THE RETURN OF INDUSTRIAL METAL: REALIZE AND BLACK MAGNET

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Sep 082020
 

 

(In this post Todd Manning combines reviews of new albums by Arizona’s Realize (coming on September 25th via Relapse Records) and Oklahoma’s Black Magnet, released on September 4th by 20 Buck Spin.)

It’s easy to look to the past with rose-colored glasses, but the late eighties and early nineties sure do seem like a distant utopia at times. Yet, that time period spawned the unholy marriage of Industrial music and Extreme Metal, which can often produce some of the most nightmare-ish tunes this side of the river Styx.

It’s only fitting that this kind of stuff is making a comeback nowadays as the material seems well-suited to describe the not-so-slow-motion apocalypse we are being forced to live through. Bleakness and relentless tragedy are the order of the day, and Realize and Black Magnet are two bands diving headfirst into this chasm. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: JESUS WEPT – “APARTHEID REDUX”

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Sep 042020
 

 

(This is Andy Synn‘s review of an expanded EP by the Detroit band Jesus Wept, released by Redefining Darkness Records on August 21st.)

Let’s make one thing clear. Apartheid Redux is, as you might have guessed from its name, not a totally new release, even though this is the first time it’s being featured here.

As a matter of fact four of these six tracks (glossing over, for now, the fun but disposable WASP cover which appears on some editions) were first heard on Jesus Wept’s appropriately crush-tastic and catchy-as-hell debut EP, Crushing Apartheid.

But, thanks to Redefining Darkness Records, who recently decided they’d be the ones to pluck the group from relative obscurity, the music from that record, along with two additional (and similarly killer) tracks is finally getting a much-needed and well-deserved wider release. Continue reading »

METAL TO THE NTH POWER: NANSIS / NECROT / NÚLL

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Sep 032020
 


Necrot (photo by Chris Johnston)

 

(Andy Synn wrote the three following reviews of recently released albums by bands who have in common… well… a letter of the alphabet.)

Oh my stars and garters, there is a lot of music out there at the moment isn’t there?

I know this feels like a familiar refrain (and it is), but it bears repeating. There’s simply too much music, and too much Metal, being released, week after week, to stay on top of it all.

Still, we try our best to cover what we can, and today I’d like to direct your attention to three recently released albums from Nansis (Switzerland), Necrot (USA), and Núll (Iceland). Continue reading »

GANGRENECTOMY: “CANNIBALISTIC CRITERIA OF THE MANTIS”

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Sep 032020
 

 

(Here’s Vonlughlio’s review of the latest album, released this past spring by Amputated Vein Records, by the Italian slamming brutal death metal band Gangrenectomy.)

The Italian metal scene is responsible for giving us great bands such as Devangelic, Putridity,  Vulvectomy, Hour of Penance, Blasphemer, and Hideous Divinity, just to name a few (that I love).  And this time around I would like to take the opportunity to speak about one more, an underground project named Gangrenectomy that I recently discovered this year.

I  have to say that at first I was a little bit hesitant to check them out since their music is BDM that leans toward the slam side, and there are a lot of bands in that vein that just don’t do anything for me. Regardless, I decided to go with an open mind and checked out their second album, Cannibalistic Criteria of the Mantis, which was released early this year via Amputated Vein Records. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): VERMISST — “ZMIERZCH STALOWEJ CIEMNOŚCI”

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Sep 022020
 

 

Of the eight tracks on Vermisst‘s new album Zmierzch Stalowej Ciemności (which Signal Rex will release on September 4th, on vinyl and digitally), five of them first appeared as an EP bearing the same title as this album, released in a CD edition in January 2020. The other three are bonuses — new original tracks recorded last December which expand the EP to 40 minutes.

For those readers who may have overlooked the EP over the last eight months, it’s quite an arresting and often elaborate experience, one that featured not only the performances of Vermisst‘s core members Belath (guitar), Vorghast (vocals), and Kvalvaag (keys) but also impressive session work by Vlambré (bass), Bloodwhip (guitar), and Vulgrim (drums). The bonus tracks, created solely by Belath (guitars) and Vorghast (vocals, drums), are very different in important respects, but arresting in their own harrowing way. Continue reading »

ALARUM: “CIRCLE’S END”

 Album Reviews  5 Responses »
Sep 022020
 

 

(TheMadIsraeli prepared this review of the latest album by the long-running Australian band Alarum, which was released in June by Dinner For Wolves.)

The very idea of progressive metal in modern metal is trapped in a weird state of limbo.  We have a problem lately with labeling things progressive that are, frankly, not at all.  They meet none of the requirements for the style, but the songs are over seven minutes long so we think surely that’s the qualifier.  As someone who appreciates the eccentricity in progressive metal of any sort enthralling, it’s a bit insulting to me that “our” standard has dropped so low that we consider bands like Black Crown Initiate to be progressive.  They are, no doubt, an excellent band, one of modern extreme metal’s best current acts, and fantastic musicians, but their music is not progressive.

When I think of metal that is progressive, I think envelope-pushing, I think weird fusion ideas or the ability to write a comprehensively diverse album that hits an insanely wide array of peaks and valleys while maintaining a cohesive core sound.  A group could do this based on a “gimmick”, of course, and could have an objective, perhaps oriented around jazz for example, and that’s fair as long as the music you’re writing actually tries to push and incorporate jazz into your metal in such a way that the spirit of jazz is in no way diluted. Continue reading »

HYMN: “BREACH US”

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Sep 012020
 

 

(On August 28th Fysisk Format released the second album by the Norwegian duo Hymn, and Andy Synn gives it an enthsusiastic review below.)

Being human is, I’m sure we’ll all agree, a strange experience. One which, ultimately, we all experience differently.

Even though we have so much in common, and encounter the world through the same five senses, the same underlying mental architecture, if I were to try to convey to you exactly what I experience when I feel pain, or pleasure, or any number of other sensations, I wouldn’t be able to do so.

Oh sure, we have language to describe what pain “is”, what pleasure “is”, but the truth is that human language just isn’t equipped to describe the subjective qualia of reality.

Quite simply, you can’t feel what I feel.

This is one reason why we often fall back on comparisons and shared points of reference when describing things to one another, especially (to the chagrin of many) when talking about music.

So, like it or not, please be aware that when I say that Norwegian duo Hymn sound like the bastard offspring of Cult of Luna, Crowbar, and Celtic Frost I do so with good reason, as you’re about to find out. Continue reading »

TON: “ASHES WHERE THEY STOOD”

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Sep 012020
 

 

(Vonlughlio prepared this review of the new third album by the Ohio death metal band TON, which was released in August by Ungodly Ruins Productions.)

The Ohio death metal project called TON have been around since 1993. They released a handful of demos leading up to their full-length debut Plague in 1999. After that they went on a hiatus of sorts until 2015 when they released their sophomore album, Bow Down to Extinction, and that is when I learned of their existence (late to the party, I suppose).

I enjoyed their second release quite a bit, including the kind of natural production that allowed each of the instruments be heard as a collaborative force, instead of some being buried in the mix. The riffs were quite entertaining, providing the driving force leading the way in each of the eight songs which proved to be an engaging 32-minute experience. Continue reading »

THE SYNN REPORT (PART 124): HAVUKRUUNU

 Album Reviews, THE SYNN REPORT  3 Responses »
Aug 312020
 

 

(For the August 2020 edition of The Synn Report, Andy Synn has decided to compile reviews of all the releases by the tremendously talented Finnish band Havukruunu, including their newest album released earlier this month by Naturmacht Productions.)

Recommended for fans of: Moonsorrow, Immortal, Vintersorg

Black Metal, as we all know, comes in many different forms.

Punky and primal, proggy and polished, feral and fierce, mighty and majestic… and all shades and shapes in between.

And for this month’s Synn Report it’s the latter style I’ve chosen to focus on, with this deep dive into the discography of formidable Finnish foursome Havukruunu.

Three albums into their career (the most recent of which was released earlier this month) the band have, effectively, become masters of a scintillating brand of Black Metal which fuses the epic extravagance of their countrymen in Moonsorrow with the swaggering, riff-centric approach of Immortal and the fearless melodic mettle of Bathory… although, as accurate (maybe even a little too obvious) as those references are, I’d say that Havukruunu have more than made this sound their own at this point.

So fill your cups, sharpen your blades, and ready yourselves to ride the blazing Northern skies as we take a journey through the band’s bountiful back catalogue. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): INTERCEPTING PATTERN — “THE ENCOUNTER”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Aug 312020
 

 

As a listener, there is more than one way you might envision in your mind’s eye the wondrous musical excursion of Intercepting Pattern‘s debut album The Encounter. Perhaps you’ll think of being aboard a spacecraft traversing the solar system, or tunneling through a wormhole to locations vastly beyond our home system. Or maybe you’ll conclude that the trip isn’t bounded by any dimension of “reality”, extraterrestrial or not. There is, after all, a track named for the prince of demons. Or perhaps you’ll think of being suspended in the transitional state between wakefulness and sleep, experiencing lucid dreams or bizarre hallucinations (there’s another track named for that state of threshold consciousness).

I thought of all those things, but also remembered two other things. One of those memories was Rod Serling‘s repeated introduction to his famous TV series (I’ll come to the other memory at the end of this introduction to our premiere of the album):

“There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man’s fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call… the Twilight Zone.” Continue reading »

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