Listening Trends for March 2023

Given how late my previous write-up was¹, I haven’t had time to assemble many new Grumps for the last month. But what I did listen to left me very un-Grumpy, so, you know, trade-offs…

Anamanaguchi - Scott Pilgrim vs the World⌗

A fun one to start the list off! Given my history², it should come as no surprise that I like chiptune-based music (Master Boot Record has produced some cracking albums over the last couple of years!). Anamanaguchi was a band I hadn’t heard of until I saw their name on a picture on a random 3D-printing article, and thought the cover looked interesting. It just so happens that I also like Scott Pilgrim Vs The World, so taking a closer look seemed warranted.

It’s a lot of fun! Super catchy songs, mixing chiptune bleeps and bloops with some rock-style guitars, all helped along at a decent pace by some energetic rock drumming. While it’s named after the movie, I don’t really get many connections between the music and the film, but that doesn’t really matter too much. The music is a little repetitive after a while, so I find that after the first half, it’s better suited as background music. But even given that, it’s still a lot of fun, and what more could a Grumpy Metal Guy want?

Tryglav - The Ritual⌗

Ah, that’s something more that a Grumpy Metal Guy wants - black metal! I hadn’t heard of Tryglav before, but saw a random mention of them online, and thought I’d check out The Ritual, the latest release from Boris Behara and his merry band of plague doctors. It starts off very promisingly, with some well crafted mid-paced black metal, before the blasting kicks in. It’s at this stage that your face gets melted. While the production seems a little thin at times, the end result allows everything to be heard clearly, from rasp to blast.

The first track ends abruptly, and then leads into what is my favourite song of the year so far, The Evocation. The evil driving bass pulses along darkly, leading to an insane amount of head bobbing and banging. I have a Grumpy suspicion that I’ll still be enjoying this at year-end.

The rest of the album varies between blasty-madness and slightly more sedate, 2nd-wave black metal. I found the blasting did get a bit tiring after a while, and the music really worked best when given a chance to slow down and breathe. But make no mistake, this is a great overall album, one that doesn’t outstay its welcome after the 32 minute runtime has concluded.

Insomnium - Anno 1696⌗

I think it’s fair to say that Insomnium won’t ever top Winter’s Gate, understandably so. Heart Like A Grave made me Grumpy, as it just didn’t capture my imagination in any real way. I was hopeful though that Anno 1696 would swing back closer to the icy goodness of 2016. I’m happy to say that it most definitely did.

Anno 1696 at times sounds less melodeath and more black metal - the vocals seem harsher, and there’s an increased use of blasting in the songs presented here. That’s not always the case though. The Witch Hunter is a super rocky melodic number, with some elements echoing Daylight Dies riffs. The use of Sakis Tolis from Rotting Christ on a song called White Christ made me chuckle, but it’s a great pairing. There’s also some very effective use of keyboards, adding a dark atmosphere to a lot of the songs.

Having spun this a few times this month, I’m very happy with it, and hope to get a chance to see them play it live at some point³.

Septicflesh - Modern Primitive⌗

Another example of a band struggling to surpass their previous output is Septicflesh. Following the towering triumph of The Great Mass, Titan was OK, but Codex Omega sailed right past me. I kept forgetting that they’d released a new album in 2022, and it’s only recently that I remembered to give it a spin. Modern Primitive starts out slowly, with a measured brooding start. No-one, not even Dimmu Borgir, can beat Septic’s orchestra game, and their trademark orchestration is layered on here to great effect.

The album mixes slower-paced passages with more traditional orchestral death metal segments, although a lot of the songs follow the Greek equivalent of an Iron Maiden template - slow brooding start, aggressive middle section, and a lighter outro that takes the foot off the pedal somewhat. That’s not to say that it doesn’t work - it does! - but a bit more variation in song structure would have improved things a notch. Nice to see though that there seems to be slightly more emphasis on growled vocals, which keeps the aggression flowing throughout.

In 2023, when you listen to Septicflesh, you know what you’re going to get, so it’s no surprise that this was well produced and effectively written. I definitely enjoyed this one more than the last two albums too, which this can only be a good thing - hopefully you do too.

Tool - Ænima⌗

Finally, to round out the month’s listening, something vaguely less controversial for a change. Ænima is my favourite Tool album by a long way. Having said that, it’s hard to call nearly any release by Tool an actual album. Calling them collections of songs and random interludes is generally more accurate. Hence the partial review mention in the summary for this month⁴.

In order to give this one a fair shake, for the first time in many years, I forced myself to listen to the whole thing from end to end. That’s right, I didn’t skip any of the interludes. Honest! It’s also the last time I won’t skip the interludes, because they really don’t do a lot for the album. If you strip them away though, you’re left with a bunch of very powerful songs that still rock today. I’ve always been partial to Eulogy and Forty-six and Two, but lately, the title track has been the one I gravitate towards the most. The guitars are crunchy as fuck, and the bass locks in perfectly with Danny Carey’s weird-ass drum rhythms.

I don’t think anyone reading this won’t have listened to this before, so I’m sure I’m not letting you know about something new. Think of this as more of a reminder of how good an album sixty percent of this album this is. Just make sure you’re ready to skip the unnecessary bits - which sadly accounts for far too much of the album.