I was all set to write a lengthy and contemplative introduction to this review but made the mistake of putting the album on first, promptly killing any possibility of elegant language and replacing it with a simple and ecstatic “AWESOME” that catapulted me out of my seat for a peremptory bout of head-banging. Mage are back and the execution this time round is damn near flawless with every arcing line of feedback and every crushing cymbal blow perfectly placed for maximum impact. Heavier, bolder and more inspired than so much of what stands beneath the doom / stoner banner, ‘Green’ makes damn sure that every riff counts and it is effortlessly addictive from the moment the album kicks into with ‘Nowhere to nothing’ to the blistering finale of ‘vultures mass’. Few bands make this much beautiful noise with so much vigour and yet Mage make it look easy…
It’s been just under two years since ‘Last Orders’ landed and, since then, the band has been thrown into turmoil by the tragic death of guitarist Ben Aucott. It can’t have been easy to take the decision to carry on, but Mage must have realised that they would always pay far greater tribute to their fallen brother by carrying on than they ever could by disbanding, and their shows (especially an emotionally charged appearance at Bloodstock 2016) successfully moved the band forward whilst simultaneously paying respects to Ben’s memory. It is, therefore, no surprise that ‘Green’ has a certain emotional heft to it and ‘Nowhere to nothing’ proves a truly brilliant opening number. As we have come to expect from Mage, it passes through myriad riffs and tempos whilst maintaining that hefty groove, but the true star of the show is Tom Smith, whose vocal performance is a thing of multi-faceted wonder whilst John Laughlin (Raging Speedhorn) adds screams that are torn straight from the very depths of hell. Next up, ‘Heroic elegy’ has a Sabbath feel with huge molten riffs courtesy of Woody Woodfield (the former Extreme Noise Terror mentalist who manages to sound as if he’s playing seventeen guitars through a wall of Orange Amps several miles high) and a sense of grandeur that will leave listeners slack-mouthed with awe. A huge track that will absolutely slay live, as Tom unleashes the battle cry “Fallen brothers, we will see you on the other side” with the unshakeable conviction of one who knows it to be nothing less than the absolute truth it’s hard not to feel inspired. Andy Moore gets his turn to shine with the pummelling drum intro to ‘Primitive drive’ suggesting he’s as familiar with the work of Igor Cavalera as he is with Vinnie Appice, and the band lay down trails of super-thick sludge over which Tom unleashes a dark, sepulchral narration that rapidly devolves into a harrowing roar. Carefully layered, the vocals here are, once again, deeply impressive and John returns to add his harrowing screams to the mix. The album’s half-way point is marked with the title track with its doom-laden, mid-tempo riffage giving way to a herbally-enhanced wah-guitar that leaves tar streaks on the speaker cones as it emerges.
The second half begins brutally with album highlight ‘Eclipse King’ doing its best to blot out the sun with a none-more-heavy bottom end, laid down by Mark Challis, shaking the very foundations. Harmony guitars and smoke-scarred vocals are the order of the day and the result is powerful indeed. ‘The wheel’ ups the tempo, sending the blood pounding through the veins as Andy flexes his muscles around the kit once more and the band slowly build a sonic vortex from inside which Tom delivers his proclamations with menacing force. The album ends, and all too soon, with the lengthy epic that is ‘vultures mass’. The sort of super-long, sonic meltdown that listeners expect and demand from a band such as Mage, it builds out of a richly textured bass riff before finally coalescing as one dark cosmic void out of which the band summon the forces of darkness with malevolent glee. With space in which to expand their punishing sound, it takes a full three and a half minutes before Tom’s vocals (augmented with a third contribution from John) even appear, but not a moment is wasted in the build-up and the result is a track that’s liable to give you a contact high just from listening.
On ‘Green’ Mage sound both bigger and bolder than ever. Clearly informed by Mage’s experiences over the past two years (how could it not be?) ‘Green’ is an example of how inspiration and hope can be drawn from the darkest of circumstances and the album is a triumphant monument to the memory of a guitarist who took great pride in the band. Unshackled form the weight of its creation, however, ‘Green’ is simply and consistently a brilliant album, packed full of memorable riffs and performed with great skill by a band who have honed their craft on the road relentlessly. Mage fans can be proud of this achievement and of ‘their’ band, but beyond that, ‘Green’ deserves to be the album that spreads the word to a far wider fan base and it seems that 2017 will be the year in which the name Mage looms large over the UK metal scene. 9
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