This is the third album from Dawn of Disease, a German death metal band.
Dawn of Disease seem to have honed their songwriting skills and are now channelling the spirit of 90s song-based death metal. It’s catchy, memorable and there’s more than a few twisting melodies and riffs that will stick in your head long after it’s stopped playing. Continue reading “Dawn of Disease – Worship the Grave (Review)”
Monument of a Memory are from the US and play modern metal. This is their second EP.
This is modern metalcore with plenty of aggression and heaviness. The foundation of NWOAHM is intact and added to by some heavier and faster parts, which is always nice to hear.
With a strong sound the band rip through Continue reading “Monument of a Memory – Catharsis (Review)”
Despite are from Sweden and play modern metal. This is their third album.
This makes a good impression very early on. Despite play a kind of modern metal that takes from the Swedish melodic death metal scene of yore, as well as more modern and even some progressive/djent elements. Synergi is my first exposure to the band, and to my ears comes across as a mix of Darkane, In Flames, Fear Factory and Whitechapel.
With three guitarists, the music is nicely heavy and treads the line Continue reading “Despite – Synergi (Review)”
This is Fractured Insanity’s third album. They are a death metal band from Belgium.
Fractured Insanity play brutal death metal that’s intense and well-written. Although this is predominantly on the brutal end of the spectrum, there’s also elements of technicality at play here, which just adds further depth to the music.
Think a combination of Nile, Behemoth, Severe Torture, Malevolent Continue reading “Fractured Insanity – Man Made Hell (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)”
Amon Amarth are a melodic Death Metal band from Sweden and this is their tenth album.
Returning with a Viking-themed concept album, Amon Amarth continue their tried-and-tested formula for melodic Death Metal that they have been slowly perfecting and refining now for decades.
At this point in their existence you pretty much know exactly what to expect from them and they never fail to deliver. The songs on this release are as catchy and memorable as any that they have released over their victory-filled career.
Time has clearly been taken over these riffs, and the vast majority of the material here is bright, upbeat, full of energy, very memorable and laced with just the right amount of darkness, loss and violence.
Bright leads accompany the songs, as we’ve come to expect, and I particularly enjoy the solo work on this release too. The rhythm guitars are where the bulk of the action is at though, of course, and these tracks are destined to be hits in the live environment.
The singer’s charismatic and gruff voice is present and correct. Using pleasing rhythms and fitting in with the pace of the songs effortlessly, he provides a suitably compelling and powerful performance that does the weighty, (and epic), subject matter justice. In addition to his normal singing voice, he occasionally gives vent to a full-throated Death Metal growl, and it’s a thing of beauty. Doro also makes an appearance on A Dream That Cannot Be, adding a different dimension to the proceedings.
I find it incredibly hard to dislike anything Amon Amarth have released, and Jomsviking is no different. The band have an uncanny knack of providing the listener with highly-enjoyable songs that somehow manage to combine both style and substance, which is not something to be taken lightly.
Essential listening for all Metal warriors.
This is the début EP from French Progressive Metal band Gargantua.
Gargantua play Progressive Metal that combines some quite eclectic influences to produce a 26 minute calling card that shows off what they can do quite effectively.
To give you a flavour of their style, imagine a mix of The Meads of Asphodel, Sigh, The Black Dahlia Murder and Akercocke, among others. It’s essentially a form of melodic Death Metal with added folk, avant-garde and progressive influences, allowing the band a freedom to experiment and be playful with their influences.
The keyboard and accordion aspect of their sound is quirky and endearing. While not as completely over-the-top as some of the stuff that Sigh get up to, this part of their sound can still be demanding and attention-seeking.
The more aggressive Metal that lays the foundation of their music is tempered by their other influences so that the majority of the riffs have a lot of other stuff going on; the avant-garde and more-emotive aspects of their style are never too far away.
Thrash Metal-esque shouted growls, barely-holding-it-together screams, progressive cleans, operatic choral parts, emotive theatrics; there’s a plethora of different styles employed on Avant-Propos via four of the various band members.
A very promising first release. While not perfect, it shows a creative band willing and able to push boundaries to achieve the sound they want. With a few tweaks here and there to tighten the songwriting up, they could become quite a fearsome proposition in the future.
Check them out.
This is the third album from Swedish Metallers The Unguided.
The Unguided play melodic Death Metal mixed in with modern Metal, soaring cleans and infectious keyboards. It’s a style which has been done before, proven to be effective and is definitely on the more commercial end of the Metal spectrum. If that sounds like an implied negative, it would be if it was done poorly, but Lust and Loathing isn’t and is in fact a very enjoyable listen.
Full of stadium-friendly hooks and bold melodies, this is catchy and unashamedly memorable. One of things I really like about this release is that it’s closer to the Euro-Metal side of things than the US Metalcore-style, meaning that we get a lot of proper Metal content. There’s even some solos. Combined with the heaviness of the guitars, the ubiquitous harsh vocals and a high-energy delivery, this album has a thoroughly Metal core and doesn’t suffer from being overly-commercial or sanitized as a lot of similar bands can be afflicted with; there’s a fire and a passion here beneath the polished veneer.
The songs are enjoyable and catchy, as mentioned previously. The melodic Power Metal streak that the tracks have saves them from sounding generic and there’s a real flavour of the band in the songs, pulling them up to be highly effective modern European Metal bruisers with a strong melodic edge.
A lot of the time this kind of thing ends up having style over substance, but in this instance it seems that The Unguided have both.
Recommended.
Communal Grave are a Death/Thrash Metal band from Pakistan. This is their début album.
The singer has a pretty impressively scary deep growl that’s as dark as night and reeks of a huge black pit that you could easily fall into. It’s the kind of cavernous growl that makes an immediate impression and for a few moments it’s easy to forget the music that’s backing it up.
Phew.
As for the music – this is Melodic Death Metal that’s merged with Thrash Metal to produce an exact and precise rendition of both styles, mixed in together and spiced with some nice melodic tendencies throughout the songs.
The band sound like they have a tight rein on the music, playing everything with precision and care, focusing on the end result of the song and considering every part down to the last riff. This is in stark contrast to the feral vocals that sound completely unbound and unfettered, savagely growling their way over the melodic riffs and mellifluous leads. The contrast between the rough growls and precision-cut music is jarring, but somehow works nonetheless.
The longer-than-average nature of some of the tracks allows the band explore various melodic climes and these 45 minutes pass by easily, with the listener concurrently being buoyed up by the melodic assault and tore down by the deep, malevolent growls.
Ha! No matter how many times I listen to this, the best word I can think of to describe the singer’s vocals is “terrifying”. Oh, you’ll probably listen to them and think they’re deep growls and nothing more, but for me, for some unnameable reason, they hit a raw nerve that chills me to my very core. What’s that all about then? Best not to dig too deep I suspect.
At any rate, it all adds to the experience and Solace in Violencia is an engaging and enjoyable listen.
Now, excuse me while I go and select some new underwear…
This is the second album from UK Death Metal band Horrified.
Horrified’s début album Descent into Putridity was a maggot-filled coffin full of raw, underground Swedish-influenced Death Metal. Things have changed since then, it seems.
A Swedish Death Metal influence is still apparent, but the band have expanded their horizons and taken in further influence from the more melodic side of the Swedish scene; think bands like Dissection, Edge of Sanity and Eucharist. It’s an interesting and unexpected change of direction for Horrified that allows them to develop their more expansive, progressive and melodic sides, while still including some nice brutality when they want.
As this development sees the band becoming more sophisticated and melodic, there’s a corresponding increase in length in the songs, with a couple breaching the eight minute mark. This allows the band to add the melodic, emotive side to the core of their old-school style, achieving a blistering combination of the two that works really well.
Although I miss the primitive old-school rumble of their début, I must admit that it’s very nice to see a band develop and spread their wings further afield than their early influences. As these influences do still play a part in their sound though, it’s not a total departure. The end result is that they have progressed into an entity that’s far more interesting and accomplished than what they have demonstrated in the past, and Of Despair is a very enjoyable and compelling piece of work.
Wonderbox Metal 