Album Review: Deafheaven - New Bermuda

Experimentation isn't too welcome in the black metal community. This was made awfully clear when Deafheaven's previous album Sunbather, though it garnered widespread critical acclaim, was dismissed by the genre's many purists as "hippie metal" for it's unconventionally bright and triumphant sound. I personally despise this kind of close-mindedness. The album's innovation and diversity was one of the greatest reasons it was the best metal record of the year (2013) for me.

New Bermuda continues to expand on the band's experimental style, blending together various influences from post-rock, thrash metal and shoe-gaze, but somewhat follows the same overall blueprint as Sunbather - a mixture of despair and beauty, loud distorted passages accompanied by soft and melodic ones. The band has, however, significantly cut down on the vivid and vibrant atmosphere, which was a major element on Sunbather, and has turned to a comparatively darker sound The instrumentation is harsher and more abrasive, George Clarke's screams are sharper and sound chillingly anguished, and the lyrics are depressing, dealing with the idea of a life devoid of all happiness.

The album opens with the band in full-form, with Brought To The Waters. One of the instantly striking features is the drumming, which remains a highlight till the end of the album. It is a marvel how effortlessly Daniel Tracy transitions between drum rolls, never for a second faltering in his timing. The track is a solid one, successfully weaving in bits of melody into the gritty and chaotic instrumentation.

Next up, Luna kicks in with its Slayer-esque guitar riff. The thrash influence is distinctly audible throughout most of the song's length, with many of the riffs following the style of the genre's characteristic chugging and galloping sound, though the murk and atmosphere of black metal still takes the center-stage. Baby Blue, on the other hand, serves as a testament to the band's versatility, and stands as the most diverse track on the album, with a smooth undistorted intro, some thrashy riffing and a wah-wah pedal guitar solo. The most interesting track however, is the album-closer - Gifts for the Earth. The song features Clarke's distressed black metal vocals over soft and clean instrumentation in the background, sounding like a post-rock band with a black metal vocalist.

Deafheaven hasn't exactly matched the brilliance of Sunbather, which by no means is an easy task, but created a worthy follow-up to it. With just three albums into their career, the band has already won the spot for the best American black metal act in my list.

Rating: 9/10

Album Review: Rust In Peace by Megadeth

With 1986's thrash milestone Peace Sells... But Who's Buying, Megadeth had already developed a cult following and established themselves as one of the spearheads of the thrash movement. Surging with an unprecedented level of raw arrogance and a slight technical edge, the album had brought along huge set of possibilities to the genre. Since a record of such significance is usually a singularity in most bands' discographies, fans and critics were quick to form an opinion (further strengthened by the release of the fairly decent follow-up - So Far So Good So What) that Megadeth had created their untouchable classic. But only 4 years later, they would behold the magnum opus that would permanently enshrine Megadeth in the chronicles of heavy metal history - Rust in Peace.

Frequent changes in Megadeth's line-up have been a major reason for the band's constant evolution in sound, preventing the sonic stagnation faced by countless of their comrades over the years like Slayer. The line-up behind Rust in Peace included the newly-recruited ex-Cacophony guitarist Marty Friedman on lead guitar, and Nick Menza on drums. Continuing with the band for a decade, they would be the longest staying guitarist and drummer Megadeth ever had, and also the most popular.

Marty and Nick brought along the savage technicality that steered the band away from the jazz influence ex-members Chris Poland and Gar Samuelson were responsible for and defined Megadeth's style for the coming years. Nick knew the fiercest ways of complementing front-man Dave Mustaine's heavy thrash riffing while Marty, one of the rarest talents to have joined the group, was a genius at blending exotic melody with technical virtuosity.

Though Rust in Peace may be a thrash metal album at its core, it is layered and sprinkled with its own quirks and oddities. It also wouldn't be wrong to call it experimental. Staples of the thrash metal genre like power chords or gallops never really form a major part of Mustaine's guitar riffs, and are almost neglected on some tracks, like "Hangar 18" where a strummed chord-progression makes up the rhythm. Melody has been given a larger role to play than usual which adds a slight commercial appeal; but this doesn't stop the album from being the insanely technical composition it is. The songs are unconventionally structured with multiple sections, unexpected tempo shifts and changing time signatures - a height of complexity that had remained untouched by any preceding thrash metal record although Metallica's "And Justice For All" had come close.

 

"Peace Sells... But Who's Buying" had already proclaimed how proficient a songwriter Dave Mustaine could be. Rust in Peace, on the other hand, shows us a definitive transition from a naive young rocker to a mature musician hungry to create art that would be remembered and looked up on.

What truly takes the center-stage however, is the guitar work. Marty Friedman's distinctive style is made full use of and the solos on the album are some of the best solos in the band's vast discography, if not the best in the genre. "Hangar 18" sees Marty and Dave engaging in an intense guitar duel, monstrously shredding through some Middle-Eastern melodies, while the quirky "Tornado of Souls" solo, with its powerful bends and vibratos, is simply a jaw-dropper. Mustaine's intricately composed guitar riffs keep the album's raw energy flowing; though they're mostly fierce and intense, for which the album opener "Holy Wars... The Punishment Due" would be the best example, they can also be catchy like in "Lucretia" or "Poison Was the Cure".

Apart from all the instrumental sophistication, Megadeth has made sure to add enough straight-forward thrash material to keep the purists pleased. The fast and rough head-bangers "Take No Prisoners" and "Rust In Peace... Polaris" brim with explosive aggression and are as assertive as thrash metal can get.

 

Dave Mustaine's lyrical obsession with politics, corruption and warfare is also featured in all its glory. The mood is ominous, with the subject matter revolving around the idea of the world heading towards a nuclear waste. It must be noted that the album was written at a time when the Cold War hadn't yet ended and the threat of a nuclear conflict breaking out was as real as it could ever be. And so, passing Mustaine off as a paranoid conspiracy theorist, as many people to tend to, wouldn't be justified.

Rust in Peace, along with Metallica's Master of Puppets and Slayer's Reign in Blood, stands as one of the most defining achievements in thrash metal, opening the genre's gates to versatility and broadening its expanse. Over the years, the album would become a standard-setter for 90s thrash metal bands, and also Megadeth's finest hour till date.

Favorite Tracks: Hangar 18, Tornado of Souls, Holy Wars

10/10