For those waiting for my top 10 list for 2025 do not despair, for I am almost done. I delved a bit deeper this year, but hopefully this means I have less “O, and also this one!” moments this year. Not none, just less.
For those who could give a fig about Top Ten lists and just want to thrash around a bit to some heavy music, today is your lucky day.
Disc 1896 is… Deathwestern
Artist: SpiritWorld
Year of Release: 2022
What’s up with the Cover? Looks like a movie poster to a film I absolutely have to see.
We’ve got a sheriff who looks possessed, and what I think is a witch (or a Deadite) wielding a dagger and a snake, and that’s just the larger figures.
Dig deeper and you’ll find a First Nations warrior riding a giant wolf, a battle between a cowboy and a couple of flying fat demons, and bonfire built out of skulls and bones. Even the fucking cacti are on fire.
All of which is to say, sign me up for opening night.
How I Came To Know It: I read a review of SpiritWorld’s 2025 record, “Helldorado”on Angry Metal Guy and I was intrigued. This led me into their back catalogue and to “Deathwestern”.
How It Stacks Up: I have two SpiritWorld albums. I like them both, but “Deathwestern” comes in at #2.
Ratings: 3 stars
SpiritWorld may be unable to decide if their band name should be one or two words (seriously, what is up with the middle-of-word capital?), but they have a strong sense of the kind of music they want to make. Thrash metal tinged with Western themes and musical interludes. They call this style ‘Deathwestern’ and it is what would happen if someone admired Pantera’s “Cowboys From Hell” album (reviewed way back at Disc 821) but had a fever, and the only treatment for that fever was more cowboy.
On 2025’s “Helldorado” this melding of sounds meets his full achievement, and more on that when I review it. On “Deathwestern” the band seems content to feature Western themes, but the music is 90% thrash (with a side helping of Death Metal if you listen carefully). The only actual Western sounds are in the one-minute-long intro “Mojave Bloodlust” and the first 45 seconds of “The Heretic Butcher”. Otherwise, let your hair down and mosh ‘til your neck hurts.
I would have probably preferred a more balanced mixing of the styles, but what SpiritWorld lack in variety they make up for in ferocity. This record is only 35 minutes long, but it infuses those 35 minutes with relentless fury.
The effect is a record where the songs all blend into each other a bit, but you don’t mind because they’re all good. The best of the bunch is the title track, which is offered in all caps – “DEATHWESTERN”. Two other songs do the same thing - I don’t know why. Perhaps they wanted those titles shouted at you a bit louder than the others? If so, I’m not sure why those songs – which rage no harder than any of the others – were selected. Surely “Purified in Violence” and “Crucified Heathen Scum” are themes that are just as shout-worthy as “ULCER” and “1000 DEATHS”.
But I digress…
Back to the TITLE TRACK, which features the thumping power of Thomas Pridgen (formerly of the Mars Volta) on drums, and does everything all the songs do on this record, but better. Every good thrash song needs a churning guitar riff, and this song has not one but two of the best on the album (in this kind of music having two great guitar grinds that play back and forth off of one another is a common recipe for success).
TITLE TRACK also has my favourite lyrical refrain, which is as filthy and aggressive as one could imagine. It tells the tale of our narrator sets about raping and murdering folks in the non-specific locale of “everywhere I fucking ride”. Disconcerting news for homesteaders everywhere.
“ULCER” also pulls no punches, suggesting heaven is just an ulcer in the belly of the beast. Again, disconcerting. The way the music roils along in this one definitely isn’t the singing of the celestial choir, but it will get you thrashing good and hard.
In the end, “Deathwestern” breaks a lot less ground than its title purports to, but that didn’t trouble me, because that one thing they do – crunching guitar riffs, furious drums and enough angry notions to fill the Grand Canyon – they do incredibly well.
This record also lays the groundwork for the more nuanced record that follows. “Deathwestern” may not surprise you, but you will be entertained.
Best tracks: DEATHWESTERN, ULCER, The Heretic Butcher, Lujuria Satanica
No comments:
Post a Comment