Unearth - The Wretched; The Ruinous (Century Media Records) [GC]
Chances are if you’re reading this review, you will have heard of Unearth before and probably know exactly what to expect. They have been around the block many a time and have more classic albums than is necessary or even fair for one band, we all have our personal favourites and that what makes them still important and relevant to this day, so with that in mind it’s time to see where new release The Wretched; The Ruinous fits into that stacked list of albums.
It all starts off with some off kilter and scatty guitar work that then dives into a big thrashy metalcore beast and the melodic sequences are instantly there like an old friend and as expected this is as Unearth sounding as it could possibly be, it continues at a decent pace and has a nice drop into a mellow part that explodes into a big beatdown which is timed to perfection, although I do feel this song could drop at least a minute off its running time as it kind of meanders towards the end and throws in some weird chanty type vocals at then end that are just not needed, Cremation Of The Living starts at an almost grind type pace with blast beats but soon smooths out into the galloping maiden worship riffage you are so used to hearing, the only thing that I notice is that the vocals from Trevor Phipps seem a bit rougher than normal and maybe lack the power of old, which is a shame because they are usually such a high point.
Oreyeon/Lord Elephant - Doom Sessions: Vol. 8 (Heavy Psych Sounds) [Rich Piva]
In the next volume of the very cool Doom Sessions brought to you by powerhouse stoner/psych/doom label Heavy Psych Sounds we get two tracks each from Italian bands Oreyeon and Lord Elephant. This is volume eight, and both bands bring an original and a cover to the party. Let’s see how they both fair…
Oreyeon is a stoner/psych/doom band from La Spezia, Italy and they are coming off their awesome release from last year, Equations For The Useless, that was on many year-end lists. The first track is a cover of Slo Burn’s track Wheel Fall. Slo Burn was one of desert rock legend John Garcia’s short-lived bands after Kyuss broke up, and the original track rips. Oreyeon’s take is a straight-ahead cover, executed well, but some of the balls from the original is missing. This is not all their fault given John F’ing Garcia is not in Oreyeon, but kudos to them for a cool cover of a track that should be heard by everyone. Their original offering, C10H12N2O, is a ten-minute slow burn that was fine. I am not sure if it is anything I will go back to, but it was a cool instrumental stoner jam. I was honestly hoping for more, even something else with vocals, given how much I dug their record from last year.
Lord Elephant is also coming off a well-received release from last year, Cosmic Awakening, their debut album where the Florence, Italy band brought their stoner/doom instrumental rock to the masses with similar positive vibes from the listening public. The first track, Twilight Reflexes is one of the best I have heard by them and could have been on their debut and not missed a beat. Excellent guitar and drum work throughout the ten-minute jam. The second part of their offering is a cover of one of the signature songs of the 50s legendary guitarist Link Wray. If you saw Pulp Fiction you know this song. Rumble is given the Lord Elephant treatment, dooming down Rumble and adding some heavy that Link would have never thought could be done to his tune, stretching the track from the original two-plus minutes to over eight minutes, at times rendering the track unrecognizable to the original, but still cool.
Volume Eight of the Doom Sessions is not my favorite of the series, but it had a couple cool covers that were fun. I am not sure this is mandatory listening, and I am not sure I will go back to it, but at least I got to hear a Slo Burn cover that prompted me to go listen to the original record. 6/10
Chances are if you’re reading this review, you will have heard of Unearth before and probably know exactly what to expect. They have been around the block many a time and have more classic albums than is necessary or even fair for one band, we all have our personal favourites and that what makes them still important and relevant to this day, so with that in mind it’s time to see where new release The Wretched; The Ruinous fits into that stacked list of albums.
It all starts off with some off kilter and scatty guitar work that then dives into a big thrashy metalcore beast and the melodic sequences are instantly there like an old friend and as expected this is as Unearth sounding as it could possibly be, it continues at a decent pace and has a nice drop into a mellow part that explodes into a big beatdown which is timed to perfection, although I do feel this song could drop at least a minute off its running time as it kind of meanders towards the end and throws in some weird chanty type vocals at then end that are just not needed, Cremation Of The Living starts at an almost grind type pace with blast beats but soon smooths out into the galloping maiden worship riffage you are so used to hearing, the only thing that I notice is that the vocals from Trevor Phipps seem a bit rougher than normal and maybe lack the power of old, which is a shame because they are usually such a high point.
Eradicator is a huge song full of battling riffs and pounding drums which power along nicely and the swift pace of the song is what makes this as good as it is because it doesn’t let up and just carries you along directly into Mother Betrayal which starts of with a doomy and almost gothic feel, which of course doesn’t last very long and it’s a savage neck snapper of a song that’s powered along with the chug infused guitars that mix nicely with a more classic metal feel and it manages to keep the melodic/gothic feel throughout to which is a nice touch, Invictus then feels exactly like a mid-album Unearth track should it’s not that it is bad it just kind of keeps the whole metalcore flow going and ties nicely into what has proceeded it and just fits in without standing out.
Call Of Existence doesn’t do much to stand out either and just kind of comes and goes without too much fuss, again not a bad track, all very competent and most bands would kill to be able to write something like this but with Unearth I think I just expect more? My problem here is it all sounds EXACTLY as I would expect it to, and I suppose this far into a career you don’t go around changing your style completely but there is just too much familiarity here.
Call Of Existence doesn’t do much to stand out either and just kind of comes and goes without too much fuss, again not a bad track, all very competent and most bands would kill to be able to write something like this but with Unearth I think I just expect more? My problem here is it all sounds EXACTLY as I would expect it to, and I suppose this far into a career you don’t go around changing your style completely but there is just too much familiarity here.
Having said that it then takes Dawn Of The Militant to shake me back into gear and sit up and pay attention as this is a killer track, the pace is upped and has more of the thrashy side and has some great mid-section breakdowns and for me is just what was needed and the end is just a beautiful thing to hear, Aniara is an interlude so that’s skipped and it’s up to Into The Abyss to keep my attention and it doesn’t really do that, its ok but again nothing spectacular. Broken Arrow then introduces itself and is another song chock full of big beatdown infused sections with big thrashy riffs that combine with an old school hardcore feel which again injects some much-needed urgency into proceeding and picks everything back up and closer Theatres Of War is a massive shot in the arm and combines everything you want from that classic Unearth sound and mixes it all together in a devastatingly precise way to end on a real high.
Based on what I am used to hearing, there is no doubt Unearth have lost none of their talent to be able to write big metalcore bangers and there was more positive than negative things I heard, I didn’t dislike anything on here and most of it was a blast, I just felt some of it was too predictable in places. So, my opinion? This it is solid and fun metalcore album and is definitely worth 37 minutes of your time, just don’t expect too much!! 7/10
Trevor's Head - A View From Below (APF Records)
Straight outta Redhill, Surrey, Aaron Strachan (bass/synth/vocals), Roger Atkins (guitar/vocals) and Matt Ainsworth (drums/synth/flute/vocals), more commonly known as Trevor’s Head return with their newest cosmic journey into the their weird and wonderful world as Canterbury Scene prog, melds with acid drenched space rock, dirty American stoner rock and punk rock attitude. Imagine Primus jamming with Mastodon and you’ll be able to understand the quirks of tracks such as A True Gentleman, with the slap bass, strange start-stop time signatures and lots of madness instilled into every moment.
Based on what I am used to hearing, there is no doubt Unearth have lost none of their talent to be able to write big metalcore bangers and there was more positive than negative things I heard, I didn’t dislike anything on here and most of it was a blast, I just felt some of it was too predictable in places. So, my opinion? This it is solid and fun metalcore album and is definitely worth 37 minutes of your time, just don’t expect too much!! 7/10
Trevor's Head - A View From Below (APF Records)
Straight outta Redhill, Surrey, Aaron Strachan (bass/synth/vocals), Roger Atkins (guitar/vocals) and Matt Ainsworth (drums/synth/flute/vocals), more commonly known as Trevor’s Head return with their newest cosmic journey into the their weird and wonderful world as Canterbury Scene prog, melds with acid drenched space rock, dirty American stoner rock and punk rock attitude. Imagine Primus jamming with Mastodon and you’ll be able to understand the quirks of tracks such as A True Gentleman, with the slap bass, strange start-stop time signatures and lots of madness instilled into every moment.
Trevor’s Head are a band who have never taken themselves too seriously, the video to Under My Skin is evidence of this as they run around a woods in full corpse paint, but it’s this eccentricity that has seen them gained cult following on the UK stoner scene having played Desertfest and supported bands such as Mondo Generator who they share an experimental vibe with. On this fourth album they wrote and recorded it in their normal way by jamming out the tracks in a collaborative way before refining them into what you hear on the album. It makes for a heady concoction that weaves between a number of musical styles, the trio of voices adding depth as the use of synths and flute to swirl psych and folk touches, Elio swaddled in dark, fireside Americana.
Tracks such as Under My Skin, have definitely come from a studio jam as there are moments that you can pinpoint which will turn into long drawn out sections live, however Grape Fang is much more focussed and direct, designed to riff you and run away, leaving you wanting more. As the grooves get heavier on What Got Stuck and there’s a repeating wood block on Rumsprings, it’s clear to anyone that Trevor’s Head play music for their own amusement but if you’ve ever thought the stoner scene needed a bit less po-face and bit more Python the step inside Trevor’s Head. 8/10
Nightmarer - Deformed Adrift (Vendetta Records/Total Dissonance Worship) [Mark Young]
Brutalist Imperator starts off this fairly brutal trip into the lands of industrial death from Nightmarer. It’s a decent start, deep growls and blast beats which sees them lean more to death metal than to doom. The full-on attack is maintained on Baptismal Tomb, with the drums driving this one along with a hefty pace. It’s not all one speed as they pull back to indulge in some doom gaze before breaking out to the end. Throe Of Illicit Withdrawal gives us a grindy riff against a great drum motif and it slows to an almost dead stop with a dense lead heavy refrain. This is solid stuff, and Tooms changes things around, with some nightmarish soundscapes that punctuate its short run time.
Suffering Beyond Death picks up where Throe left off, mixing up a slow guitar piece against some frenzied drumming. As a dynamic it adds to the song, especially as it backs off to let John Collets death growls breath and fill that sound. This is some brutal stuff here and will no doubt induce whiplash in the pit. This was my stand-out here as it had a little of everything that is so good on this album. On Taufbefehl, they enlist some additional vocal help via Christian and Jan of Valborg, and between them they deliver some of the nastiest vocals I’ve heard in a long time. Again, this has less of the chug, but has that dark, evil sounding guitar going on that propels it forward with more of the industrial side on display. Hammer Of Desolation brings us back in with blast beats to get it going. They mix this up with double bass / galloping riffing but keep restrained to see the song out with that industrial tinged guitar that is just nasty. Love it!
Endstadium provides a brief respite before teeing up Obliterated Shrine, which just swings in against that backdrop of discordant guitar and bullet like percussion. Here we enter full on industrial doom, and it just batters you, with off key piano and a truly monstrous riff. This is some heavy stuff that explodes as it lurches to the finish line. This is a raging beast of a thing, absolutely brutal 7/10
Nightmarer - Deformed Adrift (Vendetta Records/Total Dissonance Worship) [Mark Young]
Brutalist Imperator starts off this fairly brutal trip into the lands of industrial death from Nightmarer. It’s a decent start, deep growls and blast beats which sees them lean more to death metal than to doom. The full-on attack is maintained on Baptismal Tomb, with the drums driving this one along with a hefty pace. It’s not all one speed as they pull back to indulge in some doom gaze before breaking out to the end. Throe Of Illicit Withdrawal gives us a grindy riff against a great drum motif and it slows to an almost dead stop with a dense lead heavy refrain. This is solid stuff, and Tooms changes things around, with some nightmarish soundscapes that punctuate its short run time.
Suffering Beyond Death picks up where Throe left off, mixing up a slow guitar piece against some frenzied drumming. As a dynamic it adds to the song, especially as it backs off to let John Collets death growls breath and fill that sound. This is some brutal stuff here and will no doubt induce whiplash in the pit. This was my stand-out here as it had a little of everything that is so good on this album. On Taufbefehl, they enlist some additional vocal help via Christian and Jan of Valborg, and between them they deliver some of the nastiest vocals I’ve heard in a long time. Again, this has less of the chug, but has that dark, evil sounding guitar going on that propels it forward with more of the industrial side on display. Hammer Of Desolation brings us back in with blast beats to get it going. They mix this up with double bass / galloping riffing but keep restrained to see the song out with that industrial tinged guitar that is just nasty. Love it!
Endstadium provides a brief respite before teeing up Obliterated Shrine, which just swings in against that backdrop of discordant guitar and bullet like percussion. Here we enter full on industrial doom, and it just batters you, with off key piano and a truly monstrous riff. This is some heavy stuff that explodes as it lurches to the finish line. This is a raging beast of a thing, absolutely brutal 7/10
Oreyeon/Lord Elephant - Doom Sessions: Vol. 8 (Heavy Psych Sounds) [Rich Piva]
In the next volume of the very cool Doom Sessions brought to you by powerhouse stoner/psych/doom label Heavy Psych Sounds we get two tracks each from Italian bands Oreyeon and Lord Elephant. This is volume eight, and both bands bring an original and a cover to the party. Let’s see how they both fair…
Oreyeon is a stoner/psych/doom band from La Spezia, Italy and they are coming off their awesome release from last year, Equations For The Useless, that was on many year-end lists. The first track is a cover of Slo Burn’s track Wheel Fall. Slo Burn was one of desert rock legend John Garcia’s short-lived bands after Kyuss broke up, and the original track rips. Oreyeon’s take is a straight-ahead cover, executed well, but some of the balls from the original is missing. This is not all their fault given John F’ing Garcia is not in Oreyeon, but kudos to them for a cool cover of a track that should be heard by everyone. Their original offering, C10H12N2O, is a ten-minute slow burn that was fine. I am not sure if it is anything I will go back to, but it was a cool instrumental stoner jam. I was honestly hoping for more, even something else with vocals, given how much I dug their record from last year.
Lord Elephant is also coming off a well-received release from last year, Cosmic Awakening, their debut album where the Florence, Italy band brought their stoner/doom instrumental rock to the masses with similar positive vibes from the listening public. The first track, Twilight Reflexes is one of the best I have heard by them and could have been on their debut and not missed a beat. Excellent guitar and drum work throughout the ten-minute jam. The second part of their offering is a cover of one of the signature songs of the 50s legendary guitarist Link Wray. If you saw Pulp Fiction you know this song. Rumble is given the Lord Elephant treatment, dooming down Rumble and adding some heavy that Link would have never thought could be done to his tune, stretching the track from the original two-plus minutes to over eight minutes, at times rendering the track unrecognizable to the original, but still cool.
Volume Eight of the Doom Sessions is not my favorite of the series, but it had a couple cool covers that were fun. I am not sure this is mandatory listening, and I am not sure I will go back to it, but at least I got to hear a Slo Burn cover that prompted me to go listen to the original record. 6/10