Album Review: Lamb of God (self-titled)

LAMB OF GOD

self-titled

(Epic)

The 10th studio album in roughly 20 years from metal stalwarts Lamb Of God is heavy on the usual themes yet seems more relevant than ever. The opening track "Memento Mori" (translates to "a reminder of death") seems to point to everyday signs as singer Randy Blythe observes: "The hardest hour, the cruelest sign / I'm waking up from this wretched lie / I fight it the same, don't waste this day / Wake up, wake up, wake up!" It's a blistering opening track whose dreamy musical intro morphs into the gotcha metal moment of the album.

"Checkmate" further comments on society's current situation, dubbed "The American scream": "A coup d' etat on full display, a liar's sick charade, a traitor's grand parade / Narcissistic masquerades for those without a say, systematic disarray." After a bluesy intro, the instrumentation is the classic "new American thrash" that LoG has mined for decades, with searing insight as well: "Divide and conquer and close them in and bury secrets deep / Make America hate again, and bleed the sheep to sleep."

As the album release got delayed due to Covid-19, fans didn't fret about the creative arc (they haven't strayed from their brutal yet more groovy riffs in years) but about the departure of drummer Chris Adler. New drummer Art Cruz ably delivers those rapid-fire beats for the smoothest of transitions. "New Colossal Hate" is one of the groovier tracks with big guitar hooks and an extended imusical breakdown toward the end.

"Gears" indicts the addictive nature of commercialism ("commercial gods keep you in line...while you are dying for always more"), while "Reality Bath" questions "is this the new abnormal?" that we "slip so easily into dull indifference / When horror has been normalized." Blythes growls in resolve that this is "a cynical defense, but I can't sit there silently / And watch it all go by."

Showing range as a vocalist, Blythe uses clean vocals on the soft opening of "Memento Mori" and even more during the more melodic verse parts of  "Bloodshot Eyes."

"Poison Dream" features guest vocalist Jamey Jasta (Hatebreed). Blythe handles the bulk of the lyrics amid some tight guitar riffing with Jasta coming in for half a verse delivered rap-style and backing vocals on a chorus that harmonizes well with Blythe's gruff tone.

"Routes" features another guest vocalist--Testament's Chuck Billy--an uptempo, thrashing send-up of solidarity--musical and otherwise.

Album review: Kvelertak's "Splid"

Kvelertak's new album "Splid" translates to "Discord"

KVELERTAK
*Splid*
(Rise Records)

Face-melting guitar solos are a universal language. 

Case in point: There is a moment in Kvelertak's song "Bratebrann" when the frontman breaks from singing in his native Norwegian tongue to exclaim in English, "Air guitar, c'mon!" 

A multi-layered and extended guitar solo follows (air guitaring optional) and is just one of the latest catchy, high-intensity hard rock composition on the band's newest album, "Splid," the band's fourth all-time and the first with its new singer, Ivar Nikolaisen (replacing Erlend Hjelvik).

Yes, most of the album is sung in Norwegian, but the spirit--the energy, melodies and layered guitars--taps into something universal and makes Kvelertak one of Scandanavia's best metal bands.

Two of the 11 songs are sung in English. This doesn't make them any better than the other tracks, just noteworthy: "Crack of Doom" features Mastodon's Troy Sanders on backing vocals, and Nikolaisen sings "Discord" in English as well. The latter track showcases the band's frenetic punk-rock energy well. And although different in tone than Hjelvik, the new singer maintains the same manic Viking ethos. This might turn out to be one of the best metal albums of 2020.

9/10

Album review: High On Fire's "Electric Messiah"

HIGH ON FIRE

*Electric Messiah*

(E1 Music)

No metalhead seems to be working harder than guitarist/singer-songwriter Matt Pike: Fresh off the success of his other band’s first full-length release in 20 years (Sleep’s “The Sciences”) comes the eighth studio album from his more linear outfit. Opening track “Spewn From The Earth” and title track “Electric Messiah” are uptempo burners with a relentless drumline and fuzzed out power-chords reverberating to the point where it’s not clear where notes begin or end. Pike’s beyond gruffy vocal delivery is lost in this sludgy mix to hypnotic effect. Mid-tempo tracks like “Steps Of The Ziggurat/House Of Enlil” (clocking over nine minutes) and “Sanctioned Annihilation” allow space for the tribal drumming to build. The latter track features the most rhythmic instrumentation with its use of double-bass drumming and syncopated chord strumming. “The Witch And The Christ” is another textured and multi-tempo arrangement that allows drummer Des Kensel to lead the way amid Pike’s fully throated declarations. Where Sleep’s droning ethos causes introspection and daydreaming, High On Fire is the much-needed rude awakening that always seems to follow.
Link to print version of this review that appeared in the January 2019 issue of Illinois Entertainer. Navigate PDF to page 24.

7/10

-Jason Scales

Concert Review: Mastodon plays benefit show at Metro

The lasers were in full effect for "Crystal Skull."

Mastodon at Metro, Chicago, Sept. 9, 2017

Mastodon rarely plays an encore. Instead, the band merely thanks the crowd and walks offstage. Saturday night at Metro, though, the band’s parting words carried more weight as they played an intimate benefit concert for Hope For The Day, a Chicago-based mental health education and suicide prevention organization.

At the end of the show, bassist/singer Troy Sanders said “thanks for one of the best nights of our lives” before drummer/singer Brann Dailor more directly addressed the heavy topic in the room. He spoke of his experience losing a sister to suicide and underscored the positive message of the night: there’s hope every day.

The music before the parting words was delivered with equal heart, as the band roared through a 90-minute set that pulled from nearly every album (absent were songs from “The Hunter”). Mandatory live songs “Crystal Skull,” “Megalodon” and “Colony of Birchmen” set the crowd into a frenzy but much of the the set list reflected the special nature of the event: rather than just focusing on songs from the latest album (“Emperor of Sand”), the band also performed many tracks from the album “Crack The Skye”. They opened with “The Last Baron” and also delivered mightily on “The Czar,” songs from an album that Dailor has said is a tribute to his sister who died at age 14.

Hailing from Georgia, Sanders mentioned the threat of Hurricane Irma (bearing down on the Florida Keys during the concert and generally threatening the entire Southeast), before starting “Precious Stones.” The song’s lyrics--”Don’t waste your time / Don’t let it slip away from you / Don’t waste your time / If it’s the last thing that you do”--suddenly carried even more meaning as layers of green and pink lasers etched a grid through the smoke above the crowd’s outstretched arms.

The twin lead-guitar attack of Brent Hinds and Bill Kelliher cut through the haze on “Oblivion” and “Ancient Kingdom.” But the most poignant moment came during Dailor’s vocals on “Roots Remain,” perhaps the most emotionally vulnerable song the band has released. Dailor sang: “And when you sit and picture me / Remember sitting in the sun and dancing in the rain / The end is not the end you see / It’s just the recognition of a memory.” Rarely has a heavy metal band been as equally ferocious and empathic as Mastodon was this night.

Powermad opened the evening with an energetic hardcore set, and Brain Tentacles’ distorted saxophone and guitar attack delighted the crowd before Mastodon headlined.

And, to further solidify the theme of the night, Three Floyds brewery debuted a special libation made in collaboration with the band and Dark Matter Coffee: Crack The Skye Imperial Coffee Stout.

Set List

“The Last Baron”

“Sultan’s Curse”

“Divinations”

“Crystal Skull”

“Ancient Kingdom”

“Colony of Birchmen”
“Megalodon”

“Andromeda”

“The Czar”

“Oblivion”

“Precious Stones

“Roots Remain”

“Chimes At Midnight”

“Steambreather”

“Mother Puncher”

“Crack The Skye”

Link to originally published version for Illinois Entertainer magazine.

Album Review: "The Violent Sleep of Reason" by Meshuggah

MESHUGGAH

*The Violent Sleep of Reason*

(Nuclear Blast)

Meshuggah is, in a word, otherworldly. The aesthetic of the latest album--the eighth in a 25-plus-year career--heavily resembles H.R. Giger’s alien surrealism style, furthering the extreme Swedish metal band’s exploration of futuristic themes and sounds.

Off-kilter, syncopated rhythms and frequent time changes, done with maximum percussion and riffage, disorient the listener on the best of tracks. “Monstrocity” builds chaotically until a downward spiral riff progression repeats with singer Jens Kidman deliberately barking out the syllables “Monstro....City!”

“By The Ton” is a mid-tempo beast of a song, heavy on thudding bass and bordering on sludge metal. Another repetitious and downward spiral chord progression is mined in “Ivory Tower,” a warning against putting faith into false institutions, which has H.P. Lovecraft-like allusions to inevitable horror: “The construction is our penance here / tumorous growth chiseled in white / when the darkness comes to slay the day / enters horrors that you’ll be wishing away.”

“Stifled” is another mid-tempo track that shows a slightly groovier side to the band’s brutality. But the title track, opening track “Clockworks,” “Born in Dissonance” and “Our Rage Won’t Die” (with an opening drum line that can only be described as a game of Whack-a-Mole) will satisfy the fans who prefer uptempo shredding.

9/10
Link to print version of review in December 2016 issue of Illinois Entertainer magazine. Navigate PDF to page 44.

Album Review: High On Fire's "Luminiferous"

HIGH ON FIRE

*Luminiferous*

(eOne Music)

High On Fire’s seventh album starts where the others left off: “The Black Plot” is driven by galloping drums punctuated by whip crack snare shots behind singer Matt Pike’s gruffly delivered conspiracy theories. At the 3:50 mark, all goes silent, as if the song is over, only to come rushing back all at once with an otherworldly wail from guitar and singer alike. A 90-second face-melting solo commences that eventually fades into the seven-minute “Carcosa,” a slower tempo song that gives the double-bass drum room to pummel.

The nine-song album is full of heavy metal grooves like a post-industrial (or is it prehistoric?) Motorhead. The Oakland band is one of the fiercest three-pieces ever and hasn’t strayed far from its original sound since forming in 2000.

“The Falconist,” with lyrics describing a winged hunter, is the least brutal of the lot, and “Slave The Hive” holds its own among any Bay Area-produced thrash tune. Ending track “The Lethal Charmer” once again displays HOF’s power chord orchestration in long form (pushing nine minutes).

Appearing with Pallbearer at Thalia Hall in Chicago on Aug. 11, 2015. I've got my tickets. See you there?

8/10

-- Jason Scales
Link to published print version in July 2015 issue of Illinois Entertainer magazine: http://www.joomag.com/magazine/illinois-entertainer-july-2015/0925465001435759030?short
Open PDF and navigate to page 28

Album review: "Sol Invictus" by Faith No More

FNM's first album since 1997 was worth the wait.

FAITH NO MORE

“Sol Invictus”

(Ipecac)

For alternative music fans of a certain age, there has not been a more anticipated reunion than Faith No More’s recent one: the 10-track album “Sol Invictus” represents the band’s first recording since 1997’s “Album of the Year.”

The pioneers of alternative metal exploded on the scene with the 1989 hit “Epic,” a song that might be solely responsible for spawning bands such as Korn and Limp Bizkit. Try not to hold that against FNM, however, because the band continued to crank out refreshingly original hard rock albums, never pigeonholed into the “nu metal” movement started in the wake of the band’s early success, until they broke apart in 1998.

No matter who the band is, one wonders which effect a reunion album will have, especially after 18 years: the album will either tarnish the legacy left or add to it. Thankfully, “Sol Invictus” does the latter, and more. It’s one of the band’s best ever, vying with 1992’s definitive “Angel Dust” effort.

“Superhero” and “Separation Anxiety” are the most metal of the tracks, and perhaps the most mood-inducing. The first features a trademark FNM keyboard lick that eventually serves as a backbone to a swirling instrumental jam, all while singer Mike Patton repeats: “Leader of men/Leader of men/Leader of men/Will you be one of them?” The overall effect is quite hypnotic. “Separation Anxiety” features a maniacal vocal style and uptempo riffing arranged in such a way as to nearly produce anxiety in the listener. It’s a thrilling experience.

While “Cone of Shame” is a quirky, blusey number, “Matador” is one of the most sprawling, genre-blending track’s of FNM’s career. It starts quietly, dramatically, and builds to soaring outbursts of instrumentation, all while featuring Patton’s split-personality vocal style. Patton is at his best here and sounds as good as ever.

Catch the band on tour while you can this year: Patton and the boys will appear at Chicago’s Riot Fest the weekend of Sept. 11-13, 2015.

9/10

Link to published print version in July 2015 issue of Illinois Entertainer magazine: http://www.joomag.com/magazine/illinois-entertainer-july-2015/0925465001435759030?short
Open PDF and navigate to page 28

Album review: The Melvins' "Hold It In"

 
The Melvins
*Hold It In*
(Ipecac)
There might not be a better melding of bizarre alternative rock bands than the core of the Melvins (King Buzzo and Dale Crover) joining with the guitarist and bassist of the Butthole Surfers (Paul Leary and JD Pinkus). The resulting 12 tracks are (mostly) surprisingly linear and coherent. Who knew it’d take the Surfers to bring the pop sensibilities of the Melvins to the forefront?
“Bride of Crankenstein” is aural cotton candy with its over-fuzzed power chords. Although a collaboration, most songs sound distinctly Melvins, with “The Bunk Up” an instant classic: for seven minutes it transitions from herky-jerky stoner rock to accordion and bass driven carnival music to a groove-heavy ending. 
The Leary-written track “I Get Along (Hollow Moon)” has a distinct Surfers’ rockabilly twang. “Barcelona Horseshoe Pit” and much of the 12-minute “House of Gasoline” are trippy, mind-bending exercises, a la the Surfers’ “Hairway To Steven” efforts from days of yore.
8/10

Link to original publishing, page 38 of March 2015 issue of Illinois Entertainer
Link to YouTube posting of entire album (like it? Go buy it!)

Two-for-one metal shows reviewed: High On Fire and Red Fang

Here are my thoughts on two heavy metal shows I attended to check out two West Coast bands who recently came through Chicago: Oakland's legendary High On Fire and Portland's upstart Red Fang. I had seen High On Fire twice before, once at Lincoln Hall and once at the Aragon Ballroom as the opener to a Mastodon and Dethklok bill. They are not to be missed. It was a first time for Red Fang. I enjoyed both shows.

Matt Pike of High On Fire at the Empty Bottle

HIGH ON FIRE
May 31, 2014
Empty Bottle, Chicago
Seeing this band at this venue was like watching a dinosaur stomp through your basement. In particular, iconic singer-guitarist-songwriter Matt Pike commanded the stage like few other metal frontmen can. Shirtless and tattooed, he wielded his axe while gruffly declaring his fantasy-laden lyrics: it's like a heavy metal pep rally for the Orcs of Mordor. Highlights included the following tracks from the band's past few albums: "Fury Whip," "Fertile Green" and "Frost Hammer." The low-ceiling, intimate space of the Empty Bottle was filled for the 90-minute, late-night set.
That same weekend, the band took the stage at the Do Division street fest as well as another gig at the Bottle, so you had plenty of opportunity to see the three-piece destroy.
BITE CAFE, an eatery next door affiliated with the Bottle, is in fact a great place for a bite to eat before a show. I highly recommend the bacon gravy poutine and the fried oysters and grits. You can also get the poutine with a mushroom-based gravy. Heads-up: the restaurant is BYO, so come prepared (like I didn't).

Red Fang at The Wire

RED FANG
June 3, 2014
The Wire, Berwyn, IL
This sleek, relatively new venue was the perfect spot for Red Fang, who was touring to support new album “Whales And Leeches” (see separate blog entry for review of that album). The brick-walled, open-air space was packed with fans eager to see and hear this Portland band’s take on grungy stoner rock, similar to harder-edged Queens Of The Stone Age offerings.  The four-piece band was tight, especially on the following tracks: “Crows In Swine,” “Blood Like Cream, “No Hope,” and “DOEN.” 
A small mosh pit developed early in the band’s set and continued throughout, only to lose steam once when someone puked. An employee with a mop bucket quickly took care of the mess.
Like the Empty Bottle, The Wire is small. Unlike the Bottle, it is airy and modern, if also simplistic in design and comforts: a few high top tables are scattered in the front space in addition to bar seating. There appeared to be a small balcony section, but I didn’t look hard enough to find the stairs up there. In general, the place had good sound and is easily accessible off 290 from city and suburbs.