Luvart - Necromantical Invocation

Not knowing the band, I had no particular expectations going into this, but it turned out to be quite an enjoyable CD.  However, I must stress something, lest anyone get overly excited about the bands I'm going to namedrop when describing them--while they certainly have great influences and it's wonderful that a band was doing music like this in 2012, I think they fall a bit short in truly carrying on the legacy of their influences.  I do respect that the music is generally utterly oblivious to the Scandinavian black metal scene; this is mid-paced-to-slow black metal that owes nearly everything to the early '90s Greek and Brazilian scenes.  A one sentence summary from me would be something like "less overtly Greek sounding Murder Rape debut with deep, somewhat Göetia-like vocals."  Speaking of which, it's a bit of a shame Mystifier is not mentioned in the thanks list, as I definitely get some Göetia (and later) vibes from Luvart, although they're nowhere near as fucked up and ritualistic sounding as Mystifier's prime stuff. Otherwise, the booklet shouts out almost every other older band I was reminded of significantly (Murder Rape, Mortuary Drape, Varathron, Mythological Cold Towers--even the mentions of Headhunter D.C. and Acheron make sense in context, as in many ways this style is stylistically closer to death metal than it is to the stereotypical Nordic BM sound).  The one slight annoyance I have is they didn't totally commit to the production qualities and guitar/drum sound which are integral to the charm of the old Hellenic black metal sound, instead opting for a decent contemporary sounding production.  So yeah, there's a lot of that sound in the riffs, but it's watered down somewhat by the production and playing style--if you're looking for total Greek BM immersion, you'd be better off with Cemetery Lights or something similar.  Still a very solid listen.

Dead - Hell's Morbid Disciples of Hate

 

I have mixed feelings about this compilation.  Much of the material here (whether the old stuff or the re-recordings) isn't a bad listen per se, but it's largely too unfocused and generically primitive to make much of an impact--think noisier and less organized Mantas reh. stuff/far less catchy Slaughter demo stuff and you're in the ballpark.  The demo stuff here came a little too late to be particularly impressive in terms of extremity for the time.  Also, while I'm not in any way against silliness or sophomoric shock humor in metal, I found the band monikers and general atmosphere to be a bit too childish (keep in mind, this comes from someone who was okay with the Impaler-like costuming/makeup and green monster on the cover of the E-X-E debut but found the naming of the album sides "Icky" and "Pooey" distasteful.  Go figure).  Still, this doesn't feel as highbrow as say, old Impetigo or Hideous Mangleus.

The reason I'm not completely dismissive is that at certain points (much like pre-album Death, they're at their best when they slow down), this scratches a very specific embryonic extreme metal itch.  Flashes of Hellhammer show up here and there (particularly "Maggot Phlegm") and "Children Shouldn't Play with Dead" even made me think of Poison(!).  

While I'm a firm believer in REISSUING ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING for archival purposes if nothing else, I won't deny that Dead's music is probably more effective presented on a dubbed TDK than with the Repka-lite cover here (I can actually see it working for Massacre, though).  An enthusiasm for early extreme metal and a sense of irreverent fun shine through on here, and hearing that in the music is often more enjoyable than the actual songs themselves.

Ripsaw - An Evening in Chaos...

This feels slightly odd as a No Remorse release and I suspect was mainly put out due to the Manilla Road connections: Mark Shelton produced the '87 tracks, they played together, both from Kansas--but you can't really draw any strong musical connections to MR as with Stygian Shore.  As a purely personal point of interest, I didn't know this had two pre-Psychic Pawn members, although then again, I've owned Decadent Delirium for years and had no clue Micha Kite had any sort of musical career outside of writing for Pit magazine in the mid-'90s until fairly recently (mercifully, Kurt Hubert doesn't seem to have had any musical projects).

The new 2013 material is too modern for my tastes and best avoided if you're here for the old material--it's modern thrash with some okay-ish riffs, some groove metal sections, and some odd riff and lyrical choices that would probably work far better in the context of a death metal band.  Unfortunately, the angry talk-singing vocals only further modernize the band's sound.   "The Tempest" even has some laughable spoken narration babbling about Luciferian precepts or some nonsense.  I'm here for violence, bitches, and brain damage, not awkward attempts to be deep or justify hedonism.

Hearing the newer stuff made me slightly apprehensive about the '87 material, but as usual, '80S METAL HARDLY EVER DISAPPOINTS.  It's competent thrash leaning towards the more aggressive side of the west coast sound--think a mix of the Death Angel and Dark Angel debuts (ignoring the speed metal elements of the latter), maybe with some early Sacred Reich in there too.  The vocals remind me of a less exaggeratedly snarly Mustaine crossed with Don Doty, although on "Brain Damage" I was pleasantly reminded of Piledriver's vocals.  These tracks represent a band of the time playing their style well rather than some sort of incredible unearthed recording.  But keeping that in mind, I have nothing bad to say about the tracks beyond them being somewhat generic.

The DVD is better than I expected--although presented as a "documentary," it's just then-recent band member interviews and recollections cut with vintage video footage.  My only gripe is that there's obviously a decent amount of old video, but here it's only presented in relatively short, overdubbed bits.  Perhaps it's just me, but I'd much rather see spotty video of an '80s thrash gig than find out who in the band really likes Tabasco sauce.  Bonus points for the unexpected appearance of a Bathory t-shirt, though!

HB - Frozen Inside & White Wizzard - Over the Top

Apparently the band name stands for Holy Bible.  Huh.

Christian attempt to get a piece of that female-fronted symphonic metal pie popularized by Nightwish, Within Temptation, etc.  Can't say I have particular interest in the style, secular or otherwise, so aside from the lyrics, to me they seem quite interchangeable with any other band in the genre.  Vengeance Rising this is not.  I'm genuinely curious if anyone picks this as a full-on substitute for other symphonic metal rather than as an additional band in the genre, like someone choosing HB since After Forever is too blasphemous for them.  Don't have anything more to say about this that can't be readily observed on the cover (the drummer has a mohawk, the singer didn't receive any blessings in the breast department, etc.).  I do find it amusing the cover makes it look like each band member is representing a different kind of Hot Topic patron (ala Dethklok).  

Not as immediately likable as some of the material on the High Speed GTO EP-- here they're better at playing reasonably entertaining metal than at playing great metal.  The vocals are surprisingly strong and while there are some cool parts, the general songwriting seems weak for its influences.  I feel this is honestly a bit too overground, as the album largely chases after early-mid '80s Priest at the peak of their commercial popularity--along with "Iron Goddess of Vengeance" (their attempt at "Powerslave") and the usual traditional metal tropes--but severely lacks the catchiness and true wow factor associated with those sounds.  They do what they can, I suppose, but rather than hear a band fall short of such lofty goals, I'd just as soon prefer a band doing rougher USPM or 3rd string NWOBHM worship exceedingly well.  Middling as a retro-HM release.  

On to the covers, the real reason I got this:

• "Gates of Gehenna" - Decent musically, but the vocals have none of  the sinister authority of the original EP/album versions, and the exaggerated highs are lame.  DAVID POTTER WE MISS YOU.
• "Heading Out to the Highway" - On a technical level, it's a solid cover, and obviously stronger than their original material.  However, it falls into a perilous who-gives-a-fuck area--it's not impeccable enough where I can marvel how well they emulate JP, but it's so by-the-numbers there's no good reason to listen to it over the original.

Under the disc tray, we have a close up of the girl from the cover--surprise, it's a a rendering of La Toya Jackson during her SuicideGirls years!

Let thee not pass, Abaddon!

"His Slayer and Metallica covers weren't all that bad."

"I like Cronos' solo stuff, the first Mantas album is halfway decent, and it can't be as awful as that second Mantas album.*  I really should complete the trilogy."

"Industrial metal isn't so bad.  I love Mysticum and the first Fear Factory."

Look, justify it however you want, but just be warned--I don't see anyone getting much out of this unless they're really, really into industrial rock/metal (yes, rock).

My encounters with anything even vaguely industrial** usually involve BM bands with hyperactive drum machines, so I feel trying to make meaningful commentary on this album is a waste of time.

*It is.

**I think I may have a tenuous grasp of the concept of industrial music, as I knew someone who worked adjacent to a nightclub, and the muffled sound bleeding through the shared wall was described as being similar to Throbbing Gristle.  In all seriousness, in terms of any significant experiences with industrial music, I believe I heard some oddball Nuclear Blast signee that fit the bill on a compilation once, and occasionally when I pick up a cheapo CD that looks like something metal, it ends up being industrial or darkwave.

Skull Fist - Heavier Than Metal

Just by virtue of the style (NWOBHM-influenced '80s style/retro/New Wave of Traditional Heavy Metal/not modern garbage), this automatically meets my personal quality requirements for a recording.  Obviously super-stringent.  Despite my innate positive bias, it's difficult to give this any overall praise beyond "fairly good."  

There's a certain atmosphere of unseriousness (or lack of self-awareness?) here that rubs me a bit the wrong way--the campy title, the purposely amateur genericness of the logo (it's hardly changed over the years aside from added bits to the Ss, perhaps to avoid associations with the naughty SS runic insignia), and the cover art (OK conceptually, but looks like a still from an Adult Swim show--and yes, I'm aware the cover of the first full length is even worse).   Unfortunately it's not purely limited to aesthetics, as the opener and last 2 tracks overuse silly, excessively high vocals that verge on parody.  The other two songs are more tolerable vocally since the extreme highs are limited to falsettos.  Even after getting somewhat used to the vocals, I still think the unnecessary helium only serves to lighten and weaken the music.  Otherwise things are solid if unremarkable musically, although they tend to needlessly overemphasize some choruses with gang backing vocals.  It's not an unpleasant listen and some of the stronger NWOBHM-sounding passages are quite enjoyable, but it often feels like there are somewhat forced attempts to be hooky and catchy-- and frankly, this mini-CD lacks truly killer songwriting.

Two of the members went on to Axxion, whose first EP is stylistically similar but comes off better with a rawer, more natural sound. The later Skull Fist material I have heard seems to tone down the vocals and places more emphasis on guitarwork, although like Cauldron, there's a perverse tendency to dip into very rock-based and commercial sounding melodies.

Danger - Keep Out

A lot of the online info about this album includes repeated reassurances that their extremely glammy/sleazy aesthetics don't extend into the music, and that they play real metal.  I was still quite skeptical--the band photos immediately brought Steel Panther to mind, and realistically I expected something like Crashdïet musically, or perhaps at best something like the heavier Priest-inspired tracks on Too Fast for Love.  I was quite taken aback when the opener "Enemy" turned out to be a speed metal tune, and I'm happy to confirm this is a legitimate heavy metal CD.

The bulk of the album is rooted in '80s traditional metal, though there are some injections of modern power metal influences and some general power metal overtones throughout the CD (they do indeed sound like they're the retro heavy metal sideproject of a Swedish or German power metal band).  Just by virtue of being '80s style metal, of course there are plenty of Maiden influences abound, but the galloping Egyptian melodies of "The Curse" are a clear homage to "Powerslave."  I also hear touches of "Strange World" early on in "The Fallen One," though it falls far, far short of that and ends up being more of a power metal power ballad.

This disc was definitely one of my most blatant "you can't judge a book by its cover" metal moments, since there isn't even a hint of L.A. influence here!  Sadly, some quick sampling on YouTube confirms their later material definitely fits their image.