Death Metal – Page 136 – Wonderbox Metal

Hooded Menace – Darkness Drips Forth (Review)

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.

Necrocosm – Damnation Doctrine (Review)

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.

Highly recommended.

Carnivorous Voracity – The Impious Doctrine (Review)

This is the début album from Spanish Brutal Death Metal band Carnivorous Voracity.

Making a strong opening statement of intent with their album cover, Carnivorous Voracity proceed to deliver almost exactly what you might expect over these 36 minutes.

It’s very hard for me to dislike Death Metal like this. It’s savage and nasty, but with enough songwriting savvy to make sure that the music doesn’t become too one-dimensional. This is an important point, as a lot of bands of this ilk are essentially one-trick ponies, no matter how enjoyable.

With The impious Doctrine the band have ensured that there are enough elements of a few different types of ugly brutality included to keep things fresh and interesting. Brutal Death Metal forms the core of the release, but there’s sprinklings of Classic, Modern, Slam and Technical Death Metal thrown into the blender. It all makes for a very satisfying album.

The songs hit the mark, they really do. Although not a band who are primarily about hooks and catchiness, there’s a surprising amount of good hooks on here regardless, and overall this is a very strong album.

The recording is solid and everything sounds slick and professional. The blasting drums and face-smashing riffs are in-your-face, tight and focused.

The vocalist veers between lethal growls and ugly pigsqueals; being very proficient in both he never puts a foot wrong in his delivery.

Yes, this is a very, very nice release. TIME FOR FULL VOLUME CARNAGE!

For fans of Cannibal Corpse, Cryptopsy, Origin, Defeated Sanity, Coprocephalic, Analepsy, etc.

Insanity – Visions of Apocalypse (Review)

Insanity are a Death Metal band from the US. This is their second album.

Featuring a sharp Old-School sound, Insanity’s brand of Death Metal is from a much older era, harking back to the 80s period. Death are a clear influence, (pre-Progressive Death Metal), and Insanity are equally as sharp in their delivery. Add this to a simpler, more straight-forward Death Metal style, à la early-Deicide, and you have honest songs that hit the spot more often than not.

Shining leads and solos make frequent grabs for the limelight and the drummer keeps a machine-like performance going throughout.

There’s decent variation within their musical framework and the songwriting concentrates on songs first and foremost. The combination of simple riffs with more-complicated solos, leads and guitar parts makes for a compelling listen. There’s also a slight Thrash Metal influence which means that Visions of Apocalypse has a lot to offer the listener.

The singer’s voice is somewhere between a scream and a growl, nailing down the feeling of Classic Death Metal in my mind.

This is a really satisfying album that I’ve enjoyed more than I expected to; a convincing display of Classic Death Metal in 2015 from a band who were around and active when it was all originally happening. In hindsight, how could this album be anything other than a victory?

Cryptopsy – The Tome of Suffering – Tome I (Review)

Cryptopsy are a Death Metal band from Canada and this is their latest EP.

The Death Metal veterans return with 17 minutes of brutality, and ohh what brutality it is!

Cryptopsy’s impressively nuanced take on Brutal/Technical Death Metal has inspired legions of copycats and imitators, but there’s nothing like returning to the source to find that they still have what it takes to blow most of their now-peers out of the water.

Their Death Metal blueprint may have helped to lay the foundation for Modern Death Metal, so it’s no surprise to hear elements of this and even a splash of Deathcore on occasion, all liberally sprinkled throughout the hostile chaos.

These songs have a sparkling, deviant energy to them. Whether it be powerful blasting or choppy, grooving riff-monstering, (it’s a thing…), the band devastate with ease.

The sound is crisp, nasty and clear. I’ve always loved how Cryptopsy have used the bass in their songs and on this EP it makes its presence felt in no uncertain terms.

Their singer has an incredibly impressive voice. Their original singer had some pretty massive boots to fill, and their current vocalist is definitely heir to this particular throne. His voice is a raw, guttural, shrieking, screaming, growling delight. Much variety and range, much aggression and burning venom, much greatness.

This EP is an essential listen as far as I’m concerned.

Arkaik – Lucid Dawn (Review)

Arkaik are a Technical Death Metal band from the US. This is their fourth album.

Now this is the stuff. Technical Death Metal that’s complex and forceful yet still manages to retain a sense of song and purpose. Class.

Arkaik merge insane brutality and technicality with a Modern Death Metal sensibility that allows them to reap the benefits of both styles. The combination of complexity and catchiness makes for songs that have both immediate appeal and longevity; the perfect combination in my book.

The vocalist doesn’t drop the ball either. In the face of such impressive musical extremity his deathgrowls are perfectly judged. They are consistent and of the type you would expect for a band like this, but with an emotive and deeply satisfying quality to them that only the best Death Metal vocalists attain.

The songs are wrapped in a production that plays to all of their strengths; balanced and clear, yet without becoming overly sterile. Arkaik sound vibrant and alive, surrounded by serrated riffs, technical workouts, energetic songs and passionate performances.

The potential housed on an album like this is huge. Where else can you find Technical Death Metal that’s accessible, (relatively speaking), interesting, catchy and powerfully wrought? Not many places, that’s for sure.

Top quality stuff.

Crusher/Mercyless – Blast from the Past – Split (Review)

This is a split between two French Death Metal bands, Crusher and Mercyless.

Both veterans of the French scene, Crusher open up proceedings with four songs, 14 minutes of high-energy Death Metal.

The songs are unashamedly Old-School, with a suitable sound to go along with it. Simple and effective, the riffs and drums pound out unfashionable rhythms while the singer shouts himself hoarse.

Featuring Death Metal that’s concerned with basic structuring and covering the needs of the song first and foremost, it seems that the split is appropriately titled as this really is like stepping back in time about 20 years. This is, of course, not a criticism.

These songs are all about the riffs, and some of the band’s grooves are almost Hardcore in nature, recalling Old-School German band Ryker’s in some respects.

It’s hard not to like music this atavistic and Crusher’s songs are both enjoyable and pleasing.

The second half of the split is Mercyless; another four songs, (one of them a live track), 16 minutes of solid Death Metal carnage.

Mercyless’ music also has an Old-School slant, but this is mixed in with more of the timeless Traditional Death Metal style.

These songs are more layered than Crusher’s stripped back approach. Faster and fuller than their fellow countrymen, Mercyless also have an air of the occult about them that seeps into parts of the songs like a malignant evil.

Mercyless have a collection of stonking riffs here, although they’re more wrapped up in mood than Crusher. There’s also lots of solos, which I heartily approve of.

It’s really interesting comparing these two bands, as both are very strong on their own merits and share similarities despite their differences. Which I prefer depends on my mood. Crusher’s 90s simplistic riff-heavy approach is catchy, energetic and nostalgic, whereas Mercyless have a more well-rounded and holistic approach that I prefer at other times.

Ultimately though, this is confident music played by people who know what they’re doing and how to do it well; this is a quality release from two very good Death Metal bands, and I urge you to check it out.

Inexorable – Sea of Dead Consciousness (Review)

This is the latest EP from German Death Metallers Inexorable.

For Death Metal that’s dark, obscure and worrying, look no further. Operating in the netherworld of the deep Death Metal underground, Inexorable are like a gathering storm, ready to rage and destroy in dense, murky fits of violence.

Their last EP Morte Sola was a disconcerting journey into the abyss, and this is much the same only further down into the maelstrom. I described them on that release as Mayhem gone Death Metal, and I’d stick to that on Sea of Dead Consciousness.

Vocally the singer doesn’t really do a very good job of convincing us he’s human and I see no real reason not to believe he’s actually some daemonic entity. I’m pretty sure that every time I play this EP a rift to Hell gets slightly wider somewhere, but that’s the price we pay for good music, eh?

The EP offers us three originals and three covers. Of the covers, we get Mayhem, (fitting), Immolation and Mysticum. The original Inexorable tracks are terrifying and disturbing, and the cover versions are stamped with the crippling malevolence of Inexorable’s dark vision. It may not sound it, but that’s a compliment and all three are reimagined in grimmest glory.

So have they progressed from Morte Sola? Yes. Speaking plainly, Sea of Dead Consciousness is the superior release. The songs are more fully-realised and confidently performed. They were good before, but here they’re even better.

When they eventually release their first full-length album you can be sure I’ll be queuing up to get at it. After all, that rift to Hell isn’t going to open itself is it?

Never to Arise – Gore Whores on the Killing Floor (Review)

This is the second album from US Death Metallers Never to Arise.

Never to Arise play Death Metal that combines elements of Technical and Melodic Death Metal, producing an album that never strays too far in either direction.

The main focus is on utter brutality and evil, although this doesn’t mean blast beats all of the time; there are plenty of decent riffs and leads/solos included to satiate fans of Death Metal songs, and enough hooks and spikes to keep the blood flowing nicely.

This is a strange release in some ways, but I can’t quite put my finger on why. I suspect it has something to do with a combination of the vocals and guitars. Both sound a little off-kilter; a lot of the riffs are subtly atypical and the grunting vocals may be standard in many ways, but these too have an unusual edge to them, like they’re being filtered through something…something slightly out-of-sync with reality as we know it.

Now, whether or not any of this is a bad or a good thing will be down to the individual listener. In my case, it’s mostly a good thing as it marks Never to Arise as different from the Death Metal pack. Add to this songs that are actually pretty well-written and you have 41 minutes of enjoyable barbarity.

Classic Death Metal with a strange, unnatural sheen? Born from the underworld just for your ears? Very nice. Maybe Never to Arise’s band name will be proven false after all.

Vehemence – Forward Without Motion (Review)

Vehemence are a Death Metal band from the US. This is their fourth album.

This is the first release after their wonderfully classic third album Helping the World to See, released a mere 11 years earlier. I always loved that one, so now that this new release has reared its head, I’m a happy bunny.

Vehemence play interesting and inventive Death Metal that has a firm melodic slant and good songwriting. If you’re a fan of this kind of Death Metal then Vehemence are one of the best; they manage to play the Melodic style while still keeping the main emphasis on Death Metal.

Sharp, concise growls are the vocal delivery of choice, and it’s nice to hear the singer’s clipped tones back in rotation once more. As always, the growls are complemented with screams and other forms of aural assault, providing a wide range of vocals to match the variety of the music.

And what music it is! Vehemence are all about the songs, with the musicianship set at a very high level. These tracks are, on average, even longer than the ones on their previous release and it’s clear that the band haven’t been lacking in ideas or creativity over the last decade or so. This is an album with a lot to say, and I’m quite happy to listen.

Lethal speed and sharp, serrated melodies fly out all over the place, making Vehemence a dangerous proposition to those unused to such a rich palette being used in Death Metal.

The tracks don’t get boring. Repeated listens merely cement the songs in your mind and lock down the fact that this is infectious, impressive stuff. Quality riffs, melodies, leads and solos make for a luscious and textured tapestry of sounds designed to entice, peak interest and satisfy those hard-to-reach cravings that you have for melodic music that still has bite and nastiness.

Getting this is a bit of a no-brainer really; make sure that you do.