselves, most of the time. Even back then, when we only
had three albums out, it was very difficult to pick which songs
to play, because obviously some of the songs were very long. We
already played for over an hour and a half and only nine songs...
It was very difficult to pick which songs from which albums to
do, and it's getting even more difficult now, because now we have
five albums out. But when we do sit down and we pick the songs
that we're going to do for a new gig, there's obviously going to
be at least one from the first album [_As the Flower Withers_],
there'll be a couple from _Turn Loose the Swans_, a couple from
_The Angel and the Dark River_, a couple from _Like Gods of the
Sun_, and obviously most of the new album. But most bands, again,
have to do that; we could do an entire set of _Turn Loose the
Swans_ and _The Angel and the Dark River_ stuff, but that's not
what we're doing now, we're moving on. I know people like that
stuff very much, but they have to respect the fact that we're not
going to repeat ourselves, we don't want to do the same sound
over and over again; we must move on.
CoC: You mentioned still playing a song from your first album in
future gigs; do you mean you'll keep finishing your concerts
with "The Forever People" like before?
AS: Yeah, we always do that one. But we were thinking about doing
"The Return of the Beautiful" again...
CoC: That's a very long song...
AS: Yeah. Well, we thought about dragging it out of the early '90s
and giving it a bit of late '90s feel, but we never got 'round to
that. We may do it on this next tour, but it's an old song, it'd
take a lot of practice, but there is no reason why we can't do
old songs again. We will do the older songs, but like I said,
it's very difficult to pick which ones. Even if you have a
setlist of old songs, you always get people screaming for one
song that's not on your setlist... <laughs> That's always the
case, and afterwards people say "Oh, why didn't you play "Vast
Choirs"", or something, because we've played so many other
ones... <laughs>
CoC: _Like Gods of the Sun_ then brought renewed heaviness to your
sound, but lost a bit of the doom. Was that your purpose when
you released it?
AS: Yeah, that's actually possibly the only album we planned, because
normally we just write stuff and we put it on record; we don't
really know what the sound, what the finished product is going to
be like. For _LGotS_, we knew that so many bands were leaving the
guitars very low, you almost couldn't hear any guitars at all, in
some supposedly heavy metal people's records, it was just
keyboards, bass and vocals, and we thought it was wrong -- why
did they bother getting a guitar player if you can't hear him? So
we made a decision to make sure _LGotS_ was a very heavy album,
so we had to have low and ultra-heavy guitar chords, down-tuned,
and we mixed it so the guitars would be right in your face. We
purposely made that album less experimental in favor of pure
heaviness.
CoC: What's your favorite MDB album? Please name only one, instead of
using a generic "every album is special" answer...
AS: We loved all the albums when we did them, at the time, but when
you look back now... I mean, we're proud of the ones we've done.
Some of the songs, we hear them and say "oh, we could have mixed
that better", but my favorite album is _The Angel and the Dark
River_. It's a very interesting album; there's all sorts of
things going on. I love "The Cry of Mankind", the way it kicks
off the album... it just goes on and on and on... it's one of my
favorite songs to perform live as well, so that was a good time
for My Dying Bride. It's still a good time for us now, we're
still enjoying ourselves, but it was at that point, when we did
that tour -- we got on the Iron Maiden tour as well at that time,
and we thought it was absolutely fantastic, being on a tour bus
following Iron Maiden around Europe... that was a good time for
us.
CoC: Looking back upon your albums, you are satisfied with them, then?
AS: Yeah. Well, I always look back at the albums and say that we
could have done something this or that way, but when I listen
back I listen especially to the vocals, obviously, and I'm
becoming more confident now, so when I listen back I sometimes
think it's terrible, I could have done that much better now. This
is one of the reasons why we thought of doing "The Return of the
Beautiful" again.
CoC: With clean vocals?
AS: I was thinking about mixing death and clean vocals, because there
are some lines which would sound great with the new vocals,
because they are much more emotional and they needed to be sung
in a proper voice -- because there's only one emotion when you're
screaming out death vocals, and that's anger. [I personally
disagree, though. -- Pedro] Even when you're trying to sing a
nice sweet line, if you're doing it in death metal style, it's
just anger all the time. So it'd be nice to do an old song now
that I'm confident enough to sing the lines how they are supposed
to sound. But overall, I'm quite happy with the things we've
done. There's always the production, we would have always liked
to have done the production better. But we are pretty much happy
with the songs themselves.
CoC: Present day now. What are your personal favorite bands and what
does MDB generally listen to?
AS: God, we listen to so much weird shit now, it's crazy... it's
difficult to keep up to date with what's happening with the metal
scene at the moment, because the metal market is so wide now... I
like straightforward metal, like Iron Maiden, AC/DC, Motorhead,
and then you've got what we do, sort of morbid doom goth metal.
Then you've got black metal, industrial metal... it's such a huge
area, it's almost impossible to keep up with who's doing what and
what the latest trend is, so we really try to avoid that. We
don't want to see what's trendy, in case we're tempted to try a
little bit. So we try to avoid the metal scene, because to relax
we don't want to listen to similar stuff to what we play, we'll
listen to something completely different. Depeche Mode are still
my favorite band, they have been for a number of years now. I
also like The Swans, who unfortunately split up, Nick Cave and
the Bad Seeds, who have been getting better and better, I think.
Calvin [one of the guitar players] loves a lot of that
hip-hop/house stuff, Prodigy... he's obviously crazy. <laughs> I
think Andy [the other guitar player] is still a big fan of what
one might call solid metal stuff, he still likes a couple of Kiss
songs, he's still a big Slayer fan, he's still pretty
straightforward metal. I have no idea what Bill [Law, the new
drummer] listens to, he's only been in the band for a few months;
I think he tries to keep up with the scene, but there's so many
magazines featuring so many different bands now that it's almost
impossible to keep up with who's doing what.
CoC: In spite of that, I'd like to know your opinion about the
current doom metal scene. Which bands do you know, which ones do
you like, which ones don't you like?
AS: Well, I'm not going to start saying that I don't like this or
that band, obviously... I'm a bit too diplomatic for that.
<laughs> I don't know, call me sad if you like, but I still like
old stuff like Sodom. Now I think it's either black metal --
Emperor are good -- or... I don't really follow the doom part too
much, because, like I say, around the _Turn Loose the Swans_
time, or _The Angel and the Dark River_, a whole load of new
bands developed playing similar stuff [to those albums], a lot of
bands ended up getting violins and female vocals. So we didn't
want to listen to stuff that sounded similar to MDB, we want to
listen to something that doesn't sound like My Dying Bride. We
lost most of our links with the doom scene altogether, I have no
idea who's doing what these days, and I'm not all that
interested. I know bands like Moonspell, Tiamat and Therion are
doing very well, but I couldn't tell you any of their records.
CoC: What's the meaning of your new albums' title?
AS: We always picked album titles that we thought were interesting,
and I think this is one of our more interesting album titles.
Basically, the number 34.788% is supposed to represent the amount
of time mankind has spent on Earth so far, so we still have 66%
or something, sixty whatever percent, left to live. Calvin, the
guitar player, had a dream one night, and this number was always
in his head in this dream. He dreamt that mankind had lived for
34.788% of their time on Earth. It's complete fiction, a dream
that Calvin had; he dreamt that mankind was spiraling towards a
technological armageddon. He thought our lives were speeding up,
accelerating all the time because of computers -- what will the
world look like a hundred years from now? Then Calvin had this
weird premonition that it would look like either "Blade Runner"
or there would be total armageddon, and it would just be mankind
living in caves again. He seems to think that when everything is
run by computers, some terrorist group will release some major
virus that will wipe out all the machines, and because we have
been depending on computers for such a long time, we would then
be left in complete darkness. Anyway, it was a crazy apocalyptic
dream, but it was quite interesting, so we thought we'd use that
number that stuck in his head as the album title.
CoC: How would you define your new album, musically speaking? What
did you aim to achieve with it?
AS: We didn't aim to achieve anything; like I said before, the only
album we wanted to achieve anything with was _Like Gods of the
Sun_. We wanted that to be a really heavy, straightforward album.
With this one, we created one song at a time, with no real
thought of how it's going to sound. The guitarists will come up
with a couple of riffs, then we'll put some drums to it, I will
have absolutely no idea what vocals I'm going to do... sometimes
the lyrics will come first, sometimes the music comes first...
it's almost like a total jamming session, and at the end of it
there's an album. We're only now beginning to get a feel for the
album, because when you create each song from every single note,
it's difficult to get a fan's point of view, because we know
exactly every single note that's going on in the song. So we
analyse and criticize our songs, we don't listen to them, whereas
fans just put it on and enjoy it. We can't put our music on and
enjoy it, because we've created it. It's too difficult, we can't
really enjoy it that much. I still can't get a feel for what the
album is all about. On the last few albums, you get a whole feel;
I can picture in my head what the album should be like, but for
this new album I can't picture where we were going. But that's
also quite nice, because it means it isn't a typical rock album,
it's so diverse you can't actually focus on it. The influences
are coming so thick and fast, it's so blurred you can't focus on
what the band are trying to do. I like that point of view.
CoC: What is the main emotion that you'd like the listener to feel
with your new album?
AS: Varied, again, because we tried to make each song sound
individual this time. People would tell us, on past albums, that
they would put the album on and it would fell like one massive
song, one giant doom metal track, and we wanted to change that
for this album, so we made sure that we mixed each song
completely differently and never had the same settings for two
songs. We wanted the songs to stand up on their own and we didn't
want people to say that the album sounded like one whole song.
When I wrote the lyrics, I didn't want them all to be exactly the
same, I wanted them to be a bit more interesting. The lyrics are
definitely a lot more straightforward on this album; I've tried
to get rid of a lot of the poetry. Again, this is just an
experiment -- I'm not saying I got rid of all the old stuff
forever, this is an experiment that may fail and may succeed, I'm
just going to wait and see. I quite enjoyed doing this style, but
I wasn't 100% happy, so I could almost guarantee the lyrics for
the next album will be completely different. I had no idea what
the album was going to sound like, I'm still finding it difficult
to tell you what the album actually sounds like now.
CoC: In my opinion, there's much less sadness and doom in the new
album than in anything MDB have done before, especially the
older material...
AS: But we certainly tried to experiment a bit more, because we're
becoming more confident and more brave, we don't mind stretching
the boundaries of acceptable rock music anymore, you know. We
want to push and to stretch people's imaginations. And you also
have to remember that there's no violin on this album; the violin
was always a very sombre, melancholic sound. When you take that
important element away, the doom feel is gone.
CoC: But there are plenty of bands out there who don't use violins
and can still play some very depressive doom...
AS: Yeah, that's true, but we've always had the violin, so it's going
to make a bit of a difference.
CoC: What was it that made you play such doomy music before that
doesn't seem to be inside of you anymore, at least not so much?
Because even _As the Flower Withers_, which didn't have much
violin, was very depressive, and this new one isn't. What was it
that changed in your life in the meanwhile?
AS: Not much, I think... to be honest, it's very difficult to say...
I think it's got more to do with experimenting. I think that
because of the long gap between the last album and this one --
and we were criticized on the last album for not experimenting,
our fans expected more unusual things... I mean, we generally
don't listen to our fans <laughs>, we like to write the kind of
music we want to hear, we don't care what other people think --
but we did take on board the criticisms of the last album. People
loved it for its heaviness, but it just wasn't experimental
enough, people expected more. So we thought, for this album,
"we're feeling confident, our fans want it, let's experiment
more". I don't know why, but the experimentation wasn't
doom-oriented. In the past, I think subconsciously we always felt
we had to write doom music -- and we enjoyed doing it, but I
think in the back of our minds we always thought "yeah, this is
doom, it's got to be doomy, the doomier the better, everyone
loves melancholic stuff", but now we're starting to really open
up and starting to think that we can still do doom, but in a
different style. Even "Heroin Chic" is a very bizarre song for a
heavy metal band to do, but it's not a happy song; it's still a
very bleak, very desolate sounding song; it's not melancholic,
but it's desperately angry, it's a sad black song.
CoC: I don't personally think so, not for me... what was the basic
idea behind that song?
AS: We liked it; we thought we would do one song which would really
shock, we wanted to do one song that everyone would talk about --
not necessarily because it was good, or even bad, but because it
would be interesting. When we first came up with the concept, we
thought: "Can we do this? Everybody will crucify us..." Then we
thought: "That's exactly why we should do it, then!" <laughs> We
don't need the money, you know, we don't care; we thought: "What
the hell, nobody will be expecting it, it will shock everyone --
old fans, new fans, the record label, the magazines, everyone. So
let's do it." And we did it, and we really enjoyed doing it;
we've even rehearsed to the point where we will play it live. Oh
yeah -- whether our fans like it or not! <laughs>
CoC: Well, but when you pay to go to a concert, you'd expect the band
to play what the fans want to hear...
AS: We always try to promise our fans that what you hear on the
record is what you get live. Sometimes it's very difficult to do
that, so we've had to use tapes in the past. But we try to get
most of what you get on the record live.
CoC: How does that song relate -- although I guess it's not even
supposed to relate, anyway -- to the essence of the dark, doomy
band that My Dying Bride have always been before? Did you ever
think of MDB as a dark, sombre entity?
AS: That's a good question, it's difficult to answer... We don't
really have any pre-conceptions about what My Dying Bride is all
about. We enjoy being in the band, but it doesn't rule our lives;
we don't hang on every single note we play, we don't read every
review of the album, and if they're bad we don't get really
depressed... The band, to us, it's fun, you know, it's a hobby,
we enjoy it and other people enjoy it, and that makes us feel
good. Of course we're not keen on getting bad reviews... But at
the end of the day, we'll just look and say "Well, we liked
it..." <laughs> Who cares what all those people think... So we
don't have any pre-conceptions of what the band is all about, and
that allows us to introduce such extremities as "Heroin Chic",
because we don't think "oh, it's gonna shatter the whole image",
we just think that we can experiment, because we always have; our
fans know from time to time My Dying Bride can get a bit out of
control, and I think some of them expect that. They wouldn't have
expected the exact style of "Heroin Chic", but surely expected a
couple of bizarre things on this album, and they're going to get
them.
CoC: I heard you say once that you made up the lyrics for one of the
new tracks as you went along. Did that happen in "Heroin Chic"?
Are you happy with them, from a My Dying Bride point of view,
considering how different from the usual they turned out to be?
AS: Well, it wasn't "Heroin Chic", actually, it was "The Stance of
Evander Sinque". Originally, I wanted to do a song about a crazy
person (the music was already written), and so I wanted to act
the part of the insane person. I wanted to put a couple of
microphones in the recording room, get really really drunk and
just scream and shout about mad stuff, just totally complete
shit, for ten minutes, and then we could pick out the more
interesting parts... <laughs> It's actually a very difficult
thing to do, because obviously I'm not insane, and it's very
difficult to act insane -- I thought it would be very easy,
especially if I was drunk, but we tried to do it for hours and
hours and in the end we gave up, because it sounded like someone
pretending to be insane, and we could never get it right; I'm
just not a good enough actor. So, at the end of the day, I said
"fuck it, I'll write some proper lyrics for it, and then I will
just moan and scream and shout", like a 50-50 deal, so that's
what I did. So half the noise on "The Stance of Evander Sinque"
is just me acting crazy.
CoC: Do you have some kind of an European tour planned yet?
AS: Not yet, but we're not going out this year, because we feel there
are too many bands at this time of the year going out on the
road. October, November and early December, everyone in this
genre of music is on the road at the same time, and it gets very
congested. We've done it in the past, we've toured at this time
in the past, and we would follow Cradle of Filth, Moonspell,
Therion, Paradise Lost, Type O Negative... We would follow all
these bands and they would follow us, and you would see the same
posters in every venue... We have a couple of summer festivals we
might be doing; we might be doing Dynamo and the Graspop. So I
think we will start the tour around February or March next year,
when hopefully everyone else will be sick of touring. <laughs>
CoC: What are your feelings on the departure of your drummer, Rick
Myah, and his replacement with Bill Law [formerly in Dominion,
who have broken up]?
AS: Bill's been great. Rick left basically due to illness. Every tour
we did, Rick was always very ill and we had to cancel many shows
in the past towards the end of tours, because Rick just couldn't
take it. Touring basically was killing him. We were on tour with
Dio in America last year, and it was a long tour, and he didn't
even get out of bed, he was very ill. He would drum some nights,
and he would come off stage and he would be totally wasted, he'd
be white, and he couldn't move, and he'd be shivering all the
time, and he couldn't sleep... It was really worrying, so when we
came home for a break, we went to see the doctor, and the doctor
said he couldn't do anything else but rest for two months. We
were due to fly back out, in fact to Alaska, to do the second
part of the Dio tour, and we had to cancel it, unfortunately. And
Rick basically said: "Look, the touring is killing me; I have to
stop." So we all sat down and discussed it, and Rick basically
said: "I want to leave, I can't do this; if I stay in the band, I
cannot tour, and I don't want to hold you back." So we said:
"Well alright, if you're gonna go, you're gonna go..." But it was
a difficult decision, because he had been in the band since the
first day. So when Rick left, we were desperately looking for a
new drummer, but we didn't actually get one until this year, when
Bill, who used to be in a band called Dominion, who split up...
CoC: Is he going to be a permanent member now that Dominion have
split up?
AS: Yeah, he's in the band now. We knew Bill was around, because we
were good friends with Dominion. We saw Bill in the studio and we
thought he was really cool, and we asked him if he could help
out. We asked the other guys in Dominion if it was OK, and they
said it was cool. And then Dominion split up, and Bill was
already rehearsing with us, so we asked him if he wanted to join
us and he said yes. He's filled with so many interesting ideas...
he's a fountain of... not wisdom, but great interesting ideas,
because he's obviously new to the My Dying Bride camp, and
although we do try to come up with interesting original ideas
ourselves, when an outsider comes in, his ideas seem so much more
interesting, because we're not used to the way he talks, we're
not used to the way he thinks. He's great.
CoC: When Martin Powell [keyboard and violin player] left MDB, the
official reason was that he intended to go on with his musical
education and wouldn't have time to be in a band anymore.
However, I heard that he just joined Anathema, which suggests
musical differences between him and MDB. What was the real story?
AS: Well, he is not -in- Anathema. We've seen the press, and all the
press is wrong, actually. No one's going to believe me, but I was
with Dave Pybus, who now plays in Anathema [new bassist,
replacing Duncan Patterson]; he's a very good friend of mine,
lives just around the corner from my house, and after they played
a couple of shows in Turkey [with Martin], I went to see Dave,
because he actually runs the My Dying Bride fan club as well. I
asked how did Martin cope, and he said it was alright, he didn't
like some of it, he loved some more of it. And I asked if he had
joined the band now, and he said "no, it's complete bullshit";
Anathema don't want Martin to join, and apparently Martin doesn't
want to join them. They are going to use him for their next
studio album, and they're using him for the live performances,
but they don't want him to join, and apparently he doesn't want
to join. We were obviously surprised when we saw it on the press,
that Martin had joined Anathema...
CoC: But if he's going to play with them live and record an album
with them, then he'll be practically joining the band, at least
temporarily...
AS: I guess so, but it's entirely up to him. He actually told us as
well, he told us ages ago that he wanted to leave after the next
album, because he thought his time with My Dying Bride should
soon be up, since he's been doing basically the same thing for
the last six or seven years, the sombre violin. He wants to try
something a bit more interesting, and he might see that Anathema
are doing more interesting songs than us, so he wants to go over
and help them out; he doesn't say he wants to join them, he
thinks joining might be too much of a commitment. I believe he's
back in university, trying to do a college degree, but maybe the
temptation to get out on the road is a bit too much sometimes.
CoC: Anathema were a bit of your "brother band" back in the
_Serenades_, _As the Flower Withers_, _Turn Loose the Swans_
era. How do you relate to Anathema? How do you view their career?
AS: We don't like Anathema, we never have...
CoC: The music or the people in the band?
AS: The people, we think they're all idiot. I can say this to you now
with confidence, because they know. <laughs> Because we've had so
many fights with them that it's absolutely crazy. People think,
because we're on the same label and we played a similar style of
music once, that we must be great fans, but we're not -- we've
always hated each others' guts. <laughs> Don't get me wrong, I
think Danny [Cavanagh] is fantastic, I could easily go out and
have a few beers with Danny, and it would be great; he's a really
intelligent guy. But for some reason, when all of Anathema are
together and all of My Dying Bride are together, it's just
constant fighting and everybody hates each others' fucking guts...
CoC: Why?
AS: It's just chemistry, you can't expect to get along with
everybody. We get along with a lot of people, but we just don't
get along with them. I don't know why, it's just one of those
things, there's no chemistry there. But they know it, we read the
interviews that they've done and they say we're a bunch of [I
honestly have no idea what Aaron said here, totally unknown
expression to me -- Pedro] and they hate our guts, and we say
exactly the same thing. <laughs> It's a love-hate relationship,
and we just hate them more than we love them. <laughs>
CoC: Anyway, you and Anathema have always seemed to have some sort of
lifetime contract with Peaceville. I mean, I don't think anyone
pictures you signing for another label. Do you think such a move
might ever happen with MDB?
AS: Yeah, I think so, I don't see why not. It's difficult to predict
what's going to happen in the future, but as I mentioned, we
don't live on every single review of My Dying Bride. If the
albums stop selling and the record label says: "Look, we can't
afford to keep you anymore, nobody's buying the records..." If
they dropped us, we'd be very disappointed, but we'd still
continue and we'd be fairly confident to get another deal. It
would depress us for a couple of months, but I'm sure we'd fight
back.
CoC: So you don't see the other possibility, of you wanting to move
to a bigger label instead of being dropped?
AS: I don't think that would ever happen. Even now, Music for Nations
and Peaceville ask us to try a more radio-friendly song, and we
just laugh in their face, because My Dying Bride do not write
anything for anyone else, we just write our own shit. And if we
moved to a bigger label, they would definitely say "you must
write radio-friendly songs, at least two three minute songs with
a nice hip chorus", and we would just laugh and walk off. So I
think there's absolutely no way we would move on to a bigger
label, but we could easily move to a smaller one.
CoC: What do you think My Dying Bride will be playing or doing five
years from now? Any chance of a really sad doom album coming out
in the meantime?
AS: I don't know, it's really difficult to say, we don't plan
anything like that. I would love to do a real over-the-top
miserable album, but it's difficult. All of us in the band still
love the real heavy guitar sound, and sometimes it's just nice to
speed the tempo up a bit and make it sound a bit like _Master of
Puppets_, kind of heavy riffing guitar, we love all that stuff. I
know the rest of the band very well, and they say it's very
difficult to play heavy guitar very slowly, because it's so
tempting to just carry on and thrash out some tunes... So it's a
difficult thing to do, but I would love to do a really
over-the-top album, maybe a vampire-style album... I mean, Cradle
of Filth are doing all that shit now already, so even if we did
it everyone would just say we were just copying Cradle, so
there's no chance we could do that now. But I think we may become
even more experimental, we could be one of these crazy bands who
just disappear up their own experimental anus... <laughs> Because
we do everything so self-centered, so selfish, we listen to
nothing and do it all ourselves, we could end up writing such
bizarre shit that only we like it... <laughs> But it's impossible
to tell what the future holds for us.
CoC: Any last words to end this interview?
AS: Well, not really... I've got a bit of a cold at the moment, so my
nose is all blocked up... Well, I wanted to say: don't be afraid
of the new album. I know that because of the album title and the
artwork a lot of older fans will think we have turned into some
techno piece of shit, but we haven't; it's still My Dying Bride.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
M A L E V O L E N T M A S S M U R D E R I N G M A N I A C S
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CoC interviews Malevolent Creation's Phil Fasciana
by: Paul Schwarz
It has been a long time coming, but at last the best part of
Malevolent Creation's "classic" line-up has rejoined to bestow on the
world another mighty amalgamation of brutal death metal music and
sick, violent lyrics. This new monster goes by the name of _The Fine
Art of Murder_ and is the first to feature original vocalist Brett
Hoffmann since 1993's _Stillborn_. Rob Barret, now thankfully out of
Cannibal Corpse (who feebly claim he was not good enough, bullshit!),
is also welcomed back after six years. With longtime bassist, and
some time vocalist, Jason Blachowitcz out of the band, Gordon Simms
was drafted in for bass duties. The drums are handled by Dave Culross
(who played on 1995's _Eternal_) and, of course, Phil Fasciana is, as
ever, leading the charge into battle. It's not that _In Cold Blood_
(last year's release by the band) was disappointing, far from that,
but this new album still stands out as being better, and is surely
their finest record since 1992's _Retribution_ -- if not their finest
overall. Phil Fasciana, always happy to answer a few questions about
the band in which he has been the only constant member, is certainly
happy to be working with such professionals once again.
One thing that has been in the air since it was announced that
Brett and Rob were back was a return to the sound of _Retribution_.
"Well, me and Rob were putting together another album with Brett
[and] people say "aha, _Retribution_". We like that album a lot, but
we didn't necessarily -intend- to make [the new album] sound like
that." However, he concedes, "some of the songs, their structures,
two guitars playing different things at the same time, are similar to
that sound and style, and Brett's singing again, of course."
But rumors aside, the most significant thing about _The Fine Art
of Murder_ is not its similarities to the band's previous work, but
its differences. One of those differences is in the album's producer:
this time it's Brian Griffin (Broken Hope). Why Brian? "I heard some
other shit he did before; I wasn't too into the Broken Hope CDs, he'd
done Hateplow's CD and we were really happy with that." But it's more
than his skills: "We had some problems with other guys [with whom] it
wasn't a very comfortable situation. Working with Brian is really
easy, 'cause he's a musician, he's easy to get along with, he's a
guitar player, he's pretty cool and he's affordable."
Another difference is that a few of these new songs are slower,
longer and more melodic. "When we listened to how long [some of them]
were, we went "Holy shit! We've fucking got some Iron Maiden songs
here!" Some songs came out quite long, but not like they've got a
million parts -- there's maybe four or five parts." Though he
carefully adds: "A lot of the album has a lot of our normal three,
three and a half minute stuff." However, even these tunes contain
differences, as Phil explains: "There's a lot of guitar harmony stuff
that we should have done on songs in the past that could have given
them more depth."
I guess the question now is why did Malevolent Creation need to
add something new into the mix? "Well, we've put out a lot of albums,
and you can't constantly repeat yourself. There are other parts of
metal you can explore without becoming "wimpy". There's nothing on
_The Fine Art of Murder_ that is -pop- or -rock 'n' roll-. Everything
there falls into a heavy metal format." But the reasons go beyond
Phil's will to change. "Me and Rob play together really well; we grew
up together. When the two of us get together, we're like two old
style heavy metal guys that grew up playing this stuff. Now it's
cool, because we never really sat down and worked out some guitar
harmony parts and tried other things to sound different [before]. It
brings a different sound to the record." He continues: "Rob always
has good ideas. I show him something, he'll show me something he's
going to do over that, it's fucking cool -- I would have never
thought of something like that --; or he shows me something and vice
versa. There's no ego conflict or anything. We just have fun."
And it isn't just Rob and Phil who are having fun on their
guitars. The title is "a little bit of both" sarcasm and seriousness.
Phil expands: "Brett's lyrics were always based around realistic
death, not fantasy shit. Having him back in, [we] have some fucking
intelligent lyrics again. That shit comes to Brett naturally. He's
obsessed with war, watches the news fuckin' all day long. He's
obsessed with really bad things. I think the real world is more
horrifying than anything you could make up; the best stories are the
real ones. We're not talking about comic book heroes."
This album provided the reunited _Retribution_ members with a
common goal. "We said: "That's it, we gotta just put out the fucking
most murderous thing we can." <laughs> We [decided] every song had to
be completely all out murder. That's the way we got fired up. The
lyrics are fuckin' amazing." So is it back to the old days? Not
quite. "There are less lyrics. I remember [Brett] used to throw out a
whole song in one line. But that was his style. We didn't know what
the hell we were doing. <laughs> Now he's put it into a catchier
thing and repeats parts over and over, it's a little bit easier to
remember."
Staying on the subject of lyrics, I quiz Phil about _Eternal_
and one particular song, "They Breed", with which the band had a few
problems. "The song was basically about scum. It didn't really point
a finger at any certain race, but at the end of the song it said the
word it said, "you fucking nigger"." To many, this made the band
racist, but Phil explains the context: "In reality, [now] "nigger"
just means a fuckin' slacker." But the word's appearance wasn't
planned, at least not by Phil. "It was such a violent fuckin' song
and Jason was supposed to say ["you fucking gave us"], but we were
doing the vocal tracks and he just did it and it just sounded so much
more convincing." Convincing, but maybe not helpful: "We did have
some problems with it and as soon as that happened I said to him:
"That's it for any kind of shit like that." I think a lot of people
took it the wrong way." Phil makes sure to explicitly state: "We're
not racist."
Whatever Phil may have said at the time, these problems were not
to go away, and things came to a head last year while the band was on
tour in Germany. "Jason was wearing a KKK shirt [on stage]." The
result? "People started freaking out, throwing shit at him and
flipping him off. I told him [before the show] that if he wore the
shirt I'd fuckin' kill him, and when I left the venue, man, people
were throwing bottles at me, we had all our merchandise returned,
people were calling us "Nazis" and "scum", they wanted to fuckin'
kick our ass!" As you might imagine, Phil didn't take this kindly;
the result... "When I got onto the bus and he was fuckin' laughing
about it, I fuckin' beat the living shit out of him." This would
explain Jason's absence from Malevolent Creation. "When we got home,
he quit. He couldn't live with the fact that I did that to him."
Continuing on the subject of his former bandmate, Phil says: "The kid
is fuckin' unstable, he does a lot of stupid things and says a lot of
stupid things that in turn made me look like a fuckin' idiot, so the
only way to resolve it was for me to punch his head in. And it worked
and I haven't talked to him since. <laughs>"
So the old was out and problems had left the band for good.
Well, not quite, actually; Dave Culross' inclusion in this album's
recording line-up, though heartily welcomed, was not planned -- the
reason? Read on. "It was really weird. We had a drummer down here and
he's really good and fast. The one problem was [when we recorded the
album] the really fast double-bass parts were kinda screwy." And when
they got to the mixing studio, "[...] they put triggers on the kicks
where you can hear 'em crystal clear, they were -fucked up-." There
was only one solution apart from ditching the record altogether for
Malevolent Creation: "We knew that Dave had just quit Suffocation and
was in New York. We told him: "We'll get you out here, we'll fuckin'
show you all the songs..."." And they were lucky. "He said: "You got
me at a good time, I don't have to work, my girlfriend's out of town
-- let's do it"." For those of you who've heard the man in action, I
am sure the decision needs no explanation; but for the rest of you,
Phil elaborates: "He's a total professional. Rob never got to play
with Dave, and he was always the best, I never had a problem [with
him]." So did Dave make the grade? Stupid question; he seems to have
gone above and beyond for this one. "In three days he learned
thirteen songs, recorded them, and he was out of there on the fourth
morning. It's unbelievable." Dave is pretty happy with it too, it
seems. "He fuckin' loves the album. When he heard the whole thing, he
was like, "I can't even believe I played on this, it's great"." So
will this be sufficient encouragement to get the master onto the tour
too? "We really want him to do it and it is up to him now to see if
he's available to do it. If not, we have a couple of guys we could
use to tour but, I mean, I think we'll be able to coax Dave into it."
This album is Malevolent Creation's sixth in eight years. Does
Phil regret anything they've done and does he listen to his own past
works? "To be honest with you, I don't listen to any of them anymore,
I don't have the urge." There's a pretty good reason for this,
though: "I listen to them so much before we go to record them that by
the time we record them and get it done -- and I listen to it about
50 times after we finish the album, you know -- I burn myself out on
it." Of course nearly every band has a personal low; for Malevolent
Creation it will always be... "_Stillborn_, 'cause that was a time
when the entire band was fuckin' it. It was totally falling apart. I
think just me and the other guitar player John Ruben knew what was
going on. Jason was a mess, Brett was a complete mess, his life was
all fucked up and he wasn't sounding too hot, and our drummer Alex
[Marquez] was just getting worse at the time. On top of that, we
recorded with people that were just complete idiots and everything
about the album was just fucking shitty." So mistakes were made, but
Phil does have plans to somewhat right some wrongs: "We were thinking
of re-recording some of those songs with the line-up we have now.
Played a little bit faster and a little more aggressively, those
songs would probably sound pretty cool. We might throw some on an EP
or something."
Regardless of their extensive back catalogue, Malevolent
Creation have been an influence to many a new band appearing on the
scene over the last couple of years, but what originally influenced
Phil? "My influences are British metal, of course -- Judas Priest,
Iron Maiden. Then Mercyful Fate. Then you get into Slayer, German
metal -- Destruction. Stuff like that I was always into. That's what
always started us off, to me." To the extent where Phil feels "It
seemed like when we did the first few albums we didn't really have
"Our Sound"." Phil's not going to start copying those he influenced,
either: "I still look for influences in the older metal, as opposed
to new death metal stuff. So much has been done already. I can't
really see somebody who can blow everybody away with death metal
[influences]. So that's why I have to bring older parts of metal into
it." As Phil points out, "You can play a melodic guitar riff and
throw a blast beat underneath it, and it could sound fuckin' killer!
Influence-wise, I'd have to say older metal, of course, a lot of
two-guitar bands."
Malevolent Creation, like so many other death metal bands, have
suffered at the hands of labels. They were signed to Roadrunner and
dropped when the label decided they'd only retain death metal bands
with the commercial potential of Sepultura. Pavement, their current
label, have gotten bad rap from some bands (Crowbar, for example).
Where do Malevolent stand with regards to labels? "I would say
Pavement seems to have been promoting us a lot better lately, we have
a good deal over in Europe now, on System Shock in Germany." As
regards the past, "With Roadrunner we always used to get some royalty
cheques and stuff." As regards the present, "We have yet to make shit
money from Pavement, which is something our lawyers are looking into
now. We're not getting paid fucking what we should be getting paid,
put it that way." The band are also at a crossroads now: "This was
our last album with Pavement and, unless something drastically
changes, I don't see us staying with them. It's more likely we'll
sign a deal with System Shock." System Shock is a division of Koch
International and house Vader, among others. "Those people really
push their records. When I was over there I couldn't believe how much
advertising they had done for Hateplow and Malevolent. The guy from
the label even put together the new album for us. I hung out with
them for a week and did interviews and they were fucking great."
With a year as musically good for death metal as this, one would
expect more people to sit up and take notice all over the place. "I
know that metal is always good in Europe. I just wish more people
would see it like that over here." And, in true '80s fashion, Phil
takes the line that "Metal will never die, there's always people out
there like me who need to hear it. We'll always listen to it."
I guess the other thing we'll want them to be listening to more
specifically is _The Fine Art of Murder_. I have drooled on about it,
but let's hear Phil's view. "If anyone was familiar with us in the
earlier days, it is like _Retribution_, but taken to the fuckin'
extreme. We just hope that people enjoy it as much as we enjoyed
putting it together." He adds gleefully: "It's a 56 minute assault of
metal." And if that isn't enough to make you go get it, I don't know
what is.
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R E P A I R I N G T H E R U I N S
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CoC interviews In Ruins
by: Adrian Bromley
Few albums this year have impressed me as much as the stunning
debut _Four Seasons of Grey_ from Philadelphia black/doom/gothic
metal trio In Ruins. While I gave it a modest (7 out of 10) review in
Chronicles of Chaos #34, the more I listened to it the more I enjoyed
what the band was doing with their music. It has totally grown on me
over the past few weeks -- a definite highlight for 1998 and for sure
one of the best releases Metal Blade has put out in some time.
In my review I stated: "[...] In Ruins manage to also break away
from a stereotypical (and sometimes boring) metal mood and break out,
capturing a very solid metal sound, placing high interest in
flamboyant guitar riffs and a heart-pounding groove", and also that
fans will appreciate the "hard work and sweat" that "has been put
into this LP". When talking to lead singer / guitarist / lyricist J.
Michael, it isn't hard to see that statement ringing so true. Michael
is a real workaholic, determined to work his band to the best of
their ability while also nurturing the band's sound and making his
music seem so effortless. It's mastery of metal, I tell you, folks,
influenced highly by the ways of '80s metal bands like Venom and
Celtic Frost, but heavily doom-laden and inspired somewhat by the
darkened ways of black metal tendencies. In Ruins offers a bit of
e
verything.
"I like what we are doing because no one out there is really
doing what we are," he starts. "Not to say that we are doing anything
unique, there just seems to be something different with us. A bit of
doom and black metal ideas mixed up with gothic sounds. We're proud
of what we have done here and people are letting us know that."
So true. Lately, the band (rounded out by bassist Jason and
drummer Sean James) has developed a buzz and people are talking about
them. Michael's reaction to the sudden interest with their debut
disc? "I am glad it's working that way. I wanted to make a record
that was cool in all ways possible. I wanted it to be very intricate
and elaborate, but not shoving guitar techniques down your throat. I
didn't want to have songs lose the listener."
_Four Seasons of Grey_ truly showcases a band willing to explore
multiple styles, yet harnessing them so tightly together that the
overall package prospers from such ideas being pushed forth. This
record truly stands out from the rest over the last year or so. He
agrees as well. "Yeah. We want it like that. We put a lot of work
into the structure of the record and all the songs that went along
with it. That seems to be the main characteristic of this debut
record: structure. This is, after all, our debut disc, and we wanted
it to work. I didn't want people listening to our music and walking
away not remembering a song. So we made sure some of our work had
melody and was memorable. It paid off in the end, I think. This band
took a long time to evolve. A lot of the music here is from 1994,
when we were the same band, just playing different metal music. It
was pretty much the same, but over the years our music writing
techniques have shifted and finally fallen into place with this disc.
I'm happy with the way things turned out. I have modest expectations
of where I want the band to go. I just want to be able to make
another record."
He adds: "It took four and a half months to record this album.
There were weeks when I would go into the studio for just two hours a
day and just do bits and pieces. That is just wasted studio time, if
you ask me. I do have my own studio here where I do a lot of the
groundwork for the record's material. Layering of guitars and drum
tracks and doing keyboard work. Next time I want to make sure we get
the recordings done fast."
And new material ideas? "I don't think it will be very far from
what we have done here. Like I said, the ideas of what we want to do
as a band are here, it's just a matter of getting all of it to work.
We just have to get things focused. We need to just work out the
glitches in the ideas we have and bring them into worthy material for
the effort."
Seeing that In Ruins are relative newcomers to the metal scene,
what kind of work ethics has the band focused on to get somewhere in
this business? "I think for any band out there coming out right now,
you really need to have a unique quality to what you are doing," he
explains. "We need bands like that out here right now. A few years
back all of these bands were copying one another and it hurt the
metal music scene. It made the scene stagnant. It's hard for a kid to
part with money for albums when all of the bands out there sound the
same."
The topic shifts to the album title and the band name. "The
album title represents somewhat of a metaphor for darkness. I
wouldn't call us a depressing band. We just wanted to have a darkened
element to what we do. As for the album cover [which depicts an old
castle alongside a lake during night fall], I did that on the
computer. It was a photo of a castle I had taken and I just created
the island and lake around it. And about the name of the band? That
was just something that came about. We actually changed the name of
the band when we were in the studio. We used to be called Black
Thorns, but there were like six or seven other bands called Black
Thorns out there. So we changed it. As for In Ruins, it was a hard
choice. Just try and sit down and come up with a name for a metal
band nowadays. Everything cool is taken already. I actually have this
cool photography book by Simon Marsen, who did some cool Cradle of
Filth photography work. The book is called "In Ruins" and that
probably somehow subconsciously influenced me. I had a list of band
names, that one just stood out."
"Also," he adds, "I wanted a cool, majestic sounding name. I
didn't want to have a name that would paint us into a corner. I
didn't want a name like Rotting Christ, whom I like, but you've kind
of gotten yourself into a corner with a name like that."
Interesting to note, In Ruins have never played live before.
Michael is eager to get out and play. "We've done all the studio
stuff and jammed a lot, we just never got out and played before with
this band. We all used to be in other bands and played out, just not
with In Ruins. We had to add two extra guys to help out with the band
and we may decide to sequence the keyboards. Who knows? I am just
bored with studio stuff and writing. I want to go out and play. We
had the opportunity to do so while in the studio, but it just didn't
seem right. There is really no black metal scene here, so playing
shows is kind of hard. You'd be lucky to draw 30 to 40 people to your
show. We'll get out and play and hopefully soon get onto an opening
slot with a band. I'd love to play with Mercyful Fate. That just
seems right and would be fucking cool."
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
M A S T E R I N G T H E I R M E T A L
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CoC interviews Jag Panzer
by: Adrian Bromley
Jag Panzer are lucky. Very lucky. While the band has been around
for fifteen years, they could have easily written off their careers
back in 1993 when their promising but ill-received effort _Dissident
Alliance_ failed to ignite metal fans.
The band kept on demo-ing material through the next few years
and eventually got the interest of Century Media, who signed them up.
In 1997, they released the crushing and hypnotic _The Fourth
Judgment_ to rave reviews and just a mere eleven months later the
band serves up another heaping dose of progressively-charged metal in
the form of _The Age of Mastery_. Powerful? Yes. Revamped, regrouped
and in control, Jag Panzer is on the prowl again.
"Man... it has been a busy last few months for us," starts
guitarist Mark Briody over the phone from his home state Colorado.
"Making records. Touring. Interviews. It's all been good."
But it hasn't always been this good, especially a few years
back. Right? "Yeah. It was a total surprise for us to get back into
the groove with the record [_The Fourth Judgment_] and signing to
Century Media. We had to start from square one again, but that was
fine with us. We started gaining fans again and things just seemed
right to make this an important thing in our lives once again. I was
surprised on the whole effect that this record had. I was quite
pleased."
"Having such a strong release and support, that carried over
into the making of _The Age of Mastery_. We were gung-ho about doing
another record. I thought that, by doing a record so rapidly after
the success of _The Fourth Judgment_, that there would be a backlash
to us, but it was actually the opposite. We did really well out of
the starting gate in Europe. Making records so back to back was
something new to us, as people had known us to be a band to make and
put out records several years apart. This record has done really well
for us and that is great. Both records have done well when they came
out. This record has done a bit better than the last one in response,
though I could care less about which gets more recognition, as I like
both equally."
And the reasoning for a new record in just eleven months? Was it
rushed? "I don't think so at all. It seemed like the right time to
follow up the success of _The Fourth Judgment_. Had we not been a
band that had been playing together for so long, it might have turned
up bad. But it didn't. We felt very comfortable doing the record
quickly -- not to say I would want to do another record every eleven
months, but it's a learning experience and a fun one at that."
"Doing this record was such a blast for us. Before we went into
the studio, we all talked about doing whatever the hell we wanted on
this record. Everyone was going to do whatever they wanted to do and
add it to the record," quips Briody. "If Harry wanted to scream his
head off on any other song, that'd be cool. Our drummer wanted to do
a fast double-bass tone. We went ahead and did so. We improvised a
lot on this record and it ended up with a strong, fun vibe."
About the success in the last few years, he states: "We are just
starting to see how good of a band we really are. While on tour, we
were totally in sync with one another. We worked well, better than we
have over the last few years. We all had this amazing attitude from
the get-go and knowing just how much fun it was to be in a band. That
really transcended into this record." He adds: "Things have changed
for the band over the years in terms of our musical preferences, but
our general focus has been all along the same lines for each band
member. We know what we want to do. It's all very simple, because we
all get along so well."
The band -- guitarist Chris Broderick, drummer Rikard
Stjernquist, bassist John Tetley and singer Harry "The Tyrant"
Conklin -- have no qualms about being perceived as an old
school-style band (i.e., veterans), but live large in the notion that
they are as good as any other band out there nowadays. "I can't
really see us being an old band. Our stuff is new and fresh. It's not
stagnant. Our music is very pleasant and in charge. We're not doing
the whole "retro-revival" thing. We're playing music the way we see
fit to do so."
"Our music has a lot of elements in it," explains Briody. "We
have elements of progressive metal, speed and a bit of that '80s
sound happening. It's great to be able to do that and make it sound
so good. So many bands out there nowadays try to incorporate a style
into their music and sometimes it seems contrived. If they do it for
artistic reasons, it's OK because they want a part of it, but if they
do it to just fit in, then I have a problem with it. We've never
tried to tail coat any other style or sound. We're always about doing
our own thing and dabbling into other areas if we seem fit to do so."
After so many years, how does the band stay focused to do this?
"Playing music together comes so naturally for us. Even though we had
years of not having a record deal, or no fan mail coming in, or no
singer [Conklin had left the band], we still jammed a couple of times
a week. We did this regardless of not seeing much success. It was
about just hanging out and playing guitar and jamming for us all. It
was just fun. I still do have fun. I wanted to do this ever since we
had our first band in high school and were able to play "God of
Thunder" by Kiss the whole way through. That was when I knew this was
our calling -- to be a full-time band."
One thing that runs deep for Briody is fan contact. His love for
talking to fans is a big deal for him. It's all about being
accessible to your fans, he notes. "I love doing press and having
fans read about us. It's a good way for them to know what we are all
about. I also do a lot of correspondence with our fans over the
Internet. It's great to be able to talk to them and answer all of
their questions. I like going on news groups and chat channels under
the moniker of Jag Panzer and just talking to fans about our music
and metal music in general. It's a great way of exposure for your
band and to just be able to see and hear how people feel about music
in general."
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
_____ .__ ___.
/ _ \ | |\_ |__ __ __ _____
/ /_\ \| | | __ \| | \/ \
/ | \ |_| \_\ \ | / Y Y \
\____|__ /____/___ /____/|__|_| /
\/ \/ \/
_____ .__
/ _ \ _________.__.| | __ __ _____
/ /_\ \ / ___< | || | | | \/ \
/ | \\___ \ \___ || |_| | / Y Y \
\____|__ /____ >/ ____||____/____/|__|_| /
\/ \/ \/ \/
Scoring: 10 out of 10 -- A masterpiece indeed
9 out of 10 -- Highly recommended
7 out of 10 -- Has some redeeming qualities
5 out of 10 -- You are treading in dangerous waters
3 out of 10 -- Nothing here worth looking into
0 out of 10 -- An atrocious album, avoid at all costs!
00 Species - _Anatomy of a Robot_ (Dementia Records, 1998)
by: Gabriel Sanchez (7 out of 10)
This is the second main noise output from this Grand Rapids
hardcore/crust band and it shows quite a level of overall improvement
in sound and composition. This time around, 00 Species chooses to
focus less on just using delay effects and various "spacey" sounds
and work more towards the layering of different noise to produce some
very dark and, at times, harsh noise. While most of the early tracks
on the first side of this tape show a lot of the progression, the
second side is more typical of the earlier 00 Species work. While not
particularly bad, they lack the progressive mixture of different
sounds and the harsher atmosphere the earlier pieces created. For a
relatively new noise act, these guys are showing an incredible amount
of self improvement, and with some more steady releases displaying
the type of work found on the early tracks, 00 Species could easily
begin to rival the works being put out by the more "known"
Americanoise artists out there. This is definitely worth checking out
if you are a fan of the Bastard Noise / dark ambient type sound or
want some easy ways to get into the genre with some darker, less
harsh works first.
Contact: Dementia Records, 104 Diamond SE #1
Grand Rapids, MI, 49503
Absu - _In the Eyes of Ioldanach_ (Osmose, September 1998)
by: Adam Wasylyk (7 out of 10)
Those Texan blasphemers are back! A four song EP, _In the Eyes of
Ioldanach_ features new material that boasts a slightly different
sound production-wise, but musically it's traditional Absu:
thrash/retro influenced blackened occult metal! A couple of tracks
are re-recordings, one being "Never Blow out the Eastern Candle", a
track that was exclusive to the _World Domination_ compilation put
out by Osmose a couple of years ago. To be honest, this re-recording
plain sucks, it's a lame take on an otherwise great track. If they
wanted to put this track on _ItEoI_, it should have been the original
track untouched and not this. _ItEoI_ is by no means an essential
purchase, but if you're a big fan then this should tide you over
until they release the next full length, which will hopefully come
out early next year.
Avenger - _Shadows of the Damned_ (Bestial / Breath of Night, 1998)
by: Alex Cantwell (6 out of 10)
Since I have not yet heard Krabathor, this Avenger release is my
first exposure to metal from the Czech Republic. The vocals are in a
black metal style, but the music is very heavy, chunky stuff,
although with really cool melody lines throughout; very reminiscent
of _The Karelian Isthmus_ era Amorphis and aggressive like early
Grave, with the exception of the opener "Preludium", which is a NYHC
romp. Good production (especially for a 16 track recording) and a
killer guitar tone add to the depth of the music, which is all
performed by two guys: Honza Kapak (drums, bass, vocals) and Petr
Mecak (guitar). Although it is a cassette-only release, the inlay
design is very pro looking and the cover is a painting by Albrecht
Altdorfer from 1528 (not that you care, it just looks cool). The
words are all in the Czech language, but unfortunately there are
English translations printed as well, which totally ruins the
mystique and reveals the blasphemous content and juvenile nature of
the lyrics, therefore lowering the rating from what the music alone
deserves.
Bastard Noise - _If it Be Not True_ (Vermiform Records, 1998)
by: Gabriel Sanchez (6.5 out of 10)
What began as a very promising full blown venture into noise with
their split release with Merzbow has now degenerated into a hit/miss
collection of ambient-esque experimentation tracks. This massive 90
minute double CD release from Bastard Noise seems to show off less of
the group's ability to produce some very creative minimalist noise
but their inability to distinguish between such work and absolute
repetitive slop. The easy highlights of this disc come in the form of
the band reprising their "screaming over noise" bits which they
produced so well with the _Our Earth's Blood_ series. The expression
of Bastard Noise's dark message through this means impacts the
meaning clearer by forming images of blackened chaos in the
listener's mind with the noise, before dropping their battle axe of
truth between one's ears. While these tracks work very well on the
disc, they seem to come few and far between the collection of sloppy
tonal works. The main downfall of the group is the over dependency on
delay pedal effects to produce the sound. While such use of delay
effects helps add an extra "flavor" to a track, they tend to grow
repetitive and overbearing if used as the driving force behind a
composition. At times Bastard Noise attempts to loop in new sound
mixtures, but only then do some of these compositions rise beyond the
level of "overproduced slop" to "average". The band would have done
itself a favor to cut this release back to only one disc and drop
many of the shorter, less enterprising pieces in favor of more in the
areas they seem strongest in (i.e., "screaming over noise"). While
this isn't a total washout, with the positive aspects of this disc
being extremely good, it is the abundance of sub-mediocre pieces
which serve to bog this down to a purchase only die hard fans ought
to make.
Contact: Vermiform Records, P.O. Box 603050
Providence, RI, 02906, USA
Benighted Leams - _Astral Tenebrion_ (Supernal Music, June 1998)
by: David Rocher (0.5 out of 10)
Whoah Fallen One, hail the mighty return of the new flamebearer of
black metal intellectualism -- or to be quite sincere, behold Mr.
Bean go black metal! Albeit beginning with a nice-ish eerie intro,
_Astral Tenebrion_ rapidly degenerates into one of the most
outrageously laughable "black metal" fiascos I have ever witnessed --
along with the works of Darkness Enshroud, Judas Iscariot and a few
others, of course... Lame riffing (or rather, electrified strumming)
is monotonously hammered home by a binary beatbox battering which
even succeeds, so poor is the sound, in blocking out most of the
strings. Add to this tonedeaf metallic mess the hilarious deadpan
"operatic" vocals (reminiscent of the inarticulate sounds one may
gurgle whilst undergoing a tooth extraction...), and the feeble
"wannabe futuristic" approach to black metal this one-man project
tries to cook up, and you have one of this decade's greatest metal
crashes, compared to which Arckanum's latest opus is a display of
genuine virtuosity.
Blood Axis - _Blot: Sacrifice in Sweden_
by: Adrian Bromley (6 out of 10) (Cold Meat Industry, Sep. 1998)
As haunting and as interesting as this record may seem, it becomes
quite bland and forgetful after numerous listens. Noise/soundtrack
themed music is the main focus here, with Blood Axis chilling its
attack with somber, soft-spoken numbers and then raising them with
some intriguing, yet overused, sounds and noises. It's okay, but I
don't think it matches other works from some of Cold Meat's cool
roster, like Puissance and Ordo Equilibrio. As I've said hundreds of
times before, fans of the band may dig this, but non-fans may be
bored after a listen or two. I'm a little in-between.
Bob Marinelli / Flutter - _Fun & Games_
by: Gabriel Sanchez (8.5 out of 10) (Distorted Vision Records, 1998)
With noise, just like most genres, it isn't always the "big boys" who
are producing the best material these days. Two relative "unknowns"
of the noise scene, Bob Marinelli and the rookie group of Flutter,
come together for an amazing split release that not only stands on
the level of so many of the genre's top names, but puts others to
shame at the same time. Marinelli's noise assault is in a state of
constant motion as the sounds enter and leave the mix before one's
brain can even get an entire lock on just what it is listening to. If
there was ever a composition that exemplifies the complete and total
lack of barriers, patterns, and reasoning in noise, this is most
certainly it. On the flip side, Flutter work hard to match Bob
Marinelli's level of pointless chaos with their digitally contorted
harsh noise collage. Using everything from sound loops to pop/dance
song snips, Flutter's sound remains as harsh and energetic as ever.
Once again, there is no way for one to even lock a pattern onto the
brutality as it is constantly flying from patterns of high pitched
beeping to sub-woofer blowing rumblings. The bottom line is that this
release demonstrates the purity of noise: no communication, no
patterns, no boundaries. Just plain and simple electronic
ejaculations of sound that shatter the ear drums but soothe the soul,
all at the same time.
Contact: Distorted Vision Records, 300 West Fourth St.
Mt. Carmel, PA 17851, USA
mailto:tgbob@sunlink.net
Centinex - _Reborn Through Flames_ (Repulse, July 1998)
by: Paul Schwarz (7 out of 10)
As you may recall, I reviewed _Reflections_ [CoC #26] and felt that
Centinex's main problems were lack of looseness (due to the use of a
drum machine, as I found out later) and a somewhat unoriginal musical
formula. Well, Centinex are still using a drum machine and they still
sound the same; however, this time 'round, their songwriting, and
even drum programming, has improved immensely. The band is still
sticking to their "we are being true to old-Swedish-death-metal"
excuse for not sounding even vaguely different from the status quo,
but originality, or even creativity, are not what I am awarding them
marks for. The simple fact is that _Reborn Through Flames_ is
listenable, heavy and well constructed. Their leads still ring true
and some of their melodic segues and occasionally main riffs are also
cool. If they could rid themselves of the flat, predictable sound the
drum machine, I would guarantee a great improvement. Why have I given
them a 7 out of 10 again, you ask? For two reasons: 1) not changing
their sound at all and almost re-using riffs (e.g. "The Arch of
Serenity"); 2) including a -terrible- cover of Kreator's "Under the
Guillotine" in the middle of the album (programmable CD players or
fast reactions recommended to avoid this abomination). One thing I
like about this band is that they always have a dark atmosphere; I
just wish they could harness it better. The problem isn't their
playing or production -- Tomas Skogsberg has done a sterling, though
generic, production job. It's the band's attitude. Either they can't
think of anything else to do or they can't make the leap of faith to
do something more interesting and original, or at least not do the
same thing as last time.
Ciborium - _Colossal Crags_ (Independent Records, 1998)
by: Pedro Azevedo (8 out of 10)
Having found Ciborium one of the most promising bands featured in
Independent Recs' _High Radiation 4_ compilation [CoC #33], I
approached this Portuguese band's debut _Colossal Crags_ with
interest. As it turns out, most of the material here is about as good
as their _HR4_ track, and occasionally better. The style brings no
surprise after knowing the compilation song: atmospheric death metal,
technical enough, mostly fast and with plenty of pace changes.
Keyboards are fundamental here, and manage to remain sober and
efficient most of the time. Together with the pace changes, the
dynamic nature of the music and the catchiness of some sequences,
they keep the listener interested. The strong death vox suit the
sound quite well, as the keyboards tend to often dominate the mix.
The drums could sound a bit better, by the way; same for some of the
guitar parts, but this varies a lot. Nevertheless, the overall sound
is very acceptable and the music is very listenable and enjoyable. Be
warned, however, that this album is only 30 minutes long; my rating
is therefore based upon the assumption that it will not be sold at
full price, which fortunately appears to be the case.
Contact: mailto:ind.rec@esoterica.pt
Crackdown - _Rise Up_ (Diehard, October 1998)
by: Paul Schwarz (6 out of 10)
"Never", the first track on _Rise Up_, is one of the best Biohazard
songs written since the release of 1992's fan favorite _Urban
Discipline_. A pity, then, that it was written by and appears on an
album by Crackdown. However, since Evan Seinfeld sings lead vocals
(yes, lead vocals) on this and two other tracks on this eleven
(including bonus) track album, the similarity is less surprising and
more acceptable, at least with regard to the vocals. Crackdown
thankfully do not try to mimic Evan's vocal style throughout the
course of the rest of the album and instead opt for the partially
screamed style of My Own Victim or B.F! Musically, My Own Vicitm and
Biohazard's respective styles are the ones most liberally referenced
on _Rise Up_, with a small nod to Bloodlet's style on "Knife". Not
much is new, although a well executed build-up of a repeated melodic
vocal lines provides a brief break from the hardcore norm. So, for
your money you get 38 minutes of mostly derivative but well produced
and played hardcore. However, an added bonus must be the last
official track, "Make a Change". Against a background of thick (but
soft) bass, hip-hop compatible drumming and occasional jazz-derived
guitar fills, it once more features Evan Seinfeld, but this time he
blesses us with his attempts to rap. Through his usual infantile
rhyming (e.g. "In your city or your town, these are the motherfuckers
called Crackdown"), Evan tells the story of how he and Crackdown
"hooked up". I can just see Evan bopping, gesturing and rapping this
out: that image provides comedy worth an extra review point. As with
all hardcore, live is where it matters and if the band can play,
these songs will come out good -- as good as My Own Victim's do for
example. However, if you're looking for hardcore's new innovators,
you won't find them in Crackdown.
Dementia - _Answer_ (Kaly Productions, October 1998)
by: David Rocher (8.5 out of 10)
Dementias' previous album, _In Core of the Dark Ages_, despite being
plagued with feeble sound, was a reasonably convincing demonstration
of the fine brand of atmospheric death metal this talented French
six-piece have to offer; their new CD, _Answer_, picks up where
_ICotDA_ left off, greatly adding depth, variety and technicality to
Dementia's already praiseworthy style. An amazing amount of
creativity literally oozes from this band, as their music switches
from melodic speeding blast-beat sequences to rushing axe attacks
underlined by thunderous double-bass antics and calm passages
somewhat reminiscent of Pink Floyd -- all this clearly showing the
potential that lies within these versatile musicians. Firstly,
_Answer_ is technically impressive, offering beautiful guitar leads,
an impressive display of skin-bashing, and great rhythmic riffing --
for which the jaw-dropping version of "The Flight of the Bumblebee",
converted into an incredible high speed riff, stands as an example.
Secondly, this album has more depth to it than many so-called
"atmospheric" bands can ever hope to create; the fine use of inspired
keyboard-driven orchestrations brings a touch of aether to sharp
walls of raging electrified strings, thus creating Dementia's very
personal blend of violent metal, that lies somewhere between Carcass
at _Heartwork_ times, Coroner in their _Mental Vortex_ years and
present-day fine death metal combos such as Dark Tranquillity...
nothing less!
Deranged - _High on Blood_ (Regain Records, September 1998)
by: Adrian Bromley (7 out of 10)
Holy fucking ball busters Batman! Deranged are surely high on
something. This is one of the most ball-crushing records to land on
my disc player in some time. While not totally groundbreaking,
Deranged have the knack for kicking out goods with true velocity and
aggression. Take note of songs like "(eroti)kill", "With the Silence
Came Horror" and my fave "Razor Divine". _High on Blood_? I think
not. This album shreds and I think the title should be more like
_High on Speed-Aggression-Anger-Hatred_. Give it a whirl if you feel
up to it. Almost as crushing as The Haunted's debut -- almost.
The Dillinger Escape Plan - _Under the Running Board_
by: Alex Cantwell (7 out of 10) (Relapse, 1998)
A short CD gets a short review. In all of its eight minutes of glory,
The Dillinger Escape Plan mauls the listener into mere pulp, bruised
and charred. This is grindcore with hardcore influences taken to the
extreme, and played at a totally out of control pace. Three songs of
total chaos: breaking glass, blast beats, growls, yells, sirens, and
circus music leads. I couldn't imagine a full-length.
Dimmu Borgir - _Godless Savage Garden_ (Nuclear Blast, July 1998)
by: Paul Schwarz (5 out of 10)
Dimmu Borgir found huge success, including a German chart placing,
with last year's _Enthrone Darkness Triumphant_, so seeing a
thrown-together cash-in compilation appear around the same time this
year to keep up interest until January, when _Spiritual Black
Dimensions_ is released, is not altogether surprising. For your money
you get 41 minutes of music. About 12 of them cover the two new
tracks, which, though not of lower quality than the majority of the
material on _EDT_, are also not standouts, but instead standard
keyboard-augmented, thrashing-guitar-black-metal tracks, as is Dimmu
Borgir's current trade. I hope the new record is more different from
_EDT_ than these tracks suggest. Now it gets ugly. "Raabjorn Speiler
Draugheimens Skodde" is one of two old re-recorded tracks; it's damn
good, but it appeared on the digipack edition of _EDT_. It might be
"rare", but strike one track / five minutes for those who own the
digipack, such as myself. Additionally, re-recordings should be
-bonus- tracks, not part of any album or compilation. An Accept cover
is next, of "Metal Heart" from their piss-poor, samey album of the
same name. It is a proficient and enriching cover: they actually make
melodic German metal sound vaguely evil -- well fancy that! And
uglier. Three live tracks, two from _EDT_ and "Stormblast", close off
_GSG_. If you're into having three odd live tracks, and if you're
ever going to get the occasion to listen to them, then these are well
produced and surprisingly bring out all the elements of the band's
sound (I can't tell if it is overdubbed): soft keyboards, harsh
vocals and razor sharp drums and guitars. They also contain some
amusingly schlock style comments from Shaggrath. However, ultimately,
I can't see this getting more than a few cursory listens and then
being quickly abandoned in the wake of a new album, because of its
cobbled together nature.
Earthtone9 - _lo-def(inition) discord_
by: Adrian Bromley (9 out of 10) (Copro Records, September 1998)
Managing to mix the aggression of a hardcore/metal act (such as Earth
Crisis, Coalesce or Vision of Disorder) and the ultra cool vibes of
bands like Tool or Acid Bath is no easy task, but the quintet calling
themselves Earthtone9 have done so -- and quite well, may I add.
Strong bass lines, some nifty guitar work and searing vocals package
a smooth romp into the wonderful world of aggressive metal here. You
see, as similar sounding to the above mentioned bands as they may be,
Earthtone9 manage to add their own flavor to the fold -- a wicked mix
of eccentric vocal styles and some out of this world grooves. I am
really starting to appreciate more and more bands that set the
musical style they play on the edge, balancing between common musical
directions and then occasionally dabbling into some uncharted
territory. Tool are a good example of that and that's the primary
reason why they are high up on both Gino's and my own fave band list.
Not a bad moment on this record from what I can hear. Caring to open
up a bit more to the music you digest? Then get this.
Contact: Copro Records, P.O. Box 4429, Henley on Thames
Oxon, RG9 1GH, UK
The Elysian Fields - _We... the Enlightened_
by: Paul Schwarz (8 out of 10) (Wicked World, October 1998)
With _Formulas Fatal to the Flesh_, _Our Problem_ and _The Haunted_
already polluting the extreme music community's collective ears and
promising new material from Earache's old favorites Napalm Death and
Cathedral on the way, it appears that the label is not declining into
a mediocre, alterna-metal one as many of us feared it was. With the
recent formation of Wicked World, an offshoot which some feel needn't
exist, Earache have tried to tackle head-on the task of adding some
of today's quality black metal talent to their roster. The Elysian
Fields prove that Earache are up to this challenge. _We... the
Enlightened_, The Elysian Fields' second album, presents a band with
a considerable grasp of their style and the balls and skill to
produce a good black metal album. _WtE_ is ample proof of this.
Though the boundaries of black metal have to be stretched like so
much elastic to include a band such as The Elysian Fields, it is
still appropriate to describe their style. What is best about this
band is their desire to diversify their sound and their ability to
pull it off. They utilize a huge range of orchestral and folk
instruments, presumably from samplers, in each song. Blending in
parts of electronic music with some intense percussion sections
(check out "Until the Night Cries Rise in Your Heart") is just a
portion of the band's appeal that I find particularly endearing. Add
the fact that the production of _WtE_ is superb and you have a rather
impressive album on your hands. If there's a problem, it is that
however well-produced, well-executed and well-meant the music the
band produce is, not all of it is to my own personal taste.
Enslaved - _Blodhemn_ (Osmose, October 1998)
by: Paul Schwarz (9 out of 10)
For followers of complex, high-quality black metal, _Blodhemn_
(meaning "Vengeance in Blood"), Enslaved's fourth album, must rank as
one of the most anticipated of the year. As one of the few bands who
are clever enough to successfully challenge Emperor, Enslaved
impressed many with last year's _Eld_, the long awaited follow-up to
their classic _Frost_. Whereas _Eld_ witnessed the band become yet
more epic (embracing the Viking metal stylings of Bathory's
_Hammerheart_ to some extent) with an increase in the use of melodic
vocals and atmospheric keyboards, _Blodhemn_ instead swings the
stylistic pendulum in the opposite direction. Consisting of only 38
minutes, delivered over nine tracks, Enslaved have shortened their
song lengths hugely from _Eld_'s sprawling epics, and produced
faster, harder and more vitriolic tunes in a more "traditional" black
metal style. Though this originally struck me as an unwelcome step
back, I persisted in my listening of the album and found, to my
relief, that Enslaved still have a musical goal which is as
interesting as ever. Though the album's primary focus is tight and
insanely fast rhythms, laid down by the hugely talented Dirge Rep and
coated with biting guitars to match, Enslaved have not abandoned the
many elements which made _Eld_ so brilliant. The Tolkien-inspired
intro illustrates that the band have not lost any of their ability to
manipulate keyboard atmospherics, whereas the songs, though on first
listen seemingly only bludgeoning, have a similar and intricate array
of different vocal lines, guitar melodies, finely constructed solos
and just solid, well-written core riffs. To put it in a nutshell,
Enslaved have brutalized their sound and made their delivery more
concise. While there are still a million and one things you won't
find on an album by the Morticians of black metal (Marduk, Dark
Funeral), there is every bit as much impact and fury. This is quite
an achievement by Enslaved -- in fact, I don't think I have heard an
album which mixes brutality and atmosphere as well as this since
Emperor's _Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk_ and, though I think it has
nothing to do with their switching to the Tagtgren/Abyss production,
this has a more powerful sound than Emperor's excellent, though
somewhat overrated, second album.
Enthroned - _Gothic Disturbance '98_ (Independent, 1998)
by: Brian Meloon (9 out of 10)
Although there have been some rumors of a re-formation of Florida's
Nocturnus (mostly from unreliable sources), until they actually do
get back together, these guys are as close as you'll get. Enthroned
(from northern CA, USA -- not to be confused with the Belgian
Enthroned) recently got a new singer / bass player and decided it was
a good opportunity to re-record the songs from _Gothic Disturbance_
[CoC #21] along with some older songs and put them on CD. This was
definitely a wise move, as this recording fixes some of the problems
with their previous release. In particular, the playing is much
tighter and the production is better. However, the guitar solos still
have a trace of the "I'm playing as fast as I can" syndrome, and the
guitar tones in the solos sometimes seem out of place. Other than
that, the production and playing are excellent. The guitar and bass
work is technical and tight, and the keyboards are especially well
done: knowing when to play along with the guitars and when to do
their own thing. All of the songs feature a technical sci-fi
death/thrash style very similar to the one pioneered by Nocturnus.
The complexity of the music, the way the guitar lines are put
together, and the interplay between the keyboards and the guitars,
all are reminiscent of Nocturnus. Enthroned seem to be a little
thrashier (i.e., more like _The Key_) and slightly less technical,
but their music is still much more complex than most death metal
bands. This is a must-own for fans of Nocturnus and all fans of
technical or sci-fi death metal.
Contact: ENTRONED, 2231 Nobili Ave., Santa Clara, CA, 95051, USA
mailto:blast7@aol.com
mailto:tenebre@davis.com
WWW: www.mother.com/~tenebre/enthroned.htm
God - _From the Moldavian Ecclesiastic Throne_ (Bestial, 1997)
by: Brian Meloon (8 out of 10)
God hail from Romania and play melodic doom, along the lines of
Tiamat and Paradise Lost, but I find them more interesting than
either of those two bands. Although their music is slow-to-mid paced,
it changes regularly enough to avoid the plodding monotony trap that
doom bands can fall into. Their base style is melodic doom, with some
sections that resemble Viking metal. The contrast between the two
styles is interesting, and not really as jarring as you might think;
they make it sound like a pretty natural fit. The vocals help to
smooth out the contrast, as they are either grunted, rasped or sung
in the "goofy" style that is common in Viking metal. Each of these
styles is used throughout the disc, helping to unify it. The
keyboards are used to good effect, typically acting as an equal
partner to the guitars. God's lineup includes a full-time viola
player, who really adds to the atmosphere the band creates. The
playing is very good, and the production is top-notch. Overall,
they're very impressive for the style that they play: it's nothing
that hasn't been done before, but the arrangement and development are
first-class. If nothing else, it's high quality material, and
deserving attention from fans of melodic doom.
Gooseflesh - _Welcome to Suffer Age_ (Goldtrack, September 1998)
by: Pedro Azevedo (6 out of 10)
This MCD's first track sounds so much like a mix of Sepultura and
Machine Head that the replacement of most of these influences by a
rather Kyuss-like sound in the second track can be quite surprising
when you listen to _Welcome to Suffer Age_ for the first time.
Gooseflesh then continue to assume various identities, more or less
obviously, throughout the three remaining tracks. The point when the
whole mixture becomes their "own" sound -- like almost every band as
original as Gooseflesh like to say after naming their already obvious
influences -- is very subjective. But I never really demand immense
originality anyway, unless we're talking about something like a clear
rip-off. So this Swedish band still gets an average score for their
mostly very unoriginal, for my taste rather uninteresting, but
nevertheless competent and well produced effort.
Contact: Goldtrack Records, PO Box 37062, 28080 Madrid, Spain
mailto:goldtrack@arrakis.es
WWW: www.arrakis.es/~goldtrack
Gothic - _Touch of Eternity_ (Bestial, 1997)
by: Brian Meloon (6 out of 10)
Although their name is Gothic, these guys don't play goth; they play
semi-melodic doom. I can't say that I find their style very
interesting, my main complaint being that it's just not dynamic
enough. The clean vocals are one of the main weaknesses: he's way
flat at times, and doesn't have enough range. As a result, the vocal
lines tend to be very monotonous, which coupled with the slow-moving
music makes it very monotonous. They also use shouted/grunted vocals,
which are much more effective. The production could be better, as
it's muddy, adding to the music's monotonous sound. The playing is
good: while the music isn't very technically demanding, they handle
it competently. The guitar solos (especially Emil's) are very good:
they are tasteful and appropriate, even adding some flash here and
there. Most of the music is very slow, with only a handful of
mid-paced sections. I think that a few more fast sections could have
helped to give the songs a better sense of purpose. Most of it is
also very simple, and while some of these sections are effective and
memorable, they tend to repeat them too much. It's almost as if these
guys aren't really sure if they want to be heavy or melodic, and
ended up not quite getting enough of either. Overall, this isn't a
bad release; I just don't find it very satisfying.
Gothic Sex - _Laments_ (Repulse Records, September 1998)
by: Adrian Bromley (7 out of 10)
Shades of Type O Negative and Moonspell come to mind within the first
few moments of _Laments_, though it slowly becomes a much bolder
sounding record. Interesting sound passages and vocal styles coupled
with dark ambient playing really bring a well-defined character to
Gothic Sex. It's erotic and all-out dark in truly interesting
fashion. My favorite aspect of the record seems to fall into the
realm of the guitar work. While not the best guitar work I have ever
heard, the imagination and creativity of the guitar playing seems to
add a strengthened finesse to the resulting product -- in "Laments"
and "Alone in the Dark", for example. Dark passages of emotion and
uncertainty run deep here as _Laments_ caters to the dark side of the
human psyche. An interesting record that'll have metal fans wanting
to dig deeper into their already darkened hole.
Grief of Emerald - _Nightspawn_ (Listenable, October 1998)
by: David Rocher (9 out of 10)
As the overwhelming black metal tide finally ebbs away, all it leaves
in its wake is a small number of quality, sincere bands, and a vast
cohort of wannabe-evil cretins, who rely more on satanic imagery than
on music itself to boost their sales and ego -- do this while you
can, nerds, for the time is nigh... Take a look at a band photo of
Grief of Emerald, and you will quickly notice the absence of inverted
crosses, blood, corpsepaint, naked women, evil goldfish, satanic
cheesecake or anything like that. Simply, this quintet deliver a
style of music that can effortlessly be identified as Swedish black
metal, but have somehow succeeded in gracing a now worn-out style
with their very unique touch. They faithfully capture the intense,
evil, unhealthy guitar feel of Morbid Angel on their masterpiece
_Domination_, blend it with atmospheric, dynamic, nearly aggressive
keyboards that sometimes yield the power and majesty of Emperor's _In
the Nightside Eclipse_, and at other times produce the insane, eerie
and unnerving feel you find on Tartaros' _The Grand Psychotic
Castle_. As to the roaring, dark black metal vocals, these burn an
extra scar in this blackened picture, and the masterful collision of
all these elements fuses into a hateful, baleful, bombastic and
technical black metal assault, graced with a potent death metal
touch, whose unearthly, grandiloquent force is definitely enthralling.
Various - _GRRRR!!: Extreme Music From Vancouver_
by: Adrian Bromley (8 out of 10) (Hevy Devy Records, Sep. 1998)
Finally a killer compilation surfaces with nothing but Canuck talent
on it. Finally. Not since Ed Balog's _Utopian Vision Music Vol. 1_
surfaced has there been such a good array of metal / extreme music
bands from Canada to crank up and listen to. Amazing shit here. From
the label started by Strapping Young Lad weirdo/mastermind Devin
Townsend comes the vicious and extreme music assault of bands from
Canada's West Coast -- music ranging from high-powered industrial
charge to noise-infested rock outfits and hardcore-based bands. This
baby has it all. Aside from the killer SYL tracks here ("Oh My
Fucking God" and the unreleased "Centipede" -- though it can be found
on the live SYL LP _No Sleep Till Bedtime_), there is a lot of
interesting ditties to go around. The best of the unreleased or
unknown bands has to be the ultra-heavy Subversion. I still have
their demo and it's even more powerful now. They are Canada's Brutal
Truth, if you ask me. Other notable numbers include the weird
offering from Punchdrunk called "Tug the Tapeworm", the scary noise
ensemble of "Krickets" by August Frost and Cystem's "Divided
Process". I'm very proud to see HDR put this out. I await more
unsigned talent to be showcased in future HDR compilations.
Contact: Hevy Devy Records, P.O. Box 44116
Burnaby, B.C., V5A-4Y2, Canada
Hexecution - _Beyond All Evil_ (Copro Records, September 1998)
by: Adrian Bromley (4 out of 10)
Sounding like a really mediocre death metal outfit who only jam once
a month, Hexecution are the epidemy of what most young metal acts
sound like when they start up. No real direction, just some heavy
guitar work, drums and growling vocals. Sounds like second rate
Benediction at times, and that's not much of a compliment. It's only
a three song EP, but I'm hoping the band revamps their take on metal
music and aim to have their own sound (or an interesting one at
that!) next time they surface in Chronicles of Chaos.
Contact: Copro Records, P.O. Box 4429, Henley on Thames
Oxon, RG9 1GH, UK
In tha Umbra - _Descend Supreme Sunset_ (Art Music, 1998)
by: Pedro Azevedo (7 out of 10)
In spite of the relatively high number of struggling young black
metal bands that have recently popped up all over Portugal, very few
of them have made it as far as the release of a full length. In tha
Umbra are one of these and, although somewhat flawed in some areas,
this 50 minute long debut of theirs is quite acceptable. The guitar
work in this mid-paced black metal release reminds me of early Cradle
of Filth -- a clear influence for the band, at least considering some
of the lyrics and nice (although unoriginal) layout. The music,
however, doesn't carry much of those gothic influences. But back to
the guitar work: even though it's nothing brilliant technically, it's
usually quite effective; the problem is that the album suffers from
poor production, especially as far as the guitar sound is concerned.
It may be that the band themselves have opted for this rawer sound,
but it's their loss: the raw effect wasn't very well achieved and
ended up harming the guitar work more than creating a better
atmosphere, at least in my opinion. Keyboards should perhaps have
been a more frequently used solution in this album; the keyboards in
"Like Ravens 'Neath Nightskies", for example, make all the
difference, reminding me of Osculum Infame's brilliant "The Nine
Ghosts of the Ring of Power" and the rest of _Dor-Nu-Fauglith_, in
which the keyboards were often missed when they were silent. It may
be true that more keyboards would end up softening the intended raw
feel of both albums a lot, but that's no excuse for the weak guitar
sound. If the guitars were able to make the music sound strong all by
themselves, then the need for more keyboards would certainly
diminish. Despite this and the rather mediocre death vox, "As Dusk
Weaves the Night", "Flowers for a Funeral", "Like Ravens 'Neath
Nightskies", the title track and also the epilogue carry that certain
raw appeal more successfully than the others and flow quite well. The
other tracks generally tend to contain several weaker sequences, but
this is still an interesting debut album.
Contact: WWW: www.artmusic-pt.com
Infamy - _The Blood Shall Flow_ (Qabalah/Repulse, 1998)
by: Aaron McKay (4 out of 10)
Well, I'm not about to tell anyone that I didn't struggle with this
one more than just a little bit. On one hand, I like Infamy's style
of self-dubbed "extreme brutal East LA style death/grind", but on the
other hand, I have been more impressed by other groups. I understand
that Infamy has been on the underground circuit for quite some time.
They definitely have a firm grasp on their chosen lot in music. As I
listen to _The Blood Shall Flow_, I hear large amounts of Morbid
Angel _Alters of Madness_ era influenced overtones and passages. The
two guitars without a doubt drive this band forward with a certain
hot-knife-through-butter approach. Cool, but not particular to Infamy
alone. "Onslaught of Carnage" and "Cryptobiosis" provide the
highlights on _TBSF_. These two songs -solely- manifest the talent
inherent in Infamy. Both are powerful and equivalent to restrained
Armageddon. The impulse behind "Onslaught of Carnage" is almost
unspeakable, pausing long enough to surface the prowess of the bass
guitar lurching the song further down the listener's ear canal.
Likewise, "Cryptobiosis" boasts thrashy shreds and pounding rhythms.
I must mention now, as I come to comment on the vocals as hoarse
growls spewing forth illustrative massive carnage, that, it is my
understanding, Joshua "Jagger" Heatley (bass/vocals) is no longer
with us. The disc sleeve and the Repulse website list his death on
March 5, 1998. Honestly, my condolences go out to his friends and
family. As for Infamy's _The Blood Shall Flow_ release, I would have
to say it is more for fans only.
Interitus Dei - _Lonely White Idols_ (Bestial, 1997)
by: Brian Meloon (7 out of 10)
One problem with compilations is that you only get one chance to make
an impression, and this impression may not be accurate. When I first
heard these guys on the Bestial compilation [CoC #33], I thought
"atmospheric doom/black metal". After a more complete listen, I now
find them more similar to bands like The Gathering. It has the same
melodic guitar-driven base style, with keyboards used to round out
their sound. Their music isn't a carbon copy, but it's about the same
level of heaviness, and the female vocals give it a similar sound.
What they change about that base style is an Indian/Arabic influence
and more varied keyboards. The keys feature a good variety of tones
and textures, and remind me of what's done in atmospheric black metal
(Nokturnal Mortum, Mundanus Imperium, etc.). Both grunted male vocals
and angelic female vocals are used. Most of the music is competently
performed, with the exception of the guitar leads, which sound a
little cheap, both production-wise and from the fact that they're a
little bit off. Other than these parts, the production is excellent.
I can recommend this for fans of The Gathering and similar styles, as
it has enough good parts to offset the weak ones.
Iron Monkey - _Our Problem_ (Earache Records, October 1998)
by: Adrian Bromley (9 out of 10)
Iron Monkey return with a blistering follow-up to their self-titled
six-song EP. With some nasty and vulgar cover artwork (censored now,
I believe?!), the doom-laden growls of consumption and utter
aggression spark forth from the band's latest effort with a
detonating blow to our skulls. Powerful waves of unbelievable
momentum keep things chaotic here from start to finish. This band is
warped, yet oh-so good. From frazzled growled vocals to sickened
slabs of anguished wails and chuggish riffs, England's Iron Monkey do
the unspeakable and penetrate us with its venomous claws. And as bad
and disgusting as it may seem, the ravaging we get from the blatant
ass-kicking is worth it. Are there any bands out there so violently
charged? Maybe, but Iron Monkey do it just as well, if not better.
Legenda - _Eclipse_ (Holy Records, September 1998)
by: Pedro Azevedo (9 out of 10)
This second Legenda release is a successful attempt at perfecting the
style of music found on their debut _Autumnal_, which is achieved
essentially through the inclusion of three fast-paced songs that add
more variety (_Autumnal_ was rather excessively uniform) and the
improvement of their musical choices. The sound is very similar
(recorded at Tico Tico again), and fortunately Luttinen hasn't
forsaken his raspy vocals. The only track that features clean vox
(performed by a guest singer) fits quite well within the album,
however, although this particular song is too long for its own good.
The music is still mostly mid-paced, sometimes doomy, and strongly
based on keyboards. Some songs are guitar-driven, however, and these
transitions are well achieved (i.e., you have to pay attention in
order to notice it, rather than end up finding yourself wondering
where did those keyboards go). Of the three kinds of songs found in
_Eclipse_, my favorites are clearly the faster ones and the doomier
ones, but the catchier songs are all still quite acceptable. The
digipak only carries lyrics for the title track, which, if you think
of most of _Autumnal_'s lyrics, probably isn't much of a loss. The
main feeling throughout _Eclipse_'s 50 minutes is that it is a very
smart album: smart melodies, rhythms and overall sound. Even though I
might personally subtract a mark from the 9 out of 10 rating mainly
because the album is still too song-oriented for my liking (the song
structures aren't exactly challenging), credit must be given to
Legenda for blowing away most of the softer dark/gothic metal
competition with _Eclipse_.
Lucid - _Lucid_ (<Independent>, 1998)
by: Alex Cantwell (6.5 out of 10)
This music reminds me of Leaderdogs for the Blind and newer
Moshketeers, with a bit of Machine Head thrown in. Basically, this is
well done modern metal, which is great, but listening to all twelve
tracks in one sitting might be considered too much of a good thing.
It's like being beaten twelve times in a row. Most of these songs are
strong enough to stand on their own. This is plain and simple
aggressive music that will send ya a-thrashin' around yer room. The
drums are triggered, and so they almost sound like a drum machine,
but that actually gives the music a slight industrial tinge, which
works for them.
Makrothumia - _The Rit of Individuation_ (Bestial, 1997)
by: Brian Meloon (7 out of 10)
Makrothumia didn't make a good first impression on me with their song
on the Bestial sampler [CoC #33], but I'm glad I gave them a chance
with this offering, as it's worth a listen. They are dubbed
"progressive death metal", and I can see now why that label was
chosen. The closest comparison I can make is to Pan.Thy.Monium, but
Makrothumia aren't as weird or as advanced. What's similar about the
bands is their base style: experimental death metal with keyboards.
The way the keys are used is similar: they're used as a backing
instrument, but the way they interact with the guitars is novel. The
riffs are of the semi-melodic variety: the melody isn't the focal
point, but they're not unmelodic either. The vocals are pretty
standard grunted death vocals, but have some interesting variations.
Unfortunately, the production really isn't that good: it's muddy and
more like black metal production. This gives the album a very drab
sound and makes it hard to really get into on the first few listens:
it all sounds the same. After a few listens, you start to pick up
things that you missed before. The playing also adds to the black
metal sound, as it's not as tight as it could be. While I don't think
this offering is quite "there" yet, it does show potential, and I
look forward to their future releases.
Malevolent Creation - _The Fine Art of Murder_
by: Paul Schwarz (9 out of 10) (Pavement, October 1998)
Yes, they've done it at last. I think Malevolent Creation have been
building up to this triumph since _Retribution_ deafened ears and
froze hearts with its cold, calculated death metal massacre six years
ago. Having picked themselves up after the disasters of _Stillborn_,
Malevolent Creation produced two good albums, one being last year's
_In Cold Blood_, but always failed to do two things: top
_Retribution_ in the all-out classic brutality stakes, and change in
a way that really showed a new side to them. Though it is
questionable if _The Fine Art of Murder_ quite tops _Retribution_ in
brutality, it is by far their most impressive musical step forward in
their history. Whereas the first four tracks, on first listen, seem
not to change a thing in the band's formula, repeated listens to and
consideration of the album brings you to the realization that there
is so much more going on than there ever has been before. The toying
with melody and harmony in songs which are primarily bludgeoners,
like "Manic Demise" or "Instinct Evolved", is astounding once
examined. This is not to say none of it is basic. Malevolent Creation
still have all that thrash, harsh-and-hard guitar riffing; it is just
used more sparingly and consequently to greater effect. The real
achievements on the album are "The Fine Art of Murder", "Fracture"
and "Day of Lamentation", which almost totally lack MC's trademark
speed but are still both great to listen to and as brutal as ever --
the melody sees a damn good look in, too. Malevolent Creation haven't
overstepped the mark, they haven't "wimped out" -- they've
diversified. Sure, they're not producing anything innovative in the
genre-leading stakes, but while still staying true to everything
we've come to expect from them, they've gone the extra yard and
successfully pulled plenty of new elements into their
well-established approach. The full benefit of their current line up
(Rob Barrett, Dave Culross, Phil Fasciana, Brett Hoffman, Gordon
Simms) has been realized. Long live the killers; if they can keep
this kind of musicianship present, they can keep up the spree far
past the year 2000.
Mundanus Imperium - _The Spectral Spheres Coronation_
by: Paul Schwarz (6.5 out of 10) (Nuclear Blast, September 1998)
Hey, it isn't as bad as I had feared. Mundanus Imperium are another
of Nuclear Blast's recent signees who embody the spirit of metal from
the '80s, as opposed to the label's original, '90s centered roster. I
think it is fair to say that Hammerfall's unprecedented success is
very likely to be the reason why Mundanus Imperium got a deal with
Nuclear Blast, but this is not to say they are necessarily unworthy
of a record deal -- though whether they suit -my- vision for Nuclear
Blast is another matter. Mundanus Imperium can be quite well
described by the label "symphonic metal". Overall, the guitars tend
to mutter in the background with only occasional full power-chords,
the majority of the guitar work being palm muted. Keyboards (or
guitar synths) are Mundanus Imperium's preferred form of expression.
As simple power-chord riffs tick over in the background, complex and
flowing piano sections, organ atmospherics and various other wind and
string instruments comprise the lines of melody which carry the
songs. The drums vary between AC/DC simplicity and double bass
passages with some interesting fills. Though what I have just gone
over does not comprise anything I wet myself over, it makes for a
pretty decent mix. The bad aspect of this release, at least for me,
is the vocals. Though the vocalist is not "bad" -- he's not out of
tune or lacking power --, his style is infuriating, to say the least.
It reminds me somewhat of the sound of the new Iced Earth album, but
with more "yeahaeaaaahahh"s and note shifting than I can take in a
single sitting. As I say, it is better than it looks, but the space
theme on which it works seems pretty lame: for futuristic rock you
still can't do much better than Rush's _2112_. I think as futuristic
metal goes, Nuclear Blast would've been better off signing Nocturnus
when they were still around; but gripes aside, this is a decent
record.
My Dying Bride - _34.788%... Complete_ (Peaceville, October 1998)
by: Pedro Azevedo (7 out of 10)
When I reviewed _Like Gods of the Sun_ over a year and a half ago, I
gave it a 10 too quickly -- its metallic reinforcements (relative to
_The Angel and the Dark River_) made me overlook a few faults that
the album does have. But although _LGotS_ was somewhat inferior to
its predecessors (certain tracks much more than others), it didn't
necessarily mean that MDB wouldn't be able to reach the quality of
their older releases again. After the departures of drummer Rick Myah
and especially keyboard/violin player Martin Powell (now linked with
Anathema), it seemed less likely, but still possible. However, it
turns out that this new release is, in my opinion, inferior to every
album MDB have done before. Almost everything in _34.788%_ (title,
artwork and most of the lyrics and music) shows very clearly that a
new direction has been, consciously or not, chosen. Sadness,
melancholy or dark romanticism can scarcely be found in their music
now, which should mean a lot to most fans. Not to say that the album
is -happy-, though, it just tends to sound very neutral and
emotionless. This is what is worse about the album -- this loss of
the deeply emotional band MDB used to be. The music could at least
have been remarkable enough for the album to still be really
enjoyable; however, for the most part it's just above average metal
(hence the 7 out of 10 rating), although frequently rather
repetitive. "The Stance of Evander Sinque" stands out as the best
track and "Der Uberlebende" as the doomiest (but nothing special by
MDB standards), but the album practically ends here, at track three,
with the exception of a few more passages later on. The rest is made
of three relatively unremarkable tracks and "Heroin Chic", which is a
song that will make many MDB fans feel very sad -- not because it's
especially doomy, but because it contradicts so much of what MDB used
to be all about. The new drummer performs well enough but doesn't
stand out, while the synths are a mediocre replacement for Martin's
violin and keyboard. As a result of all this, for me, My Dying Bride
are no longer the special band they once were, even though this album
is of reasonable musical quality. People keep saying bands must
change with time, regardless of the quality of their past work. Well,
sure. Go ahead. Sometimes it works -- Anathema, for example, have
changed a lot and still managed to put out four excellent full length
albums (regardless of which one is the best), and I could mention
many other bands here. For example, Katatonia's _Discouraged Ones_,
different as it is from the band's past efforts, contains not only
musical quality but also the sadness that is fundamental in
Katatonia, even if in a different form -- just like what happens with
Anathema. That just doesn't happen with _34.788%_. My Dying Bride's
classic albums, however, shall always remain as such for some of us
while we await better days for MDB.
Naglfar - _Diabolical_ (War, July 1998)
by: Paul Schwarz (8.5 out of 10)
Damn, this stuff is intense. I decided to give their Tagtgren/Abyss
produced debut _Vittra_ a cursory listen in the wake of
_Diabolical_'s release and found it to be a good debut, though a
little derivative and uninspired. Three years on from that and we
have _Diabolical_ -- solid proof that touring and just being in a
band for a time should make people better musicians, more effectively
able to comunicate their message to the masses. Though it bears
similarities to Dissection's inimitable style, _Diabolical_ makes up
for what it lacks in any real originality in the incredible energy
which seems to literally course through its sonic veins, touching
every drum break, beat, guitar riff, lick or vocal line with its life
invigorating qualities. The kind of power this inspires in me reminds
me of Children of Bodom's recent masterful debut, and although
Naglfar are certainly on a more "evil" musical path than Children of
Bodom, the two can bear a lot of comparison. They both have a talent
for combining keyboards into their intense sound well, for example.
Naglfar cannot match their deceased overlords yet, but they have time
on their side -- they're still young, and they already beat a lot of
the remaining competition (see Raise Hell), although as I have
already pointed out, Dawn are the only band who can at present even
reasonably sit on Dissection's vacated throne.
Nasum - _Inhale/Exhale_ (Relapse, July 1998)
by: Paul Schwarz (8.5 out of 10)
This really is one of the very few grind albums, especially recently,
which manages to conform to two criteria which so often seem mutually
exclusive: a) more than half as many tracks as minutes; b) excellent
music. Nasum are treading the straight-to-the-point path of Napalm
Death, Carcass and others of their pioneering ilk trod ten years ago.
BUT, and that is a big "but" in more than just the size of the type,
Nasum are not a band living in the past. Nasum stand out with respect
to both the sound they have captured and the quality of the music
they produce. One asset: their production. _Inhale/Exhale_ has a
refreshing death metal edge to it, and this edge is somewhat Swedish
in its deathliness (unsurprising, considering Nasum come from
Sweden), but also possesses that essential hint of rawness which all
great grind/crust needs -- can you imagine a "clean" _World
Downfall_? Nasum's basic frame is the simple, mostly three chord,
guitar and bass progressions, and virtually unrelenting drumming,
which is the essence of grindcore. BUT what they have a firm grasp on
is the manipulation of other drum beats than the blast snare and more
guitar chords than the Sex Pistols could remember. This is still
pretty stripped down, it's still the virtual antithesis of Steve Vai
or Yngwie Malmsteen (and the vocals are still harsh enough to strip
the enamel from your teeth), but it isn't boring, which is exactly
what so much grindcore ends up being. Many of these songs nail a
catchy groove ("The Masked Face", "I See Lies"), not in the
manipulative mosh-core fashion of Machine Head or Biohazard, but
simply by putting together rhythms and vocals which I catch myself
repeating periodically at various intervals. The other technique
which turns up (most notably in "Shaping the End") is the addition of
a varying melodic guitar line behind the intense, unrelenting
grind-punk sounds, which gives the album a further angle of attack.
_Inhale/Exhale_ is excellent, unrelenting and interesting grindcore,
an uncommon blend from an uncommonly good band.
Night in Gales - _Thunderbeast_ (Nuclear Blast, September 1998)
by: Adrian Bromley (7.5 out of 10)
I was really expecting more from Night in Gales with this record. The
band's previous effort, _Towards the Twilight_ (their debut for
Nuclear Blast), was a solid record that showcased a true melodic side
to metal music, harnessing old school styles (Helloween) and the
elaborate and technical side of death metal (In Flames, Katatonia) in
one package. The new record seems a bit rawer and grittier. The
band's use of melodic overtones has since been lessened and now seems
to be a slight reminder of their past work. While I am strongly for
bands exploring new routes within their musical agenda, I do stand
firm on bands shifting their sound a good deal. They alienate the
listener and that's what has happened here for the most part, though
some of the guitar work here is totally mind bending. Check out
numbers like "Perihelion", "Thunderbeast" and opener "Intruder".
Crushing riffs touted on by gruff vocals make for some dynamic sparks
throughout the record. A mixed review for a band that really has
potential. I'm still a fan, but just wish their roots had stayed
firmly planted. Good record, though.
Nothingface - _A Guide to Everyday Atrocity_ (DCide, 1998)
by: Jody Webb (9 out of 10)
Nothing juices me more than hearing some major ass kicking from a
bunch of unknowns. Nothingface's latest disc is no exception.
Although _A Guide to Everyday Atrocity_ is the band's second offering
and follow up to 1996's _Pacifier_, I see no reason why the band
should not pretend _Pacifier_ doesn't exist. Neither does vocalist
Matt Holt, whom I interviewed. "I never felt _Pacifier_ represented
us well and we all hated playing it live," says Matt; "we love this
new record." And rightfully so, I say. The guitar, drums, and bass
congeal into a massive weight that steamrolls the listener and often
grazes the fringe between rock and metal. The harmonies present in
the choruses bring to mind Soundgarden in their _Bad Motor Finger_
era, while the chugging and grooving verses and breakdowns afford an
analogy closer to Kilgore or Stompbox. Matt likes to alternate
between singing and shouting, which may throw the listener for a
loop, because on some cuts he shouts the entire song while on others
he does nothing but sing. Holt explains: "I don't have a formula for
when to do what, like, to sing during a chorus or scream when the
guitar is angry. I follow my instinct and do what comes." The
production is close to ideal, and at the slight cost of dipping a bit
into bass heaviness, you can usually hear exactly what bassist Bill
Gaal is doing, which is often using his four string to good
harmonizing effect rather than simply doubling the guitar parts. My
only qualm here is that the cuts start to sound a bit the same, but
with the consistent high quality, it turns into one long awesome
song, sort of like Slayer's _Seasons in the Abyss_, which on CD is
all run together. On a final note, the most relevant factoid is: _A
Guide to Everyday Atrocity_ has greater time of possession on my
discman than either the new Death or Sepultura platters.
Odhinn - _From a Splendorous Battle_ (Napalm Records, August 1998)
by: Pedro Azevedo (6 out of 10)
The fact that Odhinn was formed by two former members of In Battle
seemed enough to make this MCD potentially interesting. The first two
tracks, indeed, can be described as "In Battle meets Deicide". Mostly
fast, harsh, aggressive, and, although somewhat far from the level of
In Battle, still good stuff -- especially the second track. The other
two tracks, however, are very different. Although musically they're
not much worse, they suffer from a terrible production: muffled,
weak, capable of nearly ruining the music (which isn't bad), at least
for me. Plus, it happens that I started listening to In Battle's
excellent self-titled debut at the same time, and its superiority
really didn't help me to enjoy this MCD. Nevertheless, considering
the first two tracks, a properly produced full-length could be
interesting.
Queens of the Stone Age - _Queens of the Stone Age_
by: Jody Webb (7 out of 10) (Loosegroove, 1998)
Attention all Kyuss fans -- the crew is back in action. Well, sort
of. Josh Homme from Kyuss has regrouped and released this self-titled
effort, a collection of fuzzy guitar work that may just satisfy that
Kyuss jonesing. Be warned that Queens is a bit more song oriented,
structured, and not replete with jamming. There's also this hispanic
thing going on in the liners and song titles that I can't figure out,
which I'm pretty sure wasn't part of Kyuss. Regardless, for some
solid rockin', give a listen to "Regular John", "If Only", and "How
to Handle a Rope". Or for a more trippy experience, spin "You Would
Know" or "You Can't Quit Me Baby".
Radakka - _Requiem for the Innocent_ (Century Media, September 1998)
by: Adrian Bromley (7 out of 10)
It becomes quite apparent with one or two listens that Radakka are a
very exploring and innovative band. Not really going for a trendy
sound at all, the music of Radakka holds its own weight with some
impressive guitar work and powerfully triumphant progressive ways
that could gain interest from the Queensryche and/or Fates Warning
fanatics out there. With a bit more blunt character and sound like
Iced Earth, Radakka are quite capable of turning up the momentum a
notch or two when needed be. But there are some drawbacks to what
Radakka do, primarily as far as variety is concerned. As innovative
as it may be at times, the album is overshadowed by several bland
moments, bringing the positive vibe to a stand still at times. But
it's a minor flaw. Killer vocals by singer Jon Dobbs (especially in
"Still a Stranger" and "Whore") makes this album great when it has to
be.
Raise Hell - _Holy Target_ (Nuclear Blast, September 1998)
by: Paul Schwarz (8 out of 10)
I imagine I am not the first, and I am sure I won't be the last, to
say that if Raise Hell sound like anyone, especially anyone
significant, they sound like Dissection. I am surely also not the
only person to have expected them to sound like another Dis... band
from seeing their promo photos. Still, when a band are as
influential, and as good, as Dissection, one expects a great number
of bands to mimic them on a number of different levels. Some do it
poorly and others do it rather well; Raise Hell fall into the latter
category. Yes, admittedly, most of what makes _Holy Target_ so
appealing lies in the similarities it bears to _Storm of the Light's
Bane_, but Raise Hell still salvage nearly all their dignity through
good playing and the penning of a very consistent and melodically
complex album. The production further helps in bestowing _Holy
Target_ with a sound as viciously spiked and bullet-ridden as the
band's wrist and waist adornments, respectively. Overall, Raise Hell
are lucky that Dissection are no more. They aren't on top of their
pile -- that position belongs to Dawn --, but they are also very
safely away from scraping the bottom of the barrel and, along with
others such as Taetre, could be elevated further in the future.
Resurrecturis - _Nocturnal_ (Diamond Records, 1998)
by: Pedro Azevedo (5 out of 10)
"From brutal death to atmospheric dark", they say. I was curious to
hear how they would manage to do that, since the combination is
potentially very interesting. The result, however, is that this CD
often sounds more like a compilation of different bands, except for
the obviously constant production characteristics from track to
track. But when you go from normal death metal to groovier death,
faster, relatively brutal death, thrash/power vocals, clean singing
and softer parts (once even keyboard/strings only) with female
vocals, it's not easy to avoid that compilation syndrome I just
mentioned. Ressurrecturis fall right into that trap. The female
voices, for example, are acceptable, but sound so totally out of
place in the album that just don't contribute for the final result.
The variations I mentioned to the death vox are inconsequent as well,
and, at times, even annoying -- way too much thrash/power vocals and
very poor attempts at clean singing. These Italians still made a few
better sequences that save the album from a lower rating, but the
music never rises above average quality and the production doesn't
help much. There's just too much in this album that sounds out of
place and the music is never good enough to overcome that problem
(mediocre songs like "Dark Moods" definitely don't help).
Ressurrecturis seriously need to get an identity of their own.
Contact: Diamond Rec., Postbus 2166, 1620 Ed Hoorn, The Netherlands
Sad Legend - _Sad Legend_ (Hammerheart, September 1998)
by: Paul Schwarz (7.5 out of 10)
Hammerheart are always digging up various musical graveyards to bring
us some truly underground stuff, and they've done it again with this
Korean black metal band. Though not a phenomenal band, either in
their originality or skill, Sad Legend are talented at both writing
chunky, melodic black metal tunes and interweaving their "Korean
Traditional Music" into these black metal tunes. In fact, nearly all
of this album was played by one member, Naamah, but it strangely does
not suffer from the concentration-on-one-instrument syndrome which so
many albums conceived in these conditions have. All instruments amply
play their respective roles in bestowing _Sad Legend_ with a somewhat
individual character and certainly make it a pleasant, if not
entirely invigorating, 40 minutes. The band's production is great,
unflawed by the tendency bands have to go for "that raw sound" (or to
just not have the money to afford more than a tape player to record
their stuff on). Overall, a very promising debut coming from an
unusual source.
Savior Servant - _Savior Servant_ (Dominion Records, 1997)
by: Aaron McKay (8.5 out of 10)
Subtract a point or two from the score if your entire CD collection
consists of nothing but Broken Hope, Napalm Death and Massacre, with
only Dimmu Borgir's _Stormblast_ for mood inducing delectability. I
feel the need to quote Sacred Reich here by way of "31 Flavors", from
1990's _The American Way_ release, when Phil Rind articulates: "There
is so much for you to choose; don't just be a metal dude; it's cool
(fool)." Very much like labelmates Mercury Rising [CoC #34], Savior
Servant provides a magnificent lion's share of straightforward power
metal. I will say this, melodic passages run wild through this
release. Often, throughout the song, overwhelmingly thick guitar
passages are harshly paused, in lieu of which are used much softer
acoustic harmonies. Leonardo Cancela's vocals remind me of a hybrid
blend of Brian Troch from Cyclone Temple's _I Hate Therefore I Am_
period and the late Ray Gillen of Badlands. Impressive vocal work
indeed, second only to the successful accompaniment of fellow New
York bandmates Rob DeForge (guitar), Eric Weingartner (bass), and
Chip Rainone (drums). Now and again, I am reminded by this release,
at certain points, of Forced Entry's _Uncertain Future_. I will grant
you Savior Servant are dramatically less heavy than Forced Entry, but
still the argument can be made for the comparison. A very nice
feather in SS's cap too, I might think. I must, at this point, convey
that the production on this disc is unbelievable. But what did I
expect from a guy that produced both Screaming Blue Messiahs and
Stewart Copland? Ernie Wilkens' efforts at Sea Front Recording for
this release deserve at least a mention, if not an ovation, depending
on your open-mindedness. Take this to heart, you could be that
-enormous- individual that stood in front of me at the Black Sabbath
/ Motorhead / Morbid Angel show on the University of Maryland's
campus for all I care, but if you, as a sincere metal worshipper,
have -ever- said to yourself, "Damn, that (pick one: Queensryche,
Iced Earth) song ain't half bad," then maybe a listen to Savior
Servant might be something that you won't hate. SS are a powerful
quartet and certainly worthy of 38 minutes and 17 seconds of your
time, at least once.
Suppression w/ Facialmess - _Collaboration_
by: Gabriel Sanchez (7.5 out of 10) (Clean Plate Records, 1998)
While this at first appears to be a collaboration EP, the liner notes
don't really dictate exactly who did what on which tracks. Because of
this, I am taking my best guess at who is controlling the noise based
on each artist's previous work. The opening track on this EP's first
side is an obvious Facialmess recording, featuring one gigantic shot
of pure sound energy that raises, collapses, and rebuilds itself back
up in a continuous spastic motion. Like with most fast paced harsh
noise, it becomes impossible after a few seconds to get any exact
mental grasp on the sounds, as they are ever changing and choose
never to manifest themselves again in proper order during the
recording. The second side is much more choppy, with Suppression
trying their hand at noise with "The Average Citizen Is a Cheap
Tart". While Suppression's noise style mixes in well with their
grindcore, it is very poor on a stand alone basis. The mix of the
track is very uneven and seems to resemble more of just a lot of
guitar sounds with a mixture of screams. Facialmess manages to fire
back, however, with another excellent piece of noise, this time
letting the feedback control the track while dropping a load of other
electronic crashes and sputters into the mix. The track has a slight
Masonna feel to it, with all of the feedback and rumbling mixtures,
though not nearly as chaotic. The bottom line on this release is that
it's geared more for a Facialmess fan more than anything. While
Suppression is an excellent grindcore band, their abilities in the
noise area are lacking. This is still well worth getting for both of
the excellent Facialmess pieces, however.
Contact: Clean Plate Records, PO Box 709, Hampshire College
Amherst, MA 01002, USA
Thy Serpent - _Christcrusher_ (Nuclear Blast, July 1998)
by: David Rocher (10 out of 10)
Three dark spirits once again leave the pinewoods of Finland to
unleash an occult, antichristian assault unto us... Very similar in
style to their previous masterpiece _Forests of Witchery_,
_Christcrusher_ embodies a deceptively slow, intense requiem of
vehement antichristian hatred. Mystical, occult lyrics combine with
enchanting funeral hymns to create a very doom-like style of
sorrowful black metal, fuelled by an underlying rage that is nearly
tangible. The only exception to the melancholic, sometimes even
ethereal, yet uncontrived expression of rage burnt onto this CD is
the searing, no-holds-barred title track "Christcrusher", that would
without doubt earn its stars on Immortal's _Battles in the North_, so
strikingly similar to the Norwegian trios' style are the tight,
crushing riffing and vociferating, rabid vocals. To some extent, this
track embodies the lethal black thorn in a bunch of poison flowers,
whose suddenly unrestrained violence heaves forth the tense,
threateningly calm atmospheres of the other serenades on this
absolute masterpiece. To cut it short, _Christcrusher_ is definitely
one of the finest, most emotional releases of the year 1998 E.V., as
was _Forests of Witchery_ two years back -- buy or cry.
Training for Utopia / Zao - <Split EP> (Solidstate, 1998)
by: Alex Cantwell (8 out of 10)
With both of these bands releasing incredible albums earlier this
year, this EP is very cool indeed, as it features two new songs from
each band. The common factor that links these two bands, besides
their friendship and mutual respect, is the fact that they are both
pushing the limitations of the "hardcore" moniker way past what would
be considered "hardcore". Training for Utopia's intent seems to be
putting complete musical holocaust to tape, and presenting them as
"songs". The two new "songs" on this EP do have something like a
form, which is a change from the aural barrage heard on _Plastic Soul
Impalement_, but still have the required measure of chaos needed for
a TfU composition. Zao keeps making strides toward death metal, and
their two additions to this EP stand out from the material on their
previous release _When Blood and Fire Bring Rest_, in which they
grind a bit harder, but at the same time are not quite as drastically
aggressive. The handclaps add an interesting touch, too. A very cool
collaboration of two groundbreaking up and coming bands.
Contact: Solid State / Tooth and Nail Records, PO Box 12698
Seattle, WA, 98111-4698, USA
mailto:webmaster@solidstaterecords.com
Twin Obscenity - _For Blood, Honour and Soil_
by: Paul Schwarz (6 out of 10) (Century Media, October, 1998)
There is a central difficulty I have with this release. It lies, and
many of you may find this a strange statement, in the record's
similarity to early Burzum. I am not a big fan of _Burzum_ and,
although, it is better than this second Twin Obscenity album, the
aspects I don't like about it are almost identical to the aspects I
don't like about _For Blood, Honour and Soil_. The penchant which the
makers of both releases have for repeating riffs is not a style I
find either release carries off too well. On _Hvis Lyset Tar Oss_,
Vikerness used these very same elements to create an album which, of
its kind, is virtually unparalleled in quality, but, as this and
other releases illustrate, achieving this is not easy. Twin Obscenity
don't opt for the super-raw sound of _Burzum_, or Vikerness'
unmistakable vocals, but they do add a few nice instrumental touches
and toy successfully with female vocals. The production has pattering
double-bass "hell hammers" (old Arcturus), Hellhammer's big, echoing
Mayhem tomms, clattering snares and a melodic tinged guitar
distortion and playing style. When you put the 90% raspy vocals on
top, it just isn't anything special, just average. I think albums
toying with a style which relies so much on a perfect mix of
conditions, both musical and extraneous, need far more spontaneity
than is in evidence on _For Blood, Honour and Soil_ which, continuing
the Burzum comparisons, is a title containing themes the Nazis, and
especially SS, toyed with. Whatever the band's stance, I am sure that
if they piss on an altar or rough up a priest, Michael Moynihan will
put them in his next book and make them all some money.
Vanilla Ice - _Hard to Swallow_ (Republic, October 1998)
by: Brian Meloon (5 out of 10)
Vanilla Ice is back. You might wonder what a rapper is doing in the
pages of CoC. Well, his new album is very different from his previous
efforts. And you know what's really hard to swallow about this album?
It isn't terrible. On the surface, this album comes across as a more
rap-influenced version of Korn. The Korn-isms are rampant, from the
low-tuned guitars to the rip-off riffs and the use of acronyms in
song titles; he even screams "Korn" in one song. Upon deeper
inspection, you realize that this album actually features a good
variety of styles. Although he shows his influences quite clearly,
there is enough original material for him to avoid being labeled as a
complete rip-off. He uses some reggae in one song, as well as some
pseudo-industrial and some gloomy "introspective" parts. His vocals
span the range of shouts, screams, spoken parts and, of course, raps.
His raps are as bad as you remember them: so bad that they're pretty
funny at times. Of course, in keeping with the self-aggrandizing
hyper-machismo of rap, he usually raps about how cool he is and how
many records he sold. He also includes the soon-to-be-classic line
"ICE ICE BABY! ICE ICE BE-AHHHHHHHHHHHH-CH!" Fans of Korn, Stuck
Mojo, and other rap-influenced metal/hardcore bands should enjoy
this, provided they can put aside their preconceived notions and do
as Mr. Ice says: "sit back and just listen to the music."
Zimmer's Hole - _Bound by Fire_ (Hevy Devy Records, September 1998)
by: Adrian Bromley (9.5 out of 10)
Where the fuck are all these great Canadian bands coming from? Holy
fuck! Jesus Christ, this is heavy shit. I almost shit my pants when
the opening number began. Like a mix between Brutal Truth, Strapping
Young Lad and Ministry, Zimmer's Hole really lay the sicko shit on
real heavy. This is stuff the PMRC warned us metal buying kids about.
Offensive sounds and lyrics are abundant here, not to mention that
absurd and extremely grotesque manner of the band's presentation of
material on the disc. (Don't ask. You'll have to hear it!) Anyway,
I'm feeling a little sick and violated at this point in time while
cranking Zimmer's Hole and writing this review. Is this good? Of
course it is, if you are into something waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay out of
the ordinary. Let the ringleaders of madness within Zimmer's Hole --
El Smooche, Bangsley Star Nipples, Sickie Moochmaster and Dr. Heathen
Hooch -- take you on a little trip into their perverted world.
Zimmer's Hole are about as fucked up as you can be on record and
still pull it off. A wacked-out and extremely enjoyable record for
the masses to give in to.
Contact: Legion of Flames, 1856 Pandora St.
Vancouver, B.C., V5L-1M5, Canada
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E N C H A N T I N G D R A C O N I A N M E L O D I E S
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Moonspell, Therion and Darkside
at the Hard Club, Gaia, Portugal
October 25, 1998
by: Pedro Azevedo
Before I start describing what happened in this concert, I must
question the decision of giving such a superior band as Therion a
support role. This could have been a double-headlining concert, with
Moonspell still closing the show, but without them playing for almost
twice as long as Therion -- this is most infuriating because,
regardless of musical preferences, it will definitely be much less
likely that Therion will ever return to Porto than Moonspell, who
have obviously also played here before. Maybe Moonspell -had- to be
headliners, from a commercial point of view, but their on-stage time
and Therion's should have been much closer (to say the very least),
even if the majority of the audience may have been there mostly for
Moonspell -- which is far from unquestionable, too. Anyway, Therion
should have definitely been given time to play longer songs such as
"The Siren of the Woods", "Clavicula Nox" and "Draconian Trilogy" if
they wanted to.
Many of these thoughts were already in my mind as a premonition,
while I traversed the lugubre surroundings of the Hard Club and
admired the enchanting nighttime view of Porto across the river. At
9pm sharp, Darkside entered the stage and faced an expectably packed
house. The sound was as great as usual in the Hard Club, and Darkside
took advantage of that fact to promote their new album. This band was
previously unknown to me, and they turned out to be able to deliver a
very acceptable 25 minute long opening for the concert. Playing some
competent mid-paced death metal with decent use of keyboards, they
improved after an average first couple of songs; the next two were
slower and doomier and the finishing song was quite good live, too.
The first draconian melody, the intro to "The Rise of Sodom and
Gomorrah", announced Therion's arrival. What really surprised me was
the massive crowd reaction to everything Therion did: almost everyone
seemed to be carried away by Therion's music, as the crowd movement
throughout and the cheering before and after each and every song
proved. Lead by Christofer Johnsson, Therion delivered an outstanding
performance. Having brought three female vocalists and putting the
recorded orchestral parts to very good use, their live sound was
excellent -- far from disappointing and furthermore helped by a
strong drum sound. Sarah Jezebel Diva (I assume it was her), Martina
Hornbacher (from Dreams of Sanity) and a third female singer unknown
to me (who might have been the other Dreams of Sanity vocalist, but
I'm guessing) performed excellently, with confidence and quality as
the two main adjectives. Therion opened with "The Rise of Sodom and
Gomorrah", followed by the acclaimed "To Mega Therion", "Birth of
Venus Illegitima", "Wine of Aluqah", "Cults of the Shadow", "In the
Desert of Set", "Invocation of Naamah", "Black Sun" and finally the
well-chosen "Riders of Theli" as an immensely demanded encore. A
setlist practically without a weak link and an absolutely delightful
and truly uplifting performance. What a shame it was only 50 minutes
long.
Moonspell started their 90 minutes long show with vocalist
Fernando Ribeiro wearing some sort of religious cloak during "Let the
Children Cum to Me...". After getting rid of the outfit, Ribeiro led
Moonspell into songs like "Opium", "Of Dream and Drama (Midnight
Ride)", "Second Skin" and so on throughout the expectable choices
from _Irreligious_ and _Sin_. Things got much more interesting
towards the end, with "Vampiria", "Mephisto", and "Alma Mater" as the
finishing song; it was interesting to notice that "Vampiria" and
"Alma Mater" were the two songs the audience seemed to cheer the
most. Nevertheless, the crowd sang along and generally reacted very
well during the whole show. Fernando Ribeiro suggested that "Alma
Mater" should become the new Portuguese national anthem, saying he
believed most of the audience identifies much more with their song
than with the current anthem, and the vast majority of the crowd
seemed to entirely agree. Too bad that "Alma Mater" turns into a much
weaker keyboard-based song live; is the guitar part really that hard
to play live? Anyway, Moonspell came back for "Awaken" and "Full Moon
Madness" as encore and "Raven Claws" as a second encore. Thanks to
the sound quality, the very reasonable track choices (more
_Wolfheart_ would have been great, but...) and the increased
aggression injected into the rather bland and average _Sin_ songs,
Moonspell played a very decent show. Still, I would have traded all
of Darkside and Moonspell for some more Therion; I would even have
settled for trading 20 minutes of Moonspell (especially _Sin_ songs)
for 20 more minutes of Therion -- this would leave the two bands with
an hour and 10 minutes each, with Moonspell still finishing the
concert as "headliners". This would have been a much fairer
compromise between concert quality and presumed band status, in my
opinion, but enough of that.
Finally, it goes without saying that it was a heartbreaking loss
for me that Anathema couldn't play in this concert like they were
supposed to. The official reason was the departure of bassist Duncan
Patterson. If only that departure had been postponed for a couple
more months...
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W H A T W E H A V E C R A N K E D ! ! !
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gino's Top 5
1. Various - _Gummo: Soundtrack_
2. Marilyn Manson - _Mechanical Animals_
3. Absu - _In The Eyes of Ioldanach_
4. Brujeria - _Matando Gueros_
5. Rob Zombie - _Hellbilly Deluxe_
Adrian's Top 5
1. Zimmer's Hole - _Bound by Fire_
2. Queen of the Stone Age - _Queens of the Stone Age_
3. Deranged - _High on Blood_
4. Punisher - _Disillusioned_
5. Nashville Pussy - _Let Them Eat Pussy_
Brian's Top 5
1. Opeth - _My Arms, Your Hearse_
2. Enthroned - _Gothic Disturbance_
3. Dawnbringer - _Unbleed_
4. Aurora Borealis - _Praise the Archaic Lights Embrace_
5. God - _From the Moldavian Ecclesiastic Throne_
Alain's Top 5
1. Dying Fetus - _Killing on Adrenaline_
2. Bolt Thrower - _Mercenary_
3. Dark Funeral - _Vobiscum Satanas_
4. Cryptopsy - _Whisper Supremacy_
5. Black Sabbath - _Reunion_
Adam's Top 5
1. Fear Factory - _Obsolete_
2. Brutal Truth - _Need to Control_
3. Cryptopsy - _Vile_
4. Gorgoroth - _Destroyer (About How to Philosophize with a Hammer)_
5. Gore Beyond Necropsy - _Noise-A-Go Go!!!_
Pedro's Top 5
1. In Battle - _In Battle_
2. A Canorous Quintet - _Silence of the World Beyond_
3. Incantation - _Diabolical Conquest_
4. Legenda - _Eclipse_
5. At the Gates - _With Fear I Kiss the Burning Darkness_
Paul's Top 5
1. Cryptopsy - _Whisper Supremacy_
2. Malevolent Creation - _The Ten Commandments_
3. System of a Down - _System of a Down_
4. Obliveon - _Cybervoid_
5. The Grateful Dead - _The Grateful Dead_
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DESCRIPTION
~~~~~~~~~~~
Chronicles of Chaos is a monthly magazine electronically distributed
worldwide via the Internet. Chronicles of Chaos focuses on all forms
of chaotic music including black, death and doom metal, dark/ambient,
industrial and electronic/noise as well as classic and progressive
metal. Each issue will feature a plethora of album reviews from a
wide range of bands, as well as interviews with some of the
underground's best acts. Also included in each issue are demo reviews
and indie band interviews.
HOW TO SUBSCRIBE
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You may subscribe to Chronicles of Chaos at any time by sending a
message with "coc subscribe <your_name_here>" in the SUBJECT of your
message to <mailto:ginof@interlog.com>. Please note that this command
must NOT be sent to the list address <coc-ezine@lists.colorado.edu>.
AUTOMATIC FILESERVER
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All back issues and various other CoC related files are available for
automatic retrieval through our e-mail fileserver. All you have to do
is send a message to us at <mailto:ginof@interlog.com>. The
'Subject:' field of your message must read: "send file X" where 'X'
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End Chronicles of Chaos, Issue #35
All contents copyright 1998 by individual creators of included work.
All opinions expressed herein are those of the individuals expressing
them, and do not necessarily reflect the views of anyone else.
