Sepultura
Against

Here within the walls of Attitude we have said very little about the Sepultura split and it's resulting feuds and back stabbing. Well now we have a forum to discuss the issue with the release of the controversial new Sepultura album, Against. These are my views, I'm sure yours are different but here goes.

Almost two years ago Max Cavalera walked out on Sepultura. He was not sacked but instead chose to leave due to demands from the other members for changes in management. Max's wife, Gloria, was the band's manager at the time and had been for several years, pretty much overseeing the building of Sepultura. However Andreas, Paulo and Igor felt that they were becoming less involved in promotion and were working in the shadow of Max as opposed to being his equal. This all took place on the Roots tour, an album highly praised but in my opinion vastly overrated. Since the split the media have flocked to Max and it seems that a large portion of the fanbase have come to his support. About six months ago Max returned with Soulfly, an album which was stronger than Roots but still seemed to be bogged down in down tuned riffing and one word choruses. Meanwhile Sepultura remained silent, eventually introducing Derrick Green as their new vocalist and then announcing the release of Against. Much criticised for keeping the name and seen as greedy money grabbers by many of the fans, Sepultura were basically written off without Max.

Here are some facts that I find enlightening. Max has recently adopted a new look very much in the Korn vein with Adidas gear and dreadlocks. Now while this is not possibly a critical point, it's interesting to note that Sepultura still look like Sepultura, could it be that Max has changed and is being swayed by outsiders? Secondly Max left leaving three members to continue. Is it possible that Andreas, Paulo and Igor all turned into gold digging heartless bastards at the same time or was Max growing too big for his boots. Igor actually chose to stay with Sepultura rather than leave with his brother, maybe he no longer could recognise his brother? On Roots Andreas was involved in writing lyrics for two of the songs compared to Arise where he wrote over half of the material: mental block or musical fascism? There was much talk of Max possibly trying to become the focal point of Sepultura. Looking at the cover of Against it is adorned with Japanese masks, however Soulfly is tastefully laid out with a picture of Max Cavalera, maybe the other guys don't really matter.
Soulfly jam with that loveable character Fred Durst, Sepultura play with Jason Newsted, I think I know who's more credible. Whatever the truth is it doesn't matter because from behind their veil of secrecy Sepultura have made an album which quite frankly destroys Soulfy without even stopping for breath. The boys from Brazil are back, have left Roots to rot and are kicking out songs like Max Cavalera never existed.

The title track kicks proceedings off and instantly whips the listener back to Chaos A.D. which is the Seps strongest album. Short fast and to the point it dispels the flaws of the often slow and unimaginative Roots album. Following this is Choke. Possibly one of the weaker songs on the album it was not a good choice for track 2 although it does get better with time. Rumors again has a Chaos A.D. feel and its here where Derrick shows his colours with a slightly more versatile voice than Max, he doesn't purely shout but can do a wee bit of singing too. This is further backed up on Old Earth, which takes elements of Roots in terms of structure and instrumentation, but is delivered in a much more honed way. Next track Floaters In Mud has the welcome surprise of some lead guitar work, a thing often left off Roots, and the song itself is possibly my favourite from the album.

The album contains a number of instrumentals starting with the meat and potatoes of Tribus, and then the squealing strangeness of F.O.E. The standard Sepultura meets world music track this time comes from Japan and the Kodo drummers who surprisingly provide the most interesting sound through the use of a flute, go figure. However the stand out instrumental is the last track t3rcermillennium which has a kaiowas feel and some really cool cello playing as well. Reza has old pal Gordo screaming his wee Portuguese throat out about something that he's obviously pissed off about. Jason Newsted and Derrick simply make you feel like going out and buying throat sweets on the immensely punky and heavy Hatred Aside. With Common Bonds, Unconscious and Drowned Out all also deciding to kick the crap out of Fire, Bumba et al then you really do get the feeling that Sepultura aren't back to simply cash in but are looking for some serious respect. Sure the album has some flaws and a few songs are not as strong as they could be but this is their best stuff since Chaos A.D. and that's all without the undoubted talents of Max. Two years ago Sepultura where one of the most spoken about bands in metal, however things have changed and they now find themselves in a corner. With Against they've proved that there's not much holding them there. Soulfly are good but Sepultura are, well, Sepultura - so stop listening to the press and get the fucking album. Well go on!

Rating: **********

Right, I've got shitloads of albums to review here and absolutely no time to do them, so here goes - If I fail my degree because of this I'll be blaming you lot!

By the time you get to read this review, the album it's about will be coming up for a year old, and it's been in my pile of review CDs for almost half that time! Having never heard Moonspell's previous CD outings I cannot compare this to them, but in it's own right it's a damn fine album. One of my favourites at the moment actually.

To anyone from mainland Europe I'll say this: you probably know what to expect and whether you like it or not, so there's no point in me telling you. To everyone from the UK I say: For fucks sake give these guys a go! The UK public are notoriously difficult to get interested in anything not from the US or UK (or maybe Scandanavia), so most will probably not have heard their music, and the media being biased against the European metal scene doesn't help matters. Moonspell are a sort of Goth-Rock outfit full of melody, good songwriting, intelligent lyrics, and a cherry on top (only joking, just a bit of Christmas humour). The material also stands up live, as they proved when I say them recently - one of the best gigs in a while.

Oh, and '2econd Skin' may be ever so slightly radio friendly, but it's a great song nonetheless.

This album is probably more accessible than many others in this genre, due to the surprising amount of influences present here. A damn good album.

My Dying Bride
37.488%... Complete

or The Angel And The Dark River:

'34.788%…Complete' is an extremely important album for MDB. Having gained critical acclaim and an increased fanbase from the excellent The Angel and the Dark River album the band then came out with Like Gods of the Sun which was possibly too stuck in a rut for it’s own good. On that album My Dying Bride cut down song length a little and got a little more aggressive which only succeeded in blunting the gloomy image which they had built up over the previous three albums. It felt that it was time for a change and some fresh ideas were needed. So on to 34.788%...

First and perhaps most crucially the violin is gone. Martin Powell has left the band for pastures new and instead of getting in a replacement MDB decided to go on as a five piece. Some would say that this is a major blow to the band as much of their sound came from the violin solos, but I would argue that it might just be what the band need to, as Aaron would say, help drag them from the mire that they had found themselves in. Gone is much of the 18^th century romanticism of early work and instead there is a more straightforward seediness to the work. As always the album is full of sex, death and religion but delivered in a more consumable way. First track, 'The Whore, The Cook and Her Mother' harks back slightly to The Angel album. Long and experimental, the mid section suggests that they may have been listening to a bit of Mogwai during their time off. Following this is 'The Stance of Evander Sinque'. Starting off with riffs reminiscent of Like Gods... it is the first track to show My Dying Bride’s slight direction change, with the lyrics discussing the idea of mental disability - a topic that is certainly new ground.

'Der Uberlebende' is the only mellow track on the album woven around simple guitar work and held together by Aaron’s whining voice, it can drag a bit but nonetheless fits nicely as a bridge to the previous albums. 'Heroin Chic' is different! A little bit like Portishead with shite rhyming lyrics which must have been made up on the spot, it’s stripped down and simple and not what you’d expect at all. Whether it works is a matter of opinion but it’s certainly a breath of fresh air. 'Apocalypse Woman' has an upbeat feel to it that is unusual for the normally morose band and while being nothing special it further cements this feeling of change. 'Base Level Erotica' sees Aaron at his most explicit. Never a man to be embarrassed of the delights of sexual pleasure, this more typical MDB song takes his witterings into a more modern expression of his deepest fantasies. Ending with 'Under Your Wings and Into Your Arms', a track reminiscent of early Paradise Lost, it’s difficult to gauge exactly where My Dying Bride stand.

Certainly 34.788% . . . Complete is a better album than Like Gods of the Sun, but I’m still left wishing for The Angel and The Dark River. This points to a new direction for the band but it doesn’t go far enough in it’s execution and it’s often the more traditional tracks which are left to hold everything together. My Dying Bride have stuck their collective toe in the water but now they need to jump in.

Rating: **********

Orange Goblin
Time Travelling Blues

Orange Goblin's debut 'Frequencies From Planet Ten' was one of my favourite albums for a long time (and still is) so I was very interested to see how they'd developed and if they could manage to sustain their appeal. This latest slab of retro doom is less trippy ('Shine' excepted) and instead relies much more on a heavy as shit guitar sound, with of course a healthy dose of cool lead work. It's also more Sabbathy than 'Frequencies...'. The opener 'Blue Snow' is a good example of this, which is why they've been playing it live since long before the album hit the shelves. It definitely works live, though perhaps is not instantly great as a studio recording.

To a certain extent that sums up the whole album, it has an intense groove which makes it ideal for going totally fucking nuts to at gigs, but on the album it doesn't seem quite as instant. Having said that, I love every track and many will become classics. 'Solarisphere', 'Shine' (the most trippy one), 'The Man Who Invented Time', 'Diesel (Phunt)' (kick-ass instrumental), 'Snail Hook', 'Lunarville 7  Airlock 3', and 'Time Travelling Blues' are particularly notable. Shit, have I just named the whole album? Pretty much, yes. The album definitely grows on you a lot if you give it a chance, but it does take time to appreciate it fully

As with before, they've got some cool lyrics, I'll let you find them out yourself!

As a live band they really do rock, and you've got to go and see them if you get the chance (they're touring the UK in February with Cathedral). I travelled 800 miles in a day to see OG and Queens Of The Stone Age in London, and it was well worth all the loss of sleep and substantial petrol money.

Queens Of The Stone Age

This band is made up of three ex-members of Kyuss, which will give you a reference point for what they sound like. But one listen to this album will tell you that Queens... are definitely not just Kyuss under a different name - the vibe's noticeably different. The vocal style Josh (Homme, vocals/guitars) uses is a lot more laid back and mellower than that of Kyuss vocalist John Garcia. Musically, the songs are a lot more experimental and weirder than that of the guys' former band (as can be seen best on tracks like 'you would know' and 'hispanic impressions'). Another noticeable difference is that the guitar and bass are less heavy here - still, on one or two tracks, the good ol' familiar Kyuss vibe is still there - most noticeably in 'regular john' and 'mexicoia'.

Sometimes listening to this album, you feel that Josh could have put more energy and power into the vocals - they sound quite weak for most of the album. Granted, that style of vocals gives them a cool, trippy, mellow vibe, but I kinda miss the powerful, upfront vocal style of John Garcia. The big, chunky riffs coupled with the trippy melodies and weird lead guitar make this a cool album - if you like Kyuss and stoner rock, you'll like this. It's one of those albums, though, that you get into more after the first few listens. It has a lot of expectations from eager Kyuss fans - and it certainly won't dissappoint, but it won't amaze you either - a good first album, but going by what Kyuss achieved, I feel the best is to come.

Those of you who regularly read Attitude (if indeed you do exist) might well already know that I don't in general take kindly to record label compilations. So it is with great trepidation that I chose to review Season of Mist this issue, a CD that had been sitting in our review pile for quite a long time. Anyway, expecting the normal death metal meets poor production shite I must admit that I was pleasantly surprised. Holy Records it seems have a few bands who understand the meaning of melody and have a slight amount of talent. Basically most of the bands on offer are black/goth/death metal and though most are hardly original, they are also not completely without merit. Unfortunately too many of the singers choose to growl instead of sing, with Gloomy Grim in particular having a mixture of Popeye and an Evil Dead zombie for a vocalist. This is made even more annoying when there's a female singer trying her damnedest to bring some tune to the vocals only to be drowned out by what sounds like animals being slaughtered. Don't get me wrong, growling can be a useful vocal style but many of these bands are trying to make the instrumentation more tuneful, so it would be helpful if some of the singers could make an effort.

None the less bands like Septic Flesh, Nightfall, And Oceans and On Thorns I Lay all put in some great tracks although again in all likelihood these are the bands' best songs. If you are interested in extreme metal then you could do worse than checking this collection out but I wouldn't pay too much for it. If not great then at least it's listenable.

Rating: **********

Strangeland
(soundtrack)

The list of artists on this soundtrack sounds very impressive - Pantera, Marilyn Manson, Anthrax, Coal Chamber, Megadeth, etc. - it certainly sounded potentially brilliant. Listening to it, there is quite a few really good songs on it, and overall, it's an enjoyable album. However, as with most soundtracks, there's also some terrible stuff - especially Kid Rock and (hed)pe. Also, the Pantera and Marilyn Manson tracks disappointed me - I'm a big fan of both bands, but the tracks on display by them here were not up to the standard I expected.

Having said all that negative stuff about this album, it does have quite bit going for it - the Coal Chamber song (surprisingly) impressed me, as did the Anthrax, Sevendust, Snot (and even Twisted Sister) tracks, among others. The Dee Snider track was weird, but cool - Megadeth were impressive as well - surprising, since I've turned my back on them in recent years (although it's probably partly due to it being on a compilation that I like it more).

This is a cool soundtrack album, refreshingly heavy as soundtracks go. Be warned though, you gotta take the good with the bad - but thankfully the good outweighs the bad here.

Stuck Mojo
Rising

Stuck Mojo have had quite a high profile over the past year or so, but I had never really been a big fan like some other people I know. I was glad to get this CD so I could finally form a proper opinion about them. They're tight as fuck, have a pretty cool production (courtesy of the great Andy Sneap), and have a decent amount of songwriting talent. That's certainly a good start, so do they live up to their potential?

Their trademark southern rock elements are easy to spot, and certain parts sound rather Pantera-esque (though perhaps better than the mighty Pantera - blasphemy! - listen to 'Trick') While being quite aggressive, the music still manages to remain quite laid back which I like a lot, sometimes I think Pantera are too up-front for their own good.

Despite the praise though, it's really only a few songs that are worthy of it, many of them just seem to either plod along or be pale imitations of other ones. If this were released as an EP with about a third of the number of tracks it would be totally amazing, but as it stands it doesn't really cut it.

Having said that, with all their good tracks from their varous albums combined into a live set, they would probably be a pretty cool live band. Unfortunately I missed them last time they came to Glasgow.

Jag Panzer
The Age Of Mastery

Having enjoyed the last album, The Fourth Judgement, which apparently marked a return to this band's original trad metal style (due to the pressure of  their fans), I did actually look forward to listening to this.  Not usual for me as I am normally extremely wary of bands playing eighties-style metal these days especially when the album covers remind me of RPGs.  The Fourth Judgement actually took me by surprise and was gloriously bouncy, sing-alongable, and extremely catchy in a (hopefully) tongue-in-cheek way.

I had hoped this would be in the same vein.  Unfortunately, I found it rather tedious: repetitive rather than bouncy.  It seems like the ingredients of the last album have been roughly hurled together to churn out a load of similar sounding songs without any of the oomph or spark.  Perhaps this was a rush job.  Production may be partly to blame; the vocals are not very clear and making out lyrics is incredibly difficult.  The second track, "Lustfull and Free" (sic),  reminds me of  "Call of the Wild" on the last album, but is far less interesting to the listener.

If this was the only work from Jag Panzer that I had had a chance to listen to, I would classify them along with a plethora of (mainly European) bands which play mediocre second-rate nostalgic metal with nowhere near as much talent and musical instinct as those bands which started what we now call trad metal.   I know Jag Panzer can do much much better.   If you're gonna play stuff so far removed from the current cutting edge then at least make it FUN and don't take yourself too seriously (I know it's difficult for an American band; self-deprecation is a British art).  Take a leaf out of Iron Maiden's book.  I don't believe I just said that!!!!!!    But it is true: Maiden fans love them for their sense of  fun and their concerts have a great atmosphere. 

Maybe I'm being particularly hard on these poor boys, but it's only because I absolutely loved the last album and this seems flat in comparison.  There's certainly still a good deal of good musicianship here and Harry Conklin's vocals are still bloody impressive (reminiscent of Brucie Dickinson, Michael Kiske and sometimes Ronnie James Dio), but the song-writing is just plain unimaginative.  Pull up your socks, boys!

God, I hate bands that have a totally unreadable logo (and a name like Prophanity if it comes to that). Maybe I'm just too old, I dunno. Having said that, opener 'Armed to the Teeth' is actually quite good and almost enjoyable (if you like their brand of black death). I'm not too hot on this scene these days to be honest, but that's because of the abundance of dire bands out there. Maybe Prophanity are not in the worse half of the bands available. Their tight, heavy has fuck, have very strong vocals - if a bit monotonous, and try to introduce a bit of melody once in a while without sacrificing any of the heaviness.

I'm reviewing this listening to it for the first time in a couple of months, and to be honest it's a good job I did listen to it again - I was going to do a total hatchet job on it. In retrospect that would have been somewhat unfair as their is some enjoyment to be had here, though probably only if you're already into the scene - I wouldn't recommend it for a newbie! It's in a similar vein to Hecate Enthroned but certainly not as good in my opinion. Evemaster - who should soon be appearing on the Attitude compilation CD - also do a similar job but better. Anyone who likes those bands a lot should understand where Prophanity are coming from.

To a certain extent they suffer from the same thing as Cradle Of Filth - having some great tracks but almost always spoiling them with a particularly bad bit in the middle. Prophanity are a lot more melodic than Cradle, though less atmospheric - I guess you just have to decide which you want. Personally, I prefer both (Hecate Enthroned / Evemaster). I think with another album or two under their belts they'll be more to my liking. (they need to rethink about 40% of each song, hence a 60% rating).

Rating: **********

[shit, I've just noticed this was reviewed last issue! what a waste of fucking time]