Church Of Misery - Born Under A Mad Sign (Rise Above Records) [Rich Piva]
Japanese doom/heavy stoner legends Church Of Misery are back with their first new material since 2016, which is way too long because CoM rules. If you are not familiar, you should be, because the band has been around since 1995 and plays heavy, tuned down stoner doom with psychedelic leanings and oh by the way, all their songs are about a different serial killer.
What’s not to like about that? The answer is
nothing and the new album, Born Under A Mad Sign confirms that I am correct,
because you get seven more flawless tracks that are meant to scare you and
delight you all at the same time which is what a good horror movie about a mass
murderer is supposed to do, these guys just do it in musical form.
Beltway Sniper and Most even are a killer one two punch of brutal murder done is stoner rock form. The production and guitar tone are perfect on this album and these two songs are perfect examples. The pace gets a bit more frantic with Freeway Madness Boogie with its breakneck pace (for CoM) and killer guitar work. Murder Castle Blues brings some serious tuned down doom with a killer riff and is eight minutes of the musical equivalent of the song’s protagonist, H.H. Holms committing all his acts of depravity (Google it) both dragging the body for the first half of the song and running from the authorities the latter half.
Church Of Misery is not afraid to add some Deep Purple boogie to their murderous ways with Spoiler, that incorporates some keys and a more psych leaning style, creating my favorite track on Born Under A Mad Sign. Given me an organ solo any day and I am in and the guitar work on this song of the year contender is nothing to shake a stick at either.
You want more riffs? You get
them with Come And Get Me Sucker, which is an ode to Waco wacko David Koresh.
Maybe if he listened to Church Of Misery everything would have turned out
differently because his focus would have been on something like the killer
psych solo on this track instead of mass suicide. Butcher Baker ends the spree
nicely with a bit of an occult rock feel to open until you are crushed by the
weight of the doomy riffs that bludgeon you about the head an neck until you
are no more.
Damn this record kills especially for a
band that has been around since 1995 and gets delightfully distracted with
their other awesome side projects. But when Church Of Misery focuses on what
they do best, the result is an album of the year contender that will just slay
you. Sorry, I had to add one murder pun, but go listen to this before it’s too
late and you are the next victim. 9/10
Vulture Industries – Ghosts From The Past (Karisma Records) [Matt Bladen]
If you were to make me guess where Vulture Industries (whom I know nothing about) were from on the back of first tack New Lords Of Light, I’d say Norway and I’d be dead on. This avant garde metal band are from Norway and they sound…Norwegian, the gothic/heavy rock of Audrey Horne or Sahg mixed with a husky, baritone croon of Madrugada and the experimental sound of Ihsahn or Leprous all trademarks of that dark Scandinavian musical history from the country with not much daylight (or too much daylight).
Having started writing it in 2018 Ghosts From The Past was their longest creative process to date, that sense of loss and being directionless plunged into the album while they were writing it, to make it their most difficult but most rewarding album yet. I mentioned Madrugada earlier and a track such as Deeper is so close it hurts, although Vulture Industries are perhaps heavier though as artistic and experimental with soundscapes. This comparison to me, is a very positive one as I love Madrugada so Vulture Industries will likely feature high on my end of year list.
alt. - ABEYANCE (Resist Records/Sharptone Records) [Mark Young]
Hailing from Adelaide, we have alt presenting their debut album courtesy of Resist/Sharptone Records. Abeyance seems to sit within that world of electronica for expanding the sound, heavy guitars and the quiet / loud build structure, which in itself is great for fans of that genre.And in here lies the problem. There is nothing wrong with how it sounds, or how it is played. Its fine but it doesn’t do anything for me, in that it feels ‘light’ even in its heavier moments like it has an overly polished sheen to it. The songs feel as though they have come from a Nu-Metal playbook, mixing rap / screams / soft spoken vocals against a guitar sound that is not heavy enough to provide a counterpoint or dynamic to make them really fly.
The album itself doesn’t stop for breath with the ten songs dropping in 34 minutes its a punchy affair but even saying that there is an overriding familiarity to each one that grows as you make your way through the album. To be honest, once you get to A.D.D that has that electronica start which drops into a ‘Linkin Park’ feel, the remainder mostly follow that tack. That is not to say these are poor songs, absolutely not. Each one is well written and structured in a way to squeeze as much emotional heft as is possible from them and give you that anthemic feel. The Only Good Thing has an absolute blinder of a chorus, great build and structure and Abyance, has live blinder written all over it, and you know it will cause carnage.
It’s possibly an age thing but these will appeal so much more to younger listeners rather than those who are more inclined to listen to, for example Slayer. Or are over 40. From what I’ve read online, in the live arena they really go for It in terms of putting a great show on. Everything I’ve heard here suggests that they will sound amazing live, the crowd feeding into them and vice versa. However, I don’t get anything from this that makes me want to listen to it again. 5/10