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Anima - The Daily Grind
(Metal Blade) Review by James Young |
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‘Oh God, another deathcore band’ was the thought that went
through my head when I read the blurb about Germany’s Anima.
However, once you look past the earplugs and general hard-man
attitude (calling us ‘fucking pussies‘ on ‘Behind The Mask’
didn’t help), what we have here is something quite refreshing
and certainly different for the genre. Yes, we have to endure
quite a few brainless breakdowns, but there are many redeeming
features. The vocals of Robert Horn aren’t the ugly
one-dimensional burp that one may expect, but more of a scream
which shows a fair deal of variation. Some of the riffs are
wonderfully catchy, and could quite easily be found in a
melodic death metal album such as |
At The Gates. Another standout feature which occasionally pops
up in the album in ‘Behind The Mask’ and ‘A Wrong Person To
Trust In’ is the use of melodic guitar solos, which serve as a
pleasant way of making the songs sound unique and interesting.
Some passages combine the snare attack of Benjamin Kühnemund
with the fast riffs of Steven Holl and André Steinmann to
create a rigidness which is comparable to The Black Dahlia
Murder. At other times, the fast feet of Kühnemund shine,
which serve to absolutely pummel the listener; the blistering
speeds are used sparingly, but used very effectively in tracks
such as ‘Sitting In The Wardrobe’ and ‘Ravaged By Disease’.
Keeping with the varied nature of this album, the
interchanging and precise nature of some songs, such as ‘The
Daily Grind’, could be that found in a technical death metal
band, separating this lot from your generic deathcore act.
This is what ‘deathcore’ should actually sound like - death
metal meeting metalcore in a violent head-on collision, and
this band shouldn’t be judged on their genre tag alone.
Perhaps it reflects my tastes when I say that my pick of the
songs is ‘Isolated’, a track without a single breakdown, but
it’s easy to ignore such irritations throughout the album, and
in doing so you end up with something that’s rather enjoyable.
Alternatively, if you like breakdowns, you can’t really do
much better than this.
www.myspace.com/animamusic666 |
www.metalblade.de |
www.anima-decedents.de |
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Archaic Revival - Pagan Evolution (Self Release) Review by Steve
Green |
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For a self release, this is a mightily ambitious project. The idea behind
Archaic Revival is for the worlds of Classical and Metal to meet head on
and for the results to be a Metal soundtrack to The Lord Of The Rings. So
after that heady introduction, does it work. Sometimes yes and sometimes
no, is the answer to that.
Addressing the Lord Of Rings Metal soundtrack situation first, I don't
think this album conjures up such images at all, at least they don't in my
twisted mind. For me, Summoning do a much better job and unfortunately, I
don't think Archaic Revival are even singing from the same hymn sheet.
That's not to say I don't like what they've produced here, but if you |
are going to sell this on the tales of LOTR, then it becomes an important
factor, in my opinion. Yes, I think this album has a medieval feel to it
and yes the vocals of Alexandria Clark do hark back to days gone by, but
this isn't music that recreates images of sword and sorcery.
Before I move on to the main bulk of the positives about this album, I
need to touch upon one other flaw. The vocals on here are too one
dimensional. Alexandria tends to follow the melody lines of the music with
very little variation. While she does have an ok voice, her style gets
pretty stale after a short while. But, since the recording of Pagan
Evolution, she has left the band, so I think that problem has been
addressed already.
Ok, by now you may be thinking that this won't be a very positive review,
well you couldn't be more wrong. When you take this album as a whole and
the work that song writer Derek Cvengros has put into it, and on the
budget I'm sure he never had, then you have to treat this album as a major
success. Sure, it's not going to give Therion mainman Christofer Johnsson
sleepless nights about someone stealing his crown, but it might do to in a
year or so. The biggest strength on this album is the song writing and the
whole structure of how the music is put together. As with Therion, Archaic
Revival have a choir and an orchestra, albeit ones that have been created
with the use of synthesisers, but they sound so realistic, that you cannot
tell the difference. And this also applies to the drum sound as until I
read about it, I hadn't even guessed that the drums weren't real. The
quality of the musicianship throughout is exemplary and it's all been
created by one person.
While I'm not 100% positive with my comments, I believe Archaic Revival
are a band to keep an eye on. They now have a full band in place and if
they can build upon what they, or should I say, what Derek has created
here, then there's a good chance that major success will be achieved
sooner, rather than later. To achieve that, I think that they need a label
like Napalm Records or Nuclear Blast to give them the higher profile they
need. In the meantime, check out this album via:
www.archaicrevivalband.com
and www.paganevolution.com
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Automan.ca - Pocket
Change (Unkle Dunk) Review by Metal Mark |
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One of, if not the most influential and copied bands in hard
rock history is without a doubt AC/DC. Many acts have copied
them over the years with various degrees of success. This band
features former Killer Dwarfs drummer turned singer Darrell
Millar at the helm. Well, Automan.ca surprise me with their
subtlety because they tackle a basic straight forward rock
sound a bit differently. Most bands who subscribe to this
style of hard rock tend to hit it fast and tie things up
rather quickly. They guys take their time and milk the grooves
for all they are worth and it’s a gamble, but it works more
times than not. The eight tracks listed here are broken down
and half listed as being “side one” and the other half of |
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course listed as belonging to “side two”. I am not sure if
this was done because they are vinyl enthusiasts or because
they thought the two halves were musically different from one
another. They are not exactly re-inventing the wheel here, but
they do manage to lead us on an enjoyable ride through some
raw and easy to like hard rock tunes. They could have taken a
few more gambles perhaps it does feel a little safe at times.
Yet the major strength of this band is that they can take a
simple song structure and spread it out where it feels very
complete and they manage to sustain their energy through the
entire length of the track. I don’t think this a particularly
easy task, but they seem to have the skill and patience to
pull it off. Automan.ca manage to thrive on the simplicity of
their music rather than be limited by it, the end result is a
very decent album.
www.myspace.com/automanca |
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Bilocate - Sudden Death Syndrome (Self Release) Review by Steve
Green |
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I like a band that bring something a little different to the table.
Bilocate are from Jordan, a Middle Eastern country not exactly known for
its Metal scene in the Western World, and the music on offer is very much
in a Western vein. This is Death/Doom with just the merest hint of an
Arabic flavour.
Bilocate are obviously a band who are not short of confidence. After the
obligatory intro we are served up an atmospheric 17 minute epic in the
form of Blooded Forest. From then on, it's a very accomplished listen.
Bilocate, despite the utter professionalism in everything they do, are
quite an understated band. By that, I mean that their website looks
fabulous, |
this album sounds fantastic, the song writing and performance
levels rival anyone in the same genre as them, yet I'm not
left in total awe by their music. My favourite song on the
album, Ebtehal is another
epic song, clocking in at just under the ten minute mark. The balance
between power and seduction is spot on, the tempo ebbs and flows
beautifully and Bilocate have created a truly wonderful song, brimming
with atmosphere and tension. So why am I still not going crazy over how
good this is? Maybe this album needs more listens for me to really
appreciate how good it is, and unfortunately time is the one thing I don't
have at my disposal right now. So I'm going to persevere with this album
long after my review is written because I still think this is a gem that
is ready to be unearthed.
Bilocate are quite possibly the best band to
come from the Middle East since Israel's Orphaned Land.
www.bilocate.net |
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Gnaw Their Tongues - An
Epiphanic Vomiting Of Blood (Crucial Blast) By:
Dave Schalek |
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If you took my pseudo-advice and went out last year and
snatched up the latest releases from Diagnose: Lebensgefahr
and Stalaagh, boy, have I got a “band” for you! The horrific,
and quite aptly named, Gnaw Their Tongues, a one man project
from the Netherlands, absolutely vomits forth “An Epiphanic
Vomiting Of Blood”, the latest full-length from this
surprisingly prolific outfit.
Released on Crucial Blast Records, “An Epiphanic Vomiting Of
Blood” is a cacophonous wall of blackened noise with a
surprising amount of variety, thereby giving Gnaw Their
Tongues a huge advantage over the virtually unlistenable,
deranged howls from Diagnose: |
Lebensgefahr and Stalaagh, two obvious comparisons. Cascading
bass, dissonant percussion sort of reminiscent of Blut Aus
Nord, muted screams and howls interspersed with some chants
and operatic female vocals, some spoken word samples, and
even, dare I say it, moments of actual music with some melodic
keyboard work. In short, unlike Diagnose: Lebensgefahr and
Stalaagh, Gnaw Their Tongues’ take on the genre is a bit all
over the place and is more than a little hard to describe. Add
to the mix all sorts of weird electronic effects such as a low
level harmonic buzz that seems to go on and on, yet you don’t
really notice it. Hell, there’s even a Theremin that make an
appearance or two. I can’t imagine what all of this
caterwauling would do to someone on strong hallucinogens (not
recommended).
As stated before, is a release like this any good, considering
that to use the word “music” to describe Gnaw Their Tongues is
problematic at best? Well, that’s for you to decide. For what
it is, though, “An Epiphanic Vomiting Of Blood” is worth a
listen.
www.myspace.com/gnawtheirtongues |
www.crucialblast.net |
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Jesusmartyr - The Black
Waters (Rusty Cage Records) Review by Chris
Davison |
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There is a secret world of heavy metal that is hidden from
most of us Northern hemisphere chaps. South American metal did
not begin and end with Sepultura and Sarcofago. I occasionally
visit metal blogs during my bored hours on the Interwebs, and
linking from them, if you dig deep enough, you can find entire
pages filled with news of Chilean, Argentinian and Venezuelan
metal. Through the imperfect medium of free web translation,
it has become apparent that there are literally hordes of
rabid metal bands that will never be appreciated by
non-Spanish speaking moshers. There were so many of these
bands that I was frankly astonished. |
Jesusmartyr are an Argentinian band. A fierce four piece, they
nether the less sing in English, puzzlingly. The Black Waters
is a pleasingly modern slice of nasty thrash goodness. Regular
readers will note that among my most common of rants these
days the rage against the new wave of dumbed down old school
thrash is one of my most virulent outbursts. I am so sick of
another gang of 19 year old nobodies from Knobsville,
Tennessee producing another half baked ape of Bonded in Blood.
So it's rather refreshing to hear that Jesusmartyr wear their
hearts on their sleeves and produce absolutely bludgeoning
slabs of neo-thrash carved heftily from the Machine Head
mould. That isn't to say that these guys are clones; far from
it. I mean to convey only that this is a band that has
influences from thrash but aren't afraid to move with the
times. Taking the sickeningly thick riffs of “What Makes You
Burst” as an example, this a song that goes for the throat
while simultaneously stamping on your skull. With hobnailed
boots.
Jesusmartyr specialise in thick, rampaging riffs that will
have even the most reserved of metal heads thrashing banging
their head like it's 1984. Their thrash attack is extremely
heavy and catchy, while the production is so modern and
accomplished, it's easily the equal of recent thrash albums
such as Onslaught's latest comeback effort. Bruno Nasute
(vocals/bass) has complete mastery of both aspects of his
game. His singing is hoarse and rasping but completely
decipherable, and the bass work is extremely accomplished,
adding hefty groove to the most vicious of thrashers, such as
the Destruction meets Exodus blast of “Seed of Evil”. Eduardo
Truco holds the proceedings together with his tribal drum
work, and Sebastien Barrionuevo and Martin Furia bring the
pain with their twin axe attack. I can only hope that this
vicious bastard of an album does indeed find a wide
distribution among Northern climes. Sons of Northern Darkness?
Sometimes, only the sons of southern slaughter will
do...deranged and quite deadly.
www.rustycagerecords.com |
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K[nine] - Dead Worlds Poetry (Rusty Cage Records) Review by Steve
Green |
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I thought Nu-Metal died a death years ago. Determined to keep a semblance
of the flag flying are Norwegian band K[nine]. And to be honest, I don't
know why they bothered. In a nutshell, this is generic as hell and follows
the done to death formula of extreme vocals, clean vocals, extreme vocals,
repeat ad infinitum. The music follows the same pattern, bouncy bouncy,
slow down, get all moody and then the process is repeated once again.
Rusty Cage have quite a few good bands on their roster, so I'm surprised
at them for releasing music which is so utterly devoid of originality. I'm
not going to even try and expand upon what I've said already. So if you
like Machine Head's sell out period or |
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would like to listen to a watered down Pantera with Killswitch Engage style clean vocals, then follow this
link: www.myspace.com/k9noise
Otherwise, you can do the sensible thing and stay the hell away from this
garbage. |
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Megadeth - Set The World
Afire (Capitol) Review by Metal Mark |
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Megadeth certainly seem set on keeping their name out there,
what with having released a studio album, a boxed set, a live
CD, a live DVD and now this anthology all in about a two year
time frame. This two CD set has 35 tracks spanning much of
Megadeth's long and varied career. I got into Megadeth in 1986
when "Peace Sells" was released and immediately became a fan.
I was drawn in by Mustaine's unique vocals and the finger
bending riffs, they were different from other thrash bands of
the time. My favorite albums are "Rust in peace", "Peace
Sells" and "Killing Is My Business" because those were the
albums where they showed their edge and bared their teeth a
lot more. Those were the |
albums where Megadeth were at their best at creating these
winding, slightly offbeat tracks. "Countdown to Extinction" in
1992 was a good album, but it most certainly spelled the
beginning of Megadeth's attempt to establish a more mainstream
metal sound. Then the next decade saw them issue a series of
albums that had them slowing down and settling into more basic
material. The first disc in this set does have mainly earlier
material starting with "Mechanix" from Killing is my Business
and ending with a previously unreleased demo version of "High
Speed Dirt", the final version of that song would of course
end up on "Countdown to Extinction". We get a lot of their
signature tracks like "Wake Up Dead" and "Hanger 18", but no
real surprises.
Disc 2 picks up on more "Countdown" material beginning with
"Skin O' My Teeth" and continues into some of their later
material with again, not a great deal of surprises. The final
two tracks on the last disc are live versions of "Symphony of
Destruction" and "Peace Sells" both recorded at the Cow Palace
in 1992 and this version of "Symphony" was previously
unreleased in the U.S. Okay, this is a decent package, but I
can't help but wonder why there are only three songs from
"Peace Sells" included, yet the far more uneven "So Far, So
Good, So What?" gets four tracks and the fantastic "Hook In
Mouth" isn't one of the four. The biggest question here is why
they felt the need to release this collection when the huge
majority of the material was included on the "War Chest" boxed
set from 2007? Actually the single disc "Greatest Hits" from
2005 also includes much of the same material as this set
although "Set The World Afire" of course has more. Releasing
multiple best of, greatest hits and anthology type albums in a
relatively short amount of time is something that seems to
occur more and more in recent years. Still if you don't
already own all of these studio albums or the boxed set then
it may be something that you want to track down. |
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Prey for Nothing - Violence
Divine (Rusty Cage Records)
Review by Chris Davison |
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One day, all inlays will be made like this. I know, I know,
you didn't happen upon this none-more-metal corner of the
internet pipelines to read some bloody art review, but indulge
me for a moment. The artwork for the inlay and liner notes on
this release is nothing other than jaw-droppingly spectacular.
If only other bands would put half as much effort into their
products as this savage four piece. Kudos also, to Rusty Cage,
for producing such a feast of an album. Sterling work, chaps.
Of course, a turd wrapped in silver is still a turd. Luckily,
this is no such fecal product. Are you sick of the term
melodic death metal? Do you too hanker for the day when this
so- |
called genre actually contained any constituent death metal
among the saccharine guitar lines? Then look no further! Prey
for Nothing are here to save the day! This is some of the
heaviest, most technical metal to ever have a melodic touch.
With drum work so insanely quick, and guitar riffs so disharmonic
and warped throughout, by midway through second track “The
Maw”, I felt like I'd been put on some particularly unpleasant
medication and beaten into concussion. This is technical,
accomplished music that matches the artwork in terms of
artistry and composition. Within a loose framework of melody,
this metal is also gut wrenchingly heavy, at places jazzy and
...well... for want of a better phrase, “fucked up beyond all
recognition”. There are, of course, the staples of the genre:
hoarse, rasping – almost black metal – vocals, and guitar
solos aplenty. On a particular high note, the axe work of
Yaniv Aboudy is stunning. I was often reminded of the solo
work by Nick Menza during his fret work, which is high praise
indeed. Not that he is the only good musician here, oh no. I
need to mention in particular the brilliant bass work of Amir
Salomon (who may just, with enough exposure, join that rather
select band of well known metal bass men) and the skin work of
Iftah Levy, who plays the drums with all the precision of a
sniper but the tempo of a belt fed machine gun.
So, after the disarming few bars of the first bar, you're in
for a mind bending, technical ride. Of course, all this
technicality would be nothing without ...you know, actual
songs, but you've got them here in spades. There is an
absolutely killer track on this album, the stone cold classic
“Overture of Dust”, an atmospheric journey into the depths of
death metal with lashings of minor key melodies. It all sounds
kind of how the last Aborted album could have sounded, but
just didn't. I can't recommend this album enough to our
thinking readers. No, you won't be pounding the air with your
flagon of mead and waving a plastic axe about to Violence
Divine, but it may just transport you to more exotic cerebral
climes. I have two resting places for my review CDs. Most end
up in CD wallets, crammed 90 to a case and often un-played
again for many months, if ever. The most impressive are placed
lovingly into a jewel case and placed alongside my purchased
music. Prey for Nothing are the latter.
Now, where can I get some merch?
www.rustycagerecords.com |
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Serenity - Fallen
Sanctuary (Napalm Records) Review by Dave
Baynham |
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This is the second album by Austrian band Serenity, coming
only a year after their well received debut ‘Words Untold and
Dreams Unlived’. A damn fine album it is too, not as frantic
as the first one, with better hooks and good dynamics. In
general the tracks are slightly shorter and there is more
variety, such as the ballad Fairytales with guest vocals from
Sandra Schleret of Elis. As to what kind of metal it is, that
is more of a question. The publicity describes them as melodic
symphonic metal, yet the band they are most often compared to
is progressive metal veterans Threshold, while the band they
actually sound closest to is Sonata Arctica. However you want
to categorise it this is an album with a |
grasp of the epic mixed in with really catchy tunes. It has
something to please a variety of metal fans. For example I
would prefer it with less or even no contrasting grunt vocals
and still find some of the double bass drums are too heavy.
Yet these elements are what will appeal to a lot of people. At
the other end of the scale this album really benefits from the
cinematic orchestration by Oliver Philipps and the massive,
sweeping vocal arrangements by Edenbridge maestro Lanvall.
There are times, such as on the track Velatum, which echo the
pomp majesty of Queen and early Kansas. In all, a diverse and
enjoyable album from a band on the upswing.
www.serenity-band.com |
www.napalmrecords.com |
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Toxic - Fear (Rocksector)
Review by Metal Mark |
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These guys hail from Norway and are not to be confused with
80's New Jersey thrashers Toxik. That first line was all that
I really felt comfortable about writing after several days of
trying to work something out. That's right, I was sure of that
one line and that was about it. I started working on this
review days ago, I played it several times and then scrapped
what I started writing. I agonized over it, okay maybe that’s
an exaggeration because writing reviews is fun and agony is
not so I never truly agonized over writing a review. Perhaps I
was puzzled, yes that’s a little more accurate but that
doesn't totally explain it. I played this CD getting an
immediate sense of kind of 90’s metal at first yet I know that
wasn’t |
completely accurate and something was nagging at me to keep
listening to this to try and sort things out. The sound here
is basic in that the music being played is not exactly
complex, yet the influences were a trifle more difficult to
pin down. After like seven plays I began to sweep the smoke
away and see what was really going on back there. I think at
the heart of many of the songs presented here is a large of
chunk of 70’s metal maybe Sabbath for one as a prime
influence. Then perhaps even some hints of Bang and Pentagram
but more 1980’s Pentagram. I think I was at first lead in one
direction by the sharp production, but really once I was able
to concentrate, the realization came to me that these guys are
far more subtle than they at first appear. Okay, maybe I am
riding around in circles here, but it’s like they come on with
huge bursts and then once in the song they settle into a
somewhat different direction that’s far more winding. They
also go through definite shifts as the guitar is the focus and
then they cut to where your attention is riveted on the vocals
and each part just drags you along. The more I listened to
this CD the more I realized that they were doing so much and I
also became much more appreciative of what they were
accomplishing. It's like opening a small present and getting
far more than you first imagined. On several occasions Toxic
start out like a pounding type of band, but then they turn and
become far more of an involved, storytelling kind of band.
Both aspects work with each other and they manage to present a
strong balance as well.
This was a tough nut to crack as far as me trying to interpret
all that was happening yet it was certainly worth all the
energy and time I spent on it. Now I know what they are doing
and with that realization I can continue to reach in and
really enjoy the precision and all of the aspects that these
guys tied into this one.
www.myspace.com/toxicnorway |
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