Strychnia - Reanimated Monstrosity

If you didn’t catch my review of Strychnia’s debut full-length, that’s okay, because it’s this EP that needs our attention first. This relatively young thrash death band really took me by surprise with their energetic style that manages to have the catchy grooves that thrash metal carries while still maintaining the brutality that comes with death metal. Apparently, the band has gone through some lineup changes since the release of their debut, so the first thing that they had to do after getting a solidified lineup was record some metal. Instead of going the whole nine yards and going straight to writing a full-length, Strychnia give us a four-song sample of what they’ve become to keep us occupied while they work on more music and possibly some touring. And honestly, I think that this was a great idea because this helps solidify the lineup even more so that there will hopefully be less confusion in the future.

Strychnia did a good job at not making a piece of perfection with their debut, because that would raise the bar a little too high and possibly even out of reach for their next album. For this new EP, they have improved in some areas, but only a little. This is okay because they’re already amazing to begin with, and this is a fucking EP, it’s not supposed to be amazing, so they’ve still left some elbow room for their sophomore full-length.

Kevin’s vocals have taken a slight change in direction. And, to be honest, I’m not really digging it as much as the vocals in The Anatomy of Execution. In Reanimated Monstrosity, the vocalist primarily uses mid-range growls. He’s one of the best new extreme metal vocalists that I’ve heard in years; his pitch range is substantial. But in this EP, most of what he does is sort of in the middle of his range. The mid-range growls that he does are very nasty and gritty, which are really cool, but it’s replaced A LOT of the growls that were done in The Anatomy of Execution. So hopefully, we will get to hear more of those brutal deep growls in the next release. The vocals on this album definitely have a lot of emotion and rage (not something you hear very much anymore), but they feel less satisfying due to the lack of deep growls.

But the quality of the overall instrumentation helps make up for the slight vocal letdown. Strychnia definitely takes a bit of influence from the deathcore genre; and you can tell because all of the musicians playing together are much better than the musicians individually. The individual musicians on this EP are surprisingly good for a bunch of yanks from New Jersey, and each of them take a little time to solo and prove their skill to you. Like I just said, their best quality is not something each of them have, it’s what they all have as a whole. This is something that’s very common in deathcore. That’s why you don’t hear very many solos or other fancy shit from most deathcore bands; because they sound better as a BAND than a bunch of musicians playing simultaneously. Even in the thrash death genre, DevilDriver and Malevolent Creation owe their popularity to the fact that their #1 skill is the ability to be a BAND.

The last point that I would like to make has to do with one of my favorite bands, Dying Fetus. Let me direct you to the first song (also the title track). There are two breakdowns in this song that sound like a carbon copy of one of the breakdowns off of Dying Fetus’ Destroy the Opposition album. Citing influences for bands is not something that I like to do because, well, I can’t know for sure if a band is an influence unless it’s been specifically stated by the band being influenced themselves. But then again, it’s kind of hard to hear these two breakdowns and NOT think DYING FETUS. Whether or not they were trying to make something with a Dying Fetus vibe, it’s a fantastic addition that I didn’t see coming. But what I’m worried about is that they’ll overuse this thing and use it in every song in the future; not a good idea.

Strychnia started off in 2011 by pointing in the right direction. Now, two years later, we have physical and audible proof that they have continued to go in that right direction. And seeing how genuine these musicians are, it wouldn’t be an unsafe prediction to say that they will most likely continue to go in that direction. Besides the vocals that I have a harder time fully enjoying, everything else about the record is good, but didn’t quite tear up the earth as much as I would like. The songs, although flawless, are also not quite as memorable as a lot of the ones on their first record. But regardless of any of that, this is an EP that’s more than worth the money it costs to obtain it and I would highly recommend this to any fan of extreme metal. I would give this EP 17/20. 

Meshuggah - Pitch Black [EP]

Not even a whole year after releasing the best album of their career, Meshuggah have revived an unreleased track recorded all the way back in 2003 titled Pitch Black. The song has been released through Scion A/V as a two song EP with the same name along with a fantastic live version of one of the best songs from ObZen, Dancers of a Discordant System. Very rarely have I seen a single song gain so much goddamn hype. I’m not the biggest fan of Meshuggah, but I can’t deny their incredible musicianship and the amount of influence that albums like Destroy Erase Improve and Catch Thirtythree have had on the heavy metal genre.

The problem that I have with this band is that almost all of their stuff sounds the same. That’s why I love their newest full-length as much as I do, because it sounds different from all of their other stuff. This is also the reason why I can’t stop listening to Pitch Black; it sounds even MORE different than their other stuff. The biggest difference that people will notice about this song is the vocal style. The vocals aren’t those really creepy yells that everyone’s used to hearing. Instead, they’re much calmer and more relaxed. It’s hard to explain to people considering how common the vocal style is. It’s almost like a really dark and demented rap that doesn’t connect with the complex polyrhythmic style of the music. All of this is an interesting concept and shows that this band has more variety than they may express to people.

The sound production is unlike any of their albums. Not only does it sound different, it’s actually much better in many ways. When it comes to having lots of bass, Meshuggah is one of the best bands to listen to. The problem is that Meshuggah’s albums don’t have quite enough bass (except for their newest record). The instant the drum intro finishes, you can feel the bass run through you (that is, if you have good speakers). The balance between the treble of the metallic guitar distortion and the bass of the entire drum set couldn’t be any better. The vocals aren’t buried behind the indestructible wall of sound the rest of the band creates, they’re perfect right where they are.

Personally, I’m not one that loves live albums, but the live version of Dancers of a Discordant System is fucking fantastic. The sound quality is crisp and everything can be heard. And to put the icing on this small, but awesome cake, we have some of the best album artwork that’s ever been on a Meshuggah release. I tip my hat to both the band and the producer. I would give the Pitch Black [EP] a score of 15/20. 

Strychnia - The Anatomy of Execution

Just like Rings of Saturn, A Past Unknown, and plenty of other young metal bands out there, American thrash death band Strychnia have been taking advantage of social media to get their music out there since the release of their debut in 2011. From the looks of it, Strychnia seems to be doing pretty fucking good with all of the worldwide attention they’ve been getting on the internet’s biggest social media sites. Like other music lovers out there, I get fucking bombarded with tons of metal and rock bands out there telling me to “check out” their music. Well, I discovered Strychnia on Twitter, and after witnessing the same type of extreme hype that I saw with A Past Unknown, I decided to check out their debut that they had up for listening. Everyone knows that a lot of those bands out there on the net are just plain shitty and don’t really have any future; Strychnia is NOT one of those bands. This is the kind of quality, talented, skilled, and top-notch music people are looking for! Everything from the production quality to the vocals has just continued to impress me.

Strychina plays the same basic type of metal that DevilDriver, Sadus, Revocation, Swashbuckle, and Cavalera Conspiracy play. It’s that mix of thrash metal and death metal that has an end result of a death metal sound with sort of a rock n’ roll feel; some groove. That groove can be traced back to both old school and modern thrash metal bands like Bonded by Blood, Testament, Anthrax, Exodus, Death Angel, Metallica, Overkill, and Tankard. Although unlike Cavalera Conspiracy and Revocation, Strychnia has a much, much heavier and less melodic sound that is more similar to that of DevilDriver.

If there’s one thing that I’ve learned about thrash metal, it’s that the sound of the drums can make a big difference. Of course, what truly matters is how good the drummer is, but that’s not really much of an issue in this case. The sound of the drums on this album couldn’t be more perfect. They sound exactly like the ones on Bonded by Blood’s fantastic debut, Feed the Beast. The way everything sounds so fucking thick with a lot of bass and mid-range and little treble helps bring out the brutality. This also helps bring out the intensity of Strychnia’s death metal side. Except the different between the drums on this album and the ones on Feed the Beast is that the ones on Feed the Beast don’t have NEARLY as much reverb as the drums do on the Strychnia record. But seriously, in all honesty, even though the drummer’s style, skill, and obvious talent make all the difference, the way the drums sound on here just absolutely brings everything up.

The distortion of the guitars blend extremely well with the way everything sounds. They don’t have too much of a high-pitched crunch and they aren’t too metallic sounding (like a lot of bands recently), they’re just right. After listening to a lot of thrash metal yesterday, I’m noticing that the type and amount of distortion that the guitars have is very similar to a lot of thrash metal. This is, therefore, only expanding their thrash metal sound and influence even more. Except the way the different guitar parts are layered is slightly more complex than your average thrash metal sound, which is where the obvious complexity of death metal plays a part. But one of the things that I end up enjoying the most about Strychnia is the vocals.

Death metal vocalists that have a large pitch range are hard to come by these days. In response to that, some people might immediately point to a lot of the deathcore vocalists that are big right now. Ok, many of those are good vocalists, but normally, they do one of two things: they either only do the polar opposites (deep gutturals and high-pitched screams) or stick to a general range. This is true for death metal vocalists all across the spectrum, whether it be tech death, brutal death, death metal, or melodic death. Just to list of a couple examples, the vocalist for The Black Dahlia Murder is fantastic, but 90% of the time, he does the same high-pitched shrieks, occasionally doing some mid-ranged growls. The vocalist for Kataklysm and Ex Deo rarely does anything beyond those vicious growls or those ear-splitting screams. And of course, there are countless bands that only do one type of vocal style. All of this is fine, and is often times more than appropriate for the musical setting, but more than often, variety is what’s best. Bands like Lamb of God, All Shall Perish, Cattle Decapitation, and Opeth all have vocalists that do whatever they can to keep things as interesting as fucking possible.

The vocalist for Strychnia performs vocal styles that go all across the board. This tends to be typical for a lot of thrash death bands because of the non-traditional sound of the music. DevilDriver, Gojira, Hatesphere, and Revocation all have vocalists that, although some are better than others, have the capability to perform a wide variety of pitches. The first thing you hear out of the vocalist’s mouth after the intro track is a high-pitched scream similar to that of All Shall Perish. Throughout the duration of the album, you hear shrieks, mid-ranged growls and screams, nasty yells, and some of the best growls that I’ve heard in years out of a brand new band. On top of that, everything that the vocalist does shines with experience, care, skill, and talent. This is what the biggest surprise to me has been, because there are plenty of bands that, as a whole, are great, but individually, each member seems to have a bunch of issues. I have a very, very hard time pointing out issues within the individual members.

I’ve saved the issues that I have for last. The biggest issue is that, although the band’s sound is extremely unique, I get the feel that, as a whole, the album sounds like the same song, but dragged out. There are cases (usually in traditional death metal) where this is perfectly fine, but unfortunately, this isn’t one of them. When I listen to my favorite thrash death or thrash black albums, I don’t feel that all of the songs blend together into one big wall of awesome; I feel that each song is an individual block that differs from all of the other “blocks” in the wall of awesome. All of the songs have groove, they have slightly different structures, but they’re too similar. To be honest, this is PERFECT, because this leaves room for improvement that Strychnia can fix in later releases. Because a roadblock that some bands run into is creating a flawless debut, therefore making it THAT much harder to create a follow-up album that’s even better after setting the bar so damn high with their debut. A great album will only create higher expectations and standards for the next one. The Anatomy of Execution has set the bar up, but not impossibly high.

One of the newer thrash death bands, Strychnia, is also one of the best. This is the type of band that will be headlining tours three to four albums down the road. This is a band that, although very young, not only expresses extensive skill, practice, experience, and talent, also expresses some of the highest potential I’ve ever heard out of a new band. I would recommend this to metalheads that are looking for something, fresh, professional, serious, and all-around fun to listen to. In other words, The Anatomy of Execution gets my high score of 18/20. 

Revocation - Teratogenesis (Scion AV)

Revocation - Teratogenesis (Scion AV)

Haven't heard the new Revocation EP yet?? Click the link above to listen to the ENTIRE fuckin thing on SoundCloud! The link to download the FREE EP is there! GO THERE NOW!

Revocation - Teratogenesis [EP]

Is the wait for a new Revocation album already starting to get unbearably long? Yeah, it is for me too, that’s why just like many other metal bands recently, Revocation have just released a free EP made up of 100% new material through Scion A/V! Of course, I’m just seeing this as the next chapter in Revocation’s discography, nothing more, nothing less (other than the fact that it’s a much shorter “chapter”). EPs are typically one of two things: a continuation of the newest full-length, or a marker as a major change in either style or sound. Immolation’s 2011 EP, Providence, was simply a continuation of their 2010 masterpiece Majesty and Decay. The EP that Autopsy released in 2010 represented the beginning of a new era for the band (aka their reformation) which lead to their best album since Mental Funeral, Macabre Eternal.

Read the rest of the review on Teeth of the Divine here: http://www.teethofthedivine.com/site/reviews/revocation-teratogenesis-ep/

Revocation - Chaos of Forms

Combining the likes of thrash metal and technical death, Revocation come back with Chaos of Forms in 2011 with all of the force they’re capable of bringing to their audiences. I’ve seen Revocation live several times since they released Empire of the Obscene and have watched them mature and attract more attention with each release. After they got the attention of the masses in the extreme metal world when they embarked on a tour with Job for a Cowboy, Whitechapel, and Cattle Decapitation and Despised Icon’s farewell US tour, the next thing they had to do was come back with a release like none other they’ve ever brought to the world (which is only two albums). The thing that confuses me is that even though I’m blown away by their energetic performances and blasting technicality, I’ve never really bothered to follow them and actually get to know their music in an up-close manner. That is, until I sat down to review their Existence is Futile record. After analyzing that album, I realized the pure potential these guys actually possess. Now, it’s time for Chaos of Forms.

Revocation has never been a band to have the same sound for several albums in a row. In other words, each Revocation album sounds different. Empire of the Obscene is more of a traditional thrash death record with some melodic influences, Existence is Futile has a full-on technical sound with tons of thrash metal influences. Chaos of Forms is something completely different. It still has all of the extremely complex guitar-bass interplay, the hard rock guitar solos, and the extreme thrash metal-style drumming; but it brings a whole different mood to the table that reminds me of a revived old school thrash metal sound that’s been edited and influenced by Gojira, Atheist, Arsis, and Exodus.

The guitars are much less technical on this album than the other two Revocation albums. But don’t take that statement and apply it to the entire album, because the solos are filled with colorful technicality and complexity. Based on what I’m hearing on this album, the bassist plays a less technical part and focuses more on musical creativity and interplaying with the guitars.

Despite their complex compositions and structure, Revocation’s music is fairly easy to comprehend and swallow. Some of the progressive-heads see that as a big no-no, but in this case, it actually works in the opposite way. The band’s extremely catchy hard rock-influenced style (similar to that of DevilDriver) helps the listener to grasp every aspect of their sound almost instantly with no trouble at all, therefore causing the addiction process to begin to commence sooner. When I see something that’s extremely complex, yet easy as shit to grasp, I see a lot of musical knowledge because well…pulling off something like THAT isn’t anywhere NEAR being in the realms of being easy. The addition of the second guitarist helps add complexity to the guitar parts as well as have a soloist that plays with a different style. I know that Revocation has always cited classic rock and jazz as being influences on their sound (especially their solos), but I feel that this album has a stronger rock/jazz feel than any of their other records. Of course, the increased prominence of thrash metal in their music is one of the major causes for the catchiness, but the solos and crisp vocal harmonizations seem to have more of a jazz feel to them than ever before. As well as that, the bassist plays with more of a funky style in songs like Harlot and Beloved Horrifier.

And just by hearing all of this, I can tell that there’s SOME extensive musical knowledge going on here, and as a matter of fact, the vocalist/guitarist has gone through numerous studies of musical theory of all kinds including jazz, rock, blues, and some classical. When I read this, I INSTANTLY understood the reasoning behind all of those bluesy guitar solos that can be heard on all three Revocation albums.

This album is definitely a heavy metal highlight of 2011, there’s no denying that. After showing extensive progression and musical intelligence in each album, does Revocation have the capability of further raising the bar for themselves in the future? This is a must-have for anyone who likes hearing something new. A perfect blend of technicality, thrash, progressiveness, and death metal that has enough of everything to make anyone happy. I would rate this album 19/20 for not only being virtually flawless, but for completely destroying the walls of the realms of extreme metal and being one of the bands that strive to progress and create, not copy and perfect. 

Goatwhore - Carving out the eyes of God

Thrash black tends to be one of the smaller genres out there. But one thing is for sure, there are a small handful of some pretty damn big bands from there. All of the ones that I’M aware of are Skeletonwitch, Melechesh, Hellhammer, and Goatwhore. I originally was introduced to Goatwhore when I saw them live in 2010 at a show headlined by DevilDriver (my first time ever hearing them as well) along with Suffocation (the only reason I was there) and Thy Will Be Done. Due to my lack of interest in Goatwhore at the time, I wasn’t really that impressed by their set. Then, sometime in the last year, Goatwhore set out on a headlining tour with Hate Eternal and Fallujah (Cerebral Bore didn’t show up, which is why they’re making up for that by being on Summer Slaughter this year). Of course, for me, I was going for Hate Eternal since they completely blew the fucking place apart the first time I saw them, as well as Fallujah. A couple of days before the show, I decided that since Goatwhore was the headliner of the show that I should at least check out ONE of their albums. Well, this was the one I got and after my second listen, I was hooked.

Probably what most everyone likes about thrash black is the catchiness it has. Hellhammer is obviously filled with it; that’s what most people know about them. Also, when you listen to Skeletonwitch and Melechesh, along with the extreme grimness of the black metal sound, you can hear the slight catchiness that comes from the old school thrash metal sound. Goatwhore is the black sheep, though. They don’t have a black metal base with some thrash weaved about there and there and sprinkled around; their sound is of that description, but reversed. That’s the typical Goatwhore sound; but this album in particular is the most unique album they’ve put out so far.

This album is Goathwore’s most unique primarily because they’ve chosen to implement more death metal than they did in previous releases like A Haunting Curse. So think of it like this: the really fucking catchy thrash death sound of DevilDriver plus black metal equals Carving out the Eyes of God. That’s what I think is the overall best description of this album. So as far as influence goes, I would probably guess that DevilDriver had a HUGE influence on the sound of this album because of the resemblance it has of them. To the elite black metal listener, this album wouldn’t be at all enjoyable because it lacks the signature grimness that we black metal fans both expect and love to hear. Also, another aspect that has been completely taken out during the writing process of this record is atmosphere. You listen to the earlier works of Darkthrone, listen to Immortal, and just about any at least half-decent black metal band and hear ATMOSPHERE. Hell, even Skeletonwitch and Melechesh managed to stick atmospheric elements into their music while still keeping the thrash black sound they were aiming for. But in this album, no way in hell will you find any sort of atmospheric or traditional black metal elements.

It’s for that very reason why I initially labeled this album as a black death record. Because the death metal and thrash metal combination completely enclose the core black metal sound, there actually isn’t much black metal left. For those of you that can sniff out even the faintest scent of black metal in any situation, you’ll be able to hear SOME black metal sound in this record; but very little. When you listen to their most recent release, Blood for the Master, you hear that most of the death metal sound from Carving out the eyes of God was removed, therefore re-exposing the pure catchy thrash black sound.

What I love most about this album is the amount of energy it contains. I’m not talking about how the shitload of bass and the sound of the guitars give it grit and energy; I’m talking about how you can literally FEEL the energy that the music itself creates. You can hear that the individual members are literally putting every last drop of energy they have during the recording process and were probably sleeping for the next two days in order to regain it back. Of course, many of you will beg to differ, but that’s certainly the feeling that the album gives ME.

The song structure is completely organized and without flaw. The way everything was composed keeps the different elements evened out and keeps the different sounds from clumping together. Doing this has kept the general sound of the album fairly consistent. But the reason why it doesn’t feel repetitive is because the mixture of the different sounds aren’t COMPLETELY blended together. Think of it as like when you mix red and yellow paint; right before it turns to pure orange, it just looks like a bunch of red and yellow swirls with a tad bit of orange here and there. You can tell that there’s a blend of different sounds, but they aren’t tightly pulled together in order to make it extremely easy for the listener to digest and enjoy. In some cases this is a bad thing, but Goatwhore defy that thought by doing just the opposite and making it a good thing.

This album is a fantastic album and I would recommend it to just about any extreme metal fan. A good cacophony of black metal, death metal, and old school thrash metal gives this album a 15/20. As well as that, it’s just a motherfucking BLAST to listen to!

Swashbuckle - Back to the Noose

When most people hear “pirate-themed metal”, they think Alestorm. When I think of it, the first thing that pops into my mind is Swashbuckle! In fact, I’ve been listening to Swashbuckle before I was even aware of Alestorm’s existence! Here’s the difference between Alestorm and Swashbuckle: Swashbuckle is heavier, faster, crazier, funnier, more creative, and a hell of a lot more fun to listen to! I discovered Swashbuckle via Nuclear Blast when they announced the (at the time) new signing of the trio. When I saw these three fuckers dressed up as pirates, I knew this was going to be interesting. When Back to the Noose was finally released, I listened to it over and over until I couldn’t stand it anymore! It was just too much of a fucking blast to listen to! If you’re into the really fun metal like Korpiklaani but are in the mood for something much heavier and faster, Swashbuckle is what you need.

Being one of my favorite thrash death bands along with Gojira, DevilDriver, Revocation, and Possessed, I can’t even begin to describe my excitement when I saw that they were going to be one of the opening acts for Soilwork on their 2010 summer tour. In fact, I just realized that that show was one of the only concerts that had a 100% PERFECT lineup of bands (a show which I was in love with every band that was on the tour) having Soilwork headlining and Death Angel, Augury, Mutiny Within, and Swashbuckle as opening acts. When you look at most thrash death bands, you’ll notice that the majority of them have longer than average songs (5+ minutes). This album has much shorter songs with tons of interludes with PURE non-metal pirate music. This actually bothered me at first because I was so into their mix of thrash metal, death metal, and grindcore that I didn’t want to have a goofy half-minute song with accordions and acoustic guitars in between every other song.

But in this review, I’m going to focus only on the metal songs on the album. The vocalist/bassist, who looks like Peter Griffin with a beard and glasses, plays as the captain of the crew. His bass playing is amazing and shows enormous talent and tons of skill (especially when it comes to the faster thrashy parts). Also, his bass is tuned specifically so that he still creates a HUGE lower end, but makes the clanging of the strings audible through the rest of the sound (which is what’s easiest to hear). His vocals…I don’t know how to describe them, they’re literally like NOTHING I’ve ever heard in my life. They actually sound like an angry pirate captain’s yell. In most of the song’s, Captain Griffin (that’s what I call him) plays the lead line with his bass guitar, leaving the guitarist to give the back-end plenty of crunch and brutality.

I wasn’t sure what to think of the drummer until I saw these three people dressed up as pirates perform on stage. The drummer plays a style that (to me) resembles more of a thrashy-grindcore style. What I mean is that he plays what a good grindcore drummer would play during the blazingly fast parts and then hits a breakdown like a thrash metal drummer would. In other words, this guy is fucking nuts when it comes to playing brutal drumming.

Ok, so what did I mean when I said these guys are funny and make fun music? Well, the pirate-music interludes speak for themselves. But wouldn’t you like to have really fun music that you could mosh and literally go crazy as FUCK to?? I’ll tell you this, I knew that they were going to play an absolutely crushing performance, and when they started playing, I was one of the people that COMPLETELY 100% LOST IT in the moshpit. This is the kind of music that subliminally entices the listener to start going crazy or to just laugh at the hilarious lyrics and themes. Believe me, don’t try to take these guys seriously, they’re purposefully being goofy. But besides them being fun; as a band, they’re tight, they show plenty of variety of sounds and tones in their music, and they express that they can have tons of fun while still taking the music-writing process seriously. If a band doesn’t at least take SOME of the music seriously, the music won’t be good. I would give this album 16/20 for being one of the most fun albums to listen to in my music library. I would HIGHLY recommend picking up a copy of this to everyone that likes to have some fun listening to brutality every once in a while. My favorite songs on this album are probably the two craziest and most brutal songs on the record: Sharkbait and Attack!!!

DevilDriver - Pray for Villains

Let me get this straight so there isn’t any confusion: this is one of the most important albums in my collection. It’s so important that one of the patches on my jacket consists of the Pray for Villains album cover. Ok, but why is this album so important and why has it been so influential to what I listen to? Well first off, I’ve been listening to this album since the year it was released, so it’s not like I’m having an initial overreaction. So after three years of constantly listening to this album (although it’s become less frequent since they released a better album last year that I wrote a review on), I’m finally ready to tell you the utter importance of this album and the impact it’s had on my music taste. But this is an album review, right? I’m supposed to tell you about THE ALBUM, not my personal connection with it!

The first thing that this album has is extreme variety of sound and style. While still managing to keep the memorable catchiness of their signature sound, DevilDriver manages to pack in songs with more driving tempos like Pray for Villains and I’ve Been Sober. As well as that, this album is different from all the other DevilDriver albums because it has the most……damn how do I word it..catchiness with a rock and roll twist? I don’t know how to say it, but the sound I’m trying to put into words can be found in Pure Sincerity, Back with a Vengeance, and Another Night in London.

Probably the thing that bothers most people about DevilDriver is the really rough yelled vocals and how they sound. For me, I can’t see this fitting in ANY other kind of music other than DevilDriver. In any other situation, those vocals wouldn’t sound good at all. But in DevilDriver, those fucking gritty yells do nothing but act as helium to bring the music up to impossible heights. But in my opinion, the vocalist isn’t the most talented and skilled member of the band, it’s the crazy fuck that plays the drums!

Their drummer can play like no other drummer I’ve ever heard before! Sure, there are plenty of drummers that are as skilled and creative as him (some are more), but they’re all skilled and creative in a much different way than him. This guy can play a really super fucking catchy pattern like at the beginning of Pure Sincerity, and PERFECTLY transition into an explosive blast beat that can easily be mistaken for a goddamn stampede! Not only can he do that, but he can do it without messing up the song or making things sound weird. That’s another thing I love about DevilDriver’s music that I forgot to mention before; every single second of every single song can sound good with any kind of drum pattern you can think of that’s still on time with the music. If you ask me, that’s pretty fucking hard to do!

Although all of the members thrive in creativity, the least-skilled (but still amazing) member is unfortunately the bassist. The reason why I don’t consider him to be skilled is because he never goes outside of the root-notes, he rarely plays an epic fill riff, and you can’t really hear him at all. But I know he’s legit because I watched him play his bass two feet in front of MY FACE. But what he does PERFECTLY is give the music a FUCKING HUGE lower-end and be fucking tight as hell with the drummer. If the bassist and the drummer are rock-solid, it’s hard not to sound good.

Oh! I just came up with a word to describe the sound I was trying to earlier: GROOVE! When you listen to the beginning of Pure Sincerity, you hear GROOVE, and they play it fucking PERFECTLY. You hear it even more in Back with a Vengeance. Ok, so obviously I’m giving this album a perfect score, so I guess I should just throw that out there if it wasn’t obvious enough. If you haven’t heard this album yet, check it out because every single second of it is packed with so much energy and GROOVE that it’s easily addictive. 

Soulfly - Dark Ages

Soulfly’s Dark Ages caused the band’s popularity and recognition to soar. Yes, they were already huge before that because…well…they were fronted by the former Sepultura vocalist and songwriting mastermind, Max Cavalera. But before Dark Ages, every single one of Soulfly’s albums sounded completely different from each other; making them one of the most experimental metal bands of the time. But I personally think that Soulfly’s signature sound that everyone knows today was solidified and bolted to the ground with Dark Ages. Not only that, Soulfly went from playing in almost completely packed smallish venues to playing in the venues that MUCH bigger mainstream artists play at. When I saw them in 2008, they played at the same venue that I saw other huge bands like Sonata Arctica, Arch Enemy, Bring me the Horizon, Dimmu Borgir (which was a sold-out show), and Underoath (which was also sold-out). But not only does Dark Ages represent the solidification of Soulfly’s signature sound, but it’s also an amazing record that I’ve been listening to for almost five years.

 The general theme of this album seems to follow a WWII concept. The part of the album that always reminds me of WWII (obviously) is the beginning of Fuel the Hate where someone states the exact date and time that the first atomic bomb was used as a weapon in warfare. The main sound that this album gives off is a really thick, slow (at times), and dark thrash metal sound which has caused a lot of people to say thrash death. Honestly, I’ve put almost all of their albums as progressive metal because of all the experimentation they do in numerous songs on every album.

Here’s a little fact that most people who don’t know much about Soulfly probably haven’t noticed. Look at Max Cavalera’s guitar (not the ones they sell in guitar stores, the ones he actually PLAYS) and notice how many strings are on it. I find it really interesting that a guitarist of that level of skill and creativity would have only four strings on his guitar. Although he takes out a regular six string guitar when they play their series of softer self-titled songs, Max doesn’t do lead guitar on anything else that Soulfly plays. I don’t know if he has a legitimate reason for this or if it’s just that he wants a MUCH deeper sound (which is heard VERY clearly in this album). This is probably the album that has some of the fewest soloing and lead guitar licks than any other album. I think it’s because of that why Dark Ages sounds like Soulfly’s heaviest and DARKEST album (which makes the name more than appropriate).

The lyrics of this album are interesting. Normally I don’t give a crap about what the songs are about but I can’t help but think in this case “what the hell was Max so pissed off about??” If I was asked what the ULTIMATE venting album is, I would say Dark Ages. Probably being one of the most hate-filled records of all-time, both in lyrics AND in the music. I think that the hate and anger reaches its peak during my favorite song off the album, simply titled “Bleak”, with the line that speaks out to me the most being “it’s the end you fucking scum!!”. Not only are the lyrics hate-filled, they’re also fucked up!

Dark Ages is one of the darkest and angriest albums ever made. Not only did this solidify Soulfly’s signature sound that everyone knows today, it also caused Soulfly’s (already) massive fame to EXPLODE. Although my favorite Soulfly albums remain Conquer and Omen, Dark Ages is one of those “cannot be missed” records. I would give this 18/20. 

Gojira - The Way of all Flesh

Gojira has earned their own special place in heavy metal history as being one of the most influential and important bands in the genre, especially in the extreme metal areas. Not only that, they’re one of the most experimental as well. You would assume that I would just put them under “progressive death”, but I’ve always had them under thrash death because those are the two main genres they fuse and thrash death is what comes to mind whenever I hear them. My first Gojira album was From Mars to Sirius; not an album that impressed me very much until several years later when I was more familiar with that kind of music. It was The Way of all Flesh that really got me hooked on these guys. Proving to be one of the BEST thrash death album I’ve ever heard next to DevilDriver’s Beast (which doesn’t even compare), The Way of all Flesh should be an essential for all metalheads (old and new) worldwide.

Of course since I’m most active on Spirit of Metal, which is a French site, the metal scene in France seems to be greater there than anywhere else (simply because the majority of the members on there are…wait for it…FRENCH!). As well as that, I keep getting temporarily convinced that there are more metalheads in France than anywhere else (the country with the highest population of metalheads is Germany). In reality, the French metal scene is actually quite small, with Gojira being one of the few bands that dominate it.

Here’s a warning for any of you that are new to the experimental/progressive side of things or just metal in general. This music isn’t likely to strike your fancy instantly like other (more traditional) bands might. These guys have an EXTREMELY abstract and unique way of expressing themselves that took me several years to REALLY get into, even though I’ve always liked this album. When I say that these guys aren’t what someone would call “traditional”, I mean that there music isn’t usually really fast and brutal for moshing, and it doesn’t typically have a really fat and heavy beat for the headbangers. Most of the time, it’s somewhere in between. But regardless of whether you like it at first or not, this is an album that should always be in your collection because it will eventually grow on you (like it did for me).

I will say that I have a confession to make: because I am a metalhead of the 21^st century, the thing that REALLY sparked my interest in this album was when I heard the seventh song. So the seventh song…why would that appeal to me more than the older guys (usually)? Because Randy Blythe does guest vocals in it! I heard the voice that I only knew from Lamb of God and I started going nuts, I was so excited. And that was the only song from this album that I listened to for a long time; that is, until I started becoming much more knowledgeable and more accustomed to the abstract and progressive metal bands. Now that I’ve grown extremely familiar with this record, I can enjoy it in its entity.

The creativity of the musicians in this band surpasses their technical and instrumental skills by light years. I’m not even kidding, they’re not as amazing of musicians as most people describe; they’re no better at their instruments than Kataklysm. But their creativity and songwriting abilities are like nothing I’ve ever heard before! The music that Gojira puts out is the kind of stuff that makes you think “how the hell does someone come up with something like this??” I don’t have an answer to that question because that’s STILL what I ask myself whenever I listen to trippy songs like A Sight to Behold, The Silver Cord, and The Art of Dying. Thankfully, the album isn’t COMPLETELY composed of songs like that; I would end up getting extremely overwhelmed if it was like that.

Gojira throws much more traditional songs that are easier on the ears (and the brain in some cases) that are extremely refreshing and are bursting with color and creativity. My two favorites would be All the Tears and Vacuity. There’s nothing I can say about All the Tears other than that’s the song that has Randy Blythe on vocals and that it’s really chaotic. I didn’t get my wish until towards the end of the album. I wanted to see what kind of headbanging song Gojira could make, and Vacuity answers that question. Vacuity is literally a one-of-a-kind headbanging track and is probably the most enjoyable song that I’ve ever heard Gojira release to the public.

The production on this album is pristine (which should be expected considering the high status and the importance this band has in the metal genre). If there’s anything that I’ve left out, it’s probably because I can’t put it into words because this record is very hard to comprehend. Being one of the most unique albums in metal history, The Way of all Flesh gets my score of 19/20. This album is ESSENTIAL for EVERYONE to have into their collection; I actually think that this record isn’t any more essential than Reign in Blood and Ride the Lightning. So listen to this and get it if you haven’t already. 

DevilDriver - Beast

I came across DevilDriver about the time of the release of their fourth album, which was generally well-received by the majority of the people that have heard it. Although there are many people claiming that DevilDriver has turned into a “sellout” band, I think that they’re getting better and better with each album. I don’t see why people let the amount of popularity a band has influence their opinion on them. Of course I’m aware how fucking huge DevilDriver is; they had Suffocation as a fucking opening act when I saw them! But I don’t let that change my opinion about them at all; my opinion about them would still be the same if they were an opening act for Visceral Disgorge. Anyways, this is the best album they’ve released and this band shows no signs of slowing down.

First of all I would like to give my appreciation to whoever made the album cover because it’s awesome. This album has much more of a breakdown-like sound to it; making it one of the best headbanging albums of all time because they pull it off perfectly while keeping the extremely recognizable DevilDriver sound. The sound that is emitted by this album has more rage and tension than any other DevilDriver record. Although I would still call DevilDriver thrash death, this is the album with the least amount of thrash metal, and even has a tad bit of raging metalcore (obviously due to the breakdowns). The distortion on the guitars is fairly crunchy, perfectly fitting the sound of the album. If they had chosen to stick with the ultra-clean guitar distortions from Pray for Villains, it would have turned out as a disasterpiece rather than a masterpiece.

After years of gradually evolving their sound, DevilDriver decided it was time to do what every good band does at some point in their career, and that was to add a new element to their music, and that was the sound of Soilwork. When I say the sound of Soilwork, I don’t mean the melodic part; I mean the heavy headbanging part in sons like Late for the Kill, Stabbing the Drama, and The Pittsburgh Syndrome. Other than that, this beast of an album (pun intended) is pure DevilDriver; just what I like to hear.

The drumming has improved drastically. The album mixer did a great job of making the drums sound powerful and unrelenting without making them overpower the rest of the band by drowning everything out. The vocalist that has a tattoo for a beard (that I still can’t get used to) has one of the most unique mid-range growls that have a strong yelling sound (which is part of what contributes to their thrash metal sound). Honestly, the vocalist sounds better in this album than in Pray for Villains; which is saying a lot because he was pretty much flawless in that album. The one thing that bothers me is that I can hear the bass and the notes the bassist is playing, but I can’t hear the sounds of the bass guitar. Another thing I forgot to add is that the vocalist obviously feels that he has perfected his scream because he screams a lot more in this album than in the previous ones.

Now let’s take a look at some of the songs. One of the best metal songs of 2011 is Dead to Rights. This is one of the best headbanging songs ever written and is a song I continue to shove in others’ faces because I will do anything to keep this song from going under and being forgotten. Seriously, LISTEN TO THE FIRST SONG OFF THE ALBUM, it’s not something that will disappoint you. And if you say that it sounds too “mainstream”, guess what, there are going to be a lot of people tearing up your ass for putting down that song because it has become a favorite to hundreds of people worldwide (actual statistic). Sometimes I just listen to that one song and forget about the rest of the album, that is, until Hardened starts playing.

The music never stays the same; it’s constantly changing for the duration of the album, keeping the listener interested and engaged, which is what a good album is supposed to do, right? The band is tight and never falls out of time, there are occasional bass booms at the beginning of breakdowns, there is an obvious amount of hard work and effort that was put into the writing process, you can tell that the band cares about what they did and that they didn’t just slap a bunch of random shit together and call it good, and the sound of the album is filled with unrelenting rage and unmerciful power that will blow you away. This album deserves my score of 19/20. 

Meshuggah - obZen

This was my first Meshuggah album. I actually got it a month or so after it came out when I unintentionally got caught in the middle of all the hype that was going on about this record. Most of the people that I’ve talked to have said that obZen is Meshuggah’s best album; which is a statement that I fully agree with. There is one problem I have with this album and Meshuggah in general, and that is that they’ve been doing the same exact thing for almost 20 years. I hate to break it to you guys, but even though these guys possess some of the most amazing technical and instrumental skills, they are one of the least creative metal bands I have ever heard.

For those of you that aren’t super familiar with deathcore, I would suggest that you listen to some bands from that genre like All Shall Perish, Born of Osiris, and Veil of Maya. The thing that those bands have in common is that their version of that sudden drop in tempo commonly known as a breakdown is extremely complex and technical. Meshuggah is like that, except that’s all they are, one big breakdown that changes into another breakdown. Here’s the problem I have with that; the best breakdowns have a really fast part that leads into a buildup of tension that then drop in tempo going to the breakdown. The problem I have with Meshuggah is that there is no buildup at all (with the exception of a weak buildup as the intro in a couple of songs); it’s usually just a breakdown from beginning to end. It may sound awesome, and it does; it’s awesome! But it gets old and repetitive very quickly.

There is a small group of people that consider this constant breakdown style its own genre, giving it the name “djent”, which is a term that I haven’t come to accept or use. Although more and more bands are using more breakdowns in their music, Meshuggah still dominates them with the amount of them used; being considered by some to be the “inventors” of what we consider today to be a metal  breakdown.

Now that I’m done whining, I’d like to say that although these guys have next to no creative abilities, they are some of the best metal musicians I’ve ever heard. Their songs are so technical and abstract that I can’t tap my foot or bang my head in time with the song because all the abstract and off-beat riffs this band does throws me off. Of course once I pulled out a metronome, it was proven that these guys are actually keeping perfect time throughout the song. Those of you musicians out there that have tried to play or write stuff like this know that it’s not easy at all and that the stuff Meshuggah pulls off is nearly impossible for everyone except Meshuggah (ever wonder why no one has ever covered a Meshuggah song?).

The best musician in the band is one of the best metal drummers I have ever heard. Those of you that know anything about a band should know that the drummer is the motor of the group that keeps the band on-tempo. Not only that, he has one of the best set of legs in the world. If you don’t have a perverted mind, you should be able to figure out what I mean by listening to the song Bleed off of this record. When most people hear the name Meshuggah, they think “I love their drummer!” which is what made me listen to them again after I was minimally impressed with them when I first heard them in 2008.

I will admit that their vocalist makes one of the best faces I’ve ever seen (click the link at the bottom of the review to see it). He doesn’t growl, he doesn’t sing, he doesn’t scream, he doesn’t yell, he doesn’t belch, he doesn’t even “Trollololo”. The sound that you hear flowing out of his mouth is the unfiltered sound of rage and anger from an unknown being. In other words, there’s no way to verbally describe the sound of his vocals, they’re that unique.

Overall, this album sounds no different from any of their other albums. The only thing that makes this album stand out to me the most is that there is more variation in tempo and technicality throughout the record. But otherwise, it’s just one long breakdown that drags on and doesn’t have any build-up, eventually disappointing your expectations for something bigger to happen. There isn’t any low point, it’s all at the highest point; the tension is literally unchanging throughout, therefore making this an album that is extremely addicting and enjoyable to listen to once, but will sound dull and boring after the first listen. So I only listen to Meshuggah like once every other month because of that. I would give this album 13/20.

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Revocation - Existence is Futile

I’ve (unintentionally) seen Revocation three times as being the first band to play. Honestly, I think they’ve been at the bottom of the list long enough. Even though I was amazed by these guys while seeing them onstage, I kept forgetting to look them up until my friend got one of their CDs when he saw them open for Despised Icon. The CD happened to be their first album which is titled Empire of the Obscene. I don’t know about the rest of you guys, but I think it’s one of the best debuts to come out since Gore Metal by Exhumed! And ever since then, Revocation has continued to raise the bar and reach new heights. Even though the two genres they fuse the most is thrash metal and death metal, they have all sorts of crazy shit going on in their music.

I’m going to jump right into my favorite thing about this album and that is that most of the guitar solos on this record sound like something from a 70s heavy metal/classic rock album! It doesn’t seem like something like that would be able to fit on a thrash death album, but it sounds amazing. Dismantle the Dictator and Anthem of the Betrayed have the best guitar solos on the record; and they always make me smile when I hear them because they bring back fond memories of when Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath was all I listened to. Along with that, there are hard rock and heavy metal sounds rooted deeply within the album that can be heard even in the rhythm guitars and the drums.

There are a few metalcore-styled breakdowns that pop out during some of the songs. The best one is during the intro of Leviathan Awaits when there is the breakdown being played by the bass and the drums while the lead guitar continues to hammer out the intro guitar line (which is one of my favorite types of breakdowns by the way). Because of the metalcore influence this album has, there is that vibe the record has that makes it perfect for headbanging.

The technicality of this album occasionally reaches inconceivable levels. These songs that are bursting at the seams with technicality and speed are what have made Revocation known to the world. Although I know technical skills alone isn’t enough to impress me, in this case it’s added on to a huge fudge cake of color, emotion, creativity, and inspiration; That is when technicality sounds best. I would like the guitars to have more of a crunchy sound but they recently fulfilled that need on their 2011 record, Chaos of Forms. So since they took care of my appetite for Revocation crunchiness, I’m not bothered by the lack of it on this record anymore.

Revocation is one of those bands that can be pretty hard to fully soak in within the first month of you listening to them. It really takes a while to fully take in their music and understand it. Although some of you might beg to differ with that statement, I know that there is at least one band that you had to listen to for a month or so before you could fully soak in their sound and understand them. Obviously you can tell that I am in love with this next to flawless record, and I’m not even going to list the flaws because they are so small and subtle that they’re pretty much unnoticeable. I would give this album 18/20.