January 2014 – Page 5 – Wonderbox Metal

Pogrom – This Is What I’ve Always Wanted (Review)

From the darkest reaches of Canada, Pogrom appears like a moving shadow on the horizon.

This Is What I’ve Always Wanted contains one track of the same name that lasts 32 minutes and envelops the listener in a bleak landscape of futility and despair. This is Drone Doom designed to unnerve and disturb through the application of aural stress.

It starts off with a basis of tension and preserves this throughout, adding noises and effects as the track creeps along. The feeling is one of electrified pressure being applied and the corresponding mood evoked is surprisingly effective.

I’m not a massive fan of Drone as usually it just doesn’t do it for me, but I did enjoy this as I like the fraught atmosphere that is both created and sustained. This is like an extended soundtrack to a film scene intent on raising the tension levels and then keeping them there throughout.

It all builds to a head where the release comes through a bass-heavy fuzzed out Black Metal vocal assault to end the track, successfully dissipating the mood and allowing the horror you’ve been expecting to finally appear.

If you’re a fan of Drone then you should love this. If however you’re not usually a fan, then check this out anyway as it’s done well and is all about the atmosphere.

Unexpectedly good.

Unscarred – Fake Democracy (Review)

French group Unscarred play Thrash Metal the way it was meant to be – catchy and crunchy.

Apparently this is a demo, but it sounds good enough to be their first ‘proper’ release if you ask me. Everything is recorded clearly and all of the instruments shine through, (yes, even the bass).

The band play Thrash Metal with a nod to both Old and New-Schools. To me they come across as a mixture of Annihilator, Anthrax, Lamb of God and Megadeth; all about the songs and riffs.

The singer has an exceptional set of lungs, I could listen to her all day. She has a varied approach using the full spectrum from rougher shouts all the way to much higher cleans. The shouts are okay, but her cleans are exceptional as she has a really powerful voice full of character and strength. Lay this over some razor-sharp Thrash music and throw in some good catchy hooks and you have a very memorable set of songs.

When it’s done well Thrash Metal is one of my favourite genres as you can just get caught up in it and before you know what you’re doing you’re bouncing around throwing obscene shapes and playing the invisible guitar. At least that’s what I hear. I’ve never done anything as unseemly as that of course. Honest. Moving on…

A really enjoyable release, especially for a demo. If the band can build on this for a whole album, and just clean up some of the small niggles in their sound then their next release should be fantastic. Here’s hoping for a bright 2014 for them.

Favourite Track: 100 Lashes. Ludicrously catchy, and sticks in your head for days.

Temple of Baal – Verses of Fire (Review)

French veterans Temple of Baal offer up their fourth album to the sacrificial gods of Blackened Death Metal.

Having not heard Temple of Baal since their 2003 debut Servants of the Beast, it is an interesting transformation that the band’s sound has undergone. Originally Black Metal; now they give us a combination of both Death and Black Metal with some quite varied sub-styles and influences apparent throughout the 60 minutes on Verses of Fire.

Sometimes brutal, sometimes more laid back, always dark; songs are played at all speeds and tempos, mainly in an attempt to create a gloomy atmosphere for the listener to get absorbed in. For this release the band have emphasised the importance of a good atmosphere and have created one via rich textures of overlapping genres of Extreme Metal.

Moments of Old-School Death Metal are toyed with; elements of discordant Black Metal; Thrash riffs; Doom sections; full-on blasting – a wide sample of extremity is taken and fused into the songs on this album.

Vocals are mainly in a darkened Death Metal style, although screams and yells are used on occasion to add a splash of colour to the sinister emanations of the singer.

Verses of Fire boasts a very well produced sound that shows off everything very organically and gives a very satisfying listen. You could place this next to pretty much any band and not have it sound weak or inferior in quality.

Temple of Baal have taken a risk by changing their style from their Black Metal beginnings, and with risk comes either reward or failure. I think the risk has paid off and they have been rewarded with a much richer and more ambitious sound that will serve them well moving forward from here.

If you weren’t sure about Temple of Baal in the past, or have just been unfamiliar with them, then this is the album for you. An hour long of top quality Extreme Metal.

Manes – Teeth, Toes And Other Trinkets (Review)

Norwegian band Manes have released this anthology album that collects together alternative versions, unreleased, obscure and live songs.

This is of the Avant-Garde style, replete with dark melodicism and atmosphere. It’s heavy on the electronics and effects, both of which are used skilfully to craft memorable songs and melodies.

Even if these tracks are essentially B-sides, the talent of the band is still apparent. Combined with the soulful, melancholic vocals the tracks portray the same kind of depth and nostalgic feelings as some of the best of 80’s pop/Darkwave music.

Some of the songs are unfinished or works-in-progress, but as a whole the album works surprisingly well and doesn’t sound as disjointed as one might expect from a release of this nature.

A quality band with quality songs; even though they are off-cuts this is an enjoyable collection. This should appeal to more than just completists and also serves to adequately whet the appetite for the next album that this always-evolving band release.

Interview with Barishi

Barishi have recently released their self-titled début album, the review of which you can see here. A harsh, angular, progressive Metal treasure trove; this is an album with a lot to give to those who crave experimentation and music that forges its own path. Their guitarist was nice enough to answer some questions I threw at him…

Hi! For people who are unfamiliar with your band please introduce yourself!

Hi, I am Graham Brooks, I play guitar in Barishi. We are from a town called Jamaica, Vermont. We have been playing together in various forms since high school, about four years ago.

What are your main influences?

My favorite metal band is Iron Maiden, I am also a Beatles nut. We are all big Mastodon and Meshuggah fans. Jon (our bassist) and I are both really influenced by bands like The Cure and MBV. Our singer Sascha is a huge funk fan and also is a Queen and Led Zeppelin fanatic. We draw from a lot of those bands and a lot more that I can’t think of right now.

What are you listening to at the moment that you want to recommend?

I have been listening to “So” by Peter Gabriel. I think it is incredible. I am sure a lot of full-metalists wouldn’t be into it but I think it is a great album. I have been digging on this band called “Anciients” who kill it and a band from chicago called “Yakuza.” I highly recommend both if you are looking for some metal that comes out of left field.

You have an unusual sound that fuses Progressive Metal with more 70’s-style Proggy vibes, all wrapped up in with elements of more modern avant-garde bands such as Ephel Duath, (at least to my ears anyway!), how did you go about deciding on the sound that you wanted as a band?

Cool! Honestly we never really talked about what type of sound we wanted to go for. I think we sound the way we do because we never had one of those talks. Some of the songs that we like playing the most came about because someone in the band wrote something that made us say “I don’t know if that would work in a heavy band” and then we would try it and it would sound cool. I think the freedom to do that had a big impact on how we sound.

I love the angular guitar work on this release. How do you write your songs? What’s the process involved?

One of us usually has a riff or something that they will come into practice with and then we will just try to expand on it. We don’t really have any method or go about writing in an organized fashion. Sometimes it can be a shit show because we will be writing 3 different songs that we think sound cool and we will end up abandoning all of them because we get overwhelmed with all the little parts that are floating around.

After seeing the album art and band pictures, your album surprised me slightly as it contains more harsh and more abrasive moments than I was expecting. Was it a conscious decision to embrace the heavier aspects of music just as much as the more mellow/melodic aspects?

I think we just naturally got heavier. We play with a ton of bands who are way heavier than we are and I think some of it rubbed off on us.

With an eclectic and diverse album like this I can imagine possibly having parts of it that were potentially divisive when creating it – where there many discussions in the band about which parts to keep/throw out/change/etc.?

We wrote a lot of stuff that did not end up on the record. Usually when we did not end up using something it was because we just were not digging it that hard. We try to keep the songwriting process as democratic as possible. If someone really does not like a part or song we usually will end up changing or discarding it. Fortunately everyone in the band understands and it doesn’t require a long talk most of the time.

Are you happy with the finished album? Is there anything you would change next time?

I am. We had a lot of fun recording together and I think the album represents what we were doing for the past year. Brian Westbrook who produced the album is an amazing musician and producer. Thanks to Brian the album sounds way better than we ever thought it would. In terms of things I would like to change, I would really like to record an album down-tuned. It adds a really guttural element that I love.

As I said in the review; my favourite track is Through Mountains, Through Plains. It’s brilliant. This is less of a question more of a comment really! This is also the longest song on the album – do you see yourself going for more of the longer, epic-style tracks in the future?

Thanks so much for the kind words. I love writing long songs. I am sure that we will have some longer songs in the future.

What does the future hold for Barishi?

Hopefully a lot of touring. We love playing shows, it is our favorite thing to do. I think all we want is to play as much as possible and keep on recording. Hopefully at some point we will find a label that is a good match.

Thanks for your time Graham!

Perversity – Infamy Divine (Review)

Perversity come from Slovakia and treat us to a 17 minute EP of solid Death Metal.

This is straight-ahead brutality which does occasionally slow the pace, showing good use of tempos to create good songs that are distinguished and enjoyable.

Essentially underground Death Metal with elements of the Florida scene; these songs do what they are supposed to and do it well. There’s even some piano at the end of Angel of Prostitution and in the EP outro Infamous, showing that they’re not afraid of adding something a bit extra now and again.

I particularly enjoyed many of the guitar riffs and leads on this EP, which give the songs a bit of character. More than that these are memorable songs; not quite catchy, but rather they stick in the brain and are readily recognisable. No mean feat for a lot of Death Metal and Perversity are to be commended for their songwriting skills.

The vocals are nice and deep but still intelligible in places; they sound good against the backdrop of the music.

The production has a nice organic feel to it which allows the songs to be themselves and encourages the bass to be heard alongside the guitars.

If you are into Death Metal then this is well worth a listen. It’s only short but I found it very welcome. Death Metal played well with good songs – what more can you ask for?

Favourite Track: Incest of Flesh. Full of great guitar riffs and melodies, and some lovely bass work. Really good stuff.

Tjolgtjar – Kjal Tjormejn (Review)

The highly prolific Tjolgtjar come to us from the US with the latest full-length Kjal Tjormejn.

This album contains two tracks over the length of 47 minutes. The first song Kjal Tjormejn Part 1 is only 5 minutes long and just seems to be a cut off version of the main 42 minute song Kjal Tjormejn.

This is an epic composition of strange, angular Black Metal. Riffs and melodies stick out and criss cross each other like no-one’s business, and the entire wonderful track is something akin to a Black Metal 70’s Prog masterpiece; like Mütiilation covering and corrupting Pink Floyd or something. It may sound odd on paper but it definitely works. Add to that some, (blackened), Southern Rock riffs and others that sound like they could be, (blackened), action movie soundtrack riffs, you have a varied and interesting release that’s essentially a great listen from start to finish.

The vocals have an approach of Black Metal shrieks and various cleaner strains ranging from moaning to falsetto and most in between, although the main emphasis of the album is the diverse musicality on display.

The production is underground Black Metal, and quite brittle sounding, but that sense of fragility somehow manages to enhance the music. Everything is also clearly recorded giving the inventive music the space it needs to tentatively creep out of the speakers and infect your brain. In fact this sense of a spiky, angular Black Metal sound combined with a sense of brittle fragility is quite endearing and only serves to enhance the inspired, ambitious music.

A release like this won’t be to everyone’s tastes of course, but if you are open to it there is a lot to enjoy here.

Cosmic Infusion – Cosmic Infusion (Review)

Here we have Indian Symphonic Black Metallers Cosmic Infusion with their first release, a 32 minute journey into the nightside.

From the very first couple of seconds I knew I was going to like this. It instantly has that early/mid-90’s vibe that makes me so nostalgic for the mystery and otherworldliness of Black Metal as I was first discovering its dark charms.

Giving off the same vibes as bands of this era this is instantly familiar and yet fresh and inviting as so few bands do this nowadays, and even if they do they inevitably come across as copycats or merely trying to recapture lost glories. Cosmic Infusion are better than that due to the mass of talent they have and the fact that they’re just so damn good!

Vocals are mainly the standard Black Metal shriek, (done well), but we also occasionally get treated to some heroic-sounding clean vocals which are rousing and welcome.

The music is exceptional – taking the standard 90’s blueprint of mystic guitar riffs and heavy orchestration to create hymns to blackness that really do conjure up images of black masses and Satanic rituals.

This, along with the recent Gutslit album, demonstrates a growing hotbed of talent from India. With these kinds of bands as forerunners the region deserves more recognition for services to Metal.

Cosmic Infusion have crafted an excellent first release that will hopefully prepare them well for their first album at some point in the future. Based on the strength of this EP I’ll be salivating at the prospect.

Get this.

The Restitution – Waves (Review)

From the US The Restitution are a Progressive Metal band who aim to take a more cerebral approach to harder music.

According to the band they are influenced by modern Metal giants such as Deftones. The Restitution combine both clean and rough vocals over a more thoughtful and progressive musical background to create some good songs, and I hear elements of bands such as Isis, Devil Sold His Soul, Cave-In and Tool in their sound as well.

Melodies are used well and there is enough aggression strewn in with the Post-Rock elements to keep the energy of the tracks moving.

It’s obvious that a lot of attention and hard work has gone into crafting these songs and it all pays off. Whether they are raging and shouting or crooning and lulling, everything feels deliberate and you get the impression that every single second of this release was meticulously thought through and passed rigorous quality control methods before being confirmed as an actual part of the album. All of this leads to a varied and enjoyable collection of songs that work well individually but even better as a complete package of tracks – a listening experience.

Overall this is a high-quality release combining melodies and aggression seamlessly in a modern Metal style that leaves out all of the clichés and rookie mistakes that a lot of more accessible Metal usually makes. Recommended.

Ephel Duath – Hemmed by Light, Shaped by Darkness (Review)

Italian Avant-Garde Metal band Ephel Duath return once again with their new album.

Not quite as off-the-wall as some of their previous releases, Ephal Duath could still never be described as a “normal” band. And who would want that anyway?

The songs twist and turn, describing elements of Metal, Post-Metal, Hardcore, Progressive Rock, Jazz and everything in-between. The capability of the musicians is not in question, but rather the songs themselves – do they work? For the most part yes; if you’re up for the challenge then they’re up to the task.

Once you accept that musically these are not your average compositions, I imagine the biggest sticking point for some listeners would be the vocalist as she has a voice that can be quite an acquired taste on occasion. When she’s not bellowing out pure aggression her voice is somewhere between clean and rough. Her sometimes-unusual sound takes a little getting used to at first, but once you’ve acclimatized it becomes quite endearing after a while.

This is a complex listen and not everyone will appreciate its multi-faceted delivery, but persevere and there are some real gems to be found here.

Favourite Track: Tracing The Path of Blood. Description fails me at this point; it’s just a damn good listen.

The same could be said for the entire album; not easy to describe, not easy to get into, but rewarding once you do.

Step into their world.