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%

NEXUS: The Paradise Complex

Produced by Geoff Eaton and Dan Grainger

Released: July 2009

Perth's isolation from the rest of Australia has always made exposure to its metal scene difficult, but this same isolation has also made it one of the most remarkable scenes around, one that seems to throw up a disproportionately high number of quality bands. Allegiance, iNFeCTeD, Samain, Karnivool, Voyager, Pathogen and Chaos Divine are just a few of those amongst the cream of the western crop of the last 20 years, and to that list can now be added Nexus.

This death metal four piece has created something that can only be described as a saga, a complete science fiction mythology that even has its own language. With the beginning of the story having being played out on the earlier "Eve of Destruction" EP, The Paradise Complex continues the narrative of Raethe, a starship commander who transforms into an omniscient super entity called LhaArn'dHrr. The elaborate storyline is played out both in the lyrics and as a short story included in the booklet, and accompanied by some fantastic modern technical death metal.

Because this is a concept piece, this plays more like a suite where each track flows into the next, yet each one is distinctive enough that it never becomes monotonous or even predictable. Nexus throw in quirky off-time passages and neck-breaking bursts of technical playing, laced with neat melody lines. Stylistically, the band moves between jazz-inflected mathcore moments and technical grind with plenty of pure death metal in the middle. Occasionally, they get just a little too tricky and sound like they've cut off a riff midway through, which can make it all a bit jarring. The lyrics are heavily detailed and delivered through a voice that is variously a roar and a growl, with some sections in the band's own invented language which reads and sounds like a real language, rather than just a bunch of gibberish. This is no small feat in itself, but Nexus is clearly a band that likes challenges and excels at them.

The Paradise Complex is an amazing album and without doubt one of the best metal releases of this year.

1. The Paradise Complex I: The Reckoning
2. Ultimate Knowledge
3. Genesis
4. The Paradise Complex II: The Reasoning
5. Twelve Minds
6. The War of Thought
7. The Paradise Complex III: The Reawakening
8. LhaArn'dHrr

Rating: 87%

DIVINE HERESY: Bringer of Plagues

Produced by Logan Mader and Lucas Banker

Released: 2009

It's certainly a little bit hard to know exactly what to make of Divine Heresy's latest album. With founder and main driving force Dino Cazares now apparently back with the band that made his name and the controversy that surrounded that sudden turn of events, Bringer of Plagues has virtually fallen by the wayside and should the legal wrangling enveloped around Fear Factory be sorted out in Cazares' favour this may well be the last we hear from Divine Heresy.

Few tears would likely be shed if that turns out to be the case, because while it isn't terrible by any means, Bringer of Plagues doesn't really set the world on fire. The vocals are an uninteresting blend of hardcore rasp and Linkin Park-like clean harmonies and a few of the songs are unremarkable. Indeed, the last one-third of the album is quite weak and of the rest only three really stand out.

Cazares lives up to his reputation as a fiendishly tight rhythm guitar player but as usual his repertoire of riffs is deceptively limited. The phrases he puts together are typically catchy and ripping, especially in the pretty decent opening track, "Facebreaker", but almost every other song is built around some variation of the same pattern. Of course, Dino is such a master at this that he gets away with it; his lead playing on the other hand leaves something to be desired. The few solos he throws about are like stuff even Kerry King would throw away, thin bursts of single-note repetition that sound like they were dropped in late to fill a hole. Tim Yeung's drumming, however, has a colour and swing to it that makes him shine, particularly in "Anarchaos" and the track that follows, "Monolithic Doomsday Devices", both of which --especially the first -- are clear highlights.

In most other respects, though, Bringer of Plagues is rather lacking. Except for "Anarchaos", there's very little of the groove that helped make early Fear Factory so special and Travis Neal's generic metalcore vocals are nothing more than average. This one may be good for a few listens, but anyone looking for something more than a few heavy riffs probably won't find much to hold their interest.

1. Facebreaker
2. The Battle of J. Casey
3. Undivine Prophecies (Intro)
4. Bringer of Plagues
5. Redefine
6. Anarchaos
7. Monolithic Doomsday Devices
8. Letter to Mother
9. Enemy Kill
10. Darkness Embedded
11. The End Begins

Rating: 58%

BRISBANE THRASHED - Issue No. 1

This blog is called The Sound Cellar for a reason. It's a repository for musical goodies (and not so goodies), where they can be brought out and gazed upon in years to come to rekindle some fond memory or other of something. Every now and then, I come upon a true gem, something that really is a rare jewel one doesn't find too often. This is one of those finds.


A little while ago, I was interviewed in The Fallout Magazine and happened to mention that one of my goals is to have a complete archive of Australian metal stuff that I can one day pass on to a museum or something. Shortly after this story appeared, a dude contacted me offering to send me a copy of a video zine he worked on back in the 90s. The early 90s. So of course I told him I wasn't interested, thanks.


Like fuck.


I don't know how many issues of this were made, or how many copies of this issue there were/are, but if I'm ever in the same pub as Walshy I owe him about 100 beers for this. The video may be grainy (this is on VHS) and some of the interview questions a bit cheesy ("When did you form your band, and why?"), but this is pure gold. Brisbane Thrashed is a video zine from 1991 featuring "some of the best underground thrash bands" of the time, including Armoured Angel, Alchemist, Dearly Beheaded and Iron Lightning, as well as some of the more obscure ones like Abhorrent, A.I.M. and the awesomely-named Ewok Zombies From Hell. The interviews are intercut with raw live footage of the various bands playing around Brisbane (or in Abhorent's case, in what looks like someone's front room) and the zine opens with an awesome clip of Armoured Angel playing to a pumped crowd with guys stage-diving everywhere and just going nuts. The interview is a little hard to hear because it seems to have been taped at the venue before they went on so there's a lot of noise around, but at one point Lucy is asked about the future of metal and says something like "It will only get more extreme" which is pretty prophetic considering he's talking in 1991. There are other moments of prescience on display too: the bare-footed and shorts-wearing Alchemist lads are asked if they think they'll still be playing metal at 40... and they are!

Not everything is brilliant though. Hardcore lads A.I.M. seem oblivious to the fact that they are on a video zine for metalheads, making a couple of remarks that all but decry metal in general, including a suggestion that metal bands aren't "political" enough (even though a few minutes earlier, Armoured Angel had basically said that religion is stupid, which is one of the most political comments one can make) while ripping off D.R.I.'s fashion and Minor Threat's music. There's no interview with the Dearly Beheaded lads either, but their musical contribution is a ripper. Apart from occasional lapses in the sound quality though, there isn't a lot to complain about. Brisbane Thrashed was a fun nostalgia trip. Thanks for passing it on, Welshy!

DEVILDRIVER: Pray for Villains

Produced by Logan Mader

Released: 2009

It's taken me a long time to warm to DevilDriver. As one of those who came through the 90s being subjected to the vapidity of Coal Chamber, you could perhaps excuse me for warily steering clear of anything with Dez Fafara's name on it at first. Now four albums in with DevilDriver, Pray for Villains is the heaviest and best thing he's done yet, thoroughly crushing the memories of him as the leader of one of the most reviled of all nu-metal acts.

Of course, with such an enormous personality out front, the rest of the band is often overlooked. While Fafara's vocals snap, snarl and growl his lyrics of retribution and rage, it's the other four guys in DevilDriver who are credited with the musical side. And with the shadow of Fafara's inglorious past always looming over them, DevilDriver has sometimes tried just too hard to bury it. The Last Kind Words was violent and relentless to a point where violence and relentlessness became the be-all and end-all; on Pray for Villains they ease off without toning things down. With Logan Mader at the desk, the band is directly tapping the vein of classic early 90s heavy groove metal. Think the catchy groove stylings of bands like Machine Head, Sepultura and Pantera, who would be proud of tracks like "Back With a Vengeance" and the title track. But this is a remarkably diverse album that also touches base with the Gothenburg-esque elements and the thrashy metalcore they've done before, only better, and occasional injections of punk like in the stomping "Another Night in London". The dual melodies are extremely enjoyable and while the soloing itself isn't particularly spectacular, there are moments like during "In the Cards" where they work really well.

If anything, it is Fafara who is the weak point. His lyrics verge on the simplistic at times and his vocals can be monotonous. That said, this is only a moderate criticism. Pray for Villains is a solid album of heavy, aggressive, catchy modern metal that could well be the precursor of the true genre classic that DevilDriver is yet to make.

1. Pray for Villains
2. Pure Sincerity
3. Fate Stepped In
4. Back With a Vengeance
5. I've Been Sober
6. Resurrection Blvd.
7. Forgiveness is a Six Gun
8. Waiting for November
9. It's in the Cards
10. Another Night in London
11. Bitter Pill
12. Teach Me to Whisper
13. I See Belief

Rating: 82%

DREADNAUGHT LIVE IN SYDNEY

Dreadnaught, Switchblade, Be'lakor, Darker Half, From Winter's Grace
August 8, 2009
Bald Faced Stag Hotel, Leichhardt


When veteran campaigners Dreadnaught announced a Sydney date with a bunch of staunch up n' comers, it was time to once again come out of gig-going hibernation and try to find a parking space in Leichhardt on a Saturday evening to catch a show that held the promise of awesomeness. By the time I arrived, From Winter's Grace had already played and the room was full and vibing greatly to the melodic strains of Darker Half. Tonight was the first time I'd seen them since their early days when they really weren't very good so the change I noticed was stark, if not unexpected considering only one guy is left in the band from back then. While it was new guitarist Brad Dickson's first show with them tonight, the rest of Darker Half have spent much of the year touring and becoming a lean, mean metal machine in the process. Their slick trad/power sound struck the right chord with the crowd which was quite large and eager considering how early it still was.

Melbourne's Be'lakor have been getting all kinds of wraps for their dark noise and tonight was the proof as to why. These days the term "melodic death metal" conjures up images of Swedish metal-gone-lame acts like Soilwork and In Flames and their myriad of clones, but these guys who were scarcely out of nappies when The Red in the Sky is Ours came out go back to its roots and produce a dark, heavy and crushing style like early Dark Tranquillity crossed with the progressive meanderings of Opeth's Morningrise period. Be'lakor might not have moved around as much as the Darker Half lads, but they held the audience just the same with a tight set of great songs with real death metal vocals and not this raspy scream that masquerades as same so much lately. They really are something to check out.

Much like Darker Half, Switchblade has seen some line-ups come and go but it hasn't slowed them down. While Dreadnaught were the deserved headliners, it was no surprise this band drew the biggest crowd. These guys are arguably Sydney's most popular metal act at the moment, and I have never seen them play a bad show. This evening was no exception. On the back of several other high profile shows and a killer new album, Switchblade cut a swathe through the Bald Faced Stag crowd with a high-energy assault of aggressive groove and twin-guitar modern metal that highlighted the choicest cuts off both their albums. Andrew Najdek and Anthony Delvecchio make a formidable guitar partnering and Mat Picco nails everything behind the kit.

Dreadnaught has been under-appreciated in this city for too long, so the brilliant undercard meant they had a really decent crowd when they unleashed "Tattooed Tears". A few people may have left by then, but more fool them. With former bassist Squiz making a special appearance on behalf of an injured Ando tonight, the Naughties tore through their latest album in its entirety, omitting only the acoustic tracks and replacing them with a trilogy of earlier songs with the same level of venom as their newies. Just like the band to precede them, Dreadnaught are always awesome and explosive live, Greg Trull the angry, tortured front man, Richie and Damon trading melody lines and carving out catchy rock-inflected riffs while up the back drummer Racca rolls out the beats effortlessly. By the end of the set they had the crowd wanting more, and only finished up because Squiz "didn't know anymore songs" but they had rounded out the night with a devastating performance that may well have gotten though to the Sydney fans at last.

Dreadnaught set list:

• Tattooed Tears
• The Push
• Save Your Life
• Collapse
• More Than One Way
• Agony/Ecstasy
• Dead in the Dirt
• 10x the Pain
• Twist the Knife
• The Game
• The Gobbler
• Buried