Song of the Week: Cursed - Promised Land

I remember getting Cursed's final album after it came out and being completely floored. While their previous albums where, for the most part, crusty hardcore, this one was different. It still held on to it's crusty roots, but also contained near-lethal doses of sludge. One thing that was intriguing about Cursed is, that although being anti-government, they still somehow managed to get a grant from the government to record the album. Perhaps this is due to the fact that their lyrics are largely in metaphors, which might obfuscate the meaning to people who aren't paying close attention (for example "Kill the Shepard, save the sheep", and that's one of the more obvious ones.) 

 I, of course, didn't know this was different than their other albums since III: Architects of Troubled Sleep. Intrigued by their sound, I picked up their first album on vinyl when I was in Toronto, at the fantastic punk record store Hits And Misses. This album was much faster, the band had it's origins in hardcore. This track was the first one to stand out to me, it was extremely short, yet extremely powerful. Featuring some of the best songwriting the band has ever managed, this song is absolutely lethal. The lyrics are just as good as the songwriting, detailing the false hope that Hollywood provides for wannabe stars. Yes, a highly cliché subject, but Cursed provide a fresh spin on it:

you bought their lines and you staked their trail, followed their moves to the last detail.
and all that they sold you was death, on the five year plan,
and left you to rot in their promised land.
and what made you think that the life on the screen could be you?
no returns for your broken dreams when you get it home and it's not what it seems.
this is not the promised land.

Review: A Million Dead Birds Laughing - Xen

An Intriguing Swampy Sound

At first I wrote this album off as a step down from it's predecessor. I suppose this is because Force Fed Enlightenment is more immediately gratifying - it's more in your face and has more happening on the surface. Xen is a more subtle and congruent album. While the other album was all over the place (not in a bad way, mind you), Xen sticks to one overall vibe. A creepy swamp-like feel is maintained throughout the album. There are lots of atmospheric parts, and the doomy sections are expanded on for this release. This still has it's roots in grindcore and death metal, and it's still weird. It's just weird in a different way. 

While this album holds a much more consistent sound than it's precursor, it is hardly lacking in variation. There are lots of tempo changes, lots of atmospherics, a fair bit of technical guitar work as well as a good deal of straight forward riffs. A few well thought-out solos work their way into the mix, as well. While there are lots of different sections, including quieter parts, songwriting stands strongly at the forefront. Without strong song writing for the death and grind sections, all the subtle nuances would be for nothing, making this album come off like a dish with lots of nice spices covering up bad meat. However, the core of this album is solid. The slow doomy sections (doomy refers to the atmosphere, these parts are by no means doom metal) are integral to this album. Without them, the album would still be passable, but it would be missing intrigue. It is the contrast of the more aggressive sections with these abysmal dirges that make Xen so worthwhile. These sections where somewhat apparent on Force Fed Enlightenment but are much more prominent and developed on this sophomore.

Like their last album, this is available for free on Bandcamp, although you have an option of paying (which they totally deserve). On the page for this album, they once again have a quote: “(Insanity) is not hubris, not pride; it is inflation of the ego to its ultimate - confusion between him who worships and that which is worshipped. Man has not eaten God; God has eaten man.” Once again insanity, as well as other subjects related to psychology are apparent in the lyrics. They still go for some occasional metal trappings, but they go much beyond that. This contributes to this album's bizarre aura. While many parts are aggressive, the album as a whole feels more creepy and suspenseful than in your face. Xen begins and ends with creepy whistling. Starting the album this way lets listeners know that they are in for an unsettling journey.

Xen is the type of album that may take some time to grow on you, but it's well worth it in the end. While not the most orthodox affair, it is by far the weirdest (their first album was much more bizarre, for example). This perfectly displays a mix of conventional and unusual elements. The alien, swampy feel of this recording is quite engrossing. All of the different parts converge in harmony to create one coherent, intriguing sound. 

86/100

Review: A Million Dead Birds Laughing - Force Fed Enlightenment

Really Weird Grindcore

This album's sound is a hard one to pin down. A lot of grindcore and death metal (although this doesn't fit the standard deathgrind sound), some tech stuff, a few breakdowns and a whole lot of experimentation are a major part of this record's sound. On their debut, A Million Dead Birds Laughing are often unconventional. Despite their unorthodox tendencies, the songwriting never gets lost amidst the experimentation. 

While largely rooted in grindcore, just calling it that would be an absurdly false statement. For something with it's base in grindcore, this is very accessible. While the songs may not be very long, they are certainly lengthy for the grindcore genre. A very surprising addition to their music is the slower sections. While the drums often don't waver in their speed, the rest of the instrumentation does. These slower sections are doomy and feature very low clean vocals that almost sound like chanting in parts. Another interesting element to this album is the keyboard passages that appear to be orchestrally inspired. While this might sound a bit on the cheesy side, they are done well and are a constructive addition to the overall sound. 

A Million Dead Birds Laughing might be compared to the dreaded -core genres due to the stylings of some of their riffs and their inclusions of breakdowns. It would seem a bit silly to fault them for that, because they are a combination of many different metal sub-genres and the -core(ish) elements are well done. The simple breakdown near the end of "Void" is likely one of the catchiest breakdowns you will ever hear. While a minority of the riffs may sound vaguely metalcore-ish, who cares? They're done well, and in the end that's all that matters. 

Another way that this band deviates from the expected is in their lyrics. While one might expect a band of their nature to sing about evil and whatnot in a generic manner, they go beyond that. Sure, by the lyrics one could probably guess they're a metal band, but its hard to deny their lyrics have depth (well, maybe the section of "Forcefed" where "wakawakawakawakawakawaka" makes an appearance four times is an exception). On their facebook page, the only thing they list under influences is "human interaction". Much of the band's lyrics are abstract, deeply employing the use of metaphors. On their bandcamp page for the album (which they have available for free download) they list the quote "It is sometimes an appropriate response to reality to go insane". Insanity is indeed a prominent part of their exploration of the human condition, being a recurring lyrical theme.

For such a random mixture of genres, A Million Dead Birds Laughing do it remarkably well. While just the grind and death sections by themselves would still be a decent listen, it is the experimental tendencies that really make this album. When you mix this many (sub)genres, especially when the music is at this fast a pace, you risk the chance of being accused of switching things up so much just for the point of being random (which is the pitfall of many avant-garde bands). None of this is being random just for the sake of it, everything fits together. While this album is not for everyone, people seeking really weird grindcore may have come to the right place. 

83/100

A Look At A 1969 Black Sabbath Demo

The Rebel

This piece should prove very intriguing for those interested in Sabbath's backstory. Recorded in the transitional period that went from Earth to Black Sabbath, this does not sound like the dark, heavy blues that would become the starting point of metal. This track sounds very unlike the Sabbath we have come to know. It feels upbeat, even happy. While the lead guitar work is foreshadowing for what would come, this song has little to do with the doom and gloom Sabbath became famous for. 

Regarding the band's 1969 demos, Iommi had this to say: "We didn't write those songs. They were written by a chap named Norman Haines. At the time we were managed by Jim Simpson, who was a local Birmingham guy. He insisted that we record these songs. We just wanted to play, so we recorded them. We wanted to write our own songs and make our own record, but this was just an initial effort. We had never been in a recording studio in our lives before that." 

The most surprising element of this recording is Ozzy's voice. The unearthly wails he is known for are nowhere to be seen. The vocals here are pretty much a standard British classic rock affair. They certainly don't sound gloomy; they are not a far cry away from sounding happy, something that the backing vocals only make more blatant. Musically, this also standard classic rock. The somewhat cheesy piano intro makes it know that this will not be a particularly dark song. Besides the bluesy solos, the instrumentation is quite minimal, with the main focus being on the catchy vocals. 

Norman Haines, who also played with a band called Locomotive, not only wrote the song, but also performed on it. On the song, he plays organ and piano. A very interesting fact about this track is that it was produced by Gus Dudgeon, who is best known for producing many David Bowie tracks. While this is an early demo, the production doesn't let you know that. While not overproduced, it sounds like a quite reasonably produced classic rock song. 

The only foreshadowing of what's to come is found in Iommi's soloing. Much darker than the rest of this song, his solos are not much different than the style he would use on the band's first wave of albums. They are bluesy, imaginative and undeniably catchy, easily becoming the best thing about the song. The rest of the song is catchy classic rock, but Tony's lead guitar mastery really steals the spotlight. 

Anyone interested in the history of metal's founding band should give this a listen. While this is certainly not one of the most important Sabbath recordings, it is fascinating to see where the band evolved from. While this is much more poppy than you would expect from them, it is catchy in a very good sort of way. An essential song this is not, but it is good for what it is. 

Review: Dopelord - Magick Rites

The Embodiment Of Stoner Metal Stereotypes

Dopelord sound pretty much how you'd expect a band of that name to sound like. The band is kind of like a b-grade horror movie - it's a bit cheesy, you know what to expect, but it's still a bit entertaining (if only because you're into that aesthetic). All of Dopelord's music is taken from the norms of the stoner rock/metal scene. The fuzzy, often bouncy riffs, the drugged-out hazy vocals, the long repetitive song structures - Dopelord are by no means pushing any boundaries or exploring new territory. They embody the stereotypes of stoner metal. 

On the stoner rock/metal spectrum, the riffs, although heavier than usual, generally fall on the rock side. The songwriting and structure adheres more closely to the stoner metal aesthetic. Saying the riffs are entirely rock based is wrong, there are quite a few examples of slow, somewhat sludgy riffing. However, many riffs and licks fall under a more catchy rock banner. A good number of these riffs, although extremely typical, are very well done. This band certainly has a knack for churning out catchy guitar parts. 

While Dopelord are very talented with orthodox stoner guitar work, their songwriting chops seem to have been lost in the haze. While not overtly monotonous, the songwriting isn't paid much attention to. What makes stoner metal songs like Electric Wizard's "Dopethrone" so amazing is that while it's comatose, crushing atmosphere is a dominating force, they wrote the shit out of that song - if it was stripped down to a basic rock song it would still be killer. It contains both style and substance. While it wouldn't be accurate to say that substance is completely lacking from Dopelord, it is much lower in the mix in comparison to style. 

They have the stoner sound down and they stick to it. A vague blues element, a mild dose of psychedelia, a critical dose of fuzz and a whole lot of stonerisms ooze their way into Dopelord's sound. They know their style and they don't wander into unknown territories. The only part of this album that wanders down a different path, although in the same woods, is the hidden track. Not particularly heavy, the song is pure psychedelia. Backed by acoustic chords, the track perfectly captures a blissed-out melting in the sun vibe. The drugged, murky vocals are a very important part of the band's sound. While putting them in the background is an essential part of achieving that hazy sound they're going for, sometimes (especially on "Ghost Cargo From The Bong") they are a little too low in the mix for everything to sound right. As this album is very samey, perhaps it could have been shortened by a track. However, if your in the right mood for their music, this is not a big problem.

While this album may be completely derivative, it's hard not to like it - if only just a bit. Sure, it doesn't add anything new to the genre, but that isn't to say they don't do a good job playing it. If the stoner sound is your niche, there is nothing to dislike about it. True, the songwriting could use a bit of an improvement, but this is hardly a hindrance to enjoying these fuzzy, narcotic-laden soundscapes. These guys exemplify many stereotypes of the stoner sound, everything from Electric Wizard (who are probably Dopelord's biggest influence, which should be obvious given the name) to Nebula is apparent as an influence. If your in the mood for some orthodox (albeit well executed) stoner metal, a little Dopelord should get the job done.

75/100

Song of the Week: Quest For Fire - Strange Waves 

This song is a rich source of both quality songwriting and otherworldly atmosphere. Slow and psychedelic, it weaves its way into your mind, slowly overtaking your perception. This song makes it seem like time is going by slower. Harmonica occasionally lingers in the background, adding a subtle country twang. The lead guitar is bluesy and draws you into it's aura. The songwriting is spectacular; however subtle, it is not something that shall soon leave your memory. This whole album takes you to another world, and this is one of the best songs.

Review - Warning: Watching From A Distance 

This Is Supposed To Be Polarizing?

Warning, and later 40 Watt Sun (featuring two of the same members), have made a big splash in the doom scene. Often Warning is heralded as pure brilliance, breathing new life into an allegedly stagnant genre. Others act is if Watching From A Distance is the single worst doom album ever released. For something so polarizing, this is really boring. An abomination against mankind this is not, but if you've heard one song off this album, you've heard them all. This is a supposed to be an emotionally hard-hitting homage to crippling depression, yet in the end it comes off as melodramatic and watered down. 

Although to some it must seem as if Warning came out of nowhere to take the doom world by storm, this is in fact not their first album. While not hugely successful, their debut was met with some limited success. It was generally regarded as a good but not great doom album. This album was from 1999 and lots of people eventually forgot about it. Warning was inactive for a considerable time as Patrick pursued acting. The band was eventually reanimated for a second album. While the seeds where certainly there, the first album didn't sound like the sophomore. One of the main difference, besides it not sounding completely the same throughout, is it had actual riffs. You know, the type that are somewhat convincing and hard-hitting. On their second offering, they would forgo riffs that actually feel like riffs in favour of atmosphere. The riffs, if you can even call them that, feel powerless and are utterly unmemorable. The guitar tone doesn't help things - it feels grey and flat. Not grey as in a way that embodies life-crushing depression and despair, but grey as in dull, monotonous and lifeless. 

The lack of real riffs could be forgiven if they were omitted in favour of an atmosphere that was truly wondrous. Much of atmospheric music is largely about escapism. At the risk of sounding wildly pretentious, I'm going to assert that listening to successful atmospheric music is somewhat akin to reading a good book. A good book can draw you into another world, supply you with temporary relief from whatever bullshit is happening in your life. For me, I find that atmospheric music can do the same thing. It can bring emotions to the surface and more than anything, it can divert your mind away from reality. 

This album is often compared to funeral doom, which is without a doubt one of the metal sub-genres most know for its atmosphere. Abstact Spirit's Tragedy And Weeds can bring the listener to a bizarre world far removed from whatever monotony that every day life may bring. Fungoid Stream's (look past the name, they're a very interesting band) debut has an ethereal otherworldly aura you can lose yourself in. Ahab's Call Of The Wretched Sea can make you feel as if your braving stormy weather at sea. Warning just doesn't have that quality of escapism - the music lingers there, but sometimes I almost forget I'm listening to it. The reason that it's often compared to funeral doom, besides it's attempt at atmosphere, is the lack of speed as well as the repetition. This recording is indeed very slow. While there surely are many funeral doom bands that are much slower, Warning come close. 

Being slow in itself isn't something I could possibly fault a band for. I'm a big fan of doom, including the funeral variety, and I like a fair bit of drone as well. Slow metal often has a tremendous amount of atmosphere as well as feeling crushingly heavy - in a very different way then, say, a brutal death metal band. It doesn't crush you with chaos and bombastic, unrelenting fury. It crushes you in another way, a way that has more to do with texture and feeling than technicality and brutality. Another way in which this relates to funeral doom is the lead guitar parts. While the lead guitar sound most associated with funeral doom has a slightly different timbre and vibe (this is prevalent on many albums in the genre, but Colosseum's debut would be a good reference point) it is still vastly similar. While not overtly displeasing, Warning's take on these leads yield no significant impact. They all sound very much the same, and grow tiresome over the course of the album. While funeral doom bands often are repetitive in just about everything, including lead guitar work, successful bands use this to their advantage by using subtle variation, using the repetition to create a potent atmosphere as well as crafting the melodies so that they are the type that one would not take issue with hearing over a long stretch. Many bands also switch things up from song to song. Warning, however, does none of these things, allowing the lead work to stagnate and therefore fail to capture the imagination or have any lasting impact.

The overarching theme of this album is depression. And I get it, sometimes you just need to feed the fire before things can get better - sometimes people who are down just need something they can relate to, something that lets them know they aren't the only ones feeling that way. This isn't to say that depressed people are the only people who listen to music that is dark, slow and dreary, not by a long shot. Obviously, many perfectly happy people listen to music in this vein, there are many talented musicians playing these styles and many interesting atmospheres to discovered. But it's pretty obvious that a depressed person can relate to it, and therefore would often be drawn to this type of music. A depressed person may also be drawn to making it, which the singer (who also plays guitar) obviously is, if his lyrics are any indication of how he really feels. Everything about this album bleeds depression, the lyrics, the sound - hell, even the artwork is a metaphor for depression. The album cover is done in shades of grey, depicting a man attempting to move up an incline, being hindered by a heavy weight on his back. 

The thing about this album depicting depression is that I really just can't see a person in the middle of a dark, crippling depression who feels that life simply isn't worth living actually being able to relate to this. Watching From A Distance simply isn't convincing. It doesn't come off as oppressing despair; it doesn't come off as a soul-crushing shroud of hopelessness. If anything, this comes off as dysthymia. For those who may not know, dysthymia is a form of depression that is long lasting and less severe than major depression. People can go years, even a lifetime without being treated, as its usually not bad enough to bring normal functioning to a complete halt. Many people just believe that it is just part of their personality. Sure, these long-winded song all have a dreary vibe, but can any moments evoke parallels with episodes of crippling episodes of severe depression? Not a snowball's chance in hell. And as for the long lasting analogy, its not specifically that the individual songs are long; many lengthy songs evoke a deep sense of despair. No, the thing about this album is that the whole thing might as well be one song, because everything sounds the same, and certainly not in a wonderfully atmospheric or a perception-alteringingly hypnotizing way. This is just one mildly downcast marathon of monotony. Rather than having intense, truly oppressing moments of anguish, this is just a long lasting slab of slight discomfort. 

The vocals are overwhelmingly this album's biggest detractor. When I was first recommended Warning, I was intrigued by the vocals. If for anything, the singing at least deserve credit for uniqueness. Patrick Walker has a very distinct voice. His voice is a very present force, it has a full sound, although often drifts into nasally territory. It's really bizarre, he often wavers between a relatively deep voice and a nasally voice many times in the same song.  There is this intangible element to his voice that is just slightly off. Even if all the nasally elements were eliminated, there would still be something strange about his singing. It doesn't help that he often goes a little over the top. Not in a power metal-esque theatric sort of way, but just in a way that you can tell he is giving it 110% when maybe he should show a little restraint. Although his singing isn't the biggest on variation, there are a few interesting vocal sections in "Faces" and "Bridges". These moments, however, are fleeting. He also has this annoying habit of getting his most nasally in these sections, which particularly does the music a disservice. In the end, his vocals are hard to enjoy for the entire endurance of the album. They don't make it unlistenable, but they certainly don't help matters. 

The lyrics are just as bad, if not worse, than the vocals. As an embodiment of true depression, as they are often portrayed as being, they are completely unconvincing. They come off as more 14 year old emo kid who just got dumped than an honest portrayal of paralyzing depression. Many of the lyrics are about missing a girl and being sad about it, which I don't really want to make fun of, but it does come off as a bit cliché. Most of these lyrics come off as more filled with cheese and predictability than with endless torment and true sorrow. Here are a few examples:

"I want to be master of my own emotions with a fire that fills me. But I don't understand myself, and I don't know what my heart is anymore."

"But I'm afraid of the way that I'm feeling, afraid of this new understanding now; afraid for the beauty within me,

and that which I hold within my hand. And this is the ultimate secret that many before me have ever known.

So capture me while I am weakest, I want to know, I want to know."

"It's always frightened me how some things lose their meaning, how some things change direction with a breeze."

Despite all the negative qualities of this music, the drum work is something that deserves praise. It perfectly goes along with the music, and feels like the only thing that emits any true feeling. Heavy on cymbal-work, the drums plod along at a slow pace, while always providing well above and beyond a mere adequate performance. There is always something more going on than just a standard beat. There are many fills, which are always well executed and often provoke intrigue. The drums have wonderful tone, feeling very organic. Unfortunately good drumming can't save bland songwriting and apathetic atmospheres.

While this definitely is not the masterpiece of modern doom it is often heralded as, it would be hard to deny that Warning are passionate about what they do. Many awful music is done with passion as a driving force behind it. I mean, surely no one can accuse Celine Dion of being apathetic towards her music. Neither the first album of Vulvectomy or Waking The Cadaver was born out of disinterest - the people behind the bands obviously believed wholeheartedly in what they were doing. It just happened that what they believed in so dearly translated into something that was largely over the top and in bad taste. When someone puts all their heart into a rotten idea, thats where truly awful music is generated from. Warning are a unique case. They are not truly horrendous, they are just mediocre. Music that is not horrible, but merely comes off as stale, is not something that is often the spawn of true passion. Unfortunately, Patrick's passion for creating a true feeling of depression didn't play out perhaps not in spite of his passion, but rather because of it. Perhaps in his attempts to paint everything grey, he lost sight of everything else an album needs to succeed. Maybe he focused so much on making the album feel as devoid of life as someone in the grips of major depression, he failed to recognize that one ingredient just won't do a convincing job. The album does indeed feel grey, it just comes up short of any real feeling, likely because the whole album sounds the same and ends up feeling more monotonous than depressing.

As much as I feel this album has many negative qualities, I find it hard to actively hate it. Just as many people act as if this album was made by God himself, many doom fans act as if this is the worse thing ever produced in the entire history of the genre (well for starters, Patrick's next band would prove to be infinitely worse). I think the reason many people feel like this is literally the worse piece of doom ever is because of it's popularity. I could see how someone would feel like it poses a threat to the equilibrium of the genre - what if they inspired an endless stream of clone bands? As for this band saving doom, that is just plain silly - doom was never in need of saving and even if it was, Warning would not be the band to reanimate the corpse. I still find it impossible to hate, listening to it isn't pure agony - its just there, not really doing anything. Sure its got a nice flow to it, which is probably why it's not that hard to listen to, but it has no impact. It's just the same thing for an entire album. While it is better than silence, it is only so by a very thin margin. 

It really is baffling that this is such a polarizing release. Sure, they have a somewhat unique sound, but it's not like they ever do anything with it. This is no Master Of Reality nor is it a Cold Lake. This is just a very boring album - nothing more, nothing less.