INTERVALS: “THE SPACE BETWEEN”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Dec 262011
 

(TheMadIsraeli turns in this review of the new EP by Intervals, and in our next post, he follows it with an interview of the band’s main man, Aaron Marshall.)

Things are fucking busy at the NCS camp at the moment.  I’m busy doing my top albums of the year while also lining up and preparing some other good shit for the future (including following up on suggestions I requested, which I’ve finally got organized). So for now, it’s time for some quick reviews to fit in amongst our myriad of on-going year-end guest posts.

I’ve been following Aaron Marshall and his instrumental tech-djent experiment Intervals since he put up the first playthrough videos of his songs online.  The guy had obvious skill, catchy riffs, and bold, ambitious lead work that etched its way into my brain.  I’m not sure if he even originally planned to find a band to play this stuff with him, but sure enough he did, including YouTube djent drum-cover sensation Anup Sastry.  Now, under the Intervals name, they’ve released a debut EP by the name of The Space Between, and that’s the subject of this review.

This EP is 5 effective tracks of varying material, all utilizing elements that we’ve seen within the djent style, ranging from the syncopated, low-toned grooves to the noodily Periphery and Sikth legato styling’s, to the more fusion-based melodic elements.  “Begin” is merely an intro that sets the stage for the rest of the EP. It’s a rhythmic, chugging motif under a beautiful electronic-inspired ambient cloud hanging over the distortion and grooving drums.

The music then explodes with the manic fury of a hornet swarm that is “Still Winning”. Syncopation and juxtaposition of whirlwinds of technicality aligned with a rock solid rhythmic foundation provide a solid two-minute ride. Continue reading »

AMORPHIS DEATHMATCH Round 2: “TALES FROM THE THOUSAND LAKES”

 Album Reviews  24 Responses »
Dec 232011
 

(Here’s Round Two of Trollfiend’s head-to-head, no-holes-barred cage fight with Amorphis, and the blood is starting to flow in rivers. To catch up on what’s going on here, read this post.)

It is with heavy heart that I don my armoured codpiece today, knowing that the beast I face in the ring will rip off my head and shit down my neck.  Still, none shall be satisfied until my blood stains the sands and my genitals are thrown to the crowd as a token of my defeat, so… onward to battle.

Ah…we open with an instrumental track.  The arena master has called for lions; being thrown to starving lions is a gimme.  I just have to run fast and hope I can get….Into Hiding.

Shit.  It’s lions with bears strapped to their backs wielding axes made of flint and sodomy.  I’m doomed! Doomed I say! Wait, what’s with the weird clean vocals? Ha ha! Once more I escape death!

Unfortunately the ass-fucking flint-axe lion-bears were just a distraction so I wouldn’t notice the next entrant into the ring: The Castaway.  Metal-plated to the tits, it comes lumbering out of the gate to crush me flat with stomping boots of stompery. Continue reading »

OKULAR: “PROBIOTIC”

 Album Reviews  5 Responses »
Dec 232011
 

Okular don’t fuck around. When they contacted us asking if we would consider reviewing their debut album, Probiotic, I said yes and suggested they could just give me a download link rather than going to the expense of mailing a physical copy from Norway. They sent me the physical copy anyway. When it arrived, I understood why.

The jewel case includes a 20-page booklet. You’re looking at the front cover above, which by itself is strikingly cool. You open the booklet, and what unfolds are a series of two-page panels of equally eye-catching artwork, with green being the dominant chromatic tone throughout. The first two-page foldout includes band photos and detailed album credits. Each of the remaining two-page panels is devoted to a single song, with lyrics.

I read the lyrics and stared at the accompanying art before listening to a single song. The artwork for each song is symbolically connected to the lyrics, which are a kind of very personal poetry that chart a journey of self-realization and that provide a description of beauty and strength (the kind that matter, not the superficial), both within the self and outside the self in the world. When I use the word “poetry”, I don’t mean to suggest that the words are pretentious or “precious” — they aren’t. But the words are still deeply considered and deeply felt and eloquent.

The very personal nature of the lyrics, the consistency of thought among them from song to song, and the connection between the lyrics and the art are the result of the creative work of a dude named Andreas Aubert, who composed the music, wrote the lyrics, and was involved in developing the design and illustration concepts for the album booklet. And he also sings backing vocals on the songs. And he has an interesting personal blog you can find via this link.

Ah yes, the songs — the music. It’s time to write about that. I’m just taking this in the order of my own experience — I read the lyrics and looked carefully at the booklet first, and then I pressed play. And what I heard was nothing like what I expected. Continue reading »

CONDEMNED: “REALMS OF THE UNGODLY”

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Dec 222011
 

(NCS contributor The Baby Killer returns to our site with a review of the new Unique Leader release by Condemned — a band previously featured at NCS here.)

I always love watching a band’s evolution; there’s something gratifying about seeing a band that you stumbled upon one day honing their craft and growing as both musicians and songwriters. Such is the case with San Diego’s Condemned, whose newest full length Realms of the Ungodly sees them transcending their humble slam beginnings and coming into their own as a promising technical brutal death metal band.

Of course, this isn’t to say that their key elements aren’t still there. Condemned have always had a unique sound, mostly due to Angel Ochoa’s distinct gutturals and Forrest Stedt’s extremely tightly tuned snare, and all of that is still available in spades, but this time around they’ve cranked everything up to eleven. Ochoa’s voice is deeper and more natural sounding, and the snare has a sharper ring to it now that it doesn’t sound so compressed. Combine that with Steve Crow and Paul Avila’s skillful blending of slams and tremolo riffs and you have the pandemonium that is Condemned.

The band’s previous album, Desecrate the Vile, was no lightweight to begin with, but it was still a fairly straightforward slam album, whereas Realms of the Ungodly could easily be mistaken for Defeated Sanity. Pretty impressive change in the space of just one album, even if they were a few years apart.

The songs tend to blend into each other after a while, but don’t let that deter you.  Usually when people say that about an album they mean it gets monotonous, but in this particular case it actually speaks to the band’s consistency. Some songs are better than others, sure, but even the songs that sound the same are all really good, and I don’t know about you but I certainly can’t complain about that. The solo in the title track helps break up the “monotony” for a bit, but it’s pretty brief and it’s the only one on the album. Who knows, maybe Condemned will continue to expand their sound and have more solos in the next one. Continue reading »

A HILL TO DIE UPON: “OMENS”

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Dec 222011
 

(We first came across A Hill To Die Upon in October and posted this feature as an introduction to their strikingly good music. Now, Andy Synn reviews their 2011 album, Omens.)

One of this year’s great discoveries, A Hill To Die Upon ply their trade in the bloodstained arena of blackened death metal, taking their cues from the crushing power of Satanica-era Behemoth and the decaying grooves of Sheol-era Naglfar all wrapped up in a monumental package of fire-brand riffage and pulsing drums that recalls Immortal in their prime.

The album itself is a phenomenal listen, ripe with potential and possessed of a godlike strength and tenacity. As empowering as it is devastating, its perfectly harnessed power grants listeners colossal strength and vigour, enough to challenge all the forces which hold sway upon their lives.

From the moment the imperial march of “Darkness That Can Be Felt” stomps into view, breathing fire and brimstone, A Hill To Die Upon lay all their cards out on the table. The drums pulverise with lightning fast blasting and thunderous kick rolls, while the jack-hammer guitars and rumbling bass combine into a terrifying war-machine of unstoppable groove and power. The majestic chorus refrain showcases the group’s ability to interweave melody and monstrosity, while the skittering guitar solo slices through the song with the cut-throat precision of a straight razor.

The vocals bite and growl with violent intensity, gnashing their teeth through the clashing cymbals and scattergun kick patterns of “The Perfection Of Evil” and the titanic grooves of “Adept In Divinity”. These tracks aptly demonstrate the dominating power of the band’s guitar tone, one akin to the huge, thrumming sound found on the most recent Immortal records but with an unholy life all its own. The former song is a serpentine offering of twisted, barbed-wire riffs and seductive melodies, while the latter is a more controlled burn, primed to ignite in a crippling explosion of earth-shaking drums and scorched earth vocals. Continue reading »

AMORPHIS DEATHMATCH – Rules and Round One

 Album Reviews  19 Responses »
Dec 192011
 

(We now haz our own version of MMA: Trollfiend and Amorphis going head-to-head in a cage match from which only one will walk away. Ladies and germs, place your bets!)

There’s been a lot of talk around the NCS chambers lately about whether or not an artist has the right to radically change everything about their music (they do) and whether or not we as fans should support them or heap massive amounts of hatred and ridicule upon them (we should – ideally, both). This kind of talk inevitably leads (in my tiny, pea-sized Trollbrain) to the band Amorphis.

I fucking loved Amorphis when they first came on the scene way back in 1992 (that’s 19 years for those of you keeping track) with their wacky, zany, combination of folk-scented melodeath. In that nearly two decades they have released 2 demos, 3 EPs, 10 studio albums, 11 singles, 11 videos, 3 compilation albums and a DVD. But somewhere around the third album the love affair ended, and I felt betrayed and abused because they went off in a completely different direction than I was expecting. They grew and changed and went through a dozen lineups and did some weird jazz fusion thing and lost their growled vocals and kind of came back halfway and then… I don’t know. All I do know is that I was left at the prom in my robin’s-egg-blue silk tux holding a bouquet of wilted roses and a used condom while they roared off in their Trans Am and never called me again.

But I’m starting to think that maybe I didn’t give them a fair shake. In my defense, this was right around the time I was getting into black metal, so their artistic meanderings were that much more jarring in contrast. And several NCS contributors have lately made me question my rigid stance on just how much the artists owe to their audience. So there is really only one solution, which is how I solve all major and minor conflicts in my daily life: gladiatorial bloodsport.

That’s right. I, Trollfiend, will go head-to head with Amorphis’ complete studio discography in a bloody, no holds (or holes) barred, teeth-and-nails combat that will only end when one of us is lying bleeding on the sand frantically trying to stuff our intestines back into a gaping gut-wound. Continue reading »

THEMADISRAELI’S TOP 15: SYLOSIS-“EDGE OF THE EARTH”

 Album Reviews, Listmania  10 Responses »
Dec 162011
 

(NCS writer TheMadIsraeli is taking a different tack with his list of the year’s best albums — either reviewing or re-assessing each of them, one by one. Here’s the first.)

I have been truly dreading reviewing this album for the simple reason that I may fail to describe adequately what this album means to me in the modern metal landscape. I never got to review this album during my tenure at The Metal Register before we shut down, but I was supposed to.  I’m glad it didn’t go down that way now, because I’ve been able to sit on this album and really take it in.  It’s been in constant rotation all year, regardless of what else beckoned my listening habits.

I remember when self-anointed critics were unreasonably hammering these guys, after three EP’s and a debut full length, for being a Trivium knockoff, simply because they were busy taking Trivium’s thrash/metalcore hybrid sound to the next level.  Sylosis has come a very long way since then, along with numerous lineup changes, with only mastermind and guitarist (now also vocalist) Josh Middleton remaining.  The lineup established on Conclusion of an Age marked Sylosis finally establishing their identity, finally cementing what it was they wanted to do.  The Conclusion of an Age lineup is still here, minus vocalist Jamie Graham, in their triumphant, flawless victory known as Edge Of The Earth.

Sylosis are THE modern metal band, combining old-school thrash metal aesthetics, metalcore energy and dynamics, and powerful and majestic melodeath melodies.  THEY ARE the ultimate example of the future in metal that lies in the hybridization of sub-genres.  They manage to take the best of these three schools of thought while throwing out the superfluous, unneeded bullshit, and manage to form a cohesive sound that never fails to hit on target. Continue reading »

ASH BORER

 Album Reviews  19 Responses »
Dec 092011
 

(Music as sex.  BadWolf reviews the self-titled debut album by California’s Ash Borer, which has been making more than a few Best of 2011 lists.)

My favorite bands tend to write longer songs, and yet longform heavy metal intimidates me. The thought of going a full 20 minutes without changing a song terrifies me—I blame the iPod in my pocket, which might as well be part of my anatomy now. Perhaps I’m scared of commitment; some women in Toledo, Ohio, and Kalamazoo, Michigan, will attest to this, and in many ways loving music is like romance. There are plenty of fish in the sea and my time is valuable; I cannot date every good-looking metal record for a full six months before deciding whether or not I want it to stick around. It’s a risky game to play—lots of great records don’t make good first impressions (I hated …And Justice for All when I first heard it).

But let me be a typical man and reflect the blame back on my dates, for a moment. I’m scared of 20-minute songs because I do not trust them to stimulate me enough for the full duration of a single listen. Sprinting is hard enough, a Marathon is herculean. Twenty minutes is a long time, most people can’t handle writing a 20-minute long piece of music, and in general I do not recommend that artists undertake the task. Tom G. Warrior is the exception—I do love “The Prolonging” from the Triptykon record — but otherwise I don’t recall a 20-minute long metal song I’ve listened to on repeat.

But Ash Borer’s 20-minute opus “My Curse Was Raised in the Darkness Against a Doomsday Silence” held my undivided attention for its full duration. I listened to it twice in a row. I did not fetch more hot tea; I let that mug get frigid. I had to urinate, badly, but remained seated until the last strains of odd synthesizer at the end ebbed into silence. Until the amp hiss ceased. Continue reading »

FLAMENCO METAL: IMPUREZA

 Album Reviews  19 Responses »
Dec 032011
 

I found out about the band featured in this post about a week ago, thanks to two, almost simultaneous messages from NCS reader Utmu and NCS writer TheMadIsraeli, both of whom seem to have an ear for metal that pushes my buttons. Impureza immediately pushed two of them: Their music incorporates both traditional “ethnic” influences and instruments that are rarely found in metal — in this case flamenco — and the cover to their most recent album, La Iglesia Del Odio (“the church of hate”), is a real eye-catcher (it was created by Johann Bodin).

The band are currently based in Orléans, France, and they actually appear to be Frenchmen instead of transplanted Spaniards, as one would expect from the music. Following a series of demos and splits, they released their debut album in April 2010 — the aforementioned La Iglesia Del Odio — on a French label called Snakebite Productions, from which the album can still be acquired in CD form.

Now, despite the abstract attraction (at least to me) of a death metal band who incorporate flamenco music into their sound, and despite the fact that they were deemed worthy of a spot at HELLFEST 2011, I did have to wonder whether this might turn out to be nothing more than a gimmick, a passing curiosity, a novelty without substance, and I also wondered how flamenco and death metal would sound in combination.

The answer: Impureza sounds brilliant, particularly if you’re a fan of technical death metal in the vein of Nile, Krisiun, Decapitated, or Fleshgod Apocalypse, and the distinctive flamenco cadences and melodies are no gimmick: They’re integral to this music, and they give it a fascinating, distinctive flair. Continue reading »

VILDHJARTA: “MÅSSTADEN”

 Album Reviews  21 Responses »
Dec 022011
 

(The Madithraeli . . . uh, TheMadIsraeli . . . hath entered a thtate of thalldom to write thith enthuthiathtic review of the debut album by Sweden’s Vildhjarta. I feel compelled by unknown fortheth to thay: THALL!)

MASSIVE


FUCKING


BRUTHALLITY!


Alright, so we have a band here who have named themselves after a Swedish Dungeons & Dragons expansion about an ancient magical forest, have invented a word that has no veri-fucking-fiable definition that makes ANY SENSE and insert it into everything, and have pulled off one of the most notable changes in sound in the last five years.  But let’s get a refresher on what really matters… Continue reading »

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