Black Anvil is a weird band. It’s basically a black/thrash metal band created by Paul Delaney (vocals, bass), Gary Bennett (guitars, vocals) and Raeph Glicken (drums, vocals), who play/played in several New York-based hardcore bands – being Kill Your Idols their main act – and decided one day to take the leap and test the turbulent waters of the extreme metal ocean, which is actually pretty brave, given that the extreme metal community tends to heavily dislike hardcore (and all cores, for that matter) or even hate it completely. But wait a minute: hardcore and black metal are almost like opposites, are these guys’ geniuses and multi-faceted enough to pull off such an ambiguous career?
The band has been around since 2007 and has released 3 albums prior to this one, so they surely know how to play black metal. But in ‘As Was’, their fourth journey to explore and try to fit themselves in the genre, they end up failing in the same ways as they did in the past: they sound insincere, flat, lacking personality, driven by something other than sheer passion for music. I’m going to go ahead and say that this album has only three good songs: opener “On Forgotten Ways”, follow-up “May Her Wrath Be Just” and the actually awesome “Nothing”. These are definitely worthy of being noticed and have great elements and atmosphere. But the thing is, it kind of stops there. The other five songs are a mix of black-ish heavy metal with harsh vocals, dragged-on parts with little feeling and purpose and even some random gothic-like bits. The title-track, “As Was” is the perfect example of this, as it is everywhere and anywhere at the same time, with leads and riffs mixed together, simplistic and mechanical drumming, poor songwriting and even a ballad section in the middle of it, just because. In fact, there are a few times in the course of the album that the vocals turn from harsh to clean and mournful – forging a doomy or gothic atmosphere -, but unfortunately this doesn’t run so smoothly like the band thought it would.
“Two Keys: Here’s the Lock” and “Ultra” further consolidate the absence of a clear objective by these guys, each sounding – like I said is one of their main problems – flat and disconnected. Of course, the instrumental part of the album is good, as these dudes know how to rock, the production has a decent dynamic range and the mixing is top-notch, making every instrument shine when needed. “As an Elder Learned Anew” and the instrumental “The Way of All Flesh” are passable and provide a small amount of fun, but like almost every other song, feel somewhat detached and chaotic.
So ok, here we go. Obviously, because of the Metal Wani review layout, you already know the rating for this album and is probably thinking: “holy shit dude, is it really that bad?” Well, no, it’s not; it’s just a mediocre album, an average one at best. The thing is, we are all used to check dozens of metal websites, webzines and stuff like that and see EVERY album (more times than not, way worse than this one) receive good ratings, and if not good, a 6 or 7 (which people seem to think for some reason that these are low ratings). I, for one, pride myself of using all numbers provided to me when reviewing an album – from 0 to 10 – and despite having just once given a 2 rating (for a Butcher Babies album that I don’t even remember the name, because of how horrible was the experience of reviewing it), I feel the need to do this sort of thing more, hoping to give some balance to the overwhelming amount of 8’s and 9’s across the heavy metal media (90% of all albums are NOT masterpieces, not the other way around).
As I just explained above, ‘As Was’ is a mixed album with just a few standout parts and a lot of mediocre ones, and so it well deserves a spot in the middle of the ratings chart. Fans of pure forms of black metal, I warn you: stay away from this. Occasional listeners of the genre and curious people in general, though, may as well give this as spin, as your mileage may vary and you might find good things in here after all.