FRONTIERER: “OXIDIZED”

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Oct 282021
 

(The mainly Scottish extremists Frontierer released their new album on October 1st, and DGR reviews it here.)

You probably could’ve sensed this one coming like a killer in a slasher film hiding just outside the frame, given how we salivated at the opportunity to cover anything the group did in the lead up to this one’s release.

Frontierer have made a name for themselves over recent years. The Scotland and US union of musicians – most of whom also play in Sectioned, who released my top album of 2019 with Annihilated – have burrowed impressively deep into the tech and mathcore scene. Conjuring old ghosts that could see the band being genre-blood-brothers with a group like Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza (whose last two albums are just relentless) as well as hybridizing influences from Dillinger Escape Plan, the off-kilter rhythms of Car Bomb, and the big, earth-shaking grooves of a band like Meshuggah is a damned lofty way to find yourself described. Yet the sound that Frontierer have forged for themselves on releases like Unloved and their newest album Oxidized is likely going to see them being mentioned in the same breath as those other names often. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): FUNERAL CHANT — “DAWN OF ANNIHILATION”

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Oct 272021
 

 

In February 2017 Funeral Chant from Oakland, California independently released their self-titled debut, a six-track, 27-minute affair that was subsequently picked up for physical editions by Duplicate Records and Caverna Abismal Records. It was a remarkable release in more ways than one, but the dominant impression it left in our heads was summed up in these passages from our review:

“The band walk a fine line between berserker chaos and the kind of intricate instrumental inventiveness and rhythmic dynamism that produces fascination. It’s a high-wire display of acrobatics, but Funeral Chant are so nimble that they don’t lose their balance no matter how fast they’re flying along that thin cord.

“And so, the songs are crushing, eviscerating, hateful, and ferocious at a primal level, but are also intricate, well-plotted, and eerie. In the heat of the moment, they trigger an enormous adrenaline rush, but it takes multiple listens before you begin to follow all the labyrinthine exercises going on within these raging storms of sound”.

It’s thus no wonder that we leaped at the chance to premiere the band’s new album, Dawn Of Annihilation, which will be released via Carbonized Records on November 1st. Continue reading »

AN NCS SPLIT PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): MINNESJORD / TEUFELSBERG

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Oct 272021
 

 

On October 31st Signal Rex will release a vinyl-only album-length split by two bands in the raw black metal brotherhood, the Portuguese duo Minnesjord and the Polish duo Teufelsberg. Each band contributes four tracks to the release, both of them revealing their own particular hellish personalities, and collectively creating a harsh and ravaging but nonetheless thrilling experience.

The album is available for order here, as well as through Bandcamp for each band’s side (here and here), and today we’ve got the premiere streams for all 8 songs, preceded (of course) by our own take on what these two groups have created. Continue reading »

FIRST FRAGMENT – GLOIRE ÉTERNELLE

 Album Reviews  4 Responses »
Oct 272021
 

(Andy Synn continues today’s torrent of technicality with a review of the astonishing new album by First Fragment)

Let’s face it, 2021 has been a ridiculous year for the Tech Death scene.

Of course, last year’s lockdown probably played a big part in that, forcing bands to sit at home and practice until their fingers bled, but we’ve also seen many of these artists demonstrating a major improvement not just in their shredding abilities but in their songwriting skills too.

Sure, the sheer glut of bands showing off their technical talents means that, inevitably, some them are a little interchangeable (especially vocally, but that’s a discussion for another day), but I’ve really been struck by the variety of different approaches – from a laser-like focus on supersonic speed to lethal injections of stupefying slam or flickering flirtations with angular dissonance – adopted by many of the genre’s leading lights as a way of differentiating them from their peers.

And while First Fragment have always been distinguished by their almost symphonic virtuosity, Gloire Éternelle makes it more clear than ever that the band’s music is designed, if not solely for musicians, then at the very least for those with a real appreciation of musicianship, first and foremost.

Continue reading »

INFERI: “VILE GENESIS”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Oct 272021
 

 

(We present DGR‘s review of the latest album by Nashville-based Inferi, out now on The Artisan Era, with cover art by Helge Balzer.)

It’s a mantra often repeated when it comes to Inferi albums – and actually, to a much larger extent, the Artisan Era‘s artist roster as a whole, considering the label’s specialization – that Inferi releases are the sorts of albums that put the tech-death concept of “everything and the kitchen sink” songwriting to shame, the sort of releases where long after the first listen you’re still finding new things that will perk your interest.

Inferi’s latest album Vile Genesis is in that vein, with eight songs absolutely bursting at the seams with different elements, riff worship, frenetic leads, frenzied drumming, hefty bass work, and manic vocals that just constantly seems to be ratcheted up to 120% with absolutely no room to breathe. The band have long since made a name for themselves in the world of ‘we play fast’ but it’s still just as initially overwhelming as it always is.

You’d never think someone managed to figure out how to get a bulldozer to set a landspeed record, but somehow Inferi do it every time they put out an album. You put it on, get run over, and then you do it again and again as the music just whips past you. Which is likely going to be a pretty common occurrence among listeners because Vile Genesis has a lot of really good material to dig into and you’re going to be bowled over constantly doing it. Continue reading »

GRAVPEL – POWER TO THE FILTHY MASSES

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Oct 262021
 

(Andy Synn has thoughts about the debut album from Anarcho-Punk Black Metal crew Gravpel)

So much for the “tolerant” left, am I right?

In all seriousness, I’ve always found it pretty ridiculous that bands who espouse so-called “left wing” views are assumed to be soft, sensitive snowflakes… since not only is that patently false, but it also ignores the fact that Heavy Metal, from its very outset, has always been rooted in this end of the political spectrum, hence its rich history of anti-fascist, anti-authoritarian, and even anti-capitalist sentiment.

Of course, Metal as a genre hasn’t always had the most nuanced grasp of politics, I’ll give you that, especially when you consider that most bands tend to define themselves by opposition – being against something, rather than for something – in a rather reactionary, and often self-defeating, kind of way.

But while Swiss Black Metal quintet Gravpel most definitely aren’t afraid to let you know exactly what they stand for – which is taking Black Metal back to its Punk roots and giving an almighty “fuck you” to all the Nazis, bigots, and fascist sympathisers attempting to use the genre to spread their fucked-up world view.

Continue reading »

BETRAYAL: “DISORDER REMAINS”

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Oct 252021
 

 

(This is DGR‘s review of a new album by the German band Betrayal, which was released last April by Rising Nemesis Records.)

There are some albums that, no matter how late in the year it may be when we’re able to write them up, feel like we absolutely must do so, especially when we would otherwise have to explain why all of a sudden the album seems to appear basically out of nowhere on our year-end list. Betrayal’s Disorder Remains is one such album.

Disorder Remains was released six months ago in the middle of April, and I do expect it will be barreling onto my year-end list, despite our previous failure to talk about it at length (we did premiere a song from it in April). We’ve covered the German genre-splicing group in greater depth before, as their previous release Infinite Circle was an album that won a few of us over five years back, so if you’ve been with us a while you’ve likely seen the name. But with Disorder Remains the thrashier-prog-death hybridization that Betrayal get up to is elevated to a whole other level, playing out like the most natural evolutionary step the band could’ve made with their sound. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): CONTRITION — “BROKEN MORTAL COIL”

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Oct 252021
 

 

The resumes of the people in Chicago-based Contrition open eyes. Those people are Jerome Marshall (Cobalt, Yakuza) on vocals, Garry Naples (Novembers Doom, Without Waves) on drums, Jeff Wilson (Chrome Waves, Deeper Graves, ex-Wolvhammer) on guitars and synth, and Jon Woodring (Bones, ex-Usurper) on bass. As an educated guess, they’ve got all sorts of different music swirling through their heads from day to day, even making room for the silence of sleep and maybe a few other silences. So, where did they go under the name Contrition on their debut album, Broken Mortal Coil?

The astute among you will already have an idea, based on the singles that have emerged in the run-up to the October 29 release by Wilson’s Disorder Recordings. Some of you may even know that a couple of these people already collaborated in a band called Doomsday, which released one self-titled EP in 2012 (worth tracking down if you don’t have it), and which itself provides some distant clues.

But I’m going to pretend you don’t know where these four (and their noteworthy guests) coalesced on Broken Mortal Coil, that your minds are as clean as an erased chalkboard, still dusty but ready to be filled, or wrecked. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): INTAGLIO — “II”

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Oct 252021
 

 

The second album by Russia’s Intaglio, unassumingly entitled II, follows their debut by more than 15 years. It is filled with moments that set off fireworks inside a listener’s head.

That’s probably not something you expect to read about a band whose music is classified by Metal Archives as “Funeral Doom”. Most music so classified is more likely to mesmerize than it is to provoke gasps of wonder. But II isn’t typical, and while it is indeed entrancing, the magnificent spell it casts derives from unusual ingredients and an unusual conception (and Funeral Doom is no longer an adequate description).

In its conception, II was intended to be experienced as a single long piece. It has a 7-part track list (though there are no pauses between the tracks) and consists of movements, but it is accurately described as a single “doom opera” which achieves its full impact only when heard from beginning to end.

For its ingredients, Intaglio assembled a large cast of performers and live instruments. Seven professional singers contributed voices that range from basso profundo to soprano. The instruments included not only a panoply of electric and acoustic guitars and percussive sources but also classical instruments such as upright bass, cello, chimes, and flute, as well as mouth harp. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 2): SOL SISTERE, FERAL SEASON, DARKEST MIND, END ALL LIFE

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  6 Responses »
Oct 242021
 

 

As promised, this is Part 2 of the column I began here earlier today. It includes reviews and streams of two recently released albums, a track from a forthcoming debut full-length, and a very promising two-song demo.

SOL SISTERE (Chile)

In the summer of this year I premiered a song and video for this next album of atmospheric black metal (which is self-titled though it’s the band’s third full-length). Sometimes that’s the best I can do to help spread the word about a new release, but for this one I felt I should do something more.

At eight tracks and an hour of total music, Sol Sistere provides a lot to take in. More than merely the accumulated length, the music itself provides a wide-ranging experience. At their heights of intensity, the songs deliver jaw-dropping panoramas of sweeping, soaring, incendiary magnificence, with an emotional impact equal to the colossal sonic impact. The moods are often wrenching, manifesting anguish in shattering ways (the vocals alone are relentlessly shattering). Even when the breathtaking typhoons of sound soften, sorrow usually reigns. Continue reading »

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