REVIEW: SERPENT EATER - HYENA

Every once in a while I come across an album/movie/book that I feel was made specifically with me in mind, like the artist(s) crawled into my psyche, observed my absolute favorite things, and crafted something to transform my day from totally mediocre to fist-pumpingly awesome. Hyena, the newest album from Cologne, Germany’s Serpent Eater, is one of those albums that I consider a personal gift.

With an inspired mixture of wasteland sludge and icy, dizzying black metal, Hyena feels like Howl’s excellent Full of Hell LP if it spent its childhood scavenging rancid meat from sewer tunnels in an abandoned factory town. Released from Alerta Antifascista Records, this album is a mean, muscular, metallic beast that somehow sidesteps predictability while still featuring conservatively structured, contagious songs that would watch you for hours from the shadows, just to bite your throat out the moment you start dreaming.

Album opener “Ebola” introduces a mixture of bluesy groove and swirling, psychedelic black metal with demonic dual-vocals. “Last Cold Word” features more snarling, scorched riffs that bathe in the muck dividing Immortal and Dragged Into Sunlight, like black swamp water frozen during the first frost. The guitars capture a sense of gothic dread and still achieve nearly impossible catchiness. “In the Wall” invokes Slayer’s thrashing anger over a rumbling beat that builds to vicious grind, maintaining punk intensity even when injecting some dopesmoking harmonized guitars into the mix. Hyena closes with the dynamic track “Trepanation Nation,” featuring a blizzard of blastbeats and At the Gates riffage with a grimy underbelly of sludgy groove and lumbering explosions of hardcore.

Largely due to their cackling sounds and comedic-relief roles in The Lion King, most people don’t realize hyenas are surprisingly savage animals, and unexpectedly fierce foes that lions battle on a constant basis. It’s not unusual for a pack of hyenas to lure a mother lion away from her young, only to have another sneak in and feast on the babies. Not that Serpent Eater encourage the fervent murder of lion cubs, but it’s a reminder of the necessary cruelty of nature’s order, and right now Serpent Eater can quit relying on snakes for nourishment, because this album proves they’re a formidable predator quickly eating their way up the food chain. Despite some similarities to recent work by I Exist and Vaporizer, Hyena absolutely feels fresh and unique, and shows us what’s possible in extreme music when contrast, tone, mood, texture, and the art of a killer riff are all fully explored.

Check out Hyena, streaming on Bandcamp now, and available for a modest 4 EUR: http://alertaantifascistarecords.bandcamp.com/album/aa95-serpent-eater-hyena-lp

And follow them on Facebook to stay current with all their news:  https://www.facebook.com/SerpentEater

REVIEW: VAPORIZER - S/T

In a world where genres are hacked to pieces and stitched back together with hyphens I can easily say that Vaporizer are heavy metal. If you go hunting for sub-genres you will find them, but this is honest metal raised on meat, potatoes, and the wackiest of tobaccy.

Born in (the blackest forests surrounding) Burlington, VT, this quintet has vowed to “worship the weed god” and “party forever,” as their Facebook page reiterates multiple times. This is no trivial quest and lives have been dedicated to far less. The songs on their six track EP are crafted from an immortal love for the deity of reefer, a romance frowned upon in some (or most) states. I mean, who says you can’t love the dried version of a plant? I heard a lady was trying her damnedest to legally marry a roller coaster in Pennsylvania, and I can even appreciate the romance in that.

But this undying Peter Parker-esque adoration for Mary Jane has not at all softened the tales of treacherous woodlands and lethal creatures catalogued on their album. These songs pummel you into the battlefield soil and heal you with just enough melody to build your strength and trample you again. Songs like “Horn of the Narwhal” and “Beast With two Backs” feel like they could put you in a headlock so tight they could pop your tiny little noggin straight off your spine, but they might just give you a noogie and offer you a toke. The songs have muscle and momentum, they gallop into battle and don’t stop to enjoy the scenery. They enchant listeners with equal shares of melodic grandeur, neck-breaking groove and gut-punching ferocity with a true sense of purpose: Rocking you so hard you spill your Switchback Ale all over yourself.

Vocalist Dan Davidson sounds like an ancient warlock driven to the precipice of insanity. His range is impressive, from the gnarliest grunts to raspy shrieks that offer hints of Chance Garnette’s best work with Skeletonwitch. If you didn’t fear a narwhal before, Mr. Davidson will make you shit your britches when the beast appears in their song. I also need to say this band’s merch is gorgeously drawn by their talented drummer, Eli Wood. As a drummer and illustrator, though not nearly as skilled, I couldn’t let that plug squirm away from me. As for the guitars: They cut through cannon smoke and deliver massive hooks that you’ll hum hours after the battle ends. These guys have the chops and ingenuity to write no-nonsense metal anthems that feel totally effortless, when they’re anything but. These songs may not change your life, but they will give you a totally awesome buzz.

In the end, Vaporizer feel absolutely sincere while still playing with a smile on their faces, they’re aggressive without projecting menace. I was lucky enough to catch Vaporizer playing with Vektor recently at Saint Vitus, my absolute favorite haunt in the NYC area. They were playing on Valentine’s Day and while I don’t celebrate this holiday my girlfriend did accompany me for her very first metal show. Even she, who grimaces at the growls and screams of most extreme music acts, came away looking to endorse Vaporizer’s music. I guess if I was forced at sabre-point to pick a genre for Vaporizer it would be Gateway Metal. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

Go listen to Vaporizer immediately at: http://vaporizer.bandcamp.com/
And learn more about these crazy gents at: http://www.vaporizermetal.com/