Amorphis - Borderland (Reigning Phoenix Music) [Matt Bladen]
The title of Amorphis' fifteenth studio album is a deliberate choice from the band to open the door to their next chapter. Since the mid 90's the band have evolved and expanded their sound. It's familiar story of a melodic death metal band, softening their approach, adding more of the atmospheric, let's face it, Scandinavian style of creating evocative soundscapes where the death metal trappings give way to melodic introspection with folk, power, prog and symphonic metal styles coming to the surface.
Amorphis have always embraced these changes and fashioned themselves as a band in touch with their heritage and with the changing landscape of where their peers find themselves. So much so that their previous albums Halo, perhaps their most melodic yet found itself riding high in the charts and rather than head out and tour this success, Amorphis decided to tweak their style a bit more.
Heading back into the studio to create what was to become Borderland, a record that all but vanquishes those lingering death metal beginnings for a much more straightforward, epic, broader sound that should find them on charts again going forward. Fashioned with lyrics inspired by their Finnish heritage and history, these songs are all individual stories, sound tracked by the band taking the more melodic path they ever have. The yearning clean vocals of Tomi Joutsen spend more time here his harsher tones while the guitars of Esa Holopainen and Tomi Koivusaari regularly venture out of the clean tones.
The distortion does come in for track such as Bones, where Olli-Pekka Laine (bass) and Jan Rechberger (drums) get to let loose as well but Borderlands, is very much keyboardist Santeri Kallio's album, he's there at every juncture, be it the brief moments of heaviness or the overarching lean on melody. With more than three decades as a band, this is how it comes to pass then, Amorphis have opened the forbidden door and crossed the borderlands to where they will be going in the future. Borderlands is the lightest Amorphis have been musically, and while this will surely see them gather plenty new fans that may have overlooked them.
Personally I think Halo managed to get the balance right, between where they were and where they are now and while I mentioned there that you have to sacrifice heaviness at times, Borderlands goes a bit too far the other way. 7/10
Darkness – Death Squad Chronicles (Massacre Records) [Simon Black]
Darkness (not to be confused with The Darkness here in the UK, or indeed, another now-defunct German Thrash act of the same name) are a long-running Old School Thrash act, albeit one who for a while were known as Eure Erben (Your Heirs in German) in the first part of this century and switched to singing in German before reverting to Darkness a decade ago when current singer Lee joined. Got all that?
Musically this is classic 80’s Thrash – all speed and fury, shed loads of aggression and a no-frills retro production sound. It’s actually quite a lengthy record as well – fifty minutes in total with well over half of them well over four minutes in run time. I’ve not come across them before, but there’s a refreshing honesty to their work. I guess the challenge for them is that for four decades this still seems to be a band trapped in the underground scene. Lord knows playing the sweatbox clubs with this sort of stuff is always going to be a blast, but for a band that have been round the blocks a fair few times it’s strange that they still seem stranded there.
A little bit of digging online reveals that for most of the 80’s they never got out of the demo stage, and when they did finally hit the studio professionally, it was just in time for the music scene to completely upend itself in favour of Grunge and all that followed. You have to respect them for sticking to their guns however, and clearly, they kept grinding at it until fashions swung back round again.
However, this record is also the perfect introduction to them, comprising as it does of a mixture of old material from the demo days, a couple of brand-new songs and a selection of what happened in between, all recut with the current line and a nice set of production values. That said they crucially retain the old school urgency that was more often than not down to having painfully short recording windows on archaic equipment, but this straddles the mood and sense of tension with the new tech perfectly.
This record is briskly to the point. Although some of the arrangements can get a bit formulaic, this album grinds its way through with remarkable alacrity, and an absolutely solid delivery. I can’t fault any of the material on here and am enjoying having a brisk and to the point introduction to a band that by the sound of things really deserved to have broken out of the underground a long time ago. 8/10
Barrens - Corpse Lights (Pelagic Records) [Mark Young]
One of the difficulties in reviewing is when you have been immersed in the more aggressive side of things (i.e. ultra-fast, technical death metal)and then try to drop into a band that is approaching things from a completely different angle. Being late with that review also doesn’t help and with that in mind I offer my humble apologies early on.
I’ve mentioned so many times that I have certain problems with instrumental music. It’s not that I hate it, its more that I hate the time wasted with a song that continually repeats itself and goes nowhere, sometimes borne out of a lack of musical ideas. When you chance across music that has a direction or purpose that makes all the difference.
Corpse Lights has a lot going for it in terms of being a satisfying listen, the three-piece from Malmö having that clear view of what they want to write and record. It’s not spellbinding and it didn’t shift the needle completely in terms of how I feel about instrumental rock, but then it wouldn’t do given that my core intake is more on the speedy side of things. It does what you expect of it, from the gradual build of Memory Eraser which ushers in The Derelict and its bending tones. It moves along, and from a rock perspective its more than heavy enough. They inject it where they can with lighter moments in order to break up how it lands with you and it recognises the need for this music to reach a conclusion of sorts.
There is a touch of New Order about Sorrowed in how the bass comes down, which is swallowed up by the guitar lines that soon dominate. It represents what I don’t like about this genre, which is the need to run through the same section more than once in attempt to justify a long running time.
It didn’t need it because there is a cracking bit around the 4-minute mark that reminds me of OHMSS soundtrack (if you have seen it you will recognise it immediately) and changes the tone for the better. It could have been condensed but I’m only reviewing it, and what’s more I’m doing it from a skewed perspective. We go from the drawn out to the restrained with Periastron which seems to take an age to get moving, growing as it does in a way that echoes the latter half of Sorrowed. Its pleasant, almost joyful given the slow start.
Apastron is a breakpoint, a near two-minute gap punctured by stabs of noise that leads into No Light. A bright opening falls away, meandering slightly before they remember what it needs to do and it picks up, bringing that hard edge back into play. I think this is the thing, in some respects they are trying to be too many things at the same time. The opening has that slight discordant feel and it could have continued through, leaving the quiet section to one side. It’s a minor thing really because this has a lot going for it, taking up some of the cues from the latter stages of Sorrowed but not in a repetitive manner. It shows that they have looked at the songs as a cohesive whole, and some of them sit better than others.
Apastron is a breakpoint, a near two-minute gap punctured by stabs of noise that leads into No Light. A bright opening falls away, meandering slightly before they remember what it needs to do and it picks up, bringing that hard edge back into play. I think this is the thing, in some respects they are trying to be too many things at the same time. The opening has that slight discordant feel and it could have continued through, leaving the quiet section to one side. It’s a minor thing really because this has a lot going for it, taking up some of the cues from the latter stages of Sorrowed but not in a repetitive manner. It shows that they have looked at the songs as a cohesive whole, and some of them sit better than others.
Collapsar borrows from the others, but only in how it builds from one part to another whilst Remnants opts to go down the route of introspection, sparsely arranged and is both haunting and soothing at the same time. It must be so difficult to write music like this, to move away from a traditional template of verse/chorus/solo as well as having a level of bravery to it, to commit to an idea and then sticking with it. Maybe realising that they needed to finish off with a bit of a statement, A Nothing Expands is where we say our goodbyes.
I don’t think I’ve mentioned about how well this sounds, grab a pair of decent headphones and put this on because is sounds wonderful. Numerous guitar lines that spin in and out of each other’s orbit, a droning bend that gradually rises to a climax. So where does that leave us? Well, instrumental rock fans should love this. I like it a lot more than I thought, and on the whole it had a lot going for it, with good ideas and a quality execution. 7/10
From The Crypt - Born In The Grave (Raw Skull Records) [Spike]
From The Crypt's Born In The Grave emerges like a shovel hitting soil, immediate, violent, and relentless. From the opening notes of From The Crypts, you’re thrust into a world where riffs are heavy enough to crush bones and drums march like artillery. The Bolt Thrower influence is present but subtle; it’s not mimicry but a tonal compass guiding the band through dense, warlike sonic territory.
Tracks like Drained and Kneecapped hit with crushing mid-paced grooves, each riff designed to linger in the chest as much as the ears. The bass rumbles with authority, anchoring the chaos while the guitars slice through with precision, creating a sense of both weight and motion. Vocals are guttural and commanding, adding to the album’s oppressive atmosphere without ever feeling overworked.
The band don’t rely solely on uniform heaviness. Cadaveric Combustion and Mauled shift the intensity, blending faster bursts with deliberate, suffocating pauses, giving the record a dynamic tension that keeps listeners alert. Even in these moments, the music feels structured and purposeful, the chaos is carefully controlled, each note hitting with deliberate intent.
The darker, more grotesque imagery peaks in Coffin Fetus, where riffs twist and grind, drums snap, and the vocals feel almost ritualistic in their ferocity. The album’s bonus tracks, Wake The Dead, Closed Casket, and The Sledgehammer extend the punishment, adding additional layers of aggression and giving fans more of the merciless, Bolt Thrower-inspired tonality that makes this release so compelling.
Born In The Grave is brutal but controlled, punishing yet precise. From The Crypt have taken classic death metal cues and forged them into something that feels alive, urgent, and distinctly their own. Every track carries its weight with purpose, leaving a powerful impression that’s impossible to ignore. Heavy, uncompromising, and alive with menace, Born In The Grave proves From The Crypt can channel influence into something uniquely their own. 8/10
From The Crypt - Born In The Grave (Raw Skull Records) [Spike]
From The Crypt's Born In The Grave emerges like a shovel hitting soil, immediate, violent, and relentless. From the opening notes of From The Crypts, you’re thrust into a world where riffs are heavy enough to crush bones and drums march like artillery. The Bolt Thrower influence is present but subtle; it’s not mimicry but a tonal compass guiding the band through dense, warlike sonic territory.
Tracks like Drained and Kneecapped hit with crushing mid-paced grooves, each riff designed to linger in the chest as much as the ears. The bass rumbles with authority, anchoring the chaos while the guitars slice through with precision, creating a sense of both weight and motion. Vocals are guttural and commanding, adding to the album’s oppressive atmosphere without ever feeling overworked.
The band don’t rely solely on uniform heaviness. Cadaveric Combustion and Mauled shift the intensity, blending faster bursts with deliberate, suffocating pauses, giving the record a dynamic tension that keeps listeners alert. Even in these moments, the music feels structured and purposeful, the chaos is carefully controlled, each note hitting with deliberate intent.
The darker, more grotesque imagery peaks in Coffin Fetus, where riffs twist and grind, drums snap, and the vocals feel almost ritualistic in their ferocity. The album’s bonus tracks, Wake The Dead, Closed Casket, and The Sledgehammer extend the punishment, adding additional layers of aggression and giving fans more of the merciless, Bolt Thrower-inspired tonality that makes this release so compelling.
Born In The Grave is brutal but controlled, punishing yet precise. From The Crypt have taken classic death metal cues and forged them into something that feels alive, urgent, and distinctly their own. Every track carries its weight with purpose, leaving a powerful impression that’s impossible to ignore. Heavy, uncompromising, and alive with menace, Born In The Grave proves From The Crypt can channel influence into something uniquely their own. 8/10
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