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Animus Mortis - Atrabilis
(Debemur Morti Productions) Review by Crin |
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Black Metal from Chile that crawls into your head like a blood
blenching virus. The all too familiar eerie intro leads us to
the first track, Hosannas from the Depths, and from this
initial epic guitar arrangements and thick production, it is
apparent this band are rather special. Having collated their
Blackened muse in a scene severed from the contaminated
European scenes, one can absorb a certain freshness leaking
from the fuzz laden music. Fast, rolling snares batter the
atmosphere, flesh ripping vocals gnaw at the skin. This is all
familiar extreme metal bravado, but to make the aural menace
enjoyable is an art that not all bands can employ. Melody and
that uplifting guitar riff is all here. Harsh abrasive
intensity spills out |
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of every song. The blasting speed seems to wither before a
wall of guitars that twist and devour through magnificent
heavy metal moments. The seven tracks just administer a head
pummelling hunger without pause, without remorse. This is a
merciless Black Metal that eats at the soul and spits the sins
of Hell in the face of Heaven. Where does a band like this fit
into in today’s limitless Black Metal genre? To remain in this
unseen underground is to remain pure. To be plucked from its
icy breast will only destroy its purity. With bands like this
lurking therein, the scene will forever remain alive. If you
like the raging merciless tumult of Marduk and Dark Funeral,
then this more primitive reflection of those acts will enthral
you or lay you to waste.
www.debemur-morti.com |
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Ascension Of The Watchers
- Numinosum (13th Planet/Megaforce) Review by
Steve Green |
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Ascension of the Watchers is the new project of Burton C.
Bell. Backing up Burton's vocals are the keyboard talents of
John Bechdel, who has worked with the likes of Ministry and
Killing Joke, and rounding off the trio is guitarist Edu Mussi.
Guest appearances include Al Jourgensen and the late Paul
Raven, so the line-up for this project is pretty impressive to
say the least. I've never been a Fear Factory fan, but I
already knew that AotW was nothing like the singers day job,
so I took this album on with a completely open mind.
Numinosum is largely an ambient, orchestral based piece of
work, which was recorded at Al Jourgensen's 13th Planet Studio
in El Paso. The opening duo of Ascendant and Evading |
are most welcoming. Ascendant is mechanical in texture and
hints towards a more industrial form of ambience, but Evading
completely bucks that trend and is a wonderfully warm piece of
music, which mixes gentle acoustics and a trip-hop kind of
beat. And I love Bell's soothing vocals on this number.
Residual Presence is a bit of a letdown as although I like the
music, I don't think the vocals fit it that well. Canon For My
Beloved isn't a straightforward listen either. The song does
draw you in though and it does get better with repeated
listens. I still think my initial notes comparing it to "a
drunken, slovenly, albeit mellow, version of Pearl Jam", are
quite amusing. Moonshine is another number I can't really get
my head around as it reminds me of a dreamy version the
Proclaimers!!! Make of that what you will. Thankfully, Mars
Becoming is a lot darker, although the song isn't really that
different than it's predecessor. And the same description
could be used for On The River, and to these ears at least,
this is starting to sound a bit samey. Violet Morning breaks
up the monotony with it's melancholic tones, but truth be
told, it's not a song to set the world alight and I'm
beginning to feel that this album is about to die on its ass.
Like Falling Snow draws you in like the albums earlier
material and a stunning ambient cover of Simon and Garfunkel's
Sounds Of Silence is pure genius, so things are looking up
once again. Bringing up the rear is the colossal Quintessence,
that clocks in at a weighty 16 minutes 29 seconds. It's a
simple number with piano/keyboards idling over a rattling
train sample. And like all good ambient music, it's not
complicated and it simply goes with the flow. Unfortunately,
the final five minutes is just static, with no music being
played at all, bar a quirky bit at the end. And that just
about sums this album up. There's a lot of wastage on this
disc. Numinosum is a very long album, with a running time of
72 minutes. Personally I'd cut off about a third of that and
would only have included, what I consider, the better songs.
When this album is good, the quality is exceptional.
Unfortunately the quality isn't consistent throughout. If they
can write a whole album that matches the quality of Evading,
then it'll be phenomenal. And I hope to hear that on their
next release.
www.ascensionofthewatchers.com |
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Dark Funeral - Attera
Orbis Terrarum Part I- DVD (Regain Records) By:
Dave Schalek |
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Dark Funeral’s monstrous DVD from last year, “Attera Orbis
Terrarum” from Regain Records, winds its way into my mailbox
and showcases Dark Funeral’s professionally slick, all out
assault of fast black metal with three full concerts of
professional quality plus tons of extras. Coming in on two
DVDs with a total running time of over three and one half
hours, just about everything that a Dark Funeral fanatic could
possibly want is featured here.
The first disc consists of two concerts. First, filmed with
seven cameras on a large stage is a 42 minute concert from
Katowice, Poland. The concert was filmed as part of the
Metalmania Festival in March of 2005, and precedes the release
of Dark Funeral’s last full-length, “Attera Totus Sanctus”, by
six months. Concentrating heavily upon “Diabolis Interium”,
this show features eleven tracks (includes an intro) and
crystal clear, mistake-free sound. What is lacking however is
a bit of power in the mix and a somewhat lack of |
intimacy with a large stage and almost no views of the crowd.
Next up on the disc is a longer concert (67 minutes) from
March 5, 2006 from Tilburg, The Netherlands. Filmed in a more
intimate setting on a smaller stage with four cameras, this is
a much better show with a deep, powerful sound, close-ups with
some black and white effects, and plenty of shots of the
crowd. A longer set allows Dark Funeral to hit highlights
throughout their career, although the focus is on “Attera
Totus Sanctus”. Excellent show.
Switching over to the second disc, first up is a concert from
Paris filmed less than two weeks after the Tilburg show and
features an identical set list. Filmed on a larger stage with
only three cameras and a somewhat grainier picture, although
showcasing Dark Funeral’s massive live presence, the concert
offers little beyond what has already been seen from the
Tilburg show. In addition, one of the extras is yet another
video of “Atrum Regina”, shot on the same tour.
Beyond the Tilburg show, what interested me the most about
“Attera Orbis Terrarum” are the 11 clips of fan footage shot
from 1994-1997. Featuring Themgoroth, most noteworthy of these
shots is footage of “My Dark Desires” from Dark Funeral’s very
first show from Oslo, Norway in 1994, as well as a great cover
of “Equimanthorn” from a show in Vasteras, Sweden in 1996.
Naturally, these clips are of varying quality, but all are
listenable and interesting to watch for the various stage
dressings, and seeing Dark Funeral begin to progress to a
professional act. Seeing some of the clips that looked as if
they were filmed in basements with various props such as
candles, hearths, candelabra, and so forth was great,
considering that nowadays you’ll only get to see the top acts
in a professional setting.
Overall, as you would expect, this is a slick offering from
Dark Funeral that highlights the band’s monstrous live act.
Although overly long, exhausting, and somewhat repetitive,
“Attera Orbis Terrarum” is certainly worth the expense for the
Tilburg show and the fan footage.
www.darkfuneral.se |
www.regainrecords.com |
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Impaled - The Last Gasp
(Willowtip Records) Review by Jesse
Ketman |
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I
love death metal. Only in the last few years have my ears been
trained to appreciate the blinding speed and crushing
brutality of this genre, and their northern black counterpart,
truly have to offer. That being said, one of my favorite death
metal acts of last few years has been Aborted. Slaughter and
Apparatus was absolutely brilliant, and it was upon playing
that album for a friend that I was led onto the existence of
Impaled. Instantly impressed by the guitar work and speed, I
picked up the new album the next day. One of the best
decisions I’ve made lately, let me tell you (forget that my
latest decisions have involved mushrooms, ATV’s, and a bad
break-up); The Last Gasp represents a very thrashy form |
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of death metal, as opposed to the all out spine-crush of
Aborted and Cannibal Corpse. It’s also blessedly free of any
ill-advised metalcore elements, whose influence is currently
holding back some really talented bands (Carnal Forge,
Children of Bodom, In Flames; take your pick, really). This is
true death, true thrash, and true filth; The Last Gasp is for
the real metal fan. In fact, if your idea of extremity
involves anything with eyeliner, just shut the fuck up, sit
down, and Impale your fragile discography. True death and/or
thrash fans, you’ve probably known about this band longer than
I. Just in case though, let me reiterate that this deranged
hybrid of metal madness is well worth the bucks, and will be
shredding your stereo for a long time to come.
www.impaled.info |
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Nastrond - Muspellz Synir
(Debemur Morti Productions) Review by Crin |
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Sweden, home to the Gothenburg Death sound, home to the Black
Metal strain that bore the mighty Dark Funeral and Marduk,
home to the father of Viking Metal, Bathory. This is a land
teaming with cult acts, classic acts and innumerable other
acts of various extreme denominations. Nastrond are aching
occult Black Metal hell, emerging from the nascent underground
with this fourth long player draped in a suffocating dread.
This band have been around since 1993, and are a greatly
respected act in the genre by those who understand the music’s
evolution. It may as well be 1993, as the sound here is just
as obscure, just as ice bound in tone and texture. From the
first raw guitar strums of The Gallow Reveals, the |
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scene is set for some low fi aural primitivism reeking of a
band who remain in every way true to their underground
credentials. The Black Metal stench emitted from the rumbling
guitar distortion and muffled percussion seduces the air with
a darkly sadistic perversion. The whole musical experience is
not in any way new. Here resides that smoking hellish
reflection of cold, uneasy Black Metal that has none of the
immediacy of melody or warmth. This is pure and simple
menacing Black Metal. Fuck off and die, as they say.
www.debemur-morti.com |
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Nation Beyond - The
Aftermath Odyssey (Sensory) By: Joe Florez |
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This disc totally came out of nowhere for me. This is the
debut from a humongous six piece Swedish metal group. Not
knowing what to expect, I read the noticeable sticker slapped
on the face of the digi-pak and it said for fans of Evergrey,
Savatage and Queensryche. Oh boy, am I wetting my pants. So, I
start out by reading the bio and it says that it’s a concept
album. Woah! This is a very ballsy move for the simple fact
that no one makes their debut disc an epic one. Not even
artists like Ryche, Rush, Yes and so forth started out like
that. They eased their way into the scene and waited a few
years before doing so, but ok. The first two so called tracks
are intros of sorts. “The End” is a collage of clips from U.S. |
president George Bush, Hitler and the news. There is also
minor narration as well. The music underlying this is pretty
much atmospheric with string arrangements and some military
march like drumming. This part takes up three minutes and then
we move on to “A Rainy Day In Hell” which is sort of haunting
with some chants and it gets sort of epic. Nielz’s vocals here
come off as Tomas England (Evergrey) due to the fact that they
are passionate. Basically, the story is slowly unfolded here
in singing form. Again, nothing to get excited yet about.
After five minutes of this, it’s like when the hell is this
gonna’ kick in. Bam! “In The Ashes” is in your face with
staccato riffs and some serious double bass drumming. What the
hell, just when the song is picking up momentum, it slows down
again for Nielz to sing and more string arrangements occur,
but alas our asses get kicked and damn can this man sing. Do
not mistake for a moment that this is an Evergrey rip off
cause it ain’t. The lung work has a style of it’s own and the
music is composed to perfection. Very dramatic. We are cooking
with gas here. “The Wanderer” has the perfect combination of
power, emotion and conviction. You just feel it in your heart
and veins. This is metal done right with the right amount of
speed, classical composing and anything else you can think of.
As we get to the middle of the disc, it’s “Soulmates” where a
shiver was sent down my spine. This is one hell of a ballad
that I wasn’t expecting on here. The music can bring an
absolute tear to your eye. There’s wonderful acoustic guitar
work at play here as well as more string arrangements. The
back and forth signing between male and female is just
beautiful. It could be compared to Tom and his wife Karina in
the sense that it’s done romantically and wonderfully, but it
has their own signature style. I was just blown away by this.
Perhaps my fav track on the whole damn thing. By the end of
this disc, I was just absolutely floored by what I just heard.
This was a major undertaking and they succeeded with flying
colors. Grant it, I would deduct a few points for the
elongated intro, but afterwards it’s all good. Perhaps the
intro should have been explained in the book rather than on
disc that way you can give us more music, but that’s just me.
It took me two listens to get it, but once I was in the groove
of things it was smooth sailing. Metal heads will be
salivating over this one for sure. Basically, the sticker was
right for once. If you like concept albums like Operation
Mindcrime…get it! If you like your music dark and listen to a
singer that can give you goosebumps…get it! If you like your
concept records to be very epic and movie soundtrack like as
in Savatage’s The Wake Of Magellan or Dead Winter Dead…get it!
You won’t be disappointed. The guys have done a knockout job
here, but the job for Nation Beyond will only be harder next
time cause they set the bar for themselves really high. The
songs that will be crafted for round two will have to be
tremendous. This thing deserves to be bought and not
downloaded in any way possible. There is a huge booklet and
it’s a digi. Well, here’s another disc going into the top five
of the year.
www.lasersedgegroup.com |
www.nationbeyond.com |
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Sinew - The Beauty of
Contrast (Alveran Records) Review by Luke Goaman-Dodson |
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‘Commercial’ is the word that springs to mind upon hearing
this release by Germany’s “Cinemascopic Alternative Rock” band
Sinew. According to themselves, Sinew are influenced heavily
by Dredg, Tool, and Muse, placing them on the shelf marked
“vaguely proggish-indie-metal” that is getting increasingly
well-stocked by bands wishing to emulate their forebears in
this field. I figured I’d give these lads the benefit of the
doubt, being pretty big on Tool, if not so much on the other
two.
Sadly, the Tool influence is entirely superficial, with Sinew
copying only the most basic elements of their sound. Vocalist
Sascha Junker sounds kind of like Michael Kiske, if the |
Helloween ex-frontman were to develop a taste for anthemic
alterna-pop-rock bands, and their often female listeners (the
latter being perhaps more forgivable). This bizarre (and
uniformly rubbish) combination of cheesy metal and
angst-ridden alterna-rock is inexplicably common these days,
although thankfully Sinew do not quite descend to the level of
Dream Theatre’s abysmal ‘tribute’ to overblown indie-popsters
Muse on 2005’s Octivarium. A certain ‘post-hardcore’ (read:
emo) influence is detectable, with Junker’s whiney-mode/screamy-mode
singing, and the slick, epic-sounding MTV riffs.
An attempt at social commentary is made on ‘Dystopia’, with
the usual targets of greed, poverty, and repression being
uncompromisingly condemned with all the bleeding-heart fervour
of Phil Collins. In other words, a fairly generic song,
musically and lyrically, that criticises some very obvious and
easy targets without being offensive to anyone except a
cynical bastard like me.
This is, ultimately, a bland slice of pop-rock that your mum
will probably like (mine did). Sinew will probably garner a
favourable reception from the legions of Kerrang and Scuzz
kids (and of course their mums) out there, but should be
avoided by all others.
www.myspace.com/sinewmusic |
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Steel Attack - Carpe
DiEnd (Massacre) Review by Steve Green |
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I'm not really a Power Metal fan, although I do like the
occasional band from the genre. I'm more of a traditionalist,
preferring instead, the more straight ahead values of good old
Heavy Metal. With that in mind, I really like this album, the
6th, from Sweden's Steel Attack.
As musical boundaries blur into one, this isn't your typical
galloping opus, featuring tight trousered vocals that dwell
upon the latest tale of sword and sorcery. Ronny Hemlin does
possess a higher range than most and the choruses could be
associated with certain Power Metal luminaries, mainly of the
Germanic persuasion, yet, this will definitely appeal to a |
wider range of music fans than your average Power Metal fan.
I'm not acquainted with their back catalogue, so this may be
down to producer Mike Wead (of Mercyful Fate/King Diamond) but
there's a certain level of atmosphere, as you'd find in King
Diamond's music, that will appeal to your average Metalhead
and that feeling, keeps this from being pigeonholed.
This is a highly polished album that I think will appeal to
fans of Power Metal, (Helloween and Gamma Ray) Heavy Metal,
even to fans of King Diamond and the likes of Dio and
Queensryche. I think the only drawback for some, will be the
lack of pace, as the album does tend to be stuck in the lower
gears. And that lack of pace does prevent this album from
producing the knockout blow that I'm sure Steel Attack are
capable of delivering.
www.steelattack.com |
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Tao Menizoo - So Blind
(Self-released) Review by Luke Goaman-Dodson |
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I
must admit to having never heard of this band before, and
judging by this sophomore effort, their levels of recognition
are no reflection on the quality of their music. Tao Menizoo
play progressive cyber-thrash, calling to mind the likes of
Voivod, Meshuggah, and Red Harvest, the latter a personal
favourite. With ‘So Blind’, they display the raw musical skill
required for this genre without ever showing off, and the
right variation between brutality, melody, and technicality.
Pink Floyd-style melodies and effects interact with industrial
textures and moments of thrashing intensity. At certain points
there is a Justin Broadrick quality to the vocals, which are
unfortunately ridiculously low in the mix. This highlights the |
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only real flaw with this album – the production. Alright, it’s
self-produced, so I’ve gotta give them some credit, but it’s
still extremely poor. The guitars are muddy where they should
sound sharp and mechanical, and the whole album sounds sloppy
and ineffectual, which it really shouldn’t considering the
bands obvious talent. The only aspect of the mix that I liked
was the fact that the bass was audible, a rarity in metal
generally. There really are no glaringly weak tracks on this
album, but standout moments include ‘My Funeral’, ‘Not Even
God’ and the punishing ‘Obey’. A recommended release from a
band which I’ll definitely keep an eye in future. Hopefully,
they will shell out on a professional producer next time…
www.taomenizoo.com |
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Thieves and Liars - When
Dreams Become Reality (Facedown) Review by Metal
Mark |
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For some reason I always tend to frown whenever I find out a
band has done a concept album unless it's King Diamond. With
King Diamond I know by "concept" he means "bad horror story"
so doing this format doesn't take away from the music, but for
many other bands sticking to a concept often turns out to be a
distraction. I guess the hard part is getting a balance
between the music and the story. San Diego based Thieves and
Liars have done a concept album about the story of Joseph.
Perhaps a major key to doing a good concept album is to
be comfortable with the story you are telling. That sounds
simple enough in theory, but I think too many bands tackle
lofty ideas and it can come off as stiff |
or dull. I think these guys are very much in touch with their
topic and they come across as pretty good storytellers.
Nothing is forced and they take their time and really build up
their material which is a sign of good storyteller. The music
has strong influences from Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and even
AC/DC on a pair of tracks. There isn't much of a blending of
influences as each song seems to just sound like one of those
and then the next track would only sound like one other band.
Now they toss in their own ideas as well such as the strong
vocals and they are a little heavier and play a little faster
than the bands that influenced them. There were parts here and
there where they rambled little, but generally it's a very
promising effort and I seem to like a little more each time I
listen to it.
www.myspace.com/weareallthievesandliars
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