Written By Kevin McSweeney
Welcome to Seven Deadly Songs, Metal Lair’s weekly feature in which we offer you seven succulent sonic titbits to make your mouths water, your knees tremble and your heads bang like barn doors in a strong breeze. This week, we’re looking at the most delectable delights to be made available between the 14th and the 20th of July – well, all on the 18th, as it transpires – and the songs from them that have us shuddering in anticipation of their imminent release. How do you titillate an ocelot? Oscillate its tit a lot. How do you titillate a metal fan? Like this:
Abigail Williams – No Less Than Death
You’re getting your money’s worth with our first selection from Olympia, Washington-based black metal merchants Abigail Williams. Named after one of the most prominent accusers in the Salem witch trials, the band, originally from Phoenix, Arizona, deliver a whopping nine-and-a-half minutes of atmospheric black metal on No Less Than Death, from their sixth full-length album, A Void Within Existence, due to be released via Agonia Records on July 18th. Alternating between haunting clean vocals and agonised screams, and with some hugely impressive shredding towards the end. It’s a morose, brooding blend of beauty and brutality, and it’s absolutely epic!
Darko – Canvas
British anthemic hardcore band Darko are set to release the Canvas EP on July 18th via Thousand Island Records/Lockjaw. They hail from Surrey, the same county that gave us the legendary punk band Sham 69, and they offer us the sort of football terrace vocals for which the Hersham Boys were famed on the title track, only much more melodic, as if sung by a 90s alternative band like Feeder or A. The verse riff veers dangerously close to the theme tune to classic British TV show Top Gear, to my ears at least, but I love the way they don’t just alternate between the melodic and the muscular, but blend the two seamlessly. It’s great stuff, and it makes them stand out, though if there’s one thing I must take issue with, it’s their casual dissing of Feathers McGraw at the start of the video. You’re a great band, guys, but that penguin is more hardcore than you’ll ever be.
In/Vertigo – Save Me
This is the kind of ballsy, bluesy, frenetic, fast-paced rock ‘n’ roll that we used to get regularly from Scottish legends The Almighty back in the 1990s, and that’s a comparison that constitutes lofty praise coming from me. I was a huge fan of Ricky Warwick and the boys. Canada’s In/Vertigo are due to release the Prevail EP on July 18th via Rockshots Records, and the scale run solo and scream from Reed Alton to introduce it are reason enough to check out the rest of the forthcoming release. The band’s official website describes In/Vertigo as: “…, the quintessential rock n’ roll act, who comes in with a sonic molotov cocktail of sound, aimed at the music world who unapologetically thirsts for classic/hard rock.” I’ll describe them as a very good Canadian band who you really ought to check out.
Margarita Witch Cult – Witches’ Candle
Oh, how I love the name of this band! I don’t know whether it sounds like the name of a Halloween-themed pizza or a cocktail along similar lines, but either way, I want more. This is proper Sabbathy stoner/doom metal, and appropriately so, as this band hails from the Mecca of metal, Birmingham in the UK, the place where it all started. According to Heavy Psych Sounds Records, courtesy of whom they release their second full-length album, Strung Out in Hell, on July 18th, they are: “…the Sabbath City’s newest heirs to the throne of darkness – serving a merciless concoction of stoned sludge, demented thrash, and proto-metal weirdness.” The vocal harmonies from the Brummie trio are absolutely on point as well. This is one candle you’ll want to light up, potentially amongst other things!
Nefarious – Addicted to Power
Addicted to Power is the third single and title track from the debut album of the thrash metal supergroup Nefarious, formed from the alumni of Exodus, Heathen, Blind Illusion and Death Angel. Here, they offer the same sort of intoxicating blend of traditional metal and thrash that made Judas Priest’s Painkillersuch an essential album. It mightn’t be anything they haven’t done before with the illustrious outfits with whom they were previously associated, but the musicianship is elite, Katon W. De Pena’s voice is in top form and it’s very much a case of a statement being made by masters of the craft. The Californians release their new album independently on July 18th, and it would be utterly nefarious of us not to seek it out.
Ramonda – Bad Girl
This might be a bit contentious. There are perhaps those who will feel that we shouldn’t be covering this artist, as this is too melodic, and not metal, and is therefore not part of our remit. Such views are perfectly valid. OK, so it’s not metal, but it is very good 1980s-style hard rock. This is so 1980s, in fact, that the promotional video should only be available on Betamax cassettes. Argentinian singer Santiago Ramonda has a voice on a par with the footballing skills of Lionel Messi, but the vintage lead guitar histrionics are also worthy of mention. From the squealing dive bombs that introduce the song to the solo with plenty of Van Halen-style tapping and a generous serving of whammy bar. It’s metal-adjacent enough for us to include and enjoy. Besides, if you think this is contentious, just wait ‘til you see the final entry!
Weapons of God – Death of Me
Lastly, we have this almighty offering from Dayton, Ohio’s Weapons of God. I have never knowingly covered a Christian metal band in this feature before, but it’s about time I had my Road-to-Damascus moment, with the scales falling from my ears, as these devout dudes offer manna from Heaven in the form of Death of Me, from their third coming, Tribulation. The album is to be released on July 18th via Roxx Records. And verily, I say unto thee: I am fully prepared to get down on my knees and worship at the altar of those omnipotent riffs! This song sounds like Badmotorfinger-era Soundgarden with the gravel-throated blues legend Tom Waits on vocals, and I must offer special praise for the old-school power (and glory) toms played by Jason Harmon in the video! I understand that Christian metal can be off-putting for many, but please, whatever your personal beliefs, listen to this without prejudice, and don’t worry; we’re all still going to Hell.
