Malevolence are a metalcore band from the UK and this is their fourth album.
2022’s Malicious Intent was a solid mix of groove metal and metalcore, so I was interested where Malevolence would take their sound and increased popularity for the 43-minute Where Only the Truth Is Spoken. Continue reading “Malevolence – Where Only the Truth Is Spoken (Review)”
This is the fifth album from UK metallers Employed to Serve.
With every release Employed to Serve just seem to be getting better. This culminated in 2021’s Conquering, a record that made it onto my best of list of that year. Which is why expectation is high for the band’s latest 48-minute record Fallen Star. Continue reading “Employed to Serve – Fallen Star (Review)”
This is the second album from Bulgarian metallers Gwendydd.
Blending aspects of melodic death metal, nu-metal, industrial, and metalcore into 32 minutes of charismatic metal, Gwendydd have produced an enjoyable album in Censored. Continue reading “Gwendydd – Censored (Review)”
Deified are a UK metal band and this is their latest EP.
Here we have 20 minutes of metalcore/groove metal, with a healthy amount of aggression. Continue reading “Deified – Inhuman Manifesto (Review)”
This is the seventh album from this US metal band.
I’ve always enjoyed Devildriver’s combination of modern metal, melodic death metal, thrash metal, NWOAHM, classic metal, nu-metal and crushing groove metal. Sure, they’ve had their ups and downs over the years with some albums being noticeably stronger than others, but they’ve always had enough meat on their metal bones to make me happy to listen to them in some capacity or other.
This moves us onto Continue reading “Devildriver – Trust No One (Review)”
The Down Troddence are from India and play an interesting blend of Thrash Metal and other influences.
The Indian scene seems to be endlessly fresh, exciting and innovative; you’re never quite sure what to expect from the multitude of different bands that are based there. The Down Troddence are a perfect example of this; based on the name and album cover I wasn’t given much clue, even the brief description that I did have didn’t really tell me much.
What we get here is groove-heavy Thrash with interesting melodies and influences from a multitude of other genres interspersed within the heaviness.
The vocals remind me of the ones that Pitchshifter used on their early releases, only raspier; they share that same strange, rhythmic, mechanistic and unusual quality that Pitchshifter used so well in the beginning. They sound robotic, inhuman and characterful all at the same time. Odd but effective.
Musically it’s well-played modern Thrash with melody, leads, solos and added effects and keyboards. As well as the odd Folk influence they also incorporate aspects of psychedelia and Industrial sounds into the songs. Taken all together this adds up to an interesting and quite varied listen that has a modern Metal core but has enough elements of older Thrash and other influences to keep things really interesting.
So, take old Pitchshifter, add a dollop of Devildriver, throw in some classic Thrash, and then mix in a pinch of Folk/Psychedelia/Industrial sounds and you have a recipe for How Are You? We Are Fine, Thank You.
Unexpected and gratefully received; this is an album full of joys and with a lot to offer. Another victory from India.
Wonderbox Metal 