Latest Review: Magic Lantern - High Beams

Long Beach’s Magic Lantern have finally gone and released a new sonic document after what seemed like an eternity of waiting. Eagerly anticipated by those who have been biding their time waiting for the band to get on with their uber limited cassette only and CD-R releases (their Self-Titled CD-R was limited to 30), “High Beams”, the band’s latest opus [...]

Saviours - Into Abaddon

There seems to be nary a negative review of Saviours sophomore release, Into Abaddon, and first for New York’s Kemado Records. And though this will not be an entirely negative review, I just feel that others may have had the cloth of Kemado’s “we put out The Sword” pulled over their eyes.

Saviours’ Into Abaddon is a seven song “epic” that draws heavily from the catalogs of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal acts of the late 70’s and early 80’s as well as from their local Bay Area neighbors, High On Fire. Things kick off on the right foot immediately with the opening song, “Raging Embers”, a galloping riff-tastic ride that seems to best represent the album’s stellar artwork. But it is after the third or fourth song that it becomes apparent that Saviours are a one-trick-pony, as each song just kind of runs into one another without any real variation and all of sudden half the album is over you have no idea how many songs you’ve heard. None of this is helped by the fact that vocalist Austin Barber knows only one vocal tone and whether it’s an intentional style nod or not, he refuses to inject any melody into the mix, something desperately needed to help distinguish each song.

The best parts of every Saviours song is the first forty five seconds, it is where the band offers the listener something new each time (the only real variations the band seems comfortable with) before returning to the same palm muted chug chug guitar part that underlies each verse and provides the base for Barber’s vocals. Most of the break downs are stellar and do vary stylistically, it just by the time the band gets to them, you’re pretty worn out from the verse (I don’t believe there are any choruses in the traditional sense in Saviours songs).

Now if this sort of thing doesn’t bother you, Into Abaddon will probably suit you just fine, every song is absolutely packed full of gigantic guitar riffs and an absolutely pulverizing rhythm section, it’s just for folks like me who need something more or else it all comes off like an exercise, we’ll just have to wait until the new Torche album comes out.

MP3: Saviours - Cavern Of Mind