I've always struggled to write for short releases and this is no different, but I actually like this EP quite a bit. It could pretty easily be described as "melodic death metal" and left at that, but I think they tackle the style from an ever so slightly different direction and it's a pretty fun listen as a result. There's a lot of atmosphere involved here, particularly from frequent twinkly keyboards in the background, which in many contexts would make this sound non-threatening, but considering the music itself is generally based quite heavily in blast beats and high speed riffs, it instead sounds more like a cosmic bludgeoning. It has the more Gothenburg styled moments here and there like the midpaced title track, but a good helping of this is based in the more American style of direct aggression like Black Dahlia and Arsis. It's good stuff.
RATING: GOOD STUFF
Remember Backstabber from the last feature? Well Kremlin here is a pretty similar band in that they're also a death metal band with a lyrical focus on conspiracy theories, but even beyond the music not being as fun and engaging as Backstabber, Kremlin falters a bit in their gimmick coming off much more straight. Backstabber felt more like they were playing up the goofy chemtrails and Alex Jones shit for shock value, not unlike GWAR not really being pro baby rape or something. Kremlin on the other hand feels much more genuine in their lyrical insanity, which is a little unnerving when they're growling about weird shit that I've actually seen destroy minds like the 13 Satanic Bloodlines, Ickeian lizard people, and... flat earth for some reason? It'd be easier to swallow if the music was excellent, but despite including members from great bands like Outre-Tombe and Infernal Majesty, it's just really average death metal with a terrible thunky drum sound.
RATING: BELOW AVERAGE
I was going to include this duo on the last feature, but decided I could probably get enough material for a full review. Upon a few more listens, I just really can't. This is pretty standard prog/power for the most part, but they strike an annoying balance of incredibly proficient instrumentals, bloated and confusing songwriting, and really dorky, mousey vocals. Imagine a band with the chops of Symphony X, the vision of Savatage, the longwinded songwriting quirks of Dream Theater, and the vocals of a nine year old. The frequent harmonies in the background call to mind Virgin Steele as well, but this is definitely less than the sum of its parts. I really wish I could just get past how corny and doinky the vocals are but I just can't, they're really bad and definitely holding back what could definitely be an exciting power metal album. They're so soft and wimpy that I remember thinking to myself that it sounds like a really young George Michael wandered into the studio during recording, so imagine just how hard I started laughing when I realized the last song was literally a Wham! cover. Holy shit get outta here you nerds.
RATING: WOULD BE GOOD IF THE VOCALS WEREN'T AWFUL
I'm gonna be honest with you, the only reason I didn't give this one a full review is because the promo was missing the last track for some reason. Maybe I could just pretend to not notice and review it in full anyway, but considering the fact that this is only four tracks long, one of which being a cover, I didn't feel comfortable really going into detail with only two original songs to work with. Maybe I should've though, because this isn't particularly deep stuff anyway. It's old school death/thrash along the lines of early Pestilence or Sepultura, and the Morgoth cover fits like a glove as well. So if you (like me) are a fan of that style then you'll likely love this despite how shallow it is. It doesn't need to be complex, it just needs to be mean, and these Russian kids are super fucking mean, so unsurprisingly this is awesome.
RATING: GREAT
Man I've listened to this like ten fucking times and I still don't remember anything from it. Which is a shame because whenever it's on I think to myself "God damn this rules", but as soon as it finished I forget if I liked it at all. So yeah, Hath plays some bloody raw death metal with an understated technical edge, with enough mid-fi dissonance to help it stand apart from most of their Willowtip brethren, but they haven't really mastered songwriting with any real staying power. Throughout all of my listens, the only song I can ever really remember standing out is "Worlds Within", and even then I can't really tell you why. I'm listening to it right now and it doesn't immediately stand out more than the rest of the album. Maybe it's the stronger black metal influence, I dunno. It's a good album but I never want to listen to it.
RATING: GOOD BUT FORGETTABLE
This is similar to Hath because it's also good, ravaging death metal, but it's completely lacking in staying power and despite half a dozen spins I can never recall anything from it. It's a bit more polished than its sister album up there and as such tends to pack a slight bit more punch (since it's still not mega clean like an Andy Sneap production or something). The most notable thing about Hedonihil is that they're sort of a Monkey's Paw twisting of a wish I had voiced around the time I started taking promos seriously again. I had thought "Man I don't like how I was immediately swamped in Swallow the Sun knockoffs, I wish I'd get more stuff I'd listen to on my own like death metal or something". And so the universe heard me, and three members of Swallow the Sun decided to do a death metal side project. Lucky me. At least it doesn't sound anything like their main band, this is very much savage death metal to the bone, it just doesn't stick at all.
RATING: GOODER BUT FORGETTABLER
I wish I hated this almost entirely because the band pic is so fucking hilarious. Seriously go over to MA and check it out, it's the exact kind of unaware dorkery that makes black metal such an easy target to outside listeners. There's even a fourth member there despite everywhere I look stating the band is a three piece. Who is that fourth guy? Why is he here?? So many questions! Either way, this is solid black metal with very few tricks or out of left field ideas. It starts off as very basic blast happy BM in the vein of Marduk or something, and gets a little more atmospheric and creepy as it goes on, and "A Cold Winter's Plight" really stands out as an excellent song for drastically dialing back the black metal tropes, instead focusing on tom-heavy crushing grooves. I can't get enough of this one particular song, but I'm glad it's relegated to just one off kilter track instead of a full album of this kind of stuff, because I think it works better as a weird experiment than a basis for an entire record. These guys could have a bright future, even if they look like they desperately need swirlies.
RATING: QUITE GOOD
I don't even know what the fuck is happening on this one. It's well known that Running Wild is one of my favorite bands, but it's also well known that I resent how much the "pirate metal" gimmick stuck to them since only a third of their songs are pirate themed anyway, and every other band that tries to take hold of the gimmick falls immediately into the stupid "yo ho ho" shtick that they always so deftly avoided. Calico Jack is no exception, but it's just a really awkward album. The guitar tone is simultaneously really cheap and really heavy, sounding like somebody playing deep death metal on a practice amp, but the music itself is supposed to be jaunty folk metal. That's a weird approach because the folk elements are so thoroughly drowned out by the heavy guitars and deep growls, you almost forget there's a fiddle player on here. Something like "Grog Jolly Grog" is clearly meant to be a Skyclad styled bouncy folk metal song, but it sounds like some weird thudding mush of noise. The fact that it's 70 fucking minutes long certainly doesn't help either, owing almost entirely to the ill advised title track stretching 18 minutes. There isn't one good riff, one good melody, one good hook, there's nothing I like here. Pirate themed bands have an abysmal batting average outside of the godfathers of the trope being one of the greatest metal bands to ever exist, and Calico Jack does absolutely nothing to help.
RATING: QUITE BAD
This looks much worse than it actually is. I opted into this one expecting terrible rethrash ten years past its sell-by date, but what I got instead was some extremely vicious thrash that doesn't immediately date itself. I have some beef with the vocals though, but I can't quite put my finger on who it is they remind me of. They're really deep and gruff, but they clash a bit with the high speed insanity on display. Think something like Krisiun's first album or Arch Enemy's original singer fronting a very decent Slayer clone. There's not much to say about this, it basically just hinges on whether you like thrash or not, because Eugenic Death doesn't transcend any stigmas or break any boundaries, but they're good at what they do. Special shout out to the weird interlude "Hara Shiva", which is basically just a weird Indian style guitar noodle with female vocals repeating a mantra over and over again. It probably goes on for too long but it's a nice break and adds a bit of character to what could've easily been a really samey album. Overall it's a nice thrashy bite, and I dig it for what it is, even if I know damn well that it's nothing truly special.
RATING: DECENT
Well credit where credit is due, Sludgehammer definitely has the best band name in this roundup without a doubt. Musically this is a tough one to really pin down, because it kind of hits several targets when it comes to modern metal. I'd say they're primarily some sort of groove/death metal, but I know that's going to make you think of Six Feet Under and I promise you they sound nothing like Barnes's terminal embarrassment and they're much better than that. They utilize an extremely heavy guitar tone and the death metal blasting sections are absolutely pummeling, but they break it up really frequently with more overt Lamb of God/early Mastodon style grooves. Some of the fast gallops recall newer Testament, the clean vocals that pop up often aren't particularly smooth so they keep things appropriately gritty instead of suddenly cooing sweetly over the heavy songs like As I Lay Dying is so prone to doing, etc. Maybe they sound like Slipknot if they were less outwardly insane but obviously rooted in metal instead of the dastardly nu-variant? I dunno, I struggle to pin these guys down, but they're definitely modern, definitely groovy, and definitely heavy.
RATING: DECENT
Everywhere I go lately, Inferi seems to pop up. It's a good thing too because I think they're pretty damn great. This here is a rerecording of their second album from 2009, featuring their new and current vocalist, Stevie Bosier, who you may remember as the best part of Equipoise simply because he wasn't a spotlight-hogging showoff who wouldn't shut the fuck up. Luckily he's great here too, and a much better fit for a band like Inferi since they jam pack every song with so many riffs and hooks. They're a very cohesive unit and as a result they produce the exact kind of Neuraxis-styled tech death that I adore. This is kind of a pointless rerecording since they only have four albums anyway and this particular one is barely ten years old, but they've really been picking up steam lately and usually seem to spend four years between each album so maybe this is their way of introducing all of their new fans to their old songs while conveniently keeping their release schedule somewhat prolific, but either way it's a great record and I didn't know the original anyway so apparently it was a good idea after all.
RATING: KINDA POINTLESS BUT EXCELLENT ANYWAY
And let's finish off today with a totally random one that showed up completely out of left field. If the project name wasn't a giveaway already, this isn't even slightly metal, which obviously isn't a problem, but it was certainly a surprise to find in my inbox. This is some sort of waify mellow alternative stuff, with very little of the driving energy I'm so used to. Instead this is very soft and emotional, and as such it makes for a pleasant cooldown experience after hours and hours of blast beats and screeches. The two songs that stand out in any real way to me are "Her Body Rocks" for being a more upbeat indie rock song the likes of Foster the People showcased in their secondary hits a few years ago, and "Temple of the Dog" for being the lone dark track, grooving along on a nice pulsing thud that pretty much instantly hooked itself into my memory. Frankly I could probably talk about this one a lot, but I'm putting it here because it's so outside of my wheelhouse that I don't really feel comfortable giving it a full critical appraisal. For what it's worth, I almost never read the press kits attached to the downloads beyond a cursory skim, but after giving this one listen, I remember thinking to myself "Huh, this reminds me of some mix of Radiohead and Sigur Ros, maybe with some of the softer Anathema stuff thrown in", and wouldn't you fucking know it those are the exact three bands mentioned in the FFO: section. I'm a fucking genius.
RATING: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Well that's all for today. I've got some real life stuff going on the next few days and my sister in law is currently squeezing out my nephew as I type this so I should probably log the fuck off and go meet him or something. So hopefully this tides y'all over for a few days before I get back to my usual schedule. Happy listening, kids!
Upon listening to their cover of the anime aong from Slam Dunk, I realized that the vocalist from Mortanius kinda sounds like a slightly-worse higher-pitched Japanese power metal vocalist.
ReplyDeleteAlso, any thoughts on Hexed? I was kind of expecting a review of Bodom's new album from you, seeing that you also listened to them a lot before
The new Bodom will definitely be covered in the near future. Short version is that I like it a lot. Bodom is super frustrating in their inconsistency. You can really easily tell when they're actually trying or not.
DeleteAbsolutely. When I Worship Chaos was released, I think I just listened to it twice or thrice and then no more. I probably even changed what I was listening to halfway through the album. But Hexed? Despite the inconsistency in the album itself, Hexed played in my Spotify for DAYS... until I realized that I also need to listen to the other albums I have saved on Spotify.
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ReplyDeleteI wouldn't call the Inferi re-recording pointless. The original had really lackluster production, and the vocals were pretty bad. The difference is night and day. I first heard it back in 2011 and thought, "Man, this album would be a damn masterpiece with better production and vocals." 8 years later, and my wish has been granted.
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