METALLICA: Kill 'em All

Produced by Paul Curcio

Released: 1983

Some may argue the point, and some, like Overkill, may be able to back it up, but this is where thrash truly began. Before Kill 'em All, thrash was just an embryonic, underground musical movement like thousands before it. After this release, metal would never be the same. While some may still regard this as one the best thrash albums ever, Kill 'em All became pretty dated almost immediately by its creator's very next release and those of the slew of like-minded bands that rose up in its wake. The lyrics are vacuous, the production is ordinary and some of the material is relatively weak but for its all faults, this is where the American thrash wave got its start and it is still a vital release in that regard.

"Hit the Lights" rips from the silence with all the energy and immediacy of a young and emerging band, a barely controlled eruption of rapid fire guitar solos exploding from all directions as frantic vocals spit out drivel like "when we start to rock/We never (want to) stop again!". Until St Anger, this is Hetfield's worst vocal performance as his voice wavers all over the place, but at least here he sounds excited. "Motorbreath" and "Whiplash" are further examples of early Metallica's triumph of speed over substance, the latter prefaced by "(Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth", Cliff Burton's wildly impressive but, from an album point of view, completely pointless bass solo. There's more to making an album than youthful exuberance, and this may well have been the end for Metallica had this been the best they could do.

Fortunately for them, Kill 'em All is redeemed by a couple of tracks that remain classics to this day. "The Four Horsemen" is the the track that dominates the first half of the album. With its main riff written by Dave Mustaine, this is an infinitely more together piece than anything else on the first half of the album and hearkens at the epic approach to songwriting that Metallica was to take after this album. The lyrics in the bridge even strive for some level of sophistication, even if they get the name of the First Horseman wrong. Similarly, the second half of Kill 'em All is overshadowed by "Seek and Destroy", the song whose immediate classic intro led countless wannabe axemen to the guitar store for lessons. Both of these songs point the way forward for Metallica, displaying some of the menace of which they were truly capable later on.

Twenty-five years down the road, Kill 'em All's NWOBHM-on-speed thrash prototype may seem decidedly lame as metal continues to get more aggressive and extreme, but make no mistake: without this, metal as we now know it may never have come to be.

1. Hit the Lights
2. The Four Horsemen
3. Motorbreath
4. Jump in the Fire
5. (Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth
6. Whiplash
7. Phantom Lord
8. No Remorse
9. Seek and Destroy
10. Metal Militia

Rating: 78%

SKINLAB: Nerve Damage

Released: 2004

At the time of this release, Skinlab’s career extended to a mere three albums and given their status as something of a second-tier act it seemed a little overindulgent to release a whopping great double CD of rarities and demo tracks but I guess Century Media had to fill the void left by the promised-but-still-yet-to-appear follow up to Revolting Room somehow. If that sounds cynical, then it’s because it is.

I quite liked the first two Skinlab albums although they’ll never be anything that special but Revolting Room was appalling. Nonetheless I thought that with two discs and more than 2 hours of music there would be something on here I could get into, but I was wrong. This was a complete waste of my time and ended up making me very angry that this type of crap could be foisted on unsuspecting fans. The two new tracks ("Losing All" and "Beneath the Surface") are thoroughly uninspiring, the horrible cover of "Bullet With Butterfly Wings" is one of the most unnecessary things ever recorded and the “remix” of "Slave the Way" is annoying beyond words. The appropriately named ‘Suffer’ EP tracks at the end of disc one almost gave me a migraine.

Disc two has two different versions of "When Pain Comes to Surface", perhaps the one track that, rightly or wrongly, this band will always be remembered for, a bunch of demo versions of stuff off the first album and some live cuts. It’s all a bit too much for a band that really hasn’t done a lot, and you would have to be the type of fan who would have Steev Esquival’s autograph tattooed across your back to get anything out of this except pain, because Nerve Damage sounds the way its title would feel.

CD 1:

1. 
   1. Losing All
   2. Beneath the Surface
   3. Anthem For A Fallen Star (Radio Edit)
   4. Come Get It (Steve Evetts Mix)
   5. One Of Us (Steve Evetts Mix)
   6. Jesus Cells (Demo Version)
   7. Disturbing the Art of Expression (Demo Version)
   8. Take As Needed (Demo Version)
   9. Bullet With Butterfly Wings
2. 10. Slave the Way (Remix)
   11. Purify (Acoustic Version)
   12. So Far From the Truth
   13. Noah
   14. Raza Odiada
   15. When Pain Comes to Surface (Demo Version)
   16. Paleface (Live Version)
   

CD 2:

1. Paleface (James Murphy Roadrunner Demo Remix)
   2. Promised
   3. The Art of Suffering
   4. Ten Seconds
   5. Stumble
   6. Down
   7. Dissolve
   8. Noah
   9. Race of Hate (Live)
   10. When Pain Comes to Surface
   11. Blacklist
   12. Slave the Way (Live)
   13. No Sympathy For the Devil (Live)
   14. Purify (Live)
   15. Scapegoat (Live)
   16. Know Your Enemies (Live)
   17. Come Get It (Live)
   18. When Pain Comes to Surface (Live)
   

Rating: 15%

IRON SAVIOR: Battering Ram

Produced by Piet Sielck

Released: 2004

Battering Ram is the fifth album from Germany’s Iron Savior, and true to form it sounds exactly like everything else they’ve done. Frustratingly consistent, every album Iron Savior has recorded has been nothing short of excellent: soaring, incredibly catchy anthemic melodic power metal of the highest order. This one is no different, and therein lies the problem. There’s nothing at all to distinguish it from any of the previous albums, apart from the possible exception of the almost total absence of keyboards from this release.

Trying to find a technical fault or a lapse in Iron Savior’s songwriting ability is impossible because Piet Sielck helped to develop the formula for this sort of thing and is no less a master at the form than the likes of Kai Hansen and Hansi Kursch, and the musicianship is faultless. But again, this is so polished and seamless in every respect that it could have just rolled off a production line somewhere. Fans of mainstream European power metal will love this because, as usual, Iron Savior does it so much better than most, but for anyone seeking some degree of originality and innovation or something a little more challenging, this is likely to serve as little more than background music for a rowdy drinking session.

1. Battering Ram
2. Stand Against the King
3. Tyranny of Steel
4. Time Will Tell
5. Wings of Deliverence
6. Break the Curse
7. Riding Free
8. Starchaser
9. Machine World
10. HM Powered Man

Rating: 85%

RUDE AWAKENING: A Tribute to Thin Lizzy

Released: 2007

I'm really not sure what to make of this. Bands doing covers albums aren't unusual these days, but bands dedicating entire albums to one artist's work are rare. And those that are out there are generally shit (Six Feet Under, I'm looking at you). Rude Awakening is a band that has been around in some form since the mid-80s according to their extensive but confusing bio, with a short string of albums and former lead vocalists behind them. In recent years it would appear they have reinvented themselves as a Thin Lizzy tribute band, the end result of which is this 13-track CD.

Thin Lizzy invented twin-guitar heavy metal, and indeed if it hadn't been for them then Iron Maiden would have ended up sounding like Jethro Tull, so any band attempting a tribute hasa heavy responsibility to ensure it is done with the respect this most important but these days oft-overlooked Irish group deserves. Rude Awakening has all but totally succeeded with A Tribute to Thin Lizzy. So good is this album that the band has been invited to Dublin to perform at a show celebrating what would have been Phil Lynott's 58th birthday in August.

This is Lizzy right down to the finest details. Only "Wild One" is a bit on the ordinary side; otherwise, this is close to superb. Mitch Urban pulls off a near-perfect Lynott impression most of the time and the guitar team of Johnny Goodwin and Bill Sablan nail everything. "Emerald" was so perfect it almost made me weep.

The only question I have to ask is why bother? There's no shame in being a Thin Lizzy tribute band when you're as good at it as Rude Awakening, but with so many Lizzy compilations available, most with the same tracks as this, it does seem a bit pointless to have spent time and money recording such a thing. It is excellent though, so at least it wasn't a wasted effort.

I'm not sure what Gary Moore would think of it, but Lynott himself would probably approve.

1. Jailbreak
2. Don't Believe a Word
3. Hollywood (Down On Your Luck)
4. Wild One
5. Johnny the Fox
6. Cowboy Song
7. The Boys are Back in Town
8. Emerald
9. Still in Love With You
10. Massacre
11. It's Only Money
12. Sha La La
13. Warrior

Rating: 92%

DEW-SCENTED: Incinerate

Released: 2007

There is really only one way to describe a Dew-Scented release: relentless. If Slayer had formed in 2001 and not 1981, it's quite possible they would sound something like this. You have to hand it to these guys. They certainly know how to be consistent. Not only have they been able to name each of their seven albums so far with a single word beginning with the letter "I", they've filled each one with violently aggressive high speed thrash metal from start to finish.Incinerate is no exception. Once again channelling the 80s spirit of Slayer and Kreator (the solo from "Contradictions" even contains a snippet of that from "War Ensemble"), Dew-Scented plunge into 12 tracks (plus an intro) of fast and furious metal mayhem.

There's no breakdowns, quiet parts or any other concessions to current trends in what goes by the name of "metal" these days. Incinerate is just all about heavy, lightning-quick riffs, feverish solos and Leif Jensen's gruffly shouted vocals. While they do slow it down from time to time, it's really for no longer than it takes for a short breather before they've stepped on the gas again and laid down another trail of rubber and blue smoke. If there's one drawback of this approach, it is that a lot of their songs (and albums) don't really sound that different to one another. They all pretty much just bludgeon you around the head with some ass-kicking fury and fuck off again, leaving you lying there bleeding for the next one to come along and repeat the process until you're just about senseless.

Trying to find a stand-out track with this level of consistency is no easy task; Incinerate is another near-faultless creation from what is easily Germany's best modern thrash band.

1. Exordium (Intro)
2. Vanish Away
3. Final Warning
4. That's Why I Despise You
5. The Fraud
6. Into the Arms of Decay
7. Perdition For All
8. Now or Never
9. Aftermath
10. Everything Undone
11. Contradictions
12. Retain the Scars
13. Exitus (Outro)

Rating: 95%

YNGWIE J. MALMSTEEN: Trilogy

Produced by Yngwie J. Malmsteen

Released: 1986

Following two shred-heavy albums, Yngwie J. Malmsteen made a grab for commercial success on his third album and adopted a lot of the gloss and sheen of the pop-metal bands around him, maxing out the keyboards almost to the detriment of his own rhythm guitar tracks and focusing on songs rather than shredfests. He also decided that this was Rising Force no longer but simply a Yngwie J. Malmsteen album and even credits himself as "conductor" along with producer, composer, guitarist and bass player.

This new approach pretty much failed on almost every level, because he could barely write a decent song to save himself and in Mark Boals he found a singer who was really only average at best. Malmsteen is a classically-influenced heavy metal guitarist, not a pop songwriter, so his efforts here pretty much fall flat. That said, "You Don't Remember, I'll Never Forget" is really not too bad, a catchy and memorable slice of 80s pop metal only let down slightly by Boals' forced high notes. Most of the rest of the tracks are pretty ordinary however, rife with corny lyrics like "Queen in Love", juvenile attempts at Dio-like allegory ("Magic Mirror") or plain over-simplicity (rhyming "fire" with "higher" and "desire" like no one had ever thought of it before).

For all of its weaknesses, however, Trilogy has two things going for it. The first is "Crying", a synth-enhanced acoustic instrumental that actually displays some quite emotive playing that alludes to his classical influences. The other is "Trilogy Suite Op:5", in which Yngwie just does what he does best: shreds his fingers off for seven minutes. This is quite possibly the true high point of his career, a three-part epic instrumental that opens with a face-melting series of cadenza lines, blazing riffage and interplay with his own furious bass lines and Jens Johannson's synths. Later a slower acoustic section rises up before the whole thing finishes with more intense guitar madness. This shows what a truly stunning musician Malmsteen is and how magnificent he can be when he really puts his mind to it. It's also the last time he would do something like this once he realised he could simply live off his reputation and not bother putting too much effort in.

Trilogy gets most of its marks for this track alone, but it's also hard not to give Yngwie credit for that gloriously cheesy cover painting of him using his guitar to fight a three-headed dragon. Power metal bands all over Europe owe him a debt for this they can't possibly repay.

1. You Don't Remember, I'll Never Forget
2. Liar
3. Queen in Love
4. Crying
5. Fury
6. Fire
7. Magic Mirror
8. Dark Ages
9. Trilogy Suite Op:5

Rating: 50%

JUDAS PRIEST: Nostradamus

Produced by Glenn Tipton and KK Downing

Released: 2008

I can hardly believe this was possible, but I was halfway through listening to this dinosaur of an album and I was struggling to find good things to say about it! How could this be so? I mean, this is Judas fucking Priest we're talking about here! It couldn't really be that bad, could it? So why do I feel cheated (and I shouldn't really, because I got this album for free)? Well, there's actually a few reasons, but perhaps the chief one is that, in attempting a concept album at the twilight of their career, Judas Priest has over-reached. Not content with just a concept album, the godfathers of metal had to go and make a massively overblown and pretentious one that's a staggering 103 minutes long. Even that would have been acceptable if it could engage you for that long, but Nostradamus simply doesn't do that.

Ignoring the power metal-like intro, we can skip to "Prophecy", which opens things in a suitably headbanging Priest fashion and things are going along all right until the "I am Nostradamus!" line almost made me burst into laughter. Still, it isn't a bad track even with the cheesy bits in the middle. After this however, the first half of Nostradamus is rather devoid of highlights. "War" sounds vaguely like a Wagnerian opera piece but doesn't really hold the listener's attention the way such a thing should apart from the grand orchestral section in the middle. The next track is equally unspectacular, plodding along at the same mid tempo. The pondering riff and Halford's sinister vocal give "Death" an appropriate feel, but it's at least two minutes too long and Tipton's jagged soloing comes in way too late. Indeed, guitar solos are pretty thin on the ground, something I thought I'd never say about a Judas Priest album. Then along comes "Persecution", and if you hadn't have had to wait 50 minutes for it you could almost forgive them. This one is classic Priest: catchy, fast and bone-crushing heavy metal. If only the rest of it could have been like this.

But it isn't, as part two opens with "Exiled", another track that just trundles along without reaching any heights, something that virtually the whole of the second CD is guilty of. "Alone" is the perfect embodiment of the entire volume: bloated. Halford hits some of the best notes he's hit in years on this one but the track just loses its way with an acoustic part in the middle for some reason that goes nowhere. "Visions" seems to drag on and on without end and "New Beginnings" is one of those overwrought ballads you usually find on a second-rate European power metal album. I couldn't even listen to it all the way through. To say by this time I was disappointed -- bored even -- would be a considerable understatement.

Then, as they always do, Judas Priest finds a way to redeem themselves. The title track starts out with a little operatic section before suddenly ripping your face off the way "Painkiller" did, and sounds rather like a reworking of that song in fact. "Future of Mankind" follows in much the same fashion, classic metal hammering with Downing and Tipton finally letting loose with some sorely-missed lead work. This is the longest track on the album but it seems like one of the shortest and again I find myself asking why all of Nostradamus couldn't have been like this.

With the fat trimmed off and a punchier production, Nostradamus could have been a really good album, but there's too many turgid tracks, too many pointless interludes that break the flow, and for an album supposedly about the life of Nostradamus, it doesn't actually tell you that much about him. Take tracks 1 to 5, plus "Persecution" and the last two songs on the second CD and you've got a decent Judas Priest album. Add the rest, and it's a huge, boring, unwieldly behemoth. Sad.

CD 1:

1. Dawn of Creation/Prophecy
2. Awakening/Revelation
3. The Four Horsemen/War
4. Pestilence and Plague
5. Death
6. Peace/Conquest
7. Lost Love
8. Persecution

CD 2:

1. Solitude/Exiled
2. Alone
3. Shadows in the Flame/Visions
4. Hope/New Beginnings
5. Calm Before the Storm/Nostradamus
6. Future of Mankind

Rating: 55%

GALLOWS FOR GRACE: A Process for the Destruction of Tomorrow

Released: August 9, 2008

Gallows for Grace is another one of these locally-produced metal bands that seems to be sprouting up lately and immediately getting head-hunted by labels and to open at prominent shows. A little over two years old and these guys have already played with bands like Obituary, Job For A Cowboy and IKTPQ and performed in states at the opposite end of the country from their home in Perth. Some bands are able to do this simply by jumping on a current bandwagon and playing whatever's trendy. Gallows for Grace is hardly the most original band, but despite the fact they're on a hardcore label and have done a lot of work with groups whose definition as metal is tenuous at best, they haven't simply resorted to trotting out the same bunch of tired ideas that are helping to stagnate some areas of extreme music.

Despite the unwieldly title that coupled with a three-word band name made me think of some group that screams constantly and changes riff patterns every two seconds, "A Process for the Destruction of Tomorrow" instead showcases a rather more standard form of death metal. That isn't to suggest that Gallows for Grace don't have a technical bent as "World Eater" (which, to be fair, does have something of a deathcore influence) and the Decapitated-like "The Process" show, but they also mesh it with some catchy, old-school riffing that's still memorable once the song is over. With "Primordial Orbit" they show a healthy regard for classic melodic death from the Floridian school that's quite a welcome sign. It is the EP's highlight and centerpiece "Purest Atrophy" however that really allows Gallows for Grace to show what made they're made of with its expansive arrangement combining hook-laden grooves, tempo-changes and a big slab-like section, all without a breakdown within cooee. The vocals maintain a steady growl throughout too, a refreshing change from the frankly tiresome shriek-roar-clean-roar-clean-shriek epidemic of recent times.

Gallows for Grace has certainly taken off on the right foot with this. It's easy to see why they're already doing so well.

1. Rites
2. World Eater
3. The Process
4. Purest Atrophy
5. Primordial Orbit
6. Revealing the Helical Nether

Rating: 81%

VARIOUS ARTISTS: A Pirate's Life - Skull and Bones Records Sampler Vol. 1

Released: 2008

Skull and Bones is a label from Brisbane that has been extending its feelers into the burgeoning hardcore and related fields over the past few years, gathering up bands from around Australia and a couple from Britain and Japan. A lot of this music is outside my usual listening preference and some of it is beyond my tastes. Such as it is, I can't really give an objective opinion about some of the bands, particularly the more screamo-based acts like England's Johnny Truant who seem to exist just to make as harsh a noise as possible, but A Pirate's Life certainly gives a good overview of the label's aims and would surely be a good starting point for those who are looking for more underground and local alternatives to the foreign deluge.

First cab off the rank is Maroochydore's The Daylight Curse, one of those bands that blurs the definition between hardcore and metal to the degree where they are almost indiscernable from one another. Take away the breakdowns and core-ish gang vocals and "Stick to the Code" is a catchy melodic death metal song. There's no doubting which side of the fence an act like screamo outfit The Rivalry sit however with their very noisy and audaciously long "No Face for the Mentor", nor could fellow Adelaide lads Bloodsport be called anything but hardcore. Tokyo's Loyal to the Grave play a brutal mosh-heavy style of old-school metalcore that would please fans of bands like Vision of Disorder, and elsewhere The Amity Affliction come closest to any band here to a commercial prospect with the emo-leaning "I ♥ Throbsy". Art Vandelay and A Secret Death take a few leaves out of the early Neurosis copybook with their noisecore soundscapes. On the more metal side of things is Western Decay from Brisbane who tear out some speedy death metal and the time-signature defying The Abandonment. Other bands like Cross the Lips of Grace and Coma Lies create devastatingly brain-numbing attacks of dissonance that can't adequately be described but are fearsome in their pursuit of extremity.

Some of these bands would quite frankly drive me to ram a spike into my ears after more than a few minutes and terrify a casual audience, but those more attuned to it would probably find A Pirate's Life to be laden with some buried treasures.

1. The Daylight Curse - Stick to the Code
2. Anime Fire - Venom
3. The Abandonment - Digging Up the Dead
4. The Amity Affliction - I ♥ Throbsy
5. A Secret Death - idkfa
6. The Rivalry - No Face for the Mentor
7. Benneson Theory - I Trust Me
8. Johnny Truant - The Bloodening
9. Cross the Lips of Grace - Through Your Windows of Pain
10. Coma Lies - Paris, Wide On
11. Loyal to the Grave - Stagnation
12. Western Decay - Bloodclots and Clay
13. Art Vandelay - Donec Floruit
14. Bloodsport - Devoted to This
15. A Secret Death - Line of Progression
16. Infinite Thought Process - Moth Powder
17. Cross the Lips of Grace - Take Me to the Promised Land
18. Johnny Truant - I am the Primitologist, Mr Robrt Saposky
19. Naked Burn - Empty Hands
20. Loyal to the Grave - Endless Maze
21. Coma Lies - Take Me to the Stars... I Want to Go Home

Rating: 78%

INFERNAL METHOD: Architecture of Instinct

Released: 2005

For a number of years, Infernal Method was a name on the lips of a good number of Australian metal fans all around the country. Right from the moment they began, word spread that there was something a bit special about this Sydney band. They had the songs, a fearsome sound and a savage live reputation. But they just couldn't keep a solid line-up together; indeed the band had actually split up once in the period between when this was originally recorded and when it was finally released. So the debut album from Infernal Method finally arrived after two years of promises, line-up changes and re-recordings. The grand question of whether the wait was worth it hung heavily over it.

It took me a few spins to get a grip on Architecture of Instinct. Having heard some of these songs take shape from an early demo with no vocals to live versions with different singers and then to their ultimate recorded form, I probably noticed the tweaking and reworking more than most. At first, it left me a little cold, so familiar was I with previous arrangements and the enormous death metal roar of Joss Separovic. Evan Williams has a distinctly metalcore sound to his voice and it seems as if the band has tinkered with old arrangements here and there to cater to that style.

In the end that doesn't make much difference, but Architecture was a somewhat different beast to that I had been expecting. There are times where I still wonder what’s going on. “…to the Innards of the Prey”, for example, just trails off when it seems like there’s still half a song to go and Justin Brockbank from Friar Rush comes in to add some clean vocals to “The Burning Earth” that quite frankly sound completely out of place, even now. It's still a good album, but with some qualification. Neither the technical aspects nor the playing can be faulted, and songwriter Petar Peric’s ear for a distinctive and catchy melody resulted in a bunch of solid tracks that even with their new metalcore edge still demanded the attention of death metal fans.

In the end however the album suffered from having been delayed for so long. In the two years since it was first recorded, melodic death metal had become a thoroughly swamped area and Architecture of Instinct is now another quality volume in the genre instead of the distinctive stand-out it could have been had it been released in 2003.

1. Perpetual Sonic Obliteration
2. Reanimating the Wicked
3. ...to the Innards of the Prey
4. Change Blindness
5. Whispers and Spittle
6. An Incision Across the Anatomy of Iteration
7. Union of Animal and Genius (Methodology I)
8. Animal in Chains (Methodology II)
9. The Burning Earth
10. Of Words, Will and Power

Rating: 88%