Sermon - Of Golden Verse (Prosthetic Records) [Matt Bladen]
*Disclaimer that this is not the Sermon from Turkey we reviewed a few weeks ago*
Having to write this album review a second time as I deleted the earlier version like the moron that I am I've had a chance to re-listen another few times and this is definitely the best album that's been released this year.
It's seriously stunning, and my options were to leave it there with a perfect score, or to explain why. I of course chose the latter (I'm not one to shut up when I can talk about something I love), the first reason I love this album is that I hear influences from some of my favourite bands such as Opeth, Amorphis, Vola, Leprous and even Tool, evocative and introspective but also thrilling and anthemic, Of Golden Verse is bigger, bolder and braver than its 2019 predecessor in multiple ways.
That debut was loved, their one live show appreciated but this is an album that needs to be adored. The mysterious Him is the creative force, main songwriter and pretty much everything you hear on this record, recruiting drummer James Stewart and producer Scott Atkins to round out this triumvirate, it's Him that writes and records the material then Stewart adapts and changes the drum patterns while Atkins brings a sonic sucker punch.
Bringing in Stewart is a genius move as his drumming is phenomenal, adding a new dimension to many of these tracks, from the black metal blastbeats of closer Departure to the tribalism of the raging technical thrash of Wake The Silent, his percussion is brilliantly used on the galloping dissonance of Royal as well the getting funky on the progressive grooving of The Distance.
With James behind the kit it just lifts the entire record to new level, the production work of Atkins creating a pin sharp sound that lets the instruments live a little without sacrificing intensity or the cinematic quality. Born from the discontent and anger Him felt during the last few years, his emotions poured into his songwriting which is why Of Golden Verse feels so exasperated and vexed.
The Great Marsh sets the scene perfectly, building the bile into Royal, where Him pairs a chugging riff with some gothic synths, in the style of Tool, sneering and snorting at what the world has become, Him vocally bellowing a call to arms, using clean vocals for the majority, only roaring or growling when it's called for, but for me the clean, exasperated vocals fit the intelligent music much more.
"The whole thing is just about abuses of power" says Him about this album, but with the use of analogies it's open to interpretation. Light The Witch perhaps more literal than most. What isn't open to interpretation though is the quality of the musicianship, a 'progressive' album where nothing is off limits. The use of synths to weave throughout the songs is seamless, they move to the front of your mind on the little interludes such as In Black or Centre, they are atmospheric and pitched to change the tone of the record.
The guitars too do this with the heaviest riffs the band have produced on propulsive tracks such as Golden, put against the traditional Porcupine Tree flourishes of the poignant Senescence which lingers in your mind due to its use of voice and restraint. The synths used well to conjure the haunting atmosphere, this blissful aura, destroyed by the heaviest track on the album Wake The Silent, which makes me think of Opeth.
Of Golden Verse is an album that I listened to multiple times but unlike with other albums I review, these listens were simultaneous. I stopped whatever else I was doing and immersed myself in Sermons music (much to my wife's chagrin), but special releases like this don't come around very often. You NEED this album in your life. It can only be given a perfect score! So here's it is. 10/10
Rotten Sound - Apocalypse (Season Of Mist) [Richard Oliver]
Grindcore can be a very single minded genre with its sheer focus on speed, aggression and intensity. This can both work in a bands favour and can work against them depending on the strength of the material as grind can be very repetitive. One band who (in my opinion) seem to be a step above most grindcore bands are Finnish grind bastards Rotten Sound who have been releasing some of the most impressively blistering grind since the bands formation in 1993.
The band are releasing their eighth full length album Apocalypse and it sees the band on truly ferocious form being one of the band’s shortest albums with a running time of just under 21 minutes and 18 songs. It is very much a case of quality over quantity and Apocalypse is an album that is a cutting commentary and impassioned scream over the current state of the world and humanity. It is album that does not pause for breath bristling with sheer rage and intensity from its opening to its closing moments with tunes such as Pacify, Renewables and Denialist blasting out of your speakers with the subtlety of a nuclear explosion shockwave.
As with previous Rotten Sound albums there are also moments of death metal groove as well as crust punk amongst the grinding chaos which give a momentary reprieve from the blasting chaos whilst losing none of the intensity. The band are on fine form with Apocalypse marking the recording debut of bassist Matti Raappana who joined the band in 2021. He also provides some vocals with his vocals working as a nice accompaniment to the throat shredding screams of frontman Keijo Niinimaa. Guitarist Mika Aalto delivers a barrage of crushing riffs with a suitably filthy guitar tone making everything sound as nasty as possible whilst drummer Sami Latva obliterates everything in his path with some truly insane blast beats.
If you have heard Rotten Sound before then you will have a good idea of what to expect with Apocalypse and it most certainly won’t disappoint, marking a welcome return for the band who last released an album in 2016. Grindcore may be restrained by its limitations and repetitiveness but when Rotten Sound make it sound as good as this then who really cares. A truly ferocious album that comes recommended if you need help waking up first thing in the morning. 8/10
Allfather - A Violent Truth (Self Released) [GC]
It’s been a while since we had any new material from Allfather because like so many other bands before them that Covid thing took away the best part of 2 years now, after trying and slipping up, we finally have a new album A Violent Truth.
Kicking off in style we have the hardcore stomp of Poison Soil full of thunderous riffs and grooving drums and suitably angry vocals delivered with venom and spite, all spiced up with some wonderful guitar solos to really tie the song together beautifully before a slow and tension filled end section drags you kicking and screaming into Black Lungs which follows directly on with a slow and tense start before exploding into life with a savage and cutting thrashy riff that then descends into more hardcore/d-beat pounding and it has a huge mid-section riff that just takes you onto another level of enjoyment and the vocal performance on this song is just fantastically savage again.
We then get to lead single Take Their Eyes which has a majestic and purposeful opening as if to say we are here to make a point and you WILL listen, and listen I do because this is an absolute bastard of a song! Full of furious anger filled vocals and more earworm riffs that will stick in the mind long after you have heard this song and the solos are again placed to perfection and really compliment everything and the bottom end bass and drums are the solid backbone on which such a fantastic track is built, a pure joy and bound to be a live favourite for many years to come!
A False Peace is a brief moment of calm and serenity before the blackened thrash of The Hunt Infernal towers into life and this new variety mixes beautifully with the stompy hardcore to produce something of terrifying viciousness that grabs hold of you and continues to pound and beat you in so many different ways, the variation of styles this song offers is the beauty of it as you are never really sure what is coming next and that feeling of the unknown is just what you need because what they then give you is always just what you wanted, stunning song writing.
Before I have even really had time to gather myself and prepare for the end section of the album, I am in fact at the last song already and Cast Off The Cross is a perfect way to end, the thrash riff/vocal centred opening leads nicely into one final dose of massive riffs and thundering rhythm that stops its pace midway through and proceeds to build towards what can only be described as a fucking beast of a solo and an epic and textured wall of sound that has been present throughout the full album but they have definitely saved the best for last as you just close your eyes and get lost in the whole wonderful noise and it’s really just the perfect way to end.
This was over way to quickly for my liking and should have had at least another 2 or 3 tracks but, what Allfather have given us on A Violent Truth is a truly wonderful display of what they are capable of and you just hear that everything on hear is full of anger and passion that is delivered masterfully. The UK has a truly magnificent metal scene at the minute and Allfather have just announced that they are here and ready to be a front runner of this current crop of marvellous talent and on this showing who would bet against them? 9/10
Netherlands – Severance (Svart Records) [Quinn Mattfeld @AV4APod]
Having never listened to Netherlands before, upon the first "OOWAT!" I was, needless to say, worried... After all, that puts me just one "AH-AH-AH!" away from a Disturbed song. I feared for the next half our of my life.
But sometimes being a musically illiterate troglodyte pays off as Netherlands brand of infectious weirdness came as a wonderful surprise. More like the bastard child of Intronaut and Rage Against the Machine (please don’t ask about conception) Netherlands layers heavy-synth low-end riffs under Timo Ellis’ haunting falsetto with the occasional metal growl or, as in the album single Omisha, something closer to verse from a Zack de la Rocha. But Netherlands is smart enough and savvy enough not to just drop a rhyme and call it hip hop. The vocal is more like a rhythmic attack that only echoes Rage’s—well, rage, book ending a track that stomps on the fine-line between metal and hip hop in a bizarrely satisfying manner.
Once they land on the title track to Severance, the Brooklyn-based duo’s sixth LP, we are in full metal mode: the low-end is pure brutality and Ellis’ Homme-esque falsetto that creeps onto the track with “I lost the dream / To the machine” soon falls into a doomy cadence more akin to Conan than Queens Of The Stone Age.
Their politics float to the surface with songs like Animal Insults and Goons, a deftly worded assault on bro-culture that includes observations like, “They’ll sink the ship to not lose face / There’s no incentive to give up power / They’ll kill the world to not feel shame…” The one-two combination of the final tracks include Silencio in which Netherlands shows off the breadth of their musical talents, sounding more like MGMT than Megadeth, and Celia’s Mansion which returns us to the dissonant heaviness of a YOB or OM or some other Doomish outfit made of all caps.
There is some filler; Glow_Stick didn’t need to be included but it does transition the album well from the meat of the B-Side to the record’s final offerings. Ultimately, Severance seems to be another good-to-great album in the burgeoning discography of Netherlands and if you can get through the occasional terror that you’re about to come down with a certain sickness… you will be mightily rewarded for your bravery. 8/10
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