Contrarian are a Progressive Death Metal band from the US. This is their début album.
Just take a look at the album cover – there’s a lot going on and this translates to the music on Polemic too. Contrarian play distinctly atypical Progressive/Technical Death Metal. It’s not your standard fare. which we are eternally grateful for. As a soundtrack to space battles, it works.
Elements of Death, Atheist and Cynic can be heard, as well as more modern influences. All of this is held together by a first-rate vocalist whose growls can only be described as monstrous.
The music twists and turns, taking the listener down all manner of interesting avenues before seemingly changing direction on a whim, returning to where it left off only to find that it’s not the same place after all.
So the band can play, that much is clear; you would expect no less considering the pedigree of some of the members, (Nile being the most notable). Interestingly though, even through all of the technicality and forensic playing they still somehow manage to fashion this chaotic landscape into a collection of songs.
There’s a good helping of otherworldly melodies and distorted atmospherics included in the mix too. These are a welcome addition to the band’s music, helping to create an additional sense of depth and longevity to the tracks. There are frequent calmer sections peppered throughout, as if the band are allowing themselves small moments of respite and self-reflection to replenish themselves for what’s to come.
In the final analysis, it all results in a highly-textured release that is a very enjoyable listen.
This is the début album from Black Metal band Terzij de Horde, who are from the Netherlands.
This is modern Black Metal that combines sophisticated music with high-concept ideas.
Black Metal’s intrinsic rage and fury is combined with elements of Progressive/Post-Black Metal to create an engaging release that is varied, intelligent and full of Blackened mood and feeling.
The riffs are interesting and varied, screaming out of the passionate music like rabid animals. Sharp and emotive, these are combined with more introspective moments to create something that is worth exploring over the near-50 minute playing time.
The singer’s voice is full of snarling anger and ugly malice. It fits the music perfectly and has a maniacal quality to it that wouldn’t be out of place on a savage Grindcore release.
Self is not your average Black Metal release, and if you’re only looking for more of the usual then simply move along to something else. If, however, you’re after Black Metal fit for 2015, full of spite and Black emotions, then this is the release for you.
The second album by Caelestia, Beneath Abyss, is a much more interesting listen than you might expect from a band who ostensibly appear to be a Symphonic/Gothic Metal band, but in reality have a lot more going on than that…
For those who are unfamiliar with your band – introduce yourself!
We are a progressive / symphonic extreme metal band from Athens, Greece. The band was initially formed in April 2012, by founding members Nick Palivos (bass / vocals) and Dimitra Vintsou (lead vocals). The band released its second studio album “Beneath Abyss”, on February 16th, 2015 under Finnish Label “Inverse Records”. The album was recorded and mixed at “Basement Studios” (with sound engineer Michalis Meleteas) in Athens, and mastered at the renowned “Fascination Street Studios” in Sweden, by Tony Lindgren. We have undergone some line-up changes, since the band was initially formed, before we end up in the present 6-member line-up (Nick Palivos – vocals, Dimitra Vintsou – vocals, Vassilis Thomas – guitars, Vangelis Evangelou – guitars, Stelios Varotsakis – bass and Socratis Panagouleas – drums).
Give us a bit of background to Caelestia
The band was initially formed in April 2012, as we mentioned before. The first band line up consisted (besides Nick and Dimitra) of Panos Varvaropoulos (guitars), Haris Kyriakopoulos (guitars) and Aggelos Kousakis (drums). A first studio album titled “Last Wish” was released in the end of 2012, under independent label IKK Productions (the band was still called “Me And Myself” then). The title song “Last Wish” became our first official video, which was directed by Christos Tsoukalas (Basement Studios), and released in September 2013. In the summer of 2013, the band changed its name to ‘Caelestia”. The decision to change the band name came naturally, after the line-up was finalized, and –most important- after the musical direction and genre was changed to symphonic / progressive extreme metal (not to mention the fact that the new name was better sounding).
What are your influences?
Our band’s sound contains influences by many styles of metal, such as death, progressive, gothic, symphonic, black and thrash. One can easily distinguish such passages in our album’s songs, and this is something we cherish a lot, not to mention that it gives us a unique sound. There are many bands that we can name as influences; needless to say that each contributing band member has his/her own influences. If we were asked to name a few, we ‘d say our very own Septic Flesh, Moonspell, Death, Dimmu Borgir, Behemoth, Katatonia, Hypocrisy, Cradle Of Filth, Rotting Christ, Nightwish, Epica, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Morbid Angel…
What are you listening to at the moment that you would like to recommend?
A lot of different things, since every member of our band has his/her different influences and likes. A couple of albums (which came out in 2015) that keep playing in our iPods are: “Shadows Of The Dying Sun” (Insomnium), “Extinct” (Moonspell), “Shadow World” (Wolfheart), “Ylem” (Dark Fortress), “Labyrinth” (Fleshgod Apocalypse) just to name a few….
Give us a bit of background to Beneath Abyss – any particular concepts or ideas you want to discuss?
Our music and lyrics explore a wide variety of subjects, with the main focus being in the eternal war between good and evil, light and darkness, either taking place internally, thus within an individual’s soul and thoughts, either externally, in the outside world, not leaving aside subjects, such as disrupted states of mind, occult etc. We also tried to give a certain theatrical sense in our song lyrics, introducing dialogues (e.g. in the track “Mi Ultima Vida”) between characters, and lyrics written in Spanish and Latin, besides English. That is a key element in our lyrics and music, which we plan to continue and expand in our future work. In our new album, we have strived to achieve a well-balanced combination of the styles, that each of the band members favours, thus melodic death metal, symphonic / gothic metal, visible elements of progressive metal, but also black metal passages. The goal was head on to achieve a unique style of our own, and not try to sound like an impression of any other band, which is quite difficult nowadays.
How do you go about writing your songs?
Our music is greatly based on diversity, large amounts of guitar riffing and phrasing (it is quite indicative that each of our songs contains at least 7-8 different guitar riffs), changing time signatures and varying tempos, that range from 130 to 210 bpm. We tried hard to break the so called “conventional” form of songwriting (intro / verse / chorus / verse / chorus / solo / chorus / outro etc), and introduce various and altering parts and bridges in our songs, so that the listener is constantly left curious of what’s going to come next. That is quite a big turn compared to our previous album, which could easily be characterized as alternative / gothic metal, with more “conventionally” written songs, and not so many complicated passages, bridges and altering time signatures.
How did the recording process go?
Surely the process of making “Last Wish”, and the experience that came thereof, helped us in the recording of “Beneath Abyss”. However, there was a significant difference in the recording process of “Beneath Abyss”; what most bands usually do, is book a certain amount of bulk time at a studio, and then go record their album as a whole. What we did, is to break that “norm”, by recording each track, after we had already finalized its song-writing process. This meant that the tracks for “Beneath Abyss” were recorded with approx. 7-days intervals between each one of them. During these intervals, we finalized, re-considered and edited parts in each track, so that the final outcome was what exactly the band wanted (from a musical and structural point of view). In this way, the process of the recording may have taken a little longer than usual, but it gave us the ability to control every aspect, and do changes and corrections at the same time, ensuring that the outcome was “complete” to our ears.
What’s your favourite song on the album and why?
Oh, that’s a difficult and tricky question… All of the band members have their personal favourite among the tracks in the album, and that’s because not one of the included tracks can be characterized as mere “filler”. If we were to choose, we’d say track 1 (Malleus Maleficarum – The Secret Cult) and track 5 (Beneath Abyss). That is, because the aforementioned songs contain all the elements of the band’s new musical direction and sound: fast and altering tempos, aggressive and dark guitar riffing, progressive passages, melodic bridges and haunting orchestral background.
What does the future hold for Caelestia?
We just finished a great support show in Athens (Gagarin Club 205) on November 14th, opening (as a sole support act) for Swedish melodic death metallers Arch Enemy, which was nearly sold-out, and which constituted a very powerful and intense experience on its own. We recently engaged in cooperation with world renowned promoting agency “Clawhammer PR”, who launched a second round of global promotion for “Beneath Abyss” (we got big expectations on that one!). There are two more Athens shows and a mini-Greek tour coming up in the beginning of 2016, whereas we are scheduling appearances at various European festivals in 2016. At the same time, we continue working on the pre-production of new material (we already have 4 songs ready for our next album). Last but not least, we are scheduling to make our second official video in January 2016, for the track “The Rise Of The Hidden Nature”, with renowned German director Matthias Kollek (Kreator, Lacrimosa etc).
This is the latest EP from Polish Blackened Death Metallers Nomad.
Here we have 4 songs, 16 minutes of music; a glimpse into the world of Nomad. This world is brutal and ugly, but surprisingly nuanced and with an interestingly Blackened Sheen. The songs seems to barge out of the darkness to commit heinous, blasphemous acts before disappearing back into the night once more.
This is solid Death Metal, corrupted by Black Metal influences to tinge the riffs a shade darker than they would normally be and infusing the songs with dark atmospheres and an occult presence. They kind of remind me of a band like Blood Red Throne if they were more of a Blackened Death Metal proposition and were mixed with a band like Zyklon.
Nomad’s songs seem to be less about the individual riffs or parts and more about holistic atmosphere and feeling. This is an approach more commonly used by Black Metal bands than Death Metal ones, and thus befits their hybrid status. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t some choice riffs on display here though; there are, and the overall impression that Tetramorph makes is extremely positive.
Dark growls that are more emotive than the norm for this style are combined with sickly screams and all kinds of other incantations to produce a focal point for these Blackened hymns.
Having never heard Nomad before, this is not what I was actually expecting. It’s always nice to be surprised and hear Blackened Death Metal done well, especially when the two styles are blurred so well like they are here.
This is the fourth album from Finnish Doom-laden Death Metallers Hooded Menace.
Hooded Menace are well-known for playing Death Metal that’s heavy on the Doom influence, and just heavy in general. On this latest release this is taken to its logical conclusion, and the four songs on Darkness Drips Forth really blur the line between Death and Doom Metal, so much so that this is equally for fans of Incantation as it is for Esoteric.
The shortest song here is just under 10 minutes in length, with all tracks being stretched out to their maximum capacity for crawling, sinister, evil Metal.
Dark melodies creep into the thick, crushing music so that the band really foster the ancient Death/Doom influences that sit at the core of music like this. It’s not as overpowering or centralised as some who play similar styles though, allowing the heaviness and pure dirt of a band like this to remain at the fore. Old-school Anathema/Paradise Lost/My Dying Bride fans will be proud.
The singer’s cavernous growls are slow and drawn out, keeping pace with the unhurried music and reminding everyone that ultimately this isn’t pretty music; this wants to drag you down into the murk and consume your soul.
When they’re not playing at a snail’s pace the band have a rhythmic quality to them that’s almost Rocking, albeit one that’s coated in filth and grim intent.
These songs are veritable slabs of monolithic Metal, seemingly passed down through the ages in sealed tomes of forbidden lore, only to be discovered and unleashed by Hooded Menace. Each one is an impressive foray into Doom/Death, only much more malignant and nasty than a lot of the style normally is.
Highly recommended for both Doom and Death Metal fans alike.
This is the début release from UK Black Metallers Lunar Mantra.
This is scathing, occult Black Metal with a bit of Dark Ambient thrown in for good measure.
The guitars have that Old-School fragile-yet-sharp-and-dangerous tone to them, like an icicle sharpened to a killing point. The riffs follow suit, and Lunar Mantra show their worth with dark melodies and esoteric auras in abundance.
Theirs is a raw, underground sound. Even so, you can still hear everything nicely, including the bass, (which is a treat).
The guitar melodies seem to twist, slide and writhe over each other like they’re living things, possessed by some form of malignant serpentine sentience.
Guttural vocals that sound like they have been retching up far too many daemons are used sparingly and the singer seems to merge with the music at a visceral level, urging the listener to ever greater heights of dark worship. But worship of what?
A very enjoyable release that bodes well for the future of this band, join them in their mysterious adulations and become part of their Genesis.
Necrocosm are a Death Metal band from the US. This is their début album.
Necrocosm play Melodic Death Metal with plenty of riffs, licks and shredding leads. The music is fast, furious and has bite. Think a more modern spin on the style, à la The Black Dahlia Murder, mixed with a bit of Aborted and even some Dying Fetus.
The band have a strong sound and the guitars sound nicely meaty for a band of this style. Everything sounds slick, professional and honed to a killing edge.
The vocals follow the style of a band like Aborted; deep growls backed up with more of a shouted bark and the odd scream.
These songs have been written with high-energy in mind and manage to keep the aggression and intensity up for these 45 minutes. I like fast music with a sharp melodic edge and Necrocosm have certainly produced an album that does what it sets out to do very nicely indeed.
Who said Melodic Death Metal had to be weak and wishy-washy? Anyone? No, that’s right.
Haiduk is a one-man Black Metal project from Canada. This is his second album.
This is an album full of distorted blasting and hate-fuelled invective. It’s Black Metal with a pinch of Death Metal added for good measure. Although you could call this Blackened Death Metal, Black Metal is very much the main star of the show.
The Death Metal influence raises its ugly head in the added brutality and forcefulness of some of the riffs, as well as, more blatantly, the growled vocals.
The music is fast, well-constructed and hits the spot like a knife hitting its target. The riffs are full of Blackened melodies and harsher rhythms. Energetic and not afraid to add streaks of colour to its grimness, the music pummels and lacerates the listener at the same time.
The songs still manage to create atmosphere on occasion, so it’s not all a one-dimensional assault. This is the exception rather than the rule though, and to be honest, it’s good enough and well-played enough not to matter, regardless.
One-man Black Metal bands frequently take the less aggressive route, but Haiduk has proven that there’s no real reason for this to be the case. Demonicon is ugly, nasty and has enough quality riffs and dark melodies to be a dangerous proposition.
Like being hunted down in the dark and lashed at with razor-whips; this album somehow makes this prospect appealing.
Nyx are a Black Metal band from Germany and this is their début album.
Featuring only two members, Nyx make an impressive début that would do justice to a full band.
The music on this 45 minute album is quite varied and features elements of different sub-genres as well as the core of Black Metal that they play so well.
A few Classic Metal licks appear here and there, as well as a decent Post-Metal influence, especially in some of the guitar melodies. There’s enough of this ethereal, transcendental influence to label this Post-Black Metal, although the icy, frozen core of the pure style is still here, corrupting it so that it’s projected out through the prism of urban decay.
The singer’s screamed vocals are ridiculously strong; her voice is blood-curdling and powerful in the best tradition of Black Metal shrieking. Cleaner vocalisations are also used and these add emotional content and a rather ritualistic, sinister aura on occasion. These too are powerful and have real presence. Occasionally they even add in a bit of a more traditional clean singing style, and these parts sound just as good as everything else.
The songs are barbed, twisted and full of unexpected subtlety and shading. There’s a lot of ideas on display throughout these 9 tracks and the band have produced an album that has both immediate impact and lasting depth. The production is sharp and serrated, allowing the music to showcase its dangerous edge.
This is not a run-of-the-mill release, this is sophisticated Black Metal Art.
This is the third album from German Power Metal band Infinight.
Having listened to it over and over and over again, it’s safe to say that I love Infinight’s previous EP The Vision. Such a good release and only a teaser really at 13 minutes in length. So when this latest album made its way to me, at a whopping 61 minutes long, I was a very happy bunny indeed.
Once again we get sophisticated, maturely-written and well-played Power Metal that just has something extra that a lot of bands of this style are missing. It’s a combination of a lot of factors; the guitars, the vocal melodies, the structure of the songs…Infinight have something intangibly special about them that just draws me in and keeps me captivated whenever they’re playing.
I think that it ultimatley probaby boils down to the fact that although all of the normal Power Metal ingredients are used, they’re just used so well and in such expert ways that the end result is the tastiest of treats. The songs are intelligently-arranged and the band seem to excel at doing things in such a way that their sound is instantly recognisable as Power Metal, but with enough individuality and style to stick out.
Songs, songs, songs. It’s all about the songs for Power Metal and there’s no lack of these on this release. Catchiness and hooks abound, powered by a band that understand dynamics, pacing and song-structure.
I can’t help but fawn and gush over this, really. I love Power Metal when it’s done this well and is infused with such quality. It’s not over-the-top and ostentatious, but nor is it timid or lacking in confidence. Apex Predator strikes the perfect balance between the flashy European style and the more modern American one. Add to that a singer who really knows what he’s doing and this is a top rate album.
My advice? Listen to this, and then listen to it again. And again. And again. And again…
Contrarian are a Progressive Death Metal band from the US. This is their début album.
Wonderbox Metal 