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| FEATURES | THE GOOD THE BAD THE UNSIGNED XIII | |||
IT'S A 7 INCH EXTRAVAGANZA IV |
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Man, I had to drink milk of Magnesia a few hours ago. At lunch time I stuffed myself with half a pizza, and after that I just felt like I had eaten a brick and that it just wasn't to come out unless some special forces broke it down and pushed it out. Hence the indiscriminate intake of that awful tasting drink. I had like four teaspoons and in an hour I was like an open faucet shooting chocolate spiked with crushed red pepper, which is my topping of choice every time I eat pizza, which by the way is rare these days. Especially because, once you get old, your system just doesn’t function anymore. |
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Switzerland’s Kosmophobia ought to be careful with their abusive use of the keyboard. The main progressive touch on their technical death metal, sort of cheapens the wealth of riffage solos and tempo changes. In other words, it waters down their take on death metal. For a second there, it almost seems as if one was listening to a long forgotten demo of Cradle of Filth. Kosmophobia never approximate the ridiculous cheesiness of the Brits, and vocally, Giovanni Valenti with his gruff approach is decades away from the painful and hilarious scream of Dani Filth but there is some sort of connection here that dates Kosmophobia back to the late 90’s. Fans who are more into the progressive side of metal will get it though. Superplayful keyboards add the necessary layer of futuristic mumbo. It is all musically impressive and tightly wound to expire in a little over twenty-five minutes. Flawlessly played, assuming every right note was hit, but ultimately only for fans of technique. Facebook |
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Bleak, bleak, bleak. Not necessarily sad, nor heart-wrenching, just slow and monochromatic. At times, even painful to listen to and whether that’s good or bad it totally depends on the listener’s taste and state of mind. Without much going for it in the way of emotions. Really, unless one is only into being stoic, stone-faced or just plain dead. Which is exactly where Slovenian instrumental sludge band Möbius kind of fail. Their long songs lack both, the power to deliver all the rage and the color to deliver emotions. The guitar arrangements either need to be worked to a point where they express the desired ire, or they need to be filtered through more effects for added hues and tones. Instead, their demo Path of Nothingness is an excruciating exercise in boredom. We have previously covered the work of Scottish band Ommadon who take a similar minimal approach, but devastate the listener via some serious aural violence. Möbius could take that route, if opening up to other emotions proves to be too much. Official Site |
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Once Tilburg quartet Yama matures they will show to have the talent to become a force to be reckoned with. They are not there just yet. How can we tell? Every minute of this three-song demo is solid and well-structured, with righteous grooves and great taste for the grooves. The vocals are nothing to die for, perhaps a little filtered through some psychedelic effect, in parts rawer than necessary and the overall instrumental execution is a little restrained. The songs are there though, catchy and groovy and enjoyable like few bands at this early stage in their career. Yama loses point because their sound could pass for anyone else’s, because their compositions do not have a personal stamp. Then again, many would not care and for those is just fine. “Synergy” the last track is especially bright, a hazy moment in a very hazy recording, albeit one that lets us peek into the potential from this hopefully future bright spot in the Dutch scene. Official Site |
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I like humor in my music, but not necessarily music in my humor. When the latter happens, music tends to take the backseat and what we get is poorly executed half-cooked ideas, shitty attempts at quality music served as a background to a comedian that better be fucking funny. Not trying to rip on Lizard Skynard, but “Criticism” the opening cut of their self-titled full-length, with its ‘fuck Anderson Cooper’ start is maybe bound to elicit a few chuckles. Beyond that, it’s a cheapening distraction when you compare it to the rest of the songs, which musically adventurous as they are, are totally ace trippy fuckers, hardcore excursions that perfectly serve as backdrop to vocalist Erik Sprague’s storytelling. There is this British project called Shit & Shine. I think about them when I listen to Lizard Skynard and that’s a great thing. On “Bell & Syndrome” Sprague’s voice actually recalls Henry Rollins enervated speaking tone. Main difference being that Rollins is an earthly man that is always speaking about earthly things, while Lizard Skynard are just downright psychedelic in parts and fucked to oblivion. Official Site |
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One would think that in a three-song demo, the band in question would pick the strongest track to start with. Especially when you are talking about brutal death metal bands that want to have some impact from the get go. In the case of Canada’s Dire Omen it actually works in reverse with their stronger tracks coming in second and third. The first one “Your Chosen Hell” is a bit too typical, clumsy in the bass lines and though raging with the fury of a rabid bull that’s shooting fire out of its ass, the track denounces Dire Omen as a band clenching to the typical brutal death metal sound. There are some strong ideas, but none as good as the ones displayed in “Serpent’s Child”, with its dragging tempo and haunting doom moods or “Dire Omen”, the song, which starts blasting and ends blasting. Nothing out of the ordinary, but definitely the kind of track that as a starter would have left nasty bruises. Facebook |
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Wage Slave are fucking tight. And their songs swing so well it is no cause for embarrassment. Meaning, for a few seconds there on “Street Sweeper”, I was tempted to expect some degree of hardcore bullshittery. You know, the kind that borders on metallic but is just 'wah wah wah, listen to this breakdown'. Instead, Wage Slave just carried on and got into this clean grinding passages; all impeccably played and perhaps almost too impeccably recorded. If you pay attention though, and hear the detail, we know that the devil is always there and that if the axeman is paying that much attention to serve you so much sing and dance crash riffiing, the audio quality better be there. It must let itself be heard. And it does. Wage Slave are a pretty promising band. They are quite technical which in places is obviously taking away of the typical viciousness of cool grind, but to those for whom Extortion and the likes prove to be too much, Wage Slave might just do. Bandcamp |
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The four members of New York City’s Ambient Death have got to know that in order to leave a mark, as weak as this may be, they will have to create music that’s much more distinctive than the contained in their second EP Transmigration of Souls. To start with, they play melodic death metal, which is a field that’s over populated with quality musicians that can run the gamut from the astoundingly technical with no clue as to how to write a memorable tune, to astoundingly technical with a very good idea of how to write a catchy nugget. Like most melodic death metal bands, this foursome doesn’t exactly fall in either group. They can play alright, and the melodic lines of their at times Maiden-esque approach is a OK. But the whole of Transmigration of Souls is so run of the mill and average that we can’t let ourselves be surprised by the black metal moments in “Nocturnal Mirage” or by the super melodic, sweet as pie, and saccharine overload female Evanescence-esque vocals on “Ordained Without Redemption”. MySpace |
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Don’t let the prog rock blah, blah, discourage you. I know that when I opened the cardboard sleeve and I read in the panel, the words ‘Corsair prog rock 2010’, I started thinking of some shit-tastic bands I don’t even wanna mention. Nothing against prog rock, I like my fair share, but much of what it passes for the style these days is technique over substance, and gladly Corsair are far from there. Especially because they do not sound like prog rock at all, and because at the start their licks are delicious and because, well, their music has this warm analog vibe and the soft but yet hard guitar tones of a cool Thin Lizzy song. Opening instrumental “Skykrakken” is especially groovy and incendiary in all its subtled manner. “Beware the Black Fleet” follows and suddenly, things are not so hot anymore. The tune is calmed, a cool midtempo that perhaps should marinate to be enjoyed. “Last Night On Earth” is equally ruminating, a pensive ballad that is almost soft rock 70’s and really, so far from real prog rock and so distance from cool 70’s hard rock, I am not even sure this is the same band that played that cool instrumental at the beginning. Corsair surprise again on “Space is a Lonely Place”, a hard rocking cut with truly awesome guitars. Clearly, these guys got it. They just need better advice and to these ears, they need to lean toward the harder end of the spectrum. Bandcamp |
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Two tracks, over thirty-five minutes. You get the idea. Stuff just goes on forever. And for some reason artists seem to think that just by having a couple of things rumbling for twenty minutes they are creating some form of high art that only appeals to thinking metalheads. Gorgo come from Italy, and quite frankly, need to learn from their countrymen Ufomammut, who sort of veered into this direction but who kept in mind that the riff is king and that if they are going to add some fat ass distortion, it better be well-constructed, with feeling and substance. Instead, Gorgo have a lot of distortion and absolutely nothing else. The guitar just drones and then there are some effects. That’s about it. Bleak stuff, but also boring as all hell. And it virtually requires no skills. At least, none audible, not in the guitars which at both, light and dense moments reveal some pretty languid songwriting. And don't even get me started with the drone part. Facebook |
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If this can be categorized as British black metal, just because of the suck factor then we are all for it. Crimson Darkness are just in their second full-length, the first one came out in 1999 and was titled Hymns of the Damned, but The Devourer of All certainly sounds like a beginning, like a decent try if it had come out in 1992. Without citing most of their orchestral Nordic influences, we can summarize Crimson Darkness by linking them to the band of some pretty famous tiny Brit with a penchant for posing with color contacts. A practice that by the way, one of the members of Crimson Darkness indulges in as well. Not to pick on them just because of who they remind of, the issue at hand is that the songs here are just not that good. Not the riffs, not the drumming, not the orchestration and not the vocals. Everything here sounds sophomoric, lumped together, cut and paste, and quite bland. Official Site |
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