BLACK ASYLUM: Anthem of Order

Produced by Darren Jenkins and Black Asylum

Released: 2009

Wyong lads Black Asylum have been moving pretty quickly to the fore of the scene in their local area since they kicked off about four years ago. Last weekend they warmed up the crowd for Cannibal Corpse and apparently did a sterling job and in the past they've opened for everyone from Alchemist and Psycroptic to Parkway Drive. 2008's full length Truths of the Blood suffered from a lack of direction and some songwriting lapses, but it was obvious there was a really good band hiding away in there.

So it is then that "Anthem of Order" shits on it royally. As decent as Truths was in spite of its inherent weaknesses, this EP almost sounds like it was made by a totally different band. Black Asylum has done everything right here. Instead of a full length that tries to be everything to everyone, this time they've picked a handful of tracks that show what they do best. And with production duties handled by the guy who was once the drummer for Australia's answer to Pantera, Black Asylum had a veritable expert around to help them crystallise their vision. That vision: modern groove-laden thrash.

"Smoke and Mirrors" gets things underway in precisely the right direction and things only continue to get better from there. "25 to Life" and "Face the Silence" take the opportunity to step up into near-death metal territory and "The Last Day" has an enormous bouncing groove that refuses to be pacified. Occasionally a glimmer of their influences shows through -- a riff here, a melody line there -- but it's never for long enough for Black Asylum to sound like anyone in particular. Thick, catchy riffs and grooves, a stomping rhythm section, sharp soloing and raspy vocals that can also effect a nice croon, "Anthem of Order" is a fine example of Aussie metal done right.

1. Smoke and Mirrors
2. 25 to Life
3. Face the Silence
4. The Last Day
5. Subtlety
6. Black as the Crow

Rating: 82%

RIVERSIDE: Anno Domini High Definition

Released: July 2009

A few years back I had the unpleasant experience of being exposed to Pain of Salvation's convoluted, bewildering and absurdly over-indulgent Be album, an indecipherable and unwieldly piece of shit that made me stop listening to anything remotely like it for quite some time (actually there is nothing remotely like it. It's like the Zardoz of prog). That was until I discovered Polish band Riverside. Essentially, they are all the stuff you love about prog, and nothing you hate. Like the equally wonderful Porcupine Tree, they restored my faith in this genre. Three albums later, not only do they continue to shine, they have created nothing short of a masterpiece.

It's really no coincidence that I mention Porcupine Tree, because this Warsaw quartet's music has distinct similarities to them as well as to Dream Theater, especially with respect to Michal Lapaj's keyboard sound and in Mariusz Duda they have a vocalist to rival Daniel Gildenlow. Since Lapaj joined after their first album, Riverside has been closing in on a more metallic style and Anno Domini High Definition certainly steers them in a heavier direction without compromising the various melodic, gloomy and atmospheric ambient elements they have used in the past.

"Hyperactive" floats in on a melancholy piano melody until marching drumbeats, swirly keys and an unmistakably metal guitar riff begins to fade in from about the 1:08 mark, soon afterwards joined by Duda's dark, warm vocals. Like the best prog, a dominant aspect of this song's sound is the Hammond organ and even later, in the eleven-minute "Left Out", Lapaj busts out into some surging, pompous breaks that recall the greatness of Deep Purple. "Driven to Destruction" is a little reminiscent of TOOL, with the main riff a slight variation of the one from "Forty Six and 2" and while distinctly more keyboard-driven, the song itself moves through the same kind of dark moodiness the American progsters explore. "Egoist Hedonist" is a composite piece made up of three movements, the swinging, upbeat middle segment of which is joined by a horns section; the last part is perhaps the album's most metal moment.

ADHD's final two tracks run well over ten minutes apiece with both Lapaj and guitarist Piotr Grudzinski turning in some eloquent and tasteful soloing and the band weaving all their influences into a cohesive and decidedly original sound. "Hybrid Times" is perhaps the high point with Duda's jazz-influenced bass break leading to a crashing crescendo of 70s pomp rock organ and metal guitars, followed a little later by trade-offs between Lapaj and Grudzinski that leads into a darker, atmospheric coda of voices and theremin.

Riverside has been seeking to bridge the gap between progressive rock and progressive metal for several years now and with ADHD they have at last achieved it. Their best album yet.

1. Hyperactive
2. Driven to Destruction
3. Egoist Hedonist
4. Left Out
5. Hybrid Times

Rating: 98%

ROLLERBALL: Submarine

Produced by Dave Talon, Luke Earthling and Jeff Lovejoy

Released: 2009

It'd been a long time since I'd heard anything from Rollerball, so to say that I was pleased to receive their new album is a bit of an understatement. Long time veterans of Australia's first wave of the retro rock movement, they seemed to have dropped off the map for a while after Oversize came out almost five years ago. I was looking forward to some of their fantastically heavy-riffing rock once again, and Submarine definitely did not disappoint.

When the title track ripped loose with the exact same riff as The Hanging Tree's "Free Ride" (one of the best songs by one of the best Sydney bands of the 90s) I just knew this was going to rule. Submarine is nothing less than a thoroughly enjoyable, truly rock-worthy collection of big groovy psychedelic stoner rock, acid blues and biker metal. The band's influences are all over this: "We Always Slide" steals part of its riff from Blue Öyster Cult's "Divine Wind" and elsewhere you can hear Kyuss, AC/DC, early Led Zeppelin and... is that Canned Heat in there somewhere? But this matters not. Because this is rock, raw and honest, where originality takes a backseat to honesty and heart. And this isn't just shameless regurgitation like Jet or the massively over-rated Wolfmother; listening to Submarine you realise how much of a shame it is that those two bands have been elevated to Aussie rock royalty while the Rollerballs of the world plug away in relative obscurity while doing pretty much the same thing only much better. Why do we need Jet when Rollerball can deliver punchy radio rock anthems like "B-Ray Boogie" and "Seasoar" and "Tame Existence" wanders around in 70s proto-prog wonderland like Wolfmother only dream they can. Dave Talon unleashes the sort of riffs that Malcolm Young or Jimmy Page would envy with a huge fat guitar tone that either of them would die for and Tenpin Bolan's versatile vocals shift gears through melodic croon to raw rocking blues growl to a falsetto without a stretch, and with "Never a Rodeo" they have concocted an immense stoner epic that Josh Homme would be proud to call his own.

Submarine is a fantastic rock album. If you like fantastic rock albums, you must have this.

1. Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
2. Submarine
3. Seasoar
4. Youth Ballad (Back to Hell)
5. Your Lullaby
6. We Always Slide
7. The Devil's Reprise
8. Run Aground
9. Tame Existence
10. B-Ray Boogie
11. Never A Rodeo

Rating: 98%

RAVAGE: The End of Tomorrow

Released: 2009

With an old-school name like Ravage and a wonderfully old-school cover by the legendary Ed Repka, The End of Tomorrow held a lot of promise. But by only halfway through the first track I was already disappointed. Halfway through the first track! Having kicked around on the Boston scene for 14 years and been championed by no less a figure than Metal Archives’ notoriously elitist Ultraboris (who helped them release a string of badly-recorded live albums, one of which was done instrumentally when their vocalist failed to show for the gig!), Ravage finally hit the jackpot with a signing to Metal Blade earlier this year. Frankly, I fail to see what the fuss is about. There’s a philosophy that suggests that in a market flooded by unremarkable, samey-sounding modern bands that anything retro must naturally be good simply because it is retro, but this is one album that proves such thinking is nothing but bullshit. There’s a reason why modern metal sounds the way it does, and that’s because if it sounded like Ravage no one would listen to it except guys in their 40s reminiscing about their first Diamond Head gig.

Despite the modern production which at least gives it some crunch, The End of Tomorrow is nothing more than a collection of second-rate, mid-paced, dated-sounding, uninteresting heavy metal. It reminds me of bands like Saxon, Raven or Anvil, but at their worst. Put simply, the band just never gets out of second gear. Al Ravage’s vocals are OK in that he can carry a tune, but the tunes don’t go anywhere and the only song that’s in any way memorable is a Judas Priest cover. Really, it isn’t hard to see why it’s taken Ravage so long to score a release on a recognised label, and if this is the best they can do it might a long, long time before they have another one.

1. The Halls of Madness
2. Reign Fall
3. Freedom Fighter
4. Damn Nation
5. The Shredder
6. Into the Shackles
7. In Shattered Dreams
8. The Nightmare's Hold: Pt 1
9. The Night Crawler
10. The Nightmare's Hold: Pt 2
11. Grapes of Wrath
12. The End of Tomorrow

Rating: 43%

VOYAGER: I Am the ReVolution

Released: September 25

Voyager have moved into more melodic territory with each subsequent release, and with I am the ReVolution, their third full-length release, they appear to be on the very brink of departing from the realms of metal and into other avenues of melodic rock. This new album seems to represent the same point in the band's development as A Fine Day to Exit did for Anathema--but with considerably more direction and focus in the songwriting department--or, perhaps even more accurately, where Paradise Lost went with One Second.

Without completely losing sight of their heritage as a metal band, there is an almost over-riding emphasis on the synth-pop element of their sound on this album. The shiny production certainly stresses the more melodic aspects ahead of the heavier ones and apart from some darker growling on a couple of tracks, Nephil's harmonious mid-range singing brings to mind those of sophisticated Euro-pop acts. Indeed, there were times when I am the ReVolution reminded me of no one more than Depeche Mode: the pop ballad "In My Arms" sounds so much like them I had to check to make sure it wasn't actually a cover. The brief interlude "Without a Sigh" is another Mode-esque moment and the title track that follows it sounds strangely like David Gahan doing guest vocals with Dream Theater.

The intriguing mix of styles and influences is introduced immediately on "Land of Lies" with Nephil's variously sung, whispered and growled vocals playing off against intermingling guitar melody lines and synth solos; this and "Total Existance Failure" (sic) with its more predominant riffing are perhaps the most "metal" songs on the whole album, and while there are metal aspects on almost all the songs, Voyager plays around with so many other styles that defining them as simply a metal band just doesn't seem right. "The Devil in Me" is simply fantastic symphonic rock with a hook in the chorus that Martin Gore would kill to write, and the same could almost be said for the likes of "On the Run from the World" and "Times Like These", all of which are virtually flawless examples of metal riffs combined with synth-pop. "Close Your Eyes" is a nice darker song that recalls late-90s Paradise Lost, and is a clear highlight with its extended atmospheric middle section and "Straight to the Other Side" is just so stupidly catchy you'll have trouble getting the lyrics "Why am I always feeling so dissatisfied?/Why am I always feeling like I'm not alive?" out of your head for days. Nephil adds even more texture on occasion with a darkened whisper in his native German.

I am the ReVolution is an almost perfect record of modern progressive melodic metal, pushing the boundaries of what truly defines the metal band by being completely unafraid of experimenting with totally different styles of music and making them all work together so well it just seems too easy.

1. Land of Lies
2. Common Ground
3. Lost
4. The Devil in Me
5. Close Your Eyes
6. Total Existance Failure
7. Straight to the Other Side
8. In My Arms
9. Times Like These
10. On the Run From the World
11. Without a Sigh
12. I am the ReVolution

Rating: 96%