ALBUM REVIEW: Philip H. Anselmo & The Illegals, "Choosing Mental Illness As A Virtue"

By: Ernesto Aguilar

Full Length: Full length

Date Released: 26/01/ 2018

Label: Housecore Records |

Season of Mist

Songs like "Mixed Lunatic Results" and "Delinquent" are Anselmo at his best, holding court and being the wildman savant his fans adore. Say what you will about his persona, but Anselmo is as spellbinding as ever, and songs like "Photographic Taunts" show you how he's still got it.

"Choosing Mental Illness As A Virtue" CD//DD//LP track listing:

1. Little Fucking Heroes

2. Utopian

3. Choosing Mental Illness

4. The Ignorant Point

5. Individual

6. Delinquent

7. Photographic Taunts

8. Finger Me

9. Invalid Colubrine Frauds

10. Mixed Lunatic Results

The Review:

A friend once said he loved hip-hop legend Cam'ron because he was the king of ignorant rap. The former Killa Cam has made a 20-year career out of having wealth, screwing women, making trouble and slapping haters. It's just narcissistic music for the club that is blessed by an artist with a seductive flow who knows his lane is the Wraith and Hennessey, and not Black Lives Matter or introspection. He seems to like it that way, as do his fans, who have followed Cam'ron through the various Diplomats reunions, guest spots and feuds.

Metal's Cam'ron is almost certainly Phil Anselmo. No one in the last 20 years has been as polarizing or reliable/predictable as the former Pantera front man and lead for Superjoint and Down. Rage and seething are largely the emotional spectrum. Anselmo's continued stumblings into political commentary have earned him a reputation as a neo-Nazi, a label he has repeatedly rejected, unconvincingly. His excesses would have killed most of us. And, like Cam, Anselmo's worst enemy has been himself. Fans may point to stylistic growth. It's just not terribly convincing either.

On "Choosing Mental Illness As A Virtue" Anselmo offers the first glimpses in some time at attempts to prove his haters wrong. Granted, it's done in that pretentious Anselmo way of not caring what you think, but it's evident nevertheless. When the album's title track was released in November, it featured vintage Anselmo alongside elements of his Down and Superjoint incarnations. Guitarist Marzi Montazeri is gone from this version of the Illegals. And Anselmo suggested this go-around was more collaborative, and intended to convey a story of facing mental health issues.

This renewed energy comes at the right time. As with Cam'ron, the music Anselmo once led has steadily been growing beyond him, and some switches were in order. Metal has since Black Sabbath been a convergence of commentary. Social media and growing political divides, however, have sparked more than a few heavy acts to blend critique into their music. For years, Anselmo has had a penchant for voicing his opinion in his music and elsewhere; unfocused, it can become a trainwreck, such as in his white supremacist flirtation. The topic of mental health herein is a loaded one. In mid-February, a 19-year-old man with an apparent mental illness killed 17 people in Parkland, Florida. There's a worldwide opioid epidemic spurred by attempts to deal with psychiatric problems. How Anselmo contributes to the discourse feels interesting, to say the least.

On the first Philip H. Anselmo and The Illegals album since its 2013 debut, there is plenty of red meat for Anselmo's hardcore base. He's still mad, still dropping that rumbling vocal and still backed by a bruising metal ensemble. The album's opener, "Little Fucking Heroes," delivers a white-hot blast of fury, driving rhythm section and raw riffs for the vocals to tear into. Anselmo, who turns 50 in June, is undoubtedly grown from the kid who fronted 1988's "Power Metal," though his passion is timeless. Unmoored by a band's larger identity, Anselmo feels freer than usual, roaring into the microphone with the muscle that made him famous. Songs like "Mixed Lunatic Results" and "Delinquent" are Anselmo at his best, holding court and being the wildman savant his fans adore. Say what you will about his persona, but Anselmo is as spellbinding as ever, and songs like "Photographic Taunts" show you how he's still got it.

However, don't hold your breath for Anselmo to go Kendrick Lamar on this album in regard to the mental health crisis. Rather than a slam on Congress, insurance companies, Big Pharma or state failures, the critique throughout "Choosing Mental Illness As A Virtue" seems aimed at anyone who's not him. It's the wary eye generations of rockers have cast at politicians, liberal social justice warriors, media, institutions, parents and anyone else who just doesn't get it. The two types of people in the world, Anselmo says on "Invalid Colubrine Frauds" are those who just want to be left alone, and those who won't leave them alone. On "Individual," he declares, "I don't want to be part of your pack. Shut the fuck up, you don't even listen… I'll never be what you created." In these sentiments, Anselmo implicitly opens another conversation, most vividly illustrated in the Nikolas Cruz case: where does the right for someone who is seemingly unstable to be left alone end and the community's safety begin? Amidst the American debate over gun control, issues like institutionalization, mental health and the near-manic desire to be self-involved collide too. There are no easy answers.

"Choosing Mental Illness As A Virtue" is available here

Band info: facebook

Interview with Legion Of Andromeda

Today's guests made an impression on me back in December 2013 when I reviewed their debut demo. It was a startling and brutal affair that mixed Death, Doom, Death, Drone, Sludge and Black Metal riffs with bone crunching vocals to match. It won acclaim from fans and critics alike.

Now Legion Of Andromeda return with their even more heavier and disturbing debut album – Iron Scorn – which was recorded and mixed by music legend – Steve Albini. Iron Scorn will no doubt be considered as one of 2015's heaviest, brutal and most dangerous albums.

This is what I had to say about the album:

“The album sounds incredible from start to finish courtesy of legendary music whiz - Steve Albini - who mixed and recorded this album. Let me say Iron Scorn can lay claim to being one of the heaviest, brutal and disturbing debut albums you are ever likely to hear. This is filth ridden dirge induced Death/Doom/Black Metal on a grand Drone Metal scale.

The instrumental work is intense and quite painful at times as Legion Of Andromeda play very aggressively with different sounds noises combining that will take time to fully understand. However, it seems the drums are being hit with sledgehammers and guitars with Freddy Krueger's razor sharp gloves. Many people will be very scared to listen to this album and I do not blame them. It even scared me at times especially with the vocals.

Legion Of Andromeda are the new harbingers of death and they are here to collect a few souls along the way. I need a rest after listening to this. Only listen to this if you are feeling brave enough.”

I have been given the chance to interview M and R who make up this deadly and dangerous duo. So it's time to hear what Legion Of Andromeda have to say to us!!!

Hi guys, Thanks for doing his interview. How are things with you today.

Hi Steve, thank you indeed. Pretty busy with the album release and stuff and listening to Cop Shoot Cop right now. Holy fuck, what a band that was.

For people not in the know, can you give a brief history of how the band came about and where it is today.

Our wives are colleagues and a few years ago they discovered we listen to the same music (which they hate) and then decided to introduce us. After listening to loads of records and going to several shows toghether, -M- later proposed me to do some shit together and I accepted.

Why did you choose the name Legion Of Andromeda. Any particular reasons for this name.

I love to use the sound of words, carefully choose between them and combine them together to create something that sounds powerful. In this regard the word Andromeda sounds extremely evocative: it’s enormous, roaring, menacing…it’s quintessentially onomatopoeic, it’s dark, alien, utterly bombastic. Fusing it with the word Legion (which is of course a cliche word often abused in metal, to which we also want pay homage) resembles an anti-entity devouring galaxies and sprawling total destruction moved by the sole, primal, bestial feel of hate. It’s cosmic hate, literally.

By no means we endorse hatred as some idiotic fascist ideology, neither we “fight” for some foolish, politically-correct hope to change the world with peace and love and blah, blah. Fuck that weak shit. Instead, hate for us is a nihilistic way of intend existence, a catharsis to sublimate consciousness. In this regard the name Legion Of Andromeda is majestically psychedelic. Being the world a place populated by that scourge called humanity, Legion Of Andromeda is a massive beam aiming at that scum. It’s a reaction, a necessity, a constant state of mind. Ultimately, it’s our interior battle against the constituted order.

How would you describe your own sound as it falls under many different categories, Noise, Sludge, Doom, Ambient, Drone, Death, Black.

Brutal, minimal, primitive metal. Or brutal, minimal, primitive noise. We don’t really know. Maybe The Velvet Underground playing Godflesh.

When you created the band, did you already know you wanted to create a nightmarish sound compared to other bands.

We didn't necessarily want to create a nightmarish sound, instead we started with the idea of forging that minimal, extremely repetitive, torturing psychedelic trance in order to induce ourselves and the derelicts who listen to it in totally altered states of consciousness.

You released a stunning debut EP back in 2013. Very dark and violent. Did the acclaim you received for that EP surprise you a great deal.

Yes, we are positively surprised, being the demo long sold out and praised by many outlets, still one of the best comments came from a fan saying that he typically listen to LOA while doing heroin.

Looking back would you change anything about your debut EP.

No.

Was it a hard or easy EP to write and record for.

Natural, smooth and efficient for both the situations.

Now you’re back with your even more depressing and crushingly loud debut album – Iron Scorn. Can you tell our readers what they can expect from that album if they’re feeling brave enough to listen to it.

A sharper, more focused approach fuelled by a truly monster production. Trance inducing repetition. Abandon all consciousness, embrace disintegration, fuck off.

I found it a very hard and challenging album to review. As the structure and tone of the album doesn’t really change a great deal. It feels the album is one 46 minute song instead of 7 individual songs. Was that your intention when recording the album. To keep the tone and structure basically the same throughout the album.

While we get your point and in part agree, we still feel the album as 7 distinct songs, while of course sharing the same atmosphere. Let me explain it better: we want our albums to sound extremely cohesive, dense and coherent, the key of minimalism for us is to take a single sound, a single vision, a single approach, even a single riff and penetrate it as deep as possible and in every possible implication, way and perspective. And from this process creating separated, individual songs.

The result, to profane ears, is all that you have is only this apparently identical, monotonous, monothematic, uninspired, static music. Paradoxically, it’s more challenging (and for us more rewarding) to understand this kind of approach than understanding, for example, intricate, technical progressive rock. Progressive music is often annoying to us (with many exceptions of course) while minimal and repetitive music is instead exciting. Take as an example Ildjarn, early Sunno))), Von, Ride For Revenge, Shellac, the first Om album: when those records came out nobody gave a shit, instead a lot of posers blamed them as boring and lazy but then praising them later only because they got hyped by some random journalist.

You worked with Steve Albini on this album. How did you guys become involved with Steve.

We simply contact his studio and booked the session. Big Black is one of our main influences, it’s 20 years that we listen to them along with Rapeman and Shellac. Ultimately, we felt that Albini’s extraordinary engineering skills would have been perfect to encompass our vision.

What was the recording process experience like with Steve. And did he offer you any words of wisdom.

Recording at Electrical Audio has been a massive achievement for us and the whole experience was astonishing. Steve’s wisdom and precious advices were addressed to the technical aspects of the recording process, while the artistic decisions were totally up to us, as he consider himself a pure sound engineer, not a producer. In this perspective he has great respect for the band’s music without letting his personal taste interfere, a modus operandi that we totally support.

What is the song-writing dynamic in the band? Is it down to one individual or a group process?

It’s totally a group process: we share the same distorted mindset so writing is always smooth and linear.

M – you deal with all musical instruments. R – you deal with all the vocals. Do you both have an equal say on how each person plays there part in the band. Or do you just focus on your own role within the band.

While we focus primarily on our own instrument, we often exchange suggestion on how this or that part could sound better on our respective roles. It’s an enriching and complementing development as we always struggle to reach the top within every song. We do not tolerate to settle on music.

Which bands or musicians influence you to become a musician? Any particular albums that stand out.

If I (-R-) had not heard Iron Maiden (Killers) when I was 9 I would not be here, same goes later for Naked City (Torture Garden-not a minimalist band, indeed!) Big Black (Songs About Fucking) Fugazi (Red Medicine) Rollins Band (The End Of Silence) Cop Shoot Cop (Ask Questions Later) Morbid Angel (Altars Of Madness) Darkthrone (Transilvanian Hunger) Godflesh (Streetcleaner)…the list goes on but these were the most important bands in my formative years, between elementary and high school: I don’t want to say that they played a decisive role in forging LOA’s sound (being Big Black, Darkthrone and Godflesh the obvious exceptions) instead they gave me an immense perspective on the way I look at music (and even life) as a whole and played a fundamental role for me to became a musician.

For -M- there was Big Black (Atomizer) Thought Industry (Mods Carve The Pig) Unsane (Scattered, Smoothered and Covered) Neurosis (Through Silver In Blood) The Jesus Lizard (Goat) Slint (Tweez) and loads more that I cannot remember.

How important is a physical product (CD/Tape/Vinyl) to you as a band.

It’s primary. The physicity of the product, the artwork and layout, even the credits and the thanks list, everything contributes to the whole vision. It’s mandatory as a band. Thinking about the artwork for Iron Scorn was like writing a song as it involved the same energies.

Which musical formats do you listen to and own the most – CD, Tape, Digital or Vinyl.

We prefer vinyl, but we’ve got more CDs than vinyl: that’s because most albums are recorded in digital and then get transferred to vinyl...it’s a total no sense and in this case the CD sounds obviously better and costs a fraction. Only albums recorded and mastered directly and entirely on analog tape, (like our debut album!) are the real thing and sound really good, the rest is hipster bullshit.

What is your musical setup when playing live or recording in the studio? Do you have a basic setup or advanced setup?

Just a gtr/bass amp+cab combo for guitar, the drum machine and the vocals going through the PA. Vocals are not effected (even on the album), just delay and a little reverb.

What is the scene like in your home town and country. Are there opportunities for you to perform gigs on a regular basis? Or do you travel further afield to perform regularly.

Japanese scene, while fragmented, has always been variegated and extremely creative. It’s an extremely exciting scene, even from a sociological perspective. And it’s not so difficult to play gigs in Tokyo.

So apart from the album release what other plans do you have for in 2015. Anything exciting you can tell us.

We’re already writing new tunes that sounds even more minimal and brutal. I think the next album will be a punk one and probably inspired more by Ramones than Godflesh. The Ramones, what a great band.

Well guys, thanks for doing this interview. Do you have any last words of wisdom for your fans?

LIVE TO HATE. COSMO HAMMER MASTER OF THE UNIVERSE.

Thanks for doing this guys. All the best with your new album.

I want to thank Nathan T. Birk for arranging this interview and Legion Of Andromeda for taking the time out to talk to us here at Sludgelord HQ.

Iron Scorn will be available to buy on CD/DD from Feb 20th 2015 on At War With False Noise and Unholy Anarchy.

Words by Steve Howe and Legion Of Andromeda

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ZOM - Flesh Assimilation (Album Review)

Album Type: Full-length

Date Released: November 24, 2014

Label: INVICTUS PRODUCTIONS//DARK DESCENT

Flesh Assimilation - Tracklisting

1. Tombs of the Void

2. Hordes of the Cursed Realms

3. Gates to Beyond

4. Conquest

5. Illbeings Unspeak

6. Dead Worlds

7. The Depths

8. Flesh Assimilation

Members

Chthon – Bass/Vocals

Sodomaniac – Guitar/Vocals

Sabbac – Drums

Review:

It’s strange to think that not all that long ago, death metal and black metal seemed like two forces in diametric opposition. Both movements revolutionized “metal”, with the first wave of death pushing technicality, grotesque imagery, and the least commercial aspects of thrash to their limits. Meanwhile, the second wave of black metal, inspired by Hellhammer, early Mercyful Fate, and Venom (as well as English anarcho-punk like Discharge and Crass) eschewed Guitar Grimoire shredding techniques in favor of sonic chaos and nihilistic screeds against humanity. Now that bands like Deicide, Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel, Immortal, and Darkthrone have either moved on to reunions, “classics” acts, or entirely different entities altogether, thank the Elder Gods that bands like Ireland’s ZOM, claiming the mantle of “blackened death metal,” have eschewed that early tribalism to effortlessly meld the technicality and brutality of death with the fury of black metal on their first full-length, 'Flesh Assimilation'.

For a band that only formed in 2011, and with a back catalog consisting of a demo and 7” EP, ZOM have the confidence and chops of a band on its third or fourth full-length. 'Flesh Assimilation' demands listening at maximum volume, shifting between tectonically heavy riffs and furious blastbeat assaults, while vocalists Chthon and Sodomaniac spew monstrously reverb-laden vocals like missives from Pandemonium. There’s little technical shredding on here – guitarist Sodomaniac opts for memorable hooks, with squeals serving more like vocal effects on tracks like 'Dead Worlds'. And for all the shattering sounds, the guttural howls and stomach-churning bass, each element stands out.

For once, I can actually hear the bass on a “blackened” anything album – a rare feat, indeed. While the record melds together, with agonizing soundscapes between each song, each track stands alone; 'Gates to Beyond' and 'Illbeings Unspeak' are my favorites today, but yesterday I was banging my head to the almost-thrash of 'The Depths' before descending into the shifting dirge of album closer 'Flesh Assimilation'.

All this rambling about the genre bending ability of ZOM is to say that while some disbanded acts or perennial favorites are returning to their roots in 2014 and 2015,  and while denim and leather clad old-schoolers nod in approval, people should be looking out for the new shit that is clawing up from the underground in scenes that no one even knew existed. Don’t be the poseur who can’t stop bitching about how there aren’t any decent metal bands anymore. With 'Flesh Assimilation', ZOM have wrangled the distinctive chaos of both death and black metal to create one of the best records of this year.

Words by Mark Ambrose

Thanks to Clawhammer PR for the promo. Flesh Assimilation will be available to buy on November 24^th 2014 from the following labels: INVICTUS PRODUCTIONS//DARK DESCENT

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Meshuggah - I (Album Review)

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 26/9/2014

Label: Nuclear Blast

“I” CD/DD/LP track listing:  

1). I (21:04)

2). Bleed (live) (07:33)

3). Dancers To A Discordant System (live) (09:49)

4). Pitch Black (05:57)

Bio:

Continuing with the momentum of celebrating their 25-year anniversary, Sweden’s extreme metal deviants MESHUGGAH proudly announce the re-issue of 2004’s one song EP, »I« on September 26, 2014 via Nuclear Blast.  Album artwork & concept are courtesy of MESHUGGAH drummer Tomas Haake, who comments on the EP’s mutant resurrection:

“This 21 minute madness that is the song ‘I’ is something we’ve always been extremely proud of!! Originally recorded for Jason Popson/Fractured transmitter record label, this was a “one off” that Nuclear Blast gave us the go ahead for - as we were under contract with them. Our plan was to just quickly write a little nugget of a song to help our friend Jason to kinda kickstart his label. It wasn’t quick however.  We ended up spending a couple months on this thing as it just kept evolving and kind of took on a life of its own. This song is really different as it wasn’t “written” in the normal sense, but recorded without anything more than very open guidelines/ideas as to what kind of style we wanted each part to have. For examples, the initial 1½ minute drumfill is an excerpt of around a 15 minute recording of me just randomly going off on a kick/tom fill. Once we had chosen which part of it to use, we had to chart out the hits on paper and guitarist Fredrik and Marten then basically used sight-reading/avista to get the hits right while recording. And this is how we continued through the whole song/process. We often get the question “When will you guys play ‘I’?” - And though I’m sure it could be done with a lot of listening and hard work - It’s really too unstructured a track. It would take up too much time and effort to make sense.

We’re super stoked now, to have this be re-released under the Nuclear Blast flag. Distribution and access to this little demon of a song was never quite what we had wished back when this was released, so we’re thrilled to see it be brought back to life!!

To further add value to this re-release, we added a couple live tracks and another weird little track ‘Pitch Black’ that some of our fans may have heard but probably not all, as it was only released in a limited number.

Enjoy!”

»I«’s 21-minute title track has been re-mastered and includes two live tracks recorded during the 2012 - 2013 Ophidian Trek World Tour, plus a previously unreleased studio track recorded in July 2003 at MESHUGGAH’s own Fear & Loathing studio in Stockholm, Sweden

The Band:

Jens Kidman | vocals

Marten Hagström | guitar

Fredrik Thordenthal | guitar

Dick Lövgren | bass

Tomas Haake |drums & voice

Review:

Meshuggah’s 2004 I EP is a piece of music unlike any other. In plain terms, it could be seen as the conceptualisation of the album Catch 33 which followed a year later, but really it is much more than that. Reading deeper into its creation you learn that not only is this a continuous piece of music or single ‘song’, but it’s also one of the most complex creations of any band ever.

The idea behind the I EP came from the tour de force that is Tomas Haake and Fredrik Thordendal. Random spasmodic drum patterns recorded by Haake were meticulously studied by Thordendal beat by beat to create matching guitar riffs, which in turn were recorded and vocals layered on top.

Split into many ‘movements’ the pace doesn’t really slow. Only in breakdown sections of ambient spooky guitar parts does the reprieve of polyrhythmic mayhem poise to settle the insanity that is I.

The composition is exactly what fans of Meshuggah are used to. Brutality, complexity, savage low A tonality and ambience amongst pandemonium. It’s impossible for any Meshuggah fan not to love this EP, so much of what inspired future records can be heard for the first time in a condensed form appeasing every want and yearning for that ‘Meshuggah sound’.

Remastering an album of such significance in a bands career is a monumental task.  To bring it up to a modern sound or just improve the clarity of what has already been laid down, which is a hard decision. Do you appease fans of the old, or fans of the new?  What the remastering has achieved is finding that happy medium. One noticeable thing about the original mix is that it felt quite squashed and flat. The overly compressed sound was definitely something that always bothered me as it subtracted hugely from the guitar tones and buried the vocals. I can happily say now that everything is in its right place, with the bass bought up to a level where it gives the guitars all the sonic dimensions I could have hoped for. The ambient background guitars are full of clarity to the point where you can actually make out each stroke and the drums aren’t just clicks.

As for the rest of the EP, the tracks included have been floating around for a while. The live tracks greatly capture the live Meshuggah sound; a good balance to the instruments is welcome as you can tell it was directly recorded from the mixing desk. The bonus recording of ‘Pitch Black’ was originally given away for free from Scion AV awhile after the release of Koloss, and is a solid track akin to the album that preceded it.

In all honesty, how can this get a bad review? Meshuggah fans everywhere are constantly on the edge of their seat waiting for their overlords of chug to put new material out. Talking to a Meshuggah fanboy is like talking to a Tool fanboy, while there’s material they don’t listen to regularly, everything they have done is the best thing you’ve ever heard. It’s like they have control of our brain using some rhythmic morse code embedded into their songs or something. Thanks for reading Y’all!

Words by: Asher G. Alexander

You can pick up a copy here

For more information:

www.meshuggah.net/

www.facebook.com/meshuggah

www.nuclearblast.de/meshuggah