This is the latest album from US Blackened Progressive Death Metal band Giant of the Mountain.
Blackened Progressive Death Metal? Sure it’s a bit of a mouthful but it is a more-or-less adequate description of Giant of the Mountain’s music.
Their songs have distinct Progressive tendencies with complex riffs and structures congealing around an exploratory Metal core.
Death Metal serves as the largest percentage of that core, albeit a form of Death Metal that relies on melodics and technicality rather than sheer brutality.
And the Blackened part? This is sprinkled on top of everything really. It’s not as if Black Metal is a massive part of their sound, but it’s definitely a feature and they would sound quite different if this aspect of their music was removed. It’s a quality of some of the riffs, it’s in some of the vocals and it’s apparent in the distinctly non-Death Metal recording.
Couple all of the above with a bit of Sludge and a DIY attitude and you have Moon Worship.
Apart from the Blackened vocals we also get Death Metal grunts and some Viking-esque epic cleans.
The involving songs make the most of their play time with melodies and passages that seem to draw you in before going off on another tangent. These tracks really have been well written and the underground production enhances the feeling of listening to something special. This is a very creative and enjoyable release.
If you combine parts of bands like Enslaved, Opeth, Death, Gorguts and a whole slew of others then you’ll have an idea of the Giant of the Mountain sound. It’s refreshing. My only slight complaint is that even though the production on the album is adequate for the most part and for some instruments, (like the bass), it’s perfectly judged; for me the drum sound is a little weak and timid sounding. This is very subjective of course, (like all things music-based), and it’s not enough to spoil my enjoyment of this album, it’s just that it sounds a little flat to me and for a band that are as good as this I would prefer fuller-sounding drums.
Slight sound issues aside though, this really is the kind of album you want to take your time to get to listen to; absorb and repeat. It’s well worth the time.
As you can see, this is not your average release and certainly stands out from the pack. Get your fill of Giant of the Mountain and get worshipping the moon as soon as you can.
Pyrexia are from the US and play Death Metal. This is their fourth album.
The band play Brutal Death Metal which has a Slam/Hardcore/Groove side to it; Suffocation-style USDM gone the way of Kataklysm.
An acid-etched sound with pounding drums and guitars like stone; the band kick up a maelstrom of dust and leave devastation in their wake.
As the album progresses it reminds me strongly of the aforementioned Katakylsm and their combination of blasting and groovier rffing. Pyrexia employ pretty much the same formula and even the vocalist is similar in style; raw growls that are obviously Death Metal but not quite deep enough to be truly extreme.
The short songs and relatively short nature of the album mean it’s over quickly and overall leaves a positive impression.
If you like a bit of heavy groove with your Death Metal then look up Pyrexia and give them a try.
This is their first release and it contains 4 tracks, just under 30 minutes of music.
This is Post-Metal fashioned after the Isis/Cult of Luna/Neurosis pantheon and straight off it’s clear that Semara have a good grasp of what makes the genre a compelling one.
The guitars are also reminiscent of Red Sparowes, with a haunting and light feeling to them; combined with a heavier Cult if Luna-take on some of the rhythm guitars it’s a nice mixture of the two.
The band have the entire build/release, light/heavy angle covered and musically they know their way around the instruments.
There is nuance and subtlety to the music and Semara show that they understand the Post-Metal dynamic well.
The singer produces a good throaty roar and adequately bellows his way through the tracks. His is a brutal voice that punctuates the more melodically fragile music. The Earth Turns is probably the strongest track out of the four as it has the most vocal variation, (cleans as well as roared shouts), and is the most musically developed and individual of the songs.
A promising start for this band. If on their next release they return with a stronger production and continue to develop their sound then they could do well.
This is the début album by Finnish Melodic/Symphonic Black Metal band Star Insight.
First off – I like the album cover. A good start.
This is futuristic Cyber-Metal with Symphonic Black Metal elements in the style of Neurotech, The Kovenant and certain Samael material, and anyone familiar with these bands will immediately have a good idea of what Star Insight sound like.
The band are actually a bit more varied than a lot of this kind of stuff and have a good ear for a song. A lot of these tracks are catchy and filled with hooks and unless you’re completely inured to this style it’s hard not to like them. They have a good Power/Euro Metal influence which gives them an edge over similar bands. Add to this a harsher, Dimmu Borgir-style influence and you have a recipe for quite the enjoyable album.
Vocals are predominately harsh, slightly-deeper-than-the-norm Black Metal vocals. One of the main ways Star Insight differentiate themselves from the aforementioned bands though is through the inclusion of clean and semi-clean vocals, and these are extremely good. The singer has a good range and runs the gamut between these styles. Female vocals also appear on Poem of Misery which sound great and add another aspect to the band’s sound, even if it is for only the one track.
The songs never have a chance to outstay their welcome as only two of them breach the 4 minute mark. Instead, we get focused and catchy songs aimed at maximum enjoyment in minimal time.
The symphonic elements and effects are never overbearing and add to the songs rather than smothering them.
This is a thoroughly enjoyable album that I like way more than I thought I would; the band are more adventurous and varied than I was expecting and this is to their credit.
This is the second album from Polish Grinders Ass to Mouth.
Just under 31 minutes, 20 songs; you know it’s not going to be pretty. But do we want it any other way? Certainly not.
It’s immediately unsubtle and makes its mission statement known within seconds of the first track.
Angry shouts and sickening screams are spewed forth like vomit, backed up with some good old pignoise for good effect in the background. The vocals are relatively versatile for this kind of release and you certainly can’t accuse them of being monotonous.
The music is Grindcore of the crusty and blastbeat-fueled variety. The songs are short, tight and dirty. Punked up and furiously brutal, they lay waste to their instruments and sound pretty much exactly like I expected them to sound with a name like Ass to Mouth.
Some of the tracks have a good Metallic Hardcore groove to them, adding a different facet to the band which makes the album better than it would be if it was just a one-dimensional blastfest.
This might not be anything new but originality is overrated, sometimes you just need to GRIND!
Also, One Shot Too Far has a cowbell in it. So there.
A solid album that doesn’t outstay its welcome and is a perfectly adequate soundtrack to the crushing of pigeons. Or something.
Necropoli are from Italy and play Funeral Doom. This is their début album.
This is heavy Funeral Doom Metal with a strong Death Metal foundation underpinning everything.
There is background orchestration, keyboards and effects; these are not flowery or ostentations but rather eerie and aura-enhancing.
The long songs slowly unfold with the heavy barrage of slowed down brutality mixing with Dark Ambient sounds and faint glimpses Industrial Electronica.
The colossally deep vocals drive everything forwards like a relentless taskmaster.
Akin to recent releases from the likes of Eye of Solitude, Doom:VS and Decembre Noir, this is just as bleakly emotive and atmospheric but with longer songs and a lot more brutality and harshness on display.
This album reminds of the constant onslaught of a band like Esoteric if they had more Funeral Doom influences and keyboards.
Rich, layered and with a definite gloomy texture, this is an evocative release that mixes the best of the crawling slowness of Doom and the heavy crushing nature of Death Metal.
Nearly an hour of demolishing desolation for your consideration.
Monumentomb have recently released their début EP Ritual Exhumation. This is a glorious Old-School Death Metal release that manages to seriously impress, especially for such a new band. I decided to get a bit more info on this rough gem…
Tell us about Monumentomb and where you came from?
We’re based in Kent in the south east of England. We formed less than a year ago, to start from the beginning: I was drinking at a metal pub in my local town of Maidstone. The Beherit shirt I was wearing prompted conversation very quickly when Alex noticed it, and we’ve been good mates since. Then after a long time later, years in fact we met again and decided to form a band with our strong agreement in musical tastes. At the same place a little later, I met Gaius while drinking at a mutual friends birthday, we got totally hammered and stayed in touch. Since Alex left the band earlier this month to concentrate on Infected Dead, Gaius has now moved over to guitar duties. I met Lee at a local gig that Alex was playing with his band Infected Dead. He heard that Lee was a decent and freed-up drummer and introduced us that night, we’ve been doing Monumentomb ever since.
What are your influences?
The primary influence is old-school death metal, I listen to a lot of 80’s metal ranging from Yngwie Malmsteen to Cacophony, Razor, Racer X, Infernal Majesty, Sacrifice etc. Bands specifically that we take a lot of influence from are Bolt Thrower, Autopsy, Grave, Dismember, Morbid Angel, Carcass, early Entombed/Obituary/Death to name a few. Our influences always have a bearing on our development as players. Lee is ever aiming to reach the same ability level as George Kollias and Gaius listens to a lot of technical metal too, which constantly fuels improvement individually, as well as overall as a band.
What are you listening to at the moment that you would like to recommend?
Recently I’ve been listening to a lot of Vinnie Moore, Tony MacApline and Paul Gilbert Racer X era. Also been listening to ‘The Cleansing’ by Nominon which I highly recommend, it has a great atmosphere and production. Morbid and filthy sounding release and has to be one of their best to date. And have been re-visiting Beneath the Remains, simply, it’s an album that never leaves my CD rotation.
How did you decide on the style of Death Metal that you wanted to play – what appeals about the Death Metal sound?
I’ve always had a leaning toward the Old-School sounding bands for as long as I can remember. The feeling and readiness of the style always screamed out to me and stood out over the extremely clean sounding releases, the style always deserves preservation in my opinion. We’re not aiming to be an overly technical band, as the fundamental idea at inception was to maintain the essential feeling and simplicity of most of the old-school death metal bands. The paramount appeal to me is the sheer aggression, the riffs, imagery and relative versatility of the genre.
Non-standard for Death Metal but judged perfectly – tell us about the clean vocals in Perpetual Execution Torment
They were performed by a good mate of mine – Chris Simmons who plays in a well-known band from our area called Wretched Soul, and exceeded the intentions of that section for the track. It was an idea that formed while watching the film Reanimator, not a direct attempt to sound like a revived corpse, but to bring a bit of humanity into the lyrical content of being reanimated as slave for the sole purpose to kill, to live and die constantly in complete agony forever.
Do you have any goals for Ritual Exhumation?
At the moment, it’s a case of getting the name around and networking as much as possible. We currently have ongoing dealings with a label to release it on CD and other formats, but that’s yet to be confirmed officially. Hopefully soon!
How did the recording process go?
The EP was recorded in 5 days, so bearing that in mind it was a very focussed effort, and fortunately with a very minimal amount of set-backs. As with most sessions the drums were recorded first within 2 10 hour days, then the guitars, bass and vocals were tracked. I was overseeing and present every day of the recording process , myself and the Engineer (Graham Waller) were totally wiped-out after that one week of little sleep and relentless concentration. We took a few moments to kick-back and chill with some music, food and some funny youtube stuff. The whole thing was a learning curve, and am very pleased with the results that were achieved within the time constraints.
Is there anything on the release you’re not satisfied with?
I think anyone who says they wouldn’t change anything in hindsight is kidding themselves, to be honest. You are your own worst critic, thus naturally there will be tiny changes you would make personally, for example a particular note on a solo, or a vocal or drum pattern you think could have been performed better. Unnoticeable to anyone else who listens to it but only picked-out by yourself really. So in essence, there are one or two things I would change but fortunately we can live with them!
Do you want to discuss any of the lyrics on the album and any themes/hidden meanings/etc. that might be there?
Yeah, sure. The lyrics are very straightforward, no hidden or subliminal meanings behind them as such. They’re simply inspired by morbid horror stories/movies and matching the visual themes for us. The themes are essentially all based around necromancy and death rituals/rites with an apocalyptic goal, with narratives and side-stories in between. A lot of inspiration comes from the Necronomicon by Lovecraft and related grimoires in terms of direct literary inspiration. I’m an avid fan of 80′s horror and splatter films and comics, it’s usually easy enough to write lyrics to these themes but it’s tough to attempt a new angle when a lot of the subject matter has been broached upon before. So just sticking to familiar territory lyrically just fits and suits the sound we’re trying to achieve.
What’s your songwriting process?
Majority of the writing in the early days started as just me and Alex bouncing ideas off each other and listening to a ton of music. The writing process sped-up dramatically when Lee joined, which then transpired into just the two of us meeting-up every weekend and continually getting a better sense of how the structures should form. The latter part of the writing process is still the same to this day, and we are currently writing new material too.
How do you see your songs/direction developing in the future?
In the near future, the direction intends to remain on the same plateau as the EP in terms of style, atmosphere and riffs. Still taking huge influence from classic releases and present releases too.
What does the future hold for Monumentomb?
At present, we are playing our first festival in August in the UK with Onslaught. After that, we have 2 London dates in September with Krow and October with Gravecrusher. And after that, we’re focussing on getting a full-length released and alongside that, we’re looking to and hoping to get onto a tour in the future as well. We intend to remain as an active live band as much as possible, so, touring is always at the forefront of our minds!
Usurpress are a Death Metal band from Sweden and for this split they have gone halves with International Grindcore supergroup Bent Sea.
Usurpress give us three tracks, the first of which is an intro.
The second song, A Tidal Wave of Fire, is the main meat of their split and is 7 minutes of impressive death-dealing, whilst the third is shorter but no less rabid.
The band play Crusty Swedish Death Metal with an underground swagger and a healthy groove. Rather than adopting that famous chainsaw sound though, the band have opted for a dirtier, less-produced sound. It’s raw and nasty but suits the nature of the music.
The vocals are grim growls that alternate with infected screams, as well as a bit of semi-sung spoken word.
Bent Sea are up next with 8 tracks of furious Grind.
In contrast to Usurpress’ rawness, Bent Sea have a more professional sheen, albeit one that’s still heavy and very aggressive.
Taking cues from Napalm Death, Terrorizer and Repulsion, they savagely hack their way through the songs with aplomb and violence.
That the band is comprised of seasoned veterans is never in doubt, as their mastery of the genre is apparent from the start.
Each song is expertly executed and delivered with venom and bile. I’ve always loved the singer of Aborted’s voice and to hear him on these tracks is a great pleasure.
A very enjoyable split, with the Bent Sea tracks in particular shining bright.
Scutum Crux are from Poland, (although now based in the UK), and this is their Black Metal début album.
The album starts with a Classical piece with a martial feeling that leads into first track-proper, Chaos Ritual; this is fast, scathing Black Metal with snarling vocals and lots of hyperblast.
Scutum Crux’s Black Metal is dark and razor sharp, with blast beats used frequently and interspersed with either fast drumming or slower, groovier sections.
The guitars are steeped in Blackened melodies and the riffs are fast and solid. Occasional atmospherics and classical sections raise their heads out of the whirling maelstrom before being subsumed once more by the Blackened attack.
Demon Scutum is a great example of this as near the middle of the track the song stops and an atmospheric section starts which is soon replaced by an epic heavy guitars and drums part. This even has a guitar solo in it, (welcome and unexpected in Black Metal), before the speed returns once more.
The vocals are snarling creations bellowed out of the darkness. Although they don’t really deviate from the Black Metal template they do benefit from being more rabid than most.
A solid Black Metal release. Be sure to give them a listen.
This is the début EP from Polish Blackened Death Metallers Morthus.
This is a 3 track EP that contains such wonders in its short playing time!
It starts with the track Torment; suitably titled, it seems to be the usual kind of perfunctory intro until it redeems itself with some actual music about halfway through. This segues into the second track Beast from the Abyss and it’s clear that although this is their first non-demo release, it’s impressively professional and has a great sound.
The band play with a Death Metal core while adding some melodic Black Metal influences to the riffs and the occasional scream that enhances the main growling vocals. Merging the two genres of Black and Death can sometimes create mixed results, but they have distilled their influences into the right measures it seems.
The guitars take the Death Metal base and throw in some tricks from both Black and Classic Heavy Metal, including some duelling guitars and some excellent leads/solos.
Stylistically they remind of Hypocrisy in the sense that they combine these three elements quite naturally and seamlessly, although it should be stressed that they don’t actually sound too much like Hypocrisy except in a very superficial way.
The third song is named In the White Wolf’s Kingdom and is another master-crafted combination of the various Metal styles. It slowly unfolds with a Blackly melodic Metal riff into a mid-paced jog before introducing faster elements. They also add additional choral elements to their repertoire and these work very well. It’s another win for Morthus who suitably demonstrate their talents on this all-too-short EP.
Morthus are a perfect example of why the Extreme Metal underground deserves so much support – there are hidden gems tucked away everywhere in plain sight, all you have to do is go looking for them and you will be rewarded.
This is an absolute top-notch release and I cannot wait until they release a full album. If it’s even half as good as this it will be better than most.
This is the latest album from US Blackened Progressive Death Metal band Giant of the Mountain.
Wonderbox Metal 