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Facebreaker - Dead,
Rotten and Hungry (Pulverised Records) review by
Sam Thomas |
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Sweden is a very strange country. Every Swede I’ve ever met
has been polite and courteous, and yet they specialise in the
most brutal death metal on the planet. Maybe it’s something to
do with readdressing the cosmic blandness of IKEA. Either way,
they do brutal death extremely well.
Facebreaker tick all the right boxes, they’re described as
being similar to early Entombed, they’ve played alongside
Morbid Angel (and, more surprisingly, Stratovarius – that must
have been an interesting line-up) and of course have the
obligatory ex-member of Edge of Sanity amongst their number.
In fact, the only surprise is that Dan Swanö and Peter
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Tägtgren haven’t put in an appearance somewhere.
Dead, Rotten and Hungry is, as you may have gathered, brutal
in the extreme. It’s pretty much done in the way you’d expect:
five guys get together, discover that they all like brutal
death and decide to produce their own version of it. It’s very
much the same story as that of compatriots Bloodbath, and the
outcome is very much the same – pure, unadulterated death
metal at it’s finest. There’s no subtlety with this album,
just superb playing ( I especially enjoyed the guitar work on
“Walking Dead”) and pretty basic lyrics about your standard
themes of cannibalism, burning in hell, torture and so forth.
Overall, this is a perfect example of Swedish Death Metal. And
that’s all that needs to be said.
www.facebreaker.com |
www.myspace.com/facebreaker666 |
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Fatal Smile - Neo Natural
Freaks (Locomotive Records) By: Joe Florez |
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Locomotive Records loves to do this. Fatal Smile has a new
record in 2008 on this very label, but I guess since nobody in
North America has heard of them or had the chance to have the
record, Loco decides to take this 2006 release from another
label and distro it here and everywhere else. In a nutshell,
these are four Swedes playing Glam/rock/metal. All I have to
say is that they are loud. The title track is pretty alive and
kicking. Zteff pounds away like a Tommy Lee wanna be. Get a
load of this name. The lead singer Blade (nice!) is a crooner
for sure, but does an effective job is singing. It’s deep, but
filled with rage and passion all rolled up into one. Typical
in this genre, the song is catchy and can carry a |
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decent beat. You can definitely sing to this one in the car
for sure. “Bleeding Kiss” is a rawker despite being a bit slower, but it
still packs a punch and the rhythm is just so damn addicting.
This one goes for right between the eyes. “Quiet Chaos” wasn’t
something I was expecting. This one really turns up the notch
in heaviness as it takes more of a doom approach. It has a
slow pace, but the execution is perfect and doesn’t get boring
as the boys give it a little bit of gas when needed. Think of
it as Candlemass meeting Zakk Wylde having a rumble at 2am in
a darkened alley. It’s sad that FS has been around for
thirteen years and have only pumped out three releases. This
particular one here is number two. I wasn’t quite expecting
what I heard here because it goes beyond the description of
what I say and what I read on the bio. Just cause I use the
word glam in my writing, doesn’t mean that it takes on a
cheesy approach like in the 80’s Warrant or Cinderella style.
Blade, Zteff, Y and Alx thrown down some meaty beats and
riffs. There is some serious metal going on here. It a
culmination of everything I said and then some. Would they
have worked if they were around 20 years ago, perhaps, but I
think they would have eaten up a lot of that scene with the
exception of Motley Crue for breakfast. Nice surprise here.
www.locomotiverecords.com |
www.fatalsmile.com |
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Kinetic - Corrosion
(Burning Star) Review by James Young |
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The members of Greece’s Kinetic are proud of their power,
progressive and thrash metal pasts, and goodness does it show
in this album. It’s so difficult to put into one single
category, it simply can’t be done. You have the pleasant
female voice of Margaret Staikou cleverly juxtaposed against
the harsh growls of Savvas Betinis, which brings an almost
gothic metal sound to the mix. The synths of Vaggelis
Kakarougas bring a symphonic edge to the music when necessary,
but the guitars can sound thrashy, or like melodic, or even
straight-up death metal. The song structures are composed in a
complex way, with many parts to each song, and the intricacies
certainly provide a progressive edge to the already |
crowded mix of genres. Some parts had me thinking of Loch
Vostok, not particularly musically, but in the way one second
the music will resemble thrash, before seamlessly moving into
progressive death metal. It’s only their second album in six
years, so one can only imagine the work that has gone into
such a record, and this clearly shows in the crystal clear,
yet attitude-laden production, bringing all the instruments to
life.
Songs such as ‘Vessel Of Rebirth’ and ‘Venturing Hi and Low’
kick things off nicely with something akin to symphonic death
metal, guitar solo and growls and female vocals included.
These tracks sound a bit like early Therion and After Forever
meeting head to head, especially with the interplay between
the growled and female vocals, one usually echoing the other.
The synth intro of ‘Dreams For Nothing’ almost resembles power
metal, with the arrangement of the verses and chorus bringing
Nightwish to mind. ‘Faces Far From Reality’ brought in a far
more aggressive vibe, with some blastbeats from Konstanddinos
Alexakis providing some heaviness, whilst the more up-tempo,
growl-dominated ‘Winter Still Remains’ plays down the synths
and female vocals, taking a more thrash approach, with some
fast shredding and solos from Stavros Bonikos and Manolis
Mamas. ‘Mesmerized Fools’ is a tad more technical, with some
clever passages of drumming, and a nice little
relaxed-sounding keyboard section thrown in for good measure.
Another well-executed song is found in the closer, ‘No
Balance’ which combines some fairly heavy thrash riffs with
some pumping keyboards. The guitar solo is fantastic, and the
increase in speed towards the end of the song is absolutely
wonderful to hear, building to a superb climax which rounds
off the album perfectly.
This is an interesting listen, and is recommended to any fan
of death, thrash, power or prog…heck, any fan of music should
like this. Kinetic certainly live up to their name in terms of
sheer ideas and their willingness to take multiple ideas on
board, and the musicianship and originality contained on this
album certainly warrants a listen from any self-respecting
music fan.
www.kinetic.gr |
www.myspace.com/kineticgr |
www.burning-star.net |
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| NFD - When The Sun
Dies (Jungle) Review by Steve Green |
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It's kind of funny looking back at the 80s Goth scene.
Although I was never "a Goth", it's obviously a movement still
close to my heart as I bought The Sisters of Mercy, Floodland
on cd last week, (and boy does it still sound good). And I
liked a range of bands from that era, including Bauhaus, The
Mission and the Fields of Nephilim. The latter being a band
with a close association to NFD through bassist Tony Pettitt,
one of the Nephilim's founding members. It'll come as no
surprise then, that is prime Nephilim, even down to Bob
White's vocals being a dead ringer for a certain Mr McCoy's.
And the band will probably not like this, but this song would
fit in quite nicely with the Carl McCoy/FoTN album Mourning
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Sun, and in particular, Straight To The Light.
On the promo copy I have, there are two versions of When The
Sun Dies. A standard 3.50 version and an extended "Extreme
Beat Mix" version which clocks in at 8.32. The remix is a
cross between a rave, an Ibiza nightclub and Jean Michel Jarre.
Both versions are superb and this serves as a nice taster for
their Deeper Visions album, which is due on April 28th.
www.nfd.web.com |
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| Putrid Inbred - Scavenger
(Shiver Records) Review by
Steve Green |
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Without wishing to offend a whole nation, there
aren't half some sick fuckers in Belgium. And just to prove my point, may
I introduce to you, Putrid Inbred. Putrid Inbred ply a nice line in groove
laden Death metal, with a bit of Grind thrown in for fun... and their
subject matter of choice, is eating things. And while that doesn't sound
that extreme, when you realise that it's mainly about body parts and
faeces, you may change your mind. But then again, Eat Shit is such a cool
song to sing/shout along to, you can really have any cause for complaint,
can you? The dual vocal attack, one gutteral, one high-pitched, hurl this
one along, with the never-ending drum barrage and the chorus
is a classic in the making. Just
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don't sing along out loud while you are on the bus!
Do you really need me to "dissect" this one for you? Just look at the song
titles: Graveyard Groceries, I Eat Dead People, Stillborn Stew,
Disembowling (sic) and the deliciously titled, Clit Kebab. That tells you
everything you need to know about this album. It's a good blast-a-thon and
damn good fun too, although it would have been even better if the lyrics
had been included.
www.myspace.com/putridinbred |
www.putridinbred.be |
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Sourvein - Ghetto Angel
(This Dark Reign) By: Dave Schalek |
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The music
presented on “Ghetto Angel” immediately labels Sourvein as
Eyehategod clones, pure and simple. This is, of course, not
necessarily a bad thing as, for example, Weedeater have been
labeled as such and have managed to carve their own identity.
Not surprisingly, Sourvein is from Wilmington, North Carolina
and features none other than “Dixie” Dave Collins himself as
well as alumni from Buzzov*en and others (all of these
Southern sludge bands are buddies, anyway).
Still, there’s not much to differentiate Sourvein from
Eyehategod on “Ghetto Angel”, Sourvein’s second EP after the
course of ten years with two prior full-lengths and a number |
of splits under their collective belts (I must say that I’m
not familiar with the band’s prior output). The four songs
present here drip with the usual heroin-drenched riffs, slow
to mid-paced tempo, and tortured screams that are a carbon
copy of Mike Williams from Eyehategod fame. However, given the
veterans present in Sourvein’s line-up, the songs are all good
examples of the genre although there’s certainly nothing
original going on here.
Other than that, what else is there to say? If you like
Eyehategod, you’ll like Sourvein. If not, you won’t! Simple as
that.
www.devildollrecords.com/DDR/TDR/frames.php |
www.myspace.com/sourvein13 |
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The Devil And The Sea -
Heart and Spine (Acerbic Noise Development)
Review by Metal Mark |
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Acerbic Noise Development seems to be quickly developing into
one of the top labels for cranking out consistently good and
oftentimes unique acts. Louisiana’s The Devil And The Sea fall
into that mold on this their debut album. Playing basic
rhythms without being overly repetitious or dull is a feat for
any band, but these guys seem to be rooted in that style and
they come fairly close to perfecting it. They know when to
play fuzzy, slow as can be riffs and they know exactly when to
kick it up a notch and change gears. The sound is primarily
stoner rock mixed with doom metal yet this band lean away from
the typical “just sound like Sabbath” approach that too many
bands stick to. Instead they have elements that also |
remind me of Sleep, YOB and others plus they bring some of
their own ideas to each and every track here. The vocals
alternate between growls, screams and other styles that fall
in between those two categories. What I like most about this
album is that the band does not in anyway feel obligated to do
something just because that’s how everyone else in this style
does things. This style allows them to erupt at different
stages of songs, start the vocals well into a song and start a
song way differently than you would expect. They are in
control and they know it and this allows them to lead us
around, but we are glad for this journey because it’s a trip
then we have not all taken before. The Devil And The Sea have
found a method of delivering music that manages to be both
comfortable and alarming and then go back and forth between
the two. A very interesting release from these newcomers.
www.myspace.com/devilandthesea |
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Witchsmeller Pursuivant - Manifest of
Evil (Shiver Records) Review by Chris Davison |
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So, I get this album, and obviously the first thing I do is try and think
where they got their (hilarious) band name from! My first guess was from
the Neil Gaiman / Terry Pratchett novel “Good Omens” - a particular
personal favourite – but no, I was wrong. Turns out it's from Blackadder,
and I should have known better. The second thing I did was following
hearing a couple of songs, start looking to see just when this was first
released. Confused? Allow me to explain...
Witchfinder Pursuivant (hereafter referred to as WP for purposes of me
having to type loads of letters) take influence from a bygone
age. Indeed, they sound like bands used to |
when there wasn't any sub-genre references or forum flame wars
over just what new kind of post-post-whatever-core / black
metal hybridisations there are. No, WP are the sound of one
thing, and one thing only – METAL.
The last time I heard a band having such obvious fun in so pure an
endeavour, was when I saw a reformed Avenger at the Hard Rock Hell
festival last year. Like them, this is pure NWOBHM goodness distilled into
its purest form: there are magnificent riffs that bring to mind such
classic bands as Wytchfynde and Blitzkrieg, soaring, rousing vocals that
are equal parts Witchfinder General and Reverend Bizarre, and a rhythm
section that has spent many a long hour, I wouldn't wonder, pondering
Killers and Iron Maiden. Having heard just how authentically METAL this
sounded, I could only assume that this was originally released in 1981,
and had laid on the shelves gathering dust somewhere; it was to my
considerable pleasure that I realised that WP were a current band, and
furthermore a relatively young one at that!
In the grand tradition of METAL, back in the days when you know, albums
came on vinyl (note to most web readers: ask your folks), this comes with
a meagre eight tracks, and contains such head-banging wonders as “Heavy as
Fuck” and “Disciple of Death”. Those of us who don't need to be constantly
bludgeoned with the latest in extremity will find plenty here to bring a
smile to the face and a beer to the fist. For those of you who don't “get”
Witchfinder Pursuivant, you don't get “metal” either. Death to posers!
www.shiver-records.com |
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