The roster of Lifeforce Records perfectly represents state of the art metal as we know it in 2009. The variety of their bands goes from the spastic grindcore sounds of Germany's War From a Harlots Mouth to the flawlessly executed blackened death metal of Destinity and the chugga friendly sounds of Left to Vanish. Regardless of each band's metal sound, each Lifeforce release has a modern edge that was unthinkable and unachievable only ten years ago. Read on and spread the word...  

Sweden’s Miseration don’t exactly play super technical death metal, but what it certainly is is milimetrical and really fucking Swedish. Their debut Your Demons, Their Angels brims with the kind of perfect aggression and mechanical tone that’s come to represent modern melodic death  metal. On counted occasions, especially when at high speeds, Your Demons, Their Angels recalls Meshuggah. Yet Miseration’s music is less stiff and doesn’t lack the soul of the heroes of Umea. Miseration’s hyper melodies require a pretty spirited performance, one where the drums are set to overdrive, and the guitars run you over with a fast and blurry fatness that once you dissect it, reveals itself as pretty basic. I was turned off by the clean vocals, which usually come in to accentuate the melodies. Elsewhere, a clear death metal growl reigns the proceedings. Miseration is the project of Scar Symmetry’s Christian Alvestam and Essence of Sorrow’s Jani Stefanovic. I haven’t heard the latter’s band, but my assumption is that this isn’t a departure for either. Solid, mechanical, unoriginal, driven and to a degree, impressive.

You only need to listen to the dance intro (“The Moribund Choir vs The Trumpets of Armageddon”) that opens Deadlock’s fourth full-length, Manifesto, to get an idea of what’s to come; overtly dynamic music, super syrupy and upbeat melodies, generic riffs, female pop vocals, a friendly growler and impeccable and polished production. Listening to Manifesto is like listening to a cheesy melodic pop death metal version of The Gathering. Plus, a dude that growls quite a bit.  I got nothing against commercial music. I like my share of it, but Deadlock sound like a band bent on breaking ground, vying for FM airplay either via their clean sound or other gimmicks, such as the soporific hip hop half of “Deathrace”. Metal has rarely sound so contrived.

Sometimes when I listen to death metal with cookie monster vocals I miss clean voiced singers. Other times, when I listen to death metal with a clean singer I yearn for some brutality at the mike. Germany’s The Blackout Argument aren’t exactly a metal band, but their melodic hardcore sound has been done and redone with growls for vocals and it hasn’t really bothered me. Remedies, the band’s second full-length, features up front the strained vocal chords of Raphael Schmid whose got one of those everyday man tones that’s just a bit generic yet powerful enough to appeal to all fans of this subgenre and other branches like emo. Yes, emo. Because when Schmid doesn’t go for a rough sound it seems like he is about to cry. Other, better times he sounds like Only Living Witness’ Jonah Jenkins. That’s a good thing. But Schmid’s delivery isn’t the strength of The Blackout Argument, that lies in the music which is melodic, yet never loses that visceral feeling. These songs are very well-written, concise, direct and very hook laden.

I reviewed War From a Harlots Mouth Transmetropolitan back when it came out and gave it only two and half sparrows. I liked the cover artwork though. This time around is the other way around. I don’t like the artwork but I like the music much better. Their extreme sound has finally gelled and WFAHM is now an expert math core grind band. The ten tunes included in this sophomore album are not only complex but also coherent and, despite all the meddling, to the point.  Starting with the deranged beat experimentation of “Justice From the Lips of the Highest Bidder” all the way to the merciless algorithmic castigation that is “Copyriot” with its silly finger tapping and sick blast beats, In Shoals shows evolution in strides. The guitars have stopped simply issuing chugga chugga bullshit riffs. Replacing that is a new found addiction for hook-less angularity and targeted brutality which has boasted this band’s sound well beyond the dull soulless artificiality that inhabits the sound of laureate peer bands like Oceano. 

I haven’t had the pleasure of listening to any of Destinity’s previous five albums, but assuming that The Inside represents the culmination of an evolutionary period I’d be very curious to find out how those previous recordings sounded. About 85% of this album is killer. What doesn’t thrill me is the tightness of their sound and the polish that seems to infect an album that could have been all killer had it possessed some dirt. Yeah, get rid of the clean vocals, do without the occasional orchestration, take away some of the modernity, maybe slow things down a notch, cut a tune or two off and The Inside could have rivaled Tribulation’s stellar The Horror. At least as far as killer guitars are concerned. The riffs here are first class, the melodies are grand yet they avoid cheesiness. Even the cookie monster vocals are great.  It’s all a matter of taste, I suppose, but to fans not repelled by polished metal this should be a priority.  More people ought to start paying attention to the French scene, that’s for sure.   

I could do without Hand to Hand. I could really do without them. I can’t deny the appeal some of these melodies might have on some teenagers, but I pass because I feel nothing. I’ve heard these songs so many times it’s gotten boring. And that’s considering I didn’t like these songs the first time I heard them played by about two dozen other bands.  I guess this is what they call emo, or melodic screamo or... I don’t know. Yeah, there are a few nice riffs here and there, but this vocalist, I guess his name is Robert Kellom, he must be a busy man because I’ve heard his voice in about a hundred records this year. They must be cloning this guy and he must be rolling in green. Sweet, sweet life some of us have.

I can’t deny the brutality of Philadelphia’s Left to Vanish. Even if those chugga chugga, and then more chugga riffs, are like, so two years ago and really stuff that should only be played by beginners, I can’t deny the fact that Versus the Throne, the  band’s second effort, is brutal and occasionally heavy. That said, here brutal doesn’t equate to anything but a growling vocalist and the most tedious riffage this side of the universe.  Yeah, every once in a while the band picks up a rhythm, if only to inform us that yeah, they can spice it up like Julia Childs, but man, I am more of a Rachel Ray guy. There is very little to hear here, and there is nothing to enjoy.  I can best summarize Left to Vanish with one word; boring as fuck. On the upside these guys have really colorful tattoos.