Celestial Sanctuary - Insatiable Thirst For Torment (Church Road Records) [Richard Oliver]
The UK death metal scene continues to thrive with a steady stream of new bands and new releases arriving like an ever flowing stream. Releasing their second album through Church Road Records are Cambridge based four piece Celestial Sanctuary and Insatiable Thirst For Torment is definitely a big step up for the band.
The band's debut album Soul Diminished was a quality death metal release and a solid debut which incorporated punishing grooves with an element of hardcore in the sound and those elements are still prevalent here but the songwriting is stepped up, the music and song structures are less predictable and the nastiness is definitely amped up. The fast parts sound infinitely furious, the slow parts increasingly oppressive and the sludgy breakdowns are far filthier. Songs such as Swivel Eyed And Gurning In The Shadows with its ever shifting rhythm, Biomineralization (Cell Death) with its lumbering pace and disgusting groove and The Lurid Glow Of A Dead, Burning Body which mixes a sinister atmosphere with crushing ferocity before the album closes in absolutely savage style with the unrelenting Gutted With A Blunt Blade.
Celestial Sanctuary have ticked a lot of boxes in what I like in a death metal album with Insatiable Thirst For Torment. It sounds suitably old school but has a nice modern and meaty production to it, knows when to speed things up but also slow them down and has that depraved groove that is so essential for good death metal. This won’t break any boundaries within the genre but is absolute proof that you don’t need flashy technicality and uncontrolled levels of brutality when it comes to a fucking great death metal sound. Unhinged, disgusting and unrelentingly heavy, Insatiable Thirst For Torment is death metal done right. 8/10
Monasteries - Ominous (Seek And Strike Records) [Mark Young]
This is great, reviewing local bands, especially where no two bands are the same. Last week, doom tinged, this week Super-tech Deathcore.
Ominous (Enter) starts us off with a suitably grandiose melody, with guitar stabs booting straight into a mental riff that seems to want to rip one way whilst the drums go another. Its full of those absolute guitar motifs that I can’t even describe as they jump between screams and cleans whilst the heavy continues. Final Note 2 You throws in some fiendish beats whilst approaching attempting to pummel you into submission. There is a real human element to the vocals as there are moments when its breaking between styles. This one has one of the heaviest breakdowns, moving so slowly it’s like watching amber drip.
Spiralled Icon (ft Jason from Ingested) has those dervish guitar moments in and amongst the riff / drum pounding. It’s an exercise in instrument supremacy as each riff, passage is controlled with surgical precision. I should say now that technical metal can leave me cold, as there is sometimes a concentration on the technical side whilst forgetting about the core requirement is that the music has to move you. Monasteries haven’t forgot this, and it is fully on point. Orphan Halls weaves a web of riffs into the slow, air expelling crushing break that gradually speeds up until it implodes under its own weight. More of this is captured on Six Behind Bars, which I think has maybe the most traditional riff / arrangement on the album, in that it feels the most conventional, but in their hands it’s a belter, It rips, just rips.
Fatal Design (ft Sven from Aborted) stands out as an almost funky / groove monster but no less heavy. Possessing some of the lowest growls and deepest, densest riffs it rolls along crushing all in its path before returning to the start and closing that circle. They just keep on with H.E.A.V.Y. (ft Monte Bernard of Emberthrone) which comes in with riffs that seemed to be stretched and some of the most vitriolic screaming I’ve heard in a while. Reflective State see’s them restart the tech attack, with the preceding two tracks possibly acting as a circuit break. This one has a storming arrangement that just moves, it’s just full-on perpetual motion but I’ve no idea how you would headbang to this.
And then they decide to drop Heaven Failed Us, which is astounding. It represents a subtle change in tack, with some what can be described as uplifting melody that combines with some clean vocals and is just absolutely royal. Alone Against takes us back onto that technical express but it feels like its running out of steam a little now and is probably one song too many. Ominous (Exit) is a different proposition again, this one just moves with purpose as opposed to a vehicle for tech wizardry, which I what I felt about Alone Against. It closes out the album on a suitable high point.
The fact that people can write music like this astounds me. The fact that they can write this and make it interesting to those who could practice every day for a millennium and still get nowhere near this level of proficiency. What I would say is that this presents a lot to digest in one take especially for those like me with no more than a passing knowledge of this genre. What I know is that it is one song too long, that is the only real negative I can see. Purveyors of technical metal will LOSE THEIR MINDS over this. 8/10
Course Of Fate - Cognizance EP Reissue/Somnium (Rock Of Angels Records) [Matt Bladen]
Scandi prog metal band Course Of Fate announce their return with a new album and a reissue of their debut EP. The album is a tribute to their bass player Jan Daniel Nygaard who passed away between their 2020 record Mindweaver and Somnium.
Cognizanace
So let's deal with the EP first and this is a straight up reissue of Cognizance, which was out of print on previous record label Fateroom Records. To celebrate its 10th anniversary new label ROAR! Rock of Angels Records have made it available once again so for anyone who got hooked on the band with Mindweaver can rediscover where the band started.
It's four tracks that establish the progressive metal sound of Course Of Fate, like fellow Norwegians Conception, Spiral Architect, Leprous and even Pagans Mind, although they have less of the power metal influences, their style comes from the style that comes from pioneers such as Fates Warning, Shadow Gallery and Queensryche, intelligence and heaviness put together. At just four tracks Cognizance is not so much a brief (it's 25 minutes) intro to Course Of Fate. Paralyzed Mind and Perpetual Fate both brining the chuggy sound of Queensryche as Eivind Gunnesen's vocals are quite similar to Geoff Tate. The Last Day goes into power metal strains before Premonition brings back that Queensryche/Fates Warning sound. For anyone who has followed the band, this will be a dream to add to their collection and will show you where things began. 7/10
Somnium
From here Course Of Fate added to their musical style on Mindweaver, so now how does Somnium measure up? Well it's a sadder, darker record dealing with the pandemic and the loss of their bandmate. It flows into heavier modern prog metal, sort of Dream Theater post Train Of Thought, the lyrics introspective and emotional, with plenty of other influences coming in. The line up remains mainly unchanged except for the drummer who is different to the EP and of course it contains the last recording of Daniel Nygaard on bass, is intricate grooves and rhythmic force creating the muscular bottom end for this new album.
The increase in skill and composition obvious from the instrumental Prelude and first song Morpheus Dream, the acoustic guitars segued into Wintersong, a track that is classic prog rock but with heavy guitars from guitarists and main songwriters Kenneth Henriksen and Marcus Lorentzen, they trade off riffs and solos as the keys and on this track organs of Carl Marius Saugstad, he’s more than just background noise though similarly to the way Jordan Rudess adds layers Saugstad is an additional lead and backing for the tracks especially in the solo sections, where of course he gets some solos on tracks like Valkyries or the piano piece Echoes. Behind everything Per-Morten Bergseth, who is a drum marvel, I did find myself often just listening to his drumming on tracks, like Valkyries (again), as it’s flawless.
Delicate but powerful on tracks such as Blindside, he conveys power and emotion through just the percussion, the rest of the emotion coming from Eivind Gunnesen’s vocals which improve greatly from the EP, the traces of Geoff Tate (Blindside again) still there but much more of his own style too, deeper and more pained but richer and trained. A step up not just from the EP but the previous album too, Somnium is a major step up in every direction. The grief on Remembrance stopping the album dead in its tracks, but it gave me chills, especially as it probably takes a new importance after losing their friend, as the anthemic Vile At Heart builds things up again with atmosphere and a huge chorus. Somnium is a top class prog metal record, rife with emotional power, it’s the best place to start with Course Of Fate. 9/10
Des Rocs - Dream Machine (Sumerian Records) [Rich Piva]
Can you be a band that puts the word “fuzz” in all the descriptions of your style but be so slickly produced it’s like you are listening on a Slip n’ Slide? Or be considered a band that brings the fuzz if you are produced by big time rock producers? Or just because one of the producers is also a member of Queens Of The Stone Age does that qualify you to lead with fuzz in your bio? The answer is no, no it does not allow you to fall into any sort of fuzz category. I am putting my foot down right now, because the new album by Des Rocs, Dream Machine, is anything but fuzzy. When I saw this, I was all in, ready to kick and claw and bite to be the guy to review this. Tell me this doesn’t sound awesome:
“Produced by Alain Johannes (Queens of the Stone Age, Them Crooked Vultures, PJ Harvey), Matt Wallace (Faith No More, Maroon 5) and Des Rocs mastermind Danny Rocco, Dream Machine plays like a bolt of energy coursing through the glory days of rock, metal, and grunge, united within his signature “bedroom arena rock” sound.”
Well don’t get too excited, because you can use buzz words like fuzz, grunge, metal, and arena rock and still ultimately sound like an antiseptic retread Muse cover band. The title track with the cheesy spoken word parts and the single, I Am The Lightning which sounds like a more produced overdone The Black Keys track, and anyone who reads my reviews knows that this is not a compliment. White Gold is a try at a Jack White track which is not quite a swing and a miss but more of a foul ball. Never Ending Moment is the best song on here, but nothing I would want to revisit. Bad Blood is cringy 80s stuff and is not something I enjoyed. In The night was enough to turn this off for the last time.
I am sorry, but there is some false advertising going on here. I did not like Dream Machine at all and Des Rocs is not a purveyor of fuzz in any way. Avoid if you don’t like really over produced stuff that you have heard all before. 3/10
The band's debut album Soul Diminished was a quality death metal release and a solid debut which incorporated punishing grooves with an element of hardcore in the sound and those elements are still prevalent here but the songwriting is stepped up, the music and song structures are less predictable and the nastiness is definitely amped up. The fast parts sound infinitely furious, the slow parts increasingly oppressive and the sludgy breakdowns are far filthier. Songs such as Swivel Eyed And Gurning In The Shadows with its ever shifting rhythm, Biomineralization (Cell Death) with its lumbering pace and disgusting groove and The Lurid Glow Of A Dead, Burning Body which mixes a sinister atmosphere with crushing ferocity before the album closes in absolutely savage style with the unrelenting Gutted With A Blunt Blade.
Celestial Sanctuary have ticked a lot of boxes in what I like in a death metal album with Insatiable Thirst For Torment. It sounds suitably old school but has a nice modern and meaty production to it, knows when to speed things up but also slow them down and has that depraved groove that is so essential for good death metal. This won’t break any boundaries within the genre but is absolute proof that you don’t need flashy technicality and uncontrolled levels of brutality when it comes to a fucking great death metal sound. Unhinged, disgusting and unrelentingly heavy, Insatiable Thirst For Torment is death metal done right. 8/10
Monasteries - Ominous (Seek And Strike Records) [Mark Young]
This is great, reviewing local bands, especially where no two bands are the same. Last week, doom tinged, this week Super-tech Deathcore.
Ominous (Enter) starts us off with a suitably grandiose melody, with guitar stabs booting straight into a mental riff that seems to want to rip one way whilst the drums go another. Its full of those absolute guitar motifs that I can’t even describe as they jump between screams and cleans whilst the heavy continues. Final Note 2 You throws in some fiendish beats whilst approaching attempting to pummel you into submission. There is a real human element to the vocals as there are moments when its breaking between styles. This one has one of the heaviest breakdowns, moving so slowly it’s like watching amber drip.
Spiralled Icon (ft Jason from Ingested) has those dervish guitar moments in and amongst the riff / drum pounding. It’s an exercise in instrument supremacy as each riff, passage is controlled with surgical precision. I should say now that technical metal can leave me cold, as there is sometimes a concentration on the technical side whilst forgetting about the core requirement is that the music has to move you. Monasteries haven’t forgot this, and it is fully on point. Orphan Halls weaves a web of riffs into the slow, air expelling crushing break that gradually speeds up until it implodes under its own weight. More of this is captured on Six Behind Bars, which I think has maybe the most traditional riff / arrangement on the album, in that it feels the most conventional, but in their hands it’s a belter, It rips, just rips.
Fatal Design (ft Sven from Aborted) stands out as an almost funky / groove monster but no less heavy. Possessing some of the lowest growls and deepest, densest riffs it rolls along crushing all in its path before returning to the start and closing that circle. They just keep on with H.E.A.V.Y. (ft Monte Bernard of Emberthrone) which comes in with riffs that seemed to be stretched and some of the most vitriolic screaming I’ve heard in a while. Reflective State see’s them restart the tech attack, with the preceding two tracks possibly acting as a circuit break. This one has a storming arrangement that just moves, it’s just full-on perpetual motion but I’ve no idea how you would headbang to this.
And then they decide to drop Heaven Failed Us, which is astounding. It represents a subtle change in tack, with some what can be described as uplifting melody that combines with some clean vocals and is just absolutely royal. Alone Against takes us back onto that technical express but it feels like its running out of steam a little now and is probably one song too many. Ominous (Exit) is a different proposition again, this one just moves with purpose as opposed to a vehicle for tech wizardry, which I what I felt about Alone Against. It closes out the album on a suitable high point.
The fact that people can write music like this astounds me. The fact that they can write this and make it interesting to those who could practice every day for a millennium and still get nowhere near this level of proficiency. What I would say is that this presents a lot to digest in one take especially for those like me with no more than a passing knowledge of this genre. What I know is that it is one song too long, that is the only real negative I can see. Purveyors of technical metal will LOSE THEIR MINDS over this. 8/10
Course Of Fate - Cognizance EP Reissue/Somnium (Rock Of Angels Records) [Matt Bladen]
Scandi prog metal band Course Of Fate announce their return with a new album and a reissue of their debut EP. The album is a tribute to their bass player Jan Daniel Nygaard who passed away between their 2020 record Mindweaver and Somnium.
Cognizanace
So let's deal with the EP first and this is a straight up reissue of Cognizance, which was out of print on previous record label Fateroom Records. To celebrate its 10th anniversary new label ROAR! Rock of Angels Records have made it available once again so for anyone who got hooked on the band with Mindweaver can rediscover where the band started.
It's four tracks that establish the progressive metal sound of Course Of Fate, like fellow Norwegians Conception, Spiral Architect, Leprous and even Pagans Mind, although they have less of the power metal influences, their style comes from the style that comes from pioneers such as Fates Warning, Shadow Gallery and Queensryche, intelligence and heaviness put together. At just four tracks Cognizance is not so much a brief (it's 25 minutes) intro to Course Of Fate. Paralyzed Mind and Perpetual Fate both brining the chuggy sound of Queensryche as Eivind Gunnesen's vocals are quite similar to Geoff Tate. The Last Day goes into power metal strains before Premonition brings back that Queensryche/Fates Warning sound. For anyone who has followed the band, this will be a dream to add to their collection and will show you where things began. 7/10
Somnium
From here Course Of Fate added to their musical style on Mindweaver, so now how does Somnium measure up? Well it's a sadder, darker record dealing with the pandemic and the loss of their bandmate. It flows into heavier modern prog metal, sort of Dream Theater post Train Of Thought, the lyrics introspective and emotional, with plenty of other influences coming in. The line up remains mainly unchanged except for the drummer who is different to the EP and of course it contains the last recording of Daniel Nygaard on bass, is intricate grooves and rhythmic force creating the muscular bottom end for this new album.
The increase in skill and composition obvious from the instrumental Prelude and first song Morpheus Dream, the acoustic guitars segued into Wintersong, a track that is classic prog rock but with heavy guitars from guitarists and main songwriters Kenneth Henriksen and Marcus Lorentzen, they trade off riffs and solos as the keys and on this track organs of Carl Marius Saugstad, he’s more than just background noise though similarly to the way Jordan Rudess adds layers Saugstad is an additional lead and backing for the tracks especially in the solo sections, where of course he gets some solos on tracks like Valkyries or the piano piece Echoes. Behind everything Per-Morten Bergseth, who is a drum marvel, I did find myself often just listening to his drumming on tracks, like Valkyries (again), as it’s flawless.
Delicate but powerful on tracks such as Blindside, he conveys power and emotion through just the percussion, the rest of the emotion coming from Eivind Gunnesen’s vocals which improve greatly from the EP, the traces of Geoff Tate (Blindside again) still there but much more of his own style too, deeper and more pained but richer and trained. A step up not just from the EP but the previous album too, Somnium is a major step up in every direction. The grief on Remembrance stopping the album dead in its tracks, but it gave me chills, especially as it probably takes a new importance after losing their friend, as the anthemic Vile At Heart builds things up again with atmosphere and a huge chorus. Somnium is a top class prog metal record, rife with emotional power, it’s the best place to start with Course Of Fate. 9/10
Des Rocs - Dream Machine (Sumerian Records) [Rich Piva]
Can you be a band that puts the word “fuzz” in all the descriptions of your style but be so slickly produced it’s like you are listening on a Slip n’ Slide? Or be considered a band that brings the fuzz if you are produced by big time rock producers? Or just because one of the producers is also a member of Queens Of The Stone Age does that qualify you to lead with fuzz in your bio? The answer is no, no it does not allow you to fall into any sort of fuzz category. I am putting my foot down right now, because the new album by Des Rocs, Dream Machine, is anything but fuzzy. When I saw this, I was all in, ready to kick and claw and bite to be the guy to review this. Tell me this doesn’t sound awesome:
“Produced by Alain Johannes (Queens of the Stone Age, Them Crooked Vultures, PJ Harvey), Matt Wallace (Faith No More, Maroon 5) and Des Rocs mastermind Danny Rocco, Dream Machine plays like a bolt of energy coursing through the glory days of rock, metal, and grunge, united within his signature “bedroom arena rock” sound.”
Well don’t get too excited, because you can use buzz words like fuzz, grunge, metal, and arena rock and still ultimately sound like an antiseptic retread Muse cover band. The title track with the cheesy spoken word parts and the single, I Am The Lightning which sounds like a more produced overdone The Black Keys track, and anyone who reads my reviews knows that this is not a compliment. White Gold is a try at a Jack White track which is not quite a swing and a miss but more of a foul ball. Never Ending Moment is the best song on here, but nothing I would want to revisit. Bad Blood is cringy 80s stuff and is not something I enjoyed. In The night was enough to turn this off for the last time.
I am sorry, but there is some false advertising going on here. I did not like Dream Machine at all and Des Rocs is not a purveyor of fuzz in any way. Avoid if you don’t like really over produced stuff that you have heard all before. 3/10
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