King Giant - Black Ocean Waves (2015)

Headstones and Heartbreak:

Whether it’s Alice in Chains or Acid Bath, I’ve always been primarily drawn towards heavy music that simultaneously pummels your skull with ballsy rhythm section and alleviates those wounds with elaborate, soulful melodies. Like confronting the psychological demons from your past, dealing with the misery, overcoming

all the hardship and frustration to achieve mental redemption. That’s exactly the kind of feeling you get while listening to King Giant’s profound, solemn and heartfelt metal anthems.

Although King Giant have gotten bluesier and more texturally varied over the course of their three full-lengths, the gritty unrelenting sludge of their debut EP Identity is still discernible at times. For instance, “Shindig” from Southern Darkness and from its successor, the doom-drenched “The Fog”. Black Ocean Waves is no exception when it comes to no frills heavy riffage, in fact immediately after the epic instrumental opener “Mal De Mer” it leaps right into the dominant galloping crunch of “The One That God Forgot to Save”, a harrowing tale of a prostitute’s revenge on the society. “Trail of Thorns” is again a straightforward heavy rocker about a devil-may-care spree killer full of foot-stomping hooks complemented by a nostalgic southern-fried bluesy solo. And as much as I love Evil Elvis dare I say that nowadays I’m a bit more partial towards David Hammerly? As I find his gravelly baritone more broad and flexible.

Black Ocean Waves is also the album where King Giant embrace their melodic prowess to the fullest. As evident in “Red Skies” which more or less serves as the disguised titular track as it accentuates the album cover art in the audible form. An intense composition about the slaughter of an entire whaling ship’s crew by its captain and his regretful confessions. It features expansive layers of harmonized twin-guitar, multi-tracked vocal harmonies and aplenty variations. “Blood of the Lamb” revolves around the perennial debate on redemption. It's a gloomy hard rocker full of sardonic atmosphere and abrupt yet catchy tempo shifts.

This is not the kind of record where you’d seek a particular stand-out. In Black Ocean Waves every song has its own defining moments and characteristics. But

still, the album peaks with the aptly placed closure “There Were Bells”, a wistful and moving metallic ballad where the band laments the passing of their friends and dear ones most notably the band’s original vocalist Bob Dotolo.

If Southern Darkness and Dismal Hollow were the footsteps that trembled the face of the underground then Black Ocean Waves is that gigantic stomp that would establish King Giant as the bona fide kings of whiskey-soaked nostalgic heavy metal.  

Rating - ★★★★★ (98% on Metal-Archives)

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Cathedral - The Last Spire (2013)

"The Circle of Time Has Stopped":

Cathedral have always set themselves apart from their Black Sabbath worshipping peers. From the proto-funeral doom dirge of Forest of Equilibrium to groovy hard rocking bluesy metal oriented mid career to 70's progressive rock

influenced stoner/doom of The Guessing Game, they have incessantly re-invented themselves over the period of their legendary 25 year career which has been concluded with The Last Spire.

In Lee Dorrain's words "The Last Spire should have been our second album". Absolutely, spot on. The Last Spire ventures back to the dirgy gloom of their debut with a slight tint of progressive tendency. The guitar tone of Gaz Jennings on this record is heavy enough to crush the entire universe. The album begins with the eerie "Entrance to Hell" which is full of feedback and gonging bells with Lee Dorrian chanting "Bring out your dead" repeatedly in the background. It gradually delves into the longest track on the record "Pallbearer". "Infestation of Grey Death" starts with crushing riffs but has a somewhat upbeat mid section, clean acoustic passages during the chorus and a surprisingly soothing lead guitar melody after the second chorus. It's kind of a reminiscent of one of the band's classic tunes "Cosmic Funeral" and probably my most favourite song on the record followed by "Tower of Silence" which features an excellent palm-muted sludgy main riff accompanied by muddy basslines of Scott Carlson and mammoth stomp drumming of Brian Dixon. 

The album features guest vocals from Rosalie Cunningham (Purson) who is also featured on the video of "Tower of Silence" and Chris Reifert (Autopsy) has also lend his howls on "Cathedral of the Damned". Both of them have done commendable job in their respective departments.

Altogether, The Last Spire is hell of a worthy swansong for Cathedral. Not many bands can craft such a powerful and effective final opus which would solidify their legacy further and further. Now that the circle of time has stopped once and for all, we're doomed for eternity. R.I.P.

Rating - ★★★★★ (96% on Metal-Archives)

Alice in Chains - Black Gives Way to Blue (2009)

Downright Brooding:

Alice in Chains had hardly anything to do with grunge, the catchphrase for each and every early 90's hard rock band that came out of Seattle. They sounded nothing alike their 'grunge' contemporaries, song structures usually consisted of eerie atmosphere, Black Sabbath like proto-doom metal riffs, wah-driven subtly textured solos and dark, gloomy lyrics. Anyway, 'grunge' is long gone but Jerry Cantrell had other plans. He opted to resurrect AiC from ashes. It becomes nearly impossible for most of the bands to continue after a tragic demise of the frontman and prolonged inactivity. And talking about frontman, dealing with the loss of such an iconic frontman like Layne Staley, who made AiC special with his astounding vocal abilities and harmonizations with Cantrell, it's hard to believe that AiC could return with a different vocalist and deliver something as good as their previous materials like 'Dirt' or 'Facelift'. But AC/DC has done it, why can't AiC? Yes, AiC can and they did. 

Beside Layne Staley's dark, gritty voice and songwriting, Jerry Cantrell has always been the driving force behind the band. His harmonizations with Layne produced the trademark sound as I mentioned above, he has written almost 70% of the lyrics and he has written some mind boggling riffs. With Black Gives Way to Blue he has done the same as well as re-inventing himself in certain ways. At first, I wasn't too sure about William DuVall but he sure has got a cool and diverse voice which reminded me of something in between Chris Cornell and Ronnie James Dio. 

"All Secrets Known" announces the rebirth of a tragedy-ridden legendary band when Cantrell sings ''Hope, a new beginning.....Calm, all wounds are healing''. A cracking opener with gloomy and pulsating main riff driving heaviness all the way through. The single "Check My Brain" is a sludgy delight with sort of a stoner rock thing going on. There are enough mellow contents present to complement the overall heavy context of the record. Such as the single "Your Decision" which is a reminiscent of 'Jar of Flies' era, the psychedelic "When the Sun Rose Again" or the title track "Black Gives Way to Blue" featuring legendary pianist Elton John which is a tribute to Layne.

The freaking creepy "Acid Bubble" is my personal favourite. It's an out and out doom metal composition with 7 minutes of gruesome heaviness. William DuVall sounds really good when he harmonizes with Cantrell in traditional AiC manner and successfully displays some sparks of his own on "Last of My Kind" and "A Looking in

View". I've heard some complaints about the production of the album but I haven't noticed any such issues maybe because I've always preferred this kind of murky production on heavy metal albums which brings the heaviness out.

Altogether, 'Black Gives Way to Blue' is an impeccable album and nothing short of a comeback masterpiece. Each and every song is rock solid, well written and contains vintage AiC feeling alongwith some fresh new hints on the band's direction. I'm extremely excited for the follow up to this majestic comeback.

Personal Favourites:

"All Secrets Known", "Last of My Kind", "Your Decision", "Acid Bubble" and "Private Hell"

Highly recommended!

Rating - ★★★★★ (98% on Metal-Archives)

This review is also available on Metal Archives under my pseudonym doomster999