My favorite rock band from Northern Ireland band is back with album number sixteen, as Therapy? returns to bring their hard rock/grunge/alt metal awesomeness to the masses once again. Hard Cold Fires doesn’t stray too far from the Therapy? formula of kick ass, catchy as hell, heavy rock with their trademark social conscious and self-depreciating lyrical stylings that has made them a favorite of so many fans around the world.
I was first introduced to Therapy? in 1992 when a very informed to coolness freshman on my high school lacrosse team brought in Caucasian Psychosis to play in the locker room. There were many confused faces in that Long Island locker room as none of my jock friends had ever heard anything like this before (I had been playing the White Zombie record a lot and it was starting to catch on…but CP was next level).
I was absolutely blown away and proceeded to listen to it every day before practice and games. My love of this band was formed and has never stopped since. Now if you have any knowledge of the band, the band moved away from CP and more toward the heavy more melodic rock, with some of the catchiest songs of the 90s. I still sing “screw that, forget about that…” at least once a week. Hard Cold Fire brings the heavy and the catchy once again, as this record can respectively stand next to pretty much anything in their catalog from a quality standpoint.
You want to talk catchy, just listen to the track Bewildered Heard. I love the chorus and the call back vocals (“Everything’s On fire!...) and a total earworm. Great stuff. Andy’s playing and voice are as strong as ever, evidence being this track and the killer ripper opener, They Shot The Terrible Master which could be a track on any of the Therapy? back catalog records. The trio is super tight as usual as you can tell these guys have been playing together forever. The track Woe is driven by the always great rhythm section, highlighted by Neil Cooper’s efforts on the skins. Joy is an excellent track too, with a catchy chorus that will be super fun to scream back at the band when they play this live.
Two Wounded Animals slows down the pace a bit and offers some of the social commentary the band has been known to dabble in with a soaring chorus where all Andy is looking for is his dignity. Poundland Of Hope And Glory is another track that dabbles in politics without being preachy and still rocks. Hard Cold Fire is a killer and no filler, at a tight 31 minutes, a microcosm of that being To Disappear, a song that blasts you in the face for just under three minutes and leaves you looking around and asking yourself what just happened? The quality as well as the catchy doesn’t diminish as the album moves along, will songs like Mongrel and Ugly (some of that self-deprecation here…) anchoring the back half of Hard Cold Fire. I love the closer, Days Kollaps, which is a more laid back, very 90s (in a good way) track that finishes Hard Cold Fire perfectly.
If you are a fan of Therapy? you have no excuses as to why you don’t love Hard Cold Fire. Andy and the boys bring it once again, including all the elements you want in a Therapy? record. I would not be surprised if this album opens a whole new group of fans that will get exposed to this amazing band for the first time. Not just a great late career Therapy? album, a great new Therapy? album, full stop. 9/10
Curse Of Cain - Curse Of Cain (Atomic Fire Records) [Richard Oliver]
Curse Of Cain are a band from Falun in Sweden who describe themselves as ‘movie metal’ being a theatrical take on modern metal with the band members fully costumed and identities hidden and this self-titled debut album forming the first part of an epic sci-fi concept. The music is written around the character Cain and set in a future dystopia and his story is told through his crew who are also the band with five different members performing as the five different characters - The Soulkeeper on vocals, The Timekeeper on guitars, The Pirate on bass, Rainbow on vocals & percussion and The Mechanic on drums.
The music on Curse Of Cain is very much centred around modern metal sounds with elements of djent, metalcore and melodic death metal forming the core sound. It is a very melodic take with big choruses and plenty of clean vocals with the inclusion of some harsh vocals placed throughout the duration of the album ranging from a more core scream to guttural death metal vocals. There are also plenty of keyboards used throughout the album with lots of electronic sounds as well as piano and plenty of symphonics. The songs all have melodic choruses and a certain degree of catchiness with Embrace Your Darkness, Alive and The Ground all incorporating big hooks and melodies.
With the concept around the band and album and all the theatricality promised I was expecting something different from what I got from Curse Of Cain which in all honesty is a very bog standard mainstream sounding modern metal record. There isn’t much here that stands out and falls into the trap of most contemporary mainstream leaning metal in that it sounds very generic. I’ll fully admit that this style of metal is not my thing at all and whilst Curse Of Cain does sound very solid and well written it sounds incredibly run of the mill. It definitely isn’t bombastic enough or nasty enough to satisfy this listener. 5/10
Curse Of Cain are a band from Falun in Sweden who describe themselves as ‘movie metal’ being a theatrical take on modern metal with the band members fully costumed and identities hidden and this self-titled debut album forming the first part of an epic sci-fi concept. The music is written around the character Cain and set in a future dystopia and his story is told through his crew who are also the band with five different members performing as the five different characters - The Soulkeeper on vocals, The Timekeeper on guitars, The Pirate on bass, Rainbow on vocals & percussion and The Mechanic on drums.
The music on Curse Of Cain is very much centred around modern metal sounds with elements of djent, metalcore and melodic death metal forming the core sound. It is a very melodic take with big choruses and plenty of clean vocals with the inclusion of some harsh vocals placed throughout the duration of the album ranging from a more core scream to guttural death metal vocals. There are also plenty of keyboards used throughout the album with lots of electronic sounds as well as piano and plenty of symphonics. The songs all have melodic choruses and a certain degree of catchiness with Embrace Your Darkness, Alive and The Ground all incorporating big hooks and melodies.
With the concept around the band and album and all the theatricality promised I was expecting something different from what I got from Curse Of Cain which in all honesty is a very bog standard mainstream sounding modern metal record. There isn’t much here that stands out and falls into the trap of most contemporary mainstream leaning metal in that it sounds very generic. I’ll fully admit that this style of metal is not my thing at all and whilst Curse Of Cain does sound very solid and well written it sounds incredibly run of the mill. It definitely isn’t bombastic enough or nasty enough to satisfy this listener. 5/10
So let's start with the bad before we get to the good. On this fifth album from Swiss heavy metal band, they have 15 songs! 15! Now unlike some of my colleagues I don't mind long albums but 15 songs is probably too much especially when they aren't additional bonus tracks just part of the normal record. Music like this draws heavily on the 80's trad/thrash/speed metal heyday and I'd say 8-10 songs is about right as, let's be honest here it tends to tred similar ground as time wears on. The Dark Tower does this a lot, the occult lyrics, darker tone and hints of Mercyful Fate in the spoken word parts and the biting guitar tones all merge together as the record continues, by about the 8th track I was spent and growing a little bored. There's only so many times you can hear, fast guitar work outs and mid paced stomps before it gets a little tiresome. On the good side the playing is excellent, all the band shredding and galloping like a weel rehearsed, seasoned metal act and I love the raspy vocals. It's an album that will be loved by Burning Witches fans but for me there's too much of it with most of it being to alike. 5/10
Motions – Motions (Self Released) [Zak Skane]
Motions have released a unique display of their 11 track release, from their opening track Six One Hundred we are greeted with some classic 2000’s metalcore aggression with hardcore approached melodic deathmetal riffs and Dillinger Escape Plan shouted vocals to quirky sounding effected clean vocals that remind me of classic bands of the era such as Every Time I Die and Chimera.
Through out this album the band does not shy away from exploring other areas that has inspired the subgenre stemming from the Deftones inspired shoegaze tracks such as Dead Seeds and All Together All Alone in which that track is pretty much a blatant nostalgic nod to the Deftones’s Be Quite And Drive. The band also explores into Grungy Stoner Rock territory with tracks such as Vivid and Godless Moon to experimental tracks such as Triplicate Space which is stacked up with ambient pianos, electronic trap beats and vocal trade off from the lead vocalists and their female guest singer.
If you would like to take a strip down memory lane whilst being up for experimental sounds, Motions have got your covered. For fans off Every Time I Die, The Dillenger Escape Plan and Deftones. 7/10.
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