It seems far too long since we’ve heard anything new from Nottingham’s favourite parody Black Metal outfit. Their fourth studio record was way back in 2018, and the fateful combination of the departure of two key members and the small matter of a global pandemic means that it’s only now that we get to hear the current line-up in the studio for a full album.
As ever when there’s a long wait between records, then the chances are high that the percolation process is going to produce a stronger end result, given that the opportunity for refinement, polish and ruthless pruning.
That said 16 years of such a process also produced the worst Guns ’N’ Roses album possible ever (yet), given that it reflected so many stylistic musical fashion switches that had taken place that robbed it of any identity, so it’s a fine balancing act. The reason I even mention that album, is that stylistically Evil Scarecrow’s 5th album is also quite an eclectic bag, with some of the material having been around for a good three or four years.
OK, it’s Evil Scarecrow – they aren’t going to start writing serious heart-wrenching music or political concept albums, at least not when they can take a serious subject and milk it for every drop of humour possible which happens a little here.
OK, it’s Evil Scarecrow – they aren’t going to start writing serious heart-wrenching music or political concept albums, at least not when they can take a serious subject and milk it for every drop of humour possible which happens a little here.
That said open bare-faced humour means that stylistic playfulness is also an option, with a few day-to-day frustrations creeping in as inspiration along with Nuclear Armageddon and AI takeovers, but the genre switches are surprising and effective to boot. The only reason Green Bin Day sounds like, err Green Day, is because it’s funny as fuck (even if trying to work out which of the seven recycling containers need to be used in deference to the one black bag the local council take each month drives us all insane).
I guess the chopping and changing also reflects both the band members’ broad tastes and that of their audience, as these folks have always been able to appeal to a very broad range of Metal fans, as anyone who remembers dragging their arses out of bed for eleven a.m. and packing the arena on a hungover Saturday morning at Bloodstock to support them opening the days main stage festivities eleven years ago will testify.
It's a challenge for an independent band to rustle up the necessaries to get into the studio (they still need help getting the wonga together for pressing of physical versions so go help them out on their Kickstarter page), because expectations for an established band are always very high. With both the writing and performance though, the band rise to the occasion, and the production values remain at the high standard we expect of them. The writing remains as on the nail as ever, both musically and lyrically, and it’s nice to hear Dr Hell trying some different vocal styles.
I guess the chopping and changing also reflects both the band members’ broad tastes and that of their audience, as these folks have always been able to appeal to a very broad range of Metal fans, as anyone who remembers dragging their arses out of bed for eleven a.m. and packing the arena on a hungover Saturday morning at Bloodstock to support them opening the days main stage festivities eleven years ago will testify.
It's a challenge for an independent band to rustle up the necessaries to get into the studio (they still need help getting the wonga together for pressing of physical versions so go help them out on their Kickstarter page), because expectations for an established band are always very high. With both the writing and performance though, the band rise to the occasion, and the production values remain at the high standard we expect of them. The writing remains as on the nail as ever, both musically and lyrically, and it’s nice to hear Dr Hell trying some different vocal styles.
Varied, genuinely funny and continuing the band’s reputation for quality, this is an overdue and welcome return to form. 9/10
Siena Root - Made In HuBa Live (Reigning Phoenix Music) [Rich Piva]
I am a big fan of Swedish band Siena Root, the late 60s/early 70s throw backs that have this Cream-like bluesy sound that partners perfectly with the amazing vocals of Zubaida Solid, who also plays organ, which makes Siena Root even cooler.
Siena Root - Made In HuBa Live (Reigning Phoenix Music) [Rich Piva]
I am a big fan of Swedish band Siena Root, the late 60s/early 70s throw backs that have this Cream-like bluesy sound that partners perfectly with the amazing vocals of Zubaida Solid, who also plays organ, which makes Siena Root even cooler.
After eight records, the band has established themselves as one of the best blues/retro-rock bands out there today, so why not do a career-spanning concert record to capture how awesome they sound live and raw? This is what we are gifted with, in the form of Made In HuBa – Live; an all-analog, double live album recorded in Jena, Germany at shows between March 13th through 15th, 2024.
There are no overdubs on Made In HuBa, just the straight up rock that Siena Root has brought over a 20-plus year career. This is exactly how the band sounds live, and it is glorious. Highlights include the Creamy opener, Coincidence & Fate, from 2023’s Revelation, the blues romp Wishing For More, originally released on 2008’s Far From The Sun, the amazing vocal performance on the slow burn blues of Mountain II (from the 2005 record, Mountain Songs), and the organ and flute including Neil Young vibes of We (We Are Them), from the amazing 2009 record Different Realities.
There are no overdubs on Made In HuBa, just the straight up rock that Siena Root has brought over a 20-plus year career. This is exactly how the band sounds live, and it is glorious. Highlights include the Creamy opener, Coincidence & Fate, from 2023’s Revelation, the blues romp Wishing For More, originally released on 2008’s Far From The Sun, the amazing vocal performance on the slow burn blues of Mountain II (from the 2005 record, Mountain Songs), and the organ and flute including Neil Young vibes of We (We Are Them), from the amazing 2009 record Different Realities.
You can’t go wrong with any of the twelve tracks on Made In HuBa – Live. The double LP is long, but so are a lot of their songs, and given this is the true SR live experience, do you really want them to play for less than 75 minutes? I didn’t think so. Plus, if you hang in there you get the awesome, organ driven Tales Of Independence from 2017’s A Dream Of Lasting Peace and the closer, basically the Siena Root theme song, Root Rock Pioneers, from their 2014 studio album Pioneers.
If you have not heard Siena Root live, this is the perfect place to start, as Made In HuBa – Live, is as close to the real thing as you can get without being in the sweaty German club that this album was recorded in. This is a twelve-track career-spanning record that fans of the band will eat up and how new listeners will start to understand why Siena Root is amazing, in all of their analog glory. 9/10
Enragement – Extinguish All Existence (Transcending Obscurity Records) [Spike]
There’s a particular kind of brutality that doesn’t feel showy , it’s surgical, inevitable, and exhaustingly honest. That’s what Enragement deliver on Extinguish All Existence. Across ten tracks the band build a record that’s both monstrously heavy and smartly arranged: riffs that bite and loop with a malignant logic, drums that shift from machine-gun blast to pulverising stomp without ever sounding imprecise, and vocals that sit somewhere between a growl and an accusation.
The opener, Vorarephilia, throws you straight into the deep end, frantic, gnarly, a shotgun blast of riffs and throat. It sets the tone: this is an album that wants to overwhelm, but it’s not sloppy about it. Abyssal Hellscapes follows with a tighter bite; it’s claustrophobic and efficient, a great example of how the band make short, violent ideas land with weight.
If you have not heard Siena Root live, this is the perfect place to start, as Made In HuBa – Live, is as close to the real thing as you can get without being in the sweaty German club that this album was recorded in. This is a twelve-track career-spanning record that fans of the band will eat up and how new listeners will start to understand why Siena Root is amazing, in all of their analog glory. 9/10
Enragement – Extinguish All Existence (Transcending Obscurity Records) [Spike]
There’s a particular kind of brutality that doesn’t feel showy , it’s surgical, inevitable, and exhaustingly honest. That’s what Enragement deliver on Extinguish All Existence. Across ten tracks the band build a record that’s both monstrously heavy and smartly arranged: riffs that bite and loop with a malignant logic, drums that shift from machine-gun blast to pulverising stomp without ever sounding imprecise, and vocals that sit somewhere between a growl and an accusation.
The opener, Vorarephilia, throws you straight into the deep end, frantic, gnarly, a shotgun blast of riffs and throat. It sets the tone: this is an album that wants to overwhelm, but it’s not sloppy about it. Abyssal Hellscapes follows with a tighter bite; it’s claustrophobic and efficient, a great example of how the band make short, violent ideas land with weight.
Pathogenesis and Parasitic Ingress push the technical edge: odd little rhythmic nudges, pick-scraped leads, and those drum hits that land like hammers. There’s a constant tension between immediacy and intricacy with songs that hit fast, but reward repeat listens because of the micro-details under the surface.
Three tracks deserve a callout. Harbingers Of Degradation grinds with a swampy mid-paced menace that lets the guitars breathe into a malignant groove; Insectiferous Abomination injects a skittering, almost insectile riff pattern that unsettles more than it simply intimidates; and the title track Extinguish All Existence closes the record like a verdict, long, heavy, merciless, and uncompromising. Those moments show the band aren’t content to do the same thing ten times; they shift tempo and texture to keep the listener off-balance.
Sonically the production sits just right for this material. It’s crisp enough to pick apart the technical bits but raw enough to preserve an atmosphere of filth and menace. You can hear the snap on the snare, the grit in the low end, the rasp on the vocals; it’s harsh in the right places and clear where it needs to be, which helps the complexity read on first and fifteenth listens alike.
If you like your brutal death metal to be both punishing and thoughtfully constructed, Extinguish All Existence hits the sweet spot. It’s violent by design but considered in execution. This is an album that’s as likely to make you nod grimly at a clever rhythmic transition as it is to make you wince at a riff that feels like an iron bar across the chest. 8/10
Horror Within - Soul Awakening (Dolorem Records) [GC]
It usually makes my heart sink when a band has 2 vocalists, there have obviously been few exceptions through the years, but I always think why do you need 2? Mix this anxiousness with a pointy/spikey logo that you can’t read, and I almost instantly tap out! So, with that glowing introduction let’s see what (focuses) Soul Awakening by Horror Within has to offer.
Phobophobia doesn’t actually sound anything like I expect it to in all honesty, I was expecting chugging guitars with triggered double bass drumming and a full on deathcore borefest, nope this is sharp, crisp and ripping modern death metal that has a more than generous sprinkle of Swedeath thrown in for good measure and get the pulses racing to start off with.
Three tracks deserve a callout. Harbingers Of Degradation grinds with a swampy mid-paced menace that lets the guitars breathe into a malignant groove; Insectiferous Abomination injects a skittering, almost insectile riff pattern that unsettles more than it simply intimidates; and the title track Extinguish All Existence closes the record like a verdict, long, heavy, merciless, and uncompromising. Those moments show the band aren’t content to do the same thing ten times; they shift tempo and texture to keep the listener off-balance.
Sonically the production sits just right for this material. It’s crisp enough to pick apart the technical bits but raw enough to preserve an atmosphere of filth and menace. You can hear the snap on the snare, the grit in the low end, the rasp on the vocals; it’s harsh in the right places and clear where it needs to be, which helps the complexity read on first and fifteenth listens alike.
If you like your brutal death metal to be both punishing and thoughtfully constructed, Extinguish All Existence hits the sweet spot. It’s violent by design but considered in execution. This is an album that’s as likely to make you nod grimly at a clever rhythmic transition as it is to make you wince at a riff that feels like an iron bar across the chest. 8/10
Horror Within - Soul Awakening (Dolorem Records) [GC]
It usually makes my heart sink when a band has 2 vocalists, there have obviously been few exceptions through the years, but I always think why do you need 2? Mix this anxiousness with a pointy/spikey logo that you can’t read, and I almost instantly tap out! So, with that glowing introduction let’s see what (focuses) Soul Awakening by Horror Within has to offer.
Phobophobia doesn’t actually sound anything like I expect it to in all honesty, I was expecting chugging guitars with triggered double bass drumming and a full on deathcore borefest, nope this is sharp, crisp and ripping modern death metal that has a more than generous sprinkle of Swedeath thrown in for good measure and get the pulses racing to start off with.
Silent Fall flips the sounds on its head then and has a doomy opening sequence that then explodes into life again with some wonderfully executed death metal goodness it does feel like some of the sections seem to get a little cluttered here and there and the transition between the different styles can feel slightly clumsy but it’s still a decent listen nonetheless!
Rupture manages to incorporate a very throw back old school sound into the already heaving melting pot of sonic brutality and we benefit from this as it shows a real understanding of how to sound current but also pay tribute to the beginnings of the style, I have too say though I really don’t get what they have 2 vocalists as it all sounds like one person and it just seems unnecessary really?
Waiting Room goes all out melodeath to start off and has the dueling Maiden-esque gallop and guitars crashing and fighting for room but it isn’t long before this is curtailed and we get the brutality ramped back up but I feel something is just lacking here and it sounds like any other modern day deathcore band you could care to mention which is a bit of a let down as its all been so promising so far.
Basic Day gets things back on track with a bang and is a bit more unpredictable and doesn’t fall into the trap of lazy chugging and needless double bass thudding, its hectic and full of savage time changes that keep you on your toes, another element introduces itself with a little sprinkle of hardcore that every good death metal band could do with to keep sound fresh and interesting and there’s even some drum and bass in there as well which I was not expecting but comes as a wonderful side swipe to keep it interesting!
Dead Inside is then a bit mid-paced and not as forceful as you would like it to be, I can appreciate they want to try different things but when they slow down it sounds a bit too predictable, they do kind of pull it back midway and get back to what you want them to be doing but then thrown in a really random part that completely breaks the flow of the track up and ends all just gets a bit frustrating towards the end really.
Tears Of Angels once again pulls everything back into focus and its a wonderfully At The Gates sounding track with all the hallmark buzzsaw like scathing guitar work that we all love as death metal fans and the vocals sound wonderfully furious whoever is doing them did a good job here and it feels like the album highpoint and never once lets you rest and is constantly on the attack.
Closer The Beast takes a bit too long to really get going for me but thankfully when it does its one last blast of utterly brutal death metal that mixes just enough of the modern day with a healthy dose of old school fury to end everything expertly.
Got to admit, I wasn’t expecting much from Soul Awakening, but I was pleasantly surprised! There are lots of different influences that all shine through well and thankfully they never fall in to the boring side of things that some newer bands tend to do! A thoroughly wonderful album full of brutally heavy death metal, what is not to like about that. 8/10
Got to admit, I wasn’t expecting much from Soul Awakening, but I was pleasantly surprised! There are lots of different influences that all shine through well and thankfully they never fall in to the boring side of things that some newer bands tend to do! A thoroughly wonderful album full of brutally heavy death metal, what is not to like about that. 8/10
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