ACOD - Fourth Reign Over Opacities And Beyond (Les Acteurs de l'Ombre Productions) [Erick Willand]
Intro tracks can be tricky, let’s be honest. Either you come in guns blazing from the first second or you decide to make an entrance. If done correctly both of these approaches can work, if done incorrectly, can ruin the entire tone of an album. ACOD do it correctly, making a solid cinematic entrance that clearly states the vibe of this album, grandiose darkness at a blistering fever pitch. And this is apparently only two guys, Fred, vocals and lyrics, and Jerome, guitars, bass and samples. There is a third dude in one of the press photos who I imagine handles drums. Fourth Reign Over Opacities And Beyond is ACOD’s fourth album and the second in a planned trilogy, the first being 2018’s The Divine Triumph which included a logo change for the better, the trident is cool.
First song proper, Genus Vacuitis storms in with drum roll warnings and little mercy. The riffing is vicious and the rhythm quick, a proper headbanger with some catchy lyric bits to sink your teeth into. Track 3, The Prophecy Of Agony follows in with swagger and riffage to spare. Dare I say, a fun rolling track that gets the head moving, add some correctly placed French spoken word and a pleasant piano outro and you have a song that made it into my personal playlist.
Where Track 3 ends with a piano, Sulfur Winds Ritual, track 4, opens with storming blast beats, growled vocals dripping with anger and urgent speed. Again the lyrics are memorable and you will sing along with hands clenching invisible oranges, especially the apocalyptic howl at the 4:22 mark, epic! And then comes Nekyia Catharsis like a cavalry charge at full gallop, no hesitation, all forward motion. And it’s intense, the mid song refrain (side by side, walk with me) I’m there and it’s furious. The addition of synths for atmosphere work to heighten that epic feeling.
I’m usually picky about song lengths but nothing here has made me notice it at all, I have yet to feel bored. Which brings us to one of the other things bands do sometimes that I usually can’t stand, a mid album break in the “flow”, an instrumental piece or ballad that feels out of place on the album as a whole. Not the case here as yes, Infernet’s Path is indeed a synth/ambient piece, and it does break the flow a bit.
However ACOD has done it correctly, keeping it short and gracing it with its own cinematic flare that I just actually enjoyed, and before it started to drag on, it was over. This bleeds cleanly into Artes Obscurae’s slower opening moments that build tension with heavy whispered French spoken word, into guitars and Fred’s signature gravelly voice before breaking out and opening the song proper, and it is good!
Ripping forward with another fiery sing along chorus, this will be a crowd pleaser at shows. Title track Fourth Reign Over Opacities And Beyond begins with menace, grand guitars and spoken French speech that is clearly urgent, these are declarations and the emotion is clear even if you don’t speak French. It’s a grand, militaristic track but also my first real pick at this album as the end of this track just, fades awkwardly, is the only description I have, a kind of acoustic outro that didn’t click for me at all.
Thankfully, Through The Astral Door rectifies this with immediate blasting! This is the meanest track of the album, quick thunderous drums, insistent riffs with just a touch of crunch and more atmospheric synths just right in the mix. This may be my favourite track of the album. Empty Graves/Katabasis is the album's closer, and seems to fit well with Through The Astral Door in that it shares the atmospheric elements with added backing vocals, violins, and piano added to sweeping guitars and an elevated vocal performance.
This is a 7:49 long song and I don’t feel it, I don’t even notice and if you’ve been reading my reviews you know song length is a pet peeve of mine. Almost all of the songs on Fourth Reign are over 5 minutes but I was not bored once. This plus the cool logo design, impressive cover art by Paolo Girardi and the top notch production ACOD lands with a solid 9/10
Life is busy. There are always things happening, usually all at the same time. Music is an excellent companion, but sometimes even that can be laborious. What to listen to? What are you in the mood for? If the answer is straight-up metal, I’ve got just what you need. Eternal Steel marks the MNRK debut for Texas ground-and-pounders I AM, and it nary pulls a punch. Eleven thoughtful multidimensional tracks descend upon the masses. The malleable pacing still emanates purpose while the tempo regularly shifts at the drop of a hat. The riffs are not played but wound up like a rabid dog hungry for its next prey. In other words, it’s the perfect album to put on when you’re frantically doing chores that should have gotten done yesterday. Or last week. No judgement.
Axe masters Tom Reyes and Chris Burgess produce crunchy pit-opening riffs that evolves into an all-you-can-eat buffet of licks and melodies. Surrender To The Blade is utterly rotund. Drummer Brandon Busa’s technique is bone-cracking and busy. It’s no wonder I already smashed my second piece of glassware trying to wash the dishes. Even slowed down, Eternal Steel plays like a punishing offering. It’s easy to get lost in the musicianship, so on second thought, doing chores might not be the smartest activity to accompany this. Instead, maybe head out to the backyard and chop down a few trees. Or jackhammer your pesky neighbour's newly laid driveway. 7/10
Live Burial - Curse Of The Forlorn (Transcending Obscurity Records) [GC]
Dragging itself up from the dingiest depths of the UK death metal scene, Live Burial lurch into sight with their new album Curse Of The Forlorn. I have read that this is a culmination of the purest form of death metal which makes this relevant and cutting edge in terms of extremity and technical proficiency! Blimey! The first thing I notice here is the production as it is fucking garbage!
It makes opening track Despair Of Lost Self sound like it was recorded in some sort of underground bunker with and echo effect and just makes everything blend into and almost un-listenable mess, this becomes seven minutes of trying to work out what exactly is going on, not a great start, next up on The Ordeal Of Purification you notice the vocals instantly as they are so high in the mix they almost drown everything else out and when you can hear the music there is actually some half decent stuff on offer and the solos burst through at one point and really impress and there is an almost black metal element to be discovered.
Dragging out the intro to My Head As A Tribute doesn’t really do much for me and again the mix here is awful and just makes the whole thing a chore but from what you can make out its all solid enough sludgy death metal but its hard work to get that! Things do pick up slightly on Exhumation And Execution which shows a decent amount of technical proficiency and it is a full on old school death metal track and album highlight the pace is the slowed right down for the beginning of Blood And Copper before heading back into familiar territory for the rest of the track but the mix of the slow/fast dynamic does make this a good track and the efforts to mix it up a bit is rewarded.
We are then greeted with more shit production on Sepulchre Of Collapsed Kingdoms which is just a mess and gets completely lost in itself which is a real shame as it seems like there is a decent song somewhere in there?? So, it is then left to gargantuan 12 minute closer This Prison I Call Flesh to finish us off, it starts off with a classic acoustic intro before melding into the slow brooding verse before going into the familiar mix of death metal but unfortunately It has no business being this long and I lose interest at about 8 minutes if I am honest.
This has been a very frustrating listen as I can hear that there is some decent stuff here and the songs are probably solid enough, but the production has just killed it for me and ruined anything that might sound good, also some of the songs could be trimmed down as they tend to drift along instead of making an impact. Hopefully they can go on and do better things, but they need to sort out the production first. Disappointingly frustrating affair. 5/10
Taboo - Taboo (Frontiers Music Srl) [Matt Bladen]
Along with the numerous projects and classic bands in their line up, Frontiers have been curating a very wide selection of new acts too from various genres. Though this being Frontiers Danish newcomers Taboo are a moody, modern melodic rock band fronted by singer Christopher Stjerne and Pretty Maids founding member Ken Hammer. So I suppose 'new' is a little bit of stretch, perhaps current as Hammer has a lot of experience behind him, writing, playing and touring in Pretty Maids, but was looking for a new style to try with Taboo, he has teamed up with Stjerne who is kind of a big deal in his native Denmark singing and playing while also producing/engineering for many other talents.
Taboo - Taboo (Frontiers Music Srl) [Matt Bladen]
Along with the numerous projects and classic bands in their line up, Frontiers have been curating a very wide selection of new acts too from various genres. Though this being Frontiers Danish newcomers Taboo are a moody, modern melodic rock band fronted by singer Christopher Stjerne and Pretty Maids founding member Ken Hammer. So I suppose 'new' is a little bit of stretch, perhaps current as Hammer has a lot of experience behind him, writing, playing and touring in Pretty Maids, but was looking for a new style to try with Taboo, he has teamed up with Stjerne who is kind of a big deal in his native Denmark singing and playing while also producing/engineering for many other talents.
Both men here are credited with 'various instrumentation with Claus Langeskov on bass for four tracks, Mat Sinner on 2 tracks and Anders Kirkegaard behind the kit for just Flames, so it's very much am expression of what these two men think a band should sound like. Happily their creative vision is quite entertaining and very accessible to the masses with a lot of stylish nods to Alter Bridge, Shinedown and PopEvil, the pop sound ever present on Learning To Breathe, which feels like Alter Bridge too.
Basically if you're a fan of bands such as Alter Bridge and their ilk, but find perhaps some of their stuff a little too heavy Taboo add more melodic rocking to the style. Hammer's guitar playing is chunky, Stjerne's vocals soulful, this self titled record is a slick album that will have broad appeal. 7/10
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