Tuesday 13 October 2009

Century Media Records Sampler

Reviewed by Tom “Various Artists” Waldron

Century Media has since 1988 been one of the world’s foremost independent Rock and Metal labels, finding home, at one time or another to influential metal bands such as Celtic Frost, Eyehategod, Napalm Death and Tony Hadley (Oh hang on a second…). So needless to say it’s a name that carries considerable weight in the metal world.Kicking off this sampler are Fu Manchu whose groovy “stoner” rock vibe recalls Kyuss or Hawkwind albeit with a more straight forward rock feel. It’s enjoyable enough but if you want to hear this kind of music at its finest you’d be better off listening to Corrosion of Conformity, any of Wino’s musical output (the Obsessed, Spirit Caravan etc.) or of course Black Sabbath. Nevertheless this is cool and a welcome departure from much of today’s totally castrated “Rock” music.
3.5/5

Next up are Dark Tranquillity, one of many Melodic Death Metal bands from Sweden. Unsurprisingly there’s a definite Iron Maiden influence here but that’s all I can find to commend here, as I’m not a fan of the troll vocals, overused and clichéd harmonics on the guitars, the crowd being too high in the mix (it’s a live song.) and the masturbatory keyboards. Gothenburger.
1.5/5

Hey Prog’s back! It’s cool to like Prog again! We can wear Kaftans! Alright! Well I don’t think if you are a fan of progressive rock you care too much for trends but there has been a noticeable resurgence in the genre’s popularity not that Transatlantic (that’s a terrible, terrible band name, yeah I know you have members from both sides of the Atlantic I get it) are spring chickens: its members hailing from Dream Theatre, The Flower Kings, Marillion and Spock’s beard (Now that’s a great band name, I bet all the hot chicks want to bang the dudes from Spock’s beard.) There’s a definite “Yes” vibe to the material here (Yeah I know what “Yes” sound like, how am I still single?) By all rights I should hate this with a passion but its fun to listen to and the musicianship’s stellar.
3/5

Shadow Gallery are another proggy band with a rubbish name and silly keyboards. But there’s some interesting riff work going on here and the singer sounds a bit like Bruce Dickinson. If you’re into widdly prog metal this is for you. It’s pure cheese but I guess that’s the point.
2.5/5

What’s this! Prog metal! Again! Los Angeles based Redemption combine technical riffing, oddly funky basslines and yep you guessed it cheesy keyboards which display a bit of a rainbow influence (the band not the T.V. show, although the influence of zippy and co. wouldn’t go a miss.) This is technically proficient stuff but it doesn’t really stand out.
2.5/5

Now I remember Inme from when I was 13 or something like that. And whilst they’ve improved since then this is fairly horrible modern rock tripe
1.5/5

Finally we have Oceansize providing some interesting post-rock. Is that a xylophone I hear in there? Nice! I’d probably recommend this to Radiohead and Slint fans and it certainly comes as a breath of fresh air after all the bands trying and mostly failing to be heavy on this sampler.
3.5/5

No comments:

Post a Comment