Lesados play stoner rock which has grown from the cracks of a punk rock foundation. They have the same kind of driving, hypnotic, almost robotic riffs and rhythms that were a main feature of Josh Homme's early years. When a guitarist just riffs away forever like that it creates a juggernaut of momentum. This is true of track one "Porque?", a hypnotic drill of head down riff mongering and brick wall smashing. As the song and album titles suggest, Lesados' lyrics are all in Portuguese.
On "Neblina", the band get into some slow riff doom territory, while maintaining a crusty punk edge which is always apparent in the vocals, upping the tempo for the chorus. While older Black Pyramid and Devil have a doom punk thing going, Lesados have a different feel, capturing more of the original spirit of The Obsessed in its combination of styles. "Olival" keeps the doom rolling with grooves a-plenty, once again scratching out simplistic, heavy and ultimately satisfying riffs, which seems to be a dying art.
In many ways, 'Leziria' features a misleading album cover. Where one might expect to hear some slow burning dusty crop blues inflected rock, Lesados keep a steady pace. So steady in fact that the bulk of the songs are a nearly uniform length with the exception of closing track, "Zona", an 11 minute romp which also features a hidden riff-o-rama track. 'Leziria' is fast-paced, riff-mad, heavy rock n roll. As the album progresses, the feel of the album cover becomes a little more apparent on tracks like "Cadáveres" and "Zona".
So what you're getting here is some fast paced, punk-inflected stoner rock with rural moments and insistent riffs. The doomier moments fall within the bracket of what Corrosion of Conformity is doing these days, which is a good band to keep in mind when approaching Lesados, especially on "Neblina". Best part of all, you can download this gem for half a friggin' euro on the band's bandcamp page, now.
Highlights include: "Neblina" and "Porque?"
Rating: 4.5/5
Total Run Time: 37:59
From: Alverca, Portugal Genre: Stoner, Punk, Doom
Reminds me of: Corrosion of Conformity, The Obsessed
Release Date: March 17, 2013 Better Review: Stoner Hive
Don't let this Finnish folk outfit pass you by. Tired of everything sounding the same? Well, Lovijatar is like a 40 ounce cup of coffee taken intravenously! PRESS INFO:
"12.2.2013 Helsinki
"Finnish Folk and Stoner Rock Band Lovijatar Released an Album Hämärän Kulkija
"Experienced musicians Jussi Rautio (Battlelore, Guitar) and Tommi Vaittinen (Elephant Bell, Vocals) felt a need to start to create music together. Lyrical inspiration would come from Finnish folk poetry,old believes and nature. Band called Lovijatar was born and it takes influences from progressive rock, folk and doom metal. Bands first release ‘Hämärän Kulkija’ was released in the beginning of 2013.
"Inspiration for lyrics made by Rautio and Vaittinen comes from Kalevala and other old Finnish folk poetry. Pieces of melodies have been taken from Carelian and Finnish folk requiems. These requiems have been recorded in the beginning of the 1900´s when the last traditional folk singers were alive.
"“We have picked themes from these dirges that feel natural and transformed those in to modern rock expression. Our goal is not to recreate some old folk music but to create totally new music that has echoes from the past centuries. We can not fully understand how people have felt and lived in the old forest societies but we are children of our time and we want to sound like that”, Says Rautio.
"Carelian keens or requiems (itkuvirsi) were performed in the old rituals that were connected to passing and transferring from one state of life to other one. For example a subject for a dirge could be a death of a close one or destiny of immigrant folks. Women with covered faces performed these songs at ceremonies. These songs have deep understanding towards life and what happens in a human soul. These song empowered members of Lovijatar to find a musical expression.
"“I feel that we must do music in Finnish because it is our mother language and if really want to evoke emotion we can not do it in another languages. We have lost lots of old Finnish culture and it is best preserved in folk poetry. That’s the only place where we can really go and find something ancient from our heritage. “, Rautio continues.
"Jussi Rautio and Tommi Vaittinen write lyrics and compose music. Arrangements are done by the whole band.
"Other members of Lovijatar are Mikko Neuvonen (Elephant Bell, Drums), Petrus Rapo (Boner, Guitar) and Riku Hakala (Tytär, Bass.) ‘Hämärän Kulkija’ is bands first release that is a combination of heavy riffs, melodic expression and hard handed playing. Release is bands first one and it is released by themselves. It can be heard and bought from:"
There's no other way to start a review of Black Pyramid's third album, 'Adversarial' without mentioning the change in line-up, and it's an important change. Actually, the change took place a while ago. Before Black Pyramid's second album 'II' came out in January of last year, Andy Beresky, guitarist and vocalist of the three piece had left the band. In his place now stands Darryl Shepard, a veteran musician of numerous bands and projects over the years (see his profile on Encyclopedia Metallum), including The Scimitar a new side project with Black Pyramid bassist Gein and drummer Brian Banfield (Blood Stone Sacrifice). The band name was actually inspired by the opening track of 'Adversarial', "Swing the Scimitar", but we'll get to that in a moment. The personnel shift is significant and changes the overall tone and sound of the band, of course it does, you don't replace a guitarist / vocalist in a single guitar band set up without it having a major impact.
Where Black Pyramid once embraced a hardcore punk / doom crossover sound mixed with the occasional elements of Irish folk, that trademark sound has been largely swept aside, although not entirely (see instrumental "Issus"). On 'Adversarial', Black Pyramid move toward a more head down power doom sound, a sound that is somehow more befitting the band name. "Swing the Scimitar" successfully evokes images of Arabian desert raids in the Hyborian Age. A swirling riff kicks up sand storms in the mind. Men with shrouded faces descend from the clifftops whose blades are swifter than the wind. As not only the opener but the longest track on the record, it sets the tone and locks it in, while also setting a high standard for the rest of the album to follow.
As I mentioned in my Blizaro 'Blak Majicians' review (read it!), I discovered the song "Aphelion" on the Obelisk podcast for Stoner Hands of Doom XII in August of last year. It was from a split seven inch single with Odyssey and it was Shepard's first recorded release with the band. It's a great song that was actually a Top 5 in the pre-blog Doom Charts. The song has been re-recorded here in a roomier eight minutes plus version that hangs that big riff on the clothesline and airs it out for all it's worth.
"Onyx and Obsidian" continues that Arabian desert vibe that all the longer songs on 'Adversarial' all share, particularly in the middle of this track. Thumping rhythms and killer octave shifts create a sitar feel from Shepard's guitar. The album closer, "Onyx and Obsidian" also clocks in at over eight minutes long and is the most adventurous and epic track on the album.
'Adversarial' finds that the band has moved on from what they were doing with Beresky in the fold. In many ways, it's a meatier sound that is more substantial even with only 5 tracks and about a quarter of an hour shorter than 'II'. In other ways the usually prolific band may have lost some 'real world' momentum in the process of swapping front men, but that doesn't really matter with the album in your hands and the music in your ears. Beresky, by the way, has since moved on to Palace in Thunderland and I like what he's doing there now more than what he was with Black Pyramid, while at the same time, I like Black Pyramid more with Shepard in front. Far as this reviewer is concerned, the situation, musically, is win-win.
Highlights include: "Onyx and Obsidian" and "Aphelion"
Rating: 4.5/5
Tracklist:
1). Swing the Scimitar (11:59)
2). Bleed Out (5:39)
3). Issus (3:56)
4). Aphelion (8:32)
5). Onyx and Obsidian (8:23)
Total Run Time: 46:51
Suggested listening activity for fellow non-stoners: Arriving at the sand-smothered gates of the ancient ziggurat, scale the outer wall and let the siege begin ... Better Review: The Obelisk
I don't remember where or when I heard about these guys but I know I'd had May 10 circled on the calendar for weeks, for that was the day that the Magister Templi took the altar with their full-length debut. I've said it before and I'll say it some more, I love me some old school style metal. Where machine gun guitars hack and slash through all bullshit, galloping rhythms stalk listeners on darkened streets, muted cymbals and anthemic singalong choruses finally capture them in their frenzy. That's what it's all about. You can almost feel the denim draped over your shoulders, the fingerless gloves raising a fist, head thrown back, mullets flowing in the breeze of sheer amplitude. And that's just the opening tune, "Master of the Temple."
It's no wonder that 'Lucifer Leviathan Logos' is such an accomplished debut. They've been around for roughly five years now, having up to this point released a total of six songs spanning a demo and an EP.
"Lucifer" may be Magister Templi's oldest song, as an older version appears on their two-song demo, which is fitting because it treats the listener to some melodic vocals that remind me somewhat of the underground heavy prog/psych bands that were coming out of England in the late sixties, bands like Vandergraaf Generator, East of Eden and Second Hand. It forms a trio of songs, along with "Leviathan" and "Logos" that not only form the album title but that cut through the album evenly (each of the even numbered songs) forming the overall "master's thesis" of Magister Templi, summarizing everything, all the ideas they are attempting to get across on this album.
"The Innsmouth Look" is, quite obviously, a Lovecraftian Mythos song (side note: it's funny because I only just read Marvel Premiere #s 4, 5 & 6 featuring Dr. Strange, which dealt with this subject exactly. Side note to the side note: these three issues were written by comics Hall of Famer Gardner F. Fox, one of the very first fiction writers to recognize Lovecraft's genius and pick up on what he was doing, including expanding on his beloved Mythos). It's one of the most unabashedly and appropriately doom-y song on the album and builds slowly towards the driving metal that defines most of the rest of the album. The previously mentioned "Leviathan" builds dynamically on the foundation laid by this song as well, slabbing layer upon layer of doom then metal and so on, which makes this such a well-crafted and atmospherically rich album.
Vocalist Abraxas d'Ruckus delivers a full performance, seemingly challenging and pushing himself on every song, either by crafting a memorable melody or shifting into an unnatural falsetto. Earnestly spoken incantations add the spice of danger and authenticity to the largely occultic lyrical content. It's this predilection for spoken word passages then pushing the vocal performance just past that of d'Ruckus' natural ability that lends this album a Doors-like finish, it's smooth going in, then foams up while passing through the throat.
Through it all, though it may be a little rough around the edges in places, even someone who has lost their hearing can simply feel the raw power of this album pulsing through their feet and up their spines to infect the brain like the fungi from Yuggoth.
A lot of old school metal type bands go with one sound and one tempo and one goal in mind on every song and that certainly has its place and makes for an enjoyable ride. Magister Templi however, aren't afraid to experiment with many shades to their palette while still retaining an overall feel to the album all the same. Look no further than album closer "Vitriol" for evidence of this. "Master of the Temple" doesn't sound like "Lucifer", which doesn't sound like "The Innsmouth Look" and so on. While a lesser band might have taken each of these songs and crafted seven whole albums around them with six to ten songs that all sound roughly the same, Magister Templi has produced a varied listening experience while still signing their work with a signature sound. It's a rare trait these days and rarer still to be pulled off so successfully.
Highlights include: "Master of the Temple" and "Lucifer"
Rating: 4/5
Tracklist:
1). Master of the Temple (6:01)
2). Lucifer (4:50)
3). The Innsmouth Look (5:56)
4). Leviathan (5:30)
5). Tiphareth (5:46)
6). Logos (4:31)
7). Vitriol (4:25)
Total Run Time: 36:54
From: Barcelona, Spain. Highlights include: "Pare Huarg" and
"Ocellót". Rating: 4.5/5. Release Date: January 7, 2013.
A couple months ago I wrote a review for an amazing multi-media project by the band Midnight Zombie Alligator called 'Nova Sico' (go ahead and check it out). It's an incredible mix of stoner doom and sludge with film soundtrack elements about a zombie apocalypse and one man's journey to find a cure. The band combined audio with visual and written elements to create an overwhelmingly successful project. A short while later I wrote a review of a three song demo by progressive trio Lord Summerisle for Stoner Hive (read it here). It turns David Trillo who provides guitar and vocals for MZA does the same for Lord Summerisle as well. I had no idea! But that's not even the end of it, not content to freak the world out in those two bands alone, he and Mike Kelly, drummer for Lord Summerisle, form a third, decidedly more brutal combo with Aris on bass called llord! These three bands couldn't possibly be more different from each other and I'm proud to feature the two lords here on Paranoid Hitsophrenic!
Lord Summerisle (named after a Christopher "Sabbath fan extraordinaire" Lee character from one of my personal favorite movies of all time, the original Wicker Man [1973]), thy middle name is Prog (an awkward and perhaps pretentious middle name, I know, but the musical genre itself is known for nothing if not pushing the boundaries of good taste). Kudos to this band for not only delivering an authentic slice of pure seventies progressive rock, both in terms of structure and rhythmic sensibilities, but also crafting one of the catchiest songs of the year while doing so. "Pare Huarg" is certainly the catchiest instrumental of the year to date. As a matter of fact, 'pure seventies' doesn't even cut it as this thing can go twelve rounds with anything by King Crimson, Gabriel-led Genesis and oh, let's say E.L.P. et al. in terms of rhythmic complexity. Lord Summerisle hops right over the top and stalks confidently into the rhythmic minefield of Zappa territory, joined perhaps on the front lines by burly Captain Beefheart. Got it!?! This thing is crazy!
We don't hear vocals until a few minutes into track two "1864" which throws a wet blanket on the prog fire the band started in the instrumental opener. But such a wet blanket of normalcy can only serve to dampen relatively little of the fire damaged areas, this being a raging inferno of prog after all. Guitar effects, continued rhythmic explorations / experimentations and a damn hell ass crazy structure keep this hard driving number strictly in the wheelhouse of latter day prog. However, concessions to a more typical song must be made when dealing with vocals. "Ocellót" gets this spaceship off the ground and zipping across the universe with its warp drive space rock tempo and octave shifts during the verse. All together, Lord Summerisle's three song demo is sure to please anybody with a hankering for classic hard rock, specifically of the prog / space rock strains.
I mean that, really.
It is sure to.
Hopefully, this is no flash in the pan, but a project which will deliver on the promise of this rather musically accomplished demo. A full-length album of this kind of material may draw the attention of Ming the Merciless and have these three musicians hunted down and killed for threatening the tyrant's galactic empire. That's the kind of high powered Space Rockin' Prog I'm talking about. And of course, if that were to happen, the world would be without two thirds of our next group, llord ...
After a long, hard day doing math at the prog factory, it must be kind of nice for David and Mike to open up their switchblades and just start cutting up swathes of heavy grooves. That's not to say that llord doesn't feature some of the same progressive sentiments that define MZA and Lord Summerisle, it's just not nearly at such a titanic scale. Where the rhythms rarely pause for a breath while herking and jerking throughout whole compositions on Lord Summerisle's debut, never giving poor Mike Kelly a moment to relax, llord play things relatively straight. Trillo's hacksaw riffs are utilitarian and industrious. In comparison to Summerisle, llord is sloping brow music that tosses the switchblade over the shoulder in confused frustration and simply cuts into a groove with a dull homemade shiv of mouth-breathing and ill-tempered riffs. Trillo's throaty death metal screaming tells the listener that there is no bargaining here with this madman.
llord - Demo
From: Barcelona, Spain. Highlights include: "Verro" and
"Iron Pescatore". Rating: 4/5. Release Date: January 31, 2013.
Interestingly (typically?), each of the three songs on llord's demo increases in compositional complexity, one after the other. From the 4 minute opener "Iron Pescatore" which features a fairly orthodox metal song structure, even while the musical style borrows bits and pieces from various sources all at once, to the six minute follow up "Ordell" which begins to rely a bit more heavily on some syncopation to the 10 minute closer which opens like a spilled box near the middle of the track, unleashing a horde of tritone horrors, the complexity is increased before taking over the end of "Verro" entirely with a madcap finish.
David Trillo has a real knack for penning riffs that get caught in my head. "Pare Huarg" and "Corpus Earthling" from MZA have been known to be on non-stop rotation in my noggin all night long, he's got riffs and bands for every mood. Check them all out. All three are up for "pay what you want" download on bandcamp! Click the links on the players below to be swept along to the bandcamp pages.
Before we even begin, I'm going to pre-emptively let the reader in on a little secret: I do not have as exhaustive a knowledge and/or deep and mystic an understanding of Cathedral's back catalogue as others do. I have their first album 'Forest of Equilibrium' on CD with the 'Soul Sacrifice' EP and a bonus DVD which was a major score for something like 10 bucks down at ye ole Scrape Records. Anyway, since then I've downloaded and listened to 'The Ethereal Mirror', 'The Carnival Bizarre' and Paul Chain's brilliant 'Alkahest' album, on which Lee Dorrian sings vocals. What you won't be getting here with this review is an expert's context, where this album fits in to the band's recorded legacy, nor any of that nonsense. So, what with this being a final album, if Cathedral makes reference either musically or lyrically to their past works on this album, it will fly right over my head. This album will be judged solely on its own merits, as it should be. Right, so let's begin then ...
Oh, before we begin the beginning ... this should come as no real surprise but Cathedral and their album 'Forest of Equilibrium' were one of the first doom metal bands and albums that I discovered. In fact I was so new to it, I didn't even realize that it was considered doom metal. I wasn't even looking for doom, per se, when I found them. I found them on Decibel magazine's Hall of Fame records thing, I listened to a track on youtube and went down to Scrape and picked it up, and though it took a while for the record to grow on me, I've been a fan ever since.
Okay, time for some truth now. What I'm doing is avoiding the issue of actually getting down to reviewing this thing. I don't want to do it really. This being their acknowledged swansong, there's too much finality to it all, it's so hard to let go. It's a fact that looms over the record thematically as well. The ambient, crow cawing intro "Entrance To Hell" is a bell-ringing call to "Bring out yer dead!" and leads into the 11 and a half minute "Pallbearer" (there's that death theme). Most noticeable of all are some of the lyrics which are well worth looking into: "Living in the shadow / of the damned Cathedral" jumps out at you as do the lyrics of the lead single "Tower of Silence". If one wanted to read into them, the lyrics would certainly appear to tell the story of a conflicted Lee Dorrian who on the one hand is happy to shuck the carapace of the band he has made an institution while at the same time suffering some doubt and anxiety about doing so.
One gets the feeling however, that Dorrian and co. have moved on creatively from most of what Cathedral represents. One of the band's most signature techniques, that being Dorrian's sing-songy vocal style so familiar and prominent on the earlier albums, makes but brief appearances on "Pallbearer" and "Infestation of Grey Death" and is largely muzzled. But the riffs are there, the vibe is there for one last blaze and the effort is genuine. At the end of the day, it's a good job that they didn't just phone the effort in, because knowing this to be the last album, the feeling is that fans might have been happy with a 40 minute album but they went full bore and gave the listener a full 56 minute farewell.
Photo by Ester Segarra.
The morbidity expressed on this record begins to play out like a ritual by the midway point of "An Observation". It plays out like a ritual in the sense that a funeral is a ritual that is meant to ease the suffering of survivors by "letting the deceased depart". That's what this album is like. That anxiety and doubt expressed in some of the lyrics aren't the band's doubt and anxiety. It's yours. It's the listener's. Cathedral do a masterful job here of exhaling all that is left of the potent smoke of inspiration while easing long-time fans out of their high. Most bands just break-up and are either never heard from again or re-form 20 years later and the vibe is never the same. Cathedral go more than half the distance for their fans and for that alone they should be lauded endlessly. This album allows the band to go out on their own terms. How many bands can say that?
Some twenty plus years ago Cathedral created a monolith. Without a doubt Cathedral is one of the most influential bands in the Doom Metal genre (just look at and listen to Electric Wizard's first album, then see what they went on to do) and their legacy was secure long before work even began on this album. Will 'The Last Spire' add to this legacy and win the band legions of new fans? It hardly matters. As an exclamation point on a long and varied career it's no slam dunk perhaps, but it allows the venerated band to go out with dignity and is well worth a listen. With such new wave bands as Witchsorrow, Moss and Alunah patrolling the British shores, the UK stoner / doom / sludge scene is in excellent hands, and it's all thanks to this band, who now turn it over to them to inspire the next generation of doomed and sludgy stoners.
Highlights include: "Infestation of Grey Death" and "Tower of Silence"
Rating: 4/5
Tracklist:
1). Entrance To Hell (3:07)
2). Pallbearer (11:38)
3). Cathedral of the Damned (5:48)
4). Tower of Silence (6:53)
5). Infestation of Grey Death (9:02)
6). An Observation (10:19)
7). The Last Laugh (0:38)
8). This Body, Thy Tomb (8:47)
Total Run Time: 56:10
From: Coventry, England
Genre: Doom
Reminds me of: Alunah, Electric Wizard, Moss, Witchsorrow and every other band in the doom subgenre that has come since them
Release Date: April 30, 2013
Suggested listening activity for fellow non-stoners: Weep, cry and mourn or smile. Better Review: Doommantia Dr. Doom's Lair
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