Reviews: The Death Of Money, The Pineapple Thief, Dug Pinnick, Vessel (Reviews By Matt Bladen & Rich Piva)

The Death Of Money - Error After Era (Suntreader) [Matt Bladen]

The Death Of Money are a band from the underground, playing every toilet venue, back room, windowless club around the country, these hardened South Wales/Manchester veterans have been slinging noise around the UK for nearly two decades, performing with with underground, left-field luminaries such as Jarboe, Gnod, Pelican and others, never wavering in their own vision of what they are as a band, you either get it or you don’t. TDOM thought that their last album 2017’s Ghost Pains would be their last but there was something stirring in the background, a burning desire to do it again, to create new sounds, heavier sounds than they had before.

Sonically much more what TDOM sound like live, the title track begins with undulating, repeating synths and guitar riffs, feeling primal the addition of Bethan Lloyd’s wails are demonstrative of a band looking to expand their sonic horizon. As I said at the beginning The Death Of Money were forged in the underground and still make music on the fringes, from sludgy doom (Living In Fear) through introspective shoegaze and foot shuffling gothic post rock, Error After Era, plays around with synths and loops, building a queasy synthetic foundation to unleash the rage on songs such as Poems or building the tribal beat of Wasp Screams.

Error After Era is an album the band claim has rejuvenated them. More oppressive than any of their previous releases, they sound hungry again here, daring to experiment but still reliant on their near 20 years of noise. The Death Of Money, reincarnated. 8/10

The Pineapple Thief - Last To Run (Kscope) [Matt Bladen]

Last To Run is a collection of songs that were recorded during the sessions for The Pineapple Thief's previous album It Leads To This, from earlier this year, now that album made a huge impact and went to number one. So this is 20 minutes of music that has been left over, put together to showcase the talents of The Pineapple Thief once again.

Now these aren't just carbon copies, they're songs that were born in this sessions but have been adapted and taken on a new life since then. All Because Of Me is an insistent opener, as Last To Run builds on shifting percussion from Gavin Harrison and electronics from Steve Kitch. You can hear new elements and classic The Pineapple Thief composing on this EP.

Election Day's cry of "It Will Be Over Soon" resonating strongly on the day I sat down to write this album (November 5th). This track is classic Bruce Soord art rock it's got sensitivity and emotion while No Friend Of Mine shows their darker side. The World To Me on the other hand is much more inline with classic prog hooked on a delicate guitar line and Jon Sykes' bass.

Last To Run shows that not everything that's left off an album should stay on the cutting room floor. Especially for a band with the skill of The Pineapple Thief. 8/10

Dug Pinnick - Thingamajigger (Rat Pak Records) [Rich Piva]

King’s X is one of my favourite bands of all time. There is something magical when those three guys get together to create music that not many others have. That’s not to say I don’t enjoy when one of the three (mostly dUg and Ty) decide to put some solo or side band material out in between new King’s X music, I just know I have to temper my expectations that the work is not actual King’s X material. Solo and side stuff from the guys range from good to excellent, and I would put the new dUg Pinnick record somewhere in between those two categories. Thingamajigger is a quick 31 minutes of (mostly) prototypical solo dUg stuff that has some real gems and is a record that never outstays it’s welcome.

It is easy to forget that Pinnick is 74 years old because he still sounds like he did on the early records. His voice is still the same and his love for music still seems to be there as well like it was all those years ago. dUg played and programmed almost everything on the record outside of some cool guitar work from some guests on a few tracks. The one-two punch of Climbing Up The Mountain and Keep On Going may be his best solo opening combination. With the former a super catchy straight ahead trademarked dUg rocker and the latter bringing some slide guitar work and blues swagger ala his Grinder Blues side hustle, with fantastic results. 

More Strings Attached has some of dUg’s unique sing/talk vocals and that southern preacher vibe that makes his delivery so powerful. Let the Music Play has a soulful feel and is a little bit funky too, while Love Defines You brings the low-end sound and highlights dUg’s bass playing and ability to bring the soulful heaviness. Shout out to Jimi Hazel for the solo here. Add some Ty and Jerry harmonies and From The Now could fit nicely on a late period King’s X record. The Alarm is dUg getting all pop and jangly on us and it so works, pulling off his best Smithereens impersonation. How about grungy dUg on The One Thing? Love it. The Valley has some great guitar work to go along with some more classic dUg, including some amazing vocals, while Working It Out is an inspirational little ditty with all you want from a Pinnick tune. The closer, Believe It, may be the most un-dUg track out of the eleven and is actually my favourite, with its layered vocals and interesting melody.

Don’t blink, because Thingamajigger flies by quick with eleven songs in 31 minutes with no songs over three and a half minutes and zero filler. This is a much more focused effort than the last one, Joy Bomb, which felt a bit bloated and lacked stand out tracks. dUg has certainly found his solo groove again with Thingamajigger, one of his finest solo works to date. 8/10

Vessel - The Somnifer (Majestic Mountain Records) [Rich Piva]

Four years after their last record, heavy psych duo from Australia Vessel is back with its most mind expanding and gigantic record yet, The Somnifer. This one is big and bold and their most ambitious record, branching out even further into the next astral plane with ten tracks that exist to take you on a heavy desert trip.

A good chuck of The Somnifer is instrumental and these compositions transport you to the desert on some distant planet. You seem to be on earth for the first three minutes of the opening title track until song two, Draining The Labyrinth, takes you to a whole new level with some absolutely killer guitar work. The bass leads the exploration of this mystery planet until the guitar and spoken work vocals begin to help you to understand what you have gotten yourself into. I love the sound and the tones of The Somnifer, as you really are transformed, especially when you play this loud. The track Eat The Day is the most straight ahead heavy stoner track on the record and it absolutely rules. A sweet bass riff with some excellent guitar work and great vocals, this one has it all and will be on my year end playlist for sure. 

The trippy instrumental interlude Delta Waves leads to heavier stuff in the form of Recurring Nightmare, which sounds like its title, from the heavy bass, to the vocals, to the doomy guitar work. Image Rehearsal Reaction is where we may lose some, as it is a ten-minute psych out that you need to hang in for to really get it, but if you do hang in it is so worth it. Another instrumental interlude brings us to the closer, Body And Soul, that has such a cool heavy vibe and somehow reminds me of a 80s song run through a stoner rock song generator, and what comes out is so damn cool.

The new Vessel record is a challenge that is worth accepting and hanging in for. The Somnifer is out there in the best sort of way and is ready to take your listening in a whole different direction from your straight-ahead stoner and doom listening habits and ready to mess with your mind. 8/10

Reviews: InMe, Lifesick, Ethereal, Ataraxie (Reviews By Liam Williams, GC, Matt Bladen & Mark Young)

InMe – Overgrown Eden Reissue (Music For Nations) [Liam Williams]

Alternative metal band InMe are back with a re-re-release of their very first album Overgrown Eden, which was originally released back in 2003 and then re-released in 2006 after their original label went out of business. It features the classic album in it’s entirety along with 9 extra tracks which have never previously been released. Bringing the total number of tracks up to a whopping 22, and the total length of the album being bumped up to just under 1 hour and 20 minutes, meaning there is over half an hour of bonus riffage to please your ears!

I’ll be honest, I listened to this album a few years back and I wasn’t really feeling it, but I must have been having an off day because after giving it another listen I don’t know why I didn’t like it back then. This album is spectacular from start to finish! Seeing as this isn’t an entirely new album I think it might be best if I just break this review down into 2 mini reviews, first covering the original album and my thoughts on it now, listening to it again after some time has passed, and then the second part will be covering the 9 previously unheard B-sides.

So first we have the original 13 tracks from the album. These tracks are absolutely fantastic. Lots of great guitar riffs, groovy basslines, excellent drumming and some really great vocals. The vocals were the main reason why I wasn’t a fan of this album when I first heard it, at times they’re a little bit too nasally sounding which kind of put me off. But after my most recent listen, I can appreciate the variety of techniques that the vocalist used to make each song sound different from each other and not just keep things safe and sing the same way from start to finish. 

There’s some great gritty, grungy vocals throughout most of the album, but it’s broken up by some nice clean vocals and really great screaming sections. I really like the parts where there are some nice backing vocals added in to broaden the range of sound in certain parts of the songs. The guitars and bass playing is on another level, some really great chuggy riffs and other techniques thrown in to keep the songs grooving along while the drums help to drive the songs forward and keep up the momentum. There are some slower and calmer sections sprinkled throughout, but make no mistake, this album demands to be heard and it will definitely grab your attention! My favourite tracks on the album are Wounds, Lava Twilight, Icewarm, Neptune and Mosaic.

Now we move onto the 9 “new” tracks, starting off with Web. This song has a really cool intro followed by a nice groovy bassline in the first verse. After that we have Gelosea which features a very thrashy intro and some great vocals. Spur Of Moment goes from heavy to calm back and forth without ever really slowing down which may cause whiplash! Ruins starts off quite upbeat sounding (apart from the lyrics) until about halfway through when it gets heavier again, featuring a great little guitar solo, before going back to the calmer upbeat sound for the outro. Alaya is a short but really great track. Probably my favourite out of these 9 tracks. Sounds like very heavy grunge, think Nirvana but on steroids.

May (As Well Kiss Me) is an acoustic track which only features vocals and acoustic guitars. It helps slow things down a bit after the chaos that came before it. Gently Hurting is nice and heavy again featuring a nice bouncy bassline in the verses. It also has a nice chill bridge section. Receipt For Life has some more bouncy bass in the verses, with the guitar joining in on the bouncy action in the second verse. There’s also a great little guitar solo with some harmonic arpeggios which sounds so good. Miracle is another fun little jam with some tempo changes in the verses which sounds interesting. And finally, we have Deep Regret, another really nice sounding acoustic track which feels like a real definitive ending for the album.

I really enjoyed diving back into this album, I appreciate it a lot more compared to when I first heard it. The new tracks sound just as good as the rest, although I can see why they didn’t add them in originally since there was already 13 amazing tracks picked for this albums original release. This album still holds up and sounds good over 20 years after it’s release. 10/10

Lifesick - Loved By None, Hate By All (Metal Blade Records) [GC]

After a quick scan of the song titles for Denmark hardcore mob Lifesick’s latest Metal Blade release Loved By None, Hated By All, I can assume that I am not in for a very easy time and a quick scan over there label page seems to back up this with a description that it is about the roughness of living in today’s world, and I think we can all get on board with that, I am prepared for the worst (hopefully in a good way obviously!)

The opening chords for Death Wish have an undoubted Slayer-ish quality about them and the first 20 seconds or so sound like it might actually be Reign In Blood but, of curse its not and when it all settles in it takes the shape of metallic hardcore that has the stomp and swagger of peak Biohazard and sweeps the song forward on a wave of vitriol in an impressive way, you get absolutely zero seconds to re-group before Peace Through Superior Firepower is pummelling you into the ground with a razor sharp hardcore punk that even manages to insert a little sludgy elements into bits of the song which adds a really interesting contrast as your never really sure what is coming next? 

What comes next is the stomping and vitriolic Double Cross which carries on with the hardcore punk but ups the ante considerably and at times has a grindcore element added in and then just for the hell of it a thundering beatdown with added 2 step is thrown into the mix, fucking breathtakingly good stuff this! Hollow Treats doesn’t do too much different but this time there is another punk element added in the shape of an 80’s D-beat rhythm a la Discharge and I know I have compared them to 3 bands already but look at those bands I have compared them to? That should tell you everything about just how good this really is, anyway, this is just another savage and unrelenting 4 minutes of pure rage filled with anger that you will never get tired of hearing. 

Cheeringly titled Legacy Of Misery in contrast is a bit more metal focused and really has a force behind everything that’s played, you can practically feel every ounce of spite flowing from your speakers and the ominous and slow ending just adds to the horrors of the song even more. You may expect Poems For My Funeral to be a sombre and laid-back affair, but it is of course nothing of the sort, it is probably the slowest song so far but that doesn’t stunt the delivery at all and if anything, it gives it more room to sound bigger and angrier and that’s quite the achievement considering what’s come before it! 

Liquid Courage continues with the metallic hardcore sound and it’s a storming track that mixes some death metal elements into the already unrelenting and nasty sound and provides no let up in the barrage you are facing as the listener, Loved By None gets the bit between its teeth and bites down hard with another shot of vital and life affirmingly angry hardcore punk with not a nanosecond of time wasted, it is just another brilliant way to push this album forward before another misleading title is upon us The Mourning March may be expected to be another slow, thoughtful track. Right? Wrong! It’s yet another furious display of absolute disdain and hatred for life and the shit it brings and when anger sounds this intense it’s the best form of protest, and so Straight Jacket is now here to finish us off and it does so in gloriously horrible fashion with a final blast of white hot metallic hardcore anger mixed with some furious punk.

This was as close to perfect as you could get really, the only point I have is that some of it sounded almost too much like other bands, which is fine and didn’t ruin the effect of any part of the album, I think I would just like Lifesick to shine through as their own being! But seriously apart from that there is nothing here to moan about, this is an unrelenting, savage and angry album that should get repeated listens if you know what is good for you. 9/10

Ethereal – Downfall (Self Released) [Matt Bladen]

Think Katatonia, think Sentenced, think Moonsorrow, think Draconian or any number of Gothic bands with dual female/male vocals and you can sort of conjure up the style of Portuguese gothic doom band Ethereal. I mean if the name doesn’t give it away then the slow brooding soundscapes, sweeping orchestras, huge wall of guitars and soaring classical female vocal from Christina Lopes and gruff clean/growls from band founder Hugo Soares will definitely will. 

Formed in 1997 they recorded and performed until 2008 to go and do other things but the lure of crinoline and introspection proved too much and Ethereal returned with their original line up in 2021, adding third guitarist Pedro Arsénio. The addition of a third guitarist makes Downfall very guitar centric, the Maiden-isms strong on choral backed opener Betrayal as Pedro, Marco Agostinho and Carlos Monteiro, channelling Nightwish and Sentenced too. These influences continue on The Last Peaceful Journey, which has the drive of Katatonia and a bit more Maiden.

Even with a song such as The Hour Of Infinity, which is anchored around the piano of Mário Serrano, the guitars link between each other, harmonies on top of harmonies as there’s also a doomy chug. Ethereal were quite highly touted when they first emerged and it’s easy to see why as even after all these years, their music is perhaps more popular than it was then, the title track for instance something that you could hear world beaters such as Leprous or Devin Townsend produce. 

Slow burning, multi-layered and emotive build on great rhythms from Miguel Ledo (drums) and Jorge Bentes (bass) it’s a triumphant way to end this rousing comeback album. Ethereal are something special, hopefully they stick around as their third album is just what I needed this time of year. 8/10

Ataraxie - Le Déclin (Ardua Music & Weird Truth Productions) [Mark Young]

A late, late review for your consideration!!

 
There are some releases that test your level of patience to the point that it stops being a pleasant listening experience and becomes a trial of endurance, almost to the point that having completed it there is a badge of honour bestowed upon you by others who have braved it and lived to tell the tale. I’m exaggerating, well at least about the badge of honour but I’m comparing my experience of this as being like navigating the Banyan Tree in Jet Set Willy (look it up kids). 

This is a long album, 4 tracks that altogether clock in at 1 hour and 21 minutes long and yet in order to appreciate its qualities you have to sit and digest it in one sitting. This is a throwback to the early days of doom/death metal, extended and stretched beyond its natural form. Each of the 4 tracks provide something different, all of it pitched within a blacker than black delivery. They are built to evolve at a glacial pace before exploding into traditional/OSDM tempos such as Vomisseurs De Vide which see it moving between melancholic, soft guitar into that doom territory without a backwards glance.

 
The opening salvo Le Déclin drags itself along with ponderous arrangement that moves at pace reserved for tectonic plates but within that movement it starts to unfold, evolving as the vocals enter. They narrate, at first in an almost gentle way and start to build in intensity until its time for the extreme growls to take over. Musically, the pattern shifts as those darker overtones take shape and the real aural punishment starts as Vomisseurs De Vide comes in with a statement riff pattern that is just huge. This isn’t like anything else I’ve heard; it isn’t just recycling of detuned guitars that spit out the same ideas as it feels like an album’s worth of ideas in one go. That constant switch between into death metal is unsettling, the way they turn that they change into this blast beat monster is incredible. It’s not forced, it is completely natural to hear.

 
Glory Of Ignominy continues that slow-burn approach, their heavy attack giving way into the subtle once more in a subversion of Vomisseurs, again using that switch and bait approach to wrong foot you. The Collapse is the final battering, and this one starts like the doom you know and love, guitars that grind, drums that epically crash and roll and that guttural performance by Jonathan Théry that forms the foundation from which it all springs.

 
There is no point me trying to find new ways to describe to you how heavy they are because in all honesty it’s pointless. This is their 5th album, and if you have listened to the other 4 then you will have a pretty good idea of what is in store for you. Within each track there are moments of speed that evoke memories of what death metal was like in the early 90’s. It’s brutal, dark and without any mercy whatsoever. 

That they choose to punish over this length of time is something else, and I think under normal circumstances I would have attempted to send this back to the boss for someone else to have a stab at. What they do within each track is tell a cohesive story that touches on subtlety, melody and gives you some monstrous sounding guitars. Each one is like a distorted mirror of the one before and the one after, often twisting similar movements so that they come at you from a different place, almost like a different time.

 
It goes without saying that this will be an acquired taste to those who have not come across Ataraxie before. I’ve no idea if their earlier music would be better as a jumping on point when compared to this. Or maybe you should just take the plunge and let it wash over you like the water in a cold, dark lake. 8/10

Reviews: Herin, Methadone Skies, Codespeaker, The Jailbirds (Reviews By Matt Bladen)

Herin - Hiding In Plain Sight (The Lasers Edge)

Detroit prog band Tiles released their last album Pretending 2 Run in 2016 and then I sort of thought that they had laid the band to rest. A shame as they were a favourite of mine, mixing Dream Theater with Rush, with album covers designed by the amazing Hugh Syme, I had followed them for a while but now I know the reason for the absence. Guitarist/Songwriter Chris Herin has spent 10 years supporting his father through Alzheimer's disease, these moments, these memories, this journey has been filtered into the debut of Herin, Chris' solo project.

A concept record that uses Herin's knack for emotive, introspective, prog rock playlist and art rock sensitivity, it's got to be the most experimental and personal collection of songs Herin has written. Produced by Terry Brown (Rush) and mastered by Peter Moore (Bob Dylan) it sounds gorgeous, warm but also disconcerting, moments of darkness and sobering reality are used to instil a sense of fragility, to reveal the real effects of Alzheimer's not only on the person but on their loved ones. 

A portion of this album’s proceeds will be donated to Alzheimer’s charities, and I implore you pick it up of you are a fan of progressive music that can move you. Be it the The Heart Of You which has a bit of Toto meeting Phil Collins, the folky Second Ending or the string laden Safe House (Isolation) and even Slow To Crumble which sounds like Styx, there’s real heart to these songs.

Be it heavily orchestrated moments, quiet ambient sections, polyrhythmic riffs, interesting percussion or scintillating solos, this album is musically impressive as you'd expect, the talent not only from Herin but guests such as guitars/mandolin/flute from Martin Barre, keys from John O’Hara, and drums from Doane Perry current and former members of Jethro Tull who haven't played together since 2010ish on the track The Darkest Hour. Elsewhere there's some guitar brilliance from Peter Frampton and Alex Lifeson while other guests include Crown Lands, Tim Bowness, Colin Edwin, Randy McStine and Michael Sadler of Saga who is one of the myriad of vocalists but definitely the most identifiable on the opener.

Hiding In Plain Sight has Chris Herin dealing with his father’s condition through the only medium he knows, surrounded by friends and heroes, he tells his own story with gifted musicianship and deft song writing, while it’s not always what Tiles fans would expect, there’s a pile of prog tightly packed into 5 minute chunks. 8/10

Methadone Skies - Spectres At Dawn (Haywire Records)

Methadone Skies have been a band for fifteen years, Spectres At Dawn is their sixth studio album. This Romanian band can be classed as post rock but while many of the post rock bands come from the sludge and hardcore, Methadone Skies move more in the stoner/psych/space rock circles, sprinkling their post rock with classic prog rock, swirling psych and thundering doom.

Those doom riffs come from the first moments of To No Avail, Alexandru Wehry and Casian Stanciu's guitars doing a lot of the heavy lifting before the grooves get a bit quicker on '87 via '94, this is where those stoner influences come in with bit of thrash too. Behind these grooves Mihai Guta's bass sets a fuzzy foundation for Mano Cornetto, a song that deals with the Orthodox Churches furore over the 'Devil Horns' gesture.

Flavius Retea's drums add a classic metal gallop while the keyboards amplify the textures, not there's much that's needs amplifying on the killer stoner riffs of Thrill Estate. Spectres At Dawn introduced me to Methadone Skies and while I'm not always convinced by instrumental bands, this one has riffs that don't need vocals. 8/10

Codespeaker - Scavenger (Ripcord Records)

Codespeaker channel rage and probably the ice cold winters of their native Scotland into their Post-Metal. Industrial, savage and with a lingering atmosphere of darkness, Scavenger is their second record and delves deeper into the underground. 

Scavenger is the band setting out their intentions as a band with new members, this revised iteration seeing them become more concise, more honed and more dangerous. The different line up all adding their own influences and backgrounds as Codespeaker play post-metal that comes with a hefty nod to sludge and hardcore, in the vocals the repeating breakdowns and the general sense of unease on tracks such as Recission. 

Obviously you can name Cult Of Luna or Neurosis as the major influences and Codespeaker do pay homage to these bands with their ear-bleeding heaviness and political lyricism. The latter particularly important as they think Scavenger is an “ode to the powerless”, filled with vitriol and venom it’s hard to disagree. Unless you like your post-metal at the more savage end then you may not want to approach Codespeaker, they’re pissed off and want to let the world know about it. 7/10

The Jailbirds - High Noon (Self Released)

High Noon is the new EP from firebrand rockers The Jailbirds. Fusing bluesy hard rock, grungy alt rock and bags of attitude, The Jailbirds showcase a knack for classic rock, be it the Zeppelin-like Tokyo Smoke or the STP- like moodiness of Sludge, they definitely dive into their own record collections on this five track EP. 

A proper power trio tracks such as Your Love swagger with the sound of three men locked into a groove, replicating their live sound on record while doing a bit of playing around with their sound. Something many bands do with an EP, it’s an excuse shift their sound while also welcoming new listeners. It’s definitely won me over as I like this EP a lot. 

There’s plenty of the rock styles I enjoy, though woozy psych/stoner vibes of Our Time is my favourite one here. High Noon then is a great intro to The Jailbirds, this trio rock hard with a number of styles they can call upon. Consider me impressed. 7/10

Reviews: Coma Hole, Casandra's Crossing, Bombus, Deithesis (Reviews By Rich Piva & Matt Bladen)

Coma Hole - Hand Of Severance (Self Released) [Rich Piva]

I loved the first album by Rhode Island’s Coma Hole. The duo kicks all sorts of ass and certainly bring the heavy as a team of two. This continues on also excellent second record, Hand Of Severance, that picks up where the self-titles debut left off. Eryka Fir plays everything except the drums and is a true star in the making, and the six tracks on Hand Of Severance doubles down on this point of view.

The up-tempo heaviness of the opener, Alphaholics, sets the tone with Fir’s bass and killer vocals leading the way. The way she layers her vocals is excellent and the production work makes it sound like they are a five piece and not just the two of them making all this noise. Steve Anderson on drums is no slouch in his own right and shows this on Nevermind. The title of this song reminds me that Coma Hole has a whole bunch of albums from 90s bands from Seattle in their collection. There is a Melvins/Mudhoney fuzz to the six tracks, but also a sense of melody that shines through. Fir really shows off her vocals on this one too. 

Rivermouth has a killer riff and a Soundgarden but more sparse vibe to it musically. The bass rules the day on Luster, partnered with Fir’s vocals gives this one a Searching With My Good Eye Closed vibe to it. King Bee’s riff is all sorts of heavy (doesn’t that riff sound like the one from Dirt?) and this brings the doomier side of the band to the table, combined with an AIC thing going on. The closer, Nooses, has this punk vibe to it to go along with all of the grunge goodness that is going on and a surprising piano appearance to close it out.

Coma Hole’s sophomore outing is a great next step for the band. If Eryka Fir is not a do it all star in the making I don’t know who would be. Hand Of Severance should be a great way to build the duo’s following and take the band to the next level. 8/10

Casandra’s Crossing - Garden Of Earthly Delights (Frontiers Music Srl) [Rich Piva]

Just because you put two very talented performers together it does not mean the end product is going to be a winner. The latest effort to jam two musicians into a studio and see what happens by Frontiers Records is the debut record from the combination of guitar god George Lynch and lead vocalist of Paralandra, Casandra Carson, aptly named Casandra’s Crossing. George Lynch rules no matter what shitty list tells you.

He is hands down one of the best players ever and in my top three of the “hair band” guitarists to shine in the 80s. I was not familiar with Carson prior to this, but what I can tell you now is that she has an extremely powerful voice that should pair nicely with Lynch’s shredding. But like all Frontiers releases, the slickness of the production drags some seriously killer shredding and good song-writing down, sometimes making the record feel like an American Idol production rather than a kick ass rock record.

I don’t blame Lynch, because as usual he is in top form. Carson sounds great too, and if every song sounded like the opener, Stranger, we would have a ripper on our hands. Carson kills it on tracks like Waltzing Nights, which sounds like 80s Heart but heavier (Lynch’s solo is something else too). My favourite and most raw track on the record is Just Business. The vocals and heaviness of this song makes me wish they all had this kind of edge.

Devastating Times is a winner too, showing off Lynch and Carson’s strong chemistry. I dig the up-beat ripper Run For Your Life too. There is not really a bad track on Garden Of Earthly Delights, but the production works against the record, taking great songs and making them so over produced that they tend to sound like everything else on Frontiers, which is not fair because there are some great tracks on this record.

I bet Casandra’s Crossing sound amazing live, with her voice and his guitar and away from the lab where the record was produced. Lynch and Carson shine, but Garden Of Earthy Delights is just too overproduced for my ears. 7/10

Bombus - Your Blood (Black Lodge Records) [Matt Bladen]

Rock fans rejoice as Swedes Bombus can cure what ails you. There's plenty of heavy style riffs, but Bombus take a slightly different route with this record, adding more melody to their rawer rock n roll sound to encompass some of the moody atmospheres of post punk/goth bands on The One, No Rules and Take You Down, a bit of country on Your Blood too. While The Beast and Leave And Let Die bring the heavier classic sound of the band, the one influenced by Motorhead. 

Their first album, written and produced by themselves since their inception in 2008 and with this shift into more melodic/classic rock realms they can only increase their fanbase. The problem I have is that I do actually prefer their older louder material. I'm a fan of post-punk/goth but it's a little jarring when it's put with the frantic rock n roll. Other Swedish bands such as Mustasch can blend heavy and melody better, so while Bombus are branching out, I still think the 'rockier' material is more effective. 6/10

Deithesis - Equilibrium (Sliptrick Records) [Matt Bladen]

Equilibrium is the debut album from Deithesis. Hailing from Ireland, they're a band who play classic heavy metal mixed with some doom too, they mention influences such as Candlemas and Solitude Aeturnus, both of which are quite obvious in the darker sound Deithesis.

Beyond Tomorrow for instance is a steady mid paced rocker that not only links to the bands mentioned but also mid-period Metallica. Equilibrium creeps as it shifts into the chuggy Virtue, bassist Kenneth Bell and drummer Michael McConnon keeping the steady groove.

Vocally Allan Clarke has a voice that's similar to Therapy's Andy Cains, rough and booming while Darren Duffy and John Rankin's guitar weave between each other like it's a classic NWOBHM record, that closes with a bit more Metallica worship on Beckon Tragedy. Deithesis show a lot of promise on this debut, it'll be interesting to see where they go from here. 7/10

Reviews: Fit For An Autopsy, Mother Of Graves, Sentient Horror, Saltwound (Reviews By GC)

Fit For An Autopsy - The Nothing That Is (Nuclear Blast Records)

Fit For An Autopsy are one of those bands that have been around for a good while, released a hefty back catalogue and built up a fierce following but have also managed to completely pass me by! Well, that’s about to change because today I have their latest album The Nothing That Is to review, could this be the time they rope me in, and I finally get it?

Everything starts off promisingly enough on Hostage which is a deathcore and djent mix and even manages to throw in some clean vocals to mix up the usual flow of the track and its all done very well and has a polished production that really fills the song out nicely, while its not exactly ground-breaking or anything it is all done very well, Spoils Of The Horde is what Lamb Of God would sound like if they wrote a deathcore song, the rhythms and vocal deliveries are so similar and it gives the song a good edge but I never manage to stop thinking of Lamb Of God throughout the whole song, Savior Of None- Ashes Of All gives us a more urgent thrash/death metal feel while never straying to far from the deathcore chugging and once again there is an interesting use of the clean vocals to add some more emotional depth and to the song. 

On Weaker Wolves we get an almighty groove laden track that will stick in the mind for a long time to come as the simplicity is the key here its lack of padding really lets the brutality and bluntness of the song take hold and it’s a real winning formula, the mood then shifts drastically on Red Horizon the heaviness is still present and front & centre but there is also a subtleness here that hasn’t been on show so far and the harmony and atmosphere added into this track is impressive and it has a real low end rumble all the way through that really carries this song forward with power and fury, title track The Nothing That Is just goes for the jugular from the off with crushing djent guitars throwing sharp edged riffs that collide with a hectic drum showing and it is all a cloud of destruction that manages to mix in dark atmospheric textures that help differentiate between the light and darkness in a beautiful way.

Lurch then once again strips everything back and has an ambient and spacey opening with harsh vocals just scratching the surface and it all explodes with a hail of staccato riffs that are once again beautiful in their more simple approach, there are djent rhythms mixed with deathcore chug but nothing takes over and they merge into a staggering, precise and focused attack but they are also never scared to pull back and slow the tempo again, this melee of different styles really makes this track so good. We get back to the more basic deathcore sound on The Lower Purpose and it almost feels like an anti-climax, while there is nothing wrong with the track as such, it just feels maybe to basic in its delivery.

I have said that simplicity has created some awesome parts of this album but this track just misses something, but then Lust For The Severed Head is a barrage of technicality that sweeps away any lingering disappointment as it is just a savage beast of a song that batters you about for just over 3 minutes and leaves you wanting more but, you don’t really get it on The Silver Sun which seems like a bit of an odd one to end one, it’s a slow build for about 2 minutes then just sort of tries to mix everything together for the next 4 and a half minutes, its not a bad track it just ok and ends on a bit of a whimper rather than a bang.

As I previously mentioned, this was my first introduction to Fit For An Autopsy and on this showing, I will definitely be going back and listening to more and also paying attention to future releases as there was a hell of a lot to like on this album and almost nothing to not like, a good showing and if you like your metal to be heavy but varied and your core with a death tinge then The Nothing That Is, will definitely be an album you should check out. 8/10

Mother Of Graves - The Periapt Of Absence (Profound Lore Records)

Death metal and doom metal, 2 genres that if done well can be devastating but if done badly can be tiresome and irritating in equal measure, so to put them together takes a lot of guts and belief in yourself it seems like Mother Of Graves are taking on this challenge and this is their second full length The Periapt Of Absence.

The opening of Gallows is all in on the doom essence and the foreboding and melancholic guitars of Ben Sandman & Chris Morrison feel like the walk to said torture equipment and when the rest of the band kick in there is a melodic and sweeping feel to the music and Brandon Howe’s vocals really cloak the song in blanket of misery and sorrow in the best way to create an epic and bombastic opener, following such a bold opener is not an easy task but Shatter The Visage tops the opener and then some, its has a slow opening that is as doomy as you would like but then the death element is as vicious and savage as you would expect, there is a harrowing and grim feel to the song as a whole and the way that the contrasting moods hit you is phenomenally well done throughout and the guitar work towards the mid-point is absolutely outstanding! 

A Scarlet Threnody begins with a beautiful softness and slowly consumes you before a huge wall of sorrow and sadness cascades down directly into your soul and it’s a completely overwhelming way feel, usually death metal can be devoid of feeling and just concentrate on violence but here you feel the emotional nature of everything and it’s just a pleasure to hear such a different take on the genre and the down cast and emotive nature continues on into Apparition with a definite focus on more grandiose doom but thankfully it doesn’t ever forget to be heavy and adds some wonderful melodic death metal sections in just for good measure and once again the way they time the cross overs is wonderful. 

The Periapt Of Absence is a perfect amalgamation the of Mother Of Graves sound and distils exactly what they are trying to do in one gloriously dark and thunderous doomy epic the focus is to make the listener uncomfortable and engaged while tearing their heart out of their chest and handing it back to them, the way this music seeps into you is enthralling and captivating, As The Earth Fell Silent almost destroys me with the way it calms and eases you in then grabs your attention and demands to be listened to, the layers and atmosphere are haunting and mesmerizing at the same time yet they still manage to add a viciousness that contrasts and smashes the safety and comfort you were in into a million pieces.

Upon Burdened Hands marches forward with more melodic death metal that has a groove that will stick with you for a long time, this is the stopped dead and drops into an almost dreamlike sequence which provides a spoken word interlude mid song and this allows the listener a brief time to take stock and prepare for the heart wrenchingly heavy end section of the song we are then onto our final song, Like Darkness To A Dying Flame which is of course another absolute monster of a track that once again has the perfect mix of heaviness and sorrow and is a lesson to any doom bands out there that at 6:34 you don’t need 15+ minutes to get a point across, focus on the feeling of a track and concentrate the attack and you can get things done in a decent time and this becomes a perfect way to end this album.

When I first saw this wasn’t sure it would be for me, and I was a bit dubious but how wrong I was! From the very first note until the last rang out it was just perfection, and I cannot fault one thing about it, an utterly fantastic piece of work that any self-respecting metal fan should listen to and embrace. A truly wonderful album. 10/10

Sentient Horror - In Service Of The Dead (Redefining Darkness Records)

Formed in 2016 in Stockholm, New Jersey, not the good one, Sentient Horror are a death metal band with a few releases behind them and from what I can make out In Service Of The Dead is their 4th album and it will be released by Redefining Darkness Records and that ladies and gents is as much as I know!

It doesn’t take long for The Way Of Decay to introduce itself to you it’s a full on blitzkrieg of savage buzzsaw guitars and a blur of thunderous drums that create a thrashy death metal tune and wastes no time in letting you know that there is likely to be absolutely zero subtlety on any of these songs and it all adds up to a decent start to proceedings, as you would expect Undead Mutation doesn’t stray very far from what you expect, its another balls to the wall, everything faster than everything else slab of death metal delivered with and extra side of speed just because they can really, they do slow down slightly at one point and add in some groove to lighten the mood a bit but that’s here and gone in the blink of an eye and its back to business as usual for a breathless start! 

Mutilation Day begins with an almost melodic opening that is slightly stunted by the guitar tones and doesn’t really sit right but that’s all swept aside by the main part of the song that is about a subtle as a breeze block to the temple, you can feel that there is one aim here and that is to fucking devastate you and for the most part they do a good job and when they insert some of their groove infused riffs the songs really take a better shape, Cadaverous Hordes doesn’t take the foot of the gas for a second and might be the fastest song so far, its thrash backdrop mixes with the relentless nature of the death metal and the playing really is something else, you have to give them credit for that for sure, BUT its already all starting to sound a bit samey throughout and I’m only 4 songs in and not sure how they would change this pattern? 

The Tombcrusher does absolutely nothing to make me think oh? This is new!? It is yet another heads down, play fast, do nothing different song, and as I have said I am not going to knock the music as it’s all played so fantastically but sometimes too much of the same thing gets a bit tedious and boring, I’m not bored per se, just waiting for some variety!? Out Of Sanity almost gives me what I want with a bit of a groove metal opener that gets you paying attention but then as expected about 30 seconds later its back to what they know and just sounds like everything else I have already heard, despite all this Glory To The Rotten is an absolute fucking belting track, with its Carcass-like opening and furious and thundering groove infused verse, they finally mix it up a bit and even when they revert to character and start blasting the shit out of everything it still sounds glorious and is without a doubt the album highpoint! 

Born In A Morgue doesn’t really follow up or continue the change of styles, annoyingly its back to what they know and what they have done for the vast majority of the album and honestly the same can be said about Feeding On Fear if I hadn’t noticed I would have thought that that last 2 tracks were just one long song as it doesn’t change in tempo or style one iota and predictably In Service Of The Dead also falls into this category to end on a decent but ultimately very predictable way.

They say variety is the spice of life, well everyone apart from Sentient Horror does anyway! While everything on In Service of the Dead is played well and never lost any intensity it was all just too similar for the entire length if the album and I just got a bit frustrated with the familiarity by the end. A decent listen and worth your time, but it won’t be troubling any AOTY lists. 6/10

Saltwound - The Temptation Of Pain (Sharptone Records)

According to their online presence, Saltwound deftly tame a chaotic hybrid of deathcore and metalcore with earthquaking grooves and insidious melodies and they call this type of noise Norcal Violence apparently? Not sure what they’re on about really but it all sounds angry and heavy enough I suppose?

We All Burn starts everything off in a sort of subdued fashion really, there is all the promise of the heaviness and a metalcore deathy-ness but honestly it just tries too hard for my liking, the chugging riffs are so one dimensional and unenergetic and the squeaks and high-pitched squeals from the guitars are just plain annoying, nothing really improves on Blight either, I can see what they are trying to achieve and there is a whiff of deathcore running through the song but its just so standard and run of the mill it just passes me by and the nu-metal influence that creeps in towards the end.

I can just do without altogether and this runs directly into the next track Empty From The Start which mixes the unnecessary squealing guitars with more mediocre chugging metalcore that does my head in because it just sounds so uninspired and its played out so much you wonder why people even bother anymore. 

On Circle The Drain things do improve slightly to begin with as the pace quickens and you can actually appreciate the guitars here, but it doesn’t take long to fall back into the familiar pattern and completely ruin the good start and just let the monotonous chugging take over for the rest of the song and to the surprise of absolutely nobody its more of exactly the same on Temptation Of Pain the main issue here is that you really can’t differentiate between the tracks because they all sound exactly the same and if there was something about the songs that wouldn’t really be too much of an issue but the fact that these songs are as bland as a cardboard sandwich really doesn’t help. 

We have now reached the hallway mark of this album and Hollow is just another example of how to try and execute anger and totally miss the mark, the mixing of electronic nu-metal tinged guitars interspersed with a constant barrage of mediocre chugging beatdowns is just really, really, really boring now and I think the vocalist has now said motherfucker more than anyone in the history of saying motherfucker has ever said it.

I really don’t know how else to describe Walking The Blade without saying listen to any of the previous 6 tracks and you have already heard this done, it just feels like one long track at this point and I really don’t know what the next 3 tracks will offer in the way of a saving grace? Ok, so I listened to The Righteous Hand, Ensnared & Severance and I am sorry, but as predicted they offered absolutely no variation on the already played out and tiresome formula.

There are a few words I could use to describe this album, boring, tedious, annoying, unoriginal and there are many more. I have said this before, and I will say it again there must be a call for this music somewhere, maybe? 2/10

A View From The Back Of The Room: Gatecreeper (Live Reviews By Paul Hutchings)

Gatecreeper, 200 Stab Wounds, Enforced, The Fleece Bristol 31.10.24

It’s Halloween and there are all manner of ghouls and foul beings floating around the streets of Bristol. There’s a fairly unpleasant atmosphere lurking in the depths of the famous Fleece venue, as three rising US death metal outfits are in the city ahead of shows at Damnation Festival in Manchester and a European tour that will see them traverse the Netherlands, Finland, Norway, Italy, Sweden and Germany over the next month.

It's a full house tonight and although the doors are early, it’s relatively full when Richmond’s Enforced (8) hit the stage. Last time they were in Bristol they played a strange 30-minute headline set that had many of the punters in Rough Trade scratching their heads. Tonight, they bludgeon through the equivalent set in terms of time but take in tracks from 2023’s War Remains as well as the title track from new EP A Leap Into The Dark. 

It’s unreconstituted stuff, their blend of thrash and crossover maybe not quite to the tastes of some of the more refined death metal fans but there is no doubting the band’s ferocity or energy. Vocalist Knox Colby is gripped by an inability to stand still, prowling and pacing when not barking out his ferocious delivery. The band are tight, with new guitarist Josh ‘The Mosh’ Welteroth comfortably tackling the lead work with efficiency. It’s a visceral start to the evening and worth getting in early to catch the Virginians.

Youngsters in comparison to the opening act in terms of years together, there’s something bubbling under with 200 Stab Wounds (8). The Cleveland quartet don’t mess around either, launching into their 40-minutes of bruising death metal with a non-nonsense approach only slowed by a few minutes due to change of drum kit. The additional of another kick drum is worth the wait though, for watching Owen Pooley work his way through the set with a smile on his face as he blasts out insane patterns at pace is worth the admission fee on its own. 

To his left, guitarist Raymond Macdonald’s intimidating psycho killer from down the street stare chills, the man barely cracks a smile all set but is happy cranking out the brutality with ease. New tracks flow from 2024’s Manual Manic Procedures, mixed with older songs that raise cheers from the now full venue. The set tails off a little mid-set, but picks up on the home straight, with Steve Buhl’s ability to roar down the mic whilst playing guitar always impressive. Full force death metal is on the menu, and as the circle pits whirl, 200 Stab Wounds ensure the audience is fully sated before the main course is served.

A decade plus into their journey, and things are really picking up for Arizonans Gatecreeper (10). Their Dark Superstition album is probably my death metal album of 2024, and this show is an example of how to deliver at the highest level. A big song set list provides an hour of unrelenting death metal with a contemporary twist. The venue is in high excitement as the band storm into Oblivion, man mountain guitarist Eric Wagner leaning menacingly over the front rows as he demands the circle pits get larger and faster. Behind him, Matt Arrebollo provides the relentless battery from the drum stool. It’s another masterclass in death metal drumming, as he locks in with the ferocious low-end of bassist Alex Brown and guitarist Israel Garza. 

All eyes are on frontman / singer Chase H Mason, whose is positioned between the two iconic but annoying front pillars and whose vocal rasp is the deadliest of the evening. Caught In The Treads spurs the pit to work harder, whilst Mason demands a ‘push-pit’ for Desperation. “No kicking, no punching” he reminds the crowd. “Just use your hands” as hell is unleashed. By the time we get to the final few songs, Gatecreeper are in killing machine mode, as they roll into The Black Curtain, Starved/Sick Of Being Sober and closing track Flamethrower.

There’s a groove that underpins the band’s sound, which has been crystal clear all evening (fist pump to the sound engineer indeed!). It returns for one final burst, as Boiled Over from 2019’s Deserted steamrollers anyone left standing. All that’s left is high fives for the front few rows, a quick merch browse and then out into the welcome cool of the evening. Horrors avoided, this was an exceptional performance from a band who, alongside both tour partners, are destined for bigger things.

A View From The Back Of The Room: Mizmor, Dool & Hangman's Chair (Live Review By Kostas Panagiotou)

Mizmor, Dool, Hangman’s Chair. The Fleece, Bristol 29.10.24

Editor's Note: Huge thanks to Kostas for covering this show after the initial writer fell ill. 

It’s a mild Tuesday evening and despite the annoying rush hour traffic, I’m compelled to travel to the lovely Fleece in Bristol to watch an unusual package of bands. French doom rocksters Hangman’s Chair (8) take the stage first. 

They are the band I am most familiar with this evening. I’m standing right at the front and when I turn around at the start of their set, I’m surprised to only see 15-20 faithful ones in attendance. The figure will double by the end of the evening, but these skilled, talented doomsters deserve much better. They take us on a journey with a heavy emphasis on their masterpiece A Loner. 

Singer/guitarist Cédric Toufouti enchants with his pristine vocals, while the overall sound is powerful and yet clean. Despite the band’s remarkable lack of engagement with the audience, this is a strong performance, and when I close my eyes I am transported to a serene universe away from the pain and suffering of this earthly vale of tears.

Dool (8) (Dutch for ‘wandering’) are a band that has arisen from the ashes of the much-missed occult rock outfit The Devil’s Blood. They don’t quite hit the magickal vibe of their predecessor, however their solid dark rock suits this stage perfectly and frontperson Raven Van Dorst oozes charisma and class. They delight the audience with an excellent cover of Love Like Blood and a strong selection of their original compositions, mostly centred around their album The Shape Of Fluidity.

Hailing from Portland, Oregon Mizmor (8) (Hebrew for ‘psalm’) is the outfit on tonight’s bill I’m least familiar with. Frontman A.L.N.’s screams of agony are the polar opposite of Cédric Toufouti’s angelic vocals and the sound strays remarkably from the clean vibe of the first two bands. Starting with a protracted blastbeat assault which lasts several minutes, one would be forgiven for being under the impression of attending the live ritual of an infernal black metal band. 

However, after a few minutes they slam on the breaks and what follows is a funereal sludge doom fest that would cause eargasm to the most demanding of doom acolytes. Unlike sludge icons Grief and their messy, chaotic faster outbursts, Mizmor seem equally comfortable at supersonic speed or at a torturous crawl. They go on to pummel our senses relentlessly, reminding us that despite our hopes and dreams, we remain eternal prisoners of this earthly vale of tears after all.

Reviews: Tribulation, Deaf Lizard, KLOGR, Cryptic Brood (Reviews By Liam Williams, Rich Piva, Mark Young & GC)

Tribulation – Sub Rosa In Æternum (Century Media Records) [Liam Williams]

Swedish goth rockers Tribulation are back with their 7th album Sub Rosa In Æternum. 9 spooktacular tracks, very fitting for this particular time of year. They blend elements of modern gothic rock with some more 80’s inspired sounds from bands like The Cure and Sisters Of Mercy, with a bit of a heavier, grittier sound. Not quite death metal but you can definitely hear the influence. If these tracks were faster and a bit heavier then they’d be stepping into death metal territory. But, with that being said, this is a really great album to add to your Halloween playlist!

The album starts with The Unrelenting Choir, a short intro song which begins with some very haunting synth before the guitars come in and the drums slowly start building up. There’s some really nice sinister sounding clean vocals while the song continues to build up.

Next up we have Tainted Skies which starts off with a little frantic bass riff before the full band comes in and things get groovy. There’s a good mix of clean and harsh vocals. I really like the choruses. The guitar work in particular follows the vocals really well. I love the guitar solos, especially the second one which almost has a bit of a surf rock feel to it. Saturn Coming Down has a great little groovy, spooky guitar riff before the first verse comes in. The chorus is a little bit cheesy sounding but it works quite well and doesn’t ruin my enjoyment of the track.

The next track Hungry Waters reminds me of Fascination Street by The Cure. It’s a bit calmer and groovier than the last couple of tracks. I really enjoyed the drums in this song. They’re not particularly complicated but they’re fun to listen to. There’s a couple of great little guitar solos before a piano/guitar part before the bridge which also sounds really good. Drink The Love Of God is a little bit faster and heavier and there’s a key change for the guitar solo which works quite well. Murder in Red has a very 80’s goth sound to it. The intro gives me Stranger Things theme vibes. I love the duel guitars in the solo.

Moving on to the last few tracks, Time The Vivid Ore goes back to a bit of a heavier more guitar driven sound. There’s a great build-up to the climax of the song. Reaping Song is a bit slower and calmer again. It features a nice little synth solo before a very gritty, dirty sounding guitar solo. Finally we have Poison Pages, the longest track on the album, lasting just over 6 minutes. Again it has quite an 80’s goth sound when the band kicks in. There’s a nice guitar lead into the outro before a droning synth lingers on until the song fades to an end.

I really enjoyed listening to this album, especially on Halloween. The mix is a little rough around the edges in some parts but for the most part you can hear everything pretty clearly. The vocals are good but maybe could have done with a little more work. I think the clean vocal parts were done a little bit better than the harsher vocals but that’s just a little nit-pick. The guitars are really good, nice groovy bass and drums. Like I said, groovy but spooky! 9/10

Deaf Lizard - The Last Odyssey (Electric Valley Records) [Rich Piva]

Oldenburg, Germany’s Deaf Lizard play a nice mix of hard rock/stoner/psych with an edge, and have done so for the past five years, giving us some very cool heaviness along the way. This continues with their new record, The Last Odyssey, which like so many bands putting out music in 2024 came out of a creative time during the pandemic and also like so many other bands in 2024 may have released their best and most realized work yet.

A heavy psych leaning instrumental opens up the record and leads us to The Devil’s Show, which starts off sounding like Monolord for the first two minutes until the tempo picks up and the angry vocals and extra fuzz kicks in. City Of Life is up next, a nice little ripper with a stoner rock via punk feel to it to go with a cool melody for quite the earworm effect. Great song. Independent Terror makes you think we are about to doom it up until the cool guitar fuzz kicks in with a nasty riff, reminding me of Nebula. 

In their bio they mention Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs and I don’t have a better description for the next track, Lady In Black, except that to me it has a NYC post hardcore feel to it as well. The highlight of the record is the eight minute psych opus Ape’s Odyssey which takes you on quite the trip lead by all those swirling guitars, while keeping their heavy. Speaking of swirling guitars, the closer, The Veil, leans way into the psych side of things, creating a killer and mind-bending last fifteen minutes where The Last Odyssey shines brightest.

The Last Odyssey is a dark trip yet somehow a fun album that hits all the right chords when it comes to a nice blend of stoner and psych with punk leanings. Deaf Lizard are a very cool band and are even cooler after the release of The Last Odyssey. 8/10

KLOGR - Fractured Realities (Noble Demon) [Mark Young]

KLOGR return after a 7-year hiatus, a hiatus that was caused by excessive touring and of course the Pandemic which as we know drove a bus through the plans of just about every band going. Noted as a Progressive Alt-rock/metal outfit which is a combination that doesn’t sit to well with me. I think that when a band suggests using rock and metal in the same breath it seems that neither one is served correctly. Add that this is a concept album and let’s say that my expectations are not too high. If I’m starting off on a fairly negative tack, well I’m being honest with you from the off. You might dig this genre and if so great.

So having listened to it, there is nothing here to change my outlook on it. It’s a collection of songs that sound good, mixing in the use of electronica amongst the riffola which follow a pre-determined route that sees the traditional verse-chorus-verse arrangement. It delivered earnestly, but as I feared it sits in that zone where the rock leanings are preferred over metal meaning that when they do amp it up it feels a bit safe and clean.

Songs come and go, without a sense that you listening to something different than the one came before or after. It feels like it is something that could be slightly out of time, at least to me. But you can see that within their songs they are trying to build them so that they are delivered in a quick order and to be fair there is some satisfying riff work on this. The songs have one eye on being played live, that much is certain and its entirely likely that live, with a crowd giving it back to them then I think you would see a grittier band who are more likely to take risks. 6/10

Cryptic Brood - Necrotic Flesh Bacteria (War Anthem Records) [GC]

There is a lot of nonsense written to describe death metal releases and the PR for Cryptic Brood’s latest release Necrotic Flesh Bacteria is an absolute world class muddle of nonsense and hilarity, from what I can make out this is their third album and that is about all I can make out from it!?

It doesn’t really start out very well with Acid Fumes which starts off with some sloppy doom metal that then gets taken over by some messily played death metal, the problem is that all the separate parts sound like they don’t know what the other is doing, its sounds like is has been mixed weirdly and also sounds like it was recorded in a dustbin, Digging Through Skin has a bit more energy and has a hardcore punk feel mixed in but the varying styles on the song make everything sound confusing and badly timed.

I’m all for clever time signatures and songs veering off on a tangent but here it just doesn’t work at all but the same has can’t really be said about Oozing Pox because here they put a grindcore influence and it’s probably the best thing so far on the album and the way its thrown in and then mixed with a the more doomy approach finally works and the sections mix almost seamlessly together, they still sound a bit sloppy in places but I guess I am just going to have to get used to that.

Viscid Fluid is a slow and heavily doom influenced track and because of this it feels about 2 minutes too long, the drawn out riffs struggle to fill the song and you quickly lose any interest in finding out if they will all the way to the end as frankly it’s just boring, Hallucinogen Poison is a completely pointless track for 2:30 it’s just more boring droning death metal doom but then the final 10 or so seconds has a little blast of grindcore out of nowhere which does end the track on a high but also makes you wish the song was actually only 10 seconds long.

The Pile Of Flesh Is Served continues with the slow and monotonous drone and throws in little blasty bits here and there to try and keep you awake and interested but ultimately fails because the slow bits are just so grating and played pretty poorly as everything sounds like its fighting to be heard before everything else and its not in a good, chaotic type of way its more like a back to the practice room and sort it out sort of way.

Realm Of Rot is just more of the same and honestly I just want to really just give up now, this sort of annoyance in my reviews is usually saved for Br00tal death metal as that’s the lowest form of DM but this is annoying me just as much if not more as its trying its hardest to be extreme and just failing so miserably its draining any fun out of trying to listen to it, so now we get to the title track and what really should be the statement piece of the album Necrotic Flesh Bacteria.

It’s the longest track so far and does precisely nothing to change my mind that this album has any redeeming qualities at all, it drags its heels for 5:31 and just huffs and puffs for the whole run time without delivering that killer blow you may expect thankfully Reeking Pitted Innards is the last track and while I want to say they end on a high and redeem themselves, it will come as no surprise that they do nothing of the sort and just create a slow, lumbering boring mess of a track that really sums up this whole album experience.

So baring a couple of short bits that were just ok, it has to be said that unfortunately for Cryptic Brood Necrotic Flesh Bacteria is probably the most boring album I have listened to all year, it lacks a focus and is just so messy that I never really enjoyed anything I heard. The lack of drive and intensity is a real shame and just makes for a disappointing and very boring listen. There may be an audience for this type of doomy death metal somewhere but unfortunately, it is not me. 2/10

A View From The Back Of The Room: Ghosted, Painted As Monsters & General Waste (Live Review By Liam Williams)

Ghosted (Ghost Tribute Band), Painted As Monsters, General Waste, The Bunkhouse, Swansea, 27.10.2024

On Sunday I was back at the Bunkhouse to celebrate the spooky season with a live show from Ghosted, the UK's number 1 tribute to Ghost, with support from Painted As Monsters and General Waste. So here’s my short review of the show.

Pop-punk band General Waste kicked off the show in spectacular fashion. They only played a short set of about 5-6 songs, including a cover of All American Rejects classic track Dirty Little Secret. They put on a fantastic performance and they sounded great. I think the bass could have done with being a bit louder but other than that the sound was spot on. 

I was quite impressed with their high energy performance, especially from the vocalist and the guitarist who were both really getting into it and having some fun on stage. Their original material sounds like a mix of Paramore and My Chemical Romance. A very nice combo!

Next up, we had Painted As Monsters who brought the heavy! Fantastic three-piece alt/prog band who sound like a blend of Muse and Breaking Benjamin. The whole band sounded great and gave a solid performance but I was very impressed with their drummer, the guy was an absolute machine on the kit and I was completely in awe watching him play.

I really loved the vocal harmonies from the guitarist and bassist too. They treated us with a performance of their newest single which I believe is being released this Saturday. Definitely worth a listen to when it’s out!

Finally we had the headliners of the night, Ghosted. You can say all you want about Ghost, but you can’t deny that they do put on a really fun show, and Ghosted, being the number 1 tribute in the UK, do exactly the same, albeit on a much smaller scale, but the energy and the dedication is on par with the real deal. There were some technical issues at the start of their set but the band quickly overcame them and delivered a brilliant performance!

They played all of my favourites, such as Rats, Year Zero, From The Pinnacle To The Pit and more. There was some great banter between songs from the frontman, aka “Papa”, which gave me a good laugh, and about halfway through the set there was a little guitar duel between the 2 guitarists which went back and forth before the bassist came in right at the end to put them both to shame and win the contest. They played for almost an hour and half in total and I enjoyed every second of it.

So it was a very fun night, everyone in the crowd looked like they were having a great time, lot’s of singing and dancing and smiles all around. I enjoyed myself, the bands did amazing and I look forward to seeing all of them play again!

Reviews: VOLA, Beardfish, Slower, Volume (Reviews By Matt Bladen & Rich Piva)

VOLA - Friend Of A Phantom (Mascot Records) [Matt Bladen]

Sound the horns as Denmark/Sweden’s VOLA return with their latest opus Friend Of A Phantom, continuing the path they have been forging since 2006, they have come from djent/tech metal beginnings and slowly but surely evolved into a more refined and expansive musical beast. 

Really it was 2018’s Applause From A Distant Crowd that spearheaded this conversion into arena ready machine, whereas that album was overall lighter than their debut Inmaze, Witness brought their two sides together and won critical praise leading to a relentless session of touring where many venues were sold out or upgraded as VOLA’s recognition increased.

So they are now back with fourth studio album Friend Of A Phantom, another record where the light/shade of VOLA’s song-writing is explored, heavy rhythmic patterns and atmospheric passages collide in harmonic union with arena-ready choruses and swirling/oscillating electronics on tracks such as Break My Lying Tongue where the poppy propulsion dives into a heavy crush at the end, the aggression focussed into catharsis on the soaring We Will Not Disband.

Asger Mygind’s emotive vocals a defining part of the VOLA experience, here sounding more accepting of things than they did on the melancholic Witness, in fact Friend Of A Phantom is an overall much more upbeat sounding album but introspection and thoughtfulness are major influences lyrically so there is a beautiful underlying tinge of sadness to the brighter track but it’s right upfront on the haunting Glass Mannequin.

Mygind’s guitars shift between techy metal grooves and post metal ambiance, on the former Nicolai Mogensen’s bass underlining how heavy they can be on Hollow Kid, while when they swell into spatial realms on the latter Martin Werner’s keys are more pronounced though always important, Adam Janzi’s drumming to is an anchor point to all of the tempo and style shifts these songs contain (I Don’t Know How We Got Here).

I have been following the band from the Applause From A Distant Crowd tour, I do find that their heavier style songs always go down better so the fact that they haven’t abandoned this early influence of bands such as Meshuggah but rather merged their two polar hemispheres together is probably why they are a band that are so popular with their fan base.

Be it the riffy Cannibal which features Anders Fridén of In Flames on vocals, the grooving Paper Wolf or the closing purge of Tray, VOLA keep their creative engine running hot with their fourth album, adding new textures but never completely forgetting their beginnings. 9/10

Beardfish - Songs For Beating Hearts (Inside Out Music) [Matt Bladen]

Beardfish are back, you can't really blame anyone for the near nine year hiatus, Rikard Sjöblom (vocals/guitar/keys) has been and integral part of Big Big Train for those years so the fish has been sleeping. Thankfully the beards are once again lustrous and the guppys are whizzing around the tank for some more traditional prog rock loveliness. For those that don't know Beardfish are a Swedish prog rock band formed in 2001, having released 8 previous albums their last was in 2015 before they imposed a hiatus in 2016.

Now they're back with new album Songs For Beating Hearts, Rikard Sjöblomagain joined by band co-founders David Zackrisson (guitars), Magnus Östgren (drums) and bassist Robert Hansen who joined the band in 2002. So it's the 'classic' line up and the return of their classic sound. A sound inspired very heavily by Genesis and Yes, as well as fellow Swedes Kaipa and The Flower Kings, the album composed of 5 songs one of which is a 20 minute suite.

It's this one Out In The Open that contains the most Yes influences, from the fleet fingered bass lines, the analogue synths, acoustically laced guitars and strong vocal harmonies, the entire song is a homage to the UK prog legends, but also will remind anyone who forgot how brilliant Beardfish are as a band. Heavily leaning on the sounds of Yes but with their own individuality that resides in these tracks that collectively unify the four men through love, loss, friendship and finality. 

The establishing theme of Ecotone continues through the main part of the album, the string-driven Beating Hearts and the romantic In The Autumn, which features some additional female vocals from Amanda Örtenhag, until Ecotone (Reprise) puts it to bed before the 8 minute southern gothic finale Torrential Downpour. The reunion no one expected, produces and album anyone who knows the band will absolutely love. Welcome back Beardfish. 9/10

Slower - Rage And Ruin (Heavy Psych Sounds) [Rich Piva]

I am so happy that Slower was not a one-off project. In case you missed it, Slower is a stoner/doom supergroup that does Slayer covers all doomed up with haunting female vocals. The first record from January of this year was excellent, and the second is just as good or maybe even better. For Rage And Ruin the band for all six tracks consists of Amy Tung-Barrysmith from Year Of The Cobra on vocals and bass, Esben Willems from Monolord on drums, and the legend and hardest working man in rock (along with Tony Reed) Bob Balch (Fu Manchu, Big Scenic Nowhere/Yawning Balch) on guitar.

So why is this one maybe even better? Slower originals combined with Slayer covers! Let’s start with the originals. Hellfire is spooky and heavy doom lead by Balch’s riffs but headlined by Tung-Barrysmith’s layered vocals. The riff is pure Slayer worship and fits perfectly with the Slower vibe. Gates Of Hell is more Slayer worship riff -wise, but is also some amazing traditional doom that could hang with anyone doing it these days. I hear some early Trouble in Balch’s guitar work which works perfectly with the vocals. A more Sabbath-like riff greats us with the equally cool and equally doomy Sins Of The Dead. There is a sparseness to this track that really works to its advantage. 

Soft and creepy keys greet us on the closing title track along with more layered vocals until the riff kicks in and the seven minute closer consumes you. My favourite track on the record. As for the Slayer covers, their version of Chemical Warfare rules. The shredder classic is slowed down, doomed up, and even has a bit of a psych feel to it, with Tung-Barrysmith’s vocals transforming it into an evil siren song. Balch’s chug and solo rule too. So great. Haunting The Chapel works wonderfully too, as the Slayer classic becomes almost unrecognizable in only the best possible way.

There were definitely hints that more Slower stuff was coming but I did not expect an album made up of mostly originals. While I love the Slayer covers, at some point that was going to run its course, but combining their interpretations with original material is the perfect recipe for this group of talented individuals. Rage In Ruin is the perfect second offering from Slower. 9/10

Volume - Joy Of Navigation: A Trip Through The Eternal Unknown (Golden Robot/Kozmik Artifactz) [Rich Piva]

Yeah right, like I’m not going to like an album from a band made up of guys who were in Monster Magnet, Nebula, Queens of the Stone Age, Mondo Generator, and a bunch of other cool bands and that calls out Monster Magnet’s 25...Tab as a reference point. It will come as no surprise that I love the frantic, scattered, and amazing heavy ass psych that Volume brings on their new EP, Joy Of Navigation (A Trip Through The Eternal Unknown). The band has been a rotating cast of players, all of them awesome, and all of them bringing a rawness to the heavy psych that I am constantly craving in a world of overproduction.

Right off the bat you know this is going to rule when the sitar starts up on the opener, Mercury Pull, which is nine minutes of pure heavy psych awesome. I get MM Cyclops Revolution vibes from this one which, well, you know. The dual guitar work of Patrick Brink and Ed Mundell is killer and Brink’s sing-talk vocals is just perfect for this song. The second track, Joy Of Navigation, gives me more early Monster Magnet vibes but one of the more straight ahead rockers than a long freak out. To me it sounds like everyone is having an amazing time playing in Volume with this song being the prime example as the band just seems to go off. 

Heavy Sunshine has all the same greatness of the first two tracks, but I need to call out the work of Mike Amster on drums here as he is a complete beast. The Golden Age is the tamest song on the record, but tame does not mean less awesome. Acoustic guitars drive this one with Brink doing his most straight ahead singing. The guitar work and especially solo by Mundell is ridiculous. The shiniest gem out of the batch is Spacebaby, which sounds just like you would think a song call that from these guys would sound. I love the vocals on this one and like the other songs on Joy the band just goes off, especially Abraham Parker on bass. So great.

If you like heavy psych, early Monster Magnet, things that are awesome, and bands having fun making killer music, listen to the new Volume record. My only complaint with Joy is that is short at under 30 minutes, and I always want more Volume, but hey, in this case you can listen to it twice in one sitting. 9/10