The infernal return?

So, it appears that it has taken me a month and a half to actually follow up on my previous post, and all I have to say on the matter is: meh? What are you gunna do, cry about it? I thought not. I've had other shit to do, albeit not particularly important or taxing shit, but nevertheless, blogging about heavy metal records has taken something of a backseat in my mind. Yet here I am, stuck at work serving absolutely no-one on a glorious bank holiday, so what better way to waste my time than on here. Whoopie fucking doo.

Anyway, so a few bands I like have put out new records in the last couple of months, and as an anonymous non-entity on this world wide web of ours, I obviously feel that it's my duty to tell you if they suck or not. First up to the plate is 'The Human Romance', the latest offering from Washington D.C.'s favourite Gothenburg-apeing thrash titans Darkest Hour. I've always been a huge, slobber-running-down-my-chin kinda DH fan, and as such approach each record with high expectations, and it pains me to report that 'The Human Romance' is a big step down from 09's 'The Eternal Return'. It's not an inherently bad record - far from it - but the influence of producer Peter Wichers (of Soilwork fame) is so overwhelming it's at points hard to defferentiate this record from any number of generic-sounding At The Gates-lite swill. When Darkest Hour thrash out, they do it with a skill and panache almost untouched by anyone else, but so very rarely does 'The Human Romance' break out of a mid-paced, latter-day In Flames-esque plod that my boiling frustration almost causes my head to evaporate into a cloud of claret steam. It's not all dreary, mind: opener (kinda) 'The World Engulfed In Flames' is a fast, punchy number that gets the head nodding with no trouble, and closer 'Beyond The Life You Know' is a flat out DH classic, all breakneck melodic death and anthemic choruses. It's just the bland mush that makes up the middle of this particular thrash-sandwich that I find so hard to swallow. What happened guys? Better luck next time.

Next up, Trap Them, modern day heroes of all that is crust and grindworthy, return with 'Darker Handcraft', their 3rd full-length and first for new label Prosthetic. TT are a band I've grown to love very much over the last couple of years - their D-Beat infused grind/hardcore hybrid helped kick off a fascination in crust that has yet to die down, and 'Darker Handcraft' may be one of the greatest examples of the entire movement I've yet to clap my grotty lugholes on yet. For the most part Trap Them have eschewed the ferocious blast-beat laden attacks of yesteryear and have developed their sound into a groovier, Entombed-esque rock and roll nightmare. 'Damage Prose' kicks off the album with a barrage of face-peeling riffs, hammering drums and Ryan McKenney's trademark tortured howls. It is literally one of the best opening tracks I've heard in a long time and sets the mood perfectly for what is already likely to be one of my albums of the year. I had the pleasure of seeing Trap Them live a couple of weeks ago and 'Darker Handcraft' perfectly captures the nerve-shredding terror the band incites on the stage. I could not reccommend this record enough, as long as you like your music charred to a crisp and served with a teaspoon of regurgitated stomach acid.

I just can't make my mind up about Protest the Hero's latest opus 'Scurrilous'. It has everything going for it that made the band's last album 'Fortress' so awesome - soaring vocals, pin-sharp shredding, ever-twisting songwriting dexterity. And yet, something's amiss, some un-quantifiable factor that I'm unable to put my finger on. Maybe it's that every song on the album reaches a mid-paced gallop and stays there - gone are the high-octane thrash-outs of times gone past. Now I know PTH are hardly a 'thrash' band, but for me at least this aspect of their sound is sorely missed on 'Scurrilous'. Otherwise it's business as usual here. Not amazing, not terrible. Meh.


Oh Between The Buried And Me, how you doth spoil us. Despite being a good year-and-a-half since 'The Great Misdirect' came out, it feels like the band's new e.p. 'The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues' appeared out of nowhere. After finally breaking free from their contract with long-time label and mediocre hardcore purveyors Victory Records, BTBAM have returned refreshed with the backing of 'far more reputable label' Metal Blade and a stonker of an e.p. 'The Parallax...' is 30 minutes of furiously inventive progressive metal, but anyone expecting anything otherwise obviously doesn't know BTBAM very well. Throwing more ideas into each song (all 3 of which average 10 minutes) than 99% of bands manage in an entire career, this e.p. is apparantly part 1 of a conceptual saga to be concluded later this year with a full-length album. I'll be waiting with baited breath.

And finally, we have the (sort-of) return of Atlanta's favourite sons, Mastodon. 'Live At The Aragon' is, as you might have gathered, a live album, so there's not actually any new music here for me to write about. But I fucking love Mastodon, and I'm not going to miss an opportunity to wax lyrical about their endeavours. I got to see The 'Don on the London leg of the 'Crack The Skye' tour (of which's Chicago date makes for the meat of 'LATA') and it was nothing short of mesmerising. It's become quite a popular trend in recent years for bands to perform entire albums live, but with 'Crack The Skye' there was really little other option - it is just one of those records that exists as a complete work and splitting it up into chunks would be nothing but detrimental to the material. As is evidenced on the DVD portion here, Mastodon really decided to fucking 'bring it' on this tour, with outlandish psychedelic projections acting as a visual interpretation of the crackpot 'story' being told in the album's lyrics, all in a very Tool-esque fashion. Beyond the performance of the album as a whole (which is immaculate throughout, strained vocal harmonies nonwithstanding), Mastodon also wheeled out some tried and tested classics as an encore. I can't help but be puzzled by the omission of the final one-two punch of 'Iron Tusk' and 'March Of The Fire Ants' (as were performed at the date I saw them) and their replacement with the band's staple live cover of The Melvins' 'The Bit'. But hey, what do I know, as history has proved time and time again, Mastodon do what the fuck they want, whenever they want. Anyway, I'm babbling. 'Live At The Aragon' is a fucking killer live album/DVD. So buy it.

There we go, doesn't that feel better. A day well wasted at work, a few more opinions that no-one wanted clogging up the interwebs, and now I have a much emptier head to re-fill with cold beer and dreams of wizards. Until next time motherfuckers. DDxx