There is something quite right about Category 7 having its debut released through Metal Blade Records. It’s an album that is so tightly packed with all the things that made us love this music in the first place there is a feeling that it could be the only home for it.
The band members read like a who’s who of metal starting with Jason Bittner (drums, Shadows Fall), Jack Gibson (bass, Exodus) to guitarists Mike Orlando (Adrenaline Mob) and Phil Demmel (Machine Head, now Kerry King) and bringing his considerable talents to complete this group is John Bush (Armoured Saint, Anthrax). If you haven’t heard of them, then I suggest you start using your search engine of choice and dive in. For everyone else, you’ll know that this is a band that means business.
As with most groups, it started as an opportune meeting and grew legs from there. You can go online and read that, let’s get into the music. Just before we do, if guitar solos are not your thing, then it might be best to avoid.
Like lead breaks? Yes? Let’s continue.
In Stitches is our starter and it nails its colour to the mast almost straight away – manic drums, wild solo and Mr. Bush coming in with his pipes sounding as good as anything he’s done. The riffs are not overly complicated but that is the charm. They are solid and provide the base for the leads that come later after a nifty pre-lead segment. That mix of groove and thrash is quality and the outro drumming is spot on, but it owes a lot to John Bush having the voice and that incredible knack of finding the right way to sing it.
It was one of the main strengths of his time in Anthrax, and it’s the same here. On Land I Used To Love at 1.15 there is a prime example of this, with a melodic line playing out whilst he sings, it gives the material that boosts that lifts it above what it could have been with a lesser singer. There is some epic face-melting guitar work going on here,
Apple Of Discord is one of my favourites here, again it’s a simple riff that is brought in following Jason Bittner knocking hell out of his kit and they are straight on the front foot with it and once again there is an earworm of a chorus that stays with you afterwards. Exhausted is up next and has one of the best sing-along choruses you will hear this year. Its fucking ace, rising chords, leads and those vocal melodies hitting the spot again. Unashamed metal goodness and it was the first single release, go and check it out. Immediately.
What I can say is that there is no real change in style or attack – it’s all full pelt, drums that batter and lead breaks that could cause wildfires to break out. If you don’t like this style, you won’t find anything here to change your mind. What we have is 5 talents firing on all cylinders, from White Flags & Bayonets with its massive choruses to Mousetrap (latest single) with some mint drumming (think Painkiller) straight into a riff that combines that groove / thrash style again.
There are moments like this all through, where they drop in musical links to their own bands i.e., in the way the riffs are put together or the way the leads come in. It’s this hybrid that makes it so much fun, especially on the final track Through Pink Eyes which has a furious thick-end riff to it straight into a classic chorus. I’ve repeated that about the choruses on here a few times and it’s unavoidable because there are some massive ones on here.
There is also an 8-minute instrumental, Etter Stormen. And you know what I think about instrumentals. That is rude of me, so it’s an 8-minute guitar punch-up, with a seemingly never-ending cavalcade of incendiary fretwork. It’s just mental.
I think that the key is that it just wants to have fun. They sound as though it was born of doing something fun and the end result is that it wants you to have fun with it, so do that. It is not asking a lot of you, and you will be rewarded with some cracking heavy music that brings everything we love into one spot.
It remains to be seen if there will be a follow up but I see no reason why they shouldn’t especially when you consider the talent they have at their disposal. On the other hand, would it better if it remained a one-off? What I would say is this: I don’t think you would consider this a classic album. But I would say that it is the kind of amped-up, solo-laden, no fucks given metal that you want in your life. 8/10
Sacri Monti - Retrieval (Tee Pee Records) [Rich Piva]
Sacri Monti has become one of my favorite contemporary bands in a very short time. How could they not? The play crazy and wonderful 70s soaked psych prog and have organ and sound like they were recorded back then too. Checks pretty much every box for me.
You like Hawkwind but prefer more Hammond? Got you here. You like Deep Purple but want them to step out and freak out more? Got you here, too. There is even a little bit of Grand Funk in these guys. The production on their albums to date is exactly how the San Diego, CA band should sound.
Iress - Sleep Now, In Reverse (Church Road Records)
Classed as 'dream metal', Iress were formed in 2010 and the pair terror with beauty, imagine the end of the world coming almost in slow motion unfolding cinematically in front of you, then Iress are the soundtrack.
I suppose you could call it shoegaze but there's lots more too it than that. Iress could only be from L.A, they safe steeped in grandeur but beneath that there's an introspection, the moments of heaviness just stayed from erupting too much by a quiet reserve.
Bassist Michael Maldonado, drummer Glenn Chu, and guitarist Graham Walker, have evolved and melded their instrumental brilliance over the last 14 years, perfecting their emotionally resonant 'doomgaze' to the what you hear on Sleep Now, In Reverse. They build the atmosphere, slow burning and dramatic on The Remains, a steady, airy drumbeat that opens itself in to some doom crushing doom.
On a track such as Ever Under, the vocals of Michelle Malley are smokey and beautifully evocative, on tracks like Mercy, she presents a blissful, close quarters whispering before belting towards the cathartic end.
Leviathan (The Fog) continues with the whispered vocal style as In Reverse is beautiful, fully showing why Malley is referred to as the "Adele of Doom", soulful and impassioned she's got one of the best voices I've heard in years, literally causing chills even on the heavier moments such as Knell Mera as well as the dreamy Sanctuary.
For fans of bands such as Holy Fawn, King Woman, Sylvaine, Slow Crush, Iress' new album is stunning. 9/10
Terra Black - All Descend (Bonebag Records) [James Jackson]
Terra Black are re-releasing their debut album, All Descend, as an official physical release through a new record company, that the band recently signed to.
Whether there’s a need for a physical album in this wondrous age of digital media is not for me to say, though personally I do have a love of the artwork and lyric sheets that have become nigh on extinct in recent years.
Never, however, does the band ever sound anything except new and fresh, and this point is proven to be 100% true on their new record, Retrieval, which reconfirms the status of the band as in my top tier and then some. Why do I love this band a Retrieval so much?
The first 15 seconds of the opener, Maelstrom, should tell you. There is no messing around here. The dual, NWOBHM inspired riff hits you while the drums are falling down the stairs behind you before the total heavy psych out solo comes to bend your mind. Did I mention the organ, because what could make this song more perfect is onl y adding organ to its already perfect chemistry.
While the opener is a swirling and frantic wonderful freakout, Desirable Sequel shows the pace down a bit to start, but just wait until just about the four minute mark when the band just goes off. I have to once again call out the drum work on Retrieval as some of my favourite I have heard in a while.
The tempo changes on this one are perfect and makes this such an amazing listen. Intermediate Death, when the band kicks in during the bridge it creates a beautiful psych chaos that I have not heard done this well in a really long time.
This one is right out of the time machine in the best sort of way, and how about how this one closes? The band is so tight while being so damn loose at the same time. Brackish/Honeycomb has more of that amazing dual guitar action that could be Thin Lizzy doing Deep Purple.
The vocal and organ combo is glorious on this one while the drums and guitars bring some heavy in parts and dreaminess in others. Five minutes in when the drums take over and the band once again goes off it is heavy psych prog perfection.
If anyone was looking for an organ solo (like I was), here you go. Moon Canyon acoustically chills us out for two and a half minutes bridging with said acoustic to the closer, More Than I, which starts off that way but is a nine minute epic psych prog journey that incorporates all the goodness I have mentioned before, including a killer solo, the sum up the perfection this record is.
Love this band, love this album, and it being so good, Retrieval makes me somehow love Sacri Monti even more, which is a pretty big feat. Album of the year contender and something I will be listening to for a very long time. 10/10
Iress - Sleep Now, In Reverse (Church Road Records)
Classed as 'dream metal', Iress were formed in 2010 and the pair terror with beauty, imagine the end of the world coming almost in slow motion unfolding cinematically in front of you, then Iress are the soundtrack.
I suppose you could call it shoegaze but there's lots more too it than that. Iress could only be from L.A, they safe steeped in grandeur but beneath that there's an introspection, the moments of heaviness just stayed from erupting too much by a quiet reserve.
Bassist Michael Maldonado, drummer Glenn Chu, and guitarist Graham Walker, have evolved and melded their instrumental brilliance over the last 14 years, perfecting their emotionally resonant 'doomgaze' to the what you hear on Sleep Now, In Reverse. They build the atmosphere, slow burning and dramatic on The Remains, a steady, airy drumbeat that opens itself in to some doom crushing doom.
On a track such as Ever Under, the vocals of Michelle Malley are smokey and beautifully evocative, on tracks like Mercy, she presents a blissful, close quarters whispering before belting towards the cathartic end.
Leviathan (The Fog) continues with the whispered vocal style as In Reverse is beautiful, fully showing why Malley is referred to as the "Adele of Doom", soulful and impassioned she's got one of the best voices I've heard in years, literally causing chills even on the heavier moments such as Knell Mera as well as the dreamy Sanctuary.
For fans of bands such as Holy Fawn, King Woman, Sylvaine, Slow Crush, Iress' new album is stunning. 9/10
Terra Black - All Descend (Bonebag Records) [James Jackson]
Terra Black are re-releasing their debut album, All Descend, as an official physical release through a new record company, that the band recently signed to.
Whether there’s a need for a physical album in this wondrous age of digital media is not for me to say, though personally I do have a love of the artwork and lyric sheets that have become nigh on extinct in recent years.
All Descend opens with the sludgy refrains of Asteroid, a winding track that rises and falls, revolving around a hypnotic guitar melody. The largely instrumental Black Flames Of Funeral Fire continues with the same focus on slow, steady doomy riffs, that scuzzy sound to the guitar pushing the head nodding groove, there’s some vocalisation followed by the song title, lyrically it’s obviously not complex but the focus here was the music.
A stripped back verse is surrounded by monolithic riffs within Ashes And Dust. Divinest Sin follows and male and female vocals harmonise within the raw and folksy melodies whilst that now familiar sound of sludgy guitars plods on methodically.
Spawn Of Lyssa starts off with one of the darkest, doomier riffs on the album. Slumber Grove rounds out the album with another stab at that stripped down verse, just as effective as before as the vocals of female singer/guitarist Ezgi soar above the sorrowful melody. An album rich with Stoner Doom riffs and melodies; raw, earthy tones and haunting vocals. 8/10
Spawn Of Lyssa starts off with one of the darkest, doomier riffs on the album. Slumber Grove rounds out the album with another stab at that stripped down verse, just as effective as before as the vocals of female singer/guitarist Ezgi soar above the sorrowful melody. An album rich with Stoner Doom riffs and melodies; raw, earthy tones and haunting vocals. 8/10
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