Jonathan Hill

A Soapbox for Uninformed Opinions

Nov
26

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Candlemass Candlemass Review

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Candlemass Candlemass Review

Artist: Candlemass
Album: Candlemass
Genre(s): Heavy Metal
Subgenres(s): Heavy Metal, Doom Metal
Released: 2005
Length: 55 minutes (58 minutes with bonus material)
Language(s): English
Label(s): Nuclear Blast

Track List:

01. Black Dwarf
02. Seven Silver Keys
03. Assassin of the Light
04. Copernicus
05. The Man Who Fell from the Sky
06. Witches
07. Born in a Tank
08. Spellbreaker
09. The Day and the Night
10. Mars and Volcanoes (Bonus Track)

Candlemass Candlemass Cover

Swedish doom metallers Candlemass return to form with their self-titled opus after 6 years and a brief hiatus. Candlemass also marks the return of singer Messiah Marcolin, who hasn’t recorded with the band since 1989s Tales of Creation and his voice remains as powerful as it was 16 years ago.

The lyrics tend to deal with fantasy and mythological subjects without the flamboyance that normally accompany heavy metal bands. Many of the verses are vivid in their description of scenes that you could half expect to be part of a book rather than a song. At times the lyrics can be quite gothic in nature and this helps to keep the band in line with the doom metal ethos that they helped create.

Candlemass does however breathe new life into their sound with founding member, bassist and sole songwriter Leif Edling expanding on the plodding doom metal framework that they pioneered in the 1980s. He achieves this by incorporating influences from traditional heavy metal that can be heard prominently on Black Dwarf, Witches, Born in a Tank and Mars and Volcanoes.

The song lengths are just as varied and go from a little over 3 minutes (The Man Who Fell from The Sky) up to 9 minutes (The Day and the Night). This gives the band plenty of room to play through extended passages without adhering to a typical verse/chorus format but at the same time the songs remain highly structured and never veer off without purpose.

Black Dwarf is uncharacteristic of the bands typical sound as it is incredibly up-tempo with a repetitive and infectious guitar hook that will immediately draw you into the album. The Man Who Fell from the Sky is one of the few instrumental songs Candlemass have done in their long career and while it follows a similar formula to Black Dwarf, it doesn’t have the same payoff when you expect Messiah Marcolin to burst out wailing but instead it simply continues to play on until it quickly fades to silence.

The rest of Candlemass is rounded off with songs that lean heavily in favour of their doom metal niche. Ominous songs like Seven Silver Keys, Assassin of the Light and Spellbreaker show off their modernised doom metal sound exceptionally well. Copernicus almost comes to a complete stand still after a thundering introduction and along with Spellbreaker, it is one of the few songs to feature guitar solos in their lengthy compositions.

It is not an overstatement to say that the self-titled effort from the Swedish doom metal pioneers is a triumphant return to form that will please old and new fans alike.

Oct
31

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Stolen Babies There Be Squabbles Ahead Review

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Stolen Babies There Be Squabbles Ahead Review

Artist: Stolen Babies
Album: There Be Squabbles Ahead
Genre(s): Rock
Subgenres(s): Experimental Rock
Released: 2006
Length: 49 minutes
Language(s): English
Label(s): The End Records, No Comment Records

Track List:

01. Spill!
02. Awful Fall
03. Filistata
04. A Year of Judges
05. So Close
06. Tablescrap
07. Swint? Or Slude?
08. Mind Your Eyes
09. Lifeless
10. Tall Tales
11. Push Button
12. Gathering Fingers
13. The Button Has Been Pushed

Stolen Babies There Be Squabbles Ahead Cover

There Be Squabbles Ahead is the debut album of the genre bending Stolen Babies. The quartet manages to pair their unusual take on rock music with twisted circus-like sounds that move in many bizarre directions while featuring an alarming number of instruments. The more common ones being the accordion, organ and piano in addition to the standard bass, drum and guitar set up. Stolen Babies then go as far as using a glockenspiel, jaw harp, mandolin, sitar, marimba, tuba, trumpet, euphonium and a violin in a low-key capacity.

The bulk of the singing duties are handled by Dominique Lenore Persi, whose abilities are as flexible as the music is. She goes from explosive rage (Spill, A Year of Judges and Tall Tales) through to singing (Lifeless), semi-spoken lines (Push Button) and a smattering of hissed whispers are thrown in the mix for good measures (So Close) but most songs have a combination of two or more styles in them.

It’s hard to tell what you should expect on first hearing There Be Squabbles Ahead when Stolen Babies kicks it off with the volatile Spill before going onto the comparatively relaxed and bass driven Awful Fall. Filistata is the first song to feature the oddball circus music and from then on you will be subjected to any combination of this (much like the vocal performances).

Stolen Babies break further away from their wayward format to feature dance-like rhythms with a heavy keyboard focus on So Close, the tragic Lifeless provides a much needed break from its antithesis Mind Your Eyes and The Button Has Been Pushed is abstract and sounds as though it belongs on a credit reel to a film from a far off land that only exists in the mind of the Stolen Babies band members.

Most bands that purposefully try to stand so far apart from any of their contemporaries while using so many instruments would easily turn everything into an unfocused pile of auditory vomit. Stolen Babies are one of the rare exceptions. There Be Squabbles Ahead is well structured and thought out, with their collective vision coming through in their music to give the album (and band) a real identity of its own.

Sep
30

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Fall of Icarus Endorphin Review

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Fall of Icarus Endorphin Review

Artist: Fall of Icarus
Album: Endorphin
Genre(s): Electronic
Subgenres(s): Dubstep
Released: 2013
Length: 17 minutes
Language(s): English, German
Label(s): N/A

Track List:

01. Filthy Souls
02. Raining (Fall of Icarus Remix)
03. Morphine
04. Hellsing

Fall of Icarus Endorphin Cover

Endorphin is a free EP by Austrian musician Fall of Icarus. In his 4 short songs he demonstrates his willingness to surf the dubstep tidal wave while avoiding being narrowly pigeonholed by borrowing elements of other genres to throw in his melting pot of ideas.

The EP kicks off with Filthy Souls, taking its name and dialogue from the fictional film Angels with Filthy Souls from Home Alone and puts it against his music to create a short audio theatre introduction in a similar style to that used for Internet Friends by Knife Party. The soft natured Raining moves Fall of Icarus in a subdued direction with a singer to match before being replaced with jarring bass wobbles inspired by dubstep figurehead Skrillex.

Like the 2 pervious songs, Morphine includes a number of samples from different sources but unlike the obscure and creative choice for Filthy Souls it brandishes chopped up and pitch shifted voices and a dog barking, something that didn’t work favourably on Pink Floyd’s Seamus either. Endorphin is brought to its conclusion with the claustrophobic atmosphere of Hellsing and enough chaotic bass noises to cause a sensory overload and crack a few of windows.

Endorphin could have been streamlined by removing some unnecessary samples and sound effects but as far as EPs go in giving a quick demonstration of what a musician can do, Fall of Icarus manages to do just that. He is an aspiring young musician looking for his own direction but he has the means and drive to carve out a name for himself given more time.

Sep
22

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The Gathering The West Pole Review

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The Gathering The West Pole Review

Artist: The Gathering
Album: The West Pole
Genre(s): Rock
Subgenres(s): Post Rock, Trip Rock
Released: 2009
Length: 54 minutes
Language(s): English
Label(s): Psychonaut

Track List:

01. When Trust Becomes Sound
02. Treasure
03. All You Are
04. The West Pole
05. No Bird Call
06. Capital of Nowhere
07. You Promised Me a Symphony
08. Pale Traces
09. No One Spoke
10. A Constant Run

The Gathering The West Pole Cover

The West Pole is the first Gathering album since the departure of singer Anneke Van Giersbergen in 2007. She has since been replaced by Silje Wergeland (Octavia Sperati) and The Gathering deceptively approached The West Pole with the mentality of “new singer, new sound” with the misleading mammoth opener When Trust Becomes Sound.

The song is an unexpected post rock number that continuously builds on itself before a questionable background megaphone ramble comes out of nowhere courtesy of guest singer Anne van den Hoogen. Thankfully the guitar buries the megaphone in a fashion most favourable and lets you enjoy the rest of the sterling craftsmanship that has gone into writing and performing it.

After The Gathering waste time not introducing Silje Wergeland she makes a powerful introduction for herself on the even-tempered Treasure. Her performance should remove any doubt from long time Gathering fans that are sceptical of her being able to replace Anneke Van Giersbergen. She easily proves to be a suitable replacement while there are some noticeable similarities between them.

The overly noisy side of The Gathering is short-lived and the mid-paced songs become the theme before they manage to take it down a few more notches beginning with the quelled No Bird Call up to and including Pale Traces, which throw back to the sombre ambience of their 2006 album Home.

Unlike their previous trip rock albums, the distortion drenched guitar has been integrated into their sound to give them a new edge to work with, just not in the way you would expect from the opener. It has definitely push them forward and kept them from rehashing their existing sound and while it would have been exciting to hear The Gathering take on the post rock genre and weave their unique vision around it, The West Pole ends on a well-deserved high note.

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