Blacklab – In A Bizarre Dream (New Heavy Sounds) [Quinn Mattfeld]
Blacklab might be too cool for me. For the duration of their new album In A Bizarre Dream, I found myself thinking, "I really should've worn all black to listen to this. Blacklab wears all black. Blacklab’s really cool." The band describes themselves as a "dark witch Doom duo from Osaka, Japan" and they have the sound to match it. Vocals range from spooky-smooth crooning to demonic screams and guitar tones so thick and malevolent I fear it may be leaking radium through my speakers... Which wouldn't stop me from hanging out with them socially if they ever wanted to- no worries either way though!
One half Black Sabbath, one half Stereolab, their third full length album opens with Cold Rain and right away, you know Blacklab are not fucking around. Vocalist/Guitarist Yuko Morino lays into a slow scream on the first verse before sliding effortlessly into clean vocals; a unique blend of elements with echoes of Dorthia Cotrell, Carina Round and the occasional wink to Nico. By the time Chia Shiraishi's drums come crushing down on the track, it's too late, you're already an ingredient in whatever they've got in the cauldron. Don't despair, the culmination of the song is coming, and it's worth being slowly boiled alive for...
The album continues with two singles: Abyss Woods, another brutal vocal by Morino, bookended by a heavy STP-style riff and Dark Clouds demonstrating Blacklab's Punk bonafides with an up-tempo drum track and thrashy chords as Morino sways between 90s altera-snarl and a scream that borders on Black Metal vocals. Evil 1, my favorite track on the record, comes in like blackhole sludge and goes out like an early System Of A Down tune while Evil 2 builds a slow, bluesy riff into relentless, Stygian waves of sound... Do you think Blacklab would be my friends on Facebook? No, they are way too cool for Facebook. Stupid question. Don't tell them I asked.
Crows, Sparrows And Cats flattens their sound a bit but Lost follows and carries us through to the title track, an ambient bed of noise under descending guitar strings that could give the Manson Family nightmares. In A Bizarre Dream and the two songs that conclude the album, Monochrome Rainbow and Collapse, transmute this record into something else entirely. I don't want to describe it, I just want you to listen to it because it's my favorite sequence on the record. Can I have two favorites? Can someone ask Blacklab if that’s cool? Just in case they want to text me about it or whatever.
Blacklab stick the landing here like Kerri Strug engulfed in flame. They have woven a mosaic of styles and influences into a monolith of woeful and insidious doom. Would that I could dance with them around it in fealty to our mutual Dark Lord. Not that I'm asking for an invitation but I'll be here if one comes... sitting by the phone, staring at the Mailbox, listening to Blacklab. 9/10
Hollywood Undead - Hotel Kalifornia (Sony BMG) [Matt Bladen]Hollywood Undead's newest album Hotel Kalifornia deals with the wealth divide in their native city of Los Angeles. The disparity between rich and poor in that city seems much more obvious than in many other cities in the world. From the glitz and glamour of Hollywood to the notorious Skid Row, growing up the band members seemed to be destined for a life of crime/behind bars.
Puzzle Tree - Every Broken Floor (Self Released)
A progressive/alt rock band from South Wales, Puzzle Tree's debut album has been a while in the making but it has finally arrived. Each of the band members has had to contend with a lot of hardships in the run up to this record but they have managed to complete an accomplished debut album. Every Broken Floor gets its grooves going with Embers, a chugging slow burner which feels like Alter Bridge, the guitars of both Matt John and Matthew Alexander Powell having that unmistakable Creed/Alter Bridge harmonic style.
Buried Under Sky – Darkest Corners (Self Released) [Quinn Mattfeld]
Buried Under Sky admits to being “…four middle-aged guys with day jobs, making the metal they want to hear.” That’s about the most endearing sentence I’ve ever read in any promotional band material. So, any criticism I may have of Buried Under Sky and the music they choose to make ought to be understood within a purely philosophical context: the band is perfectly happy with the album they have produced, their target audience loves the record because their target audience is Buried Under Sky.
Darkest Corners is a more than solid offering for those who like their metal mixed with melody and a healthy dose of riffs to punctuate the beauty with brutality. The record opens with Extinguishing The Stars a contemplation of the changing seasons injected with a sense of cosmic doom. It’s a strong start for the band and even though it’s not necessarily my cup of hydrochloric acid, it’s really great! …until we get to the metal vocals. The band seems torn between two styles of metal vocal, ranging from a fuller, more aggressive, forward placement of a progy Beard-Metal growl like on the first chorus of the title song to a more hollow, wraith-like Post-Black Metal sound on almost every other track which doesn't serve the album well.
A good metal vocal is like the Giant Squid of the Deep Ocean: they're elusive, rare, and will semi-frequently kill young sperm whales that stray too far from a parent. I'd love to say "Why don't they just do what Scott Kelly does?!" but despite what people outside the genre think they understand about metal and its vocal spectrum; what Scott Kelly does is nearly inhuman. Aside from the physical difficulty, what makes a great metal vocal is authenticity. Scott Kelly sounds like a human producing a sound that matches the grand emotional scale of the music, Buried Under Sky's metal vocals feel a bit forced and more often than not at stylistic odds with their own melody.