Knocked Loose - You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To (Pure Noise Records) [Mark Young]
Well, that was intense.
Knocked Loose drop their own version of a thermonuclear device with You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To and in no uncertain terms shows that THIS is how you do hardcore in 2024. The briefest moments of calm as Thirst comes in with chiming opening notes are just laid to waste as they just stomp a giant hole in your ears. As soon as you have gotten to grips with it, it’s gone and Piece By Piece is there, mopping up the blood and debris. The sound they have here is immense, I mean its huge and there is a sudden realisation that the bands you thought were heavy, well they were just playing at it.
Suffocate (ft Poppy) runs straight in, double bass peppering amongst the discord as Bryan Garris screams through this, stretching every ounce as they deliver a crushing storm of noise. In the face of such an onslaught, Poppy steps up and just goes for it, taking no prisoners and matching scream for scream. It’s just so instant, it doesn’t let up at all and expects you to do exactly the same.
Don’t Reach For Me is brutal, but never boring and this is key. They don’t rely on super-heavy guitar or drums as a constant means to an end. Here they have some quality melodic touches so when they hit amongst the demolition job they just shine. If you have heard them before, I think you know what I mean. Moss Covers All is 46 seconds of audio battery that segues into Take Me Home, a repeating measure constantly played, ramping up audible tension. If it wasn’t apparent before, Knocked Loose have been cut from a different cloth. And it shows in their music.
Slaughterhouse 2 (ft Chris Motionless) swings back to what I feel hardcore is or was. Its aggressive, massive guitar sound, barked vocals that stretch the cords beyond repair with an arrangement that is going to cause serious harm in the pit. The Calm That Keeps You Awake hits next mixing up the absolute mental guitar work with stop-start riffs and percussion work that moves beyond the standard, throwing shapes here and there at will as the massive breakdown riff kicks in to close and lead into Blinding Faith, which is obscenely heavy whilst still possessing a groove that carries you along to closure.
Sit & Mourn opens softly, until they decide not to be soft any longer. Bryan’s voice carrying this as guitars step in and out, alongside the absolute stellar work of Pac Sun on drums. Its hard to describe without resorting to ‘it crushes’ because it does. Sit & Mourn bookends an album which has to be on your AOTY lists. It has everything right, the songs, the sequence, the way they put them together in a way that they squeeze more emotion and impact in half the time other bands seem to take. They make music that is equally accessible whilst not compromising any part of their sound. This should place them lightyears ahead of any pack, the question is can they maintain it? 10/10
Unleash The Archers - Phantoma (Napalm Records) [Matt Bladen]
Another conceptual record from Canadians Unleash The Archers. Their last two record Apex and Abyss were also both concept pieces that were linked. So it seems that the band wanted to stay in storytelling mode with this sixth studio album Phantoma. It's the story of a sentient AI in a dystopian world, focussing on how the protagonist gained their sentience. Unleash The Archers throw their two cents into the ring and make a comment on the increasing use of AI in all walks of life but especially in creativity. This is high concept sci-fi explored through multifaceted power/prog metal.
Despite warning of the dangers social media etc the band used AI throughout the record in the writing, filming and production of the album, integrating into their overall sound as the power/trad metal beginnings are met with prog experimentation for synthwave and electronics to latch on more firmly into the overall sound of the album. With guitarist Andrew Kingsley as producer and songwriter, Jacob Hansen on mixing/mastering Phantoma is as modern as it gets, Unleash The Archers again giving a glimpse as to why they are one of the most revered power metal bands of the modern era. Everything about Phantoma feels more accomplished, it's a step up from a and who were already delivering at a high level, but it will be this album that they will take flight into the upper stratosphere of their genre.
It sets a darker tone that allows Kingsley and fellow guitarist Grant Truesdell to down tune a bit, relying on the dramatic style of a band such as Queensryche or Kamelot as much as the galloping power metal of Hammerfall or Freedom Call. They trade solos and shredding riffs with aplomb, but also nuance these with melodic slower touches. Scott Buchanan's drums have a weight presence no matter the pace while Nick Millers bass goes headlong in sync with both the drums and as an additional rhythm guitar. High quality performances all round, as the band enter the fray with Human Era and Ph4/NT0mA, the first a moody slower opener the second a full on power metal assault, giving you the duality of the new, improved Unleash The Archers.
Twitching electronics kick off The Collective, then it's lightspeed in the verses and emotion in the choruses as Brittney Slayes uses the full range of her vocals from the soaring highs to the melancholic lows as Truesdell adds black metal growls here and on the synthetic metal of Green & Glass. Slayes gives the best vocal performance of her career on this record, defined and broad, every facet of her skill exhibited as we move through 10 varied tracks. They are paying homage to the 80's with Phantoma too, sticking a massive Heart-like ballad Give It Up Or Give It All, towards the end of the album. Unleash The Archers have always been a band that the metal community have taken to heart but with this sixth record they have become the band they have been threatening to be since 2015's Time Stands Still. An essential purchase for fans of virtuoso melodic power metal. 9/10
The Sonic Dawn - Phantom (Heavy Psych Sounds) [Rich Piva]
Time for the trippy acid rock stylings of The Sonic Dawn, who are back on Heavy Psych Sounds with their new record, Phantom. Album five continues to spread their love of the late 60s acid rock scene, and brings super duper trippy goodness in the form of ten more mind bending, chill out tracks that sound like they were delivered from a time machine to 2024.
The opener, 21st Century Blues certainly doesn’t sound like something from this century, leaning on 60s psych and blues to deliver some trippy goodness. Iron Bird is one of the trio’s best tracks in a long time, combining that acid vibe with some layered vocals and even incorporating some organ into the mix.
Can the sound of an album be both minimalist and wall of sound at the same time? Somehow The Sonic Dawn can make this happen. Think it over has a Velvet Underground vibe to it, but remove Lou’s voice and add some high-pitched layered harmonies instead, until the track morphs into something akin more to Motown than to The Village.
Nothing Can Live Here is extremely chill and sparse light rock that the band excels at until the band goes freak out, which is where they also excel. Dreams Of Change is sparse and whispery and leads nicely into Pan Am, which is the perfect airline for these guys. This is some serious late 60s perfection on display.
Transatlantique and Scorpio are some more psych soft rock while Micro Cosmos In A Drop leverages both the 13th Floor Elevators and the live vibe of the Velvets, but with some extra soul. This is my favourite track on Phantom. The closer is more of soft psych goodness and fits perfectly along with the other nine tracks on Phantom.
The Sonic Dawn are the leaders of 60s acid rock in 2024, and I am here for all of it. Phantom is more great stuff from a band who has found their niche and settled comfortably in their role as the leaders in the light rock, acid rock, a flag they proudly way in all of its psychedelic glory. 8/10
Sunnata – Chasing Shadows (Self Released) [Paul Scoble]
Polish Doomheads Sunnata have been making ritualistic heaviness since 2013. The band, featuring Dob on bass, Rob on drums, Gad on guitars and Szy on guitars and vocals, have released four full length albums before Chasing Shadows. The bands debut; Climbing The Colossus was unleashed in 2014, next came Zorya in 2016, Outlands was released in 1018, and the bands last album, Burning In Heaven, Melting On Earth came out three years ago in 2021. When doing the research for this album I noticed that all of Sunnata’s members had been in band from 2008 till 2013 called Satellite Beaver, who played stoner rock, released two demos in 2008 and 2009 and in 2012 released an EP called The Last Bow. Satellite Beaver didn’t look nearly as po-faced and serious as Sunnata.
The album opens with the song Chimera, which has a long slow build up with bass, feedback and drums, layered vocals are added just before the song drops us into a blast beat that pummels us briefly before the song takes a turn towards the ritualistic. The song goes back to the more minimal feel of the beginning of the song and chanting is added, the song then gets faster at a constant rate from very slow, to getting faster until it all becomes frantic at which point the song drops into awesome up-tempo Psych Rock that is full of energy.
At this point I should talk about the vocals on this album, as Chimera is the first place we encounter them. On Chimera and on all but a couple of songs Sunnata use a form of layered vocals where, although there are often several voices, two of them are in quite close harmony and sound very similar (I’m pretty sure this is Szy’s voice multi-tracked). The voices go up and down in pitch and as this happens the voices suddenly feel in conflict, they nearly go out of tune but not quite, instead they have feeling of being under tension, with a sense of modulation. This is a fairly unique sound, and it is very effective and powerful.
Next we get the track Torn, which is all about ebb and flow, building and collapse. The song starts in a minimal way with a feeling that is brooding and subtle, before the song builds in intensity and aggression, the vocals harmonies are back and build with the music so on the bigger and louder sections the fractured harmonies feel almost like dissonance. The song builds and collapses several times before the end of the song. After Torn comes a short, dark and brooding instrumental featuring guitar and bass called At Dusk (Interlude).
Next we get the song Wishbone. Wishbone is a mix of subtle and minimal psych rock with those harmonised vocals, and much bigger and heavier sections with crashing chords and layered harsh vocals, the song has a big and loud ending. Saviours Raft has a minimal and brooding introduction that builds and ebbs away, builds and ebbs away. Near the end of the song everything gets much faster and more aggressive with those harmony vocals getting very combative, once this has been achieved the song ends, so it ends up feeling as if the song was ninety percent introduction. Saviours Raft is followed by a track called Adrift (Reprise) which is a reprise of the previous song.
Next up is the track The Tide which has a different feel to the rest of the album. The Tide is a great piece of folk with great drumming and percussion with some strings and layered vocals that are proper harmonies that are melodious and tuneful. If I’m being honest, this sounds just like Scandinavian folk act Wardruna, and is the best track on the album. After The Tide comes Hunger, a similar track to Saviours Raft, in that it has a very long minimal build-up of percussion, soft guitar and harmonised vocals before a slow and very doomy riff crashes in and gets bigger and bigger, more and more aggressive and extreme, before a very loud ending. Next comes a short atmospheric instrumental called Through The Abyss (Interlude).
Second to last track The Sleeper has a very quiet opening of just bass and drums with whispered vocals, this then builds in intensity making the music fuller and bringing the harmonised vocals a lot higher in the mix. The song then takes a turn as a harsh synth riff is brought in giving the song a bit of an industrial feel, at one point the song drops to just the very electronic synth on its own before the heavy doom crashes back in, and this heavy, synthy doom takes the song to its abrupt end.
The album ends with the track Like Cogs In A Wheel, which is a fairly dubby piece of techno. It isn’t a bad track, but I don’t really see how it’s connected to the rest of the album, I can’t hear any repeated melodies or anything like that, I doubt the band would agree with me as they must have had a reason, but I don’t get it.
Chasing Shadows is a beautiful mess of an album. There are many things to like about it, but conversely there are just as many things wrong with it. I get the feeling that there is a 9/10 or even a 10/10 album in here somewhere.
Firstly, I have to deal with those harmonised vocals that feel as if they are in conflict with themselves. I really liked them at first, and I do feel they are very effective and powerful, however that is the problem. If they had just been used on one or two songs, I would be writing about how good they are and how clever the band had been use them, unfortunately after a few listens to the album they start to become irritating, until after four or five listens to the album they become like fingernails down a blackboard.
The fact that they always do the same lift and then drop in pitch to create the tension means the Vocals are always doing the same melody, so it makes the songs sound the same; the lyrics might be different, but as the tune is the same it feels like the same song repeated. The album is also over long, with too many repeated parts and instrumentals that don’t really have a purpose, this ends up feeling very flabby. Dropping the Vocals in the mix would help them be less invasive and editing the album to about 50 minutes would improve it massively.
I hate to sound harsh as a lot of what is on Chasing Shadows is really good, but this band needs to avoid self-indulgence if they are going to create the work of genius that I think they are capable of. 7/10
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