How the hell do you approach a release like this? Any Sleep fan had been hoping, expecting, waiting for a full-length to follow up the band-disintegrating opus “Dopesmoker”. Even after original drummer Chris Hakius departed amicably after a series of reunion dates in 2009, there was hope of things to come. The immediate live participation of Neurosis stalwart Jason Roeder, the sporadic trickle of new output like “The Clarity” single in 2014, and the ascension to “elder statesmen of metal” status of Matt Pike and Al Cisneros made some monumental future output all but certain. And in a particularly keen bit of stoner humor, the trio dropped “The Sciences” on, of course, 4/20. I actually feel pretty bad for anyone else dropping their own passion projects on a date that Sleep practically owns. And beyond the particular bit of gimmicky scheduling, “The Sciences” is as appropriate a paean to smoke altered consciousness as stoner metal worshipers could have hoped for.
The introductory title jam is a wall of savage, droning fuzz. It’s chaotic, gut churning, and LOUD even through a pair of earbuds. Like a bongrip as rocket launch, the brief number propels into “Marijuanaut’s Theme”. Cisneros’ bass tone and subtle variations is a welcome counter to Matt Pike’s signature MONSTER playing, and his brief solo breaks are invigorating. Each speaker is palpable in Pike’s riffing, but he’s distinctly not hijacking as a repository for High on Fire castoffs, or vice versa. His style with Sleep is looser and dirtier, less Fast Eddie Clarke and more Tony Iommi. His ability to simultaneously melt faces in two distinct outfits should never be discounted, but here, with less autonomy, his soloing shows a joyfulness that you don’t often get in the gritty, paranoid shredding of the most recent High on Fire albums. And, from a production standpoint, this is completely beholden to power trio methods – when Matt shreds, there may be multitracked lead freakouts, but there are no rhythm guitar overdubs. The whole thing could be pulled off live and sound just as full as the record.
“Sonic Titan” is one of those long fermenting cuts that first saw life decades ago, appearing as a rough cut on the Tee Pee issue of the (still incomplete) “Dopesmoker” in 2003. Anyone professing that the “original” is better, is likely trying way too hard. This is a honed, heavy, beefed up track. Plus, Sleep is all about that positively pornographic tone, and while the “Dopesmoker” outtake has a raw appeal, the warmth and fuzz crackling across my speakers is perfect. Plus, this may be my favorite use of bass wah post-Sabbath. In my brief scrolls through social media, Al Cisneros’ peculiar vocal delivery seems to be a divisive issue: for those who followed Om, Al’s style is not surprising, perhaps a trademark, and even beloved. For others, the flat affect is confounding. I’m of two minds here – sometimes it sounds like the vocals are just a little too high in the mix, but I also really love distinctive vocal cadences. To hear Cisneros fronting Sleep is a joy – and the register of his chants on “Sonic Titan” is a welcome departure from the strained yelp of the earlier, live cut of the long gestating song.
“Antarcticans Thawed”, a Lovecraftian epic with shades of spaghetti western in the opening, is the best track, and features Al’s best, most intense vocal performance on the record. In comparison, “Giza Butler” is a bit too restrained. It sneers but never snarls, though the riffs and mystical cannabinoid is a damned bit of fun that should be adapted into its own issue of Heavy Metal (the fantasy mag, not the genre). And if “Giza…”transports us to outer rim planets of continental nugs, the sweet, acoustic denouement of “The Botanist” is an instrumental sendoff that brings the most bleary eyed listener back to equilibrium.
So can it possibly live up to the hype? Honestly, what could? This is not “Dopesmoker” part 2, or even a follow-up to “Holy Mountain”. But even though this is heralded as a comeback record, it’s really a new permutation of the gestating giant. From the first crashes and fills, Jason Roeder establishes his own identity as a new element of Sleep. Whether here or with Neurosis, he’s a titan of the kit. He, thankfully, doesn’t ape Hakius’ beloved style – peppered with idiosyncratic snare work and warped cymbal crashes. In reality, anyone doing a “Hakius v. Roeder” rundown is playing a fool’s game: they stand not so much in opposition as distinctly powerful eras of Sleep – the playful, Loki style playing of Hakius and the muscular, Thor on drums mastery of Roeder.
So it’s a bit of a cheat – Sleep but not the Sleep you expected. But in the course of 6 prog-infused stoner metal jams, Cisneros, Pike and Roeder earn all the goodwill they garnered in the post-“Dopesmoker”wilderness. If anything, their well honed prowess outmatches any expectations. Wherever “The Sciences” is ranked in the Sleep discography, it stands as a testament to a band who had to wait nearly 20 years for the critical and music-buying public to catch up. Or, more aptly to spark up, sit down, and thrust themselves into the hazy riff worship they’ve been peddling longer than nearly anyone still relevant in the metal game.
“Muerte” is a glorious affirmation of Will Haven's greatness and raises the bar for heavy music in 2018, an awesome awe inspiring achievement for a band 23 years into their existence.
“Muerte” CD//DD//LP track listing:
1. Hewed With the Brand 2. Winds of Change 3. Kinney 4. The Son 5. 43 6. No Escape (feat. Mike Scheidt of YOB) 7. Unit K 8. Ladwig No. 949 9. Bootstraps 10. Now in the Ashes 11. El Sol (feat. Stephen Carpenter)
The Review:
Hopes of heavy veterans returning with an album that rivals their finest early work are rarely realised. Sacramento hellraisers Will Havengave a timely reminder of their potent racket on 2011 LP “Voir Dire”. After a lengthy break the band now return with the awe-inspiring “Muerte”, a massive record that gives “Carpe Diem” a run for its money as their finest hour.
The quiet ambience of “Hewed With The Brand” is soon shattered by Grady Avenell’s glass gargling bark which heralds an earth-shaking explosion of riffage. Straight away the band lock into their trademark staccato assault, sounding bigger, heavier and uglier than ever before. The material here strikes a perfect balance between maintaining Will Haven’s crushing sonic palette while adding new layers of songwriting complexity. Will Haven have always had a penchant for hypnotic, effects-heavy interludes of calm in amongst the mayhem but now these sections have been incorporated into more challenging, dynamic compositions like “The Son” and “Now In The Ashes”. Key to this epic, immersive sound is the more prominent use of keyboards. When they were first introduced on “Voir Dire” they added a welcome subtle texture to the bands rumbling sludge. Now they have evolved into an all-encompassing wash of ethereal noise that lends these tracks a rich, unique atmosphere.
“No Escape” provides a powerful centrepiece to the album bolstered by a stunning guest vocal performance by YOB’s Mike Scheidt. A typically brutal lumbering explodes into a slow-motion lament with Scheidt’s timeless croon really hammering home the emotion. The melancholic doom of the outro is strangely beautiful with wordless howls conveying an aching sadness.
Deftones’ Stephen Carpenter joins the fray for the massive finale of “El Sol”. This track is a perfect celebration of the friendship between these two hugely influential bands and demonstration of what both are capable of at the peak of their powers.
The possibility of Will Haven delivering one of the albums of 2018 seemed minimal at the start of the year. “Muerte” is a glorious affirmation of their greatness and raises the bar for heavy music in 2018, an awesome achievement for a band 23 years into their existence.
“Firepower” is one of the best albums in Priest's canon- it has the songs, the sound and the playing to match their best.
“Firepower” CD//DD//LP track listing:
1. Firepower 2. Lightning Strike 3. Evil Never Dies 4. Never The Heroes 5. Necromancer 6. Children of the Sun 7. Guardians 8. Rising From Ruins 9. Flame Thrower 10. Spectre 11. Traitors Gate 12. No Surrender 13. Lone Wolf 14. Sea Of Red
The Review:
It would be fair and accurate to say that there are only a handful of bands in the metal genre that can accurately be described as legendary due to their progressing the genre and defining the sound and image. Naturally, Judas Priest are one of that very select number. The band brought twin guitars (with more bite than either Wishbone Ashor Thin Lizzy) into the metal world, along with screaming vocals- often with an aggressive edge to them- and utilised double bass drums and complex arrangements long before most.
Priest's70's output catapulted the heavy metal genre forward- “Sad Wings of Destiny”, “Sin After Sin”, “Stained Class”, “Killing Machine” and “Unleashed In The East” are classics one and all (even if SAS is a little uneven) and sowed the seeds for thrash, power, speed and even death metal in their approach. 2018, then, finds the band 28 years on from their last classic (“Painkiller”) and a couple of decades on from a truly consistent album. To be clear, I love 70's Priest through and through. I love half of their 80's output; “British Steel”, “Screaming for Vengeance” and “Defenders of The Faith” are all fantastic. However, after that and “Painkiller”the band's work in progressing and defining the genre was done. “Painkiller” was a monstrous work of metal- still massively heavy and the production still sounds enormous- but it is not on the level of their 70s work in my view. “Turbo” and “Ram It Down”were quite simply woeful.
Throughout the 90's, Priest suffered a similar fate to Maiden in that they got in a younger vocalist after their erstwhile frontman went AWOL, who kept the band going. To be fair, “Jugulator”- featuring Tim Ripper Owen's superb vocals- was a good and very heavy record, “Demolition” was Ripper Owens' second with the band and suffers a little from trying to keep up with the times- but still contains some great tracks. Halford's return was lauded but produced somewhat uneven results; “Angel of Retribution” had some classics, but it also had the abysmal “Loch Ness”. “Nostradamus” was a conceptual misfire. “Redeemer of Souls” from a few years back was the best of the reunion albums, but was over long and lacked a little in terms of production and aggression. Oh well, thought the fans, they are getting on a bit- we can't expect the aural pyrotechnics of the past... maybe Priest are ready to wind down.
How wrong we were. The Priest is back! “Firepower” is their best album for decades. Certainly the best since “Painkiller”... maybe even better than that. What marks this record out? The songs, the performances and the production. This is the best set of tunes Priesthas put together in a lifetime. The playing has real fire, Halford sings superbly. Scott Travis really works hard and puts in a superb turn on the kit- he sounds animated and powerful. Andy Sneap and Tom Allom have combined to make an incredible production team. The album sounds incredible. Muscular, heavy and with a sheen that makes this really listenable.
From the off, the band deliver two stone cold classics: the title track and “Lightning Strikes” could have opened any Priest album and been regarded as two of the best racks on there. They are that good. From there, the album is consistently good and often fantastic. “Evil Never Dies” is a foot stomping beast, “Necromancer”is classic metal in every sense of the word. There are more melodic songs too; “Never The Heroes” is a touching semi ballad- but still features a stunning riff. “Children From the Sun” and “Rising From Ruins” may hint a little too much at the more plodding material from “Defenders of the Faith..”. but they are still good songs and, frankly, the fact that I am even comparing them to the weaker tracks from one of Priest's best albums speaks for itself. They are still pretty good.
If “Flame Thrower” strays too close to Spinal Tap territory in the chorus lyrics, it makes up for this with energy and riffs for days. Plus, Halford's verses are pretty neat and have some nice references to the band's past- with some serious hooks in the bridge to boot. The band deliver another catchy mid tempo track in “Spectre”, another metal classic in the form of “Traitor's Gate” which has some great story telling, more anthemic hard rock/heavy metal in “No Surrender” (it could be from any of the band's best albums) and a Sabbath-esque curveball in the form of “Lone Wolf” which delivers sinister atmosphere and serious groove. Halford is absolutely on fire here as well. They even manage to sign off with the best ballad they have written since the 1970's in the form of “Sea of Red”- an epic finish to an album I thought the band would never make. Every band member excels.
“Firepower”is one of the best albums in Priest's canon- it has the songs, the sound and the playing to match their best. Even if being very picky, there are only a couple of weaker tracks and they are STILL good. For a classic band to make an album like this after so long is incredible. For it to be Priest to have done it is an absolute triumph. If this is to be Glenn Tipton's last record, he has signed off in style, having kept the band going through the good and bad times. If this is to be the latter day high point for Tipton, Halford, Hill, Travis and Faulker then that is fine with me. To be clear, this leaves every other giant metal band's work of the last twenty years in the dust (with the possible exception of Heaven and Hell's“The Devil You Know”- Dio-era Sabbath in all but name- which was a majestic album). “Firepower”is so good, I can't quite believe it. This can be added to Priest'slist of classic albums. A long list just got one longer. There are fourteen tracks here, but this album goes to eleven.
1. I Know Words 2. Twilight Zone 3. Victims of a Clown 4. TV5/4Chan 5. We’re Tired of It 6. Wargasm 7. Antifa 8. Game Over 9. AmeriKKKa
The Review:
“This isn’t the future we were promised. They said there’d be jet-packs, and flying cars, and hover-skateboards, and self tying shoe-laces, and, and, and…” Yes, the films, and the TV shows all lied. As it turns out, our timeline is less Back to the Future II, more Orwell’s 1984. You know who, in a weird way, seems to have known exactly what the 21st Century would be all about, though? Al Jourgenson and Ministry, that’s who.
Ever since their 1992 anthem “N.W.O.” sampled the then president, George H. W. Bush, Ministry have been pedalling an anti-authoritarian, anti-right-wing American message. And ever since “N.W.O.”, they’ve been hacking up the words of US presidents, and incorporating them into their patented brand of drink and drug fuelled industrial-metal. This approach culminated in the band’s early 2000s anti-Bush (junior) trilogy of albums: “Houses of the Molé” (2004), “Rio Grande Blood” (2006), and “The Last Sucker” (2007). Ministry officially split in 2008, but continued to release re-mixed and previous recorded material fairly steadily. Then Uncle Al came back with all new material for 2012’s “Relapse”, which was soon followed up with a definitely, absolutely, unequivocally, final album (their thirteenth studio album, in case you were wondering) entitled “From Beer to Eternity” in 2013. And that was Ministrydone. Over. Dead.
Then, on the ninth of November 2016 it was announced, much to the amazement of many, many people in the world that Donald J. Trump was going to be the next president of the United States of America. Trump the king of the idiotic sound-bite. Trump the liar; the “lets’ build a wall around Mexico and make them pay for it” guy; the ex-reality TV star; Trump the alt-right’s leader of choice. Had Al Jourgenson somehow tragically lost his life post 2013, I feel there’s a genuine chance Trump’s presidency would have resurrected him. His deadlocked, leather-clad corpse clawing its way through the earth, bursting forth from the grave screaming “GET ME TO THE FUCKIN’ STUDIO, NOW!”.
“AmeriKKKant” is the album that brought Ministryback from the dead. Again.
Trump’s infamous words “we will make America great again” – suitably warped and fucked with – are the first thing we hear on opening track “I Know Words”: the ominous, middle eastern influenced, instrumental (save for all the Trump samples) introduction to the album. “Twilight Zone” is a weighty, plodding industri-stomp, very much in the “Scarecrow” mould. It too, features plenty of Trump samples, and a good dollop of that harmonica which crops up in more Ministrytracks than you remember.
When the bass comes in on “Victims of a Clown”, you could be forgiven for thinking you were listening to something off of 1989’s “The Mind is a Terrible thing to Taste”. This is very much classic Ministry,with the scratching of new member, turntablist DJ Swamp, the only real indicator that this isn’t some lost pre 90s off-cut.
Eight minutes(!) or so in, we get a final blast of the higher BMP industri-thrash stuff more associated with latter Ministry(and with much of the output of Al’s most recent side-project Surgical Meth Machine).That Burton C. Bell fella out of Fear Factory(remember them?) growls “Hey! What he say? Vomiting conspiracies. God damn the racist blind. Anti social impotence ignites”.
“TV 5-4 Chan” continues the tradition of short, sharp, “TV” titled tracks which have graced their albums since the early 90s. This time guns, racism, and white nationalist are the targets. It segues into “We’re Tired of It” which is an up-tempo thrash diatribe against “Fucking insane Christian Hypocrisy”, with Bell on vocals once again. “Wargasm”is more very classic sounding Ministry, with a chorus reminiscent of 1996’s “The Fall”. Samples talking about “the people’s war” and “the mother of all bombs”… you get the idea. “Antifa” is a chug-along anti-fascist anthem “Brown shirt little snowflakes never want to admit, Terrified of the red and black flag, Antifa's the shit”. Enough said. Oh, you want to know which old Ministry song it sounds like? A bit like “Just One Fix”, I suppose.
Closers “Game Over”, and title track “AmeriKKKant”, are a pair of mid-paced, somewhat more reflective songs. The rage of earlier tracks turned to despair at the inevitability of just how fucked we, America, and the world as a whole actually are. There is a nice brass section in “AmeriKKKant” to offset that slightly, though. “It's like the Nazis back in '39, Like the Romans on the verge of decline. Like the Russians back in '68, How is this supposed to make America great?”
Jourgenson has referred to “AmeriKKKant” in recent interviews as “Pink Floyd on meth”. Yes, it’s a concept album, and yes several of the tracks do have rather excessive running times, but ultimately this is a Ministryalbum. I’m not going to say “just” a Ministryalbum, because that would be doing Al and company a disservice, but it’s 100% a Ministryalbum. Have you heard previous Ministryalbums and enjoyed them? Good, then this is another one of those. Yes, some will argue that not much has changed musically in the Ministrycamp for some twenty-odd years, but what’s even weirder is to think that US politics has somehow become more regressive in that time. If it feels like you’ve heard this all before, then maybe that’s just because Al Jourgenson has been right all along.
This album is a statement of intent, placing the focus on convulsive rhythm changes and dissonant, jagged riffs over accessibility. ‘Kingdoms Disdained’ is Morbid Angel's most uncompromising album of their career and their best album in nearly twenty years, and I don’t consider that light praise.
‘Kingdoms Disdained’ CD////DDLP track listing:
1. Piles of Little Arms
2. D.E.A.D.
3. Garden of Disdain
4. The Righteous Voice
5. Architect and Iconoclast
6. Paradigms Warped
7. The Pillars Crumbling
8. For No Master
9. Declaring New Law (Secret Hell)
10. From the Hand of Kings
11. The Fall of Idols
The Review:
‘Illud Divinum Insanus’ was a fucking disaster. I’ll never begrudge artists testing new waters or feeling like they need to do something different. But when the end result is shitting the bed, the best you can do is take it as a learning experience and head back to the drawing board. In Morbid Angel’s case, that meant Trey Azagthoth scrapping the entire lineup from ‘Illud Divinum Insanus’ and starting over completely. Replacing that lineup here is Steve Tucker, returning to the bassist/vocalist role he held for most of the period from 1997 through 2004, along with current Annihilated/ex-Abysmal Dawn drummer Scott Fuller.
The fruit of these extensive changes is ‘Kingdoms Disdained’, and the obvious point of interest here is whether they were able to put something together worthy of the Morbid Angel name after such a brutal fall from grace. The answer is a resounding yes. At this early stage, ‘Kingdoms Disdained’ feels like Morbid Angel’s best work since “Formulas Fatal to the Flesh”. Of course, there will be some that prefer ‘Gateways’or ‘Heretic’, but to these ears, this album beats them both. Those two albums took a lot of time and effort to appreciate, with a lot of attempts made to try to hear what other people liked so much about them. By contrast, ‘Kingdoms Disdained’ clicked immediately despite being an incredibly dense piece of work. This album is a statement of intent, placing the focus on convulsive rhythm changes and dissonant, jagged riffs over accessibility.
“D.E.A.D.”might be the song most emblematic of the whole of the album. It’s a three-minute death metal freakout, rarely staying in one space for more than a repetition or two, completely unwilling to sit still. Azagthoth’s guitar work and Fuller’s drumming alternate between maniacal swarming and spasmodic outbursts of galloping rhythm and stabbing musical punctuation. Throughout the rest of the album, these themes are explored in others songs in longer forms, but “D.E.A.D.” gathers them all into one place and condenses them.
Even the album’s low points never drop below the “fine” threshold, though I think a case can be made that the album would be better-served at forty minutes rather than forty-eight. Really, the only song worth cutting out altogether is “The Pillars Crumbling”, which is only able to offer a less interesting version of everything else going on around it. “Declaring New law” gets hung up on one rhythmic idea for too long, and would have benefitted from having at least one other major section to keep things from being monotonous. But even with these faults, the greatness outweighs the skippable moments by a gigantic margin.
If I had to guess, I’d imagine that fan reaction will be mixed for ‘Kingdoms Disdained’. I can see this album being difficult to get into for some fans, if only because it’s so hellbent on being a complete repudiation of the album that came before it, that it throws just about any kind of accessibility by the wayside. You’re not going to find any instantly memorable riffs like those of “Maze of Torment” or “Where The Slime Live” here. In that sense, ‘Kingdoms Disdained’overcompensates for the indiscretions of Morbid Angel’s recent past, but in the process makes the most uncompromising album of their career. For my money, that’s enough to make this their best album in nearly twenty years, and I don’t consider that light praise. Now all we can do is see how well an album like this stands the test of time.
This Friday, November 17, Electric Wizard drops their ninth album, “Wizard Bloody Wizard”. Their second release through the legendary Spinefarm Records, the album is also their first with Clayton Burgess on bass and Simon Poole on drums. After honing their sound with an extensive international tour, the band recorded six tracks live to tape, creating one of their most accessible releases yet. Founding member and doom metal icon Jus Oborn took a few minutes to talk to THE SLUDGELORD about this new chapter in the band, future film projects, and what to expect from the legendary doom crew in the coming year.
What was the writing and rehearsal process like for “Wizard Bloody Wizard”?
Pretty much the same as usual, really! It was a bit of a hassle because we were moving houses at the time. A bit all over the place, rehearsing in different places. But basically we work on the riffs, me and Liz, and just jam them out at rehearsals.
In putting it to tape, did you put any restrictions on yourselves – a certain number of takes? It certainly sounds like a real throwback, not ProTooled but all in the same space.
It was all recorded live – first or second take to be honest, on all of it. I recorded all of it myself on a sixteen-track tape. You don’t really have options to do drop-ins and shit when you’re actually recording the whole band live. You gotta get it right. But I like that discipline. I like the fact that you capture a performance on tape, you know? What a band really sounds like. And you gotta play as fucking good as you can! You gotta really give it everything. Because it comes out – it’s not like ProTools or whatever where you can chop things up afterwards. You go, “Well ok that was ok, we can fix that bit.” Then you’re just making some kinda classical music or something *laughs*.
This is your first release with Clayton Burgess and Simon Poole on bass and drums and they bring some real swing and soul in their rhythm. What’s their addition to the band been like?
It’s definitely given us a whole new foundation we hadn’t had before. We were out on the road quite a lot in the last two or three years, so the lineup’s really solidified. And you noticed Simon and Clayton have a chemistry. We actually got them to rehearse together before we brought in the guitars to get them locked in together. And that was cool, that worked out. I think it’s something we’ve wanted for a long time – to have a bit of a stronger rhythm section so we can experiment and go a bit more over the top. I always had the idea that the guitars in ‘Wizardwere always very solid, very simple, very brutal, and then the drums and the bass would play around a lot more. Just have a lot of counter rhythm, counter melody. Just another dimension, you know? And I think it’s really worked out on this record. I’m pretty fucking pleased.
From the beginning, Electric Wizard has had a multimedia element, whether with the film references, the Drugula comic, the visual show. Do you have any plans with other media or film collaboration?
Well we’ve always been tinkering around with doing film, and we’ve filmed various things over the years. But it’s always a bit of a long process, a lot of the time. It’s all kind of unfinished projects and half ideas. I think this video for “See You in Hell” is the first real video we’ve ever done! We got to experiment with a few ideas there, recreating the old 70s TV studio sort of feel. But moving into film is something we’d like to do. I’ve been looking into – there’s actually an old biker movie called “Angels”. It’s a Danish biker movie by the people that did “The Sinful Dwarf”. But it’s missing its soundtrack and missing all the dialogue, so I’ve had the idea of re-recording it. Recording music and doing the dialogue again – I mean the plot’s pretty easy to follow! *laughter*
And as far as comics and stuff, I’ve been interested in doing comics for a long time. I’ve been talking with some people. A few people seem to like the Drugula idea, you know! I think they’d like to see a comic like that.
It seems there’s a lot of crossover appeal, from the beginning of metal, with horror and comics.
It’s just part of the culture, growing up with the dark and heavy metal stuff.
One of our readers, Eric, wanted to know what you’re listening to lately. Specifically, any non-metal/non-doom stuff that stands out for you?
I mean I do tend to listen to a lot of heavy rock and metal *laughs*. I’ve been listening to a lot of The Sweet, an English heavy rock band. They were kind of a pop band at first and they started doing some heavier shit. I think they’re a pretty big influence on a lot of people.
Non-metal I just picked up this album by Jean-Claude Vannier – an album called “Insolitudes”. A guy who collaborated with Serge Gainsbourg on the “Melody Nelson” album (1971’s “Histoire de Melody Nelson”). It’s a pretty cool album, man! It’s really dark, weird, kind of jazz, classical soundtrack music. It’s pretty far out, pretty psychedelic, to be honest. Good to smoke to. Fuckin blew my mind *laughs*.
But yeah I’d recommend The Sweet F.A. (aka Sweet Fanny Adams) to anyone. It’s some pretty fuckin epic, awesome guitar work on it.
Are there any reissues of some of the classic, out of print Electric Wizard stuff in the works? Specifically, “Chrononaut” and “Supercoven” have become pretty sparse.
We’ve actually been approached by some labels recently. Southern Lord have asked us about it again, because they put out the rerelease of “Supercoven” the first time round. I’d like to see them come back out, especially as “Supercoven” is one of my favorite Electric Wizard albums.
OK here’s an urban legend to either debunk or confirm: one of our readers, Dan, asked if the volume of an Electric Wizard show really made you go deaf once?
Yeah pretty much! *laughter* Yeah I burst an eardrum. Yeah it’s not cool. I mean I hurt my eardrums for many years and it got pretty bad.
What are you planning as far as shows in the near future?
With the new record, it’s time to get out on the road. We have a few festivals lined up – Inferno in Norway is gonna be cool with Satyricon and Obituary. It’ll be pretty fucking heavy! And we’re back in the US with the New Year. It’s fuckin awesome to go over there. Seems like everyone is still into heavy music, man.
‘Deep Calleth Upon Deep’ is something of a spiritual successor to ‘Rebel Extravaganza’ in that the goal appears to have been to take an established sound and create the weirdest, artsiest version of it they could and there is evidence of a sweeping creative resurgence throughout the album as a whole.
‘Deep Calleth Upon Deep’ CD//DD//LP track listing:
1. Midnight Serpent
2. Blood Cracks Open The Ground
3. To Your Brethren In The Dark
4. Deep Calleth Upon Deep
5. The Ghost Of Rome
6. Dissonant
7. Black Wings And Withering Gloom
8. Burial Rite
The Review:
For most of you reading this; Satyricon requires no introduction. The band was among the most popular in Norwegian black metal dating back to the mid 90s. Opinions, as is often the case, vary as to where the band peaked creatively. For some, it’s their second wave black metal period from ‘Dark Medieval Times’ through “Nemesis Divina”. Others prefer the forward-thinking mania of ‘Rebel Extravaganza’ or the stripped down black n’ roll approach of the last 15 years.
For the purposes of this review, it’s worth pointing out that I believe their creative apex to be the period from ‘Dark Medieval Times’ through ‘Rebel Extravaganza’, with ‘Volcano’ being hit and miss, and everything since then being thoroughly middle of the road; accessible at the cost of any idea that might be exciting or interesting. While the band have never made a bad album, they’ve settled for “fine” for three straight albums, to the point that even the band themselves acknowledge that a change of direction was desperately needed. In the press materials for ‘Deep Calleth Upon Deep’, Satyr spoke to the need for the band to move on:
"Approaching this release, what I always kept in mind is that either this is the beginning of something new or it's gonna be my last record. If this is going to be the last, then it needs to be something special.”
If nothing else, it’s fair to say that this mindset has resulted in the band’s first truly exciting album in the last fifteen years. Contextually, ‘Deep Calleth Upon Deep’ is something of a spiritual successor to ‘Rebel Extravaganza’ in that the goal appears to have been to take an established sound and create the weirdest, artsiest version of it they could. “Rebel Extravaganza” mutated and distorted 2nd wave black metal into something wild and wholly unique. Here, Satyricon twists the much more plain style of the last decade-plus into a truly engaging black n’ roll freakout. In fact, calling ‘Deep Calleth Upon Deep’ “black n’ roll” feels like selling it short. While I may not have found the last several Satyricon albums all that interesting, they’d still cultivated their own unique sound, and each album was immediately identifiable as Satyricon. That identity remains intact here, despite forgoing the tropes and formula they’ve settled into over the years.
A sweeping creative resurgence is evident all throughout the album. Album opener “Midnight Serpent” runs a gauntlet of ideas, ranging from the conservatively black metal opening moments to the sprawling dissonant atmosphere of the song’s 2nd half. “The Ghost of Rome” is about as close as a black metal band has ever come to crafting their own version of late 60s psychedelic pop, or more recently, Queens of the Stone Age's “Another Love Song”.
The point is; it’s more evident than ever that Satyricon will never truly journey back to a conventional black metal sound. Waiting for bands to tap into whatever your perceived peak era for them might be is a recipe for disappointment. Some bands manage to pull it off, but they’re the exceptions. In Satyricon’scase, they’ve finally arrived at a new sound that’s as well-worth exploring as their early glory years. Progress for a band is a good thing, when it works. The road to this point wasn’t a smooth one, but they’ve gotten to where they need to be. They’re very different from the band we knew 20 years ago, but they’re every bit as interesting as they were back then.
‘Deep Calleth Upon Deep’ is available digitally hereand on CD/LP here.
Following the recent review of “Infinite Entanglement” and “Endure and Survive”, I began thinking that it would be awesome to know a bit more about those albums and Blaze Bayley's plans for album number three in the cycle. The only problem... how to do it?! As it turns out, Blaze's management could not have been more accommodating. An email exchange, a request to interview and then one Friday night I found myself on Skype talking to Blaze himself! A metal legend, live and direct in my kitchen, via the medium of modern technology! What follows is a transcript of the interview, covering everything from recording to quantum physics. Enjoy
Congratulations on the success of the latest instalment of your Sci fi trilogy- “Endure and Survive” That and “Infinite Entanglement” are absolutely superb (“Endure and Survive” is my album of the year so far) and I cannot wait for the third and final part! Can you give us any idea of what is going to be on album number three and what is going to be in store for us on the next record?
Well the first one, “Infinite Entanglement”, was the beginning of a journey of 1000 years and it was the realisation that you are not in a specially designed space suit; you are actually a machine! Your consciousness has been downloaded into a machine body and the very question “are you human?” and to decide “are you human?” is big. The second album, “Endure and Survive”, is the end of the journey of 1000 years and the darkness of that endurance the things that happened to understand that you are just a cog in a machine, you were never meant to reach that new world. That new planet, that fresh start was never meant for you. It was an absolute lie and a seduction.
Part three has to tie up that story. I can't say too much about it, but what I can say is that I am in an absolute blind panic! I never expected anyone to like the second album better than the first one- so that's made it very difficult. I thought the first one was pretty good; I was only trying to make the second one, thinking 'If I could just get it the same standard as the first one then I would be happy....' then people were saying ' Oh, it's much better than part one!' and I thought 'Oh No!' because now the expectations are so high, not only from the fans but from me. My idea is that you have a play list of the three albums and you can listen to the three albums on one playlist start to finish in one story, just like you've listened to a really great, long album. That's the idea, so it has to be interesting, the story has to keep you, has to grip you, and you must be interested in what's going to happen to these people and what's motivated them.
At the moment we have, well, I'm looking at my wall and we have five titles that I am confident will turn into full songs of a good standard, so I am six short of what I really need. I have more musical ideas; we have bits and pieces we're working on. I am just waiting for that three in the morning bit of inspiration that catches you, or that thing that catches me when I am out shopping like 'What's that?! It's mine! I've got an idea and I've got to record it!' so that's it. I know the story, I know where I am going with the story, but musically the journey I want to take you on is different. It's a different path and it will only make sense I think in the context of the three albums. When you get to album three and you get to the end you will think 'oh well that was different, but of course it had to be that way and it makes sense.' I am hoping you will like it. It's a lot of work and it's a lot of nerves. We'll have to see what happens.
Of course. Thanks for that expansive answer. For what it's worth I do listen to the two albums back to back on my commute to work. I'll stick on “Infinite Entanglement” and then “Endure and Survive..”.
That's a long ride!
I live in Leeds (England) and it's a big city; the bus can take a long time! Or I listen to one album on the way there and one on the way back. It's really immersive as a listener to do that. Can you tell us a bit about the studio you are using for these records and the production?
It is a studio in Birmingham called Robanna's. It's completely independent. It is run by Rob, Rob Hoffman, and his sister Anna, I think. I started doing all my guest vocals there. It's a fully professional studio, using pro tools which is the only software I like to use. I would never go back to tape! I hate analogue and all of that. I like digital. In the modern world of computers and the hard drives that we have and the speed of the processors, you can actually make music and it sounds good and it can keep up with you- which it never could in the early days of the eighties and tape. You had to have so much patience and I just haven't got that! I started doing guest vocals there; bands and singer songwriters from around the world ask me to do vocals for them or feature on their album and I thought 'I've worked in a lot of studios, I've spent a lot of time travelling, this is (without traffic) twenty minutes from my house- I'm gonna record there!' And it makes so much sense: you get up, you go to work and at the end of the day, you come back home.
It just makes sense. When you spend perhaps six to nine months of the year away from home, to be able to get up, go to work and come back home after work makes sense. To meet a deadline, I'm not one of these arty farty types who say 'well it will be finished when I feel it's right...' No! It'll be finished on time because it will be right: because I call myself a singer, a songwriter a producer and after thirty years if I can't meet a deadline which I set myself? I shouldn't be doing it! So that's it. I own the record company I am actually the only artist on the record company so I am the boss telling myself what to do. If I can't meet it, I should be ashamed. I'm a working class man, I come from a working class family. That's it for me: the inspiration is important, the passion of the music is important.
The real place that music is formed is in the rehearsal room with the band full blast. We put these ideas together at home and then we take it into the rehearsal room and we start feeling those rhythms, those runs on the bass, the shapes of the chords and the rhythms in the riffs and that is when you know if it is gonna live or if it is going to be cast aside, or if it is going to need major surgery as it doesn't have a heart and you've got to give it one! That's what happens and that is how those first two albums. “Infinite Entanglement”; we had a lot more rehearsal time and a lot more distance from the recording and “Endure and Survive” was a lot more urgent but we had all the time that we needed and we beat the deadline by two days! The next one? I just don't know. I'm very nervous about it, but it's a studio that I like to go to because I know everybody there. I've known everybody there for a long time. You walk in and you feel at home.
Fantastic. Thank you very much. If we can keep with the same records, they are very immersive in terms of the story and themes kind of pull you in. What is it that makes physics and science fiction so appealing to you as a songwriter
Well, a lot of people have asked me this over the last few months...
Apologies!
I've had a think about it and it goes back to... as a boy I watched science fiction with my mother; Space 1999, Dr Who, Blake's Seven, Star Trek Original Series. We watched them together. I also had an interest in how things worked. Any toy that I had which had a battery or an electric motor, I used to take it to pieces to try to learn how it worked. I liked to learn how to fix my bicycle myself. My mother could take the gear box out of a transit van and fit it back on! I had this kind of background.
Quantum Physics, in the end, is how things work. When you look inside the engine of your car, the spark, the small tiny spark is what keeps everything going. This little explosion ignites the petrol. It goes down to something so small: how does it all work?! That's the interest I have: how does it work? Why are we even on this planet? How are we going through space so fast around this giant ball of fire?! An invisible force controls us- you can measure it but you can't see it, you can't touch it. You are a part of it. It acts upon you. You don't act upon it. It is an invisible force and it is the most amazing thing to have this thought in my mind.
That leads me on to my belief in telepathy. Years ago in the eighties, in the scientific community, if you said you were investigating and interested in the merits of telepathy, you would be ostracised, man, you would never get a job. Now, it's becoming almost a legitimate area for research as technology can get rid of all the fake results, all the dummy results. In my story, “Infinite Entanglement”, telepathy plays a big part in that story and it's coming down to this: if two electrons are paired, they always know- instantaneously- what the other one is doing, where it is and how it is. If two electrons can do that- and that is proved scientifically beyond doubt- then, if we're made of electrons, why wouldn't you, telepathically, be connected to the love of your life? Why wouldn''t you feel what that person you love intensely, why wouldn't you know what they are doing. That is the entanglement of two people far across the universe still being connected, entangled and the seeming infinity that there will never be a way for those two people to be physically close.
Fantastic and interesting stuff! A real quick question for you now: will there be a vinyl release of Endure and Survive. If so, when?
Yes! The test pressings have come back and they are all great. The mastering has been done by Ade who did the Maiden remasters. He has his own quirky way of doing things and he basically rebuilds the records for mastering. He did this amazing job where he did this special master for the vinyl. It's just awesome. Our first vinyl for “Infinite Entanglement”, there was a problem with the mastering so by the time we had sorted it, they had so much work on- because vinyl is now becoming more popular- we had missed that Christmas thing, but this one, you will be able to pre-order the “Endure and Survive” Vinyl. It will be just the same as the “Infinite Entanglement” vinyl with two discs, all the art work, big and beautiful! It's coming out very very soon. There will be an announcement by or before October and everybody will, if they want it, will be able to get it before Christmas. It'll be on my web shop.
Brilliant. I'm looking forward to it myself. I've got “Infinite Entanglement” on vinyl and I want to complete the set.
On a more personal note this time: I think it is fantastic that you play in places that are maybe more out of the ordinary for touring bands. Specifically, I want to mention Grimsby. It's my home town and I lived there until, well, I was old enough to move out! I ended up in Leeds, but I have lived down South as well. When I was growing up in Grimsby, Humberside, me and my friends that were into metal there would have found it absolutely unbelievable that any metal band would play there at all. There were no gigs. I know that now Grimsby has this venue, Yardbirds, can you tell me a bit about what it is like to play at Yardbirds and similar venues and what your love for it is?
Well, this is the story of being independent really. Blaze Bayley Recordingsis independent. All the licences I did years ago have all come back to me. All my CDs, everything I have done since Iron Maiden- apart from one live album- I own. It's all on my web shop. My fans buy from me directly and support me. Even though I am the record company, I'm tiny.
It's the same with venues. Yardbirds is a completely independent venue run by enthusiasts and they really don't care who you are: if they like you and you do well, if you play well; they will have you back. That's the same story as all the independent venues throughout the UK, the rest of Europe and the USA. Maybe 90% of the places I play are independent. You will almost never see Blaze Bayley at an O2 or somewhere like that. I always go to independent places. We work in a kind of partnership; we do our best. For me, there is absolutely no prestige attached to a particular city or venue. For me all the prestige is attached to the fan who bought the album and bought the ticket. Where are they? That's where I want to go! I don't want to go to London and everyone has to travel to see me, I want to go to where my fans are. Sometimes I go to London and play to my fans who are from London, but that's it. It's not just about the capital cities and all of that. I go to towns and if it's an independent venue run by independent people then I try to support them as much as they support me by having me at their venue.
Yardbirds is one of the best venues in the UK, from an independent point of view. You always get the most fantastic sound, great PA, great equipment and you are always treated very, very well. They can really show one or two venues around how it's done! We're always treated very well and I have been going there for years. It's fantastic and I always look forward to going there, no matter what day of the week it is. It will always be on my tour schedule; it's a phone call ' Can we come back?' 'Yep, OK what day do you want?' 'We're doing a tour...' Bang, it's done! It might already even be booked for next year! It's the independent venue for me; I really don't care about playing the Albert Hall. My goal- my dream- is to sell out Yardbirds and be able to play two nights there. To me, that is a huge success.
It is genuinely heart-warming to hear that, because not too many people say they are looking forward to going to Grimsby! Next time you play I will try to drive across and see you play there. I wanted to come in March, but we have a daughter who was only three months old at the time (she is six months now) and I couldn't get the time, the evening, to go. Next time I will try to drive across and show a little home town pride!
Blaze we are actually past the twenty minute mark now, have you got time for one more? (*Blaze's management allotted me twenty minutes for the interview)
Yeah. Yeah, you can have another couple!
In that case, I will cut to the chase: you are headlining the tenth anniversary of the SOS Festival in Manchester on Saturday 15th July. I'm going, I'm very much looking forward to it. Can you give us a glimmer of what to expect in the set list?
We're going to have a lot of “Endure and Survive” in the set list, a couple of Maiden ones and a Wolfsbane one as well. I'm really looking forward to the gig. It's the second time they have had the festival in the new venue but it is the first time I've been there. The acoustics and everything are loads better. All the facilities, so they tell me- they just might be trying to get me there!- but they tell me: the venue itself, the facilities, the acoustics are miles ahead of the old venue. I am very excited about it. It is gonna be one of the last UK gigs (this year). It's a big day for me and we have been all around Europe. It's going to be a kind of homecoming. We hope we play well and don't make too many mistakes.
There is going to be a free meet and greet afterwards and we hope to be meeting people and signing things. There has been the reissues of “The X Factor” and “Virtual XI”on vinyl and I have been signing those. People say: “Are you OK signing it?” Well, why not?! I sang on it and it's my songs which I sang on are on there and both albums sold over a million copies! Why wouldn't I be proud as anything to sign an album that I am on, that I wrote songs on and that has sold over a million copies? So if you have bought those albums or bought that vinyl, bring it and I'll sign it for you!
That's brilliant- no charging for meet and greets. That's nice.
The meet and greet is free. People have done enough. People have bought the ticket and got away from the telly! I don't think you can ask any more. In this world, I’m a tiny underground cult artist! In the music business I don't sell thousands and thousands or millions of records. I'm doing my own thing, I'm independent and I am very happy doing it! Why would I need or want to say to somebody that you can meet me but it'll cost you £35. It's not part of it for me, it's not me. It's not why I do it. For me, one of the reasons I am not part of that big machine is because when I was in Wolfsbane and even sometimes in Iron Maiden, I saw such a lack of respect for the fans that supported the band and some of the things that they were asked to buy as fans... their loyalty was put to the test again and again and never rewarded. I thought 'if I ever get my own thing together, that's it: the fan is number one.' That is what we try and do.
With everything we do, we try to do the best quality that we possibly can. We try to make our albums and our artwork just as good everybody else; as Disturbed, Iron Maiden, Sabaton... We do the best that we possibly can and give the best value that we possibly can. We feel that if a fan has bought the album, bought a ticket and come to the gig then you should be saying thank you and you should be grateful that someone who had a choice about what music they listen to has decided that your music is actually worthy of their support and that's how I feel about my fans. I am lucky to have any support at all. People who charge for their meet and greets- some give great value and you get a lot of stuff and a proper photo and its right for them. For me, it's not.
It's a nice ethos and a nice way of going about things. It's a great way of doing things and a great way to say thanks and for the fans to get something signed. We have now gone to nearly half an hour so I won't take up any more of your time! I really appreciate you doing the interview.
OK mate, I hope to see you at SOS and all the best to your little daughter.
I can't wait- one week to go! Thanks for that Blaze. I really appreciate it. All the best for your next record. You are a gent.
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