Tronos: Celestial Mechanics (Century Media) [Paul H]
In a week when the crazy Canadian Devin Townsend released one his most over the top albums, this beast landed in the inbox to review. A mind-altering hour or so of some bone crushing metal, guided and directed by none other than Napalm Death’s Shane Embury and producer Russ Russell. Having pieced the album together over the past couple of years, and a supporting cast including metal drumming legend Dirk Verbeuren, Voivod frontman Denis ‘Snake’ Belanger, vocalist Erica Nockalls (The Wonder Stuff) and no fewer than three legendary bass players – Faith No More’s Billy Gould, Mastodon’s Troy Sanders and death/thrash icon Dan Lilker.
“The concept was born way before we even hit the first note,” Russell commented. “We talked of the end of humanity, the quest to explore outer and inner space, the extension of life and consciousness through space travel, energy transference through meditation and ultimately through death... how would humanity live on? In some far-reaching space craft or just by leaving our bodies behind? After many conversations we decided we should really give it a try, so we got together for a weekend and two songs were born. It came really easily and was exactly what we had in our heads, so we decided to go for the whole album.”
This is a ferociously heavy album, at times veering towards the industrial terror of Fear Factory, at other times moving at a faster, more animated pace. Opening song Walk Among The Dead Things smoulders menacingly; the blistering heaviness of Birth Womb could peel the flesh of your face And A Treaty With Reality is amongst the heaviest songs I’ve heard for a long time, albeit balanced with Erica Nockalls beautiful violin work. I’ve played it several times and constantly discover new things.
Interesting sounds, with a real gothic twist at times, such as the haunting Premonition, are literally falling from Celestial Mechanics as you journey deeper. Crushing riffs, Verbeuren’s massive bass lines driving the songs forward with a thunderous approach all congeal to deliver a perfect album which deserves multiple plays. The brave stab at Sabbath’s Johnny Blade, all 6:22 of it closes the album in raging style, this version much faster and completely amended. It is something to drive your car fast to. Celestial Mechanics is an album I am still exploring. With such superb and legendary musicians at the helm, this release also lives up to the hype. One of the releases of the year so far. 9/10
Satan Takes A Holiday: A New Sensation (Despotz Records) [Mark]
In a week when the crazy Canadian Devin Townsend released one his most over the top albums, this beast landed in the inbox to review. A mind-altering hour or so of some bone crushing metal, guided and directed by none other than Napalm Death’s Shane Embury and producer Russ Russell. Having pieced the album together over the past couple of years, and a supporting cast including metal drumming legend Dirk Verbeuren, Voivod frontman Denis ‘Snake’ Belanger, vocalist Erica Nockalls (The Wonder Stuff) and no fewer than three legendary bass players – Faith No More’s Billy Gould, Mastodon’s Troy Sanders and death/thrash icon Dan Lilker.
“The concept was born way before we even hit the first note,” Russell commented. “We talked of the end of humanity, the quest to explore outer and inner space, the extension of life and consciousness through space travel, energy transference through meditation and ultimately through death... how would humanity live on? In some far-reaching space craft or just by leaving our bodies behind? After many conversations we decided we should really give it a try, so we got together for a weekend and two songs were born. It came really easily and was exactly what we had in our heads, so we decided to go for the whole album.”
This is a ferociously heavy album, at times veering towards the industrial terror of Fear Factory, at other times moving at a faster, more animated pace. Opening song Walk Among The Dead Things smoulders menacingly; the blistering heaviness of Birth Womb could peel the flesh of your face And A Treaty With Reality is amongst the heaviest songs I’ve heard for a long time, albeit balanced with Erica Nockalls beautiful violin work. I’ve played it several times and constantly discover new things.
Interesting sounds, with a real gothic twist at times, such as the haunting Premonition, are literally falling from Celestial Mechanics as you journey deeper. Crushing riffs, Verbeuren’s massive bass lines driving the songs forward with a thunderous approach all congeal to deliver a perfect album which deserves multiple plays. The brave stab at Sabbath’s Johnny Blade, all 6:22 of it closes the album in raging style, this version much faster and completely amended. It is something to drive your car fast to. Celestial Mechanics is an album I am still exploring. With such superb and legendary musicians at the helm, this release also lives up to the hype. One of the releases of the year so far. 9/10
Satan Takes A Holiday: A New Sensation (Despotz Records) [Mark]
Well, this is a new band for me, completely new, and this is their fifth album? Where have I been? Satan Takes A Holiday takes influence from all sort of places for A New Sensation, 70’s garage rock, pop music, grunge, and 90’s British indie, I think. This is interesting and very different to what I normally listen to, but I am always up for having my horizons expanded, musically.
A New Sensation opens the album with a Queens Of The Stone Age feel, dirty feedback then a very very catchy riff, the vocals are immaculate and a few listens in you’ll be singing along for sure, this isn’t complicated music, this is sing alongs and a few beers. Unicorn keeps the energy flowing with hooks galore and a really catchy bassline/riff combo that has a great little run that made me rewind this track a few times, another catchy belter.
Son Of A Gun has a more punky upbeat feel with guest vocals by Tess De La Cour, take me back to the 80s! Other album highlights include Pilot and Kingslayer, the latter being a seedy groovy number. The gist of this album is, if you like Satan Takes A Holiday’s sound, you’re going to love this album, if it’s not something you’re into, you’ll be off after one or two tracks, but it is a sound that’s recognisable and could be something played on more commercial radio stations, if only guitar based music was still in favour at those places. 7/10
The Pilgrim: Walking Into The Forest (Heavy Psych Sounds) [Paul S]
The Pilgrim is a project from Gabriele Fiori, main man with Italian heavy psych rock bands Black Rainbows and Killer Boogie. This project is Gabriele on his own with an acoustic guitar, doing minimalist folk. Most of the material is just one gently strummed acoustic guitar, with Gabriele’s vocals, there isn’t much in the way of percussion either, maybe a little tambourine on a couple of tracks, but that seems to be it. Very simple, minimalist folk with just a little bit of colour added on a few tracks by an organ, or pleasant little guitar solos. There is a similarity with the late sixties / early seventies singer songwriter style of songwriting. The overall style is quite close to the track Horse With No Name by America. Most of the material on the album is very soft and gentle. Simple melodies, with nice understated vocals.
The Pilgrim: Walking Into The Forest (Heavy Psych Sounds) [Paul S]
The Pilgrim is a project from Gabriele Fiori, main man with Italian heavy psych rock bands Black Rainbows and Killer Boogie. This project is Gabriele on his own with an acoustic guitar, doing minimalist folk. Most of the material is just one gently strummed acoustic guitar, with Gabriele’s vocals, there isn’t much in the way of percussion either, maybe a little tambourine on a couple of tracks, but that seems to be it. Very simple, minimalist folk with just a little bit of colour added on a few tracks by an organ, or pleasant little guitar solos. There is a similarity with the late sixties / early seventies singer songwriter style of songwriting. The overall style is quite close to the track Horse With No Name by America. Most of the material on the album is very soft and gentle. Simple melodies, with nice understated vocals.
The tracks with an organ (Peace Of Mind, The Time You Wait, Pendulum, and Suite 2) feel a little more depth to them, with the extra tonal aspects. The songs with guitar solos also feel like they have an extra dimension to them, opening up the track and making them feel a little more interesting. The slight downside of having such a simple style, just strummed guitar and vocals, is that if the melodies drop from being beautiful and serine (and a lot of the material on here is very beautiful), it starts to feel a little dreary, Sailor and Secrets being tracks where this was a bit of a problem.
But on the whole this is a very sweet, melodic, tuneful album, that will have you humming the tunes for days. Some of the songs are achingly beautiful, When I Call Your Name being a good example of this. Walking Into The Forest is a sweet little album. It’s a shame that some of the material is a little bland and dreary, as it is on an album with some really great songs. A good album, that could have been great if the quality was consistent. 7/10
Drunken Crocodiles: Out Of Barrel (Too Loud Records) [Mark]
Drunken Crocodiles have recently signed to Too Loud Records to release their debut album Out Of Barrel. The band consists of Elia Borelli on bass and vocals duties, Ivan Marchettini playing guitars, Emanuele Mollica on the drums. Viktor is a slow walk through a wet swamp, it opens this album with all the groove of a Clutch track slowed down and fed through the distortion machine. The pace changes about halfway through with a more uptempo effort and the introduction of vocals, rounding out a very solid opener, though the vocals seem to be sat behind a blanket or slightly muffled, it’s a weird sensation to listen to them.
But on the whole this is a very sweet, melodic, tuneful album, that will have you humming the tunes for days. Some of the songs are achingly beautiful, When I Call Your Name being a good example of this. Walking Into The Forest is a sweet little album. It’s a shame that some of the material is a little bland and dreary, as it is on an album with some really great songs. A good album, that could have been great if the quality was consistent. 7/10
Drunken Crocodiles: Out Of Barrel (Too Loud Records) [Mark]
Drunken Crocodiles have recently signed to Too Loud Records to release their debut album Out Of Barrel. The band consists of Elia Borelli on bass and vocals duties, Ivan Marchettini playing guitars, Emanuele Mollica on the drums. Viktor is a slow walk through a wet swamp, it opens this album with all the groove of a Clutch track slowed down and fed through the distortion machine. The pace changes about halfway through with a more uptempo effort and the introduction of vocals, rounding out a very solid opener, though the vocals seem to be sat behind a blanket or slightly muffled, it’s a weird sensation to listen to them.
The Monk is up next, with a monolithic intro, this is great, more along the sludge lines I was hoping for, riffs taking up a lot of time and space, then the track 180s and we’re into another uptempo affair after the minute or so build up, reminds me a little of Red Fang, no bad thing for sure, but this isn’t very monk-like. There’s an impressive groove that fills out the middle of the track that transports us all the way to the end of almost seven minutes, this is a little bit too self indulgent and could have been trimmed to make a more concise sounding effort.
Shortcut has a very 90’s sound, like early grunge demos mixed with a bit of alt-rock, it’s a nice direction change and one that I was not expecting, we also get a closer examination of Elia’s vocals here, and they’re decent, nothing super special but enough to compliment the music. Mate is another track that accentuates the slower more melodic side of Drunken Crocodiles, a well put together tune that has a lovely build and break feel throughout.
Shortcut has a very 90’s sound, like early grunge demos mixed with a bit of alt-rock, it’s a nice direction change and one that I was not expecting, we also get a closer examination of Elia’s vocals here, and they’re decent, nothing super special but enough to compliment the music. Mate is another track that accentuates the slower more melodic side of Drunken Crocodiles, a well put together tune that has a lovely build and break feel throughout.
Tricky Quiet is my album highlight, it has a great groove and the vocals seem to shine the most on this track, it’s overall the best example of what this very capable band are able to create, pulsing rhythms, great atmosphere, myriad influences woven into one solid track. Overall, this sounds like an album from a live band who are still finding their studio chops, a really solid effort that fans of Red Fang, Mastodon or Baroness may enjoy. 7/10