Tool - Fear Inoculum

Artist: Tool
Album: Fear Inoculum
Year: 2019
Rating: 94/100

Let me get one thing out of the way right now: Tool are one of the few bands whose entire musical output has been faultless to my ears. This review will be impossible to write without sounding like a fanboy, and even if I were to be disparaging about this album, I'd still sound like a Tool fan. Anyway, after a 13 year wait, Tool are back with the much awaited Fear Inoculum, a sprawling beast of an album clocking in at 86 and a half minutes of music (on the Spotify release) or just shy of 80 (the CD version). That alone is a world away from the early Soundgarden and Melvins-esque stylings of Opiate or Undertow.

What do we get then? Well, album opener and title track "Fear Inoculum" starts us off, with some slow builds that bands such as Neurosis and Cult of Luna would have been proud of, and some almost Puscifer-esque vocals from Maynard James Keenan. As ever, it's sumptuously crafted, and superbly executed. "Pneuma" might just be the greatest song Tool have ever committed to record in memory, with Adam Jones, Danny Carey and Justin Chancellor all playing to their own musical strengths, and "7empest" is a sprawling monster of "Third Eye" level epic proportions, with some almost Meshuggah-esque instrumentation.

However, even with these stand out moments, the real strength of Fear Inoculum is that it plays seamlessly as an album, and that in this instance, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The 13 year wait is finally over, and one set of memes has become redundant in place of an entirely new set of memes in their place. Tool are back, and how!

Track listing

1. Fear Inoculum
2. Pneuma
3. Litanie Contre la Peur
4. Invincible
5. Legion Inoculant
6. Descending
7. Culling Voices
8. Chocolate Chip Trip
9. 7empest
10. Mockingbeat

Cave In - Final Transmission

Artist: Cave In
Album: Final Transmission
Year: 2019
Rating: 91/100

On March 28th, 2018, Cave In bassist Caleb Scofield was killed in a fatal car crash when his truck hit a toll booth in New Hampshire. Before he left this mortal coil, he recorded a final album with his Cave In bandmates Adam McGrath, Stephen Brodsky and John-Robert Conners. This album was called Final Transmission.

So how does it stack up? Despite the fact that it feels as if it was cut short (for obvious reasons), it has all the hallmarks of Cave In that we know and love. Stephen Brodsky brings some of the grittiness of Mutoid Man to proceedings with his guitar playing, adding a bit of bite to the spaced out tones of the album, that evoke what was arguably Cave In's finest musical hour, Jupiter. Tracks such as "All Illusion", "Strange Reflection" and "Shake My Blood" wouldn't have been out of place on that album, with Brodsky in fine voice as always and his cohorts making every note that eminates from their instruments count.

Caleb Scofield may not be on this mortal coil any longer, but with his Cave In (and, of course, Zozobra and Old Man Gloom) bandmates, his musical trajectory hasn't half been an enjoyable one. Having gone to Jupiter and back (no pun intended), and despite it feeling like it had been cut short for obvious reasons, his and Cave In's Final Transmission is a memorable one, for all the right reasons. A fantastic addition to Cave In's canon.

Track listing

1. Final Transmission
2. All Illusion
3. Shake My Blood
4. Night Crawler
5. Lunar Day
6. Winter Window
7. Lanterna
8. Strange Reflection
9. Led to the Wolves

SINGLE REVIEW: Hidden Mothers - The Longest Journey Yet

Artist: Hidden Mothers
Single: The Longest Journey Yet
Year: 2019
Rating: 8/10

Sheffield based black metal shoegaze quintet Hidden Mothers are an interesting and invigorating proposition. The band's members were in such bands as Hayfever, Ba'al, Relics, and Fly On Bird, Fly On, and assembled as Hidden Mothers through a mutual love of bands such as Downfall of Gaia, Deafheaven, Alcest, Converge, Oathbreaker and Amenra. "The Longest Journey Yet" is their debut single. How does it stack up?

Well, it's a finely executed balance of post-metal atmospheric sounds that you would associate with bands like MØL, Year of no Light, Sumac, and Rosetta, on the one hand, and on the other hand its assault is more traditional black metal fare: coruscating buzzsaw guitars, vocalist Steffan Benham's banshee howl delivery and fierce blastbeats from drummer Adam Kossowicz. It might not be a wholly original musical idea, but the delivery is superb, and clocking in at four and a half minutes long, is sufficient to get the listener interested enough to wish for them to record an EP. Give them a listen, it's worth your time.

Swallow the Sun - When a Shadow is Forced into the Light

Artist: Swallow the Sun
Album: When a Shadow is Forced into the Light
Year: 2019
Rating: 93/100

Finnish death/doom metallers Swallow the Sun have come a long way since their 2003 debut album, The Morning Never Came, was foisted onto the world. Their sonic approach of crushing intensity and finely tuned atmospherics has served them well, and nothing exemplifies this quite like their seventh album, When a Shadow is Forced into the Light.

The band's main songwriter, rhythm guitarist Juha Raivio, had lost his partner, Aleah Stanbridge (who has a songwriting credit on the track "Clouds on Your Side") prior to the recording of this album, and this plays a significant role in the songwriting on it. New keyboardist Jaani Peuhu clearly got the memo that atmosphere has always been a big part of Swallow the Sun's sound, and this is exemplified on tracks such as "Firelights", "The Crimson Crown", and "Here on the Black Earth", the former of which is one of their most sonically accessible listens.

When a Shadow is Forced into the Light is Swallow the Sun at their best: sonorous, sorrowful and melodic without crossing over and becoming their evil twins, saccharine and maudlin. It's a bit more stripped back than some of their previous albums, and more accessible as a result. A highly recommended starting point for those looking to get into Swallow the Sun.

Track listing

1. When a Shadow is Forced into the Light
2. The Crimson Crown
3. Firelights
4. Upon the Water
5. Stone Wings
6. Clouds on Your Side
7. Here on the Black Earth
8. Never Left

Motorpsycho - The Crucible

Artist: Motorpsycho
Album: The Crucible
Year: 2019
Rating: 87/100

Norwegian psych-rockers are one of those bands who seem to slip under the radar of most people, yet you hear their name mentioned frequently. Then, when you finally get around to listening to them, you wonder why (and, to a lesser extent, how) they have managed to stay under your radar for so long. Since forming in Trondheim in 1989, the trio have given us album after album of delightfully off-kilter psychedelic rock, and their twenty-third album (yes, twenty-three albums in a thirty year career. Impressive) The Crucible is a 41 minute long, three track magnum opus.

Opener "Psychotzar" is the shortest track of the album, clocking in at just shy of nine minutes, and it's a treat for the ears. Whenever Motorpsycho decide an idea needs to be changed up, they don't let it outstay its welcome and take the song on a completely different trajectory. It's a trick that has served them well for their entire career, and does so here. "Lux Aeterna" is slightly longer, starting with some intricate acoustic guitar before taking the listener on a journey of trumpets, mellotron, and countless other instruments before returning to the sonic starting point to close the song off. Finally, the title track is 21 minutes in length, but Motorpsycho do plenty to keep things interesting, not just with the instrumentation, but with the angular time signatures, too, giving it the edge of a track by instrumental titans Dysrhythmia, changing things up brilliantly without making it sound unnecessarily random.

On the strength of The Crucible, I'm stumped as to how I haven't paid Motorpsycho any significant attention before now. Considering they've been doing this sort of thing for thirty years now, and this is their 23rd album, they've got a strong track record of delivering excellent music, and this is an excellent album. A good starting point for anyone looking to investigate them further.

Track listing

1. Psychotzar
2. Lux Aeterna
3. The Crucible

Carnal Forge - Gun to Mouth Salvation

Artist: Carnal Forge
Album: Gun to Mouth Salvation
Year: 2019
Rating: 59/100

When the Swedish death metal explosion happened in the early 1990s, the wave upon wave of bands that left an indelible mark on the music scene there was simply huge. In Stockholm, there was Entombed, Dismember, Tiamat, Katatonia and Opeth; over on the west coast in Gothenburg, At the Gates, In Flames and Dark Tranquillity emerged. Down the road from Stockholm in Västerås, a death/thrash quintet called Carnal Forge (taken from the song by Carcass) gained recognition with albums such as Who's Gonna Burn and Aren't You Dead Yet?, then returned with a new line up and a first new album in twelve years, called Gun to Mouth Salvation.

Unlike their contemporaries, however, Carnal Forge have never been as innovative or as ground breaking. There's no doubt that they're solid enough musically, as the first two tracks from the album, "Parasites" and "Reforged" show, but by the time track three, "Aftermath" starts, it's hardly challenging to spot how their songwriting patterns work; formulaic "angry" growled vocals here, an otherwise good guitar solo here, drumming so stiff and wooden you'd get splinters in your ears if you endured an entire album of it, all wrapped up in some surprisingly glossy production.

I don't doubt there'll be a few people who will have missed Carnal Forge and what they brought to the table sonically, but I'm not one of them. In their time away, their peers and contemporaries have evolved into some of the biggest names in metal around the world, and in returning with a death/thrash metal by numbers damp squib, Carnal Forge are only going to see themselves get lost in the shuffle and left behind.

Track listing

1. Parasites
2. Reforged
3. Aftermath
4. Endless War
5. Bound in Flames
6. King Chaos
7. The Order
8. Hellride
9. State of Pain
10. Sin Feast Paradise
11. The Stench

Ithaca - The Language of Injury

Artist: Ithaca
Album: The Language of Injury
Year: 2019
Rating: 84/100

Holy Roar Records have been on something of a creative roll of late. They know a good band when they hear one, and that testament can be provided by them giving bands such as Boss Keloid, Conjurer and Employed to Serve (and that's just the tip of the iceberg) a home for their music, and now they can add metallic hardcore quintet Ithaca to that list. The Language of Injury is their first full length album, and as far as debut records go, it's a strong one.

"New Covenant" sets the tone tidily as the album's opener, with powerful, hard hitting drums clattering away against a backdrop of wonderfully discordant guitars and the feral roar of vocalist Djamila. However, it is the excellent "Impulse Crush" (for which the band made a video), "Gilt", "Secretspace", the title track and "Youth vs Wisdom" where it feels like Ithaca really come into their own. The discordant guitars are at the forefront again, and they're a treat. Djamila's roar is backed up in some cases by a soothing clean vocal, that on occasion feels like it's a bit too far back in the mix to really shine through. Similarly, the drums, while good, feel like they're a bit too far forward and almost overpower everything else. These are just minor points, however, and take nothing away from the overall quality of the album.

Ithaca have crafted a minor unorthodox gem with The Language of Injury. It remains to be seen where they will go from here, but with a little bit of time and development they'll be one of the best metallic hardcore bands UK shores will have seen for a while. Keep an eye out for them.

Track listing

1. New Covenant
2. Impulse Crush
3. Secretspace
4. Slow Negative Order
5. (No Translation)
6. The Language of Injury
7. CLSR
8. Youth vs. Wisdom
9. Gilt
10. Better Abuse