Kafirun are from Canada and play Black Metal. This is their latest EP.
After their enjoyable début release Death Worship, Kafirun return with more True Black Metal to assault the masses with.
Kafirun play their Black Metal extremely well. It’s authentic, pitch-black and full of malevolent feeling.
The songs are like hymns to darkness and the relatively varied and emotive vocal delivery leads the sermon in ritualistic worship.
There’s a touch of Mayhem and Deathspell Omega to their Black Metal assault, both in the vocals and music.
The band have a really good sound – it’s raw enough to have the Black Metal aesthetic without it detracting from the overall performance as it’s also thick and balanced enough to be an enjoyable listen.
It’s only a short EP at 21 minutes in length, but each track showcases the band’s songwriting skill and passion for Black Metal.
Kafirun have shown us once again that they’re ones to watch. Keep it up!
Corpo-Mente are from France and this is their début album.
Now this is something a bit different, a bit special.
This is exotic, sensual music that combines Dark Rock, Trip-Hop and Electro Avant-Garde.
This is powerful stuff that grips from the start with its highly individualistic sound.
The songs seem to slip and slide through the musical landscape and they seem to pulse with a deeply vibrant internal heat. The way the album moves through the running time is almost carnal in nature.
The vocals are operatic in nature and yet somehow still manage to remain intimate and personal. The singer has a strong voice and is extremely talented at what she does. She injects personality and charismatic inflection into the singing which results in the music avoiding the trap of rather faceless, impersonal operatic vocals that some bands who employ them can sometimes fall into.
The music is multi-textural and richly evocative of sumptuous soundscapes. It’s also filled with haunting melodies and quite beautiful compositions. There is a definite darkness here, sometimes quite menacing in tone.
With enough “hair-standing-on-end” moments to stop anyone in their tracks, this is a must. What a highly accomplished collection of songs!
If you like bands like Ulver, Lethe, Manes, etc. then this is a definite highlight to be seized.
A surprise and a pleasure; Corpo-Mente have made a firm fan here.
Hellripper is a one-man Black Metal band from Scotland and this is his first release.
If you’re anything like me, when you think of one-man Black Metal bands you tend to think of the longer, darker end of the Black Metal spectrum; crazed loners creating malevolent art that sprawls aeons of textured oblivion.
What you probably don’t think of is raw, underground, Speed Metal infused Black Metal. This entire EP is shorter than the average one-man Black Metal project’s song length.
This is ugly and primitive but not without character. The riffs have attitude and it’s like a Blackened Motörhead mixed with Impaled Nazarene or Audiopain and a sprinkling of early Kreator.
The songs are good, much better than you might think. The more I listen to it the more I think of a Blackened version of Kreator, when they first started off and were all spikes and attitude. Hellripper are cut from the same bloody cloth.
Short, loose and surprisingly catchy, Hellripper have produced an enjoyable ride through the worst part of town.
Jaded Star are based in Greece and play Melodic Heavy Metal. This is their début album.
Featuring former members of Iced Earth and Visions of Atlantis, you know straight away that this is going to be competently and professionally played before you even hear it.
This is modern Melodic Heavy Metal with a state-of-the-art recording and songs that are catchy and memorable. Electronic enhancements are subtle and don’t detract from the Metal core of the band.
I quite enjoyed Cast Away by Visions of Atlantis, but it suffered under the shadow of the mighty Nightwish. I never heard them after that. Fast forward 11 years and The now ex-singer of Visions of Atlantis has come into her own and the performance on Memories from the Future is faultless. She has a great voice that combines power and melody in the right amounts to bring these songs to life with anthemic vigour.
She also doesn’t play it entirely safe, as she injects more variety into these tracks than a lot of similarly-styled singers try to do. Commendable.
Musically you might expect Metal-by-numbers, but the sound, although professional, is surprisingly organic and fresh for a band within this genre. The musicianship certainly is first rate and there are enough leads and solos to provide a meaty feast but without becoming ostentatious as can be the case with some European Power Metal.
These songs are energetic bundles of hummable Metal that don’t commit the cardinal sins that a lot of bands of this style do – overly commercial, weak guitars, generic songs, etc. – Jaded Star avoid all of these by providing a much more personal take on a style that is, by now, well-worn at best.
This kind of music is never going to be innovative or new, but that’s not the point; there is, however, a much needed injection of individuality and true passion into the genre, as a lot of bands of this ilk can sound same-y and boring. I’m extremely pleased with Jaded Star though as they remind me of what I first loved about female-fronted Metal when I first started listening to it in earnest over a decade and a half ago, (gulp!).
Jaded Star have reaffirmed my love for this kind of music and I can honestly and heartily recommend Memories from the Future. Had your fill of this style? Weary of the same old stuff? Give Jaded Star a try and watch your passion re-ignite.
This is the début album from UK Metal band The Sanity Days.
At a first glance of the album cover, you’d be forgiven for expecting some form of modern Metalcore; how wrong you’d be! This is classic Heavy Metal mixed with a touch of Thrash Metal for good measure.
The singer has a dirty voice that sounds really good against the Metal riffs. His is a charismatic style infused with plenty of character and personality. He reminds me most of Jon Oliva. In fact, if you think of this band as a more Metal version of Jon Oliva’s Pain with a slight Thrash influence then you’ll have a good idea of where Evil Beyond Belief is coming from.
With the musicians all being veterans of other bands, there are no problems with the musicianship and performance on this release. A professional production gives everything the chance to sound first-rate and overall this is an album that makes an impression.
As with everything of this nature though, it’s the songs that really matter. The tracks on Evil Beyond Belief are catchy and memorable, making for an enjoyable album.
The songs are largely on the longer side, with, as the basis of a track, the band relying a lot on rhythms that are drawn out a bit longer than might normally be the case. This is a common idea in, say, Doom or Post-Metal, but one less explored in Heavy Metal. I find it does work here, but I imagine it would be quite an individual response. What works for me I can imagine sounding repetitive or boring to others. It’s not pure repetition for the sake of it though, and it’s frequently accompanied with quality vocals/leads/solos.
This is almost 65 minutes of quality Heavy Metal, classic in style, modern in delivery. And do you know what? It really hits the spot.
This is the début album by US Traditional Heavy Metallers Wicked Inquisition.
We’ve met this very promising band before with their previous EP Silence Thereafter. This EP was Traditional Heavy Metal mixed with Doom Metal and the band’s new album continues this theme.
This is song-oriented catchy music that should be instantly recognisable to anyone into Classic Metal. Add to that some 70’s vibes and a bit of Traditional Doom and you have a recipe for a corker of a listen.
Warm, heavy riffs are the mainstay of the band’s music and they certainly know how to write them. Gorgeous leads and solos add colour to an already vibrant package and Wicked Inquisition show they’re more than ready for the big leagues now.
The singer has a relaxed, strong voice that he carries effortlessly. It works as a focal point for the confidently-executed music and brings the songs and the multitude of riffs together.
A highly recommended listen for anyone into Heavy Metal.
Outre are a Black Metal band from Poland and this is their début album.
After their début EP and their split with Thaw, this has been an eagerly awaited release from these talented Black Metallers.
Theirs is a form of Black Metal that combines Atmospheric Black Metal with a Post-Black Metal sensibility to create transcendent Dark Art.
This is a band who are no stranger to pure Blackened brutality either though, as there are plenty of faster and heavier sections in their music as well as the more atmospheric and considered ones.
Ghost Chants features sophisticated and modern Black Metal that’s more Deathspell Omega than Darkthrone. The songs are exemplars of the style and this is a very professional and well-recorded album that nonetheless loses none of Black Metal’s inherent venom or antagonism.
The exceptional vocals this time around add an entire other layer to Outre’s sound, especially with the extremely talented vocalist they have employed. The vocals on Ghost Chants are diverse and brilliantly performed. Taking in pretty much all aspects of a Black Metal performance that you can think of, these are a crowning addition to an already superb band.
Ghost Chants is an exceptional release by an extremely gifted troupe of Black Metallers.
Porta Nigra are from Germany and this is their second album. They play Black Metal.
This is atypical, eccentric Black Metal that has a marching, martial feel to it as well as diverse other influences lurking around its dark underbelly.
The largely mid-paced assault is of a more individual variety than the usual Darkthrone-influenced one that you might expect.
Additionally, the extra sounds and noises in the form of samples, trumpets, keyboards and other instruments introduce aspects of their sound that further mark them out as different from the pack.
The vocals are varied screams and shouts as well as the occasional clean. Coupled with the charismatic music you never know quite what’s going to happen next on the album.
The songs have a Black Metal identity that’s further added to by elements of Heavy Metal, Punk and Avant Garde, depending on the whims of the band members it seems. It all sounds remarkably coherent however and as a whole the album works.
Lots of different moods and styles around these core musical themes are explored and Porta Nigra have impressed with their ability to create a diverse body of work on Kaiserschnitt.
This is a band who have completely stamped their own personality onto the Black Metal template and have produced an album that stands apart and stands strong.
Profanity are from Germany and play Brutal/Technical Death Metal. This is their latest EP.
The band have a strong presence and their Death Metal is tight and precise.
Profanity have a sound that combines the Brutal, the Technical and the Progressive all in three songs, 20 minutes. As they’ve been around since 1993 they clearly know the sound they want and are experienced enough to achieve it, (even if this is the band’s first release in over a decade).
They manage to combine these aforementioned sub-genres in such a way that the end result borrows from both the New School and a more timeless brand of Death Metal.
The songs are intelligently composed and the extended, (for the style), running time of the songs, (or two of them at least), allows the band the space to really work themselves into a Technical/Progressive frenzy.
The vocalist is blessed with a deep, growling roar and he sounds utterly inhuman.
The production is strong and the band can all really play. I also love the bass; I love a band who actually use the bass as an integral part of their sound and here it has a chance to shine like the rest of the instruments. There’s even a bit of a bass solo!
Let me calm myself down a bit before I continue. The excitement is too much.
However, exciting is a good word for Profanity. Not in a high energy way, (although they have plenty of that), but just from the sheer rush of speed, brutality and technical mayhem that the band so easily and effortlessly dish out.
I must confess I’d never encountered Profanity before this. If Hatred Hell Within is anything to go by it’s definitely my loss as this EP is a sterling release by this band. It promises extremely good things for the future and here’s to their next album!
Angmaer is a one man Black Metal band from the UK. This is Angmaer’s début album.
This is raw, Old-School Black Metal with a cold sound and an even colder heart.
Angmaer is the sound of a horrific curse, born of its Scandinavian forefathers and birthed into an uncaring underground world where it has slowly been uncoiling and feasting on lesser entities.
This will take you right back to when you first heard badly recorded Black Metal back in the early 90’s and it all sounded so visceral and nasty. Toward Darkness’ Paradise harken’s unashamedly back to this era.
The vocals are acidic and burn upon exposure. They’re performed as well as any in this genre and really have a sharp, frosty tang to them.
The songs have plenty of aggression but also slow the pace where necessary. The darkened feelings and Blackened atmospheres are cultivated through every part of these songs and it really does almost feel as if you’ve stepped back in time.
This is also a release that looks to the future though. Reliving past glories is one thing, but the riffs here have their own take on Black Metal’s infernal light; Norway filtered through the UK.
Time to support the underground and check out Toward Darkness’ Paradise.
Kafirun are from Canada and play Black Metal. This is their latest EP.
Wonderbox Metal 