Attan are from Norway and play Hardcore/Post-Hardcore. This is their début EP.
Coming across as an unholy mix of bands like Vision of Disorder, Will Haven, Converge and Neurosis, Attan are heavy and intense.
This music is dark and visceral, containing a primal rage and destructive intensity. The songs are passionate exemplars of heaviosity that pay tribute to their influences while making their own way down the ill-lit avenues of dark Hardcore; Continue reading “Attan – From Nothing (Review)”
Chronoboros are from Greece and play Sludge-fuelled Hardcore. This is their début EP.
Chronoboros play a mix of Sludge/Hardcore that shares some features of Alternative Metal and Noise Rock in its sideways approach. It reminds me of the early-to-mid-90s style in some ways, albeit with a modern delivery and a distinct personality all of its own.
Combining elements of bands such as Fudge Tunnel, Association Area, Kowloon Walled City, No Anchor, Helmet, The Dillinger Escape Plan and a plethora of others, this is an interesting and enjoyable release that shows that a band can be inventive while still having the capacity to rock out hard.
The music is complex and involved. It has a lot of depth and layers to it meaning that although these songs are quite short they make a good impression. Heavy sections compete for space with less-conventional parts and there’s a lot of good ideas on this EP that are barely explored before the band hop off once again on another exploratory trip into their unusual world.
The vocals combine harsher screams with more unusual semi-spoken vocalisations. It works a treat and is thankfully the right side of quirky.
There’s a lot of talent and promise on this release. It’s only 15 minutes long, so what excuse do you have for not checking it out?
That’s what I thought.
Mantric are a Norwegian Progressive Metal band. This is their second album.
Mantric play modern Progressive Metal that favours a combination of atmospheric sections and more aggressive technical parts. Sometimes these parts are separated and sometimes they merge into one another.
The vocals consist of soft cleans and harsher screams. The cleans have a wistful, tender feeling to them while the screams are more Hardcore in nature. The cleaner vocals tend to, (unsurprisingly), correspond to the more atmospheric parts and the harsher ones to the more aggressive parts.
Mantric’s Metal hides a lot of complexity behind the atmospheric veneer that it cloaks itself in. I can imagine that it will be a bit hit-and-miss for a lot of people due to the rather unusual style they play, which combines a rather ethereal feeling of atmosphere with a more rugged technicality that is a strange combination in some ways.
I like its unconventional charms though, and Sin does have the feel of a special record due to this. It’s certainly not perfect and does have a few unpolished moments, but overall the odd feelings it creates remind me of a strange amalgam of Poison the Well, Enslaved and Drowningman.
Works for me. Check them out.
The Nepalese Temple Ball are a UK Post-Metal band and this is their début album.
Combining elements of bands such as Neurosis, Light Bearer, (who they share a member with), Isis, Converge and No Anchor, The Nepalese Temple Ball have created over an hour’s worth of exploratory, expansive music on Arbor.
This is a diverse album that’s full of different influences and styles, all collected under the widely variable Post-Metal umbrella. Doom, Progressive Metal, Hardcore/Post-Hardcore, Sludge, Psychedelia…even a hint of Black Metal…these are all gathered by the band and melted down to form the songs on Arbor. They have a wealth of skill at doing this, it seems, and Arbor is much more accomplished than it probably should be for a début album.
Lots of different moods and feelings are covered, but the overall impression for me is one of a strange apocalyptic landscape where the world is drowning a chaotic, messy death.
This is music that’s non-standard, atypical and not afraid at all to do its own thing. The band are clearly walking the path that they want to and should be commended for doing this and exploring such rich musical possibilities. This has resulted in a quality album full of interesting areas to explore, with plenty of diversity and depth to attract and hook the listener. This is assuming you like challenging, interesting music of course. If all you’re after is more of the same, then move along now.
Highly recommended.
Vision of Disorder are a US Hardcore band. This is their sixth album.
Hardcore veterans Vision of Disorder return and from the off it’s riffs, riffs and more riffs as the singer snarls and the production crushes. I’ve been a huge fan of this band ever since their amazing Imprint album came out way back 1998. They’ve had some ups and downs over the years, but they’ve always delivered the goods in one form or another.
Razed to the Ground is what Vision of Disorder do best – a condensed explosion of violence and melody. These songs allow the listener to get wrapped up in pummelling grooves, high-energy riffs and a performance so pumped up it will tear your face off before it even realises what it’s done.
Ostensibly a band like Vision of Disorder should be a run-of-the-mill Metalcore band with no distinguishing features to set them apart from hordes of similar bands, except for their higher profile and length of service. In reality though, the atypical riffs, interesting melodies, Hardcore ferocity and pure passion that the band exude mean that they are very much greater than the sum of their parts.
These songs have catchines and hooks in spades. As well as all of the obvious, high-impact immediate stuff here, there’s also a deeper subtlety and nuance displayed on some of the tracks that merely adds to the album’s longevity.
I’ve always loved the singer’s voice. His screaming snarls sound like anger personified when he really lets rip, and his cleans always have a certain edge to them that made them stand out from most of the more commercial/weak sounding cleans used by a lot of their peers. He’s on top form again on this release and it seems he will never run out of steam. Here’s hoping.
This is a strong new album from these Hardcore stalwarts.
Highly recommended.
This is the third album from Swedish Atmospheric Sludge/Post-Hardcore band Moloken.
This is Cult of Luna/Isis-inspired Post-Metal that has been combined with Converge-style Post-Hardcore to create individualistic songs that are sharp, nasty and boiling with heated darkness.
Caustic, throat-shredding screamed vocals provide a brutally simple focal point to the apocalyptic music. The band are here to sow darkness and reap pain. Their music is a dense, claustrophobic affair, ripe with urban decay and full of disturbed interest for the observer to become upset by.
Varied and nuanced, there are a lot of good ideas on display throughout these 29 minutes and Moloken make the most of the relatively short playing time by filling the album with bleak sounds that captivate and enthral.
Equal parts Sludge, Hardcore and dark atmosphere, All Is Left to See is enjoyable and recommended.
Extreme Noise Terror are a Grindcore band from the UK and this is their latest album.
This is a band that have been around for a long time and know a thing or two about ugly brutality. This is Old-School Grind with a firm Hardcore/Punk base that lends the tracks a nervy energy and attitude.
The songs are like short, violent bashes to the head. This is a good thing, honest. It’s raw, uncompromising and savagely delivered.
Each of the tracks is like a shot of adrenaline, with the high-octane Punk riffs and the pummelling drums acting in concert with the frenetic vocals to produce maniacally destructive music.
The dual-vocal assault is belligerent, hostile and unrelentingly antagonistic, frequently straddling the line between murderous and downright frenzied and chaotic.
One of the great things about a band like this though is just how catchy some of these songs are. Sure, they’ll never be a radio hit, (why would they want to be?), but in our rarefied world of Extreme Metal these songs have more hooks than most.
30 years (!) into their career and it’s heartening to see a band like this still so vital and vibrant. Turn up the volume and blast this out for all it’s worth.
Ad Nauseum are from the US and this is their latest EP. They play Sludge Metal.
This is harsh, noise-infected, Hardcore-infused Sludge that’s ugly, uncompromising and brutal.
The shouted vocals are aggressively nasty and purposely blunt and ugly. They barely sound human and make all manner of beastly noises, spreading poison and hatred to all who would listen.
This is barbed and raw, full of spite, bile and a visceral sense of derangement. The songs crawl and bludgeon their way through the playing time and listening to Ad Nauseum is like spending 20 minutes confronting bitter pain.
The noise influence is worked well into the tracks and feels like a part of the music rather then being added in at the last moment. This works with the caustic guitars to create a disturbing atmosphere of decayed rot.
Faster parts are included to really rub the sandpaper on the salt-covered wound. Like a festering, open sore that’s exposed over and over to infected materials, these sections ram home the futility of ever trying to get clean and healthy again. Better to embrace the dirt and live in the ground with the worms and discarded flesh.
A recommended listen for all fans of filth and misery.
This is a split between two French Death Metal bands, Crusher and Mercyless.
Both veterans of the French scene, Crusher open up proceedings with four songs, 14 minutes of high-energy Death Metal.
The songs are unashamedly Old-School, with a suitable sound to go along with it. Simple and effective, the riffs and drums pound out unfashionable rhythms while the singer shouts himself hoarse.
Featuring Death Metal that’s concerned with basic structuring and covering the needs of the song first and foremost, it seems that the split is appropriately titled as this really is like stepping back in time about 20 years. This is, of course, not a criticism.
These songs are all about the riffs, and some of the band’s grooves are almost Hardcore in nature, recalling Old-School German band Ryker’s in some respects.
It’s hard not to like music this atavistic and Crusher’s songs are both enjoyable and pleasing.
The second half of the split is Mercyless; another four songs, (one of them a live track), 16 minutes of solid Death Metal carnage.
Mercyless’ music also has an Old-School slant, but this is mixed in with more of the timeless Traditional Death Metal style.
These songs are more layered than Crusher’s stripped back approach. Faster and fuller than their fellow countrymen, Mercyless also have an air of the occult about them that seeps into parts of the songs like a malignant evil.
Mercyless have a collection of stonking riffs here, although they’re more wrapped up in mood than Crusher. There’s also lots of solos, which I heartily approve of.
It’s really interesting comparing these two bands, as both are very strong on their own merits and share similarities despite their differences. Which I prefer depends on my mood. Crusher’s 90s simplistic riff-heavy approach is catchy, energetic and nostalgic, whereas Mercyless have a more well-rounded and holistic approach that I prefer at other times.
Ultimately though, this is confident music played by people who know what they’re doing and how to do it well; this is a quality release from two very good Death Metal bands, and I urge you to check it out.
Lambs are an Italian blackened Hardcore band and this is their début EP.
You gotta love Blackened Hardcore. A sub-genre that takes the best of the violence and darkness from Hardcore and Black Metal? Yes please! This style is getting more and more popular and has already resulted in a plethora of good bands such as Hexis, Plebeian Grandstand, Dark Circles, Ancst, Cowards, Funerals, Protestant and Flesh Born, to name just a few. Some bands go slightly more one way or the other, while others, like Lambs, meet both genres in the middle. That, and a bit of Post-Hardcore thrown in for good measure.
This is a quality little release that showcases what Lambs are capable of, and it seems that they should have big things ahead of them if they can keep this level of quality control and intensity up for a full album. Well, big things for a small sub-genre at any rate.
The aforementioned intensity doesn’t mean it’s a Blackened blast fest, (although they can blast when they need to); Lambs have a darkly emotive and fanged assault that never lets up regardless of the speed they play at. In this way they can be compared to any number of modern violent Hardcore bands, as they keep on pushing and pushing with the relentless riffs, to make sure their point is rammed home; be this by straight forward assaults, dirge-fuelled slower sections or angular, atypical melodies. Lambs cover all of the bases.
There’s only three songs here but contained within them is a lot of dark intent and malevolent ambition. As calling cards go this is up there with the best of the style and I can’t wait to see what they do next.
Play at full volume.
Wonderbox Metal 