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Burning The Masses - Mind
Control (Mediaskare) By: Dave Schalek |
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The debut full-length from San Diego’s Burning The Masses,
“Mind Control” from Mediaskare Records, is the best brutal
deathcore album that I’ve ever heard, period. That’s not
saying a whole Hell of a lot as I can’t stand most of the
genre, but “Mind Control” is the best example that I’ve heard
of the genre yet. A technical tour-de-force, “Mind Control”
features all out blasts, stop on a dime time changes, face
shredding riffing, and, luckily, guttural vocals that tend to
stay away from the high pitched screams of most of the bands
in this genre.
For the most part, other than the wizardry of the time changes
galore present on the album, |
“Mind Control” is actually much closer to modern technical
death metal than most of the other currently popular deathcore
bands. Bands such as Decrepit Birth, The Faceless (but with a
much harder punch), and so on come to mind, but the guitar
work from Burning The Masses focuses on mind numbingly fast
riff changes rather than arpeggio-styled dexterity. There are
a few breakdowns and moments of interspersed deathcore shrieks
sprinkled throughout; hence, the deathcore categorization, but
“Mind Control” seems to straddle an imaginary fence dividing
technical deathcore from technical death metal, but with one
foot firmly planted in death metal.
The death metal backbone of “Mind Control” is obviously the
saving grace of the album for me, but the stellar musicianship
and good songwriting immediately separate the talented Burning
The Masses from the other currently popular deathcore acts,
most of which are talentless hacks. Burning The Masses may
rightfully deserve to be the future of deathcore. Recommended.
www.myspace.com/burningthemasses |
www.mediaskarerecords.com |
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Doro - Fear No Evil (AFM) Review by Steve Green |
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I was a major Warlock fan in the 80s after seeing them on the Channel
Four programme ECT (anyone remember it still?) way back in 1985. I owned all of the Warlock albums on
vinyl, but after they split, I never really followed Doro's solo career.
Coupled with a few dodgy cover versions, what I've heard of her solo work is a bit hit and
miss, so I wasn't really sure what to expect from this album. Well, I have
to say that a lot of this album is superb. I still think it's patchy in
places and it's riddled with every cliché in the book, but when it's good,
it takes me right back to my teenage years.
Fuelling my nostalgia trip to the max, The Night Of The Warlock is a
fantastic opener. A |
simple, yet catchy as hell rocker, it's steeped in the sound
of 80s Metal and this is going to be costly as I now have to
track down those early Warlock albums on cd. This is a perfect continuation of
that sound, as is Running With The Devil, a slow brooding beast of an
anthem. Hitting you at full speed on the cheese-o-meter, Celebrate pays
homage to all things Rock and Metal and despite the clichéd nature of the
song, you cannot help but raise a glass in honour of the songs true Metal
heart. Next up we get Caught In A Battle, which is ok, but not as good as
the first 3 songs, but at least it's better than a ballad...right?
Ok, Doro has done some fantastic ballads in the past, but not every one
has hit the mark, and Herzblut is no exception. It's a bog standard ballad
and it fails to move me in any way, apart from stretching my arm to reach
for the skip button. I much prefer the duet with Tarja Turunen, Walking
With The Angels. Sandwiched in-between the ballads is On The Run, another
decent rocker.
After the quiet mid-section, the album gets back to its
rocking best with I Lay My Head Upon My Sword. Again, it's
very catchy and is a true fist banging anthem and has Doro
ever sounded better? The heavier songs on this album rival
anything she did in the 80s and I hope she performs most of
them when she supports Saxon in April and May on their UK
tour. Another slower number, It Kills Me, (not quite sure if
it qualifies as a ballad)
makes way for the impossibly catchy Long Lost For Love, which in turn
takes us to the album closer, the self explanatory, and heartfelt 25
Years.
So overall, a very good album, with a few genuine classics to boot as
well. All of which has me wanting to track down the entire Warlock back
catalogue on cd, which is what I'm off to do now. Roll on the UK tour with
Saxon. www.doropesch.com |
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Emergency Gate - Rewake (Silverwolf)
Review by Steve Green |
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When I reviewed Emergency Gate's last album, Nightly Ray, I remarked upon
the fact that the melodies and hooks, particularly with the choruses, just
didn't work. Well the band now have a chance to prove themselves again as
they unleash a new singer and a new sound on their latest release, Rewake.
Everything that was wrong with Nightly Ray has, I'm pleased to say, has
been corrected here. New frontman, Matthias Kupka, ex of Suidakra has
helped breathe new life into Emergency Gate and Rewake is an infinitely
better album that its predecessor. Musically they've moved into Melodic
Death territory, with a hint of Metalcore aided by a mixture of |
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growled and clean vocals and these Germans sound very
Scandinavian indeed. I have to say I'm not a particular fan of
this type of music (never have been, probably never will be)
but I have to applaud Emergency Gate's professional and slick
new sound. They actually sound like a huge, successful band
for whom World domination is on the agenda. Well they
definitely have a chance of achieving that goal now.
www.emergency-gate.de |
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Ground of Ruin - Cloaked
in Doctrine (Self Released) Review by Chris
Davison |
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Settle down kids, I've got to tell you a story. I recently
bought one of those media-playing hard drive thing-a-me-jigs,
that plays music through my stereo or TV, as I have now
reached that terminal level of music ownership and life where
my collection is now sufficiently vast that I need to spend
ages hunting through it to find the disc I want. Now add to
that a two year old who (I am sure) was part sired by a magpie
who seeks anything shiny to rub his hands over, and you end up
with a music collection kept out of harms way (i.e. In a very
hard to reach place). So, I decided to rip all my old cds to
this hard drive for ease of use (stay with me! Not long now!).
There I was, ripping through the music I have |
reviewed, and I came upon Ground of Ruin. I remembered what a
corking release their demo was, and I was in full “I wonder
where they are now?” mode, when merely a day or so later, my
kindly uncle Steve (headhoncho at Live4Metal towers) sent me
this, their latest four track demo. Bonus!
Now that I've bored you into submission, (I suspect 45% of you
by now have clicked away to dwarfporn.com or some similar
intarwebz deviancy), let me regale you with how fucking
excellent this four track demo is. Put simply, I haven't
enjoyed a demo quite so much in an age. “Cloaked in Doctrine”
has a palpable air of menace and aggression about it, along
with a subtle icy tone running underneath the main thread of
the music. This is a true marriage of thrash and death metal,
with the vocals being shrieking, nasty spectacularly
unpleasant. The music itself brings to mind the same defiantly
aggressive spirit of Destroyer 666 in the splicing of
pounding, almost martial drum beats and the guitar riffs so
sharp and destructive that I am surprised that they haven't
yet been identified as weapons of mass destruction. The title
track is in itself an absolute belter. An iron fist in a
velvet glove, the track packs more punches than a train
carriage full of drunken West Ham fans, but also has enough
musical intricacy and variety to keep all but the most ADHD
addled metal fans satisfied. It seems to me as if the band
have played a great deal of attention to keeping their songs a
little more focused than before, and also in the spirit of
improvement, the production on this demo is a little sharper,
a whole lot more in your face and much more powerful.
Ground of Ruin have kept going, and to their credit they have
got even better with this demo. Their Destroyer 666 /
Dissection musical tour de force deserves to be heard by a
much larger audience. The frustration is that a band of this
obvious talent and promise remain unsigned. Just what is the
problem with metal labels? Somebody needs to sign these Irish
lads up quick, because otherwise I fear that disinterest and
hardship will rob metal fans of at least one classic album.
I'm not being hyperbolic when I say that this demo is the best
I have heard in the last 12 months, and by a large margin. Buy
this demo. Keep Ground of Ruin going until they get signed.
Please. Otherwise, it's you, not them, that will miss out.
www.myspace.com/groundofruin |
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Harpoon - Double Gnarly/
Triple Suicide (Interloper Records) By: Dave
Schalek |
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Harpoon are a crossover/ thrash side project featuring members
of various bands from the Chicago scene, most notably Lair Of
The Minotaur and 7000 Dying Rats. The debut EP, “Double
Gnarly/ Triple Suicide” on Interloper Records, is a 20-odd
minute affair featuring songs that consist of short blasts of
a minute in length or so, and one longer track at the
beginning of the album.
Other than the fact that Harpoon feature drum programming that
periodically dives into machine gun grind territory, “Double
Gnarly/ Triple Suicide” is entirely a crossover/ thrash homage
with plenty of catchy, rapid fire riffs, a beefed up
production, and barked vocals. |
All of it blows by fairly quickly and is reasonably well done,
perfectly fitting the purpose of a side project. Most of the
12 songs are quite good, with the long track actually being
the best, but I would very much prefer to hear a human drummer
as programming is not necessary in this sort of genre. An
organic drum sound would go a long way towards making Harpoon
a serious force to be reckoned with in the niche genre of
crossover/ thrash, as this is a very promising debut.
At any rate, “Double Gnarly/ Triple Suicide” is recommended.
www.myspace.com/harpoonrockin4u |
www.interloperrecords.net |
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Katedra - Ugnikalnis
(Atra Musica) Review by Steve Green |
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We receive many forms of music from right across the globe here at L4M
Towers, but I'm pretty sure this is the first Lithuanian Thrash cd we've
ever received. Having originally formed in 1986 and having taken the
obligatory break that most Thrash bands do, this is the bands 4th album
and the 2nd since their reformation.
When Katedra first formed, Lithuania was under Soviet rule. I'm taking a
punt here, but I'm guessing at the time they didn't have a lot of exposure
to Western Metal, which may explain the relative originality of their
music. I do hear a small amount of influence from the |
first wave of Thrash bands, mainly a few Metallica style
riffs, but for the most part, this is refreshingly different.
Of course a lot of that might be down to vocalist Ričardas
Laginauskas, who sings in Lithuanian, which obviously adds a
completely different slant on this type of music. There aren't
really many choruses to latch onto because of this, bar the
simplicity of the grindingly heavy Krachas. But the riffs are
extremely catchy and the rhythm section is as tight as can be,
so the music tends to take your interest rather than vocals,
which is the reverse of how it normally works for me. So if
you are looking for something a little different and about as
cult as it gets, head on over to
www.atra-musica.com |
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Necroblaspheme -
Destination: Nulle Part (Agonia Records) By:
Dave Schalek |
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Don’t let the album cover art fool you into thinking that
“Destination: Nulle Part” is some sort of progressive metal
album. To be blunt, this is the best brutal death metal that
I’ve heard to come out of France in a long time.
Necroblaspheme? Who the Hell are these guys? OK, there’s a
vague connection to the French black metal underground with
the drummer having served time in Antaeus and so on; that
said, however, “Destination: Nulle Part”, Necroblaspheme’s
second full-length and released on Agonia Records, is an
excellent example of New York- style death metal that stands
up very well all by itself.
“Destination: Nulle Part” contains brutal death metal’s
necessary genre elements. Dynamic |
musicianship, a huge production, choppy riffs interspersed
with seemingly effortless fluidity of rapid fire guitar work,
and excellent songwriting with huge amounts of variation (this
is also the first time that I’ve heard an old Phil Collins
song sampled on a death metal album). I suppose the New
York-style comparison is warranted in that bands such as
Suffocation et al are the obvious template, but Necroblaspheme
are light years away from being a mere clone band, and may
just compete with the giants of the genre.
Although not necessarily original, (after all, this is brutal
death metal), “Destination: Nulle Part” sets the bar pretty
high in terms of quality as the songwriting is outstanding.
Sharp, focused blasts of speed are well blended together with
some huge amounts of crunch in the album’s slower moments.
Back it all up with stellar bass work and I find myself
wishing that I had heard “Destination: Nulle Part” prior to
the end of 2008 as the album would’ve, undoubtedly, ended up
on my top ten list. Needless to say, “Destination: Nulle Part”
is highly recommended. Yep, buy or die!
www.agoniarecords.com |
www.myspace.com/necroblasphemeband |
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