March 2016 – Page 6 – Wonderbox Metal

Ashen Horde – Nine Plagues (Review)

Ashen Horde is a one man Black Metal band from the US. This is his second album.

The production on this release is quite satisfying; the guitars have a really nice darkened tone to them and the drums are solid and firm.

The songs themselves have a Black Metal base with added Thrash and Death Metal elements fused in. Thrashy Blackened Death Metal, although a bit of a mouthful, would do justice as a description I feel. Unlike a lot of Blackened Death Metal though, the emphasis is more on the Black Metal side, although this is up for debate of course.

The Death Metal aspect of the band lends the songs a forceful muscularity that a purely Black Metal band would probably lack, and in some ways the album sounds like a Death Metal band covering Black Metal songs, musically at least. The brain behind the band can clearly play though, and there’s some quite technical messing about, (itself a technical term…), here and there.

Vocally we get curious snarls that seem half-spoken and half-spewed. I can’t help but wonder how much better they would be if they had more of a traditionally screamed delivery though, but this is a minor quibble; they do the job.

Featuring decent blasting, enough complexity to satisfy and songs that grow over time, this is one to settle into and take your time with.

Strangulate – Catacombs of Decay (Review)

Strangulate are an Indian Death Metal band, this is their début album.

Strangulate’s Death Metal is raw and brutal, going straight for the throat with their direct assault.

The gruesome riffs and bloody vocals sound like they were recorded about 20 years ago and then sealed in a crypt and forgotten about. Until now. It seems that some hapless victim has stumbled upon these ancient recordings and unleashed them on the world.

The band’s ugly approach to Death Metal is not polished, not state-of-the-art, not technical and not precise, and once they have you in their grip you wouldn’t want it any other way. This is 33 minutes of murderous, nasty music that knows a thing or two about how best to go about causing as much damage as possible.

Music like this is very honest and the passion of the band comes through in the delivery. The songs may be raw and unyielding, but they play the classic style well and the songwriting is on point. There’s a pleasing mix of blast beats and the mid-paced, with plenty of tasty riffs along the way that are catchier than you might think, too.

I hear elements of bands like Cannibal Corpse, (old) Hypocrisy, Gorerotted, Incantation, Severe Torture, Suffocation and a host of others in their sound. They pick and choose their influences with care and Catacombs of Decay is enriched by the band’s knowledge of their Death Metal heritage.

I mustn’t neglect to mention the singer, either. His clipped barking growls are performed flawlessly, perfectly capturing the essence of the style.

Mixing the old-school and classic styles of Death Metal to provide us with a great combination of blasting brutality and well-thought out riffs, Strangulate’s début is a winner and definitely rough and fierce enough to scrape your skin off.

Highly recommended.

Slabdragger – Rise of the Dawncrusher (Review)

This is the second album from this UK Doom/Sludge band.

This is an album full of sprawling epics, lasting 61 minutes in length, largely spread across 4 songs. There are five tracks in total though, with the fifth, (actually track 2 – Evacuate!), being the odd one out as, at under 5 minutes, it’s nasty, frenzied and comparatively short.

Slabdragger are heavy. They have the kind of thick, syrupy rhythm guitar that feels like it could swamp entire cities with its distortion. This immediately makes these tracks a very satisfying proposition, regardless of any other considerations.

Huge Stoner riffs power things, while the pounding drums set the backdrop. These tracks provide an ample exemplar of fuzzed-up filth and Slabdragger use all of the various tools at their disposal to spread their dirt far and wide.

During the playing time the band cover a lot of bases and visit several different grime-covered planets in the Sludge spaceways that they navigate. Yeah, yeah; as Sci-Fi metaphors go, it’s not the best, but it’s a nod to the theme of the album so just run with it… Suffice to say that this is an album that doesn’t get boring and even though it’s long there is a lot of content here to enjoy. Whether you prefer upbeat rage, downbeat misery, reflective calm, monolithic Doom or mid-paced crushers – Slabdragger have it covered.

Drawn-out cleans, insectile screams and dark shouted growls provide more than enough vocal variety and are all buried in the tide of crushing guitar riffs that the band peel off with ease.

Shot through with groovy melodies and ugly intent, these tracks are full of treasures and delights for those brave enough to pick through the musical ruins that the band inhabit; ruins that were probably once a thriving world, crushed and destroyed by the band’s incredible heaviness, I would imagine.

Most of my favourite parts on this release are provided by the guitars, this could be a chunky, grooved-up riff or when the band settle into a hypnotic repetition that you think you can just lose yourself in.

The Doom/Stoner/Sludge concoctions that they have come up with on Rise of the Dawncrusher are so very, very satiating that at the end of this veritable feast of filth you feel full and satisfied. Slabdragger have delivered the goods, make no mistake.

This is an extremely ambitious and impressive album, one that you need to have in your collection.

A must listen.

Camel of Doom – Terrestrial (Review)

This is the fourth album from UK Doom Metal band Camel of Doom.

This unusually named band play experimental Doom Metal that contains elements of Progressive Rock, psychedelia and a bit of Sludge Metal alongside the usual genre trappings. Continue reading “Camel of Doom – Terrestrial (Review)”

Interview with Oranssi Pazuzu

Having just released their latest dark creation Värähtelijä, enigmatic Progressive/Post-Black Metal band Oranssi Pazuzu’s bassist Ontto takes the time out from exploring the underworld to answer a few queries about this textured and atmospheric mysterious entity…

For those who are unfamiliar with your band – introduce yourself!

We are Oranssi Pazuzu from Finland. Five guys who have been exploring the outer regions of mind’s cosmos since 2007.

Give us a bit of background to Oranssi Pazuzu

We dive into unknown sonic landscapes. Our method for this is collective improvisation and fusion of different musical elements from psychedelic rock to second wave black metal. Our songs are noisy and sung in Finnish. We’ve recorded four albums, of which the newest, ‘Värähtelijä’, just came out.

What are your influences?

Circle, Darkthrone, Swans, Can, Scott Walker, Sleep, to name a few current favourites. We are into many different kinds of music.

What are you listening to at the moment that you would like to recommend?

Right now I get the biggest kicks out of Fleetwood Mac’s mid-seventies soft rock era. Currently my favourite FM albums are the ‘75 Fleetwood Mac and Future Games. Great songs and that rhythm section is just incredibly groovy!

How do you feel that you fir into the wider Metal scene?

Sometimes it feels a bit restricting to define ourselves as a metal band. I think we fit in any place where people respect our musical ideas and get strong feelings out of it, regardless of what colour t-shirts they are wearing. Having said that, we’ve also had great time playing at some amazing metal festivals, like Heavy Days Doomtown or Roadburn Festival, so I wouldn’t say we are outside the scene either.

Give us a bit of background to Värähtelijä – any particular concepts or ideas you want to discuss?

Värähtelijä is like a long trip that flips your mind inside out. Each song is like a vision on that trip, and together they form a unified experience that is greater than it’s individual fragments. There are concepts like sacrificing the ego, power of the society, and finally the extinction of the mind.

Tell us about the album artwork

On the front cover there is a photo by Andrea Petrovicova. It is an ominous dark tunnel, that has organic growth inside it. The tunnel leads to catharsis. When you open the vinyl gatefold, you will discover what’s at the other end of the tunnel, and inside you.

How do you go about writing your songs?

We get together and start jamming and playing with different ideas. We go for a strong atmosphere, not technical precision. We recorded many ideas while making this album, and many of those slowly evolved into songs as we played with them. Some songs were written more traditionally as riffs, but they too had a lot of collective band input in the end.

How did the recording process go?

It was exhausting and fun two weeks. We started with Julius Mauranen with the live takes and then added more instrumental parts and vocals with Tom Brooke. After that we recorded some additional guests by ourselves and the stuff was ready for mixing.

What’s your favourite song on the album and why?

I think the album is stronger than individual songs. But if I have to choose one, I’ll go for Vasemman käden hierarkia. It’s got the most ambitious arc we’ve done and many different levels to it, and I think it holds together nicely the whole 17 minutes.

What does the future hold for Oranssi Pazuzu?

We’re touring Europe this month and then we’re going to do some festivals, like Desert Fest in London and Roadburn in Tilburg. After those the future is unclear.

Demonstealer – This Burden Is Mine (Review)

This is the second album from Indian Extreme Metal band Demonstealer.

This is a very ambitious album. Across 9 tracks the band deliver 57 minutes of music that straddles Death, Black, Thrash, Progressive and Atmospheric Metal to deliver an epic journey.

Recognisably Death Metal at their core, Demonstealer skilfully incorporate the above-mentioned aspects into their sound so that we have something that the likes of Nile, Behemoth, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Septic Flesh, Opeth and other such envelope-pushing bands should be proud of.

This Burden Is Mine hops between genres with ease. One moment it might be all blasting and mayhem, while the next it may be soft, reflective and shamelessly progressive. And then you have the atmospheric, symphonic elements, where the keyboards get to shine and the emotive side of the band is ramped up to full capacity. The band also have a melodic flair that adds a lot to the tracks, with plenty of tasty leads and solos thrown into the mix.

Pure Death Metal growls are accentuated with a more varied delivery of screams, shouts, clean and semi-clean vocals, professionally done and perfectly judged. You’d easily think this album had more than one singer, rather than just one very talented vocalist.

Although this album is extremely diverse and varied, it carries a holistic cohesiveness with it that speaks of the quality songwriting and talent that the band are capable of. This Burden Is Mine is extremely impressive and a rich, evocative listen.

Well well. Albums like this don’t come along that often. This should be embraced and celebrated by all Metal fans as the tour de force that it is.

Essential.

Gadget – The Great Destroyer (Review)

Gadget are a Swedish Grindcore band and this is their third album.

Gadget play furious, vicious Grindcore that’s fast, angry and lives up to the high standards of the best of Swedish Grind.

The songs on The Great Destroyer have a modern sound that’s relentless and gripping. However, just boiling underneath the surface is enough remnants of old-school Hardcore swagger and energy to imbue the tracks with a real confidence and presence.

The singer’s vitriolic screams are a pleasure to hear; snarling, deranged diatribes are delivered with a passion bordering on insanity and the songs on this album benefit from the singer’s presence greatly.

These sharp, cutting tracks are like unstoppable slices of ultra-brutality, seamlessly performed with real fiery relish and a taste for all things bladed and dangerous. Occasionally the band slow things down to a groovier grind, but these parts are short-lived and soon degenerate into blast beats and high-speed guitars once more.

Snippets of tense melody appear here and there, just enough to enhance the songs without detracting from the main frenzied focus of the music.

I love it when bands play this kind of Grind – with a heavy, modern sound, a bleeding-edge disposition and more blast beats than you can shake a stick at, Gadget have the talent and skill to hold attention across these 27 minutes, and before you know it you’re left breathless and bewildered, wondering what just happened.

Highly recommended for all fans of quality Grindcore.

Convulsif – IV (Review)

Convulsive are an experimental band from Switzerland. This is their fourth album.

After the blackened mindfuck, (in a good way), that was CD3, Convulsif return with something a bit different that’s actually superior. It’s mostly instrumental, dark and surprisingly addictive.

Featuring bass, clarinet, violin and drums, this is an experimental foray into noise and unusual Rock. These instruments come together in a variety of ways to produce music that is always trying to push the envelope and always manages to be emotive, in one fashion or another.

Largely gone is the experimental Black Metal of their previous release, although stylistically and atmospherically we’re not a million miles away from it with some of he crawling Doom/Drone here; IV can still be dark and foreboding when it wants to, as well as displaying any number of other moods.

Instead, this release has an even more diverse approach than its predecessor. Doom, Post-Rock, Black Metal and Grind are all merely ingredients to be liberally sprinkled around during these 37 minutes, and Convulsif leave few stones left unturned in their quest for sonic excess.

Disturbing noises and unsettling vibes are frequently the order of business for IV, mixed in with Grindcore-level extremity and exploratory bludgeoning. Add in some Jazz and some sexy bass workouts and you end up with a compelling collection of twisted soundscapes that really succeed where such an eclectic, esoteric assortment of tracks could so easily fail.

If you’re in mind for something a bit different that has a lot to offer, check out IV; you won’t regret it.

Persona – Elusive Reflections (Review)

Persona are a Tunisian Metal band and this is their début album.

Featuring 46 minutes of modern Metal, Elusive Reflections comes replete with symphonic and Power Metal accoutrements

My common complaint, echoed in other reviews, with this kind of thing is that sometimes the emphasis can be too much on the singer and not enough on the music, specifically the Metal content; thankfully this is not the case here, (otherwise this would never have made it to the review stage), and the band remember the importance of a good riff and being able to hear the guitars.

With that in mind, the singer is still the star of the show a lot of the time, as is usually the case with Power/Heavy Metal bands. Her voice is easily capable of being both powerful and understated, and she successfully acts as a focal point to the music without distracting from or overpowering it.

Appropriately, the music stands on its own merits and we even get extended sections that are bereft of vocals and also feature guitar solos, both of which are frequently absent in female-fronted Metal.

The symphonic and electronic elements are omnipresent, but are employed in much more of a restrained manner than that of some similar bands. You’d miss them if they were gone, but they’re not the main event.

These are catchy and memorable songs, with more depth and ability than you might give them credit for on first glance. Although it’s definitely of the style it purports to be, within these stylistic limitations there’s more variety here than you sometimes get with this kind of music and each song has its own story.

With a good working knowledge of what constitutes a decent song, the band plough through these 46 minutes with enthusiasm and class.

Recommended.

Inverloch – Distance | Collapsed (Review)

This is the début album from Australian Doom/Death band Inverloch.

Featuring members of the legendary Disembowelment, this is a highly anticipated release in some quarters that lives up to the lofty expectations laid upon it, for the most part.

Here we have a flawless blend of Doom and Death Metal, so much so that you could almost classify the band as one or the other, really, if the Doom aspect wasn’t quite so all-pervading.

Inverloch are heavy, nasty and clearly know what they’re doing. Also, did I mention they’re heavy? The songs chug, blast and DOOOOOM their way through the 39 minutes of ugly misery contained on this release, and it’s barely contained at that.

It’s easy to like these songs, as whether the band are playing at a snail’s pace or blasting out with furious mayhem, it’s all done extremely well.

More than just a collection of devastating riffs and deep growls, (although there’s more than enough of both), Distance | Collapsed has an emotional resonance and depth that is surprising in its effectiveness, considering how harrowing and mind-numbingly dark these songs actually are.

The riffs are ominous, unsettling and frequently more than a little bit scary. To say Inverloch are an imposing proposition is putting it mildly. There’s just something about the darkened auras that they create… In some ways these tracks are like scraping at a raw wound; you know you shouldn’t, but it just feels so damn good. Or something. Oh I dunno, just listen to Inverloch, it’s worth it in every way.