Noteworthy Albums of No Renown #2: Golem - Dreamweaver

Artist: Golem
Album: Dreamweaver
Year: 2004
Label: Nuclear Blast



Faces from Golem's 2004 release 'Dreamweaver' absolutely pulverizes with one of my favorite metal openings and riffs (1:01). Reviewers complain of the album's overly produced nature, but I agree with Metal Archives reviewer Thamuz that the 'metalcore' polish on the album actually contributes to the cold, machine-like mood of 'Dreamweaver'. Thamuz, by the way, is one hell of an album reviewer and even though he hasn't been active on the site for a while he is a great read. In fact, after reading his review I'll just leave my review at that: if you like the opening and primary riffs from this track, you'll like the whole album. It is very consistent.

For fans of: Gojira, Amon Amarth (not thematically), Decapitated

Noteworthy Albums of No Renown #1: Wicked Innocence - Omnipotence

Note: I won't give complete reviews of these albums, as I've discovered people generally only read full reviews of albums they are already interested in - and I'm not above generalizations. In fact, most of these albums already have informative, comprehensive reviews you can find other places on the internet. So - I take a look at albums that will probably never get the notoriety I think they deserve one track at a time. Talking about individual parts and characteristics of a sound with particular examples readily available seems to get people more interested than complete reviews anyway. So, that's usually what I'll do. And, as always, support the artist and use yer Google to find the rest of the  album.

Artist: Wicked Innocence

Album: Omnipotence

Year: 1995

Label: Napalm Records

Surreal, nihilistic death metal from the mean streets of Salt Lake. Lead vocalist is an alien pig demon that has come to Earth to vomit forth prophecies of our race's demise. Or at least it seems that way. The chaos of Wicked Innocence's sound is barely contained. All instruments are played masterfully on the album (listen to the tone on that bass!), and the bands abstract song structure only adds to each songs' growing sense of uneasiness and dread. A great example of this is in the above track, Lines, that starts with lurching, funeral march riffing. The arrhythmic vocal pattern adds to a feeling of drugged, angry confusion and foreshadows the hallucinogenic build that begins at 0:54 in the video. The entire song gives me a strange, 'House on the Borderland' feeling of flying haphazardly through alien time and space.

For fans of: Mithras, Gigan, Demilich, the artist Virgil Finlay