New Band Watch – Forlorn Remembrance
Dec 14I’m always looking for new metal bands and material out there, so if you’ve got a group or know of one you’d like to get some attention for, let me know and I will always try to see if I can get you promoted in some way or another.This week, check out Sweden’s Forlorn Remembrance and their ‘Dystopian Dreamscapes’ EP. For all you progressive metal heads out there listening to Opeth and Katatonia, this should be right up your alley. From slow, melancholic death metal excursions to soft and melodic soundcapes, this up and coming band has the Scandinavian sound down from both the modern and classic angles.Check out the video below, featuring the full ‘Dystopian Dreamscapes’ EP, and find them on Facebook and Myspace. Download the EP...
Review: Blynd – Punishment Unfolds
Dec 10Blynd – Punishment UnfoldsForming in 2003 and hailing from an island nation not widely known in the metal community for its output of horn-raising music, Cyprus band Blynd has already put out some quite respectable releases in the form of 2 EPs and a debut full length album. Working both within and outside the boundaries of several genres, including modern thrash, death, and groove metal, the band has been working steadily towards a cohesive and solidified sound of their own. The recent release of their sophomore album, Punishment Unfolds, is quite easily the coalescence the quartet have been homing in on since their inception.Opening the effort with the appropriately foreboding orchestral and choral intro, Divine Gathering, the band sets the stage for a hard hitting blend of metal that, even at its more subdued moments, hardly ever lets up on the barrage of pummeling aggression that defines the album. With Arrival of the Gods, the band displays the toolset of styles that will be utilized for the entirety of the album: a driving beat fueling a modern thrash sound, accented with skillfully coherent death vocals. By the time the chorus rolls around, we are treated with another component to the band’s soundscape that makes its appearance on several tracks in the way of an open, melodic chord progression that wholly channels the Gothenburg sound embraced by many a modern Swedish melo-death ensemble. The titular track continues the onslaught, picking up the tempo and features something else that makes a distinct impression on most of the album’s tracks, a blistering guitar solo that makes its home high up in the sonic range of the mix. The rest of the tracks on the album make use of the basic elements already mentioned, but each in their own way, The Chosen Few sports a more hard rock driven trash sound in the riffing, Sins to the Cross, probably more than any other song delves into the Swedish sound to good results, and Convicted in the Devil’s Land, a pulsing march-like heavy hitter, not only displays the most developed and varied song structure, but also the most cohesive amalgamation of hard rock, thrash, and death metal on the record.While the band has certainly found their sound on Punishment Unfolds by combining the best parts of varying metal styles, I would be hesitant to say that they are using to its full potential yet....
Review: Skelator – Agents of Power
Nov 23Skelator – Agents of PowerI will always admit to having a whole-hearted fondness for any modern band that is able to capture and channel the raw unchained energy and ass-kicking metal assault first unleashed by the speed/power/NWOBHM bands of days gone by without existing merely as a contrived tribute act. Which is why it’s always a more than pleasant experience to not only come across such bands, but to find them in my own neck of the woods. Skelator have been banging heads and calling to the elder gods of metal for more than a decade now, starting with their roots in San Diego playing their own brand of early thrash infused garage metal, they eventually relocated to the Emerald City, Seattle, and evolved a more refined (but not ‘produced’) style that beckoned to the classic pioneers of speed and power roof rattlers. This has culminated so far into the classic metal epic ‘Agents of Power’ album released earlier this year.The first four songs on this newest effort by the Seattle band are a study in everything that made British flavored heavy metal the driving force of a music revolution, breakneck tempos, big wide open power chords, and sailing chorus’s that demand singing along to with an obligatorily raised fist. The titular namesake of the album starts things off right, with a distinct pre-thrash feel that sets the mood for the rest of the journey, and also acts as a good introduction to the impressive vocal abilities of the band’s frontman, Jason Conde-Houston, who at times sounds like a bastard lovechild spawned between Rob Halford and Geoff Tate. Gates of Thorbardin follows to open things up a bit, offering a slower and much more expansive structure, with the epic war-ballad feel of a classic Dio track. This is further expanded with Dream Dictator, an up tempo rocker with some impressive lead work on the guitars, and devolves into slower instrumental bits with big sound, large rhythm chords with wailing and melodic leads, only to kicks right back into high gear on a dime with a headbanging tempo, making for a well rounded song. After Rhythm of the Chain, a meaty fist pumper that would make a great Priest-esque biker anthem, the album then begins its main feature, a 40 minute 12-part epic titled “Elric: The Dragon Prince”, in the true vein of classic power metal.This concept piece covers the...
Review: Defy the Ocean – Myopic EP
Oct 08Defy the Ocean – Myopic EPBands often require a bit of time to get their legs and find a steady foundation when first starting out, a sort of teething period to find a unique sound that is naturally theirs, and theirs alone. Sometimes though, a band comes along that knows exactly what it is straight out of the gate, which is definitely the case for the UK duo known as Defy the Ocean, who have recently released their debut EP, Myopic. With a progressive palette flowing between mellow, minor key passages, and aggressive, pounding build-ups, the band has their style down solidly, and uses it to create an engaging first effort.The album opens with Neolithic, a creeping and punchy song textured with haunting vocal melodies, traits that set the mood for the EP as a whole. Chris Theo’s vocals are relaxed in their delivery, but are sharpened with a suggestive emphasis as he lays them thoughtfully over and in between the instrumentation. The guitars flow quite organically between eerie and often discordant melodies, to a harsher almost aggressive bite that dominates the mix. Marcos Economides’ drums provide a natural sounding ambiance of rhythm during the mellow sections, and pulse with a hard hitting, nearly hypnotic throb during the edgier bits. A perfect culmination of the bands sound is found on the EP’s second track, Invaders!, which features a crawling progression that evolves into a soaring and engaging chorus. By the end of the song, you are immersed in a thick weaving of textures that, if anything, give credit not only to the well developed style of the band, but to the production of the effort. Everything has its place in the mix, and all the layers blend well through the mix.The Hunter has a bit more of a bite, it still has the haunting melodies of the other songs but with a violent edge to it, especially during its spats of violent, harsh energy. The EP ends with a ten minute piece of progressive rock, all in Defy the Oceans own style and sound. A melancholic guitar meanders through a long introduction before the rest of the instruments make a subdued arrival. Vocals and guitars both crawl like a spider over the melody, showing their teeth every so often, as the song flows in and out like its own namesake, the tide. The song ends by lulling itself away...
Review: Kreator – Phantom Antichrist
Aug 09Kreator – Phantom Antichrist Review If there’s one thing that can bring a smile to any headbanger’s face, it’s hearing a classic stand-by releasing an album that not only shows the band sticking to their guns, but doing so at the top of their game. And for the past handful of albums, Kreator has been making alot of headbagers smile. Even after a short period of experimentation in their career, which almost seemed necessary (and in the opinion of this reviewer, really were not that bad), the teutonic thrashers have retained every bit of the hard hitting riffage that made them a staple in the genre. The group’s newest effort, Phantom Antichrist, does well to prove this, seeming to distill all the facets that have made up the Kreator sound over the years: driving drums, catchy breakneck riffing, epic sounding chord progressions, and even some small glimpses into their Endorama days by the way of mainman Mille singing slow and low on certain interludes.Appropriately enough for their signature call-to-arms sound, the album kicks off with a slow-building instrumental, Mars Mantra that sets the stage for the epic war songs to come before kicking into the in-your-face title track thrasher, featuring some great sounding drums that pummel through the mix with heavy blast beats. Vocalist Mille’s raspy, verse spitting voice sounds as good as ever and delivers his forceful lyrics just as fast as he does the often break-neck riffs. This charges seamlessly into another appropriately thrashy track, Death to the World, which features a very Kreator-sounding mix of staccato verses leading into the kind of slower, epic sounding, fist-raiser chorus that defines the majority of the offerings on the album. There are a few slower moments here, if they can be called as such, notably Your Heaven, My Hell, and a nice sounding classical guitar intro on United in Hate, but even then everything still comes heavy and punches hard. This is thanks in part to the album’s production, handled by the never-to-disappoint Jens Bogren at his Fascination Street studios, and who gets everything to sound as tight as possible while still retaining that raw, garage-bourne feel so inherent to the band’s thrash metal style. From Flood Into Fire is a good showcase for this, the melodic lead guitar parts cut through the mix perfectly, and the drums punch hard and clean.On the whole, Kreator has once again produced...
