All the way from Australia the five piece metalcore act Northlane have been crushing venues from small to large across the globe for the past 13 years making some serious waves since they dropped their second full length album Singularity back in 2013. With Singularity being released with their former singer Adrian Fitipaldes it gained a lot of attention from the extended range guitar “Djent” community with their unique approach to the Metalcore sound by their use ambient soundscapes to their humanitarian themed lyrics they have become one of the acts that paved the way for the new wave of bands to shape the sound of Metalcore today. It wasn’t till their 2019 release of Alien, which the band took the revolutionary responsibility to stretch the sonic boundaries that defines the Metalcore sound once again, by adding nostalgic analogue synths and sampling to make the band become of the most defining acts in modern metal. Now with their recent release, Obsidian the band have continued with their sonic legacy.
Once the needle drops to the opening track Clarity, waves of hypnotic synths and arpeggios surround you with soothing whispers creeping in and out generating a calming vibe but trust me, don’t be fooled by the calm before the storm because the track gradually builds up to a clear reminder of what the band do best with the rip roaring passionate vocals and odd metered breakdowns. The following track Clockwork continues to the push boundaries of what we call modern metal with their dance floor arpeggiated synths and bouncy drum beats accompanied with Marcus’s elevating yet and repetitive vocals really reminisces on classic dance tracks of the 90’s but features sharp jabs of low tuned riffage making it a unique combination it’s like Faithless meets Meshuggah.
Echochamber lyrically tackles the current climate of society isolating themselves from other view points whilst the drummer Nic Pettersen combines disco beats with modern metal chops and Carbonized sees Marcus experimenting with vocals by spitting trap bars in the intro verses followed by poetic flowing choruses. Other highlights on this album are the groove driven Plenty which mixes odd times riffs and soaring melodies and Inamorata where the band show off their musical talents with carefully placed jabs of low tuned riffage and intricate drum parts.
This is another great instalment for the band's career. The production on this sounds so fresh and three dimensional in comparison to other metalcore releases, the synths and Marcus’s melodic vocals sooth, pulsate and massage your ear drums whilst the precise stabs of low tuned riffage provide the savoury to the sweet. Another great release from the aussie five piece 10/10.
This is another great instalment for the band's career. The production on this sounds so fresh and three dimensional in comparison to other metalcore releases, the synths and Marcus’s melodic vocals sooth, pulsate and massage your ear drums whilst the precise stabs of low tuned riffage provide the savoury to the sweet. Another great release from the aussie five piece 10/10.
Udo Dirkschneider - My Way (Atomic Fire Records) [Simon Black]
When I saw that our esteemed editor had thrown this into my slush pile dear reader, I have to confess to no small moment of dread and panic. You see the last couple of years have seen a few misjudged lockdown projects see the light of dawn, as bands struggled with remote writing and recording and opted for filler packages to keep the marketplace warm until things recovered. That’s mean lots of remixes, compilations and live recordings, but it’s also seen a fair few covers projects. They make commercial sense, as often they include songs that the bands have peppered into their live sets, and failing that it’s a lot easier to learn a cover than to write something new, so when you can grab studio time they can be laid down superfast. The downside is they can badly misfire. Danzig’s recent tranche of Elvis covers is a classic example of why these things need to be approached with some degree of caution (a recording so ill-advised and terrible that even now I think I was being over generous giving it 1/10…).
So I was slightly concerned that I might have to engage 80’s Kerrang! mode for this one as well, but fear not, gentle reader, I was pleasantly surprised. For a start, the choice of material, whilst clearly illustrating Udo’s roots and influences and pulling material from classic Rock, Metal and Pop material from the 60’s through to the 80’s, was also wisely chosen for how well it fits his gravelly and distinctive larynx. That said, the years have taken their toll and you can hear this at moments, but generally he’s chosen material that fits well with his range.
Where he would naturally struggle, the re-arrangement has helped enormously – notably Queen’s We Will Rock You, which enters down-tuned full on metal territory and works exceedingly well with two guitars to boot. My one frustration is that the opening songs are the ones that work the least well, and we’re five tracks in before we get to Rainbow’s Man On The Silver Mountain – a track I thought was going to get slaughtered, but which actually he really steps up to the plate on, despite having such a widely contrasted voice to Dio’s. From then on things go from strength to strength, as material more suited to his style presents, although I was pleasantly surprised by his rendition of a balls to the wall version of the Stones Paint It Black. Other highlights include AC/DC’s TNT, Scorpions He’s A Woman, She’s A Man and a fantastic turn of Judas Priest’s classic Hell Bent For Leather.
However, there is one small elephant in the room, which takes me back to my original eyebrow raising moment of panic when this landed, which is the title track itself, because let’s face it Udo Dirkschneider is not the sort of artist you would expect to starting including Old Blue Eyes numbers in his set. For a start he holds back the Rock’N’Roll grate and does actually sing on this, but crooning this ain’t. It’s uncomfortable, but not terrible, and scores way higher than anything on the aforementioned Danzig turd. Personally it could have been really painful, but in the end is a slightly humorous coda to an album of actually well-delivered and meaty material. 7/10
Greyhaven – This Bright And Beautiful World (Rude Records) [Zak Skane]
Greyhaven are a US based post-hard core act that already have two albums under their belt Cult America and Empty Black. Before they entered the studio with Will Putney (Thy Art is Murder, Fit For an Autopsy and Knocked Loose) to record their third album This Bright And Beautiful World, they made a mission to expand their sound to explore more mainstream sounds.
Coming in hot and heavy with In A Room Where Everything Dies, the track launches an armoury of double kick drum grooves and stab chords with frantic vocal energy. Brent Mills’s vocal range on this track goes from the ravage attack of any Mathcore vocalists such as a Greg Puciato swooning into soothing melodies of Jason Butler of Letlive and Fever 333. The track produces a great example for the album embracing their old mathcore edge with the new melodic approach. Following up, is their lead radio friendly single All Candy. All Candy shows off the bands ability as songwriters with mixing groovy dynamically driven riffs, mixed with soulful melodies and hooks that are smothered in southern blues swagger.
A Painful And Necessary Action is a straight up nostalgic Mathcore song that comes straight from the mid 2000’s, with it’s technical guitar riffs, intricate drum grooved clean breaks and the catchy chorus all mixed with southern sounding breakdowns, making any old school Every Time I Die and Miss Machine era Dillinger Escape Plan fan gleam with pride. The band get sleazy with More And More Hands with Brent turning up the grit in his melodic vocals making the band sound like a more technical version Thrice. Finally their emotionally driven closing track Ornaments From The Well takes us on a journey that consist of instrumentation swelling in from loud to quite, Brent providing us with emotional storytelling through his lyrics and ambient layers making this a strong closer for the album.
Overall this is a good but nostalgic listen, even though the band have decided to venture out and explore other styles of music on this album they still managed to keep it to their sound. Also with the band exploring new sounds they have yet to come up with anything new that puts a fresh take on the sub genre, but more reminded us on how enjoyable mathcore can be. If you are a fan of old school Every Time I Die and Dillinger Escape Plan this is suggested listen for you. 7/10.
RF Force – S/T (Black Lion Records) [Simon Black]
Hailing from Sao Paulo in Brazil, RF Force are a young band with an old heart, one that pumps pure old fashioned Heavy Metal through its chambers. When your second number is called Old School Metal, you know where they are coming from loud and clear. It’s anthemic, cheesy and bloody marvellous, and it’s far from the only track on here that shines that brightly.
There’s been a lot of this 80’s revivalism going on of late, as a sort of parallel arc to the NWOCR zeitgeist for all things early 80’s, but the results have been a bit hit and miss. In some cases it’s seen obscure also-ran acts of the time trying to revive their careers, and in many others younger pretenders mistakenly trying to recreate the sounds of old analogue without focussing enough on the song writing. RF Force very wisely let the music do all the talking and although the arrangements and style are NWOBHM through and through (with a bit of 80’s Americana thrown in for good measure, because let’s face it you can’t go far wrong bowing at the altar of Ronnie James Dio…). Either way, it works…
From a production point of view they make zero attempt to ape the sounds of days gone by. If the bands of the time were bang on happy with the material recorded on clapped out studios 40 years ago, they would not have spent the intervening decades remastering and remixing them so many times, so RF Force have opted for a fat, modern and rich sound, with perhaps just that teensy bit more magic reverb juice than is currently fashionable to create that big arena sound we all loved back then. Brazil has a fantastic and vibrant Metal scene and it’s nice to see a new band get well treated by their production team first time out, as that’s not always the case.
There’s nothing new and innovative here stylistically, but then that’s really rather the point. What is delivered is strong arrangements, confident performances, catchy numbers and a hearty and charismatic frontman in Marcelo Saracino, whose clean yet edgy voice is perfect for the genre, and has no small amount of emotive power in there. Live I am guessing they will need to expand the team a bit, given that bass and twin guitar work are being handled by the clearly talented duo of Daniel Iasbeck and Ricardo Flausino in studio, with some powerhouse drumming coming from Lucas Emidio. This is a highly impressive debut. One to watch, definitely… 8/10
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