Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Immolation - Close to a World Below (2000)
While I agree that Bob Vigna deserves all the praise he receives I also think that it's a bit tragic that not much is said of former guitarist Tom Wilkinson's many contributions to the band's sound up until this point (as CTAWB would be his final album with the band). It's as if he's been forgotten since his departure so long ago. Too bad, as the difference between the last four albums and the first four is pretty obvious. From 'Dawn...' up until 'Close...' the band's compositions were loaded to the brim with bizarre eccentricities and an unmistakable "evilness" that was seemingly inherent to the band's sound, whether they could help it or not. Since Wilkinson's departure the band had lost much of the weirdness that made listening to Immolation such a unique experience to begin with.
CTAWB is a veritable smorgasbord of odd timing, eerie string bends and harmonics derived from the swamps of some misbegotten netherworld. There is never a dull moment on this record and the band even goes so far as to incorporate a few more elements into their style previously unheard.
It's clearly evident that drummer Alex Hernandez was coming into his own this time around. That's not to say that he sounded out of place on the band's previous longplayer, 'Failures for Gods', but this time around you can hear a bit of the technique that he had employed during his time with Fallen Christ. Up until that point, CTAWB was the fastest Immolation album as the band were finally allowing full on blast beats to be added to the mix.
It's almost as if the album cover was an indication that the band's collective brilliance was at an end and there was nowhere else to go after this. The demons had won. Christ was burning in Hell and the band had served its ultimate purpose. Sure, they haven't committed any sort of musically treasonous act such as Morbid Angel nor did they jump on the black metal bandwagon as a countless sum of their generational peers had done in the years prior to this albums release, but as evidenced with Deicide and the lot of their output post-Legion, Immolation had simply run out of gas and ideas and it would take a few albums for them to realize that. Despite the fact that 'Majesty and decay' is a pretty damn good album, I do not feel that it's quite on the same level as CTAWB or the trio of albums before it, though it's certainly a level or two beyond the dull mediocrity of 'Harnessing...' and 'Shadows...'. Whether or not Immolation returns to the bizarre nethervoid that spawned their first four albums remains to be seen.
Carcass - Necroticism: Descanting the Insalubrious (1991)
For many years it was hard for me to fully embrace N:DTI, yet oddly enough, I couldn't resist popping it into the tape deck, quite often at that. While the band were clearly making huge technical advancements, they were also improving their overall songwriting technique. N:DTI is loaded with catchy hooks and memorable riffs and there is an undeniable and dare I say, "dreamy" atmosphere that hovers over the proceedings, though for the most part, aside from a few oddball moments, this is still a very violent sounding record.
One of the things that I found it difficult to accept in those days was the increasing absence of Bill Steer's frog-like croak. One of and perhaps the biggest draw back in the early years was the absolutely vile sounding dual vocal delivery between Steer and bassist Jeff Walker. they sounded like a vulture fighting over a cadaver with a burping swamp. The fact that Jeff was becoming the dominant vocal presence sort of bummed me out. Bill isn't entirely out of the picture though and there are some winning trade-offs between the two, but I would have like to have heard a bit of the old formula applied to this album.
As the years have turned into decades, I have found myself appreciating this album as well as its successor, '93's Heartwork, more and more. Hearing the absolute mastery the band had over their instruments and marveling over their rather uncanny ability to craft songs that even the gods themselves are unable to produce makes the disinterest the band had in creating 'Swansong' that much more painful to behold. Up until that point, the achievements of the band were second to none in terms of the advancement heard from each album to the next. I can say with absolute confidence that Necroticism is without a doubt a masterpiece and a monolith of human accomplishment. Though the style of metal may differ slightly, Necroticism easily sits beside Ride the Lightning and Peace Sells... in terms of brilliant composition, craftsmanship and diversity. I have a strange feeling that the impending comeback album is going to be a pleasant surprise despite the detractors.
Like unto the gods themselves...
Monday, February 4, 2013
Cannibal Corpse - Tomb of the Mutilated (1992)
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The thing about early CC that many fail to recognize or remember, for that matter, is that there was a sincere creepiness about their music coupled with the ultra-lecherous vibe of Chris Barnes' lyrical content and his rather deadpan vocal delivery (yeah, yeah, yeah, they were low and "gurgly" and all that good shit, but there was something disturbingly lifeless about his particular approach on this album). Sure, 'Entrails Ripped from a Virgin's Cunt' or 'Addicted to Vaginal Skin' are sure to catch everyone's attention but it's the absolutely horrific and ultra-skeevy title 'Necropedophile' that is the true rotten gem, complete with a sound bite of children frolicking about in a playground, fading into darkness. I mean, ugh! You need a brillo pad and a bottle of bleach in order to scrub your brain clean of that experience. For all the Devourment's, Disgorge's and whoever the fuck else out there, Cannibal Corpse was the first and the worst in terms of horrendously offensive lyrical content and once Chris Barnes "pissed in her maggot filled asshole', that was it. Everyone can go home now.
Cannibal hadn't quite reached the pinnacle of every musician's delusions, which is the quest to enhance one's technical prowess (The tried and true killer of vibes) so there is no shortage of filth and grime to wash down each and every sordid utterance to come dripping through the microphone. Sure, all of the "musicians" out there will continue to piss and moan about the lack of arpeggios and "breathtaking" leads, but fuck 'em, I mean, how "advanced" and melodic is a band called Cannibal Corpse supposed to sound, eh? Nah, CC delivered with 'Tomb...', big time!
Unfortunately, 'Tomb...' would be the last of its kind as much of the blood and semen encrusted on this album would be wiped clean on the band's next outing, 'The Bleeding', a rather neutered affair that seen the band moving further away from their grimy roots.
Ignivomous - Contragenesis (2012)
Believe me, they certainly have the right idea. Crushing low end and smothering guitars. Evil atmosphere, etc. So what exactly is it that doesn't quite feel right? For one, there are vast chasms of uninteresting moments, despite all that the band seems to get right. Each release by the band has been traditionally loaded with moments that make me go "they should've done that" or "what were they thinking". That's not to say that where they do end up going is such a terrible place, but they seem to have a tendency to follow up good ideas with ones that are not so good. Perhaps boring is the word. believe me, I get where the band is coming from and I wholeheartedly approve, but whereas bands such as Incantation or Immolation have a knack for writing infernal music with a bit of a kooky touch thrown in for good measure, Ignivomous doesn't really add anything to the fire. That's the problem I have with a lot of these types of Incantation-worship bands. They have the right idea and I can't fault them for their enthusiasm, but a large sum of them are just really not very interesting. They have the sound. They have the lyrics and the imagery, but they don't have that peculiar something that made the elder ones so great to begin with. Kind of sucks too, as I was really looking forward to this album after their promising debut, but unfortunately 'Contragenesis' just sort of meanders around the same piece of turf from which 'Death Transmutation' had crawled out of.
There's certainly an audience for this band and you could do much, much worse and perhaps I'm just being overly picky, but again, I can't shake the notion that Ignivimous spaced out an ingredient when concocting this album. Oh well, there's always the next album.
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