Review: Fliptop Box – Anxiety’s Manifest
Jan 28Fliptob Box – Anxiety’s ManifestThe metal genre has been in a slight flux in the past few years, due mostly to the explosion of experimentation into sub styles and their various amalgamations that has taken place over the last decade. Because of that, we are not necessarily left with any real flagship styles that define the genre, and as a result new bands are left with a broad sandbox to play in when finding their own ‘sound’. Recently, that has resulted in the resurgence of several bygone era’s of music, especially including variants of stoner rock, progressive song structuring, and a healthy throwback scene for classic NWOBHM. Flying slightly more under the radar has been the alternative leanings of the 90’s post-punk sound, which is exactly where Greece’s Fliptop Box comes into the picture with their 2012 release of “Anxiety’s Manifest”.Album opener Lost is a good introduction for the release as a whole, showcasing nearly everything that will be offered throughout the listen. The backbone of the group’s style is the post-thrash guitar riffing that accentuates itself at times with melancholic chords and high-string leads between punchy rhythm playing. The vocals however, are the forefront of the songs on “Anxiety’s Manifest”, perhaps not sonically, but most definitely in presence and melody. They tend to spread into the background, soaring in their own realm of the mix, while still melding with the music’s chord progression. The singing is consistently melodic and carries a heavy dose of heartfelt emotion, never feeling forced or unnecessary, and they are delivered with a laid back introspectiveness that harkens directly to the shoegazing era of alternative rock, striking the same balance between sorrow and reprieve that the singers of that vein exemplified.The songs on this album vary themselves somewhat while staying firmly within the comfort zone of post-grunge melody and hard edge that the group has made for itself, ranging from the upbeat and punk-infused like Scarfaced God to the more mellow and thoughtful moments on songs like Wings and Close My Eyes, a song which stands as one of the more emotionally heartfelt on the album. Some moments even have a distinct crossover feel when the energy gets high enough. This variety does not venture too far though, not quite to the point of monotony, but it does prevent any sense of real exploration or experimentation outside of the formula. That formula however, is...
New Band Watch: Egality
Jan 13Check out some good ‘melting pot’ metal with Pennsylvania’s Egality and their newest independently released album, “Embryonic Aseity”. The sound is a mix of death metal, doom, sludge, and general experimentation. As always, if you’ve got a new, unsigned band or know of one that deserves some attention, let me know and I will always try to feature what I can on the site. Embryonic Aseity by Egality Find and connect with Egality on: Facebook MySpace...
Review: Aetherium Mors – Drenched In Victorious Blood
Jan 07Aetherium Mors – Drenched In Victorious BloodTo prove right off the bat they can bring the fire, the band opens their first release with Sons of Men, an angry scorcher of grinding metal and blackened vocals that eventually opens up into some dirge-like melodic death metal. The song is pretty vicious in delivery, making it a good opener that gets your attention with its in-your-face attack in order to sit you down for a fairly well varied blast of metal during the rest of the album. Picking up where Sons leaves off, Luciferian March creeps along in a down-tempo doom passages before lurching into ferocious pummelings that come fast and furious with an arsenal of biting death growls and drilling double kick. As aggressive as the music is though, there’s still room for melody, which is a big part of the songwriting. While it is not an overly predominant character, there is definitely enough of it there to keep the music from being a bland flavor of blackened death metal instead of the often dynamic and well rounded songs we get on the album.The vocals are primarily higher register death snarls with a distinctly black metal attitude, including the lyrical content which is your average satanic fair for the genre. Guitars provide the backdrop of menacing riffing while driving the melody when it comes around. It would be nice to hear them have a little more meat in the mix however, but the drums generally batter their way to the forefront of the sonic palette. It is actually the drums where the aforementioned flaws can be found. While the playing is generally solid and effective, oftentimes they can overshadow the dynamics of the underlying instrumentation by drowning them out. It is a common issue of aural aesthetics in death/black metal, where the incessant use of machine-gun snare and kick hits can become a tiresome and overbearing focal point in the mix, rather than the driving accentuator that it should be. Thankfully, this is not a glaring issue that makes itself apparent often on the album, instead it is only occasionally noticed as a minor but forgettable annoyance.The band works with a well developed toolset for a debut effort, and aside from a few somewhat minor flaws on the production side of things, the listener might assume that Drenched in Victorious Blood is a second or third release from a...
Review: Melencolia Estatica – Hel
Dec 20Melencolia Estatica – Hel Hel is the third effort put forth by Melencolia Estatica, the dark and brooding spawn of mastermind Climaxia, one of the foremost women in black metal today. On the album, she handles the duties of guitar, bass, and vocal direction, steering the path for a grand yet sombre album steeped in both bleakness and viciousness. The album is a concept piece, based off of Fritz Lang’s classic 1927 expressionist film Metropolis, and given the surrealist moodscapes of either work, you could easily join them for a single experience. After all, the movie was a silent picture, so adding some atmospheric black metal to the background as orchestration works quite well.Being a concept piece, the album as a whole flows more like a long single construct, rather than focus on conventional single tracks. This said, the affair is broken up into six parts (Hel I-VI), each haunting their own little corner of the album. The overall sound is a mix of bleak yet melodic atmospheric wonderings with soft ghost-like clean vocals, and fierce passages of blistering black metal infused heaviness. The blend is engaging, and really gives the album a nice flow if you were giving it the full listen. The sedated moments are creepy and alluring, and the evenly spread mix of lulling guitars, haunting vocals, and soft choral keys make for well textured pieces of mood music. When you come upon the harsh parts, they are fiery and vicious, topped with some fairly impressive growls and screams that sound downright baleful. The production sounds clean and modern when it needs to be but also lets the songs sound gritty when it’s called for, and for both the sake of the album’s mood and for a more traditional black metal sound, the mix is coated with a lush, airy reverb to good effect.Because of the album’s nature, you won’t find much for single tracks that really pop out as stand alone songs. It’s sort of an all-or-nothing piece that needs the sit down listen, and while that may endear it a little more to this reviewer, just know that it may not necessarily be the sort of thing you throw on your iPod for your shuffle mix. Also, while the songs, or ‘parts’ all sound good and feature the full range of the album’s soundscape, there’s not a great deal that makes them very unique...
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...
Irony
Jun 05Any coincidence that I published a throwback review of Sodom’s ‘Agent Orange’ album the day their fellow German ‘Big Three’ brothers, Kreator, release their new album? Actually yes, as I was supposed to finish the Sodom review a looong time ago, but it’s safe to say that the next review to pop up will be ‘Phantom Antichrist’ and this time I won’t take so damn long. I’ve already got one listen in so far, and trust me, you don’t need a positive review on this one, go get it....
Review: Sodom – Agent Orange
Jun 05Sodom – Agent OrangeReviewWhile the ‘Big Four’ were laying their groundwork for thrash in the US throughout the ‘80s, the ‘Big Three’ were doing likewise across the pond in Germany. Sodom, the brother component of the Three, alongside Destruction and Kreator, that most often sported future influences of death and black metal, released their cornerstone album, Agent Orange in 1989 a record that not only established them as important fixtures in the underground metal world, but also proved to be a commercial success for the band. While it provided only a temporary break into the mainstream of the metal genre, the record displayed an all-around thrash mastery and established a recognizable trademark sound for the band.The effort starts off the title track, a song with a grandiose Master of Puppets-esque intro, with slow, epic power chords before appropriately kicking into the high tempo thrash that characterizes the album as a whole. Tom Angelripper snarls his way through all the tracks with his signature not-quite-yelling, not-quite-growling vocals, while also laying down some great bass tracks. In a good segway, the album flows into Tired and Red which sports an elongated instrumental intro and some fiery lead word by guitarist Frank Blackfire. Guitars on all the tracks are what makes good thrash what it is: fast, loud, and unrelenting, and while they mostly follow the bass tracks laid down by songwriter Tom Angelripper, they are given enough room on every song to stretch their wings in the way of leads and solos. An interesting sidetrack of ‘Agent Orange’ can be found in Ausgebombt, an almost hardcore punk song that mirrors more Motorhead than it does Slayer. While different, the song is a welcome flavor to mix things up, and does a good job to portray a future era of the band, when they later focus on a more cross-over thrash sound. Immediately afterwards, the band jumps straight back into the thrash wagon with Baptism of Fire, another song that, with others like Exhibition Bout and Magic Dragon, make the album the great German thrash centerpiece that it is. Sodom closes the record with Don’t Walk Away, a Tank cover that the showcases the band’s British heavy metal influences, and one they do quite a good job putting their more aggressive sound into.While not a masterpiece album, nor even sporting much in the way of stand-out tracks, Agent Orange stands on its...
Review: Municipal Waste – The Fatal Feast
May 01Municipal Waste – The Fatal Feast Review After taking most of 2011 off to write and record their new album, crossover thrashers Municipal Waste set some high expectations for those looking to get a fix of punk-infused mosh music. It’s a good thing then, that the group’s newest release ‘The Fatal Feast’ delivers that very sucker punch to the neck that fans were waiting for, while at the same time adding a few welcome dimensions to their already established sound.On the whole, ‘The Fatal Feast’ retains everything that the group is known for: breakneck thrash riffs, frenetic tempos, tongue-in-cheek lyrics, over the top party fueled energy, and all of that forcefully injected into the ears in succinct, under-two-minute doses. In fact, only about four songs out of the seventeen or so on the record push past the three minute mark, but with the amount of energy in each bite, ala the groups hardcore punk songwriting style, every song comes across as filling, regardless of the length. And even if one was to take note of the truncated bits of aural assault, the impression is quickly beaten away as soon as the next track kicks you in the gut. However, one of the welcome new aspects of this album is Municipal Waste’s exploration of expanded songs. They seem to have discovered in songs like The Fatal Feast, that slowing the tempo a little (by Municipal Waste standards, that is), they can allow the thrash riffs some level of open space to create hard-edged grooves and hooks that come through the rhythm more, while still retaining the same punch found in the higher tempo songs. A lesson that can certainly be learned by many bands, and one that the ‘Waste have learned, is that speed can accentuate heaviness in a song, but does not create it on its own.Those most familiar with the band might first notice Ryan Waste’s slightly expanded guitar repertoire on The Fatal Feast. On this record he seems a tad more lead guitar minded than on previous records, providing more high-stringed thrash licks and even some very respectable solos on songs like Repossession and Authority Complex. In the case of the former, Ryan showcases his Slayer influence with a frenetic solo that Kerry King could be proud of. Although, these added flavors in the guitar work also create the only drawback of the album, which is that...
