SHORT BUT SWEET: LORD IMPALER – “BABYLON WHORE”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Jul 012013
 

Man, it’s hard to believe that an entire year has passed since I first heard (and reviewed) Lord Impaler’s debut album, Admire the Cosmos Black. A full year has indeed come and gone, but not without a small anniversary present. Last week Lord Impaler released a digital EP available on Bandcamp by the name of Babylon Whore. It consists of two songs, it comes with a 6-page digital booklet, and it once again delivers some damned potent black metal from this under-recognized group of Greek marauders.

The title track “Babylon Whore” cuts right to the bone, right from the beginning. The music roars, moans, and vibrates with arcane energy, and the tremolo-picked melodies carry an atmosphere of sickness, while Tragon’s vocals are caustic enough to raise welts on your skin.

“The White Dream of Ziz” begins in a similarly blasting and ripping manner, but the assault is divided by a slow, morbid interlude with spoken-word vocals, and there is a kind of melancholy beauty in the song’s rippling guitar melodies.  Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: ANTEDILUVIAN – “SEPTENTRIONAL THEOPHANY”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  6 Responses »
Jun 292013
 

I like to think I do a decent job of keeping my eyes open for new releases by bands I like, including bands and labels who don’t send out lots of press releases or advance promo copies to NCS. But I completely fell down on the job in the case of Canada’s Antediluvian, despite the fact that I was powerfully impressed by both their 2011 debut album Through the Cervix of Hawaah (reviewed here) and their 2012 split with Adversarial (reviewed here). Just how badly did I fall down? Well, for starters, until yesterday I completely missed the fact that Nuclear War Now! released Antediluvian’s second full-length album — Logos — in April.

And to top that off I also failed to notice that two previously unreleased tracks recorded at the same time were released in May as a 7″ vinyl EP (entitled Septentrional Theophany) accompanying the premiere issue of a zine called Haruspex. The zine, written by Jason Campbell with artwork by  Tim Grieco (Haasiophis of Antediluvian) was originally intended for release in support of NWN! Fest III, but apparently will be an ongoing thing. It’s being sold, along with the Antediluvian release, by Nuclear War Now! at this location.

Obviously, having just discovered these two oversights yesterday, I don’t have either release in my grubby claws yet. But I did listen to the two songs from Septentrional Theophany on Bandcamp. If it’s possible for music to be both primitive and avant garde, that’s what these two songs are. Continue reading »

LANTERN: “BELOW”

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Jun 272013
 

(In this post TheMadIsraeli reviews the new album by Finland’s Lantern. The album is out now on the Dark Descent label.)

Lantern are a discovery who I have to say surprise and bewilder me with their sound.  Equal parts early Napalm Death, early Emperor, and Celtic Frost, the resulting sound is badass in all of its off-kilter bestiality.  The inclusion of a mix intentionally made to resemble late 80’s demo work makes it even stranger, yet it fits their sound perfectly.  All in all, I’m surprised I haven’t heard more talk of these guys considering their three previous releases (two demos and an EP).  I haven’t heard any of those previous releases; this album is my first exposure.

Those influences I listed?  This really is an attempt to merge all those sounds together.  The result is something that is chaotic, yet melancholic and alien.  The strange riffs hybridize the styles (there are no specifically identifiable death metal riffs, black metal riffs, or anything else of the sort going on here) and the vocals are insanely primitive, the production only applying a minimum degree of dirtying, amounting to something like a caveman grunt or roar.  Vocalist Necrophilos comes off as something of a more raw, more open-sounding Barney Greenway back in Napalm Death’s early 90’s days.

The instrumental work, all provided by second member Cruciatus, boasts its own personal flare.  His riffs, as I said, hybridize death, black, thrash, and doom metal, all to astonishing effect, while his drum work has an impeccably old school feel to it.  Blast beats fall in and out of sync; as a matter of fact, the drums are always on the verge of derailing when the music speeds up, which brings a nice chaotic touch. When the slower pieces come, his drumming takes on a commanding simplicity that marches forth with agonized perseverance. Continue reading »

EXTOL: “EXTOL”

 Album Reviews  16 Responses »
Jun 262013
 

(Andy Synn reviews the spectacular new come-back album by Norway’s Extol.)

So, all my cards on the table… I approached this album with an equal mix of awe and trepidation. This band mean a huge amount to me, and as much as I had been hoping for a reunion there’s always the fear that things simply might not be the same after so long.

Let me just say then that this album fulfils, and exceeds, all of my hopes and expectations. It is a truly phenomenal record which both reinstates the band’s legendary reputation and also primes them for a new era, and a new audience, recapturing the irrepressible spirit and raw passion of their earlier efforts, alongside an even greater sense of maturity and refined intelligence.

Now, to my fellow Extol acolytes, that should be all they need to hear. But what can I say that will entice the unfamiliar listener? How can I best describe the album’s (and the band’s) sound to a new potential audience?

Though the band’s distinctive sound is difficult to classify (if you read the SYNN REPORT I did about the band, you’ll see I chose to recommend each album separately, such was the variety on offer), the group could most closely be associated with progressive death metal – with the death metal elements drawing more from the post-Schuldiner school of thought rather than the Floridian corpse-yards. For a band that I feel often don’t get their due, their influence is surprisingly pervasive and far-reaching. In fact, if you want to know where The Faceless learned their Autotheistic chops, then Extol is a good place to start! Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: PYRE / ENTRAPMENT SPLIT

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  4 Responses »
Jun 232013
 

Last month the Dutch label/distro Soulseller Records released a 45 rpm black vinyl split featuring two songs each from Pyre (Russia) and Entrapment (The Netherlands). I don’t have the vinyl — yet — but I did discover all four of the songs on Bandcamp, and what a discovery that proved to be. I admit that I have a real weak spot for the style of metal both bands play; more accurately, it’s a G-spot (or at least the male equivalent thereof). But even making allowances for my predisposition toward this kind of music, what both bands have done here is impressive.

The genre to which I’m referring is old school, Swedish-style, metal of fucking death. I hasten to add that Pyre and Entrapment do not sound like clones of each other. Although both bands have obviously plunged their hands up to the elbows in the river of gore that spread out from late-80’s/early 90’s Stockholm, they have very distinctive takes on the tradition, and there are some nods to Autopsy and NYDM in the music, too.

PYRE

Pyre are based in St. Petersburg, and this is only their second release (the first was a 2012 EP, Ravenous Decease), but man, they already sound like they’ve been at this for a long time. “Destined To Die” is a hard-rocking, punk-fueled rampage that gets the neck snapping immediately. The guitars and bass are stuffed full of HM-2 distortion, the gut-punch drumming is pitch-perfect for this kind of music, and the vocalist sounds a helluva lot like LG Petrov. Very nice screaming guitar solo in this one, too. Continue reading »

EVILE: “SKULL”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Jun 212013
 

(TheMadIsraeli reviews the new album by British thrashers Evile, which is out now via Century Media and Earache.)

Evile may very well be THE best of the so called re-thrash movement (I don’t count Vektor, they have a completely original sound IMO), bringing together elements of Forbidden, Slayer, Sepultura, and early Metallica to create a sound that has managed to remain old school, true to the roots, yet still distinct in its delivery.

With three killer albums to their credit thus far, the question, of course, is whether or not Skull manages to be a genuinely awesome fourth. I really think that opinion comes down to what you’ve liked most over the course of Evile’s three previous albums. While Evile have always had “their” sound, the three albums pre-dating this one had distinctly different areas of emphasis among the elements, which made them distinctly different from one another.

Skull is an odd edition in the Evile discography, mainly because it’s three steps back and strikes a ton of notes resonant with their debut Enter the Grave. The songs are one-note as far as tempo goes for the most part, the riffs are stripped-down, and the gang shouts are back. However, none of this changes the fact that I love it front to back. Like Enter the Grave, Skull is packed with adrenaline-surged immediacy and cut-throat riffage out the ass. Although I think by now these things are just to be expected with an Evile album. Continue reading »

BENEA REACH: “POSSESSION”

 Album Reviews  7 Responses »
Jun 202013
 

(Andy Synn reviews the new album by Norway’s Benea Reach, which is out now via Spinefarm.)

To djent, or not to djent? That is the question…

Ok, so it’s not really all that pertinent, I just mention it to start things off. Disregarding my own personal views on that particular sub-genre, I’d like to state how inaccurate it would be to call Benea Reach a “Djent” act… although I can see how they might appeal to certain fans of that particular sound.

Pre-dating the now almost ubiquitous genre by a fair few years (for context, Benea Reach were already two albums deep before 2010), the group’s pulsing, post-Meshuggah sound holds just as much of a debt to the emotive tumult of Cult Of Luna and the frantic post-hardcore dynamic of Refused, resulting in something resolutely more underground and, ultimately for me, far more rewarding. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: CRYPT SERMON — “DEMO MMXIII”

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, Free Shit, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Jun 202013
 

Crypt Sermon are the second doom-oriented band with a new debut release named Demo MMXIII that I’m reviewing today (the first was by Temple of Void). This is a new project, and I know only a small amount of information about them: By snooping around I’ve learned that they are from Philadelphia, the membership apparently includes Steve Jansson (Infiltrator, Grass, Trench Rot), Brooks Wilson (Grass), and James L. (Labyrinthine), among others, and the demo was mastered by Chris Grigg (Woe).

I’ll say up-front that the demo is an Exception To the Rule around here — no howls, growls, guttural vomiting, or hair-raising shrieks on this release. But  the clean vocals — whoever is doing them — are definitely one of this demo’s strengths. The music is strong in many other respects as well.

The three songs are an offering of traditional doom — the kind of music that put me in mind of Candlemass, Saint Vitus, and The Gates of Slumber — but less theatrical than some of the music from the bands I just name-dropped. I will also say up front that I have never been a die-hard fan of any of those bands, yet Crypt Sermon struck a chord, and twanged it really hard. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: TEMPLE OF VOID — “DEMO MMXIII”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  2 Responses »
Jun 202013
 

This is the first of two short, new, doom-flavored offerings that I’m reviewing today, both with the name Demo MMXII. This first one comes our way from Detroit’s Temple of Void, and it’s their first recorded output. However, you wouldn’t guess that in listening to the three songs, because they already sound like mature, self-assured creations.

I’ve already slapped the “doom-flavored” label on the music, but let me hasten to add that doom is only one of its ingredients. It does indeed feature some truly staggering, mega-weight riffs, a blanket of indigo melodies, and an often lumbering pace. But that’s not all. Also in the mix you’ll discover elements of viscera-draped death metal a la Autopsy, you’ll be pummeled by hammer blows of Bolt Thrower-style riffing, and you’ll be transported by some inspired psychedelic guitar solos.

The tempos never reach the pace of a gallop, but they do vary. The first two tracks, “Beyond the Ultimate” and “Exanimate Gaze” are fine examples. They start with massive riffs that are so damned infectious someone ought to notify the Center for Disease Control (and holy hell, the bass guitar in the intros  is absolutely titanic). And while “Beyond the Ultimate” eventually falls heavily into a dirge-like crawl, “Exanimate Gaze” spools up into a ghoulish charge that will get heads banging vigorously. Continue reading »

AUTHOR & PUNISHER: “WOMEN & CHILDREN”

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Jun 192013
 

 (In this post DGR reviews the new album by Author & Punisher, which was officially released last week by Seventh Rule.)

One of the reasons that I got into heavy metal was the abrasive nature of it. Like a lot of folks, I was drawn to the rebellious ‘fuck you!’ aspect of the style, on top of the idea that it was ugly music for the ugly side of life. As I drifted further into the scene though, one of the things that always stuck out and made me excited was the machine-like nature that the music took on as it became heavier. People would play their instruments with the sort of finesse, accuracy, and technicality usually reserved for a machine, and it never stopped being incredible to me.

That’s probably why I found myself drawn to bands like Strapping Young Lad and Meshuggah. It’s probably the reason why I spent five minutes in a bathroom once, just standing there because the fan sounded like the drum beat to “Bleed”. However, unless you’re continually searching out music that is heavier and more intense until you finally land in noisegrind territory, even the heaviest bands can eventually feel a little sterile and safe. Sometimes you have to go outside your comfort zone for music that truly challenges you, still has that edge.

I write this in order to explain why a project like Author & Punisher appears here. It’s a one-man project consisting of custom-built machines being played that creates a cacophonous sort of drone and doom with some very light dubbed elements. Author & Punisher just recently put out a disc bearing the title of Women & Children. It’s an experiment that takes on an abrasive and hypnotic air as it drags the listener deeper into layers of noise, layered upon tons of bass and drums, all moving at a slow, monolithic, crushing pace – only to be occasionally interrupted by anguished screams and distorted robotic vocals that sound more like the low hum of an engine than anything human. Continue reading »

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