Band: HALAHKUH
Country: India
Title: Desecration
Label: Self-released
Year: 2013
Style: Melodic Death Thrash
Review:
I have found myself casting my critical ears over many Indian metal bands over the last twelve months and I can tell you that the wealth of talent coming from that country is vast! Another band to join those ranks is Pune based Halahkuh, a melodic death/thrash quartet whose self-released debut EP “Desecration” was released last year! Through the desolate cold tones of intro track “Ordeal” and beyond into the explosion of jet fuelled riffs, frantic drumming, rumbling bass play and furious vocal work of “Sacrilege”, Halahkuh play with confidence and power, sporting rousing lyrics and catchy, gripping choruses! If anything, “Possessed, Strangulated and Enslaved” is a harder, faster proposition than the last track but then with a moniker like that it would have to be and as such the bands more death metal tendencies rise to the surface in this hungry for blood adrenaline fest! To finish with, “In Extremis” combines the bands most brutal edges and melodic/technical flair in another powerhouse of a track! Needless to say by this point but you should probably get hold of a copy of this one!
Reviewed by Luke Hayhurst
Rating: 8/10
Contact:
www.facebook.com/halahkuh
Band: HELEGION
Country: France
Title: Helegion: Ritualis
Label: Atavism Records
Year: 2014
Style: Black Metal
Review:
I've said it before but I'll say it again: France is probably the biggest Black Metal exporter nowadays and their labels seem to properly support the signed bands. That's the case of the little but very dedicated label Atavism Records, specialized (at least so far) in releasing Black Metal on tape format. This new band proposed by Atavism, Helegion, offers this new, second, demo tape featuring 6 tracks in more than half and hour of playing. Ugly, dirty, brutal and ferocious Black Metal ranging from slow, disturbing, vomiting rhythms to fast, devastating and chaotic paced rhythms, good technical display on instruments, not boring in composition (not over-repetitive), quite expressive and at the same time keeping the old-school feeling intact. Not a ground-breaking release, but one that will satisfy the followers of ugly, disturbing Black Metal.
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 7.5/10
Contact:
www.facebook.com/pages/Helegion/125430844310560
www.atavism.records.free.fr
Band: HELL CRUCIFICATOR
Country: Canada
Title: Evil Never Dies
Label: HSP Productions
Year: 2012
Style: Death Metal
Review:
Young quintet from the French part of Canada, Hell Crucificator offer us here their debut full-length album, an 8 tracks effort totaling a bit more than half an hour. The band plays a primitive and highly brutal form of Death Metal that made me think of the first life-period of Deicide, Hell Crucificator uses the same low tuned, dark kind of production for their tracks, and the vocals are similar to Benton's as well. The only differences are in the execution speed, the Canadians being mostly fast and hyper-fast paced, and also in composition level they are using more intricate, chaotic setructures rather than catchy, nice-flowing, so all in all this is a sick release but recommended only to the ones of you into armageddon-like primitive Death Metal, there's no trace of melody here (oh well, a couple of short melodic guitar leads here and there, but not affecting the overall impression).
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 7/10
Contact:
www.facebook.com/pages/Hell-Crucificator/215287128504032
www.hsp-productions.com
Band: HELLHATE
Country: Ukraine
Title: Retsonretap
Label: Immortal Frost Productions
Year: 2013
Style: Black Metal
Review:
Look at the cover artwork and imagine the music you'll get from an album with such a cover... you probably guessed it: ugly, raw, offenssive, disgusting, hateful and wicked, it really feels like a horde of little (but not nice or friendly) devils ripping skin and flesh from anything holy. The wicked vocals of Ugrum are a big part of this picture, and the fact that Russian/Ukrainian language sounds as raw and cold as possible is just an addition to the whole disturbing paiting. The band brings nothing new to the scene, but their mid-tempo to fast paced Black Metal is as vicious and aggressive as one can imagine. From my point of view this is a very successful debut EP. Recommended.
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 8.5/10
Contact:
www.facebook.com/hellhate666
www.immortalfrostproductions.com
Band: HERESY OF DREAMS
Country: Spain
Title: Nuestra Ley Es Esta
Label: Gateways Productions
Year: 2013
Style: Heavy Metal
Review:
Another debut, this time from Spain, from a band that was formed back in 2007 but only managed to gather the material for an album now; Heresy of Dreams got a deal with the new sub-label of Art Gates Records, Gateways Prods, a label that seems to be oriented towards Heavy Power Metal - not a bad move by Art Gates I might add. this quintet released a powerful album that will surely get it's share of followers amongst Spanish speaking countries, but that's possible to face a bit of reluctance from the rest of the world, Spanish not being among the most Metal languages. The compositions are following traditional patterns, the execution is flawless, the recordings quality is top-notch, and there are plenty of catchy elements to keep your attention high; speaking for myself I love the long guitar solos and the fast paced parts of the album. Good stuff.
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 8/10
Contact:
www.facebook.com/HeresyOfDreams
www.artgatesrecords.com
Band: IMPLODE
Country: Sweden
Title: Under a New Sun
Label: Self-released
Year: 2013
Style: Melodic Groove Death Metal
Review:
Following their debut album "The Hour Has Come" the Swedish modern trash band "Implode" comes back to the scene with a four track EP "Under a New Sun" and as the first track "she" starts you will know these guys can handle their instruments well starting with nice guitar melody to alternative picking more related to melodic death music before the vocal combines his screams with the music in a good integration and despite the fact that his type of screams specially the high pitched ones aren't my usual taste ,but along side the music i enjoyed them. The tracks offer alot of technicality and variety of good riffs, nice guitar melodies combined with trashy bridges and apparently the two guitarists focus mainly on the rhythms as we rarely see a solo as in "a grim smile fades" but these rhythms combined with the outstanding drumming of Henrik Axelsson that made me bang my head along most of the tracks with plenty of blast-beats and double bass work as in the intro of "we´re the soil" and well timed breaks as in its middle got the job done, and the track that really got me of my seat was "Under a New Sun" being my favorite along the EP with it starting with nice guitar harmony and offering some of the meaner guitar riffs that will make you moshpit like hell in any live show and seems to be the more stable and consistent one regarding composing and ideas. The main down of this EP being very short - only two or three minutes per track - giving me the feeling that this is unfinished business and it needs more in play time and concept as some of the riffs felt lacking the story line holding them together, but may be during the upcoming releases we will see extended versions of these tracks. Jumping over borders can be tricky some times as "IMPLODE" merges unique variant taste of influences such as The Black Dahlia Murder, Pantera and At the Gates as they succeed in combining all of their styles and give the product their own signature of modern edge, speed and power to the riffs combining the melodies from death and the soul of thrash to end up with outcome could really be inspirational to all the modern bands if they continued to prosper along the way.
Reviewed by Tarek
Rating: 7/10
Contact:
www.implodeofficial.com
Band: KORSELD
Country: Sweden
Title: Jordevandring
Label: Self-released
Year: 2014
Style: Doom Death Metal
Review:
The Doom Metal influence comes here from guitar riffs, leads and solos and from the atmospheric keyboards, but the rest is pretty much slow to mid-tempo Death Metal built on old-school patterns and delivered with a shitload of catchy hooks. The drum-machine sound could have been less synthetic, but except for that I like the fact the band has balls to try whatever floats their boat, you can also hear some Bathory-like choirs, some violins and slow-as-illness Doomy passages, and even some groovy drum-beats. All these on Korseld's debut full-length album, a 9 tracks effort lasting for almost 40 minutes. Good debut but I hope next time they will record or at least mix and master in a different place / with different people, the production quality on this one sucks ass, and it's a shame given the fact this band is so creative and intelligent. Curious about their future...
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 7.5/10
Contact:
www.facebook.com/korseld
Band: LUGBURZ
Country: Poland
Title: Pure Misanthropy of Death
Label: Satanath Records / Dark East Productions
Year: 2013
Style: Black Metal
Review:
Lugburz have been around since 1996 but this is only their second full-length album to date so we're dealing with a not so productive band. This new album features 8 tracks (39 minutes) of mostly fast paced, traditional, raw and a bit atmospheric Black Metal well composed and executed. The sound is organic and unpolished but you'll be able to distinguish all instruments at any time and that's what's important. The music isn't extremely impressive in any way, but that doesn't mean it's low quality, not at all; on the contrary, if you're into ferocious, evil Black Metal and enjoy a bit of keyboards as background (very subtle though) and semi-technical guitars, then Lugburz might be just what you're looking for.
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 7.5/10
Contact:
www.lugburz.netau.net
Band: MIDNATTSVREDE
Country: Norway
Title: Demo 2013
Label: Cold Raw Records
Year: 2013
Style: Black Metal
Review:
What I thought to be a young band was actually founded back in 1994, although for a long period of time, until this demo, it was inactive at least on a discographic level. The band is made of 2 members of Den Saakaldte (a well-known name in the underground nowadays), one of Kraanium and one who seems fresh to the scene. The demo features 5 tracks of second-wave-like Black Metal based on excellent semi-technical guitar work, organic drums, quite versatile vocals and an overall dark, mysterious atmosphere. To me, as a guy who grew up with the '90's Black Metal, Midnattsvrede seems to be a proud follower and continuer of those patterns, of that Norwegian scene that used to influenced 90% of the scene back then. The semi-acoustic guitar insertions here and there are awesome, too, emphasizing the atmospheres, so from my point of view, this is an excellent demo (glad they called it a demo, not an EP, the sound quality is raw) combining fast, aggressive Black Metal parts with the mystery of semi-acoustic guitar parts. They released a followup this year, a 6 tracks EP.
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 8.5/10
Contact:
www.facebook.com/Midnattsvrede
www.coldrawrecords.com
Band: MORIBUND / EXCREMENTUM LUCIFERI / PONTEFRACTUM MELANCHOLICUM
Country: USA / USA / UK
Title: Split
Label: Cold Raw Records
Year: 2014
Style: Black Metal
Review:
Three way split released by Cold Raw Records, this young but enthousiasting label that seems to be fixed on supporting Black Metal exclusively. All 3 acts on this split are featured with 2 tracks each, not too much, but enough to understand where they stand.
The first band is Moribund, a two piece from California playing raw, noisy, and fast-paced Black Metal without anything special or catchy (except maybe a riff on the second part of the first track); the drum-programing is awful, the bass and guitar leads are barely hearable. Just one of the countless other similar bands that bring nothing new or interesting to the scene, and since they were formed back in 2004 I seriously doubt they will even improve anything.
Next is Excrementum Luciferi with what seems to be a live-recorded rehearsal although the band is actually one man, Voltov. The drums, surprisingly, are live recorded and that gets a kudos from me, but except for that everything else is too amateurish and lo-fi to be interesting, just another guy screaming his lungs out and playing rhythms as fast as possible with no particular horizon.
Ending this agonizing split is Pontefractum Melancholicum, another one man band with bedroom recordings trying to be the most evil around; unfortunately it only manages to sound stupid. It's some sort of monotone Brutal Black Metal with drum-programing reminding of Gore Grind rather than Black Metal, vocal lines from a guy that seems about to die anytime, and a mediocre guitar work based on 2-3 riffs, nothing interesting.
Sorry but I won't recommend this split either only in case you're a fanatic of the obscure underground limited releases, this is limited to only 66 copies and is pretty cheap too.
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 2/10 3/10 3/10
Contact:
www.moribund.bandcamp.com
www.excrementumluciferi.bandcamp.com
www.facebook.com/pontefractummelancholicum
www.coldrawrecords.com
Band: OUTRE TOMBE
Country: Canada
Title: Demo 2012
Label: HSP Productions
Year: 2012
Style: Thrash Speed Metal
Review:
First and so far only release by this Canadian trio that has one of the most memorable band pics I've seen lately: one of the guys seems a teen nerd that can't explain why he's in this picture, one seems a drunk hillbilly skater, and the third is just drunk. Hahaha, so funny. The demo is made of 4 tracks following old-school dirty Thrash Metal patterns with Speed Metal influences all over; fast rhythms section, excellent, raspy vocals, catchy guitar riffs, headbanging friendly music, fun stuff, really worth your 14 minutes. Nowadays, with this old-school revival, if these guys were from Europe they'd have real chances to build a solid name for themselves, but I don't know what chances they have from Canada; anyway, I think they are really playing this music for fun, they seem really genuine Thrash Metal punks.
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 7.5/10
Contact:
www.reverbnation.com/outretombe
www.hsp-productions.com
Band: PARAMNESIA
Country: France
Title: Paramnesia
Label: LADLO Productions
Year: 2014
Style: Black Metal
Review:
The look of this CD is simply brilliant, one of the best looking digipacks I've seen lately, complete with an excellent cover artwork and concept; impressing. Unfortunately the music is not as impressing as the look, Paramnesia, what seems to be a one-man-band, walks on Ambient / Shoegaze Black Metal paths, but unfortunately doesn't stand out with anything. Hopefully this is just the beginning of a fantastic journey, but although well-executed and well-thought to combine traditional Black Metal patterns with mesmerizing, hypnotic Shegaze templates, it only manages to do that without adding something of its own, or at least I can't distinguish anything original. Now don't get me wrong, if you're into this kind of music you'll certainly enjoy these 2 tracks (each clocking more than 20 minutes) and the guy behind Paramnesia or the label don't have anything to be ashamed of, it's a nice-flowing, interesting release with probably a strong concept behind it, only not enough to be groundbreaking as one (or at least me) would expect.
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 7.5/10
Contact:
www.paramnesiaxpa.bandcamp.com
www.lesacteursdelombre.net
Band: PATH OF AMOK
Country: Canada
Title: Demo 2013
Label: Atramentum Productions
Year: 2013
Style: Avantgarde Black Metal
Review:
3 tracks (22 minutes) demo introducing a new Canadian one-man-band founded only last year. Calling it Avantgarde seems to be a bit stretched, but it's still true that the music we get on this demo tends to distance itself from traditional Black Metal patterns and push it further with the aid of doomy, repetitive, hypnotic rhythms and intricate constructions. The compositionas are quite curdled making the whole demo flow naturally and the addition of clean, comprehensive and versatile vocals on top of the "normal" Black Metal screams will probably widen the targeted listeners. All in all we get a successful demo, wrapped with good sound quality and released in limited tape edition of 50 hand-numbered copies (I have a feeling this will be re-released in other formats, too).
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 7.5/10
Contact:
www.facebook.com/pathovamok
www.atramentumproductions.com
Band: POSSLUST
Country: Cyprus
Title: Echoes of Light, Echoes of Darkness
Label: Cold Raw Records
Year: 2014
Style: Black Metal
Review:
This is a one man band from Cyprus started last year; a couple of months after Antoine Morgan started composing under this moniker, he recorded this material (8 tracks) for its debut album, and now it was picked by Cold Raw Records for a physical release. Unfortunately the music on it is way, way below expectations, at least my expectations knowing some other good releases from Cold Raw Records; this is made of awful sounding drum-machine, chuggy and sloppy guitars sounding more Gore/Grind than Black Metal actually, sounding really amateurish, and a wannabe Black Metal raw vocal line. Honestly nothing inhere is worth the labeling "album", it's only a bad recorded and performed demo, the guy needs to improve a lot on all fronts. Not worth your while.
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 2/10
Contact:
www.facebook.com/posslust
www.coldrawrecords.com
Band: RAGING AGE
Country: Italy
Title: Regions of Sorrow
Label: WormHoleDeath Records
Year: 2013
Style: Melodic Death Metal
Review:
Young band from Bari presenting their debut album already on a solid label as WormHoleDeath, Raging Age made an impact on me; after a few spins of this debut album I'd say it's quite a mature effort complete with an excellent production that perfectly fits the band's musical style. The quartet is playing a combination of Melodic Death Metal (mainly) with Thrash Metal elements, and the result is very headbanging friendly and powerful enough to hook some fans. Honestly the only fault I can find on this album is the fact that the tracks are less catchy and less memorable than needed for a complete experience but for a debut album Regions of Sorrow does its job and introduces a band that you should check out in case you're a follower of mid-tempo to fast paced Melodic Deathrash.
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 8/10
Contact:
www.ragingage.com
www.wormholedeath.com
Band: SATANCHIST
Country: Czech Republic
Title: Drtici Kacirskych Pohlavi
Label: Hexencave Productions
Year: 2013
Style: Black Thrash Death Metal
Review:
I guess the owners of Hexencave were once fans of this long time gone Czech band, and that because if you look at it objectively without knowing the band (like in my case), you'll find no real values for this material to be re-released nowadays. But looking at it as a '92 release (as it actually is), this is some very impressive collection of brutal and fast music to destroy your neighbors. This is Satanchist's only official demo, although they released several others, and afterwards they changed name to Hermaphrodit. 10 tracks, a bit more than 40 minutes playing time, good sound, music ranging from mid-tempo Thrash Metal to fast and furious Thrash Death Black Metal, a real treat for those times. Nostalgics will find it re-released on vinyl in limited edition of 300 copies.
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: -/10
Contact:
www.bandzone.cz/satanchist
www.hexencave.wz.cz
Band: SCUTUM CRUX
Country: UK
Title: The Second Sun
Label: Immortal Frost Productions
Year: 2013
Style: Black Metal
Review:
Debut album released after 10 years of activity, not sure what happened with this band before, but they are certainly not the most productive band around, and after spinning this disc for a few times I really think they would have had a good chance to be an important name in the UK scene if they'd released more material by now. Anyway, The Second Sun features 8 tracks totaling 38 minutes of traditional mid-tempo to fast paced Black Metal with excellent vocals (reminded me of Samael actually), intelligent constructions, catchy rhythms, good guitar work and what seems to be (good) drum programmings. Not a groundbreaking release, but definitely one to check out if you're into semi-melodic, semi-technical, semi-brutal Black Metal.
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 8/10
Contact:
www.facebook.com/scutumcrux
www.immortalfrostproductions.com
Band: SERPENT WARNING
Country: Finland
Title: Serpent Warning
Label: I Hate Records
Year: 2014
Style: Doom Metal
Review:
5 years after their foundation, Serpent Warning managed to release their self-titled debut album, a 6 tracks effort totaling 40 minutes of traditional Doom Metal. Heavy and groovy old-school Doom Metal without other influences, the material avoids boredom and is quite catchy for any Doom Metal fan over there. There's not much to surprise the listener, the compositions are quite simple, but the overall impression is good, they seem genuine and so their music flows naturally. Fans of UK traditional Doom Metal will surely enjoy this new Finnish export; make sure you give it a few chances, it will grow on you with each new audition.
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 7.5/10
Contact:
www.facebook.com/serpentwarning
www.ihate.se
Band: SHADOWCRAFT
Country: Greece
Title: Principles of Chaos
Label: Noisehead Records
Year: 2013
Style: Symphonic Black Metal
Review:
Another debut on Noisehead Records although this band has been around since 2005; this debut album features 11 tracks and clocks 43 minutes of Symphonic Black Metal. At first your attention is hooked by the band's look and cover artwork: the band's face-paint is excellent, and the cover artwork, even though at first it might seem chaotic, is in perfect connection with the tracks' lyrics and I find that amazing, such attention to details should be appreciated. Then the music, an old-school type of Symphonic Black Metal that will be certainly tasted by fans of this scene in the '90's; mostly fast paced, melodic to the bone, semi-technical, and featuring an excellent keyboard work that takes this album through a myriad of feelings and atmospheres. Actually I'd say the keyboard player is the highlight of this band although the others are spot-on too, but he's capable of turning a good band into a top-quality act, and even if there are only a few parts of this album where he abandons the old-school "keyboard background" patterns and decides to show something more, that's enough for the listener to understand what's needed. As a conclusion the album is a solid slice of Symphonic Black Metal that might impress part of the fans of old Dimmu Borgir among others, I liked it.
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 8/10
Contact:
www.facebook.com/ShadowcraftBand
www.noiseheadrecords.com
Band: SHATTERED HOPE
Country: Greece
Title: Waters of Lethe
Label: Solitude Productions
Year: 2014
Style: Funeral Doom Death
Review:
Holy crap, already 4 years passed since I reviewed these guys' debut album, and I remember not only that album but even their 2007 promo CD; I'm getting old quickly, time is flying away faster and faster... As like for showing me the opposite, Shattered Hope and stubborn in their pursue of the slowest, most oppressing type of Doom Death Metal, hence moving deeper into this area from an Atmospheric Doom Death (their 2010 album) to a nowadays Funeral Doom Death Metal, but one with plenty of variety and good technical displays. I'm pleasantly surprised by how well this album sounds, I'd say it's a consistent improvement from their previous effort. 6 tracks, 80 minutes of playing time, an album I'd recommend to fans of both Funeral Doom Death and Atmospheric Doom Death. Shattered Hope might soon become a leading act in this genre if they'll keep improving.
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 9/10
Contact:
www.shatteredhope.gr
www.solitude-prod.com
Band: SPITEHOWLING
Country: Russia
Title: Born to Die for Evil
Label: Dark East Productions
Year: 2013
Style: Black Metal
Review:
This album was previously released in 2002 by Osolon Productions on tape, but Dark East Prod. thought it's a good idea to re-release it in limited edition (500 copies) CD format. I have never heard of the band before getting this and I'm not sorry for this either, this is quite an awful album: demo like recording quality, annoying drum-machine, and laughable vocals - it sounds like the guy is having trouble shitting; I'm used to a lot of vocal types, but this is among the worst. There are some interesting guitar riffs and leads here and there and that's probably the only element making this album worth your while, but the rest is way below mediocre, I have no idea why Dark East decided to re-release it, it seems like a waste of money... Maybe the owner was once involved in the band or something, otherwise I cannot find an explaination.
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 3/10
Contact:
www.darkeastproductions.weebly.com
Band: SVALBARD
Country: Canada
Title: The Fall
Label: HSP Productions
Year: 2013
Style: Black Metal
Review:
Although founded back in 2002 and without any major set-backs due to line-up changes (only two members decided to leave the band during all these years), Svalbard only managed to release this debut album in 2013. The quartet offer us 8 tracks into 42 minutes of fast and brutal Black Metal without compromises. The sound is not as good as it should have been, and the compositions are not as complex or even diverse to keep your attention high during the complete audition, but the band impresses through brutality; Svalbard must be one of the most brutal Black Metal bands I've heard this year (although if the album if from last year, sic) and I kind of admire their attempts to add melodic guitar leads and at the same time keep the whole extreme and uncompromising to the bone. Yes, I would have liked a much better production, but the album clearly deserves your attention if you're into cruel and ferocious music.
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 7.5/10
Contact:
www.svalbardband.com
www.hsp-productions.com
Band: THE GREAT OLD ONES
Country: France
Title: Tekeli-Li
Label: Ladlo Productions
Year: 2014
Style: Post Black Metal
Review:
An amazing followup to an amazing debut! The Great Old Ones proves to be highly mature and highly determined although founded only 5 years ago. This second full-length starts a bit dull, but builds up in tension and catchiness as the tracks unfold for the listener. Post Black Metal is a good label for the band, but that doesn't mean they are oblivious to traditional patterns, actually they succeed in bringing to old-school templates a nowadays freshness without becoming too hip or without loosing the ferocious aggressiveness traditional Black Metal has. 6 new tracks, almost 55 minutes of hypnotic, catchy, technical and highly expressive Post Black Metal, I love it! LADLO Productions prove once again they are skilled talent scouters and promoters, a label well worth supporting.
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 9.5/10
Contact:
www.thegreatoldonesband.com
www.lesacteursdelombre.net
Band: THRONE OF HERESY
Country: Sweden
Title: Realms of Desecration
Label: Self-released
Year: 2013
Style: Death Metal
Review:
Coming after their first album “The Stench of Deceit” and some line-up changes the swedish death metal act "Throne of Heresy" gives us a small teaser before
launching their second full album. The EP "Realms of Desecration" consistis of 3 tracks and only 13 minutes of play so we only can get a little taste of the coming release, and coming from sweden a high known death and melodeath metal source with first class acts and studios this release is a little bit far from this reputation. Trying to combine fast sweeping more melodic style while keeping it loyal to old death metal school the tracks swings between them as you can see in the first track "Morning Star" the longest track in this album going from fast sweeps to arrpegios compined with the vocals growls and screams with semi clean break in the middle that the recording quality failed to offer its full potential before the bassist takes us back to the main verses but the integration between these two styles could have been much better and indicates that the guys are still strugling to find their own sound and define themselves. "Spawn of Atrocity" shows the same duality starting with more death sound ranging to a very nice melodic verse and it keep swinging like that before a sudden break where the bass carried us to a nice galloping riff but it felt to me very far from the track's concept which is the main issue to me that these guys make good verses and lines but fail to connect them and put them in place and if they could succeed in that they would produce some killer tracks. My favourite track was the last one "Souls to Suffer" which offered more harmony between the lines and a killing guitar solo in the middle with good lyrics that fitted the music, and as a small preview from the coming album these guys has some good riffs in mind and has some good concept trying to balance between old school death with the more modern melodic taste to be appealing to a wider audience but it needs more time to mature and my biggest disappointment in this release is the production quality which shadowed a lot of the good riffs these guys did and i really hope they pay much more attention to it in their coming releases so it reflects their full potential.
Reviewed by Tarek
Rating: 6.5/10
Contact:
www.throneofheresy.bandcamp.com
Band: TORCHIA
Country: Finland
Title: oNe
Label: Self-released
Year: 2013
Style: Melodic Death Metal
Review:
Soaring into a genre that was recently a trend in Metal is a bold move especially coming from a land that gave so many important names in Melodic Death Metal, but Torchia seem to believe in their chance and here's the first attempt to attract some attention. oNe is made of 3 tracks and displays a band that wants to play fast, melodic and as technical as possible. the problem is the sound quality is not as crystal-clear as this style demands and the result is pretty dirty; on another topic the guitarists seem to bet too much on overused patterns and they bring no real contributions to the whole. As a debut oNe shows us an enthusiastic quitet that has the technical ability to bring something of their own but even though they are around since 2014 they haven't been able to crystalize their own path yet.
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 7/10
Contact:
www.facebook.com/Torchiaband
Band: WORSHIP THE PESTILENCE
Country: Bolivia
Title: Condemned to Chaos
Label: Self-released
Year: 2012
Style: Brutal Death Metal
Review:
Debut demo from this Colombian Brutal Death Metal band, Condemned to Chaos is made of 4 tracks totaling 10 minutes. The first thing that strucks you is the organic sound of this demo, you can feel the instruments like the band is playing in the same room as you are in, that's awesome for 20-30 years ago, but I think that's a bit outdated for Today's standards, especially in Brutal Death Metal where the majority of the top bands are really using extra-polished productions. Anyway, this is just a demo, it's purpose is to present the band's capabilities. The guitar riffs are quite catchy, the bass lines are powerful and very emphasized, the drums are intense and well structured, the guitar leads are awful, and the vocals... I don't like this type of vocals, I find them nonsense and not menacing at all. A band that has a good base for growing up and maturing their compositions in the near future.
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 6/10
Contact:
www.facebook.com/WorshipThePestilence
Band: ZAIMUS
Country: Montenegro
Title: The Unholy Spells of Night
Label: Cold Raw Records
Year: 2014
Style: Black Metal
Review:
Probably the first Band from Montenegro I get to review, Zaimus is a two-piece act founded in 2003. This is the band's debut EP previously released by the band in 2009 then picked up and re-released by Cold Raw Records this year. 4 tracks, almost 25 minutes of mid-tempo to fast paced Black Metal, cold and raw but backed by an atmospheric keyboard layer. It sounds ok, but it has nothing to impress, nothing to stand out from the crowd of similar bands; I honestly don't like the drum programming and most of the structures, way too simplistic for this time and age. On the other part I like the vocals' sharp and evil tone, the clear production and the fact that the band gives me the impression of being honest, so all in all you have nothing to loose by giving them a try, tyou might like it if you're into old-school underground Black Metal.
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 6.5/10
Contact:
www.facebook.com/zaimuswarlords
Band: ZLOSLUT
Country: Serbia
Title: Zloslutni horizont - Donosilac prokletstva, ocaja i smrti
Label: Dark Chants Productions
Year: 2013
Style: Black Metal
Review:
Zloslut started in 2010 and released quite a bunch of materials so far but this is their debut album. I'm not sure what to think of them: they started with a face-paint image, then switched to blood on their faces during live shows and the latest band pics shows them as cool, normal guys with sunglasses... I don't know what their fans/supporters will think of these sudden changes. Anyway, at least their music hasn't changed so far, they are still a raw, fast and brutal Black Metal outfit inspired by the Scandinavian scene of the '90's. On the first track the guitars are loosing pace and that sounds absolutely amatourish, and the last (fourth) track can be considered as an awfully long and boring outro (semi-acoustic, sloppy, monotone and repetitive guitars for a full 10 minutes track...); the rest, meaning the other 2 tracks, are tight played fast Black Metal although not bringing anything new to the table. The vocals and the drums are top-notch and worth your while, but the rest is mediocre at most.
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 5.5/10
Contact:
www.zloslutserbia.webs.com