The Greatest Pure Heavy Metal Album Ever

-by Devdutt Nawalkar

CRYSTAL LOGIC IS THE GREATEST PURE HEAVY METAL ALBUM EVER PUT TO TAPE.

Don’t gawk at me, asshole, because it’s the ill-begotten bastard’s honest truth. There is absolutely no record that tickles me in all the right spots when I’m pissed three sheets to the wind like this thing. Mark Shelton is a fucking heavy metal GOD of the most elevated degree imaginable, and screw your ears if you think otherwise. In a way, this album is the ultimate proof of the implausibility of God’s existence. Because if he did exist, Crystal Logic would be ranked alongside the Master of Realitys, the Stained Classes, the Piece of Minds, the Master of Puppets, the fucking Reign in Bloods, etc of metaldom. But it doesn’t, and that’s how fate sucks you down the shithole called life.

What can one say about these songs? Mark Shelton innovated the whole fucking epic, power metal genre. Actually, calling it power metal is doing him a big fucking disservice because of the stigma that has come to be attached to most modern power metal. There is something utterly timeless about these songs. It doesn’t matter if you discovered Crystal Logic yesterday. There is a sort of musty, mildewy quality that will transport you back to a time when writing songs was worth a whit, when people knew how to walk the line between melody and attitude, and, most importantly, when there was a sense of adventure in exploring what lurked next to the obscure corners of a heady sound. “But, hey! There’s plenty bands who did that back in the day!”. Right, fucker. they did. That doesn’t excuse you from not caring about fucking Crystal Logic, does it?

Crystal Logic had a thin, tweedy guitar tone, cardboard drums, and Mark Shelton sang, with a nasal twang, about lost cities of the dead and old Norse legends. Not sound appealing? GO. FUCK. YOURSELF.

The music business is a bitch of monumental proportions. They play whore to accessibility and yet they fail to take notice of a ridiculously catchy yet completely balls-to-the-wall classic like this. Look at the opening 1-2-3 on here for chrissakes! Has there ever been a greater, more singable opener than ‘Necropolis’?

Through the Jungle by the River Styx

I’ve journeyed far and long this day

Lurking Shadows by the parapets

They’ll never make me turn away!

Holy shit I see the wraiths! They glide along in serpentine form with palms beggared forth for my soul! Away, ghouls! Away to the festering depths of putrefying filth from whence you sprang!

A-C-B-A-F… blah blah. SIMPLE and yet so elegantly METAL as all hell! (I’m trying to sound cool because that’s the first Manilla Road song I ever learnt) Mark Shelton proved just what he could do with a simple minor scale right here; the solo here is one of the most perfectly placed and concise breaks in all metal. Lots of trilled notes and an ingeniously individualistic style of playing the guitar, rooted in the basics yet reaching for the ether. He’s got to be a wet dream for an underground jam room; I’ve always had the feeling that he can take his playing to wherever the heck he wants over the course of extended wankathon.

I’m just going to throw out thoughts as they coalesce because this is precisely how a drunk sounds two quarts down the stretch. Hey, you learn something new everyday! Going back to the obvious infectiousness of these songs, the 80s was obviously a time for the radiosluts. You know, the Ratts and the Crues and the like. Shelton even chose to toss a freebie like ‘Feeling Free Again’ to lure in the ADD-addled junta. Too bad he succeeded in making the song so kickass. Seriously, if the whole pop-metal fad sounded half as good as this thing, I’d as gladly don permed hair as munch down on a nun’s slit. Admittedly, it’s weird to hear Shelton sing “Hey baby” in his Uncle Scrooge-on-roids-voice. I think that’s what drove the chicks away towards ‘Cherry Pie’.

But then ‘The Riddle Master’ comes along to plunge you into the morose depths of misery. And what joyous Sabbath-influenced despair it is! Road fans, heed my cry ” aaaaaaargh Nooo Noo Noo Noooo!” Motherfuck, bang, thrash, destroy! God, I’m an ageing uncle and I do this.. FUCK YOU! Sweet immaturity, don’t deign desert me! Let your Shaolin Cymbals rain down thunder of frivolous rage upon my balding head oh yes!

The Veils of Negative Existence! Oh shit, I’ve come! In gasping, throbbing spurts, I squirt the fluid of life! Do you smell the lead? God, “I sail the seas of negativity to banish evil from this place!……I will never put my sword down! I will never run away! In the Veils of Negative Existence, I am the Master Here to Stay!”. Oh Christ, if you know metal like I do, you will feel the chills break on your skin, you will feel weak in the knee, and you will feel something twist and break inside.

I laid myself down into bed

To sleep away the night

A vision from inside my head

A sun with no sunlight

Oh, mommy! Tears, fucking tears well up inside these eyes. Ducts befouled, keep you shit to yourselves! In time, I’ve come to appreciate ‘Dreams of Eschaton’ as THE alpha-male of all heavy metal songs. The softly mumbled intro over humble acoustic strains, the aggressive, neck-snapping theme that leads into the EPIC “Before the Gods of Hell sentence you to die:…yeah? you know it, don’t you? “When Ragnarok Comes Down, We’ll All Run Out of Time”!

6:34, and the solo starts. Go to bed, honey, ‘cuz you could never dream of coming up with anything as simple yet as breathtakingly legendary and thriving with emotion as this. People look four corners when I mention Mark Shelton – all I need do is point them to this bit. How does someone come up with something so leviathanic, if that’s even a word, with something so basic? I wish I knew, I really do. It’s total alchemy to my ears.

I’m a pretty hard guy, but Crystal Logic makes me cry. I think it’s hard for most folks to comprehend the way I feel about heavy metal, especially at times of heightened sensory cognition like these. I’d only like to paraphrase the signature of a certain Nolan Lewis of Kryptos fame – “If it’s not within you, thou wilt never understand.” Get Crystal Logic – it’s mandatory.

Music Review: Profanatitas de Domonatia

-by Devdutt Nawalkar

Artist: “Profanatica”

Album: “Profanatitas de Domonatia” (2007)

It’s hard to be shocked by most extreme metal these days and even harder to take most bands seriously. The old themes of religion bashing, although perhaps more relevant, and in dire need of being heard, than any other point in history, have started sounding trite and insincere when expressed through the vessel of heavy music. New bands either get caught up in the technical aspect of music or are too preoccupied in replicating a particular sound from a bygone era. While they have succeeded marvellously on the first front, it is the latter that is often found wanting in spirit and vitality. Europe and the United States, inspite of having a lucid history and having played pivotal parts at various junctures in the development of extreme metal, have long been sterile in breeding truly disgusting, obnoxiously putrid black/death metal . It is therefore a surprise of the most horrific aspect that one of the progenitors of American blasphemy have risen out of the fetid depths of oblivion to give vent to almost a decade’s worth of pent up depravity. ‘Profanatitas de Domonatia‘ is Profanatica’s first full length after seventeen years of being and goes some way in alleviating the frustration of years of inactivity.

zyaada teekha khaane ka nateeja

Paul Ledney was somewhat of an underground legend back in the day. Originally a member of Incantation and Revenant, he split from those illustrious institutions to form Profanatica, and, later on, Havohej. Profanatica are the cultest of the cult, having released only EPs and splits at sporadic intervals in their existence. They of course gained infamy and ridicule through the gratuitous display of reproductive organs on their album covers. But you see, Paul Ledney was never kidding when he proclaimed Profanatica as “the most blasphemous band on the planet”. While the band’s lyrics and general aesthetic conformed to set patterns of anti-Christian black/death, Profanatica were first and foremost iconoclasts. It is impossible to escape the feeling of utter disregard for all manner of convention that pervades the band’s work. Everything from the band’s artwork to Ledney’s condescendingly throat-shredding growls convey absolute disdain for everything that anybody holds sacred. I get the feeling that they’d as soon be singing glorified hymns to paedophilia if it meant getting a rise out of the sensitive. It is hard to come by that kind of fervour in today’s extreme metal scene and while many bands put out cosmetic reproductions of a lost style, very few capture the essence of danger that made the earliest, primitive explosions of hate and rage so compelling.

Musically speaking, Profanatica play a hybrid of black and doom-laden death metal. They really are an exercise in startlingly effective simplicity. Songs contain, on average, about 3-4 basic riffs. Tremolo picked notes serve as the basic template over which Ledney hurls his rabid diatribes. Often there are times when one can hear a guitar and nothing else buzz by itself before the rest of the instruments come in. Doom riffs bearing the Incantation hallmark step in at regular junctions and flesh out the dynamics of the music.

Speaking of Incantation, they truly are a huge presence on all Profanatica and if you’re any kind of Incantation fan, you’ll know it when the patented bits come in. It would be unfair to make a call on who influenced who since there must have been a fair amount of osmosis when the two bands started out. Be that as it may, Ledney distinguishes his band from his former colleagues by bringing in a pronounced black metal nuance to the table, more evolved melodic credentials, which by the way are used only in the service of the sinister, and by employing vocals far better than Incantation have ever had, Craig Pillard and Daniel Corchado notwithstanding. He sounds deranged, foaming-at-the-mouth, and utterly bereft of all compassion, and human notions of decency and morality. It’s a silly and seemingly innocuous thing to scream “I’ll tear this fucking religion to the ground” (‘Betrayal of the Lamb’) but you’d be hard pressed to call his bluff on it and you’d be hard pressed to suppress the chill that climbs down your spine when the chants-in-reverse ring out as the song ends. This is the same guy that sang ‘Dethrone the Son of God’. People familiar with that piece of blasphemy will be most pleased to know that the passing of a couple of decades hasn’t tampered with the sheer feral quality in his voice.

With ‘Profanatitas de Domonatia‘, Profanatica have regurgitated one of the vilest and most unholy slabs of black/death this decade and have done no harm whatsoever to the aura of mystery that surrounds them. All fans of primitive, minimalistic, and blasphemous metal should seek this out. Let the black ejaculation begin.

Music Review: Fourth Reich

-by Devdutt Nawalkar

Artist: “Katharsis”

Album: “Fourth Reich” (2009)

The new Katharsis is chaos swirling around in red mists of obliteration, seeking the yellow, and impaling them on the stake of the heartless. This is one of the most intense albums released this year, and hands down the single best thing the Germans have ever done. Political correctness aside, if Hitler really wanted to give Jews a glimpse of perdition before the real thing, he’d play them ‘Fourth Reich‘ (As a disclaimer, the band has nothing to do with racist ideologies).

This is a bit of a departure for Katharsis. They seem to have aligned themselves more strongly with the (anti) religious black metal vibe evident on albums like Deathspell Omega’s ‘si Monumentum..‘ No fear, necrotrons, for this is still as rotten and febrile as ever. But, while retaining the rawness of previous releases, the sound on Fourth Reich manages to achieve an equilibrium that helps greatly to emphasize the band’s brutality.

And brutal it is. While the band’s moved on from the Darkthrone-influenced early days, people familiar with their newer material will know just what to expect here. Seriously, did you even get to breathe during VVorld VVithout End? Wave after nauseating wave of concussive, aural destruction crashing on the listener caught under its unforgiving onslaught, a density that some think monotonous but captured only by a precious few (Impiety, Funeral Mist on ‘Salvation‘, Antaeus on ‘Cut Your Flesh and Worship Satan‘).

It’s been three years since then, and while the band’s stayed true to their template of relentlessly blasting black metal, they’ve introduced just about enough variety to pole-vault them over the also-rans and take up house among the genre elite. Songs are still howling, unappeasable tempests of pure vitriol and pissed off’ness that threaten to rip off the nearest available neck of all mortal pretensions, stick it up on a pogo stick, and mock with the bellowing laughter of seven hells. The similarities to Funeral Mist’s ‘Salvation‘ have been toned down especially in the vocal aspect. Drakh isn’t channeling Arioch as much anymore; gone are most of the gasps, the hiccups, and assorted quirks that made VVorld VVithout End such a great alternative for ones easily tired of ‘Salvation‘s’ theatricality.

There’s a more pronounced melodic edge to Fourth Reich as well, at least as melodic as a band on the Norma Evangelium Diaboli stable can be. ‘So Nail The Hearts’ slows down to an amble towards the end, and employs creepy choirs so beloved of the recent orthodox Satanic black metal movement. ‘Eucharistick Funereal’ blasts, changes tack, and even engages in *gasp* a bit of repetitive, trance-like guitar tapping as it lumbers down to its climax. ‘Reckoning’ is almost grindcore in parts and utilizes what even sounds like a rabid D-beat at the end. ‘Emeralde Graves’ is roughly five minutes of ambient, synth sounds that we could do without, but the closer ‘Sinn Koronation’ is a winner, weaving different moods to lead in and out of a mouth-watering mid-section.

Katharsis used to be a relatively one-dimensional, albeit awesome, band that rarely strayed out of their comfort zone. Fourth Reich sees them upgrading their sound without compromising the trademark, unhinged, and unpretentious viciousness and, in doing so, outdoing other more anticipated releases this year.

Rating: 9/10

Music Review: Absorbed In The Nethervoid

-by Devdutt Nawalkar

Artist: “Claws”

Album: “Absorbed In The Nethervoid” (2009)

Razorback has always been a home to niche bands. It used to be gorish grind in the nascency of the label with bands like Catasexual Urge Motivation, Impetigo, Gruesome Stuff Relish, Gigantic Brain, Birdflesh and WTN among others that found a cozy nook under Bill Nocera’s label. The trend shifted to cartoonish death/thrash/grind with bands from Portland like Lord Gore, Frightmare, Ghoul, Engorged, etc spearheading the assault. This phase generally had the most detractors due to the sameness of the music which resulted in somewhat unfair charges of gimmickry levelled against the label. Over the last 3 years or so, focus has shifted to bands plying the old school death metal trade with some absolutely crushing releases barging through the door. Crypticus, Hooded Menace and Decrepitaph have all served out tempting platters of the old sounds in the last one year. Claws from Finland are the latest addition to the roster and a much welcome one too.

Claws play old school death metal in the Swedish/Finnish vein. Period. All the usual references are present here – a bit of Carnage, a bit of Grave, a bit of the Finnish Abhorrence, some Funebre and so on and so forth. To be honest, there really isn’t much to talk about once you slap the old school label onto a band. It’s all been done before and, unfortunately, done much better. Claws, however, break the trend of substandard rehashes (It probably helps that they’re Finnish). Great songs, great solos, great production, and a length that doesn’t outstay its welcome, are all factors that contribute to the making of a very enjoyable record. This would make a great companion piece to Funebrarum’s ‘The Sleep of Morbid Dreams’.

People fling about the word ‘necro’ rather carelessly to describe any old school death metal. Dismember’s great but they’re not necro. Grave were necro on ‘Into the Grave’ but they aren’t anymore. Deathevokation or Evocation, albeit extremely awesome, are too melodic to be necro. To these ears, necro is a somewhat amorphous niche defined by a certain cavernous, bowel distending quality to the music. Funebrarum have it in spades and so do Claws. Highly recommended for all old school fans.

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Music Review: Gurus In Collaboration

It’s extremely rarely that truly great music compilations are put out by music companies. Even if a bunch of hit songs are put together, it’s almost as if the company is smirking at you, waiting to shake hands with your cash. And most of the times, that is the case, but what Universal has done here is thrown together some awesome songs by great artistes, and a mere glance at the tracklist will make you sit up and want to check this baby out. Out of 13 tracks, four (Maula Maula, Maula Maula Divinity Mix, Mohre Piya and Mast Mast) are previously unreleased.

DJ Suketu joins Ustad Sultan Khan for a remix of the latter’s Maula Maula and gives it a modern edge. He calls it Divinity Mix, and it sure does sound fantastic!

The great Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s unique voice shines on Pyar Pyar, and Simon and Diamond infuse funkiness into the late singer’s classic. If you’re a Hindi film freak, you must’ve heard/seen a Bollywood version of this track, shamelessly stolen for the Rishi Kapoor–Juhi Chawla–Arbaaz Khan starrer Daraar.

Shubha Mudgal, who became immensely popular with her single Ab Ke Saawan, makes full use of her strong, unwavering and very listenable vocals on Kar Sajda.

Kavan Kavan begins with an ordinary guitar riff, very similar to Bryan Adam’s Summer Of ’69 and a voice that says “Shake it, daddy.” It’s DJ Aqeel on the mix, so a Bollywood touch is not only excused, but expected. Before I can dismiss it as just another remix, Sukhwinder Singh‘s voice cuts through to deliver a solid rendition of his fabulous track.

The ever-popular Guru Nalon Ishq Mitha is probably the best-known Punjabi track ever, and Bally Sagoo gives this Malkit Singh song the right treatment. Sure to get people dancing!

What a nice surprise to have a Ranjit Barot song on this CD! The man takes the album in a totally different direction with Mast Mast, without complicating things. Mast Mast is a vibrant track that radiates such an awesome vibe, and I’m going to be restless till I find out who’s singing on this, for the inlay makes no mention of it.

The lovable Bally Sagoo returns on Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s Kinna Sonha, and stamps his signature style on the legendary Pakistani singer’s very well-known song.

Kailash Kher’s music and voice has always been exceptionally great, and the man takes the greatness several notches up with Saiyyan, an oustanding track even among several of his terrific songs.

Aaja Mahi‘s Garage Club Remix is also very good…it’s a song I hadn’t heard till this CD came along. DJ Swami has done full justice to Ustad N F A Khan’s composition, never taking away from the charm of the late singer’s vocals.

Shubha Mudgal teams up with Salman Ahmed (of Junoon fame) on Ghoom Tana, and they both offer an excellent song! Salman Ahmed’s vocals are very good, and the pairing definitely works. The lyrics (by Salman Ahmed) are quite nice, too. Refreshingly original.

The original version of Ustad Sultan Khan’s Maula Maula…wow, what can I say? What terrific music and lyrics by Agnel Roman! Sabir Khan plays the sarangi, and everything about this song is so earthy! The blending of all the instruments, combined with very good lyrics and Ustad Sultan Khan’s unique vocal style…

Before I can praise Maula Maula some more, Ustad Sultan Khan returns with Mohre Piya, yet another splendid song, remixed in such an awesome manner. I hear some thoughtfully-added guitar distortion, and Sabir Khan delights with his sarangi again.

And now for the grande finale…the theme from Mani Ratnam’s Hindi film Bombay.

A bell-like chiming and a flute mingle their way through musical notes, building up a mesmerising atmosphere, working their way towards a crescendo and then pausing gently to make way for that sweeping, epic tune that meanders into many variations…going on and on, blowing you away with its greatness with every single note.

There is little doubt A R Rahman is the genius of all geniuses, he has this gift of overwhelming you with his compositions. The dark, brooding ocean of musical greatness that Bombay Theme is, is yet another testimony to this composer’s brilliance. I’m sold.

A round of applause for Universal Music for putting out this compilation, and it is obvious that a lot of thought has gone into selecting these tracks, which seem to have been handpicked by someone who has a keen and in-depth knowledge of music. Gift yourself a copy of Gurus In Collaboration and treat your ears and soul to the brilliance this part of the globe emanates.

RATING: 4/5

Music Review: Ghajini

Film: “Ghajini” (2008)

Actors: “Aamir Khan”, “Asin”

Music: “A R Rahman”

AR Rahman has a knack of hitting just the notes you want to hear, and the tendency to make music that is slightly ahead of its time. The genius’ work was last heard on the soundtrack of Subhash Ghai‘s ambitious Yuvvraaj, which had a couple of memorable songs.

There are six tracks on the music CD of Aamir Khan‘s Ghajini, and one can’t help but notice that many Bollywood soundtracks nowadays have only half a dozen songs or less.

The opener Guzarish is very good modern Bollywood music, very AR Rahman. Javed Ali has sung this (very well!) and Sonu Niigaam is the ‘guest vocalist’. Operatic vocals by Kavita Baliga and mandolins add the required weight to Guzarish. Little wonder then, that this tiny gem from Ghajini is getting heavy rotation on all music channels.

Rahman has made good use of the electric guitar on Aye Bachu. Sung by Suzanne, it has English words inserted in Hindi sentences. The music sounds fresh, but there isn’t anything that makes you come back to the song for a second round.

Kaise Mujhe is an excellent track! Not something that’ll hit you instantly, this song is one of those that grow on you after a few listens. Benny Dayal sings well, and Shreya Ghoshal is even better. Rahman displays tremendous control here, he lets the song spread over time and it’s definitely good to let things settle down on their own instead of being anal about them.

Karthik gives the ‘south Indian film music’ feel to Behka with his vocals, but even the innovative music does not ensure any kind of repeat value to this.

Latoo is alright…Shreya Ghoshal sings this decent but forgettable number.

The instrumental version of Kaise Mujhe is even better…no words being sung here, but Shreya Ghoshal‘s vocals are the perfect layer for this thoughtfully-crafted piece.

The thing with Rahman is the music is always good, but he often fails to hold your attention, and this could be because of his work coming across as half-hearted at times. His control over his art is undoubtable, and his genius undeniable. With Yuvvraaj and now Ghajini, fans of the maestro will just have to wait a bit for him to come up with yet another few masterly pieces of music that’ll blow us away.

Rahman’s score for Aamir’s Ghajini has fresh, innovative modern music and quite a few moments, but it’s not something that will stay in your CD player for too long.

RATING: 2.5/5

[One of my most popular and most hated music reviews on Buzz18]

Music Review: Kailasa Chaandan Mein

Having been a LaVeyan Satanist for over a decade, it is not possible to talk to me about issues like god and religion without getting rebuked when I’m not in the best of moods. And even when I’m feeling cheerful and like I couldn’t give a hoot, the god-fearing faithful still manage to bag laughter from me into their faces.

In July 2008, I was in Pushkar for 10 days, and though the spiritual vibe of the holy city didn’t convert me into a believer, it did move me to a great extent. Later, in the same year, I had the pleasure of listening to the music of Dasvidaniya and the privilege of reviewing it. I was so blown away by the emotion of the sounds created by Kailash, Naresh and Paresh that I hailed the composers as the best team to grace the Hindi music industry in a very long time. I couldn’t stop raving about the music of Dasvidaniya and perhaps never will. I also couldn’t stop wondering how Kailash Kher and the Kamath brothers were ever possibly going to manage to top Dasvidaniya and their previous non-filmi efforts.

I have now stopped wondering.

Kailash Kher, Naresh Kamath and Paresh Kamath have made me stop wondering.

As I listen to their first international release Kailasa Chaandan Mein, I sit here helpless, captivated by the magic these men have created yet again.

There is a bevy of wonderful instruments blended into the stunningly crafted songs. These unique instruments, instead of making their individual importance felt, become one with every other sound, gracefully paving the way for one gigantic feeling, a heavy atmosphere impossible to move your attention away from.

Every track, ranging from light, fun and mischievious to brooding, questioning is directed at the lover for whom the singer waits, at times seeming hopeless and bordering on despair, yet with tremendous patience only complete and selfless love can arm one with.

Kher, packed with sincerity, inflates Kailasa Chaandan Mein with unflagging devotion. The Kamath brothers, in turn, cement the structure, deftly crafting the huge sounds, layering them adeptly with wisely chosen instruments, picking the best of notes.

The great Kailash Kher immerses himself in the sea of devotion, submerging you with the tide of his sound. You don’t protest, and you submit to the magic the trio conjures. Kailash Kher and the brothers Kamath elevate you to the heights of spiritual ecstasy, as they have before, only this time the force is more powerful than ever before, the meaning seeming far greater (I could be wrong here, so correct me) this time around. The emotions I’m feeling experiencing Kailasa Chaandan Mein is similar to the invisible force I felt in Pushkar in July 2008, exactly a year before.

VERDICT

Give it up, world, for the mammoth talents and sheer genius of Kailash, Naresh and Paresh. To leave someone who doesn’t believe in god spiritually moved and trembling this way is saying the ineffable. Kailasa Chaandan Mein gets my vote for album of the year, and we’re just barely halfway through 2009. Take a bow, gentlemen.

RATING: 5/5 (without hesitation, and without a doubt)

Music Review: Southern Storm

-by Devdutt Nawalkar

Artist: “Krisiun”

Album: “Southern Storm” (2008)

Krisiun have been slogging their asses in the scene for close to two decades now. They’ve always been an acquired taste for listeners; their no-holds-barred blasting and slightly monotonous song structures have alienated listeners appreciative of a more restrained bent. Songs often tend to melt into one another if one’s not in the right mood, and the speed for speed’s sake ethos doesn’t win them many Opeth-club awards either. Personally speaking, I’ve always had a bit of a hard on for the band’s brand of take-no-prisoners death metal. Cult listeners will be quick to point out other bands from the Americas who’ve taken core influences from Krisiun and surpassed the original purveyors. While that may be true to an extent in the cases of countrymates like Raebelliun, Abhorrent, Ancestral Malediction, Nephasth, etc, the fact of the matter is that Krisiun have outstared all comers and are still carrying the flag of pure, hate-fueled death metal that only South Americans seem capable of doing right.

‘Southern Storm’ is the first Krisiun record I’ve checked out since 2003’s ‘Works of Carnage’. While I liked that album a fair bit, there were a few new elements that left me somewhat cold. The band retained their crushing sound for the most part but had slowly started introducing a more syncopated style of riffing. It served the warlike Krisiun aesthetic well enough when used sporadically, but I never thought that they would grow to base whole albums around that idea. Fast-track to ‘Southern Storm’ (giving AssasiNation a skip), and that’s exactly what they’ve done. And what’s more, they’ve somehow managed to pull it off too.

‘Southern Storm’ is blessed with the best production job Krisiun’s ever had. Everything is clear without being sterile (One wonders how the old records would sound with this sort of touch up), and it’s a development that helps the band’s style greatly. Good production has never been Krisiun’s strong suit. They have the dubious honour of owning the universally-reviled production on Ageless Venomous, an album that virtually single-handedly invented the drum-sound jokes genre. That’s all ancient history now though and you won’t be hating the band because of that aspect at least.

Old fans, however, may be flummoxed by the aforementioned style of riffing. Atleast 5-6 songs have regular bursts of staccatoed riffing played to matching drum patterns. It’s an element that feels monotonous at first, desperately in need of some colour. What rescues Krisiun is Moyses’s guitarwork, and the songwriting in general. Moyses has turned in the best performance of his career here, no debate brooked. His playing is sublime, and is handled with a great deal of composure. He goes off on short scalar runs and sweeping arpeggios with a liquid grace that rivals the best the genre has to offer. He sets up inventive rhythms around the machine gun rat-a-tats – take the opener ‘Slaying Steel’ for instance. It opens with the cursory stopstarting riff, followed by a more conventional death metal theme that slides effortlessly into the best breakdown Krisiun’s ever done.  Trimmed of all fat, one gets the vibe that the song has a destination to reach, and zero patience for filler.

In a way, that’s the most important feature one salvages from Krisiun’s work today. The band can still blast and kill with the best of them but there is a controlled maturity to the sound now. The band is comfortable with creating a bit of groove, and making some space for their more breakneck parts. The result is that, for the very first time, I find myself remembering bits and pieces from almost all songs. Check out ‘Sentenced Morning’, ‘Bleeding Offers’, which has a lick reminiscent of Marty Friedman’s heyday, ‘Minotaur’,  rumbling along like some fodder-hungry panzer, or ‘Combustion Inferno’, which is the best demonstration of the new militaristic approach. ‘Contradictions of Decay’ has the most obnoxiously head-banging riff that’s ever come out of the Krisiun camp, and has the best solo on the record too. Moyses’s work on the short classical instrumental ‘Black Winds’ is also worth mentioning, as is the epic closer ‘Whore of the Unlight’ which finds the band tentatively treading structural territory redolent of, say, an Immolation while staying Krisiun through and through.

A huge part of the Krisiun sound are the distinctive vocals of bassist/vocalist Alex Camargo. He uses zero gimmicks; no introspective, spoken-word garbage to be found here. These are pure, bowel-shaking explosions of rage, and they suit this incarnation of the band’s sound very well. In an earlier version of this review, I had minor aversions to his performance on the cover of Sepultura’s ‘Refuse – Resist’, under the pretext of it bringing little new to the table. On further listens, however, that just might have been the point. Certainly, it’s no match for Max Cavalera’s passionate delivery on the original, but Camargo brings in an incisiveness of his own that has grown on me over successive listens.

Krisiun have really upped the ante on Southern Storm. While it will probably go underappreciated or dismissed by most other than their rabid fanbase, all death metal fans would do well to check it out. There’s life in the one trick pony yet.

Rating: 8.5/10

Music Review: Ineffable Mysteries From Shpongleland

Artist: “Shpongle”

Album: “Ineffable Mysteries From Shpongleland” (2009)

If you already got shpongled long ago, there might be a sense of dread accompanying the excitement with which you will approach this album. The reason for my cynicism was clear – where could they go after Nothing Lasts…But Nothing Is Lost?

Electroplasm, though lilting, does little to reassure or prepare one for the musical experience that is Shpongle, and equally unconvincing is Shponglese Spoken Here. Great electronic music with classical guitar, but it’s the kind of stuff that needs visuals to help you into it. What are music videos for, yeah?

Good stuff follows – Nothing Is Something Worth Doing and Ineffable Mysteries are the songs that reinstate why Shpongle is so bloody awesome. Unless any of you from the shpongled lot haven’t heard “music” before, Nothing Is Something Worth Doing should remind you of a classic Metallica song off the …And Justice For All album. Keep guessing till the end of time, losers.

Having been a listener of Raja Ram’s work with 1200 Micrograms, and a fan of Simon Posford’s Hallucinogen (I loved both Twisted and The Lone Deranger…Goa Trance!!!), it’s stunning to see where these guys have taken themselves.

The electronic wizardry finally overpowers me with I Am You, and you’ll be glad the song stretches past 11 minutes. The best thing about this album is it doesn’t try to live up to expectations fans of Shpongle have, makes no effort to match up to Are You Shpongled? or Tales Of The Inexpressible, and therein lies its strength and force.

Boys can raise their ugly bald heads and hail their favourite Shpongle album as the band’s greatest work and girls can sway their child-bearing hips with full righteousness, but as Invisible Man In A Flourescent Suit, No Turn Un-Stoned and Walking Backwards Through The Cosmic Mirror (psytrance, baby!) make themselves comfortable before me between a fresh morning and a lazy afternoon on a Sunday, I can tell you this is the most clever psybient music that’s come out in awhile.

VERDICT

Shpongle have almost always taken things a notch up with every step in their career, and with Ineffable Mysteries From Shpongleland they pay no attention to all the hype that anything they created would generate, and have given the most mature album from their glowing discography. Hard to believe, impossible to deny.

RATING: 4/5

Music Review: World

-by Devdutt Nawalkar

Artist – “Gigantic Brain”

Album – “World” (2009)

Back in the early days, Gigantic Brain used to be a ridiculously clumsy one-man project of a certain John Brown from Virgina, U.S. His music got labelled ‘cybergore’ or ‘cybergrind’ or something like that. What it really did sound like was a grind soundtrack to your favourite Atari game from twenty years ago, an evolutionary misstep caused by unethical breeding between the monster boss at the end of the Contra arcade games and Arnold Schwarzenegger. It was lo-fi, sloppy as all fuck yet insanely catchy, fuzzed out drum-machine fueled goregrind probably done by a balding single guy with a protruding gut and a bong for best friend. But it did have its charms, not unlike those present in a particularly fat girlfriend. Sure, you emerge from a bout of fucking feeling silly and slightly repulsed, but it’s great while it lasts; there’s plenty to explore, grope and lose yourself in. And you can always ask for seconds since there’s so much to go around. Now imagine that the fat girlfriend is also a sci-fi nerd with a penchant for dressing up as Princess Leia though she really resembles Jabba The Hut and that she has a certified mean streak which sees her strapping and subjecting you to unmentionable trespasses. That, in essence, was the Gigantic Brain I remember from The Invasion Discography (2004).

The Gigantic Brain of today bears little resemblance to that entity. I’m not very familiar with the post-rock/metal genre so I won’t take any liberties in drawing references. But it does seem like Brown has whole-heartedly embraced the sparse, ambient ethic of that particular strain of music and made it his own. Gone are most of the crazy, binary-odes to video games and invading monsters from foreign dimensions. In their place are soothing, almost meditative yet somewhat melancholic, synth-driven instrumentals that seem to have a running thread through the album. This music would not sound unseemly as the score to movies like 2001: A Space Odyssey, or, more recently, Moon. Or the upcoming Ubik, for that matter (I can’t wait to see how they screw it up. Fuck your eyes, Hollywood). There is an epicness about it, an almost requiem-like quality that laments the passing of a simpler time, and a hesitancy to see in a more impersonal, technologically-driven age.

All’s not lost for fans of the band’s earlier sound though. There are a few harkbacks to what brought Gigantic Brain to the party in the first place – short, lacerating bursts of grind designed to blow windows but these are almost always infused with the newfound contemplative aesthetic. It may have sounded disjointed in lesser hands but Brown’s improved songwriting sees it through and highlights the juxtapositions between past and future mentioned earlier.

Comparisons could be drawn to Devin Townsend’s solo work and the Ocean Machine album. There are also a fair few nods to industrial and techno, admittedly genres I’m not overly fond of. But Gigantic Brain incorporates it sparingly and only within the context of the album’s theme, much like how Alienation Mental used it on Ballspouter.

Gigantic Brain’s sound has changed drastically and old fans may find it a bit unpalatable if they’re expecting more of the same. While I love the earlier stuff, I find ‘World‘ a much more involving and, ultimately, enjoyable album. Check it out if you like pop, ambient, etc, and if you can stand to ignore a few minutes of metallic grinding.

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