Band: OLD BLACK
Country: France
Title: Rehearsal
Label: Selfreleased
Year: 2008
Style: Black Metal
Review:
Old Black, a great French black metal band! We could hear talk lately about unfortunately, the death of their bassist "ewiger hass".
The band officiates in a "true black metal" warrior wishes! Are the throbbing riffs and heavy, the drumming is the final touch to a great atmosphere. The three tracks offered on "Rehearsal" are very consistent with each other, it is nice to see that the French black metal scene have one of his warriors, as a group Old Black. In listening to this demo, we easily understand the thematic of the band, a fierce opposition to Christian religious dogma.
We must support Old Black in the event they cross! "Rehearsal" is a demo to have for all lovers of good black metal! It takes more than ever, support the French scene.
Reviewed by Alrinack
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Band: ORCHID
Country: USA
Title: Through The Devil's Doorway
Label: The Church Within Records
Year: 2009
Style: Psychedelic Stoner Doom
Review:
Described as 70`s occult rock from San Fransisco and more Sabbath than Sabbath, Orchid has released one of the catchiest debut releases in the last 10 years. Released on Church Within Records, this is a easily accessible classic rock meets stoner doom masterpiece that hasn't left the my CD player since i picked this baby up. A lot of bands play this style but not many have mastered the sound as much as Orchid have, one listen to the opening track "Into The Sun" and you are instantly hooked by the abundant grooves this band has. The obvious Sabbath sound and technique is there but Orchid actually manage to make sound fresh again. Its hard to beat the timeless grooves of classic 70's rock and "Into The Sun" has it all. The vocals of Theo Mindell have all the finesse of a 70's front-man rock god, a perfectly pitched voice indeed and the guitar crunch is in the mix just where it should be. The guitar sound is also pure 70's, its not really that heavy but has that timeless quality tone that the 70's rock masters had. Yes, there is endless number of musical cliches that could be inserted into this review and its real tempting to do just that but Orchid deserve to stand out on their own. The main feature of the band is the quality songwriting, these dudes know how to put together a good tune. Something that has been lost to a large extent with a lot of modern bands. "Eastern Woman" which the second tune is equally as catchy as the opener, more Sabbathian grooves but this time with a more Pentagram vibe. Mark Thomas Baker puts in a killer solo on this song along with the chugging rhythm, once again the arrangement focuses on being concise and catchy.
"Son of Misery" gets into gear with a cool bass intro before the blues-based riff comes in. This one reminds me a lot of Australia's 70's legends "Buffalo", the song has a excellent building arrangement that grabs your attention and keeps it there. The other track on the EP is the monumental "No One Makes a Sound", my personal favorite track on the EP. More great vocals are on display and this track has a kind of layed-back kind of groove especially at 2 and a half minutes into the track where the mood is taking down a notch. The bass playing of Nickel and the drumming of Carter Kennedy is particularly strong on this track, locking into a swaggering groove and never letting go. The last 2 minutes of this number is just pure 70's rock magic, enough for the old school headbanger in all of us to come out our collective shells. While people are still creaming themselves over other 70's retro bands like Witchcraft, Graveyard and many others, Orchid to my ears do it better with a sound that is not just a throwback to the days of flares and hippie cliches, this is a attempt to create a 70's sounding band but make it sound it fresh all over and again. They have done just that, i just wish this EP was longer. All i can say is, check "Through The Devils Doorway" out and bring out a full length album as soon as possible.
Reviewed by Ed
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Band: PAUNOCHNY SHLYA
Country: Belarus
Title: Noch u Zimovym Lese
Label: Desolation Prod.
Year: 2009
Style: Black Metal
Review:
Paunochny Shlya is a one man band from Belarus. We can easily recognize the origin from listening to the sound of guitars. The sound is more audible, which is very significant because it is not always the case when it comes to a demo from the countries of the East! My regret is that the sound is a little too synthetic for my taste! I also regret the total lack of singing. Apart from that, the titles are fairly well developed, not recur, there are of very good atmosphere, from depression to the epic! "Noch u Zimovym Lese" really remembers me the old albums of Slavland, which is a very good point, because if the work evolves in the same way, we can expect to listen to good things. Again, we see the emergence of the black countries of the East, and obviously their high potential. I am glad to have known, listen the music of this one-man band, I follow the path and evolution! I recommend this demo without fear, because with a good vocal set on the music "Noch u Zimovym Lese" will be very pleasant.
Reviewed by Alrinack
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Band: SADISTIC GORE
Country: Brasil
Title: Tools of Monstrosity
Label: Crushchaos Prod.
Year: 2008
Style: Death Metal
Review:
Here's another killer act from Brasil, Sadistic Gore was founded back in 2004 and released only 1 demo in 2005 prior to this EP. "Tools of Monstrosity" is a 6 tracks EP lasting for around 17 minutes that introduce us to this great band's world: growling but quite comprehensive vocals, killer guitar riffs and occasional American Death Metal - like solos, ultra-fast insane drumming, and a subtle but supportive bass, all skillfully mixed to give an impressive EP. This is a very catchy release and although this is pure and straigth-forward death metal with no influences from other styles, it's complex enough to attrach metalheads from all over, and with the great production this has it's almost impossible to fail. I really like this band and would bet on it if they will start releasing more stuff.
Recommended!
Reviewed by Adrian
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Band: SCYTHIAN
Country: UK
Title: To Those Who Stand Against Us...
Label: Necroterror Rec.
Year: 2010
Style: Pagan Black Death Metal
Review:
I've recently read on some UK metal form a topic where a lot of people were complaining about their local Black Metal scene that it has no attitude, no identity and no future, but that's in a big contradiction with the materials I have received over the last few months from over there... Scythian is just another name to prove those guys wrong. Formed in 2004, the band has only released a demo before unleashing their debut album last year and I really hope they will start working harder and release more stuff because they are good, very good.
"To Those..." is an 8 tracks release with a duration of over 40 minutes, I would say time well spent for any Black Death Metal fanatic out there who likes his/her metal with a Pagan flavor. Scythian are mixing the right amount of raw and aggressive Thrash Metal, old-school Death Metal, brutal Black Metal and old-school Bathory-like Pagan Metal and the result is an impressive piece of Extreme Metal hammered out to demand respect. Really, after listening to this album a couple of times that's the best word I could come up: respect; from both their side by honoring the old-school way of extreme metal and from my side for having the chance to listen to such an entertaining album. Recommended to all of you!
I'll be curious to know who will stand against this extreme metal machine named Scythian.
Reviewed by Adrian
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Band: SHATTERED HOPE
Country: Greece
Title: Promo
Label: Selfreleased
Year: 2007
Style: Atmospheric Doom Death
Review:
Shattered Hope was founded back in 2002, but although they have 8 years of experience under their belt they have only managed to release a demo in 2005, and this promo CD in 2007, so maybe they should concentrate more on releasing new stuff if they want to build themselves a name in this scene.
This promo CD is composed of only 2 tracks, but it lasts for almost 20 minutes! Basically Shattered Hope plays a dramatic style Doom Death heavily influenced by My Dying Bride and Saturnus. The first track is a bit too monotonous for my tastes and I haven't had any reaction listening to it, but the second one is more complex, the instrumental and vocal work is more varied and has more hooks and catchy parts, the guitarists seem to have more "balls" to show what they can and I also welcome the acoustic guitars touches, I could listen to this track multiple times and still find something more to like.
The promo is very well produced, I think it's for sale as well, so give this band a listen and try their CD, maybe they'll start releasing more stuff.
Reviewed by Adrian
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Band: SKELATOR
Country: USA
Title: Time of the Sword Rulers
Label: Metal On Metal Records
Year: 2009
Style: Heavy Thrash Metal
Review:
I've started listening to this album before searching any info on Skelator so after a few tracks, when browsing the net for some background data on this band I was absolutely sure I'm dealing with a band from the '80's, so not small was my surprise when I found out they are around "only" since 1999. Nothing would make you start a traditional Heavy Thrash Metal band around that year unless you were a group of fanatics. So right from the start I give my thumbs up for their true, honest feelings towards this kind of music. And getting to their music, I have here an 11 tracks (almost 70 minutes) of the rawest, most unpolished, "old-school"-est type of metal. The album starts off pretty weak, meaning the first track plus the next one (an epic intermezzo) are a bit scarse in power, but what follows is simply brilliant! A melange of Epic Heavy Metal, raw old-school Heavy Metal, straigth to your face Thrash Metal, Punkish Thrash, Bluesy '70's like Hard Rock, Melodic Rock, and even some (a few) Black Metal parts (!!!), absolutely brilliant and oh so entertaining! Their skills as musicians are displayed as mush as possible on all over the album through guitar solos, bass solo lines, drums virtuoso parts and the vocals... killer vocals reaching maybe the highest notes I've heard in Heavy Metal since the peak of the Maiden/Priest/Manowar era. No, this is not a perfect album for the nowadays expectations, but it's so complex and displays such an entertaining storyline that it would be a pity if you would not give these guys a listen. I declare myself a fan!
Reviewed by Adrian
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Band: SON OF APOLLYON / AESIR
Country: UK / UK
Title: Alliance
Label: wyldstone Records
Year: 2008
Style: Black Death / Viking Black Metal
Review:
An alliance between two up and coming UK extreme metal bands is something to stir interest, for sure, so let's see what we have here. Each band presents here 4 tracks, enough to get an idea. First to open is Son Of Apollyon, a young Black Death quintet formed in 2007. Their tracks are really strong, well conceived and interesting enough to make you crave for more: catchy guitar riffs supported by some good, entertaining solos, impressive drums work and dual vocals, screamed and hoarse as main and growls as background support. I have to admit I don't like that much the first ones which sound like the vocalist is really trying more than he can, but I think the growls are great. Son Of Apollyon is not the most original band around, but their side sounds fresh and interesting so I would follow their development in the future.
Next is Aesir, a Viking inspired Black Metal band with a 10 times lower performance than Son Of Apolyon. To start with the sound, that's a mess, it's hard to understand what's happening here, and that's the weakest point for Aesir, maybe with a better sound I would have enjoyed a lot better their side. Then the mixing and mastering is awful, not worthy of this release. The band, despite the abovementioned problems, does a very good job, if you are patient enough to listen carefully each instrument you'll discover a band that works hard to get a complex piece of metal, and they really have the skills to do it: dual vocals again, but this time the two vocalists are given the same importance, a screamed, Black Metal type of vocal and a clean, Bathory-influenced type of clean vocals, much more aggressive guitar work with fast, twisted solos, seconded by a rhythm and keyboard section to create a melodic, epic atmosphere. Once again, with a good sound this could be a great band, a band that Bathory followers would welcome with open arms.
Reviewed by Adrian
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Band: STUMP
Country: UK
Title: Sickgeeksnuffmovieparty
Label: Dead Tart Records
Year: 2009
Style: Porn Gore Grind
Review:
Second (or first? I've no idea) EP by UK based one-man-project Stump. Not many differences from the first one I have reviewed except for the volume of the whole which is higher now which makes it even more brutal and sick and maybe the addition of more Porn elements (movie cuts), but over all we're dealing with the same ultra-guttural, ultra-fast, infected and extremely aggressive Gore Grind project. I don't know where from Goatboy got the intro for "Sucking on a Stonned Chick's Tits", but it's fabulous, it's so funny it made my day. I like this project and recommend it to you, too. I'm curious what else we'll get from Stump in the near future.
Reviewed by Adrian
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Band: STUMP
Country: UK
Title: Vomited Flesh Salad
Label: 2009
Year: 2009
Style: Gore Grind
Review:
Stump is a one-man-band hailing from England, with Goatboy being the man behind it. There's not much info on the net about this project, but from the way he's moving I guess the Grindcore scene will soon hear of it. The name Stump comes from a German serial killer called Peter Stumpp.
"Vomited Flesh Salad" is a 12 tracks (12 minutes) DIY EP that from my understanding is distributed for free in physical form which is not something a lot of acts do. Musically speaking we're dealing with an extreme form of putrid, disgusting Gore Grind with half of the total length being composed by different movies cuts, from horror flicks to normal UK movies. The actual playing is less than the movie cuts, but when in action Goatboy serves us with: ultra-fast drum-machine, low-tuned chaotic guitars, ultra-guttural, inhuman vocals most of the times, and some insane screams here and there. I like it, the addition of samles makes it interesting and not boring, so I recommend it to the ones of you used to UG brutal Gore Grind.
Reviewed by Adrian
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Band: TRUNAR
Country: Belarus
Title: Christs Not Christians
Label: Wings Of Destruction / Dead Center Prod.
Year: 2009
Style: Antichristian Black Metal
Review:
You won't find that much info on Trunar on the net, and recently I get lots of such bands that, I guess, prefer to keep it old-school and don't give a damn on promotion. But this is not necessarily a good thing. Anyway, is their option, I don't care. Regarding this release, we're dealing with a 9 tracks debut album out on 2 different labels, Wings of Destruction from Russia and Dead Center from Ukraine, so a Black Metal attack orchestrated 100% in Eastern Europe. And it definitely has the mark of Eastern coldness and raw expression. Lyrically, Trunar is an Anti Christian act playing in both their native language and English. Their musical composition are old-school raw Black Metal with aggressive, raspy vocals, fast rhythm section, old-school guitar riffs (I would have preffered them more varied, though), and occasional epic keyboards background. Good production, 4 pages booklet with a lot of text in Russian, so I have no clue what it's about, and the lyrics to 2 of the 9 tracks. The last track on the album is an ambient one based on monotonous, minimalistic keyboard lines with guitar/drums/whispers touches in the background, but it lasts for more than 12 minutes so for me it became boring after a while.
This is a good band, I would compare it to Dissimulation from Lithuania in what concerns potential (not music).
Reviewed by Adrian
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Band: TYRANEX
Country: Sweden
Title: The Evil has Arrived
Label: Selfreleased
Year: 2009
Style: Heavy Thrash Metal
Review:
Tyranex comes from Sweden, was founded in 2005 and seems to be a pretty hard working band in the Swedish underground. They have released 4 demos so far, "The Evil has Arrived" being their fourth effort, a 4 tracks effort lasting for about 17 minutes. Musically speaking Tyranex is an old-school fast, female-fronted Heavy Thrash Metal act. The tracks have a good dose of variation, good, catchy ideas based on the '80's sounds: strong twin guitar riffs with the occasional solos, fast and aggressive rhythm section and hoarse female vocals. Linnea, the good looking vocalist, has some killer hoarse vocals, but she gets a bit out of track when going on the shrieks path, she should work some more on those high-pitched vocals. I think the best job inhere is done by the guitarists (Linnea takes care of one of the guitars as well), the reason why I've listened to this demo a lot of times, so I'm curious what the future will bring to this traditional Heavy Thrash act.
Reviewed by Adrian
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Band: VEKTOR
Country: USA
Title: Black Future
Label: Heavy Artillery Records
Year: 2009
Style: Speed Thrash Metal
Review:
Man, I've started listening to this album more than a month ago and I've tried countless times to do this review but always ended up being stolen by this fabulous band, opening a bottle of wine and fuckin' enjoy their masterpiece. "Black Future", in my 2009 Top is most probably the Best Album, it's exactly how I want my metal to be, fuckin' forged in adrenaline! Just imagine the fastest metal you've heard times 10, add a Cradle Of Filth vocal type, fantastic virtuoso guitar playing, the right amount of melody, devastating mix of chaotic progressive rhythms played with the mathematical precision of a Swiss clock, insanely varied, rehearsed to perfection... I can go on and on with praises about this album, and for sure it will remain one of my all-times fave materials! I have already recommended the band to most of my friends, so here I'm recommending it to you, too. The Best Speed Thrash Metal album in ages!
Reviewed by Adrian
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Band: WICKED KING WICKER
Country: USA
Title: God Is Busy ... Save Yourself
Label: Selfreleased
Year: 2009
Style: Drone Doom Metal
Review:
Wicked King Wicker may seem underground but they do have a loyal fan base and the mainstream music press like Terrorizer magazine gave the band’s first two albums high ratings so they have been noticed by more than just the underground media. "God Is Busy… Save Yourself” is their 6th album, and their first released outside of the U.S. The bottom line is Wicked King Wicker is unique and one of the most extreme doom metal bands around and this album just reinforces that fact ever more. The main thing that makes this band so unique is in their take no prisoners approach to making some of the most disturbing droning noisy doom ever created. The music is about as doom as you can get but they combined the slower than a sloth type riffs and back it up with endless fuzz, buzzing, squealing and various distorted noises that are on one hand painful to the ear but also so incredibly monolithic. Want people to leave your house?, then put this on and you wont see them for dust. The album contains just three epic pieces starting with "Those Who Bear Responsibility" that makes Sunn O))) and Moss sound like Black Sabbath, it is a horrible noise but also has a kind of appalling beauty about it. Minimal for the most part but it also has a natural progression about it that all good droning doom should have. Don't expect big riff changes or dynamic lead breaks because you wont find them on here, its wall to wall psychedelic sonic doom noise.
The band seems to be getting heavier with each release and the final track on here is a good example on how far you can take the doom, drone, noise approach and make it work. Its titled "So Easily Lead Astray" and this track features more electronic noises than the other two or at least that is how i heard it. Again its another crushing monolithic drone fest and again you cant exactly rock out to these tunes, this is music that you have to let soak into your skull and ferment for a few listens for full effect. Some people will ride this music off as just sheer noise but to me, it takes some real musical vision to make something so noise filled and yet give it a kind of meditating quality. The track sandwiched in between these two is called "Call My Name Sweet Demon, So I Know I Am Not Alone" and is perhaps the most disturbing of the three tracks on this album. The deeper than the deepest grave bass sounds and the hitting of the drum which sounds like a crazed madman beating on your coffin sounds positivity scary. Add to that some demented moaning screams and you have a sound that makes Khanate sound almost commercial. All the three tracks are 16 minutes plus in length so its no easy journey getting through this album but its worth it, for the hardcore doom drone fan only but one of the heaviest albums of its kind ever released.
Reviewed by Ed
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Band: WINDFAERER
Country: USA
Title: Glorybound
Label: Selfreleased
Year: 2009
Style: Folk Black Metal
Review:
I will summarize the work of Windfaerer by a word: perfect! The compositions contained on "Glorybound" have no problem to meet the expectations of fans of metal. Indeed there we can find influences of speed metal, black metal, death touches enraged, and obviously this affects, folk is their strength. The mastery of the violin is perfect and transports us into the world of epic Windfaerer. I am still hungry for more... about ten minutes demo is not enough when quality is the appointment as here with "Glorybound". The production is simply enormous! Everything is in place, mixing and mastering is really great. You must get this demo and the opus that follow it in all cases, what I will going to do myself.
Reviewed by Alrinack
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