Lumen Ad Mortem - Upon The Edge Of Darkness (Bitter Loss Records) [Paul Scoble]
Hailing from the sunny shores of Australia come Lumen Ad Mortem with their album Upon The Edge Of Darkness. The band is made up of Aaron Tuck on guitars, bass, keyboards and orchestrations, Gregor Piki on vocals and Matt “Skitz” Sanders on drums (who, like all extreme metal drummers is in about 300 bands, including Plasmodium that wonderful psychedelic War Metal band), and have been in existence since 2019. Apart from a demo released in 2019 Upon The Edge Of Darkness is the bands first album.
Hailing from the sunny shores of Australia come Lumen Ad Mortem with their album Upon The Edge Of Darkness. The band is made up of Aaron Tuck on guitars, bass, keyboards and orchestrations, Gregor Piki on vocals and Matt “Skitz” Sanders on drums (who, like all extreme metal drummers is in about 300 bands, including Plasmodium that wonderful psychedelic War Metal band), and have been in existence since 2019. Apart from a demo released in 2019 Upon The Edge Of Darkness is the bands first album.
The style Lumen Ad Mortem is fairly traditional atmospheric black metal, so it’s full of tremolo picked riffs, blast beats, harsh vocals and lots of atmospheric keyboards. The orchestrations that form part of Aaron Tuck’s duties also add a little bit of epic black metal and may have a slight nod towards mid career Emperor. The sound is reminiscent of late nineties/early two thousands atmospheric black metal, with a feel that is similar to Wolves In The Throne Room, which would make it sound a little dated if it wasn’t done so well.
Opening track Infinite Residence starts with a long keyboard intro before dramatic blast of black metal that starts fast but quickly slows to a mid-pace for some really melodic tremolo picked riffs, the vocals are harsh and very effective. In the second half of the song we get some very lush layered tremolo picked riffs that add melody and atmosphere.
The song gets a little bit faster and more aggressive just before it ends. Second track Within The Smoke is bookended by blasting and nasty black metal, in between the song is slow to mid paced atmospheric black metal with loads of keyboards to temper the heaviness, making this very effectual atmoblack.
Ethereal is a mix of aggressive blasting fast black metal and slower, heavier parts which is made more palatable by adding vast amounts of melody throughout the song. Nearer the end there is a section with slow riffs that have an expansive feel to them, this adds an extra element to the song. Right at the end of the track there are the first of the orchestrations, where brass instruments are added for extra drama.
The orchestrations really come to the for in the track Thought And Memory. After a mix of slow and fast tremolo picked riffs the huge sounding brass instruments come crashing in, these are then mixed with tremolo picked riffs to add to the fun. The orchestrations make Thought And Memory feel huge and very dramatic, this sounds epic and remind me a little of Emperor, and also of Celtic Frost’s Dawn Of Meggido.
Voices From The Stream has a slightly different feel to the rest of the material on here, the song is mainly slow and quite heavy (although there are some faster parts), it has a relentless and unstoppable feel to it and also features some nice dissonance, and a impressive wailing guitar melody.
The album comes to an end with the track Narrow Paths And Stony Ground, which has a huge opening with lots of brass, the song is then a mix of very good blasting and sections with layered tremolo picked riffs that are just lush. The song manages to be extreme whilst at the same time being full of melody and tunefulness, which is a clever trick to end the album on.
Upon The Edge Of Darkness is a great album, the style is a little old school, but when it’s done this well that is not an issue. There has been so much atmospheric black metal released over the last few years this album could have been lost in a sub-genre that is huge, but this albums quality is what makes it shine through.
The quality and amount of melodies on display here is massive, and they have used enough different tempos to make this stand out, it’s the slow and heavy that makes this album really work, it’s a great listen that will grab your attention. It’s also a debut album, another reason to be impressed, as debuts are rarely this good. 8/10
Formed by Howard Rigg (guitar), Lee Barber (bass) and Stu Cheesman (drums) in 2016 Replica Jesus are stoner punks from Derby and Nottingham, shortly after forming they brought in Mike Knight as vocalist/guitarist and since then have been kicking out their particular kind of jams since then. Why I say their particular kind of jams is that Replica Jesus play a style of music that draws from various points of reference such as stoner, desert and fuzz rock with the grooves of grunge and punk rock aggression.
They call themselves "stoner punk" and to me there's a similarity to Welsh bands such as Hwdu or Corrosion Of Conformity (both versions) where the riffy tracks, like the bass-driven Come Back Better are often followed by longer psych driven jams. One such jam is the apocalyptic sounding opener Everything Rots, which has some echoed guitar and vocal before the reverbed, fuzz riff reconvenes into a bit of Kyuss-like wildness, Switchblade Eyes also creates an atmosphere of dark blues. The groove Professional Liar comes in with a bit more percussion and that punk rock simplicity as Headshot reminds me of Therapy? with its feedback induced squeal out.
Echoes From The Expanse is a hard hitting debut album from this riff swinging foursome, interesting and varied riffs with vocals to match, there’s a lot to like for fans of the stoner/grunge/punk genres, most importantly though it’s the sort of music that makes you want to crack a beer and bang your head. 8/10
Replica Jesus - Echoes From The Expanse (Self Released) [Matt Bladen]
Formed by Howard Rigg (guitar), Lee Barber (bass) and Stu Cheesman (drums) in 2016 Replica Jesus are stoner punks from Derby and Nottingham, shortly after forming they brought in Mike Knight as vocalist/guitarist and since then have been kicking out their particular kind of jams since then. Why I say their particular kind of jams is that Replica Jesus play a style of music that draws from various points of reference such as stoner, desert and fuzz rock with the grooves of grunge and punk rock aggression.
They call themselves "stoner punk" and to me there's a similarity to Welsh bands such as Hwdu or Corrosion Of Conformity (both versions) where the riffy tracks, like the bass-driven Come Back Better are often followed by longer psych driven jams. One such jam is the apocalyptic sounding opener Everything Rots, which has some echoed guitar and vocal before the reverbed, fuzz riff reconvenes into a bit of Kyuss-like wildness, Switchblade Eyes also creates an atmosphere of dark blues. The groove Professional Liar comes in with a bit more percussion and that punk rock simplicity as Headshot reminds me of Therapy? with its feedback induced squeal out.
Echoes From The Expanse is a hard hitting debut album from this riff swinging foursome, interesting and varied riffs with vocals to match, there’s a lot to like for fans of the stoner/grunge/punk genres, most importantly though it’s the sort of music that makes you want to crack a beer and bang your head. 8/10
Dragoncorpse - The Drakketh Saga: Release (Shattered Earth Records) [Mark Young]
This is the debut EP from Dragoncorpse and to be honest I am not that fond of the genre of music it sits within. Power metal, symphonic metal it’s just not something I would normally listen to and in general would stay away from as it just does nothing for me. I can appreciate it for the skill that goes into writing and performing material like this but that is about as far as it goes. Personal opinions aside I’ll try to offer my thoughts in a non-judgemental fashion.
Here we go.
It reminds me of Dragonforce, and of some of the European battle metal bands with an almost Queen like guitar tone. Everything is there, its bombastic delivery, heavy guitars and of course double bass. Its really well produced and I guess it does everything you expect from symphonic power metal combined with deathcore. It has the soaring vocals, the death metal vocals that almost break into black metal territory.
The singing here is just awe-inspiring and they just absolutely fly and the musicianship backs it up to a very high standard. The same with the death vocals, they are on point and again somehow don’t seem out of place apart from when they try to occupy the same space. It’s like they have tried to make sure each song has representation from both styles and I wonder if it suffers for that instead of keeping with one main vocal delivery per song.
The album itself is 24 minutes long and they cram a lot in those short minutes. The longest track is 5 minutes long, but it doesn’t seem like it. For me they saved the best for last with Undying. The score I am going to give this is based purely on an appreciation of the skill involved as this music appeals to some people but I have to say that the interludes although telling a story could have been removed but that is just me. 6/10
Spectral Souls - Towards Extinction (Hammerheart Records) [GC]
Hailing from Lima in Peru, Spectral Souls formed back in 2019 and planned to make a record that would fit into the old school death metal genre but as with most recent ventures Covid saw that the process would take slightly longer than planned but now they have finally been able to finish and release their debut album Towards Extinction, So lets see if it was worth the wait!?
No More Gods For Me lurches forward and fits perfectly in to the OSDM feel with its slow and menacing opening before crashing into life with some nicely paced death metal, the guitars are sharp and precise and the rhythm section thunders and pounds as expected and backs everything up nicely, the only thing I am not sold on is the vocals, they just don’t hit right for me on this song, still plenty of time to improve!? No Hope Humanity is a little more straightforward and has a thrash type feel and has lots of widdly guitar parts throw in as if to hammer this point home and sure, it’s all done well enough but just seems to fall a bit flat for me and doesn’t really inspire anything in me and is all a bit to pedestrian.
Fuck The World is more of the same, thrash beginning and then falls back on the OSDM feel also has a decent groove and flow section randomly added into, still not sold on the vocals though, there’s just not enough power behind them to really make a significant impact on the songs which is a shame as overall these really need something to push them forward as so far, its all just a bit average, Ego Man kicks of with a riff so reminiscent of something mid 80’s Megadeth would produce you do get a bit of hope but unfortunately that’s the pinnacle of the whole song.
There's just nothing that grabs you to really connect with what’s going on until about halfway through there is a decent enough almost two-step type riff that momentarily jolts you awake as it has a wicked solo that follows but then it all just falls back into mediocrity, before Scum Politic continues the thrash/death plodding, another thing missing is perhaps a bit of variety, everything sounds EXACTLY the same, I know death metal isn’t really know for its invention but at least try something different every now and then, the one bonus I will say is that when the want to they can create some deliciously filthy riffs but they then don t use them well enough.
Title track Towards Extinction isn’t a song at all it’s a piano led interlude that is totally pointless and adds precisely fuck all to proceedings, bit of an odd choice. One Step Away From Extinction is the most boring song on the album and offers nothing it’s just one paced head down death metal, Cristal Generation is a little more interesting sound wise as it throws in some more two-step and hardcore flavours in to the mix that mix nicely into the thrashy death metal and is probably one of the stronger songs on the album.
Major Depressive Disorder and Misanthropy are both standard thrashy death metal songs that do little to inspire much more interest at this stage of the album however, album closer Behind The Lying Glass does mix things up a bit and slows the pace right down and has a doom filled beginning and sets a tone for the whole song, there’s more groove and subtlety here before the usual sound kicks back in it does pay off nicely to end on an unexpected positive note.
So, was it worth the 4 year wait for this album to be completed and released? Sadly, the answer for me is a no, it just doesn’t offer enough invention or creativity to keep me invested for the whole album. What they do they do ok and I am sure they can improve and with more effort push on but here they just fall short for me. 5/10
This is the debut EP from Dragoncorpse and to be honest I am not that fond of the genre of music it sits within. Power metal, symphonic metal it’s just not something I would normally listen to and in general would stay away from as it just does nothing for me. I can appreciate it for the skill that goes into writing and performing material like this but that is about as far as it goes. Personal opinions aside I’ll try to offer my thoughts in a non-judgemental fashion.
Here we go.
It reminds me of Dragonforce, and of some of the European battle metal bands with an almost Queen like guitar tone. Everything is there, its bombastic delivery, heavy guitars and of course double bass. Its really well produced and I guess it does everything you expect from symphonic power metal combined with deathcore. It has the soaring vocals, the death metal vocals that almost break into black metal territory.
The singing here is just awe-inspiring and they just absolutely fly and the musicianship backs it up to a very high standard. The same with the death vocals, they are on point and again somehow don’t seem out of place apart from when they try to occupy the same space. It’s like they have tried to make sure each song has representation from both styles and I wonder if it suffers for that instead of keeping with one main vocal delivery per song.
The album itself is 24 minutes long and they cram a lot in those short minutes. The longest track is 5 minutes long, but it doesn’t seem like it. For me they saved the best for last with Undying. The score I am going to give this is based purely on an appreciation of the skill involved as this music appeals to some people but I have to say that the interludes although telling a story could have been removed but that is just me. 6/10
Spectral Souls - Towards Extinction (Hammerheart Records) [GC]
Hailing from Lima in Peru, Spectral Souls formed back in 2019 and planned to make a record that would fit into the old school death metal genre but as with most recent ventures Covid saw that the process would take slightly longer than planned but now they have finally been able to finish and release their debut album Towards Extinction, So lets see if it was worth the wait!?
No More Gods For Me lurches forward and fits perfectly in to the OSDM feel with its slow and menacing opening before crashing into life with some nicely paced death metal, the guitars are sharp and precise and the rhythm section thunders and pounds as expected and backs everything up nicely, the only thing I am not sold on is the vocals, they just don’t hit right for me on this song, still plenty of time to improve!? No Hope Humanity is a little more straightforward and has a thrash type feel and has lots of widdly guitar parts throw in as if to hammer this point home and sure, it’s all done well enough but just seems to fall a bit flat for me and doesn’t really inspire anything in me and is all a bit to pedestrian.
Fuck The World is more of the same, thrash beginning and then falls back on the OSDM feel also has a decent groove and flow section randomly added into, still not sold on the vocals though, there’s just not enough power behind them to really make a significant impact on the songs which is a shame as overall these really need something to push them forward as so far, its all just a bit average, Ego Man kicks of with a riff so reminiscent of something mid 80’s Megadeth would produce you do get a bit of hope but unfortunately that’s the pinnacle of the whole song.
There's just nothing that grabs you to really connect with what’s going on until about halfway through there is a decent enough almost two-step type riff that momentarily jolts you awake as it has a wicked solo that follows but then it all just falls back into mediocrity, before Scum Politic continues the thrash/death plodding, another thing missing is perhaps a bit of variety, everything sounds EXACTLY the same, I know death metal isn’t really know for its invention but at least try something different every now and then, the one bonus I will say is that when the want to they can create some deliciously filthy riffs but they then don t use them well enough.
Title track Towards Extinction isn’t a song at all it’s a piano led interlude that is totally pointless and adds precisely fuck all to proceedings, bit of an odd choice. One Step Away From Extinction is the most boring song on the album and offers nothing it’s just one paced head down death metal, Cristal Generation is a little more interesting sound wise as it throws in some more two-step and hardcore flavours in to the mix that mix nicely into the thrashy death metal and is probably one of the stronger songs on the album.
Major Depressive Disorder and Misanthropy are both standard thrashy death metal songs that do little to inspire much more interest at this stage of the album however, album closer Behind The Lying Glass does mix things up a bit and slows the pace right down and has a doom filled beginning and sets a tone for the whole song, there’s more groove and subtlety here before the usual sound kicks back in it does pay off nicely to end on an unexpected positive note.
So, was it worth the 4 year wait for this album to be completed and released? Sadly, the answer for me is a no, it just doesn’t offer enough invention or creativity to keep me invested for the whole album. What they do they do ok and I am sure they can improve and with more effort push on but here they just fall short for me. 5/10
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