Deathcore – Page 20 – Wonderbox Metal

Intraneum – Perfection (Review)

Intraneum are from Poland and this is their début EP. They play Melodic Death Metal/Deathcore.

Apart from the brief and atmospheric piano intro this a short 3 song EP that showcases the band’s abilities.

This is modern Melodic Death Metal that includes components of Metal-/Deathcore.

The songs chug and rip along quite nicely with plenty of leads, solos and melodic extremity sharing space with more considered and streamlined Metal.

The band can clearly play their instruments and they inject a good amount of technical playing into the proceedings, although they never ascend to the crazy heights of pure Technical Death Metal.

How to describe this…it’s like one of the more commercially heavy bands, Lamb of God, Chimaira, Killswitch Engage, etc., started getting heavier and playing with a more Death Metal slant. Add to this a bit more technical playing and remove any clean vocals and you have an idea of where Intraneum are coming from.

The songs are chunky explosions of heavy guitars and melodic riffs, all wrapped up in a punchy production that gives them the bright sound that a band like this needs.

This is a short collection of good songs that demonstrate the potential of Intraneum.

Resistance – The Seeds Within (Review)

Resistance are a Belgian Death Metal band and this is their fifth album.

This is brutal and heavy music designed to destroy. Resistance play Modern Death Metal with a hint of Deathcore in places, but only a hint.

The recording is clinical and polished with everything sounding clear and strong. The band play their tunes tightly and use all of their available tools to go straight for the throat.

Resistance’s sound combines the surgical riffing of Decapitated, the groove of Grave and the modernity of Job For A Cowboy. It lends for a very strong sound that isn’t restricted to any one of those three styles as it borrows from all.

The singer has a throaty roar that sounds every bit as muscular as the music. Not dissimilar to the singer of Grave, he provides a catchy Death Metal voice to work alongside the infectious riffing.

And this is an album of riffs. Heavy, groovy, blasting riffs. They dot Resistance’s landscape like bomb craters and leave just as much of a mark. A large amount of consideration and thought has obviously gone into these songs and the result is very enjoyable indeed.

Quality Death Metal from Belgium. Listen at full volume.

Coprocephalic – The Oath of Relinquishment (Review)

This is the second album from Coprocephalic; a Death Metal band who have a Taiwanese/International origin.

Coprocephalic play Brutal Death Metal. This is ultra-brutal and not for the weak-hearted. The band manage to pull off something a bit different though than most as they combine an interesting perspective on brutality with dissonant melodics creating an unusual take on Brutal Death Metal that’s refreshing and addictive.

This is pure brutality and the riffs come thick and fast. When they’re not trying to beat you to death with blunt breakdowns and heavy chopping they’re trying to stab you to death with sharp melodics and atypical noises.

This is a band who play thoroughly Modern Death Metal with a twist of the most extreme Deathcore the likes of which is peddled by Infant Annihilator and Rings of Saturn. It’s frenzied, savage and not at all pleasant; just the way we like it.

Utter pig-noise vocals sound like someone’s trying to vomit up their own stomach and even though I’m not normally the biggest fan of this style of vocals here it works perfectly with the music. In this sense they’re not too far removed from fellow label mates Infecting the Swarm.

The Oath of Relinquishment is high energy and it’s hard not to feel excited when listening to this. It’s just pure fucking Metal and more brutal than most can handle.

I love it. Let’s all get behind this talented band now.

Rings of Saturn – Lugal Ki En (Review)

This is the third album from US band Rings of Saturn. They play Technical Deathcore.

This is hyper-technical and full of crazy time changes and enough complex riffery to send even hardened Metallers into hiding.

Rings of Saturn have an extreme Deathcore aspect to their sound that lends them that ultra-modern edge whilst retaining every single aspect of brutality that any form of Extreme Metal has. In this way they’re similar to the excellent Infant Annihilator; this is modern, complex and devastatingly heavy music.

Vaguely Electronica/Sci-fi-influenced melodies abound and stick out from the studied chaos like serrated knives ready to carve up the unwary. The band combine frenzy and precision like few others and these songs are exemplars of what happens when a clearly talented band combine Deathcore with Technical Death Metal and proto-Progressive tendencies.

The sheer mind-numbing extremity of this release is a joy to behold. Some may criticise the band for this and they may find certain aspects of the band’s sound distasteful or too fashionable, or whatever, (poor, much-maligned Deathcore), but it’s hard to care about such facile remarks when the music is this energetic and outright extreme.

My personal complaint with a lot of Deathcore, (and also Djent), is that it’s a style that lends itself to mediocrity too easily. Mediocrity is a word that could never be applied to Rings of Saturn though; love it or loathe it, Lugal Ki En is an album that is bright enough to transcend the mediocre and shine brightly with a thousand burning stars.

Me? I love it. Bring on the chaos.

Unanswered – Heliosphere (Review)

Unanswered are from Poland and play Djent/Deathcore.

This is energetic and suitably face ripping in nature. It blasts out of the cage with a strong sound and no qualms about who it attacks.

I’m not a massive fan of Djent as I think it’s too easy to be mediocre, but this only has a sprinkling of Djent mixed with the Deathcore and it works for me.

The band have a nicely heavy sound and aren’t afraid to layer melodies over the heaviness, further distilling the Djent-isms and adding depth to what otherwise might be random riffs strung together.

These melodies have a Post-Metal quality to them that’s nice to hear when juxtaposed against the heavier, chunky riffs that make up the bedrock of the band’s output. Added electronics/keyboards further enhance their sound and it’s a credit to their songwriting that it all congeals together into a cohesive whole.

These songs have a good groove to them and there’s enough bite to satisfy. It’s distinctly non-commercial, with the main aim of the band to destroy what lies in their path.

The singer has a brutal set of lungs and shouts and growls himself hoarse as he keeps up with the rest of the music. Some semi-cleans appear on the last song and it seems that Unanswered have even more potential than we might have seen so far.

This has surprised me and I’m pleased to say it’s surpassed my expectations. Both Djent and Deathcore are much maligned in a lot of people’s minds, but Unanswered give a good account of themselves and it would be a shame if they were dismissed out of hand due to this.

Heliosphere is an enjoyable twelve and a half minutes of modern Heavy music and Unanswered are definitely one of the better bands to play this style.

Give them a listen and see if their immense groove and spectral soundscapes can impress you as it has done me.

Acrania – Totalitarian Dystopia (Review)

Acrania are from the UK and play Death Metal. This is their début album.

I have really enjoyed their material to date, so I was eager to hear this album. Thankfully they have met my expectations as this release is chock full with enough crushing Death Metal and Deathcore to sink a battleship.

Acrania have a crystal clear sound that’s extraordinarily heavy and surgical in precision with its killing blows.

The band specialise in the type of bouncy Deathcore riffs that you can’t help but move around to. This is coupled with brutal hyperblasting to create Modern Death Metal that’s somewhere between the extremity of Infant Annihilator and the belligerent -core of All Shall Perish.

The vocals are as extreme as you’d expect, running the entire spectrum from pignoise to growls to screams. It’s a solid performance.

The songs are not just about the breakdowns though, as there’s more than enough Death Metal here to satisfy people who are put off by the -core part of the style. The band also have ample opportunity to show off their technical skills with occasional lead guitars that seem to flare out of nowhere before dying back once more and letting the relentless barrage of the rhythm guitars take the fore again.

A hugely enjoyable release that’s more than the sum of its colossal riffs; this is an album that takes the Deathcore template and makes it their own.

Highly recommended for all fans of sonic heaviness and utter brutality.

Reciprocal – New Order of the Ages (Review)

This is Reciprocal’s second album of Technical Death Metal. They are from the US.

A strong start introduces the band and their heavy, sprawling sound to the listener. It’s complex and interlinked whilst retaining a brutality and nastiness a lot of Technical Death Metal bands are lacking in.

This is Technical Death Metal mixed up with the modern, New-School breed of crushingly Brutal Death Metal. It’s a heady combination that immediately makes you sit up and take notice of them.

The songs are long, (for Death Metal), and the band use this time to explore the labyrinthine riffs and to show off their musical chops.

They appear to have quite the mixture of influences on this release. I hear elements of Cephalic Carnage, Carcass, Spawn of Possession, Arsis, Gorguts, Decapitated and many more crammed into the technically dense songs. There is too much going on here to absorb in one listening, which is a good thing as it increases the longevity of the album.

Vocally the band incorporate pretty much all styles in the album somewhere, although high-pitched Carcass-esque screams are the most used.

The sound is absolutely immense. It sonically shines and the tracks hit home like hammers. It doesn’t get stale or boring as the band have enough variety within their framework to introduce elements of several Death Metal sub-genres; Brutal Death Metal, Melodic Death Metal and Deathcore being the main ones in addition to the core of Technical Death Metal.

New Order of the Ages is an ambitious album; 68 minutes of music with plenty of ideas and enough talent to hold it all together. Piano and samples are used liberally to help spread the band’s message and to provide breaks between bouts of swirling riffs and widdly fret-wizardry.

I heartily recommend this album to anyone who enjoys bold, challenging, heavy, technical music. If this is you then this is a must listen.

Frontal – Death Eaters (Review)

Frontal are from France and play Techincal/Progressive Modern Death Metal.

Imagine Meshuggah if they had more of a Modern Death Metal influence; add in a bit of Technical Thrash and this is the area that Frontal inhabit.

The songs are technical, angular and also remind of Devolved only without the Industrial influence, (and blast beats). Another description I suppose would be Progressive Deathcore, which sounds like an oxymoron, but only if you assume all Deathcore is stupid, (it isn’t).

The colliding riffs and obscure melodies will no doubt put some people off, but just as many will take to this easily and lap up the heavy, militaristic Technical Thrash that the band offer.

The vocalist has a good pair of lungs and for the most part spends his time using them to shout out lyrics in a throaty roar.

This is music that lacks subtlety but is still nuanced and complex. Although the riffs come thick and fast the band allow them to congeal on occasion to produce a stirring section or emotive passage, before fracturing once more and falling away in different directions all at once.

Definitely a grower. A good album that will probably suffer from premature dismissal by a lot of people, which is a shame as there is a lot to like here. Give them the time to show you what they can do.

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.

Years of Tyrants – Leading the Blind (Review)

I believe the appropriate response upon pressing play and hearing the blasting, shredding brutality here is “holy shit”. Their sound is somewhere between technical Death Metal and technical Deathcore. And what a sound it is. Explosive doesn’t do it justice. If you like bands such as Beneath the Massacre and Infant Annihilator then this is for you.

Another French band worshipping at the altar of bruality and being rewarded handsomely by the Gods of Heaviness. One thing this album has in abundance is energy. The kind of energy that makes you want to flail around ripping anything and everything to shreds and then stomping on the remains. Riffs, licks, leads, drums – it all flies past in a blur of bloody fingers and broken drumsticks.

The sheer weight of aggression here is staggering, and thankfully there are strong songwriting skills on display; otherwise this could have been just a mess of riffs and shouting whereas what we actually have is a cohesive, albeit very short release. Too short really. Will we get more? Only time will tell but I for one do hope so.