Californian Death / Doom act Tumulation, is a reorganisation of the band Conjureth. The band is made up of Frankie Saenz, Ian Mann and Wayne Sarantopoulos all members of Conjureth. However, this is a band without comfort zones as all the members of Tumulation are not doing their day jobs. Frankie Saenz is drummer with Conjureth but is playing lead guitar and bass in Tumulation, Ian Mann is playing rhythm guitar rather than lead and also handles the main vocals, and Wayne is usually on vocals and guitar in Conjureth, here plays the drums; everybody is out of their comfort zone on this album. The band have released a demo called Savage Blood Domain earlier this year, Haunted Funeral Creations is the bands first album.
The style on offer on Haunted Funeral Creations is a very heavy style of death/doom, and the style is exactly that, huge and heavy doom sections and sections of feral death metal with a bit of a grinding edge to it. The album also contains several samples from old Horror Films. As these samples feature mentions of The Karnstein Family and The House Of Karnstein these samples can only have come from The Karnstein Trilogy; The Vampire Lovers, Lust For A Vampire and Twins Of Evil three films made by Hammer Films in 1970 and 1971.
The album opens with Emergent Chaos Spirals a heavy as all fuck intro that crushes all in its path. Next comes the first full song Shattered Under The Eclipse a mix of slow, heavy and relentless doom sections and OSDM that has a putrid nod to Autopsy as well as having a bit of D-Beat feel to some of the Blasting. The vocals are harsh and nasty throughout the album and are very effective. Astral Sickness mixes very slow, very heavy doom with grinding OSDM, there are some really great fast flowing riffs in this song that have a great feeling of inertia and pace.
Rorschach opens with a horror film sample about blood that goes into slow and very aptly dramatic section, a mid-paced section, some awesome death grind and a very heavy ending. Sterilizing Winds has a slow and expansive beginning before switching between very slow, very heavy and very huge doom sections and sections of fast and feral old school death metal. The song alternates between crushing you to death and flaying you alive, which works beautifully.
Rites Of Forgotten Misery has the balance more on the doom end of the spectrum. It features some very nasty melody leads filling it with that unhealthy Autopsy feel, there are some blasting OSDM parts, but the slow, heavy and relentless is the overriding sense of this song.
Last full song on the album, Bound To The Rakasha is a nice mix of blasting OSDM and some incredibly sickening guitar harmonies that sound like they were recorded and then left out in a kitchen on a hot summer day, so they went all rotten, putrid and nasty, and then the band mixed them into this album, absolutely pure filth. The song does have some super heavy material as well, but those harmonies are what stays with you (clearly very contagious). The album comes to an end with a very minimal outro called Abject Maelstrom Specters.
Haunted Funeral Creations is a very good album. It is crushingly heavy and has a fantastic OSDM savagery that has me longing for the early nineties. The heavy riffs work really well and have your head nodding strait away, and the frantic, feral and frenetic death metal snaps your head clean off. If I was going to criticise this album, the one issue I have is that apart from the first and last two songs which have some great nasty melodies, the rest of the songs have less melody and are mostly riffing.
If all the songs had the extra melody that a track such as Shattered Under The Eclipse has then this album would be absolutely superb, rather than just very good. However, as I mentioned earlier this album is made by musicians, who are stepping out of their Comfort Zones to try a different role to usual, so I think very good is a great start, I’m already looking forward to album number 2. 7/10
Sonic Moon - Return Without Any Memory (Olde Magick Records) [Rich Piva]
Olde Magick Records is one of my favorite finds since I have become a slave to Bandcamp. The bands that they put out on cassette (yes, cassette) have brought me back into tape collecting (just look at their Bandcamp page for the awesome albums they have done on tape) and every now and then take on a band of their own to release. While this doesn’t happen often, when they do pick one to get behind it is usually pretty awesome, so I had high hopes for the debut album Return Without Any Memory from Aarhus, Denmark’s Sonic Moon. While the album was not exactly what I was expecting, I was not wrong to think it was going to be great, because it is.
For some reason I was expecting something of the crustier stoner variety, but what you get on Return Without Any Memory, but what you get is some chill and trippy desert/stoner rock with touches of doom that doesn’t really sound like anything else out there right this second. Their bio calls out QOTSA and Uncle Acid and I get it, but the fact that all seven songs are of the slow burn variety makes this different from those bands who will rock out more often than not. This is slow, fuzzy, and raw in all the best ways. Take Head Under The River for example. You can hear the influences I mentioned, but never does this song get past the plodding pace that it starts out at, and in this case, it is a good thing. Anger and urgency can still be felt without playing at breakneck speed or louder than everybody else.
Sonic Moon - Return Without Any Memory (Olde Magick Records) [Rich Piva]
Olde Magick Records is one of my favorite finds since I have become a slave to Bandcamp. The bands that they put out on cassette (yes, cassette) have brought me back into tape collecting (just look at their Bandcamp page for the awesome albums they have done on tape) and every now and then take on a band of their own to release. While this doesn’t happen often, when they do pick one to get behind it is usually pretty awesome, so I had high hopes for the debut album Return Without Any Memory from Aarhus, Denmark’s Sonic Moon. While the album was not exactly what I was expecting, I was not wrong to think it was going to be great, because it is.
For some reason I was expecting something of the crustier stoner variety, but what you get on Return Without Any Memory, but what you get is some chill and trippy desert/stoner rock with touches of doom that doesn’t really sound like anything else out there right this second. Their bio calls out QOTSA and Uncle Acid and I get it, but the fact that all seven songs are of the slow burn variety makes this different from those bands who will rock out more often than not. This is slow, fuzzy, and raw in all the best ways. Take Head Under The River for example. You can hear the influences I mentioned, but never does this song get past the plodding pace that it starts out at, and in this case, it is a good thing. Anger and urgency can still be felt without playing at breakneck speed or louder than everybody else.
But hey, if you want riffs, you still get riffs, case in point the doomy Iommi vibe on the opening track, The Water. I really dig the vocals on Return Without Any Memory, with Tying Up The Noose being the best of all of them. Never overstated but also right there at all times. Give It Time is where I hear the most QOTSA influence, especially with the opening guitar work. It also happens to be the song with the most Uncle Acid influence once the pace picks up (for them at least). Distant is another favorite of mine, which is the trippiest track, and these guys do trippy very well. I must call out the album length here, because seven songs and 42 minutes is perfect for their slow burn style, anything more would have resulting in the album potentially dragging at points. Which is why the closer, Hear Me Now is so great. It is Sonic Moon at its catchiest (for this style) and most memorable, leaving you wanting want is next from Sonic Moon sooner rather than later.
This could wind up being the best all in release that Olde Magick has put out, because Sonic Moon’s debut is a must listen for fans of anything fuzzy, desert-like, or trippy doom. Don’t expect to rock your socks off, but do get ready for some heady angry slow burn goodness. 8/10
Chupacabra - Fortified With Ashes (Self Released) [C Hunter]
Chupacabra! Bristol’s three piece thrash group release their debut EP, Fortified With Ashes.
Chupacabra - the three ft, kangaroo bouncing, goat eating beast of latin American folklore has created a thrash album in the UK! I can’t say much, I once played in a band called La Cabra Gitana. Chupacabra can literally be translated to “Goat sucker” - I can’t say much, I was born in Wales.
If one was looking for a mythical beast closer to home; may I suggest the Afnac - described as looking like a beaver with a crocodile’s head, the Afanc …. Actually sounds fairly useless on land and Chupacabra is a far superior name. I genuinely love the name and the font, it just tapped into the cryptid centre of stored useless knowledge and I apologise profusely.
Onto the Music!
Burn The Clowns immediately sounds like the unholy fusing of Slayer with Arch Enemy. Heather Taylor has a great voice for aggressive thrash. Harsh without losing audibly noticeable lyrics and more than powerful enough to metal the fuck of it with the rest of heavy hitters. There’s a delightfully dark riff from the mid point that blends into groove laden battery, alternating the pace and showing use of smart structure.
F.T.T.D Resurrected the big J . And by the big J I’m obviously talking about Jeff Hannerman. The opening riff and this time much more suited guitar lead feel like a Slayer song that morphs in and out of death metal. +2 to points for screaming”DDDDIIIIIEEEEEE!”. The chorus feel fucking great! Plenty of moments to swing your hair around and storm the pit.
The title track starts with Maiden level feel good chord progression and some guitar tapping. Which could have been great. But!… To the people involved; be it in a professional studio or a home one. Please make sure all of your guitars are in tune, the intonation isn’t out , you’re not pushing down too hard etc. I say this as I’ve done it myself. If you’ve got the time, somebody call it out during playback and record it again. Maybe I’m being fussy, but to my ears, something just isn’t quite right here. Nitpicking at a small percentage of the song aside. I love the rest of the track. The riffs are very Angela Gossow-era Arch Enemy the best era you ask me. A nice long double bass heavy breakdown and a catchy chorus makes for a satisfying end to the EP.
Chupacabra may not be a very weighty beast in folklore, but when the Goat Sucker absorbed Baphomet it became a pretty damn heavy hybrid. If you threw the albums South Of Heaven and Wages Of Sin into that machine from The Fly you may get something that sounds similar to Fortified With Ashes. The riffs and vocals tick all the boxes for a thrash/death experience and it’s hard to pick a favourite from the 13 minutes of this aggressive melodious malevolent, maleficent metal mash-up.
This could wind up being the best all in release that Olde Magick has put out, because Sonic Moon’s debut is a must listen for fans of anything fuzzy, desert-like, or trippy doom. Don’t expect to rock your socks off, but do get ready for some heady angry slow burn goodness. 8/10
Chupacabra - Fortified With Ashes (Self Released) [C Hunter]
Chupacabra! Bristol’s three piece thrash group release their debut EP, Fortified With Ashes.
Chupacabra - the three ft, kangaroo bouncing, goat eating beast of latin American folklore has created a thrash album in the UK! I can’t say much, I once played in a band called La Cabra Gitana. Chupacabra can literally be translated to “Goat sucker” - I can’t say much, I was born in Wales.
If one was looking for a mythical beast closer to home; may I suggest the Afnac - described as looking like a beaver with a crocodile’s head, the Afanc …. Actually sounds fairly useless on land and Chupacabra is a far superior name. I genuinely love the name and the font, it just tapped into the cryptid centre of stored useless knowledge and I apologise profusely.
Onto the Music!
Burn The Clowns immediately sounds like the unholy fusing of Slayer with Arch Enemy. Heather Taylor has a great voice for aggressive thrash. Harsh without losing audibly noticeable lyrics and more than powerful enough to metal the fuck of it with the rest of heavy hitters. There’s a delightfully dark riff from the mid point that blends into groove laden battery, alternating the pace and showing use of smart structure.
F.T.T.D Resurrected the big J . And by the big J I’m obviously talking about Jeff Hannerman. The opening riff and this time much more suited guitar lead feel like a Slayer song that morphs in and out of death metal. +2 to points for screaming”DDDDIIIIIEEEEEE!”. The chorus feel fucking great! Plenty of moments to swing your hair around and storm the pit.
The title track starts with Maiden level feel good chord progression and some guitar tapping. Which could have been great. But!… To the people involved; be it in a professional studio or a home one. Please make sure all of your guitars are in tune, the intonation isn’t out , you’re not pushing down too hard etc. I say this as I’ve done it myself. If you’ve got the time, somebody call it out during playback and record it again. Maybe I’m being fussy, but to my ears, something just isn’t quite right here. Nitpicking at a small percentage of the song aside. I love the rest of the track. The riffs are very Angela Gossow-era Arch Enemy the best era you ask me. A nice long double bass heavy breakdown and a catchy chorus makes for a satisfying end to the EP.
Chupacabra may not be a very weighty beast in folklore, but when the Goat Sucker absorbed Baphomet it became a pretty damn heavy hybrid. If you threw the albums South Of Heaven and Wages Of Sin into that machine from The Fly you may get something that sounds similar to Fortified With Ashes. The riffs and vocals tick all the boxes for a thrash/death experience and it’s hard to pick a favourite from the 13 minutes of this aggressive melodious malevolent, maleficent metal mash-up.
Their website states For Fans Of: Kreator, Slayer, Arch Enemy, Holy Moses, At The Gates, Lamb Of God, Pest Control, Testament and Sodom. And I agree ! If you like any of these bands, you should appreciate what Chupacabra have achieved with this album.
Looking forward to hearing what Chupacabra do in the future. 7/10
Betrayers - Weapons For Killing Cattle (Self Released) [Matt Bladen]
Rawer than the chicken served to Gordon Ramsey and more rage filled than his response, Weapons For Killing Cattle is the latest slice of hardcore sludge from Bristol group Betrayers. Featuring short blasts of aggression complete with the anguished screams reserved only for stepping on a plug. With 7 songs in total there's shorter tracks such as Cut The Head Off The Snake and Angela Lansbury Vs Nicholas Cage where they are involve samples from movies.
Looking forward to hearing what Chupacabra do in the future. 7/10
Betrayers - Weapons For Killing Cattle (Self Released) [Matt Bladen]
Rawer than the chicken served to Gordon Ramsey and more rage filled than his response, Weapons For Killing Cattle is the latest slice of hardcore sludge from Bristol group Betrayers. Featuring short blasts of aggression complete with the anguished screams reserved only for stepping on a plug. With 7 songs in total there's shorter tracks such as Cut The Head Off The Snake and Angela Lansbury Vs Nicholas Cage where they are involve samples from movies.
But then you're thrown into a torrent of violent music with tracks such as Knives In A Line or the closing Laura Gray. Abrasive guitar tones and pitchy drums give the record a a D.I.Y feel to it, aiding the nasty sounds contained within. If you want a short bolt of fear and discomfort then Weapons For Killing Cattle is exactly what you need. 7/10
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