Welcome to installment twenty four of our little fortnightly music appreciation society! We’ve got a stack of high-quality material for your enjoyment today, so I’ll just let you all get stuck in – enjoy!
FOSTERMOTHER
Houston doomists Fostermother offer up a strange brew on new album Echo Manor. Opening track Wraith sounds, to these ears at least, like a beguiling mix of Queens of the Stone Age and Ghost, but that’s by no means a template for the rest of the record. In fact with the honourable exception perhaps of riff-lead stompers Lighthouse and Rituals Unknown, doom doesn’t really seem to be an adequate descriptor for a band that veers all over the road musically like Mr Magoo after a particularly tiring night on the turps; Fostermother pick more from the alt.rock tree for influence, it seems, adding in a bit of prog by way of spice, and the result is an incredibly listenable one.
The majestic All We Know will scratch your shoegaze itch, if you have one, whilst the title track sets the controls for the heart of the nineties in fine style. This is a band with a happy knack for recreating the moods and essence of former times without ever resorting to out and out ‘borrowing’; Consequently if you’re of an age to remember when this sort of schtick ruled the (air)waves, there’s a lot – make that A LOT – of fun to be had with Echo Manor.
SOLUS REX
For those of you who prefer your doom to come with a higher metallic quota, here we have Swedish one man band Solus Rex!
The brainchild of multi-instrumentalist Peter Svensson, SR’s new EP, The Duellist’s Monologue, is sure to appeal to fans of the early years of the doom/death genre. Opening track The Iron Crown pushes all the right buttons; A mournful, stately dirge built on barely-mobile drums and glacial guitar with Svensson’s dry-throated utterances sitting atop, the track rumbles along in menacing fashion with Svensson wrenching some nice lead work out of his axe to add a nice counterpoint to the blunt, ear-threatening riffage.
Second track Dead Magician is slightly more spritely, but whereas Fostermother vary their musical attack, Solus Rex batter the listener with uniform ill intent, content to let the power of the riff and the baleful emotion of Svensson’s vocals do the heavy lifting. Here at MMM there’s room for both styles, and we’re happy to recommend Solus Rex to all fans of the ‘classic’ doom/death sound!
MAMMOTH VOLUME
Phew, this is some album! Sweden’s Mammoth Volume are the embodiment of the word ‘prog’ in it’s most deliriously groovy sense. You have to be immensely talented to pull off astounding music like Black Horse Beach, there’s no doubt, but you also have to have the confidence in that talent that allows you to follow wherever the music takes you to make the concept work. Luckily, Mammoth Volume have just that, with the result being an album that rewards the listener by throwing up new points of interest and delight every time you return to it.
Of course, in ‘the old days’ it was relatively commonplace to find bands like Mammoth Volume – they often used to toss out freak hit singles as well as gazillion-selling triple albums just to keep things interesting – but now, Opeth aside, there are few band that manage to harness the spirit of seventies prog rock quite so adroitly as these people.
As an added bonus – and unlike Mikael Akerfeldt and company – MV keep things musically taut and economical too, eschewing the prog proclivity of recording songs that take three weeks to reach a climax. Only one song here threatens the seven minute mark, giving the album the sense of urgency and forward-moving impetus sometimes lacking in this genre.
Diablo III: Faces in the Water harnesses the gnomish appeal of Gentle Giant to the sledgehammer diplomacy of Black Sabbath with mischievous glee and stands out as the albums heaviest moment, but seconds later they are heading off down a jazzy avenue called Lisa in an orgy of Steely Dan-fuelled inspiration.
Sentinel Daily big cheese Scott Adams hailed this album as a ‘shapeshifting triumph’, and it’s hard to argue with that assessment. If the thought of music with no boundaries or constraints piques your tastebuds, then you must add this album to your collection!
INFRARED
Fancy a bit of straight up brutality after all that prog cleverness? Well, as it goes I’m in a position to help you out via the gift of righteous, unreconstructed thrashers Infrared!
After a mere thirty seconds of exposure to Temple of Sin, the second track on this Canadian band’s fourth album, Manifestation, I was scurrying to the loft in search of my vintage hitops and surf shorts; Without putting too fine a point on it, there are several moments throughout this excellent little slab o’wax that really will have you searching through your old thrash compilations just to satisfy yourself that these weren’t tracks you’d heard long ago and somehow forgotten about.
Nikko employs a slightly more modern vocal approach, but for the most part Manifestation is like listening to the collected works of Metal Church, Sacred Reich and Flotsam and Jetsam forced through a blender and straight into your ear canals. On the Superb Demon’s Blood – which is quite simply one of the best ‘proper’ thrash tracks I’ve heard in ages – this formula is, in a word, unbeatable, and if the rest of the album doesn’t quite reach these heights then it’s never really that far behind. Armin Kamal‘s vocals are superb throughout, and the upfront bass of Mike Forbes – a glorious mix of Dan Lilker and Frank Bello – is a joy to behold.
I’ve been a committed thrasher since the early days of the movement and I’m ashamed to say I wasn’t familiar with Infrared – who actually formed in 1985, fer chrissakes – until recently. I’m happy to put that appalling oversight right, now, however, and strongly urge you to do the same if you too have been living in blissful ignorance about this excellent outfit!
Well, I don’t know about you, but that’s one of the best sets of material we’ve come up with thus fay in my not-so-humble opinion – hope you agreed!
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