Tag thrash metal

Cover of the album Eye to Windward by Gigafauna.

Gigafauna—Eye to Windward

Peter Jones Leave a comment

I’ve been a metalhead for decades now. I’d always leaned toward heavier rock, but as I made my way through my twenties, and navigated major life changes and the insanity of medical school, heavier music became one of those key coping strategies. And while my heart remained rooted in progressive music, thanks to a lifelong love of the music of Rush, I began to explore the myriad sub-genres found in metal.

More than perhaps any other type of music, metal embraces variety. There are dozens of different sub-genres, yet all are still recognizably metal. Truth is, it is one of the facets of being a metalhead that I find so refreshing. There is no shortage of different styles of metal that I can dip in and out of, with new styles and sounds to discover.

Some bands find their sound, their style, and settle in and make decades long successful careers from that. My personal favorite thrash metal band, Testament, is a perfect example. On (almost) any one of their albums, it is instantly apparent that I am listening to thrash metal, and honestly that I am listening to Testament. Other bands, however, take the risk of mixing different styles, and do so with varying degrees of success.

Cover of the album Eye to Windward by the band Gigafauna

Enter Gigafauna, a four piece from Uppsala, Sweden. For the sake of disclosure, I will admit that I was unaware of the band until they reached out via the contact form and let me know of their upcoming album, Eye to Windward. Hitting play, I truly had no idea what to expect. What I found, almost instantly, was a band taking that far riskier approach, that chance to mix genres and see what came out.

And what came out on Eye to Windward? A kick-ass album that deftly blends elements of progressive metal, sludge, and melodic death metal with a groove and swagger straight from an 80s hard rock band.

Songs move between moments of heavy grooves, crushing death metal riffs, clean vocals and growls, and back to those heavy grooves. The sense of swagger is ever present, even when the drums move to double time and the growls come barreling in. This all comes together to keep the heaviness from ever becoming overwhelming. Don’t mistake what I am saying: This is a metal album, through and through. But there is a sense of what I would describe as playfulness in how the band weaves together these different styles that keeps if from feeling oppressive.

Some days, I welcome the oppression and darkness that metal can provide. Eye to Windward keeps me engaged with its, at times, crushing heaviness. Yet the variety between the vocal styles and the riffs keeps the album feeling interesting, explorative, and injects a sense of joy into the music, even when the songs are dead serious. This is a difficult trick to pull off, and many bands falter as they try to do so. An excellent example is mid-album track “Plagued”. Harsh vocals start out, with an almost stomping beat. But the band isn’t afraid to take that places, with soaring vocals, textural variations in the guitars, and playing with moments of stripped back drums and bass coupled with layered guitars and vocals. It is an excellent showcase of all the different tools Gigafauna has at their disposal.

Other tracks are more focused. “Pyres” is heavy out of the gate, with my favorite riff on the album. Even here, though, there is a sense of dynamics that prevents the music from ever feeling stale. Album finale, “Vessel,” is a worthy way to close out this journey, taking us through all of the feelings of the album in a fantastic capstone on the experience. A sludgy, progressive, death-tinged epic, Gigafauna sticks the hooks in, tantalizingly hinting at where they may choose to go from here.

That doesn’t mean the album is perfect. There are some transitions that feel less fluid, slightly forced. There are moments where the disparate elements don’t come together perfectly. But that is always the risk when trying to marry these different styles. And while not perfect, the songs are all supremely enjoyable and performed with incredible talent. I am left impressed by the successes found on Eye to Windward, which far outshine the few bumps on the road.

For a band to come out of the dark and really blow me away is no small feat. Gigafauna has done just that with their release Eye to Windward. Mixing metal styles can either pay off or backfire spectacularly, and here it pays off with aplomb.

A Testament to real metal

Peter Jones Leave a comment

The 90s were weird for metal, man

Testament were never the biggest of the thrash metal bands. They weren’t even officially in the “Big 4” of American thrash metal (though there are plenty of us who would argue they should have been, or were better than the “Big 4”).

But, they will forever be my personal favorite thrash band. And their reaction to the 90s metal weirdness is just one of the many reasons they are.

So, in summary, Metallica stopped being metal, Megadeth did as well. Between grunge and later nu-metal, more traditional types of metal were floundering to some degree. There were exceptions, of course. Pantera became hugely popular during this time, at least in my opinion because they were so uncompromising in their approach.

Holding their ground

Still, there was Testament, toiling away, never nearly as big or well known as many of those other bands. The early 90s saw them changing their sound a bit, with 1992 release The Ritual being more melodic and sounding more mature and polished than previous albums. And one could certainly assume that they were trying to chase after the Metallica-esque success of The Black Album. However, while Metallica is a metal album, but not a thrash metal album, The Ritual still retains most of its thrashiness.

Yet, record companies saw the writing on the wall, and came to the band demanding they move in the direction of their peers, and release an album that was even more commercially marketable, approachable. Less metal, more hard rock, since that really was what was moving sales at the time. And Testament wasn’t immune to this. Founding member Eric Peterson has said that Atlantic Records, their record label at the time, came to them and demanded an “alternative” record.

Those who remember the 90s as vividly as I do will recall that “alternative” was just the catch all for stuff that wasn’t top 40, but also was most definitely not metal. In fact, much of it really couldn’t even be considered hard rock. It was huge, and it was selling millions of records. Take, for example, Nirvana’s Nevermind and it’s more than 10 million copies sold in the US in it’s lifetime, and compare that to The Ritual and its less than 500,000 sales. Clearly, one style was dominating.

From that standpoint, I could see suits trying to tell Testament what they needed to do. And Testament responded in the most metal way possible.

A middle finger to record execs

Low dropped in 1994, two years after The Ritual. And from the very first seconds of the first, and title track, Testament raised a huge, flaming middle finger to their record label. Low finds Testament at their most aggressive, their most pissed off, their most thrash metal, in both music but also in ethos. In fact, “Dog Faced Gods” from the album is pretty much just death metal. It is about as far from “alternative” as the band could have been.

You can guess what happened next. Atlantic Records dropped the band, and they went on form their own record label. And, unfettered by the demands of the suits at Atlantic, Testament decided to get a little weird in their own way.

Demonic stomped onto the ears of unsuspecting listeners three years later. And from the get go, you can tell you are in for something different. Opening track, “Demonic Refusal” counts in with a somewhat distorted voice, “10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 6, 6” and we are introduced full on to Testament’s version of death metal.

Demonic is not a thrash metal album. And for that reason, many people dislike it. Many even hate it. Opinions on the album vary widely. Just a glance across the internet will see review scores anywhere from 0 all the way up to 8 and 9 out of 10. So, why is it so divisive?

And why do I love it so much?

A demonic metal stage
Image courtesy of DALLE-3

A case for something different

Look, let’s just get this out of the way, Demonic is not the best album by Testament. Not by a long shot. It isn’t a thrash metal album, and it shows. It lacks much of the speed and energy that is most often associate with thrash metal. The riffs are more simplistic, there really aren’t guitar solos (with perhaps one exception, though the solo in “New Eyes of Old” is very short). And Chuck Billy growls almost the entire album, with very little of his trademark gravelly singing.

So, yeah, it is weird.

But it also stomps. It stomps hard! With Gene Hoglan on the kit, the drums pop, are so precise and powerful that it makes me really pay attention. Yes, the riffs aren’t as intricate as they previously were, but they are heavy, thick, groovy and threaten to snap necks. And while I agree that Chuck Billy is an absolute beast of a vocalist, his use of death growls is compelling to me, despite being fairly one-note.

I like heavy music. And this was Testament just playing heavy music. This same year we got ReLoad from Metallica. It’s hard rock, and even some songs I wouldn’t give the hard modifier to. Megadeth dropped Cryptic Writings, an absolute snooze-fest of an album that is pretty much just AOR. So, at least half of the “Big 4” weren’t even playing metal anymore, let alone anything has heavy as thrash or death metal. Testament was carrying that flame, and would continue to do so with their even more punishing subsequent release, The Gathering two years later.

Still, I have to admit that, in 1997 I wasn’t in to metal the way I am now. I don’t know how I would have reacted had I been a fan of the band at that time, and perhaps it is looking back on it that colors my opinion.

I think Demonic is a great album. It is so much better than much of what Testament’s contemporaries were releasing at that time, and showed a band committed to playing heavy fucking music, even despite intense pressure to do otherwise. In thinking about writing this, I have listened to Demonic at least a dozen times, and it just doesn’t get old to me.

And as a flaming middle finger to the music industry, I love it all the more. What is more metal than that?