Occasionally, the gods send down missives to give me sustenance; they make me happier than Newtus Gingricheus at one of Narcissus’ Studio 54 parties. Through them, I worship like Bachelor No. 2 at the Temple of Low Men, sucking spilt milk through my summerteeth with fellow sister lovers, praying for my rubber soul (I could do this all day, people). Why, just recently, Schotticus Brandonus (who goes by Brandon Schott in the space outside my Greeked-out imagination) swooped down in my path, happy as Pegasus at a stud farm, and presented me with his latest testament to the masses, 13 Satellites.

And lo, the gods did smile upon me, for I have looked upon 13 Satellites, and have verily listened to it, and I doth tell y’uns the truth—it is good. Very good. I swear by the sword of Damocles and the shield of Nick Fury, if you have a pop-lovin’ dendrite in your cortexus cerebrus, you will dig this thing. True, Schott has been through some trials and tribulations in recent years (cancer diagnosis and treatment) and some pleasant, if not joyful experiences (daddyhood, collaboratin’, and conversatin’ with esteemed journalistic types [y'all]). Dude poured a bunch of that stuff into his new record, and wound up with something special.

Clocking in a tad under 37 minutes (another great example of the positive aspects of brevity in pop records), 13 Satellites won’t take you long to get through the first time; it’s during the 14, 15, or 16 other times you’ll listen to it that you’ll realize just how much time you’ve sunk into the thing. Schott breaks the three-plus-minute threshold just once—the gorgeous tabla-and-sitar-spiked ballad “Flowers Fading” clocks in at an epic 4:34—and the result is like the coolest AM radio popfest ever broadcast from Olympus.

My ankles sprouted wings when I heard “Full Circle Round” the first time, and as I soared over Krisa, the capitol of Phokis (not to be confused with its sister city, Mutha), I swear I heard “the sound of the rain with the turntable on” that Schott so sweetly describes—a vinyl-lover’s daydream, and a smile-worthy sentiment. “Exploding Angel” is another such moment, even though instead of lovingly describing a spinning black circle, Schott is dressing down an unpleasant sub-deity, whose “halo’s on fire” and “burning up with rage.” The Wilsony harmonies in the breakdown, though, are what sell the song—I’m a sucker for that stuff, and Schott delivers.

I love the acoustic paean to domestic bliss “This Is Home”—the singer’s house sounds like a very, very, very fine house, indeed, and the sweet little keyboard fills would make any power pop aficionado wanna cuddle up the nearest mini-Moog. “Satellite” is a knockout trip down Abbey Road, via Penny Lane, with what I think is a kazoo break in the middle, but rather than being confusing, to the listener, it gently guides the lucky guy or gal around its little turns and twists. The ukulele gets a nice strummin’ in “Building a Boat,” as the foundation for a pretty interlude that floats in and out in 1:09 (eat your heart out, Pollardus Robertae). And if I’m gushing, it’s not just the mead talking; what I feel as I hear these songs, when I engage in a tug-and-pull with an honest-to-gods album—particularly over the course of repeated listenings—is something akin to elation.

And sadness. When I hear Schott’s voice in 13 Satellites, it makes me think of Elliott Smith, who ascended to Olympus in 1994 and who sups with the gods to this day, even as he is absented from this physical plane. I think of XO—Smith’s major label debut, a record I have been unable to get out of my system for nearly 15 years—and how very cool it would be to hear a record that good, in that vein, again, albeit from someone else. And though 13 Satellites is pop of super-fine quality, it’s not that record. But for the first time in a while, I think I hear someone who could ascend to that peak, and I’m hopeful that as Schott progresses in his journey, he continues to grow and his muse takes him to places that challenge him, so that, if he does indeed have that record in him, he’s able to get it down and get it out.

The gods and I will be listening.

The Push Stars are the perfect example of a band that could/would/should have been huge.  Their debut album, After the Party, was full of radio friendly pop-rock hits. They easily could have been just as successful as Matchbox Twenty, or at worst, have better name recognition than Eve 6. But as we all know, the music industry is cruel and heartless and the best bands are not always the biggest.

Fast forward 15 years and we find Push Stars lead singer Chris Trapper releasing his sixth solo record. However, The Few & the Far Between is almost a Push Stars reunion record. Almost. It was produced, recorded and mixed by Dan McLoughlin (Push Stars bassist) and features Ryan MacMillan (Current Matchbox Twenty and former Push Stars drummer) on drums.

The Few & the Far Between is Chris Trapper’s most consistent album to date and he brings in a couple heavy hitters to help out. Rob Thomas from Matchbox Twenty sings backup vocals on the opening track and Colin Hay sings and plays slide guitar on the boisterous “The More I Think,” which finds Trapper lamenting the sad state of our country, “Everybody is here, still there is no one around, this is the way the world is now.”

His humble sense of humility is what makes Trapper’s songs so strong. It’s never more apparent the on the drum-less title track “Few and Far Between,” which is about a night on the town from the non-douchebag perspective. Whether his character is saying to a girl at the bar “I walk up to her and say the nights’ still young, breakfast is on me and your friends can all come” or “I drop you home, you ask me up to your room, then we make love but it’s over too soon, my concession prize is I get to hold you,” I found myself either relating to that guy or wishing I used that line back when I was single. He’s the anti-LMFAO; they’re talking about being sexy and knowing it, and Mr. Trapper is talking about being a two-minute hero.

Musically, the album is the Chris Trapper acoustic/pop vein from his earlier works. Chris Trapper’s strong suit has always been his ability to write songs that the listener connects and relates to on a certain level. He makes you feel like you are the person he’s singing about.  The Few & the Far Between is another strong addition to the Chris Trapper/Push Stars catalog.

Bonus: We have a copy of The Few & the Far Between to giveaway! How to win: Simply RT this post on Twitter or Share it on Facebook and you’ll be entered to win.

Listen to his song with Rob Thomas:

And listen to more tracks on Amazon:

Tracklist:
1. Here All Along (featuring Rob Thomas)
2. Long Goodbye
3. The More I Think (featuring Colin Hay)
4. Skin
5. Ghost In Your Arms (featuring Kristin Cifelli)
6. Easy Flyer
7. Few And Far Between
8. Still In Me
9. Eyes Twice The Size
10. Not Normal
11. Search Inside
12. Wake Me With Your Kiss
13. Lonesome Parade (for Phyllis Malloy and Juri Bunetta)
14. Home

Likewise, the fans do not want something that is so foreign and relatively experimental that none of this artist or group’s DNA finds a way to peer through. To make a return to the spotlight even marginally successful, one has to straddle these two. Copy your hits and you’re cynical and lazy. Go way the hell over yonder and you lose sight of whatever it was they loved you for in the first place. This was the fear that hung over Van Halen Mach IV’s A Different Kind Of Truth, an album that returns David Lee Roth to the mic and finds Eddie Van Halen’s son Wolfgang manning the bass.

The group never was the sentimental type anyway, as evidenced in early tunes like “Bottoms Up” and “Everybody Wants Some.” The thought of these elder statesmen of rock (and stare at that phrase awhile…let it burrow into your psyche like a parasite) preening and prancing about and lusting after girls who could be their daughters was not a pleasant prospect. But then again, neither was the concept of a slow, loping drag of a collection that snuggled into those flannel jammies, sipped tea at noon with a side of Nilla wafers, and casually bragged about “what we was.” What was the way forward? Was there a way forward at all or was this merely, as many in this crowd assumed, so much cashing in that famous namecheck, trotting out the oldies on tour, and purporting that it wasn’t really that way because, hey, we’ve got a new album, right?

Right. Very right, in fact.

Van Halen has a new album out and the hopeful pessimists like myself are breathing a sigh of relief. It is not a chaste volume of old timey recollections and boasts, nor the most inappropriate series of jailbait come-ons ever devised half-drunk at three in the morning. It walks the whisper-thin wire of being both and neither, and most importantly, it presents the hardest, wildest boot up the bum these people have produced in decades. As a matter of fact, if one said in the past that VH was a hard rock-pop group (and they were for the most part), they would need to recalculate for A Different Kind Of Truth. This is about as metal as the band has ever been and I, for one, am not complaining.

There are nods to the past, but they remain only nods. The first couple listens to the track “You And Your Blues” recalled “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love,” but refused to linger there, and Roth’s voice showing the age and abuse of many hard-partying years fits the mood of the piece extremely well. His gruff be-bop on “Stay Frosty” is meant to trigger thoughts of “Ice Cream Man,” and they do. When the band punches in, however, the tune becomes a barnstormer and fully allays any fears that this was going to be the softer AOR bow on an otherwise quite aggressive set. On the track “China Town,” Wolfgang Van Halen earns his rank by tearing through a bassline more complex than anything this band has ever done on the low-end. “Big River” has a thunderous, feel-good stomp and a simple sing-along hook of a chorus, and closing “Beats Workin’” applies dumb smiles to faces as it winds its way to conclusion.

Is this the perfect comeback? Well, I can’t say that entirely. Sometimes Roth attempts some lines he just hasn’t the stamina for anymore, and brother does it show. Several years back when Wolfgang joined and Roth came back for the reunion tour, comedian Jim Norton did a parody song called, “We’re Back (And We’re Better Than Ever!)” which slathered on every awful reunion trope conceivable. A Different Kind Of Truth features the rather weak “Blood and Fire” that unfortunately brings Norton’s prediction to fruition. It’s not awful, but it remains the limpest of the bunch, and of the thirteen tracks I heard on the disc, it’s the one that easily nominates itself for exclusion.

With that in mind, the impressive detail is that the rest of the songs do not falter as easily. The band itself goes for the proverbial “it” at every turn, and Eddie Van Halen hasn’t sounded this alive since OU812. The perennially underrated Alex Van Halen shoots up fireworks all through the album. When it needs groove, he grooves. When it needs to boogie, he boogies; and when it is just plain time to be mean to the kit and destroy, he aims to maim. For a frustrated one-time drum student like myself, it is a joy to listen to him flip the rhythm as he does on the opening of “As Is.”

In the past few years I have had the greasy-faced teen in me built up and torn down, over and over, by old favorites who returned to the stage, each time promising things only partially delivered if at all. Chalk it up to the onset of a midlife crisis, where I want to feel like I did without retreating into the dark recesses of regression. Can’t the bands of my youth just get back out there and make good records again? Is that so hard to do and too much to ask? Apparently not because, while it’s not a perfect record or even a perfect Van Halen record, A Different Kind Of Truth is wonderfully cathartic, full of the pyrotechnics of a younger band, but not in denial of where they stand in the present.

Download A Different Kind Of Truth from Amazon.com.

Album: Goatwhore, Blood for the Master
Label: Metal Blade
Release: February 14, 2012

Let’s get this out of the way right now. Goatwhore is the best band on the planet. I worship the ground they walk on and want to have their babies. Okay, so maybe not. But that’s the feeling I get from every mainstream review about this band.

Blood for the Master is easily one of the most anticipated records of the year and in turn Goatwhore has been on pretty much every metal magazine cover in the univers garnering all kinds of ass kissing praise. And let’s face it, it’s kind of sexy to use the word “Goatwhore” on the front of your rag. But I ain’t fucking doing it. No way, not me. I’ve got my own opinion and am just not following the trends…or, wait, shit. I do actually love this record.

In my book Goatwhore was a pretty generic band until 2009’s Carving Out the Eyes of God when they incorporated some thrash-like moments within their black metal sound. With Blood on the Master they stuck with what worked and created a record very similar to its older brother. There’s more fantastic thrash moments mixing in nicely with the core black metal sound and the repetition isn’t there as much this time around. It’s a dirty, grimey record but catchy as hell and well worth the attention it’s getting. So yeah, I’m just like everyone else and tossing this one on my short list for best album of 2012.

“Collapse in Eternal Worth”

Album: Earth, Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light II
Label: Southern Lord
Release: February 14, 2012

Heavens. Earth may be a pioneering drone-doom band but right now they may be the least metal, metal band on the planet. Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light II was recorded at the same time as the first installment was but is quite different. The first disc wasn’t the heaviest thing they’ve ever done for sure, but II strips almost all the metal away and focuses on long winding improvisational pieces with a heavy focus on the cello tones. Even more noticeable is that the drone element of their sound has been scaled back a bit as well which tends to eliminate the repetitiveness that was the only real downfall of the previous record. The 12-minute “The Rakehell” is both the most repetitive and most intriguing song on the record with the best riff present on the disc. The rest of the album is incredibly mellow and almost folkish. There’s no doubt it’s a beautiful record but if you’re expecting something like Earth 2 or Phase 3, then you’re in for disappointment.

“His Teeth Did Brightly Shine”

Album: Drudkh, Eternal Turn of the Wheel
Label: Season of Mist
Release: February 24, 2012

Unbelievably this is Drudkh’s 9th LP since 2003 and with it, a return to their true heathen metal sound. Fans of the band will surely love Eternal Turn of the Wheel as it sounds nothing like 2010’s Handful of Stars. That record alienated a lot of people by taking an almost post-metal turn to the ever changing sound of the group. Many people loved the progression of the sound but even more people didn’t.

With this record, all the post-metal is gone. Instead, back to the forefront are the black metal guitar tones and the vicious screams of Thurios. The production is still polished and better than most black metal records, so we’re not going back all the way to the beginning but this is still the first album from Drudkh that feels like a step backward instead of forward. With most bands a step backwards is a bad thing. With Drudkh it’s the best thing that could have happened.

“When Gods Leave Their Emerald Halls”

Album: Terrorizer, Hordes of Zombies
Label: Season of Mist
Release: February 24, 2012

Holy shit, it’s only been six short years since the last Terrorizer record! For those of you that anticipated the last Morbid Angel record and then promptly deleted your stolen copy from your hard drive, head this way. The Angel’s Pete Sandoval and David Vincent decided they wanted to once again destroy all senses with some brutality and thus Hordes of Zombies was born. Terrorizer gets labeled as grindcore and there’s an element of that for sure, but this is a death metal record first and foremost with brain melting riffs from start to finish. Anthony “Wolf” Rezhawk growls with a brutal fierceness while new guitarist Katina Culture rips shit apart with both speed and melody. With 14 songs all in the 2-3 minute range, you can get in, get beat to shit and get out only losing three or four teeth in the process. Hordes of Zombies is definitely going on the potential list for top albums of 2012.

“Subterfuge”

Album: Pilgrim, Misery Wizard
Label: Metal Blade
Release: February 14, 2012

Pilgrim formed in 2010 to create menacing doom metal and they live up to their promise on their debut record. Over the course of six tracks, four of which are 10 minutes or longer, they slow down and then slow down some more with some bowel rattling low end maniacal riffs. The Wizard, Count Elric the Soothsayer and Krolg, Slayer of Man have put together a quality traditional doom metal album. The problem with the record is that there’s nothing unique about it at all. Even the album title – Misery Wizard – combines the two most used words in doom metal. They are from Rhode Island, so that’s a little different at least. But otherwise, you’ve heard this record 1,000 times before. If you love the traditional sound, then you’ll love this, it’s as simple as that.

“Astaroth”

Album: Aus Der Transzendenz, Breed of a Dying Sun
Label: I, Voidhanger
Release: February 2012

An unidentified group of central European underground black metal artists got together to form Aus Der Transzendenz. With Breed of a Dying Sun they both take black metal a step forward and backwards at the same time. The overall sound is typical of the old-school – raw production and hollow vocals. But they weave in a lot of different chord changes and melodies within their sound, incorporating what feels like a more modern slant to the black metal of yesterday. It ends up being five tracks of dark and dirty black metal that both reminds you of the vintage years and excites you for what is still to come.

Albums currently on the list for top record of 2012:
Goatwhore, Blood for the Master
Terrorizer, Hordes of Zombies
Woods of Ypres, Woods 5: Grey Skies & Electric Light

Album: Immolith, Storm Dragon

Tracks:
1. The Invocation
2. Torch of Baphomet
3. Rites of the Blood Moon
4. Storm Dragon
5. The Ghost Tower of Inverness
6. The Obsidian Throne of Azazel
7. Hymns to the Countess
8. A Pact of Blood

It is no great secret that good US black metal is simply hard to come by. So a group from dirty New Jersey already has its work cut out for it before the first note plays.

Immolith formed back in 2008 and have released two demos up until this point. If you’ve heard them, both are poorly produced and their original version of  “Ghost Tower of Inverness” actually employes the gimmick of having the vocals bounce back and forth between channels. However, they have definitely turned the quality up a notch and ditched the fanciness on their official debut.

Releasing StormDragon through Metalhit.com, a website and label that simply takes albums one at a time with no long term contracts and promotes the hell out of them for the artist, the first thing you notice is the production. The dark cave-like production of old-school black metal isn’t present on this disc even though the sound certainly harkens back a decade or two to the roots of the genre. Singer Isiamon’s dark screams add a terrifying element to the speedy but dark riffs. Lyrically, the content isn’t too different from so many of their peers being mainly about the occult and as “Hymns to the Countess” gives away, much love for Elizabeth Bathory.

The disc is definitely a little repetitive within each song and across the record itself, with the sound varying very little over the course of its eight tunes. The one track that really does offer up something a little different from the other tunes is the album closer, “A Pact of Blood,” with varies its riffs a little bit, slows down at various points and even offers a complete shift in tunage in the middle . “Ghost Tower” has been on both demos but this is easily the best version I’ve heard of it and “Hymns to the Countess” was also recorded previously. The rest of the tunes appear to be new, led by the aforementioned “A Pact of Blood” and “Torch of Baphomet.”

Even with the repetitiveness of the disc, StormDragon would be solid black metal in any country but in the US probably belongs somewhere near the top of the pile.

Take a listen to the newest version of “Hymns to the Countess” and see for yourself.
(download)

Album: The 11th Hour, Lacrima Mortis

Tracks:
1. We All Die Alone
2. Rain on Me
3. The Death of Life
4. Tears of the Bereaved
5. Reunion Illusion
6. Nothing but Pain
7. Bury Me

The 11th Hour is mainly Ed Warby who plays all the instruments on the album and has the clean vocals. He employs Pim Blankenstein to do the growling for him. Lacrima Mortis is a bit confusing all around to be honest and I felt the same way when I heard the 2009 debut, Burden of Grief. They are billed as doom metal though as you listen you don’t feel much doom like you do with bands that stick to the usual formula. The confusion starts though with the cover art, a close-up of a tear drop exiting a woman’s eye. That screams out lame Lacuna Coil record. The music itself is filled with a lot of strings making it feel more like symphonic metal than doom. And based on the cover and sound, you’d expect a female singer, which doesn’t exist in this group. So it’s kind of messing with my thought process with the disc.

I get why they are billed as doom metal though. Most of the riffs are downtuned and creep along at a snails pace, which contributes to the fact that all but the closing track are between seven and nine minutes long. Blankenstein’s growls add sinister moments here and there and based off of song titles like “Tears of the Bereaved” and “We All Die Alone” the main message is of despair and sorrow. All this combined should create a record that is depressing as hell and yet, it’s not. In fact, when I listen to it, I have very little feeling at all.

The other side to this is that the disc is actually pretty good. All the tracks are very listenable and there’s not one moment that I want to turn it off but I don’t know that I’d seek it out either. That was the exact same thing with the debut album. Lacrima Mortis once again shows that the 11th Hour is a solid band but there’s just something that’s not quite there yet and it’s hard to pinpoint exactly what that is. Until someone does, I have a feeling they are simply destined to create music that’s decent but never really wows anyone.

Tracks:
1. Life is the Symptom
2. Fragments of Torpor
3. Hominal Peel Diggers
4. Blood-Nurtured Nature
5. Consuming the Fleshly Wax
6. Thick Slabs of Moribund Fat
7. Contribution to your Dis-Elaboration
8. Exile of Sanity

Maybe I’m starving for good music right now or my evil soul has turned blacker recently. If its not either of those things then it’s totally shocked that I’m so into the debut album from Macabra.

Blood-Nurtured Nature is a darkened death metal album led by the US based Mark Riddick playing all the instruments and Belgian vocalist Adrien “Liquifier” Weber (yeah, how cool is the name “Liquifier?) It’s kind of got a lo-fi almost demo feel to it and harkens back more to ’90s death than anything current, something like Italy’s mysterious Mortuary Drape.

Recorded in a funerarium in Belgium in 2011, the overall sound is very raw and while Riddick has been around the block with other projects, musically the album is relatively basic death metal. The inclusion of synths on “Thick Slabs of Moribund Fat” make that tune stand out among the eight as it definitely has a somewhat funeral parlor creepy vibe to it. “Contribution To Your Dis-Elaboration” also employs those synths, slows the tempo down and adds some groove into the mix. Liqifier’s growls are spot on throughout the disc which completely make this listenable.

Overall the album really isn’t anything special but for some reason the rawness of it and great vocals are what’s making me listen to this over and over again. Check out the track “Hominal Peel Diggers” if you dare. (download)

Tracks:
1. Quicker than Liquor
2. What’s Wrong with Me
3. Medication Nation
4. Drug Store Truck
5. The Only Time I’m Sober Is When You’re Gone
6. Cheap Wine, Cheap Ramen
7. Down the Drain
8. Sleepless Nights and Bar Room Fights
9. Friend of the Devil
10. Ten Long Years In Texas
11. I Hate Every Bone In Your Body Except Mine
12. Take Me Away

By this point everyone knows that Al Jourgensen has gotten Ministry back together and they are about to release a new record. But in the meantime, how many of you were aware that he’s finally released his country record from his alter ego, Buck Satan and the 666 Shooters?”

So Al took his buddies from the current incarnation of Ministry, Mike Scaccia (Rigor Mortis) and Tony Campos (Static-X) and added the unlikely paring of Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick to create this flat-out enjoyable slab of Americana. Coming from angry Al, I would like to call this Hellbilly, but it’s really more fun than that.

It’s not like there’s anything really new here. Although kind of funny, “The Only Time I’m Sober Is When You’re Gone” and “I Hate Every Bone In Your Body Except Mine” seem like titles I’ve heard 100 times before. “Quicker Than Liquor” is one of the catchiest tunes on the record though with the definitive way to off yourself the quickest; “If you want to die much quicker / the answer isn’t liquor / and the answer’s gotta be / heroin and cocaine.” “Sleepless Nights and Bar Room Fights” is indicating the only two things they do right but the third thing is making this super fiddle-filled good time song.

Although this will probably be a one-off record for Al, it doesn’t necessarily feel like a novelty record that much. It’s over 50 minutes long, so he put a lot of effort into making a full album and he seems to know his country music. It’s certainly not anything like what you’d expect from the guy behind Ministry and the Revolting Cocks but it’s a damn fine record if you like some good ol’ beer swillin’ country music.

“Quicker than Liquor”

Album: Iron Fire, Voyage of the Damned
Label: Napalm
Release: January 27, 2012

Tracks:
1. The Dark Beyond
2. Enter Oblivion OJ-666
3. Taken
4. Slaughter of Souls
5. Leviathan
6. The Final Odyssey
7. Ten Years In Space
8. Voyage of the Damned
9. With Different Eyes
10.Dreams of the Dead Moon
11.Verge to Collide
12.Realm of Madness

Iron Fire is Iron Fire. I probably could end the review there and any true power metal fan would understand. But for those that aren’t, this is a very typical power metal record but has a twist or turn here and there.

To like an Iron Fire record first starts with being able to tolerate Martin Steene’s often nasally vocals. If that doesn’t bother you (and it doesn’t bother me) then it’s about the rhythm section which happen to be pretty tight on their seventh album. But this time around, it’s simply the quality of the tracks themselves that leave you feeling let down.

What used to be a pretty revolving lineup that Steene put together has now actually been in place since 2004 and has recorded five albums together. I liked the previous four but I have to admit that while good, the last couple haven’t really brought anything new to the table. Unfortunately, neither does their new one. It’s a power metal record almost by the books however the growls on “Slaughter of Souls” and strings present in the otherwise pedestrian “Taken” add a slightly different element to their sound.

But for each good track is one like “Leviathan” which lacks any sort of catchiness and seems to have no clear direction. “Ten Years In Space” starts out with a fierce riff that gets abandoned only a minute into the track and at over 10 minutes, the epic length title track feels like it goes on forever.

Iron Fire’s always going to make decent records but unfortunately, Voyage of the Damned sounds like their least inspired in quite a while.

Album: Orange Goblin, A Eulogy For the Damned
Label: Candlelight
Release: February 14, 2012

Tracks:
1. Red Tide Rising
2. Stand for Something
3. Acid Trial
4. The Filthy & the Few
5. Save Me from Myself
6. The Fog
7. Return to Mars
8. Death of Aquarius
9. The Bishop’s Wolf
10.A Eulogy for the Damned

Orange Goblin has always been one of those bands for me that I absolutely know I should like more than I do. They’ve been around since 1995 and have made quite a name for themselves in the stoner metal scene over the years. While each of their previous six albums have had many fantastic moments, they also tend to have a dud here or there and thus I’d never found them to be terribly consistent. However, there’s something to be said for the fact that I continue to go back to them every now and again with high hopes each time I listen.

Enter A Eulogy For the Damned, their first album in five long years. While they’ve never exactly been mellow dudes, the break seems to have provided them with some great aggression and energy this time around. And consistency is no longer an issue. Except for a moment here and there, Eulogy very much rocks from start to finish.

Moreso than any other album they’ve done, there’s a higher rock quotient than metal present. You can especially hear that in “Save Me From Myself” with its radio ready melodic breakdown and harmony vocals. There’s a good mix of the rock and stoner metal throughout the record though. There are moments like in “Acid Trial” that they simply downtune and hit you over the head with heaviness. But “The Filthy & the Few” speeds up and becomes a rockin’ riff fest. The only moment of the record that is odd for me is the seven minute title track ending the disc. There’s four minutes in the middle that are simply fantastic, surrounded by a minute-and-a-half of slop on either side. The mellow intro is a bit of a mess but it slides right into some of the heaviest rocking they’ve ever put on disc with a riff in the chorus that sounds somewhere between Clutch and Velvet Revolver. The song repeats itself way too long at the end and includes an awkward fade out but in between it’s awesome.

Overall, their first record for Candlelight is pretty damn fantastic. Rockin’, riff-tastic and possibly the best record from start to finish that they’ve released yet.

“Red Tide Rising”