Music
[Album Review] Judgement Day ‘Polar Shift’
Described as “string metal”, Judgement Day are a three-piece outfit that is comprised of a cello, a violin, and drums based out of San Francisco, CA. Brothers Anton and Lewis Patzner began playing string metal on the streets of Berkley, CA. As their popularity grew, so to did their ranks. They welcomed in Jon Bush began to play drums and the band was able to perform amplified shows at various clubs and venues in the area.
With several albums and compilations under their belt, Judgement Day is back with their latest offering, Polar Shift (iTunes pre-order). With 14 tracks and nearly 40 minutes of music, does this string metal offering work or end up sounding dangerously out of tune? Read on for the answer.
Let me start by saying I’ve always felt that classical and metal are two genres that can very easily compliment each other with some astounding outcomes. Bands such as Symphony X, Dream Theater, and, in some ways, Opeth, have shown that a complex, almost symphonic orchestration can yield gorgeous and fantastic results that require multiple listens to fully appreciate.
So I dove into listening to Polar Shift with a great deal of enthusiasm. After all, this was something out of the normal range of Bloody-Disgusting reviews and I’m all for a challenge.
The album opens with “Ghost Hunt”, a short track that immediately sets the tone of the album. The strings sound warm and have great intensity but the drums sound almost programmed. There is no organic feel to them whatsoever. As a result, the song ends up feeling somewhat flat. Unfortunately, this problem plagues the album as a whole. The lack of warmth from the drums is a contradiction to the rich flavor of the strings, one that doesn’t work.
The melodies and songs themselves have some beautiful moments with wonderful harmonization between the cello and violin, such as in “Xenophonic” or “The Jump”. The song titles also have a lot of nerd-cred references, such as “The Treachery Of Kyodai Ken”, “Forest Battle”, and “Darmok”.
While I wouldn’t classify Polar Shift as “string metal”, I will say that it takes the concepts of what makes metal, well, metal and plays with them, ending up with something that is quite fascinating.
The Final Word: Although the weak sounding drums hinder Polar Shift, Judgement Day have a very fun album that is great for those who want some metal without the crushing distortion.
Got any thoughts/questions/concerns for Jonathan Barkan? Shoot him a message on Twitter or on Bloody-Disgusting!
Synthwave outfit GUNSHIP has released a new official music video this morning for their cover of Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time” featured on the soundtrack to Corin Hardy’s (The Nun, The Hallow) supernatural horror film Whistle.
To bring it full circle, Corin Hardy directs the music video himself, incorporating previously unseen footage from Whistle. More specifically, the new music video features an extended sequence from the film.
This collaboration builds on GUNSHIP’s longstanding relationship with Hardy, who previously contributed vocals to the band’s track “Cthulhu.”
“Working with Corin is a total dream,” said GUNSHIP. “He’s an old friend who we bonded with over our love for cinema and music, and we were honored to have our song featured in the film. After the Whistle premiere, we were chatting over a pint, and he told us about a beautiful pseudo ‘one shot’ sequence he was heartbroken to lose in the final film. We suggested resurrecting it and using it as a music video. Corin got it immediately, and the result is perfect. It’s heartbreaking, haunting and pure 80s noir soaked.”
Corin Hardy added: “I wanted Whistle to feel like a horror movie I might have watched around the late 1980s, alongside films like A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Lost Boys, and The Breakfast Club. Films steeped in teen-angst and heightened feelings. Music was such a huge part of creating the romance of those cinematic worlds. Gunship’s synth-drenched cover of Cyndi Lauper’s ‘Time After Time’ was always top of my list. Their unique heart-on-your-sleeve sound was the perfect choice for a key moment in the movie. To come together post-release and create this extended music video is simply the cherry on top. Dan, Al & Al (Gunship) have provided the film a real companion piece in the world of Whistle… it makes me want my MTV again!”
It’s a fitting collaboration, as music serves a narrative purpose in Whistle. Music, the director told Bloody Disgusting, was a means of immersing viewers in this world and its characters’ perspectives. Hardy even touched on this particular track: “So in a way, the music you’ll listen to is effectively what Chrys is listening to, which is her dad’s record collection. Then there are other songs like the Gunship track, which is a Cyndi Lauper cover, which is more like Rel’s [Sky Yang] music. It comes in when we have a sequence in Rel’s romantic heartbreak moment. So yeah, I made a character list of who might be listening to what.”
Whistle sees a misfit group of unwitting high school students confronted with mortality when they blow a cursed Aztec Death Whistle, setting a terrifying chain of events in motion.
Dafne Keen (Logan, “The Acolyte“), Sophie Nélisse (“Yellowjackets”), Sky Yang (Rebel Moon), Jhaleil Swaby (“Supergirl”), Ali Skovbye (Grizzly Night, “Firefly Lane”), Percy Hynes White (“Wednesday”), Michelle Fairley (“Game of Thrones”), and Nick Frost (Shaun of the Dead).
The supernatural teen horror movie is available to stream on Shudder now.
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