Reviews: Unverkalt, Dream Unending/Worm, Lynch Mob, Catch Your Breath (Reviews By Mark Young, Rick Eaglestone, Rich Piva & GC)

Unverkalt - A Lump Of Death: A Chaos Of Dead Lovers (Argonauta Records) [Mark Young]

Greek post rock, alternative and doom metal come together to provide a heady and engaging mix with A Lump Of Death: A Chaos Of Dead lovers from Unverkalt.

This is their second full-length release following in the footsteps of L’origine du monde, and it’s 8 tracks of atmospheric metal that places its emphasis on hooks, on melody over crushing riffs. Dimitra Kalavrezou weaves a powerful web, keeping the vocal delivery clean which fits the music behind it. Terrible Secret (Intro) is just that. A spoken piece with sparse soundscapes behind it that wrongfoots you as we go from this into Mass Hysteria.

This is full of melancholic chord stabs with a sound that is expansive, giving room for Dimitra to sing. The synths swell and It feels as though there is the slightest effect on the voice which initially grates but as the song continues its travels this becomes less noticeable. The guitars rise and fall building so well and is a great start. Loathe And Love, has that delicious sequence of guitar that is played off against the voice. 

Its unhurried, building within itself, never losing sight of the need for some of the doomiest guitar work that isn’t downtuned to a low rumble. The movement they employ is just fantastic. This is incredibly catchy despite that doom’ feel, live this will become one huge choir. Even within these two songs, its apparent they have placed a lot of the work with how the songs are phrased. The vocal lines just stay with you long after they finish.

They continue on like this, making the voice the primary weapon of choice of in getting these songs to land. Everything sits together so well with what could be taken as being simple arrangements where everything is supporting the song. Mr. Monster with a continued refrain, Heart Of Darkness with its minimal opening that blows into a rising crescendo that is built so well. In both cases their ability to craft memorable songs is there for all to see. Its just a constant level of quality right the way through.

Le Triomphe de la Mort is nothing short of epic. From the opening slow burn with barely sung words that rise into a chorus, with the music building around it to become whole. A Greater Evil provides the closing act, and they bring a heavier edge to this one without it sounding at odds to the preceding tracks. This has an urgent edge to it without ever upping the tempo. It’s a fitting end to a great album.
As I said earlier there is something in how the vocals have been produced that seems to ease off as we get to the end of the album. The arrangements on each song are intelligent and varied to make sure you listen in one run. 

Any negative points I have is that possibly it could have been more prominent but that would detract from the rest of the song. I’m trying to think of someone who sounds similar to provide an example, the closest I could get is Gwen Stefani, which is probably still wide of the mark. As with anything that is labelled Post rock it is a varied pool in which to drink from and so you should fetch a glass and try it. You might find you like this a lot. 8

Dream Unending/Worm - Starpath (20 Buck Spin) [Rick Eaglestone]

Two colossal forces team up for a new 5 track split Starpath

First up with their two tracks are Dream Undending who come in with So Many Chances at an impressive twelve minutes with is ample time to reacquaint yourself with their blend of doom prog -it’s rich atmospheric and experimental soundscapes are entwined with the most despairing and visceral vocals.

They follow this up with If Not Now When dissolve the post punk elements that existed previously embracing a darker incantation which personally is a welcome move forward. Continuing the virtuosic blackness is Worm who instantly changed the dynamic flooding the split with icy keys and eerie melodies all with a vampiric black metal, Ravenblood is very Principle Of Evil Made Flesh in places so of course this was always going to be my highlight track.

Moving onto Midwinter Tears contains some really sweeping gothic parts which dominate even over the abundance of atmosphere that is deeply embedded. This split has demonstrated the joining of forces but for me Worm’s Sea Of Sorrow reaffirms that the latter trio for me personally has had the strongest pull for me with the gothic darkness really pulling me through a well of emotion and straight up smoked machine led nostalgia.

Cosmic duality delivered effortlessly. 9/10

Lynch Mob - Babylon (Frontiers Music Srl) [Rich Piva]

While I patiently wait to shit all over the new Dokken record that comes out the week after, I, as the guy who has settled into my role of the reviewer of 80s and early 90s hair/mental bands who put on albums in 2023, gets to review the new one from the shredder that came from said band, George Lynch and his (still) unfortunately named band Lynch Mob, who somehow are on on album number eight. 

I remember very definitively listening to their debut, Wicked Sensation while sunning my mid-teens self on Jones Beach, and at the time I loved it, even more than I loved the Don Dokken solo album that came out around the same time. Now, once again, these guys have albums coming out within weeks of each other, and I am pretty sure not as many people care. But some do, including your reviewer, so let’s look and listen to what Lynch and his latest cast of revolving musicians bring us with Babylon.

Well, this definitely has the Frontiers vibe to it for better or worse. Of course, Lynch rips it up, but the production is a bit to slick for my liking and I don’t love the new vocalist’s voice for the band. Musically the Mob isn’t veering too far off their normal formula, but the solo on the opener, Erase, is classic Lynch. Song wise these are basic straight ahead hard rock, nothing bad but nothing all that memorable either. I hear bands like Buckcherry coming through with the new vocalist. I dig the track Caught Up and Time After Time is a catchy and fun straight ahead rock tune. 

I thought we were getting a cover of Panama with the opening riff of I’m Ready but not so much as this is a less memorable generic straight-ahead rock tune. How You Fall is the heaviest track on Babylon and is one of the better ones but leads into one of the softest ones, Million Miles Away, which doesn’t really work for me, mostly due to the vocals, which I know I am harping on, but I am really struggling with the voice. I think the closing title track is another winner on here, which would be a strong addition if there was a Lynch Mob hits album.

This was fine for another Lynch Mob album. Fans of Geroge will dig it as he is in top form as usual, but the songs are pedestrian and the vocals bring this one down, but it is a respectful effort in 2023 given all the factors at play for having a new Lynch Mob album today. I can say one thing definitively: Babylon will be better than whatever garbage his old bandmate throws out there next week. 5/10

Catch Your Breath - Shame On Me (Thriller Records) [GC]

Catch Your Breath are from Texas, and they claim that they ‘’inject a unique mix of synth sound scaping elements, imaginative production, and refined songwriting for an intense amount of emotion’’ Fancy! I can see there have been a couple of EP’s and a handful of singles and l this is their debut album?

Opener No Evil is full of off-kilter guitar work and squealing pitch harmonics and sprinkled with some decent enough beatdowns, but it does sound all a little bit to computerized and clean, there is obviously nothing wrong with nice production but this just sounds like everything else in this genre at the minute, this trend carries on into Dying On The Inside but here they go for a more vocal lead approach and the verse relies on the loud/quiet dynamic and once again while its decent enough it just doesn’t stand out from the crowd and there are so many bands doing this electronic/melodic hardcore style of music at the minute you need something to make you stick out. 

Dial Tone does nothing to really make the situation better and if I hadn’t seen the last song had finished I would just think this was still it, from the opening jolt the last 2 songs have instantly killed any momentum that might have been built, Cycles then does pick up the pace a bit and throws some nice crunchy riffs around and finally shows a bit of fight but as usual the clean vocals kick in and slow everything down but when they get back to the heavy parts it makes for a decent listen, Deadly continues to stick with the slowed down more thoughtful approach and honestly its just boring, I have now noticed there are 13 songs on this album which already seems like way to many! 

5 in and not much to write home about, 8 more to go, sigh. Y.S.K.W doesn’t offer much hope thigs are going to pick up anytime soon and again is just boring and predictable and following this with My Confessions doesn’t help either, its like they have just decided to stop playing music and just use electronics and its just so mind numbingly tedious at this point, then we get Savages and they have picked the instruments up again but what has been created is now just some radio friendly rock with an bit of an edge to it but the problem is the edge is blunt and its just dull and uninspiring. Mirror does fare slightly better and has a nice vocal to it but then they drop in a fucking rap verse out of nowhere and it sounds fucking horrendous and completely ruins the song! Whoever thought that was a good idea needs a slap!! 

Don’t Go is easily the best song on the album as it FINALLY shows something and opens with a scathing and jagged riff assault and even when the cleans come in the verse it still mixes in with heavy outbursts and finally there is something positive to write about! It is then instantly cancelled out by Cold Light which is another ambient and electronic piece of depression in music form. When it does liven up it does so for about 10 seconds then its back to the woe is me shit and its time to skip this track. The last 2 tracks 21 Gun Salute and Shame On Me sound identical and really don’t close the album on a good note for me, both are pretty much the same as the main body of this album, dull, uninspiring, and frankly boring.

Having heard nothing about them before this album I really wish it had stayed that way and I hadn’t bothered, barring couple of decent tracks there was nothing here that would make me want to recommend this album or follow Catch Your Breath in the future. If you want safe, easy and unchallenging radio friendly hard rock, this is 100% for you, if however, you want something that will make you sit up, pay attention and get excited about what your hearing this is not it! 4/10