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This is 'Liberation through Amplification.'
Like the mythos of Tolkien himself, “Second
Sight” is a vast, apocalyptic, intimidating slab of genius and practically
invites obsessives and neophytes alike to bask in the overwhelming worlds
within.
“Second Sight” DD//LP track listing
1.
Black Numenorean
2.
Recurring Grave
3.
Axis Mundi
4.
The Seer
The Review:
Since
the 1960s rebirth of “The Lord of the
Rings” as the go-to fantasy epic of counterculture, the utopian, religious,
horrific, and even whimsical elements of J.R.R. Tolkien’s opus have been
peppered into practically every subgenre of pop and rock music.Whether the weird folk pop single “The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins” (Leonard
Nimoy’s only musical hit), the numerous references in Led Zeppelin’s catalog, the
derivative fantasy prog epics of power metal, countless band names, or the
Uruk-hai obsessions of black metallers, there’s something about the Tolkien’s “Legendarium”
that invites musical adaptation, inspiration, and exploration.On the flipside, it’s also inspired a lot of
eye-rolling crap – insipid name checks, tedious inside jokes, or, most insidiously,
the racially coded misreading of particularly deficient black metal types.Mostly, musicians who take on Tolkien shrink
in comparison to the monolithic power; Foehammer is not one of these casualties of
hubris.The doom metal power trio is one
of the only modern units formidable enough to wrestle with the Nazgul and
emerge victorious.
“Black Numenorean” is the only
explicit “Tolkien namecheck” song on Foehammer’s debut full length, “Second Sight”, but the entirety of the
record is viscerally, elementally brutal, like a reverberating pyroclastic
blast from Mount Doom.Tolkien’s “Black
Numenoreans” are the original corrupted men, turned against the powers of good
to support their own sinister ambitions, and Foehammer’s auditory rendering
is the perfect metaphor of corruption and martial obsession.Stomping, rolling blasts of guitar fuzz,
slowly aching bass riffs, and crashing percussion are the perfect
soul-demolishing soundtrack for nihilistic evil.I could imagine Sauron himself bellowing in
sinister triumph through Jay Cardinell’s trademark death growls.
“Recurring Grave” may not be
distinctly Tolkeinesque, but it continues the strain of trudging orc sludge,
winding up to agonizing, palm muted buildups.Joe Cox’s guitar tone is spot on – a gradual build of feedback and
subtly bluesy riffs that you’ll find yourself humming for days afterward.The ethereal fingerpicking intro of “Axis Mundi” may have you thinking
you’ve stumbled into Rivendell, but Foehammer quickly descends back into total
darkness.The rhythmic one two punch of
Cardinell’s bass and Vang’s titanic drum hits is pure filthy doom joy, while
Cox gets to ramp up his playing for a full on shredding solo.
The
closing sixteen-minute epic, “The Seer”,
is a perfect apotheosis of “Second Sight”’s
expansive tone, doom riffing, and occasional guitar freakouts; Cardinell’s
growl is truly menacing, Vang’s drums pummel and then retreat, and the fuzz is
unrelenting.Jay’s bass, allowed a
minute to churn alone, has the perfect mix of crackle and clarity.The nearly instrumental second half is a
transcendent final dirge that will break your neck from glacial but memorable
hooks and riffs, before a final screeching fadeout that will beg you to fire up
this LP all over again.Like the mythos
of Tolkien himself, “Second Sight” is
a vast, apocalyptic, intimidating slab of genius and practically invites
obsessives and neophytes alike to bask in the overwhelming worlds within.
“Filthy
Flowers of Doom" is Tons'
second full length album. Five tracks of in your face sludge/doom metal riffs,
tight drumming and a demonic voice all characterize the latest effort from Turin’s
finest. Low-league occultism and weed devotion are the basis of this crushing
album that will drag you into a sulphurous and sabbathian void. “Filthy Flowers of Doom” is recorded by
Danilo “Deepest Sea” Battocchio, while mastering is helmed by Brad Boatright (Sleep, NAILS, Obituary) at Audiosiege (USA).Today you can
check out the album in full before its official release on 20th
April, let doom flow. Preorder here
“Winterfylleth have created a superb album here- one of atmosphere,
melancholy and mystery. Indeed, much like the landscapes that inspired it,
there is beauty to be found here in abundance if you are willing to give it a
try.”
“The
Hallowing of Heirdom” CD//DD//LP track listing:
1.
The Shepherd
2. Frithgeard
3. Æcerbot
4. Halgemonath
5. Elder Mother
6. Embers
7. A Gleeman’s Volt
8. Latch to a Grave
9. The Nymph
10. On-Cýdig
11. Resting Tarn
12. The Hallowing of Heirdom
The Review:
Winterfylleth have always done things a little
differently- no faux-satanic posing for them. No corpsepaint. No spikes and
bullet belts. However, they remain a black metal band. On this record, though,
they depart from the sonic tropes of black metal entirely and have instead
turned in a gothic folk album. If you picked up their career spanning
compendium a few years back and heard their version of “John Barleycorn Must Die”, then you have a pretty good reference
point for what is contained here.
Twelve
tracks of acoustic guitar, violin, percussion and vocals that range from choral
to droning- no screams or growls necessary. Winterfylleth
have always been a band enthralled with nature and landscape. “The Shepherd”, inspired by the Marlowe
poem, and the title track are clear odes to the land, while the title of “Resting Tarn” makes explicit overtures
to the land and the people of it, but elsewhere the influence of nature and folklore is just as strong.
The
melodic “Æcerbot”, the melancholic
and moody “Halgemonath”, the elegant
“Edler Mother”- they all make use of
violin and textured acoustic guitars and set a mood of contemplation and
wistfulness. At well over 50mins in length the album does not feel like a short
listen. Indeed, how much of the album you can listen to in one go may be
determined by your love (or lack thereof) of the sounds described here. It is
certainly not for everybody, but those who are fans of dark folk will find a
lot to like here. “Latch To A Grave” is
as dark as anything you will find on most orthodox black metal records, while “The Nymph” is a good deal prettier,
with its female voice-over and light atmospherics. The production and recording
is also excellent- headed up by the evergreen Chris Fielding of Skyhammer
Studio.
Winterfylleth have created a superb album here-
one of atmosphere, melancholy and mystery. Indeed, much like the landscapes
that inspired it, there is beauty to be found here in abundance if you are
willing to give it a try.
“The Thundering Heard” is
a dense and rich record; full of aural and textual interest. It’s a record that
makes you think, makes you imagine. It
is a visceral, heavy, epic Riff Monster of a record with horns of flame and
hooves of stone.
“The Thundering Heard” CD//LP//DD track listing:
1).
Quanah Un Rama
2). Elk Wolfv Hymn
3). Heavy Hoof
4). Antlers of Lightning
The Review:
“Longhorn
running ‘cross the dead salt sea / Mountains rising up like beasts with horns
like trees / Antlers reaching high, like a forest… On fire!”
“The
Thundering Herd (Songs of Hoof and Horn)" is Eagle Twin's third full-length album,
following on from 2012's "The Feather Tipped the Serpent's Scale" and
2009's "The Unkindness of Crows". Like its predecessors “The
Thundering Heard " deftly blends crushing, yet hypnotic riffs and
beats, with American literary Folk Horror. Which is pretty impressive for
a two-piece, really.
“Quanah Un Rama”(a fittingly bicornuous title
based on Hellboy's Enochian name "Anung un Rama”, and Quanah Parker,
Comanche war leader of the "Antelope" people…possibly) opens
with a harmonic drone from vocalist/guitarist Gentry Densely’s throat. At
once bestial and like some primal religious vocalisation, this inhuman
sound underpins much of the record. Then a Big Fat Riff kicks in. And it
is Massive. Truly earth moving. The guitar sounds (right across the
record) are just… wow. More Omthan Sleep, but with all the groove and swagger of the
latter. The track jams on and on moving from part to part, texture to texture,
but the same narrative remains throughout; every progression is a natural and
necessary, and another chapter of the same story. When Densely chants
“Come now / Thunder / Come now / Thunder cloud” over Tyler Smith's tribal
tom-work, it sounds like a genuine summoning. You will believe that
the sky above the studio was black that day.
“Elk
Wolfv Hymn”swells in
dreamily, yet ominously. We huddle close to the wilderness campfire for another
folk-tale of stags and vultures and trees, of mountains and antlers and
wolves. And in that same magical way Earthmanaged with “The Bees
Made Honey in the Lion’s Skul”l, there’s something so incredibly American
about the actual sound of the music itself. The wild, untamed, real America
where bears and mountain lions and alligators think nothing of cracking
and crunching the bones of humans to get to the marrow within. And crow
keeps watch all the while.
“The
Heavy Hoofclips / The Heavy
Hoof clops / And the Heavy Hoof stamps on your grave”.
Another massive riff. Another tom thumping groove. Another absolute belter
of a tune, which seems to threaten to evolve into the heaviest version of “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” you
could possibly imagine at one point. But that doesn't happen.
“Antlers
of Lightening” begins as pure Sabbath Doom:
lumbering, tritone laden heaviness with proclamations of the terror to come in
the form of the lightning antlered one. Again through, as the music evolves,
the guitar becomes more frenetic, and everything builds and builds and builds,
we get an idea of the emerging narrative. We hear the destruction
wrought by the electo-horned deity, and the fate of those who dared to try to
stop it. About ten minutes in it seems for one moment like we're going to
get an actual “Children of the Grave”stylechug-a-chug-a-chug-chug
breakout riff. Instead things slow back down and jam out until we reach the
bitter-sweet outro of the album. A gentle but melacholic ending, like a
cold dawn breaking.
“The
Thundering Heard” is a dense and rich record; full of aural and textual
interest. It’s a record that makes you think, makes you imagine. It very much
brought Algernon Blackwood’s Weird Fiction tales The Wendigo and The
Willows to my mind; tales of the wilderness and the things which
walked there long before man ever did. All that said, “The Thundering
Heard" is not some deep-thinking, post-something, soundtrack
to an unmade movie. It’s a visceral, heavy, epic Riff Monster with horns of
flame and hooves of stone.
Now entering their 6th year, things
seemed to have slowed to a manageable pace for curator and mastermind Steve STB
of STB Records, having hit a purple patch a
couple years ago, when it seemed vinyl releases were coming every couple
months, more recently it seems to the outsider looking in that STB Records are easing off the gas a little in terms of
volume of releases but continue to set the benchmark in terms of delivering
high end vinyl releases. But what would a
stunning record be if the music concealed
within those grooves sucked. Yes STB Records deliver kick ass vinyl, but the quality of the
music needs to be kick ass too and the label certainly know a things or two
about that, seemingly nurturing talent, until the big boys come along. Today’s SLUDGELORD debutants
seem to be no different, in fact worshippers of the riff, behold, it’s time to
feel Minnesota, because Let It Breathe are
ready to bring their self-titled LP from its fuzzy, small town beginnings to
the metal-loving masses of the world.
Let It Breathe’s
7-track self titled debut rumbles with stoney heft and washes of easygoing
melody. Emphatic vocals soar and coast over exuberant drums and tasteful
leads, but first and foremost they bring the riff. The cavernous sound resonates deep and grooves hard, and
those who dig everything from Howling Giant to The Heavy Eyes to Telekinetic Yeti are sure
to trip out to this epic LP and today you can check out a brand new jam, in the
form of “Blood Relations”.Let it Breathe's
debut LP is set for release on April 27 via STB Records
and can preordered here
For
over twenty years, Pig Destroyer have been
one of the most recognizable, venerated acts in grindcore and the larger metal
community. Whether weaving complex,
conceptual albums like “Terrifyer”,
stripped down hardcore-influenced ragers on “Book Burner”, or long form experimental pieces like “Natasha” and “Mass & Volume”, Pig Destroyer make
waves with every split, collaboration, and full-length release. En route to the Obnoxious Noise Fest in Long
Island, NY, the legendary act played the rare non-festival show at Crossroads
Live in Garwood, New Jersey. JR Hayes
(vocals), Blake Harrison (electronics),
and, briefly, Scott Hull (guitar) sat down for an in-depth chat with THE SLUDGELORD before their February 23 gig with Sunrot and Chained to the Dead to talk
about their upcoming sixth full-length record, the appeal of playing offbeat
venues, and the creative balance they’ve maintained while still working
full-time jobs.
SLUDGELORD: What’s the status for the next release
right now?
JR:
I’m pretty sure everything has been recorded, so we’re in the mixing/mastering
stage now.
Blake:
Very close. Actually, Scott’s at the
hotel KIND OF working on some of it now.
I’d say, conservatively, the next week or two we’ll be done.
SLUDGELORD: Whether the deluxe version of “Book Burner” or the “Terrifyer” DVD, you’ve had some extra bells and whistles in the
past. Do you plan that out early
on? Are there any “special bonus” plans
for this next album?
JR:
I’ve found that stuff that Pig Destroyer plans
early on doesn’t ever come to pass.
Blake:
I would agree with that.
JR:
We got into this record, we did the record, and there wasn’t any time to do any
extra material. It would have been nice
to do extra stuff but we didn’t really have a chance.
Blake:
There’s never “extra” material. This one
will be more stripped down.
JR:
It does gonna be 11 songs, somewhere between 30 to 35 minutes with all the
noise pieces.
Blake:
Even with the “Mass and Volume” EP,
we just had extra studio time. So while [JR] was doing his vocals we kinda put
that together. It was never like a
“planned” thing.
JR:
It just kinda happens. Not that we don’t
make plans, but with everybody’s schedules and the way things work, we just go
with our guts.
SLUDGELORD: With John Jarvis on bass now, has the
writing process changed at all? Is there
more “jamming out” songs or collaboration?
Or is Scott laying out everything?
JR:
Scott pretty much lays out the foundation of the songs. Since he programs drums we have to translate
the drums for human arms. Obviously
people are allowed to put in their own personal flourishes. For the most part the music comes from Scott.
Blake:
Same thing with my noise – JR and I have demos we’ve been working on forever
but Scott may have other ideas.
JR:
Ultimately everything runs through Scott –
Blake:
But it’s collaborative!
SLUDGELORD: Speaking of the noise and samples, how do
you gather that kind of archive? Is it
just constant accumulation? Blake, do
you go in search of something once you have JR’s lyrics?
Blake:
I actually didn’t have the lyrics when I was doing my stuff. I’ll know where the lyrics are falling so I
don’t have a burst of static over vocals.
But yeah I’m just always watching movies, at work or wherever, and keep
notes and timestamp everything. I will
maybe have 3 pages of notes running on my phone at any given time, which is a
lot!
JR:
We’ll have a lot of time between records but it’s not like we’re partying for 4
years between albums. Some of these
lyrics I was working on during “Book
Burner”. Because I’ve been in a band
with Scott for such a long time, I never know when he’s going to be
inspired. And when he’s inspired he
cranks out things really fast, so I want a bunch of shit ready. With this record I had three full notebooks
of lyrics ready.
Blake:
The same thing happened with “Phantom
Limb” – he’d bring us to a practice with one song ready. Another month would go by and there’d be
another song. And then the next time
there were six!
SLUDGELORD: JR, was there any art or literature you
were absorbing in anticipation of writing this record?
JR:
I think – I hate to use the term “artist” because it sounds pretentious – but
if you’re going to be an artist, being an artist is all about the moment, and
it’s about emotion. Making an album is a
document of where the band is. “Book Burner” was a document of where the
band was in 2012, and at that time I was really into religious arguments, I was
studying religion, I was absorbing all kinds of philosophical thought so that’s
where those lyrics came from. On the new
record it’s kind of the same thing but there’s none of THAT particular stuff. I feel like the next record is a reaction to
where the previous record came from. I
wanted the songs to be about all different things – variety and that sort of
thing.
Blake:
I’ll also show JR my writing because he’s one of the best lyricists. There was an idea we were tossing around of
using my lyrics at some point.
JR:
Which we’re gonna do.
SLUDGELORD: Any music in heavy rotation?
JR:
The best record I’ve heard in the last five years is the new Cobalt. I’ve been
obsessed with that.
Blake:
Set.
JR:
Set is awesome. I’ve
been listening to a lot of old death metal.
Blake:
Newer stuff for me has been Full of Hell, Genocide Pact,
I’ve been getting into a lot of Alice Cooper lately,
who was never a big influence on me growing up.
I feel disconnected talking to people who never listened before or
they’ve been listening forever.
JR:
I just discovered the band Nomeansno! I went down a YouTube rabbit hole one day.
Blake:
I’ve known JR for 22 years and I never would have thought you’d like that. I love that band! METZ from Canada – I
don’t know if we can say it but we MAY be doing a split with them.
JR:
Let’s not get too crazy *laughs*
Blake:
Sunrot, who we’re playing with tonight. I’m not really a big doom fan but I really
like that band. It’s NOT doom, it’s different.
SLUDGELORD: Would you say there’s a unifying concept
this time around?
JR:
I like the IDEA of concept records, but with this record I tried to make each
song its own song. I told myself if I
had a story I’d write a story. But I
don’t like to force things. I like to go
with what I’m feeling. Luckily the
things I had lined up with the songs Scott had written.
Blake:
I’d say this is less conceptual than any other record we’ve ever made.
JR:
It’s kind of the same feeling I had with “Phantom
Limb”. With “Terrifyer” I was like “God I wrote too much shit.” I think it works for that record but with the
next one I just focused on each song. I
didn’t feel the need for a concept this time.
SLUDGELORD: Do you think there will be a short story
this time around, like “The Atheist” in “Book
Burner”?
JR:
Maybe with the next record. I’ve been
working on my novel, too, so I didn’t have story stuff to put into this
one. I’ve been working on it at least
seven years. This is my third draft.
Blake:
I finally started reading it.
JR:
Now that I have an editor I changed it around.
And I think for the better. You
lose perspective on something when you make it for too long.
SLUDGELORD: At this point we were joined by guitarist
Scott Hull.
Blake:
And we actually got someone else to mix this record. We still tracked it and Scott tracked
it. He mixed “Phantom Limb” and “Book
Burner” and did a great job, but sometimes you can get too close to a
project. This time Scott wanted to have
someone else mix it, we need a different sound.
Scott:
I just wanted to take myself out of that process a little bit more. The process of writing the music took so
long. Not that it’s any sort of super
complicated grouping of songs, but I think these songs are way more mature than
any group of songs going into a record.
And I’m happy with everything we’ve committed to… hard disk. Not tape anymore.
JR:
Somebody out there is still using tape!
Steve Albini is still using tape.
Blake:
“Phantom Limb” and “Book Burner”, when Scott was mixing
after, he would call me and I’d hear his hair falling out.
Scott:
It’s just torturous and I wanted to take myself out of the loop on that and
focus on the music. Being a guitar
player in a band.
JR:
But it’s hard to trust someone else. I
mean I’m nervous about it honestly because we’ve never handed one of our
records over to someone else.
Blake:
There were four or five names we talked about mixing the record. The three of us just stopped nonstop about
it. We’ll get there!
SLUDGELORD: And how are you all still balancing
full-time jobs at the same time?
JR:
Scott has a family too! I don’t know how you balance it.
Blake:
[Drummer] Adam [Jarvis] is going into the studio with Misery Index
too! He didn’t have to just learn our
stuff, he’s learning that stuff too.
JR:
That’s just life nowadays. Everybody’s
doing a million things.
Blake:
I have to explain, “I’m not in a band where I get to sleep in and do nothing.”
Scott:
I don’t think those exist anymore.
SLUDGELORD: What made you schedule a show in New Jersey
when the most obvious spots are often Philadelphia or somewhere like Saint
Vitus in Brooklyn?
Blake:
I’ve known [Crossroads promoter] Andy Diamond for years. We had an offer for this big show out on Long
Island, so it made sense physically, geographically, and money wise to do this
with Andy.
JR:
And any time we’ve played Jersey the response has been great. We’ve always had great shows in New York.
Blake:
These are great shows we’re juiced about. I mean out on Long Island we’re with Chepang and Outer Heaven and Internal Bleeding.
JR: The big thing with us is: “Who are we playing
with?” We can just go out and play a show but we’d rather play with Iron Lung or some band we really like!
Blake:
Because we don’t do it a lot. These
bands tonight – Sunrot and Chained to the dead
– I picked.
SLUDGELORD: That’s really great to hear because the
people in these bands were pretty essential in making a modern vital scene in
this area.
JR:
People don’t realize sometimes all you need to create a great music scene is
just one person who is willing to book shows and finds a good venue. It doesn’t take much, but something really
cool can happen. I wouldn’t even be in
bands if someone hadn’t done that in my hometown.
Blake:
Playing with bands we like is way more important to us because we get to
experience it. Some band came up to us
and said, “I can’t believe you watched us.” I said, “I LOVE you guys.”
“Muerte” is a glorious affirmation of Will Haven's greatness and raises the
bar for heavy music in 2018, an awesome awe inspiring achievement for a
band 23 years into their existence.
“Muerte” CD//DD//LP track listing:
1. Hewed With the Brand
2. Winds of Change
3. Kinney
4. The Son
5. 43
6. No Escape (feat.
Mike Scheidt of YOB)
7. Unit K
8. Ladwig No. 949
9. Bootstraps
10. Now in the Ashes
11. El Sol (feat.
Stephen Carpenter)
The Review:
Hopes
of heavy veterans returning with an album that rivals their finest early work
are rarely realised. Sacramento hellraisers Will Haven
gave a timely reminder of their potent racket on 2011 LP “Voir Dire”. After a lengthy break the band now return with the awe-inspiring
“Muerte”, a massive record that gives
“Carpe Diem” a run for its money as
their finest hour.
The
quiet ambience of “Hewed With The Brand”
is soon shattered by Grady Avenell’s glass gargling bark which heralds an
earth-shaking explosion of riffage. Straight away the band lock into their
trademark staccato assault, sounding bigger, heavier and uglier than ever
before. The material here strikes a perfect balance between maintaining Will Haven’s crushing sonic palette while adding new layers
of songwriting complexity. Will Haven have always
had a penchant for hypnotic, effects-heavy interludes of calm in amongst the
mayhem but now these sections have been incorporated into more challenging, dynamic
compositions like “The Son” and “Now In The Ashes”. Key to this epic,
immersive sound is the more prominent use of keyboards. When they were first
introduced on “Voir Dire” they added
a welcome subtle texture to the bands rumbling sludge. Now they have evolved
into an all-encompassing wash of ethereal noise that lends these tracks a rich,
unique atmosphere.
“No Escape” provides a powerful
centrepiece to the album bolstered by a stunning guest vocal performance by YOB’s Mike Scheidt. A typically brutal lumbering explodes
into a slow-motion lament with Scheidt’s timeless croon really hammering home
the emotion. The melancholic doom of the outro is strangely beautiful with
wordless howls conveying an aching sadness.
Deftones’ Stephen Carpenter joins the fray
for the massive finale of “El Sol”.
This track is a perfect celebration of the friendship between these two hugely
influential bands and demonstration of what both are capable of at the peak of
their powers.
The
possibility of Will Haven delivering one of the albums of
2018 seemed minimal at the start of the year. “Muerte” is a glorious affirmation of their greatness and raises the
bar for heavy music in 2018, an awesome achievement for a
band 23 years into their existence.
“Firepower” is one of the best albums in Priest's canon- it has the
songs, the sound and the playing to match their best.
“Firepower” CD//DD//LP track listing:
1. Firepower
2. Lightning Strike
3. Evil Never Dies
4. Never The Heroes
5. Necromancer
6. Children of the Sun
7. Guardians
8. Rising From Ruins
9. Flame Thrower
10. Spectre
11. Traitors Gate
12. No Surrender
13. Lone Wolf
14. Sea Of Red
The Review:
It
would be fair and accurate to say that there are only a handful of bands in the
metal genre that can accurately be described as legendary due to their
progressing the genre and defining the sound and image. Naturally, Judas Priest are one of that very select number. The band
brought twin guitars (with more bite than either Wishbone Ash
or Thin Lizzy) into the metal world, along with
screaming vocals- often with an aggressive edge to them- and utilised double
bass drums and complex arrangements long before most.
Priest's
70's output catapulted the heavy metal genre forward- “Sad Wings of Destiny”, “Sin
After Sin”, “Stained Class”, “Killing Machine” and “Unleashed In The East” are classics one
and all (even if SAS is a little uneven) and sowed the seeds for thrash, power,
speed and even death metal in their approach. 2018, then, finds the band 28
years on from their last classic (“Painkiller”)
and a couple of decades on from a truly consistent album. To be clear, I love
70's Priest through and through. I love half of
their 80's output; “British Steel”, “Screaming for Vengeance” and “Defenders of The Faith” are all
fantastic. However, after that and “Painkiller”
the band's work in progressing and defining the genre was done. “Painkiller” was a monstrous work of
metal- still massively heavy and the production still sounds enormous- but it
is not on the level of their 70s work in my view. “Turbo” and “Ram It Down”
were quite simply woeful.
Throughout
the 90's, Priest suffered a similar fate to Maiden in that they got in a younger vocalist after their
erstwhile frontman went AWOL, who kept the band going. To be fair, “Jugulator”- featuring Tim Ripper Owen's
superb vocals- was a good and very heavy record, “Demolition” was Ripper Owens' second with the band and suffers a
little from trying to keep up with the times- but still contains some great
tracks. Halford's return was lauded but produced somewhat uneven results; “Angel of Retribution” had some classics,
but it also had the abysmal “Loch Ness”.
“Nostradamus” was a conceptual
misfire. “Redeemer of Souls” from a
few years back was the best of the reunion albums, but was over long and lacked
a little in terms of production and aggression. Oh well, thought the fans, they
are getting on a bit- we can't expect the aural pyrotechnics of the past...
maybe Priest are ready to wind down.
How
wrong we were. The Priest is back! “Firepower” is their best album for
decades. Certainly the best since “Painkiller”...
maybe even better than that. What marks this record out? The songs, the performances
and the production. This is the best set of tunes Priest
has put together in a lifetime. The playing has real fire, Halford sings
superbly. Scott Travis really works hard and puts in a superb turn on the kit-
he sounds animated and powerful. Andy Sneap and Tom Allom have combined to make
an incredible production team. The album sounds incredible. Muscular, heavy and
with a sheen that makes this really listenable.
From
the off, the band deliver two stone cold classics: the title track and “Lightning Strikes” could have opened
any Priest album and been regarded as two of the
best racks on there. They are that good. From there, the album is consistently
good and often fantastic. “Evil Never
Dies” is a foot stomping beast, “Necromancer”
is classic metal in every sense of the word. There are more melodic songs too; “Never The Heroes” is a touching semi
ballad- but still features a stunning riff. “Children From the Sun” and “Rising
From Ruins” may hint a little too much at the more plodding material from “Defenders of the Faith..”. but they are
still good songs and, frankly, the fact that I am even comparing them to the
weaker tracks from one of Priest's best albums
speaks for itself. They are still pretty good.
If
“Flame Thrower” strays too close to Spinal Tap territory in the chorus lyrics, it makes up for
this with energy and riffs for days. Plus, Halford's verses are pretty neat and
have some nice references to the band's past- with some serious hooks in the
bridge to boot. The band deliver another catchy mid tempo track in “Spectre”, another metal classic in the
form of “Traitor's Gate” which has
some great story telling, more anthemic hard rock/heavy metal in “No Surrender” (it could be from any of
the band's best albums) and a Sabbath-esque curveball
in the form of “Lone Wolf” which
delivers sinister atmosphere and serious groove. Halford is absolutely on fire
here as well. They even manage to sign off with the best ballad they have
written since the 1970's in the form of “Sea
of Red”- an epic finish to an album I thought the band would never make.
Every band member excels.
“Firepower”
is one of the best albums in Priest's canon- it has
the songs, the sound and the playing to match their best. Even if being very
picky, there are only a couple of weaker tracks and they are STILL good. For a
classic band to make an album like this after so long is incredible. For it to
be Priest to have done it is an absolute
triumph. If this is to be Glenn Tipton's last record, he has signed off in
style, having kept the band going through the good and bad times. If this is to
be the latter day high point for Tipton, Halford, Hill, Travis and Faulker then
that is fine with me. To be clear, this leaves every other giant metal band's
work of the last twenty years in the dust (with the possible exception of Heaven and Hell's“The
Devil You Know”- Dio-era Sabbath in all but
name- which was a majestic album). “Firepower”
is so good, I can't quite believe it. This can be added to Priest's
list of classic albums. A long list just got one longer. There are fourteen
tracks here, but this album goes to eleven.
