Ramp - Visions (2009)

Although practically unheard of in the crowded underground, Portugual's Ramp have been around for 20 years now with their modern/groove approach to thrash. Visions is their fourth album and while it does feature a few of the bombastic nu-grooves which stagnate many a band of this type, there are some solid thrash riffs here, with a lush Daniel Bergstrand production. Rui Duarte also has a voice which can range from tough guy metal angst to catchier chorus melodies without coming off contrived.

The band is not above using hints of strings and other instrumentation to increase the potency of their compositions, in the opening track "Blind Enchantment", one of the better songs with a brickhouse rhythm section and some killer vocals. There are occasionally a few of the tracks where the vocals feel too tough for me, like "Single Lines" where Duarte sounds like a hybrid of Phil Anselmo and Sacred Reich during the aggressive vox. But even this track has a decent vocal hook in the chorus. I would like to point out that the band is truly at its best when thrashing out a faster number such as "The Cold" which almost takes on a Carnal Forge vibe during its thrust; or "Shell" which has its share of grooves but some of them are mighty catchy.

I'll admit I wasn't in love with the majority of the album. There was a little too much nu-ish groove for me and the deviations in which the band starts to kick ass are too few. However, I can say that the band is captured well with a superb mix, and the vocals have a nice range which might be better served in a pure thrash or power metal band. And if you're fond of stuff like Machine Head, Slipknot, recent Soilwork, and the like then I'd make a natural recommendation towards this album.

Verdict: Indifference [6/10]

http://www.rampmetal.com

Shaun of the Dead (2004)

Looking at the title, Shaun of the Dead is obviously a zombie film parody, but the great thing about it is that it is better than the vast majority of zombie flicks out there. Written by Spaced alums Edgar Wright (also directing) and Simon Pegg (starring), with numerous others appearing in the cast from that memorable, short-lived UK sit-com. The film revolves around Shaun (Pegg), distraught electronic shop employee seemingly stuck in a dead end job, with a girlfriend growing tired of his repetitive barfly social life (among other things), and tension at home between his best friend Ed (Nick Frost) and his other flatmate, Pete (Peter Serafinowicz). One night, things erupt for Shaun. It's just his shit luck that at this same time the dead are rising in London.

The film is riddled with pop culture references of all kinds, a la Spaced, usually revolving around other zombie films, Spaced itself, or various Star Wars movies. However, where that show had frequent flashback/fantasy sequences, Shaun of the Dead moves through at a steady clip. Clocking in at 99 minutes, it's only a little over an hour and a half, and yet it feels nothing like that, not dragging at any point and leaving you wanting more after the credits are rolling. Performances are good all around. Sarcastic comic/actor Dylan Moran puts in a memorable and hilarious performance as Shaun's girlfriend's friend's flatmate (phew) David, cast wonderfully.

Spaced and Shaun of the Dead both have a particular charm about them that is hard to put into words, combining dick and fart jokes with clever gags that connect seemingly normal comments to later incidents, as well as the fact that the movie is shot beautifully, with two identical extended steadicam sequences coming to mind. Shaun travels all the way from his flat to the corner store and back -- once as things are normal, and the second during the midst of the zombie invasion, with Shaun oblivious to this, hung over. As for action, there is plenty of it, as well of course hilarious and disgusting gore.

Shaun of the Dead is just all around executed to perfection as a zombie spoof, and it's unlikely that if you are reading this blog you haven't seen this movie. However, if you haven't, what the fuck are you waiting for? Find it, watch it, enjoy.

Verdict: Epic Win [10/10] (you've got red on you)

http://www.shaunofthedeadmovie.com/

Venom - Black Metal (1982)

Throughout the 40-ish years of the genre's existence, there have been metal albums which reek of promise and potential, brilliant musicianship and complex compositional qualities, lyrics of social, political, personal or sacrilegious significance.

Black Metal is not one of those albums.

It shares none of those qualities. It simply exists to kick your ass and then do lines off that kicked ass while popping shots of whiskey, inhaling the most rancid cigarettes imaginable and sodomizing your old lady. Though the album is more cohesive from a production standpoint than Venom's legendary debut Welcome to Hell, it loses none of the grisly edge and raw meat riffing of its predecessor. Faux Satanic lyrics highlight tales of sexual blasphemy and necromantic ritual while disgustipated guitar riffs grind over the thundering of Abaddon. Cronos doesn't quite sing his lyrics...it's more than he kind of spits and growls them. Keep in mind, this was a period in which the overwhelming majority of early metal bands employed vocalists who sounded as if they were competing for testicular constriction. Some rotten bloke spewing his mid-ranged, almost conversational barks over a discharge of brutal and simple riffing was simply unheard of.

It all adds to the charm. "Black Metal" tips off the album with one of the band's most infectious speed metal riffs, gritty and catchy (the kind of riff that would inspire bands like Possessed, Razor, Slayer and Indestroy). It also features one of the band's infamous lyrics 'Lay down your soul to the gods rock `n' roll'. "To Hell and Back" is a mid-paced number notable for Cronos laying down the thick distorted bass, and Mantas's mind numbling, senseless shredding (also a huge influence on many thrash and death metal bands). "Buried Alive" opens with a hilarious sample of a last rite before slowly building some creepy mystique and busting out some gory 'eavy metal. "Raise the Dead" is just foul, Crono's vocals splattered across a kick ass yet traditional NWOBHM riff.

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust
If God won't have me, then the Devil must!

"Teacher's Pet" is like the X-rated version of Van Halen's "Hot For Teacher", done up Venom class. "Leave Me in Hell" burns with a molten hot metal lick, a doomed ride on the river Styx with Cronos as your ferryman. "Sacrifice" is another scorcher with its grim Satanic ritual lyrics and a killer bridge before the choral breakdown.

Hooded figures, clouded skies
fires burn within their eyes
pentagram with baphomet midnight strikes
goat of menders lifts his head
summons up the living dead
virgin flesh lies tied and bound
hail satanas

"Heaven's on Fire" has a balls out bluesy twist to its speedy fare, pumping bass and fuzzy distortion which amazingly defies age. Two more classics round out this set, the diabolic "Countess Bathory" and haunted house crowd pleaser "Don't Burn the Witch". Both fucking rule, in particular the verse riffing in the latter.

I've already mentioned that the album has a timeless vibe to it. Perhaps this is due to the fact it sounds like the band is playing it live from your basement while you sit above sipping tea and hiding behind your cross, all the while fantasizing about orgies in goats blood and sexual climax beneath the full moon. It isn't just the name of this album which inspired an entire sub-genre of the medium; it's the carnal and unswerving attitude of the band to deliver schlock rock in its most sinister scenario amidst some of the most outrageous riffs you were likely to hear in 1982. Venom did not give a fuck, and look where and wot it got them?

Infamy.

Verdict: Epic Win [10/10] (I'm leaving God behind)

http://www.venomslegions.com/

Dragonforce - Valley of the Damned (2003)

The Mountain Dew of power metal hath arrived, brah, and it's name is Dragonforce. Like, extreme n' shit, I totally envision this when I'm catching that fateful wave or like shredding powder kegs up the mountain. These blokes are like SRS n' shit, brah. Power and glory and mountains and destiny and babes in bikinis and white lightning and horses and thunder and dragons and castles and shadows and eternity and horizons and damn, brah, they can shred. Like I hear they included Dragonforce on like Guitar Hero, brah? Isn't that amazing? Not for a song here but like some later song. Also did you see those videos of little kids running around in capes cranking this shit? Far out.

Anyway brah I wanted to share you some of the lyrics from this song "Black Fire" it's like really cool and I don't usually get into poetry but you gotta see this:

Hunting all day an endless cry
The things I've seen I can't deny
Sinners, saints all mixed in one
The dawn of time has begun
Why can't you see what they're doing to me
Is it fair that I'm dying in vain
Once in a land of sacrifice now only valleys of demise
Shadows of a pale blue moonlight ride the waves of entity

I get it. I GET it, brah. Then there's this song "Black Winter Night" which is like 1000x better and faster than anything else ever rocked to, brah. Those axes are shredding and those keyboards are just incredible. It's so harmonious, brah, I mean harmonious like nature, dude. I know it's crazy but there are some other sick songs here too like "Disciples of Babylon" and "Evening Star". They even have a chick singer. Oh wait that's not a chick. Hang ten, brah. Also dude, like I found out there is this entire genre out there called 'power metal' and a lot of bands copy Dragonforce. I know, brah. But even though they like, went back in time and released their albums first, they just aren't this extreme.

Dude, this has nothing to do with my A.D.D., I know what my counselor said but forget that, brah. This is about unicorns and stars and hearts and fire and winter and rain, and like valleys and horsemen like knights and man I'm hypnotized by this 'n shit:

Rays of sunlight now are gone
Only visions of ice will remain
The fallen ones and forgotten souls
Will rise up over the slain
No more hope as we raise our hands to the sky
No more dreams as the rivers run dry

You gotta check this out, brah. You won't believe it.

Verdict: Extreme Win [8/10] (come and live your fear)

http://www.dragonforce.com/

Judas Priest - Painkiller (1990)

Though they had already delivered numerous masterworks in British Steel, Screaming for Vengeance and Defenders of the Faith, it is Painkiller which stands the test of time as both the de facto Judas Priest experience and their heaviest effort to date. Which begs the question, why in the Nine Hells did they not continue in this direction? I realize they had the falling out, and the 'Ripper' Owens period (my head still aches), but even the two reunion albums so far have been garbage by comparison.

Painkiller was like the culmination of an architectural masterpiece: the foundation had been laid, brick by brick, carefully for years; the riffs a geometry of melodic aggression; each of Halford's vocal lines delirious with ham-fisted metal imagery and stark passion. The title track EXPLODES, the heaviest fucking anthem this band has ever manifested. Halford soars forth like an escaped asylum inmate who wants to end your pain AND YOUR LIFE. Who cares that the song is about some figurative alien metalloid angel of salvation (Jesus with a flying motorcycle and double chainsaw action). That's just bonus.

Through boiling clouds of thunder
Blasting bolts of steel
Evils going under deadly wheels

Ride on! Right on! It doesn't hurt that the rest of the album is equally solid support for this blazing avatar. "Hell Patrol" is a melodic anthem which celebrates the machinery of final judgement. "All Guns Blazing" is just...well, let's just say when I saw the band on their Painkiller world tour back in the day, Rob Halford dedicated it to Saddam Hussein. :D

"Leather Rebel" opens with a whirlwind of melodic speed picking before glorious verse and chorus, a sweet and pure tribute to the tr00 metal elite. "Metal Meltdown" ranges from shredding to thrashing, with it's ominous and silly chorus. Fuck, just how many songs on this album have the word 'lazer' in them? Okay, only two, but that's two more lazer references than YOUR favorite metal album! En garde! "Night Crawler" is a creepy horror anthem and yet another hybrid of power and thrash metal with poppy melodic riffing similar to "Painkiller". "Between the Hammer & the Anvil" starts with some slower, doomy chords which are revisited later in the track with an actually beating of such solid objects together. "A Touch of Evil" is a seductive tune with silly synthesizers, it's similar to the stuff Ozzy was doing at this period, and a little Zeppelin influence. I love it, especially that chorus:

In the night
Come to me
You know I want your Touch of Evil
In the night
Please set me free
I can't resist a Touch of Evil

Touch me, Rob! Oh, touch me! Too much information. The majestic instrumental "Battle Hymn" sets up the album's final number "One Shot at Glory", which is pure Priest and again features that amazing, unforgettable chorus.

Glen Tipton and K.K. Downing once again proved their worth as the genre's pre-eminent straightforward axe duo. Tasteful leads when required, but never over-wanking or attempting to upstage the vocal and verse. Ian Hill has never been an amazing bass player, and here he just continues to follow along with the guitars. Scott Travis delivers a pretty stellar drum performance, especially the memorable fills which open the title track. The lyrics are hokey but loveable throughout; they function perfectly with the pseudo-metallian concept. The album has been remastered but the original still sounds fantastic.

To describe the influence of this band (and album) is beyond the parameters of a mere mortal's humble review, but I can assure you, it's worth the hype. You didn't need me to remind you, of course, because you already have and love this. Or so the voices told me. Now I just need to forget about what the slew of atrocities the band issued post-Painkiller, so I can sleep.

Verdict: Epic Win [10/10] (words have all been said)

http://www.judaspriest.com/

Quantum of Solace (2008)

Apparently mediocrity is the new black in today's unscrupulous moviegoing audience, because the Daniel Craig 'reboot' of the James Bond franchise has been anything but deserving of its rabid following.

Since I've already, undoubtedly pissed in every bowl of cereal from here to the Prime Minister, let me clarify a few things. Quantum of Solace does not suck. Casino Royale didn't suck either. Both retain a lot of loyalty to the original Bond stories by Ian Fleming, and Daniel Craig is not a bad actor in the slightest. The new films have astounding production values which look gorgeous in both DVD and HD formats; and the action is brutal and effective. My real gripes with these stories is their lack of almost any interesting plot hook, ineffectual villains which Bond steamrolls over (more easily so than in past incarnations) and horribly dry, too obvious one liners which cannot live up to the Bonds of yesteryear.

I get that this is a 'serious', edgy James Bond for the 21st century audience who also salivates to the 'realistic', emo-Battlestar Galactica remake and similar retreads. What I don't get is how I've spent decades defending the 'serious' Timothy Dalton take on the roll from the complainers who are now salivating over Craig's very similar approach. Sure, the hair is a different color, but come on now. The new films have also had a little of the piss taken out of them by the recent Jason Bourne film series (undoubtedly influenced by Bond films themselves, but their action and cinematography is reflected in these new efforts).

But let's cut to the chase. Specifically, the car chase which opens this film with the same pulse pounding intensity as the 'parkour' chase in the previous movie. Action is not the problem here. You get gunfights, hand to hand combat, and a great one on one battle as Bond and agent turned traitor Mitchell fight it out admidst ropes and new construction in an Italian galleria. The conflict is brutal and edgy, painful to behold and thus effective (Craig was even injured during the filming). The film follows Casino Royale directly. Bond captures Mr. White to interrogate him and gain insight into the vast secret organization of old rich white men (but of fucking course...) who seem to control everything in the world. It's a damned Alex Jones docu-film with James Bond, but to be fair this has always been the case. En route to his revenge for the death of Vesper in the previous film, Bond runs into the crooked yet ineffectual villain Dominic Greene, portrayed by wide-eyed French actor Mathieu Amalric. Amalric isn't bad for the role, but there is little to squeeze out from such a dull character. Greene is even more boring and unworthy of an opponent for Mr. Bond than the previous film's 'Le Chifre'. And this one doesn't even weep blood...

The supporting cast is decent, but honestly, noone in this film has any semblance of a standout performance. Judi Dench reprises 'M' and acts much like she does in most of her films. Olga Kurylenko and Gemma Arterton provide the eye candy yet aren't nearly as fetching or memorable as Bond girls of the past. At this point I'd die for a Plenty O'Toole or Honey Ryder. Dominic Greene's henchmen are likewise throwaway as are the corrupt Bolivian military officials. Craig is a decent Bond (news flash: they've all been good), but his one liners are cliches and most of his speaking roles are devoid of anything memorable.

The cinematography is astounding, the action is razor sharp and the locations in Italy, Haiti, Austria and Bolivia are all worthwhile. Marc Forster helms the film well. It's tight and snappy, never wasting much time (akin to the Bourne films). The David Arnold score suffices, though mediocre next to Bond films past, and the Jack White/Alicia Keys opening theme is sadly more miss than hit.

As loyal as this vision may be to its source materials, I really feel the film (and its predecessor) lacks much of the charm which made so many (not all, mind ye) of the the Connery/Lazenby/Moore/Dalton/Brosnan films enjoyable. Dominic Greene is no Goldfinger...no Max Zorin...no Ernst Stavro Blofeld. Bond's near death escapes and unbelievable streaks of luck defy the 'realism' defense made for this film, so why not hook us up with a villain to remember? Or a plot that dares to dream beyond the atypical point A - point B - point C revenge scheme. Since this is obviously a Two Towers type of film which is setting up the final part of a trilogy, I can only hope that the remainder of this mysterious organization will provide some real bang for the buck.

Verdict: Indifference [6/10]

http://www.007.com/

Cloven Hoof - Eye of the Sun (2006)

Cloven Hoof were one of the most underrated bands of the NWOBHM explosion in the early to mid-80s, notably because of their heavier and catchier take on the style than many of their peers. Albums like Cloven Hoof and Dominator are classics in their own right, but I was quite surprised when this comeback album was put together by bassist Lee Payne and a slew of new musicians (since its release, most of the session members have moved on and been replaced by various Cloven Hoof alumni). Eye of the Storm has an edge of thrash and power metal to it, essentially a modern take on the band's earlier work, but it kicks ass none the less, and if it has inspired the re-ignition of this excellent and overlooked band into the metallic bloodstream then so be it.

You will kneel before me,
I kill rob you of your sight.
Blood god
bow down humbly,
decapitation by divine right.

"Inquisitor" is a punishing, infectious metal track with its chorus just as authorative as its subject matter: vocalist Matt Moreton spins a nice sneer on his lines which remind one of the best of Vicious Rumors or Helstar. "Eye of the Sun" dials back the pace to a catchy and fist pumping riff, Moreton's vocals soaring across the verse until the pure NWOBHM power of its chorus. "Cyberworld" (lol at every reformed or older metal band having a 'Cyber-something' song title) has a flowing, hard rocking melody through the verse. "Kiss of Evil" begins with a bluesy burning lead and proceeds to fist pump through another killer hook. Great vocals here. "Eye of the Zombie" introduces a little low end groove, reminscent of Zakk Wylde or Alice in Chains and sadly not one of the better tracks (though it doesn't suck). "Absolute Power" returns to a pumping slower thrash riff and "Whore of Babylon" is simply one of the best tracks here with its curvy hooks. "Golgotha" erupts from an acoustic lead-in, into searing power metal. "King for a Day" is bluesy and groovy but again, balls-out metal beneath Moreton's shining tone. The album ends with "Angels in Hell", featuring a great symphonic/acoustic intro and some sick riffing and biblical apocalyptic lyrics.

The mix is superb, all tones are bright, audible bass, great drumming and leads, but the real star is the vocal performance. I'm hoping the musicians who recorded this but didn't remain with the band will put something together, because they definitely rose to the challenge of helping resurrect this band. Eye of the Sun kicks some ass of its own accord, and I hope the band can produce a few more like it rather than disappear again.

Verdict: Win [8.5/10] (Leviathan is nigh)

http://www.cloven-hoof.co.uk/

Bal-Sagoth - Starfire Burning Upon the Ice-Veiled Throne of Ultima Thule (1996)

Bal-Sagoth are proof positive that if you're going to go out on a limb and do something ridiculous, do it right. Go all fucking out. To achieve this end they have evolved away from the more purely black/death influenced sound of their debut A Black Moon Broods Over Lemuria into an epic, symphonic fantasy metal style alternating between snarling vocals and melodic black riffs to pompous narration and charging power. Add to this potent mix the fantastic lyrical vomit of 'Lord Byron', which is essentially an absurd amalgam of H.P. Lovecraft's Mythos, Robert E. Howard's barbaric fantasy, and many other archaic fantasy tropes. The band is also characterized by their use of humorously excessive song titles.

Starfire Burning Upon the Ice-Viled Throne of Ultima Thule is not the best of Bal-Sagoth's forays into the epic and obscure, but it is the match which sparked off the inferno to come. It remains enjoyable to this day and there is a particular timelessness to this band's style: they are always worth a laugh. Several of my gaming friends and I use them as the go-to for a night of drunken dork debauchery. As par for the course, the album begins with a symphonic synthesizer prologue, "Black Dragons Soar Above the Mountain of Shadows", a pompous track all on its own which lets you know you're in for a hybrid of carousel music and a Dungeons & Dragons campaign gone horribly wrong (or horribly right, if you're on the level). "To Dethrone the Witch-Queen of Mytos K'unn (The Legend of the Battle of Blackhelm Vale)" bursts forth with some winding symphonic black metal riffs, dispersed by a plodding thrash riff saturated in Byron's manly narration. Like the song titles, the lyrics themselves are excessive to a fault, and most are narrative rather than verse.

Emboldened by their victories and the expansion of their queen's dark dominion, the hordes of Mytos K'unn began the incursion into the lands of the Northern Tribes, beginning with the grim and brooding territories south of the Snow Kingdoms... the rugged homelands of the warlike clans which had been recently united into a strong realm by the powerful warrior-king Caylen-Tor, a man known to his allies and enemies alike as the Wolf of the North.

Who are these fucking people? The album continues with the windy mystique and fluttering keyboards of "As the Vortex Illumines the Crystalline Walls of Kor-Avul-Thaa", which features a great and familiar sounding march/bridge. The title track opens with a chugging gait, shortly replaced by lavish synth as Byron dictates 'The Final Part of Voryn Helmsmiter's Journey to the Ice Realm'. "Journey to the Isle of Mists (Over the Moonless Depths of Night-Dark Seas)" is another sweeping, glorious instrumental with some amazing synthwork. Jonny Maudling is a true talent on the piano/keys and if he hasn't already starting scoring films, well isn't it about time? "The Splendour of a Thousand Swords Gleaming Beneath the Blazon of the Hyperborean Empire" is the first of a multi-part saga which will continue on later albums, a rousing war metal piece featuring the barbarian snarling and epic carousel motif to its fullest.

Assassins stalk the nighted halls of my palace... poisoned blades and chalices surround me.
I thirsted for a balm, but my thirst was slaked by an envenomed draught.
My swordarm shackled by tendrils of sloth... enthralled by the chasmed gloom...
Borne upon wings of labyrinthine dread... I awaken!
I shall seek the counsel of the sorcerer, keeper of the ancient scrolls of wisdom, and the Crystals of Power...

The rest of the tracks basically follow suit, but I'm not sure I have it within me to continue battering you over the head with this wall of text. "In the Raven-Haunted Forests of Darkenhold, Where Shadows Reign and the Hues of Sunlight Never Dance" is one of my favorite tracks on the album, and the morose keys of the closer "At the Altar of the Dreaming Gods" are likewise lush and delicious.

Strangely, it's the sort of album towards which my appreciation has only grown. My first response to this band, I'll admit, was that they were ridiculous, overhyped and stupid. But then it struck me...my criticism was largely bourne of my own self-serving seriousness, which prevented any true appreciation for the masterful irony this band had created in a stagnant metal economy. It's a hilarious album which also serves you a super sized portion of quality symphonic metal. If I were to once again review this in...say...5-10 years, the score may grow even higher. It's one of those types of records, so neglect this at your own risk!

Verdict: Win [8.75/10] (what carnage has thou wrought?)

http://www.bal-sagoth.co.uk/

Skyclad - Prince of the Poverty Line (1994)

Skyclad was the perfect rebound vehicle for Martin Walkyier after his departure from the legendary Sabbat. Combining his lyrical pun and wit with a hybrid of folk and thrash/speed metal courtesy of Steve Ramsey and Graeme English (themselves veterans of great UK bands like Pariah, Blind Fury and Satan), the band produced a string of five good albums before eventually allowing their folk/pub influence and silly puns overcome the metal balance, resulting in the mediocre, latter half of their career. Prince of the Poverty Line was their 4th full-length and arguably their best.

Essentially, this album was spot on where the band needed to be: a hybrid of Walkyier's past work with Sabbat (speed/thrash metal with quality riffing and his unmistakeable vocals) and the blue blood/pagan/folk aesthetic delivered through Cath Howell's fiddle and violin. "Civil War Dance" is a nice lead-in with some percussive, swaggering folk doused in metal leads and chords. Skyclad were always a fairly political band, and the majority of this album reflects their finer attempts at the lyrical craft:

While sons and daughters of the empire
Stained the map red, white and blue
Back at home the storm clouds thundered
Dole queues lengthened - unrest grew
'til the tides of fresh opinion
Washed away the world they knew.

Walkyier had lost none of his edge from Sabbat, and the vocals here are quite the same. "Cardboard City" is a scorcher with tasteful synthesizers providing a progressive edge. "Sins of Emission" features a fine use of thrashing folk jig, the violins emit a somber note to the flow of verse and chorus. "Land of the Rising Slum" makes a great use of percussion and piano, a powerful mid-paced number with Walkyier at his finest during the hypnotic chorus. "The One Piece Puzzle" is a folk ballad with acoustic guitars until the electrics pound forth for some slowly driving chords. "A Bellyful of Emptiness" is a fun thrasher with a rocking verse using some synths to accent the vocal pattern. "A Dog in the Manger" yet again meshes the thrash with violin highlights and a killer bridge. "Gammadion Seed" erupts forth with blistering speed and an arsenal of excellent riffs and leads, one of the best of Skyclad's entire career, and the most purely 'metal' song for this album.

Hear the cries as freedom dies - the gods of war have woken
A Catherine wheel of fire and steel, the death machine in motion.

"Womb of the Worm" is a powerful, slower track with another epic chorus, Walkyier's unforgettable vocals slathered in chords, synth and some brief female vocals. "The Truth Famine" ends the album with another slow pace, with some great folk riffing.

The mix of the album is dense and balanced, the most effective of their career. None of the myriad of the band's merging styles outshone the others. While this hybrid was already in place with previous works like Jonah's Ark and the A Burnt Offering for the Bone Idol, it was never as effective. Prince of the Poverty Line was one of the most potent works of folk metal in the 90s, and largely because of its unique thematic approach. The lyrics reflect political and urban unrest and a hint of multicultural strife (which is becoming more urgent these days in England), rather than rooting in the folklore and myth of other ethnic European folk metal acts (something Skyclad themselves fancied on earlier albums). It's a great album from a once great band, Walkyier's best material post-Sabbat, and I'd highly recommend picking up all their early work but ignoring anything after Silent Whales of Lunar Sea.

Verdict: Win [8.75/10] (I'm a puppet of lust and my instincts are pulling the strings)

http://www.skycladmusic.co.uk/

Bolt Thrower - Those Once Loyal (2005)

Bolt Thrower's 8th studio album was a breath of fresh war arriving at the perfect time, as it had been far too long since the band released anything of importance. That isn't to say Mercenary or Honour Valour Pride were necessarily bad albums, but they lacked the impact of a Realm of Chaos or IVth Crusade (still the band's best work in my opinion). For Those Once Loyal, Karl Willets returns to the vocal artillery and the magic is captured yet again, surpassing their last 'good' album, 1994's For Victory.

A subtle symphonic text preludes the furious "At First Light" before the glorious melodies and brutal groove of the verse arrive to stamp you into the fucking dust. "Entrenched" opens with an almost Slayer like nihilistic thrashing, which grows thicker into the verse and the rallying cry of the breakdown. "The Killchain" once again channels that similar, flowing thrash into a brutal, bouncing hook, and a chorus which is simultaneously evil and majestic. "Granite Wall" channels that same sort of groove which dominated Realm of Chaos, and the title track is a slower, somber wartime masterpiece which drags you back into the desolate conflicts of our sorry humanity. "Anti-Tank (Dead Armour)" catches you with Jo Bench's distorted bass blitz and then layers on the hooks. The album saves some of its best tracks for the later hours: the subtle and infectious "Salvo" and the winding battery of instrumental "When Cannons Fade". The bonus track "A Symbol of Eight" is also decent. The lyrics throughout retain their battlefield savvy:

Stranded in no mans land
Water always tastes the same
Trapped within this shell hole
There is no shelter from the steel rain
Dead men again

The record is a crusher in terms of its sonic breadth. It retains the band's old school, subtle ability to 'entrench' its listener into the horroscapes of hopeless warfare through its shifting morass of endless, brutal grooving. Yet the band continues along its path of delivering an edge of transcending melody and majesty above the bloodshed (a trend which began some time ago on The IVth Crusade). Truly this is a band in fine form if they can still issue a statement like Those Once Loyal. But until they do so again, at least...we have Hail of Bullets?!

Verdict: Win [8.5/10] (casualties are stacked)

http://www.boltthrower.com/