This will be my fourth(duh!) part of writing about bands from Iceland. If you'd like to catch up here is Number One, Number Two and Number Three.
Ask The Slave, 2010
Ask the Slave, is an Avant-Garde metal band. I first heard of them and heard them when I attended Eistnaflug in 2008. The little I do remember from my alcohol induced haze was that I really enjoyed their music. Someone had remarked that they were the Icelandic version of Faith No More, I personally after listening to them would say that they are more akin to Mr. Bungle. There are a lot of genre lumped together into one song, lots of rhythms shifts and melody changes, but most of those don't sound out of place or forced. Valurs vocal does sound like he went to the Mike Patton school of Vocal Tormenting. He's easily the most versatile singer to come from Iceland. But everything he does regarding the singing is for the betterment of the song. Which is the wonderful thing about this band, while Valur could/would/should be the stand-out member, but he isn't. They all function like a well oiled machine, if one of the other instruments would be taken of the songs it would fall to pieces. So far there are two albums, "Kiss Your Chora" and "The Order of Things" out and one B-Side collection called "The King of Prunes", with a new LP, called "Good People, Bad Things" which is meant to be out next year. And yes I am looking forward to it. They also make some excellent music video's for example the song "Sleep Now" which sounds like a lovely ballad up until you watch the video and realise how creepy it actually is. It is one of those instances where the video makes a good song great.
Both their albums while being all over the place manage to suck you in and keep your interest throughout. And I personally am looking forward to the day when they open up for Mr. Bungle and Mike Patton walks on the stage then drops the mike stating he can't keep up.
Dr. Spock
Dr Spock, is a very unusual rock. Again we are looking at the Avant-Garde section of things. Most of all it is plain and simple good fun rock and roll or in their own words "Heavy Metal Cabaret with a dash of Surf-Porn Cartoon Funky Polka". By all accounts their concerts are once in a lifetime experience. Which doesn't really surprise me, in their ranks they've got the gruff voice from HAM, who continues barking orders and sounding like he's cursing the entire world. In the most jovial manner of course. It is very chaotic music that is on display, but at the same time even with my rather low-fi laptop speakers I feel like dancing like a mad cow and thrash my living room, the song "Sons of Ecuador" being the perfect example of this manic musical genius that is going on. But as far as I can see nothing new has appeared since 2008, which is a crying shame. But even with a short life they've left a long lasting legacy and much like HAM their reputation seems to be growing with their absence. And if only they had actually got into Eurovision with their song. It would have been perfect. But Ottar Proppee finally did manage to perform on the big stage in 2014.
Börn
Börn, now there is a certain amount of nepotism going on here in the sense that I probably wouldn't have given this band a chance if it didn't include family members. But to be clear I don't write blogs about a band that I don't like. It just so happens that this band includes my youngest sister on vocals and her boyfriend on the drums. They have been playing together in various forms of punk bands. The earliest incarnation that I know of was Tentacles of Doom, which then got changed into Norn, but they had to reconsider their name choices when it turned out that there is a black metal band in Iceland using the same name. So here we've ended up with Börn. And unfortunately I giggle probably way more then I should when I type in the url of their BandCamp site. On the whole I'm not a big fan of the punk scene. Never have been though of course like other genre's there are always bands that manage to captivate my attention. Börn being one of them. What this album reminds me mostly of are the first two albums by Killing Joke. There is this almost joyous tribalism running throughout this smog of despair. It all sounds exceptionally simple, all the instruments seem to be geared towards being rhythmic and, well, dancable. Alexandra barks out her lyrics with pure unbristled ferocious commanding singing, all about self-reliance, equality and independence. On this album she sounds like she could and should command armies. It would be great to see them and It Hurts To Be Dead play at the same gig.
One of my favourite albums of all time is Back To The Times of Splendor by Disillusion. I still pull that album out regularly to listen to, 6 songs spanning nearly 57 minutes of eternal beauty. I bought my copy in 2004, and I was captivated. But also perplexed as to why they didn't get the press that they deserved! Here's a band that shits out an instant classic first time trying and barely a whimper was registered in the metal press. And I could not wait for a sequel. Which never came. But never mind, they did publish another album called Gloria in 2006.
What an absolute off the wall straight from the left field that was. And I loved it. Most people didn't. Most people wanted 'Back to the Times of Splendor II'. But with 'Gloria' Disillusion were showing their progressive side, which for some reason seemed to irk people. There were shouts of sell-outs going of course, but you can't really be a sell-out if you are not delivering what people want.
So what happened. Welll, what seems to have happened is that Andy Schmidt, nee Vurtox, got sick and tired of playing BTtToS live over and over again. And having the stress of trying to find a backing band and preferably a small orchestra as well. Probably wanted to play something slightly simpler. More hard hitting in some ways, and rest his larynx!
Andy uses on this album mostly, baritone singing, bass singing, occasionally he'll a sort of melodic spoken word or pure spoken word and only couple of times will he break and use his death rattle. I loved his vocals on BTtToS but he really does come into his own on Gloria. His vocal performance on here is simply glorious. The overtly German pronunciation of some words that has sometimes distracted me in the previous album and the EP's released before that. I might be putting a lot compliments onto him, but the man deserves it. Though of course I don't really want to take away from the rest of the band, the drummer Jens Maluschka does fantastic job as well if only in keeping up with Andy's vision. The fills and the rhythm are just right every time and always interesting as well. Just listen to this song:
Though where Gloria really wins is how unusually built it is. It weaves, breaks and turns in all sorts of directions, but those weaves, breaks and turns are never unnecessary and most importantly never for show, well maybe a little but it never feels like it. I hesitate even calling this album Metal, because there is so much else going on but no other label really fits, and with metal being THE most diverse genre going it is probably the only label that fits. The closest would be industrial metal, some people will probably complain(and did) about how similar Andy sounds like Till, but the proof is in the listening. And while I love Rammstein, they haven't put out an album that sounds as interesting as this one. Yes in one song "The Hole We Are In" starts out as blackish Death metal song, but then just towards the end swerves into sort of lounge-ish dance song.
Then there are two instrumental songs one of the called Lava which always makes me envision flying over Iceland and seeing two separate volcano's going off in between grassland and black deserts. Maybe the reason I imagine flying is because of the previous instrumental called Aerophobic. Both of these tracks are very bass heavy and often it sounds like they've thrown away the guitars and replaced them with basses.
So as I said previously no it isn't 'Back To The Times of Splendor: In search for more money' that everyone was hoping for (me included) but it is a brilliant album completely blew away any misconceptions (mine included) about these guys and proves that they are quintessential progressive musicians. But the only problem is that this album was released in 2006, and nothing has been heard or seen since of these guys. Which makes me a very very sad blogger.
Skálmöld - Is the latest hottest shit to run wild in Iceland. They play what can be only called Viking Metal of THE purest variety, Evian style. They came out of nowhere, but now you have Choir of the Elderly and pre-school kids singing their songs. They've only been going since 2009. All the members are veterans of the Icelandic music scene, but none, as far as I'm aware of anyway, ever played in a metal band. They are melodic to the extreme, well rehearsed and well written. And jolly, lets not forget jolly. The first album "Baldur" was a work of conceptual masterpiece and it came out in 2010. The story is as follows:
Baldur is a hired farm hand, who has a wife and two boys. And he's very happy with his little lot in life. Considering that most of his life has been about bloodshed and fighting as a Viking mercenary for years. One day while he goes out fishing, with his family tucked up in bed, a creature arrives and attacks the farm. The creature goes about and slashes, rips, claws and half-eats all living beings on the farm, including Baldur's wife and children, then torches the farm. Baldur wows to avenge their deaths, calls for his former fighting partners and they go hunting for the creature that did this evil deed.
So the tale is set for a revengeance story of the highest calibre. Blood, guts and glory. With a little sprinkle of love. There's sprinkle of all sorts of music styles going on, from Iron Maiden is invoked in the song Kvaðning(which also has an exceptionally over-wrought music video to boot.) to Slayer inspired tune in Dauði onto power metal style in Upprisa. Björgvin the singer, has a vocal style that does taking used too, Unlike the music, which has more melodic hooks to catch people's unawares then Pinhead's Hell, but it fits perfectly. He's got this gruff, rough, commander/authoritative bark, and you believe every word he says(when you understand what he's singing of course). What does help as well is that they break it up with choir singing, where everyone in the band join in and they also got a proper real Viking Gods Goth to chant at the beginning of the album. There is a happy ending, of sorts. Baldur finds the creature, who is vocalized by the singer from Solstafir, and after a long battle manages to kill it but only after getting fatally wounded. But during his dying moments, he sees his wife and children, happily playing on the other side and looks forward to joining them as well as getting his rightful place in Valhalla.
This album is my favourite album to work out with, the tempo is right and it gets the testosterone juices flowing. Musically it's all very tight and well rehearsed. Which brings me to another point, because they are so tight and well rehearsed and spend ages one each riff, each drum beat and each instrument to get it all just right, has brought them some scorn from a minority of people who seemed to have something against bands being, well... professional, hipsters who have this tendency to dislike anything and everything that becomes popular, because their parents or grandparents like it. Seriously get a fucking grip and let go. This is music on epic scale with plenty of cheese grated on, and it's delivered with gusto and panache!
Now as for their second album Börn Loka, which was published in 2012, is more of the same. And it works. Again. It is brilliant. On par with Baldur, if maybe a little bit more progressive. They even touch on black metal in the song Hel, where Edda from Angist makes an appearance as Hel. This time the story is centred on Loki and his children. There's not an awful lot I can say about this album, that I haven't said about Baldur. So... I won't. Except that I do love both albums.
Mammút. Is probably the most indie band that I've written about and own an album by. So far you can listen to the first album on Gogoyoko and the second album(Karkari) on Spotify. They've got this kooky, loose way of playing, and the drums always seem just a little off. The first album was well a little forgettable. Some songs like Mosavaxin Börn and Þeir Reyna, gave good indications of what was to come. Karkari on the other hand is exquisite. Pure champagne. It's a very rocky album, you can hear a bit of stoner rock going on there, there's a gorgeous ballad, a bit of Smashing Pumpkins(except with good singing), and this time I will concede that the singer does echo Björk(uggh), but only slightly, in as much that she comes across like a mischievous elf with a bit of malice bubbling underneath the surface. It is definitely a great rock album, and there's a lot of fun to be had with it. I did see them live during Eistnaflug in 2008, and that is what they were. Fun.
In a very good sense they do stand out like a sore thumb in the Icelandic music scene, and I do really look forward to listen to their future output.
There. I've exhausted my supply of bands from Iceland to write about. In the meantime, may I introduce Norn and Tentacles of Doom.
