ENTRAILS’ “THE TOMB AWAITS”: A REVIEW AND A SONG PREMIERE

 Album Reviews  16 Responses »
Aug 232011
 

Just when I thought no one was going to give Disma a run for their money this year in the sweepstakes of monstrous, old-school death metal, Entrails has arrived with The Tomb Awaits. But the tomb is not awaiting. Entrails has already sealed us inside, and decaying undead things are starting to crawl hungrily in our direction.

The appeal of old-school, Swedish-style death metal never seems to wane, and you don’t have to look hard to find newer bands embracing the music as their own. But it takes more than retro affinity, old HM-2 distortion pedals, and guitars tuned to drop-Z to summon up the black spirits of old Dismember and Grave, Unleashed and Entombed. Authenticity is what we want, and Entrails brings it, while adding a special flair that also keeps the sound fresh (or freshly desiccated) without sacrificing the essential aura of festering putrescence.

Originally taking shape in 1991 in a small converted woodshed outside of Växjö, Sweden, Entrails have roots that sink deep into the morbid scene. The band died out by 1998 without ever releasing a demo of their material, but circa 2009, guitarist Jimmy Lundqvist resurrected some of the band’s old tapes and began to re-record the songs in a home studio, eventually recruiting Jocke Svensson (Birdflesh, Litania, Devilry) to provide the ghoulish vocals.

After producing a pair of demos and adding members to the band, Entrails finally released their debut album, Tales From the Morgue, in 2010, after mixing and mastering by the almighty Dan Swanö. As it happens, Mr. Swanö did the mix and master on the new album, too, in addition to contributing guest vocals. (more after the jump, including a song premiere from The Tomb Awaits . . .) Continue reading »

ATRUM: “OPUS VICTUM”

 Album Reviews  8 Responses »
Aug 232011
 

(Andy Synn reviews Opus Victum, the debut EP by an impressive Icelandic band called Atrum.)

I’m very happy today to be bringing you a review of this Icelandic band’s stunningly impressive debut EP. I discovered the group after hearing about their recent performance at Eistnaflug, Iceland’s premiere metal festival where they appeared alongside Triptykon, Solstafir and The Monolith Deathcult, holding their own against these impressive acts with refined skill and power.

This extreme metal quartet’s music blurs the line between black and death metal, melding them with inspirations and aspirations drawn from classical music, to craft an epic blizzard of blackened fury and ground-shaking death metal heft that recalls a more deathly Keep Of Kalessin wrapped in a cold and venomous shroud of despondency.

“Ymir” opens the record with teasing strains of classical brass that quickly descend into a torrent of hellish blasting and crackling, electrified riffs, evoking barren, storm-lashed landscapes of wind and shadow. Piercing torrents of martial brass penetrate the blackness as the band whiplash back and forth between overwhelming fury and rolling, unpredictable groove, the vocals delivered with bite and conviction – their slithering, venomous delivery accented by guttural expulsions of hate and bile.

The song’s mid-section wears its Emperor influence proudly in its nuanced, shining drum work and imperious keyboard lines, as the band’s multiple vocalists engage in some dark and subtle harmonies. The soaring and impressive solo work that follows is underpinned by an avalanche of kick drums, while the vocals continue to impress both in their versatility and intriguing delivery that recalls a less epic, yet more violent and more unshackled Thebon from Keep Of Kalessin. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

BYZANTINE

 Album Reviews  8 Responses »
Aug 222011
 


(TheMadIsraeli looks back at the discography of West Virginia’s Byzantine — and he’s spreading the music around, too.)

Byzantine is one of the most original, most kick-ass, most awesome metal bands in the last 10 years and SHAME ON YOU IF YOU DON’T KNOW WHO THEY ARE.  No one else has yet reproduced their combination of Bay Area thrash metal, death metal, Meshuggah math-metal stylings, jazz fusion, and the grooves and melodic nature of the post-thrash movement and made it all work so seamlessly and so well.

I’ve always felt that the future of metal lies in bands who engage in fusions, and I think we’ve seen this become quite clear in current bands such as Revocation. But Byzantine, as an idea, is THE epitome of the modern metal band.  Theirs was (and I hope will be) the kind of direction we need to see more in this age of brutality.

So yes, the subject of today’s feature is what, in my mind, is one of metal’s most important bands.  Reviews of their (thus far) three album discography follow, and guess what?  That’s right, another download of the full thing.  Except this time we’re indefinitely hosting it, with no time limit on your freedom to grab these slabs of goodness. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

TONY ROHRBOUGH: “THE WORK”

 Album Reviews  8 Responses »
Aug 222011
 

(NCS writer TheMadIsraeli reviews the solo instrumental album from ex-Byzantine guitarist Tony Rohrbaugh.)

This review has been a long time coming and is VERY overdue. Tony Rohrbough, for those who don’t know, is the lead guitarist of progressive groove-metal masters Byzantine (a band who will be the subject of a retrospective, with a full discography download, in the post that follows this one), and if you’ve never heard of Byzantine, you need to get educated about them, because you’ve been missing out on one of the best bands of the last 10 years.

I’ve had this album for 3 months now, trying to absorb all that it is. I didn’t want to give this a rushed review, a sloppy review, because this man is one of my favorite guitarists of all time. As a guitar player myself, I IDOLIZE this dude’s playing. The riffs he wrote in Byzantine and his solos in that band’s recordings were just enrapturing to me. I wanted to do this dude proper justice on his first solo outing, and even as I sit here and try to review this now, I don’t think I’m going to do it justice, but I will try.

Let’s establish one thing at the outset: This is a solo album, but this is not a solo album meant to show off Tony Rohrbough’s beastly shred capabilities. This is an exercise in song-writing. Yeah, there are more leads and solos than on your average album, because of the lack of vocals, but that’s far from the point. Rohrbough is creating compositions here, something most shred masters can’t do for shit on their own. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

LANDMINE MARATHON: “GALLOWS”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Aug 192011
 

(Andy Synn reviews Gallows, the forthcoming album by Landmine Marathon.)

To start with, let me confess that Landmine Marathon’s last album, Sovereign Descent didn’t thrill me as much as I expected it to. It was a good record, no doubt, possessing some particularly great songs with which to bludgeon the listener into submission. Yet the production seemed too… cold… lifeless even, robbing the songs of the fire and vibrancy the band display live. It was neither one thing nor the other, neither larger than life nor clinically precise, leaving the band adrift in a void of directionless sound and fury – through no fault of their own!

In truth, it remains their debut album Wounded that I love best out of Landmine Marathon’s discography, thanks partially to its massive guitar tone and chaotic, cacophonous drum sound, accented by some incisive, scalpel-sharp melodies, whose presence makes the devastating display of focussed violence all the more effective by contrast. However Gallows may be the album to change all that.

The group’s latest album sees a return to the more monolithic tone of Wounded, resulting in a thicker and more muscular sound married to a sleek and supple series of sinuous song structures, all claws and teeth and broken bones. Capturing a more propulsive form of energy, much of the album recalls Maryland natives Misery Index, albeit with a dirtier overall vibe, expressing urban blight and sprawl in all its decadent, decaying glory. Eschewing the overtly politicised polemic of their Baltimore brethren, the sandpapered vocal chords of Ms Grace Perry vomit forth a virulent stream of putrid bile and hateful invective over a plethora of gut-wrenching, street-level death metal riffs and sharpened knife-fight guitar melodies, which flicker and stab without warning. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

VOICE OF THE SOUL: “INTO OBLIVION”

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Aug 192011
 

I’ve been looking forward to Voice of the Soul’s new EP (the band’s third release) since hearing one of the songs from it that was included on a compilation released in July (discussed here). The new EP is now available. It’s called Into Oblivion, and VOTS is offering it for download at a “name your price” option on the handy Bandcamp platform at this location.

I was impressed with the band’s last EP, 2010’s Eyes of Deceit, and I said so. But honestly, Into Oblivion represents a large leap forward, or more like a stretching of wings. What was once a fledgling predator is now a rapidly maturing raptor, with big claws that can do some damage, and an even more impressive ability to take flight on the wings of some very memorable melodies. That’s what solid melodic death metal should do, and it’s what VOTS achieves on Into Oblivion — a combining of sharp-edged aggression and streams of melody that swirl in your head.

The first two songs on the EP, “Immolation” (with its beautiful piano-and-strings intro) and “Guardians of Genocide”, establish the fundamental elements of the band’s sound. Up-tempo, thumping rhythms and rolling, distorted riffs provide the foundation, but what makes the songs memorable are the reverberating guitar solos.

I was explaining in one of yesterday’s posts that after years of listening to metal, even whiz-bang bursts of shred, standing alone, aren’t enough to carry the day for me any more. For a guitar solo to impress, it needs to be an organic part of the song as a whole and it needs a lot of soul behind it; that’s more important than rampant speed and even technical brilliance. The soloing in these songs (as on all the rest) meets those tests. The solos aren’t usually pyrotechnical, but they’re beautifully done, with a warm, clean tone and a strong emotional core. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

EYES SET TO KILL: “WHITE LOTUS”

 Album Reviews  15 Responses »
Aug 172011
 

(NCS writer BadWolf reviews the new album from Eyes Set To Kill.)

We don’t do negative criticism here very often – it’s no fun to write and doesn’t help anyone. The artists don’t read it, and you readers have probably made up your mind already. The only time negative criticism is justified, to me, is when a bad (or even just average) record is symptomatic of a greater issue.

Case in point: Eyes Set to Kill’s 2011 outing, White Lotus. Or, as I like to call it, textbook example #1 of half-assing it.

Eyes Set to Kill’s 2010 album Broken Frames (which made it to my top 10 most listenable records of the year list) was a proof to me that genre and style mean absolutely nothing next to songwriting. Yes, EStK play wussy/poseur/insert-adjective mallcore, but they do so with the songwriting skill young Bon Jovi displayed.

That songwriting skill is present on White Lotus as well–at least for part of it. The first half of the record is a stellar continuation of Broken Frames–two amazing singles, a brief interlude and two more amazing singles, each superior to the last. In fact, track 5, “Where I Want To Be,” might be the best thing they’ve ever written. My sole complaint is that the harsh vocals, now handled by new guitarist Cisko Miranda, are weak. If you’re reading this, EStK, give Derek Rydquist of The Faceless a call–he won’t steer you wrong and he’s free now.

After that things get sketchy. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

ONE HANDED SKULL CRUSHING

 Album Reviews, IQ Subtraction  39 Responses »
Aug 162011
 

My body is a temple. I keep it clean, well-toned, and free of toxic pollutants. I smoke no more than one pack of cigarettes a day, except when I smoke two. I don’t drink enough to float an aircraft carrier, only enough to float a battleship. I eat only free-range pizza and I make sure to include plenty of fruits and vegetables in my daily diet; I make sure to get my bacon double-cheeseburgers with the lettuce and tomato, and Red Vines have fruit in them, right? Someone told me that once.

And as for the body-toning, I lift weights. I’m like the epitome of an addicted gym rat. I lift on a regular schedule, pumping iron like a boss once every six months. And you know what I listen to when I’m bending the bars with massive stacks of iron? Sure you do — evil fucking death metal. I don’t know about you, but I like to make the lifting sessions even more brutal by stacking the bars with the eviscerated corpses of emo scenesters.

And now I’ve found the perfect musical accompaniment for those days in the gym when I make even semi-pro weightlifters gasp in awe at my clean-and-jerk: A four-song EP called The Dumbell Murders by a project fittingly called One Handed Skull Crushing — three metalheads who met at the gym and were united in their anger toward all posers who lift weights to MCR.

One of the dudes behind the skull-crushing is an NCS reader from Gothenburg, Sweden, who finally decided to share with me the year-old fruits of this brutal side project. And it’s such a perfect accompaniment for brutal, emo-hating, iron-pumping gym sessions that I talked him into letting us host a free download of this mutha, with the lyrics included in the download file — because the eloquent lyrics are really what make this musical extravaganza so captivating.  Like these inspirational words from the song “Corpse Lifting”:  (after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

CHIMAIRA: “THE AGE OF HELL”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Aug 162011
 

(Today marks the official release of the new album from Chimaira — The Age of Hell — and Andy Synn provides this review.)

Brothers and sisters, the time is at hand, The Age Of Hell is here… but what, precisely, does this mean, both for fans of the band and the group themselves as they enter this “new age”?

For a long time Chimaira have been a band in search of an identity, from their early days as a semi-industrialised scrappy contender, through their more epic aspirations, their stripped down thrash-based years, their expansive and ambitious resurrection and their darker, more death-tinged recent days of darkness. Perhaps then both the greatest strength, and the greatest weakness, of the band remains their occasionally amorphous style?

No one sounds quite like Chimaira, this is true, yet by the same token it’s often difficult to describe what exactly the Chimaira sound is. Though the crushing, powerhouse core of the band always remains intact, the accentuating sonic characteristics of the band are often diverse to the point of diffusion.

I can see this being a particularly polarising record for Chimaira fans, and would be interested to see how it divides the fan-base along certain lines. This is due to the band’s conscious choice to reach back into their own past to recall certain older styles and influences into service. Different tracks recall moments from each of their albums, from the electro-stomp of Pass Out Of Existence right up to the monolithic lumbering death-metal the band toyed with recently on The Infection. True to their mythical namesake, this record is a chimaera of all the styles the group have employed thus far, serving almost as a “best of” collection, updating and improving on all aspects of their sound, yet without ever really defining itself definitively. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

METAL FROM SOUTH AFRICA: PART 3

 Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  14 Responses »
Aug 152011
 

When it comes to NCS, I have trouble making plans and sticking with them, because I have an impulse-control problem. I get distracted easily, which is a serious weakness for someone like me who enjoys a broad swath of metal. Every day, new music appears, often from unexpected sources, and I’m easily carried off in some unintended and uncharted direction. I offer this confession as a feeble excuse for allowing almost three months to pass since Part 2 of our series on metal from South Africa. I’ll go ahead and say right now that there WILL be a Part 4 — and I have no fucking clue when it will appear.

Now that I have that out of the way, let’s move forward with Part 3 before I lose my concentration and fly off again. As many of you longer-term readers know, we didn’t intend to create a series on SA metal. It just happened. We ran a post in April about three SA metal bands. That led to lots of recommendations about other bands, so we added a second post about three more bands, and that led to more recommendations, and so here we are.

In this installment, we’re focusing (in no particular order) on Riddare av Koden, Warthane, and Architecture of Aggression. I picked these bands in part because I got very enthusiastic recommendations about them from SA metalheads and partly because they’ve got songs that you can go get for yourself instead of being stuck solely with YouTube clips or other music players that keep you tethered to your computer if you want to listen. I also happen to really like what I’ve heard from all three bands. So, here we go . . . after the jump. Continue reading »

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