We interrupt the Top 10 Metal of 2012 for an album review...
Cast your mind back to 1994. Tiamat stood as the dark, sybaritic masters of the progressive-death metal revolution, marshalling visceral death metal alongside withered flower-power psychedelica ala King Crimson and/or Syd Barrett era Pink Floyd. Death metal as we’d come to understand stands forever transformed.
A mysterious band of rotund imps carries us away on their anachronistic zeppelin-styled caravan, steaming ahead full toward the gilded land of the mysterious Watchmaker...
Rush - Clockwork Angels
I suppose in the traditional sense, Rush aren’t a metal band. In our cloistered cult of metal, distrustful of “normals,” brave is the metalhead who can point to a band untouched by their tripartite prog brush. Every rock drummer has at least heard of Neil Peart and almost every metal drummer will clamor to see this pure percussive whirlwind live and on stage. Clockwork Angels transcends the liner notes and the concept that winds out over the disc. Their accompanying Time Machine Tour featured spellbinding graphics and an intricately crafted steampunk mise-en-scene – Geddy stood in front of a hapless brain encased within a glass dome, simmering away in fluids unknown for most of the concert. During the intermission, a clip of the trio dressed up in trollish uniforms was shown, the three gleefully conspiring to confuse a taxman (played by Jay Baruchel) in pursuit of our protagonist the Watchmaker, another of their abstract allusions to nature, spirituality and the band’s own depth of purpose.
As for the record, they lovingly furnish us with genre-leading anthems (Clockwork Angels), classic sing-along rockers (Caravan) and foot-stompin’ tracks fit for redlining your Red Barchetta (Seven Cities of Gold.) Twinkling guitars bloom in tandem with Geddy Lee’s still youthful voice, carrying us towards the stars within a beautiful closer, The Garden. Rush didn't get "it" back, they simply did "it" again. The untouchably talented unholy trinity of prog rock unites to rock us, move us and delightfully wow us again. “In a world where I feel so small/I can’t stop thinking big,” Lee implores. I’m glad that you three have and still do. The spirit of the Watchmaker lives on.
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The Top 10 Metal of 2012
#10 - Barren Earth - The Devil's Resolve
The Honorable Mentions
Shuffling the honorees away, we take a longboat to a time-ravaged North, where a compact with Lucifer has been made...
Barren Earth - The Devil's Resolve
European metal supergroups are usually just overinflated ego incubators. Jeff Scott Soto was in Journey once – well he must be fucking royalty. Musos join up to churn out novelty hackery and we all cast our heads down in disappointment. Barren Earth, comprised of ex-Amorphis, Swallow the Sun and Moonsorrow members buck this sorry trend by commiting steadfastly to a sinister concept. Sami Yli-Sirnio feels pragmatic on axe, cognizant he’s backup to ultra-rioter Mille Petrozza (Phantom Antichrist just missed the list, by the by) still immersing us in sensual, leafy strains. They pour into us their alchemical brew of doom, death and prog metal, all slotting seamlessly into their imaginative soundscape.
From the review printed in The Big Issue:
The Devil’s Resolve is a rare record in that you can trust the “super” in “supergroup”.
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The Top 10 Metal of 2012
“The universe is change, life is what our thoughts make it.”
