IRON MAIDEN: The Final Frontier

Produced by Kevin Shirley
Released: August 13, 2010

Iron Maiden's comeback from the realms of commercial and artistic stagnation that would have killed almost any other band has been remarkable to say the very least. It's a rare band indeed that could return from such a slump and go on to create material that ranks beside the classics of their past. Their fifteenth studio album sees that success curve continue as they maintain listener interest in spite of its prestigous length by throwing in a few curveballs and some of the best music of their career.


The Final Frontier starts off with a very un-Maiden sounding extended intro that is certainly one of the more interesting things the band has done in a long time. It kind of sets the stage for some of the other less-typical aspects they've sprinkled throughout. After the segue is the usual strong opener let down only slightly by one of Steve Harris' unimaginative, single-line choruses ("The final frontier! The final frontier! The final frontier!") but otherwise the lyrics are Maiden's typically celebral fare. "Mother of Mercy" is a particularly impressive track early on, followed by the surprising "Coming Home", a rare ballad from Iron Maiden and one that actually works. Then comes "The Alchemist", a reasonable effort but nothing these guys haven't done a few dozen times already.

The back half of The Final Frontier is introduced by the majestic Arthurian epic "Isle of Avalon" with "Starblind" showing off the band's rather more aggressive side. It is on these last five songs where Iron Maiden's progressive nature finally flowers with some of the arrangements and extended instrumental sections among the best they've ever done. The guitar work has always been brilliant, but some of the work Messrs. Smith, Murray and Gers do on this album is truly breathtaking. "When the Wild Wind Blows" is the only track on the album written by Harris alone. It's been hailed by some as the album's highlight but on analysis there's several bits and pieces from the band's back catalogue weaved into it, notably a large section of "Afraid to Shoot Strangers" at one point. Nevertheless, even at eleven minutes it doesn't outstay its welcome and really does show how magnificent a band Iron Maiden is when they set out to create something truly amazing.

The Final Frontier is not the easiest album to digest. The complexity and layering of the arrangements and production may mean it takes more than a couple of listens to penetrate, but the effort is worth it. This is Iron Maiden's best since the 80s and without a doubt one of the best albums of 2010.
 

1. Satellite 15... The Final Frontier
2. El Dorado
3. Mother of Mercy
4. Coming Home
5. The Alchemist
6. Isle of Avalon
7. Starblind
8. The Talisman
9. The Man Who Would be King
10. When the Wild Wind Blows

Rating: 95%

IMMOLATE: Ruminate

Released: August 2010

Recently recruiting ex-Tumbleweed member Dave Achille into their line-up to help bolster their sound, Wollongong quartet Immolate unleash hell in the shape of their latest full-length release, Ruminate.

Even if you knew nothing about this band, you'd expect that with a name like Immolate they were hardly going to be about gentle melodies and delicate symphonics. And you'd be correct. Like some bastardised hybrid of Pentagram and The Jesus Lizard, Ruminate is coarse, repetitive, atonal dissonance where sludge, noise and doom combine in a 42-minute orgy of sonic mayhem. Nick Irwin's unadorned monotone is virtually buried in the mix at times, a mix that is dominated by Achille and Irwin's brother Justin torturing their guitars with a procession of raw, angular, grinding riffs and wildly off-key solos. It's an ugly, primitive sound, oddly compelling but neither for the faint-of-heart nor those with an ear for the more melodic. Indeed, it's almost too much. By two-thirds of the way in, the uncompromising sameness and unrelenting barrage of discordance really starts to feel like you're being repeatedly battered by a heavy, blunt object. Nothing stands out except for how jarring it is.

Ruminate is absolutely not for just anyone, and those who merely dabble in the realms of dissonant doom may find this gloriously ugly album too much to bear. This is definitely one for those who have a real taste for it, and Immolate should certainly satisfy.

1. Heathen

2. Hot Heat
3. Live By (Knife and Gun)
4. Kill Your Idols
5. Trap Me
6. Tune Out
7. Ruminate
8. Broken
9. Integrator
10. Seven Heads
11. Code

Rating: 65%

ASTRIAAL: Anatomy of the Infinite

Produced by Astriaal

Released: August 2010

Seven years ago, Astriaal attained the pinnacle of their art with Renascent Misanthropy. Anatomy of the Infinite sees them reaching the same height, if not surpassing it in its exploration of cold, malefic spite.

With much of the previous album's symphonic elements stripped away, Anatomy of the Infinite brandishes a harsher, even more malevolent sound. The rawness only helps to further enhance Astriaal's sharp, deft melodies that stand in antithesis to the sheer brutality of the riffs and Gryphon's relentless blast beats. Baaruhl and Helthor's unison tremolo picking and Arzarkhel's typical shrieking howls don't see the band experimenting very much beyond the usual melodic black metal framework, but that only means they are working closer to the perfect ideal of the genre. Snippets of narrative and choruses of dark chanting add to the cheerless vision of ultimate oblivion that is this album, draped in the morbid works of Notke and Valdés Leal. Like Renascent Misanthropy, the intro piece "Blessed are the Dead" builds towards the crushing fury of "Visceral Incarnate" and little remorse is offered from that moment. The clean tones and gentle, haunting dynamics of "Relinquishment of the Stars" is in stark contrast to "For the Day Will Come", an epic, majestic track that closes the album on a note of unaccountable bleakness.

Anatomy of the Infinite is the perfect companion to its predecessor and a further definition of Astriaal's mastery of their chosen art, their own unflinching statement on the fraility of humanity in the face of eternity. Another masterpiece.

1. Blessed are the Dead
2. Visceral Incarnate
3. 'Neath the Bones of Salvation
4. Ad Interim
5. The Scars of Aberration
6. Foundations in Flesh
7. Relinquishment of the Stars
8. For the Day Will Come

Rating: 95%

KORN: III - Remember Who You Are

Produced by Ross Robinson
Released: July 2010

The last ten years have been long ones for Korn, as they slipped from the pinnacle of the rock world to teeter on the brink of being nothing but burned-out hasbeens, two men down and without a label on the back of one of the most critically-reviled albums of recent times. Going back to basics was probably the only option left after their run of disastrous and lame experiments with acoustics, duets with pan flashes like Amy Lee and other rubbish while former protegees like the Deftones grew in maturity, sophistication and popularity.

So Korn has now entered phase III of their career with the affirmation to remember who they are. To that end, the band has reunited with Ross Robinson in an effort to go back to where it all began, to that primal, urgent rumble that sparked an entire genre. Even the artwork reflects that of the groundbreaking debut. The result is only partly successful.

Remember Who You Are is Korn being Korn, and that's pretty much it. In some ways it's as if everything after Follow the Leader never happened, but at the same time you know there's been some crazy shit that's gone down to have led them back to this place. Korn in 2010 is like an angry kid coming back home after running away to find his old house knocked down and another, almost similar one, built on the same spot. It's kinda the same, but not quite. There is more technical finesse about Korn's musical delivery, the menacing sludge of Munky's murky riffs and Fieldy's bass throb, but Jonathon Davis' whiny vocals and woe-is-me lyrical bullshit doesn't take them anywhere they haven't been eight times already. It's almost like he's learned nothing.

"Oildale (Leave Me Alone)" is a great opener and "Let the Guilt Go" is probably the best song Korn has done in a very long time, but in between and afterwards is an album that neither scales any true heights or sinks to any appreciable lows. Remember Who You Are is solid the way a comeback should be, but not remarkable like it needs to be. It does show scope for the band to continue if Davis can find it in himself to move on from the cathartic angst of 16 years ago to something that rings truer. 

1. Uber-time
2. Oildale (Leave Me Alone)
3. Pop a Pill
4. Fear is a Place to Live
5. Move On
6. Lead the Parade
7. Let the Guilt Go
8. The Past
9. Never Around
10. Are You Ready to Live?
11. Holding All These Lies

Rating: 65%

STONE SOUR: Audio Secrecy

Produced by Nick Rasculienecz
Released: September 2010

As Joey Jordison once again indulges his 80s horror sleaze rock fantasy, his Slipknot colleagues Corey Taylor and Jim Root are advancing a rather more mature -- though arguably much less fun -- musical argument with their third Stone Sour album.


Stone Sour has consistenty transcended the post-grunge genre. Always heavily populated by horrible bands that in effect destroyed everything grunge actually stood for, that really wouldn't take much, but the lush melodies and diversity of the performance -- particularly from Taylor -- lifts it well above the usual mire of that ilk. It isn't perfect, and tends to see-saw too dangerously and too often between radio fodder and metallic rock, but Audio Secrecy is another solid effort from the band. "Mission Statement" and "Digital (Did You Tell)" open the album in a big rocking if unspectacular way ahead of the darker, brooding "Say You'll Haunt Me", the first demonstration of Stone Sour's more layered, melodic approach this time around. "Dying" veers close to the type of insidious dreck the likes of Nickleback have foisted upon us in recent years before "Let's Be Honest" gets everything somewhat back on track.


It's from here on that Audio Secrecy seems to get confused, alternatively mellowing then busting into a heavy vibe again. After another almost balladic track in "Hesitate", "Nylon 6/6" rides in like a bastardized version of "Song Remains the Same" before exploding into what is almost a Slipknot song, albeit without the necessary twisted groove. That it takes until track nine for the album to reach this height says something about the way the track list is loaded. Indeed, "The Bitter End" and "Threadbare" are also clear highlights that loom over clutter like "Miracles" and "Unfinished" and help to emphasise that, at 54 minutes, Audio Secrecy is at least 15 minutes too long.

For the most part, Audio Secrecy delivers as a solid collection of modern heavy rock, but it feels padded out by too tracks. It also again emphasises the schizophrenic nature of Taylor and Root's musical guises because more often than not here, Stone Sour sounds like precisely the sort of band that Slipknot was formed to destroy.

1. Audio Secrecy

2. Mission Statement
3. Digital (Did You Tell)
4. Say You’ll Haunt Me
5. Dying
6. Let’s Be Honest
7. Unfinished
8. Hesitate
9. Nylon 6/6
10. Miracles
11. Pieces
12. Bitter End
13. Imperfect
14. Threadbare

Rating: 70%

MURDERDOLLS: Women and Children Last

Produced by Zeuss
Released: August 2010

Musical trends are a strange thing. If Murderdolls had debuted in 1997, they would have most likely suffered immensely from the 80s backlash that was still apparent then and then vanished without trace. So it's interesting that only five years later they were able to launch themselves with a mildly-successful album and build a cult following that was drawn from the fanbases of Slipknot and Static-X, many of whom probably wouldn't have been caught dead listening to Mötley Crüe or Alice Cooper -- and only knew the Misfits by way of Metallica -- because Beyond the Valley of the Murderdolls was essentially an homage to the trashy metal and shock rock that the 90s had tried to bury.

Eight years on, with the 80s hip again and many of the original bands storming back as if they'd never been away, Women and Children Last shows the Murderdolls have their Crüe-crossed-with-Misfits horror rock schtick still firmly in place. Almost a decade has passed and the 'Dolls haven't changed a bit. Wednesday 13 intones his pulpy horror comic lyrics in a Cooperesque/Rob Zombie-like drone and Joey Jordison mines the 80s hair-and-glam rock riff catalogue relentlessly. They even manage to rope in Mick Mars to add a genuine touch as he peels off a couple of solos in “Drug Me to Hell” and “Blood Stained Valentine”, and given how much Wednesday is trying to look like Nikki Sixx these days, the old guy probably felt right at home. Just like the debut, Women and Children Last doesn’t pander to any calls for a power ballad or to anything other than guitar-fuelled schlock rocking.

“My Dark Place Alone”, “Chapel of Blood” and “Drug Me to Hell” are clear highlights, but really the whole album is quite solid, an effective pastiche that owes its look, sound and lyrics to a time when guys were teasing their hair and chicks wore blue eyeshadow, when most Murderdolls fans hadn’t even been born yet.

1. The World According to Revenge
2. Chapel of Blood
3. Bored til Death
4. Drug Me to Hell
5. Nowhere
6. Summertime Suicide
7. Death Valley Superstars
8. My Dark Place Alone
9. Blood Stained Valentine
10. Pieces of You
11. Homicide Drive
12. Rock n Roll is All I Got
13. Nothing’s Gonna Be Alright
14. Whatever You Got, I’m Against it
15. Hello, Goodbye, Die

Rating: 75%

The Annex Podcast

Some readers may be aware that I present a regular weekly radio program on BLU FM every Friday night at 10pm. I feature plenty of interviews on the show, and now I will be gradually adding them to a podcast. You can check it out here.

RECOIL: The Will to Sin

Produced by Recoil

Released: 2010

Sydney's Recoil has been around since 2002, maintaining the same line-up the whole time. That in itself is a pretty remarkable achievement not too many others can lay claim to. You would expect that a group this stable would be able to really churn out a pretty decent bunch of tracks, and The Will to Sin certainly doesn't disappoint.

"The Rope" builds ominously towards the first proper track, the aggression-fuelled, groove-driven metallic roar of "Crowned on the Way Down" that sets the tone for the violence to come. With a classic, no frills approach, Recoil aren't reinventing any wheels here but they're definitely keeping it real. Every track is solid fist-pumping, headbanging material that doesn't waste time with extended instrumental noodling, drastic time-signature changes or dramatic displays of technicality. Somewhere, these guys were described as death metal/deathcore, but that couldn't be further from the truth. Essentially, this is textbook heavy metal: chunky riffs, catchy grooves, raw, angry vocals and driving beats. If there's a real criticism, it's only that they do this so convincingly that you find yourself actually wanting them to do something else. And then they do: the instrumental break "El Dia mas Triste" appears like a rose between thorns late in the playlist, a track of striking beauty and emotion that both belies the otherwise savage nature of Recoil's music and elevates it beyond the rudimentary but effective metal bludgeoning of the rest of the album.

Recoil has obviously invested every moment of their eight years together into making The Will to Sin the best debut they could possibly deliver, and they have succeeded. Anyone seeking pure, unadorned metal that's good need look no further.

1. The Rope
2. Crowned on the Way Down
3. Immortal
4. Scarification
5. Road to Redemption
6. This Winter
7. The Hole
8. …and a Hard Place
9. What Solution?
10. El dia mas Triste
11. Within a Curse
12. Suicide Trip

Rating: 80%

DARK ORDER: Cold War of the Condor

Produced by Dark Order

Released: 2010

Sydney’s Dark Order have been around now for 18 years, making them one of the longest-running metal bands in the country. To show for it they’ve got two previous albums, a breathtaking string of line-up histories and not much else as the band has rarely been stable long enough to establish a foothold. It’s a testament to leader Raul Alvarez Garcia’s seemingly unshakable self-belief that he’s been able to keep Dark Order around this long and just as remarkable that he’s finally been able to complete a third album after the yawning seven-year gap since The Violence Continuum.

With Cold War of the Condor, Dark Order almost completely max-out the CD playing time with an epic treatment of Chile's totalitarian Pinochet regime, illegally installed by a CIA-sponsored coup during the infernally corrupt Nixon administration and eventually costing the lives of thousands. The band details 17 years of bloodshed over 14 exhausting tracks, most of which are played out in their deliciously uncompromising old-school thrash style as if everything after Seasons in the Abyss simply never happened, rapacious full-tilt riffs, blazing solos and Garcia’s arsenal of Araya-styled rasping barks and shrieking warcries. Occasionally though, there’s a poignant acoustic moment like “A Lament for Victor Jara” – the political activist who was one of the first victims of the junta – and “Villa Grimaldi” is dark and creeping like one of early Skinlab’s moody pieces. Raul uses his real singing voice in both “Victor Jara” and the evocative coda “Requiem Eternal” too, in stunning contrast to his regular frenzied wail. Most of the time, however, this is nothing short of a thrash metal feast that is without doubt the best thing this band has ever done.

The album’s downfall however is that it's just too damn long. Cold War of the Condor is even longer than the latest Exodus album, and it probably doesn’t need to be. Some of the tracks could have been cut in half or at the very least lost a couple of minutes without anyone noticing: there's no real justifiable reason for "Operation Condor" to be eight and a half minutes long. This isn't Dream Theater or Opeth, with sweeping instrumental breaks or dizzying technical histrionics, and as good as it is, there aren’t quite enough stylistic flourishes to keep the interest up for the full 76 minutes. Despite this, Cold War of the Condor is something all thrash fans should check out immediately.

1. September 11th 1973
2. Dissension of the Raptor
3. State of Siege
4. A Lament for Victor Jara
5. Tears of the Exiled
6. Caravan of Death
7. Villa Grimaldi
8. Operation Condor
9. The Disappeared
10. Operacion Signo Veinte
11. Criminal of State
12. Blood Fire
13. Continuum of Cold War
14. Requiem Eternal


Rating: 78%