Class Warrior’s Musical Obsessions 2017

By Class Warrior

As usual, this is a list of music I listened to a lot this year, regardless of when the band recorded the songs. I had some trouble this year with new music. There are so many retro crazes in my preferred genres (i.e., metal and punk) that it’s getting hard for me to find standout bands. Hopefully I’ll get some good suggestions from my fellow reviewers! One cool thing that energized me was finding out that my brother is now a metal fan. We had fun talking about and sharing music this summer. It was my reminder that most people sustain their interest in music by sharing it with others. Since none of my friends in my immediate location are metal/punk fans, I sometimes forget this basic social fact.

I forgot to mention on my musical grievances list that my students deserve a big jeer for trying to get me to listen to Beyonce and other pop singers. I tried—I didn’t try very hard, admittedly—but what I heard was not a satisfactory listening experience. Down with my students. A C- for every one of them.

Living Colour, Shade (2017).

Did you know that Living Colour is still a band putting out music? This is, not surprisingly, a great album! Corey Glover’s voice sounds like he has access to some kind of youth serum—he may as well still be twenty-five. He has one of those set of pipes that can only be his—you’ll never mistake him for someone else. Vernon Reid is, perhaps, the most underrated guitar player in rock music. What a fabulous musician! By the way, if you want to witness someone rock the fuck out, watch videos of live Living Colour performances from the late eighties and early nineties. You will see Corey Glover go off. I had a chance to see them live a couple of years ago, but I would have had to travel two and a half hours to attend the concert. I had work the next day. When did I turn into an old man?

Witchcryer, Cry Witch (2017).

Have you ever listened to an album that starts with an anti-imperialist doom metal song? Neither had I, but Witchcryer certainly changed that. This album is a solid gathering (a coven?) of female-fronted doom songs. It’s done really well! Probably the best new doom metal band I heard all year (and I encountered a lot of them). It’s one of the diamonds I referenced in my Festivus grievances. They perform a cover of “Witchfinder General,” which should get you in the general vicinity of their sound. I look forward to seeing where this Texas band goes from here.

Odax, Odax (2017).

I want to like this a lot more than I do. Sword and sorcery metal is my favorite metal sub-genre. This album has the dark medieval theme and tone absolutely down. It’s right in my wheelhouse. It seems to be a conceptual album about a guy named Yaroslav, but I might be wrong. Overall, there needs to be more emphasis on substance rather than style. It simply doesn’t rock hard enough. I must note, though, that I just got this album this month, so maybe it will grow on me? I hope?

Pagan Altar, The Room of Shadows (2017).

This is the last Pagan Altar album we’ll get, as Terry Jones, their founder, singer, and songwriter, died in 2015. If you have not listened to Judgment of the Dead, Mythical & Magical, and Lords of Hypocrisy yet, and you like traditional heavy metal, do yourself a favor and check them out. They’re great! The current offering under discussion is not quite at the same level as the three monumental efforts above, but it’s still a fine listen. May Terry Jones’s shade continue to haunt us for many years—a classic and criminally underappreciated metal front man.

Rata Negra, Oido Absoluto (2017).

Well, it looks like I was wrong, thankfully. There is a punk rock album on my year-end list. I almost forgot about this gem! This Madrid band has the sort of sound that was popular in Europe about a decade ago—a melancholy/dark take on melodic early 1980s Southern California stuff like Adolescents. Bands like No Hope for the Kids and Gorilla Angreb are good references for Rata Negra’s sound. I loved that period in punk rock (the twenty-first century take on classic punk, that is), so I like this. Bonus point for strong, clear, and sung (as opposed to shouted/shrieked) female vocals! Finally, it doesn’t overstay its welcome. Nice and short, like (almost) any good punk album should be. They sing entirely in Spanish, if that matters to you. If you want to hear it, go to their Bandcamp site. https://rata-negra.bandcamp.com/album/o-do-absoluto.

Peter Oren, Anthropocene (2017).

SoDak already wrote about this album in a review a couple of months ago, so I will only add the following: the last song on here made me cry. It’s been quite a long time since a piece of music has moved me to tears.

Kroh, Pyres (2017).

I wrote about this band’s debut album last year. They continue the trend of offering up memorable female-fronted doom metal (I guess this is a sub-sub-genre of metal now?). I follow them on Facebook—the band puts Oliwia, their singer, front and center in all their official pictures, sometimes to the extent that the rest of the band disappears entirely. So you’ve got a good-looking singer who has a hell of a voice—that doesn’t mean the rest of the band isn’t important! Regardless—this five-song EP is another set of strong songs. You could do worse. Trust me.

Kreator, Gods of Violence (2017).

I have loved everything Kreator has done in the twenty-first century. This album is certainly solid enough left-wing thrash metal, but it doesn’t excite me like Violent Revolution or Enemy of God. Hold on—let me listen to it again. It’s been awhile. (Time passes.) Okay, it’s better than I remembered. You should check it out. By the way—despite what Kreator claims on this album— Satan isn’t real.

Triosphere, The Heart of the Matter (2016) and The Road Less Travelled (2010).

The first time I heard this band I thought they had secured the services of Bruce Dickinson’s younger sister on vocals. She doesn’t quite sound like a dead ringer for Bruce, but if you can’t spot the direct influence of Iron Maiden’s front man on this band, you need to clean out your ears. Musically, they sound like somewhat subdued Euro power metal (which is a genre that even I typically find cheesy, and I have a place in my heart for the loincloth-bedecked Manowar!) mixed with traditional eighties metal. The vocalist makes this band worth your time. She nails it. No keyboards here, which is not always the case with power metal.

Go-Go’s, Beyond the Valley of the Go-Go’s (1994).

Getting this collection of their early material is worth it for one reason only: it has the 7-inch single version of “How Much More” (i.e., the B-side to “We Got the Beat”). This version of “How Much More” absolutely blows away the re-recording for the Beauty and the Beat album. Blows it away. It is faster, more straightforward, the guitar sound is a bit more punk rock, and Belinda’s vocals are stronger. It is my favorite Go-Go’s song by far. This version is on the list of songs I want someone to play at my wake, whenever that may occur. Be sure to tell Mrs. Warrior, for she will outlive me, and will be the ultimate arbiter of such matters.

The Supremes, Greatest Hits (take your pick).

I hope I don’t need to tell you what a wonderful collection of songs await you when you put a Diana Ross and the Supremes disc in the CD player. While many of these songs are unfortunately marred by “pop strings” (see my Festivus grievance for more info), these are classics. Diana Ross would have been an excellent singer in a sword and sorcery metal band. So would Aretha Franklin. So would Roy Orbison.

Manic Street Preachers, Generation Terrorists (1992).

I will have much more to say about this album in a month or two. Yes, I’m jumping back in to writing actual reviews. Short version: this is a great collection of angry songs—I love it!

Slade, The Slade Box—A 4 CD Anthology 1969-1991 (2015).

What in the world was I thinking? This collection is at the bottom of my list for a reason. For a brief moment this fall, I fell in love with the song “Run Runaway.” On the strength of this song and their (admittedly timeless classic) “Mama Weer All Crazee Now” (fuck you, it’s a great song) I purchased a 4 CD set of their “hits.” Huh. Maybe you need to be British to appreciate it all properly. I did find a few nuggets, like “When I’m Dancing I Ain’t Fighting,” but listening to these discs is like traversing the desert and finding an occasional oasis. But the oases are too far apart to really sustain you, and you die before you reach the end. I haven’t listened to disc 4 yet. Don’t know if I ever will. I can’t listen to “Run Runaway” without cringing anymore. I was rocking out to it for about the twenty-fifth time when suddenly (literally suddenly) I couldn’t take another note and had to shut it off. If Slade had put out a ten-inch record with six or seven songs on it and called it a career, I would consider that a strong success for the band. That would be one great record. By the way—anyone want to buy a 4 CD set of Slade songs? I know where you can get one for dirt cheap!