Symphony X - Underworld [Full length] (2015, Nuclear Blast Records)

Introducing Symphony X should almost be unnecessary. Symphony X have been a mainstay in both the progressive and the power metal scene for many years now, each album reaping heaps of great reviews and praise from critics and listeners alike. Their reach is far and wide, spanning neo-classical, progressive and groovy compositions. Fronted as always by the immensely talented Russell Allen, Underworld is an album that needs only a few listens to convince.

Disregarding the quality or lack of the same of Russel Allen's many collaborations and appearances, including Jørn Lande, Ayreon and Adrenaline Mob, Symphony X will always feel like the vocalist's true home. His variation between gruff Anselmo-ish vocals and higher melodic vocals are in focus on almost each and every track, leaving no doubt that he is as essential a part of Symphony X's music as guitarist and main songwriter Michael Romeo. Where 'Iconoclast', the band's previous album, dealt primarily with mankind's promethean relationship with modern technology, Underworld has returned to the more mythological subjects as the albums from earlier in the band's career.

Though not among the initial singles, the track 'Charon' feels like one of the strongest tracks on their ninth album. There are several strong tracks that I for one will be listening to for years to come, including 'Nevermore' and 'Kiss of Fire'. Symphony X are masters of the power ballad, and of course there is one on Underworld as well. 'Without You' is as strong a ballad as ever, but Underworld lacks the lengthy prog display of power that most have come to associate closely with the group. Almost every album up until now has had one of these tracks, but 'To Hell and Back' is the best we've got this time around. A mighty track, but not quite akin to the masterpieces like the Divine Wings of Tragedy and the Odyssey title tracks.

In many ways Underworld feels like a mix of the band's three previous albums, combining the neo-classical progressiveness of The Odyssey, the lofty compositions of Paradise Lost, and the heaviness and powerful groove of Iconoclast. You always hear talk of "the difficult second or third album" when talking about a band's career. Never the impossible ninth album. Most bands have lost their flair long before reaching that point, and in that way it's refreshing to hear Symphony X release such a powerful and well carried-out album more than twenty years into their endeavour. Their output has been incredibly consistent quality-wise, and while Underworld may not be in their top 3, it comes incredibly close. Closer than many bands could ever hope to achieve this late in their career. This is unmistakingly Symphony X as we know them. 8/10 guitars.

Tracklist:
1. Overture
2. Nevermore
3. Underworld
4. Without You
5. Kiss of Fire
6. Charon
7. To Hell and Back
8. In My Darkest Hour
9. Run with the Devil
10. Swan Song
11. Legend

Symphony X official site
Nuclear Blast official site

Sangus - Vengeful Brutality [Demo] (2013, Self-released)

Holding high the tatteret banners of thrash-encrusted black metal are Sangus of Rhode Island, USA. Vengeful Brutality seems a fitting title for the kind of furious black metal ablaze with the naked flames of crust punk that we find under their moniker. But the intensity of the raw abrasions comes at the cost of the atmosphere often found inherent in black metal, gambling with the wholesomeness and entirety of the debut, often making it a cacophonous mess of blasting drums and hostile guitars.

It is neither sophisticated nor majestic. Rather, it is clandestinely concrete, dirty and almost graphically visceral. Without any of the subtleties of black metal, and with all the hard-wired tropes of crust, the general thinking seems to be "go fast or go home", and as such Sangus makes a convincing case of what a bulldozer going 100 mph would sound like. For a 10-minute dose of face-blasting black-thrash-crust, look no further than Vengeful Brutality by Sangus. 6/10 guitars.

Tracklist:
1. Bonecollector
2. Gaspipe
3. Si Brucera

SANGUS official Facebook page

Licrest - Misery [Full length] (2014, Music for the Dead)

I've had my hands on a good portion of Armon Nicholson's material. For those not initiated in his cult and dogma, Nicholson is an American musician with quite an astounding body of work. In the last few years he's recorded and released six albums, seven EPs and an assortment of other releases under various monickers, exploring virtually every sub-genre in extreme metal, all without any significant lapse in quality. The guitar-wielding metalhead's trademark is immensely powerful compositions and top notch production, usually set to a crisp guitar groan.

Misery is the second album Nicholson has released under the name Licrest. While the first album, Devoid of Meaning from 2013, was pretty straight forward in its execution, the second album is less so, though still keeping close to the almost symbolic and iconic branches of immaculate doom that permeated the debut. Misery is a slow burner, never hurrying anywhere lest you miss the churning rhythms found within. The album in itself is constructed in just the same manner as the songs, with a few intermissions giving room and air around the lengthier main tracks, and it serves as a way of building tension for those songs.

I've found that most bands playing a mix of death and doom metal fall within one of two categories: One is laden with rot, relying heavily on death metal and Autopsy-inspired riffs set at the churning pace of doom metal. The other is the kind where almost gothic melodies and finer tunes play the leading role, with the doom parts resounding more heavily. Armon Nicholson's Licrest project falls outside this sentiment, and belongs to that minuscule quantile that is different from the rest of the bunch. It neatly balances the uncompromising nature of death metal with the sombre essence of doom metal, pertaining to the ominousity of both genres in equal amounts.

On Misery, Nicholson firmly establishes his rightful place among the big shots as an accomplished songwriter with flair for multiple genres. Other than the fact that the lyrics can sometimes come off as a bit whiny, there's really not much to complain about. And this is what makes a great album. 8/10 guitars.

Tracklist:
1. Into the Abyss
2. Regret
3. Forever Lost
4. Like a Flood of Anger
5. A Starless Sky
6. I Want to Watch You Die
7. Misery
8. Make Up
9. Fading Away Into Nothing
10. The Heart of Winter
11. Exhale

Visit Licrest on Facebook
Visit Music for the Dead

Get Misery on Bandcamp for Name-Your-Price!

Bone Fragments - Blood Spatter Bone Scatter [Full length] (2013, Self-released)

Through a carreer spanning eight years Bone Fragments from moonshine country Virginia have produced a demo and three albums of black metal with the theme of... Clowns and carnivals? I could scarcely believe what my eyes beheld in the promo material; A bunch of youngsters in varying degrees of clown-like get up, synth-based metal melodies washing ashore somewhere in the borderland between eerily cheery and creeping melancholy. My immediate thoughts were something along the lines of "you have got to be fucking kidding me".

But no, they are not kidding. While Bone Fragments at first glance keep a healthy ironic distance to their chosen themes, the amount of work put into their third album tells an entirely different story. Disturbing synthesized ragtimes take the helm while start-stop guitar grooves lazily hang back in search of something better to do, only to emerge on pseudo-virtuosic soli every once in while whenever the guitarist feels like it. Once or twice the Virginian band brings to mind the works of Emperor or perhaps Arcturus, but these moments are - regretably, I might add - few and far apart.

The project known af Bone Fragments is essentially a take on black metal that wants so hard to be boundary-pushing, different and modern that instead it comes off as comically bad, which wouldn't be so bad if it didn't seem like there had been so much work put into making it sound good. The production in itself is quite commendable with everything balancing out nicely, but why anyone would waste the sound's potential on music so wholeheartedly awful is beyond me. Their exploration of a silly gimmick does not seem to stem from musical wanderlust, but moreso like a vain attempt at being different in some way that their skills as songwriters does not permit.

This is especially evident in the fact that almost every track is incredibly long without needing to be. There are only two reasons for a track to be very long; Either you are experimenting and exploring vast vistas of instrumentation or melody, or you're building atmosphere. The songwriting on Blood Spatter Bone Scatter does neither. Most individual passages of instrumentation go on forever and ever for the sake of meandering through samey synthesizer melodies. I get it. You thought it'd be funny to make a melodic metal album rife with synths over a joking gimmick. You didn't have to make it an hour long.

Where do you go when you have no good ideas? Well, maybe you can come up with a terrible one that is at least original! That seems to be exactly what the ensemble known as Bone Fragments did. Maybe they were too hopped up on moonshine to realize there's a reason no one ever thought it was a good idea to make a clown black metal band. Either way, Blood Spatter Bone Scatter is an underground piece best left unattented. And for the record, no, I don't think I take music too seriously. I just think that gimmicks mostly serve as placeholders for actual talent. 3/10 guitars.

Tracklist:
1. Laughing as You Get Sick and Die
2. The Weeds, the Reeds, and the Muck
3. Cryptosporadic
4. Kathleen
5. The Frail and the Demented
6. The Lure
7. Would You Like Some Candy?
8. Aliens and Clowns
9. The Clown with the Bleeding Eyes
10. Euphoric Delirium
11. Even More Deranged
12. Solstice
13. Island of the Dolls
14. The Boneyard

Visit their official website
Visit their Facebook

Rozamov - Of Gods and Flesh [EP] (2013, Self-released)

In 2011 a gathering of four created Rozamov, and since then two EPs have been released. Since the release of the latest offering, Of Gods and Flesh, the group has been reduced to a trio with guitarist/vocalist Liz Doom no longer being a part of Rozamov.

Atmosphere ranks highly on the list of aspects to the EP. The massive walls of distorted guitars, bass and drumming provide the solid core of the manufacture, formed with mood-setting gusts of ethereal vapors around it. Rozamovs boons of bountiful distortion are like sludgy mires of doom metal infused with the thick musk of stoner metal. The simplicity of the songwriting doesn't reflect a lack of talent or will to play within the band, but is moreso a statement bent on dense heaviness. No, their craftsmanship as musicians more than adequately becomes apparent through the massive appeal of the mastodontic nature of their cro-magnon riffs.

Even so the EP is more or less the very definition of hit-and-miss. Basically what you've got is four tracks, two of which are fantastic doom-laden sludge-mounds, the other two being easily written off as boring fillers. Rozamov convinces even the most elitist sludge freaks with their beseeching hymns of disaster, but take a few unnecessary detours down Tradition Avenue on the way there. They're not reinventing anything, nor are they trying to. In that way their 2013 EP is a well spent 20 minute experience into Sludge Country. 7/10 guitars.

Tracklist:
1. Famine
2. Empty Sky
3. Shadow of the Vulture
4. Of Gods and Flesh

Visit Rozamov on Facebook
Listen to Rozamov on Bandcamp

Drug Honkey - Ghost in the Fire [Full length] (2012, Transcending Obscurity)

Drug Honkey evolved from the 1997-project "Chronic Illogic" with Paul Gillis and Adam Smith at the helm, handling vocals and drums respectively. The band was designed to merge together several musical currents, most of which would be considered metal. Ever since the first album, the self-titled 2002 release, electronics in the form of excessive sampling and abrassive synths as well as an industrial, sludgy death metal sound have been the heart and soul of Drug Honkey. Through lineup changes and live performances the band from Chicago has endured to see the release of their fourth album in 2012, and have a new EP coming out in 2014.

When it comes to heaviness, bands like Triptykon, Conan, Hooded Menace, Sunn o))) or Coffins often come up as prime examples. But those that have witnessed the gospel of Ghost in the Fire know that Drug Honkey are giving all these acts a serious run for their money. The loathesome American quartet grudgingly strikes up an atmosphere of a psychedelic inclination, carved from a body of fuzz and reverb. More than once the speakers threatened to give in under the stress and booming rumble of the downtuned strings, the paranoia-inducing ambience adding reality-shattering depth to the otherwise lonesome drones of the bass and guitars.

Describing Drug Honkey's sound means reaching deep into a vocabulary that seems almost dried out of adequate adjectives. The cavernesque vocals sound at times like Asphyx's Martin Van Drunen being firmly pressed through a rusty grate. The drums eeriely accompany every track like the ever-present stalker haunting his victim. The album comes to a steadily paced halt on the second-to-last track "Twitcher", which is also where it is at its most far out stage. The stygian darkness of this psychedelic track builds up to the grand finale: Saturate/Annihilate, the culmination of everything shown thus far by Drug Honkey. The contrast between the two is where the mix becomes most volatile and seductively dangerous, being both the highest and lowest point of Ghost in the Fire. Every "song" is in itself a parody of life and a mockery of sentience, yet I couldn't imagine listening to Ghost in the Fire for the sake of a single track. The album works best as a whole, each track providing its own element to the final result. A fine specimen indeed. 8/10 guitars.

Tracklist:
1. Order of the Solar Temple
2. Ghost in the Fire
3. Weight of the World
4. This Time I Won't Hesitate
5. In Black Robe
6. Dead Days (Heroin III)
7. Five Years Up
8. Out of My Mind
9. Twitcher
10. Saturate/Annihilate

Visit Drug Honkey on Facebook
Visit Transcending Obscurity

Legionary - Path of Tyranny [EP] (2013, Self-released)

Legionary is a band that has always been plagued by line-up changes, the only constant member being drummer Frank D'Erasmo, the creator of Legionary. The members have had ties to New Jersey thrashers Condition Critical as well as the death/thrash group Strychnia from the same area. First of all, I'm a little sad to see the departure of their previous vocalist, Tim Rocheny, from the lineup. After the release of Arcane Divisions, Legionary's debut album from 2012, Rocheny went on to become the vocalist of the Razorback-signed death metal band Mausoleum.

Legionary hail from the North Eastern parts of the US, but if there's anything northern about their sound it's the inspiration they've taken from Scandinavian melodic death metal. Their modus operandi is melody-based death metal with thrashy tendencies, fueled by D'Erasmo's ferocious drumming and the guitar leads of main riff-smith Rory S. Robinson, who is new to the band. The new vocalist, Kevin O'Laughlin from Strychnia, is a nice addition to the line-up and fills the shoes of Rocheny adequately. The familiar sound of thrashy tremolos fills the ears once again when Path of Tyranny is put to the test.

The recipe works pretty well overall, though what was previously only a refreshing dash of melody added to the mix is now full-blown melodic death metal, albeit executed in a thrashier way than most. Tracks like Disgrace of the Union has a Kataklysm-esque feel to it during the fastest part where the O'Laughlin roars over the sound of D'Erasmo's ridiculously fast blast beats, which speaks volumes of their skills as musicians whether or not you like Kataklysm. I feel compelled to make the comparison between their debut album and this EP; On Arcane Divisions the earlier incarnation of the band were busy showcasing every aspect of their sound and songwriting, boldly displaying everything they could muster in terms of brutality and speed during the almost 50 minutes the album spanned, but this newer embodiment of the band seems more inclined to the more melodic side of their music. It seems to rely more on a sound that would invite showmanship - something that is especially noticable in the riveting Media Complex and through their incredibly flashy guitar solos - rather than musicianship.

While the Path of Tyranny EP is more melodic than Arcane Divisions it is also more controlled, releasing its violent outburts in a more disciplined fasion. This in turn makes room for compositions that are principally more technical in their nature, but I can not help but notice how the presence of only one guitarist has trouble filling the void left by another guitarist. The sound on the album simply felt more layered and wholesome, and it would seem that while the songwriting itself hasn't changed much, the musical approach has. Path of Tyranny, in all its glory, misses a little punch and doesn't feel as ruthlessly uncompromising as the band's previous efforts. 6/10 guitars.

Tracklist:
1. Freedom's Demise (Intro)
2. Disgrace of the Union
3. Media Complex
4. An Inconvenient Lie

The EP and the album can be listened to and purchased through Bandcamp
Visit Legionary on Facebook

Apocryphal - Embrace of Death [Demo] (2013, Hammer of Death)

Self-proclaimed death/doom duo Apocryphal hail from Arizona in the US. Spayd and Polingyowma, the band's driving forces, have undertaken a task of making doom-laden death metal in a simple, back to the roots way. This has produced one demo, Embrace of Death, released in March 2013. Right off the bat the artwork looks killer, with some hapless zombie-victim puking gore and rip and tearing his own guts. The cover is pretty simple and gets the message across.

The music reflects the cover's concept in the way that it's elementary with absolutely nothing but the most fundamental and necessary present within it. The basic needs of death metal are met with a simple compound of growled vocals, d-beats and guitars ranging from slowly paced chugs to deep tremolos. However, this is where the similarities between Apocryphal and the old school of death metal end.

I don't think anyone would claim that death metal has to be a cornucopia of technicality or progressive ideas. It began as something simple in the 80's, and many bands have since kept it that way to great effect. Hell, some would claim there are entire regional scenes built around simplicity and going back to basics. But these bands always have something else to make their music interesting; Atmosphere, heaviness, melody, sound, whatever. But Apocryphal's first demo does not have anything. It's completely undistinguishable death metal. The songs are simply too lacklustre and dull to justify being so simple. There are definitely some really cool deep tremolos on there, but it's like they never amount to anything, with the effects just kind of dying out before anything else happens. The duo seem to not fully grasp how to utilize built up momentum in no small part due to the poorly timed drums, and as such the tame drum rolls just sort of becomes the instrument of the melody's demise.

There is an obvious lack of musical foresight - Everyone knows the feeling when you're listening to a great song and you can almost feel how the track is going to progress, but Embrace of Death is either much too obvious or not obvious enough. When they switch from one part to the next it doesn't quite have that feeling of natural progression. It's shoehorned into the death/doom tag to try to justify its lack of pacing, but death/doom doesn't necessarily have to be slow and boring. Another thing I don't get is the half-time cymbal hits that permeate the drumming of Apocryphal. Apparently this is becoming a thing, and it can bring some much needed variation to bands that only do blastbeats or d-beats, but when it's all the time I lose interest FAST. 4/10 guitars.

Tracklist:
1. Oxidized Flesh
2. Bane of Essence
3. Dissolution in the Midst of Solitude

Visit APOCRYPHAL on Facebook
Visit their Bandcamp and download the demo HERE

Tormentstorm - Into the Ominous Door [Full length] (2013, No Sleep Till Megiddo Records)

Up From the Grave was released in 2012 as the first demo from one-man black-thrash project Tormentstorm, paying tribute to the greats of the genre through a misbegotten mess of guitars, vocals, bass and drums. The demo was poorly received because it was poorly conceived. In mid 2013 the second release was ready, entitled Into the Ominous Door.

When I reviewed Up From the Grave I thought to myself that surely Malice could not be serious. He was. And on Into the Ominous Door he shows us why. If nothing else, this second release is at least a tremendous improvement over the first demo. The riffs have structure and the production and songwriting is infinitely better, and better still is the musicianship of Malice. The melodies and arrangements is kept simple, and several bands have proven this to be as good an approach as any, and truly it feels like this is where Tormentstorm is at home.

The rhythm department is where things take a turn for the worse. Unfortunately the drums and bass (if there is any) are nothing but a faint whisper in the shadow of the shredding guitars, and the vocals too are overpowered by the sound of the strings. The full length still holds little merrit because the drums aren't loud enough to properly drive the songs forward and the vocals are too inaudible to create the sense of recognition, depth and variation that the album so desperately craves. The riffs themselves are pretty varied for a black-thrash album, but can't in themselves justify having multiple songs in excess of 6 minutes.

The thing is that it seems like a lot of wasted effort and potential. The riffs and compositions are good enough to warrant more attention and a higher quality. This album could actually be really good if the drums and vocals were held to the same standard that the guitars are. The simple style fits Tormentstorm well, but if you're gonna go simple you have to go all the way and get all the details right. 5/10 guitars

Tracklist:
1. Bestial Storm
2. The Elder Seal
3. Morbid Rites
4. Barbaric Overthrow
5. Onslaught of Steel
6. Plunging the Dagger
7. Throne of Sadism
8. Nocturnal Mistress

Visit Tormentstorm on Facebook
Visit No Sleep Till Megiddo Records' website

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Avulse - We Are All Code [Full length] (2012, Broken Limb Recordings)

Patrick Hasson from Maine, USA, has numerous releases and various projects under his belt, including the atmospheric black metal experience Auspicium and the funeral death/doom getup Black Chalice, both of which I have previously reviewed. Having now listened to the next in line of Hasson's projects, Avulse - which is supposed to be crusty black metal with a firm punk vibe, I can now say that Hasson (or "Diseased" as he calls himself in Avulse) has a somewhat recognizable sound and style born from, as he states, copious substance abuse and simple songwriting with a gritty guitar sound. Hasson's style is so profound that all his projects seem like small variable aspects of the same thing.

Hasson himself describes Avulse as "a drunk asshole with a guitar jerking off to Von", which seems like a proper summary of the music found on We Are All Code, the third full length album from the band. The self-proclaimed punk vibe could well be attributed to the, for the most part, short song length, gritty production and shoddy playing. In all honesty the album sounds exactly like what you would think it sounds like from the description. Half-assed "riffs" on top of the distant clicks of what I assume is the drum track with whispered, raspy vocals in the background. There is little form, rhyme or reason to be found with the band, and the album consists of 12 tracks of unnoteworthy, quantity-over-quality tracks of punked up black metal with no hooks.

The lengthiest songs (and I use this term loosely) are by far the most well-written. The album's title track isn't half bad, and the second track, Flames of Liberty, is a tiny bit above the rest in terms of quality. From experience I know that the man behind the band can in fact write some pretty good songs, and the title track in particular attest to that. Hasson is a somewhat accomplished songwriter, but only in the songs where he has actually put in a little effort does this show. The rest, I'm afraid, is a slobby mess. As such the title track and the two cover tracks are also the only ones that show any semblance to actual musical structure.

Alcoholic or not, We Are All Code seems like a waste of effort. The Auspicium and Black Chalice releases I've heard speak of more coherent songwriting skills, and as such Avulse may just be a way to vent frustration whilst in a drunken stupor, but most of the tracks on this third album would probably be better off not being released. It boggles my mind that there are at least 2 other albums, a split, two EP's and a demo more of this stuff out there, because if this album is at all representative of the overall quality of the songwriting in this one-man band, it's not worth checking out. 3/10 guitars.

Tracklist:
1. I Drink, Therefore I Am
2. Flames of Liberty
3. Youth is Wasted on the Stupid
4. False Flag
5. Now or Then
6. Phagocytosis
7. Veteran's Day
8. 100 MpH
9. Black Denim
10. No Friend of Mine (Slapshot cover)
11. Hope (Descendants cover)
12. We Are All Code

Check out Avulse on Facebook
Visit Broken Limb Recordings

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Stone Magnum - From Time... To Eternity [Full length] (2013, R.I.P. Records)

The state of Indiana has a reputation of being mostly devoid of any metal in regards to large touring circuits, and in terms of internationally known metal acts the state doesn't fare much better. I had previously heard of Stone Magnum from Michigan City last year when they released their first album more or less out of nowhere. Only one and a half year later they've released their sophomore album effort, From Time... To Eternity.

Though I never got around to listening to the band's eponymous debut, upon listening to the follow up I find it safe to say that Stone Magnum bring to the table doom metal of the highest calibre. It stands as a solid display of musical craftsmanship with heavy, melodic guitar riffs with a thick backdrop of thrumming bass lines creating a bridge between the gruff but epic vocals and the deliberate pace of the drums. The riff-smiths of Stone Magnum have done a great job creating amazing doom-hooks for just about every track on the album - a feat that is only further emphasized by the uncommon delivery of the vocals.

Stone Magnum is most definitely a product of several decades of doom metal evolution. Sticking to the roots, the band's style is best described as a mix of all the great old ones within the genre, mixing together elements from both the American, British and Scandinavian scene, and it's nice to hear a modern doom metal band that isn't a complete Black Sabbath ripoff. The vocals themselves sound like Tom G. Warrior punching Messiah Marcolin in the face, and every riff - not just the main riffs, mind you!! - are well thought-out audile delicacies. I've been listening to From Time... To Eternity since it came out in June, often finding myself returning to their epic melodies for another dose of doom, and I can safely say that the album holds up in the long run. A problem that many newer bands within the genre face is a lack of variation, often mucking about with their noses in the same riff for minutes on end. From Time... To Eternity is almost 50 minutes of doom metal which may seem like a lot, but there is incredible amounts of variation in structure, temperament and speed while holding an iron grip on their gloomy atmosphere.

It seems futile to go into details with every great aspect of the album because the good far outnumber the bad. The fuzzy, warm feeling of the production suits the style of Stone Magnum magnificently, but some of the riffs and the drums in particular could stand to gain a little punch to really accentuate the power and dynamics of Stone Magnum's formidable songwriting. Together with Devil's follow up album to the modern classic Time to Repent, "Gather the Sinners", these make up the back bone of the best doom metal albums of 2013. Stone Magnum stands as a monument to the fact that good new music doesn't have to come from a bunch of adolescents. Doom metal in particular just sounds better coming from seasoned old dudes. 9/10 guitars.

Tracklist:
1. From Time... To Eternity
2. Lonely God
3. In Tongues They Whisper
4. The Gallows of Ohrdruf
5. By An Omen I Went
6. Uncontained
7. In the Garden of Beasts

Like Stone Magnum on Facebook
Listen to Stone Magnum on Bandcamp
Visit their official website
Visit R.I.P. Records at their official website or on Facebook



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Forestfather - Hereafter [Full length] (2013, Contaminated Tones Productions)

Forestfather is a band of Chilean origin. An earlier incarnation of the band, Eternal Winter, was created in 1998 by Kveldulf Bjalfason, and the debut album as Forestfather "Hereafter" has been underway ever since, being finished upon the completion of the lineup in 2012 with the addition of Jared Moran on drums and Michael Rumple doing the vocals. Many may already be acquainted with Moran's drumming as he has performed and recorded with numerous bands before. Likewise some may previously have familiarized themselves with the vocals of Rumple through his own atmospheric black metal project, Desiderium, which I have also previously had the pleasure of reviewing.

Musically the debut album from Forestfather derives heavily from many established bands of the folky atmospheric black metal scene, while also borrowing a few elements from post-rock. The guitars consists mostly of melodic leads, often in a somewhat arpeggiated form, over a over layer of a more heavy and simplistic natur. Mentioning bands like Alcest, Woods of Ypres, Skagos or Agalloch seems almost redundant at this point, and unfortunately so does the music of Forestfather at times.

One of the most prominent differences between Forestfather and other bands in the scene is their frequent use of clean vocals. As much space as they take up in the sound image of Forestfather, it is also the one element that is the hardest to get accustomed to, and at the time of writing it is still the thing I feel most ambivalent about with Hereafter. The parts with Rumple's archtypal throaty, raw vocals are the parts I like the most, but these parts are at the same time also the most standardized, textbook portions. The clean vocals are what makes Forestfather stand out from the crowd, but I can't quite wrap my head around if that is in a good or bad way. It stands as a gleaming example that you shouldn't necessarily do something just because it's different as it won't always come out right. There are times on Hereafter where the clean vocals serve as a breath of fresh air in the stale atmosphere of a tried-through genre.

There's nothing to hold against the recording itself. The production is gritty and cold and feels sufficiently organic for the music to positively benefit from it. The drums could advantage from a little more humane and natural processing, but as they are now they stand as a strong rhythmic foundation to the music. The music rests in itself as a well-composed but highly derivative piece, and I mentioned that the clean vocals breathe a little life into the well done but to some extent contrived mixture, but this only takes the album so far. Forestfather does what it does adequately, but never surmounts to take the next step into becoming an amazing band. The band is definitely on to what their own style will sound like, but Hereafter hasn't convinced me that they've quite found it yet. 6/10 guitars.

Tracklist:
1. Inner Ascension Those Years Passed
2. The Emerald Key
3. Ethereal
4. All Tears to Come
5. The Days Ever Done

Visit Forestfather on Facebook and Bandcamp
Visit Contaminated Tones Productions

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Vesterian - Anthems for the Coming War Age [Full length] (2013, Glorious North Productions)

Vesterian has existed in some form since 1994 and can soon celebrate their 20th anniversary. Until '96 they were known as Centurion and released two demos under this name. The name change brought 5 more demos until 2013 where the American band released their first album "Anthems for the Coming War Age" through Glorious North Productions. The fact that only demo material has been produced up until now, the name change and the large time gap between some demos speaks of a very turbulent background in the form of a relocation from North Carolina to California and a revolving door lineup.

From the roots of black metal like early Bathory, Venom and Hellhammer there has always been a sort of clumsy approach to music in the pursuit of extremity. But with Vesterian there is a much more modern attitude. There's nothing unsure or half-assed about it, neither the songwriting nor the enactment of the music.

Anthems for the Coming War Age features among other things a drummer that doesn't know how to relax and is probably way too generous with his blastbeats. It's always fast, all the time, even when it feels like a more controlled, deliberate pace would be more fitting. There are countless examples of black metal bands that use blastbeats very prominently in their music, and this is obviously not always a bad thing, but bands like Marduk seem to have it down to an art to use it with a bit more taste and deliberation. When all is said and done it seems like a small thing in the grand scheme of things, but it does mean that at times Vesterian's music will become a bit monotonous and unvaried.
What the American quintet lacks in variation they more than make up for in sheer power though. There is not much to be left wanting in regards to envigoratingly furious guitar riffs, and the groaning Abbath-y vocals often venture beyond the realms of orthodox black metal in pursuit of greater depth and atmosphere.

In the end what it comes down to with Vesterian's debut album is whether or not you can tolerate the lengthier tracks that the band puts forth. With songs like Morax Gates, pt. 2, with its galloping drumwork, multiple layers of somewhat dissonant guitars, epic solo and long vocal-less stretches, it's proven that Vesterian aren't a one trick pony in any sense, and the Ancient Bloodthirst track shows that they have the capacity for more spectacular and grandios songwriting as well, but when almost every track is in excess of 6 minutes in length it seems weird that most songs seem to follow a pretty standard progression pattern. It's not that Anthems for the Coming War Age doesn't live up to its name, and it is a fun listen that I would recommend to all black metal fanatics, but it's been done before to the same standards. Even so, it's a magnificent example of modern black metal with no bullshit symphonic elements or 10-minute ambient intros, interludes and outros. 7/10 guitars.

Tracklist:
1. Gathering
2. Under the Red Moon
3. Morax Gates, pt. 2
4. Ancient Bloodthirst
5. Unknown Spells Cast from Nibiru's Watch Tower
6. For Battles to Come
7. Dead Kings of Tyranny
8. Dark Oceans Roar During the Cosmic Upheaval
9. Blasphemous Sorcery of a Witch King

Visit VESTERIAN on Facebook
Visit Glorious North Production's official site

Master Fury - Circles of Hell [Compilation] (2013, Contaminated Tones Productions)

When you say thrash metal most people think 1980's USA. There are the essential giants like Slayer, Overkill, Testament and Metallica, and the hidden and forgotten gems like Holocross, Heretic and Powerlord. Formed in 1986 they only ever released 2 albums, the rough Hell Party album from 1988 and the barbarous Circles of Hate album from 1989. They went on hold for an unknown number of years and then had a brief reunion in 2010, but it wasn't before 2013 we would see another Master Fury release, the two albums compiled on Circles of Hell by Contaminated Tones Productions.

Master Fury has a very abrasive sound. Their approach to thrash metal is on the chaotic side of things and more focussed on speed and coarseness than anything else, making them probably one of the fastest bands at the time. Through the metallic din of Master Fury's aggressive guitars the amazingly precise riffs shine. Where Hell Party thrives on a coarse, simplistic thrash recipe building up to and colliding in the final mosh-inducing track "Riot" the second half of the compilation, the Circles of Hate album, takes a more technical and commonplace approach to the genre. The early material is distinguished by the near constant speed with which it is furiously provided. On Circles of Hate Master Fury were progressing as songwriters and were more comfortable with slowing down once in a while in order to build up momentum for a particularly epic solo or building atmosphere.

The band seems to have always favoured a trio-lineup consisting of the guitars and vocals of Digg Rouze and various bassists and drummers. As mentioned above Master Fury evolved as a band even if their was only 1 year between the 25-minute Hell Party and the slightly longer Circles of Hate. On tracks like Corporate War and Life's a Bitch they give way for their crossover tendencies fuelled by ferocious d-beats and gang-shouts, a style that wasn't at all present of Hell Party. I could imagine a song like Road Hog off of Hell Party being an early example of the Motörhead/Venom-inspired punky speed metal that has recently made a comeback, and there are more examples of songs that fit the bill as really good metal songs, but with the production being so muddy and deranged it's hard to make out anything other than a few riffs here and there, making the tracks hard to tell apart.

Master Fury already perfectly sum up their material with their name. Furious, fast as fuck thrash. The extremity of the albums put Master Fury somewhere in the grey area between thrash and death metal that had a couple of years prior been completely dominated by bands like Death and Possessed. Master Fury may not be the authors of the most original or memorable kind of thrash metal, but if you feel like getting your skull pounded by uncompromising riffs, powerful drumming and screaming vocals The Circles of Hell compilation is as good a way get your needs fulfilled as any. The combination of the two tracks celebrate an above-average band, though their material never quite achieves true classic or gem status. 7/10 guitars.

Tracklist:
1. Hell Party
2. Crash
3. Are All Men Blind
4. Time is Right
5. Semper Furious
6. Flat Against the Wall
7. Road Hog
8. Riot
9. Die In Your Sleep
10. Lies
11. Circus of Hate
12. Son of Man
13. Corporate War
14. The Way
15. Life's a Bitch
16. V.O.H.

Track 1-8: Hell Party
Track 9-16: Circles of Hate

MASTER FURY on MySpace
Contaminated Tones Productions official site

Gates of Eternal Torment - Imprisoned Beneath the Ice of This Cold Black Void [Demo] (2012, Contaminated Tones Productions)

Little is known about Gates of Eternal Torment. Firthornn, the sole member in the band, hails from New Jersey, USA, and his lyrics seemingly draws inspiration from terminal illness, desperation and suffering. Gates of Eternal Torment released their first demo "Imprisoned Beneath the Ice of This Cold Black Void" in 2012 through US label Contaminated Tones Productions, a label that has a history of releasing black metal demos and EPs of the depressive and atmospheric kind.

Given the label's history one is hardly taken by surprise when the bastard tunes of depressive black metal fade in with "Dungeon of Tortured Souls". It is immediately obvious where Firthornn is coming from musically. It's a musical universe where acts like Burzum and Xasthur are king, and though there are a lot of different influences in the music it is by far the influence of the top dogs of the genre that shine through on "Imprisoned..."
Gates of Eternal Torment makes use of a few layers of instrumentation, usually comprised only of vocals, guitars and drums. By no means unusual, but used effectively with ponderous drumming and fairly long guitar tremolo-laden riffs.

It seems to be a general theme with Gates of Eternal Torment that it really is nothing out of the ordinary. "Imprisoned..." doesn't feel unique enough in a genre where there are so many bands, and the fact that it doesn't sound nearly as bedroomy as many others isn't enough to carry the music on its own. It's a good example of textbook DSBM, but it really is too much like some of the bands that have already been established within the scene. Apart from a few strange samples here and there it might as well have been an early Xasthur demo. The band has a lot of potential, and it's not the songwriting in itself that's lacking, but moreso the lack of cultivation. The band and the demo would benefit a lot from working out all the minor kinks and finding that thing to make it special and stand out. 6/10 guitars.

Tracklist:
1. Dungeon of Tortured Souls
2. Imprisoned Beneath the Ice of This Cold Black Void
3. Upon the Rails of Terminal Illness (Part 1)
4. Where I Suffer

GATES OF ETERNAL TORMENT on Bandcamp
GATES OF ETERNAL TORMENT on Facebook
Contaminated Tones Productions official site

Cryptodira - Recursions [EP] (2013, Self-released)

From Long Island, New York, hails a four-piece band named Cryptodira. Their style includes many elements from different genres and as such could best be described simply as progressive metal. The band is a young one, having been created in 2011, they've already managed to put out two EPs with a professional sound. In January 2013 they released their second EP, "Recursions", which has an astonishingly good production for a self-released EP.

Recursions greets you with a pounding piece of progressive death metal, machinegun drumming, roaring hardcore-inspired vocals and heavy riffing and melodic melodies over the djenty rhythm-section all included. Continuing in a more melodic style "Either Fly or Fall Faster" comes on in continuation of "The Birth of a King", and while this is a good track in itself the entire last minute feels completely out of place and stupid. The bass and drums are keeping some weird rhythm while someone shouts incredibly inane lyrics with a voice that can be described as little else but annoying.
The rest of the EP continues with 3 additional tracks of varying melodic disposition, but the rest of the material is generally more centered around melody rather than heavy rhythms.

They strike me as a band that want to be a few things too many. There's some death in there, some djent, metalcore and progressive melodies. They do some of these elements alright, but ultimately the Recursions EP seems a little too schizophrenic. There are times where a part of a track will stand out, but the merrit of these parts is overshadowed by the weird way the parts are pieced together. It's a shame, because the entire EP is produced really well and sounds exactly like it should, but in regards to the songwriting itself there's still a way to go. Not a long way, but a way nonetheless. I'm missing some uniformity, thereby not saying all the songs should be the same, but there aren't as such any recurring "Cryptodira elements" to keep it all together. 6/10 guitars.

Tracklist:
1. The Birth of a King
2. Either Fly or Fall Faster
3. On Sleepwalking
4. Allies to Ignorance
5. The Affirmation

CRYPTODIRA on Facebook
Buy Recursions for pay-what-you-want on Bandcamp

Filsufatia / Twilight Fauna - Fallen Leaves in a Tide of Sorrow [Split] (Self-released, 2013)

Black metal's reputation for being badly produced and easy to play has brought with it a ton of "bedroom black metal bands", often of the one-manned kind. In continuation of this there are a lot of below-bootleg quality EPs, demos and splits in general cirkulation.
On the "Fallen Leaves in a Tide of Sorrow" split two one-man black metal bands with a token appreciation for the origins of atmospheric and depressive black metal give their own impressions of how to emulate that familiar sound and feeling of bands such as Burzum, Drudkh and Alcest. Though Ravenwood's Twilight Fauna and Deep's Filsufatia don't resemble the afforementioned bands as such there is definitely the tinge of clear influences among their compositions.

Hailing from a place as unlikely for black metal as Malaysia, Filsufatia has since 2006 released a steady stream of demos with Fallen Leaves in a Tide of Sorrow being the first split. Filsufatia's music consists of a myriad of decent guitar melodies accompanied by sombre piano tones, but the music is ultimately dulled down to near unlistenable garbage because everything is more or less programmed or at the very least hugely processed through a computer. The melodies come off as alright, but the tunes themselves can't bear the weight of the music. The amount of horrendous FL Studio-sounding instrumentation really numbs the experience to the point where it almost seems like it was made for someone else to practice to.

With Twilight Fauna from Tennessee, USA, we're back in a familiar setting this time more appropriately billed "atmospheric" rather than "depressive". Twilight Fauna started out in 2011 and has since released a few albums and splits. Ravenwood's compositions in Twilight Fauna consists of a ragtag collection of drums with some monotone unthoughtful pseudo-riffs thrown into the mix. To top it all off are his harsh vocals which are delivered at such a whispering volume that they hardly qualify as such. The end result is a rather unmelodic collection of chaotic bedroom "black metal" with little rhyme or reason and little consideration for rhythm.

All this aside the two bands go well together. Though they are billed as depressive and atmospheric black metal respectively their music is rather similar. Perhaps even too similar. If I didn't know any better I would be inclined to think the two one-man projects were one and the same, because the small differences in the songwriting aren't that big. Filsufatia is more melody oriented, and Twilight Fauna more inclined to atmospheric riffs, and these qualities are also made manifest in their different sounds. I suppose this is where they distinguish between atmospheric and depressive black metal.

The best track on the split is by far A Silent Agony by Twilight Fauna. It's mostly text book guitar chord compositions with a few haunting melodies and vocal parts thrown in the mix (think Diablo II's soundtrack). It's not something entirely out of the ordinary, and it certainly isn't metal, but it works rather well compared to the additional contents of the split. It's not much, but it's something. Fallen Leaves in a Tide of Sorrow is bland and straight up boring. Filsufatia doesn't make depressive black metal sound melancholic, emotional, painful or beautiful and Twilight Fauna doesn't manage to put enough atmosphere into atmospheric black metal (or maybe the problem is that it's so atmospheric it stopped being music). 3/10 guitars.

Tracklist:
1. Twilight Fauna - The Cold Air of a Solitary Night
2. Twilight Fauna - A Silent Agony
3. Filsufatia - Laverne (A Million Miles Nowhere)
4. Filsufatia - The Grand Eulogy (Welcome Home)

Twilight Fauna official site
Filsufatia official site

Only a Shadow Remains - The Grinding Stone [EP] (2013, Self-released)

With today's level of technology and the accessibility of it one-man projects are far from rare. Where one once had to rely on session musicians or having to play everything by one self, you can nowadays get machines that can do most things for you. What machines still can't do for you is write your material, and the lack of varied input and feedback means that some, if not most, one-man bands suck uncontrollably. I was surprised to find that Only a Shadow Remains is a band that not only has a good sound for a solo-project but also has a relatively solid and varied output.

I was originally supposed to review Only a Shadow Remains' second EP, Premediated, but I ended up reviewing The Grinding Stone, the band's newest EP, instead. Now, I did listen to Premediated before listening to The Grinding Stone, and honestly not much has changed in the time between the two EPs were released. It's not necessarily bad that the band has a steady and consistent output, but the only real surprise I got with The Grinding Stone was that this release consists of 21 tracks of relative short length. Only a Shadow Remains centers around gory vocals, growled vocals and heavy but melodic guitar riffs, and this is definitely still the case with The Grinding Stone, even if the riffs have gotten much heavier than previously, but naturally I thought, given the title and the length of the songs and the sheer amount of tracks on the EP, that the band had adopted a more grindcore-inspired aspect. However, I found that this simply wasn't the case, even if the band has gotten heavier. Premediated featured songwriting that bore a heavy nod towards the old classics of death metal, but on the Grinding Stone EP the band has switched to a much more modern and brutal focus.
On The Grinding Stone EP Only a Shadow Remains leaves a little less room for melodic riffs and hooks, but the vocals have become more varied, varying from traditional growls to hoarse screams. The riffing was what attracted me to the earlier material from the band, and because this new incarnation of Only a Shadow Remains focus less on those aspects, it is far less personal and sinister than the previous EP.

The EP is well executed, but it is at the same time pretty generic. The songs are generally too short, meaning that only rarely does a song achieve any momentum, and I found that most songs seemed to end rather abruptly. Armon Nicholson has previously proven that he is no novice songwriter, but his talents aren't properly showcased on The Grinding Stone as they were on Premediated. As such I think the longer songs on this EP are by far the best, and all in all the songs fit well together. But ultimately The Grinding Stone feels unfinished, and the amount of short songs makes it feel like the EP consists of mostly unfinished ideas for songs. It shows potential, but the overall picture needs work. The songs don't show enough individuality to justify having so many short tracks on one release. I would much rather have had an EP where the songwriting is condensed into 4-6 songs rather 21 like on The Grinding Stone, such as it was on Premediated. 7/10 guitars.

Tracklist:
1. Broken Glass in Your Eyes
2. A New Mask
3. Autocannibalism
4. I Despise Humanity
5. Burned
6. Corpsemeat
7. Pee Hole Torture
8. Asphyxiating on Feces
9. Extirpation of Necessary Organs
10. Filth
11. Fornicated Stab Wounds
12. Sewn Together
13. Infanticidal Urges
14. Carved Open
15. Vomit, Consumed
16. Punched in the Prolapsed Rectum
17. Skinned and Salted
18. Testicular Mutilation
19. Swimming in Used Needles
20. Orgy of Decomposition
21. The Meat Grinder

ONLY A SHADOW REMAINS on Facebook
The Grinding Stone is available for pay-what-you-want on Bandcamp HERE

Bloodwraith - As Above, So Below [Full length] (2012, Cvlminis)

Aesthetics are very important in metal. The bands that impress me the most are often bands that have the aesthetics of a different genre than the one they play, sort of like how Autopsy has the aesthetics of doom metal even though their music is predominantly death metal, or like how Megachurch take elements from indie rock and fast paced rock to create their rather special kind of stoner metal.
To put it simple: Bloodwraith's album "As Above, So Below" from 2012 is an 8-track journey into musical lands that were already well-traveled by the 80's. They definitely have the aesthetics of early black metal bands and some of the more extreme thrash bands, and as such, like so many other bands, Wargoat's Bloodwraith seek back to the very roots of black metal, having a sound rather similar to the thrashy outputs of Bathory and Hellhammer. As such the band already has their work cut out for them, because standing out in that realm is no easy task.

As mentioned "As Above, So Below" bears the familiar tinge of old school European black metal, but actually surprised me a bit with some occassional twists and turns. Other than the kind of jazzy intro track that opens the album and the intermission track "A Black Mirror's Reflection", Bloodwraith's rather simple lineup makes for some pretty solid black metal that surprised me quite a bit every now and then, in both good and bad ways. Mostly the album consists of just straight up lo-fi black metal that has a small amount of appeal in itself, but with some rather daring efforts in the realm of folky clean vocals aswel as

I like how Bloodwraith are comfortable with their own concept, and "As Above, So Below" seems to be a pretty consistent opus. What I think the album is missing is something to make it memorable and outstanding. It has a few hooks now and then, but the overall feeling I have regarding the album is that it's bland and gets boring really quickly. My favourite track by far is the second-to-last track "Beneath the Winter Moon" as it is here the previous efforts on the album culminate into a track that really showcase the variety that Bloodwraith are capable of.

It puzzles me that one of Wargoat's previous bands, Shadows of Sin, apparently also released an album entitled "As Above, So Below" in 2008, and that this album has a lot of the same tracks. I can only guess what the reason for this is, but most likely it's because Shadows of Sin broke up at some point and Wargoat perhaps decided to reuse the songs he wrote under a different moniker.
when all is said and done it comes down to what I wrote earlier: As Above, So Below is a rather forgettable experience, maybe except from Beneath a Winter Moon, and unfortunately is very easily overshadowed by other bands that utilize not only more interesting elements, but also simply write better songs. 5/10 guitars.

Tracklist:
1. The Scars of Stars Burn Black
2. Pest
3. As Above, So Below
4. For Lilith
5. A Black Mirror's Reflection
6. Krieg
7. Beneath the Winter Moon
8. I, Lucifer

BLOODWRAITH official Facebook site
Cvlminis official site

Temple - On the Steps of the Temple [Full length] (2012, Self-released)

My main problem with most progressive metal bands is that nowadays a lot of them take the djent route. Another thing is that many musicians mistake "progressive" for "putting a bunch of twiddle-twaddle bullshit together for no apparent reason other than to make it sound spacey and/or technical as fuck". Therefore it is nice to listen to a band such as Temple; A band that takes the technical elements out of progressive and merely focus on atmosphere.

To introduce the band, Temple is a two-man endeavour into the ethereal realms of progressive metal from Arizona in the United States. On their only release, the album "On the Steps of the Temple", the listener is forcefully embarked upon a journey through the almost cinematic soundscapes of the album's six songs. The term "song" is used loosely as the band is actually entirely instrumental, and consists of Ryan's thoughtful guitar, bass and scarce keyboard work accompanied by Rich's indulgent drumming.

On the Steps of the Temple features several influences from a myriad of genres, from the black metal-infused opening track "Mountain", to the almost symphonic post-rock track "Final Years", to the gloomy "The Mist that Shrouds the Peaks", which is entirely defined by its funeral-like tempo and disposition. The amount of variation on the album speaks of great care for the music the band performs, and Temple really are an entirely different breed of progressive than other acts such as Dream Theater, Meshuggah or Tool.

There aren't many things that subtract from the Temple equation. Their music is greatly varied, has good depth, has both long and shorter tracks, mesmerizing melodies and enthralling, atmospheric soundscapes. One of the things that I don't like about On the Steps of the Temple is the length, as the album is really long at about 52 minutes. I know it's not uncommon for progressive or atmospheric bands to have lengthy releases, and for the most part it works fine, but because it takes a little under an hour to listen to the entire album I rarely find time to listen to the album in its entirity in one sitting. However, I don't want this to be reflected too much on the album's overall score. Temple's music is captivating, well produced and well written. 8/10 guitars.

Tracklist:
1. Mountain
2. Rising from the Abyss
3. Final Years
4. The Mist That Shrouds the Peaks
5. Avaritia
6. On the Steps of the Temple

TEMPLE on Facebook
TEMPLE on Bandcamp