Album Reviews Archives - Page 394 of 557

MY DYING BRIDE: “FEEL THE MISERY”

Aug 242015

(Wil Cifer reviews the new album by My Dying Bride.)

Type-O Negative might have gotten bigger with their more Goth-infused brand of doom in the ’90s, but My Dying Bride brought the dismal darkness in a heavier and more mournful fashion. They started off with more death metal in the mix and evolved from there. This album is another step.

Aaron Stainthorpe’s voice is the only trademark of the band in the opener until it slows down at the two-and-half-minute mark. The violin feels a tad toned-down in the mix. Each song becomes a little more identifiable as the death metal vocals return on the second song. They are layered atop an up-beat metal gallop that slows into the dirges they are known for. Continue reading »

MECHINA: “THE WORLD WE LOST”

Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, SHORT BUT SWEET 3 Responses »

Aug 222015

(In this post DGR reviews the new release by Chicago’s Mechina.)

Mechina are a band whom I’ve learned to stop trying to figure out. They’ve somehow evolved into superhuman musicians who can seemingy do no wrong when it comes to putting out quality music. They’ve consistently kept to a yearly release schedule, and recently have even added a single release mid-way through the year — and those have become huge efforts in their own right. I keep waiting for them to slip, but it seems that somehow the people behind Mechina are absolutely tireless as well as immensely talented.

The Mechina singles are some of the longest songs the band have written and are the musican’s equivelent of a short story — which is odd to say when it comes to music, but given that the band have created their own universe and continually add to it, it isn’t hard to see the band’s brand of symphonic/industrial/groove/death metal starting to become like sitting down with a storyteller and letting them entrance you with another tale. Continue reading »

ADVENT SORROW: “AS ALL LIGHT LEAVES HER”

Album Reviews 20 Responses »

Aug 212015

(Andy Synn reviews the new album by Advent Sorrow from Perth, Australia.)

Every so often a band you like makes an unexpected shift in sound, transforming that “like” into outright “love”. And that’s precisely what Advent Sorrow have done with their new album, As All Light Leaves Her, shedding the symphonic grandeur that permeated their debut EP in favour of an all-round darker and more desperate form of borderline DSBM-style sonic despair.

It’s not a complete paradigm shift, of course, as this extra layer of grim(e) was already apparent on Like a Moth to a Flame, the stand-alone single they released last year. But As All Light Leaves Her takes things a step further into the murk and mire, resulting in an album of bleak, harrowing melody and torturous metallic agony that errs closer to the sound of Infestus or early Shining than it does the more dramatic Dimmu Borgir-isms with which the band first made their name. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE (AND REVIEW): DYSPHOTIC — “CHAOS TERRAIN”

Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET 6 Responses »

Aug 212015

Santa Fe, New Mexico, is a one-of-a-kind town in a remarkably beautiful location. I’ve been fortunate to visit there three or four times over the span of my ancient life, but I couldn’t recall coming across any Santa Fe metal bands until I was introduced to Dysphotic about a month ago. What I heard then was a single called “All Consuming” that the band had released in advance of their debut EP, Chaos Terrain, and I really enjoyed it. And that led to this:

On August 29, Dysphotic will officially release Chaos Terrain, and we’re now giving you the chance to hear it in advance through our full stream of all the songs. And you really should make time to listen. Here’s why: Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: “FROM THE HELLMOUTH”

Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET 2 Responses »

Aug 182015

Back in May of this year we premiered a full stream of the first release by a new label named Redefining Darkness Records — an excellent EP by Vintage Warlords — and today we’re bringing you a full stream of the label’s second release. This one is a self-titled monster by the Cleveland band From the Hellmouth, which is set for release on August 28.

You have to hand it to this group for coming up with a band name that so accurately represents their sound. They also made wise moves in both illustrating the album with the masterful art of Zdzisław Beksiński and also having Alan Cassidy of The Black Dahlia Murder record the drums on this debut EP. Cassidy’s performance is absolutely decimating — a machine-precise, turbocharged, eye-popping percussive demolition project.

But the songs really demanded someone of Cassidy’s skill to complement all of the other head-spinning, utterly savage performances on the EP. The songs generally fly hard and fast, one blast after another of pugilistic riffs mixed with grisly tremolo-picked swarms, segmented by booming grooves that will both get your head moving (and loosen it from your spine). Continue reading »

MYRKUR: “M”

Album Reviews 17 Responses »

Aug 182015

(Andy Synn reviews the debut album by Myrkur.)

Let’s get this out of the way nice and early shall we? Yes, controversy (some groundless, some deserved) has certaintly dogged the name Myrkur since it first appeared on everyone’s radar last year. Barbs were thrown, aspersions were cast… mistakes were made. By both sides.

But honestly, I really don’t care about that. I’m not here to question or criticise anyone’s marketing strategy, nor am I prepared to wade into the sticky mire of “he said/she said” that made up a large amount of the internet’s reaction to the inevitable reveal.

No, all I’m interested in is whether Amalie Bruun, the head and heart and the soul of Myrkur, truly grasps the essence of Black Metal or not, and whether she has the vision and the execution to match her ambition.

Spoiler alert – she does. Continue reading »

MIDNIGHT AND SHITFUCKER — A SPLIT RELEASE

Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET 4 Responses »

Aug 182015

This is one of those extremely rare occasions when I’m writing about a new release without being able to include a stream of any of the music. This leaves you without the vital safety net of your own ears, wholly dependent on my own gibberish as a guide. While I really hate putting you in that position, I really have to froth about this release now. If and when a music stream surfaces, I’ll try to remember to add it. But since my memory is no more reliable than my verbiage, maybe you should just order this tasty little split for yourselves.

The partners in crime on this two-song release are Cleveland’s Midnight and Detroit’s Shitfucker, and it will be discharged by Hells Headbangers on 7″ vinyl on September 4.

MIDNIGHT

Midnight’s track is “Sadist Sodomystic Seducer”, and it’s their first new music since 2014’s stupendous No Mercy For Mayhem. It’s only 2:13 long, but man it’s good. Continue reading »

TERRA DEEP: “ET LUX IN TENEBRIS LUCET PART I — WAX PHOTONIC”

Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 2 Responses »

Aug 172015

(Our guest “Bonnie Fjord” reviews the forthcoming third album by Oregon’s Terra Deep and introduces our stream of one of the new songs.)

In 2012, one-man metal auteur Terra Deep self-released his debut album Starlight Lodge. The audience of Then was treated to a staggering and ambitious black metal document, a horn of grim plenty that successfully brought together second-wave Norwegian riffage, a Swedish aptitude for the progressive, and the operatic pomp of folk metal. The audience of Now, whatever the span of its attention during this Great Musical Exchange, should be poised to devour Terra Deep’s newest work.

Recently having signed a two-album deal with Dusktone, platform for dim luminaries Welter In Thy Blood, the man who identifies as either Hursag or Matthew Edwards — depending on context — has completed work on his third opus, Part of This World, Part of Another. Casual net perusal reveals some kind of connection to another Oregonian group, Glossolalia Records, but scant correspondence with Edwards has revealed a solitary musician with a kind of controlled creative mania. The album was, however, engineered and co-produced by The Will of a Million‘s Stephen Parker, part of the Glossolalia compound. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: LUCTUS, PUTREFIED REMAINS, BLACK SUN RITUAL, FLESH SS

Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET 6 Responses »

Aug 162015

I spent a couple of hours yesterday listening to new songs and a few recent short releases. As usual, I found a lot to like, and the music I’ve collected here comes from various widely dispersed corners of the black metal soundscape.

LUCTUS

I discovered this Lithuania-based band only a few weeks ago and wrote enthusiastically about some of the songs from their last release (2013’s Stotis) in a previous edition of Shades of Black (here). As I mentioned in that previous post, Luctus have now finished recording a new concept album entitled Ryšys (which means “connection”), and finally a song from the album has just become available for streaming. Continue reading »

THEORY IN PRACTICE: “EVOLVING TRANSHUMANISM”

Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET 4 Responses »

Aug 142015

(Austin Weber reviews the comeback EP by Sweden’s Theory In Practice.)

Theory In Practice are in many people’s estimations one of the finest progressive-minded technical death metal acts ever to exist. Between the late ’90s and 2002 they put out three highly influential, ahead-of-their-time records. Then the band sort of went poof sometime shortly after releasing 2002’s Colonizing The Sun and have been listed as “on hold” ever since.

Only a mere two days ago a friend and I were dorking out about our desire for Theory In Practice to return and grace us with something new. Well, the wait is finally fucking over, as yesterday the band dropped a new two-song, nine-minute EP called Evolving Transhumanism. I was lucky enough to see a band I follow post about it, otherwise I wouldn’t even have known myself! Continue reading »

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