9th Studio album from Swedish hard rockers Avatar is a pulsating blend of crunchy riffs, melodic harmonies and classic heavy metal.
Straight from the opening chords and bludgeoning drums of title track Dance Devil Dance, you instantly get caught up in pure head banging riffage. Exactly what an opening track should do. But that’s no good if you can’t follow it up with equally good tracks, and thankfully there are plenty more headbanging tunes to keep us all happy for the full 45 mins. It’s good to see an album release with 11 tracks all around the 4 min mark, I personally like that, it helps keep my attention.
Colourful frontman, Jonas Jarlsby shows us the full extent of his vocal range, from hitting those Halfordesque high notes to the more guttural growls that verge on death metal but still retaining a clarity that places this album firmly in that gap between straight up heavy metal and it’s more extreme cousin. Jarlsby has a powerful voice and presence that is worked to the max with the fast pace, there’s no let up from track to track and long time collaborator and producer, Jay Ruston, has done a fantastic job showcasing Jarlsby’s vocals. But not just that, this is an excellently produced album with a clean crisp clarity to all the guitars, bass and drum sections.
The band are quoted as saying that “this is our best album yet” and I can’t disagree with that statement. This album is much more accessible and in my opinion, the writing and songs are another level for the band. This could finally see Avatar get a much deserved wider audience. Favourite track is the very catchy Gonna Wanna Riot but every track had me banging my head, and a big surprise was the final track Violence No Matter What which features the incredible vocal talents of Lzzy Hale.
The band say “There’s no BS, no extra fat, every track is a weapon and has a purpose” and it certainly feels how this album was put together. As for their claim that they are out to “save heavy metal” well they have produced a well crafted heavy metal album, but does heavy metal need saving? I’ll be seeing Avatar play tracks from this album later on this month, a gig I am very much looking forward to after listening to this album over and over again! 8/10
Hail The Void - Memento Mori (Ripple Music) [Rich Piva]
Hail The Void released one of my top three albums of this decade so far with their self-titled debut, so going in to album number two, my expectations are obviously extremely high. Then Todd from Ripple goes ahead and signs the Victoria, British Columbia, Canada trio to release said album, titled Memento Mori, which compounded my anticipation given one of my favourite new bands who put out one of my favourite recent albums are now on my favourite label. Is there any possible way this could live up to my expectations, even though Todd and I seem to have a vision lock on what bands are awesome (see my Tidal Wave review…)?
Well in short, yes, and more. Memento Mori is pretty much perfect from beginning to end. Hail The Void took their stoner psych doom formula and ratcheted it up a notch, some how making this record sound better than the first from a production standpoint. The songs are there, and I was expecting them to be, but the instrumentation and vocals are recorded absolutely perfectly. From the guitar tone and work on the absolutely killer first full track, Writing On The Wall, which will be in the running for song of the year for me, to the vocals on the next track, Goldwater, and the drum sound all throughout the record, this is just brilliant heavy music.
Straight from the opening chords and bludgeoning drums of title track Dance Devil Dance, you instantly get caught up in pure head banging riffage. Exactly what an opening track should do. But that’s no good if you can’t follow it up with equally good tracks, and thankfully there are plenty more headbanging tunes to keep us all happy for the full 45 mins. It’s good to see an album release with 11 tracks all around the 4 min mark, I personally like that, it helps keep my attention.
Colourful frontman, Jonas Jarlsby shows us the full extent of his vocal range, from hitting those Halfordesque high notes to the more guttural growls that verge on death metal but still retaining a clarity that places this album firmly in that gap between straight up heavy metal and it’s more extreme cousin. Jarlsby has a powerful voice and presence that is worked to the max with the fast pace, there’s no let up from track to track and long time collaborator and producer, Jay Ruston, has done a fantastic job showcasing Jarlsby’s vocals. But not just that, this is an excellently produced album with a clean crisp clarity to all the guitars, bass and drum sections.
The band are quoted as saying that “this is our best album yet” and I can’t disagree with that statement. This album is much more accessible and in my opinion, the writing and songs are another level for the band. This could finally see Avatar get a much deserved wider audience. Favourite track is the very catchy Gonna Wanna Riot but every track had me banging my head, and a big surprise was the final track Violence No Matter What which features the incredible vocal talents of Lzzy Hale.
The band say “There’s no BS, no extra fat, every track is a weapon and has a purpose” and it certainly feels how this album was put together. As for their claim that they are out to “save heavy metal” well they have produced a well crafted heavy metal album, but does heavy metal need saving? I’ll be seeing Avatar play tracks from this album later on this month, a gig I am very much looking forward to after listening to this album over and over again! 8/10
Hail The Void - Memento Mori (Ripple Music) [Rich Piva]
Hail The Void released one of my top three albums of this decade so far with their self-titled debut, so going in to album number two, my expectations are obviously extremely high. Then Todd from Ripple goes ahead and signs the Victoria, British Columbia, Canada trio to release said album, titled Memento Mori, which compounded my anticipation given one of my favourite new bands who put out one of my favourite recent albums are now on my favourite label. Is there any possible way this could live up to my expectations, even though Todd and I seem to have a vision lock on what bands are awesome (see my Tidal Wave review…)?
Well in short, yes, and more. Memento Mori is pretty much perfect from beginning to end. Hail The Void took their stoner psych doom formula and ratcheted it up a notch, some how making this record sound better than the first from a production standpoint. The songs are there, and I was expecting them to be, but the instrumentation and vocals are recorded absolutely perfectly. From the guitar tone and work on the absolutely killer first full track, Writing On The Wall, which will be in the running for song of the year for me, to the vocals on the next track, Goldwater, and the drum sound all throughout the record, this is just brilliant heavy music.
This trio makes so much sound and it is perfectly formulated over the eight tracks on Memento Mori. The riffs are there too, case in point track Talking To The Dead and High And Rising. Killer modern doom. High And Rising is just a gigantic and heavy track and is right there on par with Writing On The Wall for song of the year contention. Lyrically this album is really dark, but with a certain beauty to it. High And Rising as well as the track 100 Pills being perfect examples of this (“…I’ll run you straight into the ground”). More dark beauty with Iommi worship riffing on the killer Serpens Sound (also really dark lyrically, and wonderful) while The Void wraps up Memento Mori by taking us down slowly and let’s you come up from air but trying to push yourself back down at the same time.
Hail The Void has created a modern classic with Memento Mori and have cemented themselves as my favorite band of the 2020s with their first two releases. They are the most beautifully heavy band out there and this is art that needs to be experienced by anyone who enjoys heavy music. A perfect record and obviously album of the year candidate. Amazing stuff once again from Ripple and from Hail The Void. 10/10
Oak - Disintegrate (Season Of Mist) [Erick Willand]
Oak is massive for a doom band. This is no surprise however as both members hail from Gaerea and if you’re familiar with the aforementioned band and their unique sound, stow those preconceptions now. This is Doom with a deep capital D. The sound is giant, slow and purposeful and it all plays out in one 44 minute 48 second long track. There are other artists who’ve done the single long form track, Sleep comes to mind of course. So let’s see if Oak can plant it right and lay down some deep roots?
Starting off with some quiet guitar plucked slowly, as one would expect to be honest. Other sounds bleed into the mix like a small leak in a dam, synths, drums come in seemingly from a distance. Until finally at the 3:15 mark the damn breaks, the thunder cracks and we begin in earnest. In come the vocals, coarse and rumbling and filled with sorrow that invades your ears like a freezing liquid. A chill creeps down my spine and I’m paying full attention. It’s slow but relentless like the passage of time.
This review is going to have to be different.
The story here is of an ancient colossus finally coming to its end after a long dying period. Seeing its end it contemplates the darkness and void and welcomes it. “My last feast in a decade of slumber. Everything becomes nothing, I’m delighted.” The lyrics (which I’m pleased actually came with the press material) are poetic and heart crushing. This death is a slow drawn out process with full awareness played out in chapters within lyric and song structure both and is a master stroke. From the beginning realisation that time is upon him “Floating, this bearer body of an old soul, wonders tired, through the haze of time” to the final last moments “This beautiful sight of a massive grave is my last, all is dust, I am disintegrated” we take this ponderous rode alongside this giant, mournful yet looking forward. It’s powerful.
Usually when I review an album I go through each track one by one then collapse it all back and score the whole including cover art. That approach doesn’t work here with a single album long track that in all honesty needs to be experienced not simply read about. It’s gripping and emotional and it didn’t feel right to break it down like I would a normal album. Like Bell Witch’s 2017 Funeral Doom master work Mirror Reaper, Oak’s Disintegrate is…a journey, a sonic experience that I for one will go back to again and again in the future. Capped off with a harrowing depiction of the sun caught in a maelstrom full of swirling cosmic chaos I declare a first for me here, a perfect 10/10.
CHILD - Meditations In Filth (Eat Heavy Records) [GC]
Today I have the debut album from Gothenburg/Stockholm based death grinding punks CHILD Meditations In Filth. After having a quick skip through the tracks, nothing clocks in at over 2:30 which is exactly what I would expect from an album that has been described as an overwhelming sonic experience full of twists and grinding turns as well as The Black Album of grindcore, now I’m not really sure that is anything to boast about if I am honest and now I am kind of filled me with fear as to what is about to happen!
Thankfully is starts of sounding nothing like a shit gindcore Metallica (however that would sound??) and Hate Well Spent flies out of the blocks full of furious blast beats and cutting and crisp guitars and before you know it Manic Vortex kicks in and has a bit more of a death metal feel to it, with the same crispy guitar sound but added groove section halfway through mixed in to pad out the sound slightly and add some variation then there is the completely unnecessary Splendor Solis which is just 10 seconds of feedback, we really don’t need any interludes and fillers on a grindcore records lads, c’mon now!
Billion Years Of Darkness then proceeds to kick the listener directly in the teeth again with some more crusty grind that is full of dark intensity and the end section of this song is easily the best bit on the album so far which leads disgustingly into Burn As One which is beautifully punishing, relentless and crushing all at the same time and instantly becomes than best song on the album so far, it just hits every tick point brilliantly.
Prima Materia is then another 10 seconds on pointless noise that could have been better used writing a song such as the unrelenting Carless Blood which is 40 seconds of groove filled grind which leads into the slow burn intro of Crawling Chaos which is probably the closest they come to introducing some d-beat into the madness and it has a slow and menacing bass tone that adds some bottom end to all the speed and savageness.
Prima Materia is then another 10 seconds on pointless noise that could have been better used writing a song such as the unrelenting Carless Blood which is 40 seconds of groove filled grind which leads into the slow burn intro of Crawling Chaos which is probably the closest they come to introducing some d-beat into the madness and it has a slow and menacing bass tone that adds some bottom end to all the speed and savageness.
Anima Mundi is another interlude and is again completely pointless and not needed as it just interrupts the flow but that is then thankfully instantly shaken violently back into life again by The God Furnace which is more crusty death/grind and is really beginning to be the general sound here a glorious scuzzy and violent death/grind attack. Accept The Suffering is another short, sharp shock to the system before The Stone Which Burns which is another 10 second interlude, they need to stop this shit now as it adds NOTHING!
Abattoir Of Minds is probably the most death metal track on the whole album but is also one of the best and Joakim Lindström vocals are fucking savage here and it all adds up to an absolute killer of a track and then yes, you guessed it Nigredo is ANOTHER interlude and yes it is again completely pointless. Sweating Gold continues the death metal feel and is done well enough then its She Came From The Marsh which falls back into the crusty d-beat grind but has an almost claustrophobic feeling to the way it drags its way along its not slow but its not 1000bpm as you have come expect and it’s probably the best mix of all the varying styles so far and would have been the best way to finish the album.
Abattoir Of Minds is probably the most death metal track on the whole album but is also one of the best and Joakim Lindström vocals are fucking savage here and it all adds up to an absolute killer of a track and then yes, you guessed it Nigredo is ANOTHER interlude and yes it is again completely pointless. Sweating Gold continues the death metal feel and is done well enough then its She Came From The Marsh which falls back into the crusty d-beat grind but has an almost claustrophobic feeling to the way it drags its way along its not slow but its not 1000bpm as you have come expect and it’s probably the best mix of all the varying styles so far and would have been the best way to finish the album.
But, of course they don’t finish on a high they finish with Vitriol which is another fucking 40 seconds of feedback that just annoys, seriously in the time they wasted putting these on the album they could have written a whole other song! A stupidly pointless way to end an otherwise decent album!
Meditations In Filth at its best is furious, grim, intense, savage and most importantly fun, yes I got annoyed at the stupid 10 second interludes and probably should have skipped them but I was expecting y’know actual songs as that’s nothing shocking on a grindcore album! Anyway, ignore these stupid bits and this is a decent debut album and worth a listen. 7/10
Meditations In Filth at its best is furious, grim, intense, savage and most importantly fun, yes I got annoyed at the stupid 10 second interludes and probably should have skipped them but I was expecting y’know actual songs as that’s nothing shocking on a grindcore album! Anyway, ignore these stupid bits and this is a decent debut album and worth a listen. 7/10
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