The gap between Black Breath‘s 2010 LP Heavy Breathing and this year’s Sentenced to Life album seems almost instantaneous. Heavy Breathing was a massive release for them, and managed to turn heads in some surprising corners of “music’s” reviewing community. The band who ended their 2010 Euro Tour with a wallop, took only a few months and several thousand miles before ending up back in Kurt Ballou’s God City studios, with a pressurised atmosphere of time and tension the background to this short and crusty record. Even their most recent Euro tour back in 2011 gave the band a chance to air a couple of new tracks. It literally is non-stop for these guys.

You can decode Black Breath’s work by simply splitting their music into 2 camps: “rippers” and “jammers”. As particularly defined by the band, “rippers” tend to push the BPMs and concentrate on speed; “jammers” tend to be a little longer and more progressive in the arrangement. Where Heavy Breathing had a balanced offering of both, Sentenced to Life is mostly full of 80s death metal infused punk “rippers”. Maybe this is due to the reaction of the crowd during the bands recent tours. The hot and sweaty basement shows filled with hardcore kids and metal-heads finger-pointing and moshing their way through the sets. This band thrives on the energy from the crowd and perhaps this is reflected in the increased extremity of this release.

Their new cobwebbed logo and album cover illustrates the renewed link to the past, with bands of the 1980s from thrash to death metal, but within a modern sort of d-beat hardcore that Southern Lord seem to thrive on. Just look at that album cover; it’s as if the film Warriors went to a whole new level. The first trio of tracks are pure headbanging filth – thrash riffs and tremolo picking dominate throughout, and “Sentenced to Life” steps into anthem mode with a sure-fire fist punching chorus. Yet somehow, the band delve into an even darker sound, one of buzzing monolithic riffs and harmonious intros interjected with huge stabs of guitar noise. This aggressive dirge allows some meticulous lead guitar playing which is bathed in chorus FX and sounds lusciously 1980s, such as on “Obey” and “The Flame”, where the latter sounding very similar to Slayer. Less punk ‘n’ roll, more thrash Sentenced to Life isn’t a game-changer as such, but a perfect accompaniment to their past releases.

[Originally published on Onemetal]

That’s enough nay-sayers. I certainly didn’t expect to see Les Claypool resurrecting Primus from such a long hiatus, especially considering the time he has spent furthering his ambitiously sounding solo projects. The brief stint at getting Primus back in the swing of things earlier last decade hit a musical wall; they just weren’t the same energised band as they were in the 1990s and Claypool would be the first to admit it. “I have always said that I would only do Primus as long as it was fun. And it wasn’t fun anymore,” says Claypool. “In fact, it stopped being fun in 1996, when drummer Tim “Herb” Alexander left the band.” This awkward moment in the band led to what many fans argue is one of their better albums and ironically one that Claypool isn’t particularly fond of, 1997s The Brown Album, and after that the polarising Antipop, a record that embraced a more metallic side with a host of guest producers and musicians. Maybe the band looked at themselves and thought they shouldn’t be on the big metal tours of Ozzfest and Family Values.

Green Naughayde is Primus’ first studio album for 11 years and reunites drummer Jay Lane with the quirky bassist and long time collaborator and guitarist Larry Lalonde.

In typical self-deprecating humour, Claypool described the sound of the new album early on by saying:

“For those of you that enjoyed the new song, “Last Salmon Man”, that we played New Year’s, you’ll love the record because every song basically sounds exactly the same as that one. In fact, we just kept recording the same song over and over and I would just change a few of the lyrics around. I hear that’s the way Pink Floyd used to do it and those guys are no slouches.”

In a sense that isn’t too far off the mark. Green Naugahyde travels along in the various criss-cross directions of Lane-era Primus as well as the distinct but simple sounds and production of side-project Sausage. Tracks such as “Eyes Of The Squirrel” even have a Pink Floyd feel to them, with loops, atmospherics and ethereal textures. Above the plodding bass lines (reminiscent of The Brown Album‘s “Fisticuffs”, and Tales From a Punch Bowl‘s “Da Anza Jig”) are Lalonde’s upstrokes and volume-swelled layers. Yet for some of this album it is often engulfed by the dominant nature of Claypool’s wobbling and wet bass, coerced by an old Korg multi-fx unit that even he doesn’t recall – equipment somehow “ends up in his possession” rather than him being a FX fetishist.

Green Naugahyde is the reflection of past experiences coupled with a social critique of the present. As Claypool has said recently, “Jilly’s On Smack” couldn’t have been written earlier as they hadn’t lost a friend to heroin, whilst “Eternal Consumption Engine” focuses on the everlasting materialism within society – “Everything nowadays is made in China” sparks Claypool through his bullet mic’. All this of course is delivered with Primus‘ unique and bizarre demeanour and lyrical content. What I did notice from seeing them live at Brixton in July was that the newer material begged to be loosely extended, improvised and redefined, yet their “hits” of yesterday only truly worked in the context of an album. If anything, this album makes me what to see them again.

[Originally published on Onemetal]

From civil unrest in this country to a long and severe situation in another. Throughout very recent times Greece has had its fair share of extreme discontent which has resulted from the proposed and then implemented austerity measures designed to save the country and its worsening economic climate. You would have to go as far back as the transition from a war economy after the Second World War in Western Europe to appreciate how much the belt in Greece has been tightened. It’s no wonder Athenians have regularly taken to Syntagma square and elsewhere to vent their frustration. Anyway, that strenuous link to to Athens based Sarabante is as much to ease into this text as much as it is to highlight the financial pressures that many bands, promoters and independent labels in Greece will be experiencing now and over the next few years.

But it’s no wonder that there is such a strong crust/hardcore scene in parts of Greece. The grind scene is big enough with the anti-authoritarian/anarchist crowd for a generous amount of gigs to take place on University grounds and squats, and on the whole it seems more likely for promoters to continue to book local acts and those across the Balkans rather than the more expensive tours from Western Europe and beyond.

Whereas a lot of the crust bands around Athens seem to be around for a year, releasing demos or EPs that sound similar to Tragedy or Amebix before parting ways, Sarabante are back after a hiatus from the stage. And if the US won’t go to the Balkans, then the Balkans would have to go to the US. In this case Sarabante were recommended to Southern Lord by Ashes Rise guitarist Brad Boatright, who mastered the band’s debut. They do sound similar to the aforementioned – such as on the opener “Πνιγμένοι στη Σιωπή” – yet the slower tempo tracks and atmospherics also point to bands such as Isis and early Neurosis – a suffocating and pressing sound of bass and harsh guitar. Amongst this a is a politically charged band with the aggresssion of Victims though not as extreme as some of the bands from Salonica; but a solid hardcore punk structure and aggressive riffing should please those who lean towards the tighther sounds of d-beat. As my good friend from Athens says: “kids like their music dirty here.” They certainly do.

[Originally published on Onemetal]

Ironically, when a generous sector of the alt-rock community reacted against the increasing marketed side of the industry during the “Grunge” era, the culture itself became a commodity largely based upon its gradual popularity and became a victim of its own success. Today Japanese Voyeurs seem intent on rekindling this anti-commercial spark that existed over 20 years ago. Their raison d’être is clearly displayed on their homepage:

In this world there are two kinds of bands: there are those who aim to be the biggest group in the world, who aim to make money and be famous, and who will do anything to achieve their aim. And then there are those whose mission statement is to explore the possibilities of modern music, of heavy music, and whose instinct is to create something that they themselves yearn to hear. Since forming in 2007 the London-based quintet Japanese Voyeurs have shown themselves to be the second of these kinds of bands.

It is quite a statement considering they are essentially a grunge revivalist band, cultivating the shoots of the stronger lineage within American alternative rock, namely the Seattle scene, and bringing back the “classic sounds” with what on first listen appears to be not so different to what was heard all that time ago. A cynic would suggest that there is nothing left to explore from the genre.

However, this album wonderfully captures the raw essence of that sound in a well thought out and progressive way. Melodies are back in, choruses are underpinned by the quiet-loud dynamic, and yet there are hints of experimentation from the female fronted band who themselves have fewer strong bands to look back on than their male fronted peers — Hole, L7, The Breeders, Daisy Chainsaw etc. Yolk is a strong and forceful debut album which is constantly juxtaposed by the captivating voice of Romily Alice. She sounds similar to a sweeter sounding version of Queen Adreena’s KatieJane Garside, but on tracks such as ‘Smother Me’ that drift toward a desert rock sound, her reverb filled vocals are perfectly suited to glide over the top of the hypnotic riffs. This is where the band excel, not within the “verse-chorus” framework, but one that transcends into other areas that didn’t quite “make it” the first time round.

[Originally published on Onemetal]

For the promo video of the track “Cold”, Xibalba got together with a bunch of friends, had a bbq and generally smoked and drank their way through the afternoon. It’s a video shoot not uncommon amongst hardcore bands, and designed to show how much people love to floorpunch at some of their gigs. The Southern California five-piece are a mix of lifestyle choices and influences that broaden the local hardcore scene, and a couple of band members even make sure the current crop of bands are booked in their area.

However, it is this broad aspect of the band that has an adverse effect. The mix of influences leaves no real defining sound that makes them instantly recognisable. Even when the band have a certain viewpoint, it isn’t something that they want to convince the listener about; “some bands have certain agendas and messages which is cool and the reason I got into hardcore, to be able to speak my mind but no need to force it down someone’s throat.” It’s not as is the lyrics aren’t forceful enough, either. For instance:

“Fuck the world it’s just me now, and I’m after you. Nothing will save you, eye for an eye / Finger on the trigger, barrel to your head / it would be better if you were dead.”

Xibalba fuse together an older death metal sound and texture with 90s hardcore beatdown bands (some say Sepultura and Disembodied, but I still haven’t made my mind up). But a generous portion of the album is stuck in caustic sludge, strangled by the depths of monotonous riffs and dampening much of the tempo and energy. It isn’t until just after mid-way through the release that tracks get interesting again with tracks such as “Red” and “Obituary”, “Cold” and “Spanish Harlem”. This is where their strengths lie, and it’s a shame that they are to be found at the end of the release.

[Originally published on Onemetal]

“It’s more […] to do with crowning ourselves as the king of what we do” says Suicide Silence vocalist Mitch Lucker. It seems that he is adamant that The Black Crown should not be seen as a change in direction, but a consolidation of what the band have achieved over the years. It is a mysterious way of introducing what is only their third album, drawing a line under and championing themselves above other bands of a similar sound – some of whom are their friends. Just who do they think they are, eh? The last time I heard such a claim was by metallic hardcore nutters Full Blown Chaos during the release of their album Heavy Lies The Crown, and I certainly wasn’t going to go toe-to-toe with beefy vocalist Ray Mazzola over it. I am sure the vitriolic and anonymous fans of the internet will let Mitch know if they disagree.

In any case, being consistent is surely a good thing. No one seems to mind when Devildriver or Lamb of God release albums that are very similar in sound and technique, and this is what Lucker is looking for. “Every time you put a Slipknot CD in your CD player, you know it’s Slipknot. Every time you put a Deftones CD in your CD player, you know it’s the Deftones. With this record, we are crowning ourselves with…our sound.”

Sure enough, this does sound very similar to past releases. The visceral brutality of some tracks from the earliest releases have made way for a continued death metal/core attack, but with a more groove metal influence. It certainly has moments of heavier early 2000s moments of “nu-metal”, such as on “O.C.D”. The band enjoy artists such as Korn and Slipknot so it isn’t any surprise to hear the faintest of influences amongst the strong choruses and the angular riffs; Korn vocalist Jonathan Davis can also be found on track “Witness The Addiction”.

Conceptually, the album doesn’t stray too far from the creation of No Time To Bleed. Lucker’s lyrics again concern the more personal thoughts rather than any anti-religious furore that can be found on The Cleansing. Again the band wanted to again channel their live performance and crowd reaction back into their recordings, picking out what the fans enjoy at the shows and then working from there. Guitarist Mark Heylmun has said that “for us, it has always been about not trying to go over people’s heads. We’re musicians that are semi-lazy. We don’t want to go up there and have to think too hard.” So simple, bruising riffs seems to be the key for this. What has changed is the attention to the recording. Out has gone producer Machine, who relied too heavily on the digital side of recording, and in has come in Steve Evett who has been instrumental in getting math-metallers The Dillinger Escape Plan in one place for long enough to record an album or two. Suicide Silence utilised all their “live tones” to get almost exactly the sort of sound on tape as you would witness at a gig. With breakdowns galore, this album will please existing fans.

[Originally published on Onemetal]