The Austrian Special - A focus on the non-metal music from Arnold's native land

One of my best online friends is from this mysterious country located near the Alps and we often share our local findings. He discovered Québec rock (Karkwa, Ponctuation, Galaxie…) because of me and I was pleased when he sent me a lot of Austrian suggestions. This is sort of related to my Local Sounds series but done with bands from cities located on the other side of the Atlantic ocean. Considering I don’t currently really have the means to visit Vienna or Graz, this exploration of Austria non-metal music will have to do for now. Summoning were the musical act I was thinking of when this country was getting mentioned but it’s always fun to expand our horisons. Let’s start.

Wanda-Amore (2014)
-Bussi (2015)

This quintet from the capital are one of the biggest bands in Austria right now and for good reason. Their blend of heartfelt rock integrates a lot of tasteful pop influences, folky overtones and even some Americana. Their singer, Michael Marco, has some roughness to his delivery, you can hear the fact that he’s a smoker though the German lyrics. Their indie pop with some slight symphonic arrangements is a bit too cheesy for me but you can hear that they’re deeply inspired by Bob Dylan’s electric material for some of their musical aspects. It’s old school pop, really but there’s this modern catchiness. They sort of remind me of Arctic Monkeys if they were not heavy at all. Interesting band, it’s refreshing to hear.

Witchrider – Unmountable Stairs (2014)
Josh Homme just turned 43 this week and he’s possibly the biggest influence here. The trio from Graz definitely dig the huge guitars of Queens of the Stone Age but they’re not a carbon copy of the seminal American band. They mix things up and add some occult rock to their huge and super catchy riff dirty rock fest. Signed on Fuzzorama records, Witchrider aren’t afraid to unleash the fuzz through their stoner rock and they even include some psychedelia to the mix. 

The song "Far From You" is particularly stellar. Legit band with super good vocals. All hail Austrian desert stoner rock!

Carousals – Unstable (2015)

This viennese quartet released their debut extended play last year and it’s a very enjoyable mix of post punk, indie rock and alt rock with a strong Sonic Youth influence. The riffs are loud and noisy and Sonja’s excellent vocals definitely recall Kim Gordon’s approach. Compared to a band like Savages, they take their time with those slow burning compositions full of distortion (like “No Good”). Great EP and I’m interested to hear their future material.

The Sado-Maso Guitar Club

-We Love You Too (2011)

-Sado Maso Guitar Club (2013)

Possibly my favorite band included in the folder than my friend Daniel sent me, SMGC are classic rock in the purest sense of the expression. They’re basically a modern version of the Rolling Stones and that’s a super good compliment. “Get the Sound” from their debut album has one of the best guitar melodies I’ve heard in a while and combined with the organ, it’s just an infectious and groovy bluesy rock tune. They worship the late 60s and 70s era of rock where things weren’t getting super yet and it was still highly mixed with folk, blues and singer-songwriter influences. They’re not reinventing anything but they do everything correctly and they’re just super fun to listen to.

Binder & Krieglstein 

-Alles Verloren (2007)
-New Weird Austria (2010)

Rainer Binder-Krieglstein‘s music is pretty unique and quite excellent. Combining ethnic music (arabic, german, austrian, gypsy) with soul, pop, electronic, reggae, hip hop, this project is all over the place in the best way possible. Mostly in German, the album has a variety of singers from soft female voices to deep male ones and it‘s literally insane. It‘s so different from what I‘m used to but I really enjoyed the wide array of sounds displayed by this Austrian producer, it may seem to be disjoncted but it‘s put together expertly.

Metal Bounty Hunter: Volume 7 - THRASH EDITION

Lars Ulrich is in no way affiliated to Metantoine's Magickal Realm.

Vektor – Terminal Redux (2016) / 90%

Earache Records

These guys definitely ate their cereal this morning

Vektor are possibly the best thrash band on Earth (and in the universe) and while I think this new album of theirs isn’t better than Black Future, it’s still a top notch affair. The 5 years it took them to finish this album were worth it since it’s a tremendous trip into space. Not a lot of bands can pull of a long album like this one, with its seventy-three minutes, it takes a lot of time and energy to full absorb all the kinetic energy that those four Americans deliver. Keeping the listener interested througout he whole record is a grand feat by itself but Vektor also has the ability to bludgeon them with their pristine skills.

While Vektor hasn’t changed its formula (you don’t change a winning one), there’s a lot of surprises to enjoy on Terminal Redux like those clean Lion King-esque chanting on the superb opener “Charging the Void”, the clean vocals of Disanto on the phenomenal semi ballad “Collapse” and also, the fact, that well... they did a “To live is to Die”-esque ballad. This shows that like Metallica, they have the balls and the vision to try new things. The clean break on “Recharging the Void” is probably the nearest a thrash band has come to including cheesy 90s pop influences in their music with those soulful female back vocals reminding me of the ones in Dream Theater’s Scenes from a Memory. This is possibly their best track ever.

Nevertheless, their greatest strength is those extended, rich and completely bonkers tracks and this album is pretty much just that. They’re able to convey emotions with the help of their precise and chirurgical technical musicianship and it’s extremely rare to hear a thrash band do something like that.

While I think there’s absolutely no bad or simply “ok” moment (t’s all pretty damn great), god it is exhausting. I mean, it starts with three seven minutes tracks before giving us a short atmospheric interlude. Still, I’ll never skip any parts since I want to hear the whole sci fi savagery in all its glory. Vektor deserves their fanboyism. They rule the cosmos.

Spacebook

The Paolo Girardi thrash duo!

Division Speed – Division Speed (2015) / 77%

High Roller Records

Bombing the shit out of London

This quartet from Saxony evolves in a particular thrash style pionnered by their legendary compatriots of Sodom, this genre is called “War Metal”, no it’s not raw black/death played by heroin addicts former bodybuilders, it’s super fast barbaric thrash metal about war, in this case the infamous World War II. The fourteen songs albums (including 2 short interludes) is all about dropping bombs on everyone for like forty minutes and that’s a great thing in their case. They mix the raw intensity of Motorhead and Uncle Tom’s band with a fair share of proto black/thrash goodness (think Desaster, Aura Noir) and it’s pretty damn cool. 
The sole guitar of Venomessiah (lol) is thick, greasy and alternates between those insane fast riffs and those more mid paced ones and he has those solos of the purest Slayer quality, just unfiltered aggression played with the guitar.

Their vocals are raw croaks with all the necessary venom to make Churchill trembles with fear. Their music, unlike the Normandy landings, is just freaking fun. I’m starting to dig thrash again after a long break, there’s a primal quality to this kind of stuff that you just don’t find elsewhere. It's present here.

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Wildhunt – Descending (2016) / 82%
Metal On Metal Records

Classy Austrian thrash power trio

This Austrian trio’s debut album is definitely some top notch thrash metal. Combining the epic side of Metallica or Heathen and the complex power trio attitude of Coroner, Wildhunt were able to write compelling songs showcasing all the extent of their skills and their versatility.

The 1 hour album has many different moods and is quite varied, the band shines on the long tracks such “Crystal Deth (U.M.D.A.)” or the eight minutes opener “Age of Torment” but they’re also delivering the goods with their shorter ones. I personally think mid paced thrash is the best since it doesn’t only rely on blistering speed to be effective, it relies on subtle (as far as possible for the genre) songwriting.

Wolfgang Elwitschger (Austrian names are awesome) is super talented and plays the sole guitar while handling the mic duty as well. His vocals are very good too, clean and not so high pitched, they add to this classy and distinguished flair the band has. His solos are also on the proggy/power metal side and he simply delivers on that front too. There’s also a huge bass presence, the lines are pretty groovy in“Death Spares (N)one”. All in all, their musicianship is intense, well calculated but it never overshadows their epic songs. Smart thrash, guys.

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Black Acid - Flores Para Los Muertos (1994) / 86%

90s Viennese gem

The sole album by these fellows from Vienna really really impressed the hell out of me and I'm grateful to my fellow moderator friend Azmodes for the discovery. Heavy metal was basically relegated to the abyss during the mid 90s (the grand era of extreme and nu-metal) but this is really hard to pinpoint or place into a rigid genre so I'll try to describe them correctly.

The first impressive aspect of Black Acid is the voice of Claudia Jusits. Her approach is varied but always charismatic, from lovely AOR inspired vox (“Burning With A Hard Flame”) and a wide variety of other types including some harsher moments (“Law of Residence”, “Snake Bite Lady”). She's highly theatrical without being unnecessarily operatic (a common and regrettable thing in nowadays female fronted metal). Nevertheless, I do prefer when she's using her clean vocals without any frills though, some of the experimentation was somewhat unnecessary and almost grating.

This totally fits the excellent versatile record, calling them “heavy metal” is certainly a stretch since there's so many stuff thrown in there. From progressive metal (these guitar leads are atmospherically complex and super interesting) to a sort of primal thrashy metal (using the aforementioned harsh vocals) to a sort of avant garde tinged epic metal. It almost sounds like Accept trying to be Seventh Son of a Seventh Son era Maiden with hints of Fates Warning, Faith No More and early 90s groove, thrash & death metal. The contemporary American band Christian Mistress definitely evolves (relatively) in the same niche as their sound is pretty unorthodox and their influences not automatically discernable

It would be a missed opportunity not to mention the classic female fronted Belgian band Acid in this review as they share some similar aesthetics but the Austrian is a darker and weirder version. It's there in the musicianship too from the strangely epic “The Dragonslayer” and its acoustic guitar breaks to some of the strange combinations of genres mentioned earlier. If you're feeling adventurous and want some sort of strange milk in your heavy metal coffee, Black Acid is a good bet. It hasn't aged that wonderfully but it's still quite rewarding in its own way.