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999 - Death in Soho (Overground Records)
Review by Crin |
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My word, I thought this band had hung up their spiked dog
collars and safety pins many a moon ago. 999, [formed in 1976]
for those of you who were either bits of D.N.A floating in ya
dads bollocks in 1977, or were still very much Glam rock fans,
were very much apart of the raw U.K punk scene. With the likes
of Sham 69, Adverts, Ruts, Damned and I could go on and on.
999 released chart entering singles [pop punk classics like,
Homicide, and Emergency] and angry punk rock albums to an
angry, unemployed British youth. Compared to today though, the
country was a better place to live, and if lessons had been
learned then, the country would be a better place now.
Politics aside, this is a band that like |
so many of the old bands [Angelic Upstarts, Sham 69], still
plod along with one foot in a far away grave and the other in
a place where not too many people care anymore. If you go to
any one of the numerous Punk conventions you’ll see a Hawkwind like
collective of balding diehards and young upstarts, anarchists
and animal rights persons who may or may not know the meaning
of life.
The music here is unobtrusive, safe, good old fashioned Punk
Rock. What sounded abrasive and meaningful back them, hasn’t
the bite to make much of an impact today, but that’s not to
diminish the music’s sharp wit here. There are unavoidably
similarities to the watered down latter material of Stiff
Little Fingers, Damned, and Angelic Upstarts. Immediately
tuneful with rousing chorus lines, the songs are regenerated
punk anthems for a modern age. With 15 short, to the point
tracks, it’s a fine way to spend a night in, with a tube of
glue in one hand and a pair of Doc Martens in the other.
www.overgroundrecords.com
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Avichi - The Divine Tragedy (Numen Malevolum Barathri Records)
By: Dave Schalek |
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A two-man black metal project from the deep corn fields of
northern Illinois, Avichi’s style fits squarely in the sound
of mid 90s black metal with plenty of fast, chord progression
riffing, blasts, and rasps. However, Avichi are not mere
clones as they establish themselves with clean guitars, a
powerful production to emphasize the guitars, dissonant tones
and dark layers, and some melodic guitar work on their debut
full-length, entitled “The Divine Tragedy”, on upstarts Numen
Malevolum Barathri Records.
The brain trust behind Avichi is one Aamonael (a session
drummer, Xaphar, handles the percussion), a man who seems to
worship at the feet of so many others that came before in |
the mid 90s. However, the songs on this debut are rich in
hypnotic riffs, plenty of speed, and melodic dark tones that
emphasize feelings of atmosphere. Adding to the increasing
sense of foreboding are excellent moments of dissonant melody
on tracks such as “Prayer For Release”, and glimmers of
impending doom and dark ambience on the juxtaposition of the
first and last tracks, “Entrance To God” and “Separation Of
The Life Principle”.
Needless to say, I’m highly impressed by this debut. In fact,
Avichi already sounds way above the level of a band just
coming out with a debut. The presentation of the album,
layout, songwriting, etc; that is, all of the important
elements that you would expect in a mature work are present.
This alone speaks volumes of the potential to be had here in
Avichi, but, in retrospect, that may not be all that
surprising given that Aamonael has some experience under his
belt with connections to Nachtmystium.
To some extent, it’s too bad that I moved away from northern
Illinois some years ago as the region has an established,
mature, and thriving black metal scene. Avichi’s debut is a
welcome addition to that scene and I cannot recommend “The
Divine Tragedy” enough. Excellent.
www.nmbrecords.com |
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Axel Rudi Pell - Diamonds Unlocked (SPV)
By: Joe Florez |
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Well, it’s only been about a year since his last offering and
now we get a covers collection. The beauty with this one is
that it’s not another ballads comp, thank God! And the none of
the songs chosen here feature the works of Blackmore or Uriah
Heap as in the past. The choices on here are unique and will
be broken down as we go along. Leave it to ARP to find a way
to slap an atmospheric intro onto this. First up is Riot’s
“Warrior”. I am not familiar with the tune, but this one is an
energetic metal jam that most of ARP’S disc open with. The
furious guitar licks are in tack while Mike Terrana pounds
away on the skins. Vocalist Johnny Gioeli Sings his heart out
here. As usual, be on the look out for shredding |
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solos to make the ears bleed. A unique approach to U2’s
“Beautiful Day” is next. I have never been a fan of the group,
but this is probably the one and only song that I like. I
didn’t recognize this at first because the arrangements are a
wee bit different here because there is more bit to the six
stringer. The bass plays a prominent roll as it’s in the
forefront a lot. The melodies are there just like the
original, but they are spiked up a tad. Listen closely and you
will get the hang of this one. Not bad. “Stone” by The Law is
something I have never heard of, but fans will clamour over
this one with it’s signature slower, yet mystical and
atmospheric pacing that makes this one dark and moody.
Kiss’ “Love Gun” threw me for a loop because it’s an acoustic
version with minimal percussion. It sounds like a ballad more
than anything. I am on the fence on this once as this one
should always be played loud. I give the man credit for
changing it up a bit. A very daring move. Before the crooning
Michael Bolton struck it big with the lady in the 80’s with
his love songs, he used to be a pomp rocker and “Fools Game”
is here along with a not so well known cut from classic 70’s
rockers Free. “Heartbreaker” is the choice cut here, but most
people know them for “All Right Now.” A hard rockin’ classic
from Montrose “Rock The Nation” makes the cut. I think one
song on here that was tailor made for Axel to tackle is Phil
Collins “In The Air Tonight” due to its haunting vibe. What sort
of ticked me off is the classic moment where Phil beaks out
that drum pattern which is very memorable. The original
version is slow, but heavy and here it’s much faster. There is
also a solo on here where things get more rhythmic where this
is drum solo on here of sorts. It’s not bad, but not what I
was completely expecting from the man. A Mission song is
covered and to close things out is The Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled
Again” which is hard slamming, but will never top the
original. in the end, this isn’t a bad release. I am glad that
the songs chosen on here were anything, but true metal tracks.
ARP took a chance on lesser known choices as well as just flat
out rock tunes and worked them to his style. I think that the
acoustic stuff on here are the only clunkers and could have
been replaced with something else, but they all can’t be
winners, right? I think this is something that fans of the
band can rally behind including myself. This should tie us
over until the next disc.
www.spv.de |
www.axel-rudi-pell.de |
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Dimentianon - Hossanas Novus Ordo Seclurum
(Non Compos Mentis Records)
By: Dave Schalek |
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New York’s Dimentianon has two full-lengths under their
collective belts plus some past output under the moniker The
Forgotten. Not being familiar with their output prior to their
latest full-length, entitled “Hossanas…” on Non Compos Mentis
Records with some help of some sort from Paragon Records,
Dimentianon turns out to be a pleasant surprise with their
blending of genres.
Anything released by Paragon or their affiliates is going to
get my attention, as the quality of releases on the label is
always high. Dimentianon turns out to be a bit difficult to
pigeon hole into one genre or niche. At times straightforward,
raw black metal with a galloping pace, |
Dimentianon also comes
across with a doom influence, some moments of death metal, and
the odd moment or two of melody through the guitars and muted
keyboards.
If you’re looking for comparisons, first and foremost
Dimentianon reminds me of a sort of sped up version of
Darkthrone’s latter output. Consisting of a grimy, black metal
base with thin production, rasped/ growled vocals, and some
great bass lines, Dimentianon also seamlessly blends into this
base the aforementioned elements. Songs are able to switch
gears very quickly from the black metal base to some riffing
similar to New York- style death metal; in addition, the vocal
delivery can dovetail very quickly from the rasp to a growl to
back up the slight change in style in mid-stream. Moments of
doom can come at the introduction to a song, as well as a
concentration on the untitled last track, which clocks in at
over twenty three minutes long. In addition to all of these
different elements, there’s even an acoustical guitar track.
Not many bands can pull of such a diverse arrangement of
genres while still retaining a cohesive whole that adheres to
a base for the entire album. Dimentianon can certainly do this
and the potential displayed here indicates the band may
quickly be mentioned in the same breath as some of the giants
of USBM. “Hossanas…” is highly recommended.
To continue, along with the aforementioned full-length, the
promo material from Non Compos Mentis Records also included a
split between Dimentianon and a funeral doom band called Rigor
Sardonicous. Each contributes three songs on the split, with
Dimentianon’s contribution along the same lines as the
material on “Hossanas…” The third track, “Just Before Dawn”,
is a re-worked version of a song from Dimentianon’s early days
as The Forgotten and is the best song on the split.
Rigor Sardonicous has some personal connections to Dimentianon,
but with a very different sound. The three songs displayed
here are badly under produced examples of funeral doom. Thin
sounding, droning glacial riffs are enhanced with gurgled/
growled vocals that remind me a bit of Khanate. There’s not
much variation between the tracks with generally the same slow
tempo, simple riffing, and growls, although the third track
switches gears with a faster tempo that is reminiscent of the
first wave of black metal from the early to mid 80s.
Unfortunately, however, the thin production removes some of
the heft from Rigor Sardonicous’ sound that is badly needed.
To summarize, Dimentianon’s album is certainly worth your time
as is their contribution to the split. I’d like to see more
from Rigor Sardonicous, however.
www.dimentianon.com
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| Exit To
Eternity - Coming Down (Self Release) Review by Steve
Green |
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This album has, not one, but
two false starts. The gentle piano intro, Requiem, has me
thinking this could be a dark Gothic type of album, then the
bludgeoning start to the title track has me thinking Brutal
Death, maybe with a technical edge, before, fighting its way
out of the maelstrom, things settle down to more Thrashy
style. In fact, after everything had settled down, my first
thought was of Joey Belladonna era Anthrax, especially with
Carmine Cafaro's vocals bearing a striking similarity.
Whilst checking out the bands influences, I noted the vastness
of their tastes. Metallica's Master of Puppets features
heavily, as does a good dose of Pantera, Slayer and Megadeth.
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But what stands out is the amount of older bands that have
influenced them. Everything from Zeppelin, Sabbath, Neil
Young, Pink Floyd and Queen. And while those sounds aren't as
obvious as their more Thrashy influences, shit, Mindless Pawns
is pure Slayer, it does cement my theory on their musical
expertise. This isn't a cobbled together piece of
retro-Thrash. This is well-crafted, well thought out, and
above all, highly listenable, which where I'm sure the older
(pre-80s) influences are more prevalent.
Iron Maiden aren't listed in their influences at all, but I
can't help but compare their fast-paced gallop to that of mid
80s Maiden. Imagine Slayer and early Metallica jointly
covering The Trooper and you're in the same headspace as me.
My only complaint is that, as the album progresses, the focus
begins to wane. The long drawn out passages lose the momentum
built up by the first half of the album. While I commend the
band for trying something a little different, they're not
quite in Metallica's league yet and they aren't ready to match
Orion or The Call Of Ktulu any time soon.
Overall though, this is a very solid debut and one the band
should be proud of.
www.exittoeternity.com |
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Five Finger Death
Punch - The Way Of The Fist (Firm Music) Review by Steve
Green |
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I'm old school. I love my
Metal, but I love it in the traditional way. What I've had to learn, the
same way as I do with my business dealings, is that things constantly need
to evolve. In business I have no problem with this concept, and it's what
has made my fledgling company thrive in it's first year or so of
existence. So why am I so hard assed when it comes to accepting new styles
of Metal into the family that I've known and loved most of my life?
Trying to embrace the new waves of Metal over the years has been hard for
me, I quite rightly gave 2 fingers to Nu-Metal and I'm also right in my
hatred for wimpy emo shit and all bands that fall into that category.
Mixing clean vocals with something a little more raucous is
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fine with me when it's done right, but most bands fail
miserably with trying to unite the two styles. Well, thank
fuck for Five Finger Knuckle Punch, is all I can say. This
album is the epitome of what a modern Metal band should sound
like. Even though I'd heard about them, via Blabbermouth
obviously, I never checked them out as they were touring with Korn this year. Korn
are a band I hate with a passion, so I immediately, and stupidly, lumped FFDP in with the Nu-Metal brigade.
Luckily, I got sent this album, as I nearly missed out on one
the most exciting new bands, probably since Pantera started to
kick serious ass on A Vulgar Display Of Power.
So, why do I love this album so much? I guess it's because of
the way everything fits together naturally. One minute there's
a ton of aggression and a brutal Hardcore edge and then the
vocals switch to a lush clean tone, but unlike most of the
bands doing this style,
Five Finger Knuckle Punch don't lose an ounce of power. Ivan
Moody has a killer set of lungs when called upon, but he has
and great smooth side too. The balance between the two styles
is perfect. Besides the vocals and the biting lyrics that
accompany them, it's the guitars that also get me psyched up.
Zoltan Bathory and Darrell Roberts, ex-U.P.O. and W.AS.P.
respectively, provide the cutting riffs and the stunning lead
guitar work. And once again, the balance between fluid lead
guitars, gentle acoustics and crushing riffs is spot on,
particularly on the anthemic The Bleeding, which incorporates
all three styles seamlessly. It's kinda weird listening to
this in 2007 as all I can think of is Jeremy from Pearl Jam's
Ten opus from 1991. You don't always need to play hard to be
able to drive your message home.
A couple of years ago, I probably wouldn't have given this
album the time of day, now I think it's one of the best albums
of the year and it excites the hell out of me. Listen for
yourself at:
www.myspace.com/ffdp |
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Necromessiah - Antiklerical Terroristik Death Squad
(Debemur
Morti Productions) Review by Crin |
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Razor sharp thrash from Italy. The band surprises the eye with
a copse painted image of the band members, as this is far from
the blustering Black Metal the image conveys.
This being the bands second album, vomits a retro thrashing
madness into your head, a veritable mid-eighties hallucination
[or a bad trip] that pukes leather and bullet belts into the
air. Razor sharp riffs, solid snare battering and a typical
thrashing vocal infernal bawl, makes this band a real force to
contend with. Like the respected Norwegians, Aura Noir, or the
likewise head bludgeoning, Bewitched [Swe], these mad Italians
blast out some Hellish Black injected Thrash Metal. Chopping
guitars make up the main body of the songs, and |
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exude a reanimated hybrid of Destruction, Whiplash and
Tankard, all mauled in a vat of piss and excreted into the
air. You can smell the Satanic excrement peppering off the
drum skins, you can feel the pulverising terror emanating from
the filth smeared vocals. With tracks like, 666 Necroalkolterrosit,
Fucking Bastard God, and the delightfully titled, Christ
Crushing Black Metal, you can be assured of having your ears
syringed with Black metal puss and that can’t be bad.
www.debemur-morti.com/default.php |
www.myspace.com/necromessiah1 |
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Sentenced to Suffer – Defiling the Altar
(Self release) review
by Sam Thomas |
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Twenty minutes. That’s all you give yourselves to make an
impression. Foolishly short? Well, that’s the risk you run. Or
have you been smart enough to ditch any filler tracks and just
stick with your honed, battle-ready best? Thank Satan, it’s
very definitely the latter as far as Sentenced to Suffer are
concerned.
“Defiling the Altar”, a self-released MCD, doesn’t so much
grab you by the throat (that would be a bit girly), it knees
you in the gut, throws you to the ground and kicks shit out of
you, meantime raping your granny. It’s a no-holds barred, full
strength black metal outpouring of extreme aggression and
fury. Blastbeats are thrown in in a casual way, sort of |
“we can do this with both hands tied behind our backs”
nonchalance, the pace is frantic and the sheer musical talent
of the Guildford four is quite staggering.
The outstanding thing for me on this release is the use of
vocals. Three of the band are credited for vocals, and this
allows an interesting range and contrast. I would like to use
the word “harmonise” but obviously that’s not quite what I
mean. Nor is “the world’s first black metal duet”. But you get
the general drift…
Final track “Break the Silence” screeches its way to a
crescendo that leaves you wishing for more. This is an
amazingly good release, which just proves the point that
sometimes less is more. Well done to whoever urged restraint –
you’ve produced an absolute belter!
www.myspace.com/sentencedtosuffer666
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The Vision Bleak – The Wolves Go Hunt their Prey
(Prophecy)
review by Sam Thomas |
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The Vision Bleak have spent two years working on “The Wolves
Go Hunt Their Prey”, their 3rd full length offering. For the
most part, it’s a jolly little epic, happily bowling along
demonstrating a range of diverse influences. The most
surprising thing is that there are in fact only two guys
involved in this project (and yes, inevitably, they both have
appendages in many baked goods).
The most obvious influence within this work is death metal,
played in a fairly tight technical style. There is a level of
insistent repetition that would be easy to identify as Finnish
or Swedish, but The Vision Bleak are in fact German. The
vocals are not your standard death |
growls, but more akin to Goth – think 69 Eyes, or even Pete
Steele at his most lugubrious.
Apparently the title of this work is derived from the previous
oeuvre “Carpathia – A Dramatic Poem”, possibly as a kind of
retrospective sales pitch. Sadly, I haven’t heard this, so I
couldn’t comment. There’s a strange collection of three tracks
mid-CD entitled “The Black Pharaoh Trilogy” which seems to be
a good excuse to get a lot of Eastern sounding vibes going.
Unfortunately it also has the effect of splitting the album up
into separate parts, which makes it a less comfortable listen
to me at least. Still, I suppose that if you have the urge for
that kind of over the top camp epic it’s as well to get it out
of your system. It’s not that it’s a bad thing, just that a
bit too much effort has been put into producing these tracks
and not enough into working it into the album as a whole. On
the other hand, it does give them the opportunity to come up
with the glorious track title “Part 1: The Shining
Trapezohedron”. Not a geometric shape that I recognise, but
hey…
Obviously this is another album which draws heavily on an
Ancient Egyptian theme. Personally, I blame Howard Carter for
this. If only he’d had the sense to leave well alone…One trap
that The Vision Bleak have neatly sidestepped is the “well,
it’s an epic, let’s make it long”. This is a manageable 45
minutes of pretty interesting, slightly off-beat music. It’s
sufficiently original to be both pleasing and difficult to
categorise. My best try would be: relentless death metal meets
symphonic black metal with gothic vocals. The end result is
very definitely dark, but too insistent and too fast paced to
be goth.
This is definitely one to grow on you – I wasn’t at all sure
the first time I heard it, but ended up really liking it. In
an understated epic kind of a way, of course.
www.prophecyproductions.de
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Throwdown - Venom and Tears (Trustkill
Records)
Reviewed by Nathan Ward |
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A new Throwdown album? Great I thought to myself, if their
last album is anything to go by ‘Venom and Tears’ should be
brilliant. I wasn’t disappointed, ‘Venom and Tears’ is 12
tracks of modern thrash metal; aggressive, fast and heavy, the
way it should be.
Throwdown have managed to retain their sound on this album.
The vocals are aggressive without going into the
‘undecipherable roaring’ of this metalcore stuff floating
around today. The first time I heard Throwdown’s singer, Dave
Peters, I thought he sounded like Phil Anselmo. It’s quite a
powerful vocal style; it has the aggression without the ‘what
the hell’s he saying?’ factor, which suits this genre of
metal. The drums are great; they add another |
layer of sound to what you hear. Sometimes they’re slow and
powerful or they’re fast and aggressive, the bass drums have
brutal quality, as if you’ve just been punch in the stomach,
repeatedly.
The guitar and bass are nice and heavy, the riffs have a
Pantera and Sepultura feel to them depending on the track. An
example of this would be: ‘Day of the Dog’ with the chorus
riff reminding me of ‘Walk’ by Pantera and ‘Hellbent (On War)’
being the Sepultura style track. There is a strange
instrumental song on the album called ‘Cancer’, it starts off
quietly and slowly picks up volume, reaching its loudest about
halfway through the song, before it ends with a fade out.
There are a few guitar solos dotted about the album as well.
One track on the album; ‘I, Suicide’, is being used on the
upcoming Resident Evil: Extinction soundtrack. I think this
track will work with the film. Hopefully it will be used in
the fast-paced –zombie-slaughter-fest scenes, adding more pace
and aggression to the action. They have also done a cover of
Sepultura’s ‘Propaganda’, which apparently can only be bought
from iTunes.
My favourite tracks off the album would have to be ‘Day of the
Dog’, ‘I, Suicide’ and ‘Hellbent (On War)’, for the powerful
riffs and great vocals. If you’re new to Throwdown I’d
recommend starting with their previous album ‘Vendetta’.
‘Venom and Tears’ is a brilliant album from start to finish,
showing that Throwdown have no intentions of slowing down.
www.trustkill.co.uk/home/ and
www.myspace.com/throwdown
or www.throwdowngo.com/ |
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