The Meads of Asphodel at Myspace

The Meads of Asphodel are one of the most unique metal bands I’ve come across. They mix traditional black metal, punk, Middle Eastern music, and electronica in their brand of music, and they do it well. Damascus Steel is their most recent full-length, released in 2005 (two EPs have been released since). The band’s line-up is ever-changing, with vocalist Metatron being the only constant member, and they do not perform live.

Damascus Steel is as varied as any of their previous albums. It’s full of synthesizers, traditional black metal riffs and screamed vocals, and spoken word sections which are pulled off quite well. Most of the band’s lyrics concern war and religion, and they are considerably more thoughtful than most other bands who tackle these topics. Highlights include the opening instrumental Psalm 666, which is littered with samples; the hilarious cover of Louis Armstrong’s “Wonderful World,” with deliciously tasteless rewritten lyrics and Metatron doing a great impression of Armstrong’s gravelly voice, and “The Gods Who Mock Us,” which features a sweet organ solo as well as insanely brutal vocals.

Don’t stay away from this band just because it’s “black metal”- I dislike most bands in that genre, and the Meads are so much more than another black metal band. I highly recommend this release, as well as all their others (except for the 2007 EP “Life is Shit,” which is three fairly straight-up punk covers).

Mithras at Myspace

Mithras has to be one of my favourite recent finds. They actually managed to make their music sound otherworldly and unique, unlike so many other derivative death metal bands. At first, I thought that the album used synthesizers extensively, but after reading an interview with the band, I found out that they were only used during song intros. Guitarist Leon Macey creates some incredible sounds with his guitar that have to be heard to be believed. The band clearly takes more than a little inspiration from Morbid Angel, but still manage to have a sound that stands out among the death metal crowd. Rayner Coss’s vocals are pretty standard death metal fare, but they fit the material quite nicely.

I felt that this album’s only real weakness was the drums. I thought that they might be using a machine, as the blast beats sound awfully mechanical and the band has only two members, but it turns out that Macey plays the drums as well as the guitar. The band would do well to obtain a full-time drummer, but that’s the only real criticism I have. I highly recommend this album to Morbid Angel fans and anyone who enjoys unusual sounds in a death metal setting.

Earth at Myspace

Earth’s masterpiece “Earth 2” was the archetype of all drone doom metal records and throughout their career as a band they’ve always done something new on each album. Again they’ve broken new ground as rather than go back to square one and create a new sound for “the bees made honey in the lions skull” they’ve built upon the approach they created for their previous album “Hex or the Infernal Printing Method” and improved it immensely.

“Hex or the Infernal Printing Method” was one damn good album in itself with more replay value than that youtube video of the toddler getting somersaulted into the air by a breakdancer but “the bees made honey in the lion’s skull” is a step beyond that. It takes the bizarre frontier ambience of that album and simultaneously refines and makes sound more alive with that sense of the great unconquered wilderness that you only get with latter day Earth records.

The clean minimalist riffs fused with the hypnotic percussion and subtle piano and organ creates a style of music that isn’t really metal but then again can’t really be anything else. If you add some distortion to the guitars and produce it in a different way you’d have something undeniably metal but then that would take away the beauty and ambiguity of this record. This is a bizarre sound to describe but the nearest I can get is the primal spirit of Black Sabbath co-existing with the classical avant-garde minimalism of Phillip Glass, the haunting country instrumentals of Duane Eddy and a nod towards the post rock of Slint. You can still hear the concepts that Earth introduced to metal and that were since taken up by Boris, SunnO))) and Cult of Luna to name but a few. It’s a Metal album but not as we know it Jim!

North at Myspace

Okay, so maybe you’re like me and you love Isis. Maybe you see “like Isis” in an album review and check it out immediately. And maybe you’ve been disappointed time and again, because it takes more than lethargy to sound like Isis.

North take their own approach to combining post-rock with metal. Sometimes, the post-rock stands out the most, especially on the brief, dark, ominous interludes. Their last EP “Ruins” had one very metal, very promising riff on the track “Nex in March”, but overall was more of a heavy, post-rock, 100% instrumental album. But they decided to go balls-out into metal territory on this one; the post-rock is there, but focusing on the heavy riffs and adding growly vocals has changed everything. The overdriven riffs sound bright and angry; I love some good harmonic interplay, and the two guitarists serve it up constantly. Empty space in the riffs and changes in tone keep the songs fresh and memorable. “Eidolon” sounds just like a Mono song before it approaches sludge-metal territory. And tell me “Falling in Perpetuum” doesn’t stand tall next to any Isis track. Yeah, the album doesn’t really sound like Isis – it’s more by-the-books, and it doesn’t flirt with clean vocals or weird song structures.

Really, this album would be perfect if they mixed it up a little more. It kicks ass and sounds great, but it’s not that creative. The song structures, especially the usual soft-loud dynamic shifts, can be predictable, and there’s barely any shift away from 4/4 time. But if you’re looking for some fresh post-metal, you won’t be disappointed with this.

Hunab Ku at Myspace

Where do I begin?  This album is spaz-tastic from start to finish.  These boys cover a broad spectrum of avant-garde and technical metal.  The album starts out stressing their evil carnival sound, recalling Dog Fashion Disco and Mr. Bungle.  After the organ disappears from the mix, you’re left with one brutal treble-y guitar that weaves in and out of barely decipherable rhythms.  The vocalist really does the Mike Patton thing well, which I can’t say I like that much, but he switches styles often enough, sometimes sounding like the Deftones or the Red Chord, that it doesn’t get stale.

If the frantic circus riffs aren’t your thing, there are a few other treats buried here and there.  My favorite track is the two-minute droning “Midnight Assassin”, which despite having so few notes, is so brutal that I’m worried the guitarist will stab out my eardrums with a guitar-pick shiv.  Sure, the crazy rhythms and harmonies on the rest of the album are great, but this short little song shows that these guys can be as brutal with a few notes and a howl as they are with all guns blazing.  If anything, this band knows how to pace itself, letting you relax just long enough that their attack hits you 10x as hard when it arrives.

RIYL: Swarm of the Lotus, Dillinger Escape Plan, Car Bomb, Dog Fashion Disco