Saviours’ 2009 album, Accelerated Living, was one of the very first reviews I wrote after launching this blog. Now, almost two years and about 250 reviews later, the Oakland band is back with their fourth full-length, and when most bands at this point find a mature, polished groove in which to fit themselves, Saviours, quite unabashedly, are holding on to that ripped-jean, skate-or-die stoner metal sound like it was the last beer on Earth. The raw, basement-grade quality of Death’s Procession is the perfect platform for the dirge of riffs — both chugging and melodic — on display here; the red-eyed mix of NWOBHM mayhem and slacker thrash come together like an old school stink bomb thrown right into the Grim Reaper’s face. But Saviours only ride the traditional wave so far as the sludgy shore, at which point they stomp around in the wet sand, light a raging fire in some boozy deity’s name, and party all night amid a quagmire of bikers, broads, killers, dealers, and wizards. If we’re both around in another two years and 250 reviews, I guarantee it will be the same damn deplorable business, oh so excellent and brutally bad-ass, because Saviours know no other way in which to excel.
Check out the video for “Crete’n” from Death’s Procession!
3 Inches of Blood Anthems for the Victorious EP
Century Media
When 3 Inches of Blood released Here Waits Thy Doom in in 2009, their first album without growler Jamie Hooper, I was excited to hear what the band could do with falsetto master — and beard champion — Cam Pipes alone at the helm. Unfortunately, I was disappointed with the effort, and the album became a self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts. Whatever soul (if you can have such a thing in heavy metal) the band had left with Hooper, apparently, which wasn’t what the Vancouver headbangers needed after guitarists Sunny Dhak and Bob Froese took their amazing riff-wielding power with them to Pride Tiger after 3IoB put out what stands as one of my favourite metal albums of all time, 2004′s Advance and Vanquish. However, I’m still a huge fan, and when I caught them live a few months back it was the inclusion of this EP’s two songs, “Lords of Change” and “Strength of the Grave,” into their set list that roused me from my drunken stupor. It sounded to me, at that time, that 3IoB had re-captured that battle cry of yore, that snappy, traditional thrash, that blood-spilling, leather n’ spikes mayhem that made me fall in love with ‘em in the first place. Now, listening to this EP, there’s no doubt that 3IoB have mounted the red-eyed steed once again as they gallop through both songs at a furiously purposeful pace, slaying thine enemies where they stand before soaring through the sing-along choruses with swords held high. But the victory is short-lived, the anthems spoiled by a hollow, St. Anger-like production, which, given the apparent return to form, doesn’t make much sense at all. That being said, I’m excited about the next full-length, especially if these songs are any indication about where the band is going next. Hell, it’s even nice to see a sweet cover again, one that hearkens back to Edward Repka’s Advance and Vanquish genius.
Have The BellRays really been around for nearly 20 years? Goodness, and what better way to celebrate than a stab at a former glory and an attempt to erase the damage done by the low key and rather ho-hum last couple of records. Black Lightning, then, has the beard-approved name and artwork, and backs it up with a bunch of songs (title track, “Hell On Earth,” “On Top,” “Living a Lie,” “Everybody Get Up”) that hearken the raw electricity of the early years. While I’m still clamoring for that super-fuzzed garage mayhem of In the Light of the Sun, Let it Blast, and Grand Fury, I am consoled by the fact that Black Lightning has found both a hard edge (“Close Your Eyes”) and some killer pop melodies (“Power to Burn”), which take the sting out of over-played soul numbers without completely demolishing the band’s bluesy essence. Lisa Kekaula is in fine, afro’d form, and it looks like she and her California crew of misplaced Motown hit-makers have found their groove once again. That’s all right by me, man.
Saviours
3 Inches of Blood
The BellRays