Listening Trends for April 2023
Well that was a pretty bad month really. Not completely, but certainly musically. Between work, grumpy children, and an actual trip in a flying metal box (and back again!), music definitely took a back seat this month. As such, there’s not much here, and I fell back on a couple of old favourites. Let’s hope for a more musical (and less grumpy!) May!
Def Leppard - Animal⌗
OK, this one came right out of the blue. Hysteria was the album that first got me into DL when it came out all those moons ago. Enamoured with its sheeny, shiny goodness, I went back in time to discover that they actually rocked very hard - Pyromania is an absolute must-listen for anyone getting into the realms of heavy music1.
In late March, the Leps announced a new album, Drastic Symphonies, re-recordings of some of their most popular songs recorded with the London Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. This was… unexpected. With promises that they were going to use music from the original recording sessions, mixed in with new orchestrations, I felt that this had the potential to be quite something if done right. So with some trepidation, I put the sample single, Animal, on to play. What would it sound like?
In a word - jaw-dropping2. Go on, have another word - spine-tingling3. I did not expect it to be as good as it was. The gentleness of the orchestra, with Joe’s original voice recordings over the top of it. The way the electric guitars are skillfully blended in to take centre stage as the song reaches it’s climax. And, at the end of the day, it’s fucking Animal, just in a new skin.
To say I’m excited about Drastic Symphonies is an understatement. I cannot fucking wait.
Fear Factory - Obsolete⌗
Man, an oldie but a goodie. While Fear Factory really got noticed with Demanufacture (sweet Beelzebub, those drums! Raymond Herrera is a machine.), Obsolete proved that they weren’t just a one trick precision metal machine. The one-two double gut punch of Shock followed by Edgecrusher smashes into you, slowing the pace down from the previous album to great effect. Whilst most of the album rocks along at mid-pace, Resurrection introduces an uplifting melodic feel, and Timelessness brings the album to a close on a mournful note, Burton’s vocals soaring high into the blackened sky.
The overall tone of the album is more organic than its predecessor, although Rhys Fulber’s samples ensure that a constant mechanical feel pervades the tracks. Unusually for the band, they went with an overall theme of man versus - no, I can’t do it, sorry. Of course it’s a story about man versus machine, it’s Fear Factory. But that in no way detracts from one of the finest slabs of music they’ll be known for, and IMGO, their last truly great album.
Shihad - Churn⌗
Another reference to an old favourite from my home town. Churn was a very different beast to the Devolve EP that has graced these recommendations before. Gone were the slick guitars and double-bass thrash metal drumming. In their place, Jaz Coleman-produced industrial stylings, and a more focused, angrier sound.
It’s a far superior recording to its predecessor. The opening track Factory leads with a sample from Nineteen Eighty-Four4. It builds up and breaks into a wall of feedback-laden sound before Jon Toogood’s sneering vocals enter and paint a picture of desolate bleakness. Personal favourite Screwtop continues the aural battering, ending with a rhythmic passage that sticks in your head like Superglue.There are some less bleak moments on the album, with Stations and Bone Orchard bringing a more uplifting sense of melody to the proceedings. All of this is just to fool you though, as the album closes out with the menacing Clapper Loader, distortion and a driving rhythm carrying Jon’s depressive lyrics to the end.
It’s a powerful recording from a band that were fresh and new to the music scene. It’s good to see where they started from, and to hear that what they recorded in the early nineties is still as good today as it was back then.
Devin Townsend - Lightworker⌗
Not the album, just the song. He opened with it when I saw him recently with Grumpy Metal Daughter5, and it’s been going around in my head repeatedly. That and Call of the Void. Damn you Townsend.