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Destroy Destroy Destroy - Battle
Sluts (Blackmarket Activities) Review by Steve Green |
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Taking the band name and album title into consideration, I was expecting a
tongue in cheek variety of Battle/Fantasy Metal a la UK Metal nutters
Conquest of Steel. I made a good call on the genre, (bar the parody
aspect) but this is a lot heavier and harder hitting than I expected.
As with many a US Metal band, they take their cues from Scandinavia, with
early Children of Bodom being the most obvious influence to me, throw in a
symphonic edge, borrowed from Within Temptation, mix in the occasional
burst of Pantera style toughness and just a hint of Pirate Metal and have
a vocalist, who in texture at least, has a similar delivery to |
Dani Filth,
but without the high pitched shrieks and you have Destroy Destroy Destroy
in a nutshell.
The air of familiarity does make this a very easy listen. You can pick
bits out of every song and the comparisons are obvious and plentiful, but
that doesn't stop this being a good listen. They sure as hell know how to
crank it up (to 11, naturally) and I'm sure in the live environment
they'll be a blast to watch, but that's about as far as any praise from me
goes. Damn good at what they do, but they're not exactly doing anything
original or challenging.
www.myspace.com/destroydestroydestroy |
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Hammered - Gut Rot
(Self-produced) Review by Metal Mark |
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Back around 1986-87 I thought thrash was the height of metal
and I thought it would stay on top for a long time. I was
obviously short sited in that judgement. However, there must
have been something to the music because here we are twenty
plus years later and another wave of thrash acts are popping up
everywhere. So is the case with Wisconsin's Hammered. They
throw on their black band shirts, strap on studded bracelets
and crank out the blasting thrash with a hint of crossover.
They draw inspiration from Kreator, Exodus, early Metallica,
Nuclear Assault, post "Dealing With It" DRI and even
some bursts of Iron Maiden. Hammered haul out tight-fisted
thrash of the chugging variety. This is not an entirely overly
creative, but quite simply it's thrash the way it was meant to
be. It's |
fast, spontaneous and to the point. That's a lot of what I
look for in a thrash album. The guitars are sharp and cutting
when needed, but there are a couple of smooth solos tossed in
there as well. The vocals are kind of a barking style that
served the purpose, but they are limited in range. The music
sounds like they have the ability to grow, but I am not so
sure that the vocals can grow to the same level. The topics
presented here include war, insanity, psychotic killers and
turning into zombies as the result of drinking some toxic
ooze. I don't know if this reflects the idea of writing about
what you know, but they seem comfortable with the material.
"Gut Rut" is a simple thrash effort that gets the job done in
fine, head banging fashion and hints at some potential to do
even more if they push themselves.
www.myspace.com/hammeredmetal
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Leif Edling - Songs of Torment, Songs of Joy
(Candlelight USA) Review by Chris Davison |
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Candlemass. Inescapable for Leif Edling, I suspect. While
massively influential in the realms of the be-doomed, the
Swedish outfit are second only to Black Sabbath themselves. As
the main songwriter, much of the decisions and welfare of that
seminal crew has rested on his shoulders. Any band with as
much history is likely to cause debate among fans. Which
version of Candlemass do you like best? Are you a fan of Mark
1 (Epicus)? Can't you abide anything other than Mark 2
(Messiah Marcollin years)? Do you deny the much under rated
trio of Chapter 6, Dactylis Glomerata and From the 13th Sun?
It's not that Leif hasn't branched out before, of course, most
notably with the Abstrakt |
Algebra outfit and with “supergroup”
Krux. The thing is, Candlemass have such a heavy legacy that
they always seem to pull him back, whether he likes it or not.
Now reaping the benefits of recruiting probably the definitive
voice of doom today, Robert Lowe (Solitude Aeturnus – and hey,
I love Messiah's voice, but Lowe is just THE MAN), it seems
like an odd time for Mr Edling to release his first true solo
effort.
So, given the space and time to write everything on an album
of his very own, what has he elected to give us? Well, you
might think that a man responsible for umpteen doom classics,
playing doom music on tour every year and writing doom music
in his side bands might want a change. You'd be wrong of
course. As amusing as it might seem to have an album of
country and western tracks composed by the bass wunderkid or
up-beat electro, he's decided to stay in doom county. The
first big shock is that the voice is supplied by the man
himself. While it's fair to say that Rob Lowe isn't going to
be shaking like a shitting dog worrying that he's going to be
usurped in their day-band, he doesn't disgrace himself either.
For the most part, his singing is more like a spoken rasp
while filtered through some subtle electronic effects. It's a
creepy, atmospheric voice which compliments the music here
perfectly. As a completely lazy and quick and easy comparison,
I'd say that by and large, this could have been the album that
followed “From the 13th Sun”, especially on the more
futuristic, electronica infused numbers like the sprawling “On
The Edge of Time”, in which the crunching, monolithic riffage
is accompanied by tasteful keyboards and other sci-fi bleepage.
Other tracks, like the utterly killer “My Black Birthday” have
an almost My Dying Bride sense of gothic despair about them
through the organ, sounding like Saint Paul's Cathedral given
over to a bunch of miserable Swedish bastards not enamoured
with their birthday gifts.
It's not all perfect, by any means. There's a fairly pointless
(and short) bass solo entitled “Butterly”, which has me
reaching for the keys “W”, “T” and “F” on my mental keyboard,
and some of the songs are a trifle devoid of character, with
the organ being a little too high in the mix at the expense of
the guitar sound from time to time. I also suspect that those
of us who aren't avid fans of all things Leif Edling might be
a little non-plussed by it, but that being said, I don't think
that this is anything other than an exercise of playing music
which was generally voted “do not want” by the average
Candlemass crowd back in 1999. As it goes, I'm happy with all
periods of Candlemass, and so songs in the broad vein of the
band from their 98-99 timescale sit well with me. Great,
atmospheric doom, by and large, and a little different from
the average “doomed wizard” or “stoned loser” dirge being
pumped out in vast quantities by the modern crop of also-rans.
www.myspace.com/leifedling |
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Maelstrom - It Was Predestined
(Perfect Storm) Review by Metal Mark |
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New York's Maelstrom have been around since the 1980's. That
fits as all three tracks on this EP reach back to the days of
early power metal and early thrash. All three songs sound like
they could have been done around 1985. The opener "Arise" is
simple, epic stomper with a mix of both high pitch and lower,
rough vocals. This one reminds me of pre-major label Manowar,
only heavier. The production seems a little thin around the
edges though. "A Futile Crusade" follows and the sound is
thicker and much more rich. It's a mid-paced effort that's
deeply influenced by the early days of power metal. The closer
is "Predestined" is a full on head-banging assault. This one
revolves around massive riffs and |
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pounding beats. The solos fly in and help elevate the song as
well. This is a likable, if unoriginal EP. Each track is
better than the one before so saving the best for last helps
"It was predestined" to end on a high note. Here's hoping they
get around to putting out a full length effort in the near
future. I would certainly be interested in hearing what they
could create when given more time to fill.
www.myspace.com/metalmaelstrom |
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Malefice - Dawn of Reprisal
(Metal Blade Records)
By: Dave Schalek |
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Malefice are a British five-piece playing melodic death metal
with some thrash metal crunch on their second full-length,
entitled “Dawn of Reprisal” and released on Metal Blade
Records. “Dawn of Reprisal” has all of the requisite elements
of the genre; that is, crunch-laden riffing, a variation of
pacing but not going so far as all out blasts, typical growls,
and moments of melody through guitars rather than through
keyboards. In addition, Malefice are competent musicians and
obviously know their way around their instruments.
The main problem with “Dawn of Reprisal” is the fact that
we’ve all heard albums like this a million times over from so
many bands over the years. Regardless of the competence of the
musicianship from Malefice, unfortunately, the songwriting is
average at best and |
there’s really nothing to distinguish the band from so many
other acts playing in this genre. There are definitely a few
interesting moments and riffs sprinkled throughout “Dawn of
Reprisal”, as a couple of the songs are quite good; but,
ultimately, the album is quickly forgotten as one is given the
distinct impression that you’re mostly listening to filler
material.
Other than that, I’m afraid, there’s not much else to say.
There’s certainly some promise demonstrated by Malefice on
“Dawn of Reprisal”, but Malefice will be very quickly
forgotten without a major overhaul in the songwriting
department. In a word, eh.
www.myspace.com/malefice
| www.metalblade.com |
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Mantic Ritual - Executioner
(Nuclear Blast)
By: Dave Schalek |
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Not to be outdone by Century Media’s supposed coup in signing
the current retro-thrash revival’s favorite sons, Warbringer,
Nuclear Blast jumps on the retro-thrash bandwagon and snatches
up Pittsburgh upstarts Mantic Ritual. Nuclear Blast then flies
Mantic Ritual over the pond to record the band’s debut
full-length, the eternally generically titled “Executioner”,
and gets the album released as fast as they possibly can. They
needn’t have bothered.
“Executioner” is just about everything that’s wrong with the
current thrash revival. Totally generic second tier thrash
with recycled riffs, a rather weak sound, and vocals that rip
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Katon W. DePena and Sean Killian. Five seconds into the
album, I knew exactly what I was in for and there were
absolutely no surprises. “Executioner” comes across as a
rather poor version of some of the frenetic thrash of the Bay
Area scene, such as that of Vio-lence, along with a bit of a
crossover influence wholly reminiscent of Hirax. If done well
(i.e. Municipal Waste), this would all be fine and good, but
Mantic Ritual are utterly pedestrian and fade from memory
(luckily) very quickly. OK, there are a few decent riffs and
hooks, as you might expect from musicians who could at least
play their instruments, but not very many as the overall
impression of the entire album is that it consists almost
entirely of filler material from classic Bay Area acts.
OK, I am being pretty harsh on Mantic Ritual. After all, this
is the debut full-length from a band less than a year old
playing a beloved genre that is difficult to stake out a claim
of any originality. But, there is plenty of good thrash out
there already for you to spend your money on, and Mantic
Ritual, at the moment, just can’t compete.
www.myspace.com/manticritual
| www.nuclearblast.de |
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Mely - Portrait of a Porcelain Doll
(Silverwolf Productions) Review by Mat Willcocks |
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According to the band’s website “In 1999 the common passion of
creating music led the Corinthian members of "Mely" together”.
Despite much looking on wikipedia and Google, I’m still not
sure what this means. Still, it sounds better than “...jammed
on Metallica and Anthrax covers in the garage of the drummer’s
mum’s garage in Milton Keynes”...
Though seemingly very much unknown, certainly outside of their
native Austria, a creative talent is present here. If you are
willing to listen to a blend of mid-period Katatonia,
dark-period Pink Floyd and slow-period Amorphis, then this is
well worth a listen. Initially coming across as very much a
band who rarely come out of first gear, one becomes |
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accustomed to the style. Just don’t expect time changes and
flourishes of guitars. Most accessible song is the 3 minute
“Grown For Doom”, emerging at track 2, though “Maybe
Yesterday” is by far the standout track, particularly with the
bridge and outro
leading the song out. This will prove a difficult listen to
those metal fans who like their listening experience to be an
exercise in pace, aggression and technicality, so for Mely to
bring out a slow-paced stomper of a record, laced with
soundscapes and other such emotive aspects, their audience
will prove to be a minimal one. And with that in mind, Mely
can feel safe and smug in the knowledge that they haven’t
compromised any of their integrity in the release of their
latest effort.
www.silverwolf-productions.com
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Neon Synthesis - Alchemy of Rebirth
(Killer Pool Records)
review by Sam Thomas |
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It’s always a good thing when the subliminal messages that you
pick up from the packaging are reflected in the music
contained within: in the case of Neon Synthesis there’s such
an expectation from the name (cyber goth, synth-laden dance
rhythms) and the band pix (very arty, but no PVC) that you’re
almost expecting the music to be “true black metal” in some
kind of ironic statement. Fortunately, these Italians (could
have guessed that from the photos alone), deliver a very
well-produced album which is somewhere between Deathstars meet
the anarchy of The Kovenant (more recent works) with a good
touch of melancholy thrown in to alleviate the overall frantic
nature of the piece. |
Or, in other words, this is
where industrial meets up with
techno/dance and comes out on top. The problem is, the end
product is one of the catchiest things I’ve heard in ages,
which can be a bit embarrassing when listening to it on
headphones…I’ve never claimed to be a singer, and now everyone
at home knows why…Johnny Thyper provides vocals which range
from distorted, tortured growls through to a very light, clean
sound, and also manages to cover what seems quite a wide
variation in pitch. The programming, is of course, absolutely
central to the whole sound – I’d hazard a guess that this
might well be the first part of each track to be laid down,
and as you ought to expect from this type of sound, the
production is crystal clear and extremely tight.
The album manages to pull off that most difficult of balancing
acts – being a coherent whole without being a boring rehash of
the same track over and over again – with ease, keeping the
interest going right through to the last track. The style is
original without being so far removed from a lot of bands that
you just wonder what the hell is going on, making this release
a positive pleasure to listen to. Checking on the band’s
website, I was blown away to discover that this is their
official debut album, and in fact they have only produced one
self released album previously. Given that that is the case, I
would describe this as being absolutely outstanding and
incredibly mature. “Artificial Paradise” in particular stands
out as being an amazingly sophisticated piece of layered
melancholy.
This is a stunning debut album, a near-perfect meshing of
industrial and techno music with a depressing vision of a
journey through life. Can’t think when I was last this
impressed by an album from such a new band…
www.neonsynthesis.com
| www.killerpoolrecords.com |
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Razor of Occam - Homage to Martyrs
(Metal Blade) Review by Chris Davison |
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Razor of Occam don't piss about on Homage to Martyrs. Within
mere seconds of opener “Altar of Corruption” booming from the
speakers, there's a face-ripping solo, war drums being
thrashed to submission and a croaking, rasped vocal track
being unleashed. It's the aural equivalent of having a visitor
to your doorstep just punching you in the throat once you've
asked them what they want – direct, violent and fucking
satisfying.
I have to get this off my chest, however. As a piece of
blackened thrash metal, I was immediately thinking, “this
doesn't half sound like Destroyer 666”. Imagine what an utter
n00b I felt when upon checking the mighty god google, it
transpired that half the band are |
also in that superior warlike thrash outfit. To be absolutely
honest with you, other than being a touch more bestial and
unrelenting than that outfit, there isn't a huge amount to separate them. Sure,
Homage to Martyrs plays a little more free and easy with the
frequent (and excellent) guitar solos, and also sounds rather
more in touch with black metal. It's a treble heavy,
unrelenting thrash metal monster, with tracks like the aptly
titled “Heat of Battle” a little like being on the receiving
end of a merciless curb-stomp.
It's a thrilling listen, for sure, and all that unrestrained
aggression and utter intensity leads to a commanding listen.
The vocals, as ever, are rasped and hate filled, while the
guitars wail somewhere between black metal fury and Slayerised
wailing. The simple fact is this – if you like the
unrepentant, hate fuelled vitriol of Destroyer 666, you're
going to lap this bastard up.
www.metalblade.com |
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Zippo - The Road To Knowledge
(Subsound Records) Review by Steve Green |
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If you want this review laid out in front of you in the simplest term
possible, then this is a laidback affair that flirts around the outer
limits of Stoner Rock. If you want the full picture, then you have to
delve a lot deeper as this album deserves a lot more of your time than
just a casual listen.
The Road To Knowledge is a concept album built around the 1968 book by Carlos Castaneda,
'The Teachings of Don Juan' which is a a true report of his experiences
with a Yaqui Indian shaman, who, according to my research, are a Native
American tribe from the northern regions of Mexico and from Arizona in the
US. And I think it's fair to say that
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Zippo's music does possess a certain mystical feel. From the
mesmerising rhythms of the title track through full-on bouts
of psychedelia, to laidback bouts of melodic bliss and
gentle acoustics, The Road To Knowledge is a very enjoyable journey. At
times the sound is jagged and off-kilter, with the Stoner elements coming
to the fore, but this is tempered by Davide Straccione's smooth tones,
which, for comparison purposes of this review, aren't a million miles away
from Eddie Vedder's circa Temple Of The Dog. And if I may be so bold, I'd
probably throw a bit of Badmotorfinger era Soundgarden into the equation
as well.
If, like myself, you are fed up with the barrage of substandard shit
that's constantly being released by shoddy record labels who give no
thought to the quality of their bands, then this is the perfect antidote.
Intelligent, well thought-out music is hard to come by these days, so grab
this baby with both hands and don't let go.
Discover more via:
www.myspace.com/zippomusic |
www.subsoundrecords.it
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