TWELVE YEARS OF UNWANTED OPINION
Did anyone ask for something heavy? Whether Conjurer are still the darlings of the British heavy music underworld is not really my concern, but there is no arguing that with records such as Mire under their belts whether or not they lack the chops in the long game. Mire shows a sound honed and perfected, and a band who are now masters of their craft.
Time Waits For No Slave is the all singing, all dancing highpoint to the 2000s era Napalm Death revival. I think The Code Is Red… is probably my favourite in regards to having songs that I love, but Times Waits is a monument to grindcore and the many genres and styles that Napalm can mix into it. The most recent release by the band, the Throes… album, has been hailed as some sort of experimental masterpiece, but anyone with a working set of ears can tell that Napalm has been blending all sorts of extremity together for years now.
Like its predecessor The Eternal Idol, this more or less builds on the failure that was Seventh Star, although not in the same level of success as Eternal Idol, which is much more polished. Nevertheless, I am wholly enjoying these Tony Martin records for the first time.
Probably my least favourite of the Dio & Sabbath original era. Don’t get me wrong, this era isn’t exactly my favourite to begin with, but I’m working through Sabbath’s stuff chronologically, and returned to Heaven and Hell in full. I mean no disrespect to Dio, but the swords and sorcery approach to Sabbath doesn’t really do anything for me. Fortunately, this is still an excellently put together record, and its an enjoyable listen all the same. I just don’t think I will ever come back to this one.
When I was a nipper, Filosofem was the hardest Burzum release for me to get into. The super harsh, wasp-like quality of the guitars and vocals, coupled with the deathly pace of the tracks in general, put it low on my list. Of course, as a fully mature adult, one can now appreciate this for the black metal masterpiece that it is. A lot of atmospheric, “transcendental” and one-man DSBM projects owe a great deal to the approach that Varg took whilst recording this.
Mythic Dawn is a small single from Burzum that showcases the man’s skill at the synthesizer style of music. Honestly, outsiding of existing Burzum fans, there is nothing of value here, its super and short and to the point, kind of acting a sampler to what we would get in the very later extremes of the project’s life.
Building on the strong debut of Kill ‘Em All, Metallica, ahem, electrify their sound with new found depth and songwriting chops. The compositions on Ride The Lightening are, for the most part, dense and experimental (for thrash at least), and possess a new level of maturity. This is a sound that Metallica would arguably perfect on Master Of Puppets, but Ride has it’s own set of incredible tracks. “For Whom The Bell Tolls”, “The Call Of Ktulu” and “Creeping Death” are all time favourites of mine, but the less said about “Escape” and “Trapped Under Ice” the better.
The Sleeping Green is a “lost” Lunar Womb release from back in the 90s. There’s not much to say except that this is a stunning collection of synthesiser compositions. Lunar Womb excels in the dungeon synth style, but the music is much more one with nature than it is with some made up dungeon full of goblins. I enjoyed.
Oi oi, savloy! Donkey Rhubarb is a short but interesting listen, and includes some mad Philip Glass orchestrated reworking of “Icct Hedral”, which is worth the price of admission alone. “Pancake Lizard” is also a favourite of mine. Short but sweet!
