Hello and goodbye

I'm a very shuffley kind of chap. My daily 4-and-a-bit hour commute tends to be underpinned by a soundtrack of miscellaneous albums that arrive in the Metal Harmony inbox over the course of the week. Nine times out of ten I listen blindly to my non-Apple MP3 player, with no idea who or what is playing. This is good as it means I'm listening to everything with a completely open mind. The downside is that when people ask me if I've heard x song by y band, I probably have but just don't remember it.

However, every now and again, whilst nestled into a sweaty armpit on a packed Underground train, a song will come on that grabs me by the metaphysical balls. This happened a few days ago when for the first time, I came across Streetlight Manifesto.

My love of skate/ska/SoCal punk is well documented and whilst I don't profess to have an encyclopaedic knowledge of the genre, I could bore people for several hours if required. Streetlight Manifesto are a new one on me, so when If Only For Memories from their latest album, The Hand That Thieves, started playing in my ears I was intrigued. Think NOFX-plays-mariachi and you'd be getting close.

I stopped shuffling and decided to play the album in its entirety, and I've been pretty much doing so for the last five days. I fucking love it. Massive singalong choruses, huge skanking riffs and a brass section; this is so far up my street it's untrue. If you like Mad Caddies, Less Than Jake, Voodoo Glow Skulls, you have literally no option but to listen to this band immediately.

It transpires that Streetlight have been around for a decade and have released five albums but this is their final release on Victory, a label with whom they have a serious amount of beef. As a band, they recently released a statement saying they're slowing down their touring schedule and reading between the lines, it looks like they'll be in officially packing it in over the coming months.

So in essence, my new favourite band will soon be no more, and I doubt I'll ever see them play live. The technical term for this is 'a right pisser'.

M

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New things and sad things

The year's got off to a bit of a good start in terms of music. Four bands have landed on the Metal Harmony desk (obviously not literally, idiot) that have impressed, which is a good omen for things to come.

Firstly, Topper, a punk outfit from Sweden. Their latest release Punk Don't Death (Just Get Through It) through Sound Pollution is a more melodic type of punk that doesnt have the face-smashing, snot-spitting fury of Executioners and is much closer to the likes of Leatherface, although the song writing is not as strong. Very easy to listen to.

Secondly, Spaniards Noctem release their second album Oblivion (Rising Records) in June this year. This brutally heavy death metal is just horrible. The vocals make your throat hurt, the double kick makes your shins ache, the guitars make your eardrums bleed; pretty much everything you want from death metal. A must for fans if popular beat combo Nile.

Then there's We Die Tonight, who's four track EP Stem the Tide is the polar opposite to Noctem. Dwelling on the metalcore/hardcore border, this London mob are well worth a listen if you like your metal with a bit of singing amidst the mayhem. Big fan of this.

Finally, Otep. Although Atavist was released last year on Victory Records I've only not gotten round to listening to it, and I'm glad I did so. By no means easy listening, Atavist fluctuates between haunting 6-minute narratives from female vocalist Otep Shamaya and, for want of a better term, post nu metal tracks. When Shamaya sings there's a real Courtney Love vibe, and the male backing vocals have a Dez Fafara growl that sits nicely on top of some pretty interesting tuneage.

Awesome music aside, let's not ignore the metal elephant in the corner. The terrible news Tony Iommi has been diagnosed with lymphoma has shaken the music world but seemingly an early diagnosis means he's got a good chance of beating it. Let's bloody well hope so.

M
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