Catching Up With Loud Guitars

by Chuck Eddy

All of the albums examined below were released in the past few months, and they all have loud guitars on them. They’re all okay, though I doubt I’ll return to most of them now that I’ve sampled them. Metal obsessives might like a few more than I do, though – the metal magazines sure seem to. Gauge your own potential use accordingly.

Atrocity, Werk 80 II (Napalm)
Some headbangers despise these Krauts for their goth-cheeseball '80s synth-pop cover concept, but I don’t mind. High points are the rather lovely "Forever Young" and "Smalltown Boy" remakes. The A-ha, Talk Talk, and Herbert Gronemeyer songs are new to me. My favorite of those, naturally, is the German one.

Debashish Bhattacharya, Calcutta Chronicles: Indian Slide Guitar Odyssey (Riverboat/ World Music Network)
The three Bhattacharya-designed guitars used here work best when they get most psychedelic, in “Aviskaar.” “Gypsy Anandi” does a sort of Hawaiian slack key thing. My mind wanders through the rest, but guitarists may have a higher tolerance.

Black Tide, Light From Above (Interscope)
Four Miami kids, aged 15 to 19, and the youngest, Gabriel Garcia, on vocals/guitars/lyrics, shows the most promise. The album’s better than what the novelty hype led me to expect; “Enterprise” has some cool belfry gongs. But only the NWOBHM-worthy overdrive of the opening “Shockwave” totally clicks.

Earth, The Bee Made Honey in The Lion’s Skull (Southern Lord)
Veteran doomsters tastefully go the extended-instrumental jazz-fusion route, with Link Wray twangs courtesy of special guest Bill Frisell. Okay melody: “Hung From the Moon.”

Howlin Rain, Magnificent Fiend (Birdman/American)
Comets of Fire choogle spinoffs stay amorphous, devoid of crunch or hooks, adding intermittent horns and keys for color. “Riverboat” starts out disturbingly like Blind Melon’s “No Rain.” Occasionally, a halfway compelling solo rears its head. Then everybody goes back to sleep.

Monster Magnet, 4-Way Diablo (Steamhammer/SPV)
Listenable more for its Hawkwind-ish space-rock parts and Troggs-ish garage-rock parts than its stoner-metal parts. Title track is almost a frantic kind of new wave. Closer "Little Bag of Gloom" is an irritating lounge croon.

Torche, Meanderthal (Hydra Head)
Supposedly a “pop” move, maybe because tracks like “Fat Waves” seem to be aiming for mid-period Hüsker Dü, and “Without a Sound” almost sports a identifiable hook-and-riff progression. Mostly they stay slow and boring, not unlike their heroes the Melvins, though occasionally (“Speed of the Nail”) they speed up. “Across the Shields” manages a somewhat bulldozing machine rhythm. What it all mainly adds up to, though, is one vague, and not especially catchy, yawp.

Warbringer, War Without End (Century Media)
L.A. thrash revivalists screech and roll their militia-metal crunchy enough that they might've been able to pull off an EP. For a whole album, though, you need songs. They don't.