Harrower are from the US and play black metal.
Harrower play a raw form of black metal that occasionally branches out into post-metal waters.
Remembrance sounds cold and sharp, and has a lot more of a raw, underground feeling than a lot of black metal bands that also dabble in post-black metal. I think it works really well, and the sound they Continue reading “Harrower – Remembrance (Review)”
Poison Headache’s self-titled debut album floored me when I first heard it with its extremely impressive combination of hardcore and metal, channelling the early, nastier sides of both styles. Phil Sgrosso talked me through a few points about the band and their crushing new record…
We’ve all been friends since playing shows together in high school. A few years later we reconnected after Andy’s band Internal Affairs broke up and he had new material he had been working on. It started out just as fun and we will always keep it that way but we’re definitely pursuing it more these days. Continue reading “Interview with Poison Headache”
This is the second album from this US atmospheric post-black metal band.
Children of the Iron Age introduced us to Wayfarer’s quality, interesting black metal and was a pretty damn stunning début album in many ways.
Old Souls is not as long as their first album, (18 minutes shorter), but we still get some epic, sprawling tracks.
Wayfarer have a Continue reading “Wayfarer – Old Souls (Review)”
Morthus are an old-school blackened death metal band from Poland. This is their début album.
Now this is quite exciting. I’ve been looking forward to hearing something more from this band ever since their début EP The Abyss arrived in 2014 and floored me with its combination of death, black and classic metal. Continue reading “Morthus – Over the Dying Stars (Review)”
This Serbian death metal band have recently unleashed their debut album Ternion Demonarchy on the world, and what an album it is. full of blasting aggression and deep, daemonic growls, the band waste no time in showing that they have what it takes to compete in the international underground death metal arena. I managed to catch up with guitarist Milan Dobrosavljev to find out a bit more about what makes Sacramental Blood tick…
In mid 2001 I decided to disband my first band Androphagous, since we had constant line up problems and couldn’t find a drummer for the last 3 years. A few months later our drummer Ivan heard we were looking for a drummer and contacted me for audition. I wasn’t sure about it and I told him the band was done but he kept insisting and I finally agreed to give it one last shot and few weeks later the two of us met in the studio. It seemed he could do the job so I gave him few weeks to get back in shape and in January 2002 we officially started a new band, Sacramental Blood. I didn’t want to have any connection with previous name, that just seemed wasn’t meant to be and we decided to start new band, under a new name, with completely new line up, keeping only a few songs from Androphagous era.
We are all mostly into extreme metal. I come up with most of music and my biggest influences are early Suffocation, Monstrosity, Sinister, Disincarnate, Luciferion, Seance, Nocturnus, Sadus etc. I’m also into some thrash acts like old Forbidden, Dark Angel, Megadeth (only Rust in Peace), Nevermore…Other guys listen more or less similar stuff and they could also add Possessed, Vader, Vital Remains, Nile, Dying Fetus, Tony MacAlpine to the list.
Recently I’ve been listening a lot to old stuff, like Deicide – Legion, Dementor – Enslave the Weak, Ophiolatry – Anti-evangelistic Process, W.A.S.P. – Headless Children, Pestilence – Testimony of the Ancients etc. and my recommendation definitely goes for mentioned Ophiolatry and Dementor albums (I believe Deicide or Pestilence don’t need any recommendation). Right now while I’m doing this interview I’m listening to new album of Rotting Christ – Rituals, that is very good continuation of their previous album “Kata ton daimona eaytoy”.
We recorded basic tracks during 2009 in Wild Cat studio (Kragujevac/Serbia), the same studio we used for the recording of our first demo “Inception of Ceremony”. At the end of the same year we had run into line up problems and postponed work on album until 2012 when the new vocalist/guitarist Srdjan Todorovic re-recorded vocals and half of guitar solos in Archsound Studio (Belgrade). During second half of 2013 Stefano Morabito (known for his work with Fleshgod Apocalypse and Hour of Penance) took over the project and reamped, mixed and mastered it in 16th Cellar Studio (Rome). CD was released worldwide on 6th of May, 2016, through Japanese label Ghastly Music (sublabel of Amputated Vein Rec.). Miner Records (Swiss) will release it on vinyl worldwide as well as on CD for ex Yugoslavia territory. 2 weeks ago Rebirth the Metal from Germany also released a cassette version of the album.
I can’t pick just one song. There’s no filler songs and not even 1 filler riff on “Ternion Demonarchy” so every song is kind of special for some reason. I like some songs more playing live and some others I like more when they are played on CD player. However a few weeks ago we made a special version of track “Sanctimonious”, for release of “Destroyer of Thought and Form” single CD through Miner Records. It’s enriched with lot of keyboards and it sound very fresh and new to me so at the moment that version of song stands out amongst others.
I come up with riffs first. If the other guys have some ideas they play them to me and I turn them at home into a song. When the song sounds completed I show it to our drummer, riff by riff, and when he learns it then the whole band starts rehearsing it. I also write the lyrics and work on vocal arrangements after the music is finished and talk to the vocalist about what kind of vocals would fit each verse.
It’s very important. Many times I picked up some albums just because of nice artwork that immediately caught my attention. Artwork is integral part of a release and it should reflect the lyrics and music and complete them visually, so we made sure we picked up the right guy for the “Ternion Demonarchy” cover. We hired amazing Spanish artist Juanjo Castellano Rosado, who did killer artwork that fits perfectly our music and concept of lyrics. It’s catching absolutely everyone’s attention and many say it’s one of the best metal artworks in this year. It put the album on a whole new level and I just can’t praise his work enough.
Our drummer is temporary disabled to play with us so we are rehearsing right now with new session drummer. Hopefully we will be able to start playing shows from September this year. We want to promote CD as much as possible and we believe it will open many new doors for us. Hopefully next year we can book a few summer festivals and arrange some EU tours.
Single CD “Destroyer of Thought and Form” should be out by the end of the month. Vinyl is also late so it’s something we are waiting for impatiently. In other news, we’ve just joined the Lab 6 Music rooster. It’s a Brazilian label and distributor of music instruments and they will spread around 1.000 promo copies of “Ternion Demonarchy” in the territory of Brazil and Paraguay. That should help us build strong fan base there and rise the interest in band. Who knows, maybe we can soon tour South American soil. Stay tuned!
This is Fractured Insanity’s third album. They are a death metal band from Belgium.
Fractured Insanity play brutal death metal that’s intense and well-written. Although this is predominantly on the brutal end of the spectrum, there’s also elements of technicality at play here, which just adds further depth to the music.
Think a combination of Nile, Behemoth, Severe Torture, Malevolent Continue reading “Fractured Insanity – Man Made Hell (Review)”
Vanhelgd are a Swedish death metal band and this is their fourth album.
The band’s third album Relics of Sulphur Salvation was solid, authentic Swedish death metal with chainsaw guitars and a sharp sense of melody.
On this new album the band continue to play the style that made their previous release so enjoyable, only I’d say that Continue reading “Vanhelgd – Temple of Phobos (Review)”
This is the third album from Cough, a doom metal band from the US.
Cough. It’s a funny name for a band. Still, I’ve heard worse, a lot worse.
If you’re a fan of bands like Yob, Electric Wizard, Sleep, Candlemass and the like, then you’ll probably already know that Cough create the kind of repetitive, hypnotic doomscapes that you’re gonna love. Continue reading “Cough – Still They Pray (Review)”
Whitechapel are from the US and play deathcore/metal. This is their sixth album.
2014’s Our Endless War saw Whitechapel effectively combining their death metal/deathcore roots with their more further-developed modern metal approach from their previous release into an album that made the most out of both of these influences.
Mark of the Blade continues where Our Endless War left off, providing a large chunk of heavy, aggressive music with modern, groove and djent parts welded onto their thoroughly metal core. However, the band have also progressed and expanded Continue reading “Whitechapel – Mark of the Blade (Review)”
Stheno are a blackened grindcore band from Greece. This is their début album.
I like Stheno. Their split with Grassroll introduced me to their blackened grinding ultra-violence, and I’ve been hooked ever since.
So, joy of joys, we now have a full 20 minutes of their nasty savagery to enjoy, and enjoy it we do. Continue reading “Stheno – Liberty Crawls in Waste (Review)”
Wonderbox Metal 