Lake of Tears - Moon and Mushrooms (2007)

It may have taken a decade of wanderings, changes of heart and self exploration, but Moon and Mushrooms arrived in 2007 like a prince exiled after so many years, returned to his rightful kingdom as the heir to a the royal court. Yes, Lake of Tears' 7th full-length effort is probably what should have been their 4th, the natural follow-up to A Crimson Cosmos which actually metes out a stark, bleaker tone than that masterpiece, but remembers all the while that this is a metal band, and a metal album. Yes, Moon and Mushrooms crushes along the lines of the first three albums, but it also shows a clear evolution to a colder, concentrated power which topples even the band's classic crushers.

One of the other reasons the album is so much stronger than any of the past three would be that they've trimmed all the fat. There is no excess here, no filler, simply 40 minutes of killer songwriting. Magnus Sahlgren, who had been credited in helping the band perform and added a few lines to the past few albums is a core member of the band here, and you can definitely hear it in the guitars. The electronics of The Neonai or Black Brick Road remain, but in a support role, gleaming like church organs but buried deep enough in the mix that they complement the rock without ever asserting dominion. The entire album reeks of class, and it's a raging success which cleared the cobwebs of a decade. It also features a few of the band's career best songs.

The desolate strumming repetition that intros "Last Purple Sky" is joined by a psychedelic, echoing melody before a cold current of stone-washed chords, breaking down into a simple chorus in which Daniel Brennare's melodic vocals not only feel more refreshed and unique than he has in years, but offer a cool, mellow contrast to the edifice of the guitars. "You Better Breathe While There's Still Time" immediately blows the roof off with its opening verse, a killer rock hook given immediate breath by the vocals. The lyrics here are fantastic, and I like to imagine it as the ultimate vampire rock anthem, though I'm not 100% positive that's what the lyrics refer to:

It's the light of the morning still
that thing that keeps you from breathing
You better run to where there's night
to run from where there's light

The way the chorus vocals intertwine with the folksy clean guitar melody is phenomenal, and it is easily one of the best Lake of Tears tracks yet. "Waiting Counting" opens with a playful electronic line, and yet it's more spot on and psychedelic than anything from Black Brick Road, fusing into Brennare's soothing voice before the desperate and beautiful chorus erupts beneath a fantastic, minimal guitar melody. Great, moody synth suffix here as well. "Like a Leaf" is a Floydian track with another powerful chorus that makes all the difference, easily catapulting it out of reach of the dull Forever Autumn, more river rock than metal, but nonetheless memorable, lulling you into a sense of false tranquility before "Children of the Grey" arrives like a curtain of emotional, crushing ascension. By far one of the band's most powerful tracks, it functions with a simple but unforgettable mute groove the likes of which Cathedral used to knock out of the park, but spikes into an amazingly thick soup of chords highlighted by subtle organs that crash and collide like waves into the guitar hook. The breakdown is beautiful, the solo burns like a whiskey shot, the swelling psychedelic synthesizers flutter into rapture, and the lyrics and vocals rule. Brennare is at his meanest sounding tone here, and it's a trend I hope he will continue!

Deep within the corner of our dreams
Within a life spreading between
We finally made it through
We finally made it in

Doom metal and stoner rock does not get much better this, but there's a surprising amount of polish here that makes it both accessible and heavy as a pair of mating backhoes. "Head On Phantom" is another classic melodic drudger ala "Raistlin & the Rose", with a beautiful clean guitar woven through the pumping bass and passionate lyrics. The song title also rules. And just when you think the band is going to dial in some ballad, they offer another fist slogging triumph in "Island Earth", which feels quite a bit like "Shadowshires" from The Neonai, with a different payoff in the chorus, as synthesizers subtly scream across the top of the chords and Brennare's arching vocal line. Fabulous. To crown off the album is the lengthiest track on the album, the 6:25 piece "Planet of the Penguins", but just when you think it might limit itself to some bluesy psychedelic confinement, the chords build and Brennare howls painfully over the verse in ecstatic melody. To be honest, this is the one track on the album which does not feel 100% perfect to me, though it's hardly filler, and I'd take it in a heartbeat over the majority of Black Brick Road or any single track on Forever Autumn. But it remains consistent to the rest of the material here, and offers a nice exit into the mushroom-choked night.

I couldn't be happier with this astounding return to form via one of Sweden's most underrated, unique bands. Gone are the needless experiments and empty soul searching of the past few albums, the phoned in pop leanings and the identity crisis. Lake of Tears have written the sort of album I want, the sort of album that other bands simply don't do, even those close to the band in aesthetic (Tiamat, etc). I may find it a pinch less memorable than A Crimson Cosmos, but those are massive shoes to fill, and Moon and Mushrooms fills the footwear out to about the tip of the toes. One of the best albums of 2007. Please, sirs, may I have another?

Highlights: unzip the bag and pop one on your tongue.

Verdict: Epic Win [9.75/10] (on my skin, the tears of the evening)

http://www.lakeoftears.net/

Brown Jenkins - Death Obsession (2009)

Like the drifter in the seminal Western films of decades past, Brown Jenkins have by this point come and gone through the annals of Americana. Death Obsession is the band's second full-length album (they've also released a pair of EPs), and released prior to the cessation of the project. As a newcomer to the sound of this band, with no experience listening to their older works, I feel as if I am late to an important discovery, bursting forth to take pictures and grill the archaeologists left on the scene while the better news crews have already taken it to press.

The reason for my excitement is that there are simply no other bands that I know of today who deliver quite the same sound as this morbid, Lovecraftian anomaly (the name of the band, though strange, is taken from The Dreams in the Witch-House). There are minor similarities to other American greats like Xasthur or Leviathan, but only in the band's devotion to raw, decrepit sounding guitars and the overall, oppressive atmosphere. The bass is thick and oozing, almost to a hypnotic level, and the guitars emit a blackish discord the likes of which would make Ved Buens Ende green with envy. I was occasionally reminded of Voivod, a less turbulent Portal, a more primal Mindrot, or perhaps a more frenetic, growling parallel to the more spacious sounds of earlier Neurosis, but these are mild comparisons at best. No, what Brown Jenkins has created is unarguably an original sound, that given time, will cement them into the scrolls of black and doom metal innovators, hopefully read by all.

Such an obscure sound as this is not easily absorbed without the proper mental environment. The tracks all tend to ramble forth through a number of level playing fields, where the guitars glisten and slowly tear free the listener's flesh, the bass remains central and intriguing as it creates a foundation of mood either flighty or haunting, and the drums crash along with intensity, but little in the way of fills or tempo shifting. You could correctly assume that Death Obsession is a monotonous album, but this is an acceptable price to pay for such a frightful immersion. It's one of those albums that can help you see into another world of possibility, not only in the dank corners of isolation but in the sunlit deception of a bright afternoon, the ebb and flow of society still a crushing, strangulating force that surrounds you.

You could also consider this much like an instrumental album, though there are vocals...caustic death-grunts that seem to disappear straight into the woven patterns of the guitar & bass. The album booklet contains lyrics, but not all of the written lyrics appear to end up within the songs. Instead, the listener is left to add them through his own peripheral imagination while the band rolls forward through 64 minutes of bliss and torment. And it doesn't hurt that the lyrics are quite good...certainly worth reading while you have the music playing in the background, when compared to many similar acts. Streams of conscious and unconscious horror read like poetry through the stark representation of the innocent scenery of decay:

Show some teeth now to feel alive
Children are pulled onto mattresses of hay
A nickelodeon wheezes and trembles in rust
Women sigh heavily with the rain

All this is delivered in seven compositions which range from about 7-11 minutes in length. The album is one of the most consistent I've heard. The opener "Breathless" is just as devious as the final "We Disappear", and remains level all the way, but not like the cracked and dried earthen plates of a desert steppe, more like the slight rise and fall of a marsh or peat bog, sucking you down as you walk the line between each puddle of detritus. The vocals howl out at regular intervals, a piece of an ancient puzzle, but they can hardly distract you from the guitars and bass which truly carry the album (no synthesizers needed here to round out the band's sound, the guitars are just that convincing). To pick favorites here is nearly impossible, because the writing quality is staggeringly even, but if you can bear 10 minutes of this, you'd might as well sit down for the length of it, because Death Obsession is enormously engrossing and complex for an album so straightforward and seemingly primordial in its direction

Like most of the best cutting edge extremity, Brown Jenkins is not for everyone. It demands a lot more attention on the listener's behalf than most artists within the genres of doom and black metal. However, if you find yourself enamored of deep, depressive or post-black metal, or even the shoegazer sorts of bands (or anything I name dropped above), I can't recommend this effort enough. Death Obsession will take you by the hand, befriend and bewitch you, and at the same time walk you straight to the gates of oblivion. Perhaps I've been made a believer a little too late, but when I hear this album, I'm ready to walk that last, crooked path beyond the ephemeral pleasures of being, and into the gaping void of horror.

Highlights: The entire album.

Verdict: Epic Win [9/10] (the world collapses slowly)

http://www.myspace.com/brownjenkins13

Lake of Tears - Black Brick Road (2004)

Whereas The Neonai was written and released in order to flush out the contract Lake of Tears had with Black Mark, Black Brick Road was the band's true 'reunion' album after the band split a few years prior. It was released through Noise Records, who for all purposes must have been nearly defunct in the 21st century, though they dominated the 80s with a roster comprised of many of the greatest metal bands in history. The band remained a 3-piece here, with a few guest spots to round out the album, and once again the band had made a minor departure in sound.

Black Brick Road is an interesting work, but not a very good one. The band makes an increased use of electronics here, and the result is that the album occasionally feels like so many other gothic/electro metal bands, such as Theater of Tragedy during their Musique/Assembly phase. It's not quite as disappointing as the band's 1999 album Forever Autumn, but there are very few songs here that I enjoy to this day, and it doesn't seem to age well in general. What the album lacks most is heaviness. Lake of Tears are no strangers to an inclusion of pop and psychedelic rock elements into their music, but at best they had always had those hard hitting tracks to fall back on, like "Burn Fire Burn", or "Raistlin and the Rose", or "Cosmic Weed". Here on Black Brick Road, not so much.

"The Greymen" at least anchors itself in a very basic chord sequence, but the silly keyboard line is distracting and the more bluesy, tranquil moments of the verse where the band uses clean guitars and a sparse, bluesy lead are all forgettable. "Making Evenings" is easily my favorite song on the album, due to the trailing guitar that gracefully drifts across the dark backdrop of the chords, and the vocals of the chorus are simple but soothing. There aren't any other tracks here that can match it, but it makes for a nice preamble to the band's 2007 shocker Moon and Mushrooms (i.e. the boys are back in town). "Black Brick Road" is another of the band's country/folk rock departures which could just as well have been written by Tom Petty, takin a spin into Pink Floyd territory in the late bridge. "Dystopia" is similar to "The Greymen", as it too features a rather grating electro goth-pop line on the synth, and a shrill, goofy keyboard that functions as the background of the verse. There is no real payoff here, as the chorus is just the opening volley with added female vocals. Some of the vocal lines in the verse also feel redundant to past tracks like "Devil's Diner". The lyrics are also terrible in this one:

Do you know just how long it takes to get burned
Just how long it takes you know you will learn, to get burned
Do you know what it takes just to burn for a while
And then to put on a smile, cause it burns to play with fire

Thank you, Sigmund Freud, for the profundity of such obvious sentiment. "The Organ" is the most mellow of the album's tracks, a bluesy Floyd-like floe of clean guitars, organs and a steady beat. It's not a bad song, but once more there is just no payoff to be had. No surprise, no sudden turns, swollen with its own simplicity. "A Trip With the Moon" moves along at a "Keep On Rocking in the Free World" pace, and I kept getting mental imagery of Tom Petty singing while Young played guitar. The chorus isn't bad, and continues to escalate as the track proceeds, but once the load is blown, there is nothing to await you in the afterglow except for a cheesy synth. "Sister Sinister" features a new female vocalist (no Jennie Tebler here), Stina Rebelius, and it's an interesting rock track with a nice, Girlschool-meets-Mazzy Star vibe to it. But the problem is that it's just not Lake of Tears until Daniel shows up in the chorus.

"Rainy Day Away" sounds very much like an outtake from A Crimson Cosmos, basically a combination of "Boogie Bubble" slowed to the tempo of "To Die is To Wake" (it even self-references "Boogie Bubble"). Unfortunately the band did this better when it was the two individual tracks that it is attempting to bridge, and thus "Rainy Day Away" becomes the forgotten edition. The closer "Crazyman" is honestly one of the better tracks, so it's unfortunate that it is tucked away at the end here. A steady rocker with vibrant organs and a nice, low-end bite, once again this is a track that seems to foreshadow the band's following album, where they will take this formula and absolutely crush with it ("Children of the Grey" is very similar, but godly).

It's a little hard to find the praise for an album like this when the band is capable of so much more, both on their past and future works chronological to this. Black Brick Road doesn't suck, but it feels as if it takes the easy way out on a number of tracks and there is hardly a memorable moment to be had outside of "Making Evenings" and perhaps "Crazyman". That said, this doesn't suffer from the obtuse boredom of Forever Autumn either. The songs are flighty and for the most part fun, just the sort of fun you have at the local annual outdoors Faire, stuffing your cheeks with cotton candy, kettle corn and corn dogs...and then forgetting the experience once you achieve the following morning's erection and ready yourself for work.

Highlights: Making Evenings, Crazyman

Verdict: Indifference [6/10] (heading for the heart of a different sun)

http://www.lakeoftears.net/

Iniquity - Five Across the Eyes (2000)

At first I didn't like this album's title much, and I still don't much care for it, but it is an accurate descriptor for what this album feels like. Getting slapped in the face. Denmark's now-defunct Iniquity will devour you, digest you, and shit you into the gutter. What we have is very fast, brutal technical death metal with groove elements, nicely interspersed within the length of the album. Think Hate Eternal, Nile, Decapitated, etc. with occasionally a bit of grooving goodness.

The album literally wastes no time with intros, immediately hammering you with a full on assault of sound. Track one "Inhale the Ghost" interplays discordant lead guitar struggling for purchase amongst the devastating rhythm section. Around 1:50 it slows into a trippy little segment, the first breakdown amongst some wonderful ones on the album. This piece has a faint trace of exoticism, almost Egyptian, though the (pretty awesome) lyrics are not reflective of that.

Abused, abusing, accused of using

Dealing, declining, fatally resigning

Push the needle, inhale the ghost

Crush the pill, increase the dose

Track two "Surgical Orb" does not fuck around, as a friend who listens exclusively to this kind of stuff would say: this shit is serious, man. The songwriting is once again solid, discussing a person operated upon by aliens as a shell for use of infiltrating the human race. Yes! Musically it backs up the concept one hundred percent.

Track eight "The Rigormortified Grip" is honestly one of the most absolutely killer songs I've heard in this genre, with some freakish guitar work and nearly supernatural ability on the drums. Honestly, even if you don't plan on buying the album for some reason, you at least owe it to yourself to listen to this song. The breakdown around 4 minutes that caps off the song is simply orgasmic, once again weaving in that ominous desert sound.

As if the repeated gushing has not given it away, I really enjoy this album. Find it and enjoy. It's a shame that the band split up, but at least they left us with this along with another good effort in 2002's Grime unlike some of those wonderful cock teasing one-and-done death metal bands. Demilich and Repugnant, I'm looking at you.

Verdict: Epic Win [9/10] (impossible tortured shapes in uncanny theatric vigor)

http://www.myspace.com/iniquitydk

Necrosis - Acta Sanctorum (1995)

The death metal dimension that breached the walls of reality in the 1990s and spewed so many unnameable horrors into our breathing space might have been purged by fire above the surface, but below the crust of our world exists a network of catacombs, a labyrinth of unspoken horrors that eagerly await, with vampiric ecstasy, the life's blood of any spelunker who makes it past that sliding wall, pile of rubble or eerie turn in the corridor to arrive at their untapped sanctums. One such cavernous lair is occupied by the specter of Rhode Island's Necrosis, one of many bands to wield the title, but also one of the best...

The band was formed in 1989 but didn't get their first (and only) full-length for several years, after their obscure Crown of Thorns demo in 1992. However, it should be noted that Necrosis was one of the best old school death metal outfits from my liberal hell of New England, and though this album might be their sole legacy to the world, it was a lasting one, worth revisiting if you've been enamored of the cavernous trough of morbid death revival acts that have offered themselves for our mutual intoxication in these past few years. It also bears mention that Acta Sanctorum is one of the few releases ever on Sweden's Black Mark label from an American band. As far as noteworthy alumni, most of the band fled into the greater world to live normal lives. The exception would be drummer Aantar Lee Coates who also performs in East Coast death metal acts like Maryland's Horror of Horrors and Florida's Diabolic.

Though the band were not lax for their technical skills, Acta Sanctorum is an album that succeeds in part due to its messy, chunky schizophrenic atmosphere. The riffing is thick and destructive, but ever clashing and sinking like floes of black ice and ash on a primal, volcanic world. Justin Badorek is clearly not human, but instead some vicious, otherworldly abomination reared on cryptic American death metal, falling somewhere between Immolation's Ross Dolan and Forced Entry's Tony Benjamin on the vocal blasphometer. Coates is a shitstorm of energy, and bassist Mike Spencer evokes a truly gruesome rectal sludge, but perhaps it is the thick, focused chopping of Erik Amelio's guitar which truly soils the material straight into the underwear of the mind.

"Psalm of Sorrow" creates an immediate, barbaric chugging over which Badorek carefully measures his vocal blasting like a skilled percussionist, as the band rips into slowly muted breakdowns and blasting old school eruptions of primordial turbulence. Violent impetus runs through the spine and nerve endings like a molten, ebbing pulse here, as if the album could immediately regress the listener back through the evolutionary chain. The leads are brief and messy, and there is a strange narrative break before the crushing, final breakdown. "Acta Sanctorum" is an eerie, immersive instrumental piece with some excellent clean guitar work, bustling bass and atmosphere created through tolling chimes, deep ominous vocals and whispers. It's both dark and fascinating, and I get the feeling the band could have been a successful act in the dark ambient/ritual field had they so chosen that path. But "Vacant Diocese" arrives with pummeling force, a slowly grating doom guitar accompanies Badorek's neanderthal poetry. The track does operate with a lot of stop/start, but the ever churning riffs fascinate and the subterranean atmosphere is impeccable.

"Buried in Baptismal Robe" opens with a meaty, serpentine series of carnal thrash/death rhythms over which froglike chanting inaugurates the hammer of the vocal verse. The breakdowns in this song are disgusting...I have rarely had the urge to mosh in a decade or more but I found myself instantly starting to move in an uncontrollable spasm of violence. The vocals are fucking disgusting, this guy was one of the best of New England and its a shame we have nothing more from him. "Crown of Thorns" is the epic of the record, over 8 minutes in length, with more ominous bells and molasses level creeping grooves than you could use to enact any Edgar Allen Poe play, picking up towards a charnel house middle segment that endlessly evokes a primal thrashing from the gut. "Messiah Complex" carefully measures itself towards its rolling grooves, but once more the distorted weight of the guitar is such that you can forgive even the most pedestrian riffing as it sounds amazing, as intended by the forebears of the genre. With the closer "Martyrium", the band display once again their penchant for nuance in the ritual evil department, with horrifying low chants that echo through the vaults, and excellent bass lines accompanied by plunky, sparse guitars.

As I've mentioned in other reviews, I don't normally get into a lot of death metal from my area. This has gotten me into plenty of trouble through the years. Most of the bands are mediocre at best, simply copying the bland, empty US/slamming style or a bad approximation of their Floridian gods (and more recently, Swedish pioneers). Necrosis was one such act that stuck out like a sore thumb, and I lament the fact that they were unable to capitalize on their swank record deal and make a larger name for themselves. Today, they lay lost in a the obscure crypts below the surface of the death metal fanbase. But since so many bands have chosen to open the can of proverbial worms once more, perhaps it is time that the knowledge of this gem spreads far and wide to all who would hear it. Acta Sanctorum is cavernous and creepy, but at the same time it will beat your ass harder than any schoolground bully. A lost treasure of New England brutality.

Verdict: Win [8.75/10]

Lake of Tears - Greatest Tears Vol. II (2004)

Look at the soothing stream & falls on the cover, or the coloured autumnal woodlands...the slate of the cliffs, and the rusty mirrored color of the sky as it weeps clouds across the reliable mountainscape. Let yourself fall into its beautiful clutches, as a dream awakens within you, and you are carried on a jet stream towards bliss...all the while, slowly reaching into your pocket for the cervix of leather and plastic that provides your comfort on this Earth. Yes, it is time to spend money again, and why not on something completely worthless? You have been accommodated with the second Greatest Tears release from one of Sweden's best doom bands, just in case you wanted to throw out your old, scratched Lake of Tears CD and replace them with contents that are NOT EQUAL to their original track lists.

I'd hate to dork out on you completely, but let's do a little math, shall we? Before these compilations were issued, Lake of Tears had 5 albums containing a total of 46 tracks. Combined, the two Greatest Tears compilations contain 22 tracks....ALL of which are lifted from the albums. So in other words, you are being sold almost 50% of the albums you already own. But let's say for example that you were new to the band, and assume that CDs are at an average of $12 USD (they are actually less if you order from Black Mark or several online shops today). Would you rather just buy the band's whole catalog for $50-60, or two compilations that do not feature all the songs for about $20-24? Or just buy the band's best pair of albums at that same price? I will never understand how some of these cut & paste collections see the light of day. Are they really that profitable? If Lake of Tears were a band with 12-15 albums out and veritable best-selling hits, then I might see the appeal of releasing such an album to prey on the new fans or older audience who couldn't give a damn about the actual album format. But they're an underground band who are barely a dot on anyone's radar (sadly).

As with Greatest Tears Vol. I, there are 11 tracks here, spread out without much rhyme or reason save that this is the more 'tranquil' of the two albums, featuring material that borders more on the mellow side, or outright folk/pop, with a few crushing exceptions. As this features more Forever Autumn material than the first compilation, it is weaker overall, but there are still some true classics here. Let's get the shite out of the way first: "So Fell Autumn Rain", "Demon You/Lily Anne", and "To Blossom Blue" are all tracks I could live without from that album. A Crimson Cosmos gets some love with "When My Sun Comes Down", "Devils Diner", "Lady Rosenred", and "Raistlin and The Rose", which are all fantastic. "Netherworld" is here to represent Greater Art, and the excellent "Headstones" from the album of the same name. Lastly we get the crushing Floyd tribute "Down the Nile" off The Neonai.

If they had tossed "Nathalie and the Fireflies" and "The Shadowshires" here in place of a few Forever Autumn bores, it would be a better overall selection, but since no one in their right mind should be purchasing this to begin with, I guess it's a moot suggestion. I cannot stress highly enough that your money and attention be directed elsewhere, if not to picking up the band's original albums then there are many other gothic, doom or folk metal bands who deserve your attention. Had the band and label worked together to provide the fans some non-album material, even demos or live performances, there might have been some resonant value to the Greatest Tears series. Spilled milk. No welling up the corners of the eyes. So, unless you really need that cover art sitting on your CD shelf, or another useless bookend, by all means, pass this by!

Verdict: Epic Fail [0/10]

http://www.lakeoftears.net/

Lake of Tears - Greatest Tears Vol. I (2004)

Now I love Lake of Tears, at least when they're on their game, and I'm sure I am not the only soul in the world to feel this way. But after five albums, the band was still relatively obscure. To this day, even, the band remains without the pageantry due them. Having filled out their contracts with Black Mark via The Neonai, a good but hastily assembled album high on electronics, they were free. But the clan of Quorthon were apparently not finished with the band, and the lemon required a few more squeezes into the tea. So in 2004 we got not just one pair of compilations, but two compilations of previously released material called Greatest Tears Vol. I and II. Which brings me back to my earlier statement...Lake of Tears is a fucking spectacular band (for the most part), but how do they warrant a Greatest Hits package? Never mind two of them! The band is not Billy Joel, and they're not Otis Redding, so why, why, why?

The sad part of this is that the cover art for these comps would have been perfect for a re-issue of the band's first two albums, which were becoming a little scarce by this point. But instead, it's the gallows for us: two discs full of songs we already own as Lake of Tears fans. And assuming there are plenty of individuals out there who were not privy to the band by 2004, I would swiftly direct them to ordering a copy of Headstones or A Crimson Cosmos before being fleeced by this latest edition of corporate snake oil.

The track list is randomly scattered about the band's first five albums, with no real logical order aside from an assumed 'emotional' impact. This begins with "Burn Fire Burn" and then proceeds to "Dreamdemons", from the Headstones album, which is also represented with "Twilight" and "Sweetwater". From A Greater Art we are given "Under the Crescent" and "As Daylight Yields", and A Crimson Cosmos proxies include "The Four Strings of Mourning" and "Boogie Bubble". More recent material is shoveled onto the end of the CD, including "Otherwheres" and "The Homecoming" off Forever Autumn and lastly "Sorcerers" from The Neonai.

I can't fault the selections, because really, unless you're going to stack the album with mediocrity from Forever Autumn, you can't exactly go wrong...the songs flow well enough in this order but that's only because they are so good to begin with, and only "The Homecoming" here is one to really skip if you want a solid listening experience. However, since we live in an age of digital files, and we can all make our own playlists (and we could in '04), there is just no reason for the compilation's existence. Buy the albums, skip this shit, and rue the misuse of the cover art. Fuck, just think if they would have re-pressed Forever Autumn with one of these covers. Wouldn't fix the music, but it'd be a start...

Verdict: Epic Fail [0/10]

http://www.lakeoftears.net/

Cutty Sark - Die Tonight (1984)

European metal in the 80s was such a fertile ground that hundreds if not thousands of quality bands would go unsung into the future. It's a damned pity, for there are so many scorching albums in those times that I could play one per day while carpooling with friends for the next...century, and still never get through a fraction of them. Oh, I could make them love me (or hate me). Cutty Sark is just such a dainty obscurity; a good band performing traditional metal who managed to pump out an EP and a pair of full-lengths from 1983-85 before hanging up their spikes & chains. They regrouped for a reunion record in '98 but by that point, there was little hope they'd be able to rekindle the fire they so obviously stoked up on this debut, and Regeneration was bourne into a world in which no-one cared, a world in which Dimmu Borgir and Emperor were the champions of the day and kids were skateboarding and listening to H.I.M., entire oblivious to prehistoric concepts such as handwriting and sexual orientation.

But let's forget all that swill for 36 minutes and bang our heads to something which fucking deserved it. Something which still deserves it! Die Tonight is the first album from the unlikely Germans, who took their moniker from some Scottish slang for a witch's undergarments (the name was also used for a famous clipper ship and a brand of Scotch whiskey). And though it may not live up to a Ride the Lightning or Powerslave, the band were clearly on the same playing field as peers worldwide like Accept, Manowar and that entire geologic era which spanned the Cretaceous outburst of NWOBHM to the Paleogene period in which the rest of Europe was swiftly infected, and beyond. Comparatively, the band has a wild, heavy metal infusion to them which is much like a Raven or a Riot. This is owed primarily to the vocals of Conny Schmidt, who is quite the find here, with a voice that never quite shrikes but soars into a wonderful avian territory when he lets it rip out over the driving guitars.

"Stupid Lies" is your basic sound of the day, with an almost R&B-like rock and roll hustle to the main riff that does little but anchor Schmidt's cravings, which he consummates with an echo and high pitched snarl to his closing syllables that sounds quite like John Gallagher. The song is harmless fun, but it is "Die Tonight", the wonderful title track that shoots the arrow straight to your heart. This is conceived as some sort of 'monster mash', in other words it features Schmidt spewing in his creepiest (lovingly accented) mid range narrative about horny demons and a devil with a sword in his hand that have taken the street to end your life, and I'm guessing have fun with your corpse after wards. The real treat is how Conny blasts out the chorus to offset the rather 'timid' verse lines, and there's a great solo to boot. An 8-minute track is not something I'd expect from a band of this sort, yet here it is, the slowly building power metal ballad "Vultures in the Air", which features some of Schmidt's most over the top, shrill vocals above a series of grooving, metal riffs and clean guitar segues. Trust me, this one is a lot more powerful than you are thinking, even when he offers more of his corny sounding narratives between the arches of his throat expanding so that he calls down the sky.

I promise, though, that nothing else here is quite so...unexpectedly profound as that epic. "Jam to the Ramp" is your typical middle class, thundering blues metal lament, get off work and coat your throat with whatever poison is available and whistle at the women as they pass, and "Hands Up" burns along like a very early Maiden (with Paul Di'anno), though Schmidt is far more uncouth and unbalanced in his delivery. "October Holidays" also reminds me of an earlier Maiden instrumental, where the riffs would be rocking in their proto-power metal gloss, but still evoking graceful hooks that feel like you just took the train to awesome. "Down and Out" opens like old Metallica but soon shifts into another hard working middle-class boogie metal anthem, Schmidt sounding as if he's about to summon up some great balls of fire. Again, a solid effort with less than memorable results. The album closer "Burning to Ashes" is actually quite good, with a pumping bass line that carries Connie's far reaching vocals to the corners of the mental auditorium, the guitars slowly entering the stage in a procession of carefully plotted intensity that builds to a good chorus and burnin' lead.

With so much material like Die Tonight out there in the world, it's a wonder why we need any of today's latest waves of retro wanna-be bands. The style was hammered to its sad death well before the onset of the 90s, but at least these old albums lack the insincerity of today's carbon copies, strung out endlessly like a xerox set to permanent, each copy revealing less and less of that essential ink. Is it a dated record? Certainly, but dated only in its innocence and style. The production is less than perfect, but very pleasing for fans of the period...with loud vocals, abrasive guitars, never the right bass mix (which ends up endearing), and the crash of simple skin rhythms. It's seen a re-issue in 1997 that would be more convenient on today's equipment than the original vinyl or cassette, with two bonus tracks: "Hard Rock Power" is a balls out metal anthem with the expected backing vocals, very much like a Judas Priest or Accept track, but "Fire and Ice" is the better of two, with a slowly throbbing intensity and a colorful chord sequence behind the chorus. In other words, definitely the version you want. Cutty Sark is not a band you'll listen for when seeking to be impressed, but a guaranteed chunk of fun that gets strangely more sullen and powerful with "Vultures in the Air" and "Burning to Ashes". And if you can track down the whiskey while listening...all the better!

Highlights: Die Tonight, Vultures in the Air, October Holidays, Burning to Ashes

Verdict: Win [7.75/10] (cause it's time to feel the ice)

Necrophagia - Season of the Dead (1987)

Lately I've been craving that wonderful classic death metal sound: lo-fi, airy, punishing, delicious to my ears. While hunting for retro acts, I stumbled across Necrophagia recently, a veteran (since '84!) death/thrash outfit hailing from Ohio. Immediately I was hooked.

The intro begins with some acoustic teasing, and a smattering of dark ambient to get you in the mood. Then, lock up your daughters, get your white Nike hightops and torn acid washed skinny jeans, because from then on it's all 'eavy.

However, in lieu of what you might expect from the band's name and the album art, we have surprisingly byzantine guitar work and lyrics that do not disappoint. Take the opening stanza of "Forbidden Pleasure":

Taking away your scared life
in many ways I shall describe
suffocation decapitation or twist of the knife
nihilsm reigning deep inside

Vocalist Killjoy of, well, countless projects has a conversational, nearly spoken word delivery which lends an interesting facet to Necrophagia. I'd pick out a few favorite tracks, but honestly they are all memorable enough for me to suggest that you just check out the entire album if you're in the mood for some classic horror death metal goodness.

"Ancient Slumber" progresses from the conversational style of singing to a ghoulish growl that sounds very similar to Nocturnus. In fact, this album sounds a lot like their (IMHO) masterpiece The Key, only of course not sci-fi themed.

Anyway, this album packs enough quality riffs and atmosphere into its duration to satisfy any death metal fan. Highly recommended.

Verdict: Epic Win [9/10] (necronomicon, book bound in flesh, source of all that is evil!)

http://www.myspace.com/necrophagiaofficial

Lake of Tears - The Neonai (2002)

Lake of Tears' 5th album The Neonai took me quite by surprise, as the band had split up after releasing Forever Autumn. Having heard how unimpressive that album was, I might have made a similar decision. It was the right decision. So there I was, perusing an online catalog to place a CD order, when I realize there is a new title from Lake of Tears, called The Neonai. Some sort of posthumous release that Black Mark released for a quick buck? No, apparently the band had enjoyed their vacation and were back as a three-piece, without the keyboard player from the previous album. A few days later, the CD was mine, and I was very delighted to find that the psychedelic artwork had returned, in a brighter fashion.

Things were looking up, and I had every ray of hope that the band would return to the style of A Crimson Cosmos. For the most part, they had, but in the most laziest of fashions...by almost repeating themselves several times here. This is a crime the band had committed slightly with Forever Autumn, so it was disappointing to hear songs so similar to others the band had already etched out. However, a few of the cuts on The Neonai are pretty unique sounding, and they also happen to the be the best here. It's a marked improvement over the prior album, with a return to the more crushing guitar tones and the warmth of the band's 1997 material, but still fairly inconsistent, with a few songs that can be downright annoying.

A synth-driven intro heralds the electronic drumming pulse of "Return of Ravens", and you'll immediately that this is somewhat of a departure, using more symphonic keys with the guitars serving only as a salad dressing. But lyrically and vocally, it is very much a natural continuation of A Crimson Cosmos, and the band return to the avian mascot they once spoke of on their first two efforts. A very simple tune, but not a bad one. "The Shadowshires" is one of the best rockers on the album, though it continues the very tight percussive reign and incredibly basic guitar lines that function as a propellant for Brennare's memorable vocal lines. Again, the keyboards play a more prominent role than on the band's earlier work, but this too is one of the better songs. "Solitude" is a rustic, sad folk ballad with some synthesized pipes and a fairly predictable surge of chorus chords, but though I didn't develop much of an attachment, it's at least the rival of almost any song on Forever Autumn, though some of Brennare's verse vocals feel like his lines from "Red Rosenred" stretched wide. "Leave a Room" is great, with a nice psychedelic buzz to the synth (or possible guitar) effect that opens the verse. Jennie Tebler returns here (she did the female lines on "Lady Rosenred"), creating a gothic The Mamas & The Papas type duet that helps drive it forward through its admittedly predictable and 'safe' structure.

Leave a room inside, spare a place to hide
Bring a candle so and a smile inside
Leave a room inside, spare a place to hide
Bring a candle so and a smile to go

"Sorcerers" is to follow, and to be honest, I just couldn't get into it. It sounds like a very poorly concealed hybrid of "Comfortably Numb" and "Ground Control to Major Tom". In fact, it's not really concealed at all, since one of the lyrics is: Now we're bound for ground patrol...and you get the feeling at any second that Waters & Gilmour are about to substitute in for Brennare and Tebler. "Can Die No More" has a very similar pattern to the first two proper tracks on the album, fairly catchy but underwhelming. "Nathalie and the Fireflies", on the other hand, is a damn good track, with a pumping, pop bass line and some nice frills of acoustic guitars that ring off into the atmosphere, giving you the impression an LSD-rainbow is reaching its arms over you. Tebler joins Brennare once more, and this is the catchiest 'gimmick' track on the album in the vein of "Lady Rosenred", but you do get the feeling this could have been an Eric Clapton song or something if you just through in a ripping blues lead.

"Let Us Go As They Go" sounds like a mix of "The Shadowshires" with an occasional plucky rhythm reminiscent of the great track "The Four Strings of Mourning" from A Crimson Cosmos, so a bit of a rehash with this one, though it's hardly bad. "Down the Nile" is actually pretty cool, but once again we have a little bit of an unveiled Pink Floyd ("The Nile Song"). But musically it's pretty creepy, as if Floyd suddenly took a turn for the dark and despair of slowly chugging gothic metal that opens into a simple but effective wash of chords, while the counter-vocal screams along to Brennare. Another pretty good song, after which a tranquil instrumental piece with some violin leads us out.

I've got to say, while The Neonai is not stunning and by no means great, it was at least a breath of relief that Lake of Tears were not going to stand about in the shitter with their pants down. Granted, I have unusual tastes when it comes to the field of avant-garde metal entities, but I was at least spinning this on and off for the better part of a summer, where with Forever Autumn I had to strain myself to ever enjoy a single lick. This is basically A Crimson Cosmos gone pop, with a few flawed tracks that sound redundant to either the band's own material or as thinly veiled tributes to some of their obvious influences. But when the band struck out on its own, legitimate, new journeys here, the smile widened and brought warmth to my sunny cheeks. A good album for an early autumn drive on a bright day, while your gal (or guy, hey...) kicks his feet up on the passengers' side dash.

Highlights: The Shadowshires, Leave a Room, Nathalie and the Fireflies,

Verdict: Win [7/10] (riding on a road of fire)

http://www.lakeoftears.net/