Selective Yes... Approving Sometimes... Welcome to the thunderdome....
DISOWNING- Human Cattle- CD/ Digital ( XENOKORP )
Having members from Canada and France can not make it easy but let me tell you Disowning is one of though catchy , melodic old school Death metal forces that just make you want to listen and see them live. I not going to list of names but if you grew up in 90's listening to Death metal from Earache, Relapse, Nuclear Blast, Mighty Music and Displeased you know all you need to ever know on a band like this . This really brings me back to when Death metal mixed the Tech, Melody and Brutality into something that just kickass. The guttural vocals are as powerful and clean as you would ever want and those twin guitars winding up with that razor sharp rhythm section. The album cover goes a bit more gore then what the band really sound like but I know it fits the theme of the album. Swedish and UK Death metal fans will be very very pleased with this especially. I'm closing the review on this. Death metal just need to be good and musically move you and DISOWNING does both..
MONOCUBE -Substratum- CD/Digital ( Cyclic Law/ Malignant )
The Ukraine were this project is from alone add a layer of mystery and that is before the album even starts. What I hear to begin with is haunting and sinister drifts and drones all on a very dark ambient almost black ambient backdrop. These are dark soundscapes that need to be absorbed and really giving time to let you mind wrap around them. Sadness and Loneliness are the emotions that come of these tracks most. Post industrial landscapes are vision you get from the aural beauty and despair. It's almost like as great calamity came and we are watching the very aftermath . TO add bonus point to Monocube the follow outside folks contributed to making this Dark Industrial journey Antti Litmanen (Arktau Eos) and Frederic Arbour (Visions). Mastered by James Plotkin. Monocube is were Rituals meet Apocalypse . This is the best view i can give to all of this .
Blutfeld -Kingdom of Mine-CD/ Digital ( Self Released/ Heathen Tribes)
From the Land of the Swedes comes Blutfeld which if you want to just get down to it is a Synth heavy Blackened Viking/Folk Metal band and reminds me of many in a long line of this style very much in the vein of bands like Bal Sagoth, Thyrfing, Forefather, Skyforger and Manegarm. You know just what I'm talking about . Nothing Great , Nothing Bad this band very much sit in the middle . They are good at what the create and you will never turn it off if on as you can hear what that are trying to create. Just needs that spark that something extra to take it to the next level. It almost sounds like the B sides of a band like Bal Sagoth or Manegarm. If I may just be up front and honest. I want to love music like this but its just a like this time around.
The Mezmerist- The Innocent, the Forsaken, the Guilty - Digital/LP (Nuclear War Now! Productions / Shadow Kingdom)
This is a compilation of two Eps from the 80's of a very odd and left of center Avant Heavy metal band that sounds like if King Diamond and Judas Priest and Celtic Frost got together and said lets make something very cult and progressive with Eastern and Oriental elements. It very has that Slough Feg feeling to all that is going on here looks like Bill Ward of Black Sabbath fame please drums on this and you can hear the Proto Doom a lot on The Mezmerist recordings as well. This isnt fully my cup of tea but I can see the value in this and some of you out there will go bat shit crazy for an album like this . I'm just going to stop here and move on to the next album in waiting of feedback.
FUNERAL STORM -Arcane Mysteries - Digital, CD, LP (Hells Headbangers)
Do any of you youngin's remember a Greek label called Unisound well its were bands like Rotting Christ , Nunslaughter, Varathron and Mortuary Drape got there beginnings and Funeral Storm is Greek and comes very much from that Pagan Black metal realm where synths played a major rule is he atmospheric oddity and creepy elements over all to the labels sound and vision. Funeral Storm sounds like a band from the 90's coming back to life from the catacombs of that Black metal ideal. This is not orchestral but epic none the less. You wold call a band like Funeral Storm are Grimm for sure but I would stop short of moving any further down that Blackened path. They are clearly very talented at what they create and I do really like what I hear. It's just again been done before and with some very brilliant bands before them. The homage to this Greek sound is hugely respectful to say the least. Very impressive work indeed.
Comments