Death Metal – Page 219 – Wonderbox Metal

Interview with Decembre Noir

Decembre Noir’s début album A Discouraged Believer is a polished Doom/Death Metal release, dripping with raw and bloody emotion. It has that mystery ingredient that lifts a band above the norm into the higher realms. We decided it was important to delve a bit deeper into the background of the album to find out what makes it tick…

Give us a bit of background to Decembre Noir

Hi, I’m Lars, vocalist from Decembre Noir. So I’d like to give you my reply!

We are 5 (nice) guys from East-Germany, from the region round Erfurt, the capital from Thueringia (one of the “states” from Germany). Besides our bandproject our “baby” – almost all of us have a normal life with job and own family.

What are your influences?

Katatonia, Opeth, In Mourning, October Tide, Swallow The Sun, My Dying Bride, Anathema and Paradise Lost! 😉

I characterize the style/sound of the album!

Dark + heavy = Décembre Noir!!! “A Discouraged Believer” is a fucking doom/death monster!

Our sound in the main has become some stronger and the structures of the songs who already has been available have changed to become much more better. More Death and Black metal elements and many melodies gave the songs their final outfit. Last but not least the classical influence from the cello. In private we all listen to different music and so it was used a little bit from all our musical tastes. The good combination is doing his work!

What are you listening to at the moment that you would like to recommend?

Haha, Katatonia’s “Brave Murder Day” ! I LOVE this album! Every song on this record is a Doom-Metal-Diamond! My favorite song on this album is “Brave” !!! Fucking great!!! I love it!!!

What did you want to achieve with your new album?

We want to have a solid mainstay in the metal-scene! 😉

We would like to play on the bigger festivals in summertime, lovely, but unfortunately for that year we haven’t got any acceptances. We hope it is possible next year because it must be a very special experience to play stages like With Full Force, Summer Breeze, Partysan, Hellfest or In Flammen!

Are you happy with how it turned out?

Absolutely!!! We are full of proud and very happy about our first album!!! We love this record!!!

What can you tell us about the lyrics?

So to speak we have a basic concept in our album „A discouraged believer“. You can speak about the classical main idea who you can find inside the album. Nevertheless every song is standing for itself.

It tells about the journey of a young man who is trying to find every day the meaning in his life and way. It seems he has reached a deadlock, only he is looking at the obstacles in his weekday, the typical problems which become more and more and can overtax someone and no idea how to change something, because he is get stuck somehow… So like in “Thorns”.

Our protagonist is searching for that, what we call “God”, but can’t find “Him” or any answers. That’s why he is discouraged, cause he has understood, that he can’t get any help from a “greater power” and he has to go his life way and find the meaning behind that all alone.

For instance in “Stowaway” is the theme suicide to see a chance for a new begin in life (But to forestall any critical readers or regarding this potential concerned or endangered people: Don’t panic, nobody from us will incite anybody for do that!!! Please do not misunderstand!). Much more is the thought what is standing behind that song, bother things who weigh heavily upon our mind to leave behind, finish with them and try to orientate to another direction respectively to find a better way to arrange the life.

On following song “Resurrection” the name is program It reflects the start in a new life.

For myself the album is one of my most personal things, what I have written yet in my life. Have putted lots of time and heart-blood in that album. So many people has fought in life with similar piled up problems, whether in job, relationship, family…and already we all were standing for the question, who is the meaning of all and finally comes to the result if you want life better you have to make a personal breakout and has to change by yourself a lot!

Decembre Noir Give us a bit of information on the songwriting process.

Already the songs before sounded really good and varied, but of course because of the teamwork with Ali they became much better! For us all that was an unbelievable experience! We have worked with diverse guest singers and musicians. For example one of my best friends Tele (guitar player of the German Pagan/Black metal band “Hangatyr”), who gave us some clean vocals for the songs “Decembre noir” and “Resurrection”. Alis girlfriend Katharina, who is singing with me in “Escape to the sun” a duet. Not to forget our lady on the cello, Nicole, who has shown her talent by the Darkwave band “Other Day”. Just that records with the Cello have been very interesting, for Ali too, because for him it was the first time to working with such an very nice sounded instrument. Mix a cello in your music and you will get an unbelievable atmosphere. We have experimented with Synthisounds too. You can be exciting about really great moments.

At least we are happy about the result of our job!

Well, we had a very special time and a lot of fun during recording and have to say we grew as musicians and band! We were much more glad, when Eike O. Freese (Dark Age) offered us to mix and master our album together with Ali in Hamburg! On that place a great “Thank you” to both and we hope we can mix and master our next album with Ali and Eike again!
How do you see your position in the wider Doom/Death Metal musical framework/genre?

We are a tiny star on the big metal-heaven! But we want to grow! Latest with the next album! 😉

What’s next for Decembre Noir?

Looking for gigs…Well till then we will use the free time to work on next songs. We have lots of ideas and material. Guess we will start again in autumn – with pleasure!

So you will hear from us – enjoy our album and stay heavy and dark!!!

Regards from Lars!!!

Thanks!

Morbo – Addiction to Musickal Dissection (Review)

Morbo are from Italy and this is their Death Metal début album.

Born in the Death Metal underworld, the sickening, diseased hulk that is Morbo has slowly been crawling and scratching its way towards the light for some time. It’s now finally ready to burst through in sprays of ichor and gore.

They embody belligerent Death Metal that is uncaring of what anyone thinks of them but still retains a surprising amount of festering melody and an ear for a good riff.

This is played in the classic style, where songs mattered and a good chorus or catchy verse was more important than speed-for-the-sake-of-it or ultra-technicality.

The sound is strong but not over-produced, and you can even hear what the bass is doing. It retains legibility and coherence whether the band play blast beats or whether they are playing crushing mid-paced riff-monsters.

The songs have character, propelled by the vocals that have the same kind of gravitas as those from the classic era where you immediately had your attention held by the sheer force of the singer’s will.

So listen to Addiction to Musickal Dissection and get swept up in the riffs and the general foetid aura of traditional Death Metal played with passion, integrity and an aura of pure sickness.

Infest – Cold Blood War (Review)

This is the fourth album from Serbian Death/Thrash Metal band Infest.

After a perfunctory intro the first track Destroyer of Their Throne starts up and I am momentarily confused – have I accidentally put on a Vader album instead of Infest? I over-exaggerate, (slightly), but the similarity, mainly in the vocal department, is startling.

Infest are not Vader clones of course. Musically they have other tricks up their collective sleeves and these conspire to create an enjoyable Metal experience lasting just under 30 minutes.

It’s an entertaining and speedy collection of Thrash-tinged Death Metal tracks that, yes, takes cues from Vader but also has some almost Hardcore influenced crossover riffs. I hear a bit of Pro-Pain to some of the chuggy guitars on occasion, as well as some Face Down-style Thrash and a bit of Malevolent Creation.

The production is strong and the bass is clear. The songs have a hard metallic sheen to them that accentuates their unyielding nature. They have a very immediate sound and always seem like they’re trying to get through the songs faster than they’re actually played, (if that makes any sense…?); there’s a sense of urgency to the album that gives it a vibrancy and life that some bands lack.

Good songs, good Metal. Hard, fast and straight to the point. I like.

Funest – Desecrating Obscurity (Review)

Funest are an Italian Death Metal band and this is their début album.

After a perfunctory intro the band have at it; they specialise in Old-School brutality from the likes of Dismember, Autopsy, etc. This is primitive and heavy with a firm nod to the Swedish school of Death Metal but also acknowledging classic Death Metal in general.

The vocalist deserves special mention as he has a great voice; a firm, deep growl that’s as expressive as it is bellowing and cavernous.

The band make the most of their rich heritage by focusing on the value of each song and not neglecting substance for style. Each track contains what it needs to be an effective Death Metal beast and doesn’t ruin itself by wondering off into areas unsuitable or ill advised. There’s no fat here, just a lean Metal machine.

As followers of this site will know, I have a soft spot for Swedish-influenced Death Metal. It’s just so very satisfying and timeless. The grooves, rhythms and riffs all pound along with that chainsaw sound and the end result is Death Metal that hits the spot.

This is also a good description of Funest. This is an enjoyable album that I’ll be happily blasting out for some time.

Have a listen and see if you agree.

The Parallax – Obliquity of the Ecliptic (Review)

The Parallax come from Canada and this is their début album of Extreme Progressive Metal.

The closest band for comparison would be the mighty Between the Buried and Me, although to the credit of The Parallax they manage to use the template but don’t sound like a rip off. Another good example of this would be a band like The Odious who also share the Between the Buried and Me influence but like The Parallax they have their own sound built onto it. Other bands that The Parallax are reminiscent of in places are the more recent Strapping Young Lad material and Lascaille’s Shroud.

Like Between the Buried and Me the band are hard to categorise as they have so much going on, but I suppose you could brand them as playing Extreme Progressive Metal, if you really wanted to pigeon hole.

The band have epic, sprawling songs full of high speed Metal and highly melodic riffing, where the solos and leads are plentiful and played better than most.

Keyboards and effects wash over the music in waves. Piano sections and 70-s style duelling synths are common.

Harsh vocals roar and clean vocals soar. The singer has a very good voice and ably manages the vocals whether they be Power Metal cleans, abrasive roars or anything else.

It’s all very well done and very proficiently played. As you can probably tell from the above the band are certainly not lacking in ambition. There are only 5 tracks but there is an hour of music here, including the epic 23 minute splendour of The Reformatting.

The sound is clear but my only slight complaint, (and it’s only a small thing really), is that it could do with a bit more depth to the sound; it sounds curiously compressed. It stops registering after a while, but when you first listen to this album after another band who, say, have a rounder sound to their recording, it stands out. Definitely not the end of the world, and it might not even be an issue for some people, but just a note for next time.

All in all this is a talented band who have produced a whopper of a début. I have no hesitation in recommending this album at all. If your tastes run to the Progressive and the interesting then Obliquity of the Ecliptic is for you. I fully expect this band to be snapped up by some enterprising record label soon, so get in on the action now.

Question – Doomed Passages (Review)

Question are a Mexican Death Metal band and this is their début album.

The band give their Death Metal a mysterious occult sheen and the music is steeped in it. Rather than a straightforward blastfest or one dimensional brutality Question inject their music with a smattering of Death-like melody and a feeling of grandiose song structure.

There is blasting, of course, and there is brutality, but there is more than just this. Dark melodies and slower sections are rife and the compositions are right up there from the heights of the Classic Death Metal era.

Question channel the Death Metal greats such as Death, Incantation, Hypocrisy, Morbid Angel and Suffocation to deliver an engaging and involving album that doesn’t take the easy or simple route.

The compositions are well written and show a degree of maturity and integrity that most bands lack. Longer songs give the band’s creativity time to shine and allow them to demonstrate their breadth of talent within the Death Metal genre.

The singer has a deep voice that’s absolutely monolithic; like an angry God from ancient days past decreeing loudly from the mountain tops.

This may be a new album but it is stylistically of a time when each song had its own identity and albums were holistically a complete package.

Gomorrah – To the Depths (Review)

Gomorrah are from the US and play aggressive Thrash Metal with a minor Modern Metal influence.

This is heavy stuff, with a solid sound and production. It allows the riffs to come crashing around you causing maximum destruction.

And there are a lot of riffs, this is a veritable riff-fest of Thrash and caustic melodies. They know their instruments as well and can pull out some nice solos when they want to.

Their sound does have some modern influences to it, but I wouldn’t call them a Modern Thrash Band as they’re far too riffy, heavy and honest for that. Rather you can just hear some Lamb of God influence in some of the vocal inflections and they share some riff ideas with some of the more Melodic of Thrashers; but these are only minor aspects of the band’s sound as the core Gomorrah experience is based on Metal with a big fat capital M.

These songs, (and they are songs), are lively enough and even though there’s nothing innovative or new going on here the band manage to somehow avoid sounding tired and have produced an enjoyable EP. The key ingredient of course is passion; they clearly love what they do and this bleeds over into the instruments and song structures so that the listener can’t help but smile and start banging the old noggin along to it.

If I’m honest as well I think that the ever-so-slight modern influence to the band that I mentioned earlier also helps their cause. There are soooo many retro-style/Old-School Thrash bands around at the moment and a lot of them really do sound tired and stale. It’s nice to hear a band like Gomorrah who don’t fall into the retro trap but also don’t fall foul of trying to sound too modern or commercial either. They have the balance just right for me; it’s a precarious balance of course but at the moment they’re onto a winner.

The more I listen to this the more I like it. Give this a try, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed with them.

Deep In Hate – Chronicles of Oblivion (Review)

This is the third album from French Death Metallers Deep In Hate.

The band have a good line in both brutality and melody and combine the two nicely; crushing riffs and double-bass beatdowns compete with melodic leads and riffs.

This is a band who are fully comfortable at the modern end of the Death Metal spectrum without completely giving themselves over to Deathcore; although there is a healthy influence from that most maligned of subgenres it stays on the Death Metal side of the equation more often than not. The result? Aborted meets Beneath the Massacre meets Whitechapel with, as strange as this might sound, elements of Hypocrisy at their heaviest.

The sound is crystal clear and the band use this to show you exactly what they are capable of in all its visceral glory. This is modern Death Metal played proficiently and with the sole aim of battering and beating the listener into submission.

The added melodic parts are there to keep things from becoming one-dimensional however, and the sheer aggression and brutality of the band as a whole never allows the melodies to get too out of hand; you could never describe them as Melodic Death Metal, for example. It’s a winning brutality-to-melody-ratio; brutality clearly comes out on top but the melodic aspect holds its own when the songs need it.

The vocals are deep roars full of aggression and testosterone. These alternate with occasional higher screams. The singer takes his cues from the Aborted singer and shares a talent for interesting vocal rhythms and patterns.

Each of the songs has its own identity and is capable of being a ambassador for the band. No filler.

Kaotoxin Records seem to have a talent for sniffing out the very best of French Metal talent. Deep In Hate are their latest find; let them be yours too.

Fragarak – Crypts of Dissimulation (Review)

Fragarak are a Progressive Death Metal band from India and this is their début album.

This is intelligent and passionate music lovingly crafted to be more than straight Death Metal. The Progressive aspect of the music is real and almost tangible. The songs and song structures are considered and a lot of work has gone into these tracks.

The band has a keen melodic edge and there are bountiful leads and solos liberally spread throughout the almost 40 minutes of playing time.

The vocalist has a very accomplished voice with a thick, throaty roar reminiscent of the singer of Opeth when he was still doing such things.

Fragarak have a strong sound with all of the instruments being clear and well-defined. The bass should get a special mention for being used to good effect for a change instead of just shadowing what the rhythm guitar is doing, as in a lot of bands.

Most bands of this ilk tend to start out with a Death Metal core and add some Progressive leanings on top of it; or they cover everything up in hyper technicality and math-wizardry to the extent that there are no actual songs left. Fragarak have avoided both of these things and instead have essentially started off from a Progressive Metal standpoint and built the Death Metal into their sound as they went along. In this way they can be compared to, (old), Opeth once more, although it’s a stylistic comparison as musically there is not a lot of similarity beyond the aforementioned.

This is an exceptional album that mixes structure, dynamics, brutality, softness, atmosphere and pure class into a cohesive and enjoyable journey through the lands of proper Metal delight.

The Indian Metal scene is proving itself a fertile breeding ground for exciting and quality music – Fragarak can go right to the top of the list as ones most likely to succeed. A highly recommended listen.

Ghoul – Hang Ten (Review)

Ghoul are from the US and this EP is Thrash Metal with a healthy crossover influence; on this release their normal Death Metal influence is missing.

Ghoul have put out some good music over the years and this is no exception, although it is somewhat of a departure from their normal fare. This is feel-good Thrash-a-rama of the cinematic variety and with a bit of an old-wild-Western-crossed-with-a-biker-movie feel.

The songs each have that confident self-assured swagger to them and the bass is enough to plant images of run-down sleazy saloons in anyone’s mind.

The aural equivalent of a bar brawl in a seedy joint between rival motorcycle gangs; it’s ugly but you can’t help watch the spectacle unfold regardless.

Consisting of either instrumental tracks or tracks with spoken word on them, the traditional Ghoul vocals are absent and the music takes the front seat. As a showcase for the band’s ample musical talents this works fine and the emphasis is purely on the fun-time riffs and the driving tunes.

If you’ve never encountered the maniac ride that is Ghoul before then this is as good a stop as any to get on board with. But be warned, you may need a new set of underwear afterwards.