FOR THE LOVE OF METAL
I normally don’t like live records. Between bad recordings, obvious overdubs and embarrassing stage patter, I find most live albums to be unsatisfying to say the least. Live In Whitby from Ottawa’s Fuck The Facts destroys all of my misgivings in the first few seconds. The sound on this release is amazing! In fact, you can almost believe you’re standing directly in front of the sound guy at the venue, watching the sweat fly.
Svarti Loghin revels in fusion of the most banal kind. It does not have a musical vision. It simply blends the visions of others into something that it tries to pass off as art. What it forgets is that hybridization requires a vision if it is to fuse disparate elements into a cohesive artistic statement. The boldness of Svarti Loghin’s borrowing is a sham, for it is not so much a paper tiger as a collage tiger.
The Frozen Tears of Angels is a solid, fun record that need not apologize for being metal.
Suffice to say that this album is a long, difficult slog, even though it only has six tracks.
“However long and difficult the journey, Woods of Ypres give themselves no breaks and indulge in no excuses. Every single member of the band poured all the heart and energy they had into their performance at the Blue Moon, led by the apparently indefatigable David Gold. They are incredibly generous performers in this regard, never giving less than their physical and emotional all on stage. Seeing them live remains, for me, a unique audience experience in this regard: no matter how much I put in, I can never seem to quite keep up with how much I receive from this band.”
In the end, Black Marketeers of World War III is an enjoyable but standard album that doesn’t make a long-lasting impression or distinguish itself from its musical brethren. Wolvhammer’s hearts and minds are obviously in the right places, but this fact plus a few memorable musical moments isn’t enough to make for a record that stand-outs out from the pack.
Eve—the song and the album—sounds like it’s been shaped from molten rock. Ufomammut have dug deep; crafting elusive, unruly elements into something inspired and monumental
“By the time High on Fire hit the stage, the venue was thankfully almost at full capacity and despite not yet turning on the stage lights, when the crowd saw frontman Matt Pike stroll out in the darkness, bare chested, snaggle-toothed but still sexy as all hell, the crowd went nuts. While the trio had the least amount of members in comparison to the other bands, their sound was ten times more powerful and dense.”
Laina Dawes reviews the July 16th concert by HIGH ON FIRE, PRIESTESS, SKELETONWITCH at Toronto Ontario’s Opera House venue
Ultimately, we can certainly see the past though rose coloured glasses, and Just As the Dust Had Settled does indeed provide a loving tribute-lyrics, notes, photos and all—to a band which some might feel didn’t quite get the recognition they deserved during their day. At the same time, however, some bands should just remain cult classics.
Jameson Raid is one of those bands.
I dare say that Sabaton make the most uplifting songs about war this side of ‘The Trooper’! On Coat of Arms, the sixth record for the Swedish warriors but first with a proper North American release, Sabaton focus on the battles of World War II.