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Anterior - This Age Of Silence (Metal
Blade) Review by Steve Green |
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A modern, fresh and exciting dose of Thrash, which is from all
places, Wales. I'm too old, and I've too much taste to be
seduced by shit such as My Chemical Romance and the realm of
endless dirge served up to today's youth. You have to
admire bands that keep the spirit of Metal
alive. This is what makes listening to Metal better than any
other music form in the world. And Anterior are a young band
worth getting excited over.
This Age Of Silence have taken the values of Old School Thrash
and have covered them in a modern sheen. Taking cues from the
likes of Iron Maiden, Metallica and from more recent times,
Children Of Bodom, Anterior have the twin guitar attack
absolutely spot on. |
Absolutely shitloads of melody and a
glorious feeling of, well, Metal running through your veins.
You know, I've not felt as excited over an album of this ilk,
since I first heard Children of Bodom's Hatebreeder back in
'99 or Machine Heads Burn My Eyes from 1994. Hearing the Dead
Divine on The Age Of Silence gives me exactly the same feeling
of exultation, especially with the crushing intro and majestic
riffing, which sounds like Iron Maiden on speed. This song
alone is worth every penny this album costs you.
Thankfully, This Age Of Silence is far from being a one trick
pony. Days Of Deliverance and Human Hive are both crushing
waves of Thrash and are right up there with their peers. Which
is really scary as Anterior are barely into their 20's. How
good are this band going to be with 5 years of touring under
their belts? Anterior already have the musicianship, the
writing skills and all round ability of a seasoned
professional band. Take my word for it, they are going to be
huge.
This album just blows me away every time I hear it.
www.myspace.com/anterior |
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Candlemass - King Of The Grey Islands (Nuclear
Blast) Review
by Steve Green |
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I'm not really a fan of Candlemass. And with saying
that, it's not that I dislike the Swedish masters of Doom, it's more a
case that our paths haven't crossed since the late 80s. I saw them live
once at the famous Hammersmith Odeon, it was the gig they played with
Nuclear Assault way back in 1989 (which was later released on video).
Apart from that, I'm a Candlemass virgin.
King of the Grey Islands is a concept album dealing with
depression and suicide in modern society. Something that has
affected me personally, having suffered from depression a few
years back. And yes, suicide was very much in the equation. It
got as far as choosing the |
location and the method of my demise. While the subject matter
may not be the happiest in the World, I always find Doom a
therapeutic listen, especially the morose outpourings of early
My Dying Bride. With Messiah Marcolin vacating the microphone of Doom for good, it's up to Solitude
Aeturnus frontman Robert Lowe to keep the misery flowing. I know older
fans will probably compare his vocals to Marcolin's, but I'm judging
this album solely on what's coming out of my stereo and I gotta tell you
it's all good.
With Emperor Of The Void, being strangely upbeat, it's up to the more
occult sounding Devil Seed to weave the first seeds (pun intended) of
Doom. Robert Lowe's vocals take me back to the darker side of Doom, with
the likes of Pagan Altar instantly springing to mind. From there, it's
onto Of Stars And Smoke which is one of the greatest songs I've ever
heard. I absolutely love this song from the opening riff, right through
until its last breath. Leif Edling's thundering bass underpins the song,
but it's the chorus that does it for me. Man, it's glorious. It's a
cross between the classic Dio era of Sabbath and, well, an almost eerie
gothic perspective. It'll also swim around in your head for days. Same
goes for Clearsight, which is pretty infectious and a joy to groove
along to. Every song on King Of The Grey Islands is worthy of classic
status. Not far behind Of Stars And Smoke in terms of quality, is album
closer Embracing The Styx, who's intro is a dead ringer for Slayers
South Of Heaven, but it builds from there into another immense
Candlemass anthem.
I'm not sure what Candlemass purists will make of Robert Lowe's
performance, but I think his voice suits the music perfectly and King Of
The Grey Islands is definitely one of the highlights of the year so far.
www.candlemass.se |
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Carnal Forge - Testify For My Victims
(Candlelight Records) By: Dave Schalek |
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I
still think that Carnal Forge’s second album, “Firedemon”, is
one of the best examples of the somewhat nebulous genre that
falls in between death metal and thrash metal, but is subtly
different from melodic death metal, sometimes known as
death/thrash. Consisting of shredding guitars played at
hyperkinetic speed, death/thrash moves beyond thrash but
doesn’t quite fall into the pure death metal category. At the
same time, the de-emphasis on melody removes the genre from
the melodic death metal crowd. At least, that’s my take on the
matter.
At any rate, Sweden’s Carnal Forge was never quite able to
capitalize on the absolute |
scorcher “Firedemon” with three more subsequent full-lengths,
all on Century Media, more or less playing in the same style.
Perhaps sensing some stagnation, Carnal Forge switches gears
for “Testify For My Victims”, released on Candlelight Records
and their first full-length in three years, unfortunately for
the worse in my opinion. “Testify For My Victims” slows down,
ramps up the melody, and adds touches of metalcore with some
jarring time changes, the odd breakdown or two, and riffing
similar to that found within the genre. In addition, there’s a
minor change in the band’s lineup with a new vocalist who’s
indistinguishable from the vocals on the band’s previous
efforts.
Certainly the musicianship, production values, etc., as always
with Carnal Forge, are all top notch. Unfortunately, the songs
are not particularly memorable as was the case with the string
of releases that followed “Firedemon”. Instead of competent,
but ultimately uninteresting death/thrash, we get competent,
yet uninteresting thrash/metalcore with “Testify For My
Victims”. Releases such as this are not going to separate
Carnal Forge from the hordes of other bands floating around
out there playing in a similar style, or close by.
I hate to say it, but “Testify For My Victims” is just plain
boring.
www.carnalforge.com/ |
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Cauterized - Fury 17 (Self Released)
Review by Marco Gaminara |
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Cauterized is the angry cathartic release of Shukri Adams whom
has doing this for a good few years and has several releases
under his belt. This is however the 1st time he's also added
vocals to his repertoire, usually he sticks to just recording
the guitars and bass along with writing all the lyrics and
music. Antti Kivilahti is still programming the drums after a
good few years as Shukri's co-conspirator in this flurry of
mayhem. The 1st most noticeable thing, for me at least, is the
vast improvement in the vocals. No I'm not saying that Richard
or Kim's vocals sucked, but rather that they were of a
completely different style to Shukri's and funnily enough, his
suit his music far better than theirs did. They are
aggressive, abrasive |
and have enough anger in them to drive his message home, and
boy does he have a message or 17. Musically it's still the
same death grind that you'd expect from Cauterized, but
sometimes there's far more melody in there than you'd think
likely, especially at the speed these songs are spat out, and
when you consider that the longest of the 17 tracks is 2'40",
you'll appreciate what I mean there. As usual, the album is
littered with samples, like one opening up "Radio Free
America". There are also no frilly leads, as they are
unnecessary at this speed. If they were to ever play live,
which would be possible if Shukri either cloned himself or
grew another pair of arms, then "Freedom fighters" would tear
pits apart. And things don't ever really slow down here with
"The gift of fury" flowing into "Slave caste" and pound your
head all the way. I have to agree that we are this planet's
"Homo sapiens disease" and it would be a "Cop out" to just
ignore it, but sadly we always tend to think it's someone
else's problem and never really do anything to change it. If
there ever was a truism then it's "Survival of the cruellest",
with its acid barbs and clever guitar hooks that take you
apart. Basically a guitar attack and snare covering fire for
"Nazi scapegoat", followed by the no frills 39" "Police state
earth". Stepping things into a chunkier direction, but still
at manic speed "All-consuming worms", has a couple tempo
changes and mis-directions to keep your ears on their "toes",
as it were. If only we could get a "Media blackout" with some
of the trite bullshit that it would appear is newsworthy on
this island. "12 Megaton" deals with the whole armchair
warfare that has become the norm, which devalues human life
even more than war actually does, hard as that may be to
believe.
Far slower than pretty much everything else on the album
"Coalition of the killing" marches along steadily and gets you
nodding your head in appreciation. Picking up the pace
considerably while "Feed on the fallen" steps the march up to
a full on attack with sharp snare to drive them on. Blasting
ahead however is "Blame it on zog" followed by the heavier
"Bonfire of the flags", which is actually about uniting
humanity rather than dissent. "Human shrapnel" on the other
hand is exactly what it says on the tin, just point towards
enemy really, and hope you're not around when they go off. So
while this many have been a good few years in the making, it
was well worth the wait and not only is the music powerful,
the lyrics are food for thought too.
www.cauterized.com |
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Crux – Rev Smrti (Scream of Death)
(I Hate Records) Review by Chris Davison |
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Quite a departure here for the folks at I Hate, best known I
guess for their formidable doom roster of bands. Crux, it
seems, were a Czech band of the early 90's, formed by three
band members who had to improvise quite heavily for their band
equipment, practice where ever they could, and recorded on a
shoe string budget with less than adequate conditions. They
released two demos (both of which are collected here), and
never released any official albums.
Round about now I guess you'll be thinking, “right, so why in
the blue blazes would I want to listen to this?”. Well, I have
to reply that firstly nobody uses the expression blue blazes |
outside of badly written reviews anymore, and secondly that
you should be interested because this is some seriously top
notch blackened thrash. The songs are all memorable, obviously
played by talented musicians, and the whole recording has so
much atmosphere that it could have been recorded in Jupiter.
I'm sure that this recording must have reached the ears of the
Norwegian pioneers of the black metal revolution; it's so
purely malevolent and sinister that it must have made a hefty
impact on anyone who heard it.
The drums are really very tinny in sound, but that works to
great effect, especially when one considers that at the time
thrash drums were beginning to be more dominated by a deeper
bass sound, especially in the American scene. The bass here is
serpentine and unusually prominent in the mix, while the
guitars sit somewhere between the riff laden goodness of the
US sound, the breakneck speeds and vicious cutting action of
the German axe masters, and the proto-sounds of the nascent
Black metal scene. All in all, it wouldn't be too much of
stretch to suggest that the latter Immortal albums, Dissection
and their respective clones all have an uncanny heritage
stretching back to these guys. The music had obviously been
impeccably written, and while the production would have been
left severely wanting by the cleaner jobs being sported by
many of their better known peers at the time, it has a
charmingly mysterious and obscure quality that many bands
would later try to emulate, and usually without great success.
The Crux story is a tragedy, however. Band members fell out
with each other, and decided to split and pursue separate
musical exploits. In the process, they shafted one member well
and truly, saddling him with the bill for the studio time, and
basically treating him in a very shabby fashion. There is a
good end, of sorts, which is to say that although Crux never
got to reach the heights they deserved, they did get to
posthumously release this collection, and in the process
re-forged their friendships. That they have done so remains a
nice coda to a bonus to us all; an interesting foot note in
the history of metal, and also a magnificent release in its
own right.
www.ihate.se |
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Evoken – Embrace the Emptiness
(Solitude Productions) review by Sam Thomas |
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This is a re-release of the 1998 work by Evoken, a NJ based
doom band who for some strange reason appear on a Russian
label. One of the great things about re-releases is that it
gives people like me, who missed this first time around, the
opportunity to listen to some really good music. Obviously, I
can’t comment on whether this is or is not significantly
different from the original, but then again I guess that I’m
not the only person out there who missed this first time
around.
When you think about it, “Embrace the Emptiness” has to be
pretty much the ultimate title for a doom album, conveying as
it does an aura of despair and pointlessness. And this IS |
pretty much the ultimate doom album – every last drawn-out
note drips with anguish and sadness. The track titles are spot
on as well: “Tragedy Eternal”, “Lost Kingdom of Darkness” and
so forth. This album is so heavy, it should probably carry a
health warning, or maybe just be issued with a free pack of
razor blades. It’s very stark and bleak, no catchy riffs here!
AS you might expect, this juggernaut crushes in at a mere 70
minutes for 7 tracks (including an intro, which has to be one
of the doomiest instrumentals ever). During that time there is
absolutely no let up in intensity whatsoever.
John Paradiso’s vocals are just right for the genre: intense,
laboured and tortured. The music ebbs and flows around them,
building up to almost painful intensity and the dying away
into a series of dissonant, almost randomly unconnected notes.
There are some very gentle cymbals, and tremendous low rumbles
from Steve Moran’s bass which manage to wrap around each other
perfectly. One of the things that really hits you in the face
with this CD is that the production is absolutely ice perfect
in its clarity.
The artwork is pretty spot on too: monochrome booklet with the
lyrics written in a flowing (but legible!) script. I did get
distracted once I’d noticed that some of the lyrics were
written faintly in large type in the background, but it’s
perfectly normal to go through the song to find out which
lines are used, isn’t it?
There is a quietly reflective side to much of this album,
particularly in the beginning of tracks such as “Ascend into
the Maelstrom” which is something that I always enjoy. There’s
a definite sense of the music evolving from a slow (well, this
is doom!) beginning through crushing heaviness to a final
(dying) moment of despair. And the logic of this evolution
gives the whole thing a structure which is flawless. Because
the structure exists, there’s a certain sense of inevitability
about the album, a sense of familiarity, which draws you in
and adds to the intensity.
If you enjoy your misery set to music, you’ll probably find
this to be the perfect album for an evening in, wallowing in
anguish. Essentially, it is everything that is best about doom
in an utterly depressing package. Listen to it, and drown in
the intensity of a really good doom album.
www.solitude-prod.com |
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Hatesphere - Serpent Smiles and Killer Eyes (SPV) Review by Steve Green |
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The "Dick", that was supposed to review this album initially, lived up
to his name and vanished from the face of the earth. Which may have
pissed me off at the time, but at least I have the benefit of getting to
discover Serpent Smiles and Killer Eyes for myself.
While the bio on the SPV website builds up Hatesphere as the best modern
Thrash band about, I'm more inclined to say they've nearly cracked it.
Serpent Smiles and Killer Eyes is a bloody good album. But it's
more of an album that is just short of being great. As in a "if only
they'd cranked it up a few more gears" scenario. For me, it's not until
the corking Thrash attack of track 3, Damned Below Judas that this album
really takes off. From there |
on, my right foot has a hard job to stay still as it follows
the drum patterns of Anders Gyldenøhr.
I think Hatesphere are at their strongest when they are firing on all
cylinders. Forever War is a far more potent proposition that the slower
Drinking With The King Of The Dead. I'm sure if they went for it, they
could create an album that would rival Reign In Blood, in terms of
intensity. With saying that, I did enjoy the textures and layers of
Feeding The Demons, which proves you don't need to play at 100 miles an
hour to be able to kick some serious ass. As you'd expect, Jacob Bredahl
is giving his all, and he really stands out on this track.
Overall, a good solid album, just not quite as good as I thought it
could of been. Catch 'em on tour with Dimmu Borgir and Amon Amarth in
the Autumn where I'm sure they'll be in their element. www.hatesphere.com |
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Iron Fire - Blade Of Triumph (Napalm
Records) Review by Strawb |
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Iron Fire are a 5 piece from Denmark. They have had a
tumultuous and turbulent history, and this is only their
fourth album. It is a journey into a world of mythology and
battling Norse warriors, the fantasy world occupied by their
creation Cain who featured on their third album, Revenge. The
album was recorded in their home country using producer
Fredrik Nordström at his Studio Fredman facility. I have
reviewed previous albums from this combination, and noted it
means high production values and clarity of sound. This
production confirms that opinion.
Without doubt the group are musically competent and tight
throughout this album. Martin |
Steene, the driving force behind the group is the distinctive
vocalist. He occasionally allows back up vocals which provide
emphasis and contrast. The screaming vocals at the end of
Steel invaders are great, could do more of it.
Jens Berglid gives a great drum intro to Bridges Will Burn,
and uses a great cascade to alter the tempo on Blade of
Triumph, and tones it down for appropriate percussion on
Legend Of The Magic Sword. Martin Lund provides a powerful
performance on the bass, I noted especially on Dawn Of Victory
and Jackel’s Eye. Kirk Backarach and Jobbe J provide the
guitars, riffs and solos on every song.
In my subjective opinion, the best tracks are Bridges Will
Burn - great intro, pacey throughout, and the guitar solo
where the necks are wrung – and Legend Of The Magic Sword – a
good slower song, but the almost minstrel intro, subdued
instruments and interaction with the vocals make it stand out.
I suspect Steel Invaders has been conceived as a live track –
“raise the metal fist in the air” will be at every concert
from now on…. Gladiator’s Path, isn't really for me. And for a
change, the title track is the final one and is a seven minute
opus, a good closer.
www.myspace.com/officialironfire |
www.ironfire.dk/ |
www.napalmrecords.com/ |
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