Be afraid, be very afraid
This writer, it must be said from the outset, is a wuss. MV doesn’t do horror films. In fact we can vividly recall the most scared we’ve ever been. Back in 1989, listening to Alice Cooper’s “Hey Stoopid” record on a Walkman (look it up if you are under 30). The last track on that album had a delay of about 15 seconds before a voice came in and said simply: “Steven….”
Such things mark indelibly on the soul…..
That, though, has nothing on the brand new album from All Hail The Yeti. The LA bruisers have decided to make a kind of concept piece with each one of the songs here telling a different tale in the US tradition of Campfire horror stories.
There are no half measures either. It starts with “Before The Flames” a heart-breaking and graphic tale of a child writing home to her parents from a children’s home and appearing to be murdered by the nuns who run it.
So, where do you go from there? Well, the ending piece, simply entitled “0” is ten minutes of woodland noises followed by a narration from someone who witnesses a brutal beating and drives off. No one offers any judgement, as far as we know there are no consequences, and the implication is that this is the people who have told these stories returning home.
Welcome to one of the bleakest and most nihilistic records of 2016. Oh and by the way, it also verges on brilliant frequently.
It does this because like all the best and most ambitious albums, there so many levels to this. Even if you weren’t interested in the concept here then a southern fried world which recalls Lamb Of God and Black Label Society is one you need to be involved in, right?
“Plague Dance” and “Let The Night Roar” are just mighty slabs of molten metal, “Lady Of The Night” is more of a gallop, and there’s some fine lead guitar on the more melodic “Daughter Of The Morning.”
The other thing that AHTY can do that few bands of the ilk can, is right a mighty hook. “Sun Never Sets” is simply made for an arena full of people to scream at the top of their lungs, and “Nemesis Queen” is so groove filled that even Corrosion Of Conformity might be jealous.
The absolute pinnacle, though, is the wonderful “Mr Murder” featuring Brock Lindow of 36 Crazyfists – a band who Yeti have toured with. The song, dedicated to a friend of AHTY singer Connor Garrity who died last year, is a real heads down classic and a fitting tribute.
There are a couple of others that step away from the horror and work well, “Fall Of Core” takes on the modern metal bands that are fake – and crushes them too. “Breaking The Wheel” is a story told from the point of view of the people going to the black wilderness (“whats the problem if we over-indulge? Can’t get enough of all the whiskey and drugs”) and is suitably hedonistic.
If “Witch Is Dead” manages to pull off the incredible of managing to be a metal cover of the Wizard Of Oz song and not being shit, then its far from the only surprise here. “Screams From A Black Wilderness” is bold, brutal, downright unsettling, but always compelling and often excellent.
Rating 8/10
