Cosmo Cocktail - Cosmotronic Racing [Full length] (2015, 30th Floor Records)

Oversaturated neon-nostalgia

Cosmo Cocktail's album comes courtesy of 30th Floor Records, a label dedicated to the synthwave genre. Though not a veteran per se, they were definitely one of the early movers within the scene to organize and release synthwave albums from independent artists. Cosmo Cocktail, based in Italy, prides himself on his use of hardware synths, sequencers and drum machines, and with good reason. With a morass of new artists emerging from the scene every day there's more than a few who rely solely on standardized VSTs and digital sequencer software, often resulting in an amateurish feel to otherwise groovy synths in a rude and entitled celebration of the fact that nowadays "anyone can make music".

Should you somehow be in doubt of what sort of music an artist with a striking alias like Cosmo Cocktail and an album title such as Cosmotronic Racing would compose, you needn't look further than the cover artwork and the tracklist itself. Complete with neon racecars and titles like "Neon Tokyo Nights", "Sunrise at 180MPH" and "Speedlove", there really can be no doubt as to the intentions of the artist. Rolling neon synths, pounding plastic drums and dark, exotic ambience is all part of the game. And game may well be the right wording in this context, because Cosmotronic Racing - apart from the fact that the title itself feels like it - sounds daringly close to the soundtracks of late eighties to early nineties arcade racing games!

"Cosmotronic Racing seems not like a quick grab for attention or success, it is far too sincere for that."

The Italian races down the nighttime highway, but rather than doing so in a proverbial Testarossa, Cosmotronic Racing drives more like a nice, unasuming black Honda. The album cuts through the night at a brisk pace, hinting at times to previous decades through token gestures to Tangerine Dream and Vangelis' Blade Runner soundtrack in the company of dubious drum types. Cosmotronic Racing seems not like a quick grab for attention or success, it is far too sincere for that. Rather, while engaging in every concievable cliché of the genre, the half-hour tour through the colourful eighties grasps at straws and hangs on by the skin of its teeth to find a foothold. There's the insisting speedway track, the cruisin' down the road track, the darker track - The only thing missing is the power-pop ballad.

With accomplished songwriters such as Mitch Murder, Dynatron, Power Glove and Lazerhawk dominating the scene, there's little room for mistake if you want to join the big leagues. Synthwave needs drive in order to not fall victim to the dreary and samey nature of simple electronic drums. Mitch Murder gets around it by adding a funky groove, Power Glove are masters of creating and breaking flow, Dynatron has great buildup and hooks. Cosmo Cocktail loses ground in all these fields. The album opener, "Speedlove", has a combination of the above to some degree, but sincerity and nostalgia aside Cosmotronic Racing feels rushed to the point of being a slew of good ideas thrown into the trunk of a car together with a drum machine, whereupon being transported through a minefield. 5/10 guitars.

Tracklist:

1. Speedlove

2. Neon Tokyo Nights

3. Wangan Midnight Club

4. Cosmotronic Racing

5. Do Androids Dream of Electric Human Beings?

6. Sunrise at 180MPH

7. The Blackbird

8. The Bayshore Route

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Lord Impaler - Babylon Whore [EP] (2013, Self-released)

Since 1998 the greek trio known as Lord Impaler have unleashed grueling black metal upon the world, culminating in their 2011 album "Admire the Cosmos Black". Lord Impaler have no permanent drummer, resulting in each release using a different session member filling in roll of drummer; On the Babylon Whore EP from 2013 the title befalls George Trakas, who normally kicks ass in Mass Infection. Lord Impaler's primary body of work consists mainly of demos and generally smaller releases, and indeed the two songs found on the Babylon Whore EP were also released as a split wither Athos, another Greek black metal band.

Babylon Whore and The White Dream of Ziz blast away with immediate and unrelenting explosions of blastbeats and tremolo riffs, which paired with the traditional bleak sound creates an overall pretty standard take on blasting black metal. And in that sense the EP has it all, and little else. Babylon Whore is by all means a tribute to and a study in black metal ruthlessly beating your mind, and it excels in just that.

For the tracks to go on for four and five minutes respectively Lord Impaler end up repeating themselves over and over. The White Dream of Ziz has a slower, quieter part about halfway through, providing a glimps into more thoughtful songwriting territory, but when it almost immediately culminates in a return to the main riff the atmosphere almost built seems entirely unnecessary. This is the sad story of how most of the EP goes. The riffs are monstrously enjoyable, but when repeated ad nauseam it gets too much - There are simply too few riffs, resulting in many repeat offenses. As such the Babylon Whore EP, one of the Greek band's newest offerings, is fit only for sparse enjoyment. The material warrants more focus on variety and feels like it should instead be condensed into shorter tracks where the melodies could moreso come into their own and take the spotlight place they deserve, instead of being condemned to hatred at the hands of repetition for the sake of making the songs longer. 5/10 guitars

Tracklist:
1. Babylon Whore
2. The White Dream of Ziz

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Cvinger - Monastery of Fallen [EP] (2013, Self-released)

It is not often Slovenia makes itself heard on the international metal scene. Indeed there seems to be barely over a hundred active metal bands today, according to Metal Archives. Among these one hundred bands are Cvinger; A band that remained a trio from its conception in 2012 until 2014, where founding member Lucerus gave up his bass-duties to focus on vocals, the roll of bassist being filled by Skalph.

Traditionally schooled, their reliance upon the by now almost archaic customs of second wave black metal weighs in as the most prominent feature of Cvinger. Monastery of Fallen builds confidently on a foundation of cascading torrents of furious blast beats set to the devout teachings of ruthless tremolo riffs, with Lucerus' vocals chiming in with the raw doctrines of every black metal curse and lyrical subject in the book, including - but not limited to - death, anti-christianity, blasphemy, darkness and misanthropy.

Cvinger's gravitation toward the old news of black metal means there's little enjoyment from originality to be had on Monastery of Fallen. Incessant pyres of hatred and decay aside, the 20-minute EP doesn't so much feel like the satanic apex predator it appears like as it does an aging beast nearing extinction, lazily dangling around at the bottom of the food chain, whilst leisurely grazing at the once-green pastures of tirelessly re-used ideas.

The faintest gusts of originality come at the behest of the rich monk-like chants that intermediate and close the EP. It is an element that comes a bit more unexpected than the rest of the obvious second wave worship presented on the release, and it is a very welcome sight on the sea of generic blast beats and mediocre tremolos that Cvinger have set sail upon. Even so, with all their fervor and all their might, the eight tracks of unholy black metal on Monastery of Fallen have not produced one single noteworthy song. Cvinger relies too heavily on elements that are only great when paired with arduous songwriting, and the roaring riffs found here linger only for seconds in their boring habitat among the deepest notes on the fretboard, never daring to seek the adventures of higher notes or more audacious melodies. 5/10 guitars.

Tracklist:
1. Chapter One: Into the Depths of Arcane Sanctuary
2. Blaspherion
3. Among the Crucified
4. Salvation in the Darkest Wrath
5. Chapter Two: Of Ashes and Dust
6. In Thy Kingdom's Shadow
7. Monastery of Fallen
8. Chapter Three: Amen

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Countess - Ancient Lies And Battle Cries [Full length] (2014, Barbarian Wrath]

Ancient Lies And Battle Cries presents a new chapter in the history of Countess, the 2013 EP "Sermons of the Infidel" serving as an adequate bridge between the "old" Countess and this newer incarnation. The Dutch band has for the most part been a one-man effort at the hands and throat of Orlok, with a select few exceptions mainly in the 90's, and last year's EP and the new album marks the time when Countess has once again expanded upon the lineup with the addition of Zagan on guitars. Zagan also played guitars on the 1997 EP "Hell's Rock and Roll". Ancient Lies And Battle Cries is an album that has been underway for many years with several versions being worked and expanded upon since 2004.

The Dutch band has been around since the 90's, and the many albums the band has produced over the years has revealed a decisively traditional heavy metal approach to black metal, a tendency which has only been made more apparent with each new release. This means keyboard synths aplenty, as well as a slower and more melodic pace than most contemporary black metal groups. The songwriting and composition in itself also speaks volumes of Orlok's love for tradition, only seldom expanding into full fledged black metal grandeur. Each track on Ancient Lies And Battle Cries is very lengthy, almost excessively so. Tracks like Battle Sky and By Hammer And Blood go through many changes, both stylistically and in disposition, before their end, meaning that each song can be different to discern in the grander scheme of things because there are relatively few hooks to remember them by. Beneath The Eye Of Wisdom is an exception to this and is arguably the album's strongest track in itself with its hate-fueled heaviness, catchier guitar section and more easily digestible song structure taking it a step further.

The addition of a guitarist has added substantial depth and heaviness to Countess' music, something that I had lamented in my review of their last album "On Wings of Defiance". I'm still not entirely sure why Countess so openly shuns layered guitars. An old school approach to recording an album with each instrument being recorded simultaneously might explain it, but this technique is more or less ancient and it is doubtful more than a handful of jam-based bands use this anymore. The addition of more layers of guitar would drastically change the drearily ongoing nature of Countess music, and while some may consider this to be how the band is supposed to sound, I personally think it would greatly add to the music's enjoyability.

Ancient Lies And Battle Cries, although greatly improving upon the formula used in the writing of On Wings Of Defiance from 2011, ultimately suffers from many of the same problems. Many tracks bar a few good ones merely meander around in an impressive abundance of tedious melodies without ever truly blossoming into the raw epicness they so obviously strive for. Burn The Throne, Cursed Seed Of Aten and Beneath The Eye Of Wisdom are definitely the three best tracks on Countess' newest album, with each of these cuts actively marking the fact that Orlok is a seasoned musician, and that he has it in him to produce some cool songs. But it seems to be too much of a hit-and-miss type of thing. 5/10 guitars.

Tracklist:
1. Battle Sky
2. Call of the Ancient Pantheon
3. By Hammer and Blood
4. Vengeance of the Slain
5. Beneath the Eye of Wisdom
6. Confessions of a Polytheist
7. Pray for the Cult
8. Cursed Seed of Aten
9. Burn the Throne
10. The Last Temple

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Subscale - The Last Submission [Full length] (2013, Geenger Records)

Reviewing something like Subscale is a troublesome undertaking. For a lover of the old school and loather of mindless modernity, an album like The Last Submission from a band that has in such a degree soaked up all the clichés and trends of the last 15 years of mainstream metal and hardcore is an unwelcome nostalgia trip to the distant lands of Korn, Slipknot, Killswitch Engage and so on. In 2010 Subscale was formed in Croatia with the first release, the EP "Fictional Constructs", being released in 2012. It wasn't long before the debut album, The Last Submission, was released, with a lineup counting seven people.

The style Subscale represent is computerized nu-metal-core for and from a definite digital age. The project is plentifully staffed, aimed at joining the most heavy, groove-laden elements of nu metal, djent, metalcore and other contemporary genres in one release uninterested in innovation and deviation. Borrowing several factors from especially a North American style, their sound is dense and core-fueled throughout the long-winded album, with each song sprinkled with pleasingly melodic choruses. Despite the apparent abundance of band members the compositions don't sound cluttered, which either speaks of the skills of the sound engineer or the complete redundancy of having so many people in one band.

The Last Submission is heavy-handed and grooving, but at the same time immensely unattractive, inoffensive and thuggish. I mentioned the melodic choruses in an earlier paragraph, which is what carries the band's mainstream appeal, but this is where the pleasantries end. Though the ensemble obviously have great control over the arts of open-stringed chugging riffs (though "riffs" seems a poor term under these circumstances), this recipe gets old fast. With little variation like tight melodies, breaks or anything, it's hard to distinguish between songs were it not for the blandly clean vocal melodies which each and every chorus section has.

Subscale's debut, though neatly produced and well-executed, seems like an unnecessary collection of modern clichés. Despite attempts to keep a high level of energy throughout the album, the amount of investment both the band and the listener can muster half-way through seems to be radically decreasing. The completely interchangable riffs and vocal parts aren't enough to decisively make it worth the chore it is to endure the extended, mindlessly pumping chugs that make up the majority of the material on Subscale's album. Where the band's peers, who have a tight grip on the younger mainstream audience, all have their trademark values, Subscale doesn't amount to set itself apart from the hordes of similar bands that came out 5 or 10 years ago, even if The Last Submission is a wholesome experiment in hte blandness of deep-string chugging. I suspect some people will think this is one of the greatest albums of all time, but I am not one of those people. 5/10 for effort.

Tracklist:
1. Interception
2. Fictional Constructs
3. Antecedent
4. Method and Manner
5. Pull the Threads (Extraction)
6. Realization
7. Outreach
8. The Verdict
9. The Last Submission
10. Endgame

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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

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Dying Inside - Dystopia [Full length] (2012, Estelí en Llamas Records)

There aren't many metal bands from Nicaragua. It's often the case with bands from a country that has a low export of metal that the band will be immensely awesome or suck beyond belief, but with Dying Inside none of those two scenarios are the case.
Dying Inside's first studio album "Dystopia" is melodic death metal with more of an emphasis on melodic than death. They follow certain Swedish traditions but aren't as such a band directly inspired by the Gothenburg scene.

A fair use of powerful drums makes for some equally powerful metal, and there are times when the headbanging factor reaches critical mass, in no small part thanks to heavy and simple processions of guitars, bass and drums. These headbang-friendly parts are by no means rare on Dystopia, but at the same time aren't used to their full potential. It's like they are building up a mood and hinting at a coming climax, but the climax is just never truly achieved.

This is a running theme on Dying Inside's debut. They've got the groovy parts down for sure, but it feels as though the band aren't able to properly feed on the energy of these parts to make an immersive track.
Dystopia is a rather long effort. 11 tracks coming to a total of just above 50 minutes isn't incredibly much, but it comes off as bland. There are some issues with the drumming, meaning that when things do get a bit fast they come off as mechanical. This is especially the case with the blast beatin El Ritual.

It's not that I have something inherently against melodic death metal. There are a few fairly good melodeath bands out there (none of which are from Sweden), and Dying Inside does have some easy-to-follow grooves and riffs, but often the songs on Dystopia are taken down a notch by unnecessary synths and a lack of feel for flow. The whole thing is a bit lacking in "wow!" factor and lacks variation. They keep to their speed-wise comfortzone throughout the album, and their fear of reaching higher (or even lower) BPMs makes for an unvaried journey into the heart of Nicaraguan metal. After listening to Dystopia I found that I, too, was dying inside. 5/10 guitars.

Tracklist:
1. Dystopia
2. Cancer
3. El Ritual
4. Arcano XV
5. Mascara de Barro
6. Nacido Muerto
7. Historia Ordinaria
8. Muriendo por Dentro
9. Reflexion de Invierno
10. A Memento Mori
11. Apoteosis

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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

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No Peace of Mind - Purify the Hope [EP] (2012, Self-released)

My main beef with hardcore has always been the vocals. When people say about metal that it's just a guy screaming at a microphone, what they actually mean is hardcore. My problem is that the vocals often come across as forced, and many bands - both metal and hardcore - have proved that it's not impossible to make that type of vocals sound good. Most hardcore bands just can't. Then there's the infernal mix of screaming and clean vocals. No Peace of Mind has both.

On Purify the Hope, No Peace of Mind explore the shallow depths of melodic hardcore with a few different tools. At their disposal they have drums, bass, guitar and vocals, and with these tools they create music that has a profound hardcore disposition while still maintaining a rather melodic aspect with post-rock infused riffs and pseudo-melancholic interludes.

As with most hardcore, I felt like the rhythm section was the main strongpoint. Moshing was once (maybe it still is in some scenes) a huge part of hardcore, and this has led to much hardcore having a solid, groovy rhythm section which everything else builds up around and as such forms the groundstructure of the music. No Peace of Mind mostly follows the same principle, and in a song like Fortune they prove that their bassist, drummer and guitarist have a good thing going on between them. For the most part of the EP "Purify the Hope" the instrumentation is sound - It's not so much that they're exploring new land, but together they form a solid mix of melodic post-rock riffs and more traditional chugging passages. In the opening track, Again, the band further emboss their hardcore heritage by incorporating a fair amount of gang shouts. They took some getting used to because I normally wouldn't say they fit into a melodic outfit such as No Peace of Mind, but they actually make it work.

I don't often say this about a band, but I feel as though No Peace of Mind would be better off as an instrumental group. Hardcore never really was my genre, but I can appreciate the band's instrumentation, and I detest the vocals so much that I found it hard to ignore them. Purify the Hope had its moments especially with the opening and closing tracks, Again and The Town. But ultimately these two tracks, which only take up half of the entire EP, aren't enough to keep me interested for prolonged periods of time, and as such I can't award the EP by No Peace of Mind any more than 5/10 guitars.

Tracklist:
1. Again
2. Fortune
3. Spaces
4. The Town

The EP can be streamed here
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Six in Line - U Shud Hev Invtd Me [Demo] (2011, Self-released)

I like when a band doesn't take itself all too seriously. If a musician takes everything a bit too seriously it often results in coming across as self-important or pompous, but on the other hand it can easily go the other way too. In most cases so-called "comedy" or "humour" bands are too busy living out their own inside-jokes to produce good, worthwhile music, so in essence what I'm saying is that it's all about finding a middle way.

Six in Line from Sweden are at heart a thrash metal band, but with the aesthetics of a comedy band. The three tracks on their second release, the demo "U Shud Hev Invtd Me", are primarily comprised of mid-to-high tempo thrash riffs, pounding drums and vocals that can probably be best described as "unique". I'll get back to this later.
The demo starts off with a sort of spooky halloween-ish riff, and I found that this was more or less a recurring theme on U Shud Hev Invtd Me with that type of melodies being prominent in both "You Should Have Invited Me" and the gangshout-ridden "We Intend to Hang You". It works fairly well for the Swedish band, and when all is said and done this element is what to me sounds like their strongest point. Their vein of thrash metal works pretty well for them, but if it wasn't for the melodic riffs to top it all off their material would be an unmemorable, incoherent mess.

My main complaint with Six in Line's second demo is the vocals. Remember that I said they were rather unique? That's a nice way of saying they suck tremendously. Kaptajn Nuke's raw, discordant screaming is simply too out of place and annoying to the main form of singing in such a band.
The music in itself isn't completely terrible, but something about it just makes me get tired of it really fast. Probably the fact that it sounds pretty undynamic - I'm not saying that they lack variation, but the music really does go on and on in the same vein all the time with no clearly defined verse, chorus or anything else that might resemble structure.
Let's compare Six in Line with Hellhammer. Hellhammer's sound is completely raw and awful, they could barely play their instruments, Tom Warrior's vocals were pretty amateurishly done and their sense for song writing was at times pretty unmatured due to their inexperience. And yet they were fuckin' awesome. I'd like to credit that awesomeness to memorable song structures. Riffs like the one in "Reaper" and choruses like in "Crucifixion" make Hellhammer really easy to remember, and while Six in Line definitely have the upper hand when it comes to technicality, playing skill and production, they simply lack that memorability created by having a great sense of songwriting, which Tom Warrior later proved with Celtic Frost.

Six in Line may yet come through and prove their worth as a band. Their latest demo to me isn't much in terms of musicianship, but they do have their moments. Perhaps they still need to find their style, but right now I can only give "U Shud Hev Invtd Me" 5 guitars.

Tracklist:
1. You Should Have Invited Me
2. Plato O Plomo
3. We Intend to Hang You

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Black Chalice - Prayers for Our Lord and Saviour [Demo] (2011, Self-released)

So here we are again. This is the second time I'm reviewing Black Chalice, the first time being the second demo "Years of Flame". This demo, "Prayers for Our Lord and Saviour", is Black Chalice's first demo and was unleashed upon mankind in 2011. Black Chalice is but one of many projects by Patrick Hasson, who is also behind the atmospheric black metal act Auspicium, which I have also reviewed in the past.

In my previous review of Black Chalice I noted how the music, though often being labeled as death/doom metal, bore significant hints of black and funeral doom metal, especially in the long, drawn out sequences with little variation. Though the same can generally be said about Black Chalice at this earlier point I detect a much more distinct nod towards death metal than I did on their later material, even if the two demos share one track, Infallibility of Semen.

Though Hasson has been musically active years before the creation of Black Chalice and this demo it does have that certain tinge of uncertainty. You get the feeling that you're not quite sure what the idea of the band is, what kind of music Hasson wants to create. This creates room for a few surprises here and there, but in the end most of the demo consists of guitar tracks distorted beyond belief and unvaried drumtracks. The speed of the drums and tremolo-picked guitars gives the music a lot of momentum, but it sort of lacks the intensity that I would normally associate with such speeds, and often I see this momentum wasted on sudden stops that annoy me immensely.

My last encounter with Black Chalice yielded a score of 6/10. This time though we're ending up with a 5/10 score. This is simply because the music doesn't sound very cultivated, and when you've listened to newer material by Black Chalice you know that this is merely a prototype for the music yet to come. It's easy to see how the band moved from this gritty, heavily distorted sound to its newer, more ripened state, and I got to say that I much prefer the newer material to this.

Tracklist:
1. King of No World
2. Infallibility of Semen
3. A New Earth and No Heaven

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Postscrypt - Foreplay to Auralgasm [Promo] (2011, Self-released)

The listener will find Postscrypt lurking in their own dark fantasies in the abandoned tenebrous parts of the mind. In this ungodly place the band experiments with a great variety of elements, ranging from blast-beats, Type O Negative-ish vocals, symphonic instrumentation, throaty screams and clearly gothic parts. However, none of these tendencies are dominant and thus makes it hard to justily classify their particular style.

Each individual effort of the bandmembers are genuinely okay in their own rights, but together I get the feeling that Postscrypt are not sure where they're going musically as a collective. Different impressions make for a spacey sound, and while I don't normally mind I think it's somewhat misplaced in this instance.
The quartet have their moments. I was not completely bored at all times, but I wasn't excited at any time either. I feel that though their flow is solid the band never really reach their climax. It's like they're building up an atmosphere and building expectations only to then let the song "fall into itself" again. I never really came to look forward to the chorus or any particular place in one of the five songs on the promo. The music just kind of... Flows along like a small, quiet river and probably serves better as background music.

All in all I'd say that Foreplay to Auralgasm is an honest although ultimately uninteresting effort, at least to me. Their repetoire seems to be limited to mellow and low-tempoed metal with little going on other than the occassional good riff or interesting (and excentric, to say the least) vocal effort. I'll hand them one thing - Their music made me think of such acts as The Sisters of Mercy, Type O Negative and one particular Katatonia song once in a while, but generally their music just feels like a watered down version of something else. 5/10 guitars.

Note: The picture shown is NOT the actual coverart.

Tracklist:
1. Creme de Carnage
2. Ballerina
3. Apocalypse
4. Rosethorn Propaganda
5. Closing the Black Chapter

POSTSCRYPT official site

Durvasag - Pure Fucking Thrash [Demo] (2011, Self-released)

Thrash and black metal have gone hand in hand more or less since the beginning with Venom's thrash song "Black Metal" and Hellhammer's thrashy proto-black metal style. The Canadian band Durvasag follow up nicely on this early trend with their first release, the 2011 demo "Pure Fucking Thrash".

Playing in the sloppy style of early Venom the Hungarian-named band have some terrific riffs but are really held back by poor sound and dodgy drum and vocal work, and what I mean by "sloppy" is that timing doesn't seem to be their main focus or so to speak. The drums sound like they were programmed by someone who doesn't have a very good feeling with drumming, which is odd considering that the drums on the 5 cover songs sound like they are made by an actual drummer.
I don't mean to be nitpicking, but the album art is horrendously uninteresting. It doesn't really make me want to listen to the music if I didn't know the band in advance.

There's nothing wrong with the song structures, lyrics, riffs or choruses in their own rights, but unfortunately they aren't very well executed maybe except from the guitars. I know I talk alot about the guitars in Durvasag but they really seem to be the bands main strongpoint.
Also there's the matter of the five cover songs on the demo. I don't mind covers no matter the quality, but they will often take away focus from the bands own music and the same is indeed the case on Pure Fucking Thrash. Their choices of songs to cover also tell me that Durvasag is indeed inspired by a variety of classic black and thrash bands, though this is also evident in their music itself.
All that being said I recon Durvasag has potential and would probably be a pretty good live act.

Listening to Durvasag's demo is kinda like eating candy that is still in it's wrapping - You get occassional sweet tastes, but the experience is overall unpleasent but leaves you wanting more candy but without the wrapping. Therefore I can't give this demo more than 5/10.

Tracklist:
1. Sacrifice
2. Apocalypse
3. Pure Fucking Thrash
4. Alma Mater (Moonspell Cover)
5. Black Metal (Venom Cover)
6. Canadian Metal (Darkthrone Cover)
7. Lack of Comprehension (Death Cover)
8. Motorbreath (Metallica Cover)

DURVASAG official site
Download the demo and listen for yourself HERE