Never On Time

 Taking into consideration that zero people have read this blog since it's conception (a whole month ago), I haven't put too much pressure on myself to keep up with the weekly revisits and reviews. 

That being said, I am still working on them and I am sure that I will have plenty to post and share over the year, but I don't think I will be staying true to my weekly releases. Especially since this isn't for anyone but me at this point, not to say that if I suddenly get readers that want to hear my BS opinions that something would change. 

This just serves as a note that I can look back on when I ask "why did it take me so long to do this?"

Never on time.

The Decibel Collection Revisit #2

Decibel Issue #79 - May 2011

Last week, I explained that my goal for 2023 was to revisit my collection of Decibel Magazines and listen to each band they highlight in the 'Profile" section, giving them a rating. I successfully published my first revisit and am proud to say that I got the second one published too! If you have not read last week's post, I encourage you to do so, so you can understand more about this project and prevent me from explaining it every week.


Hopefully, this week offers me something more in my wheelhouse; this is Decibel Issue #79 from May 2011!


Lazarus A.D. - I have been listening to this band since their first album dropped in 2007. While scrolling through the "Yahoo Music" page in my middle school library, I stumbled across Lazarus A.D. in the "Metal" and have been banging my head to them ever since. I was very excited to see their name pop up as a profile this week and was even more excited to sit back down and listen to both of their album's cover to cover again.


"Last Breathe" is the opening track to their first album, "The Onslaught," and is a weekly jam for me. It always comes on my metal playlist, and I would never skip this song when it is blessed to me by the shuffle gods. A fast-paced intro to give you a taste of what this band is all about, groovy double kick drums shoving the song forward, accompanied by heart-racing guitars and stretching solos. Thrash at its absolute best, the kind of stuff that I wish I could find more of.


Each song on the first album has a complete feeling by the end; I can't say that there is a single song that goes on for too long. "Revolution," the halfway point of the album, is another one of my favorites. It is a direct sound from the songs prior, with galloping drums, hair-twirling riffs, and neck-snapping breakdowns; I couldn't ask for anything more.


The rest of their first album mirrors how the first half goes almost to a T. A great opening track that flows into the next, some thrash, and then it ends. Unfortunately, I was a bit more disappointed with the second album, "Black Rivers Flow," than I remember being back in 2011 when it was released. One thing I just remembered about the first album was the raw and gritty sound that came along with each track. The rust held each song together, whereas, on their second album, it feels too clean and smooth, too overproduced. The effects on the vocal track that intro the album rubbed me the wrong way, and I can't exactly point my finger as to why. The drums even seem too clean, adding a loud snap to them, especially the snare.


Not all is bad with their second album, though, as each track has catchy riffs and holds true to their thrash metal roots. One thing that I last critique I will give for the second album is the use of "clean" vocals that Dan uses, steering away from his typical gritty style, which I tend to have a love-and-hate relationship with on most metal tracks.


Lazarus A.D. gets a solid 8/10 from me, and I am very sad that we will not be getting anything more from the band passed their second album, as drummer Ryan Shutler passed away in 2015. If you like thrash, and groove with a light coat of heavy metal, in its traditional meaning, give these guys a listen!


TesseracT - There was no typo with the spelling of their name; TesseracT does indeed have a capital T at the end of their name. Along with the stupid spelling of their name comes something even worse, progressive metal. Easily one of my least favorite metal genres, progressive metal bands have the exact same feel and sound to their music. Overproduced, whiny vocals and the strange need for synthesizers sprinkled through every track. I will be blunt with this review as I couldn't stand to listen to more than their top 3 songs on Spotify.


"Juno," their top song currently on Spotify, resembles math rock in a few different ways. Bouncey, slapped basslines, with stuttering guitars and drums, all seeming to try and make sense of what each instrument is doing. Juno Is not great, but it is miles better than the second song, "Of Mind - Nocturne," which takes the slappy and stuttering sounds a step further. Shockingly, this song has 12.4 million streams, and the only thing I can think of that would allow this song to get so many streams is the fact that they were invited to tour with The Devin Townsend Project, one of the very VERY few prog metal groups I can stand to listen to more than one song of.


The band's wiki and Spotify are both incomplete, so if I wanted to listen to their newest EP, "Regrowth", I couldn't as it's not on the streaming service. Unless you enjoy prog metal, it might not be anything worth listening to anyways.


TesseracT gets a 1/10


Blood Freak - Decibel writers always put a nice, eye-catching statement under the band names before going into the profile. Liz Brenner places hope in my heart for Blood Freak, "Old-school death metallers still haven't outgrown their taste for brains." You have my attention, Liz, don't oversell this.

"Mindscraper" is a nice death and grind hybrid that capitalizes on the image that Blood Freak is trying to uphold. Was this album over sold, not really, but given the opportunity to listen to this or Cannibal Corpse, I would chose the latter. Nothing is that bad on this record but nothing is really that good either. Riffs are mediocre and when they finally have something that catchy my ear and groove, it's over before it even begins. His vocals are under produced to the point where it gets lost in the mix of sounds, creating a wall of noise instead of a wall of sound. Drums are the exact same in ever song and show little creativity to keep me from wanting to listen to more.

I stopped with their first album, though they did release two others following their 2011 release. According to Metal-Archives.com they have a total of 6 albums, which tells me they weren't doing too bad at some point. The Portland band appears to have broken up following their 2017 album, "Total Destruction of the Human Form."

Blood Freak, with nothing spectacular to show but nothing to frown at either, gets a 5/10

The Carrier - The hardcore scene, to me, has always been like politics. To the outsiders who aren't paying any attention, it made up of a bunch of people just screaming and yelling about things or at each other. To those who understand it and listen to it enough to know some bigger names in the game, it's just at the end of the day, all the same. But then there are people like me, that are waist deep into it all and can tell each side apart from one another without having to listen to more than a minute. Just be a little more specific, without going off the rails too much, there is one side of hardcore that is almost touching metalcore; bitching and moaning about their lives and screaming almost like their forcing the emotion out of their body. Then there is the other side that has the energy of an ADHD 18 year old that just snorted a line of crack; fast, pissed off, and will punch you in the face for looking at them wrong. Personally, I sit in the middle of it all just like I do with my politics. The Carrier doesn't sit in the middle and they lean to the side I disagree with the most.


Each song from the Boston based, melodic hardcore band, is filled with the same exact thing. Dull and forced vocals, constant noise guitars almost as if they are playing every single string, every time the strum. Don't even get me started on the drums, they play the exact pattern with little pattern across their discography. I've mentioned a few time now that I have been more of a fan of Hardcore and Grindcore in 2022 that I have at any other point in my headgangin' life. This band just led me back to the point when I said "Hardcore bands suck more than their music." Which we all know isn't true, but boy did I want to think so again after hearing these guys. I was expecting a lot more out of the group, especially after I have come to love so many bands from that area; Toxic Narcotic, Death Before Dishonor, Siege.

If you're into the new wave of hardcore music, these guys might be worth checking out, though they haven't released anything since 2010. I personally want something a bit more rough and gritty, fast minute-long songs and blast beat drums. This did not deliver that, though it hasn't been the worst thing I have heard today.

The Carrier gets 3/10

Lifelover - Anything that has the word "Life" in the title, being featured in a metal based magazine, is always going to be an eye catcher for me. Lifelover is the type of group that paints their face, wears ski masks, gas masks, bandanas, large sun glasses, and puts a blood soaked naked woman on the cover of their debut album. Needless to say these guys seem to be right up my ally and have got my attention.

Out of all the bands that I have listened to so far, this is the one that has me the most divided. So of their songs catch me right off the bat, others have me skipping over them after only thirty seconds of listening, there are even a few that barely hold my attention but then change direction half-way through the song. A genre bending group is too simple of a way to explain the sound that Lifelove offers their listeners.

In this interview with Decibel, the groups original founder, Kim Carlsson describes themself as "Narcotic Metal" adding "anyone should be able to figure that out [what that means] or make their own conclusion about it." Which now looking back at a few songs that I listened to before reading the interview, this makes a lot more sense than you'd think. Mixing dark ambient, black metal, post punk, on top whatever other sub genre they could squeeze in there, you get the picture really fast. One thing that I learned, that I had not known before, was there is a sub-genre of metal called depressive suicidal black metal (also known as DSBM). Being a huge fan of black metal myself, how bad could this be? The answer is simple. Bad.

One last irony that I wanted to point out before throwing a score out at Lifelover, the name for the band came from when Jonas "B" Bergqvist was called a "life lover" by a man whom he loathed. In an interview with HMHTV, which can be found on Youtube, he named the band Lifelover with the idea in mind that people can "call us anything [they] want." "B" died in September of 2011 from an accidental overdose. No matter how much you love life, you can't escape death.

Dark, gritty, and low quality is the best way to explain the sounds you will get from Lifelover. There is too much changing and mashing of different music styles to pin point it to one, but I enjoy a majority of what I listened to. Will I be crate digging from one of their albums? No. But I did add a song or two to my on growing metal playlist.

Lifelover is getting a 6/10

Grand Magus - What is one element of a band that would make you want to listen to them? For me personally it's album art, but I would say that the look of the band in their profile pictures has something to do with my decision making as well.

Grand Magus's album are is awesome, resembling art that I would expect to see on special versions of Magic The Gathering cards. Featuring wolves, swords, vikings, fog, with water color and pencil hashed textures. The three-piece heavy metal band from Stockholm, have the classic heavy metal vibe through-out their entire discography and the best way I could describe their lyrical foundation is Amon Amarth. Their music is heavy with viking and medieval inspirations to accompany their art work.

This style of music does nothing for me, as every song seems to have the exact same feel to it. "We are men," "We fight together, until we die, for power, blah blah blah." I'm making lyrics up but that is pretty much the sum of it all. Bland and boring vocal melodies that follow the rhythm guitar to a T. "Freja's Choice" the opening song of their 2016 album "Sword Song" is honestly the hardest song they have and the only one that I enjoyed from start to finish. Aside from vocalist Janne "JB" Christoffersson voice, this is the only song that stood out in the dozen or so tracks I listened to, sounding different from the others. Viking Metal, decent when needed, but always falls flat flat for me.

Grand Magus gets a 4/10

Havok - If you are going to start strong you better end strong, Decibel did just that in this issue. Lazarus AD kicks this 7 band profiling off with a bang and Havok swings in and kicks up in the face out the back door. Just like Lazarus, I have been listening to Havok for some time now and it never gets old to me. At some point I have to just sit myself down and accept the fact that I might like thrash more than I like black metal. That will be a very difficult decision and fact to accept but I might just be true.

Havok is fucking fast, groovy and down right fun to listen to. Forming in 2004 and consistently pumping music out since, 2020 being their most recent album, they have a track record in the thrash scene. Not only have they been on tours opening for Sepultura, Death Angel, Anthrax, to name a few, but they also have had 15 members throughout their active years. Each album they release features a new member line-up with the lead singer and founder, David Sanchez, as the only consistent member of the band.

Havok features all the classics of thrash metal in their music. Galloping guitars, blast beat drums, all in one shouting choruses, as well as "fuck the government" lyrical subjects. "Time Is Up", the album that came out when this profile was written, is still one of my favorites from Havok, but their 2020 release "V" was a breathe of fresh air from their albums in between. I'd make one major point on why you should listen to "Time Is Up" then jump to "V" before diving into anything else in their discography, song length. Both of those albums take speed to the max and don't push anything further than they have to, which wasn't the case with their 2017 album; featuring way too long songs.

Havok wins the gold this week, getting a 9/10 from me!

Final Thoughts - I was starting to lose a bit of steam at the end of this run. It's a daunting task for me when there are more than five bands and it's even more stressful when a majority of the bands suck, like they did this issue. But I still plan on chugging through all of these issues and discovering more and more bands every week. If you some how found this blog without me having to guide you there, thanks for visiting and reading my rambling thoughts and opinions, I hope you enjoyed it and will return each week or maybe each day, to see what I am posting and reviewing.

If you have suggestions on my writing, what you want to hear more about or what you don;t like about what I have to say. Let me know, I am always happy to see what the few that read my writing has to say about it!

The Decibel Collection Revisit #1

Decibel Issue #78 - April 2011

 

As you may be able to guess, I have been a subscriber to Decibel Magazine since April of 2011, with every single issue since then stacked in order on my bookshelf in mint condish...

I decided a while ago that I needed to revisit those old issues from my high school days to see what I may have missed and to be reminded of the stuff that I probably listened to that I would now frown and scoff at. But then another idea occurred to me: there are "profiles" of bands in each issue. Typically they are just short, one page, 6 to 8 paragraphs highlighting the bands. So why not go through each issue and listen to each profile to see if anything sticks out, or better yet, see if I know any of them and where they are now! 

It might not seem like too cool of an idea to you, but when you have over a decade of magazines to go through and taking into consideration that each issue has between 4 and 8 profiles, depending if it was a slow news month or not, that is a shit load of music. There are bound to be hidden gems, and I am here to find them!

I want to try and post a new "DCR" every week, but don't hold me to it. I often say things I want to do and then never return to doing them. Regardless, these are the bands that were profiled in Decibel issue 78!

1. "Drugs of Faith" - If you were to ask my co-workers, friends, or even my fiance what my favorite genre of music is, they would all just say "metal," except for my friend Mark. Who would try to guess several genres that he knows exist but could pinpoint the one I would say is best. Typically I would say that it's black metal, as it's always the fastest and most brutal in the music and the lyrics. But 2022 took me by surprise and somehow pushed me into the death and grind scene more than ever before. I am not saying that death metal or grindcore overtook my love for black metal, but it's definitely in the running for the top 3 genres list. Drugs of Faith are what the deep divers of musical theory, like myself, call a "Grind 'n' Roll" band. Rock riffs coated with grind breakdowns and blasting drums. Frontman Richard Johnson, aka Grindfather, has a punkish vocal sound, and it took a long time for it to grow on me. The 14-track album, Corroded, stretches nearly 30 minutes long, and it wasn't until the last 3 tracks that I started to get used to it. They haven't released anything since Corroded in 2010, so I am curious about what happened, as I wouldn't mind hearing more from these guys. 

 

DoF gets a 7/10 from me, and I want to mention before moving to the next group that Corroded was released on January 1st of 2010; ironic since this article is released on the same day, 12 years apart.  

2. Ken Mode - "Kill Everyone Now Mode" is a name I just can't imagine not being on board with. I didn't listen to them when this issue was published, I think I was a little too concerned with what new black metal I could scare my family with, but this is the band that I should have been blasting in my room instead. I will say that post-hardcore and sludge are something that I am very particular about, but Ken Mode scratches the itch 50% of the time. 2011 saw their 4th studio album titled "Venerable" dropping in march, which was awarded Metal/Hard Music Album of the Year at the 2012 Juno Awards. Impressive to say the least, especially since the band was a 3 piece at the time, which they have since grown to a 4. "Venerable: is an okay at best album for me, as I tend to lean towards their newer music, but as I mentioned, I'm particular about music in their genre neighborhood. 

 

Ken Mode is getting a 6/10.

3. Hate - Although not the most original name in the metal market, the Polish blackened death metal band Hate is so tasty I am drooling just thinking about their soul-crushing drums and deep chug guitar riffs. I had not listened to this band before this and I could not be more disappointed with myself. But as I mentioned above, this is the exact reason I am doing this. Finding everything I have missed over the years and diving head first into it now. With the exception of the first song featured in their "This is Hate" playlist, curated by Spotify, this band was very much so enjoyed. I jumped around their library and found very few songs that I disliked; if anything I only found parts of songs I didn't like over the rest. That said, I find that Hate is leaning more towards the black metal side of their "blacked death metal" title, which is just fine with me. 

8/10 for Hate.

4. Subrosa - I am no stranger to doom, sludge, stoner, or whatever else you want to call this style of music. Still, my first impression of Utah's "Whatever Metal" band Subrosa isn't impressionable. I actually listened to the band's most popular song on Spotify "Borrowed Time, Borrowed Eyes" several times while chugging through this list. I would put it on, get distracted, and have to pause the music and by the time I was ready to return to the list, I would start Subrosa over because I want to get every band a chance. The thing that I discovered after the third time listening to that song, it didn't grow on me, it never got better, and it didn't have the "Oh yeah I remember this song" feeling that so many others have given me. After looking into Subrosa some more, I found that they don't have a genre slapped onto their band like many others on this list do. Instead, they have a list of things that they do with their music and fall into, which is great when it isn't as boring as they are. 

Songs over 10 minutes are great, especially when they have long melodic paths that change directions, notes, time signatures, etc. They are not so great when it's the same long, slow, and uncreative riff you will find in nearly every song by this band. Make a song long; there is nothing wrong with that, but please make it attention-grabbing for the love of all that is holy. Mixing in strange instruments that you wouldn't normally hear in metal genres across the board is also great until you realize that they are just following what the guitars have been doing the entire song as well. 

 

It is a lot easier to say negative things about music than when you find something you like. This tends to be my problem, so I won't dog on these guys any longer and move straight on to my next band. 

 

Subrosa gets a 2/10

5. Noisear - Wow. What a 180 from the previous band on my list. Somehow categorized in the grindcore genre, Noisear will shock you with not only 30 songs on their debut album titled "Subvert the Dominant Paradigm" but also with their longest song being 20 minutes long. Before you raise your eyebrows too high, let me give you this bit of info to see if we can get them even higher. The song with the closest run time to the 20-minute track "Noisearuption" is a measly minute and a half long. 

 

Grindcore is something that I am actually very new to, as I mentioned above, but I am not sure that this is the proper band I would suggest to someone that was interested in getting into grind. Start with Carcass, Napalm Death, maybe even dip a toe into Terrorizer, then come back here and tell me what you think about grindcore. 

Absolutely chaotic is the only term to describe my first impression of Noisear. Do I hate it though? That is what I kept asking myself during the 45-minute play-through of their first album. The answer is no, I do not hate it. Looking at every element that Noisear brings to the table, they hit the nail on the head with everything they wanted to achieve. If a thrash drummer did coke and then sat down at a recording session, this is the result you'd get. Along with a mud-filled bass cabinet for the perfect amount of "is there even bass on this album?" feelings. The bass line in "Ace is the King" is great and had me wanting more. Did I mention that whatever the drums didn't drown out the guitars were there to finish the job?

Grindcore, what an animal of a genre. Noisear is getting a 7/10 from me.

6. The Fucking Wrath - Absolutely nothing special about this band at all, in all the best ways. Like most of my reviews, I listen to them at work while doing many other things. I can typically tell several things about a band when playing them at work all based on how my coworkers react if they fade into the background if they make me stop and listen to parts of songs, or even if the album repeats without me noticing that it has started over. I listened to their album "Valley of the Serpent's Soul" twice without even knowing it. Not good or bad but a perfect balance in the middle of it all. 

 

The Fucking Wrath projects stoner metal into the dad rock genre in a way that would make you say "Yeah, that guy isn't into Nickelback, but he can't hang with the thrashers anymore." In fact, I may have to make that into an urban dictionary definition. 

 

A little thrash, a little blast, a little doom, it's like they were trying to make the Powerpuff Girls in musical form. After all of that though, it's a big 'MEH' from me. If they were still active, I would be interested in listening to their new music, and I wouldn't mind seeing them live if they were on a bill with a better band than them. 

 

The lame review to accompany a semi-lame band. The Fucking Wrath gets a 5/10

7. Primate - Where do I start with this group? Bill Kelliher, the guitarist for Mastodon, is a member of this group, so that gave me a bit of hope before diving into the only LP they have to offer. Unfortunately, I was instantly disappointed with what I was hearing and what was to follow after their unappealing and uninviting opening track. 

"Draw Back a Stump" was released in 2012 and features only 10 songs, but with the speed of each song, I was only hoping for a bunch to dive into as I can typically find a song or two out of 20 in a typical hardcore album. That was missing from this album and kept me distracted the entire 20-minute span. 

Bill mentioned in an interview with Blabbermouth back in 2012 that the band had already written 15 or 16 songs, with a majority of them being only 30 seconds long. This could have worked on this album if they had thrown 5 more on the track list and embraced the hardcore tendencies. The biggest distracted for me is the vocals from Brutal Truth's Kevin Sharp. It is rough and disorienting in all the worst ways, and I find myself focusing on how terrible it is more than anything else in the songs. 

Ironically, the only song worth a shit on this album is the shortest song at 45 seconds. "Get the Fuck Off My Lawn" is fast and catchy like a true grindcore song should be. I'm tired of even talking about this band at this point; glad Bill stuck with Mastodon.

Primate gets a 4/10

2023

 Same thing, new location

I have been been an aspiring writer and critic since 2011 when I had the opportunity to take both a creative writing class and a music history class in high school. Since then I have been continuing the aspiration in hope that one day someone will actually give a shit about what I have to say. Like I said, continuing. 

In 2020 I took to Facebook to get suggestions on which albums I should listen to and review, and to my surprise, I received several suggests and semi-positive feedback about what I was saying. Unsurprisingly I also was unfriends almost instantly by several people who's suggests didn't live up to par with my opinions and tastes in music. It's not my fault they listen to bad music. 

2021 brought more of the same, except I turned to making my own decisions on what to listen to and review and I seemed to lose less "friends" over this. I think my reviews became rather intimidating to read, as I would often leave little to the imagination and lay it all out. The attention span of the everyday Facebook scroller is very short, so if you can't read more than a paragraph without your brain swelling, you wouldn't be interested in my reviews.

2022 started to make me less interested in social media, because mid-terms would soon be upon us and the world is doing nothing to get it's shit back together. If you think of one wrong idea and someone gets wind that you disagree with them, you're fucking dead to them. Not that you should give a shit, but at the same time I was actually losing friends due to our differences in religious and political points of views, let alone the type of music they listen to.  That being said, I left Facebook for good and have no plans on returning. 

Now that we are in December of 2022, the Spotify Wrapped is out and the people that patiently awaited my judgement (makes me feel better if they did) are sorely disappointed because I am not on the platform to berate them. I also slowed down on my writing, which honestly sucks and I think that it has impacted me to an extent. I never thought that anyone was really reading the things I wrote, but the act of doing it is a very nice release, filled with improper grammar and punctuation, but still very calming. So this is why I have created this blog, sharing a similar name with my TikTok and Youtube, where I d basically the same thing as before. Listen, write and review music.    

If you are someone who has found this somehow without me sending you the link, thanks for stopping in and reading some stuff. I am excited for 2023 and my return to the keyboard and I hope that maybe one day I will get a little recognition out of it. That's all writers really want, to share their thoughts and have someone care.