Most recently Sr. Director of A&R at Roadrunner Records, Mike Gitter has signed and worked with bands including Opeth, Megadeth, Killswitch Engage and Bad Religion. But he got his start as a writer, and that’s what he’ll be doing sporadically for Metal Insider. Here’s his take on recently-released albums from Howl, Sunn 0))) and Voivod.

So Metal Insider coerced me with a few Coors Lites and a copy of the new Otep record. Damn them! He shot low and I bit! I tried to get out of this rock writin’ game and they keep draggin me back – kinda like David Caruso in Kiss of Death. So the kid’s on a quick sabbatical from blazing ears in the A&R game, so why not put down that copy of the Paul DiAnno autobiog The Beast (which I am reading as I type this) and do a little charity work for my buds? Oh yeah, if anyone cares, I did A&R at Roadrunner and before that Atlantic. They were merely stepping stones to my career in male modeling. Oh yeah, if anyone wants their stuff snarkily torn apart, please send it to Metal Insider and I’ll pick it up.

Howl- EP (Relapse)
Sayin’ this Rhode Island quadruped is evolved from the same tree as Mastodon is a lazy bit of analysis. The riffs are meaty, beatey, big and bouncy but where Masto aims to hang with Carl Sagan in the cosmos, Howl are a buncha soilscoungers. And that’s meant in a very good way. This three songer is Howl’s blueprint – basically a demo the three dudes and one dudette put to tape to intro the world to a sound that shovels into all manner of heaviosity from crust to black metal that their upcoming full-length will be sure to use to intimidate further.

Sunn 0))) – Monoliths and Dimensions (Southern Lord)
If you’ve previously stood ‘round like them damn monkeys at the start of 2001 trying to get a hold of what Greg Anderson and Stephen O’Malley have been droning on about all these years, this might finally be your point of insertion. Monoliths and Dimensions is the collective’s best one to date. The trademark, stentorian groan has been given a new life as Sunn 0)))’s sound is augmented by a host of new collaborators including a Herbie Hancock alumnus on trombone as well as the usual peeps like Mayhem’s Attila Csihar. Think John Carpenter’s soundtrack to Prince of Darkness but something far more epic.

Voivod – Infini (Relapse)
At the risk of a bad pun, the Canuck William Gibson channelers have spent two records chasing the ghost in the machine and have come with the best record to ever be pulled from a dead man’s laptop. With tag-along co-conspirator/fanboy Jason Newsted on bass,  Infini rates up there as the best of “resurrected” Voivod line-up. (post temporary frontdude Etic Forrest).  The vibe here is latter-day ‘vod; say Angel Rat-era where cybergarage grooves began to permeate the hoseheads’ groundbreaking output. All this from riffs left in a folder by deceased guitar innovator Denis “Piggy” D’amour/. You wonder if that’s exactly what slithery frontman Snake is referring to on opener “God Phones”?  Actually, the bearded one high above tends to Skype these days but who’s splitting hairs?