Category: Metal (Page 8 of 11)

Pelican: What We All Come to Need

December 1, 2009 / James B. Eldred

RIYL: Isis, Godspeed You Black Emperor, Sun O)))

Pelican, by far the most notable instrumental post-metal art rock band named after a waterfowl, left indie-metal label Hydra Head Records last year and joined up with Southern Lord Records, home to such experimental icons as Sun O))) and Earth. So perhaps it’s not coincidental that their first release on the label, What We All Come to Need, is a slight return to more experimental ground. Their 2007 release City of Echoes got some flak for being too “mainstream” due to some slightly more traditional sonic arrangements that were far shorter and more restrained than the epic-length opuses that the band was known for in the past. On What We All Come to Need, the band has seemingly split the difference between the “pop” sound of their last album and the unabridged soundscapes that was their earlier work. While there are no droning 10-to 20-minute epics on What We All Come to Need, most of the tracks hover around the seven-minute mark, giving the listener enough time to get lost in the songs’ dark, melodic world without descending into tedium. That being said, perhaps they cut a bit too much of the fat away. The menacing “The Creeper” and riff-heavy “Glimmer” could benefit from being a little longer, and shorter cuts like “An Inch Above Sand” and “Strung Up From The Sky” never really get a chance to develop. However, tracks like “Ephemeral” show that bigger isn’t always better by pounding its way through your cortex with its thunderous riffs in a scant five-minute running time.

Will the hardcore among the art-metal fans enjoy it? Probably not – it’s still a bit too “traditional” sounding for them. But metal heads who are curious to see what all this “post-metal” talk is about would do good to start with What We All Come to Need, as it’s a perfect bridge between the hardcore droning sludge of groups like Isis and progressive metal such as Mastodon. (Southern Lord Records 2009)

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AC/DC: Backtracks

November 30, 2009 / James B. Eldred

RIYL: Motorhead, Kiss, Van Halen

Backtracks is AC/DC’s second compilation, and the first to include anything from the post-Bon Scott era. There are a lot of rarities out there in the AC/DC catalog, thanks to an abundance of B-sides, cut tracks and “international” editions of their records, which in the past routinely featured different tracks than the Australian editions. And while Backtracks does a great job of collecting all those rarities, the quality of said rarities is a little lacking.

While some of the lost cuts are great, such as the rollicking “R.I.P. (Rock In Peace),” most were buried for a reason. “Love Song” is just that, a love-dovey ballad that is the thematic opposite of nearly every other song AC/DC ever recorded and other Oz-only tracks like “Fling Thing” and “Stick Around” aren’t as bad, but they’re entirely forgettable. Some later-era stuff is here as well, and it holds up a bit better. The Blow Up Your Video B-side “Borrowed Time” is actually better than most of the tracks that made that album, and then there’s “Big Gun,” the standout from the excellent “Last Action Hero” soundtrack and probably one of the last truly great songs the band released.

The live disc is good, but is nothing that the stellar AC/DC Live didn’t already do better, and the music video DVD should really appeal to completists, literally in fact, as it completes the “Family Jewels” DVD collection that first came out in 2005, picking up where that set left off with the video for “Big Gun” and ending with Black Ice clips “Rock N Roll Train” and “Anything Goes.” Watch and be amazed that an AC/DC video from 1991 and an AC/DC video from 2009 are nearly identical, the only things that have changed are softer focus and kinder lighting.

As AC/DC goes, this set is a little uneven, so if you only own Highway to Hell and Back in Black, then this box set isn’t for you. And if you’re still holding out for a greatest hits album or online release (the band remains one of the few iTunes holdouts), then this box set isn’t for you, either. However, do you own the Australian and American versions of all their albums, and have an AC/DC tattoo on your shoulder that you like to show off when you rock the sleeveless shirt at your local rib-off? Then, oddly, this box set isn’t for you either; instead, you’d want the deluxe edition. That comes with an additional CD and DVD of live material, a huge coffee table book, tons of memorabilia and a bonus LP that includes highlights from the rarities CD (which is expanded for the deluxe edition to include several more songs). The packaging for the deluxe edition is equally excessive, as it’s a working guitar amp. That’s the way to go. This regular edition is for pussies. (Columbia 2009)

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Slayer: World Painted Blood

November 9, 2009 / Michael Fortes

RIYL: Sepultura, Pantera, Suicidal Tendencies

Ready… set… SLAYER!! How these guys still crank ’em out after all these years (their debut album, Show No Mercy, turned 25 last year), we may never know. But the important thing about Slayer’s latest, World Painted Blood, is not just how this record drops the band even more firmly back into classic Slayer territory than 2006’s Christ Illusion, but where in that spectrum we find the band. Whether playing Reign in Blood in its entirety for a number of live concerts with original drummer Dave Lombardo (who is back again on World) had any effect on the proceedings, one has to wonder. For that’s the album World most closely resembles, with the title track’s multi-part construct mirroring the classic “Angel of Death.” It also shares space with shorter, punkier numbers like “Psychopathy Red,” which finds Tom Araya shredding his vocal cords more mercilessly than he ever has before.

Lombardo draws from his ’80s bag of drum tricks, while Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman occasionally reference even their ’90s work with their creepy-sinister guitar riffs, making the case for Slayer as death metal’s own AC/DC – solidly dependable from album to album, sticking to their tried-and-true dark subject matter, and occasionally straying from what made them great, but always sounding like nobody else. (American Recordings 2009)

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Wolfmother: Cosmic Egg

November 4, 2009 / James B. Eldred

RIYL: Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath

Wolfmother is back! Well, Andrew Stockdale, the lead singer/guitarist of Wolmother is back – everyone else quit/got fired last year and Stockdale decided to continue the Wolfmother name without them. But the new Wolfmother, now a foursome instead of a power trio, doesn’t sound terribly different from the old Wolfmother. So there’s not much need to describe the “sound” of Cosmic Egg: it sounds like Wolfmother. Have you heard “Woman” or “The Joker and the Thief,” from their 2005 self-titled debut? Then you know what you’re in for here. Is that really a problem, though? Sure, Stockdale may just be cribbing the best bits from ’70s metal (specifically, the crunching riffs of Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi, the howling screams of Robert Plant, and the totally groovy organ solos of Deep Purple), but what the hell is wrong with that? Have you heard the “modern” rock on the radio today?

Maybe we got it right in 1976 – why move forward? If anything, Wolfmother needs to move further in that direction. When they try to slow things down or pop things up for radio, such as on the anemic love ballad “Far Away,” they sound lost. When they let themselves kick out the jams, they deliver; whether slow and methodical, such as the wah-wah heavy “Sundial,” or fist-pounding and headbanger friendly, like “New Moon Rising,” “Phoenix,” or just about every other song on the album. Yeah, it may not be the most original or “intelligent” release of the year, but it’s a solid dose of hard rock and heavy metal at a time when they’re few and far between.

A quick note of annoyance, though: there are two versions of Cosmic Egg, deluxe and standard (our review copy was the standard edition). The deluxe copy comes with four more songs, which add up to 20 more minutes of music. These aren’t outtakes, live tracks or acoustic versions; there’s nothing notably different about these tunes. So when you’re buying the “standard” version of the record you’re basically not getting the full version. It’s hard to tell what the purpose behind such a release strategy is, since all it does it drive people who bought the standard version to go online and download what they’re missing. It’s hard enough for artists to sell records these days, and crap like this just makes it that much harder. What’s the point? (Modular 2009)

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Alice in Chains: Black Gives Way to Blue

October 21, 2009 / Michael Fortes

RIYL: Soundgarden, Godsmack, Staind

In a sense, the fact that Alice in Chains have reformed and released a new album isn’t all that improbable. Though their earliest albums were marked by the passionate, fiery vocal performances of original lead singer Layne Staley, he began to withdraw during the band’s later years as his addictions got the best of him. By the time of the band’s final, self-titled album in 1995, Layne – who eventually died of an overdose in 2002 – sounded almost like he wasn’t really there, a shadow of his former self.

Fourteen years after the original band’s swan song, Layne Staley’s ghost is ever-present throughout Black Gives Way to Blue. Guitarist and chief songwriter Jerry Cantrell blended his voice so well with Layne’s back in the day that whether he’s singing to his own multi-tracked vocals or in harmony with new lead singer William DuVall, one could be forgiven for thinking that Layne had come back from the dead to add his stamp to the record. Not only that, the album has more in common with Alice in Chains than with any of the band’s other records; Cantrell shares the lead vocal spot more frequently than he did on Dirt or Facelift, the overall tone is more melancholy and dire than manic mindfucks like “Sickman,” “Real Thing” or “Them Bones” ever aspired to be, and other than “Take Her Out” and the catchy lead single “Check My Brain,” pop hooks are few and far between.

While the title track tastefully pays tribute to the band’s fallen singer, its much-hyped Elton John appearance on piano ultimately disappoints; what could have been an epic memorial and a signature piece of the reborn band comes off more like a demo, and one that’s still searching for a bridge and a suitable conclusion, ending far too soon. Even now, Alice still has one up on copycats like Godsmack and Staind, but Black Gives Way to Blue falls just short of what they’re truly capable of achieving. (Virgin 2009)

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