#087 Evile - Five Serpent's Teeth

Evile, it must be said, are doing rather well, and have been for some time. Both of their albums were well received by thrash-fans world-wide, and the expectations for this, their third album, are high. It pleased me upon listening, to discover that the band certainly haven't lost momentum yet, not slowed down, and not lost their thrash roots. What pleased me even more was to discover that they've improved, and are well on their was to having a noticeable sound, as opposed to being a little on the generic side, which their earlier material was.

 One of the things which I struggle with, when it comes to Evile, used to be finding any of the songs particularly memorable. Not any longer - Evile have really upped the catchiness of their songs on this record, with most of the songs being at least a little distinct. Lyrically, the album has some excellent hooks, and the vocals have improved quite a bit, and although sounding a little overproduced in places, are overall quite pleasing, and certainly complete the structure which the guitars, bass and drums had already began to construct on previous albums. I've always considered the third album to be the beginning of a bands maturity, and Five Serpent's Teeth certainly sounds that way, being more diverse, distinct and possessing a confident edge, moreso than any of the bands early material. Evile have a recognisable style too, now, with ridiculously fast rhythm guitar which has been present since the onset of the band, but I can't help but truly appreciate on this album as something which sets them apart somewhat.

A lot of the solos are also blistering, and I admire them in the nostalgic way that I admired the solos of Megadeth and Metallica when I first got into thrash, which I'm sure is a good sign. The new album has a lot more beauty too, with plenty of pleasant, epic-sounding bridge sections and intros which add a lot to the albums character, and do a lot to season it somewhat, heck, the album even has an 80's thrash style ballad, and whatsmore, it's done rather well. The title "In Memoriam" no doubt a tribute to the bands deceased bass player, Mike Alexander. There's a little more of a groove element than you might encounter in an 80's band, but the band pull it off well, refining what they did on Infected Nations, albeit making it more memorable and sharper, a little more atmospheric, and altogether a lot more listenable.

Five Serpent's teeth is certainly an album which was enjoyable to listen to, and can be summarised as essentially a better  version of their previous two albums. It's certainly a landmark in their career, and while it isn't one of the definitive releases of the year, I enjoyed almost every song.

I give the album 8/10.

Links:
Evile Official site
Evile on Myspace
Evile on Facebook
Evile on Metal-Archives

#086 Skull Fist - Head of the Pack

Speed-metal band Skull Fist demonstrate Canada's ability to do things a little differently when it comes to metal. "Head of the Pack" is the bands first full length, and demonstrates, along with the band's excellent playing and catchiness, their toungue-in-cheek humour, and light-hearted but heavy as hell musical attitude. If you can get over the unsightly cover-art, the album is an excellent listen.

The album bursts into life with virtuosic lead guitar, and old school sounding rhythm, almost exactly in the style that I'd consider to be "quintessential" speed metal, which is only boosted by the high-pitch vocals, which sound rather unique, be it in the style they are projected, or in the accent they are sung. Everything about the album sounds rather old-school, but I'd hesitate to place the band in the "New wave of traditional-metal" which many bands of a similar age and aesthetic - Skull Fist are overtly doing something entirely different, albeit something which is different not quite entirely in sound or aesthetic, more to do with the very spirit of the music. Many retro-traditional bands set out to create the sound - Skull fist seem to be more likely to have simply arrived at the sound they have through spending time in the company of a desire to make heavy music, an entirely organic, non-forced process. Skull fist almost sounds like their sound has been cross-bred with a hint of glam-metal, with the occasional moment of sounding like Motley Crue punctuating the album, albeit in a good way.

Often, a very technically able band will have trouble creating songs which are catchy, but this seems to prove almost no problem to this band, managing to blend aspects of great technical ability with catchiness and punching-power in a lot of their riffage, and sweet melody in the lead. The vocals too, are breath-taking, in terms of range, competence, and memorability, the latter of which is boosted sky high by some fantastic vocal licks. The bands sound is nicely encapsulated by the production, with possibly the most orgasmic snare-sound I've encountered in a month or two. Everything comes out quite nicely in the production, but the production itself remains pleasingly unpolished, unshaven, and individual, as opposed to the much-feared plastic sound too many bands have adopted. The album feels nicely rounded in this way, and feels very whole.

There aren't, cover art excluded, many points of complaint on the album, definitely none of which spoilt it as a listen. It's quite a unique set of songs, and I found that that made it all the more pleasing. It also strongly demonstrates that young metal-bands still have a lot to offer the scene.

I give the album 8/10...

Links:
Skull Fist on Myspace
Skull Fist on Facebook
Skull Fist on Metal Archives

#085 White Wizzard - Flying Tigers

Despite almost constant lineup problems, White Wizzard's follow up to 2010's "Over the Top" arrives only a year later, which comes as something of a surprise, considering that the band members come and go like regulars to a pub. The album continues in the bands "new wave of traditional metal" vein, and the aesthetic, and largely the music style also, continue in the spirit of their past releases.

Listening to the album, it's probably fair to say that White Wizzard have developed and diversified a bit. Instead of an album packed with cheerful songs about how awesome metal is, there are plenty of genuinely legitimate lyrical themes, with everything from aliens to Atlantis. Cheesy, no doubt, but still much more varied than the previous album. The song styles are a bit more varied too, which is refreshing, for instance, "Starchild" is unmistakeably a ballad, which is something not seen enough in metal today. It's well executed to, with epic solos, and a chorus which is memorised completely by the end of the song. The band seem to have established a reasonable balance between raucous fun and exciting songwriting, something which the previous album leaned on the former. While essentially, Flying Tigers is just more of the same, it's definitely a more mature release, with a sound which is beginning to become distinct, and not just a Priest and Maiden clone. Some of the bands stuff is genuinely a bit new - not groundbreaking, but nonetheless, it makes them a lot more worth investing an hour in, listening to the album.

In this release, the band are a little bit more technical, and each instrument sounds generally a little more refined, although lead, rhythm and bass guitar were all produced by Jon Leon, which, presumably makes him the Jon Schaffer of traditional metal. Nonetheless, the album's sound is very cohesive, and natural sounding. The production is good, capturing but not polishing the band, which partly makes it sound even more "retro". Musically, the album seems a bit faster, and a little more intense in places. There's more low-tempo stuff, but conversely, the high-tempo material is at a higher-tempo than the last album, which is one of the major distinct points which the band have created for themselves - while much of what they do has been done, not all of it has often been done at the tempo that White Wizzard pull it off.

It's not a bad album, that much is certain. It shows that the band have developed, and matured, and I wish I had much more hope  for the bands future, but with the unstable lineup (The vocalist on this album has already left the band again) I don't know what the future holds for the band. Fortunately, they've battled through for a good while already, and managed to produce some reasonable material, which, hopefully, they can do again.

I give Flying Tigers 8/10.

Links:
White Wizzard on Myspace
White Wizzard on Metal-Archives