TheMadIsraeli Archives - Page 15 of 19

SERPENTINE DOMINION: “SERPENTINE DOMINION”

Nov 152016

(TheMadIsraeli wrote this brief recommendation of the self-titled debut album by Serpentine Dominion.)

Serpentine Dominion is a curious side project for Adam Dutkiewicz of Killswitch Engage fame to be engaging in. This debut release is a great album, a shattering hammer blow to the back of the skull of caustic death metal, combined with metalcore’s melody and energy in only the way Adam D knows how to do best. With the weight of drummer Shannon Lucas and vocalist George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher alongside him, the album should certainly raise eyebrows and magnetize people toward this self-titled debut with a great deal of force — and as far as I can tell, it has.

While the music is excellent, and this is an adrenaline-rush-inducing gut-punch of a record that everyone who likes metal in general should pick up, I also can’t shake the feeling that it should’ve been just a KSE album. It would’ve worked just as well. Continue reading »

KHONSU: “THE XUN PROTECTORATE” (SECOND REVIEW)

Album Reviews 10 Responses »

Nov 142016

(Earlier this month we published a review by Andy Synn of the new album by Norway’s Khonsu, and now we present a second one, written by TheMadIsraeli.)

I had this review already written, then Trump won the election and I thought I needed to take a step back and re-evaluate music and its significance to us, especially in the coming time. Things have changed, more than likely for the worse, and metal has a newfound place in my heart and soul in light of this. I’m angry, I’m pissed, and I wish I lived in a different world or dimension altogether, but here we are. It’s albums like Khonsu’s The Xun Protectorate that provide the kind of metallic excess of rage, sorrow, and apprehension that help quench my current emotional turbulence and leave me finding peace. It is also the closest it gets this year to transporting me to a different dimension.

And it’s also the best album of 2016. Continue reading »

REVOCATION: “GREAT IS OUR SIN”

Album Reviews 3 Responses »

Jul 202016

(We present TheMadIsraeli’s review of the new album by Boston’s Revocation.)

Sometimes regression is evolution. While I haven’t kept up with the press surrounding this album, my friends who have tell me that this is supposed to be Revocation’s most progressive record. It certainly, in my estimation, isn’t that at all in the conventional sense you’d suspect. “Progressive” is also a word that’s been pretty butchered in the world of metal. When we live in a world where TesseracT is considered progressive, that shows how much water the label holds.

Revocation’s Great Is Our Sin is interesting, in that it indeed contains elements that might be considered progressive (extreme amounts of stylistic inclusion/blending and nuance brought about by that inclusion), but the music itself isn’t really what I’d call progressive. It’s fantastic technical, thrash-driven death metal that switches gears among just about every variation on the style, and Davidson’s guitar playing in and of itself is certainly progressive in ways that perhaps could only be explained to other musicians or the super-musically-inclined.

Revocation’s music, especially on this record that follows Deathless, which was also played it very straight, is largely devoid of any sort of meandering, exploration, or head-turning twists. It’s all pure, unrestrained brutality and darkness with eccentricities sprinkled throughout. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): BETRAYAL — “INFINITE CIRCLES”

Album Reviews, Premieres 3 Responses »

Jun 082016

(TheMadIsraeli delivers our premiere of a full album stream for the debut full-length by Germany’s Betrayal, along with a review.)

Betrayal is a promising melodic death metal new-blood hailing from Aschaffenburg, Germany. Their new album Infinite Circles is one of the most impressive debuts I’ve heard this year, mixing the technicality and high/low vocal attack of The Black Dahlia Murder, the venom and dynamism of Arsis along with some proggy undertones that call to mind bands like Extol, all firmly rooted by a very The Absence-esque dedication to the best of tried and true melodic death metal convention. Continue reading »

TEXTURES: “PHENOTYPE”

Album Reviews No Responses »

Apr 292016

(TheMadIsraeli returns to NCS with a review of the new album by Textures.)

So what’s the result when a long-running, respected force in metal makes an album after the man who was thought to be their mastermind leaves?

Phenotype is Textures best record since Silhouettes without a doubt in my mind. If I have any complaint, it’s that the band didn’t use this rush of inspiration to write even more material, the album having only having nine tracks on it of varying lengths. Those nine songs however, are dynamic, diverse, and intense in a way the music definitely was not on their previous record Dualism, which, despite my enjoying it, was definitely stagnating a bit. Continue reading »

IRRELEVANT LISTENING — VOLUME 2

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 3 Responses »

Mar 092016

(TheMadIsraeli returns with another round-up of music from yesteryear that’s been keeping him company lately. Volume 1 can be found here. As will become obvious, the post’s title is tongue-in-cheek.)

Here we are with this again. I’m feeling this idea a lot, I have to admit. Getting right to it…

Exodus – Tempo Of The Damned

I honestly believe at the end of the day this is Exodus’ best Souza-era record. It has punch, attitude, mean-as-fuck riffs, and it feels like there’s a higher degree of precision here. I know people enjoyed the wild, free-spirited nature of their earlier albums, but I do feel like the band mastered their craft here.

It also stands as a pretty solid reminder that out of all the more popular American thrash bands, Exodus are the absolute KINGS of the mid-paced stomp. “Sealed with a Fist” is the epitomizing example, raunchy and in your face while being infectious and full of that piss and vinegar thrash captures so well. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE: FALL — “THE INSATIABLE WEAKNESS”

Album Reviews, Premieres 6 Responses »

Jan 192016

(TheMadIsraeli introduces our premiere of the new album by Fall from Corpus Christi, Texas.)

So here we are. We debuted a song from Fall a couple weeks back. I really like these guys, and this record, and there’s a stream at the bottom of the post so let’s get to the nitty gritty here.

Fall play a brand of pretty modern-minded, slightly progressive melodic death metal that invokes the best aspects of Soilwork, with ambience and syncopated grooves that call Textures to mind. It’s a cool sound, especially for a first full-length effort by a young band. And given the excellence of The Insatiable Weakness, this band deserves the exposure and recognition. Continue reading »

PEDOPHILE PRIESTS: “DARK TRANSGRESSION OF THE SOUL”

Album Reviews 9 Responses »

Jan 112016

(TheMadIsraeli reviews the new album by Pedophile Priests from Dublin, Ireland.)

You see a name like Pedophile Priests and if you’re like me, your first instinct is to dismiss it on account of the name. It’s that kind of shlock, over-the-top band name that just hits you the wrong way. But on the merit of the cover art I decided to look further into their music. What I ended up with was an eccentric top-notch death metal record telling me to take my opinion of their name and shove it up my ass, as well as disembowel myself in a seppuku ritual for the shame of my error.

There is no comparing the sound of Pedophile Priests to, like, fucking anyone. Polish natives who migrated to Ireland for whatever reason decided to produce a brand of death metal full of cheesy lo-fi early ’90s black metal keyboards, ’80s production value aesthetic, technical trail-blazing riffage that borrows from every facet of the late ’80s to early ’90s evolution of death metal, all played with modern song structure conventions and severely over-the-top drumwork and one of the most demonically oppressive and original vocal attacks I’ve ever heard. Continue reading »

IRRELEVANT LISTENING — VOLUME I

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 10 Responses »

Jan 082016

(TheMadIsraeli prepared this round-up of music from yesteryear that’s been keeping him company lately.)

The scarcity of my writing last year stemmed partially from a desire to go back and listen to shit I liked or loved from past years, whatever it was, and fuck being musically relevant. This is something I hadn’t done in a long time, and I have to admit that doing this just about saved me from burning out on music altogether. This music blogging thing, it can become genuinely tiresome in the race to try and keep up with what’s worth noting. Listening to albums that may or may not be worth the time you just spent listening to them, to find out whether they are or not, can take a lot out of you sometimes.

I decided it’d be cool to write a piece here and there where I give some commentary on those older albums I’ve listening to, hence the title “Irrelevant Listening”. Maybe this could be a monthly thing, but as much as I intend to get back on the horse in regards to everything else, I’d hate to try and schedule this in any way. However, I have been noticing a pattern where I tend to change my “irrelevant listening” playlist every month or so.

So here are the records that had my attention this past December. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: FALL — “EVER HOLLOW”

Premieres 4 Responses »

Jan 062016

(TheMadIsraeli introduces our premiere of a song from the new album by Texas-based Fall.)

So Fall is a band that should definitely have your attention. It’s progressive melodic death metal that’s compelling, technical, intensely brutal and jarring, yet also emotive. We’ll be streaming the band’s debut album The Insatiable Weakness come the 19th, a week before the record’s release, but I couldn’t go until then without some kind of a tease, in addition to the band’s other two other singles, which speak for themselves. Continue reading »

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