Tag metalcore

Lamb of God – Sacrament

Peter Jones Leave a comment

Over the years my tastes in music have changed, something that I think happens to most, if not all, people. In some cases, I can pin moments of that changing musical tastes to specific albums. Sacrament is one such album.

I first stumbled across an instrumental version of Sacrament, which was probably good. At the time, I was (for better or worse) a much more tender flower, who would have rejected the album outright due to the aggressive nature of the lyrics. However, time (and years spent as a surgeon – trust me, we can curse with the best of them) desensitized me to the point I not only didn’t reject the lyrics, I found solace in them.

Immediately, Sacrament grabs you with the groove of “Walk With Me in Hell”, a driving, pummeling track. It can be off putting. It can seem dark, negative, hateful. And yet, as with so much in music, there is much more to that. Instead, it actually is an invitation that builds to an anthemic crescendo, inviting us all to walk through Hell together, to lean on each other to get through the bullshit that life throws at us.

I find that incredibly inspiring.

Not all tracks have that same type of inspiration. “More Time to Kill” spews vitriol like few other songs. Take the opening lines, for example:

I just got the news today you were dying

Hot damn, we’re already partying

But please, before you have to leave

Let me tell you a few last things

But you know what? Talk about catharsis. Get done with that and you just feel better. It purges something out of you. Hell, you can’t look me in the eye and tell me we haven’t all felt that way about someone in our lives. Because we totally have, and we’ve wished we could say that. And so, Randy Blythe spews it out with gravel to boot.

Sacrament doesn’t ever really let up. Songs have massive, mosh-worthy, breakdowns. The vocals are relatively one note, harsh growls, but there is variability here and there, more than on previous albums. But you didn’t come to a Lamb of God album for sweet crooning. If you did, you done messed up, bro. One thing that Randy has always excelled in is the clarity of his delivery. It is too easy for harsh vocals to become unintelligible. That is avoided here, the lyrics are almost shockingly understandable. And that works in the music’s favor. Lamb of God works best for me as a vehicle for rage, frustration, and the need to process. Understanding the biting lyrics makes that so much more effective.

This certainly isn’t my favorite Lamb of God album (that would be Ashes of the Wake). But it was the first LoG album I listened to, start to finish. And it was a powerful introduction to a band I was aware of, but hadn’t really listened to up to that point. Live, this band is phenomenal (see the above banner picture), and they do an excellent job of translating their live energy to the record. Lamb of God is one of those bands that are just incredibly reliable. There isn’t ever any wondering what you are going to get. You know: aggressive, groove heavy music that will get you going, help purge some of the ugly out of you, and leave you feeling just a little bit better, no matter how bad the day was.

Spiritbox – Eternal Blue

Peter Jones Leave a comment

I blame Kmac2021. An excellent musician who disguises himself as a YouTube meme, I first stumbled on his videos blending songs from the likes of the Beatles with death metal. Hi. Lar. I. Ous. No, but seriously, they are funny and totally worth checking out. One day, a number of years ago, he linked to a track from the self-titled EP by a band call Spiritbox.

I checked that album out, found a sound I enjoyed, and added it to my library. Some additional singles were released over the next few years, and I would be aware enough to add them to my library, but not aware enough I found myself going back with sufficient frequency to really have the band click with me.

Enter “Holy Roller”. Reaction videos started popping up on YouTube very shortly after the release of the video in July 2020. This time I think it was Nik Nocturnal’s video that popped up and I decided to give it a watch.

W. T. F.

It was heavy. Really heavy. The video was appropriately creepy. It grabbed me. I was fascinated. I started gobbling up the band’s previous work, in particular the singles “Blessed Be” and “Rule of Nines”. Here was a band with a powerful, versatile vocalist, super clean and punchy production, wicked guitars, and just an overall accessible, while still interestingly complex package. Add on to that, in all their social media and interactions with their Patreon supporters, the band just seemed like chill, super cool people.

I started following them in earnest and they continued to release a number of additional singles. Anticipation for the full album built for me. And then Eternal Blue dropped.

I’ve been asked what genre Spiritbox would fall into. I guess I would say metalcore. But I feel like that label sells them very short. Lead singer Courtney Laplante has a beautiful clean voice with an often ethereal quality to it. Her screams are things of legend, and her growls, while not the most guttural of female vocalists out there, are very powerful and dynamic. Husband Mike Stringer is an excellent guitarist, combining simple playing with often deceptive complexity, creating layers that help to build the atmosphere in their music.

It really is this atmospheric nature of their music that I think sets them apart from most metalcore bands. Songs have very heavy moments, consistent with the genre. Yet these are often more than balanced by atmosphere, electronic elements, and clean guitar playing.

And Eternal Blue embraces and embodies that diversity. There are songs that are just complete bangers (see “Holy Roller”), while others are tranquil tracks that really lust allow the atmosphere and the emotion of the tracks to wash over you (“We Live In A Strange World”, “Constance”). There are also tracks that are relatively straight forward metal songs, while others are soaked in electronica and layers of effects.

The album also flows fantastically from track to track. In the era of singles (interestingly, many were released prior to the release of Eternal Blue as a whole), this is one of those albums that really was written and recorded in a way to encourage listening from start to finish.

In a genre that can, at times, become boring and predictable, Spiritbox do an exceptional job on Eternal Blue of keeping things interesting. While it rarely feels out of place (with the exception, for me, of the chorus of “Yellowjacket”), the zigging when a zag is expected is done class and skill. Spiritbox seems to really be hitting their stride at the moment, and Eternal Blue is an excellent demonstration as to why that is happening. It is a fascinating release, and makes me that much more interested in what the band will bring next.

Norma Jean – All Hail

Peter Jones Leave a comment

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The truth is, I like most subgenres of metal. However, anything that ends in -core, well, it just doesn’t usually click for me. As with everything in life though, there are exceptions.

Norma Jean is one of those exceptions. And All Hail slams an exclamation mark on that exception.

I became familiar with the band Norma Jean with their 2013 album Wrongdoers. For some reason, songs off that album popped up in my Pandora feed. I don’t recall what station led to that, but pop up they did, and I remember digging some of their stuff.

2016 came, and with it their album Polar Similar, I was paying complete attention. So when I saw that All Hail was getting ready to drop, I pre-ordered it without question. Specifically after hearing the first single, [Mind over Mind]. That song hit like a ton of bricks, and didn’t let up for its short two and a half minute run time.

All Hail is unquestionably metalcore. But it is metalcore that has matured. There is a deftness to the writing on the album that really draws me in. There are plenty of face smashing, head banging moments that get the blood pumping. Yet these moments are balanced by other moments of subtlety and peace. This makes the record stand out for me.

Metalcore, like all its -core brethren, can be a little too much. Too samey. Too balls-to-the-wall from start to finish. There is actually room to breathe on All Hail. And the album is undeniably stronger because of it.

Case in point, “Translational”, a song that will be at the very top of my favorite songs of the year list. It starts slowly, almost gently, and gradually builds from there. Screams are balanced with softly sung lines until the song explodes with the scream “Deliver me!” Yet they still have the maturity to reign the song in, and pull it back. This makes the “Burn baby, burn!” peak of the song that much more powerful. This is a masterclass in dynamics and maturity that eludes most -core bands.

It is this maturity, this ability to weave different layers of intensity, to contrast heavy and atmosphere, that makes All Hail such a darn triumph of writing. And the writing is bolstered by excellent playing and production that, while consistent with almost too polished modern sensibilities, allows the music to have that space to breathe that it needs. Yes, this is loud, but it never gets to be too much.

And with that balance and maturity, Norma Jean has dropped one of my favorite albums I have heard this year.