Jason Bieler And The Baron Von Bielski Orchestra - Postcards From The Asylum (We Don’t Hear A Hit Records/AMPLIFIED) [Rich Piva]
Look, I am a professional reviewer. Or something like that. I have done hundreds at this point, and if you are saying I can’t be objective with the new record from the God of all things rock, Jason Bieler, then I say good day to you sir. But seriously, I am going to listen to the new album from the guy responsible for one of my top five all time bands of all time (Saigon Kick) and one of my top five albums ever (their debut) and listen as if none of that ever happened. So let me get into that mindset…ok here we go…
Postcards From The Asylum is the new record from Saigon Kick’s Jason Bieler, who is edging more and more towards Yes and Devin Townsend then the 80s rock meets Jane’s Addiction stylings that made Saigon Kick an untouchable band from that time. The second album under the new Baron moniker, Songs For The Apocalypse, was a guest filled proggy adventure with the trademarked Bieler guitar sound and his unique Beatlesque layered vocals that can get you to pick out his sound from just a couple of notes if you are at all familiar with his work. Oh, and that record was killer; very complex and played by everyone involved with some serious next level talent. Postcards From The Asylum stays on that path but then proceeds to make trails everywhere else across the landscape in the best possible way, creating one of the finest works ever to come out of Broward County.
To start, Postcards From The Asylum is huge in every possible way. It sounds huge. The production, while not overdone, creates this gigantic soundscape. It is huge in content too; fifteen songs over 77 minutes can sound daunting, but you need to hang in because you will hear nothing like this again any time soon. You get a ton of cool guests too, from all over the musical landscape leveraging a whole bunch of styles and influences thought the fifteen tracks.
Let’s talk about some of those songs, shall we? Right off the bat you get a total ripper with Bombay, a firestorm of Bieler riffing with his unique voice and all sorts of noises going on behind the scenes with a killer breakdown and layered vocals that make this one of his best tracks in an already amazing catalog of his life’s work. Numb has some serious Lizard vibes but a more evolved version, like a Lizard that listens to Porcupine Tree. Heathens is also great, with it’s use of horns and some of that Bieler humor you get to hear in his solo shows. This would have been the lead single on the follow up Supertransatlantic album.
Bieler is not afraid to talk about current events either, with the acoustic/synth driven track Mexico, which slows down the pace but not the quality and puts those layered vocals on full display. We get some catchy as hell poppy styling with a track like Birds Of Prey and some serious prog complexity (and xylophones) with Flying Monkeys. A song like Sic Riff better have one (it does and lots more) and possibly my favorite track is the bubbly psych tinged Beneath The Waves which does what Bieler does best; combine his virtuoso guitar playing with his pop sensibilities and love for the Fab 4. Amazing stuff.
I could do a track-by-track 2000-word thesis on Postcards From The Asylum, but I may get fired by my editor. Just know this; Postcards From The Asylum is Jason Bieler’s best work and should be experienced by all. Proggy, poppy, a bit of psych, some trademarked SK stylings, brought all together to form one of if not the album of the year. 10/10
Luke Appleton - Forever Viking (Rocksector Records) [Matt Bladen]
Not content with playing with Blaze Bayley, Absolva and occasionally Fury, as well as previously playing in a band that can no longer be named. Luke Appleton also has his own solo project which has already yielded one full length album released a few years ago, he now has added an EP which inspired by those bearded Norsemen from the far North along with the title song being dedicated to Wayne Turnbull (The Viking) who sadly passed away due to Covid.
Recorded as a lean mean power trio, without the guest involvement of his full length, (though Fury bassist Becky Baldwin adds backing vocals to one track), the Luke takes vocals, bass and rhythm guitar as Rishi Mehta of Babylon Fire plays lead guitar, Dakesis drummer Adam Harris installed behind the kit. Musically inspired by classic heavy metal, first single and opening track Before Your Eyes has a harmonised guitar opening, going for the Maiden effect as it leads to a mid-paced rocker that like all of this record is built around the rhythm, the bass high in the mix as you'd expect, Luke driving the riffs along with Adam while Rishi reminds anyone who was a fan of Babylon Fire that he's a six string wizard playing with passion and technique.
From here A Thing Called Fate gets heavier and a bit more modern, again hooked around the bass lines, there's even a bass solo, the second track mixing classic and modern for a bit of grooving. Luke's voice is also at it's best here, singing differently to the way brother Chris does in Absolva, he is just as good but perhaps a bit grittier. What Heroes Do the third track adds another feather with a bit of anthemic, drama building as the title track starts with acoustic guitars and turns into an emotional ballad that closes the EP in tribute to a good friend. Now more established as a trio than on the first album, Forever Viking stamps longevity on the Luke Appleton Power Trio with strong additions to the live set that doesn't deviate from his previous musical activities. 8/10
Orme - Orme (Trepanation Records) [Paul Scoble]
Orme are a Hertfordshire based drone/doom band. The band is made up of Tom Clements on guitar and vocals, Jimmy Long on bass and didgeridoo and Luke Thelin on drums and silence. The band is also joined by Clea Griffin-Anker on vocals on the track Onward To Sarnath.
Firstly, this album is a two track double album, the individual tracks are forty two minutes for the song Nazarene and fifty four minutes for the track Onward To Sarnath. Thats a fairly brave move for a debut album, are Orme right to be take this risk or are they being foolhardy?
First song Nazarene opens with a slow fade up of bass and guitar noodling, after six minutes a single chord starts, this chord goes on and on, this has either been looped or is using some kind of sustainer effect, the bass is doing a little more but this mainly feels like one tone that goes on and on, without much modulation or change. After a couple of minutes a drum fill is added that is repeated approximately every twenty seconds, this repeated fill builds in volume and intensity, it makes you think that something is about to happen, and as not much does it ends up feeling frustrating, it keeps promising but takes forever to deliver.
At the ten minute mark a spoken word section comes in with a Satanic liturgy that gets louder and more intense until the voice is shrieking. I’m not sure if the band have nicked parts of this, or all of it, as it feels very familiar, it might be so generic that it just feels stolen. It reminded me of how bored I am of Satanism as a subject in metal; we’ve got all of the universe to talk about, why keep going with this cliched crap? The shrieked invocation lasts fifteen minutes, after about five it stops being funny and just comes over as hopelessly pretentious.
At the twenty five minute mark we get the first continuous drum beat. Over several minutes the (possibly) looped chord morphs into a very simple doom riff that has a bit of a stoner feel to it, and at the thirty minute mark there is a guitar solo, that is ok, doesn’t really go anywhere, but it is not bad. The riff continues for a few more minutes, before fading back to the looped chord and then silence. At this point I was quite bored and was considering billing the band for making me listen to this.
After listening to Nazarene, I was a little nervous of what the, twelve minute longer song, Onward To Sarnath would be like. The song opens with more spoken word bollocks, before more guitar and bass noodling. After seven minutes another looped chord (or chord with sustainer effect) comes in with a simple bassline. This time there is a little more modulation and bass, and there might also be a didgeridoo in there. It’s a little more interesting than the one used on Nazarene, there is also an occasional cymbal.
At the twelve minute mark one voice begins chanting, and a few minutes later Clea Griffin-Anker joins the party. The chanting is probably meant to be Sumerian or Mesopotamian Black Magic chanting, but what it mainly sounds like to me is out of tune. The two voices are out of tune with themselves, they both reach for notes they cannot reach, but they also are out of tune with each other, so when the two voices cross over each other it goes even more out of tune. This chanting also feels all over the place, as if they made it up on the spot, it wanders around with no purpose and in some places descends into incoherent screaming. there were parts of this section that made me laugh out loud it was so ridiculous, it also shows a total lack of self awareness, if they are ok with nearly twenty minutes of out of tune vocals, they need to be much more self critical.
At thirty one minutes the voices (thankfully) stop and we are left with just a drone chord. Six minutes later a simple Doom riff emerges from the drone. There is another ok solo, and then there is an ok riff that feels driving and has a little purpose to it, this is the best thing on the album, and it took nearly an hour and a half to get here. At the forty five minute mark the song drops to silence for five minutes before the drone chord reappears, as does the stupid spoken word bit from the first song. The album is now finally over.
Foolhardy! They were definitely being foolhardy. This is one of the most flabby, pretentious, self indulgent and boring albums I have ever heard. Before they accuse me of not understanding Drone, Sunn O))) are massively more sophisticated and interesting than anything on this album. This feels like a band that has heard proper drone and thought “wow, that looks easy”, and we now have everything we need to see that Drone is not easy. This is really an ok drone/doom EP, of say, 20 minutes with immense amounts of filler dumped on it. I also feel that the record company involved in this terrible album have some culpability, after all encouraging people to listen to this is extremely callous, it feels like this is setting them up to be ridiculed. An album that only masochists should seek out. It gets one point for three ok riffs, one point for two ok solos and another point for comedy value. 3/10
Dope Skum - Gutter South (Self Released) [Mark Young]
Tennessee natives Dope Skum drop their latest piece that just ambles up and out of the speakers with an unhurried pace, and an incredibly warm sound. Five songs that are just prime doom metal, all wrapped up in a 17-minute runtime. These guys are all about the riff and how well they can hammer you with it. Sometimes you just want music that is simple and unpretentious and has that righteous groove to it.
Belly Lint has one of the best starts I’ve heard in a while, perfectly measured in how to control volume and attack. Did I mention its heavy AF? Feast Of Snakes continues in the same vein with another great riff movement. It moves along with that tidy pace and steady attack.
Folk Magic has a Helmet vibe to it and is certainly something that wouldn’t have been out of place on the Meantime album, right down to the middle section where the pace picks up just before we drop back into a Southern style picking motif that swells into the end moment.
Interlude gives us more of that American South (Bible Belt?) style that does act as a circuit break before final track The Cycle that starts us off on a speedy trip and then goes into Black Sabbath mode with a cracking riff breakdown. This is repeated throughout and is a welcome end to the tracks here, the whole thing just wants you to get up and move to it and you would be hard pressed not too watching this live.
It’s got that classic groove to it, with simple riffs that are heavy and invite you nod along. The guitar just has a great tone, with a phaser for cool effect that somehow has been covered in honey for that sweet vibe that gives it that something which engages you. Ok, the vocals are not the strongest, but neither was Helmets back in the day. What is important here is the riff, and the song built around it and on here you have 4 absolute pearlers (Not counting Interlude, sorry Guys) that are spot on.
If you are into doom, sludge or just generally the slower side of metal then you should check these out. They are well worth your time. 7/10