Metal – Page 78 – Wonderbox Metal

Crisix – From Blue to Black (Review)

Crisix are a Spanish Thrash Metal band and this is their third album.

This is an endearing mixture of old-school Thrash and modern know-how. It’s fun without being stupid and authentic without being retro nonsense. I approve!

The album boasts a strong production that’s crisp and clear, lending the songs a sharp edge and professional veneer.

The singer grunts, groans, shrieks and screams his throat hoarse throughout these 39 minutes. Alongside a plethora of backing and gang vocals, he provides an energetic performance and one can’t help but wonder if he survived the recording process with his sanity intact.

As would be expected from the style, solos and leads are tossed around like they’re going out of fashion, alongside so many punchy riffs you could knock someone out with them. With some minor movie and Hardcore influences too, there’s a lot of catchy material here.

There’s a lot of enjoyment to be had on From Blue to Black, especially if you like early Anthrax and Pantera and always wondered what it might sound like if they collaborated on a Thrash Metal sideband. It probably wouldn’t sound too far off how this does.

Very enjoyable. Check this out.

Gottweist – Future Is in Our Hands (Review)

This is the début album from Canadian Metal band Gottweist.

Gottweist’s music is somewhere between the classic Iron Maiden-influenced Metal style and a more modern one, as played by bands like Killswitch Engage, Bullet for My Valentine, As I Lay Dying, Atreyu and the like. The balance is weighted towards the latter, but the former has enough of a presence to give Future Is in Our Hands more impact than is normal for a band like this.

The album features a bright sparkly sound that might not be quite as polished as those aforementioned groups, but still works in concert with the songs themselves to present a band who clearly have a passion and energy for what they do.

The singer’s voice is melodic and smooth, backed by the odd shout or harsher vocal. The Heavy Metal influence counteracts the more modern Metalcore one in various ways, one of the more notable being the fact that the harsh vocals are very much in the minority here, whereas normally it’s the other way around, with cleans usually being restricted to radio-friendly choruses. Gottweist go the other, less-usual route; the majority of the vocals on this release are sung, and when harsher ones do appear they typically back up the cleans on the choruses.

Leads and solos are used well, adding much to the hearty songs and catchy melodies. Indeed, there’s so much enthusiasm here that it’s hard to feel jaded and dislike what the band are doing, (unless you’re just not into this kind of thing, of course).

All of the above results in an enjoyable and slightly different take on the more commercial side of melodic Metal/Metalcore. I have enjoyed their slightly-atypical spin on the modern Metalcore sound; with the traditional Heavy Metal aspects of their delivery lending a bit more depth and longevity to the music than is typical for a band of this ilk.

Given the right backing and exposure, as well as a bigger production and a slightly more adventurous songwriting outlook, Future Is in Our Hands might actually be potentially quite prophetic for their next album.

Check this out.

Between the Buried and Me – Coma Ecliptic (Review)

Between the Buried and Me are a progressive Extreme Metal band from the US. This is their seventh album.

If you haven’t encountered Between the Buried and Me before then you’re in for a treat. They’re one of the best examples of a band individualising what they do, and what they do is progressive Extreme Technical Metal. It’s a bit of a mouthful but it’s hard to describe this band in simple terms. Over the course of their career they’ve pretty much done it all, and over time they’re only getting more ambitious with their releases.

As with anything like this though, it’s not for everyone. If you favour music that has traditional song structures and predictable layouts, then move quietly along. If, however, you like the idea of listening to a band that can effortlessly combine the type of stuff you’d hear from bands like Queen, Deicide, Dream Theatre and The Dillinger Escape Plan, while simultaneously remaining entirely their own entity, then make sure you check this out.

This latest album is as ambitious and grandiose as always, more so in many respects. Piano and keyboards probably feature even more heavily than previously and add to the progressive structures in innumerable ways.

The singer uses both clean vocals and growls, although there seems to be a trend developing now that shows him using his clean vocals more and more. This is reflected in the music too, as the band use blast beats more sparingly than they used too as well. It may be less extreme than some of their other work, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s any more accessible for the average listener. After all, there are more ways to be extreme than just playing fast.

The music is flawlessly delivered and the level of musicianship on Coma Ecliptic is staggeringly high; this is a band who know how to work their instruments. The compositions are long and involved, as usual, although the average track length is slightly shorter than some of their previous work.

Eschewing anything close to standard song structures, Between the Buried and Me are all about the song sections and how these holistically fit together. There’s a lot to take in over these 69 minutes and the album certainly requires multiple spins to give up its secrets.

All of the songs have their own personality, as you would imagine, and it’s easy to differentiate between them. They’ve always been a highly textured and nuanced band, and this only seems to be becoming more pronounced over time.

Anyone into challenging music that successfully mixes progressive music with extremity, heaviness and quirkiness should definitely check this out.

Gargantua – Avant-Propos (Review)

This is the début EP from French Progressive Metal band Gargantua.

Gargantua play Progressive Metal that combines some quite eclectic influences to produce a 26 minute calling card that shows off what they can do quite effectively.

To give you a flavour of their style, imagine a mix of The Meads of Asphodel, Sigh, The Black Dahlia Murder and Akercocke, among others. It’s essentially a form of melodic Death Metal with added folk, avant-garde and progressive influences, allowing the band a freedom to experiment and be playful with their influences.

The keyboard and accordion aspect of their sound is quirky and endearing. While not as completely over-the-top as some of the stuff that Sigh get up to, this part of their sound can still be demanding and attention-seeking.

The more aggressive Metal that lays the foundation of their music is tempered by their other influences so that the majority of the riffs have a lot of other stuff going on; the avant-garde and more-emotive aspects of their style are never too far away.

Thrash Metal-esque shouted growls, barely-holding-it-together screams, progressive cleans, operatic choral parts, emotive theatrics; there’s a plethora of different styles employed on Avant-Propos via four of the various band members.

A very promising first release. While not perfect, it shows a creative band willing and able to push boundaries to achieve the sound they want. With a few tweaks here and there to tighten the songwriting up, they could become quite a fearsome proposition in the future.

Check them out.

Redemption – The Art of Loss (Review)

This is the sixth album from US Progressive Metallers Redemption.

Redemption’s Progressive Metal is melodic, song-oriented music that features keyboards, a raft of high-profile guests and a The Who cover. Importantly, it also has some extremely well-composed pieces of music that are Metal enough to have kick and progressive enough to take the listener on a journey.

This album has a very bright, strong sound, allowing the band’s music to shine and stand uninhibited on its own merits. It sounds good.

The band are clearly all well-versed in their chosen instruments, but one of the reasons I like Redemption is that for the most part they don’t let all of the technical, ostentatious playing get in the way of the song itself; this is paramount, more than anything else really. As such, this is an album full of catchy, memorable tunes that have the extra advantage of added depth due to the exploratory avenues that are opened up by virtue of being a Progressive Metal band.

There’s a mix of song-oriented tracks that are largely straightforward Metal songs, combined with a few where the band really let their progressive side shine; this is particularly demonstrated on the final track At Day’s End.

A vocalist with a great range and capable of delivering a sterling performance is required for music like this, and this is what they have.

At 76 minutes in length there’s a lot of music here to absorb, but it’s worth the time as Redemption have created a compelling and engaging listen.

Cut the Architect’s Hand – We Dig No Graves (Review)

Cut the Architect’s Hand are a Metal/Hardcore band from the US, this is their latest album.

Featuring a Hardcore base, Cut the Architect’s Hand layer Metal trappings on top of this, building an album that has depth and longevity due to its commitment to creating involving and engaging underground heavy music.

This reminds me of the extremely fertile cutting edge/violent Hardcore scene about 15 years ago, when it seemed that almost every band that came out from the US on labels like Trustkill Records were doing something new and interesting.

Cut the Architect’s Hand are torn from the same cloth as this era. Imagine the atypical wanderings of Botch mixed with the primal aggression of something like For the Bleeders by Vision of Disorder; this should give you a good idea of what you’re in store for should you delve into this record. And delve you should.

The songs are gritty and well-worn, like they’ve been harshly sanded down prior to being unleashed on the world. It’s quite a savage, unpolished sound, but it fits the band’s aggressive music and this is 34 minutes that you won’t regret spending.

It’s all very well-written and structured, with fast brutality and interesting riffs around every corner. Moments of introspective Post-Hardcore are dotted around here and there, adding further texture to already textured music. I like that each track has a distinct personality and something of its own to offer the listener.

Absolute top quality. Makes me quite nostalgic for the early 00s too, while also showing that although it’s not as commonplace these days, this kind of inventive and individual heavy music is still alive and well in 2016.

For fans of forward-thinking, Hardcore-based aggressive Metal.

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.

The Unguided – Lust and Loathing (Review)

This is the third album from Swedish Metallers The Unguided.

The Unguided play melodic Death Metal mixed in with modern Metal, soaring cleans and infectious keyboards. It’s a style which has been done before, proven to be effective and is definitely on the more commercial end of the Metal spectrum. If that sounds like an implied negative, it would be if it was done poorly, but Lust and Loathing isn’t and is in fact a very enjoyable listen.

Full of stadium-friendly hooks and bold melodies, this is catchy and unashamedly memorable. One of things I really like about this release is that it’s closer to the Euro-Metal side of things than the US Metalcore-style, meaning that we get a lot of proper Metal content. There’s even some solos. Combined with the heaviness of the guitars, the ubiquitous harsh vocals and a high-energy delivery, this album has a thoroughly Metal core and doesn’t suffer from being overly-commercial or sanitized as a lot of similar bands can be afflicted with; there’s a fire and a passion here beneath the polished veneer.

The songs are enjoyable and catchy, as mentioned previously. The melodic Power Metal streak that the tracks have saves them from sounding generic and there’s a real flavour of the band in the songs, pulling them up to be highly effective modern European Metal bruisers with a strong melodic edge.

A lot of the time this kind of thing ends up having style over substance, but in this instance it seems that The Unguided have both.

Recommended.

Impavidus – Impavidus (Review)

Impavidus are a Metal band from the UK. This is their début EP.

Boasting 18 minutes of melodic Death/Thrash/Groove Metal, Impavidus have forcefully arrived on the scene with a decent display of modern Metal.

Taking cues from bands such as Arch Enemy, Carcass, The Agonist, The Haunted, etc., they proceed to play this style better than most bands who are just starting out.

The songs are well-written and enjoyable, and I especially like the more melodic parts featuring clean female vocals. This is somewhat of a rarity for me, as more often than not these kind of sections are my least favourite parts when listening to similar bands’ songs. Impavidus, however, do all of this extremely well and their vocalist has a very good voice, reminding of the singer of Leaves’ Eyes in some ways.

Apart from these cleans, we get Arch Enemy-esque growls, occasionally backed by male shouts. These all work well and the music thrashes along at a good pace, nicely heavy and riffy.

Leads and solos are plentiful and the band aren’t shy about showing off their musical skills. Nor should they be.

It all comes together nicely and Impavidus have produced an impressive EP that’s way better than I was expecting. Why? Simply due to the fact that on paper, this follows a familiar format, one that is easy to be lazy with. The reality, however, is that these songs have high energy, catchiness, obvious passion and melodies that really hit the spot.

Quality stuff.

Intensive Square – Anything That Moves (Review)

Intensive Square are a Technical Metal band from the UK. This is their début album.

This is Technical Metal played with a love of both complexity and crushing rhythms. There’s a Hardcore side to the band that’s combined with a firm Metal base, resulting an album that combines elements of such diverse bands as Botch, Converge, Johnny Truant, Meshuggah, Circle Takes the Square, Pyrrhon, Today Is the Day, Scarlet, Frontierer, Sikth, Periphery and many others.

Featuring a splenetic vocalist who has a vicious screamed shout, these songs provide a satisfying ear-bashing while also catering to those who like a bit of technicality and complexity with their beatings. It doesn’t go too far down the complexity route though, as there’s plenty of big rhythms and grooves provided to get the listener moving and jerking around the place in strange movements.

The album lasts 45 minutes and provides a meaty feast for anyone into this kind of thing.

Give them a listen.