Iron Lamb– The Original Sin

Given the metal pedigree of the members of Iron Lamb, the surprise of this release is that it’s not really metal.  When you have members, current and former, of bands such as General Surgery, Scurvy, Repugnant, Dismember, Insision, Bombstrike, Tyrant, and Dellamorte, I expected to be smacked upside the head by some full on Swedish death.  But there is something else very enjoyable here instead.

While it’s not metal, it is very good punk and roll, which is how the band’s press release refers to this, and that’s as good a way to describe this as anything I can come up with.  Listening through The Original Sin took me back to my holy trinity of Motorhead, Ace of Spades, Iron Maiden, Killers, and Saxon, Wheels Of Steel, which I discovered my junior year of high school and which started me on my metal path.  If any of those 3 albums mean anything to you, Iron Lamb is right up your alley.

Band members Johan Wallin, Grga Lindstrom, Thomas Daun, and Daniel Ekeroth (who wrote the most excellent book “Swedish Death Metal”) have crafted a set of songs that for the most part put the pedal to the metal, but also throw in a couple of tasty changeups.  This is the kind of CD I’d like to take on a road trip when I have a long way to go but a short time to get there, because it makes you want to mash the accelerator and see if you can get a 100 miles under your tires before the CD is over.

The album comes out swinging with “Rotten Wood/Original Sin”, “Dubious Preacher”, and “Our Demise”.   Then, a cover of Motorhead’s “Poison”, which fits right in with the previous tracks and makes you wanna find a moshpit to jump into and spill your beer all over your fellow pit denizens.   “Suicide” keeps the energy level at 100% and features some tasty guitar playing.   As you would expect from a release like this, there’s an anti-social fist to the face with back to back tracks “I Don’t Wanna Be Like You”, and “I Don’t Like You”.

 A little bit of change of pace comes from “Iron Lamb, Dead Inside”.  There’s a literal change of pace in tempo, more of a sense of melody than you normally find in this style of music, and an interesting set of lyrics.  This is followed by bonus tracks “Another Miserable Day” and “TBC”.  I’ve never really understood the whole idea of bonus tracks on a release like this, because in my opinion “Another Miserable Day” is one of the stronger tracks on this album.  So I guess I would say that when you buy this, make sure you get the version with the bonus tracks.

All-in-all, this is quite a ripper of an album and one that I was happy to find and definitely happy to recommend.  It’s got the punkier side of NWOBHM down pat, has some very good guitar licks and solos that are not over the top and fit perfectly with what the music is doing, and if you have a pulse at all it is impossible to put this album on and not move something.  Music is supposed to move us, and Iron Lamb accomplish this in a very visceral way.  What more do you want? 


-- ODIN

Corsair – Ghosts of Proxima Centauri

England.  1979.  Something was bubbling in the underground.  A reaction against punk’s denial of rock and roll, but keeping the punk ethos of D.I.Y energy and effort.  The NWOBHM was one of the coolest time periods for rock music as bands like Iron Maiden, Def Leppard, Saxon, Samson, Praying Mantis, Tygers of Pan Tang, and others hit the streets in a gutter level assault on the music status quo.  Production was raw, vocals were usually gritty and punk-hewn, and the music kicked ass.  Forget production values, the energy burned through; the raw need to play music and rock the fuck out.  That’s what made the NWOBHM for me. 

Once the spark took, it became an inferno.  Bands sprouted up everywhere through the UK, then the continent, then USA.   Pub mates picked up axes and skins, powered with a couple major riffs, and took to the stage.  Demo tapes flew fast and furious.  I can only imagine what it was like back then, to be a DJ, or a rock promoter, or even a fan.  Every day another demo tape from another band.  Some sucked, but some were major-ass cool.  I saw a guy on eBay once auction off a whole litter of these demo tapes, random NWOBHM bands all armed with spit, dying to get their music out. 

I missed those days.  But Corsair is bringing it right back.

In attitude, in DIY effort, in riff-style, songwriting and playing, this is the NWOBHM all over again.  Better yet, this is my NWOBHM demo tape (CD).  Plucked down onto my desk in its homemade sleeve.  Credits and thank you note handwritten in green pen.  It doesn’t get much more DIY than this.

But none of that means anything if the music can’t hold up.  But it does, oh Lord it does!  With a love of Thin Lizzy and their harmony guitars, plus a guitar-case full of classic-styled NWOBHM riffs (think Praying Mantis or Trespass) Corsair have just delivered one of my favorite albums of the year. 

“Wolfrider” starts us off with an instrumental that hints at the band’s prowess.  Marie Landrain and Paul Sebring man the guitars, bringing us in with a moody, textured opening, as Aaron Lipscombe keeps the beat steady and Jordon Brunk fills out the bottom end.  Then, you get it.  About a minute in, a lone guitar sears through the mix.  Classic tone.  Serious late 70’s metal chops. The band breaks it down, riding highs and lows as the song ebbs and flows.  It’s a nice intro to some great rock music to follow.

Payday hits with second song, “Warrior Woman.”   Is that a Riot riff from 1979?  A Praying Mantis outtake?  Hell no, it’s Corsair tearing through this driving rocker like prisoners on a jailbreak.  Lizzy harmony guitars soar without ever overplaying.  Vocals are NWOBHM rough, and I mean that in a good way.  Don’t give me operatic wailing over my metal.  Give me some meat, some fleshy vocals with texture and grit.  Yeah, hit the high notes, but I like my singing to be about the tone, not the overacting.  Don’t know who the singer is here, but he hits it perfect. 

“Burnish the Blades” reminds me at first of Wild Horses, the old Jimmy Bain band with its start/stop riffing.    Admittedly, it’s not my favorite track here, I like Corsair better when they keep a closer eye to melody, but still, for my lost NWOBHM demo tape, it works.  “Centurion” is more my flavor.  Different singer, but just as fitting.  Great harmony leads cutting through the mix like a bike messenger darting through traffic. 

“Orca” brings Marie to the microphone which brings a quasi-gothic tone to the riffing.  And riff they do.  Fingers tear through harmony passages, leaving electric skid marks on the frets.  Again, I’m thinking the best of Praying Mantis’ harmony work here, melodic and powerful.  “Eyes of God,” finishes it all off with a potent terror.

Through it all, Corsair’s love of playing burns through loud and clear.  It’s that passion for the music that makes it all work.  Yes, the album is rough.  Yes, it’s total DIY and I wouldn’t have it any other way.  Not many bands can pull it together and put out an effort like this, and I can only hope gaggles of other bands are to follow.  Create a new movement.

Corsair aren't from England, they're from Virginia, and this isn't 1979, but still, this is my NWOBHM demo tape.  This is the gutter level rock band dropping their tape in my lap and my ears perking up and praising thanks.    This is what it’s all about.


--Racer

King Diamond -Abigail

One of the first cassettes I ever owned; it contained the awesome solo work of guitarists Andy LaRocque and Michael Denner, and the drum magnificat of Mikkey Dee (who's been in Motorhead for nearly 20 years now). It's NWOBHM telling a ghost story.

It's a concept album, the first complete one King Diamond released (the debut, Fatal Portrait, has a few songs unconnected to the overall story). Abigail is a traditional ghost story, which is unusual in metal: metal generally loves horror (death metal particularly) but not so much ghost stories, e.g., The Stone Tape, Hell House, The Haunting of Hell House, The Turn of the Screw, The Beckoning Fair One, etc.

The story concerns a young couple in 1845 who move into an inherited mansion in the middle of nowhere (so far so sweet), who initially are contacted by seven horsemen (those on the album cover) and told that essentially they should go nowhere near the house. Of course they do, where they are visited by the ghost of an ancestor of the young protagonist, who details to him the tragic backstory of the house, and why it does not bode well for the couple and their unborn child.

If you bother to read the actual lyrics (rather than a synopsis), they're pretty fucking creepy; especially as, being song lyrics and having to be as brief as possible, they give you each plot point or resolution one, maybe two times. You have to pay attention.

King's oft-debated vocals are admittedly an acquired taste, but if you think of them as characters in the story, it might ease your angst. Or maybe you should just get used to them.

Track 3, "A Mansion in Darkness" and its opening guitar solo, a beautiful haunting melody, set the musical tone for the whole record; solo-heavy, mid-tempo traditional heavy metal.

High point: "The Family Ghost," particularly the solos beginning at 1:30. (Just for reference, Andy LaRocque played a guest solo on At The Gates' Slaughter of the Soultrack "Cold," one that guitarist Anders Björler has laughingly claimed in interviews that he can't quite replicate.) His neo-classical runs still piss me off, they're so well-thought out, yet boldly metal.

Great, great shit.

Horn

Buy here: Abigail

Electric Wizard – Black Masses

There are many (too many, in fact) doom metal bands out there but I will always make time for Electric Wizard. Black Masses is the Dorset, England band’s 7th album and is pretty much business as usual but there are a few different audio elements to keep things from getting too redundant. The Black Sabbath/Pentagram foundation remains as well as NWOBHM creeps like Venom and Witchfinder General but there’s a stronger psychedelic feel than on some of their previous records. It also sounds a bit like the influence of fuzz-guitar maestro Davie Allan is in the mix, too. Not surprising since Electric Wizard love all the violent 60’s biker movies that Allan did music for just as much as the horror/cult films they sometimes sample.

The twin axe attack of singer Justin Oborn and wife Elizabeth Buckingham is very thick, fuzzed out and layered with trippy effects. Justin’s vocals pop in and out of the mix to bleat his bleak views and call upon Satan to help him navigate this wicked world. Shaun Rutter’s drums plod and thud accordingly in a most Master Of Reality way and blend well with new “necrobassist” Tas Danazoglou. It’s worth noting that Tas has some really intimidating facial tattoos.

For a band so heavy and negative, the songs are surprisingly catchy. “Black Mass” will have everyone yelling “hear me Lucifer” loud and strong at the live show. “Venus In Furs” is not a cover of the Velvet Underground classic (although I’d like to hear them tackle it) but does share the S&M subject matter. Clocking in at 8 minutes, my favorite song might be “The Nightchild” just because of the strong Witchfinder General feel.

The entire album is solid and flows together really well. The tempos are never too fast, and they really excel at the real snail crawlers like “Satyr IX.” There’s even an instrumental dirge called “Crypt Of Drugula” with some very cool atmospherics that’s cooler than anything Eno’s ever done. This is a great one to play late at night in a car full of people you don’t know very well. They’d really freak! Unless they’re already freaks, then they’d love it.

-- Woody

Buy here: Black Masses
Buy vinyl: Black Masses

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http://www.myspace.com/electricwizarddorsetdoom

A Sunday Conversation with Tank

Can you say legendary?  Nothing else could sum up the career and respect garnered for Tank.  Emerging from the UK in the height of the NWOBHM scene (although not a NWOBHM band, read below) Tank have unleashed one napalm blast after another of searing metal.  And today, with a new album out, War Machine, the band is still going just as strong.


Cliff Evans joins us today on the red leather Ripple couch, ale in hand, venom in spirit, ready to shed some light on all that is Tank


Talk to us about the song-writing process for you. What comes first, the idea? A riff? The lyrics? How does it all fall into place?

We usually start with a guitar riff and pass the idea between us and build the song. We all have home studios so it’s easy to email ideas to each other and work on the songs until they’re at the stage where we can record the tracks in a pro studio.


What makes a great song?

That’s a difficult question. I think a song either works or it doesn’t. There’s no rules.

Who today, writes great songs? Who just kicks your ass? Why?


To be honest there aren’t many bands around at the moment that really do much for me in the way of song writing. I prefer to listen to my old albums from the 70’s and early 80’s when so many great songs were born and the quality of production has made them timeless rock anthems. Too many bands are relying on over produced and fake studio techniques which results in music without any soul or substance. We worked very hard under the guidance of our producer Pedro Ferreira (The Darkness, Meat Loaf, Therapy) to give ‘War Machine’ the sound and vibe we were looking for and we’re very pleased with the result we got.


Any plans for a U.S. tour?

It’s been a long, long time since we last toured the US and it would be a real privilege to come over and play for our ever growing army of US fans. Hopefully we can arrange something for 2011.


Any good stories of playing with Metallica in 1984?

We gave them a master class in the fine art of beer drinking.


Many NWOBHM bands are finding a spike in interest these days?  Why do you think that is?

Not to be disrespectful to the nwobhm, but we have never considered ourselves as part of that movement and never will. We’ve been trying to lose that tag for a long time. Nobody refers to Iron Maiden as a nwobhm band. We’re just a British rock band moving forwards and creating great new music and not living off the past.


Which 3 headed beast would win in a dog fight - the one on the cover of Filth Hounds Of Hades or the one on the cover of Wild Dogs by The Rods?

No contest. Filth Hounds every time.



How's your hearing?

I’m hearing a lot of crap music on my radio at the moment.


What do you have to say to skeptics that are reluctant to accept Tank without Algy Ward?

We decided that if the fans weren’t happy with our decision then we wouldn’t carry on as Tank.

Last year we performed at several festivals around Europe to showcase the new line-up and the reaction from the fans was great. To our surprise nobody even asked why Algy wasn’t there. They were just happy to see the band and hear their favourite songs. We now intend to tour as much as possible and give the fans what they deserve.

Algy had a habit of disappearing for several years at a time. He also seemed to have lost interest in the band and had some health problems to deal with. We were constantly receiving emails from fans all over the world asking what was going on with the band. This became very frustrating for Mick and me so we made the decision to move Tank forwards into a new era with a great new line-up and record an album that we could be proud of and give the fans what they want

Hopefully we can work with Algy again sometime in the future.


How's the music changed over the years?

Tank has been constantly evolving since the very beginning. Starting with the punk influenced sound of ‘Filth Hounds’ and ‘Power of the Hunter’ then with the addition of Mick Tucker on guitar for the next album ‘This Means War’, the band headed into a more classic rock direction with the big guitar riffs. When I joined for the ‘Honour and Blood’ album we were starting to gain a more metal edge. Now ‘ War Machine’ is the next generation. A new era of Tank. We had to come back with something very special and put Tank back up to the forefront of British rock.


What's the craziest thing you've ever seen from the stage?

When I was playing in the band Killers with Paul Dianno, we would often see him leave the stage and head towards the mixing desk to have a fight with the sound guy because his voice sounded shit. Nothing to do with the two bottles of Jack and six grams of Charlie every day.


Whiskey or beer?  And defend your choice.

We drink British real ale for it’s life giving properties and anti ageing effect. It also gets you really fucked up and doubles as a laxative. Our current favourite ales are – Old Speckled Hen, Hobgoblin and Bishops Finger.


Any final comments or thoughts you'd like to share with our readers, the waveriders?

No matter what kind of rock/metal you’re into, have a listen to ‘War Machine’. We guarantee you won’t be disappointed with what you hear.

Hopefully we’ll see you all somewhere on tour in 2011.

Buy new album here: War Machine (Limited)

www.tankofficial.com

photos care of 658creative.

Quartz - Stand Up and Fight

Back in high school, Brett and I were brothers in arms.  Rock and roll arms that is.  A tad more seasoned than I was, Brett burst my musical cherry by taking me to my first big-time rock concert; AC/DC, Cheap Trick, Ted Nugent, Blue Oyster Cult, and Boston.  Or was it Journey headlining?  Hell, with all the acrid smoke wafting in and around my virginal nostrils that day, I’ll never remember. 

But I do know that Brett also introduced me to the endless hours of joy that became known as the bargain bin dig, and opened up my ears to crazy new sounds in metal, like UFO.  Influential in my life, hell yeah!  It’s safe to say that The Ripple Effect would not exist in many ways, if not for Brett.  A while back I wrote of “big brother” Danny shaping my musical childhood, well Brett was responsible for my much louder heavy metal adolescence.

And with a brother like that in the late seventies to early eighties, you better believe we launched headlong into the NWOBHM and launched hard.   Seemed like we were on a quest to constantly outdo each other, being the first to turn the other guy onto a new band.  For every Tygers of Pan Tang, Girl School, Bitches Sin, Praying Mantis and Witchfynde that Brett found, I pulled out an Iron Maiden, Def Leppard, Saxon, Vardis, and Motorhead.  He popped out an AIIZ and I whipped out an Angelwitch.  Wild Horses, Raven . . it didn’t matter.  We were there.

Then how in the hell did we miss Quartz?

Perhaps it was because Quartz were just a bit ahead of our time, their debut album being recorded in 1976 and 1977.  But that shouldn’t of mattered.  This rambunctious platter I now hold in my hot and steamy hands, Metal Mind's just released reissue of Quartz’s second album, Stand Up and Fight, was originally put out in 1980.  That was our time.  And further, Quartz were originally championed by Tony Iommi and his management group.  He produced their first album and Quartz Geoff Nicholls left the band to join Black Sabbath in 1979.  And we were definitely huge Sabbath fans.  So how this record escaped the attention of two pimply-faced, metal mad teenage boys with a ’66 Mustang remains a mystery never to be solved.

But thank God it’s been rectified, because Stand Up and Fight is one helluva blitzkrieg of riff-mad NWOBHM.  A molten cauldron of screaming guitar licks, trodding bass lines and bone-shattering drums.  An album chock-full of one pounding primal metal fest after another.  An album not to be missed.

Mike Taylor was a singer for the ages, with a voice gruff enough to stand out against all the fey pretty boys of the day, but still sweet enough to scale the heights and bring the passion to the songs.  The closest similarity I can find to his voice is Daryl Braithwaite from the latter Aussie band, The Sherbs; but that reference is probably too obscure, so let’s go with a husky Geddy Lee with a case of laryngitis.  Guitarist Mick Hopkins could shred and rip with the best of them, laying down wailing solos or tearing through grinding gears of riffs.   And the rhythm section of Malcom Cope and Derek Arnold were steadfast in their dedication to rock. 

And boy, could they rock.  Ignoring the sole misstep of “Can’t Say No To You,” a timid American-aimed rocker that sounds suspiciously like Foreigner's “Feels Like the First Time,” the rest of the album and the one extra bonus track “Circles” are the true essence of the NWOBHM. 

I’m not going to go into each track here, because I’m gonna run out of adjectives way to soon.  There’s just no way to sum up the raging riff drag race of “Charlie Snow" and it’s cocaine reference.  It’s impossible to describe the bullish metal assault of “Rock ‘n’ Roll Child,” or the angry power wrapped up in powerchords and wailing solos of “Revenge.”  I don’t have the words to lay down how I feel about the mad rockers, “Wildfire,” “Circles,” or “Stoking Up the Fires of Hell.”  Let’s just simply say that Stand Up and Fight is simply . . . simply fantastic.  Raw and primitive, riff-mad metal.   An album that absolutely shouldn’t be missed.

Brett, brother, have I got one for you!

--Racer

Buy here:  Stand Up & Fight

Fist – Turn the Hell On

Iron Maiden with Di’Anno or Iron Maiden with Bruce Dickinson?

That’s a debate Pope and I love to have, over and over, endlessly for the last 19 years.  Pope’s firmly in the Dickinson camp, and his reasons are sound. Dickinson had the pipes, the air raid siren vocal chords, and there’s no doubt he’s a great frontman.  Without Dickinson, Maiden never would have become, well . . . MAIDEN.

But that’s not what it’s about for me.  With Di’Anno, Maiden possessed something they lost the day Dickinson walked into the band room; something primal, something raw, something vital. Maiden’s first album, and the entire, early NWOBHM scene was around raw guts.  It was a D.I.Y. effort created entirely from passion.  The NWOBHM was heavy metal’s punk rock moment.  Their rebellion against the status quo.  It was metallers taking their records and distribution literally into their own hands.  Scores of bands pumping out furious, riff-maddened metal, on clumsy, self-manufactured, barely produced singles and tapes. Selling em by hand out on the streets.  It was bizarre guys having air guitar battles at sweaty, stink-filled underground metal clubs, and frothing at the mouth at the next band to emerge onto the scene.

And it didn’t last long.  NWOBHM started around 1979 and by 1981, certainly by 1982, the scene had already bowed down to the man, becoming a commercial megalith.  If you followed the music, you could feel the transition hit you like running into a brick wall.  There it is, right there, when Maiden switched to Dickinson, when the Tygers of Pan Tang switched to Deverill, when Def Leppard put out High N' Dry.  In each of their own ways, these moves heralded the death of the raw NWOBHM in favor of a slicker, more produced, more commercial sound.  Not that it was all bad mind you, just different.

And not my NWOBHM.  My metal was guts, baby.  Riffs flying at the speed of sound.  Technically, maybe not the best.  Vocals were strained.  Playing was primitive.  But passion.  God, the NWOBHM was about passion.

And to that effect, I offer you this brand new Metal Mind reissue of the debut album from long forgotten early NWOBHM hooligans, Fist.  Don’t go looking here for the refined polish of Number of the Beast-era Maiden.  Fist were plying their workingman’s trade way back when the scene began, releasing their first single on a Neat Records compilation tape way back in 1979.  Many times in Ripple reviews, Pope or I will write the words “we can’t understand why this band didn’t find a bigger audience.”  Not here.  Here, it’s beautifully clear why Fist were never commercially successful.  Their sound is barely finished, their playing sufficient, their singing rough.  And damn I wouldn’t have it any other way.   Raw, primal passion, baby, it’s all raw passion.

Remember this is the punk moment of metal, and Fist burst out of the gate with that flag flying high.  “Hole in the Wall Gang,” sums it all up perfectly.  Staggering, stuttering riffs married to a sledgehammer beat and walloping bass.  Their sound is familiar, certainly a product of the era.  Think a combination of early Praying Mantis with On Through the Night-era Def Leppard and you’ll get the feeling.  And if those names give you giddy chills, then Fist will too.

I was being a bit flippant when I said their playing was sufficient.  In truth, these cats could pump out a riff and a quick solo with the needed precision of their sound.  Sure, it’s not “Phantom of the Opera,” by Maiden, but it’s not supposed to be.  It’s tough and ballsy and would’ve got the yobs shouting with fist-clenched beer stein in the pubs.   Keith Satchield used the full range of his voice, like a young Joe Elliot, often straining his vocal chords beyond their comfort zone.  But I dig that.  I’m the guy that prefers Tino Troy’s vocals in Praying Mantis over the many singers who came later who could clearly sing better but lacked that “guts.” I’m the guy who prefers Di’Anno.  I dig Satchield.

“The Watcher,” is another perfect period rocker, a jaunty, thudding riff-fest, sounding even more Mantis-like this time, but with all their own style.  Fist knew how to write a song, their compositional strength is strong and they always know how to throw that chorus or bridge at you to hook you fast in your seat.  “Collision Course,” is a mid-tempo, near power ballad that actually rocks.  “Forever Amber,” chugs along with a Nugent intensity.  “Axeman,” is fierce and has such groove it’s downright sexy.  “Vamp” is a proto-Leppard rocker.  And the whole album is like that.  A perfect microcosm of all that I loved about the early NWOBHM movement.  Energy, melodies, riffs and hooks.  And the more I listen to this album the more I love it. 

Two bonus tracks tacked onto the end complete the package.  “Brain Damage,” and “Law of the Jungle,” and these tracks burn!  If anything, these tracks are heavier than most of the cuts on the album proper, and definitely fill the disc out. This was a great debut record, a lost NWOBHM classic, finding a band just brimming with promise.

Turn the Hell On won’t please all metal fans.  Heck, it may not even please all NWOBHM fans.  It’s ugly and has warts and flaws.  But if you’re like me, and see the Di’Anno Maiden as the true king of metal, then I expect you’ll find those blemishes on the Fist album to be just as beautiful as I do.


--Racer

Buy here: Turn The Hell On (Remastered)