(written by Islander)
Continuing on with my plan to group songs in most of the remaining installments of this list in ways that make sense to me, today’s Part 15 includes three tracks from three very good 2024 albums that are highly propulsive, and all of them would fit into my weekly SHADES OF BLACK column, even though the last band is usually classified as death metal.
Also, all three album covers gives places of prominence to… skeletons.
The albums that house these songs are also records from which I easily could have picked different tracks for the list, which is one reason (among others) why they were so good. So I won’t be surprised if any of you would have made other picks; on a different day, I might have too.
To explore the songs in the previous 14 Parts of the list, use this link.
KANONENFIEBER
Andy reviewed Kanonenfieber‘s latest album Die Urktatastrophie for us last September. He called it “yet another triumph, albeit one steeped in tragedy, from one of the best up-and-coming bands currently taking the field.” Of course I completely agree, and so it wasn’t a chore to re-listen to the album in an effort to pick a song for this list.
It’s times like this when I feel kind of dumb for self-imposing a rule that only one song from an album can make my list, instead of two or three or more. When contemplating albums like Die Urktatastrophie, my life would be much easier without that rule.
The song I picked, “Waffenbrüder,” has turned out to be the one that hits me the hardest. It’s not the biggest neck-wrecker on the album (that honor probably goes to “Panzerhenker”), but the stomping groove in the chorus (when there’s also a temptation to yell out the words) is pretty compulsive. Yet the anguished emotional intensity of the melodies and lead-guitar writhings elevates it further and makes it even more memorable, and the guest guitar solo by Heaven Shall Burn‘s Maik Weichert fits and enhances the mood beautifully.
The video (directed by Dariusz Szermanowicz) leaves no doubt that this is an anti-war album, and a very powerful one.
https://kanonenfieber.lnk.to/DieUrkatastrophe
https://www.facebook.com/Kanonenfieber/
BLOODCROSS
Last June I had the pleasure of premiering the title song from the new Bloodcross album Gravebound. When introducing it, I wrote this:
Whereas Metal-Archives stuck the simple “Black Metal” label on Bloodcross based on their demo, even then it really didn’t completely capture what Bloodcross were doing (something like “blackened melodic thrash” would have been more informative.) But with Gravebound they have more extravagantly and elaborately branched out, not totally forsaking the influence of such bands as Dissection and Necrophobic, but more prominently bringing into play elements of power metal, speed metal, and (for want of a better term) “classic” heavy metal.
Gravebound is an excellent album, and the title track is also excellent, but it’s not the one I chose for this list. Instead, I picked the album opener “Warbeasts.” I’ll repeat below what I wrote about it previously:
It’s a hell of an opening statement, a wild rush that greets the ears with an electrifying dual-guitar frenzy and drums that go off like bomb-bursts. Reaching full racing gear, the drums hammer like huge pistons; a glorious solo spirals upward; and the guitars soar toward greater frenzies of ecstatic delirium. Raging howls and rabid screams flesh out these charging warbeasts.
More exhilarating solos lie ahead, along with gut-rumbling bass tumult, neck-snapping drumwork, thrashing chords, and the kind of guitar fireworks across the channels that would light up a night sky like the sudden appearance of a blazing sun.
In one sudden instance, Bloodcross give us Formula One speed, eye-popping technicality, hook-filled riffing, brazen vocal savagery, and sheer heavy-metal glory. “Warbeasts” is such a heart-pounding and head-spinning rush that you might wonder how in the world they’re going to top it with six more songs still to come.
https://www.personal-records.com/product/pre-order-bloodcross-gravebound-cd/
https://www.facebook.com/bloodcrossmetal
DARKENED
I enjoyed reading DGR’s review of Darkened‘s 2024 album Defilers of the Light, and especially this part:
Defilers Of The Light is punctuated with massive, mammoth-like grooves wherein each footfall can leave an imprint hammered into cement and just as many galloping riffs to conjure imagery of a hippopotamus herd trampling through a small city. It may just be that this was a cauldron constantly boiling as an undercurrent to Darkened‘s sound and it has finally boiled over, but coupled with their clear expertise in the classic throwback style – Kingdom Of Decay and The Black Winter being presented as evidence – Defilers Of The Light excels at offering a gigantic dish of headbanging…. it is the strongest iteration on the group’s sound to date.
He also had a good take on the title track:
It is a fun situation when a band starts their album on a showstopper yet its hard to deny the strength of a song like the titular “Defilers Of The Light” track. It’s a university-level advanced course on how to perform the act of bringing people into an album…. It would be tempting to drop into a big, rhythm-heavy riff and slow things down after the intro blasts down a few walls with sheer force, but instead Darkened consistently bend the song around the heavy opening gallop and main guitar lead. It’s the construct from which much of the album pulls its inspiration.
The song is also damned infectious, the most infectious one by my lights, though it had a lot of competition within the album.
https://edgedcircleproductions.bandcamp.com/album/defilers-of-the-light
https://www.facebook.com/darkeneddeathmetal