BLOOD CEREMONY - The Old Ways Remain review

 

BLOOD CEREMONY - The Old Ways Remain

Rise Above Records

After a seven year hiatus Canada's BLOOD CEREMONY return with their fifth full length since starting out in the late 2000's. Now in all honesty I am a fan of their first three albums. The band were part of that whole occult retro doom trend (that never existed in the 70's at all) from a decade or so ago. They basically took a touch of 70's hard rock, added in some psych as well as folk melodies and took off.

The game changer was Alia O'Brien's amazing wispy, sultry, bluesy vocals. Toss in her use of keyboards and the flute. It was some damm good sounding music at a time when we needed a break from the norm. But of course you had to listen to it with open and experienced ears. The comparisons to SABBATH meets JETHRO TULL as a way to describe em were all over the place. I must admit that every time I listen to BLOOD CEREMONY I wanna pull out JETHRO TULL's Stand Up album. Which is a more hard rock / blues sounding album then Prog. 

Now as far as their last one goes, 2016's Lord of Misrule, was a decent release if you put aside the fact that they pretty much ripped off a lot of riffs and melodies from PINK FLOYD, The BEATLES, SABBATH and some one hit wonders from the past. Hey you can fool those ignorant hipster clowns. But I grew up back then and remember stuff. So when I listen to this one it's more about who are they ripping off then how good the song sounds. 

So with that said, after listening to this new one I can say they got the title correct. The Old Ways Remain is a throwback to this band's early days to a point. There's some great songs and a few stinkers. Now the good stuff features the cool riffs by Sean Kennedy who's been the iron man behind this band since inception. Yes good riffs and solos reminiscent of the past that are never over indulgent. Opener "The Hellfire Club" and "Ipsissimus" are impressive. The third cut "Eugenie" actually reminded me of 70's era TRAFFIC with it's R&B beat plus that Hammond organ run with the saxophone solo by guest Joseph Shabason. Of course Alia O'Brien's flute work is key to the opening to the song she does give way to everyone else in the end. 

"Lolly Willows" is a decent melodic rocker cut with a cool guitar / drum interplay reminiscent of SABBATH and JETHRO TULL. From this point on as far as this release goes it's hit or miss. The band ventures more into wannabe Prog territory on this album's second half and it's not well done. The bottom line is that this album is packed with good stuff on the front end. The latter half is boring to me. Nuff Said.

https://riseaboverecords.com/

LISTEN HERE:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltFmQqmi4PE&list=PLQzhhluNlimr66my6CO9_9NkhwX9X-os2

CHURCH OF MISERY - Born Under a Mad Sign review

 

CHURCH OF MISERY -  Born Under a Mad Sign

Rise Above Records

I got into Japan's CHURCH OF MISERY mid-way through their career. Houses of the Unholy from 2009 was the second album I picked up from em. And to this day I'll still say it's not only their best album but it's their one release which placed them on the mountain of Stoner Doom. After that I picked up their early recordings as well as newer releases. That Live at Roadburn 2009 release, which actually came out in 2010, is the shit. Since I've never seen the band perform live then that release is the closest I'll evewr get to the band's heyday. And then after all of that everything got not so good.

So the band's next couple of albums, aka: 2013's Thy Kingdom Scum and 2016's And Then There Were None, were not winners in my book. I chalk it all up to line-up changes which doesn't change too much for a band like this. But toss in uninspiring song writing and that leads to boredom. I mean any clown can check out a stoner doom release and be blown away by it. But if you've heard all of the SABBATH-ian bands from the past you kinda want more than smoking some pot and worshipping the riff dude.

 

Which brings me to this latest one from Japan's leaders in the slow SABBATH touch. Honestly it took me five fucking listens to this CD in order to appreciate it. But for openers it's another line-up change thing. Bassist Tatsu Mikami, the band's spengali, is still leading this thing. He brought back Kazuhiro Asaeda, the band's original vocalist (?). As far as guitar and drums go we see the newcomers Fumiya Hattori and Toshiaki Umemura. 

Once again the excitement of what CHURCH OF MISERY once was takes a few songs to kick in. Both "Beltway Sniper" and "Most Evil" are boring and way too long. It's when the third cut "Freeway Madness Boogie" kicks in that the real CHURCH OF MISERY comes to life in 2023. In fact it's this point where the album becomes a winner. 

It's the fuckin boogie jams, the added keyboards and the upbeat excitement. Toss in Fumiya Hattori's blues rock soloing as well as riff frency and Toshiaki Umemura cutting loose on the drums. I mean hell fuckin yeah! I'll never be sold on Kazuhiro Asaeda as a vocalist. In fact I like it better when he's not singing. But in the end (aka: five out of seven songs) this pretty damm good.

https://riseaboverecords.com/

LISTEN HERE:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjINA7jSZFs

SCUMFEAST VIDEO Rants and Raves

SCUMFEAST VIDEO Rants and Raves but mostly Rants

It's the return of reviewing band videos. Most blogs/websites like to say "Exclusive Premiere" of some band's video as if they're the only ones who get it sent to them. Bullshit! Usually I just re-post em on my Facebook page to let friends watch em and laugh. But I figured hey why not give em a chance here at SCUMFEAST METAL 666. So shall we begin?


ABORTED FETUS - Blinded by the Flame video

The Skinny: 

What have here is some collusion between Russia's ABORTED FETUS and the American record label Comatose Music. Obviously there needs to be an investigation into this. Well maybe not, this is the official video for "Blinded by the Flame," a track from the band's fifth full length The Art of Violent Torture. ABORTED FETUS call their signature style of death metal Ural Massive Brutality so let's see what's up.




Verdict: Rant

Ya know that feeling you get when you like a band's music but then you see them and you're like "Oh?" That's the way I look at this. Musically they've got a great albeit typical brutal DM sound. The medieval imagery spots are fine but it's their vocalist or better yet his actions which bother me. I hate, no I despise the whole baseball cap worn backwards, groove metal meets thug culture identity crap. This guy jumps around like he's got bees in his shorts. Give me a break.


GHOST BATH - Seraphic video

The Skinny:

Depending on who use listen to GHOST BATH are A) an atmospheric black metal band from North Dakota focused on depression, tragedy, purgatory, and earthly wonders. Or B) an annoying emo band using black metal aesthetics in order to impress losers at hipster sites, faking being from China and should probably die. So let's go to the video, which is a song from their latest release Starmourner.



Verdict: Rant

The term GHOST BATH refers to the act of committing suicide by submerging in a body of water. I think this band should consider it. Die hipster die! Actually here's a better video on this band.



or this one,



NUFF SAID.


BEASTMAKER - Nature of the Damned video

The Skinny:

BEASTMAKER are a three piece stoner rock act from California. They're fairly new, starting out in 2014, but have two full lengths under their belts. Musically they worship at the altar of Ozzy era SABBATH for the most part, go figure. I don't know if they're like ORCHID who once said they never heard of BLACK SABBATH or listened to them. Be that as it may this song is off of their 2017 release Inside the Skull out on Rise Above Records.




Verdict: Rant

OK visually it's typical band playing with lights flashing but musically this song kinda blows. I mean it's really boring as far as this genre goes. Maybe if you're a hipster who thinks everything is new than yeah you'd like it. But for me there's just so much blatant SABBATH or PENTAGRAM worshiping / copycats you can take without wanting to scream "POSUERS"! 

Which brings me to a second point. Unless you're into the evilness of the underground then you wouldn't know there's a huge backlash against bands from California calling themselves doom, stoner rock and especially black metal. The case against em is that they're all fake phony hipsters. I don't fully agree with the term "All" but I do believe there are a significant number of people out there who are jumping onto trends knowing that if they're more indie rock than true metal then they will court critical claim to fame by the hipsters in the music media. 



INSANITY - Down video

The Skinny:

INSANITY are supposedly a hardcore band from Switzerland. For this video they enlisted some female roller derby teams to be filmed screwing around on the rink. 
Hardcore and Roller Derby Collide in INSANITY's Action Packed Video for "Down". This track is from the band's Toss a Coin album which is out on Bastardized Recordings. I'm not very excited but I'll watch.





Verdict: Rant

Well the music doesn't sound like hardcore at all. In fact it sounds like a bunch of metalcore pussies. Visually I'm guessing the derby girls are beating up the band members which should be done because they suck. Honestly if you wanna hear a good song about Women's Roller Derby then check out KIFF's "Roller Girl".



That's all I can take for now.