Tag: doom metal

Candlemass – King Of The Grey Islands

On By bigbadburchIn Album of the WeekLeave a comment

Today I’m heading all the way back to 2007, which is somehow 18 years gone. We have a bit of a story to go over on how the legendary Swedish doom outfit Candlemass once again lost their singer, but this time they struck gold in terms of a replacement.

Candlemass – King Of The Grey Islands

Released June 22, 2007 via Nuclear Blast Records

Candlemass have had a whale of a ride, their whole story is pretty fascinating but is far too much to run down on an album post. I’ll pick up around 2004, when the band reunited with their legendary singer Messiah Marcolin for a well-received, self-titled album. As the band convened again in 2006 to record a follow-up, Messiah once again bailed on the group, in an episode the band described as “pre-recording psychosis.” This would be Marcolin’s end with the group, he has not convened with them since this departure (this is scheduled to change in September at a festival in Greece for a one-off reunion show).

Candlemass were left with their principal songwriter and founder Leif Edling on bass, Mats “Mappe” Björkman and Lars Johansson on guitars, and Jan Lindh on drums. Edling began doing vocal demos of their new material with singer Mats Levén, who had a side project with Edling and had also helped out with demos of the reunion album.

Edling had Levén in mind for the vacant singer’s position and Levén would eventually assume it, but there was a detour to take and Levén would not join Candlemass until 2012. The demos from these sessions became available in a box set titled Doomology, a set I have and will discuss at a future point in time.

The detour came in the form of Robert Lowe, singer of acclaimed Texas doom outfit Solitude Aeturnus. I’m recalling this story entirely from memory and hearsay without sources, but as I recall it, Lowe’s wife got in contact with people connected to Candlemass, perhaps Edling himself, and proposed they audition Lowe for the singer’s role. Lowe sent in his work on a few classic Candlemass songs, and Edling was sold. Lowe was hired, did the vocal sessions for the album, and we were off to the races.

Our album today, in its standard configuration, features 10 tracks at a beefy 53:55 runtime. There is a version with bonus tracks, that version is what I will cover today as the bonus stuff is significant and also the one I own. There are other bonus versions available but I will leave those out of what is going to already be a stupidly long post.

Prologue

This is a brief, slightly under one minute long intro piece. Just a simple guitar passage. Nothing to really ponder about here but nothing wrong with it either. Grade: B

Emperor Of The Void

I guess Doom Metal Lesson One is that not every song needs to be slow and mournful, not that Candlemass didn’t already long establish that lesson. This is a massively heavy and relatively fast pounding track that visits, figuratively and/or literally, an old ruler who is decaying away along with his empire. The album’s title comes into play in this tale of mortality crumbling. The guitar solo in this one stands tall above all else, then there is a brief quiet passage before the psychedelic pounding continues. Great work on this one. Grade: A+

Devil Seed

We get a slower paced one here. There are a lot of stoners drawn to doom metal and we don’t want to get them too excited. But what the song lacks in speed it more than makes up for in power. We even get into a bit of gallop in the chorus while still maintaining the 420-friendly tempo. Robert Lowe delivers quite a performance as he sings about someone descending into evil. Grade: A

Of Stars And Smoke

Another bit of a slow burner though not overly so, there is a bit of bite to this one. Heavy as hell yet again and a contemplation of fading away from existence, as nothing in doom metal is bright or cheery. Wonderfully done chorus from Lowe here too. Grade: B+

Demonia 6

This one is faster and quite creepy as the main character enters some ancient evil building and is taken by dark forces. This one does have a slow bridge portion out of the guitar solo but then goes back to the simple yet effective riff that anchors the song. It also goes on a trippy bit at the end. Grade: B+

Destroyer

This one goes slow but also pounds to a pulp with its heaviness. Fitting, as this dark tale speaks of a downtrodden, hellbent person who becomes the destroyer of the world. It is wanton slaughter brought by a mindless, hateful killer as opposed to an evil mastermind. The song maintains its form until the last few minutes where it goes in a doom-laden instrumental passage. Grade: A

Man Of Shadows

This one moves more mid-tempo and very much reminds me of something Robert Lowe’s other band Solitude Aeturnus would do. That similarity might come from his presence, of course. This song shifts form a few times through its six minutes, offering up a buffet of doom excellence. Grade: A

Clearsight

This one also sounds familiar, as its faster guitar romp is straight out of the classic Candlemass playbook. The song deals with a ship whose crew sailed to the edges of the world looking for some unnamed thing. The find is never made and the ship becomes a ghost ship, haunting the desolate seas. Grade: B+

The Opal City

This is another instrumental and again a brief one, at just 1:12. It’s a powerful riff and sets a nice atmosphere, but again it’s just a bit piece. Grade: B

Embracing The Styx

We close the standard album with a sweeping and powerful statement, both musically and lyrically. This one slams its way through heavy and haunting guitar work, riffing hard as razors when it needs to and letting in some atmosphere at other points. This has a bit of a bass passage from Leif Edling before resuming the guitar beating. The song is a morose tale of someone welcoming the embrace of death, using the famed River Styx and its ferryman Charon as imagery to mark the narrator’s voluntary transition to the afterlife. Grade: A+

That wraps up the main album. I will briefly discuss the version with two bonus tracks. The bonuses are re-recordings of two Candlemass standards, Solitude and At The Gallows End. The first song is originally from the debut album Epicus Doomicus Metallicus while the second hails from the band’s classic Nightfall.

Both of these takes with Robert Lowe are fantastic and are some of the best versions of the songs I’ve ever heard. That’s saying something too, as there are several versions of both with a variety of different singers, both live and studio retakes. These songs are also not officially available much of anywhere besides on the physical CD release, it is something I would highly advise people to seek out if interested.

Candlemass entered a new era with Robert Lowe behind the mic. Some fans were vocally upset that the legendary group was forging on without the band’s signature singer Messiah Marcolin, but others including me were ecstatic at Lowe’s involvement. This was a doom metal royalty marriage made in heaven, or hell, I don’t know, but it worked splendidly. Lowe would remain in the band until 2012, with two more albums issued.

This album is extremely easy for me to grade. It is excellent from front to back, with nothing weak or “secondary” on its tracklist. The music is crushing, Robert Lowe sounds amazing and this pairing fit like a hand in a glove.

Album Grade: A

Candlemass had many twists and turns to get to this point in their career, and years later would see another odd series of twists and turns. Their story is quite unlikely and compelling. But this particular fork in the road is an excellent place to stop and enjoy the crushing tones of the doom metal pioneers.

Castle Rat – Wizard

On By bigbadburchIn Song Of The Week4 Comments

Today we have something brand spanking new on offer. Castle Rat are a newer band on the scene and have made a bit of a name for themselves with their fantasy imagery and theatrical live shows. Today’s song Wizard is the first offering from their upcoming album The Bestiary, which is due on September 19th. This is the group’s second record, following last year’s Into The Realm.

Now, the thing about writing this is that I don’t know much of anything about Castle Rat. I hadn’t heard of them until this video popped up in my YouTube feed the other day. I have found out that the band is from New York and that they formed in 2019. The band uses pseudonyms for their credits but their real names are also out there, the stage names are apparently for added flair and not an identity concealment device. And that is about all I know, beyond the album information in the first paragraph. But we do have a song and video to dig into, so let’s do that.

Castle Rat are employing the tried and true doom metal/stoner rock formula here. It isn’t purely doom, though – there’s a fair bit of NWOBHM influence thrown in here. This is definitely a sound straight from the old times, not something merely built upon that. The production grants a decidedly retro feel as well. I’m not a knob geek by any means but I am curious what methods were implemented to achieve the old school feel on this.

The vibes from yesteryear don’t stop with the music. The video is a throwback to days of yore as well. Castle Rat stick with fantasy themes and the song’s battle with a wizard plays out in vintage fashion here. Sure it’s cheesy and goofy, but it’s done in a tone that can also be taken seriously. I’m sure Castle Rat, as an emerging band, do no t have unlimited access to money. But it’s plain to see that the video was filmed intentionally, it is not an old-school metal video that looks the way it does because the band’s budget was a six pack of Old Milwaukee.

So here we have Castle Rat in all their glory, openly wielding their swords and fantasy influence and playing metal so old-school that even old people think it’s old. While the band do have some detractors, it seems a fair few are enjoying what they see and hear. There’s nothing “original” or innovative here, but if that’s all anyone listened to we’d all only listen to the same six albums. Sounding good and being entertaining is quite enough, as entertainment is the point of all this, and Castle Rat have that down.

I know I will have my Dungeons and Dragons books and dice ready for the new album later this year, and hopefully I’ll be able to catch their signature live act at some point down the line. Wizard is a promising offering from Castle Rat, who seem poised to gain a fair bit of buzz in 2025.

Cirith Ungol – King Of The Dead

On By bigbadburchIn Album of the Week6 Comments

Get out your 20-sided dice, character sheets and Dungeon Masters’ guides (first edition, of course). It’s time to go back to 1984 and get into some sword and sorcery.

Cirith Ungol – King Of The Dead

Released July 2, 1984 via Enigma Records

Cirith Ungol is well-known as a mountain pass between Mordor and Gondor in J.R.R. Tolkien’s legendary Lord Of The Rings series. It would also be known as one of the first heavy metal bands to name themselves after a part of Tolkien’s work.

Cirith Ungol the band formed in California in 1971. They would operate in the hard rock realm through the ’70’s, then shift into heavy metal when recording their debut album, 1981’s Frost And Fire. Three years later saw them ready to unleash this follow-up album.

The band was comprised of Tim Baker on vocals, Jerry Fogle on guitar, Michael Vujea on bass and Robert Garven on drums. Founding guitarist Greg Lindstrom was no longer with the band at this point but three of his song contributions were used (with his blessing, Lindstrom also would return to the band for their 2016 reunion). The band also retained creative control of their efforts and self-produced the affair.

The cover art was done by famed book and album cover artist Michael Whelan. This piece is actually from a prior book cover, that being Bane Of The Black Sword by Michael Moorcock. Whelan has provided cover art for every Cirith Ungol album as well as scores of other works.

The album features 8 songs at a fairly beefy 50:17 runtime. As usual a few reissues exist with various bonus tracks, though today I’ll tackle the original album.

Atom Smasher

We get going with a brief intro then a running riff establishes itself, one that will remain throughout the song. Vocals and bass come in next and man, that bass is going off here and basically through the whole album. The song is a bit of sci-fi, featuring Atom Smasher as a title character who was genetically engineered and is out to save humanity.

As a note, I don’t know if there’s any influence for the video game character Adam Smasher from the Cyberpunk 2077 game decades later. The two have similarities, though the game guy is a villain while the song character is a hero. An interesting coincidence, if nothing else. Grade: A+

Black Machine

While Cirith Ungol would easily fit into the emerging US power metal movement, this album and especially this song saw them establish early ties into the also emerging doom scene. This is a pounding song that invites the listener to ride the black machine, which is some kind of infernal afterlife construct as the lyrics tell it. It’s another riff that just runs all day long and slams its way into your head. Grade: A

Master Of The Pit

Here we get an intro guitar solo as we make our way down to tangle with the guy who the song is named after. The song pounds its music through at a slower pace, so that our hero has time to fight the diabolical foe. This is Dungeons and Dragons put to music for sure. Grade: A

King Of The Dead

The title track offers a similar vibe to the song prior, it establishes a different boss to fight. This one is even more evil and doomy as someone called the King of the Dead really isn’t someone to mess with. Keep that shit locked away. Grade: A+

Death Of The Sun

Nothing says heavy metal like a good old fashioned apocalypse song. This “blink and you’ll miss it” track rips through with a speed and fury. When you’re messing with stuff like the Master of the Pit and the King of the Dead, sometimes the world just won’t make it. It also turns out that the death of the Sun is mostly guitar solos. Grade: A-

Finger Of Scorn

We’re brought in with a mournful acoustic passage here that builds into a louder electric effort as things go on. It’s another “humanity is doomed” song and this one carries on with a fair bit of Black Sabbath groove in it. There are also parts in the song’s latter half that might make you wonder when Iron Butterfly picked up doom metal. Grade: B+

Toccata in Dm

Here Dm does not refer to “dungeon master,” rather it’s the key of D minor. This is actually a cover song, the source being the iconic composer Johann Sebastian Bach. The original piece has a history that is honestly insane and covers volumes of books, but I’ll skip all that today.

Here Cirith Ungol do an abridged version of the piece. It’s worth noting that while heavy metal came up as an offshoot of blues-based rock, what has gone on to become heavy metal can be rather directly linked to classical music. Now – this piece isn’t entirely “for me” and I personally wouldn’t have put it on the record, but it can be worth listening to. Grade: B-

Cirith Ungol

We close things out with a self-named song for the band, which is always something interesting to check out. This returns to the power and doom formula experienced through the balance of the album. This one mostly lets the music do the talking with just a few verses to tell the tale of the sinister area of Mordor. And the music does the talking here – it’s a blend of everything the band have been doing through the record and wraps everything up nicely. Grade: A

King Of The Dead would be an influential force in two distinct US metal scenes – power and doom. The album would stand alongside works from Jag Panzer, Manilla Road and Savatage in shaping the US power metal scene, while it would also slot alongside Saint Vitus, Pentagram and Trouble in crafting the very new doom metal landscape. Though Cirith Ungol, like many of the other bands mentioned, did not achieve commercial success with their music, their name has rang as a leader of the metal underground since their recording career kicked off in the ’80’s. The band split up in 1992 and was but a cult memory until 2016, when an unlikely reunion happened. The group is presently on their final tour now, which is due to wrap up at the end of ’24.

The album offers up songs that would inspire the metal genres mentioned, but this also has a distinctly retro feel to it. Cirith Ungol were clearly rooted in their 1970’s origins, this was taking music forward while keeping at least one foot in the past. I don’t need any deliberation to score this album, the grade is already laid out in the songs above.

Album Grade: A

While heavy metal became a lucrative commodity for the music industry in the 1980’s, the slice of the money pie was usually reserved for the hair metal acts or the higher-profile thrash bands. But a wealth of underground and independent heavy metal also came from this time, and Cirith Ungol were one of the looming giants of the scene. King Of The Dead is a testament to the true power of this music.

The Weirdest Thing

On By bigbadburchIn collecting6 Comments

There are always things to consider about having a physical collection of music – what’s your favorite piece? What’s the most expensive thing you have? What act’s works are complete in your collection? What rare or out of the way pieces do you own that are cool to have? And the most important question that we ask all of the time and plagues our bank accounts – what’s next?

Today I’m not going to ask or answer any of those questions. The one I’m going to work with is this – what is the weirdest thing in my collection?

Being weird isn’t a matter of the music itself – I have a bunch of stuff on my shelves that would be considered weird. Death metal and jazz is a hell of a combo and I’m not sure why I own several examples of it. But that’s not the issue at hand today.

What I’m concerned with is weird, as in format or presentation. I have a few oddball things that do stick out, like a few albums on DVD audio that are in bigger cases, oddly-sized box sets and things of that nature. But none of those really qualify as the most weird thing in my collection.

I considered the question for a moment but then I quickly remembered something I’ve owned for a long time that easily qualifies to answer this question. I proudly present the 2007 album from British doom merchants Paradise Lost, In Requiem.

There’s nothing odd about the album itself – Paradise Lost are a great band and I really enjoyed their material in the 00’s. But if you notice the box in the picture, this presentation is a box set. And it’s a box set of 7-inch vinyl. Yes, this is the full album presented on four small records, as opposed to a standard 12-inch record. And yes, the album is available in that standard format as well.

This box set did come with a few extras – it has the CD version of the album as well as a poster. The CD was important at the time, as we were in the “digital collection” age and it was super cool to get a CD along with vinyl so we could import the album into our collections with ease. Those days are long gone, as streaming has rendered a digital collection unneeded for many.

This edition also comes with a few bonus tracks – the vinyl has a bonus called Missing, while the CD includes that as well as Silent In Heart. These two songs were also available on a few deluxe CD versions of the album but those and this seem to be the only sources of the material. So I guess this can qualify as weird but not necessarily useless.

I honestly can’t say why I even bought this. I don’t specifically recall wanting it. I did used to order from Century Media records on occasion back then and I probably just thought it was a neat thing to have so I put it in with my usual order. It’s possible they also had it on clearance, but again I don’t remember. All I know is I bought it and here it is 17 years later.

And, all else being equal, it will remain in my collection. The box has a tiny premium online, not enough to really bother with unloading – it’s just a hair more “valuable” than its retail price. I would also figure that the box is not a high demand item – there aren’t lines of people queued up to score a 7-inch box set copy of a doom metal album from 2007.

So I will speculate that this oddball box set will remain in my collection until I’m not around to have a collection anymore. The only practical way this gets unseated as the weirdest thing in my collection is if I buy something weirder than it. I don’t go out of my way to find weird music stuff but it is out there, so that is certainly a possibility.

Do you have questions, comments or concerns? Feel free to use the comment form below, or head to my contact page.

Candlemass – Solitude (Song of the Week)

On By bigbadburchIn Song Of The Week3 Comments

This week’s songs presents an interesting perspective with it – Candlemass have been playing for decades now and have had several membership changes. As a result, there is a massive supply of live and alternate recordings of this song available to go through. It’s quite a history which, of course, I’ll get right into.

Solitude is the opening track to Candlemass’ debut album Epicus Doomicus Metallicus. The album was released in 1986 and did not sell well out of the gate, leading the band to be dropped from the small-time record label they were signed to. Singer Johan Längqvist would quit the group without ever performing a single concert, a distinction that was a curiosity in metal trivia and would last over 20 years.

Candlemass would soon see their fortunes buoy – they were joined at vocals by the voice and character of Messiah Marcolin and they’d go on a run of three albums that would help define the landscape of doom metal at a time when the genre was little more than whatever Black Sabbath had done. As the profile of Candlemass rose, so did the sales of the debut album. With this, many new fans took notice of Solitude and the song grew to become one of the band’s signature tunes.

This song is a recording by a doom metal band and as such it is a “sad” song. The music is suitably slow and morose – while a lot of heavy metal was caught up in pushing the envelope of thrash, Candlemass and a few others were exploring the territory that would become doom.

Lyrically, Solitude goes well beyond just being a sad song – this is a desperate track about someone at their total wit’s end who is contemplating suicide. This is the final words of a tortured soul who simply wishes to pass in peace – there is no hope or anything greater to reach for here. Candlemass didn’t have a high enough profile for the song to be picketed by the “moral majority” in the same way a lot of metal music got twisted as encouragements of suicide, which is a bit ironic since this song is very much a bleak and open portrayal of such circumstances while the media-fueled witch hunts were targeting songs not really about suicide.

As Candlemass wound on with their career, Solitude has gone on to see several versions released. By a very quick count I can identify at least 10 versions across different official live releases, as well as 2 more live and one demo session from a rarities box set. Additionally, the song was re-recorded in studio in 2007 when new singer Robert Lowe joined the band and was released on his first album with the group, King Of The Grey Islands. And I’ll hold that version up as an awesome rendition and, at the risk of blasphemy, perhaps the definitive version of the song.

Earlier I mentioned how original singer Johan Längqvist did not sing Solitude with the band, or any song as he didn’t perform live at all with them before quitting. This was corrected in 2007 when the band celebrated a slightly late 20th anniversary by having Johan join them for a handful of songs live. He would link up with Candlemass on a few other occasions through the 2010’s before fully re-joining as singer in 2018. It was a true case of coming full circle.

Solitude is often hailed as Candlemass’ magnum opus, and even in debate it’s a top 2 or 3 pick. This was from a time when a scene could take years to form, when having a soft selling debut didn’t necessarily mean the death of the band, and when word of mouth and snail mail were the ways music spread across the world. Now nearly 30 years on from its release, Solitude is still just as haunting and soul-wrenching as it was back in 1986.

Saint Vitus – Blessed Night

On By bigbadburchIn collectingLeave a comment

Back to my singles collection. I’m winding down on it, though there are still a handful to go over. I’d expect to be done sometime mid- to late-November, then I’ll pause for a moment to re-calibrate before launching the Iron Maiden singles series.

Today I’m looking over a 2012 single from long-running doom merchants Saint Vitus. The band have been an on again, off again proposition since 1979 but were one of the significant figures in the rise of doom in the ’80’s.

This single comes from 2012, when the band were operating again with singer Scott “Wino” Weinrich. They had been active again since 2009 and were ready to release their new full-length Lillie: F-65. This single’s A-side hails from that album, while the B-side is a live track of a cut from their classic album Born Too Late.

The record is on black vinyl, it is limited to 1,500 copies and hand-numbered. While it often doesn’t matter, I always enjoy the hand-numbered stuff. I never do get any of the cool numbers like, well, 69 or 420, or the metalhead’s dream of 666. But it’s still nice to have that tiny bit of serialization to it.

This is one I picked up at a 2013 show where I saw the band. That concert will certainly get its own post one day.

Blessed Night

The single hits with all the same dark riffs and atmosphere that Saint Vitus conjured in their 1980’s run. This is simply a continuation of their catalog, no small feat considering that this was the band’s first recording since 1995. It’s been a few years since I’ve played anything from this album so it’s nice to hear again.

Look Behind You

I could not locate a video of the exact performance used on the record but here is a live cut from earlier the same year. Look Behind You came about as a bonus track on a reissue to the band’s 1986 Born Too Late, widely considered their best effort.

This is a cool song that showcases how doom doesn’t have to always be a slow-paced dirge. It often goes that way, but there are plenty of more rocking cuts to be found among Saint Vitus and their peers like Candlemass.

That’s all for today. Next week’s single will be out of the few CD singles I have and it’s an absolute whopper that I forgot I had and will offer no shortage of stuff, most of it not good, to talk about.

Corrosion Of Conformity – Deliverance (Album of the Week)

On By bigbadburchIn Album of the Week5 Comments

This week I’m going back to 1994 and taking a look at a landmark album that marked a huge transformation for the band on offer. A band once firmly in the hardcore and punk scenes would now ply their trade in stoner and southern metal and totally redefine their sound and identity. The album is getting a much-needed vinyl reissue this week as well and it’s one I’ll be glad to finally have on wax in my collection.

Corrosion Of Conformity – Deliverance

Released September 27, 1994

My Favorite Tracks – Seven Days, Broken Man, Albatross

CoC would undergo several lineup changes and stylistic shifts through the years, evolving from early harsh hardcore to a more groove-oriented sound. After solidifying what would be their most well-known lineup of Pepper Kennan on vocals and guitar, lead guitarist Woody Weatherman, bassist and sometimes vocalist Mike Dean and drummer Reed Mullin, the group began recording Deliverance and found major label Columbia Records quickly calling after they heard the demos. The band’s label Relativity Records turned down an offer to sell CoC’s contract to Sony, who in turn bought out Relativity and now had the group they wanted on their roster.

Deliverance put on offer a sound more rooted in stoner and southern rock than the the band’s past which saw hardcore and thrash albums, though 1991’s Blind did serve as a logical transition to the sound here. This beefy album features 14 tracks, though 3 are brief instrumentals and I will omit those from my recap so I can save space.

Heaven’s Not Overflowing

The album opens with a fast-paced rocker that also offers a bit of sardonic humor that can be found through a fair bit of the lyrical fare on the record. As the riffs slam along Keenen injects a series of odd and silly observations that overall add up to “jam out now because everyone’s screwed up and when it’s all over, well, the title lets you know where it all ends.”

Albatross

One of the album’s two singles that hit 19 on the Billboard charts and marks the band’s biggest mainstream success. Albatross is a haunting song that brings forth Sabbath vibes and is at home in the doom/stoner scene. It’s one of those beautifully sad songs that, while not being open about its meaning, just gets me every time. The song dirges on into a great solo from Woody in the song’s final few minutes.

Clean My Wounds

The other single from the record that also hit number 19 on the charts, this is likely the most recognizable CoC song from their entire catalog. The song and video were memed a bit before memes were a thing and it still pops up from time to time.

The song is heavy with a crunchy, simple verse riff while the music explodes in the chorus. Jesus makes his second of a few album appearances in this song and the line “Jesus help me clean my wounds/He said I cannot heal that kind” stands out as the oft-memed portion of the song. CoC would employ several musical styles on the record but this simple, to the point tune is the one that stuck with people outside of the fanbase and is still remembered today by 90’s kids.

Broken Man

After a brief instrumental the band gets back to business with a heavy yet still groovy song that offers lyrics in line with the mournful title. While stoner metal as a whole is a very repetitive genre, CoC breaks the mold and injects time changes and tempo breaks to keep the song interesting. The mix of flowing guitars and the militant verse riff create a massive song that shines on the album.

Senor Limpio

This track picks up the tempo and spirits a bit, at least musically. Lyrically the content is left a tad vague but the song seems to be about drug addiction and/or perhaps dealing and the ultimate fall from that. People have many of their own meanings for the song but a few lyrical hints do reinforce the drug theory.

Seven Days

Sandwiched between two instrumentals is my favorite song from the album. The music is heavy yet morose, entrenched in the duality of beauty and doom. The song invokes a lot of imagery from Christ’s betrayal and crucifixion and is likely from Jesus’ point of view during his final days. Of course the themes of betrayal, distrust and anger at a falling out could be universally applied but the multiple references to the crucifixion and other religious symbolism are clear.

My Grain

The tempo ratchets up again as the album rounds the corner into its final portion. The song’s meaning is a bit unclear, I’m not sure if this about migranes or if the title has some other symbolism. Whatever the case the song is a fun inclusion and picks up the headbanging pace a fair bit.

Deliverance

The title track sees Mike Dean take over vocals for a turn. The swampy tune takes aim at people under the spell of televangelists and dogmatic religious figures. Dean’s lower register drips with a smooth sardonic quality that is in contrast to Keenan’s gravelly vocals. It fits the song’s theme well and creates another standout track on the record.

Shake Like You

Another heavy as hell song that gets to the business of, well, Hell. The song attacks the war-mongering mentality of humanity and predicts the end of all things with most people burning in judgment. The lyrical fare is still sadly relevant 28 years after the album’s release, if not even more so.

Shelter

This acoustic track is a mournful dirge that might be about a breakup, at least that’s what it seems to convey. The song is almost a country track but still fits on the album. It’s a bit of a break from all the damn noise just before the record’s close.

Pearls Before Swine

The album’s closer keeps the pace slower and plods through to its conclusion. Still heavy, the doomy track references yet more religious symbolism in some kind of personal battle against people and “the devils in their eyes.” The sound of digging, perhaps a grave, closes out the record.

Deliverance was a landmark moment for Corrosion Of Conformity. It redefined the group’s sound and set them on a new trajectory that they have mostly seen through to this day. The album was the band’s biggest sales success with over 400,000 copies sold in the U.S. It was a case of found identity for a band who pounded through the 80’s underground with a variety of harsher styles.

A Story And A Song, Vol. 4

On By bigbadburchIn A Story And A Song1 Comment

We had a good round of winter weather in my area (and across much of the U.S.) a few weeks ago, and are seeing more as winter slowly rolls away into spring. That got me thinking about an odd little story from another notable winter storm many years ago. And as a result, here is a new story and song.

The song is Sightless, from the apparently final Solitude Aeturnus album Alone. The song is a massive doom offering that stays up-tempo despite its harrowing lyrical fare. It’s a highlight from an album that is full of them.

And for our story, which will get into when I first heard the band and the album. It was January 2007 and a major ice storm hit the U.S. Midwest and other parts of the country. My area of southwest Missouri was especially hard-hit. A combination of bad proactive city planning and just the massive nature of the storm left many without power for weeks in sub-freezing temperatures.

The storm came in on Friday night. Back then nothing stopped us from doing what we do, which is to play metal and drink beer. We knew the storm was coming so we headed to a nearby friend’s house to see the action from his huge, covered back deck.

The ice started piling on tree limbs and snapping them. The limbs crashed into power lines and knocked out power through the city. It seriously sounded like a war outside with the amount of trees and limbs cracking and snapping. This was the poor planning part of the whole thing – there were untrimmed limbs all over power lines through town. It was a mass casualty event as far as having electricity goes.

We wandered around a bit as it’s a bit tough to play music without power. The party spots of downtown still had power on Friday night so we hung around there awhile. Later I wound up over at another friend’s house where, in a desperate quest to eat something, we heated soup cans on a barbecue grill on his front porch. We were already settling in to our post-apocalyptic situation quite nicely.

The next night several of us convened at our house to try and find something to do. Power was still out and was going to be for days. The same friend who had offered up his BBQ grill and soup the night before had brought over a CD. My roommate had a boombox with a tape deck going but we had no other way to play the CD so we went out to my car and played it.

The disc was, of course, the Solitude Aeturnus album. We jammed out to a fair bit of it in my nice, warm car. The music was a perfect accompaniment to the surrounding frozen wasteland. While the situation overall could be looked at as quite dire, that bit of time playing the album in that setting just made everything seem peaceful and serene. Even a few exploding power transformers in the distance did not spoil the mood.

We went back to the house after playing a fair bit of the album. We got wind of one bar downtown that still had power so we loaded up in someone’s car and had a few pints there. Our house and neighborhood would not have power for 8 days, some other places went over 2 weeks without. Power crews from across the country came to repair the power lines, some who had worked Hurricane Katrina said our ice storm was worse.

In the end we got power back and eventually thawed out. Solitude Aeturnus would stick with me over time – Alone is a favorite album and I’ve gone back to the rest of their catalog and found other gems. Though the band did not continue on after that time, singer Robert Lowe would have a 5-year turn as the vocalist for doom legends Candlemass that began just a few months after the ice storm. Doom metal was a fitting soundtrack for my life around that time so all of this lined up quite nicely.

That’s about all there is to this story. The ice storm was a massive event that I had never seen before and will hopefully never see again. But at least I had some really badass music to help get through it.