Reviews – Page 583 – Wonderbox Metal

Deep In Hate – Chronicles of Oblivion (Review)

This is the third album from French Death Metallers Deep In Hate.

The band have a good line in both brutality and melody and combine the two nicely; crushing riffs and double-bass beatdowns compete with melodic leads and riffs.

This is a band who are fully comfortable at the modern end of the Death Metal spectrum without completely giving themselves over to Deathcore; although there is a healthy influence from that most maligned of subgenres it stays on the Death Metal side of the equation more often than not. The result? Aborted meets Beneath the Massacre meets Whitechapel with, as strange as this might sound, elements of Hypocrisy at their heaviest.

The sound is crystal clear and the band use this to show you exactly what they are capable of in all its visceral glory. This is modern Death Metal played proficiently and with the sole aim of battering and beating the listener into submission.

The added melodic parts are there to keep things from becoming one-dimensional however, and the sheer aggression and brutality of the band as a whole never allows the melodies to get too out of hand; you could never describe them as Melodic Death Metal, for example. It’s a winning brutality-to-melody-ratio; brutality clearly comes out on top but the melodic aspect holds its own when the songs need it.

The vocals are deep roars full of aggression and testosterone. These alternate with occasional higher screams. The singer takes his cues from the Aborted singer and shares a talent for interesting vocal rhythms and patterns.

Each of the songs has its own identity and is capable of being a ambassador for the band. No filler.

Kaotoxin Records seem to have a talent for sniffing out the very best of French Metal talent. Deep In Hate are their latest find; let them be yours too.

Fragarak – Crypts of Dissimulation (Review)

Fragarak are a Progressive Death Metal band from India and this is their début album.

This is intelligent and passionate music lovingly crafted to be more than straight Death Metal. The Progressive aspect of the music is real and almost tangible. The songs and song structures are considered and a lot of work has gone into these tracks.

The band has a keen melodic edge and there are bountiful leads and solos liberally spread throughout the almost 40 minutes of playing time.

The vocalist has a very accomplished voice with a thick, throaty roar reminiscent of the singer of Opeth when he was still doing such things.

Fragarak have a strong sound with all of the instruments being clear and well-defined. The bass should get a special mention for being used to good effect for a change instead of just shadowing what the rhythm guitar is doing, as in a lot of bands.

Most bands of this ilk tend to start out with a Death Metal core and add some Progressive leanings on top of it; or they cover everything up in hyper technicality and math-wizardry to the extent that there are no actual songs left. Fragarak have avoided both of these things and instead have essentially started off from a Progressive Metal standpoint and built the Death Metal into their sound as they went along. In this way they can be compared to, (old), Opeth once more, although it’s a stylistic comparison as musically there is not a lot of similarity beyond the aforementioned.

This is an exceptional album that mixes structure, dynamics, brutality, softness, atmosphere and pure class into a cohesive and enjoyable journey through the lands of proper Metal delight.

The Indian Metal scene is proving itself a fertile breeding ground for exciting and quality music – Fragarak can go right to the top of the list as ones most likely to succeed. A highly recommended listen.

Ghoul – Hang Ten (Review)

Ghoul are from the US and this EP is Thrash Metal with a healthy crossover influence; on this release their normal Death Metal influence is missing.

Ghoul have put out some good music over the years and this is no exception, although it is somewhat of a departure from their normal fare. This is feel-good Thrash-a-rama of the cinematic variety and with a bit of an old-wild-Western-crossed-with-a-biker-movie feel.

The songs each have that confident self-assured swagger to them and the bass is enough to plant images of run-down sleazy saloons in anyone’s mind.

The aural equivalent of a bar brawl in a seedy joint between rival motorcycle gangs; it’s ugly but you can’t help watch the spectacle unfold regardless.

Consisting of either instrumental tracks or tracks with spoken word on them, the traditional Ghoul vocals are absent and the music takes the front seat. As a showcase for the band’s ample musical talents this works fine and the emphasis is purely on the fun-time riffs and the driving tunes.

If you’ve never encountered the maniac ride that is Ghoul before then this is as good a stop as any to get on board with. But be warned, you may need a new set of underwear afterwards.

Eyehategod – Eyehategod (Review)

Eyehategod are from the US and this is their fifth album of Sludge.

Okay, so I’m not going to hide it – I absolutely love Eyehategod. Ever since first getting Take as Needed for Pain 20 years ago (!) I’ve been hooked, and they’re one of my all time favourite bands. I say this in the interests of full disclosure, because if you’re looking for a fully objective and impartial review then you’d best move along as I’m so excited about this album it’s ridiculous!

As soon as you press play it’s just so instantly familiar and welcoming, at least to someone who’s comfortable with this style of crawling Metal. Their trademark swampy sound that has spawned literally thousands of imitators is recognisable straight away and it becomes rapidly apparent that the band have lost none of the skill and talent that they’ve had over the course of their long career.

It would be easy to doubt whether this was going to be any good as it’s been a whopping 14 years since their last album, (Confederacy of Ruined Lives), but as any true believer knows these are false doubts, as this album, quite frankly, is fucking brilliant.

The songs are fantastic and the band effortlessly create That Sound that helped spawn and shape the Sludge genre with such ease that each track slides out of the speakers in a haze of murky guitars, Southern-fried riffs, squalling feedback and snarling vocals.

Eyehategod have come to show the pretenders and the wannabes how it’s done.

This is an essential record for any Metal fan. I can’t recommend this enough. Immediately go out and get everything that Eyehategod have ever done. This is important.

Flawless.

Boddicker – False Flag (Review)

Boddicker are from the US and play Grindcore with a healthy Sludge influence.

A short release at 13 minutes, this nevertheless allows Boddicker to flex their musical muscles and supply us with an all-you-can eat buffet of extremity.

Brutality and aggression are in bountiful supply as you would imagine and there is a Crust/Punk aspect that propels the delivery along with gusto.

Their sound is dirty and Sludge-fuelled and in addition to the standard Grind speed there is a relatively high incidence of slower, Doomier parts where the band take on the aspect of Eyehategod/Buzzov-en and destroy the listener with heaviness and slow-core battery.

The vocalist sounds suitably unhinged and bellows at the top of his lungs with anger and barely suppressed rage.

A very enjoyable EP, mixing a Punk Grind sound with a tasty bit of filthy Sludge. Boddicker are to be commended and recommended.

I bet they’re amazing live.

Narbeleth – A Hatred Manifesto (Review)

This is the second album from Cuban Black Metal band Narbeleth.

This is the real deal – proper underground Black Metal come to terrorize and destroy all you hold dear.

At just over 30 minutes in length it doesn’t mess around; 7 original hymns and a Urgehal cover.

A glance at the song titles and you know what you’re getting. There’s not much mistaking a band with a song called Posercorpse.

But what about the music? It’s Blacker than Black with a better recording than you might expect, which lends the songs an air of freedom to breathe in their skins. A satisfying snare sound and a cold but vital guitar tone seals the deal.

The band play plenty of blast beats but also slow down when necessary to foster an icy, unholy air with twisting melodics; Land of the Heathen being a good example, especially as it unexpectedly features clean vocals. But then Narbeleth likes to throw in the odd unexpected move here and there; such as the guitar solo in Nihilistic Propaganda.

This is exactly what you want from Black Metal.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Narbeleth/369227176434482

Wrong – Pessimistic Outcomes (Review)

Wrong are a Black Metal band from Spain and this is their second album.

Created by two people; one from a Thrash Metal background and one from a Technical Death Metal background. From these unlikely roots an album has grown which is surprising in that it is both the epitome of what is meant to be but also pleasingly fresh and full of morbid life.

Wrong play creepy, fragile, melancholic Black Metal with a depressive/nihilistic edge akin to some of the work by Xasthur and Leviathan only not quite as minimalistic and with more of a Paradise Lost/Katatonia/etc. influence to some of the Doomier riffs; think Forgotten Tomb for some of the parts in fact.

The songs are long compositions and have many different facets to their delivery, from fast and sharp to slow and misery-laden. It’s an approach that serves them well.

The sound is suitably fuzzy and Blackened but it has a solid backbone of precise, focused drumming that grounds the band no matter what they’re playing.

Wrong take you on a Blackened nihilistic journey through the underworld, tastefully underscored by some subtle riffing and even subtler effects that hide underneath the torrent of darkness and the pounding drums.

Pessimistic Outcomes takes me back to prime-time 00’s underground Black Metal and all the associated feelings it has for me. This is a great album full of bleak melodics and nuanced moments propelled forwards by some powerful drumming, expressive riffing and scathing, slicing vocal emanations.

If you only have a choice of one album full of emotive Black Metal this month then make it Wrong.

0 – Simplifying a Demon (Review)

0 is a Greek one-man experimental Black/Doom Metal project. The aim is to see “how far one man with one voice and a four string bass can go”.

So what do we get? There are 7 tracks and just under 35 minutes of music on this release. As is expected it’s ultra-minimalistic stuff, but surprisingly there actually is more going on here than you might be expecting.

An obvious reference point would be the minimalistic bleak Doom landscapes created by Khanate. 0 don’t have anywhere near the same length in songs though, and if anything 0 are even more minimal as Khanate employed a full band of musicians with various other instruments and sounds rearing their ugly heads in their work. It’s a good starting point for what 0 sound like however, and obviously there’s more of a Black Metal feel to the tracks here as well.

The Blackened Drone displayed on Simplifying a Demon is really well done; at first it may be slightly jarring listening to just bass and shrieking, but you very soon get into the zone and slowly the atmosphere overtakes you and you just start sinking into the riffs and the dirge.

The vocals are a revelation in some ways – unexpectedly rhythmic and, almost, catchy. The pronounced accent to the words works strange wonders with the measured incantations and they seem to pulse with an inner malevolence that has an innate feel for timing and pace.

As time goes on I find this more and more endearing and enjoyable. It really is the very definition of a record that grows on you. Of course I’m aware that it will also be somewhat of an acquired taste for most people, but I enjoy this more than I thought I would so maybe you will to?

Give 0 a listen – you may surprise yourself.

The Lustmord – Trapped in Purgatory (Review)

This is the latest EP from US Death Metal band The Lustmord.

The Lustmord have a nice line in rumbling, bouncy Death Metal with throat-shredding vocals. The singer rasps and growls his way through the tracks like his life depends on it, (maybe it does), while the rest of the band bring the Metal.

They’re billed as Blackened Death Metal, but in all honesty I don’t hear any Black Metal on this EP. Instead they play a mixed brand of Death Metal that incorporates everything from elements of Deathcore to the galloping riffs of Classic Metal.

There is bass! Believe it or not The Lustmord are a band that actually use their bass player in an audible and useful way. Bonus marks for that.

The band are quite proficient at adopting a few different styles from within the Death Metal pantheon and vary between brutality, mid-paced crunch and Melodic Death Metal with apparent ease. They mainly stay in the mid-to-a-bit-faster speed range for the most part and have plenty of riffs that make you want to jump up and down and smash things before speeding up the tempo with some faster drums and a bit of double-bass.

In addition to all of this they also toy with some interesting ideas on occasion; unexpected atmosphere appears in Zombie Disease with subtle effects playing in the background that enhance how catchy the song is and create a suitably spooky atmosphere. It sounds akin to something Six Feet Under might experiment with.

The final song In One-Hundred Years has a playful Incantation-Doom-esque feel in addition to some Classic Metal licks and even a bit of orchestration. It comes off a bit Godgory in practice and it’s nice to hear.

It’s good that The Lustmord feel free to experiment and this should only be encouraged.

A very interesting EP that sees the band playing it safe for the first three songs and then becoming increasingly bold and inventive as the EP progresses.

Recommended.

http://www.lustmord.us/

N. Tesla – Lux Manifesto (Review)

This is the début album from Russia’s N. Tesla, and they play Post-Metal.

For a relatively short release, (33 minutes), this is an ambitious and exciting release from an obviously talented band. As soon as the first track Ør-vænn begins it’s clear they trying something a bit different and have the ability to carry it off.

N. Tesla take the basic Post-Metal template of a band like Cult of Luna and make it their own with succinct, dangerous expressions of melancholy and rage.

The dynamics are all there and they add their own character to the compositions, as well as some haunting percussion, electronica and effects, that really help to build atmosphere. The songs here are shorter than the Post-Metal norm and N. Tesla accomplish much in a short period of time.

In fact, if you take Cult of Luna, shorten the songs, add an element of danger via the scathing, shrieking vocals and build in a Progressive Metal edge you’ll have an idea of where N. Tesla are coming from, and also an idea of why they’re so damn good at what they do.

The vocals are highly accomplished no matter the style that are being performed and the music follows suit with flawless delivery of all instruments.

A professional recording and production job rounds things off and all that’s left to say is that this is a hugely talented band that deserves much, much wider recognition. Let’s see what we can do about that now, shall we…?