Mastodon: Medium Rarities (Reprise Records) [Paul Hutchings]
Sometimes you forget that Mastodon have been punching hard for two decades. Formed in Atlanta in 2000, the stable line-up of Troy Sanders (bass/vocals), Brent Hinds (lead guitar/vocals), Bill Kelliher (rhythm guitar/backing vocals), and Brann Dailor (drums/vocals) have released seven studio albums and have slowly moved their way through the ranks. Big enough to headline some of the smaller festivals, Mastodon appeal spreads wider than just metal heads and if you’ve attended one of their recent academy sized tours, you’ll know that they pull in a diverse crowd. Medium Rarities is an interesting package which delves deep into the band’s archive and influences as well as showcasing a new track and some live tracks of earlier songs. 70 minutes in length, it opens with the sole new song, Fallen Torches which features Neurosis’ Scott Kelly, who maintains his record of appearing on every Mastodon album except for Remission. Instantly recognisable, the sludgy groove ridden riffs also showcase drummer Brann Dailor on the choruses, something that the band have expanded upon over the past couple of albums to good effect. It’s a solid song that provides a nice teaser for the next album, retaining the wild off the wall elements which riddle their music.
Elsewhere, there are some covers which will be unfamiliar to many. These include A Commotion, which featured on a split single with Canadian Indie singer Feist in 2012. An appearance from Gibby Haynes on the Butthole Surfers track Atlanta marks a typically chaotic performance whilst The Flaming Lips'A Spoonful Weighs A Ton provides a different take on a less well-known track. A note perfect cover of Metallica’s Orion is also included. This originally featured on the Kerrang! Master Of Puppets 20-year anniversary CD in 2006. Two songs from film soundtracks make the cut, with White Walkers from Game Of Thrones, which also saw the band make their appearances in the show, showing that the band can take it down a level in contrast to their usual, ear splitting levels. Jaguar God from the most recent album release Emperor Of The Sand is the pick of the instrumentals. Close to eight minutes, its deft cleverness provides opportunity for the band to showcase their quality as musicians. A plethora of live tracks are also shoehorned into the album with highlights of the ferocious Blood & Thunder and Iron Tusk both probably benefitting from a bit of studio wizardry but excellent all the same. Whilst this may be one for the more dedicated Mastodon fan, there is plenty within this release to engage the casual listener. The band are a superb musical machine, and the rarities here provide an opportunity to listen to them in a more obscure and free flowing setting. 8/10
The wonderfully titled Bornwithhair are a duo hailing from Chesapeake Bay Watershed. The pair, Jean Farraige and the aptly named Weirding, released 2 singles in 2019, and released their debut album in February this year. Clearly Bornwithhair are a productive pair of noise makers as Smoleńska has been produced in barely 6 months. The album was recorded in a 19th century Maryland farmhouse on a river that spills into Baltimore Harbour. Bornwithhair describe their sound Avant-Garde Metal that incorporates Black, Death and Sludge, but also using elements of Industrial, Noise, Psychedelia, Freak Folk and Free Improvisation. With some bands that would be baseless boasting, but Bornwithhair clearly mean it. There is a huge amount of different styles and moods on this album, in a strange way it’s what makes this album great, or terrible, depending on how you feel about this. Smoleńska has an almost ridiculous amount of different ideas on it; creativity that sometimes feels a little out of control. All the drums on the album are processed, so in my opinion the Industrial feel of this album is quite high.
In a slightly strange way the drums sound a little bit like early nineties British Industrial Indie band Carter USM, it’s unashamedly electronic, giving everything that slight Industrial tint. The spread of styles on this album is pretty impressive. The album opens with a blast of lo-fi, savage Black Metal that is reminiscent of early Ulver on the track Kotwica and ends with soft strummed acoustic guitar with gently chanted vocals at the finale of the final track Death War / I Imagined A Future. In between those two utterly desperate forms we get a huge range of different styles. The parts of Kotwica that come after are a sort of Industrial Post Black Metal and a section that sounds punky and alternative and some quite interesting chanted vocals. The parts that come before the soft ending of Death War / I Imagined a Future are a kind of brooding, minimal industrial that feels compressed and controlled that then builds in intensity, complexity and speed until it reaches insane proportions, and then the song drops into a very quiet section with minimal voices, before crashing back into the maelstrom we’d just left, which then drifts into the aforementioned soft guitars and chanted vocals. The rest of the album is just as varied as those two. Our Education 1939 is soft strummed guitar with minimal vocals and in the second half some very pleasing tremolo picked riffs that sound beautifully Post Black Metal. The soft and gentle aspect of this track is mirrored by the second to last track Our Education 1944. House Of The Professors / Józef The Cop is a brooding, gothic tinged piece of noise rock, which features a pulsing bass line that has a relentless feel.
The song ends with a soft folky section. Small Sabotage is a minimalist industrial track, featuring riff fragments and feedback, with some very harsh vocals. Arresting Propaganda / Cruel Fate is a mix of the folky sound that appears on most of the tracks, and driving, pulsing noise sound. There's an electronic feel to the extreme parts, in some places it reminded me a little of Orannsi Pazuzu. 26008 (Numbers) starts with strummed guitar with Post Black metal riffs over the top, and feels quite lush. This then builds, with more layers, and gets more and more extreme until it becomes a maelstrom of nasty industrial viciousness, before drifting back to strummed lushness. Smoleńska is a staggering piece of creative lunacy. It’s very complex, and feels as if it is constantly changing. The sheer number of different riffs, bass lines, noises, beats and voices is almost overwhelming. Sometimes it is too much. There are places where the constant changes make it feel incoherent, all the ideas seem to be treated as equally important, so some of my favourite parts appeared and disappeared in the blink of an eye. There were a couple of times where I heard a bit I particularly liked and I thought, “come back! I was enjoying that riff!”.
There is an immense amount good stuff on here, but Bornwithhair have taken a scattergun approach to their creativity, everything is all over the place; what this needs is focus. Please don’t think this is a bad album, it isn’t, it’s a great piece of work, but it needs more control, it needs more definition. If Bornwithhair can focus this almost ridiculous level of creativity, so their work has more clarity, then they could be on to something really special. I get the feeling that this album is a stepping stone towards something really special, a learning experience that they needed to go through before they can reach their potential. This may be the band learning their craft before releasing an album that will be seen as a classic. Personally I can’t wait to hear what they do next. 7/10
Dephosphorus: Sublimation (Selfmadegod Records, 7 Degrees Records & Nerve Altar)
Primarily a studio band Dephosphorus' guitarist/songwriter Thanos lives in Sweden, while the rest of the band is located in Greece, their sound is almost a science fiction influenced version of bands such as Gojira where the groove and rhythm is the most valuable part of the songs. The band are all sci-fi fans and this album is inspired by Iain M. Banks’ concept of Sublimation from his final sci-fi novel, “The Hydrogen Sonata”. So it's high concept stuff which blends raging screamed vocals on top of driving heavy rhythmic metal that is part groove part grindcore with a progressive edge which they have brought to this their fourth release. The first four tracks here are in Greek but set the tone for what is to come which by the furious Absurd Aftermath is no longer jarring allowing you to ease into this albums blend of technicality and outright power where the songs all blend into one long journey through this astrologically influenced slice of extremity. An interesting record that will inspire you to seek out Dephosphorus' previous records. 6/10Liquid Therapy: Breathe (Self Released) [Lucas Tuckwood]
After the fourth chorus repeat I’m praying for the track to end, but no, there’s still three minutes left to endure. The riffs are mind-numbingly simple, the solos venture just south of nowhere, and the drums pound away in abject boredom. At least the vocals are good, but they can’t save a boring album.
The musicianship is mostly fine, as is the production, but it lacks anything that makes it really stand out, or give it any sufficient bite. Perhaps an external producer could help trim the fat for the next release. As it stands however, the title of track eight, I Don’t Care, is exactly how I feel about this album. I’d give this one a miss if I were you. There’s clearly drive and passion here, but they’ll need some serious refinement in order to realise their potential. In the meantime however, this is an album with no real edge, that promises great things, but fails to stick the landing. 4/10
The musicianship is mostly fine, as is the production, but it lacks anything that makes it really stand out, or give it any sufficient bite. Perhaps an external producer could help trim the fat for the next release. As it stands however, the title of track eight, I Don’t Care, is exactly how I feel about this album. I’d give this one a miss if I were you. There’s clearly drive and passion here, but they’ll need some serious refinement in order to realise their potential. In the meantime however, this is an album with no real edge, that promises great things, but fails to stick the landing. 4/10