Re: Helstar (yeah sorry, just that for now)


Yeah, I enjoyed both of your reviews, and this cross-post issue happened to me often as well, so I'll do a two-in-one while I'm at it. Here goes!


Pretty nice instrumental track which I'd categorize as dreamy, technical heavy/thrash with prog rock influences, and I'd be curious to check out some more stuff by this guy (/band?). The production is very "modern", too much so to my tastes (too many post-Blackalbumization symptoms for me: overly high master volume, overdone compression, overall sound bordering on the robotic coldness, plastic/computer-sounding drum kit...), but it's well-balanced nonetheless, and I can look past it. Songwriting wise, it's consistent and solid enough, while not breathtaking by any means; it has a good "tells a story" overall structure, with a cool leitmotiv and many variations on this central theme, most of them clever and enjoyable. Some fat could be trimmed in the middle, though, what with the half-minute of silence + pseudo-effects + vaguely awake lead guitar in noodling mode. The musicianship is at a high level, but emotionally (yeah, here I go again) it's not exceptionally moving, to my ears at least. Pretty good stuff, and again I'd be interested in hearing a bit more.


Wasn't too surprised at all when I eventually looked them up after the blind mode first listen, to see "Poland, early 90s", because Wolf Spider (along with Slammer, and 'Mental Reservation' era Scanner) sprung to mind right from the first deliberately, intellectually fucked-up riff. This techno-thrash band ones up all of those mindfuckers, though: for them, it's not enough to make the riffs, time signatures and song structure fucked-up, odd and off-putting, perish the thought! You mean and making the other elements in the song somewhat coherent, or even standard, maybe? Pfft! That's for sissies, man! Instead, they went full-blown fucked-up: fucked-up vocal lines, ever-changing and consistently out-of-place-sounding vocal style and delivery, randomly jazzy lead guitar-work and bass lines, and crash cymbal-driven drumming! Well, as a great philosopher once said in a great movie (see how I managed to include the word "great" thrice in a decidedly negative review? haha): "Never go full retard, man!". I suppose some really nerdy, edgy modern-day musicologists really craving for theoretical challenges will have some purpose for it, but as for me, I'm afraid this shit shall not pass. Sorry, man. Cute cover artwork, though (seriously, I'd be interested in checking the artist out)!

Let's see what you make of this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yxSCt_uhcA

@LegendMaker:

@Necro:

@LegendMaker:

Cradle of Filth - Queen of Winter

So a song from Cradle of Filth back before they started getting hated on so much. This is heavier and darker than the material that came later. I still don't see this as black metal, more like extreme gothic metal or something though it certainly has some black metal influence as well as a death metal one. The drumming is perhaps what stands out to me the most here. Is Nick Barker on drums here? He is an incredible drummer. The guitar tone resembles death metal at times and plays some slightly thrashy riffs and the synth work is done really well at producing a vampiric atmosphere. The bass work is very audible and well done. I like the female wailing and spoken passages. I like how the intensity varies a lot, being somewhat slow and other times very fast and intense. Dani's vocals usually annoy the crap out of me but it actually isn't to bad here with his banshee wails. He also produces a few death grunts here and there. A pretty epic track though a bit long for my taste.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsb3tMjFb4E

RAM - The Elixir

Well, the song opens up with a doomish vibe. I was honestly kind of bored and was about to turn it off and skip the review, but that was before the falsetto kicked in and WOW. Similar to King Diamond and Warrel Dane, this dude's vocals from this band I've never heard of before completely kicked my ass. Throughout the rest of the song it somewhat alternates between gothic passages and heavy, falsetto-laden ones. The first part of the guitar solo hit an emotional high-note for me, then transformed back to an uninspired 80's style riff. The mix of epic doom and heavy falsetto is very interesting and I will look into this band further.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AfNOKQdY-U

@LegendMaker

Quite frankly, I much prefer Candlemass's Mirror, Mirror...but that's not what we have here is it? This starts off sounding a metric shit-ton like Queen, seriously. I know that isn't exactly a huge leap, but if the British supergroup ever went into, ahem, metal then those opening melodies would have been carved in stone by now. Now I do like me some Blind Guardian, but, I do like them in small doses: I'm not saying this track is terrible, but for me there are only so many faux Brian May moments I can handle, plus the huge amount of hey-nonny-ho! moments to be found around every corner in this ye tavern. When the more speed/power metal moments are allowed to shine, they truly do - with some furious, rampaging riffage, but they tend to ruin those glorious moments with more quasi-medieval nonsense, which in turn makes me wince in almost embarrassment. Like I stated, previously, it's not that I dislike these guys, and the vocals as usual are exemplary, as you would expect, as is the musicianship, but this particular number, has too much bad amongst the good...for my tastes.

How about this?

EDIT: @ Abom re Obliteration

Iniquity - Tranquil Seizure

Well, the title matches the song for sure. It definitely felt like spasms interlaced with doom-y moments of solitary introspection. Cool stuff, and even though I hate the production job (the "squeal" of 90s death metal guitars pisses me off) the song writing is strong enough where it's still really enjoyable. Definitely some neato riffs in there, especially the middle section of the song and the solo. The mid-paced drumming is crushing at times. Don't know if I'd listen to the whole album, but this song was enough to get me to check it out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHwFMaQt_N4

Hiems - Painted Black

Ugrhh, ultra-modern black metal! They should be ashamed to be from the same region as Mortuary Drape. Nice over loud, in-your-face, vocal distortion, too, really keeping black metal wicked contemporary in the 21st century. Yo, Satyr raps! The production kinda sounds like a low budget version of some other modern, over-loud extreme metal production; everything's very up front and as such it doesn't really have any depth. Sounds like something Satyricon would write if they decided to embrace some cold, industrial stylings.

What horrid fizzy distortion! What boring obnoxious drums! What crappy vocals! This is lame and I never want to listen to it again... it's heavy in the same way as Anaal Nathrakh. That is, it's pretty abrasive but achieves next to nothing other than that. What boring shite! This is literally everything I don't like in black metal... Aiiieeeeeeeeeeee!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzPDISR6aC4

Edit: changed song.

The Obsessed, "River of Soul"

Hypnotic, groovy and, yes, soulful. What a great sound! The steady, laid-back yet decisive drumming provides the backbone for this slow-burning journey. There's something about it all that's rather earthbound but simultaneously spacey...like perhaps some old shaman reading the future in the stars from some dusty, wind-swept plateau. Wino's voice seems made for this sort of music. Those weird, clashing chiming notes that slightly resemble a sitar sound fantastic and add a surprising amount when they appear. I'm definitely a fan of this drumming....while there's certainly nothing fancy about itt its placement in the mix, the groove-infused yet repetitively simple delivery, all make it impossible not to rock along to this song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOwdZ3_t46k

Solemnity - The Book of Eibon

On paper, this stuff would truly impress me, but in practice? It didn't get really any kind of reaction from me. I don't hate it; I'm just utterly indifferent to it. Well, save for the singer; to hell with him and his weird ass pronunciation. Also, while he's technically good, he also sounds too emotional (yes, that's possible) and tacky to be appealing to my ears in any way, shape, or form. The music is better, although it still leaves me cold; I guess I could say that the slightly Spanish sounding acoustic picking that fades in and out of the song during it's length is kinda charming and that the bass playing is rather cool, but the guitars instill no response from my part, as they just sound very cliché and predictable (not even the leads catched my attention), and the songwriting plodding and devoid of any interesting parts. The drumming I found to be relatively engaging, but that's pretty much it. I usually like this sort of "epic" brand of heavy metal, even if only anecdotically, but Solemnity gets no pass from me. Sorry Abom.

Here is a little bite of weirdness for whoever is willing to give it some attention.

@ xlxlx

Re: Solemnity

Re: Solemnity's singer:

On pronunciation:

Okay, I just changed the song. Go on people, nothing to see here!

The fuck?...This starts with a tiny shred of promise, before soundly and unrepentantly pissing upon it from every direction. Actually the first 19 seconds is about the only bit I really "enjoyed". The oh so clever, switching of timing, and utterly fucking horrible, cheesy synths deserve a severe spanking, as do the woeful vocals - both of them. The harsh vocals sound like they were sampled from Mike Patton having a kidney stone removed, or worse. The wanky noodly arrangement of this...tweeness is not a thing of beauty as far as I'm concerned either, with stuttering, stop/start sections that are jarring and just plain awful. I really don't see the flow of this, and if there is one to be enjoyed, I do not like it, and won't understand those who do. This couldn't command my attention - it only inspired ire. Bloody atrocious.

Need this to clean my ears out...

Trench Hell - Sadistic Messiah

Starts quite promisingly, but then the intro gets sort of stuck. For a moment I'm reminded of the never ending intro somewhere in that metal enterprises fake album of Killer Fox. This isn't bad, of course, like that, but this also never ends! When it does, though, it gets awesome. Gritty, cocaine and alcohol infused thrash with that awesome speed metal flair. I like it a lot, even though the vocalist sounds like his attempt to go vomit his guts out at 4 am after twelve hours of relentless partying was intercepted and he had to go record. The band sounds incredibly enthusiastic though, the chord progressions are powerful heavy metal style and everything absolutely rocks here except the tired vocalist.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5jRCFnFsBY

Nothing obscure, but I was just listening to this, and I love the intro so much.

Primordial - Traitors Gate

Primordial are a problematic band for me, they're quite good but their material is riddled with stuff that makes me just go "Eh, it's alright." That intro riff is nice, but for a whole minute with little or no variation? It feels a least twice as long as it need be. I don't really like the snare sound for blasting either... but that's a minor quibble. The next riffset is similarly windswept and epic, and that is basically Primordial's one gear. I feel that their music is perhaps a little bit too vocal centric, the guitars do definitely get shafted so Alan can take the spotlight so more with his "ssoooooo....windswept....sooooooo.... IRISH!!!" vocals. This band do well to appeal to that romantic Celtic notions some folks seem to habour and I'm sure they do well in most foreign territories, just like Irish bars can be found anywhere in the world. There's nothing wrong with that, though, it's just that while they've nailed the windswept-Irish-wailing vibe they've seemingly neglected to make their music particularly interesting. The guitars are just too contented with sticking to one gear for an overly long period of time. The atmosphere is nice, sure, but I just can't fall for this band's writing. Stop resting on your epic laurels and give me some moving music. Admittedly the octave riff that appears towards the song's end is a welcome bit of relief but it feels like it has arrived too late.... and the fact that the drummer keeps up his boring blasting makes it just that little bit more monotonous.

You're epic, sure, but Solstice you ain't. Go back to the chalkboard and think a little more about the compositions rather than the atmosphere. Epic? Sure. Musically interesting? Errrrrrr, kinda-not-really-getting-there-must-try-harder. Bunch of C students, I can tell.

The true kings of Ireland

Re: Primordial

Re: Primordial again...

@CrushedRevelation:

@Xlxlx

@CrushedRevelation:

@necro, I just did, but my browser crashed and ate it, I'll try again:

Thin Lizzy: "Opium Trail"

This song is all about phil, and by that I don't just mean that it's one of his "drug stories". Basically his vocals and, especially, the powerful bass-work completely dominate the song, leaving the guitars to be merely support, except for the solos of course. Those basslines intrigued me throughout the music, with the amazing upward run during the fill leading to the first verse being only the start in a dancing, magical set of licks that never fail to command the attention. i wish there was more bass like this in rock these days. The dialogue between left-side Phil, who's arguing with right-side Phil at two points during this song, is great sounding. I think the first solo is pretty tasty (is it just me or does it remind anyone else of Steve Miller? heheh), but the second solo was promising to be killer until one of those patented inappropriate 70s fade-outs killed it completely. Really, the 70s was the best time for rock music, but all producers seemed to be in love with the fade-out then and it's annoying how great bands can seldom seem to finish a song properly!!!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZ94vl1jYY8

Metal Ed : Desolation Angels.

Traditional Metal Ed! This has trademark galloping riffs aplenty, the unpropulsive, slow drumming strangely working well. Overall, this dosen't go any faster than mid-pace. The solo sort of comes and goes, which was a disappointment as I generally expect strong solos in this kind of thing. The song is really short and sweet though, so I suppose they didn't want to put a minute long solo as it would ruin the feel. Not going to comment on the production I like the vocalist's tone, and his vocal lines are nice and catchy but I find him unadventurous. He doesn't try anything too out there and mostly rigidly sticks to the melody. The song was pretty good, but unremarkable.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSsVIERKD58

@ necro/re: Desolation Angels

Jerry Cantrell - Pig Charmer

Haven't heard his solo stuff but I do love me some Alice in Chains. This is fairly similar to Alice in Chains though not quite as intense. This is quite slow and very much grunge with an emphasis on thick bass. There are a lot of little interludes where all you hear is the bass guitar twanging away. I would prefer if there was a lot less on those little interludes as I like it when things are a little more intense. The drums sort of plod slowly along. I love the vocals and as expected is very much like the work of Alice in Chains as he is the co-vocalist. I found myself getting more and more into the song as it went along so maybe I would enjoy it more on repeated listens. Overall I enjoyed it but wouldn't put it in the same league as Alice in Chains.

And now for something a little different.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiKFtXu8YRA

Xenomorph - Plight of the Cimmerian

This isn't my usual cup of tea seeing as I don't usually care for harsh vocals, but I like it. The vocals are crisp and menacing, but are comprehensible and fit in well with the fast-paced guitarwork present all throughout. The song covers the gamut of death metal, from low and slow(er) to blisteringly fast and vicious. The breakdown at 3:44 and beyond is definitely a treat for the ears, also. Wasn't expecting to like this song nearly as much as I do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wd0oEX5hgm0