Reviews: Watain, Poets Of The Fall, Saffire, Crossplane (Reviews By Matt Bladen)

 
Even when stripped of the buckets of blood and raging infernos that make up their live show Watain still have the power to impress and terrify on record, their thrilling black metal meets prog style, evoking nightmarish visions set to ever shifting tremolo picking, blast beating and that Erik Danielsson squawking vocal. The Agony & Ecstasy Of Watain is the bands seventh album, the follow up to 2018's Trident Wolf Eclipse, since then there has been controversy due to a now ex-live member, but then controversy has always followed Watain around. 

The Agony & Ecstasy Of Watain has the core studio trio of Danielsson (vocals), Håkan Jonsson (drums) and Pelle Forsberg (guitar), recording along with live members Alvarao Lillo (bass), H.Erkisson (rhythm guitar) and E Forcas (drums) for the first time. This leads to the record sounding much bigger than previous outings, Watain unleashing their usual raging black metal assault with opening track Ecstasies In Night Infinite and the explosive Funeral Winter which doubles down on that traditional Watain black metal but gives everything layers allowing Jonsson to unleash much more savage, technical guitar playing than before due to the additional band members. 

However this more traditional cvlt sound the band spread their wings a little sonically, with a throbbing stomp on Leper's Grace, a nasty death metal crush on Black Cunt, while Serimosa brings a grinding ominous approach, both shifting away from just being raging extreme metal. Giving the record a bit more of a dynamic, multilayered feel, even opening it up to those that may not worship at the altar of Satanic black metal. 

The magisterial We Remain is the biggest addition to this more experimental Watain as it's a song that moves into the realms of doom and features the haunting incantations of Farida Lemouchi of Molasses and formerly from The Devil's Blood who took their name from a Watain song. It's Watain Jim... but not as we know it, the band have managed to retain all that has made them so revered in the past but manage to evolve again with their most ambitious album yet! 9/10

Poets Of The Fall - Ghostlight (Playground Music)

Dark, romanticism of H.I.M along with the symphonic, melodicism of Von Hertzen Bros. The strings and orchestrations make this record something very beautiful to listen too, used in thrilling conjunction with the rock instrumentation of guitars, bass and drums, there's a dynamism to this album that really impressed me. Also the vocals are brilliant, wide ranging and capable of of soaring highs along with fragile lows, it adds to the theatricality of Poets Of The Fall's ninth album Ghostlight. 

This cinematic quality to the Finns music will be no surprise to long time fans, but for any new people, myself included, Poets Of The Fall have a lot of experience contributing to video game soundtracks the earliest of which being Max Payne 2. So they are no strangers to melodrama and emotive arrangements, something Ghostlights is filled with, closer Beyond The Horizon for example is finale that brings the sense of pathos together with stirring instrumentals and a killer guitar solo. The record has a fair few of these adding that touch of bands such as Kamelot too as the rockier tracks are met with excellent balladry.

Now I have said in a lot of album reviews that they have too many ballads but there's just something about the way the slower more dramatic songs on this record keep your attention, almost like they do in a musical. I'd never heard anything from Poets Of The Fall before this album but I'm very impressed with Ghostlights. Well worth tracking down. 8/10

Saffire - Taming The Hurricane (ROAR! Rock Of Angels Records)

After losing their previous drummer, Swedish heavy rockers Saffire have put Efraim Larsson behind the kit for this fourth record, focussing on a more elemental, raw sound, the idea being to evoke the power of their titular hurricane. How they do this is through a style of music that takes from legends like Rainbow (RJD Version) with songs such as Read Between The Lines, Triumph Of The Willing and Silver Eyes having huge organ riffs along with powerful vocals and searing lead guitars. 

There's also a lot of fellow Swedes Europe here as well especially on the title track. This is the overarching style present here but there's also touches of more modern bands such as Jorn or Shakra. Saffire having crafted their style across their previous 3 records, but on this fourth record, they seem refocused to play the best music of their career, building around their new drummer to get you singing along to the anthemic choruses and nodding to the big riffs. 

They have also tried to bring more personal lyrics to this record on Flight Of A Thousand Wings especially, though they do slip into some fantasy with Wendigo which has a bit of Sonata Arctica about it for me. Taming Of The Hurricane sees Saffire with a new man behind the drum kit, and a more direct approach to songwriting. Hard rock with a melodic metal edge Saffire have a collection of well set jewels here. 7/10

Crossplane - Fastlane (El Puerto Records)

I like Motorhead, you like Motorhead (hopefully), but Crossplane probably like Motorhead more than both of us. Theses Germans live for filthy rock n roll and the play it at the loudest volume possible. Fastlane is their fourth record and it's 11 tracks of heavy duty rock n roll similar to what Lemmy and the boys would play. Having been a band since 2009, they come with bags of experience, which you can hear in how focused the songs on this album are. They pin you to the wall, rough you up then take you out drinking all night. 

With Marcel Mönnig up front, they have a guy who vocally is a dead ringer for Mr Kilminster, a throaty, gruff shout delivering such ditties as Make Beer Not War, Rock N Roll Will Never Die and Rock Out, while slamming out the fuzzy guitar riffs along with Alex Störmer. Everything is pushed up to 11 as Andrew Barrett (bass) and Mark Brückmanm (drums) provide the thundering low end gallop. 

10 of the tracks here are there own heavy rock n rollers with one cover in the shape of The Stooges Search And Destroy which gets a meaty overhaul without straying too far from the original. Crossplane play rock n roll, unashamedly and bloody loudly. 7/10