Lines In Wax

TWELVE YEARS OF UNWANTED OPINION

Day: February 13, 2023

Mike Oldfield – Tubular Bells II (1992)
electronic folk, neofolk & acoustic

Mike Oldfield – Tubular Bells II (1992)

2-Bulah-Bell 2: Bak 2 Da Belle was an unexpected drop from Mike Oldfield. And by unexpected, I mean, it was not expected for me when I found there was a sequel, a third, and a bunch of crappy remix albums all riding off the success of the first record in this series. Now, I love Mike Oldfield, anyone who can play that many different guitars is good in my book, but 2-Bulah-Bell 2 gets way more shit than it deserves. It touches on a lot of themes of the original, even aping them to the point of re-creating them at points (which was of course intentional), but to be honest, it’s nice to hear a different interpretation that isn’t as old as the original. The OG is such a meandering journey in the first place, its very nature begs for it to be reinterpreted into a different path. Honestly, I’m super looking forward to Tubular B3lls Th3 Third.

Carcass – Torn Arteries (2021)
death metal

Carcass – Torn Arteries (2021)

Ah, Carcass. How everytime I hear thee, I pine for thoust earlier daze of grinding gore. Carcass at this point is an unrecognisable band, consisting of Steer and Walker and a bunch of other randomers (no disrespect to them – congrats on getting the Carcass gig). Torn Arteries offers me no more than what Surgical Steel already did, and with the reformation hooplah and fanfare having worn off somewhat, I am less than enthused for this shit, I won’t lie. However! Once one’s ears have adjusted to the toxic modern and over-compressed production, one surely could not argue that Torn Arteries is a bad album. Despite my above paragraph, Torn Arteries does deliver in all things metal, but it also leaves me rather uninspired. If you just want to bang your head then that is absolutely perfectly fine, and I’m sure there are plenty of people who can find many things of worth inside this slab of melodic death metal. But, all I want to do after listening to this is to dig out my vinyl bootleg of Reek lol (I will admit though, the cover art is really cool)

Anathema – The Silent Enigma (1995)
doom metal

Anathema – The Silent Enigma (1995)

Quite a beautiful album, and one that I have admittedly often neglected. I’m not really sure why, because I enjoy the shit out of Serenades, Pentacost III and the other doomier stuff by this ever-evolving band. As I said though, there a larger beauteous element to this one. It perhaps holds back a bit in true, impactful metallic force; the harrowing sonic battlefield of Serenades is perhaps now grown over with various flowers and fauna. To me, The Silent Enigma is also noteworthy for having Vincent performing “metal vocals” in the vein of his predecessor Darren White. After hearing countless records led with his soft singing voice, it is actually quite a treat to hear him get all gravely and angry. I won’t spot in on individual tracks, as the record is best consumed as a whole, I’d say. I will quickly mention though, my CD version (in one of those weird late 2000s era jewel cases) contains an orchestral version of the title track as well as “Sleepless 96”, a re-recording of the classic updated for these sessions.