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Alverg - Elde
(Soulseller Records) Review by Crin |
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Another Norwegian Black Metal act to appear our of thin
air, so to speak. The band had a self titled demo appear in
2003, and this is the first release since. A strange band in
many ways, as they appear on first listen a completely
forgetful entity and yet this orthodox, mostly mid tempo
Black metal that rarely leaves the ‘heard it all before’
path. Play the album more than once and the slow burning
music reveal a quite skilful band setting their own agenda,
albeit straight and narrow in vision. The melodic
abrasiveness of Gorgoroth reflect the style here perfectly,
yet Alverg have a far more accessible sound and some
genuinely solid songs to nod ya head to. It is when you hit
track 5, Syvfold, that this album |
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really shines. The guitar strums and melodic fabric here is
wonderfully rich and it’s a song that most Metal Heads will
fail to dislike. The album in its whole has a rhythmic
guitar style and the guitar is the instrument that all is
built around. There is no keyboard overkill or over complex
arrangements. This is an album with little variance but
played exquisitely well and forged from a very able group of
players. Norwegian Black metal is at times blasé, at others
repetitive. Here is a deceptively endearing album and even
though it wont shatter the world, I recommend it to any fan
of Black Metal.
www.soulsellerrecords.com |
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Arnion - Fall Like Rain
(Retroactive Records) Review by Marco Gaminara |
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This Christian 4 piece from Brazil play 80's style thrash, but
not in the same vein as Believer or Seventh Angel (who
happen to be on the same label), as Pedro Neto's vocals
aren't as unique sounding or heavy. I must admit that I
can't really hear anything happening while listening to
"Intro", but that could be just softly failing rain, so it's
more like a minute's silence before "Visions from Hell" with
guest rhythm guitarist Túlio Caetano takes off, Rinaldo
Macedo's lead as it ends is pretty impressive. If I wasn't
aware that these guys were Christian I would've taken
"Zombies" to be a rather scathing attack on Christianity,
but perhaps that's just my take on the lyrics. Lead vocals
on "Get Ready for the War" and |
"Fall Like Rain" are done by Rafael Teles who sounds rather
different from Pedro, with the latter being slightly
gruffer, so Rafael's vocals have a more thrashy alto to
them. A great rhythm riff is played by Túlio Caetano on
"Regret be Healed", which is slightly heavier and more
aggressive than the others, as is the tempo of Rogério
Paulo's drumming which slows to a steady pounding beat on "Manipulação
S.A.", which is sun in Brazilian Portuguese. Picking the
speed up again to have a far faster thrash feel to it, the
snare drum on "Obtenetration" blasts through everything else
with its sharp cutting sound. Leonardo Araújo's buzzing bass
rumbles below the harmonic guitar riffs on "Human Holocaust"
giving it the bottom end the squealing guitars lack, while
Rinaldo's lead is again impressive. A pretty instrumental in
the form of "Renascitur Ex Cineribus" takes us to the final
track of the album "Whitened Graves" which deals with the
vanity or perhaps glorification of the dead and their
intricate sepulchres, music wise however its rather
effective stop/start arrangement with plenty of sustained
harmonics is rather enjoyable.
There are also seven bonus tracks in the form of the
remastered 2006 Refuge EP, which starts with an impressive
intro in the form of "Prelude" followed by the title track
"Refuge" which is a far deathier affair than the preceding
album, with death vocals and long drawn out growls. I must
admit that I prefer these tracks, even if they are a little
more raw, like the guitars on "Steps in the Dark" which have
a bit of a buzz to them. "Atormentado Um" follows a similar
theme to prelude and is an intro "Human Holocaust" which the
same song as on the album, but without the heavier bass
filling it out as well. The final musical interlude is
"Inferno" before the final track, for the second time is
"Whitened Graves" which again just sounds more raw than the
polished album version, but is just as enjoyable.
www.myspace.com/arnionthrash |
www.RetroactiveRecords.net |
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Black Label Society -
Skullage (Eagle) Review by Metal Mark |
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Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Zakk Wylde started the Black Label
Society back in the 1990's as a side project. Of course that
band has become more than just a project over the years as
it has taken on a life of its own and they have gathered
their own following. Long spaces between Ozzy releases have
allowed Wylde more time to spend with this band. Black Label
Society released "Kings of Damnation" a while back, but it
has been a while so it's not unexpected that they have
brought forth another compilation.
The new CD/DVD Skullage package contains an overwhelming
mountain of material that should satisfy all fans. The CD
actually begins with Machine Gun Man from Wylde's pre- |
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BLS release "Pride and Glory". Then it shoots straight into
the BLS years as we are taken on a journey through time. The
DVD is almost as long as the CD and works as a great
companion piece. It's a mix of live clips, videos and some
odd yet amusing interviews. This package works because it
presents the band in their element. There is nothing forced
or tacked on. We get signature tracks, a fair variety of
tunes and a varied, high quality DVD. This isn't a band I
could listen to every day. There is a definite Ozzy
influence in some of BLS's material and that's fine. However
there were times where I felt like this band could and
should pushed to create a more involved sound. There were
times where they did, but largely they seemed more content
with volume instead of expanding their structure. Still
Wylde makes little pretences about this group. It's
straightforward, leather-clad metal that appeals to a fairly
wide age range. Even if I am not their biggest fan, I am
still very much impressed with this package. |
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Dodsferd - Suicide And
The Rest Of Your Kind Will Follow (Moribund Cult)
By: Dave Schalek |
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The ever prolific Wrath quickly follows up “Death Set The
Beginning Of My Journey”, Dodsferd’s last full-length from
late last year, with yet another full-length. “Suicide And
The Rest Of Your Kind Will Follow” is a departure from the
frenetic, raw, powerfully produced black metal typical of
Dodsferd’s previous output, and instead focuses upon two
long tracks of depressive, suicidal black metal. Each track
consists of one or two droning riffs backed by a moderate,
mid-paced tempo, and howling, tortured vocals that more than
borrow a page from Varg Vikernes’ playbook. In short,
“Suicide…” is essentially “Aske”-era Burzum with a few nods
or two to the suicidal black metal scene in America, most |
notably Xasthur and Judas Iscariot.
The album is reasonably well done, but there’s nothing
wholly original about “Suicide…” The two tracks set the mood
correctly with the droning riffs, howls of agony and so on,
but, frankly, this sort of thing has been done very well
already and Dodsferd doesn’t bring anything new to the
table. To me, the album is a step back from Wrath’s recent
monstrous full-lengths, and I wonder if the sheer quantity
of his output is beginning to detract from the quality.
That said, though, those of you out there into depressive,
droning black metal will at least find “Suicide…”
interesting to listen to, but I doubt that I’ll revisit the
album with nearly the frequency that I do Dodsferd’s prior
output. In a word, eh.
www.moribundcult.com |
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Draven - Eden (CNR Records)
Review by Steve Green |
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Draven are a band influenced by classic English Hard Rock mixed with a
smattering of bands from the Grunge era. By rights, this should be right
up my street, but I don't really like this album at all I'm afraid. Trying to
look at this in a completely objective way, the problems are down to the
vocal style (not necessarily the voice itself) or my general lack of
interest in the songs themselves. The songwriting is unfortunately
verging on mundane as at around the 3 minute mark, some of the songs are
way too short to actually develop into anything approaching interesting.
And hating the interruptions during the first couple of numbers, be it
the over-long sound effects in Blitz or the Native American meets Crazy |
Horses (by The Osmonds) type of war cry in Itchy Finger, really didn't
help form any sort of liking from the very start.
Plus points: Well, this Kevin Shirley produced album does sound
fantastic. Track 5, I Don't Care is a stunning piece of mellow Hard Rock
and the vocal melodies on Home are pretty cool as well. In fact the more
mellow end of the Draven spectrum is where I feel they sound more
natural, but that's still not enough to win me over.
www.myspace.com/dravensville |
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Fractal Gates - Altered
State of Consciousness (Rusty Cage Records)
review by Mat Willcocks |
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There are few simplicities in this modern life that can add
the feeling of greatness to one’s life like discovering a
group that you had never heard before, only to find that
they slot into the top of the list of your favourite bands.
When said band manages to combine two genres of metal not
frequently mixed before, the CD itself will find pride of
place in the stereo of the listener for weeks on end, being
played back to back. Fractal Gates, a relatively little
known band in metal circles, have quite competently managed
to come up with a concoction of Swedish-sounding, melodic
death metal and slick gothic metal. |
Draconian Times-era Paradise Lost is quite clearly an
influence on this French band, a very sympathetic compliment
to that classic mid ‘90s album with harmonic leads swimming
over power chord riffs. Wonderfully married up with the
charging Insomnium like thrashings, it is difficult to
comprehend why so few bands have chosen to flitter between
genres so confidently and energetically like Fractal Gates.
Regrettably, despite the 14 tracks listed, only 9 are full
tracks, being filled out by 5 instrumentals. The title track
and ‘The Eclipse’ are stand out tracks, though that is
comparable to picking out some Very Very Goods from a pile
of Very Goods. Quite whether Rusty Cage Records promote
these guys with the attention they deserve is not yet
measurable, but France can now count one of their own as one
of the freshest-sounding groups in Europe at the moment.
www.fractal-gates.com |
www.rustycagerecords.com |
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Hatesphere - To The
Nines (Napalm) Review by Metal Mark |
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Hatesphere went through several changes on their way to
releasing this their sixth album. Guitarist Peter Lyse
Hansen cleared the bench and recruited new band members.
They changed record labels going from SPV/Steamhammer to
Napalm. Finally, yes they changed their sound to some extent
which wasn’t too surprising given the line-up changes. The
thrash sound is more limited although present at times. The
influences are far more early-mid 1990’s as opposed to late
80’s thrash. The main band I hear is Pantera although
Hatesphere push the boundaries a bit so it’s not all that
basic. The sound is bold plus it’s clear and heavy without
getting too tied down. It’s good, but my attention was
frequently |
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drifting off. I think that is in large part to a lack
interesting twists. Once you have heard a minute of each
song you pretty much know what’s going to happen during the
course of the entire track. Perhaps Hansen reached a point
where he was tired with the direction the band was taking.
That’s understandable, but the new direction is less
adventurous and frequently less memorable than some of their
previous efforts. A decent effort if it’s a beginning rather
than the peak they hope to reach.
www.napalmrecords.com |
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