WEEKEND NACHOS: “WORTHLESS”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Nov 202011
 

Record Label: Relapse | Year: 2011 | Genre: Powerviolence

By Willard Shrapnelspear

You regretted taking that step. Your curiosity just had to get the better of you. Oh, why did you not listen to me? You were just doing fine walking around the cliff top, but you had to literally poke your nose into an oddly out-of-place bush—and wound up falling through a hole, landing right smack into the hard surface of frothy, lake water. Ouch.

At least all is calm, or so you thought. A rumbling sound resounded throughout the mysterious cavern, and a spurt of boiling hot spring water gushed towards you, turning your skin an angry red color while propelling you out of the cavern’s exit with the majesty and likeness of a cow releasing pent-up methane gas through its rear. You are finally free, or so you thought. You crash head-first into the cold, glassy surface of more lake water, skipping across its top comically like a flat pebble thrown by a middle-school kid. Finally, all is quiet.  (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

READY, SET, FALL! – “BURIED”

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Nov 192011
 

(TheMadIsraeli has a recommendation for you.)

Who’s ready for some Italian metalcore?  How many of you even knew Italy had a metalcore scene in the first place?  Not many do, I suspect, because the number of noteworthy Italian metalcore bands isn’t large — but the ones that do exist I’ve always loved, especially Slowmotion Apocalypse, who prove convincingly that there is still life left in the metalcore genre.  Ready, Set, Fall! is a band who are obviously hoping to reinforce this notion.

Buried is the name of their debut EP, and despite its brief span of five songs, the longest of which is only three minutes, it’s very effective. The music displays a heavy Soilwork influence, with a touch of Misery Signals going on, too.  Lots of awesome groove combined with explosions of fury provide a solid musical contrast — and this band’s vocalist, Christopher Volpi, has a fucking killer voice.

Of those five songs, four are solid melodic metalcore and one is ambience-laden dubstep.  It’s a short EP, so I’m gonna be all appropriate and shit and make this a short review.  It’s good stuff.  Check out the music after the jump, and check out the band’s Facebook page for more info. Continue reading »

NAETU: “THE BURNING LANDS”

 Album Reviews  4 Responses »
Nov 192011
 

Record Label: Blood Black Productions | Year: 2008 | Genre: Melodic Black Metal

By Willard Shrapnelspear

Disclaimer: No animals or real forests were harmed in the making of this album’s front cover design.

Yeah, I just pulled that out of the air, so what? All I need is the music, baby.

Naetu may be an obscure black metal act from the kangaroo kingdom of Australia, but they shriek, shred, blast-beat, and solemnly solo like the lovable melodic black metal acts of Sweden and Norway. No, no, no, I’m not gonna make some unoriginal comparisons to Watain or Gorgoroth; they display the general traits of the kind of melodic black metal coming out of those countries (e.g., Dissection-style atmospheric riffing … oh shit, I just made comparisons didn’t I?), but that is not to say that they are completely imitating their influences chord for chord, or solo for solo.

The vocals, for one, do not sound like another one of those typical dudes trying to imitate Jon Nödtveidt’s trademark raspy barks or Dead’s droning chants. Give these blasphemous Australians some credit, man. They come from a country so isolated from the main black metal hubs of the extreme metal world, and yet they still managed to conceive such a high-quality record (by that I mean having no filler tracks) with surprisingly high-quality production as well. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

ROSE FUNERAL: “GATES OF PUNISHMENT”

 Album Reviews  14 Responses »
Nov 182011
 

(Austin Slagle-Knauss turns in this guest post, reviewing the most recent album by Ohio’s Rose Funeral.)

“I’ve touched the hand of god and crushed in his fucking teeth…” That is my hands-down favorite lyric from any sort of satanic music. I wish there were another way to represent satanic music, because it seems anything that has the word “satanic” in it creates a terrible first impression on people. At first glance, you would think the metal community would react differently, and it does to a certain degree. But time and time again, I talk to people about satanic metal and they brush me off like it’s a joke. Trust me, it’s no joke and Rose Funeral proves why.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGAG08FeBio
Continue reading »

I DECLARE WAR

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Nov 182011
 

(It’s been a while since we had a post from The Artist Formerly Known As Dan, but he responded to my appeal for submissions for my vacation with this review of the latest album by Seattle’s own I Declare War.)

Isn’t that album art sick? This will be a bit of a short review (light on the words, heavy on the samples) but, first things first: Before the self-titled album came out last month, I was not an I Declare War fan. I’m somewhat particular about my deathcore (which maybe is strange in and of itself), but this band never really did it for me. Check this video out:

It might be the mixing, but I guess it just sounds underproduced and lacking some punch. Anyway, I tried to like them, but I found myself just enjoying other music more, and why force yourself to listen to stuff you don’t like? Fast-forward to October 2011 and I heard about this release. Continue reading »

WATAIN: “LAWLESS DARKNESS”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Nov 172011
 

Record Label: Season Of Mist | Year: 2010 | Genre: Melodic Black Metal

By Willard Shrapnelspear

WA-TAIN! WA-TAIN! WA-TAIN! WA-TAIN!

That was pathetic little me—who hasn’t gotten the golden opportunity to see Watain live yet—imagining how awesome it will be to be chanting this devilishly good band’s name at one of their concerts. I love band names that are made up of two syllables. They are just so easy to remember and convenient to be used by the crowd to get itself stoked during the sound check. Cue festive and hypnotic chants!

Although the highly melodic and influential, but controversial, Dissection finally succumbed to their ill fate in 2006 following Jon Nödtveidt’s demise, all is apparently still well with the much loved Swedish black metal scene. In fact, seeing as how frontman Erik Danielsson played session bass for Dissection a year before it broke up and how 1/3 of the final Dissection lineup (in the much worshipped form of cult figure, Set Teitan) contributes live guitars at Watain sets, it could even be said that Watain is basically pre-Reinkaos Dissection reincarnated (Erik! Don’t ever kill a man and commit suicide afterwards!!).

The gravelly growls that psyche one up for some bloooodshed, the bassy mid-paced grooves, the frantic alternations between stepwise descending/ascending note sequences, and last but not fucking least, that signature high-pitched tuning for the lead guitar on its eargasmic solos, how old-Dissection can a band get? Stellar tracks that showcase such traits are “Malfeitor”, “Reaping Death”, “Wolves Curse”, “Total Funeral” and “Hymn To Qayin”. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

FIRST REIGN: “AS THE DEAD LEAVE THE DEAD”

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Nov 172011
 

(TheMadIsraeli reviews an EP by a band from the frozen north of Canada who surprised him with their music.)

I did a review a while back for the new release by a Christian progressive tech death band by the name of Deus Invictus (here).  Shortly thereafter, another Christian band contacted Islander, apparently having enjoyed my review of Deus Invictus.  That band was First Reign, a Christian progressive melodeath band that unexpectedly impressed me.

I say “unexpectedly” because I really thought this was going to be generic Christian metalcore or something similarly un-distinctive, an experience I’m pretty familiar with.  When I wrote for my previous gig at now-defunct The Metal Register, it was an all too common experience for Christian bands to hit me up requesting a review after I had expressed the fact that I was a Christian and wished out loud that there were more good Christian metal to go around.  Unfortunately, the music I received always sucked.  ALWAYS SUCKED.

So, when First Reign surfaced, I’ll admit I was making a judgment call before I even gave them a listen.  But I did listen to the band’s debut EP As The Dead Lead The Dead, released in 2007.  It’s all they have out right now until they finish their debut album (which they are currently recording) — which I will definitely be reviewing as well.

First Reign are a band for which you can’t really make valid comparisons without running the risk of giving people the totally wrong impression.  This is indeed melodeath, channeling vibes of The Gallery-era Dark Tranquility, but beyond that lies a Protest The Hero sense of composition, full of jarring tempo changes and odd “hiccups” in the time signatures, as well as an absolutely profound and undeniable Into Eternity influence also contained within both the constantly transitioning song structures and also the vocal department. Continue reading »

POWERWOLF: “BLOOD OF THE SAINTS”

 Album Reviews  7 Responses »
Nov 152011
 

Record Label: Metal Blade | Year: 2011 | Genre: Power Metal

By Willard Shrapnelspear

Germany. Romania.

Werewolves. Religious satire.

Electric guitars. Pipe organ.

Power Metal. Corpse Paint.

There you go. This 29-word review is all you need to know about this must-buy record.

Just kidding. Jokes aside, that was real helpful in highlighting the contrasting aspects of this disc, eh? The epic, non-LOTR-worshipping (Wow!) quartet behind this masterpiece have been very consistent in putting out quality, unconventional power metal every 2 years, and this fourth record sees them not mellowing down one bit in the uplifting prowess of the power metal sound while maintaining their idiosyncratic image and lyrical theme. I pretty much think they are geniuses, seriously. If you want to sing power metal without sounding clichéd, you gotta avoid fantasizing about damn dragons, elves, dwarves and everything else that appears in Dragon Age or Legend of Zelda. So what do you do? You sing about WEREWOLVES of course! Continue reading »

DEMISERY: “HIVE OF MUTATION”

 Album Reviews  5 Responses »
Nov 142011
 

(TheMadIsraeli reviews the new album by Demisery.)

I’ve found the torrent of death metal albums coming out this year to be fairly underwhelming, if that wasn’t already obvious by my lack of reviews for albums in this genre.  Thankfully, reinventors of the wheel like Kartikeya and keepers of the old guard like Vallenfyre have proven to me that death metal can still be as awesome as it was back in the glory days of the 90’s; you just gotta know where to look.

Demisery is definitely one of the bands this year who’ve proven that point. Founded and totally driven by instrumental groove-metal master Keith Merrow and his newly found partner, guitarist/vocalist Gord Olson, Demisery have produced what may very well be my favorite death metal album of the entire year: Hive of Mutation.

It’s old school with the right amount of tastefully inserted modernism. It’s got great riffs out the ass, and the songwriting is compelling and killer.  The fact that the music is the product of only two guys is pretty astounding, with drums, guitars, and bass all being tracked between the two of them, and Gord providing all vocals. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

THROWN TO THE SUN: “OF OCEANS AND RAINDROPS”

 Album Reviews  9 Responses »
Nov 122011
 

(TheMadIsraeli provides these quick notes about a Turkish band’s debut release.)

Thrown To The Sun is a band without much readily available public information, at least as far as I can tell.  They are a progressive death metal band from Istanbul and… that’s about it.  You can check them out on Facebook here, and I’m advising you to do so.

This little discovery was the product of one of my random downloading sprees.  I was intrigued by the album art, as well as the band’s geographic location, since as we know, not much Turkish metal makes its way into the ears of Western listeners.

I pressed play and so began the album’s intro, “Adrift”.  By the album’s end, I had learned that what we have here, from start to finish, is an awesome mix of the progressive tendencies of Death mixed with the Middle Eastern stylings of Melechesh.  Suffice it to say, this shit is quite good, with melodic riffs interlaced with tasteful moments of chaos, jarring tempo changes, and some nice growl-to-clean vocal interplay.  (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

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