Malediction was recorded at long time producer/guitarist Dan Abela’s Legacy London Recordings Studios and this is SARAH JEZEBEL DEVA’s best sounding release to date as a solo artist. Since the last album, The Corruption of Mercy there have been a few changes to the band. Mainly with a new drummer, Damjan Stefanovic and guitarist Azz Inferno. Sarah and the rest of the band sound like they’ve been together forever. If this EP was done to showcase the new blood, then mission accomplished. The cohesiveness they have in such a short time is pretty damn impressive. It makes me mad it’s was just three songs, I’m left chomping at the bit, wanting more.
On “Lies Define Us” SOILWORK front man BJORN ‘SPEED’ STRID joins the mix for a wonder performance. When he kicks in on the second verse, their voices compliment and blend together very well. With Damjans choice grooves on the chorus, Sarah and Speed sound phenomenal. It is probably my second favorite stalker-y song after DANZIG’s “Stalker song”. Martin Powell on keyboards (ex-CRADLE OF FILTH) does a fine job adding extra atmosphere to this whole project.
“When “It Catches Up With You” is the lone track sans guests. Sarah shines like, well a diva with her vast index of vocal ranges. Her style of singing comes off compelling and engaging. It’s more like she is a storyteller than just a vocalist. Bassist AblaZ has a pulsing presence underneath the melody, provided by Sarah. I can see a lot of people doing the Gothic two-step to this track at some nightclub somewhere.
With “This Is My Curse” another former CRADLE OF FILTH band mate and mastermind DANI FILTH, lend this vile vocals for this duet. It’s pretty awesome to hear their usual dynamic flipped around. With her on lead vocals, it’s really nice to hear them together again after a few years apart. The harmonies they pull off are some evil sounding wails. One second I feel I should be in a black robe surrounded by black candles and the next, covered in spikes ready to burn something down.
Lyrically, this is so accessible to anyone with a heart, it’s almost scary. The songs are all about various stages of love, but they don’t come off as cheesy or annoying. This is an EP of pure enjoyment. It is highly listenable, pun intended. If you’re one of the people who do not like female singers in metal, it’s your loss. I want to get my passport and go see SJD and her band live.
SARAH JEZEBEL DEVA leads the new lineup of her band.
In 2011 super groups seem to be a dime a dozen. Most of these groups are usually weaker than the sum of their parts with a few exceptions. One group that is living up to the challenge is VALLENFYRE. The assembled collection of talent from impressive bands is on one hand admirable. It’s not every day you get to mention PARADISE LOST, MY DYING BRIDE, DOOM and AT THE GATES in the same sentence. However, more startling than the all-star team of talent is the sound of the album and the quality of the songs. This excellent amalgam of death metal, doom and crust punk is the perfect synthesis of the talent of the lineup and could be a force to be reckoned with for years to come in the scene.
Opening up with the scathing “All Will Suffer” the band serves notice that they are not kidding around. From the razor wire guitar riffs to the blackened wail of front man Gregor Mackintosh (PARADISE LOST) the grim sonic rage is upon you. The thunderous drums and doom metal riffs paint a bleak musical picture for which Mackintosh operates on. Said drums are provided by Adrian Erlandsson (AT THE GATES, PARADISE LOST, CRADLE OF FILTH, THE HAUNTED, NEMHIAN) who is turns in one of the drumming performances of the year. “Desecration” follows next with more of the same frenetic riffs followed by the dirge of pain chords in the chorus. The entire album is a concept record dedicated to the loss of Mackintosh’s father from cancer last year. There is no rule book to loss and grieving, yet perhaps via music there may be some relief. All the of the lyrics and vocals delivery punctuate this loss clearly and gives the album a ghastly gravity beyond the typical quality of an album like this. Each song also features a wall of guitar sound. Not only are parts contributed by Hamish Glencross (MY DYING BRIDE) and Mackintosh’s friend Mully, but several solos are contributed by Mackintosh himself. “Ravenous Whore” could be addressing cancer itself. The track has an almost grindcore feel at times with Erlandsson’s signature fills and double-kick work. Of course the crust/doom of the breakdown is also killer, complete with some black metal licks tossed in for good measure. “Cathedrals of the Dead” might be one of the best songs here. You really hear the culmination of the all of the influences on this track and sense Mackintosh’s vision fully realized. Another top notch track is “As the World Collapses”. The marching beat and chugging chords call to mind middle era SLAYER until the death-thrash part kicks in. “A Thousand Martyrs” is a tuneful funerary blast that provides a grim catharsis. I would be remiss not to single out the solid bass work from Scoot of DOOM fame whose slightly distorted low rumblings give the songs the nasty edge they require. “Seeds” is slow, brooding and harsh track with more serious depressive lyrics. “Humanity Wept” amps back up the thrash and death with a fabulous break-neck riff. “My Black Siberia” has an interesting amount of melody for a crust-punk influenced song, revealing how skilled the writing from this group can be. “The Divine Have Fled” also crushes with unholy heaviness and speed. The final track “The Grim Irony” begins with a doleful wail of a riff. Like much of this album it needs to be listened to at high volumes in a lightness room for maximum effect!
CRADLE OF FILTH is back with an EP to hold us over until the release of their next album. In the little over the year since Darkly, Darkly, Venus Aversa was released the band has toured a bunch and have been working on a long anticipated orchestral album. This album contains a few new tracks, some alternate takes and other goodies for fans. I like CoF, but have always found them to be a hit or miss proposition for my tastes. Not really true black metal, but a commercial approximation of what people think black metal sounds like. Still, I have enjoyed some of their work, especially their concept albums and would never deny them their singular ambition or rebellious spirit of being for making heavy music more popular.
Opening up with the intro track of “Transmission From Hell” comes the new song “Thank Your Lucky Scars”. It sounds like classic CRADLE OF FILTH in case you were wondering. Scary keyboards, blackened guitar riffs, blast beats and a Tom Araya-worthy scream to kick the track off. It verse has almost a punk rock sense of urgency to it that I rather like. Dani Filth sounds excellent here switching up his vocal style three or four times in a matter of minutes. The chorus has a great groove laid down by Paul Allender and James McIIroy on guitars and drummer Martin Marthus Škaroupka. Škaroupka’s drumming in particular is really heavy and cool. As usual there is a thin film of black metal touches on the song such as female operatic vocals and atmospheric keyboards. “Forgive me Father (For I have Sinned)”, “Lilith Immaculate (Extended Length)” and “The Persecution Song” are alternate versions from the last album with “Lilith…” being the best sounding. “Forgive Me Father (I’m In a Trance)” is as you would expect, a trance version of the earlier song. Ugh. Another take on “The Spawn of Love and War” comes next, but I can’t really discern much difference from the original. The real gem of the EP is the sample version of “Summer Dying Fast” from Midnight In The Labyrinth. This orchestral version of the classic song is a taste of their new album and frankly I’m impressed. Getting the full treatment with horns, percussion and strings really brings out the spooky, evilness of the song. I was really feeling it and listened to just that track several times alone. I’m really excited to hear the rest of the album now. For fans the really draw of this collection is the DVD with a live concert from last June’s Graspop Metal Meeting, a “rockumentary” and the promo video for “Lilith Immaculate”.
Although Chthonic have been Taiwan’s biggest black metal export for quite some time now, it’s only been in recent years where their brand of expansive, extravagant black metal has truly connected with an American audience. In 2005, the band’s Sediq Bale LP set forth an impressive mixture of Cradle of Filth styled atmosphere with traditional Asian instrumentation, a style which was further perfected on 2009’s Mirror of Retribution.
With Takasago Army, however, Chthonic has truly come into its own as a metal entity with which to be reckoned, proving that there still is some room for inventive presentation and original musical attack within the symphonic black metal framkework.
For vocalist Freddy, however…it’s all in a day’s work.
“It just smoothly happened,” says the singer. “When the band was about to write the new album in mid 2010, [bassist] Doris asked Jesse and I, the two main song-writing members, to try to write with more Taiwanese styles in this album. Coincidently, Jesse and I were just ready to write in different way from how we used to write. If you find the right way to do it, don’t force it, then it’s not too challenging at all. As we start writing songs in Taiwanese ways, then everything would be put in the right places in the first place!”
He continues, “For the last few albums, we wrote songs based on metal structure in the first place, and then they added the Taiwanese elements into the songs. But this album, we decided to write Taiwanese-style songs in the first place, and then re-organize them into metal. It’s just happened naturally with no pressure. It’s even easier to write for us. We had a great time writing this record!”
Indeed, although English isn’t Freddy’s native tongue, the language of metal speaks loud, clear and with bombastic force here on Takasago Army; a record which bristles with expansive, emotional intent.
Freddy speaks further about the lyrical inspirations behind this massive album, saying, “Takasago Army is about the 300,000 Taiwanese soldiers under Japanese imperial army in Pacific War. They fought the harshest fights during the war, and in the mean time, they fought the war inside their minds struggling about their identity as Japanese or Taiwanese. These songs and lyrics are not just for Taiwanese people, they also for everybody. Most of the people have the experiences of finding who they are and what they want to do during difficult situations, and we are writing all about this!”
Although Takasago Army serves as a certified success for Chthonic, some fans may not realize that this is, in fact, the band’s sixth album, with three prior full lengths in the can prior to the release of their Sediq Bale breakthrough. The band toiled many years within the international underground; a journey which included slot on many American pay-to-play festivals throughout the late 90s and early millennium.
Freddy’s noticed his band’s hard work paying off, however, with many Stateside fans finally coming ‘round the Chthonic’s unique take on the symphonic black metal genre.
“Yes, people know us now!” laughs Freddy. “Some of the fans can even sing the parts with Taiwanese lyrics!
We’ve found out that we got more and more American fans, and we can see that particularly on Facebook. We do believe that people could feel the emotions of our music deeper through our live, so definitely touring in the U.S. helps a lot. In comparison, Taiwanese fans have deeper feeling on the lyrics, so we can feel the emotional flow from the fans. Sometimes they even cry during some songs. But in the other hand, fans in the states like to mosh and surf much more…it turns us on!” –\m/etalgeorge.
Murder and rock n roll was the case that they gave NEMHAIN.
NEMHAIN, named for the Irish mythology name Nemain that means “faire spirits of war” is back with a brand new EP. The band is led by notable drummer Adrian Erlandsson (AT THE GATES/PARADISE LOST/THE HAUNTED/CRADLE OF FILTH\BRUJERIA) and his wife Amber on vocals who was a one time stage performer with CoF and MOTORHEAD. Playing a mix of boogie rock swagger, punk rock freedom, goth imagery and swampy stoner metal the band has popped up as a cool side-project from time to time. They released the quality From The Ashes (Tiefdruck) album in 2010. Their new EP is a teaser for their next full length album next year. This project is interesting mainly for Erlandsson since he has such legendary albums/bands to his credit and any project he touches often turns to musical gold. Luckily for the fans his abilities and interests are so varied that he is always contributing to something out of the ordinary.
The EP is composed of three new songs and a cover. “Natural Born Sinners” is a fuzzed out rock jam to the nth degree. Amber has a voice that is both tough and passionate enough to match the driving rock feel of the song. When she sings “Fuck The World! Crash And Burn!” it is not a contrivance in any way. Her delivery is pure lava and she has a grittiness in her rasp that is perfect for this sound. “Seriously Ill” could’ve been a track off of the first DANZIG album back in 1988. Slow, sultry and evil the track has a beautiful groove to it. Some cool riffs that swing and sway are provided by Lais Kryiacou (AREA 54/LOVE & BULLETS) and Sam Astley (EWWS/SANGEETA). Erlandsson pounds out a neat tribal beat in the middle section as the song boils over towards the ending. Plus what is more metal than a song about good old liquid courage? “Love 4 Death” is an short uptempo jam that will have you headbanging! As he does in all his projects Erlandsson does just what is needed for the song, adding cool little fills all the time, but never overplaying. There are some great harmony vocals chipped in by bassist Lisa (The Witch) Dickinson as well. The final track is a choice cover of CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL’s classic rock staple “Bad Moon Rising”. As the band has done previously with songs by THE MISFITS, NIRVANA and THE GITS they put their own spin on “Bad Moon…” and totally make it their own piece with an almost ALICE IN CHAINS type vibe. It’s almost like the song should have always sounded like this. I have to say this little EP is a lot more enjoyable than the waves of phoney bands in a similar style that seem to be foisted on the world of late. These guys get it right and I’m looking forward to the next full length release in 2012.
Returning with their second album in less than two years, the prolific CHTHONIC (pronounced Ka-thon-ick) is back once again to thrill your ears. Named for a sect of Greek occultists and also a theme in parapsychology detailing the shadow self, the band has been a leading light of extreme metal in Asia for many years. Wrapping up a trilogy that began with the 2005 opus Seediq Bale, the band continues to examine socio-political concepts through their music and lyrics. They are champions for Taiwanese independence as well as other issues (Free Tibet etc). Considering they come from a culture where such openness is not always welcome by the powers that be, you must admire their temerity and trueness of heart. Musically the album is a complex, lush epic on a grand scale, sure to please fans of a myriad of styles and tastes.
Opening up with the prelude “The Island” strings and pan flute give you an instant feeling like something big is about to unfold. And it is! The band has never been shy about melding their homespun cultural influences into extreme metal, but now they have really achieved a seamless match. “Legacy of the Seediq” talks about the plight of the indigenous Taiwanese people recruited into the Japanese army as soldiers during WWII. The song blends epic thrash, symphonic themes and black metal flourishes all together. Vocalist Freddy Lim has a hellishly good screaming voice; waves of his pain and suffering raining down on your ears. Lim’s guttural bellows have also reached a new benchmark of excellence too. Guitarist Jesse Liu provides the main riffs of the song, a deadly thrasher mixed with a recurring motif that is one part BLACK SABBATH and one part Taiwanese folk music. The post-chorus just screams symphonic death metal of the highest order. Great drumming from Dani Wang is also present here and throughout the album. “Takao” has another fabulous track, huge chorus, terrific chord structures and keyboards. Synth player CJ has a deft ear for blending classical sounding piano parts with well developed strings and occasional horns. The track also features some awesome Asian-style throat singing vocals that really put the song over the top. In a addition to being a fine bassist, Doris Yeh provides ethereal female vocals bordering on operatic. “Oceanquake” is another burner encompassing all the things the band does well. The out and out thrash of the verses is terrific and the keys and guitars sync up to play the main melody of the song. The effect is magical. The track even has a metalcore-esque breakdown, but it comes off more ballsy, like the power-groove of say a TESTAMENT or EXODUS. The guitar solo is really uplifting as well. The next track “Southern Cross” begins again with the docile flute sounds, but quickly breaks down into a proggy dirge that calls to mind some of the more extreme work of SLIPKNOT. As heavy as Lim brings the vocals, you can always understand him (in English) which is key since the band’s message is all important and would be less effective if you were unable to get it. “Karou” is a killer track which finds Lim’s whisper to a scream delivery quite pleasing. Award winning Taiwanese singer Tsiam Nga Bun (Chan Yia Wen) lent her voice to the track as well. Another thing I like about this album is the mixing job. All of the instruments and voices fit nicely in the mix and the intricate keyboards and synths don’t get drowned out at all. Other standout tracks on the album are “Broken Jade”, “Mahakala” and the positively CRADLE OF FILTH/ENSLAVED inspired “Quell The Souls in Sing Ling Temple”. The bonus track version of the record includes a version of the single “Takao” sung by folk metallers ENSIFERUM! This is well crafted metal, unafraid to take chances and break down walls. CHTONIC as a band moves forward by not forgetting where they came from. I look forward to their upcoming tour with ARCH ENEMY this fall.
CHTHONIC dials down the corpse paint, but still kicks ass!
Taiwan’s number one black metal export Chthonic has made great, conquering strides here in the U.S. as of late, based upon the strength of two solid full lengths-2009′s Mirror of Retribution and 2005′s Stateside debut Sediq Bale-and some hefty, opening slot touring.
What many American fans of the band may not know, however, is the fact that Chthonic actually has a back catalog of material stretching far back to the late 90s, which means that the quartet have had plenty of time to hone their skills and abilities to a razor-sharp edge.
This edge has been played extremely well here on the band’s sixth full length proper, Takasago Army, an album which practically bursts at the seams with maniacal metal menace and lush, orchestral brilliance. Every part of this record is played on ’10,’ with utterly bombastic results at every turn. On Takasago Army, the stylistic accusations of the band being ‘Taiwan’s answer to Cradle of Filth’ have been silence to a greater degree here, although the British band’s influence still rings loud and clear within Chthonic’s riffing and vocal attacks.
Still, this is vicious, well-crafted modern metal which utilizes a lot of the band’s cultural heritage within the eccentric and evocative instrumentation which pops out now and then, serving as melodic color as well as an integral part of Chthonic as a unique metal entity. ‘The Left Face of Maradou’ provides memorable, scathing vocal lines of passion and pain, while his bass playing-and, let’s get this out of the way: sexy as hell-bass playing counterpart Doris meets him at every turn with a soothing, counterpoint voice of her own.
Chthonic is a great band, and one which really deserves the solid buzz they have going ’round here on American shores. Let’s hope the band’s upcoming tour with Arch Enemy brings them even more exposure and success, because Takasago Army is one hell of a record which deserves a rabid, attentive audience.
Directed by the controversial British director Ken Russell, 1986′s Gothic fits snugly alongside the man’s out there, avant-garde work with The Who’s Tommy, the mind-trippy Altered States and his masterpiece of snarling Christian condemnation, The Devils.
Set in decadent 18th century England, Gothic recounts and re-envisions the creative impetus of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein-and, to a lesser extent, Bram Stoker’s Dracula-via a dark, stormy nightmare evening shared between Shelley (still here under her maiden name of Godwin), her famed poet lover Percy Shelley, stepsister Claire Clairemont, Dr. John Polidori and the infamous Lord Byron at the latter’s secluded island villa.
This night-which was often recounted by the real life Percy Shelly, Mary and Byron as one of the most frightful of their lives-ushers in a storm of fear and inspiration amongst the booze and sex-hungry revelers, quickly turning their night from hedonistic playfulness to red eyed terror. Forced to confront haunting and harrowing visions of their innermost fears, Shelley and company are led to the brink of madness by Russell, with the director’s sharp eye for visual creepiness set the bar quite high for us the viewer, as well.
Although Gothic starts off somewhat slow, the film’s pace increases exponentially into a crazed, psychedelic whirlwind of disturbing imagery and heart-stopping scares,. the stuff of which true, classic horror is made. Russell’s exquisite cast makes the absolute best of Gothic, with Gabriel Byrne’s Lord Byron coming across as sadistically deviant one minute, and utterly charming the next. The late Natasha Richardson shines as Godwin, while Warlock veteran Julian Sands portrays a light, ephemeral, yet direly haunted Percy Shelley.
Meanwhile, Myrium Cyr provides the wanton ‘n wide eyed sex appeal with her character of Clairemont, while the excellent character actor Timothy Spall is this film’s secret weapon, delivering a layered performance as the tortured Dr. Polidori, whose story “The Vampire” eventually served as the basis for Stoker’s Dracula. All of this ensemble cast give it their all, and Gothic comes up winning because of their efforts, exciting and scaring us in equal, disturbing amounts. Check it out.
It’s a well known fact that bands can’t stay away from the spotlight when they go out on top. You have to really go out in a bad way to not have the little twitch to do it again. We see it year after year with every major band that announces their ‘farewell tour’. One band that did a good job of keeping things parked were MINISTRY though. As AL JOURGENSEN got older, experienced health problems and began working in other areas of the industry, it appeared that maybe he would keep the band inactive and he did just that for a few years. However, it is official that MINISTRY is returning in 2012.
The announcement came from WACKEN OPEN AIR, confirming that the band has signed on to play the 2012 edition of the world’s largest heavy metal gathering. Other acts already announced for the festival, which just held it’s 2011 version this past weekend, include SCORPIONS, AMON AMARTH, HAMMERFALL, GAMMA RAY, UDO and CRADLE OF FILTH thus far and will take place August 2nd-4th, 2012 in Wacken, Germany.
WACKEN 2012 will be the first time I’ve been to the mega-fest in a few years and it will certainly be cool to see MINISTRY make their return to the stage in front of 20,000+ festival goers. However, WACKEN is a long way in the future so I’m curious if we will see good ol’ uncle AL hit the road in the states before this time. It appears that he has the itch again and MINISTRY will most certainly play US soil for a few reasons – namely because the band is an American band and they have a large portion of their fan base right here in the states.
Obviously, I welcome their return but I also wonder, when will a band ACTUALLY stay retired?
It has long been rumored that CRADLE OF FILTH frontman, Dani Filth, is a bit egocentric and difficult to deal with. This makes the fact that he got his ass kicked by security at France’s Lez’Arts Sceniques festival this past weekend. While Filth has not spoken about the circumstances of the event, the festival organizers posted the following message on their website explaining what happened.
“Faced with the aggressive and unmanageable Dani Filth, backstage and on stage, the organizers were forced to hire security of the festival and the police to control the individual who had become dangerous to himself and others.”
What this ultimately means, still a little up in the air. What happened next though included a scuffle between Filth and event security that left the CRADLE OF FILTH frontman injured enough that he announced today that the band will be forced to forego their appearance at the upcoming edition of WACKEN OPEN AIR. In the wake of this announcement, WACKEN organizers announced the addition of the mighty TRIPTYKON to this year’s lineup as well as rescheduled CRADLE OF FILTH’s WACKEN performance for the 2012 edition of the festival.
Two grainy and far-away videos have made it online that (supposedly) show the altercation taking place and Filth being restrained. Take a look for yourself below.
