Nottingham. Robin Hood. Brian Clough and now Beyond Grace who should now be top of your list of bands to listen to. They present this, EP 1 in a three-part series that will be collected as a physical album – Welcome To The New Dark Ages. With a recorded output that started in 2016, signing with Prosthetic Records back in 2021. Of the EP itself, three are original compositions and the 4th is a Peter Gabriel cover.
The Burning Season, all jangling lines and spidery riffs. It’s one of the most brutal vocals ever committed, it’s up in the mix and in your face. It switches into a clean, almost church like delivery and hits hard with the guitars behind it. The band feature Tim Yearsley as guitar/vocals, Andy Walmsley on vocals, who also plays live bass, but Charlie Rogers of Deliberate Miscarriage and this very publication played bass here. The sound is vital and has that heavy but clear quality to it.
As openers go, it’s a belter and Buyers Remorse comes flying in, all blast beats and an arrangement that has guitars coming at you from all angles. The drumming is super tight, and synched to the hilt, absolutely royal (take a bow Ed Gorrod). They don’t rely on the death vocals and switch in the cleans once more, but the delivery is like a warning of impending doom.
Misinfodemic is a stormer. Condensing a furious metal attack into three minutes 50 and is one of the best things you will hear this year. They take extreme metal and mould it into what they want it to be, and just ticks all the boxes you would ever want. This has to cause utter carnage live. Excellent stuff, just excellent.
Now, Peter Gabriel. I know him from Sledgehammer, the video and song that was everywhere in the mid-80s. I know he was in Genesis and that is the sum total of my knowledge. With that in mind, their cover of Here Comes The Flood Is fine, they give it a death metal makeover that comes in after a low-key start. It has solo’s, double bass but given the quality of their own songs I would have liked to have had another one of theirs.
Overall, it’s just royal. I mean it’s just really, really good. They have got to be one of the bands that gets on people’s radar and soon, the quality of their tracks here are amongst some of the best I’ve heard this year and I’m looking forward to the second release. 8/10
Secret Rule - Uninverse (Lucky Bob Records/SPV) [Matt Bladen]
Formed in 2014 by lead vocalist Angela Di Vincenzo and guitarist/producer Andy Menario, Secret Rule have been wielding the same kind of magic that fellow Italians Lacuna Coil have been conjuring since the late 90's. Fusing hevy riffs with big choruses, Secret Rule are now on their ninth studio release, which is a feat in itself but with Uninverse it's business as usual for the band.
Now, Peter Gabriel. I know him from Sledgehammer, the video and song that was everywhere in the mid-80s. I know he was in Genesis and that is the sum total of my knowledge. With that in mind, their cover of Here Comes The Flood Is fine, they give it a death metal makeover that comes in after a low-key start. It has solo’s, double bass but given the quality of their own songs I would have liked to have had another one of theirs.
Overall, it’s just royal. I mean it’s just really, really good. They have got to be one of the bands that gets on people’s radar and soon, the quality of their tracks here are amongst some of the best I’ve heard this year and I’m looking forward to the second release. 8/10
Secret Rule - Uninverse (Lucky Bob Records/SPV) [Matt Bladen]
Formed in 2014 by lead vocalist Angela Di Vincenzo and guitarist/producer Andy Menario, Secret Rule have been wielding the same kind of magic that fellow Italians Lacuna Coil have been conjuring since the late 90's. Fusing hevy riffs with big choruses, Secret Rule are now on their ninth studio release, which is a feat in itself but with Uninverse it's business as usual for the band.
The guitars/keys/electronics of Andy Menario make up the majority of the Secret Rule soundscapes, Angela Di Vincenzo's impressive voice soaring over the top. Nick Pedron (bass) and Sebastiano Dolzani (drums) adding chunky grooves with a modern metal sheen. Nick is a new member of the band and adds and extra energy to the music, giving the opening song a bit of a Depeche Mode vocal along with his heavy bass work, repeated on the swaggering Time Zero.
The Secret Rule sound is heavily orchestrated, using layers of strings and cinematics on top of the chuggy riffs. Tracks such as Shards Of Time are the louder heavier style, while IAm is from the dramatic Within Temptation style of electronic rock. The title track is a huge ballad where the vocals really are at their best.
Uninverse continues the path Secret Rule have been treading on their previous eight releases, adding a new wrinkle with their bass players additional voice. 7/10
Temple Of Scorn – Funeral Altar Epiphanies (Transcending Obscurity) [Paul Hutchings]
This is the debut album from Danish Death Metaller Temple Of Scorn. A band I know little about, it provides a combination of the old school style with crushing slabs of slower, downtuned semi-doom.
Temple Of Scorn – Funeral Altar Epiphanies (Transcending Obscurity) [Paul Hutchings]
This is the debut album from Danish Death Metaller Temple Of Scorn. A band I know little about, it provides a combination of the old school style with crushing slabs of slower, downtuned semi-doom.
Most notable amongst the band’s line-up is Flemming Lund, member of The Arcane Order and Volbeat live guitarist. Baest guitarist Svend Karlsson, a veteran at 29 it seems, is also here. It’s an experienced line-up, drawing the musicians from other bands including Horned Almighty.
It’s a heady brew of intoxicating riffs, spiralling compositions which leave no room for compromise. The sledgehammer assault of twin guitars and horrifically growled vocals works well on songs such as Begotten By The Envenomed and the bruising Portals To Dystopia.
It’s a heady brew of intoxicating riffs, spiralling compositions which leave no room for compromise. The sledgehammer assault of twin guitars and horrifically growled vocals works well on songs such as Begotten By The Envenomed and the bruising Portals To Dystopia.
Temple Of Scorn can slow it down, as the harrowing title track shows. Despite the high intensity blast beats and walls of riffs, the song has a crushingly slow vibe, punishingly heavy as it crawls to its finale.
There’s not much else to say. It’s a solid, bruising death metal record which will no doubt appeal to those whose musical tastes sit in this genre. It’s well produced, well performed, and overall, a decent listen if you like this approach. 7/10
Convocation - No Dawn For The Caliginous Night (Everlasting Spew Records) [James Jackson]
Convocation are a Death/Doom metal duo from Helsinki Finland; starting as a more traditional death metal project the sound has far more in common with doom metal, the usage of keys and synths lending the raw guitar and growled vocals a wider sound, enhancing it with deeper, more melodic tones.
Opening this album is Graveless Yet Dead, a gargantuan song weighing in at a little over nine minutes long, a church organ leading the charge over guttural vocals and funereal guitar riff, a violin joined by an angelic choir steals the show and I am in my comfort zone, its dark and melancholic, this is a great start.
Atychiphobia is the fear of failure, I don’t know which sounds more poetic, whilst I’ve not got a lyric sheet in front of me and those gutteral vocals, which honestly I’ve a love/hate relationship with, aren’t giving much away that sense of (fear of) failure is easily conjured within the melodies, which feel full of despair.
One of the things I’ve loved about the Doom genre since first discovering My Dying Bride’s Turn Loose The Swans in the early 90’s is the emotional roller coaster (I know how cliche that sounds) that the tracks can take you on, there’s something about the melodies and how they play with and against the background of slow yet heavy guitar riffs and pounding drums; often those melodic notes are played through keys or violin, adding an interesting layer to the song.
There’s not much else to say. It’s a solid, bruising death metal record which will no doubt appeal to those whose musical tastes sit in this genre. It’s well produced, well performed, and overall, a decent listen if you like this approach. 7/10
Convocation - No Dawn For The Caliginous Night (Everlasting Spew Records) [James Jackson]
Convocation are a Death/Doom metal duo from Helsinki Finland; starting as a more traditional death metal project the sound has far more in common with doom metal, the usage of keys and synths lending the raw guitar and growled vocals a wider sound, enhancing it with deeper, more melodic tones.
Opening this album is Graveless Yet Dead, a gargantuan song weighing in at a little over nine minutes long, a church organ leading the charge over guttural vocals and funereal guitar riff, a violin joined by an angelic choir steals the show and I am in my comfort zone, its dark and melancholic, this is a great start.
Atychiphobia is the fear of failure, I don’t know which sounds more poetic, whilst I’ve not got a lyric sheet in front of me and those gutteral vocals, which honestly I’ve a love/hate relationship with, aren’t giving much away that sense of (fear of) failure is easily conjured within the melodies, which feel full of despair.
One of the things I’ve loved about the Doom genre since first discovering My Dying Bride’s Turn Loose The Swans in the early 90’s is the emotional roller coaster (I know how cliche that sounds) that the tracks can take you on, there’s something about the melodies and how they play with and against the background of slow yet heavy guitar riffs and pounding drums; often those melodic notes are played through keys or violin, adding an interesting layer to the song.
Between Aether And Land is an instrumental piece and at six minutes long, the shortest track upon the album. Lepers And Derelicts opens with an eerie synth led sound and it’s an epic track at eleven minutes long, though in true doom fashion, that eerie intro lasted for at least two minutes, it’s another dirge full of stripped down bridges that allow a moment’s respite from the bleak landscape they’re painting.
Procession rounds off the album and it’s as if Convocation set themselves the challenge of making each song, that instrumental piece aside, longer and more dreary than the last. My only criticism for this is a lack of clean male vocals, to just add some contrast to the gutteral vocals used throughout but that’s it, that’s my only issue with this one, it pretty much plays out like you’d expect with an album title that summons images of dark and endless night and it’s an impressive performance.
Convocation have another two albums/EP’s and I am keen to hear more, for you can never have too much of a doom inspired thing. 8/10
Procession rounds off the album and it’s as if Convocation set themselves the challenge of making each song, that instrumental piece aside, longer and more dreary than the last. My only criticism for this is a lack of clean male vocals, to just add some contrast to the gutteral vocals used throughout but that’s it, that’s my only issue with this one, it pretty much plays out like you’d expect with an album title that summons images of dark and endless night and it’s an impressive performance.
Convocation have another two albums/EP’s and I am keen to hear more, for you can never have too much of a doom inspired thing. 8/10
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