More Plugs and Feeble Excuses

I am so sorry. I'm going to plug my own band again.

Anyway, my band has just made downloads of our EP from Bndcamp free, so it'd be a huge help if you could head over and grab a free download. They're going to be free from now on, and any sharing around would, of course, be most welcome.

http://voragan.bandcamp.com/

That is all from my band for the foreseeable future. I'll post something more interesting soon, but with the exam period looming and, being in my last year of sixth form, this round of arduous essays and painstaking revision sessions are nonetheless very important, so the amount of time I have to do any reviews is being severely cut down as a result. Plus, I'm also focusing on a piece o fictional creative writing I've been working on for almost a year now. It's just tipped the 100,000 word mark and, although I don't expect to send it off for publishing or the like, I'm determined to get it done.

But I'll do my best with what time I have. I'm planning to continue with my Blasts From The Past and perhaps review Darkthrone's latest, which has been out a while...egads, I'm behind. Apologies.

Anyway, thanks for you understanding. That's enough lame-arse excuses for one night.

Bring Me The Horizon - 'Sempiternal' Album Review

Apparently the other day someone tossed a leak of Bring Me The Horizon’s new album into the savage pit that is the internet.  I say apparently because I have no idea as I don’t give a damn about Bring Me The Horizon. I saw them a few years ago supporting Bullet For My Valentine at Wembley Arena where they were shocking, Oli threw a tantrum and they had the power pulled on them.

Also, apparently their new album, Sempiternal, has been bought forward to an April the 1^st release and you can now listen to the full album legally on SoundCloud. I wouldn’t know the original scheduled release date because I had no intention of reviewing this album until I found myself, today, with nothing better to do.  I’d heard some rumour about this album, though, that painted it in a very positive light. In the recent release of Metal Hammer, they heralded it as “an absolute juggernaut of an album” and several other fairly reputable sources have spoken of its new found depth and maturity, so when I got onto SoundCloud, I had relatively high expectations for the album (I hated what I heard of their last two) and hoped to perhaps maybe even have my opinion changed.

Nope.

 

From the word go the album failed to meet the expectations I had of it. The first tracks pretty much summarised the entire album. ‘Can You Feel My Heart’ is a composition of an annoying, relentlessly repeated synth riff with cuts in after an unbelievably weak vocals and drums section with some feedback and fuzzy stuff in the background. This then repeated. And again. And again. And again. There is little to no variation in the song, which originally led me to believe it might have been an intro track, until every other song on the album sounded just like it.

When the second track, ‘The House Of Wolves’ begins, the “matured” BMTH employ every tactic that every teenage-boy-scenester-pop-metal- hardcore-crap band have used in every one of their songs ever. Wild and violent, yet fabulously unimpressive guitars, angsty, blocky drums and screamy vocals going on about all kinds of overused cliché rubbish (this song used “brick by brick by brick” and something about “selling sins” and “saving souls”). The chorus is simple and involves an awful lot of chanting, be it the odd cliché or the song title. And then, just like that, it’s finished. The song repeats the same three-or-so sections, most of which were composed of a toned-down, bass-reduced drum-and-fuzz-and-screams section followed by the aforementioned hardcore-crap rapid chords. The song goes absolutely nowhere, there is next to no musical depth or variation.

Perhaps the next song, ‘Empire (Let Them Sing)’ will be different? No and no. Repeating open-string riffs, the same muted, drums-and-vocals-and-fuzz section, and a chanted chorus. Maybe the lyrics are presenting themselves as “matured” yet? No again, “moths to a flame”, “wolves at my door” and “writing on the walls” all feature lyrically. So far it is not looking good.

Two more medicore, copy-pasted songs play before the pre-released ‘Shadow Moses’ starts playing. Though I never listened to the song, some of my friends on Facebook have insisted on belting it across my news feed proclaiming it as “incredible”, “amazing” and a “brilliant new direction”. And, oh look? More muted sections, open string riffs and cliché lyrics about looking into someone’s eyes and living your life, yet also going nowhere. I have to admit though, the song has its energy, the occasional riff carries some weight and force, providing a splutter of enthusiasm to the album; but it’s impossible to escape the fact that this is still essentially the same song as all of its predecessors.

And so Sempiternal bumbles on. I made it to ‘Crooked Young’ and realised I hadn’t written anything new in my notes for quite a while, and that’s all the excuse I needed to stop listening. So I stopped. It’s undeniable that the album has a little oomph and perhaps a smidgen of energy, but it can’t escape the fact that every section, every song, every riff and idea may as well just be recycled from somewhere in another song. Sempiternal is incredibly dull and boring. I’d even say Sempiternal be a massive disappointment for a “trve” BMTH fan because with their attempt at maturity, the band has lost any fire they once possessed almost completely. What a huge disappointment. Still, it’s not quite as crap as BFMV’s Temper Temper.

On an unrelated subject, 'horizon' has stopped looking like a word.

 

Overall – 3.8/10

Omnium Gatherum - 'Beyond' Album Review

From the content of this blog, it’s fairly obvious to see I’ve been fairly excited about this release. I’ve been looking forward to Beyond ever since Finnish melodic death metal acts Omnium Gatherum released New World Shadows back in 2011, so imagine how happy I was when the new album arrived two days early.

I wondered what the best way of reviewing Beyond was going to be: listen to it a couple of times to get over the excitement then write the review, but would that lead to a muted, less excited and more dull interview? Or just do what I normally do: listen, take notes, then write the entry out and play the album again. I originally opted for the first, but as soon as ‘Luoto’ began playing, I had to write in order to honour this incredible piece of work.

It’s not very often a band does an intro track that’s anything more than a minute long. It’s also even rarer that a band writes an intro track so good that it’s worthy of being a standalone song; this is one of those rare occasions. As soon as the gentle acoustic notes from the beginning of the song begin to trickle through your speakers, your soul is gripped. As usual, Omnium Gatherum deliver their carefully thought out, emotionally ambiguous riffs and melodies, constructing a happy-sad atmosphere and heightening all feelings, setting you up for what follows. And, oh boy, just you wait. I’m now faced with a dilemma, I’m not totally sure I can put words together to do this album justice.

Then ‘New Dynamic’ kicks in, the fast, tapped melody provided on the guitar, followed by a big, bouncy, very effective riff, then back to a brilliant melody. Everything here is in balance: the crunchy guitar riffs, the big and beautifully simple melodies. Everything weaves into and out of everything else so well, and this then moves to apply to the rest of the album.

The band has cracked it. They have worked out how to get a perfect balance between clean sections with gentle acoustic passages and massive, heavy verses and choruses. Everything fits perfectly into place, and this is so evident to see on ‘White Palace’ and ‘Who Could Say’. The way the songs so perfectly progress from one section to another is so brilliantly done that you almost don’t notice. Everything the band does just fits together so well. The band can be seen, especially on ‘Luoto’, drawing on early ideas from albums such as Spirits and August Light with dramatic, slow acoustic sections that fit so well with slow, mournful chords. But of course, then the new, energetic Omnium Gatherum pick up the energy and pace with their leads and melodies.

Melodies. Another thing Omnium Gatherum have also cracked. Again, it’s all in brilliant balance: simplicity, power, energy, melancholy. Powerful, flashy, yet unbelievable simple melodies re3place acoustic parts on ‘Luoto’, creating the energy that is carried into the rest of the album, via incredible guitar and keys work on tracks like ‘The Sonic Sign’ and ‘Living In Me’, creating some incredible tracks that really, really stand out, such as ‘Who Could Say’, which is probably the closest thing to melodic death metal perfection the band have ever created. It’s about as memorable and catchy as a death metal song could get. Though relatively slow for a death song, everything is just so well done and out together: dramatic cleans, including Jukka Pelkonen’s glorious deep vocal tones, which is so well complimented, not just on this one song but the whole album, by interweaving acoustic melodies, followed by huge heavy verses and massive riffs.

And for all the guitar-heads out there, Markus Vanhala really does perform quite incredibly on this album. A lot of brilliant guitarists either lack a little musical ear with their solos, writing incredibly fast and technical leads that don’t always fit the song, or brilliant solos that work perfectly with the song but feel a little flat from lack of ability. Vanhala is neither of these, matching astonishing lead techniques with an amazing musical ear, building amazingly memorable solos that are not only technical and complicated, but fit perfectly with the song and possess great musical qualities; each one could be seen as a melody in its own right.

Even the introduction track is a masterwork. Everything on this album is brilliant, even songs such as ‘The Unknowing’ which felt a little weakened as a single, are given new light and power in the incredible context that is this amazing album. So much thought and careful processing, planning and unbelievably talented musicianship has gone into this album, it casts a shadow over everything else Omnium Gatherum have ever written, and, after the might of New World Shadows, I didn’t think that’d be possible, but they’ve done it, nonetheless. I’m sad that what will probably be the album of the year has been released so early on, now there’s nothing to look forward to, but on the bright side, releasing this early gives me plenty of time to enjoy it.

Oh look, the Omnium Gatherum happy-sad emotional ambiguity has returned.

 

Overall – 9.8/10

Best Song: Who Could Say 10/10

 

 

Just a Little Plug...

I did say to myself when I first started writing this blog that I was going to try and avoid plugging my band.

I've failed.

We recorded this at the end of last year to help a friend with his A2 Media coursework for his A Levels. Only being half of the full-length song, (which is also available on YouTube) which was the titular track from our 2012 EP 'Chaos Dreams'. Mister Castle from theNoise (http://yesthisisnoise.blogspot.co.uk/) gave the EP 4/5 stars, which we were all chuffed to bits with (http://yesthisisnoise.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/ep-review-voragan-chaos-dreams.html).

That's all. I've leave you be now.

Actually, that's a lie. If you want to do us a favour and buy the EP in either hard or digital format, here are some links.

Download: http://voragan.bandcamp.com/
CD: http://voragan.bigcartel.com/

Okay, I really am done now.

Blast From The Past: Trivium - 'Ascendancy' Album Review

As a ten or eleven year old (I can’t remember which) I first experienced Trivium, stumbling across “Dying In Your Arms” on Google Video. My friends Josh and Hamish, was a massive fanboys at the time, but I wasn’t. I was still pretty “soft” by my current personal standards, unwilling to sail out beyond the, by now, well-travelled waters that were Metallica and a little Slayer. Furthermore, due to my sheltered, middle-class upbringing, my parents had been reluctant to allow me to have Metallica albums; this “screamy rubbish” was just too far, as far as they were concerned. Oh, how things have changed.

Trvium played in the Ipswich Reagent Theatre on April the 24^th 2007, I must have been twelve or thirteen, supported by Sanctity, Annihilator and Gojira. Of course, at the time I had no idea who these bands were, or even that Trivium had released three albums. I’d listened to the song “Dying In Your Arms” and decided it was alright, so I tagged along with Hamish and Josh (and our respective parents, of course, because we were too young to get in without guardians. How very rock-‘n’-roll.)

This was my first proper gig, aside from Busted at the O2 arena two or three years before, and I was really nervous. I didn’t know what or whom to expect. I’d listened to one Trivium song and now here I was, in a black Metallica tee-shirt, walking past hordes and hordes of weathered metal veterans with long hair, huge beards, fat bellies, with black-haired girls in short-shorts and big boots hanging off their arms. I felt very out of place. But of course, once inside, the spirit of the metal community shone through, and looks, age, the fact your parents were with you, didn’t matter a thing. Everyone was here to enjoy the gig, and enjoy it we did. Maybe a week or so afterwards, I found myself in town with Josh, stood in the long-since closed down HMV in the middle of Colchester. There it sat, under the black, bold “TRIVIUM” divider. Ascendancy.

Back then, a few years since its 2004 release (When they had long hair and no ear stretchers), for me it was the ultimate rebellion. Overly-angry verses, long hair, spikey guitars that seemed to play a million notes a minute, and a vocalist that screamed “fuck” a lot. So, continuing with the theme of “Blasts From The Past” albums that have made me what I am today, I should continue onwards, down the road of sadness and disappointment.

After the atmospheric and malignantly evil-sounding intro that is, rather predictably and disappointingly named “The End, (Nice one guys, not been done a thousand times before or anything…) the albums starts with the big, crushing, powerful intro that starts “Rain”. As an early-teen, I was dazzled by Heafy and Beaulieu’s guitar work, it was a thousand miles from Metallica! Now, five or six years later, it sounds weak. The cliché metalcore riffs that carry “Rain” along don’t change much, but complement Matt Heafy’s angry shouts well. So far, it’s relatively mediocre. It shifts eventually into an equally angry pre-verse, then a chorus which is little more that Matt Heafy’s weak, wailing clean singing over some blocky power chords; they feel childish and irrefutably poppy. On “Rain” especially, Trivium try to use clean singing over guitar harmonies whilst employing some super-fast drumming. Unfortunately, this sounds strained and weak, as opposed to climatic and atmospheric, as the bass parts simply just don’t step up. It’s a catchy start though, and relatively easy to listen to. The trend continues to the next song, “Pull Harder On The Strings Of Your Martyr”. It’s listenable, but nothing very special.

Unfortunately, the story doesn’t change as the album continues to slowly progresses. Every single song is written in a near identical verse-chorus-verse-chorus-development-solo-chorus-chorus fashion, and it becomes very tiresome very quickly, especially when transitions from section to section are weak or non-existent. Sometimes it feels as though the band have simply had two ideas and decided to jam them next to each other, even if they don’t work, such is the case on “Drowned And Torn Asunder”, “Like Light To The Flies” and “Departure”. As the album moves from its first, relatively good songs, riffs become samey and recycled, as does song structure, falling into the trap of simply using the same couple of techniques to structure every single chorus and verse.

Solos are a redeeming feature and stick out from the rest of the mediocrity that the album is rife with. Often well-harmonised and  carefully planned, albeit too frequent and obviously placed, Beaulieu and Heafy often dual back and forth clever leads that tend to work well with the song. There are points also, when Trivium’s predictable chorus mixes of clean vocals and chunky chords do work very well, such as on “suffocating Sight.”

Then “The Deceived” kicks in, just at the point when many listeners will be tired of the samey songs. This track sits quite proudly in the “All-Time Favourites”. This is the one track where, in my humble opinion, Trivium just mange to do everything right: Matt finds his natural range and sorts out his harmonies, they realise that they’re overusing their normal guitar techniques and that their drummer can play damn fast and work well with simpler riffs, and that solos don’t have to be radically fast to be good. Though still in a relatively predictable structure, it’s easier to forgive them as riffs begin to fit with vocals and lose the annoying, pointless and painful sweep-picked trills in the lower guitar octaves that ruin songs such as “Ascendancy”. As a result, though perhaps a little simpler, the song work a hell of a lot better, as Trivium aren’t fighting to cram as much as they possibly can into five or so minutes. But the high from “The Deceived” doesn’t last long, and the final three songs on the album may as well have been the same.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s very little actually wrong with Ascendancy, there’s just so much wasted potential. As you listen to the songs, it’s impossible to stop thinking “what if you’d just done this” or “what if you’d left that out”. On the whole, Ascendancy is terribly mediocre and heralds the more processed, popularised metalcore/weak thrash Trivium have released in recent years; but it isn’t without its good points: clever solos, the occasional powerful chorus, “The Deceived”. For me though, it’s been a good few years since I listened to this album, and it really isn’t how I remember it.

                Overall – 6.5/10

                Best Song: The Deceived – 9/10

 

 

Blasts From The Past: Metallica - 'Ride The Lightning' Album Review

’ll admit it; a few days ago I was a bit stuffed as to what to review over the next few weeks. Eternal Tears of Sorrow, Omnium Gatherum, Darkthrone, Saxon and Vreid are all releasing new material between the 22^nd and 26^th of this month. But between now and then, I was a bit stuck for new stuff to review.  But then I found myself in conversation with the legend that is Tom Castle from theNOISE (http://yesthisisnoise.blogspot.co.uk/) who seemed to be finding himself in a similar position. Eventually we came up with the idea to review the albums that had inspired us both the most (well, his idea actually, I’m just taking credit for it) in the run up to where we are today musically. Personally, I’m looking forward to this, the nostalgia, the memories, the people associated with these albums. So here we go.

As mentioned in my first post, the first album properly considered ‘metal’ that I bought was none other than Metallica’s Ride The Lightning. I can remember vividly sitting in the back of Hamish’s car on the way to swimming, thrashing around, air guitar ready, head banging, to the sheer excellence that is  ‘For Whom The Bell Tolls’.

I love this album. I’ve not listened to it for far too long. Here we have eight tracks of the most brilliant, explosive, genre-defining thrash metal that you will ever hear. Everything is so full of spirit and fire; Kirk, Cliff and Het masterfully supply enormous, crushing riffs on iconic tracks such as ‘Fight Fire With Fire’, ‘For Whom The Bell Tolls’ and ‘Fade To Black’. The big, solid grooves are like nothing any band has ever produced since; they carry with them such incredible energy and life, such as the rolling, rapid, energising examples on ‘Trapped Under Ice’ and ‘Creeping Death’. Even Lars’ drumming, which in recent years has come under such heavy criticism, although not the best in the world, fits and works with the music as it should.

Kirk Hammet’s soloing is, in my opinion, at its peak on this album and Master Of Puppets. Every note he hits is as it should be; it’s not a huge, sweep-picked, epically tapped, ultra-technical exercise as you may hear from many musicians today, but it doesn’t matter, and it never should, rather like Lars’ drumming. The solos he plays on this album are not the overused “woo look at me I’m in a thrash metal band, see how fast I can play” load of crap you hear far too often in so many thrash bands these days. Each is carefully thought out and flows with the feel and tone of the song. Cliff Burton’s bass virtuoso, although not a huge element of the album, can still be heard providing a thick, solid frame and foundation to every song, beefing out the big crunchy guitar riffs and providing the occasional trill and riff of its own every now and then, modestly shifting the focus from the other instruments to that which is so often forgotten.

The lyrical content on this album, although perhaps now considered cliché and overused, thanks to the crappy cliché bands that have come to imitate bands such as Metallica, Megadeth and Slayer, are very mature and intellectualised on this album. Lyrics focus on grown-up subjects: death, war and the vengeful and futile nature of man on ‘Fight Fire With Fire’ alone. The way songs are constructed is brilliant too: ‘The Call of Ktulu’ summarises the dramatic cleans, big riffs, great solos, throbbing bass and hammering drums that so perfectly work together to take the album on an incredible thrash journey. Every beat, every note, every word, has been given great consideration, and, my god, does it show.

Every song on this album is so different and varied, but their essence stays true to the 1980s Metallica that they were when the album was recorded. Long, chugging riffs on slower tracks such as “Escape” and “For Whom The Bell Tolls” still sound as true to the pure brutal thrash essence of Metallica as massive, blasting, fast-paced numbers such as “Creeping Death” and “Fight Fire With Fire”. Big hair, bigger solos, massive choruses; this is pure thrash, performed by a true thrash metal band, being played as thrash should be played.

It’s easy to understand why fans of Metallica have been so pissed off with their recent releases. I mean Lulu, come on, really? It’s a world, no, a galaxy away the song writing genius supplied on this close-to-perfection album. Metallica never have been, and probably never again will be, quite this incredible. People are also very quick to slag them off for living the lives of celebrities, and perhaps in light of Lulu, St. Anger and Death Magnetic (which wasn’t terrible but, let’s be honest, but wasn’t exactly brilliant) but as far as I’m concerned, with Kill ‘Em All, Ride The Lightning and Master Of Puppets to their names, are we really in any position to criticise them for living the high life?

Ride The Lightning is just incredible. Never is there one moment where this album fails to deliver on any one level at all. This could well be the best thrash metal record that has ever been released, and probably ever to be released.

 

 

 

Overall – 9.8/10

Best Song: For Whom The Bell Tolls – 9.6/10

Bullet for my Valentine - 'Temper Temper' Album Review

I remember when I first heard The Poison. I can’t have been much over ten or eleven years old and the album instantly connected with me. It was the subtle rebellion that an adolescent  youth, like I was at the time, needed to begin their own little private rebellion from society: their parents, their friends, their teachers. Though the original album was an accomplished piece with some great songs (‘Tears Don’t Fall’ and ‘The End’) you were never given the impression that the album was written for angry pubescents. The same can more-or-less be said for 2008’s Scream Aim Fire, a few decent songs (‘Scream Aim Fire’ and ‘Waking The Demon’) and an overall relatively good piece.

But recently this has been slipping. There is no denying it, with their 2010 album, Fever, Bullet For My Valentine began to really play to their audience. Songs became repetitive and samey, more frequently touching on cliché subjects such as violence and heartbreak than in the last two albums. Despite this one or two half-decent numbers were still present on Fever, though the album had nothing on The Poison.

I wonder how the band of 2005 would react if you showed them their latest release. Temper Temper’s tracklisting alone is enough to make people cringe in pain. ‘Riot’, ‘Temper Temper’ and ‘Truth Hurts’ are just a few examples of the grumpy-twelve-year-old-song-titles that the band present, and when the music starts playing, I somewhat doubt cringes will subside.

The album is nothing more than a commercialised and poor portrayal of modern metal. Annoying riffs that don’t sound particularly musical or fit with the songs all-too frequently come stomping through the repetitive, unimaginative drum-lines and the disappointing vocals. The album starts with a big, powerful, heavy metal crash, happily thrown forward by ‘Breaking Point’. Yet it seems the band put all their effort into this broody opening, as the rest of the song is flat and unimpressive. It’s sad to say, this sets the tone for the rest of the album.

The following track, ‘Truth Hurts’, sees the band tries to employ the use of techy, djent-like rhythms. As expected, this sounds awful and sets the tone for the rest of the song. Matt also tries his hand at some Matthew Bellamy (Muse) high-pitched cleans. Instead of sounding climatic and epic, as perhaps they were intended to, (it’s hard to tell where a climax may be, the song doesn’t go anywhere) he instead achieves the ‘kicked-very-hard-in-the-nuts’ effect and does little more than sound like he’s in uncomfortable pain.

 

Matt’s voice had never sounded so bad: throughout the album his tone is grating and sits uncomfortably with the half-hearted, plinky-plonky clean guitars and repetitive, monotonous riffs. The lyrics have never been so cliché, either. Almost every chorus on the album is composed the same: slow, simple drum lines and blocky, two-note power chords. Over the top of this, Matt repeats the song’s title, followed either by a non-atmospheric echo or a boring Bullet “woooah-oooah-oooah”.

There is little respite from the boring commercialised garbage in this album. Padge’s solos do their best, but most of the time it’s too-little too-late. Yet when the listener is fairly sure all hope is lost, ‘Dead To The World’ begins. The song, though still pretty repetitive and weak, does provide a few shreds of atmospheric, almost nostalgic, relief. Perhaps, you think, it’s not so bad after all. Then ‘Riot’ happens.

There aren’t enough words for how much I detest this song. Straight away the headache-inducing and mercilessly-repeated single, offbeat C note kicks in, and doesn’t piss off until the song ends. This mind-numbingly annoying excuse for a riff is, of course, accompanied by what, in my opinion, Matt’s best display of angsty-teenager, hormone-induced, rebellion-based crap. “Run from da sirens, run from da law” is, of course, accompanied by Bullet’s “woooah-oooah-oooah”. Even worse, Matt seems to take great joy in yelling “fucking” at every opportunity, rather like the moody twelve year old the band so appeals to, who has just learnt his first swear-word. To try and compensate for this dismal display of processed disappointment, Padge shreds like his popularity depends on it (because, well, it does) in the latter half of the song.

I used to love Bullet. When this album finally ended a huge wave or relief and sadness washed over me. I feel sorry for the guys in Bullet, who used to make up a pretty decent band. This album is a rather large stain on their careers and the opinions of proper metal fans. Unfortunately, this album will shoot them to fame with the fans of processed, plastic, mainstream trash, as it is designed to do so.

 

Overall – 3/10

Best Song: Dead To The World – 5/10

Worst Song: Riot – 1/10