Trying to keep up with all of 2013’s releases is like committing to a filthy second job. Well, your old pals here at Last Rites are ever-so willing to walk directly into the line of fire and tiptoe through the deadly minefield. So kick back with a pint of your favorite Courvoisier and your noble hound at your feet, and get ready to watch critic limbs fly from a comfortable distance – it’s the next edition of Last Rites EP roundup, November style.
Round #2 of new short-players travels the gamut once again: Brawny noiserock, swinging djent, T-topped hard rock, wobbly frost-metal, Wyld Stallyns, and a smooth power/prog apéritif to help settle the digestion. We do our best to cover the full spectrum, and we get paid handsomely to do so. *Pants on fire*
Enough with the fourplay – forward march!
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This Atlanta three-piece brings the heavy on their second EP, following up 2011’s Ruiner with a step in the exact same direction. That’s not a bad thing, per se- the confidence on display makes of for the lack of creative expertise. “Baby Bird” pretty much drops dime on the rest of the record- a much brattier Unsane by way of a much less irritating version of Bongzilla (how grating is that vocalist? Yeesh). Standout “Blue Blood” has the singular focus and intensity of some of the best material Nirvana committed to reels. And anyone who listened to Ruiner will be glad to know that the drummer learned how to tune a snare between that one and Clean, so that ‘playing on the back of a soda can’ ding is gone. Unfortunately, by the time “I Am An Amateur At Everything” comes to a close, the engines are running a bit low on steam. When full album time comes around, these boys might have to do a few kegel exercises to tighten up the low end. But as an EP, this comes out smelling mostly like roses. [Chris Redar]
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Following up their well-received debut LP, 2011’s deafening Måsstaden, this Swedish sextet continues their rhythmic exploration of closed eye visuals with guitars built for polydactyls. Granted, a lot of this won’t shock. If you’ve ever perused djent, the Ikea of metal, you’ve already held the allen (Holdsworth) key and memorized bits of the accompanying blueprint: Dual howls and growls with the lower register acting like a Greek chorus, bullet-time slow-mo grooves jostled free from this plane of existence with the click of a kick drum and a clack of an abacus, ambient radar pings pining for Eno, and angel-wing-spreading clean vocal catharsis offered like communion wafers. These guys, though, have more up their sleeves than your typical excuse for a keenly edited play-through wank session. “Dimman” is the instrumental pinnacle, using unplugged timbres and textures to pry open a gate to a new dimension. Similar to Nostromo, whose final transmission Hysteron – Proteron was a wonderful wormhole that closed before metal had the chance to see the other side, Vildhjarta is still able to find heft and depth when they make the transition away from electricity. So, even if portions of this EP require a tune-up – the lyrics, for instance, are things you say to pass the smokeless seconds before the blunt comes back around – that ingenuity alone shows a bright future isn’t lightyears away. That said, if you devour djuds like my ancestors did spuds, perhaps it’s already here. [Ian Chainey]
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Despite just being a collection of recent demos, 2013 works great as a new EP from Chicago feel-good-rockers High Spirits. This is probably because – for the most part – the band does one thing, and they kill it. Sure, they switch off between the soundtrack for driving a mid-80s Camaro T-Top down some neon-lit Miami highway towards a bar and the soundtrack for the reflective, slightly regretful morning drive back, but make no mistake, a Camaro is involved.
And make no mistake about another thing: High Spirits might be the most purely and innocently fun band in hard rock and metal today. The first three tracks here all match the latter descriptor above, having that ever-so-sad feel to them, helped along by one insanely 80s production and drum/bass treatment (as if Bill Ham recorded it in 1983). “When The Lights Go Down” then lifts any tentative vibes in favor of big harmonies, faster tempos, and one irresistable “wah-oh” from Chris Black during the chorus. The rest maintains the heightened metal and sends the listener off with an alternate, possibly even harder rocking version of “Full Power.” Charge that Camaro to just that, and cruise with the purity of rock as your fuel. [Zach Duvall]
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The only thing metal fans love more than band drama is band mystique. Spookily-named members from a vague land who look like they’re on their way to knock off a gas station? Please accept my offering of this Enbilulugugal fanny pack for one of those gratingly scattered cassette tapes.
Persekutor – allegedly a couple of grim sheep-pokes from Transylvania – apparently released an album that no one but Decibel and Fenriz got ahold of in 2006: the highly slippery (and conceivably non-existent) Angels of Meth. But label woes (of course) rendered the album harder to track down than the Jade Monkey, which (of course) fired up metal nerd spidey senses hotter than the Devil’s foot.
Well, thanks to the good folks at Magic Bullet Records, and band members Vlad the Inhaler (guitars, vocals) and Ion “Iron Slasher” Slasescu (bass), we all have an opportunity to chomp down on a proper Persekutor release via the Power Frost 7″ due to hit shelves on Black Friday. (The first 50 shoppers through the door at 4am will receive a $20 gift voucher to a participating The Old Spaghetti Factory.*)
(*You will not be getting a $20 gift voucher to a participating The Old Spaghetti Factory.)
As far as what to expect, the overall vibe comes across like a less impressive Tangorodrim or White Medal: raw & callow mid-paced black metal pounded out by inebriated jugheads in a ramshackled deer blind.
All hail the ghastly shephoard? [Michael Wuensch]
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The debut EP from Stallion opens with a song called “Canadian Steele,” which invites the almost irresistible urge to pop a gigantic eyeroll at how closely it invokes the spirit of the latter-day Darkthrone classic “Canadian Metal.” Still, you’ve got to hand it to this duo, because no sooner was I ready to put on my stern, arms-crossed disapproval face than my mouth was physically forced into an ear-to-ear grin by the infectious energy and pitch-perfect trad-isms of these German speed-freaks. Because yeah, of course these dudes are from Germany. Over the course of six tracks (including a cover of Rock Goddess‘s 1983 song “Heavy Metal Rock ‘n Roll,” which is a handy indicator for exactly what year these guys are aiming to relive), Stallion calls to mind everyone from Tygers of Pan Tang to Accept to Iron Maiden to even some whiffs of early Slayer on the snarling “Shadow Run.” The bottom line is, if you treat crate-digging for obscure NWOBHM LPs with the same reverence of a historian trying to recreate the floor plan of the ancient library at Alexandria, then Mounting the World is your ticket to twenty-three minutes of bliss. [Dan Obstkrieg]
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My appreciation for Denmark’s Anubis Gate has been fairly well documented throughout the history of MetalReview/LastRites. I’ve pushed albums over the years in our forums, and their last self-titled full-length landed in my top ten of 2011. But despite my persistent praise, there’s also a part of me that recognizes the fact that the band’s brand of honeyed progressive power metal ain’t exactly the sort of thing that a number of today’s music extremists are chomping at the bit to consume. There’s a recognizably warm “pop” element afoot that’s difficult for some to come to terms with – a dark, moody brand of pop, to be fair, but still something that undoubtedly evokes warm ‘n’ snuggly feelings. YEAH I SAID WARM ‘N’ SNUGGLY YOU GODDAMN MONSTERS.
The other thing I love about Anubis Gate: They love their fans. I mean, they really love their fans. Case in point, they’ve decided to give away their brand new EP, Sheep, to any knucklehead with an internet connection. And with that, we get an early peek at what’s in store for next year’s album through a brand new tune that’s fittingly syrupy and infectious – “Destined to Remember”
Additionally, the band throws in two cover tunes run through an Anubis Gate filter: Pink Floyd‘s “Sheep” (duh), and, by fan request (no, I’m not shitting you), Mr. Mister‘s “Broken Wings.”
Wait… What? “Busted-ass, Broken Wings??” I absolutely refuse to listen to that in the privacy of my headphones over and over and over and over again. [Michael Wuensch]
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