Tom Valcanis

29 August 2023

Blog

The Six Stacker - Battle Tested

Tom Valcanis

29 August 2023

Blog

WAR! What is it good for? Well, making certain people very, very rich. I recently read The World in Six Songs, where “music cognition” researcher Daniel Levitin tried to figure out why humanity expresses itself in song, and why we love it. Well, he has several neuroscientific theories. Music helps us transmit information, elicit friendships, and deal with the decidedly un-scientific phenomenon of love. Can he figure out why The Eagles aren’t cool yet Fleetwood Mac are? Afraid not. Anyway:

March In Arms - Pulse of the Daring

What’s the difference between hard rock and power metal? No really, someone tell me. It’s about three stray snips by the barber’s scissors differentiating a bit of back length from full-blown mullet. If you squint, you might be able to tell. South Dakota’s March In Arms has all the genre trappings of power metal, perhaps with a bit of thrash mixed in. Think a less morose Iced Earth, maybe. MIA’s diamond-in-the-rough lungsman (and guitarist) Ryan Knutson straddles the silver blade dividing a James Hetfield from a Jon Bon Jovi. Who’s to say they can’t be both? It will churn along in my mind, no answer forthcoming.

March In Arms craft catchy tunes about war. Not military history in the mould of Sabaton. Through our Swedish history buffs we learn what happened. In March In Arms’ case, we feel what happened. The ruthlessness, the futility, the human grinder that is modern mechanised conflict. Sabaton almost glorifies war with a patriotic fervour. March In Arms laments the soldiers who never returned home. The lyrics in certified headbanger 1914: Fathers and sons/your broken bodies/forever lie in these fields. Ouch.

Ten songs in all, each are constructed with precision and a deft hand - anything less than perfection would be a slap in the face to our fallen heroes. Three guitar attacks (sorry) are seldom used so efficiently. Twin leads and chugging riffs edge upon schadenfreude in An Act of Valor; that flag on your sleeve/Well, it don’t mean a thing/your national pride/or the anthems we sing/When your death is at hand/those who’ve been there they know/We’ll stay with you brother until it’s time to go. All ten tracks are killer, varied, and add just the right amount of strings to rend steel hearts into puddly mush. Highly recommended.

Frozen Dawn - The Decline of the Enlightened Gods

The Iberian peninsula is hot for black metal right now with bands like Gaerea and Wormed burrowing up through the muck and taking on the wider world. Spanish black metal outfit Frozen Dawn have switched to Indian super-label Transcending Obscurity for their fourth record and by golly it’s a big ‘un.

Black metal, at least the practitioners and adherents I’ve witnessed, is not a fun genre. It is very serious business. Frolicking around is for power metal fairies; headbanging until cranial injury is for thrashers. Black metal? This is art. This is real. This is not stupid idiots in corpse paint traipsing around forests breathing fire. It’s steeped in mysticism and occult incantations. So I’m told.

It’s so difficult to wed black metal to the wider metal genre, despite its stylistic similarities. When I used to talk to European metal bands, they seemed like fun guys living the dream of playing music in return for beer. Black metal bands are a different breed altogether. We know that pro wrestlers are practising kayfabe whenever fans are present - black metal? I have no idea if it’s an act or not.

Frozen Dawn seem to want to put a bit of fun - not levity - but fun into black metal. They do it through the influence of “n’ roll” type bands like Dissection or Necrophobic (and they cover Blinded By Light, Enlightened By Darkness as the last track.) Though opening with howling winds and snow, Mystic Fires of Dark Allegiance is bursting with pointed riffery and whinnying guitar heroism. It’s not all blastbeats and Wagner either; Spellbound is pure King Diamond worship, while Frozen Kings pulsing riffs and arpeggios might see the local Turbojugend tapping their toes.

Though subversion of expectations has a bad wrap since Rian Johnson fucked up Star Wars, that’s pretty much the order of the day with Frozen Dawn. They zig when black metal purists expect a zag, all while keeping things rooted in the black metal tradition. It’s not accessible in the same way Dimmu Borgir is, but god damn this album will make a lot of metalheads very, very happy.

Black Therapy - Echoes of dying memories

Someone much smarter than I, I think it was Sophie Benjamin, said music reviewing in the post-Napster era devolved into “you will like this if you already like music like this” and in the Spotify now, music reviewing is all but irrelevant. Genres aren’t audience defined but producer defined, so they can fit into Spotify recommendation silos. Italy’s Black Therapy are essentially sadboi Scandinavian melodeath in the vein of Ghost Brigade or Insomnium with a bit of that ye olde October Tide thrown in. This is despite reviewers being fed (and swallowing) that this is somehow melodic doom-death, which is a big fucking stretch.

Opener Phoenix Rising certainly radiates Omnium Gatherum vibes; tight arpeggiated riffs laying down bleeding into minor key legato gutters. I mean, I love this type of shit. I would eat it every day for breakfast and never complain. Echoes of Dying Memories (the song) could have been a dusted off Discouraged Ones B-side and I really would never have known (save the death vocals, something Katatonia vocalist Jonas Renkse is no longer able or willing to do.) It’s melodic death metal in a slower tempo - I mean, name one break-yer-neck Dark Tranquillity song (that isn’t Lost to Apathy). Most of their stuff is what modern audiences would call mid-paced. Then again, what the fuck would I know. Uhh, if you like the bands I mentioned you’ll like this too. SEE WHAT I DID THERE???

Kataklysm - Of Ghosts and Gods

Quebec’s Kataklysm have become a mini institution in death metal, taking on the “Northern Hyperblast” moniker well before the Archspire dudes begged their dads to spend a cool hundo on their first acoustic. Ever since around In The Arms of Devastation, the technique took primacy over the deathiness of their metal. Of Ghosts and Gods is their twelfth album and the only one to win the Canadian Juno music award in the Heavy Metal category for 2016. Cool.

Kataklysm haven’t reinvented themselves, though almost by osmosis, they’ve absorbed bits of contemporary deathcore ala Thy Art Is Murder; The Black Sheep’s roar and flames die down into what could almost kinda sorta be a (gasp!) breakdown - though monstrous middle-8s aren’t exactly unheard of in death metal. Right??? The Hyperblast cometh in whiplashers Marching Through Graveyards and Vindication, and you’ll want to throw fists down at the sound of stomper Carrying Crosses. If it doesn’t make total sense through your speakers, it’ll click when you’re in the mosh. Because this is where Kataklysm ought to be experienced.

Everdawn - Cleopatra

Rushing toward us in a storm of riffs and majestic synth orchestra, I half expected Everdawn to launch into the first lines of Wishmaster by Nightwish. A re-formation of Midnight Eternal featuring Mike LePond (bass for Symphony X and so many bands I dare not count) these New Joisey natives are a symphonic power metal outfit centring around the gilded soprano pipes of Canadian Alina Gavrilenko. If I was a little more drunk than usual, I’d wonder if this was a Tarja-era Nightwish cut I’d somehow overlooked. The quality is certainly there. Production is wall-of-soundy enough like an Epica or a Kamelot with the galloping riffs and noodly guitar to match. This is no more evident on the title track, infused with Middle Eastern flavour and an air of mystery, Alina taking the spotlight and carrying the song into mythic Alexandria. A definite highlight is the rockier cut Infinite Divine featuring Thomas Vikstrom of Therion, a natural pairing warranting a warn groove or two. For fans of female operatic vocals, you can’t not like this.

Decipher - Arcane Paths to Resurrection

I am not sure why but this raw black metal band from Greece reminds me of latter-day Therion, if they tended toward aggression instead of melody. There is a tug of war going on between balls out destructive riffery and introspection through leadwork and easing off the gas. They do lend a sense of moving through some kind of purgatory, each movement of Lost in Obscurity cycling through pain, relief, and suffering once more, aided by choirs on the absolute periphery of our perception - if you aren’t paying complete attention, it will just smear into the fuzz and fury of guitars. There is a case for placing them closer to Enslaved rather than Emperor, though the comparisons don’t hit the mark in terms of ingenuity and innovation, they’re a good enough baseline for figuring out where these Greek grimlords are coming from - and where they may very well go.

Tom Valcanis

29 August 2023

Journalism

Avatar: Freaks Unleashed (And Loving It) (Hysteria)

Tom Valcanis

29 August 2023

Journalism

Avatar is a metal band, right? Are you sure? Expectations? Leave them behind, friend. In a 170 Russell teeming with mohawked punk rockers and corpsepainted goths, you’d be forgiven if you missed that punk rock/metalhead peace summit that Avatar brokered at some point. For the uninitiated, we’re wondering how could they please everyone? We shall soon find out.

Read the rest at Hysteria Mag.

Tom Valcanis

21 July 2023

Blog

The Six Stacker - No Quarter Given

Tom Valcanis

21 July 2023

Blog

Once upon a time, album sales were the main source of income for a band so they could make even more on merch: now the merch is where money is made with album sales (or plays) coming a distant second. In fact, album sales has become merch - if you want physical media you have to pay 20x the going price for renting it on Spotify (per month, on average). Represses and reprints are the reserve of the boomer-beloved; Rod Stewart, Steely Dan, Dire Straits. If a band issues 100 copies of a digipak on Bandcamp and you find out through a mate’s blog a year after the fact, those copies are resting inside homes from Mumbai to Melbourne and all places in between and not yours. You missed out, son.

In fact, some people buy the LP or CD just to have - not as a useful conveyance for music playback. A friend I worked with on a project said he only “buys the CD to have in his collection” and never even plays it. CDs and LPs have become a curio more than a necessity. A piece of bragging rights to climb higher atop their peers on the mountain of cool. Me? Well, I’m just stubborn. That, and I just love holding something that’s intangible. It makes more sense in my head.

Dav Dralleon - Kthullu

Is there any wonder metalheads love synthwave? In the mid-2000s when extreme power metal band DragonForce burst on to the scene, it wasn’t uncommon to see their albums on ravers and EDM-heads (is that a thing?) iPods. If both camps gathered together protest style, we’d both be chanting: What do we want? Processed sounds! When do we want it? All the time!

Though metalheads and ravers seem like natural enemies, they’ve got way more in common than not. During that brief mid-2000s crossover, metalheads wouldn’t be out of place at a Venetian Snares or Infected Mushroom gig. Fast beats, twisted melodies, and large looming riffs - it’s what’s for dinner at both households.

The rise of the New Retro Wave of 80s synthpop has also led to a mini-revival of darker, metal-inspired EDM and psytrance referred to as “darksynth” or “metalsynth.” One of the original purveyors, Klayton of Celldweller fame is still producing great albums in this vein under new moniker Scandroid as well as releasing music by fellow travellers under his FiXT label.

Now comes French solo artist Dav Dralleon on second album Kthullu which is cybernetically augmented metal; as if people with robotic arms and legs were playing this hard and fast in a studio on the moon, to get even more hits in thanks to relaxed gravity. That’s exactly what we get: planet-sized riffs, glitched out robot synth lines, and blast beats big enough to wipe out the sun. Don’t say you weren’t warned.

Wachenfeldt - The Interpreter

Dr. Thomas von Wachenfeldt, Ph.D is an associate professor of musiciology at Umea University and part-time registered metal badass. Lucky for Tommy, his last name is more metal that mine could ever hope to be. Every riff and lick has a sense of polish; nothing out of place, everything balanced in perfect measure. Opener Spirits of the Dead is flailing drums and double-time riffs carved up by tasty, flowing leads as if Thor himself was loosing his blonde locks to the winds of Midgard.

Dr. Wachenfeldt is a master of deception - everything feels straightforward enough but like a serene duck atop a pond, the legs underneath are paddling like fury. As for his “interpretation” of black metal, it sits somewhere between Behemoth before Nergal did it for the ‘gram and Dimmu Borgir just went…well, weird. It’s creative, too Ut opens with a skull-crushing bass solo (gasp!) and drips in antipathy like blood does from ceilings. After someone has EXPLODED. Probably. It’s kind of like the prelude to Megadeth’s Rust in Peace…Polaris except the foreboding never really stops. If you like the extreme end of metal, give this one a spin. You won’t be disappointed. If only every music snob made music this good…

Insomnium - Anno 1696

Insomnium may not have invented Scandinavian sadboi melodeath, but they sure perfected it. Some ungenerous folk might say it hit a peak on 2005’s Above the Weeping World. Sloughing off their In Flames meets Children of Bodom by way of Sentenced tag around that time, their sombre, introspective brand of melodic death survived the 2010s wilderness and beyond with some solid yet middling albums. I mean, shit, I still bought them. Don’t listen to them much, though.

Anno 1696 is a concept about the black death, Christianity, and paganism and they play it like an epic musical, to a point. Opening with twinkling folk guitars, they segue into their trademark low-to-high note before blasting us in the face with blastbeats and fiery vocal attack. They’re trying to capture moods here, and they pretty much nail it. Bringing in throat-shredder Sakis Tolis (Rotting Christ, Thou Art Lord) for centrepiece death march White Christ is sort of like letting the devil off his leash to menace the track. Then heavenly voices decend from on high through a guitar hero-led Godforsaken; it’s all rather dramatic and engrossing.

Tracks like Lilian and Starless Paths are classic Insomnium fare; hard riffing led along by melancholy leads, lamenting loss and what could have been. Since In Flames have long vacated the acoustic crown, Insomnium more than fill out the rump on the beginning of Witch Hunter and “ballad” (of sorts) The Unrest which treads that Opeth line without going over into full 70s paisley and shag hair carpet territory (there’s a mellotron, though!) Nine albums down, they’re still making compelling melodeath. Only a handful of bands can lay claim to that.

LEIÞA - Reue

Avantgarde Music/Noisebringer Records (2023)

Yes friends - that’s not a “P” (or an R, in cyrillic…this is getting confusing) that’s a Þ - the long-forgotten Old English by way of Norse “thorn” pronounced “th”. So it’s not LEE-pah, it’s more like LEE-tha. You know, like the mythic river of forgetfulness. The sweet balm of blessing. Wait, that’s the wrong band. Anyway…

Leiþa makes vocal noises that occasionally resemble German, which automatically makes everything sound 1000% more evil. Sitting in the pocket of the PR-invented genre “atmo-black” (atmospheric black metal) which is supposed to signal more Agalloch than Anaal Nathrakh, so what the fuck would I know. It has its fair share of blast beats and guitars filling the fringes of the soundscape in a sweeping, epic vein, though it sounds way more “traditional” than ambient or whatever. Songs like Abgang and a waltz-like 3/4 time catch the ear way more often. Though it doesn’t pick up bear skins and torches like your average Saor or Primordial yet they don’t slip into neon-trimmed techno-suits ala Shade Empire or …And Oceans. It’s a constant tension between organic and technological elements, which makes the listen all the more intriguing.

Warcrab - Damned In Endless Night

India’s fastest growing extreme metal label has one secret of success: they don’t sign shit bands. Nearly every TO band on their roster have been one of quality; and the generous free downloads they give out with every physical release just means you get even more music to fall in love with. Oh, and their crazy UV gloss digipacks look fucking incredible. Their vinyl even more so. Also, label owner Kanal Choksi runs a stray animal shelter out of the TO offices. What a guy!

Back to UK’s Warcrab. A band that has a badass/dumbass name depending on how you look at it. Though on flrst blush these UK gloomsters are pure Sabbath worshippers, especially with languid Iommi-like leads scuzzing through monster tracks like In The Arms of Armageddon; but there’s more than meets your sacred ears. First proper track Halo of Flies looms large with a sturdy death n’ roll sound not too far removed from Edge of Sanity or Entombed, then they’ll slow it right down like we’re sloshing through a bayou on Abyssal Mausoleum, which fits into that cross-eyed, pickle-brained Eyehategod or Crowbar mould. Freewheeling jams are even thrown in (Unfurling Wings of Damnation) and it doesn’t take much to imagine thick reeds of green smoke curling around fretboards. With three guitarists in the mix, there’s new sonic nuggets to be unearthed on every listen. A monumental effort - can’t wait for their new album to drop within the month.

Sermon - Of Golden Verse

“Cinematic” - I suppose that word is overused in the same way “epic” is - but what is it about cinematic that people actually mean? Adam Sandler movies are released in a cinema. There they are, all flat lighting and boring locations. What I think people are trying to convey is the overwhelming force a cinematic experience can bring - expansive views, the translation of a titanic vision into moving pictures three times the size of our bodies. We are engulfed, immersed, mesmerised. Of Golden Verse is possessed of those qualities, even as drums march through Royal, dervish like as it pulses and speeds towards a near-carnal explosion of rage and melody. That’s hard to do in heavy metal; make it erotic insofar it touches at the core of our subliminal urges instead of our conscious desires. There are cues from all over prog and metaldom here, songs like Senescence’s minimal synths and yearning vocals recalling Agent Fresco, jazz-like riffs abounding like Soen by way of Katatonia. It hangs on with claws in your skin and refuses to let go, like any masterful album should. If you’re sleeping on these guys, wake the fuck up.