Systemhouse33 are a Metal band from India. This is their latest album.
Their previous release Depths of Despair was an enjoyable, albeit brief, romp through all things heavy and modern, and Regression continues the theme but ups the stakes.
At a slightly longer 30 minutes in length, the band have further refined their blend of modern Metal and Metalcore/Hardcore/Death Metal influences into a potent blend of muscular aggression.
The singer has a harsh snarl that fits well with the music and doesn’t allow for any compromise. He plainly means business and I like what he’s selling.
The songs chug, rumble and bludgeon their way through the playing time and there’s a decent amount of catchy riffs and heavy melodies involved.
Although I liked Depths of Despair this is an all-round more cohesive, focused and superior release; perfect for when you want some heavy, crushing, upbeat, groove-based music. Without too much extremity, but also without going the other way into commercial, sanitised waters, Systemhouse33 have hit the right spot and Regression is actually a positive move forward.
For fans of Lamb of God, Meshuggah, Whitechapel, Skinlab, Machine Head, Testament, Merauder, etc.
This is the second album from this Italian Death Metal band.
This is USDM-style destruction, influenced by the Florida scene from back in the day. This 90s fixation serves them well and Speech of the Flame offers up 44 minutes of solid Death Metal.
Blasting drums and rhythmic beats are backed up by a nicely heavy and dark production that allows them to get the most from their chosen implements of assault; there’s no shortage of speed on this album and the band wield this like a weapon. It’s not all high-velocity though and the band lay off the accelerator enough so that although they’re almost always playing fast, it’s not all complete blasting mayhem.
The guitars have a nice tone to them and there’s some good solos and leads included. These are used to create little pockets of more emotive and atmospheric sections among the carnage of the rest of the music.
The singer’s voice is gruff and clipped just enough to make him sound quite aggressive, providing a decent performance and accompanying the music in a most satisfying manner.
The songs channel the likes of Deicide and Morbid Angel, paying homage to what came before and continuing the legacy of their spiritual predecessors.
If you have a yearning for the particular era of Death Metal history that Valgrind espouse then you’ll probably get along with Speech of the Flame very well indeed.
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.
Blackened Death Metal can sometimes be a bit hit or miss, but with the début album Miserable Miracle from French band Mithridatic, it’s a definite hit. It’s a very strong album in more ways than one, and I was curious to find out more, so I caught up with their guitarist Romain Sanchez to find out what makes a miserable miracle…
For those who are unfamiliar with your band – introduce yourself!
Hi! Firstly Mithridatic is just a band in the middle of a plethora of bands, created in 2007 in Saint Etienne France. Our inspiration is in old school death metal with some modern touches. We try to make an uncomfortable feeling, and to give much violence and power to the auditor. We pass by diverse styles of extreme metal such as doom, or fast as death brutal and using dark atmospheres of black metal.
Give us a bit of background to Mithridatic
Mithridatic is formed by 5 musicians all from the same region in France.
The drummer Kevin Paradis joined the band for the release of our demo “Hunt Is On”. Since Kevin’s entrance to the band we brought our style to a faster way, more extreme music, more hostile and oppressive. We are musicians with a lot of different influences. It allows us to pass by various styles of rhythms and various feelings. By the opportunity to have in the team musicians with a lot of technique, we want to achieve our goal: to give extreme music and to accomplish ourselves with our skills.
What are your influences?
We all have different influences, but I am going to begin my influences: the groups which marked me the most for making our song tracks are Morbid angel, Slayer, Arkhon Infaustus, Mayhem, Immolation, Angelcorpse etc. Mithridatic is a mix of an heavy atmosphere with ultra fast beats!
What are you listening to at the moment that you would like to recommend?
At the moment I would like to recommend Dead Congregation, Portal, Lvcifyre, Conan.… and I know Guitou is into Kerasphorus, Abhomine and Peter Helmkamp’s other works these days…
How do you feel that you fit into the wider Extreme Metal scene?
We still have a long way….But we are very enthusiastic to expose our music in various situations, we just want to play more and more!
Give us a bit of background to Miserable Miracle – any particular concepts or ideas you want to discuss?
The main idea of this album is to overcome different kinds of harmful situations… we describe nocebo effects, social anxiety, precarious existences…lyrics are inspired by some writings from French authors like Antonin Artaud, Henri Michaux etc. and some strange movies…Guitou had a kind of surrealist approach for its works for this album. We tried to create a ‘bardo’ state and to give a transcription of our anxiety and sickness…and this is also the way for the next album. Miserable Miracle is an important album for us because it’s our first “official” album for almost 10 years of activity. We hope the first one of many others! It also marks our entry into the French label Kaotoxin and Miserable Miracle has a better exposition than our old productions very underground. We also changed our habits of production by recording in two professional studio “DLM Studio” and “Sainte Marthe Studio”. We are all satisfied by results and by the sound of this album between old school and modern stuff. Kevin our drummer decided to record in a most natural possible way to get a sound close to our live performance. We wanted an organic and human sound.
Tell us about the album artwork
Damien Guerras’s illustration gives a free interpretation….I’m going to speak to you about mine: it represents the Adam and Eve tree in our world and society! The perversion of humankind have exceeded all the limits, the tree decomposes. The poison of perversion intoxicates our nervous system….This is a pessimistic picture of our miserable human condition.
How do you go about writing your songs?
I lock myself at home with my guitar for several days to record many riffs. It’s long process and sometimes inspiration doesn’t comes. I need time to get into a negative state of mind. Sometimes it can go very fast for example riffs of “Dispense the Adulterated ” and “Oxydized Trigger Sabotage” were written in the same week…Once riffs are recorded I send it to Kevin. It helps for structures of tracks and he makes his personal drum parts. Then we discusses of our ways to develop harmful songs…In rehearsal Alex and Remolow also composes with the material for bass parts and leads guitars. To finish Guitou places his vocals…The lyrics process is a quite difficult to describe because it’s an everyday process…. Miserable Miracle is a team work and everyone gives its personal style or feeling to get the riffs richer. Everyone is involved in an extreme vision of life and music.
How did the recording process go?
We recorded all the songs in the DLM Studio in Saint-Etienne and the mix/master was made by the Sainte-Marthe Studio in Paris. We decided to make the mix/master in Sainte-Marthe Studio with Francis Caste because we like his works on Svart Crown, Arkhon Infaustus, Kickback or Cowards for example. Francis Caste is a great professional, very fast, and an effective worker. Dupont Ludovic of the DLM Studio allowed us to record without stress at 20 minutes from home with a very good analogue equipment. Everything is very well.
What’s your favourite song on the album and why?
My favourite song of the record is surely Oxydized Trigger Sabotage…I like the particular atmosphere of this track. Doom and tortured. The vocal performance by Guitou is awesome!
What does the future hold for Mithridatic?
The maximum of gigs to defend our music on stage. We hope to build and to acquire a solid place in extreme metal! We will work on new material as soon as possible! We have a lot of motivation to make a second album and to make good shows!! See you on stage!! Thanks for your interest!
Inherit Disease are a US Death Metal band. This is their third album.
Combining some technicality and lots of brutality, Inherit Disease play a classic USDM style that allows them to showcase their love of the genre and all things brutal.
The music on Ephemeral combines speedy aggression with some chunky slam riffs, producing 39 minutes of utterly depraved brutality.
The singer’s vocals are sickeningly deep, stopping just short of descending into the kind of ridiculous pignoise burping that tends to ruin bands. His voice is as ugly and as gruesome as the music.
Ephemeral is unrelenting and harsh, rarely stopping for breath as it chops, hacks and carves its way through the tracks. There’s something very satisfying about this kind of music. It’s just so timelessly appealing; despite what other musical trends and moods might take you, Death Metal will always be there. Waiting. Lurking. Ready to strike.
I like that the more you listen to this, the more you enjoy it. It’s an unstoppable juggernaut of groove and blasting, easily absorbed by anyone who has a taste for bands like Deeds of Flesh, Suffocation, Cannibal Corpse, Severe Torture, Dying Fetus, Defeated Sanity, etc.
For a solid fix of heavy brutality and death-dealing, Inherit Disease have got you covered.
This is the second album from Canadian Death Metal band Corprophemia.
Playing savage Death Metal that has elements of the brutal and technical styles, this is a modern approach to the genre that injects a bit of Deathcore and slam into the mix to further increase the violence factor.
Canada seems to be very good when it comes to this kind of thing. Fellow Canadian Death Metallers such as Cryptopsy, Deformatory, Pronostic, Antlion and Unbreakable Hatred to name but a few have all released some top quality music in the not too distant past and we can now add Corprophemia to that list as well.
The singer has a fine set of lungs it seems, with his clipped barks reeking of aggression. His is a very satisfying voice and perfectly complements the precise and exacting nature of the music.
So what of the music? It’s well-played, well-written and well-recorded. This pretty much covers all of the bases and all that remains is for this to be played at full volume to annoy the neighbours.
The band use crushing rhythmic riffs well and mainly sound like a combination of the dynamics and technicality of Cryptopsy, the staccato brutality of Beneath the Massacre and the sheer violence and cold assault of Coprocephalic. Add some snippets of cut-short melody here and there and brief ambient synth interludes between tracks and you have a very compelling 30 minutes.
Funeral Whore play old-school Death Metal that reeks of the crypt and lands somewhere between Incantation, Bolt Thrower and Dismember in style.
As on their split with Obscure Infinity, Funeral Whore are, (deliberately), rough around the edges, lending their music a real underground feeling.
Heavy riffs and hammering drums crush and destroy while deep, gruff vocals belch out obscenities. The songs drip with old-school malevolence, sinister leads and dark melodies.
It’s easy to enjoy this kind of atavistic Death Metal, especially when it’s written with songs and mood in mind as these tracks clearly are. Funeral Whore know what they’re doing, it seems.
If you have any love for the old-school style of Death Metal then it’s worth checking out Funeral Whore as Phantasm is a very satisfying listen.
Amon Amarth are a melodic Death Metal band from Sweden and this is their tenth album.
Returning with a Viking-themed concept album, Amon Amarth continue their tried-and-tested formula for melodic Death Metal that they have been slowly perfecting and refining now for decades.
At this point in their existence you pretty much know exactly what to expect from them and they never fail to deliver. The songs on this release are as catchy and memorable as any that they have released over their victory-filled career.
Time has clearly been taken over these riffs, and the vast majority of the material here is bright, upbeat, full of energy, very memorable and laced with just the right amount of darkness, loss and violence.
Bright leads accompany the songs, as we’ve come to expect, and I particularly enjoy the solo work on this release too. The rhythm guitars are where the bulk of the action is at though, of course, and these tracks are destined to be hits in the live environment.
The singer’s charismatic and gruff voice is present and correct. Using pleasing rhythms and fitting in with the pace of the songs effortlessly, he provides a suitably compelling and powerful performance that does the weighty, (and epic), subject matter justice. In addition to his normal singing voice, he occasionally gives vent to a full-throated Death Metal growl, and it’s a thing of beauty. Doro also makes an appearance on A Dream That Cannot Be, adding a different dimension to the proceedings.
I find it incredibly hard to dislike anything Amon Amarth have released, and Jomsviking is no different. The band have an uncanny knack of providing the listener with highly-enjoyable songs that somehow manage to combine both style and substance, which is not something to be taken lightly.
This is the second album from German Death Metal band Slaughterday.
Slaughterday already have a couple of solid releases behind them, (their début album, Nightmare Vortex, and an EP, Ravenous), and this new album continues the trend with 43 minutes of quality, timeless Death Metal.
The band have a talent for writing enjoyable leads and solos, as well as meaty rhythm guitars. If anything, they’ve stepped up their game on this release, with the flowing, grim leads and electrified solos especially.
Featuring a slightly more morbid overall sound than previously, Slaughterday reek of the grave and these songs once again show that the band continue to unleash high-value Death Metal on the world with every release.
As always, I like Slaughterday the most when they play on the slower end of the spectrum. It’s not that there’s anything wrong with their faster work, it’s just that I really enjoy the slower/mid-paced riffs and the moods that these parts evoke.
The singer’s voice is just as guttural as ever, accompanying the well-written music with merciless growls. The overall impact is that of a focused and complete album, with everything where it needs to be and sounding like it should.
This is a very enjoyable release, and I’d recommend this for anyone who has a taste for the old-school.
This is the second album by US Grinders Morgue Supplier.
This is rabid, brutal Grindcore that takes some Death Metal influences into its nasty embrace, resulting in 41 minutes of punishing Deathgrind.
Fast and intense, the band launch into their assault with glee and these tracks are not for the weak.
An album of this length could get quite boring though in the wrong hands, which is where the Death Metal influence comes in; there’s more than enough tempo changes and slower, groovy riffs to provide additional variety and substance to the aggressive mix.
Scathing screams, sickening shouts and ugly growls provide the vocal contribution and, alongside the well-recorded music, makes for a very satisfying listen.
This is a really enjoyable album. The songs are well-written and provide much more depth and content than a lot of Deathgrind bands aspire to. It has the chaotic mayhem of unhinged Grindcore and the controlled slaughter inherent to Death Metal. Blend these two together and you have a recipe for a winner. It doesn’t stop there though; also add in some atypical, interesting riffs and ideas, and you end up with an album that has far more staying power than most.
Systemhouse33 are a Metal band from India. This is their latest album.
Wonderbox Metal 