Did Tracii Guns and Michael Sweet just put out a proto/Doom NWOBHM record that sounds like it was recorded in the early 80s? The short answer is yes, as they combine their talents on the second album, Light Up The Sky, under the Sunbomb moniker, and goddamn is this good. This may sound like I may need to be institutionalized, but hear me out. Tracii Guns can rip it up no matter what style he is playing and you know where he came up, so that era of metal was for sure an influence on him.
Sweet’s vocals are huge, no matter what he is singing, even if it is a love song to Jebus, or if it is classic metal type stuff ala Priest and Maiden, that works for his style too. The real surprise to me is the production. Every review I have written for an album released by Frontiers, who is putting out Light Up The Sky, has involved me writing in some form or fashion that I hated the overproduced slickness of whatever I had in my ears. This is not that at all. All of this seems crazy, right? Well, this is happening, and I suggest you all get on board and check this out.
Whether it is the riff right off of an 80s Ozzy record like on Rewind or the crunch proto vibe on Unbreakable, Light Up The Sky is a classic metal time machine in all the best ways. Don’t get me wrong, even though Sweet sounds great, it may be tough to get past his vocals if you are not a fan of his Stryper stuff or his more recent material, but to me it works perfectly on these eleven tracks. Steel Hearts could be off of Too Fast For Love, but even chunkier and with a trademarked Guns solo. How about a straight up doom track with a riff that could have been stolen from an early Trouble record on In Grace We’ll Find Our Name? Yes, I just name-dropped Trouble here.
Whether it is the riff right off of an 80s Ozzy record like on Rewind or the crunch proto vibe on Unbreakable, Light Up The Sky is a classic metal time machine in all the best ways. Don’t get me wrong, even though Sweet sounds great, it may be tough to get past his vocals if you are not a fan of his Stryper stuff or his more recent material, but to me it works perfectly on these eleven tracks. Steel Hearts could be off of Too Fast For Love, but even chunkier and with a trademarked Guns solo. How about a straight up doom track with a riff that could have been stolen from an early Trouble record on In Grace We’ll Find Our Name? Yes, I just name-dropped Trouble here.
Dio is channelled on Scream Out Loud and Scorpions on Winds Of Fate. Speaking of channelling, Tracii may have been doing the same with Randy Rhodes given that riff and tone on Beyond The Odds. The record isn’t perfect, as it may be a song or two too long, and if I were to pick one to leave off it would have been the ballad Where We Belong. It is not terrible; it is just not great with the flow of the rest of the record. The lyrics can be a bit on the cheesy side at some points but that can be easily overlooked by how good the record sounds and Guns’ playing.
Lite Up The Sky is one of the surprises of the year for me. The Guns/Sweet duo has found something on album number two as Sunbomb. Let’s hope they can keep this one going. 8/10
Lite Up The Sky is one of the surprises of the year for me. The Guns/Sweet duo has found something on album number two as Sunbomb. Let’s hope they can keep this one going. 8/10
White Stones - Memoria Viva (Reigning Phoenix Music)
Formed by Opeth bassist Martín Mendéz, he's joined by vocalist Eloi Boucherie and drummer Joan Carles Marí Tur. The guitar solos come from João Sassetti as José Ignacio Lagos adds flute as Joakim Svalberg brings keys. This third studio album brings the Spanish language to the forefront in the same way Mägo De Oz, Diabolus In Musica, Angelus Apatrida and Breed 77 do but keeping the experimental progressive rock/metal of the previous two albums.
Formed by Opeth bassist Martín Mendéz, he's joined by vocalist Eloi Boucherie and drummer Joan Carles Marí Tur. The guitar solos come from João Sassetti as José Ignacio Lagos adds flute as Joakim Svalberg brings keys. This third studio album brings the Spanish language to the forefront in the same way Mägo De Oz, Diabolus In Musica, Angelus Apatrida and Breed 77 do but keeping the experimental progressive rock/metal of the previous two albums.
Driven by Mendéz' fleet fingered bass work on little flashes such as Somos and rhythmic, tribal drumming on Humanoides, it's almost like a Latin infused Opeth as the death metal vocals are used well on the aggressive D-Generación and Grito Al Silencio, as Zamba De Orun brings some jazzy moments as does La Ira the Flamenco style at the forefront here. Memoria Viva uses the Spanish language well, but musically it doesn't vary too much from the last two records. Which is not a criticism. 7/10
Wraith – Fueled By Fear (Prosthetic Records) [Paul Hutchings]
Album number four for the Indiana Blackened Thrashers and once more it’s a no-nonsense riff fest that leaves dirt under your previously clean fingernails. 45-minutes of gnarly demonic and deliciously gruesome metal awaits those who venture into this album.
My last encounter with this band came on the savage four-way split Faster Than The Fucking Devil which saw them share airtime with Black Knife, Unholy Knight and Graveripper. And it’s back to business with a bang here with little pomp or ceremony. Wraith do what they do well. It’s not sophisticated, in fact it’s unreconstructed, but that’s most definitely part of the appeal. Thrusting riffs, snarling roaring vocals and chaotic lead bursts along with just about controlled drumming, it’s all included here in songs such as Ice-Cold Bitch, the punk-edge of opener Asylum and Shame In Suffering.
But it’s not all your standard fare, for Wraith have managed to provide some variation in this snarling beast of a record. Warlord is a slower, but heavier track, whilst Heathen’s Touch will have you banging your head within seconds. They may have a formula and stick to it, but this is all good with me for rampantly unashamed heavy metal with a gritty edge tick all the boxes.
New bassist Mike Drysch has slipped into the low end with ease, and along with drummer Mike Szymendera controls the pounding drive of the album. Why does Wraith work? Mainly because they are unashamedly focused on a sound that sits in the early -mid 1980s but can give it just a splash of the contemporary feel. It’s not clever or polished, but it works on every level. If you don’t like this album, one would suggest that you don’t really like heavy metal at all. 8/10
Oh Hiroshima - All Things Shining (Pelagic Records) [Mark Young]
The 5th album from Sweden’s Post-rock outfit Oh Hiroshima sees them return as a duo, the two brothers taking their music into the next phase of a career that has taken them on a diverse journey since starting out some 15 years ago.
It is by no means the kind of music I listen to, and being honest I know little about post-rock other than it can sometimes lean into the more thoughtful side of guitar music. Some of the bands I’ve heard place emphasis on having songs that are sung, often exposing the artist beneath for all to see. Wild Iris is our opener, and immediately it surges forward amongst a restrained structure. It has a heavy and oppressive feel, vocal lines that are delivered softly before building but it never feels overwrought. Drum lines provide that necessary backbone that carries it onwards with myriad guitar lines weaving in and out.
Wraith – Fueled By Fear (Prosthetic Records) [Paul Hutchings]
Album number four for the Indiana Blackened Thrashers and once more it’s a no-nonsense riff fest that leaves dirt under your previously clean fingernails. 45-minutes of gnarly demonic and deliciously gruesome metal awaits those who venture into this album.
My last encounter with this band came on the savage four-way split Faster Than The Fucking Devil which saw them share airtime with Black Knife, Unholy Knight and Graveripper. And it’s back to business with a bang here with little pomp or ceremony. Wraith do what they do well. It’s not sophisticated, in fact it’s unreconstructed, but that’s most definitely part of the appeal. Thrusting riffs, snarling roaring vocals and chaotic lead bursts along with just about controlled drumming, it’s all included here in songs such as Ice-Cold Bitch, the punk-edge of opener Asylum and Shame In Suffering.
But it’s not all your standard fare, for Wraith have managed to provide some variation in this snarling beast of a record. Warlord is a slower, but heavier track, whilst Heathen’s Touch will have you banging your head within seconds. They may have a formula and stick to it, but this is all good with me for rampantly unashamed heavy metal with a gritty edge tick all the boxes.
New bassist Mike Drysch has slipped into the low end with ease, and along with drummer Mike Szymendera controls the pounding drive of the album. Why does Wraith work? Mainly because they are unashamedly focused on a sound that sits in the early -mid 1980s but can give it just a splash of the contemporary feel. It’s not clever or polished, but it works on every level. If you don’t like this album, one would suggest that you don’t really like heavy metal at all. 8/10
Oh Hiroshima - All Things Shining (Pelagic Records) [Mark Young]
The 5th album from Sweden’s Post-rock outfit Oh Hiroshima sees them return as a duo, the two brothers taking their music into the next phase of a career that has taken them on a diverse journey since starting out some 15 years ago.
It is by no means the kind of music I listen to, and being honest I know little about post-rock other than it can sometimes lean into the more thoughtful side of guitar music. Some of the bands I’ve heard place emphasis on having songs that are sung, often exposing the artist beneath for all to see. Wild Iris is our opener, and immediately it surges forward amongst a restrained structure. It has a heavy and oppressive feel, vocal lines that are delivered softly before building but it never feels overwrought. Drum lines provide that necessary backbone that carries it onwards with myriad guitar lines weaving in and out.
When I say that this would be at home with some of the classic college sounds of my youth, I don’t mean it as a negative. It reminds me of that time whilst being its own thing, which is sometimes lost with others. Holiness Movement has a euro rock taste to it, guitars that float set against an insistent arrangement where the bass and drums are steady away, doing enough to serve the song. Eschewing traditional lead breaks, they add layer upon layer to it to really widen the sonic palette that they are playing with. Only in the final moments do they offer a lead that totally reflects the music before it.
Making your way through it, what strikes you is their ability to craft brilliant songs, each arrangement is chock full of moments that resonate. The rising build of Swans In A Field is mesmeric, starting subtly before bringing strings to the fore. They strip this back to a lone guitar and voice before they expand once more, whilst Secret Youth is up-tempo with a swing to it and is a perfect live song. Close your eyes whilst listening and you imagine how the stage would be lit as the song progresses, flowing and moving to its end.
Making your way through it, what strikes you is their ability to craft brilliant songs, each arrangement is chock full of moments that resonate. The rising build of Swans In A Field is mesmeric, starting subtly before bringing strings to the fore. They strip this back to a lone guitar and voice before they expand once more, whilst Secret Youth is up-tempo with a swing to it and is a perfect live song. Close your eyes whilst listening and you imagine how the stage would be lit as the song progresses, flowing and moving to its end.
What you have is an incredibly consistent album. The 8 songs all attain a high bar of quality, just in the way they are put together. None of the songs are alike and yet they sit side by side so well. There is an incredible attention to them, for example, the repeating melody that pops up in Deluge, guitar lines that weave a spider web and patterns that come and go along with the measured use of strings. There is a heavy touch on Leave Us Behind, but it isn’t heavy just for being heavy. They still manage to ensure there are moments of quiet, skilfully letting it develop into a gentle piece until they go loud once more. That ability to judge where and when to go loud or pull back is not common to everyone.
Album closer, Memorabilia with its softly delivered vocal lines is a drawn-out affair that could have been trimmed but it gives All Things Shining the suitably grandiose end it deserves. 8/10
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