Corrosion of Conformity - No Cross No Crown

Artist: Corrosion of Conformity
Album: No Cross No Crown
Year: 2018
Rating: 86/100

With Pepper Keenan returning to the fold after a lengthy spell in Down (that also saw Phil Anselmo and the other members of the NOLA supergroup turn their attentions back to their other projects), the classic Corrosion of Conformity line up (Keenan, Woody Weatherman, Mike Dean and Reed Mullin) returned for their first album together as a line up since America's Volume Dealer. The big question is, however, how does it stack up?

The second that "Luddite" roars into life, it's clear that Pepper Keenan's return was worth it. This is Corrosion of Conformity doing what they do best: crunching riffs, powerful drumming and Keenan's distinctive vocals. The gloomy trudge of "Nothing Left to Say" and "Old Disaster" provides a neat counterpoint to tracks such as "Cast the First Stone" and "Wolf Named Crow", the sort of fare that wouldn't have sounded out of place on Wiseblood or Deliverance.

The only real criticism of No Cross No Crown I have is that the interlude tracks stretch the album out a little too far. Otherwise, it's a solid album. It might not be breaking any new ground, but it's the Corrosion of Conformity that we know and love, and that's the main thing.

Track listing

1. Novus Deus
2. The Luddite
3. Cast the First Stone
4. No Cross
5. Wolf Named Crow
6. Little Man
7. Matre's Diem
8. Forgive Me
9. Nothing Left to Say
10. Sacred Isolation
11. Old Disaster
12. E.L.M
13. No Cross No Crown
14. A Quest to Believe (A Call to the Void)
15. Son and Daughter

Mythic Sunship - Upheaval

Artist: Mythic Sunship
Album: Upheaval
Year: 2018
Rating: 85/100

Danish quartet Mythic Sunship are an instrumental psychedelic rock band in the vein of bands such as Yawning Man, Øresund Space Collective and fellow countrymen Causa Sui. Their four track opus Upheaval is their sixth full length studio effort, having taken listeners on a spaced out journey since 2009.

The second Upheaval gets under way, we're greeted with layers of effects pedal-ridden guitars that are suitably hypnotic without becoming hypnotic's evil twin, boring. In addition to that, when the quartet think an idea has run its musical course, they change things up a bit and re-plot the idea's co-ordinates before a return to the original idea. This is all done with precision and excellent timing.

Mythic Sunship are now very much veterans of space rock, and Upheaval is a solid release, with only the third track clocking in at under ten minutes long. If this album was longer it would cause the listener's interest to waver, but they do enough to engage the listener to make Upheaval an interesting and enjoyable listening experience.

Track listing

1. Tectonic Breach
2. Aether Flux
3. Cosmic Rupture
4. Into Oblivion

Summoning - With Doom We Come

Artist: Summoning
Album: With Doom We Come
Year: 2018
Rating: 74/100

Austrian black metallers Summoning are one of those bands that seem to slip quietly under everybody's radar despite countless albums and a solid reputation. Like their fellow countrymen Abigor, Summoning deal in atmospheric black metal, and With Doom We Come is their 8th studio album.

The sonic clarity of With Doom We Come is the most striking thing about it on first listen. While the lack of a drummer results in these horrendous sounding programmed drums, the buzzsaw guitars have a warm tone to them and the keyboards provide a sufficient atmosphere. On the flip side, however, the songs just aren't that memorable. They don't do anywhere near enough to grab the attention of the listener, with the exception of "Herumor".

With Doom We Come is not a bad album by any stretch of the imagination, but it's also not an album that will sustain the listener's interest throughout, especially not with seven out of eight tracks being longer than seven minutes in length. Ideal for completists, but there's little to recommend it otherwise.

Track listing

1. Tar-Calion
2. Silvertine
3. Carcharoth
4. Herumor
5. Barrow-Downs
6. Night Fell Behind
7. Mirklands
8. With Doom I Come

Watain - Trident Wolf Eclipse

Artist: Watain
Album: Trident Wolf Eclipse
Year: 2018
Rating: 77/100

There are some bands within extreme metal that use some wonderfully nuanced quiet, subtle passages within their music. Watain are not one of them. The black  metal trio from Uppsala, Sweden return with their first album in five years, following up The Wild Hunt.

Opening track "Nuclear Alchemy" roars out of the traps with all the subtlety of a punch in the face, and subsequently sets the tone for the rest of the album. From there on in we get exactly what we expect from the trio: bludgeoning guitars, raspy vocals and pounding drums, although in among all the noise, there are some neatly structured songs; in particular "The Fire of Power" and "Ultra (Pandemoniac)", the latter of which features a guest vocal turn from Attila Csihar (Mayhem and Sunn O))) ).

While Trident Wolf Eclipse may not be the most subtle album ever recorded, it isn't without its enjoyable moments. Older fans will be pleased at Watain's return to their more traditional sound, while newer listeners will find plenty to sustain their interest here, too.

Track listing

1. Nuclear Alchemy
2. Sacred Damnation
3. Teufelsreich
4. Furor Diabolicus
5. A Throne Below
6. Ultra (Pandemoniac)
7. Towards the Sanctuary
8. The Fire of Power
9. Antikrists Mirakel

The Black Marbles - Moving Mountains

Artist: The Black Marbles
Album: Moving Mountains
Year: 2018
Rating: 77/100

Over the last few years, there has been a wave of hugely talented female fronted rock bands, including, among others, Blues Pills, Spiders and Purson, all of whom have released excellent material. The Black Marbles, a quartet from Gothenburg, Sweden, are a band looking to follow in those very footsteps.

From the off, the sound the Black Marbles are going for is more of an out and out classic rock sound, akin to that of Free, Humble Pie and the Faces, but without really sounding too much like any of them in particular. While opening track "Little Sun" is enjoyable despite being a little on the formulaic side, there are still gems to be found on Moving Mountains, with "Stain My Eyes", the almost folky sounding "Fallen" and the epic "Nite of the Tiger" catching the attention the most, with vocalist Marica Svensson's tuneful holler a particular highlight.

The Black Marbles are not doing anything particularly new or original. But they do what they do pretty well, and by all accounts, they shouldn't find it hard to garner support or an audience. I expect to see them on the bill for Ramblin' Man Fair in the not too distant future. 

Track listing

1. Little Sun
2. Starlight
3. Stain My Eyes
4. Fallen
5. Best Believe It
6. Nite of the Tiger
7. Young Boy

Hear and There's Top 10 albums of 2017

2017 may not have been quite the sparkling musical vintage that 2016 was, but there were still plenty of excellent albums to grab the attention of everyone. Here are the top 10 albums from Here & There:

10. Pallbearer - Heartless

The Arkansas doom metallers followed up Foundations of Burden with their most consistently excellent effort yet.

9. Lionize - Nuclear Soul

The Maryland quartet give us another soulful, hard rocking album that provided a strong follow up to Jetpack Soundtrack, led superbly by Chris Brooks as always.

8. All Them Witches - Sleeping Through the War

The Nashville psychedelic rockers went from strength to strength in 2017, and Sleeping Through the War summed this up perfectly with its blend of heavy blues and psychedelic rock.

7. Samsara Blues Experiment - One With the Universe

The Berlin kings of the blues jam brought us another album heavy on riffs, atmosphere, and great songs.

6. The National - Sleep Well Beast

Matt Berninger and his distinctive baritone leads the National's 7th album superbly as always, while both pairs of brothers create their usual warm and wonderful melancholic sound that is synonymous with the band.

5. Unsane - Sterilize

A beautifully ugly cacophony, and a return to form for the noisy NYC power trio.

4. Slowdive - Slowdive

Picking up pretty much where Souvlaki left off in the mid 90s, the shoegazers returned with a gem of an album, all gloriously expansive synths and lush guitars. A welcome return.

3. Elder - Reflections of a Floating World

Were it not for the fact that Enslaved and Converge both had excellent new albums waiting for release this year, this would otherwise have won my album of the year title. While not quite a continuation of Lore, Reflections of a Floating World takes its predecessors blueprint and builds on it in a palatable way that makes them ready for a wider audience.

2. Enslaved - E

Another slight re-plot of their musical trajectory, with gambles that largely pay off, from Bergen, Norway's favourite musical sons. The use of a saxophone for the first time ever on an Enslaved album in particular was beautifully done.

1. Converge - The Dusk in Us

Converge continue to rewrite the rulebook of hardcore, pushing the envelope and the boundaries as often as they did on Jane Doe and with the same level of quality of music as a result. Hands down my album of the year.

Honourable mentions:

Power Trip - Nightmare Logic
Colour Haze - In Her Garden
Iron Reagan - Crossover Ministry
Mount Eerie - A Crow Looked at Me
The Menzingers - After the Party

Biggest let down:

Code Orange - Forever. Perfectly good musically, but the clean vocals were horrendous.

Best gig of the year:

A tie between Insomnium at Mama Roux's and All Them Witches at the Institute.

Colour Haze - In Her Garden

Artist: Colour Haze
Album: In Her Garden
Year: 2017
Rating: 81/100

Colour Haze have, in their 23 years of existence, swiftly become the masters of their craft. The Bavarian stoner rock trio are simply content with doing as they please, and with a back catalogue as extensive and as fluid as theirs, that's very much to be expected. In Her Garden is their 12th studio release, arriving after several European tour dates, including a showing at Desertfest in Antwerp.

Within the album itself, we get the usual Colour Haze fare; drawn out, hypnotic jams that only have a few sparse vocal melodies; or even better, none at all. It's not quite as drawn out, expansive or trippy as their fellow Germans Samsara Blues Experiment, but then they don't need to be. Colour Haze's musicianship has always been exceptional, and it's no different on In Her Garden. The listener is treated to the odd passage of Hammond B3 organ, acoustic guitar and even a bit of brass and some strings.

While some of the more drawn out moments of In Her Garden occasionally end up crossing over into the territory of being a bit boring (the evil twin of hypnotic), there's still plenty here to sustain the interest of the listener. It's not quite in the territory of their more consistent records, but there's still enough to like about this one for it to be a worthwhile listen, and a good introduction to Colour Haze.

Track listing

1. Into Her Garden
2. Black Lilly
3. Magnolia
4. Arbores
5. Sdg
6. Lavatera
7. Islands
8. Sdg II
9. Labyrinthe
10. Lotus
11. Sdg III
12. Skydancer
13. Skydance