The Snake, The Cross, The Crown

“Mander Salis”

(Equal Vision)

Compare to: The Envy Corps, Bob Dylan, Endicott

The music on The Snake, The Cross, The Crown’s latest album sounds like something that would be playing in the middle of a mall, next to the elephant fountain where little kids throw their pennies in and make a wish.

“An Honest Misappropriation of Funds” kicks off the album with a deceiving synthesizer pattern that makes it sound like The Snake, The Cross, The Crown will be just another one of those strange, but semi-cool European techno bands like Eiffel 65 or Aqua.

The band, however, plays the softer side of straight-ahead rock, with some obvious Brit-pop influence thrown in as well.

“Empires,” the second track, has more of an indie rock feel, with its driving drum part, complicated guitar riffs and the occasional attempt at falsetto by the group’s vocalist.

“Gates of Dis” is distorted and daintily heavy, with guitar and bass-altering effects and simple, but effective chords. The song sounds like it would be perfectly appropriate for a Strokes album.

Mark Fate’s solid, syncopated drumming and William Sammon’s dreamy-sounding keyboard noises seem to be the butt of the songs. The guitar, bass and vocals run closely in the back, but don’t detract from the songs.

Perhaps the best attribute of “Mander Salis” is that it shows The Snake, The Cross, The Crown’s ability to write and perform several genres well. Rock and folk are the band’s main genres, but it also dives into blues, and some electronica and Brit-pop with no noticeable change in skill.

— Dan Hopper

M83

“Before The Dawn Heals Us” (Mute U.S.)

Compare to: Dykehouse, My Bloody Valentine, Spiritualized

The compositions in the French indie-electronic group M83’s newest effort “Before the Dawn Hits Us” cannot help but be cinematic.

Each piece on the album sounds, at times, like the loneliest snow-capped moment in “Fargo,” and at others like the boundless images of space and time portrayed by “2001: A Space Odyssey.”

More often then not, the minimalist walls of sound and noise that characterize this album seem more at home in the depths of space than anywhere else.

Other parts of the album, however, are as moody and sullen as just about every art-house flick that involved either William H. Macy or Phillip Seymour Hoffman. Other tracks like “Farewell/Goodbye” and “Let Men Burn Stars” seem to be emulating the contributions Angelo Badalamenti did for many of David Lynch’s films.

The efforts by M83 mastermind Anthony Gonzalez and crew don’t appear to be a homage to film culture.

Instead, it seems they have tapped into that dream world that art films seem to occupy. As such, the album isn’t something that is meant to be listened to on a song-by-song basis.

Instead, the strange dream world on this disc needs to be heard from beginning to end to fully understand it.

— Josh Nelson

Kreator

“Enemy of God” (SPV)

Compare to: Testament, Sodom, The Haunted

If you find yourself longing for the heyday of thrash metal, when Metallica was a respectable band and groups like Exodus and Slayer were attempting to reach impossible levels of speed and extremity with every release, look no further than Kreator’s “Enemy of God.”

The cult German band’s 11th album encompasses all that made ’80s thrash metal the most devastating force in music. Tracks like “Suicide Terrorist,” “Dying Race Apocalypse” and “Impossible Brutality” are packed with enough pounding double bass, screaming guitar leads and scathing social commentary to make listeners remember when metal didn’t mean guys with pierced eyebrows whining about how their moms used to beat them.

Although Kreator’s sound is firmly rooted in the past, “Enemy of God” is much more than a nostalgia trip. Kreator’s latest slice of speed metal violence is sheathed in a thoroughly modern production and the band has added a flare for melody to its rip-roaring thrash assault.

Kreator further tempers its brutality with Iron Maiden-esque guitar harmonies and even the occasional acoustic intro, giving listeners a chance to catch their breath before the band takes off at light speed. With “Enemy of God,” Kreator has crafted a masterpiece, dragging the sounds of classic thrash metal kicking and screaming into the present without ever sounding cheesy or dated.

— Joshua Haun

Olivia The Band

“Olivia The Band” (Essential Records)

Compare to: Wakefield, Hangnail, Kosmos Express

If there were two words to describe the super trendy emo/pop punk music scene, they would have to be “worn out.”

Obviously, Hawaiian Christian rock outfit Olivia the Band wouldn’t agree. The band’s debut self-titled full length comes across as a perfect illustration of a band beating a dead horse.

Nothing about any of the 12 tracks on the album stand out as even partially original — it sounds like they are better suited as a Good Charlotte cover band than to claim to write their own material. Although their lack of creativity is embarrassing, it isn’t the only shortcoming on the album. In fact, compared to the lyrics, the music on the album is almost groundbreaking.

Vocalist Reed Cromwell has the whiny pop voice down but he can’t seem to muster up enough sincere emotion to fill a song with lyrics worth listening to. Even the band’s Christian-themed tracks come across as a desperate attempt to cash in on the current Christian rock fad.

The best example of how ridiculous the lyrics are is on the album’s fourth track, “Heaven,” when Cromwell repeats the chorus line, “Jesus is here now” over and over. It goes without saying that most albums are far from perfect, but most have at least one saving grace. Unfortunately, Olivia the Band doesn’t even have that; the album is a total lack of anything interesting mixed with countless clich‚s.

— Dante Sacomani