Reviews: The Infernal Sea, Almost Dead, Drip Fed Empire, Stone Horns (Reviews By Matt Bladen, Paul Hutchings, James Jackson & GC)

The Infernal Sea - Hellfenlic (Candlelight Records) [Matt Bladen]

The running joke I have with my wife is that the black metal Plague Doctors in The Infernal Sea are her father’s favourite band. This is because they were playing Fuel while her parents were visiting and her dad made his way to the front rocked out and has a picture of himself with the band playing in the background. Now they aren’t into metal that much but loved the visual element, however I actually really like The Infernal Sea and their medieval black metal so I was excited when their fourth album dropped in my inbox. 

Only three years since their last record, the band from East Of England, continue to spread their plague ridden extreme metal, evolving from the often restrictive black metal format with some black n roll/thrash tenacity, folk metal dramatics (the strings on Messenger Of God) and a rawness that has got them comparisons such as Immortal and Wode. Hellfenlic translates from Olde English to “a fen of hell” and concerns the scourge of anyone considered to be a little different in a pious society, The Witchfinder General Matthew Hopkins. Brutal, sadistic and fanatical in his devotion to the Church, he is the ultimate villain for anyone who is anti-religion. 

This album is a concept album that deals with Hopkins’ life, devotion, sadism and ultimately his downfall, filtered through gnarly black metal riffs, blastbeats and scarred vocals from D.L. As Lord Abhorrent shouts at you to “speak now and make peace with your god” the scene is set for a torrid journey through the deeds of a psychopath. Shadow Of The Beast isn’t as evil as you’d think as there’s even some clean vocals in between the blasting from J.B behind the kit. With Witchfinder, The Infernal Sea almost move towards Cathedral’s tribute to Hopkins as C.R’s bass leads the marching groove with J.E’s guitar playing nearer to stoner/doom than black metal, The Bastard Of The East does the same with grimy sludge as Black Witchery takes on some punk trappings ala Darkthrone or Motohead. 

Despite the raw and rough style favoured by The Infernal Sea, there’s an audio diversity on this album that stops it from being just blastbeat, hail Satan, repeat. Hellfenlic captures the horrors of fundamentalism, spewed forth through musical extremity. Whether they are still my father-in-law’s favourite band remains to be seen. 9/10

Almost Dead – Destruction Is All We Know (Innerstrength Records) [Paul Hutchings]

22 years since their formation, the anarchic chaos of Almost Dead’s hardcore / thrash metal continues at relentless pace. The Californians, led by sole original member in vocalist Tony Rolandelli are now on their sixth release, and with new bassist Felix Portillio now on board, they return with Destruction Is All We Know.

It’s a challenging listen in many ways, with the hardcore vocals not my personal cuppa but there’s no doubting the power, energy, and drive of the band. There’s no subtlety in Almost Dead’s delivery. Harsh, jagged thrash riffs are propelled by machine gun drumming and over all of this, the rapping hardcore style singing that comes from deep within. Occasionally a bit of a solo explodes from the melee, and this gives it even more affinity with thrash.

Tracks like opener Warheads In The Sky, the raging Nightmare Coming, and the punishing Brutal Devotion leave little to the imagination. It’s a crossover assault on the aural cavities, and one that works with a combination of well-crafted songs and raw power. It’s certainly well played, with the chunky riffs and gang vocals very much in keeping with the band’s press photos.

If you want some nasty thrash with a vicious crossover edge, then Almost Dead are a band well worth checking out. Over 20 years into their career, there is still plenty of fire in the tank. 7/10

Drip Fed Empire - Revolutionist (Self Released) [James Jackson]

The opening track of any album is similar in nature to that of the blurb on the back of a book, the trailer for the latest upcoming Hollywood blockbuster and as such lets the audience know what they’re about to get themselves into, choosing to make that opening statement sound like a million voices enduring pain, suffering and eternal damnation is a bold move for certain.

After the hellish intro that was Wandering Soul, Give Me More opens with a sample working its way steadily beneath a pulsing drumbeat and crunchy riff, this gives way to the verse, which takes an unexpected step back but it’s the chorus that hits hard and understandably that’s the point, that opening riff is back and used to good effect.

MK4 contains an interlude of which I’m completely oblivious to which genre it may belong to; the important question is - does it work ? And it does, out of the distorted guitar comes a section that would obviously be very much at home at a nightclub or rave, whatever it is, it works and when the guitars are added it only compliments that sound further.

The Work Of God and Digital Drug follow, both further examples of Drip Fed Empire’s ability to blend electronic influences and guitar riffs that are as crushing as they are groove ridden. Systemreset is 3 minutes worth of filler, an ambient, potentially futuristic, post apocalyptic message that does little for the album though it does blend into the penultimate track, Arcane, probably the most metalcore song upon the album.

Last but not least is Invaders, by now the formula is familiar and this track doesn’t veer too far from the template that’s been steadfastly written in the previous songs.

Drip Fed Empire aren’t pulling any punches with their blend of Industrial tinged metalcore, Revolutionist is a sample heavy assault of angsty political rhetoric that aims to follow in the footsteps of Enter Shikari, Rage Against The Machine and Bring Me The Horizon. 6/10

Stone Horns - Chimaira (Rockshots Records) [GC]

First review of the new year comes in the form of Stone Horns and their 3rd album Chimaira described in the pre-release info as ‘’Groove Death Metal’’ but then in the same sentence is also listed as for fans of Machine Head, Slipknot and Jinjer among others, and I don’t know about you but none of these class as any form of death metal to me? I’m not really sure this lot know exactly what type of sound they are aiming for but it’s up to me to find out!

What becomes instantly clear to me on opener Grasping The Embers Of Exile and its gargantuan 7:51 run time is that there is clearly a misunderstanding about what death metal is, because here what we get is a mix of some standard sounding groove metal and the more fashionable updated take on nu-metal that seems to be creeping back into our lives and the vocalist really grasps onto that nu-metal types style and it feels like he’s trying maybe too hard to be different and it doesn’t pay off, it already feels like it may over before if even begins for me and I can feel that this may end up being hard work! 

No Mercy is mercifully shorter but does nothing to convince me there is going to be much I enjoy on this album, because this is as Slipknot sounding as you can be without being called Slipknot but I can’t class this as a compliment because it just feels so blatantly done that I just can’t hear anything else, and it already feels that like Stone Horns are lacking any fresh ideas and are just want to get the album done and released.

Now Terra Genesis does actually have a good riff in it, FINALLY and when its used correctly it gives the song a nice depth which has been missing so far but it quickly somehow manages to dive straight back into the standard ‘’groove metal’’ and when the decent riff does end up getting used again it feels like it’s just been chucked back in and now seems to be overused and gets slightly repetitive, but this does at least show some promise that when they want to they can crack out something worth your time! Then we get Age Of Chimairas which highlights why the vocals are not for me, the rhythms, melodies, and delivery all just seem thrown together and unfocused and they quickly become the only thing I can concentrate on which is a shame because for the most part the actual music behind them sounded ok! 

Then out of nowhere and to be fair to Stone Horns, Chrysalis is actually a decent song and easily the best on here and feels like it could actually be building on something with some nicely done guitar work and it does actually try to be a bit death metal for a bit which is a nice bonus but then towards the end it just sort of drifts away but again it does show something that has been sorely missing so far. I now have to be completely honest and admit that I have really tried my best to listen to both In the Clutches Of The Abyss and Echoes Of Fallen Empire all the way through (I tried twice) but, honestly, I just couldn’t get through both of them to see if I could pick out any more redeeming qualities from either, they both just sounded disappointing and like everything else that was on offer here!

So, I guess it will come as no surprise that I didn’t like this album very much! It all just felt very phoned in and didn’t inspire me in any way. If I were you to try and give any advice to Stone Horns, I would say just put the Slipknot albums away and try more to just be yourselves. If you were to ask me, I would obviously say have a listen and make your own mind up but ultimately for me there is nowhere near enough positive things to say about it barring that a couple of songs were good in places and then a riff in another song was also good but seriously that’s just nowhere near good enough for a band on their 3rd release, to me anyway! 3/10