Levitas: Charnel Sky (Self Released)
Long time followers of the blog will know about Levitas, we've covered their shows numerous times and they always impress with their unique hybrid of raw black metal and atmospheric post metal. The band consists of Rhys Williams on guitar and vocals, Helen Kinsella on guitar and vocals, Liam Wolf on bass and vocals and (man of many bands) Sam Heffernan on drums, musically they have always drawn from philosophy, transience and human suffering, to create a sound that does stand as unique on any bill they appear on. Charnel Sky is their latest EP and for a band that have always dealt in crushing doom-laden shoegaze it opens with what can only be described as a rampaging number, Tamam Shud on which the drums gallop in conjunction with frenetic black metal tremolo riffs and guttural vocals.
That is until it changes into a more ethereal chorus with shamanic clean vocals coming in at odds with the harsher screams when breaks down into more instrumental final part. It's pretty much what you'd expect from Levitas who always keep you guessing while spanning the extreme metal soundscapes. The atmospheric side of the band continues on Cycle a lesson in how you can mix heaviness with ambience as the chanting middle explodes into the aggressive final part. Rounding out this EP is Life Ache an amalgamation of all that's come before ending this EP with the musical proficiency that separate Levitas from the myriad of bands in the South Wales/South West scene. For fans of Alcest, Isis and Ulver, Charnel Sky is Levitas showing that they are as impressive on record as they are live. 8/10
Meytal: The Witness (Light Drop Music)
The Witness is second full length album by YouTube drum sensation Meytal Cohen, who's Duality drum cover you may have seen on numerous Metal pages. She has once again brought a band together, this one sees a change of membership as the vocalist on the previous record has been replaced by Sahaj Ticotin from the band Ra who not only co-wrote most of the record but most of the previous one too. His voice in my opinion is far superior that his predecessor especially on tracks like the chunky Armalite (a song that damns firearms). As you can probably appreciate this record is very much focussed on Cohen's drumming but she is a fantastic sticksmith really driving the modern/alt metal on this record, changing rhythms at a stroke. That's not to say the rest of the band are slouches though as Ticotin supplies rhythm guitars while Travis Montgomery plays most of the leads with bouncy modern metal riffs and lead breaks, the band's bass player is Anel Orantes Pedero who hunkers down the rhythms for the groove laden tracks on this record.
What this album has in droves is melody, it's really hooky blending bulky riffs, some progressive metal time changes (A Dream) and a heap of technical proficiency on a record that has alternative, nu-metal and djent tendencies. The songs here are not game changing but strong enough to keep the attention, with a bit of filler spread throughout, on the other hand the cover of Hotel California is musical Marmite (mainly because it cuts out the best bit) you will either enjoy it or hate it (unlike Ticotin's version of Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic with Ra). With a name like Meytal she is living up to her name though a lot of this record airs on the lighter side towards the end, it's got enough for hardened metalheads to enjoy. 7/10
All Things Fallen: S/T (Self Released)
All Things Fallen are a new melodic progressive metal band who are heavily reliant on keys for their songs, undercutting them with some thumping heavy metal.They sound a lot like Circus Maximus with the synths working well with the more traditional heavy metal instrumentation, much of the album has been played by Markus Sigfridsson who takes, guitars, bass, backing vocals and those all important keyboards and programming. Along with him are vocalist Erik Tordsson and drummer Leo Margarit who blasts away on Mirages which is where the vocals do settle in after a shaky start on the first track. Erik Tordsson has quite a nasal voice but you do warm to it as the album progresses. The six songs on this album are well composed which makes All Things Fallen a interesting debut for fans of melodic prog metal. 6/10
Kavod: Wheel Of Time (Self Released)
This EP is made up of three tracks that feature repetitive riffs and random shouts and that's about it, nothing else really happens, as much as it's trying to reach the 'desert rock' scope of Kyuss, they become a boring mess as each one of these songs follows the same pattern from song one and two. Absolution plods along as the vocals fade in and out while Mahatma is probably the only song that really differs from the rest of the album. Ideal background music but nothing more. 5/10
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