SHADOW OF INTENT: “RECLAIMER”

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Jun 122017
 

 

(Guest contributor “Bathy Kates” makes his first appearance at NCS with this review of the new album by Shadow of Intent from the northeastern U.S.)

Deathcore gets a bad rap. Sure, it has plenty of trendy and mediocre bands but it has lots of music worth listening to as well. The genre shares with other great metal institutions, like power metal and thrash metal, a steady flow of bands who ignite a visceral reaction in listeners, and hasn’t that always been a major selling point of metal? Deathcore was created to bring out the primal energy within its listeners. When deathcore fails it’s usually due a serious lack of originality, relying too heavily on gimmicks, and annoying vocals. When it succeeds, it combines the grisly aesthetic of death metal with well-distributed breakdowns and hones in on a particular abdication of sanity that hardcore and death metal share. Deathcore should be about relinquishment. It should go there.

Shadow of Intent succeeds in going there. From the onset of the refreshingly not-pointless introduction track, this band makes their unique brand of sophisticated depravity clear for all to see. With snarling, diverse vocals, crystal-clear guitars that speed by like lightning, and a rhythm section that can do more than just keep up, Reclaimer lives up to its name. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 2): ELFSGEDROCH, IMPERCEPTUM, WHITEWURM, TRUE LOVE, CWEALM

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK  7 Responses »
Jun 122017
 

 

This is the second part of a collection of new black metal recommendations that I began yesterday. There were eight bands whose music I included in Part 1, and originally there were eight more here. Yes, I know, I’ve gone overboard. But since that’s never ever happened before, I know you’ll be in a forgiving mood — especially when I tell you that I’ve siphoned off three of the second group of eight and have put them into a Part 3, coming later today or tomorrow.

ELFSGEDROCH

The debut album of Elfsgedroch (which is apparently Dutch for “mischief of elves”) was released on tape during the spring of 2016, but was released as a digital download and on vinyl in the spring of this year. The album’s name is Op de beenderen van onze voorvaderen (“on the bones of our ancestors”, if Google Translate is to be believed).

I’ve written twice before about individual tracks from the album as they appeared, and intended to write a proper review of the entire album. But now I’m afraid I may never get around to doing that — which makes me feel guilty because I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this record. Not only is the music exceptional, so is the care with which it has been packaged. Take a look: Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 1): GRAVEIR, MAR MORTUUM, SINMARA, GLACIAL TOMB, SOLBRUD, WHOREDOM RIFE, CRYPTIC WANDERINGS, AZAXUL

 Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK  3 Responses »
Jun 112017
 

 

It’s been three weeks since the last time I compiled music for a Shades of Black post, mainly because I was away from home the last three weekends. To somewhat make up for lost time, I’ve picked recommended new music in a blackened vein from more than a dozen bands and have divided the collection into two parts. Not sure if I’ll get Part 2 posted today or Monday, but most likely the latter.

GRAVEIR / MAR MORTUUM

I decided to start this post with a new split release by the Australian bands Graveir (Brisbane) and Mar Mortuum (Melbourne) so I would have another excuse to prominently feature Jef Whitehead’s artwork for it (I already posted it on our Facebook page yesterday). The music is also very good. Continue reading »

THE BEST OF BRITISH, 2017 (PART 5): CHAOS TRIGGER / FROM EDEN TO EXILE / A TRUST UNCLEAN

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Jun 092017
 

 

(In this edition of Andy Synn’s ongoing series focused on British bands, he reviews the heavy new albums by Chaos Trigger, From Eden To Exile, and A Trust Unclean.)

Originality is overrated.

There, I said it.

Of course, I don’t actually think that (well, not 100% anyway), but it got your attention, didn’t it?

But the truth is that “true” originality – while perhaps always something to aim for – is actually quite rare, and isn’t necessarily the be-all-and-end-all of music.

Granted, being a second-rate knock-off of another band isn’t exactly something to be proud of, but it’s entirely possible to make great music without breaking the mould or realigning the paradigm (or whatever your metaphor of choice might be).

Sometimes it’s enough just to write a bunch of great songs, great hooks, and great riffs, and stamp them with a sense of your own identity.

So here we have three bands from the UK, none of whom I would necessarily call “original”, in the strictest sense of the word, but who each still kick out the jams with an impressive amount of energy and integrity all the same. Continue reading »

DEATH OF KINGS: “KNEEL BEFORE NONE”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Jun 082017
 

 

(Wil Cifer reviews the new album by Atlanta’s Death of Kings.)

In the past I never felt the other recorded efforts by this Atlanta band were accurate representations of what they really do on stage. The vocals on previous releases often had a lower, more throaty husk to them, like old Mastodon. In other releases the guitar tone was recorded to give a false death metal density. I think anything that doesn’t properly paint these guys as a thrash band is misleading.

But with their new album we are getting what I have heard come from the monitors. The screechy vocals that sound like a more feral version of Overkill. The more razor-sharp guitar tone, one that feels more natural when it comes to the mid-paced gallop on “Sojurn”, which appeared on their 2015 demo.  The double-bass gets heavier on the chorus and muddies the mix a bit, but I think the biggest takeaway is how they have matured as songwriters, and it’s not just about finding cool riffs. Even with the tempestuous drumming, all the moving parts just seem to lock in better to tell the story. Continue reading »

SUFFOCATION: “…OF THE DARK LIGHT”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Jun 072017
 

 

(In this post TheMadIsraeli reviews the new album by Suffocation.)

If you ask me, at the end of the day there’s only five bands in the technical and brutal death metal circles that truly matter: Dying Fetus, Anata, Spawn of Possession, Martyr, and Suffocation. Suffocation is such an anomaly that it’s like the cosmos decided to manifest through humans the perfect mix of atonal grime, neoclassical melody, pulverizing groove, and eviscerating speed, all under the command most prominently of Frank Mullen, who in my book is THE death metal vocalist, and Terrance Hobbs. who writes some of the most intricately crafted incantations of despair and death on this planet when it comes to riffs.

Suffocation had a really fucking strong outing their last go around with Pinnacle Of Bedlam. It was their most energetic record to date, with a much more melodic focus than anything before it, while maintaining the proper amount of disregard for human value or opinion with some atonal off-road expeditions. It also contained a monolith of a closing track with a stellar re-recording of “Beginning Of Sorrow”, which worked better as a closing song than on the album it opened. Continue reading »

GODEATER: “OUTERSTELLAR”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Jun 072017
 

 

(Andy Synn prepared this review of the debut EP by the Scottish band Godeater.)

Although the band clearly haven’t fully found their own sound/voice/identity quite yet (these three tracks are positively littered with strands of DNA sequenced directly from all the usual suspects – The Faceless, Soreption, The Black Dahlia Murder, etc.), it’s impossible to deny that Outerstellar, the debut EP by Glaswegian Tech-Death tykes Godeater, is certainly a striking opening statement – in both ambition and execution – from a band with a hell of a lot of potential. Continue reading »

ÆTHER REALM: “TAROT”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Jun 062017
 

 

(DGR reviews the new album by North Carolina’s Æther Realm., which will be released tomorrow.)

An almost four-year gap between albums isn’t too unheard of these days. Metal, when it wants to, moves at a glacial pace, and as much as we love to assume everyone runs on the two-year cycle, there are always going to be a bunch of outliers. Æther Realm are one such band, with the gap between their debut album One Chosen By The Gods and the group’s soon-to-be-released sophomore disc Tarot being close to four years — though the band themselves have alleviated that a bit with a very healthy bit of touring, show playing, and a slow drip of singles that has actually made the time seem to disappear faster than one would think.

A sophomore disc can represent a huge shift for a band, especially one like Æther Realm, who had a very succesful first disc — one that really did prove the concept behind the band in one go and contained a healthy grasp of really catchy songs. For a band that at one point jokingly had as part of their online bio “We are not from Finland”, it certainly wasn’t hard to draw conclusions as to which groups the Æther Realm crew really, really loved and drew a ton of inspiration from. A second album of the same style, though, no matter how good the band might do it, becomes a harder sell, and with Tarot it seems like even Æther Realm recognized that. Continue reading »

ARPHAEL: “ANCIENT”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Jun 052017
 

 

(We present TheMadIsraeli’s review of the new album by the Ukrainian one-man project Arphael.)

I’ve always agreed with Andy’s assertion that at the end of the day, Meshuggah is a death metal band. They created their own nebula of brutality, especially when Nothing came out, pushing the sonic limits and revolutionizing the very concept of groove in extreme metal as we knew it. Meshuggah, a top-10 band for me, have always been about a defiant, transcendent minimalism that hits you like an asteroid to the soul.

While we saw the djent movement come and go, mostly a flash-in-the-pan phenomenon that produced very little quality music with staying power, more extreme-minded death metal bands have tried to take what Meshuggah did to the next level. In-Quest and their phenomenal last record Chapter IIX – The Odyssey of Eternity was a great attempt at a Catch-33-style, super-long song that saw the band adding new elements of intensity and stylistic diversity around the Meshuggah framework. At that point, It was the best I think Meshuggah had ever been riffed on by someone else.

But then this guy came around, this fucking lunatic Ukranian who goes by the name Arphael. Continue reading »

EIGHTEEN VISIONS: “XVIII”

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule  2 Responses »
Jun 052017
 

 

(Andy Synn reviews the first new album by Eighteen Visions since 2006.)

So here’s the thing… although I count myself among that rare breed of people who has faithfully (if not always happily) followed OC ‘core crew Eighteen Visions through all the ups and downs of their career, even I’m willing to admit that the band’s dissolution in 2007 – at the height of their perceived commercial viability and creative bankruptcy – was probably for the best.

For a band who had, up until that point, been famous as much for their devil-may-care attitude as they were for delivering bone-crushing breakdowns, their increasingly desperate attempts to break into the mainstream (and steady decline towards toothless, alt-rock senility), were a clear sign of a group increasingly unsure of their direction or place in the world and undergoing a painful (and ultimately fatal) mid-life crisis.

But it seems as though the group – whose line-up has been reduced to a three-piece following the sad demise of bassist Mick Morris in 2013, and the inability of guitarist (and founding member) Ken Floyd to participate due to other commitments – must have felt they had unfinished business left to attend to, as now they’re back with a new album, XVIII, which many (quite possibly including the band themselves) must be hoping will retcon their previous, self-titled, album out of existence.

So what’s the verdict? Continue reading »

 Older Entries  Newer Entries