Reviews – Page 539 – Wonderbox Metal

Born Undead – Violator of Humanity (Review)

Born Undead feature members from both the UK and France. They play Death Metal and this is their début EP.

Taking influences from bands like Autopsy, Born Undead play their particular brand of Death Metal with bloody abandon and gore-stained clothes.

The music is primitive and reeks of corpses, but the simplicity of their attack is no less lethal for it. This is ugly music for ugly people.

They have a non-standard sound which differentiates them a bit from so many other Death Metal bands. They’re riff-oriented but not in a flashy way and the deep growling vocals appear to have been dredged up from the remains of a huge daemon, at least that’s what it sounds like to me…

The first song Violator of Humanity has a good energy to it, with a mechanistic-marching quality to the main riff that unexpectedly erupts near the end into grand melodics. Nice.

Second track Revenge of the Necrovore starts faster and features riffs plucked from the bowels of Hell. Once again the band show that they have the ability to write guitar parts that are full of energy and feel like they’re going places rather than just filling time until the next riff comes along.

After this we have Splatter Fuck, which is the longest track at just over 4 minutes. This slows the pace again, mostly, and Born Undead get to show off their grasp of dynamics and pacing. A tasty main riff once again powers everything whilst the vocals chew and belch their way through the carnage. Some dark melodic guitar work also rears its ugly head here.

The EP closes with Undead Torment which rounds up everything in a suitably brutal fashion. It has a merry old time of it, chugging and thrashing around all over the shop, beheading with glee. Most enjoyable.

A very promising release from a very promising band.

More please.

Repulsor – Trapped in a Nightmare (Review)

Repulsor are from Poland and play Thrash Metal. This is their début EP.

This EP is a little over 21 minutes long and Repulsor make every second count. This is high speed, high aggression Thrash.

A good sound means that the band make the most of the time given to impress. This is Old-School Thrash Metal that would have been comfortably at home in the 80’s.

Megadeth are the most obvious reference point, although splashes of Testament and Exodus are also to be heard.

The band play the music well and the tracks are nicely written. The guitars are a particular high point and there are some tasty riffs thrown out, especially on R.M.D.H.

I still feel kind of saturated on Thrash Metal at the moment, but that’s not to say I didn’t enjoy this; Repulsor have enough talent to be eminently listenable and Trapped in a Nightmare is anything but nightmarish.

Overall, I’d say good work. A nice sound, good solos and some catchy songs mean Repulsor are welcome to visit any time they like. Good band logo too.

Give them a listen.

Disinterred – Incantation (Review)

Disinterred are a Death Metal band from Belgium and this is their latest EP.

Ahhh I do love a bit of Swedish Death Metal. Yes they’re from Belgium but who cares? Your general tolerance levels for this much loved/maligned genre, (depending on your viewpoint), will dictate how you get on with Disinterred.

If you like Grave, Dismember, etc. then Disinterred should be right up your gravestone-lined alleyway.

The songs are short, heavy and full of quality Death Metal riffage. They have that classic chainsaw sound and all of the requisite parts are in place, including the sinister melodies.

The vocalist has a very nice voice indeed. Dark, deep growls are barked out with precision and hatred. Nice work that man!

At only 13 minutes in length there’s no messing around here; straight to the point Death Metal in the Old-School Swedish style.

Good sound, good songs. What’s not to like?

Assumption – The Three Appearances (Review)

Assumption are a Doom/Death Metal band from Italy. This is their début EP.

Assumption sound grim, dark and evil. Featuring members of the gruesome Haemophagus it should come as no surprise that The Three Appearances is full of mouldy and decomposing delights.

Cavernous, echoing Death Metal growls seem to be generated through an abyssal fog of misery and pain. Surely something like this can’t be good for you?

The music is murky and ancient, lumbering around like a forgotten, decaying god that’s slowly transformed over the millennia into some form of shambling horror.

Reminding of recent albums from the likes of Encoffination, Ævangelist and Sempiternal Dusk, this is the latest album to blend both Death and Doom into an absolute terror of an album that’s designed to loosen the bowels and scar the soul.

As rotten as what’s left in the sewer and as black as the void, Assumption do a great job of describing the essential futility of life; decay always sets in, entropy will get everything in the end and ultimately there’s very little point. So why bother? Why bother at all?

Well, paradoxically Assumption themselves have given us a reason to continue; their music. This is worth taking the time to listen to.

What a glorious, rancid, noxious find this has been. All hail Assumption!

All Seeing Eyes – Trinity Road (Review)

All Seeing Eyes are a Power Metal band from the UK and this is their début album.

Well this is a whopper. 18 tracks, 1 hour and 48 minutes of music. So prepare yourself; get some snacks and disconnect all lines to the outside world. When you’re ready, press play…

First thing’s first – this is a band put together by the main chap from Neverworld, and if you enjoyed their spectacular début, (go get it now), then you’ll already have a good idea of the quality that you’ll find in All Seeing Eyes.

This is a very ambitious album, and one that could have fallen short of expectations if it wasn’t for the stunning musicianship on display and the advanced level of songwriting the band show.

This is a very strong collection of songs, something that’s a hard enough feat to attain if you’re doing a normal album, let alone what is essentially two in one go.

The flashy playing, complex guitarwork, swathes of keyboards, etc. only add sparkle and glamour to the tracks rather than deflecting form their quality in any way. This is clearly the work of musicians who are confident in their ability to deliver the goods.

For such a long playing time I’m very pleased to say that the band never sound stale, repetitive or samey. Everything they do fits within the Power/Heavy Metal framework, but within this framework there is a lot of variety and all of it is pulled off seemingly with ease. Oh I’m well aware that countless hours of preparation, writing, practice, rehearsals, etc. must have gone into the making of this album, but when you listen to the finished product…it just sounds effortless.

Some of the melodies on this album go beyond hooks and catchiness…captivating would be a very good word. I’ve said before that a good singer can make or break a band, and All Seeing Eyes have a great singer. This frees up the rest of the band to be able to play some mesmerising Power Metal with full knowledge that whatever they do the vocals have the strength to match up to it.

This is an album full of top guitarwork, be that solos, leads, acoustic parts or just plain solid rhythms; it’s all polished to a high degree but not so much that it doesn’t drip with emotion. A hard balance to strike but again, seemingly effortless in this instance.

The abundant and omnipresent keyboards could easily sound smothering in lesser hands; as it is though they simply complement, enhance and merge with the rest of the music to create a fluid whole.

If this sounds like an overly positive review, that’s because it is. Trinity Road is so far beyond what most bands are capable of it’s almost embarrassing. The feeling when you hear such a good Power Metal album like this…almost nothing can top it.

This is a stunning album and I absolutely love it. What more can I say?

Confident, emotive Power Metal never sounded so good.

Alkira – Juggernaut (Review)

Alkira are an Australian Thrash Metal band. This is their début album.

The album starts off unexpectedly, with a 2 minute instrumental that gently builds and sounds more in-line with a Progressive Metal band. The next song brings the Thrash so hard and heavy though it’s straight into the meat of things.

Taking their cues from the harsher side of Thrash, there’s no retro, humorous nonsense here; this is Thrash Metal to kill to.

If you’re a fan of Kreator, Slayer and Sepultura’s brand of Thrash, (and who isn’t?), then Alkira should scratch that itch for you.

Sharp riffs and jagged guitars infest the songs. Old-School Thrash Metal has rarely sounded so barbed. A meaty production rounds off the package.

The songs are well written and the longer nature of some of the tracks allows the band to fully explore their chosen style. Tasty solos, solid drumming and vocals that sound like lacerations make for an engaging listen.

There are 11 tracks, including a good Sepultura cover. All in all, 57 minutes of Metal. I can imagine this band being amazing live.

If you’re tired of bands taking the stupid route to this style of music and yearn for some good, old-fashioned, honest, killer-Thrash; look no further than Alkira.

Posthum – The Black Northern Ritual (Review)

This is the third album from Black Metallers Posthum.

The album starts with an immediate display of emotive riffing and charismatic vocals. Okay, I’m hooked.

Blood-curdling screams are distinctly of the Black Metal style, but there’s something about them which gives them an edge; in the same way that when you’re listening to the singer of, say, Satyricon – there’s just something extra going on with his voice that allows him to stand apart from the hordes of other, similar Black Metal vocalists.

The riffs and dark melodies that Posthum use are a major highlight for me. There’s a lot of emotion and expressiveness going on here. You could almost class it as Post-Black Metal in this regard if it wasn’t for the fact that it’s just so damn evil. In a way the guitars share that similar something extra that the vocals have; they’re just plain better than most.

This extends to the songs themselves as well. The level of songwriting and riffcraft is extremely high. On first listen the tracks already feel intimate, but not in a bad way; not in the way that makes you think “I’ve heard all this before”. No, this is the intimacy of a familiar lover, just one that you’re meeting for the first time. It’s a slightly disconcerting feeling but a very welcome one. On subsequent listens whatever dark magics Posthum are party to worms their way into your brain even deeper and The Black Northern Ritual is a powerful beast indeed.

On the face of it Posthum do nothing different or new; this is Raw/Underground Black Metal. However, and this is where the magic lies; they play this well-worn style with some undefinable and special quality that just propels them onto a whole other level. It’s something about their songwriting that connects on a visceral level and reminds you of why you loved Black Metal all those years ago when you first heard it.

I pressed play on this album, expecting yet another decent but ultimately average Black Metal album. More fool me. What I got instead was the start of a Blackened love affair.

This album is special.

Involution – Evolution of Thoughts (Review)

This is the début album from German Heavy Metal band Involution.

This is galloping Heavy Metal with a good production and a singer who knows who to use his voice.

As I’ve opined about before, the singer can so easily make or break a band like this for me; a bad/sub-standard voice can easily let down what might otherwise be good music. No worries here though.

The singer of Involution has a clear, strong voice that fits well with the music. It’s largely more Heavy Metal than Power Metal, although the band do stray into Power Metal territory on occasion.

The songs are solid slabs of Metal with plenty of good riffs, leads, solos and energy. The band play like they really feel it and the overall songwriting is of a high standard. This is a band that seem to peel off hooks and catchy melodies with ease.

Involution seem to have an Old-School base for their brand of Metal but still manage to come off relatively fresh and exciting at the same time.

A focus on classic songwriting and song structures means that Involution have all of their bases covered; everything shines brightly on this album and Evolution of Thoughts is a bit of a stormer.

I love it when you find a really decent Heavy/Power Metal band like this. Involution have quality written through them in large, metallic letters.

Highly recommended.

Astrakhan – A Tapestry of Scabs and Skin (Review)

Astrakhan are from Canada and play Progressive Metal. This is their latest EP.

This is powerful music with plenty of dynamics and personality.

Think Progressive Metal with a modern edge; kind of in the vein of what Mastodon do but without really sounding like them too much. Couple this with elements of bands as diverse as Alice in Chains, High on Fire and Metallica…

Hard Rock mixes with a Sludge feel and strong clean vocals dominate everything. Stoner simplicity and technical complexity merge together. They are at once cohesive and divisive; multiple influences congeal into a coherent whole and result in four very impressive songs.

The sheer force of charisma generated by the singer is draw-dropping. To further muddy the waters of genre-definition, he sometimes sounds like he could easily front an Avant-Garde band like Arcturus or Manes with ease.

The distortion feels alive and the riffs have a vitality to them. Each of the songs flexes its musical muscles and exudes feelings that are both epic and emotive.

Their music is textured and rich with riffs that propel the songs onward with real passion and vigour.

Top quality. If they can translate their obvious talent into a full length album they’ll be on to a real winner.

Archagathus – Dehumanizer (Review)

Archagathus are from Canada and play Grindcore. This is their 4th album.

Mincecore. Move over Agathocles. Dirty. Horrible. Ugly.

Archagathus are here.

Punk vehemence with Grinding fury. 20 tracks in 21 minutes. Blunt and to the point, this is a release that vomits out of the speakers and into your home, befouling everything with its very existence before it even hits your tender ears.

The production is as grim as the riffs and the vocals are as putrid as a rotten beaver. In the context of Grindcore though this is all complimentary and Archagathus spend their time being energetic and vigorous.

These are lively tracks that have a certain character about them – this is not faceless Grind-by-numbers; this is Punk violence and realised extremity.

What can you say about an album like this? You either like this kind of stuff or you don’t.

I do. Bring on the mince.