Arctic Horror – “Goatist”
I remember a few years back, before the Midway upgraded their sound system. The Midway has always had an “eclectic” booking policy, but then they started having more punk and hardcore shows. And because the system wasn’t loud enough to handle these bands, I became accustomed to seeing bands where the vocalist was frequently drowned out by the music.
That is until, Greg Alonge played there. The shoddy sound system then- met its match.
Then the vocals shined through- hard and strong, emotive and passionate.
Greg is the singer of Arctic Horror. He is also a very, nice guy and a great human-bean. But that don’t mean a damn or amount to a hill of beans when you cut the cards and it’s time to play. But Andy and I both agree, Greg is one of the best singer/front men we know in the heavy/hardcore style.
And that night that he played the Midway just proved to me how right we were in our evaluation.
And now, Arctic Horror is an awesome band to hear and see.
Their first album, nearly two years ago, was not a freezing nightmare but a fiery, potent display of metal, doom and hardcore. To such a degree that one second you were stunned with this heavy sludge of intense sound and the next moment jerked forward by music that could cause you ecstatic whiplash. All this with some psychedelic guitar, poking its head in, added by the able guitarist, Niff.
So let’s see what they’ve been up to and give their new record a spin.
“Burn The Pious” starts with a trilling, blinding speed guitar lick that is equal parts flamenco and equal parts surf. But soon the passionate, bleating vocals draw it into the land of metal/doom/hardcore madness. The rhythm section tries to throw in some blockades, trying to contain the hyperactive speed-freak guitar and eardrum throttling vocals, but the other factors won’t stand for it. This song is like a battering ram bursting against your mind and soul or a water pipe overflowing. The different sides battle with no sign of a truce. This song is full of excitement, like pouring gasoline on fire that ignites and generates more passion as it goes along. This song not only burns the pious but everything and anything in its quake.
“Black Seas” starts with a funky, electronic sounding drum beat as feedback and large, atmospheric clouds of guitar create a forbidding, industrial landscape. When the vocals comes in they’re like stabs of emotion, daggers striking perilously close toward your heart. The drums and bass continues in a headbanging doom-y rhythm and the guitar soaring above with a short, effective, psychedelic spurt. This intense, powerful song ends with the rhythm still clanging, the feedback floating and the sound of machines being shut down- obliterated by the passion emanating from this great song.
White noise in the background, a simple, eerie- almost blues lick is how “To Live Is To Suffer” begins. But once the drums brings it in, after a disruptive, dissonant chord- the new dissonant guitar lick is off in a fury- inciting danger with a prediction of insanity to unfold. That is met and proven with echo-y, screaming vocals that battle the guitar line, each sounding like Godzilla versus one of the other monsters with whom it didn’t get along. With a breakdown during which the lick is mocked with hell-ish laughter- we’re soon swept off in another super-charged trip to hell, with unbelievably, intense vocals exploding again. Life is indeed suffering, but to hear this song, (my favorite on the album) is true nirvana.
This album has tags like black metal/crust/hardcore/grindcore/thrash. I hear all that and would maybe add a bit of doom and industrial. But whatever it is, it’s a new step, a next step from the first album and it’s a very successful one at that.
This is the best metal leaning album I’ve come across this year. What makes it special to me, is that with all the aforementioned influences- this is really some quite original stuff, this is not any run of the mill, paint-by-numbers metal/hardcore. This is metal in intensity and sound but with no qualms of inviting other sources in and seems not to give a fuck where it lands or where music writers might want to place it.
So, fuck that, this is not metal or grindcore or doom or Bavarian folk tunes. How about this?
This is guts and passion, integrity and excitement. Like firecrackers going off in your bunghole, caffeine mainlined into your soul.
This is your cold nightmare, your arctic horror, dropped outside your door. And what’s inside is not comforting and tranquil but rips you hard and pure and raw.
And I love it to death.
(Slimedog)
