Exit Eden – Femme Fatales (Napalm Records) [Matt Bladen]
Originally a quartet of Clémentine Delauney (Visions of Atlantis), Anna Brunner (League of Distortion), Marina La Torraca (Phantom Elite) and Amanda Somerville (Trillium/HDK), Exit Eden last released a record in 2017, utilising the symphonic metal genre to play covers of pop and rock songs similarly to Northern Kings, but from the female perspective. So with Sommerville no longer a part of the band they continue with their second album Femme Fatale, doubling down on the idea of women taking back control of their own narrative.
This record contains six covers and six originals written mainly by Anna Brunner and Hannes Braun (Kissin’ Dynamite) while Dying In My Dreams was co-written by Marina La Torraca. Featuring originals means that this act has given themselves longevity as they now can move away from just being considered a covers band, into a fully-fledged writing unit for songs that perhaps wouldn’t fit creatively in their day jobs. I mentioned Northern Kings earlier and one of their members, ex-Nightwish man Marco Hietala lends his gruff vocal to Run! a folky symphonic metal track that is very Nightwish.
The album is organised into being an original followed by a cover (mostly) so you don’t feel too bloated just listening to the inventive cover, all of which have a common theme that stretches through the record. The trio of voices interlink brilliantly against the orchestral swathes and at times very heavy metal instrumentation, on the title track especially.
The album is organised into being an original followed by a cover (mostly) so you don’t feel too bloated just listening to the inventive cover, all of which have a common theme that stretches through the record. The trio of voices interlink brilliantly against the orchestral swathes and at times very heavy metal instrumentation, on the title track especially.
In terms of the originals Buried In The Past is emotional, Dying In My Dreams an epic, Hold Back Your Fear starts out slow and then gets really damn good as the finale of Elysium brings pop meets classical. With these compositions they have managed to stand up well to their interpretations of tracks such as It’s A Sin (Pet Shop Boys) and Separate Ways (Journey) both of which have been done to death, as has Poison by Alice Cooper and Alone from Heart (the latter showing the power of the three voices).
For me though the inclusion of Desanchantée by French singer Mylène Farmer and Kayleigh by Marillion are the best choices of covers on the album. Listen to Femme Fatales for the covers by all means but you’ll stay for the new original tracks, giving them life beyond just being known as a cover band. 7/10
Escuela Grind - DDEEAATTHHMMEETTAALL (MNRK Heavy) [Mark Young]
Christ Alive!!
This four-track equivalent of a sonic smash and grab is out via MNRK Heavy and is their third EP following on from GGRRIINNDDCCOORREE and PPOOWWEERRVVIIOOLLEENNCCEE with this one diving deep into the world of Death Metal and surfacing with what is likely to be one of the best things you will hear this year.
Ball And Chain swings in with murderous intent, with a crushing sound that heralds a gut stomper of an opener that reminds me of Bolt Thrower meshed with Cannibal Corpse, combining heaviness with a hook. Vocals from Katerina Economou are on fire, and this is further reinforced on the elongated roar that boots Punishment Ritual into gear. Similar in tempo to Ball And Chain but no less immediate and the segment that kicks in 1.37 is ace, leading to some of the best guttural roars you will hear ever.
Abyssal Plane then ups that ante with a lurching, sludgy melody bringing in the blasts whilst the vocals once more just tear a hole in your ears with riffs that come and go, tempos varying but with that constant roar in place. Meat Magnet wraps up with a guest spot from Barney Greenway (if you don’t know who this is, get out) and just flies, upping the speed and that intent so that they finish on a high point leaving you to press play again.
There is a massive sense of fun and joy running through this EP. It's not presented or approached in a throwaway manner, and it is very respectful of the death metal genre. The brief runtime works so well in that each of the songs comes in, brutalises, and leaves you to tidy up after. They manage to cram so much into each song without it feeling as though there is too much going on.
It's fantastic and in some respects makes reviewing it difficult because I have a limited vocabulary and there are only so many ways of saying this is royal. Which it is. It is a very early one for consideration on end-of-year lists (Yes, it’s that good) and despite its length of about 13 minutes, it is so infectious you can’t help but listen to it multiple times because it is that good.
So, yes I would recommend you pick this up/pre-order/save/whatever but do it. 9/10
Casey - How To Disappear (Hassle Records) [Matt Bladen]
Wales has some of the most heartfelt bands around, especially in that UK emo/post-hardcore scene, the leaders of course being Funeral For A Friend but there's also The Blackout, early Kids In Glass Houses, early BFMV and the band we're not allowed to talk about. More recently there has been Holding Absence who have taken over the world but there is also Casey.
Contemporaries of Holding Absence, (who they support across North America) they formed in 2014 releasing two albums and two EPs before splitting in late 2018. But time is a wonderful thing and now they return with a new album in 2024. Consisting of founders Tom Weaver (vocals), Liam Torrance (guitar), they are joined by Toby Evans (guitar), Max Nicolai (drums) and Adam Smith (bass) to make Casey V2.0 or Casey Mark II to use Deep Purple parlance.
The Welsh five piece hit the ground running with this third studio album, you can't notice a gap, no rust to shake off, they are back to euphoric emo music that will have their fandom elated. From the moody slow burning moments such as Selah, or the propulsive Those That I'm Survived By to the bigger, more powerful songs such as For Katie, all retaining those heart on sleeve lyrics that Casey are synonymous with the melancholy and honesty in balance as they play music that touches the heart.
This album is a tribute to friendship, the bond between them getting stronger without being in a band so it was a natural progression to get back together and get creative at Middle Farm Studios in Devon Woodcroft Audio in Cardiff and producer Neil Kennedy's home studio as all theses songs link to absence and loss, but also hope, the hope that unity is the strongest way to dispel these fears and doubts.
Bite Through My Tongue, having the clean/harsh vocals and intensity, St Peter on the other hand is a beautiful piano piece, which resets things for the final third of the album. I was never an emo kid, but I understood Wales' place within the scene, there's just something about the idea of "hiraeth" that translates well through this emotional style of music. Welcome back Casey folks as they have released what will be one of the years most honest bodies of work. 9/10
Drown In Sulphur - Dark Secrets Of The Soul (Scarlet Records) [Mark Young]
Thick and fast, they come, barely into the new year we have the latest from blackened deathcore 4-piece Drown In Sulphur. Adveniat Regnum Tuum begins with a sound collage of distorted voices, noise and a building background that falls away into Eclipse Of The Sun Of Eden, which takes no time in bringing some hellish breakdowns that are squeezed so tight it hurts.
This is a mighty mix of vocals, from shrieks to guttural and the music behind is both heavy and grandiose in execution. Tempos collide in a way that allows them to build upon each segment without it sounding disjointed and in terms of it being 6 minutes plus, it just whips through it. This is an excellent start, and I’m hoping that they haven’t played all of their cards early.
Buried By Snow And Hail continues with a more atypical black metal affair, machine gun drumming and melody, giving way to a hybrid sound that seeks to take the more palatable parts of deathcore and black metal into what could be described as modern-day extreme metal. Its super tight, heavy and with some guitar fireworks that just raise the bar a little more.
Unholy Light, now this is something else. The expected groove / break section is here, but any worries I had of repetition are dispelled as this is just a killer. Again, taking the melancholic and melodic arrangement of classic black metal, but with a top sound and some fantastically low end. I’m not sure that you could call this deathcore, at least not in the way I was expecting.
Lotus shakes it up and goes down the opposite route, with a more restrained start, a slow opening that gradually builds into what I normally associate with deathcore, the grit and the clean vocals over a measured chorus section. This feels almost pedestrian when held against the preceding tracks and there is nothing actually wrong with it – emotionally charged solo break, chords that echo it all coming together nicely at the end, its just that it doesn’t sit right here.
Dark Secrets Of The Soul is up next and needs to work hard to pick up the momentum which it does in spades. Relentless, focused with those subtle synths moving in the background, this is just a blast offering a balance between speed and monstrous chorus section that showcases their respective talents in being able to write songs that bely their actual run time.
Say My Name goes for an eastern-tinge build, coming across similar to Herod in the use of counter-rhythm. Its dense, almost monolithic in attack and offers something different again when you look to the tracks before it. Absolutely love this one and is certainly a standout here.]
Vampire Communion is for all intents and purposes a stopgap, gentle picked guitar over guttural roars, it comes and goes without doing much and probably could have been omitted as it doesn’t add a lot. Final song on the other hand is a stone-cold belter. Shadow Of The Dark Throne takes what was excellent in the first two tracks and moulds it into a wrecking ball of metallic goodness.
It’s just on fire, urgent, vibrant and it doesn’t stop for breath. You always want the last song to ace everything in front of it, and here it flattens everything. If someone asked me for one song that best summed them up in one package its this. It’s a phenomenal track, and one of the best album closers you will hear this year.
This is a very strong album, the positives on display far outweigh any negatives that I have, and they are directed at Lotus, which for me feels out of place. This could be due to the running order, I don’t know but when you hold it up against the others, even Vampire Communion it jars. With that in mind, this should appeal to those who love their extreme metal with a technical edge, without losing sight of having great songs to back that up. 8/10
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