#097 Skeletonwitch - Forever Abomination

Skeletonwitch return with album number three, (or four, depending if you count their long out-of-print debut) Forever Abomination. I've always considered Skeletonwitch to be quite an interesting band, and it's reasonable to state that there are few bands anything like them. The new album carries on the aesthetic and sonic signature style of the band, with a few tweaks here and there.

Skeletonwitch have always played a tight, elaborate style of black-thrash, and this album is no exception - indeed, it seems to have been refined even further than in their previous efforts. It's still full, if not more so with this release, of the little twists and turns which make the band so distinct, with the lead work especially having a very interesting, surprisingly clean tone in the release. The rhythm guitar is very chunky and crunchy, too, which helps to capture the increased quantity of relatively riffy, thrash orientated material, which is executed in a solid sounding, and pleasing way. This gives the band's sound the boost in strength which it needed, finally giving Skeletonwitch some power above and beyond that conjured by their speed and harshness. The albums also a step up in terms of being memorable, with sections sticking in the mind from the very first listen onwards.

One thing I very much admire about Skeletonwitch is that they aren't afraid to do things which other thrash bands might be nervous to attempt - the band do for thrash what Baroness do for sludge-metal, with songs like "The Infernal Resurrection" having an almost pop-music catchiness and twisted-cheeriness, especially in the intro. Skeletonwitch are the sort of band who manage to make things like that work, seamlessly. This album has a sheer maturity about it which the band haven't managed to reach before, and every characteristic of their sound seems to hint at it. Although the bands sound is consistent, it's becoming a better and better version of itself, to the point of being noticeably different to their earlier work. This album seems to suggest a band soaring high, in the peak of their performance, and is a milestone on the band's journey from little-known to highly acclaimed.

I'm tempted to consider this the bands best album yet - It's certainly a strong piece of work, both in terms of skilled playing, good songwriting, and nice production, which is the icing on the cake. The album is the third in a chain of what are, by any standard, remarkably good records.

I give "Forever Abomination" 8/10.

Links:
Skeletonwitch Official Site
Skeletonwitch on Myspace
Skeletonwitch on Facebook
Skeletonwitch on Metal-Archives

#096 Hamerex - Rites of Passage

I must admit, how I came to know of Hamerex was a little blurred in my memory - a friend of mine remembered hearing a band which "started with H and ended with X". He then proceeded to find this band, and, within a couple of days, I got asked to review "Rites of Passage" the band's debut full-length, by the band themselves. And that is exactly what I plan to do...

I get the immadiate impression that Hamerex are one of those bands, of which there are too few, who play traditional metal, but in a modern way, and without submitting to the demand to be "retro". The band seem to be playing heavy metal because it's what they want to do, and not for any other reason, and it's certainly apparent in the bands sound; the songs seem very wholesome, organic, and solid. Hamerex's sound rests on the more extreme edge of traditional metal, and there's certainly elements of more extreme genres, a good few parts of songs are clearly heavily thrash-influenced, and the vocals are frequently on the harsh side - definitely heavy metal in the vein of Venom, as opposed to say, Judas Priest, and the murky (although not necessarily bad) production of the album seems to add to this notion, although the murkiness is certainly a positive, as opposed to a negative effect, complimenting the somewhat blunt, tough sound of the songs.

The band's sound has a pleasingly unique character, and I've not really heard anything quite like it. It reminds me of things like Venom, and Blaze Bayley's more recent solo work, but it still distinct from both of these things. For one thing - Hamerex seem to create an epic sound in their material, without resorting to synth, or to excessive technicality, in a way which not many bands can, and a lot of the songs, "The Lycan" for instance, seem imbued with a certain energy which is very uplifting, despite the lack of elements which traditionally amount to an "epic" sound. The whole album has some instantly memorable guitar parts and lyrics, which can only be good, and I'm sure is a sign of sturdy songwriting.  Personally, I'd reccommend Hamerex to anyone who was after some good old fashioned, take-no-prisoners heavy metal.

All in all, I find that, if there is one style which most metalheads can agree on, it's this; no-nonsense, down-to-earth heavy metal - metal in what might be regarded as in it's purest form. It certainly ticks a lot of the boxes of a good metal album.

I give the album 7/10.

Links:
Hamerex on Myspace
Hamerex on Facebook
Hamerex on Metal Archives.

#095 Cathedral - The VIIth Coming

Cathedral, formed by ex-Napalm Death vocalist Lee Dorrian, have been a British doom/stoner metal mainstay for a long, long time. The VIIth Coming represents the bands later material - taking a lot of influence from stoner-metal, and less from the doom metal which was the bands initial style.

Of the multitude of bands which fuse stoner and doom metal, Cathedral are quite high on the list of "bands which do it well". The stoner influence creates a telltale massive lower-end, but combines it with, often, the crushing chord-driven attack of doom metal. The band are in the middle in terms of heaviness, too - a lot of the doom metal I've been listening to has either been very epic, or harsh, but Cathedral take the middle-ground, and do so rather well, brimming with attitude, which is boosted further by the remnants of a punk-style in Dorrian's vocals, but also with a lot of beauty throughout the album, no doubt borne from the doom metal element in the music. Pleasingly, the album as a whole has a diverse and enjoyable range of musical styles within it, with some tracks having a lot of groove, others an epic feel, and some feeling rather punk in their edge.

Throughout all of the songs, there seems to be a fantastic synergy between the instruments, and the sound seems organic and honest, with the sounds mixing, as opposed to simply being superimposed upon one another, in a very sterile fashion. The album also has a lot of replayability, as should be apparent to the listener, there is a hell of a lot going on in most of the songs, unquestionably much more so than can be taken in in a single listen to the album - I got a copy of the album over a month ago, and I'm still picking up on bits I haven't appreciated before, like some marvelous sonic buffet. There's a lot of heaviness, in that quintessential doom/stoner way, and while a lot of extreme-metal subgenres sound "heavier", This album has a very wholesome, honest, and bass driven kind of heaviness, which is equally pleasing to the ear.

The VIIth Coming is an enjoyable album from start to finish, and if I didn't feel ill today, I'd have liked to go into more depths about what I like about it - take it from my common-cold addled brain, however, it's a mighty fine listen.

I give the album an 8/10.

Links:
Cathedral Official Site
Cathedral on Myspace
Cathedral on Facebook
Cathedral on Metal Archives