JUSTIN’S MEETAL REVEIWS W/C 23/3/09

 

MY DYING BRIDE / FOR LIES I SIRE

 

If you like Doom Metal with a Gothic tinge, then this latest CD from My Dying Bride will be just what your looking for, dark, oppressive, mournful  melodies with lyrics to match.

 

All the songs are delivered with the bands usual style and attitude, full of morose imagery and utter hopelessness that we have come to know and love.  The one thing that does strike me is that there is much more violin on this CD, its good to hear them using it more as it does give the songs another dimension, just listen to the opening track “My Body A Funeral”, which is appropriately played at a funeral pace, with very good poetic, descriptive lyrics delivered, very slow and deliberate, that set the scene nicely with a spoken bit in the middle, very Gothic indeed.  The title track is similar in style and content and just as good.  It’s not until track eight “A Chapter In Loathing” that the pace picks up; in fact this track is the heaviest on the album and my personal favourite.

 

If you like Doom / Gothic Metal then this album will confirm what you already know, that My Dying Bride are the masters, Doom Metal is not for everyone though but it is totally awesome when you get into it, not a casual buy but for the true aficionado this is a very powerful album.  Listen out for: “Shadowhaunt”, “Fall With Me”, “Death Triumphant” and “Bring Me Victory”.

 

WEBSITE      http://www.mydyingbride.org/ & http://www.peaceville.com/

 

TOTAL PLEYING TIME = 60 mins + 9 TRACKS

 

 

MASTODON / CRACK THE SKYE

 

This is the 4th album from Technical Groove Metal band Mastodon and they just keep getting better and better, Metal doesn’t get much more adrenalin pumping than this, with more high speed twists and turns than a downhill toboggan run.

 

The CD starts off in fine style with the enigmatic “Oblivion” which proves that 21st Century Metal can be fresh, exciting and original, “Divination” is just as good and “Quintessence” proves just how high the quality control is.  The band get really Progressive with the brilliant four part “Czar” clock in at a respectable 10 minutes but when you listen to it, it seems no where near that length of time.  The album finish’s of with a total epic “The Last Baron”, clocking in at just over 13 minutes of pure listening pleasure, the dynamics of this are enough are sheer joy, with plenty of melody, tempered with melody, aggression and plenty of fluid guitar riffs.

 

This is a very fine album and there is not one track on here that I could call inferior, this will not come as any surprise to fans of the band but should make some new ones sit up and listen and a well deserved album of the week on my HFM show, you can be sure I will be playing every track sooner than later.

 

WEBSITE      http://www.mastodonrocks.com/ & http://relapse.com/

 

TOTAL PLAYING TIME = 48 mins + 7 BRILLIANT TRACKS