I’ve spoken about those “why didn’t anyone tell me about this band before?” moments that are actually, “I was told, but I just wasn’t paying enough attention”. The last time was Baroness, this time it’s a band very much of their ilk – Welsh rockers Taint. It’s perhaps a symptom of the fact that I’m by default deeply suspicious of melodic rock (no matter how heavy), especially if it comes from punkish roots (see this thread that goes some way to explaining why). I’m so easily bored by the stuff as it’s so often disposable and shallow. At a quick pass Taint could be bundled into the once glorious but now eternally soiled sub-genre uncomfortably labelled post-hardcore. Taint however are a different beast entirely, and All Bees to the Sea is the very case in point.

Taint clearly have a keen ear for melody. All Bees to the Sea, comprising of 4 tracks, is immediate in that sense. However, rather than shelter in cookie cutter naval gazing like much of the rest of the modern post-punk crowd, Taint have clearly been bathing in the sludge-groove experimentation of the likes of Baroness and Mastodon. These 4 razor sharp tracks display a deceptive amount of complexity that never overshadows the melodic punch. There’s a psychedelic air that at times evokes the spirit of 90’s psych-punk underdogs Warrior Soul, others the post-hardcore of Prong or Helmet. However, the EP’s true Baroness inflected beauty comes to fruition on the 12 minute prog-out that is the title track – super-sized and utterly satisfying.

All this in four songs – it’s quite remarkable. All Bees to the See is the sound of a band enjoying themselves and really flexing their creative muscle – I can’t wait to hear what they come out with next!

What I spent my hard earned cash on recently.

Worm Ouroboros – Worm Ouroboros
Canadian label Profound Lore’s obsession with eclecticism continues with the addition to their roster of Worm Ouroboros who could only be attributed to the metal genre in the broadest sense. By some definitions this could be considered post-rock, as many of these slow building tracks would stand firm without the vocals. However, the inclusion of the gorgeous female vocals provided by Lorraine Rath and Jessica Way help this transcend that oversubscribed genre and a strong folk influence sees this record floating dreamily between ethereal passages building to harder more metallic sections. There’s a sense of foreboding apparent throughout the record but it’s far from a being bleak affair. Both beautiful and haunting – a real triumph.

Cobalt – Gin
Cobalt’s vocalist/lyricist Phil McSorley can generally be found stationed with the US army in Baghdad. He’s not particularly fond of people and has seen some stuff that would mentally handicap most of the rest of us. So it’s not really surprising that Gin is a snarling, nihilistic affair. Bundling this in the Black Metal pigeonhole would be lazy, as there’s so much more here than the misanthropic BM stylings. The opening track Stomach is slimy, oozing sludge, while elsewhere we’re treated to doom, more traditional BM, proggy sections, and some good old fashioned riffathons. Ecclectic indeed, and thoroughly entertaining. Yet another gem in Profound Lore’s crown and one of the best albums of the past year.

Harvey Milk – s/t
Too many moons ago to mention the master tape of Harvey Milk’s first album was recorded and sent to a label who claimed to want to release the album. That tape, and as such the album, went into the void for the intervening years before being discovered, restored and turbo-charged. S/t is a frenzy of noise and fuzz and all out amplifier abuse, as you would expect from these noisenicks, and it sounds glorious.

Tombs – Winter Hours
Blackened hardcore? Why on earth not! Winter Hours sees Brooklyn’s Tombs trudge through bleak, nihilistic hardcore, interspersed with snarling BM passages. There’s melody and beauty within the cacophony and some slick songwiritng. Like a slightly less angry Cobalt, Tombs are taking the blackened arts into more (dare I say it) commercial climbs. Good on ‘em!

Teeth of the Sea – Hypnoticon
Teeth of the Sea’s Hypnoticon is tasty little EP of semi-electronic, droning, psychedelic rock. Sometimes evoking guitar prone electronica of groups like Propellerheads, while others moving into ambient jazz territory this is the cheery antidote to acts like To Blacken the Pages and Nadja. Fun, although not particularly essential.

Portal – Swarth
Portal’s grimy, messy and insalubrious music swelters and splutters like a corpse in a Brisbane sewer. Labelled death metal, this surreal and supremely ugly noise perhaps sits better within the BM camp (not least because of their creepy stage names and garb), however a disfigurement of the musical form such as this has seldom been achieved in that genre. There’s some real creativity in here and a dedication to sonic perversion that’s hard to knock. Swarth has a ramshackle charm and surrealist lyrics are at times hilarious, but it’s hard to see how someone could seriously enjoy listening to this. Seriously uneasy listening.

I don’t often act on (or in many cases listen to) unsolicited review requests that arrive via Myspace mail, but the one I received from Fuck the Facts caught my eye. Firstly, they actually bothered to personalise the message, secondly they offered to give out their tracks to anyone who would review (or in any way promote) them, and thirdly they mentioned that they were self releasing. I get countless grammatically dubious mails via Myspace (not to mention the ones via direct email, blog comments, etc.) that say something like “nice profile, hows trix check us out if you get a sec , if not that’s cool” (that’s a real one from a band who shall not be named) and expect me to bother spending time listening to, and reviewing their band when they can’t be bothered to even formally introduce themselves!

By chance I also saw Cosmo Lee’s review on Invisible Oranges so I decided to check them out. The music is an amusing mix of early Dillinger Escape Plan (minus the jazz/spazz) with elements of black and death metal (most notably Morbid Angel) which could broadly be described as Grindcore. A must for fans of Ted Maul and their ilk. It’s short, violent and to the point. Excellent stuff.

What’s more interesting is the way they are releasing it. They’re doing a limited run of  500 copies of the EP on vinyl, the packaging of which is hand made. Anyone who orders it gets a code to go download the the MP3’s for free. This is enterprising and very forward thinking and anyone who’s spent any time reading my overly impassioned musings on self releasing will know that I approve. It also has a real personal touch that will make the hard copies very collectable. The download mechanism is handled by a site called Bandcamp, which is totally new to me. You can stream your music and offer both free and paid downloads (including an option to off ‘pay what you want’) and well as generally promote your band. It’s an interesting service and one that I’m going to write a bit more about – watch this space.

So go give Fuck the Facts a leg up, because this this sort of behaviour should be rewarded!

If I handed over an unlabeled copy of Myth and said “what you have here is the lost Opeth album. You know, the one that was recorded just after Blackwater Park and was collaboration with Katatonia but was never released” the less acquainted Opeth acolytes out there may well believe me on hearing it.

It’s impossible to talk about Stone Circle without mentioning Opeth – their debt to the Swedish masters is plain. However, the Brighton quartet aren’t simply a carbon copy. While Opeth tend towards 70’s prog groove and bleak, black metal atmospherics, Stone Circle bludgeon us with brutal death reminiscent of Morbid Angel melting into plaintive Katatonia-esque goth rock. Lacking the history and maturity of either band Myth doesn’t traverse the aggressive and melancholic as smoothly as Opeth and lacks the gothic majesty of Katatonia. That said there is some exemplary song writing here – moments of crushing heaviness and emotionally charged melody knitted together with a dark lyrical narrative. Epic, progressive and complex, Myth reaches musical highs most of their contemporise can only dream of.

Any criticism seems harsh when you consider that Stone Circle are unsigned Myth is entirely self released. This seems unjust given that the labels will rush out to sign 2nd rate carbon copies of bands who sell a couple of thousand units. The fact that a band of Stone Circle’s quality hasn’t been signed yet is as clear a sign of the skittishness of the music industry currently as you’ll see. Myth is accomplished and genuinely compelling. Stone Circle will need to step out from Opeth’s stately shadow to really stand out, but with the talent on display here I can’t imagine that this will be too difficult.

What I spent my hard earned cash on recently.

Napalm Death – Time Waits for No Slave

I was avoiding this album. Napalm Death’s endless procession of ferocity without subtlety is all very entertaining, but it gets a bit tiring after a while. Coupled with the fact that the metal press always seems to laud every album with similar levels of semi-deserved praise (perhaps to emphasize to the kids – who probably don’t care – how the old geezers can show the younguns how it’s done) means that I view every ND album with a little suspicion. Perhaps ND should have named this album ‘The little press who cried wolf’ as it is a minor revelation. ND have opened up their sound to melodic and thrashy flourishes just enough to give their sound a dynamic punch without compromising their brutal legacy.

Between the Buried and Me – The Great Misdirect

This is how imagin BTBAM songwriting sessions to go:

“Dudes, we topped ourselves this time, that one clocks in at 12 minutes and we don’t repeat a single bar!”

“Yeah, we totally own, like this great 70’s prog band I’ve been listening to [substitute any obscure 70 prog]“

“Who the fuck are they? I’ve never heard of them, why didn’t you mention them before?”

“I only just discovered them when on my weekly charity shop spree”

“Shit shit shit! So basically what your saying is that in all of the songs we’ve ever recorded we’ve referenced every other prog band that ever existed and made them shit hard with death metal and stuff, but not this lot. Shit. We’re going to look like real idiots!”

“Maybe we should rewrite the new album and reference them in all the new tracks, it’ll make them longer too.”

“Fuck yeah! And we can throw in some Jonny Cash sounding shit as well then folks will know we listen to stuff other than prog.”

“Yeah! How clever are we?!”

“Dude, fuck yeah! We are the SHIT!”

The Great Misdirect is too ponderous for its own good. There are some good moments, but it exudes self-satisfaction. BTBAM need to learn the meaning of the words subtlety and restraint, as they are the cornerstones of good art. Not nearly as essential as they and everyone else seems to think they are. All fanny and no craic.

Krallice – Dimensional Bleedthrough

Krallice should have named this album Genre Bleedthrough. Generally blugeoned into the Black Metal pigeonhole, Krallice are in reality something else entirely. Adopting BM’s buzzsaw ferocity Krallice fashion something that’s subtly melodic, complex and deeply textured – it sounds like BM, but it doesn’t feel like BM. There’s plenty for prog/post/black metal and even hardcore fans here to get their teeth into, and at its best (as with the title track) sounds like state of the art modern metal. However, Dimensional Bleedthrough’s tendency meander in directionlessly and the tracks’ tendency to outstay their welcome makes it hard to really stay tuned for the whole thing.

Keelhaul – Keelhaul’s Triumphant Return to Obscurity

Keelhaul are the missing (or perhaps obscured) link between Pelican and Baroness. Unfortunately it lacks the character of the first and creativity of the second. Not that this should put you off, they’re two tough acts to beat, and if you’re a fan of either there’s a lot to love about this album.

Eagle Twin – The Unkindness of Crows

Eagle Twin’s stripped down and improvisational doom takes the drone of early Earth and minimalist tendencies of Om and fashions them into a gnarled, grimy epic. Gentry Densley’s hoarse growl and arid rattling guitar guide us on a gothic journey that’s often abstract, ocassionally melodic and always unsettling. Sometimes bordering on the oppressive blackness of Sunn O))) others taking almost melodic turns (as on the outstanding Soundgarden evoking Murder of…) It takes a a fair few listens to get your head around this, but it’s a rewarding journey.

Let this be known by all bands: Album samplers are a really bad idea. What I mean by ‘sampler’ is a single track, usually placed on MySpace, made up of bits of other tracks spliced together. You see, I’m a huge fan of Devin Townsend. I own pretty much everything he ever recorded (including Strapping Young Lad), and not all of it is good (let’s be honest, Ziltoid is a bit pants). After hearing the album sampler of Addicted, Townsend’s second album this year, I thought “oh well, you can’t win them all”. I actually didn’t bother rushing out to buy it after hearing this. After all, attempting to record 4 albums in a year was always going to result in a bit of dross right? Obviously Townsend decided to get that over and done with on one album.

Wrong. Addicted takes a bit of getting used to. Harking largely back to Townsend’s earlier solo work, these darkened pop songs are about as far removed from SYL as he’s likely to get, and a massive departure from the progish restraint of quartet opener Ki. There’s heaviness here aplenty but it’s tempered by Townsend’s keen ear for melody. Vocal duties are a tag team effort between the bald one and Dutch chanteuse Anneke van Giersbergen, which sometimes feels a little disjointed, but for the most part softens and brightens proceedings.

This collection not only hangs together, but taken as a whole is actually quite affecting. Even ill-advised Coldplay pandering dirges like Ih-Ah! don’t manage to spoil the party. Highlights Awake! and the magnificent re-interpretation of Hyperdrive (which originally appeared in more muted form on Ziltoid) will have Townsend fans slavering for more.

Addicted just can’t be digested in little chunks, it needs to be lived with, which is why the sampler was such a bad idea – it just doesn’t do the album justice. This is no shallow pop album, but an asserted statement from one of metal’s grand conjurors. It’s not his best – it’s a far cry from the heady heights of Terria and Alien – and I think that Ki will stand the test time more gracefully. It’s also probably his least experimental, daring or (dare I say it) zany recording. So no boundaries pushed here, just a display of first class pop artistry.

Townsend will continue turning the rumour mill on what the final 2 DTP albums will sound like. The next instalment, Deconstruction, was originally touted as SYL by any other name. Townsend has since retracted this rumour, but as long as he keeps this sort of quality up, I’m not sure if I’ll mind that much if it sounds like M-People.

Revocation’s hype stateside has failed to translate into a particularly big splash either side of the Atlantic. Their confusing mix of thrash/death and guitar god faux-eclecticism may go some way to explaining this. Broken into its constituent parts it’s very convincing indeed, and perhaps this is why Cosmo Lee mistook them for “the next great metal band” – they may well be at some point, but they ain’t there yet.

There’s some riffery to die for here driving some brutal thrash that will turn the head of even the most sceptical. But from beneath the maelstrom seeps a latent melody that sets them apart from the Death pack, although it’s often flattened by unsubtle sub-death vocals – competent, but perhaps the least impressive part of Revocation’s armoury.

Then there’s the godlike guitar virtuosity from new kid on the block David Davidson who any point he sounds like Satriani, Petrucci, Vai, Bettencourt (yes, you heard me right) among others, each with their respective stylistic ensemble. This is lovely, it really is. However, on too many occasions these virtuoso passages are clumsily tacked on the end of, or shoved into the middle of songs that they have no right to be in. Occasionally this works, but for the most part it just makes you think “That’s really cool, but why did you put it there?” This is not a merging of styles, it’s different songs being clumsily selotaped together, and it’s just a distraction from the main event – state of the art metal.

I commend Revocation’s efforts to do something different, however it just doesn’t hold together. Davidson needs to go exorcise his frustrated guitar god and make a solo album, then concentrate on making Revocation the great band they could be.

Calling British three piece TrippyWicked doom seems a little beside the point. Here there be big riffs, a singer that sounds like Ozzy bathed in the fountain of youth and given back his balls, and thundering laid back grooves. However, TrippyWicked & the Cosmic Children of the Knight (to use their full, somewhat silly, name) conjure the true spirit of early Sabbath – heavy heavy blues. The exclusion of pre-requisite occult posturing really slots this more into stoner territory, and indeed the spirit of Sleep and Monster Magnet lurks within these giant slabs of bluesy rock.

With monstrous, down-tuned riffs and melodic hooks aplenty, this presents a lighter, more mundane (in the lyrical sense) side of Doom. Indeed, at times TrippyWicked could be mistaken for a pure blues band, but creative flourishes like the brass section on Southern set them apart from either genre.

This is impressive stuff for a debut and is all the more so given that Movin On is entirely self released (check out this article on their blog for some tips on doing this). So lighten up brethren of doom, and allow TrippyWicked to introduce themselves.

Listen on Myspace

Buy on TrippyWicked.com

Supergroup. Say it out loud “Supergroup”. Does that word leave a bitter taste in your mouth? So many enterprises of exquisite promise, so much shattered hope. Approach all supergroups with scepticism, you say, and rightly so.

So is (Wino+Om+Neurosis+Melvins) > (Wino+Om+Neurosis+Melvins)? That remains to be seen, however it does add up to a stoner/doom/post-rock/prog party to which we should all turn up and revel. Shrinebuilder is a real meeting of minds. The various styles weave in and out of each other and melt, blend and bend to fit a new mould that overall is not quite any of them. It is at times, however, each of them. With Wino, Kelly and Cisneros all taking turns on the mic, you sometimes feel like you’re listening to 3 different bands, often in the same song.

That’s not to say that it doesn’t hang together. Some how they’ve made it sound like these 3 wildly different styles belong together. Underpinned by Cisneros’s hypnotic bass, and sheened with Neurosis style atmospherics and post-hardcore aggression, Wino’s trademark psychedelic guitars drive us through this eerie landscape. However, it’s the southern tinged post-rock soundscapes that really define the sound here so it transcends the component parts.

Almost a genre it itself, this is a singular debut and delivers the sort of quality and creativity that you’d expect from such an influential posse. It’s still too much of a sketch to really be the collective masterwork that these guys should be capable of, but if there’s a sense that Shrinebuilder are still finding their feet with this first offering, I absolutely can’t wait to see what happens when they do.

Buy on Amazon

Listen on Myspace

What I spent my hard earned cash on recently.

Completely failing to do the honourable thing, Alice in Chains released the controversial comeback-after-loosing-a-key-member album and managed not to offend everyone, in fact, anyone. Black Gives Way to Blue is nothing short of stunning. Dark, brooding, sludgy but with lashings of gorgeous melody and soaring vocal harmonies that evoke the spirit of Layne Stayley without kicking his corpse. William Duval does an impressive job of stepping into giant, baggage laden shoes and even manages to shine in places. However, Cantrell with his devastating riffs and sound defining harmonies is the star here…and perhaps he always was?

Megadeth never went away. Some (including me) wish they had. Mustain may have reinvented my Megadeth’s sound many a time, but he’s never managed to come close to capturing the magic of the first 5 albums (and most specifically Rust in Peace). Endgame is no exception. It maybe a tour de force of modern thrash, but it’s not hard to stand out from that particular crowd, and Endgame fails to really excite or challenge. Comparisons with Death Magnetic are beside the point (I happen to think that Metallica’s is the better album, as untrendy as that my be to admit), Megadeth are hiding their lack of creativity behind an (admittedly dazzling) array of technical expertise. Entertaining but not essential.

Ever wanted to un-hear an album so that you could fall in love with it all over again? This is what I felt about Baroness’s Red Album. Since no technology has been invented to enable this (other than perhaps a carefully applied cricket bat to the head) my only hope was that their follow-up The Blue Record would have the same affect on me. Sadly, I was disappointed. Despite the fact that Baroness are still at the top of their game, The Blue Album just doesn’t pack the same punch as its predecessor. All the ingredients are still there, but the exhilarating instrumental flourishes that really define their sound manifest as more traditional prog meandering. Although I’m still in this for the long haul the romance just isn’t there anymore.

I picked up on Every Time I Die with their last record The Big Dirty. I was charmed by their lyrical satire and swaggering grooves. Expeditions into their previous works failed to excite me in the same way. So I wasn’t particularly pleased on discovering that their new album New Junk Aesthetic was a return to the older, more hardcore sound. They obviously lost their bottle. Unadventurous and uninteresting.

Om’s groovy repetition and monotonous chanting generally either sends you to sleep or into a nirvana like transcendental plain. I generally just find it soothing. God is Good is no great departure in terms of overall intent, however the sound has taken on a cinematic feel perhaps making it more accessible to the masses. This is nice, but it actually detracts from the minimalist, hypnotic groove that really defines their sound. That said, I quite like the eastern flavourings in their own right, but I think it will leave most Om fans feeling like they only got half an album.

I’m not sure what to say about the new Pelican album What We All Come to Need. More of the same as the last album. Unchallenging but pleasant enough.

Grind Madness at the BBC documents the legendary Peel Sessions with Napalm Death, Extreme Noise Terror, Bolt Thrower et al. It’s a tonne of fun and has some great packaging. As a historical document it is nigh-on genre defining. Utterly recommended for all fans of extreme music.