FOREIGN REVIEWS OF SMOKE IRON PLUNDER, PART 2: FINLAND

INFERNO METAL BLOG
LINK TO ORIGINAL POST

This would have been heard by the "speed doom". Clear.

The definition is not quite from the wind, because the band's veils and velvet are pretty funny in time. Replacing sludge, old-fashioned doom, NWoBHM going, speed metal, crossover and a little progey with a bang-free pilot. The sky and the sound of Hazzard's Curse rise far in the smoke.

However, there is absolutely no original San Francisco fanatics, especially in the guitars of the Mastodon Leviathian album, but still with a more traditional handset.

The songs contain almost continuous rhythmic adventure, and especially the drum and bass work brings to mind the old DBC and the homecoming Deep Turtle. The album has a very organic sound sound that would be called a buddy by a friend of a more productive sound. Maybe you drink, but the over-clinical expenditure may not work at all.

After the first listening session, the feeling was mostly irritated, the other began to get to the carts and the third one was almost fun. There are so many layers in the songs that saturation is not a threat immediately.

Translated from the Finnish by Google

FOREIGN REVIEWS OF SMOKE IRON PLUNDER, PART 1: SPAIN

METAL BROTHERS BLOG: SPAIN
LINK TO ORIGINAL REVIEW

Hazzard's Cure is a band formed in San Francisco in 2009. In 2011 they released their first full length and have done other things shorter to reach this second album. I especially liked the sound they get and the atmosphere they recreate, but let's tell a little in detail.

Master of Heathens is a theme with harsh and guttural voices, but combining it with a good rhythm of heavy stoner, it is a very cool song, with a rhythmic base rich in nuances, a single brief and end of story.

An Offering has a start of doom stoner, the voices game is spectacular, dirty and torn, very caveman but give your music a sense of essence and transcendence really interesting. It reminds me in the base of its sound to the mythical Manilla Road of the first times, with a thick and dark sound, leaving then with an acceleration to all put. It is the good conjugation of atmospheric elements of black metal with the sound of heavy and doom which makes their subjects have a special meaning.

Hewn in Sunder is a heavy doom track but with a less rough, cleaner voice and psychedelic guitars in between, a cut to Angel Witch, Tank.

No Hope has a start of doom black metal, very good atmosphere and excellent rhythmic work. Eye to the change of rhythm in the middle of the subject of this cut that is really annihilating, in Saint Vitus roll or a very dark Holocaust, like auction a single of seventy flavor that goes like ring to the finger, and the disk that keeps growing at times.

Siren's Wail is a dirty and dark heavy cut, a half time with a very atmospheric but excessively brief, we take it off when we were savoring the honey on the very lips, a shame that they have not lengthened a little more.


War Pipe is a very classic heavy rock nwobhm, an instrumental theme with a very vivid rhythm, not without cane and attitude, it is worth putting the ear.

Gracious Host introduces a variant in the sound regarding what we had heard so far, since this is a heavy metal cut but with the garnish of a grind touch on the guitars and a sound influenced by punk, it is stimulating in everything case.


The disc is short, but without waste, and you know what the wise proverb says. This Is Hell puts the colophon with the most worked song of the whole album. Heavy doom with a very rough and repeated riff. It is a less dark cut, with certain true metal airs, with a very long instrumental beginning, liking, but when the voices enter, they give more aggressiveness to the subject. The cut is completed with a second part where they step on the accelerator and they play guitar performance, demonstrating that they are able to make simple subjects with atmospheric predominance but also more technical cuts. A good work of these Americans, a record of those with a special flavor, that escapes the predominant sound, with its own label that is said, and that today is more than meritorious.

Rating: 7.75 / 10

Translated from the Spanish by Google

A NEW REVIEW OF "SMOKE IRON PLUNDER"

FROM "HEAD-BANGER REVIEWS"

You just hear a band’s sound and just think about how fucking much stuff is going on in the music itself? Bands like Whispered and Inter Arma truly take that to another level with their music and actually make it work somehow. And bands like that make me think when I’m going to find another one like them who can do so much and do it well. As it turns out, that time is right now and that fucking band is Hazzard’s Cure from the renowned Bay Area.

If I could just lean on another metal website for just a moment, Echoes and Dust called the sound that Hazzard’s Cure “speed doom”. Apparently, that’s a thing now? Sounds a little contradicting if you ask, but fuck me in the Alps if it isn’t an extremely apt phrase. But the brand spankin’ new record of “Smoke Iron Plunder” is so much more than those two words, though. Hazzard’s Cure manages to glean an absolute fuck ton from multiple metal sub-genres including (but absolutely not limited to) black, stoner, doom, and even sludge metal to create something is very close to the definition of an absolute mind fuck. “Smoke Iron Plunder” is a quick, unrelenting, and diverse album that does not even begin to back off on its unbelievable onslaught. The vocals are where things truly go up a notch, for they’re just so fucking vicious and a constant attack on your hearing that it’s impossible to deny the immeasurable power they bring to the table, and how well they help tie “Smoke Iron Plunder” together in the end. The record is just so monumental and apparently comes from a band that is at the forefront of this speed doom style that’s a thing all of a sudden, but damn if I’m complaining! Hazzard’s Cure is a brilliant breath of fresh air that as someone who constantly searches for something even half decent to listen to, “Smoke Iron Plunder” is a bright light in the darkness, albeit a very dastardly and menacing presence.

As if there weren’t enough crazy sub-genres out there with pirate and samurai metal to name but two, now we get speed doom in a very tasty and extremely foreign entity that is Hazzard’s Cure. “Smoke Iron  Plunder” is not anything for the uninitiated and is something to be experienced only by those who truly do want to know what it’s like to have the lines of any sort of genre classification blurred to a previously unfathomable point.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE HERE

2012 LIVE REVIEW FROM "HESH THE BAY"

"The drummer of Hazzard’s Cure, who looks like Steve Buscemi at Altamont Speedway, took the stage and immediately blasted out a sheet of Lombardo-meets-Phil-Taylor D-beats and furious tom fills while his bandmates were picking up a couple of worn Les Pauls and an ancient green Rickenbacker bass with its strap button duct taped on. There followed a brief moment of Marshall-stack amp buzz while they looked at each other and the sound tech. Then they launched into a set that moved with equal comfort between three camps: bellowing stoner metal, crawling dooms riffs, and a hyperspeed blast/tremolo sound that nods toward black metal but always returns to a groove. Their drummer, Clint, plays open-handed with a ferocity that you’ve got to see to believe. He broke his snare head after the second song of their set. When their appeal to borrow a replacement went temporarily unheeded by the other bands, bassist Shane encouraged him to “just dig around back there and see what you find, dude…it’s like shopping!” With vocal duties split fairly evenly between both guitars and the bass, they’re a fun band to watch, but constant time changes make moshing difficult. Their lyrical themes can’t be beat. After one particularly crushing number bassist Shane explained, “That song was about mountains. All the songs are about mountains. Or drugs or death.” In summary, if you live on the West Coast, you should see this band. They shred."

FULL ARTICLE HERE

THE UGLY ON METAL TEMPLE

A couple of weeks ago, I was asked to review an album from a band from Fresno, California. I will let you figure out which band that I’m talking about but here’s a clue: I hated their music. When I got this EP from San Francisco’s own HAZZARD’S CURE just this week, after the quarter of an hour I spent listening to every song, I questioned just what the hell are San Francisco Metal bands doing right that Fresno’s top-voted band is doing wrong?

What do all of these bands have in common: POSSESSED, VASTUM, ACID KING, MEGADETH, DEAFHEAVEN, DEATH ANGEL, METAL CHURCH, SHRINEBUILDER, SLOUGH FEG, & EXODUS. If you said “They’re all from Fresno, California”, you would be incorrect. They were all founded in San Francisco, California because San Francisco has been one of the capitals for Heavy Metal from the United States of America for over 30 years.

HAZZARD’S CURE certainly continue that tradition with this short but ferocious EP. Back when they released their self-titled full-length album in 2011, their style certainly gravitated to Doom Metal energy. What they’ve done with this EP is; first of all, throw all of that Stoner music out of the window. Secondly, they alternated to a Black Metal sound for this EP. If the guest vocals on “A Body Amorphous” from LUDICRA front woman Laurie Sue Shanaman didn’t give that away by now, I am sorry for spoiling the surprise for fans of older HAZZARD’S CURE.
 
But I really loved this EP. “The Ugly”, which shares its name with the second track, is a perfect fit for

HAZZARD’S CURE have embraced this fascination with the grotesque and mutation of the flesh and the horror that carries as a new direction to go with their sound. A lot of this same expression of carnal frailty can definitely heard in the musicianship as well. The guitar leads carry this gypsy-like vocalizing to them that remind me of those old folk tales of gypsy witches putting curses on people to have them become hideously ugly. I think these Burlesque elements provide a lot of tangible character all of the songs on this record. The guest vocals from Sue Shanaman fit right in but I would prefer if the band kept the male shouting vocals.

There’s not a whole lot more I could say about these three songs but what I will say, in conclusion, is that this EP was a tremendous release and I want to hear more of HAZZARD’S CURE taking this new direction down further and further bringing more horrors to light with their atmospheric music. “The Ugly” was certainly something I could relate to.

what this music comes across as. The vocals, instead of being rasped or screamed, are shouted or sometimes shout-sung. With the exception of the guest vocals, Chris Corona brings a fresh approach to singing Black Metal that definitely sounds ugly. I would even go as far as to say that these kinds of vocals possess a denser sense of grotesqueness than stereotypical howling or screeching vocals. I associate that kind of singing; take the vocals on WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM just as an example, with a vocal dialect that illustrates a language spoken only by ghosts, demons and spirits. Corona’s singing style on “The Ugly” is anchored down by its own humanity, unlike WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM but still expresses a tone of voice as if it came from someone with a severely deformed body. (10/10: Masterpiece)

METAL TEMPLE WEBSITE

THE UGLY ON METAL BANDCAMP

Hazzard's Cure self-describes their music as "epic blackened stoner thrash." I'm usually dubious of these kinds of label mash-ups, but if Ulla's recent review of buioingola has taught me anything, it's that sometimes these multiple-genre descriptions can make a surprising amount of sense.

The breadth of Hazaard's Cure's influence is a bit easier to discern on their self-titled full length, but their EP The Ugly nicely shows off the mix, too. The first two tracks on the EP are firmly rooted in stoner metal. The vocals are delivered in a raspy holler reminiscent of High on Fire and Baroness. The bass playing is a highlight, prominent in the mix and straddling the line between melody and rhythm. The drums easily shift between quiet shuffle and blasting, and the guitar pulls a similar trick, from tremolo riffs, to quiet atmosphere, to even a little Santana-style soloing in near the end of the title track. It's a classic rock foundation that doesn't sound dated, but one that's been angered up to a much heavier level.

 If there's any question about the "blackened" part of the description, it's nicely resolved by the third track, "The Body Amorphous," which features lead vocals from Laurie Sue Shanaman of the late, great Ludicra. With her unmistakable ferocity over blackened, winding guitar lines, you suddenly get an idea of what would have happened if Jefferson Airplane, instead of morphing into the poppy Jefferson Starship, had instead invented black metal and became Jefferson Plague. That probably sounds like I'm making fun, but nothing could be further from the truth. Jefferson Plague is something I didn't know I needed in my life until I heard this track. I would have loved more of this, but as it is, this EP is a great introduction to the band for anyone who likes their stoner metal with a hefty dose of rage. 

METAL BANDCAMP

THE UGLY ON DOOMANTIA

"They have a lot going for them, and have found a unique way to blend black metal, crust punk, doom, sludge, and stoner metal all into one weird and sinister concoction."

FULL REVIEW HERE

REVIEW OF "THE UGLY" ON ECHOES AND DUST

Hazzard’s Cure is a band from San Francisco in sunny California. Not heard of them before I was intrigued to hear what they sound like after their drummer Clint Baechle got in touch with me asking me politely if I could listen to their new 3-track release The Ugly EP. I am a sucker for nice cool artwork as it quite often makes me press play a lot quicker and in the case of The Ugly EP the stunning artwork by Lukas Krieg definitely got my attention. The metal world seems to have evolved into a symbiotic relationship with fantastic artwork similar to how a clownfish and an anemone need each other in order to survive. It simply is a mutualistic relationship.
Now, let’s focus on The Ugly EP. What we’re dealing with here are 3 tracks of thunderous thrashy heavy metal, dipping into more progressive and extremer blackened metal genres at times. Bassist Shane Bergman plugs away impressively on the 3 tracks on offer here and the drums are up tempo with plenty of nice fills and breaks. The vocals by guitarist Chris Corona have a bit of a Lemmy-like rawness to them and guitarist Leo Buckley is shredding away like there’s no tomorrow.

There is quite a bit of Motörhead going on here, perhaps it’s the bass playing or those vocals, but halfway the second track ‘The Ugly’ the sound turns around a bit to some progressive melodic metal piece, with melodic solos over slower played drums. But then it kicks back into heavier chugging riffs and a near Darkthrone-like black metal sounding shredding ending this fantastic slab of heavy metal.

The last track ‘The Body Amorphous’ hits upon all these above mentioned elements even more as this track is a near 7 minutes heavy metal track of epic proportions. It reminds me a lot of Vöhl, one of last year’s highlights as it’s all blackened heavy metal played in that extra gear, thundering away. The guest vocals by Laurie Sue Shanaman of legendary avant-garde black metal band Ludicra are awesome and fit the music perfectly.

There is only one minor criticism here, this EP is way too short! I want more of this! If you were as impressed as I was by Vöhl’s release last year or you’re a fan of blackened, thrashy heavy metal then I recommend you get this in your system right now. The EP is available as digital download for only a couple of bucks, but German label Ulterior Records are releasing a limited run on transparent one sided 12" vinyl with a screenprint on the b side in February. So you know what to do!

REVIEW OF "THE UGLY" EP ON LAST RITES

Too many people slept on the 2011 full-length debut from San Francisco's Hazzard's Cure – a very enthusiastic hodgepodge of knotty thrash, sludge, stoner and the kitchen sink that coulda-shoulda-woulda landed the band on a Hell of a lot more radars if the Earth was actually a fair place to inhabit. Alas, these dirtballs remain mostly unheralded, so the respective members supplement extra time not spent crapping together on a fancy tour bus by laboring in a pile of other notable Bay Area outfits such as Walken, OWL, and Bädr Vogu.

Well, now any previous "sorry, never heard of 'em" transgressions can thankfully be washed away by re-dedicating some worthy time to the freshly dropped Hazzard's EP, The Ugly – 17 minutes of very enthusiastic knotty thrash that dismisses virtually all of the previous effort's sludge in favor of a more blackened blister that's further bolstered by a guest vocal appearance (background on "Terminal Frost" and lead on "The Body Amorphous") from howler Laurie Shanaman of sadly defunct SF legends, Ludicra.

As evidenced by the bulk of the above tune, The Ugly is primarily concerned with the task of hacking faces to ribbons, but there are a couple moments where the band allows their softer, prettier side to emerge – like a tiny glimpse of a rainbow in a spill of dirty oil. All-in-all, The Ugly represents another glimpse into a talented Bay Area band that somehow manages to survive and thrive, despite getting paid mostly in cheap beer and dusty schwag. Don't let this one pass by unnoticed. [Michael Wuensch]

LINK TO LAST RITES WEBSITE HERE

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