Jonathan Hill

A Soapbox for Uninformed Opinions

Mar
20

By

The Autumn Offering Embrace the Gutter Review

Category: Music Tags: , , , , , Leave a Comment

General Information:

Artist: The Autumn Offering
Album: Embrace the Gutter
Genre(s): Heavy Metal, Metalcore
Subgenres(s): Melodic Death Metal
Released: 2006
Length: 35 minutes
Language(s): English
Label(s): Victory Records

Track List:

01. Prologue
02. Decay
03. The Yearning
04. Embrace the Gutter
05. Ghost
06. Misery
07. This Future Disease
08. One Last Thrill
09. No End in Sight
10. Walk the Line
11. The Final Cut

The Autumn Offering Embrace the Gutter Cover

The Autumn Offering Embrace the Gutter Cover

The Autumn Offering Embrace the Gutter Review

Embrace the Gutter is the second album by The Autumn Offering. It features a fluid blend of metalcore and melodic death metal, a style that had gained a lot of traction by its release in 2006, but Embrace the Gutter is far from a run of the mill bandwagoning effort. There are plenty of guitar leads and tasteful solos without many of the typical hardcore breakdowns or drawn out guitar chugging sessions that can be found on albums by many of their contemporaries.

Vocalist Dennis Miller has improved a lot since the bands 2004 debut Revelations of the Unsung and while he still utilises a throaty shout, it is more accessible and easier to understand than before. His lyrics revolve around personal struggles so the mentions of decay and disease are metaphors for these things instead of being over the top and literal like in other bands.

Aside from the excellent blend of metal guitar soloing and hardcore bridges, The Autumn Offering has some tasteful clean guitar interludes on No End in Sign and One Last Thrill that would have been a brilliant third side to the band’s sound if it was utilised fully. This third side is only brought to life properly on the instrumental closer The Final Cut and features classical piano playing over the drums and guitars. This then transforms into a cinematic interlude complete with wind effects that take up about half the song before closing with one final dramatic guitar chord and drum beat.

Embrace the Gutter is an overlooked album but it is a worthy addition to the collection of melodic death metal or metalcore fans. Its short length works to its advantage and prevents it from ever becoming stale or tired and instead offers a great deal of replay value.

Performers:

Sean Robbins: Bass
Nick Gelyon: Drums
Matt Johnson: Guitar
Dennis Miller: Vocals
Tommy Church: Guitars

External Links:

The Autumn Offering on Wikipedia | Embrace the Gutter on Wikipedia
The Autumn Offering on Metal Archives | Embrace the Gutter on Metal Archives

Feb
24

By

Behold the Arctopus Horrorcension Review

Category: Music Tags: , , , , Leave a Comment

General Information:

Artist: Behold the Arctopus
Album: Horrorcension
Genre(s): Heavy Metal
Subgenres(s): Progressive Metal
Released: 2012
Length: 28 minutes
Language(s): N/A
Label(s): Black Market Activities

Track List:

01. Disintegore
02. Monolithic Destractions
03. Horrorsentience
04. Deluge of Sores
05. Putrefucktion
06. Annihilvore

Behold the Arctopus Horrorscension Cover

Behold the Arctopus Horrorscension Cover

Behold the Arctopus Horrorcension Review

Horrorcension is the second round of auditory carnage by progressive metal outfit Behold the Arctopus. The songs found on their debut, Skullgrid, are mere pop songs in comparison to the 28 minutes endurance test of Horrorcension. Normally an album should be reviewed on its own merits without more than a quiet nod to another album or band but to express how far-out Behold the Arctopus have swam, drawing some comparisons with Skullgrid is hard to avoid.

While Skullgrid is certainly a difficult album, it did have some strong moments thrown in the mix along with a semi-sense of structure – a motif or reference point that the band went back to before taking the music in another direction. With Horrorcension there isn’t any of this and the music if far more outlandish than whatever you might think the ridiculous song titles allure to.

The songs twist and turn in every way imaginable and make it nearly impossible to follow anything, leaving you with nothing more than a senseless cacophony of guitar screeches and percussive slaps that won’t mean anything to you. There are very few breaks from the status quo and the most noticeable are the short, merciful interludes found on Horrorsentience and Putrefucktion. The most memorable moment can be found on Annihilvore when Behold the Arctopus exchange their progressive metal frenzy for a relatively straightforward black metal sound mid song.

While Horrorcension lacks emotion due to its intense focus on the technical skills and performance of the band, it is still guaranteed to give the listener an emotional reaction, albeit it will most likely be one of disgust.

Performers:

Mike Lerner: Guitars
Colin Marston: Warr Guitars
Weasel Walter: Drums

External Links:

Behold the Arctopus Homepage
Behold the Arctopus on Wikipedia | Horrorcension on Wikipedia

Jan
26

By

Judas Priest Nostradamus Review

Category: Music Tags: , , , Leave a Comment

General Information:

Artist: Judas Priest
Album: Nostradamus
Genre(s): Heavy Metal
Subgenres(s): Heavy Metal
Released: 2008
Length: 56 minutes (CD 1 tracks 1-13), 47 minutes (CD 2 tracks 14-23)
Language(s): English
Label(s): Sony Music

Track List:

01. Dawn of Creation
02. Prophecy
03. Awakening
04. Revelations
05. The Four Horsemen
06. War
07. Sands of Time
08. Pestilence and Plague
09. Death
10. Peace
11. Conquest
12. Lost Love
13. Persecution
14. Solitude
15. Exiles
16. Alone
17. Shadows in the Flame
18. Visions
19. Hope
20. New Beginnings
21. Calm Before the Storm
22. Nostradamus
23. Future of Mankind

Judas Priest Nostradamus Cover

Judas Priest Nostradamus Cover

Judas Priest Nostradamus Review

Nostradamus is the 16th studio album by heavy metal icons Judas Priest. After testing the waters on their 2005 album Angel of Retribution with a 13 minute doom metal song, Loch Ness, it seems as though Judas Priest have gotten a real taste for pushing their artistic boundaries by ambitiously crafting a concept double album revolving around the life of the French seer Nostradamus.

The most immediate thing you’ll notice, aside from the colossal length, is the inclusions of keyboards as a lead instrument. Sometimes they outshine or even bury other instruments (most notably Ian Hill’s bass) and are the foundation of no less than 9 interludes which are often accompanied by acoustic or soft electric guitar playing. While they work well to emphasise some of Rob Halford’s singing talents, they make up a combined running time of 17 minutes and can feel overdone by the end the album. It is worth mentioning that the interlude music is eventually fleshed out into a full song, the ballad Lost Love, which is presumably about the loss of his first wife and 2 children to the plague but the lyrics are vague enough to be interpreted in different ways.

Death is another successful foray into doom metal and it’s a shame that the band only flirt with the subgenre since they prove to be rather skilled in this realm. War turns out to be one of the more experimental songs as it breaks away from heavy metal altogether and sees Judas Priest trying their hand at martial industrial music with surprisingly good results. In another twist, Pestilence and Plague is sung in both English and Italian but unless you understand Italian, it will be hard to say how accurate Rob Halford’s performance is.

Between the interludes and experimentation we are left with much of their traditional heavy metal sound that is often played at the same mid-paced tempo which doesn’t do much to help the flow of the album. The title track, found near the end of the second CD, starts out like any of the other interludes before breaking into a speed metal frenzy with Rob Halford’s trademark wail to make you think that it has been ripped right out of the Painkiller album. Nostradamus would have benefitted greatly from more songs like this one, if for nothing other than the tempo to shake things up a little.

Nostradamus would be more digestible if the material was condensed into a single album no more than an hour long but it is always good to hear a band expanding their horizons instead of running around the same hamster wheel endlessly even if the results aren’t perfect.

Performers:

Rob Halford: Vocals
Glenn Tipton: Guitars and Synthesizes Guitars
K.K. Downing: Guitars and Synthesizes Guitars
Ian Hill: Bass Guitars
Scott Travis: Drums

External Links:

Judas Priest Homepage
Judas Priest on Wikipedia | Nostradamus on Wikipedia

Nov
17

By

Sick of it All Death to Tyrants Review

Category: Music Tags: , , , , Leave a Comment

Artist: Sick of it All
Album: Death to Tyrants
Genre(s): Rock
Subgenres(s): Hardcore Punk
Released: 2006
Length: 37 minutes
Language(s): English
Label(s): Abacus Records

Track List:

01. Take the Night Off
02. Machete
03. Preamble
04. Uprising Nation
05. Always War
06. Die Alone
07. Evil Schemer
08. Leader
09. Make a Mark
10. Forked Tongue
11. The Reason
12. Faithless
13. Fred Army
14. Thin Skin
15. Maria White Trash
16. Don’t Join the Crowd (European Bonus Track)

Sick of it All Death to Tyrants Cover

Sick of it All Death to Tyrants Cover

Sick of it All Death to Tyrants Review

Death to Tyrants is a testosterone fuelled rage fit by Sick of it All. After the first few songs you’ll come to realise that Sick of it All are content with playing short, snappy bursts of hardcore punk and aren’t trying to do anything else. While the passion is clearly there, the lack of desire to diversify their sound leaves each song on Death to Tyrants sounding all too similar to the ones before it.

However the biggest grievance on Death to Tyrants has to be vocalist Lou Koller, who insists on spluttering over what could have been some well-crafted songs without his constipated gorilla cries. Instead, Death to Tyrants turns into nothing more than an endurance test to get to the end of it.

Death to Tyrants is best left to the hardcore punk enthusiasts as it will leave the rest of us feeling sick of it all before the album is halfway done.

Performers:

Lou Koller: Vocals
Pete Koller: Guitar
Craig Setari: Bass Guitar
Armand Majidi: Drums

External Links:

Sick of it All Homepage
Sick of it All on Wikipedia | Death to Tyrants on Wikipedia
Sick of it All on Discogs | Death to Tyrants on Discogs

« Older Posts
Newer Posts »