Heavy Lord - Chained To The World (CD)

sludge doom metal, Solitude Productions, Solitude Productions
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CD
Price in points: 700 points
SP. 016-07 x
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Brand new (already third in a row) album by the Dutch riff masters of sludge/doom! Contribution of The Void Studio (known from such bands as Celestial Season, Motorpsycho, etc.) where the album has been recorded, mixed and produced made it possible for the band to reach a new level, presenting the listeners amazing and heavy sound. Compared to the previous record: From Cosmos to Chaos, the music became more brutal and destructive. Presence of mature musical skills, make the band one of the representatives of the genre. Finally, this release comes with a poster by Interzone.

Tracklist:
1 Chained To The World 5:01
2 Serpento 5:19
3 Maelstrom 10:52
4 Darius II 3:50
5 Looking Into The Makers Eyes 8:02
6 Eternal Crawl 10:33
7 Waiting To Die 5:41

Artist:
Heavy Lord
Artist Country:
Netherlands
Album Year:
2007
Title:
Chained To The World
Genre:
sludge doom metal
Format:
CD
Type:
CD Album
Package:
Jewel Case
Label:
Solitude Productions
Cat Num:
SP. 016-07
Release Year:
2007
Country Of Manufacture:
Russia
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Review
Imperiumi
7.5/10
01.05.2008

Hollantilainen Heavy Lord on edennyt kolmanteen julkaisuunsa ja on kiristänyt otetta huomattavasti. Perinteisen doom metalin parissa liikutaan, vaikka mausteita muistakin genreistä on kuultavissa.

Levyllä on yllättävänkin rivakkaa keskitempoista poljentoa, joka nopeasti kuittaantuu kun tahti hidastuu sludge-tahtiseksi jurnaamiseksi. Paikoitellen bändi pääsee ihan hyväänkin grooveen, jolloin riffit rullaavat esimerkillisesti, kohti vääjäämätöntä tuomiota. Electricwizardmaisia huuruisen synkkiä kohtia tauotetaan rivakammalla otteella, jolloin nopeammat kohdat korostuvat ja keventävät tunnelmaa jonkin verran, eikä levy pääse puuduttamaan. Tosin yleisesti ottaen, doom metalin ollessa kyseessä, puuduttavuus voi olla tiettyyn pisteeseen saakka positiivinenkin asia. Muutama biisi, esim. Darius II, kuulostaa siltä, että ne olisi voinut jättää jonkin toisen projektin julkaisulle, vaikka vaihteluahan tämäkin on.

Soundit platalla ovat kelpo tuhnua. Tummaa, säröttyä kitaramattoa piisaa yhden levyn tarpeiksi, mutta kitaroita ei ole kuitenkaan ihan tunnistamattomaksi muhjuksi asti väännetty. Soitanto on hyvässä balanssissa, kitarasooloissa tunnelmoidaan ja ylenmääräinen tiluttelu on jätetty lähestulkoon kokonaan pois. Vokalisti onnistuu sylkemään kuulijan päälle kohtuullisen määrän vihaa ja nihilismiä, joten tunnetasollakin saadaan kokea muutama kolhu.

Genreä ei olla lähdetty mullistamaan ja Heavy Lord kuulostaa ihan hyvältä, mutta liian usein tuntuu että tämä on kuultu jo aiemmin, enkä nyt tarkoita että perinteinen doom metal muuten olisi vehreintä kenttää musiikillisten mullistusten saralla, mutta jos suurin osa omista genren suosikeista onnistuu silti tuomaan tuttuun keitokseen sen verran omia makujaan että kuulostavat selkeästi itseltään, voi suhteellisen tiukan genren sisällä kuitenkin jotain uuttakin tehdä.

Odotan mielenkiinnolla mitä bändi jatkossa suoltaa sisuksistaan, mutta tämän levyn perusteella en bändiä kärkikastiin ole nostamassa, vaikka äänite kelvollinen onkin.

Author: Jukka Kolehmainen
Solitude Productions 11.06.2009, 00:04
Review
Metalcrypt
3.75/5
01.04.2008

Here's an album that would be much better if it weren't for the vocals, or more specifically the occasional but frequent use of "mallcore meets metalcore" type of screamo vocals. This takes so much away from the music, it's unbearable (unless, of course, this type of I-need-to-take-a-shit screams are OK with you.) When the singer gets into a style that fits the Stoner/Doom on display here, things are a lot better. The vocals get as slow and heavy as the music, literally pinning you to the ground, making you feel like a large tank is rolling over you back and forth (the ultimate sadomasochistic massage?) Chained to the World mixes those very slow, grinding and heavy numbers with a few more rocking ones that'll practically send you in an headbanging frenzy — only to slam you right back to the ground with another crushing blow (and there's that tank coming again.) A few 70ish Sabbath-esque moments are sure to bring a smile to the old schoolers out there — in fact, musically this is not all that modern overall, the old influences being almost omnipresent and the newer sound is usually kind of buried underneath all of this.

The album is filled with a dark and heavy, sometimes threatening atmosphere that quite poignant at times, and musically this is overall some pretty damn good stuff. The production is a bit thin at times, but nothing bad enough to prevent one from enjoying this. Really it's too bad that they opted to add some crappy vocals to this rather than stick to what fits, as this makes the album a tough listen for anyone who can't tolerate that stuff. Still, Chained to the World is a good collection of raw and heavy songs that's worth checking out if you can stomach the parasitic screamo vocals.

Author: Michel Renaud
Solitude Productions 11.06.2009, 00:03
Review
Metal District
7.5/10
16.05.2008

Bei „Chained to the World“ handelt es sich nach der 2004er Demo-Scheibe „The Holy Grail“ und dem 2006er Werk „From Cosmos To Chaos“ um das mittlerweile dritte Album der Holländer HEAVY LORD, welches im Winter des letzten Jahres veröffentlicht wurde.
Geboten wird ultrazäher, schleppend-grooviger Doom/Sludge Metal, der kompromisslos alles platt wälzt, was sich ihm in den Weg stellt.

HEAVY LORD haben es auf ihrer aktuellen Langrille geschafft, eine gute Mischung aus pulsierenden, fast schon monotonen Riffs auf der einen und treibenden, hitzigen Passagen auf der anderen Seite darzubieten, die eigentlich genau für das Maß an Abwechslung sorgen, welches „Chained to the World“ braucht, um so richtig aus den Vollen zu schöpfen.

Besonders originell und innovativ sind HEAVY LORD freilich nicht, aber wozu auch? War doch eh alles schon mal da und wenn die Musik gut funktioniert, ist das doch die Hauptsache. Und „Chained to the World“ funktioniert auf jeden Fall, denn was die Holländer da zelebrieren, weiß bis auf kleinere Schwächen einzelner Songs von Anfang bis Ende zu gefallen. Die insgesamt sieben Stücke schallen druckvoll aus der Anlage, die Produktion passt hervorragend und das Gesamtbild macht sich wirklich gut.
Stellenweise ist die Langrille zwar ein wenig schwer verdaulich, aber letztendlich besticht die Musik der vier Holländer durch einen gewissen Charme und Atmosphäre, die vielen anderen Bands fehlt.

Auch der Schallplatten-Fan wird bei HEAVY LORD auf seine Kosten kommen, denn „Chained to the World“ gibt es seit März 2008 auch als auf 500 Exemplare limitierte Vinyl-Edition. Na, dann kann dem Hörvergnügen ja nichts mehr im Wege stehen.

Author: Kath
Solitude Productions 11.06.2009, 00:02
Review
Metal Wave
7.5/10

"Chained to the world" è il secondo album in studio degli olandesi Heavy Lord, che segue di un anno il precedente "From cosmos to chaos", ed è stato da poco pubblicato anche in vinile. Questi quattro ragazzi propongono uno stoner doom ottimamente composto e suonato, che si dichiara esplicitamente come un tributo a gruppi come Cathedral, Electric Wizard, Crowbar, Eyehategod. In effetti nella musica degli olandesi si può sentire bene tanto l'influenza della scena stoner americana quanto le sonorità degli Electric Wizard. Entrambi i loro CD sono stati pubblicati per Solitude Productions, e devo dire che l'etichetta russa ha fatto un'ottima scelta a metterli sotto contratto.
I pezzi sono molto pesanti in quanto a sonorità, decisamente lenti, a volte soffocanti, e spesso basati su un unico riff, o un paio. A volte si ascoltano passaggi più "accelerati" e brani più veloci, come la quarta "Darius II", ma di solito la musica è claustrofobica, su alcuni pezzi si supera la durata di dieci minuti rendendo il tutto decisamente "heavy" nel senso doom del termine :) Nei riff si sentono spesso riferimenti agli immensi Black Sabbath del primo periodo. Inoltre farei notare anche l'influenza sludge doom che negli Heavy Lord sembra molto presente. La voce è molto "grattata" oltre che disperata e la sezione ritmica fa un preciso e buon lavoro di supporto al riffing delle chitarre. Il quinto pezzo "Looking into the makers eye" a me ha ricordato addirittura gli italiani Lento per il suo incedere.
Insomma un disco che a me è piaciuto molto anche se non molto originale, ma che importa, attualmente esistono pochi gruppi stoner doom validi e tra questi la sorpresa Heavy Lord, che spero avranno più seguito possibile!!!

Author: Heresy
Solitude Productions 11.06.2009, 00:02
Review
Icon Music Mag
4.5/10

Jeg vet ikke om jeg skal uttrykke bekymring eller glede når det russiske doom-metal plateselskapet Solitude Prod. gir ut noe annet enn doom. Heavy Lord spiller heavy metal med noen likheter med norske Stonegard.

Men som sagt så er dette utgitt på et doom-selskap og i musikken til Heavy Lord så er også doom et element som man må ta stilling til. Plata begynner kjappt med en veldig rask og catchy låt, men etterhvert på de andre låtene så blir det seigt, treigt og veldig doom-aktig. Noen låter høres litt ut som en blanding mellom Sepultura og Pantera, andre låter høres ut som Stonegard og mye høres ut som dårlig doom-metal, så man har med andre ord med en mangfoldig og variert skive. Vokalen er også veldig varierende, fra Cradle of filth-Dani til Pantera- Anselmo.

Grunnen til at jeg ikke nevner låttitler i denne anmeldelsen er fordi cd-coveret eller promoskrivet er totalt blottet for titler foruten om bandnavn og albumtittel, dumt for oss som skal anmelde. Jeg synes alt i alt at plata blir litt for Texas, altså for mye variasjon og de har egentlig ingen spesiell målgruppe de ønsker å nå.

Author: Kenneth Staurset Fåne
Solitude Productions 11.06.2009, 00:01
Review
Kronos Mortus
8.5/10
06.03.2008

A holland sludge-doom zenekar harmadik albumához érkezett. A korábbi lemezekhez képest talán „brutálisabbá” és elrettentőbbé vált. Nagyon koszos stoner riffeket hallhatunk, mintha a mocsár aljáról jönnének azok a bizonyos őrületbe kergető refrének. A dob is szinte csak püfög, mintha valami por fedné az egészet és nem adná ki tisztán a hangokat. A vokál is teljesen gyászos összképet ad, erre a lassú hömpölygő masszára. Izgalmas és érdekes váltásokat figyelhetünk meg, jól variálják a riffeket. Úgy érzem, a zenekarnak már kialakult egy rájuk jellemző hangulati világ. Persze nem úgy kell érteni, hogy még senki nem csinált ilyet, de amit tudnak a srácok azt nagyon jól játsszák.

Hosszabb dalokat is találunk a lemezen, ami 10 percen felüli, de egyáltalán nem unalmas, sőt talán még jobbak, mint a rövidebbek, mert izgalmasak és sok minden történik bennük. A tempót is gyakran váltogatják. Helyenként szinte temetői hangulat és halálfélelem érzet uralkodik, néhol pedig egy gyorsabb témára váltanak és a dühösebb oldalukat mutatják meg. A hangzásról annyit, hogy oké, hogy valamennyire „piszkosabb” hangzást szeretnének, de én ettől egy jobb hangzást is eltudnék képzelni. Mindenesetre a nagyrészt középtempóra épülő dalokban az izgalmas stoner riffekkel egyfajta sötét hangulatot árasztva, egy pozitív összképet alakított ki bennem a ’Chained To The World’ lemez. Mindenkinek csak ajánlani tudom.

Author: Lemezismertetők
Solitude Productions 11.06.2009, 00:00
Review
Pavillion 666
9/10
16.04.2008

La hollande, l'autre pays du fromage, après s'être débarrassée de Dave chez nous, s'est fait pardonnée en nous offrant quelques uns des groupes de death old school les plus marquants et a fortement contribué à lancer la mode des groupes de doom/death à chanteuse. Mais ça n'est pas tout, car aujourd'hui, les fromages de Hollande font dans le lourd, le graisseux, l'écrasant...avec Heavy lord, le groupe bien nommé.

Bien nommé car « Chained to the world » , deuxième création du quatuor, est un album d'un incroyable pesanteur, d'une épaisseur faramineuse. Puisant sa source dans les origines de ce que l'on nomme le doom metal, Heavy lord sait composer des riffs psychédéliques bien typés 70's, à la fois lourds et mélodiques, que Black sabbath n'aurait pas renié. Les rythmiques très variées permettent à l'album de ne pas tombé dans la linéarité, tantôt mid tempo au groove foudroyant, tantôt d'une lourdeur effarante. La touche mélodique rock/psyché n'est pas en reste, les solos bien mélodiques étant fréquents et particulièrement plaisants (« Serpento »). Mais les hollandais aiment jouer sur plusieurs tableaux. Ainsi pour rendre leur musique encore plus dense, Heavy lord insuffle une bonne dose de sludge façon Eyehategod ou Crowbar, épaississant le son, ralentissant le tempo et hurlant des vocaux rageurs. Le son est gras, grondant, un véritable mur du son puissant et écrasant, qui assomme littéralement l'auditeur. Et lorsque la tension monte, Heavy lord se rend plus agressif, voir brutal, en rajoutant une couche de thrash, comme sur l'ébouriffant « Darius II » qui lui, assomme par sa puissance et sa batterie martelante. Finalement, on ressort de cet album comme terrassé par sa lourdeur, son agressivité et son insidieuse trame mélodique.

Remarquable hybride de genres, Heavy lord se doit de trouver une place de choix chez tous les fans de doom, dans son acceptation la plus large. Véritable rouleau compresseur, cet album fera vibrer vos murs et hurler vos voisins, mais c'est tellement bon que vous ne le remarquerez même pas...

Author: Oceancloud
Solitude Productions 10.06.2009, 23:59
Review
Metalstorm
9.3/10
19.05.2008

Sometimes a, so-called, reviewer should be really ashamed of oneself. And one of those is certainly me.
First of all, for the time it took me to finally finish this review, and second of all, and most importantly, for overlooking a great, local, band.
Only last November did I find out about Heavy Lord. And that happened only by accident since they replaced Eria d'Or at Dutch Doom Day 2007. Heavy Lord have been around since 2002 and Chained To The World is already their third full-length (that's including their self-released debut The Holy Grail).
Released in December of 2007 and only now reviewed here on Metal Storm.
The biggest reason for me to keep on procrastinating the review of Chained To The World is the fact that this is for me an almost perfect sludge album. And somehow I wanted to find some fault with it. Well, there is one, and that is that live this band is even better than on album with a rawer bite to it than on this slab. Seeing Heavy Lord live is an experience in itself.
Since Heavy Lord crawl through the quagmire of the sludge netherworlds expect good old Black Sabbath influences. But thank God they have managed to make them into a sound of their own thus only paying tribute to the grand ol' masters and not ripping them off. Once you have heard Heavy Lord for the very first time they are instantly recognisable. With sludge that is always a good thing.
Chained To The World is a varied offering even consisting of two pacier songs in the form of Darius II (with its midpaced thrashy opening riff) and Waiting To Die (the beginning sounding like an old school thrash song). But it is with the slow paced longer songs that Heavy Lord gets it all right. Here they take the time to build it all up so that the song sucks the listener in like a vortex of primordial ooze. Best examples being Maelstrom and Looking Into The Makers Eye. These two especially making me curse myself for discovering these Hellfeetsludgers this late.
People who think that The Netherlands' best metal is stuff such as After Forever, Within Temption, Epica, Autumn, Arjen Lucassen should be ashamed of themselves and think again. It is bands such as Detonation, Hail Of Bullets, Officium Triste, Akelei (promo to be reviewed soon), Obsidian, Non Divine and especially this Heavy Lord that make me proud to be Dutch.
Chained To The World is a sludge album that can easily compete with the best in the world. Well, yeah, why else did we as MS staff nominate it for best Sludge Album from 2007?

And for collectors of vinyl...
Heavy Lord - Chained To The World can be bought directly from the band at their website http://www.heavylord.tk it is limited to 500 copies and wieghs 180 grammes.

Author: Marcel Hubregtse
Solitude Productions 10.06.2009, 23:58
Review
Diabolical Conquest
8.8/10
12.11.2008

I was instantly sold by this band's name. It's the sort of name a five-year-old might have recommended if asked to name what was roughly described to him or her as a particularly heavy band. On the basis of their image alone, you probably know what to expect: bluesy sludge doom, the kind that worships the template of Sleep, Down, and most fundamentally/obviously, classic Black Sabbath at their most dismal.

What makes Heavy Lord so heavy is that they understand the importance of pacing and tension. They give their songs great deal of space with loooong buildups, so when the lumbering framework lunges into those uptempo elephant rampage bits, it genuinely feels as if the band is throwing their weight around. Which isn't to say the album merely cycles between ponderous and violent; consider the song "Looking Into the Maker's Eye", wherein the focus is the elegant harmonic interaction between the main riff and its counterpoint. Draped in colorful blues leads, it's quite profound in its simple beauty.

Much like the musical progression of their stoner brethren Electric Wizard, instead of still attempting choking your ears to death with gallons of tarblack sludge, a sudden sense of relative sobriety has shifted their attention from sprawling sonic headfucks to bludgeoning grooves, with even their wasted 10+ minute epics seeming more calculated and song-oriented than usual. The slow-burning melodic bridge in the first song alone is evidence enough that Heavy Lord have not forsaken hard rock in their descent into tectonic doom. Furthermore, this sudden clarity has led them away from the "go-nowhere vocal patterning's cool cuz it sounds like we're hiiiiighhh" standard of stoner metal and into belting out actual hooks (albeit in a harsh, snotty drawl -- more on that in a bit); that this undeniable pop sensibility juxtaposes so gracefully with the band's juggernaut riffing is irrefutable evidence of their talent.

The guitar tone's sufficiently thick, with plenty of booming low-end. I have very little to complain about in the area of sound quality, although it is a little uninteresting. I miss the days of Dopethrone when the production of an album, if fucked up enough, could practically serve as its own instrument.

What is destined to be most controversial about this album is its rabid vocal performance, which favors a series of obnoxious, sneering howls to singing as we know it. It's a bit off-putting at first, and hints that the band may listen to as much punk rock as doom, but I ultimately don't consider it detrimental to the album because the singer knows exactly when to shut up or employ clean vocals. Moreover, the more I listen to Heavy Lord, the more I begin to think it suits them, as they're not a clean band by any means.

If the vocals don't annoy you away, this is about as good as this sort of therapeutically pummeling sludge gets. Chained to the World represents definite artistic growth from a promising band who, above all, remain true to their name. If the presentation was perfectly representational of the music within, the CD would be made of lead.

Author: Travis
Solitude Productions 10.06.2009, 23:58
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