(Exile On Mainstream) Total Time: 48:00
Last year’s “Divine Propaganda”, the debut full length of THE HIDDEN HAND, was a masterpiece and one of the top two or three albums of 2003. Wino and his (then) new band set very high standards with this release. Then, in less than a year, came the song “Falconstone” from the High Volume Compilation, the awesome “Night Letters” split EP with WOOLY MAMMOTH, and the absolutely outstanding song “Rebellion” from the Doom Capital compilation. So the signs about the sophomore HIDDEN HAND album were excellent, the band seemed to be in top shape. This combined with the fact that Wino has never let me down by any of his previous releases or bands, made me expect something really special. Still, I think even the most optimistic and devoted fans of this gifted artist (and I want to believe I am included in those fans, I’ve been obsessively following his career since he joined SAINT VITUS) would be surprised on how great an album “Mother * Teacher * Destroyer” is. It seems that in Bruce Falkinburg (bass/vocals) and Dave Henessy (drums) has found the perfect comrades to further explore his artistic universe, they fit perfectly together and as a result Wino looks like he is happier than ever. And this is clearly reflected into the music.
Scott Weinrich, this musical genius, manages to still pleasantly surprise us even after 20 years of continuously releasing albums through the several bands he’s been in. I don’t know if he possesses any superhuman abilities, but I often think his brain is an inexhaustible tank of magic heavy riffs and divine musical ideas. He never stops no matter what the difficulties and the obstacles, and not only that, but he also continuously evolves seeking new musical paths and experimenting, with only constants, the heaviness of his riffing (after all he is the one that said “If it ain’t heavy, it ain’t shit.”) and his honest “no compromise” attitude (a quality that only the truly GREAT musicians posses).
Well, all the above talents and gifts of this charismatic composer/guitarist/singer and his two worthy companions are clearly demonstrated in “Mother * Teacher * Destroyer”, one of the most diverse, inspired, and “difficult” albums that Wino has ever released. Of course, the brilliant heavy riffing, the doom metal roots, and the outstanding guitarwork are all included here (it couldn’t be otherwise, Wino has all these in his bloodstream), but MTD incorporates additional influences than the usual, mostly rooted in 70’s, and as a result MTD is even more varied an album than “Divine Propaganda”. One could say this album is like a crown with 11 diamonds, (one for each song), all different from each other, but all equally valuable. Therefore, I can’t single out songs, it is not possible, and I won’t do a strict track-by-track review, I usually try to avoid them as I prefer to try and transfer the style, feeling and atmosphere of the album, the best I can and let the reader decide on the songs. Therefore, I will just pick a few songs almost randomly just for the purposes of displaying the diversity of the album, it doesn’t mean I prefer them to the rest.
“The Crossing” (the album’s opener), is a song that directly hits you face on with it’s heavy doom metal riff. Bruce handles the vocals in this one, and as it evolves, some faster riffs come in, the tempo increases, until Wino’s soloing takes the song to new dimensions. As in “Divine Propaganda” the vocals in MTD are shared between Wino and Bruce, with Wino rightfully getting the lion’s share - this is not to say that Bruce doesn’t manage well, on the contrary, but it is always different when a song is accompanied by Wino’s characteristic voice, which sources directly from his soul.
“Half Mast” is a mellow melancholic song, its atmosphere and Wino’s singing style in this one brought JETHRO TULL to my mind (it’s riff is like a variation of part of the main riff of “Locomotive Breath”), without a flute included of course. Very emotional, and with very though provoking lyrics. Towards the end, the volume increases the song becomes harder and that is because melancholy gives its place to hope, with Wino screaming repeatedly “We will overcome...”
“Black Ribbon” is an acoustic melodic song, with ethereal lead vocals by Bruce, the start of which reminded me of ELP minus the keyboards (if that is easy to imagine), especially the acoustic songs that Lake used to write. Then it intensifies and towards the end finishes like it started.
“Magdalene” is a powerful heavy song, its main riff reminiscent of THE OBSESSED, overall an outstanding song and a tremendous vocal performance by Wino (no need to refer to the guitarwork, this is as expected brilliant). This song gets stuck to your mind from the very first spin.
The epically themed slow and heavy “Sons of Kings” will certainly leave you with your jaw dropped, Winos’s guitar spits a really enchanting colossal riff, and his vocals mixed in several channels both low and high bring in mind the twin vocals of “Selling England by the Pound”-era GENESIS (only on the vocals of course, I said the song is HEAVY!) and a lamenting feeling to the song.
Well, I’ll better stop here, I think you get the point. I could go on and on, babbling about how the traveling melodies of “Currents” will mentally travel you to the Sargasso Seas on a Spanish galleon attacked by giant waves in the form of Sabbathic riffs, or talk about the excellent alternate version of “Desensitised” included, (this was the band’s debut 7”), or even talk about how Wino has mastered the use of delay in his guitar leads and the impressive sounds he achieves with his various guitar pedals in the two instrumentals titled “Draco Vibration” and “The Deprogramming of John Delay”, but I’ll better stop. Why waste more words when all the greatness will be revealed by the repeated listening of this album?
Beyond the music, I feel I should mention the very interesting (often allegoric) lyrics, which really are food for though, and the beautiful artwork of the album’s booklet and cover. Even the paper is special; it resembles the kind of paper used for printing bank notes, only thicker. In other words, this is a very carefully created artistic product from all aspects.
I hope this review was helpful and informative, but I am afraid that albums like these are beyond me to review. However, I’ll dare say that MTD is one of the greatest albums of this decade, even if we only are half-way through it. Wino and his two bandmates in HIDDEN HAND roughly a year after their debut managed to release another masterpiece, in my humble opinion superior to “Divine Propaganda”. All I can do is bow before the gigantic magnitude of Wino’s artistic excellence and try to absorb every note of “Mother*Teacher*Destroyer”. Wino is simply the greatest artist of his generation in the area of heavy music. When others try to play safe and repeat themselves or copy other bands, Wino continues to evolve, experiment, break new ground, and therefore progress, always being honest to himself and always remaining original. THE HIDDEN HAND sound like nobody else and nobody sounds like THE HIDDEN HAND, that’s a huge achievement nowdays. When, PENTAGRAM’s “Show ‘Em How” was released roughly two months ago, I though I had found the “album of the year” for 2004. Now, I am not sure anymore, it will definitely be a hard struggle for me to decide between that and “Mother*Teacher*Destroyer”. I am in really big dilemma, but that’s a pleasurable and welcome one, don’t you agree?
