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Filed under: death metal, internet and music, popular music, punk | Tags: Bad Religion, city slang, click your fingers uploading the play, Human waste, If you have ghosts, lost, News from the front, Nomeansno, paradise lost, Roky Erickson, Shrines, Sputnik, suffocation, the hellacopters
This is a follow-up to a post I wrote about three years ago, a post I really enjoyed thinking about and writing. This post too is concerned with the idea of the music album as a complete body of works, how the illusion and the sense of conceptual integrity and unity of the album are threatened by 'bonus tracks', and how the digitisation/internetisation of music might be implicated in redefining what we mean by a 'complete' body of works. Just like in the previous post I will present some examples of awesome songs missing from the standard versions of albums. In all these cases the missing songs are better than most other songs on these albums, effectively calling into question the conceptual integrity of the album, and leaving me with a sense of the album being incomplete. Without further ado here are the songs in question in chronological order:
1. Roky Erickson and the Aliens – Click your fingers applauding the play, Sputnik, & If you have ghosts (I think of demons, 1980)
Anything I say about this album is inadequate to express how much I love it. I got introduced to Roky in the late 1990s by Entombed, through their cover of "Night of the vampire". I originally heard the 1987 re-issue titled The evil one, which contains 15 songs. I bought the 1987 UK vinyl version of this record in 2007, titled I think of demons, and from it the three songs mentioned above were missing. I cannot begin to describe how annoyed I was. A few years later a friend of mine (thanks Aristea) bought me the unabridged The evil one version of the album (which also has the alternate US cover) from the Amoeba record store in California, so now I have those awesome songs as well. It is worth noting that the original version of the album that came out in 1980 has even fewer songs on it than the 1987 UK re-issue. This is another example of the arbitrary nature of albums and what constitutes a complete work of art. Someone could argue that the original album is the complete one, yet the additional songs are clearly recorded in the same period, have the same sound, and are on par with, if not better than, the 10 original cuts.
2. Suffocation – Human waste (Human waste, 1991)
"Human waste" is a track that is missing from the vinyl version of Suffocation's Human waste EP. As opposed to other songs on this list "Human waste" has different production values than the rest of the songs on this EP, as the sound has clearly 'demo' sound quality. In that sense it constitutes more legitimately a 'bonus' song which does not threaten the conceptual integrity of the album. At the same time it is both an awesome song and it is the title track! I first listened to the album from a friend's cassette tape which included the bonus song, and I distinctly remember that "Human waste" and "Catatonia" were the two songs that absolutely blew my mind. I bought the vinyl version from a local record store in my hometown called Paranoid around 1997, and I remember my disappointment when I saw that "Human waste" was missing, and to this day this album feels incomplete.
3. Bad Religion – News from the front (Stranger than fiction, 1994)
The fact that "News from the front" is missing from the standard vinyl version of Stranger than fiction pisses me off immensely, because it is such a superb song with an amazing tempo, extremely catchy chorus, and memorable singing patterns overall. Most importantly, it is hands down better than any of the other songs on the album. I consider Stranger than fiction a weak album, and "News from the front" would motivate me to listen more often to some of the songs I actually like on that album ("Marked", "Stranger than fiction", "Better off dead"). Instead, I listen to "News from the front" as part of a compilation b-sides album have on mp3. Over the years, Bad Religion have repeated this crime with the brilliant "The fast life" missing from the standard version of the mediocre (in my opinion) The new America (2000), and the bonus track and B-side masterpieces, "Shattered faith" & "Who we are" respectively, missing from the standard version of The process of belief (2002).
4. Nomeansno – Lost (The worldhood of the world, 1995)
The album that introduced me to Nomeansno was The worldhood of the world (1995), a CD I bought around 2003 from Sonic Boom, a record store in Kypseli, Athens. I got to listen to the CD before I bought it, and listening to a few songs both enchanted me and confused me. In my head, I was trying my best, to no avail, to unambiguously classify this band. The fact that it did not fit clearly in the punk genre annoyed me (I was relatively new to the punk genre at the time), but, at the same time, I could not stop listening. Anyway, that was the start of a long-term obsession with this brilliant band, which I ended up seeing twice when they played in Brighton, UK, in 2007 and 2013. The song "Lost" is one of the punkiest and most awesome tracks on this album, and is composed by Andy Kerr, who had left the band a few years before this album was released. A few years later I bought the vinyl version of the album and I gave the CD to a friend of mine. Sadly, "Lost" is missing from the vinyl version, which is very annoying. Don't get me started on the state of Why do they call me Mr. Happy? (1993) on vinyl…
5. The Hellacopters – City slang (Payin' the dues, 1997)
"City slang" is a breathtaking song originally by Sonic's Rendezvous Band. The Hellacopters have played many covers over the years and this one is one of my three favourite ones (the other two are Dead Moon's "Rescue" and Love's "A house is not a motel"). It can only be found in the rare vinyl version of Payin' the dues (1997). Until very recently I did not own that vinyl, so I only had the song on a shitty cassette-tape I made from a friend's album. In line with what the Hellacopters do, this is a very clean and technically proficient version of the original tune, without, however, lacking in passion and power. Compare Dregen's carefully reconstructed solo between 2:35-3:00, to the more messy original by Fred Smith. Another excellent call was making the harmony at the end of the song more prominent. The way some of the notes are accentuated during that last bit of the song is also excellent.
6. Paradise Lost – Shrines (Medusa, 2017)
"Shrines" is a relatively conventional song, short in duration, with great vocals, a perfect chorus, and a great post-chorus melody. I still cannot believe this masterpiece is missing from the standard version of Medusa! Every time I listen to it I'm pissed off. Over the years, some of Paradise Lost's most breathtaking tracks have been reserved for singles and EPs (songs like "As I die", "The rape of virtue", "Sweetness", "Fear", "Master of misrule" spring to mind). "Shrines" is included in the limited digipack edition, and it is a pity, because, in my opinion, is better than most songs on the album (and upon reading the YouTube comments I can see that others have the same opinion). Thankfully, I managed to find and download a copy of the digipack edition, so the album I have on my mp3 feels more complete than the actual vinyl record.
Filed under: Greece, Is this where I came from?, metal, popular music, punk, sweden | Tags: Absolut country of Sweden, Anti-Cimex, Doing time, Non serviam, Rotting Christ, The fifth illusion
It has been a long time since the 13th installment of the "Is this where I came from?" series of posts, in which I explored the influence of Horror cinema visuality on death metal album covers. For the 14th installment of this series of posts I will draw attention to what I consider a very obscure case of intertextuality between Rotting Christ, a cult black metal band from Athens, Greece, and Anti-Cimex, a cult crust band from Sweden.
Anti-Cimex – Doing Time (1990)
"Doing time" is a song off Anti-Cimex's first full length album, Absolut country of Sweden (1990) which came out in 1990, many years and several demos and E.P.s after the band formed in the early 1980s. It could be argued that Anti-Cimex launched the great Swedish tradition of Discharge rip-offs, and, alongside bands like Crucifix, Doom, and Ratos De Porao, they inspired and helped establish the worldwide D-beat genre. "Doing time" is a song that exemplifies Anti-Cimex's sound. Yet, consistent with the minor stylistic changes present in this album that allude to metal aesthetics, the furious D-beat gives way to a mid-paced, heavy palm-muted chord progression starting at 3:45. This progression is further developed with the addition of a short sharp lick first heard at 4:08, which is the bit that is very reminiscent of the song by Rotting Christ I present below.
Rotting Christ – The fifth illusion (1994)
Rotting Christ is probably the first extreme metal band I ever listened to, through the compilation tape Into the catachthonium (1994) courtesy of Unisound records. The opener "The fifth illusion" comes from the band's excellent second full length album titled Non serviam (1994). The extremely catchy lick to which I am referring in this post is first heard at 0:41-0:43 in the video below, and is repeated several times throughout the duration of the song. Whether Sakis Tolis (the band's principal composer) consciously imitated the Anti-Cimex riff or whether it is a coincidence remains a hypothesis. However, it is worth noting that Rotting Christ started off as a grindcore band, so, I guess, listening to a band like Anti-Cimex would not be inconsistent with Sakis's musical tastes.
Filed under: Best of the year, death metal, metal, punk | Tags: At the Gates, Cancer, Caustic attack, Cruel magic, Hellbender, Memoriam, Monolith of madness, Monstrosity, Refuge, Revolting, Satan, Shaddow gripped, Solitary men, Terrorizer, The outer ocean, The passage of existence, The silent vigil, To drink from the night itself, VOJD, zeke
During 2018 some world-class bands released albums that I found disappointing, and, overall, I had difficulty coming up with a top-ten list initially, in spite of having listened to loads of newly released albums. This year, I tried listening to some albums I wouldn't normally be interested in, but gave up quickly. One of those was Ihsahn's Amr (which probably stands for armchair in Norwegian) and, to be fair, I didn't make a big effort; there were some elements that I guess could have been found on Emperor's final album, but overall was not my cup of tea. Pestilence's comeback with an album carefully planed to elicit feelings of nostalgia for the early-1990s period of the band disappointed me. The death metal "supergroup" (although the only two people who have ever been in it who can genuinely claim to have released good death metal are Swano and Tagtgren, and they're long gone) Bloodbath released another album full of what I consider mind-numbingly boring music. Siege of Power is a new band that includes Chris Reifert (Autopsy) and Bob Bagchus (of classic Asphyx fame), so naturally I was excited about it. I could barely listen to the entire thing one time, which does not necessarily say something about the quality of this album, but I don't feel the desire to listen to it again. Deicide, a band in which I lost interest a long time ago, returned with a new album. Once again, I tried to enjoy it but I couldn't. In my opinion even an album like Inciniratehymn (2000), which upon its release was deemed extremely disappointing (I actually like it these days), is a masterpiece compared to Overtures of blasphemy. Notable exception is the very melodic "Defying the sacred", which reminded me of the adventurous spirit and catchiness (not songwriting, obviously) of Serpents of the light (1997) era. Once again I gave Unleashed the benefit of the doubt and listened to their new album and once again I was left with utter disappointment. In the mid-1990s I was in love with this band. I still find it hard to understand how it managed to stay true to its "mission statement" whilst succeeding in reinventing itself and not remaining stagnant, but still ending up sounding uninspired and silly (in my opinion, of course).
I'll continue with some albums I enjoyed a little bit more. I always keep an eye out for new collaborations that include Nicke Andersson, so this year I listened to Lucifer's second album simply titled Lucifer II. I enjoyed a few songs, like "California son", "Faux Pharaoh" and "Dreamer". I have not listened to it in a while but I don't really feel the desire to either. I listened to the new Gruesome album, titled Twisted prayers, a few times, but couldn't get into it. There are no doubt some great songs in there, "Fatal illusions" is an example of the latter, but for me the Spiritual healing-era worship has overstayed its welcome; there's a reason why Chuck moved on. Blitzkrieg released a new album titled Judge not!. Although the only remaining original member is Brian Ross one can certainly hear the original Blitzkrieg sentiment and songwriting in this album. In line with their back-catalogue this album sounds a bit amateurish, in all respects. Nevertheless, I like almost all the songs, with favourites being "Reign of fire", "Angels and demons", "Forever is a long time", and the homonymous one. "Wide legged and headless", a little more up-tempo song, using yet another variation of the classic pre-chorus riff on Tokyo Blade's "Break the chains". Eldritch is a band to which I keep coming back from time to time. I unlikely fell in love with them during 1998-1999, in the midst of an American brutal death metal obsession, and El nino (1998) was one of my favourite albums of that year. I have enjoyed some of their subsequent albums, I love Portrait of the abyss within (2004), and I generally have a soft spot for them. Their new album, titled Cracksleep, is unmistakably Eldritch, with its usual furious and technical metal songwriting alongside more melancholic ballad-like compositions. It is not bad but, in my opinion, it is not one of their finest moments either.
The Adolescents released a new album titled Cropduster, which may as well be their last one. Sadly, this album contains the last ever tunes and bass-lines we'll be hearing by Steve Soto who passed away last June. Soto has always been one of my favourite punk songwriters and bass-players, and since the band's reformation has written some exceptional songs. I enjoyed the new album as much as I have enjoyed the last couple of albums by the band; most songs I like a lot (e.g. "Queen of denial", "Paradigm junkies", "Sunspot screams") and some I like a bit less. Cauldron's new album, titled New gods, is in the usual Cauldron vein. The band can claim to have a somewhat personal sound. I liked some of the songs but overall it felt to me like a watered down version of In ruin (2015). Judas Priest's shift from British steel to Point of entry inadvertently came to mind when listening to New gods. P.L.F.'s new album, titled Jackhammering deathblow of nightmarish trepidation, offered some much-needed pleasure among a tirade of lame death metal releases. As opposed to the latter, P.L.F offer passionate brutal music that does not lack in sophistication either. Although, grindcore never really manages to capture my attention for more than a few listens (with a few notable exception) this is good stuff.
Swedish thrash-death band Dreadful Fate released its debut Vengeance, an album I was really looking forward to, and although I definitely enjoyed it a lot I do not consider it in any possible sense a "great" album. I will start with things that I liked about this album: Half of the album's songs are composed by Karlen, the ex-bassist of Merciless, and they are reminiscent of the masterpiece titled The awakening (1990). The other half of the album pretty much conforms to this style, maybe with the slight exception of "Eternal fire" which is pure Bathory worship, and the Celtic Frost nod on the slow bit of "Unholy lust". The production is really good. The cover artwork is awesome, and generally the way the vinyl record is presented is beautiful. Castervall's vocals are also great. Now I will continue with why the album did not live up to my expectations. The singer comes from Hypnosia, the band whose Invocator/Kreator-powered debut is one of the greatest thrash albums of all time. As opposed to Merciless and Hypnosia where their drummers would lift the songs to great heights, Vengeance is in my opinion lacking great drumming. One of my least favourite moments in the album is the song "Altar of cruelty" where it feels like the guitarist and the drummer play at different tempos, both of them are too stubborn to either slow down or speed up to synchronise, yet they make some necessary adjustments from time to time to keep the song going without totally falling apart. I really cannot be sure if it is just my impression but it feels quite awkward! Moreover, while the rest of Karlen's songs are quite awesome (especially "Death sentence" and "Witches hammer") the rest of the songs did not impress me (with the exception of "The final sacrifice"). Believe me, I was really looking forward to this release, I could not wait to get a new taste of Hypnosia but "Hour of reprisal" did not satisfy the need. The new Gruesome is not the only album released by Gus Rios this year. Together with Alex Marquez, and under the Create A Kill moniker, they released a pretty enjoyable and expertly executed thrash-death album that, I imagine, would please fans of Demolition Hammer, Solstice, Exodus, Slayer, and Blood Feast. The band is enveloped by a number of guest musicians, including Matt Harvey (Exhumed, Gruesome) and Tobias Gustafsson (Vomitory, Torture Division). Some of the heavier and sharp triplet riffs sound more like the brutal appropriation of thrash riffing by bands like Malevolent Creation. This is not surprising given that both Gus and Alex are part of the history of Malevolent Creation (and Alex Solstice too). Hate Eternal released the first album since their debut that I actually enjoyed, titled Upon desolate sands. When their debut came out in 1999 I considered it an instant classic, but their sophomore album and every one since disappointed me. I would not be surprised if recording Morbid Angel's latest album inspired Rutan to write some good death metal again. It starts in a manner almost identical to Internecine's The book of lambs (2001), but continues with awesome riffs that could have easily been on Conquering the throne (1999). The main difference is the inclusion of more atmospheric melancholic passages, as can be heard after the second verse of "The violent fury", the end of the very catchy "All hope destroyed", and the instrumental "For whom we have lost". Beyond that, all the heavy, dissonant, triplets and swampy textures that Rutan is known for since his first stint with Morbid Angel (I'm thinking of "Nothing but fear") can be heard all over the album. Overall, I enjoyed it quite a lot and I think I might discover more things in the future. Special mention to the new Pungent Stench album, titled Smut Kingdom, needs to be made before I move on to the list of my ten favourite albums from the past year. Sometime in 2007 I was following the online forum that El Cochino used to update fans of the band about the recording process of the new Pungent Stench album. I remember my absolute disappointment when it was announced that the band would fold and that the album would be shelved. Here we are 11 years later with the album being finally released, and musically contains some of Pungent Stench's best material. Pungent Stench is a band that lyrically always dealt with topics that are considered deviant in popular discourse. All kinds of sexual practices have been addressed in Pungent Stench's lyrics, and in many cases sexual practices that are rarely talked about, including coprophilia ("Klyster boogie"), amputation fetish ("The amp hymn"), and BDSM. Although in some ways the band often comes across as genuinely celebrating sexual freedom, at the same time, those topics have been approached in a humorous way, and Martin has argued that their lyrics should first and foremost make themselves laugh. Unfortunately, in many instances the capacity of their lyrics to incite humorous responses depends on the listener occupying relatively privileged positions in society. In other words, it is unlikely that most women or, lets say, disabled people would find Pungent Stench's lyrics funny. It is worth noting, in the band's defense, that the band has rarely directly addressed its audience with the exception of the awesome anti-rape song "Rape – pagar con la misma moneda", which includes the line 'all raped women should get their revenge, kill those motherfuckers say pungent stench'. In the new album, however, Alex offers some terrible, nasty homophobic, racist, and misogynistic lyrics. I'm pretty sure that if someone confronted them they would come back with the usual old rhetoric "blah blah, political correctness…blah blah, freedom of speech", but really Alex comes across as a vile shithead, and made me wonder why someone would be so hateful. Off he should fuck. This is unfortunate, because many songs are some of the best the band has ever recorded, and most of Martin's songs are awesome, although I found songs like "Planet of the dead", "Smut kingdom" and "I require death sentence" at best mediocre.
Without further ado here are the ten albums I have enjoyed the most this past year.
Cruel magic is the undisputed masterpiece of 2018. Satan is a band I did not listen in the days of my youth. Instead, I discovered them after their reunion, a period during which they released two of the all-time best metal albums of all time. So, the news of a new album made me extremely happy. Listening to it made me even happier. This album is tremendously astonishing. On Cruel magic, Satan is offering simply breathtaking music. I don't know how they do it; I guess the chemistry that exists among these people is magical. The Ramsey-Tippins guitar duo once again offers its beautiful double-lead attack, beautiful harmonies, and fast, driving tremolo-picked rifforchestration like there's no tomorrow. But Satan is much more than a collection of awesome guitar solos and riffs. The songs are brilliantly structured, and the composers are not afraid to try unorthodox chord progressions. The music, overall, is so profoundly awesome that the whole album could have been exclusively instrumental and it would still be brilliant. In his turn, Brian Ross expertly accommodates the weird chord progressions by coming up with interesting vocal lines. In my opinion, Ross outdid himself on this album, as it contains some of the best vocals I've ever heard on a heavy metal album. The riffing and dynamic progression of "Ophidian" sounds like something that Hank Shermann could come up with. The riffing, vocal delivery, musical development, Graeme's delicious bass-lines, and pre-chorus riffing of "Ghosts of Monongah" leave me speechless. The tempo, riffing, and chorus of "Death knell for a king" make up an instant classic. The non-stop up-beat tempo, rapid riffing, and catchy chorus of "The doomsday clock" make it an instant classic in the vein of "Trial by fire". And each song has little brilliant touches waiting to be discovered (now I'm thinking about the change from the hi-hat to the ride cymbal during the last verse of "Ophidian"). Songs like these come out once in a lifetime: "Ghosts of Monongah", "My prophetic soul", "Ophidian", "Legions hellbound", "Death knell for a king", "Doomsday clock".
Every time I see a Rage-related news item on Metal news websites in the last three years my heart starts pounding. The reason is that Peavy is one of my all-time favourite songwriters, and since he got rid of Smolski he went back to writing little masterpieces. The news of re-uniting with Chris Efthimiadis and Manni Schmidt a few years back (news I heard for the first time through the comments of a reader of this very blog!) sent chills down my spine. Refuge is the alter-ego of Rage, and they offered a beautiful debut album full of the excellence one would expect from old Rage. The first day I got it I listened to it five-six times back to back, and it's remained on steady rotation since. Stylistically Refuge is unavoidably quite similar, albeit less brutal, to the current Rage given that in both ensembles Peavy is the main songwriter. Moreover, the current guitarist of Rage (Marcos) has been influenced by Manni, and Rage's current drummer (Vasillios) is one of Chris's students. Guitar-playing-wise Manni is a more seasoned musician than Marcos, his playing is less polished, more frantic, and less reluctant to drift off to unknown territory. The song "Hell freeze over" is a good example of this last point I make, as it is an incredible song where the beauty of Peavy's melodies can only be surpassed by the mannic (see what I did there?) guitar work. The brilliant "We owe a life to death" is clearly crafted after "Who dares" (from The missing link). For a more detailed review read here. Favourite songs: "Let me go", "Summer's winter", "Mind over matter", "Hell freeze over", "Waterfalls", "From the ashes".
Zeke in my opinion generously gave the world some of the best gifts that can be given in the form of Kicked in the teeth (1998), Dirty Sanchez (2000), and Death alley (2001). All of them, but especially Death alley, are among my all time favourite albums. Then they released that absolute borefest called 'Till the livin' end (2004). I was extremely happy to see Zeke return with an album that showcases what they do best: fast, energetic, short songs, with hundreds of lead breaks. Hellbender is a wonderful, intense, crazed trip down the highway paved by Death alley and its predecessors. I would go as far as to say that Hellbender has, overall, their best songwriting as almost every single song is extremely catchy. On the other hand, the new album lacks the tight mix that Death alley has whereby one feels each snare and kick-drum hit straight to the centre of one's brain, and every lead jumps out of the noise into a full-frontal attack to the senses that gives one goosebumps. But it is almost there and that's good enough for me. Who am I kidding, this album is a masterpiece. Favourite songs include: "County jail", "Big rig", "Cougar rock", "Working man", "Hellbender", "On the road", "AR-15".
Cancer released a new album that it pretty awesome. For those who like comparisons, the songwriting is consistent with the band's first three albums with little bits and pieces of the dissonant and melodic elements that can be found in Walker's other band, Liquid Graveyard, on songs like "Half man, half beast" and "Down the steps" (a brilliant song based on the film The Exorcist [1973]). The atmosphere is claustrophobic and imposing, the vocals are monstrous, and the compositions appropriately allude to decay. Most of the time the music follows simple forms found in early death metal. Apart from the expected resemblance to Cancer's first three albums, Death's Leprosy (1988), Morgoth's Cursed (1991), Necrophagia's Season of the dead (1987), and even a bit of Six Feet Under (for example the intro riff of "Infocidal" reminded me of "Victim of the paranoid"), kept coming to mind during the first few listens. The very fast kick-snare beat on "Organ snatcher" and "Infocidal" are particularly reminiscent of Morgoth. Nevertheless, there is variety, catchy vocal patterns, and interesting orchestrations here and there that make this album stand out and a worthy addition next to To the gory end (1990) and The sins of mankind (1993). Shadow gripped is old-school gloomy death metal. OH, PISTACHIO!
5. Memoriam – The silent vigil
Memoriam's second album did not impress me initially as much as their debut, but grew gradually into one of my favourite albums of the year. The reason might be that the first three songs on the album are not, in my opinion, as impressive as the rest of the album. The style of the band has been crystalised into a super-heavy, mid-tempo, hardcore-leaning brutal death metal. Like their previous album, Memoriam wrote memorable songs that include catchy riffs, choruses and inspired vocal patterns and lyrics. Scott once again wrote some amazing melodies, inspired orchestrations, and well-structured songs. Having read some reviews here and there I have to say that I'm sick of people who insist on comparing this to Bolt Thrower (and finding it inadequate), and who insist on making the same condescending comment regarding Willetts's vocals ("Karl voice hasn't aged well" or some shit along these lines); why on earth would Memoriam sound like Bolt Thrower when all the music is written by Scott who was never part of Bolt Thrower?! Also, could people please consider that maybe Willetts wanted to change his vocal style for this different band? (seriously, most old-school death metal vocalists I can think of have changed/softened their vocals over the years – David Ingram, L. G. Petrov, Marc Grewe, David Vincent, and so forth, why is everyone making it such a big deal about Karl?) Some scum on Blabbermouth's comment section was critical of the fact that Willetts wore an Antifa t-shirt in one of the band's promotional photos. Apparently we've reached the point where being criticised for being anti-fascist is absolutely normal… This world is going fast down the shithole. Favourite songs include: "The silent vigil", "Bleed the same", "As bridges burn", "No known grave", and "New dark ages". A perfect album to bash in some fascist heads to.
6. Terrorizer – Caustic attack
As if I did not have enough respect for Lee Harrison, not only he returns with an awesome Monstrosity album, but he brings Terrorizer back to its old glory. Caustic attack is a fantastic album. Sandoval's recovery took many years, during which his skills deteriorated to a considerable degree, but Caustic attack is another testament to his amazing determination and passion. His stamina is breathtaking and, overall, his drumming on this album is reminiscent of his old glories; I think it's time him and Trey get back together. Sam Molina provides awesome vocals and patterns that are, in my opinion, more fitting to the band's furious sound than Rezhawk's. The tunes are awesome; most of the songs follow the classic World downfall (1989) recipe of grindcore, but there is also some more distinct death metal riffing, including some Morbid Angel-esque hues (I'm thinking of that riff halfway through "Devastate"), and little Monstrosity touches (for example, the second riff on "Wasteland"). Overall, there is more variety compared to its predecessor, Hordes of zombies (2012). The latter had some great albeit monotonous songwriting, a characterisation which also applies to Sandoval's drumming on that album. Caustic attack kicks off with the short devastating song titled "Turbulence", the beginning of which is like the middle part of "Enslaved by propaganda" on steroids, and continues with two more crushing odes to World downfall. "Crisis" is one of the top songs of the year; I haven't heard such an awesome intro in a long time! "Infiltration" is a monster and that bit at 3:30 is absolutely obliterating (the china cymbal at 3:37 sounds so nice…). Near the end of the album the band offers two of its most merciless attacks in the form of "Caustic attack" and "Poison gas tsunami". On the former, as well as on "Trench of corruption", Sandoval is using, probably for the first time, the bomb-blast technique. It's inspiring seeing a master of the genre expanding his grinding repertoire.
7. At The Gates – To drink from the night itself
My opinion about ATG's comeback album has not changed over the last three years. I consider it a great album, but in no way on a par with their old albums. I still dislike the production, the drum sound, and I am not crazy about the lyrics. But it also has a few masterpieces, such as "The death and the labyrinth", the homonymous song, "The head of the Hydra", "The abomination", and "Order from chaos". The news of Anders's departure destroyed any hope for a better album. Yet, I cannot help but feel that Jonas stepped up his game and wrote a great, more consistent album. The opener is a very beautiful instrumental song leading up to probably the hit of the album, the homonymous song. "A stare bound in stone" is one of the most complex songs on the album, composed of many interesting sections. The opening notes lead to a classic Jonas riff that could be in any of the first three The Haunted albums. This type of riffing is not really my cup of tea, and no doubt Anders could have At-The-Gatesized it by playing at a lower register, alternating between muted and open strings, and tripleting some of the notes. "Daggers of black haze" is another complex song, this time slow and melancholic, a masterpiece of the order of the early ATG albums. The D-beat infused and quite simplistic "The chasm" is a surprise since ATG have not tried something similar in the past. The lackluster beginning and boring chorus of "Palace of lepers" redeems itself with a great riff on the second half and an overall great ending. "In nameless sleep" similarly kicks off as a middle-of-the-road song, but develops into a good song with a very memorable chorus, and melancholic melodies. A "Labyrinth of tombs", one of my favourite in the album, is a riff-fest with an awesome chorus and very anthemic melodies building up to a brilliant climax. "In death they shall burn" is another extra-riffy and aggressive song, with a brilliant riff towards the end that could have been in Spiritual Healing or Human; the melody on top of that riff is pure awesomeness. The less clinical production is welcome as well. On a more critical note, some of the chord progressions, melodies, and moods feel repetitive at times, and the album feels kinda predictable overall. Favourite songs include: "Daggers of black haze", "In death they shall burn", "Labyrinth of tombs", "Seas of starvation", and the homonymous one.
The decision of Black Trip, one of the most notable new bands from Sweden, to change their name to Vojd came as a surprise. Listening to their new album made a bit more sense, as the "heavy metal" label no longer applies to this band. The NWOBHM and even Mercyful Fate influences found in their debut, and which had already started to disappear by their second album, are now gone. The heaviest song of the album "Heavy skies", is more reminiscent of the heavy rock of Motorhead. This doesn't mean that the band has completely changed its style. Songs like "Walk me under", which has a breathtaking harmonised guitar melody after the chorus, "Delusions in the sky", "On the run" and "Vindicated blues" (the most addictive riff and best chorus on the album) could have easily been in the previous album. At times the style of this album feels more akin to the heavy rock of Alice Cooper in the early 1970s and the Scorpions during the 1980s. With "Secular wire" Vojd joins the Scandinavian tradition of shamelessly ripping off the instantly recognisable Ramones riff on "I just wanna have something to do" (see The Hellacopters "Same lame story", Turbonegro "Get it on"), but with some really good results nevertheless. The performance of the band is flawless, Joseph Tholl's vocals are once again unbelievable, and Peter Stjarnvind's leads are beautiful. Another thing that distinguishes this new ensemble from Black Trip is that the new guitarist's style is very similar to Peter, so the band lost the awesome trade-off between melodic (Peter) and shredding (Sebastian) guitar leads of the past. Finally, I hate "Dream machine, and I wish it was not on the album (it reminds me of the terrible appropriation of blues by the Arctic Monkeys). Favourite songs include: "Walk me under", "Vindicated blues", "Heavy skies", and "Delusions in the sky".
9. Monstrosity – The passage of existence
It's been 11 years since Monstrosity's last album, and to be honest I did not miss them. It is a band that in my opinion reached its creative zenith with Millennium (1996) and my interest in them gradually faded over the subsequent three albums. It's a shame because Lee is a good songwriter, an even more awesome drummer, and, as history has shown, with the right musicians (I'm thinking Jason Morgan) he can deliver miracles. The new album has been in the making for quite a while. Monstrosity fans have probably come across clips of new songs on YouTube that go back six years. On account of the time it took to make, the album is very rich, full of interesting ideas, so it took me a few listens to appreciate. What on first appearance feels prosaic, is eventually revealed as excellent US death metal. All songs are of a high standard and, overall, I consider it better than everything they did since In dark purity (1999). There are some great performances, great riffs, beautiful melodies and good structures. Some of the more majestic, longer songs like "Maelstrom" and "Slaves to the evermore" and "Dark matter invocation", have very clever and interesting progressions. Those more complex and challenging songs are flanked by shorter and more explosive, catchier tunes such as "Eternal void", "Solar vacuum" (an absolute riff-fest) and "Century", which also happen to be some of my favourite on the album. Harrison's drumming is excellent, as usual. My only problem with this album is the singer whose performance I dislike.
10. Revolting – Monolith of madness
As many have pointed out, if you have heard one of Rogga Johansson's bands you've heard them all. Being characterised the apotheosis of mediocrity, un-inventiveness, and standardisation in death metal, would not be a hyperbole. Revolting is one of Johansson's dozens of active bands. Despite not straying too much (if at all) from a predictable death metal recipe, from time to time Johansson just happens to write nicer songs than usually. I find it hard to believe that any death metal fan would listen to songs like "Cadaver patrol", "March of the revolter", "Procession to the monolith", "Faceless deformity" or "Night of the tentacles" and not fall in love with them. Monolith of madness is making use of a compositional recipe at the centre of which lies a thinly layered verse-chorus-verse structure, with simple, yet effective, catchy melancholic melodies on top of simple heavy rhythm guitar riffs. Overall, the sound is similar to In grisly rapture (2011), although I haven't listened to the last couple of albums so it might be similar to those too. The song "Adjusting the sun" by Hypocrisy often came to mind when listening to this album. Unsurprisingly, the weakness of the album lies in the similarities among songs and the simple song structures. The album cover is pretty cool, and I am quite sure it portrays the tower from August Derleth's and H. P. Lovecraft's The lurker at the threshold.
Filed under: Best of the year, death metal, Heavy metal, punk | Tags: 2017, Desultory, immolation, Lock up, Memoriam, Morbid Angel, Neocaesar, paradise lost, Propagandhi, Rage, Skyclad
The year 2017 is marked by some fantastic musical releases. This year it was more difficult than usual to come up with only 10 favourite albums, and amongst those 10 albums it was difficult to say which ones I liked best. There are many albums that did not make my top-10 list but I also enjoyed quite a lot. Due to the sheer volume of releases by bands I already like I avoided opening up to new bands which I am more likely to dislike. I will start my review of the year with the albums I liked the least.
The initial reaction to Cannibal Corpse's new album was one of disappointment. After a couple of listens I started enjoying the album, but then quickly got tired of it. In my mind CC's discography is organised in two periods, the Barnes and the Corpsegrinder period, and the latter is further broken down to the Owen period and the Barrett period. The Barnes period is my favourite, I consider it very distinct, and I think that his departure marked a huge stylistic change for CC. I think that Barnes's way of singing, vocal patterns and lyrics defined to a large extent CC's style. I never took the Corpsegrinder era too seriously, as I have always thought that the band became a bit cartoonish. This doesn't mean that I don't like CC post-Barnes. Both periods offer some excellent albums (maybe with the exception of Gore obsessed). The current post-Owen era, is probably my least favourite, although I think all offerings are consistently good. The new album is enjoyable although the thrash approach to riffing and song structures that appeared in most recent releases is even more prominent now. It is also much less frenetic to their previous album (there's not a single pure attack similar to "High velocity impact spatter"), and sonicaly, well lets just say Rutan is not my favourite producer. "Code of the slashers" has a cool slow section, but when it becomes fast it feels lazy to me. The structure, tempo changes, melodies and beating of "Shedding my human skin" represent the CC that I prefer. Other stand-out tracks include "Corpus delicti", "In the midst of ruin", "Destroyed without a trace" (great post-chorus blastbeat sections) and "Hideous ichor" (the intro riff is straight out of Kreator's Coma of souls). Overall, it is a quite easy-listening album, and in a sense their least death metal album yet. Vallenfyre's Fear those who fear him has some really cool grinding songs (e.g. "Kill all your masters" and "Nihilist"), but in my opinion in lacking standout slow melancholic hymns. I listened to it a few times and I like it, but I would never compare it to the brilliance of their debut. Similarly, I liked Firespawn's sophomore album, although I don't think I will ever consider it amazing, and I prefer their debut. Some songs I liked more than others ("The general's creed", "Full of hate" and "Serpent of the ocean" are my favourite), there are some nice melodies and Fredrik's leads are enjoyable as usual, but I found the song structures and riffs forthcoming and repetitive, in many cases reminiscent of the simpler forms of early thrash. Warwound's Burning the blindfolds of bigots is an enjoyable hardcore-crust album made by members of Sacrilege and Discharge.
Moving on to albums I liked a bit more, Evocation's The shadow archetype kept me nice company for quite a while. I listened to the first couple of Evocation albums when they came out but I was not impressed. I didn't bother with them again after that. However, recently I saw the new album on YouTube and the impressive cover art attracted me. I realise that it is a derivative album, but songs are well-written and well played, so I have enjoyed it. Evocation seem to have taken good elements from the two great traditions of Swedish death metal, mixing Entombed and At The Gates in equal measure. The main riff of "Modus operandi" and the drumming feels a bit too familiar (listen to At The Gates song "Unto others" – the riff before the break in the middle), but overall it is good. Blood Feast's The future state of wicked is a satisfying and entertaining old-school thrash album, full of catchy choruses, riffs that made me air-guitar, and cool vocal patterns. It could have easily been released in the mid-1980s. Broken Hope's Mutilated and assimilated is enjoyable, I listened to it quite a few times but I cannot say that I enjoyed it as much as the previous one. The input by the relatively new members is quite obvious as there are quite a few more "modern" elements. The end of "Malicious meatholes" is reminiscent of Atheist. Although I did not love this album I have no doubts that I will eventually revisit it and discover interesting things about it. On Swine plague, Dead Head offer excellent thrash in the vein of Slayer and Demolition Hammer. The band members are seasoned veterans and this album definitely surfaces in the disappointing swamp of new wave of traditional thrash bands. Kreator released an album that does not stray from the band's post Violent revolution (2001) style, namely a more melodic and anthemic Coma of souls style of thrash. Although I am not a big fun of this style – and I wouldn't expect Kreator to ever reach the heights of their 1985-1995 non-stop progress and brilliance – I do like all the albums of this period (Enemy of god (2005) and Phantom antichrist (2012) a bit less). I highly respect Mille and I definitely enjoy the riffs, vocals and speed of this album, but I could do without all the anthemic moments. Expulsion's Nightmare future E.P. is awesome and it stinks off Repulsion. Listening to Olivo's uniquely insane compositions is a pleasure, and I cannot resist thinking how awesome it would be if he collaborated with the guys from Impaled. It is only an E.P. and it's over really quickly, but what an awesome ride! Over the years Haemorrhage have evolved to one of the most recognisable and credible grindcore bands on this planet. On We are the gore they offer their well-known brand of awesome grindcore, albeit currently devoid of the sick carcass-inspired melodies of their gore-grind days. Their new album is catchy, like their previous full-length, with a good production and some surprising elements, such as the Dismember-sounding riff and the rock'n'roll solo on "Miss Phlebotomy". "Intravenous molestation…" is a brief delicacy. The chorus of "Bathed in bile" could easily be in a Lock Up album. I liked it but I prefer their mid-90s – early 2000s period. Mastodon's Emperor of sand is in the vein of their previous two albums, that is, poppy, melodic, progressive, aggressive, sludgy and well-played metal. There are some songs that have stood out for me, including the fantastic "Ancient kingdom", but also "Steambreather", "Roots remain", "Word to the wise", the catchy "Show yourself", and the very dynamic "Jaguar god". I have enjoyed it quite a lot, but I will refrain from including it among my favourite albums this year because history has shown that I usually get bored with their albums after a while, and, additionally, there are so many other albums I enjoyed more. The Lurking Fear is another band in the long list of projects where established musicians join forces to pursue a shared musical vision. The main reason I became interested in them is due to the inclusion of Andreas Axelsson, one of the masterminds behind Edge of Sanity, and more recently Tormented. From the looks of it Tormented have folded and Andreas has moved on. Axelsson has written some of my favourite songs on the album, including "With death engraved in their bones", "Upon black winds" (in which Axelsson shows off his talent of composing authentic old-school death metal), and "Tongued with fowl flames". Two other really good songs on the album, however, turns out were not written by him. "The starving Gods of old" (my favourite on the album) and "Winged death" are two minor masterpieces, and Lindberg's performance especially in the former is mind-blowing. The Slayer-esque beginning of "Tentacles of blackened horror" is cool. The blatant rip-offs from Autopsy are not impressive, especially since they've been done to death over the last 15 years or so. The lyrics are inspired by Lovecraft's strange universe of abominations. The sound of Cthulhu snoring in-between songs is a good touch. My initial reaction to Suffocation's new album, …Of the dark light, was laden with disappointment. The production, the plastic drum sound, and the monotonous vocals alienated me and it took me a while to revisit the album for a second listen. To be honest my expectations were low, as a result of the lackluster listening experience associated with the previous two Suffocation albums. Just like with Pinnacle of bedlam (2013), I thought that Frank sounded disinterested and his voice was over-produced. Nevertheless, after a few more listens I started overcoming some of those elements that I found disappointing, and I realised that most of the riffing is excellent, and that overall I prefer this album to the previous two. "Return to the abyss" is a masterpiece in the true Suffocation style, with Hobbes's manic riffing, twisted melodies and super-heavy break-downs on fire. In my book this song is inducted in the Hall of most awesome Suffocation tunes. Moreover, both in this song and in "Caught between two worlds" the band is trying a couple of things that could be considered novelties in the entrenched style of the band. The elements to which I am referring are the melancholic tremolo-picked riff in the last part of the latter, and the weird melody in the end of the former, which reminded me of the melody at the end of "Axeman" by Amebix. Another new element is the inclusion of Suffocation's live-session-singer in some of the songs, which I think is a good move. Another problem that I have is that some changes lack cohesion. The ending of "The violation" is one example and the end of "The warmth within the dark" another; in both cases it feels like the song has ended before it resumes with a brief section that feels random. Incantation's Profane nexus is another high quality release by Incantation. In my opinion the sound is more primitive than on the previous album, and Alex Bouks' absence is noticeable. I haven't paid to much attention to it, and this relative absence of interest explains its position out of the top-10 list, but I suspect I will eventually love this album. Not many bands can write songs of the quality of "Incorporeal despair" and "Lus sepulcri".
The following 10 albums are my favourite from this year. Between the second and the seventh albums in the list I cannot say with certainty which one I like the best, and the ordering has changed several times over the last few months. In my opinion they are all brilliant albums, reflecting a fantastic year in popular non-mainstream music.
Neocaesar's debut is the undisputed album of the year. I cannot overstate how happy this release has made me. Neocaesar is a band composed of four ex-Sinister members. These are not any ex-Sinister members though. We're talking about Mike, the absolute death metal vocalist who contributed some of the most breathtaking performances in three classic albums (Cross the Styx (1992), Diabolical summoning (1993), Hate (1995)), Bart, one of the absolute composers, who wrote unprecedented masterpieces for four classic albums (Diabolical summoning (1993), Hate (1995), Aggressive measures (1998), Creative killings (2000)), Erik, who sang on the magnificent Aggressive measures (1998), and Michel, who played bass on the classic Bastard saints E.P. (1996). Here, Erik plays the drums, and he is an absolute beast at that too! This album is unique and perfect from beginning to end. It contains eight astounding songs plus two dark instrumental pieces. The introductory instrumental song is dark and brooding; such a classy way to start an awesome album! Each song is craftily put together. Amazing melodies, spell-binding riffs, and infernal vocals by a truly genius vocalist. Bart moves within chord progressions that make every riff sound evil and monumental, and he has never strayed from this approach throughout his career. The way he combines different riffing techniques is also amazing; palm-muting, triplets, tremolo-picking, accented dissonant chords, are craftily used, each riff a genius combination of different techniques, to articulate unique sounding musical sentences. The production is awesome, the guitar and bass tones are fantastic, the drum sound is real (and, as opposed to Erik's work with Warfather, his drumming here is fantastic and much more focused), and the contributions of all band members are equally audible. THIS is death metal. For a more detailed review of the album, please read this.
2. Desultory – Through aching aeons
After their remarkable comeback album in 2010, Counting our scars, I have been thirsting for new music by one of Sweden's most awesome bands that defined melancholic death metal. It took seven years for new music to surface, I imagine due to day jobs and other non-music related responsibilities that non-mainstream musicians like the members of Desultory probably have. Through aching aeons feels like a fiercer Counting our scars, as there is a complete absence of entirely slow songs. Instead here we have more blasting sections, weirder riffs, less conventional song-structures, more frequent tempo changes, and a more growled approach to singing, in what might easily be Desultory's best album. "Beneath the bleeding sky" is a monster, in a way similar to "This broken halo" in that it is a fast song full of awesome riffs, and has a very catchy melancholic chorus (the first time around followed by an emotive guitar solo). It is a song beautifully crafted, from the dark menacing first riff to the beautiful acoustic outro. This one along with "Divine blindness", "Slither", and "In this embrace", are my favourite songs on the album, although every song has awesome things to offer. Generally, songs structures are complicated and, at times, might sound a bit incoherent but this can be a good thing; it means that the listener has to invest more time and effort connecting the various parts in order to perceive each song as a coherent whole. Johnsson's manic style of drumming elevates the songs to a new level of awesomeness, although, in my opinion, the constant alterations between the kick-drum and the snare in leading the beat can get tiring. The band decided that this is their final album, and in a way it feels like they have come full circle. They will be sorely missed.
Propagandhi's previous masterpiece, Failed states (2012), had its own space in the best-of list of that year. Victory lap is another masterpiece in the classic Propagandhi tradition. Comparing it to their back-catalogue I would say that it is not much different to Failed states, but it is definitely less intense and heavy compared to Today's empires… (2001), Potemkin… (2004), and Supporting caste (2008). The new album is mellower sonicaly, with lighter distortion, and some clean riffing (on "Lower order", one of my favourite songs off the album). It is a beautiful album and it contains everything that is great about Propagandhi. The progressive instrumental end of "Cop out of frame" is sheer perfection, the refreshing speed and vocal pattern of "Letter to a young anus" are awesome, Todd's classic depressing tunes and lyrics in "Nigredo" and "When all your fears collide" (the latter also including some intense hardcore moments) are extremely emotive, and the list goes on. I bet they got the riff in the middle of "Tartuffe", a genius song, from Iron Maiden's last album (I'm thinking the intro riff of "When the river runs deep"). There's really not much else to say about a band whose inspiration, but also kindness and love for each other and the world shine through their music. Listening to Propagandhi is humbling.
4. Rage – Seasons of the black
Having experienced the several ups-and-downs of Rage's career over the 22 years I've been listening to them, I have grown skeptical of anything new by this seminal heavy metal band led by one of my all-time favorite song-writers, Peavy Wagner. Although I decided to attribute the dramatic deterioration of Rage's sound to the compositional takeover by Victor Smolski, I cannot ignore that Peavy had something to do with it as well. Given that Rage's beautiful previous album (i.e. The devil strikes again) is only one year old I was unsure whether Peavy and co., would be able to repeat the feat. I was then pleasantly surprised, as Seasons of the black is an album chock-full of excellent songs. I would have to say that Seasons and The devil are equally good. Overall, whilst The devil strikes again is reminiscent of the Black in mind-End of all days era, Seasons – even faster and even more melodic – goes even further back to the Trapped-Ten years period. Peavy has come up with some of his best melodies ever, and I find hard to believe how Peavy's potential to write this wonderful stuff was dormant for those last years with Smolski. Marcos has kept the riffing at a high level (check out the furious beginning of the album, the main riff of "Time will tell", and the awesome guitar work on "Justify"), and his solos beautiful, to the point, and only when needed. The same goes for Lucky, whose drum patterns, awesomely executed fills, and perfectly situated double bass serve perfectly serve each song. "Time will tell" is perhaps the song that best represents Peavy's unique style of song-writing; a true masterpiece with an unorthodox chorus typical of old Rage (Peavy makes me so happy…). The same goes for "All we know is not" (the first few seconds hint to "No sign of life" off Ten years in Rage), another frenzied headbanger in true Rage style with a genius chorus. "Septic bite" is another cool song that – for those who like comparisons – stinks off The missing link-era melodies (and that bass-drum count near the end). "Serpents in disguise" is an immaculately put together song, with a beautiful chord progression, chorus, and great pace. Another straightforward, super-heavy song with an infectious chorus, "Walk among the dead", could have easily been in 10 years in Rage. "Justify" is another brilliant song, but the intro melody, in my opinion, feels a bit out-of-place in a Rage album (too anthemic). The last song is reminiscent of something that could be found in XIII or Soundchaser, and I like it but is my least favourite song on the album. This is the true Rage, insofar as Rage is Peavy's band and his vision should be what guides songwriting. This album is a gift to all those Rage fans who loved the band in the early-mid 1990s.
The news of a new band by Karl Willetts, Andrew Whale, and Frank Healy was very welcome, as both Benediction and Bolt Thrower are unique and two of my all time favourite bands. I have to admit that when I found out that the main composer is Scott Fairfax, a younger musician lacking a noteworthy record in death metal songwriting, I kind of lost interest. All skepticism disappeared when I listened to the opening song, i.e. "Memoriam", a wonderful song, I assume a memorial to Martin Kearns, with incredible lyrics and performance by Willetts. The second song, "War rages on" is an incredible assault on the senses. The sample in the beginning is haunting, and the way it bleeds into the intro of the song is genius. The main riff is devastating, and paired with the massive drumming produce the sonic equivalent of an earthquake. I haven't heard something that powerful in a long time. Each song deserves its own special mention because all of them are amazing. "Reduced to zero" is another massive epic, its different parts weaving a beautiful musical narrative. Whale's off-beat playing during the first part of each verse is perfectly complementing the tension of the riff, and the double-bass during the second part is monumental. The more manic sections on songs like "Surrounded by death" and "Resistance" send chills down my spine, and the closer is another epic tour de force. It is worth noting that the chilling ending is narrated by Lynda Simpson from Sacrilege, a band to which both Bolt Thrower owe at least 50% of their sound! It is clear that even though our famous musicians are not the main composers, Whale's awesome drum patterns and Karl's unbelievable singing and lyrics make what those songs are. Without those two musicians, Scott's songs wouldn't have been what they are. A masterpiece.
6. Skyclad – Forward to the past
I cannot know if Satan's reunion has something to do with the freshness and power of Skyclad's new album, but that could be the case. Forward to the past feels like it's been put out by a new band filled with the excitement and zest of youth. The thematic orientation of the album I guess plays on both the band's interest in tradition (folk) but also on the tendency of the world to go backwards to scary things like nationalism (as opposed to cosmopolitanism) and fascism (as opposed to not being an utter piece of shit). The song move between the more traditional tunes ("The queen of the moors", "Starstruck?") and the more in your face thrashy tunes ("State of the union now"). The ballad titled "Words fail me" is a standout track. The beautiful (and literal) instrumental "Unresolved" (a song one might think was composed by Georgina and Steve, but is actually one of Dave's compositions) is a nice break from the more up-tempo, festive atmosphere. Another song that stands out and is sure to become a live favourite is "The queen of the moors", a catchy folk tune based on a poem by John Keats. "Change is coming" is another beautiful fast paced song, with awesome lyrics and infectious main riff and chorus. The only part of the album I disliked was "A heavy price to pay", a song with fantastic music but lame lyrics. Overall, this is an inspired album that made me appreciate Skyclad even more, and urges me to discover the period after Prince of the poverty line (1994) which I have neglected.
7. Morbid Angel – Kingdoms disdained
I was really looking forward to listening to the new Morbid Angel album, as it is a band that I've worshiped since the days of my youth and it's never disappointed me. Up until Formulas fatal to the flesh (1998) Morbid Angel had been evolving, capturing the attention and colonising the imaginations of thousands of musicians and fans around the world. I remember that by the late 1990s I would discover a new Morbid Angel clone per week, and that included both new bands (e.g. Poland's Devilyn, and Holland's Centurion) and old bands (e.g. Poland's Vader, and Canada's Gorguts). In my opinion, the only one time Morbid Angel did not offer something terribly new was with Gateways to annihilation (2002). The new album continues down the same path that Trey went after Vincent left in the mid-1990s. After the two really good Warfather albums I was curious about what Tucker could contribute. As it turns out, Tucker gives astounding vocal performances on the new album and contributes some amazing music and lyrics too. Kingdoms disdained is a new unique addition to the Morbid Angel list of unique sounding albums. The album is extremely brutal and swampy, like FFTTF, although this time around Trey's compositions are even more noisy and discordant, and the overall sound and production darker. I would imagine that for many people the loss of classical musicality of the classic Morbid Angel period (which includes the Covenant-sounding Heretic) will be missed, but this "new" approach still has things to offer. As usual there is a variety of structures and no two songs sound similar. In "Garden of disdain", one of the more monolithic songs on the album, what stands out is the darkness evoked through Tucker's infernal voice and the nuances of background noise. On the opposite end of the compositional spectrum, "Architect and iconoclast" is a complex, majestic, breathtaking song, at the moment my favourite on the album. The absolute genius end of "The pillars crumbling" can only be composed by Trey, and can only be heard in a Morbid Angel album. Songs like "From the hands of kings", "For no master" and "The fall of idols" stand out for their sheer brutality and speed. "The righteous voice" is another relentlessly brutal song where at times the more classical musicality of Morbid Angel can be heard. "Paradigms warped" is a classic swampy monster of a song. The opener, "Little piles of arms", is already a classic in my opinion; awe-inspiring vocal patterns, unique riffing, and complex structure. Overall, this is another album from the master of the death metal art (Trey that is) that once again separates the leaders from the followers.
8. Lock Up – Demonization
I have said it before and I will say it again: Embury fell in the cauldron of riffs when he was a baby. The addition of Anton since the previous album has made Lock Up's sound a bit more thrashy; grindcore with a good dose of Slayer in the mix. Kevin Sharp's inclusion is genius, as he contributes his rare brand of furious and insane vocals to the mix. The vocal patterns on "Void" sounds like something off Need to control (1994). Once again, those weathered grind craftsmen give lessons in fury and brutality. At times groovily uplifting ("Desolation architect"), at other times sluggishly heavy ("Demonization"), or moshingly mid-tempo ("Foul from the pure", "Void"), or harcorely powerful ("The plague that stalks the darkness"), but mostly grindingly fast ("Secret parallel world", "Locust", "Demons raging", etc.). I can say with conviction that this is a brilliant album.
Paradise Lost has satisfied my need for excellent music album after album without fail for many years. The arrival of their new album, Medusa, did the same. This album feels even darker, slower, more brutal, and less melodic, reminiscent of Lost Paradise and Shades of god. The band suggested that it is reminiscent of Gothic, but I would disagree; nothing can ever come close to the style of Gothic. It was a one-off and I don't think even Greg knew what he was doing when he created that masterpiece. Once again Nick makes heavy use of his growling vocals, and, as opposed to The plague within, he sounds confident. The only two songs where he predominantly uses his normal voice are the haunting "The longest winter" and the melancholic "Medusa", maybe my favourite song on the album. "Fearless sky" is a long song that goes through various transformations, embracing different facets of Paradise Lost's style. "Blood and chaos" is an instant hit, an extremely catchy song. "Until the grave" is another great song with a memorable chorus. "No passage for the dead" has some amazing dissonant moments reminiscent of the Shades of god era. "The longest winter" and "Gods of ancient" are two songs I am not particularly loving right now. In my opinion it would have been so much better if either of those songs were replaced by the magnificent "Shrines", a bonus track I cannot believe was left out of the standard version 0f the album! Although this album feels at times a bit lazy to me, there are some real gems in there.
10. Immolation – Atonement
Immolation's new album follows the well-trodden path that Immolation has paved over the decades. It is a unique and majestic style that doesn't get boring. I have to admit that what distinguishes this album from the two previous ones, is the ridiculously heavy "Lower". This song is really catchy, and relatively conventional, compared to Immolation's usual unorthodox compositional style. Immolation is not known for its catchy songs, but, in my opinion, "Lower" is as close to writing one it can get with them (in the past they have come close with songs like "The weight of devotion" or "Dead to me"). I cannot have enough of this song! Of course there are numerous other great songs in this album, including "Fostering the divide", "Above all", "Epiphany" and another extremely catchy song, "Destructive currents", whose tempo also reminds of Immolation's earlier days. "When the jackals come" is another song that stands out, as it has this weird trill in one of the main melodies, and a catchy chorus. Nothing terribly new here, but Immolation's style is always welcome, and in my opinion the production and drum sound are not as annoying as in the previous two albums.
Filed under: internet and music, music video, popular music, punk, social theory | Tags: Barthes, Fiske, Francis the pig, intertextuality, Lars Frederiksen, Potemkin city limits, Propagandhi, readerly texts, Rock for sustainable capitalism, writerly texts
Propagandhi is one of my all-time favourite hardcore-punk bands, a band that constantly develops its style instead of resting on its laurels. They have proved themselves time and time again over their 25 years-long career. One of the things I really like about Propagandhi is that lyrically their songs are quite obscure. In some cases I find their lyrics relatively straightforward, but mostly I experience them as labyrinths of signifiers very difficult to navigate.
A classification I like, although I do find problematic at the same time, is the distinction between "readerly" and "writerly" texts. Barthes (1990) defines readerly texts as those that are there for passive consumption, whilst writerly texts are those meant for active consumption. The reason I am critical of the concept is because I am aware that lyrics I unproblematically decode are not "objectively" more straightforward, reactive, but rather deal with issues with which I happen to be familiar.
Nevertheless, I still think that the distinction between readerly and writerly texts is valuable. To the extent that there are forms and traditions that can be considered mainstream or hegemonic, and others that are counter-hegemonic, those two concepts have heuristic value. It could be argued that most of Propagandhi's songs are writerly texts; their meanings are not immediately and unproblematically decipherable because they often deal with counter-hegemonic or non-mainstream topics. For this reason, they require dedication and cultural labour on behalf of the listener.
Indeed, I was recently reading the lyrics of "Rock for sustainable Capitalism" off their masterpiece titled Potemkin city limits (2005). It is clearly a song about the appropriation of underground protest music by the Capitalist music industry. The beginning of the song, however, eluded me completely; I had no idea what it was referring to. The same goes for another awesome song whose lyrics I happened to be reading one day, the song "Potemkin city limits" off Supporting caste (2009). The lyrics tell a story of oppression, escape, capture, and death, but the specifics of the story always eluded me.
Recently I found myself listening to "Rock for sustainable Capitalism" on YouTube. At some point I hovered over the comments section, and I came across a discussion that focused on the beginning of the song. Through this discussion I discovered that the song actually refers to Lars Frederiksen and the Bastards' song "To have and have not". This discovery allowed me to appreciate the Propagandhi song even more, although I've been listening to it for 12 years. For the first time I appreciated the comedic element of Chris's lyrics, and even now I find it hard to listen to the song without cracking up. I then looked for "Potemkin city limits" on YouTube. In this case, too, the mystery of the lyrics was quickly solved by reading the comments. The sad story of oppression and murder was about a pig that briefly escaped death in the abattoir and roamed free for months in the countryside, before it was eventually captured.
"Rock for sustainable Capitalism" and "Potemkin city limits" are intertextual; they refer to other texts, and knowing those other texts reveals hidden meanings. One of the texts the former references is the Lars Frederiksen video clip. One of the texts "Potemkin city limits" references is a real-life text/urban legend of animal liberation, torture and murder. YouTube and music fans, in this case, work in unison forming an intertextual enabler (Fiske, 1991); YouTube gives the platform to music fans to produce commentary that reveals those hidden meanings that, in my case, were lying dormant in the song lyrics, waiting to be discovered.
Barthes, R. (1990) S/Z. London: Blackwell.
Fiske, J. (1991) 'Moments of television: neither the text nor the audience', in: Seiter, E. et al. (eds) Remote control: television, audiences and cultural power, London: Routledge, pp.56-78.
Filed under: Is this where I came from?, popular music, punk | Tags: Coranach, cross stitched eyes, End, Ifwhiteamerica toldthetruth foroneday it'sworldwouldfallapart, Manic Street Preachers, The holy bible
In this the 8th installment in the "Is this where I came from?" series of posts I claim that a song by Manic Street Preachers, from an album that is considered to be a landmark in the history of alternative rock, influenced the contemporary crust/punk band Cross Stitched Eyes to write one of the stand-out tracks off their debut album.
Manic Street Preachers – Ifwhiteamerica toldthetruth foroneday it'sworldwouldfallapart (1994)
This is the only album I have listened to from the Manics, as their devoted fans refer to them, and I can say that I do understand why someone can become obsessed with this band. First of all, judging by this album, this is a band that in spite of having enjoyed some widespread popularity (I distinctly remember being exposed to their music on popular music TV shows during the 1990s), it was not afraid to stray away from popular music conventions. Indeed, this album is chock full of musical ideas that can catch someone off guard. Each song requires from the listeners to be particularly attentive and active if they want to be part of the process of popular culture in which the band invites them. While listening to Nirvana or Smashing Pumpkins is undoubtedly a form of productive consumption, I would imagine that it is not as demanding as listening to the Manics. Based on my own musical background, I can relate to the Manics in different ways. This song starts with a jazzy riff that reminds of late 1980s Nomeansno. Shortly after that it moves on to a minimalist, dark, dissonant riff which repeats itself for several times and a beat that complements the dark vibe of the riff. The singer's pitch, theatricality and use of vibrato are reminiscent of Jello Biafra. The song then goes through several other changes, including a happy bridge and chorus that anchor the song to more mainstream alternative rock music, before the band returns to the main dark and dissonant riff. This main riff is the one that influenced Cross Stitched Eyes. This album has definitely been influenced by Faith No More, and, in turn, has definitely influenced System Of A Down.
Cross Stitched Eyes – End (2008)
I first listened to Cross Stitched Eyes back in 2008 when their debut album (Coranach) was released and I thought they were great. I didn't think that they were particularly innovative, but it was obvious to me that they were music fans who had embodied their influences and craftily blended them in their own sound. These influences, I would imagine, include Amebix, The Cure, Motorhead, New Model Army,1980s crust music in general, and, as I suggest in this post, Manic Street Preachers. The song "End" which closes the album is one of the best songs in it and is driven by an awesome opening riff and drum beat, which are very similar to the arrangement around the main riff of "Ifwhiteamerica toldthetruth foroneday it'sworldwouldfallapart" (on the video that follows the song starts at 2:30).
Filed under: Best of the year, death metal, Heavy metal, punk, sweden | Tags: a perfect absolution, Amon, black trip, blessed in sin, Danzig, darker days ahead, Deth red sabaoth, Diamonds, Enforcer, Foo Fighters, goin under, Gorod, immolation, Imperial state electric, Liar in wait, Majesty and decay, Morbus Chron, Pentagram Chile, reptile brain music, Sleepers in the rift, The malefice, Tragedy, Wasting light, Weapons to hunt
Since 2010 I have been writing a post at the end of each year accounting for each year's music offerings. However, as it happens given financial, time-related and other constraints, many great albums often go unnoticed in time for each year's recount. In this post I will mention some brilliant albums that deserved to be on the five lists that I compiled over the last five years, but were not. Before I get on with this task I will also mention some albums that I heard over the years and, although I would not include them in the best-of list I still enjoyed them a lot.
I consider Foo Fighters to be a very unreliable band. They have released an album that I consider to be a flawless masterpiece (One to one) and then a bunch of albums that I cannot listen to. Their 2012 album, Wasting Light, is an awesome album full of awesome tunes which at times flirt with grunge, at others with garage rock and hard rock. A song like "Dear Rosemary" could have easily been written by Nicke Andersson. Moving on, although not a fan of melodic technical death metal, Gorod's A perfect absolution (2012) is a pretty cool album. Fans of the genre will definitely appreciate some excellent riffs and structures that borrow a lot from post-Whisper Supremacy Cryptopsy and post-Goremageddon Aborted, Necrophagist, as well as Atheist, the forefathers of technical death metal. "Sailing into the earth" has some super inventive riffs. The more clean and shouted vocals still make me cringe, but overall this is a good album. Weapons to Hunt is the continuation of Infinited Hate, the band fronted by Aad from Sinister and the former guitarist of Sinister, a death metal genius, Ron. The album they released in 2012 titled Blessed in sin, is an old school death metal monolith, a bit more thrashier than both Sinister and Infinited Hate. Although I think it suffers production-wise (I cannot stand the sound of the drums), it is a great death metal album full of insane riffs that embody the trademark genius of Ron. Dark Tranquility's Construct (2013) is another album I eventually liked, but didn't blow me away. Henriksson's limited involvement in songwriting is quite apparent, as there is an almost complete lack of fast songs (with the exception of segments on the brilliant "Science of noise" and "Apathetic"). Nevertheless, DT is lucky to have several great songwriters and the result is a very emotional and dark album with some great tunes.
I will now move on to some albums that are marked by pure excellence, but, for various reasons, were left out of each year's best-of lists:
1. Danzig – Deth red sabaoth (2010)
Danzig's Deth red sabaoth is quite a treat of an album. Although I have been a huge Misfits and Samhain fan for many years I never really got into Danzig's solo band. I liked his first album, although I have not listened to it for many years. Many of his other albums sounded boring to me back in the day, but if this album is even slightly representative of them I think I should revisit them. Darkness and heaviness are two things that are not stranger to Danzig, and this album is full of both. At times it reminds of Black Sabbath and Type O Negative, but a much deadlier and sicker version of both. Time has definitely taken its toll on Danzig's voice, but his songwriting ability is still sublime. I like all of the songs on it, but particularly "Rebel spirits", "On a wicked night", "Deth red moon", and "Left hand rise above".
Enforcer is probably the leading heavy/power metal band in Sweden's expanding old-school heavy metal movement. Diamonds, their second album, is a pure masterpiece that I listened only recently and completely blew me away. While their debut album and their third one are closer to the Germanic interpretation of British heavy metal, reminiscent of the faster moments of Accept, Avenger, and early Rage, as well as US power metal, Diamonds is much more pure British heavy metal. On songs like the unbelievable "Katana", "High roler" and "Diamonds", the NWOBHM praise is crystal clear. From time to time other influences find their way into their beautiful musicality, such as early Queensryche (on "Running in menace"). On the faster songs the influence of other British bands, like Satan, is also apparent. Everything is perfect about this album; awesome, riffs, awesome choruses, awesome solos, and perfect playing ability by all band-members. An absolute masterpiece.
3. Immolation – Majesty and Decay (2010)
When this album came out in 2010 I was slightly disappointed, which is the reason why it was not included in that year's best-of list. In hindsight, it should have definitely been included. At the time I felt that this album was quite stagnant and did not introduce anything new in the Immolation legacy. The introduction, as well as the fact that it had an instrumental piece near the end pissed me off because I always considered Immolation a no-bullshit kind of band, and I thought that all this filler crap were just gimmicks of lesser bands. I still always skip the intro and the instrumental piece. I also had an issue with the awful drum sound which unfortunately persisted in Immolation's next album. Immolation always had this swampy and under-produced sound, which I think was very special and integral to their identity. Going from that to the fake triggered sound of this album was disappointing. However, the song-writing is excellent as always. Songs like "A glorious epoch", "A token of malice", "Divine code" and "The rapture of ghosts" are up there with the best songs in their career.
4. Morbus Chron – Sleepers in the rift (2011)
The first Morbus Chron album is a masterpiece of Swedish death metal that stands proudly next to giants of the genre, like Entombed and Dismember. Having said that, the references one immediately gets are not necessarily Swedish death metal bands but those bands that Dismember and Entombed drew on back in the day, such as Autopsy and Death. Indeed, there are riffs directly lift off Autopsy's first couple of albums. However, the manner in which these influences are woven in MC's style is almost magical. The tempos are a bit more spasmodic and intense than any old Swedish death metal band, with the exception maybe of Afflicted. Robert's singing is fascinating, he is a truly brilliant performer. I listened to this masterpiece a year after its release and it took me at least another year to find the vinyl version, which includes the brilliant "Obscuritas", one of the most excellent songs of Swedish death metal.
I properly listened to Liar in wait a year after it was released and my initial contact with it was an awkward one. The song that opens the album is one that still I don't consider representative of the rest of the songs, in fact I consider it to be the worst on the album. The rest of the songs are monuments of furious old school death metal, where one hyper-brutal riff follows the other without giving the listener any room to breathe. In one word, this album is relentless. The prevalent tempo is the blast-beat, with a few short slower passages and a few slayer-beat sections. The singer has some genuinely brutal vocals and the capacity to sing really fast, albeit the style is quite monotonous. The winning point of this record is definitely the purely astounding riffs. In many cases there is a certain quality to the riffs that is reminiscent of classical music and I often envision them being played by an orchestra. Some bring into mind Deicide's Legion, such as the opening riff of "Lash thy tongue and vomit lies" and the second riff of "Semblance of man". The excellently harmonised manic riffs on "Eye of the infinite" and the riffmageddon on "Semblance of man" and the ABSOLUTELY MIND-BLOWING "Sentience and sapience" are jaw-dropping. The vinyl version comes with a great cover-art and a lyrics inner sleeve. I really hope they will release another album, 'cause this one is a masterpiece.
6. Tragedy – Darker days ahead (2012)
Tragedy's latest album was a bit hard to digest and I have to admit that when it first came out it confused me. Having released three masterpieces of fast brutal hardcore – whereby the D-beat constituted the backbone of almost every melancholic and depressing melody which contributed to the establishment of their unique identity – the considerable slowing down of pace came as a surprise. In hindsight, this album is not that different. Anyone interested in Tragedy will instantly identify Tragedy's distinctive attitude. It is not even that more miserable than the earlier albums. The main difference is the abandonment of the D-beat. I still find it a bit difficult to listen to, but every time I do I get chills down my spine. "Darker days ahead", "Power fades" and "To earth like dust" must be some of the best songs ever written.
7. Black Trip – Goin' under (2013)
I listened to Black Trip at the end of 2014 and I couldn't believe my ears. Heavy metal hasn't been so awesome in decades. Black Trip is the brainchild of Peter Stjarnvind, a brilliant musician who has left his mark on pillars of Swedish metal, such as Entombed (Peter's contributions among others include the awesome "What you need" and "Night for day") and Merciless (Peter's contributions include "Violent obsession" and "Fallen angels universe"). While Black Trip obviously stand on the shoulders of giants, they do so in an inspiring way. The songs of this album are reminiscent of early Iron Maiden (e.g. "No tomorrow", "The bells"), Saxon and Thin Lizzy (e.g. "Goin Under", "Radar"), Kiss (e.g. "Putting out the fire"), and Mercyful Fate (e.g. "Tvar Dabla"). The way these songs are being put together, however, is magical. Joseph Tholl is a genius singer/lyricist, Peter's soulful solos are perfectly complemented by Sebastian's furious leads, and all the energy is craftily captured and engineered by the competent hands of Fred Estby and Dolf De Borst in Gutterview studios, the new Mecca of Swedish hard rock and heavy metal. (*Some of the lyrics on the song "The bells" are taken from Edgar Allan Poe's poem of the same name)
8. Imperial State Electric – Reptile brain music (2013)
The reason I did not listen to ISE's latest album when it first came out is that I could not find the vinyl version, so I had to wait until the early 2014. Music-wise, I guess this album picks up where the previous one left off. Nicke has written some of his best tunes so far, like the contagious "More than enough of your love", the bluesy "Faustian bargains", the furious "Born again", which brings into mind another tune Nicke wrote years ago, "I wanna touch" (Hellacopters). "Nothing like you said it would be" draws heavily on Kiss's first album. One of the exciting things about this album is Nicke's collaboration with Fred Estby in putting together the song "Dead things", a dark and heavy song whose atmosphere is reminiscent of their previous collaboration in Necronaut on the song "The tower of death". It is obviously a fascinating album, yet I can't help but compare it to the previous two albums which, in my ears are much better. The main thing I disliked about this album is the lyrics, which, compared to the previous two albums, seem a bit rushed.
9. Pentagram Chile – The malefice (2013)
Pentagram is a band that has been mentioned as an influence by several bands that I worship, such as Napalm Death, Dismember and Entombed. I was also aware that Anton, who replaced Jesse in Lock Up, was Pentagram's guitarist. That made me look them up a few years ago and I found a video of their awesome demos on YouTube. This album is officially their first ever and has new songs that could have been written in the late 1980s. The style is very similar to Anton's main band, Criminal, although Pentagram is much less groovy. If anything, this album is extremely addictive, the way albums used to be in the past; full of catchy riffs, choruses and clever yet approachable arrangements. In that sense, what Pentagram do on this album is a lost art. While the vocals and lots of the arrangements are very brutal, the thrash elements are also strong on Pentagram's sound. "The apparition", a song that is meant to become a classic, is reminiscent of early Slayer on songs like "At dawn they sleep". The German thrash influence can be seen on several songs, especially in "Arachnoid", whose main riff sounds a lot like Kreator's "Terrible certainty". In some ways lots of riffs on this album, like the riff that opens the album, sound a lot to me like Cannibal Corpse. Tomas Lindberg's vocal contribution on "Sacrophobia" is pretty cool, while I thought that Schmier's contribution on "Spontaneous combustion" was a hit and miss.


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Beauty Campaign
Being on set for this festival inspired campaign was one of my favourites while working for Models Own. I had great input with the look and feel of how the glitter and gems were presented by the model. The designers and I wanted to show that glitter can be girly but also edgy. It doesn't have to be all pink and like fairy dust! Girls with 'attitude' can wear our festival inspired collection and make impact on the field. Additionally I chose the nail polish colours and shape and personally styled the model's nails.
Models Own
Project Date
December 2017

subset: commoncrawl


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Froedtert Health is a regional hospital system made up of Froedtert Hospital, Milwaukee; Community Memorial Hospital, Menomonee Falls; St. Joseph's Hospital, West Bend; and Community Physicians, with clinic locations throughout Waukesha and Washington counties. Joining the capabilities of an academic medical center affiliated with The Medical College of Wisconsin, two community hospitals and primary care and multi-specialty clinics, Froedtert Health delivers highly coordinated, cost-effective health care to residents of southeastern Wisconsin and beyond.
Froedtert Hospital volunteers help make a patient's day better, relieve a staff member's daily load, and add to Froedtert's reputation for excellent patient care. Among the many volunteer opportunities, a dedicated group of volunteers commit their time and talents to operate our hospital gift shop and organize special fund raising events. All monies generated benefit programs or areas within Froedtert Hospital.


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• British-made upholstered TV-ready frame
• Plush fabric frame with high diamante-studded geometric headboard
• Choose fabric from a sensational range ( See main images for fabric selection)
• Sprung slatted base.
• TV not included: max size 32" and 8cm depth
• TV will be stored within the frame to rise at a button's touch; remote included
• TV mechanism must be mains connected.
Shown in Executive Midnight.
135cm frame W: 153 x D: 234cm
150cm frame W: 168 x D: 249cm
180cm frame W: 200 x D: 249cm
Headboard H: 139cm
Footend H: 73cm.
Self assembly required.
Please contact us for our Delivery & Returns Policy


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Welcome to our website! As we have the ability to list over one million items on our website (our selection changes all of the time), it is not feasible for a company our size to record and playback the descriptions on every item on our website. However, if you have a disability we are here to help you. Please call our disability services phone line at (316) 267-3636 during regular business hours and one of our kind and friendly personal shoppers will help you navigate through our website, help conduct advanced searches, help you choose the item you are looking for with the specifications you are seeking, read you the specifications of any item and consult with you about the products themselves. There is no charge for the help of this personal shopper for anyone with a disability. Finally, your personal shopper will explain our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service, and help you place an order if you so desire.
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Don't miss this beautifully upgraded home in highly sought after White Hall. This home features 3 spacious bedrooms, with the option to convert the loft into a 4th bedroom. The open floor-plan features beautiful Luxury Vinyl Plank (LVP) floors throughout the first floor, an office space with french doors, and an upgraded chef's kitchen with an oversized island, granite countertops, upgraded appliances, and an open layout to the morning room and family room. To top it off, enjoy your backyard built for entertaining! Just a short walk to the community amenities. Walking paths through the community connect one section of White Hall to the other. Convenient access to I-64, restaurants, entertainment and much more!
Garage Att 2 Car, Driveway Spc, Multi Car, Street
Walk-In Closet, Fireplace Gas-natural, Pull Down Attic Stairs, Window Treatments
Dishwasher, Disposal, Microwave, Gas Range, Dryer, Washer
Carpet, Ceramic, Vinyl, Laminate
Attic, Breakfast Area, Master BR w/ Bath, Porch, Office/Study, Pantry
Listing Courtesy of BHHS Towne Realty.