Reviews: Enslaved, Holy Grail, Mutiny Within

Enslaved: RIITIIR (Nuclear Blast)

Norwegian Black Metal is one of those genres that divides opinion with a lot of criticism aimed at how much of it is generic but with Enslaved that is not a problem, they have always been a far more progressive prospect. RIITIIR is their twelfth album and it is not short of time signature changes, with every track having an ebb and flow between light and shade. Every track is an expansive heavy and also very intricate, from the acoustic outro of Death In The Eyes Of The Dawn which seeps into the almost classic rock of Veilburner. The band take their cues from the epic Viking metal of Amon Amarth, the sparse black metal of Behemoth seen in the blast beats in Roots Of The Mountain and the title track. The influence that is the most over-riding on this album is that of Opeth which is especially prevalent in the clean vocals of Grulte Kjellson. This is a great album that melds genres with virtuoso musicianship however I can't help thinking that Enslaved are trying to do what Opeth were doing a few years ago, I know that Enslaved have been doing this for about as long as Opeth themselves but as the Swedes have moved on to new sounds these Norwegians have stuck resolutely to this prog/black/death metal sound, and to be honest when it's done this well who can blame them. 7/10

Holy Grail: Ride The Void (Nuclear Blast)

California retro metal masters Holy Grail blast back with their second album and Ride The Void has all the hallmarks of their debut and that of the bands that influenced them. With shredding dual guitars, speed metal riffage, galloping bass and helium vocals. A short intro gives way to Bestia Triumphans which has all those things but also has a dark progressive modern metal feel showing that they have expanded their sound a little bit. Things become classic again with Dark Passenger which has the Priest-like thrash down to a tee. James Paul Luna still has an excellent voice and the dual guitars of Tyler Mount and Alex Lee are perfectly in sync shredding with ferocity and soloing at hyper-speed. This is a very fun album full of raise your fist and yell anthems, shout along choruses and lots of OTT metal fun. However as I mentioned earlier in the review they have expanded their sound adding some big choirs, some modern thrash to add to the retro and also many of the tracks have a darker feel with many of the tracks focusing on horror and fantasy themes which is a departure from the battle and war based lyrics of their debut. This yet another strong album that will explode in the live setting making those of the denim vest persuasion will love it (as will everyone else)! 8/10

Mutiny Within: Mutiny Within II: Synchronicity (Self Released)

After a three year hiatus since their debut, American progressive metal band Mutiny Within return with their second self-released album. English vocalist Chris Clancy returned for this album despite leaving the band after the first Roadrunner released, album failed to sell due to major piracy. I however thought that their debut was an excellent modern metal tour-de-force and I was looking forward to a follow up since 2010. Things start off with the very Exit Ten sounding Embers which showcases Mutiny Within's mix of technical virtuosity and a keen sense of melody. It also shows off Clancy's vocals, he is very expansive in his delivery moving easily from screams to soaring clean vocals. In My Veins shows of his growls and screams early on with the clean chorus having a very metalcore edge albeit with a lot more soloing from Guitarists Daniel Badge and Brandon Jacobs that brings to mind modern Sylosis. What I found after the first three songs is that I personally miss the heavy use of keys that were present on the debut without them the band do sound more a kin to Trivium or Sylosis. The album gets heavier on the fourth track Falls To Pieces and maintains this through Machines (which is one of best tracks on the album) with Balance also bringing the heavy. This is another great album from a young band that have returned from almost extinction after a stumble at the starting block, however they have returned with a vengeance and another excellent album that should (hopefully) act as a springboard to better things. 8/10

Reviews: Wintersun, Phillip H. Anselmo & Warbeast, Vanlade

Wintersun: Time I (Nuclear Blast)

Jari Maenpaa formed Wintersun in 2003 as a side project away from his band Ensiferum and swiftly released a debut album comprising of him on every instrument and vocals except for the drums which were handled by Kai Hahto. After being fired by Ensiferum he then spent his time with Wintersun, this second album has been in digestion since 2006 and is a concept album released in two parts. This is Time Part I with Part II due in 2013. Now a fully formed band Maenpaa handles vocals, guitars and keys with Hahto still on sticks and an extra guitarist and bassist. Despite the small four piece band the arrangements on this album are extremely complex which is evident from the Japanese influence on the instrumental intro track When Time Fades Away which is stirring, rousing and a fantastic start to the album that opens things up in fine style before the blast beats of second track Sons Of Winter And Stars kick things off properly, as the orchestra and choir kick in the track gathers pace before Maenpaa's black metal growl before a time change signals a change in vocals to a strong booming clean delivery becomes blended with the harsher vocals and brings to mind Warlord Nygard from Turisas. The instrumentation on just this track alone is phenomenal mixing death/black vocals, riffage and drums with the symphonic tendencies of Kamelot and some big keyboards thrown in. The track then breaks into an acoustic middle section that almost waltz's into the screams again. From this one track you can see exactly why this album has taken so long as it is the album that Turisas, Finntroll and Ensiferum would kill to make. This is set to be a genre classic but enough hyperbole back to the music, after the nearly 14 minute Sons Of Winter And Stars comes to a fittingly epic conclusion, next comes the eight minute Land Of Sorrow And Snow which starts with another slow building riff into a folky acoustic ballad before a gap with electronically folk of Darkness and Frost before the album comes to a fantastic end with the epic Time. This album is fantastic and was defiantly worth the wait, truly awesome. 10/10

Phillip H. Anselmo & Warbeast: War Of The Gargantuans (Housecore Records)

Down frontman Phillip Anselmo has always gone to the underground on his dalliances outside of his main bands, from the dark violent thrash of Superjoint Ritual to the hardcore punk of Arson Anthem this split album again goes to the underground with thrash band Warbeast providing a sneak peek at his soon to be released solo album. Two tracks come from Anselmo and his band the Illegals and two come from Texan thrashers Warbeast. The first track Conflict is an Anselmo solo track full of wall of sound breakneck riffage and some very heavy drumming with Anselmo giving his trademark no compromise vocals. Warbeast come next with old-school thrash noise in Birth Of A Psycho complete with tinny production and some souped-up shredding and some raw vocals from Bruce Corbitt give the band the sound of some early Kreator or even Slayer. Then it's Anselmo's turn again with another full on heavy track that does bode well for the solo album, there are elements of Pantera on Family 'Friends' And Associates as well as other influences from hardcore to grind and has Anselmo screaming, growling and roaring changing his vocal style throughout. Finally it's up to Warbeast to finish the EP and they do with the militaristic and solo filled IT which ends the album well. This a no compromise release from both artists and is a brief look at what to expect from them on their full lengths. 7/10

Vanlade: Iron Age (Stormspell Records)

Vanlade are a trad/power metal band from the Kansas USA and despite being a country not being normally known for this kind of metal (Manowar excluded) these Americans play fast furious and ferocious traditional metal full of speedy riffage and helium fuelled vocals. The band play songs about fantasy, history and very fast cars (on Screaming Metal Deathtrap) all of them seem extremely skilled in executing the traditional retro metal. Brett Scott's very good vocals have the hallmarks Halford and Eric Adams they bring a little bit of OTT silliness to proceedings but he is a good mimic having the low range snarl and the high range shriek of The Metal God and the voice of the Manowarriors. With tracks like the propulsive title track, Blood Eagle which shows off Nick Poffinbargers fleet fingered and the bouncy Life By The Blade the band play very well constructed if a little generic metal in the vein of Stormwarrior, Steelwing or Enforcer. This album does not relent with not a single slow track present but the version I have is apparently the un-mastered version which means that the drums of Cody Campbell can overpower things slightly but this little bit of harshness adds to the authentic classic metal feel. A very good, fun and possibly a little generic album from a young band full of potential (and of course hero worship) 7/10

Reviews: Katatonia, Cannibal Corpse, The Algorithm

Katatonia: Dead End Kings (Peaceville)

Swedish doomsters Katatonia come back with the follow up to their world beating 2009 Night Is New Day which brought Katatonia out of their Doom metal roots into the more progressive metal genre while still having the depressive doom riffage with added electronics and synths. This experimentation is still present on this album with the album opener The Parting which has all the hallmarks of fellow Swedes Opeth but Jonas Henke's vocals have almost an element of Biffy Clyro's Simon Neil. The tracks are depressive, melancholic but mostly they are hauntingly beautiful and extremely well written balancing the metallic heaviness in tracks like Buildings, which has Gojira-like fret slides, with great progressive melodies on songs like Ambitions. The fantastic The One You Are Looking For Is Not Here is a tender duet with The Gatherings Silije Wergeland and over the following eleven tracks the album does not dip in quality at all. Henke's vocals are fantastic as usual and are really the main part of Katatonia's sound. However the other members of the band are also excellent with other founder member Anders Nystrom providing both the heavy riffs and solos (Lethean) as well as contributing the restrained clean playing on tracks like Leech. The unsung hero however is keyboardist Frank Default who provides some brilliant electronics and really adds an extra layer to the band’s sound. Katatonia have released another potential classic and while they will never be a summer party band, on a cold winter night this is the perfect companion. 9/10

Cannibal Corpse: Torture (Metal Blade)

The purveyors of ultimate gore-metal once again are ready to rip off your head and eat the entrails. It seems as if Cannibal Corpse have looked back on their career and taken the best parts of it for this their twelfth album, the horror themed tracks are back with such lovely and fluffy titles like As Deep As The Knife Will Go, Followed Home Then Killed and Encased In Concrete. The uncensored gore album covers are back two with lots of chains and blood shown in every horrible detail. On the music end it's Cannibal Corpses' signature take no prisoners high ferocity riffage with Pat O'Brien and Rob Barret bringing the six string pain with Paul Mazurkiewicz and Alex Webster providing the skull crushing rhythm section, all of this is topped by the unmistakeable guttural roar of George 'Corpsegrinder' Fisher. This yet another chapter in the history of Cannibal Corpses audio homicide but it seems like they have found their feet (and their knives) with this new album, some will call this type of music torture but if you take it for what it is Torture is very fun indeed. 7/10

The Algorithm: The Polymorphic Code (Basick Records)

The Algorithm is Remi Gallego an electronic musician from Toulouse France who specialises in genre melding. The Polymorphic Code is an album that blends, Jean-Michel Jarre electronics with ambient, prog and mathcore, think a modern Muse, fronted by Deadmau5 playing songs by Mesuggah sans guitars and you won't be far off. The album blasts off with the explosive, progressive Handshake (complete with mid-song laser effects!) and it moves on from there into some of the most uncharted Djent style music I've ever heard. Second track Bouncing Dot kicks off with a Rammstein style intro before the beat breaks into euro trance crescendo. I will admit that I had my doubts when I heard the words 'electronic Djent' but Gallego has created something that is intensely musical with his electronics creating some very well created music and by the time the final track Panic kicks in with its massive bass drop you have sat through a real musical journey. However what he shows if anything is how much of the Djent genre is similar and that with the right electronic equipment you can programme all of the blast beats, and palm muted guitars you would ever need, despite this Remi Gallego has managed to make this album both interesting and varied in its delivery. 7/10

 

Reviews: Kreator, Babylon Fire, Walking Papers

Kreator: Phantom Antichrist (Nuclear Blast)

Teutonic Thrashers Kreator return with their 13th album and true to form it is an unrelenting explosion of violent neck snapping heavy metal. The slow building atmospheric intro of Mars Mantra breaks into the excellent title track which is full of the speed driven metal with the unmistakable snarling vocals of Mille Petrozza who is the last remaining original member, the album then moves onto the progressive Death To The World which has a lot of light and shade before From Flood Into Fire brings the head banging with its Amon Amarth style melodic metal assault before exploding into some sublime soloing. This album is full of the metal Kreator have become the top of their game in the trio of Teutonic thrash with a small break towards the end of the album with the anthemic United In Hate and The Few, The Proud, The Broken before Victory Will Come picks the pace back up again. This is classic Kreator album but with a lot of modern metal influences that have grown into thrown in which is bolstered by the crisp modern production from Jens Bogren. 8/10

Babylon Fire:Dark Horizons (Rocksector Records)

Babylon Fire are from Manchester and mix classic metal of Maiden with lots of modern thrash and groove of Five Finger Death Punch or Machine Head. This leads to a very heavy and modern sounding record with lots of light and shade. Riffage is tight, precise with some storming soloing from Rishi Mehta which is backed by Trivium-like drumming from Marc Cooper (on Cycle Of Addiction). The key to Babylon Fire's sound are the dual vocal assault with Mark Dunfords clean Blaze Bayley-esque croon and the guttural roars of bassist Ryk Swillo this brings another level to the bands metal ferocity meaning that they can explode with full metal riff-fests like The Clarion Call, Rise Of Addiction, Shattered Crown and Darkness Draws Me In, through to the more groove based Demonocracy, Stripped Away and even with the acoustic flourishes thrown in throughout Babylon Fire produce a solid modern metal attack that is not to dissimilar to Panic Cell or Beholder with its chunky metal riffage, powerful vocals good songs. 7/10

Walking Papers: Walking Papers (The Boredom Killing Business)

Walking Papers are a super group of sorts; however it is really the project of Jeff Angell of The Missionary Position who handles vocals and guitars and Barrett Martin of Screaming Trees on drums. From the off you can see that this album is something special as it kicks off with the percussive chant of Already Dead before the walking man blues of The Whole Words Watching shows off Angell's great guitars and his rough and ready vocal delivery as much as the opening track shows off Martin's subtle but powerful drumming. From these two tracks you get a whole host of emotion, power, melody and most of all passion. This album exudes passion from the two main men who are aided and abetted by Benjamin Anderson on keys, who is at his best on Your Secrets Safe With Me and Duff McKagan on bass, who sits back and lets the other men have their fun, Seattle son Mike McCready provides extra guitar duties. The sheer scope of this album is immense bringing together rock, blues, folk with lashings of grunge and punk and some extra touches of the horn section on Red Envelopes, the Springsteen-like acoustic story telling of Leave Me In The Dark and the dark carnival melodies of The Butcher. I could go on about how good this album is but I'm sure any fan of rock will find something that they like on this subtle, rocking, superbly written and most of all simply stunning album. 10/10

Best Of The Year 2012

These are in no particular order and I'm doing 20 because...well I can so there. This has been a good year with some cracking albums. These are my top 20 that I have enjoyed numerous times some I have played more than others. I have also included some of the albums that have dissapointed me greatly and these are also included.

Have a merry gift season and heres to a glut of great albums in 2013!

Best Of The Year

1. Dave Kilminster: Scarlet
2. Doogie White: As Yet Untitled
3. Shadow Of The Sun: Monument
4. Simon McBride: Crossing The Line
5. Docker's Guild The Mystic Technocracy - Season 1: The Age Of Ignorance
6. Headspace: I Am Anonymous
7. Foxy Shazam: The Church Of Rock & Roll
8. Red, White & Blues: Shine
9. Sylosis: Monolith
10. Devin Townsend Project: Epicloud
11. Slash: Apocalyptic Love
12. Triaxis: Rage & Retribution
13. Gene The Were Wolf: Rock N Roll Animal
14. Black Country Communion: Afterglow
15. Kamelot: Silverthorn
16. Rival Sons: Head Down
17. Threshold: The March Of Progress
18. Baroness: Yellow & Green
19. Rush: Clockwork Angels
20. Gojira: L'Enfaunt Sauvage 

Worst (or most dissapointing) Of The Year

1. Meatloaf: Hell In A Handbasket
2. Axewound: Vultures
3. Steve Harris: British Lion
4. Manowar: Lord Of Steel (Hammer Version)
5. Blazre Bayley: King Of Metal

Live & Dangerous: Limehouse Lizzy

Limehouse Lizzy The Globe Cardiff 22/12/12

One last gig to end the year, I'm not usually one for tribute acts but I have seen Limehouse Lizzy a couple of times and this seemed like a good way to get one last pre-Christmas gig. After a very long wait for the band to appear they finally did explaining that there had been some problems meaning they wouldn't be as loud or move as much as they usually would due to the venues P.A and the 'slippery' stage. The band kicked things off with the one-two punch of Jailbreak and Waiting For An Alibi before launching into a set filled with Thin Lizzy classics with Suicide, Do Anything You Want To Do and Don't Believe A Word all aired in the first set. The large crowd ate it up with smiles all round. The band also threw in a couple of covers with Parisienne Walkways and Out In The Fields added to the main sets, although with the amount of back catalogue that Lizzy have I felt these were a bit needless but maybe I'm just a grumpy bastard as everyone else didn't seem to care. Still after an intermission the band returned full of power and incredible precision, with Tim and Greg peeling off the dual-guitar attack of Robbo and Gorham and Andy Fox smashing the hell out of the drums, the obvious selling point is Wayne Ellis who slings his bass like, has all the charisma and the voice of the late Phil. The band mixed up the set list with the heavier tracks like Cold Sweat full of roaring metal swagger and also played Sarah as a request from an birthday girl who shared the same name. The classics continued with the still awesome Emerald before the main set closed with double whammy of Cowboy Song and The Boys Are Back In Town. Which was met with cheers before the encore of Me And The Boys was followed by a choice of either Black Rose or Whiskey In The Jar however due to overwhelming demand from the very vocal audience they played both ending the set in fine style merging the original three-piece Lizzy with the post-Live And Dangerous era band. This was a great fun gig full of some of the best known songs in rock expertly delivered by possibly the best tribute band on the circuit. 8/10

Reviews: Absolva, Pig Iron, Dave Kilminster

Absolva: Flames Of Justice (Rocksector/Code 7)

When a band splits because a member leaves there is usually some trauma, when a band splits and the member who leaves is your brother you might be forgiven for years of feuding and backbiting (e.g. The Kinks, Oasis etc.) however Chris Appleton didn't do this after his bassist brother Luke left to join former tour mates Iced Earth, he put their band Fury UK on indefinite hiatus and then set about forming a new band with Fury UK's drummer Martin McNee adding a bassist and a second guitarist. They also adopted a new sound stepping away from the proggy, power metal sound of Fury UK and replacing it with dual guitar harmonies of classic British heavy metal. This is an album imbued with the sound of Priest fighting with Maiden while being fronted by the gritty Mustaine-like vocals of Chris. Speaking of Chris his and Tom Atkinson's guitar interplay weave a very impressive tapestry with lots dual rundowns and some very killer duelling guitar solos, with Martin McNee's drums and Tom Date's bass all adding to the metal attack. Things kick off with Flames Of Justice, Hundred Years and Code Red show the band firing on all cylinders. There is a break in proceedings with the acoustic State Of Grace before the heaviest track on the album From Beyond The Light explodes. This is a great modern metal album that takes influences from classic metal bands. 8/10

Pig Iron: IV (Cherry Red Recordings)

Always a band that seem to be lumbered in the underground Pig Iron have released three solid albums of heavy blues based rock. With their last offering Blues + Power = Destiny they showed more of their blues influence than on their heavier first albums. With this fourth album they have switched fully and have become a fully blues rock band. With this (almost) new direction they also have a new guitarist in the shape of Dan Edwards from former label mates and protégés Sons Of Merrick. He brings a very bluesy guitar vibe and provides swampy electric and clean acoustic playing to the songs as well as some great solos and riffs. The key sound of Pig Iron however has always been the rumbling bass lines of Hugh Gilmour and the ravaged vocals and mouth harp of Johnny Ogle who blows up a storm on the blues rockers like Horseshoes & Hand Grenades and Carve Your Name. The album opens with the very Zep-like stomp of The Tide Within it is punctuated by the acoustic Chapter 6 and Grave's End and ends with the fantastic Low Grade Man which has a terrific Sax solo! This is a very blues rock based album and anyone who cites their earlier heavier work as their favourite may be disappointed at their more bluesy direction but they can still rock with tracks like Good Man, Poor Man, but for everyone else this is great slice of blues rock that is both authentically old school and very modern. 7/10

Dave Kilminster: Scarlet - The Directors Cut (Self- Released)

This is a re-release of Dave Kilminster's debut (and only) solo album and it is simply awesome. This was always going to be the case as Kilminster is Roger Water's touring guitarist/vocalist (doing the Dave Gilmour parts) and formed a band with Keith Emerson. It is the rhythm section of that band that make up the other two players on this album and both of them are simply stunning supplying some cracking drums and some groovy bass flourishes. The album itself starts out with the strangest track selection, the proggy yet funk Silent Scream which is still a pretty good track but is just a bit lacklustre in comparison to the rest of the album however it starts things off nicely. Things pick up on the excellent Static which features some fantastic guitar playing and showcases Kilminster's great James La Brie-like voice to full effect and has all the elements of Dream Theater at their jazziest, the DT trend is continued on the ballad Just Crazy which has all the hallmarks of Hollow Years this is followed by the orchestral and simply beautiful Angel written about his long-time partner, and Panic Room singer Anne-Marie Helder (who contributes backing vocals to the album). The album then moves through genres ranging from acoustic pop ala Jack Johnson on Chance as well as a bit of The Police on Big Blue before really kick off on the latter part of the album with some jaw-dropping solos on Liar and Rain... (On Another Planet). As debut this is pretty much flawless especially for someone that could be lumped into the virtuoso category, it is an album of great songs that feature some fantastic musicianship. This album quickly builds into something very special indeed and is a must for any fans of guitar based music. 10/10

Live & Dangerous: Devin Townsend Project, Fear Factory

Devin Townsend Project, Fear Factory O2 Academy Bristol 16/12/12

Tesseract were the openers but due to some timing 'problems' I missed them, which does seem to be a recurring problem with this band as every time they tour they clash with something else. Oh well I will see them at some point because by all accounts they were very good

Fear Factory

On the other hand Fear Factory were a different prospect as an instrumental band Fear Factory would work their industrial groove metal to perfection with the precision drumming of Mike Hellier and the unstoppable rhythm of Dino Cazares' guitar. The band were loud heavy and shook the foundations. However they do have one almost fatal flaw, these are the vocals of Burton C Bell who cannot sing, growl yes, sing no. I don't think he hit note while singing clean and this really grated on me. I realise he is a founder member and obviously hardened fans are used to it but it really annoyed me that his vocals were so poor. Still I'm sure if your circle pitting or bringing a wall of death (both of which happened) then you wouldn't notice this and just enjoy the super aggressive metal display. 6/10

Devin Townsend Project

Having only released his new album 'Epicloud' this year, and after a phenomenal show at the Roundhouse with the 'Retinal Circus' I was expecting yet another good show from Mr Townsend and I was not disappointed. Despite spending much of this year touring and with this end of year show he was visibly suffering with a cold but still managed to kick things off in fine style with the start-stop riff of Supercrush! Before Truth was followed by the instrumental ZTO which led into the very heavy and very long Planet Of The Apes. This managed to heave the crowd along nicely, with all Devin gigs they amount to a very good or very bad trip with the songs shifting genres and acoustics nicely, this is combined with the constantly adapting backing images and Devin's strange sense of humour that includes pointing out his 'invisible choir' on (their Def Leppard song) Where We Belong and the taped vocals of Anneke Van Giersbergen. After the kinky monster lust of Vampira Devin (and us) indulged in some jazz hands to new song Lucky Animals before the heaviness resumed with Juular and Grace. He then treated a fan to an acoustic rendition of Hyperdrive! before ending the set with the epic if a little slow Deep Peace which did strike me as an odd choice to end a primarily heavy set with. Redemption came at the hands of the explosive Liberation which was followed by the SYL speech again and then a sped up Bad Devil to end properly. This was a master class of performance with the right amount of peaks and troughs in the set to maintain interest; Devin even managed to get a good sound out of the weirdest venue in the Britain (probably). Can't wait to see him a bit closer to home next time though. 9/10

Reviews: Wolfsbane, Electric Wizard, Shadow Of The Sun

Wolfsbane: Down Fall The Good Guys: Remastered (Self-released)

So on goes the re-issue campaign from Blaze and co Down Fall... is the band's second album and continues in the same vein as there EP and debut album, with songs filled with booze, money, women and politics. Kicking things off with the funky blues of Smashed And Blind before the shout along You Load Me Down. Jase Edwards’s guitars are far more prevalent filling most of the songs with some tight soloing. That's not to say that the bass and drums are slacking as they are both vibrant and driving. Bayley does seem to give a better vocal performance on the Wolfsbane records than he does on his Iron Maiden outings which might be because he is a better fit, his vocals are especially good on tracks like Ezy which ends with a blood curdling primal scream. The album is full of live staples like Black Lagoon and Temple Of Rock. Down Fall The Good Guys still has all of the dirty sleazy hallmarks of Wolfsbane's sound and also improves on it with big ballads like Broken Doll and the blues of Twice As Mean which show their improved songwriting prowess. This remastered edition includes two new tracks that have been taken from original album demos and they fit in with the rest of the album and make two good additions to an already good album with a wide musical scope. 7/10

Electric Wizard: Legalise Drugs and Murder (Satyr IX Productions)

This is cassette that was presented free with Terroriser magazine and has already been released as 7" Vinyl single. It is six tracks long and features the same deep, dark, dope-smoking, doom metal that Electric Wizard does so well. Starting things off with the simply evil, fuzzed up, knuckle dragging riff of the title track you know Electric Wizard are in their comfort zone. The audio is all over the place but this is obviously to give a very retro cassette feel, with the snaps, crackles and lots of tape hiss. Jus Oborns hollered, echoed vocals are still as haunting as ever and his and Liz Buckingham's guitar interplay is great as usual. Satyr IX comes next and is sparse and even slower than the opening track with even more vocodered vocals and some very cultish drumming. As ever Electric Wizard have created six more tracks of headphone music, best enjoyed with some chemical 'accompaniment' (though not needed in my case) the tracks are full of occult lyricism, back masking (on Murder And Madness), head rattling bass and some titanic slabs of doom riffage. There are only really three full songs on this EP with two being instrumentals and one being really an outro piece however the band are still one of the genre leaders, kneel at their altar. 7/10

Shadow Of The Sun: Monument (Self Released)

Hailing from the Rhondda Valley, Shadow Of The Sun have honed this album in the live arena, and all of the band bring their respective talents to it resulting in a very accomplished, grown-up album that draws from neo-prog of Porcupine Tree, some Pink Floyd influences and a very hearty does of Tool. The vocals of Matthew Alexander Powell are strong and have a very wide expressive range meaning he is equally adept to the hard rock of Rising and the acoustic folk of My Heart Is Wild And Overgrown, he is backed by the propulsive percussion of Rhys Jones, the dexterous, voodoo rhythms of Lee Woodmass' bass and the melodic, technical and emotive playing of Dylan Thompson's guitar. These are truly four incredibly talented musicians working together to create a very good album that stretches between the modern metal of Hourglass, the reflective Halo, the technical heaviness of I'm Coming Home, the anthemic Crimson Flags and the almost Beatles-eque Who Cares? This is a fantastic debut album from Shadow Of The Sun and has been expertly produced by Lee Howells. If they continue to create music this good they will be something very special indeed. 9/10

Live & Dangerous: I Scream For Crow, Dodgem X, Shadow Of The Sun

I Scream For Crow, Dodgem X, And Shadow Of The Sun: Buffalo Bar, Cardiff, 09/12/12

So another night of rock in the capital and yet another poor showing from the Cardiff rock fans, playing to a grand total of four paying customers (who were refunded by the nice chaps) the bands put on their respective shows with aplomb. I feel sorry for anyone that missed this because it was a showcase of some fantastic local talent.

Shadow Of The Sun

The Rhondda Valleys finest noise was in full swing tonight with Shadow Of The Sun bringing their progressive, impressive and joyous rock/metal to the capital. Anchored by the hard hitting drumming from Rhys Jones, some very nifty lead bass playing from Lee Woodmas, the heavy rhythm is then enveloped by the hard rocking, crunchy and at times almost ethereal guitar playing from Dylan Thompson; the four-piece are rounded off by the Maynard James Keenan-like vocals of Matthew Powell. Shadow Of The Sun plough a very unique furrow mixing heavy metal with tripped out prog rock and adding a hearty dose of virtuoso playing. So they have a sound that spans Tool, Floyd, Soundgarden and beyond. In such a small space with great sound it is easy to see that with the right breaks this is a band that could really do something huge. They are truly an asset to the Welsh rock scene. 8/10

Dodgem X

And now for something completely different, transporting us back to the late 70's Dodgem X play angry, abrasive, shouty punk rock with tongues planted in their cheeks. The between song banter was excellent describing horrific gym scenes, and being mental. The band were straight up four-chord punk and despite this not really being my thing my head was nodding throughout their alcohol fuelled set, With songs about starting fires, rape and war Dodgem X rally against the norm with their power chord assault that incited some shirt spinning (albeit from SOTS's drummer Rhys). Dodgem X are a real riot of crazy stories and hard hitting punk rock. 7/10

I Scream For Crow

This was I Scream For Crow's first gig as a four piece (after their second guitarist stepped down the night before) however I have never seen the band before so I have no comparison to what they did sound like. On tonight's evidence they are very good, despite this being in their own words a 'posh practice' the band pushed through their set with vigour. I Scream For Crow are a band hard to describe, they have elements of the Foo Fighters, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and even Biffy Clyro mixed up with some off-kilter heavy metal with pulsing funky bass and some clever guitar work. The vocals of Rob Thompson are powerful and perfectly suit the multi-genre assault that the band bring. This means that their songs grow on you developing as the set progresses. Upon first viewing, they really impressed me with their style, songs and general good humour about the ridiculous situation of having more bands than punters (in fact all the bands were very good natured about this). I personally will be seeking out I Scream For Crow again if not just gain a better understanding of the band. 8/10

All in all very good night of local rock, however the support from the so called 'scene' was simply abysmal. Three talented bands, in good venue missed by the general populace. I do hope this trend doesn't continue.