Promethean Horde are from the US and play Black Metal. This is their début album.
This is epic Black Metal that blasts out of the speakers with vitality and passion. Immediately a few things are clear – they have a good sound, the bass has a good presence and it’s fast and furious.
The band have a healthy melodic streak to their sound with a good amount of leads and solos rearing their heads amidst the Blackened landscape.
Mainly screamed vocals are used, although deeper growls and cleans also appear. All are performed well.
Ashes of the Empyrean boasts fast and aggressive Melodic Black Metal that’s dark and sharp. These are Blackened melodies in use here not the joyous, pseudo-Pop of their more commercial cousins. This is hateful, spiteful and lives to cut lives short.
Some of the compositions also feature a bit more of a Progressive influence to them, as if the band are just beginning to tentatively experiment with Post-Black Metal/Folk elements. It’s not a large part of their sound for sure, but it’s an additional touch that keeps things interesting.
All throughout the album the band treat us to thick guitars and scathing vocals that lay the foundation for this enjoyable release. Reminding of old Dimmu Borgir without the keyboard ostentation, this is a pleasing album that is easy to like. The Blackened riffs wash over you like a welcome flagellation and the subtle Death Metal touches give their attack an added edge.
Emblazoned are from the US and this is their début album. They play Blackened Death Metal.
This is music with an evil feel created by minions of some Dark Lord or other who worship and defile their way through 8 tracks of daemonic Death Metal.
The deep growls and high screams call out hymns to darkness whilst the crushing production allows the music to be both heavy and precise.
All of the instruments are clear and played with surgical steel. The drums have an especially crisp sound to them, the bass is audible and worthwhile and the guitars have a crunchy, crushing edge.
The riffs have a Blackened feel to a lot of the melodies which adds a touch of the underworld to the songs; they already have a malevolent feel to them as it is and as the band are mainly interested in creating a brutally evil atmosphere it’s only to be expected that a Black Metal influence should make its way onto the album.
The songs are very enjoyable and make the most of their relatively short playing time by effortlessly blending the brutality of streamlined Death Metal with the dark feeling of Black Metal.
Emblazoned combine parts of bands like Deicide, The Black Dahlia Murder, Satyricon, Behemoth, Arsis and Lvcifyre into their merciless sound and the result is a very strong album indeed.
It’s time for you to check out Emblazoned and join them in their war against the forces of light.
Deathronation’s début album Hallow the Dead is a quality slab of Old-School Death Metal infused with a few extra elements to give their graveyard tunes a special mouldy sheen. Questions were asked, and answers were given…
Tell us all about Deathronation and where you came from
Deathronation, based in Nuremberg, south Germany, is now existing since 10 years and so far we released two demos and a split 7-Inch and played a lot of live-shows in that time. “Hallow the Dead” is our debut full-length album. For several reasons it took long time to record the album but finally it’s unleashed. All members of the band are long time metalheads and have been active in several bands for the last 20 years.
What are your influences?
Our influences are the 80’s and 90’s death metal bands like Morbid Angel, Deicide, Morgoth, Immolation, Death and so on. We grew up with these bands when we were 13, 14 years and we’re still very inspired by the old glory days of death metal.
What are you listening to at the moment that you would like to recommend?
I bought the début album of Sweden’s Vampire a couple of days ago and that’s an awesome album I would recommend for fans of Repugnant and Degial. True masterpiece with a great sound and good songs. A good trip to Sweden pre-death metal past is “Splatter Punx on Acid” of Swedish act “Black Uniforms”.
How did you decide on the style of Death Metal that you wanted to play – what appeals about the Old-School Death Metal sound?
As I mentioned in the beginning, we were always inspired by the old days of death metal and we wanted to play that style with that sound. We don’t like the modern overproduced sound where each single note has been edited by a pc. Use as less technical help as possible, that’s the way!
In my review I note that you have some Black//Thrash/Doom influences to your sound as well – would you agree with this?
Yes, you got the point in your review! We are big fans of the 80’s and 90’s thrash, black and doom scene. We still listen to many, nearly all styles of metal, so it’s nothing surprising for us, that the songs are maybe not consisting 100% of death metal riffs. As long as it’s heavy it can not be too wrong!
Where do you think you fit in with the wider Death Metal scene?
Well, I guess our musical style shows, that our roots and our destination is the old school style of Death Metal. But because of the different influences we are not limited to this special corner. I think our sound is also attractive for people from other genres of metal.
Do you have any goals for your album?
“Hallow the Dead” album is a marker from old times to the new things which will come. Many things change now. But most important for us is, that the music spreads around and people enjoy it as I did when I listened to the old death metal classics.
Is there anything on the album you’re not satisfied with?
Well of course there are some parts we’re not 100% satisfied with, but this turned out as it is and we can deal with it. Sometimes the mistakes can even make an album more real. We are very satisfied with the result at all, so some parts which are not perfectly in the way that they were meant to be, even turn out to have a kind of charm on their own.
Do you want to discuss any of the lyrics on the album and any themes/hidden meanings/etc. that might be there?
All lyrics are dealing with the topic of death, caducity, religion and related questions. We have no answers or solutions, but maybe some of the lyrics can inspire people who might be interested in essential questions like: “where do we come from?”, “where do we go to?”, “what is existence all about?”. Some lyrics are based on real events, others are charged with own imaginations and thoughts. “Deathchant Assyria” is about the rise and fall of the Assyrian empire and the rich heritage of cuneiform writings. “Spiritual Relief” is about the everlasting fight between enlightened rationality and religious views. “Ghostwhipper” is a fictive story which is about the fact that you might unleash powers which get out of your control. All lyrics have a short introduction where is more or less explained what the shit is all about. Well, be it for the album-title itself or the printed lyrics, there can be found some some grammatical experiments and we like to invent new words some times ha ha.
What’s your songwriting process?
Well sometimes one of us has a completely new song and we just modify it here and there. At other times we work together with different ideas of riffs and parts and try to create something everyone is satisfied with. Usually we are slow in writing songs but sometimes it goes very fast and and within a short time. So there’s no basic schedule at all.
How do you see your songs/direction developing in the future?
Well it’s not easy to say anything about the future, as the present is too dominating right now. Of course we will try to make new songs, more heavy, more doom, more direct, more up-tempo… well you see…a bit of everything. Most important is to create an album which is coherent and lets no questions open…
ART 238 are from France and play Industrial Extreme Metal. This is their latest EP.
Here we have three tracks lasting almost 22 minutes in total that showcase the band’s harsh blend of Industrial sounds and Death/Black Metal know-how.
Usually when bands attempt to merge these two genres the result is some half-hearted Death Metal with keyboards on top. ART 238 don’t fall into this trap, as the Extreme Metal they play is actually extreme, and the Industrial influences seem coded into the band’s make-up at the genetic level and then hybridised with cybernetics to create this fascinating beast.
ART 238 manage to merge ultra-brutal blast beats with more atmospheric Industrial workouts in a way that recalls Aborym if they had gone the Death Metal route rather than the Black Metal one.
Another thing I really like about this EP is that the songs take the time to explore their surroundings, like they’re genuinely trying to find the best fit for their various component parts. In a feat of ingenuity the band manage to work with both sides of their sound expertly and incorporate them into an Industrial Extreme Metal whole.
It’s a musical framework that not many bands try, as most that do usually sound weak, incoherent or like some 80’s synth parody. ART 238 sidestep all of this by going straight for the jugular with their creative brand of urban Metal.
For fans of and mixing influences from – Aborym, Mithras, Red Harvest, Axis of Perdition, Blut Aus Nord, Ministry, Dødheimsgard, Kekal, Invertia, etc.
Highly enjoyable and highly recommended. This is the sound of a mechanised apocalypse.
Circaic are from the US and this is their début EP.
The band play Technical Melodic Death Metal.
The singer has a great voice – when he’s being aggressive he either slices things up with his razor sharp shrieks or utterly destroys with his deeper-than-Hell growls. The growling I especially like. And when he’s not being aggressive? Cleans are used and they sound good – no radio-friendly commercial-tainted cleans, just decent singing in a European style.
This is for fans of bands like At The Gates, Soilwork, In Flames, Darkane, etc. – this is the stylistic area of Metal we’re in only Circaic are a touch more extreme.
The music is melodic and intense, with lots of technicality and complexity marking them out from similar bands who might largely use more simplistic riffs.
Well-played guitars and rhythmic drums provide the basis for the varied vocals and the music is accentuated and enhanced by the sometimes-subtle, sometimes-overt keyboards. Indeed; the keyboards and the nature of the music in general sees the band courting Melodic Black Metal territory on many occasions.
This is a very accomplished release with mature songwriting and tracks that feel finished and substantial. The problem with this style is that it was ransacked for ideas years ago by Metalcore and has never quite recovered. Thankfully Circaic show no signs of this; there are no breakdowns, no posturing and no selling out; what we have here is Metal through and through and it’s a joy to hear.
Pyre are from Russia and play Death Metal. This is their début album.
This is Old-School Death Metal with swagger, confidence and a feeling of grim determination mixed with a sense of graveyard fun.
The singer snarls and growls his way through the carnage and there’s more than a touch of Obituary about him.
Quality solos and playing all-round make for an enjoyable listen. The sound is balanced and the drums in particular sound quite satisfying. I also like that you can hear the bass. Hurrah for bass!
This is an album of good songs and good riffs; an album celebrating the time when songs were more important than how fast or how technical you could play.
Slow, mid-paced, fast; Human Hecatomb uses all tempos, speeds and paces well demonstrating Pyre’s good grasp of dynamics and songwriting.
A healthy Swedish Death Metal influence can be heard throughout this album, but it’s not an overbearing one and certainly not one that would give people who are sick of that particular sub-genre enough reason to avoid Pyre. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that there are very few reasons to avoid Pyre if you’re a fan of Classic Death Metal.
This really is great stuff. If you love Death Metal you’ll love Pyre.
Tantal are from Russia and this is their second album. They play Progressive Melodic Death Metal.
This is upbeat and Melodic Death Metal in the vein of Arch Enemy, In Flames, Dark Tranquillity, Nightrage, etc. Tantal differentiate themselves though by having more of a Progressive edge to their sound.
The vocals consist of harsh male screaming and clean female vocals pairing off against each other. Both sets of vocals are performed admirably and the clean melodies in particular are quite enjoyable and remind of classic Lacuna Coil back when they were still a rising power to contend with.
The band’s progressive influences mean this is a relatively lengthy album and the songs have some good meat on them due to this. Everything is played well and the songs make an impression.
This has a strong European flavour to it, (despite originating in Russia), and takes me back to a time when European Metal still sounded quite exotic and had a unique flavour to it. Although this is still quite true in many respects, it no longer feels new to me any more, having heard it for decades now; Tantal remind me of a time when it all was still new and exciting, so that alone endears me to them even before you take into account the fact that they actually write good songs too!
If you like the more modern, melodic style of Heavy Metal yet eschew the more commercial tendencies of a lot of bands that play in this genre and want something a bit meatier to sink your teeth into, you could do a lot worse than check out Tantal.
Gory Blister are from Italy and as the name of the album suggests, this is their fifth album.
The band play Technical/Progressive Death Metal and take the listener on a whirlwind journey.
On The Fifth Fury we hear influences from bands like Carcass, Death and Morbid Angel. Gory Blister make these their own and use them throughout the 35 minutes playing time to create an album that is involving and complete.
The band manage to be sharp and aggressive in their assault whilst tempering this approach with restraint and more considered passages that show their Progressive Metal influences. Although they have plenty of Technical Death Metal in their sound the Progressive edge and the Carcass influence never let this side of the band get in the way of the songs themselves.
This is music that likes to explore itself. For a relatively short album there is plenty of variation around the central theme and lots of nice ideas scattered around to engage the listener such as the subtle synths that add further feeling to some of the tracks.
The riffs are largely inventive, with plenty of leads and solos to sink your teeth into. Melodies and Progressive tunes punctuate the brutality in a way that works with the flow of the songs rather than against them.
Serrated screamed vocals are the main mode of attack but satisfyingly deep growls are also used.
A strong sound and strong songwriting means this is a strong album. Strongly recommended.
Septycal Gorge are from Italy and play Technical Death Metal. This is their third album.
Ahh I love a good bit of Technical Death Metal. I mean, who doesn’t? The insane time changes, the technical wizardry, the fretboard workouts, the sheer, flattening hurricane of intricate chaos that such bands typically unleash.
Well, Septycal Gorge aren’t as brain-searingly chaotic as some bands in this genre but this is because they also have a firm love of all things utterly brutal. This is a devastatingly aggressive record which combines intricate technicality and pure heavy Death Metal into a scorcher of an album.
This album features satisfying brutality and technical depth which means that it’s a release to savour over multiple listens as you get to fully appreciate all the different things going on here. Yes it’s mind-numbingly brutal, but there’s more than just that.
These songs have what it takes to stand out in a sea of Technical Death Metal bands all struggling to get noticed. As this is their third album the band clearly know what they want to achieve and have the talent and know-how to do it.
Scourge of the Formless Breed owns a stellar production that allows both aspects of the band to shine. Whether the riffs are fast, slow, simple or complicated, the guitars never lose their bite and everything continues to sound on form.
The vocalist deserves a mention also; he has the kind of deep growl that is surprisingly expressive for someone who essentially sounds like he’s trying to vomit ghosts.
This is a top-rate, top-drawer, top quality Death Metal release. You should hunt this down and listen to it today. Go on. Now.
Innsmouth are from Denmark and play Technical Death Metal. This is their début album.
This is Technical Death Metal with programmed drums and added subtle keyboard highlights.
Think bands like Nile, Necrophagist and Obscura and you’ll be in the right place.
The musicianship is impressive with shredding guitar solos peeling off all over the shop. The solos feel like an integral part of the band’s identity and they make a good impression.
The music is nicely varied with a healthy amount of brutality offsetting the technical capabilities of the band. Quality riffs and some good atmospheric sections rub shoulders with moments of chuggery and melodic leads. Inssmouth seem more than capable of keeping the listener interested and the songs on this album show a high degree of maturity of delivery and composition whilst simultaneously keeping things aggressive and direct.
The band have plenty of energy and show that they can use dynamics to good effect. These songs actually feel like songs rather than stitched together riffs, which is always a danger with the more technical side of Metal. Thankfully they seem to realise that the song comes first and everything else is just enhancement.
The vocals are quite daemonic and evil sounding, both deeper growls and higher screams.
The album’s production values are good and the music has a satisfying sound that hits the spot.
A most enjoyable release. This is Death Metal with interest, depth and a whole bucket-load of guitar shenanigans. I Like.
Promethean Horde are from the US and play Black Metal. This is their début album.
Wonderbox Metal 