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