Meanstreak - Roadkill (1989)

The first time I heard the debut Roadkill from New York's all female street thrash outfit Meanstreak, I admit I thought that the members of Overkill had stepped through some strange gender bending machine and emerged as lethal vixens, so similar is the sound, but when you really dig deeper, small differences begin to emerge. For example, vocalist Bettina France's style often veers more into the territory of Eric A.K. Knutson of Flotsam & Jetsam, with the exception that she's got a better chance at an effective range. The guitars also take the occasional tangent, as you can hear both a classical and classic rock influence in the playing of Marlene Apuzzo and Rena Sands.

For the most part, though, the initial half of the record bounces between two poles: Overkill and Flotsam & Jetsam. The album's title track opener sounds like it could have appeared on Taking Over, with a savage burst of violent speed, France's vocals just as much reminiscent of an asylum escapee as Bobby Blitz. The guitars pack in some decent fills, and though the bridge at times seems sloppy, the lead itself is magnificent while it lasts. "Searching Forever" strides down a mid-paced power metal path, drawing slight comparisons to an Omen or Fates Warning, while "Snake Pit", despite the occasional unwanted clutter, reminds one of "Hard On You" or some other rock influences piece from Flotsam's "No Place for Disgrace". "Nostradamus" teases at some sorry ballad, but then turns around and delivers another solid, pumping power metal atmosphere with some thrash breaks.

After this, Meanstreak suddenly begin to broaden their horizons. "It Seems to Me" brings in a Maiden influence, especially the verses that dance in and out of the initial, melodic thrust, whereas "Lost Stranger" is almost pure Judas Priest or Steppenwolf worship, with a rock groove in the verse and extremely basic chord composition. "The Warning" dives back into the power/thrash mayhem, fusing it with a straight up metal attitude. The rhythm section works hard here, the bass of Lisa Martens Pace popping off and Diane Keyser's fills a real highlight. Closer "The Congretation" takes yet another turn, opening with a volley of technical thrash and then surging to what might be the most aggressive riff on the entire album. The middle of the track slows to some grooves and unusual percussion like gongs and woodblocks, and judging by the 7 minute length, this was obviously the 'epic' of the record.

Meanstreak is rarely spoken of anymore, despite the buzz they once had here on the East Coast as perhaps the first 'serious' all girl thrash metal band. Obviously the gender played into their popularity, since the genre was so male-dominated (always has been), but let's make no mistake about it, this is no gimmick band. Girls can give the thrash as good as they've gotten it, and Roadkill is but one shred of evidence. The debut isn't perfect, and in truth it can feel a little scatterbrained. It's also pissed off, serious and shows a wealth of potential despite the obvious sources that have influenced the style. Sadly, the band is best known now for the three members that married guys from Dream Theater. Judging by how wussy they make their husbands' music seem by comparison, I think we all know who is on top wearing the pants.

Verdict: Win [7.25/10]

M.A.R.S. - Project: Driver (1986)

About the worst thing you can accuse the men of M.A.R.S. for would be their miserable fashion sense, sporting a number of glam-fros, elfin glam boots and all manner of castoff 'chic' poseur threads. In this case, 'chic' of course means 'retarded', and even Tony MacAlpine cannot pull off this hairstyle. When posing together, the band look like they're wearing extremely bad wigs, or some sort of fuzzy protection from alien mind probes. They might have just been animal enthusiasts, letting a few critters hibernate on their scalps. It's an image that could scar a man for life, and while I'd be willing its horrid grasp slip free and laugh the band down to oblivion, they did produce this one, decent album called Project: Driver in 1986 that shoves a pair of elfin boots right into my mouth.

It's not a stretch to guess that the acronym M.A.R.S. represents the band members' names, and this is a sort of primordial super grouping of emergent talents from various metal spectra of the 80s. Tony MacAlpine is not only a noted shredder of his own right, but has also performed with others like Vinnie Moore, Joey Tafolla, and more recently the band Ring of Fire. Drummer Tommy Alridge has rather enormous credentials, having performed in Motorhead, Thin Lizzy, and the personal retinues of Ozzy Osbourne and Yngwie J. Malmsteen. Rob Rock is known for fronting his many solo offerings of traditional Christian metal, but he's also fronted a great number of other bands like Driver (related to this, of course), Warrior, Impelliteri, and Axel Rudi Pell. Closing the quartet is bassist Rudy Sarzo of Quiet Riot, Ozzy Osbourne and Dio fame, to list a few.

The Project: Driver album was released through Shrapnel Records in 1986, and the sound had some similarity to other Shrapnel acts like Vicious Rumors, Cacophony, Racer X, and Apocrypha, that being in the thick and hollow tone of the guitars, impressive lead guitar capabilities and melodic vocals. The vocals, in fact, are my favorite part of this album, and perhaps some of the best in Rock's entire career. He's got the perfect mix of soaring power and is very much able to hang on to his cool when he nudges into higher pitched territory. He's also got that commercial appeal that the band are mixing in here with the more serious, fast paced traditional metal, and without his charisma, the record might have been something far less. Listen to him on the cheesy but potent power ballad "You And I", or the wailing "I Can See It In Your Eyes" and you'll get a good impression of his capabilities. Of course, there is also MacAlpine, whose leads pepper the album like whorls of leaves on a brisk, breezy autumn afternoon, occasionally self effacing through excess indulgence, but just as often kicking asses to the moon (they could always climb back via his hair).

Naturally my preference is for the more raging, Shrapnel-worthy fare here like a "Nations on Fire", "Writings on the Wall", and the excellent "Unknown Survivor", but the band also show their chops at more progressive metal material like the ascending "Nostradamus" or dreamy "Slave to My Touch", which burns like hot lead through the chest. If you're seeking cheese, though, these elements also pervade the experience, like the crunchy radio friendly rock of "Fantasy" or the aforementioned progressive power ballad "You And I", which delights despite itself thanks to the scintillating clean guitars and Rob Rock's orbiting melodic gravity. The album is dowsed in thick 80s production values like most of the label's roster, but I personally would not have it any other way; it captured a specific, pre-digital edge that most of the other bands of this period were not yet so fanciful of, and thus the records would stand clear of many peers.

Project: Driver is absolutely worth the pain in tracking down if you enjoy other Shrapnel efforts, in particular the Cacophony pair-up of Jackson Becker and Marty Friedman, or the first two records by Vicious Rumors. It vividly skirts the border between intensity and accessibility, and offers an accurate crossroads of where most of these guys' careers were at in this one moment. You don't need to be some Guitar "whatever" magazine subscriber who hangs out at the local instrument shop far too often for his own sake to appreciate it, since the shredding is far from omnipresent. I'm not sure why the band never recorded a second helping of this material, but my guess is they looked at themselves in the promo shots and then went into hiding for a few years, or the glam-fros wore off and they were abducted by extra-terrestrials at last.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

Midnight Darkness - Holding the Night (1985)

It might be important to qualify here that we're not just talking about any old darkness, but MIDNIGHT darkness, which is an entirely different sort of darkness than the regular darkness you can usually pick up on sale at your normal mom & pop shop. In the case of Midnight Darkness, it is only available imported from Germany and to those few lost souls that brave the highways and plains of futures past, where metal sirens screamed off through the night and the stars seemed to glitter with the dreams of a million heshers, caught staring at the sky in between their worldly thoughts of cars, women, guitars, dragons, beer and with luck, a little blow.

To sum up this lost German band, I can offer only that it's somewhere between the Scorpions and Accept, with the vocals reminiscent of a Klaus Meine at their lower range, screaming up into ridiculous heights that might have been best left alone by Jörg Reuter, since they do seem to break up in that register. Otherwise, the record has that good old 'climbing the walls' feel to it which one could only ask of most mid-80s metal that was not blazing a path of ambition or obscurity, but helping cement the status quo. Midnight Darkness chug a little harder than the next band, the tones of the album are thick and welcome, the drums hammering along like a garbage truck out of Hell, and one certainly feels the prototypical spine tingling force of the power metal genre running an undercurrent through their underpants.

No, Holding the Night has no other purpose but to kick your ass firmly with an iron boot, and it does so with a savage grin across its ugly face. A good old pumping bass-line is joined with down pitched, corny narration about the world of '1985' and the joy ride we're about to be taken on, lending credence that we might be in for something akin to Helloween. Alas, that's not quite the case when the guitars erupt and it's pretty much pure Judas Priest/Accept worship with Reuter's shrill indoctrinations that thankfully cede to a respectable level. The chorus might not be superb, but it carries the momentum of the verse well and wets the space between the legs in anticipation for whatever could be next on the midnight agenda, which it turns out is the even harder driving "Line Fire". Once again this channels Accept, and in fact it feels like a missing track that the Germans might have recorded with Klaus Meine on guest vocals with an occasional Peavy Wagner (Rage) nasal shriek. That said, a pretty fun song.

"Holding the Night" is your basic, low speed heavy rocker with a little bit of ballast to the axe chugging, and "We Like to Rock" seems as if it were bound for some arena in an 18 wheeler, but then there was some accident which occurred that drove it off the road, to sit in a ditch. There are a few more speed/power metal tracks here like "Mindless" and "L.A. Prisoner", the latter being the best on the entire album, with sailing guitar lines and dirty bluster that slap it straight into your memory, as basic as the patterns might seem. "Ready to Stay" is your typical "Cat Scratch Fever" gone metal track, the chords in the verse sound familiar though they are smothered in deliciously indulgent little leads, and of course "Forever" is a Scorpions style arena rock piece, very slow and emotionally involved but just not as powerful as the band had hoped.

Midnight Darkness had their limitations, and if the truth be told, they often attempted to surpass them on this album. The vocalist is decent, but he just can't carry the notes as far as he'd often like. Fortunately, this album is such a perfect emblem of its time, so welcoming any longing for nostalgic virtue that those of you seeking the riches of decades gone will probably chew right into it. The lonely, resonating leads and huge chords truly give the impression of the sun being down, the street lights twinkling and the danger and adventure of the unknown. The re-issue of the album contains the bonus tracks from the band's "Running from Future/Free Man" single (1984), and these sound pretty dirty and adequate, the latter feeling very much like any random Judas Priest mid-pacer from the late 70s, perhaps a little Montrose in there; the latter once again combing over Priest territory. Though this was their sole shot at the big time in this incarnation, apparently the band has survived in the form of 'Past M.D.', playing a more modern take on the traditional metal tropes.

Verdict: Win [7/10]

Moral Crusade - An Act of Violence (1990)

Moral Crusade were really just another of countless hundreds of thrash bands, no doubt inspired by the success of Bay Area greats like Metallica, Exodus, Testament and Slayer to form their own act and give it a go. But they do have one particular distinction: they were one of the tragic few groups of this style to hail from Ireland. Considering the angry stereotypes we usually associate with the place, it's almost surprising, but then, there has always been but a small knit circle of metal acts in any substrata from that nook of the world, so why should the late 80s thrash wave have been any different?

The band produced a demo in the year of their creation, 1998's Immoral Condition, and later spat out this sole album, which fell far below the radar as there was only so much coin to pass around to the legions of better known bands struggling to try and break that 'Big 4' or 'Big 3', dependent on your individual preference. Unfortunately, even if they had benefited from some mass exposure, I fear Moral Crusade would not have made much of a difference, as the music they wrote here was all too middling and typical of its day. Crisp, crunchy and angry thrash that reminds me of so many 'lesser tier' bands like Defiance, Wargasm or honestly, about a thousand bands that never made it out of the rehearsal or demo stage here in the states. The album contains a few of the demo tracks in "Hate War" and "When the World Dies", and the remainder was written for this release, so it's safe to assume that it represents the bulk of their brief career.

I say the record reminds me more of US thrash due to the clumsy but charismatic barking of the vocalist, 'Pincher', who has a pretty typical style found often in street-thrash or crossover bands California and beyond, and the riffing seems to focus on that mid-paced schematic we have come to know from a Wargasm or Anvil Bitch. In fact, from what I've read, the band actually evolved out of a crossover/hardcore band known as Chromatic Death. There are, however, some wild breaks of speed during certain segments or leads which remind me of Exodus or the German scene, and I for one wish there had been more of this material, like the solo bridge in "When the World Dies" or the cruel, twisting anger of "The End".

Otherwise, so many of the tracks just pump along like a forgettable train of nightly barroom brawls. "Streetwise" has a seasoning of Destruction in its violent escapade, and "Premeditated Murder" threw a few undeniably raw riffs right in my face, but I found even the moments of nostalgic fervor I feel for this genre to fade rather quickly when I listened through this again. It doesn't help that the production is meek, with the guitars so loud and chunky that the bass becomes close to a non-issue, the drums trebly and crashing enough to at least provide a seat that the guitars and vocals can sit their fat asses into. The lyrics delve into the typical thrash subjects of its day, from hatred and domestic violence to the broader strokes of Armageddon.

In all, there's nothing necessarily bad or poorly contrived about An Act of Violence. It offered a bit of headbanging for your bucks, but nothing that would last in the tape deck or record player for more than a few spins before the attention sought out the more vivid musical statement made by a myriad of others. The same record could have come out of any 'burb in the States during the 1988-1992 period, so there's not much of a cultural distinction in the rhythms, and thus it once again returns to the dark side of memory, the dust of long settled aspirations, the twisted visage of its cover mascot (Spider-Man's arch nemesis Venom with a beard, anyone?) leering from a forgotten place.

Verdict: Indifference [5.75/10]

http://www.myspace.com/moralcrusadehcthrash

(You can download the tracks from the album through a link on their site).

Lightning Swords of Death - The Golden Plague (2007)

Aesthetically, The Golden Plague is a pleasing release, both visually and aurally. A fantastic cover painting and logo married to a grim as fuck production, all the right influences in Bathory, Mayhem and Hellhammer, and raw, blood curdling vocals that spew forth the sewage of Hell without any apologies: these are the characteristics dominating the Lightning Swords of Death debut. A California act having honed its edge through a number of previous incarnations, they recorded one demo under this moniker in 2005 and then had the opportunity to release their debut through BlackMetal.com. But do not unfurl the banners of blasphemous victory quite yet; for though The Golden Plague wears the robe of barbaric, black metal vengeance well, it's entertainment value is sadly limited.

When entering a field such as black metal, which has already seen constant revision and trekked abroad though many palettes of creativity, there are two paths one will really tread. First, you might manage to combine the basic fundamentals of the genre with some abysmal, wretched tone or some sequence of riffing savagery that somehow equals or rivals the forebears. Second, you'll try something really different, keeping only a few of the core aesthetics intact. Lightning Swords of Death took the former path, with a simplistic but bombastic approach that mashes up the same inspiration from death and thrash metal that the mighty Quorthon once strode. If you could package up the first three Bathory records and then transplant them to Los Angeles with a few vitamin tabs of other influences, you would arrive at The Golden Plague.

This is not necessarily a negative, and the band certainly crank up the vicious undercurrent of the music to a level that might not have been possible in the mid 80s. The bass provides a heavily distorted marrow beneath which the drums rape and pillage, the guitars thick and caustic like viral sludge, and the vocals of the Autarch distorted and suitably disgusting. Tracks like "Shores of Twilight" and "Let This Knife Lead You To Us" who the band at their blitzkrieg best, rampant series of powerful if predictable notation that delivers at the very least a sound companion piece to a neckbreaking experiment. These tend towards a middle or slower pace, but the sluggish evil is extremely potent within the ghastly, distant mix. A few of the shorter tracks also deliver, like "Abomination in White" with its huge, nihilistic thrashing grooves. "Loathsome" is an enveloping if forgettable, ominous guitar interlude, while the epic 8 minute closer "Ghost of a Thousand Broken Blades" mixes up tortured, almost silly vocals with slower, plodding thrash rhythms and other dynamic effects.

The Golden Plague is just diabolic enough, just nasty enough to get a passing grade from me. It's not an album I will listen to very often unless I feel the masochistic need to have my ears pierced by uncircumsized, raw black venom. It's not nearly as well produced as its followup The Extra Dimensional Wound, yet I found the songwriting here on the debut subtly superior, the riffs not unfamiliar but somehow more effective and lethal due to the churning discourse. However, both albums are fairly consistent, and while I can't recommend this band to someone who prefers the more accessible or experimental side of the genre, those who seek the blood drained trenches might squeeze some value out of this, while they stare at that horrid and beautiful cover.

Verdict: Win [7/10]

http://www.myspace.com/lightningswordsofdeath

Liers in Wait - Spiritually Uncontrolled Art EP (1992)

Swedish supergroups are all the norm in this day and age, due to the high profile of a great many metal bands in this country, covering almost all the genre's sub-levels. They are snapped up sight unseen, sounds unheard thanks to their built in audiences. Back in the early 90s, of course, most of Sweden's death metal bands had yet to truly break out, with the exception of Entombed and a handful of others getting decent signings (Grave, Dismember, Unleashed). I'm not sure we can classify Liers in Wait as a 'super' group due to the fact that its members' constituent bands were not yet massive at the time, but in retrospect, the enormous talents that went into this sole EP recording would classify it in that category.

Vocals here are provided by Christofer Johnsson of Therion and Carbonized, who at the time was still using his more ghastly guttural edge as per Of Darkness... or Beyond Sanctorum. He also covers some of the guitar here, joined by Kristian Wåhlin on guitars and keys, also the primary songwriter of this band. You'll know Wåhlin not only from his work in Grotesque or the later Gothic rock of Diabolique, but also his alias, Necrolord, famous Swedish cover artist responsible for legendary albums like Storm of the Light's Bane, In the Nightside Eclipse, Purgatory Afterglow, and so forth. Let's put it this way: the man never ran out of work in those days, and he probably never will if he maintains his consistent quality. Other Liers in Wait included Hans Nilsson of Crystal Age, Dimension Zero and Luciferion, and at one point Tomas Lindberg of At the Gates was in the band, though not for this particular recording.

With such a plethora of involvement, you'd think Spiritually Uncontrolled Art would lie at some vortex, some cross gates between the sounds of these other bands, and to an extent, maybe that is true. But I found that the material actually carried a huge influence from faster USDM bands like Morbid Angel, Deicide and Malevolent Creation, spiced up with some frenetic, cosmic and philosophical atmosphere, lyrics rooted deeply in the Mythos of H.P. Lovecraft. This flailing assault is mostly felt through the more direct blasters like "Overlord" and the band's namesake "Liers in Wait", both credible and competent acts of aggression that shine brightest when they evoke melodic, higher pitched notes or the frenetic leads that cut through like vorpal tentacles from beyond a tear in reality. Often the material is so insanely paced that it seems to crash over itself, resulting in a slight, loose facet to the songwriting.

While those were certainly decent tracks, I found myself more involved with the "Maleficent Dreamvoid", which opens with a cerebral synthesizer of cosmic horror before it too joins the calamitous chaos, a million riffs per minute elevating the frenzied assault, only here the individual guitar lines carry a more curious weight to them. "Bleeding Shrines of Stone" opens with a spliced melodic groove not unlike something the Finns Demilich would write, only given the added benefit of keyboard atmosphere and another burst into the band's overwhelming whirlwind of confusion. The final piece, "Gateways" is an instrumental with some of the finest guitar work on the EP, an extensive use of synthesizers for a doomed atmosphere, and writhing, razor sharp rhythms that slice below the tolling bells.

The production is accurate for its day and reminds me of the first few At the Gates records, or Crystal Age's Far Beyond Divine Horizons, though this is far more brutally inclined. I can only wonder what advances this band would have made had they pursued this band beyond just the one EP, potentially bringing in more of the scenes luminaries for a few full-lengths using this same concept material. Spiritually Controlled Art is 17 minutes, so it won't take you long to flesh out its various threads of insanity, but a fine example of how bands were taking the pure death metal strains of both shores and twisting them into novel formulas. The mix of cosmic, cerebral horror and violent, proficient death metal might not seem so novel anymore, as bands like Mithras, Morbid Angel and others have explored deeply these vacuums of fright beyond comprehension, but Liers in Wait were one of the first to make it stick, albeit briefly. This effort is a good leap short of legendary, but its qualities yearn to be experienced by anyone seeking those dimly glowing gems of 90s potential.

Verdict: Win [7.75/10] (take me to my throne)

Lifelover - Promo (2005)

Exposure to Lifelover's initial 2005 promo recording comes in two forms: either you've downloaded it to check it out, or you purchased the limited edition Konkurs though Avantgarde which included the material, since the original cassettes must be almost impossible to locate at this time. Either way, it is important to note that this is not the same bizarre metal band who would release their debut Pulver in the following year. Sure, it's got two of the same members, ( ) and B, and it's called Lifelover (with a different logo), but this is an ambient recording using ringing and brooding guitar feedback broken up by only the occasional screamed vocal. Whether this was an intended direction for the band and they shifted to their later, melodic black/rock style, or there was some implicit duality in their goals to release both ambient and metallic works (certainly others, like Vinterriket have done such a thing), this is simply not the same Lifelover sound that would survive to transform the band into cult favorites.

The kicker is, this was actually enjoyable material, and it would have proven interesting had they pursued this course, even though we might never have been gifted with an Erotik or a Konkurs. Obviously we're reaching into an entirely different realm of experimentation, since you won't find the tinny drum machine, the swaggering, almost drunken rasping chaos of ( ), or the surge of Katatonia-styled guitars that provide the undercurrent for their modern work. Instead, the duo channels Brian Eno through two lengthy, untitled compositions in over 53 minutes. "I" is the longer of these, providing resonant walls of string feedback given both warm and eerie tones as the occasional vocal snippet plugs through, building to several crescendos in the middle and climax of the track. "II" opens with the most minimal pause on the album, but the sounds that erupt about 4-5 minutes into this are wonderfully frightening, like the blaring of horns across a mute landscape, shimmering little guitars reaching ghastly fingers of ice through the din. The end is quite warm, like an afternoon in the womb, strange sights and sounds just beyond the realm of the listener's unborn perceptions.

As a pretty huge fan of ambient and dark ambient musics, there was much on this release that appeals to me. Do I find it as distinct as their metal direction? Probably not. There were of course hundreds of artists already afield of large catalogs of such minimal background noise, and while Lifelover were completely capable of making it stick, they're not quite at the level of a Raison d'Etre or Atrium Carceri. Still, if this genre suits you, then there is no reason not to check it out, because it's further evidence of the Swedes' offbeat center, their dimension of detail, their flirtation with the obscure, wringing the cloth of quality for each longing drop.

Verdict: Win [7/10]

http://www.myspace.com/lifeloverband

Lifelover - Erotik (2007)

Whether one loved or hated this Swedish band's bleeding or bloodied girl debut, there was not really a question as to whether Lifelover were bringing something new to the table. Various traces of outside sources certainly make their way under the compositional eaves, as they do with any new artist or collaboration, but the whole was endearing enough to admit the band were onto something, which would draw divisive lines between the hipster attuned and grim cybernauts of the necrocosm. Just what the fuck was this band doing? Clearly this was not your pastor's feared black metal, so one could only ride the vapors of their fusion or rally against any and all change they might offer the jaded, stagnant genre they originated from.

Erotik is neither brilliant nor vomit inducing, but in my opinion the slight improvements to their core aesthetic formulate a slightly superior entity to the debut Pulver. This is still the same jangled mass of melancholy, samples, doom and depressive rock integrated with the compulsive and raw repetition of melodic black metal guitars, all set against a darkening journey down a fat hole, with a drum machine as your pilot. However, where Erotik succeeds over its older sister is in the ability to haunt the listener, for this might just remain the most frighteningly intense of Lifelover's offerings, even though it tidies up rather nicely in the production department. The pianos and guitars were a step up from Pulver, and ( ) ventured into a grimmer territory here as evidenced in particular tracks like "En Man I Sina Sämsta År".

That song is actually an excellent place to start poring over the stubborn delights of this album, because the wailing melodies that open it burn themselves directly into the conscience, soon parted for sympathetic pianos and thick, oozing bass and chords. The vocals here are nearly death metal gutturals, and the result is a glorious, charging testament to depression rather than some subtle sacrifice upon the altar of lamentation. Other tracks like "Dödens Landsväg", "Sweet Illness of Mine", "I Love (To Hurt) You" and the soaring "Välkommen Till Pulvercity" all capture a similar imagination, as if all the negative emotions of regret that haunted the Swedish urban nights this album was recorded were to accumulate into a vortex of saddening majesty and then rape your earlobes. Not all the chord patterns here are immaculate, but they do the trick, and it would be difficult to ignore the raw, blissful energy.

Of course, it would not be Lifelover without some measure of diversity, and this is felt in most of the neighborly tracks to those I've already swept across with broad strokes. "Saltvatten (Du + Jag VS. Tellus)" makes use of sparse, clean guitars as it breeds the pangs of sharp despair like a blade carefully caressing a wrist, unsure of whether or not to make that final plunge into the blood line, severing the right and will to live. "Besatt" also uses the clean, ringing tones as it shuffles forward like some hybrid of shoegazing rock and celebratory, warm folk, and then the following "Höstdepressioner" continues the mood, adding more glorious melodies (a little dash of The Cure there in the background, behind the samples). I did draw the impression that perhaps there were too many clean guitars in a row, but then, this is a band that could likely create an entire album around such pieces with success.

"Humörets Bottenvåning" makes for a fine interlude, a quaint trip hop beat pumping below some tasteful pianos and electronic swells, but it should have been the outro, because the two tracks that conclude the album are probably the weakest. "Museum of Past Affections" looked good on paper, and the cleaner vocals are interesting, but the riffs tend to grow tiring after merely a few repetitions, the glorious pattern implied just not all that impressive next to the earlier ragers here. After this, the 11 minute "Nitlott" spends about half its course in rustic folk, then shifting into more of the band's ringing little guitar melodies, and finally a warped approximation of black/doom with samples and reversed vocals. Strange enough to fit the band? Sure, but not that interesting of its own accord.

Unlike the debut Pulver, I will admit that this sophomore has only grown on me in the few years since its release. My preference remains for Konkurs, the third full-length, which I still find to be the greatest balance of beauty and misery that this band has yet crafted, but surely the ground work had been well laid here in Erotik's back alleys and rusted public works. This album might not have a beautiful blond in her bloody birthday suit embracing a rocky, lichen-crusted surface, but its evening cityscape is well suited to the musical content, a festival of lights that hover at the edge of total, bleak annihilation, a surge of desperation that the heart might have emptied, but the blood still burns for tomorrow.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

http://www.myspace.com/lifeloverband

Lifelover - Pulver (2006)

Pulver is perhaps the most futile of albums to critique, since it's hard to believe anyone of the male (or possibly female) persuasion could tear their eyes away from its interesting cover image long enough to read something pertaining to the musical contents, but it's not as if anyone could really blame them. The cover is striking on more than just a sexual level, and I'm sure it didn't hurt the Swedes' chances with this interesting if flawed proposition of hybrid sounds. Basically, Lifelover mix the driving, desperate melodic doom of a Katatonia with tortured, wandering vocals courtesy of the enigmatic ( ) (see also Hypothermia) that best represent the depressive black metal schemata, and through this they drive the stakes of earthy folk and rock influences, with some even more interesting curve balls in store for those willing to delve deep inside its unusual depths.

Pulver opens with two of its strongest songs, so the attraction is very quickly felt for what the band is attempting to create on their debut. "Nackskott" favors a meandering, surf/folk guitar line above which ( ) introduces you to his surly and characteristic pain, scraping a number of registers until the intense bridge of the track which most closely resembles black metal. The track ends with a sample of what I'd assume to be a child's TV theme or folk song in Swedish, creating this unusual disparity. Following is "MS Salmonella" with its driving melodic doom chords and piano overlays (a trick this band will consistently manifest on later work like the strikingly similar "Shallow" from the excellent third album Konkurs). One doesn't really expect the gunshot and screaming samples to erupt into a Celtic Frost groove, but there it is, and thus closes the most consistently impressive chapter of this record.

Apart from these, I was greatly enamored of "Söndag", deeper into the track list, a circular melodic doom track which channels a simplistic Paradise Lost pattern of chords into blissful hopelessness, ( ) careening over its wide channels of sorrow like a galleon of distorted emotions. The lush piano intro to "Kärlek - Becksvart Melankoli" is waylaid by another driving sequence of cleaner guitars, nearly silent programmed drumming and extremely angst-ridden vocals, but it at least offers a few moments of potential. There are also a pair of intriguing interludes found in the roiling, evil noise swells of "Medicamannen" which are offset by the folk and conversational samples, and the turbulent funeral ambient tones of "Avbrott Sex", a melancholic piano striking out across them as if you weren't already creeped out enough. "Stockholm" is another track to use the surf-like, bouncing folk guitars and some delicious, subversive bass, so add this one in the plus category, and the acoustic/piano fusion of "Herrens Hand" is soothing and strange with its samples.

Sadly, the remainder of the effort is not so compelling. "Mitt Öppna Öga" starts off with a decent melodic thrust, but once the sex samples arrive the track has already played out its interesting nature and becomes sour. "Vardagsnytt" bounces along with some of the sillier vocals on the record, but the chord pattern below is bare of any essential atmosphere or patterns. "Nästa Gryning" goes for a dreamy sequence, the vocals ringing out distantly across Romantic parlor tricks in the clean chord selection, but ultimately fails to thrill me despite the 6:25 minutes it spends trying, and the closer "En Sång Om Dig" is a slovenly wreck that might have just been clipped from the recordings and none would be at any loss whatsoever. Other complaints I've heard are with the production, but I must disagree there. The tinny silence of the drum beats is a delightful counterbalance for the thicker broth of emotional range created through the vocals and dirty guitar tones, and the lo-fi quality is welcome as it is with many more traditional black metal acts.

Pulver was a unique experience for its day, but one that Lifelover has consistently trumped with the rest of their output. Considering the experimental attitude of the band, it surprises me just how much of this debut I do hear in the later Konkurs. Then again, the band were on a spree of one album per year so the smaller, natural evolutionary steps make sense, and the wealth of this style had yet to be shaken from their collective systems. I truly enjoy 2-3 of these songs, namely "Nackskott" and "Söndag", and they are not without interesting companions here, but enough of the material drags its feet on the bottom that the album has difficulty finding a smooth current to sail. It's an intriguing vessel to visit, but I rarely feel the urge to stay aboard for long.

Verdict: Win [7.25/10]

http://www.myspace.com/lifeloverband

Lethal - Poison Seed (1996)

After the depressing 1995 EP Your Favorite God, which was a sort of official presentation of some of the material the band had demo'd since their excellent album, I was not holding out a lot of hope for the ensuing album. The band had incorporated cheap aggression through the form of weak grooves, and lost a great deal of the delicate balance that made Programmed such a treat to listen through. I anticipated only a direct continuation of that material, and to an extent this is what Poison Seed delivers. However, the specter of songwriting potential from the debut does seem to re-surface here, shining through the unusual eyesore gracing the cover, and though this doesn't even come close to the shadow of its predecessor in terms of overall quality, I feel like the sophomore was at least headed back in the right direction. It just had so much further to go...

Clearly the band kept their Queensrÿche influence, primarily through the vocals, but also that Seattle band were experimenting around this time with bigger grooves and more 'modern' elements to the music, and failing at it far harder than Lethal. You can also hear a little of the Ray Alder from Parallels or Inside Out, and perhaps even a little Alice in Chains (part of "Bitter Taste" reminded me of Layne Staley). But the biggest distinction here would have to be the heavier, chugging guitars, given enough bombast not to run steady with the lame nu-metal pundits of the mid to late 90s, but at least doing something to bridge the distance with the OzzFest crowd and Pantera-whores. The line-up here was consistent with the prior year's EP, so perhaps by 1996 the band had just refined their direction enough that they managed to avoid a complete suck fest.

"Down" feels like a heavier, darker approach to some of the Programmed material, and the crunching weight of the guitar tone actually reminds me a lot of Ray Alder's side project Engine, especially the way Mallicoat carves out some of his ascending lines late in the verses. This is not a good song, necessarily, but at the least it is superior to anything from that previous release, and I felt a breach in the tension and despair I held. "Bitter Taste" crafts a simple, bludgeoning flow through the twanging melodic guitars of the intro and the pumping bass, but after that it can feel a little shrill and silly, especially the vocals as they shift from the accessible mystery of the verse to a more funky, Axel Rose meets Layne Stayley vibe. "Born" is a bright and bluesy, folk ballad piece with some soothing vocals and crisp guitars, but it can't match "Another Day", and the following track "Walking Wounded" delivers only generic, chugging guitars which must not have taken more than a few seconds to write.

"Poison Seed" itself is yet another diversion similar to "Born", with clean guitars and a mix of Geoff Tate-like mid range vocals with distorted, almost electro bass tones. It's actually one of the better songs on the album (I know that is not saying much), picking up in intensity though it never transforms into metal anywhere. I could see someone who dug Alice in Chains or Queensryche ballads, some strange Seattle connection, nodding his/her/its head to this, and the band incorporates a string section which scintillates alongside the pluck of guitars and bombast of the bass. "Watch Me Feed" is a doomy piece which once again sounds like...you guessed it, the fabled grunge band, albeit at a metallic pace. The same goes for "Meaning", though the vocals are quite good with this one. If only the music had followed their lead.

"Now" creates yet another of the band's dreamy, clean guitar sequences with more strings, decent if forgettable, and "Your Favorite God" starts with bass and then the lamentations of some strong, wailing guitar melodies and even more wailing vocals. The latter is another of the album's strongest, despite a few forgettable rhythm guitar lines and a continuing influence from Layne Staley, there is something about the screaming vocals that succeeds. "Odd Shaped Pearl" is an instrumental which continues the use of string section, here aligned with acoustic guitars in a clever little classical outro. This doesn't only close out Poisoned Seed, but the band's career, at least until they see fit to release something new (the band is still active in some form).

While this sophomore is a mess of ideas that do not always fit so well together, it falls into the category of 'could have been worse' rather tightly. A number of the songs here stand out to mind far more than anything on Your Favorite God, but that's not high praise, as the EP was largely abysmal. When scratching a Lethal itch, there remains no alternative to Programmed in terms of desirability or quality. However, if you are masochistic and want to hear what the Kentucky crew were doing to adapt and assimilate themselves into the 90s, the near 50 minutes of Poison Seed will leave you only in a state of bewilderment. Never truly awful, but often hovering close to that state, it stands as yet another timeless testimonial to why a band's evolution need be very carefully monitored, more efficiently than Lethal were capable of.

Verdict: Indifference [5.25/10]

http://www.myspace.com/yourfavoritegod