Nile

Death on the Nile was Agatha Christie's classic 1937 whodunit novel (by coincidence she would later pen At Bertram's Hotel...). She couldn't have known how apt the title would become, for the American band Nile now are one of death metal's brightest lights. And unlike her book, Nile don't use Egypt as a mere backdrop, preferring to situate their ridiculously technical extreme metal in that cradle of ancient civilization.

The Egyptology angle comes care of Nile founder and front man Karl Sanders, who is something of an amateur expert on the subject. Sanders (who co-formed the band in 1993) studies ancient texts and hieroglyphics to glean his lyrical themes. This thread has run throughout all four Nile albums, but reaches its zenith on the recent Annihilation of the Wicked (Relapse Records). Thematically, this is in the same realm as Iron Maiden’s genre-defining 1984 album Powerslave, which drew on Egyptian themes, and Iced Earth, who delve deeply into American and military history.

The lyrics, which otherwise could be mistaken for common-or-garden death metal cliché if you didn't know the back-story, are complimented by extensive sleeve notes. A taster -"'Cast Down the Heretic' concerns the Pharaoh Akhenaten, who ruled Egypt from 1379 to 1362 B.C. The son of Amenophis III and Tiye, Amenophis IV changed his name to Akhenaten (which most likely means 'Servant of the Aten') in Year 5 of his reign indicating his allegiance to Aten (a creator god symbolized by the sun's disc)."

And so on and so forth... potentially leaving you thinking that if you wanted a history lesson you'd go back and repeat the fifth form for a third time. On the other hand, Egypt is fucking interesting, and this is certainly more vivifying than the usual deathly utterances. That is, unintelligible grunts won't get you far in life (which is kind of the point, this being death metal and all), and it's good to see someone exploding the envelope.

Good to see, and better to hear, because it's musically that Nile really impress. Death metal has always been a musical form that has attracted technical virtuosity, but this is getting out of hand. Nile are simply insane, knowing no boundaries, and virtually erasing all that has come before by absorbing it and processing it in new and vital ways. They redefine the death genre in the same way that Morbid Angel did 15 odd years ago, breathing new life into a moribund idea.

When Nile were touring with Morbid Angel on the back of 1998's debut album Amongst The Catacombs Of Nephren-Ka, Karl Sanders claimed that his band played "every single note as if it were going to be our last, and give every bit of strength we have within us every time we play." This is still the case on Annihilation of the Wicked, an album that spirals through monumental shifts of brutality and beauty, intensity and calm, the artistic and the arcane.

Sanders, joined here by fellow guitarist/vocalist Dallas Toler-Wade and drumming superhuman George Kollias, integrates Middle Eastern modalities and instrumentation into Nile's music. This is not overt in a tokenistic, look-we're-all-world-music-now kind of way, but in subtle and appropriate ways. There's an undeniable symphonic aspect to Nile's sound, wrought from Sander's obsessive meddling with the musical structures.

Ultimately though Annihilation of the Wicked offers a vicious assault on the senses, Nile’s main weapons being unbridled speed and proficiency. The counterpoint guitar work is astounding, ranging from distended chugging riffs to hyper-speed arpeggiation, mental thrash-outs to whammy-bar whackery. Kollias’ blast beats and syncopation put him right up with the best extreme metal skins men.

Nile’s musicianship has seen them recognized by the cognoscenti of the underground music media, heralding the band as the saviors of the death metal world. Mention must also be made of producer Neil Kernon, who has done a sterling job of capturing Nile’s twisted mayhem with clarity and depth, no easy task with music this unrelenting.

And, as with all Relapse Records releases, the packaging is stunning. This is an aspect that many labels sadly ignore. Relapse always have fantastic artwork that fits with the overriding theme of the music within. While it’s obviously not the most important thing, even more so with the digital realm stealing market share from hard media, it’s good to see a label that indulge their artists creative impulses across the entire spectrum.

Which of course suits a band like Nile perfectly. They’ve been called the Iron Maiden of death metal, and they definitely have the same kind of combination of image and substance that Maiden had in their heyday. Which means if you’re into extreme metal of any kind, then you owe it to yourself to check out this album.


Top 5
The Hurt Process – A Heartbeat Behind
Kraftwerk – Minimum Maximum
Meshuggah – Catch 33
Autechre – Untilted
Rhythm and Sound – See Mi Yah

Classic:
Sugar - Beaster

Napalm Death

You know when you've been Napalmed. There's no other act on the planet like Napalm Death, and since their inception in Birmingham in the mid-1980s, their influence has marked the metal landscape like the black scar left by the flaming gas that is their namesake. They've spawned a legion of imitators, and their own family tree reads like a who's who of English metal of the late ‘80s and early ‘90s.

That's almost 20 years of raw aggression and fearless agitating. And over that period the band have lost little of their blinding intensity or commitment to the cause. While the recent album The Code Is Red...Long Live The Code doesn't have quite the same ground zero flash of their pioneering early recordings, it certainly kicks the asses of many of the bands younger peers. It's hard to believe in an era when retrospective navel gazing and sterile nostalgia are de rigueur, that a band of this age are still forging ahead on the same fuel that got them started.

Napalm Death's earliest albums, 1987's Scum and 1988's From Enslavement to Obliteration (both Earache Records) were insane speed fests that single handedly birthed the grindcore movement. They featured tracks that were but a few seconds long, with anything longer than a few minutes being a virtual epic. Like the Ramones, Hüsker Dü, or the Jesus and Mary Chain live, they knew that impact was everything. Armed with this, they bludgeoned their audiences into willing, ecstatic submission in short bursts of utter mayhem.

Members of Napalm Death during the early period went on to form such outfits as Cathedral (Lee Dorrian), Carcass (Bill Steer), Godflesh (Justin Broadrick, Nik Bullen), Scorn (Mick Harris). Harris, Broadrick and Bullen featured on the first side of Scum, while for the second, Harris was joined by Steer, Dorrian and Jim Whitely. The personnel changes continued into the early ‘90s, when the more secure line-up of bassist Shane Embury, vocalist Barney Greenway, drummer Danny Herrara, and guitarists Jesse Pintado and Mitch Harris.

This five-piece configuration recorded some classic albums during the mid-90s, such as Fear, Emptiness, Despair (1994) and Diatribes (1996). These not only refined the extreme left-wing socio-political polemic, but also broadened the sound palette, taking in more colours than sheer white noise. "We've been taking influences from everywhere, and using them to get a more mature sound," stated Shane Embury. "We're into what bands like Smashing Pumpkins and Jane's Addiction do with their songs, and we draw on that and just make it a lot heavier." This saw the band bring more variation into their music in terms of rhythm, tempo and texture, realising that strategic changes made the extremes appear more extreme.
Welding their trademark intensity to a richer sonic sensibility has seen Napalm Death remain a vital power in the metal scene, and they're now one of the scene’s elders, admired for their unbending commitment. The Code Is Red...Long Live The Code fits comfortably into this cannon, with such anthems as 'Pay For The Privilege of Breathing', 'Our Pain Is Their Power', and 'Instruments of Persuasion'.
Opener 'Silence Is Deafening' is a clarion call to any metal practitioners who have been complacently waiting for something to happen. All the signifiers are present - the guttural, lung-blasting vocals, incorrigible blastbeats, vicious distorted low end, and manic grind riffing giving way to canyon-esque grooves. Even with just one guitarist (Pintado is no longer around) the aural assault cannot fail to get the adrenaline going. And even though Napalm Death have been playing a similar tune for the better part of two decades, it still sounds fresh. Maybe that's because the original idea was so good, or maybe it's because most of their present day contemporaries struggle to keep up.
There are cameos from Jello Biafra (‘The Great and the Good’), Hatebreed’s Jamey Jasta (‘Instruments of Persuasion’, ‘Sold Short’), and Carcass vocalist Jeff Walker (‘Pledge Yourself to You’). Apart from Biafra these collaborations don’t really add much, but indicate the respect the band has.
A related project worth a listen is Bill Steer’s latest project, Firebird. Their latest opus, 2003’s No.3 (Steamhammer) is a world away from Napalm Death or Carcass, being firmly rooted in heavy 1970s blues, ala Black Sabbath and Blue Cheer, even Band of Gypsies. This is raw and authentic, the kind of nostalgia trip worth wallowing in.

Top 5
Comeback Kid – Wake The Dead
Fantômas – Suspended Animation
Throwdown - Vendetta
Guy Strazz – Passionfruit
Robert Plant – Mighty Rearranger

Classic
Jesus and Mary Chain – Automatic

Dark Tranquillity

Ex-Napalm Death and Carcass vocalist Bill Steer once said that "death metal died in 1990, and everyone in the ‘90s who claims they're playing death metal is lying or a loser". This may not be entirely true, but it’s clear the genre lost a lot of its early vitality around that time.

In the later ‘90s death was a virtually invisible movement, while the most extreme exponents of its cousins – grindcore and black metal - had a visible profile. Which is not to say that nothing was going on, just that it had become submerged after a few years on the surface thanks to the likes of Deicide, Entombed and Morbid Angel.

Like most extreme music forms, death metal fans are firmly committed, so it didn't bother them terribly when it again became an underground movement. And the music kept developing, stretching out in various directions. As a style that required phenomenal ability to execute well, some of these tentacles pushed the technical aspect to new heights.

One of these cells was in the Swedish city of Gothenburg. There was so much talent concentrated here that it spawned At the Gates, In Flames, Dark Tranquillity, and Arch Enemy, all very influential.

The more melodic deathly style pushed by the Gothenburg bands had a major impact on an emerging scene Stateside. The nascent metalcore movement borrowed heavily from the riffs of the so-called Gothencore acts, which is not such a bad thing, though a little unoriginal at times.

Dark Tranquillity's new album Character sees them progressing an ever more futuristic vision, while still adhering to their time honoured riffology. The juncture is a revelation, as the six-piece who formed in 1989 steer well clear of death metal cliché.

It was likely this cliché that led to death's unfortunate, um, demise in the late '90s, as the lyrical themes of rot and putrefaction, and musical crutches such as blast beats and death growls became boring and predictable.

Of course it was exactly these anti-social devices that made death so attractive to begin with, but if something stays still to long it becomes stagnant and chokes on the same juices that once made it vital. Which would be a fitting way to go for death metal.

But Dark Tranquillity and their Scandinavian brothers In Flames, Meshuggah and Soilwork kept things fresh. Character is up there with In Flames' Soundtrack To Your Escape, which came out early last year. Both are flagrantly progressive, using synth pads to flesh things out and add atmospheres. Riff wise though, Dark Tranquillity piss all over In Flames.

First track 'The New Build' is one fine example of this, while 'Lost To Apathy' is even better. It's easy to see why American acts such as Killswitch Engage or Lamb of God thought it was a good idea to use a bit of creative plagiarism. These riffs are at once chunky and fluid, aggressive and melodic, and lay foundations for some of the best metal songs of last year. There's an immediacy that's been missing from all but the best classically influenced metal of late.

There are those, however, who stuck with the original template, as defined by that online fount of all knowledge Wikipedia: 'Death metal is usually identified by extreme brutality, intensity and speed.'

Aye, and English label Earache has long had many acts of that ilk on its stable. In the last few months they've released albums from Lost Soul, Exmortem and Blood Red Throne.

The latter, Altered Genesis, is the best, featuring guitarist Tchort (once of Emperor, now with Carpathian Forest). It's an intense and brutal album, a must buy for those card-carrying life members of the death metal fraternity. It references death's golden era in the late '80s/early '90s, and updates it without stretching the genre definition into difficult territory. If you live for blast beats and death growls, this is for you.

Lost Soul's Chaostream is in the same realm, though not as assured. The Polish act makes up for that in pure aggression, ridiculous speed and unexpected turns. This is malevolent death metal on a lethal cocktail of steroids and amphetamines, a great hairy beast of an album, though it's not quality through and through.

Neither is the Exmortem offering Nihilistic Contentment. But then, with an album title like that, you wouldn't really expect it to be. They are loyal disciples of the old death paradigm, though they'd probably kill me for calling them disciples. Oh well.

After the far more interesting strains of Dark Tranquillity and Blood Red Throne this is just boring. Like, you'd want to move along a little bit over a ten-year period. This is the death metal equivalent of the radio station that plays 'Stairway to Heaven' 24/7. I can live without both of those things.

Converge

Metal and hardcore often get a bad rap from people who have no understanding of the music. A common misconception is that extreme heavy music is made by misguided angry young men for fellow misguided angry young men. There's an element of truth I guess, if only in that there seem to be few angry young women involved - but that's another subject entirely. Sure, the angry young men bit may fit, albeit awkwardly, but misguided? I don't think so.

Your more moronic strands may cater to a largely unthinking, slavish demographic (Slipknot anyone?) but that's generally just corporate nonsense. There's plenty more out there, with focused agendas, who have been chipping away at the edges of the great monolith of heavy music cliché. Acts with the same kind of integrity and fearlessness that staunch independents such as Fugazi have long preached.

Converge is one of these acts. It's a name that has been mentioned on the fringes of the heavy music world for a while now, but since the likes of Dillinger Escape Plan started talking them up, Converge have been gathering momentum. Like Dillinger they're a band words will not do justice to, but here goes...

Some bands use the techniques, the machinery of heavy music in an artificial manner. A heavy riff becomes a pop hook, distorted bass becomes a confection, death vocals are a clichéd and mannered affectation. Clearly what is missing is some sort of connection to the music, a life or death commitment to putting every fibre of ones being to work in order to communicate directly from the soul. This, after all, is the purpose of art. It's just rare that any sort of art, including music, actually achieves it.

And that's why I think some people misunderstand when they hear music like Converge through ignorant ears. That because it sounds angry, then these must be angry fellas. They mistake intensity and a sometimes overly earnest need to communicate it with pure malevolent rage. But, like anything, if you don't have the context with which to understand something then you haven't got a chance.

Like the aforementioned Dillinger, and the now split Coalesce, Converge polarise opinion utterly. As others have observed, the 'either love 'em or hate 'em' tag applies to these acts like no other. That's a good thing I reckon, as it's often those acts that push things forward, snapping others out of their complacent reverie as they happily and carelessly kick down convention in the name of artistic expression.

Converge achieve this with aplomb on their latest (and fourth) album, You Fail Me, released on ex-Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz' Epitaph label. It's an awesomely heart rending album, from the brief instrumental intro 'First Light' through the final, tempestuous bars of 'Hanging Moon'. What falls between is an emotional journey that will test your limits of endurance, as the Boston four piece constantly confound with their unbelievable compositions and unbending focus.

It's the kind of thing that comes from years of playing together (they formed in the early 1990s), slowly shedding outside influence as a unique sound is developed. Even more so than most vocalists, founding member Jacob Bannon is central to proceedings. His paint stripping utterings evoke all the heartache and agony of someone who feels too much. But, as Bannon has said, it is also redemptive music.

"These are our songs of failure - how we fail each other and how we fail ourselves. It's about standing up and taking responsibility. It's about facing that demon. It's about putting the practice of living in front of the act of dying every day. It's about surviving."

This message is communicated most directly on the title track, an unbelievably cathartic and crushing track. Around the halfway point, it begins to build a simple repeated refrain. This ascends in intensity until the pressure is almost unbearable. Guitarist Kurt Ballou contributes to this with slight changes in accent, while the rhythm section of Nate Newton (bass) and Ben Koller (drums) maintain a leaden rhythm. There's not a lot of heavy music around that goes this deep.

Another highlight is the similarly scarifying 'Last Light', in which Bannon implores 'Keep breathing, keep living, keep searching, keep pushing on, keep bleeding, keep healing, keep fading, keep shining on, this is for the hearts still beating'. A different sort of anthem, about gaining faith and holding onto it, it could well be Converge's theme song.

You Fail Me is a challenge, but it will reward you. As Brian Eno once said about Miles Davis' 1970's work, "It's faith music. If you believe in it, I'm sure it will work."

Gavin Bertram.

Kiwi Metal

The only exhaustive book about New Zealand music, John Dix's 1987 tome Stranded In Paradise, had this to say about the local metal scene:

"Someone out there may like to write a book on New Zealand heavy metal, but not me, sports, that's for sure. Music for mutants, headbangers to the fore and braincells aft. Recycling the same tired clichés, no New Zealand HM band has surfaced to add anything to a genre that had all but thankfully dies by the mid-'70s."

Really? No one told me... but yeah, while those comments may be a little too broad, and more than a little ignorant, indigenous metal hadn't come of age in the 1980s. Bands of that era - Strikemaster, Stormbringer, Hammerack, Tokyo, Knightshade - didn't do a lot to inspire much faith in the local scene.

It wasn't until the early 1990s that things began to get interesting. When bands started being influenced by a broader palette of sounds - industrial, underground indie stuff, hardcore, and Seattle bands, rather than Iron Maiden, AC/DC, or Def Leppard. Murray Cammick's Wildside label was home to many of these, including of course Shihad and Head Like a Hole. Both of these were signed in Europe to Noise Records, an arrangement that neither party benefited from, due to the German label's narrow-minded metal focus. Nevertheless, it created a precedent that other New Zealand acts have followed.

In the mid-90's I wrote a monthly column about the New Zealand metal scene for Australian magazine HM. At that time a slew of young bands were appearing, scattered around the country in small towns such as Kaikoura and Cambridge, as well as the main centres. It was apparent then that mimicking overseas flavours was no longer seen to be a primary consideration.

Now, in the wake of Blindspott and 8 Foot Sativa there’s a flood of metal talent emerging. Some of these bands have been around for years, which is why I use the word 'emerging' rather than 'new'. Subtract, Dawn of Azazel, Malevolence and Six Day War have all made inroads, in some cases internationally.

Paul Martin is a veteran of the New Zealand metal scene, and has tirelessly worked to promote it for 15 or more years. His Axe Attack radio show has grown from a Hamilton only show to being a national entity. Add to that his involvement as guitarist in Knightshade and Blackjack, and he’s a local metal icon.

The Axe Attack New Zealand Metal Vol.1 (Intergalactic) is a compilation of the local music Martin plays on his show, and it's a fine if varied collection. It spans both islands and many genres over 16 tracks, and the quality is of a generally high standard.

Personal highlights include Saidaya's blistering, agressive ‘God's Crime’, Dawn of Azazel's insane slab of black mayhem ‘Triumph Under Equinox', and Christchurch's polyrhythmic weirdos Cripple Mr Onion. Then there's Subtract, Malevolence, Shaikhan and Six Day War, all with strong cuts. Not everything is to my taste, resorting to those clichés that turned Dix off. But if this is an indication as to where NZ metal is now, he'll have to come up with something more substantial to say if the rumours of a revised edition of Stranded hold any truth.

Certainly he'd have to dedicate some space to 8 Foot Sativa. The West Auckland four-piece, who replace vocalist Justin Niessen with Matt Sheppard on their new album Breed the Pain (Intergalactic), offer fairly good odds of becoming one of this countries biggest metal exports. Admittedly, this wouldn't be too hard. These boys have the goods and are ridiculously dedicated so could go a lot further than just selling a few discs across the Tasman.

Having not been blown away by their previous two albums, I didn't expect miracles from Breed The Pain. Yet it is a minor one, comparing favourably with the band’s overseas contemporaries. Particularly deserving of commendation are the sound and the songs. It's a major step up recording wise, as the band went to Pelle Saether's Studio Underground in Vasteras, Sweden. And the songs are simply better, with awesome hooks, great riffing and no dull digressions. It's straight for the jugular, focused aggression, with a surprising amount of melodic interest.

Matt Sheppard, who joins his drummer brother Sam in the band, is a worthy addition. His death growl is something to behold, he obviously has a phenomenal amount of energy, and his range is such that he adds a lot of colour to these songs. Add to this the faultless playing of guitarist Gary Smith, bassist Brent Fox and the other Sheppard, and Breed The Pain is a great start to the New Zealand album release schedule for 2005.

Justin Broadrick

Godflesh/Jesu



"I'm not interested in making it big, I can't understand that agenda. I'm just interested in brutalising people." So said Justin Broadrick in 1999, ten years after the debut Godflesh album Streetcleaner (Earache) dropped like a thermonuclear device on the heavy music world.

A founding member of Birmingham's pioneering grind act Napalm Death, Broadrick has now been relentlessly pursuing his agenda of brutalisation for over twenty years now. His crusade has seen him release music under many guises -Ice, Final, Techno Animal, The Sidewinder, Godflesh, and now Jesu. It's been a long, difficult road for Broadrick, one of extreme music's true mavericks, and arguably, geniuses. His singular vision has been monumentally influential, though more through subterfuge than any overt manner. There can be no question that his back catalogue charts the history of one of underground music's most focused individuals.

The Godflesh story ended in 2002, when Broadrick suffered a near nervous breakdown with a Stateside tour in support of that year's Hymns (Music For Nations) album looming. After that album, his long time loyal lieutenant, bassist G Christian Green had left the band, unable to contemplate any more touring. It was a sad end for a much loved band, but out of the ashes Broadrick has salvaged his vision, and after a brief hiatus is looking as productive as ever.

Like fellow Napalm Death member Mick Harris, Broadrick left that band as he wanted to pursue an individual musical ideal. While Harris's Scorn delved into dark ambience and dub techniques, Godflesh went in another direction, implementing guitars as the bluntest of instruments. Where his previous band had been about insane speed, Broadrick brought the tempo down, while paradoxically upping the intensity.

Utilising the rigid, militaristic rhythms of drum machines and Green's caustic, pummelling bass as the most solid of foundations, Broadrick's scything, scarifying guitar work was the polar opposite of the prevailing heavy music paradigm of 1989. He eschewed the virtuoso techniques of the day in favour of the simplest, most direct route he could find - two chord riffs, dissonant open chords, screaming harmonics, torturous feedback. Yet it all exhibited consummate good taste, so much so that Broadrick started appearing in technical magazines such as Guitar Player.

"The sound I respect most these days is held by the classic death metal bands," he told that publication in 1992. "I really respect that dense, thick distortion with a fizzy top. I don't hear anything else in any genre of music with that sort of power."

The impact of Streetcleaner - a truly classic album - was so broad that Godflesh were revered in many underground circles that would normally eschew acts with metal genealogy. Due to the uncompromising nature of their sound, and perhaps the use of drum machines, they were bracketed with The Swans, and Steve Albini's Big Black. Perversely, Metallica's guitar maestro Kirk Hammett could also be heard singing Broadrick's praises.

Over the prevailing years, the Godflesh aesthetic remained much the same, though the production improved markedly as the band made the leap from their trusty 8-track tape machine into the digital domain. Later albums such as Songs of Love and Hate or Us and Them delved into drum'n'bass breaks, heavily treated guitars and samples. Not surprisingly, due to Broadrick's other projects, Songs Of Love and Hate was remixed as Love and Hate in Dub. Following this idea, some shows were performed as the Godflesh Sound System, with no live guitars.

These changes reflected Broadrick's outside interests - the nasty hip-hop/breaks of his duo with Kevin Martin, Techno Animal (whose 1991 album Ghosts was a seminal influence on Kid 606), the deadly D'n'B of Tech Level 2 and the 'isolationist' ambience of Final. Of the last project he said, "Multi-tracking improvised pieces is ultra-fascinating because you're creating as you play, as opposed to executing a set of riffs or parts. I'm getting more into making miniature sounds seem really big. It's an interesting area to explore."

Now that he doesn't have the Godflesh albatross around his neck, Broadrick has been able to meld a lot of these ideas together with his new solo guitar orientated project Jesu. The first fruits of this was the Heart Ache EP (Dry Run Records), released a couple of months ago. This behemoth features two twenty minute long tracks -'Heart Ache' and 'Ruined'.

Both of these weave through dizzying levels of mood and intensity, encompassing the trademark distorted guitar work - and some acoustic, Broadrick's contradictory harsh/harmonic vocals, bleak ambience, and many of the unique ideas he has been lauded for previously.

The EP will take some tracking down, but a full-length album on Hydra Head records is due anytime soon. And if the EP is anything to go by, it will be right up there with the best releases from Broadrick's extensive and eclectic library of past classics.

Earache Records

"You've got to have a reason to be on Earache," label founder Digby Pearson told me in 1996. "It has to be uncompromising, and fuckin' blow people's minds basically." I was involved in an Earache Record's special on Wellington's Radio Active, and had hurriedly organised an interview with Pearson an hour before going to air.

This was impressive as most bosses of his stature would have been inaccessible, bloated on ego and the trappings of success. Not Pearson though. He happily talked about his label amidst a barrage of the best music he had released over the previous decade, including Napalm Death, Godflesh, Scorn, Carcass, Morbid Angel, Fudge Tunnel and Entombed.

Pearson started Earache in his Nottingham, England bedroom in 1986, having come up through hardcore punk as a promoter and writer. His first few releases for Napalm Death, Heresy and Carcass filled a gap in the burgeoning extreme music market, and the label took off. Until the late 1990s the Earache catalogue featured many of the most groundbreaking extreme heavy acts on the planet, only rivalled by the likes of Relapse, Roadrunner and Music for Nations.

The Earache stable defined grindcore (Napalm Death, Anal Cunt), industrial metal (Godflesh, Pitchshifter), doom metal (Cathedral, Sleep), and death (Carcass, Entombed). But Pearson’s progressive A&R policy saw all manner of anomalies represented on the label.

Amongst these were the dark ambient dub of ex-Napalm Death drummer Mick Harris (Scorn), the dub-metal crossover of Dub War, the weird metal/electronics of New York's OLD, and in the mid-nineties a few of the nastiest gabba artists (Ultraviolence, DOA, Extreme Noise Terror).

This policy of signing the newest, most extreme acts kept the label vital. When this ceased to the case, and long standing disputes saw the departure of some of their oldest acts, Earache's star began to dim. For the last few years they've been off the radar, but a stable of new artists has injected new life into the once unstoppable label.

Foremost amongst these is Cult of Luna, hailing from Umea in the north of Sweden - the same town to spawn Meshuggah and Refused. This six piece pride themselves on their individuality and the pursuit of a unique sound. That said, they are reminiscent of Australia's Alchemist, due mainly to their dense structures and overtly psychotropic vibe.

This is enhanced by the use of keyboards and samples, deepening the sonic palette. Having grown out of the hardcore act Eclipse, vocalist Klas Rydberg and guitarist Johannes Persson pursued a darker, more cathartic experience, releasing their first album in 2001, and then a 7" on Hydra Head Records in early 2002. Consequently they signed to Earache, and released their first album The Beyond in 2003.

Now they've released Salvation, and it's a classic in the making. First track 'Echoes' steals its title and introduction from Pink Floyd, but it is a poison chalice. At five minutes the heavy guitars enter, and the idyllic aural landscape is shattered forever. Here on in it's an intense journey that weaves and winds through the chasms of the mind attempting to reach that state that the album title alludes to.

Like Neurosis these boys know a thing or two about the implementation of extreme dynamics. Giving themselves the space to explore these extremes within a song can make for a gruelling experience, but that's no bad thing. This Cult of Luna is one to join for sure.

Another of the Earache stable is Mortiis, an 'artistic creation' from Norway who has assumed the persona of a troll-like character. Another who is all for individuality, Mortiis says, "People make presumptuous comments and conclusions about me, when they've never even talked to me. See I'm really strong against prejudice and I don't see how people can judge people they don't know".

While his image may be the logical extension of the Alice Cooper/Marilyn Manson paradigm, Mortiis’ The Grudge is something else. Drawing on Skinny Puppy, NIN and extreme ambience, his is a bleak and misanthropic outlook, and all the more captivating for it. This is where the image/substance interface becomes blurred, the two totally inseparable, like Bowie circa Ziggy Stardust, the aforementioned Cooper and Manson, or any number of corpse painted black metallers. The music is interesting, though somewhat caught in the Skinny Puppy mould.

Then there’s Insision (sic). This Swedish act determines that “Foul smelling and festering, death metal should always provoke revulsion in the sane.” Fair enough. After all, the genre has always walked the boundaries of sanity, inciting controversy. It is incongruous that it should become acceptable. Insision revisit the spirit of the genre’s pioneers on their Revealed and Worshipped album. They claim to have discarded melody, yet their riffs hook into your subconscious and refuse to let go. The dual guitar work is impressive to say the least, while those death fundamentals blastbeats and feral growled vocals are present and correct.

Earache is back in capable hands then, after a few years in the wilderness. And Pearson’s dictum about blowing minds still stands.


5 albums:
Shadows Fall – The War Within (Century Media)
Atreyu – The Curse (Victory Records)
Bob Dylan – Chronicles read by Sean Penn (Simon & Schuster)
Studio One – Dub (Soul Jazz)
East Flatbush Project – Tried by 12 (Ninja Tunes)

Classic:
Faith No More – The Real Thing (Slash)

Alchemist and Atomizer

Our peculiar neighbours across the Tasman have long nurtured a healthy metal scene, yet few of their acts have managed to make much of a dent internationally. Mortal Sin, Sadistik Exekution, Allegience, and, um, the Screaming Jets come to mind, but who could consider any of them a palatable proposition? It's a situation similar to New Zealand, where making the leap to international audiences becomes an insurmountable barrier. This leave bands perpetually stuck circulating around the same venues, slowly wearing out their welcome.

Certainly the talent is there, and interest has been mounting internationally for a number of the less derivative acts the Australian scene has produced. Two in particular who have paid their dues in the beer barns of suburban Ockerland are Alchemist and Atomizer. Both these bands have been in existence for long periods, and have released multiple albums to local acclaim and hesitant international interest.

Canberra's Alchemist first recorded demos in 1990, releasing their first album Jar of Kingdom in 1993. This album (originally released by Austrian label Lethal, since re-released by Shock Records in Australia) was the first indication of the four piece's ability to cross-pollinate their divergent influences in a fluent manner. Drawing from various extreme metal idioms along with prog and psychedelic rock, Alchemist catalysed these sounds into something that carried their stamp of individuality. Through a series of improving albums they have gained the respect of the international metal community, and so it was no surprise when American extreme label Relapse Records sought them out to release 2001's Organasm. Relapse, who have within their stable Neurosis, Brutal Truth and Amorphis, are the perfect home for Alchemist, who would not fit comfortably into most metal label's roster.

While the 'stoner rock' sub-genre bows down to the bong, the chalice from which Alchemist sip contains an altogether more powerful substance. Their latest album release, last year's Austral Alien, is drenched in the residue of hallucinogenic experimentation. If that suggests gratuitous weirdness or indulgent instrumental freak-out, the truth is very different. This is a band, afterall, whose past is rooted in the likes of Celtic Frost, Slayer and Autopsy. While they can be as brutally punishing as any of those acts, Atomizer possess the ability to ice even their heaviest tracks with musical finesse, which along with polished production, embues Austral Alien with a subliminal lysergic vibe.

At times the fusion of musical ideas hints at a prog-rockish tendency, but this is always brought into line by crushing riffs, the immovable solidness of the rhythm section, and vocalist Adam Agius' prowess, which spans the seldom crossed abyss between death metal growling and harmonious singing. The psychedelic side of Alchemist is most evident in the keyboard textures, studio effects, and snaking eastern influenced guitar figures. This somewhat unlikely sounding hybrid is a unique entity in the metal world for sure, the result of a long journey away from the leather/testosterone cliche cul-de-sac that was metal when these boys started out.

Perhaps even weirder is the theme of Austral Alien, which could see it branded as some sort of latter day concept excursion. It seems Alchemist are environmentally conscious, which is something of an oxymoron in the apocolypse obsessed metal domain. In that light though, perhaps it's not so stange that this album is lyrically about the damage wreaked on the Earth by humankind, and the fact that future generations will inherit the results of our mistakes. This is most poignant on 'Grief Barrier', an ode to the slowly dying Great Barrier Reef, raped by the tourist industry and damaged by pollution. Then there's 'Great Southern Wasteland', which is not a reworking of the old Icehouse 'classic', rather a meditation on the the appalling consequences wrought by early atomic tests in the outback and by modern mining techniques. All up, some pretty heavy material from a band capable of some of the most progressive sounds in modern metal.

Hailing from Melbourne, Atomizer are another proposition altogether. Rather than repel, they revel in the time honoured cliches of traditional heavy metal, with, one hopes, a sturdy sense of irony. Sometimes it's hard to tell. But releasing precisely 666 vinyl copies of their new album, The Only Weapon of Choice (Agonia Records, through Lycanthropic Fervour Records in New Zealand) would suggest a well-honed sense of humour at play here. Even funnier than that though, is the fact an early live demo was released as a limited edition of 66, because Atomizer weren't ambitious to go the whole deal!

The Only Weapon of Choice is Atomizer's third full-length, though their back catalog is fleshed out by a plethora of collectible seven inch singles and picture discs, released through a series of European metal labels. It is a continuation of the well-trodden ground they malevolently stomped over with 2000's The End of Forever (Devil's Own Records) and 2002's Death-Mutation-Disease-Annihilation (Drakkar Productions). Atomizer's classical metal postures are balanced out by a healthy dose of thrash and black metal power, as witnessed by those few who ventured out to catch them on their tours of New Zealand in 2000 and 2002.

Frontman/bassist/founder Jason Healey encapsulates the spirit of Atomizer in terms of conviction and attitude. On stage he is the studied image of Motorhead's Lemmy, including the head held back stance and the Rickenbaker bass. There's definitely some of the Motorhead spirit to be found in the raw energy and utter determination that Healey and drummer Suds exhibit. They have now been joined by guitarist Rick Withoos following the departure of the two axemen who played on The Only Weapon of Choice. After 18 months of work, it's by far the most polished entry in their cannon, and with better distribution through Agonia, may well reach a well deserved wider audience. Such tracks as 'When I Die I Wanna Die Violently' and ‘The War That Never Ended’ lay down the Atomizer manifesto in no uncertain terms - killer riffing and amphetamine fuelled rock'n'roll energy aimed squarely at the ears of the terminally metal thrashing mad.

Nailbomb

Side-projects are rarely worth the tape they are recorded on. More often than not they are the vanity projects of disgruntled band members trying to prove they are undervalued in their day job. Nailbomb's Point Blank (originally released by Roadrunner in 1994 and recently reissued in a remastered edition) was not one of these. This was a collaboration of two band leaders indulging their love of music styles which couldn't be expressed through their fulltime occupations.

In 1993 Nottingham three piece Fudge Tunnel had supported Sepultura on their European tour. The English band had achieved moderate success, releasing the Big Black-influenced Hate Songs in E-Minor and Creep Diets on their home town's extreme label, Earache. Guitarist/vocalist Alex Newport met and married the daughter of Sepultura frontman Max Cavalera's wife, and relocated to Phoenix, Arizona. Sepultura had moved there when they signed to Roadrunner Records in the States. Having released 1991's Arise and 1993's Chaos AD on the label Sepultura's fortunes were ascendant, yet Cavalera was a man filled with vitriol.

Newport knew no one in the States, and so he hung out with Cavalera, and the two soon discovered they many musical interests in common. And so was birthed the Nailbomb project, with the manifesto "to make the fucking heaviest album ever." While they may not have achieved this goal, Cavalera nd Newport certainly created one of the angriest, most aggressive albums of the nineties. Point Blank was a misanthropist's gospel, a collection of tunes so drenched in blind hate that it threatened to overshadow both of their real bands.

While both Fudge Tunnel and Sepultura flirted with hardcore punk, neither had fully embraced it, preferring metal bombast over hardcore's barely controlled antagonism. Nailbomb drew on the metal-hardcore crossover rendered by the likes of Helmet, Discharge, Cro-mags and DRI, along with ideas drawn from the industrial metal of Godflesh, Ministry and Front Line Assembly.

The studio project, recorded at Cavalera's house and at Chaton Studio's in Arizona over a month in 1994, distilled all these brutal influences into an even more uncompromising proposition. From the cover photo - an image of a female Viet Cong suspect being interrogated with a US M16 to her temple entitled 'Point Blank Persuasion', there were no concessions made to commercial mass appeal. This was further borne out in the track titles - 'World of Shit', 'Religious Cancer', '24 Hour Bullshit' and 'Shit Pinata'.

Cavalera had long engendered an embittered, hostile attitude which had made him one of the most imposing and intense on stage presences in metal circles. Newport, on the other hand, had once ben described as being "as threatening as a plastic duck", and so it was some surprise that the Nailbomb partnership was a fifty-fifty equation. In an interview at the time he stated that "I care about people. While I haven't had a particularly hard life, there's still plenty wrong with the world to make a person angry".

Cavalera is credited with 'insults, guitars, bass, goner, samples', while Newport 'mouthful of hate, guitars, bass, negativity, samples'. He also produced the album, having blundered his way around the studio to produce Creep Diets. While there are certainly shadows of both Fudge Tunnel and Sepultura present, the collaboration is most compelling when both are in no-mans land. As guitarists they are entirely different in both style and sound, Cavalera's tight metal riffing the perfect foil to Newport's colossally bludgeoning and economic style, which is very reminiscent of Helmet.

The emphasis is totally on intensity here, with no fat whatsoever. Cavalera was the man, after all, who only had four strings on his guitar so he wasn't tempted to fiddle about with lead parts. The few fiddly guitar bits on Point Blank are handled by Cavalera's Sepultura cohort Andreas Kisser, and there are also guitar contributions from Fear Factory's Dino Cazeres, and Cavalera's stepson Ritchie Cavalera. Sepultura drummer (Cavalera's brother) Igor plays on six tracks, the rest implementing samples and drum machines in the rhythm department.

"My idea was to have more of a hardcore project with samples," says Cavalera in the album notes. "The industrial thing was more of Alex's idea...I wanted to be careful of how much we went with that." Predictably, the drum machine and sample tracks are the best here, both musicians responding to the unrelenting rhythmic assault with the enthusiasm of the newly converted. Samples include spoken word, washing machine and automobile abuse (?!), and weird ambience. These are used judiciously, woven into the tracks such as on 'World of Shit' where the repeated statement "hate is reality" becomes part of the rhythm, a counterpoint to Newport's riff. This, along with 'Va Toma No Cu' and 'While You Sleep, I Destroy Your World' are some of the standouts on Point Blank, unquestionably standing up to full-time industrial metal acts like Ministry and Godflesh.

Nailbomb was conceived as a one off project that would play a handful of shows, but not tour. In June 1995 they played at Holland's massive metal festival, Dynamo. This performance, with a band including Igor Cavalera, Front Line Assmbly's Rhys Fulber and Neurosis' Dave Edwardson, was recorded and released as Nailbomb's swansong. Entitled Proud to Commit Commercial Suicide it included most tracks from Point Blank, along with a cover of the Dead Kennedy's 'Police Truck' which featured the DK's D.H. Peligro on drums. This along with five other bonus tracks are included on the reissue.

Since Nailbomb, Cavalera left Sepultura to form Soulfly (whose forth album Prophecy is just out). Newport disbanded Fudge Tunnel not long after this project, and has continued working as a producer, including recording demos for System of a Down, At The Drive In, and The Melvins. He is currently playing in a three piece called Theory of Ruin who sound a lot like Big Black...

New Wave of British Heavy Metal

It was 25 years ago today... and while the ridiculously titled New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) didn't create the same impact as Sergeant Peppers, it has certainly left an indelible mark on heavy music since. The late 1970s wave of British metal acts, including Iron Maiden, Diamond Head, Angel Witch, Def Leppard, Venom and Blitzkrieg, influenced in no uncertain way thrash, death and black metal. In fact, Metallica were so enamoured of the movement that they practically created a parallel career covering many tracks by these acts - tracks which otherwise may have slipped into total obscurity.

To mark the 25th anniversary of the coining of the NWOBHM term, English magazine Record Collector included a feature in its April issue. Focusing on a handful of the main acts, also present was a piece by Geoff Barton, a journalist who was instrumental in bringing the movement into the public spotlight. Barton worked for the defunct Sounds magazine, whose editor Big Al Lewis is credited with the creation of the NWOBHM moniker. The story, carried in the May 19, 1979 issue, centred on Barton's attendance at an Iron Maiden, Angel Witch and Samson gig at London's Music Machine venue.

At this time punk was in its decline, but had wreaked much damage. It had effectively washed away the early seventies metal acts, who were perhaps rightfully viewed as one of punks many enemies. Metal's mid-seventies excesses - Led Zep's The Song Remains the Same being the zenith - had seen it become a flatulent parody of the lean and mean heavy blues it had once been. Led Zep, Deep Purple and Black Sabbath were demi-gods Stateside, but had lost all relevance at home, where punk's year zero regime had a no tolerance attitude towards the past.

In the wake of the seventies dinosaurs had come the no nonsense distorted rock'n'roll of Motorhead and Judas Priest - two distinctly different acts who could be viewed as the older brothers of NWOBHM. The new acts tapped into this vein of purist heavy metal, and injected into it a dose of punk's attitude - both musically and in the approach to getting things done. If record companies wouldn't release their albums, they'd do it themselves, if venues wouldn't have them, they'd set up and promote their own shows. In this respect, the new wave was driven by youth, energy and naive ambition. And a rabid belief in heavy metal as not just a musical style, but as a self-perpetuating, almost transcendent lifestyle choice.

It's this trait that can be found throughout the universe of acts directly or indirectly influenced by NWOBHM. From Metallica, Exodus, Slayer and Megadeth in the States, to Kreator, Sodom, Hellhammer and Destruction in Germany, metal has been preached as a faith, a world within a world, a self-supporting microcosm. Well, that and a good excuse to wear denim and leather. But then, as far as rock'n'roll fashion goes, that's about as street-level honest as it gets. Certainly, unlike punk, the NWOBHM didn't concern itself with image. While its unwitting biker chic, occult role-playing and nihilistic outlook made it ripe for parody (Spinal Tap, Bad News) it's a genre entirely unaffected by trend.

So why has the legacy of the NWOBHM been so far reaching? Possibly because it re-introduced the elements that had made the original heavy metal acts like Sabbath so compelling - raw aggression married to technical ability, unbridled confidence, an uncompromising rock'n'roll outsider attitude, and a gang-like self-sufficiency that the working classes could relate to. Take the case of Metallica.

Drummer Lars Ulrich was so obsessed with the NWOBHM bands that he went and stayed with Diamond Head to soak up the scene. Metallica went on to cover four tracks by that band -'Am I Evil?', 'The Prince', 'Sucking My Love' and 'Helpless' - all stone cold classics. Metallica also covered material from Holocaust, Savage, Blitzkrieg, and Sweet Savage. Ulrich's interest in the genre has seen him contribute sleevenotes to re-issues, such as the Diamond Head compilation Behold the Beginning. "Diamond Head's way of creating music, with that heavy emphasis on songwriting, hard riffs, structures and tempo changing was a big influence in the early days of the band I'm in."

While the more melodic, classic rock approach of Def Leppard and Saxon saw them become platinum acts, it was the likes of Venom and Iron Maiden who proved most influential. Venom were a massive influence on thrash, death and black metal in Europe and North America, both in terms of general satan worshipping imagery and balls-to-the-wall musical mayhem. This seemed to be a manifestation of all the religious right's worst nightmares come true, the very definition of metal excess, and therefore the spiritual godfather of a million bands to come. As Geoff Barton's Record Collector piece notes, one wily scribe paraphrased a popular catchphrase of the time, saying "Home taping is killing music. And so are Venom." For those that remember Comic Strip's brilliant metal parody Bad News, specifically when Nigel Planer's character sulkily refuses to get into the van because Adrian Edmondson's frontman character has said that the band is not metal, here's the original from Venom's Cronos: "That's when I said that Venom were not heavy metal, we were much more than that..."

Iron Maiden, on the other hand, continue to roll along as the multi-national juggernaut they have been since the mid-eighties. Their first two albums (Iron Maiden and Killers) with vocalist Paul Di'Anno are amongst the strongest statements from the entire NWOBHM pantheon. Di'Anno's gritty street tales and no bullshit persona combined with the hard-edged melodic metal primarily conceived by Maiden founder Steve Harris instantly gained the band a feverish fan base. This soon spread across the globe, especially after ex-Samson vocalist Bruce Dickinson replaced Di'Anno to record 1982's classic The Number of the Beast. Few metal acts since have emulated Iron Maiden's longevity and singularity of purpose. Ironically, Metallica looked like the rightful inheritors of the mantle until the wheels fell off circa 1991, when they abandoned their NWOBHM roots in favour of cod-American hard rock, thanks to one Bob Rock.

The New Wave of British Heavy Metal's influence spread through the metal world like a virus, giving it a refreshing shot of vitality at a time when it most needed it. Its dark but benevolent shadow hung over the metal world until the mid-nineties, when a nu type of supposed metal emerged, a pale, fraudulent movement with none of the proletarian substance that the NWOBHM engendered in its offspring. As Marcel Schirmer from German thrash band Destruction says of the movement, "The energy and the non-conformity makes me resistant against our boring society...metal is more than just music - it's a fuckin' lifestyle."

Ten New Wave of British Heavy Metal Albums to start with:
Angel Witch - Angel Witch (Essential)
Def Leppard - On Through The Night (Polygram)
Diamond Head - Lightning To The Nations (Castle)
Iron Maiden - Killers (EMI)
Raven - Rock Until You Drop (Castle)
Samson - Survivors (Sanctuary)
Savage - Loose'n Lethal (Neat)
Saxon - Wheels of Steel (EMI)
Tank - Filth Hounds of Hades (Repertoire)
Venom - Black Metal (Sanctuary)

Candiria

The Nietzschen saying about that which does not kill you only making you stronger has particular resonance for New York five piece Candiria. Named after a life-changing event that occurred on 9 September 2002, their forthcoming album What Doesn’t Kill You…(Type A Records) is testament to the devotion of a band many fans presumed were finished. For on that day the band’s tour van was involved in a horrendous accident that left every member seriously injured, and requiring months of physical therapy to recover.

A lesser band would have given it away – left to fight yet more adversity after struggling for years. But Candiria’s positivism had been one of their strengths since their inception in 1992, and it gave them the strength to overcome this new challenge. “We lived through this and we wanted to do something different,” says bassist Michael MacIvor. “Maybe the accident was some type of gift. It takes life altering and defining moments to make you change.”

At the time of the accident Candiria were touring in support of Coma Imprint, their fifth album since 1995’s Surrealistic Madness (Too Damn Hype). While they hadn’t garnered a great deal of exposure in that period, they had slowly been building their reputation as one of the most avant-garde and imaginative heavy acts anywhere on the globe. Virtuoso musicians, they blend their heavy riffs with jazz fusion inflections, their harsh, growled vocals with Cageian aleatorics.

While this type of cross-pollination can sound trite and forced – both in description and reality – Candiria pull it off through sheer energy and force of intent. It doesn’t sound like a pose or a cool idea held back by lack of talent, for it is clear Candiria are equally adept at whatever type of music they chose to play. On their second album, 1997’s Beyond Reasonable Doubt (Too Damn Hype) is a straight hip hop track, ‘Mental Politics’, which would easily compete with many full-time hip hop artist’s efforts.

A Brooklyn band through and through, Candiria’s environment is no doubt the main influence on their music, hence the multiple musical styles interwoven through their output. As their career has progressed the band has became more adept at turning this internal conflict into a fluid, malleable force. But even on Surrealistic Madness (a demo which got a full release) there is a logical flow which renders the segways from hardcore riffing to heavily treated electronic noise strangely appropriate.

The final 11-minute track, ‘Red Eye Flight’ morphs into a piece by one of the band’s alter-egos, The Lovely Quartet. Recorded on four-track this segment, originally entitled ‘The Essential Victory of Free Noise’ is a piece of pure electronics that would not be amiss on a 1960’s avant-garde album, perhaps Morton Subotnick or David Tudor. It’s obvious Candiria are as equally well-versed in this stuff as they are in jazz-fusion and prog rock, name checking the likes of Chick Corea, Miles Davis, King Crimson, Sun-Ra, and of course Primus.

It’s interesting to conjecture why musicians of such fine taste would choose to put their talents towards metal, one of the more maligned musical forms thrown up by the Twentieth Century. Firstly, Candiria come in where metal fuses with hardcore, punk’s angriest and perhaps most purist extreme. This juncture offers manifold possibilities, as ably shown in different ways by the likes of Helmet and Sepultura, and DRI.

Secondly, metal has long been the domain of virtuoso musicians who also want to rock. While this has been one of the main reasons the genre is so maligned (think Yngwie Malmsteen, Michael Schenker, Steve Vai, or… need I go on?), it has also resulted in some truly staggering anomalies (Primus, Death, Meshuggah). There’s nothing fundamentally wrong with virtuosity – but it doesn’t fit easily into the rock’n’roll paradigm, where attitude is far more important than talent. When virtuosity becomes a genre-bound cliché, as it did with the metal guitar solo, drum solo, bass solo… arrggh, make it stop. But when it is suffused into the music, rather than being a garnish liberally scattered on top, virtuosity means all kinds of interesting angles and tangents can be explored.

Candiria excel at this, weaving their tracks through multifarious tempo changes, textures, subtleties and lack thereof. Drummer Kenneth Schalk is phenomenal, up there with Meshuggah’s outrageous Tomas Haake. His jazz permeated syncopated playing is one of Candiria’s primary strengths, and the fact that he does a great deal of the keyboard playing, writing and engineering is even more impressive.

Chief vocalist Carley Coma seems to have two settings – intense and even more intense. Needless to say he handles the vocal duties on the more hardcore tracks, growling out the uniquely verbose lyrics in a manner intended to cause grievous bodily harm. Try growling this in the shower: “Architect of the demented specimen, the volatile synthetic grin, the third eye sense, low life appearance camouflages all my vast intelligence, framework of thoughts malignant, like polluted kingpin tyrants, buried in surfactants…” Yeah, what he said.

Since Beyond Reasonable Doubt (which was repackaged as half of The Coma Imprint) Candiria have released the excellent Process of Self Development (1999) and 300 Percent Density (2001). Also in that period they have added a second guitarist, John Lamacchia, to join Eric Matthews and bassist Michael McIvor. These three are all equally capable of following whichever strand the music seems to arbitrarily follow, snapping momentarily out of a heavy riff to insert a crisp and perfectly executed jazz passage. Even on the first two albums, the precision control of tempo and texture is astounding.

All this marked Candiria as an act to watch in the late 90s, and they appeared to be living up to expectations when their accident occurred. While this has obviously set them back a year and a half, it has also meant they have reevaluated that which is most important to them – the music. By all accounts, What Doesn’t Kill You… (due in July) sees the band typically confounding expectations – some of the songs not even reliant on the technical style which earned them a formidable reputation. “Whether you are simple or technical with your music, it does not measure greatness,” reflects Schalk. “It’s the song.”

DragonForce, Exodus, Iced Earth

While heavy metal has splintered into a thousand shards, there are those who remain loyal to some archaic vision of what it is all about. These are the ones who hold true to the metal lifestyle as portrayed by many eighties metal acts, a self-styled purist metal with all the trimmings, sometimes knowingly ironic and sometimes not. There are a number of labels that cater to this market, amongst them Germany's Noise Records and Nuclear Blast. Between their two rosters are a large number of latter day trad-metal acts, and a few relics from the recent past.

DragonForce (Noise) need to be heard to be believed. Their second album, this year's Sonic Firestorm, sounds like an amalgam of classic Maiden and Priest influences, only played at a million miles an hour - the kind of tempo SoCal acts such as Pennywise trade in. Add to this epic keyboards, screaming yet melodious vocals and an awesome twin guitar assault, and it's like prime eighties European metal on steroids.
Based in England, DragonForce is like a United Nations of power metal, with members hailing from South Africa, Hong Kong, Ukraine, and even these fair shores. Guitarist Sam Totman grew up in New Zealand before returning to his native England. His axe work, along with Herman Li is phenomenal. Combining like Maiden's Dave Murray and Adrian Smith in that they both 'specialise' in lead and rhythm, the interplay is unbelievable, especially at the pace they play - and there's little let up. Not for them long atmospheric passages, it's all balls to the wall.
In the limited world of power metal, DragonForce have set new boundaries, and metal heads in Europe and Japan have lapped it up. If you like classic melodic metal, and are a total speed freak, you'll love Sonic Firestorm. And there’s plenty more signed to Noise, from old schoolers Celtic Frost, Helloween and WASP, to the newer Cans, Persuader and the Phil Anselmo-related Superjoint Ritual.

Like Noise Records, Nuclear Blast have been around for ages and know their market. Their newer acts deal in a more contemporary type of metal though, such as the technical and ferocious Swedish acts Soilwork, Meshuggah and In Flames, all well worth a listen. Also on the roster are Manowar, Anthrax, and Exodus for their new album Tempo of the Damned. One of the great thrash bands, they were kind of overshadowed by the so-called 'Big Four' - Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax. This didn't stop them producing some great albums though, one of which contained a track called 'The Toxic Waltz'. Say no more…
After a lengthy spell away from the studio great things were not expected from Tempo of the Damned. Needless to say, it's a stunner. British metal bible Terrorizer even gave it a nine out of ten review. No question that age and rest have had a positive effect on the San Francisco five piece, because they've lost none of the fire that marked mid-eighties albums such as Bonded By Blood and Pleasures of the Flesh.

Opener 'Scar Spangled Banner' marks the return with a killer riff, and it's like they never went away. All the thrash signifiers are present - fizzy yet chunky guitars, a rhythm section capable of unholy tightness, and aggressive vocals courtesy of Steve Souza.
And it makes you think that while metal moved, maybe thrash wasn't a spent force, and maybe those acts that went soft left many avenues unexplored. After all, it had given metal a much needed kick in the ass, yet what was its greatest spawn?
The Black album? I don't think so. So while Tempo of the Damned on the one hand sounds like a bit of a nostalgia trip (albeit a welcome one), it also sounds remarkably fresh and uncontrived. But then, the best thrash always was, wasn't it?
That was the appeal in the first place.

Exodus’s 'The Toxic Waltz' appears in The Top 500 Heavy Metal Songs of All Time by rock scribe Martin Popoff - and rightfully so. Also gathering numerous honours in that tome are Iced Earth. This American Act, the brainchild of Jon Schaffer, specialises in epic power metal, with an overriding historical bent. This year's The Glorious Burden (SPV) focuses on various wars across the spectrum of American history - the War of Independence, the Civil War, World War One, Vietnam, as well as touching on 9/11. Schaffer (who started the band as a 16 year old runaway in Indiana) is obviously a war and history nut, and his complex compositions have a storytellers weave about them. The last three tracks here form a triptych entitled 'Gettysburg' - the great battle of the Civil War. The sleeve for the album has extensive notes about the pieces, and what Schaffer was trying to achieve. It's quite a remarkable achievement really. Musically Iced Earth are superb, vocalist Tim Owens of particular note, while Schaffer's guitar work and arrangements are often mind bending. Again there are NWOBHM melodic influences, along with a healthy shot of Bay Area thrash madness.

For those bemoaning the lack of substance amongst today’s chart-orientated hard rock, these three acts and their label mates offer some respite. And while the audience may not be any where near as big as it was in the halcyon mid-eighties period, the fact that they’re still around suggests traditional metal still has some currency.

Heavy Metal Art

Last month I mentioned Martin Popoff's book The Top 500 Heavy Metal Songs of All Time. Well, that's not the only book this dedicated metal scribe has penned. Amongst others, he's also the proud creator of The Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal (Collector's Guide Publishing, though according to Amazon it's out of print). This massive 544-page tome features 3700 reviews of metal albums. Add to that another edition, The Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal: The Seventies and you've got a lot of vinyl to track down if you really want a complete collection.

Perhaps more than any other genre, metal has been susceptible to the collector/completist mentality. Because of the rabid devotion metal acts tend to inspire, it's generally inconceivable to not own every album from whatever artist, not to mention every single - both 7” and 12", and every other permutation thereof. Hence an onslaught of shaped, coloured, and picture vinyl, all of which must be diligently added to the collection. At least that's how it was in the mid-eighties when certain acts certainly took advantage of their fans dedication by releasing a never ending array of supposed 'collectors items' that were produced in such mass quantities that they were probably not even worth the price of a cassingle.

Not to harp on about the usual suspects, but Iron Maiden and Metallica were two of the worst examples of this dubious practice. Both released so-called collector's vinyl, playing on the fans obsessive archivist mentality, and not coincidentally both acts became very wealthy through this kind of (astute?) merchandising. These bands nurtured a similar attitude amongst their fans, making them believe they were part of the inner circle. Part of this equation was the cover art, which helped to create the legend of the bands and a kind of universal 'brand' attached to all of their products, be it records, t-shirts, or posters.

Few other types of music indulged in this kind of exploitation of the fan mentality. Punk did to a certain extent, but by its very nature it did not engender the same corporate philosophy. Metal fans wore their art on their sleeve, in the form of patches and badges.
Iron Maiden's mascot was 'Eddie the 'Ead' - the product of an East London legend about a boy born with only a head. All their covers featured this ghoulish character in various guises, some quite controversial. 1980's 'Sanctuary' single featured a knife-wielding Eddie astride a very dead Margaret Thatcher - the Iron Lady, aka the Iron Maiden. This made headlines in the UK, and elicited this statement from Downing Street: "This is not the way we would like the prime minister portrayed. I'm sure she would not like it."

The reclusive Derek Riggs was Maiden’s artist during the eighties. His metamorphosis of the Eddie character over the course of nine albums and a plethora of singles defined Maiden's image almost as much as their music. In the best tradition of cover art it became a quintessential part of the overall package, inseparable from the music. Riggs’ artwork also became increasingly complex, fantasy-art inspired, and amusing. On the Egyptian-themed Powerslave (1984) sleeve, amongst the hieroglyphics appears Mickey Mouse. The pinnacle of these efforts was 1987's Somewhere In Time sleeve, an incredibly detailed urban fantasy inspired by Bladerunner. Riggs has said he worked for so long without rest on this sleeve that he started to hallucinate.

His art inspired many a metal band to create their own mascot. Metallica instead chose to use the artwork of a young punk skateboarder called Brian Schroeder, who drew under the name Pushead. His work was known throughout the Bay Area scene, but it became synonymous with Metallica after ...And Justice For All. Previously they had used fantasy art from the likes of Alvin Petty. Pushead's cartoonish skulls redefined Metallica's identity to a large extent, tying together their humour, thrash roots and uncompromising attitude, and moving them away from traditional metal imagery. This was a prescient move, as the time-honoured fantasy imagery was fast becoming passé.

It's ironic that an outcast like Pushead should serve a major role in the re-branding of what would become one of the biggest corporate machines in modern music.
Both Riggs' and Pushead's art defined the images of these two monsters of rock, and their work became something of a badge of honour for the fans. Particularly for those who got the tattoo. Personally, I'd opt for the Motörhead pig featured here. If this image doesn't singularly define a band then nothing does. But then Motörhead have always had exquisite taste - or should that be class? Their album covers reign supreme in the metal realm. Q magazine's The 100 Best Record Covers of All Time lists 1979's Bomber as a classic. "'Much of the wonder of the dolphin lies in the tranquil glide of its path through the ocean' reads the blurb for Adrian Chesterman's wildlife book Freedom of the Oceans. How very different from the image he created for Motörhead's Bomber sleeve ...here was a vision more terrifying than any number of Iron Crosses and amphetamine pills."

Not too many other metal sleeves appear in the Q 100, just Sabbath, Zeppelin, and Maiden. Maybe this is surprising, as there have been some great ones. Then again most have been of a type, and if cliché was ever a disease it was in the world of heavy metal. Or perhaps too few bands have had the incredible branding savvy exhibited by Metallica and Iron Maiden.

Death Angel

Following closely behind Exodus’s recent rebirth, Death Angel's re-emergence after years in the wilderness makes it something of a mini Bay Area thrash revival. This may be overstating it, but there's certainly something in the air. In the case of both of these bands, it would have been only the most optimistic fans that would have expected great things after absences of at least a decade. But both have far exceeded expectations, tapping into the same furious energy that fuelled the nascent thrash scene in mid-eighties San Francisco.

Death Angel’s was one of the thrash genre's most treasured stories. Drummer Andy Galeon was only 10 when he joined the band, and 14 when they released their first album The Ultra-Violence (Enigma) in 1987. With this release the five incredibly fresh faced Filipino youths were cast into the metal public's eye, and rode a bullet train for the next few years until an accident while on tour put paid to their career. Those few years though saw them become one of the most admired, if not most widely known, thrash acts on the planet. Following The Ultra-Violence came the well-received Frolic Through the Park (Enigma 1988), and 1990's seminal thrash masterwork Act III (Geffen).

Act III is renowned as one of thrash metal’s great lost classics, blending as it does razor edge riffing and beautiful, orchestrated instrumentals. This when the majority of the band members were still in their teens augured well for the future, as did two tracks that achieved high rotate on MTV ('Seemingly Endless Time' and 'Room With A View'). But an unfortunate road accident while on tour in Arizona the same year Act III was released saw Galeon seriously injured and in need of major recovery time.

Vocalist Mark Osegueda left the band during this period, the remaining members forming The Organization, attempting to allay the confusion their name caused in a period when death metal was ascendant. They had modest success until they called it a day in 1995, releasing two albums, The Organization and Savor the Flavour (both Metal Blade). This rendered Death Angel as one of the great 'what ifs?' of the thrash era, a truly awesome band scythed down in their prime. Well, now we get to find out. And it's not as if these guys are geriatric bastards trying to relive their golden years either. A benefit of the fact they started so young is that they're still fairly fresh looking. And, more importantly, sounding.

Sure, it would have been great to hear what Death Angel may have followed Act III up with in the early nineties had they the chance. But the recent The Art Of Dying (Nuclear Blast) will do as a pretty damn good consolation. And the most amazing thing is that there's no way they can be accused of having lost their fire. It's like they've been frozen in time and yet kept growing, to a certain extent. Perhaps dwelling on that lost opportunity has kept them hungry over the preceding 14 years, biding their time until the great year of the thrash revival was upon us...
The Art of Dying may not be the most modern sounding metal album, it may not have the trimmings of latter day metal, but it's the better for it. Like Exodus’s Tempo of the Damned from earlier this year, this is thrash as filtered through a few years of life's experiences, retaining the dangerous youthful energy without the meaningless doctrine. Death Angel are quintessentially a metal band, but as the technical brilliance of Act III showed, they are also quintessential musicians and not afraid of the fact.

One difference is that guitarist Gus Pepa was not interested in the reunion, so present instead is new guitarist Ted Aguilar. But playing Pepa's guitar, because he bought it off him. Which has a nice circularity to it. Aguilar and other original guitarist Rob Cavestany set the tone here, their precise riffing and imaginative tonal colouring immediately placing this up there with today's contemporary metal. Osegueda is still in fine voice, and it seems criminal that a vocal power as strong as this should have been mute for so long. Rhythm section Galeon and bassist Dennis Pepa were in their time one of the most innovative in thrash, and they've certainly lost none of their prowess.

Tracks such as 'No', 'Five Steps to Freedom' and 'Thicker than Blood' are as good as it gets in this genre. If you close your eyes it could be 1990 again. It's like they were never away, and you can rarely say that about a band that's had a lengthy hiatus. Death Angel have come back and done what fate prevented them from doing the first time around. They've followed up one killer record with another.

Whether you were into Death Angel the first time around or not, you’ll find The Art of Dying something of a revelation. It’s testament to the fact that thrash metal was a genre of lost opportunity, left in the past as metal fractured at an incremental rate and death metal swept aside all that came before. No wonder it’s being revisited then. And if albums such as this are the result, it’s a very positive thing.

letustoxicwaltz@hotmail.com

Top 5:
Candiria – What Doesn’t Kill You… (Shock)
Degrees K – Children of the Night Sky (Aloha)
Neurosis – The Eye of Every Storm (Neurot)
Venetian Snares – Winter In the Belly of a Snake (Planet Mu)
Gravenhurst – Flashlight Seasons (Warp)

Timeless Classic:
Screaming Trees – Sweet Oblivion

Quote:
"I hate the fucking record industry. They're all assholes, just like managers and lawyers ˜ they should all die. Seriously." (Death Angel's Dennis Pepa)

Relapse Records

It's nearly fifteen years since Matthew F. Jacobson founded Relapse Records in Aurora, Colorado. Since then the label has clawed its way to the pinnacle of the extreme music world - its roster had six entries in Alternative Press magazine's '25 Most Important Bands in Metal' poll.

Jacobson and partner Bill Yurkiewicz have maintained a vision of a label that exists for the fans - in the same way that other indie labels such as Touch and Go, SubPop or Earache have. They service their loyal patrons through strict quality control in the A&R department, by employing contemporary producers, by using superior packaging, and by nurturing a sense of community.
Over its tenure, Relapse has released music from the likes of Brutal Truth, Amorphis, Mortician, Unsane, Nile, and Neurosis, all pioneers in their field.

No surprise that Neurosis were one of the six acts chosen in the Alternative Press poll. For far longer than Relapse has existed the San Francisco act has poured its bleak, emotionally drenched sound upon the world. They, along with fellow poll winners Mastodon and The Dillinger Escape Plan, have vitalised Relapse's schedule with recent albums.

The Eye of Every Storm is the fourth Neurosis album produced by Steve Albini. This union seemed a little weird at first but now makes perfect sense, adding something to the aura of both parties. For Neurosis it means justice is done to their phenomenal sound, which has long been a thing of wonder in the extreme heavy music world.

Having shrugged off earlier hardcore punk and progressive death inclinations, the Bay Area sextet have focused their sound, introducing more contrast in their use of heaviness and ambient/melodic interludes. Album opener 'Burn' is a good example, resembling something a heavier HDU may have produced. The use of samples, Moog synthesizer and other non-traditional metal instrumentation adds unexpected layers that help build the intense atmosphere. Thus when the heaviness comes it has the impact of a falling girder.

Even better is the title track - all twelve minutes of it. Twisting through various phases, it's something of a mini symphony. This is heavy psychedelic music at its best, those electronic elements used to particularly good effect throughout the quieter passages. This is to be expected from a band whose alter ego, Tribes of Neurot, produces dark ambient companion works to the Neurosis albums.

Perhaps the album title is a reference to the relative calm in the eye of a storm, as these passages lull the listener into a false sense of security before the (welcome) hurricane strikes. Dual guitarist/vocalists Steve Von Till and Scott Kelly are in fine voice throughout, their multi-faceted playing also exemplary.

Kelly appears on a track on Mastodon's just released second full length Leviathan. And while his contribution is welcome, it's not like they need him. For anyone that's been disappointed by the metal scene in recent years, Mastodon are a band to believe in. Perhaps it's because of drummer/founder Brann Dailor's love of Iron Maiden, but they've got a 'real' vibe about them that infuses everything they do. It's there in the album art, in the overwhelming intensity of the music, and in the way they carry themselves. Just like their 2002 debut album Remission, Leviathan has a theme that's loosely based on the album art, in this case Moby Dick. This is threaded through tracks such as 'Sea Beast', 'Aqua Dementia', 'Island' and 'Joseph Merrick'.

Like their namesake (a prehistoric elephant) the Atlanta four piece stomp over all that they survey. They pack so many cool riffs into each track it's hard to keep up, covering ground from death metal to straight rock, thrash to classic seventies metal. Dailor's drumming is the point of difference though, so good that he’s renowned as one of the best metal drummers around. He's simply berserk, all over the kit all of the time - impossible to imagine he could pull it off live, but obviously he does. His double kick work, rolls, and sheer speed will blow you away.

Yet even that can't top The Dillinger Escape Plan. This New Jersey quintet are off the fuckin' planet, quite possibly the most insane fusion of ideas and talent currently terrorizing the rest of us earth bound creatures. In 1999 they shattered the metal world with their debut Calculating Infinity. Dubbed math-metal, their precision mix of jarring, constantly changing time signatures, insane speed, awesome virtuosity and total musical fearlessness polarised opinion.

Now with Miss Machine they've done it again. New vocalist Greg Puciato is far more versatile than predecessor Dimitri Minakakis, yowling like a more rabid Mike Patton. Comparisons with Patton's Mr Bungle aren't far off the mark, but with the schiz-o-meter set to kill. Ultimately there are no words to describe The Dillinger Escape Plan. This simply needs to be experienced to be believed. The guitarists are all over the fretboard, constantly churning through demented scales and riffs as if possessed, the drummer does new things with blast beats and syncopation, while the poor bassist attempts to keep up.

Between these acts there are three indispensable aspects of cutting edge heaviness. What else could you need?

letustoxicwaltz@hotmail.com

Top 5:
Meshuggah – I
Zombi – Cosmos
Coil – Musick to Play in the Dark Vol 2
The Prodigy – Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned
Killswitch Engage – The End of Heartache

Classic:
Black Flag – The Process of Weeding Out