Alice in Chains - Black Gives Way to Blue (2009)

I've been needing a beer for a while... music-wise. For the past few years I've been sampling the sharp, biting taste of hardcore in all of its forms. The gentle and layered flavor of post and stoner rock/metal. The ethereal, absinthe-esque depths of progressive black metal. I still get the craving for a bold, sweet mug of melodic death. But a beer, in this case, would be modern rock. Most modern rock these days is... well, let me cut to the chase; It's shit. The riffs can sometimes be a bit catchy and chunky, but it's without the explorational qualities of the 1990's. True, it also comes without the rapcore tendencies of the late 90's and early oughts, but it still feels just as hollow and disposable. So when an old favorite was announced to be returning, I was loaded with mixed feelings: Greedily waiting to sap up new material from an old friend, but apprehensive about a band who has been on hiatus for over a decade and lost a very distinctive, identifiable lead singer. The new Alice in Chains would either quench my thirst with a delicious, carbonated blast of modern rock... or sit forgotten and barely touched, like a skunky old lager.

The album itself opens up with the familiar-sounding “All Secrets Known”. It's Alice in Chains through and through and, while it sounds like it would be more at home as a mid-album track on Sap or Jar of Flies, it's still good... it's just not what I would've been expecting. Most of their albums (and most albums in general) either start off with a nut-punching kickass tune, or have a 2-3 minute quiet introduction that leads to a nut-punching kickass tune. In this case, Cantrell and Company have decided to greet us with a down-tempo, layered stoner ditty. It's also a great way to show how William Duvall is able to hit those Chainsey vocal melodies that, along with Cantrell's signature guitar sound, are the trademarks of this band.

And that's pretty much how this album goes: It's Alice in Chains, from all their albums, in all their styles. It switches between slower acoustic arrangements, stoner-tempo riff jams with the trademark vocal harmonies, and straight up rockin' tunes - all of it with a dirty ethereal southern glaze, dissonance-made-melody overlay, and general feeling of despair. There's a noticeable absence of Dirt influenced material, but considering that album was practically written in a puddle of heroin, I wasn't expecting to hear much of that disc show it's ugly face on this album. Duvall doesn't jump up as the bands lead most of the cut, content on sitting in the shadows on his first outing (And for good reason). However, at the end of “Private Hell” (The best track on this album by far, for me), the newest member of this almost legendary rock outfit blasts out with a primal scream that shows that he is as capable as Layne was. It's a chilling few seconds, but it's also a preview of what's to come: Once Duvall gets more comfortable with the band, and once the fans start letting go of Layne's memory, we'll start seeing them running on all cylinders again.

And that's what this album is to me: It's shaking off of the rust. A lot of the riffs are great, but the songwriting sometimes falters. “A Looking in View” is an awesome 5 minute song that is 7 minutes long. Sometimes things are beautifully written but they clink hollow, like a drumstick hitting an empty beer bottle. The old men have easily shown up all these new kids like Theory of a Deadman and Nickelback (And especially Godsmack), but a few of these new tracks lack the emotional punch of “What the Hell Have I”, the fury of “We Die Young”, and the immediacy of “Nutshell”. That's not to say it's a bad album, because it really isn't. In fact, it's pretty fucking fantastic and probably the best rock album I've added to my collection since Agents of Oblivion. It just feels like the band has returned to their old haunts, the lights are off, they're fumbling about a bit with a flashlight for the switch, but there is still that old familiarity in the air. I just hope Black Gives Way to Blue is what I predicted, and not one of my favorite band's initial shallow, protracted slide into mediocrity.

I needed a beer, and Black Gives Way to Blue is just that: A full-bodied, robust brew in a world full of flat, watered down bullshit. It's unfortunate that it happens to be a light beer... but I'm full of hope that the next time the waitress comes by my table that it'll be just what the doctor ordered. Cheers!

Verdict: Win [8.5/10]

www.aliceinchains.com

Slough Feg - Ape Uprising (2009)

I've been fond of the majority of Slough Feg's releases, in particular Atavism, Traveler and the unforgettable Down Among the Deadmen, but this latest full-length did not sit well with me when it dropped. After a few months I've revisted the album with little success.

All the components of a great Slough Feg album are still present: the bluesy leads, the slight folk follies, the attention to 70s/80s metal detail, and the brusing vocals of Mike Scalzi, but I just didn't care for many of the songs. "The Hunchback of Notre Doom" breaks in the record at a slower, doom pace, but the riffs are typical and boring and it never quite breaks into the melodic charging I eagerly anticipate from this band. Not a bad track, but simply unmemorable. "Overborn" begins as a stoner slugfest, with some nice bluesy wailing and metal gallops, yet it still left no impression. The epic "Ape Uprising" does have some good rhythms, but I wasn't enthralled by the entire 10 minutes. "Simeon Manifesto" was the first track on the album I really enjoyed, and there are a few others near the end of the album, "White Cousin" and "Ape Outro", both short and sweet classic metal songs which sound like Angel Witch jamming with Legend.

Born in caves that surface
Dry and hungry spells
Turning void of purpose
Future never tells

The album has a sincere tone to it that creates nostalgia for the roots of heavy metal, much like previous Slough Feg works. The Planet of the Apes series of films provides a good conceptual framework, and some of the lyrics are good. The highlight here is the old school melodies used in both the leads and verses of the songs, and there are a few fist pumping rhythms. All in all, it didn't add up to the quality of previous albums: not bad, but a little disappointing.

Verdict: Indifference [6/10]

http://www.sloughfeg.com/

Abigail - Sweet Baby Metal Slut (2009)

Abigail is another of those veteran Engrish metal bands that we love to hate and hate to love (similar to Metalucifer), but if you can look past the smutty album covers, song titles and appreciation for...well, the female form, Sweet Baby Metal Slut is honestly a pretty kickass metal album, with a grit to it that very few can muster while simultaneously writing kickass, hook-laden tracks. In fact, were it not for Yasuyuki's craven black snarls over the music, this album would truly belong in the early 80s with then-emerging Motorhead and Venom.

Seriously. I am not kidding when I tell you that this is the best Abigail full-length yet, and only their fourth (most of their extensive discography consists of live records and split releases). Each of the 10 tracks here is a serious ass kicking, from the burning punk/speed-inspired riffing to the wild, old school leads and the bite and bark of Yasuyuki's filthy vocals. "Metal Evil Metal" opens with a classic, bluesy riff that instantly had me, as visions of 70s and 80s hard rock and NWOBHM began dancing through my skull. All you need is a good pickup truck, a denim jacket adorned with patches, a few beers, a good warm woman and this fucking song to experience the full range of what life has to offer.

After the metal war, the world is so still
No poser is living after kill
Over the burning hell life will go on
Blazing up to the sky
Once you stop pressing 'repeat' for this track, you'll enjoy the bruising "Metal Bitch Inferno" and the southern grooves of "Satanic Hell Slut". There is a grungy, punk abandon to "Sweet Bloody Cunt" and the driving, titillating "Tokyo Pussy Girl", and the show does not stop here. "Teenage Metal Fuck", "Wild Fire Metal Bitch" and "Final Metal Attack" are all INTENSE. Any one of these tracks could serve as the life anthem for anyone I have ever considered a hero in this world. The final track "Sexual Metal Holocaust" is an excellent thrasher certain to level back alley bars and clubs all over Nippon.

Yeah metal bitch come on
I saw you dancin on down the line
Your so nasty and metal bitch
Metal baby that's all night with me
Sexual metal holocaust
Beer! Metal! Sex!
Sexual metal holocaust
Fuck me metal bitch

As you can probably tell, the misogyny of the lyrics is quite intentional in that fun, 'take this seriously and you're a goddamned fool' way. The music itself is raw, there is no better band of this style to street fight to, especially with broken bottles, chains, 2' x 4's and whatever else you can scrape up from the nearest dumpster. There is no shortage of testosterone on Sweet Baby Metal Slut, and the album is so goddamn good that it surpasses 'classics' like Forever Street Metal Bitch and Lust and Intercourse. This is pretty much the apex of what Abigail has set forth to accomplish in this twisted world, where innocence is but a myth. Do not pass this record by.

Verdict: Epic Win [9/10] (dance on pentagram queens of metal bitch)

Klabautamann - Merkur (2009)

One of Germany's best kept black metal 'secrets', Klabautamann have already released some impressive albums in Our Journey Through the Woods and Der Ort. This third release Merkur is not exactly a repetition of either of those works, it is a progressive and complete transformation into a staggering musical entity. Perhaps the most apt comparison would be to last year's Vertebrae from Enslaved, an album which embraced both its heathen Viking black metal roots and a Pink Floyd-ish paragidm. But Merkur goes a step outside even this box, for at times Merkur feels as if you are rolling through the hills to some forgotten prog rock album of the 70s, until the snarls and aggression arrive to show you the band has not forgotten what led them here.

I should have mentioned up front that Merkur is what I consider a masterpiece. It's a work of brilliant composition that I find both bewildering and intimidating. I'd like to live in these minds for a time and witness the creation process. "Unter Bäumen" opens with some speed picking beneath Tim Steffens slathering black rasp, with various tonal shifts to create a momentum like that of a longship driving towards the shore. The track soon elipses into a period of flowing folk which captivates like ancestral ghosts flowing through a forlorn summer sky. "When I Long for Life" has a desperate, grasping feel to its glorious tumult, the drums lumber along below the solemn riffing, before the track ascends like the scaling of a mountain, eagles soaring and rasping across the channel of human ambition. "Stygian" begins with subtle, tempting guitars and shifting percussion, Steffens' whispers drift across the soul haunted waters of the song's mythic namesake.

The red streams flow everywhere
A grey curtain and rain everywhere
Bury me inside the fields, where grass grows tall
I will be gone with the morning fog
Come wrath, cover me sweetly

"Herbsthauch" picks upon the gnarled skin like a cloud of voracious flies, a twisting nightmare that thankfully ellipses into some fatal acoustic plucking. "Morn of Solace" is graceful and panoramic, another track reminding me of Enslaved's recent work. "Der Wald Ist Ein Meer" balances a playful melody with a bleak, grooving bridge. The title track is chaos incarnate, like a circus of demented clowns you bricked up in an old castle, leering at you from behind its walls. And if you're not yet convinced of this band's forward and reverse thinking style, the wanderlust of "Lurker in the Moonlight" and the steady tranquility of "Noatun" should quell your doubts.

Merkur feels vibrant and alive, yet so dead, like the breath of ages returning to a hollowed corpse through the whispers of the wind. The album will at times pleasure and haunt you, and truly few emotions are left behind. If there is justice in the vast realm of metal fandom, Klabautamann will soon become a household name. They possess more depth and vision than most bands twice their age, Merkur just fucking destroys. An Opeth for black metal, yet superior in every way. I dare any opponent of metal music as unwashed noise for delinquents to spin Merkur and tell me he or she feels the same way, because at its apex, this is what the art form can produce.

Verdict: Epic Win [9.5/10] (maybe we know the craft of the night)

http://www.klabautamann.de/

Kong - What It Seems Is What You Get (2009)

A decade has passed since Kong last graced us with their bizarre hybrid of instrumental math and groove metal, novel live performances reaching at you from all angles, and frankly, they were one of the more unique bands to ever emerge in those adventurous 90s. Kong is 'progressive' in the sense that they transform simple, rocking or chugging riffs into atmospheric arrangements that will either hit or miss in encapsulation of the listener. But they bear little or no resemblance to any other band wielding the term.

What It Seems Is What You Get is quite a fine return to form, reaching the heights of quality set previously by their albums Phlegm and Push Comes to Shove. This album would make for an excellent backdrop to a myriad of activities, from sports and exercise to gaming or perhaps even sex. There's never been a direct market for a band like Kong, but that's rather the point. This 6th album is a lengthy escapade in sound, over an hour's worth, but rarely did the material become lacking. A few of the standout tracks include the flowing mystique of "Tenfold Right", the sludgy stoner funk of "Change 2012", the jam kicking "Musclebound Elf" and the lush, stealthy "March of the Eltanin". That said, the album is very easily digested as a whole work, since even the somewhat slacking songs feed into the visionary unity.

The band has always sounded best with a mildly raw, jamming tone that they can pull off live, and this new record is no exception. The drums are low key, but mesmerizing, and the guitars capture a wide range of emotion from the industrial timing to the more tranquil melodies. In an age that saw bands like Primus and Korn reaching huge levels of success, I am surprised that Kong did not create a bigger buzz (probably has to do with the music being instrumental). But here they stand, with another work that should entice fans of their back catalogue. It's a worthy starting point if you're new to the band, but if you like this then please check out their first three albums, you won't be disappointed.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

http://www.myspace.com/kongnl

Gorgoroth - Quantos Possunt ad Satanitatem Trahunt (2009)

Here's a hell of an album title for you. Quantos Possunt Ad Satanitatem Trahunt (say that four times fast) is the latest release from Gorgoroth, hot on the heels of a legal dispute over the name's usage. With Infernus the legal suit's victor and King and Gaahl re-naming themselves God Seed, this record sees the return of Pest to vocal duty and the addition of Tormentor (Desekrator), Frank Watkins (Obituary), and Tomas Asklund (Dissection/Dark Funeral).

That's an awful lot of musical pedigree to add into the mix with Infernus. Dare I hope for a world in which two separate, feuding bands will produce albums on par with Ad Majorem Sathanas Gloriam and Under the Sign of Hell? I dove into Quantos with a cautious optimism, but came out feeling wholeheartedly underwhelmed.

"Aneuthanasia" opens the album with a very solid feeling of "meh", and introduces the listener to all of the problems that will plague the rest of the album quite nicely. The terror of Gorgoroth is gone, lost in an overwhelming disconnect between instruments, jarring transitions, and uninspired songwriting. "Prayer" continues the trend, and "Rebirth" ruins any chances of saving the album by being a song about the band's legal troubles and referring to Gaahl and King as "media whores". Guys, leave the lyrical feuding to hip hop and the self-referential material to Darkthrone, mkay?

Overall, there's something missing from Quantos' mid-tempo black metal attack. It's more of a combination of things than one specific problem, but in the end it just feels flat and dispassionate. "Music with hate" this isn't, and there certainly isn't "chaos inscribed with every chord." This is easy listening black metal.

It's not really until the second half of the album that things start to look up, when "Cleansing Fire" comes tearing out of the gates with a suitable riff, but the song fails to start any church blazes. "Human Sacrifice" is another tolerable effort, with a few notable moments and a more recognizable tone. The album's closer- "Satan-Prometheus"- would have been totally at home on an earlier record, which just leaves me wondering why the entirety of Quantos isn't that good. Here are all of the hallmarks of Gorgoroth, blended together in five and a half minutes of familiar satanic insanity.

Quantos is serviceable at it's best and flat-out boring at it's worst, and there's no excuse for this kind of mediocrity in black metal. 2009 has been an utterly fantastic year, and I can't imagine giving Quantos much time. After a few listens, I've gone back to the earlier records without an ounce of regret.

Verdict: Indifference [5/10]

http://www.gorgoroth.info/

Rudra - Brahmavidya: Transcendental I (2009)

The massive expansion of metal culture through new and unexpected territories has created a wealth of foreign and 'ethnic' black and death metal, but very few bands are able to truly conjure their ancestral cultures into the framework of modern brutality. This is not the case for Singapore's Rudra, who have been doing it well for years. Brahmavidya: Transcendental I is the band's 5th full length, and to this point, hands down the greatest statement of Vedic metal I have heard.

The strength is that the band does not try and clout you over the head with a mix of folk pieces and then boring metal. The majority of the material here is very much blackened death, but through the composition of the brutal, blasting rhythms and breakdowns you are transported into the mythistory of their people, the darkness and tragedy, madness and glory. There are a few meditative pieces in which the basic sounds are repeated beneath varied vocal mantras and instrumentation ("Bhagavatpada Namaskara", "Immortality Roars", "Adiguru Namastubhyam"), and the very lavish "Meditations at Dawn", but the rest is metal up your ass. Tracks like "Ravens Paradise", "Hymns from the Blazing Chariot" and "Venerable Opposites" are astonishing and epic, carefully weaving folk melodies and punishing riffs into unforgettable vistas of the brutal and beautiful past. But if you simply want your head slammed with a vice, "Not the Seen but the Seer" and "Natural Born Ignorance" will suit you well.

Though all the instruments are distinct and clear, there is a captivating, grim edge to the guitars and crashing drums that really stands out. This is no poppy, overproduced metal record. It is feral and savage, most of the rhythms feel as if they are screaming at you straight from the jungles and mountains of Southeast Asia. This has ever been a band to follow, because noone else plays in quite this way (the other great Singapore band, Impiety is more of a brutal, straightforward Satanic style of black/death). Like other quality ethnic metal bands (Melechesh, etc), Rudra really 'get it', and they have a lot to offer with Brahmavidya: Transcendental I. The album isn't perfect (1-2 of the tracks were mildly less interesting than the remainder), but it's the closest they've yet come.

Verdict: Epic Win [9/10]

http://www.rudraonline.org/

Marduk - Wormwood (2009)

Marduk has caught a lot of slack over the past decade or so for being the 'mediocre' black metal band, despite years of hard work and touring. While I can't deny that the band has released a great deal of 'just alright' albums, they do have a few black gems shining in the backlog (I actually like Panzer Division Marduk). That said, 11th album Wormwood has been quite the surprise! The Swedes seem to be branching out into a truly grimy and hypnotic direction here, picking up where Rom 5:12 left off.

This is still black metal, of course, and it's still Marduk; but for once, the band's blasting ferocity is not always the forte on this album. It happens, and it happens fairly frequently, but some of the best material you will find on Wormwood are the slower tracks. "Funeral Dawn" is a slow march with very sparse, loose percussion and some excellent, grim melodies that bite right through the rhythm chords. "This Fleshly Void" succeeds due to Mortuus' strained, garbled vocals over a dusty black blast beat which guitars that reak of the churning of graveyard soil. "To Redirect Perdition" is slow and disgusting, flowing black/doom rhythms again carried by the incomparable vocals and some nice 'choral' samples. "Chorus of Cracking Necks" alternates between all out blasting frenzy and some minimal, dank guitars and breakdowns. The closing track "As a Garment" is another bizarre and mesmerizing slow piece.

The album has an oppressive atmosphere to it created through the use of the echoed vocals and keeping the guitars thin as they race through the razor-edged compositions. New drummer Lars Brodesson remains faithful to the band's momentum but I really admit to liking the simple percussion used in some of these tracks. I'm not sold that it's Marduk's best record yet, but it is certainly the most interesting thing I've heard from them and I hope they continue along this path.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

http://www.marduk.nu/

Sturmgeist - Manifesto Futurista (2009)

Having enjoyed the Sturmgeist debut Meister Mephisto, and to a lesser extent its follow-up Über, I was jazzed that Cornelius was putting together another. Though the style here is not as varied or wild as his main band Solefald, Sturmgeist does bark up the same tree in that it offers a fresh approach to a tired genre, that of thrash influenced black metal. Perhaps it is the selection of chords or the mechanical sheen to the composition, but Sturmgeist is both a follower and breaker of traditions.

"Monolith" is a strong beginning, with streams of bleeding chords and a grinding low structure not unlike a blackened Kreator. "Himmelen Faller" is a steady but average track, followed by the melodic, thrashing of "The Siegfried Order", which is one of the better songs on the album. Good distorted basslines pummel below the celebretory, epic repetition of the guitar chords. "Skyggestrykerne" is a mediocre melodic black metal track, and "Verdun" doesn't fare much better. In fact the more interesting material that comprises the remainder of this album are the odd men out, like the slumbering "Elegie D'une Modernite Meurtriere", the pompous interlude "Ritorno Glorioso" and the dreary rock of "Let Us Be the Suns of Our Time".

Manifesto Futurista has a cruel bite to the guitars and vocals which sounds great, even when the riffs themselves are weak. I really like the retro vibe created by this band, one harkens back aesthetically to the Industrial Revolution and the later Futurism of the early 20th century; and the unknown, glorious future our forebears must have simultaneously feared and strived towards. Sturmgeist is a very different concept for a black/thrash band, with an enormous potential, but I'm not sure this album is the one to fully realize that. Some of the songs here are good, but they alternate with forgettable tracks that offer little to the theme, and I didn't enjoy this as much as the previous albums.

Verdict: Indifference [6/10]

http://www.myspace.com/sturmbruderschaft

Mystic Prophecy - Fireangel (2009)

Mystic Prophecy have established themselves as a go-to band for decent power metal, yet they eschew the anthem driven German veneer of their peers to produce a heavier style that almost borders on thrash. 6th album Fireangel is another solid effort, though it doesn't quite live up to some of their past albums like Savage Souls. The band have had numerous lineup changes since the previous Satanic Curses, adding new drummer Stefan Dittrich (Karkadan, Saidian), bassist Connie Andreszka (Circle of Pain) and melodeath guitarist Constantine (Descending, Nightrage) into their mixed Greco-Germanic troupe.

Like most of the material on this album, "Across the Gates of Hell" starts well enough, with some plowing, low end guitars thrash dowsed in Roberto Dimitri Liapakis' vocals. He's got a fairly mid range compared to many peers, but it does work well with the more powerful thrust of the guitars. The chorus isn't quite as catchy as one would hope, but "Demons Crown" is a more powerful song altogether, with some forceful vocals and an escalating nature worthy of its title. "We Kill! You Die!" is faster, with brazen speed metal guitars and a thrashing bridge rhythm in the verse. "Father Save Me" has a dirtier blues metal edge to it, reminding me of the 2nd Halford solo album. Other worthwhile tracks include the title track "Fireangel", a real rager, and the triumphant punch of "Gods of War".

Studio-wise, Fireangel sounds just about as good as any of the band's previous works, in particular the guitars and vocals really blaze the tracks with a nice crunch to them. The vocals are charming enough and there are enough riffs to captivate your attention for a short while. If you can find the 2-CD Digipak version of this album, you get some Japanese bonus tracks and live material. Some of these tracks like "Crimson Devastation" are just as good as anything on the main disc, and the lives are alright if you enjoy Mystic Prophecy and actually care for live recordings (though the vocals sound shaky on a few of them). Fireangel is not some mold-breaking power metal release, not even a high point for the band, but considering they supplanted more than half the band for this, it's got enough shine to appeal to fans.

Verdict: Win [7/10]

http://www.mysticprophecy.net/