Filed under: Best of the year, death metal, Heavy metal | Tags: Arimortis, Ascension, At peace, benediction, Cancer, Don't sell your soul, Giants and monsters, Helloween, Inverted world, March of the unheard, MSG, Necrodeath, Overdriver, paradise lost, Propagandhi, Ravage of empires, Something is rotten in humanity, The Halo Effect, the hellacopters, Unbounded Terror
During last year’s Best Of post, I decided that I would dedicate less time in the future talking about the releases that did not impress me. I will stick to that decision, so this year I will only mention albums I enjoyed. I will start with some death metal albums that stood out for me, move on to thrash, then heavy metal, and, as usual, I will reserve the last part of the post for my top 10 albums of this past year.
Some awesome albums on the stairs
I’ll start my review with some good death metal from 2025. The more I listen to Deteriorot the more I am convinced that it is the perfect mix of Incantation and early Paradise Lost. I love Deteriorot’s music, I really enjoyed their previous album, and the new one is as good. The vocals are still a bit hard to get used to, and their prominent position in the mix at times makes it even harder. On songs like “The spirit” where the vocals are a bit deeper and more drowned in music, it’s much better. The song-writing is fantastic, so if it weren’t for the vocals I would have listened to this album much more. I still haven’t been able to find any physical copies in the UK, so 
that’s a shame too. Sarcator‘s Swarming angels and flies impressed me initially, but after a few listens I got a bit tired of it. The first two songs are extremely impressive, loads of ideas packed in a few minutes. The opener particularly reminds me a lot of Necrosis (2004) era Cadaver; the riffing and the vocals and the vocal patterns, are straight off that album. I’m sure I’ll eventually revisit and pay more attention to it because it’s a rich album. Lik is one of the numerous new death metal bands that imitate the classics. Lik really like Dismember, and their previous albums were too on the nose to take seriously. Still, I decided to give the new album a try, and I actually enjoyed it. In Necro, Lik copies the era of Dismember that starts with the release of Death metal (1997), that is when they lost their unique sound (partially through the break with Skogsberg), became less compositionally ambitious and adventurous, and sacrificed brutality for melody. Lack of originality aside, this is a very enjoyable album. Each song is well put together, there are many catchy moments and interesting narratives. The new album by Imperishable, a band I’ve known since their demo days, is cool. I listened to the first few songs of the album on repeat for a while, but overall I didn’t love the album. But, the first two songs are absolutely perfect. An album I listened to a few times on YouTube and I thought sounded great is the debut album by Impurity titled The eternal sleep. Swedish death metal that pays true homage to Left had path era Entombed, early Dismember, and with vocals that even remind me a bit of God Macabre. I only listened to it recently but I’ll be definitely checking it out more.
I’ll now move on to the realm of thrash. The new Dark Angel album, titled Extinction level event, kicks off with an absolute monster of a song, the eponymous one. Amazing tempo, fantastic structure, with one rabid section after the other. The vocals are badass – very unique and inventive style of singing. Rinehart’s vocals were vicious back in Leave scars (1989), and his new style is also super cool. The song that follows is equally awesome, and these trills on the riffing send chills down my spine. The problem I have is that the remainder of the album is nowhere near as good as the first two songs, at least in my opinion. I’m not saying that the rest of the songs are bad, just not equally impressive. Still, this album is enjoyable even if it’s just for Hoglan’s drumming. The confidence, experience, and undeniable quality in his sound are truly refreshing. I had the same issue with the new Sacrifice album as with the new Dark Angel album. The first couple of songs set the bar too high, to the extent that the rest of the album sounds lukewarm. Still, I enjoyed it loads, and favourite songs include “Comatose”, “Antidote of poison“, and “We will not survive”. It is quite impressive that they sound exactly like they did in the mid 1980s. The opener, “Comatose”, is my favourite on the album; that riff after Urbinati shouts “look out” would make Gary Holt blush, or, at least, would make him think he wrote it. The new Coroner album, titled Dissonance theory, garnered lots of praise in music press, and some of my friends also loved it. I think it is really cool indeed, but I’ve only listened to it a few times. I’ve liked Coroner since high school, but I’ve never been a big fan. The new album is loyal to the classic Coroner sound circa Mental vortex (1991) but with some more conventional chord progressions too in the slower, more atmospheric songs, that add a more pop sensibility which I really enjoyed. I would say that the band has focused and expanded on that fantastic atmospheric sound they introduced during the middle part of “Divine step” off Mental vortex. That Slayer-esque break in “The law” is absolutely delicious. The tasteful use of keyboards is another nice touch. The new Sodom album is cool, but nowhere near as good as the fantastic Genesis XIX album from a few years ago. The biggest change is that compositions in The 
Arsonist are simpler, and overall the album feels less diverse. At the same time, it feels more direct, punkier, dirtier than anything Sodom have done is decades. Tom’s voice is, as always, absolutely breath-taking. There are some songs that stand out and take me back to when I first listened to Sodom and fell in love with them. For example, “Trigger discipline”, “A.W.T.F.” (a song I assume is dedicated to Tank’s Algy Ward), “Return to god in parts“, “Gun without groom”, “Witchhunter”, are perfect. The new album by Hirax (another one I couldn’t get hold of a physical copy in the UK) is pretty cool, a quick shot of energy. Katon’s voice is much grittier these days, but he still has his vibrato and unique style of delivery. The song-writing is pretty middle of the road, but still enjoyable.
I listened to quite a few new albums by heavy metal bands this past few months. The one that stood out for me is the second album by the Swedish band Century. Century has been on my radar because the band members have been involved in the past with bands I liked (e.g. Temisto). There were moments in the new album that sent chills down my spine, like the intro of “The chains of hell“. The thing I realised was that halfway through the album I’d get a bit bored. So, I really like the first half of the album, but I still did not feel like listening to the rest of it. The thing about Century and many other new wave of traditional heavy metal bands is that they’ve created this caricature of old heavy metal. Traditional heavy metal was diverse, with interesting arrangements, face-melting riffs and had an adventurous spirit. I don’t see any of this in these new bands, including Century. There is more to kick-ass heavy metal than “style”. I sound very negative, but I’m simply sharing some of the things I honestly think about this musical movement. It doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy this specific album. Not gonna lie, the first 
listen of A new world rising, the new Rage album, disappointed me. The thing that stood out to me was this wall of sound that completely subsumed any hint of melody and Peavy’s voice. Once I got over the weird sound of the album and I started paying attention to the actual song-writing I realised that all the songs are cool, albeit very formulaic. Peavy’s unique song-writing is there, and although it is not as fantastic as on the last couple of albums there are a few masterpieces that send chills down my spine. One of them is “Beyond the shield of misery”, which exemplifies the Rage I grew up with and the Rage I love. The guitar-playing on this one is reminiscent of the mid-90s, and is one of the few moments in the album where I actually like the guitar-playing. A song that I noticed early on is “Cross the line“, whose chorus stuck with me, another example of Peavy’s ability to write amazing melodies. “Innovation” is also a cool, energetic and aggressive tune. However, the metalcore elements, which were a bit present in the last couple of albums, are very prominent here, and I am not a fan of them. Really slow breakdowns, shouty fawx-angry vocals and a few deep growls, and lots of scales is not really my thing, but what can you do; this is a new era for the band and the inclusion of a young guitarist in Jean Bormann makes inevitable the creeping in of these new elements. I enjoyed some curveballs near the end of the album like “Paradigm change” and “Fear out of time” (I’d prefer it without the shouty vocals though), which are not your standard Rage tunes. This is the first time in a decade that a new Rage album does not appear on my top-10 list.
Without further ado, here are the 10 albums I listened to and enjoyed the most this past year. It is mostly the usual suspects, alongside some new appearances too. The albums appear in order of preference, although I would say that the first three share the first position.
1. Propagandhi – At peace
I’ve been listening to this band for 20 years. I did not expect a record of this level of brilliance, to be honest. I don’t think any band/musician that I know of can be compared to Propagandhi. The word “inspiring” takes on a new meaning with this band. The new album is musically and lyrically extremely rich, a long journey of discovery. Comparing it to Propagandhi’s previous albums, it is by far the least intense, in terms of speed, but one of the most intense in terms of emotion. I would not recommend this album to someone who is going through a tough time, and for a while I also struggled with it; I found some of the lyrics very pessimistic, and the constant engagement with issues around mortality brought out in me feelings of sadness and melancholy. As always, my vocabulary has been enriched since getting a new Propagandhi album, as well as my musical vocabulary, in terms of how one can engage creatively with the structures of rock music. The eponymous song is one of the best songs I’ve heard in a while, and the chorus-like section at the 2:42 mark followed by the guitar solo left me speechless. Long gone are the days when Todd wrote aggressive hardcore attacks. But, the dystopian musical and lyrical landscapes he painted on this album are something else… My favourite one is “Day by day“. I love the middle section of “Prismatic spray”, I love the journey that songs like “Rented P.A.” and “Cat guy” take me on, I love the whole album.
2. Benediction – Ravage of empires
I completely lost my mind with the new Benediction album. I loved their “comeback” from a few years ago, but this album is just something else. Dave sings like it’s the last album he ever gets to sing; absolute fury, very passionate performance. Having seen Benediction live with Ingram, I can testify that in concert he is even more brutal. The references to Benediction’s past are also present in this album, with mentions to “Neverwhere”, “I bow to none”, “Grind bastard”, and a reference to Dave’s band Downlord (i.e. “Wake up and smell the species”). Also, could “Psychosister” be referring to the nun on the Benediction logo and the classic Benediction t-shirt from back in the early 1990s? In terms of song-writing, the first four songs absolutely destroyed; one after the other, pure death metal perfection. The opener is just a relentless barrage of one fantastic riff after the other, and that break, so powerful, and how it goes into the slower atmospheric bit is just goosebump inducing. The second song is a classic Benediction folk tale, super spooky, the recipe for an instant classic. And then what can one say about “Genesis chamber”; awesome intro and the fast tremolo picked riffs that follow are the stuff of classic death metal that’s so hard to find these days. I’ve always loved Benediction’s slower, creepier moments, nobody does it like them, and “Deviant spine” is a fine example of that. I love Gio’s drum phrase after the choruses, and that creepy spoken passage is god! Couldn’t be happier.
3. Helloween – Giants and monsters
I think I may like this second offering of the re-united line-up even more than their first one. This one might be lacking the two ambitious masterpieces by Weikath (“Out for the glory” and “Down in the damps”), but it is more consistent, and I love all the songs (I wouldn’t mind if a couple of songs were missing from the previous one). Sascha came up with two of the best songs in his career, in my opinion, with the fantastic “Hand of god” and “Universe”. The former is one of my top three songs in the album, I absolutely love it. Deris is giving a breath-taking performance; the end of the second verse sends chills down my spine and I love the ending, the way he sings “can I take the hand of god?”. “Universe” is an awesome epic tune, it ticks all the boxes, fantastic performance by Kiske, awesome verse-bridge-chorus progression, great and imaginative middle section and dynamics throughout the song, it’s just perfect. Weikath offers two awesome songs as well. “Under the moonlight” could have been on Pink bubbles go ape (1991), a really fun song about vanity with an inspiring performance by Kiske, and “Saviour of the world” is a classic example of Weiki’s knack for writing songs that have almost a classical music quality, in that each section makes sense as part of a greater whole, and the song flows effortlessly; a true tour de force; such a shame that the fantastic guitar harmony during the solo section is so brief. Old-school Helloween fans may have noticed that “Saviour of the world” might be referencing the song “Phantoms of death” from Walls of Jericho (1985). Hansen contributes some epic song-writing, and especially the acoustic bits bring into mind Gamma Ray of the Land of the free (1995) era. The chorus of “We can be gods” is one of the album’s highlights, and Kiske’s performance on it is stunning! Deris’s songs are also awesome, very catchy, and the ballad (i.e. “Into the sun”) made an early impression on me. It’s not easy writing a good ballad that’s not cringey, but Deris has written some of the most fantastic ballads over the years, and he did it again.
4. Cancer – Inverted world
Shadow gripped was a great comeback for Cancer, my appreciation for it has only grown with time. The new album sees a different Cancer, as two original members – Ian and Carl – have left the band. Walker, the main songwriter, filled in the gap with young musicians that make the band sound more elegant than ever. The musicianship is the first thing that stands out in Inverted world. But, beyond that, this is classic Cancer, and the album has a cult death metal quality. In my opinion, it lacks absolute masterpieces like “Garotte” or “Down the step”, but each song is well-crafted and there is lots of variety and lots of hooks. One of my favourite moments is the last phrase on the chorus of “Until they died” (an absolute masterpiece of a song) and the way it bleeds into the main riff – it gives me goose bumps. One of the songs that surprised me in the beginning is “Test site”, ‘cos it has a very weird riff, especially for Cancer, and the vocals are different than usual, more shouty, a bit reminiscent of the Spirit in flames (2005) era of the band. I love the main riff of “39 bodies” and the more dissonant and atmospheric moments, like “Jesus for eugenics”; these could be considered trademarks of this band, deployed early on in songs like “Die die” (1990) way before dissonant chords became common in death metal. Walker’s vocals sound better than ever. The cover art is also fantastic.
5. The Hellacopters – Overdriver
I love the new album by The Hellacopters. In my opinion it is superior to their previous one. It is also closer to what Imperial State Electric were doing, as it is not particularly heavy. But the song-writing is fantastic. The song that resembles more the old Hellacopters is one written by DeBorst, the song “Faraway looks“. I’ve said this before, but Andersson’s voice keeps getting better with time; it’s powerful, grittier, much more expressive than it was during the first run of the band. The production and the performances are amazing, and I love the cover art. I love all the songs, but some moments that really stand out for me include the coda of “Don’t let me bring you down”, the chorus of “Soldier on”, the conclusion of the middle section on “(I don’t wanna be) just a memory”, the chorus of “Doomsday daydreams“, but all these songs are, overall, just magnificent. Although the album is generally up tempo, the slower moments are very noteworthy. “Coming down”, particularly, has this film noir quality that I love, similar to “No song unheard” from High visibility (2000), and “The stench” has a similar mood to “Dead things” from Imperial State Electric’s Reptile brain music (2013).
6. The Halo Effect – March of the unheard
The second album by The Halo Effect and their debut could have been written simultaneously. It took me a while to properly appreciate their first album, but eventually I enjoyed it loads, so I was looking forward to the release of this one. Although it sounds a bit like by the numbers “melodic” Swedish death metal, still this level of confident songwriting and flawless execution is only possible by people who have perfected their craft. There’s a nice balance of slow, mid-tempo and fast tunes. “Our channel to the darkness”, a fast song reminiscent of mid-2000s Dark Tranquillity might be my favourite on the album, as it has a beautiful acoustic intro, cool riff and vocal patterns and a catchy chorus. “Detonate” is another highlight; infectious pace, beautiful guitar lines and classic Stromblad-esque melodies during the bridge. “What we become”, another awesome song, opens with a super catchy main melody which is used again in the chorus, making it one of the most memorable choruses in the album. Overall, I really enjoyed the album and can’t stop listening to it. The main thing I don’t particularly like is Stanne’s clean vocals. I still have the same reaction to them as I had in 1999 when Projector came out. Many things change in 26 years, I now love bands which my teenage self would laugh at (e.g. Kiss), but not my dislike of Stanne’s clean vocals. In any case, they are not particularly present, only in the choruses of a couple of songs, so it’s tolerable.
7. Necrodeath – Arimortis
My first contact with Necrodeath was around 1997 when I friend of mine gave me Fragments of insanity (1989) on cassette tape. I loved that album, and I still consider it their crowning achievement. I bought their comeback album Matter of all evil when it came out in 1999, and although I liked it it didn’t consolidate my admiration of this band. So, I lost interest and didn’t listen to them for many years, until the album The age of dead Christ (2018) and Dancing in the pain (2023) renewed my interest in them. The new album sounds like is their final album too, and I’ve listened to it loads. The more atmospheric sounds the band is known for – stuff heavily influenced by Slayer’s riffing on song’s like “Dead skin mask” – are very prominent in this album. The eponymous song is a great example of that. But, my favourite moments are the faster stuff, especially the brutal “Hangover” and the awesome re-imagining of “Necrosadist”, a song taken off their debut album (for the first time, the various riffs are audible). “New god” and “No more regrets” are two other highlights, the former unfolding through a variety of rhythms and a very catchy chorus, the latter having one of the best fast-paced explosions I’ve heard in a while. Shame the UK is not included in the final tour dates.
8. MSG – Don’t sell your soul
I really enjoyed the new MSG album. The heavy opener, “Don’t sell your soul” doesn’t set the tone right for the album, in my opinion, as it is kind of a caricature of heavy metal. It is a cool song, very catchy, but it does not represent the album, which, overall, I’d say it’s reminiscent of the hard rock that Michael Schenker played the first time around with his own band. I think it sounds like it could have been released in the period between the first and second MSG albums. Standout songs for me include “Flesh and bone“, “Sign of the times”, “Eye of the storm“, “I can’t stand waiting”, and “Janey the fox”. I loved some of the moments of pure guitar madness like on the solo section of “The chosen” during the last 50 seconds of the song. But, beyond the solos, Schenker has come up with awesome riffs, which I would not be surprised if they can inspire a new generation of guitar players (well, maybe kids who look nostalgically at the 70s). McAuley’s vocals are so good, I was quite surprised, but all the vocalists (four of them) did an awesome job. I love the visual aesthetics of the album, the cover art and the lettering; a hundred times better than the cheesy art of the last few of his albums.
9. Unbounded Terror – Something is rotten in humanity
Unbounded Terror’s new album is brilliant. Their style is not particularly original, but they’ve been around since the early days of brutal death metal, and although they share similarities with Incantation‘s earlier works, they started around the same time… At once brutal and otherworldly like Incantation or Rottrevore, and yet catchier, with great hooks, whether it is a fantastic main riff, or a twisted Autopsy-esque harmony (like the main riff of the beautiful instrumental “The evil cause“), this album kept me happy for many months now. The palm-muting used in the more up-tempo riffs might appear at odds with the swampy brutal death metal of Unbounded Terror, but, in my opinion, it constitutes one of their unique features. This is another album I couldn’t get hold of in the UK. I don’t know if it has to do with Brexit, or whether some of these record labels have terrible distribution, but the lack of access to physical copies was really peculiar this year.
10. Paradise Lost – Ascension
As always, I was looking forward to listening to the new Paradise Lost album, as this band is without a doubt one of my top three bands of all time. The new album has a fantastic sound, reminiscent of the mid-90s, a sound that the band hasn’t approximated in decades, and despite the return to their early style since 2007. So, in terms of the rhythm and lead guitars, their prominence, their dialogue, I was very happy. In terms of song-writing, there are great moments, but I felt that the previous album was much more interesting. After having had listened to it many times, I would still struggle to think of stand-out moments off the top of my head. But, I couldn’t stop listening. Eventually, I realised that some of the songs follow a recipe that was used primarily back in the Shades of god (1992) era. I loved that album, but there are songs in it which sound like an awkward bricolage of different song ideas. The same thing happens in the new album, with songs like “Sirens” or “Diluvium”; great songs, especially the latter, albeit a bit incoherent. Maybe the frequent shifts from clear to growling vocals has something to do with it as well. Don’t get me wrong, I love unorthodox song-writing and complex musical narratives, but in my opinion, this is not always the case here. Anyway, I sound like I didn’t like the album which is not true. What a fantastic opening with “Serpent on the cross“, and that solo is jaw-dropping. “Lay a wreath upon the world” is one of the songs that stood out for me early one; straightforward with a fantastic acoustic intro (what a strange chord progression) and great melodies. Overall, Paradise Lost continue to inspire.
Filed under: Heavy metal, horror literature, Is this where I came from? | Tags: Beyond the wall of sleep, Brian Lumley, H. P. Lovecraft, H.P.Lovecraft, In a nameless time, Lost in the ice, Mekong Delta, Peavy Wagner, Rage, Shadow out of time, The burrowers beneath, The music of Erich Zann, Time and place, Trapped!
It’s been a while since I wrote something on the topic of intertextuality between metal music and horror literature. The thing that I stumbled upon last summer, however, warrants a post, I think. In this post, the 20th in the “Is this where I came from?” series of posts, I will make the guess that Rage, more specifically Peavy Wagner, got the inspiration for the title of his 1992 masterpiece Trapped!, from Brian Lumley‘s book, The burrowers beneath.
Brian Lumley – The burrowers beneath (1974)
Brian Lumley is one of the many authors who preserved and built on the legacy of H.P.Lovecraft. I read some of his short stories many years ago, but I was not particularly impressed. Last summer, I was on holiday in Paris and I found a small bookstore that sold second hand books. Browsing the horror/sci-fi section, which was unsurprisingly 99% sci-fi, I found a paperback edition of a book by Lumley. Even though I was not a fan, the book looked beautiful, plus it had been a while since I had last read any Lovecraftian horror, and I also wanted a memento from Paris, so I bought it. The burrowers beneath ended up being very enjoyable, the plot was more coherent and dynamic than most of Lovecraft’s stories, so I devoured it. At some point, while I was reading it, I came across the bit in the image below: Trapped!
Rage – Trapped! (1992)
Most Rage fans know that H.P.Lovecraft was one of the most persistent sources of lyrical inspiration for Peavy between 1988-1995. From passing mentions of a ‘shadow out of time’ on “Time and place” (1988), timeless classics like “Beyond the wall of sleep” (1992), “The crawling chaos” and “Shadow out of time” (1995), to epic masterpieces like “Lost in the ice” (1993) and “In a nameless time” (1995), Peavy retold in his unique and masterful way classic Lovecraftian tales of the Cthulhu mythos and beyond. It is also worth noting that Peavy wrote the lyrics for Mekong Delta‘s The music of Erich Zann (1988), a concept album based on the Lovecraft story of the same name. Hence, I do not think it is far fetched to hypothesise that Peavy has probably read other authors who expanded Lovecraft’s universe of horrors, like Brian Lumley. What strikes me is that Rage’s album is not simply called “Trapped” but that it also has the exclamation mark, as on Lumley’s book! In addition to that, there is the visual affinities between the two works; the book and the album covers have a similar colour scheme. Moreover, the book is about ancient entities that burrow their way through the earth’s crust and only emerge to devour their victims, which is similar to what happens in the album cover as well. For all these reasons, I think it is very likely that Peavy got his inspiration for the album title and visual theme from Lumley’s book.
Filed under: brutal memoirs, Greece, Heavy metal | Tags: Athens, band t-shirts, clothing alterations, Go Underground, Greece, Happening, Menios, merchandise, Metal Era, Molon Lave Records, rock city, Thessaloniki
My parents got me a Game boy as a christmas present in the early 1990s (’91 or ’92). My dad took me to a store and bought it for me and my brother. It came with the game Tetris, and my dad asked me to choose another game as well. I chose The Fortress of Fear. Game boy games used to be very expensive back then, so I could afford a new game 2-3 times a year. I remember going to a local games shop, standing outside and gazing adoringly at all the Game boy games on the window every few days, planning which one I should get next, knowing that I will never be able to afford most of them. Game boy games is one of the three things I wanted but couldn’t have enough of throughout my pre-teen and teenage years. The other two things I started craving, specifically since 1995, and on which I’d spend all of my allowance, were heavy metal records and band t-shirts. This is the first one in a series of posts about my band t-shirt culture.
The moment I fell in love with heavy metal, which was around 1994-1995, I instantly felt the need to wear t-shirts showing my new favourite music to the world. My first ever band t-shirt was a bootleg Fear of the dark shirt, from a local rock merchandise shop in my town in Piraeus, Greece. Since then, I never stopped wearing band t-shirts, almost exclusively. When my friends and I discovered the “proper” metal record stores in Athens (i.e. Rock City, Metal Era, Happening), we started accessing music and merchandise by less popular bands than the ones represented in our local stores. One of those, more “exclusive”, shirts can be seen in the pictures below; it is the Dead winter dead shirt by Savatage, which I bought in early 1996. In the same picture can be found some of my oldest band t-shirts, some of them almost 30 years old, which I bought shortly after the albums they depict were released. Examples include Dismember‘s Massive killing capacity and Unleashed‘s Death metal victory 95 shirt, which was released during the Victory album cycle. Both shirts were purchased in 1996 from Metal Era, the record shop owned and run by Jim Mutilator, the then bassist of Rotting Christ.
Some of my old band t-shirts – all but one purchased in the 1990s
The Edge of Sanity Crimson shirt was bought during a school trip in Thessaloniki in December 1997, from the classic merch shop Menios at 33 Gounari street. The Ego Art by Altar t-shirt also pictured in the photo above was bought a bit later, maybe in 1998, if I remember correctly from another classic record store in Athens called Go Underground (the shop owned by Molon Lave Records). The Deranged shirt is the only one here that was not bought in the 1990s (I bought it around 2001 from Metal Era, around the time of the release of their eponymous album).
Buying band t-shirts back then was not easy for various reasons. First of all, it was difficult to find t-shirts by some of the more underground bands we listened too. Also, for some reason, it was very hard for my friends and me to find the right size t-shirts. Most t-shirts we ended up buying would be ridiculously large for us. So, we had to modify them. Usually, we would shorten them using a pair of scissors. For more complex alterations, I would give them to my grandmother (who used to be a tailor) and she would take in the sides, for example. The Benediction shirt pictured above was bought in 1998, around the time of the Grind Bastard album, and it was too large for me, so my grandmother modified it. This is a skill I picked up from her, and over the years I took on the task of modifying my t-shirts. This is one among the many aspects of my t-shirt culture which I will talk about in future posts.
To be continued…
Me between 1995-1999 sporting t-shirts by Manowar, Dio, Savatage and Dismember
Filed under: death metal, Heavy metal, Records and friends | Tags: Atrocity, Colin Chambers, death metal, Demon, H.R. Giger, Hallucinations, Helloween, Hipgnosis, Master of the rings, Night of the demon, NWOBHM, Power metal, Storm Thorgerson, Tony May
Here is another addition to the series of posts where I exhibit my incredible photography of metal records in various domestic situations. Sometimes, a bit of escapism is what one needs, so read on.
Master of the rings (1994) was the most recent Helloween album when I started listening to Helloween, but not the first album of theirs I first listened to. The latter was Keeper of the 7 keys part I (1987), which blew my mind in the way music can only do when you are young and you’ve just fallen in love with a music genre but don’t know much about it yet. That album left me speechless. When I realised that the band had moved on with a new singer and first heard Deris I was disappointed, but only briefly. The release of The time of the oath (1996) absolutely floored me, and I still consider it one of their top albums. Eventually, I appreciated Master of the rings too. Deris made some amazing contributions (e.g. “In the middle of a heartbeat”, “Perfect gentleman“, “Why”) and early on established himself as a valuable asset in this band. The copy pictured here was a gift from a friend back in 2007 who was given a bunch of metal albums but didn’t care for them. In this photo, the record and the little pumpkin are conspiring about something. The aesthetic of this photo was inspired by the photography inside another Helloween album, namely Pink bubbles go ape (1991), by Storm Thorgerson (of the absolutely cult art ensemble Hipgnosis), Colin Chambers and Tony May.
Atrocity‘s debut album is their best one, in my opinion, and a true gem of early death metal. It is a very ambitious album in the sense that it is very technical and complex. The only other death metal band that played that complex music at the time was Atheist and nobody else came even close. It is not as tight as Atheist though, and the production is not helping either. This is one of the few albums were Scott Burns did not do a particularly good job, in my opinion. It’s a shame really, because I think that the production is not doing justice to the compositions. We’ll never know what the album would have sounded like if the band had opted for a local producer, like Waldemar Sorychta, for example, who did a fantastic job for other bands at the time (e.g. Unleashed, Despair, and Tiamat). Anyway, I love this album, I got this copy sometime in the late 1990s as part of a trade with a friend who didn’t particularly like it, but I don’t remember what I gave for it. To be fair, Alex Krull’s vocals are an acquired taste for sure, but the compositions are instantly fascinating; I would not be surprised if absolute legends, like Entombed and At The Gates have been influenced by this album (check out “Hold out” and “Defeated intellect“, and compare them to songs off Clandestine or The red in the sky is ours, like “Chaos breed” and “Neverwhere”). The cover is by H.R. Giger, and it evokes images of machinery, smoke and milk, so here it is portrayed next to a glass of milk inside my fridge.
I was oblivious to the bulk of NWOBHM bands during my early years as a metalhead. I first listened to Demon in the early 2010s, through their second album titled The unexpected guest (1982). It is an awesome album, way better in my opinion than the one pictured here, which is their debut from 1981 titled The night of the demon. This band composes music within very narrow parameters, the songs are very formulaic and very predictable, but still quite catchy and entertaining. In The night of the demon, the music reminds me at times of the debut by Roky Erickson and the Aliens (1980), especially the lead guitar during the chorus of songs like “The night of the demon” or “Into the nightmare“, at other times it reminds me of Pink Floyd (on “Father of time”, for example), and lots of other rock and hard rock bands from the 1970s and early 1980s. This album has a fantastic cover, one of the best ever, but it is at odds with the mellow heavy rock that the band plays. The only song that is consistent with the cover art is the intro, where the listener is sonically confronted with a satanic ritual. Here, the album can be seen lying on the grass at my back garden.
Filed under: Best of the year, death metal, Heavy metal, punk | Tags: 2024, Afterlifelines, best of, Bruce Dickinson, Children of the morgue, Crown of Thorns, Deceased, Eternal life of madness, From hell I rise, Kerry King, new model army, Nocturnus A.D., Pentagram Chile, Rage, Satan, Scanner, Songs in crimson, The cosmic race, The crown, The mandrake project, Unbroken, Unicursal
Topsy insisted on being photographed among some of 2024’s best albums
It has become apparent to me over the years of writing these end-of-year round-ups that the albums I end up loving the most are the ones by bands I fell in love as a teenager, or at least albums in styles of music I loved as a teenager. No matter how much effort I put in trying something new, it is very uncommon that I will find something I truly like. It happens from time to time, but, generally speaking, the artists in these lists are the usual suspects. This will probably be the last year that I spend any time commenting on all the albums that I didn’t like; I doubt that doing so is any good to anyone. Some of my favourite bands had a new release this past year. These were also the albums that I liked the most, and despite listening to loads of other stuff, nothing really impressed me much. Sadly, some of the bands I have liked since my teenage years also failed to impress me with their new releases. For example, it’s been many years since I liked a new album by Master, and Saints dispelled didn’t change this. Paul’s vocals are killer and an improvement on the last couple of albums, in which they sounded very slurred, but music-wise it didn’t have anything to offer me. Next on the list of releases I didn’t care about, is Severe Torture. I’ve known this band since their debut came out, it was a time when I devoured everything that was brutal and intense. But, even back then I quickly lost interest which I never recovered. I decided after many years to give their new music a go, and initially I liked what I heard. I was surprised because it was very different from their super-brutal origins; the new album is quite catchy. But, that doesn’t change the fact that I didn’t feel the need to listen to it again after the first time. Toxaemia released a new album, to which I’ve only listened once and don’t feel like going back to. Their previous one has some amazing songs, but also some stuff I find quite boring, and the lyrics are just stupid. Rejected souls of Kerberus sounds to me like by the numbers death metal, and didn’t impress me. The Dismember cover (i.e. “I saw them die”), which is a brutal take on the original, is not bad. The new album by Brodequin grabbed my attention initially, but I got tired of it after a few listens. The frantic speed proved to be insufficient for me to keep listening. The riffs are quite repetitive, but when I first heard them I was really drawn to them, they kind of took me back to when Rebaelliun released their devastating debut.
The worst album I heard this year is the new Six Feet Under. I’ve never been one to make fun of, or hate, Barnes, in fact I have loved several incarnations of this band (favourite moments include Haunted, Maximum violence, Commandments) since I was a kid in the mid-1990s, and even on this album it is not Barnes that I don’t like; it is the compositions. If someone told me that the entire album was composed in an hour, and it was done as a dare to see how uninspired death metal can be, I’d believe them. What I find hard to believe is that Jack Owen approached this album with honesty and self-respect.
Judas Priest released an album that sounds better, in my opinion, than anything they’ve done since Painkiller (1990). To be honest, the first thing I thought was that the band fed some A.I. program a bunch of classic Judas Priest songs, and the program generated music that approximates the classics. Sad thing is, these days I cannot be sure this is not the case. Anyway, I didn’t particularly feel the need to listen to it again after a couple of times. Nile returned with an indisputably brutal and well-made album. I liked it more than the previous one, but once again, Dallas’s absence is noticeable. Karl and the rest of the band has clearly put a lot of work into this album 
(like they always do), but I miss the hooks of their old albums. I haven’t heard something I really liked by Dark Tranquillity in a long time, and the new album didn’t change this, although the fast songs (e.g. “Unforgivable”, “Enforced perspective“) are pretty cool. These songs are close to the DT that I fell in love with, but the rest of the songs, especially the more electronic ones, are just background music for me. I’d love to be able to say that I loved Pro Xristou by Rotting Christ, an album that supposedly goes back to their mid-1990s sound (my favourite era of theirs), but I didn’t. I found Sakis’s vocals tired (is he trying to channel Tom Warrior in his latter years?), and interesting melodies were thin on the ground. Also, it kinda felt like some melodies were recycled throughout the album.
Moving on to albums I liked a bit more, Massacre‘s new album, titled Necrolution, is better than the previous full-length, in my opinion, as it is a bit more straightforward, a bit more faithful to the band’s classic sound, but the fact remains that it is full of Rogga’s – and other musicians that are not on par with the legacy of this band – middle of the road riffing. Kam’s voice is still amazing, but I don’t think that’s enough. Still, some delicious tracks here and there (listen, for example to “The things that were and shall be again“) succeed to satisfy 
this old metalhead’s morbid desires. Malignancy released an unsurprisingly super-brutal, interesting album with lots to be discovered. Their classic brand of super-distorted and technical brutal death metal dominates Discontinued, but at times I can detect hints of more modern elements. I haven’t listened to it loads, but I want to pay more attention to it. I liked the new Deicide album a bit more than any album they’ve done in decades. Still, I didn’t think it was anything special. From patterns that have been tried many times before to the lack of riffs, I don’t understand where their inspiration went. Was it the Hoffman brothers responsible for this band’s greatness? There are moments that I like, for example the opening song, as well as “Faithless”, “Ritual defied“, “A trinity of none” and “Sever the tongue” are cool songs where you can tell that this is a band that once ruled the world of death metal. But then you have vocal lines like the chorus of “Doom to die” or the verse vocal pattern of “Bury the cross…”, that are just imitations of old Deicide songs. The new, more melodic elements that the band introduced in the last album continue here, with songs like “Woke from god”, and I am not a fan of them. Christ Denied‘s new album, titled Christopsy, starts with a fantastic song (“Scream bloody blasphemy“) which brought back the glory of late 1990s Broken Hope and Fleshgrind. Listening to the remainder of the album eventually got a bit tiring, and I’ll never get used to some of the vocals Dave Rotten uses in this band, but I would like to listen to it more carefully at some point. “Why call him God?” is another highlight. Great use of movie samples too! Vanhelgd is a band I found out after the release of At The Gates’s The nightmare of being, as Jonas was wearing a Valhelgd t-shirt, which made me look them up. I was not particularly impressed, not really my kind of death metal, I usually prefer faster, heavier and less atmospheric stuff. Nevertheless, they entered my radar, so when I found out they released a new album I checked it out. It’s a good thing I did, because I really enjoyed Atropos doctrina. It is full of heart-wrenching melodies and singing, and at moments it is reminiscent of some of the things At The Gates did with their debut album, as well as latter Tribulation.
Two albums I listened to very recently, so I haven’t appreciated properly, but I think they sound great are those by Oxygen Destroyer and The Offspring. I only listened to the new album by The Offspring a few times, ‘cos it’s relatively recent, and also I haven’t bought it, but I am loving it so far. It’s a bit poppier than Let the bad times roll (2021), but it also has the more trademark fast Californian punk that I love. Oxygen Destroyer‘s new album, titled Guardian of the universe, was a pleasant discovery for me this past year. I really enjoyed it, the riffs and vocals reminded me of Necrodeath and In the eyes of Ioldanach (1998) era Absu, and this kind of relentless beating and constantly changing rapid riffing is very appealing to me. I haven’t listened to it loads, but it feels like I’ll be spending more time discovering it.
Two albums that almost made my top-10 list are those by Morta Skuld and Houwitser. The new Morta Skuld album is not as perfect, in my opinion, as the little miracle they pulled off with Suffer for nothing (2020), my personal favourite album of theirs. But, I really enjoyed it, listened to it loads, and the more I listen to it the more I appreciate it. I have a soft spot for Eric House, the drummer, whose playing I absolutely love and I think he’s a perfect fit for Morta Skuld. Gregor’s vocals are fantastic, his classic approach of singing along the riff is ever-present, the bass is a bit more prominent than on previous albums, there are lots of catchy moments, and overall there’s lots to be discovered. Never been a massive Houwitser fan, although I’ve followed them since their Embrace damnation (2000) album came out. I thought that that album had some fantastic songs, but my appreciation for them was marred by the fascist lyrics on one of the songs in that album (i.e. “Leeches come”). The new album offers some fantastic old-school death metal. At times it has these amazing stop-start riffs (like on “Dismal depravity”), which are trademark Houwitser. Mike’s voice is fantastic, as usual, and here he also uses quite a lot of his high-pitched screams.
By the time I was finalising this post, it became clear that there was no point putting my 10 favourite albums from this year in order of preference. All of the albums on this list are awesome, and I listened to them non-stop, making it a fantastic year music-wise. So, without further ado, here are my favourite albums from 2024, for the first time ever in no particular order:
Rage – Afterlifelines
After all these years of making albums, at a time when all mainstream posers debate whether it “makes sense” (what they mean is “financial” sense) for bands to release full-length albums, Peavy and company release another masterpiece, a double album. After two albums with Jean Borman and six with Vasilios Maniatopoulos, this incarnation of Rage is proving to be an awesome one. With the exception of “Dying to live” and “Mortal”, two songs I do not like, this album is blowing my mind. Peavy’s knack of writing catchy and often unorthodox melodies is once again evident across the album’s 21 songs. It is rare nowadays, or at any time really, for so many amazing songs to be compiled under one “product”, but if one person can do it that’s Peavy. After a couple of powerful, but also emotional, songs like “End of illusions” and “Under a black crown” (how cool is the last chorus where Lucky picks up the tempo!), the band goes into a slower number with “Afterlife”, starting with a couple of great riffs, and a catchy chorus. “Dead man’s eyes” feels it came straight out of Black in mind. “Toxic waves” is now among my all-time favourite Rage songs, and the song “Lifelines” is one of the great Rage masterpieces in my opinion; pure perfection – endless respect and love for Peavy. At the same time, I have to say that, although the messages of the lyrics are overall great, some of the lyrical ideas are problematic, specifically the idea that “there is no space” or that the world is “overcrowded”. Space is created, buildings are built, roads are paved, and if there is a desire to help people who are being treated unfairly, people that are less privileged than us, and people who are running away from danger there is lots of space and resources available; what needs to happen is more humane distribution of space and resources. Anyway, I know Peavy’s heart is in the right place. Read a more detailed review here.
The Crown – Crown of Thorns
Crown of thorns marks a reset for The Crown, who returned with a new line-up and, most importantly, after the departure of Magnus Olsfelt, a co-founder of the band and the main composer alongside Marko. The new line-up includes the two remaining founding members (Marko and Johan) plus the returned Marcus Sunesson (in “guest musician” capacity here) playing all the solos, alongside new drummer Mikael Noren and bassist Mattias Rasmussen. I was really curious to see how Olsfelt’s departure would affect the band, but I was not particularly worried as Marko has always been the main reason I enjoyed The Crown. As expected, the album is lacking the crusty and garage-sque elements that were Magnus’s bread and butter, but Marko rose to the challenge and wrote songs that exemplify his trademark melancholic and melodic playing, but also doubled in writing more straightforward brutal death metal. The new drummer is a better fit, in my opinion, than Henrik Axelsson as Noren is flashier. Crown of thorns feels like the most cohesive The Crown album so far. All the songs are awesome, but “Gone to hell”, “Howling at the warfield” (the way the chorus melody develops during the second half of the chorus is stunning!), “The night is now”, “Where nightmares belong” and “God-king” are masterpieces of the highest order. The fantastic chorus of “Where nightmares belong” when is sang by the woman at the end sounds so much like Marion on Paradise Lost‘s Gothic, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence, given Marko’s love for Paradise Lost. A funny thing about this song, is that the lyrics on the chorus evoked images of the animated film The twelve tasks of Asterix (1976), specifically the scene in the haunted plain near the end of the film. “Martyrian” is another song I think is great, but the chorus is repeated a few times too much for my taste. The second riff and the melody that follows right before the singing starts on “The storm to come” has major mid-1990s Sentenced vibes. This song is the most complex on the album, and closes the album with a beautiful melancholic coda that fades out. Although this album is a true masterpiece I feel I need to note that it also constitutes another example of the rationalising/streamlining in music production which I think has a detrimental effect on the quality of recorded music.
Satan – Songs in Crimson
Each new Satan album is a cause for celebration. The release date for Songs in crimson was set a day after I would see them live for the first time, in Brighton. The gig was fantastic, despite the ridiculously small crowd, and they played two new songs too. After a streak of fantastic albums since their re-union, it was once again hard to imagine that Satan would be able to keep up. But, Songs in crimson unleashed an attack of creativity that other bands, old and new, cannot even imagine. The first time I listened to it, was on MP3, with no lyrics or the other peripheral frills of the album (art, etc.). The thing that struck me from the get go was how more complex this album sounded and how diverse, almost as if they pushed themselves to new levels. When I eventually bought the record (black vinyl) and listened to it I was confronted with a badly pressed album, full of skips. So, I returned it and received a replacement which had the identical issues. Contacting customer service on Metal Blade proved impossible, and my review on Amazon where I mentioned the problem with the vinyl was not posted. That put a dampener on the whole experience. But, there is no denying that this is another masterpiece, with fantastic performances, face-melting riffing and goosebump-inducing guitar harmonies. “Era (the day will come)“, has an awe-inspiring musical narrative and the album’s best chorus. “Turn the tide” is one of the most aggressive songs on the album and the energetic way it kicks in blew my mind. Two songs that sound a bit different to what Satan has done in the past are “Martyrdom” and “Captives“, as the mood and pace, especially on “Martyrdom”, is almost cheery. What also stands out in both tracks is the riffstorm that never stops. The twin guitar harmony on “Deadly crimson” near the end sent chills down my spine. Words cannot express how perfect Satan is.
Pentagram (Chile) – Eternal life of madness
Pentagram from Chile is a band I’ve only known for a decade, although its spectre has haunted death metal since its beginning. Led by Anton Reisenegger, who also plays with Lock Up, Brujeria, and Criminal, this new album is in the style of their debut, and, in turn, their demos from the late 1980s. Just like with their debut, the band references their old-school legacy once again, as the title of the new album is a lyric from their 1987 song “Spell of the Pentagram”. Catchy riffs, heavy slow passages, grimy mood, gut-wrenching vocals create an oppressive atmosphere which is pure death metal. Overall, Eternal life of madness is a tiny bit slower that the debut (the only blastbeats can be found on the eponymous song). The classic hammer-on riffing that appear in their demos and the debut is one of the most prominent features of Pentagram’s sound in this album as well. A great example where this type of riffing is prominent is “The portal”, for a while my favourite track on the album. The two songs that hooked me when I first listened to the album are the devastating “Devourer of life” and “State of grace”; that instrumental section at the middle of the latter is breath-taking. “El imbunche”, another highlight, is thematically similar to “La fiura” from their debut, in the sense that is talks about an abominable creature found in Chilean folklore. I am not sure which one is more terrifying, but I think the sexual element of “La fiura” gives it an edge. “Icons of decay” has one of the most interesting musical narratives on the album, although all the songs are rich and full of surprises. The album ends gloriously with “No one shall survive”, one of the slowest numbers here despite the fast break, and has a beautiful chorus – melancholic, depressive, it almost evokes Goreaphobia on a song like “Grave plagued planet”. Overall, this is ancient death metal from hell, absolutely fantastic.
Scanner – The cosmic race
Axel Julius is the second German musician in this list who occupies a unique place in my heart. I have talked in detail about him and the new Scanner album earlier in the year, so I will not go into detail here. The cosmic race is a beautiful album, each composition is craftily put together, and the performances are great, with the exception of the drums. The album continues the story that started on Hypertrace (1988), where the genetically modified soldier named Scanner is re-programmed by aliens to save humanity and find a new planet for humans to live. In the cosmic race, we follow the last remaining humans fleeing earth for Terrion, to built a new society and avoid past mistakes. But will they succeed? The best way to find out is for you to listen to the new Scanner album; you will be confronted with German power metal of the highest order, imaginative, varied, emotive, that takes you back to the golden era of the genre in the late 1980s-mid 1990s, but with a dark twist.
Deceased – Children of the morgue
I couldn’t wait for the new album by Deceased, a band I first listened to at a young age but took me literally decades to appreciate. When the relatively well publicised Fearless undead machines (1997) was released I checked it out, but I found it boring, and then listened to bits off their first album back in the late 1990s and was not impressed either. Over the years I’d go back to them whenever they release a new album, but I was never hooked until 2018’s Ghostly white. Deceased is the exemplary band that one cannot appreciate casually; you need to delve deep into their music and lyrics and invest time and attention into their albums. Regarding purchasing this album, I have to say that Hell’s Headbangers takes the prize for worst distribution. I couldn’t find a physical copy anywhere in the UK, and if I were to order the vinyl from the US the order would come up to 123 dollars. (that was during the first couple of months after the album’s release – now I can find a copy in the UK but still quite expensive.) Anyway, the album is brilliant. It is fast, but not Surreal overdose (2011) fast, the tempos are more akin to thrash than death metal. “The reaper is nesting”, for example, one of the thrashier songs, even has some riot vocals. Still, explosions like on the middle of “The Grave digger” are absolutely deadly. This song starts with a very dark, dissonant section, I guess channelling a bit of Voivod, builds up to a faster melodic section and explodes with a tremolo-paced riff, so overall has one of the most complex narratives in the album. The melodic and catchy choruses are ever-present, with “Eerie wavelenghts” being a highlight, not only in the album but overall in Deceased’s career. King Fowley’s vocals are absolutely killer. Like all Deceased albums, there’s loads of interesting things happening in each song, and I’m sure once I buy it and read the lyrics I’ll enjoy it even more. Finally, it took me a while and I was absolutely losing my mind, but I finally realised what the chord progression at the beginning of “Farewell “taken to forever”” reminds me of: Demons & Wizards – “Tear down the wall”, when Hansi starts singing “I am the only one, here on the edge of life”.
New Model Army – Unbroken
Justin Sullivan and co released another beautiful album. I got my copy in a Q&A and signing event in Brighton, and I got to shake the hand of the brilliant human being that is Justin. During that event, Justin talked a bit about the themes of the album, and one of the things he mentioned is the idea that we are stronger than what we think we are. This is a sentiment that is expressed in the song “Cold wind“. At first, I couldn’t help but feel that this was an insensitive claim, especially as more and more people open up about their personal struggles in our days, but eventually I reconsidered. The medical profession and the prominence of medical discourse across the contemporary media landscape urge us to scrutinise ourselves through the language of disability, a language that is extremely pervasive and can be used to pick apart every single aspect of our selves, and frame it as weakness, ignoring at the same time that our personal struggles might be reflecting wider societal issues. I doubt that Justin’s intention was to play down people’s personal struggles, but, sadly, it could be read as an attempt to advance some kind of neoliberal discourse about self-improvement. Musically, the new album is a bit more varied than From here (2019). “First summer after” is an obvious opener, really catchy, with a fantastic chorus. “Language” has an amazing bass-line, classic NMA perfection, one of my top songs in the album. “If I am still me” is a heart-breaking song. “Deserters” is another highlight, a fast song ending the album on a slightly more positive note. Overall, this is another beautiful addition to this band’s impressive legacy.
Nocturnus A.D. – Unicursal
I absolutely loved Paradox (2019), so I was looking forward to Nocturnus A.D.’s new album. Whereas Paradox‘s cover art alluded to The key (1990), this one alludes to Thresholds (1992); the fact that it shows outer space, it has similar colours and the title is written across the bottom of the cover. Lyric-wise, again we have songs that continue the story that started with The key, and other references to the Lovecraftian universe. Overall, this is an album that is complex, and every time you listen to it you’re bound to discover something new. Old-school death metal riffing, imaginative song structures, mystical vibes, and vocal patterns that remind of morbid death metal of the 1980s. There are moments of breath-taking brilliance, as the opening song “The ascension throne of Osiris” (death metal perfection like the one starting at 0:25 is not common these days), “Cephalogod“, or “Yesod, the dark side of the moon“. At the same time, in some cases, Mike’s vocals sound tired and like he is not into it. “Mesolithic” is an example of that, where the music is great but the vocals kinda ruin it for me.
Bruce Dickinson – The Mandrake project
Dickinson’s new album has been a great companion in the last few months. I listened to it non-stop for almost a month, and I find it a worthy addition to his great discography (with the exception of Tattooed millionaire which sucks ass). Bruce sounds like he’s enjoying himself much more than on Maiden. Some of the vocals sound like they’ve been recorded many years ago, as in some cases one can hear the decline in his voice, and in other cases it sounds like they did back in 2010. The new album is much simpler than all of Bruce’s solo albums, maybe with the exception of the debut. It is way more stripped down, the compositions are not particularly complex, and even Roy Z seems to have taken a step back to allow more space for keyboards. I also found the performances lacklustre, especially if I were to compare the drumming and bass to the mid-late 1990s line-up. The only moment that the drums sound interesting is on “Mistress of mercy” after the guitar solo. Nevertheless, despite the general lack of exciting orchestration, some of the compositions and the vocal melodies are absolutely stunning. “Many doors to hell” is one of the highlights in my opinion; and the awesome atmospheric middle section with the guitar lead is trademark Roy Z. Another personal favourite is “Fingers in the wounds“, which has a fantastic chorus and an even more fantastic ending. The inclusion of “Eternity will fail” is meaningless to me, as I feel that it is a poorer version of the one appearing on Maiden’s The book of souls. Speaking of poverty, I personally would not be surprised if the inclusion of Gus G to play a guest solo on this song was an attempt by Bruce’s management to re-connect with his Greek fans after the “greek cunt” incident. I know it’s not like a big market, but in our economy you can’t be too choosy. I bet Bruce was annoyed with Gus G’s inclusion in the album; I have absolutely no clue what people see in this guitarist.
Kerry King – From hell I rise
Despite the absence of Jeff I did not want to see Slayer end. I thought that the three remaining members still had it in them to create great songs. No one sounds like Slayer and even without Jeff I think that the band proved (to me at least) that they can release a brilliant album (i.e. Repentless). Well, now there is a band that sounds just like Slayer, KK’s new band. I listened the crap out of the new album. Kerry wrote angry, intense, in your face songs in the vein of songs he’s been writing since the 1990s, and I am a big fan of that stuff; nobody writes like him and he was a big part of why I loved Slayer. The downside is that lots of stuff is predictable, and that to this day, regardless of how many great songs he’s written, he hasn’t repeated the miracle that is Divine intervention (1994). Anyway, songs like “Idle hands”, “Crucifixation“, “Toxic”, “Trophies of the tyrant” and “Rage” are amazing. “Where I reign” is also pretty cool, especially the chorus, and “From hell I rise”, but the verse singing pattern in both songs is reminiscent of several Slayer songs (i.e. from “Disciple” and “Supremist” to “Implode”). I am not crazy about Osegueda’s vocals, but the vocal patterns and lots of the phrasing are like Slayer, so that’s cool. I found Phil Demmel’s guitar solos meaningless, especially compared to the mind-blowing performance of Gary Holt on Repentless (2015).
Filed under: death metal, people | Tags: Andrew LaBarre, Death after life, Dementia rex, Haemorrhage, Impaled, Jason Kocol, Leon Del Muerte, Mondo medicale, Raul Varela, Ross Sewage, Sean McGrath, The dead shall dead remain, The last gasp
Of all the bands I want to get back to making albums, Impaled is definitely at the top. I always thought that it is a unique band with a fantastic chemistry and it is a shame that it had such a short run. A relative late-comer (i.e. late-1990s) in the school of Carcass-inspired death metal, Impaled is, and has always been, my favourite of this sub-genre. The core of this band was formed by Ross Sewage on bass and vocals, Sean McGrath on guitars and vocals, and Raul Varela on drums. Ross offers some of the deeper and most recognisable growls, most of the lyrics and some of the music, whilst Sean offers the raspier Jeff Walker-inspired vocals and the bulk of the music, although near the end of this band’s life he also exhibited incredible skill as a lyricist. Raul is a great example of a drummer whose inventiveness and passion makes up for the lack of technical proficiency. In this post, I will look at their full length albums (plus 1) and try to convey what makes them special to me.
1. The dead shall dead remain (2000)
I’ve followed Impaled almost since the beginning. I bought their debut when it was freshly released without having listened to it, just based on the album cover and logo. I instantly fell in love with it and I still consider it a fantastic album. At the time, I thought it sounded like a Carcass/Dismember mix, and I guess there’s plenty of elements of both bands in there, but they appropriated these influences in a unique manner and successfully distinguished themselves from peers like Haemorrhage, General Surgery and Exhumed. I love the intro and the super-brutal start of “Faeces of death”. From the get go, the listener is confronted with compositions which are complex, and with musical surprises until the very end. In the case of “Faeces of death“, as well as on the follow-up “Flesh and blood”, some of the most awesome riffing is reserved for the ending of the song. “Trocar” has one of my favourite song openings, that first riff is sending chills down my spine, and that fast tremolo-picked riff and pace after the blasting around 0:45 is stunning! When the initial riff reappears around 3:30 but with a different drum-beat is a fantastic moment. Another example of a great musical narrative this one, and without a doubt one of my ten top Impaled songs. The beginning of “Spirits of the dead“, with the Dismember-esque melody on one layer (in the tradition of “And so is life”) and a fast riff on the other, is another favourite moment (the first riff off “All that rots”, off the same album, sounds a bit too similar to this riff). The remainder of the album maintains a similar level of awesomeness, with standout moments, in my opinion, the relentless “Fecal rites” (non-stop catchy riff attack) and the catchy “Back to the grave”. In my opinion, any fan of Carcass and of the bands that pay homage to Carcass should pay attention to this album; a true masterpiece.
2. Mondo medicale (2002)
I did not buy Mondo medicale when it came out, as I had no idea they had released a new album. Back in those days, in Greece, it wasn’t that easy to keep track of what is happening on underground metal. When I got it, maybe a year later, I thought it was better than the debut, but I have changed my mind since. Undoubtedly, it has some of the best Impaled songs ever, including the fantastic intro “The hippocritic oath” followed by the totally unrelenting “Dead inside“, one of the most intense Impaled songs ever. Death metal does not really get any better than the first one and a half minute of “The worms crawl in“. “We belong dead” is one of the album’s catchier tunes, and I love how the Death-esque riff follows the initial punk groove and riffing. This was Andrew LaBarre’s debut LP with Impaled, who replaced Leon Del Muerte on guitar, and he contributed some amazing song-writing in the shape of, for example, the mind-blowing “Choke on it”. That was the first time I encountered Impaled’s lyrical style (I bought the first album on picture disk and it didn’t include the lyrics), and what a treat that was! Although the lyrics emulate Jeff Walker’s innovative writing, I find them way more intelligible and a bit funnier than Carcass lyrics. The humour is impeccable, and throughout Impaled’s career the target has been primarily people in positions of authority (e.g. doctors and the pharmaceutical industry), as opposed to other bands (like Pungent Stench) who also use humour but take cheap shots at people who are marginalised and vulnerable. Overall, this is the best sounding Impaled album, especially Raul’s drums.
3. Dementia Rex (split with Haemorrhage) (2003)
Dementia rex is not a full-length, but due to the thematic unity of the lyrics and the sheer awesomeness overall I decided to include it here. It is possibly my favourite split-LP of all time, and it is loosely a concept album where Haemorrhage and Impaled tell the story of mental illness, murder and a mental institution for the mentally deranged eventually taken over by its patients. The songs on this album are some of Impaled’s best. For example, if I were to introduce Impaled to someone, the first two songs I’d put on would probably be “The patients are revolting” (what an awesome play on words!) and “Bedlam” (what a fantastic verse riff!). I always crack up when I listen to the intro of the former, and that speed-up after the first chorus is sending chills down my spine. It’s worth mentioning that their cover of Repulsion‘s “Helga lost her head” is absolutely brilliant, and definitely deadlier than the original. This ended up being LaBarre’s final appearance with Impaled. I was very sad to hear of his passing a few years ago.
4. Death after life (2005)
This is probably my personal favourite; a truly ambitious concept album which tells the story of a group of medical students who murder people and then try to bring them back to life (the ending is pretty awesome, I won’t spoil it for you). The songs tell the story in a linear fashion, with instrumental interludes interspersed among them to provide some context. Humorous attitude permeates the storytelling, and the indirect references to films like Re-animator (1985) are obvious. Early Death’s – and possibly Slaughter of the soul‘s (1995) – impact on Ross’s riffing was already evident on the previous albums, and is reiterated here on “Gutless” which is a highlight for me. The opener “Mondo medicale” gives me goosebumps, especially the vocal pattern during the verses. “Preservation of death” is one of the small miracles this band has done; the similarity with Carcass is obvious, as it is drawing upon songs like “Raptured in purulence” and “Blind bleeding the blind”. The ending is absolutely fantastic, and sadly missing from the video they made. “The resurrectionists” is another favourite of mine, it has a truly wicked melody on the chorus. This album marks the first appearance of Jason Kocol on second guitar, and his contributions are special. He’s only written one proper song, which is very dark, complex, and more challenging than the rest of the material here. He’s also contributed music for some of the interludes. Fantastic album. I was surprised to learn recently that Ross was disappointed with it.
5. The last gasp (2007)
The final offering by Impaled and the big difference in this album is Kocol’s involvement. Here, he comes into his own and contributes some of the best ever Impaled songs. His song-writing has conformed more to the band’s style, more melodic, with more layers, and much catchier – in the sense that it’s more akin to the traditional pop music formula – than his contribution on Death after life. Overall, songs are shorter and a bit less complex. It is also their least grind album. Especially Ross showcases his Thrash credentials on the two songs for which he wrote music. For example, “Right to die“, despite the initial riff that reminds of Carcass’s Swansong era (e.g. “R**k the vote”), has a very thrashy verse riff and riot vocals near the end. Alongside Ross’s lyrical prowess Sean provides fantastic lyrics for the songs “You are the dead” and “Up the dose”. Once again, the medical profession and the power of institutions like pharmaceutical companies are the target of their lyrics. But one of my favourite things about this album is that thematically it borrows ideas (and sounds) from George Orwell‘s 1984. “Sickness is health“, for example, mis-references the Party slogans “war is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength” and adds another one: Sickness is health (this could also be a reference to the lyric “illness is health” by Haemorrhage’s Luisma). There are also a few samples from the film adaptation of the novel. On the brilliant “You are the dead“, the dialogue in the introduction is from the scene where Winston and Julia are captured by the thought police, and the sample right before the fast break on “All gut, no glory” is from Parsons in the cafeteria of the Ministry of truth. There’s also the fake confession from the telescreen at the end of “Up the dose“. The Impaled logo on the back of the booklet also references the INGSOC logo from the film. Overall, this is another masterpiece of highly varied and imaginative death metal, despite possibly being the least deadly in Impaled’s discography.
Clockwise from top-left: LaBarre, McGrath, Del Muerte, Varela, Sewage, Kocol.
Filed under: Brighton, gigs, Heavy metal | Tags: Brian Ross, Brighton, Daltons bar, Graeme English, Live performance, Russ Tippins, Satan, Sean Taylor, Steve Ramsey
Satan performing at Daltons – 12.09.2024
It’s been a while since I last wrote about a gig, and I thought Satan‘s recent live show at Brighton, UK, was brilliant enough to justify a review. Satan announced they were coming to Brighton back in June, and it was one of the best pieces of news I’d come across in a long time. Upon finding out, I instantly went and bought tickets for me and my partner. The ticket cost only £12, which I thought was preposterous given the greatness of this band. I also encouraged some of my friends to come to the gig, some of whom do not even listen to heavy metal but can appreciate a good live performance. Despite never having seen Satan play live before I did not think for a minute that it would be disappointing.
I fell in love with this band quite late, in my mid 30s, around the time of the release of Atom by atom (2015). I had known the song “Trial by fire” since I was a teenager, through the cover done by Blind Guardian, and I listened to Court in the act (1983) way before they reformed, but I was not impressed. It wasn’t until the release of Atom by atom (2015) that I became a fan and revisited their older albums. Since then, my admiration for them has grown and grown, to the point where I consider Satan to be the best heavy metal band alive today. Suffice it to say, I could not wait for this gig!
The date of the concert was the 12th of September. Upon arriving at the club (i.e. Daltons), I noticed Sean Taylor (the band’s drummer) hanging around the beer garden, so naturally I went and got a picture with him. He seemed a bit introverted so I felt a bit bad about bothering him. It was my first time in this venue, which has quite small capacity, I’d say less than a hundred people. The size of the venue instantly felt incongruous with the greatness of Satan. The opening band, Primal Damnation, performed their primal form of mid-paced thrash/crossover in front of, I’d say 20 people. Attendance remained poor when Satan walked on stage, maybe between 30-40 people, once again confirming my opinion that Brighton is not a serious metal city.
Me announcing “Alone in the dock”
The band was at the same level as the audience and I was at the front. The setlist included songs from all the albums with Brian at the helm. The opening songs was “Trial by fire“, and honestly I cannot think of a better way to start a gig. Three more songs from their debut were performed, and I am proud to say that Brian asked me to announce “Alone in the dock”, because I went mental when he said “the next one is the last song off our first album”. I was surprised they played four songs off Life sentence (2013) and only one off Atom by atom (i.e. “The devil’s infantry”). From the former, they played the inimitable “Testimony“, one of my absolute top songs of theirs, “Siege mentality”, “Incantations” and “Twenty twenty five”. Another surprise was the fantastic and bizarre “Ophidian”, from Cruel magic (2018); what a masterful composition! From Earth infernal (2022), they played the relentless “Ascendancy” and the majestic “Burning portrait“, and two new songs, “Turn the tide” and “Sacramental rites”. The way Russ stormed in with the opening riff of “Turn the tide” got me really excited about the new album.
With Steve
Performance-wise the band was absolutely stellar. Every once in a while, I’d stop headbanging to observe the trade-offs between Steve and Russ. Steve seemed super happy and was headbanging like a maniac, and Brian’s voice was so powerful and clear, I was really surprised. A funny moment was when they were playing “Kiss of death”, the last song of the show, and also one of their oldest songs. During the slow break, Graeme turned around, looked at Steve, rolled his eyes and gave him a smile, as if saying “that fucking boring bass line again for the thousandth time…”. I asked him about it after the gig and he laughed about it and confirmed my impression.
An incident that put a slight dampener on an otherwise fantastic gig, was an altercation Brian had with a member of the audience. At some point, someone kept shouting some inane joke and Brian seemed quite annoyed and started talking back, telling him things like “the guy with the microphone always wins” and making fun of him, which I associate with people like Dave Mustaine, so that was a bit disappointing. I do get that when you are an accomplished artist and someone who really respects their art and their fans you’d expect your fans to treat you accordingly, so I understand why Brian was angry, but I think he could have dealt with it better.
After the show, I met the rest of the band and told them that “Ghosts of Monongah” is one of the best songs in the history of music and that it ought to be in their setlist. I also got to tell Russ how much I love Tanith. Steve and Graeme were super nice and friendly and we talked a bit about Skyclad too. In the end, Brian was outside the venue talking to fans, and I got to spend some time with him talking about Blitzkrieg and playing in a band with his son, favourite songs from Blitzkrieg and Satan, and about his Alice Cooper persona. He was very gracious and gave me a big hug before he left. I ended up getting Brian, Graeme, Steve and Russ to sign my poster of Cruel magic (their best cover art!), which now decorates my office wall. Recently, I’ve been reflecting on this gig and the fact that I enjoyed the privilege of seeing this absolutely breath-taking and inspirational band in a small venue, as part of a small audience, with no idiotic circle pits, with the band performing right in front of me, and meeting the band members afterwards. I believe that in all other parallel universes this band headlines massive arenas and meeting them in person only happens in dreams.
My poster signed by the band
Filed under: Heavy metal | Tags: Axel Julius, Ball of the damned, Efthimios Ioannidis, Hypertrace, Leo Szpigiel, Lisa Croft, Mental reservation, Michael Knoblich, Scanner, Scantropolis, Terminal earth, The cosmic race, The judgement
One of the power metal bands I got into relatively late in my teenage years was Scanner. The first album by them to which I listened was the newly released at the time Ball of the damned, and it was love at first listen. For several decades, the sole original member and main composer of the band, Axel Julius, has kept the band going. With the occasion of the release of their new album, titled The cosmic race, I decided to write up a tribute to this fantastic yet overlooked, especially by the newer generations of metalheads, band. Let us retrace Scanner’s journey in their pursuit to conquer our hearts with their fantastic brand of metal.
1. Hypertrace (1988)
Scanner’s debut album was a very ambitious endeavour. Not many bands in the world of metal have started their careers by releasing a flawlessly sounding and executed concept album; but Scanner did just that with Hypertrace. In 1988, Scanner was only second to Helloween in German power metal, in my opinion, in terms of how advanced their sound and song-writing approach was. This album is full of fast power/speed metal songs telling the story of the Scanner, a genetically modified soldier on a mission to save humanity from itself. The inventiveness of the band, and Axel especially can be heard in songs like “Locked out“, with its rich narrative, catchy choir-led middle section, and fantastic guitar leads. Choirs appear in other songs, like the epic “Across the universe”. “Grapes of fear” is one of my personal favourites, as it is one of classiest songs I’ve heard; when the band goes back into the main guitar harmony after the guitar solo around the 2:50 mark I get chills down my spine. I bought the recent re-issue of the album by ROAR, in which the songs have been re-ordered to tell the story in a linear fashion, and the album opens with “Grapes of fear” and I’m loving it (the album also includes “Wizard force” and the fantastic “Galactos”)! Not that the original opener (i.e. “Warp 7“) is bad, in fact it’s an absolutely powerful masterpiece with a majestic intro and a brilliant coda. “Terrion” kicks off with a riff-storm that is impossible to listen without wanting to bang your head. What can be said about the fantastic coda of “Killing fields”! They even did the “hill – time is standing still” rhyme before Blind Guardian. This is the only album with Michael Knoblich as the singer, and I am totally fine with that, as he is by far my least favourite singer in Scanner’s history. I would go as far as to say that Knoblich’s singing (which consists primarily in a pompous high-pitched delivery) is the only thing that feels dated about this album.
2. Terminal earth (1989)
The band’s second album marks the addition of S.L. Coe on vocals, a singer with more distinctive tone and range in his delivery than Knoblich. Terminal earth continues the creative trajectory of this band, with all members contributing music and lyrics, and the result is a bit more varied and, at times, happier album than the full-on speed metal of the debut. Once again, the album exhibits amazing performances by all band members, extremely catchy tunes, and a thought-provoking critique of social issues that are still relevant to this day. The lyrics tackle topics like consumerism, media power, war, and the vanity and struggle of pursuing a career in the music business. It’s difficult for me to single out highlights, as all songs are excellent, maybe with the exception of “Touch the light” (the chorus pisses me off) and “L.A.D.Y.” (a bonus track with heavy Accept vibes, both musically and lyrically). “Not alone” has one of the most infectious main riffs ever, “Terminal earth” and “The law” are speed metal classics, and “The challenge” gives me goosebumps with its fantastic chorus and drum break near the end. What a fun artwork too! The copy I own is the 2016 vinyl version by Massacre records which also includes the amazing “Telemania” (not included in the original vinyl editions).
3. Mental reservation (1995)
After many years and drastic member changes, Axel returns with a completely new entourage to create the stellar masterpiece that is Mental reservation. Comparing this album to the previous two would be like comparing Somewhere far beyond (1992) or Imaginations (1995), by Blind Guardian, to Battalions of fear (1988) and Follow the blind (1989). In many ways, the band preserves its trademarks, it’s still fast power metal with big choruses (e.g. “Upright liar”). But, at the same time, the band cranks it up a notch in terms of rich narratives, both musically and lyrically. Here the songs are more complex, and the mood more sombre than the previous two albums. This is the first album with Leo Szpigiel on vocals, my personal favourite singer in the band’s history; his tone is unique, extremely expressive and the melody lines he comes up with are complex and inventive. Mental reservation is another concept album, and the figure on the cover is the protagonist of this dystopian fantasy about abuse of power, authoritarianism, and extinction. “Your infallible smile” is the best ballad Scanner ever wrote and one of the best ballads ever written; what a stunning composition on the acoustic guitar – what a chorus! Words fail to convey the magnificence of “After the storm“, a slow song with an astounding chorus, the epic middle section of “Out of nowhere”, the attack of the verse riff on “Rubberman“, or the exhilarating speed-up on the choruses of “20th century crusade” and “Conception of a cure”. This is the first album where lyrics become less direct and more poetic. Sometimes I find myself just reading the lyrics without listening to it; so amazing. I finally bought this album in 2015 when Eat Metal Records released it on vinyl.
4. Ball of the damned (1996)
This masterpiece is the second album with Leo Szpigiel on vocals, a new guitarist and new bassist. Axel’s creativity knows no bounds and runs rampant on this album once more. The moment I listened to the opener, “Puppet on a string“, I was hooked. What an inventive and catchy main riff, what a crazy orchestration during the chorus! In this one, Ralf Scheepers, another fantastic singer from the old German scene, makes a guest appearance. “Frozen under the sun” is easily one of my top-10 songs by Scanner; musically it’s so involved, with many different sections, harmonies, many different styles of riffing, that even without singing in it would be a majestic piece of music. Add to that the vocal melodies and the result is an unparalleled masterpiece. That riff and lyrics during the first bridge sends chills down my spine every time: “and when I ask him, hey man what’s wrong – he smiles and answers, I think this way’s too long”. With “True stories teller” Scanner came up with a stunning folky ballad; this is how folk metal should sound! The eponymous song also has a folky vibe in the beginning, but it develops more down the neo-classical direction, with a richer narrative, lots of tempo changes, a very theatrical chorus, and some of the heaviest riffs in the band’s history. The verse melody of “Tollshocked” constitutes one of the band’s greatest hooks. In other words, Ball of the damned is another album that achieves what very few artists have achieved, which is perfection from beginning to end. There’s not a single mediocre moment in this album, and there’s enough ideas to always inspire and entertain listeners. I’ve been listening to this album for almost three decades and with every new listen I discover things I hadn’t noticed.
5. Scantropolis (2002)
Axel continues once again with a new set of band-members (only the bassist stays the same), and the result is the most controversial and unique sounding album in Scanner’s history. When it was released, one of my local record stores (i.e. Rock City in Piraeus, Greece) put it up for customers to listen to in the shop’s portable CD player. I remember being a bit confused listening to it, being taken aback by the drum sound and the lack of fast tempos. Here, the keyboards are prominent, songs are slower, the riffs are a bit scarcer, and the new singer is a woman. Lisa Croft is probably my second favourite singer in the band’s history, after Leo Szpigiel; very powerful and emotive voice and great range. There are a couple of fast songs, but mostly the mood is more electronic and doomier. The fact that most of the drums are most likely programmed also add to the electronic and futuristic vibe. Despite the stylistic changes, most of the compositions are on a par with the band’s glorious past. “Turn of the tide” is one of Axel’s most beautiful compositions, with a fantastic musical narrative. I love the way the music builds up throughout the three verses to find release in the beautiful chorus. “Sister Mary” is a powerful, faster tune with one of the best choruses ever and some of the most remarkable guitar work in the album (e.g. the fast tremolo picking in the bridge and that furious riff in the end). The other fast song in the album is “Hallowed be my name”, and here Axel takes a verbal swing at old band members… “Always alien” continues the band’s tradition of writing astounding ballads. Overall, Scantropolis is an awesome album that requires, and deserves, attention. It took me a few years to appreciate, but when I did I was glad I did not dismiss this album and gave it another chance.
6. The judgement (2015)
My hopes for new music from Scanner were quite low for many years, but I think The judgement was worth the wait. This album was among my first three favourite albums of that year, and I still think that is is a stunning addition to the band’s discography. This is the debut of Efthimios Ioannidis on vocals. It took a while to get used to his voice, but I eventually fell in love with it; I would say that he has Knoblich’s pomp and Bruce Dickinson’s power. The different sounds he can produce are quite impressive, it almost feels like he’s playing a different character in each song, and the high notes he hits are insane. With the exception of the mediocre “F.T.B.”, every song in this album is a small masterpiece. I honestly think that any song in The judgement could have been released in the late 1980s and would have been considered a classic today. “Nevermore” is hands down the best E.A.Poe-inspired song I have ever heard (another pretty awesome one is “The bells” by Black Trip). It is also another great example of how unique and masterful a composer Axel is. Note the main razor-sharp riff, the rich musical narrative (intro-verse-2nd verse-bridge1-bridge2-chorus, etc), the mysterious melody on top of the aggressive triplet-riff during the verses; so many dimensions in a single musical piece! There are also some connections with some of the classic albums, for example I get vibes of “Retaliation positive” (from Hypertrace) in “Pirates”, especially during the chorus. Scanner has a history of big choruses with choirs and all that, and one of the faster songs on the album, “The race“, adds to this legacy with one of the most epic choruses ever. “Known better” is another highlight; one of the heaviest Scanner songs, with a bad-ass main riff which could have been found in an old Unleashed album, and a mysterious chorus which wouldn’t be out of place in a Mercyful Fate album of the 1990s. And what an epic way to close the album with the astounding “The legionary“. For the first time in the band’s history, the album cover kinda sucks, sadly.
7. The cosmic race (2024)
The history of heavy metal is laden with anxiety over the future of our planet. One of Black Sabbath‘s most iconic songs from 1971, “Into the void”, was about venturing into space to find a place to live after the human race has destroyed earth. Scanner explore this theme in Hypertrace and in even more detail in their most recent album, which is a sequel to their debut. It is impossible to talk about this album without addressing the situation with the drumming, so I’ll get it out of the way. I cannot be sure, but if I had to guess the drums are either badly programmed and a real drummer added some fills here and there, or a very amateur drummer performed and a drum machine was used from time to time to replace mistakes. I don’t mind bad drumming, it just seems incongruous to have it in a cult band which always had flawless performances. In any case, the compositions are so powerful that I can overlook this issue. Indeed, Axel performed another miracle with The cosmic race. It is not common at all for bands with a huge legacy to manage to create songs that match the perfection of their classic material; anyone regardless of how big a fan they are, would admit that any Iron Maiden or Metallica, or Helloween album of the last 30 years, regardless of how good they are, pale in comparison to their classics. But, in the case of Scanner they don’t. Axel still writes music characterised by the creativity, passion and sense of discovery that characterised their classic works. The cosmic race is another varied album, but also occupies a unique position in Scanner’s discography, as a particularly dark and sinister album (the cover art and other visuals in the lyric sheet nicely capture this vibe). The album opens with a powerful song that ticks all the boxes when it comes to classic power metal (I just wish the bass drums were buried in the mix…). The follow-up, titled “Face the fight”, is a favourite of mine, a slow song, with a catchy main riff with a nice trill, touches of Axel’s trademark subtle use of dissonant intervals (a diminished fifth in this case), an epic chorus, and a great middle section. “Farewell to the sun” has already taken its place in my heart as an all time favourite Scanner song; that chorus is something else… “A new horizon” is the most recent in Scanner’s list of stunning ballads. Amazing performance by Ioannidis on “Warriors of the light”; I’m telling you this guy is a vocal chameleon. “Dance of the dead” has a super heavy main riff, a bit atypical for Scanner, but it contributes to the sinister vibe of the song, which is consistent with the lyrical theme. This one is also one of my top songs in the album. A couple of tracks allude to older Scanner songs, music-wise. For example, the start of “Scanner’s law” is reminiscent of the start of “Frozen under the sun”, and one of the main riffs of “Space battalion” (another extremely rich song) is similar to one of the riffs of “Into a brave man’s mind”. The album concludes with another absolutely epic cut, with an awesomely epic clean guitar middle section, and a chorus that reminds me of Judas Priest a bit. Overall, this is a another fantastic album that can offer endless amounts of entertainment and discovery. Axel has overcome adversity many times, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the drumming situation in this album was just another obstacle he had to deal with, but he’s always managed to deliver flawless songs. At least he seems to have built a steady relationship with Ioannidis, so I am hopeful that we’ll receive more of their brilliant music in the years to come.
Scanner Playlist
Filed under: Heavy metal | Tags: Anno domini, Black Sabbath, Bobby Rondinelli, Cozy Powell, Cross purposes, Forbidden, Geezer Butler, Geoff Nicholls, Headless cross, Neil Murray, Re-mastered, Re-mixed, The eternal idol, Tony Iommi, Tony Martin, TYR
With the occasion of the release of the Anno Domini 1989-1995 box-set, including the four albums Tony Martin released with Black Sabbath between 1989 and 1995, I decided to write a post reflecting on this relatively under-appreciated era of the band. The earlier periods helmed by Ozzy and Dio are widely recognised as the most important of the band, eras of both high artistic achievement and commercial success. Hardcore fans of the band, of course, also love the Martin period, with almost universal acknowledgment of Headless cross (1989) as a great album. But even among these fans there’s significant variation in opinion over the quality of the other four albums of that period.
The eternal idol (1987)
I first listened to this album around 15 years ago, when I bought it from a second hand shop in Brighton, UK. That was a period of Black Sabbath worship for me, so I was open to giving a chance to albums that were not considered good. I instantly liked it more than I expected I would. Despite a couple of hard rock numbers, like “Hard life to love” and “Born to lose”, The eternal idol has some songs that stand proudly next to the classics, like the impressive title track, “Nightmare” and “Lost forever”. “Glory ride” is another favourite of mine, with one of the best ever middle sections in the band’s history. Despite its marginal position in the band’s discography, I often think that its impact should not be underestimated. I’d be surprised if the song “The eternal idol” has not influenced Psychotic Waltz (especially the vocals) and Slayer (on songs like “South of heaven” and “Dead skin mask”), or “Born to lose” Pink Cream 69‘s Sonic dynamite (2000) album. Despite Martin singing on the album, he did not write any of the lyrics, music or vocal melodies, so The eternal idol might be his debut with Black Sabbath, but not as a full-fledged member yet. This album is not included in the box-set.
Headless cross (1989)
Headless cross is an album I listened to in the late 1990s, but didn’t particularly like until many years later. Some of the earliest impressions I was left with upon listening to it have stayed with me. The verse melodies and orchestration on songs like “Kill in the spirit world”, “Call of the wild” and the title track, reminded me of arena rock and bands like Survivor. I have never been into this kind of music, so it felt a bit weird to hear Black Sabbath sounding like they were in a Rocky soundtrack. I also thought that the album was quite monolithic, its compositions not varied enough. I still agree with this early assessment of this album, but my appreciation for it has also grown. First of all, Martin’s vocals are absolutely superb; the guy is singing his ass off. Also, songs like “Nightwing”, “When death calls“, “Black moon” and “Call of the wild” are masterpieces. The shift from the up-tempo verse to the doomy chorus on “Call of the wild” is fantastic, and works much better than the very similar “Kill in the spirit world”. “Nightwing” has some of the most impressive vocals Martin committed on tape; I get goose bumps listening to that song. And, what a fantastic – and unexpected! – tapping on “Devil and daughter” by Tony! In terms of the re-issue, the artwork is a bit disappointing as part of the ground at the bottom has been cropped out.
TYR (1990)
TYR is the first Black Sabbath album I listened from start to finish, and the first that I bought from them. That was back in high school, and the reason I bought it was that I was enchanted with the album cover. I exchanged it with a friend not long after though, as I only liked “Anno mundi” and “Heaven in black”, the opener and closer of the album; the rest of it I couldn’t appreciate at the time. A few years later I revisited and fell in love with it. It is one of my favourite Sabbath albums for many years now. It is so much more diverse than Headless cross, it has one of the best opening songs in the history of heavy metal (The Hellacopters used that chord progression of the intro on “Hopeless case of a kid in denial”), it has fast songs, slow songs, mid-tempo songs, a great power-ballad, and the mood of the album is just haunting. The Viking trilogy consisting of “The battle of TYR”, “Odin’s court” (what a breath-taking song…) and “Valhalla” is absolutely epic. And “The Sabbath stones” is classic Ozzy-era perfection. The only thing I don’t like much about this album is a couple of the middle sections, which sound a bit cheesy, especially the one on “Jerusalem”.
Cross purposes (1994)
Cross purposes is an album I never paid much attention to. I never owned it and, until recently, I had never read the lyrics. I pretty much knew the first half of the album, but the second half I wouldn’t be able to recognise if someone played it for me. I am basically re-discovering the album now that I bought the box-set, and I am absolutely loving it! I cannot believe I have ignored this album for so many years, and I wouldn’t be surprised if others will properly appreciate it now that it’s been re-released and re-mastered. What a fantastic collection of really heavy, doomy and catchy songs, what a fantastic performance by everyone in the band. The main riff of “Immaculate deception” is up there with the greatest riffs Tony ever wrote. And when he writes something on the acoustic guitar, fuckin hell, it’s bound to be haunting and mesmerising (e.g. “Cross of thorns“). “Virtual death” sounds like something out of Ozzy’s Ozzmosis (1995) album. In terms of the vinyl re-issue, I love the sound, but the cover art is not as good as the original. The original artwork has been magnified to fit the vinyl, resulting in low resolution which has been smoothed by adjusting the brightness, or/and the exposure. It still looks nice, but some of the details, especially the angel’s hair and the feathers lower on the left wing are not very visible.
Forbidden (1995)
This one is the album that fans love to hate. One of my friends dramatically exclaimed that this album “has no reason for existence”. I tend to like controversial albums by bands I love. It’s probably because their reputation lowers my expectations, and because I am generally in favour of bands experimenting with their sound. As expected, the first time I listened to it I liked it. I didn’t think it was anything amazing, but I instantly fell in love with songs like “Shaking off the chains“, “I won’t cry for you” and “Forbidden”. I thought to myself, how can people hate an album that has these three fantastic songs in it?! Especially “Shaking off the chains” is a beast of a song; aggressive, dissonant, with the most bad-ass riff in the history of the band during the chorus. I would not be surprised if one of the reasons many hated this album is the involvement of Ice-T and Ernie C, an involvement that wouldn’t have gone down well with racists and/or heavy metal purists. Owning the record and reading the lyrics allowed me to pay attention to songs like “Kiss of death” and “Can’t get close enough” which are amazing. I had never noticed before the similarities between this album and Dio‘s Angry machines (1996). Also, I have always loved the cover art; it’s another one of those covers that made me want to buy the album. Forbidden is the only album in the box-set that has been re-mixed, a move that has been overhyped. For me personally, the album never sounded bad. Most of the music I fell in love with as a kid was under-produced, especially early punk, extreme metal and generally non-mainstream music that didn’t come from the global “cultural centre”, so I am not bothered by bad productions. Indeed, some of the guitars in the original mix don’t sound particularly good, and the remix remedies that. When that heavy riff on “Can’t get close enough” comes in it’s devastating. There are also some more drastic changes in this version of the album. The ending of “I won’t cry for you” is different. The original one fades out, whereas, in the new mix, the chorus reverts to the verse guitar melody, the tempo slows down, and the song concludes. Again, I don’t mind this change, it’s actually really cool. I don’t mind the disappearance of the keyboards on “Forbidden” either (RIP Geoff Nicholls, and RIP Geoff Nicholls’s keyboards). However, there is one thing I don’t like. There’s no doubt that the original guitar track at the chorus of “Shaking off the chains” has been replaced; the notes at the end of the riff are different. I don’t know if the replacement was recorded back then and was not used or whether it is newly recorded, but it doesn’t sound right to me. It now sounds much more melodic, and less aggressive.
Filed under: Brighton, gigs, Heavy metal, people | Tags: Afterlifelines, Jean Bormann, Peavy Wagner, Rage, Vasilios Maniatopoulos
I have never reviewed a new release by Rage, a band I absolutely adore, but I think the release of their new, double album, Afterlifelines, presents the perfect occasion to do so. To be fair, I did review the album that Peavy released together with Manni and Chris under the Refuge moniker a few years ago, but, strictly speaking, that was not Rage. The return of the band to its old style with The devil strikes again (2016), would have been an appropriate time to review this monumental band, but, for some reason I did not do it back then. Since that record, Rage has released four albums (not counting Refuge’s Solitary men), and the newest one might be my favourite one of the reborn Rage yet.
Peavy is among my 10 favourite song writers of all time, and he’s never been short of song ideas. A truly prolific composer, he only showed signs of slowing down during the period when Victor Smolski was in the band (my least favourite era of Rage, especially the second half, an era I want to forget). I saw Rage live in 1996, then in 1997, and then 26 years later, last December in Brighton, UK. The latter was an emotional experience for me, but I won’t get into this now. At the end of the show I got to talk to Lucky (Rage’s drummer) and he revealed to me that the next studio album would be double, one album showcasing Rage’s fierce side and the other their more lyrical/orchestral side. I am not a big fan of the latter, so I was not particularly thrilled, but Afterlifelines is definitely not what I expected.
Afterlifelines has 21 songs. The first 11 songs are grouped under the title Afterlife, and they are (with the exception of the instrumental intro) straightforward, stripped down, some fast and aggressive and some slower tunes played by electric guitar, bass and drums. The next 10 songs are grouped under the title Lifelines, and they are a mix of fast and more mid-tempo tunes, metal ballads, and an orchestral medley of some classic Rage melodies, all accompanied by classical orchestration alongside the traditional heavy metal instrumentation. The first time I listened to the album the first few songs felt underwhelming, but when “Toxic waves” came in I got chills down my spine. Peavy’s voice, the verse melody, and then the catchy and dynamic chorus, are to me what makes Rage so unique. That was followed by the awesome “Waterwar”, and Peavy’s vocal pattern during the verses took me back to the Black in Mind (1995) era. The next thing that captured me was the choruses of “Justice will be mine” and “Life among the ruins“. The latter has these weird melodic progressions that Rage uses from time to time, where the melody almost goes off tune momentarily, but makes everything so distinctive. Anyway, although I was kinda hooked listening to the first half of the album, it was the second half of Afterlifelines that completely blew my mind. “Curse the night” has one of the best verse vocal melodies in Rage’s history, I get goosebumps listening to it, and the way the chorus comes in resolving the tension built up during the verse is pure brilliance. The one constant and most distinctive thing about Rage has been Peavy’s vocal melodies. That one-sentence bridge in “Root of our evil” is absolutely breath-taking. This song, by the way, is very reminiscent of the XIII-Ghosts era of the band, but it is superior to almost every single song in these albums, in my opinion. “It’s all too much” might be the the definition of a perfect song; I can’t get used to how much I love it, I’m speechless. It is one of the songs where Jean’s guitar-playing stands out the most (that razor-sharp riff during the bridge is fantastic), together with “Lifelines“. Speaking of the latter, what an epic masterpiece! It took me a couple of listens to appreciate, but when I got my head around its structure I was left dumbfounded. What a rollercoaster of melodies, riffs and emotions! And the way it incorporates the chorus melody of “Afterlife” is masterful. In my opinion, it stands proudly next to “Lost in the ice” (1993) and “In a nameless time” (1995). One of the great assets of the band is Lucky, whose drumming is absolutely flawless and very creative. From time to time, he slips in some really tasteful licks, whether it is an interesting phrasing on the cymbals, or an impressive drum fill (and there’s loads of those!) which either offer great hooks or nuance the bottom end. Lucky is the busiest he’s been on a Rage album yet, and he is not merely offering a steady beat – he is effectively composing music with his drumming. Eventually, I started appreciating the rest of the songs, and now I am obsessed with the album (the only two songs I am not feeling are “Mortal” and “The flood”). I have listened to it at least 30 times so far, and it’s the last thing I listen before I go to bed and the first when I get up.
I also love the album art; it is my favourite one since End of all days (1996), maybe with the exception of The devil strikes again artwork, which I also love. I read somewhere that the illustrator used AI, which has been the cause for backlashes from fans and professional illustrators alike in the case of other bands recently. I will not delve into this debate now, although it is worth remembering that every time a disruptive technology comes about it faces resistance and other extreme responses from various actors that occupy the field in which it operates. From the point of a music fan, and not knowing anything about the artist’s credentials, whether they do indeed use AI, or to what extent financial constraints guided decisions regarding the commissioning of the art, I have to say that this is a classic artwork. I love the colours and especially the yellow-grey contrast. The band’s mascot looks misshapen and deformed (which, I think, exemplifies the AI aesthetic from what I’ve seen), and jaded, as if it’s given up in the midst of a world that has destroyed itself. In that sense, the album cover successfully captures the mood of the album’s lyrical theme. Peavy has written some great lyrics about the domination of nature, exploitation, dehumanisation and growing inequalities within our capitalist systems.
I will conclude this review by saying that this album is a testament to Peavy’s brilliance and passion. What a unique way to mark 40 years of music-making and what a fantastic gift to true Rage fans! Peavy, Lucky and Jean, you are really spoiling us.
overground scene 