Aezh Morvarc’h are a Black Metal band from France and this is their latest EP.
This is sharp and frosty Black Metal that carries a melodic edge with its raw delivery.
Dark screams and ghostly clean-chants populate the musical landscape and recall Mayhem at their esoteric best.
The songs have their atmospheric moments but for the most part it’s a grim assault that the band undertake. Melodic riffing softens the effect though and the inclusion of so many heroic-sounding cleans further distils the rawness factor. This is all a plus point as it gives the band their own character compared to countless other bands playing underground Black Metal.
The speed of the songs is enticing, but it’s the mystical melodies that really do the trick here.
Aezh Morvarc’h have taken their Classic Metal heritage seriously too, and Mare Humorum has more than its fair share of real Metal riffs mixed into the Black Metal. This is a welcome aspect of their style and combined with the clean vocals really gives the band an epic/heroic streak to their sound.
I enjoyed this. For a band that is ostensibly an underground Black Metal group, this release offers the listener something a little different.
Here they treat us to two tracks of ultra-heavy Doom that snarls and crushes yet also has a contemplative side.
The vocals are so serrated that this EP should come with a health warning. Their scathing assault is a reminder of how truly harsh screamed vocals can sound from the right singer.
The music is down-beat Doom which is slow enough to cast a grim shadow where it falls but energetic enough to keep a beat to. Although they specialise in the heavier side of Doom, the songs also carry a multitude of melodies through these tumultuous waters. Said melodies are largely low-key affairs content to hide just below the heavier rhythms, although this is not always the case.
The band’s more nuanced side manifests through these streaks of melodic colour and also through some Isis/Cult of Luna-esque Post-Metal moments.
The entire package is rounded off with a strong sound that accentuates all of the band’s strengths, leaving them free to pursue the music through to its logical conclusion.
Keeper have released a devastating calling card with their new EP, one that will surely, and rightfully, gain them many accolades.
A Secret Revealed are a German Post-Metal band and this is their début album.
This is emotive Post-Metal that has a good mix of upbeat misery and negative energies.
The Bleakness is an interesting listen as it combines a few different styles of Modern Metal into a coherent assault on happiness. Post-Metal, Modern Metal, Post-Hardcore and even the odd bit of Doom, Shoegaze and Extreme Metal all get incorporated into their overarching depressive aesthetic.
The vocals consist of impassioned screams that are very much in the blood-curdling, emotive Hardcore style.
The music is nicely varied and revolves around the central motif of the band which is ultimately one of bleakness, it seems, (hence the album title).
Although it’s largely a heavy affair, the band never go too far into ultra-heavy territory and instead use the guitars for maximum emotional content. This is backed up and reinforced by the expressive leads and melodies as well as the odd bit of orchestration here and there.
This is a band who are enjoying the freedom of Post-Metal by doing their own thing with contemporary Metal music. They have eschewed the Doom route that most Post-Metal takes and instead has chosen the road less travelled by bands like Deftones and Devil Sold His Soul, only more Metallic.
The Bleakness may be just that, but it’s also a triumph.
Third Ion have recently released their début album 13/8bit. Theirs is a brand of Progressive Metal that’s a little different form the norm and very enjoyable because of this. I downloaded the latest data on them…
For those who are unfamiliar with your band – introduce yourself!
Hey, I’m Justin Bender, guitarist/producer for Third Ion, a progressive metal band full of nutty space nerds.
Give us a bit of history to Third Ion
I’ve know our drummer Aaron for about 5 years, and we always talked about doing a project together. We live about 6 hour drive from each other, so it took a while for us to get our shit together and actually start a band. Now that we have though, it has been snowballing and we have a really good pace going on. I’ve known Mike for a few years too, and he was my bass player of choice, even before a single riff was recorded. I am still so thrilled he wanted to start a band with Aaron and I! Basically the band officially formed around this time last year, once we figured out who we were going to have sing, and Tyler has been a great fit!
What are your influences?
Mainly Dream Theater, Meshuggah, Alice In Chains, Tool, Opeth, Faith No More, Pantera, Saga, Toto, Satriani, Rush, Katatonia,
What are you listening to at the moment that you would like to recommend?
A band from my area, Sparky, just put out an album called #Humanimation and it is incredible. I love it, and I can’t stop listening to it. I’m not just saying it because they are my friends either! It is legitimately one of my favourite records right now.
What did you want to achieve with your album?
Our main goal was to write whatever came to mind, with a really “no rules” approach, and to incorporate musically, visually and lyrically whatever nerdy things interested us at the time. I didn’t have huge hopes of getting signed or anything, I just really wanted to make this music for the love of it. The fact we got a deal and it’s been getting a lot of attention is a total plus, though, and if people enjoy it that makes me very happy.
Are you happy with the end result?
Absolutely!! I am especially proud of the artwork, which was done by my best friend. We are almost done writing the second album as well, and a lot of it is recorded already too, so as happy as I am with the first album, I haven’t sat back and really enjoyed it as I dove right into album two.
How does your songwriting process work?
I’ll drive to Aaron’s studio for the week and we will record drums and guitars as we write the music. It’s a very cool and open way of working. Very expressive, I love it. Plus, he brings out all my best ideas. There’s just something about him that makes me come up with guitar parts I would never come up with on my own. He is the best writing partner I have ever had, bar none. Due to this process, there are a LOT of “first take” magic moments that ended up on the final mix. That seems to happen more and more as we write, as well.
On 13/8Bit we managed to write one song together (PDM) with Mike all in one room, but him being in Vancouver makes that much more difficult. For album two he has contributed a ton of great riffs, he emailed us a bunch of ideas, that we have used. So then after Aaron and I track in Winnipeg, we send Mike the stems of what we did and he does bass and keys and sends it back for me to mix. I write the lyrics and Tyler comes up with most of the melodies. I can just put words on paper and trust that he will come up with something I love. It’s a very easy operation, all in all.
How and why did you decided to incorporate a video games/chiptune influence in your music?
We all really love the 8bit and 16bit classics that we grew up playing. I think every one of us knows Megaman 2 like the backs of our hands. Metal bands sing about all kinds of things from dragons to demons to mutilation and horror, so really it feels like there are no rules. Which we dig, so we incorporated it simply because we felt like it.
What can you tell us about the lyrics?
That’s another one of those “nerdy thing because I just felt like it” kind of answers. As an artist, I’ve always felt more comfortable with my guitar than with words. I feel like I can say more with music than lyrics, and I never really aspired to be a lyricist. When I listen to music, I rarely even pay attention to the message, I get absorbed in the sound of it all. So, being like that, I just write what comes to me and what interests me. I covered black holes, sci fi particle weapons, video games and even some politics on the first record.
What’s your favourite song on the album and why?
I think maybe Zero Mass because it’s the first song we wrote, and the main heavy tech riff with the little keyboard stings is just so fuckin’ cool. I’ll always be very proud of that one.
How do you see your songs/direction developing in the future?
So far the next record has a lot more technical stuff, a lot more insane drum ideas. I plan to record more vocal harmonies, but maybe not, we’ll see how that plays out. We also want to do a concept record to cover the backstory of our mascot character “Dr. Zero” who is featured on the cover art. So, album three or four will be that album.
What’s next for Third Ion?
We have a few shows lined up for July but after that it’s just more work on album 2, and planning more shows for the end of the year, with hopes to tour more extensively in 2016.
This is the twelfth album from these Swedish Death Metal warriors.
Unleashed should need no introduction. Instrumental in birthing the Swedish Death Metal scene and sound, Unleashed’s place in Metal history is cemented.
I’ve been listening to a lot of Swedish Death Metal recently, as played by different bands all over the world. Now, however, it’s time to return to the source and pay homage to the kings.
Unleashed are on fine form here. Songs, aggression and Vikings are the themes of this album and Unleashed are at the top of their game.
The vocals are expressive and charismatic, managing to exemplify an older strain of Death Metal while remaining individual and as accessible as anything like this is going to be.
When listening to Dawn of the Nine it’s easy to be reminded of the debt that a whole raft of other bands owe Unleashed, and not just those that play Swedish Death Metal either.
Quality riffs abound on this release and there’s a good mixture of faster and slower tracks. Each song has its own personality and it’s always nice to hear an album where each track can be identified in it’s own right. There is no filler.
After all these years Unleashed know themselves perfectly and Dawn of the Nine is the kind of highly proficient and polished Death Metal release that you’d expect from such a veteran band.
But do you know what? Do you know what’s really important? The music itself. Legacy, expectations, reputation, etc. aside; all that matters, all that ever matters, is the music.
Unleashed deliver and Dawn of the Nine is a great listen. This is a band with a future, as well as a past.
This is the third album from US Melodic Black Metallers Withering Soul.
The band play Melodic Black Metal that has speed and melody in abundance yet knows the value of restraint on occasion.
The vocals are a kind of chanted scream-shout (?) of the Dimmu Borgir variety. Clean vocals are also used sparingly and effectively.
The music is cleanly recorded with just enough dirt left in to prevent them being described as polished.
The band have some low-key symphonic influences to their sound and I quite like how these are used on the album.
These tracks are mainly fast and sharp, with razor riffs and burning leads. The subtle atmospheric backing keyboards add a surprising amount to the songs and help differentiate from others playing this style.
An enjoyable way to spend 40-odd minutes. Have a listen for yourself.
Hogslayer are a Sludge band from the UK. This is their second album.
This is hateful, heavy Sludge Metal that sometimes it seems only the UK can do so well. Yes, you have the entire American/NOLA Sludge thing which started everything with Eyehategod, etc. but the UK has its own distinctive underground full of festering filth and misery that grows only in this specific environment. Hogslayer were born to such surroundings.
This is crushingly heavy. I mean really, really heavy. Like, ultra-heavy or something. You get the idea.
The feral, underground darkness that bred Hogslayer didn’t just select for the nastiest traits either. The band understand, in their own warped way, the need for riffs to be catchy, vocals to have character and songs to be memorable. Of course, you have to understand that this is all from a Sludge Metal/Doom perspective, as no-one will accuse Hogslayer of threatening the radio-friendly unit-shifters any time soon.
Oh, but there’s something about this kind of relentlessly heavy, riff-oriented Sludge. When the band lock into a heavy groove and repeat it just the right amount of times…it really hits the spot.
The vocals, as mentioned previously, are charismatic and buried within the distortion just enough to work with the music without dominating it but aren’t too low in the mix so that they’re lost in the colossal bass/guitar riffs, as can sometimes be the case with some Sludge bands.
Hogslayer will be a firm favourite of mine moving forward. Their brand of gritty, well-done Sludge is just what the Metal Doctor ordered.
Defacer is a feast of distortion, feedback and negativity. Eat up.
Braineater are from the US and play Death Metal/Deathgrind.
Braineater’s Deathgrind mixes Death Metal and Grindcore with an emphasis on the Death Metal side of the equation. They take the loose Punk-style of Grind and the brutal nature of Death Metal, merging the two with a Thrash sensibility.
Deep grunts are a matter of course for this kind of thing, but it’s the higher vocals that make a real impression. They have a lot of personality and wouldn’t be out of place on an 80’s surf-inspired Thrash album.
There are only 5 tracks here but it’s a good 19 minutes of music. The fact that it’s biased towards Death and Thrash Metal means that these are not your one minute marathons that some Grind is made up of, (with track 3, One Nation Under Gunpoint, being the exception). Instead we get enjoyable Death Metal with elements of Thrash and Grind at a decent length and with plenty of bloodshed and brain eating to go around.
This is a very encouraging EP. It shows a band who are putting a slightly different spin on a well-worn sound, and one that has a lot of character and personality to boot.
The Dead Goats are a Death Metal band from Poland and this is their latest EP.
This short sub-12 minite EP features two original songs and a Repulsion cover.
As you can probably tell from the band logo, this is Death Metal of the definite Swedish variety.
Sporting a proper chainsaw sound, The Dead Goats proceed to impress with their mastery of this particular sub-genre.
Their take on the style is one that has a nice filthy Punk undertone and vocals that are slightly higher than the norm but still as nasty as Hell.
This is high-energy, high-excitement Swedish Death Metal that relies less on macabre melodies and groove than it does belligerent attitude and steamroller aggression.
Like all Swedish-styled Death Metal though the emphasis is on songs, and songs we get; simple but catchy, professionally performed, yet still reeking of the crypt.
The higher vocals and general elevated-aggression of these songs does mark them as a little different from the standard Swedish Death Metal band and all-in-all this is firmly in their favour.
This is a very impressive little EP. Make sure you get your hands on this and support the underground.
Eschaton are from the US and play Death Metal. This is their début album.
Eschaton play Technical Death Metal with roots that are firmly rooted in the New-School, Modern Death Metal camp.
Insane riffs and time signature changes merge with utterly inhuman drumming for a listening experience that’s as brutal as it is compelling. You’ve gotta love this kind of mayhem.
Things do slow down enough for the band to have some good old-fashioned chug-n-groove-n-squeal sections as well as more modern, rhythmical riffing. Even these are firmly embedded in a wider framework of frenzied musical exploration, however.
Leads and solos abound, all centred around the ridiculously surgical drumming. I feel like the drummer should be given a medal for his services to tub-thumping, or something. But then, when he’s a veteran of bands such as Incinerate, Pillory, Arsis and Vile, to name but a few, it’s no wonder he sounds like a serious player in the drumming world.
The rest of the musicians seem to be highly proficient in their trade too though. There’s the guitars of course, so many that we just seem to get extra guitars on top of guitars! In actuality there were only three members to Eschaton during this recording but the sound they make could easily lead you to believe this was a six-piece band.
We mustn’t forget the vocalist either. He has a throaty, guttural roar that focuses the chaos of the music as it rages around him. His voice is versatile enough to fit in with the extremity of the rest of the band and the consistency he provides acts as a grounding point to the swirling maelstrom of Eschaton’s delivery. He also branches out into high screams territory, and these are performed as equally well as the growls.
This is brutal, extreme music for fans of proper Technical Modern Death Metal. When confronted with music like this, most will falter. Will that be your fate, or will you be one of the elite and embrace Eschaton?
Aezh Morvarc’h are a Black Metal band from France and this is their latest EP.
Wonderbox Metal 