ANTEDILUVIAN / ADVERSARIAL SPLIT

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  9 Responses »
Jul 022012
 

Late last week Nuclear War Now released a six-song vinyl split by two of Canada’s most horrifying death metal bands, Antediluvian and Adversarial. I learned this through a personal message on The Living Doorway blog. I knew the message was intended for me because JGD began his post with these words: “Attention mongoloids”.

I’ve been keeping my bloodshot eyes on Antediluvian ever since being overwhelmed by their 2011 Profound Lore album Through the Cervix of Hawaah (which I reviewed here). Adversarial is a name I’ve heard, but listening to this split was my first exposure to their music. Each side of the vinyl LP has a name: “Leviathan” is the name of the side that features Adversarial’s music, and “Lucifer” is the side that includes Antediluvian’s three tracks. According to NWN, the bands collaborated on the EP’s themes, and the six songs are meant to be heard together.

Adversarial’s music is dense and chaotic, a swirling hornet hive of grinding, distorted guitars and a nearly non-stop machine-gun snare attack. Contrasting with the vicious smashing of the instruments, the vocals are slow, ghastly, and deeper than ocean trenches. The riffs are usually blazing in their speed, and there is a complexity and unpredictability in the guitar and bass performances that’s almost hidden in the unabashed ferocity of the music. Occult guitar melodies swirl up out of the dense smoke and fire from time to time, but the songs are mainly full-tilt eruptions of annihilation.

By the way, I wasn’t kidding about the non-stop snare attack — it consumes the vast majority of the drummer’s repertoire (along with a healthy dose of brutish double-bass), but man, I do dig it. Continue reading »

KARYBDIS: “FROM THE DEPTHS” — AN NCS FULL-ALBUM STREAM

 Album Reviews, Premieres  4 Responses »
Jun 292012
 

Students of Greek mythology will recognize Kharybdis as the name of a sea monster, a spawner of whirlpools who together with Scylla created a smashing gauntlet of death from which few seafarers escaped. Karybdis is also the name of a smashing UK-based metal band whose mythology-themed debut album From the Depths we’re proud to stream for you in full today.

I’m almost (but not quite) at a loss for words to describe the music on From the Depths. It’s like a full-speed collision of a multitude of metal genres — most prominently, melodic death metal, groove metal, thrash, and hardcore, with different elements more dominant than others, depending on the song. Imagine a fusing of the musical styles of At the Gates, Lamb of God, The Black Dahlia Murder, and Darkest Hour. Or think about The Absence or the late, lamented The Famine — but don’t forget to throw in a few symphonic enhancements, a jazz guitar solo, and old-school breakdowns (the kind that break necks without being introduced by a bass drop).

You get Gothenberg galloping; jagged pneumatic riffing; blazing, layered melodic leads and swirling solo’s; booming bass lines you feel all the way through your core; wonderfully varied attacking drums; tempos that turn on a dime; and an impassioned vocalist (Rich O’Donnell) who has an extended range of unclean styles, from cavernous roars to cauterizing howls and paint-melting shrieks.

Also, every one of these high-voltage songs functions like a giant mosh-trigger — press play and you’ll be looking for the first solid object against which you can hurl yourself. But shit, this thing also includes string instrumentals that sweep and dance with elegance — and I’m talking about real strings (violin, viola, and cello), not the artifice of a synthesizer. Continue reading »

THAT’S MUSIC BUT IT AIN’T METAL: THE PROG THAT BE HIJACKIN’ ME FROM MY METUHLZ: BRITISH EDITION: ANATHEMA AND STORM CORROSION: COLON

 Album Reviews, That's Music -- But It's Not Metal  8 Responses »
Jun 282012
 

(In this post, DGR reviews the new albums from Anathema and Storm Corrosion. Sample songs are at the end.)

Also: Hey guys! You all like Steven Wilson, too, right?

It isn’t too much of a stretch to assume that a lot of us have our pleasures outside of the metal realm. Sometimes, you just need to take a break from all the yelling and ass-kicking’s you receive from your dispenser of choice. A lot of music lies in wait out there beyond the bounds of metal, and if you know where to look you’ll find that a lot of it is surprisingly good. You already read NCS, so you full well know this though, you sexy reader you. I tend to find my solace from stuff outside of metal in the type of electronica rock that the label Fixt usually peddles (as well as more heinous techno like BT and Pendulum) and Prog.

I’ve never drifted too deeply into the prog genre per-se, especially since it is such a huge umbrella term, but what I do find, I usually enjoy. One of my favorites has been Porcupine Tree, and to a broader extent anything in which its members have involved themselves outside of that band. A large part of the attraction is Steven Wilson, and he is prolific as hell in music at the moment. I mention this because it seems like I talk about him a ton anyway, so the fact that he is present in Storm Corrosion means it shouldn’t come as much of a shock to find them included in this post. Not only that, but I’m going to talk about his fellow compatriots in Anathema, who may have just released one of the best non-metal discs to come out this year. Continue reading »

KATATONIA: “DEAD END KINGS”

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule  3 Responses »
Jun 282012
 

(We welcome London-based guest contributor Alex Franquelli, who reviews the forthcoming album by Katatonia.)

Similar but different. The thin line separating criticism and appreciation when discussing the artistic value of the Swedish godfathers of “depressing metal” is such that the resulting balance between the two currents aptly describes the status of the band itself. Both camps are in fact not completely devoid of cynicism, and a subtle but relevant amount of expectation is shared by those who see Katatonia as either an epitaph or an epigraph at the beginning of a new chapter for heavy metal. 2012 marks the return of the band at whose helm Jonas Renkse and Anders Nyström (vocals and guitar respectively) seem to sit pretty comfortably, sharing the role of producers with David Castillo at the mixing desk.

Is Dead End Kings the natural continuation of Night Is the New Day (2009)? The recent additions of Per Eriksson on guitars and Niklas Sandin on bass might be enough to make you draw your own conclusions, but what is revealed by listening to the new album is a thoroughly new concept of music which goes beyond an easily predictable evolution. Dead End Kings appears to be less direct; ambitions are set reasonably high, and the progressive hints, which punctuated the previous full-length album, now play an effective role in making the sound more dynamic and prone to dramatic changes of keys and atmosphere. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: WILDERNESSKING — “…AND THE NIGHT SWEPT US AWAY”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  1 Response »
Jun 272012
 

Wildernessking are a South African band with a memorable run-on name whose debut album (The Writing of Gods In the Sand) I gushed about passionately last February, comparing them to bands such as deafheaven, Agalloch, Wolves In the Throne Room, Krallice, Cormorant, and Enslaved. That’s some awfully fine company, but I thought the first Wildernessking album was awfully fine — a fusion of styles that produced an effective expression of power and emotion, a blending of light and dark, soft and hard, beauty and voraciousness.

Especially as the debut work of a young, unheralded band, the album left such a mark that I’ve been following Wildernessking’s progress ever since. This morning I saw that the band have now released a follow-on EP, …And the Night Swept Us Away, which is available for download on Bandcamp at a price of $5. Shoving aside other blog plans for today, I immediately paid my money and downloaded that three-track EP without even listening to the songs first, so great was my faith in this band’s talents.

I also discovered that the band simultaneously released their first music video, for the title track to the EP. My reactions to the music, plus the new video and a stream of the remaining songs, come after the jump. Continue reading »

IHSAHN: “EREMITA”

 Album Reviews  5 Responses »
Jun 272012
 

(Andy Synn follows his review of the new Gojira yesterday with this assessment of Ihashn’s new work.)

Perspective, obviously, in writing/reviewing can be a very helpful thing. Where sometimes you do feel the urge to be “first to market” with your ideas and opinions, other times you may benefit from a wider, more considered view.

Case in point: I’m writing a review for the new Ihsahn, having read several other accounts and also having discussed the album with a variety of friends and well-wishers. Though I had already formed my own opinions on the album, I had an urge to get out there and see what others thought, wanting to know if their agreement/disagreement with my opinion had the potential to give me any sort of enlightenment about the record in a greater context than just my own listening.

What I found was interesting – almost to a man, the trend was that those who felt After was a masterpiece were underwhelmed by this album, and those who fell in love with this album were, by and large, those who were unable to connect with After. So either way, this is going to be a divisive album. Continue reading »

ENGEL: “BLOOD OF SAINTS”

 Album Reviews  4 Responses »
Jun 272012
 

(DemiGodRaven reviews the latest album from Sweden’s Engel.)

Engel are a weird band in a weird place. They’re one of the bands who are pretty much epitomized by the much-maligned ‘modern metal’ tag because they try to hybridize so many different elements in their music in order to distinguish themselves from the rest of their scene. In that way they’ve always felt like a continuation of a few of the band members’ previous project, Passenger.

They’re not ashamed to write something that would be worthy of radio play and, likewise, pretty much refuse to stick with one genre for a whole song. They’ve also been very prone to work in many electronica elements, not just keyboards but also full-on trance-worthy segments in an attempt to add texture to their music. This has resulted in very jack of all trades, master of none, dynamic. Sometimes they will absolutely nail it and other times they come off a little too bland for their own good.

Surprisingly, I fell in love with the one time they really played it safe, in the song “Six Feet Deep”, but otherwise the group’s prior disc Threnody (and it’s 47 different releases) was a hit or miss affair that left just enough positive residue in my system that I was inclined to  look into their latest release, Blood Of Saints. Continue reading »

GOJIRA: “L’ENFANT SAUVAGE” (A Review By TheMadIsraeli)

 Album Reviews  7 Responses »
Jun 262012
 

(Here’s the third of our three reviews of L’Enfant Sauvage. For the other two, go here and here.)

Alright, in my pantheon there are three kinds of metal: Fucking brutal, THALL, and Jens Kidman face.

Out of those items, I think it’s safe to say that if the metal in question is so brutal, so warping, and so filthy that it compels your facial muscles to create this expression, it’s the cream of the crop.

Gojira and I have had an odd relationship, in that I’ve never been able to decide whether I like them as a band.  There are aspects of the Gojira sound I’ve always loved: Joe Duplantier’s uninhibited, borderline primal-savagery vocal style, their sense of dissonance, and their dedication to writing some of the most crushing and mangled riffage known to man (“Ocean Planet” anyone?). Continue reading »

GOJIRA: “L’ENFANT SAUVAGE” (A Review By Andy Synn)

 Album Reviews  9 Responses »
Jun 262012
 

(This is the second of our three reviews of L’Enfant Sauvage. Here, the author is Andy Synn.)

Certain albums you just know are going to be difficult, even controversial, to review. The new Gojira is one such album. Expectations are high no matter who you are, whether you already decided this album is the metal equivalent of the second coming, or if you’re a dyed-in-the-wool cynic who knows for a fact that the band’s signing to Roadrunner Records obviously signals a decline in their creativity and integrity.

So what do I think?

It’s good, very good, but not mind-blowing. Stunningly, almost cripplingly heavy, it displays a central struggle between familiarity and progression. BUT (and trust me, it’s a big but) this struggle itself  is extremely enlightening and has, perhaps more than any other of their albums, forced me to think deeply about the band, their motivations and their methods. While the pulse of the music still hits on a purely visceral level, it has a consciousness which captivates the imagination and should lead even the casual listener to think more carefully about the band’s place in the world. Continue reading »

GOJIRA: “L’ENFANT SAUVAGE” (A Review By Islander)

 Album Reviews  23 Responses »
Jun 262012
 

How very difficult it is, in a metal landscape more saturated with music than ever before, to establish a distinctive sound — so distinctive that even brief excerpts from any randomly chosen song will shout the band’s name. How much more difficult it must be for a band who have accomplished that feat to move forward, to create something that’s genuinely new (and riveting) without sacrificing the character of the music that makes it so instantly recognizable. Yet that’s the trick that Gojira have pulled off on their new album L’Enfant Sauvage.

This should come as no surprise to anyone who has closely followed Gojira’s meteoric trajectory. From one album to the next, the Duplantier brothers and their comrades Jean-Michel Labadie and Christian Andreu have displayed consistent intelligence, attention to detail, and consummate craftsmanship both in composing their works and in performing them. Refreshingly, they have persisted in following their own muse, without pandering to trends or commercial inducements. They’ve become popular without grasping for popularity, both challenging listeners and pleasing them, evolving along a path they’ve carved for themselves while pulling increasing numbers of slobbering fans along in the vortex of their slipstream.

The essential ingredients of Gojira’s sound are all present in the new songs: the stomping syncopated rhythms and odd time signatures; Mario Duplantier’s complex, off-kilter percussion; the squealing whine of a harmonic pickslide; the use of repeating, hypnotic, imminently headbangable riffs; the dominance of dissonance that still leaves room for head-grabbing melodies; the attention to mood-altering dynamics and a penchant for experimentation; and Joe Duplantier’s distinctive mid-range howl that’s somehow capable of carrying a melody as well as clawing flesh.

And of course, the music is still some of the heaviest matter in the universe: it crushes, while leaving that distinctive Gojira stamp on your mangled carcass.

Yet L’Enfant Sauvage holds surprises in store that make the album intriguing as well as pulverizing, like veins of gold that sparkle unexpectedly in a deep, well-mined strike. Continue reading »

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