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Adrenicide - Natural Born
Thrashers (Thrashard) Review by Metal Mark |
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I am sure that at one time or another that almost everyone
thinks about what it would be like to have a time machine. If
there was such a device then some people would love to visit
the past and others would be content to stay there. Adrenacide
might fall into that second group because they obviously hold
some bands from about 1985-1989 up on a pedestal. Adrenacide
wear their influences on their sleeves and actually they even
try to look like they popped right out 1987. The main
influence I hear is DRI around the time of "Four of a Kind"
and "Thrashzone". I also hear some Anthrax and Nuclear Assault
in there as well. The lyrics include songs about drinking,
drugs, violence and other topics that have |
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been many times over. The positives here would be that they
bring in some hardcore touches and that sets them apart from
many retro-thrash bands. I also enjoyed the slightly under
produced sound which I think gave their music more of an
underground feel. The downside is there isn't much here to
recommend to fans who heard this type of music twenty years
ago. It took me less than 30 seconds into almost every song on
this CD to know exactly what they were going to do during the
whole song. They rarely varied from that format and instead
just plunked along like they had something to give.
Unfortunately the style they are playing wasn't even that
spectacular when it was in its "prime". It's not that heavy,
it's not that fast and the lyrics certainly don't help elevate
the album either. I am a long time thrash fan, but Adrenacide
just remind me of a band who know the basic skills and that's
about it. It's fine to love a style from the past, but when
you don't add any of your own ideas then it's just like you
are spinning your wheels. |
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Ayat - Six Years of
Dormant Hatred (Moribund Cult Records) By: Dave
Schalek |
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I’ve been waiting for a release like this. Given the lack of
freedom in the Islamic world and the force fed religiosity, I
would fully expect that whatever black metal is percolating
deep in the underground would be particularly vicious and
scathing. That’s exactly the case with the debut full-length
from Ayat, a duo from Beirut recently signed to Moribund Cult.
With song titles on “Six Years of Dormant Hatred” that make
Danish cartoons and novels by Salman Rushdie look positively
tame by comparison, needless to say, Ayat are literally taking
their lives into their hands by releasing such blasphemy and
billing themselves as the first anti-Islamic black metal band.
Such zeal gives great weight and legitimacy to Ayat’s |
form of black metal, perhaps even more so than the original
Norwegian scene.
At any rate, “Six Years of Dormant Hatred” is a truly vicious,
hateful release that fires on all cylinders. First of all, the
album just absolutely drips with power, with huge, powerful
guitars that retain a bit of an old school sound (sort of
similar to Hellhammer), but with stellar, solid musicianship;
and mechanized, punishing percussion with a generally
mid-paced tempo. Backing it all up is a notably fluid, audible
bass. The vocals tend to shy away from the typical rasp, and
alternate between high-pitched shrieks, tortured howls, and
eerie harmonies that wouldn’t be out of place in the
repertoire of Attila Csihar. The songwriting is varied, as
well. In addition to some absolutely punishing tracks that
have a certain degree of catchiness, there are a few droning,
atmospheric tracks that somewhat switch gears, but manage to
fit in nicely amongst all of the punishment. Adding to the
atmosphere are some interesting samples taken from what sounds
to be soft lounge music from the 1940s, as well as the odd
spoken word interlude in French.
All of these disparate elements add up to a stellar debut from
Ayat. “Six Years of Dormant Hatred” is probably one of the
best recent releases from Moribund Cult, a label that is
rapidly expanding their roster with some excellent, varied
black metal. Buy or die.
www.moribundcult.com |
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Blood Stained Dusk -
Black Inquisition (Moribund Cult Records) By:
Dave Schalek |
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At one time, Alabama’s Blood Stained Dusk were an up and
coming, mildly symphonic black metal band with a decent debut
full-length in “Dirge Of Death’s Silence”. I do recall the
album as a competent, though rather typical, example very much
inspired by early Emperor. Unfortunately, four years would
pass before the release of the second full-length,
“Continuance Of Evil”, and, in the meantime, the USBM scene
would largely evolve away from the symphonic form. In
addition, Blood Stained Dusk themselves were beset by tragedy
when two members died within a short period.
Through it all, however, the remaining members of Blood
Stained Dusk have soldiered on, |
somehow managed to entice former Gorgoroth vocalist Pest into
the fold, and now release their third full-length, entitled
“Black Inquisition” on Moribund Cult Records. Signing to
Moribund Cult will undoubtedly garner Blood Stained Dusk some
much needed exposure, already in evidence with a recently
concluded tour of America with Horna (yeah, I wimped out and
had to skip it).
At any rate, “Black Inquisition” is a rather sloppily played
affair with raw production, plenty of keyboards, and some
haunting atmosphere. However, Blood Stained Dusk firmly plant
themselves in the second tier with this release as “Black
Inquisition” is either not raw enough, not as polished as it
should be, or not as atmospheric as it should be.
Essentially, I feel that Blood Stained Dusk are trying to be
“all things to everyone” with regards to black metal, and come
up somewhat short in each department. Though raw, the album is
somewhat lacking in power. Also, the best symphonic black
metal is usually polished (let me hear your protests) and the
better American symphonic bands, such as Sothis, are top notch
musicians. Lastly, the album is just, simply, not atmospheric
enough, as the keyboards alternate between prominence and
being an afterthought, as if Blood Stained Dusk are not quite
sure what to do with them. The overall effect of these
disjointed elements is that of an immature work, but there is
some promise.
Ultimately, I found “Black Inquisition” to be unfulfilling
and, probably, quickly forgotten.
www.myspace.com/bloodstaineddusk |
www.moribundcult.com
Reviewer's post script: Apparently, Pest has just joined the
Infernus-fronted version of Gorgoroth |
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Catamenia - VIII The Time
Unchained (Massacre) Review by Chris Davison |
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“Good evening sports fans, and welcome to Massacre stadium,
home to this match between the Finnish team, Catamenia and
...well, my ears, in an incredible turn of events. To fill you
in, Catamenia are a long established team, forming back in
1995, and playing metal in an aggressive formation of drums,
bassist, guitars, shrieked vocals and keyboards. Pundits have
described them as melodic metal, and there's some truth in
that, but for this season they've dumped the keyboards and
apparently have no plans to sign another keyboard player – a
move which this humble sports writer feels is wise.
The whistle goes, and they're off. It's a cautious start, but
the aggression of their playing |
has left my ears a trifle surprised. The drummer appears to be
going apeshit at the back there, but he has a steady pair of
hands, and there's some nimble footwork on the double bass
too. The guitars have an almost black metal style of frantic
high pitched riffery, and the bass, while steady enough
working away at the background doesn't seem to troubling my
ears at the moment. There have been rumblings in the press
that the producer, while competent has failed to bring out the
best of the bottom end of the mix – perhaps indicative that
they could have concentrated more on set pieces. It's a
competent performance though, some nice wintery song writing
and more than a little atmosphere sprinkled around in some
deft touches. The vocals are harsh and shrieking, which is
what the fans have come to expect, and they're surging
forwards now and...
Oh no! A spectacular own goal! From out of nowhere, Catamenia
have unbelievably added jaunty guitar riffs to accompany some
remarkably incongruous clean vocals! Just when you thought
that they'd got this match sewn up, they go and spoil all
their hard work with strange sing-along sections! I'm looking
anxiously at the referee now to rule this a red cardable
offence, but he's waving “play on”. I really can't believe the
scenes before me. I have to say that this kind of continental
play has been going rather well for Catamenia, but the clean
vocals? That's just bad sportsmanship. I can only hope that
they manage to sign a different manager ready for next season.
This is Chris Davison, for Live4metal sport, signing off.”
www.massacre-records.com |
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Crisis Never Ends - Kill
or Cure (Prevision Music) By Robert Cheesewright |
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Crisis Never Ends, a metalcore band from Germany, were founded
in 1999. Their history describes their progression from
hardcore band to metalcore, but one can’t help feeling that it
is more a scene swap than a progression. Clear parallels can
be drawn between Crisis Never Ends and Alaskan metalcore band
36 Crazyfists, with Crisis Never Ends vocalist, Heiko Blocker,
sounding like a more monotonous version of Crazyfists Brock
Lindow.
Monotonous aptly describes the album, which appears to lack
craft, and hops from familiar metalcore riff to next. The
disappointing thing about ‘Kill or Cure’ is that the |
band’s members clearly aren’t incompetent musicians or
songwriters, but they’ve managed to create something devoid of
originality. Reprieve is offered by the albums title track,
which stands above others on the album, but only for one riff-
the rest was predictably mediocre. The worst thing is the
vocals. This album is crying out for some diversity of vocal
style and would sound much better with some clean vocals (only
Christmas goodwill is likely to stop other Live4metal
reviewers having me strung up for saying such a horrid thing).
The 47minutes of the album end up seeming like hours as the
repetition continues and my frustration grows. I can’t help
but feel like I’m giving this album an overly-harsh review,
but when an album fails to deliver on the promised
“heartbreaking metal melodies and breakdowns which will make
you bang your head”, the disappointment overcomes the need to
give an average album a fair review and it becomes trashing
time. ‘Kill or Cure’ is a depressingly average album, and is
over-produced to boot. Only the biggest glutton-for-punishment
Metalcore fan could derive enjoyment from this.
www.myspace.com/crisisneverends |
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Cryonic Temple - Immortal
(Metal Heaven) Review by Steve Green |
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We have one writer (Joe Florez) who absolutely loves the Metal Heaven
releases, so when he didn't fancy reviewing this album and it was left for
me to do, my expectations were not too high. But you know what? Joes loss
is my gain as this album is excellent.
My first impressions weren't that good though: An opening line of "Welcome
to my underworld of dragons and demons" didn't particularly get the juices
flowing, but things settled down rather quickly and by the galloping
Maiden-isms of the third number, Where Sadness Never Rests, Cryonic Temple
had won me over.
No band in the Power - Progressive realm is particularly original, but
Cryonic Temple have |
a sound which is so ridiculously familiar, but at the same
time, not so obvious that it leaps out at your. It took me an
age to match up their sound to one I'd heard before and then
eventually, when the penny finally dropped, it was so damn
obvious. In this reviewers opinion, for what it's worth, I
think Cryonic Temple sound like Iron Savior, circa
their classic Condition Red opus. Cryonic Temple's new frontman, Magnus
Thurin has the same smooth, engaging kind of voice as Iron Savior's Piet
Sielck. I also detect a slight hint of Geoff Tate in his voice. And a good
Power Metal band need a good vocalist, as to be honest, it's the tight
trousered brigade that put me off this type of music. But Cryonic Temple
seem to have it all. Good songs, outstanding musicianship and a great new
vocalist.
This one comes highly recommended for all lovers of
Traditional Metal as well as Power Metal fanatics. It's also
ok for Vegans as it's totally
cheese free...
www.myspace.com/cryonictemple |
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Miseration - Your Demons
: Their Angels (Lifeforce Records) By: Dave
Schalek |
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Veterans of numerous Swedish acts including Scar Symmetry,
Torchbearer, and others get together to form a melodic death
metal side project with positive themes entitled Miseration.
The project’s debut full-length, entitled “Your Demons - Their
Angels”, is released on Lifeforce Records.
Given the veterans included in this act, such as vocalist
Christian Alvestam, you’d expect top-notch musicianship,
production values and so forth from Miseration. That is
definitely the case on “Your Demons - Their Angels”, as the
album shines with excellent musicianship and crystal clear
production highlighting the guitars and the drums (the |
recording line-up, incidentally, only consists of Alvestam and
the multi-talented Jani Stefanovic, who handles all
instrumentation, although a few leads are handled by others).
However, Miseration drops down into the second tier with
rather mediocre songwriting and typical melodic death metal
signature elements. Variations in tempo, crunch-laden guitars
with some Sunlight Studios-era sound, a mix of guttural and
clean vocals, and plenty of guitar and mild keyboard melodies
are all present in spades on “Your Demons - Their Angels”;
but, unfortunately, none of the songs really stick with you,
even after repeated listens. Although a competent work, “Your
Demons - Their Angels” suffers from the same malady that
afflicts so many second tier acts across genres; that is,
mediocre songwriting that cause many a band to fail to
distinguish themselves from the hordes of other bands playing
in the same genre.
Ultimately, “Your Demons - Their Angels” may be only a prelude
of greater things to come, given that only two people were
involved in the album’s writing and execution. The album does
credit a full line-up as of the album’s printing, so I’m
curious to see if the band’s full line-up is able to vault
Miseration past the second tier. We’ll see.
www.myspace.com/miseration |
www.lifeforcerecords.com/home |
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Paragon - Screenslaves
(Massacre) Review by Steve Green |
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I'm kind of surprised to discover that Paragon have been around for nearly
20 years and as far as I know, this is the first time our paths have
crossed, especially as they play the type of Metal that I really love.
Paragon are purveyors of good old Teutonic Metal. They have the rasp and
feel of German Metal stalwarts Accept and Grave Digger, with the vocals of
Andreas Babuschkin sounding remarkably like that of Grave Digger frontman
Chris Boltendahl. Which is a very good thing as far as I'm concerned.
Paragon play no frills, balls to the wall, rocking good music. Stacks of
lead guitars, fist banging anthems and just good old fashioned Heavy Metal
that reeks of the classic 80s era |
that I still hold dear to my heart. I can quite easily bask in
50 minutes of pure nostalgia with this album, and it's a
chance to switch off from the endless stream of economic woe
and tales of war that fill our tv screens on a daily basis. But as
much as I like this album, I don't think I'll be going out of my way to
track down their back catalogue, but if I saw any of their cds at a
reasonable price, then I'd definitely snap them up.
All lovers of 1980's German Metal are advised to click on the
following link:
www.massacre-records.com |
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Putrescence -
Sledgehammer Holocaust (No Escape Records)
review by James Young |
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‘I believe the common denominator of the universe is not
harmony, but chaos, hostility and murder’ says the sample
which kicks off ‘Sledgehammer Holocaust’, the new album from
Canada’s Putrescence. Never have truer words been spoken, as
this album presents us with half an hour of pure sonic bedlam.
Whilst still spewing forth some ultra-gory grinding death
metal, the production and playing on this album is a tad
different to the previous efforts. The guitar sound for
instance is quite scatty and chaotic sounding for instance,
and the vocals of Soiled Depends and Colostomy Bag Darrel
(groan) vary quite considerably, but on the majority of songs
come across as the shouted sort that you would expect in |
more traditional crust bands. Musically, there is an amazingly
diverse range of sounds on this release - these days there
seem to be more and more bands trying to play death metal and
never breaking the mould, but Putrescence shatter all known
boundaries here. Yes, it is death metal, and there are some
samples, blast beats, and ridiculous song titles, but things
are always kept interesting. Sometimes this is achieved with
insanely tight and technical playing, such as on ‘I Am Your
Flesh’, but sometimes riffs are borrowed from other genres. On
‘Sledgehammer Holocaust (Shit And Bone Infused)’ and ‘Ukulele
Players Drugged Out Machete Attack At The Flea Market’, apart
from admiring someone’s vivid imagination in naming the songs,
the listener can appreciate some cold sounding black metal
riffs spreading some grimness over the noise. Sometimes a
headbangingly juicy punk riff is brought to the table in true
grind style, or a thrash guitar lead, like in ‘Forced To
Ingest Caulking Up Nose And Down Trachea’. It’s all to easy to
write a grind or death metal song but miss the key ingredient,
that is, listenability, but these guys have it in spades, and
show a very good ear for dynamics. Fast passages are mixed
with slower grooves, and we even hear the odd solo such as in
‘Gutted, Coated With Malignancy And Re-emboweled’, which
boasts a rock n roll attitude through brutal death metal,
which most other bands wouldn’t touch with a bargepole, even
though it sounds sublime.
Managing to be technical without being hard to listen to, and
gory without being one-dimensional, these Canadians have
served up one of the best platters of the year. With perfect
production and intelligent playing, any death metal fan would
be stupid not to get their hands on this - a perfect stocking
killer.
www.putrescence.com |
www.myspace.com/putrescence |
www.noescaperecords.com |
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Ross The Boss - New Metal
Leader (Candlelight) Review by Metal Mark |
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It's hard to believe it's been so long since guitarist Ross
the boss parted ways with Manowar. However his absence has
certainly been felt over the years as Manowar seemed to have
slipped from the high level they once occupied. Filling put
Ross the Boss's band are Patrick Fuchs on vocals and guitar,
Carsten Kettering on bass and Matthias Mayer on drums. Manowar
helped to define power/epic metal over two decades ago and the
pounding guitars parts were a huge part of that sound. We hear
much of that same sound on this album as well. Unsurprisingly
the bulk of "New Metal Leader" sound like Manowar mainly
around the 1985-1988 period. In fact Patrick Fuchs even sounds
quite a |
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bit like Eric Adams only with a little less range. Tracks like
"God Of Dying" and "Immortal Son" sound very much classic
Manowar anthems. The sound here is solid, booming metal that
blatantly follows a mid-tempo 1980's metal style. The only
real difference being that the production on this album might
be better. So there is really nothing new or particularly
unique about this album, but fans of Manowar's peak are sure
to lift their fists high in the air and enjoy the majesty and
cheese of this kind of music. Indeed Ross the Boss never lost
sight of the heavy sound and memorable choruses that were very
much part of the appeal of the band that he helped form. Metal
trends have come and gone over the last to decades, but I
can't deny that there is still something about this kind of
music that I still enjoy on some basic level. |
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Stuck Mojo - The Great Revival
(Napalm Records) Review by Steve Green |
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This is the 2nd Stuck Mojo album since their rebirth a couple of years
back and The Great Revival is the natural successor to Southern Born
Killers, but without the patriotic edge I moaned about in my review of the
album. I immediately felt at home with this album and once again, I'm a
sucker for Lord Nelson's voice. Whether he's crooning, rapping or whatever
style is on offer, the man sounds amazing. And his voice fits the rock
sound perfectly... which I'm not sure can be said about Christie Cook, who
adds her vocal talents to three of songs on here. She's got a fine voice,
but unfortunately her voice, at times, is a little too soulful for my
liking and both Friends and Superstar Part 1 are way too watered |
down for inclusion on an album of this nature. Thankfully, the heavy as hell The
Fear, is a much better proposition and Christie just lets rip and her
voice is immense. But that's Stuck Mojo for you. A band who are not afraid
to push the boundaries and being as they are such an innovative
trail-blazing band, this shouldn't come as a surprise. But a cover of John
Denver's Country Road? That's the sort of shit my Mother listened to in
the 70's and its inclusion here came as a total surprise. Admittedly, it
sounds very little like the original, apart from the chorus and to be
brutally honest, it absolutely sucks, big time.
Overall, this album has some very strong moments, but about a third of the
album is a little on the soft side and may be a little difficult for some to
swallow. I'm sure though, that long term fans of the band will be very
happy with The Great Revival.
www.stuckmojo.us |
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