Song of the Crippled Bull

The problem with a lot of technical and progressive death metal bands is obvious: blatant skill show-off, while maintaining the traditional (but always same-sounding) death metal song structures. Although a good part of these bands save themselves with creative chord progressions, unusual rhythmic patterns, or simply - but most importantly - soulful playing (yes, those bands exist) - unless you're an absolute aficionado of technical music - you will find yourself trapped in a closed room with a present, monotonous smell filling your lungs. If you breathe it for long enough, you will possibly start enjoying even the most masturbatory and mindless noodlers such as Brain Drill. And even if you're not into that, even as a tech-death fan (I myself am one) you can agree with me that there aren't many absolutely unique bands.

Well, this is certainly not the case for Black Crown Initiate. They have created a masterpiece with "Song of the Crippled Bull". The mix between in-your-face death metal, black-metal-esque atmospheres and contemporary prog works so incredibly well, maybe perfectly well. And we're only talking about the unclean parts now. The EP (namely the track "Stench of the Iron Age") starts with a clean 8-string guitar arpeggio, with the band joining in - including an absolutely orgasmic bass line - and beautifully executed clean vocals by guitarist and band leader Andy Thomas. So far so good, right grandma? Until the fucking mayhem of polyrhythmic death metal riffing and soul-raping blast beats happens. Fuck yes. But worry not, fans of soulful music, as you will be able to enjoy more ear-honey clean sections later on.

While there are recurring motifs throughout the EP (particularly noticeable in the clean vocal lines and the solos), it is still musically very diverse. The structures are always different: no verse-chorus-verse or such to find here, the EP progresses like a classical symphony and remains interesting for the whole 21-minute run time, with the songs flowing into each other seamlessly. Lyrically, this album falls out of the death metal norms as well, standing in a line with superstars Opeth.

The only criticisable things about "Song of the Crippled Bull" are two. First, the pretty unextraordinary cover. There might be a hidden symbolism behind it, but with that enormous band logo exactly in the middle, I highly doubt it, or at least it's poorly showcased. Second, it's over way too soon. While 21 minutes isn't a particularly short runtime for an EP, it surely is for this one. If it was musically less captivating, it'd be OK. But we don't want that, do we? Had they prolonged "The Mountain Top" (3:30 minutes, really?) or maybe, maybe thrown in another track, adding up to almost 30 minutes, it would have been perfect.

It doesn't change the fact that this EP could be the pioneer of a new, yet unseen branch of technical death metal. It only lacks the right distribution and publicity.

I have a hypothesis - every decade, you come across a handful of bands that outdo everyone else. BCI is one of those bands - these fellows are incredible songwriters, and have compiled/executed an album of perfectly listenable material. This record meets the aforementioned criteria with surprising ease. "Song of The Crippled Bull" is a masterpiece of a record, and over the past year has captured the imagination of fans and musicians alike. If you enjoy extreme metal, this is a must have, otherwise you should just try to give this a spin anyway.

This is not hyperbole, this record is modern death metal at its finest. First of all, the guitar tone on this record is crushing; 8-string guitars have never sounded less like Meshuggah and more like what they were intended to be, instruments of destruction. Although this is a "prog" metal record, the riffs/solos are fairly straightforward which makes this even more interesting, because its less about being virtuosic and more about how the songs are written. Additionally, the fact that the bassist was audible was icing on the cake, and although the drums aren't played by an actual person - they're written exquisitely. Death metal drummers suffer a severe ailment, they don't actually know how to play a beat and let the music breathe - but this record does not suffer from this subtractive effect.

It is easy to write a solid death metal record - play fast. BCI have not fallen into this trap of compromising lack of writing ability with shred, and thus this record takes it time. Sure, there are blast beats and double bass sections all over, but the true power of this EP is the emotion. The interesting part is that although this band was a 3-piece, only one man, Andy Thomas, wrote the entire album. He is as eccentric and interesting a guy as I've seen, sublimely talented, well-spoken individual. This record is a very personal reflection of this character, a person who by his own admission thrives on pain.

There are just two drawbacks I can think of. First, although the guitar solos on this album are somewhat well phrased, but fairly average. I'm not as interested in playing fast as I am hearing good phrasing, but this record has neither fast solos nor particularly good phrasing. The leads just exist, although they're pretty cool, it doesn't add much to the record. Secondly, the EP is a little too short, although this is a minor point because it was intended to be this way.

In conclusion, buy this album, it is worth every penny.