Post-Hardcore – Page 12 – Wonderbox Metal

Lambs – Betrayed from Birth (Review)

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.

Dementia Senex/Sedna – Deprived – Split (Review)

Dementia Senex are an Italian Death Metal band and Sedna are a Blackened Sludge band. They have teamed up to create Deprived – one track from each band, designed to complement each other, sharing a similar space but from a different perspective.

Dementia Senex are up first with their track Blue Dusk. After their interesting début EP Heartworm demonstrated their atypical take on Progressive/Doom/Sludge-infused Death Metal, I’ve been keen to see how their style has developed over the last couple of years.

The song starts gently, almost tentatively, before crushing guitars land like a ton of bricks. The band impress again with their Gorguts-inspired take on Progressive Death Metal, and seem to be slowly moving away from the core aggression of the genre and more and more into Post-Metal territories. Post-Death Metal? Pretty much. Aggression is still here though, just done in a non-standard way, with even the blast beats surrounded by off-kilter chaos.

After this it’s Sedna’s turn to shine with their track Red Shift. Prior to this split I was not familiar with Sedna, although it seems that this has been my loss as this song is the equal of the previous one.

In contrast to the Death Metal-based heaviness of Dementia Senex, Sedna are more firmly in Black Metal-influenced Post-Metal/Sludge territory. Red Shift has the trademark Post-Metal build/release mechanic down to a fine art, with the track gaining momentum slowly but surely throughout the playing time, only to periodically explode with Blackened Post-Hardcore violence. It’s a good combination of slow burning tension and vicious aggression that nicely builds atmosphere with harsh shouts and screams being unleashed over the ever building and expanding music.

This is an exemplary split between two quality bands. I highly recommend giving this one a shot.

A Secret Revealed – The Bleakness (Review)

A Secret Revealed are a German Post-Metal band and this is their début album.

This is emotive Post-Metal that has a good mix of upbeat misery and negative energies.

The Bleakness is an interesting listen as it combines a few different styles of Modern Metal into a coherent assault on happiness. Post-Metal, Modern Metal, Post-Hardcore and even the odd bit of Doom, Shoegaze and Extreme Metal all get incorporated into their overarching depressive aesthetic.

The vocals consist of impassioned screams that are very much in the blood-curdling, emotive Hardcore style.

The music is nicely varied and revolves around the central motif of the band which is ultimately one of bleakness, it seems, (hence the album title).

Although it’s largely a heavy affair, the band never go too far into ultra-heavy territory and instead use the guitars for maximum emotional content. This is backed up and reinforced by the expressive leads and melodies as well as the odd bit of orchestration here and there.

This is a band who are enjoying the freedom of Post-Metal by doing their own thing with contemporary Metal music. They have eschewed the Doom route that most Post-Metal takes and instead has chosen the road less travelled by bands like Deftones and Devil Sold His Soul, only more Metallic.

The Bleakness may be just that, but it’s also a triumph.

Highly recommended.

Above the North – A Tale They Whisper (Review)

Above the North are a Hardcore band from France. This is their latest EP.

It starts off with melodic riffs that have a firm edge to them whilst serrated vocals scream out over the top. This is the kind of emotive Hardcore that’s easy to connect with if you like the style as it’s instantly engaging yet with a depth to it that bears repeated visits.

Some of the guitar parts and riffs even have a Post-Hardcore feel to them and have a resplendent sheen. The solid sound that the band have shows these guitars off to their full potential and the band sound immense.

Imagine a more traditionally structured Norma Jean, or From Autumn to Ashes minus the clean vocals, or a less abrasive/Metal Zao…Above the North have a lot of talent it seems, as these four songs ably showcase.

Alongside recent Hardcore releases such as Muck and The Black Lantern, Above the North show that you can play Hardcore that has bite without going the massively heavy/angry route that much of Hardcore does.

These songs have a thoughtful, introspective aura to them yet still have energy and passion in spades.

Very impressive. If they can keep up this level of songwriting for the future then their début album will be a thing of beauty.

Check them out.

Death Engine – Mud (Review)

Death Engine are a Hardcore band from France. This is their début album.

Death Engine play their Hardcore angry, atonal, dissonant and with much diversity. One moment they’re shredding out complex noisecore and the next they’ve gone all Post-Hardcore for moments of resplendent beauty.

This variety of assault is one of the things that makes Mud such a compelling listen. The band are very talented and even though this is only their first album, (and second release overall), they have clearly honed these compositions into the finely tuned songs that they are today through hard work and passion.

There’s lots of nifty ideas present on the album, starting on the first track Medusa and right up until the final one, Negative. Death Engine obviously aren’t lacking in the creativity department.

Angular riffing and complex drumming make up the lion’s share of the songs whilst the singer works himself up into an emotive frenzy.

The production suits the band; it’s not polished and clear but gritty and real. This is the sound of a band who are alive with vibrancy and furious conviction.

It’s hard to describe the feelings that Mud raises; this is the kind of album that it’s easy to fall in love with. There’s so much on offer here that it’s literally too much to absorb in one listen. This isn’t because there’s too much thrown in just for the sake of it, rather that the band have stuffed so much quality songsmithing into these tracks that while you’re getting absorbed in a particular guitar part it’s easy to miss everything else that’s going on.

This is a veritable Tour de Force of an album and one that Death Engine should be rightly proud of.

Bloody Hell this is good.

Fleshworld/Gazers/Viscera/// – Split (Review)

This split is between Polish band Fleshworld, French band Gazers and Italian band Viscera///. All three bands play variations on Post-Metal/Doom.

Fleshworld kick off the split with 18 minutes of music spread across three tracks. We’ve met Fleshworld before with their début album Like We’re All Equal Again. They play Post-Metal with very harsh vocals that act as a counterpoint to the emotive music. Continue reading “Fleshworld/Gazers/Viscera/// – Split (Review)”

Violet – The Love/The Lust (Review)

Violet are from the UK and this is their début album.

Violet play en energetic mix of Metalcore, Post-Hardcore and Rock. It’s on the more commercial side of the spectrum certainly, but the passion and enthusiasm is real.

For comparisons think elements of bands such as From Autumn To Ashes, Eighteen Visions, Bleeding Through and Coheed & Cambria.

The band are a six-piece who boast two vocalists, plus vocals from one of their guitarists; they carry a fair amount of diversity due to this. Snarled, Metalcore vocals and clean singing share space with the music being similarly divided between the heavier and lighter sides of the musical spectrum. The clean vocals are sometimes a little too Pop for my tastes, but the shouted vocals make up for this deficiency.

The music is nicely enhanced by keyboards, effects and sounds that give all of the tracks a silken sheen and add a bit of depth to the tracks.

The songs are catchy enough to hold attention, although the sugary cleans can be a bit too sugary on occasion. If they added a little bit more bite to their attack and reined in the more Pop aspects of their sound then in my eyes they’d really be a force to reckon with. On the other hand though, this is clearly an important aspect to their sound that they enjoy and no doubt many others will also.

Overall this is a good début from a promising young band who could feasibly do very well and have a great potential to appeal to a much wider audience than the average Metal band.

Have a listen.

Under the Sun – Under the Sun (Review)

Under the Sun are from France and this is their début album. They play Post-Hardcore.

Post-Metal is a rich genre and an exceedingly varied one. Also, the line between Post-Metal and its sister genres of Post-Rock and Post-Hardcore is a blurred one and can sometimes be hard to define.

Although I’d probably call this Post-Hardcore, strictly speaking it doesn’t really matter which one Under the Sun fall into; what matters is that they play long, exploratory and expansive music based around the darkness of the human mind and the frequently negative emotions that go alongside this.

This is build/release territory and the band are adept at writing a good atmospheric tune. The length of the tracks gives them ample room to manoeuvre and all of the stylistic space is taken up with creating the mood that the band wants you to feel; usually this is one of heartbreak, tragedy and melancholy.

The melodies are luxurious and drawn out, with the band really drawing the listener into the performance. Lighter Progressive Rock passages rub shoulders with heavier Doom sections. A firm sense of dynamics sees the band well through the longer compositions and they inject enough variety to hold interest.

This is a very unhurried album as the songs unfold exactly as they need to. Vocals don’t even appear until the second song as the band are content to largely let the music do the talking. These vocals are essentially Hardcore in nature and lend a chaotic edge to their sound, although some calmer cleans appear also.

Here we have a band echoing the works of the likes of Pelican, Red Sparowes, Erlen Meyer, Mouth of the Architect, Year of No Light, etc.; they take the blueprint and stamp their own identity over it.

It’s hard not to like music that’s played well and has a firm sense of confidence and intent. Under the Sun know what they are doing and know they do it well.

Give them a listen. Well worth it.

Great Reversals – Natural Burial (Review)

Great Reversals are from the US and play Hardcore/Post-Hardcore. This is their latest EP.

The band boast quite the immense sound with guitar riffs sounding like great slabs of granite falling from the sky.

A charismatic vocalist instantly draws the attention and hooks you in. His voice pierces the combination of heavy Metallic Hardcore and the more restrained Post-Hardcore influences to create an aural experience that’s quite invigorating.

This strikes me as the kind of band that would have done very well in the late 90’s/early 00’s; think of a charismatic band from this era, (maybe bits of bands like Skycamefalling and Shai Hulud), and then update the sound with a relatively subtle Post-Hardcore influence and Great Reversals are the result.

This is an impressive EP and I was expecting something less individual and less…striking than this. Maybe it’s the cynic in me, but this is a great little EP and I’m pleasantly surprised by how good it is.

It’s time to show your support – check out Great Reversals and get their EP. Definitely worth a listen.

As We Draw – Mirages (Review)

As We Draw are from France and this is their second album.

As We Draw have developed over the years from a noisy Hardcore band to their current incarnation, which is a combination of Post-Hardcore and Post-Metal. They still have the heavy, angry side to their sound but this has become more expansive and the songs on this album are more varied and atmospheric than ever before.

Their longest song opens the album and it’s a good microcosm for the album as a whole. Aggressive screams ring out over Post-Hardcore music that develops over time to create an angular piece with both aggression and restraint, heaviness and light.

The band appear to have set out to challenge themselves and the listener on this album by creating dark, heavy music that’s no longer confined to the older restrictions that they used to place on themselves by sticking to a more restrained genre than the more woolly one they now work in. Whether you term their music Post-Hardcore, Post-Metal, Progressive Hardcore or whatever, the key thing is that the band have become bolder, bigger and better because of it.

The songs on this album are a joy to listen to and they are the sound of a band embracing their potential and living up to it remarkably. The older As We Draw material was always very good but Mirages is something else. The band truly have taken themselves up to an entirely new level.

This is not to say, of course, that fans of their old material will find this album unrecognisable. Far from it. They’re still the same band; it’s just that now they have turned a corner, so to speak, and they’ve become more than they once were. The foundations that they laid with their previous work have been built on, added to and enhanced. Mirages is the resulting creation and its time is now.

Impressive and far reaching. Fans of stand-out heavy music take note.