Prepared Like a Bride - Within World's Apart (review)

"I haven't come across any deathcore like this in a long, long time... thank god Preapared Like a Bride came around"

It never ceases to amaze me on how awesome the Australian metalcore/deathcore scene it. There is just so much talent tucked away in pretty much every city or town and it’s only until these bands show themselves that their presence is made known. Not only is Australia’s reputation well known within its own scene, but it still stands across the globe. When I first heard of Prepared Like a Bride, I automatically thought “should I, or shouldn’t I” (knowing that I could potentially be wasting much of my time). With a name like Prepared Like a Bride and an EP title like Within World's Apart, I automatically thought screamo or some kind of clichéd emo band. The last thing I was expecting was deathcore (and who could blame me), and not only that, but (I know I’ve said this a thousand times) some of the best deathcore I’ve ever heard and I’ve heard a lot of deathcore. I think the world should be prepared for Prepared Like a Bride. 

The opening breakdown in Within World's Apart (after the into that is) didn’t really give much away in terms of what kind of deathcore this was going to be, it was only until I started getting into the guts of the track (I’m not saying that the opening breakdown didn’t have guts, because it was gutsy as hell). Progressive deathcore it was and as many people may or may not know, I’m not the biggest fan of progressive deathcore. Bands which people jump up and down and scream in happiness and joy over, I simply stand there in silence or sigh as they deliver their overly generic material. However, Prepared Like a Bride are different, very different from everything else and in this case, that’s a great thing. The style of progressive deathcore they play is unlike anything I’ve ever heard in my life, sure when you really, really listen in close you may hear a few elements here and there from the more prominent progressive deathcore bands; The Contortionist, The Yellow Sign, Volumes and Born of Osiris. However, the way they’ve incorporated those elements into their music is what makes Prepared Like a Bride extra special and the song writing in Within World's Apart is simply awe inspiring. The guitar riffs are classic progressive deathcore, they give atmosphere and a sense of scale and feeling, it’s almost as if you were in a dream. 

However, listening to Within World's Apart a is not only just some kind of progressive experience where the music takes you to a land full of unicorns and magical fairies who are there to take care of your every fear and sadness, there are times where my head got bobbin hard. Unlike other progressive deathcore bands who try to emulate the most inspirational bands simply by having nothing but ambience in their music, Prepared Like a Bride can get pretty fucking heavy and as a result of that Within World's Apart is one of heaviest progressive deathcore bands I’ve ever heard. There is lots and lots of evidence in Within World's Apart of regular deathcore, and the way that Prepared Like a Bride has executed their brand of regular deathcore is amazing; the guitar riffs are of the correct tone, the drumming is blasty enough and the overall aesthetics of the music are all correct. What seems to also be evident here is the fact that Prepared Like a Bride don’t seem like one of those bands who are way too serious about making music, they’re not one of those bands who believe that if they play as hard as they can they’ll make it. Just the sounds and the way everything was put together in Within World's Apart just sounds like they’ve composed music that they’ve actually enjoyed making, it doesn’t sound forced at all. In return, it gives the listener a slightly eased feeling… which is awesome. 

Now there is one last elements that I can pick up in the background which is a vital component to their music because it holds everything else together. The melodic deathcore side to the music is not really the most conspicuous part of Prepared Like a Bide but if you listen really closely to some sections of Within World's Apart it sounds oddly melodic in comparison to the rest of the EP and when I mean melodic, I actually mean melodic deathcore. That’s right, three styles of deathcore in this single EP. Like I’ve mentioned before, the guitars can sometimes be progy, and some other times they can just be straight up deathcore, and other times they’re more like melodic death or melodic deathcore. You’ll never know what Prepared Like a Bride will pull out of the bag next when listening to Within World's Apart because there is a totally different listening experience around every corner and it’s this fact about Prepared Like a Bride’s Within World's Apart that makes it so awesome to listen to. There are some really complex riffs which are played at times, the style that a band like The Black Dahlia Murder or something like that would play. This just adds another extra dimension to their music which gives more people an excuse to listen and enjoy the music. 

Just like I’ve lightly touched on before, Prepared Like a Bride have a brutal side to their music. However, what I didn’t mention before was the sheer extent of the brutality and heaviness to their music. The breakdowns! These breakdowns are extremely, extremely heavy and they’re definitely right up there with the heaviest I’ve heard. I simply cannot describe the awesomeness of the breakdowns in Prepared Like a Bride because they just make the music so much better than if they were without or if they had chosen a different type of breakdown to use. That’s what I don’t like about other progressive deathcore bands, is that they all use the same damn breakdown over and over again. You know, that style of breakdown with it’s short sharp bursts of sound with a djenty guitar distortion. The ones here are the kind of breakdowns that you’d find in Suicide Silence’s first album The Cleansing. They’re heavy, they’re slow, they drag on for a long time and it sets a completely different scene in comparison to the rest of the lovey dovey stuff. Also the way the vocalist combines the heavy breakdowns with his guttural lows, is just awesome. The standout breakdown in Within World's Apart do get close is definitely the one in “Find Your Own Way Home”, it’s just awesome. 

The last thing I’d like to point out about Within World's Apart is that the band presents an upbeat atmosphere as well as a feeling of juvenility and youth throughout the most part of the EP. I don’t know why, but listening to Within World's Apart just made me feel like a teenager (apart from the fact that I am a teen), but it just makes me want to go out and have some fun just like a teenager should. However, I’m not sure if that’s just some kind of personal attachment I have to Within World's Apart or if others feel it to (I hope I’m normal). Well I guess I’ll just have to keep listening to this until I’m 80. 

One small complaint I have about Within Worlds Apart is the fact that there are so many useless tracks. I mean, there are two introductory tracks in this ep, why two? Can’t we just have one track by just merging both of them together? Because that would make much more sense if that was the case (I find it ironic how one of the intros is titled “No Time to Waste”). Also I know that track seven “Interlude” is the interlude for “Doritos” (it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work that out) but why can’t it have a proper name like everything else. Call it “Dip” or “Guacamole”, “Interlude” seems rather bland considering that Within World's Apart is a very colourful EP. 

Overall, Within World's Apart was a wonderful listening experience. The perfect mix and balance of three styles of deathcore into a single distinctive sound and some emotional attachments along the way have allowed Prepared Like a Bride to unleash their maximum potential. Within World's Apart is definitely the kind of quality that I would expect from Australian deathcore and still proves to world that Australia’s deathcore scene is the best scene PERIOD! I highly recommend Within World's Apart to any deathcore junkies out there who is looking for something that is a little bit beyond what most other bands seem to be capable of. The three styles of deathcore here should be plenty to satisfy everyone’s need for deathcore. I’d also like to recommend the track “Find Your Own Way Home” too because it’s the perfect deathcore package; it has melody, kickass song writing awesome musicianship and heavy breakdowns. I was so glad that I came across this because without it I’d still be listening to the same old boring deathcore. I give Prepared Like a Bride’s Within Worlds Apart a 18/20.

18/20

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

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.

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. 

In Dying Arms - The Core of My Existence (Review)

In Dying Arms - The Core of My Existence

I know that singles aren’t really what interests in reading a review (or track analysis I should say) , but I think they’re one of the best ways for bands to give their fans just a little taste of what to come in future albums and EPs. For those who don’t know In Dying Arms is a band which has a deathcore foundation but post-hardcore/screamo structure. These guys started rocking out in 2006 and since then, they’re probably one of the most successful underground bands out there. Ok, I know that last phrase was a slightly contradictory, but they’ve accumulated quite a few dedicated followers and it’s easy to tell why. These guys have; attitude, style and most importantly… awesome music.

Their last release which was self-titled was pretty much a deathcore/post-hardcore hybrid which took the best traits from both worlds; breakdowns, clean vocals, harsh vocals and melody. Now you’re probably thinking “holy cow, this seems like the most perfect band eva!” and it probably is the main reason why this band has accumulated so many followers but to be perfectly honest though, the way their simply crushed deathcore and post-hardcore at their most generic form together felt rather stale. Even though I don’t recall any bands who have made a hybrid which appeals so much to the opposite ends of the hardcore scale as far as “extreme” goes (screamo and deathcore) but because it didn’t really break any ground, I still felt a sense of redundancy. That was until I heard this single…

Let’s walk though The Core Of My Existence step by step. The track starts off with soft sounds of piano’s and melodic style guitar work fading in then immediately goes into a post-hardore style breakdown. Then the first verse comes and holy shit, those vocals! For some reason, I thought the vocals on their self titled album felt hollow and one dimensional but the aid of high quality production has drastically improved this. Those screams are extremely distorted; I think they even rival Chelsea Grin’s screams, that must be insane. The growls are extremely low and hardcoreish, this style of growling it used quite frequently in deathcore. But, this isn’t deathcore, yes there is definitely deathcore influence but this is melodic/post-hardcore. When I heard their last album, I found that the vocals combined with their style of music sounded rather cheesy, but for some odd reason, I think that this combination works more for the music than against it, although I’m not sure how some others would see this “blend” of hardcore. The guitars is where I feel all the action happens; the lead guitarist plays a more melodic hardcore riffs whilst the rhythm guitarist takes on more deathcorey/djent style of riffs. This is a very effective combination I must say and the way the band executed this is responsible for this. One last thing that gives this band a really post-hardcore/screamo feel is the drumming. There are no blast beats or super fast double kicking, the drumming is simple and straight forward. After being exposed to the full fury of In Dying Arms’s extreme side, I was greeted with the first chorus and this is where the softer side of this band are truly exposed. Clean vocals, I’m not sure why but I really, really enjoy the cleans on The Core Of My Existence even more than I did in their previous works. I was checking out what some of the people had to say about this new track and I read some people comment on the clean vocals, saying that they’re aren’t as good as in their previous works. I can even tell the difference to be honest, and now that the production in 10 times as better, it sounds better than ever.

As you can tell by me excitement, I believe that In Dying Arms have really out done themselves with this track and it’s singles like this which make me sit on the edge of my seat until they release a brand new album. The production is better, their song writing has improved and I felt that everything seems much more balanced this time round. I highly recommend people to check out The Core Of My Existence, if you enjoy really modern post-hardcore, screamo and deathcore because this is a real treat. But I must have a travel adversity warning here for the deathcore fans, if you’re into really brutal, blast beating or heavy deathcore this might not be for you. I seriously cannot wait for In Dying Arms’s next release which I think will be better than ever, hopefully it will drop before then end of 2012 (or at least Armageddon). I give The Core Of My Existence (single) a 17/20.

Amia Venera Landscape - The Long Procession

Amia Venera Landscape - The Long Procession

Throughout history, people have been using music to describe beauty. There are some who do it better than others, and there the others who don’t do it as well as their betters. There are no words in the English vocabulary which fully illustrate the magnificence of The Long Procession, which makes reviewing this album trickier than any school exam or assignment I’ve ever had to do. Just the thought of me putting words into something this majestic, this divine, this… Beautiful will be just a waste because no amount of work I put in will ever satisfyingly describe The Long Procession. There are many things on this world that are perfect, but what Amia Venera Landscape have created is far from perfect, far past perfect, the word “perfect” would be an insult to The Long Procession.

There are many albums out there which have little purpose other than to make money and typically bands don’t put a lot of thought into an album. I mean, yeah sure, couple of songs maybe a little bit of a variety between some tracks and hey presto, you have yourself an album. Albums which have been thoroughly thought through are a minority. But Amia Venera Landscape has taken into consideration a number of things in the making of The Long Procession that would otherwise slide through the cracks. For a starter, The Long Procession is one of two albums that I’ve heard which is plays like a story rather than “just” another meaningless album (the other is Taake’s Hordalands Doedskvad and for those who don’t know, I gave that album a perfect score). What I love about this kind of layout, is that it presents the listener with more of an journey to the mind but considering that each track is already an adventure in itself, it’s more of a marathon. “Empire”, starts off with a really fast-paced technical song structure which is accompanied by some guitar riffs which set the tone for the rest of the track. Then suddenly, the mood changes to a jazzier, avant-garde fashion whilst maintaining its complexity and energy. After this opening high, there is a quiet moment and eventually, the song re-progresses itself to a really thick sludgecore style passage full of heavy atmosphere. Then there is a piano to exit the song following a brief silence… and this is only the first track. As you can probably gather, there is more in The Long Procession than what many bands can put into a 20 year discography, and even then you cannot guarantee that ALL of it is pure gold…

Extreme technicality and blast beats don’t really come to mind when you think of sludgcore/post-hardcore, (amirite?). Once again, Amia Venera Landscape’s skilful song writing capabilities have allowed the technicality of an average technical death metal band and blast beats which can be compared to some black metal. Utilizing and combining a complex unorthodox song structure and a jazzy atmosphere, which seemed to give their sound a slight “avant-garde” feeling, and we all know in “avant-garde” music anything goes. But what I like about this, is that they still keep their trendy, metalcore aesthetic (this is with the aid of clean vocals and hardcore style guitar riffs of course). I couldn’t imagine a hardcore metalcore fan appreciating a band such as Black Sheep Wall, even though Amia Venera Landscape and Black Sheep Wall are pretty much in the same vein (excluding all the emotion).

It astounds me everytime, how something can evoke so much emotion and thought in a human being? This one question that I’ve been pondering on ever since I first heard The Long Procession because after all, music are just resinating sound waves, but how they influence and sometimes manipulate the mind is still unclear. Not only does The Long Procession contain some of the most technical and heavy post-hardcore you will ever hear, it’s also tremendously emotional. The whole album is just an emotional rollercoaster with compelling uplifting highs to melancholic lows. It’s one of the only albums that I know of that can take your happiness away, and just as easily give it back to you. High pitched tremolo picking and clean vocals are techniques that are commonly used to suggest emotion in -core music. Everything from the roars of the vocalist to the tone of the guitars contributes to the emotional atmosphere, it’s just the way everything that came together in The Long Procession which really makes this especially powerful. I don’t think I’ve ever had such an emotional connection with an album before and I’ve heard a lot of; screamo, black metal, power metal, doom metal and post-metal/rock. If this was just any old band, I’d simply just tell you what makes up this “emotional” component and be done with it but for some reason, I don’t feel that would be enough. It would be a complete waste of time because no matter how I put it. The music speaks for itself on this one; I’ll just leave it at that.

Before hearing The Long Procession, I never understood the purpose of instrumentals in an album because 99 times out of 100, they’re; just the same music without any lyrics to them, sounds of nature/surrounding environment or simply an acoustic passage. They don’t seem to have much direction in terms of “fitting in” with the rest of the album (or maybe I just don’t see it) but on The Long Procession, everything has a purpose because the way I see it, there is not a single second wasted. Yeah, ok, Ascending, Infinite Sunset of the Sleepless Man and Glances (Part I)might be slightly boring when heard individually, but for those who listen to The Long Procession attentively, it’s easy to tell that the reason for the track Ascending is to serve as an outro to My Hands Will Burn First (the only actually song which is under 4 minutes long), Infinite Sunset of the Sleepless Man serves as an intro to the last track The Traitors' March and Glances (Part I) is obviously an intro to Glances (Part II). What Amia Venera Landscape have done with the instrumentals the total opposite to what many think (to waste our time), they’ve pretty much given us the option of listening to an intro/outro or skip to the actual song, which beats the hell out of other bands who force us to sit there through a 3 minute intro. If you’ve read the track listings before reading this paragraph, you’ll recognise that I’ve left out Marasm. Not only is Marasm the outro to Glances (Part II), it’s also the best instrumental I’ve ever heard. It’s a 15 minute powerful masterpiece which magic to the ears.

What Amia Venera Landscape have created is what can only be described as a true masterpiece of an album, the last phrase I just wrote is probably as close as humans will ever get to describing such a thing. The Long Procession is what I believe to be the very purpose of creating music. There are times where the heavy atmosphere crushes you and brings you to tears, other times when you’re uplifted from a feeling of melancholy and put into a state of enlightenment and other times when you cannot express your feelings with words. The Long Procession is for those who truly have a passion for music, anyone looking for general technicality should checkout the tracks Empire and Nicholas. People who are looking for something upbeat and metalcoreish should try Glances (Part II) (also listen to Glances (Part I) beforehand to enhance the Glances (Part II) experience) and for those who are looking for something slightly gloomy, The Traitors' March is a melancholic masterpiece (it’s also my personal favourite on the album). Although all the tracks that I’ve just mentioned have already acquired gold status in my books, I must urge you to listen to the Marasm instrumental because it’s absolutely stunning. Reflecting on what I’ve written, I know I haven’t fully expressed what I feel about The Long Procession but I guess writing this review is all I can do, the rest is up to you. 20/20

Medea Rising - We Were Never Meant To Be

Medea Rising - We Were Never Meant To Be

Such terms, like “generic” and “mediocre” have been commonly used to describe deathcore music in the metal industry. Honesty, I was actually starting to believe this because lately, I’ve been hearing the same thing from every deathcore band I came across. Yeah, all those chuggy riffs, un-heavy breakdowns, disorganised song structures were pretty much standard issue for each band and that became boring. Seriously, there are way too young blood deathcore bands out there who are so focused on creating the most brutal or the most heavy, that they lose sight of the importance of innovation. They try so hard to be the next Suicide Silence, or the next Whitechapel. I was about to just stop looking for deathcore altogether, about to be, until someone recommended that I listened to Medea Rising. Thank god, I heard this, thank god… otherwise I would have fallen into the same trap as the huge number of metal elitists in this world because if there was ever a reason to create deathcore music, this would be it.

What is deathcore? Some would say it’s an amalgamation of metalcore and deathcore, others would say that its actually hardcore, rather than metalcore but both are politically correct as far as I’m concerned. Let’s think just for a second, deathcore is made up of death metal and hardcore and/or metalcore, but there are numerous styles of hardcore, numerous styles of metalcore and numerous styles of death metal so that would imply that deathcore is all the same and generic is false abd incredibly short sighted. A deathcore band which chose to combine melodic hardcore with modern death metal, would have a different sound to a band who chose to combine old school death metal with hardcore. The proof is Medea Rising, they have taken the branch of deathcore which combines melodic hardcore with modern death metal and I must say, they’re one of the most satisfying yet.

Melodic hardcore/deathcore is a relatively uncharted genre that not many bands tend to follow. I guess that stems from the fact that deathcore has the reputation of being “harder” than the other “-core” genres and for those who haven’t experienced melodic hardcore, they don’t exactly have the same status. Unlike deathcore, which focuses on heaviness and brutality (I’m talking about pure deathcore) melodic hardcore focuses on melody (unsurprisingly), atmosphere and emotion in its music. So I’m guessing that it would be tough to write music with has the best of both worlds without feeling like one has more power over the other. Normally, bands would simply separate melodic hardcore/melodic metalcore passages from deathcore passages (which is fine), but Medea Rising have chosen to interweave the two and as a result, they’ve created some truly beautiful deathcore.

We Were Never Meant to Be isn’t just another deathcore album, it’s a work of art. So much beauty lies within it can be overwhelming at times. Like I’ve mentioned before, We Were Never Meant to Be contains elements of melodic hardcore/metalcore littered throughout, and I think that these sections are so magnificent that they do it better than many other bands that is, they do melodic hardcore better than many melodic hardcore bands, which is definitely saying something. The best part, is that they have kept ALL of the melodic hardcore influences in their music. They haven’t just taken “influence”, they are full on proper and fully uniformed the melodic hardcore passages which take you a melodic hardcore world. A world which has an incredible atmosphere created by; the high pitched tremolo picking, Oli Sykes styles vocals (Suicide Season style) and appropriate guitar tuning and drumming for the mood. I don’t know if there is any way to describe the emotions that flow through my body as I listen to these passages. There is just something about how everything is put together that is so uplifting and just a pleasure to listen to.

Because I feel that the melodic hardcore influence is what had the major impact on We Were Never Meant to Be, I think it was worth mentioning first. But modern/brutal death metal is an equally prevalent element in Medea Rising’s music and it definitely shows on We Were Never Meant to Be. If the term “heavy as FUUARK!” is typically over used in deathcore, Medea Rising on the other hand, perfectly suits this description. If people think bands such as Whitechapel or old Winds Of Plague were “heavy as fuark”, be prepared to witness this monster. Medea Rising literally crushes the competition (in terms of heaviness) with; heavy ass breakdowns and death metal passages. Unlike many other deathcore bands, who create a certain blend of deathcore, Medea Rising have appealed more to one or the other, never really both at the same time which means that the melodic hardcore passages are focused on melodic hardcore and death metal passages are more focused on death metal. They rarely cross paths. Breakdowns are first thing to point out when it comes to Medea Rising’s heavy side, why? because they are “heavy as fuark!” The appropriate speed, guitar tone and vocals are all used and they’re just generally well constructed, but what I like the most about them is that they keep the momentum ball rolling. Whilst on the topic of the momentum ball, the blast beats on We Were Never Meant to Be are also excellent. They might not be the loudest or the most crisp, but the As Blood Runs Black style of blasting gives the drumming some potency and emphasises Medea Rising’s death metalish characteristic.

There is a third dimension to We Were Never Meant to Be and that’s beat down hardcore. Yep, that’s right, melodic hardcore, brutal death metal and beat down hardcore all in the same album. Although it might seem that their beat down skills won’t be up to scratch because they’ve done so well at writing melodic hardcore and brutal death metal, they’ve also done quite well at this too. Just like their melodic hardcore elements, the beatdown elements in We Were Never Meant to Be are just as good as other, more pure beatdown hardcore bands. They just add another face to an already multi-faced deathcore band, which is just awesome.

How many bands have you heard, who have both brutal death metal style vocals such as: gutturals and pig squeals and melodic hardcore style vocals. Well, all I can tell you is that there aren’t many out there, and I can assure you that you will find it hard to find another such diverse deathcore album. Just the assortment of musical styles utilized, gives We Were Never Meant to Be power and sheer scope, scope that is not normally experienced in other deathcore bands which is meant in a totally positive manner. This is why I find Medea Rising to be such a great underground gem, because they stand out from everything else, they are the diamonds amongst the ashes. The sad thing is that Medea Rising can put many of its; melodic/beatdown hardcore, brutal death metal, and of course deathcore counterparts to shame.

Overall, We Were Never Meant to Be is awesome and could very well be one of the most promising deathcore debut albums as of late. I think that Medea Rising have what it takes to stand out from the rest in the scene, it’s only a matter of time before they may go viral and if they don’t go vial and breakup when they’re still underground, feel privileged that you got to experience this album and others didn’t. It’s quite obvious from the track titles that Medea Rising don’t take themselves seriously, this is what I love about underground bands, they’re making awesome music for the sake of making excellent music and not money (I think). Their charm would definitely have to stem from the song writing, there aren’t many artists out there (especially deathcore ones) who seem to have the same capabilities of cramming so much into so little as Medea Rising and there are even less bands out there who can still sound half decent. I recommend We Were Never Meant to Be to those who are looking for a bit of variety and emotion in deathcore because it’s very hard to come across. Epic Fall seems like a nice way to get to know the band’s sound, it’s the track that actually got me into them in the first place. Medea Rising have truly shown off their skills in We Were Never Meant to Be and with just a little high quality tweaking, this could be the making of a gold standard band. I give Medea Rising’s We Were Never Meant to Be a 17/20.

Blaze of Perdition - The Hierophant

Blaze of Pedition - The Hierophant

It was only until very recently that I looked into the Polish black metal scene, and I must say that they have an amazing underground scene. There is so much hidden talent in Poland that it almost seemed like a crime for me to overlook such a prolific scene. One underground band that stood out to me was Blaze of Perdition. They give off such an amazing vibe from their music which I didn’t really get from the others. The music is; subtle, yet potent…traditional, yet modern… tolerantly generic, yet awesome.

The first thing to mention is the sheer complexity of the music. Blaze of Perdition is a very, very technical black metal band. There is no such thing as “technical black metal”, so I’m finding it quite hard to find a genre to put this band in, and it would be wrong of me to just make up a genre on the spot. Well, the only thing to do is make a comparison to a mainstream band that we all know and lover, Marduk anyone? Marduk is one of the most insane bands to ever hit the black metal scene, who also ended up to being one of the most successful. I think, their secret lies within the musical structure because they were one of the only bands (at the time) who could make energetic, super fast, super brutal black metal and get away with it not being a pile of shit. They kept things relatively neat, tidy and organised in comparison with other black metal bands. So where does this leave Blaze of Perdition? In my opinion, I think that Marduk and Blaze of Perdition are very similar in an aesthetic sense. In particular, the brutality, the contemporary vibe and the overall “kvltness” i.e. they both have the same primary feeling behind the music.

Don’t get me wrong, Blaze of Perdition isn’t just another wannabe Marduk, they do have an extension to their sound. Blaze of Perdition definitely have a Bestial characteristic which is quite evident in The Hierophant; sheer technicality of the drumming, the sound and structure of the guitar work and even the extremely harsh vocal style, all promote a bestial vibe to the music. This is so evident, that when I first heard The Hierophant, I was quite tempted to label it as war metal but there is just something not right with labelling them that. Unlike other Bestial black metal/war metal bands though, Blaze of Perdition don’t seem as grim or as dirty as say, Archgoat. This is probably the main reason why I don’t see them as war metal but this is vital to keeping that contemporary feeling behind their music, and it is this “contemporary feeling” that is to be Blaze of Perdition’s charm.

Grim or dirty, Blaze of Perdition is not, that being said there is a little bit of dark feeling behind in the atmosphere. Like any other black metal band who have slight imprints of bestiality, Blaze or Perdition sound rather dark. I’m not sure about others, but The Hierophant sounds like a very dark album which has a sense of power behind it. The Hierophant sounds more sinister than anything Marduk has ever produced (maybe aside from their old underground days) but I don’t exactly know why or how, The Hierophant seems like this in its nature. I believe it stems from the guitar riffs and the high pitched tuning of them. This is the typical method that black metal bands (including Blaze of Perdition) tend to utilize to create an evil atmosphere and quite honestly I don’t blame them, because it works, so why not? But, what I do like about the balefulness in Blaze of Perdition’s music is that they’ve managed to achieve this in high quality. What I mean by this is that they didn’t have to resort to recording music in a tin can to make their music sound evil and dark and everything else raw and bestial black metal bands tend to do in an effort to seem more kvlt. There aren’t any fuzzy sounds in the background, there isn’t any atmospheric “trickery” involved, the recording of The Hierophant is as clear as crystal. I don’t know about you, but I find that everything is emphasised with high quality recording; the vocals, the drumming and the guitars. The music sounds faster, more comprehensible and less of an ear sore, but now we’re adding evil to the mix? That’s just the icing on the cake.

Is it just me, or is everyone else getting bored with brutal black metal bands being, well… brutal, all the time. I just get bored of listening to the same; riffs, song structure and blast beats over and over again with no variation, and I’m not talking about listening to one album or band, it seems like a common trend has been achieved and black metal bands from around the world transmit this sound through Chinese whispers. It’s almost like there are strict guide lines on how extreme styles of black metal should sound like, leaving bands with no leeway for innovation or flexibility of their sound. I think even the band members for Blaze of Perdition have had enough of this, they didn’t want to fall into the generic trap that many others have fallen into before them. Blaze of Perdition have found a neat solution and have put a nice band-aid on the problem. The answer is so simple, that generic black metal bands all over the world should give themselves a nice slap in the face for not thinking of it. The answer lies within the guitars, interesting guitars at that. Yeah, sure, there are moments where the guitar work is nothing spectacular and generic as all hell. But they’ve thrown in guitar solos, moments of shredding in the background and a few riffs that would be fit for a progressive metal band. Not putting the guitars at the forefront of their music has also seemed to pay off because I think that they sound different without trying to sound different, it just comes naturally and everyone knows that nature does everything the best. Not only this, but these little sections of variation to the guitars change the mood of the tracks and just adds a whole new dimension to the atmosphere.

For those who enjoy calmer forms of black metal, do not despair, moments of peace and serenity are not completely absent from The Hierophant (even though I wouldn’t recommend The Hierophant as bed time music). There are definitely slow moments in The Hierophant and they’re littered throughout the album which I think increase the overall replay value of music. There’re just the right tone, played at just the right time and right quantity to not disrupt the main objective of The Hierophant in the first place, to be an insane album. I think that quality of them should also be commended; it’s easy to tell that they didn’t do this to JUST have a variation of sound, they have put a lot thought into these short passages (no matter how short they may be) and have taken full advantage of the opportunities to improve their sound.

Overall, The Hierophant has fulfilled its purpose to be a brutal yet, interesting black metal album and seeing that it was released in 2011, they have a lot of competition around. Poland has an extremely tight, competitive underground black metal scene and any band that stands out there should be addressed for the world to hear. Even though some elements in The Hierophant aren’t anything new and are overused in black metal, the mood that Blaze of Perdition has set is outstanding. I highly recommend Blaze of Perdition to anyone who enjoys their black metal; fast, bestial and sinister with touches of tranquillity on the side. The full experience of The Hierophant can only be attained if the album is thoroughly explored and embraced. But for those who are simply looking for a one night stand, you cannot go past the track “Gospel of the Serpent’s Kin” because it’s the complete Blaze of Perdition package in one song. I highly recommend Blaze of Perdition’s The Hierophant and I think it’s worth a 16/20.

Kingmaker - Stay Pissed

Kingmaker - Stay Pissed

In my opinion, there aren’t many beat down hardcore bands which have undergone any amazing transformations throughout their history. In fact, I don’t think that that evolution of the genre will precede anywhere either. All the bands then to follow suit and have exact same style of drumming, attitude, guitar riffs, vocals , breakdowns, ect… But like any kind group in real life there is always that one person or item which just doesn’t fit. Kingmaker is that thing that outsider in the beat down group and it’s not for all the wrong reasons. Just when I thought that any hope of “progression” in the genre was gone, up comes this band and immediately it revived my love for the genre and I was hooked.

What many people love about beat down hardcore (and it’s what I also love most about it too) is the attitude the bands have. It’s almost impossible to have a beat down hardcore band which doesn’t have that “in your fucking face” or “don’t give a shit” attitude in them. The very title of this EP already implies that Kingmaker are a real fucking beat down band. Let me tell you, there is a shitload of attitude on Stay Pissed. This seems like one of the only things that people might be too dangerous to mosh to, someone could die in there. There is just so much energy stored within their music. Just everything about Stay Pissed is just so overwhelming. The vocals are extremely high pitched and raspy, the drumming is extremely fast and clear and the guitar tuning is just perfect for the “beat down” mood. All this combined resulted in one of the most “hardcore”, hardcore bands I’ve heard in my life.

Another thing that in my opinion defines the hardcore sound is the production quality of the releases. Typically, underground bands would naturally have poor production quality which sometimes emphasises the “rawness” of the music. Now yeah, this is a nice cheap way of making the music sound raw and I don’t know many other bands find another who don’t do it like this. Kingmaker has done something just a little different. Their music is still raw, it still has that really raw atmosphere that many of the fans come to love but rather than recording their music in a tin can, they have quite a high quality of recording but have distorted the shit out of it. Although this might be a little hard to picture in your mind (well, hear in your mind), when you listen to this EP it will all make sense. What I like about this style over the others is that it sounds like the music has a lot more energy to it. More than just your average Joe underground beat down hardcore band, which can only be a good thing in this situation.

I know this might sound stupid, but from what I’ve seen here Kingmaker have really pushed some of the older ways of beat down hardcore into the modern age. It’s easy to tell that they have taken much of their influence from their older beat down hardcore predecessors from the 90s but they have put a modern twist on things. First of all, some Kingmaker’s guitar riffs are not really common amongst the more primitive hardcore bands. If you listen closely enough, you can tell that many of the guitar riffs sound similar to something from deathcore or modern melodic metalcore (which are two very modern genres of music). That being said, there are still some really hardcoreish guitar riffs thrown in there, its just that the whole thing isn’t comprised of just hardcore riffs.

I cannot imagine any decent beat down hardcore band that doesn’t have killer break downs. It’s almost like not having double bass in deathcore, the experience just won’t be the same. Kingmaker have really written some excellent hardcore style breakdowns here. The style they’ve used is slow breakdowns with palm muted riffs. Although the intervals between each note is relatively short, the breakdown still feels slow. Although they don’t sound heavy as such, the addition of short, quick bursts of double bass have definitely applied some force behind the breakdowns.

On the contrary to what most of you are probably thinking (I might have wreck this with the mention of melodic hardcore earlier), Stay Pissed has its melodic moments. I must say, these sections makes the quality of the music increased tenfold. You know those moments in songs where it just goes from a generic tune into another generic tune, but the contrast between the two are just done seemingly perfect It just seems like the music quality and the feeling behind the music just wouldn’t be the same without it? Welp, there are moments like those throughout the entire EP and I think its what gives Stay Pissed and Kingmaker its charm. Its not enough that bands have this contrast, the fact that Kingmaker have just done them at the right time, have the right feeling behind them and haven’t overused them makes them just so… awesome (it’s the only word that I can think of that describes it).

Overall, Kingmaker’s Stay Pissed EP has made me really excited to hear what the band has to offer in the future. I’m not the biggest fan of pure hardcore music, but I know what good hardcore sounds like and I like what I’m hearing. I think that this could be one of the best hardcore EPs I’ve heard and its funny how the underground scene has so much more to offer than the mainstream scene. Pretty much all of the hardcore bands that I “like” like are still underground and according to my predictions, its only a matter of time before someone out there goes “this is nice” and suddenly goes viral. I think that Stay Pissed is absolutely flawless, its everything a hardcore band should be plus more. I recommend Kingmaker to anyone who is relatively into hardcore or metalcore (although I’m not sure if people will take the deal with the vocals though). I think that first time listeners should have a go at the tracks Spite and Friends because they seem to be the outstanding tracks on the EP. Kingmaker have really made me excited about their future and I can’t wait to hear their next release, I give Kingmaker’s Stay Pissed a 17/20.

Gnaw Their Tongues - All the Dread Magnificence of Perversity

Gnaw Their Tongues - All the Dread Magnificence of Perversity

Has there ever been a time in your life that can only be described as pure evil? Because if you haven’t had such an experience, Gnaw Their Tongues will let you experience this first hand. Gnaw Their Tongues is an electro/industrial black metal band from the Netherlands and All the Dread Magnificence of Perversity is their fourth album in their sinister series. There are times when you think “hey, this is different”, you would put bands such as Viraemia, Revenge and even something like We Butter the Bread With Butter in this category, its different but still legible. There are also times when you think “why the fuck would someone in their right mind make something like this?” well, Gnaw Their Tongues fits right into the 2nd category. Initially, Gnaw Their Tongues would have been one of those bands that you’d think wouldn’t have such a large fan base but, caution, its larger than you think. After the shock of tasting pure evil for the first time (AKA, hitting play on All the Dread Magnificence of Perversity for the first time) you start to understand why this attracts people rather than repel them.

Pure evil is the only term that I think fits the bill of this album. It almost makes you laugh when there are people out there who think that NSBM or war metal is the ultimate in evil, because they obviously haven’t heard this band. To summarise All the Dread Magnificence of Perversity in a single sentence, I would have to say that they are a sick twisted combination of the rawest black metal  you’ve ever heard, the heaviness of Sunn O))) and the cheesiness of a 70s horror movie. This entire album is just jam packed full of just noise, complete and utter noise. The atmosphere that is created by this noise must the very stuff of nightmares, I mean it literally sends shivers down your spine when you hear some of the content on this album such as  a women screaming her lungs out. It truly is scary shit. But there is organised noise as well, but don’t get organised noise confused with melodic. There are drums, and there are guitars and yes, there is a vocalist in there as well. The drums are extremely slow and the guitar work is extremely downtuned (I mean Sunn O))) downtuned). I think that from this you can already depict what the base of the sound is like, and it ain’t pretty, in fact it’s ugly as fuck. On top of this they have thrown all the symphonic, vocals and other sounds on top (such as; people screaming, people talking, the sound of your speaker shredding inside). This I think fully satisfies and completes the experience, without it, it would just sound like Sunn O))) or a fridge.

Overall, there really isn’t much to say about this album because its obvious that there is no real structure that the song writer has followed to create this album, it almost seems to be freestyled together. That being said, this seems to be one of the most intriguing albums I’ve ever heard, because I’ve never come across something so evil, so sinister or even so powerful. It almost confuses me of how something that is pure noise, can be so interesting and gravitational to the human mind. The ambience in this album is just completely off the charts. To be quite honest with you, listening to All the Dread Magnificence of Perversity is actually quite a wonderful experience. I highly recommend this album to anyone who thinks they have what it takes to handle a slice of hell, such as those who enjoy the likes of Sunn O))) or Whitehouse. But if you have heart problems, are sensitive to seizures or have any kind of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, I wouldn’t recommend Gnaw Their Tongues to you at all. I give Gnaw Their Tongue’s All the Dread Magnificence of Perversity a 17/20.