Review: Ahab, “The Giant”

Doom metal isn’t the most innovative genre. I admit I have not immersed myself in the genre as I have in other styles of metal, but I’ve heard enough funeral dirge metal to know I’d mostly rather get doom from the original masters — Black Sabbath.

The one exception to my ”no new doom” rule, however, is Germany’s Ahab. Ever since the band’s first release — the suffocating yet oddly beautiful “The Call of the Wretched Sea” — I have been a fan and have always eagerly await news of new Ahab albums.

The band’s 2012 release, “The Giant,” is not a disappointment. In fact, “The Giant” is a great leap forward for Ahab, as the band moves away from their already-hybridized version of “doom” and more into progressive metal. Not every fan will like the band’s musical direction — but if fans look back on the band’s previous two albums, “The Call of the Wretched Sea” and “The Divinity of Oceans,” it should be clear that “The Giant” was Ahab’s next logical step.

Like album’s past, “The Giant” is a concept album, this time based on Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket.” But you don’t need to know your Poe to enjoy “The Giant.”

Vocalist/guitarist Daniel Droste still employs his dead-man’s sludge-filled grunt throughout the album — but Droste sings much of the album with “clean vocals.” Now, singing clean isn’t new to the band; there were moments of clean vocals in “The Divinity of Oceans,” and what I’d guess you call “clean chanting” on songs like “The Sermon” and “The Hunt” from “Call of the Wretched Sea.” But Droste does something new here, singing almost entire songs (“Fathoms Deep,” “The Giant” and “Time’s Like Molten Lead”) entirely with clean voice.

Droste’s “regular” voice isn’t Bruce Dickinson’s, to be sure — but the vocals fit the melancholy feel of the disc. How much the “clean” vocals bother you will like depend on how much of death metal purist you are — certainly, some older bands of the band have not loved the new style. On the other hand, the juxtaposition of clean and doom vocals gives the band a much broader musical range and depth.

Speaking of “depth,” Ahab has always been about the impossibly heavy depths of the sea (all three concept albums are based on sea epics or history of shipwrecks). While the vocals are often clearer, there has been so softening musically; the beautiful parts are steeped in sadness, or are eerie and full of foreboding — while the metal still crashes down and obliterates. A prime example is “Fathoms Deep,” a deceptively lulling song for the first few minutes, until the doom crashes in like a tidal wave and overwhelms everything in its path.

There are a lot of standout tracks here — almost everything works, really, although “Antarctica the Polymorphess” is not quite as interesting as everything that comes before and after. While all the rest are great, my personal faves are “Further South,” Fathoms Deep,” “The Giant” and the brilliant “Time’s Like Molten Lead” — which, I’ve read, is actually a bonus track.

Ahab continues to grow on “The Giant” and is moving in directions I can’t quite predict. While I love the band’s doom metal approach, it’s good to see the band member’s setting sail for different musical shores. I’ll be looking forward to their next musical voyage. Who knows where they’ll go?

Review: Chthonic: “Takasago Army”

The problem with the age of buying albums online is that we’ve lost the joy of browsing the record store.

To buy an album online, of course, you have to know exactly what you want. While record labels and zines do everything they can to publicize bands, only a small percentage of the bands are likely to get through your filter.

That wasn’t true back when we had record stores; in those halcyon days, I would spend a good hour or two just browsing through the aisles, checking out album covers, reading lyrics and song titles and bugging the clerks for info about particularly interesting bands. Part of the fun was taking home an album by a completely unknown (to me) band — yes, I got some stinkers that way, but I also ended up with great albums by bands like Type O Negative, Megadeth, Manowar and The Dead Milkmen.

I had a new “hoooley shee-it” moment recently, when I stumbled across the new Chthonic album, “Takasago Army” at record store in a nearby city. While I think I had heard of Chthonic before, I knew absolutely nothing about them … so my ears perked up and my eyes popped out when the Taiwan-based band hit me with an original blend of traditional Taiwanese melodies and instrumentation and roaring symphonic black metal.

A concept album based on Taiwanese history, “Takasako Army” is a blistering disc and surprises again and again with the inclusion of Chinese and Taiwanese melodies.

I’m not talking about just samples here and there, either; the music of Taiwan is inextricably woven into the songs. Metal is a western creation — but Chthonic doesn’t attempt to imitate western metal. Instead, they make the genre their own. To the uninitiated, it’s an incredibly refreshing.

But, thankfully, injecting Taiwanese culture into the music doesn’t stop Chthonic from being incredibly heavy. With the exception of two brief instrumentals, “Takasago Army” roars from beginning to end.

“Takasago Army” tells the story of Taiwanese aboriginals who were recruited to fight for Japan during World War II. After the war, the men returned home, only to be recruited again when Chinese nationalists invaded Taiwan after the nationalists lost the Chinese civil war. The Taiwanese defenders lost the battle — thereby losing any chance the island nation had for independence after the defeat of Japan.

You don’t have to know all of that to appreciate “Takasago Army,” however. This is symphonic black metal — and the Taiwanese musical references make this as innovative and surprising as Emperor must have been when they first burst onto the Norwegian metal scene in the early 1990s.

Fans of black metal — and metal fans tired of the countless bands that seem to be working overtime to sound as generic as possible — will find much to enjoy here. “Takasago Army” is highly recommended.

Review: Metallica & Lou Reed, “Lulu”

Loutallica

Every once in a while, there’s an album so big that every member of the metal press simply has to write about it.

“Lulu,” the collaboration between Metallica and ’60s-70s electric/ecclectic folk freak Lou Reed is one of those albums.

We can’t ignore an album by “the biggest metal band in the world,” I suppose … but reviewing a humorless, directionless, pointless car crash like “Lulu” ain’t gonna be a whole lotta fun, either. Sigh, let’s just tackle this sunnavabeech of an album right now and get it over with, shall we?

Loutallica first performed together at the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame and they thought it went so freakin’ well that they had to collaborate on a full album. So Reed dusted off some lyrics he’d cobbled together based on a cycle of German expressionist plays (no, I’m not making that up), presented them to the band and said, “OK, boys, let’s make some art!”

If the comments from Reed, Lars Ulrich and Kirk Hammett are to be believed, “art” is really what they think they achieved with “Lulu.” I guess the argument could be made — I mean hell, if I guy can stick a crucifix in a jar, pee on it and pass it off as “art,” the word “art” has no meaning anyway.

So I’ll give Loutallica a pass in the “art” category, but honestly, this is just about the worst musical pile of dung I’ve heard in years. Words are inadequate to articulate the incredible, impossible, staggering awfulness of this album. Every last thing about it is wrong, and it’s an album that will not please fans of either Metallica or Lou Reed. It’s as if the album was cut with the deliberate intention of alienating as many listeners as possible. If that was the goal, Loutallica succeeded.

What’s wrong with “Lulu”? Well, let’s start with that German expressionist yap Reed is spouting. According to their Web site, the “Lulu” plays were written in the early 1900s and were about “a young abused dancer’s life and relationships.”

Maybe someone could have taken that theme and made a compelling album — the phrase “young abused dancer” stirs an interesting mental image of a 20-something ballerina with a bit of a kinky streak buried within her — and who wouldn’t want to meet that girl?. Hell, give that concept to Shirley Manson and Garbage and I’ll bet they make something sexy out of it.

Reed, however, wasn’t up to the challenge. Reed sounds stoned out of his mind, or just off his meds, as he rambles through each of “Lulu’s” dismal excuses for songs. And the lyrics, wowee-zowee, you gotta hear them to believe them.

“Follow me around, pathetic little dog,” Reed croaks in “Little Dog.” “Smell your sh*t in the wind.”

On “Frustration,” Reed reaches a level of epic atrociousness, with lines like, “spermless like a girl,” “you and your prickless lover” and “I want so much to hurt you, I want you as my wife.”

“I’m a woman who likes men,” Reed spits on “Mistress Dread.” “I wish you would tie me up and beat me … I wish there was a strap of blood you could kiss away… I beg you to degrade me,” and it just goes on and on, with every new utterance more ridiculous, hideous and embarrassing than the last.

Frankly, Metallica vocalist James Hetfield doesn’t help this mess. Het is unintentionally hilarious when he starts yelling “small town girl!” on “Brandburg Gate”  and “I am the table!” on “The View.” Later in the album, Het sings, “why do I cheat on me?” And you’ll think, “jeeze, James, I don’t know why — but stop it, so I don’t have to hear about it anymore, why donchya?”

Musically, only two of the tracks, “Iced Honey” and the first half of “Junior Dad” sound like “songs” at all. The rest of the album sounds like a “St. Anger” jam session intermixed with a “free-jazz” session that makes Spinal Tap’s Jazz Odyssey sound inspired.

There’s not enough “metal” here to make metal fans happy — sure, the band thrashes a bit on “Mistress Dread,” but most of the music sounds like jam-band-gone-wrong.

So “Lulu” is a trainwreck of monumental proportions. Everyone involved behind the scenes had to realize how earth-shakingly bad this project was, so the real mystery about “Lulu” is: Why didn’t anyone tell Reed and the band the truth? Wasn’t there a producer or manager or even a freakin’ studio janitor who could’ve said, “sorry, Lars, but this music really sucks”? Perhaps this is what happens when artists get so big that they lose all connection with reality.

Reed and Metallica seems to be off in their own parallel reality, where down is up, right is left and anything they record is automatically “good” and “art.” Well, bullsh*t. “Lulu” is absolute unlistenable dreck. I can’t even laugh at the album, because Loutallica is obviously taking the damn thing soooooo seriously. What a joyless pile of broken cogs and widgets.

The members of Metallica were always hell-bent on doing things their way, on their own terms. That worked for them in the past, but we’ll see how much of the fan base is willing to embrace “Lulu.” I think Metallica is gonna lose some fans on this one.

After listening to “Lulu” several times, I wouldn’t blame those old fans who throw up their hands and walk away one single bit.

Review: Arch/Matheos “Sympathetic Resonance”

John Arch and Jim Matheos

In 1986, one of my favorite albums of the year was the Fates Warning epic “Awaken The Guardian.” ”Guardian” was an incredibly accomplished piece of progressive metal — full of complex, heavy-yet-catchy songs, amazing vocals by John Arch and great guitar work by guitarists and songwriters Jim Matheos and Frank Aresti. “Guardian” was — and remains — a classic (you can read more about it here).

After “ATG,” however, John Arch was booted from the band; I’ve read interviews where the rest of the band doubted Arch’s commitment to the touring-recording-touring lifestyle — and perhaps with good reason; it would be more than 15 years before Arch would record songs again.

But when Arch did come back for the 2003 EP, “A Twist of Fate,” he was again working with his old Fates Warning comrade Jim Matheos. When word leaked last year that Arch and Matheos (along with Aresti) were working on a full-length album, I was really excited.

But I wondered: A lot of time had gone by; could Arch and Matheos recapture the power, spirit and precision of “Awaken The Guardian”? Could they go home again?

No — but to be fair, they didn’t try, either. Arch and Matheos (who decided to call the band Arch/Matheos rather than working under the Fates Warning label), didn’t write a bunch of material that sounds exactly like the “Awaken The Guardian” era. In retrospect, that decision makes sense; after all, if people like “Awaken The Guardian,” they can simply spin that album again and not bother with any of Matheos’ new music.

The end result, “Sympathetic Resonance,” is very good in large part; in particular, the songs “Neurotically Wired,” “Midnight Serenade” and “Any Given Day (Strangers Like Me)” are well-realized, well-played and very pleasing. Also, the album is much heavier than I originally expected, and that’s a plus; I’m glad every “progressive metal” band (Hi, Opeth!) isn’t abandoning metal entirely to follow their King Crimson/Yes muse into the ether.

Most of the songs on ”Sympathetic Resonance” are exhaustively long. “Neurotically Wired,” “Stained Glass Sky” and “Any Given Day” all clock in at over 10 minutes-long — and they’re filled with the multiple time signature twists and turns reminiscent of early Fates Warning tracks like “Epitaph” or “The Ivory Gate of Dreams.” In that sense, the album is actually less controlled than “Awaken The Guardian,” which can be a drawback.

Arch is a great vocalists, but his lyrical phrasing can be a bit jarring at times. On “Guardian,” the songs were so tight that Arch wasn’t able to fly too far from the melody; the songs on “Sympathetic Resonance,” however, are a bit more free-form, so at times Arch seems to be singing against the melody. It’s just his style, I know, but occasionally it does sound odd.

But when the man is on, he’s really on — “Midnight Serenade” is equal to anything Arch did with the band on “Guardian,” and “Any Give Day (Strangers Like Me)” showcases voice to the fullest extent.

The musicianship here is stellar. Matheos and Aresti go for broke on the opening instrumental barrage of “Stained Glass Sky” and the guitars impress throughout. Arch and Aresti came of age in the era of the guitar solo and their chops have only gotten better since the 1980s. Drummer Bobby Jarzombek is a phenomenal drummer who stands out on every single track. As for Joey Vera, he’s not really given much to do beyond follow the melodies — but, considering the complexity level of the songs, that’s probably enough

I have some quibbles. Lyrically, the album is riddled with clichés — you could almost make a drinking game out of the number of times Arch lets fly with a stock phrase — and the songs are certainly less focused than the tracks on “Awaken The Guardian.”

So, this isn’t the album of the year I was hoping it to be, but am I disappointed in “Sympathetic Resonance”? No. The album takes patience and multiple spins to really appreciate, but the songs have grown on me with repeat listens (Incense and Myrrh” is notable in that the track seemed like a throwaway effort on first listen — but has gotten more and more impressive on every successive listen).

Anyway, it’s good to hear Arch, and Matheos together again. I certainly hope there will be a tour in 2012.

Book review: “Enter Night, A Biography of Metallica”

I had never heard of author/music critic Mick Wall until I stumbled across Enter Night: A Biography of Metallica last week, but Wall certainly knows his way around much of the hard rock and heavy metal world.

In addition to writing for various metal mags and publications like the London Times, Wall has penned bios of Led Zeppelin, Ozzy Osbourne, Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Bono and Guns N Roses.

I’m looking forward to reading more of Wall’s stuff, because Enter Night is an intelligent, thorough, high-quality work — filled with both sharp insights and cutting anecdotes, while not lacking on the lets-look-at-the-car-wreck sleaze that made rock bios like “Hammer of the Gods” so much damn fun.

Wall has interviewed Metallica members James Hetfield and Lar Ulrich numerous times over the years. Wall has also spent a good amount of time with Kirk Hammett and Cliff Burton (much less with Jason Newsted, but more on that later). Wall also interviewed other prominent figures in Metallica’s history, like Dave Mustaine, Rob Trujillo, Ron McGovney, Jonny and Marsha Zazula, Brian Slagel, Bob Rock, Flemming Rasmussen and members of Armored Saint, Anthrax, Megadeth, Slayer and other bands, tour managers and insiders.

All of that access did not turn Wall into a sycophant; indeed Wall is unafraid to slaughter Metallica sacred cows like “… And Justice For All” and “Death Magnetic. Wall also doesn’t gloss over unpleasant band history… especially when it comes to the decisions Hetfield, Ulrich and Hammett made after Cliff Burton’s death in September, 1986, and how they marginalized Newsted for years after Newsted was hired as Burton’s replacement.

Wall has an encyclopedic knowledge of the NWOBHM bands that young Lars Ulrich idolized so much as a teen with a rock dream.  Wall extensively interviewed Ulrich’s friends and associates, showing Ulrich as a man with the ambition to make his band (which didn’t even exist until “Mettallica” was offered a chance to play a song on the first “Metal Massacre” album) the biggest band in the world.

As a drummer, Ulrich was often so bad that Hetfield would spit on him at gigs, Wall writes … but without Ulrich’s drive, Metallica would never have achieved one-tenth of the success the band eventually reached.

Hetfield gets equally close scrutiny. Wall’s portrait of Hetfield’s childhood (with an absent father and a mother whose Christian Science beliefs led her to forsake treatment for cancer and die while Hetfield was a teen) goes a long way toward explaining the anger Hetfield displayed in his music — and the shell he kept erected around himself for much of his life.

To reach the top, Ulrich and Hetfield made some controversial (some would say callous) decisions. The firing of long-time friend McGovney for Burton made sense musically, of course. But Wall doesn’t downplay the fact that Hetfield and Ulrich (and Mustaine as well) screwed over McGovney — partying and causing chaos while Ron paid the bills — before tossing him unceremoniously out of the band.

Later, Hetfield, Ulrich and Burton would do the same thing with Mustaine – who, Wall writes, competed with Ulrich and Hetfield for leadership of the band – and upstaged the shy Hetfield onstage. Hammett was both a more intricate player (but not an innovator like Mustaine, Wall writes) and someone who would follow Hetfield and Ulrich’s leadership, Wall writes. The decision to basically dump managers Jon and Marsha Z was also a somewhat cold one (the band had actually lived for a time with the Z family while recording “Kill Em All,” and Jon Z put himself into serious financial hock to make that record)… but the move to new management did help the band find the larger audience it was seeking.

Hammett doesn’t get much attention compared to Hetfield and Ulrich. But Wall does spend quite a bit of time on Cliff Burton — who Wall describes as both the most musically adventurous member of the band and the most grounded.

As Wall writes, Burton was practically an idol to James, Lars and Kirk; he was the man who would never “sell out” his integrity and beliefs. He was the most musically trained (Burton had studied classical music and was a fan of Bach) — and also introduced the band to a variety of influences, from Skynyrd to Kate Bush and The Misfits. Some of Burton’s musical influences would continue to be felt long after his death.

If Cliff wasn’t the leader of the band, he was the person Ulrich and Hetfield had to convince before major decisions were made.  According to Wall, the impact of Burton’s death in a bus accident on the band cannot  be overstated.

Burton was killed when the band’s bus slid off the road and overturned during the “Master of Puppets” tour in Sweden on Sept. 27, 1986. The accident threatened to sideline the band at a time when “Master” was receiving raves and a mass audience beckoned. The band’s management, Q Prime, urged the band to stay on the road, and Hetfield, Ulrich and Hammett made the decision to find a permanent replacement for Burton, rather than just hiring a stand-in for the tour.  Nine weeks after Burton’s funeral, the band was touring Japan with new bassist Jason Newsted.

Wall isn’t particularly sympathetic to Newsted; Wall is part of the “cult of Cliff” himself, and tends to idolize Burton while dismissing Newsted’s skills as a bassist. It’s not necessarily fair — but Wall writes Hetfield, Ulrich and Hammett did much the same thing. The rest of the band looked down on Newsted as almost a groupie — someone who had  jettisoned his old band, Flotsam and Jetsam (where Newsted was the primary songwriter and businessman) to grab a secondary position in Metallica. It was a choice, Wall writes, that Newsted lived to regret. Rob Trujillo, however, is depicted by Wall as someone who isn’t awestruck by his new superstar band mates and as someone who is more than capable of holding his own on stage.

Wall’s assessments of the albums are spot on; he rightly praises “Master of Puppets,” “Ride the Lightning” and the “Black” album, while noting the revolutionary impact of “Kill Em All” and the incredibly alive (and fun) sound of “Garage Days Re-Revisited.” It may be against conventional wisdom, but Wall’s right in that “Load” had a lot of terrific songs (he’s also correct in saying “Reload” is mostly dreck). Further, Wall is also right when he says “… And Justice For All” is a cold, sterile album that is almost unlistenable, except for “One.” Wall doesn’t care much for “Death Magnetic,” but a lot of old-school fans weren’t impressed and Wall definitely is an “old school” fan.

I came away from Enter Night with a greater appreciation of Metallica – the band that almost never existed and nearly ripped itself apart after Burton’s death. I don’t know if the band likes it, but Wall’s account is, ultimately, exceedingly fair and entertaining. I was surprised at how little about Metallica I actually knew.

Highly recommended.

Review: Blut Aus Nord, “777 Sect(s)”

This is the sound of all of your musical expectations being ripped up and thrown away.

After the ethereal, often-lovely 1999 masterwork “Memoria Vetusta II: Dialogue with the Stars,” French black metallers Blut Aus Nord  scratch scars into your psyche with “777 Sect(s),” the first of a year-long, three-part project ( parts II and III are due in September and November, respectively).

BAN is definable by, well, being somewhat indefinable. The band can, and often does, play traditional black metal, but the black metal is often intermixed or displaced entirely, with elements industrial and techno music, acoustic interludes and raw, evil noise. The music can be beautiful at times and almost unlistenable later.

But even by previous standards, “777 Sect(s)” shocks.

The songs, named Epitome 1-6, are less individual songs than six movements making up one long work. If there’s a theme here, its disharmony, or, perhaps, dysfunction; minor scales and progressions twist and fall like broken scaffolding in an abandoned industrial nightmare (if there’s a single major key played throughout the album, I certainly didn’t hear it); “Epitome 1″ is almost too discordant, with angry melodies treble-picked while band founder Vindsval groans over/under the music. At the 1:50 mark, the song changes into a dead elephant march before flying back into the twisted carnival and ending on a techno beat. It’s exhausting. The first time I heard “Epitome 1,” I wondered what the hell hit me.

But the album is deceptive; scattered throughout the “Epitomes” are moments of odd beauty, like orchids of melody growing amongst the flaming wreckage all around. “Epitome 2,” is a seemingly simple industrialized funeral march, with moments of grand majesty amongst the blackness. “Epitome 3″ is the musical personification of a mechanized slaughterhouse and “Epitome 4″ is nail-bitingly anxious, with Vindsval playing his vocals backwards over the driving tank rhythm.

“Epitome 5″ is broken and jagged, complete with the clangs of heavy machinery and “Epitome 6″ is not much more than a single riff, repeated over an industrial beat.

 This isn’t easy listening. The music is strenuous and people introduced to BAN through the more traditional black metal of “Memoria Vetusta II” are going to be in for a shock. But there’s a hidden beauty here, even if it only flashes through at moments, like the melody within the riff on “Epitome 6,” or in the undercurrent of “Epitome 2″ and the off-kilter bizarro world of “Epitome 4.”

It will likely turn off traditional and symphonic black meta fans, but “777 Sect(s)” is certainly black metal, or a least a hybridization of the genre with a definite black metal sensibility. This is cold, mesmerizing music, written for cosmic forces and singularities we cannot fathom. This album burns like deep-space frost bite, but I like it.

It will be interesting to see what musical direction Vindsval and BAN take on the second and third discs of the series. Frankly I’m dying to see how the three “777″ discs fit together.

Review: Inquisition, “Ominous Doctrines of the Perpetual Mystical Macrocosm”

We often say a band is “derivative” of another artist with the automatic assumption that being derivative is always a bad thing. If a band, album or song is not completely new or original, we discount it as less-than-worthy.

It would be fair to say U.S. black metallers Inquisition build on musical ground that has been thoroughly ploughed by Immortal. But Inquisition, the U.S. black metal duo of vocalist/guitarist Dagon and drummer Incubus, aren’t simply parroting Immortal’s style – rather, the band takes the trappings of Immortal’s sound (the relentless drumming and buzz-saw guitars, the croaked vocals) and expands them with unexpected moments of melody.

 Inquisition’s new album “Ominous Doctrines of the Perpetual Mystical Macrocosm,” is aggressive as Immortal or Mayhem, but is quite full of surprises. Dagon weaves multiple layers of melody and waves of guitar noise into the songs, creating a sound that contains the freezing roar of Immortal while blending in the atmospherics of Burzum or Blut Aus Nord.

“Astral Path to Supreme Majesties” opens the album with a blazing two-note black metal riff … but Dagon layers the song with waves of acoustic strums for extra texture. A completely unexpected folk melody is blended into the “chorus, adding yet more depth.” Dagon doesn’t lay on the solos, but he knows when to pile on the extra noise. After a slower interlude, the song flies into a gallop.

I’ve read people complain that Dagon sings with the froggy croak of a man with an extremely bad cold. Well, that’s not inaccurate … but c’mon, if you’re complaining about the vocals in black metal, you really wanna be listening to something else. It’s not supposed to be pretty, kids.

Time-changes abound throughout “Ominous Doctrines,” which is a tiny bit unusual for black metal. I’m reluctant to call Inquisition “progressive,” but the band isn’t afraid to step out beyond the boundaries of Immortal-style black metal.

In short – and I’m trying very hard to keep this review concise, for once – Inquisition doesn’t trailblaze on “Ominous Doctrines of the Perpetual Mystical Macrocosm,” but they do take the “traditional” black metal sound and incorporate enough of the own ideas into it that the sound remains fresh. The result is not experimental, but rather, the sound of musicians who are confident enough to build on the black metal template and create their own style. Highly melodic and furiously angry and biting, “Ominous Doctrines” could well be the best “traditional” black metal album of 2011.

Review: Hail of Bullets “On Divine Winds”

Some albums wow me right away, while others take time and repeat listens before I recognize their merits. The new Hail Of Bullets disc, “On Divine Winds,” falls into the second category.

I’m not normally the “first-day buyer” type, but I made sure I picked up “On Divine Winds” the day of its release in October. My excitement was justified: The Dutch band’s Metal Blade debut “… Of Frost And War” was one of my favorite albums of 2008. Of all the albums I bought that year, “… Of Frost And War” is the one I still spin regularly (sorry, Opeth).

So imagine my surprise when I found myself initially underwhelmed by “On Divine Winds.” The album – the band’s second concept album based on World War II – seemed formulaic, like a warmed-over helping of “… Of Frost And War” that I didn’t necessarily need. After a few listens and half-listens, I put the record aside for a couple of weeks.

When I finally put “On Divine Winds” back into my CD player, though, I noticed the album is not a pale copy of the band’s previous work. Instead “Winds” is much more melodic than its predecessor; while the band is still grounded in old-school death metal (and what else would you expect from a band that contains members or ex-members of Asphyx, Gorefest and Thanatos?), the attention to melody – and the willingness to let the songs evolve slowly when necessary – makes the album much more complex than initially meets the ear.

The brief intro, “Eve of Battle,” is a teaser for what’s to follow, as multi-layered guitars combine with orchestral keys for an epic effect. “Operation Z,” however, erupts with a burst of high-speed violence: Considering the metal pedigree of the musicians, it’s no surprise guitarists Stephan Gebédi and Paul Baayens, bassist Theo Van Eekelen and drummer Ed Warby are such a precision machine. These guys know how to blaze, and the twin guitar solo is a surprise.

Vocalist Martin Van Drunen doesn’t have a great deal of range … but why would anyone expect “range” in death metal? What Van Drunen has in spades is passion, along with a gravelly bark that fits the musical rage perfectly. Well, “high-speed violence,” “rage” and a “bark” are all fairly common in traditional DM … but the band throws a major curve ball into “Operation Z,” when the song slows and drives into a winding, slithering, grinding interlude before doubling back for a final blast of the main riff. The band could have double-bass bull-dozed all the way through, so the decision to slow down is a welcome change of pace.

“The Mukden Incident” is slower than “Operation Z,” although “slow ” shouldn’t be mistaken for “easy listening.” The middle section, complete with dual guitar melodies, is another eye-opening moment.

There are too many excellent tracks to spend much time highlighting them in depth. Along with “Operation Z” and “The Mukden Incident,” other favorites are the excellent “Strategy of Attrition” and the slow-burning “Full Scale War.” Guadalcanal” has a great opening riff and a thundering charge.

While I try to avoid use of the overtaxed and overspent word “brutal,” there’s no other word to describe the merciless pounding of “On Coral Shores” – jeezus, that song is vicious even before it jumps from a relentless march to a armored gallop. It’s a song that gives me chills.

“Unsung Heroes” never quite stands out to me, but “Tokyo Napalm Holocaust” is a pummeling piece of work, with a driving melody line, some scary-yet-inspired guitar work and a stark, spit-it-out performance by Van Drunen. The much faster “Kamikaze” is forgettable only in the sense that it has to follow “Tokyo Napalm Holocaust.”

Finally, the outro “To Bear The Unbearable” is beautiful in it’s crushing despair. The melody is gorgeous, the mood is one of total gloom and the audio sample at the end is absolutely haunting.

I don’t know if “On Divine Winds” will join “… Of Frost And War” on my regular CD rotation, but “Winds” is a surprisingly intricate and melodic work of DM heaviness. I won’t say it’s better than “… Of Frost And War,” but “Winds” is musically more complex and calls for a patient ear to discover all its treasures. I’m very impressed. Thus far, Hail Of Bullets can do no wrong.

All we need now is a Hailz tour in 2011. Here’s the video for “Operation Z.”

Review: Holy Grail: “Crisis In Utopia”

It’s always a treat to go to a show and be totally blown away by a completely unknown band.

That doesn’t happen to me very often, but it did on Sept. 2, when Cali-based retro-thrashers Holy Grail opened the Exodus/Malevolent Creation show in Louisville.

Now, I wouldn’t say Holy Grail put on the absolute best performance of the night … but the Grail set is the only one that really stuck out in my mind. Exodus was good, of course, but they have nothing to prove and their performance was strong without being totally inspiring. Holy Grail, however, were freakin’ hungry, and it was evident in every last note of their quick-but-extremely-powerful set.

The short version of Holy Grail’s bio goes like this: Several of the members of the band were once in White Wizzard - another retro-thrash band – but went out on their own after experiencing the usual “creative difference” in WW. As Holy Grail, the band cut a four-song EP (with two original songs and covers of Accept’s “Fast As A Shark” and Judas Priest’s “Exciter”) that generated a considerable amount of positive buzz.

Now, “buzz” can easily be prefabricated record label hype … but like I said, I was oblivious to all the chatter about Holy Grail when I caught their set in Louisville on Sept. 2. So, as a completely unbiased observer, I’d say the band more than lives up to all the positive talk.

“Crisis In Utopia,” the band’s full-length debut, is not a “Ride The Lightning” masterpiece, but is plenty great enough to be on my list of favorite albums in 2010. Despite a few missteps, “Crisis” is a fist-throwing, head-knocking, hair-flinging blast from beginning to end, where the band both draws on the strengths of old-school thrash while not becoming a simple play-by-numbers ’80s thrash tribute band.

The power on “Crisis” comes mainly from guitarists Eli Santana and James J. Larue, who fire off blistering twin guitar solos and blazing melodies on every single track. Larue and Santana shred continuously; it’s hard to remember when I last heard a new album with so many ripping guitar solos. Oh, guitar solo, I didn’t know how much I missed you until you went away. Say you’ll stay forever this time …

Larue and Santana can shred with a quickness, and album openers “My Last Attack” and “Fight To Kill” roar by furious speed. Even when the disc slows down for “Call of Valhalla,” Larue and Santana wowed me with the solos. This is a guitar-happy album.

These boys know how to write riffs (the entire band takes songwriting credit for “Crisis”), but the songs are more than just “riffing for the sake of riffing.” The songs have structure, something so many riff-monsters never seem to learn. Maybe any accomplished guitarist can write a riff, but it takes effort to turn those riffs into something coherent. The band unleashes some killer riffs on “My Last Attack,” “Fight To Kill” and “Immortal Man,” but doesn’t let the riffitude overwhelm the songs.

Vocalist James Paul Luna also stands with his soaring, multiple-octive voice. Could it be I’ve just been really sick of bands that fall back out of laziness on death metal grunts? Comparisons to Halford or Dickinson would be hyperbole, but Luna can belt out a high note like nobody’s business.

The rhythm section doesn’t get a lot of chance to shine on the album, but with thrash, the goal of the bass and drums is mainly to hold the structure of the song together. In that regard, bassist Blake Mount and drummer Tyler Meahl are more than up to the task of keeping the double-time, double-bass songs from flying off the rails. Meahl gets a few moments to show his stuff and Mount is certainly laying down the fast-paced melodies on songs like “Fight To Kill.”  They’re good, just overshadowed by the twin guitars and Luna’s voice. Hopefully, that’s an oversight that will be corrected on future albums.

I do have one pet peeve here. Someone – perhaps a producer hoping for crossover appeal - decided to add some grunting roars to songs like “Crisis In Utopia” and “Immortal Man.” That was a mistake; Luna’s biggest asset is his ability to go for the soaring notes, so why but a bellowing roar in the chorus? Thankfully, the roars are kept mostly down in the mix, so they don’t become overwhelmingly distracting.

Almost every song is good – but highlights include the already mentioned “My Last Attack,” “Fight To Kill,” “Immortal Man” and “Call of Valhalla,” along with “Chasing The Wind,” “Hollow Ground” and “Cherish Disdain.” “Blackest Night” is also a strong track … in fact, the only track I usually skip is the title cut, which is a little too full of the aforementioned bellowing for my taste.

Anyway, do I recommend this? Oh yes. Unlike the other return-to-thrash bands I’ve heard, Holy Grail manage to sound like more than just a jumble of Metallicadethslayerthrax riffs. Even if it’s not your cup of blood, give Holy Grail credit for sounding so fresh. I’m already looking forward to hearing what these guys come up with next.

Here’s the official video for “My Last Attack.” See what you think.

Concert review: Exodus, Malevolent Creation, Holy Grail and Bonded By Blood, Louisville 9/2

The concert planner at Louisville’s Phoenix Hill Tavern seemed to have things backwards.

For the Sept. 2 Exodus show, the promoter had booked two stages of music. Exodus, Malevolent Creation and the other national acts, Holy Grail and Bonded By Blood, would play the main stage. Meanwhile, a second stage of regional metal bands – headlined by Owensboro’s Factory Damage, was booked as well. More metal bang for your $15. Not a bad deal.

However, the club stuck Exodus and the other national acts in a bar, with a tiny, enclosed mosh pit, while the regional, unsigned bands were put in a spacious, spacious, park-a-semi-in-here-and-still-have-lots-of-room upstairs patio. No one apparently anticipated there would actually be moshing at the show – or else they just wanted to control it by forcing the moshers into the enclosed “free to mosh” zone. So naturally, people crammed the tiny pit for Exodus while maybe 10 people were spread out in a room the size of a football field for the local bands. Poor planning, Phoenix Hill Tavern.

I was late driving to Louisville, but arrived in time to catch the second half of Bonded By Blood’s set. “Bonded By Blood,” of course, is the name of one of Exodus’ signature songs, so I guess the boys in BBB were either excited as hell to be on the tour with one of their idols, or a little bit sheepish about sharing a stage with the band whose song title they “borrowed” for their name. I knew absolutely nothing about BBB – and while their set was well-performed and energetic, I wasn’t inspired to increase my familiarity with them. It was pretty standard retro-thrash, pleasant but hardly groundbreaking. So there.

After the BBB set, I wandered upstairs to the second stage, where a band from Columbus Indiana was taking the stage. I can’t remember their name (yes, I could look it up on the show flier, but I’m not going to, so sue me); all I remember for sure is the first song was called “Green River,” but it didn’t sound anything like CCR.

There were some things I liked about Name Forgotten Band From Columbus Indiana. The music was pretty ok, and the guitar player made the best metal faces of anyone I’ve ever seen. I wish I’d had a camera to document those metal faces for posterity; we could’ve sent the pics into deep space to discourage any aliens foolish enough to want to mess with us. That’s how scary those metal faces were. Wow, I’ll have nightmares just thinking about them.

But, like way too many local and regional bands, NFBFCI had a “death metal” vocalist, who sounded like either a Satanic pig or the farmer on the day the stump-broke calf gets its revenge. Look, I like a lot of death metal … but what I don’t like are bands that go grab a buddy to grunt into a microphone because they think it’s metal. Hellllo! It’s actually OK to sing once in a while. You don’t have to gurgle like Cookie Monster. Next time, bands, actually hold singer auditions and don’t just pick your friend to “sing.” That is all.

I fled the nameless band soon enough and found my way back to the main stage in time for Holy Grail – wh0 absolutely, positively blew me away. They were fantastic – with great solos, heavy yet melodic songs and a strong singer who can go for the high notes. Three members of the Holy Grail used to be in White Wizzard, another neo-thrash outfit. Most neo-retro thrash bands haven’t impressed me much, but Holy Grail really put on one hell of a good show. I was so impressed, I bought a T-shirt. Check these guys out.

Holy Grail split and Malevolent Creation began toting their crap on stage. I went upstairs again to hear Factory Damage … but what I witnessed instead was so horrifyingly terrible I still can’t shake the memory.

Factory Damage was still waiting in the wings. Meanwhile, on stage, an acoustic duo was putting out the some of the worst music I’ve ever heard outside a karaoke bar.

Let me just say the words again: Acoustic-frikkin-duo.

Oh, it was bad. Imagine Tenacious D, except without anything entertaining or humorous about it, and that’s the duo. The singer was croaking “treat queens like whores and whores like queens,” which he probably thought was pithy and original, but is actually a long wore-out and rather misogynist cliché. Also, it’s terrible dating advice, but I digress. Anyway, Tenacious F totally killed the vibe and sucked all the fun out of the room like a dead relative at a child’s birthday party. How was Factory Damage expected to go on after that? I listened as long as I could, told Ed from FD I’d come back and got the hell out of there.

Malevolent Creation was about to start their first song. While Malevolent C’s studio albums are not my cup of tea, the band really tears it up live. They were not as good as Holy Grail, but still, it was a good performance. Perhaps my ears were just relieved to get away from the acoustic duo, but I was very impressed by MC’s set.

Every once in a while I’d run upstairs to see if Factory Damage was on … but the guys were apparently having one hell of a tough time. Maybe they just had to wait for the undynamic duo to shut up and go away, but they were very delayed getting on stage. By the time FD started into their first song, it was less than 10 minutes before Exodus was scheduled to begin their set.

I only caught three of FD’s songs, but they were far and away the best band I’d seen on the regional band stage all night. Their songs are well-crafted and performed … but what really sets Factory Damage apart is their vocalist – who (you guessed it) can actually sing. Attention local bands, hear me: Having a strong singer who can do more than pig-grunt is the thing that can really set your band apart.

Poor Factory Damage really got screwed by being slated to play behind the undynamic acoustic duo. By the third song, two-thirds of the crowd ran downstairs to wait for Exodus. Ed from FD said later the band was in a rush to play and get off stage in time to catch Exodus’ set, too, so I don’t feel too bad about running back downstairs to the main stage.

Exodus. What can I say about Exodus? First, it’s a pretty giddy experience for an old-school thrasher like myself to walk into a bar and see Gary Holt warming up and chatting beside the stage. The man is one of the founders of thrash metal and his band has only gotten better over time. Holt and guitarist Lee Altus make playing ridiculously intricate riffs on songs like “Children of a Worthless God” look so damn easy. I spent the first part of the show in the pit staring at Holt’s and Altus’ fingers during the solos.

Frontman Rob Dukes has family in Kentucky who came to the show – but the club wouldn’t let Dukes’ 13 year-old nephew in to see the show. The kid had to watch the show through a window. Dukes told the crowd and the crowd responded by booing the club owner … which probably means the band won’t be playing PHT again.

The band played three songs from the new “Exhibit B” – “The Ballad of Leonard and Charles,” “Beyond The Pale” and “Good Riddance.” The rest of the set included the above mentioned “Worthless God,” “Iconoclasm,” “Pirana,” “Deathamphtemamine,” “Blacklist,” “Toxic Waltz” and “Bonded By Blood.” Every song was flawless, the band sounded great and the crowd went nuts. The band treated the show like they were playing to 40,000 people at Wacken instead of just 250 people in Louisville. That’s class.