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Fool’s Game - Reality Divine
(Cruz Del Sur)
By: Joe Florez |
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I had no idea about this project until I received the link
to download and listen to this. (Yep people, the time has
come for no more jewel case promos sent to your mail and due
to the bad economy downloads are the way we scribes will be
going until the end of time.) At any rate, my eyes began to
pop when I saw who was involved. This is a Euro/American
project of epic proportions. Guitarist/bassist Matt Crooks
from the American band Division came up with this piece of
work. Fellow Americans drum God John Macaluso was brought on
as well as Redemption’s Nick van Dyk on keys, and Pharaoh’s
Matt Johnsen on the six stringer as well and fleshed out by
Danish vocalist Lars F. Larsen of |
Manticora. Now with that
all set, let’s move on.
This is a progressive/power/old
school metal unification that doesn’t sound dated by any
means and is fresh in the creativity department. I have to
say that at first listen I wasn’t all that into it because
it sounded too old school for me or something. I don’t know.
I just believe that I wasn’t in the mood for this. So, as
with all things, I gave it a second spin and slowly the disc
and myself became one. The first track “Mass Psychosis” was
an ear opener. The riffs were tight and meaty and they
contained some nice melodies. The rhythm section was spot on
too. John refuses to miss a beat. This one is technical, but
not too over the top. The bass pluckings nicely compliment
the song. Now, Lars has an incredible set of pipes. He’s a
crooner to the max, but he sings with passion. He also has a
deep voice to boot. As the song progresses, I’m hearing
these growls that come from nowhere. Dude, this is nuts. The
bio says that Tim Aymay from Pharaoh guests on here too and
I will take it that it’s him. “When The Beginning Meets The
End” is another heavyweight with more power and elegant
keyboard finger work that doesn’t overstay its welcome, but
hot damn the choruses are rich and lush and can fill the
room with warmth. This disc was just a welcomed surprise for
me and as each track kicked in, I wondered will the hot
streak continue or slowly begin to fizzle. I’m happy to
report that this was a strong release from top to bottom
with no weaknesses. Sure, it took me a while to get the hang
of it, but once I was into to it it was over for me. I
was/am hooked. This is my third time spinning this and I
still can’t get enough. The musicianship is beyond top notch
and there is definitely something in here for everyone. If
you’re a fan of any of the genres mentioned above or just
like good music, then this is a can’t miss.
www.cruzdelsurmusic.com
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www.myspace.com/foolsgameband |
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God Dethroned - Passiondale
(Metal Blade) review by Sam Thomas |
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There are always some bands that, for no apparent reason,
produce thoroughly decent albums year after year, and yet
never quite achieve the recognition they deserve. Whilst
others, of course, deserve nothing and achieve everything.
Dutch death metallers God Dethroned have so far fallen
resolutely into the first category. Passiondale is their
eighth release, and they have continued to improve with
time, rather like a fine wine.
Passiondale is described by the band as a concept album, and
I have to admit that if you’re going to have a death metal
concept album, the brutality of WW1 is as good a place as
any to make a start. Apparently, the idea came to Henri
Sattler whilst driving |
through the area around Ypres on his
way to (numerous) drinking sessions...
The best way that I can describe the overall feel of this
album is to imagine Johan Hegg ditching the Viking theme for
WW1 and ratcheting down the brutality of Amon Amarth
slightly, adding in some (alarmingly) good guitars. Or, to
put it another way, increase the melodic content (but don’t
get carried away and start thinking Gothenburg!) and
catchiness, and decrease the brutality from “The Lair of the
White Worm”, and you should be about there.
Listening to the lyrics shows a depth of research that is
refreshing to see, and there are some horribly evocative
tracks – “Poison Fog” is pretty gruesome, as is “Drowning in
Mud”. Highest praise has to be reserved, however for the
title track, “Passiondale”, which evokes the absolute
hopelessness of a situation where the casualty rate was
beyond anything imaginable. It’s utterly creepy to find such
subject matter being described as “catchy”, but it
undoubtedly is just that.
This is an excellent example of death metal at its most
thought-provoking, and it’s technically superb as well. This
will be a hard act to follow.
www.goddethroned.com
| www.metalblade.com |
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Infernal Stronghold - Godless Noise
(Forcefield Records)
By: Dave Schalek |
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Here’s a bit of a strange one. The oddly named Infernal
Stronghold (they used to just call themselves Stronghold)
are a quartet from Philly and play a seamless hybrid of old
school hardcore and fast, filthy black metal. However, the
one photograph of the band that I’ve seen would immediately
pigeonhole them as a deathcore band at best, or some wimpy
“boy band” at worst. Non-band t-shirts, shorts, emo-style
haircuts, screaming into a microphone in someone’s garage
after school, you name it. Goofiness aside, Infernal
Stronghold sort of take the blackened punk template from
Darkthrone with all of the black metal filthiness in place
and kick up the pace a notch. Add a bit of a snarl to the
rasped |
shouts, some tremolo picking galore, a rather messy
production, and voila! Blackened punk ‘n roll at your
service!
“Godless Noise”, the band’s sophomore full-length, is 26
minutes of the aforementioned hybrid with generally short
songs. At times, the mix works quite well as most of the
band’s music, frankly, leans more towards noisy, raw black
metal with plenty of speed more than anything else.
Reasonably well played, well written short songs blow by
quickly but there’s nothing here that you haven’t heard
before, and done a million times better.
In the end, Infernal Stronghold have some promise, but they
really need to ditch the identity crisis fast if they’re
hoping to gain some notice amongst genre fans.
www.myspace.com/infernalstronghold
| www.forcefieldrecords.org
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Malfeitor - Incubus
(Agonia Records)
By: Dave Schalek |
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Black metal with a decidedly Swedish bent is the bread and
butter of Italy’s Malfeitor. Malfeitor, a quartet from Rome,
play reasonably well done fast black metal reminiscent of
the raw, early days of blast away Swedish giants Dark
Funeral and Marduk.
Malfeitor’s members are no strangers to black metal, with
connections to such projects as Aborym. However, Malfeitor
essentially have no traces of industrial tinged influences
as those present in Aborym, but, rather, play straight away,
traditional Swedish black metal on “Incubus”, the band’s
second full-length. Combining a raw sound with plenty of
fast blasts, a certain degree of catchiness, moments of
melody, vocals taken straight from |
Gaahl’s playbook, and
Malfeitor find themselves firmly rooted in Scandinavian
black metal.
As is the case with a lot of second tier bands, Malfeitor
tend to their craft with good musicianship and variation to
the songwriting, but, as usual, there’s nothing really
original about “Incubus”. The album is rather quickly
forgotten after you’ve enjoyed listening to it, and there
are lots of heavyweight competitors out there that have
perfected this sound many times over.
However, “Incubus” is a well done album in the style, and
tracking down the album is a worthwhile pursuit as you
eagerly await Dark Funeral’s next opus.
www.myspace.com/malfeitor666
| www.agoniarecords.com
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March Funébre - Norizon
(Self Release) Reviewed by Steve Earles |
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After a very weird intro, this very Edgar Allan Poe-inspired
EP opens with the dirge-metal chords of The Silent Watcher.
Poe is a huge inspiration on this release, which is as it
should be, right down to the use of Ravens in the EP
artwork. The band are not afraid to dig deep into their
psyches, with lyrics like “The Pain of the news
bites/Searing through my heart/The hate never did fully mask
the love/I watched with every move/Cried with your
cries/Loathed your enemies/Loathed your friends/Aching From
Your Joy. Musically it’s like a cross between Dream Death
and Celtic Frost, which is no bad thing. On Benighted, there
is more of an Iommi influence, with a touch of early
Cathedral “Benighted by |
nocturnal magick/ I dwell to meet a
creature most divine”. Very heavy! The highlight of Norizon
is On Wings of Azrael, an awesome and ambitious track
inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s haunting “Ligeia”, that has to
be heard to believe, very much in the vein of Celtic Frost
circa “Into The Pandemonium”, this is beyond song-writing
and into the realm of story-telling-“The orchestra breaths
fitfully/The music of the spheres.”
Incorporated on this track are elements of early death metal
like Autopsy, and when the pace accelerates even thrash, but
mainly its doom all the way. “Man, its hero the Conqueror
Worm.”
A fine debut EP, I can’t wait to see what Marche Funébre can
do on a full length album!
www.myspace.com/marchefunebretheband |
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Planar Evil - Mankind Way of Life
(MDD) Review by Chris Davison |
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Woaaaah! In celebration of the true spirit of 1980s thrash,
I have decided to make myself as close to the incarnation of
me that truly loved that music back in the day. Obviously, I
can’t get younger, but I have starved myself to half my body
weight, un-learned everything I have subsequently gained in
wisdom, and burned pretty much all my worldly possessions.
I’ve also become unpleasant to anyone that denies that
thrash can change the world. Yes reader, I’m fourteen again.
Alas, if I was going to write this review as a fourteen year
old again, I’d have to keep nipping off every couple of
sentences in order to masturbate like an enraged baboon. All
of |
which segues rather seamlessly into Planar Evil, an Italian
thrash band that somehow skipped the memo that read “the
1980’s have ended”. This isn’t a problem – indeed, this is
more like a “what if?” scenario, if the scenario read “what
would Exodus have sounded like if they were Italian?”. It’s
all there – and rather embarrassingly, they’re much
better than almost any of the new breed of English thrash
bands out there. From the incendiary “Vengeance’ll Come” to
the furious “Only Crimes”, this is grade A thrash metal, so
heavy you can almost smell the leather of new hi-top
trainers being unwrapped from their boxes. The production is
adequate, though could do with some beefing up here and
there – particularly with respect to the anaemic bass sound,
but all in all, this here is sheer quality. Get it.
www.myspace.com/planarevil |
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Poccolus - Ragana
(Inferna Profundus Records) Review by Crin |
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Here we have a collectors release of sorts from the cult
Lithuanian Black Metal act, Pocculus. They had one self
titled album out in 1996, and actually formed in 1993, so
this band were at the very thick of the original nineties
Black Metal revolution. Here we have some very early
material slapped on cd for your darkly pleasure. Tracks 1-5
are taken from the demo "Promo'94", Tracks 6-7 are taken
from split "Live at Black Friday, Riga 13/06/97" All tracks
re-mastered in 2008/2009 by the leader of the band Mþnius.
Here we have raw, Burzum demo style chilled to the bone
Black Metal soaked in a Graveland pagan barren atmosphere.
The agonizingly woeful vocals utterly inhuman shrills and
grizzled |
bleakness that instils a hopelessness into the
air. This is a very claustrophobic experience and one that
will appeal to fans of raw black metal only. There is little
production and little warmth to be found here. Such is the
endearing quality of such recordings that if you are
acclimatized to the obscure workings of the Black Metal
underground, this will offer some truly exceptional music.
There is depth and feeling oozing from the arid climate
generated by the crude compositions that evoke a despairing
frigidity of musical bleakness. Tagged to the end are the
live recordings and apart from the sparse crowd
participation the dire sound remains just like the previous
demos. The similarity in sound from studio to live just
shows how untreated this music is. You will either hate it
or love it, there is no middle ground here. Black Metal
purists will totally die for this though.
www.inferna-profundus.net/index.php?lang=en
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Rudra - Brahmavidya: Transcendental 1
(Vic Records) review by
Sam Thomas |
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This is the follow-up to Rudra’s Brahmavidya: Primordial 1,
which I have to admit, I did rather like, even though it was
amazingly different to the normal run of black metal.
Unfortunately, I don’t rate this particular offering as
highly.
The passion is still there, as are the amazing drum beats
(not blastbeats, but wonderful Eastern rhythms), and the
album gets off to a strong start, with second track “Ravens
of Paradise” being a particular favourite. The bright guitar
sound is a great counterpoint to the distorted vocals, and
the frantic pace leaves you convinced that they can’t keep
this up.
Sadly, that’s exactly the case. Much of the album seems to
be given over to odd |
experimental ideas, some of which are obviously derived from
their Singaporean background, and there is just too much
variation in style and theme for the album to sit
comfortably as a whole. It’s also way too long, coming in at
67 minutes. I’ve said before, and I reiterate, that just
because you can cram nearly eighty minutes onto a CD, it
doesn’t mean that you should do. In this case, it would have
been far better to produce forty minutes of hair-raising
black metal, drop all the wussy Eastern bits
and have a coherent whole. I know that you could argue that
it’s an important part of the band’s heritage, and I’m not
dissing that, I certainly don’t want to cause any offence,
but, musically, I believe that it would be a much better
proposition if it were more homogenous. Like milk.
Alternatively, just load the bits you want onto your mp3,
and you’ve got a very good album. And, if you do what my
daughter does, you can play it all in a random sequence,
interspersed with all sorts of other stuff. (Mostly rubbish
in her case.)
All in all, then, a bit of a mixed bag, and not quite as
good as its predecessor. When it’s good, it’s very good, but
when it’s bad, well, it’s horrid.
www.rudraonline.org
| www.vicrecords.com |
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Thornafire - Vorex Deconstruccion
(Ibex Moon Records)
By: Dave Schalek |
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Chile’s Thornafire, newly signed to Ibex Moon Records,
release their second full-length. Entitled “Vorex
Deconstruccion” and performed in Spanish, the album is my
first exposure to Thornafire. Essentially, Thornafire are a
throwback with a seamless mix of both the Florida and New
York styles of American death metal, and play a generally
mid-paced version of the genre with song structures similar
to early Immolation and Morbid Angel. Also making
appearances are progressive touches and melodies reminiscent
of Mithras, but with much better production. Non-traditional
riffs and drum patterns, quirky time changes with mid-paced
tempos segueing to all out blasts, and barked vocals abound
on |
“Vorex Deconstruccion”. In addition, Thornafire nicely
incorporate moments of dark atmosphere, a beefed up bass,
solid musicianship, and crystal clear production.
Overall, the approach works well for Thornafire without
drifting too far into copycat territory. “Vorex
Deconstruccion” is a nice homage to the band’s obvious
influences, and could easily be categorized as a part of the
nascent wave of old school death metal that’s currently
generating notice (Ibex Moon Records, in particular, focus
upon this movement with their roster of acts). However,
Thornafire’s weak point is memorable songwriting as the
album is easily forgotten after listening. This weakness
relegates Thornafire to second tier status as they become
just another better than average death metal band. What is
lacking on “Vorex Deconstruccion” is that somewhat
intangible quality in songwriting needed to put all of the
elements together and come up with a truly memorable
release. Certainly, Thornafire have the potential to do so,
but “Vorex Deconstruccion” comes up somewhat short.
Still, “Vorex Deconstruccion” is a good release and
demonstrates that there’s much promise with Thornafire.
http://profile.myspace.com/thornafire
| www.ibexmoonrecords.com/
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Witchbreed - Heretic Rapture
(Ascendance Records) Review by Steve Green
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This band may very well be female fronted, but this Waldemar Sorychta
produced debut is far heavier than your average "Goth band". Front woman
Ruby has a full bodied voice and she tends to command every song, but is
ably backed by a band who switch from more Progressive sounds to
harsher, darker metallic tones with ease. My only real criticism is that
there aren't enough melodic hooks or standout choruses to latch onto.
That may not be where the band are heading musically, so that's more of
a personal gripe I suppose. But I'll take the scenario here over hearing
yet another clone of a commercial band such as Lacuna Coil or
Evanescence any day of the week. With a scene dominated by poppy, |
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commercial shite, it's nice to hear a band who aren't afraid to be Metal
and that's Witchbreed's real strength. I'm also a big fan of their
slower songs. I've no real idea why, but they seem to click
with me a lot more than the upbeat numbers. For album number
2 though, I feel they need to improve the flow of their
songs and the need to integrate more melodic choruses and
hooks is a must if they are to make an impact on an over
saturated market. As it stands, they certainly have all the
ingredients to become a reasonably successful band, they
just need to learn how to cook!!!http://ascendancerecords.com/site/ |
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