Day Of Wreckoning 2024

Day Of Wreckoning, The Patti Pavilion, Swansea, 29.06.24

Overview By Matt Bladen

Metal To The Masses has been running in South Wales for a long time. The incentive to promote grassroots venues and local music scenes, has been a boon to the UK (and beyond) live music scene for many years. As with anything that runs for a long time the South Wales region has had its ups and downs, there's been talk of curses, it's taken place in various venues, been run by various promoters and there has been all sorts of shenanigans in the past. However when Alyn Hunter and Tim Hill of former winners Agrona took over as the promoters of M2TM South Wales it started to gain a clear heading and strategy.

Based out of Fuel Rock Club in Cardiff they negotiated the rough waters of a scene that is so overlooked in South Wales, the usual problems any sort of competition throws up and a global pandemic, they have created a culture where M2TM is one of the leading supporters of grassroots rock and metal music in South Wales. 

Splitting the heats across two regions Cardiff and Swansea with the help of Will Sheldon at The Bunkhouse things have stated to get bigger and in 2024 it was decided that taking a punt at putting on a proper final would be the way to go.

Based at The Patti Pavilion in Swansea, Day Of Wreckoning was booked to be a one day event where the six bands (3 from Cardiff, 3 from Swansea) competed to get a coveted place at Bloodstock Festival, and to gain some experience in playing larger stages than those in Fuel or The Bunkhouse. 

In addition there was another five established bands who would keep the crowds entertained while the decision was made making for a monumental day of music.

Starting at 12pm, though team prep was from very early doors, the minimal, mostly volunteer crew working their asses off to make sure everything was ready for the crowds, then at 12:30 it was time for things to kick off. 

M2TM South Wales Final

Up first after the random drawing were Swansea black metal trio Verletzen who certainly had vocal fan support (though the final is decided on an independent judge vote), they started out the day with frigid black metal that brought that sent a chill through the Victorian venue. Causing marathon windmill sessions down the front row, their necks will still be hurting even a week late. The tremolo picking was absolute precision, the blast beats rapid and raging and for me the biggest element that makes Verletzen stand out is the use of bass in their sound. It's treated like a lead instrument and adds some classic metal flavour. 

Establishing the level to beat early it was going to be a tough night for the judging panel. 

Following Verletzen was the primordial force that was Thrakian, entering M2TM for the first time and only really in their first year of performing as a band they have a seismic groove to them that goes to the fringes of sludge/doom/post metal. Lingering feedback, growled vocals and an ominous, claustrophobic atmosphere, that could spilt a crowd but when you get it, the music consumes you. Hypnotic heaviness is the name of the game here, their frontman conducting a sermon to noise, raging into the mic, guitar aloft to let the chords ring through the venue PA and it's crystal clear sound. A formidable act there's lots to come from a band clearly comfortable on a big stage. 

Talking about comfortable Confessions Of A Serial Killer seem to take to any stage you out then on. Masked, theatrical audio violence that was bristling with energy and aggression, their psycho-killer frontman stalking and harassing the crowd once he was free from his straight jacket. The similarities to bands such as Mushroomhead and Slipknot are obvious but it's the way they present them that draw you in. Industrial/death metal battery is the soundtrack to their killing spree but there's a genuine sense of terror when their singer is stomping at you in his trademark mask. Inhabiting who he becomes with it on they are always on the hunt for new victims and clearly found some at The Patti 

The level was so high throughout but another crowd favourite took to the stage and it was as if Pantera themselves had arrived. Kill By Mouth are local legends and they play groove/thrash metal that always elicits a response. Be it though frenzied thrash assaults or grooving stompers they keep the energy high and the riffs coming. Having seen them a few times in the last and seen them progress through this competition they were definitely in the running with an incendiary performance, thrash being one of those genres that really gets the crowd going. But with two bands to go it was still too close to call. 

Next up were the veterans Rites To Ruin who are a drilled, incredibly skilled unit. Their level of playing is incredible, they boast probably the best singer in the South Wales scene and for any fans of classic heavy/power/prog metal they are always going to score highly. Their performance was slick and highly experienced and they've always been incredibly supportive of the M2TM initiative. Running through their set with rigour, this was Rites To Ruin in business mode, enjoying it yes but focussed and every note hit perfectly, like a well oiled metal machine. A band who appeal to the roots of Bloodstock as a festival I can't believe they haven't been snapped up yet to play.

Speaking of Bloodstock's roots, it began as an indoor festival that showcased a lot of power/trad/symphonic metal bands, it's grown and diversified since then but it was certainly the sort of place that Root Zero would have fit way back in 2005. Their dual vocals, symphonic, prog, goth metal sound is eclectic and diverse like those early line ups, the clean vocals mixed with harsh growls, keys creating atmospheres on top of the doom meets classic metal sounds. This performance was a huge step up from what I'd seen in the semi final, the big stage used in full effect as there they looked shy and aloof, in the Patti there was a real sense sense of performance, the vocals blending similarly to the way Lacuna Coil do it, giving a definite alternative to the countless metalcore bands that seem to inhabit the UK scene and other regions. 

This bewitching, intoxicating performance is obviously what sold it for the judges as it was Root Zero who were chosen to represent South Wales at Bloodstock Festival 2024. 

The field could not have been tighter in my opinion, every act upped their game comprehensively, the larger stage leading to bigger performances and more confidence. As a concept of trying to offer the finalist something different I can definitely say the organising committee of Alyn, Will and Tim did the job brilliantly to elevate the South Wales metal scene. 

Day Of Wreckoning 

While the judges deliberated and after a well deserved break it was time for the established bands to entertain. Unfortunately a car problem outside Manchester meant that Inhuman Nature couldn't play so the first two bands got longer sets. 

Silverburn began the second half of the day with their technically proficient grooves, having seen their first gig at The Bunkhouse, their stage craft has only gotten better with countless shows and recent support slots with High On Fire (which has left them deaf they told me afterwards). Consisting of stalwarts of the South Wales metal scene it was a heavy way to start the second half of music. Crush prog grooves with sludge and tech riffs. Hypnotic rhythms catching many unawares there were some familiar faces catching a glimpse of this meaty morsel of Welsh riffage.

The pace increased exponentially with the constant blur of motion that is Mother Vulture. One of most consistent and impressive live bands on the scene the Bristol foursome never stay in one place and play punk infused metallic hard rock. Fuzzy thick basslines, choppy riffs and drumming that is frantic but with finesse, the smiles on the faces were clearly visible. Mother Vulture inject joy, unassuming off stage their singer is a wild man on stage, his diverse vocal style ranging from a sneer to a snarl to a scream and everything in between. Cranking out the jams it was a major high point of the night for everyone, this youthful band on a meteoric rise to the top, anyone who saw them here or in The Bunkhouse this year will attest that there are few bands who are this skilled on stage. 

Then we came to Raging Speedhorn who for many would have been the highlight of the day of it hadn't been for the actions of two members. Due to issues they had with the venue which were unfounded and unwarranted, their drummer refused to play only relenting after it was discovered he was in the wrong. They played for 20 minutes, starting half an hour after their set was supposed and had been advertised for. Running over by 10 minutes they were cut off due to timing, this caused the longest serving vocalist to storm off stage and another incident that has been reported elsewhere. For the time they played, they held the room unfortunately the whole performance was soured by two individuals within the band. One can only hope that RSH are able to wrestle with whatever demons have resurfaced and capture some of what makes them such a force to be reckoned with on the UK circuit without detriment to the fans that come to see them and the promoters who book them.

Enough about that and on to something much better and much more professional. Since 1975 Discharge have been keeping hardcore punk alive. California bands such as Bad Brains and Black Flag and Dead Kennedy's were starting, keeping the D.I.Y ethos of the inital punk explosion as many of those bands faded away or got lighter, it was the hardcore scene that made it heavier, angrier and more political. 

Over on this side of the pond we had our own explosion at the same time keeping the same ethos as the Americans but with a bit more Brit grit. Our scene was led by The Exploited, GBH and of course Discharge. These bands were just as influential as their American cousins and Discharge have been flying the flag for nearly 50 years. Covered by Metallica on Garage Inc, it's Discharge and bands like them that are cornerstones of grindcore, black metal and most importantly thrash. Without hardcore there is no thrash it's as simple as that.

A political band, they stand for anarchism and pacifism, they are confrontational and keep their music as a form of simple savagery. All these ideals are still held true to this day, consummate professionals from the time they came into the building they were jovial and gracious off stage but when they got on it they proceeded to rip the place apart, showing everyone how you totally command a venue without any shenanigans. Inciting pits, bouncing and smiles all round, they ripped though their hour long manifesto of political punk without too much interaction. 

A few thank yous and some buoying of the crowd for more energy, all issues previously disappearing in a circle pit of sweat and biting riffs. Finishing on a high that had been there from the beginning after one small dip, Discharge are well worthy of their place as such an influential band. 

Summing Up

Mission accomplished I'd say! Will, Alyn, Tim pulled a blinder with the inaugural Day Of Wreckoning, a small but perfectly formed team with a collective vision of elevating the South Wales metal scene. It will be back and it will be bigger and better than ever!

Watch! This! Space!

Photos By Konstantina Frasia Photography For Musipedia Of Metal/Day Of Wreckoning

Discharge

Raging Speedhorn

Mother Vulture

Silverburn

Root Zero

Rites To Ruin

Kill By Mouth

Confessions Of A Serial Killer

Thrakian

Verletzen

Reviews: Horned Almighty, Thunder Horse, The Commoners, Amongst Liars (Reviews By Mark Young, Rich Piva, Paul Hutchings & James Jackson)

Horned Almighty - Contagion Zero (Soulseller Records) [Mark Young]

The 7th album from Danish BM veterans Horned Almighty is being touted as a rebirth, which I assume is the band looking to the past to move forward. I can’t confirm this as being true or not as I’ve not heard their music before and to be fair, I’m not the greatest lover of this genre. They promise to bring aggression and to make this an essential purchase. I’m all for artists revisiting what has come before, to identify what they excelled at and to re-energise their efforts in putting out the best material they can.

The Messiah Scourge is our starting point, and they waste no time in establishing a dark tone with a repeating guitar line that smashes into life. It is typical bombast, double bass firing on all cylinders, blast beats and those rapid traditional BM riff lines. It confirms early on that they are not here for nostalgia; they are here to attack. The tempos are pitched in that mid-zone which allows them room to speed up with trem picking or slow down as the song dictates. It shifts when it needs to and places a firm marker on where they are going.

Gospels Of Sickness is straight out of the traditional BM playbook – furious guitar and manic drums that just powers straight through. I think you can safely say that they have brought the aggression with them, it is oozing out of the speakers, but it isn’t a speed fest for the sake of it as they squeeze in some melodic moments which still have that dark undertone. Whilst Vermin On The Mount once again mounts that front foot attack with some storming drum fills in there. 

There is no avoiding that for a good chunk of this song it shares a lot of common ideas with Gospels, but suddenly moves into its own light with a quality descending guitar line that comes in around 3 minutes 40, that lifts it clear of the preceding song. That motif continues through as they blast towards the end and onto Ascension Of Fever And Plague which has one of those spidery opening arrangements to it that expands into what I guess is a black metal swing as they slowly move through the gears into the expected blast beat section which is just rapid. What they do so well on here, is those little melodic fill moments, it is literally the calm before the storm.

Furnace Of Sulphur And Fire starts with another of those mint guitar passages that maintains a steady pace, full of those traditional BM chords (you know the ones I mean, especially when you hear them) and then BANG they put their foot through the floor. I know we praise drummer’s week in and week out for their herculean efforts, but special shout out to Harm for the powers of endurance displayed here. While I’m here I should also give props to S, the vocal delivery is volcanic, nothing less would have fitted the music here as it stamps its authority over everything. 

Darken The World wastes no time, full pelt from the start and is that aggressive edge they promised. In a lot of respects, it works in its position as track 6, the album has prepared you to get to this point with the other songs having their melodic moments amongst the mayhem but on here they go for the throat. Even when they back off there is still that air of darkness and discord running through it, permeating every strike and growl. It is fabulous stuff and then we are at the end with the slow, misery filled arrangement that is Epilogue…Of Hades And Of Death. 

Well, I’ll keep this brief. Like I said I’ve no idea if this is better than the music that has come before. All I know is that this is a stormer of an album and simply put is one of the releases of the year so far. 9/10

Thunder Horse - Dead Alive In TX (Ripple Music) [Rich Piva]

Texas deliverers of the heavy, Thunder Horse, emulate their 70s heroes, like Kiss, and gift us a live album after three excellent full length studio LPs to start their career as a band. Unlike Kiss though, there was no studio wizardry or overdubs on this bad boy, as Dead Alive In TX is Thunder Horse in all of their live glory, warts and all, exactly how the band was intended to be heard, and whoa is it awesome. If I was going to see Thunder Horse this is pretty much the set I would have personally requested. 

Opening with Let Them Bleed From Chosen One is always an excellent choice, with its slow burn opening and Sabbath worship tempo change, it is the perfect way to get the set started. New Normal, the protest song we all needed without having to pick a side, is up next, with Stephen Bishop seemingly even more angry at the state of things while delivering his vocals with an almost punk rock sneer, only done surrounded by heavy doom riffs. 

A brief interlude leads to the absolute ripper, Demon Speak, from the self-titled debut record. I’m not sure I would call TH a tight band live, but why the hell would you want them to be? There is a bit of heavy chaos going on which makes this one of the realist live records I have heard in a long time. This is not to say they don’t sound amazing, because they do, it is just so organic. I love the placement of Song For The Ferryman too, acting as an epic doom bridge between the two halves of the set, and boy does this one bring the crunch live. I love when the band gets all heavy blues on us in the second half of this song. 

The new record is represented well on Dead Alive In TX, with the addition of my (and many other apparently) favourite TH song Monolith, which just crushes you even more in live form, and according to Bishop is a fan favourite that will be a set standard for the band and thank goodness so because it is somehow even better live. What a way to end the set too, with the one-two punch of the slow burn (until it is not) crunch of Liber Ad Christ Milites Templi and my other favourite TH track, Chosen One. But we are not done yet, as the band leaves the crowd on a serious high note with their version of Ace Of Spades.

There has been a surprising amount of great live records over the past two or so years (thank you HPS), but Dead Alive In TX may be my favourite. This show is a perfect representation of Thunder Horse in all of their glory. If they keep going in the Kiss pattern, the next record should be their Destroyer, and I can’t wait for that next chapter in their story, but for now play this very, very loud. 9/10

The Commoners – Restless (Gypsy Soul Records) [Paul Hutchings]

My first and only encounter with The Commoners came in April 2023 when they squeezed into the Louisiana in Bristol on a co-headline tour with Tory Redfern. Despite their Southern swagger, they are Canadian, but don’t let that put you off. These Wicked Rivers are from Derby after all.

Restless follows 2022’s excellent Find A Better Way release, and it’s another perfectly crafted release that fits in with a multitude of occasions. Restless is the perfect singalong album for a long journey, for the emotive romantic dinner accompaniment, or as the soundtrack to an evening gathering with friends. Rich organ, a deep groove, and whisky soaked vocals, it all adds up to an album that sits very much in The Black Crowes/Rival Sons/Blackberry Smoke ballpark.

Ten tracks spread over just shy of 45-minutes provides value for money, and the band have paced it right. Devil Teasin’ Me is the ideal opener, Chris Medhurst’s smoky vocals backed by some lovely harmonies and whilst The Commoners don’t bring anything to the table that hasn’t been done before, their sound is distinctive, and infectious. It’s impossible not to be tapping your foot or humming along with the chorus after just a single listen.

They do the simple stuff right, the guitar work is crisp without being flashy, the melody delicious and provocative, and the rhythm keeps the movement without being in your face. Boot stomping up tempo feels come next with the vibrancy of Shake You Off. A raucous, in your face track that is sure to be in the set for years to come. It’s an addictive tune that gets the blood pumping with an ease that only comes with high levels of talent and plenty of hard work. When Ross Hays Citrullo decides to peel off a lick or two, he does it in style, with a subtle and understated style that works neatly with the band’s overall sound.

The title track is one of a couple that slow things down a little. The Country Western Rock sound that is inevitable on every Southern Rock record, there’s a bit of slide work here, and they pull it off with ease. It’s a smooth song, with little flourishes that provide the extra needed to keep you locked in. Gone Without Warning and Who Are You both rock along nicely, before the band depart slightly, with the darker atmosphere of Body And Soul that has an edge to it that hasn’t been present before. It's one of the best songs on the album, the interplay between vocals, organ and guitar created a delightful kaleidoscopic combination. It’s certainly the darker twist here though that makes it stand out.

Every album of this type needs that lighter aloft anthem, and it duly arrives with Too Soon To Know. A track that could easily feature in the soundtrack to a gritty series like Sons Of Anarchy, it’s another highlight and leads into the acoustic finale of the emotional All That We Have. This sees Medhurst give a gorgeously intimate finish with acoustic accompaniment.

The Commoners were fantastic at that Bristol show, and this album has whetted my appetite for another encounter with them in a few weeks at the Steelhouse Festival. 8/10

Amongst Liars - By Design (Earache) [James Jackson]

Channelling a mix of Punk, Grunge and Rock, Amongst Liars based in the coastal towns of Brighton and Eastbourne, release their second album By Design. The band formed in 2019, a year later the pandemic hit and plans to perform live were obviously put on hiatus, according to their bio however, this wasn’t a time to rest on their laurels and the band pushed singles and wrote their debut album, released in the summer of 2022. 

Some of the band’s influences are listed as Rage Against The Machine and the social, political views within some of the tracks definitely have that influence stamped all over them, another influence which is quite dominant within songs like Mind, is Shinedown, following that is Vice which holds a strong Electro influence to it, the intro a Techno beat away from being played at a rave, ultimately being my favourite track upon the album, there’s a BMTH vibe to it, another cited influence. 

The song writing is done well, the choruses catchy, lyrics relevant, the hooks driven to do their job, even the stripped down track Say has an impact as poignant as any of the other more punchy rockier tracks that precede it. There’s quite the blend of influences throughout the album that the easiest thing for me to say is that if you’re a fan of BMTH, Shinedown, Queens of the Stone Age and Rage Against The Machine, bands that are credited as inspiration for Amongst Liars, then this really is a band worth checking out. 7/10

Reviews: Orden Ogan, Duel, Motivik, Regicide (Reviews By Richard Oliver, Matt Bladen, Paul Hutchings & Mark Young)

Orden Ogan - The Order Of Fear (Reigning Phoenix Music) [Richard Oliver]

Germany can always be relied on to deliver the goods when it comes to power metal and Orden Ogan have been a reliable source of overblown cheesy metal goodness for nearly thirty years with The Order Of Fear being the eighth full length album from the band.

The band waste no time in kicking things off as album opener Kings Of The Underworld starts immediately and furiously with a hectic pace and a powerhouse battering from drummer Dirk Meyer-Berhorn and it starts a really strong run of songs which are big, melodic and anthemic whilst being catchy as hell. As with a lot of good European power metal there are songs with folk-leaning melodies as well as epic and grandiose symphonic moments but the main focus is on the melodies and hooks as well as chugging guitars, pounding drums, sweet guitar solos and the powerhouse vocals of frontman Sebastian “Seeb” Levermann. It is a formula that works to great effect on earworm tunes such as Moon Fire, Prince Of Sorrow and the title track. A weak point is the obligatory power ballad My Worst Enemy which is as sugary and melodramatic as possible but it is not terrible.

Orden Ogan are one of those bands that I have dipped into but not really dedicated a lot of time to so I can’t really compare where The Order Of Fear stands against the rest of the back catalogue but I can safely say that is a very solid European power metal album. It is very slick sounding with a flawless production and mix to it. The album does suffer from a bit of repetition with a lot of similar paced and sounding songs but the hooks and melodies are infectious with does work in its favour. Power metal is a genre that generally sticks within its parameters and Orden Ogan don’t really do anything different than a multitude of similar sounding bands but what they do is done extremely well. 

Power metal is meant to be big and fun with songs designed to be sung out loud by a boozed up crowd in a field and The Order Of Fear meets that standard admirably. 8/10

Duel - Breakfast With Death (Heavy Psych Sounds) [Matt Bladen]

If Clutch jammed with Sabbath as Billy Gibbons gave boogie pointers then you would get Duel. For four albums they have been kicking out the beer drinking, hard riffing jams that is like your favourite stoner band falling in love with NWOBHM, moving away from the stoner style towards a heavier doom inspired classic metal gallop as their career has continued. 

Inspired by 80's heavy metal, 70's heavy rock and 60's proto metal there's a menagerie of grooves here, as I said with each passing album they move more towards the occult, the dark and the mysterious, the likes of Italian B-Movie horrors, folks tales and general schlock inspires this fifth record Breakfast With Death, combining the like of Uncle Acid, Unto Other and Spirit Adrift with the likes of Blue Oyster Cult, Budgie and Blue Cheer.

Founding members Tom Frank (vocals/guitar) and Jeff Henson (guitar/vocals) have been joined by a new rhythm section and they have brought a lot more metallic heaviness to Breakfast With Death, from the Grand Magus-like Fallacy taking Duel further into the leather and stud wearing style of heavy metal. Drew Potter’s bass and Patrick "Scooch" Pascucci’s drums bringing some thrash-like Chaos Reigns, as well as a post punk sneer to Pyro. 

The songs are a bit louder, a bit filthier, a bit darker, as if a bunch of good ol boys discovered a goth club and distortion. For instance the occult doom vibes of Bezerker or the throbbing evil of Greet The Dead both showcase how the latter part of this album gets heavier and darker in scope, closing with the the wild eyed shout of Burn The Earth.

Southern gothic meets British chug Breakfast With Death is a proto-metal feast for anyone that loves their music on the spooky side. 9/10

Motivik – Renouncement (Roxx Records) [Paul Hutchings]

Motivik? Never heard of them before this promo dropped our way. A quick perusal of the helpful blurb reveals that this is the vehicle for two musicians, multi-instrumentalist Ryan Roebuck and vocalist Courtney Simmons. The duo, from Atlanta, Georgia released their debut under the Motivik moniker in 2020, in the shape of Death of the Gunman, an album I may well hunt down after this release.

With the session drums of Alex Emidio providing a solid anchor to the hour-long album, and with the duo drawing in guest appearances by vocalists Jason Weaver, Chris Ackerman (Betrayal), Jason Wisdom (Becoming the Archetype) and Andre Chiang (Shamash) and guitar from Greg Minier (Applehead, The Crucified) and Derek Corzine (Burial Extraction, Crowned In Sorrow), there’s plenty to explore here.

 
Predominantly drawing on thrash metal influences, there’s also a range of other styles, from traditional metal to the more extreme elements. An instrumental opener isn’t unusual in any shape or form, and it’s unsurprising to see Palace Of Ashes sticking to blueprint. It’s a decent start though, and leads into a powerful selection headed up by Dethroned and rounded off by the emotive Once Again.

 
Simmons brings a range of vocal styles to the party, from 80s hair metal to modern thrash, he’s got the range to cover most of the ripping beasts that the band unleash. Of course, bringing in the guest vocals adds heft and a modern style, with the death growls on tracks like Break The Walls bringing a contemporary flavour to the compositions. Stand out track Septicaemia begins with a beautiful flourish on the guitar before a crunching riff drops in; there’s plenty more sweet guitar work throughout this track, although Roebuck’s playing throughout is impressive.

 
At times I’d suggest that there is a visceral progressive element to the album, the kind of style you’d get if you added Trivium with Tesseract and a bit of Anthrax. It’s rammed full of punishingly good songs, which work together as a fine collection. It’s only Once Again that I question, for the start is not a great listen. Otherwise, there is plenty included here to enjoy and whilst it takes some time to appreciate the intricate layers, persisting with it provides a rewarding result. 7/10

Regicide - Resist Control (Independent) [Mark Young]

Resist Control is the debut full-length release from the Essex Thrash/groove outfit Regicide. Active since 2020, they have steadily released singles and Eps to acclaim within the UK scene. The cover art is provided courtesy of Tattooist Nigel White and if the music matches this striking cover, then we are in for a treat.

Consisting of Niall Green on Vocals/Guitars, Josh Birch on Bass, Mike Davies on Guitar and completed by Jordan Maze on Drums we start with an intro that slowly brings in general sounds of disquiet, it doesn’t go anywhere (I have noted that I’m sick of intro tracks, sorry lads) and I’m thankful for when things start properly with One By One, a dense stomping track that has one of those classic arrangements to it and takes no time in getting stuck in. This is exactly the kind of start I like, occupying that mid-tempo range for the most part, that allows them to build around it. It is an imperious start, and straight away you can see why they are held in such high regard. It sounds great, everything is balanced nicely including that blend of groove/thrash. Next up is You Ain't Nobody which is pure speed and aggression. 

Starting with a galloping riff that more than resembles Slayer, it’s just quality all the way through, classic riff structures that hark back to the glory days of Thrash. Suppression goes for the mid-ground and sees them on the front foot with some precise riffing that you could play for days. That balance is on show again as they bring the groove in once more and there is a low down and dirty break around 3 minutes in which has a diabolical swing to it. It’s quality stuff!

The title track, Resist Control is all epic chugging and a high-speed melodic guitar line that transmutes into a glorious Thrash out with some exemplary double bass (nice one Jordan!!) that drops into that classic Thrash build once more. This is the thing, the use of tried and tested builds and arrangements so that it reminds you of that golden era of Thrash, but it isn’t a poor knockoff. Once again, the breakpoint is royal, slowing down and grinding those guitar parts until they take off once more. It’s that energy that is bleeding through that makes it so immediate. 

Similarly, Disposable Crown has that energy, probably even more so than Resist which causes involuntary nodding of the head. Digging into the structure, the riffs may sound simple in comparison to others, but it is that efficiency in selecting what goes where and when that gives their music that something that shows you don’t need to shoehorn a million notes in to make it sound good.

Dying To Be Liked with its opening solos, attacks with a more hardcore feel to it whilst still possessing that Thrash sensibility to it. It gives them another direction to then throw into the blender. There is a pick-up in aggression and attack that gives way for a more traditional hardcore ending. Unified Strength changes tack again, returning to that muscular mid-tempo once more and it feels that this is a more comfortable/natural fit than the style shown on Dying To Be Liked as it rips along at a good rate. Run Your Mouth is the end and is the sum of all the parts shown prior. That groove and swing is here, as well as the faster parts that they do so well. 

That balance I mentioned earlier is captured here as well as that hardcore element once more. It is a storming end to what is an exceptional debut album. There is an effortless display of balancing different styles together to give Regicide a unique voice amongst others in the UK scene. I think this melding of styles plus their dedication to the craft puts them in a strong position to develop and progress. Check out their socials for where they are playing next! 8/10

Reviews: Kissin' Dynamite, Octoploid, Aeons, Isle Of The Cross (Reviews By Matt Bladen)

Kissin’ Dynamite - Back With A Bang (Napalm Records)

For Kissin’ Dynamite the 80’s never ended. They have been playing stadium rock since 2007, when they were a teenage band, but since then have been honing their chops on stages across the world. Not that they never had the ambition, writing songs that sound like Bon Jovi, exemplified here by the talk-box wielding More Is More. Like Mr Big on the title track/Learn To Fly and like Def Leppard on Raise The Glass and Queen Of The Night.

Defiantly in the 80’s sound but with modernity of the Scandi AOR scene, though Kissin’ Dynamite are German, so they rely on the twin guitar sound a bit more, putting the keys and synths in the background and focussing on the ‘rockier’ sound with When The Lights Go Out. On their second album for Napalm Records they add even more modern flavours to their style with lots of synthy vibes on the anthemic Iconic, the emotional AOR of Journey on The Best Is Yet To Come and a bit of country balladry on Not A Wise Man which would impress Bret Michaels of Poison.

Anthemic choruses, stadium sized songwriting and a whole load of fun, it’s hard to be critical of Kissin’ Dynamite, you’ve heard it all before but you’ll find yourself humming it for days. 7/10

Octoploid - Beyond The Aeons (Reigning Phoenix Music)

The solo band of Amorphis bassist Olli-Pekka Laine, Octoploid have been called 70's death metal, which probably a better description than I could come up with. Having only been a band for 2 years Beyond The Eons is their debut album and answers the question of what would modern day Opeth sound like with their early death vocals. All of the tracks delve into the likes of Jethro Tull, Camel and even Hawkwind but on top of it all there is 90's style DM growling which is a little jarring at first but you soon get used to it.

The vocals come from Mikko Kotamäki of Swallow The Sun but there are also contributions from Tomi Joutsen and Tomi Koivusaari (Amorphis), Petri Eskelinen (Feastem), Janitor Muurinen (Xysma, Mannhai) and Jón Aldará (Hamferð), allowing the harsh vocals to mingle with the cleans giving each song it's own presence. Alongside Laine in the rhythm section is seasoned stoner rock drummer Mikko Pietinen, Peter Salonen plays guitars and shows his experience in the psych rock scene, Samu Leminen and Ile Laaksomaa adding additional guitar parts.

Amorphis keyboard player Kim Rantala adds the synths, Moogs and organs here, Kasper Mårtenson (ex-Amorphis) getting to tinkle the ivories too. A real collaborative effort then between some of the more notable names in the Finnish metal scene. Produced with that warmness of the 1970's, Octoploid's debut album is quite odd at first with the clashing of psychedelic/prog rock and extreme vocals, but play it a couple of times and it does work well. 7/10

Aeons - The Ghosts Of What We Knew (Sliptrick Records)

The Ghosts Of War is the third album by Aeons and it takes them further on their musical journey than the previous two records. Apparently inspired by the technically proficient but progressively minded sound of bands like Born Of Osiris, Veil Of Maya and even early Opeth, low dwelling, introspective atmospherics lead so often into aggressive blasts of virtuosic death/modern/metalcore, for instance songs such as Blood or Circles are very melodic and dramatic, adding some of the Opeth influences but the pace quickly increases on the propulsive Circles.

Throughout the album the guitar interplay between Si Harvey and Scott Sayer is mind-blowing, furious riffs and fret melting solos are punctuated by moments of melodic clarity and single chord/note emotion, such as Ghosts or the arpeggios that go through the Slipknot-esque Thanatos. With Sebastian 'Seeb' Levermann of Orden Organ on mastering, The Ghosts Of What We Knew has a modern clarity to it, so you can hear the dense layers, intricate instrumentals and roared vocals. Bassist Joe Holland and drummer Justin Wallace provide the brutal and intricate engine room whipping up a storm on ragers such as Home.

Skippy Hilton has really good voice, both in clean and harsh, for me he makes it as sometimes bands like this can be let down by their singer but he carries emotion well on Machines and growls with all his might when things get heavier. That is my one criticism is that for a band that have the comparisons to some of the most progressive and aggressive bands around a lot of this record is quite emotional, slow and atmospheric. If you want outright prog death then Aeons may not scratch your itch. However if you’re a fan of bands Machine Head (modern day), Devin or even Slipknot (modern day) there’s lots to enjoy. 7/10

Isle Of The Cross - Faustus The Musical (Rockshots Records)

If like me you remember the MaYan project formed by the guitarist of Epica, Mark Jansen, then you’ll hear a lot of similarities in the new album from Isle Of The Cross. Both are metal projects, mixed and mastered by Joost van den Broek and both are towards the extreme side of the metalsphere, away from the brighter power/prog metal sound of Ayreon or Avantasia, Isle Of The Cross uses growls more, death/black metal compositions but still has the theatrical, symphonic, cinematic sound of all the bands I’ve mentioned. This is the second album from Isle Of Cross and band leader/composer/producer/musician Je Schneider has attempted to increase the effect of everything he started on the 2020 with a musical based around the cautionary tale about the legendary figure Faust and his dealings with magic and the devil.

It’s a tale that features angels/demons, Lucifer, Mephistopheles, Helen Of Troy and has been told for thousands of years in thousands of forms though this sticks to the Christopher Marlowe telling (Doctor Faustus) from the 16th Century, the pathos of Marlowe’s work captured by the multi-faceted cast of singers and progressive/symphonic compositions which always have a heaviness too them. Schineider wrote and recorded most of the music with Eric Gillette (Temic/Neal Morse Band) adding guitars, but there are five guest vocalists playing the parts I mentioned above. The lead character is played by Daniel de Jöngh of djent band Textures, while Angela Di Vincenzo of Secret Rule plays Helen, Matthieu Romarin ex-Uneven Structure is Mephistopheles and Charles Elliot of Abysmal Dawn is Lucifer. Using multiple vocalists means that the story can be told fully, the soundtrack is epic, dark and brooding while as the singers all work well together like a true ensemble.

While this may be a studio only project currently it’s something that will appeal to fans of symphonic extreme metal and anyone who loves a concept/opera metal. 8/10

Reviews: Old Horn Tooth, Hail Spirit Noir, Ogives Big Band, Manumit (Reviews By Matt Bladen)

Old Horn Tooth - Mourning Light (London Doom Collective)

I’d been waiting to hear more of Old Horn Tooth since seeing them at in Masters Of The Riff in 2023. Their Neolithic doom metal is skull crushing live, so I went back and picked up their 2019 album From The Ghost Grey Depths and was impressed by the elongated, ritualistic slabs of marathon fuzz, stomping with the deliberateness of a prehistoric beast or a kaiju on ketamine.

As the curators of the London Doom Collective (organisers of Masters Of The Riff) they know their onions when it comes to how doom should be. So it was with glee that I pressed play on Mourning Light (get it?) their follow up to the 2019 record. Deciding to put their expertise to good use, it’s released under the London Doom Collective name, giving Old Horn Tooth all the freedom a band would need while also letting them keep the D.I.Y ethos this highly experienced band have always had.

From the outset of Precipice you can hear why they have been compared to bands such as Monolord, Electric Wizard and Conan, fielding an ungodly heaviness that is driven by fuzzy, distorted guitar hypnosis, the riffs repeating again and again just slithering in between your ears to make your head nod and not stop until the end of closing number Invisible Agony, a track which adds some beautiful cello in conjunction with the 21 minute, melancholic journey, that gets fuzzier towards its climax as Chris Jones anguished, mournful vocals carve their way through the dissonance, although due to the track lengths, they aren’t used that often but when they do come in I get the same shiver I do from a band such as Warning.

Jones also provides the guitar, locked in to the massive ungainly grooves with bassist Ollie Issac, beginning with those low and slow thumps on Precipice, Mark Davidson’s intuitive drumming not only keeping the pace but putting in fills that stop any thoughts of it being one dimensional. This is always a risk with doom bands, playing a song that goes on for so long and has lots of sections where repetition is key, it’s the way it’s played, the little fills the atmospheric drops into sparseness, the brighter ambient moments, and the drives back into all-consuming weight that keeps you interested as 10, 15, 20 minutes go by.

No Salvation takes those movements into more ethereal realms, peeling back the distortion but still managing to be grief stricken and affecting, with a simple few chords, the occasional bass pluck and lots of emptiness as the drum kicks in and we build again, some harsher screams coming on the tail end. It’s these glimpse of vulnerability and fragility that separates Old Horn Tooth from the crushing, non-stop riffs of a band such as Conan or even Electric Wizard, it’s less legalise drugs and murder, more normalize hugs and mourning. Pulverising, forlorn doom that looks for hope with every strike of a chord or a drum skin. A magnificent new standard bearer for doom. 10/10

Hail Spirit Noir - Fossil Gardens (Agonia Records)

After their foray with synthwave on their previous album, 2021's Mannequins, Thessaloniki based avant gardists Hail Spirit Noir return to their metallic roots with sixth album Fossil Gardens. With Dimitris Dimitrakopoulos providing the emotive cleans there's similarities to band such as Madrugada, Soen and Katatonia vocally before the black metal blasts beckon in what is their most extreme metal album to date. Thematically it follows on from their 2020 album Eden In Reverse, trying to unveil the secrets of the universe with multi-faceted, expansive compositions which features progressive black metal riffs, unrelenting drums and ominous atmosphere's from the extensive use of vintage synths.

The lessons they learned from the synthwave experiment are used to bring an extra-terrestrial sound to tracks such as Curse You, Entropia and The Blue Dot where against the harsh extreme metal dissonance and tremolo picking there's electronic elements that twitch in the background behind the atmospheric black metal on The Blue Dot especially. The production lends itself to this idea of being in another world. It's definitely an album to listen to with headphones in order to get the full experience. The Road To Awe slows down to showcase the low clean vocals as they dabble in cathartic blackgaze.

Fossil Garden is an album that will be seen as a return to the style that they are associated with, after their trip to the 80's. Evocative soundscapes and blistering extremity, Hail Spirit Noir uncover brilliance on this new record. 9/10

Ogives Big Band - Boisterous Love (Stolen Body Records)

On their debut album Bristol noisemakers are certainly boisterous and you will love it if bands who bring sludge, psych, doom and much much more to their sound. I've reviewed them here before and I was very impressed so when I saw the debut full length was looming I jumped right on it. Starting out as ambient/noise project Øgïvęš, AKA guitarist Ben Harris.

In 2018 Ben was joined by drummer Oli Cocup and bassist Ben Holyoake, they became a Big Band shifting the focus towards angular, riff heavy prog metal which is drawn from Neurosis, Mastodon, Amenra and Yob, but with a some stop start math metal weirdness on Brandishment, jazz rhythms and psychedelic wanderings. As the Big Band they became much more potent musically, the trio exploring wider musical textures though never forgetting the ambient/drone beginnings on the desolate Annihilation.

In 2020 they added Steve Robert's hardcore honed screams and the Big Band was now complete, the rhythm section has been replaced wholesale with Corey Carruthers Bell on bass and John Stewart on drums making this album a brand new chapter in the constant evolution of Ogives Big Band. With the intelligent lyrics on Absolute Unit are all have a hidden meaning, you have to read between the lines as the song takes you through nearly 9 minutes of jazz, prog and sludge doom.

The chugging doom sludge of Super Sanity kicks off the 31 minutes of loudness, exhibiting Ogives Big Band at their most aggressive alongside the beginning of Chronic Thuggery. With just these tracks you may think they're just another brash sludge band but it's on the final part of the album they show what they can do, concocting all kinds of explorative escapades that will have any fans of music that comes from the fringes. 8/10

Manumit - Reditus (Lost Generation Records)

From the fertile rock/metal landscape that is Bridgend, South Wales, Manumit are not quite metalcore or classic rock, no what is basically a solo project of Drew Hamley (bassist/clean vocalist of IFightBears) takes music to a more collaborative space infusing modern metal riffs and breakdowns with electronic beats.

Originally conceived in 2014 there was buzz surrounding Manumit, a multimedia based approach saw the music accompanied by slick videos all with conceptual, futuristic visuals. It was picked up by Scuzz TV (remember them?) and Metal Hammer but priorities changed and Manumit was thrown forward in time to revisit again.

Quantum Leap to 2024 and with IFightBears hiding in the woods it's time for Manumit to teleport back into the public consciousness with a new EP called Reditus. This time Hamley has put together a live band, made up of some well known names in the scene but working under nom de plumes and will be taking the project on the road, so Reditus has a bigger more rounded sound.

Co-produced by Hamley and Michael Padget of BFMV there's a strong link to that band on Monsters, favouring straightforward metalcore riffs, dual harsh/clean vocals an minimal electronics. The use of the electronics varies from track to track meaning that much of Reditus is similar to bands such as BMTH, Architects, Bad Omens, FFAF and BFMV too.

Manumit wear their locality and musical heritage proudly, infusing emotional metal music with electronic enhancement. 8/10

Reviews: Black Hole Deity, Aran, Ingénue, MINES (Reviews By GC, Zak Skane, Mark Young & Matt Bladen)

Black Hole Deity - Profane Geometry (Everlasting Spew Records) [GC]

It’s been another one of those weeks for me that is very death metal influenced and I have already reviewed and scalded one new release so let’s hope I can get some reprieve in the form of Profane Geometry the debut album from Black Hole Deity on the beautifully titled Everlasting Spew Records!

Ex Nihilo is an intro so doesn’t really do much for the start of the alum but, when Blast Pit explodes into life your greeted with a whirlwind of blasting drums and precise riffing that hits the mark well but, then when the vocals do kick in they sort of take a back seat to everything else and I really have to concentrate to pick them out but it all adds up to some very enjoyable and invigorating death metal, Crucible Knight sees the drummer once again take centre stage and produce some insane blast beats and some thundering beatdowns but again its all taken over by the drums until the vicious guitar solos take the lead and drive the song forward with purpose and vigour, there are more lovely beatdown sections included towards the end but those drums need to be mixed down to give everything else a turn! 

Profane Geometry hurtles forward and is more unrelenting death metal savagery, there is no room for subtlety here and the absolute ruthless nature of everything here is really something but then here they throw in an almost power metal-esque guitar solo that works wonderfully to cut through the wave upon wave of brutality they then give you a chance to re-collect your smashed jaw and broken bones with the acoustic interlude Hydrazine Vapours which is nice if you like that sort of thing, I don’t though so am happy when we get back to the brutality on Human Fillet which lends heavily from a black metal influence and is an absolute raging monster of a track, the drumming here is inhuman and the guitars and vocals are now mixed in sync and don’t lose any of the ferocity that has tended to happened before, this track is no joke! Album highlight for sure! 

Swarm Attack is exactly what you would expect from Black Hole Deity, there is no taking the foot off the pedal and relaxing towards the end of the album, no it is yet another insanely fast track that mixes the punishing attack of death metal but manages to also add the melo-death aspect in and crucially not lose any of the viciousness and the drums once again sound heavily black metal influenced throughout another breath-taking track! 

Spell Of Hecate of course doesn’t stray far from everything that has proceeded and it more scathing and nasty death metal with not one seconds respite and its impressive that this intensity has been kept all the way through. For the last track we also get the longest track in the shape of Cybernetic Inferno and with a bit more room to play with, there is a tech-death influence thrown into the mixer to add more ways to bludgeon and brutalize and it makes for an interesting twist to the end to just add a completely different style into everything and shows a brilliant level of awareness that a slight change in sound can enhance the overall listen of an album as it does here and ends on a high note.

Coming into the review I was slightly weary of what I would get but, I can say I was for the most part really impressed with Profane Geometry there were some sound/production issues in places and the into & interlude were not needed but overall, this for a debut album as well, was a savage and unexpected pleasure that I would definitely recommend to any fan of death metal. 8/10

Aran - Maahan Laskettu (Naturmacht) [Zak Skane]

Aran continues their journey of spreading atmospheric black metal with their third instalment Maahan Laskettu by combining experimental ambient textures along with the classic scooped guitars and DIY styled produced drums. In comparison to their previous releases they have defiantly up scale of quality of production continuing from their second album Pimeyttä Vasten.

For example the opening track Hiljaisuus the pianos on the album sound a lot more genuine and organic whilst the synths on this release sound a lot higher production and more fuller in the mix. When the full band come into action with the classic DIY sounding drums and harsh frequency guitars, they sit a lot more comfortably together along with it’s moving synths and pianos resulting in a more polished touch in comparison to their previous releases. The following track Poltettu Maa features classical guitars that chime clear like old church bell before layers of sadness consumes us in the form of melancholic distorted guitar layers, saddened tremolo lead guitar melodies and synths. 

The instrumental track Pinnan Alta consists of calming tones of tweeting birds and running rivers whilst suspenseful synths and delayed pianos play whilst haunting choirs finalise the track. Päättymätön Aika brings in some Celtic influences along with it’s ambient black metal assault by adding strummed acoustic guitars played in classic ¾ time signatures whilst tribal patterned drums accompany them. 

Their closing track Viimeisiin Vesiin gives us orchestral arranged string sounding synths melodies over the their classic black metal fizzed guitar double kick and blast beat lathed parts, but the guitars that have thrown in some interesting pieces of ear candy such as the melodic bass lines and the sneaky phaser effects wedged in some of the guitar riffs to give this spacy effect. In relation to spacey effects in some of the build up sections passages of sci-fi type synth effects are thrown into the mix. Before this album comes to a close we are received with gentle strums of acoustic guitar chords before it finalises with some atmospheric samples to accompanying melancholically strummed delayed guitars.

Yet again Aran have released another atmospheric black metal masterpiece. The production on this five track release has defiantly become a lot more polished with the synths and strings sounding a lot more balanced in the mix especially on songs like Päättymätön Aika where each layer fits like perfectly made jigsaw puzzle and the additional live instruments like the acoustic guitars are perfectly captured by sounding full and rich but also have this natural reverb to it. It’s like if Akira Yamaoka the composer of Silent Hill collaborated with Emperor to bring us this dark but also moving release. The criticism that I can come up with is that this could have had more tracks to become a 10 album but either way 8/10

Ingénue - Recreational Monachopsis (Self Released) [Mark Young]

I had the pleasure of seeing Ingénue in December last year for an EP Launch, their Mixtape For Saving The World where they played to a packed house at the Peer Hat in Manchester. That review can be found on the Musipedia website, and their set took in probably everything they had written at that point. What I found was a talented bunch of musicians who could navigate a course between every genre of guitar-driven music, sometimes in the space of the same song without it sounding out of place.

Their latest release, Recreational Monachopsis is out in July, with a show to go with it so if you are in Manchester then you should make time to catch them in what I believe is their natural habitat.

Forever Endeavour has a classic rock motif running through it as Vocalist Charlotte Beckett comes in, ably supported with that on-point riffing and a lead break that shows they have a great talent for building good songs that have a natural flow to them. The twin guitars of Tom Stephenson and Danny Whittaker mesh so well so that the rhythm and solo breaks (courtesy of fret-melter Tom) complement each other, and they sound great. They don’t overcomplicate things, and everything is put together with an eye on the whole song with Lexie (Bass) and Phil (Drums) providing the foundation for a song that always grooves forward and gives this EP a great start.

Sparkle Motion with an almost whimsical setup immediately reminds me of the alt-rock sound of the early 90’s with a free and easy arrangement. Charlotte’s vocals on here are spot-on, powerfully commanding possibly one of the lightest songs I have reviewed so far. It has that classic English build to it, those bright and breezy chords set against darker subject matter, in this case, Morality. What it also shows is that they are confident in their ability to write good songs and give it their stylistic stamp. Dragon Wobble closes out with some glorious fuzz, and an infectious earworm of a melody. I have to say, they left the best song for last, and if you asked me what song would best describe them, I’d point you in this direction. Despite its topic, it has an uplifting swing to it with a tasteful lead break that allows them to come in and close the song out.

Having seen them live first, there was a worry that their recorded output wouldn’t live up to it as sometimes that live feeling is missing. Not so, they have captured that energy here and whilst the material here is not as up-tempo as I normally like you cannot argue with the quality of the songs. Each of them represents a different facet of their sound, and whilst you could say that the rockier aspect of their make-up is missing from the songs here, I love it that they have gone for what feels like a summer vibe to them. As I was typing that last paragraph, it suddenly struck me who Charlotte reminds me of in terms of how the songs are phrased, it was Lilly Allen. I mean this purely in that there is an attitude behind the delivery of it, even with the breeziest of music behind it. It’s a great power to have because it gives the music so much more that just great riffs and arrangement. 

As an introduction to their music, this is a great stepping on point and as I can attest it only hints at the breadth of ideas they have at their disposal. Give this a shot, I don’t think you will be disappointed. 7/10

MINES - Warm & Safe (Lavender Sweep Records) [Matt Bladen]

Swansea's MINES  dig for more experimental musical gold and lay down some incendiary noise. (Two different Mine related puns, I'm on a roll) Warm & Safe is their first release since their abrasive Your Never Ending Happiness record from 2022. Since then they have jumped from Trepanation Recordings (R.I.P) to Swansea own Lavender Sweep Records.

If their last album was a reaction to the pandemic and humanity's disgusting way of treating one another then Warm & Safe is either the band having mellowed or an acceptance of things and to hide in their music. Why I say this is that they move down a much more ambient, minimalist sound with this new EP.

Waves of electronics bubble and boil in the background of My Body Is Ready, an atmosphere that is curated to be a little threatening the trip hop drums adding an industrial edge, the dissonance continues with the My Heart Is Willing. Warm & Safe comes at recording the same way Steven Wilson does with Bass Communion, just experimenting with music for their own sake. 7/10

Reviews: Crystal Viper, Stillborn, Cages For Preachers, Ethos (Reviews By Matt Bladen & Rich Piva)

Crystal Viper - The Silver Key (Listenable Records) [Matt Bladen]

After Marta Gabriel released her debut solo album the same year as the last Crystal Viper album (2021), and dabbling with melodic stuff with Moon Chamber, she now returns to heavy metal with the ninth album from the Polish power/classic metal band. 

So it's Marta behind the mic and on bass, rhythm guitar (in the studio) and piano used on ballads such as Wayfaring Dreamer. Flanked by Andy Wave and Eric Juris on twin axe attack as Kuba Galwas sits behind the kit, this album deals with the works of H.P Lovecraft so it continues the vein tapped on The Cult in 2021, well and before that as well as the band have always dealt with horror and fantasy so this ninth release, keeps their style of metal more towards the occult and evil than the dragons and battles of many bands in their genre. 

Despite this look towards darker subject matter, Crystal Viper play classic metal and play it well, influenced by Priest, Maiden, Mercyful Fate and Angel Witch, the galloping rhythms on bass and guitar from Marta injecting the pace on tracks such as Book Of The Dead and Old House In The Mist. Those dual guitars adding to Heading Kadath and Fever Of The God as they get a it more progressive with the title track and those brooding horror themes inspire Cosmic Forces Overtake as more drama and piano playing comes on the closing Gods Of Thunder, Wind And Rain which screams of Manowar. 

Classic heavy metal with horror at it's heart, Crystal Viper still wear their influences proudly. 7/10

Stillborn - Netherworlds (Black Lodge Records) [Rich Piva]

Generally, bands that try to sound too much like Type O Negative fail miserably. Either they are way too close to the Type O sound (see; October Noir, it is scary and almost wrong how much they sound like the band) or they just don’t really get the vibe. The closest record to me that got it was Woods Of Ypres - Woods IV: The Green Album. It had the Type O doom and despair but also that sense of humour that was a bit more hidden but ever-present on that record (RIP David Gold).  

I wrote the above as I was putting together my review for the new Stillborn album, Netherworlds. I went into the record with zero knowledge about the band and only that they had a Type O thing going on. Well, I am a journalist, so I did some research and it turns out these Swedes started all the way back with their first demo in 1985, when Peter was still hanging off the back of a garbage truck and in Carnivore, so that all went out the window. 

Early Stillborn has the deep vocals but they sound more like a proto metal version of Sisters Of Mercy than they do Type O. The band took a really long break after 1992, releasing a random single in 2003 and finally another new record in 2017 which was very Candlemass meets Type O, which brings us to Netherworlds that stays firmly in the roots of their 2017 record but feels more minimalist than its predecessor, with mostly strong results. 

I hated this record for like the first 7 minutes.  Then I restarted it with a different frame of mind and it quickly grew on me. Neophyte has a weird little riff and is a slower doom chug with vocals so low at times it sounds like he is belching. When the chorus kicks in you hear where the Type O comparisons come from as Mr. Steele seems to emanate from my speakers at one point. Musically there is something sparse to the production, and it really works well. The prominence of the keys and synths makes this record lean more towards the gothic metal side, with the closer, When The End Begins as a good case in point as well as the very spooky children Of Darkness. You get evil amusement park/haunted house vibes from Dead Black Woods in the best possible way of course, as well as the Candlemass worship I mentioned from tracks like Katharsis. 

Albino Flogged In Blue is up there for the song title of the year and is one of my favourites tracks on Netherworlds, probably because it sounds the most like Type O out of all of them. The chunkiest riff comes from Lusus Naturae and is the heaviest track on the record while the addition of female vocals on Motherland adds an extra depth to the album. Is the album a track or two too long? Probably, but the strengths definitely outweigh the weaknesses on Netherworlds.

Stillborn works on their own timetables, so let’s just be grateful that we have Netherworlds in 2024. The shift towards more gothic metal is a good one, keeping this small but mighty discography diverse enough to give us something different every time out, even if it is decades apart from releases. Check out this and the old Stillborn stuff if you are not familiar like me, you are in for a treat. 8/10

Cages For Preachers - The Sleep That Knows No Waking (Self Released) [Rich Piva]

I am pretty sure that none of the four members of Manchester UK’s Cages For Preachers were alive when the bands that they are influenced by were in their heyday, but if Greta Van Fleet can shamelessly play Led Zeppelin dress up then why not can these guys sound like they come out of the US Pacific Northwest circa 1993? Yeah, you get some tuned down, very grungy guitars ala Soundgarden and Alice In Chains, some radio friendly alt rock like, I don’t know, let’s say Dishwalla, and even some vibes from the band that the GVF boys worship at the altar of.

Here is the difference though, and I will make some people mad here, but I feel so much more soul from CFP on their debut record, The Sleep That Knows No Waking, then I have on anything that I ever heard from GVF. I‘m sorry, but while the latter sound like they cooked up their stuff in a lab with lots of dudes in suits, Cages bring us something that feels real and somehow fresh and new even borrowing from all of those legendary bands. 

The chunky down tuned riff on the opener, The Blind Leading The Blind, is a nice heavy grunge type thing with a very cool riff and great vocals. I mean it is way more Superunknown then it is Fopp, but it is some nice quality grungy metal and you can tell these kids are up for it. You get something similar with tracks like Soon Your Day Will Come that includes nice and heavy wall of sound guitars and sweet echoed vocals and the slower burn but equally heavy So Young. Jeff Buckley is used as a reference point in their bio, and I guess this is what they were going for with the ballad type track Slipping Away. 

This is where the 90s radio rock stuff comes to the forefront, but it almost feels like a cross between that and an 80s metal ballad. It’s a good song, but I prefer when the boys are more flannel and less hairspray, like on Let Me In, that once again musically channels late period Soundgarden and even includes a Cantrell inspired riff. This one rips and is one of my favourites on here. 

The Sleep That Knows No Waking is filled with serious 90s love, including Heaven Has Fallen and False Idols that include more great vocals and additional cool Seattle style riffs. I am usually not disappointed when a band has a song named after the band, and this is no exception, as Cages For Preachers is my favourite track on the record and really brings the metal side out of the band. Great stuff. The record closes with two more rippers, Bury The Hatchet and Adrenaline, which I particularly dig.

I mean what is not borrowed from these days? To me it is all about where it’s coming from, and the eleven songs on Cages For Preachers seems nothing but real.  Nothing built in a lab here, just four kids leveraging the best music from the past to create an excellent debut record with The Sleep That Knows No Waking. 8/10

Ethos - An Eye For An Eye (Self Released) [Matt Bladen]

Ethos have drawn comparisons to Muse, Circa Survive, Porcupine Tree, The Dear Hunter and Between The Buried And Me, so you get modern prog rock with some post-hardcore screams, pianos and bags of emotion. Inspired by classical music as much as they are metal and rock it makes for a level of musicianship that is right up in the higher reaches but never skimps on the melody or the accessibility. This EP from the Atlanta based band is based around the Archetype Suite, it makes up the majority of this EP, following the Muse-like Holy Water and opener Begin With An End.

The Archetype Suite is a long running concept that has had it's beginnings on their last releases but Parts IV to VI are part of this album and continue the storyline established in Part I on their last album Shade & Soil with a cinematic sound that features stings and pianos, spread across three new sections and a promise of more to come. It's with this suite that Ethos display their progressive chops and as such their talent. Their non concept tracks are good but maybe are little too close to the likes of BTBAM, but The Archetype Suite they lean more towards the likes of Coheed & Cambria. 

An Eye For An Eye gives you two new stand alone tracks and the next chapters in Ethos' magnum opus', If you've not heard the band before, this is an easy access point to what they do well. /710 

Reviews: Kaipa, Altar Of Oblivion, Cold Wives, Anvil (Reviews By Matt Bladen, Joe Guatieri, GC & Paul Hutchings)

Kaipa - Sommargryningsljus (Inside Out Music) [Matt Bladen]

It's weird isn't it? Certain record labels make me think of certain bands. Inside Out Music weirdly makes me think of Kaipa. Back when I voraciously bought CD's, every little inlay catalogue from the label seemed to feature another Kaipa record, their bright, gleeful album covers standing out in what was usually a colour palate of black and blue. The reason for that is that Sommargryningsljus is the 10th album that Swedish prog legends have released on the label.

 
They signed when they looked to release their 2002 comeback album Notes From The Past and have stayed ever since, this being 15th album overall for a band founded by keyboardist/vocalist Hans Ludin in 1973 (joined by The Flower Kings' Ronie Stolt in 1974), but it features songs, Seven Birds and Spiderweb Train, that were written for the 2002 comeback. So this is the way Kaipa are choosing to celebrate the 25th anniversary on the label. They are part of concept though, the folk/prog band writing Sommargryningsljus (Summer Dawn Light) as a nocturnal journey from dusk until dawn.

Kaipa have the their style nailed, Ludin has 60 years in the music business to draw on so can create musical tapestries that will colour this journey-like record. He's flanked by a band who have been part of Kaipa for a long time; the duelling vocals of Patrik Lundström and Aleena Gibson working very well after all this time together. Jonas Reingold (The Flower Kings) supplies the jazzy basslines with most recent member (though it's been almost 10 years) drummer Darby Todd as guitarist Per Nilsson shows off his non metal side (his day job is in Scar Symmetry).

Elongated folky prog rock which owes a lot to Yes, Van Der Graaf Generator, Renaissance and even The Enid, they capture the attention with their broad artistic strokes and the addition of violin from Elin Rubinsztein, recorders and whistles from Fredrik Lindqvist, especially on Reveleationview, while Olof Åslund adds saxophone. It's prog rock that's been refined over a few decades so it was always going to impress. Welcome the sun with Sommargryningsljus. 8/10

Altar Of Oblivion - In The Cesspit Of Decay (From The Vaults) [Joe Guatieri]

Altar of Oblivion are a long-running Doom Metal band from Denmark, forming all the way back in 2006 and they’re here with their latest full-length, In The Cesspit Of Decay.  

We begin with track one, Nothing Grows From Hallowed Ground, with the use of the keyboards and the forever moving guitars, I could immediately tell what this band was going for. That being a sound that is a love letter to 80s metal, another big sign of this was the operatic vocals which weren’t really my bag, they were attempting to trap me with the catchy refrain sung within the chorus. 

Moving on from there we have track five, Altar Of Oblivion, with a song named after the band I had high hopes for it. One of the few off the record on the shorter side, it sounds like a long journey stomping through the desert. A soundscape filled to the brim with a lead guitar, big pounding drums, the best vocals yet with a deep delivery and of course keyboards yet again, all portraying the strong winds blowing on your person in hopes to whisk you away. It all paints the picture of the album cover very well, combining grit and fantasy, reminds me of Lord Of The Rings in a way. 

Continuing we have my favourite song on the album with that being track eight, Damnation. It was the first moment throughout In The Cesspit Of Decay which genuinely wowed me, its quiet nature came at the perfect time. Two guitars harmonize with each other and dance across a plain, whilst a lone flutist observes, sitting on a rock in the distance, hauntingly beautiful. 

Cesspit Of Decay is definitely one for more patient listeners, it tested me and made me worry with the midpoints that it had, it left me wanting more. Thankfully there were a handful of bright sparks which pulled me back in again and kept me going. I consider it to be one of those rare albums where it’s considerably back-loaded, saving the best till last. There is a solid structure to this fortress but it’s missing a mystery. 7/10

Cold Wives - Cold Wives (Roman Numeral) [GC]

The word ‘’supergroup’’ is used in the press release for the Cold Wives self-titled release and that word usually fills me with dread because it seems like the people involved are way to up themselves and already think what they have released is gong to be the best thing ever and for me the bands that Cold Wives are made up of wouldn’t really classify as well known, Made out of Babies? Dining with Dogs? Red Sparowes? Honestly? Never heard of them! Unsane & Glassing are also represented and that’s where my familiarity ends, anyway, enough negativity what does it sound like I hear you ask?

It doesn’t start off particularly well to be honest Unwashed And Misunderstood is sparse sounding and a bit messy and is probably leaning toward sounding like Unsane and while its not really a bad song it just sort of squeals and shouts but never really hits the mark and is bout 2 minutes too long, Foreign Matters is more of the same its trying its best to be chaotic and unhinged and the timescales are all over the place mixing the dull thud of post punk with the noisecore aesthetic and trying its best to sound like no one has control, while having ALL the control and honestly its just doing nothing for me so far. 

Terra Prime does fair a little better as it has a rich and driving nature to the slow and pulsing basslines and more paired back guitars, the vocals mix together well and create a more dark and menacing edge to the track showing that the previous chaotic nature of their sound is not really their best form of attack as on this song you can feel yourself just sitting and pay full attention to everything that is happening where as previously I just wanted the track to end and quickly and with Shrink they actually manage to meld the 2 contrasting styles together very well, you get the guitars that are creating the crazy dissonance and the bass and drums keep the more hypnotic sway going and it makes for something interesting and challenging which is probably what they were aiming for at the beginning but totally missed the mark. 

Barney, King Of Rubble is clearly a very stupid song title (wrong - Ed) but musically continues the streak of decent songs on the album with more sparse guitars being led forward by a driving bass line and some nice mesmerizing drum work then when the vocals arrive they add the chaotic feel back into the mix and once again find the point to mix it all together to create something uneasy and off kilter on Furnace Tapes, the sound has now become more solidified and I am now finally getting the feeling for what is being done. 

The sound continues to be uncomfortable and haunting and completely 100 miles away from the beginning of the album which I am pleased about because once you scratch the surface of their sound you can tell Cold Wives have a lot to offer BUT at the same time it has to be said that the closing tracks Supervention and Eventide don’t drastically change the sound one bit and are more of the same and they are both decent enough, but all started to get a bit to one paced and samey, they did mix it up slightly on Foxhole Buddies with a bit of a punk influence thrown in for good measure and rounded everything off nicely.

After a ropey start Cold Wives really came into its own in the middle of the album and carried a good sound all the way towards the end and actually became a decent listen! It created an uneasy and claustrophobic atmosphere and really gripped you and when they hit that mark it was a good listen, shame it wasn’t from the very beginning though otherwise this review would have been much higher. 7/10

Anvil – One And Only (AFM Records) [Paul Hutchings]

Album number 20 for the Canadians who show no signs of giving up, and who can blame them. Their most recent UK tour saw sold out shows across the country, but how many of those who filled the clubs have purchased music from the trio in the last couple of decades? Yes, there will always be a few diehard fans, but do you genuinely have Legal At Last, Juggernaut Of Justice or Back To Basics in your record collection?

 
Steve ‘Lips’ Kudlow, Robb Reiner and bassist Chris Robertson have been a solid unit for the past decade and once again, the musicianship is of a high standard on One And Only. Reiner’s drumming has always been underrated in my opinion, whilst Kudlow isn’t a bad guitarist by any means. He’s just a bloody awful vocalist and lyricist.

 
12 songs stretch over 45-minutes, and whilst they are delivered with the usual juggernaut tempo, some of the lyrics are absolutely laughable. On Dead Mans Shoes for example, the chorus is way too repetitive, with the words “wear a pair, if you dare” what you’d expect from a 12-year-old. Rhyming is stretched to the limit, as heard on single Feed Your Fantasy, one of the duller songs here and a real plodder. “Have a dream come true, it’s what you do, loving it too, through and through”; “Live to win, with a grin”. Yes, this is all about doing what you want, an admirable motto, but the song is just dire.

It's when Anvil get the bit between their teeth that things get a bit better. Dead Man’s Shoes may have a ropey chorus, but it rattles along at a fair pace, with some of Kudlow’s best guitar work in evidence and a huge drum sound that ensures everything is on target. In terms of subject matter, Kudlow has always been on point. Fight For Your Rights sees him raise the fist for music against the corporations, whilst Condemned Liberty is a rallying call for freedom of expression and rights. No band has been exploited more than Anvil, and Kudlow draws on personal experience throughout. You can’t knock his energy or enthusiasm.

 
Ultimately, whether you can tolerate the out of tone vocal delivery and the rather routine song structures determines if you can listen to One And Only more than once. Blind Rage, the closing song here, is a classic example of all that is both wrong and brilliant with this band. Reiner’s thunderous drumming powers the song, the riffs are hard and heavy, but the vocals threaten to undo all the good work. I’ve given Anvil scores from 4 to 8 in the past. One And Only isn’t brilliant by a long way, but there’s something bizarrely endearing about them which you can’t fail to like. 6/10

Reviews: Wage War, Split Iris, Adelon, Spawned From Hate (Reviews By Matt Bladen)

Wage War - Stigma (Fearless Records)

On their fifth album, Florida band Wage War boost not only their heavy riffs but also their pop credibility. With modern radio metal at their core, they have grooves and distorted riffs which will get the crowds moving, alongside this though they have hooks that would catch Moby Dick.

With the massive choruses on Magnetic and Blur, Cody Quistad's clean vocals are used brilliantly, though Briton Bond's hard hitting screams lead a track such as Tombstone where aggression is key. Infecting these metal tunes is a load of EDM/synthwave pulses, adding a dancey bottom end on Happy Hunting as Hellbent brings back the grit and angst.

In My Blood is built on Stephen Kluesener's drumming, as melodies return for Is This How It Ends? The leads of Seth Blake on top of the crunchy riffs from Quistad and bassist Chris Gaylord's for Nail5. Wage War want to keep you moving, playing earworms that even hardened metal heads will be humming for days. 7/10

Split Iris - Bloodred Dusk (Seek And Strike)

Split Iris are a djent band, no doubt about it, perhaps djent is a dirty word now and ‘modern metal’ is more the in thing but these Finns play djent, adding a dash of deathcore brutality to the palm muted breakdowns and metalcore loud/soft dynamics. Formed during the pandemic they quickly set about recording, Bloodred Dusk being their newest full length.

Based around the concept of “humanity and its looming end” it leans on aspects of hubris, from losing all hope to finding bright moments in the darkest days. The concept is driven by the emotive performances of the band on this record, especially in the duality of the vocals, shifting from screams to clean singing, there’s clarity and emotion in both as the songs such as No Fear showcase. The Veil has that stop start chunky riffage of a band like Monuments, the screams and growls fading into haunting cleans.

The cinematic elements of the concept album are brought forth on Oath where there's a sweeping atmospheres with synths in the background the clean vocals soaring as the title track calls out to the more aggressive styles or djent with the longest run time of the album bringing all of the elements together, that breaks down into dissonance at the end leading into the ambient Flood which ends the album proper.

Bloodred Dusk is a djent record that sticks to the spirit of the genres beginnings. 7/10

Adelon – Resurgence (Self Released)

Swiss tech death band Adelon who cite Decapitated, Gojira, Obscura and Beyond Creation as influences, you could also add Rivers Of Nihil too due to the use of saxophone on Fleshless Vertebrae. Any way you slice it, Adelon have ‘a sound’ as they use a lot of programmed drums and keys/synths to create atmospheres behind their technical guitar playing, it’s that sci-fi/extra-terrestrial style of approach that many tech death bands use these days, adding effects to the vocals to make them sound like robot on the opener as the cinematic flourishes join the gaps between outright blasting.

Adelon are quite a young band but you can hear their inspirations the addition of Alex Sedin, owner of Ghostalgy Prods as a sound engineer helping them to fulfil their ideas as engineer/co-producer as well as mixing and mastering. He makes this record sound as professional as it does, though the band are all very talented with two of them handling multiple instruments though the idea that they have a drum programmer and not a drummer is a little alien to me. This aside Resurgence showcases a band with a lot of ability, however if they’re looking to perform I think a real drummer would really help their sound feel a bit more natural. 7/10

Spawned From Hate – Elective Amputation (Brutal Mind)

West Midlands based brutal death metal band Spawned From Hate have finally released their debut full length and the trio have had a little help on this one. Formed in 2012 and consisting of David Hudson (bass), Ewan Gibb (guitar) and Daniel Phipps (vocals) they like so many other bands used technology to fill in the drum parts of previous releases but with Elective Amputation they looked for a real life drummer to blast away behind their extremely brutal style of death metal.

They hired Italian drummer Giulio Galati who is known as the powerhouse behind Hideous Divinity and due to his blistering performance, the guitars and bass were tweaked to match it. It means that Spawned From Hate have spent a lot of time to make this album as brutal and technical as they can. From the opening moments it’s a relentless battery of thick syrupy chugging, full bore blasting and technical shifts in pace.

They say they are inspired by the likes of Suffocation, Deeds Of Flesh and Inveracity and they certainly achieve a similar kind of mechanical aggression as those bands with tracks such as Butcher My Master, Bane Consumption and PDU. The guitar playing ferocious as the bass cuts in with flickers of virtuosity and yes of course the real drumming makes a difference for me though, it’s the vocals as there’s a lot of technique in these bowel shredding roars, the use of some disgusting vocal fry on Supreme Being is impressive.

Whether you like Elective Amputation is totally dependent on whether you like brutal death metal, if you do there’s lots to like, if not then it won’t win you over. 7/10

Reviews: Nothing More, Scene Queen, Warhog, Ainu (Reviews By SJ, Matt Bladen, Paul Hutchings & James Jackson)

Nothing More – Carnal (Better Noise Music) [SJ]

Carnal is a pure translation of Nothing More’s soul, tackling themes of the ugly primal truth of the human experience. Philosophy is emphasized throughout the album in its intentional lyrics and culmination of experimental sounds. It is lyrically expressive, emotive, and endlessly playable.

Throughout the 15 tracks, there are 5 interludes woven which all present snippets of audio clips from Alan Watts with ambient melodic and synth backing. Alan Watts is best known for interpreting Eastern philosophy for Western audiences, such as Hinduism, Buddhism etc. 

The musing interludes highlight the impact of philosophy in the album. Carnal, Head, Heart, Sight and Sound provide an opportunity for reflection as you experience the introspective journey the album takes you on. It begins with Jonny Hawkins softly expressing “Everything is better when you’re dreaming…the world fades out…” followed by Alan Watts’ rhetoric on the power of breathing and to “Let go” amping you up for the next track. 

The interludes dispense ethereal layers of dreams, the pain of human existence, the need to flow like water and swimming against the tide. Culminating in an epiphany and exploring holiness in a person and how people react “…they can’t make up their minds whether they’re saints or devils.” The provocative nature of philosophy is that the audience can interpret it through their own bias, and Nothing More utilise this to tap into universal experiences with which we can resonate. Albeit repeat listeners of Carnal, may skip these interludes.

 
Aside from the interludes, the tracks provide a stellar musical experience with a few standouts that will be on heavy rotation, especially the collaborations. House On Sand (ft. Eric V. from I Prevail) is the heaviest song on the album. It punches you from the start with heavy instruments and the goose bump worthy Rationalise. The pre-chorus is absorbing and perfectly leads into the chorus itself, which you will have re-playing in your head long after you stopped listening to the song.

 
Another standout is Angel Song (ft David Draiman). The vocal stomping chants are so catchy and appear periodically through the track with the drum beats and guitar amplifying the rhythm. Then it kicks in with the collision of the expansive and iconic vocal dichotomy between gritty David Draiman and Jonny. The sickening solo guitar riff after the second chorus is a showcase in itself!

 
If It Doesn’t Hurt is another dominant track with the echoes of “If it doesn’t hurt at all, then it doesn’t mean a thing.” Over the booming bass. Lyrically it expresses the pain of being in a toxic relationship, having the life sucked out of you whilst simultaneously holding on to hope. Freefall is an easy listening experience as it’s less experimental with a formula tied to more radio friendly vibe where Jonny expresses feelings of pain “…I’ve got pain no one knows…” and loneliness. Stuck (ft Sinitzer) is another heavy song where the metalcore tone overlays lyrics of fighting for closure “This is for the people who can’t break through. I used to feel just like you.”

 
There are tracks which provide a lull in the middle, but it picks back up again at the end. Although some may not want to experience the deep philosophical contemplation, Nothing More excel in creating an introspective, vulnerable, and potent album that is best experienced when it’s listened to from beginning to end as a piece of art. Through its raw vulnerability, this album could provide a conduit to musically heal you. 8/10

Scene Queen - Hot Singles In Your Area (Hopeless Records) [Matt Bladen]

Can as White CIS man review “Bimbocore” without it being controversial? Probably not, someone somewhere is going to disagree, so without debating what “bimbocore” actually lets stick to the facts. Scene Queen is a project started by Hannah Collins, to try to subvert many of the heavily male stereotypes in the metal/deathcore scene, using various shades of Barbie pink and powder blue seeing her name on posters and merch next to bands such as Fit For An Autopsy is a little like seeing Party Cannon on a death metal bill.

While the image is different, the music is very much in the same style of aggressive, beatdown heavy deathcore, short cuts, nothing much above 3 minutes, of slamdance inspiring metal. Collins screaming, shouting and growling like all the best singers in the genre but it’s what she’s growling and screaming about that is important. 

Throwing up a middle finger salute to the often very macho and misogynist metal scene, Hot Singles In Your Area, which is a brilliant double meaning as all of these songs have single potential, especially the emo influenced title track, the album is defiantly feminist, LGBTQIA+ positive and discusses Hannah exploring her sexuality in her 20’s.

With tracks such as 18+, which has a massive hook and calls out those bands who exploit women, Whips & Chains taking vengeance on sleazebags against some rap metal backing, the influence of Wes Borland audible on the riff of Pink Push Up Bra, MILF adds some country beginning switching places with crushing riffs. Scene Queen brings in some allies too as electronic rock duo Wargasm add extra danger to Girls Gone Wild, The Ready Set trading bars on POV while ‘hyperpop’ star 6arelyhuman adds robotic vocals to Stuck, that definitely serves.

Musically diverse, aesthetically different and lyrically uncompromising, it's a homage to 2000's pop and metal, for anyone who was there they'll pick up lots of references, but through a different lens. While debate can rage about what bimbcore is and whether it's good or bad for women in the music business. Scene Queen will become a superstar and while musically not always what I would listen to, though I liked most of the record, Climax especially. I understand why there is so much buzz. 7/10

Warhog – The Dystopian Chronicles Vol 1 (Self Released) [Paul Hutchings]

I knew nothing about Warhog but a quick Google reveals that they are a four-piece from North Texas, formed in 2020. The band comprise Scott Beetley on vocals and guitar, Eric Kendall on guitar, bassist Justin Hopper and drummer Robert Powers. Debut album Call Of The Voyager was released in 2022 and we now turn our attention to the new EP, The Dystopian Chronicles Vol 1. The first in a trilogy of releases that explores the darker sides of humanity – violence, the lust for power, obsession and deceit through a narrative set in a dystopian future.

Warhog play a cross between groove and traditional heavy metal and I must be honest, there was nothing here that really lit the fires. Five tracks over 25 minutes begins with an orchestral introduction – a two-minute piece called Already There. It’s a gentle, melancholic start, leading into the first single, Hunt Of The Cybertooth. “In a dystopian future world plagued by crime, the only thing between you and total lawlessness is the Cybertooth. Part machine, part beast, and sanctioned by the government, the Cybertooth hunts its prey by night. Criminals beware!” Although the concept it totally metal, the lyrics are average, the music is routine, and it’s all a bit flat.

 
With such a grand concept, one at least expects the music to grab you by the throat. Sadly, it doesn’t do that for one minute, and despite attempts to mix it up, it gets no better. Emperor suggests promise before defaulting into standard metal fare. There’s nothing to get excited about at all. Rarely have I reviewed a release which does so little to excite me. It’s just bang average. Inoffensive, just nothing stirring. Next is dreadful, the lyrics drop to a new low, and it’s time to reach for the off button. I’m afraid that Warhog, whilst full of enthusiasm and endeavour, are just not a band that floats my boat in the slightest. Take a listen. It’s just not for me. 3/10

Ainu - Ainu (Subsound Records) [James Jackson]

This self titled EP from the Genova based trio of Dani, Jacco and Gelso on Guitar/synths, Bass and Drums respectively, notice the lack of vocalist, is a mostly instrumental piece, with a few spoken word elements thrown in for good measure, for the most part these are in a language obviously not English, given the band’s location I’d hazard a guess at Italian, my ignorance in languages other than my own is criminal. 

I’m going to skip forward a track or two to highlight the one I found particularly interesting, the comparatively short (I’ll come back to that) D.E.V.S; as with all of the tracks on the EP it is predominantly an instrumental, this contains an English language spoken piece, but its duration and composition, a certain folk horror vibe to it, that feels more like an intro piece than a mid album break; this would have then led into Il Faro, a twelve minute epic of genre spanning riffs and experimental noise.

Apart from the aforementioned D.E.VS, the tracks are lengthy, there’s a Prog influence within the song writing and that reflects not only on the music but in the song duration too and whilst I’m used to tracks that push past the usual limits, Doom Metal, the lack of vocals and therefore lack of sing-along-ability is something that I can’t quite get along with.

I have never been a fan of the instrumental track, a brief intro to the album aside of course, but a full song that has no lyrics just feels wrong to me and I’ve often thought them to be a waste of not only time but potential and on those few albums I own that contain such a track, my immediate impulse is to press Skip.

 
So unfortunately, despite the obvious talent that the band possess and indeed portray, their love for their work and the passion in which they play, this album of instrumental Psychedelia/Post Metal is not one that I will be returning to. 5/10