Reviews: Ensiferum, Feral, Sun & Sail Club, Veonity (Reviews By Zak Skane, GC, Rich Piva & Liam Williams)

Ensiferum - Winter Storm (Metal Blade Records) [Zak Skane]

Aurora opens up the album with setting the folk tone with their tried and tested Celtic instrumentation spanning from guitars strumming in folk like timbers playing some majestic melodies before the rock arrangements comes to remind of the battle to come with its pounding drums and melodic leads before we get into the bands first song of the album. 

The following track Winter Storm Vigilantes brings us into classic metal territory with it following with a classic bombastic drum fills accompanied by pounding triplet kick beats soaring through the track whilst the rhythm guitars march alongside it. The brass sections elevate the track new godly levels whilst the vocals comes in hoards ranging from the demonic war cries to godly harmonised baritone vocals that brings us tales and verse through start to finish. 

Long Cold Winter Of Sorrow And Strife brings in some Celtic tinged lead guitar melodies whilst the tempos come down a notch to help the lyrical tales come into full fruition whilst the baritone vocals come in to storm over the chorus sections like a biblical event. 

The god like sounding choruses in Father Land rain over the ravenous energies whilst the classic pedal notes riffage and sharp accurate tremolo picking hails over the track like a rain arrows before the track declines into gentle Celtic instrumentation of marching snare patterns and soulful violins. The love balled of Scars Of My Heart opens up with some green sleeves  style harpsichord arrangements before the band follow it up with some female lead vocals and flute melodies that would move the hearts of the most coldest of men. 

Other highlights on the album are The Howl which comes in with classic melodic death metal flare with the catchy lead melodies complimenting the harsh vocal with reminds me of classic in flames energy especially when the guitars are locked in thunderous fashion and The short and sweet closing track Victorious charges the album to fast paced climax with frantic double kicks and wrist snapping riffs, whilst the vocals calls for the instruction to the listener to charge with till the final bars of the song. Ensiferum keep it tried and tested yet again with their 9th studio release. 

The perfect orchestrations on tracks like Aurora, Father Land and Scars In My Heart sound like that have they been taken out of a Skyrim and Watcher style sound track whilst the metal arrangement just slice threw the mix with pounding rhythms and razor sharp guitar riffs that are accompanying the god like vocals. For fans of Children Of Bodom, Turisas and Eluveitie. 8/10

Feral - To Usurp The Thrones (Transcending Obscurity Records) [GC]

If you’re into death metal it is probably safe to say you know the record label Transcending Obscurity and if they are about to release a band from the DM Mecca Sweden you may want to sit up and pay attention, that is what I have today in the form of Feral’s latest album To Usurp The Throne. It all blasts into life with To Drain The World Of Light and you instantly know there will be fucking about with these lads, the guitars from Markus Lindahl and Sebastian Lejon are furious and full sounding but still have that disgusting scuzzy edge needed, Roger Markström’s drumming is as on point as you would expect and drives the song forward with a brutal precision and David Nilsson sound like a man possessed with a rage demon, it all adds up to create a fast and savage sounding death metal treat.

They slow down the opening on Vile Medication and mix the much lauded OSDM sound of the Florida legends of old but still has enough of the Swedish DNA to mix in and create a wonderful clash of contrasting throwback sounds that doesn’t sound like its stuck in the past, it sounds like its celebrating it and introducing it to a new era of fans, Deformed Mentality is an absolute whirlwind of horribleness in the best possible way, it starts off in such a wonderfully chaotic way and midway manages to insert the sort of groove you only really get with top quality death metal and it all meshes perfectly and creates something hectic and beautifully insane. 

Bound To The Dead just continues the onslaught and gives you no room to compose your thoughts or really prepare for what’s happening, there is no let up here and they just keep the intensity levels up to 100 with more apocalyptically sounding anger, with the The Devouring Storm they now decide to reign in the speed and show a completely different side to their sound with a slow and measure doomy influence seeping into the song which finally lets you hear just what Viktor Klingstedt adds to the whole body of the sounds. 

As the more roomy song allows for his bass to really stand out and musically this is just behemoth of a track and probably one of the stand out songs because it shows the variation they have because of course about halfway through they blast you to pieces again in glorious fashion. Spirits Without Rest is just relentless and from the second it begins it just drags you in and never lets up, the pure rage on show here is amazing and they even show a little hardcore influence too which for me is an absolute dream and it all flows seamlessly into Decimated which if I hadn’t of noticed could just have been a part of the last song anyway, it’s not and it’s another banger! 

Phantoms Of Antiquity is a bit more mid-paced, not exactly fast or slow, sort of just enough and it has all the needed ingredients to keep you interested all the way through but that’s about it really, feels like the drop of pace here is slightly misjudged? And with Soaked In Blood it’s a totally different story, its back to the dizzying pace and full throttle fury so the lull is already over and kicked right to the curb and then Into The Ashes Of History is another mix of paces and while it’s a good enough song it might be about 2 minutes longer than it needs to be unfortunately! 

It all ends well though as Stripped Of Flesh is one final blast of brilliant and brutally scuzzy death metal goodness. As expected, the mix of Transcending Obscurity and Swedish death metal has had the brilliant outcome I expected, To Usurp The Throne is everything you would want from a death metal album, its ugly and dark, melodic but insanely heavy, throws in tips to the past but never sounds boring or tired. All in all, this comes highly recommended and really is something any respecting death metal fan should love. 8/10

Sun & Sail Club - Shipwrecked (Heavy Psych Sounds) [Rich Piva]

Sun & Sail Club is the perfect intersection of stoner rock and punk rock. Back after nine years and coming at you from Heavy Psych Sounds, the new record, Shipwrecked, just rips it up non stop for twenty-three quick minutes. 

It doesn’t get much more supergroup on the stoner side, with Bob Balch of Fu Manchu on guitar, Scott Thomas Reeder of Kyuss/The Obsessed/Fireball Ministry on bass, and and Fu Manchu drummer Scott Reeder, combining for what you would expect some stoner riffs and desert grooves be generated from. What you get, however, when you add Tony Adolescent from his namesake band on vocals, is a straight-ahead puck as fuck record that starts the circle pit and doesn’t let up the entire time.

Yeah, there is a little jazz guitar on the first and last tracks, but after that it is just head splitting punk rock with Tony Adolescent’s trademark vocals and stoner rock guys playing their fastest and hardest, and oh how wonderful it is. Right off the bat, Halycon, with it’s bassline and drums starting it off, just rocks the room for just over two minutes with 80s inspired punk rock energy. Balch can do it all, and this includes some serious hardcore punk riffage, like on Torture Garden. 

I love Vector, an old school one minute ripper, and Bird Strike, that shows the amazing drumming skills of Reeder. This is not three chords simple punk. These guys can play, just like the Adolescents could back in the day, just check out tracks like The Color Of War and Drag The River (sludgy Black Flag vibes). Tony Reed, the other guy along with Balch who seems to be everywhere (thankfully), leverages his punk background on the dials, mastering this record perfectly for what it should be.

The punk rock version of me absolutely loves the new Sun & Sail Club record. To hear these stoner rock icons unleashing their inner punk rocker is so much fun, and to hear them partnered with Tony Adolescent is even more of a treat. This is a 23-minute blast of punk energy that no one expected but that everyone should check out. 8/10

Veonity – The Final Element (Scarlet Records) [Liam Williams]

Here we have The Final Element, the latest album by Swedish power metal group Veonity. This new album is the first with new singer Isak Stenvall. This band is a fine example of the power metal genre. Taking inspiration from a lot of the classic sounds of European metal that have been around since the 70's/80’s. With some very flashy guitars, fast and aggressive drums and high pitched singing. As someone who doesn’t typically listen to much power metal, they sound to me like a cross between Iron Maiden and Dragonforce.

The album starts with Premonition. A nice little intro track that gives you a small taste of what to expect from the rest of the album that follows. Some symphonic gang vocals along with some synth, guitars and drums. From then on, it’s all action and no slowing down!

There’s really not a lot I can say about the other tracks. They all follow roughly the same song structure throughout, with the last track, The Fifth Element, being the only big exception. My favourite part of power metal has always been the guitars and this album is full of some really great riffs and solos, with the addition of duel guitars in some parts too, which has always been one of my favourite sounds to hear in rock and metal music. There’s some really great drumming throughout too which helps to keep the pace of the album flowing pretty smoothly from start to finish. 

The vocals are great but it’s not exactly my kind of thing. But I’m sure others will enjoy it. There’s a couple of songs which has the iconic key change for the final chorus which I’ve always thought was a bit cheesy and unnecessary, but to each their own. My favourite tracks are Carry On and Powerstone. These tracks have some really cool riffs and, despite what I’ve just said about the vocals, I actually quite enjoyed the choruses in these 2 tracks. Very catchy, very well done!

A really great album if you’re into power metal. The tracks are well written and performed and the mix is pretty solid. Everyone in the band gives their best performance and it’s a lot of fun to listen to! 8/10