Baazlvaat - An Old Forgotten Text (2022) / 85%

 

A New Merging of Genres

This mysterious entity from Flint, Michigan, a location I know only because of its controversial water, delivers another bewildering ride of an album. Last year's The Higher Power was a surprising record that made a few waves here and there and this one just expands on the themes previously explored there. Before we go any further I need to say that I disagree with the assessment that many people share about metal, it's not stale or a dead genre. There's a lot of experimentation to be found and Baazlvaat are a band that's not afraid to burn the house down and rebuild it with funkier components.

Baazlvaat are sort of like Black Magick SS if they weren't masturbating to Nazi imagery and were, for the most part, actually playing metal.They're the sort of band with a solid main identity in one particular style (in their case it's black metal) who's also adding an array of extraneous elements. I'm a big fan of kitchen sink bands such as Leeches of Lore, Tjolgtjar or Bretwaldas of Heathen Doom and this American duo certainly explored the fridge thoroughly.

They merge the exploratory side of psych rock, the loose aspects of lo fi rock, the rawness of black metal, the synth presence of dungeon synth/synthpop/symphonic black metal or the playfulness melodicism of heavy metal. This exhausting list creates one pungent mix of influences that's hard to classify or pinpoint but easy to get entranced by. It's not a confused mess at all, there's an assurance in their varied but cohesive songs that's hard to ignore.

A song like "Three Heads from the Black Depths" evokes the retro groovy rock/metal of Uncle Acid or Graveyard but adds piano and unhinged raw harsh vocals while a song like "Cold Sky Ice Frosten'" brings forth a sort of shred heavy metal mood. Furthermore, there's a Middle-eastern break in the final track followed by clean vocals akin to lo-fi epic heavy metal and there's a blues/country break in "The Missing Key". It's insane.

The pièce de résistance of the album is certainly the almost nine minutes "The Iron Lung", a monumental epic black/heavy metal track and it reminds me of both Agatus and Wytch Hazel (the dandyness in the riffing) in spirit but it's combined with a sort of outsider art approach that makes it peculiar. Still,the most important is the quality of their compositions and they deliver that in spades and while it overstays its welcome a bit, the album has no real weak moments. An Old Forgotten Text is definitely not for everyone and its originality resides in the merging of existing elements instead of the creation of new ones but the ability of combining styles well is still a feat in itself.

Bandcamp

Lays - Flavour mashup special - Ketchup + Cheese and Dill Pickle + White Cheddar

Those brand new Lays flavours are pretty cool! There's a third one called BBQ+ Sweet Chili Heat but the store I went to were out, I'm sure it rules as well

Lays Ketchup + Cheese

The simple yet effective packaging is reflected in this top notch mix of flavours. It's not for the snobs with refined palet but more for the working class who grew up with mums who sometimes had to cook Kraft Dinner mac and cheese and add some tomato sauce to it to make it less bland. Often served with sliced hot dogs too. I always liked those flavours so I was sold right from the start. I am but a simple man finding pleasures in simple things.

Merging the Lays Ketchup flavour with the cheesy taste of Cheetos isn't a simple task and I'm surprised the mortals from Frito Lay accomplished it with such a resounding success. "Two iconic flavours combined" is what we were promised and that's what we got. The Ketchup Lays are honestly a top 5 flavours and I always prefered a simple chip to the soft, spongy texture of cheetos (the hard ones are legit) so that's a godsend. 

At first, it's nothing impressive but then it hits you, the simplicity, the difficult yet accomplished mission of The Merging, the tasteful aura of nostalgia, it all creates such a powerful blow to the taste buds that it cannot be ignored.

Lays Dill Pickles + White Cheddar

I like dill pickles chips well enough. Those new spicy Miss Vickies were one of the most talked chips I've seen in years and for good reason, they were outstanding. What about this merging of powers we have here though? Well, it's certainly interesting and successful. One of the weaknesses of dill pickles chips is their acidity and saltiness, it's good but it makes them a "only once in a while" purchase, same for salt and vinegar chips.

The big difference here is how the white cheddar (from the Smartfood white cheddar popcorn) flavour blocks some of the saltiness of the dill pickles and adds a sort of enjoyable creaminess. Maybe like a cheesy dill dip!? I now want to eat them with the new Doritos cheese dips (world changer to be honest) and be fat forever. It's a more eatable dill pickle chips, it's dangerous as it's faster to finish a bag!

Lays redeems themselves after a few disgusting flavours, the two Chinese inspired bags I tried (Chicken and Tomato, Cucumber) were awful but those two are worth trying for sure.

Top 10 of 2021

 

Here's my top 10 of the year of albums I actually bought. Pretty much only Stormkeep is absent because I wasn't fast enough to get a copy and it's sold out now.

Tower - Shock to the System (Cruz Del Sur Music, CD)Fronted by who's possibly the best singer in heavy metal right now, Tower plays blistering and amazing trad metal with everything at its rightful spot. it's old school but it feels fresh. While the twin guitars and the rest of the instrumentation could be seen as an afterthought as opposed to Sarabeth Linden's immense vocals, I love the leads and solos a lot and it's not the case at all. They lead the way in that bludgeoning and burgeoning female fronted American heavy metal with bands such as Shadowland, Sanhedrin, Sölicitör, Midnight Dice or Savage Master. My album of the year.

Darkthrone - Eternal Hails.....  (Peaceville, CD and vinyl)
I'm a big fan of "modern" or later days Darkthrone as shown by the fact I got it on vinyl and CD. I think Nocturno and Fenriz can do no wrong and they've been in my top 10s every time they released something since Circle the Wagons in 2010hey managed to please me once again with a completely different direction than Old Star or Arctic Thunder. It's epic long songs with a raw touch and a doomy spacey feel throughout. I loved the whole album but the ambient ending of the last track "Lost Arcane City of Uppåkra" was perhaps my favorite piece of music this year.

Amyl & The Sniffers - Comfort to Me (Rough Trade, ATO Records, CD)Insanely catchy and aggressive punk from Australia fronted by a small ball of blond energy. With well written, take no prisoners and feminist lyrics, Amy's natural and honest raw vocal delivery is a great combination with the ferocious riffs and the dynamic rhythm section. Memorable punk with a lovable energy

Steel Bearing Hand - Slay in Hell (Carbonized Records, Tape)

2021 was a good year for thrash, great albums were released by Nekromantheon or Mystic Storm but Steel Bearing Hand ruled supremely hard. Intense, epic, violent and hellish death/thrash with insane solos is what you're getting here. It doesn't mess around.

Full review on here and on Metal Archives

Morgul Blade - Fell Sorceries Abound (No Remorse Records)

Quite possibly my surprise of the year, Morgul Blade's debut album is a worthy mix of epic heavy metal, folk metal (reminds me of Mithotyn a bit) and dungeon synth. They combine both harsh vocals with clean ones and it works well, it feels like blackened epic fantasy heavy metal most of the time and that's my kind of stuff for damn sure. It's tightly condensed, well written and has definite highs such as the ballad "Oak in the Mist". Awesome album.

Eisenhand - Fires Within (Dying Victims Productions)

Austrian Eisenhand play one of my favorite kind of heavy metal, it's raw, riffy and intently lo-fi. Their band pic has a bike, an axe, a suede jacket and a rifle. They sound exactly like that. Underrated album worth your time if you're into Brocas Helm and the likes. Big balls energy. This gives me the same feel as Demon Bitch while they're pretty different, I have yet to find out why.

Idles - Crawler (Partisan Records, orange tape)

After a disappointing third album in Ultra Mono, the brits are back in full force with Crawler, a dark record that fits the mood I'm in right now. Super varied, the album explores electronic industrial dance music (Car Crash) to powerviolence (Wizz), Nick Cave-ish power ballads (The Beachland Ballroom) while mixing it with their usual abrasive post-punk direction. It still works and it's cohesive as hell in its madness.

Dread Sovereign - Alchemical Warfare (Metal Blade Records)

I'm a big fan of Primordial but I never could fully get behind Dread Sovereign, the doom metal project of their leader Alan Averill until this album. It's a bit more traditional in its composition and grooves a bit more than their overlong debut album. It's some sort of hybrid between trad doom, heavy metal with some hints of black (proto black?!) here and there and has one of my favorite cover art of the year.

Herzel - le dernier rempart (Gates of Hell Records)

I was a big fan of Herzel's debut demo and it took them a while to release a full length but it was worth the wait. The Bretons play long form epic heavy metal in French and it's remarkable. The use of folkloric instruments (the bombarde!!) adds an unique element to their sound but they already were unique before that. Influenced by Manowar, Virgin Steele or Warlord, they're able to craft timeless heavy metal worthy of the tales they tell.

Antichrist Siege Machine - Purifying Blade (Profound Lore Records)

One of the most punishing albums of the year alongside Concrete Winds, ASM plays some sort of super fast war metal and it's just a lovely 30 mins. It destroys like a sharpened blade, not much more to say, really.