By Natalie Zed

I don’t believe there’s such a thing as a bad metal show. Even if the bands are horrendous and the vibe is weird, I’ll manage to have a good time because, well, it’s metal. Like that adage about sex and pizza, even when a metal show is bad, it’s still pretty good. This particular evening, however, was definitely one that went off the rails, for a variety of reasons.

It’s a well-known fact, at least to anyone who reads my reviews or follows me on Twitter (@NatalieZed), that I loathe and detest the Sound Academy as a venue. The sound is terrible, unless you’re dead front-and-centre, the drinks are ridiculously overpriced and it’s located down on the docks of Polson Pier. This location can be decent in the summer, when a cool breeze is blowing off the lake and one can bike or walk down. But on a frigid, late-January night when angry sleet turned all the roads to ice, I flat out hated it and resented every freezing step to this inconvenient location.

As soon as I was in the door and began to thaw out, my chilly mood dissolved. I was looking forward to a solid night of aggressive performances and for a bit, it looked like the rest of the night would be smooth sailing. Darkest Hour played a straightforward, but enjoyable set. Their set-list was drawn heavily from their most recent release, The Human Romance, which is the most pedestrian, and my least favourite, of their albums. However, this is the material they’re currently most excited about, and they play it well. I was also pleased that they at least played an up-tempo version of “No God,” from The Eternal Return, and closed with “Doomsayer (The Beginning of the End).” Their set was bright and tightly wound, and did a great job setting a solid pace.

The momentum of the evening unfortunately ground to halt, as fans had to wait for Suicide Silence, who began their set 45 minutes behind schedule. By the time their blasting deathcore struck up, the Sound Academy was bursting at the seams. Frontman Mitch Lucker Becan spent the set perched above his bandmates, crouching on a riser and demanding that the entire crowd put up their middle fingers and leave them up all night as a giant “fuck you!” to the world. This heralded one of the most awkward and hostile sets I’ve ever witnessed. Shortly after telling the crowd to keep flipping the bird, Lucker turned on his audience, threatening a woman in the front row, saying that he would knock her teeth out if she kept flipping him off. Next, he asked the crowd, “How many of you like sleeping with women? NOT MEN, ONLY WOWEN.” Finally, he began to order the pit around like a disgruntled gym teacher, micro-managing a wall of death and then demanding a circle pit. I’ve never disliked someone on stage as much as I disliked Mitch Lucker, and he made it genuinely difficult to enjoy their performance. “Bludgeoned to Death” had a driving violence to it and “Fuck Everything” featured a nihilistic purity I could otherwise get behind, but Lucker made it all unpleasant.

It was up to headliners Machine Head to deliver the magic, and I’m pleased to report they did an excellent job. Their set was definitely the most technically involved of the night, and huge screens displayed a complex suite of images to accompany the music, ranging from alchemical symbols to religiously charged etchings and spiraling, hallucinatory patterns. The set leaned towards newer material, and “Locust” and “Darkness Within” certainly went over well with the crowd. That said, it was unquestionably older numbers like “Bulldozer” and “The Blood, The Sweat, The Tears” that got the crowd roaring. It was great to see the change in the crowd as the fans reacted with passion and enthusiasm, rather than halfheartedly responding to being ordered about like cattle. There was love in the room again and that turned the night around.

However, before their set concluded, a couple of things convinced me to cut the night a little short. Just as “Ten Ton Hammer” began to gather momentum, someone standing next to me pooped his pants. He originally tried to deny it and blame the stench on someone else. Thankfully his buddy wasn’t buying it and dragged the fellow away. I fled to the back of the venue to escape the lingering stink and promptly witnessed a kid fall down, turn blue and begin to retch uncontrollably. As security whisked the fallen, hopefully just alcohol-poisoned youngster away, I decided that the universe was giving me a sign to abandon ship.

By Craig Haze

It all begins at the end of one man’s life. He hangs on the noose, lit by a single spotlight as a viscous clot of blood gradually oozes from his mouth. Misshapen, deformed and attired in archaic garments he dangles, suspended in death, as dark ambient shamans Ulver are hidden below him on a blacked-out stage.

A piano plays a fragile lament while rumbling effects and growling samples ebb and flow. And a song that is one man’s coda becomes redefined as a sunrise is projected upon the screen behind the band, and Kristoffer Rygg steps up to the microphone to begin “EOS”. Thus begins Ulver: The Norwegian National Opera, the mesmerizing and stunning beautiful live DVD release from Norway’s masters of avant-garde and enigmatic electronica.

Ulver of course know a few things about redefining expectations. At one stage they were a celebrated black metal band, but in the late ’90s they dispensed with the traditional accoutrements of black metal and morphed into an entirely different beast. Traces of their metal past remain fixed in their DNA, especially in their desolate iciness and forever-questioning aesthetic, but for many years now the band has been releasing acclaimed works that blend progressive electronica and glacial neo-classical treatments with shimmering, hypnotic rock.

Aside from one show in 1993, Ulver had always been a studio-based outfit. But in 2009 the band was lured onto the stage for Norway’s Festival of Literature, which in turn led to them play a series of sold-out shows in some of Europe’s most renowned venues throughout 2010. Ulver: The Norwegian National Opera was recorded in Oslo at the end of that touring cycle, not long before the band went into the studio to record 2011′s highly rated Wars of the Roses album. Captured by 6 HD cameras, the show features guest appearances by electronics guru Christian Fennesz and performance artist Ian Johnstone (who plays the aforementioned role of the late Mr. Ark Todd, and look out for his inscrutable resurrection to end the show on an enigmatic note).

The DVD features material from throughout Ulver’s electronic and experimental years, with tracks from the Perdition City, Svidd Neger, Blood Inside and Shadows of the Sun albums, and the Silence Teaches You How to Sing and A Quick Fix of Melancholy EPs. It’s best to think of the DVD in terms of an all-encompassing experience. Breaking the show down into constituent parts defeats its purpose entirely. I could obviously explain to you how the band’s performances of “For the Love of God”, “Funebre” or “Let the Children Go” play out in regard to the overall set, but there’s a clue on the DVD menu to remind you that plucking fragments from the show is inadvisable—there’s no ‘play all’ choice here, just one word: witness. That, more than any of the words I’m about to type, sums the DVD up perfectly.

Spectacular visual accompaniments are projected on a mammoth screen behind the band. Ulver’s set is built atop waves of oscillating and juxtaposing currents, and as the rhythmic pulse shifts the imagery evolves. Varying images of mankind’s atrocities, nature’s majesty and preternatural mystery mimic the cadence of the show perfectly. The vast array of metaphoric, allegorical or representative imagery bolsters or offers a stark counterpoint to the tracks, and as the show progresses it becomes impossible to separate the visual from the musical.

That’s not to suggest that taken in isolation the music is somehow lacking, it’s not, and a CD release of the soundtrack alone would be incredible. The vintage synths, creeping effects, droning guitar, dulcet vocals, piano and percussion that Ulver wield all fuse into a singularly mesmeric force. The set-list has obviously been assembled with a cinematic vision (perhaps operatic is more apt), and the music alone sets you on a path where the idea of stepping off is unfeasible. For 90-plus minutes the band unhurriedly manipulates and tweaks their sound. With many songs bleeding into one another, Ulver constructs a show that takes you on a skillfully paced, sweeping and euphonious voyage—where the pitch and sway, the crescendos and hypnotic undercurrents, guide you through a raft of emotive states.

I had high expectations for Ulver: The Norwegian National Opera and I was not, for one second, anything less than enthralled. Expertly edited by Erlend Gjertsen, and mixed by the band at their own Crystal Canyon Studios in Oslo, the entire package is pristinely rendered, and is a sumptuous feast for the eyes and the ears. Ulver have always been a prime example of the transformative beauty of artists dedicated to producing work that is innovative and imaginative. And galvanized and inspired by celestial, terrestrial and otherworldly endeavors, Ulver: The Norwegian National Opera is a firm reminder of the transfixing (and yes, even transcendental) power of authentically progressive music. I couldn’t recommend it highly enough.

(Kscope)

By Gruesome Greg

Lost amongst the Pentagrams, Bisons and 40 Watt Suns of the label, this record came out on Metal Blade late last month, another foray into doom from the company that first brought you Trouble. Misery Wizard is the first full-length release from this Rhode Island trio, though it’s clear from the first note that they’ve taken a few classes at the University of Doom Metal.

The crunchy riffs of opener “Astaroth” pretty much do all the talking, though we do get some chanted vocals, and even a verse or two, about halfway in. Vocals are in that semi-operatic style, somewhere between Messiah and Witchfinder, and suit the music aptly. A couple of the snake-like riffs that follow bring the likes of Saint Vitus to mind. These kids know their stuff…

The title track follows, a slow, pounding piece of doom clocking in at just over 11 minutes. Definitely a hint of epicness here, think Argus or Candlemass, albeit with the bludgeoning repetitiveness of Reverend Bizarre. (I’ll admit that I can only take RB in small doses…) “Quest” continues on its journey, just a minute shy of its predecessor. Another piece of pounding, downtuned despondency—well, you get the picture.

I gotta say, while these guys don’t reinvent the wheel (or anything else, for that matter), they’ve got a pretty decent slice of doom on their hands here. Just trim the fat, and the next one’ll be even tastier.

(Metal Blade)

By Jason Wellwood

Aggressor do their damnedest not to sound like anyone else. It would be easy to label the band ‘thrash’ so that readers would know what to expect without listening, but that would be selling the band short. There is an obvious dedication to heavy music of all sorts within Aggressor’s song writing, thrash is the most prevalent sound perhaps, but definitely not the only one. Aggressor have taken the sound of early 80’s thrash, added a few dashes of traditional metal and a twist of 90’s alternative to make Beyond All Reckoning an exceptional piece of Canadian metal. ‘What is Me’ and ‘Justice Lost’ set the overall tone for the album: galloping tempos, duelling guitars, gruff vocals, and groove. In fact the thing about Beyond All Reckoning that stands out the most is that no matter how fast and heavy the songs get, there is an obvious groove to everything. The break at about three minutes in to ‘Unto The World’ is a perfect example.

‘More To Discover’, a balladesque track, has a spoken dedication to Mike Alexander, the bass player for Evile who passed away suddenly in 2009 that, combined with the feel of the song, raises goose bumps. Moody as hell, the song starts off with a beautiful acoustic intro which leads to heavy alternative feel and into some galloping thrash to finish things off. A ballad, yes, but not one that will be getting many folks slow dancing! By the time you get to ‘Redemption’ there is almost nothing that the Aggressor could throw at you that would surprise you, but the song not only features the heaviest vocal on the album, it also turns some of the sharpest corners of all the songs, complete with a chugging hard rock riff and amazing guitar solo that stops on a dime to finish the song that leaves you feeling like maybe you need to play the album again. And again.

Beyond All Reckoning is a solid album throughout, and the fact that you can’t completely pin down the sound of Aggressor is exactly what makes them so good. This is an album best experienced beginning to end, though you couldn’t go wrong picking any one track to listen to. For my money, that’s the mark of a great album.

(Self Released)

If you were one of the lucky handfuls of people who got to wrap their ears around Citizen‘s Manifesto for the New Patriot album from 2005, you already have a bit of an idea where one-man grindcore blitzkrieg Matthew Widener is going with his new baby, Liberteer. Or not. Manifesto… was originally supposed to come out on Earache/Codebreaker, but someone dropped the fucking ball hard and it never really did. Then, when Widener scored an association with Relapse via Cretin [he plays bass alongside vocalist/guitarist Marissa Martinez and drummer Col Jones; Matt also used to play in Exhumed back in the day] and the band he helps and hangs with, the County Medical Examiners, Manifesto… was supposed to see the light of day then. Didn’t happen there either.

Widener, possibly sick of sitting around waiting, took the bullshit by the horns and created Liberteer and their – well, his – fan-fucking-tastic debut album, Better to Die on Your Feet Than Live on Your Knees. Imagine insanely catchy grindcore driven by military and national anthem-like themes, accented by major-key riffing and super-pissed off lyrics calling the oppressed 99% to arms. It may be a theme and mood that’s been percolating in grind, punk and hardcore since the beginnings of grind, punk and hardcore, but packaged in a way you’ve never heard before. Unless, that is, you heard that Citizen album. Better to Die on Your Feet… is set for release January 31st and despite there being another eleven months to go, I’d be very, very surprised if anything else topples it as my personal album of the year.

Hellbound tracked down Widener and decided to forego the usual interview bullshit for a round of that time-honoured favourite, word association. You know the drill. Ready, aim, go…

Liberty
Bell. Ha. No, I see the color yellow for some reason.

Justice
Failure.

Internet
Freedom and distraction, equal parts.

Exhumed
Couch-surfing. Old friends.

Simon Cowell
Exploitation.

Rambo
Victim.

Housewife
Valium.

Air Travel
Magic.

Beards
Life.

County Medical Examiners
Perfectionists.

Military
Mistakes of machismo.

Drums
Angry neighbors.

Guitars
Shoulder-slung penis with awesome paint job.

Bass
Mystery, hidden heart of music.

Vocals
Throat lozenges.

Non-Profit
Investigate.

Republican
Fear.

Democrat
Ignorant.

Maximum Rock and Roll
Cool kid elitism.

Tattoos
Smile and nod, secretly judge.

Girls
Delightful!

Tattooed Girls
Condoms.

Citizen
Embarrassing. Citizen of what?!

Cretin
Mostly hilarious, subtly forlorn.

Socialism
Compassionate, humane.

English
Stiff upper lip.

Japanese
Noise.

G20
Fucking overlords.

Beer
Ancient, imbibe and be one with past.

Weed
My headache medicine. Also, horny times.

Protest
Responsibility.

Revolution
Hard reset button.

Marissa Martinez
My biggest supporter.

Carcass
Existential truth, purest realization of metal.

Molotov Cocktail
Purification. Toughest drink to swallow.

America
The Beast.

Check in next week for part two of the word association fun…

I gotta say, I’ve been pretty stoked for Slow Southern Steel ever since I first heard of the concept a couple years back.  A documentary on the southern sludge scene starring Kylesa, Eyehategod, Sourvein, Zoroaster, Dixie Witch and Weedeater, to name but a few, directed by CT from Rwake, sure sounds like it’s right up my alley.  And now that the film’s finally ready for release, they’re taking the show on the road, with screenings in 19 US cities opening for Zoroaster and sludge supergroup Hail! Hornet (feat. Dixie Dave, T.Roy et al).  To say that I’m awfully tempted would be an understatement…

Suffice to say that this film wouldn’t be as big a hit north of the Mason-Dixon, and that’s why there aren’t a ton of Northeast dates, the closest being Columbus, or maybe Philly.  But hey, they’re hitting Columbus on a Saturday, so it might be worth the 11-hour bus ride (each way), or so I thought.  Until I took a look at the calendar.  The Columbus screening/gig’s on February 4th, after which the tour takes a day off… for Super Bowl Sunday.  Hey, if I wanted to spend an hour or two sleeping in the bus shelter, I could make it back to TO in time for kickoff, but that’s probably asking a bit much after getting on the 6 am bus outta town the day before just to make it to Columbus on time.  The other alternative would be to watch the game on the bus–hey, those Greyhounds have WiFi now, eh?–but that just seems kinda lame.

After all, the Super Bowl is best spent imbibing a cool beverage (or 10) in front of a big screen, not squinting at yer laptop on a bus fulla strangers.  I don’t see any affordable early flights from Columbus to TO either, so I think I’m gonna hafta skip this.  Now, if they had only hit Cleveland instead, I’d already have purchased my ticket.  Don’t ask me how that works, but the round-trip’s a whopping eight hours shorter…

Now, who do I hafta fuck to get a Slow Southern Steel screening up in The Big Smoke!?

Peace,

Greg

P.S.: Like what you read?  Follow me on Twitter and check out my blog!

P.P.S.: My new radio show, Gruesome Tunes, airs Sunday nites from 6 till 8 (Eastern Time) on Grip of Delusion Radio.  Tune in and drop out!

By Chris Dyck

The words “retro” and “throwback” get used a lot when describing music, especially in the rock and metal realm. In the case of Christian Mistress it goes way beyond that, sonically speaking anyway. Every single track on Possession is steeped in classic metal awesomeness. I’m hearing Stained Class era Judas Priest, a little Diamond Head, Heart and a kinda thrashy punk vibe. Someone said that they “distill classic heavy metal into the sound of now”… I would say that is a pretty accurate description, but they do lay the 79-83 sound on us pretty thick. So I’d say it is more “then” than “now”, by a mile.

The songs themsleves? Well, the first song is a winner for sure, the latter half of “Conviction” crushes, awesome guitar work, total shredder and “The Way Beyond” is a shit kicker. The more I listen to this record the more I dig it. These bros and ladybro can write bad ass metal for sure, and as much as I want to take some points off for shitty drum sounds and overall kinda weak production…I’m not going to, it’s a fucking fun Metal record so whatever. Hopefully next time they will try to polish it up just a bit, no need to intentionally have a weak drum sound, I get it…but I’m not feeling it. Just a bit more quality on the instrument sounds would be rad, Christine Davis‘ vocals are unreal. She brings up visions of mystics and gypsies and pentagrams whilst simultaneously summoning various skids from heavy metal parking lots, and I have heard she kills it live.

Overall these guys are pretty gnar. Pretty great little album considering it is only their second release. Relapse was smart to grab these guys, I think they will do pretty good this coming year. I am gonna go check them out next time they are in town for sure. If you dig NWOBHM you will dig this for sure and if you dont, there is probably something wrong with you?

(Relapse)

Last week marked the big PIPA and SOPA blackouts in the U.S. in opposition to bills being passed south of our border which would essentially censor the internet. The government is trying to sneak these bills in under the guise of helping to stop online piracy, but what they are really doing is trying to gain control over something that they shouldn’t be involved in, namely the internet. This starts with the guise of preventing piracy but continues into censoring the web altogether. I’ve noticed a lot of folks who are commenting that we Canadians shouldn’t be too worried about it because it’s happening down south but…take a look at the bill that Congress here is trying to get passed with regards to copyright reform. It would make things VERY difficult for folks to use digital music, video, etc. even if they purchased it legally. And these new more stringent measures were put in place, essentially, to please the U.S. who has been pressuring Canada for years to do something about its ‘lax’ laws. Not to mention the fact that many of your favourite sites may be gone because of U.S. law. If they take them down there, you won’t be able to see them here.

Anywho, I don’t mean to go off about politics, it’s not my bag and I really don’t have a head for the dealings that go on, but if it effects my music or my musical knowledge getting, it concerns me!

What I really wanted to talk about is something that really gets up my skirt (and not in a good way) and that is digital music. Let’s face it, digital music is here to stay and although we might never see the end of CDs completely and the welcome resurgence of vinyl won’t change much for the everyday music consumer, it’s time for everyone to face facts and get on board. What irks me in particular is that labels and promotions companies are now sending more and more digital files to stations, but don’t seem to know how to rip a CD properly or the difference in MP3 quality. So, here are a few quick tips for record labels, artists and those of you just generally curious, about submitting things to a radio station for airplay in the modern digital age:

1.    If you rip a CD, rip it at a decent bit rate. By compressing the songs to anything smaller than 192kbps, you are not only depriving the listeners of a good sounding song/album, you are also seriously messing with your artist’s (own) sound and livelihood. Putting low quality MP3s on the air makes songs sound awful, and who the hell needs to buy awful sounding music?

2.    Check your rip. Listen to the album/song yourself BEFORE you send it out to people. Almost as frustrating as low quality digital rips is bad rips. This is completely avoidable, and if you can’t manage to rip a CD without blips, farts, squeaks, squonks, etc. then ask the 7 year old down the street to show you how.

3.    Know who you are sending things to. I can forgive having something sent to the wrong name, or even messing up the call letters for the station, but if you are sending me your attempt at being the next Brittney Spears or LMFAO, then chances are I’m going to delete your email without spending too much time listening to it.

4.    Include some relevant information with your music. Yes, yes, it’s an AMAZING album recorded deep in the darkest depths of your mother’s basement but…what will really help people to get it on the air is much simpler: what type of music it is (without all the hyperbole), what tracks have profanity, what tracks should we focus on and what artists is the music comparable to. With that info, we can get the your music through the system and to the right people much quicker.

5.    A .pdf of the liner notes and decent quality shots of the cover art are more important that 15 band photos, regardless of how pretty you are.

That’s really just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to digital music and servicing though. I know it’s a new format still and people are still finding their way around but if no one tells you that you’re messing things up, you’ll never know!

By Kyle Harcott

Formerly kicking out snarly black’n’roll jams under the name Heathens, the recent name change to Wildernessking seems to have brought with it a fierce focus and commitment to play in a more forward-thinking style. While the basis is skull-ripping black metal at its core, The Writing of Gods… incorporates elements of rock, progressive, noise-rock and a smattering of post-rock to embellish its varied moods.

‘Rubicon’ opens, all vicious blur and tremolo-picking, no quarter given, and impressing its vehemence upon the listener with utmost urgency, until midway – when it breaks off into Enslaved territory, breaking down with soaring guitar riffs and thunderous mid-paced drums. The winter chill of ‘Discovery’ follows, ice-cold riffs relentlessly pelting, wind-chill-whipped along by frostbitten shrieks, summoning ice-breaking Norse-slave-ship rhythms in the middle breakdown, as the song hurls itself toward a storm-swept end.

Singer Keenan Oakes’ vocals are of special note throughout the album; his lacerating peal and equally-feral ravenous growl absolutely show-stopping. Meanwhile, the riffs, pythonic in size and scope, are incessant start-to-finish, coming down like meteorites fastballed by some sarcastic blackgod, shattering everything they come into contact with.

The triumphant ‘River’ is next, opening with a clarion of guitar harmony and galloping its way across clear-black stargaze, while ‘Utopia’ skirts battle-metal territory with a noise-rock bass intro, before dropping midway to a thudding doom pace. ‘Surrender’ is majestic and destroying, capitulating into a gargantuan rock solo at its outro, and the instrumental ‘Reveal’ showcases the band’s jaw-dropping musicianship. Finally, there is closer ‘Inifinity’, nine minutes of attackattackattack, absolutely brobdingnagian in riff, and hell bent for maximum volume infliction. Only -and just barely- at the song’s outro do we catch a glimpse of Wildernessking belaying their nonstop pummeling and show us a softer side, albeit a mournful one.

Ambitious and progressive, razor-raw and unrelenting, the debut from Cape Town’s WILDERNESSKING is passionate and exciting, and I’d daresay an early frontrunner in my book for one of the best of the year. Antithetic has really found something special in this band. Wildernessking appear poised for greatness, and are destined to make a name for themselves as leading the vanguard of cutting-edge black metal, and to put South Africa on the black-metal world map.

(Antithetic Records)