From the mean streets of New Jersey, don't expect any Bruce Springsteen-like positivity from Sunrot. Signed to Prosthetic Records now, this sludge/noise crew utilise the primal nature of metal music to collapse any speaker system you choose to play this through.
Recorded three times due to various setbacks, the major one being the hospitalisation of vocalist Lex Santiago due to a psychotic episode, but all these setbacks have been out into this album, the venom, viciousness and vile feelings in the recording mirrored by the healing, cathartic factor of the creative process. The Unfailing Rope is uncompromising and heavy, the riffs from Christopher Eustaquio and Rob Gonzalez tear at your flesh, the punishing doom of Trepanation coming in from a sludge style of bands such as Eyehategod where the hardcore influence is much stronger.
Sunrot expand their sound by bringing guests such as Bryan Funck (Thou), Emily McWilliams (Silver Godling), and Blake Harrison (Pig Destroyer) to join Lex's screams while he also brings the samples and noise that features voice samples of James Baldwin on top of the growling bottom end of drummer Alex Dobrowolski and bassist Ross Bradley, who impress on Gutter and The Patricide.
Atonal occasionally, aggressive totally but cut with hope and redemption The Unfailing Rope is a force of nature that needs you to be in specific mindset. 7/10
Lethvm - Winterreise (Dunk! Records) [Matt Bladen]
Meaning dead, erosion or destruction, Lethvm take their name to heart with their city levelling sludge. The foursome of Vincent (vocals), Tony (drums), Antoine (guitar) and Lucas (bass) are inspired by desolation and aggression, their music in a similar vein to fellow Belgians Stake, they pair a savage underbelly of gutteral growls and downtuned riffs with a topping of atmospheric catharsis on tracks such as Pretence and Torrents.
On this third album they have made their statement much louder and for definitive than they have on previous records the feelings of anger, melancholia and loneliness distributed through poems from Wilhelm Müller his 19th century poetry already having been set to music but how he would deal with this noise is anyone's guess.
Still they are a great inspiration the ferocity of tracks such as Carved where the sludge/doom/hardcore music is angry but it's the first song that has some clean vocals in it as well leaning into the post metal style of Neurosis and Amenra. Torrid emotions fused with thunderous music, Winterreise is a force of nature. 7/10
Omnicidal - The Omnicidalist (Non Servium Records) [Mark Young]
Sweden strikes again, with Omnicidal bringing their new release for your delight and delectation. Straight away, the At The Gates style of melodic metal is writ large upon proceedings as By Knife chugs along, opening things up in a strong way with WWD ripping in hot on its heels. It’s pacey, has all the right ingredients to engage the listener and certainly it’s a great one-two to kick us off.
The Passenger drops the tempo a little with background trem picking set against a monolithic riff which is fine, except there is nothing stand-out here and we enter the anticipated melodic end to the song which brings in the standard solo, which again shows there are some nifty fingers at work. I have gone on record before that having a slower track at number 3 kills the momentum built, and this is the case here.
Cemetery Scream certainly picks up the pace and gets us back on track, as does Infernum which do an admiral task of getting that momentum back. It’s probably just me but you think that this style should be played at a minimum BPM. Let me know your thoughts.
What we have is a well-produced album, full of riffs, melody, double bass basically everything you love about heavy metal. It’s all there, but what you do have is that massive shadow of Gothenburg which has been looming for a long time now and it must be difficult to come from that part of the world and not be influenced in one way or another. The Neverborn, for example comes right out of this playbook and it’s great, fast, heavy, all those things we like but it doesn’t offer anything new. And maybe they aren’t out to do that and maybe they like writing what they write, who knows?
Despite these comments, it is worth your time, because it does represent a high bar in melodic death metal because it takes that source, as well as others from the extreme metal world and delivers a solid album of 10 songs over 42 minutes that achieves what they set out to do: Give you Death Metal. 7/10
Blood Moon Wedding - An American Nightmare (Mobilization Recordings) [Mark Young]
Knowing nothing about them, their music, anything I checked online for a heads up. They are termed Trans-Atlantic Art-Punk-Noir with a duo vocalist approach of American Opera Singer Mia Dean, and English Punk Steve Lake. This nugget of information did not help in anyway, and if honest filled me with a sort of apprehension of what was to come.
So, I’ll come right out and say it: I didn’t like it. Or rather I didn’t like one half of it.
Musically, it possesses an ethereal quality, soaked in classic rock and folk sounds which serves this music so well. Mia Dean just knocks her vocal lines out of the park with a measured performance of power and guile. The same cannot be said for the vocal delivery of Steve Lake. His style is in a half-way house between David Bowie and John Lydon (to my ears) and almost comes across like Austin Powers doing Karaoke.
I cannot believe I just typed that.
Sometimes, no matter how hard you try a particular facet of a record or film or whatever will prevent you from giving it a proper chance and here it is his style of delivery. It is not like this all the way through but having heard that in the first two tracks it has set my mind in place, and I can’t get past it. They don’t compliment each other unless that is the whole point and I’m being dense.
As the album unfolds it has that easy air about it and it is performed with a tempered approach that you might expect for this genre. As I’ve said when it’s just Mia singing the material, she manages to give it something, an authenticity I suppose. It’s just as a song-builds the other singer comes in and brings you out of it. I should point out that this is purely my opinion.
So, putting that to one side what we have is a collection of nice songs that for those who love this genre will no doubt fall in love with. I can appreciate certain aspects of it – arrangements, performance, and most of all Mia’s voice but I cannot get past Steve and his vocal style. 6/10
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