EXPERIMENTAL/POST METAL

Those familiar with the two mentioned Meshuggah albums won´t be surprised with the increasingly angular odd-metered heavy riffs and rhythms, Holdsworthian jazz/fusion guitar solos, and the generally abstract almost avant-garde futuristic take on playing heavy music. It´s the evolution you also hear from the still thrash/groove metal oriented "Destroy, Erase, Improve" to "Chaosphere". The vocals on "Sol Niger Within" are some sort of spoken raw snarling and there are also some spoken word sections featured on the album. Guitars, bass, synths, and vocals are predominantly performed by Thordendal (although the album features quite a few guest performances), while the drums are performed by Swedish drummer Morgan Ågren (Karmakanic, Casualties of Cool, Kaipa, Devin Townsend).

Some tracks feature recognisable structures and some repetition, while others feel very abstract and linear, and "Sol Niger Within" definitely isn´t an easily accessible listen. So, if you find Meshuggah a hard listen, this will probably prove an even more challenging and maybe even difficult listening experience. Even Meshuggah fans may find this a bit too abstract, but when that is said "Sol Niger Within" features a lot of interesting songwriting ideas and moments, and while it ´s certainly an avant-garde metal release, it´s not completely inpenetrable.

As an artistic statement "Sol Niger Within" arguably shows the genius and uniqueness of Thordendal and it´s overall an entertaining, highly experimental, and intriguing listen. As the album often lacks a solid structure or something for the listener to hold on to for very long, it´s as described above a pretty difficult listen though, and as a result it´s probably only an album for a select few open-minded listeners. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives).

Dotzauer are an impressive post-metal band from Treviso, formed in 2011 and perhaps defunct as there hasn't been any activity I can see in many years. Their full-length debut Deep, a concept album about drowning, appeared in 2013. The Coal Dog Years was their follow-up in 2015, and to date it remains their last offering. I'm not sure what a coal dog is, but the EP delivers four full-throttle scorchers with energetic songwriting and intriguing lyrics. Our bio says they "combine aspects of atmospheric sludge metal with post metal stylistics akin to acts such as ISIS and CULT OF LUNA." (quote from Prog Sothoth) I would add Dotzauer's sound stems from contrasting doses of a hypnotic heaviness cloaked in foggy, brooding landscapes. They manage to maintain full energy while having that cloaked, misty vibe.

Three members of the band sing, and they alternate mournful "indie rock sounding" sections with their extreme vocal parts. The dual guitar assault is very effective, sometimes going full chainsaw or heavy riffage in tandem while other times splitting apart with one loud guitar and one more introspective, cleaner one. The bass and drums are just perfect in the mix. I'm oft critical of drum sound choices of many bands in recent years, but they are phenomenally well recorded on this album, punchy, bold as hell, but never overpowering ala "loudness war" stuff. The title track is a 10-minute, prog metal mini-epic that really displays the talent and potential this band had/has? The dual lead guitar and bass are truly impressive, scouring the landscape for interesting progressions. I'm still a relative noob in the halls of post-metal Valhalla, but I like this EP a lot, and it is a bummer that it might be their swan song.

These two 2001 recordings were rated really high in the late 00's. The problem for me was finding a copy. I actually got their "Part The Second" from 2009 first, a sort of comeback, but mostly a gift for the fans. I did end up with a cdr of "Leaving Your Body Map" which was better than nothing. And I was actually quite pleased with this one. I'm not into the death growls and extreme sounds which they removed for "Part The Second" their highest rated album. But I can handle them. It's just the enjoyment factor isn't high enough for me to go 4 stars here, unlike "Part The Second".

MAUDLIN OF THE WELL would break up in 2003 the year Toby Driver the leader here started KAYO DOT. Sort of an evolution you could say from one band to the next. I mean have you heard "Choirs Of The Eye" that first KAYO DOT record? Man! As for this 2001 release, there are seven musicians that formed this band, while we get three guests. Some different flavours as well surprisingly like viola, clarinet, trumpet and flute. When Toby formed KAYO DOT he took three of these musicians with him. Sam Gutterman on drums, guitarist Greg Massi, and multi-instrumentalist Terran Olson who plays keyboards, flute and clarinet on here.

So we get just over an hour of music over ten tracks. And while I don't usually mention bonus tracks the first of the two is worth mentioning. It's called "Secret Song" and it's maybe the best track on here, and the only track actually released as a single. What?! Just a great combo of death and atmosphere. Others similar on the main album would be the opener "Stones Of October's Sobbing", "A Violent Mist" and "A Curve That to an Angle Turn'd". I'm not into the screaming, like someone is being tortured or suffering badly to end part 1 and start part 2 of "Riseth He, The Numberless". This is not entertainment for me, although I like the sinister sounding vocals on the second part before 4 minutes. I'm pretty sure I heard sleigh bells on that "(Interlude 4)" instrumental. Strings later.

Very much a hit and miss affair in my music world. I much prefer KAYO DOT, even if I'm not into all of their albums. This feels like a tuneup for what was coming, namely "Choirs Of The Eye".

But on the third hand - the one you weren't expecting - it is experimental because all these old sounds are being put together with a different perspective, the band's long experience being put to great use. There's a doomier side to their avant-black metal here, adding an extra dose of heaviness, and the way the group work these slow, ominous slabs of doom into their frenetic avant-black metal landscape is the genius of this album, which stands as another excellent milestone in their expansive catalogue.

Lateralus was my first Tool album and I was instantly hooked as it had all the ingredients that I valued from distorted guitar to extreme bass, emotionally charged vocals and of course quality rhythm the likes of which I hadn't heard since Santana and the Grateful Dead. It is difficult to say what is most important to me here but suffice to say it really helps that these guys not only write original high quality stuff but they also play like demons. I wouldn't say that Lateralus is an album that needs to be played through but I certainly find it impossible to switch it off not wanting to miss a single beat. The emotive vocals along with the punchy guitar and bass backed up by the superb afro/middle eastern/rock rhythms hold you mesmerized and keep you locked up, all Rapunzel-like, until the start of the final spoken track, Faaip De Oiad where the spell is finally broken. Its almost as if Faaip De Oiad is the final twist of a complex hypnotic spell intended to lead you to the point where you might actually believe what is being said in that final piece. Its a real shame that the final track is somewhat over-acted because it does seem to break the trance and return you to an unwelcome reality. As complaints go, I really was struggling to find anything and settled on this last track as a bit of an over-indulgence.

The listener's involvement in the music is governed initially by the powerful rhythms and dramatic riffs but the final tipping point is the energy and emotion provided by the vocals which are delivered expertly throughout; we are not talking about a once in a lifetime voice here but we are talking about a delivery that does more than it says on the tin. The primary purpose of the vocals are to captivate the listener, not really to tell a story although, they also do that with aplomb, to envelop you in the moment. The progressive nature of post rock and post metal can sometimes feel a little lacking as the music tends to engage with high levels of foreground repetition whilst providing the interesting stuff with the rhythm and the backing instrumentation. A good example is in the track Schism which would appear to be quite standard in structure until you realize that it undergoes over 40 timing changes in less than 7 minutes.

The production of Lateralus is superb and I do find the music instantly accessible mostly because of the interesting drum work from the start and because I love the heavy distortion on the guitars that are pounding out some great riffs. I do accept that many will not find this work as accessible as me and my fellow guitar junkies do but for me this is simply one of the greatest prog albums of all time. Its main weakness, well there isn't one but I do wonder if a little ambience in places would further enhance it but as always I'd hate for them to try it for fear of destroying one of the best albums ever produced. This album is essential to any prog collection and I'd recommend it to the disaffected and angst-ridden of the world as a way to help dissipate or channel those raw emotions.

The appealing proposal of the North Americans flows like a powerful and raw dark force, from the saturated and bogged down guitar riffs of Adam Jones and the heartbreaking and raging singing of Maynard James Keenan, in tracks like the disenchanted and realistic "Intolerance", the disturbing "Prison Sex", the excellent mid-tempo of the anguished "Sober", or the industrial and threatening "Crawl Away".

And on the other hand, the band also showed its experimental streak, still in the formative process, in the hypnotic middle section of the grunge "Bottom" including a Henry Rollins ('Black Flag') phrasing, in the oriental chords of the rough "4°", and above all in the somber "Flood", one of the album's best moments with its very long intro sustained by Paul D'Amour's bass (later replaced by Justin Chancellor) and Jones' thick, delay-filled riffs that lead to an intense instrumental group catharsis.

Maintaining the dense character that predominates throughout the album, "Undertow" concludes with the interminable digression "Disgustipated" that intermingles dialogues, dissonant sound effects and megaphonic arrangements, a sensorial exercise that Tool would also resort to in their following works.

Despite the fact that the evolution of the band made the relative importance of "Undertow" somewhat lag behind, it is undoubtedly one of the first stones on which one of the most experimental and corrosive currents of the progressive genre was built.

3/3.5 stars

A Cold Dead Body is the rather unfortunate name for a very good Italian metal band that unfortunately appears to be a "one-off" at this point in time. Formed in 2005, they released their only album Harvest Years in 2010 on Slow Burn Records, a Russian label. As always, metal subgenre labels are something of a mystery to me, but doing some research I've found that this band has acquired metal-zine labels such as progressive sludge, post-metal, and post-sludge. Make what you will of that. With my limited metal collection, they would sit on the same shelf as bands like Pelican, Pax Cecelia, Morningside, and Agalloch, and I think they're as good as any of those bands. This cool conceptual album delves into the human life cycle, the human condition, and our struggles with nature, technology, purpose, and death. It may be 15 years later now, but the topics would seem as relevant as ever.

When we get into the realm of extreme metal, I love a band that will pull back every so often for those "breathers" that I define as the softer moments, the quiet interludes, the sections that give the album contrast and a more satisfying listening experience. CDB's sound comes through in flying colors in this regard. Yes, they check the boxes of massive, layered guitars, crushing riffs, and extreme vocals often enough, and yet there are also contrasting moments with acoustic guitars, spacy keyboard, piano, violin, and softer male and female vocals. "Madre part 1&2" would be the example of such beautiful "breathers" with their acoustic/clean guitar softness dressed with keys, piano, and distant, low-key operatic female voice. The violin and the female voice are like lifelines when they appear, so effective and so lovely in the face of the aggression elsewhere on the album.

Another point here is that even when the vocals are full-on extreme, they are kept low enough in the mix to blend into the sound wall density around them. They are more like another instrument rather than pushed way to the front and louder than everything else like some bands do. This is really effective in my view and makes the album palatable even to those who may not appreciate extreme vocals. The tracks have clever hooks and satisfying melodies and emotions built into even the bombastic moments. It's a bummer that this band is apparently finished because I found this album more engaging and interesting than Agalloch's "The Mantle" or Pelican, personally. Anyone who loves varied and atmospheric metal would do well checking this out on their Bandcamp page. And if you can find the paper gatefold CD edition, you'll get some beautiful artwork to boot.

The conceptual work that narrates the miseries of prison in very brief and sobering stanzas, unfolds in hypnotic atmospheres dominated by a permanent sensation of heavy wakefulness, interrupted in different passages by unbridled and oversaturated instrumental discharges. From Aaron Turner's guttural howls and his ultra-distorted guitar riffs shared with Mike Gallagher in the introductory and suffocating "So Did We" and in the portentous "Backlit", the songs flow without haste or pressure, under the thick wall of sound that Jeff Caxide's deep bass and Aaron Harris' persistent and raw percussion interweave, as in the desolate "In Fiction" and its continuation in the oscillating "Wills Disolve" and the devastatingly soaring and anguished "Syndic Calls" (one of the album's best tracks), interwoven together by Bryant Cliff Meyer's spatial layers of synthesizers.

The inverse path of "Syndic Calls" is followed by the gentle and instrumental "Altered Course", backed by bassist Justin Chancellor (Tool), starting energetically and then fading into an agonising and tiring harmony, and the disturbing mid-tempo "Grinning Mouths", another great track, resumes the hostile and dark character of the album, concluding the work with an overflowing instrumentation that abruptly reaches its end point.

"Panopticon" is a very good album and an inescapable reference of post rock, one of the most frontier ramifications of progressive rock, and probably one of the highest points in the musical career of the Bostonians.

Very good

4 stars