KEY POINTS:
Isis: In the Absence of Truth
Herald rating: 5/5
Label: Ipecac/Shock
Boston five- piece take a more subtle and soft approach but still nail it
Converge: No Heroes
Herald rating: 4/5
Label: Epitaph/Shock
No one told Boston veterans that you should never shake a baby
Trivium: The Crusade
Herald rating: 3/5
Label: Roadrunner
Young Florida quartet still showing promise but need to find their inner self
Sinate: Violent Ambitions
Herald rating: 3/5
Label: MGS Records
Second album from local death metallers is brutal, but samey
Meshuggah: Nothing
Herald rating: 4/5
Label: Nuclear Blast
Swedish perfectionists re- record old album the way it should've been
Melvins: A Senile Animal
Herald rating: 4/5
Label: Ipecac/Shock
Not strictly metal, but brilliantly sick and insane enough to be included here
When your favourite metal band goes soft, you wonder if life's worth living. You feel cheated and, most of all, humiliated that they're no longer the lords of heaviness you once admired. Many fans of atmospheric prog' metallers Isis are probably still hiding in their bedrooms after the release of the Boston band's fourth album, In the Absence of Truth. But, oh loyal ones, beware of first impressions. When a band like Isis, who don't so much push boundaries as forget about them, take a more sensitive approach it's an evolution. They pulped us on 2001's Celestial, and wooed us with the beautiful brutality of 2002's Oceanic and last year's Panopticon.
While not as heavy, powerful or dynamic as previous Isis albums, In the Absence of Truth unravels more evenly into a captivating piece of intensity. The band's strength is how they move from gentle ambience, to smouldering beats and cleanly plucked guitar, to towering ferocity all within the space of one song, like on Dulcinea and Holy Tears. What also comes through here is the influence of the Cure on Isis. It's not explicit but the goth-pop band's keyboard and percussion-heavy days of Pornography are especially evident on Not In Rivers, But In Drops and the shimmering Garden of Light. It's different, but Isis, who play here on February 10, deliver once again.
On a more volatile note, fellow Bostonians Converge come up with yet another jaw-breaker on their sixth album, No Heroes. In typical fashion, songs like Hellbound and the title track pick you up, shake you violently and finish you off with a smack to the floor. It's like being in a horror movie and getting flung round the room by an evil spirit which in this case happens to be head Converge screamer Jacob Bannon (don't try singing like him at home, kids).
Midway through, the nine-minute epic, Grim Heart/Black Rose, is, musically at least, a welcome respite. There's no rest for the wicked or weak, however, and we're back into it with stand-out track Trophy Scars, a kind of Eye of the Tiger-meets-guttural death anthem.
From the veterans to the young bucks. Florida quartet Trivium, who play the Big Day Out, are in their early 20s. The Crusade is their third album. A lot was expected of them after last year's Ascendancy, a polished and forceful sophomore effort. On The Crusade we are left in no doubt that Ride the Lightning-era Metallica is a big influence on them. It's a shame because often, like on Detonation, Anthem (We Are the Fire) and To The Rats, they sound derivative. In saying that, the latter track is a scorcher.
Like Ascendancy, The Crusade has general appeal, but the predominant copy-catting makes for a patchy album and Trivium should get into sounding like Trivium.
Also at the Big Day Out are local act Sinate who play a brand of flailing and pure death metal. Recorded in Sweden, their second album, Violent Ambitions, tends to blur into one by album's end but there is no denying it's unrelenting and an evil display of power. Don't expect anything less than deathly vocals, shuddering and squealing riffs, break-neck beats and double-bass kit tempos (courtesy of former 8 Foot Sativa drummer Sam Sheppard).
The intensity and diversity captured on tracks like Attacked From Within and Prekill is what's needed throughout the whole album because it gets a little samey. Then again, it's death metal so what are you moaning about?
You've got to admire perfection, even if it takes four years to reach it. Swedish metallers Meshuggah released Nothing in 2002 but re-recorded it so "it finally sounds the way we always wanted it to".
Their contorting tempos, distressing guitars, and the overall mechanical cut and thrust of their sound is a harrowing experience for the uninitiated. However, it has to be admired because you will never hear anything quite like Meshuggah.
As a bonus the two-disc edition also has a DVD with live footage and videos. It includes the hilarious video for New Millennium Cyanide Christ, from 1998's album Chaosphere, which was filmed on the band's tour bus with the band playing in all their air-guitar glory.
Meshuggah is extreme noise torture, and that's an acquired taste. But, hey, some people like being lashed with spikes, being yelled at from point-blank range, and having their body wrung out.
And here's some more sickness for you. The Melvins are a band consisting of core members, guitarist Buzz Osborne and drummer Dale Crover. Crover, who played drums for Nirvana at one stage, is a machine. He's Dave Grohl's favourite drummer. Funny then that on A Senile Animal the Melvins thought "What the hell? Let's have two drummers." It's not that noticeable from a power point of view, but right from the sludgey and discordant opener, The Talking Horse, the double dose of beats adds something maniacal to it that burrows into your skull.
While the Melvins are not a metal band they are heavy. The hick hillbilly rock of A History of Drunks barrels along relentlessly and A History of Bad Men is, if you'll excuse the pairing, Queens of the Stone Age-meets-Queen. A Senile Animal is insane, demented and sick. But all in a good way.
