Kambrium - "Shadowpath" Review

Some releases just hit me at the right place and the right time. Kambrium’s debut full length “Shadowpath” is the breath of fresh air in the sea of metal released on a monthly basis. Although I may have come to the party a bit late on this one (it having been self-released in June 2011 prior to signing with Massacre Records), I haven’t heard a band this interesting since the first time Epica graced my ears. With such a mashing of styles, had I heard this earlier, it would have been one of my top picks for 2011.
Hailing from the land where great metal lives, Germany, Kambrium has been kicking around the scene for the past six years before landing the contract and debut re-issue with Massacre. The style is so hard to pin down: with a whole lot of progressive, a healthy dose of both power and hyper-fast black metal, a dash of extreme and clean, death and black metal style singing, Kambrium simply cannot be contained. The band is highly talented and certainly loves showing it off. For those up and coming bands that wish to learn a lesson in perfect keyboard placement, you need to listen to “Shadowpath.”
Let’s take the album’s best song “A Sinner’s Remorse” for an in depth analysis. The band weaves a cacophony of styles comprised of the best elements of melodic death, power, progressive, and classical. The song begins a slow ascent to madness, erupting into symphonic power metal with crushing riffs and clean (albeit, not the best) vocals before settling in for a bit of melo-death. Just when you think you can pin the band’s sound down, the song twists and turns, even converting to a cover of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony smack dab in the middle. The result is pure excitement and it stands as one of the best metal songs of all time.
In other notable tracks, the band scales the boundaries of incredible melodic brutality (“Among the Lost,” “Thanatos,” “Feuer Gegen Feuer”), fires off ultra-catchy riffs (“Arming for Retribution”), creates power/death ballads (“Hollow Heart”) and produces epic opuses like “The Eye of Horus” (which is almost as great as “A Sinner’s Remorse"). If you fancy Epica or Insomnium with a seasoning of Dissection, this release screeches out to you.
The only downside is that like most death metal vocalists, Martin Simon’s vocals can be a bit grating on the skull, especially when he varies from guttural to screech in the same song. Fans of the extreme side of metal will scoff at this as a “downside,” but it wouldn’t hurt to hear a little more clean singing to provide balance. On the other hand, Simon is a much better death singer than clean.
Kambrium presents a new face of genre-bending metal, one filled with melody, brutality, and overall excitement. “Shadowpath” is definitely an album to remember and one that should establish the band as one of metal’s finest!

Highs: Highly exciting metal with a indefinable style (or styles).
Lows: The album needs a bit more balance vocally by adding more clean vocals.
Bottom line: Kambrium strikes a blow to those attempting to define metal styles blazing a "Shadowpath" to exciting new boundaries.

Vildhjarta - Masstaden

Century Media Records is one of the greatest record labels right now because of bands like Vildhjarta. This 7-piece progressive metal act hail from Sweden and were a brutally pleasant surprise the first time I listen through their first studio release, “Masstaden”. I had never heard of Vildhjarta before and was surprised to hear a ridiculously tight and refined progressive metal sound with a healthy dose of djent to boot. Not everybody knows the term “djent” so I’ll define it real quick: djent refers to a specific palm muted guitar distortion sound that was popularized by Meshuggah, so basically djent groups possess an obvious Meshuggah inspiration.
  “Masstaden” is an almost flawless debut from Vildhjarta. It contains wickedly atmospheric guitar melodies which are quickly obliterated by wonderfully heavy and technical metal riffs that always require me to crank up my stereo’s volume as loud as the speakers can take. I included the video for track 4, “Benblast”, but pretty much every track is amazing. Vildhjarta have two vocalists, one with low death growls and the other with low screams, which I think may be a bit overkill since one vocalist would work just as well. Then they’ve got 3 guitarists, which makes sense, especially when they’re playing live. The Vildhjarta instrumentation is really the heart of this album as they brilliantly accompany the odd-time signatured breakdowns, eerie synth, and chaotic guitar riffing with the punishing punch of bass and drums. However, they’ve got some groove metal riffs scattered throughout the album that I could’ve done without, which is why I can’t give them a 5 out of 5. Regardless, I hope this positive review of “Masstaden” helps to expose the brilliant musical minds of Vildhjarta.

Mastodon - The Hunter

Mastodon can be described as heavy, disorienting, progressive, and deeply rhythmic. With The Hunter, one word that has eluded their portrayal is now at the forefront of their sound: catchy. This album has unbelievable accessibility and groove, and while old-school fans might be up in arms about it, Mastodon will have no trouble recruiting hordes of brand new fans. Before even listening to the album, it’s clear that things have changed. The album art, band logo, and track lengths all point to a departure from the band’s previous choices. But never fear, this is not a Heritage situation. Even though Mastodon is taking a sizable creative risk, it’s not nearly as polarizing as Opeth’s 70’s throwback extravaganza.

The music has been stripped down to something far more bare bones and rock oriented, with infectious choruses and relatively simple structures. It will remind listeners of a twisted doom cousin of Foo Fighters at times, and this is definitely a good thing. Mastodon performed Crack The Skye in its entirety more times than necessary, which left many fans hating each and every proggy second of it. With The Hunter, the songwriting is still heavy as ever, but far more concise than Mastodon’s last album. The album doesn’t take itself too seriously, especially lyrically, and as a result listeners will find themselves smiling as they headbang along to the album's crushing riffs. Although The Hunter is thoroughly enjoyable, there are a couple of things that kept it from deserving a perfect "10".

One qualm many will have with this album is its production. Songs like “Dry Bone Valley” and “Octopus Has No Friends” were completely void of grit, and a rougher, less “perfect” mix would have given the songs a bit more edge. Another issue is more a matter of taste. Mastodon’s narrative quality has always been admirable, and each of their previous albums wove an intricate story, with tracks effortlessly interlaced. The Hunter is not a conceptual work. There’s a bit of a space theme, sure, with tracks like “Blasteroid” and “Stargasm," but it’s nothing close to a tale like Leviathan. While this album is undoubtedly music to blast through your headphones, the crushing walls of sound present on albums like Blood Mountain have been left in the past.

“Black Tongue” is the first track, and marks the first steps down a very different path for the band. Those who have a firm investment in Mastodon’s signature progressive sound will not be pleased, but if they’re able to step away and appreciate the album for what it is, and not what the band’s name has come to represent, they will likely find themselves engrossed by some aspect of The Hunter. “Curl of the Burl” is reminiscent of a sludgier Queens of the Stone Age coupled with Mastodon’s own unique spin. The bizarrely titled “Bedazzled Fingernails” is one of the most interesting tracks on the album, and the closest thing to Mastodon’s previous sonic sensibilities.

Mastodon may be able to connect with dismayed fans in a live situation better than on the recordings, which are clean and precise almost to a fault. The art and videos the band has produced are killer and will lend themselves to a captivating show. Is this enough to hold the interest of those listening to the album sans supplemental material? That’ll have to be determined on a case-by-case basis.

All complaining aside, The Hunter is one of the top albums of the year. Marketable hard rock with progressive influences doesn't always have to leave fans feeling pissed off. Yes, this has “radio darling” written all over it, but so what? I’d rather hear this played on constant rotation than what’s been polluting the airwaves as of late. A couple of the tracks fail to resonate since they are meant to function independently as opposed to contributing to a bigger picture, but that's splitting hairs given the overall quality of the record. Closing with “The Sparrow”, a melancholic and atmospheric piece replete with soothing vocals and driving percussion,The Hunter cements itself as an admirable addition to Mastodon’s discography.