album review : Koloss (2012) – Meshuggah

album : Koloss

artist : Meshuggah

genre : Technical Post-Thrash Metal

year : 2012

Having the power to make music the way Meshuggah does can never make any other metal band feel less awesome because nobody wants to make music like Meshuggah. It’s a matter of taste, and the five-piece Swedish musicians cater to one sub-portion of a portion of metal. I could not narrow it down more. Brilliance is one word I’d thrown in to describe their compositions, and they are brilliant in a list that features only them. There is no competition.

With Meshuggah, one only sat and praised as to how the drummer did what he did on a few songs or how the vocalist performed his growls at an odd timing, or how the guitarists play such complicated music with their simple instruments. But at the end of the day this isn’t a solo project you see. It’s a band. A metal band. None of their previous releases had all the qualities of metal, neither did they get you to move. Same is the case with Koloss. Only this time the band has managed some ‘complete’ songs.

I’ve heard people say that Cannibal Corpse can get to you, in a bad way, after you’ve heard their stuff for a while. I was also told how unbearable it becomes a couple of songs later. And the nasty things people say about black metal need not be written here. Well fuck you and your taste. At least I can clearly remember the pain caused by the migraine I caught during Meshuggah‘s show in Pune, India. Before you jump to any kind of conclusions this ain’t about getting even or anything, because I never mentioned that the people who said all that about Corpse or black metal are Meshuggah fans. It’s just that Meshuggah make lifeless music which is not appealing.

Even though Meshuggah is tricky, confusing music, one-of-a-kind and all, how can one enjoy their music is beyond me. Koloss is not like a must listen or anything, and even with it’s own moments intact, I suggest you jump into this territory only if you’ve got the buds to enjoy it lest you end up with a headache. Meshuggah means crazy is another language and they really drive you there. Mission accomplished, guys!

Rating : 2.5/5

album review : Torture (2012) – Cannibal Corpse

album : Torture

artist : Cannibal Corpse

genre : Death Metal

year : 2012

Waking up every morning to the sick bass work on The Strangulated Chair gives me an assurance that the day is going to kick ass. Much like the entire twelfth record by Buffalo-based Cannibal Corpse. Nothing at all hinders them from writing death metal that carries a stamp of pitiless, cold-blooded and daring lyrics, murderous music and artwork that is strong enough to put a roadblock to your understanding of artistry. Not giving a fuck about where their music and artwork gets banned, Cannibal Corpse are not just an unstoppable death metal unit but also an inspiration for every extreme musician out there. As for us fans, had there not been a band like Cannibal Corpse then we would never have tunes to match our wildest desires. I don’t want to get myself started here.

Torture is out and this album puts a full-stop to anyone claiming that Cannibal Corpse is no longer the glorious band it used to be, or they do not cater to the ‘real’ death metal fans. I think you need to get yourself a hearing aid to digest the notorious music that CC keeps belting out with every album. The signature groove that fornicates with some of the crudest words used to describe the theme of the album has culminated into a metal affair that is Torture, which is going to be admired by the death metal community for the longest time. Spilling their extreme anger at every step of their way through the album Torture shows just how uncompromising a band can be!

After having watched them live now I know that they are all a metal band should be. Cannibal Corpse dash through their songs, knitting together all the possibilities that could come out of their genre. Every facet of the band is trending forward. The growls, on Torture, are one of the most visible features. Corpsegrinder adds another layer of clarity to the songwriting. Guitars are particularly heavy on most of the tracks, thereby providing a lot more music to store in your subconscious mind. Torture throws you down the mountain. Every part of your body hits different edges and corners of the rocky patches and by the time you land on a flat surface the only thing that is left is your carcass. And Cannibal Corpse have already planned what to do with that as well. So, don’t worry.

I’ve always wanted to say that the United States of America should add the fifty first star to their flag that would be dedicated exclusively to these death metal pioneers. And there couldn’t be a better place to jot this point down than here in the Torture review. Without an iota of doubt I can say that they deserve it.

Rating : 4.5/5

album review : A Eulogy for the Damned (2012) – Orange Goblin

album : A Eulogy for the Damned

artist : Orange Goblin

genre : Doom Metal, Stoner Metal

year : 2012

Can’t believe Orange Goblin keep releasing top-notch albums and ‘A Eulogy for the Damned’ is a notch higher.

Forever improving Orange Goblin do not know what making bad music is. From where I see it they have always been on the rise, and they deserve a lot more attention than they have been getting since their inception. They are a rare species in the metal world with their own description of stoner doom going on. A kind of stoner doom that helps you appreciate the finer aspects of life, notice the cloak of bliss that the nature around you has to offer and picks you up when you are feeling low.

Again on A Eulogy for the Damned these true rockstars have created a sound that will not stimulate everybody’s nerves. One can either really like Orange Goblin, or simply hate them and I can say that for a major portion of the genre too. That’s how it is. Much like the fourth track’s name the followers of this genre are the filthy ones and they are fewer.

Allow your ears to absorb some scintillating groove that melts in your face with Red Tide Rising, Acid Trial and Return To Mars or the bathetic solos on Stand for Something and Bishop’s Wolf. The flexible guitar work that is accompanied by the right attitude on Save Me From Myself and Death of Aquarius or the relaxed doom-kissed mood on The Fog and A Eulogy For The Damned.

The songs on this record too have fumbled notes, making you and me feel elated about everything that’s messed up in our lives. The band has taken their oft-chosen path but have come out with a refreshing set of sparkling gems once again, that contain influences from genres that have ruled each decade of the last century. Be it rock ‘n roll, heavy metal or hard rock. Also, its time for the poser community to celebrate as vocalist Ben Ward has a little gift for y’all in the picture below. Hint – It resembles his middle finger. Click on the picture to claim your gift.

With their appearance at this year’s Desertfest as well as Bloodstock Open Air confirmed, I cannot wait to watch them unleash their music upon me. I’d be flying to their tunes, and dancing in the air. Oh, my, what did I just say? I think I’m already dazed and confused. Alright, I don’t want to spoil my voyage into Orange Goblin‘s unknown world so you better concentrate on the their new album A Eulogy for the Damned. Trip safely.

Rating : 4.5/5

album review : The Inherited Repression (2012) – Psycroptic

album : The Inherited Repression

artist : Psycroptic

genre : Technical Death Metal

year : 2012

So, what was Psycroptic doing for the last four years which is by far their longest break between two subsequent releases? They were preparing themselves to unleash their fifth full-length The Inherited Repression, and it is sounding like it’s going to be the undisputed king of all things death metal, this year. You say Cannibal Corpse has entered the studio? I say so what! This discussion will be continued in Cannibal Corpse‘s upcoming album Torture‘s review sometime next month. Fuck, Psycroptic have included a no non-sense policy on their latest record, and they do not take even one second of the entire forty one minutes of the album for granted. I’m not a Psycroptic fan-boy, and they have won me over by their sheer devotion to the institution of technical metal.

Extreme guitarist Joe Haley fiddles with his strings like a monster taking over the human species, while his drummer-brother David Haley doesn’t play the drums, he beats you up with his sticks. Crazy shit going on here. The riffing and brutality combined with the minute technical details have put me under pressure to rave about them. Now that valentine’s day is so close-by, people who are unhappy with their partners should tie up the hands of their partners, put a headset on them and play this album starting from song number one. And then watch them and giggle. The songs will disturb them with out giving them so much time as to breathe and would be a real punishment. That is exactly what the band wanted you to do when they named their album The Inherited Repression.

I always thought Matthew “Chalky” Chalk was a better vocalist, and I have the same thing to say on this release too. Jason Peppiatt does his thing like any other death metal vocalist does, so he fits the bill but doesn’t push the vocal quotient of Psycroptic higher. He falls short when it comes to exuding versatility in his vocals. But beware Cameron Grant‘s bass playing, which has remained the binding factor of every thing happening on this band’s songs. Look out for the utterly complicated sections on tracks Carriers of the Plague from 1:58 to 2:45, Euphorinasia from 0:50 to 1:55, The Throne of Kings from 0:25 to 1:29, Unmasking the Traitors from 2:12 to 3:10, From Scribe to Ashes from 1:45 to 2:27 and the entire Deprivation track.

Any other technical death releases in 2012 would now be judged as per the rules and regulations set by the new Psycroptic record. For now I’m going to go and play The Inherited Repression at the loudest volume possible so that my enemies get scared. See you all in my next article.

Rating : 4.5/5

Other 2012 releases reviewed on this blog –

Swallow the sun’s new release Emerald Forest and the Blackbird

Alcest returns with Les Voyages de l’Âme

Folk festival on Eluveitie’s new album Helvetios

More groovy metalcore on Lamb of God’s latest Resolution

album review : Emerald Forest and the Blackbird (2012) – Swallow the Sun

album : Emerald Forest and the Blackbird

artist : Swallow the Sun

genre : Melodic Doom/Death Metal

year : 2012

February received a gloomy welcome by one of the pioneers of melodic doom metal genre. Swallow the Sun, much like their name, have almost sucked the life out of their listeners, and continue doing so. Unlike their fellow doom players, this Finnish band presents a mixture of discontinuous death metal empowered by their ever growing relation with hopeless misery. Emerald Forest and the Blackbird is a tricky release, as the band has decided to throw in quite a lot of passages that take time to fuck your happiness. As someone who has adored this band, my intimacy with the band’s songwriting has gone down a few levels, and I can say that since I gladly posed for a photograph with a smiling face while the track Hate, Lead the Way played. I should have gotten up, snatched the cam and thrown it out into the snow because Swallow the Sun was trying to fill the room with hate! Screw that, after repeated plays I realized this track has clambered it’s way towards being one of the strongest track on Emerald Forest and the Blackbird.

For some odd reason I see a strong Katatonia influence on track number two This Cut Is The Deepest, but those of you who haven’t been through Katatonia‘s ultra-bleak music would find this song to be an immediate remedy to your problem as your own scar would seem unimportant in front of it. As the album progresses, keyboard player Aleksi Munter becomes the hunter, as he takes it upon himself to shoot down the shitty keyboardists in the metal scene by providing a memorable background score for Swallow the Sun‘s fifth full-length. Another track worth mentioning is Labyrinth Of London (Horror pt. IV) because whatever it is the name means the delight of hearing the double bass, screechy vocals and the agreeable pauses can only be expressed by replaying the track. Other honorable mentions are Of Death And Corruption and Night Will Forgive Us, they carry a quality which should have been picked up by the remaining part of the album.

Gauging by the songs on Emerald Forest and the Blackbird, I believe the tunes on a few of the tracks have been heard before. And the other let down is the songs fail to inject into your veins and vigorously spread the grief. Once the album is done, life is back to normal. I ended up abusing the next thing I saw on the television, the way I used to before I heard the album. The band’s preferred bait of gathering all the pessimism in one place ends up sounding incomplete. Their attempt to cast a shroud of emotional darkness isn’t totally successful on Emerald Forest and the Blackbird. Anyways it won’t make a lot of difference if you gather their entire discography in a single playlist and play the tracks in shuffle mode. This way the weak songs on Emerald Forest and the Blackbird would go unnoticed and all that would remain are the shining sections that never fail to depress.

Rating : 3/5

album review : Les Voyages de l’Âme (2012) – Alcest

album : Les Voyages de l’Âme

artist : Alcest

genre : Post-Black Metal/Shoegaze

year : 2012

Let’s just forget for a while that Alcest were a black metal band who have delivered albums in the past that were out of this world. Let’s also forget that they are a metal band altogether. Now just pick up their recently released album Les Voyages de l’Âme. And of course play it, man! Some of the most unhateable tracks will flow out into your ears, where in the French duo (named Alcest) will guide you through an alley of alluring music. They, Neige and Winterhalter, explore a section of the genres that was touched by them in their previous releases too. Song after song there is an assurance that this is going to be a winner, since the band’s evolution as a force that can cater to so many emotions, situations and music lovers in general can be seen on Les Voyages de l’Âme. I don’t have complaints about the production but the tracks seem lengthy at times which make one lose focus. You’d be in a thought process and suddenly you’ll get carried away by your own thoughts rather than the songs only because the tracks have been elongated. But, if you are a free man in your head, then you’ll keep the album on loop. Les Voyages de l’Âme cannot be compared to the band’s previous releases and it should not be. I’m sure the band did not set out to make a record hoping that only their fans will love them. They had to push the boundaries and they have provided us an insight into the uniqueness of post-black metal and shoegaze. The buttery clean vocals and the unforced shrieks gel well. It is supposed to be a melancholic setup on an Alcest record but optimism and positivity can also be found on Les Voyages de l’Âme. Alcest can rightfully pocket all the praises for their new release, and continue challenging themselves with peerless musical ideas.

Rating : 4/5

album review : Helvetios (2012) – Eluveitie

…and some people thought I’d stop writing reviews. Let me have a good laugh before I move on with my one hundred and fifty second album review.

album : Helvetios

artist : Eluveitie

genre : Folk/Melodic Death Metal

year : 2012

The past

We’re looking at Eluveitie‘s fifth full-length Helvetios. When they had released Everything Remains as It Never Was folk metal was not the same for me. Eluveitie cleared every myth and notion about the genre with the album, as it was an elucidation of what I would call a complex genre. Not everyone’s cup of tea. Eluveitie is not just a band, they are a team of eight members who define co-ordination, and prepare you for different rides. When they decide to record ‘another’ album they definitely have a solid reason and most of this has got to do with their past record. Very few bands can have that command. Theirs is a discography worth owning!

The present

When you are thinking about your loved ones you know exactly whom to think about, when you are thinking about your friends you know exactly whom to bring into your head, and same is the case with your enemies. When someone says Corpsegrinder you are not going to fucking think about a corpse and a grinder. It is without a doubt going to be the front-man of Cannibal Corpse. Similarly Eluveitie (along side a few other bands of course) is something that automatically makes its way into me when I think about folk metal. It is not something the band has imposed upon me, it is only after I heard them that I provided them a pathway into my list of favorite folk acts. They have got the right discipline in their music.

Helvetios repeats the band’s folk recipes, but the only problem this time is that my heart could let go of their tracks quite easily as compared to their last albums. Possibly because Eluveitie were always so well aware of what they wanted to hear when they play their cd that it lead to the listener also being hypnotized. It is not necessary that every time two people mate the result is going to be a hot hunk or a sexy babe. Similarly, the instruments on Helvetios are all horny as fuck, are even in the best of form, just that the talented players sounded more inspired and driven on Everything Remains as It Never Was.

The pattern is more or less similar, Eluveitie do not violate the norms they have defined for themselves. There are great songs, even ones that would drive you insane. Some killer tracks worth mentioning are Helvetios, Meet the Enemy, The Uprising, A Rose For Epona and Luxtos. If writing detailed lyrics is one aspect of their music, then impressing fans of the melodic death metal genre is another. Multi-dimensional as a prism, the album sure does help one in flushing out any shitty music they’ve heard in the name of folk metal. Sweetness shoots up on Home, Havoc, Hope, Alesia, Uxellodunon and Epilogue. Even experience brutality on The Siege, Helvetios, Meet the Enemy and Santonian Shores. Several vocalists and countless sounds must have made the job of mixing difficult, but the outcome is worth the work.

The future

Oh, this band is capable of the impossible. Coming from this band, five years from now the kind of albums we might have heard cannot be predicted. They can be unbelievably awesome, or they might be average but they cannot be bad for sure. I have complete confidence in these Swiss folksters. Even the chants and silences in their songs have meanings. If I could I would listen to their songs all day long, all my life, but this vast world of metal hammers you with releases that make or break your emotions almost every alternate day. As for Eluveitie I give it in writing that they are never going to disappoint. The day any snake charmer comes to know about Eluveitie‘s music, turning on a snake (including the one in his pant) would become a cakewalk. Now go and buy your copy of Helvetios.

Rating : 3.5/5

album review : Resolution (2012) – Lamb of God

album : Resolution

artist : Lamb of God

genre : Groove Metal/Metalcore

year : 2012

The sixth full length

With the experience of having toured with all bands that are part of the big four behind them, I wasn’t expecting these angry American sons to sit down and rest on their past merits. Richmond, Virginia is the place that’s famous because these five individuals hail from there, who at one time might not have thought that they’d be legends at a relatively younger phase in their lives. On their way to becoming the most revered metal act from the groove metal / hardcore genre, Lamb of God are one of the most holistic bands out there kicking ass since day one. To that I’d love to add that, out of their discography, they have scored a five out of five till now. Now we are onto the sixth which is titled Resolution which is going to embrace our ears.

The songs

Yea, I know. You were expecting some sort of ‘change’ or ‘innovation’ in their sound, a kind of a growth and they ended up doing what they have already done. Smack yourself for that stupid expectation. In the history of metal there have been only a few bands that have been forever respected till of course, today. So why don’t you just take some good shit coming your way. The songs on Resolution are certainly not in the forward direction but they aren’t a step backward either. It’s an active battle that can be placed alongside the rest the records recorded by the impatient fivesome.

There is a showcase of advancement on tracks like Desolation, The Undertow, Invictus,  Terminally Unique, Cheated and Visitation wherein melody and groove are brought together in classic LoG style. It is raining solos on Ghost Walking, The Undertow, Insurrection and King Me. Randy has demonstrated vocal variations from north to south and from east to west, here and even before this, while Chris has added more polyrhythms to his already complex resume. So, let me not comment on them. The remaining tracks need not be talked about as they had to be a part of Resolution.

The album

At fourteen songs, Resolution happens to be Lamb of God‘s longest yet. Thereby, they erase one more of my doubt which had be asking whether they’d be able to pull it off. They have, and the walls in your room will begin to respect you since you can slap them anytime by playing Resolution. This way you get respect for once just because Lamb of God write mad songs. Wonderful.

The production

Talk about the album’s production and it would be the first thing that might irritate your nerves in the head. You might even want to wait for the release date to see if it’s actually sounding like this. But, if you’ve heard the five earlier releases by them then you’ll find similarities between Resolution, New American Gospel, As the Palaces Burn and Wrath. Resolution is a bag wherein the sound and production efforts from all of the mentioned four albums have been borrowed and throw in. I am reminded of Black Label more than once and I kid you not. You get the opportunity to hangout with that characteristic jarring sound one more time.

The verdict

I do not expect the genre haters to understand the revolution that is Lamb of God, and well its not their fault. They are just too dastardly up (and down) there to figure out what’s happening on a LoG record. I pity them. Time to announce the verdict after having heard Resolution more than half a dozen times over a period of several days. Like any other LoG album, even Resolution does not contain stuff that is going to help you get over your break-up in the very first go. It grows, and grows enough for you to add it to your playlist, your collection, or whatever you wanna add it to. Hear it at least three times, is my suggestion, because the moment you are done playing the album once, you will have an urge to disrespect it like what happened when you heard Sacrament or Wrath. Do not forget how the song Redneck, that you thought is insipid, turned out to be a goldmine of groove once it was blasted over and over again. Give Resolution time and space, and you’ll find yourself looking at and hearing an album that could not have been better.

Rating : 3.5/5

Other Lamb of God related articles on this blog –

album review : Ashes of the Wake (2004)

Review of Lamb of God’s 2006 album Sacrament

Wrath (2009) – a review

Lamb of God live in India – requiem for a dream

gig review : Summer Storm Festival 2010 featuring Lamb of God