Briton Rites - Review And Interview

BRITON RITES - FOR MIRCALLA

If you thought 2010 couldn't get any better for Doom Metal releases, think again. I present to you a review of one of the best Heavy/Doom Metal albums of the year and one of the most classic albums ever made in the Traditional Old-School Doom Metal genre. The line up of Phil Swanson(vocals) from Hour of 13 fame, Howie Bentley(guitar and bass) and Corbin King(drums) have put together a monumental piece of work to rival anything else released in the genre in recent years. The mastermind behind most of the music is Howie Bentley who also played with Cauldron Born but its been 8 long years since we have been treated of his magical approach to riff-making. This is a album of real Traditional Heavy Doom, not the growling Death-Doom kind or the depressive Funeral doom kind. This is balls-out, heads down and banging all the way, slow head-banging but headbanging just the same. This is music based on tales of the occult, lovecraftian gods, vampires, fantasy...you know the good old stuff that the forefathers of Doom wrote about. Black Sabbath, Witchfinder General and their kind are obvious influences but Briton Rites takes that blueprint and not only nails the style but breathes new life into it at the same time.

What makes this riff-fest so irresistible is the incredibly delicious thick, distorted guitar sound that has a incredibly warm tone. There is also Swanson's limited but charismatic vocals, a bass sound that Geezer Butler would be proud of and then you have a thunderous drum sound that is huge but still with the finesse and feel of the very best of the 70's era Hard Rock. Its not all about fuzzy guitar though, "For Mircalla" is packed full of magical hooks, atmosphere and great crushing, suffocating heaviness that doesn't quit throughout the entire 66 minute album. The catchy irresistible hooks begin in the opening track "Carmilla", so infectious that you feel immediately that you are listening to something already within the realms of timeless classic metal. The 8 minutes seems more like 8 seconds because of the incredible nature of the riffing and melody lines and its only the first track. You have nearly a hour of monster riffs to go yet. The second track "A Meeting in the Woods" is darker, creepier but with more subtle but effective musical hooks. While the band wont win any awards for originality, it makes up for it by just delivering classic riff after classic riff. So good is the riffs, its like the feeling you got hearing "Volume 4" for the first time. The lyrics are a little cliche, a song about doing some devil worshiping in the woods is hardly breaking down any barriers but when its deliver by Phil Swanson's Ozzy-esque vocals, it has a certain timeless character about it that is golden. "Vampire Hunter, 1600" continues the onslaught of earth shattering dense riffs but it also features a bass line to die for. The blend of chugging Sabbathian riffs, Hammer horror movie type themes and the deadly atmospheric sound could be considered cheesy but hell, Witchfinder General were cheesy but awesome anyway.

"The Right Hand Of Doom" is the shortest track and its still over 6 minutes of churning, chugging riffs and blistering solo's that send you into a uncontrollable state of hypnotic neck movements. It is all served up in a bubbling cauldron with more catchy riffage and entertaining story-telling. The ten minute "The Exorcism of Tanith" is maybe the most infectious 10 minutes i have heard in years, its real hard to stay this damn catchy for so long but somehow they manage it with ease. This track is maybe the most lively track on the album but still fits in more killer, crushing, chugging riffing and majestic solos than most bands fit on a entire album. Where as a lot of Doom bands find a good riff and dragged it out for the entire length of a song, Brition Rites has so many unstoppable ideas that each monumental passage has its place and is used to perfection, no riff outstays its welcome. "All-Hallowed Vengeance" is more Sabbath worship that builds from a poetic dirge at the beginning to a indestructible up-tempo kick ass section at the end. This monster of a track is based around Richard L. Tierney’s poem of the same name. If you think if you have heard it all wait till the last installment of majestic Doom Metal which is the 13 minute final track "Karnstein Castle". This track features the vocals of Howie Bentley and they sound great, its a pity his voice wasn't used more on this album but that is a small gripe. "Karnstein Castle" is epic, majestic, enchanting and monolithic and includes some of the most massive riffing to be found on "For Mircalla". The vocals of Bentley are full of charm, deep and clean all at the same time, he has a perfect voice for Doom Metal. Like all the tracks on the disc, it has a irresistible flow that never dulls despite the extended running time. When the tune comes to a abrupt stop, you are left shattered but thrilled at hearing such a amazing album. I listen to this disc 6 hours straight when i first got it and it still left me wanting more.

This is the work of a band that understands the technical aspects of Heavy Metal songwriting but even more important they know how to structure a good tune. There is a endless amount of killer riffs but the songs themselves are epic in every conceivable way. Its also unique in blending intelligence with off-beat, quirky themes. I am guessing if criticisms do occur when people review this album, they will mostly be pointing the finger at Phil Swanson's vocals. Its true he hasn't got the most exciting vocal range in the business of Doom Metal but i dig his charismatic Doom rantings. When compared to other bands in the business of old-school Doom Metal, i think Briton Rites wins on all counts, its not a landslide but i can't think of another band who has made a such flawless album like this one. This is music that will bring a smile to the face, a musical hard-on in the pants and over a hour of pure head-banging enjoyment. Load your bong and fill the fridge with beer when you first sit down with "Briton Rites's For Mircalla" because you wont be able to turn this one off for a long time. In the field of old-school Doom Metal, this is best album I’ve heard this year so far.

INTERVIEW WITH HOWIE BENTLEY

The man behind the majestic epic Doom Metal of Briton Rites is Howie Bentley and he should be considered a legend in the scene by now but people have been slow so far to pick up on the magical riffs and classic old school traditional that is Briton Rites album "For Mircalla". The man first made his mark in the band Cauldron Born, a great band in itself but the new Briton Rites project has taking his songwriting to whole other level especially in the riff department. The album is basically a riff-fest for riff nuts like me with over a hour of mind-melting sonic old school riffery that doesn't waste a second throughout the entire album. Phil Swanson of Hour Of 13 fame has come along for the ride on the album and delivered his usual charismatic approach on the vocals. In this interview we talk about Briton Rites, Cauldron Born and Howie shares his opinions on what Doom Metal should sound like. I have to admit i share most of his thoughts on the subject. Hope you enjoy the interview.

1. Hello and thanks for this interview. While i think its fair to say you are a pretty well known name in the underground, some people especially here in the US may not be aware of your previous work and projects. You played in Cauldron Born but there was a rather long break between that band and Briton Rites. Can you tell us what you were doing in that time?

- Back in 2003, when I disbanded Cauldron Born, I was so disgusted with everything that I just stopped playing guitar for a few years. I teach guitar lessons for a living, but aside from teaching lessons, I wouldn’t touch a guitar. Being without a creative outlet started to bother me, so I tried my hand at writing original fiction. I wasn’t so good at it. I eventually made my way back to playing music. I decided that I was going to make another Cauldron Born album. I started playing guitar like a maniac and ended up hurting my right hand. It took me a few years to rehabilitate it, so that I could play well again. By this time I was starting to get another idea about a different direction that I wanted to pursue with music. This brings us to Briton Rites.

As far as the USA, I have never really gotten that much attention here for my musical endeavors. Back in the early ‘90s, when I was circulating the Cauldron Born demo (Swords, Sorcery and Science) in the Metal underground, it was all about Europe, and still is for the most part. All three of the Cauldron Born albums were originally released on the Italian label, Underground Symphony.I think Cauldron Born and Doomsword were the only bands on that label that played pure Heavy Metal. The rest of those bands were symphonic keyboard bands, as best as I can remember. There is more interest in the USA regarding Metal now, than back in the ’90s, but nothing like there is in Europe.


2. The concept of the new album "For Mircalla" was inspired by Sheridan Le Fanu's novel Carmilla, Carmilla or at least some of it was. What was it that inspired you so much about that story ?

- The atmosphere that J. Sheridan Le Fanu created, and the imagery his story invokes. I wanted to capture that with Heavy Metal music.

3. Onto the actual music now, Briton Rites is what i call "real organic doom metal" meaning it is totally unaffected by outside influences or other sub-genres of doom metal. Its metal in its purest form so what is it about the style that is so enduring and timeless for you ?

- In ‘81 or ‘82 , I heard Black Sabbath. The music made such an impression on me that it literally influenced my life from then until now. As far back as I can remember, I have always had a penchant for the fantastic, macabre and strange. Black Sabbath had this sound that opened up a door to a world of the fantastic through music. I can’t really analyze what it is that appeals to me so much about early British Metal. I suppose the reason a person listens to any type of music is it makes them feel good. I just wanted to get back to that feeling that I had when I first encountered Black Sabbath.

4. We have talked about this briefly in emails but with so many sub-genres of doom metal do you think doom metal has lost a little bit of its true essence and meaning over the years ?

- For me it has. I like Doom Metal to sound like early Sabbath. I do like some Epic Doom too, like Candlemass and Solitude Aeturnus, but with traditional Doom, if it gets too far away from Black Sabbath then it isn’t Doom, as far as I am concerned. With Briton Rites, I play Traditional Doom. I think people who are Heavy Metal purists will love Briton Rites. But people with a “rock journalist” mentality(the types who think punk=instant credibility) who think that Doom should be updated by adding punk and hardcore influences, hippie influences, and grunge-style music with vocals that sound like Eric Clapton with a cold --these people won’t be much interested in what I am doing. With Briton Rites, I have no interest in pretending that I am trying to re-invent Doom. It is what it is. Maybe different people have various definitions of what Doom is. I just wanted to play music like early Sabbath and Witchfinder General. Whatever you call that style, that is what Briton Rites is.

5. How long did you work on songs for the album. I ask this because the songs seems very well thought out but also sound very natural like they wrote themselves. Also was this a album you always wanted to make ?

- It took me awhile to back into the swing of things with writing music. I wrote a few songs that I culled. Once I was back into songwriting, the songs started rolling out. It is almost as if they wrote themselves, like you said. I wrote FOR MIRCALLA over a period of about two years. I wrote part of the second album in that period, as well. The rest of the second Briton Rites album (which I haven’t recorded yet) was written this past winter.

I had never thought about making an album like this until I read CARMILLA ,and delved deeply into the black abyss of Gothic Horror–emerging greatly inspired. I love the technical, Sword& Sorcery Heavy Metal I did with Cauldron Born, but I think the music of Briton Rites is much more appropriate for the lyrical themes that I wanted to get into there.

6. How did you meet Phil Swanson and more importantly, how did you convince him to join you in the band. Phil seems to have his hand in everything these days.

- I met Phil through a mutual friend of ours. Initially, I had planned to do all of the vocals myself, and I did sing the last song on the album, but a couple of friends kept telling me about Hour of 13, and suggesting that I consider the singer for my project. I contacted Phil by email and told him that I really liked his work on the Hour of 13 debut, and that I was looking for a singer for a Doom project. I described what I was doing and asked him if he might be interested. He had heard my work with Cauldron Born and said he really liked it, and told me to count him in. I was excited to be working with him, because I kept listening to him singing on the Hour of 13 debut and saying to myself “That guy is the one. I’ve got to get him to sing on it.” His voice was just perfect for the Gothic Horror/Occult, old Sabbath, Hammer Film feel.

7. Reviews for the album have been great, when you first heard the first playback did you know you were onto something special ?

- Yeah. I knew when I started it, it would be. Especially once Phil was on board. I told him that my music and his voice would be a magical combination.

8. One listen to the band and it becomes obvious you are influenced by Sabbath, Witchfinder General and Trouble but is there is any more modern bands that have a influence on your writing ?

- Those are my main influences when it comes to traditional Doom. Of course, I enjoy stuff like Pentagram, Saint Vitus, Count Raven, and so on, but I don’t consider those bands much of an influence on my music. I have written a few songs for the new album that have a slow plodding feel, like some of Reverend Bizarre’s songs (a band I really like a lot) but my songs don’t repeat the same riffs on and on so much, like they do. The song writing on my stuff is a lot tighter.

9. Cauldron Born was a different animal to Briton Rites, they sounded a little more complex to me but as classic in the strong riff department. Would this be a fair judgment and this is with all due respect to Cauldron Born by the way.

- It sounds fair to me. I am proud of what I did with Cauldron Born, and I plan to do more, very soon. With Briton Rites I am preserving a tradition by paying homage to early British Heavy Metal. With Cauldron Born I was extending a tradition by building on what bands like Sabbath, Maiden and Priest had done. Of course with Cauldron Born I was influenced by progressive bands like early Fate’s Warning and Watchtower, as well as some modern classical music like Bartok, Stravinsky, Holst etc.

10. Was Briton Rites a way of getting back to the roots of metal again ? It seemed like the "heavy" music scene lost that for a while especially during the grunge era when for some reason which i could never understand, some people called "grunge" the new metal. I must admit the first time i heard this i nearly puked. Bands like Briton Rites are bringing the music back to its natural home again, where it should have never left in the first place.

- I was fighting that whole thing back in the gay ‘90s. I recorded the Howie Bentley-Beyond The Shade Gates demo back in ‘92 or ‘93 and we recorded Cauldron Born-Swords, Sorcery and Science in ‘94. For awhile, I thought I was on a one-man crusade against bad music, flannel shirts and combat boots. So, even back then with Cauldron Born I was doing this. And I continue with my homage to early British Metal with Briton Rites. I am amazed how much of a resurgence of interest there has been in Heavy Metal in the last few years, even. It is all underground, though. I don’t think that pure Heavy Metal will ever have any sort of large audience again, like it had in the ‘80s.

11. What about your personal musical upbringing, would you say you was made to play metal and was metal music something you heard growing up a lot or did you have to go looking for it ?

- With my interests and mind set, I would say that I was definitely destined to play Heavy Metal. I had to go looking for it. I grew up in a depressed coal-mining area in Eastern Kentucky– in the Appalachian Mountains. There was a record store about an hour away that sold some import stuff, and I would go there and buy albums. Later on I resorted to mail order. There were magazines like Hit Parader and Kerrang available, to find out about new bands. Living in an isolated area like that, it was a lot harder for me to get my hands on all of the stuff that I read about in those magazines, unlike kids now with the internet.

12. People hearing the new album will be wondering about possible live shows, i haven't heard any reports of live bookings myself so can you give us a update on that ?

- I would like to play some live gigs, but we will just have to wait and see. If we play overseas we are going to need all of the expenses covered. I am not ruling live shows out. Time will tell. Phil and I live about a ten or twelve-hour drive apart.

13. Onto lyrics now, do you think metal bands should be free to write about anything or should there be a formula to it all. A lot of metal fans seek out one kind of lyric writing whether it be fantasy, violence, satanism or whatever and can't seem to listen to anything else. So i guess my question is, do you think metal fans are close minded to lyrical ideas and what is your idea of a good lyric ? ( I know that is really two questions - ed )

- I don’t think that there should necessarily be a formula, but I prefer lyrics about dark fantasy, the occult, horror and that sort of thing. That is just a staple of Heavy Metal. It goes with the sound of the music. I can’t speak for anyone else, but from my perspective, dark, fantastic subject matter is just as important to Heavy Metal as long hair, wild-shaped, pointy guitars, Marshall stacks, leather and spikes. You see all of these guys in bands flashing the horned-hand sign, maloik, or whatever you want to call it. I say unless you have at least one song about the Devil, don’t go around throwing the horns.

Back in the early ‘90s I was the only one I knew who was writing lyrics influenced and/or based on Robert E. Howard’s stories. Now, it seems a handful of bands are doing this, particularly in the Doom scene. I am not saying I was the only one doing it, but as far as I knew, back then I didn’t know of anyone else into that. Manilla Road had made references to REH stories in their song titles and here and there in their lyrics, but I hadn’t heard them until after I had recorded the first Cauldron Born album. Back then, people were just looking at me funny and saying ”Oh yeah, well Lord of the Rings this and that”, then they would be off to listen to their Blind Guardian and Hammerfall albums.

I have always received great reviews on my lyrics as well as my music from the Heavy Metal connoisseurs. However, recently I read a review where one guy complained that my lyrics were too cliched and they should have been more “cerebral and abstract”. That may be the trend now, but I don’t follow trends. I write music and lyrics that make me happy, and I don’t care if scenesters like it or not.


14. If you had to choose just one song off the new album for people to check out, which one would it be and why ?

- Carmilla. It draws the listener in, and establishes the tone, theme and atmosphere of the album. I spent some time putting those songs in that specific order. I am an album listener, and I think that all of the songs on an album should stand on their own, but at the same time contribute to an overall cohesive feeling. As far as young people just getting into music now, a lot of them will never enjoy the “album experience” I had when I was growing up. Downloading has killed that. It is all about a pop music quick fix now. If downloading had been around back in the ‘70s, we never would have had classic rock, and in turn, Metal. Kids would have heard a song like “Stairway To Heaven” and said “This sucks! This is too long and is taking away from my texting and video game time”. I am not talking about fans who are into underground music and actually want the physical product that they can hold in their hands, I am talking about young people, new listeners coming to the music.

15. Thanks again for the interview. Is there any last words or thoughts for the readers out there ?

- Thanks to all of you who have taken the time to read this, and thanks to you, Ed ,for the opportunity to do this interview, and helping me promote Briton Rites. For those who haven’t heard Briton Rites there are two songs here:

http://www.myspace.com/britonrites

The album can be ordered directly from my label here:

http://www.britonrites.com/Debut_Album.html