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Naxzul - Iconoclast
(Moribund Cult)
By: Dave Schalek |
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Australia’s semi-legendary Naxzul return after a long
absence with “Iconoclast”, the band’s second full-length,
and first since 1995. That’s not to say that Naxzul’s musicians
have been idle during this long period, not at all, as
members have drifted in and out of various Australian black
metal acts over the years.
Kudos to Moribund Cult Records for signing Naxzul to their
expanding roster as Naxzul are one of the first Australian
black metal acts to burst upon the scene. In addition, the
long promised “Iconoclast” was apparently recorded some time
ago and is only now seeing the light of day (or night, as
the case may be), so genre fans are going to be especially |
interested in this release.
Was it worth the wait? Yes, as Nazxul’s version of symphonic
black metal contains all of the necessary elements for
success. Well written, catchy songs with a deep production
and stellar musicianship will cause critics such as myself
to draw comparisons, favorably so, between “Iconoclast” and
the gems of bands such as Emperor, mid-period Dimmu Borgir,
and “Nemesis Divina”- era Satyricon in their heyday. The
music on “Iconoclast” runs the gamut of black metal, with
fast, brutal songs light on melody, a couple of short tracks
with ambience and effects, and a few very melodic moments
evocative of Dimmu Borgir, a natural comparison. For the
most part, the music works at integrating these different
genre elements together, but my personal preference is for
the faster songs with their infectious riffing. The end
result is a solid album of symphonic black metal that should
reinvigorate interest in the band.
“Iconoclast” is a good album, but I can’t help but wonder if
the album is five years, or more, out of date at this point,
as interest in symphonic black metal has considerably waned.
Who knows, though, maybe symphonic black metal will soon
jump on the retro bandwagon as just about every other older,
appreciated genre seems to have been doing these days. If
so, Nazxul will probably be at the forefront of a nascent
movement. Recommended.
www.myspace.com/nazxul
| www.moribundcult.com |
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Overmars - Born Again (reissue)
(Crucial Blast Records)
By: Dave Schalek |
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Here’s a quick look at a reissue appearing on Crucial Blast
Records. The band in question is Overmars, a seven-piece
from France with their second full-length, from 2007,
entitled “Born Again”. Crucial Blast has reissued the album
as a digipack with a different layout than the original
release from Appease Me Records.
Overmars play a sort of sludge laden form of drone as “Born
Again” is one 39-minute long track consisting of a few
simple chords, a plodding percussion, and some wailed
vocals, both male and female. For the most part, the effect
works as an interesting exercise in |
psychedelic drone, but I cannot for the life of me figure
out what the Hell each of the seven members are doing,
regardless of the information given with the album. The
music is rather simplistic, and if you had told me that
“Born Again” was simply the product of one person in a
basement somewhere, I’d have believed you.
Regardless of the underachieving aspects of the music, “Born
Again” is fairly interesting with some simple chords that go
on endlessly while accompanied by the vocal duet. The music
periodically fades and segues into a different form, but
“Born Again” never strays far from a slow paced simplicity.
Think a less industrial version of Godflesh, or a softer
version of Neurosis mostly concentrating on drone, and
you’ve pretty much hit the mark with what to expect on “Born
Again”.
If you’re a fan of sludge and/ or drone, “Born Again” by
Overmars is recommended.
www.destroyalldreamers.org
| www.crucialblast.net
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Painted Willie - Mind Bowling
(DC-Jam) Review by Metal Mark |
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This is a re-issue of an album that originally came out on
SST records back in 1985. I know of and heard several
artists on SST back in the 1980's but these were not among
those. Never heard of them until this re-issue came out.
After hearing it I can safely it's certainly not essential
listening and it's rocky in places, but it's not without
some definite merits. I think I was expecting mid-80's punk
rock just based on the label this was originally released
on, but that's not what this is. There is certainly basic
punk beats and attitude, but the structure is very loose and
various jams pop up here and there. That helps to keep
matters interesting even it doesn't make the ending results
turn out completely |
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smooth. I would make the assumption that this trio liked
some 1970's hard rock/metal almost as much as they liked
early 1980's punk rock. What comes out of this approach is
metal-laced punk rock with a rough played out of the
basement style. I don't think they completely flesh out all
of the ideas that they start. However looking back with what
we know today I think they were on to something that would
come later as there is enough here that shows traces similar
to the style of some stoner rock acts from say the last ten
or so years. So Painted Wilie's fourteen year old
offering is not without some flaws, but it's certainly an
item of interest. |
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Ravage - The End of Tomorrow
(Metal Blade) Review by Steve Green |
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Wow, where did this band come from? I didn't know the band name at all, so
clicked play before I'd read a note about the band and I was pleasantly
surprised at the prospect of 50 minutes of Judas Priest and Iron Maiden
influenced Metal.
Despite the fact the average age of the band members is still only 24,
Ravage have been together for over a decade already, having been formed
by (then) teenage brothers Al Ravage and Eli Joe back in 1996. And the
time they've spent together has obviously been put to good use. Iron
Maiden is the most obvious influence, which is fine with me. Al Ravage
kind of perversely sounds like a cross between Paul Di'anno and Bruce
Dickinson. |
While he sort of sounds likes Mr Dickinson, he has Di'anno's delivery style. Al also strays into Rob Halford territory a
few times as well, particularly on Dam Nation, which also drifts into
the realms of European Power Metal, backed up with a Maiden-esque
backbone. And I'm sure this is the song that goes down the best live as
there are ample opportunities for crowd participation throughout. And
the song also has a bit of a Grave Digger feel to it as well, which got
me thinking and I'd now change my view on the vocals to a mixture of
Dickinson, Halford and Grave Digger's Chris Boltendahl, although without
the world class quality of any of them, unfortunately.
If you're a fan of any of the bands I've mentioned in this review, then
there's a good chance that you'll like Ravage. This album won't set the
world alight, but it's a good fun listen as it harks back to the glory
days of 80s Metal, an era which still rules the roost as far as I'm
concerned. www.myspace.com/swwr |
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Secrets Of The Moon - Privilegivm
(Lupus Lounge)
By: Joe Florez |
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I was kind of reluctant to pop this in my player when I
received it (yes, this wasn’t a digital download. It was an
actual CD) because of the black on black printing I figured
it was going to be some extreme black metal offering. Since
I’m a scribe, I must be open minded and I dived in head
first. The title track is the instrumental first cut that is
nothing short of bleak. This one is very cold and haunting.
Slow drum beats are struck with what sounds like wind
howling in the background and slowly played riffs if you
even want to call it that. I thought I was getting into a
doom record. When we hit “Sulphur” it’s pretty much a
continuation of sorts from the opening salvo. It’s still
moves at a snails pace, but works its |
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way upward tempo wise. Life begins to be fully injected
here. The riffs are strong and vicious. The drumming shifts
from mid to faster paced when the double bass drums kick in.
The vocals are harsh as one would expect, but at times you
can hear these female cries in the night chime in, but fade
away just as quickly as they arrived. When the solo hit, I
wasn’t expecting something filled with speed and accuracy.
It was really good, but felt out of place but in the end it
works out. What a way to begin the show. As the disc
progresses, I like the fact that the three piece German
group trick you into thinking that the song will go in one
direction, but end up another way. “Harvest” which is a
thirteen minute cut starts out the first four minutes with a
composition comparable to a Slayer song from the Seasons In
The Abyss period. As if I figured out the band, I was thrown
one final loop in the end. “Shepherd” is a ballad of sorts.
The screaming vocals are eliminated here and make way for
some actual singing thanks to sG (vocalist/guitars). There are drum patterns
here including percussion that give that Black Sabbath
“Planet Caravan” touch, but it’s the melodic guitar work
that just shines through and through. It still has a dark
and brooding feel to the composition, but it’s mostly somber
and relaxing in the end. I wasn’t expecting this at all. It
was a nice surprise and change of pace for once. While the
songs are definitely long in the tooth, it’s ok because
there is so much going on here that you won’t ever get
bored. This band is definitely a culmination of
black/doom/atmospheric and anything else you can think of.
So, if you like Novembers Doom, classic Paradise Lost and
the ilk then jump on board here. This is your ticket to
depression. If you live in North America, they will be on
tour with Moonspell which is a fitting bill for them. This
is a definite buy especially with the nice digi packaging
and bonus track. Show these lads some love.
www.lupuslounge.com
| www.secretsofthemoon.org |
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The Meads Of Asphodel - The Early Years
(Godreah Records)
Review By Steve Earles |
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The Band That Put The ‘Evil’ In Medieval!
This is the Dead Sea Scrolls of British Metal from the
finest British metal band since Sabbat. This is extreme
metal in the truest sense of the word. Extreme metal to me
isn’t about tattooing your neck to look like your head’s
floating above a sea of wallpaper and wearing the latest
Vans, no, it’s about being true to your muse, making
your metal for the love of it, with courage and innovation.
I have had the privilege of interviewing Metatron on a
number of occasions, and not only have I found him to be
utterly dedicated to metal and a total original, but that
rarest of |
things, a true English gentleman.
These tracks all feature the now sadly departed Jaldaboath
line-up, the Meads line-up now revolves around Metatron on
vocals, J.D. Tait on guitars, the ever-present Urakbarameel
on drums, and former Hawkwind bass-maestro Alan Davey, with
many other talented individuals such as Mirai of Sigh making
a contribution.
Future releases from the Mead include a split album with
fellow British black metal legends Thus Defiled, with the
each band contributing an original track, and covering, in
the Meads case, a number of punk tracks that influenced
them, and in Thus Defiled’s case a number of metal tracks
that influenced them. This is as it should be, black metal
in it’s most primal form being a collision between punk and
metal, as evidenced by the primal screams of Bathory,
Hellhammer and Venom!
Following this will be a full length concept album, The
Passion and Death of Ieosus.
This album chronicles the Metatron/Jaldaboath years
1998-2001. There are tracks from all the Meads demos, The
Watchers of Catal Huyuk, the Bemoaning of Metatron, and
Metatron and the Red Gleaming Serpent, and unheard songs
from the Jihad demos, and more!
These hail from a time, when the internet and Myspace didn’t
have a stranglehold on the Underground and thus required a
dedication and spirit that grows increasing rare. Make no
mistake, without having to make stupid statements, the Meads
really are true!
I must also draw attention to the fine sleeve design from
Steve Green, in this day of meaningless downloads, Steve’s
eye-catching and intelligent design harkens back to the lost
days of vinyl. (And I didn’t pay him to say this either –
Steve)
The one glaring omission from this otherwise pristine
collection is Christ’s Descent Into Hell from Britannia Infernus: A History of British Occult and Black Metal, which
is one of the finest Meads tracks ever, insanely catchy and
haunting, and deserves to be heard.
Amongst the blackened gems to be found in The Early Years
are the demo version of Angelwhore- like a medieval version
of Venom, “I am the one that made you”, intones Metatron
sinisterly, like the mutant offspring of Quorthon and Cronos, over Jaldoboath’s swirling medieval keyboards, and
Urakbarameel’s pounding drums. From the same demo, The
Bemoaning of Metatron, comes Book of Dreams, a favourite of
mine that curiously never appeared on the debut album. The
Gleaming Red Serpent, taken from the demo of the same name,
further expands The Mead’s blackened medieval influences,
you can almost see the ideas bursting forth from the
imaginations of Metatron and Jaldaboath’s subconscious. This
track was actually sent to Sabbat when Martin Walkyier was
still with the band in the hope that they might add vocals
and fiddle, something that did not happen, yet, possible in
the future, after all this track did not appear on the
debut, as did the ferocious Just Another Time To Kill. Pale
Dread Hunger from The Watchers of Catal Huyuk is grim and
haunting, a harbinger of things to come, and from the same
demo, the awesome, Rise In Godless Hell. A mad implosion of
medieval influences and the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal.
There are also two covers, GBH’s Give Me Fire, and
Bulldozer’s Neurodeliri, this shows both the punk and metal
influences of the Meads, and these elements are crucial to
black metal. Black metal isn’t about Disney keyboards or
wasp-in-a-jar production, or trotting out the same clichéd
‘provocative’ comments, it’s about merging the primal fury
of punk with the power of meal.
Also included is Bound Alive from Godreah’s No Holy
Addivites 4, inspired by Boris Karloff’s atmospheric The
Mummy and influenced by the mighty Venom (One of the most
influential metal bands of all time, people should
remember). A delightful exercise in English eccentricity.
Bleed For Me, an outtake from Excommunication is included,
which features Jaldaboath in fine form. From the same album
sessions comes the album’s bonus track, Calling All
Monsters, interestingly this track deals with the fantastic
monster movies of the likes of the great Ray Harryhausen,
and as such displays a personal interest of Metatron rather
than the usual Meads of Asphodel themes.
Rounding off the album are three fantastic outtakes from the
Jihad sessions, all of which are as good as anything that
appeared on the Jihad EP (perhaps someday to be expanded to
a full album?). These are Paradise, Another God In Another
Place, and Ogs Last Stand, the first two dealing with
concepts of mankind’s inhumanity to man, and religious
intolerance. (Not surprising, the Meads have never displayed
any of the bigotry that sometimes mars black metal, and have
always been utterly forthright in promoting tolerance). The
last track, Ogs Last Stand, is sadly, the final track
Jadaboath wrote with the Meads, and makes one wonder, where
the Meads would have gone had he stayed. Perhaps, time
healing all wounds, he might make a return in the future. In
the meantime, the Meads have gone from strength to strength.
In this era of manufactured bands, desperately scraping an
existence via comebacks and ever-spiralling merchandise, the
Meads represent an honest, purity and innovation that is
increasing rare in this day and age, and should be cherished
as what it is, a national institution.
And The Best Is Yet To Come…
www.themeadsofasphodel.com
| www.godreah.com
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www.myspace.com/jaldaboathofficial |
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The Poodles - Clash Of The Elements
(Blistering) Review by Steve Green |
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Is this supposed to be Hard Rock? I know the band name is awful, but I
didn't expect the music to be this bad as well. This is big production
"rock" of some description. It's very cheesy, has horrendous lyrics,
has no balls whatsoever and quite frankly, I hate it. After such a bad
start, let's go back to the beginning.
The Poodles are from Sweden. They entered into the Swedish leg of the
Eurovision Song Contest, which is a big help in describing how throwaway
their music is, and I'm just shocked that they've achieved so success
much in their homeland. I cannot find a single positive thing to say
about this album. It's like the worst of 80s big hair Metal, including |
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Europe, mixed with Christian Metal (this sounds so damn
squeaky clean I wouldn't be surprised to find they are God
squad) and the worst that the Eurovision song contest can
throw at you, being played on a constant loop. In a
nutshell, the worst album I've heard this year. |
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Trusty - Demo
(DC-Jam) Review by Metal Mark |
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The first thing I thought of when I saw saw this disc was
oddly enough Spongebob Squarepants because it looked like
the cover of the "Yellow Album". However, it's not a comedy
album and I knew that I needed to be fair so I quickly
opened up the booklet for this disc and was informed that
Trusty hailed from Little Rock, Arkansas. They were around
from the 1980's until their break up in 1996. This CD is
their 1989 demo and includes eleven songs. Okay, that's the
background information. The lowdown on this band is that
they were really good and it's a shame I hadn't heard of
them sooner. My first impression was that they sound like a
cross between Minor Threat and the Descendents. |
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They bring the edge of the former and the melodic approach of the
latter. The two styles compliment one another as Trusty sure
knew how to blend the sounds and squeeze the most of what
they were attempting. The confidence was immediately obvious
and this is the kind of straight-forward, no nonsense
hardcore approach that I was able to appreciate right away.
It was kind of odd remembering that twenty years ago a demo
meant a cassette tape so that is the format that these
recordings originally appeared on. Quite honestly for the
time, the production is everything it should be which means
it's clear enough, but meaty as well. Considering what what
was going on in the punk world in 1989 Trusty may have been
a little behind the times as far as trends go, but they were
also far more interesting than a lot of the music that was
seen as punk at the time as well. So I am certainly glad
that DC Jam records released it now so we can have a chance
to check it out. |
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Vomit The Soul - Apostles of
Inexpression (Unique Leader)
Review by Steve Green |
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You know what? As much as I'd like to, I'd never start a record label
these days. I'm not exactly the worlds leading authority on (very)
brutal Death Metal, so I put the band and album title into Google and at
least 95% of what I found were links to Rapidshare downloads of this
album. Something this brutal and melody free (trust me, this album could
flatten the Taliban at a 1000 paces) is going to be marginalised anyway,
but with the number of wankers offering free downloads, is there going
to be anyone left to buy this?
In the attempt at selling this album to you, what we have here is a
complex, twisting beast of extreme brutal Death Metal. Undecipherable
cookie monster vocals, an unrelenting, yet |
highly skilled, battering from drummer Ycio and absolutely zero melody. But with saying that, this
isn't just noise. It's a coherent wall of noise, expertly played and
wonderfully produced as every note is crystal clear and Andrea's
pulsating bass sound is phenomenal. And if someone like myself, who
likes their Metal a little on the tamer side can appreciate this, fans
of the genre should thoroughly enjoy this.
Find out more at:
www.myspace.com/vomitthesoulbrutal
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