Heavy Metal Ketchup #10: Kampfar, Into Eternity, Intronaut, Kayo Dot, more

Oh well, guess we don't get a metalhead for a Vice President after all. But hey, you can only break so many barriers at once, right?  And it's not like Caribou Barbie named her kid after Voivod. So stop whining (unless you're dancing in the streets like me), and check these:

Into Eternity, The Incurable Tragedy (Century Media): These Saskatchewan hockey pucks' 2004 Buried in Oblivion seemed reasonably majestic at the time, even if my kid did compare it to "Pokemon music." The death-metal hellements weren't as digestible as the proggier portions, but at least the monster-grumbling guy wasn't overused too much. On this new album, though, the trusty Rush-y changes underneath are fully foiled by the ridiculous emo-and-witch vocal combo. Maybe I was wrong about the earlier one, too.

Intronaut, Prehistoricisms (Century Media): First off, gotta say I dig the paleontological motif, though wouldn't pterodactyls have been more appropriate than crows among all those Cenozoic ferns and chambered nautali on the cover? Was still skeptical, though; stopped paying attention to this thoughtfully music-schooled L.A. art-trash ensemble's passingly intricate and unclassifiable debut a couple years back when frontman Sacha Dunable started throwing up so much. Dude still can't control his cookies, but this time, compelling moments all over make up for his digestive distress: lovely set-opening drone in "Primordial Soup"; heavy-Chevy-riffed start in "The Literal Black Cloud"; downshifts into oddball rhythms in "Cavernous Death of Shame"; good loud hidden prog melodies in "Prehistoricisms"; King Crimson guitars trading space with extended semi-polyrhythmic drum solo in "Any Port"; Middle Eastern psych thickening into a gradually transforming groove in epic five-part closer "The Reptilian Brain." So, yeah, they've evolved some.

Ironfire, Blade of Triumph (Napalm): More tuneful than the average Copenhagen Viking troupe, with song titles about dragon hearts and gladiators and labyrinths and magic swords and knightly bloodbaths and eyes of jackal (if not chainsaws of Jackyl) -- and a cool dragon-boat cover to match.

Kamelot, Ghost Opera (Steamhammer): More power-metal from apparent hotbed Tampa, Florida (see previous Ketchup), prissy and frilly in a way that subtracts more hooks than it adds.

Kampfar, Heimgang (Napalm): Not quite the apex of Finnish "folklore metal," but certainly nothing to be ashamed of. Lonely ogres grumbling amid discernible if not exactly distinguishable songforms, swooping through the heavens now and then almost like Hawkwind atop Sabbath "Children of the Grave" drums. "Antvort" even features some unison-chanting road crew working on the chain gang.

Katra, Beast Within (Napalm): Flimsy goth metal for Finnish girls who have considered suicide when the unicorn is enough.

Kayo Dot, Blue Lambency Downward (Hydra Head): Metal magazines apparently consider this artsy-fartsy Boston bunch "way the heck out there," but I've tried them a few times now, and I'm just not hearing it. Dark, deliberate, flowing, soundtrack goop, with details in the ambient mix if you have the time and energy and drug budget to hunt for them. Probably inspired by some important Canterbury '70s prog-rock cult heroes I never heard and '90s shoegaze zeroes I never liked. "Clelia Walking" has a comely archness to it, and I really don't mind the vocal tone. Pleasant enough stuff. But I'm bored.