If you like a good (or absolutely awful) horror film, chances are you will like Ice Nine Kills. The Boston-based band use their music to pay tribute to the horror genre, with each song being inspired by a different specific film. Its predecessor The Silver Scream 1, released in 2018, follows the same model.
While their music may be quite campy in some places, there’s a reason why. Take a quick look at the first taste we had of this album back in July: Hip To Be Scared featuring Papa Roach’s Jacoby Shaddix. Based on American Psycho, the song is haunting from the start, before the band kicks in and it becomes this driving piece full of powerful vocal lines. It cuts out halfway through and starts a parody of Huey Lewis and the News’ Hip To Be Square, playing out a version of the scene in which frontman Spencer Charnas discusses Ice Nine Kill’s work, just like Bateman in the film. Then the driving riffs kick back in and carry the song to the end. It's not for everyone, but you have to admit that its extremely clever and they’ve done it well.
The album has a mix of styles, switching seamlessly between more aggressive guttural vocals, or the more emotive guitar chords and guitarist Dan Sugarman’s technical lead riffs. There are orchestral elements that blend in with furious double kick drums and chugging riffs, just like in The Shower Scene. If you hadn’t guessed already, the song is about the 1960 film Psycho and flawlessly blends the most recognisable element from its score, the stabbing violin, to make it extremely clear to the listener. A stand out track on the album is Rainy Day, which is based on the Resident Evil franchise, and it's not even because of the subject matter. For me, it’s the most put together song on the entire album and is definitely the catchiest. It uses a pulsing electronic synth throughout and incorporates all the best elements of the band to create what I think is the best song on the album.
If you don’t like horror, then you’re probably not going to like this album because of the sheer number of references throughout. As any good sequel should, Ice Nine Kills have upped the ante with The Silver Scream 2, with catchy choruses, more brutal breakdowns, and a ridiculous number of high-profile guest features. Ice Nine Kills have diversified their sound to make anyone that listens want to watch a cheesy 90s slasher. 8/10
Twelve Foot Ninja – Vengeance (Volkanik) [Zak Skane]
The (now) Australian four piece that has been melding genres since 2012. With two albums under their belts, the band have released their thirdly anticipated 80’s sonic laced album Vengeance. Throughout this album the band swing from genre to genre effortlessly in there new album. For example the opener Start The Fire beings with some eastern style soundscapes before coming in with some chunky Periphery inspired riffs which then lead us into a 80’s synth sounding verses. Long Way Home infuses System Of The Down inspired Nu-Metal and Flamenco together, where as Vengeance channels Marilyn Manson crossed with Muse swagger, and Shock To The System mixes disco and groove metal.
Twelve Foot Ninja – Vengeance (Volkanik) [Zak Skane]
The (now) Australian four piece that has been melding genres since 2012. With two albums under their belts, the band have released their thirdly anticipated 80’s sonic laced album Vengeance. Throughout this album the band swing from genre to genre effortlessly in there new album. For example the opener Start The Fire beings with some eastern style soundscapes before coming in with some chunky Periphery inspired riffs which then lead us into a 80’s synth sounding verses. Long Way Home infuses System Of The Down inspired Nu-Metal and Flamenco together, where as Vengeance channels Marilyn Manson crossed with Muse swagger, and Shock To The System mixes disco and groove metal.
The singer Kin Etik has just as much flexibility Mike Patton of Faith No More when it comes to performing over compositions that transcend over multiple genres. The guitarist Steve Mackay has done great job producing this album and ensuring and each genre is melded together perfectly ass well as capturing the best performances from Shane Russells drum tracks and Rohan Hayes guitar performances. If you are a fan of bands like Faith No More, System Of A Down and Incubus this is a great effort from the Australian (now) four piece. 10/10
Bloodred Hourglass - Your Highness (Out Of Line Records) [Paul Scoble]
Bloodred Hourglass have been making music together since 2005. The Finnish five piece have released 4 albums before Your Highness; their debut Lifebound came out in 2012 and was followed 3 years later by the album Where The Oceans Burn. 2017 gave us the album Heal, and then 2 years later the bands most recent album was released in 2019’s Godsend. Bloodred Hourglass is Jarkko Koukonen on vocals, Jarkko Hyvönen on drums, Jose Moilanen on bass, Lauri Silvonen on guitar, Joni Lahdenkauppi on guitar, and Eero Silvonen on guitar. The style of most of the material on Your Highness is Melodic Death Metal, I can hear is a similarity to Children Of Bodom, In Flames and Bloodshot Dawn. A good example is the track Drag Me The Rain which is fast, flowing Melodic Death Metal which has some great riffs in it, some fantastic melody leads and is packed with tunefulness and mellifluousness. The track Nightmares Are Dreams Too is a great track that is slower and is driving and dramatic, the song has softer parts that helps to emphasise the heaviness of the other parts.
Bloodred Hourglass - Your Highness (Out Of Line Records) [Paul Scoble]
Bloodred Hourglass have been making music together since 2005. The Finnish five piece have released 4 albums before Your Highness; their debut Lifebound came out in 2012 and was followed 3 years later by the album Where The Oceans Burn. 2017 gave us the album Heal, and then 2 years later the bands most recent album was released in 2019’s Godsend. Bloodred Hourglass is Jarkko Koukonen on vocals, Jarkko Hyvönen on drums, Jose Moilanen on bass, Lauri Silvonen on guitar, Joni Lahdenkauppi on guitar, and Eero Silvonen on guitar. The style of most of the material on Your Highness is Melodic Death Metal, I can hear is a similarity to Children Of Bodom, In Flames and Bloodshot Dawn. A good example is the track Drag Me The Rain which is fast, flowing Melodic Death Metal which has some great riffs in it, some fantastic melody leads and is packed with tunefulness and mellifluousness. The track Nightmares Are Dreams Too is a great track that is slower and is driving and dramatic, the song has softer parts that helps to emphasise the heaviness of the other parts.
There are Thrash influences on Your Highness as well; the track Veritas has a definite thrashy quality to the choppy riffs, Veritas also boasts a great and very energised guitar solo. The album comes to an end with the track Until We Meet Again, which is the longest track on the album and has a much more epic, traditional Heavy Metal feel to it. The song feels expansive and huge and is a very effective way to end the album. At the beginning of this review I talked about ‘most’ of this album being Melodic Death Metal; what I was referring to is that 3 of the tracks have a different feel to the rest of the album. The song Kings_Queens has a lot of electronics on it, giving it a slight Industrial sense, it also has a kind of early 2000’s Nu Metal feel to it. This Nu Metal feel is also present on the tracks Tell Me About Yesterday Tomorrow and Gone For Now, which have more electronics on it than a lot of the other tracks, and has a much more staccato, start / stop tempo than the Melodic Death Metal material. These two songs also have a combination of harsh and very emotional clean vocals which combine to make them sound similar to Linkin Park, or even to some Emo bands.
I’m quite happy for bands to experiment, or try other styles, but this is quite different from the other material and sounds incongruous and out of place in this context. The tracks sound very turn of the century, and in many ways this feels out of date. However, I’ve never been a fan of Nu Metal or Emo, so this could be just my personal taste, someone who is into Melodic Death Metal and Nu Metal probably wouldn’t have any issue with this. The copy of the album that I have has 3 bonus tracks on it which fit in to the Melodic Death Metal style and are very good tracks which are full of melody and tunefulness. Your Highness is a good Melodic Death Metal album with a few tracks that are fairly different from the material that surrounds them. Whether you like the songs I found incongruous or not will be down to your personal taste, they’re not to my taste, but that doesn’t mean you won’t like them. Either way, this is definitely an interesting album. 7/10
Lords Of Black - Alchemy Of Souls, Part II (Frontiers Music Srl) [Simon Black]
The first part of this Melodic / Power Metal project landed last year and I have to say was a palpable hit. Having been put on hiatus whilst Romero filled some big shoes in Rainbow, Vandenburg and others, this act was dusted down in 2020.The beating heart of this revived band are guitarist Tony Hernando and vocalist Ronnie Romero and last year’s offering was incredibly well delivered and strongly positive at a time when the world was staring into a pit of despair. The tone of this second part is subtly different, taking a much darker, moodier tone than the first.
Musically this is still clearly in the Melodic Metal camp, but with fewer of the Progressive twists and flourishes that made the first such a breath of fresh of warm air (although Death Dealer shows they have not ditched that style completely yet). That said Hernando’s guitar work remains effortlessly brilliant, but that little bit more restrained with flourish being sacrificed at the altar of heaviness, which this record delivers with monolithic, slab-like precision. It’s interesting hearing Romero contributing vocals that suit that more heavy turn. There’s still plenty of examples of classic Romero herein, with the very AOR What’s Become Of Us showing his range and power, but that heavier sound needs a more guttural style than we are used to him delivering, although he really does pull it off well, as tracks like Maker Of Nothingness indicate and he drops his voice an octave or two lower than we are used to without losing any of the power. If anything this has cemented for me why he is such a great singer, as he can turn his hand with flexibility of range to suit whatever mood the song requires.
At first this tonal difference jarred, expecting as I was for this to pick up where part 1 had left off, but to be fair there were hints of this at the tail end of that record, implying to me that the whole piece had been pretty much authored in one go but the releases staggered for commercial reasons. Whatever the reason, this continues to balance the classic 80’s feel with the Modern sentiment, and works again for the sole reason that despite the songs not quite being as strong as last year, the performances remain completely on point. The songs don’t quite grab and hold in the way the first record delivered, but this is definitely a grower and the heavier sound works a treat. 8/10
Lords Of Black - Alchemy Of Souls, Part II (Frontiers Music Srl) [Simon Black]
The first part of this Melodic / Power Metal project landed last year and I have to say was a palpable hit. Having been put on hiatus whilst Romero filled some big shoes in Rainbow, Vandenburg and others, this act was dusted down in 2020.The beating heart of this revived band are guitarist Tony Hernando and vocalist Ronnie Romero and last year’s offering was incredibly well delivered and strongly positive at a time when the world was staring into a pit of despair. The tone of this second part is subtly different, taking a much darker, moodier tone than the first.
Musically this is still clearly in the Melodic Metal camp, but with fewer of the Progressive twists and flourishes that made the first such a breath of fresh of warm air (although Death Dealer shows they have not ditched that style completely yet). That said Hernando’s guitar work remains effortlessly brilliant, but that little bit more restrained with flourish being sacrificed at the altar of heaviness, which this record delivers with monolithic, slab-like precision. It’s interesting hearing Romero contributing vocals that suit that more heavy turn. There’s still plenty of examples of classic Romero herein, with the very AOR What’s Become Of Us showing his range and power, but that heavier sound needs a more guttural style than we are used to him delivering, although he really does pull it off well, as tracks like Maker Of Nothingness indicate and he drops his voice an octave or two lower than we are used to without losing any of the power. If anything this has cemented for me why he is such a great singer, as he can turn his hand with flexibility of range to suit whatever mood the song requires.
At first this tonal difference jarred, expecting as I was for this to pick up where part 1 had left off, but to be fair there were hints of this at the tail end of that record, implying to me that the whole piece had been pretty much authored in one go but the releases staggered for commercial reasons. Whatever the reason, this continues to balance the classic 80’s feel with the Modern sentiment, and works again for the sole reason that despite the songs not quite being as strong as last year, the performances remain completely on point. The songs don’t quite grab and hold in the way the first record delivered, but this is definitely a grower and the heavier sound works a treat. 8/10
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