Live 4 Metal - Reviews

Forsaken - After the Fall (I Hate Records) Review by Chris Davison
	Holy shit, I Hate records have released a cross-over metal album in the vein of D.R.I.! Only kidding, genre-fans. As any fool knows, I Hate Records, while they may occasionally dip their toes into different pools of metal, tend to plunge most heavily into the doom pool. I'm somewhat of a doom fan, so it was a bit of surprise to learn that Malta's Forsaken had already recorded three albums prior to this. After a bit of research, it becomes apparent that their back catalogue is out of print, to a larger extent, which on the basis of this cracking opus, is a bit of a shame. Emerging from a soundscape of tortured souls and anguished screaming, "Aidenn Falls"
sets the scene with a murderously heavy opening riff, superb ascending chorus and epic, wailing vocals. Not unlike a more upbeat version of Doomsword, this is a wonderful doomed opening track, complete with an absolute face-melting trade off of guitar solo wizardry. "Sins of the Temper" comes across like an even heavier version of early Cathedral covering Pentagram's "All Your Sins" (and to be honest, I think that if the riff copyright inspectors come round, Forsaken might well be sat uncomfortably in their collective seats on this one), while "The Lord Sayeth" provides a brief respite with a simple, clean guitars tolling against ominous, whispered spoken word. "Vanguards of the Void" lurches out of the speakers like a drunken gorilla with its nuts in oversized bulldog clips, full of menace and the promise of violence. "Armida's Kiss", a nine minute marathon, tells a vast tale with some amazing guitar duels towards the latter stages, while "The Sage" conjures images of dark arts and the occult with the dense, deep riffing and bass work colliding against the soulful, clean vocals. "Dies Irae", as well as being contractually obliged to be a song title in 50% of the worlds heavy metal albums, is a moody, menacing number, while closer "Metatron and The Mibor Mythos" out saviours the burning ones with the grooving 70's style riff and head-nod-inducing melody. The production is clear and powerful, and also carries a little of a warm, analogue sound to it, especially with the drums that sound full of punch but plenty of variety in the cymbal and high-hat work. Special mention too to the vocals, which to my ears sound like some kind of unholy cross between Robert Lowe and (especially) Morris Ingram (Solstice UK). The I Hate Records quality control then; right back where it should be. On top form. www.ihate.se

Hatebreed - For The Lions (Century Media) Review by Steve Green
	For The Lions sees Hatebreed pay tribute to a number of their favourite bands and to some of their biggest influences. And with an album like this, it doesn't really matter if you are a Hatebreed fan or not, it's more of a case as to whether you like the original songs or the genres in general. Obviously, For The Lions leans heavily on the Hardcore scene, but there's also a fair smattering of Thrash to keep the more Metal orientated punter happy too. Best covers for me are Slayer's Ghosts of War, which is a fantastic way to kick the album off, and Sepultura's Refuse/Resist, which has me thinking that Jamey Jasta would have
been a perfect replacement for Max Cavalera. I'm also a big Suicidal Tendencies fan, so it's cool to hear a potent re-working of Suicidal Maniac, even if the vocals are a little deep for my liking. Metallica's Escape also gets a decent makeover, as does Obituary's I'm In Pain. I'm not so knowledgeable on some of the Hardcore/Crossover covers, but the highlights, for me, are covers of Agnostic Front's Your Mistake, Bad Brains Supertouch and D.R.I.'s Evil Minds, all of which are full to the brim with energy and showcase the best of a scene that I really should know better. Overall, this is a fun album with plenty of classic songs to enjoy as well as few lesser known gems. Good stuff. www.hatebreed.com

Knyght - Bet Everything (Anko) Review by Metal Mark
	I heard this band's demo "Destination Unknown" a couple of years ago. It was honestly quite messy with poor production. The writing and playing were scattered and weak at best. So as I started up their new offering I was wondering if improvements had been made in the last two years. Let's start with the production since that was a major shortcoming the last time around. The production has improved a lot this time around. On the last disc the production was an absolute horror that made it hard to make out much of what the band were really doing. Now at least it's coherent and adequate enough that it doesn't take away from the sound. Now the question of whether or not the music is any
better is the major deal. The music here is at least reasonably tight and they actually sound like a hard rock band for the most part. That might sound basic, but that is a big step up from their last disc. However, it is certainly not without some major flaws. Vocalist Tommy has a voice that's high and by high I mean that's about all he can do is sing high and kind of nasally. That style doesn't work well here as he just sounds thin and lifeless on most of the songs and actually it's especially hard to take on the slow song. The music is alright, but they have real trouble bringing enough hooks to the sound. They seem to rely a lot on the vocals and that just doesn't work because there is not enough pull to these songs. They hit some decent opening riffs, but then they just don't bring enough during the songs to keep things going. There is hope though and I realized that when I got to the final track of this EP. "Shut Up" is a far from perfect song, but they show promise. There's a short piano piece with a good, sharp transition into a fine, cutting riff. The riff is perhaps the best part of this disc and it's a shame they didn't milk it more on this song because they could have. Still the song keeps flowing with a solid drumbeat popping along. The vocals are high and shrill, but Tommy shows some real emotion on this song and that goes a ways even if the range isn't the best. So they end on a positive note. Not a great song, but a decent one that could be very good given some work. Okay, the positives here are the production is way better, the music is somewhat better and I can sense some sort of a musical direction. All of that is a huge improvement over that last disc. The things I don't like are that they they need to tighten up the music, bring up the guitars, embellish those hooks and re-consider some of the keyboard parts if they really want to sound like a hard rock band. The biggest issue is the vocals just are not going to cut it with this sound. The range is just not enough to be solid or consistent for this style of music. So they have made some real strides since their last effort, but there is a lot of work to do if they ever want to really be taken seriously. www.myspace.com/knyghtband

Lacuna Coil - Shallow Life (Century Media) Review by Steve Green
	Up to and including Comalies I was a major Lacuna Coil fan. Then they achieved great success over the pond and the band, in my opinion, sold out. Their stage show was so insincere, mainly down to Cristina Scabbia's banter and general dumbing down and the final nail in the coffin was the truly awful Karmacode. An album designed for the Kerrang generation rather than their long-time fans. So my expectations for Shallow Life are not very high, especially as producer Don Gilmore has also produced Avril Lavigne. Quite surprisingly, opening number Survive is rather low key. But at least it sounds like the old Lacuna Coil, as does the next number, the incredibly infectious I Won't Tell You. And
for the first half of the album, it does seem like a return to form for Lacuna Coil. It sounds like the band I admired in the early part of their career, although I do think the Cristina Scabbia and Andrea Ferro dual vocal style is beginning to sound a little predictable. But that's a small price to pay for getting one of my favourite bands back... thinking about it now, I've not played a single Lacuna Coil cd since I played Karmacode for the second, and final time, 3 years ago. As we hit track 6, Underdog, the word "filler" comes to mind for the 1st time and unfortunately, things start to go downhill from now on. Nothing is particularly bad, it just becomes a little samey and very predictable. It's as if the band had run out of ideas, so they rehashed a few old songs, albeit ones that were never good enough to make it onto Comalies. The only song I'd openly criticise is Wide Awake, which is a sugary attempt I'm sure, to win over yet more Evanescence fans in the USA. I'm sure in the past few years the demography of the bands fanbase has switched from Metalheads to what the Americans call Mallcore kids and the suchlike. And this album, despite a strong start, will do nothing to change that fact. And to prove the point, entirely coincidentally, my teenage kids both asked to borrow the album the day I'd written the review as they'd seen a video for Lacuna Coil on the Kerrang channel. www.lacunacoil.it

LiViD - One (Lost Lady Records) Review by Steve Green
	There seems to be quite a trend amongst a high number of 20 something (age group) bands whose influences are from a time way before they were born, or at least were still shitting in their nappies. The latest band who fit this profile are LiViD, who sound like a classic 70s and 80s Metal band, with a frontman who sounds like Vince Neil after he's caught his cock in his zipper (tight leather trouser type, of course). The influences are pretty obvious to spot and after the Motley Crue vocal comparisons, next on the hit list are Aerosmith, the 70s version, when they were good and as much as I hate the band, I'll also throw The Darkness into the ring, mainly, once again, for Psy Ward's vocal histrionics.
LiViD are not the most original band on the planet, but they sure know how to rock. The recent success of bands like The Answer show that there is a massive demand for this type of retro Rock/Metal and LiViD have as good a chance as any of making it big, although a bit of tightening up is required in the song writing department as my attention did start to wander a couple of times. Anyway, check 'em out via: www.myspace.com/lividtheband

Novembre – Novembrine Waltz Re-issue (Peaceville) review by Sam Thomas
	“Novembrine Waltz” was originally released in 2001 (seems like five minutes ago!), and was the Italian’s fourth album. Generally regarded as somewhat inferior to the previous year’s “Classica”, on a personal level, I have to say that it was always my favourite Novembre album. Then again, I’m used to being in a fairly small minority when it comes to picking my favourite album by a band, I actually like “Load and “Reload” after all. The style of progressive death metal, coupled with the fact that I saw them supporting Opeth on tour, will always leave Novembre linked with Opeth in my mind, and in fact it’s not a bad comparison. You’ve got the long tracks, darting off down all sorts of convoluted
pathways, speeding up, slowing down, alternating clean and growled vocals from Carmelo Orlando, and a total lack of concern at the lack of commercial possibilities in their output. For some strange reason, right in the middle of this opus, Novembre decided that it would be a really good idea to have a Kate Bush cover, “Cloudbursting” sandwiched in as track 5. I’m not so sure about that, but it always provided me with a good opportunity to go and make a cup of tea... Leaving that aside, this is a rather magnificent album, sweeping along on great waves of proggy ridiculousness, with bombastic asides of death metal and some lovely little classical rip-offs. It’s quite hypnotic in parts as well, as in “Child of the Twilight”. The quality of the musicianship is superb, the songwriting is highly accomplished and the only surprise is that Novembre didn’t achieve more recognition with this album. Maybe second time around the world will wake up to the undoubted talent of these Italians... www.novembre.co.uk \| www.peaceville.com

Slough Feg - Ape Uprising (Cruz Del Sur) Review by Metal Mark
	There really are not that many albums that I was looking forward to in 2009, but this one was towards the top of that short list. Hard to believe that this band has been around for as long as they have. This, their seventh full length release, is of course tailored to the style they have been playing for years. Think Thin Lizzy from around 1977 blended with a huge dose of Iron Maiden from around 1981-82. Then toss in some Celtic influences and that's pretty much the blueprint for the last few albums. The opener "The Hunchback of Notre Doom" slinks on with rough and steady riff. Unfortunately the songs stays rather one dimensional and the pace doesn't vary much at all. A rather flat opener, but it's certainly in
the minority as the album really gets going with "Overborne". The disc picks up and Slough Feg get into their comfort zone. The first thing that comes to my mind about "Ape Uprising" is that it's heavier than the last few albums. There is less build-up on many of these songs and instead they plunge into the meat of the matter. The title track is an excellent example with it's pounding drums and surging Maiden-esque guitar attack. There are perhaps less Celtic influences on this album than on some of their other discs. In it's place is even more NWOBHM inspired blasts. They are so emerged in that style and even the production has a slightly underdone quality that harkens back to another time. This album sounds like it could have done around 1981, but the intensity and energy keep it from being just a copy. Slough Feg's new release has all the grooves, instantly likeable vocals, sprawling solos and the classic sound that they have come to be known for. This album met with all my expectations and their approach is even more direct this time around. I highly recommend this one. www.sloughfeg.com

Susperia - Attitude (Candlelight Records) Review by Mat Willcocks
	A reasonably well known and established outfit from Norway, who have recently been signed up to the respected Candlelight label, but more recently in the metal press due to the heart attack sustained to lead singer Pål ‘Athera’ Mathisen. Here we have yet another well-produced stomper of 21st Century metal. One may ask what that is, to which there is no definition, but this is a band that despite their members’ rooted background in the black metal scene, have made a slick record, taking in a number of influences. Opener ‘The Urge’ sets things off nicely, with its ‘WoaooooaaaooooaaahhhhHHHHHH’-style chorus. Going straight into track 2, ‘Live My Dreams’ sounds spookily the result of what would
have occurred had Testament come out of their respective mother’s wombs 25 years later. Penultimate track ‘Character Flaw’ is also a notable track, complete with time changes and is possibly the most energetic track on the album. Susperia appear to be a group that will consistently put out interesting and fresh sounding metal, but may never be destined to never release a classic album. Nevertheless, Attitude is essentially an album for the current generation of metal teens, looking for something a little inventive, maintaining an element of ‘cool’, and something that sounds a little more modern than those old fashioned Pantera albums. www.candlelightrecords.co.uk

Unanimated - In The Light Of Darkness (Regain Records) By: Dave Schalek
	Sweden’s Unanimated return from a fourteen year hiatus with their third full-length, entitled “In The Light Of Darkness” and released on Regain Records. I’m must say that I am unfamiliar with Unanimated (members have participated in various bands of note and are given exalted status in the underground Swedish scene, though) prior to this full-length, and various descriptions at the usual reference web sites list Unanimated as melodic death metal. That’s not really the case, as I would label Unanimated as mild black metal somewhat reminiscent of Dissection, but with considerably less speed and a thoroughly beefed up, modern production.
Starting with a mid-paced black metal base, Unanimated apply plenty of rasped vocals to guitar work alternating between a focus upon riffing and plenty of melodic moments that never drift into saccharine territory. A few all out blasts are thrown in for variation, but the album never becomes raw, or concerned with all out speed. The overall result with “In The Light Of Darkness” is a slick, well played, professional album that, I hate to say it, is rather boring. Unfortunately, the songwriting isn’t all that interesting and, although I know that Unanimated have attained a somewhat legendary status with their first two well regarded albums, I don’t really see what all of the excitement is about. “In The Light Of Darkness” is decidedly second tier material and, as much as I’d like to, I can’t justify a recommendation for this album. Repeated listens don’t help very much, although there are a couple of good songs later in the album that let Unanimated finish in strong fashion. Essentially, I come away from Unanimated disappointed. Although, initially promising, “In The Light Of Darkness” ends up being a rather forgettable, mediocre melodic black metal album. www.regainrecords.com \| www.myspace.com/unanimated08