Carnophage– Matter Of A Darker Nature (Transcending Obscurity Records) [Zak Skane]
In every 8 years the 5 piece metal outfit from Turkiye will bring another offering that is filled with brutal and technical death metal that is as ravenous in nature but intricate and articulate in it’s delivery. This year the band brings us their third release Matter of a Darker Nature following after their previous releases Monument and Deformed Nature/Genetic Nightmare.
Through out the 8 track album Onur Özçelik brings in some surgically accurate blast beats straight from opening track In My Bones which goes from swift and fast traditional blast to hammer blast in one fell swoop, whilst on the following tracks such as Until The Darkness Kills The Light is where the Onur brings in the grooves in some odd styled meter patters. Tracks like Matter Of A Darker Nature Onur strips back the technicality and equips some double thunderous double kick pattern to complement Mert, Serhat and Bengis guitars.
Speaking of the guitar work on this album Mert and Serhat guitar performance goes from breakneck note flying speeds with songs like Underneath The Horrendous One, and the Death Works Over Time with its flight of the bumble bee speeds with shredding pedal tone riffs that sound like Chuck Schuldiner on a thousand caffeine shots, whilst the jazzy phrased solos in Underneath The Horrendous will put bands like Opeth and Archspire through their paces.
Meanwhile the boys still know how to bring in the caveman riffs especially on tracks like Matter Of A Darker Nature that bring moody arpeggios whilst The Day We Avenge puts the caveman factor up to 10 with some chromic chunky riffs. Orals low growls still sound just as consistent as he did on their debut album Monument, but the production on this album has made Oral cut a lot more in the mix in comparison to their previous releases by making the low frequencies from his growls not get too lost in the low end, but still keeping his demonically deep delivery.
Carnophage Matter Of A Darker Nature is tech death as tech death comes. The guitars sound sharp and precise like a surgeons blade whilst still sounding as bludgeoning as a caveman's club, Whilst the drums sound accurate and punchy from it’s neck snapping blast beats to it pounding machine gun blasted simple double kick grooves whilst the vocals sound as brutally Low. In comparison to the bands back catalogue, I would say that this is their best sounding album to date since Monument. Everything sounds a lot more balanced and well captured, but also doesn’t have that honky mid range sound that Deformed Future/Genetic Nightmare had.
For fans of Suffocation and Archspire. 7/10
ODA - ODA (RidingEasy Records) [Rich Piva]
Every re-release that RidingEasy Records puts out of a lost proto/hard/southern/whatever rock band from the 60s and 70s is essential listening to me. The sheer volume of amazing music that I have discovered from their Brown Acid series and now all of the full length represses is crazy. The crack research team at RE HQ are doing us a serious solid brining all of these bands and records to light.
Some of my favourites have been from Fraction, Back Jack, Parchment Farm, Southern Steel, and Mammoth, just to name a few. The self-titled record from ODA falls into, and near the top of, this category too. Their self-titled album was released in 1971 and rips, with bands like Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, The Who, and other bands of thank ilk and time period as reference points. How this was not a big heavy rock album of the time I have no idea.
You get Led Zep like riffing on About You. Serious The Who vibes musically on Mable, particularly the Moon type effort on the drums. Vocally the band sounds like none of the bands I mentioned, but maybe more like Free, as outlined on Wasn’t Very Long, or maybe early The Doobie Brothers, but if they rocked even more. The proto is strong with ODA, evidence being songs like Gabriel and Hard Times.
You get Led Zep like riffing on About You. Serious The Who vibes musically on Mable, particularly the Moon type effort on the drums. Vocally the band sounds like none of the bands I mentioned, but maybe more like Free, as outlined on Wasn’t Very Long, or maybe early The Doobie Brothers, but if they rocked even more. The proto is strong with ODA, evidence being songs like Gabriel and Hard Times.
The band has a bit of Southern boogie for a band from California, with a track like Cheated as a good example, but then goes in a very unexpected direction with excellent results. The band also excels when they throw organ into the mix like they do on my favourite track, Give It Up and on Chance as well. Overall, this is 12 tracks of heavy 70s rock goodness that had no business not being heard by the masses at the time.
ODA should have been huge, but let us take solace in the fact that RidingEasy is at least bringing this lost classic to the masses in 2024. This album rocks and if you like your rock covered in the 70s, the real life 70s, not the bands pretending today, then go listen to this ODA record ASAP. 8/10
ODA should have been huge, but let us take solace in the fact that RidingEasy is at least bringing this lost classic to the masses in 2024. This album rocks and if you like your rock covered in the 70s, the real life 70s, not the bands pretending today, then go listen to this ODA record ASAP. 8/10
Black Smoke Trigger - Horizons (Self Released) [Matt Bladen]
Having watched them supporting Bruce Dickinson earlier this year, New Zealand's Black Smoke Trigger impressed but didn't move too far out of their radio rock alt/post grunge style. Formed by virtuoso guitarist Wallace and vocalist Baldrick, Black Smoke Trigger remind me a lot of Alter Bridge on their earlier records before they became the arena beating act they are.
Having watched them supporting Bruce Dickinson earlier this year, New Zealand's Black Smoke Trigger impressed but didn't move too far out of their radio rock alt/post grunge style. Formed by virtuoso guitarist Wallace and vocalist Baldrick, Black Smoke Trigger remind me a lot of Alter Bridge on their earlier records before they became the arena beating act they are.
Slick production, from Nick Raskulinecz, harder radio rock riffs and soulful vocals, it's a debut album that may have been released 20 years too late, but there is an audience who will lap this up in their droves. I'm talking of course the Sirius XM/Planet Rock, mainstream radio rock stations, where the moody beats of bassist Dan Fulton and Josh Te Maro on The Way Down and Proof Of Life, as Baldrick booms on the ballads such as Perfect Torture or the sneering Learn To Crawl while Wallace brings heavy riffs and melodic leads.
Horizons is uber slick and has experience in every moment but it never really feels like it's doing anything new. Very much aimed at a US audience, they'll find a big audience but I'm still yet to be convinced. 6/10
Fourth Dominion - Diana’s Day (Fiadh Productions) [James Jackson]
Fourth Dominion stand somewhere between Alt and Goth Rock and Diana’s Day follows on from 2017’s debut album Wings Of A Dying Crow. Digging into the band a little, there’s a history and agenda that you the reader can peruse at your leisure, if it’s reflected in the lyrics then I personally missed it.
Musically there’s a promise of harder, darker material that doesn’t quite reach its peak, there’s plenty of reasonable riffs, acoustic guitar parts, seemingly intricate bass lines and melodies throughout the album, but they don’t amount to anything if substance. I get the droning faux melancholy of radio friendly Goth but it’s a dull album and I can’t really say anything more about it.
I’m sure that there’s a place for it somewhere but it’s not within my collection; I felt it meanders through mediocrity, I left the room a few times and genuinely don’t think I missed anything at all. No, just no. 3/10
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