Rock Sound(s) Of The Wickedness: CD 113

You know the drill – let’s do this.

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Slipknot – All Hope Is Gone

So the Iowa 9-piece metal circus staggers back into view. Despite the somewhat wrist-slashing title, this track seems to send a positive message. The lyrics “we will find a way, when all hope is gone” are very 16 year old emo-poetry, but I suppose it’s better than being a miserable sad-faced old fucker. Traditionally for Slipknot, they’ve outdone themselves on the drumming, featuring more bits of wood hitting skin (or old barrels) than most band’s manage in a lifetime.

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The Automatic – This Is A Fix

About a year ago I wrote a review for the Automatic’s first album saying how I didn’t mind shrill-voiced dancing puppet that was Alex Pennie. Now that he’s gone, gone, I’m pleased to say that The Automatic have actually got a lot better. Sure. The odd keyboard flourishes are still there, but ex-yournameis:milo vocalist Paul Mullen does a brilliant job replacing him; combining jaunty indie rock and milo’s trademark scuzzy riffs – although this could be because it’s a live track. Whatever the case, it sounds good, which is something I never expected to say!

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The Gaslight Anthem – The ’59 Sound

Well this pretty much destined to be used in a slow montage in an American teen comedy film when ‘things aren’t going right for the main character’ scene. Guaranteed. This isn’t a criticism (amazingly enough) I mean, despite it sounding like traditional Deep Elm Records fodder, it’s catchy enough and will no doubt be lapped up by Burns Out Bright fans.

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Fighting With Wire – Long Distance

I saw Fighting With Wire quite recently and they were excellent – the bass was fucking loud though. Anyway this track = winner. From the filthy, rumbling intro of mangled guitars through to the “woooaahhhoooos”, a chorus that clings to your brain like a monkey on your back and the straight-up, no-bullshit rock they bring, I can’t see why anyone could disagree with this. Brilliant track, brilliant band.

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Hawthorne Heights – Rescue Me

I know they lost a band member quite recently, which must have been incredibly sad and a great shock, but this track is seriously lacking balls. Kudos to the band for carrying on though, just not my cup of tea.

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Black Lungs – When It’s Blackout

I’ve always been incredibly wary of members of punk bands breaking away to do solo projects. More often than most, they’ll usually all sound the same – bland vocals, tired acoustic strumming, some song about a girl, blah, blah, blah. Thankfully, Wade MacNeil from Alexisonfire shatters that template of boredom with his gravely voice, punk-meets-folk swagger, sounding more like a lighter version of Latterman covering Hot Water Music with some absolutely gorgeous backing piano, which compliments the sound excellently. Something I could quite happily listen to all day.

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Helms Alee – Rogue’s Yarn

Sorry, was that actually a song? I know I’m a fine one to talk with my musical ability stretching to hitting an electronic drum machine and screaming, but come on. Sounds like someone ripping off the Melvins, whilst doing their level best to be as obnoxious as possible. See picture below for verdict.

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The Mirimar Disaster – Control. Alter. Delete.

I remember hearing this band about a year ago and I don’t remember them sounding like this! It’s like a head on collision of abrasive metal and thrash-hardcore punk, with drums that waver in and out of time with the guitars, but this adds to the brutal appeal of it all. The guitars have that high-jazzy whine that Down I Go sometimes use. Great vocals as well; kind of like a spluttering, drunk version of Jamie Jasta, but without the ultra-wank macho posture.

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Hellsongs – Symphony of Destruction

Now this is interesting. Hellsongs are a Swedish group that do acoustic/folk covers of metal songs. Actually I shouldn’t say acoustic; more ‘lounge-metal’ which actually works better than a thousand ska-punk versions of ‘Enter Sandman.’ For a song about military dictators; Hellsongs have given ‘Symphony of Destruction’ an incredibly optimistic and chilled out vibe, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see this appearing on one of those ‘MOST AWESOME SUMMER EVA VOL:72!’ compilations. Best track so far. (Check their myspace for an exquisite version of Iron Maiden’s ‘The Trooper.’)

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Walls of Jericho – The American Dream

“FUCK THE AMERICAN DREAM!” Indeed. At the risk of pissing off Candace Kucsulain, vocalist of Walls of Jericho, who looks like she could rip me in half like I was made of wet toilet paper, I’ll reserve my judgement of this track. Let’s just say for now, I know your angry, but chucking your toys out the pram isn’t going to help.

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Exit Ten – Technically Alive

You know how guitars sometimes make that annoying ‘durr-durr, durr-durr’ sound, a bit like a really shitty version of the Jaws theme? Imagine that for about 4 minutes. Urgh. The vocals just about save it (hey, the guy can shift from soft vocals to a blood-curdling scream at the drop of a hat) but really it just seems incredibly forced and I’m fed up of hearing bands like this. Congrats, you can make massive metal-lite choruses, now piss off.

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Hifi Handgrenades – Stupid

Dave Grohl likes them. I don’t. Go do one.

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Blessed By A Broken Heart – To Be Young

This sounds like a metal version of Huey Lewis and the News. I’m having trouble finding things wrong with this – I want to hate it due to the fact the entire band look like massive twatfarms, but it’s got a really cheesy appeal and I’m frankly appalled with myself for finding this mildly passable.

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Toxic Holocaust – Gravelord

Oh great lord of thrash metal, what is this you have given us? Toxic Holocaust? I like the sound of that. Yes, this fits in very nicely. So what if the riffs are typically chug-tastic? Hey, it works for Municipal Waste and they’re fucking awesome.

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Dragonforce – Heroes Of Our Time

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Links

See above, I need to catch up on a backlog of work. Laters.

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By Ross Macdonald