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Thursday 7 June 2018

Reviews: Matterhorn, Nomad, Secret Society, Scimitar

Matterhorn: Crimes Of Man (Self Released)

Hailing from the "crime capital of Australia" Adelaide Matterhorn are an unadulterated, unashamed heavy metal band. Starting their life a s covers act with repertoire for Ozzy, Dio, Diamond Head et al, Crimes Of Man is their debut full length and features 13 tracks of their own compositions that maintains that traditional metal sound. As they state themselves there are "no breakdowns or prog weirdness" this record is just proper metal riffs from from the first seconds. Brendan 'Oz" Ozolin (guitar) has the rhythm/lead balance just right never being flashy enough to stop a great groove, like Wylde and Campbell though the rhythm section of Steve "Ghostrider" Opitz (bass) and Jaryd Dorey (drums) give bones to the meaty six strings.

Sliding between some fist pumping rockers and frenetic heavy metal madness Crimes Of Man doesn't reinvent the wheel but gives you meat and two veg head banging metal, similar to US band Hydrogyn and or Warlock in their heyday, as Amanda Ozolins gives a gritty vocal performance snarling, purring and beating her chest with more machismo than many of her male counterparts. Judge Nought is a slightly proggy opening salvo but nevermind it's also a strong intro, while Guest Of Her Majesty is Ozzy-styled rocker that deals with the the sordid history between the UK and Australia. If I were to have one criticism it's that it's a little long, trimmed to 9 or 10 tracks Crimes Of Man would be a leaner meaner record for it, however it's another quality release from the Aussies a country where the metal/rock scene is more diverse than ever. 7/10

Nomad: Feral (APF Records)

Straight off the dirty streets of Manchester better known for the Gallagher Brothers, Nomad are no Champange Supernovas, they are much more whiskey straight in a filthy glass. With a sound influenced by the darker quarters of the NOLA scene Nomad bring the aggression of Crowbar and Eyehategod with a sludgy wall of riffs, scarred vocals and big earth flattening grooves. Nomad's mission is to send you on a bad trip and through seven ear-bending slabs of brutality they achieve this goal like a pack of wolves attacking without warning or remorse. At times Feral is oppressive at points, from the slow, deliberate beatdown of Curse Of The Sun, the fuzzy stomp of Swarm, a mostly instrumental thud The War Is Never Over to the 'classic' stoner riffage of the title track and Culture Of Ruin, Feral creates a woozy and threatening atmosphere and if you were to have a bad trip (not that we encourage drug taking here at MoM) I'd expect the soundtrack would be something like this. 7/10

Secret Society: Induction (Self Released)

Swedish power metal act Secret Society have been writing this record for over a year and they've managed to bring along some special guests on the record  with vocals provided by Rick Altzi (At Vance), Troy Norr (Coldsteel), AOR crooner Paul Sabu and Metal Church singer Ronny Munroe, with Broken Crutch the heaviest offering on the record featuring Munroe roaring like he did on A Light On The Dark. Unfortunately the rest of the album isn't that great, it plods a little too much  even at five tracks, I would have loved to hear more of Munroe and Altzi. Not great but not totally crap. 5/10

Scimitar: ...Of Blood & Fire (Self Released)

Born out of the fires of Belfast Scimitar are a blackend thrash metal band and this three track EP is their third EP following on from their 2017 full length. Despite the grainy production this album is pretty good showing you what this Irish four piece can do, it's thrash in the darker, dirtier variety summoning the aggression of Vader, Sodom and Exodus on Witching Hour adding some speed metal melody to Firebourne. Scimitar are Jonny Gray who shouts, Chriz Baird on bass (distinctly low in the mix as is traditional), Ryan Atkin pummelling the skins drums and John Thompson shredding like the weapon they take their name from. Of Blood & Fire is a neatly packed ball of thrash and extreme metal sounds played by a shit hot band. Look out for Scimitar as they'll be slicing up a stage near you soon. 7/10

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