Wrust - Intellectual Metamorphosis review for Metal4Africa.com

I recently contributed a review to Metal4Africa.com of Intellectual Metamorphosis by Botswanan death/groove metallers Wrust. Go here to read the review: http://metal4africa.com/reviews/wrust-intellectual-metamorphosis-review/.

Voivod - Target Earth review

 

Target Earth is at times a strange progressive metal journey. It reminds me of a weird dream I had years ago, where I was in a space capsule.

I never usually comment on album artwork, as I feel it’s irrelevant. Target Earth’s artwork has prompted me to make an exception, however. It’s astounding that an album brimming with musical excellence should have a cover so awful.

Guitarist and songwriter Piggy passed away in 2005, leaving a big void to fill. New guitarist Chewy has done a great job playing Piggy's parts, and he does a great job on Target Earth as well. The title track contains a great reverb-filled solo which is evocative of the song's outer space theme. On the thrash-oriented Kluskop O'Kom, the memorable solo is fuzzy. Mechanical Mind is filled with catchy grooves and beautiful guitar harmonies. The riffs drone in Defiance, the final track. Chewy is a diverse player who moves easily between thrash, progressive passages and avant-garde, effects-laden interludes. He creates many memorable riffs and solos. I repeated a few tracks before moving to the next track, which is something I rarely do when reviewing an album.

The bass parts are engaging and command attention. They are well-placed in the mix; not so low as to be nearly inaudible, and not so high as to overwhelm other instruments. Away provides some interesting drum fills, and plays in a range of time signatures. His parts add to the atmosphere of the music.

Target Earth is a very engaging album, and I struggled to find fault with it. I don't really have any complaints about the music or the production. The band has changed its sound from being primarily thrash to progressive metal over the years; I've always had respect for a band that follows its own creative path instead of pandering to a style they've become known for.


Personnel: Snake - vocals
                  Chewy - guitar
                  Away - drums
                 Blacky - bass
                 Piggy (RIP) - guitar
                 Jasonic - bass

Web presence: http://www.facebook.com/Voivod
                        http://www.voivod.com/
                        http://www.irongang.com
                        http://www.voivod.net
                        http://www.myspace.com/voivod
                        http://www.voivodfan.com
                        http://www.reverbnation.com/voivod 

Fen - Dustwalker review

 As I read about how Fen takes most of their musical inspiration from the bleak Fen region of eastern England, I was reminded of certain lines from the poem Horses on the Camargue by Roy Campbell: "In the grey wastes of dread, /The haunt of shattered gulls where nothing moves…” The music on Dustwalker, Fen’s second full-length release, certainly evokes desolate images such as those in the poem extracts. Having heard some of Fen’s early material and been impressed, I was very interested to hear their latest work.

Fen blends progressive rock, post-rock and black metal and atmospherics. A problem with musically meandering subgenres such as progressive and postsomething is often the balance of musical exploration and overdrawn musical pomp. Fen starts out well in this balancing act with Consequence. The track begins with rasping vocals and melancholy guitars, and moves into a passage of echoing riffs. The track contains a great bassline. Ghostly chants add to the bleak atmosphere created by the instruments. Hands of Dust is a slower number, with echoing, droning clean guitar riffs. The drums create an interesting counter melody. A quiet interlude with soft guitars and vocal harmonies adds interest. There are some interesting dynamic changes in this track, and fuzzy-sounding guitars and blastbeats come into play as well. Fen manage to avoid outstaying their welcome, but things fall apart a bit from tracks 3 to 5.

Spectre drags on in the middle section, despite a good first half and coda. This track has an interesting 'country' sound in the first half. Reflections, like the previous track, has some good moments but lingers too long. Wolf Sun has a faster tempo and some good fuzzy riffs. Slower doesn't mean boring, but this section of the album suffers from an ability to sustain the listener's interest with consistently engaging riffs and song structures.

The Black Sound and Walking the Crowpath are enjoyable tracks, thus ending the album on a good note. The thunderous drums and plaintive guitar riffs in the former contrast well with the soft part of the track, which contains guitar riffs that are even more plaintive. The bass has a warm tone, and goes very well with the bubbling guitar riffs on top of it. Crow cries introduce Walking the Crowpath, which contains many contrasting elements. There are quiet acoustic riffs, fuzzed-out electric guitar riffs, mid-tempo drum fills and furious blastbeats, and clean vocals and anguished screams.

Dustwalker has good moments and good musical ideas, but overall it isn't one of the most engaging albums I've heard. I enjoyed previous Fen material more than I did this offering.

Personnel: Grungyn - vocals and bass
                  The Watcher - vocals lead guitars and acoustic guitars
                  Derwydd - drums

Web presence: http://www.facebook.com/fenofficial
                        http://www.myspace.com/fenband
                        http://www.last.fm/music/Fen

The Posters of Gigs Past - part 1

I've been collecting gig posters since 2011. Most of them were simply nicked when no-one was looking, because I figured they'd be thrown away or recycled.


 Festa Kiboko was hosted by an entity known as Basement Radio in December 2011, at Frieda's on Bree Street. The previous Basement Radio party was called Kiboko FM (Hippo FM). The music (world music, and some fusions between folk and modern music) and the vibe were fantastic, and I had interesting conversations with interesting people. The braaied mielies and fresh bananas were yummy.

 Thanks to an Emperor tribute in December 2011, I checked out more of Emperor's material, and subsequently became an Emperor fan. I wanted to recognise the songs played on the night (I'd heard only I Am the Black Wizards at that point), so I checked out the albums In the Nightside Eclipse and Anthems to the Welikin at Dusk, and maybe one other album. Thank you Blackcrowned, Wildernessking and A Walk with the Wicked for sparking my interest in Emperor!

Rock The River 2011/2012 was my first music festival. I went with my sister, and two friends. I enjoyed myself immensely, and saw some great performances from various bands. (I didn't enjoy being in the dubstep section of the camp though.)  I was at the metal stage for almost the entire festival. I bought my first international band t-shirt (Megadeth Rust in Peace album artwork with black and white back patch), as well as my first two metal CDs (AGRO's Rewriting History and Emperor's Emperial Live Ceremony). I saw in the new year at the metal stage with Crow Black Sky, who put on one of the most spectacular local metal performances I've seen. The band wore custom-made armour, there were skulls scattered on the stage and there were cool pyrotechnics. RTR 2011/2012 was a great introduction to music festivals.

Megalodon - Darkness in Sonance review

Megalodon is named after the long-dead Carcharodon megalodon, a massive species of shark which once ruled the oceans. The name evolved beyond merely depicting a shark to a planet-devouring entity (shown on the album cover) as mighty as C. Megalodon once was.

Before I heard Megalodon, I’d heard very little djent metal, so it was slightly difficult to dissect the sound of this album. For me, a particularly likeable aspect of Megalodon’s sound is that it initially comes across as being a wall of sound, yet reveals interesting subtleties upon closer listening.

Vocalist Thomas Theron alternates between growled and rasped vocals. This works well, and doesn’t stray into schizophrenic territory. Theron has a distinctive vocal style, and a talent for writing thought-provoking lyrics. Extreme metal bands who craft lyrics with care add an extra layer of grandiosity to their material, in my opinion. The strong music, lyrics and vocals of Megalodon combine to create a towering behemoth of extreme metal.

Although extreme, there is restraint in the music; there are well-placed quiet interludes, contrasting guitar lines and tempo changes that give the listener respite. In Dual Vision Triple Sonic, a quiet interlude highlights a reverb-filled guitar solo which plays over an ‘outer space’ sound effect. The quieter part on Omnipresent Authority Figure highlights some great riffs. By contrasting guitar lines, I mean a sequence where one guitar is playing palm-muted riffs while the other plays cleaner notes or a solo. Lead riffs play over a rumbling bass line in Beyond Within, while The Unexpected contains a stunning solo towards the end of the song which I found rather moving. The drum patterns are unusual at times (as in Umbilical Embroidery) and keep the overall rhythm crushing yet interesting. I enjoyed the prominent toms in Umbilical Embroidery and Darkness in Sonance. Most of the time I couldn’t distinguish the bass guitar from the rhythm guitar, but this added to the ‘wall of sound’ effect of the music.

I would call the production very good to excellent; I feel that the instruments, effects and vocals were well-placed in the mix. The effects were subtle enough not to overshadow the music itself, yet prominent enough to add a discernible layer of interest to the tracks.

Darkness in Sonance is a thought-provoking album that is never boring. Extreme elements combined with restraint and great song writing made for a very interesting listening experience. Beware, Earth. The planet-devourer is circling…

Personnel: Ruan Jordaan – guitars and programming

               Louis Henn - guitars and programming

                 Eren Nuri Grobbelaar – bass guitar

                Dane Canterbury – drums and programming

               Thomas Theron - vocals

             

Web presence: http://www.facebook.com/megalodonza

                       http://www.myspace.com/megalodonza

                       http://www.soundclick.com/bands/megalodonza

                       http://www.got-djent.com/band/megalodon

                       http://www.reverbnation.com/megalodonza