|
>
ISIS - "PANOPTICON"
JOSIAH - "INTO THE OUTSIDE"
MASTODON - "LEVIATHAN"
THE MIGHTY NIMBUS - "S/T"
ON TRIAL - "LIVE"
OZRIC TENTACLES - "SPIRALS IN HYPERSPACE"
>>MORE ROADBURN PICS: Pt.III
|
|
|
ISIS
"PANOPTICON" [ CD - Hydrahead Records ]
Isis are hot stuff at the moment! After the stellar release of "Oceanic",
the band have managed to blend hardcore sensibilities with extremely
ambient soundscapes without it all sounding a bit 'smashed together.'
"Oceanic", from 2002, was a surprise album in that Isis' previous outputs
had tended towards shorter, more traditional, hardcore sounds: harsh
guitar tones, snarled vocals and thunderous beats, but, with "Oceanic",
all these aspects were toned down. "Oceanic" was a 50/50 album, the first
half being broadly more like the material off their previous "Celestial"
record with occasional hints at the new ambient grooves.
The second half of "Oceanic" is where jaws hit the floor with tracks
such as "Weight" combining planet-shaking riffs with passages of sheer
ambient, almost acoustic, quiet and beauty. As a result, all eyes [and ears!] have
been watching Isis to see if "Panopticon" matches the majesty of "Oceanic."
The answer, to be honest, is more complex than "it's a great album."
"Panopticon" undoubtedly is a brilliant album, just as good, if not
possibly better, than "Oceanic." The downside is that it's merely an
extension of "Oceanic" and the surprise element is no longer present.
A minor quibble, you will agree, once you've spun the disc a few times.
For these ears, the songs are more ambitious and far more mellow than
on "Oceanic". Aaron Turner's vocals on this outing are more melodic and
less shouted making the passage between dark and light much smoother
and more atmospheric.
The guitar texturing on this record is nothing short of utterly spectacular with two or
three different, but harmonious, tracks overlaying at all times. As with "Oceanic", the rhythm
section is perfect, underpinning the tracks and stopping them from becoming a bit
indulgent and noodly.
For the worshippers of the One True Riff, "Panopticon" does not fail to
deliver with some absolutely monstrous time changes and superbly controlled
thunder. The juxtaposition of mellow sections and heavy serves to accentuate
the heavy brilliantly.
Summing up, this could be quite possibly the best record of 2004.
a.
|
|
|
|
JOSIAH
"INTO THE OUTSIDE" [CD - Molten Records ]
Josiah are one of the bands, alongside Gorilla and Marshan, that are
spearheading a return to classic energetic British rock, Marshan
aiming more into Led Zep III territory, Gorilla aiming squarely at the
Who and Josiah tending more towards the NWOBHM side of things.
"Into the Outside" is their new album containing 11 new tracks ranging from
short full-on rock blasts to more drawn-out experimental pieces.
The album begins promisingly enough with the classic air-punching rock-out
of "Turn It On". The album continues in a similar vein until track 8,
"Sylvie", where it sounds a lot like they've kidnapped Bert Jansch.
After that, we're on a similar rock kick until the final track, "Unwind Your
Mind", which leans more towards the Monster Magnet end of psychedelic
rock [my CD also has a hidden track stuffed in at the end of "Unwind your
Mind" which is a live-ish sounding jam in a JPT Scare Band vibe, but without
the obvious guitar pyrotechnics].
I'm finding it hard to give this album a thumbs-up since 12 of the 14 tracks
are roughly the same speed with the same tone and the same basic structure.
There's nothing wrong with each track individually. In fact, all are
excellent catchy classic rock songs, but the album fails to gel as a whole
and I find it difficult to get from one end of the album to the other
without skipping over a lot.
A reserved recommendation from this reviewer [according to walter the album is a must
have coz' of the stunning use of vibe and the indiviual tracks]. "Into The Outside" is great to
dip into, but maybe nota good end-to-ender.
a.
|
|
|
|
MASTODON
"LEVIATHAN" [ CD/LP - Relapse ]
Well, anticipation is sky high for the latest Mastodon opus, in fact the feverish
need of folk must rank up there with Mrs. Lazarus, three days into her son's internment –Now if y'all wanted
a brutal album to loosen the bolts on a Sherman Tank, Mastodon's "Remission" is a good choice. A dense, metal
laden musical Claymore mine, whose riff-shrapnel caused flesh wounds all around
the world.
And crashing through the Relapse flumes we have their sophomore album, "Leviathan", and while the
admittedly wonderful cover art is attractive it is unfortunately wildly disingenuous, as the 'lite beer' music
within is analogous to the lowly minnow, much less an elephantine Whale!
Mastodon are gleefully exploring their melodic persona's, but it's to differing degree's of
success -the strangest thing is the change of vocal styles as it sounds exactly like Kirk
Wienstein on "I am Ahab", interesting, but generally he apes the Neurosis dude.
Now I have nothing against Hyperbolic prose [as my music writing would be considerably more
dull without it], but the subject matter must be at least moderately comparable to the
crazed enthusings, reading the Relapse blurb is hilarious, "thundering musical muscle?", "vast
seas of idea's?" all adequate verbiage should one be talking about "Remission", but woefully
deluded when pitching "Leviathan" though.
This is not a dreadful album, per se, but it IS a gutless one... In that you no longer get those
delirious moments of skull-fucking intensity, where the pile-driving twin guitars, change
gear at the drop of a hat and send you into a euphoric head banging apoplexy.
"Iron Tusk" has a serviceable riff, which will get you into air guitar stance
pretty damn quickly, but you'll need Moby Dick sized lungs if ya' gonna hold ya' breath for the next
heavy metal thrill [and to be honest, when they return that riff to Zakk Wylde, it's gonna
leave a hole in the album, baby].
And after a while the endless Maiden harmonizing gets more than a little trying. While the opening
track teases you with a choice riff, it doesn't delivering the hard fucking one requires after
so enticing foreplay.
The mix is unusually timid for a band which such a heavy reputation, as Mastodon appear
muzzled here, like, where were the guitars? Buried with Ahab at the bottom of the fucking sea
mate, dudes. Y'all can't emblazon your CD with an elephantine seabeast crashing through the
flumes in a mighty sea, yet have a mix with all the potency of a palsied minnow.
"Megalodon", like "Iron Tusk" has a solid stab at the metal midway with a
bowldering, rolling, stoner-core riff, but it simply isn't enough to maintain any
degree of excitement. And what the Herman Melville were they thinking with "Naked Burn"?
Its insipid, Nirvana like crooning is utterly incongruous and decidedly unwelcome, but because of
Relapses's infernal copy protection you can't even skip this track properly [lose this next
time please, makes listening [reviewing] to a poor album even more of a fucking chore]
I listened to Leviathan about 6 times, just to make sure I wasn't being a total
cunt by not liking it [once drunk, which is always the primer when testing the
mettle of an album as it were], but I'm just not arsed about it. "Leviathan" is no where near as
intimidating or coherent as "Remission" –"Leviathan" is an ill-defined, tangential and
somewhat chinless affair... and, like, where's the metal Mastodon gone????? It's been scupper'd and gone
down with Ahab and rusted mate, as this emaciated carcass is nowt but an algae
clogged, emo skeleton.
Mastodon, file under: Endangered Species! [This album is about as metal as a Playmobile nannygoat]
STANCE RATING: ZERO STANCE
jason
|
|
|
|
THE MIGHTY NIMBUS
"S/T" [ CD - Threeman Records ]
Sometimes I just dig on a movie title or a band's moniker immediately, ...and ditto to The Mighty Nimbus;
something about the syntax N-I-M-B-U-S cracked me up straight away, and so my sonic palate was
all aquiver for the possible hard riff, fuck-fest within.
Again, The Mighty Nimbus "smirks" has a righteous metal pedigree; Erik [ATP] Larson on
electric G-TAR, Minnesota Pete Campbell [Sixty Watt Shaman] lead G-TAR and Dan Soren [Sixty Watt Shaman] on
Vox, and naturally 99% of the MTV blinded world has no fucking idea who these splendid fellows
are but those with more refined musical tastes should be excited. Should they... really?
Well, I actually found myself slavering like a randy pussy cat, cock deep in a catnip
minge when I first heard the pendulous, sludgathonic wah-wah intro to "Everything I see", yes, methinks
TMN may well have the musical chops greasy enough to get a juicy thunder groove on.
What The Mighty Nimbus lacks in originality, they more than compensate within maximum
voltage and a set of guitar tones so dense 'King Kong' could use them as body armour.
TMN have the burly truculence of a full bore Earthride coupled with the weighty destroy
all monsters girth of vintage E-wiz [infact track 4 the sublimely titled, "Drinkin On A Pile of Skulls" is
a blatent Jus Oborn steal, but fuck it, if ya gonna steal, steal from the best!].
Indeed TMN deliver the kind of bowel loosening frequencies that are so often lacking in modern metal, and they
have the ultimate power of doom seared deeply into their rancid hides, penetrating all the way to
their blackened bones.
Fortunately the southern flavas here have been minimized, so ultimately what we get is a fuck
off LOUD riff rock album, that unrelentingly piles on gargantuan leg buckling Doom riff
after Doom riff, from the instant classic album opener "Everything I See" to the final KO of "Born
Too Late."
But paradoxically the album's strength, it's CRUSHING HEAVIOSITY is also it's
Achilles heel as there are little deviations from type... aside from one pleasant respite with the
tasteful acoustic shadings of track five, "Fenrir" -otherwise it's a thunderous overkill of booze-bluze
sludge all the way.
Outside of my quibbles about TMN having a singular take on doom [they don't] BUT goldarnit! this album
really does contain some of the most devilishly addictive doom grooves around, and Dan Soren’s choking
on fiery locusts growl adds a weighty gravitas to The Mighty Nimbus’s agenda... which I imagine is
to terminate all speaker cones with extreme prejudice.
I dig on Charlie Bronson movies because they are simplistic exercises in bludgeoning
macho brutality and the same could be said of The Mighty Nimbus [Damn, I just love saying that!] THE
MIGHTY NIMBUS! I digress -Fuck it!!!
TMN are Stonehenge heavy and generate a stupefying aural barrage of brutish, ominous Doom
riffage that any low-end fiend will lap up in a crack hit frenzy.
And their cover of "Born Too Late" is so good I almost smashed my own face in, [when I get excited
I need to smash something, and I generally tend to be the nearest object to hand!] TMN take the
unholy dirge of St Vitus and manage to secrete an extra sickly inch of glutinous depressive
tar all over it, and Dan Soren excels with a magnificently intense vocal performance
here... KUDOS BUDDY! And whoever produced the album did a sterling job.
The highlights for me are the wah-wah from hell, scuzz riff of "Everything I See" and the stunning 'Vitus
cover... If you simply need to bang the head that does not bang, you need look no further
than... THE MIGHTY NIMBUS!
STANCE FACTOR: MAXIMUM!
jason
|
|
|
|
ON TRIAL
"LIVE" [ CD - Molten Records ]
On Trial are a pretty peculiar sounding band. My previous experiences with
them left me a tad confused in that you could tell that they were trying
to forge out a new sound, but hadn't quite managed to avoid sounding like
a lot of different bands all at the same time.
Their new offering, a live album, expands the studio material into having
a more jammed out, psychedelic feel which works pretty well for their type
of material.
My original thoughts on sound were that they sounded a little like Blue
Cheer, heavy psychedelic rock [a cover of "Parchment Farm" reinforces this],
but, as the album unwinds, liberal use of wah-wah and spacious ambient
sections ["Jam"] gives them almost a Neil Young jamming with Fields of the
Nephilim type effect. Not to mention "Downer" which basically sounds like
it came straight off an early Monster Magnet album.
On Trial sound partly gothic, partly classic 60s psychedelic fuzz rock,
partly angsty 70s arena rock and part classic space rock. All topped with a
vocalist that sounds on occasion frighteningly like Michael Stipe of REM.
Go figure.
>From not really liking the material on the studio releases, On Trial succeed
in getting their eclectic message across with this live release.
And I'm certain the audience noise is totally fake! The record sounds like
it's either live off the floor at the small club or off the floor in a
rehearsal room with the crowd [taken from god knows where!] overdubbed.
Quite tongue in cheek!
A recommended album for all fans of virtually any genre whatsoever!
a.
|
|
|
|
OZRIC TENTACLES
"SPIRALS IN HYPERSPACE" [ CD - Magna Carta Records ]
An unusual choice for Roadburn, but I'll admit to being a huge fan of
the Ozric Tentacles and have been for nearly 20 years now. The Ozrics
produce huge encompassing, ever-changing tripped-out instrumental jams of
the finest order and, as such, should be essential listening for
Roadburn readers!
The Ozrics started in the early 80s as a festival psychedelic jam band
and in 1985 finally released their debut record, "Erpsongs", a swirling
guitar and synth driven mind-bender of an album. Since then, the Ozrics have
gone from strength to strength by regularly releasing top-notch records
taking in a variety of styles, but always underpinned by amazing
instrumentalism.
In recent years, the Ozrics have oriented themselves a little more towards
the sequenced end of the spectrum, overlaid with stellar guitar work. However,
this doesn't detract from the sheer trippiness of the music.
"Spirals in Hyperspace" is a monster of a record, clocking in at just over an
hour of solid music. Guest appearances by ex-drummer Merv Pepler [now 50%
of Eat Static] and Steve Hillage and Miquette Giraudy [ex-Gong and now of
System 7] only add to the sheer denseness and quality of soundscapes committed
to disc.
Standout tracks include the opening thunder of "Chewier", the
Hillage-touched "Akasha" and the very ambient "Slinky", although, there's
not a single track on the record less than excellent.
To sum up, an excellent release from one of the most under-acknowledged bands
of the last two decades and a must listen, if not purchase, for any
Roadburn afficianados of all things psychedelic. Listeners who love 35007's
more recent instrumental excursions will be perfectly at home here.
a.
|
[ BACK TO TOP | ROADBURN PICKS PT.I | ROADBURN PICKS PT.III | NEW RELEASES ]
|
|
|
