voila_la_scorie This album was a pleasant surprise. Ever since my disappointment with Savage Amusement (which was also partly due to my changing musical preferences in the late eighties), I never bought a new Scorpions album. It was only after listening to a review of Rock Believer and a review of the Scorpions post eighties output on YouTube that I thought I should just get this one and hear if it's as good as the reviewer said it was.

And it is!

For this album, I think the Scorpions did what a lot of the old bands have been doing recently, and that is go back to their classic period and try to recreate what the were doing back then. Rock Believer is like listening to Love Drive, Animal Magnetism, and Blackout recorded in 2022. The album is exactly as though the band never missed a beat after Love at First Sting. I haven't heard anything after Crazy World, which my friend had, but reviews online of the nineties albums especially have not been particularly favourable. But here is an album worthy of the Scorpions name!

In fact, whether it's meant to be a deliberate nod to the old albums or simply a wink, there are lyrical references to the classic years. The album title and title track harken back to 1977's Taken by Force album and the song Steamrock Fever. The chorus of that old song goes, "Steamrock fever / Screaming rock believer", while Rock Believer's chorus goes, "Scream for me screamer / I'm a rock believer / Just like you". You'll also notice in the opening track, "Gas in the Tank" the line, "Black me in and black me out," which seems to direct our attention quite intentionally to 1982's Blackout album.

While there are surely more Easter eggs in the lyrics, at least two of the songs also derive from those older albums. Shining of Your Soul has a reggae-like riff that sounds like Is There Anybody There? from Lovedrive. And the slow, ominous bass and drum pounding of Seventh Sun sound like China White.

Thankfully, the entire album isn't totally a walk down memory lane. Some of these new songs have a driving energy and heaviness that wouldn't have been found back in the 1979-1984 period. There are also a couple of tracks that remind me of Van Halen, at least for the guitar sound and riffs.

Basically, fans of the classic, Matthias Jabs era Scorpions should really dig this album. This is also a great album for anyone who likes energetic hard rock. Are there are ballads? Actually, not really. When You Know (Where You Come From) is the closest, but it's no Still Loving You or Holiday. If you get the acoustic version as a bonus track, it's a little closer. However, I think the Scorpions were just really ready to rock it out for this album.

My version includes six bonus tracks, so the album does feel rather long. Had this been released in the early eighties, we'd likely have gotten the best eight or nine tracks. It could be fun to make a playlist trimming the running time down to 38 minutes or so for that album feel.

Highly recommended if you enjoy that classic Scorpions sound!

voila_la_scorie Starchild was a progressive-edged hard rock act from Cambridge, Ontario that formed in 1975. The drummer, Greg "Fritz" Hinz would later go on to play for Helix.

The band released one album in 1978 on the Axe Records label, "Children of the Stars". The album showcases the bands hard rock style but also their endeavours to be a little on the progressive side, not unlike compatriots Triumph.

The recording is not lavish. It's more or less vocals, guitar, bass, and drums without much else in terms of overdubs or additional instrumentation, though a touch of synthesizer is added for spacey effect. Basically, the album sounds like the band could have recorded it playing live in the studio if they wanted to.

Lyrically, the songs traverse sci-fi (the title track), dark fantasy (Wooden Steaks and Mashed Potatoes), fantasy of females (Wizard Woman), and social commentary. The song Groove Man is a somewhat comical observation of an ex-punk rocker who's gone disco.

The album shows a band with a lot of promise but at the same time, an album by a band in the studio for the first time. The songs rock out and the efforts at musical complexity are earnest and appreciable. However, I can't help but feel that there was a confusion about letting the band be a progressive hard rock act while approaching the recording in a punk rock fashion. It's raw and the production sounds simple even though the band is clearly striving to be more.

It's not as good as Triumph and certainly a far cry from Rush, but nevertheless it's an interesting find, being a rather obscure album. CDs are available from Axe Records.

voila_la_scorie I hadn't bought any Anvil albums since Metal on Metal and Forged in Fire, and aside from these two, I had no idea of what the band had been doing all these years until that movie about them came out. I thought about buying a newer Anvil album at the time, but it never became a priority until this year when I heard there was another new album coming out. After a few months, I finally got it.

After ordering it, I checked a review on Angry Metal Guy that said it was a bit better than their last few albums. Anvil are known for being one of those bands that stick with one formula and every album adheres to it. Anvil are a core old school metal band, and all of their albums don't deviate except where some albums might feature more speed metal and others might have more connection to metal's hard rock and blues-based roots. As one reviewer on Rate Your Music said, all the albums are pretty much the same, so comparisons will mostly be about production value and song-writing.

I was pleasantly surprised. No, there was nothing unexpected, but right from the get go I noticed the excellent sound quality. Metal albums can suffer various production problems such as dense or muddy sound quality, lackluster drum or vocal recording quality, tinny guitar sounds, or overly compressed sound. This album is very rich and clean with all instruments clear in the mix. The bass might seem in the background a bit, but if you listen for it, it's right in there providing the weight for the guitar riffs and adding some accent points here and there.

The songs are mostly quite fun (the "Lockdown" song about COVID-19 runs dry because of the theme, I find), and there are a few tracks that perk up my ears with each listen such as "Ghost Shadow" and "Gunfight". Lips sounds very gruff and tough. His vocals aren't a winner for everyone, and I've read a few criticisms about them on older albums. But for me, he does a fine job for the music on this album. Actually, I find it impressive knowing the age of both Lips and Rob because this album is full of energy!

I have since picked up a few older albums and I can say that Impact Is Imminent is not as intense as some, e.g. Plugged In Permanent. But as an album with which to become reacquainted with Anvil, I think it's certainly good enough. Rather than a tepid response, I am inspired to hear more, so that's a plus sign.

Reviews of this album generally fall between the Angry Metal Guy view of not a great album, no reinventing of the wheel, but at least somewhat interesting to a rather impressive piece of work for a band's 19th studio release.

I watched a podcast interview with Lips and Rob and Sacha Gervasi, who made the Anvil movie, and I learned that the two instrumental tracks on the album, "Teabag" and "Gomez" are both nicknames for Sacha. When he was fifteen, Sacha got himself invited to work as a drum tech for Anvil for three weeks during his summer holiday, and being English, he was given the nickname. Later on he earned the nickname "Gomez" when he announced that he had the best train set in Hollywood, and Lips and Rob said he was like Gomez Adams.

Impact Is Imminent might not exactly be a must have album for everyone, but Anvil fans shouldn't miss it and for those who has a casual acquaintance with the band's music should at least check it out.

voila_la_scorie It's been two years and two months since the release of "Shin Seinen", the album that included the song "Mujou no Scat - Heartless Scat" whose promotion on YouTube made heavy music fans around the world go, "Wow! Who are these guys?!" The band had maintained a small following for over two decades before an appearance at Ozz Fest in Japan in 2013 gave them exposure to an international audience. For the next few years, Ningen Isu concentrated on making each of their heavy metal (think 70's inspired traditional doom/stoner metal with a flare for getting a bit thrashy or speedy at times) albums attractive to the foreign market but always maintaining their unique sound and approach to heavy music: they are very much a Japanese band playing western heavy metal. But their 21st album released in 2019 took them to a whole new level of international popularity. This resulted in their first ever trip overseas where they played two shows in Germany and one in England. They were scheduled to appear at the SXSW Festival in Texas in March of 2020, but COVID-19 shut that down.

"Kuraku" ("Suffering and Joy", or "Pain and Comfort" if you believe the Wikipedia translation of the title) is the band's 22nd album and the first new release since their overseas episodes of February, 2020. Fans of the band's last few albums will find that Ningen Isu are ploughing along in the same style. There have been no efforts to adjust their sound for any imagined possibility of broadening their audience, and this is what new fans to the band probably hoped for and expected. (Fans of the band's entire catalogue know that the band has explored different directions but always maintained a heavy base).

The album is 13 tracks and 71 minutes of Ningen Isu-styled heavy metal with lyrical themes such as space pirates ("Uchuu Kaizoku), ghosts ("Nikutai no Bourei"), kings of darkness ("Ankoku Ou"), motorcycles ("Hashire GT"), and robots ("Ningen Robot"). If I understood correctly, the album's concept was based around the vision of the future held by Japanese a hundred years ago. They believed in a utopian society free of hardship and strife. However, Ningen Isu are saying what we may have achieved is the opposite. The album title comes from a 1920's periodical of the same name, which was a magazine that published stories by Edogawa Ranpo, whose story "Ningen Isu - The Human Chair" was where the band took its name.

The opening track begins with an unusual sound for Ningen Isu, a strummed electric guitar that some may think inspired by Led Zeppelin but I hear as being similar to The Tea Party, though I am sure Ningen Isu has never heard of that Canadian band. The music soon changes into a typical Ningen Isu heavy rocker and plays out long enough for some change ups to happen in the music. The song title, "Toshishun" is from the title of a short story written by a famous Japanese author, Akutagawa Ryunosuke, who wrote many famous stories from 1914 until his death by suicide in 1927. This song, written and sung by Shinji Wajima, exemplifies Ningen Isu's ability to write heavy tracks with a slight progressive edge.

Though every track on the album is heavy (Ningen Isu don't do power ballads and have rarely touched acoustic only numbers), there are a few worth mentioning for their outstanding or unusual points. "Uchuu Kaizoku" has a guitar effects intro and features a Theremin in the solo section. Shinji Wajima has used a Theremin on several songs in the past, always space-themed ones. "Seikimatsu Jinta (End of the Century Jinta)" has a really groovy riff that sounds like it was pulled straight out of 1976. Wajima plays a bit of Taishogoto - a Japanese instrument based on the koto - on the tracks "Seikimatsu Jinta" and "Nayami wo Tsukinekete, Kanki wo Idare (Overcome Your Worries and Be Joyous)". "Koukotsu no Tourou (Ecstatic Mantis)" is the shortest track and one of Ken'ichi Suzuki's short but speedy and aggressive tracks. "Shijou no Kuchibiru" features drummer Nobu Nakajima on lead vocals. And the closing track, "Yoake Mae (Before the Dawn)" is one of those longer, dark and heavy tracks that Ningen Isu like to do.

The album is what you'd expect from Ningen Isu: heavy stoner, doom, and trad metal riffs, and a good mix of themes and approaches, plus a their unique sound cultivated over three decades. What the album doesn't include are any experiments with new sounds or directions or revisiting any of the one-track diversions of the past. I personally like a surprise or two on an album, and among my favourites are the albums where the band dropped in either something very progressive or something inspired by traditional Japanese music. "Kuraku" is a solid, heavy banger from start to finish.

So, once again, fans who love the last few albums will be just as thrilled to hear this one. Ningen Isu are veterans of what they play and don't make any mistakes. They know who they are and how they should sound. Once again, they have achieved that flawlessly.

voila_la_scorie Wow! I did a search for this band twice on this site and got nothing. I created a page for them, wrote a bio, and then found there was a page already somewhere. Searched again and it came up right away. Go figure!

So, anyway, here we have a band from Japan lead by their guitarist with aspirations for playing loud, heavy music in the vein of Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, and then got told by their record label to add some ballads and a cover song in hopes of broadening their potential audience. The result? The band split up!

Let's see. What do we have here then. The first track, "Grease It Out" certainly shows the band's desire to play loud and heavy. While Black Sabbath influence is likely there, the riffs sound closer to their compatriots Flower Travelin' Band although vocalist Juni Lush (credited as Joko Lush in my CD copy) has more of a hard rock voice. It's a pretty killer track for some straight forward hard/heavy rock of 1971.

"Love That Binds Me" is a mid-tempo, blues-based, bummed out dude song that includes piano. It is very clearly a song heavily influenced by Led Zeppelin's "Since I've Been Lovin' You", most obviously in the lyric "Yes, I'm working everyday from early in the morning, babe / Til late at night everyday / It's such a drag, baby". On its own, I'd say the song would be pretty good, but the derivative lyrics just shout "copy cat!" and I'm afraid it loses points for that.

Thankfully, the next track is "Love Is You", another heavy rock track with some cool riffs and mood. One thing is for sure, guitarist Tsutomu Ogawa is pretty good at coming up with heavy rock riffs!

Alright, "Reminiscence" is next and it begins like a classic Vanilla Fudge song with organ and hard guitars, then shifts into a slower gear with acoustic guitar and electric lead. This is out first real slow and sentimental track. I'd say it could have worked out alright except that Lush's vocals are not very lush. He sounds like quieting down makes it harder for him to hit the notes right. For that, there are a few flinching moments.

And now the cover of "I Shall Be Released", which is missing the final "d" in the official track listing. This is country western folk ballad and a pretty good effort for a Japanese band. However, it sounds off and totally unnecessary for the album. Sure, lots of bands had to have that one track that showed their "other side" back in the day, but as this is a cover I think there are other bands who could have done a better job and this band could likely have written a better song for them to play and record.

"Gonna Take You" sets us back on course with another heavy rocker, and that's three pretty cool heavies out of the first six tracks. The lyrics however once again show the band borrowing from their overseas influences and they sound like they just cut and pasted lyrics from a Led Zeppelin song (which the mighty Zep actually took from someone else). "I'm gonna bring it on home to you / I got my ticket, I got that load / Gone up, go higher, all aboard / Take my seat a-right way back / Watch this train goin' down the track". It seems that even though the band is capable of creating some pretty good rockin' music, there's a problem with lyric writing and sometimes I think with the vocal delivery. Fortunately, the lead guitar parts get a fair bit of emphasis and run time in the songs.

And so we reach the 12:12 epic ballad, "Song for My lady (Now I Found)" with acoustic guitar, flute, strings, the works! It reminds me a little like a cross between Deep Purple's "April" from their self-titled third album and The Moody Blues. And here is where I feel like the lyrics are similar to early Scorpions' lyrics. Alright, you are writing a ballad in a second language and trying to make it meaningful and also flow with the rhythm of the music. But something is just missing for English ears. Perhaps it worked for Japanese audiences of the early seventies. I don't know. Again, the music is actually pretty good. I'm alright with the progressive nature of this longer track and in fact it has more musically advanced than much of what we heard up to here. My main beef is the efforts of Juni Lush to try to imitate western singers instead of developing his own style more. Here he sounds like a fan of Rod Evans.

To wrap it up, this is a band that probably could have made a much better second album but they were discouraged early on and left us with this one slab of vinyl. There are some good heavy tracks and some half decent other music. Just for my money, more work was needed on the lyrics.

voila_la_scorie So here we have a classic band of the seventies whose fortunes declined in the eighties, who were in disarray throughout most of the nineties, tried to get back in gear in at the turn of the century and who then carried on mostly as a classic rock band playing their classic tunes. Then after 19 years of silence from the recording studio, Blue Oyster Cult drop a new release. The title, "The Symbol Remains" seems less like a victory shout and more like confident statement made through weathered and grim lips with a knife edge of a smile. "It's 2020. BOC is still here."

I was curious. I had never been a huge fan, but my musical travels brought me to BOC Base on a few occasions, allowing one or two more albums to nestle into my collection. My recent reacquaintance with the much-derided "Club Ninja" exposed me to the new album's cover. Somehow, I felt it had to be good.

Of the original line-up, only the two guitarists and principal singers, Buck Dharma and Eric Bloom remain. That's something important though as what defines a band's sound is mostly in the vocals and lead instruments, as well as the songwriting. And to my delight, I feel that this is very much a Blue Oyster Cult album!

The band's familiar heavy side opens the album with "That Was Me", a song that I thought was a reflection back on a "career of evil". At this age, I think this song is very suitable and it is executed in the familiar style of Blue Oyster Cult.

The next two, "Box In My Head" (about his brain), and "Tainted Blood" (a vampire song) continue that familiar sound and style. Obviously, the two legendary members are that much older and the sounds of the instruments and recording is very modern, but they deliver songs worthy of the legendary band name.

I'll confess, though, that partway through the album, it begins to sound more like a generic old dudes' rock album. While at the start I felt it was without a doubt a BOC album, by the middle I thought had I heard this without knowing who it was, I don't think I would have even suspected that I knew what band it was.

Fortunately, once we reach "Stand and Fight" we know who put out this platter. It is actually a heavy tune, perhaps in the sense of classic heavy metal of the seventies but again with a modern sound. "Florida Man" is pretty good, but "The Alchemist" is totally a Blue Oyster Cult track with the heavy guitars, some piano, and an epic tale of fantasy and a quest. Had the album ended here (and I expected that it would as I was listening while walking and not looking at the track list), I would have applauded the band.

However, there is yet another track, and another, and another. It became a game to guess if I had heard the final track yet. I would think, "Now there's a great conclusion to a song and a great way to finish up the album." But then another track would begin. Not that the last five tracks were bad or dull. There are still some very good ones there and some even better than those in the middle of the album where I was wondering if I would recognize the band. I suppose after 19 years, the band had enough material for a 60-minute album. But I personally feel the album could have been more cohesive and more like a BOC album if some of the songs - three or four - had been relegated to CD/download bonus tracks that were separate from the rest of the songs.

My impression is that Blue Oyster Cult have released a surprisingly good album for a mature band. They keep the BOC flame burning for us with songs that both musically and lyrically are congruent with the classic sound of the band.

Any disappointments would be in two or three tracks that could have been either left off or come after the main album track list. I think the album would have had more of a wow impact at somewhere around 10 or 11 tracks.

Overall though, it's a solid release!

voila_la_scorie Blue Oyster Cult were on the top of their game in the early eighties. They’d scored a huge hit with “Burnin’ for You”, they had contributed to the soundtrack of the animated film, “Heavy Metal”, and they’d been touring with Black Sabbath. Unfortunately, things would start sliding for the band. Drummer Albert Bouchard was fired, seeing the first change in the classic and long-running line-up. Then came the disappointing sales of 1983’s “The Revolution by Night”, which failed to reach gold. By the time the band was ready to record their tenth studio album, keyboard player Allen Lanier also parted ways with the band. Former manager, Sandy Pearlman was called in, perhaps in hopes of restoring something from the band’s classic days.

As the band had done in the past, outside songwriters were contacted to write some of the lyrics, and one song, “White Flags” was a cover song from the Canadian Leggatt Brothers 1981 album. Pearlman was very meticulous about the sound he wanted from the band and some of the eighties pop sounding percussion and synthesizers were at his insistence.

“Club Ninja” was for many a big disappointment, even though the song “Dancing in the Ruins” became a minor charting hit. The road of fortune from here on would lead to the band losing bassist Joe Bouchard, the confusing “Imaginos” album that was not meant to be a BOC album, the band being released from CBS, and ultimately, Blue Oyster Cult spending most of the nineties without releasing any new material.

“Club Ninja” was my second BOC purchase after “The Revolution by Night”, so you could say that my introduction to the band was through two of their lowest rated and ranked albums. At the time of the release of “Club Ninja”, I was getting into more extreme heavy metal all the while balancing my musical taste with more melodic glam metal and hard rock. “Club Ninja” surprised me. I wasn’t sure what to make of it. There were the hard rocking and heavy guitars but there were also bright, eighties pop synth sounds which I still cringe at to this day. There was dramatic music with really catchy vocal melodies but there were also electronic drums which I have never cared for much. Did I like the album?

I found certain songs intriguing as they offered something new or at least rare in my cassette collection. That jangly eighties guitar sound I didn’t like actually sounded pretty good on “Perfect Water”, and in spite of the keyboard sounds, I felt the song drawing me back for repeated listens, eventually becoming one of my favourite tracks on the album. It had a mysterious and also beautifully serene atmosphere to it. Not one band in my music collection had a song like this.

Then there was “White Flags”. A song packed with tension and spots of release sometimes simply through a keyboard effect but more so with the break into the chorus. One of my favourite parts was the organ bit that follows the, “Take me away! Yeeeaaahhh!” part. When I finally heard the original version recorded by the Leggatt Brothers, I was disappointed that there was no organ part.

“Shadow Warrior” was a wonderfully ominous and dark track with lyrical imagery typical of the band’s works – a kind of future, science fiction / fantasy tale. And “Madness to the Method” had this dynamiic piano solo in the song’s dramatic conclusion. “Spy in the House of Night” also was not my usual cup of tea but somehow strangely attracted my ears. In fact, the only songs that I thought were a little silly were “Make Rock Not War” and “Beat ‘Em Up”, mostly for their atrocious meathead rock band-sounding titles. Musically, they were actually not so bad except for the keyboard sounds.

I finally bought this album on CD and listened to it for the first time in about 30 years. I was surprised how much I remembered of the songs. I must have listened to this album more than I thought because I felt like I was listening to an old classic or an old favourite. True, I still flinch at some keyboards parts and “Beat ‘Em Up” is still a goofy title. But I found that I actually really like this album! In fact, I think one of the things I appreciate about it now more than before is the prog element. In the mid-eighites, prog was carefully concealed beneath the pop flash of former prog kings or in the more complex music of some metal bands. “Club Ninja” on the other hand grasps hard and heavy rock, pop sounds and melodies, classic rock, and progressive flare (heavy organ and dramatic piano solos plus seven-minute songs with sci-fi and fantasy concepts) and sets them all out on the table. The album was costly to produce and took nearly a year to put together under the strict guidance of visionary Sandy Pearlman. In the end, the results were probably more baffling to most people who couldn’t make sense of what the band was trying to do. My opinion is that Blue Oyster Cult created an album of intelligent lyrical content, music of atmosphere, drama, energy, and dark and light, and many modern sounds that captured both the light, popular side and the harder-edged rock side.

Having this album back again, I appreciate it even more now after decades of exploring heavy and progressive music much, much further. For fans of heavy music, this album cannot be said to be an excellent addition to any heavy metal collection. It’s really a matter of preference in this case. I give it four and a half stars out of my own taste, but for this site, I’ll give it three.

voila_la_scorie The sticker on the shrink wrap said "for fans of Kamelot, Evergrey..." and one more band. My impression is that this sounds like classic Symphony X meets Evergrey. According to a couple of reviews I read, this album is the midpoint of Borealis's transition from a power metal band to a progressive metal one.

Vocalist Matt Marinelli really does sound an awful lot like Tom S. Englund of Evergrey. The guitar sound is full, the bass adds appropriate weight, synthesizer is used as a support rhythm instrument or to give a symphonic feeling. The songs don't strike me as being too overly from the power metal fold and more - really more! - like Evergrey, though I have only one Evergrey album.

The music here is really solid, melodic heavy metal. There are some speedy or heavy riffs but contrasted with the symphonic sounds of the synthesizer and the strong vocal melodies. The progressive aspect is more in the song structures or playing skill rather than being an overt display of time-signature juggling or technical hocus pocus. I do agree that this is, from a musical and song-writing perspective, a very good album. Like, done by professionals who really know what they want to achieve. The main problem I have is how similar it sounds too Evergrey. I can't help but feel that I'm listening to an Everygrey recording!

Special mention should go to the acoustic track, "Watch the World Collapse", which is a lovely track and a nice diversion from all the heavy numbers. Then there's the bonus track, "The Journey" which is such a perfect wedding song and seriously must have been written as one!

This and the follow-up album, "Purgatory" are Borealis's two highest rated albums, scoring in the nineties on Encyclopedia Metallum. I think it's a solid product but the more I listen, the more I hear Tom S. Englund, and that might be putting me off the album more and more because the singer should be developing his own voice. That and I like Evergrey but don't love the band.

voila_la_scorie Three and a half stars for the heavy metal content, but actually I quite like this album. Since I turned 50 early this year, I decided to check out albums in my collection that were released the year I was born, and then I went ahead and ordered about a dozen more. Epitaph was a band that showed up as an early seventies heavy rock, hard rock outfit, but when I listened to samples on YouTube, I wasn't convinced that I needed to add their albums to my collection. Then I got this album and I'll say that I am pleasantly surprised!

Nearly every band that played heavy rock or fell in with the first wave of heavy metal - now respectfully known as proto-metal - was not consistently heavy and intense. Most bands had one or two killer heavy tracks, a couple more that included heavy parts, and then the rest of the songs would be boogie rock, blues rock, an acoustic ballad, a folky number, and maybe something not so heavy but possibly proggy. This album isn't one of the few exceptions. However, it thankfully avoids some of the cliches that can frequently heard on American or British releases.

The opening track "Moving to the Country" features a grooving riff with slightly distorted guitars that sounds like early Eloy. It soon changes into a swinging bluesy number similar to early Wishbone Ash. However, at 3:15 there's a guitar solo that sounds suspiciously like finger tapping or at least a sequence of notes that sound similar to a tapped solo. That perked up my ears. The rest of the track revisits some of the more heavy rock sound that kicked off the song.

"Visions" is a slow track with strings or Mellotron that sounds a bit like "In the Court of the Crimson King" or a Moody Blues-inspired song. "Hopelessly" carries over from the hippy melodies of 69/70 before changing into a bass-grooving, upbeat jazz-tinged rocker like some early Uriah Heep. Then there's "Little Maggie" which a fun, southern rock-ish, track that gets rocking like Mountain or early Grand Funk Railroad. This one puts a smile on my face once the guitar solo starts carrying on.

"Early Morning" is the epic track that appears on many albums of the early seventies and it is in this track where the early heavy metal atmosphere rises through the rock. It's a slow number at first that builds the tension a little before releasing some intense drumming and guitar work. After the 8-minute mark we're into that sweet heavy rock of the 1969-72 era.

The original album is over here but the four CD bonus tracks are really worth mentioning because aside from the single version of "Visions" each of the tracks feature more of that scratchy wah-wah's guitar, hard-hammered riffs and intense drumming. "I'm Trying" once again brings to mind Wishbone Ash while "Changing World" actually nears Black Sabbath territory with some hard and heavy chords in one part while otherwise just being a showcase for speedy guitar rock with some heavy bass lines and frenetic drumming. This track is the best pick for an example of early seventies heavy rock.

Epitaph's debut is not going to make it to the top ten heavy albums of 1971 but it has a decent set of varying styles of guitar rock tracks which include some of those early heavy examples that I love to seek out. Overall, it's a pretty cool album and one that will get repeat listens simply because I enjoy listening to it.

voila_la_scorie Last year I picked up my first Striker album, their sophomore album "Armed to the Teeth". Thinking it was a great album, I went ahead and bought "City of Gold". That was a great album as well, so next I got "Stand in the Fire". This pattern continued until I had all six albums.

Striker began as a speed metal band with vocalist Daniel Cleary sounding a bit like Bruce Dickenson back on their "Road Warrior" EP of 2009. It's my opinion that from "Armed to the Teeth" onwards, Striker has reached a consistency of producing excellent album one after the other while showing interest in expanding their style. Previous albums included speed metal, thrashy-sounding, intense tracks, trad-metal, and more recently songs with strong, catchy melodies such as "Heart of a Lion" from their self-titled album of 2017.

Their latest release of original songs (there was a live in studio album released in 2020) is 2018's "Play to Win" and this album shows the band embracing much more strongly the melody-driven approach. Though the opening track "Heart of Lies" sounds like the Striker we've come to know and love, it soon becomes apparent that there will be no intense, speedy songs of angst or fighting to stay ahead. This album gives us more slower songs (but no true ballads), more clean guitar, some synthesizer even (!), and loads of ear-worm melodies. Think back to the latter half of the eighties with bands like Warrant, TNT, Waysted ("Save Your Prayers"), Lee Aaron ("Bodyrock"), and other bands that came out of the glam metal era but without the cock rock approach to song-writing.

Songs like "Head First", "On the Run", "The Front", the title track, "Standing Alone", "Heavy Is the Heart", and "Hands of Time" - heck, nearly the whole album - have these great melodic choruses that just stick into your head and you wake up in the morning with them playing. In fact, the only track to really deviate form this is the heavy and ominous-sounding "Summoner".

If you're a fan of the more intense, speedy and aggressive Striker of past albums, this one will be a shock. I read that the band made a conscious decision to branch out with their repertoire and record an album of more melodic songs. For someone who went through high school with albums like "Whitesnake", "Dirty Rotten Filthy Sticking Rich", "The Great Radio Controversy" by Tesla, "Perfect Timing" by McAuley Schenker Group, and other bands that probably fit more into the melodic hard rock or melodic glam metal scene than the trad-metal scene, this album delivers a whole new selection of great songs to rock out with and sing along to.

When recently making a playlist of my favourite Striker songs, this album along with "Armed to the Teeth" had the most tracks selected. However, in the last couple of days I'm finding I like practically every track on here. In fact, I'm thinking to order this CD for my best friend who always loved this kind of metal more than the extreme stuff.

voila_la_scorie Sorcier des Glace are a veteran black metal band from Quebec who have seven albums to their name, one of them having been released three times once as a re-recording and once more as a compilation of the original recording and the re-recording.

Formed by Luc Gaulin (drums) and Sebastien Robitaille (a.k.a. Sorcier des Glaces - Sorcerer of Ice) (vocals, guitars, bass) in 1997, SDG's recording career got off to a slow start as both Gaulin and Robitaille were in the progressive power metal band Moonlyght. Their second album spent seven years shelved before finally being released in 2006.

This self-titled release is the duo's sixth full-length album (not counting the re-recording of their debut) and for it they tackled the daunting task of creating one single 50-minute track. I say daunting because there are more then a few ways that this could have gone wrong, one of the most obvious hazards being that of creating a track that sounds like it should have been separated into individual tracks, another being the creation of a track that just becomes tedious as the band tries to fill an album by stretching out ideas.

In fact, the review on Metal Archives offered the criticisms that the band was not as creative as in their younger days and that the album sounded like several tracks stitched together. With these sentiments in mind, I wondered if my decision to order this CD had been without unwise as I had only decided to add it on to the order of SDG's 2020 release. The fact alone that this is a 50-minute track reminded me that I have only ever listened to Edge of Sanity's "Crimson" twice exactly because it requires 45 minutes of un-interruption. Should I have picked an older album?

I settled in to the task of digesting this massive beast of a track during my morning commute, promising myself that I wouldn't fiddle with Facebook or twiddle tiles on Words With Friends. I'd just let the music take me away and hopefully I wouldn't be checking the time too often.

Much to my relief and delight, I found the entire track a pleasure to hear. Yes, the music does change as it would had it been composed as individual tracks; however, I felt the changes natural and appropriate, just as Opeth introduce changes to riff and tempo in some of their longer songs. There are some breaks with a clean electric or acoustic guitar taking over from the typical black metal style, and in one part we can hear footsteps in the snow as a transition. But each transition seemed very smooth and natural to me, and the main "song" parts never stretching on for too long. Even a couple of the atmospheric moments that could have overstayed their welcome soon gave way to a sudden blast of black metal riffing.

The general style of Sorcier des Glace is heavily inspired by the Norwegian scene of the early and mid-nineties but there is a frequent-enough use of clean electric and acoustic guitars to change up the music and as well, there are some parts that are closer to classic heavy metal riffing or at least not the typical second wave style.

I never looked at the time once and so it was a surprise to me when after some sombre chanting, the track ended. I had expected it to continue a little longer. That's a good indication that I found the music varied enough and enjoyable enough that I didn't lose interest or get bored.

One thing I really appreciate is the quality of the recording. It is very well done. I understand the trve kvlt black metal should sound like it was recorded in a Norwegian basement on a handheld tape recorded but I prefer a cleaner production. I like to hear the sound of the instruments well and not muddied or clipped.

This is my second Sorcier des Glace album after their third one and once again I am pleased with my purchase. From what I've heard of their latest album, this band continues to sound good after over 20 years, despite what some people have to say. I think "Sorcier des Glaces" is a success and a great album!

voila_la_scorie The last day of work of the year. Lacking sleep as usual. Riding the train home and listening to some 2020 release that is really good, but I'm standing in the corner of the train and dozing off. Two stops before my station and then a 40-minute walk home because I want to save the bus fare. What to listen to next? Hmm... How about this Order of Chaos album? I haven't really given it a full spin.

Earlier this year, I bought my first album by The Order of Chaos. It was good but the production had that heavy wool blanket feel - the music was dulled down a bit and to me it lost some of its punch. But after a few careful listens, the songs began to stand apart from one another and at last, I decided I liked the band enough to get another album. It was as I was adding them to MMA that I discovered there was a new release, a 2020 album. I placed an order through Bandcamp but was contacted the next day by John Simon Fallon, saying that the CDs were all sold out. He'd see if he had an extra one in his personal collection for me. He didn't and refunded my money. But he also sent me access to download the album in WAV file format. At the time, however, I had so many new CDs coming in that I left off listening to the album.

Until tonight! And wow! I was swept up immediately by the music!

The Order of Chaos are basically a heavy metal band. They're not a trad metal band; the style is more modern. They have thrash moments and the clean-vocal choruses have a hint of power metal. At times they also cover melodic death metal, just without the usual deep, growly vocals. Vocalist Amanda Kiernan sings in both clean and harsh vocals. There are no ballads. This album delivers just straight up heavy hitters.

One obvious difference from their older album that I have is that the production quality better brings out the blast and blister of the music. Those riffs just burn right into your brain. The songs are heavy and solid but sometimes charge ahead or drop back to slam you with another riff. And you can feel it all in the production!

Another reason why this album sounds so good is that Amanda's harsh vocals have improved, in my opinion. Previously, I preferred her clean vocals with harsh vocals as an effect reserved for only parts of the songs. When she sang too much in her shredded voice, I wasn't all that thrilled. Now she sounds awesome! Thankfully, she still keeps the clean vocals which are often double-tracked and harmonized for some of the choruses.

This music on this album feels more consistent than the older one, which played around with mixing styles a little more obviously though still successfully. This album seems to go straight for the gut with one-two punches in every track. It's only the final track, "The Downfall of Belief", where things are clearly different as it's a short instrumental track on clean guitar, very beautiful and a shame to be over so soon.

I would really like to track down a copy on CD if I can, and I'm hoping the other album I have on order will please me as much as this one. It's great to hear a band solidify their style in an album that kills it from from to back!

voila_la_scorie Rob Abinader (a.k.a. RAV) loved eighties thrash metal and Man-O-War. Rob was also Arab Canadian. Throughout the 2000's he kept hearing much hatred against Arabs thanks to people's responses to the terrorist attacks perpetrated by fundamentalist Muslims. It was tough on him to be indirectly villainized by the villainization of all Arabs by a lot of western people. So, he hit upon the idea to parody this stereotype of Arabic people in a thrash metal band.

His nickname was expanded to Rob "the Arab Villain" as he said to his friend, "If I'm an Arab, then I too must be a villain." At first, it was just him and Sam "The Jewish Villain" Levitt recording in Rob's bedroom, with lead guitar contributions from fellow Edmontonian, John Saturley (The Order of Chaos). But by the second album, Villainizer had become a full band.

Villainizer play traditional thrash metal with lyrics typically being about terrorism from the view of the terrorists. There's a very strong tongue-in-cheek attitude to the lyrics as Rob's intention is to parody the western view of the Arab terrorist rather than parody terrorism itself.

The music is thrash-blazing fast in the vein of early Metallica, Exodus, and other California bands. For fans of the early days of thrash metal, the music is spot on! But the lyrics and song titles are what make Villainizer stand out.

"Turbanator", for example, is a song about the Terminator movie story theme but altered a little.

"Turbanate! / Turbanator (our time has finally come) / Face eradication / Targeted for turbanation / Now you know the time has come to..."

"Twin Tower Two-Step" - "Get your friends to stand tall and straight / Then knock 'em to the floor with a headbutt to the face / Speak broken English with a towel on your head / and mosh to Villainizer as if up from the dead"

The album wraps up with a parody of "Reign in Blood" that's been titled "Raining Bombs" (which also influenced the choice of cover art). Then there are three songs dedicated to a love for metal music ("I Wanna Play Metal All Night" no doubt a play on the KISS song "I Wanna Rock and Roll All Night"). Then two more parody covers: "Metal Depression" based on The Jimi Hendrix Experience's "Manic Depression" and "Jihad" parodying Metallica's "Whiplash".

"The aeroplanes start to fly / We'll crash them all around / Acting like a terrorist / Jihad!

For entertainment value, this album is pretty darn good. The lyrics are often very violent as many thrash lyrics are, but knowing the background of the band's theme, there is an ironic twist of dark humour.

Sadly, Rob destroyed all unsold Villainizer CDs when he dissolved the band in 2015, but all three albums with bonus tracks from the singles and EPs can be purchased as a download from Bandcamp for $7.

voila_la_scorie A few years back, I found my musical interests gravitating back to my first love: heavy metal. I had been out of any new developments since the early nineties other than the odd album here and there which usually left only a lukewarm impression. So when I returned to the world of metal music, I had to do some research to find out what was going on in the scene and what I needed to do to get up to speed. One of the subgenres I soon learned about was sludge metal. The name sounded intriguing. I learned about Mastodon and Baroness and ordered albums. And I discovered that I liked sludge metal!

To date, my sludge metal album collection hasn't even begun to scratch the surface, but one album I recently got as a download from Bandcamp (would love a CD of this!) that has won me over is "Something for Everyone, Nothing for Anyone" by Biipiigwan.

Yes, the band name is curious. It's the Anishinaabemowin (Ojibwe language) word for a war whistle. And before anyone can scream "Cultural appropriation!" you should know that band leader Musqwaunquot "Musky" Rice is Anishinaabe and he likes to use words from the Ojibwe language in the band's song titles.

"Something for Everyone, Nothing for Anyone" is the debut full-length release by Biipiigwan and their fourth release overall. It also remains their most recent release, unfortunately. The band continued doing live shows through to 2018 but since then their social media accounts have no new posts. The album's title comes from a joking remark made by one of the band members who referred to the band having a blend of metal, hardcore, sludge, doom, and noise rock in their music (something for everyone) but ultimately producing music that no one would be interested in (nothing for anyone).

Compared to their previous EP and demo releases, this album shows a remarkable improvement in professional recording quality. While the other albums were very indie-sounding with the looseness and roughness of a hardcore/sludge band intent on pulverizing the concrete of the sidewalks outside with sonic impact, this album sees the band entering a higher level of quality recording.

Their music still packs every pound of wrecking ball thump and wallop - no loss there! But this is the album that could have placed them as a world contender in sludge. In a January, 2014 interview in Decibel Magazine, Musky had these words to say about the album:

"I find the new record to be a little more riff-driven and not as dissonant and ugly-sounding as our earlier work and in my opinion that has to do with Mike (guitars) having actual musical knowledge (as opposed to myself) and my own song writing becoming a bit more focused. Because of that I think it’s more cohesive and accessible. Also, Topon did an amazing job recording the album; production-wise it’s the best thing we’ve released."

Generally speaking, the songs here are just solid crushers each of them, with Musky's vocals having all the subtlety of an angry biker who wants to make sure the Hell's Angels Chapter in the next town over can hear how pissed he is! My favourite track has to be "Shkweyaang" for it's frequent riff changes and for that one really awesome part where one guitar plays a new riff and then when the drums come in, the second guitar amp is just crackling and ready to spit sheer energy before the second guitar joins in with the riff.

This is one of those albums where I could feel as though the music was invading my brain and rapidly sending tendrils into all the blood vessels in my torso and tugging on my flesh from the inside. It's really a shame that I can't get this on CD because I'd love a physical copy. It seems like thievery that I could buy all three of the band's available releases from Bandcamp for under $7!

This is an album I will keep handy on my smart phone for some time to come. I sure hope the band gets together to record a new album in the next year or two.

voila_la_scorie It's not always easy to write a review for an album that I enjoy listening to. If I'm hog wild for it, no problem. If I am really disappointed, no problem. But when I just enjoy track after track without totally getting knocked over the head, putting adequate words together can be a struggle.

"II: Vanishing" is the second album and most recent album to date by Ottawa doom / sludge trio, Longhouse. The album was nominated for best hard rock/heavy metal album of the year in the 2017 Juno Awards.

The style of this album is rooted in doom metal but often with a less oppressive atmosphere and in sludge metal but with less granite-shattering riff impact than their fellow Ontarians, Biipiigwan. There's also a bit of post metal blended in, and vocalist Joshua Cayer's harsh vocal style is closer to black metal while his clean vocal style is more typical of traditional doom metal. The album is comprised of five tracks taking up just over 38 minutes.

The opening track, "Hunter's Moon", takes a slow and steady route, building the atmosphere and weight of the music with heavy riffs that aren't exaggerated in depressive moods while eerie guitar wails waft like mists. The image I had in my mind was like surveying a wasted and desolation landscape after some catastrophe. The vocals finally come in after almost six and a half minutes.

"Vanishing" and "Blood and Stone" are the shortest tracks on the album and feature more traditional doom metal riffs contrasted by Cayer's black metal vocal style. "No Name, No Marker" was the album's single and begins with a guitar riff that sounds like something from Nine Inch Nails' "The Downward Spiral" album, though another reviewer said it had a grunge feel to it. The lead guitar work is very apt for the music - not flamboyant and not shredding and atonal. Another review I read likened the leads to Death's "The Sound of Perseverance".

"The Vigil" is the album's longest track at just over 10 minutes. It features Cayer's clean vocals as well as his harsh vocals, and I think the extra dimension the clean vocals add make this track a memorable track as an album closer. Other reviewers have cited the band's adherence to a basic formula both a merit and a point of slight disappointment. It seems that band is capable of adding more interest to their compositions but for the most part keep to the doom / sludge style. Another modest gripe of other reviewers is that song tracks go on a bit too long. I agree with one reviewer who wrote that the album is easy to enjoy as something to listen to but when one tries to enclose himself in the music for the purpose of writing a review, some tracks seem a minute or two longer than needed. I myself find all the tracks satisfying; however, I also admit that it is difficult to listen very analytically for the purpose of writing a decent review.

Which brings me back to where I started. So it's a good place to wrap up here. In conclusion, "II: Vanishing" is a very good album that does what it does very well. Personally, I find the teases of extra goodies such as the clean vocals or the grunge-type guitar bit might be nice to hear with a little more frequency. But I have no real gripes. Longhouse deserve their Juno nomination.

voila_la_scorie "Doomed Traveler" appears to be the first proper video that Maelstrom Vale has done. If you watch it, just go ahead and watch it, you might be... appalled! "What is this rubbish?" you might say to yourself or to whomever is watching it with you. "Is this a joke?" Metal Sucks gave this video mention back in August, 2016. Dangerousminds caught wind of it and called it "The best worst metal song you're gonna hear today". And the PRP News ran the headline, "Maelstrom Vale's 'Doomed Traveler' May Be Your New Favorite Canadian Metal Video".

If you've ever seen any videos by The Black Satans you might understand what I'm getting at. The video is so painfully bad that it's funny and bears re-watching. Vocalist Kurt Bergsma arching his back with his gut sticking out under his T-shirt; bassist Andrew Linsley's clean vocals somehow not quite matching the dude playing the bass in the video; guitarist Evan Sundbo looking like a seventies high school nerd who's into The Ramones. The video is obviously home made (on smart phones!) and recorded to playback, which is quite obvious at times. The lip-syncing just doesn't look convincing. But there's something you should know: the actual music is something quite different.

Maelstrom Vale are at the basic level classified as progressive death metal. But there's a lot more to this band. Forget the video. Listen to the song only. The band actually does have their chops down. Rumbling chords, slap bass, cruising heavy psychedelic riffs. These are no inept hacks trying to be metal. They have the chops! The thing is that they are not your typical progressive death metal band by any means.

This seven-track, 42-minute album is quite the ride. You never know what the band will throw at you. Punky riffing. Death growl "do do-do do-do" with a falsetto backing vocal that sounds like it's provided by a member of the Chicken Coupe Backup Singers, strange sliding guitar string effects, and bizarre lyrics such as, "History is impossible / You can dream / We need a dream / For four years, eleven months, and two days / do do-do do-do". And that's just the first track!

You'll also get a waltz breakdown in "To Surpass the Gods", a three-minute flute solo in "The Fear of July", folky acoustic strumming, math-rock psychedelic riffing, droppings of doom riffs, and in "Thulcandra Pt II: The Boogey Man" you'll get a groovy guitar riff that even octogenarians with hip replacements will want to dance to. Seriously, you never do know what will come next. Well, okay, I just told you. Spoiler alert! Too late!

Listening to "Silhouettes" for the first time is a bit like the first time I heard They Might Be Giants: there was a zaniness, a sense of fun and comedy, but it was somehow more impressive than funny because the music was so outstanding. Maelstrom Vale might seem hard to take seriously sometimes but there's no denying that these dudes have a knack for switching rhythms and time signatures like any experienced prog band and can convincingly rock out heavy and dark when they want.

Just don't judge their music by their home video.

voila_la_scorie "Centuries of Decay" is the self-titled debut and only release so far by this band who are said to mix black metal and death metal in a progressive death metal style. The band was formed in Toronto by two brothers who are originally from Prince Edward Island, land of Anne of Green Gables and the signing of the Canadian Constitution.

And potatoes! Lots of potatoes!

Centuries of Decay released this album in 2017 and then in 2018 went on to win the Wacken Metal Battle Canada National Final.

At the heart of it, Centuries of Decay is a mid-tempo-paced, modern metal band with harsh vocals that sound like a midway point between the guttural bellowing of death metal and the higher, wet-meat shredded throat shrieks of some black metal bands. The lyrics are quite clear if you follow along with them in print. Riffs can be steady, pulses of badadum badadum or more complex. Double bass is used when necessary to affect speed or intensity, but the band is more about creating songs that stretch out a bit with lyrics about struggle against oppressive forces, determination and perseverance, and hating the bastards who shove you down.

Honestly, this was another album that took me a few careful listens to begin to see it beyond the obvious modern metal band stylistic accoutrements. When you've heard enough bands, you start to look for the things that make tracks stand out even if it's just enough to make them stand out from one another. There are a few things on this album such as clean vocals that don't sound like the metalcore type on a couple of tracks; a curious classically influenced piano bit that closes out the last couple of minutes of the track, "Rise"; the melodic black metal riffing in the title track; the eerie beginning with clean guitar and bass and creepy muttering voices at the start of "Asylum"; the smooth, clean-guitar, jazzy section in "Odyssey"; the snarly breakdown in "Asylum", and the pleasant, strummed acoustic guitar finale of the album at the end of "Demise". With each subsequent listen, the subtleties and nice touches reveal themselves more.

However, while each track has been written and recorded with care and skill, I must return to the fact that I was not immediately smitten by the album. I could hear it was very good but I didn't have any tracks leap out at me. In fact, a week from now I might not remember what I heard that I liked in what tracks. This might be due to overkill as I have been trying to digest several dozen new albums from the last half year.

Another slight problem I have with this album is the recording volume is quite low. The CD needs the volume turned up a few notches more than regular CDs and even the download from Bandcamp doesn't deliver the weight that should be there. Less volume lessens the impact of the music, I think. This one needs the dial twisted way over.

I think we're talking about a very good album here. But I do have the nagging suspicion that there are plenty of other bands capable of recording a similar album. Who knows? Maybe I'm missing something?

voila_la_scorie It’s 1984 and I’m 13 years old. I’ve just come back from the record store where I purchased with a bit of my weekly paper route earnings a cassette by a band called Skull Fist. I’ve only been into heavy metal for a year and a bit but I’m eager to build up my cassette collection with as many bands as possible, and Skull Fist just look like the perfect band to bring home. One very good reason for that is that no one around me has ever heard of them!

I drop the cassette into my stereo and press play. There are some quick lead guitar notes and then the guitar starts rapidly firing off a riff. The bass and drums drop in and a high-pitched male vocal adds a “AH-ah-Aoh!” before the double bass drum goes double time. The album is awesome! Vocals, guitars, bass, and drums. That’s it! The music is speedy, the riffs just keep coming, and the vocals are soaring ridiculously into to troposphere. I want to sing along to “Commit to rock”, and “No false metal” captures my adolescent ears with the bold expletive, “Get the fuck away from me!” I’m still too young though to have a chuckle over “Get Fisted” as I assume the band means that I should enjoy being at their concert or listening to their music.

It’s 2020 and I’ve decided to track down Canadian metal bands in order to show support for my countrymen and women and to see what’s happening in the metal scene these days from a Canuck perspective. One of the bands I discover early on (because their album “Head of the Pack” shows up on three or four lists of Canadian metal bands/albums you have to hear) is Skull Fist. I order their debut album from 2011 and when I receive it, I take it home and put it in my computer, copy it into iTunes and export it to my iPhone. The next day, I stuff the ear buds into the holes of my ears and tap the play arrow on my phone. There are some quick lead guitar notes and then the guitar starts rapidly firing off a riff. The bass and drums drop in and a high-pitched male vocal adds a “ah-AH-aoh!” before the double bass drum goes double time.

No, Skull Fist are not an eighties band but their album sure as heck sounds like it could be, from the speed metal playing style to the ultra-high vocals of Jackie Slaughter. This is a fabulous homage to the eighties metal scene from around 1983-85, when playing fast, hard and heavy with a singer who could shatter light bulbs with his voice was the coolest thing. With Skull Fist, they sound so sincerely committed to keeping the spirit alive that you’ll likely be racking your brain in search of where you have heard a band like this before. I think they sound a lot like early Killer Dwarfs on speed metal!

I’m not certain of when this trend began, but it seems that perhaps sometime in the mid-2000’s bands took up the flag of that classic heavy metal sound and style began popping up, and the trend continues to the present. Skull Fist, along with Cauldron, Striker, and Riot City are just a few representatives from Canada who have been dropping albums over the last dozen years or so, their music capturing the sound of eighties metal at a master level. It is so easy to imagine myself hearing this music for the first time on cassette back when I was just a young teenager.

The only non-positive aspect to this particular record is that because the music stays true and blue to a certain style, there is not much variety. It’s just riding the rocket from start to finish. Nevertheless, favourite tracks there are: Head of the Pack, No False Metal, Like a Fox, and Attack Attack rise only slightly higher than the rest of the album which already rises high. Who am I to disagree with the professional reviewers who give this album much praise? It delivers beautifully!

There’s a tendency for some people to lambast any band that’s not “original” because they are only copycats of past acts. I don’t give a beaver’s anus about that. If I enjoy the music, I’m in! And I’m enjoying this album. Got a problem with that? Then you can get fisted!

voila_la_scorie Oni is billed as a progressive metal band and one of the first things you should know is that Oni’s brand of progressive metal is of the new wave type that a reviewer for Metal Injection pointed out as being a lot like Between the Buried and Me. We’re talking lots of different styles, lots of fast music with fast changes, harsh vocals and clean vocals, different riffing styles, mellower parts and a xylosynth.

A what?!

A xylosynth. Well, alright. It sounds potentially gimmicky so I’ll move along and come back to it when it’s relevant.

“Ironshore” is Oni’s debut album and, aside from a digital-only EP release, this is their only album. As mentioned, the music on this album is fast, brutal, and furious at times while other times being surprisingly melodic and also Dream Theater-technical at other times. The band promoted the album with two singles and videos: “Barn Burner” and “Eternal Recurrence”, the first two tracks off the album. I’ll admit that with so much happening in the music, it’s a bit difficult at first to sort in one’s mind one song from the next, but a few careful listens helps to make sense of what’s going on here. “Barn Burner”, for example, features some ear-catching bass finger tapping (that’s what it sounds like to me anyway) while “Eternal Recurrence” has this slow and soft part with clean vocals, synths and piano cropping up in the first minute of the song before things go all brutal again.

The music at times sounds like Dream Theater at their heaviest and most intense while at other times it’s closer to metalcore. One reviewer pointed out how the clean vocals often give a flavour of “whiny metalcore”. I’ll stick my own thought about that in here: I’m not a fan of clean vocals in metalcore because I don’t think they suit a metal vocal style. For that, I sometimes don’t care for the clean vocals here either, and I’m not alone. The one review on Metal Archives has lots of good things to say about the music but heaps disdain upon the clean vocals. There’s a tendency toward the progressive metal style of clean vocals as well, and in the slowed down, almost seventies groovy section in the middle of “The Science”, it sounds more like a modern progressive rock band. Still, out of three reviews I read, two really weren’t in for the clean vocals. Fortunately, the harsh vocals are much, much more common.

Given the nature of the music, everyone is freakin’ busy! It’s good to hear the bass come forward so often and show up clearly in the mix many times. Guitar riffs, well, just go back and refer to the likenesses to Between the Buried and Me and Dream Theater. A YouTuber reviewing the album said at least three tracks are so much like The Human Abstract, but I can’t agree or disagree because I haven’t heard that band.

So what about this xylosynth? Well, you’ll hear plenty of what sounds like synthesizer playing, often sounding reminiscent of Jordan Rudess, particularly for the barrage of notes that come like a volley of arrows through the heavy guitars. There are also other “synthesizer” moments frequently enough to likely remind you of Dream Theater. The thing is that these are all played on a xylophone that is “electric”. In fact, you can see videos on YouTube of musician Johnny DeAngelis playing away to Oni’s songs. Now the Metal Injection reviewer said he saw the band perform live and thought that the xylophone looked like the most un-metal instrument ever but quickly pointed out that when you hear the album, you think it’s a synthesizer and it sounds really cool. Again, I’m hearing strong Dream Theater similarities when the xylosynth is playing some complex melody or solo between bursts of electric guitar leads or the band’s sometimes jarring time signatures.

This has been not an easy album for me to digest right away. It’s easy to think at first that this album is the musical equivalent of trying to repack an explosion back into the bomb. But if you’re familiar with the sub-genre-jumping music of Between the Buried and Me or Protest the Hero and the technical and contorted instrumental exercises of Dream Theater, you may begin to appreciate what’s going on here. There’s a lot happening with a lot of parts crying for closer attention.

Naturally, a band with this much flair for tight, shifting dynamics in music, an instrumental track is on order, and that is the track “The Takeover” which delivers one helluva wild exhibition of musical gymnastics. Of the three reviews I read and the one YouTube video review I watched, everyone had great compliments about the music and the harsh vocals. Only the clean vocals received criticism in two cases. I’ll say that at times the clean vocals kind of work with the music in some places but when they go soft and melodic metalcore, I’m not convinced it’s the best approach. However, I will agree that the music here is quite a ride and with a few more careful listens I think I should be able to untangle the knots in my brain that some of this tracks give me.

voila_la_scorie "Unleash the Beast" is the second EP released by melodic death metal band LUTHARO. The band has no full-length albums to date but did release their third EP earlier in 2020.

The track list includes a brief intro and four songs between 5:31 and 7:08. The band's style is actually more of a melodic death metal blended with intense moments of thrash, with vocalist Krista Shipperbottom pulling off some soaring high notes as well as plenty of ferocious death bellows. She also has the ability to slip in some more standard metal vocals, going high but raspy.

"Unleash the Beast" delivers more or less straightforward melodic death metal crossed with thrashy moments and perhaps hints of power metal. Their web site claims they have a little something for everybody. The riffs go from simple chugging to more involved finger-work and speedy tremolo picking. The speed stays pretty much middle of the metal road, though easily lurching into fifth gear when appropriate and never dragging its ass either. There’s never a dull moment to be sure. The musicians all deliver as well as one would expect from this kind of band with tight guitar interplay and some tasteful solos plus some abrupt switches of tempo from the drum kit. Strangely, I have to say that after a few listens the songs have yet to fully grasp my affections (i.e. am I writing this review too prematurely?).

Perhaps it's because melo death is not my first choice for metal pleasures or perhaps it's because I recently and coincidentally picked up a few bands playing a similar style and so, aside from the fact that it's a woman singing in this band, I'm not hearing something groundbreaking. I just find the music here - while satisfying on a technical level - doesn't quite have me gripping any seats or grasping the safety bar with white knuckles. The band is firing away, all systems go, but my response always seems to be more analytical than emotional. My apologies to the band!

Certainly not a disappointment, however. Ms. Shipperbottom's voice is sometimes the highlight of a song. An unexpected death roar or ear-piercing wail makes me utter, "Ah, you got me!" The music is really good, but I feel it's rather “to be expected” for the genre. It’s worthy to mention that the one review on Metal Archives praises this album outright, the rating an impressive 89%. Other reviews give sufficient hype to this EP and the band as well.

If melodic death metal crossed with thrash is something that excites you and you can't get enough, you should consider checking out LUTHARO. As for me, I have no regrets purchasing this EP on disc but I feel it's more of an album from which I can pull off tracks for a mixed playlist rather than an album I deeply desire to listen to often. Or maybe I just haven't really heard this album right yet?

Songs to check out would be "Black Scorpion" and "Temple of the Damned". In the meantime, I'm going to see how their latest EP sounds. The reviews I’ve read claim the band has become even better!

voila_la_scorie Begrime Exemious are said to have started out as a death metal/black metal band, but listening to this album, their third full-length, I'd say they are pure old school death metal.

The music is intense and brutal with typical, barely comprehensible guttural vocals. The tempos alternate between speedy and more mid-tempo where they can blast you with heavy riffs. There are times when the rhythm or riffs abruptly change. The lead guitar goes melodic at times and tends to avoid dive bombs. The band this album most reminds me of is perhaps Dismember, but it's also a lot like other classic Swedish death metal bands.

The track "Conscription Woes" is a great example of that thundering, pummeling, not-too-fast death metal that drops in a killer riff with some very tasty wah-wah guitar effect. "Noose for a Monarch" is also a ripper with a killer riff.

Many of the songs seem to start right away, like the producer yelled, "Go!" as he pressed the recording button. There's a real feeling of haste! "Crusade Towards Self-Destruction" is also mentioned in my notes as being great.

The final track, "When the Vultures Leave" is unusual because it fades in and at the end, fades out again. But it's a killer track that reminds me of watching massive boulders fall on a mountainside village.

This album impresses me every time I listen to it. So, I've decided to get the one before this one too!

voila_la_scorie Into Eternity's first two albums have scored pretty poorly on this web site; however, their third album "Buried in Oblivion" sees a full four stars. I've read some favourable reviews out there with one reviewer on the Metal Archives site calling this their best album!

The sticker on the shrink wrap when I bought the CD said, "Progressive metal for the death metal fan; Death metal for the progressive metal fan". That should give you a good impression what to expect, though I would less there's less death and more prog. The songs feature tight technical playing and lots of awesome riffs that show up like on "Desolation" and "Isolation". There's plenty of time-signature juggling as well. The vocals range from deep growls and shredded throats to soaring, clean vocals and clean vocal harmonies. One reviewer said the guitar sounds are both the "tweedly tweedly" type and the "chugga chugga" type. Fair enough!

Two points that may sway interest are 1) most of the songs feature the same elements so it takes a few listens to be able to distinguish tracks and 2) all the lyrics revolve around "desolation" and "isolation" and mental anguish and depression. I think Pain of Salvation ruined that for me with their "Perfect Element" album. Enough broken people concepts!

I personally am really surprised to know this band came from Regina, Saskatchewan. Regina has a strong metal scene that I didn't know about, though Kick Axe and the seventies rock/hard rock band, Streetheart, are both from Regina. I'm really impressed to hear a band with this calibre of playing and this sound coming out of a Prairie city. I have since bought their fifth album and have their latest album on order.

voila_la_scorie Wilt's second full-length, according to a review I read, sees the band returning to their atmospheric black metal style. Apparently, their debut full-length album, "Moving Monoliths" added a strong dose of doom metal. If there's any doom metal on this album, "Ruin", I failed to notice it.

Lyricist and vocalist, Jordan Dorge says that the album is a concept album that is inspired by the book, "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy but Dorge wrote his own narrative. One more powerful contributor to the album was the suicide of a dear friend of the band. Dorge also states in an interview that Wilt are inspired by the landscape and climate of Manitoba which is vast, open, and in the winter bitterly cold and bleak.

The review I mentioned above drops band names which the reviewer was reminded of while listening to "Ruin". Wiegedood, Drudkh, Winterfylleth - none of these bands being ones I have heard yet. My first thought, however, was that the beautiful lead guitar melodies reminded me a lot of Deafheaven, whom I saw live in Tokyo in 2019 when they opened for Empreror. But while Deafheaven oscillate between sweet melodies and intense music, Wilt combine the intense black metal riffing with the beautiful melodies. They have that post rock feel and make me think of someone who has spent days grieving but manages to look up through the tears and smile or a snow-blasted landscape with only the skeletal remains of an old collapsed homestead that, despite its impression of harsh bleakness and decay, is still beautiful to behold.

The album carries this atmopshere of anguish and emotional pain until the final track, "Requiem", which takes a decidedly positive turn as if someone's agony is over because they have ascended to the next world.

I loved this album when I first heard it and returning to it after a few weeks of not listening to it, I find it still has an impact. If you love atmospheric, melodic black metal with postrock/Deafheaven melodies, then do check this one out!

voila_la_scorie When the Metal Gods created Mastodon, they looked and listened and were so impressed with the album "Leviathan" that they thought it would be cool to have another band creating music like that. So the gods winked at each other and set forth across the North American continent to find a city far away from Atlanta, Georgia where they would cast their mould once more. They crossed the 49th Parallel as they neared the western reaches of the continent and stopped just before the main landmass broke into islands at the edge of the Pacific Ocean, and there they created Bison. Who soon went and changed their name to Bison B.C. so as not to be confused with (or actually sued by) other bands who were using the same name.

This is Bison B.C.'s debut album and their second release after their EP "Earthbound". If you are a fan of Mastodon's "Leviathan" and want something that pounds just as heavily and pulverizes just as effectively, then "Quiet Earth" is a good place to come. This is eight tracks of continuous sledgehammer slamming. The band knows how to hit the heavies with guitar chords, bass, and drums all slamming down at once to create these massive, explosive riffs that are like the impacts of some colossal beast stomping down on the landscape. Concrete structures shatter like dried clay, windows blow out like supernovas, and vehicles are launched into the air.

The vocals of James Gnarwell are quite similar to those of Mastodon's (I'm not sure which of the two vocalists it is though, but not the one who sang the "Blood and thunder" part in the song "Blood and Thunder"). In spite of the similarity, however, James Gnarwell does have his own distinct quality to his voice. There is a second vocalist who appears in "These Are My Dress Clothes" and whose voice is deeper and more like death vocals. They add another layer of interest, and it would have been nice to hear them again.

All eight tracks presented here are similar in their unrelenting thunder, but you will hear the intro to "Wendigo, Part 1: Quest for Fire" has a cello and violin and these instruments turn up again in the final track, the title track of the album.

Aside from all that, "Quiet Earth" can lay a city flat. But it's not limited to just dropping oil tankers on the town. There's a fair bit of musical play time and time signature juggling in some tracks, a sludge approach to progressive metal. It doesn't surprise me as the other sludge bands I'm most familiar with are Mastodon and Baroness. If the band had stuck to just hammering down chords and blowing out the vocal chords of impersonators, it would still be pretty cool. But thankfully, there are some small additions like the extra vocals, the cello and violin, and ventures into trickier music to play that make my ears perk up every time after I think the band's approach is to just blast out the chords. On the strength of this album here, I have gone ahead and ordered the next one in their discography.

So, if someone ever asks you if there's an album out their that's similar to "Leviathan", you can recommend "Quiet Earth" by Bison!

voila_la_scorie Hazzerd's brand of thrash metal is the higher tone type with vocals that make them sound like they could be a punk/thrash crossover band, except I haven't heard that they ever played any punk rock. Drummer/vocalist Dylan Westendrop must get part of the intensity in his voice from having to play the drums so fast! Lyrics are your typical themes about corrupting societies and chemical health hazards. If I have overlooked something, I apologize.

There is, however, something else lurking in the rapid fire thrash guitar playing and maximum overdrive steam engine speed, and that is a desire to show off a higher level of musicality which comes up in two instrumental tracks, "Call of the Void" and "The End". Here we have finger-picked acoustic guitar, clean electric guitar, and lead guitar that is melodic and beautiful at times and even approaching neo-classical style in "Call of the Void". It's a bit like finding the classical guitar parts of Metallica's "Fade to Black" and the melodic parts of "Orion" on the "Kill 'em All" album. Personally, I think these instrumentals add something to what could have been a fairly straightforward thrash metal album and give the band more cred as musicians whose skills go beyond playing standard thrash metal.

Another point I like about this album is that there are two or three tracks where the bass comes forward. It's not for long but I always find these moments of "stop the six strings and let the four string walk to the front of the stage" contribute to a track's interest.

A track that I just have to mention is "Dead in the Shed", which is about a young, garden shed drug chemist named Bill who makes LSD for the neighbourhood junkies. "Stay on drugs and don't do school," is his moto; however, Bill ends up overdosing and dying in his shed and no one finds him until his corpse stinks too much for the funeral home. Lyrically, it has a dark sense of humour but also warns against drug abuse.

Because of the more skate party thrash tone I picked up early on, I wasn't as thrilled about this album as some other thrash albums I got around the same time. Listening more carefully, there are actually a few tracks that really stand out for me, "Illuminated Truth" and "Waking Nightmare" being two more that had me checking the track listing.

A pretty solid trash album that shows a band aspiring to possibly evolve into something more.

voila_la_scorie La Chinga are a hard rock band that have tapped into that classic hard rock sound that dates back to the seventies but also inspired bands of the eighties. Think of the final couple of years of AC/DC with Bon Scott or the likes of Faster Pussy Cat and Dangerous Toys but without the glam and sleaze. La Chinga are more the boys in cowboy boots, sunglasses and a bottle of whisky, racing a Dodge Challenger down the highway, rolling the dice, and having an arm around some sexy woman in tight cutoff denim shorts with a switchblade hidden somewhere.

The title of their second album, "Freewheelin'" says a lot, the album cover says more, and the back cover with the license plate that reads "GET SUM" while a pair of female legs wave out the window and the drummer salutes us from the back window with a middle finger just about sums it up. This band is snake boots, gypsies, black magic, "Stoned Grease White Lightnin'". That should give you an idea of what to expect here. Unapologetic sass and ready for another glass, La Chinga are the hard rock band your mom didn't want your older sister to know about but the younger sister got away with it.

Listening to this album, you might think this band have got their bases covered and they know what they're about and how to deliver it. But I know a little secret, and that is that their third album is even better. It's so good in fact that I had to get the second one just to be sure of the course these dudes were plotting.

voila_la_scorie Dead Quiet are a little hard for me to label. They’re said to be doom metal/stoner rock with lots of seventies influences, but I’d say they are basically a very heavy stoner rock band with a lot of sludge factor. Their self-titled debut was released in 2015 with the track “Foul Words” released with a bizarre video that seems to be about a guy who can’t feel any sensation of pain and goes about trying to injure and harm himself throughout the video, from smashing beer bottles over his head to swallowing powdered laundry detergent with bleach.

Of the nine tracks here, five of them are loaded with sludge-like heavy chords and vocalist Kevin Keegan screaming over top of it all. The other four tracks blend acoustic and clean electric guitar with the band’s thousand-ton chords. The lyrics seem to be mostly about soul-devastating frustration and despondency over loss or a burning desire to rise above and crush all the sources of this mental anguish with whatever final flame of desire to survive remains. Check out titles like “Home Is Where You Go to Die”, “The Fall of Me” or “God Was Wrong”. The track, “Remaining Remains” includes the reading of a eulogy while the track, “God Was Wrong” will have you wanting to guzzle down beers during the acoustic verses and then smash the empties over your head for the crushing chorus.

There are some cool little surprises that show up to add some diversity to the dark and self-obliterating atmosphere in the heavier parts. “Remaining Remains” includes a sparse yet moody bass riff that had me thinking of the Butthole Surfers “Locust Abortion Technician” album. “The Fall of Me” includes a picked banjo and later has a weird synthesizer part with a steady bass pulse and cymbals for percussion that could have been something from Animals/The Wall era Pink Floyd. “Home Is Where You Go to Die” could sound like a grunge band similar to Nirvana doing a partly clean guitar, melodic track. Some of the songs also change partway through either picking up the pace a little or darkening down.

This isn’t an album I personally would think to play through in its entirety often even though there are no tracks I don’t like. In my opinion, each of the songs are good and many have some extra quality that makes those particular tracks stand out from the general messed up mind mood. Just for me, there isn’t any one particular track or pair of tracks that really shine as “Awesome Mix” playlist inclusions.

A good and even very good album as a debut, and now that Dead Quiet have just released their third album in early autumn of 2020, I’ll be curious to know how they sound these days.

voila_la_scorie "Burn These Dreams" is the second full-length album by Edmonton, Alberta's The Order of Chaos. The band won "Heavy Metal Album of the Year" award in 2013, according to their web site, but I don't know who honoured them with it. It wasn't a Juno Award, but nevertheless, recognition is still recognition!

The Order of Chaos's music style covers heavy metal, thrash metal, and power metal. Vocalist Amanda Kiernan sings in both clean vocals and a powerful fried vocal. Not a death growl but more of a higher-toned, throat-shredding harsh vocal style.

The album begins with the first three tracks showcasing the bands more technical playing style, and Kiernan's harsh vocals are heard more frequently than her clean singing. This gives the impression of a melodic death metal band almost except that the darker edge isn't there. The speedy guitar playing and drumming do sound more like technical thrash metal. The third track, "Hell Is Forever" includes a really awesome riff near the end.

Tracks 5 and 8 - "For Another Moment" and "End of an Era" respectively - are more melodic with clean vocals mostly. Kiernan's voice is quite an ear-catcher as she sings beautiful melodies. Other tracks on the album include more clean vocals than harsh vocals. I personally really like her clean singing and when the harsh vocals come in for emphasis or effect, it's really good. The songs were she uses her harsh vocals more I find less to my preference.

Lead guitarist, John Simon Fallon, is great both at shredding and playing more melodic leads. As well, we get fast, thrashy riffs, technical riffing, and more classic metal riffs. The band holds their heavy metal position as well as prove they can sway towards thrash or more technical playing. I don't really sense anything from the power metal zone except perhaps a little on the 8-minute plus "Darklord".

The closing track, "Guns 'n' Order" is a surprise though. It's essentially and good-time, party-it-up rock and roller but with something a bit less cheery after the chorus. The chorus itself is the best part with a very catchy, rhythm. "All you crazy metal mother fuckers won't you bang your heads / And all you sexy little women throw your hands up in the air". It's really a song for pickup trucks and outdoor music festivals!

The album initially didn't hold my attention well. Now that I am better acquainted with it, I have my favourite songs and favourite moments. It could be said that the style changes seem a bit too random at first and we are not sure if this is a melodic metal band or a technical thrash band with harsh vocals. And then the final track comes on to really throw you for a loop! But I'm cool with it now. It's good stuff.

If I have one gripe it's the sound production. There's a feeling of everything being a bit smooshed together. It's what I call "heavy wool blanket production" - you have all the instruments sharp and clear and then you throw a heavy wool blanket over top and the edge is taken away. Basically, if this album is not cranked, you're not getting your ass kicked!

For the production numbing down the music a bit and for the slow take up, I'm giving "Burn These Dreams" only 3 1/2 stars. I'm hoping to hear either their third or fourth album (CD sold out!) and see how it compares to this one. Still, The Order of Chaos have some pretty strong talent!

voila_la_scorie A few years ago, I returned to metal music with a great lust for finding out all that I had missed between the early nineties when I more or less gave up on most new metal releases and the mid-2010's when, thanks to prog metal and Opeth, I came back to my first love in music: metal. One of the subgenres I needed to find out about was black metal. Of course I picked up as many off the classic albums as I could plus I checked out other popular albums. Some of the albums to make deep impressions on me were Dimmu Borgir's "Enthrone Darkness Triumphant", Negura Bunget's "Om", and Emperor's "Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk".

Arctos is a band I discovered on bandcamp while searching for black metal artists. Hailing from Edmonton, Alberta in Canada, this band has only this one album and an ep release to their credit, but - wow! - do they ever sound like a full-blown professional black metal band! They have the melodic riffs, the blast beats, and the harsh vocals down to a level that is awesome! And thanks to the keyboards, they have a symphonic side to some of their songs that makes me think of "Enthrone Darkness Triumphant".

This is an album that typifies black metal in any ways, but it also steps outside the box a little by including nearly spoken parts in clean vocals or almost chanted lyrics with what sounds like the whole band joining in. However, more than that, Arctos actually has a piano player credited to their roster. Though of course the symphonic feel must come from the synthesizers, the occasional cold and sombre piano playing I find to be a very suitable and complementary to the music.

Arctos have here an album of symphonic and melodic black metal that I find so good that it's almost a spiritual awakening. For now, I recommend checking out "Shattered Tomb" though really any track makes as good an impression. The production quality - the sound of the recording - is also really great! This is an album that I enjoy from start to finish with highlights all along the way!

voila_la_scorie This album should be in the top 25 of any list of eighties heavy metal. No, you can leave out any of the more extreme kids like thrash, black, and death metal. But just straight forward heavy metal crossing early Great White, Dokken, and the most kick ass songs off Warrant's "Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinkin' Rich" at their most melodic moments, and going seriously into speed metal at moments of unbridled energy. This album has all the awesome riffing, the blazing lead guitar work, and the soaring vocals of the best heavy metal albums of the eighties. There's even a bit of early American power metal and a few almost Iron Maiden moments here and there.

And the band can throw down some really awesome riffs that catch you completely off guard! A song can seem like your standard heavy charger when suddenly they whack you with a sledgehammer riff. Catch one of the best examples in the final track, "Can't Stop the Rush" but watch for them because they crop up everywhere. "Land of the Lost" and "All the Way" also deliver some great ones.

On this album, Striker prove that they have some of the best heavy metal tricks in the book (to borrow a phrase). But there's one perfectly good reason why this album doesn't appear on any lists of eighties metal and that is because this album was recorded and released in 2012. Yes, Striker are one of those classic metal bands that are around these days, and this album here, "Armed to the Teeth" (sounds like an album by Savage or Omen) proves that a band in the 2010's can create an album that sounds like all the best things about eighties heavy metal. Vocalist Dan Cleary has got the soaring eighties metal vocal down perfectly. For someone like me who's musical tastes were largely founded upon the heavy metal and hard rock music released between 1983 and 1989, this album revitalizes my youthful love for metal and furthermore, it makes me want to smash beer bottles on hardwood tables all the while grinning widely!

Will I be checking out more from this band? Oh, yeah! Come the New Year when the holiday bills have been paid off, I'm aiming to bring home another Striker album. I sure hope it's as killer as this one!

voila_la_scorie I've been enjoying this female power trio's debut album these last couple of weeks. I was digging through NWoBHM bands and checking out ones I didn't know. I had never heard of Rock Goddess. Girlschool are the most famous of the British all-women's hard rock/heavy metal bands of those days. I gave them a couple of quick listens on YouTube and decided the album had to be mine.

To say that these ladies pack a wallop doesn't quite do them justice. It's more like repeated hard-ass smacks to the side of the face and boots to your glutes. Think The Runaways at their most ass kicking moments doing a whole album of ass kicking songs. Jody Turner, Tracey Lamb, and Julie Turner not only blow the doors off but they blow the furniture against the walls and the pets out the window. Let's hope this is the ground floor!

There's not much point in doing a track by track breakdown, but there is a variety in the songs as there always was back in those days. Hard slammers, heavy stompers, mid-tempo rockers, and not a power ballad in sight!

My version of the album only goes to 11. I mean there are only 11 of the tracks listed in the album's track list as provided here on MMA, making the final track "Heavy Metal Rock 'n' Roll". But there is a bonus track, a cover of a song called, "I Didn't Know I Loved You ('til I Saw You Rock and Roll)" by Gary Glitter, which sounds like just the kind of party song that Joan Jett would cover.

This is crank it up and rock the house down music! And I'll just say it here and now that I like this album much better than either of the Runaways albums I've owned.

voila_la_scorie The music on this album is so incredible that they released it with a second disc of just the music! Yes, I didn’t quite expect to enjoy the second disc so much. After all, the songs and vocal parts are fabulous and tell the story of this conceptual piece, which is based on Stephen King’s “The Dark Tower” series. That whole first album is a treat with astounding instrumental passages between the rock opera vocals with a host of singers taking up the different parts. It’s a brilliant piece of work! But very soon I found that the music was just so exciting, so involved, so beautiful that it really could stand up on its own.

Flaming Row released their third album in December of 2019. After chalking up their previous album “Mirage: A Portrayal of Figures” as one of my favourite prog metal albums and favourite concept narrative albums of all time, I was both excited and hesitant to get the new album. The former is like Ayreon meets Dream Theater meets Haken. Since I hadn’t heard the first album “Elinoire” I didn’t know if “Mirage” was just a special thing or if this complex, varied and thrilling music was just how the band worked.

My first observation was that the metal element was relegated way in back of the acoustic side. In fact, it's quite the opposite of "Mirage" where the album was mostly electric with acoustic interludes. Here the acoustic instrumentation takes over and the heavier electric sequences are present and effective, but not at the front of the stage as much this time. However, that was not anything to disappoint me. All the acoustic guitar, piano, strings, woodwinds, and percussion easily won my ears over in an instant. There is simply so much beauty in the music here! So once again, I'm listening to just the instrumental versions of the tracks after having heard the whole first disc with the vocals once more through.

There’s something very interesting about some the music on this new album. Right from the first listen, I recognized at least a couple of the powerful and memorable melodies. I’d heard them on “Mirage: A Portrayal of Figures”. But the two stories were completely different. “Mirage” is about an alien species that tries to eliminate humans from the earth before it's destroyed by human beings, and how the survivours struggle to find a way to keep the human race from being snuffed out. “The Pure Shine” is from the Stephen King novel series mentioned above. Was there some connection?

I contacted guitarist Martin Schnella and asked about the repeated melodies. He replied saying that they had actually written much of the music for a trilogy back in 2011-13. But as his acoustic project with Melanie Mau overtook Flaming Row in popularity and also some key members left the band, the trilogy fell through. However, Martin loved much of the music he had written and decided to pass it along to the third album. It seems a bit puzzling to hear the same melodies for two different stories, but I really like hearing these again in a new sound pallet. Catch the powerful melody at 13:12 in "The Sorcerer" and compare it to "Pictures" from "Mirage: A Portrayal of Figures"at 2:39. There's also the flute melody in "Jake's Destiny" - incidentally, my pick for most awesome track on the album - that sounds really close to one in the opening track of "Mirage".

So, whether you enjoy the whole of album one with the lyrical parts and wonderfully good vocal executions or you can get into just letting the instruments speak, this album is a special work. I can enjoy either disc equally.

And if you can, I highly recommend checking out “Mirage: A Portrayal of Figures” because it's such a tremendous piece of work.

I'm giving this album 4 stars because it is not a masterpiece of METAL music but it does make an excellent addition to a metal music collection. As a prog album, though, I'd give it a full five stars.

voila_la_scorie "War Is Hell" is the second full-length release (and to date the latest full-length) by St. John's, Newfoundlanders Category VI. Though the band is generally categorized as power metal, this album is more specifically classic metal with some additions of speed metal and power metal. The album sound and song styles are very true to eighties metal. It's perhaps Amanda Gosse's vocals that give this album a power metal feel. In an interview, the band members themselves affirmed my conclusion that this album strives to be more classic metal than power metal.

The positive sides to this album are that the band relentlessly thunders on, rarely slowing down (and no ballads), the clarity of all instruments in the mix, and the very successful capture of that eighties metal feel without being stuck in the eighties. Amanda's vocals have power and she belts out the notes. She does stick with clean, power metal vocals so don't expect any growls or shrieks from her. But she can hit hit notes and hold her notes as she expertly exhibits in the track "Mirror", lighting up the skies with three different lengthy notes between 3:07 and 3:42, the last one soaring way up there.

Guitarist Geoff Waye dishes out riff after riff of heavily distorted guitar chords. Growing up in central Newfoundland, there was not a lot of metal action, so he would drift over to St. John's and catch any bands that blew into town. He's committed to supporting the metal scene and keeps the spirit alive with his guitar playing.

Keith Jackman's bass is of the heavy chunky and clunky nature. It's not lost in the mix beneath the flood of guitar distortion and it stands out in the track "Arise" where it sounds a lot like John Wetton's bass in Kind Crimson's "Providence" on the "Red" album. It's also given prominence in the track "Crossing the Avalon" though that's more for melodic colouring.

The album is tight and the songs all quite strong. Special mention goes to "Strike of the Axe", "Full Metal Jacket", and the longer title track, though it's a solid metal affair throughout the album.

There's one thing about the album that stays my mouse from clicking on 5 stars. I'm not sure if its because the guitar sound is so rich in distortion it sounds potentially overdone. or if there's another reason. Something tempers my opinion. But basically this album captures a band with a clear focus and a lot of energy and a desire to make a heavy metal album that honours the classic sound.

voila_la_scorie I remember getting into Stryper and the Christian heavy metal thing going on in the eighties. In those days I only knew about Stryper. But one night, a current trends in entertainment program was on TV and the topic was Christian heavy metal. Because the program was from Toronto, the local boys from The Daniel Band were included in the program. I later bought their album, “Running Out of Time”, which was their fifth and final studio album. The band has never officially broken up, according to Wikipedia. They perform from time to time but haven’t released any new material since 1987 except for a few bonus track new recordings on re-releases.

I never heard any of The Daniel Band’s other albums. I think they were not so easy to get a hold off. After some years, I got rid of about half of my Christian albums, but “Running Out of Time” I kept. Then recently, I felt inspired to dig the remaining albums out and I listened to a couple of tracks from that old album. Man! It sure sounds dated! It’s that late eighties big production sound except that it’s a four-piece band who are not playing big production music. Something is amiss. But I was curious enough to check out the band’s discography, listen a bit on YouTube, and decide to get a hold of their second album, “Straight Ahead”, from 1983.

I am not going to come out and say that this album is a lost classic, a gem, a killer album that everyone should hear. But I do think it’s a really good album of the day. First of all, I guess because they were from Toronto, it’s very easy to hear a Triumph/Rush/Coney Hatch sound to the music – those held keyboard chords like Triumph used, that bass sound that Geddy had, those hard rock chords like Coney Hatch played, and vocals that sound like Rik Emmett with a bit of Geddy Lee mixed in. The band’s style moves between rock and hard rock. The overall sound quality is rather good, though I feel there’s a bit of extra scratch in a couple of tracks near the end. Nothing too detrimental though. This is a really good guitar rock/hard rock album from the early eighties but sounds more like late seventies!

One thing I have to appreciate is that even though this is a Christian album and the lyrics mostly all deal with a Christian way of life, the messages in the songs are not in-your-face praise but laid out plain and simple. (I find the praise songs to be a little uncomfortable.) In fact, some of the songs could actually be heard as love songs because I didn’t hear the lyrics actually mention who these love songs were about, assuming that many if not most Christian songs about love are about Jesus or God. Unlike a band like Petra who are leading the faithful on in their faith and commitment with every song, The Danial Band just seem less obvious if you’re just listening casually. “What? Did he just say something about Jesus?”

Guitarist Tony Rossi should get some credit here. I've read a couple of reviews of Daniel Band albums that call him an unsung guitar hero of the eighties. His style is rooted in seventies hard rock but he is good!

Anyway, if you like Triumph, Rush, and Coney Hatch but without the highly advanced skills of Rush and Rik Emmett and more like Coney Hatch, then this album is a strong piece of work. On the strength of the music presented here, I am now curious to hear what their other albums sound like. Word is that “Running Out of Time” was remastered in 2012 and the sound quality difference in the original release and the remaster is like day and night.

voila_la_scorie It was while I was searching for heavy metal bands from Newfoundland and Labrador that I discovered Sheavy. One listen from "The Electric Sleep" and I was sure this was a band worthy of shelling out for a couple of discs at least. The problem was that actually buying CDs meant going to Discogs and looking for near mint if not mint. And hey, I found some!

According to the Wikipedia article about this band, this, their second album, saw a big improvement from the debut, and the band went over to Europe (not so far from St. John's, actually) to play and promote their music. Critics who heard the album were divided, with some claiming that this was a long lost Sabbath album and others putting down Sheavy as Sabbath clones at best. Now, I recently started to become of the opinion that nearly every stoner and doom metal band had to have Black Sabbath's "Master of Reality" played on daily rotation several hours at a time from their day of birth until they were teens just to ensure total and absolute indoctrination into how to create stoner and doom metal. However, I do contend that Sheavy's music is largely not Sabbath-like. Yes, there are a few riffs on this album the have the Tony Iommi call of doom feeling, but many other riffs seem to go a different route. I think the drumming and bass work is also more like what you'd hear from a band experimenting with the sounds and music rather than emulating it.

So we've got some really cool, heavy riffs and a band that sounds very comfortable in their own corner of the stoner rock arena. But those vocals! Man, if Ozzy just put his vocals through a filter that made them more scratchy - like Greg Lake's vocals in "21st Century Schizoid Man" - well then he'd sound just like Steve Hennessy. It's really uncanny how similar Steve sounds like classic Ozzy. On the second track, "Velvet", his voice is a little different because it's an acoustic track with a retro electric guitar sound and bass guitar that make the song sound like it's from 1969. But the rest of the album, man, Steve really could be mistaken for Ozzy.

One unusual thing is in the track "Oracle" which features a didgeridoo throughout the song. I've heard didgeridoos on other albums as an intro instrument (I think Cryptopsy has a song like that) but never used for an entire track, in this case 6:50 long!

This album is really for people who dig that slow and heavy atmosphere of stoner metal bands, but it doesn't feature any of those really low-toned, dragged out, over-distorted guitars like some bands have. Sheavy keeps the riffs moving. Some songs are a little less exciting. I mean, they start off cool and easy and bring in a bit of tension, but then they take time to really go anywhere. When they do, it's a sweet killer riff and sometimes a contrasting change of tempo. But then the song soon ends. That and the dense production sound are my only real criticisms of the album. Basically, it's a great 1990's, stoner metal album for when you're in the mood. But as I understand it, the band's sound evolved over the years and so I had to check out at least one more album...

voila_la_scorie I grew up with a view from my living room window overlooking the Fraser River and the City of New Westminster on the other side. It sure was a surprise years later to learn that Devin Townsend, who is a year younger than me, was born in and grew up in New West. I looked out at his home town nearly every morning for many years. New Westminster was where I did a year of collage (the collage appeared in an episode of 21 Jump Street with Johnny Depp running down the concourse steps), where I sometimes went to buy old magazines or snoop for photography books in the library, and where John Ritter went coasting down 6th Avenue on a bicycle at the end of the TV movie version of Stephen King's "It".

Now the name New Westminster crops up again as it is where Black Wizard are from. Yay, New West! I remember when they installed speakers to play classical music outside the train station in an effort to keep the skids and rockers from hanging out below the Sky Train where they allegedly traded drugs. New West became a bit of a tough town in the 80's, and if I recall correctly, the Hell's Angels rented a house there after the police chased them out of my home town in the 70's.

But on to Black Wizard! The band is a bit tough to pigeonhole. Basically, they are of the stoner metal variety, perhaps more from selected tracks of the Sabbath Bloody Sabbath and Sabotage era of Black Sabbath. The vocals sound a bit like Ozzy in Symptom of the Universe only increased in power by 5 and bolstered with a volatile concoction of toxic gases that, when released, sound like that grumpy dude at the end of the street flipping his lid over having to tell the neighbourhood kids one too many times to stay the fuck out of his fruit trees!

The band does a pretty good job of playing somewhere along the lines of stoner metal with doom riffs on a track or two and a couple of songs charging along not quite like thrash metal but good and derailingly fast like some Anvil songs.

The album shows an appreciable diversity in the tracks, enough so that it's possible to recognize most of them after a few listens, but still keep to the main theme of the music. It's all pummel and thump throughout most of the album.

Listening to it tonight with my reviewer's cap on, there were certain tracks to stand out like the title track, "Portraits" for it's less-than-super-fast thrash feel, "Heavy Love" and the closer "Eternal Illusion" which has a great Sabbath-esque riff to it.

I like this album enough that I am interested in checking out their previous release, "New Waste" (a play on New West, I wonder?). Pretty darn good, solid hitting, heavy album.

voila_la_scorie Described as stoner rock, this album by Chron Goblin doesn't seem content to cozy up with some "buds" and chill in the vapours. It's more like bust and grind. The songs just explode out of the speakers: bombastic guitar chords, crashing drums, and a voice that could make a bull moose feel threatened. Power! That's my impression track after track. The energy of punk and the impact of metal. This is like being shot from a cannon through a brick wall with anvils strapped to your limbs! Perhaps at times like The Sword but with a different approach to the vocals and riffs.

A lot of the songs end abruptly, so it's a bit of a surprise when "Blood Flow" suddenly stops right in the middle of the track and then slams in a new riff that's like getting your face repeatedly smushed across a rough concrete surface by some huge, ugly beast of a torture maniac.

The only time things finally cool down a bit is for the closing track, "Any Day", which is like a doom metal/stoner ballad. Not love song. Just slower tempo.

It's tough to find a track that stands out above the others, but I'll say that "Anesthetize" is pretty kick ass. Love the line, "I want excitement!" That sums up the music of this track and most of the album. These guys must work up a real sweat performing live.

Not much more to say but great driving music!

voila_la_scorie When it comes to black metal, I find there's the type that makes me think, "Sweet! I can totally immerse myself in this," and then there's the type that makes me think, "A bit too much slicing on the ol' tympanic membrane. Ease up a bit on the over-driven lo-fi treble tone."

Wormwitch's second album, "Heaven That Dwells Within" is of the first type. Right from the bursting intro of the drums, the Celtic Frostian "ough!", and the wash of guitar distortion, the music is like a swiftly hurtling cozy blanket that whisks me away. The production is warm and comfortable, not squeaky clean or living room lo-fi. The drums blast away. The vocals do what black metal vocals do. The guitar sounds and the riffs sweep you away across the frosts and snows of... Vancouver? Alright. It's a bit unusual to hear black metal performed so well from a city that's known more for rust than frost. But Wormwitch sure have a handle on what they're doing.

In general, the album is a sweet listening experience, but there are enough moments that pop out that have me checking the track list and what song is playing at the moment. That folky bit in "Vernal Womb". The pause and sudden drop downs in "Two Wolves". The changing riffs of "Midnight Sun" and the acoustic and clean vocal intro to "Dancing in the Ashes". It doesn't take long to pick out what makes each song different from most of the others. That's a good point for me. I appreciate an album that sounds great from start to finish, but it's the little highlights here and there that make individual tracks memorable.

I'm a bit surprised to see "crust" mentioned in Wormwitch's description. I don't hear any on this album. But I like it enough that I am interested in hearing their first album. Black metal experts might have more critical words to say about this record but I think it's really a well-done piece of work that I'll come back to.

voila_la_scorie Freeways released their debut full-length album early in April of this year (2020 for those of you in the future). Prior to this they had a three-track EP and a song on a compilation album. The band is said to play music that captures the spirit of the seventies greats like Thin Lizzy, UFO, and April Wine while keeping a feel for the NWoBHM as well. I found the album cover really catchy and different, and the band's logo just had that classic look to it.

Only seven tracks and barely over 33 minutes, I think one more track would have filled up the disc a little better. The band certainly have the skills and song-writing talent for it!

"Eternal Light, Eternal Night" is a great opening track to let you know what the band is about. In a way, it's similar to what fellow Ontarians Cauldron are playing but somehow with a little less grit and a bit more melodic. But it's a funny thing you'll notice when the song starts and singer Jacob Montgomery sings, "When you were younger / Nervous or weak / Somehow you crawled back on your feet". Why, to the same melody you could sing these lyrics: "Full moon is rising / The sky is back / I heed your call I'm coming back". Yup! Whether by accident or in homage, the verse melody to "Eternal Light, Eternal Night" is the same as that of Judas Priest's "Desert Plains". Maybe I should ask the band about that!

Much of the album devotes itself to short hard rock tunes with that softer vocal style of the likes of April Wine's Myles Goodwyn or Rick Santers of Santers. Tracks like "Sorrow (Love In Vein)", the title track, "Battered & Bruised" and "Just Survival" basically follow that style of light-in-the-vocals, melodic hard rock. Good melodies and riffs. Great songs to enjoy.

Two tracks that stand out for being a little different are "Dead Air" and "Time Is No Excuse". "Dead Air" begins with a simple bass pulse that sounds like it could be from Golden Earring. This song drops in some clean guitar and a laid back atmosphere. One might recall at this point that Bachman Turner Overdrive had an album called, "Freeways". The lyric writing is quite rhythmic and catchy. "Oh, I'm standin' / On the precipice of time / Reassured what we find / We're always told to tow the line". If the NWoBHM feel hasn't shown up yet, I find it's in the music and vocals here, reminding me of early Quartz.

"Time Is No Excuse" eases things back to a kind of bluesy, smooth jazzy feel that you'd hear on a Triumph album when they take the pace down. The track is nearly seven minutes long and shows a bit of prog sensibility. Perhaps it's a good time to point out that two of the members are part of the technical / progressive thrash metal band, Droid.

This album succeeds because the music is varied enough and remains good throughout. The longer tracks contribute more musical diversity while the shorter tracks deliver the message short and simple with good riffs and melodies.

So, the main problem I have is that the album is so darn short, just as it would have been had it been released in the seventies. One more track would have rounded the playing time up to about 37 minutes which would have been perfectly satisfying.

Other than that, I think Freeways have delivered a pretty solid debut with room for some growth too.

voila_la_scorie Terrifier are a thrash metal band that plays good, intense, old school, metal up your f**king ass, thrash. Think Exodus "Bonded by Blood", Kreator "Pleasure to Kill", and Testament "The New Order" but without so many clean electric guitar bits. Think fast, furious, and intense! Speedy riffs with a few awesome crunchers in there; hyper speed drumming; searing solos; and shouted vocals with that hardcore punk influenced, coarse screech.

"Reanimator" is the perfect intro, breaking out of the gate at full throttle, dirt and dust flying out the back. This track has all the hallmarks of what thrash metal should be about. The speed and spittle don't let up! These guys don't seem to do slow. "Schizoid Embolism" is about the movie "Total Recall" and even begins with a sound clip from the movie when Arnie says, "You blew my cover!"

"Drunk as Fuck" is a salute to metal party life. "Raise your beer / Come and get it up, slurp it down / til the glass is clear / Drunk as fuck / we're gonna party all night / til the fucking sun comes up"

It's only finally at track 8, "Riders of Doom" that we get to slow down a bit with a short instrumental that begins with clean guitars and serves more as a showcase for dramatic and melodic lead guitar work. Then we're back to break "head-banging" neck speed for the final track, "Sect of the Serpent", which is just as speed crazy fun as "Reanimator".

Terrifier is a thrash band that just want to go ballistic. This album has no classical guitar intros, no slower or doom-like tracks. Except for the short instrumental that is still heavy but just not so fast, the album remains tight and precise as it goes careening through the air at full thrashing speed. That might be its only strike against it - little variation. But I think for 9 tracks and 42 minutes, it totally slays as a thrash metal album!

voila_la_scorie Of Hatred Spawn is a tech death band formed in 2017 by brothers Remy Tartaglia (guitars, previously from Unbidden) and JJ Tartaglia (drums, from Skull Fist). Their self-titled album is their only release and came out in December of 2018. The band is heavily influenced by classic death metal but also includes many aspects of modern extreme metal: low-tuned guitars, blast beats, odd time signatures, and brutal growled and raw, shredded vocals. The band has released three promotional videos for their album.

While it’s pretty typical for a modern death metal album, there’s no denying the ferocity of the assault of the band’s music. It’s pretty thick with heaviness and alternates between blasting rhythms and slower, ponderously heavy riffs. The alternation between the deep, guttural vocals and the shredded vocals, and their frequent combination for a kind of brutal death harmony vocal effect keep the vocals of interest.

Honestly, I find it difficult to search for more descriptive words or a deeper analysis of this album. But some points I appreciate is that even though the music is sometimes technical, it won’t knot your brain. Even though it sounds like yet another brutal death metal album, I find each of the tracks slake my thirst for really heavy, aggressive metal. Though they don't offer anything different (like saxophones for example), Of Hatred Spawn manage to hit all the buttons.

The sound is really good, too! Not overly squeaky clean but not two-dimensional and dull or muddy. Very simply a great feel-good death metal assault. And when I say feel good, it’s through a black eye, swollen cheek, fat lip, blood on the teeth, broken jaw kind of feel good. With an album like this, it’s tough to pick a favourite track, but I’ll recommend watching the video for “Nest of Vipers” and crank the music.

The one curious thing is track 7, “Overture” which is an instrumental composed on keyboards - synthesizer piano, synth vocal chorus. Most bands would have started the album with this and the track seems to cut off at the end. As I’m listening to the Bandcamp download, I have to wonder if this is not track 1 on the CD, which has not arrived yet.

Curiosities aside, this is a very excellent serving of death metal!

voila_la_scorie Sometimes you just gotta have an album because it sounds so great. And sometimes you gotta have it because it already has you!

HÄG are a very new band from St. John’s, Newfoundland whose self-titled debut album, released barely two months ago, sounds more like a mature band playing at their zenith. From the first track, a classic Sabbath-esque doom metal riff crushes the speakers, and Clair Hipditch’s vocals arrest your ears. It’s easy right now to draw comparisons to Blood Ceremony. But don’t be so quick. Aside from the fact that HÄG doesn’t include any flute, there is plenty that separates these heavy rockers from The Rock from their celebrated compatriots in Ontario. Listen on!

First off, HÄG’s sound is modern. Blood Ceremony strive for a retro sound, not just style. HÄG are quite comfortable sounding like a classic doom band with modern gear. That is clear in track 1, “Summon the Earth to Lay Claim Back to the Soil”. There are also hints of progressive tinkering. If you love classic doom metal, this song alone should sell you on the album! But don’t be so quick! There’s more!

From Clair’s opening utterances of “Your Skin”, you’ll see HÄG show what direction the band is taking. If you’re familiar with the Swedish prog band White Willow, particularly their darker albums like “Sacrament”, “Storm Season”, and “Terminal Twilight” (my personal favourite!), you’ll understand that HÄG are not going to teach you about Wicca and Salem but rather haunt your mind with the paranormal and horror. Listen to the seemingly romantic lyrics: “Your hands on my hands / Your lips on my lips / Your face on my face / Your skin on my skin”. Now imagine that this is not a lovers’ moment behind closed curtains but: “I had a dream last night / I wore your skin like it was mine”. If they make a video for this it should be positively creepy! I love the heavy, unsettling mood in the music. There’s some clever use of synthesizer in one part to add to the psychological horror atmosphere and a terrific sparse moment with Clair’s vocals distant and calling from that doorway between reality and the Other World, before all thunder breaks out for the dramatic finale. A masterful piece of work!!

One thing that’s such a pleasure about this album is Clair Hipditch’s vocals. The closest comparison I can think of is Sylvia Skjellestad of White Willow. They both have an incredible talent for affecting mood and emotion in their voices. Clair can as easily sound as a woman who is a victim of her own desirous heart and an enchantress luring you with her voice and seductive power to the Dark Halls of Doom. If the young woman outside the Hotel California could sing to draw in weary travelers, she’d sound like Clair.

Track four, “Slow Ghosts” is a big surprise and I think a pleasant diversion from the haunt and doom of the album thus far. You’ll still get crushing chords and that feeling of sweet, alluring despair in the chorus, but the rest of the song is clean and atmospheric. You’re not likely to have ever heard of the band Pugs & Crows - an instrumental jazz fusion group from Vancouver - but the non-heavy parts remind me of their last album “Uncle!” which featured the exquisite vocals of Marin Patenaude. Again, great work on the vocal delivery by Clair!

“At the End of the Ambush” brings back the tense, heavy doom atmosphere. There’s a simple early-Floydian guitar solo backed with organ, and then a real lead guitar solo. Which makes me realize that, hey, there aren’t a lot of lead breaks on this album! I was so enthralled by the vocals and music that I didn’t miss the solos!

Next there’s “House Sparrow” which was released as a single. “I watched it die / I watched it die / Mother said I would be affected”. This song is a prime example of HÄG’s ability to marry the haunting with the crushing.

The final two tracks, “Ruins” and “The Grim Sleepers” may once again remind you of Blood Ceremony but darker (“Ruins”) and White Willow but heavier (“The Grim Sleepers”), but again HÄG prove to have already created a sound that is HÄG.

Eight tracks. And if at anytime you think that one track is not as thrilling as the previous ones, there will be a change that catches you off guard and immediately you rethink your assessment. An awesome riff appears when you don’t expect it; a touch of psychedelia slips in; the drums go off on a tension-building roll, a guitar solo, cool guitar sound, or another sweet touch of something colours the mood.

I’m a CD kind of guy. I don’t buy downloads. I will scour the Net for a hard copy before giving in the the empty handedness of downloads. But I simply had to buy the download of HÄG’s debut. There was no CD (though there is vinyl!). But I had to have it because after listening to the first five tracks on Bandcamp, the HÄG already had me...!

voila_la_scorie Fireball steamer, heavy metal screamer, playin’ licks hotter than hell

One of my big interests is scrounging about in the annals of heavy metal history in search of trivia. One of my recent quests has been to discover who first sang about heavy metal music. From 1980 onwards, the ball gets rolling pretty quickly. But prior to that, I have only two examples so far: Triumph’s 1976 and 1977 releases.

Back in those days, I don’t believe anyone commonly referred to any bands as heavy metal bands. There were rock and roll bands who played heavy metal music, but even a band who - like Triumph - would sing about playing heavy metal, or talk about it, would still consider themselves a rock band. Just listen to interviews with Motörhead’s Lemmy Kilminster. He continuously insisted that heavy metal was just another way of playing rock and roll.

These days we look back upon the hard and heavy rock of the seventies and classify most of it as either hard rock or proto-metal. But sometime around 1974/5 the music press began to refer more frequently to those heavy guitar rockers as heavy metal music. Triumph picked up on it and included references to heavy metal in two tracks from their first two releases. I’m still searching for other examples from around the same period.

Triumph was part of Canada’s 1970’s hard/heavy rock explosion. April Wine, A Foot In Cold Water, Thundermug, Moxy, and of course Rush and Bachman Turner Overdrive had already been blazing the way with albums, and Triumph dropped their debut in 1976. What’s remarkable is how they had already established their familiar sound right from the start. That distinctive sound of Rik Emmett’s guitar, his talent on both electric and classical guitar, Gil Moore’s drumming, the dual lead vocal attack of Emmett and Moore, Mike Levine’s solid bass playing, and a touch of synthesizer for atmosphere was there from album one.

Their second album continues the band’s modus operandi with Gil Moore taking the lead vocals for the heavy sluggers like “Takes Time” and “Little Texas Shaker” and Rik Emmett often singing many of the lighter and more progressive tracks.

If Triumph were a rock and roll band that played heavy metal then some of the lighter tracks are not diversions but part of the band’s repertoire. “New York City Streets Part 1” sticks to clean guitars and a light funky feel, breaking into a sped-up jazzy instrumental break at the end. Part 2 is a typical Triumph heavy rocker. Most of the album, though, is pretty solid rock out heavy bombast.

Two tracks that are worthy of a more detailed description are the two part, single track “The City” and the album’s titular song. “The City” begins with an arrangement from Holst’s “Mars - God of War”. It will be familiar to metal fans because Diamond Head famously used it for “Am I Evil”, later covered by Metallica and it was also the inspiration for Black Sabbath’s “Black Sabbath” riff. You’ll also find it on Andromea’s 1969 album. After the “Mars” climax, there’s a burst of classical guitar followed by a flamenco guitar instrumental. At last the lyrical part of the song begins, slow, slightly solemn and melancholy. The final part of the song sees the return of the heavy metal Triumph. It’s no wonder with a track like this that Triumph are often included in prog rock conversations.

The title track is Triumph showing off their heaviness and speed, an intentional display of 1977 heavy metal music. Rik Emmett gets to show of his speedy fingers with a guitar solo - a real solo sans band - that scorches the fretboard. Personally, I feel the guitar sound is a bit scratchy and the use of delay doesn’t help the effect. While the fancy finger work is meant to impress, I enjoy many of Rik’s other solos much more just because they sound better. Nevertheless, “playin’ licks hotter than hell” is not an understatement!

Triumph tends to be overshadowed by compatriots Rush who just seemed to achieve so much more. But for a solid hard/heavy rock act that deviated for only one album, Triumph are worthy of recognition. Not to mention that they might just be the first band to release a song that sings about heavy metal music.

voila_la_scorie Often cited as being the first album released in the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, that notion does have strong historical backing. One of the new British heavy rock bands among many who formed in the mid-seventies, Quartz was fortunate enough to get into a recording studio and pull off a piece of vinyl while many bands were still touring their local circuits. Strangely, it would be three years before their sophomore release, and by then the dam had already burst.

But there's something to note about this album that distinguishes it from many of the acts who wouldn't hit record store shelves until 1980 and onward. One main difference between this album and debuts by the likes of Tank, Tigers of Pan Tang, and Raven is that Quartz were still showing strong prog connections in their music while a lot of other bands had tapped into the punk scene by the time their debuts came round. Quite simply, in spite of the album being the at the vanguard of the NWoBHM, it's still a product of 1977.

The first track, "Mainline Riders" is heavy and blissful to listen to. I hear a slight similarity to Scorpions in the music, but more like the early Matthias Jabs albums. Still, a great heavy metal song in a year where hard rock still dominated most of the heavy guitar rock releases.

But then "Sugar Rain" brings something that reminds me Yes meets Jethro Tull. A decent enough track but evidence that this album's music was developed before punk really took over.

"Street Fighting Lady" sounds to me like a cross between Ted Nugent and Triumph. Perhaps the latter comes to mind because they had a song around the same time called "Street Fighting Man". Maybe the two characters knew each other.

"Hustler" once again reminds me of Scorpions though this time the Uli Jon Roth era, at least during the opening. The verses are more typical of 1977 hard rock, thinking of Thin Lizzy for example.

"Devil's Brew" has a cool, simple and heavy riff to it and at first it's easy to think of Black Sabbath or Angel Witch. But those keyboards and tempo changes are closer to Uriah Heep. Cool lyrics: "When the dead no longer dead begin to rise" and "In the fires that are burning / Give the living back to me". Now I'm thinking of the contemporary American hard rock outfit, Sorcery.

"Smokie" is a short acoustic guitar instrumental, and then we're on to "Around and Around". This has a cool blend of UJR Scorpions at the intro, Sweet chorus vocals and guitar riffs around the chorus, a Uriah Heep part that then leads into a proggy section that reminds me of something you'd hear from Genesis around this year before it gets heavier and sounds more like something from a NWoBHM album. Along with "Mainline Riders", this is one of my two favorite tracks.

"Pleasure Seekers" is a great hard rocker with a heavy riff. To me, this is one of those 1976-8 songs that indicate a new direction for heavy rock music. Alright, count this as a third favourite track.

The album closes with "Little Old Lady" and I swear someone asked Roger Daltrey to sing the opening. This song sounds like it's going to be a weak one but does have some redeeming moments. The lyrical theme, I'm guessing, addresses the writer's grandmother in her old age. It has a Queen feel to the music, alternating between softer acoustic and electric guitars and a hard rock riff for the chorus.

My conclusion? This album reminds me of several different groups which means that there's a lot of diversity in the music. For that, I think it's a very good album to listen to from time to time. It's not one that I'll just shelve and forget about. As an example of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, I'll say again that it's not derived from exactly the same influences as bands dropping albums three or four years later. However, if we are looking for music that is a departure from the standard hard rock acts of 1976-78 (Thin Lizzy, UFO, Sweet, Nazareth, etc.) I think Quartz were beginning to steer things in a new direction, albeit in a way that their German counterparts, Scorpions, were also doing around this time.

voila_la_scorie Beyond the Sky is the third album by Vancouver hard rockers, La Chinga.

As an intro for the uninitiated, La Chinga play music that taps into classic ZZ Top, Ted Nugent, AC/DC, The Black Crows with twice the juice, and some powerful eighties retro rock / sweaty glam-in-denim punch. The lyrics are a perfect tribute to seventies rock writing; you’re not always sure what the song is about but it sounds cool. “Hey, hey and alright / Ridin’ low, ridin’ high” goes the beginning of the chorus to “Wings of Fire”. Or the opening lyrics to “Nothing That I Can’t Do” - “Bell bottoms, boogie shoes / Feeling fine, sucker proof / Bumps and bruises along the way / But I’m a born hell raiser/ And I’m here to stay”. And one of my favourites, the first line in “Killer Wizard”: “I’m a master of disaster / Watcho want, you bastard?!” Warning: this song could get you permanently addicted!

Basically this album kicks, punches, grooves, and hip checks. Simply a kick ass hard rock album that needs to be cranked. Check your speed if listening to this while driving. It’s a punch-the-roof-of-the-car, head banging-with-sunglasses-on kind of album.

Butt hay, it’s gotta have it’s laid back smooth groove in places too. If you’re going to be an early seventies, space trucking, badass biker bro then you need a bit of that eased back cosmic wind in my hair feel here and there. No sappy love songs. Just rocking out from start to done deal. I’m loving this album so much, I want a T-shirt!

For starters, you could check out the video shared here on MMA for “Killer Wizard”. All I will say is that riff could slay a horde of ogres, like the illustrated ones that show up in one part of the video. After that, you’re on your own.

voila_la_scorie The western provinces of Canada seem to be a hotbed for stoner rock and metal and heavy psychedelic rock. Must be that famous B.C. bud! Regina, Saskatchewan's Black Thunder have been going at it (the music I mean; I don't know about the bud) since 2009 and released their fourth full-length album in March of this year (2020 for those reading this in the future).

Their sound has evolved since their first two albums which had a certain Vincebus Eruptum sound to the guitars: raw, distorted, retro. Their third album "III" delivered a heavier guitar sound and more aggressive style of playing, or so that's my impression from cursory listens to their albums while adding this band to this web site. But while everything up to now has been in the stoner rock / heavy psych camp and even pushing stoner metal with their third album, "La Fine Creata" brings something new to their repertoire.

I'll be honest when I say at first I was almost disappointed with the album and band because there were so many stop and start instrumental passages and odd time signatures that I felt the band was trying to be prog by overdoing just one of the signature aspects of progressive rock. When a band relies too much on stop/start music or off kilter time signatures, I feel like they are forcing a prog impression on us. But even though this album does include a lot of this approach to composing and playing, I soon began to feel comfortable with it as the album played on.

Actually, there are many moments when I was reminded of Voivod from the "Killing Technology" to "Nothingface" period not only because of the jilted and skewered take on time signatures but also the guitar sound and vocals. The second band to come to mind was Seven Impale, obviously here without the saxophones.

Being influenced of course by the mighty Sabbath, there's a distinct groove to their riffs. In the end, the album proves to be an interesting blend of grooving stoner riffs, Voivod-like vocals and guitar riffs in places, Seven Impale-esque time signature twists, and an overall sound that is catchy. The band sounds smoother and more together there than on their previous albums which have a distinct gritty and raw sound to the guitars.

This album sees the introduction of synthesizers to the band's music. Have no fear though. The keyboards are used for psychedelic atmospherics and adding some trippiness to the eased back, funky groove passages such as in "Bekenstein Limit" and "Lack of Photos". Here I'm reminded of Glenn Hughes.

I started out giving this album 3 and a half stars (the RYM rating is three stars from 2 ratings). But it's been growing on me as I have been digging into the music during the writing of this review. I have to give four stars.

voila_la_scorie "Mandoro" is the 17th album by Japanese heavy metal band, Ningen Isu. For over twenty years, the band had sold enough records with each release to permit them to stay with a record label, but the band remained an underground phenomenon. In 2013, they appeared at Ozz Fest in Japan. Seeing the opportunity as a chance to introduce themselves to a larger audience, the band approached their next album as if it were their second debut. There was also a conscious decision to move the band's sound more firmly into heavy metal. Therefore, this album features less of the band's progressive rock side (no 9-minute songs with long, instrumental parts) and as well, it smartly strays from some of their more lighter, pop-influenced songs that had cropped up on albums during the previous decade.

The heavy guitar sound that had been used on some tracks on the last few albums was now the guitar sound of the album. The album is chock full of heavy riffs. Guitarist Shinji Wajima once again takes over all the lyric writing except for the track "Neputa no Mandoriko," which was written by bassist Kenichi Suzuki. The song was inspired by some of the images on the floats of the Neputa Festival of their hometown, Hirosaki City, in Aomori Prefecture. In particular, Suzuki liked the images of battling warriors with skulls, chopped off heads, and eye balls popping out.

Even without writing many lyrics, Suzuki still contributed the music for several of the tracks. Suzuki's songs are usually the faster and heavier ones, and there's no mistaking them here with "Jigokuhen - Hell Screen", "Neputa no Mondoriko", and "Jinsei Banzai". "Neko ja Neko ja - It's a Cat, It's a Cat" features Wajima's wah-wah guitar to mimic the meow of a cat. The song was inspired by an incident when they discovered a kitten had become trapped in a ventilation pipe just over the drum set in their rehearsal studio.

Wajima delivers some great heavy prog songs with some awesome riffs in tracks like, "Kuroyuri Nikki - Black Lily Diary" and "Jikan kara no Kage - The Shadow Out of Time". He also proves yet again to be a master of customized guitar solos, going from blazing metal solos, to psychedelic influenced effects, traditional Japanese music scales, and his unique style of playing what he called "Tsugaru jamisen". The shaminsen or jamisen and a traditional three-stringed instrument a bit like a Japanese banjo. The fingering involves many frequent slides and wiggles on the string to create a vibrato effect. Wajima applies this playing style to his electric guitar.

Wajima once again taps into literature for some of the songs. "Kumo no Ito - The Spider's Thread" and "Jigokuhen" are based on stories by Akutagawa Ryunosuke, a famous Japanese author from the early 20th Century, and H.P. Lovecraft's "The Shadow Out of Time".

The whole album is packed with intense and exciting heavy metal songs. Some songs are heavy and prog-influenced while others are fast and furious. Drummer Nobu Nakajima sings lead on "Kumo no Ito" and belts out some killer screams at the end. He also plays a wicked drum pattern in "Neputa no Mondoriko" which came from a festival drum beat on traditional Japanese taiko drums played at the Neputa Festival.

Only the opening track, "Shigan Goeika - Hymn of This World", takes the tempo down and sounds like a Buddhist chant turned into a song for a three-piece heavy rock band. And the closing track, "Eisei ni natta Otoko - The Man Who Turned Into a Satellite" begins more gently with chorus guitar before switching to a heavy and groovy riff after fifty seconds.

"Mandoro" marks the change over to the current style of Ningen Isu which has continued over five albums now. Most of the band's official music videos on YouTube are for songs from this period. Though always heavy, the band sounds most metal from "Mandoro" and on. It remains one of my favourite albums by Ningen Isu.

voila_la_scorie Chthe'ilist. I can spell it. I am not so certain I can pronounce it. But I recognize it as something H.P. Lovecraft would have dreamed up - or nightmared up. I first saw the name on a Kerrang list of Canadian bands I needed to know now. Then they showed up on Hellbound's web site among the ten best Canadian albums of 2016. Then again, I saw the band reviewed on Angry Metal Guy. When I checked them out on BandCamp, the comments left below sung praises.

Chthe'ilist are a death metal band from Quebec who have fashioned their sound after some of Finland's best: Demilich, Crematory, Abhorrence, and early Xysma. Their BandCamp page also name checks influences from Pestilence, Nocturnus, and Ripping Corpse. So we are quite nicely set up here. The band formed in 2010, but has only released a short ep and one full-length - this one - which many people were calling the best death metal album of 2016. And when I say many, I mean at least five or six.

The music is very dense, resembling the artwork of the album cover. The drums are what you would expect from a death metal band and so is the guitar, though I like this particular style of playing where these almost spring-like open strings bound in after rapid bursts of tremolo picking and blast beats. The lead guitar can be rather melodic but it's also unpredictable. These songs have no usual place for a guitar solo so the lead breaks are surprises.

One interesting thing is that as the album plays on, some slap bass begins making itself more prominent. A lot of tech death bands from Quebec go the fretless bass way, so here with slap bass we get something different.

I love the overall atmosphere of the album. But I'll confess that it was the vocals that were the selling point for me. The main vocals are delivered in ultra-deep death growl style, similar to those of Demilich. But there's a second voice that comes in from time to time that I can best describe as sounding like they come from a human-sized raven, or possibly a pterodactyl. It's this dry cackling growl and it sounds so inhuman that I love it. As I listened to this album and stood in the supermarket today, I felt as though roots would grow up from the abyss below, wrangle through the soles of my feet, burrow into my veins, and siphon my soul out, sucking it down into some cavernous, dank expanse where hideous beastly things dwell and feast on pillaged human souls.

There are also some interesting ambient sound parts of two tracks that reminds me of something Nile has done on some of their albums. In particular, the sounds at the end of "Into the Vaults of Ingurgitating Obscurity" (now there's a fun song title!) create an image in my head of some pterodactyl-like creature of Hades and some other disgustingly large, bloated beast gorging themselves contentedly on what I image to me human limbs. There's this crunching and snapping of bone noise and a wet fleshy noise and that raven voice happily crushing flesh-encased skeletons while deep grunts and snorts attest to the presence of its grotesque companion.

There is just something about this album that really appeals to me. I have to agree with all those people on BandCamp and the folks at Kerrang that Chthe'ilist is a treat to hear. That is if you're comfortable with listening to the end of the world coming from the denizens of some Lovecraftian Inferno being unleashed upon our world.

voila_la_scorie During my recent quest to discover more recent (younger) Canadian metal bands, I discovered among scores of bands I had never heard of this power trio from Toronto. I enjoyed a couple of their videos and then found their latest album, “New Gods” mentioned on a web site featuring new releases by Canadian metal bands. Intrigued by the marine gastropod in the album cover and puzzled over how it related to the album titled, I went ahead and ordered it.

Cauldron is a classic heavy metal band. Listening to this album, I am mostly reminded of Dokken at their heyday in the mid-eighties. Think “Tooth and Nail” and “Back for the Attack”. One review I read also mentioned “Blackout” by Scorpions but I don’t hear any Scorpions influence here, and I had the first ten albums on cassette back in the eighties. Rather I am reminded of Keel’s debut album, and also the first two Coney Hatch albums, though Cauldron’s sound is more mid-eighties than early.

It might be tempting to scoff at a young band for being retro and not bringing anything new to the scene, but what I hear on this album is a band playing exactly what they love. I heard Jason Decay (b/v) say in an interview that they are music fans first and don’t think about what style of metal they play. They play what they love to listen to. One of their older videos frequently shows whom they admire with posters, photos, and albums by Exciter, Rush, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Anvil, W.A.S.P., Dio-era Black Sabbath and others blatantly exhibited. For one who was a teen in the eighties and who owned hundreds of metal cassettes before the decade was over, Cauldron’s “New Gods” feels as natural as anything to listen to.

A solid album from top to bottom, there are a few tracks to mention. The opening track, “Prisoner of the Past” sets the tone perfectly for the album. If you like this song, you won’t be disappointed with the rest of the album because most of the tracks are in this style. “Save the Truth/Syracuse” gets a mention because, while “Save the Truth” is like most of the album (a very good song yet again!), “Syracuse” is a guitar instrumental of the same ilk as Black Sabbah’s “E5150” or “The Dark”. It’s dark and eerie and pretty cool. “Drown” begins like much of the album’s songs but it does break into speedier, more intense parts and that adds something a little extra to the album, I think.

“Together as None” is just the kind of break an album like this either needs or absolutely doesn’t, depending on your point of view. My favourite Black n Blue album has always been “Without Love” and this song is exactly that kind of heavy but beautifully melodic song that you can hear on “Without Love” or even on albums by TNT, just without the soaring vocals. I think it’s great to hear a modern band create a new song like the kind I often enjoyed hearing in the eighties. A power ballad? Yes, I guess so. But not like “Heaven” or “Every Rose Has Its Thorns”. Just heavy and melodic.

Finally, the album includes an instrumental played on clean electric and acoustic guitar with simple bass or is it low piano notes? No percussion. It sounds yet again very typical of some eighties albums and yet again executed so naturally that I don’t feel “retro!” but instead just comfortable and pleased to hear it.

I have no criticisms about this album. It simply sounds great from start to finish. The band seem perfectly at home with their song-writing and their style. I can easily see a couple more albums in my collection.

voila_la_scorie I only got into death metal a few years ago and even though I have many of the classic albums plus a good stack of more recently released albums, I wouldn't consider myself an expect or connoisseur of death metal by any means. Still, if a band can do something that doesn't sound like something I already have heard a half dozen times, then I'll give them two open ears and one open mind.

So here comes Endless Chaos, a band that appeared on Kerrang's 2019 list of "20 Heavy Canadian Bands That You Need to Know Now." The remarks sounded promising and so I went over to BandCamp and found the band. A few quick cursory listens rewarded me with enough thrills that I decided to order the album, "Paths to Contentment" soon.

One of the things I really like about this album are the frequent uses of melodic lead guitar. Right from the start, there's almost a power metal/speed metal feel until the vocals come in and the music abruptly changes to brutal assault. But those melodic leads come back, sometimes reminding me of Megadeth. There's a very strong thrash metal feel in some of the songs, especially in the third track, "Stack Their Heads". The opening sounds like Sacrifice, with dive-bombing and wailing guitars. Once the song kicks into speed, it does sound like thrash metal pumped up with death metal vocals. In fact, the vocals effortlessly shift between a guttural bark and a black metal-ish, throat-shredding shriek/roar.

One thing I appreciate is that the band's music allows their bass player to come to the spotlight from time to time. Once again, I'll mention "Stack Their Heads" which has a part where the bass is singled out for a lead melody. The are some other parts that stood out for me where the guitars paused for a few seconds to allow the drums to pound out a tribal rhythm while the bass held the riff as in "Condemned to the Pit", or other little standout highlights of riff changes like in "Jackal" or melodic lead guitar breaks.

Another point I like is that even though Endless Chaos can scorch along at blistering speeds, they'll drop in a breakdown where the tempo slows a bit and the atmosphere is reset. I think it's their thrash side showing through when they do this.

"Paths to Contentment" is fast and furious but with attention to precision and switch-ups in the pace of the song. There are death metal albums I will listen to because the overall sound appeals to me and then there are albums I will listen to because there are tracks and parts of tracks that have those "favourite parts" I'm looking forward to hearing. This album is one of the latter kind.

There's only one disappointment, and that is that the album isn't even over 30 minutes. Given that their only other release is a three-song ep from 2014 that was only available as a download and on very limited edition vinyl, I would have loved if the band had added the ep's three tracks to this CD. I hope the next album will be a couple of songs longer. I really dig what their doing.