Black September: No songs about the Olympics

If you happen to be anywhere near a record store today – they’re not exactly easy to find, but whatever – you might want to make sure you have room on your credit card or enough funds in your account, because there is a ton of new stuff out. Or just buy it online. It’s easier anyway.

This is one of the better release days of the year so far, with a plethora of interesting albums in a variety of subgenres, so you can come home with a handful of new discs that sound nothing like each other. There’s death metal, black metal, a really bizarre new record from a legendary band, and one hell of a great album from a punk band that might not even be able to get their album into a lot of stores simply because of their name. There’s a lot to get to, so here are some of what’s available today. There’s got to be something you’ll like from this selection.

Black September hails from Chicago, a city that has given us a ton of great metal bands (Nachtmystium, Pelican, Indian, Yakuza), and their brand of death metal is sort of in the same vein as Bolt Thrower, Discharge, and the band we’ll discuss next, with vocalist Jen McMorrow sounding like a woman unafraid to jam her foot into your chest and keep you writhing on the ground as she demonstrates her guttural dominance. The band’s music is violent and devastating, and Prosthetic is giving their debut “The Forbidden Gates of Beyond” expanded reissue treatment. There’s a lot of death metal out there today, and most of it tends to leave little to no impression, but Black September seriously breaks that trend. I’m excited to hear what they do next, but for now, it’s nice to see their debut full-length will reach the wider audience it deserves.

For more on the band, go here: http://blackseptemberchicago.com/

To buy the album, go here: http://prostheticrecords.com/?p=2696

Veteran death soldiers Arch Enemy are back with their new disc “Khaos Legions,” a tried-and-true rebellious, rise-up collection for which this band is known. You can say this band has had a pretty notable influence on the extreme metal world, as Angela Gossow is one of the first female vocalists to really break out in a male-dominated field and has led to many others finding success (hence, Black September). There aren’t a whole lot of surprises on this record (out on Century Media), their eighth, but those who just want a solid new Arch Enemy record will be wholly satisfied. Pair this with “The Forbidden Gates of Beyond” and you’ll be assaulted by two of death’s scariest, strongest ladies.

For more on the band, go here: http://www.archenemy.net/

To buy the album, go here: http://www.cmdistro.com/

Don’t want to go into too much detail with this next entry, as we’ll have a fuller piece on this later, but Fucked Up return with their new rock opera “David Comes to Life.” Sure, they’re not metal, but they have punk and hardcore roots that has some crossover appeal, and this is their best record hands down. It runs about 80 minutes and is a concept record about love, loss, rebellion, politics and coming of age, and it is chock full of emotion and hook-laden thunder. Plus, burly frontman Damian Abraham looks like a WWE wrestler and sounds like a guy who’s fronted more than one hardcore DIY matinee, so you can’t help but love him and the rest of this alias-adopting gang. Might need to go to an indie record store to find this simply because of the band’s name.

For more on the band, go here: http://lookingforgold.blogspot.com/

To buy the album, go here:  https://store.matadorrecords.com/

Another record we’ll examine in greater detail later in the week is the astonishing new slab of tech death from Origin. They moved from Relapse to Nuclear Blast for this one, and despite the lineup shifts, they unleash a mind-melting display on “Entity,” the follow-up to 2008’s “Antithesis” and their fifth full-length overall. The Topeka, Kansas, band long has amassed support from critics and fans alike, and it’s not just because they play like human machines and put together records that are bafflingly frightening technique-wise. It’s also because they write awesome songs that make you want to punch yourself in the face, and “Entity” is no different. I imagine this one’s going to make a lot of metal magazines’ and metal blogs’ best-of lists come December.

For more on the band, go here: http://www.myspace.com/origin

To buy the album, go here: http://store.nuclearblastusa.com/Artist/Origin/11490

The new record from Brooklyn trio Tombs seems like a crucial one for the band. They’ve slowly built a following and certainly have widespread support on the Internet, but it doesn’t seem like they’ve broken out to the masses in the way they should have. If their new record “Path of Totality” doesn’t do the trick, then it just cannot be done, because this is a masterpiece. Their sludgy, hardcore-minded black metal is there in full effect, but it’s their foray into doomier, even dark gothic coloring that really makes this stand out. It sounds like the Mike Hill-led band has been dining heavily on early Celtic Frost when they were writing this album, and it adds yet another element to this already impressive group.  Right now, if you buy the album online from their label Relapse, you get a copy of their first full-length “Winter Hours” for free. Can’t beat that package, and if this is your first experience listening to Tombs, get ready to be blown away.

For more on the band, go here: http://www.myspace.com/tombsbklyn

To buy the album, go here: http://shop.relapse.com/store/product.aspx?ProductID=43222

Last but not least … uh, well … is the new record “Illud Divinum Insanus” from legendary Florida death pioneers Morbid Angel, a record that has David Vincent finally returning to the fold for the first time since 1995’s “Domination.” This is one of the most anticipated metal records of 2011, one that has been long awaited and even has become something of a “Chinese Democracy”-style joke, and now that it finally has come to fruition, it has been met with some ridicule. There are electronic elements to the album, almost as if it’s sampling from the ’90s industrial scene, and that has not gone over well with a lot of people. That isn’t what the whole record sounds like, and there are some cuts that are more like the band’s classic days, but it’s a weird album. I won’t say too much more as I’ll let you judge for yourself, but perhaps approach this one with some caution.

For more on the band, go here: http://www.morbidangel.com/

To buy the album, go here: http://e-shop.season-of-mist.com/en/items/morbid-angel/illud-divinum-insanus-digipak-edition/cd-digipack/27094

These are just a few things you’ll be able to find, and certainly there are plenty of other records available today that might be more your thing (the debut of Cerebral Bore; the debut of punk-flavored hardcore band Touché Amoré, another record we’ll examine more closely very soon). But what we discussed above are some of the most noteworthy on a day where, if money really did grow on trees, most of us would be rampaging record shops with reckless abandon.

Enslaved unleash their scowls.

So basically tap into your savings, right? You have some show tickets, and surely arm loads of merch, to buy.

The fully fleshed-out Opeth tour obviously is known now (and we had something on that a little earlier today), and now comes word that Nordic progressive black metal band Enslaved also will be hitting North America this fall. Enslaved still is touring in support of their excellent 2010 effort “Axioma Ethica Odini,” and they just put out an EP “The Sleeping Gods,” in conjunction with Scion AV. You can grab that one for free online. Last few times through the States, Enslaved played as support acts to Opeth and then Dimmu Borgir, so it’ll be cool seeing them get top billing.

To find “The Sleeping Gods,” go here: http://www.scionav.com/

For more on the band, go here: http://www.myspace.com/enslaved

Ghost totally ready to scare you.

Joining them on the tour will be Swedish metal band Ghost (not to be confused with the Japanese experimental/psychedelic band Ghost), who finally debuted on U.S. shores at the Maryland Deathfest, as they closed out the festival with what I’m told was a haunting performance. A friend of mine who attended the show said the band stood stoically as their two-minute intro played, and practically no words were spoken by the band until frontman The Ghoul With No Name invited the crowd to join them for the final ritual. They proclaim themselves Satanists, and the Ghoul takes the role as the devil’s pope, but I wonder how much of that is just for show. Their debut “Opus Eponymous” is catchy as hell, and if you didn’t know the thing was supposed to be dripping with evil, you’d think you were just listening to metal and rock’s next big thing. Ah, but there’s so much more behind the mask, is there not?

For more on Ghost, go here: http://www.myspace.com/thebandghost

To buy “Opus Eponymous,” go here: http://www.indiemerchstore.com/b/ghost/

Alcest round out the bill, and they just toured the States last year as headliners. Most of their songs are pretty long, so it’ll be interesting to see how much time they get and how much they can shove into their set. You can check out my review of their reissued/partially re-recorded EP “Le Secret” on this site. Shouldn’t have to scroll too far down to find that. Definitely a band worth checking out.

The dates, courtesy of our friends at Action PR, are below:

September 23       Springfield, VA         Jaxx
September 24       Pittsburgh, PA          Mr. Small’s Theatre
September 25       New York, NY           Gramercy Theatre
September 26       Boston, MA               Middle East (downstairs)
September 28       Quebec City, QC       Imperial de Quebec
September 29       Montreal, QC            Café Campus
September 30       Toronto, ON              Opera House
October 1              Columbus, OH          Outland Live
October 2              Chicago, IL               The Bottom Lounge
October 3              St. Paul, MN              Station 4
October 5              Winnipeg, MB           West End Cultural Centre
October 6              Regina, SK                The Exchange
October 7              Edmonton, AB           The Starlite Room
October 8              Calgary, AB               Dickens Pub
October 10            Vancouver, BC           Rickshaw Theatre
October 11            Seattle, WA                El Corazon
October 12            Portland, OR              Hawthorne Theatre
October 13            San Francisco, CA     Slim’s
October 14            Hollywood, CA           The Troubadour

So here it is, the full listing for the Opeth/Katatonia tour. This tour will be a must-see event. Check the tour poster below.

I’m a lifelong fan of Opeth. Um, meaning Opeth’s lifespan. I’m excited about the September release of their new album “Heritage,” even if that means parting with money that certain parties I don’t exactly support will benefit. Cryptic. Shouldn’t be too hard to figure out who I mean.

Anyway, part of anxiously awaiting the band’s 10^th album is finally getting to see the album art, and it is … interesting? It’s almost awesome. Almost. I like the burning castle, the weird medieval village, the dual devils underground, even most of the tree. It’s the fruit on the tree that makes me chuckle. The band’s heads?! Whose idea was THIS? It makes a pretty cool album cover into something campy and worthy of mocking. I mean, their HEADS?! And do they have to look so damn goofy? Can’t they be dead or bleeding? At least less whimsical? This is death metal after all. Well, here it is…

Their longtime collaborator Travis Smith is responsible for this thing. Maybe I’m making too much of this because at the end of the day, it’s just album art. The music on said album is what really matters, and we’re still waiting for even a few seconds of that. A single/video for “The Devil’s Orchard” is expected soon, so that’ll be our first taste of this thing.

The record is in stores Sept. 20, and there will be special versions available through both the band and their label Roadrunner. Below is the track listing. Note that there are 10 songs, which is few more than we typically get from the band (2008’s “Watershed” had seven cuts, though an expanded version has three bonus tracks). Despite the cover, I’m psyched.

1. Heritage
2. The Devil’s Orchard
3. I Feel the Dark
4. Slither
5. Nepenthe
6. Haxprocess
7. Famine
8. The Lines in My Hand
9. Folklore
10. Marrow of the Earth

Another notable fact is keyboard player Per Wiberg has left the band in a move that sounds amicable. He performed on the record, but reportedly Joakim Svalberg (Yngwie Malmsteen, Glenn Hughes) has been practicing to perform live with the band. He’d join band leader/guitarist/vocalist Mikael Åkerfeldt, bassist Martin Mendez, guitarist Fredrik Åkesson, and drummer Martin Axenrot. Opeth’s tour lands in the United States in September, and you can find the tour dates below. Obviously I’m sad the band won’t be hitting Pittsburgh. Let me Mapquest that trip to Columbus …

(UPDATE! Opeth and Katatonia play Mr. Smalls in Pittsburgh on Halloween evening. Should not have spoken so soon…)

Sept. 19: Worcester, MA (Palladium)
Sept. 20: Hartford, CT (Webster Theatre)
Sept. 21-22: New York, NY (Webster Hall)
Sept. 26: Columbus, OH (Newport Music Hall)
Sept. 28: Nashville, TN (Cannery Ballroom)
Sept. 29:  Charlotte, NC (Amos’ Southend)
Oct. 06: Kansas City, MO (Beaumont Club)
Oct. 08: Winnipeg, MB (Garrick Centre)
Oct. 16: Portland, OR (Roseland Theater)
Oct. 21: Pomona, CA (The Fox Theater)
Oct. 25: Denver, CO (Ogden Theater)

For more on the band, go here: http://www.opeth.com/

For the band’s web shop, go here: http://www.omerch.com/

For the band’s label, go here: http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/

We often speak here about the oversaturation of genres and how that affects creativity and freshness. Doom and sludge are two subgenres in particular that have overflowed with participants, so much so that today’s next big band is often an afterthought before the sun sets. It can be overwhelming.

With any style of music that sees its ranks swell to such a dramatic degree, two things can keep new artists, and old ones who have watched their initial originality turn into a trend, from disappearing into the background: passion and creativity. Those two elements typically lead me on my way into what bands I discard after writing about their records (even if I like what I heard musically) and what bands become part of my regular rotation. Ever since their debut EP, Dark Castle’s music has stuck with me despite their having to compete with so many faces. Their impact was immediate with their “Flight of the Pegasus” debut, and their first full-length album “Spirited Migration” capitalized on that initial potential and made them one of metal’s most promising acts.

Now comes their second album and with it a move from At a Loss to Profound Lore. There had been rumblings that what the world would hear on their sophomore disc “Surrender to All Life Beyond Form” would signal changes compositionally and a bit of a departure from what they’d already committed to history. For one, they rely more on Eastern musical styles and scales to construct the music heard here, and there’s a deeper concentration on psychedelic guitar effects, which at first felt a little bit repetitive since they’re used so much but eventually helped me understand the overall personality of the record. Also, Stevie Floyd’s vocals are still crushing for the most part, but she pulls back more than ever before, sometimes sounding a bit like Kylesa’s Laura Pleasants. These alterations are what help make “Surrender” such in interesting, introspective, emotional and unexpected listen, and one that, at least for me, puts it into contention for metal album of the year. If you read other reviews (as I have), you will know I largely stand alone on this line of thinking. To each his or her own, but the more I listened to this album, the more I realized I was perhaps getting ready to champion one of the year’s most misunderstood and underappreciated albums. Not that that’s ever bothered me before.

The album is fairly short at just under 34 minutes, but it also feels just about right. I always dug those thrash albums from the ’80s that were about this length because they got in, made their point, and got back out. So less is more here. Also, unlike many other doom acts, Dark Castle’s songs aren’t epics, with the longest cut being the trippy, damaged, tortured “Heavy Eyes” at 5:59. It always feels like the band makes the best of the time they use and they don’t ramble on endlessly.

The title cut opens the collection as Dark Castle – Floyd is joined by drummer/multi-instrumentalist Rob Shaffer, though they get help from Sanford Parker (Nachtmystium, Minsk), Blake Judd (also Nachtmystium), Nate Hall (U.S. Christmas) and Mike Scheidt (YOB) – immediately launch into muddy thrashing, driving feedback and Floyd’s monstrous growls. “Slave Into Absence” is in the same vein, as is “Seeing Through Time,” where the vocals take on more of a talking/shouting tone. “I Hear Wind” is vicious, with prog and drone undertones, with a lead guitar line that snakes over top and slips back under the wreckage. Where the band really throws caution to the wind is in their less-conventional approach to some of the other tracks. “Spirit Ritual” sounds like the band is in a trance, with noise rushing, bells chiming and Scheidt’s nasal chanting trying to grab ghosts from other dimensions, while “To Hide Is the Die” is where Parker really makes his mark, letting his keys lap over a more mid-tempo track that ends with Floyd advising, “Look not behind your eye.”

As noted, this has not been a universally embraced record. I think some people expected (wanted?) “Spirited Migration 2,” and if that’s the case, why even bother? Just listen to that record if you like it so much. Dark Castle clearly have their dreams concentrated on higher planes – musically, spiritually, and philosophically – plus the passion and creativity is here in spades. Just reading the lyrics to the album lets you know you’re not getting what most come to expect from the doom, sludge genre, though they do match the psychedelic shell. It can be difficult to separate ourselves from a band’s past catalog when taking on a new album, and sometimes that’s OK. Like, as much as I like Amon Amarth, I don’t really hold them to forward progress. I know what I’m getting. Dark Castle are a different beast, and it seems they’re getting knocked around for expanding their minds. Well, not here. “Surrender to All Life Beyond Form” did take some time to sink in for me, but now that it has, I’ve listened with regularity, which has gotten in the way a bit of other albums I need to review. But that’s a good thing because, with so much music in my queue, having one stand out so noticeably is a joy.

I can’t wait to hear what the band does next, and I can only imagine what they might sound like in five years. But why rush it? “Surrender” is such a giving, adventurous, satisfying album, that I think I’ll relish what I have now because this duo makes their next sojourn into space and time.

For more on the band, go here: http://www.myspace.com/darkcastlemetal

For more on the label, go here: http://www.profoundlorerecords.com/

To buy “Surrender to All Life Beyond Form,” go here: http://www.profoundlorerecords.com//index.php?option=com_ezcatalog&task=detail&id=752&Itemid=99999999

It seems a little premature to be discussing Christmas, and as we on the East Coast are being roasted to death, it seems like the furthest thing from the mind.

And it is, if you’re talking about the holiday. If, instead, you’re thinking about the Appalachia-inspired, psychedelic band U.S. Christmas, then it is not too early to spread tidings of joy. After their excellent 2010 album “Run Thick in the Night” dropped and demolished listeners, we get a follow-up already with “The Valley Path,” an effort that philosophically carries on the last album’s spirit but does so in a completely different way. Unlike last time around, when we got 13 tracks, “The Valley Path” has but one, yet it takes about 40 minutes to run its course. It’s an interesting idea that has been tackled before by bands such as Sleep, Pussygutt and Jethro Tull and countless others, and if done right, it can be a worthy project. If not, it’s a pointless throwaway of an effort. Luckily for USX, this works in spades.

The band has been fairly prolific in their nine years together. Having formed in Marion, N.C., in the summer of 2002, the band wasted no time getting music into the world by way of two CD-R recordings – “Bad Heart Bull” in 2005 and “Salt the Wound” in 2006 on a Russian label (which is baffling on so many levels), before landing at Neurot for a 12-inch and 2008’s “Eat the Low Dogs.” All the while, the Nate Hall-led band adopted a working attitude, touring relentlessly and playing their music anywhere they could find an audience. All the while, respect grew, their oddball name became more recognizable, and their sixth effort had a sense of anticipation behind it after what they accomplished on “Run Thick.”

While USX – Hall, Matt Johnson (synth, guitars, sound), BJ Graves (drums), Justin Whitlow (drums, experimental sounds), Josh Holt (bass, drones), Meghan Mulhearn (violin) —  have a base in metal, with their sometimes doomy sound and relation with Neurot, their audience certainly shouldn’t be limited to that. Fans of Southern rock, classic rock, country (real country not the current pop-country crop), psychedelic rock, and atmospheric ambiance should find something to like here. You even could say someone who likes classical music but has interest in rock also might be well-served here because of how this album is put together. As mentioned, “The Valley Path” is one song. But even though it is, it feels like five or six songs fixed together seamlessly. The composition rises and falls, so much so that if they wanted to break this album up into passages, they could have. But it also probably would have gone against the philosophy of the record and its idea of being one piece that isn’t supposed to be digested in parts. It really wouldn’t make as much sense that way.

The songs starts feeling fairly sinister, with slurry doom and Hall warning, “There is a time for wicked illusion.” This part slithers along and sets up the story, and even though it fades after several minutes, it returns at about the 28-minute mark. The song bleeds into a more raucous mid-section, where the Southern traits show, making friends with those who feast on Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Allman Bros., with Mulhearn’s string work simmering and conjuring up souls. Her expression and playing reminds me a lot of Jackie Perez Gratz’s cello work, and she’s the star of the middle of the record. We revisit the path’s introductory sequence before the finale sets into place, firing headlong into dreamy slide guitar and a rush of atmosphere that remind me of some of Pink Floyd’s headier work. The scenes fade into chirps, almost as if it’s trying to slip back into the woods. It’s like a 40-minute movie, really.

The first time I took on “The Valley Path,” I sat stunned. It’s such an adventurous piece of music, and any worry I had over taking on a one-song album dissipated. I immediately listened to it again, and a few times on my daily walks, I’ve indulged in the record as it seemed to match perfectly what I was seeing as I was enveloped in canopies of leaves and trees and the psychological comfort of my simple suburb. In fact, on one of my walks, a thunderstorm was brewing and casting a pall over the streets in front of me, yet that seemed to open up some of the darkness on the record. I’ve listened on long drives, in parking lots as I waited for my wife to get off a bus, as I worked. It fits everywhere, and it always seems to open up my mind and help me achieve deeper thinking. I already was a fan of the band, but “The Valley Path” just endeared me to U.S. Christmas even more so. This is the type of album very few bands could make work at all, and the fact that USX do it so well, so dramatically, just goes to show how valuable they are.

For more on the band, go here: http://www.myspace.com/uschristmas

For more on the label, go here: http://www.neurotrecordings.com/

To buy “The Valley Path,” go here: http://www.bluecollardistro.com/neurotrecordings/categories.php?cPath=1030_1031_1149

Also, while delayed a bit, tomorrow will feature a visit with a record that is a heavy favorite for my metal album of the year. I got held up a bit because my wife and I took a trip to celebrate our anniversary, and I didn’t have nearly enough time to write. That’s a good thing.

You ever liked one of those bands that you really couldn’t explain to people why you enjoy their music and why that person should try to give the group a shot? I was always that way with Japanese blackened crust doom band Gallhammer.

They never came off as a band that was particularly interested in being the best sounding or best produced or even the best musicians, not that these ladies were slouches by any means. It always seemed like they plugged in and just went for it, scars and warts be damned. That was always what kind of appealed to me more than anything, that they were so raw and so flawed, yet when you heard their music, it had a brutal honesty and a dark shadow that was both sinister and attractive. And perhaps because they weren’t virtuosos, they always came up with interesting concepts. Their second full-length “Ill Innocence” is a really good album, one that really stepped up from their 2004 debt full-length “Gloomy Nights” and even set itself far apart from their 2007 compilation “The Dawn Of…,” the collection that introduced me to the band for the first time.

The awesomeness of “Ill Innocence” (I happen to be listening to that as I write this) seemed to indicate the band was onto bigger and better things as they improved as a unit and sunk their teeth even deeper into the doom muck. So it was with great anticipation that I met their third effort “The End,” released by Peaceville, though ultimately it is bitter disappointment with which I’m left. I’m kind of at a loss with what they came up with for this record, so much so that I kept listening and listening, hoping the overall picture would dawn on me and I’d feel a fool for not realizing it in the first place. Well, that actually did happen, but it didn’t have the positive effect I expected. Instead, I walked away feeling like this album was a garage demo by a brand new band that accidentally got labeled as the new Gallhammer. It’s a big letdown, and weirdly enough, it’s pretty grating at times.

Not sure what effect this had creatively on the songwriting, but since “Ill Innocence,” guitarist Mika Penetrator left the band, leaving Gallhammer as a duo of Vivian Slaughter (bass, vocals) and drummer Risa Reaper, who gets a far bigger role here with her own vocals, one of the fatal flaws of this album. Just toggling between songs from “Ill Innocence” and “The End,” there’s a noticeable difference. The new album is a huge downgrade musically, making me wonder just how pivotal Penetrator was to this band, and at times, the compositions are repetitive and just way, way too long. There’s a lack of focus and glut of interesting ideas. “Ill Innocence” even jumped around a bit, adding some post-rock and indie atmosphere, which broke up some of the monotony and let the thing breathe a bit, but that’s completely absent from “The End.”

One of the biggest mistakes the band made was not bringing in a guitar player to replace Penetrator. It’s not that you can’t do a bass-drum duo, but you better be able to do it right, because it can get awfully boring if not. This record proves that. Slaughter’s bass work is fine, and it has a grimy, vicious edge that serves the slow-driving, sludgy material just fine. But it’s not enough to keep these songs from wearing out their welcome. Perhaps if they knew where to cut these songs short, they would have been better served, but that didn’t happen. Four minutes instead of eight minutes or 10 minutes or 12 minutes would have done a world of good. There’s nothing wrong with the opening title track, as it’s a total mammoth, but it could have used a few minutes trimmed from it. Even “Rubbish CG202” is vicious and blinding, easily registering as the best cut on this disc. It’s just a ripper. And then the train just runs off the tracks on “Aberration,” where Reaper takes her very, very unpleasant turn as co-vocalist. Now, Reaper has done some vocals before, but considering she was singing on fuller, more realized songs, and she only was a partial contributor, she didn’t stick out like a sore thumb. Wow, does she ever here. I really just want her to stop doing this. Her voice is annoying, and she often sounds like a 5-year-old, chirping away with whatever nonsense she’s spewing. These things are precious when you actually are 5 years old, but not when you’re an adult, singing over songs you expect people to buy. This was a bad, bad, bad idea. I hope they do away with this on the next record.

The next three songs crawl ever so slowly along, with hardly anything worth keeping, and again, Reaper’s voice keeps insulting your senses and goodwill. Only closer “108=7/T-NA” (no idea what the hell that means) somewhat saves the record, as Slaughter’s freak jazz saxophone blasts over the mountain of mud, proving they do have some good ideas in there, but they’re few and far between.

Had this album occurred four or five years ago, I wouldn’t nearly be as baffled or as let down. If this was a band with little experience, you could chalk up these gaffes to that and tell them to learn from where they went astray. But this is record three, and they’ve been around far too long to have come up with something as substandard at “The End.” I’m certain there are garage bands that have been together a quarter of the time these two have that could come up with something far better than this. I always thought Gallhammer would be one of those bands that would be long misunderstood, who people like me would have to righteously defend to the naysayers, but underneath it all they would be releasing groundbreaking records that influenced other bands. Then again, it’s possible I was wrong. Maybe they peaked on “Ill Innocence” and never will reach that height ever again. There isn’t anything on “The End” that makes me hopeful for their fourth album, though I’ll certainly give it a try since I do like their back catalog. But they’ve got to find a guitarist, they’ve got to write better songs, and Reaper needs to keep her mouth closed for the most part and concentrate on scrambling our brains with her drumming.

For more on the band, go here: http://www.myspace.com/ghammercrust

To buy “The End,” go here: http://www.burningshed.com/store/peaceville/product/261/2777/

We have some exciting things brewing next week, including a look at U.S. Christmas’ new one-track, nearly 40-minute new album, as well as piece on a record that I think could be my metal album of the year. And let’s just say my review is going to differ greatly from one that ran on another, well-known web site. Have fun.

Vastum

The Bay Area long has given much to the metal scene. That statement can stand on its own without any real explanation, because anyone visiting this site likely is rattling off band names in their heads as they read this.

But we’ll go ahead and be specific anyway. You had the ’80s thrash bands Metallica, Exodus, Possessed, Death Angel, Testament, Vio-Lence, Forbidden and a ton of others. Their legacies speak for themselves, I’m sure, and most of those bands are still active and still contributing relevant music to a scene they helped spawn. More recently, the Bay Area has been the breeding ground for brainier bands with wide-sweeping influences, from black metal warriors Ludicra, Necrite and one-man project Palace of Worms; progressive death band Saros; prog tale-weavers Hammers of Misfortune; practically unclassifiable Grayceon, led by Jackie Perez Gratz, whose cello work has made her a hired gun in the industry; nautical post-metal powerhouse Giant Squid, and I could go on and on for paragraphs and still miss a ton of vital contributors to the scene.

Two other bands that hail from the Bay Area are just beginning to make their marks, and both groups’ ranks share almost the same members. Old-school death metal patrons Vastum just released their debut six-track effort “Carnal Law” via the always reliable 20 Buck Spin, while Acephalix have their sophomore crust-punk-flavored death album “Interminable Night” rereleased in limited quantity via Southern Lord. Both efforts eschew any effort to come across as well buffed, polished around the edges, or aesthetically pleasing for anyone unaware or uninterested in the filth they pour forth, yet for those who like their metal ugly and honest, you can’t go wrong with either record. It also should be pointed out three members of Acephalix constitute Vastum’s lineup, but while there are similar ideas on both releases, they sound pretty different from each other.

Vastum, while a true servant to death’s classic days, don’t just regurgitate that era. Instead, they weave more philosophical and intellectual ideas into their music, touching on subjects of sexuality, psychic disfigurement, loss, frustration, pain, pleasure, what have you. But they don’t go all Chris Barnes with the stuff, so you never feel red faced listening to the songs. Instead, as their bio so helpfully points out, they tackle views more in line with scholars such as French philosopher Georges Bataille (who founded a human sacrifice-related secret society called Acéphale, in case you were wondering where Acephalix got their name) and psychoanalyst Jean Laplanche (known for his work on psychosexual development and Freud’s seduction theory). Right now I don’t have access to the lyric sheet, so I can’t really go any deeper into the content, but once my physical copy arrives I’ll dig right into this. But musically we can go further, and it has that satisfying disgusting bend the early death metal did, which makes this so sonically giving. There’s some great guitar work here (no doubt having Saros’ Leila Abdul-Rauf on board helped), namely mind-blowing lead play and soloing, and even someone like me who hates air guitar sometimes has to hold back from acting out. Abdul-Rauf and vocalist Dan (write that name down in case you forget it) trade vocal duties, with Dan digging deeper into more guttural expression, while Abdul-Rauf leaning more toward penetrating shrieking and screaming (she adds a cool new dimension to “Umbra Interna” that makes that song really stand out). The EP runs about 30 minutes and serves as a nice appetizer to whatever they do next. I’m really amped to hear a full-length from this band.

For more on Vastum, go here: http://www.myspace.com/vastum

To buy “Carnal Law,” go here: http://www.phantomcityrecords.net/store/product_info.php?products_id=861

For more on the label, go here: http://www.20buckspin.com/site/

Acephalix

Acephalix are even dirtier and grimier. They started off more as aggressive punk/hardcore but have eventually added more crusty death metal flow into their mix. All of those elements come together to make for one bulldozing album, a seven-track collection that runs fairly short at 25:30 but certainly gets the best out of every second. The vocals (by Dan!) are growly and throaty, making one wonder if the man has stock in a lozenge company, and the guitar work is thick, riffy and punishing.

They get off to a thunderous start on opener “Christhole,” which is mostly notable for its scintillating lead guitar work. “Daemonic Sign” has strains of classic D-beat mashing, practically ensuring you a facial injury at their show; “Rebirth Into Perversion” lets the hardcore roots show, especially during its thick intro, before blasting into a punk-infused display of power; and the closing title cut features some filthy twin guitar interplay, and a hammer-smashing pace that eventually takes a slow-driving doomy exit into oblivion. “Interminable Night” is a more precise, more calculated record than its full-length predecessor “Aporia,” and with Southern Lord behind them (they’re only printing 2,000, so jump on this), their profile should only go up, especially being cataloged alongside label mates and likewise acts such as Nails, The Secret, and Summon the Crows.

For more on Acephalix, go here: http://www.acephalix.com/

To buy “Interminable Night,” go here: http://www.southernlord.com/store.php

To buy the album with a T-shirt, go here: http://www.bluecollardistro.com/southernlord/categories.php?cPath=956

For more on the label, go here: http://www.southernlord.com/

If I had to choose between the two efforts, I’d go for Vastum. It’s more my thing, and any album featuring Abdul-Rauf on guitar and/or vocals, I’m likely to want to dig right into it. But that’s just me, and Acephalix certainly is an awesome, intimidating band that’ll probably find more favor with those who cut their teeth on Swedish hardcore and punk. Whichever way you go, you’re bound to be blown away. And considering these two bands are really just beginning to blaze their respective (yet intermingled) paths, there should only be more fury and bloodshed in both of their futures.

A lot of things have happened since death metal veterans Autopsy last graced us with a full-length record.

For one, death metal has become a lot more acceptable publically, as these types of bands have dotted various major U.S. summer shed tours and the records have sold in the hundreds of thousands. Second, and this has much to do with the first point, death metal has cleaned up its image, the music has undergone more polished pristine production as of late, and much of the imagery has gone away from the blood and guts of years past (even Cannibal Corpse largely have toned down their product, creepy-crawly elements aside). Certainly some bands maintained the grimy edge of death metal’s past, but most of those acts remained underground for the hardcore fans to devour. And that all leads us back to Autopsy.

The last time we were served up a full-length from this band was 1995 with … “Shitfun.” That 21-track, 55-minute album (I refuse to even acknowledge the really disgusting album cover) wasn’t exactly the best swan song for the band – Autopsy dissolved after its release — with some of its members going on to form Abscess, itself a fairly gross, doomy band. One of those dudes is Chris Reifert, who originally gained notoriety for sitting behind the drum kit for genre pioneers Death before going on to form Autopsy with guitarists Eric Cutler and Danny Coralles, and bassist Eric Eigard (bassist Joe Allen, also of Abscess, joined in 2010, after a revolving door of bassists). Their debut album dropped in 1989, the influential “Severed Survival,” and after a split mini-release with Paradise Lost and an EP, dropped their second effort in 1991 with “Mental Funeral.” “Acts of the Unspeakable” landed in 1992, which then led to their 1995 record, that not only shifted their sound but also alienated some of their listeners. And then it was over until they got back together in 2008 to record two new cuts for the “Survival” reissue. From there, they played Maryland Deathfest, put out 2010 EP “The Tomb Within,” Abscess broke up, and Autopsy declared their reformation as permanent.

That brings us to the present, and the band’s brand new record “Macabre Eternal,” released on their longtime home label Peaceville. And yes, anytime a band takes 16 years between records and decides to revive the machine, it’s often met with righteous skepticism. You know how these reunions go, right? But this one seemed destined to be a success from the start, and this new album certainly pays tribute to the band’s legacy and makes up for their 1995 misstep. Last year’s return EP was really quite good, and it was right in form with their earlier work, yet “Macabre” takes things even further than that, showing a band that not only remains well in tact but that has grown.

The album runs 65 minutes, easily their longest to date, and while they often pumped out collections that had oodles of songs that blasted by, they conjure up just 12 here but breath so much doom and grime into them, they feel perfectly paced. The Black Sabbath and Cathedral influences are ever present, as is the penchant for gross-out, brutal death metal on which they used as a foundation. Opener “Hand of Darkness” lets out some start-stop thrashing and a blur of lead guitar play, while Reifert gurgles, “Reaching out to the sick and insane.” Yes, that would be the proper audience. And it’s only the beginning of this glorious, albeit worm-infested, return, as they are equally as vicious and gloomy on “Always About to Die,” an incredible downtuned track that is dark and dismal before erupting into a doomy gallop; the swirling cacophony of “Deliver Me From Sanity”; the power-style “Bridges of Bones,” that dissolves eerily into a mournful acoustic passage before exploding again; the zombie nightmare of “Born Undead”; and the impressive, slow-driven, torture epic “Sadistic Gratification,” that stands out as one of this record’s best songs. There’s not a moment of letdown on “Macabre Eternal,” and anyone who wishes to dine on bones and rotten flesh will gobble up every second of this filth.

For every person who’s ever complained that death metal’s gotten too pretty for its own good, Autopsy clearly heard your call. They’re one of the bands that got the skulls rolling, and they’re back to show the world what this genre is capable of producing. I also can’t remember a reunion that has gone so smoothly and been so satisfying. It almost … almost … gives credence to the idea of reformations. Not only is it great to have Autopsy back again, but it’s even better that they’re hungrier, angrier, meaner and as murderous as ever. Consumers of Hot Topic-approved death metal: Enter at your own risk.

For more on the band, go here: http://www.myspace.com/autopsyofficial

For the “Macabre Eternal” mini-site, go here: http://www.peaceville.com/autopsy/

To buy “Macabre Eternal,” go here: http://www.burningshed.com/store/peaceville/collection/261/

A collection of songs written about a fantasy land conjured in one’s dreams doesn’t sound very black metal. That sounds kind of Disney.

Yet it IS black metal, or at least as much as Alcest, brainchild of French musician Neige (he’s joined by drummer Winterhalter), play to that genre. Neige has quite a past with bands as varied as Peste Noire, Lantlôs and Amesoeurs, and his current gig fronting Forgotten Woods, but none of those acts quite capture to imagination in the same way as Alcest. The music is gorgeous, built on soundscapes, and certainly does convey the feeling one might have once deep slumber sets in and your brain goes into storyline mode. It stretches out your imagination and sets up camp, letting you grab onto ideas and concepts you perhaps never considered before. I know that sounds kind of random and perhaps a little drug-induced. Sure, it does. But it has nothing to do with that. As scary as Alcest can sound at times, for the most part, they take you on a journey without the help of mind-altering substances.

Throughout the band’s decade-long run, Alcest have put out some really fascinating material. Their debut full-length effort “Souvenirs d’un Autre Monde” dropped domestically in 2007 on Profound Lore, and after a few split efforts, they followed that up with 2010’s stunning “Écailles de Lune,” which came to us by way of Prophecy Productions. That record in particular had some memorable, seemingly innocent looking artwork and was one of the most noteworthy album covers of the entire year. The band even launched a U.S. tour after that record came out, even stopping by to entertain us lowly Pittsburgh people, who don’t normally gets shows like that one.

So with the Alcest name firmly established, it seemed proper to revisit their roots, namely their 2005 EP “Le Secret.” Prophecy has given that two-song effort reissue treatment, but it isn’t just a rehash. Alcest actually went back into the studio and re-recorded the entire thing, and that’s packaged with the original versions of the tracks. As it was, the original version of “Le Secret” already ran nearly a half hour, a pretty hefty running time for just a couple of tracks, so with the new versions tacked on, this thing lasts nearly an hour long. But is it worth it? Is it necessary? I’d say it is.

First of all, landing an original copy of “Le Secret” isn’t exactly easy. There were only 1,000 copies pressed, so if you want one, get ready to pay handsomely. I just did a super quick search on Google, Amazon and eBay, and I could not find one. The effort itself, according to the bio that accompanies the new version, sets out the framework that is essential for all other works of Alcest: Music and lyrics are used here by Neige as a medium to channel and communicate the esoteric experiences of his early childhood. That pays more to the innocence and raw understanding of fantasy worlds that Neige tries to reach and understand. Listening to these songs, you never feel the evil and chaos typically delivered by most black metal bands, so immediately you know you’re in a different place.

And calling these songs simply black metal is wrong. It’s a base, really, and sometime Neige does use screams and shrieks typical of the genre, like he does on the track “Elevation.” But normally the music is rather lovely and heart-gushingly melodic, so much so that someone with an aversion to metal might even find themselves caught up in this stuff. There is an overt post-rock/shoegaze tone that serves these songs well. The music just bleeds delicacy and wonder, and its embrace of the dream world and those narratives does make you reach back to your youth when these types of things were the most important to you. Remember a time before bills, jobs, deadlines, debt? Taking on Alcest lets you find that place again.

As noted, “Elevation” is the darker of the two cuts, while the title track is more peaceful and organically gazey. In fact, the re-recorded versions actually flesh out the songs and their pockets of sound better than the originals. So there’s your reasoning behind redoing these tracks. Very little, if anything, was changed this time around, but the song production is better, livelier, and more enveloping. That, I’d say, is good enough reason for tackling these songs. Simply put, they made them sound better. Another example to validate the 2011 take on these songs comes when the lush keys bleed into “Elevation.” Their presence is known right away and quickly circles you, while on the original, it takes about 30 seconds before you really can even hear the keys.

“Le Secret” is an essential piece to your Alcest collection, because it rang in what Neige wanted to accomplish musically and set up the world he would explore. It’s certainly better understood now after two full-length albums and the band’s acceptance in the metal world. While metal, and black metal specifically, tends to make people think of the ugly, seedy, sinister parts of their world, Alcest show the other side. There is enough pain and suffering conveyed by a hundred million metal bands, and there’s a point to exposing that side, but Alcest is such a breath of fresh air. Neige’s music always captivates and captures, and “Le Secret” was just the beginning of this journey, one that surely will have more chapters to devour as Neige travels into his future.

For more on Alcest, go here: http://www.alcest-music.com/

To buy “Le Secret,” go here: http://shop.prophecy.de/

For more on the label, go here: http://www.prophecyproductions.de/front_content.php