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A Thousand Knives Of Fire
- Last Train To Scornsville (Small Stone) Review
by Metal Mark |
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Going into this album, these guys obviously knew they were
going to separate the styles on the album so they list a Side
1 and Side 2 to let us know. That’s very polite of them but we
listeners are mostly educated enough to figure out the
difference between the slightly southern rawk songs of side
one and the darker, heavier tracks of side two. Both sides are
indeed different, but they are linked by the common bond of
being mediocre. This was unfortunately one of the more bland
stoner albums I have heard in some time, possibly the weakest
one I have since the last Bongzilla stunk up my stereo. The
vocals sound tired and strained, the music has a few hooks,
but not enough groove or grit to every really get much |
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going. They come dangerously close and succeed at times in
bringing forth a whole lot of clichés that could be attached
to the stoner rock genre. One of the cool aspects about this
genre is that it is open enough that bands can bring different
emotions to the mix and it will still work. A Thousand Knives
Of Fire have some idea of the shell of this style of music,
but they fail to fill it in with fire, emotion or even a whole
lot of interest on their part. Unfortunately for us and them,
the band rode this train down to dullsville. |
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Black Diamond - Mourning For Me (Self Release)
Review by Steve Green |
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This is the first of four self released demo's/MCD's promoted by Club
Inferno via My Kingdom Music, that'll you'll find in this update. Black
Diamond, a female fronted Progressive band from Italy, are by far the
best. By no means a polished act, their rawness and perhaps their naivety,
is their strongest point. The arrangements are just different enough to
give this a higher degree of interest than you'd normally expect. The
male/female vocal partnership ain't nothing new, but Melissa Graziachiara
and Russo Dino work together very well, and Russo's vocal parts are
interesting, to say the least. With Melissa taking centre stage with her
powerful voice, Russo keeps popping up at irregular intervals, |
and the fact it doesn't follow the normal patterns to a duet,
makes this very refreshing. And the overall quality of every
department is well above the norm, with plenty of energy and
passion on display and I can definitely see the band moving
onto a label for their next release.
As you work through the eight songs, it seems as if the band are maturing
with each successive number. By the time I'd reached the final duo of
Funeral Of A Suicide and Lake Of Melancholy, Black Diamond had progressed
into a very classy act. This lot are well worth checking out.
www.myspace.com/bandblackdiamond |
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Dissenter - Furor Arma
Ministrat (Metal Mind) Review by Chris Davison |
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Ok, so I was going to open the review with a gag about being
disinterested in Dissenter, but have subsequently decided not
to because a) it would be as cheesy as you like, b) untrue and
c) I managed to mention it in a knowing, tongue in cheek kind
of way, which probably makes me a massive, smug twat. Metal
Mind are up to their old tricks again, giving a new lease of
life to a Polish gem by re-releasing it to the public at
large.
Dissenter are a Polish brutal death metal outfit, clearly sat
at the more heavy end of the spectrum. Don't you be expecting
any Iron Maiden influences or happy-clappy Gothenburg nonsense
here – this is much more in the vein of Morbid Angel meets
Deicide, in twisted, |
arcane melodies, brain mangling guitar sounds and sheer
abrasive unpleasantness. In fact, lead vocalist and bass
wrangler Garbaty will probably be best known to British and
European audiences alike as having been the vocalist for large
portions of Deicide's “The Stench of Redemption” tour back in
2007. This particular album was originally released way back
in 2005, when it was attached as a freebie to a metal magazine
over there. This is incredible, as this is a grade A piece of
death metal.
Listening to them, I was mostly reminded of Akercocke as a
lazy term of reference, although much less progressive, with a
more straight-ahead, gritted-teeth approach to brutality. The
drums here are in the typical Polish tradition of being better
than anyone else in the world at this genre of music, while
the guitars occasionally stray into black metal territory
through their sheer sharp sound and incredibly rapid riffs, as
evidenced on the opening sections of “Admired Masterpiece”.
The bass is prominent in the effective production, but not too
pronounced to obscure other instruments. Garbaty has a
satisfyingly traditional death metal growl, with plenty of
attack and venom in his tone. Most importantly though,
Dissenter construct songs rather than technical musical wank
sessions, and despite being heavier than pretty much anything
I have listened to this month, still produce memorable tracks
that linger longer than the time it takes to power my stereo
down.
It's good, solid stuff, and the Azagthoth-ian guitar solos,
aural battery drums and hate filled vocals will stay with you
for a long time. Put it this way, if you asked me to choose
between this album and any Hate Eternal album, and I'd put all
my money on the Polish boys any day of the week. Dissenter
blast, but they blast with a plan. Who can ask for more?
www.metalmind.com.pl/index.php?jezyk=en |
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Element - Under The Influence (Self Release)
Review by Steve Green |
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I'm a big fan of Wigan's Element and have followed them through their demo
days, right up to this, their debut album. My only gripe with them in the
past, has been their tendency to sound exactly like Metallica, and
although the best of their demo days are represented here, obviously with
the songs that sound like James Hetfield and Co, their newer material does
show a few signs of a more original direction.
Opener Downfall is straight off of And Justice For All, but with the riff
from Battery, and is a song well known to me. And as much as this does
sound exactly like prime-era Metallica, I still can't knock the band for
their lack of originality as this sounds so damn good. Mind |
Inside sees the pace drop completely and Element go for a
moody Machine Head sound, I say that as Adam Calderbank does a very fine impression of a pissed off Rob Flynn.
I love the time change halfway through the song, and it's the first
indication of how Element have improved upon their songwriting skills. The
title track sees the pace stay in the slow and moody vein, with the
occasional burst of energy and groove thrown in for good measure, before
we are hit with the colossal ten minute Bleed On My Own. This epic, which
is also from the bands demo days, shows the band aren't pandering to any
musical trend and are producing exactly the type of music they want to.
This mixes the groove of Pantera, with the sound of a certain Californian
band circa 1988 and provides the main focal point for the album. It
thrashes, it crushes and it shows just how good a band Element are, and
also why one of the bigger underground labels show snap these guys up
straight away. If I had the money, I'd do just that myself.
Lucidia, is a near on 8 minute instrumental (remind you of anyone?) and it
keeps your attention for the whole duration. Lead guitarist Chow fires
over a great, mellow solo and this album seems to get better with every
listen, and trust me, I've played this baby to death. Forged Existence is a riff hungry beast, that'll keep the
Thrashers happy, while Untold strips everything back to it's basic core,
and reminds me of Pantera's cover of Planet Caravan. Very cool indeed. As
expected, the last track is a thrashier number, but again, there are
plenty of more subtle moments, which just highlight the true class of this
emerging band.
Element are a band that I'm backing to go all the way and I'll be giving
them plenty of coverage on Live 4 Metal in their pursuit of greatness,
because I really believe in their music and I hope this album serves as a
statement of intent for them. Check them out via:
www.myspace.com/elementsound |
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Hesperus Dimension - The
Cyclothymic Panopticon EP (Sèrpènè Hèli Music)
Review by Luke Goaman-Dodson |
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It’s post-black-metal time, so unless you have a tolerance for
long, bizarre words, techno beats, and jazz passages, then you
should probably quit now. Opening track ‘The Axis of Diagram’
immediately draws comparison to Ephel Duath, due to the free
jazz saxophone noodling, but this quickly fades as the music
starts to move towards more of an industrial sound, very close
to Aborym or DHG, with an Ihsahn-style solo briefly included.
The title track is a spoken word number with a carnivalesque
keyboard sound, slightly reminiscent of Arcturus. The final
three tracks get increasingly electronic, the last one
evidently being a remix of the first – though I had to work
that out for myself, as the label helpfully didn’t |
provide a track-listing! Track 4 is laced with elements
breakcore and gabba, while track 5 shifts gears entirely,
being a slow, largely ambient interlude. Bard Faust provides a
spoken word narration on ‘Through Drowsy Daydreams’, which
incorporates a trip-hop influence during the middle segment.
The tracks on this EP show a lot of promise, and I’m keen to
see what this band is capable over a full-length album. All in
all, this is an impressive little release from a band that
I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on in future.
www.myspace.com/hdimension |
www.serpenehelimusic.com |
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Ihsahn - angL
(Candlelight Records) By: Dave Schalek |
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Frankly, reviewing an album from a legendary figure such as
Ihsahn is a difficult task; that is, you either come off as
fawning all over the artist, or you piss off people by daring
to criticize. Screw it, I’m just going with my gut. After the
break up of Emperor, Samoth and Trym headed in one direction
with the awesome death metal assault of Zyklon, while Ihsahn
embarked upon a progressive solo career. Other than past
experiments through Peccatum, the first result of Ihsahn’s
efforts was “The Adversary”, an album that didn’t really catch
my interest (nor did “Prometheus…” for that matter, although
I’d be remiss at this point not to give the album a revisit).
However, “angL” is noticeably a leaner, meaner beast while
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remaining firmly rooted in the progressive extreme, as the
promo material calls the subgenre sort of being invented here.
All of the expert musicianship, technical prowess, and
songwriting abilities of Ihsahn are without question present
on “angL”, an album that will appeal to those looking for
progressive songwriting, technical virtuosity, and even
moments of semi-black metal that hark back to “IX Equilibrium”
and hints of early Dimmu Borgir. Bursts of speed, aggression,
and frenetic riffing are present on “angL” in addition to all
of the progressive touches, such as acoustics, clean vocals,
and a style of songwriting that borders on the orchestral,
that you would expect. As an added bonus, a collaboration
between Mikael Akerfeldt and Ihsahn appears in the form of
“Unhealer” with Akerfeldt supplying the lead vocals. Also
worth noting is the beefed up production, resulting in a
fuller sound than is present on “The Adversary”.
This will undoubtedly sound like heresy to some, but I usually
find myself becoming bored with this genre quickly and I can
only take so much of bands such as Opeth in one sitting before
switching to something else. I still somewhat get that feeling
with Ihsahn’s solo work, but that’s my problem and certainly
not yours. However, Ihsahn does nicely weave into his songs
many different elements and styles such that the album remains
fresh and interesting over the entire course, so much so that
the album will undoubtedly reach a huge audience, not just
those as hangers on from the Emperor days.
Anyone with at least a passing interest in progressive metal,
as well as symphonic black metal as those elements are present
here, would do well to pick up “angL”. Regardless of my
hang-ups with this genre, “angL” comes highly recommended.
www.candlelightrecords.co.uk |
www.ihsahn.com/ |
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Jackal - Black Inside (Self Release)
Review by Steve Green |
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To avoid any confusion, this is not the Jesse James Dupree, chainsaw
wielding "Jackyl", but an 80s influenced Metal band from, you guessed it,
Italy. Unfortunately, while the band may claim to be influenced by the
likes of Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Ozzy Osbourne, Ronnie James Dio etc...
they are severely lacking in just about every department and sound nothing
like the aforementioned bands. This is full of the clichés I would have
run a mile from 25 years ago. This is NWOBHM by numbers, with a vocalist I
have no warmth for whatsoever. In fact, I cannot think of one redeeming
quality to associate with this MCD.
I love pure unadulterated Heavy Metal, it's what kick-started my love for
music and it's still |
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my preferred choice of listening pleasure, which is why I'm
telling you all to stay clear of this release. Sorry, this is
downright awful.
www.myspace.com/jackalband |
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