Band: MEGASUS
Country: USA
Title: Megasus
Label: 20 Buck Spin
Year: 2009
Style: Traditional Heavy Metal
Review:
Megasus from Providence, RI all work for Harmonix, the video game company behind Guitar Hero and Rock Band and i don't if that does their credibility any good or not but there you go. They did start off as a one-off project formed to contribute a track for Guitar Hero II but they have become a fully working band with a debut album out on 20 Buck Spin Records but this sounds like the type of record that Rise Above Records would normally put out. They have been given the Doom tag but this is closer to High On Fire than it is to Electric Wizard. It has a heavy layer of psychedelic influence, with sludgy guitars and mildly distorted vocals.The production reminds me of High On Fire’s Surrounded By Thieves, with a muddy guitar sound but drums sure pack a punch. At times the drums almost seem too loud in the mix and they tend to over-shadowed the riffs but that's just a minor detail. The album has got one problem and that is its inconsistency, when its good it is very good but there is a couple of weak tracks on here that really hurt the album seeing the whole thing is over in under 40 minutes. Having said that there is still a lot to like about this album which has a more modern sound and influences than a lot of other bands in the Doom/Stoner Rock scene.
The one thing that makes them a little different is they embrace the old subject matter from old classic metal like mythology, wizards etc. Maybe they spend a lot of time listening or reading Dio lyrics but the songs are total old school in the lyrical department but everything else sounds more modern. "Red Lottery" might be the best of the slower tracks sounding a little like a Pentagram track. The track "Megasus" is available for download in Rock Band and if you are going to name a song after your band it better be a good tune. Thankfully this track is indeed good, the song has some frenetic energy with drumming that is reminiscent of High On Fire’s Des Kensel, with drum rolls all over the place. "Paladin vs. Berserker" has a good metal groove, Guitarist Ryan Lesser and bassist Paul Lyons are mostly in step, but Lyons seems way higher in the mix which makes the sound un-balanced and add that to the loud crashing drums and it sounds a little messy in places.
"Ten Kingdoms" and "Hexes/Szaadek" are tracks that work pretty well and the performance of front-man Jason Kendall is at his peak during these two tracks. "Swords" and "Iron Mountain" come and go sounding like filler to me, not bad tracks at all but just a little aimless. The album was originally intended as a digital download but they did manage to find a company willing to press 200 copies of the album on vinyl. In conclusion, this not a album you will listen to everyday but there is enough good material on here for the occasional spin and the potential is there for better releases in the future. If you like a Doom sound that is played at faster than normal tempos for a so called Doom/Sludge/Stoner band, you may like this. At the end of the day, this left me a little confused. It’s a little too inconsistent of an album to be considered a classic, but the stronger tracks show that this is a band to keep tabs on.
Reviewed by Ed
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Band: NACHTLIEDER
Country: Sweden
Title: Demo 1
Label: Selfreleased
Year: 2009
Style: Black Metal
Review:
Nachtlieder is a one-man-band from Sweden, or better said one-woman-band, started in 2008. This, as the title indicates it, is the first Nachtlieder demo, a 3 tracks work lasting for about 13 minutes, so a quite standard material from that point of view. The music could be described as mid-tempo to fast paced Black Metal with quite an interesting take on vocals, female clean but still somehow hoarse, a good work on guitars (twin guitars that have their own identity and are pretty varied and never boring), but the weak point comes on the drumming part, the program she used for this demo is a fail, very amateurish sounding that managed to irritate me a lot. Too bad because, as I said the guitar work and the vocals would have deserved a lot better on drums. On the third track we have a quite enjoyable acoustic display that made me imagine a combination of old Italian and Western movies soundtracks. This demo is for free download, so check out Nachtlieder's page for more info.
Reviewed by Adrian
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Band: NACHTLIEDER
Country: Sweden
Title: Demo II
Label: Selfreleased
Year: 2009
Style: Black Metal
Review:
The second demo of Nachlieder is again a 3 tracks demo, this time lasting for a bit more than 20 minutes, so the tracks are longer. First one is the longest, lasting for more than 8 minutes, but it's a very good piece of Underground Black Metal where Susanne mixed the fast shredding guitars with acoustic parts and her vocals, although on the same path, hoarse and almost comprehensive, are now distorted like they were coming from under water. Second track is the shortest, has 5 minutes in length, but it kinda bored me, the rhythms is constant this time and I guess that's why. I liked better the third one, a much more darker track: slow to mid-tempoed rhythms and a heavy atmosphere around it where the drum programming does its job perfectly and it's not anoying anymore. nachtlieder has a good future in the underground, I'm sure of that, so I can't wait for a new release. I can see this project signed by Beneath The Fog at some point...
Again this is available for free download so check Nachlieder's Myspace profile and make your own opinions on its music.
Reviewed by Adrian
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Band: NAETU
Country: Australia
Title: The Burning Lands
Label: Blood Black Prod.
Year: 2009
Style: Black Metal
Review:
Naetu is an Australian trio formed back in 2002, a band that had its share of bad luck by now and that coming from the line-up changes and geographical location. Such a band would have been more knowned in Europe for sure.
Naetu recently released their debut album "The Burning Lands" on Black Blood Prod., which is, I think, a label owned by one of the members, Nefarious, so pretty much a self-released material. The 10 tracks inhere are lasting for 40 minutes, a trip through frozen, unfriendly lands, an atmosphere that reminded me of the first release of Canadian Frozen Shadows (without the acoustic intermezzos), very honest, old-school ('90's era) thundering Black Metal with its share of guitar melody that doesn't dilute at all the ferocious approach, it only gives the music a proper dark atmosphere. I think they have a second guitar on live shows as there are 2 guitars overlapped on the recordings, building a great, almost majestic, atmosphere. When the music gets to the fast parts you can easily recognize these guys have very good skills, nothing is chaotic or out of place and the playing intensity is something most Black Metal fans should look for.
I have enjoyed this album a lot, hope these guys will get a European / US label soon.
Reviewed by Adrian
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Band: NERVOUS IMPULSE
Country: Canada
Title: Enough for Dementia
Label: Selfreleased
Year: 2009
Style: Brutal Death Grindcore
Review:
Man, this is fresh! I've recently reviewed some outstanding new releases in the Grindcore scene and really, I wasn't aware there could be so much variation in this genre. Canadians Nervous Impulse are unleashing their own blend of magnificently crafted Grindcore with one of the grooviest Brutal Death Metal of American influence. Absolutely every track on this album is a little gem, and to sum it up we're treated with: top-notch vocals (screams & growls), fantastic guitar skills, pounding, powerful rhythm section and above all there's so much groove combined with technical display that makes this album a PERFECT one! At least for me, I love it and recommend it to all of you. Fantastic band! I have no more words to describe it, this one made my day.
Reviewed by Adrian
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Band: OLD CORPSE ROAD
Country: UK
Title: The Echoes of Tales once Told
Label: Selfreleased
Year: 2009
Style: Sympho Black Metal
Review:
Old Corpse Road is a pretty young British Black metal act formed last year. "The Echoes of Tales Once Told" is their debut demo, a three tracks release that lasts for over 24 minutes, so we're dealing with quite long compositions here. their music is an interesting blend of sharp and to the point Black Metal with Folk acoustic elements (acoustic guitars, narrative clean vocals, choirs), supported by Symphonic keyboards. These guys are pretty good, they manage to create a catchy jurney through Fairy-like themes and atmospheres and that's their ace, a band that goes for capturing the listener's attention and grab it tight till the end. The production is very good also, so basically there's no reason why not giving this demo a try. The last track, the longest (11 minutes), is my fave, very good composition there. The only problem is the three tracks are neither extreme Black Metal, nor Ambiental, they kinda pass from one to another during a track and that might piss off some listeners, but as a debut I think it's great, their Black Metal parts remind me of a British band called Antigone that sadly split-up around 2000, and that was seen back then as one of the potential revivalist of British Black Metal scene. Hope Old Corpse Road will keep releasing stuff, I'm very curious what the future will bring for this quintet.
Reviewed by Adrian
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Band: PENSEES NOCTURNES
Country: France
Title: Vacuum
Label: Les Acteurs de l'Ombre Prod.
Year: 2009
Style: Suicidal Classical Black Metal
Review:
I've started reviewing this a couple of times until now and each time I've ended up having no ideas on what to write and just keep listening to the album, so by now I've heard this album so many times I know it piece by piece and I can say for sure this is the best Depressive / Suicidal Black Metal release I have ever heard!
Everything is so well crafted inhere that it injects depression in all parts of your body, but also it takes you back couple of hundreds years into the French bohemian bougoisie. It's fabulous how vaerohn (the man behind this project) managed to combine majestic classical music with the nowadays black metal. I can see a high-class French royalty or writer sitting in a nifty, putrid pub, drinking his coutless glasses of wine, thinking of his mistakes and dripping into depressive thoughts surrounded by poor, drunk and noisy customers that he doesn't even hear or see. Just his thoughts...
I've never wrote such a review, but again I've never listened to such a release... Fabulous is the right word!
Reviewed by Adrian
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Band: SANCTUS NEX
Country: UK
Title: Aurelia
Label: ATMF
Year: 2009
Style: Black Metal
Review:
Formed in 2004, UK Black Metallers Sanctus Nex have recorded this debut album back in 2006, but have only succeeded to release it this year through ATMF. The album is composed of only 4 tracks, with one of them, the first, being an instrumental one taken as the intro. The other 3 tracks are all more than 10 minutes long so pack your bags for an almost 40 minutes long jurney through Misanthropic Black Metal. Their music ranges from mid-tempo to fast paced rhythms based on guitar leads (some are quite good), pounding drums and regular Black Metal shrieks/growls that are somehow hidden in the background. These three guys are showing here they know how to create varied rhythms, but after listening to the entire album you don't remain with anything from it, well maybe only with the into guits riffs, which is showing a lack of experience. Try it yourselves if you're into Dark, Misanthropic Black Metal.
Reviewed by Adrian
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Band: SEMTEX
Country: Finland
Title: Pot Secret
Label: Selfreleased
Year: 2009
Style: Sludge Funeral Doom
Review:
One of the most promising new Finnish sludge bands, keeping a slightly more stoner-like groove than other bands from that country which seems to be more into the funeral doom style. Released on CDR and limited to 200 copies but its already been picked up by many downloading sites which has actually helped them a great deal in getting their name and music out to the stoners around the world. The cover and packaging has gathered some attentions also because of the artwork but also because it is printed on brown wax paper type material. Its also comes with a pretty cool booklet so for a DIY release, it is a good pick-up. Onto the music, well one look at the cover and song titles tells the story. This is a weed-worshiping stoner sludge doom outfit following the riff mastery of bands like Sleep, Bongzilla and Goatsnake but they do have some more mellow psychedelic moments. The disc starts the bong hopping caravan with a track about the dangers of smoking pot or so it seems at first before you realize it is quite the opposite. Just like Bongzilla they use a lot of spoken word samples about weed, even the vocals sound just like the Bongzilla crew. The track is called "Loading Up" and the giant riffing is all there, they don't anything you haven't heard before but the lyrical play on words is extremely well done. The words are delivered like orders to be obeyed rather than suggestions but like most other weed obsessed bands, the subject matter is rather limited. There is only so many ways you can write about weed and its been done to death a million times before it seems. I have nothing against bands using weed as a subject matter but it has really become a cliche and does show a lack of imagination for the most part. The main thing the band has going for them is the big riffs and there is plenty of them on this 30 minute disc, cuts like "Next Hit" and the 10 minute "Slow No Mercy" shows what the band is capable of which is sonic thunderous riff fests. The guitar sound is huge, fuzzy and real thick, the bass is not far behind in terms of fullness. The drum sound is equally big with a snare sound more like a floor tom. Not much more to add really about it, if you are already a fan of the influences I have already mentioned you will get some good bong hitting pleasure from this band but I feel their best work is yet to come. A full length album could be in the works and if they get the production even bigger they could be lethal. This is a pretty good first effort that at times is little bit too predictable but man this is real HEAVY!!
Reviewed by Ed
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Band: SKANSKA MORD
Country: Sweden
Title: The Last Supper
Label: Small Stone Records
Year: 2009
Style: Stoner Rock
Review:
This CD has been hanging around my house for quite some time waiting to be reviewed, i kept on putting it off because i was hoping one more spin would get me hooked on this Swedish band. I am a big fan of Swedish Stoner Rock so i real excited about hearing this but after some 20 spins of the disc, they strike me as being a little too generic of the Stoner Rock sound. They are not bad at all but you find yourself saying haven't i heard this before somewhere? The band follows the same path as other Stoner greats from that country like Dozer, Truckfighters and so on. Big meaty riffs inspired by 70's hard rock legends with some harmonica and organ thrown in places to fill out the sound. The band members are two members of Half Man, vocalist Jan Bengtsson and bass player Patric Carlsso and three from Mothercake, drummer Thomas J?nsson and guitarists Patrik Berglin and Petter Englund. "Under the Volcano" sets things off in a positive manner with some fine stoner riffing so at first you get yourself strapped in for some killer Stoner workouts but you soon find, its all a little familiar. They are not ripping anyone off, its just too much like so many other bands in the genre. Jan Bengtsson has a great voice in the Soundgarden type vein and the guitar work is polished and is very tight. They have a bluesy feel along with enough fuzz to satisfy most Stoner Rock fans and the band delivers a decent amount of energy throughout the album.
The best tracks all seem to be in the middle to the ending of the CD, tunes like "In the Dark" and "The Hermit" are major highlights with some serious grooves. They are straight up, no bull Stoner Rock tunes so if that is your thing you will dig those two songs. "A Journey" is another cool song with more "no frills" Stoner grooves and is certainly catchy and heavy, the band reminds me of a cross between Greenleaf and The Bought Low at times seeing they have a blues based groove most of the time. The problem i have is in the rest of the album where the band lacks its own personality, its good stuff but way too generic and too traditional for its own good. Being a debut album you can forgive them for maybe playing it safe and they should develop more of their own sound in the next couple of years. For now though this is a album that has some genuine killer moments but just as many stock-standard moments where they sound un-inspired or just sound too much like other bands. It still proves however that Sweden is still a hot-spot for Stoner/Desert Rock bands, how that country continues too produce so many bands with that sound is amazing and Skanksa Mord have that sound indeed. It will be interesting to see where the band takes that sound in the future, definitely a band to watch out for.
Reviewed by Ed
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Band: TEMPLE ABATTOIR
Country: Spain
Title: Nechronicles
Label: Selfreleased
Year: 2008
Style: Black Metal
Review:
Temple Abattoir is a Spanish band formed back in 2006, a not so productive band I may say, because so far they have only released this demo CD, a 4 tracks demo lasting for less than 15 minutes that was first sold (I guess) and now it's available for free download from their Myspace page. We're treaded with some old-school fast, aggressive as hell Black Metal a la old Marduk; catchy compositions, sinister atmospheres, correct execution, no compromises, good sound, all this make from "Nechronicles" a demo that will be appreciated by all of you into old-school Black Metal. I give my thumbs up to this release and hope the band will start releasing more material in the future.
Reviewed by Adrian
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Band: THE WIZAR'D
Country: USA
Title: Infernal Wizardry
Label: Rusty Axe Records
Year: 2008
Style: Doom Metal
Review:
If there ever was a mystery band, its The Wizar’d from Tasmania, Australia. It is close to impossible to find out any informative information about the band, the band members don't use their real names and they come from one of the most obscure places on earth which is Tasmania. Sorry to all those that live there but face it, its no man's land. I have been there many times and to think a band like this lives and plays this music there is amazing. They must scare the crap out of people down there as this state of Australia is not exactly known for its love of heavy music. I have had this album for about a year after a friend sent me a downloaded version of the album but i finally got the real CD so i thought its about time they got a review for it. They have a complete D.I.Y approach to their music and seem to love being as underground as possible so maybe that is why info, especially interviews is so hard to come by. They have a garage Doom approach and the vocals are not exactly classy, in fact they have a snotty punk sound but that adds to the charm and character of the songs. This is mostly slow, traditional doom with pretty shitty production to be honest but somehow it seems to suit them just fine. Not many bands can release something that sounds so bad production wise but make it sound like such a tasty piece of Doom. The band takes the influences of early Cathedral, Reverend Bizarre and mix it up with early 80's British Metal sounds, at times the music sounds like a Doom version of Cirith Ungol but with punky vocals.
The album starts with "Horned Lord" and the Sabbathian riffs are right there, the album only gets better though. Second cut, "Witchwither" really highlights the singer's warbling vocals and it nearly kills the track at times but this is some classic Doom with killer riffs. The singer goes by the name of "Ol' Rusty Vintage Wizard Master", that had me cracking up when i first read it but even though this dude isn't very well versed in the craft of singing, his voice has a unique charm about it. The CD really starts to deliver the goods by the third track "Infernal Wizardry", it begins with a b-movie incantation over feedback before it erupts into a orgy of what sounds like drunken Doom kids just having fun. The singer does his best angered, tormented vocals and despite the average production, it is still delivered with some real power. "Depressive Holiday" has the vocalist muttering in the most monotone voice you can imagine but the music delivers on every level. From this point on, a more of a Electric Wizard feeling begins to emerge in some of the parts. This track crawls along for nearly 10 minutes but holds your attention right to the end. "Crushing Gothic Slime" is perhaps the most throw-away track on the album and beware of the fairly cheesy lyrics on this one. "Gloomwing" comes and goes without you even noticing its there or that is what happens to me where i hear it. "Plague Ship Of Doom" is another slow burner and is pretty solid but not a major highlight but the next and last track of the album kills. "The Megalomaniac" starts off classic riff and moves into a uptempo groove after a series of strange vocal and guitar effects. Where it goes after that is one hell of a warped journey into drug-induced Doom. At times like a few of the tracks on here it wanders but its riddled with some truly cool but weepy guitar leads, along with some very memorable Doom riffs that Iommi himself would have been happy recording.
The band is undoubtedly at their best when the riffs and grooves are old school , and the vocals are dirty. "Horned Lord", "Infernal Wizardry" and "The Megalomaniac" definitely stand out as the album's high-points. I know a lot of The Wizar'd's material is rehashed for releases so how old or new are the songs, i have no idea. There was a real buzz about this band about a year ago with a video getting around of a entire live set, i think it still exists if you Google it. What has happen since then is a mystery but that sums up this band, that is a pity because this is a great album despite a couple of clunkers and poor production values. They used to have a Myspace but i can no longer find it, their official site is dead which leaves their record company's Rusty Axe website and that tells you next to nothing about the band. Some bands love to be obscure, this band seems to live for it. The band is worthy of attention, and I look forward to seeing what the future holds for them, that is if they are even still together. If you know anything, let me know as i haven't the time to Google band names all day. Until then, let's just call Infernal Wizardry a record well-suited for doom aficionado's everywhere.
Reviewed by Ed
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Band: THULR
Country: Germany
Title: The Seafarer
Label: Selfreleased
Year: 2009
Style: Pagan Black Metal
Review:
I am happy to make this review. Thulr is a big exception in the nowadays big mass of pagan metal bands. But where to begin?
The first demo of this one man project "Forsitesland” was already a great piece of pagan black. The old spirit was in it and you heard that Morten, the guy behind it, has a deep relation to that island in the North Sea. That is either what "The seafarer” makes that unique next to the own style of music. It is simply authentic. No senseless battle and Odin glorifications. But nice fast guitars, screams and the great voice of Mike Heyden, a guest and one of the singer from "Heydnische Brut”. Listening to the lyrics and sounds of waves and the violin creates in me the picture of the sea, but in a melancholic and beautiful way. Morten reaches again with his music in 9 songs, that you really feel and imagine what the title and the music want to tell you. The journey as a seafarer over the seas with nothing around then water and sky and wind and in your head the dreams and thoughts of new lands and home.
Amazing is either the 20-paged booklet with the lyrics and nice photos of the Nordic beauty. Everything hand made and made with love. You can still purchase it over the myspace page, just write Morten a message. And now I have to go back to my ship, the world awaits me! Farewell!
Reviewed by Robert
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Band: TRIZNA
Country: Ukraine
Title: Zhalnik
Label: Rigorism Prod.
Year: 2008
Style: Black Metal
Review:
Don't know where Rigorism find these bands/projects but it's for sure they have little of no internet activity at all, so it's a real pain in the ass to find some info on them. Luckily there's Metal Archives. Trizna comes from Ukraine and treats us on this demo with 3 tracks (20 minutes) of slow-tempo minimalist Black Metal with pagan inspiration: dark atmospheres created by background keyboards, repetitive guitar riffs that range from pagan themes to melancholic parts to raw Black Metal, desperate Black Metal screams and very simple drum programming. The atmospheres created here are something worth giving a try, so if you're into Underground Obscure Black Metal you could get one of these 66 copies (limited edition) released by Rigorism. Too bad the band split up this year.
Reviewed by Adrian
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Band: TROUBLE
Country: USA
Title: Live in Los Angeles
Label: Escapi Music
Year: 2009
Style: Doom Metal
Review:
OK i must start off by saying i wasn't even going to buy this album but i found a brand new copy for $5 on Amazon so i went for it and i was going to avoid reviewing the album because i really don't have much time for Kory Clarke as a singer or front-man. I did see the band earlier this year and thought Clarke did a good job on some songs but he also butchered some others, i hope he is doing a better job these days. I am really waiting for the new Trouble studio album to emerge before i can give a final judgment on Clarke and how the future of Trouble is looking. This live album however i must admit, Clarke does sound better than he did when i saw him performing with the band. The track list on this album is a little disappointing, it focuses on Trouble from the 90's and apart from one song ( End Time ) it ignores early Trouble classics like The Tempter, Pray For The Dead, Victim Of The Insane etc etc. That still remains the bands strongest era in my book so to totally ignore such material makes this live-set seem un-even and more importantly much less doom. The fact is Trouble stopped being a doom when they released Run To The Light in 87. Having said that, i still rate the 90's stuff as being real good and its only the Simple Mind Condition album that never manage to grab me. I have been listening to Trouble since 83 when a friend gave me a live cassette and apart from Black Sabbath there isn't another band i have listened to more. This is why i am so passionate about my opinions on Clarke, i didn't think they could ever replace Wagner but i seriously think they could have found a better replacement than the ex-Warrior Soul singer which is a band i didn't like at all. There is no need to talk about songs, i am sure most of you have heard them all but i will make a few points worth noting. "R.I.P" sounds like a band during a sound-check, something is not quite right with the sound or the playing, it lacks all the energy of the studio version of the track. "The Sleeper" has the band sounding tight and Clarke delivers a decent performance of the song. From that point on the album is listenable till you get to "Troublemaker" which is rendered almost intolerable by the drenching of echo and re-verb on Kory's voice. The production on this album isn't great, i have better sounding live bootlegs than the recording on this but it is still passable. One wonders why they haven't released more live albums in the past, this seems long overdue. Rick Wartell's and Bruce Franklin's guitar work on this should be reason enough to check this out but how much you listen to it really depends on your appreciation of Clarke,for now i still have mixed feelings.
Reviewed by Ed
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Band: UNBORN SUFFER
Country: Poland
Title: I Am Your Nemesis
Label: Selfreleased
Year: 2009
Style: Death Grind
Review:
I don't know if they are still under Soul Flesh Collector Records, but this here is a selfreleased EP available for free download from their Myspace page, so if you haven't heard their stuff yet, you should get aquinted with Unborn Suffer with this release. The band was formed back in 2001 and until now have released 2 demos, a 5-ways split, a live album and 3 full-length albums, so we're dealing with a band that knows how to create new material. This promo is composed by 3 tracks and lasts for about 7 minutes, not enough to get a full idea on their music, but enough to make you look for more if you like it: guttural, brutal vocals supported by bestial screams, good drumming, low-tuned, catchy guitar riffs and very aggressive bass lines. The 7 minutes will pass as nothing and you'll want more.
Reviewed by Adrian
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Band: VAULTING
Country: Germany
Title: Modus Humanis
Label: selfreleased
Year: 2009
Style: New School Grindcore
Review:
We're dealing here with a band that plays the new kind of Grindcore on the market, that type of extremely technical and all twisted grind that's very popular in Western Europe and USA nowadays. Vaulting combine their grind with some deathcore, too, but not that much as to slip onto the other side.
This material, "Modus Humanis", is Vaulting's second EP composed by 4 tracks + an intro and lasting for less than 10 minutes. It's really impressive what these guys can do on their instruments, we're dealing with a hurricane of vicious guitar riffs and leads, brutal bass lines and progressive, insane drums, all that spiced with Felix' very good vocals. Interesting material, recommended to all of you into the new types of extreme metal. Too bad it's so short...
Reviewed by Adrian
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Band: VISIONI GOTICHE
Country: Italy
Title: Il segreto del demone
Label: Note Volanti
Year: 2009
Style: Dark Horror Gothic
Review:
Visioni Gotiche is an Italian quartet founded in 2007 by Mattia and Robby who were later joined by Michi and Laura to base a strange musical project within the Gothic Rock fields, a project that would incorporate Mattia's experience into the Horror Music. I must confess that after listening to this Double CD they have released in October, I have quite a bit of troubles to categorize it, imagine a long jurney through desolate metropole streets filled with the strangest creatures, from gothic, sexy chicks to wandering zombies. The album lasts for more than an hour and a half and it has it's good and bad parts. The good parts are, of course, the deep atmospheres it creates, the insertion of lots and lots of instruments (voilins, piano, synths, etc.) and different influences and the fact that each track has its own identity and value. The bad parts are in my opinion the vocals who are not fitting well with the music most of the times, although the ideas behind them are good for the Dark Wave genre, and also the guitar sound, too unpolished for such a release, I would have prefered the guitars to have more effects.
To sum it up, we are dealing with a deep Horror-influenced Gothic rock album that, if you're a Horror fan like I am, after several listenings will get to you, will start to grow and will become enjoyable.
Reviewed by Adrian
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Band: WINGS OF SEMARGL (SEMARGLA KRYL'A)
Country: Russia
Title: Posolon'...
Label: Rigorism Prod.
Year: 2008
Style: Black Metal
Review:
Very strange musical project, Wings Of Smeargl (or Smeargla Kryl'a in Russian), was started back in 2005 and so far released 1 self-produced demo, 1 split and the second demo, both on Rigorism Prod., a label that seems to be one of the main players in the Russian Black Metal underground. WOS present us here 5 tracks into minimalist Black Metal with a haunting, depressive atmosphere, mostly slow to mid-tempo rhythms, background-like screams, raw sound, a demo limited to only 50 copies (almost sold-out) only for the collectors of deep underground releases. The music is not bad, but a bit too simple and minimalist for my tastes.
Reviewed by Adrian
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Band: YIDHRA
Country: USA
Title: Promo EP
Label: Selfreleased
Year: 2009
Style: Doom Metal
Review:
Yidhra's 4 track promo ep is out and at only $5 it is a essential pick up for you doomsters who love traditional doom played with a sense of freshness. Even though they are playing a very traditional style of doom, the combination of a vocalist that doesn't really sound like anyone else and a rich full guitar sound with catchy riffs makes this ep irresistible. The CD opens with "The Lament Of Longinus" which some of you might have heard on the new Doom Metal Alliance sampler that is making the rounds at the moment. This song is in the vein of Saint Vitus at their very best, a slow intro section starts off the track in a haunting fashion before launching a huge riff. The guitar is thick but has a clean biting sound with the just right amount of fuzz. The track has a repetitive riff but at the halfway point in changes down a gear to a even slower tempo with some demented soloing that is twisted and eerie at the same time. The track then returns to the main riff to finish out the track. "Witch Queen" is up next, a Sabbath inspired doom riff kicks the track into pure doom and gloom atmosphere but the track really gets into gear when a the mid tempo section comes in. A stomping, head snapping power-metal riff to be sure but it shifts back and forth from that to total doom. The solo at around the 5 minute mark wails before they take it back to doomsville with that killer opening riff to round of a great track. "Ancient Ones" is more Saint Vitus style doom with a creeping riff line and spoken word type of singing before he returns to his bellowing vocals during the chorus. I really dig this dude's voice and like i mentioned before he somehow manages to sound original even though is vocal technique is a much used one. The guitar crunch is really on display on this track especially at 4 minutes into the song where there is a extra heavy emphasis on the guitar sound. Like all the tracks on here, production is real good and polished. Maybe the catchiest song on here is the last track "Conquest For Nova", the opening riff is instantly infectious and the rest of the song just grooves. Special mention must go again to the production and mix of this baby, everything is clear and powerful and even the drum sound pounds.. A lot of drums tend to get buried in the mix of promo CD's but on here, they are right where they should be in the mix. The solo on "Conquest For Nova" is one of the highlights of the album, full of soaring melody and feeling. If they can get a sound like this on a promo EP, then a full length album should be on everyone's wanted list. I have heard dozens of promos this year and there has been some good ones and some shockers but this is the best promo released this year. In fact calling it a "promo" really doesn't do it justice, they are the best new band for 2009 in my opinion and that's a big call because this year has been a great year for doom but there is a freshness about this band that makes for repeated spins of the CD. Check them and this Ep out.
Reviewed by Ed
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