Totally Spaced Out
We inadvertently (and kinda loosely) have a theme of space in our album reviews this week. One quite obviously deals with outer-space and sic-fi themes. Another manages to use the space of the soundstage to it’s fullest potential, creating atmosphere and layers. The last…well, the last we just kinda want to put a lot of space between us and the album. Like I said – loosely themed. Oh, and we also made space for some more First Impressions!
Reviews:
Wormed – Krighsu (Season of Mist)
North – Light the Way (Prosthetic)
Walls of Jericho – No One Can Save You from Yourself (Napalm)
First Impressions:
Mantar – “Schwanenstein” from Ode to the Flame out April 15th from Nuclear Blast
Devildriver – “Daybreak” from Trust No One out May 13th from Napalm
Weekend Nachos – “Writhe” from Apology out May 20 from Relapse
Fallujah – “Scar Queen” from Dreamless out April 29th from Nuclear Blast
Thrice – “Blood on the Sand” from To Be Everywhere is To Be Nowhere out May 27th from Vagrant
Wormed – Krighsu
North – Light The Way
Walls Of Jericho – No One Can Save You From Yourself
I feel like I’m the last person in the world to have been able to buy Krighsu by Wormed. It was released to the world on March 18, most review sites reviewed it then, Brian got it then, but its “official” U.S. release wasn’t until this Friday the 25th. I thought the reason we went to Friday releases was so that the entire world could be on the same release dates? Anyway, I suppose I can’t be too upset about that because I’m not loving the album. But it’s not the vocals that bother me. To me, the vocals are just another instrument. I pay no mind to the fact that there might be actual lyrics to the album. I treat it as instrumental music in which the vocals contribute to the brutality and the overall effect of the music. Having said all that, this type of music has to either: be so crazy and brutal and technical as to impress me just on the sheer overwhelming nature of the sound (such as Unhuman or Spawn of Possession), or it has to have some type of hook or great guitar solos to bring me to listen to it again (such as Allegaeon or Necrophagist). Krighsu unfortunately has none of that.
I have been listening to two tech death albums lately that do feature the aforementioned positive qualities. First is that I’ve finally gotten around to listening to None So Vile by Cryptopsy. The guitars and drums are just so fast and brutal and the vocals contribute excellently to that feeling (even though you can’t understand a word of them) that it makes me want to listen to this album repeatedly. And the fact that it was released in 1996 is pretty amazing in how it has stood up over the past 20 years.
I’ve also been listening to Defiant Imagination by Quo Vadis (which came out in 2004). There are some great hooks and riffs in it, with some of the riffs giving off an Iron Maiden vibe, which sounds odd for tech death but it works. Not every song on the album is top notch, but the majority of the songs are very good.