While already one of the most eclectic of prog bands that got the larger prog party started with its 1969 classic “In The Court Of The Crimson King,” Robert Fripp ingeniously steered his baby through a multitude of varying styles, techniques and songwriting ingenuity all throughout the early 1970s dropping a few instant classics that caught on with the fans immediately as well as albums that reached unthinkable complexities that took longer than usual to cultivate a warm and fuzzy feeling over. Obviously KING CRIMSON was less concerned with instant gratification for the fans and fully devoted in an almost monkish manner of astute dedication to its craft where each album had to stand on its own and the very thought of a simple copy and paste and then shuffle around a bit approach was not even remotely part of the equation.

One of the most significant reasons for these extreme changes between albums was the unstable lineups which found every album hosting a whole new prog soiree with members joining the team and then departing as soon as they exited the recording studio. By the time KC got to its fifth album “Lark’s Tongues In Aspic,” the lineup of Robert Fripp (guitar, mellotron), Davis Cross (violin, viola, piano), John Wetton (bass, vocals), Bill Bruford (drums and percussion) along with secondary percussionist Jamie Muir proved to be the most cohesive lineup and not only delivered one of the band’s most revered classic albums but followed with a demanding tour that left little time for conjuring up new studio material for the next chapter of the KING CRIMSON saga. By tour’s end only a mere two studio tracks had emerged from the precious little down time the band experienced which led to the dilemma of what to present to the record company for new album material.

The genius of Robert Fripp transcended such obstacles though and after reflecting on the amazing musical moments that the band had honed during their live performances, KC members noticed how extraordinary some of the live improvised footage turned out from the band’s extensive touring schedule and opted simply to capture the magic of a live setting and simply assimilate it into the context of a studio album. Shrouded in secrecy and unrevealed until well after the band broke up after “Red,” KING CRIMSON meticulously scoured through an entire tour’s worth of the best improv moments (primarily lifted from a sole Amsterdam show) they mustered up and mixed live recordings with new studio embellishments. The result was one of the greatest (mostly) live albums that nobody knew was (mostly) live! STARLESS AND BIBLE BLACK was born and thus KC created one of the most eclectic albums in their already far-reaching canon that led up to it. The clever KC kept it all under wraps due to the fact record companies pay less royalties on live albums even when they are mere samplings incorporated into the mishmash of live / studio hybrids. The album’s title refers to a quotation from the first two lines of poet Dylan Thomas’ play “Under Milk Wood.”

Enjoying the stability of the same lineup minus Jamie Murr who abruptly exited due to purported back problems leaving Bill Bruford to tackle all percussive duties, STARLESS AND BIBLE BLACK found the band shifting gears once again and delivered an eclectic potpourri much more steeped in jazz and classical then anything from the rock paradigm but once again unleashed the goods in a way that was well outside the parameters of the more popular progressive rock acts of the day. While a divisive album for many fans, STARLESS AND BIBLE BLACK is one of those albums that you can never predict exactly where it goes. Roughly 3/4 improvised live material and only a quarter studio only, the album begins with the completely new power packed “The Great Deceiver” which delivers one of the hardest rocking songs of KC’s career with Fripp’s spidery guitar riffs haunting the time signature rich musical motifs that offer the most authentic of true 70s rock that KC ever delivered infused with a hard rock energetic performance. Just one of four tracks that featured lyrics, STARLESS AND BIBLE BLACK was a mostly all-instrumental affair with complex liberties and creativity flourishing at every juncture.

“Lament,” the only other completely studio track, follows with a softer orchestrated intro ceding to another heavier rocker and “lamenting” the pitfalls of fame and losing one’s anonymity when on the world’s stage as a famous rock band. On tour, Wetton even received an impromptu marriage proposal from an unknown female fan accompanied by her brother to guarantee the success of her fanaticism run amok! After the first two tracks which in a way prognosticate what Fripp would revive in the 80s starting with the trilogy of albums that began with “Discipline,” the rest of the album takes on a more contemplative cerebral approach with thoughtful instrumental compositions that showcase the aleatoric improvisational skills that the band had honed into Olympic winning performances as each musician developed the perfect methodology of punctuating the silence between the other’s playing techniques, a feat almost unheard of in the context of rock music and more akin to the greatest masters of the classic world of jazz. The “Night Watch” showcased the band’s skillful studio mastery of removing any traces of live setting audience noises which was totally absorbed from the single night at the Amsterdam Concergebouw concert.

Being the head scratching shapeshifter that it turned out to be, STARLESS AND BIBLE BLACK morphs into a chamber rock session with “Trio”, which found Bruford sitting out and twiddling his thumbs while violinist David Cross evoked more of an Antonio Vivaldi vibe than anything remotely resembling how the album began just a mere five tracks prior. The most daring and complex creations of the entire KC playbook emerge at the end of the album with “The Mincer” delivering an abstract almost Soft Machine style of free jazz only accompanied by Fripp’s eccentric guitar accompaniments. The track meanders instrumentally only to throw the curveball of Wetton’s lyrical contributions emerging towards the end. The track seamlessly cedes into the all instrumental title track which threw the entire world of classical, jazz, rock and chamber music into the cauldron and unleashed a monstrously bizarre track kept from losing any connection to reality by Wetton’s groovy bass lines. Cited as the most difficult composition to play guitar on of his entire career, the closing “Fracture” seems like a totally different band that how the album began with “The Great Deceiver.” The track in many ways showcases the apex of Fripp’s unique playing style that differed so greatly from any other guitarist of the era.

While often ignored for the more cohesive popular masterpieces that bookend it, STARLESS AND BIBLE BLACK really is one of the more difficult nuts to crack in the KC playbook but attentive listens over long periods of time reveal its ingenuity and musical innovation in a way that a mere one exposure or even two, three or four could possibly achieve. In many ways the album showcases the pinnacle of the progressive rock paradigm that had apexed in the years of 1973 and 1974 and taking the visionary fusion of rock, jazz, classical and creative license to its logical conclusion. STARLESS AND BIBLE BLACK may not be the most accessible of KC’s lauded string of masterworks that were crafted for the relatively short time span of 1969-1974 but after allowing it properly sink in and work its magic, it definitely stands high in the standards set out by the early pioneers of prog and has retrospectively garnered much more acceptance than it did initially when deemed inconsistent and arcane for many.

My personal experience is basically the same as most as my first several encounters left me feeling indifferent and only by attentively listening for many years has the album really gotten under my skin. The album proved to be the perfect transitional stage between “Lark’s Tongue” and “Red” and although the band was on the verge of breaking up, showcased the magnanimous nature of what talented dedicated musicians can achieve when they fully commit themselves. Perhaps just a smidge behind the album it followed and one that came after but nevertheless STARLESS AND BIBLE BLACK now screams masterpiece every time i put it on. For those having a hard time with this one, don’t force it. Let it sink in. It truly is one of those albums that only reveals itself after numerous exposures and astute attentiveness. While many dismiss this as a mere space filler between “Lark’s Tongue In Aspic” and “Red,” STARLESS AND BIBLE BLACK is certainly no slacker when it comes to high quality and compositionally challenging progressive rock. In fact it was TOO complex for its own good in many ways but has more than stood the test of time and in many circles equally revered as just another classic in the impressive KC canon.

For a BRIDE that has been DYING since 1990, she sure has more lives in her than a cat which supposedly has 9. In fact the English band MY DYING BRIDE led by the distinct vocalist Aaron Stainthorpe and guitarist Andrew Craighan formed over three decades ago is still showcasing an immortality beyond the longevity of most bands from the same era. Still alive and kickin’ in 2024 MY DYING BRIDE has released the 14th album of its never-ending procession of gloomy Goth-tinged doom metal with death metal decorations with A MORTAL BINDING which after a turbulent first two decades of lineup changes finds a bit of stability in the form of the same cast of members that were featured on 2020’s “The Ghost of Orion” with the sole exception of Dan Mullins rejoining and replacing percussionist / drummer Jeff Singer.

Another chapter in the MY DYING BRIDE book but pretty much the same thematic developments as this band that was once wildly experimental between albums has long ago found the perfect comfort zone that seems to keep the fans coming back for more thus showcasing the desire to pacify the buying public rather than risk the golden goose by releasing some fusion of polka-based Gothic doom dance pop or anything of the sort. Au contraire. At this stage one can ostensibly predict without much chance of error exactly what any particular edition of the MY DYING BRIDE canon will sound like and in the case of A MORTAL BINDING, you guessed it! Another slice of oozing doom metal accompanied by Stainthorpe’s plaintive Gothic vocal style set to the oozing dread of doom metal with the melancholic atmospheric backing to guarantee another soundtrack of dread and damnation only with the occasional outbursts into death metal.

Augmented by the band’s now classic violin backing, A MORTAL BINDING for the most part follows the playbook cemented into place so long ago which means that one can only judge the quality of any particular MY DYING BRIDE release by the strength of the songwriting alone as the performances are always top notch and despite doom metal bands springing up from all four corners of the planet since this band’s inception in 1990, MY DYING BRIDE still sounds as utterly unique as it has since day one. As far as consistency is concerned, this band certainly has it with one strong album after another, a few bonafide masterpieces and a few bellyflops in the pool that got drained over night. While A MORTAL BINDING does not reach the lofty pinnacle heights of the band’s earliest death-doom works or the lugubrious perfection of albums like “The Dreadful Hours” or “Songs Of Darkness, Words Of Light,” neither does it sink to the dreadful lead-lined depths of throwaway albums like “Evinta” or the lackluster mediocrity of many of the 2010 releases.

In fact as a true fan of this band having heard every album and EP, i’d have to say that the band sounds somewhat rejuvenated here with tracks that take a somewhat different approach than the automatic pilot get the job only but not much more albums since “A Line Of Deathless Kings.” Sure this is undeniably a MY DYING BRIDE release through and through but the chunky guitar riffing offers a bit more of an energetic upgrade on many tracks including the opening “Her Dominion” and the lengthiest track on board, the 11 minute and 22 second “The Apocalyptist” which evoke the band’s return to some of the death-doom sounds that brought them into the world’s scene in the first place. The album features all those slow-burners of course with the weeping violin lamenting the tales of woe and despair but the diversity not he album gives A MORTAL BINDING a nice spicy return to the classic style of the band that once had a fiery passion to keep the BRIDE from falling into the grave.

As such MY DYING BRIDE always walks that fine line between exhilaration and ennui as the tight wire balancing feat is something that requires the ultimate finesse to maintain the attention span of an ever-increasing A.D.D. listening public and while the last few albums seemed to simmer on cruise control, A MORTAL BINDING hits me in all the right ways and gives me faith that the band still has a second wind that will propel it into a new era of prosperity however it is true that there will come a time when the band will have to rebrand itself as MY IMMORTAL BRIDE because whoever this mysterious maiden is, she seems to have a life support system and has discovered the fountain of youth while so many have crashed, burned and become buried. While A MORTAL BINDING certainly won’t be declared the band’s triumphant comeback of the century, it more than offers enough magic mojo by my discerning ears to grasp onto. As i stated it all boils down to the songwriting with this band and on this album the band seems to have put it all together in the right way for my liking. Better than i was expecting to say the least.

A landmark in the development of fusing the black metal and death metal genres, DISSECTION’s second release STORM OF THE LIGHT’S BANE is almost ubiquitously regarded as one of the best metal albums of all time but this band certainly didn’t come without generating any controversy to say the least. The album continued what it started on its debut “The Somberlain” which itself was cutting edge as DISSECTION’s location in Strömstad found itself closer to Oslo’s second wave black metal than to the melo-death frenzy rocking Gothenburg to the south in the early to mid-1990s. The band effortlessly melded the two styles together like forging a battle sword for battle. While the debut was competent enough in its own right, STORM OF THE LIGHT’S BANE tied up all the loose ends and polished the gem of a stylistic gem into a shiny sheen where the listener couldn’t distinguish where the black metal ends and the melo-death begins.

Thwarted by the lackadaisical attitude of guitarist John Zwetsloot who failed to appear for rehearsals and finally even didn’t bother to show up to gigs, DISSECTION recruited former Satanized guitarist Johan Norman who was not only able but willing to take the band to the next level. The band spent the next two years honing their unique fusion style of metal until the glistening masterpiece STORM OF THE LIGHT’S BANE emerged in November of 1995 to welcoming fans and critics alike. What the debut had started, this sophomore effort forged into a pearl of perfectly infused black metal furor with the elegant sophistication of folk melody inspired melodic death metal. The disparate elements of softer parts, heavy extreme metal excesses and cold, bleak atmospheres had coalesced into the perfect sum of the parts and a legend in the overall metal universe for time immemorial. The album is nothing less than epic in not only its visionary stylistic developments but also in terms of tight memorable songwriting.

Primarily written by lead vocalist and guitarist Jon Nödtveidt, STORM OF THE LIGHT’S BANE delivers eight tracks of metal magnificence beginning with the military march heft of the opening “All The Fathomless Depths” before erupting into one of the most competent displays of blackened melo-death too the entire era. Building on beautifully designed twin guitar harmonies and folk musical scales, STORM OF THE LIGHT’S BANE balanced tender clean guitar arpeggios with thundering power chords, tremolo black metal picking and lightning fast death metal riffing styles that adopted the best aspects of both the second wave black metal scene and merged them with the more technically infused sounds of the Swedish death metal approach. The twin guitar attacks relied less on traditional 80s metal this time around and evolved into a unique cohesion of dueling riffing that occasionally broke out into lead guitar attacks that emphasized the melodic construct in a more virtuosic approach.

Nödtveidt’s demon from hell vocal style had hit full capacity while the compositions were taken to the fusion’s logical conclusion. The drumming style of Ole Öhman featured some of the boldest technical moves in all of the early 90s metal scene with endless variations in drum fills and full-on blastbeat ferocity. The strong melodic developments keep the album from stagnating and each individual track glimmers in its own magnificence thus keeping the album’s 43 minute run completely exhilarating with no filler material bogging down the momentum. To sum it up, the album just rips from beginning to end and then after the pinnacle of the ghoulish deliverance, gently delivers you back into a placid state of mind with the classically inspired piano piece closer “No Dreams Breed in Breathless Sleep” thus signifying the end of an album that breezes by much too soon. The album is and cold and forbidding as the scythed grim reaper on horseback suggests from the cover art.

This would be the end of DISSECTION well at least for another 12 years since after this second offering was released, frontman Jon Nödtveidt was sentenced to prison for the murder of Josef ben Meddour and although DISSECTION would arise from the ashes with a totally new backing band, the momentum had more than been lost and Nödtveidt would soon commit suicide thus ending the once great band forever. What amazes me about some of the early Scandinavian black metal bands is how brilliant and gifted they were musically speaking yet were some of the most troubled souls with unthinkable psychological damage. These guys were as unstable as dynamite at a gun shooting range and yet still found it in them for a brief moment in time to craft some of the most gorgeous musical expressions ever recorded. It’s hard to believe i didn’t even like DISSECTION at first because i just couldn’t accept the two merging metal forces together. It just didn’t sound right but now i listen to this one and am utterly blown away by its sheer perfection. A good example to not let initial experiences taint your possible delayed enthrallment. This one is definitely worthy of all the hype. Now i’m smitten too.

As one of the earliest extreme metal bands to emerge from Sweden, DISSECTION had a unique vantage point from its point of origin in the city of Strömstad being closer to Oslo, Norway than Gothenburg to the south. This explains why DISSECTION is credited as a pioneer in fusion of the second wave black metal sounds of Norway with the melodic death metal style that was taking the Gothenburg scene by storm. Unfortunately the band is not only legendary for its musical ingenuity but was one of those crazy Satanic cult band of trouble makers which eventually led original vocalist Jon Nödtveldt to kill an Algerian national living in Sweden for which he would be sent to prison and thus breaking up the band after only two albums.

While the band started out as a standard thrash metal band under the moniker of Siren’s Yell in 1988, the members of Jon Nödtveidt, Ole Öhman, Peter Palmdahl, and Mattias "Mäbe" Johansson quickly latched onto the new extreme metal styles quacking evolving in Scandinavia and released a few demos before releasing its debut THE SOMBERLAIN which emerged in 1993. This album coincided with the suicide of Mayhem’s lead vocalist Dead and was dedicated to his to his passing. While the drama was heavy with this band, so too was the talent and the band’s original two releases are now considered classics in the entire metal universe. While THE SOMBERLAIN was the lesser of the two releases with the slightly superior “Storm Of The Light’s Bane” following two years later, the effortless fusion of not only death and black metal but melodic styles from 80s heavy metal catapulted this band into the top ranks of the ugly metal underground.

While blackened death metal has become quite common well into the 21st century, DISSECTION delivered it effortlessly unlike any other thus immediately setting itself apart from the bleak musical simplicity of the early stages of the second wave of black metal while offering a darker Satanic thematic approach absent from the early Gothenburg melo-death. The band distinguished itself from most black metal of the day by crafting memorable melodic approaches that were delivered through the twin guitar attack in a similar style to Iron Maiden or Judas Priest however the atmosphere and raspy growls were straight out of the Darkthrone playbook yet all delivered with the sophisticated bombast of Swedish melo-death bigwigs like Dark Tranquility, Edge of Sanity and At The Gates. All of these elements kept DISSECTION well in its own musical world during its existence although traces of fellow Swedes Bathory permeate the release as well.

THE SOMBERLAIN is a masterwork of melo-death which features melancholic classical guitar intros that explode into molten metal ferocity that offered a black metal aesthetic that assaulted the senses with technical percussion, dueling melodic lead guitar and a propensity for thick chugging riffs that walked the line perfectly between the detached irreverence of black metal and the more actively engaged wizardry of the more technical adept death metal style. The album offered nearly 46 minutes of playing time with 12 distinct tracks that each stood on their own and offered Luciferian philosophical themes that connect DISSECTION more to the occult magic subject matter of the Norwegian black metal scene, the thematic presence that would prevail throughout the band’s short initial run and one that would ultimately find them at odds with the law. The band seemed to be running a parallel path with Mayhem as it was involved in Satanic rituals that involved animal sacrifices and conjuring up demons.

While considered a classic of both black metal and death metal, THE SOMBERLAIN was marred from total perfection by the noncommittal insouciance of guitarist John Zwetsloot who increasingly failed to show up for rehearsals and eventually even didn’t even make it to gigs. The band would fire him and replace him with Satanized guitarist Johan Norman before recording the more focused second album. Despite all the dramatic events and lack of total band cohesions, DISSECTION’s first album turned out pretty damn good with a nice cohesive flow that melded classic 80s sounds with the extremities that were dominating the early 90s. While i too have always preferred the following “Storm of the Light’s Bane,” i have to admit that THE SOMBERLAIN has grown on me over the years as it certainly yields an intricate display of clever compositional fortitude rightfully ranking high on most revered albums of the era.

It occurred to me as i was revisiting ACID BATH’s lauded 90s masterworks recently that this Louisiana band that latched onto the sludge metal scene (but was so much more), REALLY was equivalent to a musical funhouse of everything scrumptious and endearing about what 90s hard rock and metal scenes had to offer. While this band that was founded in Houma in 1991 only lasted a mere six years before the death of bassist Audie Pitre which caused the band to break up, ACID BATH has attained a legendary status as one of those bands that did it all right but was pretty much ignored during its heyday. PAEGAN TERRORISM TACTICS emerged two years after the band’s eclectic 90s mishmash of styles “When The Kite String Pops” and continues the potpourri of influences from hardcore punk, alternative metal, grunge, stoner metal as well as bluesy southern rock as well as a few sprinklings of thrash and death metal to be heard.

Also following in the footsteps of the debut, ACID BATH displayed the artwork of yet another controversial figure, this time Dr. Jack Kevorkian who was tagged Dr Death for his assistance of over 130 patients to commit suicide. The clever artwork pretty much sums up the dark subject matter of lead singer and primary songwriter Dax Riggs and his fasciation with all things morbid, nihilistic, violent and manic. Once again ACID BATH delivered a second offering that was equivalent to a classic double album’s worth of material with 12 tracks adding up to just over 72 minutes but adopted the irritating 90s trend of adding wasted minutes of silence before a hidden outro, in this case nearly 17 minutes. So musically speaking that leaves a more digestible 57 minutes or so of musical morsels to devour. As with “Kite Strings,” PAEGAN TERRORISM TACTICS is like a roller coaster of everything 90s all existing on one wild ride of top notch sludgy alt metal with a nod to various 90s bands and genres.

The album is all over the map with the first two tracks, “Paegan Love Song” and “Bleed Me An Ocean” starting things off more as a mix of pure sludge metal mixed with the grooviness of the same style of bluesy alternative rock / metal brought to the masses by bands like Alice In Chains and Soundgarden. ACID BATH certainly be accused of musical monotony because after two sludge-fests comes the Alice In Chains inspired “Graveflower” and “Diäb Soulé” that offer some bluesy alternative metal slowed down a bit with Riggs’ signature soulful singing style but the beauty of Riggs’ style and ACID BATH in general is that they don’t stick to one style for too overly long and heavy sludge riffing and demonic growly vocals are never far away. While all the musicians deserves kudos for maintaining a consistency within the context of whatever style they’re tackling, drummer Jimmy Kyle stands out for his inventive drumming accompaniments which always keep the tracks from sounding like any 90s contemporaries.

After a short foray into the fastest track, the thrashy metal blitzkrieg of “Locust Spawning,” ACID BATH shifts gears once again with a trippy psychedelic poetic prose in the form of “Old Skin” which while brief, offers a bizarre intermission and ushers in the more Soundgarden influenced “New Death Sensation” and “Venus Blue” which slow it all down and offer those ridiculous catchy melodies that really make ACID BATH addictive upon a single exposure. But wait! There’s more in this funhouse. Oh hell yeah! “13 Fingers” returns to the “deathened bluesy alt metal with sludge metal dressing and followed by speed sludge ferocity of “New Corpse.” In fact this is the most hardcore punk-like track except with those demonic screams that Riggs belts out with ease. The closing “Dead Girl” is really just a 7 1/2 minute track padded with unwelcome silence and a short poetic prose that reprises the “Old Skin” dialogue. This track is akin to the unplugged phase of Alice In Chains with bluesy acoustic guitars offering Riggs’ soulful vocals to soar.

While everyone has their favorite of the two albums ACID BATH released ( i slightly prefer the debut), there’s no doubt that this neglected band of its era released two powerhouses of 90s hard rock / metal that have managed to surface in the modern era as the excellence that they are. Unfortunately this was the end of the road for ACID BATH due to the fact bassist Audie Pitre was killed by a drunk driver. While the band easily could’ve carried on given that Riggs was the primarily player, for whatever reason this band couldn’t fathom losing a brother and in his honor retired never knowing if the band’s two albums would ever catch on to a wider audience or not. Luckily for everyone involved, both albums indeed have received a belated classic status and deservingly so. While many could easily view ACID BATH’s albums as inconsistent, what makes them so damn brilliant is that despite the many styles on board, these guys perfectly nailed everything they touched. There is no bad track on here. None. Quite an achievement and despite all the easily identifiable influences, Riggs’ dark subject matter kept the band from reaching the mainstream despite the catchy tunes that could’ve taken them far. Second masterpiece for ACID BATH and sadly the last but at least they made their short time really count.