From Issue #304

Summertime in Olympia has finally arrived. Though it doesn’t typically get hot enough to reach the blistering heat of summer in the East Bay, having lived in Oly long enough to get used to the cooler temps, 85 degrees now seems the equivalent of 100 to my acclimating northern blood. I’ve always been partial to overcast weather and seeing as how it never stays sunny too long up here, for me it’s an ideal summer. With no more 120 day stretches of East Bay sun constantly shining in my face I’ve gained a new appreciation for the more infrequent sunny weather of Olympia.

Another fun reality of Olympia is that fireworks are more legal here. Independence Day weekend just passed by and there were little fireworks stands all over the place. My daughter and I hooked up some sparklers, roman candles and some other relatively non-threatening, non-dangerous shit to light up. This made for my kids favorite 4th yet, as in the Bay she’s been limited to watching fireworks shows from afar. This time we had our own show with our friends; much better.

I also recently bought a small record store in Olympia. Phantom City Records has been open for years and for a long time had been owned by Judd the screamer for Sex/Vid. Well I guess Judd burned out on doin’ the whole thing and if he couldn’t sell it he was gonna shut it down. I hate to see another record store close down so I scrounged up some cash, we made some backroom deals and when it was over, I got the store and Judd bolted to do a month long Sex/Vid tour. I’m pretty stoked to have a store even though record stores seem to drop like flys these days. It’s something I’ve always wanted to try and the timing was right for both of us. So if you’re in Oly stop by and buy shit so the store stays open for a long time to come. It’s right downtown on 4th street inside the Dumpster Values compound.

The metal pickens have been slim lately with nothing super mindblowing coming my way in a while. That said there is some decent stuff circulating that might be worth your time and effort.

When death/doom is used as a genre description it can mean a lot of different things. Japan’s Coffins always describe themselves as death/doom, which would be accurate since they sound like a death metal version of Corrupted. But typically death/doom is used to described stuff like early Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride, even Asunder. In other words, it’s got a more tragic, depressing vibe to it.

It’s from that more typical meaning that the music of Mourning Beloveth draws from. Mourning Beloveth is an Irish band that’s got several albums to their credit and have been active since the 90s. The latest album is called A Disease For The Ages, released on the Grau label. They embody the sound of the death/doom genre with the heavy, sad and slow guitar riffs, the deep guttural vocals and the epic song lengths, with only one track of the five clocking in under the 10-minute mark. Having been around a while Mourning Beloveth has definitely isolated the elements of their style into the finest points and have crafted some quality tunes that are among the genre’s best. At times they contrast the death vocals with a clean Saint Vitus style croon, connecting their sound with doom’s older generation. Great record that I’ll be spinning outside the context of review writing.
The German band Dornenreich has a couple new releases out. The first, a new album, is called In Luft Gentzt and is primarily an album of mostly acoustic songs. The second is a reissue of their 2001 album Her Von Welken Nachten which is sort of symphonic black metal with lots of keyboards and a decidedly absurdist spin on the vocals. Overall, I can’t recommend either album, though the band remains relatively popular among a certain subsect of the scene.

Ascend is a new project that features members of SUNN and Iceburn. Despite the album’s project band nature, there’s actually some good interesting stuff going on here. The album, Ample Fire Within, starts with the very SUNN-esque drone of “The Obelisk Of Kolob” though the track does feature drums, and has a muddier tone than the SUNN records, sounding like an outtake from a Corrupted LP. The whole thing works more as a collection of collaborative tracks rather than a whole album with some tunes being a bit on the softer, creepy dark side rather than the crushing nature of the first track. Vocals seep into the mix on “Divine” that sound not unlike Steve Von Till’s clean vocal style for Neurosis. If you dig SUNN and its many bastard offshoots then check this one out as it’s definitely got a lot more to it then some of the others. Released by Southern Lord.

After that dose of audial Nyquil I was glad to pop in the short, sharp shock of the demo CD-R from Japan’s Dellin Muller. My Japanese buddy Ryo does the vocals in this band. Some of you may have seen him doing the occasional guest vocal with The Endless Blockade and Coffins on their recent US tour. This demo consists of 3 bursts of raw deathgrind that rarely gets below lightspeed. Bands like Phobia and Retaliation would be an apt comparison. Check em out via myspace at myspace.com/dellinmuller.

Tyr is a very popular Viking metal band. Viking metal typically features metalized ethnic Scandinavian style guitar work and epic vocal delivery, sometimes black metal style, but in Tyr’s case these are clean style vocals sung mostly in their native tongue. The choruses have the vocals layered many times giving the sing-along effect common to this metal subgenre. The riffs on Land are not so Norse folk sounding as with other bands playing the style, but on the whole this album is too polished for my blood. Well played, well-executed, but mostly boring. I see many Euro festival metalheads diggin’ this and maybe US kids into bands like Finntroll and Vintersorg, but give me Isengard any day over this madness. On the Napalm label.

Aluna are a UK band with a new 3 song CD called Fall To Earth. They play bluesy Sabbath-inspired grooves in the stoner vein. What sets them apart is vocalist Soph. It’s awesome to see a female vocalist in a genre that is overwhelmingly dominated by gruff bearded dudes. Unfortunately her vocals are somewhat on the monotone side and often it feels like she’s holding back and not really letting loose. They’re too lazy, and the music follows suit as well. There’s just too many damn bands that are playing or have played this style. You really have to raise the bar if want to succeed cuz its been done to fuckin’ death. Check the first couple Fu Manchu records for reference. Check Aluna out at alunaband.co.uk.

Some ex-Rwake dudes comprise Arkansas ugly doom peddlers Deadbird. After a stint at Earache they’re back to the more underground At A Loss label, a label that always releases some quality heavy stuff (ie. Black Cobra). This album Twilight Ritual definitely has the vibe of their brothers in Rwake with fuzzy Crowbar-esque lost-it-all riffs and pained vocal rasps with the faster material veering into Black Cobra / Kylesa territory. Never seen these dudes live yet, but I bet they’re great. I picture lots of beards, pro tats and trucker hats. If you dig the other bands I mentioned look into Twilight Ritual.

The dudes in Northless are regrettably beating a bit of a dead horse on their self-titled demo CD. This is NeurIsis style post-doom rock with the usual elements that the subgenre entails, building heavy parts, wandering shimmery ping-ping guitar parts, tortured vox, etc. This is well done but just has too much in common with its influences to really stand out for me, a problem for most bands trudging these crowded waters. Also it comes in a DVD box, which is totally annoying. I wish bands wouldn’t do that. I don’t want my CDs mingling with my DVDs anymore than I want my precious vinyl mingling with my reading material. CDs over here, DVDs over there! Check out Northless at myspace.com/northlesswilwaukee.

The unholy beast that is Spektr has graced us with a new mini-CD titled Mescalyne. I believe this band has a member of Gorgoroth in its two person ranks though I’m not 100% on that. Aside from the guitar all Spektr music seems to be produced via programming, sampling and drum machines giving the disc a distinct electro/industrial vibe not unlike later Dodheimsgard material, but without the absurdist bent of those crazy Norsemen. Rather the atmosphere is a grim, dank torture chamber of blackened speed riffs and high BPM drums. The more ambient sides tend toward the Nordvargr space of horrific nightmare scenarios. Fairly original and dark stuff.

And now to some classic material. When people talk about Brazil’s Sepultura in terms of classic releases, there is a lot of debate. The mainstream metal press is always quick to tout later albums like Chaos A.D. and the really kind of shitty Roots album. The kultest of the kult are always talking up the early stuff like Morbid Visions and Bestial Devastation. But the truth of it is, the best Sepultura album is, was and always will be Beneath The Remains, the 1989 LP that saw them spring onto the worldwide metal stage.

The album’s dark acoustic intro, like something emitting from a deep cave, leads into the classic opening riff of the title track, a fast as fuck Slayer gone punk ripper propelling to the chorus of: “Who has won, Who has died? Beneath The Remains”. About 3:20 into the song it breaks into an amazing bridge that sounds like a thrash carnival before heading back to the final chorus and the dive bomb ending. A complete death thrash masterpiece that didn’t need any wacky-thrash gimmick shit to make its point.

“Inner Self” wouldn’t be out of place on a crusty hardcore album of the time except that it’s too well-produced and complex. But the main riff clearly belies Sepultura’s obvious punk influence with bands like Discharge and Nausea factoring into the sound here as much as Slayer and Kreator.

Andreas Kisser clearly steps up his role from the previous LP Schizophrenia, adding face-melting solos that showed an appreciation for the melodies hiding within the dark death thrash in a way the spazz out leads of Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman couldn’t really match (let’s face it, every Slayer solo is almost completely the same post Show No Mercy).

Moving on through classic tracks like “Stronger Than Hate” with its weird arpeggio ending and the hypnotic break in crowd favorite “Mass Hypnosis” Sepultura maintained their A-Game well into B-side ragers like “Slaves Of Pain” and apocalyptic album closer “Primitive Future”. Among the countless number of riffs on the LP, not one is wasted or misplaced. Total non-stop aggression, desperation and brilliance.

Michael Whelan’s classic cover art of a decayed orange skull, sprouting flowers with a creepy looking beast peering out of the cranium looks like something to be found beneath the remains of some war torn 3rd world disaster area. One of the great metal covers of the late 1980s, Whelan’s work also graced the cover of the band’s Arise LP and Obituary’s Cause Of Death LP.

Don’t let the fact that the music these guys and their off-shoots make now is crappy, if you have yet to check out Sepultura’s Beneath The Remains, find it immediately!
Next month I’ll let y’all know if At The Gates are as good live now as they were in 1996. Til death!

Don’t Try, 120 State Ave NE #136, Olympia, WA 98501 USA, dontfuckingtry.blogspot.com, donttry@20buckspin.com