HIGHER CRITICISM: PESTILENCE – AN INTRODUCTION

 Album Reviews  10 Responses »
Apr 022013
 

pes·ti·lence  (pst-lns)
n.
1. A usually fatal epidemic disease, especially bubonic plague.
2. A pernicious, evil influence or agent.

(Not long ago TheMadIsraeli concluded a reassessment of the discography of Kataklysm that he termed “Higher Criticism”. Now he’s ready to embark on yet another journey, as explained in this introduction.)

Pestilence are a band who have the odd distinction of being influential, innovative, under-recognized, and controversial all at the same time.  One of the pioneers of progressive death metal along with the likes of Death, Atheist, and Cynic, Pestilence have been subjected to massive scrutiny due to mastermind Patrick Mameli’s inability to commit to a sound, as well as the fact that in some cases those different sounds have had absolutely nothing to do with each other.  Mameli’s style of angular and melodic juxtaposition within his riffage is the one thing that has defined Pestilence for as long as they have existed, and is perhaps the only consistent factor from album to album. Continue reading »

TEMPLE: “ON THE STEPS OF THE TEMPLE”

 Album Reviews  7 Responses »
Apr 012013
 

My comrades and I at this site write very infrequently about instrumental metal. It’s equally rare for us to reach back in time and review an album that we overlooked when first released; we tend to stay focused on albums that loom ahead on the horizon rather than those which are growing more distant in the rearview mirror. I begin with those observations as a way of emphasizing what a strong impression On the Steps of the Temple has made on me.

It’s an instrumental album and it was released nearly eight months ago by a duo from Phoenix, Arizona, who call themselves Temple. I heard it for the first time yesterday after receiving an e-mail from the band that included words of praise from a healthy list of other sites.

I generally don’t like being the last guy to the party, but I started in on the music anyway, and when I finished listening I did something I can’t remember ever doing before with an instrumental release: I returned immediately to the beginning and listened to the album again, straight through, all 53 minutes of it.

Roughly two hours out of my Sunday, plus the time it took me to peck out the words to this piece, while many other more pressing things were scrabbling for attention. All that time, and every minute well worth it. Continue reading »

DARK SERMON: “IN TONGUES”

 Album Reviews  11 Responses »
Mar 312013
 

(In this post TheMadIsraeli reviews the new album by Tampa’s Dark Sermon.)

Metalcore is a pretty dead venue for the most part at this point.  When the majority of a genre has resorted to knocking off elements from djent in order to maintain any credibility, you know your style is knee-deep in irrelevancy.  That’s why I’m surprised by the debut of Dark Sermon, called In Tongues.

Dark Sermon are a sinister, ravaging band.  Heavy influence taken from The Black Dahlia Murder, Bleeding Through, and At the Gates manifests itself in a sound that definitely comes off more early/mid 2000’s.  The riffs are technical, dark, and draped in an old-school Swedish overcoat, drawing strength from the darker melodic bands of that scene, such as the aforementioned At the Gates, old Arch Enemy, and even Carcass.  The vocals of frontman Johnny Crowder fall between a John Pettibone (of Himsa fame) bark and Trevor Strnad-styled high-pitched shrieks.

“The Shepard’s Staff” wastes no time in establishing the modus operandi of these guys: pedal-point riffing in the Gothenburg tradition accompanied by artillery fire in the form of blast beats and over-saturations of double bass. Continue reading »

HIGHER CRITICISM: KATAKLYSM CONCLUSION

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Mar 292013
 

(Beginning late last year, TheMadIsraeli embarked on an assessment of the music of Kataklysm. For more details about what this is all about, check out his introduction to the series here. Previous installments can be found via this link. And today we have the wrap-up.)

So, it’s time to finally wrap up the first edition of “Higher Criticism” by coming to my final conclusion about Kataklysm.  It was an interesting experience for me to listen through this discography, especially since the last two albums were completely unknown territory to me.

So let’s establish how these summary conclusions are going to go — because I don’t intend to stop with Kataklysm.  I present general opinions on the band as a whole, how they have evolved, how I think the future looks for the band.  I then decide if there are particular albums from their discography, very select ones, that are worthy of being deemed essential listening.  With that said…

Kataklysm have remained an oddity to me.  I began this expedition, as much as I didn’t want to initially, because an ex-girlfriend told me this was one of her favorite bands.  Ever.  From what I had heard, such an opinion sounded completely and utterly unfounded to me, and writing for NCS finally gave me a platform and excuse to dig into this music.  Continue reading »

RISABOV: “RISE”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Mar 282013
 

(TheMadIsraeli reviews the debut album by Risabov.)

Progressive death-thrash is the S.O.P on the debut of Risabov.  Rise is another example of the goldmine streak that indie metal is on.  Hailing from Greece, these guys with maturing and evolution could turn out to be real heavy hitters.  Rise has the first-album energy and intensity. The sound needs a tiny bit of work, but it doesn’t change the fact that they have a solid, intelligent debut on their hands.

There is a heavy Death, Kreator, and Coroner feel going on here.  The opening of opener “Blood on the Sky” is going to really confuse the fuck out of people, with its odd acoustic intro that sounds less like something meant to be played acoustically and more like the playing of harmonized metal riffs.  It really throws you off, in a good way, as the acoustics fade out and the kickass riffage kicks in.  Risabov make it immediately known they like their riffs technical, fast, and with lots of flair.  There is a definitive articulation and refinement to the riffs of guitarists Max and Andreas, while retaining that punky thrash edge.  It’s an impressive dichotomy going on. Continue reading »

NOEIN: “INFECTION-ERASURE-REPLACEMENT”

 Album Reviews  6 Responses »
Mar 272013
 

(In this post TheMadIsraeli reviews the recently released debut album by French metal band Noein.)

Noein are a fun discovery I stumbled upon by pure accident.  That album art you see above intrigued me, the fact they were female-fronted caught my attention, but most attractive of all was the fact that they labeled their music Industrial Death metal.  I’m always into shit with this tag, even if I almost always disagree that its death metal in scope.

Noein are definitely not death metal, but they display a feral insanity that’s comparable to the likes of old Strapping Young Lad.  Besides SYL influence, what you get is sort of a combination of Threat Signal, Chimaira, and Fear Factory.  Their newest album Infection-Erasure- Replacement is a ballsy, brutal, and savage assault full of industrial-tinged groove and frantic explosions of chaos.

The mood established by this album’s opening track “I.E.R” really sets the tone for the record.  The atmosphere channeled here is futuristic and cold, but with an odd sense of grandeur to it, with swelling synthesizers and ambient guitars.  When the metal kicks in, the track is like a machine revving up to full power, preparing for mass carnage. Continue reading »

BEASTWARS: “BLOOD BECOMES FIRE”

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Mar 262013
 

Matt Hyde has soul, and when he sings it sounds like he’s hacking up hot, smoking chunks of it. And while he vomits up his own soul in a vocal conflagration, his bandmates in Beastwars will pull yours down into an abyss. But you won’t mind. You’ll be too busy banging your head, caught up in the power of the riff.

I don’t mean to take anything away from the united contributions of the band as a whole, but when I think back on Beastwars’ stellar second album, Blood Becomes Fire, those are the two ingredients that leap to mind first — Hyde’s utterly dominating vocals and a phalanx of compelling, sludgy Clayton Anderson riffs. Add in James Woods’ bass lines, which mimic the grinding of tectonic plates deep in the Earth, and Nathan Hickey’s bone-breaking drumwork, and you get metal that’s as apocalyptically heavy as it is neck-snapping.

As far as I’m concerned, this New Zealand band had nothing else to prove after only one album. Their 2011 self-titled debut was that good. But although Beastwars may not have needed to prove anything after their first album, they have proved that they will have staying power, because their second one is even better than the debut. Continue reading »

THE AMENTA: “FLESH IS HEIR”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Mar 262013
 

(DGR reviews the new album by Australia’s The Amenta.)

It has been a long and interesting wait for fans of Australian group  The Amenta – whose new disc Flesh Is Heir was just released a little bit earlier this week (and is streaming here). Officially it’s been almost five years between the group’s full releases, although the band have kept up a steady stream of EPs and singles (such as the VO1D EP which was released in 2011 and is still available on Bandcamp as pay what you want) in between n0N and now. However, even between VO1D and now, three years have passed with only a couple of small releases in between. The group’s releases were becoming very promising and mature, too, so when time came for the official release of Flesh Is Heir, it was easy to assume that it was going to be a big time in the band’s history — and so it has proven to be.

Flesh Is Heir is a massive and incredibly dense album packed into forty-five minutes, with moments ranging from calculated ferocity to sheer chaos in the blink of an eye. It doesn’t sound polished; it sounds distorted and disgusting. Man, what it does offer though is a crushing bit of extreme music that whiplashes from industrial, to death metal, to black metal, to every spectrum the band could come up with in between – so long as they could blast and scream over it. Continue reading »

SEPTEKH: “APOLLONIAN EYES”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Mar 252013
 

 

I couldn’t help but be intrigued by Sweden’s Septekh before ever hearing a note of their new four-song EP, Apollonian Eyes. They claim as influences not only Motörhead and Slayer but also Fenriz (Darkthrone) and Frost (Satyricon, 1349), not only The Exploited and Death Breath but also DHG and Emperor. They embrace the label “dirty thrashy death metal” but they profess a fondness for vintage Sherry, they sport blazers and vests on stage, and they cultivate a nice assortment of Snidely Whiplash moustaches.

If you have trouble wrapping your mind around all that and what it might portend for Septekh’s music, join the club. Perhaps you now begin to understand why I was intrigued. Of course, curiosity has killed some cats — this could have been a mess — but Apollonian Eyes left this cat purring.

All four songs on the EP are jet-fueled, rip-roaring, fast-paced romps. They’re loaded with jagged, rapidly jabbing riffs and frenzied drumwork, but that’s balanced by hard-chugging, road-eating, Motörhead-style heavy rock rhythms and a nice assortment of guitar solos that alternately spit flames and whirl like a dervish. Continue reading »

FALLUJAH: “NOMADIC”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  3 Responses »
Mar 252013
 

(In this post, TheMadIsraeli reviews the new EP by the Bay Area’s Fallujah. The digital-only EP will be released by Unique Leader on April 2, exclusively through iTunes.)

Let’s talk about the state of modern death metal for a moment.  When I reviewed Fallujah’s The Harvest Wombs back in 2011, I wrote this…

“Death metal, especially the more extreme and overtly technical forms, has split into two very distinct camps.  One focuses on the atonal and chaotic as much as ever (e.g., Brain Drill, Aeon, Origin) and one focuses on a more melodic, proggy, jazz-toned sound (e.g., Obscura, Anata, Necrophagist).  Fallujah definitely belong in the latter camp, looking to make a name for themselves while going up against some of the current modern titans of death metal as we speak.”

Fallujah really accomplished something spectacular with their long-awaited debut. Their odd combination of technical death metal, melodic death metal, black metal, and modern ambient elements, forged in the attempt to capture a “death metal in space” sound, cemented an identity that couldn’t be denied. So it stands to reason that people like me who loved their debut would be apprehensive about whether this band could touch base with the power of their initial output and yet move forward.

Have no fear: Nomadic, the band’s first material since then, only shows us a Fallujah who are truly maturing into their own now. Continue reading »

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