Metal Bounty Hunter Volume 12

 

The Metal Bounty Hunter series is back with four short-ish reviews, all about doom and heavy this time.

Zodiac - Stone Command (2015) / 85%

Digitally Challenged: Part 6 The Zodiac Killer?

This short lived doom band from Brisbane impressed me a lot with their final recording, a three track extended play released on tape by the excellent Heavy Chains Records. Three of the members are now playing in Knifer, some sort of Motorheadish heavy/speed metal about booze, but Zodiac was all about traditional doom metal.

The first two tracks are around five or six minutes, both faster affairs while Legacy is close to ten and encompasses their sound well. The nasal vocals by Ben Peters can obviously recall the legends of Sabbath and Pagan Altar and he does a great job at reciting the classic occult but fun lyrics reminding me of Cathedral or Witchfinder General. Their production is pretty tight and professional, the two guitars are heavy and super punchy, delivering riffs that would please any doomsters and top notch solos as well (check “The Devil’s Cavalry”). All in all, it’s honest, hard working, blue collar doom that’s super well written and on the edge of being memorable. A shame they died, really.

Eldritch Rites - Hell And Doom And Days Long Gone (2020) / 82%

Pub doom

The trio from Melbourne plays raw heavy/doom with an unhinged passion possibly fueled by liquor. Also evolving as Open Door of Doom but with a designated English singer, Eldritch Rites are pretty fun stuff unfortunately plagued by a lackluster production. It’s sort of like it was recorded live in the pub on the weekend to make sure the dudes had an easy access to booze served by the devil. I can’t really blame them to be fair.

Regardless of my first impressions about the production, this is a band with strong musicianship and songwriting, it’s more layered than I was expecting to be. It’s downtrodden trad doom made by men in their thirties or forties and it’s fairly effective at its goal. Songs like “If These Walls Could Speak” are miserable, it’s heavy, slow and makes you feel like you just got divorced and she’ll obviously get the kids and even the dog. 10 minutes closer “They Came to Raise the Dead” has this epic but still raw feel and ends with “Lunar”, a joyful but mournful acoustic guitar recalling English progressive folk.

There’s a certain English mood throughout the album and it’s also encompassed in how sad it is. Dudes, there’s koalas in Australia, why are so fucking sad? Go check how slow they move or something. The guitar playing of Shayne Joseph (also in prog rock/heavy metallers Trebuchet) is quite excellent, it’s pretty brutal, crunchy for the genre (see “Witch Woman”) and has this heavy rock quality to it. His vocals possess this sort of accented exaggeration and they wouldn’t be out of place in a Monty Python sketch about witches or some shit.

Recommended if you like your doom cooked slow and possibly still blood red.

Assembly at Dusk - Assembly at Dusk (2013) / 88%

Digitally Challenged: Part 7 We leave at dawn.

“Got the tape, I'll write a review during my Christmas break. Thanks a lot!” - yours truly in 2013

Well, better late than never, you know. Sorry dudes! I’ve been meaning to tackle this tape for years now as it’s very good metal deserving of more scrutiny. Unfortunately, Connecticut’s Assembly At Dusk broke up shortly after I failed to write a review for this compilation regrouping the two demos they did in 2013. Their take on heavy metal was fairly fresh at the time and I feel it’s something that could be somewhat trendy today with bands like Spirit Adrift. The super melodic but tight vocals of Jeffrey Schaefer (hopefully related to the redneck terrorist we all know) are the most powerful aspect of the band but the compositions are top notch too.

Their sound as its core is epic heavy metal but there’s a lot of doom (think The Gates of Slumber) and even some blackened elements in how the riffs are composed. “Money, Gods and Greed” or “Before This City is Aflame” pretty much sounds like black/heavy metal with clean vox, almost a mix of Enslaved and Manilla Road. Even if it was record in the basement of their guitarist, I think the production is excellent, especially for demos, I’d prefer the vox to be a bit more on forefront but I barely have any complaints about the crunchy riffs and the black & tremolo infused leads. Their songs are intricate and most are around the six minute mark, they’re filled with details and there’s no filler here.

They’re another sublime band who died too quickly, this is still on their Bandcamp so no excuses not to check ‘em out.

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Trebuchet – Trebuchet (2020) / 70%

Not quite breaking down the walls yet

Formed by Dave Gilbert (who’s also in four other bands I’ve never heard of) and Shayne Joseph (Eldritch Rites, Dire Fate…), Trebuchet plays an interesting form of doom metal with strong ties to the past. It could be described as some sort of proto doom with a lot of psychedelic, hard rock and progressive rock influences. While on paper, this sounds like a dream to me, I wasn’t super crazy about them. I’d rather go back to Quicksand Dream or Realmbuilder.

The self titled full length starts with two ten minutes tracks and they’re both too long for nothing. I usually like long songs but those two bored me real quickly. The three other songs are shorter, all around seven minutes. “Girl from the Fen” right in the middle of the album is a soporific ballad but the two other more metal tracks don’t really go anywhere either for me. As much as I like Geddy, Ozzy or Terry, Dave Gilbert’s vocals aren’t for me and I don’t like the fuzzy effects on ‘em, probably there to hide the fact they’re not good at all. With that said, I quite like the guitar tone and would have liked to life the riffs and songs more. There’s some good moments here and there but they’re a bit too few for my liking. I might applaud how well they mix the different genres though, that's not really the problem I have with them. Just found the album mostly boring, you know. To conclude, I’m sad I didn’t enjoy this. Semi epic doom/prog about the Middle ages with a name like Trebuchet? Maybe my expectations were too high.

Kybalion - Poisoned Ash (2020)

Primal Australian Pummeling 

The first release by Kybalion, a one man band created by the only man I know in Western Australia is a strong slab of pummeling metal with a diverse but fully integrated source of influences. Knowing what Caspian Yurisich, a father of two from Bunbury, likes, I wasn’t really surprised to see what he did here but I wasn’t expecting it to be that heavy. Caspian is known for his love for drone but he’s a peculiar dude into a lot of things.

Poisoned Ash is a four songs EP mixing the slow hard hitting riffs of doom/death with the hypnotic feel of drone/doom and it’s impressive in its minimalism. It’s stripped down heavy doom to its roots, a big machine made to crush you but also make you feel things deep inside. The drums are programmed and I never really had a problem with that unlike some purists, they sound good and add a cold, almost mechanical feel to the project. It’s a dichotomy when compared to the warm bass and the expressive riffs. Yurisich doesn’t really use lead guitars and there’s, frankly, no need to have any solos whatsoever here. The last track, the nine minutes epic “Absinthe Tide” uses melodica to conclude the album to great effects instead, it’s peculiar and original. That song also includes some melancholic or atmospheric doom elements that wouldn’t be out of place on a My Dying Bride album. “Background Man” also has a really noise/drone conclusion and it fits the manically repetitive riff well. It alternates between fast paced and crushingly slow but it’s always cohesive and well written.

Yurisich’s vocals aren’t really good but he was smart enough to throw them to the background, they sound like they’re in a really hot cave down in the deserted, savage lands of western Australia where the only thing close to being alive you can find is a snoring koala high on eucalyptus leaves (I know that’s not true but please don’t ruin my jokes for me.) His vocals are far away harsh chanting, not too dissimilar from the heaviest stoner/doom bands around in terms of intonation. Not super competent but they’re not something detrimental to my enjoyment of the album, quite the opposite. They add to the primeval or primal atmosphere of the project.

All in all, Kybalion is a breath of fresh air as far as doom/death is concerned. I can’t really think of a band that sounds like them to be honest and that’s a good thing for 2020. Take Jesu and maybe Earth, throw some primitive caveman riffs that are dumbed down purposely and you almost get their sound. Recommended for adventurous doomed explorers.

Bandcamp

StarGazer - A Merging to the Boundless (2016) / 96%

Academic War Metal

This is a seriously weird but addictive album and its wide mix of elements shouldn’t work as well as it does. The Australian trio cultivates a mysterious and magical aura throughout their elusive albums. This 2014 effort was released 4 years after the excellent A Great Work of Ages and I bet it’s gonna take a while to get a new one. This is fine though since despite the short length of this album, there’s so many things to discover on every spin. The fact that the members are involved in other high caliber bands such as Mournful Congregation or Cauldron Black Ram (if you’re not familiar with both of them, check them out too) could also explain the long periods between full lengths.

While I certainly like straight death metal with no frills or gimmicks, I do prefer adventurous bands unleashing weirdness upon weirdness. That’s why I think Horrendous released one of the best recent death metal albums with  Ecdysis and it’s probably why Opeth is my favorite band (I guess they still count as death metal, right?). StarGazer are definitely one of those exploratory bands and they have an unparalleled vision. Traveling through avant-garde seas like their fellow Australians Portal, I do feel this trio made their experimental blend of extreme metal more natural by removing the obsessive Lovecraftian horror element of The Curator’s band. The most impressive component of this trio is their level of musicianship, it’s simply through the roof. They’re basically Australia’s extremely cult response to Rush, Atheist, Death but also to Incantation and Demilich, if this makes sense. Like their other compatriot Ulcerate, the trio consisting of the usual metal instruments are able to push the generic envelope of such a formula but contrary to the Everything Is Fire Tasmanians, they don’t do it by creating a massive wall of sound. They do it with a superbly smart sound full of intelligent moments like no one else.

What’s also exceptional about them is their ability to integrate an experimental approach so easily in their songs. They almost hide the fact that they’re weird by just being riff machines, a good example of this would be “Black Gammon”, the aggressive opener. The song starts in a somewhat safe way but then bludgeon you with insane bass licks.

There’s also the variations in moods and tempos that are quite interesting, “An Earth Rides Its Endless Carousel” has this smooth section incorporated with ease and it’s just unbelievable. There’s also some brief clean vocals to accentuate the transition. Speaking of vocals, I’ll admit I can really say who of either Damon Good (known as The Great Righteous Destroyer here) or Denny Blake (The Serpent Inquisitor) are singing since they share the duty but there’s a grand variety of extreme metal vocals styles. From deep, cavernous growls to the more traditional thrashy death style (opening of “Incense and Aeolian Chaos”), and I must say that every facets of this aspect of StarGazer’s personality is thoroughly enjoyable. If you add the fact that the lyrics are totally bonkers, you get an interesting album. The mix of magical, mystical and fantasy themes written with in poetical but also academical sort of way is without a doubt one of the highlights of the record for me. Let me go back to what I was saying about the “hidden” weirdness, the lyrics absolutely add this eccentric flavor.

Antiquial light shed with a wave of lichen hand
An ancient tress, a wooden pulse
Varnish reeks, shadows creak
A stale grace, old tea, old tea

The Australian trio are in fact a war metal band turned into an university professor. They went to war, killed a bunch of innocent people, came back and finished their English literature PhD and wrote about their experiences. The skilled marriage of death and black metal (war metal is often a mix of both and some added elements) is actually hard to distinguish, I do think they’re a bit more on the death metal side most of the time but there’s definite black metal elements on Merging. They play technical death without falling into the easy tropes of the genre, no overlong soloing or disastrous odd time signatures written to impress kids. It’s just unhinged drumming with mesmerizing bass lines and intricate guitars. The eleven minutes song “The Grand Equilizer” is obviously the centerpiece of this album, it has all their elements and it’s just a fantastic progressive metal track full of twists and turns. The album then ends its (relatively) brief essay with two harder and to the point tracks. I guess I’ll just replay it until I fully understand it.

The album is usually pretty cheap on Nuclear War Now! so grab it, it’s just incredible.

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Tarot – Reflections (2016) / 91%

Reflecting the past into the present

Since its formation in 2011, Tasmania's Tarot (formed by Wil Fried, the frontman of excellent The Wizar'd and owner of Heavy Chains) has been churning quality releases steadily and many people including myself were excitedly expecting their debut full length. Like all the projects of Wil (called The Hermit here), Tarot is quite special in its traditionalism and they're simply top notch. Compared to his other bands, they're more soothing and explores different facets of classic rock music.

Admittedly short at 34 minute, the 7 tracks are all excellent and while the influences are easily perceivable (Uriah Heep, Deep Purple), it's so much more than a cheap throwback. Tarot are mixing the lovely organ found in heavy rock of long ago with the most relaxing heavy metal known to mankind. The two main metal bands I was reminded of during Reflections are Pagan Altar and Lordian Guard. The supple guitar tone and the ethereal guitar leads combined with the high pitched nasal vocal delivery of Wil (not as exaggerated as in his trad doom metal band) recalls the contributions to metal from these two great bands. If you're familiar with Lordian Guard (founded by the creator of Warlord), you'll hear the similarity in the vocals right away, same if you like the late Terry Jones.

Mixing hard rock, NWOBHM, proto heavy metal, prog rock and even folk is not a simple task but Tarot definitely does it well. There's bits where they remind me of the folky side of Led Zeppelin and Jethro Tull like the short instrumental title track and I really dig this and I'd like them to expand this side! The tracks are catchy, mid-paced affairs, a track like “Mountain Throne” has these truly memorable guitar parts and the solo rocks. It's streamlined, has no useless moments and has this super expansive instrumentation. Wil plays the guitar, the keys, the organ and sings so he's the cornerstone of the project.

It's mesmerizing and it feels good when you're listening to them. If you're looking for metal or rock that's dangerous or dark, listen to something more edgy and vulgar because this is far from that. The music from this Tasmanian trio is introspective in a timeless way. They have this brillant British medieval influence that's not absent from the aforementioned metal bands but also reminiscent of Genesis' Selling England by the Pound… Their sound is both classy and majestic (an appropriate adjective the band uses itself to describe their music), the guitars are really friendly with the organ and they live together in this rich, grand loft. It's also the best production they ever had, the riffs aren't heavy most of the time but they sound very good and I'd fuck this organ sound if I could, it's so lovely.

I need to talk about the artwork a little since it's freaking gorgeous. Karmazid is currently one of the best metal artists and I'm happy the band picked him for this debut full length. Tarot always had superb artwork but they were lo-fi amateur affairs (except the compilation The Warrior's Spell), they were quite charming anyway but this one is fully detailed and showcases the occult side of the project. The album has been released digitally (and soon on CD) but a vinyl version will follow on the excellent Van Records and I'd say it's worth to own, not only because the art is fantastic but because the music is superb as well.

Buy on Bandcamp

Lucifer's Fall - Lucifer's Fall (2014) / 91%

Knockin' On Hell's Door

I've been following the development of this project since I heard the Dungeon Demos 2013 rough rehearsal. My crave for their traditional doom approach has finally been fulfilled with the release of their first self titled album (out digitally for now, out physically this Autumn.) The main dude, Phil Howlett has been quite active since the formation of Rote Mare in 2005 but I never quite got into this band. I thought it was usually long-winded and that it didn't have the trad doom passion found in grander oeuvres. It wanted to be more than what it was with the inclusion of harsh(er) vocals and it didn't quite work.

Fast forward to 2014 and we have Lucifer's Fall, a neophyte could question the need for a new doom project created by Howlett but I really won't since this is widely different in its approach. It's like he stumbled into Wino, Chandler and Albert Witchfinder and ate some shrooms all night. It's way more focused, full of might and, primarily, doesn't try to reinvent the wheel by adding unnecessary estranged elements. The raw production compliments the carefully composed bass and guitar lines very well, it's heavy, never too slow and it knows when to be groovy. It's textbook trad doom of the higher calibre and considering that's perhaps my favourite metal genre, this album is freaking marvellous.

As Satan is my name! Lucifer's Fall! Cast down from Heaven!

I kind of believe that the whole Satan subject is tired but it's definitely a classic one that I'll always welcome. I'd like bands to be a bit more original theme wise but there's nothing wrong with sticking with the good old formula and Howlett does it well. He's proving that he really feels the genre, doom is about guts and feeling and it's the case here. His vocal delivery is top notch, clean and adequate vocals with a lot of power and personality. He's even delivering some high pitch lines similar to the The Wizar'd's latest doom masterpiece. The slower moments of tracks like “A Sinner's Fate” almost reminds me of the atmosphere bands like My Dying Bride were able to convey early during their career. It's emotional, well written and doesn't drag even though some tracks are on the longer side (nonetheless, never more than ten minutes.) The editing is good unlike many of their current peers and their blend of doom and heavy metal has a clear sense of direction.

Australia is not well known for its traditional doom metal but rather for its more extreme doom with bands such as Mournful Congregation. Hence this fact, the band worships at foreign but interesting altars. The main one being located in Finland, you can certainly hear Reverend Bizarre and their disciples (The Wandering Midget, Caskets Open...) on Lucifer's Fall's music. There's this sort of cold tongue in cheek darkness particular to this Northern Europe (or Scandinavia depending of your point of view) and the Aussies have it too, they probably spend a lot of time in the desert at night.

The album respects the forty minutes unwritten rules and is a blistering, catchy, intense doom release deserving to top the best of lists of 2014, a feat I never thought possible of Howlett's Rote Mare project. He lets everything loose here, like the best doom albums, it's emotionally draining in its self pity and its classical darkness.

Mandatory doom, gentlemen.

Bandcamp

The Wizar'd – Ancient Tome of Arcane Knowledge (2013) / 95%

The Grand Winner of the Doom Wizard Battle

The doom quartet from Tasmania is back with their third full length album and it's definitely their best yet! I wasn't much of a fan of the slow dragging doom of Infernal Wizardry but Pathways to Darkness was pretty enjoyable and their latest follows in the same vein except the songwriting has improved considerably. The riffs are tighter, the vocals even more catchy than before, goddamn I like this album! They may have found their sound on Pathways but they truly develop and affirm it on Ancient Tome  and I'm so glad they did since it's a short but oh pleasant ride.

We're served with fast to mid paced traditional doom and with only six songs for a bit more than thirty minutes of music but it's all the time they needed to leave a well lasting impression on me. The songs are not more than six and a half minutes and they never overstay their welcome unlike many doom nowadays. The band has a clear direction, there's no wandering around the bushes, they comfortably piss where they want to unlike the terrible doom of “popular” American bands like Pilgrim or Pallbearer.

The band shines pretty much everywhere, their riffs are fucking groovy and all great and their solos are magical incantations with the mana to wake up a thousand Snorlaxes! These leads are probably the highlights for me, they're so tight and fun to air guitar to! Even if the album is rather short, there's still mournful slow parts like the debut of “Blaspheme” or “Far Away Castles”, a song paying homage to the glorious atmospheric gloom of “Planet Caravan”. They already did that with “Franki's Dungeon” on the previous album and it's once again quite a success here.

CD version

Doom metal is often accused of being derivative of Black Sabbath's genre but The Wiza'rd are nothing like a copycat, their sound is pretty damn original. They mix the classy lead oriented feel found in Pagan Altar with a shitload of NWOBHM influenced and trad doom riffs. It's quite well produced too, the sound is massive  and it's conceivable right from the start with the killer track “Turn To Evil” with its entertaining demeanor. The double guitar attack is also another thing that could set them apart from most of their contemporaries, it assures that the band stays interesting while their numerous solos are blistering through the air. The bass played by a lovely witch is loud and can perhaps recall the stoner side of doom or the overbearing playing of Albert Witchfinder but admittedly restrained in order to get a sort of instrumental unity throughout the album.
 

EH!

Ol' Rusty's vocals are perhaps an acquired taste but I'll hate you if you don't like them! I reckon he could be a deal breaker for those who listen to doom metal in the hopes of finding another singer like Messiah Marcolin. I have some news for you, it's not needed! Doom is all about feels and The Wiz'ard knows how to write emotional driven songs with memorable hooks and strong musicianship. The singer/lead guitarist takes the high, nasal Geddy Lee/Ozzy Osbourne trademark vocals and push them to their extreme and he's damn good at it. I was immediately hooked by his hailing voice singing the great vocal melodies, he's peculiar, original and oddly charismatic. It fits the “out there” vision of the band, it's quirky, weird trad doom while being overtly catchy and fun. Furthermore, it's pretty different from their first album released in 2008 that was using some sort of semi raspy early Dorrian style of vocals that were not particularly good but were a decent fit to the mournful, slow sort of doom explored back then. I usually dig that sort of stuff but they weren't just very good at it. Their evolution turns out to be an interesting and joyful one.

Illustrated by some killer artwork (there's different versions for both the vinyl and the compact disc.) I personally prefer the LP, it's perhaps one of the most detailed doom cover ever, it's showing some sort of wizard (well, duh?) possessing unparallelled power due to a magical tome (hence the title of the album!?) while some weird bards are playing, naked women are dancing and some intense stuff involving eagles and celestial forces are happening in the sky. The CD version is simplified a little and features a bird man reading said tome but has the same beige & black colour scheme.

This album is certainly a jewel found in the doom metal underground and you can be sure you'll have a good time listening to it if you dig the genre like I do. Mandatory, I've heard the album only this year but it would legitimately top my 2013 end list, that's for sure. You went to Tasmania, you looked for the devil but you've found the wizar'd!

The nicknames of the members are worth mentioning!
Ol' Rusty Vintage Wizard Master – Vocals, guitars
Blackie the Crimson Heretic of a Thousand Eyes - guitars
Iron Tyrant - drums
Tangerine Dream - bass

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Tarot - Life and Death DEMO (2014) / 82%

Deck of Wild Cards

Tarot is a newcomer to the metal scene with this first demo released on the small up and coming Australian label Heavy Chains. Pretty involved in the Tasmanian scene, the third tape release of this label named Life and Death rocks!

There's basically no information about this band outside the fact that they're Australian so I'll just pretend K.K. Warslut (Destroyer 666), Jael Edwards (Ignivomous) and the singer of Portal are involved! Just like the Canadian project Tales of Medusa (apparently dead nowadays, sadly, review: here!), there's a voluntary obscurity here for some unfathomable reasons. There's nothing shameful here, it's not raw keyboard only black metal with a picture of some trees on it, it's proto heavy metal/hard rock played by young men in 2014!

Let me just say something about their name, Tarot is a pretty unoriginal one for a new band... I know their music is truly inspired by the sounds of the 70s and 80s but guys, internet exists now and Google is a fantastic tool! Marco Hietela's band is not quite unknown, eh? Anyway, despite this shitty decision, the music is quite good and that's the important thing.

Their sound is basically a mix of old Deep Purple and Uriah Heep with a rawer approach almost reminding me of Manilla Road at times. The title track starts with intertwined heavy guitars and organ licks just like the heydays of Blackmore/Lord. The riffs are pretty nice, both groovy and mid paced to slower, epic moments like the pleasant, contemplative start of “Sound the Horn”. The keyboards are quite omnipresent on the fifteen minutes demo but it's never cheesy or AOR influenced. There's some cool and well done guitar leads here (such as the ending “Vagrant Hunter”), if I was as talented as the songwriters here, you would surely know that I would scream that everywhere! But yeah, I'm a pretentious jackass so...

The vocals, on the other hand, remind me of more recent bands. Namely the laid back approach of In Solitude. It's nothing spectacular but I really enjoy that kind of simple vocals acting as a little cousin to the instrumental side of the band which is obviously the focus point here. The singer is pretty buried underneath the music, it seems like an artistic decision since the production is, all things considered, very decent for a first demo.

The three songs demo is definitely interesting, it's nothing new and doesn't try hard to be either and that's perfectly fine for me when the quality is there! Alongside Stone Dagger (Read my review for their demo here), Tarot released one of the best heavy metal demos of the decade establishing them (or him, I have no idea how many members the band has...) as a future player of the underground traditional scene.

Choose your card wisely and trust me! With fellow Tasmanian The Wizar'd, they're delivering a devilish tornado of metal to the mainland. Like its cover art, Life and Death is simple yet impressive and charming. A band to watch, guys. 

Stream/download the demo here!