Music For Nations

Will Haven
WHVN

"Will Haven have emerged as the hottest new noise band for the 21st Century." Kerrang!

Imagine, if you will, crossing the Deftones, Soulfly, Machine Head and many other sort of trendy metal bands, and this would probably give you a good idea of what Will Haven sound like. They’re loud and heavy with screamy type vocals. They seem to like using hissey sounds a lot in the background, you know, the kind of noise where you go and check that your speakers are plugged in properly, but you do get used to it. They intersperse this big noise with a few samples here and there, just to break it up a bit.

WHVN has an impressive range of songs, from the almost painfully slow song Slopez, at a hefty 7 minutes long, all the way through to the more upbeat If She Could Speak at a mere 3 minutes long. There’s a wee break in the middle of the album for a minute long instrumental, which is a bit mellower than the rest of the music, giving any tired ears a well earned, but very short rest.

The longest song on the album is Bored Miguel, which is nearly 9 minutes long, but I would have been happy with the first 5 minutes of it. It’s quite atmospheric, slow and melodic. The samples are plentiful in this song, as are the hissey noises, and the growly vocals are nowhere to be seen (heard?!?), however, it’s ruined by the fact that the last 4 minutes just sounds like interference on the radio or something. Not good, cos I liked the first bit quite a lot 8-(

I’ve Seen My Fate is a remix, and it’s got a bit of a funky feel to it, with a wee bit of Fear Factory influence too, methinks. Again, though, they’ve managed to ruin it by repeating a Terminator 2 type noise over and over again for the last minute of the song, which is really irritating if you ask me 8-(

I think you’d probably like this a lot if you’re into trendy metal, but I think I’ve grown out of that now. I think Will Haven are good at what they do, but all this new metal is just a bit samey to me, so I’m not overly impressed, sorry 8-)

Century Media

Tiamat
Skeleton Skeletron

Having reviewed Tiamat's previous album A Deeper Kind of Slumber, I was pleased to get the latest offering in my review pile. The languid atmospheric, layered, soft, dark yet powerful sound underpinned by Johan Edlund's eerie vocals is still there. This album is less subtle, though: more blunt, more cynical in fact.

A mocking tone seems to permeate this album. Songs like As Long as You are Mine are riddled with pop-nonsense cliche lyrics delivered in a darkly ironic manner. Brighter than the Sun has the great line "Any colour you like as long as it's black" and sounds quite Sisters of Mercy-ish. Best Friend Money Can Buy seems to be about getting drunk with a girl in a pub and having a typical drunken supposedly deep'n'meaningful conversation which is really utter nonsense.

I really like the laidback cover of the Stones Sympathy for the Devil with sitar-like sounds replacing the backing vocalists' woo-woos.

Musically, I think this album is perhaps a little more commercial and accessible than the previous one with more obvious melodies, which is no criticism, but the mocking tone makes me a little uncomfortable. Who is Tiamat mocking? The music industry in general, the goth/atmospheric metal sub-genre? Or am I just reading too much into all of this?

Misanthropy

Solstice
New Dark Age

[Photo]

Blackend / Plastichead

Enthroned
The Apocalypse Manifesto

Despite the cool artwork, this CD is ultimately uninspiring. Enthroned are happy to prove my hypothesis that anyone can play dodgy Black Metal. I think they have a few good ideas, but the execution just isn't up to scratch. Pounding drums alone do not a good song make! Bitch? You bet. That's the mood I'm in right now, so take this review with a (very small) pinch of salt. These fruitcakes need to take some fucking drugs - of the depressant variety of course.

Thankfully there are a few quieter sections, such as at the end of Retribution Of The Holy, which are actually quite good. They are however easily lost among the barrage of angst-ridden tub thumping and vocal vociferation.

I'm scaring myself now cos I'm not meant to know words like that, so I'd better go and hide in a corner.

Verdict: Black Metal for the sake of it.

Relapse

Mortician
Chainsaw Dismemberment

This is the new album by the crazed horror lords Mortician of New York City. It lasts about 50 minutes and has 28 new songs, as brutal as ever and maybe a bit heavier than before. The lyrics are typically repetitive but still good, and the samples are once again very evident, from films such as the Texas Chainsaw Massacre II, Friday The 13th (part 1 I think), 3 On A Meathook, one of the Phantasm films, and many others that I have not yet identified.

Darken
Arcane VIII

Arcane VIII has a very solid meaty production to it, while still remaining slightly live sounding. This makes me want to like it even if the songs are mediocre. Actually I do quite like the music. Imagine a black metal band playing death metal, with an extremely slow, doomy edge to it if you can. The guitar sound on the opener actually reminds me very much of Slayer on Diabolus In Musica.

Come to think of it, if you ignore the vocals the whole album has a bit of a Slayer feel to it, albeit of Slayer's slower more moody moments. There is a lot of variety in the songwriting which manages to keep interest just long enough in each song. In fact, the whole album including the non growly vocals is really quite good. Just a shame the growls take over most of the time.

It's probably too slow and deathy for most black metal fans, and ardent deathheads have come to expect better growls than this.

Verdict: Cool album, especially if the growls were turned down!