Metal – Page 490 – Wonderbox Metal

Serenity – Codex Atlanticus (Review)

This is the fifth album from Austrian Symphonic Power Metallers Serenity.

This is a bombastic, larger-than-life album that boasts impressive orchestration and bucketfuls of sugary melodies.

Bands like this can so easily lose track of the Metal component of their sound, but Serenity remember this and include plenty of tasty riffs alongside the symphonic feast that they serve up so well.

The songs are enjoyable and well-written, making the most of the European style. Featuring all kinds of catchy and memorable hooks, melodies and harmonies, it’s an easy-to-like album, as long as you’re a fan of the genre, of course.

The singer has a strong voice that carries the tunes well. I like that he has a personable, charismatic side that is almost at odds with the flashy nature of the music in some ways. It has an earthy quality to it, even when he’s belting things out in true Power Metal style.

Production-wise, an album like this can really suffer without a suitably huge and ostentatious sound, but it’s clear that Serenity have spared no expense in this department. Everything sounds bright and shiny, polished and professional.

I really enjoyed this. In a genre that is well past its saturation point, Codex Atlanticus has enough personality and character to hold interest and is performed well enough to keep it.

Highly recommended.

Skáphe – Skáphe² (Review)

This is the second album from US Black Metal band Skáphe.

This is Black Metal that’s uncompromising, unsettling and uncomfortable. It’s a claustrophobic maelstrom of suffocating blackness that has strange, eerie melodies trying to escape it yet they keep getting sucked back in once more, like light trying to escape the event horizon of a black hole.

Unhinged vocals accompany the wild ride of the music, sometimes seemingly layered upon themselves, sounding like daemonic voices from the darkest void.

Skáphe don’t do things by halves, it seems.

The music on this release has a stronger than normal recording for this type of thing. So much so that you can hear and make out every aspect of the stifling darkness that the band create. It’s like drowning in tar, but an unusual tar; one that you can clearly see the constitution of, so that it makes the asphyxiation all the worse.

This unusual combination of clarity and murk works extremely well and Skáphe² is an extremely powerful album because of it. Something like this would be very easy to mess up in lesser hands due to the propensity for it to occlude or obscure itself, but the songs on this release stay focused, despite the heavy layers of grimness and desolation that the band wrap the album in.

This is 37 minutes of cleverly designed horror. It’s coming for you and you know that there’s a malevolent intelligence lurking behind the crystal clear fog, just waiting for you to get too close.

You have been warned.

Morth – Towards the Endless Path (Review)

Morth is a one-man Black Metal band from Bulgaria. This is his début album.

This album has plenty of occult melodies for the listener to enjoy. Sometimes these melodies can seem quite jaunty or folksy, which is a nice touch among the overall darkened vibes that Morth creates.

The long songs have an epic feel and there’s plenty of atmosphere to soak up here. The music is expansive and seems to revel in a certain primitive sophistication that some of the early Black Metal bands found themselves experimenting with. It’s the kind of music that makes me feel nostalgic and never fails to raise a grim smile.

Synths and keyboards are never too far from the action, wrapping the twisting melodies in their dark embrace.

Vocally we get trademark Black Metal croaking screams that fit the music perfectly. These vocals are absolutely of the classic style and go hand in hand with the classic atmospheric music.

This is well-constructed atmospheric Black Metal with a nice line in melodies and uplifting leads and synths.

Very enjoyable.

Interview with Frozen Ocean

Frozen Ocean’s latest release The Prowess of Dormition is 25 minutes of quality atmospheric Black Metal. Wonderbox Metal caught up with the brains behind the project once more to find out a bit more information…

For those who are unfamiliar with your band – introduce yourself!

Hello. I am Vaarwel, the only person behind this project.

Give us a bit of background to Frozen Ocean

Frozen Ocean was founded in 2005 and had 10th anniversary last year. I always be the only member of this project, and will be. “The Prowess Of Dormition” is nineteenth official release.

What are your influences?

I usually try to avoid influences to create something original, but for “The Prowess Of Dormition” I can mention Vinterland, Thy Catafalque and obscure Russian band Valhalla as entities that inspired me somehow.

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

I generally listen to brutal and technical death metal, so I’d like to recommend to check upcoming Wormed album named “Krighsu”.

Give us a bit of background to The Prowess of Dormition – any particular concepts or ideas you want to discuss?

“The Prowess Of Dormition” has no particular concept or plot, but all the songs are about struggle in philosophical sense, as entity overcoming the hindrances. Struggle is the only thing that can make us better than we are and pushes the evolution forward.

How do you go about writing your songs?

I write the music first, keeping in mind the title and concept, and only then write the lyrics. I record all instruments and vocals by myself, and do all the sound work as well.

How did the recording process go?

Relatively fast.

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

Title track, I guess, because it is the quintessence of whole EP both in music and in lyrics.

What does the future hold for Frozen Ocean?

Something new and unexpected, as usual.

Horrified – Of Despair (Review)

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.

Oranssi Pazuzu – Värähtelijä (Review)

This is the fourth album of Black Metal from Finland’s Oranssi Pazuzu.

Oranssi Pazuzu play Black Metal that incorporates elements of psychedelia and Progessive Metal into its dark embrace.

This is the great thing about what Black Metal has become – it has developed way beyond the initial confines of the original genre into all manner of weird, wonderful and splendid things, probably more so than any other genre in many ways. Purists may disagree and say that Black Metal is one specific thing or another, of course. Whether they’re right or not is largely irrelevant, but what is relevant is that Black Metal has been used time and time again as the base inspiration for many a band’s exploration into wider sounds and different pastures.

All of which serves as a slightly long-winded introduction for Värähtelijä; here is an album that does exactly as previously described – it takes the base of Black Metal but does so much more with it than your average Darkthrone clone.

Here we have music that has been expanded upon with psychedelic and progressive properties, as well as the claustrophobic apocolyptica of Neurosis and the extravagant otherworldliness of Sigh. All of this is wrapped up tightly in an emotive, atmospheric blackened cloud and hidden deep in a murky cave somewhere, awaiting discovery by you.

Yes, you.

The atmospheres created on Värähtelijä are surely born of the void, born from some howling, other place that refuses to conform to our physical laws. Surely? The depth, texture and mood displayed on these tracks is more than most bands manage in a lifetime. That’s not so say it’s always 100% effective in everything it does, but again; it’s way more effective than most bands succeed in being when they add a bit of mood to their music. However, Oranssi Pazuzu aren’t “adding a bit of mood to their music”; this is pure mood music and everything here is designed to emote and emote strongly. And it does.

This is certainly not one-dimensional and there’s a lot of different ideas, sounds and styles incorporated into their trippy take on dark music.

Hugely impressive and a great absorbing listen for anyone into music that takes time to appreciate as it seeps into your mind and takes over.

Vargstuhr – Howlings (Review)

Vargstuhr is a one man Black Metal band from Spain. This is his début release.

Unexpectedly, this album starts with an acoustic, folk-influenced track that has semi-clean vocals chanting rough outpourings. It’s a left-field opener that has a lot of rustic charm. After this, a frosted guitar melody blows in, heralding the next track and just when you think you’re in more familiar territories the guitars drop out and clean vocals appear. Then it goes all raw and evil, and at this point you realise you’re not dealing with an average release.

Howlings pays tribute to the fertile experimentation of the early Scandinavian Black Metal scene, effortlessly recreating the feel of the era and the feeling that anything is possible as the early innovators started to diversify out from the original blackened template.

This is both primitive and sophisticated at the same time. The recording is clearly on a low-budget, and at times it becomes quite unbalanced or strange, (what’s up with the horrible blasting snare drum sound on Howling 5: The Hunt, in Search of the Prey?), but honestly I can’t care that much as for the most part it suits the style of the music and represents a certain rawness and authenticity that I can get on board with. Besides, I’ve heard a lot worse.

The playing and songwriting can be similarly described; this is not the high-polish, high-gloss of the mainstream, this is strictly underground Metal fodder and sounds all the better for it.

Howlings combines atmosphere, melody, folk influences and raw Black Metal into 45 minutes of music that I can’t help but really enjoy. It genuinely takes me back a couple of decades and shows a mind with a keen understanding of the early Black Metal scene when it was right on the cusp of birthing itself into the heavily-fragmented, multiplying, mutating sub-genres of the blackened style that we know today, but just prior to this when everything seemed so genuinely exciting.

Even ignoring all of this though, purely on its own merits, Howlings is a very enjoyable slab of primitive Black Metal that has aspirations for so much more and succeeds in breaking out from the well-worn path into its own trail, writing its own story.

Well done that man.

Folteraar – Vertellingen Van Een Donkere Eeuw (Review)

This is the début album from Black Metallers Folteraar who are from the Netherlands.

This is claustrophobic, suffocating Black Metal that features the kind of fuzzed-up, filthy guitar tone that feels like it’s going to swamp you and end your existence.

Primitive and atavistic, it seems that Folteraar draw their strength from the same primordial well-spring of ancient power that first gave birth to Black Metal’s sicking abortion. This is heady stuff that’s definitely not for the casual listener; true acolytes only will appreciate this.

There’s a definite evil, otherworldly vibe to Folteraar. So much so that it’s almost impossible to think of this as music that is being played by a band; it’s more like this has been conjured up direct from Hell. The inhuman screams that accompany these filthy hymns further enhance this impression.

The tracks are relatively short, designed to quickly establish and maintain a dark, grim atmosphere. The unhurried pace is uncaring about the standard structures and practices of mainstream music and is more concerned with mood and feeling. This is one of the many reasons that this album succeeds where it could quite easily have been a sloppy failure in less talented hands.

Ohh, but this is very nice. Of course, it isn’t, but you know what I mean. It’s rare you hear Black Metal this deliciously depraved and esoteric.

Purtenance – …To Spread the Flame of Ancients (Review)

This is the third album from Purtenance, who are a Finnish Death Metal band.

Purtenance play old-school Death Metal that’s so ancient that as you sit listening to it in whatever dank crypt you chanced upon it in, it starts noticeably getting darker and as the crypt doors start creaking, you’re convinced all manner of shambling horrors are descending on your position. You’re probably right.

From the very first riff, this album has instant charisma and it’s extremely hard not to like its rotten charms. The band wear their influences on their sleeves and if you’re a fan of bands like Bolt Thrower, Incantation and Autopsy, you won’t go far wrong here. However, given that their first album was released in 1992, Purtenance know a little bit about the old-school and …To Spread the Flame of Ancients is as honest and authentic as it gets.

The singer has one of the best Death Metal voices I’ve heard in a while for this style. It’s an absolutely huge and pitch black growl that seems to come from the depths of The Pit. Sooooo good.

The songs are well-written, quality beasts, evoking just the right amounts of rot and power at the same time. Unlike a lot of old-school-themed bands, they also throw in a few unusual riffs and ideas here and there, as well as some dark melodies, faster sections and blast beats; all too often neglected in a sub-genre where mid-paced seems to rule the roost. Due to this, there’s a lot of differentiation between tracks on this album and it’s easy to not only tell them apart but to also have them slot nicely next to each other, making for an album you can enjoy either in bite-size, (bloody), chunks or holistically in one sitting. A worthy achievement.

An extremely enjoyable and satisfying 46 minutes. Purtenance have released an album of character and quality, one that I can heartily recommend.

Department of Correction/Proletar – Split (Review)

Department of Correction are from France and Proletar are from Indonesia. They’ve teamed up for this 16 track, 19 minute split.

I like Department of Correction, and this split does nothing to change that fact. Their side consists of 10 songs over 8 minutes.

Department of Correction play their Grindcore songs fast, short and brutal. For such short tracks, they’re also surprisingly sophisticated and interesting. Buzzing, razor-sharp guitars tread that fine line between Metal brutality and Punk energy, while the vocals scream, growl and even dementedly sing their way through the mayhem.

The tracks have an intense dynamic to them and include a rare amount of grinding melody, although that has to be understood in the present context, of course.

Once again the band have impressed. I do so love Grindcore when it’s done exceedingly well and is also different enough not to be yet another generic clone band. Department of Correction prove just how much Grind has to offer and just what can be done with short, aggressive songs; if you’re left with any doubt at all – it’s a lot.

Very nice.

After that impressive 8 minutes, it’s on to Proletar. These are new to me, and their side of the split consists of 6 songs over 11 minutes, including an Agathocles cover.

With longer songs on average than Department of Correction, Proletar play a more traditional Grindcore with deep growling Deathgrunts interspersed with rabid, savage screams.

This is primitive, ugly Grindcore that brutally espouses the genre forefathers with an old-school delivery and a suitably energetic performance.

It’s a good pairing of bands as in some ways this can be viewed as a showcase for the past and future of the genre, with Proletar demonstrating the classic Grind style and Department of Correction showing where it can be taken in the future.

As Grindcore splits go, this is a great listen. Check it out.