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Interview with Gridfailure

For someone who’s not massively into noise/drone/experimental/whatever music, Gridfailure has been a bit of an eye-opener for me. It differentiates itself from a lot of its peers simply by being pretty damn good. That’s it, really. The soundscapes on Ensuring the Bloodline Ends Here are made up of just good music; here we have something that builds, turns, changes and emotes, exactly what you want out of an album, no matter what it’s composed of. David Brenner, the evil genius behind the band, was kind enough to give a bit of insight into the birth of Gridfailure…

Introduce us to Gridfailure!

Gridfailure is comprised of only myself, David Brenner; the act is as of now a solo project that happened “by accident”. I’ve been playing live and recording with Theologian since last year, Summer 2015, and within that time have heavily expanded upon the bass/vocal or vocal-only responsibilities I’ve had with any of my prior acts many moons ago. All of a sudden I was unloading a wealth of accumulated ideas, recording for Theologian, in the meantime creating a plethora of toxic runoff that would not be used on our records. One day this past February I was playing with unused recordings from random sessions basically just learning how to use music creation software. Suddenly these songs just kind of “happened” within layering this dark waste, and I started creating new material to merge them together in a very Frankenhooker fashion. Gridfailure was a random name I came up with while writing lyrics for a then non-existent band in the dark during our blackout of Hurricane Sandy, then just sat there in a folder… it just popped out while these tracks were aligning, and the project was brought into existence right then, randomly dicking-around with abandoned source material and old scribble. Continue reading “Interview with Gridfailure”

Invocation – Seance – Part: 1 (Review)

Coming from Chile, this is the début demo release from Invocation, who are a blackened death metal band.

Seance – Part: 1 has a nicely raw sound and underground recording. It suits the music well and lends it a grim power that the band exploit mercilessly. If they inject a bit more thickness and substance to the production in the future, I think they’ll have a strong platform for their music.

Invocation’s style is finely bal Continue reading “Invocation – Seance – Part: 1 (Review)”

Epidemia – Leprocomio (Review)

This is the second album from these Death Metallers, who hail from Ecuador.

With an album cover that screams 80s death metal, possibly with a bit of thrash mixed in, Epidemia actually reveal themselves to be much more of a brutal 90s proposition. Leprocomio is raw, ugly and mercilessly aggressive.

The songs on this 35 minute excursion into the torturelands are savage and give the listener a right old battering. When they’re not ploughing ahead at full speed, they have a rhythmic brutality that recall Continue reading “Epidemia – Leprocomio (Review)”

Grand Magus – Sword Songs (Review)

This is the eighth album from this Swedish heavy metal institution.

How’s that for an album cover, eh? It certainly paints a pretty picture of what the album sounds like.

For twenty years Grand Magus have been blaring out their brand of heavy metal in one form or another, and they Continue reading “Grand Magus – Sword Songs (Review)”

Interview with I Am Noah

The Verdict by I Am Noah; here is a heavy-as-Hell metalcore album that has melodic, almost post-metal flourishes to it, making for a very satisfying listen. It’s definitely one of the best recent releases of this sometimes-maligned sub-genre and is good enough to easily remind anyone of just how effective metalcore can be when played with passion, conviction and substance. I took the time to catch up with the band just as The Verdict is being unleashed on the world…

Explain the concept behind the band name

I Am Noah is our way to address things and share our emotions. “Noah” is a fictional character who questions and condemns the boundaries of our intellect and behaviour which are omnipresent. On our record we intended “Noah” to be thought-provoking. He should speak for us as a band and reflects all our feelings, opinions, positions. Continue reading “Interview with I Am Noah”

Polar – No Cure No Saviour (Review)

This is the third album by Polar, a UK Hardcore band.

Polar offer us 40 minutes of passionate music, tinged with elements of punk and post-hardcore delivery. It’s heavy and abrasive in parts, but not without subtlety or melody in others; it strikes the right balance between both.

As soon as the record starts it’s immediately apparent that Continue reading “Polar – No Cure No Saviour (Review)”

Behexen – The Poisonous Path (Review)

This is the fifth album from this Finnish black metal horde.

There’s something remarkably pure about Behexen that manages to encapsulate everything I like about orthodox black metal, without ever becoming stale or tired.

There’s a lot of music on The Poisonous Path; 58 minutes of utter Continue reading “Behexen – The Poisonous Path (Review)”

Interview with Tothem

Tothem’s latest release Gemini shows a band that are progressing their sound, making best use of all of their assets and stripping away those parts which are unnecessary. The end result is an album that takes the Gothic metal style and imprints its own personality on it. I got the chance to find out a bit more, so read on…

Introduce us to Tothem!

Tothem is a band of five musicians sharing the same passion for music and art in general. We’ve been together for many years and this is definitely a positive thing for the cohesion of the band.

What are your influences? Continue reading “Interview with Tothem”

Dark Funeral – Where Shadows Forever Reign (Review)

This is the sixth album from this Swedish black metal institution.

With a new lineup, (including a new vocalist), this is the first Dark Funeral album in seven years, and it lands with the impact of a swinging broadsword.

Make no mistake; this is Continue reading “Dark Funeral – Where Shadows Forever Reign (Review)”

Blakk Old Blood/Black Devotion – Split (Review)

Blakk Old Blood are from Switzerland and Black Devotion are from the US. Both bands play Black Metal and have teamed up for this split release, each contributing one song.

Blakk Old Blood start Continue reading “Blakk Old Blood/Black Devotion – Split (Review)”