|
|
|
|
|
Out Of Enemies - Into the Darkness
(Rising Records) Review by Steve Green |
 |
Ok, Out Of Enemies are influenced by bands I don't like. Namely In Flames
and Killswitch Engage. They also play a style of music that's classed (by
me) as Modern Metal (I get funny about this as I don't really consider it
Metal at all) They've employ the usual vocal style of screaming/growling
one minute and clean singing the next, which I also fucking hate with a
passion. But you know what? This album is really good.
It goes against the grain completely with my time warp fixated tastes, but
for what they do, they do it very well indeed. Ryan Shirley has a
fantastic clean singing voice, which stops everything wimping out, which
is my normal take on this kind of thing and if a non-believer |
like myself can be this impressed, what will fans of this
style be thinking?
Fans of KSE etc... may have heard this all before, I've no idea really.
But as far as I'm concerned, this is the first album of this kind that
I've genuinely liked and have been this impressed with. A bright future
awaits I'm sure.
www.myspace.com/outofenemies
|
| |
|
Rabid Rabbit - Self-
Titled (Interloper Records) By: Dave Schalek |
 |
There’s a debate that’s been percolating in the underground as
to whether any of the so-called post metal bands can really be
considered metal. Some of the more well known bands such as
Pelican, Isis, and Intronaut are usually granted the status
(many will disagree, I’m sure, and I’m probably one of them),
but many others are not. Case in point is Rabid Rabbit, an
instrumental quartet from Chicago with their self titled debut
full-length on Interloper Records.
The usual genre elements of post metal sludge are present
here. The down tuned, heavy guitars, an attempt at cavernous
soundscapes, a tendency to wander through various |
phases of shoe gazing and navel contemplation, some tempo
variation, and so on are sprinkled throughout. But, there’s
actually little in the way of riffing, memorable or otherwise,
and, most damning of all, the sloppy guitar playing tends to
dominate with meandering, self indulgent wankery involving
scratchy soloing that seems to trail off, and poor songwriting
that never seems to gel into anything resembling a memorable
song. Getting alternately bored and pissed off at the wasting
of my time, I found myself repeatedly hitting the skip button.
After many attempts at listening to the album all the way
through and giving it an honest shake, I eventually gave up in
disgust.
If you’re head over heels into post metal, you might find
something to like with Rabid Rabbit, but I found this to be
insanely boring. Dreck.
www.myspace.com/rabidrabbitlives |
www.myspace.com/interloperrecords |
| |
|
Samael - Above
(Nuclear Blast) Review by Crin |
 |
This band are as cult and legendary as they come in extreme
metal circles. From their conception and the [at the time] off
the radar debut, Worship Him, in1991, Samael have evolved into
something unique. The absolute classic Worship Him album of
1992, is a Black Metal masterpiece embracing a claustrophobic
sound and some beautifully woven songs. It is the following
album, Ceremony of Opposites, that lifted Samael into the more
mainstream levels of recognition. This album was so
ridiculously simple, infectious and flawless, it was any ones
guess how to surpass it? In many ways the ground breaking
Passages album overcame that anticipation, not by growing from
it, but by reinventing their |
sound to what it basically has remained. I lost touch with
Samael after the Exodus mcd as they, to my mind, did a
Paradise Lost and took one step too far from the underground
fans who couldn’t stomach the more mellow safe sounding
material. The band slipped into that grey area of being
neither underground, relevant or mainstream players. So, here
we are in 2009, and Samael return on the big indie Nuclear
Blast.
This is Samael’s 9th studio release and what struck me most is
its ferocity, all guns blazing attitude. The former, Solar
soul, was an album that displayed the bands musical evolution
at all stages of the bands career. Some cite it as the
definitive Samael release. The slow erosion of the Black Metal
roots of the band were most apparent on the 2004 Reign of
Light album, but Solar Soul had regressed somewhat, so of this
follow up?? Here we have a vicious almost sonic meltdown of
hammering drum machine and the very exclusive Samael keyboard
style. This is certainly no watered down cosmic chill out
release. Whilst Samael will never reach the steady fuse that
exploded with the mighty passages, the music here does hark to
those distant days in depth and song arrangements. If Samael
are trying to prove a point, then they do it here masterfully.
www.nuclearblast.de |
| |
|
Suidakra - Crogacht
(Wacken Records) By: Joe Florez |
 |
The long running German act (14 years to be exact) playing
Celtic war tunes are back with a new slab of tunes for the
ears. My first time listening to them was on the Command To
Charge release back in 2005 and I must not have been in the
mood for them because it didn’t captivate me. Their live
offering did little to change my mind as well. Now, I am being
introduced to Crogacht and did my mind and attitude toward the
band change in a heartbeat. This is Pagan metal at its finest.
“Conlaoch” is a great way to let the fans know what’s going to
happen for the next 45 minutes to an hour. This cut has it all
from gritty vocals to seminal blast beats as well as
aggressive guitar licks, bag pipes and melody. It’s |
heavy, fast, mellow and then some. “Isle Of Skye” has
everything mentioned above and also includes nice harmony
singing for that extra punch to the gut. “Feats Of War” is a
great change of pace as there is a female singer with a nice
set of pipes who takes over this time with this track that
sounds like something that could be sung at a campfire.
Everything about her voice is right because it’s not over the
top in anyway. I don’t know why, but this record simply
clicked with me. I love the fact that folk metal has finally
been accepted by the masses. It’s just too bad that it took so
damn long. While listening to this I felt like raising my beer
stein and drink profusely (even though I am not a drinker) and
dance around like a fool. And then follow that up with finding
a sword and just decimating everything in site. All I have to
say is that Pagan Fest is on the war path very soon and while
these guys were on the last one and not this one, go see it.
If you like your Korpiklaani’s, Ensiferiums and all that kicks
ass then you must possess this release. There is nothing
cheesy about this. There’s no happy riffs on here. This is the
real deal. This is authentic Celtic music played to perfection
with the addition of the sounds of metal. I may not be of
Pagan beliefs or have European blood, I feel like one of them
when I pop this in. Now, buy this damn it. Now, if you don’t
mind, I have to go find my Viking hat, garb, sword and ship
and find a place to rape and pillage.
www.wackenrecords.com |
www.suidakra.com |
| |
|
The Faceless - Planetary
Duality (Lifeforce) By Robert Cheesewright |
 |
As technical death-metal goes Planetary Duality has to be one
of the most technical records around. In fact, it’s rather
mental. This is the second album by the California band, and
since its release in November it has been selling steadily.
Throughout the album are the standard hallmarks of death
metal, machine-gun-like drumming, guttural vocals - but in
addition to this is frenetic, shredding guitars apparently
used with the aim of causing seizures in anyone who listens to
the album. Interspersed are moments of atmospheric melody, but
the insanity soon starts up again and the crazy guitar work
and battering drums continues. This album will either be seen
as a terrible and |
incomprehensible noise - or a feast of brilliant metal and an
example of proficiency which is rarely achieved by anyone but
the very best and a cadre of Jazz musicians who seem to make
the bizarre seem standard. I fall into the latter camp.
The second track, The Ancient Covenant, is the standout, but
none are particularly weak. Xenochrist is also exceptional and
includes some interesting keyboard work – yet more depth to an
already intricate record. The rambling spoken-word intro to
the final double-track, Planetary Duality I and II, is
incredibly effective and the tracks are the perfect finale to
the album. The Faceless have managed to create tracks with
enough form to make them listenable, which is impressive given
just how complex some of the tracks are. Planetary Duality is
a brilliant album, full of intricacy. I can see anyone with a
love of the technical metal loving this album.
http://lifeforcerecords.com/ |
| |
|
The Prophecy - Into The
Light (Code666) review by Sam Thomas |
 |
Every now and then, a series of events conspire to produce a
good result, even though the original events themselves were
anything but good. Thus it was, one not very exciting Tuesday,
that I had the opportunity to sit down and listen to Halifax
doommongers The Prophecy’s first two albums, followed by
latest release “Into the Light”. I’d arrived at this lucky
state of affairs by virtue of having taken a slice out of my
finger with a chisel, and having run out of (decent) things
that I could reasonably do one-handed.
Now I’m not always the best at remembering a piece of music
that I heard years ago, so it was interesting to see how much
of “Ashes” I could instantly recall, and also to see how |
the band had developed over the years. The first thing I’d say
is that we’ve obviously got a “Star Trek” movie type situation
here: the odd numbers are better than the even numbers… Yes,
“Into the Light” is everything I’d ever hoped for from The
Prophecy – doom running at approximately the speed of setting
treacle, heavy as lead and with the element of progressive
death to just add that extra edge. Although the most obvious
comparison is to My Dying Bride (obvious because of course
they’ve supported them on tour) I think that the attraction
for me is the way that Matt Lawson’s vocals have something of
the Mikael Åkerfeldt about them. And yet, his clean vocals are
more reminiscent perhaps of Jonas Renkse… Oh well, you get the
general drift. The Prophecy are extremely talented, and this
album demonstrates that beyond any shadow of a doubt. The
songwriting has improved as well – not that there was anything
wrong with it before, just that it’s now so much better. I
think that “Echoes” has to be the best track on the album from
that point of view – the images it summons up are so
incredibly powerful, and the lads know exactly when to drop
the lyrics and let the music infuse your soul with creeping
melancholy. This is a magical, powerful album, that twists and
twines its bittersweet shoots around the listener. Doom can be
one of the most creative genres there is, and The Prophecy are
certainly masters of the genre, if not (yet) of the universe.
Absolutely outstanding!
www.the-prophecy.net |
www.auralmusic.com |
| |
|
Tribulation - The Horror
(Pulverised Records) Review by Ellis Woolley |
 |
The latter half of this decade has somehow brought about retro
renaissances of both the thrash, and to a lesser extent, death
metal scenes, in the process yielding some excellent releases
in both, amongst the usual flood of also-rans. Tribulation,
sitting squarely on the death metal side of what must be a
truly odorous fence, are without doubt one of the best to have
shown their ugly faces in these last few years on the basis of
their debut album "The Horror". Featuring Enforcer (them
Swedish upstarts with a fetish for British metal) guitarist
Adam Zaars, "The Horror" is a nigh on perfect rendition of all
things Kreator, Possessed and Morbid Angel with a touch of the
Angel Corpses' and Dead |
Congregations' of this world. However in my opinion, such is
the quality of this album that its enthusiasm and genuine
adoration of 80s black/death metal even outdoes those two
new(er) peers. If "Beyond The Horror" was a cut from a 1988
album it would be hailed as a classic by now, both sickeningly
attention-grabbing and catchy like all the best DM used to be.
"Seduced By The Smell Of Rotten Flesh" is Incantation-heavy
yet melodically inclined in its' lead riffs which angle out
without warning before re-aligning to join the onslaught of
brutality that is the spine of the song. Wonderfully produced
with just the right level of crust and clarity to (hopefully)
appeal to all generations, "The Horror" is near perfect at
home and I can only imagine a hoot in the live setting.
Carefully manoeuvring itself around the dual landmines of
plagiarism and recognition, the tomes inside this release show
a band well-versed in extreme metal's classic bands though
only the most miserable of bastards could say "The Horror" is
too reminiscent of any one band that it should be written off
as a mere clone.
I'm always wary of praising brand new albums to the sky as
they are untested against the passage of time that is the
undoing of many before them but I genuinely can't find a fault
in "The Horror" and suggest, nay implore, anyone with a
passion for any band I've referenced in this review to buy
"The Horror". What a record.
www.pulverised.net |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
