Live 4 Metal - Reviews

Adversary - Singularity (Trustkill) Review by Steve Green
	It doesn't matter what I think of this album, whether it's good or bad, whether Aversary are doing something new or simply rehashing old ideas, I think it'll divide opinions right down down the middle. You see, Adversary, on this their debut album, veer too close to forbidden waters, ones which the true Metal fraternity, myself included, don't like. Ok, here's the deal. Take a healthy dose of pure American Metal, add to that a whole bunch of Scandinavian Metal influences, worn on the sleeve for good measure and add a touch, scrap that, make it a big fuck off dollop of clean vocals, the type which are not uncommon amongst the Metalcore brigade. And there lies the problem. One ingredient
which will trigger a whole bunch of potential fans to immediately switch off. Let me play devils advocate here. Frontman William Clapp has a fantastic set of pipes. I love the way he switches styles and his clean voice is absolutely fantastic, but I doubt I'll ever be a fan of the style. I'm too old to change my ways, so I guess that leaves the appeal to the younger Metal fans out there. The ones that don't mind their Metal diluted. There's plenty of clout as far as the music is concerned and the high level of musicianship and song writing make it pretty obvious to why Trustkill signed them in the first place. It's just those damn clean vocals... If you have any doubts, then try before you buy. Fans of Killswitch Engage and the like will probably just lap this up straight away. www.trustkill.com

Alley - The Weed (Bad Mood Man Music) Review by Ellis Woolley
	With a moniker like theirs, a logo font that reminds me of the style used on 1950s American diners and a band photo on their Metal Archives page that looks doesn't look unlike Hanson used to (in my mind), little did I expect Russians Alley to be a Soviet Opeth clone. In my work as a reviewer the band I undoubtedly hear most in other musicians work is Opeth, where some might use elements of their free-flowing long song structures interspersed with soft, and heavy, sections to create an alternate style. Alley however have seemingly done away with trying to make anything different from it; instead happy to do exactly Opeth do and leave it at that. Thankfully I love all Opeth, especially their darker,
older material and 'The Weed', Alley's debut release, is done with sincere conviction and aptitude to not be a huge problem. After a droning introduction, from 'Coldness' and 'Dust Layer' on there is so little to separate 'The Weed' from an album like 'My Arms, Your Hearse' that I hardly need explain the style on offer here to anyone who knows Opeth (which is everyone, I hope). Points worth noting are the uncanny similarity between the clean vocals of Andrey Evtugin and Mikael Åkerfeldt, which though used less frequently than on recent Opeth outings still show the man has confidence in his pipes. 'Hessian Of Rime' utilises these clean vocals with a tendency for the choir effect in its heavier moments and when required in likes of 'Fading Fall', the occasional whisper of compassion to accompany the softly softly approach in how to clone another band. 'Dust Layer' has a jazzier feel than even some of what the Swedes have to offer and with the final 3 songs being 10+ minutes, Alley don't exactly hurry to reach a song's crescendo. Frequently starting slowly and building up the tempo to glimpses of intense drama, the songs don't follow a conventional pattern, lacking a defined verse-chorus-verse structure like said other band resulting in an album that will take a few listens to fully integrate oneself into. The production is very heavy and punchy with a nice level afforded to the bass in particular that really couldn't leave anyone short-changed who knew what they would be getting themselves into with a purchase of this album. This is a record from a young band with great potential in their musicianship, and if you are able to accept the staggering similarity to one of today's metal giants, there is much to enjoy in it, but for Alley to go far more individuality is going to be required so that future reviews won't be blighted by the usage of another band's name quite so intensively as this one. www.solitude-prod.com

Black Altar - Death Fanaticism (Odium Rex Records) Review by Crin
	Polish Black Metal is without doubt one of the last bastions of what this music is all about, pure underground, untouched by the mainstream poison. Black Altar have been around since 1996, [this is their second album] and play a smokey Gorgoroth/ Marduk style of Blackened terror. The music is thoughtful, controlled and fired from an icy guitar storm, thick with riffs and fury strums. This is far from the minimalisms of the Beheirt School of orthodoxy, here we are offered a more flowing, intricate set of songs that bite onto the melodic form of Gehenna and Helheim, yet never rely on overkill keyboards to achieve the final result. The keys are set as a backdrop in some arrangements so the full rugged force
of the guitars is never watered down. This is by no means wimpy music as the speed and overall frozen atmosphere generated by the raging compositions anchor the album firmly in the grizzled ice entombed music so well ordained by the aforementioned Gods of the genre.

Black Messiah - The First War of the World (AFM Records) review by Sam Thomas
	Black Messiah are an intriguing outfit from (as far as I can ascertain) Germany, who began life four albums ago as a pure black metal band. Now, with the advent of their fourth CD, The First War of the World, they’ve morphed into a pagan/Viking combo, and have produced that most difficult to get right works, the dreaded concept album. Last time I heard one in this particular style it was Turisas’ dismal second offering, The Varangian Way. OK, so I’m not a big fan of the concept album. And this one in particular seems to have a fairly dodgy provenance. Imagine, if you will, the end of an evening with your mates,
indulging in various (il)licit substances. Someone decides to play an old copy of Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds. And, spontaneously, you all get the great idea that you could produce a pagan concept album about the struggles at the beginning of the world, and call it The First War of the World. You could even have some Richard Burton style narration between tracks… Hopefully, the idea will be forgotten in the chaos of the next day’s monumental hangover… Well, obviously I have no idea as to whether this is how it really happened. And Black Messiah do have the capability to pull this one off, if anyone does. The album does, in fact, get off to a brilliant start, with a very quick paced folky couple of tracks, reminiscent of Finntroll or Ensiferum. But it loses a bit of pace mid-stream, with some rather long, more symphonic tracks which seem to go on for ever. And the narrative segments seem to be bizarrely recorded at a different volume to the rest of the album, which leads to you either jumping out of your seat each time one comes on, or having the rest of the album sound as though it’s being performed down the road somewhere. All this leads to it being a rather difficult one to enjoy listening to, which is a bit of a shame because there’s nothing intrinsically wrong with any of the individual parts of this, it’s just that there’s such a contrast of styles (folk does not sit well with bombastic symphonic metal in my book) and recording levels, that this is just uneven. And it’s way too long, there is no flow to keep you entertained. Or to put it another way, guys: size does matter. www.black-messiah.de \| www.afm-records.de

Cemetery of Scream - Frozen Images (Metal Mind Productions) review by Sam Thomas
	I haven’t had the pleasure of encountering Krakow’s Cemetery of Scream before, and all I can say is I’ve obviously been missing out! I’m a sucker for anything dark and atmospheric, and this drips intensity and melancholy, rather like a bittersweet dark chocolate cake. I love everything about this album, from the title, which could suggest either images captured for posterity, or pictures of cold, barren landscapes, to the artwork, with its understated, grainy monochrome misery. Marcin Kotas’ vocals are in the same range as Moonspell’s Fernando Ribeiro’s (definite bonus for me), but the lyrics are less basic than that band’s, covering a wide array of
topics, from the bog standard vampire symbolism through to the Lewis Carroll inspiration behind third track, “Cat’s Grin”. OK, his works have been used before as inspiration (Jefferson Airplane spring immediately to mind), but it’s still good to see something a little out of the ordinary cropping up every now and again. The whole feel of this album is very dark, and doom-laden, but without being what I would classify as a doom album. In fact, there are several tracks that are downright catchy, and the whole album is an absolute pleasure to listen to from beginning to end. This was nearly its downfall, I was enjoying listening to it so much that I didn’t really want to get round to reviewing it … There are symphonic passages, vaguely Eastern influences, quiet moments of melancholy melody, all leading up to the final track which is a cover version of “Nights in White Satin” that is, quite simply, perfect. And I say that as someone who loved the original. Frozen Images is a perfect example of how a carefully constructed album can remain within its genre, and yet constantly have something new and interesting to say. It is a work of dark, ethereal beauty, whose appeal derives from its entirety, not simply from one facet of the whole. There is a great deal of passion in this recording, but it has been controlled and harnessed to produce a truly outstanding work of cold darkness. Unbeatable. www.cemeteryofscream.com \| www.metalmind.com.pl

Egoist - Ultra-Selfish Revolution (Selfmadegod) Review by Steve Green
	Beware, absolute stinker alert. This is the type of album that should be filed under "why?". Why did someone think to write and record such tuneless drivel and why did someone else then think it good enough to warrant a cd release? Egoist is a one man project by Stanislaw Wolonciej, and he got the band name and album title spot on as I'm sure he made this album for himself and no-one else. From a distance he has a sort of Mike Patton look about him and this self indulgent crap, which makes even Frank Zappa's worst albums sound tuneful, is the sort of nonsense I'd expect from a Mr Bungle type side project from the Faith No More singer.
A short review, this may be, but I only last 5 songs and I pressed the skip button in each of them. Fellow L4M scribe Dave Schalek also received this cd, and I bet I heard more of it than him. This album is truly awful. Avoid. www.myspace.com/egoistpoland

Gnaw - This Face (Conspiracy Records) By: Dave Schalek
	Here’s one for the people who just can’t get enough of the good feelings emanating from such acts as Diagnose: Lebensgefahr and Gnaw Their Tongues (not the same band as what’s being reviewed here). This time around, the hilarity is provided by Gnaw, an experiment in blackened doom/ noise brought to us by ex-Khanate vocalist Alan Dubin along with some friends from such legendary funeral doom acts as Burning Witch, Atavist, and so on. “This Face” is the debut from this project and is released on Conspiracy Records, and can
best be summarized as a mix of the extreme doom of Thorr’s Hammer, Burning Witch, and so on with the out and out caterwauling of the insanity of Diagnose Lebensgefahr, but with a more traditional structure. The end result is a cascade of bass, piano, unnamed “things”, screams, chants, and bizarre percussion that aimlessly drifts in and out of some hints of structure. A soundtrack to insanity is an apt description for “This Face”, as you’d be hard pressed to describe this as music. In the end, “This Face” is definitely not going to be everyone’s cup of tea, as the album is a challenging listen, to say the least. However, taken in very small, measured doses (“This Face” is quite long, though, detracting from its effectiveness) Gnaw does become an interesting experiment in blackened noise. Enter at your own risk. www.conspiracyrecords.com

Infernal Kingdom - The Black Throne of Hell (Frentruropa) Review by Crin
	Technically proficient and haranguing Black Metal from Portugal. Here we have a very vicious yet endearing album for fans of Dissections ‘Storm of the Lights Bane’. Imagine the spitting vehemence of Marduk boiled in a cauldron of Dissection riffermania. It’s a style not often played to its potential but here we have a very fine band managing to rip through complete arrangements at lightning speed and more often than not, making them interesting and enjoyable. Not every Black Metal related release causes a brain haemorrhage that you are pleased to receive, but once and a while it occurs. Infernal Kingdom rumble from a vicious guitar, drum and vocal onslaught to hack away at your senses and there is little
respite in the aural blitzkrieg I can assure you. Fast, precise and constantly ear battering music that cascades out of the speakers in a torrent of full on power and caustic Blackened intent. The Dissection connection is one of accelerated angst, amplified desperation and kidney pummelling glee. The sheer force of this bands aural meltdown will shred you into mincemeat. The cover is black and white, the band are corpse painted hounds of woe and the music is likewise: A two tone trip into the very arse of pandemonium. Fuck!! It's good.