Reviews: Cavalera, King Bastard, Gorgatron, Aklash (Reviews By Mark Young & Matt Bladen)

Cavalera - Schizophrenia (Nuclear Blast Records) [Mark Young]

And now, a perfect end to my reviews for this week. A year or so ago, Max brought Bestial Devastation and Morbid Visions back from the grave, re-recorded for your delight and delectation. Assuming that you liked what they did with those, then you should love how this has turned out because its brilliant. With this release, Max notes that the ‘third world trilogy is now complete’ so It acts as a suitable bookend to the first Sepultura releases.

A suitably old-school intro (allowed) blasts into From The Past Comes The Storms that slams down a marker. This is chunky, gnarly and full of those trademark early Sepultura moments that would become front and centre on Beneath The Remains and Arise. Its sounds great, and they have treated the original source with respect. I think I said this last time round that there will be those who will be critical of the reasons behind it. What I know is that on this it sounds refreshed and maybe it now sounds like the way they wanted it to back in the day. 

To The Wall continues to rage, and with this improved recording it will sit comfortably with the classics that followed it. Escape To The Void reminds you just how furious their music was in the early days, its pummelling and is played with the same intent as the original whilst Screams Behind The Shadows has that late 80’s thrash build to it, a banging riff that is supported by trem picking that sees the neck laid to waste. That frenetic energy is maintained as they rip through Septic Schizo into R.I.P. (Rest In Pain) which is just storming. Triplets, bass drum kicks and that 100mph motif that they did so well. Nightmares Of Delirium closes us out, and we are done.

It can be difficult to review albums such as this, does it capture the energy of the original? Does it add anything to it or is it a cash-grab? Some will decry these as the latter and they are welcome to their opinion. Some preferred the early brutal sound because it gave those recordings something different, and as we know Metal elitists love liking something that nobody else does and would probably say that the new releases are too clean. Or some nonsense like that. Others, like me, welcome this because they have approached it in the right way. 

They have gone hard with this recording because at the end of the day, they knew there was no other way of doing it. If you didn’t like the early stuff, you won’t find anything here to change your mind. It’s still heads down, full-pelt death metal that you might call prehistoric when compared to latter-day releases. But this is the charm, it is not trying to be anything new, yet it still batters a lot of music released today. It has one job, to crush and it achieves it. 9/10

King Bastard - From Whence They Came (Self-Released) [Mark Young]

The second full-length from King Bastard, From Whence They Came is best digested in one sitting to fully appreciate it. A story in 4 acts, the press that came with this intrigued me – Drop F tuning, a running narrative of life and glorious use of ‘Caveman riffs’ set against the progression of the human race’s doomed course. Of course, concept albums are not new and in some circles are treated with disdain but when it’s thrown in front of you that yes, there is a story, but when it is concisely described as they have, you have to give it a chance. 

It is destructive as it is subtle. There are obvious doom overtones and they have produced a sound that is as thick as a docker’s sandwich but they avoid falling into the trap of repetition or just being boring by utilising the use of alternative instruments and narrative samples to add to the sonic palette being painted. The doom aspects don’t land like traditional doom, it's not oppressive nor slow of pace. The four songs rip by, in a manner you don’t normally expect, and you find yourself sat there wondering where the last 30 minutes have gone.

Knuckle Dragger, with its birdsong and tribal percussion is the lead off track. Tribal chants starts to build, as does feedback that takes over, and an almighty riff comes in, filling in the space like an aural blanket. Its massive, barely discernible movements as drums come to the fore. There is what I call a ‘space’ guitar moment, those arpeggios that allow the piece to increase in speed as if to emphasise the dragger in question pulling forward to an end. The closing payoff is immense, as vocalist Arthur Erb unleashes a guttural roar for the ages. Epic stuff!! 

The Invisible Landscape, with echoing squalls and percussion gently bringing it to life underneath a spoken narrative. There is a gorgeous guitar line running through it, and those drums once more pounding holding it all together. It has such a great foundation that live they could go in any direction with it whilst Astral Psyche expands the sonic landscape, taking a similar form as the preceding track but with layer on layer of guitar. Special mention has to go to Matt Ryan, there is some fantastic drumming on here and there is opportunity for the three to go hard as the song progresses. For a song that is this length it doesn’t feel like it at all The riffs here are spot on as is the way they know when to back off and go lighter, giving the song room to breathe. 

The Dawn Of Man arrives in the same destructive way, that droning sound back again for the final time. A lumbering, solid start with the guttural vocals in full flow combined with the drums which are just immense. Its just so dense, it feels like a jackhammer going off nearby. Even the solo is heavy, sat amongst the bass and drums that for me, should be used a clinic in how to keep a song like this going. Doom / sludge bands should take note, THIS is how you do it. It moves, it has a breadth to it and there are some absolute stand-out moments here as they close it out. Honest to god, you have to give them a try. 8/10

Gorgatron - Sentience Revoked (Redefining Darkness Records) [Matt Bladen]

You play death metal? You’re named after a character in Aqua Teen Hunger Force and you’re compared to bands such as Hate Eternal, Suffocation, Morbid Angel, Necrophagist and Origin? That’s a pretty good resume before anyone even here’s the record. This is no debut mind you Sentience Revoked is the fourth release from North Dakota death machines Gorgatron. Their first album on Redefining Darkness Records, a label with a thirst for juicy extreme metal, it’s a nine track workout that will get any fans of dual channel (left/right) production and snare/tom happy drumming.

The drumming from Matt Johnson is intense, his hands and feet move at speeds only witnessed in the Hadron Collider, the sharp production in the drums keeping that authentic 90’s sound. With that wall of sound laid down Paul Johnson and Coop Schuh drive home the technical riffs, assaulting your ears with grinding mid paced stomps and furious eruptions of blistering metallic fury. The Suffocation comparisons I can clearly hear when a track such as Conduit Of Pain or Omnipotent Error has dive bombs and widdling over the grunting bass of Cameron David, but then the next track Absorbency unleashes a short blast of brutal death metal.

The band never falling back on one style or the other for too long going from full on pummelling to stank face inducing, constant shifting riffs on Implosive, vocally Karl Schmidt stays in the throat shredding growls but the lyrics can be heard clearly, always a bonus for me as the bog snorkelling delivery doesn’t do much. Sentience Revoked adds some new wrinkles to Gorgatron’s sound but keeps them comfortably tearing out your insides with some excellent US death metal. 8/10

Aklash - Reincarnation (Self Released) [Matt Bladen]

Stepping into nearly 15 years as a band, Aklash are a black metal band who bring a spectrum of European music heritage to their extreme metal magic. From Southern England, Aklash consist of Nicholas Millar (vocals/guitar/violin/organ), Yiannis Panou (guitars/bouzouki/flute/vocals), Chris Kendell (bass/vocals), and Marco Silva (drums/percussion/synth/vocals)my and my are they impressive to listen too. 

Mixing Primordial with Wolves In The Throne Room, Blind Guardian with The Mission, Reincarnation begins with the gothy post punk meets black metal meets Morricone title track, setting out their stall early, the folksy ending to the title track leading into the beginnings of Communication With Ghosts. Marina Bowden providing oboe and recorder as the band show their virtuosity with folk instruments such as flutes, violin and bouzoukis as vicious as their precision blasts of power meets black metal on Babylon, or the more epic strains of Cossack that features some accordion from David Martin.

Reincarnation is the first album with Silva and Panpou and it does seem as if Aklash have gone through a rebirth because of it. The virtuosity is much higher and the song writing at a far higher level than before. There's a myriad of influences at play, it comes to a point where you are playing spot the sound alike though they never lose their individuality. The dramatic Kaval has some Balkan intensity while Caravanserai is more Eastern flavoured, as Aklash pull inspiration from many regions and styles. Reincarnation is exactly for that for Aklash, I doubt you'll find a more multifaceted extreme metal album this year. 9/10