Wonderbox Metal

Never to Arise – Gore Whores on the Killing Floor (Review)

This is the second album from US Death Metallers Never to Arise.

Never to Arise play Death Metal that combines elements of Technical and Melodic Death Metal, producing an album that never strays too far in either direction.

The main focus is on utter brutality and evil, although this doesn’t mean blast beats all of the time; there are plenty of decent riffs and leads/solos included to satiate fans of Death Metal songs, and enough hooks and spikes to keep the blood flowing nicely.

This is a strange release in some ways, but I can’t quite put my finger on why. I suspect it has something to do with a combination of the vocals and guitars. Both sound a little off-kilter; a lot of the riffs are subtly atypical and the grunting vocals may be standard in many ways, but these too have an unusual edge to them, like they’re being filtered through something…something slightly out-of-sync with reality as we know it.

Now, whether or not any of this is a bad or a good thing will be down to the individual listener. In my case, it’s mostly a good thing as it marks Never to Arise as different from the Death Metal pack. Add to this songs that are actually pretty well-written and you have 41 minutes of enjoyable barbarity.

Classic Death Metal with a strange, unnatural sheen? Born from the underworld just for your ears? Very nice. Maybe Never to Arise’s band name will be proven false after all.

Livid – Sint (Review)

Livid are a Doom Metal band from the US. This is their début release.

Featuring two tracks and a running time of 23 minutes, this is a murky, dirty introduction to a new band that shows a lot of promise for the future.

Monk-like clean vocals, huge, Sludge-drenched riffs, warm, earthy drums and a nasty, filthy bass sound mean that Livid easily have what it takes to make a mark.

The music is divided into two parts. On the first, we’re introduced to Livid’s hypnotic, trance-like qualities that they inject into their music, borne out of the repetitive dirge of the low and lazy riffing style and wandering drums.

The vocals sail above the other instruments, a sharp contrast to the rough, Sludgy music. It’s almost as if they’re completely separate from it; untouched by the filth, decay and disease of the underworld. They’re clean in every sense of the word, like angels flying above daemonic undercurrents. It’s a beguiling juxtaposition that shouldn’t work, but it really, really does, adding to the hypnotic nature of the tracks.

As the music crawls to a close after 14 minutes, it’s time to hand things over to the second part. How does this differ from the first? Well, at just under 9 minutes it’s a bit shorter, but it also differs slightly in pace and mood, as this track is more mid-paced and lively, although this is all relative, of course, as it’s still Doom Metal.

The vocals are similar in style to the first track, albeit not quite as detached and separate. They do their job amiably, however, and the song as a whole still retains a hypnotic groove.

Livid have created something quite enjoyable here. Give them a listen.

Vehemence – Forward Without Motion (Review)

Vehemence are a Death Metal band from the US. This is their fourth album.

This is the first release after their wonderfully classic third album Helping the World to See, released a mere 11 years earlier. I always loved that one, so now that this new release has reared its head, I’m a happy bunny.

Vehemence play interesting and inventive Death Metal that has a firm melodic slant and good songwriting. If you’re a fan of this kind of Death Metal then Vehemence are one of the best; they manage to play the Melodic style while still keeping the main emphasis on Death Metal.

Sharp, concise growls are the vocal delivery of choice, and it’s nice to hear the singer’s clipped tones back in rotation once more. As always, the growls are complemented with screams and other forms of aural assault, providing a wide range of vocals to match the variety of the music.

And what music it is! Vehemence are all about the songs, with the musicianship set at a very high level. These tracks are, on average, even longer than the ones on their previous release and it’s clear that the band haven’t been lacking in ideas or creativity over the last decade or so. This is an album with a lot to say, and I’m quite happy to listen.

Lethal speed and sharp, serrated melodies fly out all over the place, making Vehemence a dangerous proposition to those unused to such a rich palette being used in Death Metal.

The tracks don’t get boring. Repeated listens merely cement the songs in your mind and lock down the fact that this is infectious, impressive stuff. Quality riffs, melodies, leads and solos make for a luscious and textured tapestry of sounds designed to entice, peak interest and satisfy those hard-to-reach cravings that you have for melodic music that still has bite and nastiness.

Getting this is a bit of a no-brainer really; make sure that you do.

Die Choking – III (Review)

This is the debut album from US Grinders Die Choking.

After two very good-but-short EPs, (I and II), we now get III; this time, it’s longer.

Although not by much, really. Here we have a whole 14 minutes of tightly-compressed angry music. After the promise of the two EPs, this release lives up to my expectations.

The music is modern Grindcore full of extremity and rage, burning everyone around it with its intensity and brutality.

Their sound has progressed and developed from their earlier Grindings into an even more focused expression of hatred and violence. The vocals have improved and seem buried in the music in such a way it seems impossible to separate them.

Each song may be short, but they still manage to pack in a lot of content, with quite a few different sub-styles of Grind rearing their malformed heads throughout. It all adds a good degree of interest and variety in what is essentially a chaotic blast-fest of brutality and destruction. From old to new styles, from crust to modern, from Napalm Death to Misery Index; there’s a lot of meat on this violent treat.

If you’re into Grindcore, (and who isn’t, really?), then this is highly enjoyable and easily likeable.

Arrant Saudade – The Peace of Solitude (Review)

Arrant Saudade are a Funeral Doom band from the UK. This is their début album.

Featuring members of Aphonic Threnody and Abysmal Growls of Despair, you know there’s already a wealth of Doom experience and knowledge behind this release before you even hit play.

And when you do hit play, it starts off gently with piano, and then slowly awakens a the sleeping spirit of despair.

Slow, drawn-out and dripping with lost hope, these 5 songs take 44 minutes out of your life only to replace them with a very real and visceral sense of woe and misery.

Monstrous vocals are deep and unrelenting, growling their way through the solitude of the music like brutal and unwelcome guests.

So far, so Funeral Doom. But then Arrant Saudade do the unexpected and introduce clean vocals, and suddenly everything changes. Sometimes ethereal and sometimes sombre, these choir-like vocals are expertly performed and perfectly judged. When the angelic cleans soar above the beautiful music and seem to join with the resplendent melodies to create something greater than the sum of its Funeral Doom parts…it makes quite an impact I can tell you. Post-Funeral Doom? Sure, why not.

At any rate, the heavenly cleans and the dreamy, melancholic music seem to wash over you like liquid sound and it really is an uplifting and transcendent experience in many ways.

Okay, so not everything is perfect about this album – there are few which can lay claim to this grandiose title – but it’s hugely accomplished and, importantly, does something a bit different with the style. The core of the sub-genre is there with all of the hallmark traits, but The Peace of Solitude is far more emotive and atmospheric than most of its peers, gleaming with dazzling brightness and lustrous with magnificent despondency.

In some ways the growls are the weakest parts of these songs – it’s not that they’re badly done, (they’re not), it’s just that the rest of the music is so very well done that they have some catching up to do.

A relatively minor quibble though, in what is a very impressive slab of uplifting misery.

Highly recommended.

Avulsed – Altar of Disembowelment (Review)

Avulsed are a Death Metal band from Spain. This is their latest EP.

Avulsed are one of the best Death Metal bands in the world. Sorry, but that’s just a fact. Ever since I first got Stabwound Orgasm in 1999, I’ve been hooked, and that album still remains one of the best of the genre.

Their last album Ritual Zombi was full of gruesome goodies, and on this latest EP, we get a short 23 minutes of brutality, comprising 4 originals and a Black Sabbath cover.

The Avulsed seal of quality we’ve come to expect from these veterans is firmly stamped all over these tracks and the music is full of well-written songs that are catchy, memorable and filled with meaty Death Metal morsels.

Their venerated singer still sounds like the father of all Cookie Monsters and his voice, as usual, is cavernous with aggressive growls sounding larger than life and twice as deadly.

If you don’t know Avulsed, (tsk tsk), then just know that they play Classic Death Metal with plenty of catchy riffs, licks and brutal heaviness.

The production is heavy, clear and wrapped in an odour of entrails. The instruments all shine when they need to and everything is balanced and perfectly covered in blood.

Another top-quality release from Avulsed. Let’s hope they reign in bloody chunks for many years to come.

Dissident – Unleash the Violence… In Thrash We Trust (Review)

Dissident are a Thrash Metal band from Chile. This is their début album.

This is riff-heavy Thrash Metal modelled on the Old-School style and dripping with the essence of the Bay Area scene from back in the day.

In many ways these songs are all about the guitars and what they get up to – not in some form of ultra-impressive technical insanity, but rather it’s all about the riffs and the feelings the evoke. I mean, how can you not want to just bang your head and fists when listening to this?

And they sound good too, production-wise; here we have a band that have a good recording from the off – everything balanced and nicely ripping. Solos and leads are bountiful, seemingly shredded out with ease. We mustn’t neglect the drums though – these are solid and do exactly what’s required of them.

After the love that the guitars and riffs get in all of the songwriting, it’s almost as if the vocals have been included merely for completion’s sake. They’re performed adequately in a style reminiscent of old, old Anthrax, and I think once the singer develops a little more force and charisma then they’ll really come into their own.

This album rips along nicely for 46 minutes and reminds the listener that some bands are still capable of Hellishly good Thrash riffs.

Check them out and see what you think.

Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/dissidentchile

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dissident.chile

Cult of Occult – Five Degrees of Insanity (Review)

Cult of Occult are a Doom/Sludge band from France. This is their latest album.

This is a band that the word CRUSHING was designed to describe, (yes, in capitals no less). There are five songs here; 65 minutes of misanthropic content.

How to describe Cult of Occult’s nihilistic, hate-fuelled music? They essentially take all of the pissed off, angry highlights of Sludge Metal, (Eyehategod, Charger), and draw them out to epic Doom lengths, resulting in colossal slabs of misery-drenched heaviness that are so caustic and scathing that the songs seem to have a painfully physically presence.

It’s not all ugly belligerence though, as the band skilfully navigate these seas of filth in ways that seem to harness the darkness into tsunamis of torment that crash and build onto and into each other, creating thick, distressing atmospheres.

These songs are deceptively simple though, and upon closer inspection you see that there’s more going on within the oceans of distortion and heaviness than you might think on first glance. The tides of riffs and groove-laden guitars hide a songwriting-skill that belies their nasty, noxious nature.

The singer’s impressive snarl is just shades of anger and repressed rage given form and feeling. Coupled with the Doom/Sludge of the music it seems it’s finally getting the outlet it needs to spew forth its venomous diatribes.

The dirge-like, repetitive nature of the relentlessly crushing music is hypnotic in its delivery and Five Degrees of Insanity is one of those releases that can do no wrong for me.

This is addictive like the worst of drugs. You don’t just listen to this, you feel it.

Gorod – A Maze of Recycled Creeds (Review)

Gorod are a Death Metal band from France and this is their fifth album.

The band play Technical Death Metal and play it pretty damn well. Over the course of their existence they have built up a rightfully-deserved reputation for quality and on this latest release it’s easy to see why.

Gorod have always been fond of atypical, unusual, Jazz-inflected riffs and on A Maze of Recycled Creeds there seems to be even more of these than usual, which, if you’re familiar with Gorod at all, is only ever a good thing.

Another, (one of many), good things about Gorod is their inclusion of a Progressive Metal element to their music, which allows the band to lock into some astoundingly good sections as the album tears along, mindful of not letting slip any moment for greatness. This is Technical Death Metal that values songs and recognises the need for good atmosphere and feeling among the Jazz/Funk craziness and experimental brutality.

All of the instruments are shockingly well-played and Gorod are one of those seemingly-rare bands that know not only how to use a bass guitar but also that you must be able to actually hear it for it to be truly utilised correctly.

Vocally the singer has a charismatic growl that’s largely blunt and ugly, yet still seemingly refined when compared to a lot of Death Metal vocalists. His voice is put to good use throughout the songs and he has enough variety in his delivery to keep interest while still having a consistency that helps anchor the music’s more extravagant tendencies.

This is a very impressive album from a talented band. The songs are well-written and performed by veterans who are at the height of their game. If you take bands as diverse as Gorguts, Between the Buried and Me, Soilent Green, Death and The Faceless, mash them all up and condense them into 46 minutes of controlled mayhem, you’ll end up with A Maze of Recycled Creeds.

Priceless.

Praise the Flame – Manifest Rebellion (Review)

Praise the Flame are a Death Metal band from Chile. This is their début album.

This is uncompromising Death Metal with both a Thrash Metal and a Black Metal edge. It’s a murky, Old-School affair that’s ferocious and brutal but still retains a cohesive songwriting aesthetic geared towards worshipping the old Metal gods.

Deathly growls are pitch-black and cavernous. The singer sounds rough and nasty.

The music’s Death Metal core is barbarous and it’s good to see the Thrash Metal influence ramp things up a notch in the energy levels of the songs. The Black Metal influence is a bit more subtle and manifests in the air of darkness and occult evil that the songs exude.

It pleases me that they’re not just a one-trick pony either, with a decent amount of variation and pacing in the songwriting.

Like something old and ancient dredged up from lost memories, Praise the Flame have created 45 minutes of music that sounds sinister and harsh.

Enjoyable and atavistic, Manifest Rebellion does its job nicely. Prepare to rebel.