Suffocated By The Sun is the debut album by Swedish trio Blackscape. Before even taking a listen, I spent some time admiring the album art. A Giger-esque decomposing, oppressive spinal penis monster with teeth. If the image is anything to go by, I’m primed and ready for a violent assault of thrashy delights. Waste Of Humanity gives us a surprisingly major spacious Vai like guitar … for a full10 seconds… which I’d expect is to catch us off guard to make that metal punch in the face that much more effective! Ooof! The Melodic Thrash Death is strong. The off beat breakdown followed by canorous lead, an early indication that Blackscape are not fucking around.
Bow To Me succeeds in sounding both catchy and evil. Thomas Ohissons tasteful fills during breaks are highlights for me. They then switch it up to major for Tage Anderssons impressive axe work. Eugene’s trick bag was emptied a long time ago and has since been added to. The title track Suffocated By The Sun is full of stinking heavy technical riffage accompanied by melodious malevolence and melancholic harmonious motifs. The lead refrains from the typical mindless shredding you find in a lot of thrash, adding depth and dynamic to the song ( widdlers, noodlers and fret wankers; TAKE NOTE.)
Enslaved’s atmospheric start is a brief respite from the aggression … until it’s not. Slower more emotional sections followed by proggy grove riffs are a much better example of how to pull off contrast than the usual boyband verses growl found in metalcore. Nailed To The Cross also has a progressive groove to it, blended with crunchy crushing diminished Womp! My hair swings against its will. An affliction usually attributed to too many beers the night before. But today I am in good health, and the uncontrollable nodding can only be accredited to the groove.
First In Line is a headbanger! Lamb Of God with John Petrucci on lead. The discordant picked desolate guitars playing whilst the drums and singer Lawrence Mackroy continue the aggression is quite beautiful in an I’ve accepted my fate sort of way. Colonized By The Dark - an intense battering riff .. until the chorus … which is just not for me, in-fact I mentioned how they avoided the cliche contrast during the song Enslaved. Points for diversifying styles but you’ll have to give them straight back because I’m a grumpy shite when I’m accosted with a certain level of sweeter vocals during a brutal song. It feels like Adam Sandler just walked into Robert Egger’s The Lighthouse during Willem Dafoe’s monologue scene. Rant over, many people seem to enjoy it. But I’m doing the review so a perfect score has been denied.
Purified Disease is excellent deathy licks, there’s a dark desperate sadness to music. The Black metal influences are prevalent. Probably one of my favourite songs on the album. Did I catch a Marty Friedman influence in Tage’s break ? What self respecting metal guitarist doesn’t owe some of their lick library to that man … I know I do. Great song! Stained By Sin has pedal tone… meet chugs. Another headbanger. With powerful hard rock vocals from Lawrence. The singing in this one really works for me and sounds a bit like Johnathan Davis doing a Micheal Bolton impersonation… which is just grand. I’m fed up complimenting Tage by this point, so please fill in the blanks …..
The Blackscape (CD Bonus Track) takes a very different feel. 80s goth synth followed by a very positive guitar celebration over jazzy drums. This one sounds straight out of a guitar virtuoso’s solo album. And why not shove it at the end of an aggressive metal album ? There are no rules! Two points for innovative fret molesting. Minus one point for taking me to a happy place when I was expecting to end on a big angry sad note .
Blackscape's Suffocated By The Sun is a fantastic blend of thrash metal and death metal! I’m a little disappointed that every album I’ve reviewed In the last few months has been brilliant. If I don’t get rid of this pent up anger sooner I may have to piss in a drinking fountain or worse … and those actions would be on you. Considering Blackscape are currently quite a small band, It’s mind boggling that Tage Andersson is one of the best lead players of this genre that I’ve heard in a long time (and I’m a bit of a shred nerd).
Check them out ! This is a band that really deserves a bigger fan base! Heavy as twelve polar bears in osmium chainmail and as technical as the plot of a fictional movie written by the collaboration of David Lynch and Chuck Palahniuk about an inter-dimensional pangolin stuck in the bathroom walls of a troubled Jockey. 8/10
The Parallax Method - Folie à Trois (Self Released) [Zak Skane]
As soon as the needle drops on this albums opening track We've Learned Nothing we’re greeted by the eastern melodies smothered in hypnotic rhythms. The guitar ascending and descending from mystical sounding arpeggios whilst also packing unique alien sounding effects are accompanied by polyrhythmic accented beats. The miss leading title of The Pope's Personal Saxophonist brings in fun major scaled video game sounding jingles that you would get from your favourite nostalgic video game of choice such as Crash Bandicoot especially when the funky auto wah bass comes in.
Inhumed - Feasted Upon Like Carrion (Self Released) [Evil Spider]
This week I have been checking out Feasted Upon Like Carrion
- the latest EP from Canada's Melodic Death Metal 5 piece, Inhumed
The EP starts with instrumental intro The Ascent, that had
me intrigued from the off as to the direction it would take, however, at 2.5
minutes long (on an ep with a run time of just under 22 mins) I feel like it takes
too long for things to really get moving, but these guys go for it once they
do.
Fed To The Skies and A Defiance Of Faith kick things into a
higher gear with riffs that carry the swagger of Nocturnal era Black Dahlia Murder,
even if the lead playing is a bit messy at times. Vengeance Of A God King keeps
the energy levels high and feels like a more accomplished track, with the
guitars working well together to give a more complete sound. Unfortunately, the closing track, Exhibitions
Of Beauty, meanders along at a mid-tempo pace and fades into a strange violin
outro which left me feeling a bit deflated.
All-in-all, a decent offering; pretty strong vocals throughout and some nice ideas. Sadly though, the strange decisions at either end of the ep really do hinder the listening experience for me. 5/10
Esprit D ’Air - Oceans (Starstorm Records) [Mark Young]
DIY Japanese rock/metal, ok I’m game.
Brainchild of multi-instrumentalist and producer, Kai, Esprit D ‘Air is the latest release that blends metal, rock, electronic and probably all points in between. Kai notes that classic bands such as Anthrax, WASP and Judas Priest are among those who are favourites, the sound presented does not always reflect them.
Reading the online bio, and looking at reviews of previous material I’m not sure what I’m going to hear so opening with an instrumental (Into The Oceans) that could be taken from any sci-film or series is a suitable start as it drops straight with Tsunami, a high energy attack that twins a repeating keyboard refrain against pummelling drums and guitar. So far, so good with Leviathan following up with that same pattern of build – keys, double bass drums and riffs. Vocal wise its delivered clean, with Kai singing in a style that fits in well with the music behind it. Everything is crisp, heavy when required but two songs in there is a nagging suspicion that this will be the template moving forward.
And so, it goes – Ocean’s Call is up-tempo, and has that J-Pop motif all over it. It’s built for a climatic scene with those ascending chords and that constant melody in the background. There is nothing wrong with it, its just that having three songs that although are different are in fact so similar in arrangement it saps you a tad.
Then, The Abyss comes in and smacks you around the head with some death growls and top aggressive singing and suddenly all bets are off. This is more like it; twinning Kai’s and Ryo Kinoshita clean / dark singing raises it up even if the arrangement is still the same as the preceding tracks. Dead Zone (ft. Ben Christo) goes for a Linkin Park make-over, mournful piano and heart-felt vocals and it just sucks all the energy built up in an instant. Next.
Nebulae, channels Leviathan, again possessing all of the main ingredients but without the required seasoning. Amethyst is next, and I find myself losing interest in keeping going because: A – its technically good B – Sounds good C – they all sound too similar and this is repeated on Souhou Raia, Sazanami, Guiding Light, Calling You right to the end they are all too familiar.
The similarity in attack does it in which is a shame because it needs that element of dirt to really give it life. It is entirely possible that I’ve missed the point of it, or maybe I’m coming at it from the wrong angle but once you have heard the first three songs you will continue to hear those themes all the way through it. I should temper this by the fact they are well built, recorded and the instrumental tracks show some real beauty there its just that its too safe. The reason we love metal is that it is supposed to be rough, even those bands who place technical ability above being able to write songs. We love Slayer because they were nasty, its why we constantly moan about Metallica.
Here, The Abyss absolutely stands head and shoulders above every song, and I hate having to say that because I try to find something good in everything. I didn’t set out to not like it, but I also expected it to be better in terms of not using the same approach for every song, so it sounds like it came via a process – Keys here, guitar there etc etc. 5/10
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