Evile – Hell Unleashed (Napalm Records) [Paul Hutchings]
The arrival of Evile’s fifth long player has prompted renewed excitement amongst the UK thrash fraternity. The Huddersfield four-piece have to my mind, failed to push on to the position that they should be: The UK’s best thrash band. Instead, line-up changes, tragedy, inconsistency, and real life have all impeded the impetus that should have been like a steam train after their debut album, Enter The Grave in 2007. Album number four, the solid Skull was release in 2013 and since that date, Evile have floundered as established outfits such as Acid Reign, Onslaught, Xentrix, Sylosis alongside a whole host of the latest wave of UK thrash bands have roared past them on the grid. Skull wasn’t the band’s best release but the line-up which took part was solid with Matt Drake on vocals and rhythm guitar, Ol Drake on lead guitar, Ben Carter on drums and Joel Graham on bass.
With Ol Drake having left and then returned, it was revealed in August 2020 that Matt has left the band some time before, with RipTide’s Adam Smith joining on rhythm guitar. What most Evile fans wanted was new material and at long last, it’s here in the shape of Hell Unleased. The sheer velocity with which Hell Unleashed opens initially suggests good things. Evile sound dark, gnarly, and full of power. Paralysed is fast, feisty and with an underlying groove. Ol Drake’s snarling, gruff delivery brings a new dimension vocally, undeniably channelling Arise era Sepultura with the chopping changes in tempo work well. The crushing chugging intro of Gore provides a mere pause before the thrashing recommences, on a song that echoes the ghosts of Evile’s past. There’s a sense of urgency here, the pace frenetic and determined, and is notable for the inclusion of Brian Posehn on backing vocals.
Incarcerated is next, all muscular shapes and straining sinews, and a change of formula with a punishing stomping chug that demands pit action. Drake’s fingers take centre stage with a blistering solo before a slower, thick riff dominated ending. But three songs in and its decent stuff yet it really isn’t setting the world on fire and there are questions in my mind about the vocals. Ol Drake has admitted that he reluctantly took on the vocal role when his brother left, as the music was already written. Now, there isn’t anything particularly wrong with the delivery, it’s just a bit monotonous and one-dimension. Drake has admitted on-going vocal lessons which should help translate these songs into the live arena, should we ever be allowed near a music venue again. War of Attrition is one of the weaker tracks and whilst it is by no means bad, Drake’s skills lie in the fretboard as his guitar work is impressive.
Disorder, with its punky feel works better with some neat guitar work and melody brightening the darkening feel of the album whilst The Thing (1982) is a sonically abusive beast and blends the best of the band in five fiery minutes. Zombie Apocalypse is your throw away track, 2:30 and a bloody maelstrom of thrash metal which switches from balls out relentless power to a riff laden battery, despite Drake’s rather mundane vocal delivery. There’s plenty to enjoy, from the lacerating guitar peels to the thunderous and watertight rhythm section of Ben Carter and bassist Joel Graham. This leads to the final duo, the stomping Control from Above and the savagery of the title track. Neither are bad at all, and yet I’m not itching to hit repeat, which for me is the mark of a classic. I’m sure that when the vinyl arrives, and I’ve given it more spins Drake’s vocals will grow on me. But for now, I’m struggling. It’s big, it’s bombastic. We can hope that it’s also a grower. I certainly hope so. 7/10
Plasmodium - Towers Of Silence (Transcending Obscurity Records) [Paul Scoble]Plasmodium (the band Plasmodium, a Plasmodium is also the name of the unicellular protozoan parasite that causes Malaria, which is what I discovered when I googled the bands name without the suffix of ‘Band’) are an Australian based band that like making very nasty noises. The band have gone for using pseudonyms for names and have also used pseudonyms for what each member plays as well. Due to this I can tell you that Demoninacht plays Limbic Chaos, but as Demoninacht plays in a lot of other bands I can make an educated guess that Limbic Chaos is Drums. The other members are Aretstikapha on Invocations (Vocals?), Nocentor on Reverberations (Bass?), Yen Pox on Spiteful Whirlwind Generation (possibly Lead Guitar, which is an important aspect of this album, so if Spiteful Whirlwind Generation is Lead Guitar, then Yen Pox has added some really special elements to this piece of work), and Fuath on Disembodiment (to be honest I haven’t a clue what this one is, but by a process of elimination Disembodiment is probably Rhythm Guitar). The band have been together since 2016, and have released one album before Towers Of Silence released the same year they formed, called Entheognosis.
I mentioned very nasty noises earlier, and this is because Plasmodium play a fairly unique style of Black/Death, the staggeringly extreme amalgam of Black Metal, Death Metal with a little bit of Grindcore thrown in for good measure. So this is an unbelievably nasty and extreme beast, horrible riffs played with vile tones and at an almost ridiculously fast rate. The drumming has to be heard to be believed, it’s intricate, complex and as regular as the pulse of the universe; Demoninacht has really excelled himself. The first half of the track Pseudocidal has a section with only drums, atmospherics and vocals, the drumming is so impressive, blasting fast and so complex. I mentioned Atmospherics, this album uses some very interesting soundscape type sections that are dissonant, spooky and sci fi in equal measure, they open several of the tracks, the aforementioned Pseudocidal, and they play an important part in the track Vertexginous, which I will come back to later.
Another important aspect of this album is the lead guitar work, which I think Yen Pox is responsible for. In almost all of the sections of fast, blasting and savage Black/Death sections have screaming atonal soloing over the top of them. This is a similar style of soloing to early Slayer, thousands of notes swirling in insane chaos. This constant tumult is disorienting and makes the listener feel out of control, plunged into the maelstrom of insane blasting and shrieking guitars. This is probably most apparent on the first track ParaMantra, probably as thats the first time you hear it. There is a similarity with some of Ævangelist’s recent work which has a solo guitar over a lot of the material, however the way Ævangelist use it is more of an echoey, wailing style, rather than the insane atonal shredding on Towers Of Silence.
At times the riffing on the album feels a little bit Grindcore, it’s more a feeling than anything overt, but Churning and Translucinophobia definitely have that grinding feel for me. The vocals are very impressive as well, Aretstikapha (if Invocations really are vocals) can do snarling Black Metal Vocals, Chanting, dense Death Metal vocals and on the track Translucinophobia, about 2 minutes from the end, is a series of horrific shrieks, starting high and then dropping rapidly in pitch. This brings in a nasty section after an atmospheric section, and is one of the more terrifying things I’ve found hiding on extreme metal albums.
The album ends with the track Vertexginous. Unlike the rest of the album this track is far more like a piece of industrial. It opens with nasty, brooding atmospherics, chanting which builds to anguished cries, this them morphs into a mid-paced industrial pulse, that is closer to Killing Joke than Revenge, although that crazy soloing is still there. There is a section of Spooky, Spacey atmospherics before a short blast of insanely fast Black/Death brings the song and the album to an end.
Towers Of Silence (which is an ironic title for such a noisy album) is a stunning piece of Black/Death the Atmospheric sections are really original, and give this an edge I’ve not heard before in this sort of savagery. I wouldn’t go so far to call this ‘Progressive’, but the Atmospherics coupled to the Insane Swirling Chaos of the constant soloing and the Industrial elements of the final track makes this feel like it has far more depth than other acts as extreme as Plasmodium. Most people who listen to this won’t get it, it’s too over the top, but if this level of pandemonium is something you can appreciate, you won’t find it done much better than this. 9/10
Bongzilla & Tons - Doom Sessions Vol 4 (Heavy Psych Sounds) [JT Smith]
Split EP’s can be a little hit and miss, but Bongzilla are a pretty big draw, as are TONS. So you’ve got super fuzzed out doom titans, and sludge metal heroes on the same record. I went into this with an open mind, and I was greeted with a record that delivered no real surprises, but no disappointments and no dead time.
Starting with Bongzilla on ‘Side A,’ all the downtuned, fuzzy doom is here. It’s thick slabs of aural punishment, heavier and more ponderous than Godzilla’s ballsack. Woolly tubthumping, all the fuzz, slow as hell, and strained sounding, creature like vocals. It’s Bongzilla alright, and it’s great. I felt like I was getting a contact high from it. There was a slight surprise in the song Cupcake, as it was almost… Poppy. Well. As poppy as Bongzilla get.
And then onto ‘Side B,’ and TONS… And whew! Bongzilla are nothing to be sniffed at, but TONS really pull it out of the bag here. Slightly tightening up that fuzzy sound, for a bit more clarity on the guitar and making the drums a little less LoFi sounding in production really gave this some OOMPH, as do the alternating, almost black metal shrieks and guttural death growls. Normally, when a band do a 3 song concepts, it can be a bit pretentious, but it really works here. Chronic Morning Obesity i,ii, and iii have enough dynamics to keep the same idea going without getting stale, and that’s an achievement. These are not short songs. Part iii is the catchiest, and really leans into the whole stoner vibe with sampled lists of clearly high as fuck food choices.
Impressive work, and a thoroughly enjoyable split. 8/10
Crypts Of Despair - All Light Swallowed (Transcending Obscurity Records) [Matt Bladen]
Pop quiz hot shot! Name another Lithuanian metal band? Harder than it looks unless you are permanently connected to Metal Archives but Crypts Of Despair hail from the Baltic state North East of Poland and they bring with them a follow up album of rampaging death metal that draw from the brutal violence of Anaal Nathrakh and Incantation but with some of the more gothic/black metal overtones of Belphegor. Ambience lingers in the air at the beginning of the The Great End before the double kicks, rumbling distortion and roared vocals, this track lets you witness what Crypts Of Despair do very well switching between ultra-fast riffs and low end grooves in the space of moments. Excruciating Weight adds to this dissonant ear piercing of this album. There style of death metal has been done by countless others but Crypts Of Despair are certainly keeping up the quest for death metal domination from Lithuania. All Light Swallowed sounds huge engorging you on every song like any good OSDM record should do. It is and album of undistilled death metal, brutal and breakneck. 7/10
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