Traditionally I seem to start these features off with an album that I had planned on reviewing in full next in the schedule but for whatever reason just couldn't seem to formulate more than a few sentences for, and this is no different. And it's a shame because I really like this one here, it's just been a total roadblock to write about. Othuum specializes in massive, oppressive doom metal, but there's actually some air of levity to this Lovecraftian soundscape. For as big and heavy as this is, there are enough dare I say "pleasant" melodies scattered throughout that keep this from being a total downer, and the deep, clean vocals help it sound large and epic instead of simply large and menacing. Unfortunately that's all I can really think to say about it. It's big and slow and heavy but also pretty inviting and that's about all there is. It's good, just really hard to talk about at length apparently.
RATING: GOOD
Chevalier has been making the rounds in the underground lately, and I can totally see why. Raw and energetic speed metal throwbacks are prime to be huge hits with the Extremely Online types who spend all day scouring bandcamp for new releases just as much as they would be with crusty old schoolers who never quite got over the fact that 1988 ended. But the unfortunate fact is that I didn't like the Call to Arms EP two years ago and I don't like Destiny Calls now. I don't know why, I wish I could explain it. All of the ingredients for great metal are here but for whatever reason these Finns have just never done it for me. Maybe it's the fact that the lo-fi production is less of a cool throwback and more of an irritating way to turn riffs into indistinguishable fuzz, maybe it's the fact that the vocals are kinda wild and tuneless but don't quite have the charisma of early Helloween or something, maybe it's the fact that the snare drum is louder than everything else by a magnitude of sixty, I don't know. This has all the base components that make speed metal enjoyable, but it's all bungled just ever so slightly enough that the little quibbles add up to me just never wanting to bother listening to it.
RATING: BIG HEARTY FUCKIN' MEH
I was excited for this one because I've been trying to stick as many pins into my metaphorical metal globe as possible, and I can say with absolute certainty that I'd never heard an Iranian metal band before. So yeah I was a little disappointed when I realized the main dude behind Angra Demana had actually relocated to Austria by the time of this EP, but hey. The point is that the music itself here is quite rad. Triptych of Decay is only three tracks and under twenty minutes, and it's become quite clear to me that I struggle with writing for short releases, but I can confidently say that this is some high quality black metal. I've seen the project labeled around the internet as "ambient black metal", but that really only seems to apply to their debut from six years ago. In the intervening years, Radman has apparently binged on Immortal and Inquisition, because this is riffy and nasty as hell. Atom Krieg from Darkmoon Warrior handles the vocals here, and he has a deep, throaty croak similar to the aforementioned two bands up there, albeit obviously much less of the bullfrog droning that makes Abbath and Dagon stand out so much. Maybe it's a bit more accurate to compare him to Shatraug or something, I dunno. Point is, this is pretty standard black metal (at least the kind with an emphasis on riffing above atmosphere and repetition) but it kicks a good load of ass.
RATING: AWESOME
I've given this like six spins and I still remember nothing from it. I've sat here with only that sentence typed out for about three tracks now and I still don't have much to say about this. It's black/death metal with a heavy emphasis on brooding atmosphere but nothing much really seems to happen. It never really picks up or hits really hard, nor does the atmosphere ever really evoke a real mood or crush you in that way either. I'm seven tracks in right now and all this is making me think of that this is why I took like an eight year hiatus from listening to anything from a promo mailer. Just total, uninteresting mediocrity from start to finish.
RATING: ZZZZZZ
This is another one that just sorta stumped me and found itself in the "Definitely Going to Be in the Draining the Dregs Feature" file after like a half a listen. This is an American metalcore band and there ya go, you know everything you need. If there's anything that's a little bit different about these guys its that they tend to completely eschew clean vocals and therefore wind up playing pretty much just standard melodeath of the Slaughter of the Soul variety, albeit less intense and less interesting. Basically this just sounds like an album full of verse riffs from As I Lay Dying's better albums, so there's nothing particularly bad here but there's also nothing particularly interesting either. I like that the album is short and succinct, I like that it doesn't mess around with the poppy post-hardcore elements of their parent genre, but it's all outweighed pretty heavily by the fact that it's just not very interesting or entertaining. At least if it was shitty it'd be easier to talk about how shitty it is, but as it stands this is just kinda blah and that's it.
RATING: FINE BUT NOT WORTH LISTENING TO
Christ this one is bad. I was already predisposed to hate it since y'all know how I feel about rightfully obscure nobodies who broke up decades ago getting back together now that we're in an era of crippling nostalgia that gives everybody a second chance whether or not they deserve it, but these guys do nothing but prove my point. Musically there's nothing that really stands out one way or the other, it's just bog standard heavy metal that's neither fast nor slow, epic nor raw, thrashy or doomy, there's just nothing. It's like an AI network was trained to listen to bland mid-90s trad/power metal bands and spit out riffs with the "offensiveness" meter set at zero. The real problem with the immediate listening experience is just how god damn laughably bad the vocals are. They alternate between basically just talking in melody and Warrel Dane levels of hilariously bad projecting. When the chorus hit in the first song I legit started laughing, it's just no bueno. There's a really lame and dull ballad about halfway through the album, and on first listen I had to check and see how much time I had left in the album so I could move on to something actually worth listening to, and was stunned to realize it's only the third track. This shit just drags on and on and on and on and on and on and on and
RATING: ON AND ON AND ON AND ON AND ON AND
I've been pretty vocal about how I'm not really much of a fan of atmoblack, but I can give some serious props to Schattenfall. Instead of just being longwinded and dull, these are lengthy dirges of misanthropy that are equally effective as both melancholic background noise and as engaging blasts of agony. The black metal parts are plenty good on their own, but honestly I think the band's true calling lies more in the ambient interludes that comprise the "Einsamkeit" tracks peppered throughout. They have black metal in them as well, no doubt, but they tend to focus more on droning, thumping atmosphere than the more distorted and kinetic metal tracks. The atmosphere shines regardless though honestly, and overall this is very good, just difficult to write about. It never gets particularly angry or hateful, just despondent and agonizing, and I like that a lot.
RATING: VERY GOOD
I've got two different black/thrash releases to tackle here today. This first one here is out of Germany, and just like one of their more famous countrymen in the scene, they sound an awful lot like Desaster. They sound a bit more like their early era when they were more overtly black metal with hints of thrash here and there (like Hellfire's Dominion or Tyrants of the Netherworld) than some of the more mid era stuff that had a lot more thrash involved (admittedly I haven't kept up with the band so lord knows what they sound like nowadays), but if you're a fan of those albums like I am then this'll be right up your alley. Nocturnal Witch isn't a total knockout though, as it seems to kinda go in one ear and out the other most of the time. There are some great tunes here (the intro to "Eclipsing the Light" has definitely stuck with me) but for the most part this one has been consistently losing time to the other similar band I got in the latest batch.
RATING: DECENT
The other similar band being this one. Considering the previous band sounded a lot like their fellow countrymen, I expected these Australians to be reminiscent of Destroyer 666, but in actuality they don't really bring death metal anywhere near their sound here. This is pure thrash with scratchy black metal screams and a filthy, gritty guitar tone. So really this cribs more from Toxic Holocaust than anybody else, but that's not really a problem since they're one of the few bands that made it through the rethrash boom with their reputation intact, there are much worse bands you could emulate. There's touches of the usual suspects like Abigail and Nifelheim as well, but their true strength lies in their more punky influences. One of the very few complaints I have about this album is that it just kinda takes a few tracks to really get cooking. The first handful of tracks are good for sure, but once "Demons Unleashed" starts I just can't help but notice that all of a sudden there are much more d-beats and punk influence, and from that point on they just deliver banger after banger. So obviously there's a comparison to Midnight to be made as well, but despite all the names I've dropped here I really do think Bastardizer stands on their own quite easily. Out of everything I'll talk about in this feature, these guys have easily gotten the most play time.
RATING: WHISKEY UNLEASHED
I really wanted to like this. The EPK touted Tanagra as for fans of Caladan Brood, Blind Guardian, and Iced Earth, but after listening to this that turned out to be super misleading. Maybe this just shows me as being very narrow minded, but most of this makes me think of Kamelot more than anybody else. This certainly doesn't have the grand bombasity of Blind Guardian or the sharp riffing of Iced Earth, though arguably it at least gets the atmosphere of Caladan Brood close to correct. Meridiem is a very mellow album, and it's the exact kind of prog/power metal that people like to call "complex" or "layered" or "classy" or whatever, but for me it all just translates to "dull". Most of the songs are very long and sombre, with depressingly few moments of real drive. It cycles through a lot of ideas and never really falls onto the crutch of needless repetition, but with the vocals being that Roy Khan style of lullaby cooing and the riffs being completely inconsequential backdrops for the melodies and occasional shredding, there's just very little for a caveman like me to care about here. This just takes forever to end and always sounds like it's about to get interesting but the moment never comes. Protip: Never start your ostensibly metal album with an 11 minute track that has no riffs in it.
RATING: NO BUENO
Apparently these guys are kind of a big deal for being the grandfathers of modern tech death from Finland (you know damn well Demilich doesn't count unless you're a nerd who refuses to update your understanding of the term), but somehow I don't think I've ever even come across their name before now. Which is kind of a shame, because Singularity is a pretty decent release despite some weird choices. Since I've been dropping names this whole time, I might as well do so again and say that this reminds me a lot of Anata or Gorod, who regular readers of mine may know I think kick a comical amount of ass. In terms of off-kilter riffing and infused melody, De Lirium's Order is right on par with the Beasts of Bordeaux. Where they really differ is in their much more overt jazziness in tracks like "Surfaced" or "The Billion Year Contract", and their frequent inclusion of frankly offputting clean vocals. I get that it helps the band's unique factor to insert cleans in a genre that tends to keep their vocals harsh and secondary, and the vocals themselves are good, but they seem almost tacked on as an afterthought. It's not really a gamebreaker or anything, but it's enough to hamper my enjoyment somewhat. Regardless, I know for sure now that I have a new backlog to run through, because my complaints about this album are honestly just nitpicks, and overall this is one of the better albums to show up in my inbox.
RATING: GREAT
And we're going to close out today with something unfairly fucking heavy. Celophys seems to be listed as "stoner/doom" around the internet but I'd argue that I hear more sludge here, though oddly enough without the punk element that defines sludge in the first place. Fried Chordata is just too caustic and brutally weighty to be stoner to me. This doesn't focus on pure fuzz and hypnotic repetition of Sabbath knockoffs, and instead pummels you over the dome with riff after massive riff. This is agonizingly slow and menacing, just browbeating you for forty straight minutes with glacial-paced chords and screams so venomous that it'll cause your eardrums to blister. This is some straight dangerous sounding shit, managing to be chaotic and unhinged while retaining the deliberate pacing of doom. It does pick up the pace a few times (notably in "False Lizard and Yeti"), but it's the crushing monolith dirges that got me hooked here. This is barbaric and nasty, and I fuckin' love it.
RATING: I KILL COCKSUCKERS
And there we have it. Twelve more mini-reviews to make up for the week or so I took off while wage-slaving myself to the brink of starvation. Production should pick up again shortly once I'm done playing dorky JRPGs all damn day. Thanks for sticking around!
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