siLLy puPPy The filthy as fuck sludge metal band from the ugly underbelly of the 90s that nobody in a million years thought would’ve arisen from the ashes due to the unfortunate passing of lead singer John Paul Morrow who passed away in 2002 leaving IRON MONKEY’s two 90s cult classics to stand on their own two feet but hey in the world of metal music one should expect the unexpected and even sacred cows sometimes find new a new form of life in an altered yet somewhat familiar form. While simmering in the sludgy underground, this 90s sludge metal band that followed in the footsteps of the Louisiana scene that found Acid Bath, Eyehategod and Grief forging a new ugly style of metal that chipped off strands of DNA from the world of stoner metal and doom metal and crafted a new ugly Frankenstein brother.

While not the first to engage in the rageful vitriol and distortion-fueled din that classic sludge metal rammed down your ear canals with impunity, IRON MONKEY was certainly one of the pinnacles of the hate fueled reverb-soaked sludgery that possibly caused Morrow’s death from choking on his own hate-filled vocal chords while screaming up a storm. Despite written off and left for dead, the MONKEY escaped captivity from whatever experimental lab facility locked them away and returned to the scene in 2017 with its comeback album “9-13” which found guitarist James David Luke Rushby (now simplified to simply Jim) accompanied by original guitarist Dean Paul James Berry (now truncated to Dean) who swapped out guitars for bass. With no viable replacement of the once great vocalist to be found, Jim simply stepped in and honed his own hateful bile spewing from his vocal chamber and called it good. With the addition of drummer Brigga, the MONKEY was back for the attack like Cesar planning an overthrow of humanity on The Planet of the Apes.

Following in the footsteps of the band’s 2017 comeback, SPLEEN & GOAD proves the resurrection was no one-off and although drummer Brigga has been replaced by Ze Big, this album that emerges seven years later very much sounds like “9-13” as IRON MONKEY left behind all those doom metal glacial moments of sustained feedback and oozing out effect of distortion of pain and focused more on the hardcore punk aspects that were in the band’s plans all along before the great implosion that left the MONKEY broken down and disbanded before a third album could ever emerge. Gone are all those smoke-filled stoner rock moments and also gone are the looming doomy passages that slink and slither like a serpent in the Garden of Eden. The new IRON MONKEY has the need for speed and that is exactly what it delivers with an adrenalized procession of downtuned sludge metal riffing sessions that offer a bit of boogie rock flamboyance to its simian swagger.

A modern day album with a retro throwback approach, SPLEEN & GOAD hosts nine tracks at 53 1/2 minutes and an incessant rampage through its battlefield stampede more focused on the quickened galloping pace of groove metal than the sludge on simmer of the past. The results vary as any veritable IRON MONKEY fan cherishes those classic moments that find the guitar sustain tweaking and freaking all over the place one of the band’s primary charms, lead vocalist Morrow’s unfathomable vocal rage excepted. The new IRON MONKEY in many ways sounds more like Amoebix or the 80s crust punk bands than it does its former self but then again the new IRON MONKEY is only half of the equation and any expectations of past endeavors should be firmly quashed. The new balls to the wall approach of IRON MONKEY 2.0 now finds as many albums under its belt as its original run but there’s little doubt this new rendition will ever eclipse the legendary status the original lineup has earned as one of 90s metal’s best kept secrets for so many decades.

The opening “Misanthropizer” pretty much sets the stage of quickened hardcore riffing frenzies with Rushby’s best Morrow imitation that comes close but delivers no cigar but then again taken on its own the new IRON MONKEY does not disappoint in its mostly Sabbath-free, stoner-free agenda either as the highly adrenalized agenda certainly offers a compelling filthy raw mix of primeval sludgery laced with the more rambunctious leanings of 90s alternative metal. The band retains an obnoxiousness that is guaranteed to piss off all but the true sludge fans out there and has lost none of the frenetic misanthropy as the album charges on like the band never left its sludge metal paradise and despite the mostly punk-fueled procession, occasional deviations do occur such as the rare Sabbath sounding track “The Gurges” charges forth and breaks up the monotony with angry stomps that would find Morrow’s harrowing approval. While i do wish the album was a bit more diverse in its approach, i cannot deny than i’m a sucker for this unbridled raging filth of a musical style and therefore soak it in like a sponge. Overall the classic IRON MONKEY is in no danger of being dethroned by the new but for anyone saying these guys never should’ve reunited misses the point of reviving classic sludge metal in a genre that seems to have gotten too progressive and experimental for its own good at times.

siLLy puPPy Following the grime of the trench pit sludge metal experience that was the 1997 self-titled debut, IRON MONKEY quickly followed with its punchy sophomore release simply titled OUR PROBLEM, a title that belies its caustic excesses that if played loudly in public would make it everyone’s problem! The band’s second offering has been referred to as the ultimate bar fight music with its vicious anger raging across its 45 minute tantrum induced time length. Once again inspired by the New Orleans scene despite hailing from Nottingham, England, IRON MONKEY shifted gears on OUR PROBLEM and added a more musical element, namely a bluesy Southern metal shuffling effect that gravitated more towards Acid Rain this time around rather than the excess torturous displays of pain and anguish as heard from Eyehategod.

Graced with a better production job this time around thus lifting the album out of the lo-fi claustrophobic swamps of the 8-track debut, OUR PROBLEM was a much more professional sounding album on the Earache label and found the band showered with rave reviews and favorable acceptance although i feel the debut’s lo-fi filth and grime approach were quite appropriate for this style of iconoclastic sludgery. Given the greater emphasis on simple rhythms and melodic shuffles, the reliance on extreme feedback and distortion from the bowels of hell, while still creeping in at strategic spots, was deemphasized for a more Sabbath / stoner metal / Souther metal emphasis thus making OUR PROBLEM a bigger hit with those attached to such musical requirements but in the process lost a lot of the evil as fuck characteristics that made the debut stand out amongst the competition. Despite the hype the band didn’t exactly become the next Alice In Chains and remained a cult favorite for a few more decades.

Despite the more groove oriented leanings, lead vocalist John Paul Morrow had lost none of his demonically possessed vocal style and screams up a storm across this album’s run while the twin guitar provide a sludgy wall of sound and amplification without interfering with the audible bass bantering. Of course the melodic touches also dictated the more favorable drumming practices rather than the savagery of the debut that simply called for the most extreme bombast wherever possible. Falling in line more with popular tastes of the era, OUR PROBLEM was much more raved about than the over-the-top debut which took depressive nascent sludge metal to its most execrable extremes. While lacking the diverse motifs that the debut offered, OUR PROBLEM’s songwriting oriented tracks did allow for the use of dynamic shifts with fast groove based sludgery ceding to slower guitar-free bass moves and doomy time outs from a rather quickened pace that gave the album a bit of an alternative metal meets grunge feel as the underpinning of the song structures.

Fortified with ample doses of feedback noise and excessive crushing riffs with the occasional squeals and other tricks of the trade, OUR PROBLEM is considered a major step up in terms of quality from the self-titled debut but it really depends on your perspective now, doesn’t it? Personally i actually prefer the less musically inclined and more noise-centered debut but that does not mean for a minute that i dislike OUR PROBLEM in any way. Both albums simply take on a different emphasis with this one being more in line with the tastes of the public. Unfortunately IRON MONKEY would encounter personal and band tensions which led to its implosion shortly after this album even though a new lineup was attempted but with the untimely passing of Johnny Morrow in 2002 it seemed the band’s chances of a comeback were nil. However to everyone’s surprise the band resurrected in 2017 and has released two new albums as the new IRON MONKEY thus making the new incarnation currently as productive as the first.

On a personal note, IRON MONKEY was my gateway drug into the greater world of sludge metal and totally by chance. I simply loved the grim artwork and took a chance and fell for its raw grime upon first listen. If you wish to purchase IRON MONKEY’s debut as well as OUIR PROBLEM,” the most highly recommended way is on the combo pack of the 2009 compilation “Our Problem / Iron Monkey” which features both albums in their entirely as well as several bonus tracks for each albums and well worth it because the bonus tracks are every bit as dynamic as the albums themselves. As far as i’m concerned, IRON MONKEY’s debut is the pinnacle of the most extreme expressions of 90s sludge metal and remains one of my faves in the since diversified subgenre that splintered off the hardcore punk and doom metal hybridization wagon way back in the 1980s. The bonus tracks are quite different from the album proper with the feedback and fuzz laden “Omozu (Wisdom of Choking)” sounding much more like the early drone metal of Washington’s Earth.

siLLy puPPy While sludge metal had been a totally American thing first emerging from the Washington state scene and then picked up and developed in the state of Louisiana, by the early 90s it was slowly trickling across the pond and picked up by bands looking for a way to escape the speed traps of the ever-increasing tempos of neoclassical and death metal which pretty much dictated the majority of metal styles of the early 90s. One of the first regions to pick up on the sludge scene was Nottingham, England, first with Fudge Tunnel and then followed by IRON MONKEY who released two excessively caustic yet well regarded albums in the latter half of the decade. While the band only existed for five years from 1994 - 1999 in the first run, founding members guitarist Jim Rushby and bassist / guitarist Steve Watson reformed the band in 2017.

With the original lineup of Justin Greaves (drums, ex-Bradworthy), Johnny Morrow (vocals), Jim Rushby (guitar, ex-Ironside, Wartorn), Steve Watson (guitar, ex-Cerebral Fix) and Doug Dalziel (bass, ex-Ironside), IRON MONKEY recorded its lo-fo self-titled debut on an eight track in 1996 before catching the attention of Earache records which released it as a bonafide album in 1997. Inspired by the heaviest and filthiest sludge metal bands that came before, IRON MONKEY was majorly influenced by not only Eyehategod, Crowbar, early Corrsion of Conformity and Grief but also adopted the sludge metal tendency of hybridizing doom metal into its heavily distorted cacophonous procession through slow cantankerous tracks that offered subject matter as bleak as the collage art on the album cover depicts.

Dripping in heavy sludge riffing with more distorted feedback than should be allowed by law, IRON MONKEY’s debut is a powerhouse of pure unadulterated sludge metal showcasing the style in its most raw and primeval form before the new strains of atmospheric sludge metal a la Cult of Luna and Isis steered it in a more more progressive direction. While the band’s second release “Our Problem” featured more grooves in the vein of stoner and Southern metal boogie rock, this debut eschews any sort of melodic underbelly and only exercises the most extreme form of sludgy metal riffing that offers Black Sabbath inspired doom with serious amplifier abuse with the album culminating in the heaviest display of feedback known to man on the closing moments of “Shrimp Fist.” While the original release featured only six tracks at about 38 minutes of playing time, the later releases featured a sludged out remaking of Black Sabbath’s classic “Cornucopia” which also offers one of the most extreme feedback fuzz outros ever.

In addition to the barbaric amplification that must’ve destroyed more than an amp or two, the highlight is the savage vocal display of John Paul Morrow whose violent screams are the lyrical equivalent of fingernails on chalkboards and the lo-fi production offers the same filthy murk that early black metal had utilized to their advantage. The slow undulating doom metal riffs alternate with faster mid-tempo sludgery in the vein of Eyehategod and Grief but despite the obvious slight degree of separation from the sludge metal acts that preceded, IRON MONKEY offered a more pungent and violent form of the musical style that still to this day sounds like the pinnacle of the heaviest form of sludge. The addition of the excess feedback that squeaks, squeals and shrieks randomly throughout the album’s run is like candy for extreme metal enthusiasts. The band’s debut is the real deal and the one i prefer most even though the sophomore release has its own distinct charm.

On a personal note, IRON MONKEY was my gateway drug into the greater world of sludge metal and totally by chance. I simply loved the grim artwork and took a chance and feel for its raw grime upon first listen. If you wish to purchase IRON MONKEY’s debut as well as “Our Problem,” the most highly recommended way is on the combo pack of the 2009 compilation “Our Problem / Iron Monkey” which features both albums in their entirely as well as several bonus tracks for each albums and well worth it because the bonus tracks are every bit as dynamic as the albums themselves. As far as i’m concerned, IRON MONKEY’s debut is the pinnacle of the most extreme expressions of 90s sludge metal and remains one of my faves in the since diversified subgenre that splintered off the hardcore punk and doom metal hybridization wagon way back in the 1980s.

siLLy puPPy OSAGE TRIBE was perhaps best known as the Italian band from Genova that Franco Battiato started but left after only singing on one mere pop single before embarking on his solo career of musical experimentations and turning it over to an ever-changing lineup that ultimately fell under the control of drummer / vocalist Ninzio “Cucciolo” Fava. The band experienced significant structural changes and struggled to keep going but finally surrendered to the multi-pronged forces in his opposition after less than two years in existence. OSAGE TRIBE was one of Italy’s earliest bands to jump on the progressive rock bandwagon in 1971 focusing on a penchant for hard rock with strong progressive influences rather than qualifying as a fully indoctrinated prog rock band in its own right.

After acquiring the fiery guitarist Marco Zoccheddu freshly out of Nova Idea and bass guitarist Bob Callero who would go on to play with Duello Madre and Il Volo, the band existed as a power trio only packed a serious punch with Zoccheddu handling not only the scorching guitar duties but offering smatterings of keyboards and harmonica as well as significant songwriting duties. The band engaged in an active albeit live presence in their day and found their sole album ARROW HEAD coming out on the Bla Bla label in 1972 which while focused primarily on the nascent head banging proto-metal effects of early 70s hard rock, still pulled out enough progressive punches in the form of extravagant jazz moves and time signature deviations and elegant use of dynamic mood shifts.

ARROW HEAD featured five heavy tracks and in many emulated the sounds of the heavier sounds of Led Zeppelin as well as displaying the eye-catching album cover art of a Native American woman tempted by the modern world’s lure for money just outside the relative freedoms of her traditional lifestyle which seems to have referred to the band’s pop single being used for a popular TV quiz show of the day. With catchy pop infused hooks OSAGE TRIBE certainly delivered a punch with not only instantly exhilarating melodic ear worms but also with a bluesy guitar style that was reminiscent of Cream and the psychedelic rock giants of the 60s including some Hendrix inspired wah-wah moments. The album’s use of dynamics is its strongest suit with not only pounding hard rock heft thundering like a stamped of American bison roaming the plains but also for its slower contemplative parts as well as the competent vocals performed exclusively in the Italian language.

Also notably different from other hard rockers of the day was Zoccheddu’s use of Native American drumming techniques which made use of the album cover art theme and the deftly blended use of heavy psych in a jazz rock context thus the reason why OSAGE TRIBE despite its hard rock leanings has been indoctrinated into the halls of prog rock as well. Four of the five tracks extend beyond the 7-minute mark and despite some jamming liberties displayed a much wider repertoire of musical ingenuity. The most progressive tracks are expressed on the final tracks “Soffici Bianchi Veli” and “Orizzonti Senza Fine” which gracefully meander through the intricacy of more subdued progressive rock and the more frenetic propensities to let loose into a head banging hard rock banter-fest. In many ways OSAGE TRIBE sounded like the Italian version of what the Canadian band Rush would formulate on its first two albums before Neil Peart took the band into the progosphere.

After the release of ARROW HEAD both Zoccheddu and Callero formed Duello Madre in late 1972, leaving Cucciolo with the name OSAGE TRIBE and a new line-up with former Capsicum Red singer/guitarist Red Canzian and bassist Giampiero Marchiani coming from Forlì. This short-lived lineup was doomed once Cucciolo himself was drafted into the army. Despite this only release seeing the light of day during its initial run, OSAGE TRIBE did find two non-album tracks and “Hajenhanhowa” appearing on the 1972 “Tarzan Compilation” also on the Bla Bla label with Capsicum Red and Black Sunday Flowers. While the band seemed forever lost to circumstance, apparently Cucciolo kept the candle burning and unexpectedly resurrected the band with a completely new lineup and released the 2013 album “Hypnosis.” While many seem to piss all over this one, i actually find it exhilarating! Sure it’s not the proggiest prog of the lot but it’s certainly a very well constructed album and peaks my interest.

siLLy puPPy 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.

siLLy puPPy 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.

siLLy puPPy 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.

siLLy puPPy 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.

siLLy puPPy 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.

siLLy puPPy ACID BATH was one of those 90s metal bands that was too eclectic for its own good and despite existing from 1991 to 1997 released two groundbreaking albums that mostly fell on deaf ears during the band’s existence but has slowly but surely attained the status of best metal bands of all time after three decades of retrospect. Forged out of the ashes of the two bands Dark Carnival and Golgotha, ACID BATH was born in 1991 in the small city of Houma, Louisiana situated southwest of New Orleans. The band’s career might’ve taken off however the death of bassist Audie Pitre in 1997 from a car crash pretty much ended any aspirations of continuing. Despite it all, ACID BATH’s two albums have become modern metal classics.

Best known by some as that metal band that used the artwork of serial killer John Wayne Gacy and suicide proponent Dr Jack Kevorkian for its cover art, ACID BATH has been typically lumped into the world of sludge metal for its Melvins inspired sludge metal riffing and Eyehategod bleakness, ACID BATH was so much more with influences from the contemporary world of grunge, alternative metal, stoner metal and even death metal. The debut WHEN THE KITE STRING POPS emerged in 1994, right at the time when grunge bands and their metal hybrids were ruling the roost in the world of popular metal and hard rock. Possibly stunted by not emerging from the Seattle scene, ACID BATH’s debut may have gone mostly unnoticed but was one of those silent revolutionary albums that mixed various musical styles seamlessly.

In many ways ACID BATH was the quintessential 90s band that encompassed many of the trends that were dominating the music world. As “The Blue” opens this lengthy album of 14 tracks that add up to 69 minutes of playing time, the tripped out feedback reminiscent of stoner metal bands like Kyuss add spice to the sludgy downtuned bass and guitar riff driven grooviness. Alternating between a heavier sludge metal style of Eyehategod with obnoxiously screamed vocals and less intense clean vocal segments that evoke the Jethro Tull inspired singing style of Psychotic Waltz’ Buddy Lackey, WHEN THE KITE STRING POPS can’t be accused of being tedious as it consistently shape shifts from pseudo-death metal inspired aggression to Alice In Chains inspired melodic and soulful alternative metal grunge. The all acoustic track “The Bones of Baby Dolls” is right out of the Alice In Chains unplugged playbook.

Despite the myriad stylistic approaches throughout WHEN THE KITE STRING POPS, the most ubiquitous feature of ACID RAIN is the strong dueling guitar effect with one guitarist delivering strong alt metal grunge riffing while the other accents with contrapuntal grooves, licks and occasional lead outbreaks. The star of the show has to be vocalist Dax Riggs who displayed a firm command of the soulful grunge vocal style and was on par with the greats of the era such as Chris Cornell of Soundgarden or Alice In Chains’ Layne Staley. Throughout the course of the album Riggs animates the sludgy stoner grunge metal with a diverse roster of screams from the world of sludge metal, shouts courtesy of hardcore punk, sensual clean vocal styles sounding like a dead ringer for Psychotic Waltz as well as emulating Alice In Chains itself yet while displaying obvious influences ACID BATH managed to craft something totally of its own making.

Perhaps the only downfall of WHEN THE KIT STRING POPS is that of its unwieldy playing time and despite not hosting a single turkey of a track, can be a bit to sit through in one go as the tracks do tend to feature recycled motifs and musical processions however when music is this fantastically good it’s also a treat to simply get more! This is one of those grower albums because after the first listening experience i failed to get all the hype behind it but after the strong melodies and subtle arrangements began to sink in it really got under my skin. My experience is probably the same of many others as by the end of the 90s the album had only old a mere 37,000 copies in the USA but since then has become one of the most revered metal albums of the entire 90s. The band only released one more album, the equally revered “Paegan Terrorism Tactics” two years later before disbanding but the band’s two albums were of such high quality that it guaranteed a slot in the highest ranks of metal history for time immemorial.

siLLy puPPy TITANIUM is a power metal band from Ostrów Wielkopolski, Poland founded by Karol Mania in 2010 after he moved on from his previous band Abigail. Somewhat of an obscurity so far TITANIUM has released two albums and an EP first beginning with the “We Come To Rock!” EP in 2012 followed by the self-titled debut full-length in 2013. This second and so far final chapter of the TITANIUM saga, ATOMIC NUMBER 22 came out in 2016. The band is considered active but apparently on some sort of hiatus.

This is a typical by the books type of power metal band that consists of Ukrainian born Konstantin Naumenko (vocals), Karol Mania (guitar, keys, backing vocals), Jarek Bona (guitar), Paweł Gębka (bass) and Filip Gruca (drums) with the usual suspects of Helloween, Gamma Ray and Blind Guardian being the primarily influences. This album features nine original tracks plus the bonus Stratovarius cover “Eagleheart.” The album was released on the Japanese Avalon label which has many top dog metal bands including Pain of Salvation, Ark and Sonata Arctica.

While not dripping in originality, TITANIUM certainly displays a firm command of the demanding power metal genre. The band offers a crisp tight unit of thundering guitar riffs, pummeling bass and percussion and a more than competent vocalist with Konstantin Neumenko and the band delivers a high intensity style of power metal that is as heavy as the sturdy metallic element that the band is named after. TITANIUM delivers the expected power metal traits that include highly addictive melodies set to rampage mode in the instrumentation plus a few slower tender moments.

Naumenko’s vocal style is top notch and soars like an eagle with high octave performances that take your breath away. He got his feet wet in the Kyiv, Ukraine based power metal band Sunrise. Founder Karol Mania is the star of the show though with his excellent guitar work that doesn’t quite approach the neoclassical shredding of similar bands but is still way above average. He also handles all the keyboards, programming, orchestral elements and is the primarily songwriter and lyricist. While power metal can sound a bit generic, his songwriting strengths offer an interesting tweak on the limited power metal structure.

The album features 11 tracks that add up to 54 1/2 minutes with the usual power metal stylistic approach that has been the standard since Helloween’s classic “Keeper of the Seven Seas” masterworks however TITANIUM expresses its creativity in how it conveys these standard power metal sounds. Overall the production is excellent as well as the mixing and ATOMIC NUMBER 22 sounds like a true professional release. The tracks vary enough to keep the oft generic flow of power metal from creeping in and given that all the performers are at the top of their game, ATOMIC NUMBER 22 is a compelling release to experience.

True this won’t go down as one of the most cutting edge power metal albums out there but it more than makes up for it in its high quality instrumental interplay. Despite that the band has everything going for it and is actually one of the best power metal bands from Eastern Europe i’ve experienced so far with all the special ingredients that make power metal so dynamic. Scrumptious melodies, intricate solos, exquisite variations between tempos, dynamics and rhythmic cadences. With a bit more of creative infusion TITANIUM could actually soar into the top ranks of power metal. Highly recommended for fans of Scandinavian power metal such as Stratovarious or Lost Horizon.

siLLy puPPy As one of the pioneers of symphonic black metal with his innovative band Emperor, IHSAHN together with his buddy Samoth left the 90s as one of the most influential and popular black metal bands of the entire decade. While Emperor would stop making albums in 2001, IHSAHN focused on his side project Peccatum briefly but ultimately reemerged as a solo artist in 2006 with a shift to a more progressive avant-garde metal sound that still retained the core elements of black metal. It all began with “The Adversary” and some 18 years later IHSAHN is still cranking out quality experimental metal with his latest self-titled eighth album once again capturing the attention of the world of extreme metal.

Deviating significantly from 2018’s “Àmr” which saw IHSAHN approaching a more commercial sound at times, this eponymously titled release looks back to the Emperor years and rekindles the spirit of symphonic black metal only this time he replaces the synthesized embellishments with a fuller orchestral sound courtesy of advancements in sampling technologies. While orchestrated metal albums are hardly anything new, IHSAHN delivers a anew approach that eschews a mere symphonic backing and rather features two independent musical scores laid upon each other resulting in not only a more dynamic symphonic metal approach but also by spawning a secondary release that features the orchestral side of the equation exclusively.

Almost sounding like Emperor is playing over a Hollywood blockbuster soundtrack of some sort, IHSAHN crafts his usual mix of nerdy progressive metal replete with all the avant-garde elements that makes him exist in a world of his own along with the black metal raspy vocals, thundering guitar riffs and percussion to match. The album that features 11 tracks at nearly 49 minutes is reminiscent of some of Dimmu Borgir’s later releases that offer an equal playing field for the orchestral musical score that oft soars above the black metal mania. And while the album sounds like IHSAHN has been accompanied by an entire philharmonic orchestra at times, the guest musicians only add up to three additional percussionists and a violinist leaving IHSAHN the chore of handling vocals, guitar, bass and orchestral sampling.

IHSAHN is actually quite a diverse album (would you expect anything else?) with varying tracks that features clean vocal led prog metal as on “The Promethean Spark” to full out raging black metal on such tracks as “A Taste Of The Ambrosia” but scattered throughout are tidbits of pure classical orchestration as heard on the opening “Cervus Venator” and the middle intermission “Anima Extraneae.” Tempos vary, dynamics vary and stylistic approach may but the gist of this is a mix of crunchy black metal in tandem with classical orchestrations. Tracks like “Blood Trails To Love” feature a mix of the clean vocal prog metal with the raspy more extreme black. While hinting at Emperor’s past glories, the metal on this release isn’t nearly as full throttle as such magnus opuses as “In The Nightshade Eclipse.”

Overall IHSAHN is a decent album but it’s a bit uneven with no clear stylistic approach really dominating. While that can become a good thing if the sum of the parts add up to something more profound, this album seems a bit scattered which at times reveals both the metal aspects and the orchestral ones seem to cancel each other out a bit. The novelty of orchestral metal has long worn off and the execution of this seems less than satisfying. The addition of dreadfully long moments such as the album’s 9-minute version of a ballad - “At The Heart Of All Things Broken” is actually really cheesy and i seriously would love to cut that entire track from the playing list.

The album seems to lose steam too much with half-assed percussion and metal that doesn’t get up to full force. The orchestral parts just seem to dance around and don’t really offer a very memorable experience either in a meaningful way. All in all it’s a decent album but hardly one of IHSAHN’s best. All the rave reviews about this bely it’s downsides. I was somewhat impressed on the first listen but more attentive listening sessions reveal serious flaws that i can’t shake. The patchiness of the album ruins its flow but as on all IHSAHN albums there are more than enough moments of triumphant victory. As a true fan i couldn’t imagine not owning this but it certainly won’t rank as a top contender for favorite IHSAHN releases.

siLLy puPPy HELLVETTO is just one of the many projects of the one-man act Filip Mrowiński better known as L.O.N (Light of Night) who operates out of Ostrołęka, Poland. Although HELLVATTO is his most famous alter ego, L.O.N. single-handedly also releases music under the monikers Blakagir, Neoheresy, Sarkel and Winds of Garden. Trouble getting along with others perhaps? The HELLVETO world began in 1995 followed by several demos and a split with Herrgorn before this debut AUTUMNAL NIGHT was released in 2002 on the Sanguinae Maremagnum label.

One of the most prolific artists in black metal, as HELLVETTO, L.O.N. released sixteen albums from 2002 to 2012 before dropping the name and changing it to Neoheresy. AUTUMNAL NIGHT set the stage for HELVETTO’s dramatic sound that mixed classical symphonic / orchestral elements with Pagan black metal. This debut features 10 tracks that add up to 52 1/2 minutes of playing time. HELLVETO handles all instruments including guitars, bass, drums, synthesizers as well as the orchestral arrangements with both raspy growls and clean vocal styles.

In many ways HELVETTO sounds like Summoning where the black metal is not the dominant feature but rather on an equal playing field with other elements in this case being the dramatic opera singing that often sounds like HELLVETO is being joined by a liturgical choir. The raspy vocals also remind a lot of Summoning’s Silenius however the orchestral classical segments make it sound like a black metal band ambushed an opera and then joined in. Other similarities can be made with Norway’s Limbonic Art as well as moments that remind me of early Nokturnal Mortem especially with the overlong “Intro / Switez” that is right out of the “Goat Horns” playbook.

I have mixed feelings about AUTUMNAL NIGHT. On the one hand it’s a very unique album that takes the classical orchestral sounds to levels most black metal bands wouldn’t even consider but to the point where they often dominate the album for too long. The compositions are well thought out and the dynamic flow of the album is quite intriguing but on the other hand the production and mixing is crap. Sure lo-fi works well for the more raw and brutal forms of metal but on AUTUMNAL NIGHT the black metal parts are set too low in the mix while the oft cheesy keyboards are set too high. Overall it’s an interesting release with lots of choral vocal styles offering a beauty and the beast effect with the raspy outrage.

While Ihsahn is getting a lot of praise for his 2024 release that mixes orchestral elements with black metal, many are unaware that HELLVETO was doing the same thing long ago however AUTUMNAL NIGHT was pretty much finding L.O.N. lingering in demo mode and his mastery of production and mixing would improve as time goes on. Musically i love this but the production is so wrong it hurts. Still though L.O.N. has proven to be a musical mastermind of both black metal and dark ambient styles for several decades now and seems he is in no danger of burning out any time soon. Sometimes the drifting into opera can be a bit too much but overall the orchestral classical moments are pleasant.

siLLy puPPy Emerging from the city of Łódź, Poland in 1991 first under the name Solitude and then Mesmerized with a demo each under both names, the band finally chose TENEBRIS and released its first album “The Odious Progress” in 1994. Adopting the sounds of old school death metal with cheesy keyboards, the early albums sounded like a poor man’s Nocturnus and ultimately the band ended in 2002 only to resurrect in 2006 like a Phoenix and emerge as a fully developed progressive metal band without jettisoning the death metal aspects.

“Catalfalque - Comet” was immediately released but recorded from 1997 - 2002 which served as a transition album between the two phases of the band however by the time the band released its 2009 album “Leavings of Distortion Soul,” TENEBRIS had mostly shed its death metal heritage and moved more into the world atmospheric sci-fi themed prog metal that adopted all kinds of various metal styles including a nod or two to its previous incarnation. ALPHA ORIONIS, named after a star cluster in Betelgeuse, followed in 2013 and took the band even further into the world of the avant-garde and experimental with a focus on psychedelic textures, jazz influences and even zeuhl based cyclical rhythms.

ALPHA ORIONIS is a strange album that really doesn’t sound like any other. It’s a veritable mix of the spacey atmospheric sounds of early Cynic especially when the few moments of death metal come in but through the run of 9 tracks that add up to 46 minutes of playing time, TENEBRIS really dishes out healthy doses of the entire metal universe with different stylistic approaches including totally distinct vocals appearing throughout the album’s run. While mostly set to clean vocals, the occasional death growls occur during the more aggressive contrasts but for the most part this is a very atmospheric metallic version of space rock with layers of synthesizers offering subtle backgrounds and even more upfront cases of spacey keyboard runs.

The music can range from somewhat familiar progressive metal in the vein of early 90s Pestilence to very strange groove metal based sounds reminiscent of Nevermore. In addition to the sung vocals are lots of spoken vocals appearing throughout. The music alternates between heavy extreme metal, more atmospheric prog metal not unlike Porcupine Tree’s heaviest to pacifying non-metal moments with clean guitars, heavy layers of synth and dreamy atmospheres. While all these styles come and go they usually play out for a lengthy period before changing the mood dial. ALPHA ORIONIS is a true progress metal album in that excels at crafting demanding time signature workouts despite the album’s overall flow feeling quite relaxed despite the business of the heavy drum, bass and guitar workouts.

This is definitely a unique album from this Polish band and for those seeking out some of the weirdest and unorthodox extreme metal out there then this album shouldn’t be missed. It features a really nice production and a strange procession of metal and space ambient sounds that somehow keep a nice flow with some zeuhl inspired rhythms. Possibly a bit claustrophobic sounding for some and admittedly a bit busy in the atmospheric department with the vocals often low in the mix but all of this guarantees a very strange album experience that won’t disappoint those looking for something different. Personally i think this is a great album that showcases as much extreme originality as it does extreme soundscapes. Definitely one for fans of the difficult music listening section.

siLLy puPPy The NWOBM heavy metal scene of the early 80s launched heavy metal music into the mainstream with bands like Iron Maiden, Saxon, Def Leppard and Angel Witch becoming some of the most popular metal acts of all time however for every success story there was a case of broken dreams that never went anywhere. This band being the perfect example.

Coming from the city of Peterborough just north of London, MITHRANDIR existed for a mere three years from 1980 to 1983 and in that time only released one single “Dreamers of Fortune / After Tomorrow" and the MAGICK E.P. which may as well have been just another single as it only featured three tracks that didn’t even make it to the 13 minute mark.

This quartet of Graham Gargiulo (vocals), Paul Chester (guitar), Keith Billson (drums) and Dale Crue (bass) sounded a good ten years behind the scene on this short three track run. Sounding more like 70s hard rock than fully developed heavy metal, somehow this band got lumped into the NWOBHM scene for its time and place of existence but these guys were clearly not ready for primetime at this stage.

First of all this is a shoddy demo quality recording with lo-fi production that does not suit the NWOBHM style as it does the murky evil sounds of black metal. The musicians weren’t very skilled at all playing rather at rather mediocre hard rock speed however the compositions themselves do sound more like what was contemporary. The absolute worst part about this band was the awful vocalist who could not hit the notes at all.

The whole thing sounds very amateurish and not even close to the quality of the bands that were already hitting the big time. It’s no wonder this band called it a day and has been totally forgotten from the annals of history however it’s worth a spin if you are interested in digging up lesser known bands that sorta suck. The songs themselves aren’t bad but the execution sure is. Pretty much a collectors thing only as this was released only once on a vinyl 7” and will probably never be again

siLLy puPPy Originally formed as a thrash metal band in Słupsk, Poland in 1989, BETRAYER quickly switched over to the world of death metal and released a couple demos before it’s 1994 debut CALAMITY came out. Probably best known amongst death metal junkies as the band that Piotr "Berial" Kuzioła (vocals, bass) continued after a brief stint in the more famous Vader, BETRAYER only released this one album in its original formation and soon disbanded shortly after when guitarist Ripper had grown tired of the band. BETRAYER reformed in 2012 and has released two albums since.

This is one of those band’s that should have made it to the big time due to all the publicity and opportunities yet somehow evaded any success stories. The band’s two demos were highly recorded by Thrash ‘Em All Magazine and “Necronomical Exmortis” even made it to #2 as album of the year. Add to that BETRAYER was placed at #4 for most promising Polish bands of 1991 and the band engaged in extensive touring and after the release of CALAMITY found itself invited to all kinds of metal festivals including Metalmania, Death Metal Festival, Dramma, Shark Attack, S’trash’ydło and Jarocin and played with many of the famous bands that went on to the big time including Morbid Angel, Deicide, Death, Carcass, Cannibal Corpse, Therion, Tiamat, Dismember and many local Polish bands like Kat, Vader, Pandemonium etc.

CALAMITY is a typical old school death metal album that featured eight tracks and the short playing time of just under 33 minutes. The lineup at this stage was the foursome of Berial on vocals and bass, Ripper and Riji on twin guitar attacks and Molly on drums. Lyrics were performed in English and themes were the typical subject matter of death, blasphemy, suffering and in BETRAYER’s case anti-Christianity giving them a bit of a black metal attitude. For the most part BETRAYER was heavily influenced by the US scene with bands like Morbid Angel and Deicide being on the top of the list however it’s not a surprise that Vader also provided an inspirational exuberance on the band as well. While creativity was not the band’s strongest attribute a few moments like on the ending of “Before Long You Will Die,” the band deviates from the game plan and delivers a strange repetitive riffing style.

Despite every opportunity afford BETRAYER, what the band lacked was a clear vision of how to distinguish itself from the legions of death metal bands that had glutted the market by the time CALAMITY came out. Overall this is a very competent album that ticks off all the proper old school death metal requirements but at the end of the day the band wasn’t quite unique enough to stand out. At the time of release of CALAMITY the band had already had enough with various health problems, label mishaps and incessant touring. The band broke up a short time after this album’s release but would find new life in 2012. This is a decent enough album but basically sounds more like a second rate Morbid Angel than anything to get overly excited about. Mostly interesting for checking out early Polish death metal history. Definitely one of those close, but no cigar type of bands.

siLLy puPPy GONTYNA KRY is a Polish NSBM (National Socialist Black Metal aka Nazi) band that formed in the coastal city of Koszalin in 1993 by Bard Neur (vocals, guitar, keyboard) and Komes Lupul Kurhan (drums). This region of Poland was once the German state of Prussia from 1871 to 1932 and was basically the birthplace of the Nazi idealism that really took hold in the 1930s. Given the history of this region there’s no doubt that it has attracted followers of the NSBM ethos and GONTYNA KRY (Old Slavonic term meaning “Temple of Blood”) has joined the musical movement within the greater Pagan black metal scene to espouse its viewpoints.

This band released a few demos during the 1990s but didn’t unleash its official debut album KREW NASZYCH OJCÓW (Blood of our Fathers) until 2001. The style of GONTYNA KRY mixes raw lo-fi black metal with melancholic symphonic atmospheric backing along with tons of sound effects that depict going to war including the tedious 12-minute intro that features a lengthy marching procession and dungeon synth minimalism before finally getting to the black metal. The symphonic dungeon synth and percussive marching effects are recurring and reprise between tracks with overlong segments that quickly outstay their welcome.

While the subject matter is steeped in the idealism of the NSBM scene, luckily the lyrics are entirely in Polish and since my Polish language skills are minimal, i gratefully am oblivious to the actual lyrical content. The album features nine tracks with a 51 1/2 minute playing time. The album is designed to be epic in scope with the introductory battle preparations and mid-section ambience providing a context for the brutal black metal tracks in between. While noble in intent, the actual execution is fairly poor with a shoddy production that makes the synthesized parts sound rather cheesy and the black metal moments sound hollow and monotonic. Lo-fi is one thing but this sounds totally cheap as if it was recorded on some super primitive equipment.

Production and lyrical content aside, GONTYNA KRY aren’t exactly skilled musicians either as the composiitons are fairly generic and the lineup that features four members don’t really excel at any particular aspect of crafting unique black metal for the 21st century. There are no technical workouts to wow the listener and the atmospheric minimalism is just too cheesy to take seriously. At times the black metal and the symphonic parts play together and really don’t jive too well together. As far as the black metal itself goes, the vocal style is decent and the drummer delivers some nice blastbeating but usually fairly tame and the guitar parts are fairly uninspiring as they are generally set too low in the mix especially when the cheesy synthesizer parts are playing over them.

I’m certainly not against free speech and really don’t care about subject matter when rating music although i do not condone anything hateful in general however this album is just not that great mostly due to the fact the premise of the album makes you expect so much more than it delivers. There are many NSBM acts out there particularly and many in Eastern European nations such as Poland and Ukraine. I judge a band by its talent alone and the music without any reference to lyrical content and in this case KREW NASZYCH OJCÓW is simply not that good on many levels. Nokturnal Mortem who espoused the same NSBM tendencies in the past at least showcased a high level of musical competence. In this case this band only uses black metal as a means for espousing their viewpoints. A fairly generic and waste of time really this one.

siLLy puPPy SETHERIAL is a second wave black metal band formed in Sundsvall, Sweden in 1993 and has gone through numerous lineup changes over its existence but founded by Mysteriis (guitar), Devothan (bass), Cheeroth (vocals) and Zathanel (drums). Sweden was following in the footsteps of Norway in the world of black metal and SETHERAL was one of a handful of metal bands that chose to not follow the melo-death scene. Other bands included Marduk, Sacramentum, Vinterland and of course Dissection. While those bands have become fairly well known in the world of black metal, SETHERIAL still remains a bit on the unknown side despite delivering a competent second wave furor that captures the spirit of raging evil black metal from Scandinavia.

The band released the two track EP “För dem mitt blod” in 1995 and then followed in 1996 with its frenetic debut NORD… which captured all the essential ingredients of the 90s black metal scene including raspy possessed vocals, buzzsaw guitar sustain and thundering riffs, blurred bass galloping and of course all those excellent free radical blastbeats. While unintelligible, lyrics were delivered in both Swedish and English. The album featured six tracks at over 45 minutes with the opening “In the Still of a Northern Fullmoon” swallowing up 12 minutes of playing time. This introductory track pretty much sets the tone of what to expect for the entire album’s run with the expected crushing second wave black metal parts fortified with moments of acoustic guitar, folk melodies and constructs a frigid anguished atmospheric presence.

NORD delivers a style of melodic black metal in the vein of Dissection which is more on the brutal side of the spectrum with excellent musicianship delivered by the lineup of vocalist Kraath, bassist Thorn and guitarists Lord Mysterii and Devothan. Guest drummer Anders delivers the ferocity on percussion and Peter Tägtgren adds some additional vocal contributions. This is the raw and evil as fuck black metal that your mother warned you about and it has all the hallmarks of rotting your soul and turning you into a church burning Satanic war master if you don’t mind you p’s and q’s. While steeped in the familiarity of Scandinavian black metal of the 90s, the compositions are also a bit more complex than the average Darkthrone wannabe and careful listening will reveal a few atmospheric keyboards peeking through the incessant din of the rampaging procession throughout NORD.

Graced with a menacingly beautiful album cover, NORD delivers what the bleakness portends with an incessantly quickened even manic delivery of second wave black metal splendor. It took a few listens for this to sink in otherwise a single exposure may insinuate the album as a tad generic but attentiveness reveals tricks up these black metal masters’ sleeves and ultimately this does have all the hallmarks of a black metal classic unfortunately got buried down the heap due to a glut of talented artists vying for the rights to write Satan’s soundtrack. NORD delivers everything you could possibly want from a no nonsense second wave black metal album with an uncompromising thunderous roar of cacophonous excellence. The variations within tracks helps set this apart from the generic followers of the day so it’s just a matter of time before SETHERIAL finds its way into the upper echelons of black metal royalty.

siLLy puPPy When you think of all the extreme metal that emerged from Sweden during the 1990s and early 2000s it’s easy to assume that every act emerged from the Gothenburg melo-death scene or the world of progressive metal first started by Opeth. While Norway was dominating the black metal market, Sweden’s Bathory actually played a major role in starting it all while band’s like Candlemass were developing a new strain of epic doom metal but thrash metal? Well that seemed to be a metal style that passed Sweden by while the USA, Brazil and Germany were killin’ it.

Thrash metal wasn’t a complete stranger to Sweden with Bathory’s early black metal experiments basically being a thrash hybrid as well as Merciless getting in on the act during the initial thrash metal world domination. One band that doesn’t get much attention was the Växjö based HYPNOSIA that may have missed the initial thrash party but formed in 1995 as the second wave was getting underway. Inspired heavily by the old school thrash metal bands like Slayer, Dark Angel, Kreator, Sadus, early Death, Sodom and Sepultura, HYPNOSIA formed by Cab Castervall (guitars/vocals) and Mike Sjöstrand (drums) was determined to keep those sounds alive as the extreme metal world was splintering in a million different directions.

After the band released two successful demos, HYPNOSIA was featured in all the metal publications df the 90s and attracted the attention of the old school thrashers who craved a return to the “good old days” when thrash was brutal and pure. HYPNOSIA delivered exactly what they wanted and the interest led the band’s only album EXTREME HATRED which came out in the year 2000 and released on the Hammerheart label. Sounding more like it emerged from the fertile SF Bay Area scene in 1991 rather than 2000 Sweden, HYPNOSIA may have been late to the thrash party that waned in the mid-90s but displayed a commitment and ferocity that very few of the original thrash bands had retrained. Just think of what Metallica and Megadeath were releasing about this time!

EXTREME HATRED was a veritable mix of Teutonic thrash in the vein of Kreator with the technical thrash prowess of US bands like Sadus. While the band often gets associated with death metal i can’t really say i can detect anything from HYPNOSIA’s sound that really falls into the death metal category. The music is a brutal form of thrash metal all the way and as far as the vocals are concerned the band evokes a mix of Morbid Saint, Kreator, Demolition Hammer and bands like Dark Angel so death metal, no. Thrash metal all the way and despite the trend to merge extreme metal with progressive rock, the avant-garde or wildly experimental, HYPNOSIA delivered a very authentic slice of classic retro-thrash.

Given its staunch attachment to the past it’s not a surprise that EXTREME HATRED is not the most original thrash metal album of all time but it certainly is worthy of thrash metal fan’s attention for its uncanny attention to detail and it’s dedication to redrafting a veritable art form that had fallen from grace as the alternative 90s disrupted the flow of the mainstream metal movements that developed in the mid-80s on. Despite not exactly developing a unique style all their own, HYPNOSIA nevertheless dished out an authentic representation of pure thrash metal in an unadulterated form with higher than average competency level. As far as i’m concerned this is an excellent album as HYPNOSIA featured the perfect vocal style accompanied by energetic thrash guitar, bass and drum assaults. The melodic aspects are perfectly balanced with the aggressive brutality and the overall performance are quite effective. Brutality at its best. A second album was in the works but never emerged and the band split in 2002.

siLLy puPPy AKERCOCKE emerged on the London extreme metal scene in 1997 formed by vocalist / guitarist Jason Mendonça and drummer David Gray who had both previously played in the black metal band Salem Orchid. After recruiting guitarist Paul Scanian, keyboardist Martin Bonsoir and bassist Peter Theobalds, the bizarrely named AKERCOCKE commenced to create some of the wildest and craziest extreme metal of the entire 90s and with the release of its debut RAPE OF THE BASTARD NAZARENE, many extremophile metalheads certainly took notice! While the 90s had been the decade of death metal, black metal and the splintering off of many newly designated subgenres, AKERCOCKE was unusual in how it took aspects of many styles of metal and non-metal alike and forged a completely new stylistic approach.

Deemed as one of the best British debut albums ever released by Terrorizer magazine, AKERCOCKE hit the scene and immediately stood out for its erratic stage presence, unorthodox musical style and over-the-top celebration of everything Satanic and psycho-sexual. In this regard the band took the ethos of the early 70s band Black Widow where it did away with any subtitles and ambiguity and simply announced in full celebratory glee that Christianity was bad and everything Satan or Lucifer was to be revered. Perhaps a little adolescent in approach but adds a humorous element to an otherwise extremely intense delivery of death metal growls that mixed grindcore, black metal, post-punk and a touch of progressive rock.

This debut is quite different than the more progressive albums that followed. RAPE OF THE BASTARD NAZARENE was the band’s gritty grimy DIY self-released album that featured a muddy production and a give no fucks attitude about how to deliver a stream of Satanic extreme metal compositions and crazy spoken word narratives that pop up throughout the album’s original 33 minute plus run. After the short declaration of two girls denouncing all things Christian and declaring only Satan and Lucifer as the true way, the album starts off with a bizarre metal style that is really apparent what exactly it is. It sounds like death metal with growly vocals, blastbeat drumming ferocity, speedfest riffing and the intensity of an old school death metal but it also features a buzzing guitar sound, call and response female vocals backing up the growly leads and an unorthodox sort of grindcore meets post-punk compositional style.

The tracks retain a rather industrial style as if Killing Joke were the basis of the rhythms while the death metal handled the tones, timbres and delivery system. The track “Marguerite & Gretchen” jumps into a strange progressive metal style with clean vocals and crazy time signatures along with varying musical motifs that find the clean vocals and the growly ones having a full fledged duet along with female singers as the backups. The album is regularly interpreted by various intermissions that reaffirm their allegiance to Satan such as the 2-minute “Conjuration” which makes the entire album feel as if it was made by a Satanic cult. In this regard it reminds me of those Father Yod and his Ya Ho Wa 13 projects from the 70s were the cult members participated in chanting and other subordinate musical contributions.

I guess the best term to describe this would be avant-blackened death metal but really the debut by AKERCOCKE is unique even by the band’s own standards. It’s like the ferocious old school death metal of Obituary collided with the Luciferian first wave black metal of Venom with the giddiness of 70s Black Widow, the grind aspects of Pig Destroyer along with some prog technicalities and dark ambient rituals. The album doesn’t seem to get a lot of love in the greater AKERCOCKE canon but it’s actually one of my favorites. It’s so bizarre and unapologetically evil as fuck that it becomes endearing in a very morbid twisted way! Best of all the album is a testament to the creative spirit of a newbie band spewing its venom on the world’s stage. Add to that the instrumental interplay is excellent and the juxtaposition of styles and interludes makes the entire thing come off as a stage performance of some kind. While the production is the main complaint on this one, personally i find it makes the underground cult feel more authentic. To me this is an excellent slice of crazy extreme metal from the 90s.

siLLy puPPy NEKTAR's second album of 1973 which arrived a mere seven months after "?Sounds Like This," REMEMBER THE FUTURE proved to be the band's most successful album of its entire career. A concept album about a blind boy who can communicate with a extraterrestrial being known as Bluebird who narrates an uplifting tale and an optimism that proved to be the winning strategy at least in terms of popularity. The album featured a single track theme that was divided into two album cuts (due to the limitations of the original vinyl format) that were further broken down into shorter segments. The album provided a continuous stream of consciousness and was the band's highest charting album in both the US and Canada.

Throwing the usual curveball by delivering a completely different album that came before, NEKTAR seemed to be all about contrast. Was the band from England or Germany? Was it a space rock band? A prog one? Or hard rock? Well, the truth was somewhere in between for all of these matters with the ingredients simply being shuffled around on each album so that a different style dominated. While on "?Sounds Like This" NEKTAR focused on a loose heavier rock style that tamped down the prog and space rock attributes, REMEMBER THE FUTURE found the band attempting to balance the world of progressive rock with the easier pop musical sounds that included strong melodic hooks, more streamlined rock characteristics and in the case of this album, heavy doses of funk.

The opening "Part I" of the album long title track imitated previous album's intro tactics of a trippy intro but it doesn't take long until the music breaks into a major funk style making you think you've somehow slipped into an Earth, Wind & Fire album. The track wends and winds its way through four different segments that drift from the funk laden grooves to the hard rock guitar oriented tracks accompanied by the classic organ runs however the guitar riffs which seem to rely on a single memorable hook sound more like something that The Edgar Winter Band would've conjured up. As usual the band excels with the trippy intermissions that provide the interstitial connective tissue to bind the different suites together and these are the parts i find the most authentic in the style of the classic psychedelic space rock NEKTAR and provide the needed connection to its past.

The clear attempt to develop more accessible pop aspects seemed to be the band's modus operandi and as a transition album (along with its predecessor) into the world of more straight forward pop rock (which would emerge on the following "Down To Earth.") The album was clearly more inspired by popular pop rock bands as The Beatles and more soulful bands like Spooky Tooth than the world of Yes, Genesis and the band's previously most apparent influence, Pink Floyd. Despite the lengthy track the tracks were clearly shorter radio hit quality musical quality stitched into a larger tapestry of a concept. The two tracks really are indistinguishable as to where one begins and the other ends but more mainstream approach keeps it all humming along in a rather standard rock format for the era.

While this is considered one of NEKTAR's best albums, i have to say that i'm not very impressed by REMEMBER THE FUTURE for many reasons. While competent, it seems the band was trying to hard to balance its prog creds with a more accessible mainstream style and in the end the prog seems extremely watered down while the pop aspects sound extremely forced and dragged out. Add to that for a concept album with so many suites that supposedly narrate a larger theme, the music really doesn't vary that much and the monotony of a constant funk guitar sequence for the majority of the album is way too repetitive. Add to that the production is a bit flat even on the newer remastered versions so the original must've sounded particularly underwhelming.

It's certainly not a bad album and an entertaining listen but i find the claims of its status as NEKTAR's answer to Yes' "Tales From Topographic Oceans" or ELP's "Brain Salad Surgery" to be woefully exaggerated. Certainly a major step up from the dreadfully boring "?Sounds Like This" but a far cry from the magnanimous nature of the debut "Journey To The Centre Of The Eye" or the following "A Tab In The Ocean." The next (and last) decent prog album from NEKTAR wouldn't come until the 1975 "Recycled" and although REMEMBER THE FUTURE is most certainly a prog album, it just lacks so much of the vitality that its more varied prog albums exuded. Sure there are moments where the Pink Floyd space rock seeps in and the hard rock has its field day but overall this album would've benefited from a more robust infusion of creative mojo that just wasn't firing on all cylinders. A decent attempt but not an album i choose to revisit often.

siLLy puPPy More of an impromptu recording than a proper album, NEKTAR followed up its first two albums with a radical new approach. While the first two albums excelled in crafting psychedelic space rock with heavier prog workouts, the band’s third release …SOUNDS LIKE THIS was created to showcase a more stripped down approach that focused on simple compositions that were designed for lengthy jamming sessions. The idea was to capture the spirit of NEKTAR’s live shows without the unpredictable results of recording a live album’s worth of material. Basically recorded live in the studio in front of a small group of friends, the material was mined from songs that were written long before the album’s recording and had been played live for a few years.

This must’ve been a real shock for NEKTAR fans during the day after two stellar prog albums that focused on tight-knit lengthy composiitons with alternating trippy psychedelic space rock along with heavier prog rock complexities. Sort of going the way of Uriah Heep that delivered a few proggy albums before jumping on the hard rock bandwagon, …SOUNDS LIKE THIS delivered fairly basic hard rock songs that focused on extended improvisational jams. The album was recorded live in a single session and to be honest it really sounds like it. Sounding more like an early garage rock band of the 60s that started to dabble in the world of proto-prog, this third release was originally a double album which featured nine tracks at nearly 75 minutes playing time.

The album starts out poorly with “Good Day” and immediately establishes the band as a rather dumbed down version of itself with repetitive guitar riffing with some funk styles added and the occasional guitar soloing. Sounds of folk, country rock and the occasional space rock finds their way into the overall mix. After two albums of extremely brilliant instrumental interplay that didn’t miss a beat, all of a sudden NEKTAR sounded sloppy as if they all woke up one morning and went right to the studio to record this album. The overall impression it leaves me is that if this was what they sounded like live then i would’ve felt ripped off. The album is filled with moments that just rub me the wrong way. An ill-fated attempt of throwing The Beatles’ “Norwegian Wood” into the opening track just sounds plain awful. The track “1-2-3-4” sounds like a stupid nursery rhyme set to hard rock only with the skillset of a grade school troupe.

By the time the second album begins it gets even worse with tracks like “A Day In The Life Of A Preacher” sounding like a harder rock version of The Grateful Dead. Roy Albrighton’s vocals which sounded crisp and in top form on the brilliant earlier albums suddenly sounds strained and tired. And this is for the album’s long and tiring entirety. If the band’s intent was to sound as awful as they possibly could then they truly succeeded as to my ears i find little redeeming value on …SOUNDS LIKE THIS. While the 70s delivered some of the best hard rock ever to have been recorded, the songs on this album just sound plain boring and lack any characteristics that make them memorable or even tolerable. This was a decisive album upon its release and remains so to this day with yours truly falling on the side that finds this album rather torturous.

I listen to this from time to time just to see if there’s something i’ve been missing but every time i give this album a chance to sink in in some positive way, i’m literally bored to tears and find this to be one of the most non-innovative and generic hard rock albums of the entire 70s. None of the musicians excel in any particular way and the entire album feels like its forced. Add to that the production and mixing resulted in a heavier than expected sound effect and it all sounds so unstructured that there’s really no backbone to the album. A single album’s worth would’ve been bad enough but to extend this to four sides of a vinyl LP adds insult to injury. At least bands like Uriah Heep crafted beautiful hard rock albums after their early prog years but that’s not the case with NEKTAR. To my ears this sounds like a long lost NEKTAR album that was recorded way before the brilliant debut “Journey To The Centre Of The Eye” almost like a demo. Ironically the album cover is my favorite of their entire canon but i only get a 1 star enjoyment value out of this. For fans and collectors only. I keep this in my collection really for the eye candy album cover art alone.

siLLy puPPy Despite having settled in Germany as British ex-pats, the members of NEKTAR just couldn’t shake their British heritage and still looked to their roots for inspiration. While the band’s debut “Journey To The Centre Of The Eye” flirted with the nascent world of psychedelic freakery that Germany was developing in the form of Krautrock, the band ultimately moved past the Pink Floyd meets Amon Duul II aspects of the debut and delivered a second album that relied as much on influences from Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Uriah Heep and The Who as it did on the psychedelic mood setting atmospheres of their new adopted homeland. A TAB IN THE OCEAN departed from the cosmic astral travel space rock of the debut and delivered a veritable blend of trippy Floydian marksmanship coupled with the more immediate deliveries of standard hard rock albeit fortified fervently with complex progressive rock excesses which has made this second album a true prog classic.

The album is primarily dominated by the legendary title track which swallowed up the entire A-side of the original vinyl release. Upon first exposure you will be fooled into believing the album is a continuation of the cosmic space ride that was the debut with a psychedelic splurge of electronic sounds that sound like NEKTAR has gone all Tangerine Dream on you but from the distance an organ melody creeps in then steals the show with the opening motif that delivers a brash mix of Genesis inspired organ runs courtesy of Allan Freeman, a more robust guitar playing style of Role Albrighton along with a bantering bass groove from Derek Moore. In addition Rowe Howden also adds his more upbeat percussive driving which when taken together signify a shift into a much heavier style of rock however NEKTAR retained enough of the space rock to keep the psychedelic trippiness alive and well. The near 17-minute title track undergoes many journeys into a style that makes you think of what The Who would sound like if they went full-on progressive.

As the title track morphs into seemingly different tracks nestled in its overarching theme of spiking the entire planet’s water systems with consciousness expanding LSD, the band emulates various British bands including Atomic Rooster, The Who, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Fuzzy Duck, Wishbone Ash and countless others. As far as German comparisons are concerned Frumpy, Murphy Blend or Birth Control probably come as close as it gets. The track remains bold, dynamic and goes through various motifs that remain melodic and modular and ultimately ends with the same melodic riffing session that started it all. The highlights of the album are by far the title track and the closing “King Of Twilight” with the middle section not quite reaching the same heights. The dual purpose “Desolation Valley / Waves” does its best to emulate the prog perfection of the title track but comes off as a bit mopier however the trippy transition between “Desolation” and “Waves” is notable for its ripping guitar heaviness and organ stab excesses. Likewise “Crying In The Dark” features a rather average blues rock style with organ excess and overall seems a little generic in comparison.

Despite the lull in the middle, the transition between the tracks is extremely inviting and the way “Crying In The Dark” morphs into “King Of Twilight” is utterly brilliant. The album ends beautifully with utterly gorgeous “King Of Twilight” which offers the catchiest pop hooks on the entire album and also showcases some of the most dynamic instrumental interplay. The track features some of the most original guitar and organ playing that play off of each other nicely. The vocal harmonies are also on par with the debut’s Moody Blues meets The Beatles vocal dynamics. The brilliant mix of styles that craft myriad variations in how the basic melody is played showcased NEKTAR’s true gift of crafting some of the most brilliant heavy prog of the era and then without any time for fussing around the track and album just simply ends the shouting of “FREE!”

Definitely one of the highlights of 70s prog although uneven in its entirely. The band’s transition into the hard rock arena was well executed and succeeded in keeping just enough of the space rock to make it unique. The faster tempos emphasized the dynamic skills of the musicians and all of the vocals are pitch perfect throughout the entire album’s run. While the middle part is not in the least bit unlistenable, the gorgeous perfection of the title track and closing “King Of Twilight” unfortunately steals the middle section’s oxygen supply. Best of all the album really went for the prog jugular with hairpin turns within musical motifs that offered crazy time signature workouts and all the pomp and awe of classic prog without missing a beat of the melodic flow. The band remained on a high point for the next few albums and although this album didn’t exactly find them international fame quite yet, the passing decades have perched as their crowning achievement. Personally this is just a step below the debut in my world due to the straggling middle section but it’s definitely a tour de force that deserves its status as prog classic.

siLLy puPPy NEKTAR was sort of the odd duck out in the early years of Germany’s Krautrock scene due to the fact that the band was a group of four Englishmen who met in Hamburg in 1969 and jumped on the space rock bandwagon. Formed in 1969, the original lineup featured guitarist and lead vocalist Roye Albrighton, keyboardist Allan "Taff" Freeman, bassist Derek "Mo" Moore, and drummer Ron Howden who together would become one of the most successful progressive rock bands to have emerged from Germany’s fertile weirdo music scene. The band was notorious for delivering incredible light shows and live performances. The first of the band’s greatest releases, it all began with this debut JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF THE EYE which was inspired by the works of sci-fi guru H.P. Lovecraft.

Despite having formed in Germany in the midst of the emerging Krautrock scene, NEKTAR looked as much back to its homeland for its influences as it did to the lysergic musical expressions that were awash all around. This first album was an amazing continuous journey of spacey prog that excelled in both guitar and organ dominance. The album was a veritable cosmic travelogue in concept album form that narrated the journey of a rocket that leaves Earth on a course to Saturn in order to escape the inevitability of a nuclear war. While en route the ship is intercepted by extraterrestrial beings that are perplexed by humanity’s war driven civilization and invite the space travelers to witness their more peaceful world in another galaxy. After accepting the invitation to the ET’s home world, they undergo a a journey into the unknown only to return back to Earth in an enlightened state.

The musical developments correspond to the journey itself as the lyrical output delivers the concept. Some even consider the album a rock opera of sort. While the space rock lysergia of Pink Floyd’s “Sauceful of Secrets” was clearly a primary impetus for the trippy abstract qualities, NEKTAR fortified the escapist electronica and cosmic psychedelia with melodic songwriting and conventional rock influences reminiscent of The Moody Blues coupled with vocal harmonies that were right out of The Beatles’ playbook. The intricate mix of the surreal and the catchy ear worms delivered the perfect mix of prog, psychedelic rock and progressive electronic in perfect tandem. The album was only 42 minutes long but showcased the journey in a series of 13 tracks that more or less provided a continuous stream of consciousness. The variations in guitar styles, drumming patterns and bass grooves offered a near perfect space rock journey that remains one of the 70s best tripped out prog rock offerings.

The opening “Prelude” sets the stage with a series of freaky electronic sound effects while the spooky organ slinks in and cements itself as a primary player throughout the album’s run. The flirtation with the Floydian “Saucerful of Secrrets” detachment is quickly supplanted by a melodic space rock groove that commences with “Astronaut’s Nightmare.” The brooding organ and pulsating bass line together accompany passionate vocal performances delivered by all the band members and plenty of proggy hairpin turns to keep things from becoming too lethargic. While not quite to the level of prog rock experienced on the following “A Tab In The Ocean,” JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EYE certainly has its moments of prog excesses but keeps things restrained enough so the cosmic space rock flow isn’t breeched. The top notch interplay of the fluky guitar, drum and organ parts adds a whole level of excitability to the melodic processions. The intermission track “War Oversight” embarks on a cosmic journey into the avant-garde sounding more like a 20th century classical composer.

The compositions themselves are extremely well thought out with a clever use of dynamics, tempos and reverberation as an effective tool. Extended jamming emerges in the middle of the tracks which eke out maximum potential and was also a very effective way of capturing the spirit of a well crafted space rock sound. This would be the closest NEKTAR ever came to sounding like a true Krautrock band and although some may have thrown the band into the mix due to its connection to the German prog scene, NEKTAR was really a prog space rock band that happened to coincide with bands like A.R. & Machines, Faust, Frumpy and Lucifer’s Friend. While usually overlooked in favor of the band’s following albums that were more conventional in their approach to prog, this early space rock journey debut album has been my favorite NEKTAR album for quite some time and although not absolutely perfect with a few hiccoughs here and there, the album is one of those magical prog journeys that stands on its own even outside of the band’s own canon.

As a note for MMA, this is space rock. I just will not punish an album in ratings that really shouldn't be included on the site. No real metal here.

siLLy puPPy One of the big three in the modern world of neo-prog along with IQ and Clive Nolan’s other powerhouse project Pendragon, ARENA enters another decade with yet another singer, in fact their fifth! Replacing Paul Manzi who joined the team for three albums from 2010-2020, seasoned veteran Damian Wilson of [Headspace], Landmarq, Star One and the off and on vocalist of Threshold jumps into the singer’s seat and leads ARENA into the next chapter of its near three decade exsistence.

THE THEORY OF MOLECULAR INHERITANCE is the band’s 10th album from longtime band members drummer Mick Pointer and keyboardist Clive Nolan. Returning from the previous “Double Vision” is long time guitarist John Mitchell and newer but now well established bassist Kylan Amos. Continuing the modern trend of neo-prog hybridization with the heavier aspects of modern progressive metal, THE THEORY OF MOLECULAR INHERITANCE too blurs the lines between the synthesizer-laden characteristics which launched neo-prog into its own prog subgenre and the more caustic contrast of the world of heavy guitar distortion of the world of modern metal.

At just over an hour’s worth of quality material on display, THEORY offers 11 tracks with a deluxe edition offering a bonus CD with one extra track and instrumental versions of the tracks on the main album. With a renewed sense of vigor and a bit of that chomping at the bit feeling due to the two year delay courtesy of the 2020 world pandemic, ARENA’s latest offering may have arrived later than expected but pretty much follows in the trajectory of albums being released every three to four years. As always ARENA exercises restraint and focuses on quality over quantity and once again delivers an above average slice of prog metal-tinged neo-prog that unleashes all the expected larger than life melodies, all-encompassing keyboard omnipresence and the ability to suck you in and keep you hooked for the album’s entirety.

As with many neo-prog albums, ARENA included, THE THEORY OF MOLECULAR INHERITANCE is one of those nerdy pseudo-concept albums that dances around a central storyline but remains nebulous enough for individual interpretation. Purportedly tackling the theory of entanglement and other quantum concepts, the lyrical content crafts an emotional connection to the world of the abstract through its strong melodic hooks, soaring synthesized expansiveness and the heavier than usual implementation of metal guitar heft including staccato guitar stomps as well as the expect neo-sweeps that are almost a mandatory feature in this nook of the greater prog universe.

It goes without saying that Damian Wilson was the absolute right choice as new lead vocalist for this dynamic English act as stellar neo-prog is primarily animated by a competent and charismatic vocalist in the vein of classic Fish-era Marillion. Wilson has more than proved himself as a seasoned veteran in some of the most demanding prog metal bands on the scene these days and feels equally at home in the world of metal-tinged neo-prog which increasingly has become more entwined in the world of prog metal in recent years. The results are no less than spectacular and although i’ve never disliked any of the vocalists ARENA has employed in its ten album run, Wilson seems to have the perfect vocal style which suits the music to a T.

ARENA is certainly one of the top dogs in the world of neo-prog and THE THEORY OF MOLECULAR INHERITANCE keeps the band relevant in an ever changing world where musical acts come and go. ARENA has showed not only a strong propensity for crafting a traditional standard but has also proved to adapt to the necessary changes that keep it relevant in the 21st century. While i wouldn’t call this latest offering as accomplished in terms of songwriting as past glories such as “Contagion” or “The Visitor?,” nevertheless this Surrey sensation has proven once again why it is remains neo-prog royalty with an uncanny consistency and the ability to attract some of the best vocalists the world of prog has to offer. Another excellent album that gets extra credit for wrapping it all up with stunningly beautiful album cover art.

siLLy puPPy While “Choice Cuts” was a slice of hard boogie rock with psychedelic folk extras and offered a glimpse into the world of progressive rock, THE MASTERS APPRENTICES’ fourth release A TOAST TO PANAMA RED ramped up the prog attributes a tad while tamping down the harder boogie rock. The result was an album that many consider one of Australia’s best prog albums of the 70s except at this point the band was more British and Aussie! Well actually the band was a bit of both. It would be the band’s final album at least in this first formation until a reunion album surfaced in 1988.

The time between “Choice Cuts” and A TOAST TO PANAMA RED, which refers to a Central American variety of marijuana, was a stressful time as the band was approached by the new UK label Bronze but still in contract with EMI Australia. Trying to negotiate and pit the two labels on a bidding war, the whole thing blew up in the band’s face and ultimately ended up staying with EMI. The album was recorded under band member tensions and didn’t go as smoothly as “Choice Cuts” therefore this period was the beginning of the unraveling of the team spirit which sustained the band for a few years. Ultimately it meant back to Abbey Studios to release what would be the band’s final album of its first run anyways.

A TOAST TO PANAMA RED hit the music market in 1972 and featured everything that made “Choice Cuts” so delectable for those who heard it. Once again the band mixed prog, hard rock, psychedelic folk and a bit of boogie rock. While still rooted in catchy pop hooks, the compositions this time around were a bit more dreamy and more sophisticated which made them a bit more difficult to follow. With bluesy guitar riffing and medieval folk moments, this fourth album stood apart proudly from its predecessor that sucked you in and wouldn’t let you lose interest for the entire album’s run. A TOAST TO PANAMA RED seems less easy to grasp upon a single spin. The subtle complexities added a whole new dimension and while not full blown prog as went many bands around 1972, the influences are undeniable.

While the harder rock is still present such as on the opening “Answer Lies Beyond,” the distortion is turned down and tones are warmer and more varied. Likewise Keays’ vocals are less agitating and overall the band just sounds more relaxed. While on the opener Keays sounds a little funny like he just huffed on a helium balloon, subsequent tracks reveal a more nuanced approach that allows the proggier constructs to unfold. The tracks also feature some jamming segments such as “Beneath The Sun” which unleashes a cool bluesy guitar riff over a funky bass groove. In fact it the bass reminds me of that Ted Nugent song “Stranglehold” which didn’t come out until 1975 although granted the tempo is sped up a bit.

A TOAST TO PANAMA RED is certainly the favorite album for those looking for the most progressive attributes. This is definitely a lot mellower overall than “Choice Cuts” as the folk aspects are extended and the rock parts often are dreamy and verging on space rock. The heavier rock is almost completely absent and when it does turn up the tempo a bit, it’s more of a controlled burn rather than a ferocious attack which “Choice Cuts” allowed. Unfortunately this album didn’t sell very well despite once again being praised by the critics. It seems the hideous album cover art scared a lot of potential customers away and admittedly it’s not the most pleasing album cover to look at! In fact it seems totally unfitting for the music that’s inside. Overall another great album from THE MASTERS APPRENTICES who once again steered their band sound into a different arena. Unfortunately this was the end of the road for a while.

siLLy puPPy Australia’s THE MASTERS APPRENTICES won a free boat trip in late 1969 to England and spent a few months free from touring duties and any pressures of releasing the second album as all the material was recorded and ready for release. This gave the band the opportunity to refresh their creative mojo and given that London was ground central for the burgeoning prog and hard rock scenes back around 1970, these Aussies became smitten with the wealth of musical expressions that London offered and spent their time in the UK advancing their art form beyond the cheesy playing catch up garage rock / pop of their first two albums. The results amounted to a massive leap in creativity which finally found the band latching onto its own style and place in the greater music scene.

Totally impressed with the superior recording studios and music scene in general, the band ended up staying in London and soaked in the sounds of everyone from King Crimson, Jimi Hendrix and Small Faces to the psychedelic folk sounds of Donovan and Free. With an arsenal of fresh tracks to work with, the band landed in Abbey Road studios and recorded, mixed and mastered the newest album in only a month and then CHOICE CUTS (released simply as “Masters Apprentices” in the UK) came out in 1971, just a year after the anachronistic predecessor “Masterpiece.” Sounding primarily like a 70s boogie rock style of hard rock, the band still retained a whiff of their earlier psychedelic leanings as well as a mix of folk based songs such as the single “Because I Love You,” which made use of the acoustic guitar in the style of Led Zeppelin. While the band was aiming to strike it big in the UK, the single only charted in its native Australia.

The album opens with the Latin flavored shuffle groove of “Rio de Camero” and then followed by the acoustic ballad “Michael” which showcases THE MASTERS APPRENTICES’ continuation of a variety of styles that range from heavy to soft however this time around the tracks flow together smoothly and the album as a whole feels cohesive. “Easy To Lie” and “Catty” showcase the band’s boogie shuffle abilities with heavy rockin’ guitar riffs and nice leads. Jim Keays vocal style had improved remarkably since the last album and on this album sounded something like a mix of Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant and Free’s Paul Rodgers. Likewise some of the grooves were right out of the Free playbook as well. In fact the band had crafted an interesting sum of influences that went into a style of their own making. Overall the tracks came out extremely melodic with the instrumental interplay lights years beyond the album of a mere year prior.

“Death Of A King” is a tribute to the great Martin Luther King Jr. and the track sounds like an usual mix of the Groundhogs and Zeppelin’s acoustic side with perhaps a touch of Van Morrison. “Song For A Lost Gypsy” goes for a heavy blues rock and funk style with a contrasting falsetto vocal performance. “I’m Your Satisfier” is a fun little boogie number that rock the jew’s harp and all! “Song For Joey - Part II,” wait! Where was part one?!! It’s nothing more than an acoustic outro that ends the album. Despite all the rave reviews from the critics the band really didn’t make much of a splash with CHOICE CUTS most likely due to the glut of fresh prog and harder rock clogging the record stores in 1971 London. Whatever the case the album remained an obscurity until collectors rediscovered it in the 1980s and it became an underground favorite.

It’s really hard to believe that this is the same band that released the outdated “Masterpiece” just one years prior. CHOICE CUTS may not have been the most original sounding album on the scene during 1971 but it did stand out in a few ways. First of all the percussion was more dynamic and varied than most hard rock album as it utilized Latin rhythm styles and likewise the diversity of guitar licks and leads made this a more varied album than the typical blues based hard rock band of the early 70s. While not exactly prog, the influences did creep in with tones and textures and the desire to make the chord progressions a bit more spiced up than usual. Basically a folk-tinged heavy psych album, CHOICE CUTS delivered the goods where previous endeavors had failed. Against all odds, THE MASTERS APPRENTICES had come of age but unfortunately that wasn’t good enough for any kind of breakthrough success. The band would push on for one more album and then call it quits. This is probably their crowning achievement.

siLLy puPPy Sounding like a completely different band on their second album the lineup of THE MASTERS APPRENTICES completely melted down leaving only vocalist Jim Keays left standing and carrying the band to the next level. While it took three long years to follow up their garage rock / freakbeat debut the times had obviously changed and while the 1967 debut was pretty much playing catch up with the styles that were popular in the UK around the 1964 and 1965 timeline, on the band’s sophomore album MASTERPIECE once again it sounded more like 1968 than 1970. Scaled back to a quartet, THE MASTERS APPRENTICES adopted a completely new style that rocked the upbeat sunshine pop hooks with psychedelic touches and a touch of freakbeat leftover from the early days.

The band spent the majority of the time between albums was spent reorganizing the band and transforming it into a completely different creation. During the three year gap newbie Doug Ford and Keays stockpiled numerous songs and released a few singles and endured a heavy touring schedule but all this hard work and exposure paid off as this classic lineup is the same that would deliver the band’s following pair of albums which would finally seeing them find their own unique sound based in progressive rock. At this stage though no prog to be found and all the tracks featured are steeped in bubblegum pop hooks with bluesy guitar licks and boogie shuffles. The band signed to EMI and had a larger budget for production but at this stage despite an entire album of all original material, THE MASTERS APPRENTICES sounded like this second album was supposed to come out when the first one did back in 1967.

Alternating between bluesy rockers and poppy folk, MASTERPIECE featured a rather cheesy orchestral backing that made it sound like it was trying to emulate The Moody Blues’ classic “Days Of Future Passed” but far from the crowning achievement or cutting edge brilliance of that famous album. On this album the band wasn’t very focused and as a result the tracks are all over the place as far as uniformity is concerned. The pop folk “A Dog, A Siren and Memories” emulates the great Simon and Garfunkel while the following track “Linda Linda” featured an old-timer music hall style possibly inspire by The New Vaudville Band’s hit “Winchester Cathedral” form 1966. The piece even featured a kazoo! It was clear the band was trying to cop a bit of Paul McCartney’s showtune style from The Beatles. “Isabella” adopts a Spanish guitar theme and features a chorus that just repeats the name “Isabella” several times!

Some tracks like “Piece Of Me” are pure generic bubblegum pop and not even good at that. The band at this stage was clearly aiming for the teenie bopper crowds and wanted to be the next Ohio Express or The Monkees or something! The music is really awkward at some points with the track “Titanic” standing out as pretty hilarious. Not only does they sing the title in a funny way but The Chiffons provide a very mediocre backing not to mention the track features real ship noise samples. It’s about as cheesy as it gets really! It was also a sign that this band was a sinking ship and that if they didn’t get their act together then they would be history.

Luckily the band got the memo and found a much needed break from touring and let their prog-tinged hard rock fantasies run wild for their next album “Choice Cuts” which found the band evolve leaps and bounds beyond this collection of head-scratching 60s leftovers. It’s an ok album but extremely awkward and really not good enough to recommend unless you really love cheesy bubblegum pop from the late 60s but not good enough to find the ear worms haunting you for days after. It’s an interesting glimpse into the band’s missing years and how they would come back with a hodgepodge of material but as an album it’s actually pretty weak and ill-conceived. It’s hard to believe Columbia let this slip the quality control and it’s often considered the band’s worst offering. Despite the album’s title being MASTERPIECE, this one is far from it.

siLLy puPPy Originally starting out as a surf rock band called The Mustangs in 1960s Adelaide, Australia, the quartet of Mick Bower on rhythm guitar, Rick Morrison on lead guitar, Brian Vaughton on drums and Gavin Webb on bass was forever changed after The Beatles toured Australia in 1964 and found their largest audience to date in Adelaide with an estimated 300,000 attendees amongst a population of 668,000. The band changed direction and ventured into the world of British beat music which resulted in the name change to THE MASTERS APPRENTICES and the addition of Scottish immigrant Jim Keays as lead vocalist / secondary guitarist.

The band’s name refers to its allegiance to the masters of the blues such as Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Jimmy Reed, Elmore James and Robert Johnson and after engaging in a healthy live scene around Adelaide, the band become one of the city’s most popular beat bands and slowly but surely captured a larger national audience which resulted in the band relocating to Melbourne where they recorded their debut self-titled release that emerged in late 1967. There were actually two self-titled releases. A four track EP emerged in 1967 with the songs “Undecided,” “Hot Gully Wind,” “Buried And Dead” and “She’s My Girl” before the full-length album came out in October with 12 tracks.

THE MASTERS APPRENTICE became one of Australia’s most innovative early progressive rock bands in the 1970s with popular albums like “Choice Cuts” but at this early stage the band was a fairly typical 60s sounding garage rock / freakbeat / mod act in the British tradition only a few years behind the curve as the actual British acts had evolved into the world of art rock by 1967. This debut adopted the usual approach of many 60s acts by only releasing a handful of original tracks and padding the rest with cover tunes which in this case included everything from Bo Diddley’s “Dancing Girl” and The Beatles’ “I Feel Fine” to Otis Redding’s “My Girl,” “Don’t Fight It” by Wilson Pickett and Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode.”

At this point it’s virtually impossible to predict that MASTERS APPRENTICE would amount to anything as this is one of the most generic debuts possible which shows no signs of individuality or creativity whatsoever. Sounding something like The Rolling Stones as far as the loose rhythm and blues guitar licks and vocal style are concerned, the band found minor success with its singles “Undecided” and “Buried And Dead” on the self-titled EP which hit the Australian top 40 singles chart and the primary reason a full album’s worth of material was rushed to cash in on the momentum. While cited as psychedelic rock, this album was behind the times and was pretty much in the same style of the British Invasion acts from 1964 and 1965.

This is a listenable album but not very compelling as its primarily a platform for the singles and a couple of extra originals with several mediocre covers. It’s a fairly typical copycat album of the era with nothing really to offer other than experiencing the debut album of one of Australia’s more famous bands that went on to better things in the 1970s. Personally i find this to be a decent dance hall type of band but not one that i would rush out and buy the album as the covers are far too faithful to the original and the band’s very own songs are much not better in terms of quality or creativity. Pretty much relegated to the hardcore fans and even then it wouldn’t be that much of a loss if you skipped this one altogether. It would take another full three years for the band’s second release “Masterpiece” to hit the market which finally did add some psychedelic elements but once again was woefully behind the times.

siLLy puPPy One of the original power trios that ushered in the hard rock 70s, ANDROMEDA was formed in 1967 by the legendary guitarist John Du Cann best known for his stint with Atomic Rooster. After two years of releasing singles in the psychedelic freakbeat band The Attack, Du Cann shifted gears and wanted to form a band that was both heavier and jumping on the progressive bandwagon. After recruiting his buddy and bassist Mick Hawksworth, later of Fuzzy Duck and Alvin Lee plus drummer Jack McCulloch who would soon be replaced by Ian McLane, ANDROMEDA was born and haunted the London circuit with a new heavier blend of psychedelia and more aggressive rock.

The band was enthusiastically supported by none other than DJ John Peel who was trying to woo them onto his Dandelion Records label however Cann was swayed by the self-producing aspects that RCA promised and the band released its first and only self-titled album in 1969 however RCA didn’t really know what they got themselves into and didn’t have the expertise to market a heavier band as the hard rock proto-metal sound hadn’t become a commercial enterprise at this stage. The lack of promotion and label support ultimately caused Du Cann to accept an offer to join Atomic Rooster leaving ANDROMEDA a thing of the past.

A truly powerful and for the most part heavy album for 1969, ANDROMEDA prognosticated one of the major developments of the psychedelic rock scene in the late 60s and that was the increased heaviness of the rock paradigm. More hard rock than prog, the latter is showcased in the excellent three suite “Return To Sanity” which showcased Du Cann’s more sophisticated songwriting aspects which would win him a slot in Atomic Rooster. The album begins with the heavy rocker “Too Old” which showcased what these days sounds like typical 70s hard rock but this was 1969 before these types of bands existed. ANDROMEDA somewhat served as one of those bridges between the heavy psych of bands like Cream and Blue Cheer and the whole slew of proggy hard rockers such as Captain Beyond, Stray, Groundhogs, T2 and beyond.

The album features plenty between blistering hard rockers with heavy fuzz laden riffing, beefed up bass grooves and a drumming technical prowess that was above the 60s norm. The opening “Too Old” introduces the brave new world of souped up heavy psych but the band also delivered a softer side as heard on the “And Now The Sun Shines” but these tracks are overshadowed by the power surge that amplifies the heavier moments that sound like Jimi Hendrix on methamphetamines. Another highlight is the closing three-part “When To Stop” which pulls out all the bluesy hard rock touches prog style. The album is actually pretty diverse in its approach even though it pretty much sticks to the blues rock paradigm and the exclusive instrumentation of the guitar, bass and drum.

While a flash in the pan as far as bands go, ANDROMEDA nevertheless has been recognized as one of those albums that provided the perfect transition between the heavy psych 60s and the hard rock 70s. Of course Atomic Rooster would take Du Cann even further into prog territory with the inclusion of a prominent keyboardist but ANDROMEDA was well underway into a complete metamorphosis into a prog butterfly. The original vinyl album LP fetches an insane price these days but luckily the album has been reissued many times including a newer remastered version with an extra disc of demos, bonus tracks and all kinds of goodies. All in all, ANDROMEDA delivered a hard rockin’ album that was the perfect way to say goodbye to the psychedelic 60s.

siLLy puPPy After three albums of what many consider neo-prog paradise, PENDRAGON shocked their fans after the release of “Not Of This World” with the 2005 followup BELIEVE. Gone were the saturated layers of synthesizers that crafted unthinkably dense atmospheres and major key exercises in happy songs that delivered crisp melodic constructs that were taken through subtle variations that climaxed in rock fueled upbeat tempos. For whatever reason many of the better known neo-prog acts underwent a metamorphosis in the early 2000s with some flirting with full-fledged progressive metal and others just taking their signature sounds to ever increasing complexities.

While PENDRAGON would wait until the next album “Pure” to ratchet up the metal qualities, BELIEVE took a completely different turn from what the fanbase was used to. While Clive Nolan was taming his keyboard passions, lead vocalist and guitarist Nick Barrett was rockin’ his acoustic skills. This album focuses primarily on the guitar unlike any previous PENDRAGON album where the synthesizers have always dominated and then some. Starting with a beautiful acoustic guitar title track that begins the album more like a folk album rather than neo-prog. The guitar oriented songs continue for awhile with only Nick Barrett’s vocal style simulating the neo-prog singing style of previous works.

Yeah the album still starts out with some Floydian production tricks and maintains that space rock pace throughout much of the album but this time around the space part is often left behind for more serious rockin’ out with more attention to varying aspects of the guitar rather than the typical Steve Hackett guitar sweeps or the David GIlmor twang-a-thon. The space rock and traditional neo-prog sounds though are fairly well integrated into this new approach which makes this quite recognizable as a PENDRAGON release despite the radical new shift in the band’s direction and perspective as the lyrics have become more sombre, melancholic and downright conspiratorial.

The album in many ways almost sounds like a completely different band until the 21-minute suite “The Wishing Well” kicks in and then it offers some moments of business as usual albeit with subdued synthesizer sounds in the background and acoustic guitars never out of range. The electric guitar parts are more prominent and in addition to the dreamy sweeps of classical neo-prog, they also invoke the dirtier bluesy rock styles of classic rock. The album also took on a noticeably darker sound as the dreamy tapestries of yore had suddenly become a bit more gloomy. While this is still basically neo-prog at its core it’s not exactly depressive black metal but for PENDRAGON a different style indeed.

The gist of the album is to usher in melodic hooks through the folky guitar strumming with Nick Barrett narrating his usual poetic prose however the songs tend to stick to the rock paradigm rather than get too wrapped up in the atmospheric dominance that excelled on “Not Of This World.” The album is also noticeably shorter than previous offerings with a mere 51 1/2 minutes of playing time. It seems very succinct in comparison. PENDRAGON goes through its usual shtick of nurturing a melodic hook and then crafting myriad variations to keep the musical flow humming along in that regard they do quite a decent job even though this was new territory for them.

The album has a more intimate feel to it as it’s not smothered in layers of keyboards and focuses on a more stripped down approach. Despite a change in direction the basic formula of starting slowly and ratcheting up the tension to a thundering crescendo and then a soft coming down moment is still intact. The production is damn near perfect as usual and Barrett’s acoustic guitar tones are phenomenal. Overall the album sounds really great and i actually like the direction they took the new sound even if most fans don’t. The album seemed to boost the band’s confidence and far as rockin’ out because next time around they would unleash their inner metalheads and merge the once metal-free neo-prog zone with the more feisty guitar heft of the metal universe. Perhaps not as perfect as what came before but to my ears an experiment that worked out quite well and one i love to play from time to time.

siLLy puPPy PENDRAGON had a slow start releasing some of the worst neo-prog albums the 80s had to offer but then almost like magic was propelled into the top ranks of the subgenre with 1991’s “The World” in pretty much every way. Led by the indefatigable Clive Nolan who was juggling two top tier neo-prog bands in the 90s with Arena being his other baby, PENDRAGON delivered a trilogy of amazingly exquisite albums that started with “The World” and then was followed by “The Masquerade Overture.” The third installment was NOT OF THIS WORLD which features one of my all time favorite fantasy album covers of any genre and delivered all the symphonic prog bombast you could possibly hope for in a space rock influenced neo-prog style.

This would be the last album the band would release before jumping into heavy borderline metal material but at this point NOT OF THIS WORLD was all about layers of sizzling synthesizers with oscillating arpeggios, dreamy atmospheres and droning sustain keeping the band high in the clouds for the 67 minute duration that includes three parts, two of which were multi-track suites. The opening “If I Were The Wind (and Your Were The Rain) opens with an outa this world synthesizer run that makes you think you’ve died and gone to synthesizer paradise with wind sounds and chimes slowly ratcheting up the tension much like classic Pink Floyd along with reverberating guitar riffs that slowly drift away from the Floydian connections and take you into the world of PENDRAGON.

Beautiful guitar sweeps dance in the breezy synthesizer party and the bass slowly grooves along. The intro is just magical and then one of my favorite singers in the world of neo-prog jumps in: Nick Barrett commences to sing a song written to his son and his fatherly advice in navigating the world at hand. The instrumentation is so lush and produced to the perfection made all the better by the divine backing vocals of Tina Riley simulating the female backing sounds of Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon.” True the band has no shame in wearing its influences on its sleeves and the album has rightfully been criticized for a lack of originality but NOT OF THIS WORLD delivers a magical journey into a synthesized soul soothing world of neo-prog like no other except of course the band’s previous two releases that this one follows.

A fairly laid back and slower tempo album, this one is a true mellow out type of musical experience that takes you through a never-ending series of arpeggiated guitar parts, beautiful piano rolls, bass grooves and a million and one ways to create an orchestral effect out of spacey synthesizer sounds. The tracks pretty much run together seamlessly and although it takes a while for the album to really jump into any real rock aspects by the time “Dance Of The Seven Veils Part 2” kicks in, the music becomes a guitar-driven rocker with thumping bass and hefty percussive drive. Of course PENDRAGON excels in alternating heavier passages with lush acoustic guitar moments with all those atmospheric excesses but that’s what makes them so unique and even more dreamy and atmospheric than bands like Arena and IQ.

Add to the dreamy musical processions that never wear me out in the over hour’s experience, Nick Barrett is a gifted poet whose precise and clearly enunciated lyrical deliveries offers the perfect prose for the musical accompaniment and it all comes together so well with alternating segments that range from dreamy to fast tempo rock at key moments but not quite into metal yet at this stage of their career. As always this band crafts the most sensual and addictive melodies on NOT OF THIS WORLD with captivating emotive guitar sweeps and a contrasting bass groove that work perfectly in tandem and of course all those layers of synth sounds that frost this cake a thousand times over making it ever sweeter! The diversity of the tracks really keeps this one from stagnating. Each one ratchets up the tension a little bit more with clever creative subtitles seeping into the recurring themes.

This was one of those growers that kept drawing me back in. While it started out as a strong 4 star album in my world, the recurring visits have made this one of my all time favorite neo-prog albums and on par with the band’s previous “The Masquerade Overature.” Sure it can sound a little cheesy at times as can a lot of neo-prog but if you’re in the mood for this kind of melodic synthesizer overload then there’s nothing like it. Something you just want to soothe your soul with over-the-top melodic constructs that offer a gazillion variations. There are even moments of amazing virtuosity such as the guitar and keyboard works on “Not Of This World Part 1.” When investigated further this album will reveal an amazing detail that matches the outstanding cover art. It’s bright, colorful and bursting with life. Definitely one of the band’s best and although they would continue to deliver some interesting albums, this particular trilogy is one of the highlights of the neo-prog branch of the world prog. True it’s not the most original album ever released but the delivery is so impeccable i am the fish that got hooked!

siLLy puPPy Probably best known as the band that spawned Spooky Tooth, the simply named ART was just as much the band that emerged from The V.I.P.s, a Carlisle, England British blues mod band that existed from 1963 to 1967 and released a string of EPs and singles. One look at the super psychedelic album cover of ART’s one and only album SUPERNATURAL FAIRY TALES is a dead giveaway that this was released in the year of the world famous Summer of Love, that being 1967 when hippie ideas briefly infected the souls of the youth and giddy idealism reigned for a brief moment while tie-dye was the hippest thing since free LSD from the government.

While the V.I.P’s had a few lineup changes during its four year run, the group basically ended with Keith Emerson forming The Nice in 1967 and the other four members: Luther Grosvenor (guitar), Mike Harrison (vocals), Mike Kellie (drums) and Greg Ridley (bass) forming ART for one album before changing the band’s name to Spooky Tooth with the same exact lineup. While hailing from Britain, ART was clearly smitten with the West Coast psychedelic scene from California with a clear longing to join the San Francisco flower power cult. With one of the coolest album covers the 60s has to offer, the music itself is a bit lopsided with brilliant lysergic moments dampened by lame cover songs such as Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth” only with the new title of “What’s That Sound.

Featuring nine tracks that added up to about 36 1/2 minutes, SUPERNATURAL FAIRY TALES delivered an album that was tailor-made for 1967 with heavy fuzz-laden guitar hooks, psychedelic detachment and warm melodic song structures., The album featured an interesting diverse array of tracks that varied from the harder guitar oriented rock sounds with period organ runs on the opening “I Think I’m Going Weird” to the stoner vibe folk of “Flying Anchors,” drumming circles run amok in “African Thing” and the clear Jimi Hendrix meets the Moody Blues style rocker in the title track. Add to that early experiments with dissonant vocals and angular guitar in “Rome Take Away Three” and you have the recipe for a veritable slice of 1967 in all its authenticity. Even some honky tonk piano finds its way into the track “Alive, Not Dead."

Interestingly although the album dabbled in all kinds of cutting edge production techniques, the album was completely recorded in mono which by 1967 was virtually a thing of the past. Comparisons to Spooky Tooth are inevitable but the next chapter of these four members would delve more into the early world of progressive rock that included more keyboard-based bluesy songs with a propensity for some of the gloomier come down styles that followed the euphoric high of the hippie years. ART by contrast was fully engaged in the psychedelic scene that would start to give way to the more complex musical expressions that would emerge in 1968 and beyond. SUPERNATURAL FAIRY TALES is essentially psychedelic pop wrapped up in fuzz guitar, clever trippy effects, classic 60s organ sounds and a touch of beat music percussive drive. The other track that doesn’t really fit in is yet another cover, this time “Come On Up” by The Young Rascals, a trait that was annoyingly too common in the 60s.

Overall ART delivered a decent if inconsistent set of psychedelic acid rock on this 1967 Summer of Love period piece. It’s a tad awkward as some of the tracks are practically hard rock while other drift in a plume of marijuana smoke but the album more or less delivered that feel good careful vibe that made effective 60s psychedelic rock. Only a slight detour from better things but i can’t say ART didn’t deliver a very cool album that wouldn’t have fit in at any particular juncture in history as it carries all that giddy optimism and idealism that made the whole Summer of Love so memorable. I’m surprised they’re not selling T-shirts of the album cover on Haight Street in San Francisco because it has to be the most representative artistic expression of the entire year of 1967. Yes, this is very dated but that's the point and if you want a very authentic slice of the year it was released then look no further.

siLLy puPPy The living heavy metal legends known as JUDAS PRIEST very well may be the longest running metal band in existence having formed in 1970 and never taking a leave of absence for all 54 years and has been unleashing one classic metal album after another. True that a few members such as K.K. Downing have gone by the wayside over the years and lead singer Rob Halford took a brief respite after “Painkiller” but ultimately upon his return in 2005 with “Angel of Retribution,” JUDAS PRIEST has been back and stronger than ever despite a few failed forays into experimental albums such as “Nostradamus” which weren’t exactly crowd pleasers but did offer an intriguing insight into the band’s more explorative nature.


It goes without saying that JUDAS PRIEST fans are headbangers and if these guys want to dabble in psychedelic prog indie rock with polka and Tuvan throat singing then they’d sure as hell better indulge those fantasies under a different band name. Luckily the band got the memo that they lost their true calling and with 2018’s “Firepower” the mighty PRIEST returned to what it does best and that is crank out anthemic arena quality heavy metal, the sound that put the entire metal world on the map in the first place. Well the metal royalty has returned six years after “Firepower” with a brand spankin’ new slab of molten metal ready to deliver the classic JUDAS PRIET goods.

INVINCIBLE SHIELD is the 19th studio album coming out exactly 50 years after its debut “Rock Rolla” hit the scene in 1974! Now THAT’S longevity and what’s even more amazing is that these guys sound more on fire than they did on that debut album that emerged a half century ago! Yes, it’s true! These guys sound exactly as they did in the 80s with razor-sharp dueling guitar attacks, a thundering bass and drum attack and of course the imitable metal god vocal prowess of none other than Rob Halford whose decades of shrieking and tearing it up at the mic has not taken a toll on his distinct singing style. Following very much in the footsteps of “FIrepower,” INVINCIBLE SHIELD does what most classic 80s albums offered and that includes: delivery exactly what the fans expect only change things up just enough to keep the album from sounding like the leftover tracks of the previous album.

It’s hard to believe that after all this time when metal has expanded into countless subgenres ranging from death metal and black metal to bizarre freaky hybrids such as trance metal and the J-pop induced Kawaii metal that JUDAS PRIEST would still be relevant in 2024 but the band has always offered such quality musical performances and in tandem with Iron Maiden is the old guard keeping the thundering heavy metal of yore going strong so many decades after its initial ascent to the throne of heavy music and while INVINCIBLE SHIELD hardly reinvents the wheel or offers a new direction for the band, what it does demonstrate is that JUDAS PRIEST is and still remains the master of this feisty in-yer-face classic heavy metal sound that even the younger generations seem to love when done as authentically and brilliantly as this classic slice of metal history in modern times.

Eschewing any excess experimentation and focusing on the heavy metal thunder of their legendary status, PRIEST is back with a aural assault of 11 tracks and an extra 3 bonus tracks on deluxe editions. Generating a frothing frenzy with the early release of the single “Panic Attack,” JP generated a visceral response that offered both a sense of disbelief that a bunch of guys in their 60s and 70s can still be cranking out such energetic metal as well as a sense of nostalgia for all the longterm fans who have been with them since the old days. Well INVINCIBLE SHIELD will not disappoint any classic PRIEST fans as the album gives the rabid headbangers exactly what they were hoping for in unadulterated classic PRIEST form. And like its predecessor “Firepower,” there may be no surprises lurking here but the consistency of the tracks will assuage the restless souls of diehard classic PRIEST fans.

Overall another great album in classic 80s heavy metal style from the masters of molten metal and living legends JUDAS PRIEST. Every member is firing on all pistons. The twin guitar attacks are up to snuff with all those addictive guitar sweeps and incessant groove pounding as well as the stellar bass and percussive rhythm section. The tracks are all instantly hook-laden and the classic variations of intros, outros, songwriting and contrast between segments reigns supreme. On top of that Rob Halford has lost none of his brash bravado and can still sing like a muthafucker hitting all the high notes and sounding like he’s at the top of his game, something that many singers cannot retain in their 70s.

If nothing else JUDAS PRIEST symbolizes the longevity of the heavy metal music paradigm because after all when the band was attacked in the 1980s by the religious zealots as inspiring suicide and Satanic worship, the consensus was that metal music was just a fad for the immature adolescents and that it would soon fade to oblivion. However after countless witch hunts and accusations of every possible path to the devil himself, JUDAS PRIEST has sallied forth throughout the decades without flinching. And to top it off it seems that the band are in no danger of slowing down any time soon. Could these guys become the very first centurial metal band? Only time will tell! So wrong the naysayers have been and so strong JUDAS PRIEST has become in keeping the flame alive of the old metal ways! All hail the PRIEST!

siLLy puPPy From the early years as Mystery Tribe to the many incarnations of MADDER MORTEM, this Oslo based band led by the indefatigable siblings Agnete Kirkevaag (vocals) and BP M. Kirkevaag (guitar) have been going strong now for well over three decades first starting out as a doom metal band but finding its true calling as a unique mix of proressive, gothic and alternative metals. After a few years of turbulent events such as the death of the Kirkevaag’s father, the band has finally returned in 2024 with its eighth album OLD EYES, NEW HEART which welcomes newbie guitarist Anders Langberg who replaces Richard Wirkstrand who played on the last two albums.

Such tragedies always unleash a wellspring of emotional upheaval and it’s a tried and true catharsis for musicians to channel all those unresolved unsettlements into the vehicle of their musical output and indeed MADDER MORTEM has done just that with a collection of 10 new tracks that slightly exceed the 48 minute mark. Continuing the angsty mix of the alt-goth prog metal style that the band has made their own, OLD EYES, NEW HEART channels the visions of the past into the modernity of the now. While the traditional MADDER MORTEM sounds are prevalent through the album especially on the opening “Coming From The Dark,” the tracks offer a much more diverse serving of musical deliveries ranging from the most caustic and abrasive guitar intros on the extra frigid “Cold Hard Rain” to the more serene placidity of “On Guard.”

The tracks excel in the art of contrast with each pulling the rug out for expectations and offering varying tempos, elements of syncopation, vocal phrasing, riffing diversity and the emphasis on either the prog, alt or goth dominance. What keeps the album fairly uniform in its overall vibe is the combo effect of Agnete’s skillful vocal style as well as the grungy guitar angst in the heavier tracks. Perhaps the most overtly lyrical in reaction to the events of the past year are reflected in the slower tracks “Here And Now” and Long Road” which are almost ballads in relationship to the rest of the album with slow contemplative parts that allow Agnete to display her tender aspects in full vulnerability.

Overall another decent album from MADDER MORTEM that continues its idiosyncratic stylistic approaches only expanding its tentacles into even further realms that touch many disparate arenas. A period of great personal change and growth the band reflects this in a very strong album that forges ahead despite all the adversity. Once again the star of the show is the inimitable Agnete Kirkevaag who has one of the most unique female presences in all of metal and continues to lead her goth tinged prog alt metal into ever expanding worlds hitherto unconsidered. A triumphant return from one of Norway’s most unique sounding prog metallers who forge ahead well into their third decade of existence and still defying exact pigeonholing of its style. While the ballad is a strange track to end the album on, the album for the most part is fairly dynamic and changes things up quite a bit.

siLLy puPPy Right from the getgo the strange Dutch band LASTER was pulled in many musical directions but managed to settle between the disparate genres of depressive black metal and the world of post-punk to create a musical tug-of-war of dominating forces. These mystery men who dress like serial killers from silent film horror flicks emerged from Utrecht in the Netherlands in 2012 and have incrementally taken their bizarre take on the world of kvlt black metal into strange new worlds much in the vein of some of the most unconventional Norwegian acts that went a similar route such as Dodheimsgard and Arcturus.

While shrieking the sounds of pain on the debut “De Verste Verte Is Her” in true depressive black metal form, even at this early stage LASTER found it impossible to crank out an album’s worth of similarly themed music and added an almost unrecognizable post-punk track to the end as if this bipolar band was channeling the spirits of some unseen forces that are vying for control of the creative process. Whatever the case these guys have always been weird and rather than developing an inferiority complex have opted wisely to simply embrace it and let the chips fall where they may. Well the chips have fallen and landed in a most bizarre place, that being on the band’s fourth album ANDERMANS MIJNE (“Another Man’s Face”).

While bearing some resemblance to traditional black metal, album #4 has basically thrown out all the rules and completely disregarding any kind of genre relationship and instead has decided to craft a cauldron of undetectable elements simmered down into a witch’s brew so hypnotizing that anyone attempting a classification process of what exactly LASTER is concocting on its Island of Dr Moreau will fall flat on their face and declare utter defeat. While theatrics has always been a part of the band’s legendary underground charm, the antics have long extended beyond the unusually unique appearance and now incorporated into every aspect of the music and its idiosyncratic mix. Post-punk constructs fortified by black metal tones and guitar swells may be the largest inhabitants of ANDERMANS MIJNE but the album features no raspy shrieks, guttural growls or any metal vocalizations whatsoever this time around.

Finding some kind of truce between all those black metal and post-punk separations, the band retains the jangled guitar tones of black metal but somehow develops somewhat danceable albeit angular groovy rhythms. Decked out with prog and jazz with moments where both shine, the band also rocks the psychedelic trippiness unlike anything they’ve attempted in the past. Verging most on the doorsteps of black metal turned avant-garde outsiders Dodheimsgard, LASTER has embraced the art of hairpin turns and unexpected and every possibility of the element of surprise is what seems to dominate on ANDERMANS MIJNE. Obviously this is some kind of liberation movement moment for the band where they break free from any perceived shackles that tied them to any sort of musical pigeonholing. Free from the confines of genre gravity, the band floats precariously aloof but sheer determination keeps the party energetic and at least focused enough to not wander to far into the prodigious universe of non-metal related musical camps too much and too far astray.

Ultimately ANDERMANS MIJNE is like one of those old-school rickety roller coasters at a classic theme park that is so jittery that you’re too busy holding on to dear life to pay attention to the amazing scenery passing by. The album takes too many liberties and deviations from the norm to be fully comprehended on a single spin. Are they the new Blood Ceremony? The new Faith No More? The new Killing Joke? Dodheimsgard? Well all of the above and none of the above and then some. This is the new LASTER and while they may be moving faster i don’t really think that this is a disaster. While they don’t truly master and do raise the blaster they don’t really shoot the target like a forecaster. Perhaps a quizmaster in a house made of plaster but the circus has come and they are the ringmaster. Weirdo art rock / metal is in the house.

siLLy puPPy Galloping gallantly over the vast plains of the metal universe, Australia’s CALIGULA’S HORSE has nurtured the qualities of a fine thoroughbred in the prog world where the murky bardo area of progressive metal and progressive rock merge into brackish waters. These Aussies have been in the top tiers of the prog metal world for well over a decade now releasing a series of critically acclaimed albums with radiant rise to the upper echelons of prog metal royalty with the combo effect of 2015’s “Bloom” in tandem with 2017’s “In Contact.” The band evoked a larger than life prog metal congeries of tricks and trinkets that has allowed the band to stand out amongst the legions of progger metalheads vying for a piece of the action but these crafty chaps from Brisbane have always been a step or two ahead of the competition.

Changes are what the 2020s are all about the CALIGULA’S HORSE has certainly not eschewed its own series of challenges. In the last four years since “Rise Radiant” was released the band has officially seen guitarist Adrian Goleby exit from the team and now officially a quartet with Sam Vallen handling all guitar duties on the band’s sixth studio album CHARCOAL GRACE which still rock all those Steely Dan influenced add2 chords like no other. CHARCOAL GRACE gracefully offers nine tracks at 62 minutes of playing time and although the famous twin guitar attacks have now been completely abandoned for a more streamlined approach, the album continues the plethora of polyrhythms, the clusters of complexity and the same overall atmospheric ambience meets djent-ish chugging sessions all dressed up with Jim Grey’s fragile vocal intricacies.

Taking on a more Riverside meets Leprous demeanor, CALIGULA’S HORSE has traded the dueling axe action for a more keyboard saturated series of drifting cloud covered atmospheres that find heftier contrasting bouts of prog metal reinforcement. While tamped down a few notches from top peak prowess mode, CHARCOAL GRACE delivers a rather predictable procession of prancing prog rockers like a well-trained steeplechaser navigating a predictable course of action. The band plays it safe and sticks to the playbook for the most part with the expected prog by numbers approach that many a modern prog metal band has fallen victim to and an approach that aims to drift subtly into a more “commercial” acceptance by taming the rough around the edges aspects while amping up the melodic contrapuntal resonance of the complimentary layers of instrumentation.

“The World Breathes With Me” offers CALIGULA’S HORSE fans an instant comfort zone game plan with lush atmospheric developments before erupting into the chugga-chug marathon of djent-fueled guitar plucks and corresponding bass and drum obsequiousness. Add an obligatory four part concept suite of the title tracks and you can’t go wrong but the problem is that at this point in the 21st century, this style of prog metal sounds completely out of fashion and in many ways bands such as CALIGULA’S HORSE have become a fossilized self-induced retro scene of their own idiosyncratic making. Is it bad to continue to make music that doesn’t “progress” like the term “progressive” implies? Well, that’s the million dollar question of course and left to the individual to decide for him / herself but for yours truly there comes a time where it sounds like a band is beginning to regress and there, my musical friends, is the pasture CALIGULA’S HORSE seems to have retired to after a fruitful run on the racetrack.

It’s always difficult for me to be too harsh on bands that have found a comfort zone and a fanbase and have a difficult time balancing the progression part with the cash in to make a living in an increasingly more expense planet to reside upon but at this point this type of prog metal just sounds generic to me and therefore no matter how well played and how perfectly executed in every way, what really matters at the end of the day is how do the tracks speak to me and after sitting through CHARCOAL GRACE and imbibing the sonic frequencies that bathe my very soul, i am left feeling indifferent and unmoved by the dramatic series of sounds that are supposed to evoke some sort of reaction. To be honest, the airy fairy sounding bands in the prog metal world never have appealed to me as much as the more adventurous thrill seekers but every once in a while a band like Pain of Salvation or Leprous proves me wrong with instantly contagious emotionally connective composiitons. Unfortunately CALIGULA’S HORSE doesn’t evoke that same visceral reaction and CHARCOAL GRACE does even less than previous offerings. Not a bad album by any means but sounds a bit too middle of the road for my liking.

siLLy puPPy Starting out as a supergroup formed by ex-members of Animosity, Animals As Leaders and The Faceless, the USA based ENTHEOS (as opposed to the Canadian band of the same name) got its start in Santa Cruz, CA before relocating to Nashville, TN. Basically the brainchild of multi-instrumentalist who is the drummer in the live settings Navene Koperweis, this band underwent many lineup changes over the course of its existence that began in 2015 and spanned the course of an EP and three albums, the latest TIME WILL TAKE US ALL which emerged in 2023.

While 2017’s “Dark Future” saw the band as a quartet that relied heavily on keyboards, TIME WILL TAKE US ALL has been whittled down to the mere duo of female vocalist Chaney Crabb and Kopeweis who covers all guitars and drums however former member Evan Brewer does come back only demoted to session musician for whatever reason. This new monstrosity of an album sees the band expand in every conceivable direction with a lot more attention paid to the trippy atmospheres and the outstanding production.

While a technical death metal band, ENTHEOS nurtures a rather psychedelic ambience into TIME WILL TAKE US ALL and employs a mix of stylistic shifts to ensure a more varied album than previous efforts. While the album starts out on sheer brutality mode which showcases that ENTHEOS has lost none of its technical prowess in the ensuing six years since “Dark Future,” the album mellows a bit with “Oblivion” and “I Am The Void” which allows for Chaney Crabb to actually reveal her feminine charm with clean girl singing but wow she can scream and rip like the best tech death metal singers in the business and it’s utterly amazing how guttural growls are fairly genderless in how they are perceived!

TIME WILL TAKE US ALL features nine tracks at over 40 minutes of playing time and although this band has primarily existed as to showcase the technical wizardry of the seasoned veterans on board, this third album reveals that Koperweis is a gifted songwriter in general since the tracks on this third installment allow much more varied passages that range from the usual tech death brutality to surreal stints of psychedelia in the vein of Blood Incantation or other psych death metal bands have conjured up. The beauty is in the details on this one and the fact that Koperweis was in complete control of the project basically means he could take his baby any direction he so chooses and in this case he chose wisely.

With the band’s earliest connections to deathcore, TIME WILL TAKE US ALL showcases all those vocal trade offs between guttural growls and demonically possessed gargling utterances along with a series of various chugging sessions, drumming styles and interesting compositional changes that allow the tracks to drift into a series of changes. The results are quite satisfying as ENTHEOS loses none of the overall brutality of its past but adds so many different layers, recording techniques and sonic flavors that this album is an instantly exciting one. While the chaotic swirls of tech death are never far away, ENTHEOS also chooses to let melodic moments dominate the soundscape for a while. It’s a nice mix between the caustic chaos and the more pleasant placidity of traditional metal moments.

While i was not overly familiar with this band until this release i have to say that i was quite surprised by how well this album is written and recorded. It’s a bonafide treasure as far as crafting a nice diverse palette of sounds that includes groove metal, grunge, jazz, prog and others into the labyrinthine tech death metal workouts. When the melodic parts do occur there are interesting dissonant counterpoints that keep it all from getting even close to cheesy. Koperweis is as much an accomplished guitarist as he is an extraordinary drummer and Chaney Crabb has some of the best female growls out there. A fine example of modern tech death done right. Not that i need my tech death to have moments of melody but it is nice when an album adds some bells and whistles in the production department that offer more onion layers to the mix. If done right it’s magical and this album is really done right.

siLLy puPPy ENTHEOS, not to be confused with the USA based band of the same name, emerged in Montreal, Canada first as Givre but in 2014 changed to the current moniker and then followed the next year with its debut “Ototeman” which featured a progressive atmospheric style of black metal with original singer Jean-Lou David. With this lineup they released two albums, the sophomore effort titled “Le Zahir” and then ENTHEOS returned as a 3-piece for the 2020 EP titled “Continent.”

After a few years of reorganizing ENTHEOS has returned with newbie vocalist Laurent Bellemare and a shift from the world of atmospheric black to the world of Gorguts inspired technical death metal. ACÉDIE places the band in the modern world of technical disso-death in the vein of Sunless, Ulcerate, Veilburner and a whole slew of modern noise makers. This album is rather short with only six tracks that don’t even add up to 30 minutes playing time but the impact these caustic beasts of sonic terror leave is no less than exhilarating.

Clearly channeling the works of Luc Lemay and his projects (especially Gorguts), ENTHEOS delivers a chaotic stream of consciousness type of disso-death with caustic jangly chords turned up to 11 and off-kilter time signature workouts that place this clearly in the progressive arena. While the emphasis is more on the tech death metal of modern days, the blackened aspects still are retained in the creepy tones of the guitar and atmospheric contributions. The band walks a tight line between chaotic dissonant death metal in the vein of Ad Nauseam and other crazy avant-garde bands and a more accessible post-metal procession that sorta repeats the riffs with the crazy guitar fills offering some freaky off-kilter wildness.

The only track that deviates form the incessant brutality is the all acoustic guitar intermission “L’étouffeur” which lasts slightly more than a minute and although not metal features the same eerie atmospheres that accompany the album’s run. The final track “Cauchemar” jumps back into the brutal death metal banter only with an stronger atmospheric gloom in the forefront. This chugging manic number is a stand out with jittery choppy riffs that alternate with the acoustic guitars introduced in the previous track along with freaky eerie synthesized backdrops. The track is better at offering a diverse palette of dynamics which segregates it from the rest of the album.

While i wouldn’t consider ACÉDIE or ENTHEOS in general anyway groundbreaking or offering a style that hasn’t been well covered so far, i have to admit that this album is a very interesting mix of disso-death with blackened elements made all the more alienating with the progressive accoutrements. The vocals are most like those of Gorguts with that tortured dungeon beast sort of effect. The riffs are just accessible enough to follow easily while the chaos is always threatening to derail the entire process. A nice mix of tension on this one and clearly a band that still has a lot of potential that perhaps they will take further in the future. As for the overall sound, this is a dead ringer for that classic Montreal tech death scene and while not the top dog of the style, clearly has the chops to get there.

siLLy puPPy Black metal is the biggest promiscuous slut of the metal world having long left the confines of its first and second wave separation zones and unapologetically cross-pollinated with just about any music genre that has ever existed on planet Earth. While acceptable crossover styles with traditional folk music, death metal, progressive rock and other styles have been celebrated as groundbreaking and original, other hybridization attempts have been a bit more divisive which brings us to the world of blackgaze. This style that is basically the unlikely mix of post-rock, shoegaze, post-hardcore and black metal began in 2005 when Neige created the bizarre Alcest project and soon was finding new candidates willing to adopt the style and take it further.

While Alcest didn’t initially make any major waves in the black metal scene, along comes the San Francisco based DEAFHAVEN in 2010 and began its own creative spin of the unusual mix that Alcest had alchemized. Originally a the duo of George Clarke and guitarist Kerry McCoy, DEAFHAVEN released “Roads To Judah” and introduced the style of blackgaze to a larger audience beyond the confines of the underground black metal scene. While that album got the engine revving, it was the band’s second release SUNBATHER that took the world by storm and finally put the blackgaze style and the world of black metal on the map for the masses. SUNBATHER saw a third member, drummer Dan Tracy join the DEAFHAVEN team and the album expanded the blackgaze sound by adopting elements of alternative rock, post-metal, field recordings and droning.

While met with critical acclaim from many music critics, the album also polarized the world of black metal with many open minded experimentalists welcoming the new musical chimera with open arms and the less than accepting black metal purists who wanted the underground black metal scene to remain in its own little kvlt time capsule never to be tainted with such impurities. The irony is that many post-rock and shoegaze fans who never even heard black metal before were being exposed to the world of black metal for the first time and DEAFHAVEN’s crossover appeal for better or for worse made a huge impact on the entire extreme metal industry simply by being popular. It should be obvious in retrospect that the nasty atmospheres and distorted guitars accompanied by raspy vocals can pretty much adapt to any musical style, even ones as far removed as one could imagine such as post-rock and shoegaze.

SUNBATHER delivered an hour’s worth of 7 tracks that are for the most part compositionally speaking totally in the world of post-rock with long cyclical melodic loops ratcheting up the tension until melodic crescendoes break loose along with totally metal-free post-rock moments of ambient atmospheres. DEAFHAVEN simply added the bombast of incessantly fast-tempo guitar furor, blastbeat percussion and screamo inspired raspy vocals that added a monstrosity of an addition to the classic post-rock and shoegaze stylistic approach. Given the popularity of both black metal and post-rock in the 1990s, it really was only a matter of time before the two would converge. SUNBATHER indeed is an odd beast even when listening to it today, 11 years after its initial release. The mix of My Bloody Valentine inspired hazy shoegaze juxtaposed with post-rock musical flow and the most intense black metal elements possible is really quite alarming.

While the debate still continues whether this was a good thing or not, the fact is many fans love it while many do not. As far as i’m concerned i’m not against the idea of the whole blackened post-rock-gaze thing in the least bit. But what gets me is that most blackgaze uses the same mix of lazy post-rock rhythms amplified by black metal extremities and shrouded with thick atmospheric turbulence with the overuse of screamo vocal screams. The word blackgaze should allow for a vast palette of interpretations of how these sounds go together and that’s where i have my biggest problem with SUNBATHER and DEAFHAVEN in general.

While the music itself is original in how things are blended together, i find the execution is what’s lacking and i’ve given this album a good decade to let sink in hoping one day it would click but every time i give it a spin i’m plagued by the same dislike of how it was all laid out. First of all the vocals are too much of a one-trick pony and George Clarke offers no diversity in his screaming style which ultimately makes the heavy tracks sound way too similar for their own good. Sure the electronic weirdness in tracks like “Please Remember” are a nice break from the incessant bombast but these are vocal-free zones. This track also features a spoken word appearance from Alcest’s Neige. Likewise the black metal is always on rampage mode. It’s either balls to the wall stampeding into the thralls of war or it’s total chill time. No in between zones, no nuances just off and on. Likewise the penultimate track “Windows” that offers one of the few non-screamed vocal segments provides an interesting dark ambient side track but a ridiculously lame dialog about Biblical scripture.

So there you have it. Blackgaze as a style works for me but really only in a different context with bands like Sadness, Woods of Desolation and White Ward offering much more interesting interpretations. While considered one of the top dogs of the world of blackgaze, SUNBATHER just doesn’t do it for me. It’s not that the album is a bad one by any means, it just doesn’t deliver what all the hype portends and i always feel totally disappointed in its limitations. So in effect i’m neither a DEAFHAVEN fan nor am i a hater. I mostly find myself just indifferent and honestly dislike a lot of screamo type vocals especially in the context of metal. It’s an OK album and one of San Francisco’s more famous contributions in the 21st century but honestly for experimental San Francisco black metal acts, i by far prefer the likes of Weakling, Leviathan or Lurker of Chalice. The aimlessness of SUNBATHER just seems to rub me the wrong way every time. A good once in a while break from things but not an album i really consider essential.

siLLy puPPy Like a prickly saguaro in the Sonaran desert, Arizona dwellers JOB FOR A COWBOY have been a part of the landscape for well over two decades now, first emerging as a electrified unhinged deathcore band and then settling into a more tech death with proggy accoutrements comfort zone. With the debut EP “Doom,” the band proved it has the testicular fortitude to compete with the big boyz of death metal and on the full-length debut “Genesis” found the band deemphasizing the core attributes in favor of a more traditional death metal style with techy overtones. The band kept the ball rolling for the next four album by upping their game and honing their chops which culminated with 2014’s “Sun Eater” which showcases a maturity beyond the confines of traditional death metal but then suddenly went silent.

JOB FOR A COWBOY has remained on unemployment for an entire decade now and presumed MIA but given the Lazarus qualities of 2024 seeing many artists long lost for decades suddenly jumping back into the world of musical output, so too has JOB FOR A COWBOY with its fifth album MOON HEALER which finds the band in full employment mode and crafting a wicked slide of modern tech death metal with a voracious appetite to claw their way into the modern world. Basically a continuation of where they left off, this band surprisingly has not experienced a major lineup change with the same team of Jonny Davis on vocals, Tony Sannicandro and Alan Glassman delivering dueling guitar and bassist Nick Schendzielos however newbie Navene Kopeweis of Animals As Leaders, Animosity and Sleep Terror takes hold of the drummer’s seat to unleash his percussive fury.

A gritty no nonsense style of tech death, JOB FOR A COWBOY’s death metal ethos has not mellowed a bit in the last decade with a feisty bravado that showcases the angst of classic tech death in the midst of a slickly produced modern rendition. Dropping the bomb right away with “Beyond The Chemical Doorway” the band demonstrates its commitment to sticking to the JOB FOR A COWBOY playbook with twin guitars muddled with raw crusty distortion and delivering caustic riffing sessions that stand outside the thundering rhythmic drive of the bass and percussion. Skirting the fine line between the traditional melodic styles of old school death and the nerdier modern disso-death varieties, JOB FOR A COWBOY delivers the dissonant chord strumming of the latter while keeping the tasty guitar licks and leads finely tuned into near neo-classical diamonds in the rough.

The band has actually never sounded better. More tight, more emphatically dedicated to its craft and sounds quite happy to be back in the game of death metal ferocity. Lead vocalist Jonny Davy demonstrates a wide breadth of screams, growls, grunts and guttural gymnastics in tandem with the musical processions. The instrumental interplay and attention to dynamics go a long way as well making MOON HEALER an album you can sink your teeth into. It seems that the prog attributes are exaggerated a bit as this is not a prog metal album in the least. While rampant experimentation and the ability to shift gears in myriad directions goes a long way in sparking the creative infusion that these musician’s have fueled, the compositions don’t drift off into crazy psychedelic prog oriented off-world planetary orbits in the way more recent bands like Blood Incantation, Morbus Chron or Fallujah have dished out. These guys are more direct in their approach.

Overall MOON HEALER is a nice re-introduction from long lost friends who have fallen off the radar in the ever-changing world of fast paced death metal. These guys may have fallen on hard times but have bounced back stronger than ever. Feeling confident and refreshed and ready for a new feisty assault on the senses, JOB FOR A COWBOY manifests its own destiny in a series of eight rabid slices of tech death ready to rape your very soul. The album is quite satisfying on many levels but ultimately the one ingredient that the band has failed to master is the art of extremely original tracks that stand out from the burgeoning hordes of modern death metal. A very competent album that ticks off every possible box and then some but lacking enough creative infusion to make the album stand above the best of what the 21st century has to offer. For those seeking the more traditional tech death sounds laid down in the last 20 years this album has a lot to offer but just don’t expect a long awakening from a band that found its true calling as it’s pretty much business as usual however business is good.

siLLy puPPy Founded in 1995 by Norwegian Øystein Garnes Brun to escape the confines of the brutal aspects of death metal with the band Molested, Brun formed BORKNAGAR which has now had a near 30 year run of mixing black metal, folk metal, Viking metal and progressive metal in varying recipes through the course of 12 albums and a consistently changing lineup. As the founder and only member to transverse the band's near 30 year existence, BORKNAGAR has featured 17 different musicians and vocalists adding their signature style so in the process, BORKNAGAR has unleashed some of the most varied albums to be heard in the realms of progressive black metal.

Well Garnes is back with the newest BORKNAGAR album FALL which lands with the same exact lineup as 2019's critically acclaimed "True North." Back for the ride is vocalist / bassist ICS Vortex, lead vocalist / keyboardist Lars "Lazare" Nedland, percussionist Bjørn Dugstad Rønnow, guitarist Jostein Thomassen and of course Brun on guitar as well as taking care of all the mixing, mastering and production. The new album continues in the spirit of the progressive black metal meets folk metal predecessor "True North" only this time around BORKNAGAR looks to the past to add some of the earliest sounds of Viking metal and the crushing razor-sharp guitar riffing of the earliest releases. The album features 9 tracks and clocks in at over 59 minutes. The limited edition digipak offers two bonus tracks (both basically demos).

One thing i can say about BORKNAGAR and that is no two albums are alike. This band is all about exploration and shifting gears into totally uncharted musical territories which is honestly why some of the albums are utterly brilliant and some not so much so but at least i give Brun credit for going where no black metal dared before. It seems in recent years Brun has upped his game and figured out how to balance all the stylistic shifts into a cohesive whole and that is exactly what is the case with FALL, a powerhouse of progressive metal, Viking metal and black metal with the added folk inspirations that have always been part of the equation. "Summits" starts the party with a black metal furor that portends to find the band revisiting the ferocity of the self-titled debut but soon all those notions are put to rest as the clean vocals and psychedelic atmospheres conspire to usher in a Viking metal infused progressive metal touch.

"Nordic Anthem" follows but offers an instantly calmer mood with an atmospheric smothered war march percussive drive and an indeed anthemic vocal delivery of Viking metal that would make Quorthon himself render a thumb's up. The track ramps up the extremely melodic nature of the album and the rest of the album pretty much follows suit. "Afar" offers the same dreamy entryway into a pacifying array of swirling atmospheric ambience but soon erupts into a second wave Darkthrone inspired black metal furor but this album shifts gears quite a bit and it trades off with the mellower clean vocal parts once again. "Moon" just skips the formalities and immediately ushers in a symphonic black metal approach but eschews the raspy vocal style. "Stars Ablaze" is the only overlong track that spends too much time in the clouds. Personally i think the album would be better if this were edited out. "Unraveling" delivers a much needed boost of heavy vs mellow and "The Wild Lingers" delivers a nice mix of both only more directed into the Viking metal camp. "Northward" ends with a nice upbeat furor.

FALL is an epic sounding album, more so than other BORKNAGAR releases. While the emphasis is on the cleaner vocal styles of progressive metal and Viking metal, the black metal raspiness and metal furor is distributed nicely so as to give the album a boost when it needs it most to keep it from drifting too far into near orbit space. The tracks themselves are complex little beasts that meander through various passages, a litany of chord changes, tone and timbre curveballs and a perfect tightrope act between the heavier extreme moments and the Viking folk aspects that often threaten to jettison the metal altogether by going the route of 2006's "Origin." The complex progressive touches allow the album to sail into the distant horizon and the black metal roots keep it all anchored in place so that it can all be reeled back in when the contrast is required to spice things up. The album has some moments in the middle that perhaps the clean vocal drifting drifts too far and outstays its welcome (ahem, "Stars Ablaze," but for the most part the album feels pretty well balanced.

By ending with the uptempo "Northward" the album comes full circle back to the raspy black metal heft that began it all. The vocal tradeoffs come off as natural and not gimmicky and the guitar tones of both the cleaner parts and heavier ones are very nice. BORKNAGAR has for my tastes at least been a very hit and miss band with some of the releases sounding a bit too goofy for their own good as progressive ideas don't always work out so well if not implemented correctly but on FALL, Brun has ironed out all the wrinkles and delivered an outstanding slice of melodic progressive black metal that effortlessly fuses all the band's previous incarnations into a cohesive whole. It seems BORKNAGAR is one of those bands that gets better with age with longevity serving as a friend rather than foe. For those looking for a second wave black metal album, don't even bother but if you are all about progressive metal complexities that features black metal as one of the many ingredients, then this album will not disappoint.

siLLy puPPy DARKSPACE has been something akin to the Star Trek Enterprise in metal boldly going where no man has gone before and was rightfully one of the pioneers in the cosmic and psychedelic realms of ambient black metal. Led by Tobias Möckl, this Bern, Switzerland crew has been around for a quarter century now having formed in 1999 with an amazingly stable lineup of Tobias Möckl aka Wroth (lead vocals, rhythm guitar, synths, drum programming), Zhaaral (lead guitar, backing vocals) and Zorgh (bass, backing vocals). Well that amazing stability has finally been shaken up and Zorgh has jumped ship and replaced by Yhs.

Never the most prolific band in the world of black metal and certainly not the most creative in keeping track of album titles, the band began simply with “Dark Space I” then “II” until it reached the clumsy looking “III I.” Ironically DARKSPACE released an EP in 2012 titled “Dark Space -I” which actually came out before Dark Space III I.” Oh i’m getting a headache now! Not heard from in an entire decade it’s like the band was in the cryogenic chamber awaiting a landing on another undiscovered celestial body in a galaxy not near you and in 2024 surprisingly returns with the fifth studio album DARK SPACE -II. This one is also the first to be released without the consistent black background with the group logo.

Forged with lengthy sprawling tracks that frigidly craft the perfect cosmic soundtrack of a black metal journey into the gravitation-free zone of outer space, DARKSPACE has always delivered a series of sprawlers on their albums and on DARK SPACE -II simply eliminates any pretense of having to name titles at all. This album is simply a single track titled “Dark -2.-2” and at 47 minutes plus is actually a short album considering most of the band’s album are well over an hour’s playing time or at least close to it. Also all of the previous DARKSPACE releases have been re-released on the Seasons of the Mist label and DARK SPACE -II marks the debut for the label as a first timer.

A decade may seem like a long time to us Earthlings but in space time breaks down and to those familiar with the 25 year trajectory of DARKSPACE, this band has had a very consistent sound and only changes things up enough to keep each album from sounding too similar. Referred to by some as “gravity metal” which means space themed metal which is like a the fluidity of a lucid dream, DARKSPACE continues its hypnotizing stylistic approach which delivers both black metal and black ambient in equal doses with various mixes in between. -II continues the business of long sprawling post-rock styled cyclical loops that repeat to infinity with slowly building dynamics and a never-ending incremental change of both the ambient and metal aspects.

Icy cold atmospheres allow long metal guitar fuzz to linger on while raspy vocals gasp for air from the unknown. Droning and glacial pacing allows the lengthy journey to slowly drip drop across the soundscape one measure at a time. Noticeably less metal oriented than previous releases DARKSPACE seems to have mellowed a bit with a stronger emphasis on the dark ambient synthesized sounds often leaving the black metal to sound like a couple of receptive chords simply adding buzzsaw guitar feedback light as if the crew was running out of oxygen and the vitality has been compromised on the lengthy space journey. Whatever the case there is no ferocity like we last encountered on “Dark Space iII I,” just faint guitar and suffocated vocals from the void.

Given the emphasis on the black ambient the album sounds more orchestrated which isn’t necessary a bad thing but the tamping down of the metal elements also makes the drums sound very ineffective as the percussion has become nothing but a metronometer and gone are the blastbeats and variation. Gone too are the guitar solos and various stylistic shifts that offer some relief from the monotony. On the contrary, this one track sounds like it’s stuck in a groove and never really deviates from it. Some of the guitar chugging becomes more activated towards the end but it’s not nearly as vibrant as the DARKSPACE we’ve all come and known to love.

Well it seems like Tobias Möckl might be burning out as both his DARKSPACE project as well as his other flagship ambient black metal baby, Paysage D’Hiver has also been sputtering on fumes in recent years. Perhaps the creativity well has run dry and he has milked this space metal shtick as far as it can go. Don’t get me wrong, DARK SPACE -II is not a bad release at all but in comparison to the releases that ended a decade ago, this one is more like a house cat compared to the wild savage tigers that came before. It’s a devolution of intensity, creativity and ingenuity. Interestingly databases will say there’s only one long track but on the band’s Bandcamp site there are three shorter excerpts but don’t really offer anything new. A tad disappointed in this one. Definitely my least favorite DARKSPACE release so far. Once again i don’t dislike it but it sort of settles on mediocrity.

siLLy puPPy Of all the artists to rise from the dead like Lazarus of Bethany in the calendar year 2024, the Oakland based freak show known as SLEEPYTIME GORILLA MUSEUM was not exactly on my radar. After all, these curators of one of the most surreal Dadaist performance art niches in the entire world of experimental rock and avant-garde metal had a full life with it’s “Grand Opening And Closing” ceremonies in 2001 followed by its most creative and insanely disturbing pinnacle with its following “Of Natural History.” With its third installment “In Glorious Times” the band shifted gears a bit with seemingly nothing left to prove and then closed up shop and presumably down for the count. While rumors persisted it seemed that the creation of the band Free Salamander Exit formed shortly after with album emerging in 2016 announced that the SGM was as history as the fire ravaged fictitious museum of its namesake. But this is SLEEPYTIME GORILLA MUSEUM and the only thing that can safely be expected is indeed the unexpected.

Seventeen years is a long time for such a creatively insane band to drop off the scene entirely and suddenly reemerge but that is exactly what has occurred in the earliest moments of 2024 when the majestic madness of the SLEEPYTIME GORILLA MUSEUM has announced its reopening with an invitation to experience its latest exhibit - OF THE LAST HUMAN BEING. Yes, it’s all back and so too are the main curators and partners in crime which has included the mischievous gypsy geniuses Nils Frykdahl, Dan Rathbun, Carla Kihlstedt, Michael Mellender and Matthias Bossi and of course they resurrect their entire arsenal of sound making devices for your listening pleasure. The “Rock Against Rock” troupe has reactivated all the musical mojo that made the first run so magical and once investigated a bit further, it turns out that SGM actually began to write for a fourth album as soon as the third one was complete therefore much of the material presented on OF THE LAST HUMAN BEING actually feels like a natural continuation of where the band left off in 2011. But of course it wouldn’t be SGM without throwing a few curveballs and for that we will always love them.

Perhaps one of the most anticipated returns to the world of avant-prog metal, the new album was made possible by fans crowdfunding the financial creation of it. Perhaps all of those who missed their favorite musical mystics needed to relish in the unsavory thematic events that emerge from the age of the Anthropocene Extinction just needed their fix once again. Well look no further. The band sent out some teaser’s with early video releases for the tracks “Burn Into Light” and “Hush Hush” and proved that they still have that eerie avant-garde connection to the wellspring of ethereal creative conductivity that has once again manifested itself in this larger than life lumpen musicalis from which there is apparently no cure. OF THE LAST HUMAN BEING exemplifies the typical format of the SGM with 13 diverse tracks that take you through the roller coaster ride love affair of avant-prog, freakish metal, psycho-folk, screwball cabaret all the while narrating the musical maelstrom with some of the most head-scratching themes and lyrical content in the world of art rock. The wait is over and the feast is ready for serving. The album is just under 66 minutes long.

Fears of a botched comeback gone wrong are extinguished very quickly as the opening “Salamander In Two Worlds” evokes the same lullaby pacification that “Of Natural History” exhibited throughout its labyrinthine callithump. The tintinnabulation of xylophones and glockenspiels with Nils Frykdahl’s familiar vocal tones feel like a long lost friend. The track exhibits all those bittersweet contradictory musical factors: avant-prog time signature workouts and insane instrumental interplay that these gifted musicians are now famous for. The title makes you wonder if it refers in code to the announcement that SGM and Free Salamander Exit will exist simultaneously although literally the track actually refers to Theodora Kroeber’s biography “Ishi In Two World” which narrated the last known member of the Native American tribe, the Yahis. Ishi became a living museum exhibit and apparently now an exhibit at everyone’s favorite Dadaist institution.

While the opening track exhibits the SGM’s propensity for cleverly crafting intricately delicate melodic developments fortified with all kinds of complexities and dynamic shifts, the following “Fanfare For The Last Human Being” seems to extend back to Rathbun and Frykdahl’s Idiot Flesh days with a marching band type musical procession only embellished by violin-fueled folk and a Stravinksy classical flavor however it is a short instrumental and the third track “El Evil” jumps into the more familiar straight on metallic rockers of “In Glorious Times” only showcasing Carla Kihlstedt’s amazing violin shredding capacity. Strange tribal rhythms, erratic industrial guitar freneticism in avant-funk mode accompanied by Frykdahl’s best possessed by sheer evil vocal performances ensure that this album has lost none of the creative fortitude of its predecessors. All fears of an botched project have officially dissipated at this stage! Woohoo!!! And damn how do these MUSEUM curators make evil so fucking addictive!

The band has also lost none of its propensity for keeping the album flowing in different directions with the chimes of “El Evil” ceding perfectly into the chime-rich short instrumental “Bells For Kith And Kin” which makes you feel like you’ve been teleported to some Tibetan monastery! Next up “Silverfish” which allows Karla Kihlstedt to pacify the soul with her Bjork-ish vocal delivery. Dark and brooding the track begins as a Chelsea Wolfe type of dark ambient pop sound only with a melancholic jig styled violin accompaniment which offers a strange bedfellow with the witchy spell casting lyrical delivery. The following “S.P.Q.R.” actually dates back to 2004 and features one of the most frenetically demented bass runs of the band’s entire output. As the group sings along in unison it almost sounds like some bizarre ritual as the bass and violin shred like Pagini with eerie brooding atmospheres oozing in from the ethers.

“We Must Know More” is another throwback to the marching band rich Idiot Flesh days. Completely devoid of bass and guitar, the track features a tuba, trombone and Frykdahl delivering a sermon of surreality. The catchy melody is almost of commercial jingle value. Perhaps the catchiest track the band has ever released, at least the most accessible. Think of a barber quartet gone psycho-marching band and you’ll get the gist. “The Gift” jumps back into the brooding darkness and the jarring avant-prog musical processions that hop, skip and jump between slow passages and then erupt to fully ignited avant-metal rampage. In other words, it’s SGM caliber weird! “Hush Hush” comes next. One of the videos that served as a sneak peak is actually not indicative of the album as a whole. A tender ballad SGM style narrated by a fragile Carla Kihlstedt, the is brooding and stays in an eerie downtempo sort of speed with Kihlstedt’s vocals soft and contemplative however even this track breaks into a metal sequence in the middle before Kihlstedt regaining control

“Save It!” is one of the most spastic tracks and sounds like some sort of industrial avant-funk, something like you would expect if Primus and Einstürzende Neubauten were collaborating forces with Univers Zero. “Burn Into Light,” also released as a video, visually showcased a bizarre collision of a crow-human alchemist and humans seeking magical knowledge beyond their ability to control. The video was captivating and creepy as hell and what the musical score offers is no less so. An industrial metal rocker with the expected avant-prog workouts, this track fires on all pistons including Kihlstedt’s controlled violin contributions. “Old Grey Heron” is actually the longest track at 7 1/2 minutes. A tale of a heron who only wants humanity to get it together before the extinction event occurs, this post-rocker resembles the track “The Creature” from “Of Natural History” at least in Frykdahl’s lyrical delivery. The music is less punctuated by avant-prog stabs and rather remains calm and calculated and perhaps the most free-flowing track the band has thus penned. The time signature workouts are kept to a minimum and the minimalist approach (by SGM standards) ensures the message is uninterrupted. Even the metallic heaviness is more like a “normal” alternative rock / metal band than anything remotely SGM. The trumpet adds a nice mariachi band touch.

You have to put your rose-colored glasses on for the album’s grand finale, “Rose-Colored Song” which bookends the album much like it began with a tinkling of a glockenspiel that resembles a music box and a fairy tale soundtrack quality with psycho-cabaret overtones. As the Disneyland-esque theme park ride giddiness cedes to bizarre industrial sound effects, the sputters on aimlessly allowing a dark brooding atmosphere to slowly bid you farewell from the latest MUSEUM exhibit. Once against the light and the dark wrestle for world domination and once again a truce of the forces keeps the cliffhanger in perpetual motion. And then it’s done leaving you to wonder how this album stacks up against its predecessors. Well after a few spins already, i have to say REMARKABLY WELL! With nothing left to prove it seems that SLEEPYTIME GORILLA MUSEUM was content to simply mine its entire history in order to retain a sense of familiarity yet allowing new ideas to organically coalesce into the greater mix. In other words this album exceeded all expectations and proves to me that this band of musical troupes really is one of the most creative forces on the planet par none.

OF THE LAST HUMAN BEING really does feel like a continuation of the band’s earlier trilogy and although i have heard no announcements of the band’s future, we can only hope that at least another trilogy is on the drawing board. While my expectations were set low as to avoid any disappointment whatsoever, it comes as one of the most pleasant surprises of 2024 that a band so talented could pull off a proper comeback nearly two decades down the pike. A brilliant and instantly palatable set of tracks will allow any fans to instantly regale in past endeavors only set to the immediacy of the 2020s. Perhaps a bit more accessible than the albums that preceded but only in a way that is logical and allows the continuity of the album’s entire run to play out. It’s true that the metal aspects of “In Glorious Times” have been tamped down quite a bit but on the bright side the playful and often giddy larger playground of instrumentation that was so missed on the previous album has returned to generate one of the most ingenious album experiences of the 2020s. SLEEPYTIME GORILLA MUSEUM is not only back with a new exhibit but one has produced yet another masterpiece of magnetic music magic unlike any other. Oh rejoice for the pleasures of life are too fleeting and too few.

siLLy puPPy The final chapter of the original three albums from Oakland, California’s SLEEPYTIME GORILLA MUSEUM before they took an extended hiatus. Pretending they were Spinal Tap and losing a drummer every album, so too does the third album IN GLORIOUS TIMES find the arrival of drummer Mathias Bossi who replaced Frank Gau. Bossi, a seasoned drummer played in a series of challenging bands including The Book of Knots, Skeleton Key and Vic Thrill. Bossi also would marry Carla Kihlstedt, SGM’s amazing violinist / vocalist who returns for another stunning performance. Once again, the band delivered another hour plus worth of complex experimental avant-prog metal with a totally new direction.

While the band’s first two album’s were very theatrical in a demented Vaudville fashion with the music matching the wild performance art routines, on IN GLORIOUS TIMES the band streamlined its sound into a heavier avant-garde metal juggernaut with more inspiration from “Red” era King Crimson or the Swedish prog revival bands like Anekdoten, Sinkadus or Landberk only with a razor-sharp metal edge. If “Of Natural History” was SLEEPYTIME GORILLA MUSEUM’s magnum opus to prove they were the worthy successors of the mighty Mr Bungle, then IN GLORIOUS TIMES was the answer to Mike Patton’s Fantômos, only SGM had a knack of keeping everything distinct and original no matter how many nods they dished out to past masters. In that regard album #3 delivers with abundance.

A noticeable more brash and metal oriented album from the very start, “The Companions” insinuates the band is back with fairy-tale dreams in avant-folk forests but in reality only stirs up brooding atmospheres that erupt into chaotic discord. Once again graced by Nils Frykdahl’s poetic prose set to a demented Gothic crooning persona, the opening track allows a bit of creepy melancholy to sink in but for the most part the album just let’s loose with more focus on the heavily distorted dissident guitar workouts than the myriad detours into a labyrinth of musical genres that the first two albums dished out unapologetically. “Helpless Corpses Enactment” jumps right to it with crazed chord progressions laced with brutal prog time signatures and a demented vocal tirade of Frykdahl proving his metal game is on par with any of the scariest screamers, growlers and rage against the machiners out there.

Carefully constructing the right gloom and doom is the name of the game before the volcanic eruption of metal mania detonates its might. “Puppet Show” almost begins as an avant-prog tribute to Magma with the entire band engaging in a vocal sing along but cedes to a demented dissonant piano that seduces the violin into a game of contrapuntal warfare. The strategy of IN GLORIOUS TIMES is to simplify the musical approach and let the creative music mojo manifest in other ways, in this case in contrapuntal instrumentation that weaves massive webs of avant-prog counterpoints and unusual syncopative approaches. While the guitar, bass, violin and drums almost completely dominate this album with an almost total abandonment of all those clever self-made tricks and trinkets that Dan Rathbun decorated the first two albums with, softer passages do allow some intricate percussion and lullaby effect sounds to be heard.

Unlike the previous two albums, IN GLORIOUS TIMES doesn’t flow perfectly with a few tracks like “Formicary” not jiving as it feels like a forced display of avant-prog technicalities without the melodic build up to justify it. The following “Angel Of Repose” finds Carla Kihlstedt in the vocalist’s seat and on this one she channels her inner Bjork and sounds like the Icelandic diva only set to an oddball mix of psycho-jig fiddle playing and avant-metal extremism. It’s a bizarre track but it only sets the stage for the most crazed and unhinged track of all, the heavyweight “Ossuary” which gives a glimpse as to what King Crimson’s “Red” might’ve sounded like if Gentle Giant was invited to join in. The track single-handedly conjures up the most haunting soundscapes of the entire release with jittery avant-prog guitar workouts working in opposition to equally nerve-wracking bass lines, brutal proggy percussion and Kihlstedt’s violin shredding.

The album is on a more even keel than the previous two with the same basic build ups and climaxes with the usual SGM trademarks thrown in for good reason therefore the rest of the album pretty much follows in the footsteps of what has already been established in the first half of the album. Frykdahl trades in his Vaudville persona for some sort of demented psychotic philosopher who tortures himself over some mighty peculiar subject matter. The album is overall more rhythmic although unabashed avant-prog workouts do take things into the wild west for moments of brutal prog orgasmia, the album more or less follows a more controlled musical flow which i find to remind me most of Anekdoten’s earliest albums. IN GLORIOUS TIMES also delivers an abundance of abrasive and grating sound effects like the grittiest industrial harsh noise album there are to be found. Unlike the previous albums that offered a bit of respite on the closing track, “The Putrid Refrain” ushers the album out with shrill sound effects.

SLEEPYTIME GORILLA MUSEUM fans fall into two basic camps: those who love the diverse kaleidoscope effect of the Vaudville meets avant-prog metal of the first two releases and those who love this more streamlined heavy prog meets extreme metal approach of this one. Personally i fall into the first camp but i have to commend SGM for not just copying and pasting its excellence par none of the first two releases. This was a bold and daring experiment that although to my ears not quite as pleasing from beginning to end, nevertheless showcased the darker and more abrasive side of the band where every member was allowed to showcases their stunning virtuosity. This album is more equivalent to sonic terror as opposed to the Disneyland meets Devil Doll style of the early albums. This is one that never really stuck with me but as i’ve revisited it for the sake of this review, i’ve found i’ve been missing out on a very unique and intricately designed album that is quite fascinating in its own right. The more uniform approach allows the band to gel in a way that is absent on the earlier albums. It also allows the vocalists to excel in ways not possible before. An excellent album even if not quite as perfect.

siLLy puPPy Like a traveling circus pulling into town and upsetting the normalcy of a small community accustomed to traditions and customs, SLEEPYTIME GORILLA MUSEUM entered the scene of the world of progressive experimental rock and avant-garde metal in late 2001 and like a band of freaks who misbehave in the midst of the law abiding citizens of anywhere small town USA, upset the apple cart like a John Waters film suddenly finding itself being played on the Christian TV network. This band of outsider weirdos which evolved from the antics of Idiot Flesh gathered a new set of talent to unleash an ever evolving musical commitment that mixed performance art with musical expressions that unapologetically defied all categorization and intelligently designed to induce serious head scratching disbelief.

Part avant-prog, part extreme metal and laced with folk, funk, industrial and being 100% demented, SLEEPYTIME GORILLA MUSEUM forever changed the landscape of experimental rock and metal with its debut “Grand Opening And Closing” with its Dadaist musical madness and surrealist visions that incorporated every possible genre into the overall scheme of things. The band regrouped to start album #2 although percussionist David Shamrock who dated back to the Acid Rain days jumped ship and was replaced by newbie Frank Grau. The result was the band’s sophomore effort OF NATURAL HISTORY which found SGM progressing in many ways from its debut release. While the diverse nature of the music continued in the footsteps of its processor, the band became emboldened to tackle even more elements and throw them in the sonic cauldron and boil them all down into a tantalizing concoction of avant-metal splendor.

OF NATURAL HISTORY took on the continuity of a concept album where narrative poetic prose about 20th century anti-humanism found philosophical existentialisms thematically posing the apocalyptic implications of humanity’s existence on planet Earth. With a distinct merging of tracks that seamlessly cede from one distinct mood to another and graced with infallible musical logic, this sophomore album featured an unthinkable roster of 12 tracks that despite extending to nearly 72 minutes of playing time, instantly demanded full attention with authority and once pulled into their gravitational forces upon the listener, refused to release its iron grip until the very finishing touches. While the usual SGM characteristics of yore punctuated every aspect of album #2’s rich palette of ingredients, the band simply refused to stand on its laurels and outdid itself once again. With the addition of many field sample recordings, even more spices were added to the overall recipe.

This time around the band included even more stylistic additions to its already burgeoning musical edifice which in the hands of an ordinary band would crumble like sandcastles in a storm however the musical prowess exhibited by the likes of Nils Frykdahl (guitar, flute, vocals), Carla Kihlstedt (violins, organ, zither, vocals) and Dan Rathbun (bass, lute, trombone, vocals) were of a caliber rarely encountered in the world of experimental music. With the skills of the top classical composers and the creative fortitude of Salvador Dalí, SLEEPYTIME GORILLA MUSEUM was a serious force to be reckoned with. In addition to the band’s eclectic arsenal of traditional instrumentation was the huge array of self-made instruments courtesy of Dan Rathbun, add to that additional session guests who added the touches of xylophone, glockenspiel and a choir’s worth of backing vocalists. If that wasn’t enough the band’s cohesion reached its pinnacle with tight-knit compositions chock filled with complexities reaching stunning perfection.

Starting with a drone that leaves you in suspense for several seconds, the opening “A Hymn To The Morning Star” enters a strange dark Disney-esque type Vaudeville show from another dimension. With Frykdahl offering his best Gothic baritone deliveries, the track evolves through strange complexities that ends in a second droning session that leaves nothing but darkness suspended in your very soul. Ceding as though a single track, the following “The Donkey-Headed Adversary of Humanity Opens the Discussion” builds up a dissonant jangly guitar racket before avant-prog scales start whizzing up and down with industrial sounds and a seeming demonic possession taking hold of Frykdahl’s vocal deliveries. With various cadences of bizarre instrumentation and brutal prog workouts, the track exceeds the already complex nature of the first album and setting the tone for an album equally as dense and filled with strangeness.

“Phthisis” follows with Carla Kihlstedt taking over the vocal duties. The track perfectly demonstrates the stunning contrast the SGM takes on. Sensual angel vocals and a soft pacifying violin groove relentlessly backed up by abrasive metal guitar chugging and the usual time signature brutality. The art of emphasizing sheer beauty and ugly aggression simultaneously is brought to full light on this one although that is the general recipe in the SGM playbook. “Bring Back The Apocalypse” comes off as an industrial horror movie with gurgling sounds emerging from some unknown source and unrecognizable instruments chaotically churning along like popcorn popping. Demonic group singing ensues along with a haunting violin. It sounds like indeed a party for the damned just before judgment day rears its ugly head and wipes humanity out. This track employs Squarepusher inspired IDM (Intelligent dance music) to offer yet another unexpected twist in the continuing saga of SGM.

“FC: The Freedom Club” dials things back a bit by offering a more “normal” respite into the world of progressive rock with xylophone dreams and glockenspiel grandeur paving the way for a heavier rock based anthemic celebration of the demise of humanity through its own technological additions. The track also features one of the most manic aggressive outbursts on the entire album. The form of the track is in a whole other league of composition and beyond brilliant. “Gunday’s Child” offers an even deeper dip into the avant-garde with some sort of bass stringed instrument that falls in and out of tune and torturous avant-prog time signature workouts with so many instruments whizzing around on their own trajectory that only the vocal harmonies tie everything together. The fairy tale singing sessions sound like a demented counterpart to some Disney classic gone totally wrong.

“The 17-Year Cicada” provides a bizarre avant-folk instrumental interlude with lots of creepy insect noises, totally unhinged flute lines and some sort of tribal steel drumming. Essentially a nearly 4-minute canvass to punctuate with unexpected percussion sounds and virtuosic flute wizardry. Next up - “The Creature” which is the most profound track on the entire album. Immediately ushering in an avant-prog time signature workout, the complexities cede to an atmospheric narration about a creature that must consume everything until it finally has to feed upon itself and how the pacifist population does nothing to stop it. Presumably a critique on the nature of corporations and the desire to commoditize every living resource until nothing remains. The track is chock filled with extreme avant-prog workouts all laid out in dynamic logical processions. “What Shall We Do Without Us?” provides another short avant-folk interlude with a brief explosive segment into chaos.

“Babydoctor” is the longest track just barely under 14 minutes and introduces the band to the soundscapes of post-rock and post-metal which keeps all the excesses somewhat tamped down. Perhaps the most easily digestible track although the band still offers lots of variations within a more limited constraint. The album closes with the rather strange love / hate ode to the “Cockroach” which seems to revel in its ability to overcome any obstacle and its survival beyond humanity eminent. Presented in the same Gothic crooner style as the album started it evokes the same Disney gone Vaudville effect and offers the strongest sense of irony on the entire album. The album ends with the 6-minute track “Untitled” which really isn’t a track at all but rather just the sounds of swamp noises and a conversation between what sounds like hillbillies of the Ozarks. While this track is utterly unnecessary it’s not really a part of the album and should be considered a skippable “extra.”


One of the true masterworks of 21st century experimental progressive rock and avant-garde metal, OF NATURAL HISTORY is really an album that it’s almost impossible to comprehend upon the first few listening experiences. While the melodies and grooves are just accessible enough to get your attention, the details and the complexities continue to impress as you navigate through the layers of musical sophistication. On this sophomore release SLEEPYTIME GORILLA MUSEUM proved itself to be one of the most original and creative bands that world of progressive rock and experimental metal had ever encountered. The journey through this album is so rich and packed with ideas that it’s really hard to believe it’s just one release. By fusing so many styles and genres of music and blending it all so proficiently, the band literally ventured into a world of its own making and while experimental avant-garde music is hardly anything new, to create a completely new musical paradigm and master it to a level of proficiency and virtuosity is another matter altogether. This is one of my all time favorite albums and one that really just gets better with time. A true masterpiece in every conceivable way.

siLLy puPPy One of the most ambitious and interesting progressive acts of recent decades, the Oakland, CA based SLEEPYTIME GORILLA MUSEUM emerged as the next logical procession in the ever increasing complexities that started all the way back in the 1980s from a band called Acid Rain turned Idiot Flesh. Originally the fertile ground for the demented musical minds of Nils Frykdahl, Dan Rathburn, Gene Jun and David Shamrock, the original Acid Rain evolved into the fully developed performance art troupe Idiot Flesh which found Shamrock stepping out but Frykdahl, Rathburn and Jun taking their crazy roller coaster ride of musical ideas to the next level.

As Idiot Flesh these experimentalists took on the idea of Dadaism and surrealism as the basis for their musical expressions and incorporated everything but the kitchen sink (and then that too!) to their bizarre musical concoctions. To say that IDIOT FLESH wasn’t obsessed with unbridled creativity would be a gross understatement but the band went from a rather loosely based level of freakery on the 1992 debut “Tales of Instant Knowledge and Sure Death” to stunning precision and avant-prog technical proficiency by the time it reached its third and final album “Fancy” in 1997. The stage was set for whatever was to come next and what came next emerged two years later with the creation of SLEEPYTIME GORILLA MUSEUM.

Taking the essence of Idiot Flesh and elevating it to even further sophistication, Frykdahl, Rathbun and Shamrock reunited and invited some other stellar talents to the freak party. Violinist Carla Kihlstedt of Charming Hostess, another project of Frykdahl joined forces along with Vacuum Tree Head members percussionist Moel Staiano and multi-instrumentalist Michael Mellender aka The Lower Animals. The band developed a strange mythology around a fictitious museum created by Dadaists and Futurists that was named the Sleeptime Gorilla Press. Deemed the museum of the future it was to exhibit anti-artifacts, non-history and surrealist’s visionary exhibits. The museum supposedly opened on June 22, 1916 but a certain exhibit which consisted of fire caused chaos and destruction on the day the museum opened thus the source of the title for the band’s debut release GRAND OPENING AND GRAND CLOSING.

This mythology encompasses both the band’s musical ethos and Dadaist approach. The band’s first concert was also on June 22 only 83 years later and thus the band’s debut release GRAND OPENING AND GRAND CLOSING was born and released in 2001 after two years of meticulous creativity being infused into its wild and adventurous set of 9 tracks that encompasses 58 1/2 minutes of playing time. Of course the album doesn’t represent their theatrical live shows that evolved from the Idiot Flesh years. SGM continued the elaborate routines ranging from erudite fictitious readings from Dada artists and mathematicians to all sorts of bizarre unexpected surprises. Nevertheless, the band proved a musical competence almost unmatched in the world of unusually experimental music.

While SGM is a direct descendent of Idiot Flesh, there are a few distinctions that elevated SGM into the next arena. First of all the violin techniques of Carla Kihlstedt added an entirely missing dimension. Secondly the inclusion of extreme metal to the mix added an entire world of contrast that added yet another missing aspect. Thirdly the band’s unique chemistry allowed everything to gel into an extremely cohesive manner where exquisitely demanding compositional fortitude merged perfectly into the world of virtuosic technicalities which all fit in perfectly with alternative tunings, demented musical scales and of course all those brilliant self-made instruments crafted by Rathbun that added even more diversity to the Idiot Flesh paradigm. Needless to say, SLEEPYTIME GORILLA MUSEUM took the world of avant-garde metal by complete surprise in 2001 and through the course of three albums set the bar so high that few have even dared to attempt to recreate anything resembling this demanding and divinely inspired music magic.

“Rock Against Rock” was the band’s motto and indeed GRAND OPENING AND GRAND CLOSING fits the bill with its unique infusion of avant-prog, experimental metal, industrial, avant-folk and freakazoid madness. Rock In Opposition of the highest magnitude, SGM cites such disparate forces as King Crimson, Swans, Stravinsky, Thinking Plague, Univers Zero, Henry Cow, Einstürzende Neubauten, Art Bears and even metal acts such as Mayhem not to mention funk rock acts like the Red Hot Chili Peppers as inspiration for its strange amalgamation of weirdness. It’s doesn’t take long to hear how original the SGM really is with the opening “Sleep Is Wrong” which immediately unleashes a plethora of time signature workouts, vocal harmony tradeoffs, contrasts in folky passages and industrial metal heft. Passive violins cede to dissonant metal chord bombast and moments of self-made percussive interludes nurture group harmony workouts in the spirit of classic Gentle Giant only in a style that is SGM through and through.

As the album continues it only gets more ambitious with the following track “Ambugaton” indulging in a prog metal workout. One of the secrets of the SGM is that all the members were active in the songwriting process as well as being performing artists and multi-instrumentalists making the music some of the most diverse far-reaching soundscapes progressive music has to offer. “Ablutions” written by Carla Kihlstedt takes on a totally different demeanor than the previous tracks with an Art Bears type vocal style augmented by a moody dulcimer and a dark atmospheric backdrop. Despite all the unhinged complexities the band wasn’t adverse to more straightforward rockers which comes in the form of “1997 (Tonight We're Gonna Party Like It’s...)" which is about as “normal” as the band gets but even this track couldn’t resist breaking into oddball time signature workouts and avant-metal savagery.

The secret to the album’s freshness is how each track offers a completely different glimpse into the strange musical universe of the SGM’s own making. While the succinct instrumental “The Miniature” provides the perfect minute-long interlude in avant-folk spender, the Frykdahl penned “Powerless” provides a canvass for his all-encompassing talent for crafting exquisitely designed compositions. He has mastered the art of subtle build-ups, dramatic dynamic shifts and thundering crescendoes that all fit within an avant-framing of a classical composed oeuvre. He demonstrates clearly that he has indeed created a completely new musical paradigm that remains utterly unclassifiable except for the usual “experimental” or “avant” tagging.

The album’s complexities just seem to ratchet up into unthinkable proportions culminating in the avant-angularity metal magnum opus “The Strain” but the album offers a bit of relief with the last two tracks which chill out a bit. The track “"Sleepytime (Spirit Is a Bone)” takes its sweet time in its 10-minute plus running time to get started but offers a nice little lullaby effect before unleashing the album’s last hoorah of SGM wizardry. The only track that falters on the entire album is the closing “Sunflower” which is more of soul pacifying mechanism rather than a proper track. It is basically an 8-minute meditative chiming of a dulcimer that simply resonates in various ways without ever developing. Given that it’s the final track it’s easily skippable and personally i find it to be an acceptable palette cleanser after the density and darkness of the album’s maniacal meandering through the extremes of time signature workouts, metal bombast and avant-garde Dadaism, it isn’t a big deal.

What an amazing achievement GRAND OPENING AND GRAND CLOSING was in 2001 and remains so to this very day. This and the following album are two of my favorite albums of all time and needless to say SLEEPYTIME GORILLA MUSEUM is a top 10 band. These creative geniuses somehow coalesced their talents with all egos in check for the greater good of making music so magical that i still can’t believe it exists. This is the type of music that you can instantly love due to the accessible hooks but can delve deeper and further into all the complexities that allow you to interpret the album in completely new ways. It’s the onion peel effect and each layer contributes to an overall aspect that creates a much larger than life musical experience. The original album featured 9 tracks but releases on The End label featured two bonus studio tracks and a live rendition of “Powerless” and they are all decent and worthy but not as essential. This is a bonafide masterpiece with the sole exception of the final track “Sunflower.” But even that track works in the album’s context so doesn’t bother me one teeny bit.

siLLy puPPy The Denver based bad boys who brought us the psychedelic death metal world of Blood Incantation had a few more tricks up their sleeves and proved they were extremely competent at producing some of the slickest and freakiest death doom metal as well and a year later in 2012 the trio of Paul Riedl (vocals, guitar), Morris Kolontyrsky (guitar) and Jeff Barrett (bass) started SPECTRAL VOICE and have been playing hopscotch with each band ever since finding massive popularity with ever step they take. Although a little hiccough in the form of the Blood Incantation ambient experiment called “Timewave Zero” may have intervened, the boyz are back with a brand spankin’ new slice of death doom metal!

It’s been five long years since Blood Incantation released its lauded “Hidden History of the Human Race” and lo and behold it’s SPECTRAL VOICE’s turn to have a day in the limelight which sees its sophomore album arise from the cryptic coffins in the form of SPARAGAMOS, a term that in Dionysian mythology of the ancient Greeks refers to the extremely displeasurable act of being completely dismembered alive. Oh the agony you say! Fun stuff in the world of death doom but what a nasty term to insinuate the sonic ripping of the soul that SPECTRAL VOICE has so elegantly mastered in its decade long existence. Time for round two!

Four tracks make up this crushing brush with brash surrealism secured with the slinking sensations of reverberating doom metal guitars augmented with the tortured soul vocals emerging from the underworld. Once again SPECTRAL VOICE showcases its competency in crafting not just mere tracks that slink on to swallow up time but rather provide the basis for a complete escapism into some of the most abysmal and decrepit quagmires of the soul. Mind you that it is virtually undetectable to any connection with Blood Incantation’s tech death antics, SPARAGAMOS stands proudly in a world of its own making, utterly as disconnected from its the greater metal ecosystem as are any limbs that were lost in its making.

Totally separated from the Blood Incantation world by the addition of percussionist extraordinaire Eli Wendler, this gruesome foursome delivers the perfect cauldron of top notch death doom with eerie and ominous atmospheres that perfectly suit the hypnotic procession of the guitar, bass and drum patterns that add just enough spice to the mix to keep the entire shebang from becoming stale. Unafraid to erupt into thundering death metal rampages, the jangly warbles of arpeggiated chords suddenly emulate the wretched horrorscapes in a parallel universe adjacent to the blackened technicalities of Deathspell Omega only the band never strays too far from its main objective of keeping the musical callithump in a clearly focused and directed hybridization of atmospheric funeral death doom.

The slow churning of the opening “Be Cadaver” slowly ratchets up the gloom and doom with cavernous tones and cosmic atmospheres before arpeggiated guitar chords slowly slink into your soul like a parasitic worm with no good intent. The music ratchets up the tension through posty cyclical loops that add ever increasing dynamics in just the right doses so the tension hypnotizes you into a state of sheer terror. Deathened doom metal cedes to heavier cadences that collaborate with churning atmospheres and thunderous metal instrumentation. Graced with the perfect claustrophobic production, SPARAGMOS may not quite be as unsavory as the actual meaning of the term, but for a wild ride into the world of funeral doom turned up a few notches, it doesn’t get much better than these masters ripping through your defenses and nestling in your soul like a parasitic scourge.

It’s always refreshing to hear a band that not only knows how to perform a desired style of metal but also knows how to breathe life into it and alchemize it into something totally above and beyond the sum of the parts. With ingenious passageways through turbulent corridors of repetitive chords and thunderous bass and drum bombast, SPECTRAL VOICE has mastered the ultimate juggling act of composition, dynamics, production and mood construction. The tones of the instrumentation bend and yield to the various whims when called for and obsequiously snap back to the status quo when required like a well disciplined militia. The tightrope may be thin but SPECTRAL VOICE has found that perfect balance between seemingly chaotic atmospheres colluding with doom metal traditionalism that offer one of the most outstanding examples of modern death doom releases of the 2020s. Wow, between Blood Incantation and this band, these guys are on fucking f-i-r-e !!!

siLLy puPPy Funeral doom metal has become the slowcore genre of the metal universe with its snail-paced guitar stomps, lugubrious atmospheres and provides the ultimate downer music for a world in perpetual crisis. So many bands have gotten in on the act that started so long ago and from every part of the world too. WOE UNTO ME comes from the unexpected setting of Grodno, Belarus and formed in 2007. This band followed in the footsteps of Esoteric, Evoken, Mournful Congregation and so many others and debuted in 2014 with A STEP INTO THE WATERS OF FORGETFULNESS.

In many ways a typical funeral doom offering, WOE UNTO ME’s debut features sprawling tracks, five in this case with the majority close to 10 minutes or more. It also spreads out to a near hour’s listening time at just over 54 minutes. Gloomy, restless atmosphere darken the skies while guitar stomps provide a jagged contrast with heavy distortion and rarely deviate from power chords. Likewise the bass and drums simply lollygag to the tenebrous procession with nothing but time to pass painfully slow but with musical accompaniment.

Typical in many ways for sure but WOE UNTO ME is a bit different than other funeral doom bands as it employs not one but three vocal styles. Primarily the clean male vocals of Sergey Puchok but also the harsh growls of guitarist / drummer / keyboardist Artyom Serdyok. And if that wasn’t enough the feminine charm of Julia Shimanovskaya is added to spice things up even further. The band is a sextet with bassist Ivan Skrundevskiy, guitarist / drummer / keyboardist Dzmitry Shchyhilinski and keyboardist Olga Apisheva rounding things out. With three keyboardists in the mix, you’d better believe this is an atmospheric one.

The 13-minute opener “Slough Of Despond” sets the tone for the jaggedly depressive album with a series of competing atmospheric constructs and a deranged piano roll slowly and at glacial speed finally giving way to the death doom metal extravaganza that comprises the majority of the album. The growly vocals aren’t as prevalent as one would expect with the clean vocals making themselves quite at home but in the end it actually works out quite well because the established atmospheres and choppy guitar parts deliver all the gloom and doom needed for this funeral scene. The closing 14 minute closer “Angels To Die” is perhaps the most melancholic track to exist.

The tracks are about as mournful as you can get as WOE UNTO ME perfectly manufactures the perfect melancholic atmospheres with the right amount of metal and because of the richness of the neoclassical darkwave that accompanies the guitars, bass and drums, the band has excelled in making a really effective slice of funeral doom metal. Too many of these bands sound alike but this one managed to stand out from the very beginning. WOE UNTO ME seemed to summon the very melancholy that the nation of Belarus has endured as a collective especially after having lost so many of its inhabitants in the last century to so many tyrants. It’s almost a genetic given that such an album could emerge from one of the largest funeral graves on the planet.

siLLy puPPy Pornogrind certainly has to have the lowest nutritional value of any kind of metal. It’s white bread and basically just converts all the starch to a toxic form of sugar. It’s simply a one-trick pony but many are drawn to it for that very reason. It struts its mid-groove swagger like punk run amok and then starts every track out with cheap clips from porn flicks. The musicianship is substandard and the themes do not tackle any existential quandaries of the universe.

ANAL GRIND originated in Navapolatsk, Belarus before relocating to Moscow where the band has found a small but eager audience ready to hear this stuff. ANAL GRIND released several released starting with the promotional demo “Cuntripping” in 2006 and are still active to this very day. This album CHRONIC PORNOHOLIC was one of the easiest to sample but i would guess that every release pretty much sounds the same because most of this shit usually does!

This release features 20 tracks at around 40 1/2 minutes making them all about 2 minutes average which is typical for many of the core subs. Graced with attacks like “Latina Face Fucking,” “Spermaholic Slutfest” and “Nice Cunt Expansion,” ANAL GRIND does a great job in dreaming up adolescent male track titles and doesn’t even do a bad job with its chugga chug grind style. On top of piggy squeals are some other vocal appearances that often sound cartoonish in how they go up and down scales.

“Hell’s Balls” is particularly amusing as it’s a parody of the AC/DC song and it goes without saying that pornogrind in general is designed for comedic value because it’s absolutely impossible to take any of it seriously for even a microsecond. The album actually feels like a grind version of rock and roll as it has that bounce however and it’s not a bad sound. It’s just unfortunate that the majority of the tracks sound exactly the same as the next.

Still waiting for a pornogrind album that’s actually creative and sophisticated but it doesn’t seem likely that majorly talented musicians would be attracted to this little cesspool in the the greater metal universe. Probably my least favorite style of metal, not due to the subject matter but for the lack of innovation and entertainment value. ANAL GRIND does nothing to change my opinion on that matter. Some of the videos are fun though. Lots of pyromania, vomiting, tits and screaming! Oh yeah! Actually better than a lot of pornogrind but still fairly average for grind.