OMNIUM GATHERUM: “BEYOND”

 Album Reviews  9 Responses »
Dec 282012
 

(In this post Andy Synn reviews the forthcoming sixth album by Finland’s Omnium Gatherum.) 

Now this… this is a special little something.

While superficially it might seem that the album is simply a continuation of the (pretty phenomenal) direction established by the previous two albums, it’s actually far more than that. Beneath the sheen of stainless melodic steel and furious Finnish thunder lies an electric current of progressive dynamism, all fused together into one state-of-the art musical package.

Looking at the previous two albums, if The Redshift was where the band discovered and started to stretch their new-found musical muscles, surprising even themselves with their growing potential, then New World Shadows was where the band put those muscles to a real test… and STILL found themselves surprised by what they were capable of. Which makes Beyond the moment where they realised that maybe there’s nothing they can’t do…

Continue reading »

MISCELLANY NO. 52: WITCH RIPPER, CAGE, INCONSTANI DEI, CORTEZ, AND VULGAARI

 Album Reviews, MISCELLANY, SHORT BUT SWEET  4 Responses »
Dec 252012
 

This Christmas Day installment of MISCELLANY is a blockbuster, in two senses:  First, instead of the usual line-up of three musical discoveries, I picked five for this excursion. And second, what I found busted my block with the power and quality of the music. I’ve usually had good luck with these explorations, but today’s collection is especially good.

For those people who are new to the site or just forgetful, here’s how the MISCELLANY game works: I randomly pick an assortment of bands whose music I’ve never heard (usually bands with new releases). I listen to one or two songs (though I broke that rule in this post, as I have in the past). I write my first-listen impressions. And then I stream for you what I heard so you can form your own impressions.

The subjects for today’s post, several of whom have made their releases available for free download, are: Witch Ripper (U.S.), Cage (U.K.), Inconstani Dei (Russia), Cortez (Switzerland), and Vulgaari (U.S.). And I’ll tell you this much more in advance: All of the music goes off in different tangents from the majority of the metal we usually cover on this site. They were great discoveries for me, and I hope they will be for you, too.

WITCH RIPPER

I learned about this band via an e-mail from its sole member, Curt Parker. I decided to check out the band’s self-titled debut EP for three reasons: (1) Curt Parker was a member of the now-defunct Iron Thrones, and I enjoyed their music; (2) Curt Parker recently moved from Minneapolis to our current home base of Seattle; and (3) I thought the cover of the band’s EP (created by Tim Bradley) was awfully damned cool. And as an added bonus, I later discovered that Witch Ripper has made separate videos for each of the EP’s Continue reading »

KATAKLYSM: “VICTIMS OF THIS FALLEN WORLD”

 Album Reviews  5 Responses »
Dec 232012
 

(TheMadIsraeli continues his reconsideration of the music of Kataklysm. To see what this is all about, check out his introduction to the series here.)

Yes. That’s really the album cover.

I can just imagine what it must have been like for a fan of Kataklysm to buy this album upon its release in 1998. Because of the more limited channels for disseminating information (compared to now), people who weren’t local and in touch with the band probably didn’t know that vocalist Sylvain Houde wasn’t in Kataklysm anymore, and didn’t know that with the exception of Iacano and Dagenais, the lineup was completely new. They probably weren’t prepared for this album.

You start the first track “As the World Burns” and a resounding “what in the fuck?” permeates every fiber of your being. It’s a melodic death metal riff. One of the most insane, feral death metal bands from the Great White North begins their opening song with a mid-paced melodic death metal riff that you would have heard a million times already, if you had caught wind of anything from Sweden in the 90’s.

I mean, the riff is good, really good actually. It’s got a triumphant marching-into-battle feel and a memorable progression, but still, this probably wasn’t what you bought this album to hear. Continue reading »

KATAKLYSM: “TEMPLE OF KNOWLEDGE”

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Dec 222012
 

(In this post, TheMadIsraeli continues his reconsideration of the music of Kataklysm. To see what this is all about, check out his introduction to the series here.)

Temple Of Knowledge (Kataklysm Part III) (1996) is a fucking intense low tuned flesh stripping cacophony of almost demonic overflow that you either love or hate. There are reasons to dislike this album for sure. The mix, while well rounded on the frequency front, kind of blows. It isn’t very loud; the guitars, while sludgy, don’t have a lot of life to them; and Houde’s vocal phrasing is kind of off the wall with extremely mixed results. The style on this album is very reminiscent of the feral hyperblast insanity contained on The Mystical Gate of Reincarnation, but taken to a whole new level.

The drummer on this particular album is also worthy of note. Nick Miller (who as far as I can gather only played on this album) has a really intense style. If he’s not blasting or grinding the grooves he does have a jazz fusion technical style attack that makes even the more reserved moments on this album froth at the mouth.

This album also cements what would become part of Kataklysm’s identity from here on — tuning their guitars down to B. While I will admit that the songwriting on Temple Of Knowledge is sketchy, what can’t be denied is that, so far in my Kataklysm listening, this is the best album on the guitar front. Jean Dagenais writes some downright sinister stuff this time around, blending styles of melodic death metal, tech death, black metal, grindcore, and even a bit of hardcore during the groovier parts. Continue reading »

KATAKLYSM: “SORCERY”

 Album Reviews  5 Responses »
Dec 212012
 

(In this post, TheMadIsraeli continues his reconsideration of the music of Kataklysm. To see what this is all about, check out his introduction to the series here.)

As you can see, this cover is for a version of Kataklysm’s 1995 debut album Sorcery that includes the EP I just reviewed.  There is actually an EP before this album called Vision the Chaos that only has two songs on it, but I decided not to bother as the Kataklysm fandom doesn’t seem to give two shits about it either.

Sorcery is the band’s first fully fledged album, and one that within its first seconds immediately distances itself from the style of hyperblast insanity found on The Mystical Gate of Reincarnation.  The first thing you’ll notice is that the band has actually tuned their guitars UP from their EP days, moving from C to D (for all the guitar geeks out there who care), and the tone of the music has an overall sort of blackened edge to it.  The mix is very trebly, very harsh to the ears in comparison to The Mystical Gate…, which was rather well rounded for a mix at its time.

The music is also far less manic, still as deadly but with a more precise yet varied attack.  The thing about this album that will throw people off, I think, is that the band almost sounds as if they didn’t know what they wanted to bemusically.  Some of these songs are blistering death metal mammoths that are all over the place and have more of an emphasis on alien or unconventional melodies, while those numbers are completely contradicted by trailblazers that are purely melodic death metal.  Continue reading »

HIGHER CRITICISM: KATAKLYSM’S “THE MYSTICAL GATE OF REINCARNATION”

 Album Reviews  5 Responses »
Dec 202012
 

(In this post, TheMadIsraeli begins his reconsideration of the music of Kataklysm. To see what this is all about, check out his introduction to the series here.)

It’s time to begin our journey into the music of Kataklysm.  I really couldn’t think of a benchmark for how far back I should start in reconsidering a band’s music, but in this case I figured the band’s debut EP The Mystical Gate of Reincarnation was a good place to begin.

I feel it best to start by noting the line-up differences between then and now.  Kataklysms’s current line-up is Maurizio Iacono (vocals), Jean-Francois Dagenais (guitar), Stéphane Barbe (bass), and Max Duhamel (drums).  Iacono and Dagenais are founding integral members of the band, but they had a different drummer at the time of this EP (Ariel Saied), as well as someone else who handled the vocal duties by the name of Sylvain Houde.

Sylvain Houde played a huge part in what made early Kataklysm what it was, as he had one of the most overwhelming bestial voices out there.  Iacono played bass at this time, providing backup vocals here and there.  Dagenais’ guitar style was also quite a bit different.  The mix for the time (’93) is really good for an underground death metal EP.

The style going on here is sludgy, messy, but most of all bestial.  The fast-as-fuck-full-of-riffs-and-transitions style of writing is something pretty atypical of death metal at the time. You could hear this kind of shit on the early Cryptopsy, Suffocation, or Immolation releases as well, and it works.  Continue reading »

INFANT ANNIHILATOR: “THE PALPABLE LEPROSY OF POLLUTION”

 Album Reviews  25 Responses »
Dec 172012
 

(Here, TheMadIsraeli reviews the debut album by Infant Annihilator.)

If there is a band who are showing us that deathcore isn’t down and out for the count yet, it’s Infant Annihilator.  Many of us metal heads make endless fun of this style, but a few bands out there are the reason this style became a thing: Despised Icon, The Red Chord (who by the way are releasing a new album sometime in 2013), Animosity — bands who mixed the technicality and brutality of death metal yet also brought the grit and beatdown groove of hardcore into it.

On paper this is a style that should have been more consistently badass than it has been. Unfortunately, it has become a cesspool of inept musicians who are more consumed by the laughable bro-centric culture the style has produced than anything.

But Infant Annihilator are no bros.  Infant Annihilator are a Vatican-atomizing weapon of immense weight, power, and devastation that leaves no stone unturned in their first official dosage of sonic retribution, The Palpable Leprosy Of Pollution.  Not many bands are able to put out an explosive cask of pure badassery this concise, this jarring, and this fury-born.  Continue reading »

ARSIS: “LEPERS CARESS”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Dec 162012
 

(TheMadIsraeli reviews the new, free EP by Virginia’s Arsis.)

Scion A/V really needs to stop putting out great metal before I buy a car.

Arsis have returned with a new EP Lepers Caress that crashes into your consciousness at maximum velocity.  I’m going to assume everyone knows who these guys are — they’ve been a long-established band who have stood out as an exception to the idea that only Europeans do melodic death metal well and have had a sound more technical than you’d expect from this style, which causes them to stick out.

It’s hard to say whether this EP is simply its own beast or also a taste of things to come on the next full length Unwelcome, but regardless of the truth in that respect, Lepers Caress is an auditory assault of perfection.  Very rarely do you get melodic death metal that is this technical, yet so succinct and well composed.

However, while still maintaining the band’s tech-y aspects, this EP is a tad bit dialed down, and one might compare its music to Arsis’ highly praised debut A Celebration of Guilt.  It feels like some of their evolution has been purposefully back-tracked for the sake of providing something more straightforward and visceral; and that’s a good thing in this case.  EP’s in my mind best serve as an infusion of adrenaline, showcasing bands at their most intense, as we saw with Revocation on Teratogenesis. Continue reading »

KATECHON, MONOMAKH, BITWA

 Album Reviews  5 Responses »
Dec 142012
 

(We welcome back guest contributor and fellow and blogger BreadGod with his rundown of three 2012 demos, all of which are free.)

Greetings, people of No Clean Singing! I am BreadGod, purveyor of all things dark and obscure! Today I shall share with you three amazing new bands plucked from the deepest and most unknown chasms of Bandcamp!

KATECHON – Tape 2012

In biblical study, the Katechon refers to that which restrains the coming of the Antichrist. The Norwegian band Katechon, who released their second demo this year, has corrupted that meaning, for they wish to use their music to bring forth the Antichrist.

The music can best be described as blackened death crust. They utilize a lot of crust beats, death metal riffs and vocals, and a black metal guitar tone and atmosphere. The crust beats give the dark and nasty music a catchy feeling. The vocals frequently switch between a growl and a low death/thrash shout, and there are times when it’s drenched in reverb. The drums are superb, especially when it comes to fills and cymbal work. As I’ve said before, the guitars play death metal riffs through a black metal filter, and when combined with the crust beats, they become more memorable than most other death or black metal bands.

Katechon plays metal that is both unique and displays excellent musicianship. I am eager to hear more from them. Continue reading »

ISRATHOUM: “BLACK POISON AND SHARED WOUNDS”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Dec 132012
 

(Earlier this year we featured the venomous, eye-catching artwork by an artist named Held for the new album by Israthoum.  Today, Andy Synn reviews the music.)

Sometimes you decide to check out a band based on a whim, with little more than a few rumours or pinches of information to go on. Such was the case with Israthoum’s new album Black Poison and Shared Wounds. Knowing little about the band (originating in Portugal, and now residing in The Netherlands) it was the evocative title and album art that really drew me in to checking out this album. Remember people – album art is important, and it’s important that it reflects the music within.

The album in question delivers a heavy dose of ritualistic, immortal power, draped in a corpse-shroud of suppurating sedition, blood, and bile. Serrated and raw, without being rusty, sharp and scything, without being overly polished, it retains a heavy layer of grime and grit without losing its edge.

The vocals are a strangled howl, rising and falling in pitch-black despair, reeking of torment and degradation. They bleed darkness and filth, without attempting to sound self-consciously ‘evil’; instead, they thrash wildly and without constraint, wounded and hungry. The guitars hack and hammer with gritty determination, at times forging off at a tangent of bi-polar melody/dissonance, while beneath it all the drums wreak absolute havoc in a furious display of frenzied blasting and stalking, predatory groove. Continue reading »

 Older Entries  Newer Entries