…release your head from the world: SAINT VITUS – ‘Die Healing’

Arguably one of the greatest doom bands of all time, Saint Vitus have crafted an unsurpassable body of work that effortlessly combines themes of horror, madness, and ruination, with an added dose of grimy psychedelia resulting in a potent, singular style of doom that is both timeless and unique. And while there is no denying that a major component of Saint Vitus’ sound stems from the hypnotic riffs and demented, abusive leads of Dave Chandler, the contributions of the other members of the band cannot be minimized or overlooked. After all, Mark Adams is responsible for some of the most memorable, doomiest basslines ever laid to tape, and the languorous drumming of Armando Acosta helped many-a-tune lope towards its conclusion with a barbarian heft or, occasionally, with a sporadic blast of punkish fury. Following the untimely passing of Acosta, the addition of Henry Vasquez behind the kit brought a new element to the band on 2012’s excellent ‘Lillie: F-65’. Vasquez not only proved to be a worthy successor to the vacant throne previously occupied by Acosta in terms of bludgeoning heaviness, but he also brought a percussive groove that was only hinted at on previous albums.

Even though each and every member of the band is responsible—through the contributions of their constituent parts—for making Saint Vitus the reigning kings of downtrodden doom, the band has had no shortage of stellar vocal performances. Over the span of several releases Saint Vitus has seemingly done the impossible by enlisting and integrating three distinct vocal personalities into their sound with great success. Following a three album tenure from Scott “Wino” Weinrich, the band produced the often ignored, underrated classic ‘C.O.D.’ (review HERE) with Christian “Chritus” Linderson—also re-released through Season of Mist. While ‘C.O.D.’ was regarded as a failure by many, the departure of Linderson seemed to signal the end of the band. Chandler and co. rallied to create what was to be—at the time—the band’s swan song, ‘Die Healing’, which completed the circle by bringing original vocalist Scott Reagers back into the fold.

Originally released in 1995, ‘Die Healing’ stands as the band’s crowning achievement—an impressive accomplishment when compared to the strength of the band’s discography, where every release is a classic in its own right. Not only had the band crafted their doomiest, most expansive release to date, but they had also found the perfect sound engineer in Harris Johns. Though there is no denying that the band’s earlier sound, particularly on the initial Reagers-era releases, can be partially attributed to a primitive production job, ‘Die Healing’ is light years ahead in terms of clarity and heft while still retaining a richness and warmth that is characteristic of all Vitus releases. Finally, and with Reagers in tow, the band had crafted an undeniable masterpiece.

‘Die Healing’ opens strongly with the tracks “Dark World” and “One Mind”, each of which could have been handled gracefully and effectively with either Weinrich or Linderson behind the mic, but Reagers’ over-the-top intonation elevates the songs to a level of doom that had been missing from Vitus’ music for nearly a decade. “Dark World”, in particular, shines with its thick, Sabbathy riffs, Chandler’s maniacal lead guitar abuse, and the theatrical, often sinister vocals of Reagers. It is four-and-a-half minutes of doomed perfection. At the center of the album lurks the “Sloth”, one of the greatest doom anthems of all time next to “Burial at Sea” from the band’s 1984 self-titled debut. “Sloth” is a crawling, slow-motion apocalyptic descent into absurdity and madness. When Reagers sings, “Can you feel the evil / can you hear the wail / the sound of destiny / sharpening its nails” it’s difficult not to smirk and shudder at the same time. Perhaps due to the return of Reagers the band gives a reverential nod to the past with “Return of the Zombie”, another crawling masterpiece that finds Chandler in top form as he channels noise and distortion from another dimension. “Return of the Zombie” also finds the vocals of Reagers heavily laden with effects which also continues on the following track “In the Asylum” making each of these tunes distinct within the Vitus discography.

For the duration of the near fifty minute runtime of ‘Die Healing’ Saint Vitus pile classic riff upon classic riff accompanied with wailing protestations strangled from Chandler’s guitar. Acosta and Adams, one of the most distinctive rhythm units in doom, deliver a stand-out performance on each and every track. It is the contributions from every member of the band and the subsequent chilling, crypt-like atmosphere that has made ‘Die Healing’ an indelible classic. Saint Vitus are in a realm all their own, and the return of Scott Reagers coupled with an inspired production job courtesy of Harris Johns have yielded one of the greatest doom metal albums of all time—an album that has been out of print for too long. Thankfully Season of Mist has stepped up and re-released this out-of-print classic on CD and LP along with the underappreciated predecessor ‘C.O.D.’. Live to doom, doom to live…

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…I hope you meet your end: ICE DRAGON - ‘Dead Friends and Angry Lovers’

Originally released under the moniker of Slow Heart, ‘Dead Friends and Angry Lovers’ has now been absorbed into the vast, ever-expansive catalogue of Ice Dragon—probably where it belonged in the first place. This review is being reposted to hopefully draw some well-deserved attention to a killer release that may have flown under the radar…

Boston’s genre-hopping three-piece, Ice Dragon, released one of the most compelling, tripped-out doom metal albums of 2012 with their excellent fourth full-length ‘Tome of the Future Ancients’. Seemingly not content to tread the same path twice, the band has pushed their collective sonic palettes into drone, 60’s psychedelia inspired dream-pop, and kraut-rock influenced freak-out territories among others. When not recording as Ice Dragon, the band has also assumed the identity of Tentacle—a dark, acerbic doom/drone/sludge abomination that worships at the altar of Cthulhu. Not to leave any stone unturned, the band—recording as Slow Heart—has bypassed the space-time continuum and released ‘Dead Friends and Angry Lovers’, a moody, reverential collection of tunes that would be right at home on an 80’s college rock radio station played amongst Bauhaus, The Sisters of Mercy, Joy Division, or The Birthday Party. This may not be the doom metal or psychedelic rock that Ice Dragon has become synonymous with, but the five tracks that comprise ‘Dead Friends and Angry Lovers’ are a collection of atmospheric, sparse compositions that channel the best of 80’s post-punk and goth-rock.

“We Want the Night” opens the album with a gentle drumbeat alternating steadily between snare and bass before the heavily reverbed lead guitar protests dreamily in the background. Lead vocalist Ron Rochondo has further developed vocally by assuming a croon that falls somewhere between the sonorous, deep baritone singing voices of Nick Cave and Andrew Eldritch. “We Want the Night” establishes the mood for the rest of the album through its barren, minimalist composition that runs like a vein through three of the remaining four tracks. “Alone and Red” veers slightly from the minimalist goth-rock tendencies of “We Want the Night” in favor of an orchestral drone. This second track adds a meditative texture to ‘Dead Friends and Angry Lovers’ and serves as a foil to the remaining spectral compositions. “Never Trust a Woman (Dressed in Black)” is, musically, the best song that Echo and the Bunnymen never recorded provided said Bunnymen were on a steady diet of downers and didn’t give a fuck of whether they sold an album or not. “Die Tonight” is the soundtrack for a torturous descent into a personal abyss. The repetitive, haunting two notes played on the keyboard drives the anguish straight into the skull. ‘Dead Friends and Angry Lovers’ ends with the instrumental track “11:54pm (Waiting on Midnight)”. While this fifth track fits in well and remains consistent with the album as a whole, it could just as easily be a long lost Portishead demo minus the trip-hop tendencies.

In the absence of Ice Dragon or Tentacle I’ll take Slow Heart any day. Ron, Joe, and Carter have nailed it by drawing inspiration from late 70’s/early 80’s goth-rock and post-punk to create an album that transcends both the scene and era that influenced it. Ice Dragon’s fifth full-length, ‘Dream Dragon’, found the trio experimenting with lighter, psychedelic rock with much success, but ‘greyblackfalconhawk’ and now Slow Heart’s ‘Dead Friends and Angry Lovers’ confirms that Ron, Joe, and Carter are more than proficient at creating dark, atmospheric tunes seemingly on a whim. Here’s looking forward to more Slow Heart Ice Dragon in the future...

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…earthmen on a fabulous, peril-journey into outer space: SLOMATICS – ‘Estron’

Cataclysmic in scope and tumultuous in execution, Slomatics are about to drop their fourth full-length, ‘Estron’, the follow-up to their stellar 2012 down-tuned masterpiece, ‘A Hocht’. In terms of sheer mass and amplitude, Slomatics inhabit and reign over a kingdom all their own—a kingdom subjected to whirlwinds of swirling noise, destructive upheaval of seismic reverberations, and a percussive storm at the hands of a howling tyrant from within the eye of the storm. ‘Estron’ is a worthy heir to the throne that was won and occupied by ‘A Hocht’ (review HERE).

This time around the Belfast three-piece has incrementally reigned in some of their atmospheric aural experiments—particularly the instrumentals—in favor of a more straight-forward, bludgeoning sonic assault resulting in a completely immersive and hypnotic listening experience. The album opens with the feint sound of a whirling wind blowing over a desolate alien landscape before beginning its battering with “Troglorite”. The album’s first track is a monolithic slab of interstellar doom—the military field music of an alien invasion.

“Tunnel Dragger”, one of the strongest tracks of the album, features the band’s signature rumbling guitar tone and is, at times, reminiscent of ‘A Hocht’s’ “Flame On”. Though there are moments where the riffs sound a bit similar, “Tunnel Dragger” distinguishes itself with its compelling, cacophonic vocal melodies and a spacey lull of percussion and extraterrestrial noise. Killer, spaced-out weirdness grows in intensity after the tune finally roars back to life.

Coming from the Conan school of inner core-dwelling guitar tone is the album’s excellently titled fourth track, “Lost Punisher”. Truly a lumbering, brutish beast of a track producing some of Slomatics’ most earth-quaking, low-end rumbles. Not only do the riffs issue forth as if they were entombed in the center of the Earth, but so do the slightly muffled and distorted vocals.

Hearkening back to the atmospheric elements of ‘A Hocht’ are the closing tracks of “Red Dawn” and “The Carpenter”. “Red Dawn” is a dread-inducing instrumental of piano and interplanetary interference that builds up to, and ultimately morphs into, “The Carpenter”. The ominous build-up turns into a sludgy crawl for one of the band’s longest tracks to date. “The Carpenter” is a heavy, slow-moving tune with the planetary mass of a derelict satellite floating through space.

Slomatics have once again delivered and, based on the strengths of ‘Conan Vs. Slomatics’, ‘A Hocht’, and ‘The Future Past’ single (review HERE), expectations were through the roof. The seven tracks of ‘Estron’ are interconnected and bleed into each other for what could be, essentially, a near forty minute trip through the outermost reaches of the galaxy. The band has continued to push their sound and their extremes while managing to remain as heavy, if not heavier, than most of their down-tuned contemporaries. While it would be difficult to claim that ‘Estron’ is in any way superior to the masterpiece that was ‘A Hocht”, it easy to say that it is just as good. Out soon on Head Of Crom Records. 'Estron’ is essential listening…

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…like liquid diamonds fall: YOB – ‘Catharsis’

With stunning, more suitable cover art courtesy of Aaron Edge, Yob’s seminal, long out-of-print masterpiece, ‘Catharsis’, is once again available to the masses complete with a fine-tuned remastering job at the hands of Tad Doyle from the depths of his Witch Ape Studio, thus reuniting the Lumbar trio. Where Yob’s debut, ‘Elaborations of Carbon’, was an instantly gratifying slab of psychedelic doom orbiting the Earth from amidst the exosphere, ‘Catharsis’ achieved the impossible by pushing the band’s sound into the aether and beyond the confines of interplanetary space.

Uncompromisingly heavy and cosmically spacey, the trio of Mike Scheidt, Isamu Sato, and Gabe Morley have, from the band’s inception, redefined and explored the possibilities of doom and psychedelic metal. Despite a couple of lineup changes from within the band’s rhythm section beginning with the release of their third album, ‘The Illusion of Motion’, Yob has—under the sage-like guidance of Scheidt—continued to expand their sound and push the boundaries of heavy music. And though Yob has carved out an unmistakable and indelible sonic “fingerprint” due to Scheidt’s unique vocals and riffs, each and every release has an essence of its own, and ‘Catharsis’ in particular seems to resonate strongly with many.

With only three tracks and a runtime near the fifty minute mark, ‘Catharsis’ is an abomination not restricted to the earthly confines of space and time. Each song is a sprawling journey suffused with tempo and tonal fluctuations keeping the tunes both wholly immersive and undeniably immediate while additionally providing the illusion of brevity. Simply put: ‘Catharsis’ is an engaging listen from the initial feint percussive notes provided by Morley on album-opener “Aeons” to the demoniac shrieks and wails of Scheidt during the closing frenzy of the title-track, “Catharsis”.

And while a reissue of ‘Catharsis’ has been long overdue, a remastered edition, at first, seems unnecessary. That is…until you press play. Though the effect is not completely obvious or overwhelming, a cursory comparison reveals a greater degree of clarity which ultimately enhances the overall listening experience. With Tad’s masterful production contributions notably established with the recording of two of the year’s best albums, Uzala’s ‘Tales of Blood & Fire’ and portions of Lumbar’s ‘The First and Last Days of Unwelcome’, it should come as no surprise that the man brings a sonic lucidity to the proceedings without sacrificing heft in the least. Pick up the cd from Profound Lore Records or, if you’re a vinyl junky, preorder the upcoming vinyl release from Relapse Records. Highly essential…

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…architects of your demise: TRAITORS RETURN TO EARTH – ‘Betting on a Full Collapse’

It’s always refreshing when a band is able to create and shape their music within the confines of a given genre while transcending conventions by including a variety of influences. Ohio’s Traitors Return to Earth are one such band. While listening to their full-length debut, ‘Betting on a Full Collapse’, it’s clear that their main agenda is to lay waste to anything and everything in their path. To accomplish this the band has instilled their debut with a heavy dose of acerbic, down-tuned heft in the blown-out vein of sludge godfathers Eyehategod, with additional metal and noise influences stemming from the heavy underground of the 90’s to the present.

Over the seven track span of ‘Betting on a Full Collapse’ the listener will be subjected to moments of déjà vu—sounds that fire neuronal synapses recalling and hinting at greats both past and present. The album opener, “Human Drone”, for example, is a staggering, stutter-step slab of sludge that is occasionally imbued with angular riffs recalling Duane Denison’s work with The Jesus Lizard or, to a lesser extent, Steve Albini’s scratchy guitar work in Shellac—a sound that also rears its head on the third track, ‘Wall Street Swan Dive.’

Genealogically speaking, it’s almost impossible to ignore the bloodlines that were firmly established in Birmingham, England in the late 60’s that have continued, like a capillary network, to branch out and influence almost every dimension of heavy music to this day. The shadow of Black Sabbath can’t be ignored on the whole of ‘Betting on a Full Collapse’ but is profoundly felt on the second track, “EHM”. The sluggish, swaying groove of “EHM” is not too dissimilar from the main riff of “Electric Funeral”, but it remains filthier and overblown. Despite the similarity to the Sabbath classic, “EHM” is its own angry beast and features some trippy, atmospheric lead guitar work on the latter half of the song.

At the midpoint of the album stands “The Hollow”, Traitors Return to Earth’s most potent statement. While the majority of ‘Betting on a Full Collapse’ is prone to the throaty, tortured vocals common to sludge, the vocals of “The Hollow” have a sinister edge that are unmatched on the remainder of the album. Again, synapses fire and, at times, the vocals and delivery of singer Chris Sherrod are reminiscent of Fudge Tunnel’s Alex Newport. “The Hollow” is a sprawling, heavy tune that is dominated by a murky, undulating groove.

With sludge as a starting point, Traitors Return to Earth incorporate stoner, doom, noise, and traces of psychedelia into a killer overall sound. ‘Betting on a Full Collapse’ may, at times, evoke moments of familiarity, but these moments are fleeting and ultimately far and few between. Fans of sludge and doom, particularly acts like EHG, Demonic Death Judge, Black Sabbath, and Sleep will find a well of destructively heavy riffs ready to flood their senses.

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…cast your gaze upon the setting sun: LANDSKAP – ‘I’

Landskap’s debut album, ‘I’, has the distinction of being the first 2014 release to be reviewed at Vertical Chamber Apparatus and, to top it off, it’s the first great surprise of the year. The London based band features veterans of the European metal scene from such acts as Serpentcult, Fen, Pantheist, and Dead Existence among others. Despite the wide-ranging influences that each member brings to the band, ‘I’ is truly unlike anything that the individuals were producing before coming together. The four tracks that comprise ‘I’—two of which are instrumentals—cover a wide range of styles without sounding incoherent or disjointed. Classic hard rock and metal, prog, doom, and psychedelia are all represented in equal measure resulting in an exceptional collection of tunes.

The album takes a giant stride with its best foot forward on the opener “A Nameless Fool”. Easily the doomiest track of the album complete with an eerie atmosphere—aided in part by organ and the sporadic tolling of a bell—that’s not too far removed from what The Wounded Kings had created on their phenomenal debut ‘Embrace of the Narrow House’. With a runtime venturing near twelve minutes, “A Nameless Fool” staggers forth at a doomed pace while allowing exploratory, inter-dimensional lead guitar to ebb and flow from a seemingly distant plane for a spectral, otherworldly experience.

“My Cabin in the Woods”, in jarring opposition to the haunting opening track, is a three minute blissful instrumental that brings Chicago post-rock instrumentalists Tortoise to mind. Bright basslines are played high on the fretboard, and notes plucked from the guitar ring out and calmly turn themselves inside-out. It’s soothing, sunny, and trippy.

The third track, “Fallen So Far”, channels the best of Deep Purple and King Crimson and funnels them through a hard rocking, proto-doom filter. Where “A Nameless Fool” was Hell-bent on creating an ominous, doomy atmosphere, “Fallen So Far” instead goes for the throat by rocking out and features stellar performances from each member of the band, particularly on drums. A killer track from start to finish.

“Fallen So Far” eventually melts into the fourth and final track, “To Harvest the Storm”. The twelve minute album-closer is a cerebral, kraut-rock inspired jam that builds in both intensity and layers before ultimately taking off midway through the track. Initially hypnotic, the song rips into a mesmerizing fury with the controls set for the heart of the sunrise.

Landskap’s debut is an incredibly eclectic collection of tunes that remains engaging from beginning to end. Despite the variations in styles and influences the band is able to pull it off effortlessly. With only four tracks and a runtime of just over thirty minutes ‘I’ ends way too soon. Fans of hard rock and doom with an openness to experimentation should definitely check these guys out. Hopefully ‘I’ is a sign of greater things to come. As it stands this is a phenomenal release that is punctuated by great songwriting, killer vocals, and excellent instrumentation.

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…ride the fucking snake: SONIC MASS – ‘All Creatures Strange’

A slightly murky, multi-layered lo-fi production, freak-out psychedelia and blues-based stoner rock collide on Sonic Mass’s outstanding debut full-length, ‘All Creatures Strange’, resulting in what can only be described as ‘Outsideinside’ era Blue Cheer waging war against the conspiratorial paranoia of being governed by a shadow empire of reptilian overlords. No shit. ‘All Creatures Strange’ is a blistering, kaleidoscopic journey that bends the mind almost as hard as it rocks.

Sonic Mass doesn’t hesitate to show their intentions as album-opener “Iron Bong” sets the tone by launching into a scorching, minute-and-a-half instrumental before settling into a bluesy, up-beat jam. The second track, “The Order”, starts with a simple garage rock riff that would undoubtedly make The Sonics proud and then hurls itself into stoner rock territory. “The Order” stands out amongst the eight tracks of the album by ultimately boasting some of the album’s sexiest, grooviest riffs and then driving it home with some excellent guitar harmonies and vocals.

While a majority of ‘All Creatures Strange’ plays out as stoner rock executed with a garage rock intensity, the band often takes the listener into the stratosphere for some truly spaced-out moments. The latter half of “Widow Stone – The Black Lodge”, as an example, is an extended cosmic jam that is awash in acid-tinged leads, swirling noise, and wah pedal abuse before things get really weird. Ride the fucking snake…

Though the entirety of ‘All Creatures Strange’ is superb, the trilogy of tunes consisting of “Rise of the Royal Reptile”, “Black Acid Nightmare”, and album highlight “Pentagon Chameleon – To the Devil…a Daughter” simply make the album. “Rise of the Royal Reptile” kicks things off with some intertwining guitar leads that build-up and lead into one of the most immediately gratifying tunes of the album. If ‘All Creatures Strange’ had an immediate hit single, this would be it. It’s catchy, heavy, and representative of the band’s overall sound. “Black Acid Nightmare”, the album’s shortest track, brings back some of the weird with its slightly demented, unconventional riffs and distorted background vocals.

“Black Acid Nightmare” bleeds into arguably the strongest, most dynamic song of the album, “Pentagon Chameleon – To the Devil…a Daughter”, where the lead-in track becomes slightly perverted and overdriven before eventually slowing down to a bluesy crawl bathed in waves of feedback, atmospheric guitars, and soulful vocals. Roaring interstellar noise ultimately usurps what could have been one of the album’s “slowest” songs, and closes out the track with a fiery, spaced-out intensity.

With ‘All Creatures Strange’ Sonic Mass have crafted an unbelievably awesome full-length that effortlessly combines heavy blues, garage rock, and psychedelia into a potent elixir that’ll either have you breathing through your teeth with anxiety and paranoia or blissfully rocking the Hell out to their mystifying tunes. Hopefully 2014 will see a physical release of this amazing debut. Highly recommended…

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…cast out all demons lurking inside: ARGUS – ‘Beyond the Martyrs’

Classic heavy metal never loses its luster and Pennsylvania’s standard bearers of melodic, hook-driven metal, Argus, keep their collective fingers on the pulse of yesteryear with their gaze firmly fixed on the future. ‘Beyond the Martyrs’, the band’s third full-length, continues to explore their hybridization of sounds established by such greats as Scorpions, Thin Lizzy, Iron Maiden, and both Ozzy and Dio era incarnations of Black Sabbath to stunning effect. Though the band has an obvious admiration for these forefathers, and for good reason, they have developed a finely tuned, razor-sharp approach all their own.

At the heart of their sound lies the powerful and commanding vocals of Butch Balich and the dual guitar harmonies of Erik Johnson and Jason Mucio. The one-two punch of “The Hands of Time are Bleeding” and “Trinity” fully demonstrates both Balich’s soaring vocal capabilities and Johnson and Mucio’s talents. Though the guitars and vocals have an immediate impact upon the listener, the contributions of the rhythm section consisting of drummer Kevin Latchaw and bassist Andy Ramage should not be underestimated. Together, Latchaw and Ramage lay a foundation of hefty, galloping rhythms for their band members to build upon. The end result is one of 2013’s catchiest, most rewarding heavy metal albums.

Argus has always included elements of doom on their albums to some degree or other, but ‘Beyond the Martyrs’ seems to reign in those tendencies in favor of even more melodicism and an increase in head-banging, driving rhythms. While those doom-tinged moments have taken a back seat, they are not completely forgotten. Album highlight “The Coward’s Path” is an epic doom anthem complete with arguably the heaviest riffs of the collection as well as some of the most engaging, searing guitar leads.

‘Beyond the Martyrs’, like all of Argus’ output, is an incredibly strong collection of tunes without a single weak link in the lot. Heavy, hook-driven instrumentation, amazing vocals and killer lyrical themes that range from the historical to the personal are what Argus are all about. Fans of classic heavy metal in all its forms and doom should be impressed not only by Argus’ unique transmutations of old into new, but also the entirety of their recorded output. ‘Beyond the Martyrs’, like many early gems of hard rock and metal, is an instantly gratifying listen that never ceases to shine.

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