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)”
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.
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.
Kampfar’s seventh album Profan is like a fine wine that just improves over time. Their bassist Jon Bakker gave me some insight into their world…
For those who are unfamiliar with your band – introduce yourself!
I’m Jon, the bass player of Kampfar.
Give us a bit of background to Kampfar
Kampfar came to life back in 1994. Over the years we released 7 albums via different labels. We are currently signed to Indie Recordings and our latest release, Profan, was out November last year. The last 13 years we have been a 4 piece, doing several tours in Europe and North America.
What are your influences?
We were teens in the 80s so naturally our favourite music and inspiration comes from that time. Can be everything from Heavy Metal, Thrash and early Black Metal like Kiss, Bathory, Celtic Frost, Sodom etc. Of newer times everything that makes a difference might inspire us.
What are you listening to at the moment that you would like to recommend?
There are some cool records being released nowadays. Personally I like Tribulation, Alfahanne, Mgła, Melechesh, Secrets Of The Moon and so on. I’m also into new thrash bands from Norway actually. Inculter, Reptilian and Nekromantheon rocks.
How do you feel about the Extreme Metal scene in 2016?
As I mentioned above there’s still hope for Extreme Metal. The new trend is to be different, and that may not be a bad thing. I’m pretty sick of bands trying to copy others though. It’s enough with one Abbath creature and one band like Darkthrone…
Give us a bit of background to Profan – any particular concepts or ideas you want to discuss?
The whole idea behind Profan is to dig as far down in the filth as possible. It’s a search for hope and a journey to see if there’s anything that can save mankind. If you follow the lyrics the answer is pretty clear. There’s no hope, no hymns, no chants and no mercy. But there will be fire!
Tell us about your songwriting process?
Our process works with sharing ideas. It’s a long process for sure. One song is changed many times before everyone is satisfied. Then we meet in the rehearsal room and check the live potential.
How did the recording of the album go?
Everything went very smooth. The recording was done in different levels and places. Bergen, Pärlby/Sweden and Oslo. We’re very happy with everyone involved. Jonas and Stamos did an excellent job for us.
What’s your favourite song on the album and why?
That’s difficult. I have favourites for every mood. Daimon is a killer live song while Tornekratt have a great groove and wildness.
How do you see your sound developing in the future?
To the extreme. We will not do another Profan nor Djevelmakt. If we ever find the inspiration for a new album, we will do it. If not, who knows…
What’s next for Kampfar?
We’ll play live as much as we can. We have a good package of excellent live songs now, and now its the time to get it out to the world.
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.
As I sit here listening to Collision’s latest release Satanic Surgery, it strikes me that in addition to being a very brutal record, it’s extremely well put together and just plain fun! As it’s a very enjoyable album that I keep returning to, when the opportunity arose to catch up with the band I grasped it with both hands…
For those who are unfamiliar with your band – introduce yourself!
We are Collision from the Netherlands! We play a crossover between grindcore and thrash metal with a lot of punk and hardcore influences! Collision is around for 15 or 16 years now, touring Europe and sometimes we will make an album… like we just did: Satanic Surgery! Released by Hammerheart Records on CD and LP.
Give us a bit of background to Collision
Collision started back in 2000, after a trying out some guitar and bass players we found the right line up for this band and we start to write songs and perform live. We were ask to do some local supports and shows on metal festivals. From one thing came another and before we knew we were in the studio recording our first album, released by Czech Republic’s grindcore label “Bizarre Leprous”. With this album in our pocket we did a lot of shows in The Netherlands, Belgium, France and Czech Republic. We changed bassist after this and now we are still in the same line-up. We just like to do a lot of shows and sometimes we record an album, a split single or some cover songs for a tribute album.
What are your influences?
Old school grindcore, thrash metal, hardcore and crossover in general. We are 5 individuals, but I think we all love Slayer and Napalm Death haha. More influences came from bands like Repulsion, Nasum, Wehrmacht, Stormtroopers Of Death, Brutal Truth, Municipal Waste, Dead Kennedys, Anthrax, Suffocation and more!
What are you listening to at the moment that you would like to recommend?
I’m currently listening to Skeletal Remains (groovy old school death metal, good stuff!), the latest album from Gadget (ultra fast grindcore with cool sludge and hardcore parts), Textures (awesome Dutch band) and some old school classics that are not metal like The Specials and Run D.M.C. But like I mention before, the other members will listen to complete other music then me haha.
How do you feel that you fit into the wider Metal scene?
I don’t know, we also love to play in the crust and grindcore scene… but for us it’s not about scenes etc. We just love to play and that everybody that likes grindcore, thrash metal, hardcore, death metal, punkrock etc will love our music!
Give us a bit of background to Satanic Surgery – any particular concepts or ideas you want to discuss?
Normally we sing about drinking, stupidity of religion, girls, war and horror. We used to do some politics, but that’s just not our thing.
How do you go about writing your songs?
Normally our bass player Boris will come up with some riffs. We will select our favourites and make skeletons of songs from it together with guitar player Luc. These songs are sent to our drummer Job and together we finish the song. Normally Björn (sometimes me) will come up with some lyrics and topics to scream about. Some fine-tuning and the song is finished! These days we think it’s important to have the song full of power and energy, but also needs to be catchy and have a good chorus!
I’m glad you mentioned that – is it important to for you to have a good amount of catchiness in your music, rather than focusing purely on aggression and extremity?
Hehe, I already answered this! But yes, it needs to be catchy! But we also focus a lot of aggression and extremity for sure.
What’s your favourite song on the album and why?
I don’t know, I really love to play “Necromantic Love Affair” live because of the combination of grindcore riffs with a sludgy metal break. Lyrics are also hilarious hehe. I also really like “Cripple The Cross”… faster, faster!!
Tell us about the album artwork
The artwork is done by Luis Sendon, he also did the cover from our previous album and the split 7″ with The Rotted. The concept was already clear for a few months, so it was just up to him to visualise our ideas. And I must admit, he did an awesome job!
How did the recording process go?
Surprisingly smooth! We were not that prepared like the previous album, but we made nice demos for ourselves, so we finished the job in a few recording days.
What does the future hold for Collision?
We just hope to play a lot and everywhere! We have some cool shows booked at the moment, but we are still open for more! So keep an eye at http://www.collisiongrind.nl for updates!
Thank you fort he interview and the support!
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.
This is a split release between two of Doom’s darkest stars, Primitive Man from the US and Sea Bastard from the UK.
Both excel at what they do and having both of them on one release is quite an exciting prospect.
Primitive Man start us off with two tracks of the grimmest, most evil Sludge-fuelled Doom that there is. It’s 17 minutes of agonised pain and hatred. After many releases, (here, here and here, for example), I still can’t get enough of the horribly bleak noises that they make.
Colossally heavy and nihilistically bleak, Primitive Man always deliver the goods, and on this split it seems that the goods are well past their best-before-date and covered in filth and dirt.
The singer has hands-down one of the best pitch-black growls I’ve ever heard and when his voice first makes an appearance on Cold Resolve it’s like being floored by a truck. That’s if the slow, crushing guitars haven’t flattened you before then. The song proceeds to crawl across your broken corpse, all distorted malice and squealing feedback, slowly pressing you into the ground until there’s nothing left.
The second song of theirs is the shorter of the two, yet is no less nasty for it. Servant starts off with a feedback squeal and is typically crushing from then on in, once again showing off the kind of high-quality Doom that the band have become known for. Dripping with spite and rage-fuelled negativity, as the track unfolds things just get heavier and darker until the playing time is mercifully over.
But there’s no real breather, as we now have Sea Bastard’s colossal near-20 minute behemoth of a track, The Hermit, to deal with.
Like Primitive Man, Sea Bastard keep unleashing quality releases on the world, (here, for example), and this is no exception.
Sea Bastard’s Sludge Metal is less dripping with filth than Primitive Man’s, but no less effective for it. Previously I’ve described them as similar to Bongripper only with screams and growls, and that’s not a band starting point for initial reference.
Sea Bastard specialise in settling into a slow-burning crawling-groove, with a mesmerising heaviness drawing the listener in and repeating itself over and over, but never to the point of where the listener loses interest. This is enticing and hypnotic, and just when you can’t take it any more the band shift gears or change riffs and the suffocating Doom takes on a different edge, no less crushing than the last.
The screamed vocals are the perfect accompaniment to the music’s guitars, and the combination of the two produces a very satisfying feeling deep in the stomach where the bass seems to have set up home.
Picking up the pace a bit halfway through, the band show that it’s not just slow riffs that they can peel off with ease. This doesn’t last, of course, and once spent the juggernaut returns to a malevolent crawl as the song claws its way to conclusion.
The Hermit is just as good as anything the band have released, and combined with Primitive Man’s side of the split this is a pretty damn essential Doom release for anyone who’s into this kind of thing.
DOOM!
Upon the release of their fourth album Bogefod, Sarke have unleashed a shambling horror of an album on an unsuspecting world. Dark, sinister and mysterious, it’s an album I can’t stop listening to and keep returning to again and again. I wanted to find out a little bit more about this impressive release…
For those who are unfamiliar with your band – introduce yourself!
I am Sarke, plays bass. I am the main songwriter in Sarke.
Give us a bit of background to Sarke
Sarke started out as a solo act. After tons of band releases I wanted to release an album were I did almost everything myself. Write all the song and lyrics, play all the instruments and produce the album. The album did well and the record company wanted to release more albums. I did not feel like doing another solo album, so I got together a full line up band.
What are your influences?
My influences are Norwegian nature like forests, mountains, lakes. Paintings by Kittelsen. Music from the 70s and 80s.
What are you listening to at the moment that you would like to recommend?
I don’t listen to much these days. When we play concerts ourself I focus on our own music.
How do you feel that you fit into the wider Black Metal scene?
Sarke is not only a black metal band. Our music has a big range. We have a lot of different style in our music. The members of Sarke have played all kind of metal.
Give us a bit of background to Bogefod – any particular concepts or ideas you want to discuss?
Bogefod is a concept album. Its based on a 1000 year old Viking saga. Its about Torolv Bogefod, a Viking king that dies, comes back from the dead and terrorises the village as a walking dead.
Tell us about the album artwork
It’s done by Terje Johnsen. The artwork is taken from the movie SAGA, a film that Sarke is involved in and has also made a lot of the music in the film.
How do you go about writing your songs?
Its mostly written at home on acoustic guitar. We finish the song at rehearsal with the whole band. And usually add some riffs or parts together to make it work, so we get a complete song.
How did the recording process go?
It worked out great. We planned the recording process in advance. We start with drums. Acoustic drums with no trigging and so on. Then guitar, bass, keys and then Nocturno comes and do the vocals as the last thing.
What’s your favourite song on the album and why?
Hard for me to pick one song. Maybe Taken because of the guitar solo.
What does the future hold for Sarke?
Not easy to say, but hopefully we will get some good shows and the people will check out Bogefod.
This is the second album from Funeral Whore, who are a Death Metal band from The Netherlands.
We have briefly met Funeral Whore before, during their very tasty split with Obscure Infinity – Summon the Undead.
Funeral Whore play old-school Death Metal that reeks of the crypt and lands somewhere between Incantation, Bolt Thrower and Dismember in style.
As on their split with Obscure Infinity, Funeral Whore are, (deliberately), rough around the edges, lending their music a real underground feeling.
Heavy riffs and hammering drums crush and destroy while deep, gruff vocals belch out obscenities. The songs drip with old-school malevolence, sinister leads and dark melodies.
It’s easy to enjoy this kind of atavistic Death Metal, especially when it’s written with songs and mood in mind as these tracks clearly are. Funeral Whore know what they’re doing, it seems.
If you have any love for the old-school style of Death Metal then it’s worth checking out Funeral Whore as Phantasm is a very satisfying listen.
Wonderbox Metal 