His day job and passion is as a high school physics teacher, but Dave Schalek's obsession is extreme and underground heavy metal. Every Monday he holds class in the depths of his underground laboratory, bringing you brief reviews of the latest black, death, grind and other extreme releases. And since he is a teacher, each CD earns a grade.
W.A.I.L - Wisdom Through Agony Into Illumination And Lunacy (Ahdistuksen Aihio Productions)
The tongue twisting Wisdom Through Agony Into Illumination And Lunacy is the self titled debut from the mercifully abbreviated W.A.I.L., a Finnish trio treading deeply into the waters of blackened doom metal. However, rather than merely plodding forward at a glacial pace, W.A.I.L. approach their song craft with faster tempos, including a few blasts, and riffing that also approaches the stoner side of the metal spectrum. Both harsh vocals and haunting, clean vocals intermingle within the five long songs, thematically centered upon the principal words in the band name and album title.
Although W.A.I.L. are not nearly as developed, I am somewhat reminded of the approach to blackened doom that recently appeared on the magnum opus from Triptykon. The riffs are good, the songwriting is good with nods to black, doom, and stoner metal, and, always, Wisdom Through Agony Into Illumination And Lunacy is crushingly heavy. No, W.A.I.L. are not yet in the same league as Triptykon, but there's more than a degree of potential demonstrated here. Originally released only on vinyl, Ahdistuksen Aihio Productions tweaks the album's original mastering and layout for a CD release.
Dave's Grade: B
Insidious Omen - Anointed With The Blood Of Chaos (Ahdistuksen Aihio Productions)
Anointed With The Blood Of Chaos is a long EP from rancid, Canadian black metal duo Insidious Omen. Insidious Omen are treading the musical forms of suicidal black metal with very hazy, horrendously produced guitars, an inaudible bass, and horrid, greasy rasps for vocals with a liquid-like gurgle added for effect. The template seems to be suicidal black metal, a form not seen very often over the last year or so, with the necessary murk and atmosphere present in spades. The horrid vocals provide the anchor for the sound, but the buried guitars hide any memorable songwriting to be had.
Adding to the problems are the somewhat strangely overproduced drums with a snare that pops a bit too much, given the buried guitars. The lack of a droning, almost soothing, sound is jarring, as that approach is usually an effective means of heralding your oblivion within suicidal black metal. There are some good things happening on Anointed With The Blood Of Chaos, though, the least of which is the fantastic album artwork, but an upgrade in songwriting is warranted.
Dave's Grade: B-
Pest - Tenebris Orbortis (Ketzer Records)
OK, there are a bunch of black metal bands floating around out there with the Pest moniker. This permutation plays rather typical, semi-raw black metal (as do most of 'em) and hails from Germany. Pest pile on plenty of typical black metal genre elements on Tenebris Orbortis (originally released on vinyl only); raw, semi-powerful guitars, harsh rasps, bursts of speed, you name it. There are a few catchy songs, though, with some variations in songwriting and tempo and a couple of quiet moments of atmosphere late in the album.
However, the production is average at best with a rather weak drum mix, and does not really give the album the necessary heft and viciousness. That said, though, there are some catchy songs sprinkled throughout, with the aforementioned acoustical touches providing some welcome atmosphere near the album's conclusion. In the end, though, Tenebris Orbortis ends up a slightly better than average black metal album that, unfortunately, you've heard a million times before.
Dave's Grade: B-
Balfor - Barbaric Blood (Pulverised Records)
Pulverised Records has a knack for uncovering excellent OSDM from the underground, but the label sometimes goes astray when diverging into other subgenres. Case in point is Barbaric Blood, a mildly symphonic black metal album from the Ukraine's Balfor. Balfor play terminally pedestrian music with genre clichés galore. Fast, technical riffing, plenty of blastbeats that periodically downshift into melodic passages with a mid-paced tempo, a growled rasp taken from Shagrath's playbook, a few symphonic keyboard touches, and a compressed, over produced sound typify what you'll find. You'll even find the requisite guitar solo or three.
If you're getting the impression that you've heard all of this before, and done better, you're correct as I'm hard pressed to find much to like about Balfor. Certainly, they know their way around their instruments and the album's second half is a lot better than the first, but few of the songs on this album have any personality and are able to stand on their own ("Light's Demise" and the album closer, "The Perfect Fire," are notable exceptions). I suspect that the sheer lack of inspiration and originality of Barbaric Blood will bore most of you to tears very quickly.
Dave's Grade: C-
Bane - Chaos, Darkness, And Emptiness (Abyss Records)
Hot on the heels of my foray into the mediocrity of Balfor comes Chaos, Darkness, And Emptiness, a new album from Bane, a Serbian act also straddling the line between death and black metal with melodic and symphonic overtones. In fact, so similar to Balfor are Bane, that the review above very nearly also applies to Bane. It's almost as if two mediocre students insisted on copying each others' homework right before entering the laboratory. That's a no-no.
OK, all facetiousness aside, Bane certainly have the formula of melodic/symphonic blackened death metal down pat with plenty of shredding guitars, lots of blasts that periodically segue into slower, more progressively oriented passages, Shagrath-esque vocals, an over produced sound, etc, etc. Like Balfor, though, Bane suffer from mediocre, unmemorable songwriting and a totally by the numbers formulaic approach. Truth be told, however, Bane do have a bit more of feeling and emotion in their approach, and are periodically able to rise above the mediocrity and show flashes of potential, if not brilliance.
Dave's Grade: C+
Fen/De Arma - Towards The Shore Of The End Split (Nordvis Produktion)
I'm not familiar with either of these two bands, but this split from Nordvis Produktion is a wonderful introduction to both of these similar, yet subtly different bands. First up are four tracks from Fen, named for a region called The Fens in England. Fen play melodic pagan-themed metal that sounds very similar to the recent output from giants such as Enslaved and Drudkh. Fen's focus is upon progressive melodies and generally harsh vocals with music that varies in tempo from a generally slow-paced approach to a few up tempo moments. Harsh tones are nicely enhanced by some melodic, quieter moments with soaring clean vocals. Although very well played and written, you can't help but think that Fen are essentially an Enslaved/ Drudkh type of clone band, though. But, frankly, that's just fine since they do it so damn well. Fen contribute four of the split's seven songs, resulting in a running time that covers about two thirds of the split.
The latter third of this split is my introduction to De Arma, a band lacking a MySpace page or even an entry in Encyclopaedia Metallum. A cursory look at a Reverb Nation page reveals scant information, except that De Arma hail from Sweden. Regardless, De Arma play an excellent, soothing form of black metal with progressive touches and a nice variation in vocal approach. Similar to Fen but with a subtle harshness and a greater tendency to drone on in a dreamy manner, De Arma really shine with melodic clean vocals, such as those that appear on "Crimson Waters Ebbing The Shore." The three songs in total are a bit uneven however, with the first two songs being the stronger.
Dave's Grade: B+
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