Night After Night

State of the Union.

No further comment.

(Buy it here.)

Album review: Abnormality, 'Mechanisms of Omniscience'

My review of the new second LP by Marlborough death-metal quintet Abnormality is in today's Globe. No surprise that I'd dig a record so efficiently brutal; still, it was fun to play Mechanisms of Omniscience enough times repeatedly one day, interspersed with dips into the band's back catalog (a demo, an EP, and an impressive debut LP) to work out why and then put it into words. And it was also pretty satisfying to file a review that included no reference at all to gender.

Right now, Abnormality - who I first wrote about back in December for a Globe round-up of acts to watch in 2016 - is on the road with Soulfly and Suffocation, playing Revolution in Amityville, NY, on Friday night and Fete Ballroom in Providence, RI, on Saturday. On Sunday the tour hits the Mill City Ballroom in Lowell, MA, expanding into a full-day event. Since I can't make it to any of those shows, I've got my fingers crossed that the band will hit Boston proper, soon and hard.

Best of Boston Music 2015.

Right now on the Boston Globe site, you can read a couple of pretty great team-sourced lists of the best recordings released by local artists in 2015. There's one for pop music and one for classical music; naturally I took advantage of my editorial access and contributed to both lists. Here are my five small but meaningful contributions, all together in one place:

ARTEM BELOGUROV
“American Romantics: The Boston Scene”
You could argue no masterpieces are resurrected by this illuminating recital, but you’d be missing the point. Belogurov, playing on a mellow 1873 Chickering, artfully surveys piano works by Boston’s best-known promulgators of the Romantic lineage: eminences Foote, Paine, and Chadwick, alongside forgotten figures like Ethelbert Nevin and Arthur Whiting. Of especially keen interest is the Rhapsody in E minor by Margaret Ruthven Lang, the first woman to have a composition played by the Boston Symphony — and who attended BSO concerts beyond her 100th birthday.

ELDER
“Lore”
Eminent already among stoner-metal circles, the trio of vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Nicholas DiSalvo, bassist Jack Donovan, and drummer Matthew Couto took their collective game to the next level on their third full-length LP. Mind you, Elder can still noodle a colossal riff into mass hypnosis. But here, the group leavened its Sleep-ier tendencies with pinwheeling guitar slaloms, arresting dynamic shifts, shimmering krautrock grooves, and other proggy flourishes.

MARTI EPSTEIN
“Hypnagogia”
Transported by a recording of Morton Feldman’s otherworldly “Rothko Chapel” while studying music in college, composer Marti Epstein related in a recent Globe interview, she formed a style in which musical elements coincide or coalesce seemingly of their own volition. The four pieces elegantly rendered here by the Ludovico Ensemble range in length from under 2 minutes to more than 45, and call for varying instrumental forces. But all share qualities of spaciousness and luminosity, twinkling like constellations or twirling like mobiles. (www.cdbaby.com)

MORGAN EVANS-WEILER
“Violin/Sine”
Simple, even severe methods plus intense focus produce transfixing results on this latest self-released disc from a performer, composer, and sound artist who’s also one of the local scene’s hardiest organizers. His three pieces here have a Rothko-like quality: Elongated, uninflected violin strokes lap against pealing electronic tones like subtly contrasting color planes, conjuring ripples and shimmers as they lap and fuse.

FÓRN
“Weltschmerz”
Following up on its brutal, brilliant 2014 debut LP, “The Departure of Consciousness,” sludge-metal quintet Fórn greeted the end of 2015 with an EP well suited to the end of days. The band’s penchant for pitch-black, downtuned anthems of obsessive dread remains intact with “Dolor” and “Saudade” — each around 11 minutes and split into two parts — but equally evident is a surprising knack for anguished beauty, which makes these haunted ruminations feel oddly humane.

Ten albums without which 2015 would have been less rich, and more.

Today - Friday, December 11 - the Boston Globe posted lists of the best albums of 2015 as selected by six critics: staffers James Reed, Sarah Rodman, and Jeremy Eichler, plus regular contributors Julian Benbow, Jon Garelick, and Siddhartha Mitter. Those lists will all be in this Sunday's print edition, too.

Last year, I was able to slip a list of my own into print, in the context of my then-extant monthly series "Newer Music" With that column now discontinued, a listing of the records that moved me most in 2015 migrates to the one place over which I retain complete control.

I'd love to think that I'll come back to these lists and add helpful little blurbs, but given my track record of late, if I hesitate I might never get this posted, or at least not in 2015. And so, without further ado...

10 albums without which 2015 would have been less rich.

1. Steve Reich - Music for 18 Musicians - Ensemble Signal/Brad Lubman (Harmonia Mundi)

2. Greg Stuart & Ryoko Akama - kotoba koukan (Crisis/Lengua de Lava)

3. Jeph Jerman & Tim Barnes - matterings (Erstwhile)

4 (tie). Jürg Frey - Mémoire, horizon; Extended Circular Music Nos. 1, 2, 5, 6, 3 & 7; Architektur der Empfindungen - Konus Quartett, Mondrian Ensemble (Musiques Suisses)

4 (tie). Jürg Frey - Grizzana and other pieces 2009-2014 - Ensemble Grizzana (Another Timbre)

6. Anna Thorvaldsdóttir - In the Light of Air - International Contemporary Ensemble (Sono Luminus)

7. Paula Matthusen - Pieces for People - Terri Hron, James Moore, Jamie Jordan, Mantra Percussion, Kathleen Supové, Yvonne Troxler, Molly Shaiken, Tiit Helimets, Wil Smith, orkest de ereprijs/Wim Boerman, Todd Reynolds (Innova)

8. Michael Pisaro - A mist is a collection of points - Phillip Bush, Greg Stuart (New World)

9. Allison Cameron - A Gossamer Bit - Contact (Redshift Music)

10. James Moore & Andie Springer - Gertrudes: music for violin and resonator guitar (New World)

 

10 more notable albums.

Henri Dutilleux - Métaboles; Violin Concerto, "L'arbre des songes"; Symphony No. 2, "Le double" - Augustin Hadelich, Seattle Symphony/Ludovic Morlot (Seattle Symphony Media)

Lukas Foss - Symphonies Nos. 1-4 - Boston Modern Orchestra Project/Gil Rose (BMOP/sound)

Ted Hearne - The Source - Ted Hearne, Mellissa Hughes, Samia Mounts, Isaiah Robinson, Jonathan Woody, Courtney Orlando, Anne Lanzilotti, Leah Coloff, Taylor Levine, Greg Chudzik, Ron Wiltrout, Nathan Koci (New Amsterdam)

Jenny Olivia Johnson - Don't Look Back - Megan Schubert, P. Lucy McVeigh, Amanda Crider, Jessica Schmitz, Eileen Mack, Andrew Delclos, Todd Reynolds, Peter Gregson, David Russell, Melinda Menezes, Lisa Liu, Dan Kozak, Isabelle O’Connell, Eliko Akahori, Jake Penn Kozak, Jude Traxler, Jenny Olivia Johnson, Nathaniel Berman, Adam Weiner (Innova)

Missy Mazzoli - Vespers for a New Dark Age - Mellissa Hughes, Victoire, Glenn Kotche, Lorna Dune (New Amsterdam)

Andrew Norman - Play; Try; Boston Modern Orchestra Project/Gil Rose (BMOP/sound)

Dmitri Shostakovich - Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District - Passacaglia; Symphony No. 10 - Boston Symphony Orchestra/Andris Nelsons (Deutsche Grammophon)

Sarah Kirkland Snider - Unremembered - Padma Newsome, DM Stith, Shara Worden, Unremembered Orchestra/Edwin Outwater (New Amsterdam)

Scott Worthington - Prism (Populist)

Nordic Affect - Clockworking - compositions by Maria Huld Markan Sigfúsdóttir,  Hildur Gudnadottir,  Hafdís Bjarnadóttir,  Thurídur Jónsdóttir, and Anna Thorvaldsdóttir (Sono Luminus)

 

Another 10 notable albums.

Alex Cobb - Chantepleure (Students of Decay)

Sarah Davachi - Barons Court (Students of Decay)

Chris Dingman - The Subliminal and the Sublime (Inner Arts)

Mary Halvorson - Meltframe (Firehouse 12)

Iron Maiden - The Book of Souls (BMG)

Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly (Top Dawg/Interscope)

Bill Seaman - f(noir) (Eilean)

Joanna Wallfisch & Dan Tepfer - The Origin of Adjustable Things (Sunnyside)

Kamasi Washington - The Epic (Brainfeeder)

Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower (Relapse)

 

10 labels to follow.

Another Timbre
Caduc
Edition Wandelweiser
Erstwhile
Glistening Examples
Irritable Hedgehog
Populist
New Focus Recordings
Sono Luminus
Weighter Recordings

Acid flashback: Ben Stas photos posted on Noise Floor.

Uncle Acid & the deadbeats, by Ben Stas/Noise Floor Photography

When I posted my Boston Globe review of a concert by Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats here last week, I suggested that interested readers watch out for a subsequent post by photographer Ben Stas on Invisible Oranges. Turns out I was half-right: Ben's posted more images of Uncle Acid, Ruby the Hatchet, and Ecstatic Vision, but on his own blog, Noise Floor, a smartly designed site chock full of Ben's words and visions. Well worth visiting and bookmarking -- and by all means be sure to check out his photos from the Scorpions show at Blue Hills Bank Pavilion earlier this month, too.

Live review: Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats, Royale, Sept. 14, 2015

Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats, by Ben Stas/Boston Globe

"Uncle Acid dispenses mystery, melody at Royale"
Boston Globe
September 16, 2015

A fun show with a solid bill, top to bottom. Keep an eye out for a report with copious photos from Globe shooter Ben Stas at metal e-zine Invisible Oranges; meanwhile, read what Ben wrote about Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats last October, when the band made its local debut at the Middle East.

My own humble iPhone snaps of all three bands on the bill, including Ruby the Hatchet and Ecstatic Vision, follow after the jump.

Album review: Iron Maiden, 'The Book of Souls'

Album review: Iron Maiden, The Book of Souls
Boston Globe
September 4, 2015

Another one from last Friday…this actually shared a page with my Scorpions feature story, which made for a rather interesting impression on folks who mostly knew me for my work in The New York Times, which was about 99.99999995 percent about classical/concert music.

@nightafternight reviews Maiden in the Globe. This completes me, somehow. http://t.co/MaoF2iw9oT

— Owen Weaver (@owenHweaver) September 4, 2015

Which tells me something that I already knew about the sub-optimal circulation achieved by the Time Out New York website during the decade-plus that I wrote about metal there on a regular basis. Interviews with Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath), Scott Ian (Anthrax), Barney Greenway (Napalm Death), Frank Mullen (Suffocation), Randy Blythe (Lamb of God), Carley Coma (Candiria), and plenty more… it's as if they never happened.

Penetration makes all the difference. What a metal-worthy observation.

Anyway, at roughly 195 words my review of the amazing new Iron Maiden double set – a deluxe-edition copy of which I allowed myself the pleasure of purchasing with cash currency at a brick-and-mortar store today – really only scratches the surface. At that length, all you really hope to do is attract attention and pique interest enough to encourage a reader to investigate further.

If I'd had a few more lines, I like to think I would have written that the album sort of feels like two regular-length albums; that it's superbly paced and agreeably produced; that certain motifs here quite strongly recall specific songs from the initial albums Iron Maiden made with Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith back on board, Brave New World and Dance of Death; and that The Book of Souls, for its girth, is a more consistently strong album than its two worthy studio predecessors, A Matter of Life and Death and The Final Frontier.

Since I did not write any of that, I'll recommend strongly that you read the detailed, insightful, and convincing examination and analysis that Adrien Begrand wrote for PopMatters.

Next year's world tour can't come soon enough.

Interview: Rudolf Schenker of Scorpions

Scorpions, by Oliver Rath

"Scorpions celebrate a half-century, on record and onstage"
Boston Globe
Sept. 4, 2015

Did you know that the venerable German metal band Scorpions turns 50 this month? Neither did I… and according to this interview (and others I've read), neither did founding guitarist Rudolf Schenker until he went looking for an old tape containing a song the group had abandoned some time before, and instead found a book that his mother had given him in September of 1965: a ledger enumerating the loans that Schenker's father had provided in order to establish and equip the new band.

True, the Scorpions that most people know is the incarnation that topped the charts during the 1980s, polished by producer Dieter Dierks into a sleek vehicle known for big tunes, catchy riffs, and polished veneer. The band's pop-hit prime neatly coincided with MTV's early glory years, which meant that songs from Blackout, Love at First Sting, Savage Amusement, and Crazy World were everywhere.

If those albums still resonate, you might want to check out Return to Forever, which comes out this Friday, since it started out as a collection of unrecorded tunes from the years spanned by those releases, and then got fattened up with some new tunes intentionally tapping the glory-years sound.

The current Scorpions set list, devised for the summer festival circuit, will be maintained for the coming U.S. trek. It includes a hefty slab of the new album, as well as most of the big hits you'd anticipate. But it also digs deep for a handful of vintage cuts from the band's rougher, heavier '70s phase with guitarist Uli Jon Roth; if you've been missing "Top of the Bill" or "Speedy's Coming," this one's for you. I've been listening to an audience recording of one of those shows – specifically, Graspop Metal Meeting 2015, in Belgium on June 21 – for a few weeks now, and I can promise that it's a solid show. (If you're so inclined, you can check out a complete set list at setlist.fm.)

Also worth looking forward to is Forever and a Day, a very fine new Deutsche Welle documentary that spans the entire Scorpions saga, from a music video for the Black Sabbath-redolent "I'm Goin' Mad" (from the band's 1972 debut LP, Lonesome Crow) to footage from what was billed as the group's farewell tour, which ended in 2012. There's a one-day cinematic screening in the works for October 14, but presumably this is bound for home video soon.

So, yeah, there is an end in sight, again: In our interview, Schenker said that Scorpions will call it a day at the end of 2016… and I'm inclined to believe him. I'm not sure whether I'll be available to take him up on his offer to share a drink backstage at Blue Hills Bank Pavilion on Thursday night, when the U.S. leg of the 50th-anniversary tour commences, but I absolutely will be there in spirit – the interview was tremendous fun, and provided at least three times as much material as I could use even in a reasonably generous article. And perhaps I'll be able to catch the Saturday night show at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, which Yahoo will be streaming live.

Live review: Slipknot + Lamb of God, Xfinity Center, Aug. 4, 2015

 

Mick Thomson and Sid Wilson of Slipknot, by Matthew Shelter for Rolling Stone

Slipknot + Lamb of God
Xfinity Center, Mansfield, MA, Aug. 4, 2015
RollingStone.com
August 5, 2015

Much to my surprise and delight, my debut writing about music for Rolling Stone, to which I'd previously contributed a sizable Doctor Who feature last fall. I'm grateful to Hank Shteamer, former TONY compadre and now fellow TONY veteran, for the chance to write about the two mainstream metal acts I respect and enjoy the most, and had last seen together at Ozzfest in 2004 at Jones Beach.

Two other bands played on this bill. I'm sorry to have missed Motionless in White because of horrific traffic headed out to Mansfield after the freak hail storm that ran through Boston on Tuesday afternoon, but I did see Bullet for My Valentine.

That band played a solid, charismatic set, one much better received by the portion of this audience that saw it than was the only BfMV show I'd seen previously -- when the group opened for Guns N' Roses at Hammerstein Ballroom in 2006. A thankless task, one presumes.

As always, there are things that I reckon I could have done better with more time, but I'm happy with this fair representation of what went down last night. And as someone whose serious interest in music journalism/criticism began to show during a period of clipping reviews out of Rolling Stone in the '80s (so much Loder!), pasting them into scrapbooks, and trying to imagine what albums called Metal Box and Movement and Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller) might sound like, it's truly an honor to earn this particular byline.

Slayer at the Sinclair, April 29, 2015

Slayer, by Benjamin Stas/Boston Globe

Slayer at the Sinclair, April 29, 2015
Boston Globe
May 2, 2015