God's Weird/Obscure Music Reviews

[God]

Good reviews but I don't like the rap songs I listened for a couple of seconds and when the lyrics went in I hated it sorry about that but he does sound rather good with samples though.

I can see why. It took me ages to get into rap as I was so used to singing. I started off by listening to instrumental hip-hop like DJ Shadow.

[bomberboy]

I don't think I'd ever get used to it.

[God]

Fair enough. It's definitely not for everyone. I dislike most rap myself, I'm very picky with the genre.

[God]

Reverend Bizarre ~ In the Rectory of the Bizarre Reverend (2002)
doom metal

This is quite a difficult review to write as there isn’t really a lot that separates ‘In the Rectory of the Bizarre Reverend’ from the hordes of other doom metal bands. However, despite doing little new, the quality of what they do play towers above that of most other doom.

Everything that epitomises doom metal is present here: painfully slow tempos, down tuned guitars, heavy crushing riffs and extended song-lengths. What separates ‘In the Rectory of the Bizarre Reverend’ from other similar doom bands is the incredibly dark, oppressive atmosphere. It just sounds more well, doomy, than other traditional doom. The atmosphere is quite similar to (but arguably even better than) that created by that of Thorr’s Hammer, but this manages to create the gloomy atmosphere without the help of death metal growls, as everything here except one small hardly noticeable point in ‘Doomsower’ is sung clearly.

The music is much slower than that of the band’s traditional doom peers like Candlemass and Solitude Aeturnus, but not too slow to become at all boring. It is still accessible enough to be easy to listen to all the way through despite it’s long running length of an hour and a quarter. The music is gripping and at times could even be described as ‘catchy’. The slow tempo puts a large emphasis on every single note making each and every one of them sound completely important and powerful. The drumming is fantastic, keeping the music interesting while also retaining the bleak and melancholy mood, with plenty of inventive drum fills and rolls. The bass, played by the vocalist, also plays a prominent role in the album with equally inventive bass-lines adding to the drums perfectly.

The music is very simple, but complexity is not necessary at all here. If it were more complex it would probably ruin the atmosphere. This simplicity is taken to extremes on the album’s last track, ‘Cirith Ungol’, which runs it’s entire 21 minute length on a few simple riffs and ponderous drumming but never gets boring because of the strong atmosphere that is easy to get completely lost in.

‘In the Rectory of the Bizarre Reverend’ really shines during the faster-paced sections where it retains a similar atmosphere but at the same time sounds much more energetic. It is really no surprise that 2 of the best songs, ‘In the Rectory’ and ‘Sodoma Sunrise’ feature these sections. These parts keep the music from getting stale and give it more variety from the otherwise constant bombardment of crushing guitar riffs, so it is a pity these parts are few and far between. This is only a minor complaint however, and isn’t really that noticeable. Guitar solos are also nearly completely absent, with most of the music staying at a very low pitch.

Vocalist Reverend Witchfinder doesn’t have the range and can’t quite pull of the ‘epic’ soaring vocal style of acclaimed doom metal singers like Messiah Marcolin but he doesn’t really need to for the atmosphere of the music. His singing is low in the mix, buried under the heavy guitars as if it is trapped underneath, really contributing brilliantly to the claustrophobic atmosphere. At times it does sound like he is trying to go for a similar vocal style to the aforementioned Messiah Marcolin but doesn’t manage it, though he usually keeps the singing more restrained. Reverend Witchfinder does however have a decent enough range and sings in quite a few different styles, sometimes almost shouting the lyrics and as earlier mentioned at one point even growling them in a death metal style, as well as singing in a typical melodramatic doom metal fashion. The lyrics are well written but can be quite cheesy, if you hadn’t worked out from the song titles like ‘Cirith Ungol’ and ‘Burn in Hell!’.

Overall, this is an incredible doom metal album, but probably too intense for those new to the genre. Fans of doom will love it, but those new to the genre would probably find Candlemass or Solitude Aeturnus a more accessible introduction.

/ 5

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

no decent youtube videos, so here's the myspace. (only 'Doomsower' is from this album, but the other songs are quite similar)
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm...endid=65057925

[bomberboy]

Nice review, loving the music I'm quite new to this but I'm quite used to hearing unlistenable music since I listen to PiL.

[God]

Arcana ~ Inner Pale Sun (2002)
neoclassical/dark ambient

Dead Can Dance is commonly considered to be the best band in whatever genre they are pigeonholed into with their unique atmospheric sound and influences from gothic rock, dark ambient, neoclassical music, medieval music and in their later albums, world music.

With ‘Inner Pale Sun’, Swedish band Arcana threaten to take Dead Can Dance’s throne. While they can easily be criticised for being a complete rip-off of Dead Can Dance, focusing on the neoclassical and dark ambient elements of Dead Can Dance’s earlier medieval influenced albums ‘Spleen & Ideal’ and ‘Within the Realm of a Dying Sun’, Arcana are so good at it that the lack of originality becomes very easy to ignore.

Like Dead Can Dance, the sound here mixes old with new using an assortment of modern and obscure instruments. Strings, occasionally supported by drums, provide the backing as chimes, bells, guitars, dulcimers and all sorts of obscure instruments play sparse and usually quite simple melodies. While this formula is simple, it always works very well. The melodies are always incredibly atmospheric and beautiful, bringing to mind thoughts of the medieval world the music is influenced by. With it’s hypnotic melodies, timpani echoing in the background, rolling drums and sweeping strings, Arcana manages here to create an impressively haunting and dark and sound with a genuine medieval atmosphere.

Where Arcana separates from Dead Can Dance is the vocals. While Dead Can Dance’s music is dominated by Lisa Gerrard’s unearthly, ethereal soaring vocals and Brendan Perry’s more grounded yet still powerful Jim Morrisonesque singing, most of the music on ‘Inner Pale Sun’ is instrumental.

Most of the time when vocals do come in they are chanted simply to enhance the albums. Vocalist Peter Petterson, who amazingly plays nearly all of the instruments actually sounds slightly like Brendan Perry, but slightly lower pitched. It’s not that noticeable though, especially as he only sings on a few tracks or just does chants. The singing is decent but not as strong as that on Dead Can Dance, which is probably one of the reasons it’s used only to enhance the atmosphere. Occasionally he is supported by female backing vocals provided by Ann-Mari Thim, though these vocals are only ever chanted. The lyrics aren’t as impressive as the music and are often quite simple, but fit the dark themes fine.

While ‘Inner Pale Sun’ is fantastic if you are in the right mood to lose yourself in it’s dark atmosphere, the slight lack of variety could get dull if you are not. Dead Can Dance manage to balance the atmosphere and ‘pop’ in their music well with short catchy songs by Brendan Perry and longer, more meandering Lisa Gerrard songs, while Arcana seem to focus much more on the atmosphere, so it becomes less gripping than much of Dead Can Dance’s work. While the melodies are all very strong they sometimes lack a certain catchiness that would help the album remain interesting for much longer. As the album is only 38 minutes long though, this doesn’t become much of a problem.

So has Arcana managed to snatch Dead Can Dance’s crown with ‘Inner Pale Sun’? Not quite, but they are certainly good enough for any Dead Can Dance fan, or any fan of atmospheric music, to enjoy.

/ 5

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

My Cold Sea




Closure

[vizi]

I will have to check them out. I have enjoyed most of your music you have introduced me too.

[God]

Well as I said in the review, as you like DCD you'll probably also like Arcana. Go for 'Inner Pale Sun' if you have a choice of what album to get.

[vizi]

Roger Wilco. Will check them out after metal day is over

[God-Emperor of Mankind]

Inner Pale Sun is a great album.
Highly recommend it to anyone who considers themself a music lover.

[God]

Bathory ~ Nordland I (2002)
metal

After a couple of atrocious thrash albums and the inconsistent ‘Destroyer of Worlds’, ‘Nordland I’ was to be the return to the popular Viking metal style of Bathory’s earlier albums. The album was planned to be the first of a set of 4 albums but only 2 were completed before sole band member Quorthon’s death.

‘Nordland I’ contains everything that you would expect from a Viking-metal Bathory release: Powerful epic riffs, choirs and a strong, believable and gripping atmosphere. Right from the beginning it is evident that quality vintage Bathory is back with a grand synthesiser melody backed by chants and rolling drums. After that, the music launches straight into a fantastic huge crushing riff, which ‘Nordland I’ contains plenty of. While most of the riffs are often quite slow, they never get at all close to reaching a doom metal pace, instead sounding like slightly slowed down NWOBHM riffs.

Acoustic guitars often make appearances and there are some totally acoustic songs like ‘Ring of Gold’.
These give the album a slightly folky feel, but like the choirs, background ambient sounds and synth this only enhances the atmosphere without becoming too cheesy. The folk metal aspect of the music is always completely serious and never over-the-top in a Turisas style.

The biggest problem of ‘Nordland I’ is the production. Often the guitars sound far too thin, especially on songs like ‘Dragons Breath’ and ‘Great Hall Awaits A Falling Brother’, and sometimes the instruments sound mixed together too much. This is not always that noticeable however, especially when the guitars are covered by singing and chants, and doesn‘t become as much of a problem as it could be except on a few songs.

The weaker tracks on the album are actually the faster-paced ones. One of the album’s weakest tracks, ‘Broken Sword’ in particular is affected by the bad production, with horrible fast repetitive drums completely overpowering the other instruments, making the guitar especially too difficult to hear. ‘Broken Sword’ is however quite a nice change of pace from the rest of the album which usually remains at about the same tempo and can sound a bit too samey and monotonous sometimes.

Quorthon’s musicianship as usual is excellent, especially as he plays all of the instruments on the album. His programmed drums are occasionally quite poor though, and are sometimes too dense or simplistic. Again though, this is much more noticeable on some songs than others and usually doesn’t become much of a problem. The singing is what really drags Quorthon down. His vocal range is obviously very limited, but in a way his rough style of singing sounds honest and suits the atmosphere of the music, much like that of Black Sabbath’s Ozzy Osbourne. His lyrics fit the theme of the music perfectly with songs containing vivid imagery of Viking battles and myths.

At an hour long, despite most of the riffs being at a high quality and usually quite catchy, ‘Nordland I’ really relies on it’s atmosphere to stay interesting for its entire running time because of the slightly repetitive sound, otherwise it can become slightly boring. ‘Nordland I’ also suffers from a lack of originality. Quorthon went too far in trying to go back to his old style without doing anything new. He even mentions ‘Asa Bay’, from the classic earlier Bathory song ‘One Rode to Asa Bay’ numerous times on different songs on the album. Because of this, ‘Nordland I’ comes dangerously close to sounding like a poor copy of ‘Hammerheart’.

Because of production problems and some inconsistency and repetitiveness in songwriting, ‘Nordland I’ is not quite as good as the classic Bathory Viking-themed albums like ‘Hammerheart’ and ‘Blood On Ice’, but is still a very good album and a huge improvement on the preceding albums.

/ 5

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Mother Earth Father Thunder


Vinterblot

That's 3 albums from 2002 in a row now. Must've been a good year for music.

[vizi]

Good review. Said about the same that I think of that album



Keep up the good work!

[God]

Pagan Altar ~ Mythical & Magical (2006)
doom metal

Pagan Altar first formed in 1978 and after one independently released album, later named Volume 1, in 1982 they split-up and fell into obscurity. The story does not end there however; in 2004 they reformed and surprised everyone by succeeding in the rare feat of making a brilliant comeback album that arguably is even better than the debut. The quality didn’t stop there though as their third album, Mythical & Magical was released 2 years later in 2006 and is their best effort to date.

Because of their early beginnings this album has a ‘retro’ late 70’s/early 80’s sound to it, but with a much clearer modern production. A lot of the material on Mythical & Magical actually predates their 1982 debut. One of the first doom metal bands along with Witchfinder General, Pagan Altar took the slow riffs and atmosphere of Black Sabbath but also added a lot of influences from their New Wave of British Heavy Metal peers like Iron Maiden into their music, so for doom metal it is very light and accessable even for non-doom fans. As such, there shouldn’t be a lot that makes them sound at all original, but they perform their music with their own unique style and flair, making what they play sound completely unique.

A lot of this unique sound is due to their guitarist, Alan Jones, who truly is one of the most underrated guitarists in metal. You will hear no mindless shredding in this album, but well thought out and brilliantly composed solos with not only very technically impressive but also very emotional guitar playing. The riffs are all excellent, with plenty of memorable sections and catchy riffs. Unlike a lot of doom they never come off as being Black Sabbath clones. While many of the riffs may be similar to those of early Sabbath, they’re often played faster and aren’t tuned as low, creating a totally different atmosphere, no doubt because of their NWOBHM influences. It may be difficult to stand out amongst hordes of other metal guitarists, but Alan Jones certainly manages to.

The other musicians are hardly poor either. Diccon Harper, who once played for Dragonforce plays some fantastic bass-lines and gallops while the drums play an impressive variety of styles. The singing by Terry Jones could put some people off, as the vocals are often in a slightly high-pitched and sometimes very nasally style best comparable to Ozzy Osbourne’s. It’s not a huge problem though as they’re more unique than bad, fitting the atmosphere of the music, and are definitely bearable at least. Terry Jones is often backed up by several male and female backup singers on certain songs. His lyrics, about pagan myths and legends are all well-written though slightly cheesy at times.

There is also a slightly folky feel throughout some of the album, giving it a strangely ‘pagan’ feel fitting with the band name, album title and lyrics. The folk flourishes work perfectly, subtly adding to the atmosphere without ever becoming too overbearing on the overall sound. At no moment could this ever be labelled ‘folk metal’ or anything close.

Despite the 1 hour running time, the album never gets close to being at all boring because of the excellent musicianship, songwriting and variation. The only real problem is that it does sound so old, which could definitely put some people off. Overall though, it’s an amazing album recommended to all fans of metal and hard rock and not just doom fans, as it barely qualifies as doom metal anyway.

/ 5

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The Sorcerer


Dance of the Druids

[vizi]

I didn't know playing for Dragonforce was a good thing...

Interesting little find. I should check them out.

[bomberboy]

Nice bands you've reviewed especialy Pagan Altar their interesting and they sound like a Hard Rock group.

Edit: How can this be Doom Metal?

[God]

It's classed as doom pretty much ever, barely is though.. I think it's just because of gthe similarity to Sabbath, they're not nearly as heavy or slow as most doom.

I'm completely addicted to that album though, it's like the best parts of Maiden & Sabbath rolled into one. They sound like Jethro Tull in the folkier songs too, even the singer sounds like Tull's singer.

[bomberboy]

Well its doom metal but barely then. I can see your addicted to it your sig is full of pagan altar. Thats a good thing, and it was same with me when I was addicted to PiL.

[The Mongol]

This thread is awesome, keep em coming. I've already checked out some of the stuff in this thread and enjoy it.

[Arto]

+Rep for your Pagan Altar review and are you going to review Sigur Rós? My girlfriend likes them and I've listened Gobbledigook. For 5 seconds I thought of Pagan Altar and later I thought that Icelandic music never heard of metal. Any good Icelandic metal band?

[God]

I only have Sigur Ros' 'Takk...'. To be honest I'm not hugely fond of it, but I've heard they've done better. I'll get 'Ágætis byrjun' sometime and I might review it if I like it. And sadly they're the only Icelandic band I know.