iwrestledabearonce – Hail Mary review

iwrestledabearonce are a band which have picked up a bit of hate during their career, mostly due to their wackiness and people simply not taking them seriously, what with the band’s name and their song titles, with examples such as “Tastes Like Kevin Bacon”, “You Know That Ain’t Them Dogs Real Voices”, “That’s a Horse of a Different Color”, and so on. Looking past the hate though, the band do make good music personally; they’re experimental in their music and add a bit of comedy into their songs. The latest album to come from them however shows the band maturing, similar to the way that The Devil Wears Prada matured with their 2011 release “Dead Throne”. Gone now are the wacky song titles and crazy bridges made of twangy country guitars and whinnying horses, and in with more serious titles and just as serious songs musically – personally however I like both the older IWABO and the new. “Hail Mary” also sees the band releasing their first album with their new label Artery Records.

The opening track and first single to come from the album “Gift of Death” begins with the recognisable sound of the strange time signatures and “far too fast for human hands” guitars – or if you want to talk genres, the mathcore sound – that iwrestledabearonce do. The song features a multitude of breakdowns and the usual mid-section odd intervals, which in this song is, as some have described, a strange and eery talking.

The third track and second song to be accompanied by a music video is “Green Eyes” is the first on the album to combine the heavy the typical IWABO sound with a more melodic one, with a nice blend of heavy guitar chugging with a light melodic picking in the background, all coming together for the songs chorus, where LaPlante swaps out the harsh vocals for singing.

“Erase it All”, the fourth track, deserves a mention simply for containing one of the best and most brutal outros to a song of the year so far, with an all out barrage of guitars and drums, backed up by the combined vocals of LaPlante and Suicide Silence’s Eddie Hermida.

At the halfway point of the 14 track album is “Doomed to Fail Part 2”, which I have nicknamed the albums breather track, in that it is an entirely melodic track with, despite a heavier guitar sound towards the end, an overall chilled out and relaxed feel to give the listener a chance to calm down after hearing the previous six tracks. This is obviously needed too, as the song is followed on by “Killed to Death”, which is simply an onslaught to the ears straight from the get go– in a good way, of course.

As an album overall, I feel that it is the band’s best work to date and that it really shows the band’s maturity while still keeping their older sound – rather than simply sacrificing it and starting from scratch. One complaint I have with the album could just be due to a fault on my end, but I feel like some of the songs can be heard and you’re left asking yourself “Which song was that? What was it called?” But again, that could just be me or it could be because I haven’t listened to the album just enough.

Top tracks for me are “Gift of Death”, “Green Eyes”, “Erase It All”, “Killed to Death”, “Man of Virtue”, “Wade In The Water”, and “Your God is too Small”.

Iwrestledabearonce – Hail Mary

1. Gift of Death

2. Remain Calm

3. Green Eyes

4. Erase It All

5. Curse the Spot

6. Doomed to Fail Part 1

7. Doomed to Fail Part 2

8. Killed to Death

9. Trips

10. Man of Virtue

11. Carbon Copy

12. Wade in the Water

13. We All Float Down Here

14. Your God is too Small.

Slipknot – .5 The Gray Chapter review

.5 The Gray Chapter is the first album to come from Slipknot in six years since All Hope Is Gone. Leading up to the albums release many were worried that the album wouldn’t live up to peoples’ expectations, which the band fired back with by claiming that it will be a blend of the bands’ 2001 Iowa and 2004 Vol. 3. I can tell you now that that claim definately came through. Unfortunately, some were still disappointed with the record and were very vocal about their opinions on it, many saying that it was too soft of a record. Having heard these opinions before my first listen, I was slightly worried that they would be true; but they were not. The album does have a few softer songs but so did Vol. 3 after all. The first heavy hitter from the CD comes after the three minute intro track XIX with the song Sarcastrophe.

After a one minute intro to the song, the whole band comes in full force with the harsh vocals of Taylor, the low guitar notes of Root, Thompson and filler bassist Alessandro Venturella; and the smashing snare of filler drummer Jay Weinberg. There’s no break from this from this aggressive onslaught either, as the following track kicks straight into action with AOV.

Track five of The Gray Chapter, Killpop, is my personal favourite track off of the album thanks to a blend of a more slow paced music and the ever aggressive vocals of Taylor. To top this off are the dark lyrics which accompany the music, which speak of lust & a twisted and controlling love, all coming together to form a violent end to the song with an attack to the listener from all instruments and the screams of Taylor with We were meant to be together / Now die and fucking love me / We were meant to hurt each other / Now die and fucking love me.

Three tracks later and we get to Goodbye this albums Snuff or Circle which a clear tribute and memorial to the late Paul Gray. Starting of soft, the song opens with a melody of synths: leads, bass, and drums, as well as a slight presence of guitar and bass guitar; all brought together to form the backing track for Taylor. The lyrics A long time ago we believed that we were united / So the last thing on Earth I am ready to do is say goodbye are the last lyrics to be heard before the band comes together, rather fittingly, to play together throughout the lyrics of A long time ago we discovered that nothing could stop us / This hasn’t torn us apart, so nothing ever will hard hitting and close to home lyrics for the band No one is going to save us this time / No one can know what we’re feeling, in that I may trust.

The first single to come from The Gray Chapter, which Corey Taylor stated was more of a teaser into how the album will sound, was The Negative One, an absolute throwback to the early sounds of the band with the eery sounding synth which opens the song to the amazing yet simple riff which plays throughout. The main riff in this song actually won my personal Best Riff of 2014 Award – almost being beaten by Sick Like Me by In This Moment or Reincarnate by Motionless In White. There’s also of course the music video for The Negative One, which if you for some reason haven’t already watched, I highly recommend; numerous symbols and imagery from previous music videos from the band and adding to the eeriness of the song.

If I had to put one thing wrong against The Gray Chapter it would actually be the album art, which I for some reason honestly can’t put my finger on on why I don’t like it; But what are you going to do, listen to the amazing work found on the CD or stare at the album art?
The Gray Chapter jumped high up in my favourite list of Slipknot’s albums, actually coming in second just behind 1999’s self titled record; so if you haven’t already bought the album or given it a chance, please, do.

Slipknot – .5 The Gray Chapter:

1. XIX
2. Sarcastrophe
3. AOV
4. The Devil In I
5. Killpop6. Skeptic
7. Lech
8. Goodbye
9. Nomadic
10. The One That Kills The Least
11. Custer
12. Be Prepared For Hell
13. The Negative One
14. If Rain Is What You Want

Skindred – Kill the Power album review (And my first review, too!)

The time has finally come! After three years since the release of Skindred’s previous album “Union Black”, they have released “Kill the Power”. Now, I may have only recently got into the band, “Union Black” being the only other album I own from the band, but I was so excited for this release, as if I’d been a fan since the beginning. So, is “Kill the Power” a good album, or should you kill the power to your music player before even putting the CD in? (You see what I did there?) Well, I’ll tell you now, you can keep the power on. So let’s get going, shall we?

Right, from the get go we have the second single from the album, and the albums title track, “Kill the Power”. If you ask me, this is one great way to start an album, with the typical anthemic sound we’ve heard from the band before and that the band is known for – such as Doom Riff and Cut Dem from the “Union Black” album.

The second track “Ruling Force” shows rather clearly the combination of genres which Skindred are also known for, in particularly though the combination of dubstep and metal, rather than dubstep, metal and reggae. With the introduction having a prog/nu metal sound to it – similar to “Rational Gaze” by Meshuggah, in my opinion – the verse blends in from the intro with a harmonic and goes straight into the “wub-wub” with Benji’s vocals rapping behind it. The chorus comes in with the tempo dropping quite a bit, and the general sound more ballady – lets say. Overall, this is a good song, the highlights for me being the intro, verses, post-chorus’s and the outro – so basically everything except for the chorus. Now I’m not saying it’s a bad one, I just feel like it sounds too different from the rest of the song.

The third track on the album is “Playing With the Devil”. Right from the get go, we see that this is a hybrid of all three genres which Skindred work with, with the verses having a reggae/dub feel, while the chorus’ go full dubstep/metal. Once again, a section of this song has a ballady sound, this time in the bridge. That doesn’t last long though, as a fast rap from Benji brings back the chorus, the final one having being just guitars, bass, drums, and vocals, no “wub wub” anywhere.

Next we have “World’s On Fire” which starts with a simple guitar riff and not necessarily a reggae sound, but instead a reggae feel a, mostly thanks to Benji’s vocals. Then, the chorus, which is just metal, like the outro of “Playing with the Devil”, guitar, bass, drums, vocals, and the ending of the chorus being a lead by a scream of “World’s on Fire” – so that’s why the songs called that… Now the bridge of this one definately has a prog sound and feel to it, with the odd sounding time signatures of the guitars clashing with the normal time signature of the drums – or in layman’s terms, the guitars aren’t playing in time with the drums, but in a good way!

And now, the fifth track of the album, and the first single to be released from it, “Ninja”, which is definately one of my favourite songs from the album, with the guitar riff opening and leading into the the whole band playing the riff, which just sounds heavy! The verse drops the guitars and we have yet again the reggae sound and feel. Now this being a single, it’s definately going to have a catchy sounding chorus, meaning an anthemic sounding one, with “Ninja” being chanted behind Benji’s vocals. The bridge of this one may sound odd at first, with the notes from the vocals in the chorus being played in an 8-bit sounding style, but I personally love it.