Ilienses Tree are an Italian metal band and this is their latest EP.
This EP contains 5 tracks and lasts 25 minutes. The first and last of these are intro/outro tracks, so the meat of the release is in the three songs in the middle. Continue reading “Ilienses Tree – Edda (Review)”
Novaria are an atmospheric metal band from the Netherlands and this is their debut EP.
This is an interesting and enjoyable mix of progressive, atmospheric, and post-metal. These are only starting points, however, as Novaria mix a lot of different things together on EP1. Continue reading “Novaria – EP1 (Review)”
This is the fifth album from Finnish death/doom band Hooded Menace.
Whenever I have a craving for death/doom, Hooded Menace can always be relied upon to satisfy it. 2015’s Darkness Drips Forth was a very enjoyable trip into Hooded Menace’s dark world, and now it’s time to revisit it as they unleash 42 minutes of new material. Continue reading “Hooded Menace – Ossuarium Silhouettes Unhallowed (Review)”
NVC are a Canadian progressive metal band and this is their debut album.
This is modern and emotive progressive metal that marries some latter-day Anathema influences with a melodic death metal side; think Ensiferum and Wintersun for a starting point. The resulting Continue reading “NVC – The Deleted Scenes (Review)”
Daniel Cavanagh is a progressive rock solo artist from the UK and this is his latest album.
Daniel Cavanagh is a member of the mighty Anathema, and this is a useful starting point for viewing the progressive rock material on this album. Indeed, any fan of latter-day Anathema will feel right at home with Monochrome. Continue reading “Daniel Cavanagh – Monochrome (Review)”
Old Night are a Croatian atmospheric/progressive doom metal band and this is their debut album.
This is a very accomplished hour or so of doom metal, interleaved with elements of progressive rock, blues rock, and atmospheric metal. Continue reading “Old Night – Pale Cold Irrelevance (Review)”
Blissful Stream is a one-man doom project from Sweden. This is his debut EP.
This is lo-fi doom rock with a distinctly ancient feel to it. Ascending Demons offers up 15 minutes of this, with downbeat riffs and the some old-school death/doom-styled melodies mixed in. Continue reading “Blissful Stream – Ascending Demons (Review)”
Svlfvr are an Italian blackened doom metal band. This is their latest album.
What we have here is essentially a doom metal band that have fallen to darkness and embraced black metal as a secondary influence. There are some other influences detectable in their sound too, (old Anathema), and they all converge together quite nicely over these 56 minutes.
The songs on Shamanic Lvnar Cvlt have muscular guitars and plenty of dark presence. The old-school black metal influences make for a darker sound than most doom metal bands, but the traditional doom metal aspect of their sound means that they don’t wander too Continue reading “Svlfvr – Shamanic Lvnar Cvlt (Review)”
This is the début album from Norwegian Symphonic Doom/Death band Abyssic.
Well this is an absolute monster of an album. At 79 minutes in length and featuring just four tracks, Abyssic certainly know how to provide the listener with a lot to get their teeth into.
A decent stylistic reference point for Abyssic would initially be the old Peaceville roster, with bands like Anathema, My Dying Bride and Paradise Lost all providing an idea of what the base of the band is like. Only longer and more epic, of course. Once you have this in your mind’s eye, mix in some more modern, epic funeral Doom from the likes of Monolithe, as well as a sterling Classical influence, and you’ll have a good idea of what Abyssic are getting up to here.
The symphonic aspects of Abyssic’s sound are big, bold and unashamedly impressive. Abyssic don’t hold back, and nor should they. This is a band that manage to incorporate the symphonic and Classical elements into their sound in a holistic and complete way, rather than having them just added on at the end. The music easily takes on a cinematic legendary feel and each of these long songs feels like a story. Nay, a saga.
A Winter’s Tale benefits from a huge and lavish production that allows all of the different parts of their repertoire to sound clear and crushing. Thick guitars and textured keyboards merge together with the crushing drums to provide the listener with a very engaging and absorbing listen. The songs may be long, but if you have the time to spare for them then there is so much here to enjoy.
For the most part the vocals are deep, dark growls, of the kind that are pretty much standard for Death/Doom. That’s not to say they’re not effective or don’t do their job though.
Long they may be, but these songs justify their own existence by being so damn impressive and well-put together. The band know their stuff, that’s for sure. Amazingly, given the length, these tracks don’t get boring and the lavish, lush orchestration is a constant joy to listen to, especially when combined with the heaviness of the guitars.
This atmospheric album really nails the best parts of the Death/Doom style for me, and the overwrought symphonic elements are just candy to my ears, pulling the whole thing up to another level.
Very highly recommended.
This is the début album from Greek Gothic/Atmospheric Metal band Moaning Silence.
Featuring the kind of sound that was making big waves late 90s/early 00s, Moaning Silence play it well and I haven’t heard too much like this of late.
Combining the drawn-out Gothic sorrow of My Dying Bride with elements of Anathema’s approach, Moaning Silence have created an album that pays homage to the emotive, expressive side of Metal. There’s also an Anathema cover included for good measure.
Both male and female vocals appear, with the male vocalist’s voice having a quality to it that’s somewhere between the singers of My Dying Bride and Sentenced, while the female singer has a liquid, silken quality to her voice that is quite enticing.
This kind of style has been done to death, of course, so whether you enjoy what Moaning Silence have to offer depends on where your saturation point is for this kind of thing. I’ve pretty much reached mine, but I can still appreciate that Moaning Silence do what they do well, and there are some nice ideas on this release that show a lot of promise for the future. In fact, I enjoy them at their most when they’re relaxing a bit and letting the atmosphere flow naturally, as in tracks like The Last Days of December, (which is also notable for its lovely guitar solo and Classic Rock vibe).
As a début album, there’s still a lot of work to do for the band; I think they need to find their own style a bit more and also tighten up both the writing and the sound. Having said that though, there’s still a lot to enjoy on A World Afraid of Light, and I do like that this isn’t the ostentatious, flashy, overly-commercial brand of Gothic Metal either; this is a more earthy, honest interpretation of the original style that birthed a thousand Lacuna Coils.
So, give them a listen and see what you think.
Favourite Track: On Fragile Wings. Just a damn good song.
Wonderbox Metal 