Hifi Pig

You’ve all heard the hype.  First album with Ozzy in 35 years, Brad Wilk of Rage Against the Machine replacing Bill Ward on drums, yet another metal album referencing the number 13, a huge world tour etc etc, blah blah.

Sure it’s big news.  Massive in fact.  The whole rock world has been salivating over the prospect of an Ozzy-fronted Black Sabbath since the news of “the second coming” was leaked a year or so ago.   For my part, I was sceptical to say the least.  Tony Iommi is ill with cancer, Ozzy is…..well, his history of gargantuan amounts of substance abuse is abundantly clear in his persona, and besides the recent addition of Brad Wilk, they’re all REALLY old!  Was my scepticism justified?  Are they still the kings of metal? Well….

13 wastes no time with intros or build-ups.  The opening track “End of the Beginning” roars instantly to life with a chugging riff from Iommi which is immediately recognizable as Sabbath.  This track (and most of the album really) as you’d expect, is mostly reminiscent of the band’s first 6 albums….their “classic” era if you like, and  this opening cut, while featuring some exceptional soloing from Iommi is…adequate at best.  Its relative lengthiness (8 minutes) leaves you wanting a change up fairly quickly. 

Track two (and the first single release) “God is Dead?” begins rather ponderously with some slow picked guitar and a plodding beat.  Ozzy’s vocals, particularly in the lower registers, are very clumsy at times and almost border on comical.  At this stage, you’re beginning to think “Oh Christ this is gonna be CRAP!” but… cue the pre-chorus: Ozzy really begins to get into his groove as he wails “The blood runs free, the rain turns red!  GIVE ME THE WINE, YOU KEEP THE BREAD!” and CRASH!!!  There’s the riff we’re looking for!  Evil, menacing and with just the right amount of groove.  Iommi at his best!  From this point on the track improves immensely, undertaking a meandering journey through different moods and shades of heaviness.  No wonder they released this one as the single!

It’s a good thing “God is Dead?” is near the beginning of the album as it reassures the listener that this exercise wasn’t a complete waste of time (and let’s face it, time is not a commodity the original members have a lot of  in reserve).  From this point on, the album never does reach quite the same heights as on the aforementioned track, but there’s certainly no need to fling the CD out of the player after track two.  The rest of the material is good…without being great.  There are certainly some tasty riffs, and once you get your head around Ozzy’s vocal prowess (or lack thereof) there are some classic Sabbath moments that are sure to get your heads bobbing and your horns in the air!

As far as performances go, Iommi is the hero here, as he is in most of the Sabbath Catalogue.  I mean no disrespect to the other members, but he’s probably the most musically gifted of them and let’s be honest….it’s the RIFFS that are really memorable and keep us coming back for more.  Brad Wilk does his best to be inconspicuous behind the kit and plays “in the pocket” for the most part (besides an impressive flourish in “God is Dead?”).  No complaints there.  Geezer’s bass playing is actually quite impressive, he employs some pretty dextrous runs here and there and certainly hasn’t lost his touch.

My biggest complaint about this record is the production.  Far be it from me to question the mighty Rick Rubin, but the clean and modern production has none of the dark and menacing ambience that the early Sabbath albums had.  I mean sure it sounds “good”….the drums in particular are punchy as hell, but it’s just too….2013!  Where’s the reverberance?  Where’s the atmosphere that made those early albums sound like they were recorded in the dank and ungodly catacombs of some monstrous cathedral?  For an album that is essentially derivative of the band’s ’70s output (with a slight nod to No More Tears), it could really have done with some similarly minded engineering.

The best track (and riff) by far is “God is Dead?” as previously mentioned, but others to listen out for are the Planet Caravan-esque “Zeitgeist”, the pounding grooves of “Loner” & “Live Forever” and “Damaged Soul” which features some great harmonica playing that harkens right back to the likes of “The Wizard” from their debut album.

I can’t give this album a great rating, nor a terrible one.  The band, while clearly enjoying themselves, are caught between a rock and a hard place musically.  They simply could not have released anything experimental or self indulgent.  The fans want classic Sabbath, and that’s what they’ve got.  A bad review (or possibly even this review) will surely be met with cries of “it’s fucking brilliant you idiot, of course it is… it’s fucking SABBATH man!”.

Well, I don’t care who it is.  This album is reasonable, but if I want Ozzy fronted Sabbath I’m going straight to the unsurpassable brilliance of the band circa ’69 to ’75.

6/10

Stewart Hall

Iron & Wine…sort of rolls off the tongue nicely doesn’t it?  Likewise does the name of the man who is Iron & Wine, singer/songwriter Samuel Beam.  With a name like that, what else could he have been but a purveyor of gritty folk music and Americana?  Say it again….Samuel Beam…Iron & Wine.   Cellar door anyone?

Anyhow…the impressively hirsute Beam has a cool name and has chosen his moniker nicely.  He’s been around the traps for a while now; Ghost on Ghost is his 5th full length album and  wilfully or not, he’s been lumped by music pundits into the genre of “indie folk”.  Certainly his earlier works befitted such a categorization, containing a sort of dark brooding tension found elsewhere in the alt-folk/country macrocosm, particularly in the music of the likes of Bonnie Prince Billy or Calexico. More »

No names, no faces, no identities, a ghoulishly papal stage presence & 2 albums….and we have Sweden’s Ghost.  There’s been much hype surrounding their sophomore effort Infestissumam (Latin for hostile), and none of it appears to be self-propagated.  The metal community seems to have gone bananas over it for whatever reason and praise for them/it has spread like wildfire on the back of their unique live shows.

So what’s a reviewer to do when presented with “the next big thing”?  Why, pick it up and put it to the critical sword of course!

First of all…this album is barely what I’d call metal.   There are elements of it; a couple of chugging Metallica-esque riffs here and there and occultist lyrical themes, but for a band which has been erroneously (and presumably unwillingly) branded as “Doom Metal”  this album has some real surprises in store.

The record opens with the short title track….beginning with some A capella vocal harmonies which border on Gregorian chants….(a theme that is repeated throughout the album at various stages), but it quickly morphs into the pulsating atmospheric hard rock of  “Per Aspera ad Inferi”.  More »

Any new release from The Flaming Lips is sure to be met with a degree of anticipation from critics and fans;  they’ve recently put on some spectacular live shows and their catalogue of work contains some absolute classics.   So when a band with their kind of reputation releases an album called “The Terror” you can’t help but be intrigued about what sonic madness it might contain.

The Terror is a concept album and getting your head around the lyrical theme is fairly important.  Basically, the terror which Wayne Coyne sings about is the fear of life without love.  That no matter the terrible circumstances you may be in, life goes on….and that is the terror:  continued existence.  This is very personal to Coyne as he recently split with his partner of 25 years, so you’d expect this record to be harrowing and representative of its title wouldn’t you? More »

15 albums in nearly 20 years.  So is the celebrated career of Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds.  Their last offering Dig, Lazarus, Dig!! was released in 2008, but sating Cave appetites between the aforementioned and this release was the energetic Grinderman project which was a veritable adrenaline rush compared to most of the (impressively prolific) Nick Cave discography.

Hanging around from Grinderman is Warren Ellis (The Dirty Three), and also returning is Barry Adamson who played in The Birthday Party waaaaay back in the day and has also performed with The Bad Seeds in the past, but Mick Harvey is notable in his absence.

Cave’s music has long been regarded as somewhat depressing and morbid.  These sentiments are fairly accurate for the most part.  Most of his catalogue is hardly music you’d play to get a party jumping…besides Grinderman of course. More »

34 years.  That’s how long Bad Religion has been a functioning entity!  Occupying a genre not known for cultivating longevity in its participants, they’ve endured line-up changes, fluctuations in popularity and label changes and are (deservedly) absolute icons of punk rock.

However to use sporting parlance, you’re only as good as your last game… so how does True North come across in the current unpredictable musical landscape? More »

This is the second album from Projected Twin, the brainchild of Adelaide local Shaun Holton.  Following on from the similarly titled, self-produced debut Earth to World, Earth vs World was made possible by the increasingly successful Pledge Music organization.  For those unfamiliar, Pledge and similar organizations take donations towards the cost of  recording upcoming albums and, in a nutshell, donators are essentially paying for their copy of the record before it’s even produced.  It’s a brilliant concept and many artists are now following this path including Ben Folds. More »

Nuclear Blast Records

Sophomore albums are always an interesting proposition.  Not only because they are supposedly “difficult”, but also because they often give a more realistic representation of a band’s sound and future direction than their debut.  Many bands skew off in a radically different direction on their second albums, eager to avoid stereotype and accusations of regression.  However, if a band’s second album is similar to their first, then you can bet that’s their signature sound and they’re happy to stick with it.  The latter is definitely the case here.  Born out of the ashes of White Wizzard in 2008, Holy Grail quickly developed their own sound and an enthusiastic fan base after the release of their 2010 debut Crisis in Utopia. More »

Sixteen years. That’s how long it’s been since Seattle heavyweights Soundgarden have released a studio album! Down on the Upside was the band’s swansong, or so it seemed at the time. No one could have guessed we’d see another album from them, much less with the classic lineup. Can a band who’ve been apart for so long produce an album that’s fresh and exciting and still maintain their signature sound? Well…

The record kicks off strongly with the aptly titled “Been Away For Too Long” and straight away you know it’s Soundgarden, particularly when Chris Cornell’s vocals kick in, as he displays his immediately identifiable wail for all to hear. His singing appears to be as strong as ever, and the band’s recent touring no doubt helped immeasurably to get his vocal chords back in shape. The tour also seems to have given the whole band a chance to refine their musical chops and has helped them to work together cohesively as a unit. More »

Byron Bay’s finest are back with a brand new album. Following on from 2010′s Deep Blue, Atlas has seen a flurry of press releases waxing lyrical about the band being world beaters and the cream of the metalcore crop. That’s all well and good, but does the album live up to expectations? Here’s the verdict…

Metalcore is an extremely tough market to crack. There are countless bands pushing the boundaries of musical possibility and Parkway drive are up against some very stiff competition. Metalcore may be at the zenith of its popularity right now, but, as with any burgeoning genre, that only means that there are ten times as many crap bands as there are good ones.

Parkway Drive, while possessing a distinctly metal approach, have never been influenced by metal to any great degree. Their influence comes primarily from old school US hardcore punk, and this is reflected in their being signed to the legendary punk label Epitaph Records. This seems to have changed slightly in recent times. There are some very “heavy metal” moments on this album. Vocalist Winston McCall still employs his trademark scream, but there are some guttural roars scattered throughout the record which suggests he’s been listening to some pretty brutal death metal of late. There are also some ‘Maiden-esque chanted vocals and twin guitar melodies, which break up the album nicely and prevent it from becoming one dimensional. Continuing the metal theme, drummer Ben Gordon executes some pretty quick double kick flurries and blast beats, so he’s obviously been on the same musical diet as McCall. More »

Every so often an album comes along that fills a reviewer with equal parts excitement and dread. A work by someone of Young’s musical credentials would seem to be best approached with caution. Critiquing an album by someone so revered in the music industry is a treacherous task. Get it wrong and you’re in for a backlash. Be too scathing and people will attack your lack of respect and reverence for a legend. The safe option is to be generally positive, but even then you run the risk of being unenviably tarred with the brush of obsequiousness.

Judging this album simply on its merits alone is the aim, however one can’t write as if Young’s previous body of work simply didn’t exist. Comparisons must and will be made with other parts of his prodigious output. It’s also necessary to explain how the album fits (or doesn’t fit) in with the landscape of popular music in 2012

Right then, now that that token disclaimer is out of the way, let’s sink our teeth into the album. It’s Young’s 35th studio album and his first original work with Crazy Horse since Greendale in 2003. It’s also his longest (and only double album) to date , spanning two discs (duh) and 87 minutes. There are thee tracks that exceed 15 minutes in length, which is fairly unusual and I can’t remember many instances of such chronological excess being applied since prog rock became a bloated parody of itself in the late ’70s More »

Neatly coinciding with the band’s 50th anniversary, this album is the TWENTY NINTH the band have released in their incredible career! Musical content aside, this album is noteworthy for a number of reasons; it’s the first album of new material they have released in twenty years, it’s the first to feature guitarist and vocalist David Marks since 1963(!) and it’s the first release by the band since the death of Carl Wilson in 1998. It debuted at number two in the US album charts (their best position since 1965) and places them second on the all-time longest span of top 10 albums list at 49 years, just behind the late Frank Sinatra who’s on 52 years.

A great many of you may be wondering why the hell the band would bother releasing an album of new material after they’ve achieved so much over the years. Well, besides the allure of potentially knocking ol’ blue eyes off top spot in the aforementioned list, they are currently embarking on a world tour and new material is usually a precursor to such things. Additionally, someone of Brian Wilson’s ilk is possessed of a perennially creative mind that must have an outlet.   The fact that he is 70 is also no doubt spurring him on to use what time he has left creatively, as he did spend a great many wasted years living as a paranoid, drug addled recluse in his Bel Air mansion. More »

This is the tenth studio album from Joe, who most of you will know from his work as lead guitarist in ’70s superstars The Eagles and James Gang. He has also contributed his guitar playing to countless other works by famous artists including The Beach Boys, Steve Winwood and Bob Seger.

Of course Joe is getting on in age these days (he’s 65) so it’s interesting to see where he’s coming from musically, circa 2012.

The first thing that strikes you about this album is the man’s completely honest and self effacing attitude towards himself and his musical ability. In his heyday, Joe was one of the wildest partiers in the rock world, his legendary penchant for substance abuse was equalled only by the likes of Keith Moon, Keith Richards and Jim Morrison. In the rather tame and safe company of his fellow band mates in The Eagles, Joe stood out like a sore thumb. Indeed he used to take a chainsaw with him on tour and would liberally apply it to anything that got in his way including Glen Frey when the tedium of the latter’s golfing anecdotes became too much!

This former craziness is referenced in the lyrics, particularly in the track “One Day At A Time” in which he sincerely berates himself for his outlandish behaviour and he seems genuinely surprised that he is still with us in any form, let alone still lucid and possessed of musical ability! More »

This is album number ten from the Californian industrial metallers (if you count the remix album Remanufacture).   Famed for their impossibly fast percussive sound and innovative technological approach, the band has been around for a long time now, so….are they still at the forefront of tech-metal?

They have forgone an actual drummer altogether on The Industrialist, electing instead to utilize a drum machine for all drum parts. Ostensibly they cite “not wanting to wear out a drummer in the studio” as the reason for this. Ok, I can live with that, although their touring schedule and the fact that they do have a new drummer in their line-up (Mike Heller) suggests that the drum parts could easily have been performed by him on the album. But it wasn’t to be.

This record contains all the FF hallmarks: Super fast drumming (nice job, drum machine), rhythmic chugging guitars, ambient sci-fi soundscapes and vocalist Burton C. Bell roaring and crooning in equal measures. Yeah. So does every other album they’ve ever produced. This work doesn’t add anything meaningful at all to their repertoire. It sounds very much like they’re just going through the motions because they feel they are obliged to do so. More »

The metal community has been eagerly awaiting the debut album from Primate, a metallic supergroup featuring Kevin Sharp (Brutal Truth) on vocals, Bill Kelliher (Mastodon) and Mike Brennan on guitars, Dave Whitworth on bass and Shayne Huff on drums.

This album is most definitely metal, but it’s not what you might expect. Rather than try to outdo the current crop of prog-core virtuosos in the performance stakes, Primate have obviously been on a steady diet of hardcore punk and classic rock/proto metal. The songs are short and sharp and are overflowing with great riffs and hardcore intensity. Singer Kevin Sharp doesn’t vocalize with quite the guttural roar he employs in Brutal Truth but there are still some throat shreddingly insane shrieks scattered throughout. Like the aforementioned band however, the lyrics are mostly leftist political rants and that ain’t no bad thing in my opinion, particularly as they suit the intense and bilious nature of the music. More »

This is the 8th studio album from the Dandys, following on from 2008′s Earth to the Dandy Warhols.  So it’s been a while between drinks for the band and I was eagerly anticipating this release having been an enthusiastic fan of most of their previous works.  Prior to the album’s release, front man Courtney Taylor-Taylor had amusingly blogged that it would be called “Pastor of Muppets”, “Shitty, Shitty Band Band” or “Whirled Piece”!  Of course none of  this came to pass unfortunately.

Featuring a rather more stripped back sound than previous releases, the album is slightly harder edged than, say Come Down or Thirteen Tales… and there is more distortion present on the electric guitars and bass, but there are still doses of their psychedelic swirling pop and moody synth lines…Look… I’m not going to beat around the bush any longer.  This album is poor. It should never have been released. It should be stricken from the record forever.  It sounds for all money like a feeble watered down attempt at  aping The Velvet Underground or The Stooges.  There are an annoying amount of effects on Courtney Taylor-Taylor’s vocals, and the album shifts inconsistently from drab and lethargic rock numbers to unimaginative and vapid slower musings.  Courtney’s vocals, when not effect-ruined, sound terribly akin to a pathetic combination of a lazy, crooning Iggy Pop and a terribly out of tune Jim Morrison. More »

This is the second album by Leo Kottke and one that possibly contains a few of his better known tracks too.
The album features (as the title suggests) a number of 6 and 12 string guitar solos, which are for the most part pretty engaging and upbeat in the American Folk Guitar style.  In fact the whole album consists of some pretty hard driven guitar plucking show-casing Kottke’s style and talent.  The pick of the album for me has to be “Vaselene Machine Gun”.  Here, we hear Kottke at his best.  This is a very complex, hard charging and hugely rhythmical guitar piece played with energy and rare talent.  Every note is perfect, and the use of a guitar slider adds atmosphere and a hint of Southern Blues to the playing.  It starts slow, but with intent, then picks up the pace with some great 12 string guitar action played at lightning speed. No better than Jack Fig or Coolidge Rising which are also on the album, just a more memorable tune perhaps.
Unlike some of Kottke’s later albums, there’s no lyrical accompaniment on this album, indeed the album notes contain Leo’s famous apology for his voice sounding  ” like geese farts on a muggy day”! as an excuse just to concentrate on playing his guitar through some fast tempo’d music which has a very distinctive tonality.  Kottke was to pay for his playing style and frequency of practice as in later years he developed tendinitis, forcing a change in his later playing style.  Thankfully, he didn’t suffer from this when recording this album.
Some of the pieces you will recognise, such as Kottke’s take on Bach’s Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring, here played with delicacy yet with a hint of Kottke’s style, just enough to make the piece his own.  Other pieces have a fusion like quality that is almost indefinable…hints of Sitar come and go, making you wonder where the inspiration came from.  But that’s the point, it’s music that engages the thoughts as well as the emotions.  If hard paced steel string acoustics isn’t your bag, then this isn’t for you.  If you like Blues or Folk steel string styles with a hint of turbo-charging, then it most definitely is.
Performance          10
Musical Interest        6
Sound Quality        7
Overall            7