Metal Ketchup #12: Krypteria, Landed, Litmus, more

Krypteria, Bloodangel's Cry (Caroline): At first I was thinking "Somebody Save Me" sounded an awful lot like Celine Dion, but then my better half pointed out it sort of gets its melody from "Time After Time" by Cyndi Lauper instead. And then, when the guitar solo comes in, it sounds much more hair metal than thrash metal. Also commendably non-thrashy: how the fast rhythms of "Scream" and "I Can't Breathe" roll as much as they rock. Otherwise these co-eductated Germans remind me mostly of Leaves Eyes (whose Eurovisionary metal ballads also make me think "Celine" at times), except Krypteria's opera quotient seems way more kiss-the-sky over-the-top, even eventually approaching Carl Orff levels in "At The Gates of Retribution," the 10-minute closer. But in general the more Gregorian parts are mere embellishments in between choruses or verses, serving an emotional purpose that precludes them wearing out their bombast welcome. Also the guitars do (increasingly ubiquitous in metal) faux-Mesopotamian dance stuff once in a while during the fast parts. All in all: a charming enough sense of cheese to keep the pomp from turning into tedium.

Landed, How Little Will It Take (Load): From Providence, Rhode Island, which means they gotta be an art-noise band, right? Check. Except these crazies are no spring chickens; they've been dressing up like Monty Python lumberjacks in women's clothes and lighting themselves on fire or whatever their schtick is since 1996, back when Lightning Bolt were still being potty-trained. And -- surprise, surprise -- up against most of their more callow Load labelmates, the seasoning kinda shows. This album's a double disc in its physical form, the second platter being a two-"song", three-inch "bonus" thingie that doesn't work very well on non-horizontal CD players. But on the first disc, much of it collected from older vinyl 45s and 10" EPs, the clatter actually gets halfway harmolodic at points, building extended factory clanks toward almost Last Exit or early '80s James "Blood" Ulmer jazz-metal extremes in the apparently nonetheless guitarless "Hit the Land," for instance. "War / Us Vs. Them (And You)" gets some quasi-Glenn Branca guitar buzz going under the silly pirate chatter, and "Times I Despise" grunts on top of a solid drum rumble. None of which is to suggest I remotely recommend the thing --only a masochist would endure all the interminable retardo blabbermouth improv sludge to get to the occasional good parts -- but I'm still a wee bit in awe.

Lions, No Generation (Arclights): Frantic but fractured Austin trio, with a high-pitched frontman. All blur, not much structure. Probably some At the Drive-In or Fugazi in there. Got tired of it quick.

Lions Share, Emotional Coma (Locomotive): A few hot riffs here for sure, but this (Swedish) album is dragged down and made unpalatable by, um ... the lack of tunes? Or maybe the clumsiness of the singer? Though he does seem to have some aptitude for Geoff Tate-ness, amidst metal much heavier than Queensryche's. Not that I  particularly care about Geoff Tate-style singers all that much.

Litmus,  Planetfall (Candlelight USA): Zoomful Hawkwind-infused Brit astro-metal, most clearly in "Expanding Universe," which universally expands for 15 minutes. Like Kosmos (who I wrote about last time), Litmus have a mothership song too, and along with "Singularity," it ranks among their album's speedier cuts (almost a staccato kind of post-punk: hence, Hawklords-infused?). Another fave: "The Machine Age," which sounds like its title, which title you can also actually figure out from the words they're singing. "Under the Sign" is a nicely clamorific jam workout, and "Planetfall/SETI" ends the set on several jazz-fusion notes. An hour's a long listen. But taken piecemeal, Litmus pass the test.