Achren are from Scotland and play Black Metal. This is their latest EP.
This is Black Metal with a healthy melodic side and a hard, Thrash edge to some of the riffs.
The vocals are mainly high pitched screeches designed to strip paint and puncture ear drums. These are joined by the occasional deeper growl that sounds quite fearsome. The vocal rhythms used are in sync with the music and are much more catchy than a lot bands playing this style. This is especially noticeable in The Eschatologist.
The White Death has a good recording and everything sounds in-your-face, much like the band themselves.
The melodic Black Metal romps along at a fair pace with the Thrashier riffs adding some groove. The songs are well-written and the band clearly know what they’re doing. The melodies are memorable and there are some very good tunes here.
The more you listen to this the more you realise that these songs are very, very good indeed and this is a very, very talented band. There’s nothing especially new or original here, (the same can be said of almost every band), but their talent and skill shows in the songs themselves – these are just incredibly strong songs.
At only 3 tracks in 15 minutes this EP provides a decent intro to the band whilst also leaving you hungry for more.
Catchy, memorable and with a good degree of bite; this is a great EP.
Favourite Track: The Eschatologist. What a brilliant song. Can’t say better than that.
Skiddaw offer us 4 tracks across 13 minutes of Black Metal.
The first track Skiddaw Forest is a short opener that’s Blackly melodic and suitably raw and frostbitten. It does its job amiably and whets the appetite for the show to begin proper. Nice use of bass, also.
Skiddaw Towers follows this with a scream. Skiddaw have a classic Black Metal sound that’s somewhere between Darkthrone and Mayhem and this song does both of these spiritual parents proud. The track rumbles along with menace and a solid double bass foundation.
The third track is named Gates of Beleth and is faster then the previous tracks with a winding riff leading the way before descending into murkier climes. There’s a sense of urgency and escape, as if being pursued by something unnameable and indescribable. Enjoyably raw, with the vocals in particular sounding especially savage on this song.
Finally we have Even Titans Fall which is even faster, more melodic and has a touch of Satyricon about it. It’s a good closer and leaves you wanting more.
Skiddaw have an energetic and enticing sound that’s bleak, windswept and icy; just how Black Metal should be.
This is Reciprocal’s second album of Technical Death Metal. They are from the US.
A strong start introduces the band and their heavy, sprawling sound to the listener. It’s complex and interlinked whilst retaining a brutality and nastiness a lot of Technical Death Metal bands are lacking in.
This is Technical Death Metal mixed up with the modern, New-School breed of crushingly Brutal Death Metal. It’s a heady combination that immediately makes you sit up and take notice of them.
The songs are long, (for Death Metal), and the band use this time to explore the labyrinthine riffs and to show off their musical chops.
They appear to have quite the mixture of influences on this release. I hear elements of Cephalic Carnage, Carcass, Spawn of Possession, Arsis, Gorguts, Decapitated and many more crammed into the technically dense songs. There is too much going on here to absorb in one listening, which is a good thing as it increases the longevity of the album.
Vocally the band incorporate pretty much all styles in the album somewhere, although high-pitched Carcass-esque screams are the most used.
The sound is absolutely immense. It sonically shines and the tracks hit home like hammers. It doesn’t get stale or boring as the band have enough variety within their framework to introduce elements of several Death Metal sub-genres; Brutal Death Metal, Melodic Death Metal and Deathcore being the main ones in addition to the core of Technical Death Metal.
New Order of the Ages is an ambitious album; 68 minutes of music with plenty of ideas and enough talent to hold it all together. Piano and samples are used liberally to help spread the band’s message and to provide breaks between bouts of swirling riffs and widdly fret-wizardry.
I heartily recommend this album to anyone who enjoys bold, challenging, heavy, technical music. If this is you then this is a must listen.
Invidiosus are from the US and they play Death Metal.
After the usual pointless intro we get dirty Death Metal with a Grind influence. It’s foetid, riffy, and full of rotten warmth.
The singer has an impressive growl. Deep and satisfying, straight from the bowels. Nice. The higher screeches are good too.
This is a kind of timeless Death Metal that might take cues from the past but is quite content in the present also. It’s heavy and fast, but also allows moments of technicality into the fray as well as slower, more considered parts.
The riffs rip and the drums pound. The gritty nature of the recording works in the band’s favour and overall this is a most enjoyable ride down the Death Metal canal of grisly delights.
The Order of the Solar Temple are from Canada and play Heavy Metal/Rock.
This is Old-School with elements of Classic Rock, Doom Metal and Psychedelic Rock.
The band have a very warm, laid back sound that instantly makes you feel at ease like a welcome old friend.
The singer has an excellent voice; he’s soft and exquisite, or ultra-high and maniacal, or deep and melodramatic…He has character and personality that’s for sure and puts in a stellar performance.
Coming across as a mix of Blue Öyster Cult, (who they also cover), Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and Merciful Fate, this is an enjoyable way to spend 45 minutes when you’re in that retro mood.
There really is some great material here! The singer has a forceful presence and some of these riffs are just epic in scope and feeling.
I thoroughly recommend you listen to this and experience the band first-hand. May you be drawn into their world…
Favourite Track: Aeon of Horus. Everything from the vocal delivery to the tense guitars to the understated bass…a stunner of a song.
Secret Cutter are from the US and this is their début album. They play Sludge Metal with an added side of Hardcore/Punk.
The Secret Cutter sound is one of pure unbridled filth, fury and fucking heaviness. This is aggressive and nasty in only the way that Sludge and really pissed off Hardcore can be, and when combined like this it just sounds gloriously horrible!
Think of bands like Eyehategod, Serpent Eater, Ilsa, Corrupt Moral Altar, Wolvhammer, Enabler and the like; distil what makes these bands so interesting, nasty and individual and you’ll have a good idea of the murky swamp of urban decay that Secret Cutter dwell in.
I love albums like this – no messing around, just undiluted heaviness and aggression, whether that’s done at speed or slowly. It’s rough, raw and genuine.
The Sludge is strong and works well with the added Hardcore/Punk influence that the band have.
The songs have a good degree of variety in them for a short album, (only 26 minutes), and within the style they play. Each song is readily identifiable also, (no mean feat for any band), and show a creative force at the top of their game.
They have some great riffs on this release and the songs are surprisingly catchy for this type of band. Although catchy probably isn’t the right term. Infectious, maybe?
Special mention should go to the singer, who absolutely rages and tears his way through the songs as if it’s the last thing he’s ever going to do. His high pitched screams are the very incarnation of savagery.
This really is a top quality release that has so many plus points it’s silly. In many ways this is the best of heavy, nasty music, and this is one I’ll be listening to over and over again.
De Profundis have recently released their latest EP Frequencies, which has been receiving a lot of praise from every quarter with the band even being involved in a promotional tie-in with fabled UK Extreme Metal magazine Terrorizer. I asked Shoi Sen some questions and here’s what he had to say…
Give us a bit of background to De Profundis
De Profundis started life in 2005 when Craig (Vocals) and our ex guitarist Roman met in a pub to discuss how to take over the metal world, the meeting was interrupted by Roman’s father who wasn’t happy that his underage son was in a pub with a older man, maybe he thought his son would be ‘followed home then killed’! The band released its first album Beyond Redemption in 2007 followed by 2 more albums and more recently our first EP ‘Frequencies’. The band evolved from playing some form of Progressive doom and now is firmly entrenched in delivering bone crushing progressive Death Metal.
What are your influences?
This is always the difficult question because our influences are so diverse. On the metal side the usual suspects like Death, Morbid Angel, Maiden, King Diamond etc. But also our schizophrenic side would come from early Queen and Zappa so you see difficult to really pin down. Its fair to say De Profundis operates like the Borg, we are a collective of musicians, with well assimilated influences and once you hear us all resistance will be futile 🙂
What are you listening to at the moment that you would like to recommend?
We’ve just toured with Demonic Resurrection from India, they are very good and an awesome bunch of guys. Otherwise if I was to recommend you stuff it would more old school music, I don’t tend to listen to current stuff much to be honest, nothing really grabs me. I can tell you what I wouldn’t recommend though, that one string wankery called Tech Metal/Djent with shit autotuned pop vocals.
What did you want to achieve with your new EP?
We have a number of goals for this EP. Musically showcase our new ethos of going for the throat earlier. Commercially although this EP is free we wanted a maximum of people to hear it share it and create a buzz around us, which is actually happening. Generally the reviews so far have been very positive but a few have questioned our more direct approach. What I can say is that the album which is also ready covers the wider range of De Profundis’ music, with this EP we wanted to showcase our more direct songs.
Your style has changed over time; how do you feel this release has progressed your sound since your previous work?
As mentioned previously our songs are more about going to the point earlier in general, that’s the major shift or progression from the previous album. Also with the arrival of Paul (Guitar) last September we had a new toy to play with (I am referring to his musical talents), his riffs were even more crazy than what I came up with so the sound of the EP has a lot to do with the way this new line up just gelled instantly.
Are you happy with how it turned out?
Yes once we got rid of Roman and Paul joined the writing went really quick and it was an awesome creative period. In previous writing sessions I always felt drained with all the infighting caused by one person in the band, and basically couldn’t get myself back in a writing mode for over a year. Now I can’t wait to start writing again.
What can you tell us about the lyrics?
Craig our vocalist is the man to talk to about lyrics but unfortunately he is currently away on holiday so won’t be able to contribute and I don’t want to interpret his lyrics for him.
Give us a bit of information on your songwriting process.
We write as a band. Either Paul or myself will bring some riffs to rehearsal and then we jam the ideas we have and looks at what would work together. We spend a lot of time thinking about transitions, we have a real fear of writing songs where parts don’t transition into each other smoothly, which some prog metal bands tend to do.
How did the link with the Terrorizer promotion come about?
Miranda Yardley the owner of Terrorizer is a fan of De Profundis so when I approached her about using Terrorizer’s distribution to release the EP she was very receptive so it worked out great.
How do you see your position in the wider Death Metal musical framework/genre?
We are here to become a major player in the death metal scene. I think there are too many bands our there playing Death Metal forgetting about writing songs, so we are there for people who want their death metal to be brutal, melodic and technical with full of hooks which makes them come back to our music over and over again.
I hear you’re planning a new album – what can you tell us about this?
The EP and album were actually written and recording during the same session so the album is also ready. We are now trying to sort out a label to release it. Hopefully we will be in a position to get the album late this year early 2015.
How do you see your songs/direction developing in the future?
At the moment its too early to say as we’ve just finished writing this album a few months ago, but I think we will carry evolving into the death metal genre whilst maintaining our progressive elements. I imagine in the future we will come back to longer song structures but at the moment we are enjoying playing shorter punchier songs. And it’s a lot easier to build a set list with shorter songs.
What’s next for De Profundis?
Well we are playing Bloodstock in 2 weeks time which we are very excited about. Its been 6 years since we last played that fest and we have done so much in that time. After that we are currently in negotiations about a tour with a pretty big name in Death Metal so if that happens it would be a great opportunity for De Profundis. When we are planning this EP and Album cycle we had one word in our mind and that’s touring, touring and touring. So our agents Nazgul are working on a whole bunch of potential tours for us so expect to see us everywhere over the next 18 months!
Order of Chaos are from Australia and play a combination of Underground Metal/Hardcore.
This is a hard one to pin down in some ways. It has elements of the more modern Metal/Metalcore sound, but also more of an unhinged, underground vibe and some definite Death Metal/violent Hardcore leanings.
This is more of the kind of thing I would have expected to come out of the UK rather than Australia; I’m thinking of bands like Corrupt Moral Altar, Charger, Raging Speedhorn, Labrat, Mindjuice, Mistress, The Rotted, etc.
Nonetheless, Australia it is, and it’s a good listen. The songs are typically about the 3 minute mark and are focused into little balls of heavy rage. They’re well written and have a good amount of energy. Although the emphasis is on heaviness, small amounts of melody get a look in here and there.
This is a good synthesis of modern-styled Metal with a violent Hardcore element keeping it grounded. It’s underground, nasty and rumbles along with a good chug and a healthy groove.
The singer sounds quite demented on occasion; the higher pitched he gets the more he appears to lose it.
It’s easy to like these songs as the emphasis is on ripping the listener’s face off before they even know what’s happened.
Jesus Crøst are from the Netherlands and play Grindcore.
This is 22 songs in 15 minutes, so yes; here we have Grindcore of the short, violent variety.
There appears to be some form of football theme going on, which is not something that even vaguely interests me so I have no idea what that’s all about.
The music is nicely savage and scathing, with short bouts of violence and mayhem. There are some good riffs and even some catchy moments on some of the songs, (Horst Hrubesch for example).
The vocals switch between pignoise grunts and serrated screams and sound very nice indeed. Coupled with the fierce music it really promotes a vicious image.
The music has a good, strong production and sounds heavy and professional.
I have enjoyed this way more than I was expecting to, (put off by the football thing and cover), but if you ignore all of that then musically this is top-quality Grindcore.
Athanatheos are from France and play Blackened Death Metal.
This is a bold and ambitious release that’s as impressive as it is unexpected. As a concept album of sorts it naturally reserves the right to be different from the norm and the band make the most of their artistic freedom. Great album cover too.
First off though, before looking at the music itself, I feel compelled to applaud the production. A strong sound benefits the songs and allows the band free reign to create something with personality.
The music itself is brutal and harsh but also includes many moments of interesting ideas and standout parts. This is not simple music and it has obviously been put together under a labour of love and meticulous care. This level of quality is rare, and extends right down to the originally-recorded Gregorian chants that feature on this release.
The songs are varied and utilise pretty much all of the weapons in the Extreme Metal arsenal at one point or another, be this blast beats, slow/mid/fast sections, groove, Doom, etc. as well as the more unconventional parts also.
The tracks are all played well and solos/leads/melodies are put to good use. Everything is tight and focused. Songwriting skills are on top form and the band clearly understand the requirements for dynamics and energy.
Within its chosen Blackened Death Metal style this is a wonderfully diverse and creative release that explores all kinds of Extreme Metal territory before culminating in the final 16 minute track.
This really is a superlative album, and one which would almost certainly have featured in my best of year list if it wasn’t for the fact that it’s already a couple of years old. The fact that such a quality band can produce such a quality album yet remain in complete obscurity is disheartening to say the least.
It’s time to remedy this shocking turn of events. Go seek out Alpha Theistic and include it in your collection with all haste. Trust me, you won’t be disappointed.
Achren are from Scotland and play Black Metal. This is their latest EP.
What can you tell us about the lyrics?
Wonderbox Metal 