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Machinery - The Passing
(Regain Records) Review by Strawb |
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“Are we sitting quietly children? Then I will begin. From the
wonderful city of Stockholm in the country of Sweden these are
a five piece music combo who are known by the name of
Machinery. They have produced one previous album prior to this
which I now play for you. It is called The Passing, and was
recorded in Black Lounge Studio with Jonas Kjellgren (Scar
Symmetry))”
I press the play button and from the speakers erupts a wall of
sound which seems almost physical in its intensity. Internal
organs display a desire to be anything but internal as the
bass powers through the body. These boys have pressed the
pedal to the metal and bolted |
it in place there, no soft shit on this one, trust me here.
The band describe themselves as “A hybrid between Death,
black, thrash and heavy-metal; Imagine combining a classic
thrash band with a dose of heavy metal, stirred with some
progressive elements and flavoured with a touch of Norwegian
black metal” which may sound like a schizophrenic suffering an
identity crisis but is anything but, it states where the band
have evolved to from their previous heavy metal origins. The
nine tracks available here therefore display all of the
aforementioned and combinations of them, in a way that I
liked. At times the vocals push to the limits of vomit that I
will endure, but then the style changes to one I find much
more acceptable. The drums of Johan Westman I will single out for particular praise, when he hits
the skins, you know they are taking a beating, and most of the
songs are driven along dictated by the drums. During a recent
intense gym period I had my best workout listening primarily
to this album, it provided the basis for intensity both in
power and pace. It’s on the MP3 player and will be played
frequently.
Internet for a taster at
http://machinery.se |
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Mar De Grises - Draining The Waterheart (Firebox)
Review by Steve Green |
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"The music of Mar de Grises invites to a desolate trip through the endless
movement of our lives... " states the (slightly) broken English on
the biog. Except that I don't think of
this music as at all desolate. Sure, it's melancholic, it's a tad dreamy,
at times it's a little gloomy, but it is far from desolate, to these ears
anyway. I think Draining The Waterheart is a beautiful album. If you want
to give them a pigeonhole, then this is Death/Doom. Growled vocals, gentle
piano sitting comfortable alongside plodding rhythms and majestic weaving
guitars. Yep, you've heard this kind of description before, but I really
love what Mar De Grises are creating here. Sure the ingredients are all of
the usual suspects, but man, you |
can't falsify real emotion, and that's what great about this
album. You can really feel the music. The near eleven minute
epic "Kilómetros de nada" is utterly mesmerizing, while the
song title of the year, "Deep-seeded hope avant-garde" is more uplifting,
although it's still a captivating piece of music. And every track on this
album will captivate you in one way or another. With that in mind, I think
fans of Anathema, more than any others, will really enjoy what's on offer
here.
Hailing from Chile, these guys are another great example of the riches
from the South American underground that need to be tracked down.
Recommended. www.firebox.fi/records/bands_mardegris.html
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My Shameful - Descend (Firedoom)
Review by Steve Green |
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With me, it's normally the case that the more miserable an album is, the
more I like it. And this, the 4th album from My Shameful, is pretty damn
miserable. And while I like what I'm hearing, I'm not exactly blown away
by it, and I've no idea why. This is Doom exactly how I like it.
Inventive, miserable, atmospheric and slow and ponderous, but I'm not
getting past the "this is ok" stage. Trying hard to work out why myself
and My Shameful aren't clicking in a orgiastic way is a tough one. I'm
going to say that it's the vocals as Sami Rautio isn't performing his
vocals in a standard format, or maybe he is and his voice just isn't to my
tastes. Who knows?. There are plenty of layers and differing styles
(whispers, growls, |
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semi-spoken etc...) and I think, to be honest, they aren't
creating much of a natural flow. Musically, I'm really
enjoying it. Weeping guitars, stark desolate atmospheres, suicidally slow drums and
lashings of misery. So somewhere down the line, I'm just not completely at
home with this baby. I guess you can't win them all. As always, liking
something is all about personal taste, so check out My Shameful at:
www.myshameful.com |
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| Nachtmystium - Assassins: Black Meddle Part I
(Century Media Records)
By: Dave Schalek |
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Simply put, you’re either going to go apeshit for the latest
from Azentrius (or Blake Judd, as may be more appropriate
nowadays), or you’ll hate it. Either way, one of the year’s
most eagerly anticipated releases is going to evoke a strong
reaction from the overall, splintered metal community.
Finally, the latest from Chicago’s premier act, Nachtmystium,
arrives in the form of “Assassins: Black Meddle Part I”,
released on giant Century Media Records.
Blake Judd and company have now moved well beyond their “ kvlt”,
Burzum/ Darkthrone- inspired black metal roots and now could
only loosely be considered to be connected to the genre.
Indeed, a much more apt description of “Assassins…” would be
dark, |
psychedelic metal that nominally arises from a black metal
base. Those of you that are familiar with Nachtmystium
would note that Judd’s fascination with Pink Floyd began to
creep into his black metal art with the fix-up album of
“Eulogy IV” (maybe even earlier) awhile back. That trend
continued with “Instinct: Decay” and now becomes most
prominent in “Assassins…”, an album that really nails some of
Pink Floyd’s more up tempo, rawer moments from albums such as “More”,
(which was a movie soundtrack scored by Pink Floyd in 1969) as well as the passive psychedelics of later albums.
Sure, there are some all out blasts here, courtesy of Tony Laureano, but the main focus of “Assassins…” very quickly
becomes some, huge, rolling, psychedelic riffs with plenty of
effects and a vocal delivery from Judd that eerily sounds like
Roger Waters on “The Nile Song”. In fact, that song in
particular seems to have had more than an effect on Judd’s
songwriting, as the metal presented here has the same up
tempo, dark, psychedelic feel.
Not all of the songs on “Assassins…” are up tempo however, as
the album closes with an acoustical and jazz trilogy, once
again heavily influenced by late ‘70s Pink Floyd, with the
dreamlike ambience of “Seasick” (parts I-III). Definitely not
very metallic, not to mention black metallic, but
exceptionally well done once again.
Not many albums are released that I would call transformative,
the last one being “Two Hunters” by Wolves In The Throne Room,
and I’m not sure, frankly, if Nachtmystium’s “Assassins…” has
managed to, or will, attain that status. However, “Assassins…”
is a mind bending experience that should appeal to just about
everyone appreciative of excellent music, regardless as to
whether a few choose to condemn Nachtmystium for straying too
far from their “kvlt” roots. Album of the year? We’ll see;
nonetheless, buy or die.
www.battlekommand.com
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Saratan - The Cult Of
Vermin (My Kingdom Music) Review by Strawb |
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I have previously stated that a couple of years ago I visited
Krakow, Poland. Not sure if I mentioned that I did so in
February, and experienced a recorded temperature of minus 24
degrees. The effect that such temperatures have is to ensure
regular visitations to licensed premises, and this proved to
be a good thing as we discovered a fine metal bar, in fact the
same one where Saratan state they played their debut concert
in 2005. Having formed in 2003, they have had changed in
personnel, both voluntary and enforced, the latter being due
to the unfortunate death of the then member Staszek Chorazki
in a car crash. A demo CD has proceeded this, their debut full
length offering. |
The Cult Of Vermin is thrash as we know it, twelve tracks of
fast, driven twin guitar, Bass and drum vocal overtoned
cataclysm. None of the tracks reach the five minute mark, some
cannot scrape as far as two. It passes my vomit metal test
with ease, at some points the vocals are almost clear. The
subject matter is pretty standard fare, but the English is
good, however I did need the lyrics sheet. Mrs S just didn’t
get it and wanted something else played, however a more
relevant opinion is that of fellow reviewer Chris Davison, my
guru on all things thrash, who has heard it and likes it. We
don’t do the marks out of ten thing on this site, but if it
was our thing on current thinking TCOV would be up there,
allowing for the debut album angle and influenced by my
affinity for things Polish. Well worth a listen.
The link is to the English version of the website, to be found
at
http://saratan.metal.pl/index.php?lang=en |
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Speirling - The Piper
(Unholy Design) Review by Crin |
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Featuring a member of fellow English act Ethernal. The music
here is less darkly inspired and more rough edged Heavy Metal
in presentation. Like a thrashing mid eighties style
splintering into an early Burzum minimalism. Add a touch of
Celtic Frost and a dab of low fi dynamics and what you get is
a familiar sound that offers little to the imagination. . The
overall texture is of the ‘heard it all before’ variety and
that’s what plunges the whole musical presentation into the
realms of the average. Black Metal is a hugely congested field
of the tried and tested and the unique. Speirling are just
regurgitating what was and not really ruminating the sounds
into anything other than what it originally was. I have played |
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this a few times and although you get more acclimatized to the
aural angst, there is still not enough individuality to lift
the music out of the ordinary. The only saving element is the
hypnotic and Burzum like ambience of Into the Blazing Abyss.
The ethereal synth work will enthral you into a trance of
titans. After enduring the previous five tracks of lumbering
orthodox rough and drip dry metal, this one track alone
emerges as a stroke of wonderful creative flair and certainly
allows the release to get a second airing. Overall this isn’t
a bad release, it just offers little excitement and will
ultimately drown in the sea of likewise acts that will suffer
the same fate. I suppose its typically English in that it
makes its own rules and goes from there. I just cant go with
it….
www.unholydesign.com |
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Thy Final Pain - Epitaph
(Self Release) review by Sam Thomas |
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One of the best things about working for Live4metal is the
opportunity it offers to hear bands at the very beginning of
their careers. OK, that’s a two-edged sword: it does sometimes
mean you get some absolute shite from bands that clearly have
no future, but that’s another story. Thy Final Pain are
(currently) unsigned, but have still managed to produce
fifty-one minutes of professional metal. And the packaging,
artwork, etc is superb! As far as presentation goes (and don’t
knock it – it can make the difference between a demo being
thrown away or being grasped eagerly and inserted immediately
into the nearest CD player) these Germans have got it
completely sussed. Nice cover, legible name, |
track titles plus little fold-out with some band info and pix.
And then you get to hear the music…
Thy Final Pain is a band formed by two former members of
Debauchery, Simon Dorn and Marc Jüttner. They have set out to
produce “a massive rhythmic death metal penetration” (sorry,
but I’m off in the land of smutty thoughts with that one) and
to play old-school death metal in a new way. “Epitaph” is kind
of a concept album, with all the songs being about “the
ultimate and final pain which is to be felt within the last
moments of life, where one will be confronted with the
weakness and ambivalence of one’s lifework”. Mmm, nice
thought.
Musically, I have to agree that this is not too far removed
from old-school death metal. There’s definitely an echo of
Kataklysm here, something to do with the combination of the
heaviness of the music coupled with the intelligence and
content of the lyrics. The whole CD just doesn’t sound, or
feel, like a demo or indeed a debut album. If I’d been given
this blind, I would have guessed that it was a third or fourth
album from a band that I just hadn’t come across yet – it is
quite simply that accomplished. The guys are sufficiently
talented (and astute) to be able to have interludes where they
let the music talk for them, rather than need to fill every
second with vocals. The only slight let-down is occasionally
to be heard in the drumming, but I think that’s more because
they’ve decided that they don’t want constant blastbeats and
aren’t quite so sure what to replace them with, so you get
some not-so-inspired whacking at the skins. But this is really
a very, very minor point.
“Epitaph” is a release which Thy Final Pain can undoubtedly be
proud of: it’s certainly among the best self-releases (and
hopefully it will find a label) that I’ve heard. It’s a hard
road to get started, musically, and any band this talented
deserve all the support they can get.
www.thy-final-pain.com |
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