DeWolff - Love, Death & In Between (Mascot Records) [Rich Piva]
Can I get a hallelujah? How about an Amen? DeWolff are back (they rarely go away as the are an output machine) with their latest album Love, Death & In Between, where the band goes full on 60’s soul revival. Inspired by a trip to Memphis and the experience of a live sermon from Al Green himself, DeWolff invoke not who Green was preaching about by Green himself and other giants of that era gone by.Recorded directly to tape, and if you have read my reviews, you know how right off the bat this makes me very happy. The record sounds like, in the best kind of way, it was recorded at said revival in a tent with the parishioners singing along at the most strategic times.
DeWolff will be touring with the Black Crowes this year and I mention this because some of these tracks are very Crowes-esqe, think Go Tell The Congregation, but with even more energy. You get a church choir, you get a horn section, you get amped up energy, all in the opening track, Night Train. Heart Stopping Kind Of Show is a catchy, 60s inspired pop song with more choir, horns, and driven by the organ.
Message For My Baby is my favourite track on the album, leveraging all the great stuff on this record and channelling some CCR which is exactly what DeWolff should do. Some of the slower songs drag a bit, and the Seventy-minute run time makes Love, Death & In Between too long. Some editing would have made this record way more easily consumable. Despite the runtime, DeWolff have successfully captured vibe that they were going for on Love, Death & In Between.
Holy Water - Holy Water (Self Released) [Mark Young]
It seems that Holy Water is almost one of the internet’s best kept secrets. A self-recorded effort that was originally completed in 2021 by Dutch artist Jasper den Hartigh with assistance from local talent and artistic collaborators for drums, guitar and vocals and the result of his attempt at making a pop-record that takes in specific filters via experience gained in playing certain genres of music such as punk and heavy metal.
So, what does it sound like? So, the closest description that I can make is that it directly reminds me of Joy Division in the vocal delivery, early 80’s goth for production in how it sounds but is dynamic at the same time in that you can hear everything from guitar to more subtle organ sounds that fill the space in each song. Its doesn’t sound like it is a home recording at all.
Each song keeps a consistent tempo, none of them could be singled out as being particularly speedy but this does not make for a negative experience. Going back to his objective that he wanted to make a pop record it feels as though he has attempted to limit song lengths to 3 minutes to present, perform and move onto the next one without overly extending the song unnecessarily.
Each song also has slight differences in how they are arranged, and it seems that each shares the same speed which means that they must work harder to keep you engaged. To the most part they succeed in this but by the end they do slightly blur into one because they keep that same steady pace with audio motifs you recognise from earlier songs.
These criticisms are only minor though. It is a well presented, written and recorded album that manages to evoke comparisons with Joy Division, Depeche Mode and Nine Inch Nails whilst remaining an original release. I can appreciate it for what it sets out to be and wholly achieves that objective, so my score is based on that 8/10
Malleus - The Fires Of Heaven (Armageddon Label) [Simon Black]
This Boston-based four piece have been around since 2016, with a couple of well-regarded EP’s under their belt already, but The Fires Of Heaven is their album debut proper. Extreme Metal has diverged out of all recognition since Venom first coined the term ‘Black Metal’ when I were a wee nipper in 1982, with so many sub-genres and splinters out there now, that even those of us who write this shit every day can’t keep up with all of them.
To be honest many of them do nothing for me, and at the first sound of an incomprehensible set of vocal lines, I’m normally checking the hell out of Dodge faster than you can say “Symphonic Power Metal”. So, you might be wondering why the hell you are even reading this, given that as unpaid scribes giving up our own time F.O.C. we generally prefer to opt for things we know we prefer. Fortunately, our esteemed Metallisch-Führer Matt knows us better than we do ourselves, so this one appeared unsolicited in my folder, partly because no-one else had grabbed it and knows I can write quickly, but also because he knows what I will like before I do...
And I’m really bloody glad that he did, because it’s an absolute belter.
If you are expecting something that’s going to spawn another sub-genre, then this is not for you. If you harken back to those early days of Black Metal snorting Speed Metal as distinct from Thrash, then yes, you will. I am reminded of those early Venom and Bathory albums very strongly, and this is very much a love letter to that early to mid-80’s birthing ground. The vocals do work for me because despite the depth of screaming going on, the aptly named The Channeller’s lyrics are still comprehensible enough to get the message driving the song (and with a definite nod to Celtic Frost era Tom G. Warrior too, which is never a bad thing).
The opening tracks breeze by in a blistering burst of brutality, but the record also takes the time to build in some much deeper and complex compositions too as it progresses, with three of them taking up over half of the run time. Much as I love nasty, brutish and short, these longer tracks are really well-crafted pieces of work, and closer Mourning War in particular is hitting all the spots for me in terms of complexity, craft and sheer musicianship.
Production-wise as well there’s a deep nod to First Wave Black Metal, in that this is no frills production that has the zeitgeist of that ‘one-step up from a demo’ feeling of old, but still has enough richness in the mix to pick out the individual performances and nod along in appreciation of the craft. I’ve been very critical in these pages about bands trying to sound like that period of history by faking analogue kit on digital tools, but Malleus achieve what so many fail to do by focusing on capturing the energy and speed of the recording process and not in trying to fake the sounds with modern technology, so it has the fire and fury of the olden days without compromising the material. Perfectly fusing the old and the new, but with a rich and powerful delivery, and some well weaved in technical and musical complexity, this was a joy from start to finish. 9/10
Ronnie Romero - Raised On Heavy Radio (Frontiers Music Srl) [James Jackson]
His is quite an impressive resume, but is the album any good. Raised On Heavy Radio is a covers album, a continuing theme from last years Raised On Radio; and I’m not a great fan of covers, personally my opinion is this: if you aren’t going to put your own twist on it, honour the original but make it your own, if not - why bother. This is an album of paint by numbers covers, there’s not an ounce of originality within the 11 tracks here, musically it’s as you’d expect it to be, the songs are what they are, older songs now considered to be classics, mainly from the 80's, played by competent musicians but with no flair or diversity from the originals.
Vocally it’s nothing to get particularly excited about either; he has range and ability, obviously, you don’t have the discography that he has without the necessary talent but for me it’s just not hitting the mark; he covers Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Manowar to name a few but there’s nothing here that wows me, nothing that stands out and makes it worth more than a single listen. 3/10