Reviews: Slowdive, Corey Taylor, Molybaron, Blood Incantation (Reviews By Matt Bladen)

Slowdive – Everything Is Alive (Dead Oceans)

Dreampop, shoegaze call it what you want, English band Slowdive are one of the best exponents of whatever you want to call it. Shimmering, repetitive, chiming guitars, drenched in effects, creating hypnotic atmospheres and dense textures out of which the angelic vocals emerge. An album that is extremely personal, the studio sessions were scrapped after Rachel Goswell’s mother and Simon Scott’s mother passed away during the pandemic. This lead Neil Halstead to write an album that could be an ‘escape’ for the band, Goswell’s grief leading her on the path to alcohol addiction. Now sober the album sessions became a way to enjoy something again, the darkness giving way to light as the second album since their reformation brought a catharsis to the band. 

Crafted around modular synths Shanty, evoke Tangerine Dream, swirling undulating electronics anchoring the dissonance, Shanty an evocative dreamscape of futurism that swells and pulsates with intent as Prayer Intent strips back to bare bones of sliding bass notes from Nick Chaplin and rumbling drumbeat from Simon Scott, the effect heavy guitars of Halstead and Christian Savill, creating walls of beauty on this instrumental that will take you away to the shores of deserted beach as the waves lap at your feet, well that’s how I felt, a sense of nostalgic longing. 

Alfie again reverberates to some modular synth, joyous dual vocals from Goswell and Halstead, multi-tracked into harmony choirs, the song with the first lot of propulsion, before Andalucía Plays returns to a slower pace, the whispers from Halstead, remind me of Roger Waters’ solo records, where it’s like he’s singing close to your ear, as Kisses give the jangly indie vibe of The Cure. Everything Is Alive is captivating, close circuit listening, it’s best to indulge it with headphones in a darkened room for maximum effect of tracks such as Skin In The Game or the trippy Chained To A Cloud. 

The sixth album from Slowdive was conceived in darkness but it’s a bright and beautiful purge of the soul. Fantastic! 9/10

Corey Taylor – CMF2 (Decibel Cooper Recordings/BMG)

Can the rock/metal world have an opinion without asking Corey Taylor about it? It seems that every single piece of rock news or controversy needs to ask the Grammy winning; musician, actor, author about it to get his opinion. Happily Taylor is always happy to give it, so there’s plenty of quotable notables from the Slipknot/Stone Sour frontman. However I’ve always disliked celebrity soundbites, so I’ll stick to the music. 

CMF2 is Taylor’s second solo album, his first on his own label, produced again by Jay Ruston, what we have here is 13 songs that don’t fit into Slipknot or Stone Sour, of course there’s similarities Post Traumatic Blues is the best Stone Sour song in years, while the twisted circus vibes of All I Want Is Hate could be modern Slipknot, if it had more percussion. But this is Taylor playing around with a party rock jukebox where he handles vocals, lead/rhythm guitar, piano and mandolin. 

Though live his band comprises; Zach Throne (rhythm/lead guitars), Dustin Robert (drums), Christian Martucci (rhythm/lead guitars) and Eliot Lorango (bass), with Taylor on vocals and guitar, they tour this record throughout November in the UK and by the sounds of this record will have lots of varied tracks to play. From the country-like Breath Of Fresh Smoke, the punk rock shout along of We Are The Rest, the brooding Midnight, the acoustic introspection of Sorry Me and the shreddy hard rock of Punchline. 

In his solo career Taylor goes from snarling metal frontman on All I Want Is Hate, to classic rocker on Starmate, to ballad toting troubadour on Someday I’ll Change My Mind, doing all well. I wasn’t sure about this record as I didn’t like the debut that much but outside of his current stint as the mouthpiece for heavy metal in the wider world, CMF2 reminds you first and foremost that Taylor is a great musician who doesn’t always stay inside on genre box. 7/10

Molybaron – Something Ominous (InsideOut Music) 

I really enjoyed Molybaron’s 2021 album The Mutiny, it paired progressive and alternative rock, throwing in modern metal breakdowns and lots of muscle, so I was excited to hear what they would do with their new album Something Ominous. The French/Irish metal band manage to absolutely smash it again with this new record, the title track kicking off like the bastard son of Gojira, Therapy? and Devin Townsend, that chorus will stick in your head for days and their singer’s vocal style is just to croon/whisper then shout nice and loud on the choruses. The defiance of Set Alight, palpable like a Celtic Metallica inciting a revolution.The lyrics of the record reflecting the current human experience, the rebellious notions to fight back against social decay, division and the lurch towards the right as governments exert more control. It’s obvious that the band feel very strongly about this, imagine the French and the Irish being dissident? 

You can feel they believe every lyric, especially on the bouncing Billion Dollar Shakedown a sure fire radio hit, as Breakdown pairs emotional piano with bass-driven thrash. What I like about Molybaron is their insistence on not taking the most obvious path, why just keep a rhythm when the bass can do its own thing? The drums propelling off time but locking down the huge grooves. Then with the guitars they are usually hard rock riffs played through metallic distortion, case in point being Anyway. The musicianship here is high, even when they play a ballad such as Daylight Dies In Darkness, there’s lots of deviation from the path, Gary Kelly tapping into the Irish/Celtic sadness with his rawest vocal performance, stopping things dead in their tracks as your hair stand on end. 

The blistering Dead On Arrival getting the pace and aggression back immediately. I mentioned in the last review that they remind me a lot of Swedes Mustasch and I’ll stick with that comparison here, Something Ominous lurches over you with intent, a hurricane of an immensely technical rhythm section, impassioned vocals and guitar riffs that will increase your adrenaline. I defy you not to want to rage after listening to this album, Mark Drakeford beware! 9/10

Blood Incantation - Luminescent Bridge (Century Media Records)

After releasing the divisive Timewave Zero last year, Blood Incantation are back on the solid ground of avant-garde extremity, with the guitars, blastbeats and guttural roars returning along with the otherworldly electronics. Timewave Zero scored critical acclaim but took fans of extreme metal by surprise, as an ambient record there was not a blastbeat to be heard but on this two track near 20 minute maxi single Blood Incantation more than make up for that curveball.

Obliquity Of The Ecliptic snarls and bursts forth from the darkest corner of the universe with a bit of spoken word and then some brutal, ever changing extremity, the frantic riffing, undulating, twisting and trying not to replay the same thing twice as the drums unleash a battery, as we shift into ambience, guided by the drums, taking things into doom-laden pacing and a searing solo section where clean guitars howl out as the chiming melodic edge leads us towards the climax. 

The title track is next and we travel further into the ethereal reaches of the universe with a slow burning instrumental, which evokes the wonders of the universe. Using compositional layering, adding instruments right when they are needed in the way pre-DSOTM Floyd did on Echoes. Almost like dark and light, Luminescent Bridge, brings back the metal/rock/guitar focus of the band, shelving the synthwave style as an experiment, you find yourself on familiar ground here. 8/10