Artist: Dragonlord
Label: Spitfire Records
Release Date: 7/17/01
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Title: Rapture Artist: Dragonlord Label: Spitfire Records Release Date: 7/17/01 |
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Abyss's Review:
Well, they say you can’t judge a book by its cover, and evidence just keeps piling up that it’s true. Hey, nowadays you can’t even judge prostitutes by their covers, just ask Danny Bonaduce. And it seems you can’t judge a metal album by its cover anymore either, because when I first laid eyes on Dargonlord’s album, Rapture, I was convinced that it was going to be a power metal album. Hey, can you really blame me? It’s got members posing with swords, beautiful dragon-adorned artwork, and song titles that include “Tradition and Fire”, “Wolfhunt”, and “Spirits in the Mist”. (Note: when I originally typed that last sentence I screwed up and typed “song tits” and haven’t been able to stop giggling since. Oh the beauty of alcohol and immaturity! Tee hee.)
"It’s a little unexpected, but altogether successful attempt at something different." Anyway, this album is basically the latest incarnation of Testament (minus Chuck Billy… Get well soon!) doing something a little different than we’re accustom to hearing from them. Black Metal! Well, I’m sure the die-hard, I-wear-corpsepaint-in-the-shower-I’m-so-evil Black Metal fans will dismiss this as a further bastardization of their sacred genre, but the influence is there, so that’s what I’m calling it. What Testament’s Demonic was to Death Metal, this is to Black. Well, what was Demonic to Death Metal, you ask? What I mean is it’s a little unexpected, but altogether successful attempt at something different.
Where Witchery was basically a thrash band, with a Black look, Dragonlord look like a Viking Metal band, playing good ol' heavy metal with a Blackness thrown in the corners. And while they look like a Viking Metal band, expect no Enslaved or Borknagar in the playing. The guitar attack is definitely Black flavored, but a completely American (sounding) affair. The riffs are thick and distinct, and are too chunky to be mistaken for the driving wall of sound that is classic Black Metal. This is the band’s biggest asset as well as their biggest liability. It’s warmed over attitude towards Black Metal will probably put them in the same “poser” category with bands like Cradle of Filth and Dimmu Borgir, but just like those other bands, they are talented enough to win over the majority of less subjective metal fans. The important fans that love good metal no matter how “true” it is. If it has any drawbacks it’s that the keyboards, while perfectly satisfactory, probably could have been dropped without anybody noticing, as the guitars are completely dominant. But hey, I’m never going to complain about dominant guitars!
"I’m really digging this album right now, and I think you will too." I’m really digging this album right now, and I think you will too. One word review: Great!
Death's Review:
Why Dragonlord's 'Rapture' is One of the Best Albums of 2001, by Death.
TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1: Life Imitates Art, Art Imitates Life, and Everything Comes Full Circle Chapter 2: Dragonlord Fucking Smokes
I. Life Imitates Art, Art Imitates Life, and Everything Comes Full Circle
Testament took the thrash metal world by storm in the mid-to-late-eighties, totally lighting a fire under the collective ass of the thrash metal world by inventing and defining the sub-sub-genre of technical/melodic San Francisco thrash (compare Exodus' Bonded by Blood with Pleasures of the Flesh to understand the distinction). Songs like "Over the Wall," "Burnt Offerings," "Disciples of the Watch" and "Trial By Fire" were so fucking intricate, offering complex picking patters, classically-inspired leads and melodic dual-guitar interplay over a brutal double-bass drumming attack. Testament ruled, with its tight blend of catchy melodic thrash, precision aggression and brutality.
Meanwhile, some of Testament's members gained individual renown for their musical skills, most notably guitar wizard Alex Skolnik. With frontman Chuck Billy whipping the pit into a frenzy and Skolnik wowing the Yngwie freaks, Testament built a sizeable audience playing some serious fucking thrash. Things looked good for Testament, and for a short time in the late eighties/very early nineties they rode just the other side of the crest of the wave that would send them crashing onto shore as one of metal's biggest true metal bands.
"Peterson showed us that he is so metal he rusts when it rains." Very quickly, things began to unravel. 1990's Souls of Black and 1992's Ritual were both cool, but each could also fairly be described as both boring and mildly uninspired. Since as early as 1988's Practice What You Preach (Testament's third and best selling record), true fans had been able to hear the slippage into commercial mediocrity wear through into the music. And although Testament did eventually parlay this sound into some limited commercial radio airplay with ballad tracks like "Return to Serenity," it was obvious that Testament had become something other that the same visceral, energetic powerhouse that metalheads had signed on to support only a few years back. Whatever the commercial impact of this material for Testament, by the time really began to mine the more commercial side of its sound in the early nineties, the grunge sound was beginning to happen and metal was suddenly unhip anyway. Testament's days seemed numbered.
By the time 1994's Low record came around, Skolnik had left the band, dealing the future of Testament a major blow. Apparently, Skolnik had been wanting to make more commercially accessible music for some time now, and one could only push the envelope of the Testament moniker so far. In another life, this might have been the end of the road for Testament. Billy's ability to maintain interest in the project seemed questionable. In the end, Low, with James Murphy on guitar, was good enough not to bury the act. But what caught most fans' interest was the track "Dog Faced Dogs," on which Billy had abandoned his gruff yet melodic sing-songy thrash vocals for a total cookie-monster/mic-swallowing, gutteral death metal approach. It sounded sick! Metallica was gone, Megadeth were well on their way, but Testament had done a death metal track! A hint of excitement came back to Testament: perhaps Skolnik's departure was just the spark Testament needed to send them back into the underground and back to wave the flag of true metal. We could only hope.
We soon found out that it was. Testament at this point had been essentially reduced to Chuck Billy and original second guitarist Eric Peterson. Yet tentative plans to change the moniker to Dog Faced Gods were abandoned when the band recruited metal legend Gene Hoglan (Dark Angel, Strapping Young Lad) (drums) and delivered what almost could be described a basically a full death metal record, joining Pantera as perhaps the only major thrash bands to get noticeably heavier as the years went on. Testament were back. Not only were they back, they did the only thing they could to top themselves for the next record by recruiting the one and only Dave Lombardo (Slayer, GRIP, Inc.) (drums) in his much heralded return to thrash metal on 1999's The Gathering (and also Steve DiGiorgio (Sadus) and James Murphy), easily one of the top five thrash albums of the 1990's and probably one of the top twenty-five of all time. Things just kept getting better and better in Testament-land. By becoming more metal, Testament had literally saved itself.
"Out of nowhere, I was suddenly being pummeled with what may be one of the best albums of 2001. Where the fuck did this shit come from?" In 1999, our partner-site, metalupdate.com ran an interview with Testament guitarist Eric Peterson. Peterson showed his true colors, proving to be one of the most metal guys in metal today. Peterson showed us that he is so metal he rusts when it rains. Reading that interview, it was wonderful to discover the extent to which Peterson was a rabid fan of diverse, modern and extreme metal music. He likes this shit as much as you do.
And it made me think about the evolution of metal. Bands like Venom, Bathory and even Possessed were at one point or another referred to as black metal, and these bands undoubtedly had an influence on Testament. Yet Testament were thrash/speed metal, and they undoubtedly had an influence on the Florida death metal acts of the early nineties. Death, Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel and the like had to have influenced Emperor, Enslaved and Mayhem. And now, here we are in 2001, and those bands and other black metal giants like Cradle of Filth and Dimmu Borgir have obviously left their black marks on Testament, at least on Eric Petersen, who together with DiGiorgio and fellow current-Testament members Steve Smyth and Jon Allen, have produced Dragonlord, a black metal-influenced thrash outfit that have produced one of the most inspired albums of 2001.
Life imitates art, art imitates life, and everything comes full circle.
II. Dragonlord Fucking Smokes
I put in Rapture, not knowing what to expect really, other than the fact that this was essentially an Eric Peterson solo project, and that Peterson was into black metal, and that this would probably be his attempt to combine the two. I also knew that this was 4/5th of the current Testament, and that it would be released on Spitfire, meaning the money for a well-produced effort was probably there. I guess I did have some expectations, didn't I? Still, my jaded ears were nowhere even close to prepare for what came out of my speakers. Out of nowhere, I was suddenly being pummeled with what may be one of the best albums of 2001. Where the fuck did this shit come from?
Dragonlord could be described as Cradle of Filth meets Testament's The Gathering record. Yes, this album includes numerous black metal elements. Haunted house keyboards, tremolo picking and blast beats are everywhere. From the opening instrumental, "Vals De La Muerte," it is clear that this is a northern-European journey into wintery sounds and bleak feelings, a place where hatred will be scorched into your sold by an icy and painful wind which forever burns-eh... you get the idea.
All that aside, the most strikingly black element are the vocals, expertly executed by Peterson himself. Peterson's vocals absolutely rule, done in the Cradle of Filth style of scream yet powered by so much passion, integrity and hatred that-even if wasn't Eric Peterson-these amazing vocals alone would capture my attention. It's that fucking good.
"But that is where the boundaries of the black metal you knew depart, and we enter into the realm of next level." But that is where the boundaries of the black metal you knew depart, and we enter into the realm of next level, Testament-style riffing, intricate guitar work, killer musicianship and perfect metal production that send this record over the top. I've never heard the black metal aesthetic executed with as much precision and sheer thick brutal riffage as is delivered here. Black metal fan or old school thrasher, you can't help but bang your head incessantly with every listen. Even better-the music is so filled with anger and aggression that I want to throw every piece of furniture I own through the window of my apartment every time I hear it. Check out the absolutely fucking sick riff that kicks off "Tradition and Fire" just after the opening blast beat. Holy fucking shit!! Listen to the galloping pedal-point four measure riff, and marvel each time as the trademark Testament third measure variation treats us to a sliding octave power chord that just makes it sound so fucking... so fucking Testament-like.
I'd also be remiss not to mention that Rapture sports the single best moment in metal so far this year. Track 5, "Judgment Failed," at 2:10. Things get quiet for the choral orchestration and the clean voice. Then the brilliant and tasteful clean guitar soloing comes in, followed by a cool bassline, under "Judging me, Judging God, Judging You, Judging Me, Judging You, Judgmental, Judgment Failed!": at approx. 3:15 the snare goes sick and the heavy riff comes in. This shit makes me want to DESTROY SHIT!!!!!! Like Slayer's "Raining Blood" or something!!!
"I'd also be remiss not to mention that Rapture sports the single best moment in metal so far this year." I love it, I love it all. Rapture rules, and Dragonlord fucking smokes.
Hel's Review:
I'm no diehard black metal devotee, but I might be if all black metal bands were like Dragonlord. The fabled side project of Testament guitarist Eric Peterson has finally come to be. Personally, I find it impossible to imagine how any fan of the metal arts could not find themselves held in thrall.
"I find it impossible to imagine how any fan of the metal arts could not find themselves held in thrall. " In my humble experience, I have found that I rarely listen to a black metal album and find myself captivated by a virtuoso guitar performance - but it is a far different story when it's Eric Pederson running the show. Anyone who plays guitar with the kind of skill this man possesses, does so unconsciously and, without even knowing they've made themselves the center of attention, a musician with this level of talent will capture the attention of the entire audience. Translation: the man can't help it - he's just damn good.
Despite the way my focus is naturally drawn to the guitar work, overall, Rapture is a remarkably balanced work. Beautifully produced and written with incredible skill, it's obvious that Eric loves black metal, and like his amazing guitar playing, he just can't help but let it show. His vocal performance is remarkable as well, and shows impressive versatility. Of course, the rest of the band are no slouches either, and turn in massively powerful performances to a man.
"In short: all black metal should be this good. " I think Dragonlord has ably captured all the best parts of black metal - with none of the cheese that so often accompanies the sub-genre. For example, the keyboards have the expected haunted house tone, but refrain from going over the edge from spooky ambience to carnival spook-house ride - and that's the way it should be. In short: all black metal should be this good.
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