AETERNAM: “AL QASSAM”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Jun 232020
 

 

(Three months after its release, DGR finally dug into the fourth album by the Québec band Aeternam and is damned glad he did, as explained in this extensive review.)

Easily one of my biggest brick walls in terms of recent writing, because I have kept going back to it, over and over.

I wracked my brain for a while wondering where exactly I had picked up on Montreal’s hybrid symphonic death/folk/blackened-death metal group Aeternam and their new disc released in March, Al Qassam. It’s been a ghost haunting the backlog for a little while now, until it occurred to me that we hadn’t really covered the lead-up to their new disc at all.  Our most recent mention of them was due to vocalist/guitarist Achraf Loudiy appearing on Egyptian death metal group Scarab’s new disc, Martyrs Of The Storm — also released in March.

The whole reason they’d remained in the ‘keep an eye on’ pile was due to a handful of enthusiastic reader recommendations for them in previous years during our year-end list roundups. In fact, I think both 2012’s Moongod and 2017’s Ruins Of Empires are part of my collection now due to those recommendations. So, Al Qassam and its excellent cover art have been waiting for a proper look up and down almost since its announcement.

Given my current quest to sweep through the early parts of the year for anything we might’ve missed on top of the usual collection of albums I’m prone to dive into, finally diving headfirst into Aeternam’s latest felt like a natural thing to do. And wow, what a fantastic choice that has been proving to be. Continue reading »

ACHERONTAS: “PSYCHIC DEATH: THE SHATTERING OF PERCEPTIONS”

 Album Reviews  6 Responses »
Jun 222020
 

 

(On June 26th Agonia Records will release a new album by the Greek coven Acherontas, and today we present Andy Synn‘s review of this eye-opening, mind-expanding new record.)

The only constant in life, or so they say, is change.

But that doesn’t mean change is always good, or even wanted, especially when it comes to music.

By the same token, however, bands who refuse to change, refuse to progress, run the risk of sinking into a swamp of creative stagnation from which it’s often impossible to escape.

It’s a conundrum. How much change is too much… and how much is not enough?

Eight albums into their career, it seems like cult Black Metal coven Acherontas have found their own answer to this question, as while Psychic Death may not have shattered my perceptions of the band, it’s certainly made me rethink how I perceive their music. Continue reading »

DEFEATED SANITY: “THE SANGUINARY IMPETUS”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Jun 222020
 

 

(We present Vonlughlio’s review of the new sixth album by German stalwarts Defeated Sanity, which is set for release by Willowtip Records on July 24th and features cover art by Jon Zig.)

Today’s review concerns a band who have been dear to me as a fan for more than 10 years.  Their music has given me great joy, through good and bad times.  They are one of the best Brutal Death Metal acts out there, with classic releases that will be forever remembered.

I am talking about Germany’s Defeated Sanity, originally formed by Lille Gruber (drums) and his late father Wolfgang Teske (R.I.P.).  After their inception, the project released a series of demos and splits from 1996 through 2003, and their debut album Prelude to the Tragedy (2004) became one of my favorite debuts ever by any band in the genre. Continue reading »

ALTERNATIVE RELEASE DAY ROUND-UP: ACÂRASH / AVERSIO HUMANITATIS / DÈARTH / FORNICUS / GRAVENCHALICE / SXUPERION

 Album Reviews  6 Responses »
Jun 192020
 


Acârash

(This is a collection of reviews and full-album streams assembled by Andy Synn.)

As everyone knows, the devil has all the best tunes, so today’s “Alternative Release Day Round-Up” has a demonic, Black/Death theme to it.

It also, for once, actually includes quite a few albums which are only just seeing the light of day today… although even the “oldest” albums featured here were all released within the last month or so. Continue reading »

BIESY: “TRANSSATANIZM”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Jun 182020
 

(Here’s Andy Synn‘s review of the new album by the Polish band Biesy, which was released by Godz Ov War Productions on May 8th.)

Black Metal is, let’s face it, an inherently contradictory genre.

By turns both fearlessly progressive and rigidly (some might even say “religiously”) conservative, infinitely malleable yet stubbornly inflexible, it’s the sort of place where bands can preach rebellion and non-conformity on one hand while ostracising anyone who dares to colour too far outside the lines on the other.

And while I love pretty much everything about it – the sound, the fury, the blending of avant-garde artistry and punk-as-fuck attitude – I’m also not afraid to acknowledge the high camp of it all either, considering how much time I’ve spent in small, dark rooms, watching shirtless, make-up covered men with pseudonyms like “Goat Impaler” and “Ultra Sodomite” hammering out priapic hymns of uber-masculinity, all while rocking a borderline-erotic amount of leather.

So it’s actually kind of surprising that it’s taken so long for someone to connect the obvious dots between the nihilistic escapism of Black Metal’s corpse-painted pageantry and the performative, provocative world of drag, but that’s exactly what the mastermind behind Biesy has done, adopting the persona of blue-haired punk-rock princess “Faustyna Moreau” to create an album designed to make you question your own prejudices and preconceptions about the necro-metallic arts. Continue reading »

I THE INTRUDER: “HUNGER”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Jun 172020
 

 

(This is DGR’s evocative review of the debut album by the Tunisian metal band I the Intruder, which was released on April 27th.)

Sometimes it’s fun to guess why a certain album might be sent to yours truly with a note that says, “You should probably check this out”. Psychological analysis aside, the fun part is trying to figure out why they sent it specifically in this way and what they saw in it that said, “Y’know what? maybe this person might like it”. I certainly can’t be the only one who semi-enjoys this game when friends recommend stuff, so when the late-April-released album Hunger by I The Intruder came sailing across the desk, the immediate “Okay, why?” came into play.

In this case, I would have to wonder if it was my unabashed love for Vitriol’s To Bathe From The Throat Of Cowardice last year and how it was a relentless beating of an album that just kept unleashing musical whirlwind after musical whirlwind. While not quite as suffocating a brand of death metal (I The Intruder do have a knack for rapid-fire grooves that just pile on top of each other), Hunger is of a similar nature, at eight tracks and a little over a half hour of non-stop deathgrind. Continue reading »

FOETAL JUICE: “GLUTTONY”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Jun 162020
 

 

(We present Vonlughlio’s review of the new sophomore album by the UK’s Foetal Juice, which features cover art by Roberto Toderico. It was released by Gore House Productions on June 12th.)

I believe I have mentioned before that feeling you get when you discover (or were recommended) a band whose music leaves you amazed, and wondering to yourself why you weren’t able to hear about them before.

That’s what happened in the case of Foetal Juice, based in the United Kingdom, who just released their sophomore effort Gluttony through Gore House Productions. I found out about the project when the label was promoting one of the singles for this release, which left a favorable impression on yours truly. Continue reading »

HAIL SPIRIT NOIR: “EDEN IN REVERSE”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Jun 162020
 

 

We are all well aware of beloved metal bands whose creative interests and impulses have led them to places very different from where they began. Sometimes, comparing starting and ending points can become jarring juxtapositions, even if directional signposts were evident along the way (at least for those who were paying attention). In other instances, change is more abrupt, perhaps the result of line-up revisions or of blatant commercial calculation.

Regardless of the explanation, change is risky, even when the results are superlative — and catastrophic when the outcomes are deplorable. But change is also the spice of life. It is also, in fact, the inherent underpinning of life. Without it, all of us would still be single-cell organisms swimming in salt seas. Because of it, we may someday swim among the stars.

Which brings us to Eden In Reverse, the brilliant new album by Hail Spirit Noir, and perhaps even an explanation of what the foregoing paragraphs have to do with the album. Continue reading »

…AND OCEANS: “COSMIC WORLD MOTHER”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Jun 162020
 

 

(This is DGR’s review of the latest album by the Finnish symphonic black metal band …And Oceans, which was released on May 8th by Season of Mist.)

…And Oceans‘ latest album Cosmic World Mother is a handful of different things: It’s a comeback album, the group’s first full-length release since 2002, with a small series of splits, silence as the crew continued on as Havoc Unit before splitting, and then an EP in 2019 after the band had re-formed. It’s also a return to their older sound because it is almost singularly focused on being a black metal release with a healthy symphonic element in the background (it is so singularly focused, in fact, that at times it can be overwhelming in its intensity. with every element available to the band ratcheted up to 100).

It is also one of the more blistering releases to come out in 2020, as it seems like …And Oceans decided their new modus operandi was going to be absolute hellfire in song form, a fierce shrieking assault propelled forward by a volley of drums just hammering away in the background — fitting, when you have Gloria Morti‘s current drummer behind the kit, because if anyone is going to be fairly blast-happy it’s that gentleman.

Further, it is an album that because of those aforementioned elements can feel surprisingly long at times. Cosmic World Mother is nearly fifty minutes in length — near the high end of the average, but without the sticker shock of seeing an hour plus — and though it’s a trope to proclaim that you’d be perfectly okay taking a break at the midpoint of an album and then throwing yourself back into it, Cosmic World Mother recognize this. But intentionally or not, the …And Oceans crew have built in one of the best mid-points of an album out there, giving the record a very distinct ‘two act’ feel. Continue reading »

PROTEST THE HERO: “PALIMPSEST”

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule  4 Responses »
Jun 152020
 

 

(This is Andy Synn‘s review of the new album by the Ontario, Canada, metal band Protest the Hero, which will be released on June 18th.)

Necessity, as they say, is the mother of invention. While adversity… adversity is a son of a bitch.

Progressive Tech-Metal punks Protest the Hero are all too familiar with adversity, as the years since the band’s last release, 2016’s piecemeal (but promising) EP Pacific Myth, have been riddled with ups and downs, setbacks and delays, and one extremely worrying period where it looked like singer Rody Walker might have to hang up the microphone for good.

But, wouldn’t you know it, the band’s dedication and bloody-minded perseverance has paid off handsomely, as you’re all about to discover. Continue reading »

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