Metal – Page 470 – Wonderbox Metal

Whitechapel – Our Endless War (Review)

This is the fifth album from US Deathcore/Metal band Whitechapel.

Whitechapel have progressed over the years from their more Death Metal/Deathcore roots to something these days that is half Deathcore and half modern Metal, taking influence from the NWOAHM and djent styles and infusing them with a Deathcore aggression and heaviness.

They’ve generally slowed things down a bit too, emphasising catchiness and rhythm rather than speed and brutality, as was once the case, (although even back then they had a certain level of catchiness that was lacking in their peers). Due to their background though they’re more than capable of speeding up when they need to, adding that extra edge to the delivery, and I’m pleased that the blast beats haven’t been totally dropped from their repertoire.

As mentioned above, there’s more of a djent influence on their albums of late, and this is still true on Our Endless War. I’ve stated in the past that djent is a very easy style to be mediocre at, and I’ve said the same about Deathcore too; it’s a testament to Whitechapel’s ability that they take the strengths from one and use it to offset the weaknesses of the other. The result is music that blurs the line between both, taking the best aspects and combining them with the aforementioned NWOAHM parts to create memorable songs that pound and smash their way through the playing time.

Although Whitechapel are mainly about the chunky grooves and heavy riffs, the included melodies and leads should not be discounted or dismissed. These frequently provide a more emotive hook for the listener and add a lot to the songs in comparison to the more obvious rhythm guitars. This side of the band also serves to remind that when they’re not unleashing huge breakdowns and the like, Whitechapel can really play.

The singer’s clipped growls are still deep and roaring, and he shows a nice rhythmic awareness a lot of the time that fits in well with what the music is doing. Occasionally he slips into the even deeper deathgrowls of old, and it’s a joy to hear.

For me, this album is definitely a grower. For all of the immediacy of a band like this, it takes time for the rhythms and melodies to properly infiltrate your brain. When they do you’ll find that the band have produced a surprisingly memorable and enjoyable album.

Highly recommended.

Unru – Als Tier ist der Mensch Nichts (Review)

Unru are a Black Metal band from Germany and this is their début album.

This is a 36 minute trip into the harrowing world of Unru, taking in nightmarish soundscapes and dark, evil worlds.

Unru play Black Metal that’s the stuff of horror. Chaotic, discordant and destructive, the music on this release is more like the sounds of the abyss as channelled by the possessed.

I’ve enjoyed Unru’s work thus far, (such as their split with Paramnesia), and Als Tier ist der Mensch Nichts shows the band moving into even murkier and more aggressive territories, although they can still create a heavy atmosphere when they want to.

Although harsh and bleak, there are hints of melody and shade beneath the pitch black hatred and barely-contained rage that constitutes these songs. Alongside the blasting Crust-fuelled bile that the band regularly spew forth, dark atmospheres are explored and developed, with these deviations in particular sounding keenly emotive. Doom-workouts and murky noise-assaults add yet another layer to their sound and Unru basically spend their time on this release impressing the Hell out of me.

The vocals are howling screams, utterly deranged and full of so much loathing and contempt that it’s possible the singer is no longer sane or even human. Like something unnatural wailing into the void, his performance is first-rate and sounds near-physical in its impact. When this is also joined with deep growls it’s enough to get all of the hair on your body rigid and standing to attention.

Unru have not disappointed with their first album, and I’d highly recommend this to all fans of blackened darkness.

Funeral Moth – Transience (Review)

This is the second album from Japanese Funeral Doom band Funeral Moth.

Funeral Moth’s music is comprised of sparse, slow riffs that create atmosphere through space and elongated emotion rather than outright heaviness or pure distortion. It’s a slightly different approach than most artists of this ilk adopt, but one that sees the two long tracks on Transience work a, (miserable), treat.

The band this reminds me of most is Earth, if Earth played Funeral Doom and had growled vocals.

The music is introspective and gloriously woeful. It tempts you to lie back and trance out, while the sombre, mournful melodies carry your consciousness off and your body slowly settles into its place in the cold, wet, uncaring soil…

Throughout this slow decline of sentience we get the aforementioned deep growls churning in line with the music. These are both quite traditional in delivery and also subtly different, having a roughness to them that seems sparse and minimalistic, also in line with the music.

A dreamy, seductively calming way to spend 40 minutes. Enjoy.

Deveikuth – 0.∅ (Review)

Deveikuth are a French Funeral Doom/Drone band and this is their latest release.

Now this is some heavy stuff.

The first track starts off with some sickeningly distorted bass that seems to overwhelm everything else as maniacal vocals scream obscenities into a bucket. A dirty bucket filled with filth.

The striking vocals overlay the constant feedback howling and murky distortion of the tracks. Said vocals are unhinged and sound quite disturbed. Juxtaposed against the slow, unhurried music it creates quite an impression over the 12 minute playing time.

Track two is more of an ambient, mood-interlude, albeit one that lasts for six minutes. Strange sounds and odd noises accompany some semi-excited drums like something esoteric stalking something playful. Apart from a kind of spoken word bit near the middle, it’s instrumental and a nice change of pace and mood after the disconcerting menace of the first song.

The final song is the longest here at almost 17 minutes and shows the band in more of a build-release mode, with some extra atmosphere included too. Shrieking, wailing vocals accompany equally turbulent music as Deveikuth pull you under the water and hold you there, enjoying your gurgling demise.

This is a release that reeks of pain, anguish and warped sensibilities. It’s not for the faint-hearted and not for people that like clean, easily digested music.

Check it out.

Dead Eyed Sleeper – Gomorrh (Review)

This is the fourth album from German Death Metallers Dead Eyed Sleeper.

This has a very tasty sound, thick and heavy without losing clarity or definition.

The singer’s expressive growls and screams are ably performed and have an energy to them that’s undeniable. Powering along with passionate aggression and meaty delivery, he leaves an impression.

The same could easily be said of the music, actually; energetic, passionate and aggressive. The band’s take on Death Metal is familiar enough to be instantly satisfying yet differentiated enough to sound interesting and fresher than most similar bands. Elements of brutality rub shoulders with more involved technical and progressive flourishes that leave the band standing separate from a lot of their peers, which in my mind is no bad thing at all, nor is it an easy thing to achieve.

These five tracks are expansive forays into Death Metal, making the most of what the base genre has to offer, but fleshing it out with extra influences and snatches of mournful and dirge-like melody. These Doom-influences serve the band well, providing ample opportunity for them to show off their emotive side. When this is combined with the technical and/or progressive aspects of their sound it’s a heady combination that marks the band out for great things as far as I’m concerned.

At the end of these 29 minutes the play button is pressed again. It’s a hallmark of good music that you immediately want to hear it a second time and you also want more than just what’s contained on this album.

Very impressive and very recommended.

Systemhouse33 – Regression (Review)

Systemhouse33 are a Metal band from India. This is their latest album.

Their previous release Depths of Despair was an enjoyable, albeit brief, romp through all things heavy and modern, and Regression continues the theme but ups the stakes.

At a slightly longer 30 minutes in length, the band have further refined their blend of modern Metal and Metalcore/Hardcore/Death Metal influences into a potent blend of muscular aggression.

The singer has a harsh snarl that fits well with the music and doesn’t allow for any compromise. He plainly means business and I like what he’s selling.

The songs chug, rumble and bludgeon their way through the playing time and there’s a decent amount of catchy riffs and heavy melodies involved.

Although I liked Depths of Despair this is an all-round more cohesive, focused and superior release; perfect for when you want some heavy, crushing, upbeat, groove-based music. Without too much extremity, but also without going the other way into commercial, sanitised waters, Systemhouse33 have hit the right spot and Regression is actually a positive move forward.

For fans of Lamb of God, Meshuggah, Whitechapel, Skinlab, Machine Head, Testament, Merauder, etc.

Artillery – Penalty by Perception (Review)

Artillery are a Thrash Metal band from Denmark. This is their eighth album.

These Metal veterans return with another 54 minutes of old-school Thrash Metal.

The vocalist’s melodic cleans are straight out of a different era, and in the context of 2016 sound flawless and delivered with a skill and passion lacking in most similar bands.

Savage riffs and sterling solos are moulded around classic song structures. The band obviously know exactly what they’re doing from the outset and this is a ridiculously strong collection of tracks. Catchy, memorable and charismatic, these songs are seriously good. They also awaken such a powerful sense of nostalgia in me that I honestly don’t know what to do with. I’ll just listen to more Thrash Metal I suppose.

Some of the riffs and melodies on this release get the hairs standing on end and the overall feeling is indescribable in some ways. Being exposed to this much authentic top-grade Thrash Metal in one go should come with a health warning.

Well, this really has made me sit up and take notice. I pretty much hate the vast majority of the retro-Thrash movement with its stupidity and moronic nonsense, so it’s great to hear a band that were forged in the original era when this kind of thing was first born produce something so strong and worthwhile. This should put all of the idiotic posers in their place and demonstrates what a force to be reckoned with Artillery still are.

Taken with the recent release by Exumer, could 2016 be the year that reignites my love affair with Thrash Metal? It’s shaping up to be that way so far.

This is what Thrash Metal is meant to be about.

Interview with Ferium

Israeli Metal band Ferium’s second album Behind the Black Eyes is chock full of professional brutality and streamlined aggression. Guitarist/vocalist Elram Boxer brought me up to speed with all things Ferium…

Give us a bit of background to Ferium

Ferium is a 5 piece Metal band from Israel, we have had the dream to be musicians ever since we were teenagers growing up watching the biggest bands on earth go around the world.

Ferium are:
Tiran Ezra – Vocals
Elram Boxer – Guitars/Vocals
Guy Goldenberg – Guitars
Yoni Biton – Bass
Ron Amar – Drums

We come from a very demanding place when it comes to being a Metal band, although Israel has it’s amazing sides of community and brotherhood and a faithful following, living in a political & financial cesspool, distracts the people from the art that this place produces, we all have our day jobs to pay for getting out on at least 2 tours a year, our own recording studio & rehearsal room, and the motivation to create music, and lots of it, to put it in a definition, we are an Independent band.

What are your influences?

Mostly our day to day lives, our past experience and, basically, everything aggressive.

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

The Fading – ‘Til Live Do Us Part! A Swedish death metal from Israel! This band is RAD!

How do you feel that you fit into the wider Metal scene these days?

Lost… hehehe. We feel that Ferium will always be somewhat old school oriented… it seems that the metal music is going to a more technicality and skilled based music, (and Jesus there are some skilled players out there!). We write the music we write from the bottom of our souls, the creative minds behind Ferium have experienced deceit, unfaithfulness, heartbreak, betrayal, pain, loss, and all of these things create a sonic & lyrical portrayal of aggressiveness & frustration in an effort to solve all of life’s struggles, and to turn them into positive and empowering experiences.

Give us a bit of background to Behind the Black Eyes – any particular concepts or ideas you want to discuss?

“Behind The Black Eyes” conceptually picks up where “Reflections” left off. It brings the story of a man’s relationship – its ups and downs, the good and the bad, and the image being portrayed by gut-wrenching and goosebump-inducing lyrical work. This album is certainly an evolution to the band’s sound, where other bands today hold back on their aggression, we do the exact opposite and back up the album’s real approach to relationships with honest brutality.

How do you go about writing your songs?

We write a lot! mostly in our own studio. There is no specific way we write…sometimes it’s jamming in the studio while recording, sometimes its writing a song as a band, sometimes its just grabbing the guitar and groove it to oblivion! We do have a solid vision of what Ferium is and where Ferium is going (musically).

There seems to have been a cutting of fat and focusing of songs between your début and Between the Black Eyes. Was this a conscious effort?

We have sculpted ‘Behind The Black Eyes’ to be 110% to the point, which is the atmospheric aggression throughout the storyline from the good to the bad. The riffs are heavier, the groove is heavier, the bassline is heavier! So no FAT has been cut off from our point of view.

How did the recording process go?

Fortunately, we have our own studio so we can basically do whatever we want to and take the time with everything. The recording of the instrumentation on ‘Behind The Black Eyes’ was pretty flawless and quick! When we got to the recording of the vocals, we immediately knew that the attitude of the vocals needed to be changed so Tiran and I took about 2-3 months of
refining and rehearsing the vocals into shape.

Tell us about the album artwork

The artwork was done by the one and only, Mr. Eliran Kantor (Hatebreed, Testament, Iced Earth to name a few). The album cover shows a man pierced by a Rhino, where in ‘Reflections’ the man was trying to tame the Rhino…so again, there’s a clear view of the relation between the two albums.

What’s your favourite song on the album and why?

This album, for me, is one continuous song… so it is kind of hard to point out one…

What does the future hold for Ferium?

Control!

http://www.feriumband.com/

Sunwølf – Eve (Review)

Sunwølf are a Scottish Post-Metal band and this is their fourth album.

Sunwølf play Post-Metal that takes elements of Doom, Stoner and Post-Hardcore into the mix.

This reminds me of UK Doomsters Palehorse if they were mixed in with Earth and wrapped up in the Post-Metal trappings of someone like Red Sparowes.

Slow, mournful guitar parts crawl along the frost-battered ruins of long-dead mountains while Post-Metal melodies effortlessly gleam resplendently under the uncaring sun.

These tracks paint pictures of dangerous-yet-beautiful landscapes that form a rich and textured release, laced with sorrow and despondency. The songs have a raw, emotive edge to them that’s hard to deny and even on just the first listen you find yourself getting drawn into them. Subsequent spins reveal additional features to catch the attention and the heart.

Vocals are sparse and uncommon; when they do appear they are used well, as required by the song. This includes screams that are tinged with anguish and pain, occasionally taking on a cleaner hue to give vent to a more plaintive side, as well as spoken word sections and chants that are almost buried under the music.

This is a very engaging release that has a lot of content to enjoy over the 51 minute playing time. This is an album that deserves a lot of exposure, although I doubt it will get it, which is criminal.

Highly recommended. Check this out immediately.

Burial – Unholy Sedition (Review)

This is the second album from Black Metal band Burial, who are from the UK.

Burial play raw Black Metal with speed and malice.

Pure venom seems to seep out of every corrupted pore as the band aggressively attack the material with the fervour of the fanatic. The guitars have a very pleasing tone and have that razor-like quality that suits Black Metal so well.

The songs don’t outstay their welcome, and the entire release blurs by in 31 minutes of dark, angry malevolence.

The brutality of the music is threaded through with bands of melody that add a bit of depth to the attack. Some Darkthrone-esque groove is introduced when the band slow the pace a little, and these parts are just as good a listen as their faster brethren.

Throughout the album it’s clear that Burial know how to shape and channel these kind of grim incantations, and the songs are a very enjoyable listen.

Vocally we get traditional blackened screaming which hits the spot nicely, but in addition to this there are also deep growls which are very satisfyingly performed, sounding, as they do, pitch black and evil.

I thoroughly enjoyed this. Have a listen and see if they do it for you.