Tom Valcanis

26 November 2024

Blog

The Six Stacker - Recycled, Revivalist

Tom Valcanis

26 November 2024

Blog

Sorry boys and girls, but from now on it’s going to be revivals until the end of time. Genre revivals, that is. That isn’t to say there isn’t any creativity left in the ol’ dogs, but anything new is pretty much off the table. This comes down to technology. In the 1980s and start of the 1990s, one could hear “new” sounds, thanks to advances in additive synthesis and digital sampling. Crude 8-bit approximations of guitars and violins would flow through speakers in crisp digital perfection - until humanity gained the power over Pulse Code Modulation in their own bedrooms. When a CPU could crunch 16-bits per sample at 44.1kHz, it was all over. We can produce any sound we want in real-time, provided we fiddle with enough virtual knobs. Instead of shelling out thousands for a Yamaha DX7, you can patch a DAW to emulate it. Pair it with a LinnDrum and all manner of filters and you can churn out your own synthwave revival record. UK-based New Retro Wave Records is killing (it) in the name of 80s revivalism; and its even seeped into the hallowed world of metaldom. Bands like Host (named after the core members’ controversial Paradise Lost album that went decidedly dancehall), Unto Others, Tribulation, Cemetery Skyline, and a whole bunch of others are going full Depeche Mode on our asses because… well, why the fuck not. Not that I’m complaining. Just… noticing.

Gatecreeper - Dark Superstition

Watching Gatecreeper wreak havoc on a small outer-suburban stage in Melbourne’s south-east earlier this year, my good friend Rob turned to me as these Sonoran deprivators debuted a new song. His Encyclopedium Metallum senses were twitching. “Man, this sounds a lot like Dismember,” he said with an air of authority. Entombed, Carcass, Grave… take your pick. It’s definitely HM-2 pedal death n’ roll alright. You could slot opener Dead Star into Purgatory Afterglow by Edge of Sanity and none would be the wiser. Not even Dan Swanö. Lifted greatly with the thick and meaty production courtesy of Kurt Ballou (Converge, High On Fire, Kvelertak, Four Year Strong) it’s a mid-90s death n’ roll feast for the senses. Mainly ears, but you get the idea.

Tribunal - The Weight of Remembrance

Sad Vancouverites Tribunal are also a revival band - funeral death/doom the way My Dying Bride used to do it. Still kinda does it? They have a cello player and a warbly chick singer/lamentation machine, so I’ll leave that up for you to decide. Lace and daggers and fake vampire canine teeth abound. I mean there’s a song called Of Creeping Moss and Crumbled Stone, which desperately captures the centuries-old decay of Some Old Castle™. I’m kind of underselling it here. It’s dialed to eleven pomp and paganism, slowed down to a crawl thanks to a stiletto slipped between crucial vertebrae. Maddening and unforgiving stuff, in the best way possible.

Frozen Soul - Glacial Domination

Black metal, death metal, progressive female-fronted fantasy metal… cold metal? Whatever it is, it’s neck-snappingly brutal. It’s also like The Love Boat for death metal (and even darksynth) musos. You get Matthew K. Heafy (Trivium, also producer) pop in a solo or two, John Gallager of Dying Fetus gurgle atop flesh-ripper Morbid Effigy, along with Creeping Death’s Reese Alavi and Power Trip’s Blake Ibanez (no, he uses Jacksons) shred up a tornado (of SOULS) on Amon Amarth adjacent Arsenal of War. Duology Frozen Soul/Assimilator featuring Gost is the ultimate death metal tribute to The Thing, feeling like something Floridian death metal nascents would come up with around its release. For the old schoolers who love a bit of a twist and turn, you can’t really go past it.

Oceans of Slumber - Oceans of Slumber

Just like the man in the cover art, I too am in awe of the sheer beauty and power of what metal-punk-folk-gospel band Oceans of Slumber can come up with. Recommended to me (not personally of course) by Dark Tranquillity’s (and Grand Cadaver’s, and The Halo Effect’s, and Cemetery Skyline’s) Mikael Stanne, the brightest of gems being the sublime voice of Cammie Gilbert; velveteen, mournful, and gripping in every song on this (and every) album. Their depth and breadth of ideas hasn’t felt so engrossing and novel since Pain of Salvation turned prog on its head over 20 years ago - proof you don’t need 22/7 time signatures to convey real emotion. Like A Return to the Earth Below, five and a half minutes of rage giving way to despair; equal parts Katatonia and Evergrey and as close to a perfect prog track if there ever was one. Speaking of…

Evergrey - Theories of Emptiness

This album blows me away every time I listen to it. Evergrey have achieved pop-prog apotheosis on Theories of Emptiness, right from bombastic opener Falling from the Sun, sadboi arena rocker Misfortune, and the duet we’ve all wanted (well, I have) since forever, Cold Dreams featuring Jonas Renkse (Katatonia). It lends off 80s power ballad vibes while maintaining an icy grip on bleak, barren soundscapes. Everything they approach, they nail; Queensryche-ian crunch, Pink Floyd-like leadwork, and soulful gospel choirs. It’s Evergrey done up to 11, much like their breakout Recreation Day. Outstanding work.

Vredensal - Sonic Devotion to Darkness

Sometimes I think black metal sounds best when it doesn’t really sound like black metal at all. Let me explain. One of my favourite black metal bands of all time is Dissection. They are blacker than the blackest black times infinity, but god DAMN were those riffs classic as they were tasty. I’m talking delicious banquets of NWOBHM fat and Ameri-thrash grease-licked middle fingers thrust to the sky. Just like Mikael Vredensal (yeah, I know!) busts out large and wide solos fit for arena stages and fireworks to pop off. If it’s all about “do what thou wilt” then Sonic Devotion is the epitome of Satanic self-indulgence. Ave! Or whatever.

Tom Valcanis

18 September 2024

Blog

Second Look: Within Temptation - The Heart of Everything

Tom Valcanis

18 September 2024

Blog

If the catchcry for Hollywood franchise movies is Kathleen Kennedy by way of South Park’s Cartman, “Put a chick in it, make her lame and gay,” radio-ready metal’s mantra in the mid-2000s was “put a chick in it, make her goth yet pretty.” Arch Enemy’s flash in the popular consciousness - omg its a chick who growlz wtf - was just that. A blink and you’ll miss it phenomenon. A trend that skirted the mainstream but never seemed to break all the way through.

Female-fronted metal was piecemeal in the late 1990s, with the Europeans and Canadians leading the charge. Nightwish, After Forever, Kittie, Otep, and Within Temptation. Of course, no one gave a shit until 2003, when American goth-adjacent pop-metallers Evanescence dropped their multi-platinum Fallen, obliterating the nu-metal boys’ armies just as that trend was in full commercial retreat.

Believe it or not, in all its maudlin and weepy glory My Immortal was a Top 10 hit. This is when singles were still sold in actual stores. #1 in Canada, Greece, and Portugal, as well as the US Rock & Metal charts. It swept charts across Europe and America too; it hit #4 in Australia. It was fucking everywhere. Their riffy songs, like Going Under also charted in the worldwide Top 40. So big labels scrambled to get one of their own Evanesences before the fad well, evanesced.

Luckily for top-of-their game Roadrunner Records, they locked eyes on an equally bankable goth yet pretty female-fronted band they could exploit, namely Nightwish. Yes, the darlings who set their top-hatted sympho-gothery at Wacken Open Air in 2000 and were wholly embraced by metaldom as the little Finns that could were now taking a tilt at the mainstream. 2004’s Once was sitting beside Avril Lavigne and Destiny’s Child albums in teenage girl bedrooms, much to the chagrin of teenage boys like me.

With songs like Nemo peaking at #1 in Finland and Hungary as well as scraping into the US Rock & Metal Top 5, it would seem their €1 million production, video, and marketing investment was plentifully returned. Thank god for that plinky plonky hook, right? If that doesn’t pan out, put some beats in it and shove it up UK clackers instead. Which they did. Subsequent single I Wish I Had an Angel posting a #60 on the UK singles chart, their best ever result in that market.

Released later in the year, Within Temptation’sThe Silent Force peaked at #8 in the US Rock & Metal Chart, did well in Europe, and took out #3 in Finland and #1 in The Netherlands. Just like Nightwish produced pensive Goth Anime Music Video fodder, it too won the hearts and acclaim of teenage girls. Sort of. Sharon del Adel’s delicate voice of glass occupied a different sort of spirit vessel than mezzo-soprano opera-enthusiast Tarja Turunen - and vocalist Sharon del Adel didn’t mind the weird goth shit because, well, Within Temptation was kinda born that way in the first place. However their pop-orientation didn’t go down as well with fans and casual ears.

Though unacknowledged at the time, the struggle for Goth-pop dominance was real between Nightwish and Within Temptation, the Dutch behemoths playing second fiddle to these diminutive Finns. (You ever seen Emppu Vuorinen on stage? He’s fucking tiny.)

One saving grace for Nightwish, avoiding total accusations of selling out, was that they stuck to their symphonic, grandiose metal guns. Almost immediately upon release, Ghost Love Score gained adoration from across the metal world; ten minutes of epic Hollywood-score pomp and ceremony on the level of Hallowed Be Thy Name or the recently released …And Then There Was Silence. Deride Once all you like; it still had genre-definitive heavy metal tracks on it. The Silent Force, not so much. So if that didn’t work, do whatever the hell you want instead. Which they seemed to do on The Heart of Everything.

Within Temptation are teenagers of the eighties - now husband and wife, guitarist Robert Westerholt and Sharon, bonded amid a mutual love for Jim Henson’s The Dark Crystal - and it shines through on Heart. They didn’t start as rock stars pining for stardom. Robert worked as a Human Resources manager; Sharon in the fashion industry, which partly explains her many, many on-stage haute couture costume changes.

Even their Evanescent balladry is more Steinman by way of Bonnie Tyler (something AllMusic picked up on) - strong, empowered, spirited; not crying their mascara off in a bedroom corner. Cue Frozen, a semi-ballad about child abuse:

It made the Top 10 Mega Rock 50 (#7) in the Netherlands and charted over the borders in France and Germany. Remember, we’re talking about a metal band here. Unless you’re Greek and weird, you don’t really chart all that well. At all. The fact they were charting at all was a surprise, considering their humble origins.

Speaking to Metal Hammer in 2007, just after the release of The Heart of Everything, Robert said:

“We’ve never really been hoping for any of this,” [...] “The fact is we started this as a hobby band, so that’s meant we’ve tried things really slowly. We have more solid ground which makes you less insecure. We’ve always had the time to develop ourselves, not to be hungry for success but to just go as far as we can and see where it ends. We’ve gone from country to country and step by step.”

“It all happened in a very natural way for us,” Sharon said. “It’s just been the next label, the next big festival, it didn’t happen overnight for us. It’s been ten years, so for us it just hasn’t been a shock. And we prefer it this way.”

The album was ripe with singles. What Have You Done with Life of Agony vocalist Keith (now Mina) Caputo in duet with Sharon is a total Roxette homage; punky, punchy guitars punctuating calls and returns that tickles the ear of any millennial who grew up on school drop-off breakfast radio. It sticks out, because their label insisted upon it, rather than the band. Labels were hoping their rockier songs would get new fans through the door and have them sit down long enough for the greater symphonic metal show to unfold.

Some reviewers were lamenting their shift from being Euro-centric to placating the ugh! Americans. Mark Gromen of Bloody Words and Bloody Knuckles said a proper North American release will unleash the unfair Evanescence comparisons, writing “If entitled [sic] to only one track to give the uninitiated an accurate portrayal of what Within Temptation are all about, try Our Solemn Hour… Grandiose, orchestral and rocking, it encompasses all aspects of the band.”

I’d go one further and add The Cross to that list; the track that comes closest to reviving their classic ethereal and whimsical Mother Earth sound. Likewise the semi-acoustic ballad All I Need, showcasing del Adel’s magnificent range and orchestras backing her in full bloom.

Before long, we come to the Ghost Love Score killer, The Truth Beneath The Rose. Coming in at a nail over seven minutes, choirs and strings swirling like a gathering gale, guitars crashing in and striding through at full gallop as del Adel’s porcelain voice soars above it all. "Forgive me for what I have been” she croons, as a digital duplicate punches through with Forgive me my sins!

As she falls through eternity with gossamer oohs and aahs, it captivates with a reflective middle-8, the kind that moody girls would use as cryptic MSN Messenger statuses (What’s the matter? I don’t want to talk about it!) or MySpace top song placements. Which is fine, because at the heart of everything, the record (and the band) is about fantasy escapism.

Metal Hammer, in the interview, wrote “[a]s they explain, Within Temptation is about defying reality and providing themselves and their fans with a respite from life rather than a reflection of it […] To Robert and Sharon, Within Temptation is simultaneously an unexpected career and a place in the imaginary ether where even their own lives play second-fiddle to their lofty imagination.”

Which in this day and age is something metal has almost forgotten about. Thanks for nothing, America. Is it their best album? In terms of being the “most Within Temptation thing Within Temptation have done,” then yes. Once worthy of many a spin - and then some.

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!