Throbbing electronics build the atmosphere on Anima Nera the first song from Italian metal band Lacuna Coil's ninth album. With their previous release Delirium they recorded their heaviest album to date and it seems that this darker heavier style has continued on Black Anima. Much of it is due to vocalist Andrea now using the roars more than his clean vocals which for me were always one of the let downs of Lacuna Coil's earlier work especially as Cristina Scabbia's vocals are so good, having gotten better on Delerium with a more epic style that continues here as she hits notes she's surely never hit before. Sword Of Anger is the first proper song here built on a melodic riff and the aforementioned roars with the soaring choruses giving the first taste of Cristina's vocals. It's a bouncy beginning to the album and it's a polar opposite to the down tuned groove monster of Reckless which has some thick baselines from bassist Marco 'Maki' Coti-Zelati who plays all the guitars, bass, keys and synths on this record getting adding yet more widdly guitar solos moving the band further away from their Goth/Alt metal roots into more modern metal territory with some djent style.
This album comes after their sold out 20th anniversary show at the Roundhouse in London where the band completely changed their stage look and celebrated their history as a band by moving into the upper echelon of the metal community, showing that their older numbers are still so well revered that they have to do them justice on stage but they aren't afraid to reinvent their sound as they have on their previous release and this. Apocalypse is a track that takes things back with the synth heavy gothic sounds of Our Truth but with big ballad like number ripe for singing back from a crowd due to the huge chorus hook and the "woah" refrains, the same can be said about the brilliantly dramatic Save Me. The tracks on this record are bloody brilliant, all the lyrical content is more personal and self-reflective than before but that just adds to the drama of this music.
Take a track like Now Or Never it's bludgeoning industrial metal which is roared by Andrea and breaks down into some In This Moment styled groove where both singers let loose. It's probably the most epic song on the album heavy as all hell but with that melody still standing true, elsewhere we have the pumping European sound of Under The Surface, they go full symphonic metal on Veneficium which sounds like a mix of Epica and Sentenced and gives Cristina another chance to go fully operatic on the longest song on the album backed by a full orchestral suite. Black Anima is a simply brilliant album, I mean top 10 of the year good! Dense compositions with stunning vocals and some of the best songs of their 20+ year career. Seriously pick up this album when it drops it's stunning. 10/10
Ashen Crown: Obsolescence (Self Released) [Paul Hutchings]
Although they have been around for the best part of three years ago, it was on 23rd December last year that West Midland death metallers Ashen Crown first tore the flesh from my face with a brutal set at the Music Minds Matters charity night at Fuel in Cardiff. With their demo Fall Of Thine Eyes providing the bulk of their set, this was a band to keep an eye on. Now, nine months later, the time has arrived for Obsolescence, their debut release and I am pleased to say that the wait has been worth it. Under the watchful stewardship of Neil Hudson of Initiate Audio and Media, who recorded, mixed and produced the album, this is a hefty slab which slams hard, varies pleasingly in style but retains enough crushing heaviness and thrashing speed to ensure attention does not drift at any point.
Obsolescence reflects the view that things change, with concepts such as religion, politics and some day to day ideologies slowly becoming obsolete. In changing times, there is no more relevant subject matter. Avoiding the pigeonholes that many find themselves in, Ashen Crown have managed to create an album that should appeal to a vast cross section of the metal community. The pounding opening of Unbroken Faith is a solid introduction, with vocalist Kieron Scott’s brutally gruff delivery raw but fitting snuggly with the band’s ferocity. As the bell tolls for the final time, the track segues perfectly into the crushing monster that is Crimson Sea, a song so full of groove it will be impossible not to move when it hits the live arena. Huge riffs, pummelling drums and razor-sharp chugging guitars all combine to great effect. The opening segment of thrash on Ultimatum maintains the interest, the dimension shifts both impressive and unexpected. Three tracks in and if you aren’t sitting up by now then there is something wrong as the second half of this track slows and the sheer crushing weight of the track affords brief respite before the acceleration kicks in again. More groove with Right To Rise, one of four six minutes plus monsters and another that grabs the attention and barely allows you to breathe through the whole song.
As the album progresses, Hudson’s quality in the production is evident with the album sound sharp and crystal clear, allowing the listener to catch every note. Guilty Of Hatred carries a stomp which rages, drummer Mike Ellis proving that allowing him time to ease into the drum position was the correct decision. Haunting female vocals on the epic Blood Beneath Us add a further dimension of intrigue and atmosphere, showcasing the fretwork skills of Ste Fowkes and Jay Rogers whilst the now familiar Fall Of Thine Eyes sounds fresh and intense. After such a frenetic 35 minutes, it comes as both a relief and a surprise to find Ashen Crown close the album with the sombre and melodic Under The Leaves, which still contains more firepower than many of their fellow outfits. Indeed, it fairly rattles along for the first section, causing much movement. Variety, quality compositions and a delivery that is ferociously hungry are evident in the eagerness of the band and with some luck Ashen Crown should become familiar to many more in the metal community soon. They will be celebrating the release of Obsolescence with a headline show in the 'Home Of Metal' at the O2 Academy Birmingham on Saturday 26th October. If you are in the area, get your carcass along to see a pivotal moment for one of the finest UK death metal bands around today. 8/10
Chaos Motion: Psychological Spasms Cacophony (Transcending Obscurity Records) [Val D'Arcy]
Where to even start with Chaos Motion's debut concoction Psychological Spasms Cacophony? When it comes to tech death there are several give-away traits; odd time and key signatures, complex syncopation and general rhythmic irregularity, not to mention overly technical passages and general showing off. Whilst this album holds up that tradition for the most part it's also something quite different altogether. This is without a doubt the most inaccessibly puzzling record I've listened to for some time. It's almost like the band have set out to create the very antithesis of what we consider a song in every track. So much so this caused me to look up the Oxford definition of music just to make sure this actually qualified as such. All the components seem to be here, but it's as if they've taken the rules of songwriting and intentionally denied them at every step. True to its name, the chaotic construct of the music here is so much at odds with nature that no logical expectation is allowed; indeed the only constant is that of the absence of reason.
Is it enjoyable? No not really, it's hard work and at times I felt like I was being tortured, like a form of forced sleep deprivation but rather my brain not being allowed to process thought in the way every instinct would like. There is certainly an artistry to orchestrating such a bewildering experience. One of the joys of music, for me, is the interpretation of the sounds, being able to read and anticipate the direction of travel and the subsequent reward of success or the occasional surprise when it takes an unexpected turn to reveal a new landscape. Now imagine being blindfolded in pitch darkness and trying to navigate a terrain of jagged rocks and pitfalls, whilst being pushed and pulled from all sides at rapidly increasing and decreasing speeds and intervals. So why on earth would you subject yourself to this cacophony? Well, everything I've described here is my experience of this album through a conventional lense. This isn't a conventional piece of music. If you can do with your ears what your eyes might do when trying to process a magic eye image then you might be in with a chance of surviving this album, even liking it.
Chaos Motion have created a musical paradox with Psychological Spasms Cacophony that can be described by comparison to drinking hot tea to cool down. An abstraction so compelling in its absence of norms, you must submit and allow it to trample over you without resistance for it to reveal its meditative qualities. This album does require the listener to be in certain surroundings and a certain state of mind to take effect, but if you can achieve that and persevere, its an interesting albeit challenging experience. 6/10
Cold: The Things We Can’t Stop (Napalm Records) [Alex Swift]
Cold: The Things We Can’t Stop (Napalm Records) [Alex Swift]
Sometimes, an act has such an unintentionally apt name that you just can’t help yourself making jokes at their expense. See, The Things We Can’t Stop radiates about as much warmth and enthusiasm as an icy wind – true, you won’t be hurt, yet you certainly won’t be welcoming the presence, or indeed longing to feel the sensation again. So unappealing are Cold that they make Snow Patrol’s brand of climate-themed soft rock look avalanche-sized in excitement and urgency. Shine opens with a tale about a girl called summer, who begins upset and locked away, yet will ‘learn to shine again’. Normally, I would be quite sympathetic to such a theme yet the lyrics and musical choices are doing absolutely nothing to sell me on the concept. Snowblind – which sadly isn’t a Black Sabbath cover – opens on some dissonant guitar musings, which sound as if they could be leading into something promising, before they give way to a slavishly mid-tempo crawl which fails in capturing the moody, morose feeling in every respect except making me moody at the lack of risk on display.
The Devil We Know tries to capture a dark feeling, yet Scooter Ward’s distinct lack of vocal range and the narrow ability of the musicians behind him fail to inspire anything other than a dull sense of tedium. Although I alluded to the fact that Cold basically sound like a desaturated version of Snow Patrol, we hear the cruel irony of that fact when, five songs in, we get a somehow more dreary cover of Run, which manages that seemingly impossible task by actually slowing the song down and taking out much of the guitar and synth layers which gave the original a dull semblance of emotion, no matter how faint. From there, the album continues on a meandering, pseudo-emotional path, failing to offer anything in the vein of originality or even importance. On the Things We Can’t Stop, Cold gives new meaning to middle of the road, to the extent that they are shrinking to minuscule size, and disappearing between the cracks in the concrete, while far more determined and firm vehicles rush overhead, ignoring the stunted cries from a band whose music is so insignificant, that no casual passer-by need pay attention 2/10
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