Decrepit Birth: Polarity (Nuclear Blast)

First up is the third album from California's Decrepit Birth, Polarity. This album is a great example of the band's name and the album's title bringing to mind two completely different things. "Decrepit birth" sounds like a schlock-y gore-grind band, while "polarity" suggests spaced-out, progressive rock. Truth be told, it's a bit of both.

Like Necrophagist before it, Decrepit Birth sticks to the old-school, growled, and slightly raspy styles of vocals in addition to its very complex, other-worldly music. This tactic is employed as a foundation: it doesn't matter what Bill Robinson is growling about; it just matters that he does it consistently and with enough force to keep the album grounded throughout. With that being said, Robinson chooses his phrasing and placement of vocals well, allowing plenty of time for the rest of the band to do its thing, which really begins a minute and a half into Polarity, when there's a Spanish-influenced guitar break out of nowhere.

Decrepit Birth is, without question, a band that prides itself on musicianship. The intricacy of its riffs brings to mind my fifth-grade teacher's take on Gone With the Wind when she showed it to our class: "I notice something new every time." Rhythm shifts, brief solo passages, and transitions between sections of the songs command awe as well as neck-snapping headbanging.

One interesting thing about Polarity, guitar-wise, is Decrepit Birth's year-round-school take on soloing: rather than interject long-winded solos, Dan Eggers and founding member Matt Sotelo fire off short, melodic bursts throughout the album, with melody peeking out from behind the dense song structures like the sun from behind clouds.

Drummer KC Howard rides the guitar and bass insanity with style, grace, and frequent double-kick-drum action, which mirrors the vocals as a subtle, almost-constant presence. When the bass drums mimic the guitars or bass during specific rhythms instead of just chugging along, it's very noticeable.

Toss in a perfect mix where every riff is clear as day and one of Dan Seagrave's classic weird-landscape paintings for cover art, and Polarity is going to make a lot of year-end lists.

Decrepit Birth: "Solar Impulse"

Aeon: Path of Fire (Metal Blade)

Another subtly complex- – but much more brutal album — was released back in May to the delight of…not many.  Aeon's Path of Fire has flown below the radar, most likely due to its lack of any commercial viability whatsoever outside of death-metal circles, which is not to say that the album isn't completely brilliant.

It would be easy to dismiss Aeon's "Satanic" subject matter as silliness penned by uncreative goons, but it's obvious that Aeon is in on the joke (the hidden bluegrass version of "God Gives Head In Heaven" on the band's 2005 debut, Bleeding the False, confirms this suspicion).  But once you dig deeper, it also becomes obvious that the band mostly uses its blatantly evil platform to preach the importance of making your own decisions and living freely — two basic ideas espoused by the Church of Satan, ironically. Chances are that the band sees — like many of its Swedish metal peers — organized religion as really fucked up, and this is an outlet for its frustration, be it completely truthful or not.

Musically, Aeon is '90s Florida death metal (Deicide, Malevolent Creation, Morbid Angel, etc.) re-booted in the 21st Century. Its vocals are classic death metal: low, guttural vocals for the majority of the lyrics paired with high-pitched, screeched vocals for accents on the choruses or important lines during the verses.

There are a lot of fast and unassuming accents and bridges scattered amongst the songs on Path of Fire. The more obvious ones are highlighted by drummer Nils Fjellstrom, but the rest are hiding in the fast parts when the blast beats serve as a blank canvas for the guitars to serve up some warped, mind-bending riffs that sometimes operate at a much slower tempo than the drums they're on top of.

Aeon: "Abomination to God"

Cardiac Arrest: Haven for the Insane (Ibex Moon)

Finally, I'd like to touch on a killer local release from here in Chicago. Haven for the Insane is the newest album from sloppy, primitive death-metal freaks Cardiac Arrest. These guys are on the horror-movie tip alongside bands like Autopsy or also-classic and also-Illinois-based Impetigo, so if that, bass drums that sound like they were ripped from Macabre's Gloom, and artwork from Putrid are appealing to you as a consumer, check it out.

First Time On Vinyl

Since its inception in the late '80s, UK-based Earache Records has released a lot of vinyl. Its last vinyl-sales campaign was in 2002 and saw reissues of classic Earache titles like Slaughter of the Soul, Left Hand Path, and Altars of Madness. Eight years later, the label has begun a First Time On Vinyl series and has started to reissue classic albums that didn't make the cut in 2002.

The First Time series has been strong thus far, with beautiful double-LP versions of Morbid Angel's Formulas Fatal to the Flesh (its only album that had yet to see the day on a format other than CD); Decapitated's debut, Winds of Creation (as well as its 2006 monster, Organic Hallucinosis); and Cult of Luna's 2001, self-titled album.

Decapitated: "Post Organic"
Decapitated: \"Post Organic\"

Notable Vinyl Reissues

Earache also recently released stunning double-LP versions of the first two Brutal Truth albums, Extreme Conditions Demand Extreme Responses and Need to Control. The Extreme Conditions… reissue has the album proper on the first record and tracks from the Perpetual Conversion and Ill Neglect EPs on the second.

Need to Control was first issued as a single LP or 5-, 6-, 7-, 8-, and 9-inch vinyl box set, which had five bonus tracks, including Celtic Frost and Pink Floyd covers. Like Extreme Conditions, Need to Control has the album on one record and the bonus tracks on the second.

Brutal Truth: "I See Red"

News & Notes

Spain's most prolific gore punks, Haemorrhage, have started demos for a 2011 full-length on Relapse; Illinois/Wisconsin old-schoolers Jungle Rot are touring until late August behind their newest, What Horrors Await; former Dark Angel, Strapping Young Lad and Death drummer (currently playing for Dethklok and Fear Factory) Gene Hoglan finally released his DVD; Chicago riff-worshippers Geffika have lined up a few California dates; it sounds like Rochester, NY grinders Spoonful of Vicodin have called it quits — they will be missed; Atlanta's Primate is wrapping up its debut recording; the re-formed Buzzov*en will be briefly hitting the road in September.

The band’s music is, of course, challenging. Not content to be just fast, brutal, and dark, Converge has consistently, and successfully, pushed every boundary in any category you wish to place it: hardcore, metal, thrash, punk. None of these will fit neatly on Converge.

In Bannon’s own words, “We’re not an easy band to get into. We’re a very abrasive band, very harsh band, a very polarizing band. If somebody’s used to contemporary metal records [and] they hear a band like us, it’s just a big load of trashy noise. If a punk kid hears our band now, he’s used to big singing choruses, pop punk, emotional rock, [and] we’re way too off-putting; we’re vocally way too harsh. That’s not necessarily a bad thing.” (This is what John Darnielle means when he says that metal-core “craves marginalization.”)

This approach has borne some dark and spectacular fruit for Converge. The only way in which it might be considered dull is in the consistency of its critical acclaim. Album after album over the past 15 years has found the band red-lining various critical meters — 10 stars, six skulls, eight guitars, whatever — with its champions escalating in number since the release of its breakthrough, Jane Doe.

That album shellacked Converge’s status as cult gods; it was immediately a touchstone for the hardcore-punk community. Not that it matters to them: “If there’s any key to longevity,” Bannon says, “it’s this: don’t give a shit about what other people think.”

Axe to Fall again finds Converge redefining the game. The band brought in some heavy hitters from around the hardcore and metal communities — members of Cave In, Disfear, and Neurosis pitched in — partly because, as Bannon explains, “Even though [the members of Converge] all come from different places, we’re still very used to working together.

Having these outside people involved made the process longer, more complex. Introducing some other people into something that’s…so comfortable almost forces you to become challenged.”

Showcasing both sides of their famously split musical genetics, the first track “Dark Horse” opens with a freakishly speedy, I-can’t-feel-my-face drum and guitar attack and grafts on the stop-start blasts of hardcore. For the listener, it’s something like being bolted to a giant paint shaker. Axe to Fall gets sludgier about halfway through, but Converge mostly keeps to the quick attack, resisting the prog impulses of some of their colleagues in favor of precision and ferocity.

There’s a clarity and simplicity to it, with each element — Koller’s impossible drumming, Bannon’s intensity, Ballou’s frenzied riffs — showing in high relief against the others. Not only does the entire album command attention, but each part of it commands attention.

As bassist Nate Newton says (in an interview on Converge’s site), “My favorite records over the years were records that—they challenged you. You had to listen to it; you couldn’t just put it on and have it in the background, like ‘Oooh, I love it.’”

I’ve never seen Metalocalypse on Adult Swim, though the premise of an animated series about a metal band sounds hilarious, and I’d never heard Dethklok before, but when I heard that Converge and High on Fire, two groundbreaking artists with compelling rock shows, along with prog-metal stalwarts Mastodon, were on tour  opening for a cartoon, I had to go to Chicago's Aragon Ballroom on October 17 to see for myself.

I’m not knocking Deathklok—the live band sounded great, despite deliberately playing second fiddle to the large screen above—but I still can’t wrap my head around the idea that thousands more people would prefer to shell out their hard-earned cash to see a cartoon (albeit, a cartoon with a live soundtrack), then to see a badass rock ’n’ roll show on it’s own.

Not to mention that prior to the evening’s headliner, the screen was used to run advertisements for the Metalocalypse DVD. Spinal Tap-ish? Maybe. Disheartening? Definitely.

The good news is that each band was exposed to new audience members for the first time (after all, the Aragon does hold 4500 people), which will hopefully lead to more good things to come. High on Fire introduced a badass new song, most likely evidence of a killer record to come in 2010, and Converge put on a thrilling show, showcasing material from their incredible new album Axe to Fall (Epitaph).

Still, next time I’ll stay at home and watch Metalocaplypse on the small screen before heading out to a show to rock my face off.

-Jamie Ludwig