Nicolas Cage Fighter - I Watched You Burn (Bleeding Art Collective) [Mark Young]
For those of you expecting this to be some form of jokey type band, casually dropping in songs that maybe reference the works of the mighty Cage, well you could be forgiven for thinking that. For those of you already experienced with their works, well you know what you are getting. For the likes of me, blissfully ignorant and seeing the associated tags with ‘Core’ at the end of them I didn’t expect to like this as much as I did.
For those of you expecting this to be some form of jokey type band, casually dropping in songs that maybe reference the works of the mighty Cage, well you could be forgiven for thinking that. For those of you already experienced with their works, well you know what you are getting. For the likes of me, blissfully ignorant and seeing the associated tags with ‘Core’ at the end of them I didn’t expect to like this as much as I did.
Reviewing music recently has been a struggle (poor you) but I Watched You Burn has that vibe to it, where every song makes you want to pick the guitar up and jam to it. Everyone who has joined a band has done so because of the music they listen to because it has resonated with them and while I’m a million years away from joining a band (dodgy knees, bone in the leg) music like this still gives me a thrill and reminds me why I wanted to learn how to play guitar in the first place.
I Watched You Burn is the Australian outfits second full-length release and it’s a corker. 10 songs in 37 minutes with nothing wasted, no fat, no unnecessary bits added to pad the run time out. The title track immediately makes a claim as having the most instant impact as they tear into it as if their lives depend on it.
I Watched You Burn is the Australian outfits second full-length release and it’s a corker. 10 songs in 37 minutes with nothing wasted, no fat, no unnecessary bits added to pad the run time out. The title track immediately makes a claim as having the most instant impact as they tear into it as if their lives depend on it.
There is a storming melodic line that underpins it and its one of those that makes you want to play it. In terms of an opening gambit this is just top class, because it brings you everything you could possibly want – extreme vocals spat out like bullets, drumming with all the double bass trimmings and a guitar sound that could split granite.
Valley Of Agony takes that energy and runs with it, delivering a more concentrated blast of aggression with an exceptional break down that is booted to one side by Godforsaken Silence. It sees them kind of calm down, but only in how they pull the riffs together and there is no reduction in the intent behind them. This is showcased at 2.21 where they drop another breakdown. It’s immense.
There have been albums recently that are certainly aggressive and are speedy but don’t have anything more than that in the locker and as a result can only offer that which becomes repetitive and then doesn’t offer anything that warrants repeated listening. Take The Executioner as a prime example of writing a song that melds aggression with skill in picking the ‘right’ riff at the right moment for maximum effect and then tee up Tempest for another prime example of this and know that you are listening to one of the albums of the year.
Getting to the end of the show, Existing Beyond Death and Tarnished Remains are our curtain closers and they are as intense, as fun and heavy as the songs that precede them. They show that it is possible to sustain a monstrous level of energy across an entire album and combine the songcraft to go with it. Although the words have not come easily, I think I can pull my thoughts together succinctly:
This is an absolute belter. From a personal perspective, it has almost everything I want and enjoy from heavy metal. It has that snarling aggression, it has riffs, pummelling drums, and a ferocious need to be held up as the best representation of this style of music. It’s the sort of album that will make people want to write music and form a band. It makes you want to plug in and play and I can only imagine the carnage these songs will cause live. 9/10
Getting to the end of the show, Existing Beyond Death and Tarnished Remains are our curtain closers and they are as intense, as fun and heavy as the songs that precede them. They show that it is possible to sustain a monstrous level of energy across an entire album and combine the songcraft to go with it. Although the words have not come easily, I think I can pull my thoughts together succinctly:
This is an absolute belter. From a personal perspective, it has almost everything I want and enjoy from heavy metal. It has that snarling aggression, it has riffs, pummelling drums, and a ferocious need to be held up as the best representation of this style of music. It’s the sort of album that will make people want to write music and form a band. It makes you want to plug in and play and I can only imagine the carnage these songs will cause live. 9/10
Mortal Scepter - Ethereal Dominance (Xtreem Music) [GC]
Before I get going on this review, I have to admit that barring some of the 80’s & 90’s classics I have never been the biggest fan of thrash metal, I always just find it promises so much more than it ever delivers, there is always a new wave of bands who try to bring things back to prominence and there has been a thrash revival of late but I haven’t really bothered with it to be honest, will Ethereal Dominance by Mortal Scepter win me over and change my mind??
Opening with the title track Ethereal Dominance, I am greeted with a very rough and ready sound that isn’t just thrash, it also has a very death metal edge to it like early era Sepultura, I mean if you didn’t know any better you might think it was them which is a compliment of course, it’s a decent start, even if the track does feel like its 2 minutes too long!
Redshifting To Death obviously isn’t going to stray too far from what you would expect soundwise mixing thrashy sections with a death metal edge and that’s fine as there is a certain charm to the throwback mix that makes everting sound dirty and raw which really helps, then on Blindsight I am sort of already reminded why I’m not the biggest fan of thrash as there is very little change in the sound and everything is just starting to sound the same and the songs don’t have much variation sonically either, its all done well and sounds like there band are putting in the effort but it has all just sounded like one long song so far!
Devolver build their sound on a modern melodic death metal base, sharpened with pretty crushing groove and metalcore edges.
Omegacide Deadrays shifts the focus slightly with a more slowed down death metal element to begin with but then its just back to buzzsaw business as usual, guitars thrash and snarl the drums sound a bit tinny here and its all very nice to listen to but just doesn’t really stir any excitement in me.
If this was me hearing music like this for the first time it might but unfortunately given my advanced years I have heard this many, many times before and Submit To The Crave doesn’t do much to sway my feelings either, they focus fully on the thrash element here and it’s a fast and full blooded beast but it just feels like it lacks something to really grab hold of your interest and about halfway through it all just get a bit boring.
Reverse Paradigm transports you directly back to the early 80’s and sounds like it could have come form that first wave of bands that changed the concept of how metal sounded but this would have been one of those bands that supported everyone and just sort of was there all the time, again its fine, just not really very exciting.
Sense Ablation does have a bit more about it and throws in some genuinely crushing rhythms and mixes the death metal stylings into everything wonderfully the variation and stylistic changes really highlight when is done right there is something appealing about thrash, best song on the album by a country mile!
It then is time for the unnecessarily long Into The Wolves Den which clocks in at an eye wateringly long 10:10 and it really shouldn’t because all they do is slow everything down and try to make this some sort of thrash Bohemian Rhapsody, which nobody needs, it huffs, puffs and drags its feet and just never really goes anywhere and I cannot fathom how they though this was a good way to finish the album?
Have Mortal Scepter convinced me that thrash is worth getting back into and exploring again? Not really, its all well and good throwing back to the glory days and sounding like bands form the styles heyday but you also need to be your self and have a different edge and appeal, unfortunately Ethereal Dominance just doesn’t have that wow factor for me, it was good in places but got a bit predictable and boring very quickly, did I hate it? No, did I love it? No, was it just ok and worth a listen? Yes, but that’s about it. 6/10
Devolver - Non Compos Mentis (Self Released) [Martin Brown]
Have Mortal Scepter convinced me that thrash is worth getting back into and exploring again? Not really, its all well and good throwing back to the glory days and sounding like bands form the styles heyday but you also need to be your self and have a different edge and appeal, unfortunately Ethereal Dominance just doesn’t have that wow factor for me, it was good in places but got a bit predictable and boring very quickly, did I hate it? No, did I love it? No, was it just ok and worth a listen? Yes, but that’s about it. 6/10
Devolver - Non Compos Mentis (Self Released) [Martin Brown]
Devolver build their sound on a modern melodic death metal base, sharpened with pretty crushing groove and metalcore edges.
Riffs are concise and aggressive, but it's when the melody breaks through the wall of sound that the songs really come to life. Wraiths is a clear nod to late In Flames, with a more atmospheric feel, though similar touches surface across other tracks. These melodic flourishes add colour and give the record more range than sheer aggression alone.
The songwriting itself is strong. Most tracks land in the three-to-four minute window, paced tightly and structured around riff cycles that switch between gallop, chug, and melodic lift. Deathtouch opens with enough dynamic contrast to grab attention, while Jewels Of The Maw and At Any Cost keep the energy high without dragging.
Closer Dehumanize maintains the same focused approach, rounding out a consistent album built on solid foundations. For what they set out to do, the songs succeed. The production, however, undermines those ideas. Performances feel highly quantised and corrected: drums strike with machine precision, guitars are EQ’d for surgical clarity, and the vocals sit fixed in the 1–3 kHz range, flattened of depth.
The mastering then removes what little breathing space is left. With most tracks showing only 6–13 dB of dynamic range, everything is crushed into a single loud plane. We're on a one lane motorway with high walls on both sides, and as a result, nothing to see here no matter how fast we go. Cymbals and guitars dominate the upper mids, the bass is too lean to balance them. The result is harsh and the band deserved better. It leaves an album where the songwriting outpaces the sound.
The melodeath elements are a real positive and point to what the band could build on, but the decision to over-process and brickwall the mix sacrifices much of the human performance. Given the song quality, I suspect live is where the band will be heard best. 6/10
Shatterheart – Ground Turns To Dust (Self Released) [Simon Black]
This is a taster for a full album out later in the year for a new Symphonic Metal act hailing from Gothenburg in Sweden. The band has been gelling for less than a couple of years and is clearly the product of experienced hands trying something new and getting to the point faster, since they’ve presumably learnt plenty of painful lessons in other acts and have a bunch of contacts to speed things up. It shows…
This style of music demands a lavish and expansive sounding production, because there’s nothing guaranteed to cause failure faster than a cheap production when you are in a very crowded market like this, and this Shatterheart deliver very well indeed. The three songs on this EP are well-crafted, illustrating the experience of the contributors with enough Power Metal tropes to give the songs some impact whilst retaining a traditional Symphonic edge. There’s some great musicianship here, and Alicke Kostopoulou’s vocals certainly have some power to them.
Where I struggle is that this is a bit by-the-numbers and not varying hugely from the many other bands playing in the same space. When everyone in your sub-genre plays as well, sings as well, produces as well and arranges as well, you need something special to differentiate yourself and, from this sample at least, it’s very much par for the Symphonic course. That said, they may be playing safe with this first release so I will reserve judgement until the album lands, but for the moment this is a case of great quality but needing something original to edge things up a notch. 7/10
This is a taster for a full album out later in the year for a new Symphonic Metal act hailing from Gothenburg in Sweden. The band has been gelling for less than a couple of years and is clearly the product of experienced hands trying something new and getting to the point faster, since they’ve presumably learnt plenty of painful lessons in other acts and have a bunch of contacts to speed things up. It shows…
This style of music demands a lavish and expansive sounding production, because there’s nothing guaranteed to cause failure faster than a cheap production when you are in a very crowded market like this, and this Shatterheart deliver very well indeed. The three songs on this EP are well-crafted, illustrating the experience of the contributors with enough Power Metal tropes to give the songs some impact whilst retaining a traditional Symphonic edge. There’s some great musicianship here, and Alicke Kostopoulou’s vocals certainly have some power to them.
Where I struggle is that this is a bit by-the-numbers and not varying hugely from the many other bands playing in the same space. When everyone in your sub-genre plays as well, sings as well, produces as well and arranges as well, you need something special to differentiate yourself and, from this sample at least, it’s very much par for the Symphonic course. That said, they may be playing safe with this first release so I will reserve judgement until the album lands, but for the moment this is a case of great quality but needing something original to edge things up a notch. 7/10
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