Kaosophia are a Ukrainian Black Metal band and this is their début album.
Kaosophia play occult Black Metal with plenty of speed and bite that’s inspired by the likes of Gorgoroth, Watain and Marduk.
The riffs are Blackened and the melodies evil. On top of this though the band also use some tasty Thrash-inspired riffs on occasion. It’s not a huge part of their sound but it’s there.
The vocals are hateful croaking screams that may be the norm for the genre but are still performed well.
Kaosophia operate at all speeds and manage to create dark atmospheres regardless of whether they’re blasting out at full throttle or creeping around much slower. Either way, the Blackened melodies and writhing riffs give an impression of grandeur and horror.
This is a really enjoyable 46 minutes of music. This is the kind of Black Metal that it’s easy to like; a well-recorded and well-written slice of apocalyptic hymnals.
A Secret Revealed have recently released their début album The Bleakness. Bleak it may be, but it’s also a Post-Metal tour de force. Join me, as we attempt to pierce the darkness…
For those who are unfamiliar with your band – introduce yourself!
Hi! And first of all: Thank you for the interview! We are A Secret Revealed, a five piece band from Würzburg/Germany. We play Post-Metal anchored in melody with equal measures of Black Metal and Hardcore influences and just released our first full length album “The Bleakness” via Bastardized Recordings.
Give us a bit of history to A Secret Revealed
The band was founded in 2012. After releasing our first EP “Lay My Memories To Rest“ we had several line-up changes and played shows with Bands like “Agrypnie“, “Der Weg Einer Freiheit“, “Ära-Kra” and many more. In 2014 we found our final line-up and recorded our début album in collaboration with Nikita Kamprad. We know each other for a long time from different bands in our hometown and so it was quite natural to form a band.
What are your influences?
All our band members have different musical backgrounds, so our musical influences are quite various and reach from Post-Rock to Black Metal or even Pop. Overall other Post-Metal Bands like Devil Sold His Soul, Cult of Luna or Pelican are the biggest influence for us.
What are you listening to at the moment that you would like to recommend?
At the moment I’m listening to a lot of bands. But these I’d like to highly recommend. If you don’t know them, you should give them a listen:
Fjørt – D’Accord
Der Weg Einer Freiheit – Stellar
Capsize – The Angst in My Veins
Red Apollo – Altruist
Polar – Shadowed by Vultures
Oathbreaker – Maelstrøm
Devil Sold His Soul – Blessed & Cursed
What did you want to achieve with your new album?
Of course we also wanted to reach more people with the album, but most of all it’s very important to us, that everyone who listens to “The Bleakness” can feel the atmosphere and empathize with the deep despair that we pack into our songs.
How do you write your songs?
Our guitarist Ralle and I usually compose all our songs at home and record a pre-production of them. After everyone in the band listened to it and approved it, we rehearse them and work on small changes if necessary. Once a song is instrumentally finished Lukas or our vocalist Paul add the lyrics to the song.
Your sound takes in a wide-range of different styles. How did you decide what you wanted to incorporate into the album?
To be honest it wasn’t a real decision which styles made it into the album, it all happened completely natural when we wrote the songs. Nevertheless the most important thing for us is that, whatever kind of idea someone comes up with, the idea/the riff should support the atmosphere and fit into the song.
Are you happy with the final result?
We are very pleased with the final outcome. For our recordings we collaborated with Nikita Kamprad (Der Weg Einer Freiheit) who is responsible for the powerful and differentiated sound we wanted to achieve. We are very satisfied how everything worked out in the end. Of course there are always some new ideas and stuff that came into our minds after finishing the record, but these ideas have to wait for the next songs.
What’s you favourite song on the album and why?
This is a real hard one. Eventhough i like every song in its own way, I personally like “Drowning” the most. This song changes between fast blast beats and slow atmospheric clean parts and the guest vocals of Nikita make this one very unique.
What can you tell us about the lyrics and theme of the album?
We think the whole album is very good summed up by our title “The Bleakness”. All of our songs deal with a lot of personal struggles, disappointments and experiences. Even though every song stands on its own, they all create a melancholic and oppressive ambiance and make the album work in its entirety.
How do you see your songs/direction developing in the future?
That’s hard to say, because we just released the album, but there are already some new ideas coming up. We think that our songs probably will be longer and a little bit more atmospheric.
What does the future hold for A Secret Revealed?
Near-future plans are definitely booking shows and promoting our first full length record. We don’t really know where this journey will take us and what we can expect to happen but we are highly motivated and can’t wait for the upcoming months.
This is the fourth album from Swedish Death Metallers Entrails.
Upon pressing play you’re greeted with some ominous bells. What follows is authentic Old-School Swedish Death Metal, and everything that this much-loved/maligned sub-genre offers.
Obliteration has a crushing sound and features the full compliment of chainsaws, as is normally expected from the style. Everything sounds great and the music immediately sucks you in.
I do have a soft-spot for this type of Death Metal it’s true, but this is such an honest style of brutality that it’s hard not to be captivated by it.
The band write good songs and good riffs. That alone should be enough to endear them to most metalheads in my opinion. Add to this the strong production and vocals that sound like they’ve been dredged up from the deepest pit and Obliteration is a very well-rounded album.
The best thing, though, is the songs themselves. They have an energy to them that cannot be denied and it’s clear that the band still have a healthy passion for the style even though this is their fourth full-length outing.
Coupled with the quality riffing is the Swedish Death Metal melody that we know and love. Then there’s the catchy songs with decent choruses; this is a recipe for a winner, not to mention what I can only imagine is a phenomenal live show.
A very impressive album. Entrails demonstrate once more why they’re at the top of the heap when it comes to Swedish Death Metal.
For fans of Grave, Dismember, Unleashed, Entombed, and the like.
Agonie are a Black Metal band from Germany. This is their début EP.
Here we have three tracks, just under 16 minutes of Black Metal, consisting of two original songs and a Zerfall cover.
This is very honest, authentic Black Metal with a great sound and a real feeling of darkness emanating from it.
Razor-sharp croaking screams and blasting frosted riffs propel the band through the 3 tracks in seemingly no time at all.
The Blackened melodies employed by Agonie are very, very enjoyable. Something about them just screams quality. Whether they play fast or lock into a groove the band milk every riff for its full potential and still have enough left over for the drums and vocals to not seem like complete afterthoughts.
This kind of pure Black Metal is always a pleasure to listen to and Nemesis sounds as if it could have come straight out of the 90’s in many ways. This is not about recapturing lost glories though, it’s about the here and now and what they have to offer Black Metal in 2015. The answer? Great fucking tunes.
The pacing is right and each song succeeds in offering a transcendent listening experience where the listener is transported to some dark, evil dimension and plagued by daemons. It doesn’t sound fun and it’s not supposed to, but for those select few who thrive on such things Agonie provide an exquisite experience for those with tastes that run to the esoteric.
Kind of a cross between the rolling atmospheric nature of Vinterriket, the classic template of Darkthrone and the occult stylings of Nehëmah.
The final track is a cover of a song by a band named Zerfell. They’re not a band I know but the track fits well with the other two and if anything is the more aggressive of the three.
By crikey this is good. I genuinely can’t wait for a full length from these.
Ululate is a one-man Chinese Death Metal band and this is his second album.
His take on Death Metal is one drenched in horror and cannibalism. It’s an Old-School brand that has lost none of its teeth despite its age.
Ululate play Death Metal as it was originally intended and infuses dark melodies with enough morbidity and graveyard rot that in some ways it’s hard to believe it’s 2015 when you listen to it.
Classic riffs and winding melodies work their way into your mind and soon the Metal is all that matters once more. There is some quality riffage on display here and the songwriting skills of the brain behind the band is highly polished, even if the music is not.
Back to Cannibal World combines a few different Old-School sub-genres into one thoroughly foetid release. It’s a difficult sound to pin down in some ways, as it incorporates elements of bands such as Immolation, Autopsy, Incantation and Cannibal Corpse.
Ultimately this is just a really good Death Metal album, regardless of how one chooses to classify or talk about it. It has a whole bunch of interesting riffs, flawlessly delivered deep growls and songs that hit the spot. When you want an Old-School Death Metal fix that sounds fresher than most, Back to Cannibal World is where it’s at.
Gutter Instinct are a Swedish Death Metal band and this is their début EP.
Upon pressing play you’re immediately confronted with a massive Swedish chainsaw sound and the band firmly set out their agenda for musical destruction in the first ten seconds.
This is authentic Swedish Death Metal and yes, I’m an absolute sucker for this style.
The band rage and roar along the 18 minutes playing time of this EP with all of the abandon of a giant running through a sea of delicate flowers. Or some other, more manly image. Whatever.
The vocals are a particular delight, as they’re utterly guttural, bestial and gruff in all of the best ways.
The guitars are heavy and have the tone all right. The band generally go for a little less macabre melody than a lot of Swedish Death Metal and instead opt for a more brutal approach; the melodies are still employed but the rhythms are the main stars of the show.
As an introduction to the band this is more than capable. Swedish Death Metal is a much maligned sub-genre in many ways, but as I’ve said before – what’s not to like here?
Creeping Flesh are from Sweden and play Death Metal. That’s right, it’s Swedish Death Metal time again! This is their latest EP.
Well, you just can’t keep a good sub-genre down, despite what some may wish. I have a bit of a fondness for this particular style of Death Metal so I was looking forward to checking this out.
War Metal. Swedish Death Metal. Old-School Death Metal. Whichever way you cut it, this is this stuff, right here.
Straight away the chainsaws are revved and the macabre melodies are introduced. Creeping Flesh waste no time in making their intentions known.
Heavy riffs are dropped like bombs and a deep growling bellowing is unleashed on an unsuspecting populace. Like all Swedish Death Metallers, Creeping Flesh recognise a good marching groove when they get themselves into one.
This EP boasts a strong recording and everything sounds crushing. More importantly, the band show themselves to have some good songwriting skills and the 5 tracks on Rising Terror hit the spot.
Dark melodies, chugging riffs and decent leads/solos mean this is a very satisfying way to spend 23 minutes and a very solid lump of Swedish Death Metal.
Killing Addiction are a Death Metal band from the US. This is their latest EP.
This is a short, two track EP that lasts 8 minutes and showcases Killing Addiction’s brand of brutality.
They open up with the first song Promethean. The style is that of Old-School Death Metal and the band sound suitably heavy and gritty.
Deep, growling vocals share their time with higher, rasping screams, and both are performed well.
The rolling guitars and double bass lay a firm bedrock for the band to do their stuff. A few melodic leads poke out here and there and there’s a good solo about two thirds of the way through.
Top work for track one. What’s next?
Well, after that we’re onto the final track Legacies of Terror. This song is shorter than the first and starts off with some nice drumming before launching into its mid-paced assault.
The higher screams start us off and some thunderous chugging follows soon after. The deep growls once more sound quite cavernous and do a good job of sounding rough and gruff.
Overall both of these songs are solid slabs of Death Metal and hold a lot of promise for the future.
Lifestream are a French Black Metal band and this is their début album.
Lifestream play their Black Metal in a dark and atmospheric style that recalls the Norwegian scene at its height, and Emperor in particular.
Well-written songs are powered by blast beats and bile. Twisted guitars and winding, atypical melodies are used frequently to create unexpected avenues of musical exploration.
Keyboards are used to add extra layers, but not overly so; they enhance the overall atmosphere of the songs without drawing needless attention to themselves.
The songs draw you in and enclose you in a shroud of darkness that you’re only too happy to be smothered by. This is an ambitious and atmospheric release from a promising new aspirant and Lifestream show that they have what it takes to play in the big leagues.
An album like this draws influence from the Norwegian style, as mentioned, but also contains enough quintessential elements of the French scene to be identifiable as such. Underground, occult and inscrutable; Lifestream have created an ambitious and impressive 53 minutes of supreme Black Metal art.
Daemonium are a Ukrainian Black Metal band and this is their début album.
Here we have a release full of savage Black Metal with a distinct Scandinavian quality and lots of evil feelings.
Evoking the spirit of bands like Marduk, Dark Funeral and Naglfar, as well as Dimmu Borgir and a taste of Emperor; Daemonium proceed to blast and pound their way through these songs like they really mean it.
This is somewhat of a nostalgia-inducing release for me as it takes me back to the late 90s period of Black Metal. This is no bad thing really, as Имя Мне Легион is produced, performed and delivered with real passion and bile.
The singer has a great, throaty rasp that is perfect for this style of music. He’s not adverse to going deeper too and his vocals never seem too far away from the action.
This album is packed full to the brim with Blackened, frosty melodies and razorblade riffing. Subtle keybaords lurk in the background adding extra flavour and their contribution shouldn’t be discounted.
I do enjoy this style of balls-to-the-wall occult Black Metal. The feeling of malevolent brutality and otherworldly sped-up hatred is a tough one to beat. The fact that it also comes wrapped up with an extra atmospheric element, thanks to the keyboards, is just a bonus.
Although the style is an old one, Daemonium play their Black Metal with such enthusiasm that it’s hard to be dismissive; plus the fact that they genuinely seem to know what they’re doing means they have written a really enjoyable album.
I’d definitely recommend this one for your further investigations.
Kaosophia are a Ukrainian Black Metal band and this is their début album.
