Mantic Ritual at Myspace

Mantic Ritual’s Executioner is an example of the thrash revival being done right. Although it’s never too original, the riffs, leads and songwriting are strong as hell, resulting in an album that’s strong all the way through, and Mantic Ritual don’t make the same mistake as Blood Tsunami and make sure that the songs are actually heavy; there’s no over-melodic frippery here.

Executioner is a re-recording of an album recorded under the band’s previous name, Meltdown. I haven’t heard the original version, so I can’t comment on it, but the production on this is excellent throughout. Dan Wetmore’s vocals are excellent; at times, he appears to be invoking Kill ‘Em All-era James Hetfield in his delivery, but he mixes it up enough so he doesn’t feel like a total clone. The solos and riffs are also excellent; the album’s only real weakness is the rhythm section. The bass is barely audible and the drumming is especially weak; it just sounds repetitive, dull, and overly mechanical most of the time.

Still, despite that one major fault, this is a fine album and a worthy successor to the original wave of thrash bands. If only the rest of the movement was this strong…

Heaven and Hell at Myspace

It’s really a shame that this didn’t come out under the Black Sabbath name. Oh, I know how Ozzy, Bill and Geezer forced Iommi to sign a contract saying that the name couldn’t be used without the participation of all four original members, and how this was justified due to Iommi’s dragging the name through the mud during the late 80′s and early 90′s, but this is a quality release, arguably better than any of the “real” Sabbath albums with Dio (it’s certainly better than the the mediocre-as-hell Dehumanizer).

That said, The Devil You Know doesn’t really have a sound that’s much different from the other Dio Sabbath albums, but it’s really, really good despite its lack of innovation. Dio sounds amazing for a senior citizen (would that all vocalists could sound this good this late into their careers), Iommi’s riffs are as good as ever, and the rhythm section is solid throughout. There’s even a little bit of synthesizer that’s used sparingly but effectively.

The album’s tone is also remarkably consistent- it’s completely dark, with no silly excursions into other moods like the Ozzy-era songs “Planet Caravan” or “Changes.” It’s also fairly slow-paced throughout (but not in a boring way). This leads to a few songs sounding awfully similar, but it’s not quite as much of a fault as it might sound. The lyrics are sometimes pretty cheesy, but they don’t really stick out a lot when the music is this grim. All in all, this is an excellent album and a more than worthy addition to the Sabbath catalog, even if it is technically apocrypha. I wouldn’t begrudge anyone who changed their MP3 tags to “Black Sabbath” for this album at all.