Tom Valcanis

11 September 2024

Blog

The Six Stacker - Book Ballyhoo

Tom Valcanis

11 September 2024

Blog

So I wrote (co-wrote) a book. About dating. Yeah. Me. A book about how you can get better at dating. You can pre-order it here. It works, and I’m proof. (lol!) Anyway…

Sonata Arctica - Reckoning Night

Perennially compared to fellow Finns Stratovarius (100% justified), this power metal powerhouse dominated the early oughts with fast double kicks and neo-classical wank a-go-go. For some reason I always considered Winterheart’s Guild their best, until I chanced upon this cheap copy on eBay. It’s definitely their magnum opus; achieving something greater than you ever thought the whole was capable of. Like Jean Claude Van Damme’s heart-rending confession to camera in the magnificent JCVD; or Adam Sandler’s darkly compelling arthouse turn in Punch Drunk Love. This is good. Like, really good. My Selene captures the record’s mirthful yet sombre tone, lifted high with give-all performances by the entire band. Power metal as a whole is probably 99% shit - this is the rare as hen’s teeth top 1% solid gold brass stuff.

Everdawn - Venera

I think I played Nightwish’s third album, Wishmaster, into the fucking ground when I got it. Everdawn plays mezzo-soprano fronted prog-adjacent metal, headed by the whimsical Alina Gravilenko. If there was ever a Wishmaster 2.0, this is it. I fucking hate hate HATE when PRs tout a band releasing a record that “takes everything from their previous works and bring it to the next level” but this… sounds accurate. Opener Cassiopeia unleashes beltings of grandiose guitar and bombastic choirs, which sounds tame compared to OTT gothic banger (think Kamelot) Century Black, throwing convention into the sky above and waving it goodbye. The Ghost Love Score killer, Truer Words Ever Spoken throws down the laced gauntlet to Tuomas Holopainen’s top hat wearing arse, duels his recent so-so output, and lances it straight through the heart with an engraved silver stiletto. Yeah, it’s stuffed with cheese and pomp, but you know what? The quality of songwriting transcends the trappings of this often very silly genre. A+, would put this on through my headphones while crawling into my bedroom stoned and afraid of waking my parents… again.

Counting Hours - The Wishing Tomb

Imagine if Katatonia, instead of treading into more contemporary territory after the release of Tonight’s Decision, stuck to their miserable shoegazing doom guns as heard on Discouraged Ones or Brave Murder Day. That’s it. You’ve just heard this album in your head. These Finns aren’t cribbing everything from their Swedish bros. For instance, they growl. Katatonia don’t growl! Not since… that time. Long eBows trill off into great cold distances (BOO) and bass plumb depths of well-worn despair. Tracks like All That Blooms (Needs to Die) will catch you thinking it’s the genuine article. It’s as good as the real thing, that’s for sure. Lesser ripoffs be damned. They’ve nailed the mood and the songwriting. If you’re an absolute Katatonia fanatic like I am, you can’t really put this one down.

Resin Tomb - Cerebral Purgatory

It’s impossible to parody death metal - as soon as you take the piss it horseshoes back into itself. Werewolves do it to a point, but it’s impossible to tell. It’s just death metal all the way down. Queensland’s own Resin Tomb threaten tearing apart death metal into a putrid gas, red-lining the entire way through. Crushing and unrelenting like fucked movies on black spine VHS after 2am, Resin Tomb create compelling hellscapes devoid of hope or redemption. The deathiest of death metal, natch.

Flaming Wrekage - Terra Inferna

I’m going to cheat again, because I gave this a 9/10 and I still stand by it:

Each track could be considered its own mini-symphony, seguing between sections seamlessly and creating their own unique and urgent textures and moods. Paralysis catches one off guard since it begins like a standard riffy boi but halts midway to play around with a crunchy, solitary motif; drums and bass nowhere to be heard. Leadwork explodes like fireworks amid Enduring Decay, culminating in the 80s denim-and-leather throwback Our Own Blood, tremelos a-go-go and quick-time percussion smacking headlong into towering walls of guitar. There’s so many holy shit moments in this record upon first blush, one only wonders how many we’ll pick up during subsequent listens.
Terra Inferna is as much as a celebration of the rich chainmail tapestries metal can weave as it is a testament to their blossoming as an incredible death metal force not to be wreked with. There’s only one way to play this record: loud and on repeat.

Xoth - Exogalactic

If all metal bands were as intent on sounding fuckin cool like Xoth, we’d all be better off as a species. Space/alien/epic themed guitar hero melodic death piles on leads and wild solos, banking and twisting through eight incredible tracks that will make any guitar nerd’s heart sing. Think of the pomp and silliness of Gloryhammer meets the sharp riff-lordery of The Black Dahlia Murder and you’re kinda half-way there. Long live Xoth!

Tom Valcanis

24 July 2024

Blog

The Six Stacker - Cold Bones

Tom Valcanis

24 July 2024

Blog

It’s cold. It’s cold, yet I refuse to believe it. I strut around in t-shirt and jeans, a lone beanie to stop all my body heat from escaping. I don’t feel it, because the crushtor compound™ could be used for meat and perishable storage during winter and not break any OH&S laws. Also, gives me licence to blast music real loud. Here’s what’s been in my six stacker:

Vanishing Kids - Miracle of Death

I tend to buy anything Angry Metal Guy puts in a top whatever list, so this went into my shopping cart without a thought. Yeah, it’s doom, but not as we know it. The slow crawl of first track Spill the Dark walks a line between 70s Hammond-drenched stoner anthem and murder ballad, amplified by Nikki Drohomyreky’s trance-inducing vocals. It’s a throwback without being all tassled jackets and flares, a fresh take on a well-worn genre. I’d try to pin them down as doom metal, but that’s like pigeonholing Hammers of Misfortune, something I refuse to do. It’s a weird one, but a good ‘un.

Suldusk - Anthesis

After being blown away by their set prior to Katatonia this year (was it this year?) and sacrificing a meal or two to buy their prior album Lunar Falls, these Aussies knock it out of the gloomy moor with Anthesis. Plucking bits of the darker end of metal, neo-folk, and atmospherics, carried on the back of vocalist (and multi-instrumentalist) Emily Highfield’s sublime voice. It’s like the reincarnation of The Gathering rinsed in black, a majestic and ethereal follow-up to Green Carnation’s Light of Day, Day of Darkness in tone and musicianship. Album of the year contender, for sure.

Judas Priest - Invincible Shield

I’m going to cheat a bit since I already reviewed this:

Is Invincible Shield as earth-shattering as its predecessor? Not quite. Does it live up to their legendary canon? Absolutely. It’s proof positive you can teach an old God new tricks, and then some. Horns up, metalheads. Priest rides once again!

Spirit Adrift - Ghost at the Gallows

Nate Garrett has feet in two worlds - that of the leather vest and big fuck off mo’ wearing Spirit Adrift and the gory t-shirt clad three-day-growth crustiness of Gatecreeper. Spirit Adrift is definitely a throwback to late-70s big arena band rock n’ roll, a time mere seconds before Maiden, Priest, and Mötorhead would dominate stages and airwaves. It’s eminently listenable and groove-heavy, and it was stuck inside my six stacker for ages. When it came around again, I was all too pleased to hear Garrett and co. trade licks and bellow bear-like harmonies into a green, smokey void. Recommended.

Vorga - Beyond the Palest Star

Sci-fi? In my black metal? Where do I sign up? Exploring dark regions beyond where Vektor or Imperialist have ever gone, Vorga propels toward relatavistic speeds, that being their compositions are compelling no matter whether they’re death marches (Voideath), Dimmu Borgir style mini-symphonies (Magical Thinking) or straight up old school headbangers (The Cataclysm.) If metal survives into the age of Starfleet and the United Federation of Planets, it would be illogical that musicianship of this quality wouldn’t be a prime directive on their 24th Century Spotifies.

Rotting Christ - Pro Xhristou

Rotting Christ, as far as I’m concerned is (groan) God tier black metal. Not much else comes close, and their latest platter Pro Xhristou was as eagerly awaited in the crushtor house like Christmas is in a spoiled kid’s. Rotting Christ have an innate talent for capturing the sublime within the depraved, grand choirs of damned souls lifting dirty, diabolical riffs to strike the cloisters of heaven itself. AMG hated it, but I think they doth protest too much; in a world of black metal clones, Rotting Christ at least stand on their own two feet like Colossus(ses) that bestrode the world. Can’t please everyone.

Tom Valcanis

7 June 2024

Blog

Second Look: Noumena - Absence

Tom Valcanis

7 June 2024

Blog

2004-2005 for melodic death heads was a bit uneven. Especially if you were splashing cash on imports (like I was, and still fucking am.) For the hardcore In Flames oldies, Soundtrack to Your Escape was relegated to "coaster tier" pretty damn quick, written off as trite cash-grabby garbage. Doomsday Machine by Arch Enemy was a decent effort, although lacking that grittier twin-lead panache that defined their barnstorming rise at the end of the last millenium. Dark Tranquillity hulked into heavier territory on Character, jettisoning much of the goth influence of the past three or so records - a great platter nonetheless. Fellow Swedes Darkane's Layers of Lies shored up the harder, more straightforward melodic death on offer, while Soilwork's Stabbing The Drama was flirting with metalcore, buying her drinks, and taking her home at the end of the night. Scar Symmetry debuted their sci-fi melodeath weirdness this year, too. Of course, Insomnium was fast racing into view with Since The Day It All Came Down, an impressive turn on folky melodic death, the template for the masterpiece that was to come.

So why did everyone seem to sleep on Finns Noumena and their second album Absence, possibly one of the best, if not the best melodic death releases of 2005? How on earth did they follow it up with something equally as impressive a year later (Anatomy of Life) and sweep themselves into obscurity for almost a decade after? Huh?

When End of the Century proudly struts its mammoth chops in the first thirty seconds or so of this incredible melodeath record, it's easy to think - "Ahh, the record In Flames SHOULD have made after Clayman." You'd be hard pressed to think this wasn't Colony or Clayman II, Anders Friden replaced by an hirsute, ursine Finn toiling in the darkness of lower registers. A jig-like folk melody dances through fields of big, clashing riffs before halting for a noodly lead break that, upon closer inspection, Bjorn Gelotte or Jesper Stromblad had absolutely nothing to do with.

Hear also the reverbed acoustic intro of Slain Memories, a near clone of In Flames’ Square Nothing, though after the intro it departs for a completely opposite destination, all sad female vocals instead of bloody knuckled riffs. It's so easy to write this off as In Flames forgery - and my brain desperately is clamouring for me to do it - but it stands idle in mute defiance. I will not talk shit about this song - nor the record. That's despite reviewers growing tired, so tired of the melodic death craze after a near decade in the sun.

MetalStorm.net said "While the whole Melodic/Gothenburg Death Metal craze seems to be wearing off, there are some bands attempting to achieve success playing such genre [sic.]. [It's] a great genre with many good assets, and many hindrances also, like the repetitiveness, lack of innovation, false creativity and many more, and what else you could expect from a genre that spawns hundreds of bands each year?

Nowadays I don't think there's a band that's going to reinvent Melodeath. It's a genre that reached its peak [...] Nowadays we have the leftovers of a genre that already gave the best of itself, one of the results of the cathartic act is Noumena." High praise indeed, considering.

Absence arrived about a year before Amorphis revamped itself with Eclipse. Bouncy Finnish folk melodies wouldn't become synonymous with Amorphis until that album dropped, at least from what I can remember. Didn’t stop Metal-Archives.com nerds from making the comparison, though. I might play Eclipse to some friends and chuck All Veiled somewhere in there and see if anyone notices.*

Second track Everlasting Ward pairs Maiden gallop and jaunty frostbitten melody and serves it up with a side of bowel-gurgling growls AND plaintive cleans. One has to wonder why Amorphis endured and these guys didn't. To make an outstanding album one (ideally) throws out the rulebook. These melodies wouldn't feel out of place on a cheese-filled power metal record. However they aren't worked to absolute death, but as a basis for constructing thoughtful, almost poignant songs around them. They even brought back female cleans, thought extinct after Dark Tranquillity’s Projector or In Flames Whoracle. Prey of the Tempter heaps every passe melodeath trope (low-end riffs, clean vocals, staccato rhythms, baroque-cribbed melodies) into a barrel until they’ve spun it clean of cliche. Then it comes out sounding a bit like Sentenced, which isn’t altogether a bad thing. They have this knack beginning with the familiar and taking you somewhere completely foreign by the start of the first verse, like another acoust-introed The Dream and The Escape. seething with the fury of Dark Tranquillity’s earlier thrashier fare.

On paper, this all sounds unoriginal and derivative. I promise you - in reality, it’s far greater than the sum of its parts. Although prices for the disc itself are eyewateringly astronomical, give this a “spin” on the streaming service of your choice. You’ll walk away changed.

*I have like one friend that would sit through an entire metal album with me, and he would definitely fucking notice.