And now a touch of blackened death to round the week off. Ancient Thrones offer up their latest full length for your enjoyment, and I’ll say it now, I’ve no idea how these guys are unsigned. They feel that they have jettisoned all that was extraneous from their sound and amp up that aggression. I think you can say that its job done.
I heartedly recommend having a decent pair of headphones for this or play it at insane volumes in order to let it swamp over you. Ancient Thrones drop you straight in the middle of this as
opens up their account with an incredibly well polished song that brings all that is good about heavy metal into one space.
The starting salvos lay down the base with twin guitars coming in playing counterpoint to each other, switching into high gear and punching through its 5 minutes with a whole load of aggression and technical swagger.
Its manic but controlled, slowing the pace down just a tad so that when it picks that speed back up it resonates with you. Had they gone for just one pace its affect would be reduced. As it stands it’s a breakneck introduction that waits for nothing.
Super tight, with each member playing at the top of their game. If I’m reading their online bio right, drummer Sean Hickey also handles vocals. If this is the case then I take my hat off to him because it is a mammoth undertaking based on the display here and elsewhere on this album.
At its heart is a keen understanding that having a memorable melodic pattern is always required and this is amplified during the outro. The end comes, piano segueing into Achromatopsia which for me takes away from the good work done at the start.
They put this right with the blistering Melancholia. I make no secret of my disdain for instrumentals that pop up in the wrong moments but when they follow them with a song like this, I can forgive.
It is a battering experience that skilfully blends the technical and the primal need for this music to be thrilling. It does that so well, even when they hit the brakes and enter into an atmospheric phase. Its arrangement has to been built with one eye on doing this live, having it set up so that the lighting ebbs and flows in time.
I can see it happening, the crowd getting behind it as it lurches back into life. One of the key factors here is the intelligent choices they make with what riffs go where, how the drums should sit etc. Its fast and heavy but done with a purpose instead of delivering speed for speed’s sake.
This isn’t to say they don’t do brutal; A Turning Point has a darkened edge to it that isn’t present elsewhere. It still keeps on track with having the correct levels of aggression in place tempered with fleet fingered guitar lines.
At times it seems that the drums are about take off but at the last second, they pull back. Topping things off with a lead break that is parts tasteful and extreme, which is this band in a snapshot – they can hammer you into dust but sound good while doing it.
A Pellucid Prism leans more into the black metal, throwing those light speed guitars at you whilst keeping that melodic touches in play. It’s the sort of song that is just so impressive, from how it sounds to the way they play it.
I love the energy that is bouncing from it, and it’s the vibe of a band that knows that they have written some top-tier extreme metal. Is there a level of familiarity between songs?
Well yes there is a little and you can hear it in Sacred Swollen Glass compared to the others, but if you look at it from a perspective that its sole ambition is to pummel you, then it works.
On this one they take approaches that have worked elsewhere and move them around to suit, it doesn’t lessen its impact in any way because one thing that doesn’t alter is the intent behind it. That shines through.
Blight represents this albums short stab of frenetic mayhem whilst A Pale Palace goes through a few changes, barrelling forward at every step as they march onwards to the end.
They wrap this up with Vacant, which goes off in a completely different direction than I expected. Its grandiose in its execution, bringing an expansive build that does not rely on riffs. This is more akin to doom metal in the way it plays out as opposed to blasting you to bits like they have elsewhere.
So, what do we think? Well, it’s a cracker. I mentioned earlier that I don’t know how they can be unsigned given the strength of this material. It must only be a matter of time before that changes. 9/10
Feanor – Hellhammer (No Remorse Records) [Simon Black]
Feanor are one of those bands that have been at it for nearly thirty years and about whom I have never heard, because Brazil really is a rather strange and isolated market. Having worked with writers who live down there for another publication, I have had a sense of quite how different the scene is down their compared to the USA or Europe.
For a start there are an awful lot of bands and a very vibrant and varied musical scene, but the challenge is it’s a lot harder for bands to break out from it given the challenges of travel there. American bands can spend their careers touring their butts off without ever leaving the USA.
The concept of the EU and its borderless Schengen zone means something similar is possible in Europe, but getting a passport and permission to tour these core metal market territories is not easy, especially in the febrile nationalistic fever currently sweeping the world. Then there’s the fact that Brazil is about the same size as the USA, so once again many bands never even need to leave their native shores…
Feanor however have been at this a while, have had the opportunity to extend their reach and this, their fifth full-length album has a whole bunch of contributors from across the world. Their rate of production has not been huge over the years, taking the best part of a decade to get their first disk cut since their inception, and with an ongoing rate of release of about one every five years since.
They’ve been building the release of this one slowly too, with four singles on the run up campaign and a series of distribution deals with a whole bunch of independent labels throughout release, which tells me they’ve got a good PR guru trying to maximise impact this side of the Atlantic this time round… …And it’s just as well, because this was an unexpectedly well-crafted record.
Without ever having heard of them my initial thoughts were that this was a sound that was going to work well in the warmer parts of Europe where Operatic Power Metal stands tall, and in many places you could be forgiven for thinking that this was the product of one of the many bands in the orbit of the various incarnations of Rhapsody and anyone in their orbits, given the sweeping orchestration and vocals peppered with moments of Neo-Classical frill, but fortunately this is just one of the components in the mix.
There’s plenty of variety stylistically however, and it makes for an interesting listen, because for every scaling operatic flourish there’s a good old traditional Metal wallop to balance things out, with vocalist Mark Stark able to sing high, loud and clean but with plenty of lower register grunting rock’n’roll roar balancing things out. So effortless is his ability to switch modes that I initially thought there was a vocal ensemble going on here, and to be fair there are moments when Helloween are clearly an influence.
However, this record really doesn’t like to stand still and brings in some well-written almost progressive instrumental performances and a huge variety of tone also being brought in by Diana Boncheva’s dextrous use of violins, which at times add the orchestral feel, or switch to the more groovy folk-infused sound that Skyclad broke the metal mould with. Then again, when they keep it simple and straight ahead, they are capable of delivering some really solid anthemic Metal bangers, with the title track and H.M.J. standing out notably.
What we have here is a band with a lot of experience, some quite formidable musicianship, the ability to write a banging tune and the experience to be able to mix all these different styles up within one album whilst still making it sound like a cohesive album, rather than an eclectic compilation. Unexpectedly rather good… 8/10
Species – Changelings (20 Buck Spin) [Martin Brown]Species’
Changelings pushes thrash into technical, progressive territory where angular riffs and restless structures dominate. The guitar writing is jagged and inventive, leaning as much on dissonance and sudden shifts as on pure speed. Crucially, the bass is no follower: it’s a second melodic brain in the band, constantly countering or conversing with the guitars. This interplay elevates the songs far beyond unison riffing.
Variation is built into the track list.
Inspirit Creation lays down the unsettled tone, while
The Essence doubles down on sharp aggression.
Waves Of Time opens out into progressive movement, with the bass pulling away from the guitars.
Voyager adds synthesiser textures, expanding the palette beyond straight thrash.
Born Of Stitch And Flesh is more primal but still threaded with technical precision, and
Terror Unknown snaps back with angular hostility. Closer
Biological Masterpiece sprawls over ten minutes, mixing speed runs, dystopian calm, and instrumental interplay into a finale that justifies its title.
Amid all this, there’s a definite jazz sensibility in some passages — odd meters, abrupt breaks, and phrasing that recalls fusion’s off-kilter shifts. It’s a trait common in modern progressive thrash, and here it adds colour without derailing the songs. The drums deserve clear mention. While often locked to the grid, the performance shines through with fills, tempo shifts, and accents that show serious ability. They keep the songs from feeling mechanical, even in the record’s most quantised moments.
The major drawback is the vocals. They are pure marmite — raw and abrasive, but sitting apart from the rest of the mix. More than that, they simply don’t match the musicianship elsewhere. The guitars, bass, and drums are astonishingly musical and technical, yet the voice feels pasted over the top, like it belongs on a different record. That disconnect is hard to ignore.
Production comes across as sharp and modern: guitars bright, bass forward, drums precise, vocals carved into their own lane. It’s clean and powerful, but deliberately mechanical — fitting for the technical thrash style, though not always warm.
7/10Pink Fuzz - Resolution (Permanent Teeth) [Rich Piva] Just going by their name, the band Pink Fuzz should be something that I will enjoy, though you cannot judge anything by its name, as hard as we may try. So, let me actually listen to the brother and sister lead trio out of Denver and find out.
So, it turns out I do dig what I am hearing on their new record,
Resolution. You certainly get the fuzzy guitars, with a sound right out of Josh Homme’s playbook and a sort of poppy stoner thing they have going on. There is a reason why it sounds this way, given Alain Johannes mixed the record. The Pink part of the name also works, given the underlying poppy-ness of the ten songs on
Resolution. Maybe it is not all of that underlying actually, because there is some serious earworm action going on here. I love the opener,
Trigger, which is a perfect microcosm for what the band brings. QOTSA vibes, male/female dual vocals, Johannes’ trademarked mixing, and all sorts of catchiness.
The riffs are there, with Long Gone bringing a riff from John Demitro that lives up to the “High-Speed Desert Rock” description given to them, but then the siren song vocals of LuLu Demitro kick in and some serious Eleven vibes emanate from your speakers. Great stuff. Other standouts include a little 90s inspired ditty that has a pop punk attitude in the form of Coming For Me, Worst Enemy, that is certainly sounds like more bubblegum QOTSA (compliment), and Resolution, where Jon Demitro shows of his guitar chops and is the heaviest of the ten tracks on the record. There are no skips on Resolution, all ten songs are enjoyable and at just under 35 minutes it is the perfect length for what Pink Fizz is bringing.
This record is candy for me. Pink Fuzz has so many fun elements I enjoy spread all throughout Resolution. I can put this on and just smile. While having some pop elements this record still rocks, so get ready for some QOTSA inspired fuzzy stoner pop rock, delivered directly from Denver via Pink Fuzz. 8/10
