Band: NILE
Country: USA
Title: Worship The Animal: 1994 The Lost Recordings
Label: Goomba Music
Year: 2011
Style: Brutal Death Metal
Review:
Nile is a band that needs no introduction, the metal underground has been saturated with Nile's form of Egyptian tales of Metal we stand to hear something a bit different from the early days of the band. Nile was a raw, new, and brutal metal band with a style of death metal mixed with some good old fashioned Thrash as well. I mean Nile was in the beginning part of their career and the purely raw production tells the story. The music is heavy, technical, and proficient as only can do so. One will also take notice of the fact that this early release didn't have the cloak of Egypt running on it, this is before all of that came about. What we have here is an awesome demo which is heavy as fuck and brutal throughout the rest, including the production. Fans of the old school Nile will have a field day with this release as Nile has changed so much over the years, except for the fact that they are an awesome band then, and now!
Reviewed by Lex Luther
Rating: 10/10
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Band: NOSFERATU
Country: Colombia
Title: Sin or Betray
Label: Selfreleased
Year: 2011
Style: Atmospheric Black Metal
Review:
Nice, this Colombian band has been around since 1993 so they must be a cult band in their homelands, or at least that's what I think especially after listening to this new single of theirs, a two tracks released displaying a very capable, and mature sounding band. Atmospheric Black Metal is their game and they are playing it well. These two track are interesting to say the least, very catchy, bombasic, melodic, fast and technical at the same time. I'm positive they won't remain unsigned for much longer. Great stuff, a true discovery for me.
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 9/10
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Band: OFGHOSTS
Country: Finland
Title: Veins
Label: Selfreleased
Year: 2012
Style: Experimental Extreme Metal
Review:
The Finnish sick composer that is Sami is back once again with a new release for his one-man-band formerly known as File Of Ghosts until he lost the "File" and remained Ofghosts. I honestly think this guy puts much more effort and interest in his musical project than he would like anyone to notice, so if you take a peak at his websites don;t mind him talking shit abut his music, he's just playing, I'm sure of that.
"Veins" is an 8 tracks effort totaling almost 40 minutes of experimental, atmospheric, brutal, intense, technical, vicious Metal. You can't fit this in a certain category, it's just extreme metal with elements from Black, Death, Brutal Death, Gothic, Progressive Metal, Industrial, and others, you name them. Anyway, the execution intensity of these songs will make you think this is a real band, not a one man project. I still can't stand the drum machine in some parts, but it got better, less annoying even if still synthetic.
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 8/10
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Band: PAGAN RITES
Country: Sweden
Title: Preachers from Hell
Label: Unexploded Records
Year: 2011
Style: Black Thrash Metal
Review:
Black Metal and Thrash Metal mixed into one angry record. Not the usual cold and darkened Black Metal , with Pagan Rights we have a more technical sound added with the sub-genres of metal. When Black Metal is mixed with Death or Thrash Metal then things can get very interesting. Pagan Rights delivers an angry, but passionate piece of evil with "Preachers from Hell". From the start the listener is bombarded with a mass hysteria of fast moving brutality and technical darkness. Hardcore elements also rear its head throughout this release, I love it. Tracks like "Curse of Gods" and "Vengeance from Hell" can give you an idea of what is to come. A mad dashing, pissed off metalhead with definite feelings of hatred towards humanity! Fans of Grave Desecrator or other Black/Thrash metal will enjoy this hammer on their skull.
Reviewed by Lex Luther
Rating: 8/10
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Band: PANTHEON OF BLOOD
Country: Finland
Title: Consociatio Solis et Lunae
Label: Glorious North Productions
Year: 2011
Style: Black Metal
Review:
Roughly three months ago, PANTHEON OF BLOOD published their first release since the 2009 self-titled demo. Obviously, the band doesn't care that much about quantitative publications: Their new EP, entitled "CONSOCIATIO SOLIS ET LUNAE" provides a running time less than 8 minutes, split to 2 tracks. The dedicated members of the band are not that unknown within the genre, facing the fact that PANTHEON OF BLOOD constitutes members from bands like BLOOD RED FOG, AZAZEL and SATURNIAN MIST. However, musically, this latest EP is more of a constantly emergent pitch-black disturbance spreading through your ears than anything else. While the dazing melodic mischief PANTHEON OF BLOOD suggests to call riffing, certain passages of unique vocal bizarrness proactively extract the essence of the unaccustumed and the extraordinary. Their attempts to clean singing would probably be questionable within other audible contexts than what has been manifested here, but undoubtedly, PANTHEON OF BLOOD simply enlighted the path to what has previously not been touched so far: Infectious, sinister, wicked. An atmosphere of virulence and malignity. To a certain extent, maybe the most remarkable association I could think of were Greek masterminds ACRIMONIOUS, following a somehow similar musical stylistic at the first glance. However, PANTHEON OF BLOOD accomplish to merge their riffing style with diffuse guitar leads, which tend to be primarily involved with their aggregated ambiance. In the end, I have to admit that 7:45m is certainly not a sufficient running time for a profound and serious review conclusion. Moreover, the exceptionally surreal atmosphere PANTHEON OF BLOOD are ready to unleash, is unequivocally more dinstictive and pronounced in the first track, "CRIMSON EMPRESS OF THE NIGHT" than on the second -- which is not bad though, but lacks the originality of its predecessor. My unavoidably interpolative résumé is positive anyway, and I'm excited what the future brings. If PANTHEON OF BLOOD manage to release a full-length album, upholding the qualitative distincts of what this EP makes extraordinary, it will surely become subject to considerable acclaim.
Reviewed by Khaosis / Erik
Rating: 8/10
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Band: RUSTING SUN
Country: Germany
Title: Behind the Shadows
Label: Black Devastation Records
Year: 2011
Style: Avantgarde Black Metal
Review:
RUSTING SUN suddenly appeared out of nowhere, confronting the scene with a full-length album, distributed by Black Devastation. Not much information is publicly available about the band or their debut album entitled BEHIND THE SHADOWS - oh wait, there is: Vocals and drumming on this release have been done by TAAKEN, head and owner of Black Devastation for his part. Exceeding 40 minutes in length, BEHIND THE SHADOWS is promoted as a concept album, portraying "a journey into the depths of the human soul". The tracklist is kept in a minimalistic manner, where the song titles are just sequentially ascending roman numerals. As the official voice whispers, the band suggests to play avant-garde black metal, which is not exactly what I would have called it, but let's face the facts first. The vocals on this release are somehow remarkable. Besides the regular voice lines (which are, unfortunately, hardly worth mentioning), RUSTING SUN provide their audience with truly interesting efforts towards - only partly innovating - creating dual voiced song fractions, merging legacy Burzum-ish screaming with a hypnotic recitative voice comparable to what came to the world with Attila Csihar (with track IV being an arguable example). Riffing structures are a double-edged sword, whatsoever. Avant-garde tendencies are recognizable with no doubt, but the overall concept - like ascending to spheres beyond remaining an unfruitful attempt of audible innovation - is not perceptible to me. Too harsh breaks preceding unfavorable thrash metal riffs are simply working against the listener's expectation from what has been labeled as avant-garde black metal. The integrity of a continuously streamlined auditory awakening is simply missing - from a musician's point of view, this is neither fish nor fowl.
Sporadically, one could possibly think that the songwriter mindlessly aims to mimic certain riffing from Deathspell Omega's rather disturbing era, with poor performance - whether intended or not, it's needless to say that the bar is incredibly high here. The melodies throughout the album don't collaborate that well with the residual riffing. BEHIND THE SHADOWS indeed contains a bunch of good ideas, still reaching for further improvement. Numerous parts appear to be contextually misplaced, and surrounded by unappealing accessories, representing the greater part of the songs.
After all, RUSTING SUN's very first album isn't that much of a lead balloon, and the general outline suggests great yet unleashed potential for what is to come in the future. This release, however, lacks the remarkable essence of innovation and is too far away from transgressing this border to deserve full recommendation. Better put them on your personal watch-list, and let's be curious what comes next.
Reviewed by Khaosis / Erik
Rating: 6/10
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Band: SALIGIA
Country: Norway
Title: Sic Transit Gloria Mundi
Label: Barghest
Year: 2011
Style: Black Metal
Review:
Black Metal from Norway that will keep the ears of old school Norwegian listeners open! Saligia unleashes a display of diverse anger and passion toward the darkness of of this human crap we live in. 7 tracks totaling 41 minutes should give fans of anything but Black Metal a chance to endure the torture of hearing such a profound evil mixed with certain technicality. I like this opus and hopefully other Black Metal fans will as well. I almost feel a nostalgic sort of thing for these guys, the old school Black metal from the 90's really took the underground by storm!
Reviewed by Lex Luther
Rating: 8/10
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Band: SILENT KINGDOM
Country: Bosnia & Herzegovina
Title: Path to Oblivion
Label: Zero Budget Productions / Raptures Asylum Productions
Year: 2011
Style: Melodic Death Metal
Review:
For a zero budget release, this 4th album of Silent Kingdom looks pretty damn good, that's for sure. :)
Silent Kingdom is a band that's new to my ears, but they have been around since 1999 and were pretty active on the discographical side releasing a couple of demos, an EP and no less than 4 albums. "Path to Oblivion" is their latest offering, an 11 tracks effort totaling 38 minutes. Compositions-wise Silent Kingdom is taking the Melodic Death Metal path based on loads of intelligent harmonies built by the guitar leads, Swiss-clock tight rhythm section, melancholic keyboard backgrounds and a few parts where the keys are in front of attention, hoarse Death metal vocals and some very good guitar and keyboard solos just to spice things up a bit. If you're still craving for the end '90's type of melodic Death Metal Silent Kingdom might be a good finding, entertaining, interesting and catchy. Good stuff.
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 8.5/10
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Band: SINCERA
Country: Norway
Title: Cursed and Proud
Label: Abyss Records
Year: 2011
Style: Black Death Thrash Metal
Review:
Sincera are a Norwegian band, who unleashed their very first release in the form of a full-length album in September 2011. According to the Metal Archives, the band has been formed already 10 years ago, back in 2002. (As a side-kick: The Metal Archive entry itself has been added by the current Label of SINCERA, Abyss Records). After thoughfully listening to what SINCERA have created within a decade of channeling their creative potential into one resulting album, the reality demanded its attention almost instantly. The opening track is rather straight, and quite seamlessly follows what the band itself suggests their style would be: A mixture of black, death and thrash metal. The close look, however, uncovers that CURSED AND PROUD is neither of those done right. "GRIEFERS SOUL", the second track, begins with a quite catchy blackened riff, but quickly looses focus. Song structures are kept simple, while neglecting the kind of remarkable simplicity well-done thrash metal refers to. Although the album contains some acceptible artistic realizations, SINCERA don't manage to align them within the bigger picture of an album the audience would really love listening to. Riffs are mindlessly linked together, diminishing even the remaining degree of expressiveness to almost zero. Keybord passages - which are fortunately used rarely - are completely out of place in basically every occurence. The fourth track "CURSED" remains as speciality on its own: An inconsiderably unimpressive guitar line, reinforced by highly inappropriate keyboards and a monumental abortive attempt on playing around with recitative singing, which won't fit by any means to even one of the prolonged stylistics of the band. Monotonous, boring, spiritless. The album itself only contains four studio-produced songs, along with a couple of live recordings. Especially the latter pure imperitence: The recording quality is at the same level as the '97 MARDUK bootleg "CURSE OF THE UNDEAD" - if you have ever listened to this one once, you will most probably never ever dig out this pressing again. The same is true with the live recordings SINCERA are providing on this album. I question myself what may have led the band to the decision to actually release such unlistenable, contentual utterly irrelevant pieces of anti-audiophile entropy on a dedicated full-length album? Or is it just to entitle a release as being full-length? Eventually, I'm sorry not to have that many of positive judgement when it comes to CURSED AND PROUD. Undoubtedly, some ideas contained on this release are exploitable - but the way it has been done here simply doesn't feel right. It won't matter that much whether you're into black, death or thrash metal at this point: You probably won't get stuck on this album.
Reviewed by Khaosis / Erik
Rating: 4/10
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Band: SMARGROTH
Country: Slovenia
Title: Empyreal Cycle
Label: Selfreleased
Year: 2011
Style: Melodic Black Metal
Review:
Second album for this Slovenian band, and also the second self-produced one. I don't know about the first one, but "Empyreal Cycle" has a very professional look, better than a lot of labels out there could afford to release, so from this point of view they made a wise choice of having it based on their own efforts. 9 tracks, 40 minutes of Black Metal highlighting the extremely melodic and quite unusual guitar riffs, and the extremely aggressive drumming lines. Unfortunately the mixing isn't as good as this music would require so at some points you'll find yourselves making some serious efforts in distinguishing the guitar solos from the riffs, but that is not an inconvenient to make you hate this work. They even included female vocals on a track, but in my opinion although the girl has a nice voice, adding her to this music is a mistake, a failed experiment. On the contrary, the acoustic guitar parts would have been even better if more. Smargroth is a really good band that may put Slovenia's Black Metal scene on the map.
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 8.5/10
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Band: SORROWSEED
Country: USA
Title: The Extinction Prophecies
Label: Selfreleased
Year: 2011
Style: Gothic Black Death Metal
Review:
It's not often I come across a double CD release nowadays and it's even more rare such a release is selfproduced by the band, without any label backing them up. Sorrowseed chose to release their debut album in this form, a double Digipack CD, one CD composed of tracks with male vox and the other one with their current vocalist, Lilith Astaroth.
The first part (CD) is titled "Dread Sylvan Summonings" and has Lilith doing the vocals. I have to say she's not only a bautiful gal, but her voice is spot on perfect for this music: enchanthing melodic lines as primary vox and ravenous Black Metal screams on the background. The instrumental part is a Gothic Metal with influences from other Extreme Metal styles, creating a horrifying, tenebrous atmosphere most of the times, alternated with calm, acoustic parts that are more than welcome and make Sorroeseed's music very entertaining.
The second CD, "The Scrab Prophet" is more aggressive adding more Doom Death Metal influences to the Gothic skeleton, but also because of Casey Jones' brutal type of vocals, vocals that are good, but not versatile at all. If you're into Doom you might like this better, but if you like your metal varied, the first part is way above this one.
The instrumental part for both CDs is skillfully composed and well arranged so you'll be able to discover a band that keeps its music catchy and quite fresh. I'm only curious if they'll have the ability to create a new album that tops this one.
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 8.5/10
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Band: STANGALA
Country: France
Title: Boued Tousek Hag Traou Mat All
Label: Solitude Productions
Year: 2011
Style: Stoner Doom Metal
Review:
In 2006 a stoner/Doom metal band was formed, and since that time Stangala has released 2 demos and now their first full length effort. So far I like this stuff. I also found it pretty interesting checking out the four instrumentals they have on this release. As a matter of fact the first track, and title track as well, is an intrumental. Now this was a cool experience because right before I began listening to Stangala I toked up a real good "wake and bake"! Listening to the first track was awesome, hearing all the blended instruments hitting at the same time, like a really cool gothic style stoner record with added jazz and noise! All the elements of metal and many other styles of music are packed well in this opus. Definitely made for fans with a peculiar taste in the metal sub-genres of the underground. I enjoyed this record. If you're into the stoner thing, (I might be!) then this is for you, but for fans of the hardcore Death/Black/Doom genres you might want to avoid this one unless you have a very open mind.
Reviewed by Lex Luther
Rating: 7/10
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Band: THE DEATH OF HER MONEY
Country: UK
Title: You are Loved
Label: Slowburn Records
Year: 2010
Style: Sludge Metal
Review:
This is some modern type of Sludge Metal, very close to some post Hardcore Metal, but absolutely not my cup of tea, I do not understand it and unfortunately have no patience of listening to it completely. I don't know why Solitude sent this, but it should have reached some other reviewer, maybe more open minded than I am. I like the riffs on it, pretty fat sounding, but the vocals are annoying to death and the repetitive construction of their tracks is another block for me to give it a chance. Anyway, if you're into Post Metal you might like it better than me.
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 3/10
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Band: THE KING'S BAND
Country: Italy
Title: The King's Band
Label: Selfreleased
Year: 2009
Style: Hard'n'Heavy
Review:
Debut demo of this one man band from Italy lead by Karlage King, a vocalist stuck in the '80's, that composes the tracks by himself and then find other musicians to play along both live and in the studio. You could label his stile as both Hard'n'Heavy or Glam Metal, it has enough elements from both. On this debut demo unfortunately King doesn't convince at all as a vocalist and the interest remains on the instrumental compositions, quite catchy, entertaining and organic. If the guy finds a way to polish his voice a bit he might do well on a next release, but this one is only good for presenting his project's future path, nothing else. Although not usual for what we usually deal with inhere, King's Glam-styled, super emasculate image (half naked, big earrings, and even wearing thong!!! - a combination of Axl Rose, Sebastian Bach and Iggy Pop) might be the strongest element for The King's Band, that's '80's style spot on and I have to admit it's cool for him to try this nowadays.
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 6/10
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Band: THE UNDERGRAVE EXPERIENCE
Country: Italy
Title: Macabre - Il Richiamo delle Ombre
Label: Solitude Productions
Year: 2010
Style: Funeral Doom Metal
Review:
I have to say that if a person is in a deep depression and thinks that life has nothing more to offer...They should try putting this record on and then I guarantee that they will end all of these feelings by killing themselves within 5 minutes of hearing the first track. The Undergrave Experience is exactly that, nothing but a misery filled aura in the air while hearing this opus. The understatement of the year as far as Funeral Doom music goes! There are a total of two tracks on this darkened opus. The first track is entitled "Mater Mortalis Tenebrarum" and the length of the song is approximately 24:30. The second track is entitled "Graveyard Zombie Horizon (Ballata Mortale)" and this track is 19:00 minutes long. Two very long tracks, but one would never know do the classical edge and evil sounds that come from these works. Funeral Doom is not this evil! Sorry, but even though this genre of metal isn't my thing I must admit that I fell right into this record immediately. The background of darkness, the feeling of the evil throughout the sounds of the music, and the vocals deep into the woods of the metal really takes me away. Fans of Funeral Doom to the extreme will definitely love this shit! Italian DOOM METAL!
Reviewed by Lex Luther
Rating: 10/10
Contact:
Band: THRONEUM
Country: Poland
Title: Death Throne Entities
Label: Pagan Records
Year: 2011
Style: Black Death Metal
Review:
1996 became the year that the blasphemous entity Throneum was thrust upon this miserable world. From that time Throneum has accumulated a huge list of brutal and evil releases since their start. Now at the present moment things have not changed one fucking bit! Throneum has unleashed "Death Throne Entities" and man is it fast, brutal, and evil. The sixth full-length added to the chapter of evil from this band is a Blackened Thrash Metal hammer and nothing lets up from start to finish. Throneum has celebrated a killer piece of darkness with this release and I know that fans will be jerking themselves off all over the place once the beginning of "Deathlust" starts off. After that it is all over from there, everything is just speed mixed with that old school touch of black metal/thrash! Tracks like "Baphomet" and "In Blasphemy" just roar right fucking through the body, especially at a loud volume on the player. So for fans of the fastest, but still brutal Black Metal mixed with old school Thrash Metal should definitely check out Throneum, these guys fucking jam.
Reviewed by Lex Luther
Rating: 9/10
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Band: ULUUN
Country: France
Title: The Eternal Winter
Label: Mortis Humanae Productions
Year: 2011
Style: Black Metal
Review:
Although young and maybe unexperienced the French guys from Uluun show some real potential on this debut demo, I have to admit I'm surprised. The sound is a problem, as these 5 tracks seem to have been recorded live in their rehearsal studio, but still it's not that bad to keep you from getting to know what they are all about. I'd label this as Melancholic Black Metal combining raw, mid-tempo to fast rhythmed Black Metal with ambient, melancholic and even a hint of majectic elements, but in the end resulting an aggressive, catchy effort. I like the fact they included some French lyrics; I find Black Metal sung in French as very interesting and mysterious, but only one of the 5 tracks is in French, the rest in English. Two of the tracks are live recorded so you can easily guess the horrible sound... After a minute of each last two tracks I had to skip to the "studio" recorded ones, sorry but they seem to me as only included on this demo to fill up a bit more space... The first three tracks would have been sufficient as they are totaling more than 20 minutes. All in all this is a quite promising band from the French lands, I'm curious if they'll chose a proper studio for the next release and display their real abilities.
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 7/10
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Band: VENDETTA
Country: Germany
Title: Feed the Extermination
Label: Massacre Records
Year: 2011
Style: Thrash Metal
Review:
Germany has thrown us a capable Thrash Metal band Vendetta. From the start these guys take no fucking prisoners with their style. Technical, proficient, and speedy/heavy guitar mixed well with everything else. 10 songs totaling 49 minutes should give the fan plenty of time to get into this one. "Feed the Exterminator" is a fine addition to the new style of metal coming around these days. Vendetta has that definite old school sound because of the fact that they have been around the scene since 1984! That is a long fucking time! On the other hand, Vendetta has an added taste of newer style Thrash as well as the old school, and that is makes for a good fucking Thrash record. Anyway, Vendetta have been around since I was 10 years old so I think these 10 tracks speak for themselves as far as the norm on Thrash Metal. As usual Vendetta created a good record. Fans of the old school style will love this shit, and fans who are just getting into Thrash Metal will also crush their fucking skull with "Feed the Exterminator". Check out tracks like the title track along with "Tremendous Brutality" and "Dog in the Manger".
Reviewed by Lex Luther
Rating: 8/10
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Band: WOLFSHERZ
Country: Brazil
Title: Terras Ancestrais
Label: Mortis Humanae Productions
Year: 2011
Style: Pagan Black Metal
Review:
Black Metal one man project founded in 2010, Wolfsherz has released so far a demo and a split. This one I'm listening to right now is a tape EP composed of 5 tracks and totaling 17 minutes of raw and simple Black Metal. Simple mid-tempo riffs, way too repetitive for my taste, not so bad drum-machine and a room recording sound on vocals; it sounds like a rehearsal tape, no doubts. I'm not impressed by Wolfsherz' technical or compositional abilities at all, but if you're into raw Black Metal you might give it a listen on the net, maybe you'll like it more than I do. Regarding the pagan element it might be present in lyrics, but no hints in the music.
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 5.5/10
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Band: XYPHOS
Country: Canada
Title: A Casual Stroll Through the Lunatic Asylum
Label: Selfreleased
Year: 2012
Style: Death Metal
Review:
Sick, fucking sick. Now I must admit one thing...I have never heard the music from Xyphos before this morning, and I love this shit. Hearing this makes me think of the old days when Carcass, Disembowelment, and Entombed were coming about. Not to mention the brutality Xyphos delivers on their release! All the way there is nothing but brutal heaviness and a sickening sounding vocalist who sounds like he came from the Carcass fold of the late 80's and early 90's. Another piece of brutality I hear is almost like a Texas Slam Death Metal band! Everything can be heard as far as influence with Xyphos. Sick, brutal, heavy, and fast when they have to be with a grinding vocalist who doesn't give a flying fuck! Xyphos is sick! If you're a fan of Carcass, or even the County Medical Examiners then check out Xyphos, these guys are a cross between all of the old school brutality!
Reviewed by Lex Luther
Rating: 9/10
Contact:
Band: ZYWIOLAK
Country: Poland
Title: Globalna Wiocha
Label: Karrot Kommando
Year: 2011
Style: Folk Punk Metal
Review:
Polish Zywiolak changed two powerfully female vocals on the next female vocals but... without „the balls”. The new album called „Globalna Wiocha” (means „Global Village” in negative approach) is a „the new music style” of the band. The new style which leader of group, Delira, already told about in a lot of interviews... In a few words: too much combinations, too much music cabaret and bad way of parody and very small authentic folkmetal drive. „Globalna Wiocha” is a mix of all ideas, which was born in group leaders’ head: paganism, parodies, political post-punk manifests with naiv lyrics, music cabaret... Too much elements in the one soup. This is original music of course – but without clear idea, too much chaos, too much „noise to signal ratio”.
Reviewed by Vilcin
Rating: 6/10