Reviews – Page 519 – Wonderbox Metal

Pendulous – A Palpable Sense of Love & Loss (Review)

This is the début album by US Doom Metal band Pendulous.

Pendulous play depressive Doom/Death that’s sorrowful and full of woe. The album title should be a dead giveaway; there’s no happiness here, just misery.

The vocals alternate between grim Death-growls and clean singing, depending on the needs of the song. The growls are ably done and are strongly performed, but it’s the clean vocals that stand out.

Emotive and dripping with melancholy; the singer’s voice acts as a focal point whenever it appears and also serves to characterise the album as a whole – expressive and lost to negativity.

The songs are expressive in their own right but the addition of a rather subtle cello is a wonderful enhancement to the band’s style.

The music just excretes melancholy from every musical pore. Although the band are suitably heavy it’s an emotional heaviness that really makes A Palpable Sense of Love & Loss so crushing.

The Doom/Death scene is quite a narrow one; too much either way and you’re playing a different style. The true way to set yourself apart is the emotional content of the music and how it resonates with the listener. Pendulous should have no worries in this regard and their album is a work of bleeding, regretful art.

Listen and absorb their heart-rending story.

Grenouer – Unwanted Today (Review)

Grenouer are a Russian band and this is their eighth album. They play a combination of Alternative Rock and Modern Metal.

Grenouer play the kind of stadium-friendly Modern Rock/Metal that seemed to set the world alight on a regular basis in the late 90s/early 00s.

This is a release that’s positively bursting with catchy melodies and hooks aplenty. Big grooves, bigger choruses and a tasty production mean that this album is extremely easy on the ear.

The songs are all well-recorded with everything sounding extremely professional. The singer has a great voice and keyboards and effects add extra layers to the band’s sound.

All of the songs are essentially Radio-Friendly Unit Shifters and this is easily digestible music that nonetheless makes a good impression.

Featuring elements of bands such as Filter, Mnemic, Stabbing Westward and Spineshank, Unwanted Today is highly melodic and full of hummable tunes.

If your tastes run to the more accessible and commercial side of loud music then you’ll probably appreciate what Grenouer are offering here.

Austerymn – Sepulcrum Viventium (Review)

Austerymn are a UK Death Metal band and this is their début album.

This may be a UK band but there’s a definite whiff of Sweden about them; it’s Old-School Swedish Death Metal in the familiar style and with a roaring sound.

I’ve said this before, but your tolerance for this sub-genre will essentially dictate your response to Austerymn. Had enough? Then move along. Can’t get enough? Lap this up.

This is such a faithful recreation of the classic style that you almost have to double-check who you’re actually listening to and what year it was released in.

Dark melodies that are a hallmark of the style are peeled off with ease and the crushing rhythms are equally effortless. The harsh, molten-metal vocals seem born for the music.

The songs on the album have a strictly no-frills approach and concentrate on being heavy while creating macabre atmospheres with the melodic guitars.

Fat chugging and aggressive drumming make for songs that have an edge to them and the general structuring of the tracks mean that they’re surprisingly memorable and enjoyable affairs.

If you can’t get enough of the sound espoused by the old days of Entombed, Dismember and the like, then Austerymn are here to sate your bloodlust.

Aezh Morvarc’h – Mare Humorum (Review)

Aezh Morvarc’h are a Black Metal band from France and this is their latest EP.

This is sharp and frosty Black Metal that carries a melodic edge with its raw delivery.

Dark screams and ghostly clean-chants populate the musical landscape and recall Mayhem at their esoteric best.

The songs have their atmospheric moments but for the most part it’s a grim assault that the band undertake. Melodic riffing softens the effect though and the inclusion of so many heroic-sounding cleans further distils the rawness factor. This is all a plus point as it gives the band their own character compared to countless other bands playing underground Black Metal.

The speed of the songs is enticing, but it’s the mystical melodies that really do the trick here.

Aezh Morvarc’h have taken their Classic Metal heritage seriously too, and Mare Humorum has more than its fair share of real Metal riffs mixed into the Black Metal. This is a welcome aspect of their style and combined with the clean vocals really gives the band an epic/heroic streak to their sound.

I enjoyed this. For a band that is ostensibly an underground Black Metal group, this release offers the listener something a little different.

A recommended listen.

Keeper – The Space Between Your Teeth (Review)

Keeper are a Doom band from the US and this is their latest EP.

Keeper have graced these pages before on their split with Sea Bastard release.

Here they treat us to two tracks of ultra-heavy Doom that snarls and crushes yet also has a contemplative side.

The vocals are so serrated that this EP should come with a health warning. Their scathing assault is a reminder of how truly harsh screamed vocals can sound from the right singer.

The music is down-beat Doom which is slow enough to cast a grim shadow where it falls but energetic enough to keep a beat to. Although they specialise in the heavier side of Doom, the songs also carry a multitude of melodies through these tumultuous waters. Said melodies are largely low-key affairs content to hide just below the heavier rhythms, although this is not always the case.

The band’s more nuanced side manifests through these streaks of melodic colour and also through some Isis/Cult of Luna-esque Post-Metal moments.

The entire package is rounded off with a strong sound that accentuates all of the band’s strengths, leaving them free to pursue the music through to its logical conclusion.

Keeper have released a devastating calling card with their new EP, one that will surely, and rightfully, gain them many accolades.

A Secret Revealed – The Bleakness (Review)

A Secret Revealed are a German Post-Metal band and this is their début album.

This is emotive Post-Metal that has a good mix of upbeat misery and negative energies.

The Bleakness is an interesting listen as it combines a few different styles of Modern Metal into a coherent assault on happiness. Post-Metal, Modern Metal, Post-Hardcore and even the odd bit of Doom, Shoegaze and Extreme Metal all get incorporated into their overarching depressive aesthetic.

The vocals consist of impassioned screams that are very much in the blood-curdling, emotive Hardcore style.

The music is nicely varied and revolves around the central motif of the band which is ultimately one of bleakness, it seems, (hence the album title).

Although it’s largely a heavy affair, the band never go too far into ultra-heavy territory and instead use the guitars for maximum emotional content. This is backed up and reinforced by the expressive leads and melodies as well as the odd bit of orchestration here and there.

This is a band who are enjoying the freedom of Post-Metal by doing their own thing with contemporary Metal music. They have eschewed the Doom route that most Post-Metal takes and instead has chosen the road less travelled by bands like Deftones and Devil Sold His Soul, only more Metallic.

The Bleakness may be just that, but it’s also a triumph.

Highly recommended.

Unleashed – Dawn of the Nine (Review)

This is the twelfth album from these Swedish Death Metal warriors.

Unleashed should need no introduction. Instrumental in birthing the Swedish Death Metal scene and sound, Unleashed’s place in Metal history is cemented.

I’ve been listening to a lot of Swedish Death Metal recently, as played by different bands all over the world. Now, however, it’s time to return to the source and pay homage to the kings.

Unleashed are on fine form here. Songs, aggression and Vikings are the themes of this album and Unleashed are at the top of their game.

The vocals are expressive and charismatic, managing to exemplify an older strain of Death Metal while remaining individual and as accessible as anything like this is going to be.

When listening to Dawn of the Nine it’s easy to be reminded of the debt that a whole raft of other bands owe Unleashed, and not just those that play Swedish Death Metal either.

Quality riffs abound on this release and there’s a good mixture of faster and slower tracks. Each song has its own personality and it’s always nice to hear an album where each track can be identified in it’s own right. There is no filler.

After all these years Unleashed know themselves perfectly and Dawn of the Nine is the kind of highly proficient and polished Death Metal release that you’d expect from such a veteran band.

But do you know what? Do you know what’s really important? The music itself. Legacy, expectations, reputation, etc. aside; all that matters, all that ever matters, is the music.

Unleashed deliver and Dawn of the Nine is a great listen. This is a band with a future, as well as a past.

Withering Soul – Adverse Portrait (Review)

This is the third album from US Melodic Black Metallers Withering Soul.

The band play Melodic Black Metal that has speed and melody in abundance yet knows the value of restraint on occasion.

The vocals are a kind of chanted scream-shout (?) of the Dimmu Borgir variety. Clean vocals are also used sparingly and effectively.

The music is cleanly recorded with just enough dirt left in to prevent them being described as polished.

The band have some low-key symphonic influences to their sound and I quite like how these are used on the album.

These tracks are mainly fast and sharp, with razor riffs and burning leads. The subtle atmospheric backing keyboards add a surprising amount to the songs and help differentiate from others playing this style.

An enjoyable way to spend 40-odd minutes. Have a listen for yourself.

Hogslayer – Defacer (Review)

Hogslayer are a Sludge band from the UK. This is their second album.

This is hateful, heavy Sludge Metal that sometimes it seems only the UK can do so well. Yes, you have the entire American/NOLA Sludge thing which started everything with Eyehategod, etc. but the UK has its own distinctive underground full of festering filth and misery that grows only in this specific environment. Hogslayer were born to such surroundings.

This is crushingly heavy. I mean really, really heavy. Like, ultra-heavy or something. You get the idea.

The feral, underground darkness that bred Hogslayer didn’t just select for the nastiest traits either. The band understand, in their own warped way, the need for riffs to be catchy, vocals to have character and songs to be memorable. Of course, you have to understand that this is all from a Sludge Metal/Doom perspective, as no-one will accuse Hogslayer of threatening the radio-friendly unit-shifters any time soon.

Oh, but there’s something about this kind of relentlessly heavy, riff-oriented Sludge. When the band lock into a heavy groove and repeat it just the right amount of times…it really hits the spot.

The vocals, as mentioned previously, are charismatic and buried within the distortion just enough to work with the music without dominating it but aren’t too low in the mix so that they’re lost in the colossal bass/guitar riffs, as can sometimes be the case with some Sludge bands.

Hogslayer will be a firm favourite of mine moving forward. Their brand of gritty, well-done Sludge is just what the Metal Doctor ordered.

Defacer is a feast of distortion, feedback and negativity. Eat up.

Braineater – Reclusive (Review)

Braineater are from the US and play Death Metal/Deathgrind.

Braineater’s Deathgrind mixes Death Metal and Grindcore with an emphasis on the Death Metal side of the equation. They take the loose Punk-style of Grind and the brutal nature of Death Metal, merging the two with a Thrash sensibility.

Deep grunts are a matter of course for this kind of thing, but it’s the higher vocals that make a real impression. They have a lot of personality and wouldn’t be out of place on an 80’s surf-inspired Thrash album.

There are only 5 tracks here but it’s a good 19 minutes of music. The fact that it’s biased towards Death and Thrash Metal means that these are not your one minute marathons that some Grind is made up of, (with track 3, One Nation Under Gunpoint, being the exception). Instead we get enjoyable Death Metal with elements of Thrash and Grind at a decent length and with plenty of bloodshed and brain eating to go around.

This is a very encouraging EP. It shows a band who are putting a slightly different spin on a well-worn sound, and one that has a lot of character and personality to boot.

Check them out.