No, I wasn’t sure how to read say it either…
OK, the band are pronounced “A to Z”, and being their sophomore release, they’ve wittily added a “squared” to denote the sequel to the self-titled debut, but I defy anyone to get the result they want asking for this verbally from an Alexa or a Google smart speaker (those afflicted with Apple’s Siri know better than to ask it for anything).
OK, the band are pronounced “A to Z”, and being their sophomore release, they’ve wittily added a “squared” to denote the sequel to the self-titled debut, but I defy anyone to get the result they want asking for this verbally from an Alexa or a Google smart speaker (those afflicted with Apple’s Siri know better than to ask it for anything).
This Alphabetti Spaghetti of a moniker actually refers to the two founding members Ray Alder and Mark Zonder, with the supporting musicians conveniently fitting in alphabetic points in between. Alder is still the drumming powerhouse for progressive metal masters Fates Warning, for whom many still associate as the voice of that act, given that he spent nearly two decades delivering the goods from the mike stand for them.
Musically however, this is much more hard rock influenced, but the nature of the two progenitors and the calibre of experienced musicians in their orbit means that they can’t avoid making this a way more musically technical board of fare than straight ahead rock ‘n’ roll, but one just avoids verging on the proggy. That means there’s some serious musical proficiency and shredding going on, to some technically dizzying beats, but it doesn’t feel laboured or showy…
There’s a fair amount of stylistic variation in here too, whilst still retaining a core and rather punchy house sound that tells me I really need to go and give the debut a listen. When you pull together quality players like this with more than a century of combined musical experience between them, it’s usually hoped that the writing process is going to be disciplined, structured and result in a fat-free product, and this is definitely the case here - with highly focussed songs sticking in the main around the 4-minute mark and not outstaying their welcome, whilst still pulling in some interesting instrumental breaks that don’t detract from the songs at all in the way prog acts often do.
Equally, they don’t sound like they are trying to write commercial hit singles, and this really works well as an album as a consequence, as it doesn’t have a whiff of the formulaic by the numbers approach to song writing, instead having a genuine organic feel of something that has grown naturally in the studio from a bunch of serious players who have a really strong band chemistry together.
The nomenclature might have annoyed me to start with, but from about halfway through the first song I realise that this baby has got me well and truly hooked, and before I know it half a day has been spent spinning this one again and again – a fairly sure sign that there’s more of that to come in the coming months. 10/10
HolyRoller - Rat King (Ripple Music) [Rich Piva]
HolyRoller put out a fun little album with the bluesy stoner rocker, 2023’s Swimming Witches, which showed the potential of what the North Carolina could bring. Fast forward two years, add a new guitarist and the band signing to the best label in rock, Ripple Music, and the potential of album one is starting to be fulfilled with record two, entitled Rat King.
Musically however, this is much more hard rock influenced, but the nature of the two progenitors and the calibre of experienced musicians in their orbit means that they can’t avoid making this a way more musically technical board of fare than straight ahead rock ‘n’ roll, but one just avoids verging on the proggy. That means there’s some serious musical proficiency and shredding going on, to some technically dizzying beats, but it doesn’t feel laboured or showy…
There’s a fair amount of stylistic variation in here too, whilst still retaining a core and rather punchy house sound that tells me I really need to go and give the debut a listen. When you pull together quality players like this with more than a century of combined musical experience between them, it’s usually hoped that the writing process is going to be disciplined, structured and result in a fat-free product, and this is definitely the case here - with highly focussed songs sticking in the main around the 4-minute mark and not outstaying their welcome, whilst still pulling in some interesting instrumental breaks that don’t detract from the songs at all in the way prog acts often do.
Equally, they don’t sound like they are trying to write commercial hit singles, and this really works well as an album as a consequence, as it doesn’t have a whiff of the formulaic by the numbers approach to song writing, instead having a genuine organic feel of something that has grown naturally in the studio from a bunch of serious players who have a really strong band chemistry together.
The nomenclature might have annoyed me to start with, but from about halfway through the first song I realise that this baby has got me well and truly hooked, and before I know it half a day has been spent spinning this one again and again – a fairly sure sign that there’s more of that to come in the coming months. 10/10
HolyRoller - Rat King (Ripple Music) [Rich Piva]
HolyRoller put out a fun little album with the bluesy stoner rocker, 2023’s Swimming Witches, which showed the potential of what the North Carolina could bring. Fast forward two years, add a new guitarist and the band signing to the best label in rock, Ripple Music, and the potential of album one is starting to be fulfilled with record two, entitled Rat King.
While Swimming Witches leaned a bit on the stoner blues side of things, Rat King has more of a heavy grunge with some elements post hardcore thing going on, leveraging the band’s love of all sorts of 90s music, and giving us the record that HolyRoller was meant to make for offering number two.
So why is Rat King next level for the band? First, principal songwriter and guitarist Adam Cody sounds like he has grown leaps and bounds with his vocals. In interviewing the band for The Rich and Turbo Heavy Half Hour, Adam talked to me about how he has been working hard on his clean singing after a number of years and a bunch of bands where he was all about the growls.
So why is Rat King next level for the band? First, principal songwriter and guitarist Adam Cody sounds like he has grown leaps and bounds with his vocals. In interviewing the band for The Rich and Turbo Heavy Half Hour, Adam talked to me about how he has been working hard on his clean singing after a number of years and a bunch of bands where he was all about the growls.
It really shows in the eight songs that make up Rat King. Next, new lead guitarist Steve Poe fits right in with the rest of the band, sounding like a natural for a band whose sound is evolving. The songwriting has improved drastically too, both musically and lyrically. Overall, HolyRoller just sounds more confident, as if this material is what they were supposed to deliver all along.
The deliciously titled opener Crunch Riff Supreme brings just that; a crunchy riff with an almost atmospheric psych vibe to it that screams 90s post hardcore. Cody gets to leverage both his clean vocals with his not forgotten screams, and it works perfectly. Both of Cody’s voices contribute to the doomy Titan, which is the heaviest and most lumbering track on Rat King, until it isn’t.
The layers of guitar and newly found intricacies can be heard when listening close to this one. The band can pick up the pace too, like they do on the second half of the track, creating a song within a song, and it works great. This one is some Jawbox meets Soundgarden meets Vision Of Disorder awesomeness and could be one of my favourite songs of the year. It is that good.
The title track is killer too, with Cody’s vocals going all over the place (in a good way) and creating a very chuggy 90s soundscape. Drummer Jay Ovittore’s love of Quicksand had to have bled through while recording the killer Buried Alone, which has some really great guitar work to go along with some excellent vocal melodies. Speaking of Quicksand, how about my other favourite track on Rat King, Heave Ho, which shows how the band understands how to be super catchy and melodic when they want to be.
I love how this one morphs into more Soundgarden love, until the melody sweeps you back up again. More post Hardcore goodness is in store with Radiating Sacred Light, which also has some of the more killer riffs on the record. Drift Into the Sun sounds like the way great 90s records close, and it does the same job here for this album. An epic and memorable way to end the 36-minute journey that Rat King is.
Rat King is the result of a band finding their voice, upping their confidence, and leveraging all the influences from the music and style they love. HollyRoller have created a next level record that will be near the top of my end of year list. Another killer Ripple Music release. 9/10
Gösta Berlings Saga - Forever Now (Pelagic Records) [Matt Bladen]
Well this is a bit good! In a year where Pink Floyd’s seminal Live At Pompeii was re-released and rightly celebrated, Stockholm based experimental rock band Gösta Berlings Saga release their new, seventh, album Forever Now, like Floyd at Pompeii it’s a culmination of being at the fringes of music, an album that takes them right on the cusp of a wider breakthrough. In the 25 years the band have been around they have shifted from jazz fusion, through krautrock, into darker synth driven soundscapes that build from arpeggiated syncopation, oscillating synths and a backroom that has both drums and percussion.
Rat King is the result of a band finding their voice, upping their confidence, and leveraging all the influences from the music and style they love. HollyRoller have created a next level record that will be near the top of my end of year list. Another killer Ripple Music release. 9/10
Gösta Berlings Saga - Forever Now (Pelagic Records) [Matt Bladen]
Well this is a bit good! In a year where Pink Floyd’s seminal Live At Pompeii was re-released and rightly celebrated, Stockholm based experimental rock band Gösta Berlings Saga release their new, seventh, album Forever Now, like Floyd at Pompeii it’s a culmination of being at the fringes of music, an album that takes them right on the cusp of a wider breakthrough. In the 25 years the band have been around they have shifted from jazz fusion, through krautrock, into darker synth driven soundscapes that build from arpeggiated syncopation, oscillating synths and a backroom that has both drums and percussion.
In the accompanying PR it’s noted that Gösta Berlings Saga is for fans of King Crimson, Magma, Captain Beefhert and The Mars Volta, all bands who make their living flying in the face of genre tags and musical constraints. These Swedes do the same, the founding duo of keyboardist David Lundberg and drummer Alexander Skepp, making sure that they are still the foundation for all 10 of these instrumental forays into exploratory music. Whether it’s an consistent drum pattern, or an electronic loop, an off-time jazz flourish or a mellotron swell they’re the starting point for these tracks but they surround themselves with players who are virtuoso’s like them.
Be it the complex, fingerstyle bass work of Gabriel Tapper, the repeating chords and atmospheric melodies of guitarist Rasmus Booberg or the tribal, propulsive percussion (which is different to drumming) of Jesper Skarin, Gösta Berlings Saga integrate so many different sounds across one album that it’s difficult to pick out individual moments, a record such as this has a natural journey to it, not conceptual but composed in a way that you have to let it reveal itself to you, almost like chapters, adventuring through the tributaries of the lakes but then seeking the safe embrace of the shoreline. Forever Now is a record that insists you listen, the instruments here are more effective than any vocals could be, the sound of a band entering their peak. 9/10
Bear Mace - Slaves Of The Wolf (Self Released) [GC]
Bear Mace are a in their own words a ‘’pulverizing death metal’’ band from Chicago, it’s been 5 years since their debut album with just the 1 single released in between, so it would seem they have had more than enough time to prepare for new album Slaves Of The Wolf.
Opening with title track Slaves Of The Wolf we get the unmistakable sound of old school death metal mixed with a side of thrash to vary things up and the vocals are so deep you wonder if they are being sang by Satan himself, it’s a solid if not overly inspiring start, like there is nothing wrong but it’s nothing I haven’t heard before and with only 8 tracks on the album I expect them all to be 100% killers.
Bear Mace are a in their own words a ‘’pulverizing death metal’’ band from Chicago, it’s been 5 years since their debut album with just the 1 single released in between, so it would seem they have had more than enough time to prepare for new album Slaves Of The Wolf.
Opening with title track Slaves Of The Wolf we get the unmistakable sound of old school death metal mixed with a side of thrash to vary things up and the vocals are so deep you wonder if they are being sang by Satan himself, it’s a solid if not overly inspiring start, like there is nothing wrong but it’s nothing I haven’t heard before and with only 8 tracks on the album I expect them all to be 100% killers.
Worthless Lives adds a bit more speed to and some wailing guitar solos are being ripped out before anything really gets going and then it all just slows down when the vocals start, don’t know if this is intentional to let the vocals take centre stage because when it’s just the music the speed is ramped back up there are a few issues with this song for me and I’m not overly bothered when it’s over to be honest.
This feeling of meh-ness rolls on into Drown Them which again while the main element is some nicely done old school death metal, you feel that you could just pick this form any mid-tier mid 90’s release and it would sound the same, its just not got the urgency or energy that it needs to really kick on and once again is just sort of ok to listen to.
The Iceman Cometh does have a bit more about it and ramps up the thrash styling to the max and it helps that as its only just under 3 minutes long there is no room to meander and try to slow the pace down, its just a full on heads down death metal ripper which this album has been desperately crying out for, more of this and we are onto a winner!
Captured, Consumed does carry on the form, slightly but it’s really just more of what we have heard, the trash is elevating things above the levels of tedium that may creep in if it was just death metal, which is a real shame because you feel that they are just about to get things going and they just never really do, it all just gets to predictable and dull in places, Heretics Burn actually makes me think that this is how Megadeth might sound if they were a death metal band because it has some galloping riffs, switched into sections were the drums change everything up and create an almighty groove to the song with some good time changes and a few more impressive guitar solos thrown in and it is actually a very good song.
Following directly on with this promising new direction is Prophecy which again gallops forward and carries on with the fast and furious more thrash themed approach and you just wish that it had all sounded this good because once again this is a groove filled beast of a track and a shame they have waited this long to really get things going and then thankfully on closer Cancerous Winds there is no thoughts of trying to slow things down or end with a whimper.
They keep the fast pace going and the energy runs thorough every note of music you hear, the section changes are done impressively and everything sounds urgent and the mid-section groove here is utterly delicious, and we do end thankfully on a high as I was sort of giving up a little bit, just such a shame it took until the end of the album to liven up!
A real mix of feelings about Slaves Of The Wolf as it started out a bit meh? And when I thought it was just sort of creeping towards dying on its arse, out of nowhere the last 3 tracks completely redeemed the whole album, before those tracks, we were heading towards a 4 maybe pushing 5 but because they pulled their fingers out of said arse they managed to get a bit of a better score! 6/10
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