Remote are a French hardcore band and this is their second album.
You’ve gotta love dark, violent music that creates oppressive, negative atmospheres. Yes? Oh come on, of course you do.
Combing chaotic hardcore, crushing sludge, dark metal and inventive post-hardcore, Remote present us with 33 minutes of angst-ridden darkness that aims to cause damage. Continue reading “Remote – Resilient (Review)”
Crowhurst are from the US, and are an extremely prolific band with lots of noise/experimental/etc. releases. Their self titled album from 2015 was especially of interest, as it was essentially a pure black metal album, and a very good one at that.
Fast forward a year, and they have now released II. This continues the black metal theme started by their previously mentioned album, only this time with a wider scope and with industrial/sludge aspects, as well as contributions from members Continue reading “Crowhurst – II (Review)”
This is the début album from this US metallic hardcore band, Poison Headache.
Featuring an album cover that immediately grabs the attention, this is a band that fuses hardcore and metal into an ugly ball of condensed violence.
Hearing this description, and knowing that there is an ex-member of As I Lay Dying Continue reading “Poison Headache – Poison Headache (Review)”
This is the début album from Swedish hardcore band Snake Tongue.
Snake Tongue play modern chaotic hardcore with a violent punk edge to it, recalling a cross between Converge, All Pigs Must Die and Botch.
Heavy, rhythmic hardcore merges together with Continue reading “Snake Tongue – Raptor’s Breath (Review)”
This is the début album from Italian Hardcore band Zeit.
With a good sound that has a fair trade-off between warmth and cold harshness, Zeit spend almost 24 minutes demonstrating their brand of dissonant, violent Hardcore.
Intensive Square are a Technical Metal band from the UK. This is their début album.
This is Technical Metal played with a love of both complexity and crushing rhythms. There’s a Hardcore side to the band that’s combined with a firm Metal base, resulting an album that combines elements of such diverse bands as Botch, Converge, Johnny Truant, Meshuggah, Circle Takes the Square, Pyrrhon, Today Is the Day, Scarlet, Frontierer, Sikth, Periphery and many others.
Featuring a splenetic vocalist who has a vicious screamed shout, these songs provide a satisfying ear-bashing while also catering to those who like a bit of technicality and complexity with their beatings. It doesn’t go too far down the complexity route though, as there’s plenty of big rhythms and grooves provided to get the listener moving and jerking around the place in strange movements.
The album lasts 45 minutes and provides a meaty feast for anyone into this kind of thing.
Give them a listen.
The Rodeo Idiot Engine are a Hardcore band from France. This is their third album.
After enjoying their previous work this is an album which was gratefully received and devoured hungrily.
This is a band that excel at fusing chaotic Hardcore’s violence with Post-Hardcore’s intricacies and Screamo’s passion. The atypical rhythms, nasty semi-melodies and absolutely caustic vocals are an aural treat for any fan of extremity.
I love this kind of modern, violent Hardcore and there are a lot of bands that do it well, with the king of the genre being the mighty Converge, of course. The challenge for any band playing in this sub-genre then, for me, is to do it in such a way that stays true to the foundations of the style while avoiding sounding like a Converge-clone, which is easier said than done.
Suffice to say, The Rodeo Idiot Engine avoid this easily, (otherwise I wouldn’t be having this discussion), and the music on Malaise is both of-the-genre and very much their own at the same time. Exploding out of the speakers with pure fury and venom, this is an album that is resolutely its own beast.
At 38 minutes in length with 9 tracks, this shows the band’s evolution to, (on average), longer songs and more-involved displays of songwriting. They still absolutely rip, tear and burn through the playing time with ease, but they now do it with greater complexity, inventiveness and moments of deeper reflection and introspection.
I’d also say that Malaise is darker than their previous work. Not that they were ever shining beacons of sunlight, mind. Full of emotive intensity and compelling rage, this is an album worth repeated visits.
So, three albums in and The Rodeo Idiot Engine have produced their best work yet.
Nice one guys!
Attan are from Norway and play Hardcore/Post-Hardcore. This is their début EP.
Coming across as an unholy mix of bands like Vision of Disorder, Will Haven, Converge and Neurosis, Attan are heavy and intense.
This music is dark and visceral, containing a primal rage and destructive intensity. The songs are passionate exemplars of heaviosity that pay tribute to their influences while making their own way down the ill-lit avenues of dark Hardcore; Continue reading “Attan – From Nothing (Review)”
The Nepalese Temple Ball are a UK Post-Metal band and this is their début album.
Combining elements of bands such as Neurosis, Light Bearer, (who they share a member with), Isis, Converge and No Anchor, The Nepalese Temple Ball have created over an hour’s worth of exploratory, expansive music on Arbor.
This is a diverse album that’s full of different influences and styles, all collected under the widely variable Post-Metal umbrella. Doom, Progressive Metal, Hardcore/Post-Hardcore, Sludge, Psychedelia…even a hint of Black Metal…these are all gathered by the band and melted down to form the songs on Arbor. They have a wealth of skill at doing this, it seems, and Arbor is much more accomplished than it probably should be for a début album.
Lots of different moods and feelings are covered, but the overall impression for me is one of a strange apocalyptic landscape where the world is drowning a chaotic, messy death.
This is music that’s non-standard, atypical and not afraid at all to do its own thing. The band are clearly walking the path that they want to and should be commended for doing this and exploring such rich musical possibilities. This has resulted in a quality album full of interesting areas to explore, with plenty of diversity and depth to attract and hook the listener. This is assuming you like challenging, interesting music of course. If all you’re after is more of the same, then move along now.
Highly recommended.
This is the third album from Swedish Atmospheric Sludge/Post-Hardcore band Moloken.
This is Cult of Luna/Isis-inspired Post-Metal that has been combined with Converge-style Post-Hardcore to create individualistic songs that are sharp, nasty and boiling with heated darkness.
Caustic, throat-shredding screamed vocals provide a brutally simple focal point to the apocalyptic music. The band are here to sow darkness and reap pain. Their music is a dense, claustrophobic affair, ripe with urban decay and full of disturbed interest for the observer to become upset by.
Varied and nuanced, there are a lot of good ideas on display throughout these 29 minutes and Moloken make the most of the relatively short playing time by filling the album with bleak sounds that captivate and enthral.
Equal parts Sludge, Hardcore and dark atmosphere, All Is Left to See is enjoyable and recommended.
Wonderbox Metal 