Countess - On Wings of Defiance (review)

"I sighed at this album... and I sighed hard"

There have been times in my life, where I have been bored out of my brains like for instance; when I’m in English class, when I’m listening to someone do a speech about how we should live our lives or when I’m watching the school talent show (particularly because none of the acts have any talent anyway). Well, none of those activities I’ve mentioned about even come close to the boredom that I felt when listening to On Wings of Defiance. It is definitely the most boring black metal album out there today (I think it’s safe to assume). You’d think that after years and years in the business, that their music would have gotten better (it’s no wonder why these guys have stayed underground for their whole career). Not only is On Wings of Defiance a really, really boring album (strap yourself to a chair and make them listen to it… congratulations, you’ve just stopped time!) but it’s just retarded, plain and simple.

When I first looked at the cover of the album I thought “holy moly, the cover looks awesome, therefore the music contained within music also be awesome!” Yeah well I was wrong. Immediately when I hit play, my first thought was “oh no…” because I knew that reviewing this album would be a chore rather than a pleasant activity.

The logic escapes me on how a band that has been in the music industry for so long, can still have really shitty sound quality and distortion. I just don’t know sometimes, I just don’t know… The drumming sounds like someone hitting some kind of tin can with cling wrap as the skin, the guitars sound like those $5 toy guitars that parents buy for their children and the vocals, oh god, the vocals… they sound like a man being violated by a donkey, they don’t even black metalish or when I think about it, it doesn’t sound like any kind of vocals that I’ve heard from any genre (and I don’t mean that in a good way either). Even war metal style vocals sound better. I guess the bottom line to this is that the artist behind Countess have just real shitty musical skill overall to be honest. Upon doing a little bit more research, I found out that the Countess is now just a one man band and I had a sneaky feeling that was the case because one man bands typically sound stale (not all of them).

I don’t know if it’s just me, but Countess actually sounds like a satiric band, mocking the black metal industry. Even if that were true, that does not take away the fact that the music absolutely terrible. It just sounds so cheap. One good thing about On Wings of Defiance I guess is the fact that I can understand every single word that the vocalist utters (come to think about it, in black metal, that may not be such a good thing). But I giggled slightly when listening to the lyrics. Pretty much every second word the vocalist says is “war”, which is really annoying because not only do I have to listen to the same riffs over and over again, but the same god damn words too! Even though the artist tried to make things sounds a little different from song to song by adding slight changes to the song writing for example, adding keyboards to the mix (it’s worth pointing out that the keyboard is set to piano on On Wings of Defiance, which contributes to the albums cheapness). However, even these slight changes, these very rare changes throughout On Wings of Defiance does not make the music any better whatsoever, it’s still bland, it’s still stale, it’s still annoying and On Wings of Defiance is still terrible.

The intended audience for On Wings of Defiance is unclear to me, because the music sounds satiric in my opinion therefore it does not have the “kvltness” which tr00 black metalers look for, however it doesn’t really fit in with any other genre of music either, not even viking metal. It seems like the type music they’d play in a Scandinavian version of Playschool. This is where I believe is another spot that On Wings of Defiance falls, it lacks the attention (I’m assuming) of a really wide audience.

Just like the optimist I am, I try to look for the good things in music. Although there is little good done in On Wings of Defiance, there are certain moments (very rare moments) where I did think “hey this isn’t so bad”. There were some parts throughout On Wings of Defiance where the atmosphere and some of the actual feelings behind the music came into the forefront of the music and gave it some slight depth and character. Although I’ve heard this same style of atmosphere a million times before from many bands, it’s still worth giving Countess some credit for. I guess another thing I can commend Countess on is how the lyrics fit rather well with the intended mood. If only the actual music and the vocals used fit in with the music itself, then we’d have something here, something better than what we have now. But, these are only really minor things that I could find that are positive about On Wings of Defiance and this is not enough to save this from being one of the worst black metal releases that I’ve ever heard.

Overall, On Wings of Defiance is probably the worst black metal album I’ve heard in a really, really long time. Nothing is in time, the song writing is absolutely horrid and the musicianship… ahaha, let’s not even go there. Like I’ve mentioned before, you’d think that after years making music, that Countess would be at least good, sadly they aren’t even average, they’re well below average. Oh well there is no way in hell I’m going to be listening to any more Countess nor will I recommend these guys to any black metal fans out there because I’ve wasted my time. If I had to describe the quality of music, I’d say On Wings of Defiance is listenable, but tedious. I give Countess’s On Wings of Defiance a 7/20.

7/20

Kill All The Sexy People - Glory Hole (review)

"Apart from the track tites, and the title of the EP itself... Kill All The Sexy People are quite a serious sounding band"

I was in my younger years when I heard my first real deathcore song (Bludgeoned to Death – Suicide Silence) and since then, I’ve heard many different styles and permutations deathcore. Some shit, some kickass and some… just downright stupid. When it comes to deciding which one (in my opinion) is worse; shit or stupid, I’d probably have to go with stupid because listening to an unintelligent (to say the least) album, for me, is a complete waste of time. I’m the type of person who likes to be doing something productive all the time (well… mostly). When I first read the title for this EP “Glory Hole”, I was like “oh boy here we go, another stupid deathcore band” (hey, you can’t blame me). Even when I first heard the opening guitar riffs, I immediately thought DANGER, SILLY POSER BAND. Then… in came the breakdown. Thank god, thank god that Kill All The Sexy People isn’t one of those time waster bands… thank god.

Automatically after hearing the opening breakdown, I was immediately relived and greeted by some kickass deathcore style guitar riffs and vocals. To say the least, the album title, the band’s name and track titles are very… crude. That being said, the actually music contained in Glory Hole is about as serious as serious can be. You can tell that the band actually put effort into creating some listenable deathcore because you know, it sounds good, which is something I can’t say for many deathcore releases out there.

I can’t help the feeling however, that individual components which make up Kill All The Sexy People’s sound is awfully generic; the vocals range from moderately low growls to moderately high screams, not to mention that they’re monotone as well the breakdowns- heard it all before, the guitar work- sounds catchy and the drumming is nothing spectacular. BUT! The real talent lies within their song writing and song structures, they’re pretty much perfect. I’ve listened to Glory Hole many times, frantically looking for some kind of imperfection in their music in which I can critique upon (the real reason I listened to Glory Hole many times because it’s awesome). There are no off beats, awkward sounding mixes, clumsy song writing or any kind of retardation of the music. The way that Kill All The Sexy People have managed to mix melody, heavy-ass breakdowns and plain and simple deathcore is outstanding in comparison to other bands which try too hard to be that “all-in-1” band.

I don’t know why, but the music doesn’t sound like pure deathcore. For me, it sounds like they have the general metalcore aesthetic mixed in with a deathcore structure. There seems to be a lot of resemblance between bands like Parkway Drive, specifically the Horizons era (of Parkway Drive that is). This gives the music a certain deepness in their music. The guitars have a lower pitch, and the drumming is deep, but snappy at the same time. Not to mention the fact that the vocals have smooth hardcore (but still appropriate for deathcore) texture, there is none of this outrageous “wailing” bullshit going on here (also, a few cleans on the side to lighten up the mood).

What I like about Glory Hole, is that Kill All The Sexy People haven’t tried too hard, to create a new vain of deathcore but they’ve managed to make slight touches and tweaks to their sound, to make it sound slightly different from your daily dose of deathcore. They like to alternate from heavy/droning breakdowns to quick, sharp and groovy style of breakdowns, and both of them have been implemented in their sound quite well. Also, sure the individual guitar riffs aren’t anything spectacular, the different combinations and range of pitch that they use also keeps the music rather interesting and listenable. There are times throughout Glory Hole where it reminds me of the guitar work in Bring me the Horizons Count Your Blessings album, not as technical however. So to me, the sheer variety of sounds which is presented in Glory Hole are enough to keep my interest, but not too much to make it sound like some kind of retarded amalgamation of sounds.

Overall, Glory Hole was a highly enjoyable EP to listen to. The balance of sounds as well as the song writing is seemingly perfect, the music was very interesting to listen to, they’ve obviously haven’t tried too hard to “make something new” and finally, they seem like the type of band which doesn’t take themselves too seriously but aren’t dumb about it. Glory Hole is an impressive EP, with the only things holding it back is the total lack of any connections being made with the listener, and the lack of sheer power behind the music. I would recommend Glory Hole to any deathcore or heavier metalcore fans out there, fans of; Parkway Drive and Bring me the Horizon in particular (and of course others which sound like them). I’d also like to recommend the tracks The Legend Of Grizzlyface and Dressed To Kill for first time listeners. Glory Hole is an awesome EP and I’m looking forward to seeing what they might bring to the table in future releases, 16/20.

16/20

Be'lakor - Of Breath and Bone (Review)

"May not be as good as Stone's Reach, but still a solid release"

It’s been a while since Be'lakor had put anything into the melodic death metal scene (since 2009 to be precise), and now they’re back with their all new album Of Breath and Bone. For those who don’t know, Be'lakor is a melodic death metal band hailing from the land down under (Australia). They are part of a very small melodic death metal movement in Australia, which has become recognised globally. What I like about Australian melodic death metal in comparison to their North American or European (Swedish in particular) counterparts is that the style of melodic death (I say most of the bands because there only has to be just one band which doesn’t follow suit for my absolute to be shot down) is calmer and more peaceful. Typically, when I think I melodic death metal, I think of some cheesy band trying to shovel melodic death metal down my ear canal at 200bpm. However, Australian melodic death is not like the others and Be'lakor is proof of that.

Of Breath and Bone, is one of those albums which focuses on creating an atmosphere rather than initiating an adrenaline rush on the listener. I mean, sure, some there are some sections in Of Breath and Bone where the speed of the music exceeds what most would consider “tranquil”, but none of it makes me want to suddenly burst out and do a 100m sprint (that’s 328.08399 feet for fellow Imperial users) even though, I would gladly head bang to most of the tracks on Of Breath and Bone. It’s not the most extreme, or brutal melodic death metal out there but it does body and mind moving at many points throughout the album. 

Like I’ve just mentioned, the main focal point in Of Breath and Bone is the whole atmospheric style of melodic death metal which they play. The guitars have a thin, yet, high pitched sound to them, which makes the music softer, the guitars aren’t going at full ball all the time. However, I believe that the vocals create the most part of the overall atmosphere. It’s a little hard to describe, but Be'lakor uses more of a smoother texture in their growls, and there is pretty much a complete absence of any kind of highs (ok, there might be some, but I cannot remember any time during Of Breath and Bone where they’ve taken prominence). Which is a really good thing in my opinion because it doesn’t spoil the whole “atmospheric” or “uplifting” feelings in the concept of melodic death metal.

Another thing that I like about Be’lakor  is that they are not afraid to experiment with different instruments to get their desired effect on the listener. Of Breath and Bone is full of acoustic passages, violins playing in the background as well as a few pianos here and there. This is there, probably to give the music some extra depth and meaning to it, as well as conforming with the whole “atmospheric” nature to their music. To be honest, if it wasn’t for these little side elements in Of Breath and Bone, the music would either; fall apart, or be plain as dog food and neither of which are particular appetizing for any melodic death metal fan. It’s the violins and pianos and acoustic passages which really whole the music together.

However, all this being said, I don’t really think they’ve pushed any boundaries with Of Breath and Bone. In fact, when comparing sheer music quality with Stone's Reach, Of Breath and Bone falls slightly too short. Sure, all the same elements are there in the music, but the power and feelings behind the music isn’t as outstanding. Also there was more depth in Stone’s Reach than there is in Of Breath and Bone. All of these things which gave Stone’s Reach it’s distinction as being one of the greatest melodic death metal releases ever to come out of Australia, if not, the world (although that’s highly opinionative) are seeming absent or sent so far back that they aren’t given credibility in Of Breath and Bone. This is where I believe Of Breath and Bone ultimately falls, wasted potential.

Not all is lost however, Of Breath and Bone has its moments which usually come in the form of cheerful as an Aussie riffs. In comparison with Stone’s Reach, Of Breath and Bone is the inferior release, it’s not because it’s worse than Stone’s Reach, it’s because it’s just not as good. There is nothing particularly bad with Of Breath and Bone, it’s just that the melodic death metal in Stone’s Reach was far better I have to admit. Even The Frail Tide, might be just that little bit better than, if not, on par with Of Breath and Bone which is odd because Be’lakor seem to be going down the ladder of awesomeness (when they should be going up it). All that being said however, in comparison with many other melodic death metal releases out there Of Breath and Bone is still in the very top of the top tier. Be’lakor are still one of the best melodic death metal bands by far and I would recommend Of Breath and Bone to anyone who loves melodic death or their previous albums. I’d also like to recommend the tracks By Moon and Star and Absit Omen. Overall, Of Breath and Bone might not be as good as Be’lakor’s current signature album, Stone’s Reach, but it’s still well worth a listen and shouldn’t disappoint. I give Be’lakor’s Of Breath and Bone a 15/20.

15/20

Interview With Michael McLeod and Luke Domic of Dream On, Dreamer

On the 26th of May 2011, Dream on, Dreamer played at the Cairns Tanks a long with two other supporting acts; Jimmy The One and Salacious. The atmosphere at the Tanks was amazing when Dream on, Dreamer took to the stage and even though the moshpit during their performance took a lot out of me, I was lucky enough to catch up with them post-performance to ask bass player and vocalist Michael and guitarist Luke some questions.

How was cairns?

Michael:  Cairns has been great, we played in a tank tonight so that was an experience, and the kids went mental. The drive up was really awesome too, the cool scenery and all, it’s very tropical up here, so yeah we enjoyed it.

So this is the first time Dream on, Dreamer have come to Cairns? I hope it’s not going to be last.

Michael:  Yeah, this was the first time, won’t be the last we hope… unless the world ends tomorrow.

Luke:  The band is not coming back, we’re sorry guys (laughs). Nah, Cairns was awesome we definitely want to come back. Seeing it was our first time, and it went to well so, we will get back soon, definitely.

Have you guys been touring lately?

Michael:  yeah, we’ve just got back from Perth and before that we were in the states.

Luke:  It’s been awesome! We’ve done a lot of awesome shows with a lot of rad bands, it’s been cool.

So have you guys thought about touring more internationally?

Michael:  So yeah, there was America and before that we were in Japan. So we’ve have had the pleasure of seeing a lot of the world.

Luke:  Europe

Michael:  Europe! We’ve done Europe, we’ve done Japan.


Luke:  France we’ve been there. Well that is a part of Europe but I thought I might make that very clear.

Michael:  For all you kids reading this and looking at a globe, France is in Europe. So yeah, we’ve been to New Zealand and we’re off to South East Asia in the upcoming months.

Luke:  We’re going to Jakarta

Michael:  Yeah; Jakarta, Indonesia-

Luke:  That is in Indonesia… Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore… there you go (laughs). This interview has now turned into a lesson in-

Luke, Michael:  Geography!.. Heyyy!

Luke:  Fuck yeah to friendship.

So, in terms of mainstream bands music, who are your major influences?

Michael:  Mainstream bands? Erm…gee

Luke:  How mainstream are we talking? I like Coldplay.

Michael:  Coldplay is good. I think we’ve sort of get a lot of influence from a lot of different bands I guess; we’ve got a German in the band, we’ve got an American in the band so it’s sort of sourced throughout the whole world and we all listen to different stuff. I don’t really listen to a lot of the stuff that we actually play, which is a bit odd. But, yeah, Justin Bieber…

Luke:  WOW, that is true actually… Nah I lie (laughs)

So I’ve heard both the Hope EP and your debut album Heartbound, and Dream on, Dreamer seem to have a lot of different musical influences… is there any particular reason for that? Why not stick to a single influence?

Michael:  We just want to sound as different as we can even though it is hard in the style of music that we do play. We just want to branch out and mature.

Luke:  We all listen to so much different music that it’s hard to write music with difference influences. We just pull from different bands that we like and try to incorporate that into our sound and I think it works for us.

So you guys mentioned that you were just on the road, what’s the craziest thing you’ve done out of boredom?

Michael:  (laughs) I don’t think that’s for under 15’s. There’s been a lot of crazy things we done.

Luke:  Arrgh, I cannot think of anything at the top of my heard. I’ve should have came prepared, I would have had some rad stories to tell. Well, a lot of mischief is done while on tour with us.

Michael:  But not with other girls though, we have girlfriends… we love you! (laughs)

Luke: (laughs) Yeah, that’s where I was getting at. But yeah, we like to have fun on tour and it keeps things interesting.

You have mentioned girlfriends? But I’ve noticed here that, you have heaps of girl fans that scream and chant your names… how do you cope?
Michael:  Umm, it is a bit hard-

Luke:  I’m Michael and I love it! (laughs)

Michael:  I think it’s hard to avoid having girl fans, but yeah they just have to respect boundaries.

Luke:  We just treat them like any other fans

Michael:  We don’t make out with them or anything, but we give them hugs and stuff.

Luke:  Oooooh, we’re getting very dangerous right now.

Michael:  It’s something that our girl friends are cool with as well, and we sort of need that trust especially when you’re away on the road or overseas for a very long time.

When I was watching your performance tonight, I noticed that you had a lot of violent fans out there in the mosh-pit. Has there ever been a time on stage when you literally thought you feared for your life?
Michael:  Well, not so much feared, but we did once play in Ringwood and there was this guys who ripped a bamboo stick off the wall…

Luke:  First off, this guy stripped down and was just in his jocks and he went to grab a piece of bamboo and started moshing like crazy. I’m not sure if that’s what the kids are into these days. That was dangerous. But, we’ve seen some dudes do; back flips, cart-wheels… it’s all good fun until someone pulls out the bamboo stick (laughs).

Michael:  Yeah, we’ve had people jump on stage and we’ve gotta look out for them because guitars can sort of take off heads.

Luke: Oh yeah, I once hit a kid in the head with my guitar stock once and he told me at the next show we played. He loved it.

So is there anything final you would like to say to your fans on The Spirit of Metal Webzine and MINIRADMAN?

Michael: Umm, yeah, check out our music and I hope you enjoy it.

Your Pain Is Endearing - The Turning of Tides (Review)

"Revitalizing interest in the deathcore scene"

Lately, I’ve been exploring the deep realms of the underground deathcore scene and I came across Your Pain Is Endearing. I must say, there is really nothing better than stumbling across an awesome band and Your Pain Is Endearing is an excellent find in my opinion. The “The Turning of Tides” EP is an awesome blend of deathcore and slight death metal influences. I have major respect for bands who keep the true sound deathcore alive whilst moving forward in terms of sheer quality of the music. Don’t get me wrong though, Your Pain Is Endearing isn’t just another cheap rip off of Whitechapel or something, they are more than that.

The main focal point in The Turning of Tides is definitely the deathcore aspect of their music and how they’ve pushed a relatively primitive form, into the deathcore scene. For a starter, you’ll notice that the song structure of each track is just a little more complex. The tempo is quicker, the range of pitch is a lot longer, and there seems to be a real defined way that they’ve made the quick interval changes in their music. I don’t know why, but I really enjoy this form of deathcore on top of most styles of deathcore. To sum Your Pain Is Endearing in a small nut shell, I’d have to say that they’re just a more pure deathcoreish version of the band As Blood Runs Black.

However, there is a very strong modern death metal influence in the music too. Notably, the vocals: deep, gutturally and ferocious. This adds to the solidness that has already been laid by the foundations of the deathcore elements in their music. They have more of a melodic death metalish aesthetic to their music rather than a pure deathcore one. They have combined the darkness of pure deathcore with the lightness of melodic death metal, so Your Pain Is Endearing is really somewhere in the middle of the two. Now, before you go off saying that “oh, I’m sick of all these melodic deathcore bands like As Blood Runs Black and The Black Dahlia Murder”. Noticed that I mentioned “pure deathcore”, or more specifically, the more death metalish style of deathcore (which is different from the more hardcorish style that other bands play). Although there are many, many bands out there who are playing this strain of deathcore, Your Pain Is Endearing have really executed The Turning of Tides quite well and I find that I stay interested for quite a long time.

I cannot do a deathcore EP analysis with taking a look at the breakdowns and the blast beats. In The Turning of Tides, a wide number of breakdown styles are used. From; quick, sharp and ear piercing ones, to; heavy, thick and slow. Because they have both melodic death metal and pure deathcore influences in their music, they are able to incorporate both types breakdowns into their music with out feeling plain or out-of-place. When it comes to the individual instrumental components of the music, nothing beats the blast beats in The Turning of Tides (pun intended!). They are absolutely amazing. The tone and pitch are spot on, the speed at which they’re played is extremely quick and appropriate speed is used in appropriate tempos and passages.

Overall, The Turning of Tides is one damn good EP which is a must for any hardcore deathcore fans out there. It features everything that deathcore fans could possibly want in a release. Killer breakdowns, killer blast beats, killer vocals, excellent song structure, variety in tracks, and the list goes on. As far as recommending tracks for The Turning of Tides, I’d say that “Lessons in Misanthropy” would be an excellent place to start. All this being said however, Your Pain Is Endearing haven’t really “pushed” or extended the genre of deathcore. So today, it gets a 16/20 from me.

16/20

Toscrew - Crawl (Review)

"They've wipped the drawing board and started with a fresh open mind"

It’s been a long while since I’ve last listened to a full doom metal release, but Toscrew, I think have refreshed the way I see the genre. I used to thing that all there was to doom metal was just some real thick and guitar work along with rougher than average clean vocals. However, I never knew that actual rhythm and depth could be introduced into the genre, which is something that Toscrew have done and have done quite well. For all those who have heard their debut album, Antiego, must know that the music on Crawl is extremely dissimilar, if not, nothing alike. They’ve definitely made a drastic change to their music and I guess would could say it was for the better.

To be honest, I believe that the more pure, and in you fucking face style of doom metal suits Toscrew more than the blackened death/doom mixture they had in Antiego. I felt that the main reason why Antiego didn’t release its full potential was simply because, the sound just didn’t suit them. The high pitch shrieks were incongruent with the guitar work, the drumming was quick however the overall pace of the music was quite slow and the structure was just really average. The only thing that they really did extremely well was the power behind the music itself. All I can say is that they’ve literally turned everything around with Crawl. There are no more; high pitch black metal shrieks, extremely fast and technical drumming, and I cannot forget to mention that the overall production of their EP is clearer, and stronger (i.e. the music stands out a lot better). Hot damn, I love it when bands improve from their previous material to something way better.

People tend to throw the word “catchy” around too often nowadays, “oh this is catchy” and “oh that is catchy”. This why I believe that the power of the world has been diluted (a bit like the word love: “I love pancakes” does not have the same implications as saying “I love *insert name here* ”) . Well, I rarely (if not ever) use this word, but I believe it is appropriate for Crawl. Some of the opening and mid-track riffs are so damn catchy, I could just re-play them over and over again. It’s the type of music that would go perfectly well with a bank robbery scene or footage of extreme sports like motocross. Thanks to the change in guitar tone, this is now possible. There would be no way in hell that the same effect could have been made using their old black metalish guitar tuning, it would have sounded silly and I would have started laughing at the music rather than head banging to it.

I don’t really know why, but I get a really relaxing feeling when I listen to Crawl. It’s not the type of music I would sleep to, but it would be something that I would most likely sit on a bus and listen to or something. The smoothness of the guitar tuning (along with clam and atmospheric guitar solos), and slow slack vocal style give this sense, which is something I didn’t feel from Antiego. It’s the type of music that I would imagine people who smoke weed or live the laid back surf/hippie lifestyle would listen to. Once again, another improvement in Crawl of Antiego. 

For odd reason, there seems to be more and more bands from the; African, Asian and European continents who are being “westernized”, i.e. attaining or incorporating American influences into not only the music, but the production of the albums/EP/demos themselves. Toscrew is one such band, first of all the lyrics are all in English, which means that we actually understand what the vocalist is saying and connect. Also, anyone who have heard Antiego would know that all the track titles are in Hungarian (perhaps it may have something to do with the fact that they’re from Hungary). However, all the track titles in Crawl are in english. This change in language preference may not seem very significant, but its implications are far more widespread than what some people may think. I noticed that many English speaking metal heads tend to have more respect for English speaking artists which hints that Toscrew is planning for a huge album or next release. This is why I believe that Toscrew may have leaned towards a more westernized sound to their music this time round.  

That being said, even though Toscrew have made some drastic changes to their music, some elements of their previous music which still lingers around in Crawl, two in specific; black metal and death metal. When you first listen to Crawl, initially you probably won’t notice either of these elements, but if you let yourself be immersed by the music, you should be able to detect  some slight hints of traces, particularly in the guitar riffs. Also there are a few moments where the vocalist lets out a black metal style scream (rather than a shriek). This adds an extra dimension to the music which was previously bland and boring (i.e. doom metal in general) and something that Toscrew have incorporated quite well in their music.

Overall, I strongly believe that Crawl is a major step forward for Toscrew. Mainly because it shows that they’ve been refining their sound, and what suits them best and this thick, in-your-face style of doom metal I think fits them. Unlike other doom metal bands who typically stick to one structure, one vocal style, one atmosphere, Toscrew have added layers and layers of dimension to their music to make it as interesting as possible and considering that this is the first doom metalish release that I didn’t fall asleep on is saying something. Also, this has to be one of the most perfectly and flawlessly produced EP I’ve heard, I could hear every beat and every sound wave. I know that Toscrew have really pulled out all the stops into giving us the most perfect taste of what we could possibly expect later in the year or early next year. As far as recommending tracks go, if you want something catchy I’d go with “No Chance”, if you want something a little more rough check out “Crawl” and if you like something with a little bit of jazziness to it, I’d go with “Answer Me”. I give Toscrew’s Crawl EP a 16/20.

16/20

*Sorry no preview tracks for this release, there should be one soon though!*

Despite Exile - Re-Evolve (Review)

"I thought there would never be progressive deathcore which was ground breaking... I was wrong!"

Ever since Italian progressive deathcore band Despite Exile released their debut EP Scarlet Reverie, people have been keeping a close eye on them (including me). It was evident in Scarlet Reverie that Despite Exile had potential, and it was only a case of sharpening their music just that little bit to make it seemingly perfect. Well, it’s barely a year later and since their debut EP and yet they have brought before us Re-Evolve. If anything, Re-Evolve will continue the evolution of the progressive deathcore genre because Despite Exile is the superior. When I first heard Scarlet Reverie, I knew that this band was going to be good. However, I was not prepared for the sheer awesomeness, or magnitude of Re-Evolve. This, small, miniscule, three track EP has the potential to change everything progressive deathcore has to offer.

To be quite honest, when I first went to check out this EP I was sceptical about how Despite Exile would capitalize on the already-awesome Scarlet Reverie EP because from experience, bands that usually pull of excellent fluke debuts tend to slacken off in future releases. But, holy shit, this assumption that I made for Re-Evolve was completely wrong and it’s now clear that Scarlet Reverie was not a fluke. As soon as I got past the opening of the first track “Oscillate”, I knew then, that Despite Exile are back better than ever before. I don’t recall hearing any progressive deathcore ever, with as much power and potency as the deathcore on Re-Evolve. Re-Evolve is much more powerful and higher quality than anything else I’ve heard, which includes Scarlet Reverie. It’s almost as if Despite Exile have created a new breed or super progressive deathcore, the breed which will hopefully extinguish all inferior breeds and species.

The first thing that hit on Re-Evolve was the style of progressive deathcore, it’s unlike anything I’ve ever heard. When I think of progressive deathcore I think of bands such as The Contortionist and The Yellow Sign, bands which don’t have much potency or power to their music. Also, the music doesn’t hold itself together well, probably because they’re going for a pure atmospheric or emotional feel to their music. This is where Despite Exile comes in because Despite Exile have the best of both worlds, which is the main reason why I think Re-Evolve and the Despite Exile themselves are so great. They have heavy as fuck breakdowns and brutal as fuck pig squeals (obviously influenced from deathcore and death metal) along with beautiful progressive and melodic hardcore guitar work. I’d like to make an emphasis on the deathcore influence here because it does take priority on Re-Evolve. Many bands seem to put an emphasis on the fact that they’re combining deathcore with progressive  or melodic influences and as a result, it becomes dull and boring. However, Despite Exile have put their emphasis on the deathcore element in their music.

Sure, there are only three tracks, and sure this is only an EP, but this packs more punch than some full length progressive deathcore albums. Now that’s definitely saying something. Well, if I were to make a list of all of the different elements in Re-Evolve, I would have an extremely large list. The really magical part however (or the part which I think is magical) is how they’ve put all of these components together.

Usually when I listen to progressive deathcore I find that it sounds rather plain and abstract. Abstract, in the sense that the musical structure itself doesn’t follow any kind of path or direction towards a climax, which is little bit confusing sometimes. But when you listen to Re-Evolve, you’ll probably think “you’re a liar miniradman, this is really confusing to follow”. Yeah, sure, it’s confusing at the beginning, but as you start to settle into the music, you can easily see that it leads up to a climax which is either a heavy ass fucking breakdown or a beautiful atmospheric passage. That being said, there are parts where the musical structure is as confusing as hell. This probably stems from the heavy technical deathcore, or math metal influences in their music. It’s a little hard to describe with words what it sounds exactly like, but I guess you could say it’s just regular mathcore/metalcore with a really, really heavy progressive deathcore aesthetic. The best thing is that even if you don’t like mathcore or metalcore, Despite Exile shouldn’t turn you off.

When it comes to musical talent and production of Re-Evolve, it is far more superior than Scarlet Reverie. At least in Scarlet Reverie you could tell that Despite Exile was a relatively young band, now, they’re all grown up and ready to fulfil. They no longer have that childish nature to their music, but sound more mature and serious this time round. I guess the seriousness also stems from the increased production quality of the music. The recording, the mixing and overall production of Re-Evolve is far better than the production of Scarlet Reverie. The guitars have more ‘crunch’, the drumming has more ‘snap’ and “oomph” to them and the vocals are raspier and ‘rawer’, Re-Evolve is the better release and considering that Scarlet Reverie is still one of my favourite debut EPs of all time, that’s big.

There really isn’t much to say about Re-Evolve, other than it really pushes the boundaries of the progressive deathcore genre and it’s almost perfection. I think Re-Evolve would appeal to pretty much every single -core fan out there.  Like I’ve mentioned before, there are three tracks and all of them are worth playing. “Oscillate” is the technical and deathcorish opening to the EP, “Perfection Neutralized” has an atmospheric (yet powerful), progressive and mathcorish style sound to it and “Mechanical” is the heavy as fuck track on the EP. So for first time listeners, take your pick. I think that all bands, if they are around enough, all have their time for greatness but I have a feeling the Despite Exile’s time is very, very soon. Re-Evolve is defiantly the perfect stepping stone towards an epic full length. I can’t wait to hear what they have in the future for us!

19/20

Disfiguring The Goddess - Sleeper (Review)

"And I thought Circle of Nine Was Bad"

Well, well, well… what do have here? Disfiguring the Goddess is back again only a year after releasing their disastrous album, Circle of Nine. The Sleeper EP is one EP that I’ve been waiting on the sidelines for, wondering to myself “will this make or break Disfiguring the Goddess?” because I loved their debut self titled album and all the demos and promos they’ve released prior to it. However, I’ve already mentioned that Circle of Nine was a complete and utter disaster. It is literally the worst thing I’ve heard. But, my hope and the hype fell miserably short to what I was truly expecting from Disfiguring the Goddess. I was really hoping that Disfiguring the Goddess would go back to their old form, which was; brutal, heavy, guttural and intense. However, I think its official that they’ve ditched everything that their older fans loved, for absolute shit (and when I mean absolute shit… I MEAN, ABSOLUTE SHIT!). This ship floated, hit an iceberg, and then sunk… now there is nothing left to salvage.

First of all, I must point out to everyone that this is NOT and I repeat, NOT, slamming or brutal at all. I’m sick of reading comments made about “OMG, this is ttly SlaMing and Hevy!” because the fact is, it’s not. All the components and elements that you’d typically expect from a normal slamming death metal band are as follows; heaviness, brutality (obviously), darkness and of course abrasiveness. There is and absence of any of those elements in the Sleeper EP, and if they actually existed (which is something I highly doubt), I’m definitely having trouble hearing it. Ok, sure, there may be some few “moments” of slamming brutality but a few moments does not equate to the entire EP or band being brutal. It’s like saying that We Butter the Bread With Butter is pure screamo, because of the track “Superföhn Bananendate”, or saying that Whitechapel is progressive deathcore because of some of the “moments” in the track “The Somatic Defilement”. It’s illogical, and wouldn’t make sense to any sane individual. If that wasn’t enough to convince you, let me put their music into perspective by breaking up the components of their sound and re-building them.The first step is to obtain djent and progressive technical metalcore song structures and guitar riffs. The second step is to deepen the tone of the guitars and add a little bit of extra distortion. The third step is to throw in some drumming, but not just any drumming… wait, scratch that, any drumming would do. Step four is to add some random synthetic sounds that have absolutely nothing to and completely unrelated to the rest of the music. Now all you have to do is make a cover and flip to a random page in the dictionary and place your finger anywhere on that page and there’s the EP title! Hey presto! You’ve just made the Sleeper EP (Sleeper? What the fuck, seriously?). Now I bet you’re probably thinking “but you forgot the slams and brutality”, don’t you mean… Disfiguring the Goddess have forgotten the slams and brutality? C’mon, let’s be reasonable, apart from the very few faint traces throughout Sleeper, Disfiguring the Goddess is not brutal death metal at all.

Oh no, NOT THE SYNTHETICS AGAIN! There was one thing that I just couldn’t stand about Circle of Nine, and that was the synthetics. Those keyboards and other computer generated sounds were so annoying! Not only are the synthetics back, but Disfiguring the Goddess have brought them to the forefront of their music. Yep, all those chimes, harps, choir and other randomly generated sounds are littered in random spots throughout Sleeper (25 Achievement Points if You Spot Them All!) and they are much worse than before. The one thing that I could possibly say about Circle of Nine is that they didn’t go overkill on the synthetics, but then again, there shouldn’t, really be any synthetics anywhere in brutal death metal. However in Sleeper, they are more than over-used and have little to no direction to them which gets me to ask: why are they there in the first place? because they aren’t contributing to the overall music quality. I believe that the synthetics are the worst part of The Sleeper, namely because they brought back that annoying choir keyboard sounds which drive me up the fucking wall. There is one point in the track “Queen Kingdom” where there is nothing but the choir keyboards playing which is without a doubt, the most annoying, most retarded and worst part of the EP. You could not believe how much I needed to pour a bottle of bleach in my ear canals just to not hear this. I know this is brutal death metal and all, but I should get happy angry when I listen to this, not angry angry… which is what is happening to me now. 

To be perfectly honest, I don’t give a flying fuck stick about whether or not Cameron (the original founder of Disfiguring the Goddess) also specialises in making electronic music. Ok, I respect that he may, perhaps be good at making electronic dance music and he is also fucking good at creating pure brutal death/deathcore (as heard in Disfiguring the Goddess’s previous works) but he cannot cross the two together. I’m sure that there are means an ways of crossing the two together to make some brutal death metal that sounds a least half decent, however, Cameron just simply doesn’t posses those skills… now look what happened. 

It seems that the more I listen to The Sleeper, the more I wonder why I’ve actually bothered to listen to it, or better yet, why I bothered to continue listening to this EP after the very first track. I know that deathcore and brutal death metal have the reputation of being really redundant and loopy genres, but at least other bands have some kind of variation to their sound. Unlike Disfiguring the Goddess, because on Sleeper, all you need to do is listen to the first track and you’ve heard it all. All the vocals, all the riffs, all the synths and all their retardedness can be experienced in a single track. Also, the way that the tracks are laid out in the EP makes no sense either. There is not intro or outro, or anything with leads up to a climax. In fact, I couldn’t even spot a climatic point in any of the tracks in Sleeper. This really disappointed me because, like in Circle of Nine, there were times where I could feel an extremely strong build up of tension to where I was expecting a heavy ass breakdown to come at the end. But time after time, they keep missing or ignoring those opportunities which tend to leave holes in the music. Holes which they have chosen to fill with silly out-of-place synthetics and other random shit.

What confuses me however, is why people continue to argue whether or not the vocalist inhales or exhales, but considering the fact that this is literally the worst excuse of death metal I’ve heard, why bother? because the vocals are the least of your worries. They only oscillate from extremely high pitch to extremely low pitch with no sense of depth or extra dimension. You know how you get that feeling when you know that a band has definitely used a drum machine to produce their music because it sounds awkwardly monotone and sterile. Well, that’s what the vocalist from Disfiguring the Goddess sounds like. So inhales, or exhales, it doesn’t count for shit either way.

Taking everything I’ve mentioned into account, I think I’ve firmly stated why I believe that this EP was obviously a rushed job and why Disfiguring the Goddess is now officially a skid mark on the underwear of brutal death and deathcore. To be fair, the only track that I thought that was listenable was “Daughter of Depths”. “Daughter of Depths” was actually heavy and sounded at least something like brutal death. Everything else, forget about it. I think I’ve thoroughly gone through the reasons why I think; Sleeper is NOT slamming death metal, Sleeper has terrible (and I mean terrible) synthetics and electronic elements and the sheer redundancy of the EP overall. There is very little scope and depth to Sleeper at all. If it wasn’t for the track “Daughter of Depths” I would probably say that Sleeper is worth maybe -1 or -2/20, but today I think it deserves a 1/20. I think it’s safe to say that I’ve lost all respect for Disfiguring the Goddess, and there is no way in hell that I’m going to be lining up to buy their upcoming album.

1/20

Demon Hunter - True Defiance (review)

Demon Hunter - True Defiance

Demon Hunter is back with their newest album True Defiance. As many of you probably already know, Demon Hunter are one of the most successful metalcore bands out there and are probably the only successful Christian band by my standards. There must be something about the aesthetic nature of Demon Hunter which makes them so successful, but I cannot put my finger on exactly what it is. It might have something to do with the fact that all the new metalcore have this young, hip, trendy sound to them while Demon Hunter sounds more mature and wiser. The combination of nu metal and metalcore, I would have thought to be boring, repetitive and uninteresting but Demon Hunter have been creating this awesome breed of music for 10 years now since their first self titled album and they are still bringing the goods.

I don’t know how they do it, but Demon Hunter is just one of those odd bands who stay awesome throughout their entire career, and are showing no signs of slowing down. They don’t need to make EPs to draft their newest music, because they already know what they’re making is awesome, so why would anyone want to change that. In True Defiance, everything that all Demon Hunter fans have known and loved from their other previous albums is featured. Nu metal and metalcore riffs, a combination of the classic Demon Hunter distorted shrieks and clean vocals. Not to mention the contrast between more metalcorish and nu metalish passages. Yep, Demon Hunter is that gift that just keeps on giving and giving and I cannot get enough of it.

It’s quite obvious that Demon Hunter is influenced by nu metal and metalcore, but less obviously… grunge and alternative rock. There are some sections in True Defiance where I keep thinking I’m listening to a good version of Nickelback or something because some of the vocals sound uncannily similar. However, combine this with the ferocity and extremeness of hardcore and metalcore, and you’ve got something… something awesome which has not been copied or successfully emulated by any other band that I know of. Demon Hunter are definitely something special, and True Defiance is just another album in their long line of awesome albums.

I don’t know why, but I think what really landmarks any of their albums (especially in Storm the Gates of Hell though) are the clean tracks. The ones which don’t even sound remotely like nu metal, the real smooth and easy listening tracks. They have featured two of those in True Defiance “Tomorrow Never Comes” and “Dead Flowers”, and they are both incredibly uplifting tracks to hear. I don’t know why, but I find Ryan Clark’s voice (the lead singer) to be incredibly powerful and uplifting. However, the best thing about these two tracks is that you can tell that they aren’t trying to influential or emotional… I mean, they don’t try to make music which is “larger than life” unlike Nickelback (god I hate Nickelback). They are just two tracks to which a suitable to end the day with.

Overall, Demon Hunter still have it and I’m surprised that they’ve kept their momentum going throughout their whole career so far because many bands fall within their first three albums. People can say what they want about Christian metalcore or Christian metal in general, Demon Hunter are successful, and there is a very good reason for that. True Defiance is one of those albums which can appeal to a very wide audience which makes its value even greater. For those looking for some of the nu metalish side to Demon Hunter, check out “This I Know”, those who are into a more metalcoreish direction of Demon Hunter, you’ll most likely see “God Forsaken” and “My Destiny” to be the prime tracks or if you’re like me and like things which are easier to listen to, check out “Tomorrow Never Comes” and “Dead Flowers”. I give Demon Hunter’s True Defiance a 17/20.

Bound by Exile - Defilement (review)

Bound by Exile - Defilement

Deathcore, deathcore, deathcore, a genre of metal which currently is populated by young bands and young musicians who have high hopes and ambitions, attempting to become “the next big thing”. You don’t see many sixteen or seventeen year olds starting new black or death metal bands out there, which explains this (well, as far as I’m aware there aren’t many around). In other words (and put into a more colloquial manner), in deathcore, there are many wannabes out there who reckon that they have what it takes to be the best, which means outdoing the current deathcore juggernauts i.e. ; Suicide silence, Whitechapel, Chelsea Grin, Suffokate, etc, etc… the list can go on and on. But the unfortunate fact is that, THEY ARENT the best. Sadly deathcore is one of those genres full of young kids try to either; emulate their favourite bands (such as the ones mentioned before) or be innovative, which superficially, isn’t a bad thing, but considering the lack of knowledge that the majority of these young musicians (AKA. n00bs) it’s safe to assume that the majority of these ‘innovations’ will never make it off the ground and sound like shit. As a result of this, many of those who were previous fans, have lost hope in the deathcore genre. Luckily for us, Bound by Exile have come to save the day. They are proof that gems still exist and there is still hope in the deathcore scene. If I had enough money, I would buy ten duotrigintillion copies of Defilement (for those who don’t know, that’s a ‘1’ followed by a hundred zeros) and send a copy to each of these ‘wannabe’ bands so they can be shown how deathcore is really done… and of course I would keep a few spare copies for myself.

Bound by Exile, one of the bands currently shaking the living shit out of the underground scene with their super heavy deathcore sound. I think the main attraction (and the reason why Bound by Exile have the reputation of being one the best) is the fact that they have adopted a more ‘true’ style of deathcore. You know; old Whitechapel, old All Shall Perish, old Animosity, old Job For a Cowboy, that kind of style. There is none of this progressive bullshit which can sometimes contaminate a half decent sounding deathcore in Bound by Exile’s music which is a massive plus in my book. Lately, I’ve been reading about how some people are complaining and bitching about “oh, why don’t they make breakdowns like they used to?” or “oh my god, this new progressive/djent/ambient/hardcore/grindcore/post-avant deathcore band sucks, just give me some normal deathcore!” well, Bound by Exile and their EP Defilement may just be the answer to their prayers. It’s quite hard to fully describe how Bound by Exile have brought back “good ole’ deathcore” from the ashes or the hands of ignorant children, but the word “awesome” can be used to describe this description (if that makes sense). The breakdowns- heavy as fuck, the atmosphere- brutal as fuck and the general aesthetic of Defilement is simply awesome as fuck. What more could you want!

In 2010, Bound by Exile released their debut EP titled “Oppression” and for those who have heard Oppression, you’ll notice a few changes in Defilement. The first difference that struck me were the vocals, they seem to have a little bit more depth and character this time round which packed a hell of a lot more punch into the overall quality of the music. In Oppression, they seemed rather one-dimensional and monotone (even though they were still awesome) but now, they appear to be; raspier, more gutturally and more loyal towards the hardcore influences in deathcore (especially the growls). Another clear change was the overall texture of the music and production of Defilement itself. The drumming has a deeper tone and the guitars sound a lot darker and thicker also which gives their sound a somewhat sense of real authenticity, rather than the simulation back in Oppression. Everything sounded high pitch and sort of ‘simulated’ in Oppression, I’m not sure if that was due to the difference of production quality of Oppression in comparison to Defilement or if the band was going for that effect at the time. Either way, Defilement is completely different, now there is certain smoothness to their music which tends to carry itself a lot better. However, I think the most important change to point out is their song structure. They’ve clearly put some thought into the crafting of Defilement, they haven’t just thrown a few deathcoreish riffs in here and there with the occasional breakdown and incoherent drumming and vocals. This is 100% legitimate hand crafted, authentic, premium deathcore which doesn’t come around very often. 

Hmmm, I know what you’re probably thinking “oh boy here we go, another boring ass underground band who is trying to bring back shitty old boring deathcore by making shitty old boring generic deathcore”. Well, first of all to those who are thinking this, fuck you because Bound by Exile kicks ass and second of all, even though Bound by Exile may take 90% of its influence from a more primitive approach to deathcore, the way the music is delivered/executed is stylish and modern and in a sense, quite original (well, I haven’t heard anything quite like it). There is one particular moment in the track “Sick of it” (during a breakdown) where there is obviously some computerized manipulation going on but it manages to still sound natural and uncontaminated. This is probably the pinnacle reason why Bound by Exile is arguably one of the best underground bands out there today.

Another thing that I love about Bound by Exile is that they showcase what real deathcore is all about, not only in their music but also their general nature too. They have that “in your face” attitude which seems to be absent from many newer bands. I mean, how many albums/demos/EPs have a track title like “You're Old News Now Cunt”. This shows that Bound by Exile aren’t making music for the sake of making music, they’re making music it because they WANT to make awesome deathcore which can be adored by awesome deathcore fans.

Overall, Defilement is definitely one of my favourite EPs and is quite significant in three ways; first of all, it proves that there is still hope in the underground scene, it proves that old deathcore doesn’t equate to boring deathcore and finally, well… it kicks arse. These are all excellent reasons for why Bound by Exile is one of the best deathcore bands to date. I recommend Defilement to those who are into the heavier side of deathcore, have had enough of all the technical, progressive and avant-garde shit that spoils half of the underground scene and also to those who enjoy bands not taking themselves too seriously. Although I do have one complaint about Defilement though, IT’S TOO SHORT! There is only a total of 4 tracks on this EP and all of them are equally as great but if you’re looking for a particular track to listen to, I recommend either; “Sick of it” or “Desecrate”… they’re both awesome. I give Bound by Exile’s Defilement an 18/20 and I cannot wait for a full length from them which hopefully comes out later this year.

Vorkreist - Sigil Whore Christ (review)

Vorkreist - Sigil Whore Christ

Ahh yes, I remember the times when black metal meant something, the times when black metal had the reputation of being; violent, powerful, emotional and atmospheric. However, there always has to be that one band who is just a little too serious about creating black metal for the sake of creating black metal, or in other words, too “kvlt” about black metal. I think that if bands such as Hell Hammer were still around to see this, they’d laugh their asses off (In fact, I’m laughing my ass off just thing about it!).  Unfortunately, I must say that Vorkreist is one of those bands, who just try too hard to be black metal. That being said, this album is still black metal, and black metal fans should enjoy this.

I have to admit, when I first played this song, I started head-banging. The really thick guitars with slow drumming created a really energetic warlike atmosphere. I was totally getting pumped. This is usually a little trick that bands like to do to build tension before they get into the guts of the track and Vorkreist have done an ok job at this. But, after the first verse ended, it got boring. The intro, got me to the edge of my seat, but where I was suppose to fall off was replaced by an extremely boring passage. Sure, the tempo is quick, and the vocals are extremely raspy but that’s all there is to it. It lacks any depth and character to it which is a definite draw back. There is one thing that keeps me listening to an album and that’s; character, atmosphere (good atmosphere I might add), brutality and interesting passages. Sigil Whore Christ, had none of that. Sure, there were attempts at adding a little bit of variety by changing the tempo here and there, but the execution of the album itself was just plain and generic.

Is it just me, or are there more and more bands out there today who are trying to be the new Marduk, or Tsjuder? Well, I don’t mind it when band tries to copy the bands who influence them, but when they pretty much make a clone of a pioneering band, is not called gaining influence, that’s called plagiarism! All the riffs, all the vocals and all of the passages, I’ve heard before. This tells me two things, either black metal is running out ideas to create music (the unlikely option) or Vorkreist lacks song writing skills so they must take from others. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to say that Vorkreist is the only band who does this because almost every band out there today copies from other bands, just not to the same superficial extent. The worst part of this is that they have adopted a similar sound of black metal of new Marduk (2009-present) and we all know that’s a lot bad Marduk. You can probably already imagine what Vorkreist is like already; 80 year old black metal shrieks, super fast incoherent drumming, heavily black metalish distorted riffs and very little variety in song structure and depth to their music. That pretty much sums Vorkreist up in a nutshell.

To be fair, Vorkreist isn’t all bad because after all, this is pure black metal and I can imagine any super hardcore black metal fan to get into Sigil Whore Christ. There are moments where I felt that the atmosphere gained my attention at times but even they didn’t last. To be honest, I was already falling asleep to Sigil Whore Christ by the end of the first track. There was just nothing that grabbed by attention, nothing that seduced me, nothing that made me say “hey, give me more!”. Sigil Whore Christ is just overly generic black metal, and that’s pretty much all there is too it, so there really isn’t much to say about Sigil Whore Christ. I give Vorkreist’s Sigil Whore Christ an 11/20.

The Battle Within - In the Midst of Perdition (review)

The Battle Within - In the Midst of Perdition

So, it’s been about, I dunno, 10 years since deathcore began to establish itself as a real musical movement or genre (even though its roots came long before then). Since then, we’ve seen (heard) many different permutations of deathcore each of them with their own unique personality to them, everything from progressive to technical to avant-garde and each day that rolls by, more and more people are attempting to write or be the next big thing. As a result of this, ‘real’ deathcore (or original deathcore) has been less and less predominate in comparison to other forms of deathcore. For example, if you asked someone in 2005 what deathcore is, they’d most likely point you in the direction of Despised Icon, or The Red Chord, or even All Shall Perish. Now, if you asked someone what ‘real’ deathcore is you’ll get a variety of answers from a variety of different deathcore subgenres which doesn’t really sit well with me because it renders the term ‘deathcore’ moot. I believe that this should not be such a subjective topic. So what is the answer to this? Well, The Battle Within perhaps?

Ok, I know I may have digressed off topic a little in the introduction but my point stands clear that The Battle Within is deathcore, plain old ordinary run of the mill deathcore. It’s not technical, progressive, brutal or any of that nonsense… it’s just deathcore. Like I’ve mentioned earlier, over the last decade or so, deathcore has branched out into many different styles and each time a branch sprouts out, it leeches off the central trunk. And as time passes, there are more and more branches and the central trunk is drained of more and more of the plants attention and gets thinner and thinner. On the family tree of deathcore, The Battle Within lives on the central trunk (if not, very close to it) and the evidence of this is The Midst Of Perdition. I’m not sure what it is about the aesthetic nature of The Midst of Perdition, but it seems to be an album, that defines the nature of deathcore art. It has breakdowns, it has guttural screams, it has blast beats, it has rapid tempo, it has melody, it has evidence of metalcore and finally evidence of deathcore. Yep, this is deathcore (in case I haven’t made it clear enough already).

Many people concede the notion that deathcore HAS to be disorganised to be even remotely classified as ‘deathcore’. Well, no, deathcore does not have to be disorganised and The Battle Within is a great example of this. In fact, The Midst Of Perdition is probably the most well structured, well planned releases I’ve ever come across. There is no sense of chaotic cluttering or overlapping of sounds within any of the tracks it’s all neat and tidy (just like your bedroom, right?). However, the past suggest that when bands try to become too organised and cautious about ruining their intended sound, become tedious and very tiresome to listen to and their intentions become very indistinct which tends to sometimes loose the audience. Probably because they’re too afraid to come out and really show us their talent, but hiding in their shell however, is doing them no favours. The Battle Within on the other hand has kept their music organised but isn’t afraid to strut their stuff and it’s very easy to tell. It’s almost a shame why we don’t have more bands like The Battle Within because it would make my dream (and others’ dreams) come true.

Blast beats, who doesn’t love them? (and if you don’t, you may require a doctors appointment). There are mighty fine, attractive sounding blast beats going down here In the Midst of Perdition. Sure they might not be the fastest or the most technical, but their structure and execution are almost gold standard (and I believe that matters much more then technicality or speed). Also, I cannot forget to mention the fact that they are one of the very few underground bands today who aren’t afraid to use high quality recording (PRAISE THE LORD!). The production of The Midst Of Perdition is more or less flawless and the blast beats wouldn’t have been half as good if they weren’t in high quality. The drumming has a very potent clicky sound to them with gives the music a bit of depth and character to it, because c’mon let’s face it, who out there takes a band with pillow cases for drums seriously? Listening to The Midst Of Perdition has made me realise how much I hate bland deathcore (or any form of music for that matter). Remember how I said that this IS deathcore, notice that I omitted the word “pure” because if I mentioned that, I’d be lying to you (and I cannot lie to you). There are definitely some strong hints of metalcore and melodic death metal littered throughout some parts of The Midst Of Perdition. Some may hate it, but I think that introducing these foreign ingredients in to this magnificent pot of deathcore is just excellent. It’s the very glue that binds the entire musical framework together so; one, it doesn’t topple over itself and two, it gives the band that ability to build higher, more creatively and more ambitiously. Sure, The Midst Of Perdition might not be ground breaking stuff because we’ve heard all of this before but The Battle Within have shown their ambitions with this release and I’m not afraid to admit that it could be some of the best deathcore I’ve ever heard. The mixture of short and sweet guitar solos and metalcoreish passages just emphasises the sheers awesomeness of The Battle Within.

I don’t like to nitpick the tracks in albums and say anything like “oh, track 2 is better than track 7 because track two has a tempo of 356bpm whilst track 7 has only 354bpm” I like to look at an album/ep/demo as a single unit. But I must say that track 7, “Structures and Body Bags” is a deathcore masterpiece, there are no words which can describe such a track. Everything from the structure to the euphoric feelings felt when listening to this track is completely flawless. As for the rest of the album however, I’m not saying it’s rubbish, but Structures and Body Bags definitely stands head and shoulders above the rest. In fact, re-listening to all the other tracks In the Midst of Perdition after hearing Structures and Body Bags tends to become quite tedious which really lets this EP down unfortunately. Too bad it’s probably a fluke, because I’d make myself go deaf just to hear more stuff like that.

Overall The Battle Within, I believe have already landmarked themselves as one of the bands to keep an ear out for in 2012 because I think they have a tonne of potential. If only they can make more tracks like Structures and Body Bags, then they would be my new favourite deathcore band but until then they’ll most likely go where all the other generic bands go… in the discount bin at the store. That being said, Structures and Body Bags is definitely one of the most memorable tracks In the Midst of Perdition, it has everything a deathcore fan such as myself and many others like me could for in a track so that’s pretty much the only track that I’d bother recommending for first time listeners. Unless you’re a real hardcore deathcore fan, then you’d better go out and buy this EP and some t-shirts because you’ll love The Battle Within. I give The Battle Within’s The Midst Of Perdition a 16/20. This would have slid down to 14 or 15/20 if it wasn’t for Structures and Body Bags. That track is definitely going on my all time favourites list, and you should hear it sometime too!

Hour of Penance - Sedition (review)

Hour of Penance - Sedition

Hour Of Penance, one of THE most popular technical death metal bands are back with their newest album Sedition. The album cover features an apocalyptic sight where a two headed colossal serpent is descending to Earth from a raging thunderstorm upon a city which obviously is in the need of more biology classes and there are bugs flying everywhere. Seems a little extreme right? You know that old proverb, “you cannot judge a book by its cover” yeah? Well forget it because it doesn’t doesn’t apply here because once you get past the intro to Sedition, you immediately are kicked in the ass by; intense drumming, complex riffs and super guttural mid ranged vocals. Two things came to my mind once I was greeted by the first song: first of all “yesss, they haven’t thrown away their brutality that I love oh so very much” and secondly, “this is gonna be one hell of an album!”

As I’ve briefly stated in the introduction, this is one of the best releases from Hour of Penance. They are one of the very few technical death metal bands out there today who actually…STILL MAKE TECHNICAL DEATH METAL. Every band out there, well, every new band out there seem to all have the same mindset which is to invent the fastest, most incoherent variation music that is humanly possible because after all, that’s what technical death metal is known for right? But I think it is good to still have bands like Hour of Penance who are there to tend our hunger for some good technical death because lately, people have been coming up with more and more retarded permutations of technical death metal. Bands like Viraemia, Rings of Saturn, Slaughterbox and Fleshgod Apocalypse are all great examples of this (yes ladies and gentlemen, I know that Hour of Penance and Fleshgod Apocalypse are related (sort of) but Hour of Penance doesn’t try to force classical music down the throats of metal fans). There is no orchestra in the background trying to get us to like Beethoven, there are no pig squeals to turn us off and there is no “retardation” of the music. Sedition is just technical death metal the way it was suppose to be and that’s definitely a good thing in my book. In fact, I’m still surprised that stuff like this still exists!

Many people in the world today think that the days of technical death metal are numbered and who can blame them, it hasn’t changed much since the earliest bands came to life. It’s still fast, it’s still brutal and of course… it’s still technical but I think that what turns people off is the redundancy of sheer brutality, technicality and speed. Most technical death metal albums sound like you’re just listening to the same track over and over again, constantly looking down at your I-pod to check whether or not it’s stuck on repeat (it’s no wonder why only a small portion of technical death metal bands have gone mainstream). When you think about it, technical death metal seems to be a very hollow genre. I’m not trying to say or even imply that Hour of Penance have changed everything or anything concerning the genre with Sedition, because they haven’t done that at all. What they have done however, is made technical death metal, less tedious to listen to. So slightly they’ve done it, but it seems to have uplifted the quality and intensity of the music. Each track has its own technical death metal persona to it, without it feeling like it’s not Hour of Penance or shouldn’t be part of this album.

The more I listen to Sedition, the more I realise how much I’ve always loved technical death metal. Dare I say it, but if anyone asked me to define modern day technical death metal I would point them to Sedition or at least Hour of Penance. This is THE technical death metal album, who cares if it doesn’t break any records for the fastest or most brutal album, who cares if their song writing isn’t the most complex, who cares if their music isn’t ground breaking in any way, who cares if they aren’t every technical death metal’s equivalent to Jesus… because I don’t. I would rather listen to awesome generic technical death over some tainted and contaminated piece of shit that someone had just so happens to call it technical death metal as one of the 150 genres it’s labelled as. I’m not going to go as far as saying that “oh, its technical death metal at its purest form” though, because that’s incorrect, but I will go as far as saying this is straight up technical death metal with no hidden surprises.

I think the highlight of Sedition is the variety of tempos they’ve used. Unlike many other bands who try to play so quickly as if they’re trying to make their tempo approach the speed of light or something, Hour of Penance play like the way we want them to play, technical but legible (well, really, they play the way they want to play… we just happen to like it). There are many tempo changes throughout this album, but they usually oscillate between; super duper quick, to super quick, to quick and relatively quick- there’s not much in the mid paced zone so click “X” on the top right corner, microwave and burn your computer right now if you’re looking for anything “mid paced” because you’re not going to find it here. Another thing that I feel complements the tempo changes are the change in atmosphere and backdrop throughout Sedition. Even though the band might be promoting evilness lyrically, it’s not all doom and gloom as far as the atmosphere is concerned. There are times where I even feel slightly uplifted by the guitar riffs. The only thing that is dark about this album, really, is the album cover and even that isn’t dark in comparison to what I’ve seen. I find that there is no sense of that kind of dark/heaviness/evil feeling present in Sedition but that’s what many death metal bands seem to pride themselves on (across all of its genres). That being said, Sedition is still worthwhile for all those people who are into that sort of thing.

Overall, Sedition is a pretty badass album which complements its badass cover. This is pretty much how I would define “good” technical death metal because it has everything that a tech death fan could want. The blast beats, awesome. The melody, beautiful. The song structure, amazing… Sedition is just the album I want in a technical death metal. The best part of this (but some may argue it’s what lets this album down) is that the music isn’t polluted by foreign styles of music like; jazz or classical, it’s just technical death. Like I’ve mentioned before however, there is nothing here that’s ground breaking, or anything that would “revolutionize” the genre. They’ve played hard, without the risk of going home. For anyone who wants to have a go at Sedition, be my guest because it’s a magnificent piece of work. I’d recommend any track for first time listeners but for those who are too afraid to make a decision, Deprave to Redeem is an alright place to start. To sum Sedition up in a nutshell, I’d say it’s flawless but not ground breaking. I give Hour of Penance’s album Sedition a 17/20. 

Bestial Warlust - Blood and Valour (review)

Bestial Warlust - Blood and Valour

As far as metal in the 90’s is concerned, Australia hasn’t been much of a player as far as war/bestial black metal is concerned, Australia is just a footnote in the scene. Even though this may be the case, pretty much every war metal fan you will ever meet will have heard of Bestial Warlust. Apart from Destroyer 666, Australia isn’t really known for it’s black metal. Bestial Warlust have pretty much put Australia on the map when it comes, enticing outsiders to come in a take a look at the rest of the scene and have influenced other fellow Aussie bands to join them. Even though Bestial Warlust have broken up for a long while now, as long as people know about war/bestial black metal their legacy that they have left will still live on.

War metal, for those who don’t know, could be one of the most extreme forms of black metal out there. It’s brutal, often raw, fully of energy and atmosphere and if there were anything that could be close to defining a relatively unused term “technical black metal” war metal is technical and black metalish. In Bestial Warlust’s short career as a band, they only released 2 albums with Blood & Valour being the most notable. Back then, I’m going to guess that people wanted more than what bands like Mayhem called brutality, they wanted extreme black metal. If anyone in the early 90s ever prayed that a band like this would come around, Bestial Warlust is their answer.

Blood & Valour is an extremely, extremely raw and brutal album. There is just no other way to describe it. Every second, every minute passes is just filled with metal explosiveness which when you think about it, really gives the term “war metal” intent because Blood & Valour sounds definitely sounds like a war. The first thing that I must point out, the drumming… well all I can say is what less do you expect for a war metal band other than all out brutality and technicality of course? The blast beating is maintained at quite a high paced throughout this album which gives the music it’s energy but they remain at the behind the rest of the music. I don’t know about everyone else, but I find that the drumming has absolutely not structure to it whatsoever. It’s all just sheer technicality and speed which almost sounds like the drummer is doing it freestyle. Actually come to think of it, nothing on Blood & Valour has structure, it just seems like one big incoherent blob of sound. The rhythm doesn’t follow any pattern that I can here, the guitar solos pop out of nowhere and have no organization to it, the vocals… I don’t even know what they are, someone getting choked to death? Someone being drowned? I have trouble believing that what’s being said are even real words.

I’m not sure about other’s opinion on this, but there is definitely a huge thrash implication in Bestial Warlust’s sound. If you really take a superficial look at Blood & Valour, it almost sounds just like a blend of black thrash at it’s most extreme form and death metal. Also, you can tell by the number of guitar solos and the nature of the band, that they’re heavily influenced by thrash metal. Not only that, but pretty much all the ex members from Bestial Warlust were and still are involved in some kind of black thrash metal project. So I think you get my point… everything points to thrash metal.

Even though there is so much to like about Blood & Valour, and even though Blood & Valour is a classic album, it is far from perfect. For a starter this album is extremely redundant, so repetitive in fact, that you could probably listen to one track (pick a track, any track!) on Blood & Valour and you’ve pretty much heard all of Blood & Valour (not even that, you could probably just listen to half or a quarter of a track to have). Seriously though, there is absolutely no change in pace or direction at all which makes Blood & Valour seem very one-dimensional. For a really technical band such as Bestial Warlust they give the impression that they’re really unsophisticated in the sense that there is no depth to their music. Although this also emphasises the point that I made about redundancy, there is just something about the music on Blood & Valour that makes this just seem like another album and judging by the fact that their last album “Vengeance War Till Death” was only released in 1994 (the year before) they clearly haven’t taken the time or had the motives to put the effort into making something deeper, and thought provoking which is something more modern war metal/bestial black metal are starting to achieve. All that being said though, if Vengeance War Till Death and Blood & Valour were simply freestyle albums (which they probably were), how it became so famous was simply a fluke, a fluke driven by extreme metal fans looking for something more, and more extreme. 

In my opinion, Blood & Valour is a generic album but because something like this was created before really extreme forms of black metal were even established which have gained this album a legendary status which made it an instant classic. That being said, I don’t think that they will keep up with their modern day counter parts and Blood & Valour was probably bestial black metal at its most primitive. Nowadays, Australia has Abominator, Destroyer 666 and Gospel of the Horns to fall back on and the beauty about this is that members from Bestial Warlust are now in these bands so although the band might be broken apart, what they left for us still lives on. I give Bestial Warlust’s Blood & Valour a 15/20 purely because it’s an Australian classic.