This might be one of the best releases of the year. It will certainly be in amongst the best re-releases of 2019. The irony of this is that Devourer, the third album by Skaldic Curse, should have been released over ten years ago. The album did appear digitally in 2013, as various reviews do exist on the internet but let’s roll with the official press release that accompanied this magnificent piece of British black metal and suggest that this is only now seeing the light of day. Founded in 2001 and lasting until 2011, Skaldic Curse featured members of Akercocke and Fen and released two albums, Pathogen in 2006 and World Suicide Machine in 2009 before the band split. Formed in part along with the wave of new acts who were seeking to re-establish the UK’s reputation on the international extreme metal stage, Skaldic Curse adopted a resolutely cold, intricate path – searing melody, crushing dissonance, and an almost overwhelming intensity which, when you consider where the band members came from was unsurprising.
The band adopted rather ridiculous names; bassist Monolith (Adam Allain or Gunrgyn from Fen), vocalist Woundz (Jay Logan), drummer Vermin (Paul Westwood formerly of Fen and De Profundis), guitarist Astynax and Scapula (Paul Scanlan – ex Akercocke) but there is nothing remotely humorous about their music. Devour is aggressive black metal, crammed full of tritone chord progressions, ragged riffs and blastbeats, dissonant melodies and rasping vocals. At times this album is reminiscent of Voivod merged with the atmosphere that Swedish giants Enslaved bring to the table. Unorthodox time signatures abound underneath the frantic jagged riffing. Devourer is an intensely satisfying piece of work. Intricate, powerful and haunting, it blends the excellent musicianship with a nihilistic fury. There are some astonishing passages of play; Abduction Void for example rages with a venom before slowing but rarely losing the sinister tone, the ragged almost indecipherable vocals don’t even start until almost five minutes have passed.
The title track contains a striking solo whilst the bass and guitars rage in their battling duel throughout. With the shortest track just shy of six-minutes, this is an album that demands attention, patience and devotion. The reward is, in my opinion, one of the most impressive UK black metal releases of all time. Creative and innovative, Devour also contains an accessibility that many other bands do not offer but that doesn’t detract from the brooding menace and aggression that lurks within. 9/10
Vile Apparition: Depravity Ordained (Memento Mori) [Paul H]
This is the debut release from Vile Apparition, a four-piece death metal band from Melbourne, Australia. Whilst the band may be relatively new, the members are no new boys on the block with a history in other death metal outfits. It’s a filthy, solidly produced slab of old school death metal which leaves little to the imagination. The retro-sound sitting firmly towards the New York death metal sound of the 1990s-mid noughties. Mauled and Nameless kicks things off with gusto, Jamie Colic’s gruesome growling in sync with the band’s wall of sound, Oliver Ballantyne’s blistering opening drumming salvo a taste of the consistency that he delivers throughout this release. Avoiding the relentless chug that many bands use ad nauseum, Vile Apparition have chosen to focus instead on a thrashy style whilst retaining all the elements necessary.
Vile Apparition: Depravity Ordained (Memento Mori) [Paul H]
This is the debut release from Vile Apparition, a four-piece death metal band from Melbourne, Australia. Whilst the band may be relatively new, the members are no new boys on the block with a history in other death metal outfits. It’s a filthy, solidly produced slab of old school death metal which leaves little to the imagination. The retro-sound sitting firmly towards the New York death metal sound of the 1990s-mid noughties. Mauled and Nameless kicks things off with gusto, Jamie Colic’s gruesome growling in sync with the band’s wall of sound, Oliver Ballantyne’s blistering opening drumming salvo a taste of the consistency that he delivers throughout this release. Avoiding the relentless chug that many bands use ad nauseum, Vile Apparition have chosen to focus instead on a thrashy style whilst retaining all the elements necessary.
Visceral guitar work, bass that is constant without overwhelming and a slightly muddy mix essential for this genre. There are no flashy gimmicks here, just four musicians (Dave Kearns on bass and Dan Harris on guitar make up the band) whose intensity and focus on their sound forces Depravity Ordained high in this year’s releases. Aeon Of Impalement with its brutal machine gun drumming and rumbling bass, jagged riffs and mid-way pause for breath sits amongst a plethora of highlights on an album which really is impressive. 8/10
Ty Morn: Istor (Self Released)
We get a lot of one man projects here at MoM Towers most of them are basic, bedroom black metal with production that sounds like it was recorded in a tin bath. Now you could class Ty Morn as a solo project as all of the songs were composed by Aron Biale who plays the rhythms guitars and bass on this record, however unlike many of these one man projects Biale has used the power of the internet to gather together a number of musicians to contribute to this album. It's not black metal either, no from the Piotr 'Kenshin' Bednarczuk designed cover art to the music contained on this nine track album is a glorious tribute to 80's heavy metal influenced by Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Dio.
Ty Morn: Istor (Self Released)
We get a lot of one man projects here at MoM Towers most of them are basic, bedroom black metal with production that sounds like it was recorded in a tin bath. Now you could class Ty Morn as a solo project as all of the songs were composed by Aron Biale who plays the rhythms guitars and bass on this record, however unlike many of these one man projects Biale has used the power of the internet to gather together a number of musicians to contribute to this album. It's not black metal either, no from the Piotr 'Kenshin' Bednarczuk designed cover art to the music contained on this nine track album is a glorious tribute to 80's heavy metal influenced by Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Dio.
The album contains as the band put it "tales of despots, petulant gods, war & honour, sea monsters, creatures of the night" so it's the ideal soundtrack for a Game Of Thrones Marathon. Biale's compositions are very good from the epic chug of Fall On Your Sword and the cinematic The Language Of Beasts to the faster speed metal riffs of Bring Forth The Night and Reign Of The Hunter. It's unashamedly retro and catchy as hell. He has a myriad of lead guitar players on this record (as solos are important) with seven contributing six string wizardry as Per Mikkelsen lays down the grooves behind the kit and Eugene Moiseienko brings some organs to the doomy Kings Of Dishonour and the bouncing Hunt Leviathan.
Thankfully for me he only has one singer on the record and Raphael Gazal is somewhat of an undiscovered talent having a great set of pipes for this traditional metal fayre. From the compositions and arrangements to the performance and production Istor is a fantastic debut album for fans of Grand Magus et al a truly great release with everything you could want in a 'proper' heavy metal release. 9/10
Chaos Realm: World Under Attack (Self Released)
I do like a bit of thrash and Chaos Realm’s opening riffs on the interesting 1066 (The Battle Of Hastings) had my attention instantly. It has the combination of old school and current razor-sharp slashing riffs. Disappointingly, the vocals of Jim Lambrou (who also plays bass and manages the band) are just awful and destroy everything. From here on in it was going to be painful and whilst I normally love a bit of the growler in a vocalist, this is something else. And that’s a shame because the band’s approach musically combines many top-quality influences including Death, Maiden, Priest and Pantera. Unsurprisingly then, the best track on the album is the measured instrumental Helpless Human. The Athenians have plenty of potential, but I’d suggest that Lambrou steps back from doing the vocals and finds someone with a little more variety and tone. A real shame. 4/10
I do like a bit of thrash and Chaos Realm’s opening riffs on the interesting 1066 (The Battle Of Hastings) had my attention instantly. It has the combination of old school and current razor-sharp slashing riffs. Disappointingly, the vocals of Jim Lambrou (who also plays bass and manages the band) are just awful and destroy everything. From here on in it was going to be painful and whilst I normally love a bit of the growler in a vocalist, this is something else. And that’s a shame because the band’s approach musically combines many top-quality influences including Death, Maiden, Priest and Pantera. Unsurprisingly then, the best track on the album is the measured instrumental Helpless Human. The Athenians have plenty of potential, but I’d suggest that Lambrou steps back from doing the vocals and finds someone with a little more variety and tone. A real shame. 4/10
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