METALISE COLUMN

METALISE

[THE WORD ON METAL] WITH JOSH NIXON

I was thinking the title “New Year, Same Shit” would suit but I don’t want to give the impression, dear reader, on the glorious return to the printed page this month, that I was feeling anything less than staunchly prepared to battle through another upstream current of Covid related challenges. No, like any prepared Australian at a beach, I shall merely float on the rip as it takes me out to sea before coasting back to shore, having punched a few sharks along the way. After all, musically, it’s been a pretty inspired Q4 of 2020 and early part of the year to date. Now as of writing, the Victorian situation is on Day 3 of their week lock down and a cursory look at Google news is showing five articles from the Murdoch press and only one of them is updating us on the fact only one new case was discovered today and the rest are back to making out that Dan Andrews is essentially a sentient form of evil come to rob the Liberal party of any sense of leadership or accountability in this situation. Of course, you can read with far deeper analysis the political implications of all this in more appropriate forums, but what I want to know is how does this impact on Witchskull taking their long overdue trip to Melbourne to launch their A Driftwood Cross (pictured) with Butterfly and Burn The Hostages on February 27?!? In the meantime, the band take to The Polish Club for two shows this Friday which are long sold out. I interject this musical update at this point: noting that despite many weeks free of community transmission - and having gone out for an event last Saturday in the city where literally thousands of people freely roamed the streets in a perhaps Valentine’s Day induced display of ‘social closening’ - it strikes me as a bit baffling that you can check into a bar or club in Canberra and be in close proximity, yet sit down gigs at The Basement and in this case The Polish Club are still subjected to tightly reduced numbers? But I digress. As mentioned, a few weekends ago by the time this hits print, on the 19th and 20th of February, the mighty ‘skull took to the stage for two lucky audiences, BUT also eventually for anyone that wants to see it.

How, you scream? Well, because the two shows will be filmed by a professional camera crew to produce a live event for all perpetuity at a later date. Hopefully the ticket holders for the aforementioned Melbourne show will not have to wait for its release to enjoy a live Witchskull performance. As an aside, I highly recommend fans of ’70s inspired traditional heavy metal to check out Butterfly album Doorways of Time. It is excellent.

Butterfly’s Doorways of Time is well worth your ears’ attention

Also Burn the Hostages feature expat Canberran Aaron Osbourne on the riffstick playing some exceptionally heavy Eyehategodesque sludge with members of Blood Duster, Extortion and Religious Observance.You can check them out on Bandcamp. Having been through the wringer due to Covid and venue changes, Metal From The Grave, a celebration of the career of fabled Damaged drummer Matt Skitz Sanders will hopefully not be impacted from the latest hotel quarantine bonanza in Victoria.

Damaged drummer Matt Skitz Sanders can see into your soul

The show moved venue, year, and is now scheduled for 15 April at The Basement in Belconnen with a current capacity of around 100 tickets as per the leaders of Covid gigs in The Basement’s management team. You will need to pick up your ticket quickly, however, as it is already over 50% sold, in order to witness material ranging from Damaged, Manticore, Hobbs Angel of Death, Misery and Terrorust, as well as hearing the man recount war stories from his many years of touring (I would especially like to hear about his time with Sadistik Exekution in Europe). Tickets through the Basement site/oztix. I’ve added some reviews this month for a single (Sumeru‘s Blood Ordinance) and an EP (Gatecreeper‘s An Unexpected Reality), you should add to your rotation, but I’d love to hear about what your band is doing, recording, performing etc at doomtildeath@ hotmail.com

SUMERU BLOOD ORDINANCE [ ] Hold onto your hats, ladies and gents, but a Sydney metal band has done something that is strangely rare for a city of that size and that’s knocked my dick in the pleased with this heavier turn. The song finishes with displaying the band’s appreciation for dynamics with yet another big riff and doom section. dirt. Other bands from the area do this, of course, but it is weird that the It’s missing some vocals over the country’s largest city doesn’t produce nearly as much top notch stuff as, doom riff at the end, and perhaps say, Brisbane or Melbourne. the melodic variation on the chorus That is not the point though! We are here to discuss what we DO have, and that is a 7” single featuring two absolutely all-killer riff fests! riff that comes in at 3:10 needs to be a touch more prominent in the mix, which wasn’t as apparent Side one kicks off with Cold Chamber, a dirge-y descending chord on headphones as in the car, but progression that lifts off into a straight black metal inspired arpeggio riff otherwise just KILLER. Mike and a pleasingly evolving drum pattern that builds to a sudden break. At Deslandes has yet another winning heavy production under his belt here. 0.30 we enjoy a killer lead into an utter ball tearer of a riff. If this single receives the wide exposure that it deserves, and this riff is consumed whilst driving, Sumeru will be the subject of a class action suit due to the speeding tickets it will generate. The “B side” is really a case of side A and side 1. Foundry of Dread sets you up with that kinda AM radio mix of the intro riff that you know is going to kick your motherfuckin’ ass when the rest kicks in. Sure enough, the previous track’s speeding fine could well see your vehicle impounded, with And here Sumeru welcome new vocalist Jake Willoughby to the mic. drummer Andres Hyde’s swinging ride cymbal work over the top of Pete Those familiar with past work Holy Lands and Summon Destroyer will Bursky and Chris Wilsons guitars and Pat Taylor’s bass riffs. note that Willoughby brings a decidedly more aggressive presence, and the band has harnessed that energy. That is not to say the band have reduced the scope on their sludgey, stoner and doom influences, but rather added old school death metal influences, making a welcome addition to their list of song writing ingredients. Again, Willoughby’s settled in, dropping vocal bombs over the song’s key riffs which build and swap the swing of the ride in the verse to the guitars in the chorus before a kinda breakdown finale that is going to add to Sumeru’s legal woes as being unsafe to necks due to critical bangovers. Cold Chamber evidences this well as the verse and chorus sections interplay with the intro riff coming back, with Willoughby only further enhancing the muscular riff with an excellent vocal performance that is a notable step up in production and execution for the band. I say that The only whinge is toward a weird harmony at 4:08 that may be a supplanted ear worm to hurt my brain and make me love the rest of the song even more, but there’s also a guitar solo so tasty that I nearly licked my fingers on its completion. with great reverence and respect for previous vocalist Matt Power and In summation, or Sumeru-ation if you will, hurry up with an album of this! their previous work, but my inner metal ming-mong has been especially Operate heavy machinery while listening at your own peril. JOSH NIXON

GATECREEPER AN UNEXPECTED REALITY

Gatecreeper belted out a really fun top ten album of the year in 2019 called Deserted. It was a simpler time then; gigs could be attended, moshes induced, and joy

was had by all about the land. And then 2020 happened and the world turned to shit. Folks with creative energies had various levels of success dealing with this new world in which most of their friends in the broader music industry had to find new ways to survive. For bands, that meant having a bit of a think about how we create, and while some have replaced live shows with live streams, others have taken the creativity to the studio. Where 2019’s Gatecreeper hit on a fun balance of old school death metal with modern hardcore-esque delivery, 2021 Gatecreeper had a bit of a think about this EP, and it’s a near perfect triumph as a result.

I could talk at length, or follow the music writing review tropes and dissect the EP, but I want to talk about here is what I consider a bit of a genius approach to the structure of the EP. You have seven songs that take up 7:55 of the 18 minutes available to us on this production, and 11:05 of those minutes are essentially in a different genre in the form of one fantastic long doom song. That is not to say that the 7 minutes and 55 seconds are not fantastic. As a good friend of mine said upon sharing this with them: “I love it, Sunlight Studios throwback straight up”, in reference to the home of the chainsaw death metal guitar home in Sweden, home of Entombed, Grave and Dismember.

That’s a pretty accurate descriptor for the start of the EP; fast chainsaws dripping in an old death metal ethos but with a nice fresh modern production. There are seven songs on offer here and I emphasise again; the cool idea of ripping out seven barely one-minute-long songs are all bangers and I applaud the band for this idea. But there’s just one thing I would add to the execution living up to the idea, for me; I just wish they were all 20 seconds or so longer to bring back one of the key riffs in each of the songs. I like a bookend to reinforce the point. This is a minor gripe, though. Things are as they should be and it’s a bloody ripper of a 7 minute and 55 second ride. Emptiness shows that the band are not just capable of a face ripping death metal album, but also writing a near perfect doom song in the long form. Dynamic, heavy, a sense of musical narrative across the song’s bit-over-11-minutes… I mean I’m a doom guy, of course I love it. It’s not traditional doom, the production is very much in the vein and complimentary to the death metal blitz that proceeds it. The drums, in particular, sound triggered and perhaps lack the analog warmth of a traditional doom metal production – but the song writing is on point and I have no complaints about what it is. Well played, Gatecreeper. This work has seen the band sign to Nuclear Blast which I hope gives them the production support to further creatively approach the mid point of Covid and beyond. Ripping EP, everyone should get on it. JOSH NIXON