Letters from a Sandblasted Land is now fully-functional bringing the best in new metal; this week find a searingly heavy Minnesota quintet tearing my blog a new hole. Get to it here.
Check back soon for more on latest reviews on Music Reviews from The Outside. The Outsider is not ready to hang up his pixie-sized reviewing boots yet.
<<<<<< For you impatient souls, see here for your essential playlist of the week.
Tip of the week: Buy/Download/Pilfer Rise Againt's Endgame. It's sweeeeet. They're back and on astonishingly good form, bringing back that punk edge that's been missing for a while.
Come again soon,
Always looking in,
The Outsider
Monday 28 March 2011
Thursday 10 March 2011
Architects 'The Here and Now'
I approached this album joylessly, expecting to find the inevitable smash, pound, screaming wail and explosive amalgamation of petulant noise that has rapidly become the recognisable backdrop to our raging, dissatisfied and disheartened British youth. It is this generations’ discontent vocalised; the striking of the match, the call for unbridled reformation, the dogged masses piling up to the palace gates like the dead against the gates of hell. As Byron noted, music is the most irresistible force in the dictation of emotion, in the commanding of man’s will. My love of music is locked into its capacity for inspiring, changing and inciting. However, when music loses this capacity because of an absence of innovation or feeling then it serves to discredit the entire cause that it has been (supposedly) championing. Metalcore had once looked to be the successor to the anarchist throne, the grimy heir to punk and social dysfunction, but in recent times its crown and sceptre have been gathering dust, with bands instead opting to chase a sound that has become all too predictable and lucrative; it had appeared that this marked the end of a feeling that had started with riotous bands such as Misfits and Black Flag, all those years ago.
Thankfully the 2011 release from Brighton upstarts Architects, The Here and Now, is a refreshing and exciting reinvention of the genre. It certainly lacks the aggression of their previous effort, the biting Hollow Crown, but, as their current album title suggests, they are firmly living in the moment, much to the listeners benefit. To purists, this will no doubt look like ‘selling out.’ It certainly is a step down in intensity from their last album; the clean vocals are prevalent through The Here and Now and the musicianship doesn’t always gallop at top speed. These are two highly endearing factors though. This is a band who may look like they’re trying to break into the mainstream, but who are actually doing the opposite. In my opinion, the negative connotations of the ‘mainstream’ should lie with the reams of identical extremists and the musical ‘hardcore’ who imitate the successes of KSE, Underoath and other genre-dominating monoliths. Architects have had the cajones to mature a sound that is dark and still as full of angst as before. This step has made them more identifiable, dangerously relevant and increasingly capable of being able to play with the big boys.
Album opener, and Architect’s newest single, Day In Day Out is a fantastic statement of intent; Sam Carter spits disaffectedly ‘The years I put into this’ before the song ploughs into a huge and devastating groove, with the vocalist shifting with ease between his throaty accusations and melancholic clean lyrics. At no point does it seem that these complaints against our society are contrived; the sincerity is clear, the point is not lost. Moreover, Architects exude their youth and passion through themes such as relationships (An Open Letter To Myself), self-decomposition (Red Eyes) and love (Heartburn), without sounding self-deprecating or sickly-sweet at any point. Why can’t more bands sound like they are as genuine as this Brighton outfit? This record is cliché free, absent of any unnecessary breakdowns or fuckwit lyrics. After three or four listens, Architects’ insistent and passionate outlook will have attached itself to you.
If you’re looking for another Hollow Crown, then you will be disappointed. This is a band who have moved past their musical adolescence and have found a maturity that has been missing from their previous outputs. However one truth remains standing as solidly as before; changing pace, tone or tact is not an indication of compromise. Don’t believe me? Then you’ll end up as unimaginative and restrained by your boundaries as metalcore has become.
Always looking in,
The Outsider
Tuesday 1 March 2011
So....
For you dear, enduring people who have observed the words of The Outsider from the safety of your wooden forts and iron-clad buttresses for the last few months, I extend you my sincerest thanks. Thank you for grappling with my constant stream of drivel on an infrequent basis, thank you for enabling me to feel I have a right to write on this blog; for all of you who have weathered my words and found faith in my faculties, then there is reason to rejoice. I vow to visit this site far more frequently, to bring you more and more persversity from the darker side of music. I swear to insert my giant gauntlet of fist-fuckery into the behemoth, sweltering bowel that is METAL over and over again until deep crimson happiness erupts from every pore.
That is all mes amis.
Until next time.
Always looking in,
The Outsider
That is all mes amis.
Until next time.
Always looking in,
The Outsider
Thursday 10 February 2011
Alter Bridge 'Live from Amsterdam'
Creed were okay right? I mean they made My Sacrifice, so they can’t be bad. Right???? It’s just that they’re about as fun as an episiotomy, and as innovative as a Belgian. Now performing an episiotomy on a Belgian sounds like a opportunity too good to miss, but, alas, this is not on the cards. Creed were a big, relevant mainstream success; good vocals, consistent musicianship but almost utterly devoid of purpose and ambition. Boring is a more succinct analysis. Alter Bridge, comprised of seventy-five percent of the former members of Creed, should have been damned from the start. This is certainly not the case. If their most recent output is anything to go by, the majestic AB III, then they deserve to be recognised as one of the best hard rock acts of the twenty-first century. The recent release of this CD/DVD combination, filmed ‘live from Amsterdam’ in 2008, predates the successes of AB III, when Alter Bridge were still attributed with the reputation of being Creed’s younger sibling. Yet these are giant misconceptions, as this 2-disc set will prove.
In the past Myles Kennedy, vocalist with Alter Bridge, has admitted that the band’s live shows are what the quartet exist for; never does this ring truer than when watching and listening to Live from Amsterdam. The band are tight, giving credence to their solid musicianship, and what’s more, they are exhilarating to watch. The tracks taken from AB’s first album, One Day Remains, such as the haunting Broken Wings and the crowd-favourite Open Your Eyes are veritable spectacles of musical guile and tact thrust into an adrenaline-fuelled arena with a band seemingly proud its output, and an audience even more grateful to be witnessing it. In Loving Memory although now a live staple of the Alter Bridge set, is heart-wrenching and fails on any level to be cheesy or contrived; it stands, as it should, as a beautiful epitaph to Mark Tremonti’s deceased mother, and rings especially true in this environment. However it is the mature sound of AB’s second record Blackbird that provides some of the most engaging material throughout the DVD. The delivery of these songs is spectacular; emulation of this band in a live environment would prove a daunting task to even the experienced performer. Myles Kennedy straddles the stage, riling the crowd and pointing an accusatory finger at the corrupt and feeble political machinations that have let him, and the rest of us, down...
‘We are the disenchanted and we die with each passing day...SO WE SCREAM...’
This DVD taps into the live experience that very few music videos are able to achieve; it is a tangible feeling of excitement and pure familiarity with what you have just watched.
If the fat was to be trimmed anywhere, then it would be from the fairly unnecessary blues number Mud Bone and the Freddie Mercury-esque calls of incitement to the crowd. Yet if at any point Myles Kennedy seems smug during the performance, I think it is a well earned feeling of satisfaction; this show, two years before the release of AB III, a notable landmark album for ANY music lover, was a demonstration of this band’s potential.
Alter Bridge in 2008 was a fledgling group composed of experienced musicians. Their performance in Amsterdam propelled them through adolescence and prepared the way for their overwhelmingly crushing third album; a fitting leap into maturity. This is the year of Alter Bridge; I compel you to see them in concert.
Roll on summer and Download 2011.
Always looking in,
The Outsider
Rating: 8.9/10
My Top Ten Albums
Bienvenue to a New Year, a new start yadda-yadda…Like so much of my unaccommodated seed, my resolution to frequent this page has been spunked into the abyss by the vigorous and unforgiving handshake of good ol’ Lady Time. Ah mon dieu! There will be time to absolve later, mes amis. Why not, for now, some flavour, some perspective on this solitary wanderer, this Outsider. After all, perspective is everything…
10. Appetite for Destruction (1987) Guns N Roses
This album appearing in any rocker’s top ten is more obvious than Slash’s wry smile of amusement on the release of Chinese Democracy in 2008. Colossal bellend that he is these days, Axl Rose’s crew released this monumental homage to the drinking, smoking, snorting, sexy hedonism of the 1980s. Sex, Drugs and Rock n Roll?? Put this record on n’ watch the walls cum.
Listen: Rocket Queen
9. Songs for the Deaf (2002) Queens of the Stone Age
This album in its entirety is a balls-out affair. Set against the backdrop of fictional radio broadcasts on a drive through God-loving, diversity-hating America, Josh Homme and his Queens smash your ears to sodomy with songaftersong of fast-paced insanity. The guest vocals of Mark Lanegan infiltrate at various points, grounding Homme’s viscous and dominant lyrics. The (now-former) bassist Nick Oliveri capably dissects the record with his screaming and Dave Grohl utterly stick-fucks the drums into oblivion, especially on the opening of the title track. Humour is at the forefront, as always, with Homme’s eerily accurate caricature of the pop-schmaltz of the early 2000s in Another Love Song. Yet it was No One Knows that made this band huge; the rest of the record, however, is most definitely deserving of your ears. If your ears can take it.
Listen: Song for the Dead
8. Black Gives Way to Blue (2010) Alice In Chains
This is shamefully the album that opened my eyes to grunge beyond the confines of Nirvana, and also inspired the creation of Cambridge University’s Grungesoc (which, by the way, is a tour-de-force of binge drinking and rehabilitation through the magnificent Seattle music scene). Jerry Cantrell’s revival of Alice In Chains after the passing of former singer, Layne Staley, was a hugely commendable effort. In acquiring the superb William Duvall in his place (Layne gone but not forgotten, of course), Black Gives Way to Blue was forged after a couple of years on the touring circuit. The album’s pitch rises and falls (as a good album should), but very few records can emulate the staggering peaks and troughs of this one. By no stretch of the imagination is it an epitaph to their fallen comrade, although there are allusions to him, which are unsurprising, but instead it is a resounding acknowledgement of some of the darkest aspects of human nature, of the condition of our society. It is also backed up by heavyweight musical ambitions that deliver over and over again; Check My Brain mesmerizes and crushes with a bending nightmare of a riff. This album is as immaculate a delivery as is possible.
Listen: Private Hell
7. Thirteenth Step (2003) A Perfect Circle
Ah Maynard James Keenan. The movies, the music, a man of many talents indeed. The choice between A Perfect Circle and Mr Keenan’s other brainchild, Tool, was a close run race. Thirteenth Step however, is a product of the twisted machinations of a politically-driven, highly motivated and intelligent madman. MJK’s ability to harness such an eerie and alternative sound whilst exploring a variety of musical avenues is to be massively applauded. This album twists and turns and flails like a lunatic; the transcendental curse of The Noose, the ragged paranoia and obsession of Pet and the brilliant namesake track of this own writer, The Outsider. In A Perfect Circle, MJK brought the Tool sound to a more mainstream audience with startling and amazing consequences.
Listen: Pet
6. With Teeth (2005) Nine Inch Nails
Trent returned from rehab, bulked up and smack free to prove that, with With Teeth, he still had bite and balls and all the other traits of a musical leviathan. By the time of this release in 2005, Trent had proved that he was indeed king of the industrial wasteland and of the angular monstrosity. With Teeth bounced and retched its way through track-after-track of heavy metal glory. The listener does well to consider that he has the majority of his critical faculties left after the listening of this album.
Listen: Only
5. Heaven and Hell (1980) Black Sabbath
Of all the metal nobility to pass away in 2010 (of which there were a lot), the loss of Ronnie James Dio, the former singer of Rainbow, Elf and Black Sabbath, was the most poignant in my humble opinion. His monumental voice was first introduced to me on this huge metal album. Black Sabbath, who by the 1980s had harnessed their reputation as the stalwart and original metallers, disposed of Little Miss America candidate, reality show star Ozzy Osbourne, and had acquired the small but powerful RJD. This album holds an incredible majesty; its lyrics are fantastical, evoking lore and mystery and are constantly backed up by the master of the riff, Tony Iommi. Iommi himself is on career best form with the monumental solo in Heaven and Hell, the rapid riffing of Neon Nights and the ethereal character of Children of the Sea. The poignancy of this album, after the tragic passing of Dio, cannot be ignored; it is his finest, and moreover, the album that introduced the classic metal sound to me. Dio has a lot to answer for...RIP.
Listen: Heaven and Hell
4. White Pony (2000) Deftones
White Pony was Deftones at their most fat-free and crushing, until the release of the triumphant Diamond Eyes last year. It finds its place here because the entirety of the record has such a solid and complete feel, and what’s more, it is impossible to listen to it and not want to snap-necks. The only track that feels slightly disconnected is the opener, Back to School (Mini Maggit) which Chino later admitted was there at the record company’s behest. Even with this slightly incongruous opening, there is so much that is good here. Highlights include Chino’s vocal conjunction with Tool’s Maynard James Keenan on Passenger which has some of the best lyrical balance I have ever heard. Chino’s ability to switch seamlessly between mutilated screams and soaring vocals is staggering throughout the album. Sadism abounds and flushes away sensibilities throughout; ‘I pulled off your wings//and I laughed.’ On relistening to this album for this review, it becomes apparent that it is impossible to listen to without feeling fully immersed in it.
Listen: (ed. Where to start???) Feiticeria
3. The Bends (1995) Radiohead
Dirge. What dirge? The early days of Lord Thom of Yorke’s career were a much rockier affair than his more recent output. The Bends resonates with dark lyrics and vocals that transcend the edgy musicianship. What’s more, it’s starkly beautiful; in High and Dry it has the not-so-obvious ballad, painting the picture of youthful torment and loss. Street Spirit feels like you are literally watching your life just washing away. On a personal level, this was the album that opened my eyes to the zenith and nadir of musical expression. Radiohead’s magnus opus.
Listen: The Bends
In Ten, Pearl Jam achieved their voice; the twisted and intelligent lyrics, the contradictory clash of subtle and brash guitarwork; it was not just a coming of age moment for the band, but for the entire genre. The desolate, disaffected, depressed and dangerous found a voice in songs such as Once and Jeremy. This album harnesses the force of inner turmoil and desperation that is so embedded within society’s bounds. Black, in particular, screams from the very depths of its soul for the unavailable desires of its life to be silenced. Pearl Jam created a dystopia that resonates like a Brechtian nightmare, and, believe me, it will stay with you. You will struggle to find comparable beauty this far south of heaven.
Listen: Black
1. The Blackening (2007) Machine Head
2007 was year in which I lost my virginity; no not the ceremony of lustful hymen-destruction (I’m still waiting on that one), but the removal of my finer musical sensibilities. The Blackening is the finest ‘pure’ metal output to have ever erupted from the bowels of hell; in my mind I’m unsure there was ever a reality prior to this. The word devastating gets banded around my blog like a particularly contagious venereal disease but it has a particular efficacy with this record; it is a relentless barrage of noise, a rabble rousing call to arms (...Raise you fists and ‘FIGHT! FIGHT!...), a mournful statement about society’s atavistic tendencies and moreover a record that chimes with so many disaffected aspects of society. Although titled The Blackening, it is actually one of the most illuminating records ever to be released; it is about as essential as the air you breath.
Listen: Beautiful Mourning
Tuesday 7 December 2010
Every Time I Die - The Big Dirty
Review in Retrospect
Wordier than one of Shakespeare’s wet dreams, The Big Dirty burst into reality back in the recesses of 2007 rapidly slamming the ‘metalcore’ quintet, Every Time I Die, into the limelight, reaching number 41 in the US Billboard 200 Chart. The charm of ETID relies upon the psychotic quality of the penny-a-letter insanity of Keith Buckley’s vocals and heavy guitar grooves, as well as the bands insistence upon cutting their teeth on rigorous touring cycles that established their infamy as one of the most electric live performances around.
The Big Dirty built upon these unique traits, securing ETID’s distinctive sound and style as well as harnessing the awesome explosisvity that make them such a potent live spectacle. It is not an understatement to say that the lyrics bleed insanity; at some points the tongue is so far in the cheek that it’s actually licking someone else’s ear lobe. What’s more, this album was so fucking refreshing. Yes, it sounds like a man driven to distraction, wanking and laughing in the corner, but it never grows tiring, as you might expect. The clean vocals fit so well in front of heavy and sharp musicianship; screaming fills and unnecessary grunts are absent. And yes, that is a very good thing. The lyrics are quick and smart with Keith Buckley brandishing his razor-sharp tongue like a sabre. When you’re told in the song, We’rewolf, that ‘you only live when you’re ready to die’, you don’t feel that satire is being exhausted in these constant vacuous observations, you actually feel yourself making a mental note to get out more.
What is more, the guitars rip from riff to jagged riff, the drums and bass (although there was no permanent bass-player in the band at the time) are solid and diverse, and there are notable guest appearances. The inclusion of Dallas Green from Canadian rockers, Alexisonfire, in the song InRIhab sounds incredible. Although the song is not as sparky as some of the others on the album, it does not lose its potency by any stretch of the imagination: ‘I tied the devil to the tracks…can you hear the train coming?’ This song also provides some of the best drum fills around.
So get your dirty mitts on this album; it doesn’t fuck around. It just delivers and delivers until you’re exhausted, both emotionally and physically. If you aren’t prepared for an intense experience then leave this alone; I’m sure for all you lovers of milder musicianship Barry White will bring out something smooth and relaxing soon. Oh shit…
Nevermind.
Always Looking In,
The Outsider
Friday 22 October 2010
After the fallout
I think I’d like to see this place once the bombs have fallen
Sallow husks etched into the backdrop
And a glorious infection of dust oversweeping man’s inability
To wander as free and as happy as before
An emphysema that grabbed hold of the earth’s mild milk
And soured it until dark spots appeared
As dark as dried blood and as fixed upon emptiness
As the man who had watched the aftermath of this beautiful end
A line drawn between here and nowhere had to pass through eternity
And an eternity which cannot be grasped must be destroyed
For me there is a time ahead, of unknown quantity
That no longer calls like it used to
Instead it groans and screams and murmurs that I should crawl back into the bunker
And pray that more bombs will fall and the infection will quicken
As for me this space holds my key
To watching as hopelessly as I did before
As the remaining world sits in the dust and weeps…
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