Reviews – Page 479 – Wonderbox Metal

Abyssic – A Winter’s Tale (Review)

This is the début album from Norwegian Symphonic Doom/Death band Abyssic.

Well this is an absolute monster of an album. At 79 minutes in length and featuring just four tracks, Abyssic certainly know how to provide the listener with a lot to get their teeth into.

A decent stylistic reference point for Abyssic would initially be the old Peaceville roster, with bands like Anathema, My Dying Bride and Paradise Lost all providing an idea of what the base of the band is like. Only longer and more epic, of course. Once you have this in your mind’s eye, mix in some more modern, epic funeral Doom from the likes of Monolithe, as well as a sterling Classical influence, and you’ll have a good idea of what Abyssic are getting up to here.

The symphonic aspects of Abyssic’s sound are big, bold and unashamedly impressive. Abyssic don’t hold back, and nor should they. This is a band that manage to incorporate the symphonic and Classical elements into their sound in a holistic and complete way, rather than having them just added on at the end. The music easily takes on a cinematic legendary feel and each of these long songs feels like a story. Nay, a saga.

A Winter’s Tale benefits from a huge and lavish production that allows all of the different parts of their repertoire to sound clear and crushing. Thick guitars and textured keyboards merge together with the crushing drums to provide the listener with a very engaging and absorbing listen. The songs may be long, but if you have the time to spare for them then there is so much here to enjoy.

For the most part the vocals are deep, dark growls, of the kind that are pretty much standard for Death/Doom. That’s not to say they’re not effective or don’t do their job though.

Long they may be, but these songs justify their own existence by being so damn impressive and well-put together. The band know their stuff, that’s for sure. Amazingly, given the length, these tracks don’t get boring and the lavish, lush orchestration is a constant joy to listen to, especially when combined with the heaviness of the guitars.

This atmospheric album really nails the best parts of the Death/Doom style for me, and the overwrought symphonic elements are just candy to my ears, pulling the whole thing up to another level.

Very highly recommended.

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.

Echoes of the Moon – Entropy (Review)

This is the second album from this one-man US atmospheric Post-Black Metal band.

This has a rich, warm sound, making it clear very early on that Entropy is all about the emotive content and taking the listener on a journey.

High-pitched near-static screams are employed to provide a focal point for the colourful music. I favour this brand of ultra-shrieked screams for this kind of extremely atmospheric Black Metal, so was not disappointed to hear them when they first appeared. Deep growls also appear here and there; these are unexpected but work well alongside the mellifluous music.

These songs have a good grasp of mood and feeling, effortlessly played out across long tracks and glorious soundscapes. This can be essentially seen as one 72 minute piece of music broken up into smaller slices, but however you look at it it’s an extremely effective work.

Featuring elements of psychedelic, progressive and depressive Black Metal, this is very atmospheric and richly textured. Resplendent melodies, extended guitar solos and understated synths all enhance the flavour of the emotive riffs and Entropy is an album to be savoured and enjoyed in its entirety.

I’m very impressed by this, and it’s criminal that this will effectively get no real exposure other than a few lucky people that stumble upon it; it really is that good.

Abstracter/Dark Circles – Split (Review)

Abstracter are a Sludge/Doom band from the US, and Dark Circles are a Hardcore band from Canada.

Both of Abstracter’s full length albums, (Tomb of Feathers and Wound Empire), feature regularly in my listening. And with good reason; their brand of heavy, blackened Sludge/Doom is expertly done. On this release they contribute 2 tracks, lasting almost 20 minutes in total.

Barathrum starts off showcasing the band’s blackened aspect, with dark, murky blast beats charging through a sea of tar. This rather quickly spends itself, leading into a slow, sludgy crawl through murkiest waters as Abstracter embrace their dirty Doom side. Occasional forays into speed and groovier territories comprise the remaining running time, with the singer’s thick growl accompanying you the entire way.

If you haven’t encountered Abstracter before then this song is as good an introduction as any into their harsh, underground Sludge Metal.

But we’re not done yet, as there’s a second track; Where All Pain Converges. This is a little longer than the first and generally a bit slower and more considered. If Barathrum showcased the band’s harsher side then this one showcases their more atmospheric. That’s not to say this isn’t harsh and heavy, (it is), but that it also has more of a blatant emotive quality to the guitars than the soul-crushing nihilism of the first. Mixing slower sections with some more upbeat parts, the overall mood is maintained throughout and Abstracter once again show why they’re so very good at what they do.

After this onslaught of despair and misery, we leave Abstracter to wallow in their pit of pain, and approach, timidly, Dark Circles. This band offer up a different form of gloom with their characterful brand of dark Hardcore. Being familiar with their previous work on MMXIV, it’s good to catch up with them again and here they give us 4 songs, lasting just under 13 minutes.

Ashen starts us off with a squeal of feedback before violently picking up the pace with the band’s dark blend of abrasive Hardcore. One of the things I like about Dark Circles is their ability to inject an emotive bleakness into their raging chaos, engaging the listener and prompting them to move closer, despite the inherent danger. The second track Void follows on in a similar theme, (but with added atmosphere), and both initial tracks blur by in a haze of anger and distorted malice.

After these typically short and nasty affairs both of the next tracks are much longer by comparison, relative to this split and to their work on MMXIV. Isolate starts immediately, all blackened teeth and bile. The longer playing time allows the band the opportunity to flesh out the more atmospheric side of their sound that briefly reared its head during Void. This shows itself to be an apocalyptic Sludge/Doom influence, heavy and foreboding, before the Hardcore energy picks up once more.

The final track is called Epilogue (Quietus) OP. 28 No. 4 and is a little different, as the name suggests; here the band give vent to a dark ambient side and swamp the listener with a slow-building tense piece of drone that creates a nicely unsettling and worrying atmosphere.

Both bands have contributed some very nice work to this split release, and although they do play different styles they also have more than enough overlap and similar themes to complement each other perfectly. As splits go, this works a treat and is definitely one you should check out.

Inherit Disease – Ephemeral (Review)

Inherit Disease are a US Death Metal band. This is their third album.

Combining some technicality and lots of brutality, Inherit Disease play a classic USDM style that allows them to showcase their love of the genre and all things brutal.

The music on Ephemeral combines speedy aggression with some chunky slam riffs, producing 39 minutes of utterly depraved brutality.

The singer’s vocals are sickeningly deep, stopping just short of descending into the kind of ridiculous pignoise burping that tends to ruin bands. His voice is as ugly and as gruesome as the music.

Ephemeral is unrelenting and harsh, rarely stopping for breath as it chops, hacks and carves its way through the tracks. There’s something very satisfying about this kind of music. It’s just so timelessly appealing; despite what other musical trends and moods might take you, Death Metal will always be there. Waiting. Lurking. Ready to strike.

I like that the more you listen to this, the more you enjoy it. It’s an unstoppable juggernaut of groove and blasting, easily absorbed by anyone who has a taste for bands like Deeds of Flesh, Suffocation, Cannibal Corpse, Severe Torture, Dying Fetus, Defeated Sanity, etc.

For a solid fix of heavy brutality and death-dealing, Inherit Disease have got you covered.

Check them out.

Cult of Luna and Julie Christmas – Mariner (Review)

Cult of Luna are a Post-Metal band from Sweden and Julie Christmas is a US solo artist and ex-member of such bands as Battle of Mice and Made out of Babies.

Well, this is a bit exciting. Cult of Luna are one of my favourite bands and Julie Christmas is one of my favourite vocalists. Put them together, and I can’t see how this could be anything short of amazing. Continue reading “Cult of Luna and Julie Christmas – Mariner (Review)”

Corprophemia – Abhorrogenesis (Review)

This is the second album from Canadian Death Metal band Corprophemia.

Playing savage Death Metal that has elements of the brutal and technical styles, this is a modern approach to the genre that injects a bit of Deathcore and slam into the mix to further increase the violence factor.

Canada seems to be very good when it comes to this kind of thing. Fellow Canadian Death Metallers such as Cryptopsy, Deformatory, Pronostic, Antlion and Unbreakable Hatred to name but a few have all released some top quality music in the not too distant past and we can now add Corprophemia to that list as well.

The singer has a fine set of lungs it seems, with his clipped barks reeking of aggression. His is a very satisfying voice and perfectly complements the precise and exacting nature of the music.

So what of the music? It’s well-played, well-written and well-recorded. This pretty much covers all of the bases and all that remains is for this to be played at full volume to annoy the neighbours.

The band use crushing rhythmic riffs well and mainly sound like a combination of the dynamics and technicality of Cryptopsy, the staccato brutality of Beneath the Massacre and the sheer violence and cold assault of Coprocephalic. Add some snippets of cut-short melody here and there and brief ambient synth interludes between tracks and you have a very compelling 30 minutes.

Highly recommended.

Bloodthirst – Glorious Sinners (Review)

This is the latest EP from Polish Blackened Thrashers Bloodthirst.

I enjoyed their last album Chalice of Contempt, so this new EP was gratefully received. Here we have over 20 minutes of scathing Black Metal and 80s Thrash influences.

These songs continue the band’s previous path of combining second-wave Black Metal with atavistic Thrash elements, striking the right balance so that they’re poised between two styles, waiting to strike.

Blast beats and spiky riffs blur by in a whirlwind of energy and dark melodies. The songs have personality and the band embrace the roots of both genres, forging them together down the path they want to take.

I find it easy to be turned off by Black/Thrash a lot of the time, but I do enjoy Bloodthirst as they seem to have that intangible special something that raises them up to be greater than the sum of their parts. It’s the songs, of course, and the feel of them. Glorious Sinners just hits the spot for me and does what it sets out to do very well indeed.

A professional production rounds the package off, and Glorious Sinners is an eminently enjoyable listen.

Krigsgrav – Waves of Degradation (Review)

Krigsgrav are a Black Metal band from the US and this is their fourth album.

This is long and expansive Black Metal with a melodic edge. It’s vibrant and exploratory without losing focus and across these lengthy tracks the band take the time to unfold their vision of what Black Metal should look, feel and sound like in 2016.

If you take the depressive core of a band like Forgotten Tomb and add some Post-Black Metal influences, then you’ll be in the right area of where Krigsgrav lurk. Elements of depressive and melodic Black Metal round this out, as well as some aspects of funeral Doom.

With a decent recording the band’s compositions take on a dark life of their own. All of the instruments sound clear and precise, and I always like an album that you can hear the bass on, especially when it makes a valid and noticeable contribution to the music.

Additional instrumentation appears here and there, adding extra tools to the band’s repertoire and deepening the depths of sound that they create.

The vocals are notably impressive; ragged screams that sound like the singer is ripping his throat out are enhanced by the occasional deeper growl and some powerful cleans.

The songs describe harrowing tales of misery and hopelessness, set against a backdrop of just enough light and possibility so as to make the dark atmospheres all the worse. The mixture of lighter sections and heavier, blackened distortion work well and the build/release Post-Metal mechanic is used effectively in a Post-Black Metal environment.

Waves of Degradation is an impressive listen and has more than enough content to compel you to visit it again and again.

Recommended.

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.