The Loom Of Time - Grand False Karass (ATMF) [Paul Scoble]
The Loom Of Time are a three piece based in Australia, who have been making very interesting noises since 2015. The band is made up of Brad Delforce on bass, Steven Reid on drums and Matthew J. Ratcliffe on guitar and vocals. In the seven years the band have been together they have made one album before Grand False Karass, in 2016’s NihilReich. The Loom Of Times style is a mix of doom, black and death metal, on their first album the balance was towards the doom, however Grand False Karass seems to be skewed towards the black metal, in particular the more experimental end of the black metal spectrum, although there are lots of doom and death metal elements in the mix, as well as lots of other influences from wherever the band felt like taking them.
The sound on Grand False Karass is fairly extreme, the guitar has an early Ulver buzzsaw feel to it, and the harsh vocals are very nasty and in a Black Metal register rather than a lower death metal voice. There are softer elements and clean Vocals (which are very good) mixed into this sound, but the more extreme sounds dominate, with the nicer material accentuating the brutality.
The other element that has a large effect on this album, is how it is structured, and this is one of the more experimental aspects of the album. The Loom Of Time do not repeat parts or riffs, everything you hear on the album is played once and then is never heard again. I read a review of the bands first album in the preparation to writing this, and this was pointed out, so I had this on my mind as I listened to the album, and in the 15 or 20 times I listened to it I am certain that this is the case for this album as well.
This means that the songs do not have verses or choruses, and it all feels more like a stream of conciseness, rather than a collection of songs; as if we are listening to music coming strait out of a musicians mind, as they imagine it. This is clearly very experimental, and will put some listeners off, although that might be exactly why they have done it, as a challenge to their audience. It does feel a little like the band are being deliberately difficult, and in some places it makes the songs feel disjointed.
Most of the parts get about 15 to 20 seconds before they disappear, although some sections might get as much as minute. It’s definitely an interesting approach, which has artistic merit, I like the constantly changing, shifting nature of this as it keeps everything interesting and fresh, but I did really like some of those riffs, and would have enjoyed some of them being repeated. The track with the longest parts that feel most like a normal song is the final track The Slightest Of Deaths.
Grand False Karass feels like a constantly shifting piece of work, it’s full of transitions between different, sometimes very disparate, parts. Sometimes the transitions are smooth and feel like a natural progression, but a lot of them are abrupt and jarring, probably on purpose. Despite most of the material fitting into doom, death or black metal, the total number of different styles on this album is staggering; black metal blasting, dissonant black metal, dissonant death metal, lo-fi old school black metal, thrash, blackened thrash, Sigh style black metal, jazz, jazz with saxophone, blasting fast death metal, high speed power metal with shredding solo, Nu Metal slow chugging death/doom, expansive doom, hard rock, ambient soundscapes, industrial, harsh noise and some melodic black metal and on and on and on. The amount of styles is almost overwhelming, and it does work, but you need to have a very open mind to realise that.
Grand False Karass is a very interesting album, in some ways it is more interesting than enjoyable. A lot of listeners will hate it, but the people who get it will love it as there really isn’t anyone else doing anything quite like this. Whether you like and appreciate this or not, there is a staggering amount of creative energy behind this, and that should be respected. If you like your Metal original, creative and experimental, you should definitely give this a listen. 7/10
Confessions Of A Traitor – Punishing Myself Before God Does (Facedown Records) [Matt Cook]
Come for the artwork, stay for the breakdowns. London-based metallic hardcore bruisers Confessions Of A Traitor pen “aggressive music for positive people,” according to their biography, and if that isn’t enough to grab your attention, take a gander at the album cover. A hypnotic blend of purples, blues and teals, it features the side profile of a female with a mermaid superimposed inside of her head. Its colour is inviting, endearing and comforting. It’s a pristine omen of things to come.
Punishing Myself Before God Does assaults the listener with delicious breakdowns, circular-saw guitars and a flow akin to a crystal-clear river on a sun-soaked summer day. It’s everything that makes metalcore great. The bipartisan harsh-clean tête-à-tête is invigorating and instrumental in empowering the 10 songs. It’s a headbanging affair heavy on provoking the adrenal gland that also delivers overhand haymakers by way of palatable choppy guitars and melodic soloing which dances wonderfully with the grit and gruff.
All good albums are also bolstered by sturdy lyrics. Lines like “I will rebuild my sense of self,” “I need to live / I just need to feel” and “Why am I so terrified of my own self-worth?” proves Confessions Of A Traitor are versatile and able-bodied in whatever direction they take. Even breakdowns – a technique run into the ground by certain bands who use them as a crutch – retains the overall identity and character.
They’re woven in like a flawless pizza that still has top-quality dough and doesn’t rely solely on flashy toppings. Punishing… is an artful, exciting, exuberant 38 minutes of cream-of-the-crop metallic ecstasy. I’d be shocked if the band didn’t grow up listening to early Parkway Drive, A Day To Remember, or Miss May I. They belong in the same category as those bands while also bringing their unique flavor of, as they put it, aggressive music for positive people. 9/10
Raven - Leave ‘Em Bleeding (Steamhammer/SPV) [Simon Black]
Despite their significant contribution to the NWOBHM movement and all that followed, this Newcastle trio have never had the same level of recognition, as say fellow contemporary Northumbrians Venom achieved. They are also probably the classic example of how a major label does not guarantee success if not handled correctly, and their period on Atlantic in the early 1980’s probably did them less favours longer term than their one on Megaforce, and the reality is they rapidly found themselves leapfrogged by the Thrash metal bands they inspired with their pacey and slightly progressive take on British Metal.
To be honest, I’ve not been aware of their output since that time, and its quite reassuring to know that brothers John and Mark Gallagher and their signature sound still remain to this day, although to be fair they have gone through an impressive number of drummers since their inception in 1974. The 1990’s and noughties weren’t kind either, but fortunately this sort of stuff is very much back in vogue, and giving many who ran the race first time round but didn’t make the bigger leagues a chance to show their wares to a more receptive audience than they would have had in the middle decades. This release is sort of helping with that, although to be honest it’s a bit of a potpourri in terms of content.
There’s nothing new here, but we have some re-recordings of songs from the last two decades, plus some cover versions that used to be staples of their live set back in the day with a couple of live tracks thrown in for good measure. They have also pulled off the rare trick of sounding authentically retro, both in the way they have captured the sounds in the studio, the mix and the fact that the beating heart of the band is not only unchanged but still more than capable of delivery despite the passage of the years. That’s the most positive aspect here, as these guys sound as energetic, fresh and in your face as they were when I first came across Stay Hard as a spotty 15-year old in 1985. It’s that energy, which at the time was driven by cost and urgency as much as it was old kit, and Raven get that so have captured that zeitgeist with these versions of the material.
That said I am still not sure what to make of this.
Not being familiar with their catalogue from this century, I assumed this was a batch of new material on first listen. When you approach it like that the material seems a bit erratic, with no overall consistent style and direction to the songs. When I realised that this was a re-hash, that rather changed my perspective and warmed me to it a little. That said, I’m never a great fan of re-recording for the sake of it, although there are sometime damn good reasons for it if the original material is locked up in rights hell after the original publishers folded and their assets were bought up by someone else, or because the old stuff was so poor in quality and the masters unworkable that a clean burst sometimes helps revive things, but neither of these two cases apply.
Whatever the reasons, after a couple of spins and with the benefit of understanding I’ve treated it for what it is, a condensed mechanism of catching up on what this highly influential act whilst this magpie of a journalist was distracted by lots of other shiny Metal things so far this century. The challenge is that the older songs on the other side of the millennial divide still stand proud in the memory, and I can’t help but feeling that a re-do of Crash Bang Wallop and Stay Hard would have worked way better than the less than polished live versions included here. It’s great to catch up, but a more consistent approach to the whole history and ditching the really bad live recordings would have made a bigger impression. 6/10.
Scarlet Dorn – Queen Of Broken Dreams (SPV) [Zak Skane]
Scarlet Dawn, the German Dark Rock act formed in the 2016. Throughout the six short years ,the band have made the dedication to blend symphonic elegance with emotionally driven pop structured hooks whilst ensuring that they do not fall into any genre boundaries. Prior their up and coming release Queen Of Broken Dreams, the band have shared stages with the likes of Within Temptation, Epica and Lord of the Lost gained which was gained off the back of their previous albums Lack Of Light and Blood Red Banquet.
Starting with Fallen the band really begin this album on a strong note, really harnessing the symphonic metal sound with distorted guitars pushed to the front of the mix accompanied by well orchestrated pianos and string parts. Scarlet’s lyric writing on this song is very arena rock driven with the catchy woahs in the choruses and the uplifting vocal melodies in the pre-choruses really hype the listener to get in the groove of this track. The use of dynamics were well placed with the guitars being pulled back in the verses to allow the rhythm section to carry out the song whilst saving the momentum for the heavy choruses, I can see this track going down well live.
Other highlights on this was Born To Suffer with its boundary pushing musical choices of using electric drum beats and post hardcore sounding ambient lead lines in the intro section, and Scarlet wears her on heart her sleeve by providing moving melodies over subdued atmospheres. Queen Of Broken Dreams embraces it’s pop influences with the throbbing synths in the choruses along with the off beat drum beats backing Scarlet's diva driven lyric themes. Speaking of diva driven themes Your Highness takes this up to ten with it’s swinging blues sounding riffs pounding ground stopping drum grooves and sexy burlesque vibes.
The combination of swinging grooves and blues scaled did make me think of bands like Marilyn Manson Golden Age Of Grotesque-era and Muses track Uprising. Along side the rockier sounding tracks the album has some great moments when it comes to showing their composition skills, for example the gothic Unstill Life shows the band pull back the orchestral elements down a notch to show off their song writing skills and producing one of the best gothic rock songs I have heard since HIM’s last release. When You See Me Again displays great uses of dynamics and orchestration with instruments pulling and out to produce this varying textures and timbres.
Overall this album was a good but not great listen, the reason for this is because personally I felt that the journey from opening to closing track felt quite slow paced, their could have been more variation of tempos and styles to keep the pacing of this album interesting. Even though the styles and the quality of orchestration it did give this album some depth but on a general listening relation ship it do it for me. 6/10.