Black Anvil - As Was
Angry Metal Guy
Black Anvil is one of those bands you always expect to break through on their next record. Formed in 2007 by members of New York hardcore act Kill Your Idols, the black metal quartet’s 2009 debut Time Insults the Mind and 2010 follow-up Triumvirate initially seemed poised to break the group out of the underground with their infusion of Watain-style riffing into a sweaty hardcore aesthetic. Sadly, the riffs weren’t too memorable, and the songwriting possessed a frustrating “almost-there” quality which ultimately left those records collecting dust on my shelf. It wasn’t until 2014’s Hail Death that Anvil really stepped things up, incorporating latter-day Behemoth riffs and hefty chugs into longer, more adventurous compositions. It should have been the album that made them a household name – instead, Death seemed to be largely dismissed as a 67-minute slog whose songwriting couldn’t support the seven-minute song lengths. Three years later, will As Was finally give Anvil their big break?
That certainly seems to be what the band’s hoping for. Right from the first minutes of opener “On Forgotten Ways,” it’s clear we’re in for a wholly different beast than past records. Sure, the melodic black metal riffing and swamp-hag rasps are still here, but the monumental chugs of Death have largely been replaced by ample use of airy singing, resonant leadwork, and progressive interludes. Take the title track, which supplements the trudging build of its verses with wailing clean vocals, before moving into what sounds like a major key progressive rock section, and then concluding with a stomping melodic finish. Even the blastbeats and twisted tremolos of “May Her Wrath Be Just,” the shortest and most direct track here, lead to a conclusion of harmonized cleans.
On the whole, this is easily the lightest record Black Anvil have yet produced, but that doesn’t mean the band has forgotten how to write a decent riff. Second-half highlight “As an Elder Learned Anew” sounds like an old Rotting Christ song with its addictively simple, ritualistic progression, while “Nothing” features a conclusion of swaggering cock-rock riffs and wahhing solos which betray the group’s apparent affinity for hard rock.1 But the real standout performance is the drumming of Raeph Glicken. As heard on “Nothing,” Glicken can blast with the best of them, but he really shines when he deftly shifts into a peppier tempo on aforementioned “Anew,” or incorporates thrumming buildups on tracks like “Two Keys: Here’s the Lock” and album highlight and closer “Ultra.”
Yet while the band’s shift toward more experimental territory doesn’t bother me, there are some irritating things about As Was that prevent me from scoring it higher. At 8 tracks and 51 minutes in length, Was is a long record, a fact exacerbated by the fairly mellow second half and occasionally unfocused songwriting. Take aforementioned “Two Keys,” which features an opening that recalls acoustic Opeth, before meandering for nine minutes without ever landing on a memorable riff. While songs like “Ways” use a rough verse-chorus format to good effect, on the whole these tracks don’t ever feel like they really climax or explode like they should – instead, they simply float along, one decent idea after another, with just a whiff of unfulfilled potential.
Still, front to back this a well-arranged and enjoyable album, and the ritualistic vibe generated by the cooing singing and sinister, haunting guitars gives As Was a hearty dose of atmosphere. Fans of the band’s more savage past works may be slightly disappointed, but it’s hard to fault a band for experimenting and expanding their sound. In the future, Black Anvil would do well to hone their songs by focusing on the truly biting riffs and cutting out the obviously inferior ones, as well as varying the delivery of their melodic singing. For now, As Was is a competent and enjoyable progressive black metal record, that, once again, has me thinking they’ll really come into their own on their next record. Fingers crossed.
Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Relapse Records
Websites: facebook.com/blackanvil | blackanvil.bandcamp.com
Releases Worldwide: January 13th, 2017
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Sun Jan 15 15:36:53 GMT 2017Pitchfork 75
When Black Anvil covered the obscure KISS ballad “Under the Rose” as a deluxe bonus track for their last album, 2014’s Hail Death, it drove home the point that no influence was off limits. Choosing that song—which hails from the one album where the otherwise hedonistic KISS tried their hand at a weighty concept—effectively worked as a declaration of Black Anvil’s contrarian streak. Moreover, rather than give “Under the Rose” a predictably harsh makeover, Black Anvil more or less opted to preserve its original form, which alternates between delicate acoustic guitar-driven verses and a chorus that weds chunky hard-rock guitar with moody grandeur.
On paper, it was a splashy move. But the truth is that the KISS cover fits right in with the rest of Hail Death, which captures the New York black metal outfit taking risks right from the opening note. At that stage, after two albums of full-on heaviness, Black Anvil were starting to infuse their blackened thrash with influences that, by comparison, fall close to pedestrian ’80s hair metal. Somehow, though, they made all the elements on Hail Death fit together—which isn’t quite as surprising when you consider that, as New York hardcore veterans, Black Anvil hold Twisted Sister in the same esteem as Bad Brains and the Cro-Mags.
On their new album As Was, Black Anvil remain as willing as ever to stretch, but it takes more patience to see their range this time. The eight-minute opening number “On Forgotten Ways” contains plenty of twists and turns, but other than some melodic vocals, it doesn't introduce any new expressions to the band's palette. When you compare those clean vocals to similar phrasing by say, Charlie Looker of Psalm Zero, Black Anvil sound like they’re running with a pack rather than striking out on their own. And when frontman/bassist Paul Delaney screeches, he hits so close to Carcass frontman Jeff Walker you have to wonder if Delaney is doing an homage.
It isn’t until the third and title track that the album suddenly opens up. Where many black metal acts overplay their hand when it comes to mood, resulting in exaggerated, even comical, attempts at drama, Black Anvil make a genuine appeal to the emotions as the title track ebbs and flows, its heavy buildups placed ever-so-carefully in relation to serene sections where acoustic guitars function as so much more than just unplugged electrics. Songs like this usually expose bands as trying too hard, but “As Was” unfolds with effortless grace.
Going even further on “Nothing,” Black Anvil follow a smoky keyboard section worthy of Yes artist Roger Dean with a highway-bound rook groove reminiscent of shredding icon Joe Satriani’s “Summer Song.” The band even channels its inner David Lynch with the eerie twang that introduces “Two Keys: Here’s the Lock.” Such moves might carry a whiff of ironic perversion if they didn't blend in so well.
Like Celtic Frost before them, Black Anvil conjure a profound darkness that isn't necessarily rooted in hatefulness or negativity. It’s been a long, long time since Satan became for black metal what cars and sex are to rock’n’roll, and Black Anvil don't even directly refer to the devil on As Was. Instead, they repeatedly address the presence of vaguely supernatural entities they refer to only as “he” and “she”—“She speaks to me/I can hear her faintly/She whispers, she screams/a name unspoken” Delaney sings on “May Her Wrath Be Just.”
“On Forgotten Ways” refers to a “beast” that “writhes in agony/Beside me, within me/A part of me.” The lyrics never have to get overly specific to make it clear that Black Anvil are channeling real-life struggles. In that way, As Was aims far beyond the sophomoric black-metal fare that uses Satan as a way of saying “fuck you” to world. And while the interpretation is left to the listener, Black Anvil manage to be thoroughly convincing with As Was, an album whose lyrical opacity strengthens the versatility of the music, and vice-versa.
Wed Jan 11 06:00:00 GMT 2017