Frozen Ocean is a one-man Russian Melodic/Atmospheric Black Metal band and this is his latest EP.
Frozen Ocean return with more wonderfully melodic Black Metal that creates plenty of atmosphere. I have previously reviewed The Dyson Swarm, so this new release was most welcome.
This is mellifluous, melodic music that’s enhanced by keyboards to greater heights of atmosphere and mood. The feeling, for me, is very much one of following in the great Windir’s footsteps,
Vocals are deeper screams than are normally associated with the style, giving the polished, shiny music a rougher edge of aggression that suits it.
Grand, epic and richly melodic, (have I mentioned that?), this is a very enjoyable EP that it’s easy to like.
This is the seventh album from this German Symphonic Power Metal band.
At over 70 minutes in length, there’s a lot of music on this release. Also, featuring guests from such notable bands as Queensrÿche, Twisted Sister, Nightwish, Within Temptation, Unisonic, Edguy and many others, this lives up to the title of Rock Opera with very little effort.
For all the different guest singers, the album has a coherent feel to it, partly due to the cohesive songwriting and partly due to the brains behind the outfit’s voice, which is a near-constant of these tracks in some capacity or other.
The music is bombastic, dramatic, emphatic, symphonic and suitably epic in nature. Unless you just don’t like this kind of thing it’s extremely hard not to enjoy Ghostlights. Great musicianship, high production values, quality singing and well-written operatic Metal…it’s a feast for the ears and proudly espouses the most extravagant side of European Power Metal.
Combined with the effervescent guitars, the orchestral elements are ever-present and a big part of what makes Avantasia so epic. These tracks have such a flair for the theatrical that every song seems to tell a story in bright, colourful pictures, writ large against a suitably ostentatious backdrop. Although the album does have darker elements it’s largely a performance of colour and fantasy, providing the listener with ample opportunity for escapism via the very textured world that the players portray.
Returning back to the guitars; it’s important to remember that this is, ultimately, a Metal album. Thankfully the band remember this too and have included a fair amount of tasty riffs among the orchestration.
Ghostlights evokes various different emotions, as all good operas should, but ultimately I’m left with the feeling of being uplifted and happy. Such larger-than-life music should be celebrated and it’s only appropriate that its lasting impact is a positive one more than anything else.
70 minutes of pure escapist showmanship. Loved it.
Favourite Track: Seduction of Decay. Geoff Tate, (Queensrÿche), has always had one of my favourite voices, and on this track he shines. The music backs him up to the hilt and the entire song is glorious.
Mano Humana are a Metal band from Chile and this is their début album.
Mano Humana play modern Metal that fuses aggressive Thrash Metal with the cold machinery of Meshuggah and the groovy heaviness of Soulfly.
The harsh shouted vocals are barked out in quite an abrasive, anti-social way. Mano Humana are not really on the commercial end of the Metal spectrum at the best of times, but these vocals really tip them over the edge into harsher territories. In my mind, of course, this is only a good thing.
Occasionally the brutality shifts up a gear too, and the vocals descend into deep growls and the entire thing is one hair’s breadth away from Death Metal at these points, recalling some of Brujeria’s work.
There’s some interesting parts in the music, with the band trying out all manner of different ideas to keep things from becoming formulaic as they tear through the 45 minute length. They take the time to add plenty of experimentation with the bass and guitars to their songs, resulting in relatively long tracks, (for the style), that keep their core Thrash Metal from becoming dull or one-dimensional.
This willingness to go that little bit further for some added depth ensures that Sombras is a more enjoyable listen than I was expecting, based on what most bands who can be described as Groove Metal offer.
Sombras is a very good listen and much more of a grower than you might think for the style. It’s brutal, heavy and full of good ideas and riffs.
This is the fifth album from Swedish Doom/Psychedelic Rock band Witchcraft.
Playing the easy-listening proto-Metal Doom Rock so beloved in the 1970s, while also incorporating wider sounds from 60s psychedelia, Witchcraft have the retro vibe fully sewn up. It would be sickening if it wasn’t so damn good.
That’s the real central point about a band like this; they really are just that good. There’s a lot of music on Nucleus, but all of it is stamped with pure quality and it soars high over the heads of most bands that try their hand at this kind of thing.
Another interesting aspect of Nucleus is that even though it positively wallows in the past, and the production embraces this, it still sounds solid, professional and tight, despite an unashamedly old-school sound in many ways. Put simply, they manage to sound huge and polished without actually being overtly so. Impressive.
I like that there’s an exploratory sound to their music, influenced by the more progressive aspects of the 70s in some ways; it feels like the band are taking you along on their own personal journey and you’re not quite sure what you’re going to see. Which is another reason why they’re so good – this isn’t just your normal Trad-Doom-by-numbers release, as there’s a lot more going on here, hidden in plain sight.
There’s a wide range of song lengths on this release, from the short to the very long. Lighter, rockier moments share space with Doomier ones and the overall impression is of a well-thought-out album that has all of its bases covered for what it wants to achieve.
The singer’s voice is charismatic and easily-likeable. His performance is first-rate and speaks of a confidence of delivery honed through experience.
Cult of Lilith are a Death Metal band from Iceland. This is their début EP.
Cult of Lilith play their Death Metal with muscularity, power and no little technical flair. Their style combines influences from both classic Death Metal and the more modern variants; this has equal respect for Death as it does The Faceless.
Melodic influences raise their heads in places, done in a thoroughly modern style, (not a million miles away from that of The Faceless). There’s even a touch of a Black Metal influence here and there, as well as a decent amount of technicality that both Gorguts and Death fans would be pleased with.
Deep growling shouts are the singer’s weapon of choice, although these are backed up with some quite savage screams where necessary.
These are quite involved songs that have a fair bit going on, but the band still know when to ease off the complexity and just go straight for the throat with a blasting assault when they need to. There’s a lot of good ideas and interesting added extras on these tracks and it’s clear that Cult of Lilith have high ambition for themselves.
A very promising start for this new band. I look forward to what they do next.
Necrosavant is a one-man project from Sweden. This is his début album.
In an unusual move for a début album, this is one single track that lasts 45 minutes. Also unusually, this is Blackened Death Metal with a style that kind of falls between that of Behemoth and (old) Opeth.
Not content with doing vocals and playing everything on this release, the brains behind Necrosavant has also drafted in some other guests to add to the mix.
The music has the muscularity and occult auras of Behemoth and the progressive and melodic know-how of Opeth. The track ebbs and flows, picking up themes previously discarded, only to breathe new life into them again as the listener becomes re-familiarised with different parts of this immense song.
The guitars are nice and thick and there are a lot of tasty riffs on here. Plenty of solos and leads add colour, but it’s frequently the well-written rhythm guitars themselves that elevate this to a top-notch position.
The music has the feel of a dark epic in more than just length and the brutal atmospheres that are created reverberate with meaningful impact and emotive delivery.
If you think that a 45 minute Blackened Death Metal song would get old very quickly, you’re dead wrong. There’s so much on offer here and so much talented Metal being delivered that it’s hard to imagine that this is essentially the product of just one guy.
This is hugely impressive and enjoyable. This one is a must.
Stigmata are from Sri Lanka and this is their fourth album. They play Heavy Metal.
Wow, okay, so here we have a bit of everything from Death to Nevermore to Iron Maiden. The band play technical and involving music that’s as varied as the influences suggest, all within the overarching template of Heavy Metal.
At 58 minutes in length, and touching on a wide-range of Heavy Metal bases, there’s a lot going on here.
It’s clear that the band are Hellishly talented and have grand ambitions for their art. Frequent musical sidesteps are taken so that you never quite know what’s just around the corner. Some of the playing on this release is jaw-dropping.
Full of grand melodies and even grander ambition, The Ascetic Paradox is a wild ride through various corners of Heavy Metal’s map, paying tribute to the greats while also spinning the threads of the Metal fates to their own ends.
The vocals are equally as varied, taking in everything from shouts, slithering screams, cleans to air-raid siren howls.
The production is a little uneven in places – I could do with the guitars feeling a little fuller and larger, but it doesn’t spoil the songs, just doesn’t let them reach their full potential I feel.
This is very impressive, but I feel would benefit from being re-recorded and tightened up in a few places. Don’t let this put you off though as Stigmata have produced an album that wins more than it doesn’t.
Rebel Wizard is a one-man Black/Heavy Metal band from Australia and this is his latest release.
This is a combination of Black, Thrash and good old Heavy Metal. It’s a rollicking and boisterous listen that boasts a strong sound, a lot of catchiness and plenty of hooks. Think traditional Heavy Metal, only with a Black/Thrash influence.
The music is sleek, energetic and sharp. This is what you’d imagine Iron Maiden sounding like if they were brought up on a staple diet of Black Metal.
Screeched vocals scrape like nails down a blackboard as the music powers along at a frenetic pace. The high-energy leads never seem to stop as the music reaches greater and greater heights of Metal devotion. The riffs are infectious and the music sticks in the mind almost instantly.
These songs are well-written and damn enjoyable. Before you realise it you’re tapping your foot and getting carried away with the tunes.
This EP is only 18 minutes long, so I can’t think of a single reason why you shouldn’t check it out. Off you go.
Mandragora Malevola are a Portugese Black Metal band and this is their début demo.
Here we have three tracks of newly-birthed Extreme Metal lasting 15 minutes.
The first track Mandragora Malevola is essentially an intro, setting the scene with dark sounds that soon morph into unearthly incantations and invocations. As is the case with most intros, it’s entirely disposable.
So, first proper song is Arkangelvs Satanis (The Red Moon Wolves). Right from the start we get a lovely, filthy guitar sound that sets the tone in no uncertain terms. My first impression is that it reminds me of Antaeus, although this has a bit more of a Blackened Death Metal feel to it too. Soon after we get some absolutely rabid vocals that are somewhere between a growl and a scream, reminiscent of older Behemoth. The band inject some energetic melody to things almost halfway through and also at this point they reveal themselves to have other, grander influences as the song takes on a powerfully epic feel, all the time retaining its raw, dirty sheen. By the end of the song I’m extremely impressed by their Antaeus-meets-Behemoth-meets-Dissection style.
The second song is Apotheosis (Hvmana Manifestvs), and this initially continues the themes and atmospheres projected by the previous track, but soon demonstrates a more Euro-Metal influence that wouldn’t be out of place being described as Atrocity-meets-Hypocrisy. It’s all still wonderfully raw, and the previous influences can still be heard, but it’s great to see a band not constraining themselves to a one-dimensional approach.
Mandragoa Malevola have revealed themselves to the world, and what a glorious revelation it is! This is an exceptional demo and shows a band with a massive amount of potential and promise for the future. If they can harness the dark energy that seeps from every pore on these two songs then their future place at the top of the pile should be assured.
This is the latest EP from Australia’s Lucifer’s Fall. They play Traditional Doom Metal.
I really liked Lucifer’s Fall’s début album; it was a definite grower. I was looking forward to listening to this new EP, but also slightly apprehensive as the low-rent cover is in stark contrast to the much better artwork adorning their album.
Of course, this is the classic “don’t judge a book by its cover” syndrome. I was fearful of some under-produced Punk/Doom abomination, (for some reason), but in reality of course the band are still crushing it with their classic take on Doom Metal.
So, apart from the cover, all of the ingredients that made their début album so enjoyable are present and correct – Traditional Doom with hints of the darker modern style, a good sound with an audible bass, loose and mournful vocals, Reverend Bizarre influences…it’s all here and I am very glad that it is.
The songs are effortlessly familiar, enjoyable and seem to roll into your ears with ease.
On this EP the band offer up three tracks spanning 25 minutes and it’s a worthy way to spend your time.
Frozen Ocean is a one-man Russian Melodic/Atmospheric Black Metal band and this is his latest EP.
Wonderbox Metal 