Since 2016's Magma French metal jugganauts Gojira, ascended to that next level. They are now firmly a headline act in arenas and at festivals, this is due to them having a very strong back catalogue of extremely heavy and brilliant songs such as Flying Whales, Toxic Garbage Island, Backbone and The Heaviest Matter In The Universe. But from L'Enfant Sauvage and more noticeable on Magma there has been a much more melodic, almost rockier sound creeping in, those crushing riffs relegated to sometime explosions or out an out rage rather than the organ moving riffage we experienced at smaller earlier shows.
Maybe this audio shift has come with age and maturity, or perhaps it's that now there is now a wider audience to their sound that they have to change things up a bit to fit their 'arena' leanings. Fortitude makes the shift even more noticeable becoming much more of a hard rock outfit on this record, though they still retain some of that powerful world flattening groove. Fortitude is incited by Born For One Thing which has those classic Gojira hallmarks, Joe Duplantier's roaring vocals and technical rhythm guitars at the forefront, his brother Mario underscoring his place as one of the 21st Centuries best drummers. Those oh-so-tasty fret-slides come back too on Sphinx, the one song here that hints at those gargantuan, Kaiju origins.
Ageless Oblivion - Suspended Between Earth And Sky (Apocalyptic Witchcraft Recordings)
Returning with their first album since 2014 Hampshire technical death metal act Ageless Oblivion. It's been a long time coming due to various issues but finally they have unleashed it on an unsuspecting world. Recorded/mixed and mastered by Samuel Turbitt at Ritual Studios (The Infernal Sea/Shrapnel), the band have tried to avoid the clichéd digital pro-tools effects of other technical/modern death metal trying to make things as organic as possible. Has it been worth the 7 year wait though?
Do Ageless Oblivion still possess that fierceness that has their named revered on the UK death metal scene? Well the short answer is yes, Suspended Between Earth And Sky sets the tone with In Medias Res a tumultuous first track with furious blastbeats, grooving riffs and roared vocals played in odd time signatures, but that's not what they're all about, on a track like Anvil Chorus the bludgeoning heaviness is still there but brought at a much more doom-laden pace, there's also lots of almost post-metal dissonance to Eldmessa making for a more well rounded listening experience than a lot of other bands in the death metal spectrum. It's with great delight that I can safely say Ageless Oblivion are very much back in business. 8/10
Ironbound – The Lightbringer (Ossuary Records)
Britain’s most famous metal band is arguably Iron Maiden (they are certainly their most successful), and while they are world renowned, where their two most rabid fan bases come from are South America and the countries formerly of The USSR, Maiden were one of the few bands able to play behind the Iron Curtain and their style of epic and ultimately hopeful heavy metal was an inspiration to the millions of people living under the regime. After the fall of the USSR, Maiden toured the former Soviet Bloc numerous times, so it’s probably only natural that bands formed with that distinct Maiden sound.
Polish act Ironbound, distil that Maiden sound perfectly, the twin axe attack of guitarists Michał Halamoda and Krzysztof Całka is unleashed on Smoke And Mirrors with bassist Zbigniew Bizoń bringing the Harris-like gallop on the title track for drummer Adam Całka to wildly show his McBrain influence. Now unlike the thousands of bands that are influenced by Maiden Ironbound have decided to go with the brawny Blaze Bayley-esque vocals of Łukasz Krauze, rather than a Dickinson Air Raid Siren clone. This could be because Blaze himself has a massive following in Poland and the Eastern Bloc, but also it means that Ironbound’s take on Iron Maiden stands out.
They have brought in the slight changes to the Maiden sound from that period too, adding more prog and Euro power metal touches to the distinct NWOBHM thunder. Children Left By God is one of those mid-paced, mini-epics that will get the crowd’s fists in the air, The Turn Of The Tide even having the audacity to be one of those slow burning ballads that build from acoustics to a full band. Powerful metal from this Polish five piece, they really are Ironbound. 8/10
Poverty's No Crime - A Secret To Hide (Metalville)
Since 1991, German progressive metal band Poverty’s No Crime, have been somewhat of an unsung, oft overlooked progressive metal band. Despite this they have a very strong pedigree with their early albums appearing on seminal underground power/prog/symphonic label Noise, before signing to progressive music specialists InsideOut Music for four albums between 1999 and 2007. Now on Metalville, Poverty’s No Crime return with their eighth album A Secret To Hide yet another progressive metal tour-de-force from a band that I hope don’t remain overlooked by progressive metal fans.
This is because their music has a keen ear for melody, the guitars especially are layered so that the electrics and acoustics work in a tandem, there’s probably a reason why band leader Volker Walsemann is a guitarist, his playing is brilliant unifying with Marco Ahrens for delicious six string melodies that are highlighted by The Great Escape which is an instrumental filled with quotes from the film. Don’t misunderstand though the rest of the band do a bang up job as well Jörg Springub’s organs and keys infiltrate songs like the anthemic Hollow Phrases and gives Flesh And Bone a touch of Rainbow/Purple.
Heiko Spaarmann’s bass is the constant shift in the pacing, bringing a grooving bottom end to Schizophrenia while Andreas Tegeler’s drumming is top notch even adding some Neil Peart drum fills to Hollow Phrases. A Secret To Hide is a progressive metal album that perfectly shows why Poverty’s No Crime have been a name in the scene for 30 years, well composed, experienced progressive metal song writing is what you get. 8/10
It's 3 minutes of heaviness to win over long term fans but it's quickly followed by single Amazonia which is built all around Brazilian folk instrumentation (very Sepultura) and was part of a month long fundraiser Brazilian indigenous rights charity curated by Gojira, continuing the bands long term goal as not only being a top level metal band but also as activists against climate change, indigenous peoples and numerous other ideologies. This isn't done for the cameras or the press like so many pop stars, Gojira are truly committed to their cause, using their music to highlight issues that they care about.
Back to the music and New Found ramps up both the 'cleaner' elements, with lots of searing leads from Christian Andreu but also has some crunching from bass Jean-Michel Labadie. Labadie is also key to the stripped down title track, something for the fireside that builds into The Chant, a song that's quite a way away from anything Gojira have done before. I made a point of saying Gojira have shifted away from the deafening heaviness of their early work, but it is still there but now things are more nuanced a much wider influence is abound as the band comfortably assert themselves as leaders in the metal world. I recommend a few listens to really let tracks like the psychedelic The Trails do their work but with some exploration, Fortitude is not just an album title, but a state of mind for Gojira, an album of this magnitude is what Gojira have been threatening to make since Terra Incognita. Majestic and undeniable! 9/10
Ageless Oblivion - Suspended Between Earth And Sky (Apocalyptic Witchcraft Recordings)
Returning with their first album since 2014 Hampshire technical death metal act Ageless Oblivion. It's been a long time coming due to various issues but finally they have unleashed it on an unsuspecting world. Recorded/mixed and mastered by Samuel Turbitt at Ritual Studios (The Infernal Sea/Shrapnel), the band have tried to avoid the clichéd digital pro-tools effects of other technical/modern death metal trying to make things as organic as possible. Has it been worth the 7 year wait though?
Do Ageless Oblivion still possess that fierceness that has their named revered on the UK death metal scene? Well the short answer is yes, Suspended Between Earth And Sky sets the tone with In Medias Res a tumultuous first track with furious blastbeats, grooving riffs and roared vocals played in odd time signatures, but that's not what they're all about, on a track like Anvil Chorus the bludgeoning heaviness is still there but brought at a much more doom-laden pace, there's also lots of almost post-metal dissonance to Eldmessa making for a more well rounded listening experience than a lot of other bands in the death metal spectrum. It's with great delight that I can safely say Ageless Oblivion are very much back in business. 8/10
Ironbound – The Lightbringer (Ossuary Records)
Britain’s most famous metal band is arguably Iron Maiden (they are certainly their most successful), and while they are world renowned, where their two most rabid fan bases come from are South America and the countries formerly of The USSR, Maiden were one of the few bands able to play behind the Iron Curtain and their style of epic and ultimately hopeful heavy metal was an inspiration to the millions of people living under the regime. After the fall of the USSR, Maiden toured the former Soviet Bloc numerous times, so it’s probably only natural that bands formed with that distinct Maiden sound.
Polish act Ironbound, distil that Maiden sound perfectly, the twin axe attack of guitarists Michał Halamoda and Krzysztof Całka is unleashed on Smoke And Mirrors with bassist Zbigniew Bizoń bringing the Harris-like gallop on the title track for drummer Adam Całka to wildly show his McBrain influence. Now unlike the thousands of bands that are influenced by Maiden Ironbound have decided to go with the brawny Blaze Bayley-esque vocals of Łukasz Krauze, rather than a Dickinson Air Raid Siren clone. This could be because Blaze himself has a massive following in Poland and the Eastern Bloc, but also it means that Ironbound’s take on Iron Maiden stands out.
They have brought in the slight changes to the Maiden sound from that period too, adding more prog and Euro power metal touches to the distinct NWOBHM thunder. Children Left By God is one of those mid-paced, mini-epics that will get the crowd’s fists in the air, The Turn Of The Tide even having the audacity to be one of those slow burning ballads that build from acoustics to a full band. Powerful metal from this Polish five piece, they really are Ironbound. 8/10
Poverty's No Crime - A Secret To Hide (Metalville)
Since 1991, German progressive metal band Poverty’s No Crime, have been somewhat of an unsung, oft overlooked progressive metal band. Despite this they have a very strong pedigree with their early albums appearing on seminal underground power/prog/symphonic label Noise, before signing to progressive music specialists InsideOut Music for four albums between 1999 and 2007. Now on Metalville, Poverty’s No Crime return with their eighth album A Secret To Hide yet another progressive metal tour-de-force from a band that I hope don’t remain overlooked by progressive metal fans.
This is because their music has a keen ear for melody, the guitars especially are layered so that the electrics and acoustics work in a tandem, there’s probably a reason why band leader Volker Walsemann is a guitarist, his playing is brilliant unifying with Marco Ahrens for delicious six string melodies that are highlighted by The Great Escape which is an instrumental filled with quotes from the film. Don’t misunderstand though the rest of the band do a bang up job as well Jörg Springub’s organs and keys infiltrate songs like the anthemic Hollow Phrases and gives Flesh And Bone a touch of Rainbow/Purple.
Heiko Spaarmann’s bass is the constant shift in the pacing, bringing a grooving bottom end to Schizophrenia while Andreas Tegeler’s drumming is top notch even adding some Neil Peart drum fills to Hollow Phrases. A Secret To Hide is a progressive metal album that perfectly shows why Poverty’s No Crime have been a name in the scene for 30 years, well composed, experienced progressive metal song writing is what you get. 8/10
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