Tuesday, March 27, 2007
About The Fire - "Rites Of Passage"
This came out a couple years ago but the new Samiam disc made me think of this record. Obviously the two sound similar, no doubt helped by a dead ringer for a more baritone version of Jason from Samiam on vocals, but musically they are pretty similar as well. About The Fire's sound is a lot more muscular, with pretty heavily distorted guitars more reminiscent of Pegboy, but the songwriting resemblance to Samiam is uncanny, right down to the little guitar noodles they used to do circa "Billy" and "Soar". Of course these guys play it a bit harder, especially in comparison to Samiam's later work, but any fan of Samiam will eat this record up, just like I did. It also doesn't hurt that this sucker is great from start to finish. So if you can look past a tad bit of derivativeness then give these guys a shot."Rats In The Sun"
"Not To Be A Dick, But..."
Buy @ Amazon - Rites of Passage
- Buy @ iTunes
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Decapitated - "Organic Hallucinosis"
Although America really paved the way for death metal as a distinct genre, you have to give Poland its due. Longtime favorites Vader have been destroying it for years but young upstarts Decapitated look poised to take over the empire. While they've always been more technically oriented in their songwriting, this is the first record to combine that quality with a more holistic approach to the arrangements. That means breathtaking complexity and ferocious blast beats interspersed with killer old school death metal grooves for a perfect melding of old and new. Of course I love all the old school death metal bands but listening to this latest from Decapitated is simply mind blowing. And to think these guys are barely college age means we can expect much more where this came from."A Poem About An Old Prison Man"
"Day 69"
Buy @ Amazon - Organic Hallucinosis
- Buy @ iTunes
Friday, March 23, 2007
The Sword - "Age Of Winters"
I haven't heard a lot new stoner rock bands to get excited about in recent years but The Sword is certainly one of them. They play a more hard charging form of the style, very similar to Orange Goblin's more recent work but with even more of a metallic lean. The songwriting is fairly typical for the genre: big, burly Sabbath style grooves overlaid with Ozzy-ish fantasy lyrics/vocals but it's played with such crushing force and precision it's hard not to be impressed as they stomp through a succession of heavy as hell songs, one after the other. Plus they spice it with just enough anomalies, like the speed metalesque "Iron Swan" and the pseudo blast beats on "March Of The Lor", that it gives the band a more distinct personality than many of their peers. If you like your stoner rock pure but on the heavier, less doom side, you're going to dig the debut from The Sword."Freya"
"Iron Swan"
Buy @ Amazon - Age of Winters
- Buy @ iTunes
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Broken Hearts Are Blue - "Truth About Love"
I figured that if I wrote about some old death metal, I might as well write about some old emo right? Broken Hearts Are Blue were a true one hit wonder…one album and one truly good song but for some reason I've listened to "Because I Am" more times than probably any emo song in my collection. There's something about the raspy, indecipherable vocals and simple, driving chord progression that gets me every time. Add the little Jawbreaker-esque breakdown at the end and it's got everything a great emo song needs. Sadly, the rest of the album, with the exception of "And Then", is full of more ballad type songs, falling a bit too far into the shoegazer realm for my tastes. Still, it's worth it for just "Because I Am" but I can't help but think about if they made an entire album of songs like that. Would it be the best emo record of all time? I think it would have been."Because I Am"
"And Then"
Buy @ Amazon - Truth About Love
Sunday, March 11, 2007
Cancer - "Death Shall Rise"
Chuck Schuldiner is the undisputed god of death metal but his songwriting style always had some quirky, progressive elements to it that sometimes took away from the sheer brutality of the compositions. James Murphy, on the other hand, is a true meat and potatoes riff master, penning some of the simplest yet most memorable riffs of the genre. During his heyday he helped write still classic albums for Death and Obituary but some people might have overlooked this little gem. Cancer was a decent death metal band from England before James joined in the early nineties but he made them great, if just for one album (I guess the commute was a bitch!). "Death Shall Rise" is a stellar example of James' style of simple yet brutal riffing, a time capsule into my favorite period of death metal, before blast beats and cookie monster burps. It's basically a death metal riff fest from start to finish that's arguably on par with Death albums like "Leprosy" and "Spiritual Healing", sounding very similar to those albums but with a bit of the slow creep of Obituary thrown in for good measure. Sadly James bailed after this and the rest of their material is questionable but "Death Shall Rise" is one of my favorite death metal records of all time so at least we got one classic."Tasteless Incest"
"Hung, Drawn And Quartered"
Buy @ Amazon - Death Shall Rise
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