The Six Stacker - In At The Death

All I can say is I am back on my bullshit and it feels so good. To me. The Winter months always see me stolen away from reality as four walls close in and my reluctance to venture outward becomes total. I’ve only got two more gigs in my calendar for the rest of the year, and it kinda suits me fine. Until someone I really want to see comes out, of course. Here’s what I have been playing to and from said gigs, and of course those unfamiliar doorways:

SVALBARD - THE WEIGHT OF THE MASK

Every time this made its way to the front of the queue, I was like “what is this hardcore mess” at first until I was swept away by the urgency of their trilling, abrasive guitars and yearning vocals, delivered by the inimitable Serena Cherry. As pretentious types try to classify them in a wanker’s Dewey Decimal System (post-hardcore? D-beat? post-black metal? Oh, fuck off) the weight of the mask can be felt, not quantified over its 44 near-perfect minutes. Can’t wait to see them live.

HOST - IX

When you wanna play synths, you gotta play synths. A weird and wonderful inversion of Violator producer Flood’s advice to Martin Gore about guitars applied to Greg Mackintosh and Nick Holmes’ darkwave project Host. So named after the ill-fated Paradise Lost album that tried to do the same thing and pissed everyone off. Darkwave is on the tin and it’s just what we get. We get Depeche Mode worship (Wretched Soul), true goffix d-floor hard shit (Tomorrow’s Sky) and Sisters of Mercy goth n’ roll (Hiding From Tomorrow) as well as a ink-drowned cover of I Ran, which is almost worth the price of admission. If you like 80s goth and Paradise Lost, it’s kind of a no brainer.

Sorcerer - Reign of the Reaper

I fucking love Sorcerer. They bill themselves as a doom band and they are, in that high fantasy Dio-era Black Sabbath way. It’s all pomp and pagentry, and they will bust out a face-melter solo (on top of another) without warning or care. With guitars led by Kristian Niemann (ex-Therion) and mighty baritone vox by Anders Engberg that haltlingly verges on Falconer level theatricality, Reign of the Reaper is a tight (47min) clutch of classic metal tracks amplified by gang chants and classic throwbacks to horns-up conceptions of evil. Awesome stuff.

While you’re here Kris, tell your brother to hook up with Daniel Flores and release another Minds Eye album, please?

Kvelertak - Endling

Norway’s Turbonergro by way of Mastodon-ic 70s throwback rock n’ roll powerhouse Kvelertak seem to have hit that metal band professionalism that deliver consistent, enjoyable records in a distinct style. Other workmanlike bands that come to mind that can churn out great albums time after time are Cancer Bats and perhaps Amorphis if we’re getting European on thine arses. Endling is a rollicking ol’ time, awash with trips down psychedelic lanes, gang vocals a-go-go (Likvoke), and tips o’ the hat to NWOBHM (Motsols). They can even take on punky drinking songs (Endling) and tripped out glam rock, like the Sweet on (more?) acid (Skoggangr). Get your groove on kid, we’re necking a fifth of Akvavit and moshing to some fuckin’ Kvelertak.

Tomb Mold - The Enduring Spirit

Chuck Schuldiner (RIP - Death, Control Denied) LIVES! Well, insofar that these Toronto trio are concerned, it’s pretty close to a resurrection. Wait a minute, a Canadian progressive trio… where have I heard such a thing before? No Rush, it’ll come to me. The uncanny valley these dudes live in breathe into existence on The Enduring Spirit, acting almost as a continuation of The Sound of Perseverence. Just listen to the embed below, for a taste. Even (relatively) straightforward tracks like Servants of Possiblility tangled with the splendour and wonder of death metal as an alternate musical universe. If you miss Chuck as much as any flesh ripping sonic torment patient, Tomb Mold are inheritors of that bold legacy.

Crypta - Shades of Sorrow

If the boys can’t do it, let these Brazilian wonder women do it for them. This is carnal, bloodthirsty THRASH encrusted in the fires of hell itself. DIzzying fret runs ala Morbid Angel and gale-force headbang riffery from the early archives of Slayer or Kreator dominate this record. Of course, there are some eerie nods to Obituary and Sepultura (because of course you should) in tracks like Agents of Chaos, beginning with distant chords piercing over lumbering, knotted chugs of merciless venom. Something like that. Get your headbang on, these gals are heading for prime time.