Coming from Switzerland, here we have Voice of Ruin.
A bit of an enigma this band in some ways; from the song titles I was expecting gore/porn-obsessed Death Metal but then the artwork is a bit unusual for that. Couple that with the band’s tendency to dress as farmers it tends to throw you a bit.
When you finally press play the style of music is actually a thoroughly modern Metalcore/Thrash influenced melodic Death Metal. From everything else about this release and the band, it’s quite unexpected.
Imagine Killswitch Engage and Lamb of God getting together to do a more extreme side band, (less commercial cleans, some blast beats, etc.); throw in a few modern Melodic Death Metal influences such as The Black Dahlia Murder and you should be there.
The sound is immense and state-of-the-art, with all of the instruments honed to crushing perfection and all aimed at utterly destroying. It does the music justice.
The songs are well written and have that thoroughly modern melodic crunch to them that will probably have just as many people running away from the band as running to them, such is the divisive nature of this kind of genre for some people.
It’s good though, very good, so don’t let preconceptions put you off discovering a talented band.
Power Trip are from the US and this is their début album of Crossover Thrash.
This is angry, violent Thrash Metal with a large Crossover influence that recalls the best of Old-School Hardcore, (Cro-Mags, Black Flag, etc).
The sound is huge and the drums sound as if each snare drum hit is a bomb exploding. The vocals are smothered in reverberation and sound as if they were recorded in a cave somewhere.
The songs are angry and buzzing with an energy that just screams, (literally), how passionate they are about their chosen path.
This is music that demands to be let loose in the live environment. Pick a song here and you’ll be able to rip and tear it up in the pit; stomp and smash to the pounding beats. One listen to pretty much any of these songs and you’ll want to get caught in a mosh all over again.
It’s as if the spirit of 80’s Hardcore was being channelled through the lens of gritty Thrash Metal. Power Trip are that lens.
This is the fourth album from Serbian Death/Thrash Metal band Infest.
After a perfunctory intro the first track Destroyer of Their Throne starts up and I am momentarily confused – have I accidentally put on a Vader album instead of Infest? I over-exaggerate, (slightly), but the similarity, mainly in the vocal department, is startling.
Infest are not Vader clones of course. Musically they have other tricks up their collective sleeves and these conspire to create an enjoyable Metal experience lasting just under 30 minutes.
It’s an entertaining and speedy collection of Thrash-tinged Death Metal tracks that, yes, takes cues from Vader but also has some almost Hardcore influenced crossover riffs. I hear a bit of Pro-Pain to some of the chuggy guitars on occasion, as well as some Face Down-style Thrash and a bit of Malevolent Creation.
The production is strong and the bass is clear. The songs have a hard metallic sheen to them that accentuates their unyielding nature. They have a very immediate sound and always seem like they’re trying to get through the songs faster than they’re actually played, (if that makes any sense…?); there’s a sense of urgency to the album that gives it a vibrancy and life that some bands lack.
Good songs, good Metal. Hard, fast and straight to the point. I like.
Black Anvil are from the US and this is their third album of Black Metal.
As the first song Still Reborn slowly unfolds you know you’re in for a treat. There is a Thrash influence to the band that allows their songs to have somewhat of an epic feel to them rather akin to classic Metallica; cross this with an expansive Black Metal feeling the likes of which Enslaved create, (minus Viking influences), and give this whole idea a frozen Black Metal makeover and you’ve an idea of where Black Anvil are coming from.
Initial impressions? …And Justice For All being slowly eaten by Mardraum – Beyond the Within. High praise indeed.
And some of these riffs! Dear me. Excuse me while I have a sit down and compose myself. The band have obviously hit their stride with this album; each song is a powerful collection of riffs, solos, ideas, emotive passages and pulse-raising sections. The overall song is never sacrificed for any of these though, and each track is a delight.
The main vocals are Black Metal screams done in an Enslaved style, while additional vocals consist of everything from gang shouts to mystical cleans.
At over an hour and eleven minutes of music this never gets old or stale; Black Anvil have a lot to offer the listener and it’s easy to get sucked into their world.
A warm, organic production complements the songs and allows them to get under your skin and into your brain. There’s something particularly satisfying about the drum sound especially.
This is an exceptional album written by people who appear to be channelling the essential essence of Metal. This album deserves to be in your collection.
Gomorrah are from the US and play aggressive Thrash Metal with a minor Modern Metal influence.
This is heavy stuff, with a solid sound and production. It allows the riffs to come crashing around you causing maximum destruction.
And there are a lot of riffs, this is a veritable riff-fest of Thrash and caustic melodies. They know their instruments as well and can pull out some nice solos when they want to.
Their sound does have some modern influences to it, but I wouldn’t call them a Modern Thrash Band as they’re far too riffy, heavy and honest for that. Rather you can just hear some Lamb of God influence in some of the vocal inflections and they share some riff ideas with some of the more Melodic of Thrashers; but these are only minor aspects of the band’s sound as the core Gomorrah experience is based on Metal with a big fat capital M.
These songs, (and they are songs), are lively enough and even though there’s nothing innovative or new going on here the band manage to somehow avoid sounding tired and have produced an enjoyable EP. The key ingredient of course is passion; they clearly love what they do and this bleeds over into the instruments and song structures so that the listener can’t help but smile and start banging the old noggin along to it.
If I’m honest as well I think that the ever-so-slight modern influence to the band that I mentioned earlier also helps their cause. There are soooo many retro-style/Old-School Thrash bands around at the moment and a lot of them really do sound tired and stale. It’s nice to hear a band like Gomorrah who don’t fall into the retro trap but also don’t fall foul of trying to sound too modern or commercial either. They have the balance just right for me; it’s a precarious balance of course but at the moment they’re onto a winner.
The more I listen to this the more I like it. Give this a try, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed with them.
Ghoul are from the US and this EP is Thrash Metal with a healthy crossover influence; on this release their normal Death Metal influence is missing.
Ghoul have put out some good music over the years and this is no exception, although it is somewhat of a departure from their normal fare. This is feel-good Thrash-a-rama of the cinematic variety and with a bit of an old-wild-Western-crossed-with-a-biker-movie feel.
The songs each have that confident self-assured swagger to them and the bass is enough to plant images of run-down sleazy saloons in anyone’s mind.
The aural equivalent of a bar brawl in a seedy joint between rival motorcycle gangs; it’s ugly but you can’t help watch the spectacle unfold regardless.
Consisting of either instrumental tracks or tracks with spoken word on them, the traditional Ghoul vocals are absent and the music takes the front seat. As a showcase for the band’s ample musical talents this works fine and the emphasis is purely on the fun-time riffs and the driving tunes.
If you’ve never encountered the maniac ride that is Ghoul before then this is as good a stop as any to get on board with. But be warned, you may need a new set of underwear afterwards.
Electric Hellride have finished their new EP Come Darkness, Come Light. As a band who are very talented relatively individualistic this hopefully promises a bright future and good things to come for them. Time to get a bit more information on this band. Enter Casper…
For those who are unfamiliar with your band – introduce yourself!
Well, we are Electric Hellride, a metal band from Copenhagen, Denmark. We had our first rehearsal back in the summer of 2008 and had some years getting our act together but with our EP “Charged” from November 2010 things began to roll for us. A solid sound of metal with a groovy twist, a lot of fine reviews giving us more shows, all developing our live skills. This led to us winning the Danish leg of the W:O:A Metal Battle in Denmark and thus playing at Wacken Open Air in 2012 (the show can be viewed here: http://youtu.be/xbDEWUs8KdA).
After that we signed with Mighty Music and released “Hate.Control.Manipulate” in late 2012. Since that we played our first tour (in Denmark) in 2013 and developed a little different approach to our songwriting and this is where we are now: presenting some of our new material on an EP called “Come Darkness, Come Light” which will be released the 5th of May.
Give us a bit of history to Electric Hellride
We have known each other for several years. Some of us even went to the same public school and later to the same high school. We actually had a no-name band back in the years 1996-1998. When we decided to play together again in 2008 it was not to reform that old band of ours but to make something new as we knew that we would get along in a very fine way – being friends already.
What are your influences?
We all started listening to metal a few years before the teen years. This means that we are of course to some degree raised on Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and such. But since that we have all developed our taste in metal into something wider, so it’s not easy to narrow our influences down to just a band or two.
Maybe Brian (drums) has a distinct taste for groove through his early fondness of Pantera, Anders (lead guitars) brings us something more “classic metal”, Nicklas (rhythm guitar) puts in something dirty rocking via his interest in acts such as Down and Black Label Society. And me (Casper, bass/vocals), I’m very much into good old Swedish death metal, which might be heard to some point in our music – but I don’t really growl – except for a few words here and there.
But we all like a lot of different metal so it’s really a bit too simple to just put it down as I just did. Oh well, I tried anyway, haha!
What are you listening to at the moment that you would like to recommend?
But on a more recent plan, I believe at least 75 % of the band enjoys the new Behemoth. And I personally really enjoy the new Triptykon.
Tell us about your EP
We were on a good path towards the second full length but we wanted to put out a teaser – or maybe a test – to see how our followers would like our new material as we felt we had changed our sound a bit. So on one hand we wanted to present some new stuff to get some feedback before we would write the last songs for the next full length. On the other hand we felt it was time to show the world that we are still alive and well and writing killer music.
This will of course require for us to write even more songs for the next album, but it is really worth it, as the feedback regarding the EP already is great and some great concert opportunities are being offered to us now.
It’s a four track EP, and as I mentioned earlier: it’s called “Come Darkness, Come Light”.
Are you happy with how it turned out?
Absolutely! We have worked with Jacob Bredahl earlier, but decided to try something that also was more local to us so we wouldn’t have to travel. So we picked Emil Sauer to produce, mix and master. He has worked with Helhorse and Cerekloth among others and the recording session to place in his Grizzly Sauer Studio in Copenhagen.
The sound is not as dirty on the bass this time but it has given more room for guitars to really breathe. It sounds “more metal” but still very organic and clearly played by human beings and not edited to death in ProTools.
What can you tell us about the lyrics?
“Higher Profanity” is about the clash between religion and science. I tried to make it open for interpretation but I think it’s obvious that I’m into the science part. What can you do – I’m a civil engineer, I’m educated to believe in science!
“Grey Mass Depression” is about living in a sad, boring, depressing environment of concrete buildings that really need refurbishment and how it in some places slow down the mind to something zombie-like.
Evil lives in us all. That it basically the conclusion of “Phosphorus”. Phosphorus relates to Venus which relates to Lucifer. And phosphorus also relates to DNA. So we can’t avoid the evil one. It’s in our DNA, simple as that. No need to try to be good, haha.
“Master Inferno” is about power. Power used to control others who are being (way too) submissive.
Give us a bit of information on the songwriting process.
As already stated we are working hard on the song writing for the next album and it is going really well and it will be more in the style of the EP than our first album. Usually one of us comes with a riff or two and we work around that and we are all taking part of the songwriting and thus we are all very important for how a song will turn out.
You have quite an individual sound – was this intentional or a more natural development?
I think it’s natural. We don’t aim to land within a specific genre such as jumping on the retro thrash metal wave. We just like metal, but we are very critical to ourselves in the rehearsal room regarding what we feel works and what we don’t feel will make the cut. And over the years we have learned a lot about what we do well and which elements we should leave to others to pursue. It has taken some time to get here, but we do agree that we actually have found something a bit of our own now.
Working with producer Emil Sauer this time also has a lot to say. We really listened to his views on our music and together with him we landed on the sound that can be heard on the EP.
In my review I say that you’re almost a kind of Stoner/Thrash hybrid, almost as if someone has appropriated the singer of a more contemporary band, (Clutch?/Godhunter?), and forced him to front Kreator. What are your thoughts on this?
That is just how I sing, haha! I like the way you tried to describe to vocals as a mixture of two different genres, as my singing is something that really is hard for a lot people to describe. As the producer said during the recordings “You don’t really sound like anyone else. Well, I remember one from Belgium but he doesn’t sing anymore. So…”.
But honestly, back in the day – long before Electric Hellride – I tried to sing clean, but although I wasn’t singing out of tune it did sound a bit flat and boring, so eventually I tried to yell instead. I like growls but the music I’ve played never really fit to that so to “yell” was the right way to go. It’s been a long walk but since our EP “Charged” I’ve been more or less satisfied with my vocals, and luckily my vocal skills are still getting better and better. Some part is better technique, something is just the natural ageing of the voice (well, I’m 35 – is that old?!). And a lot is the gained experience and just all of us in the band being critical towards the vocals.
How do you see your songs/direction developing in the future?
At the moment we feel that “Come Darkness, Come Light” is our sound of the future. It is a bit different to our earlier material and the clues to what makes it different is variation: we try vary the tempos of the songs more to each other, making heavier and slower songs as well as making faster and more aggressive songs. And we are also challenging ourselves to make riffs that doesn’t sound as it was picked from our usual “comfort zone”.
And then we are a solid live act and this will get even better in the future as we are getting a lot of interesting gigs at the moment.
What’s next for Electric Hellride?
We really want to play more outside Denmark. So that is a focus point – we are trying to land a tour in Europe in the fall of 2014. We hope it works out!
Septekh are from Sweden and play Death/Thrash Metal with a Blackened edge.
Based on the album cover I was expecting something a bit calmer than this, but what bursts from the speakers when the first song Into the Void of My Mind starts is a frenetic and excitable beast covered in spikes and claws.
This reminds me of a mix of bands like Darkthrone, Audio Pain and Aura Noir, with the stylistic nature and playfulness of a band like Die Apokalyptischen Reiter.
The vocals are straight form the nails-down-a-blackboard school of throat shredding. They do the job well and manage to avoid the faceless nature of this kind of vocals by having a clear identity and personality behind the bark.
At an hour in length this is a long release with a lot of content to digest. This album works best over repeated spins though as it takes a while for the Blackened melodies and rhythmic patterns to imprint themselves on the psyche. But imprint they do as first and foremost these tracks are songs and as such have hooks and catchiness more than you would expect for a band of this ilk. Death/Thrash/Black they may be, but there’s a firm core of out and out Rock running through this album.
Satisfying and enjoyable, Septekh have produced a solid slab of Metal that will have you coming back for more, again and again. Perhaps world domination isn’t as unlikely as you first thought…?
Poland’s Bloodthirst play Black/Thrash Metal with a hard edge.
This is harsh music that positively bursts forth with pure belligerence and arrogance.
For all their severity they also find the time to introduce some melodies and leads into the proceedings which provide depth and interest.
The addition of Blackened riffs and blastbeats into the Thrash Metal template is a welcome change from the hordes of Thrash bands who all want to be Testament. Some songs are more Thrash-based than others, while others sport this Black Metal influence more openly.
In fact, sometimes I’m torn between describing them as a Blackened Thrash band, or a Thrashy Black Metal band. Not that it really matters, but it demonstrates that they do something more with the the Thrash template than simply repeating what others have done before them. Either way; it’s Metal to the core.
The vocals are abrasive and uncompromising, falling more into the Black Metal camp than the traditional Thrash one. Snarling and raging; they’re not to be underestimated.
Zoldier Noiz are a French band who play primitive Death/Thrash/Crossover Metal.
This is ugly Death Metal from back alleys and drunken brawls. Ultra-primitive, belligerent Metal that combines the raw underbelly of Punk and Crust into a Crossover whole that melds Thrash to a primordial Death Metal.
The songs are short and violent, but that doesn’t mean the band are without talent; not just anyone can get away with playing this style of music and not have it come off as an uninteresting mess. Zoldier Noiz make up for what they lack in sophistication with raw passion and will.
A speed punk feeling underlies these songs with the band sometimes seemingly rushing to finish as soon as they’ve started. It makes for an energetic listen.
A functional-but-that’s-about-it recording emphasizes the barbaric nature of the band and unintelligibly grunted pseudo-vocals are barked like challenges to all and sundry.
If a band like Motorhead released a primitive Death Metal album, they it would probably sound a lot like Zoldier Noiz.
Coming from Switzerland, here we have Voice of Ruin.
What are you listening to at the moment that you would like to recommend?
What can you tell us about the lyrics?
Wonderbox Metal 