Reviews: Slipknot, Moonspell, Thorbjørn Risager & The Black Tornado, Even Flow (Reviews By Zak Skane, David G, Ben Baljak & Matt Bladen)

Slipknot – The End So Far (Roadrunner Records) [Zak Skane]

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past 23 years Slipknot have become one of the biggest names in rock/metal history, the nine piece masked outfit have been capturing audiences since their 1999 self titled album which contains crowd pleasing anthems such as Surfacing, Wait And Bleed and Spit It Out. Since their critically acclaimed debut the original version of the band released three more iconic albums Iowa, Vol.3 Subliminal Verses and All Hope Is Gone before the passing of their bassist and main song writer Paul Grey. 

After line up changes and in the wake of passing of the iconic ex-drummer Joey Jordison the band have still persevered and released new music with releases like Chapter 5: The Grey Chapter and We Are Not Your Kind and now their up and coming and final instalment with their iconic record label Roadrunner Records The End of All Things To Come. The band have still carried on the experimental approach with their opening track Adderall which I would say is their most experimental and melodic track to date with Corey going completely soulful with his vocals to an arrangement that is quite Brit-Rock in sound especially taking heavy influence from Radiohead's O.K Computer album. The heavily nuanced production consists off hard panned ambient guitar textures, swelling soundscapes, pianos and female choirs. 

You can tell that Roadrunner have given the nine piece have free reign when writing this album. Before the nine piece allow us to doubt them, they put us back on course with one of their lead single The Dying Song which is introduced with an eerie vocal harmonies intro before we get the classic high tempo stomping rhythms accompanied with furious down picked riffs. The drummer Jay Weinberg is still pushing his limits as a musician when incorporating fast accurate drums fills in unusual ambient sections of the songs whilst Craig and Sid's DJ Sampling work has been mixed to perfection. 

Following their first single The Chapeltown Rag opens up with some nostalgic drum and bass samples that is meet with some experimental down tuned procession before we get the classic formula, but I would say that Corey still pushing the boundaries of his voice to make some interesting vocals to keep him a head of the curve. Yen takes the band down a Tim Burton influenced love ballad route with the song going from atmospheric clean sections that are accompanied with classically orchestrated piano parts due to the talents of recent member Michael Paff accompanied by samples of burning fire places and DJ scratches that set the tone before it builds up to classic heavy slipknot riffage. In the song we also get to hear Sid Wilson taking centre stage with the bands first DJ solo.  

Hivemind takes us back to the blueprint Slipknot with heavy riffs, good cop and bad cop vocal patterns, but I do got to admire Jay still pushing his limits to put his stamp of these tracks. Warranty still carries that momentum but bring back choirs over groove metal influenced track. The six-minute epic Medicine For the Dead brings back the experimental side, with the track opening up with a sample which sounds like it would of belonged in a 1950’s Hammer Horror movie soundtrack before the Phrygian sounding clean guitars introduce the sleazy sounding bent note riff age and that just one bit that I am describing in this progressive sounding piece. 

The closing track Finale opens with, what sounds like either bass or baritone guitar plucked guitar chords before layers of piano, strummed violins and dissonant guitars builds up in the verses to lead us into moving but assuring choruses which contains the lyrics “I know it’s a same but I gotta stay…because I like it here”. The orchestrations on this final track make it one of the best outros that this band has done since Scissors and Iowa.

There are a few moments the album does fall short on, in reference to tracks like Acidic and Heirloom. There is nothing wrong with them when it comes to arrangement or delivery, the band are still pushing their boundaries especially with Jays drum parts and Corey tailors vocal melodies but they just like heavy Stone Sour songs. 

Other little caveats’ that I found with this album is that even though I enjoyed the eerie soundscape intros for each song but I can imagine to the casual listener they can come off quite respective and long winded. The other criticism that can point out is that on occasions I find the riffs can be quite formulaic to the point of parody with it’s sequence of 0 1 3 4 on the bottom string in recent songs, so I would like to hear some more thought out guitar parts like they did in Wait And Bleed, Devil In I or even Psychosocial.

Overall this was still a brilliant listen and great farewell to their long term record label Roadrunner Records. The band still continue to push the boundaries of there sound twenty-three years later and show no sign of them throwing in the towel. 9/10

Moonspell: From Down Below – Live 80 Meters Deep (Napalm Records) [David G]

Full disclosure of two pertinent points up front, firstly I am a big admirer of Moonspell. A band that, from their folksy black metal beginnings have consistently matured. They’ve passed through song-oriented releases such as Darkness & Hope that have displayed their capability in writing effective short pieces with vibrant hooks, towards their most recent album Hermitage a stripped back but strong collective that is deftly evocative and laid itself bare. The second point is I don’t much like live albums. I can only think of one live album that has ever really felt worth the price of admission (Scorpions’ Tokyo Tapes), a live show is an experience that I find very rarely translates to recordings. 

So, here we have Moonspell playing Hermitage in its entirety, the kicker being that the show was performed in the Grutas de Mira D‘Aire cave system in Portugal. As a concept for a show it sounds fascinating and for the people lucky enough to be able to attend I would imagine that it was a truly unique experience. It’s understandable that this kind of occasion would be recorded for the archives, and my first thought is that the visual element may add more to the experience (though the acoustics of the venue are given special mention in promotional blurb). 

As alluded to earlier I think Hermitage is a very good album and the performance of the material is very good; for my part it wasn’t until I saw Moonspell earlier this year that I began to fully appreciate just how inventive and skilled a guitarist Ricardo Amorim is and it’s his Pink Floyd lilts and serpentine riffs that really catch the attention here. Second to this the keyboard washes of Pedro Paixao have an airy presence that you can feel start to fill out the backdrop. This is very much the sound of a band that is experienced, and in harmony as a performing unit but also one that sound in reverence of their surroundings and consequently restrained. From that perspective the choice to play Hermitage makes perfect sense, it’s not a truly insistent set. It's somewhat disappointing then that Fernando Ribeiro’s vocals feel lost in the depths, his distinctively rich tones don’t feel as powerful and the hollering that the title track supplies is more distant. 

Meanwhile the audience mirrors the band, offering appreciative applause in between songs, equally aware of the backdrop. As a listening experience, it’s a strong performance of a very good album, but is that enough? Going back to my earlier perspective of live albums, it’s an even more specific experience that is documented here. The sense of the occasion doesn’t really translate, and we’re left with a facsimile, grasping for some sense of what made this momentous. The fact is those senses were rooted in that natural environment, a set of quality headphones or speakers are always likely to be a poor substitute. 5/10

Thorbjørn Risager & The Black Tornado - Navigation Blues (Provogue Records) [Ben Baljak]

Denmark’s multi-award-winning fusion of soul, Chicago blues, boogie and rock ’n’ roll release their eighth studio album Navigation Blues. Unfortunately on first listen, this album did not hit or impress me. Not willing to give up on it yet, I decided to take a long stroll out of the way of human interference with a notepad in hopes that I’d have a better experience with it. 

Out of the twelve tracks on the album I made notes on half; Blue Lullaby - Ha, music-box, Taking The Good With The Bad - clicked finger, Time - quite nice, Hoodoo Lover - could barn dance to this, Headed For The Stars - nice harmony and Heart Crash - Reminder to re-watch Leon, also ending quite beautiful. Sadly the bland quality of these comments are pretty fitting for this album. Navigation Blues is one of the most frustrating things I’ve listened to in recent history. Frustrating because you can tell that each of the eight members are competent, seasoned musicians. The singer has such a good voice for the blues, but neither singer nor musicians ever push the tracks to a satisfying climax. Ironically, Navigation Blues doesn’t seem to go anywhere. Now, you could say it’s the journey not the destination, but, the driver plays it so safe we’re never even close to exceeding the speed limit. The entire affair almost feels like a tease. 

The album opens with vibes of cool and sexy, a track that you can almost imagine being used in a Quentin Tarantino movie … almost! could you try this? I’m sorry this really isn’t working for me, I’m going to the bathroom, I’ll be back in five minutes… and ends with Heart Crash which sounds dangerously close to Sting’s Shape Of My Heart - that popular 90s track used in the film Leon. I don’t think Heart Crash is an intentional plagiarism though, as the name would be a little too on the nose. Unlike most of the other songs on this album, the last song does develop. The instrumentation starts to get more experimental and really quite beautiful yet still manages to end prematurely. Navigation Blues is an odd one. The artists involved are all great, the song writing is great, I know I’d have enjoyed this music if it were played in a venue or pub, but for me they played it too safe. 

The tracks quickly become background music rather than a focal point and although some are strong starters, I found myself disappointed by the time they’d finished. When visualising the blues setting we tend to think of sun scorched dusty desert roads and the like. The prospect of blues written a in colder climates overlooking scenic wind swept fjords interests and excites me. I’d like to see it and hope they take their next album past the basics. Regrettably, the most I got out of Navigation Blues was finding out that Thorbjørn translates to thunder bear  and deciding to re-watch the classic 1994 Action/Drama Léon. Regardless of that, It’s not shit. 6/10

Even Flow - Mediterraneo (Self Released) [Matt Bladen]

Saga! Yeah that's the one, the PR accompanying this EP hit the nail so to speak with their FFO. Canadian prog rockers Saga, Americans Queensryche and Finns Stratovarius all can be heard in the music that brothers Pietro Paolo Lunesu (guitar) and Giorgio Lunesu (drums) create with this band. It's their main project and every bit as good as the Wonders album that came out last year, which also features Even Flow singer Marco Pastorino who I recently saw nailing the vocals with Virtual Symmetry live. He also sings with Temperance which features Wonders bassist Luca Nero, who now joins Even Flow for this album. So essentially Even Flow is the cornerstone of the Italian progressive rock/metal scene. 

With two albums to their name Mediterraneo is their third EP and their 20 years plus of experience rings out on every melodic, anthemic, uplifting track on this EP. Ocean Lies is the start, the synths and orchestrations setting a tone for the rest of the album, the soaring vocals of Marco again the focal point along with Pietro's excellent guitar prowess. Powerful and with a cinematic touch, it reminds you what you've been missing if you don't know anything about Even Flow. Ray Of Light is more progressive but possibly more anthemic with an AOR influence that is so Saga it hurts, the synth/guitar mix especially, keys come from Alessandro Bertoni. 

Speaking of the mix that was done by Visions Of Atlantis/Temperance man Michele Guaitoli, he sprinkles a warmth on this record that will excite vinyl fans. Leaves is the ballad of the record slowing it down, but keeping the atmosphere buoyant, while Revelation Day is more pop orientated. The EP concludes with the title track which is this EP's most progressive moment. If you've not heard Even Flow before then I would suggest picking up Mediterraneo as it's a ideal introduction to what they do. 8/10