A look back at 2008's Top 20 albums

In December last year I posted a top 20 albums on the Into The Void myspace and in advance of picking my 2009 top albums I thought I would have a look back at last year's picks and see how regularly I spin these records. So last year's list looked like this:

1. Grand Magus – Iron Will
2. Hail of Bullets – Of Frost and War
3. Coffins – Buried Death
4. Amon Amarth – Twilight of the Thunder God
5. Unearthly Trance – Electrocution
6. Erab Altor – By Honour
7. Aura Noir – Hades Arise
8. Thou – Peasant
9. Portrait – Portrait
10. Lair of the Minotaur – War Battle Metal Master
11. Funeral – As The Light Does The Shadow
12. Darkthrone – Dark Thrones and Black Flags
13. The Gates of Slumber – Conqueror
14. Cult of Luna – Eternal Kingdom
15. Capricorns – River Bear Your Bones
16. Ihsahn – Angl
17. Satyricon – The Age of Nero
18. Metallica - Death Magnetic
19. Opeth - Watershed
20. AC/DC – Black Ice

Out of those Grand Magus I still listen to quite regularly, it's an absolute killer. Also Gates of Slumber's 'Conqueror' I have revisted regularly in tandem with this year's release from them. It's one of those albums that makes more sense when considered in the canon of the band's work. The new album is much more consistent though and will no doubt be making an appearance in this year's top 20. Hail of Bullets I blasted to death in 2008 but have not revisited in a while, mostly because I have been pre-occupied with the Asphyx reissues and new album. Amon Amarth I listened to hell of a lot prior to Bloodstock and their Cardiff gig in October; I remain of the opinion that it's a more consistent album that 'With Odin On Our Side' but with less stand out tracks.

Other 2008 releases that I have listened consitently this year include Capricorns, Unearthly Trance, Portrait, AC/DC and Satyricon. Some of the others I don't think I have listened to for maybe 12 months such as 'Death Magnetic', 'Watershed' and 'Eternal Kingdom'. Must revisit these in early 2010!

As often happens, I discovered an album in 2009 that came out in 2008 which would have been my album of the year had I got it when it came out! The album in question is 'The Peaceful Dead' by Dawn of Winter and I WORSHIP IT!



Pop back for the 2009 top 20 list probably between xmas and new year.

New Tryptykon songs: first thoughts

Well I have been waiting to hear some new music from Mr Warrior's new project for ages and on first listen these two new cuts don't disappoint. As anyone who knows me will attest to, I think Monotheist is fucking awesome and if I was picking an album of the decade it would be probably be this. By the way, I'm not doing a top 20 or 40 or whatever of the decade as it would take months - doing albums of the year is time consuming enough! Anyway I am only listening to these songs a couple of times as I want to take the new album in as a whole when it is released in the spring. I find when you listen to advance tracks too much then they 'stand out' when you hear the whole album.

Anyway, Tom G Warrior has said these songs continue in the vein of Monotheist and would have been used as the follow up to that album. Of these two cuts, the first 'Abyss Within My Soul' is a massive sprawling dirge, earth-shatteringly heavy with Tom's familiar time-wearied growls immediately sending shivers up the spine. It's very reminiscent of Monotheist but straying closer to pure doom in the riffing than any songs from the Frost swansong.

The second new song, 'A Thousand Lies' harks back to classic Frost with it's proto-BM riffing, 'ugh' laced middle section and aggressive vocals. It's a shorter cut and the most in-your-face spleeing venting we have heard from the great man in years. Oh, and it's absolutely killer. Roll on the new album in Spring 2010!

(http://www.myspace.com/triptykonofficial).

This week's playlist

Mostly finished off the albums of 2009 that I am going to get through before the end of the month now. Still got to listen to DRUDKH's 'Miscrocosmos' and 'Dimensional Bleedthrough' by KRALLICE. The latter was wanked over in Terrorizer who gave it album of the month. I have the first album but haven't listened to it much. Checked out a couple of songs of the new one and it sounded pretty good hence the purchase. The RITUALS OF THE OAK, CARDINAL'S FOLLY and GRIFTEGARD albums came in the post this week, all of which I have been listening to on rotation and they're all killer true doom, well worth checking out. GRIFTEGARD could well be a contender for my top 20 of the year (http://www.myspace.com/griftegrd). Also picked up the CD version of THE LAMP OF THOTH's 'Sing as You Slay' which is more utter awesomeness. It's also made me more determined to ensure the Lamp show in Bristol happens next year!


Also just read that there are a couple of new Tryptikon songs posted on their myspace, I'll listen to those and post some thoughts shortly.

Music from "The Elder": A Retrospective

With the recent release of Kiss' new album, 'Sonic Boom' I have decided to revisit their back catalogue and relive my teenage years. In one of the recent interviews with the band, Gene Simmons (Bass player, Singer and general band leader) said that it was 'the best album they had released in 30 years...'. While it is a good album and some of songs truly capture the essence of early Kiss, I really cannot agree with Mr Simmons. Without even really giving much thought it instantly did not feel as good as 'Crazy Nights', 'Revenge' or 'Creatures of the Night'. However before you shout at me there is one slab of Kiss greatest that has been released in the last 30 years that I haven't mentioned, The Music from "The Elder".

I'll start by saying its fair to say that this album is by far the most maligned of Kiss' early output and was even voted the 44th worst album of all time by Q Magazine. However I'm not sure why?!?! In my eyes this beaut along with its follow up, Creatures of the Night, are two of the strongest and most experimental albums they have ever released These two slabs of Kiss greatness developed the hard party rock Kiss sound of the 70's and paved the way for the global chart bothering cock rock Kiss of the 80's. Yet these 2 albums (especially 'Elder') don't fully fit into either camp. These two albums showed (to me anyway) that the band were able to write more mature songs yet maintain that distinctive Kiss vibe (not dissimilar to the brutally under-rated Carnival of Souls...lets leave that for another blog).

...Elder contained some great songs which showed a completely different side to the band, a side that was willing to be brave and try something different as well as sing about things other than boobs, pussy and booze.(don't get me wrong these things form the lyrical foundations of hard rock but everyone knows that variety is the spice of life. Lets be honest without these 3 things my list of the 'Greatest AC/DC songs Ever' would be very short!)

Contained with the 45's sleeve was a concept album (don't let this put you off!) brimming with heart felt ballads without the schmaltzy lyrics (here's looking at you Beth!), orchestral flourishes, spoken word narrative pieces, epic falsetto singing, recurring musical themes and heart moving Ace solos that didn't for once feel like Jimmy Page re-hashes/left overs. What follows is a short break down of the songs contained on the UK/European version of the album (Please Note- The tracks are listed in the order they appear on the UK CD).

1. "The Oath" - A truly blasting opener with genuine hard rock/Heavy Metal riffage. This is accompanied by some epic singing from Stanley.
2. "Fanfare" - More of an orchestral intro to the next track really. It features some film score-esque strings.
3. "Just a Boy" - Great acoustic ballad that isn't dripping in brutally cheesy lovey-dovey lyrics.
4. "Dark Light" - A solid rocker from Mr Frehley.
5. "Only You" - A great fist pumping rocker which ticks all the right boxes,
6. "Under the Rose" - Epic, Crown and The Ring-esque scene setter...Manowar eat your heart out!
7. "A World Without Heroes" - Another nice acoustic song fronted by Gene. Check out the Unplugged version...its great.
8. "Mr. Blackwell" - A classic Gene song in the vein of 'God of Thunder'.
9. "Escape from the Island" - Instrumental - Do I need to say anymore? Not as good as Love Theme From Kiss though ;o)
10. "Odyssey" - Very, very cheesy 70's number from Mr Stanley. But you gotta love it. Who doesn't love a cheesy number hey?
11. "I" - Ah here is the genuine bona-fide lead single contender, the one true traditional Kiss sounding classic....Immense!
12. "Finale"- Sadly while this is an attempt to bring the story to a close with a Conan/LOTR film stylee sample/narrative, it unfortunately doesn't really work as in isolation its kinda pointless...but its cool nonetheless!

Artwork and Story - The cover has a mysterious fantasy film quality to it. It was certainly different as up to that point every LP sleeve had been adorned with either a picture or a painting of the band striking some sort of pose. It was also simple. A unknown person knocking on a door. But who was it and where did the door lead? I hoped some of these questions may have been answered during the course of the album or even in future releases (that continued the story). However as all but one of the narrative passages were removed on the final release version along with the apparent random arrangement of the tracks the story was almost impossible to follow and therefore the answers were not forthcoming. Furthermore I have always found the title interesting too, Music from "The Elder". It seemed to imply that it could possibly be a soundtrack. But a soundtrack to what? Film, Cartoon, Book....again something that was never cleared up. Of course if could relate to something in the story....oh I don't know!

I feel one of the major contributing factors to its lack of success was the seeming lack of support for the new musical direction from the band itself. If you listen to some of the interviews Simmons and co have given since, with Simmons saying that the only decent track was 'World Without Heroes' (oh come on Gene have you heard any of your solo stuff recently? - it makes James Blunt sound like Lennon) plus the fact that Ace hated the direction the album was taking so much that he left once it was record, its quite apparent that the change in musical direction did not sit well with some of the guys. Its also worth noting that the band have overlooked this album in pretty much every live show since.

One of the biggest complaints thrown its way by fans and critics was that it was too OTT and a tad ridiculous....SAY WHAT?!? Isn't that what Kiss is about?? Of course they are silly and 'larger than life' and that is precisely why I love 'um. Like a walking, talking, demented Japanese comic book. Therefore I think this album fits perfectly into the Kiss back catalogue and can feel comfortable and proud rubbing shoulders with the likes of Destroyer and Dressed to Kill.However you feel about it, it is undoubtedly an important LP/Chapter in 'Kisstory' as the mauling it took by the critics and fans (1st Kiss Record not to go gold) was the catalyst for the unmasking of the band that happened 2 years later.

Its a real shame that Kiss cancelled the tour for this album (due to previously mentioned 'poor' sales) as I reckon it would have been one hell of a rock show. I saw some pictures a few years back of some early stage costume prototypes that someone had taken at a Kiss convention and I must admit they looked cool! It had a Destroyer-era Kiss crossed with Conan feel and it had the potential to be awesome.

While its no 'The Wall' it certainly is/was a brave and interesting album. I just wished that in recent years Kiss showed a bit more confidence (like they did on Elder and Creatures..) in there songwriting and took a few more chances rather than just attempting to churn out Cold Gin 2. Its been 17 years since Revenge, 13 years since they reformed and 9 years or so since their 'Farewell tour' and while Psycho Circus and Sonic Boom aren't bad albums they do have a feel of a band going through the motions and I feel the fans deserve an album equal in quality to that of their early output.

All that said they are a great band and one that really do come into their own on stage. Therefore do not waste anymore time...enlist, load up and roll out, The Kiss Army is waiting! See you at the front of the mosh at Birmingham next May.

This week's playlist

Some mopping up of 2009 releases I hadn't had the chance to get before this week. Listening to new albums by bands you've really been into for years always carries with it a bit of trepidation but suffice to say, the new burnt offerings from DARK FUNERAL, SWALLOW THE SUN, COUNT RAVEN, YOB and GORGOROTH have not disappointed. Also cracked open the WITCHFYNDE chest for the first time in a while and blasted a bit of early BLIND GUARDIAN. Got hold of the songs from the AUSTERE split releases too and they are truly epic. I'll write some more on Austere soon.

The December catalogue from Black Tears distribution yielded a few gems previously undiscovered which I've ordered just in time for xmas. The GRIFTEGARD album I have been hankering after for ages so stoked to pick that up. Also checked out RITUALS OF THE OAK who could be compared to a female fronted Warning! Got that on order, check em out (www.myspace.com/ritualsoftheoak). Albums of the year list to be finalised in next two weeks so a busy heavy metal period ahead!

Keep it true \m/

Review: SHRINEBUILDER

For some reason I was not particularly hyped about getting this album, despite the pedigree. I am not a Wino sycophant and although I love Vitus, 'Lunar Womb' is the only album by The Obsessed that I own and it's a bit too bluesy for me. I don't have the Wino solo album either although one song that I heard was pretty cool. Also I am getting a bit fed up of hearing Scott Kelly's vocals this year. He crops up on 'Crack the Skye' and 'Axe To Fall' and while his gravelly croak always lends some leaden gravitas, it's almost too distinctive and detracts from the originality of the works by the original artists. Anyway this album is much what you would expect, and that's no bad thing. It essentially sounds like later Neurosis with some of the shimmer of OM and some Wino-esque bluesy solos laid in. On first spins the tracks seem quite samey but there's some killer riffs, especially on second song 'Pyramid On The Moon'. The 39 minute run time passes pretty quickly and makes it feel more like an EP, despite the lumbering nature of the tunes (and I mean that in a good way). Considering the epic sprawl of the contributing artists, the songs sound somewhat clipped and would have benefitted from some extra meat on the bones. An extra tune or some of expansion of the riffs wouldn't have gone amiss. Anyway, calling this album not-less-than-the-sum-of-it's parts is probably a tad pejorative. It ticks all the boxes and there is some stellar tuneage but it lacks surprises or any true wow factor that might have made it a stone-cold classic for me.

Filling In The Gaps: BLOOD TSUNAMI

OK if I am checking out a band I have never heard before I tend to get all of their albums in one go or at least very close together. That way I can try and appraise their collected works. If I am checking out a band with 15 albums I'm not going to do that of course but with 2-3 albums, that is the aim. I'll post my thoughts on here. Filling In The Gaps is a shitty name for this exercise, I'll change it as and when I think of something better.

I remember reading positive reviews in Terrorizer a while back for Blood Tsunami and hey, they've got Faust from Emperor drumming. The dude on the back has a Coroner shirt on – respect. Cool artwork. The debut album is called ‘Thrash Metal’. Subtle.



Let's get it over with, 'Thrash Metal' is a stupid title, even though I doubt they mean to suggest that this is the defining release of the genre. On first spin the opener kicks in with a belting riff. Some epic Swedish influences at work but managing to avoid the clichés. Not too technical and no breakdowns which is good. Some ace guitar work that manages to sound pleasantly familiar and yet holds the attention. Reminds me a bit of Skeletonwitch but it’s less of a grab-bag of black/death influences and has its feet firmly rooted in the thrash camp. The vocals are more consistent too, I don’t really like it when the vocalists in death/thrash bands swing from death grunts to singing to black metal screaming, often all in the space of one song. It smacks of too much of fence sitting. This dude has more of a black/thrash style of singing, maybe somewhat reminiscent of Tom Angelripper or the Aura Noir dude. A competent debut and a good sign of things to come.



On to the second album, ‘Grand Feast For Vultures' Not much has changed musically but this album sounds a lot more confident and includes some elements which inject a good dose of originality into proceedings. What we do have that marks Blood Tsunami out is long songs. The penultimate track ‘Horsehead Nebula’ clocks in at 12 minutes and is largely instrumental. The final track is 10 minutes as well but neither track is boring, managing to hold the attention throughout. Overall not original but still a cracking release. I am bored with so-called ‘modern thrash’ but this is so competently played by guys who know their stuff so well that you can’t help but be smile and bang along to it.

So two albums of ripping thrash, more in the European style than the US by far and with a touch of death in the blast. Well worth picking up, I would start with the second album as it's more confident and polished than the debut.

A few words about Into The Void

Well for a long time now I have been wanting to get into gig promoting. The Into The Void club night started in late 2007 as a doom-only night and as you would expect, attendance was pretty low. Nevertheless I am chuffed to be able to say that I did a fucking pure doom night even if only ten doomheads came and enjoyed it. After getting a small but loyal following I was keen not to let the night die out and so the remit of the music naturally expanded to encompass more death and black metal as well as the original doom and true metal/NWOBHM. Being into BM and DM as well, it seemed false and counterproductive to refuse to play them. After a few more club nights in 2008, Into The Void got known as the only real extreme metal music club night in Bristol and in 2009 we started breaking even on the cost of venue hire and publicity. Thanks go to Rod and Nick at the Crown for endlessly badgering the regulars to come on down and from September Nick has joined behind the decks to blast out the metal.

Once the club night was established my aim was always to put on shows and now that time is very nearly upon us. With the exception of the boys at Denim & Leather (RIP) and a few bigger shows at the Academy, Bristol has fallen by the wayside in terms of decent live metal shows over recent years. I have heard tales of the glory days of the Bristol live metal scene but such halcyon days have long past. Anyway kudos to Denim & Leather, thanks to them I have seen Municipal Waste (several times), Baroness, Kylesa, Isis, Boris, Earth, Jesu, Grand Magus and many more killer shows lost in the mist of time. Since their hat has been hung up I am determined to get more decent gigs on at the Croft, and maybe the Junction as well and we’ll see where we go from there. The goal is to try and put together a one-day festival a la Damnation in Leeds. There is no reason not to aim for being able to put on a show like this in Bristol in a few years so watch this space. The more people come to the early shows the more likely we can work towards a Bristol metal festival in the near future.

Since making enquiries with other promoters and wannabe promoters in Bristol I have had some great advice and enthusiastic comments. Thanks as well to Mr Fin of the mighty Land of Nod for his advice and assistance; for the foreseeable future we will be jointly promoting some shows and seeing how we get on. Watch this space!

Why bother writing a blog?

Well we have the myspace page and the facebook page to promote the club night and the live shows (more on that soon) but I need another forum to try and foist my opinion of albums, bands, music and other scene shit on people. So here I'll be offering some comments on bands, reviews of new releases and shows, discussion of festivals and whatever else. Feel free to susbscribe, you might learn something.