Be'Lakor - Of Breath And Bone

Be'lakor are a band I’ve been meaning to get round to listening to for a while now. Mainly because every single music recommendation service I have signed up for has recommended them. With the discovery of their latest album, Of Breath And Bone, on the money-pit that is Bandcamp I thought it about time I gave it a whirl.


Cut from the same cloth as melodeath legends Insomnium and recent favourites Omnium Gatherum, Be'lakor have presented a beautifully crafted melodic death album to the world while eschewing a name that ends in “-um”. Stylistically sitting about halfway between the previously mentioned bands, Be'lakor incorporate thundering rhythms and lyrical dexterity with intricate melody and a healthy helping of blast beats and crunchy riffage.


Lyrically the songs on Of Breath And Bone are one of two sorts. The earlier tracks are cryptic but clear enough to infer the disquieting gist, and the latter are fully fledged stories of loss and despair, as is fitting for the genre. I have quite enjoyed sitting with the lyrics and deciphering the songs as I listen. Some I still have no clue about, but even the imagery evoked by the short choruses is packed with mystery and gothic charm.


Even the songs with complete stories can take some deciphering. Absit Omen, for instance, seems for all the world cryptic and impenetrable on first listen, but a couple of goes in and with the lyrics handy there is an “Oooh!” moment when it clicks. In Parting is another brilliant track telling a heavy hitting story of loss and ignorance that gets all the way to the crushing finale before eliciting a wide-eyed “holy shit” from this listener.


The nature of the tales, the delicately balance melody and heaviness, the morality plays and the tales if helplessness are all captured, somewhat whimsically perhaps, in the cover art. A slightly modified version of Gabriel Ferrier’s Chaperon Rouge insinuates an unseen, unsettling extra depth to the tales within.


On the whole I am very glad I gave this album a listen. Now I need to go back and acquire the band’s first two albums which, from what I hear on the Internet, are just as good. I think Be'lakor’s only flaw is that they are in a saturated market. In the last 5 years the number of melodeath bands has risen immensely and it becomes hard to stand out from the crowd. It’s so easy for the music to disappear into the noise. To become “just another beautifully crafted melodic death album.” Omnium Gatherum’s latest failed to inspire as its predecessor, New World Shadows, had done, not because it was bad, but because it was nothing new. Thankfully for Be'lakor the melodeath ingredients have been added in just the right quantities and mixed in just the right way to make something worthy of remark.

Dark Tranquillity get all doomy

Hot on the heels of yesterday's Amon Amarth flavoured excitement comes today's news that Dark Tranquillity have released a preview of the new album Construct. The new song, titled For Broken Words, is a doomy sort of a song. A departure from recent DT records and the band's signature style. The band's spokesperson is quoted to have said "This is one of the heaviest and most brooding tracks from "Construct", so it's a good candidate for the online premiere song position. More music from the album will be presented shortly."

Have a listen here:

Amon Amarth reveal that new album will be about Vikings

Amon Amarth have caused uproar in the online metal community by releasing a free track from their new album. And it's the title track, too! Deceiver Of The Gods will be properly released eventually when they get around to it, possibly June. In the meantime, have a listen to this:

Aquilus - Classical black metal infusion for the mind

I discovered Aquilus and their latest album Griseus quite by accident on bandcamp recently, and was immediately intrigued. As far as I can tell (although I could be wrong) this is a one man project combining black and folk metal with contemporary classical music. One Horace Rosenqvist is the only listed member, and if he is really doing this alone then I can only admire his significant musical talent.

The music itself is reminiscent of many things; Agalloch, perhaps, for the black metal/folk infusion and vocal style; Opeth, for the proggier guitar riffs that punctuate the songs; Handel, Grieg, Vivaldi, and any number of modern classical musicians for the beautifully intricate, occasionally delicate, sometimes soaring classical sections that fit seamlessly between the disquieting rasp of the black metal and jangly folk guitars.

At over and hour long, with some of the songs stretching over quarter of an hour each, this is a time consuming yet thoroughly rewarding listening experience. While there are 8 songs on the album, I have so far listened to it all at once several times over so it has taken on the feeling of a single 80 minute soundscape, ever rolling, rising, falling as the styles shift seamlessly new parts appear, vanish and reappear to make sure it never feels repetitive or dull.

If you like classical and metal, and even more if you like the sound of combining the two, I’d heartily recommend giving this a listen. According to the one Facebook post that has so far been made on the band page, the second album is already in production. Watch this space, then, I suppose!

Mostly Autumn - Ghost Moon Orchestra

Coming both suddenly and after what feels like an age, Mostly Autumn have finally released their second album since Olivia Sparnenn took the vocal reins. Ghost Moon Orchestra is a shift in style for Mostly Autumn, presumably to take advantage of the abilities of their new singer.

Ostensibly this is a loose concept album about the titular Ghost Moon Orchestra, a supernatural array of spiritual musicians playing the music of the world. From the lyrics, it’s apparent that the orchestra of malevolent, the devil himself seeing competition in the race to damnation. When you hear the orchestra, they’re playing your song. And when you hear your song, your time is up.

In fact only a few tracks appear to feature the Ghost Moon Orchestra itself, including the superb album opener Unquiet Tears. Combining the best of Heartful Of Sky’s disquieting sections with a new symphonic sound really showcases Olivia’s vocals and shows her to be more than just Heather Findlay MkII.

This style is continued on and off through the album, in particular on the title track and Wild Eyes Skies. It’s a departure from their usual style, but seems to have injected some much needed energy into the release after the pleasant but ultimately forgettable Go Well Diamond Heart.

It’s said that one should take the rough with the smooth, though, and there is some rough on this album. Most particularly track 3, a Josh-fronted blues rocker entitled The Devil And The Orchestra. In fact, Bryan’s vocals seem weak and, in most cases, off key until track five. The trademark lyrical clunkers are there, too. “Some of you buggers go up to eleven” is a terrible lyric to include in an otherwise wonderfully atmospheric track, and “hungry” only has two syllables. You’ll know it when you hear it. It’s jarring.

The rest of the album from track five is back on form, though, with the previously noted Wild Eyes Skies being the pinnacle from which Top Of The World carries it through the finish line.

Overall, then, this is a good album with a healthy dose of the new symphonic style complementing some good, traditionally Mostly Autumnal tracks. Get rid of track 3 entirely and take Bryan’s parts out of tracks 1, 2 and 4 and this would be great album. As it is it’s tainted with a frustrated annoyance as each clunky, missung note and lyrical faux pas detracts from the listening experience. It’s a shame because it feels like, had it gone once more through the mangle, all these kinks could have been ironed out. Still, I shall continue to listen because the good is very good, and the bad is not so bad that it ruins the experience completely.

Except track 3. I always skip track 3.

Gwynbleidd - Nostalgia

One album I missed from yesterday's roundup of the last month's listening was the new album from Brooklyn prog death outfit Gwynbleidd. Nostalgia was actually released in 2009 but has taken a while to get across the pond and into my ears.

At first I assumed the band were Welsh, given the rather bizarre name, but no. New Yorkers they are. Well, expat Poles living in New York. The name apparently comes from A. Sapkowski's "The Sword of Fate" and is the name given by some elves to some other guy. I haven't read the book so I can't really elaborate meaningfully on it.

The album itself, then, is an interesting beasty. On first listen, your response is likely to be similar to mine; they sound just like Opeth. Except, they don't. There are many similar elements, downtuned riffs, mournful guitar punctuating the complex bass and drum backing. It's more like taking the heaviest bits of Opeth from Orchid to Blackwater Park, grinding them up and using them to inspire and fertilise a bush of progressive death metal. Sinuous vines of lead guitar weaving in and out of the dense branches of bass and growled vocals, the drum providing a solid, unmovable root and the topmost leaves comprised of the delicate percussion that gives texture and depth. Okay, so the bush analogy is a bit weird, but you get the idea.

The album flows from section to section, passage to passage smoothly and logically. The soundscape it creates sounds more like one long composition than separate songs, and this is definitely an album you'll want to listen to in its entirety. I'm not sure why it's taken so long to hear anything from this band, but I'm glad I finally have.

Woods Of Ypres - Woods 5: Grey Skies And Electric Light

In December last year I found out about a band under the worst possible circumstances. David Gold, frontman to black/doom metallers Woods Of Ypres was killed in a car crash at age 31. The same age I was at the time. A sobering moment indeed. And it is with that sobriety that I cannot help listening to the band's unintentionally final album, Woods 5: Grey Skies And Electric Light. I have tried, for the purpose of impartiality, to separate the music from the tragedy, but given the album's subject matter I have found it impossible.

The core of the album's subject matter deals with death, loss and the impermanence of life. Much of the album deals with the thought that this life is all you get, going so far as, in Death Is Not An Exit, stating that there is nothing after this. It's almost a more depressing album that Sentenced's The Cold White Light, although often dealing with the nature of death rather than the actuality of it.

Given all that, it would be reasonable to assume that the album is musically depressing, too. Packed with morose dirges and downbeat drones. Nothing could be further from the truth. Indeed, the riffs are catchy, the rhythm is strong and the verse-chorus-verse structure makes from some memorable songs that it's easy to sing along to, getting the head nodding and the emotions stirring. Some songs feature some light orchestration, and a lilting oboe adds a quiet mournfulness to Travelling Alone. There have been many, many comparisons to Type O Negative, and I'll make another, but only in tone and vocal style, Gold's baritone voice carrying the weight of the lyrics beautifully. The songs on Woods 5 are, in a morbid way, far more upbeat than the comparison would suggest.

This dichotomy of musical versus lyrical mood adds power to the messages behind each song. It's not just some doom/goth band being morose for the sake of it; it's a band singing about the truth of life, and death, warts and hurt and pain and all. Even the ostensibly pro-life songs Death Is Not An Exit, Adora Vivos and Career Suicide (Is Not Real Suicide) manage to carry this world weary knowledge that life is for now because this really is all there is. The best we can manage is getting to the end without making a complete hash of it. There is no god, no fate, no greater truth to bail you out.

Woods 5 has rapidly crept up my list of best albums of 2012, and is both tribute and memorial to David Gold. This album, with its posthumously prophetic songs Kiss My Ashes Goodbye, Finality and Alternate Ending, will leave its mark on the world of metal for a good while to come. A fitting, unfortunate end to Woods Of Ypres musical career.

Anathema - Weather Systems

I've spent several hours pondering this opening sentence. Up to now, this is the best I've come up with. How do I start describing Weather Systems, the new album from Anathema, undisputed masters of emotionally engaging prog? Since my pre-ordered copy dropped onto my doormat a little under a fortnight ago, it's been on constant rotation on my iPod. I've woken up to it, dozed off to it, used it to relax during the hectic work day and as background music during the evening. From the opening bars it grabs you, puts you in the right place to take note and listen.

Is this album a masterpiece? Of course. A worthy successor to We're Here Because We're Here? Most certainly. In fact, I might even stretch to saying that I consider it a better album. There is certainly a heavier rock presence to be felt, and the orchestration is simply stunning. It is a different emotional beast; while We're Here ... was tentatively upbeat, sorrow, anguish and even anger flow too through the vocal tenderness of Vincent Cavanagh and, with a far greater presence than on previous albums, Lee Douglas.

Lee's feminine counterpoint to Vincent's vocal style works really well. The parts she sings alone are beautiful, and when the two come together, the duets are superb. Her rendition of Lightning Song makes it a highlight of the album.

The songs that makes up Weather Systems flow together to provide consistency, but the songs themselves lift and soften, quiet for a calming introspection, building to breath-taking crescendos before falling again. It is, in truth, a very exhilirating album to listen to. While the dips are tranquil, almost soporific, the anticipation of the next stirring peak is energising and, when it arrives, immensely satisfying.

The Storm Before The Calm is the longest, most interesting song on Weather Systems. At just over nine minutes, it's a complex, multi-faceted, progressive beast of a track. And it is where the aforementioned anguish and anger shine through the most. Opening with a trippy, echoey introduction backed with an even paced, pulse-like drum beat, it builds in whirring, buzzing electronic noise giving an unmistakeable impression of a mind in turmoil. The confusion is palpable, the sounds, melody and beat whorling through the listeners mind before, suddenly, it stops, shifting to a softer vocal, a piano melody, and a moment of clarity. The song builds, the orchestra picking up and lifting it to a pinnacle of emotional outburst, then slowly trails off. Not so slow as to drag, nor so quick as to finish too soon. It drifts to a gentle, natural conclusion, a feather-light descent to a peaceful ending.

While Weather Systems is a spiritual successor to We're Here Because We're Here, it has a different aesthetic entirely. In some ways, influences from other genres seems evident. As the music flows, with its lifts and falls, the impassioned intensity reminds me of the works of Sigur Rós. The back and forth between Lee and Vincent's vocals at the end of The Storm Before The Calm is reminiscent of Arcade Fire's interplay between Win Butler and Régine Chassagne. Arguably those two bands should be embraced as much by the prog community as the indie rock community, the breadth and complexity of their work being far greater than their counterparts.

Weather Systems ends with a voiceover describing a near death experience, tying together the emotional weight of the record and bringing it to a peaceful, contemplative and altogether philosophical close, whether you believe in such things or not.

This album represents a tour de force of progressive rock. It is a culmination of Anathema's journey from Hindsight to We're Here Because We're Here, to the reimagination and reorchestration of Falling Deeper. It is an oustanding musical achievement.

Weather Systems is available directly from Kscope in a special digibook edition with a DVD containing a 5.1 surround mix of the album.

Sanguine - Self-titled

My first experience of Sanguine was on the New Blood stage at Bloodstock 2011. First impressions were simple "Crikey", followed swiftly by "she's got quite a set of pipes!" That was in reference, of course, to lead singer Tarin Kerrey's startling mix of clean, screamed and growled vocals that took me quite by surprise. I picked up a copy of their EP, Live, Consume, Drive and enjoyed it immensely. Six months later and I discover that the band was ready to release their eponymous debut album. I secured a signed copy of the CD, being still a fan of the physical medium, and eagerly awaited its arrival.

Sanguine's sound is primarily alt-metal, although throughout the album they pull influences from all over the place. From gothic to death to ... dance? Everything gets the Sanguine metal treatment. This eclectic mix of genres comes from the band's stated intention to break down the walls between genres, as exemplified by Tarin Kerrey's statement in the band's bio:

"Sanguine are on a mission to break down the walls that divide the genre's and show the world that you can be anything you want to be - as long as it has fire, passion and kicks ass!" Tarin Kerrey

Listening to the album for the first time, you'd be forgiven for thinking that Sanguine are completely bonkers. The ridiculously catchy Contagious, for example, with its infectious silly lyrics. Then there are straight up rock tracks like Simplify, Anger Song and Live, Consume, Drive, providing the aforementioned kick-ass metal vibe. Things are taken down a notch, in a sense, for Given Up, the more balladic A Place That You Call Home and the utterly miserable In The Sky. There's even a place for the band's seedier side in Bangkok Nights.

But it never lets up, with growled backing vocals from Nick Magee, distortion and synthesisers providing ambience, and of course the metal triumvirate of guitar, bass and drums driving proceedings with great riffs, memorable melodies and a selection of songs that always surprises, never rests on a particular style or repetition. Every song is totally different, and memorable in its own right.

Sanguine has already seen some success with their earlier work, and this debut album demonstrates that the length and breadth of this band's creativity is just getting started. Well worth a listen, and even sing along, if you can match those epic vocals.

Get a copy direct from Sanguin at sanguineband.com

Swallow The Sun - The Emerald Forest And The Blackbird

Music is a fickle thing. Sometimes you listen to something and it immediately grabs you. Sometimes it make you excited. Sometimes it evokes deep seated loathing. But the important thing is that it evokes something. A feeling, a reaction, an emotion ... even an overwhelming ennui that makes you turn it off and never listen to it again. Anything, in fact, is better than nothing at all.

The Emerald Forest And The Blackbird, the latest album from Finnish death/doom band Swallow The Sun, arrived in the post a couple of weeks ago. I've listened to it several times, and it's perplexing me.

Fundamentally, it's exactly the sort of thing I like. A mix of heavy death metal moments complementing softer, doomier sections laced with theatrics and narrative. It has a number of songs that have immediately worked their way into my subconscious like all the best mind-worms (better than ear-worms, which are often superficially catchy) and are instantly recognisable. There's even a bit of blackened death going on in tracks like Hate, Lead The Way and Hearts Wide Shut. It should all be very exciting. And this is the root of what is perplexing me.

The fact is that, while the songs are catchy, well played, and I enjoy listening to them, the album as a whole leaves me flat. A Swallow The Sun album should be crushingly depressing, or alluringly disquieting, or engagingly melodramatic, or something. But instead it feels almost easy listening. The album starts, I sing along to This Cut Is The Deepest, rock out to Hate, Lead The Way, marvel at the beautiful Cathedral Walls, feel all gothic for Labyrinth of London and get more than a little confused by April 14th. But when the album ends, life goes back to how it was before it started. There is no lasting effect.

I am wondering if, in part, this is because it failed to meet my expectations as a concept album. For a while now the common knowledge is that Emerald Forest is a concept album about a father talking to his dying child. It would certainly be a fitting topic for a Finnish doom band. But if that is the concept, then it doesn't survive beyond the end of the opening track. For sure, the opening track fits that concept very well, and is quite effective at conveying the sadness of the narrative, but then it ends. This Cut Is The Deepest, the second track, has absolutely nothing to do with the first track at all. Hate, Lead The Way, too, being blackened death with some pretty effective blackened vocals to match, is different again. In fact, the whole album is something of a mixed bag of topics and styles, sometimes jarringly so.

Perhaps the most effective track on the whole album is Cathedral Walls, the video of which I posted a while ago. The interplay between Mikko Kotamäki's verses and Anette Olzon's guest vocals on chorus makes for a haunting and engaging song. The inclusion of death growls in the middle provide a crescendo of sorts, and is probably the most satisfying track on the album.

Now, I don't want this post to be all doom and gloom. The album has some good songs on it, and I'm wondering if my somewhat apathetic reception of it is more to do with the apparent lack of cohesive concept than any failure of songwriting, musicianship or production. Having listened to it over ten times, it's obvious that it is not boring or unpleasant to listen to. It must have something about it, even if that something is an enigmatic je ne sais quoi. I'm just wondering if I need a lightbulb moment to really "get" it.

One thing I will say, in closing, is that I love the album art. It's somehow complex, yet minimalist, and the black on white is certainly unusual for a metal album. The touch of green sets it off nicely, and makes it stand out as a unique example of bucking the usual metal artwork trends.

Illuminatus - Glasnost

Sometimes when looking for new music to listen to, an older name crops up. Sometimes it's so subtle that you don't even notice. So it was with Illuminatus, a metal band from Nottingham. After seeing the video for Murdocracy a couple of weeks ago, I was very excited to hear the rest of the album, assuming it to be a new release. Not so. It was, in fact, release early last year.

It turns out that I have, in fact, seen Illuminatus play live. They toured their first album, The Wrath Of The Lambs, back in 2008. I saw them supporting My Ruin at Sheffield Corporation, along with Sanctorum and Speed Theory. They were the first up, and so were, unjustly, consigned to my memory as "that first support band who were really good but I can't remember their name". Such realisations make me wonder how much other cool stuff I could have found by being a little less drunk and forgetful at gigs in the past.

But on to the matter at hand; Glasnost. As may be expected by the title of both the album and the video Murdocracy, the lyrical themes of this album are corrupt governments, powerless individuals and the futility of war. Released last year to some high praise, and securing Illuminatus slots at Download and Damnation (which I missed, damnit), it cemented the band's great reputation. And rightly so. It's catchy as hell and the bombardment of heavy beats, riffs and hooks is energising. I'd love to be in the crowd to see them play this album live. It might might be the most upbeat of subject matter, but it's definitely one to get the crowd going.

Several tracks stand out from the pack, including the aforementioned Murdocracy, Keep Calm And Carry On, Red and Clarity. The vocals are a mix of clean and screams and fit the style perfectly, giving the music and urgency and an energy that's infectious. The band shun the scenes, the bandwagons and fashions of the times, steering clear of genre labels and the associated assumptions. This shows through in the simple honestly of the style. It's pure heavy metal, with guitar solos, epic riffs and thundering drums, while still being both melodic and atmospheric with a progginess shining through on many of the songs.

The album slows down toward the end, with Clarity having a much more classic rock feel to it, giving a different perspective on the album. The energy of the beginning of the album dissipates, but with some crushing riffs and amazing guitar work providing a slower, yet no less heavy experience. The bombardment eases, leading to a slow nodding of the head to the wail of the guitars, the steady rhythm of the drum and the soft pitter-patter of the cymbal. Slower, yet no less powerful, and picking up again right at the end of Wolves! to end the album as it began.

Having been thoroughly impressed by Glasnost, and having used it to rock out in the car while stuck in traffic on my way home in an evening, I shall be checking out the band's earlier material. The band's upcoming gig list is a little sparse (actually it's completely empty) but I'll be keeping an eye out for them in the future. Cracking stuff.

New Anathema? Available for pre-order!

I've obviously taken my eye off the ball when it comes to Anathema. I only found out about Falling Deeper the week before it was released, and here I find that there was a new album announced in December and I completely missed that, too.

Titled "Weather Systems", the new album is a follow-up to 2010's We're Here Because We're Here. Daniel Cavanagh has said that the album will be one of polarities; light and shade, life and death, love and fear. This time the album was mastered and produced by Christer-André Cederberg rather than Steven Wilson, so it will be interesting to see what a difference it may make to the sound. Lee Douglas's vocals will also have more of a presence on Weather Systems as her contribution to the band continues to increase.

The track listing as presented on Kscope's buy page is:

1. Untouchable Part 1 (6.14)
2. Untouchable Part 2 (5.33)
3. The Gathering Of The Clouds (3.27)
4. Lightning Song (5.25)
5. Sunlight (4.55)
6. The Storm Before The Calm (9.24)
7. The Beginning And The End (4.53)
8. The Lost Child (7.02)
9. Internal Landscapes (8.52)

Weather Systems isn't out until April 9th, but it's available to pre-order now from Kscope. I'm sure more details will be added to the band's website as the release date gets closer.

Alcest - Les Voyages de l'Âme

I forget where I first heard it, but when I was introduced to the concept of shoegazer black metal, I knew it would be something I'd fall in love with. Having been a fan of post-metal for some time, and in recent months having found a renewed affinity with the more esoteric sub-genres of black metal, I almost knew what to expect from Alcest's latest album, Les Voyages de l'Âme (The Journeys Of The Soul), before I ever heard it. It did not disappoint.

Alcest have been around for quite a while, in one guise or another, although starting life as a solo project of Neige (Stéphane Paut) in 2000. Originally a black metal band, the band has slowly been moving away from straight black metal into an otherworldly mix of dense soundscapes, post-metal grooves and black metal influences. The concept behind the band's direction are childhood memories of distant, imaginary worlds.

“Alcest - that is music from another world, a world that is real, but that exists beyond ours and cannot be grasped by our senses. A world where all appearances - trees, glades, streams - emit a pearly light and where a faraway and celestial music fills the air like sweet perfume. A world inhabited by infinitely benevolent and protective beings of light, communicating in a wordless 'language' directly from one soul to another. A world where the soul knows neither pain nor sickness nor sorrow, but is filled with a deep peace and an ineffable bliss. A world that lies 'before' and 'after,' 'beside' and 'behind' our world and the awareness of which stills mankind's fears of death.” http://www.alcest-music.com/

Despite my GCSE grade French not being up to the task, the French lyrics pose no problem in enjoying the musical experience. The production is densely layered, and the mix of clean and screamed vocals merge in and out of the droning, resounding guitars, making them an integral part of the music. The drum work, too, comes forward, and fades away, carrying the heartbeat of the songs as the melody carries the spirit. The imagery is easy to get lost in, despite the specifics being lost on me, and the tone and soft melodies are almost hypnotic.

The music is not, as most black metal derivatives, depressing or angry. There is melancholy, or at least nostalgia, caught up in what can only be described as an uplifting, if somewhat unreal, experience. As with other shoegazing music, I find it easy to listen to this music before sleep, to guarantee a pleasant, peaceful night. This album has been described as a culmination of what Alcest is about, and eschews dark imagery in favour of lighter refrains. The music seems to completely embrace the listener, but never feels heavy or stressful.

All things considered, it's hard to find fault with Les Voyages… at all. Despite several listens, the songs do seem to run together somewhat, so I can't imagine listening to any one track in isolation. It's all or nothing with this album, but then, I suppose that's the nature of this type of music. A 50 minute musical journey to fairyland, and not understanding a word of it.

Cormorant - Dwellings

I'm always on the lookout for new, exciting music to listen to, so when a whole slew of blogs I read all started singing the praises of Cormorant, I really had to have a listen. There were a number of things that attracted me to their latest album, Dwellings, including the amazing album art, the promise of 70s hard rock inspired progressive metal and the depth and quality of the lyrics and themes of the album.

As I'm sure I've mentioned before, I'm a sucker for album art, and the artwork for Dwellings is a thing to behold. There is a tiny version shown here, but you need to see the full size piece to appreciate just how much is going on.

The album is full of beautifully described concepts and lyrical themes. Each song tells a story, some literally, some conceptually, and some recounting specific historical events. From Philipe Petit, who walked a tightrope between the twin towers, to Vladimir Komarov, the first human being to die during spaceflight, the range of tales is broad and frequently disturbing. Stories of human achievement on the one hand, and stories of genocide, eugenics and violence on the other. In The Purest Land, the story of Lope de Aguirre, conquistador, tells of grandiose self-delusion. In Junta, violence against the women of Guinea in the 2009 uprising led by Moussa Dadis Camara are described in a harrowing recounting of those horrific events.

Understanding the story is part of the essence of Dwellings. The theme that ties the whole album together is that of human structures, building stories and striving to be more than they are, however they achieve it. From the humble, determined cosmonaut, the arrogant funambulist or the crazed conquistador, they all have their stories to tell.

Musically the album is a joy to listen to. The mix of styles moving quickly, not relying on hooks but fluidly shifting with the story to capture the feeling of the moment. The musicianship is superb, the guitar riffs complementing the drum work and the ever-shifting vocal style. It's hard to explain how the music works because it changes so much, swings between styles and incorporates so much. The stand-out track for me is Funambulist, which has everything from progressive black metal passages to an almost ambient doom section at the end, with a distinctly 70s prog middle bit.

As with their previous album, Metazoa, and earlier EP The Last Tree, Dwellings is self-released and is a labour of love. It really shows. The production is exactly right, the story and music working hand in hand to carry the listener, and to challenge them. Some of it is hard and heavy, and other parts are lighter, melodically lifting pieces that somehow evoke a feeling of great freedom, as in the Funambulist, or of painful nostalgia, as in A Howling Dust.

After the great year that 2011 turned out to be for metal, starting the year with an album as spectacularly good as this has to be a good thing.

Vyrion

I knew it was a bad idea posting my best-of list before the actual end of the year. There was bound to be something crop up that made me think I should have waited. And this time, that something is Vyrion, with their self-titled debut. I discovered these Aussie progressive black metallers via a review on Angry Metal Guy, and something about them piqued my interest. The wonderful symmetrical logo was what made me pause to read the review, and the promise of progressive black metal with death and doom elements made me go listen.

The sound is truly a strange conglomeration. It's most definitely progressive black metal, but the vocals are a varied mix of black metal screams and hoarse whispers, death metal growls and grunts, and a good amount of clean singing. Quite often within the same song. The music, too, does similar twists and turns, from a driving, brutal blackened prog onslaught to more intricate, even melodic, death riffs. It's like the evil lovechild of Agalloch, Insomnium and Satyricon, which could turn out to be something of a random mish-mash if they weren't careful.

Fortunately it seems that have been careful, because it actually works really well. The songs are all cohesive, unique and distinct. After a brief tinkly-tonkly intro, the first track, Ever Rising Platform, sets your expectations of what this album is about, deftly switching between styles with some great riffs. It gets better as the album progresses, with Mortal Frame getting heavier and heavier, and The Decider being, for me, where it really gets going. Such is the nature of the beast, though, that while it has the heaviest opening riff, it also has a section where it turns to pure prog, with some great clean guitar work before the main riff bursts back in with matching screams.

The album continues apace with Winter Vector, featuring a rather minimalist main riff that turns into high-speed drum work before suddenly turning very soft and creepy in the middle, then bursting back into melodic black metal at the end. Disengage is just a bit strange, chugging number with some almost thrash-like riffs thrown in for good measure and then, suddenly, a soft-rock, clean vocal chorus. Most peculiar, but strike me down if it doesn't work brilliantly.

The thrash is all gone by the time Rendering The Lifeless starts up, and instead a slow, doomy riff takes over. The riffs are all melodic death metal, while the clean and screamed vocals switch and overlay each other in complicated and sometimes mind-bending ways. The Silence starts slow but speeds up significantly and turns into perhaps the most traditional black metal track on the album, despite being heavy with a definitely doom metal bass riff. Of course, this doesn't last and by the end of the track there is a 70s styled prog riff underpinning overlaid death growls and black metal screams.

Penultimate track The Decision brings blastbeats into the mix, more duelling growls and screams and a heavy, driving riff that propels the song into a crazy mix of slow, sombre riffs, high speed death metal and slow, contemplative blackened prog. The album concludes with Sole Remainder, a track that turns everything that went before on its head. Starting with a slow guitar melody and clean vocals reminiscent of Damnation era Opeth, it switches to blackened thrash and back again effortlessly and to a creepy and somewhat unsettling effect.

If the feeling you get from reading this description is that this album is an incoherent jumble of styles, you couldn't be more wrong. The switches between the various styles employed is not abrupt, nor are they at odds with each other. Instead, every change of style fits the song, and when two or more are employed, they complement rather than hideously contrast each other. It is at the same time both heavy and hard-hitting, and soft and melodic. It is a beautiful chimera incorporating the best of many worlds. If you like melodic death, black, blackened folk or progressive metal, there's something for you here. If, like me, you like all of the above, then this is a masterpiece.

This album is available via the band's bandcamp page on a pay-what-you-want basis for downloads, or as a physical CD for $10AUD, which is about £6.42 by my reckoning. It's also available to stream for free. So really, there's absolutely no excuse not to give it a listen and, if you like it, support an up-and-coming band who I hope to hear a lot more from.

Nightwish - Imaginaerum

After a four year wait to see what Nightwish would do next, we finally have an answer in Imaginaerum. It's been hotly anticipated for several months now with speculation, interviews and snippets to keep everyone interested, and the other day a copy plopped onto my doormat. Having given it a few spins, I've been collecting my thoughts on what is a very complex piece. As much a cohesive whole as a collection of songs, it builds nicely on 2007's Dark Passion Play, carrying across a similar feel while being entirely new and, in many cases, very unexpected.

The whole album is built around the concept of a composer's thoughts on his deathbed, marking a lifetime of experience, imagination and pure fantasy. It has been produced alongside a film of the same name, sharing similar concepts and storyline, and so makes the album's "film score" style sound a more obvious fit. Always one for grandiose and theatrical works, Tuomas Holopainen has proven his songwriting ability.

The style of the album is, to be frank, all over the place. From traditionally "Nightwish style" tracks in Storytime and Last Ride Of The Day, to a spaghetti western style in Turn Loose The Mermaids and veering wildly into slow jazz for Slow, Love, Slow. But each song, while standing alone, fits well with the rest. Such is the quality of the songwriting that each one has its own feel, its own emotional connection, and yet builds on the cohesive whole of the album's concept.

There are some truly touching moments along the journey. Slow, Love, Slow builds a gentle yet heavy emotional base that's dashed to pieces by a frankly disturbing turn in Scaretale, which is both terrifying and, in one particular section, is somewhat reminiscent of Devin Townsend's Deconstruction for total out-there weirdness. My personal favourite for sheer emotional weight has to be Turn Loose The Mermaids which, while lyrically simple, has a complex musical style and really shows off Annete's vocal talents.

Other highlights include Rest Calm which, despite the name, is closer to heavy doom metal than anything restful or calm. Arabesque conjours up images of Whoever Brings The Night with a distinctly Arabian Nights feel. The 14 minute epic Song Of Myself, including a 6 minute recital of a poem with some quite disturbing themes, finishes off the album except for the outro and title track which pulls together everything that's come before into a theme song for the album.

There has been a lot of expectation, speculation and discussion of this album prior to its launch, and it's defied every possible expectation. It is a magnificent work, cohesive, emotionally powerful and quite brilliant. Any doubts that Nightwish could better Dark Passion Play have been dashed. If this is the new direction of the new era of Nightwish, then long may it continue.

Insomnium - One For Sorrow

You know it's a good year for metal when Insomnium release a new album. It's often said that the only people who don't like Insomnium are people who haven't heard Insomnium, and One For Sorrow doesn't seem set to change that any time soon.

Right from the off this is immediately recognisable as an Insomnium record, from the whispered, almost instrumental opening track to the heavy yet intricate melodies. Not wishing to rest on their laurels, while still maintaining their signature sound, there are some interesting additions.

The first, and most notable, variation is an interesting play on clean vocals in a death metal album. The clean vocals overlay the deep and resonating growls making for a menacing and certainly unsettling sound. This technique is used several times and always works well. The rest of the time the vocals are pure growl, as can be expected, nay, demanded from a band so firmly entrenched in the melodic death genre.

The other new thing is a purely instrumental track that seems to be the antithesis of Insomnium; Decoherence is so tranquil and gentle I have dozed off while listening to it, only to nearly jump out of my skin at the opening bars of Lay The Ghost To Rest.

The rest of the album is loosely based around One For Sorrow, a traditional rhyme steeped in superstition. The subject and lyrics of the rhyme vary from place to place, but it is always based around crows, magpies, jackdaws or blackbirds, the number of which tell the fortune of the beholder. The rhyme goes up to ten birds, and so there are ten tracks (well, eleven on the limited edition). Each one explores something new, although the link between the song and the matching line from the rhyme isn't always obvious.

It's almost impossible to be disappointed with this album. I'm sure some would have liked more progression, or at least more variety, but this album represents more a honing of a style than a departure from one. If you like Insomnium, you will like One For Sorrow. And if you don't, then you obviously haven't heard them yet.

Anathema - Falling Deeper

Some bands reinvent themselves. Some stay the same. Some produce the odd concept album or try something totally other once in a while. But surely the masters of reinvention have to be Anathema. With their latest foray into the wildly unexpected they have produced Falling Deeper; an orchestral, almost neo-classical, reworking of some of their older doom songs.

Ostensibly a follow-up to Hindsight, which saw rearrangements of various Anathema songs, Falling Deeper takes the whole concept to a far reaching conclusion. It may be a step too far for some. Most of the songs are unrecognisable from their heavy, guitar driven origins.

The whole project got started by Danny Cavanagh who was playing with piano arrangements, and who then was inspired to include a 26 piece orchestra. For lovers of modern classical pieces, film scores and related orchestral noodling, this album is sure to tick every box.

As a relatively recent convert to Anathema fandom (A Natural Disaster being the first album I heard) I was unaware of, or at least not entirely familiar with, many of the original tracks. I've since gone through a sort of Anathemic nostalgia, listening to the new and the old together. I can safely say that Falling Deeper is a work on its own, and not a remix or reissue of older material.

The music itself, then, is a very relaxing, emotionally charged experience. Crescendo follows lull follows crescendo as the music builds and falls for the relatively short 38 minute run time. While it's easy to zone out and experience it washing over you, the melodies that made the original tracks so great still draws you in, intertwined with the soaring strings and the soft, yet powerful vocals.

Of all the tracks reworked for this album, it's hard to pick particular highlights. Crestfallen and Sleep In Sanity start proceedings as they mean to go on. Everwake's dreamlike soundscape and beautiful vocal is a real pleasure, and Sunset Of Age completes the album with exhilarating, yet somewhat disquieting, aplomb.

It's been rumoured that Anathema is in the studio recording all new material for release early next year. If and when they tour the new material, I can't help but hope they bring the orchestra along so I can experience Falling Deeper in the best way to experience any Anathema track; live, up close and heart wrenchingly personal.

Pain Of Salvation - Road Salt Two

I wrote about Pain Of Salvations last album, Road Salt One, quite some time ago now. I talked about the raw emotion, the excellent songwriting, and the fantastic production. It's still one of my favourite albums. And now I there is a sequel, the unsurprisingly titled Road Salt Two.

This is the second half of the Road Salt concept, a pair of albums exploring life, emotion, and human interaction. In many ways, it's more of the same. I could wax lyrical about it in much the same way as Road Salt One because, in truth, it is very, very similar. It's almost a second disk to accompany the first. And this is no bad thing.

The same basic structure is used again, with the recurring theme of "the road" cropping up time and again. But the lyrical themes take a turn here. They are more mature, they are the end of the journey, whereas Road Salt One told of the beginning. The walker isn't walking the road any more. He's sitting, exhausted, and remembering everything that has gone before.

There is a peculiar quality to the production that makes the album feel a lot older than it is. Subtle use of distortion imbues in the listener a sense of nostalgia. The beautifully short, yet poignant, 1979 really pins that nostalgia down. Where Road Salt One was about struggling through life, Road Salt Two is about breaking point. About looking back at what is gone, and facing what has to come.

Some familiar aspects of Road Salt One come back for a second outing. The grizzled blues rock of the walker is back in Of Salt, and the cacophonous, deeply disturbing carnival sound of Wait, Darling, Wait returns in Break, Darling, Break. A suitably painful reworking of the familiar sound.

While the album should be taken as a whole, and all the tracks are superb, there are a number that stand out. The aforementioned 1979 is one, the somewhat disquieting Eleven, and To The Shoreline, which is Road Salt Two's answer to Sisters. The Deeper Cut, Through The Distance and Healing Now are also brilliant songs in their own right.

I'm sure some would be disappointed in the apparent lack of progress since Road Salt One. I'm not. Road Salt Two is exactly what I wanted it to be; a completion of Road Salt One. Not diverging too far to be a different concept, but not similar enough to be the same album all over again. This is the end of the road, and it has been both a pleasure and a heartache to walk it.

Mastodon - The Hunter

There has been a lot of buzz around The Hunter, the latest album from American sludge metal band Mastodon, from a variety of intriguingly different sources. The usual metal media has, of course, been posting the latest news and views, but it's also been heavily talked about in prog rock circles. It's been billed as the "other" prog album of the year, alongside Opeth's Heritage.

If The Hunter is prog, it's a very different kind of prog to Heritage indeed. The songs clock in between 2:36 for the wonderfully titled Blasteroid and 5:31 for The Sparrow. None of your usual 15 minute, multi-part prog noodling here.

In truth, while previous Mastodon albums have been conceptual masterpieces, painting a huge canvas across the whole album, The Hunter feels more like a collection of singles. And yet, at the same time, it doesn't. While the songs are distinct and stand alone, they also work together. There is a definite common theme of "wood" running through the album, from the obvious forestry in Curl of the Burl to the wooden figurehead on the cover.

The songs veer wildly from style to style, from the psychedelic twiddling of Stargasm, the heavy metal of Spectrelight, the straight up pop/rock of Curl of the Burl and the melodic, emotional strains of the title track. The sound is dense and consuming, with great drum work underpinning the guitar riffs and multitude of vocal styles.

The vocals have caused some controversy in the press for the use of autotune, amongst other effects. To be honest, if I hadn't been told, I wouldn't have known, so it's not like the obnoxious roboto-vocals so popular in the pop world right now. The band all seem to have a crack at it, with vocal harmonies coming in to play.

Having bought the special edition version, there are some extra goodies. A full set of music videos that can be watched in track order to provide a great immersive experience, and a somewhat gimmicky "augmented reality" bit. With the use of a webcam, you can replace your head with the … um … creature from the album cover art. I haven't tried it yet.

There is a great variety on this album, and it's both easy to listen to as background, catchy enough to get your attention, as well as providing a wonderful experience if you want to get caught up in the music. I think the fact that in little over a week I have racked up 125 scrobbles says it all.