Happiness is not something that you would really associate with French blackgaze band but Les Chants De L'Aurore (The Songs Of Dawn) begins a new dawn for main songwriter Neige. This is a bright album, still keeping the primal power of their black metal blasts/screams but with an all round lighter, more upbeat tone, it's Alcest's summer album.
I'd never thought I'd could listen to an album from this band in blazing sunshine with a Pina Colada but if you wanted to choose to do that it would be Les Chants De L'Aurore. Neige adds new wrinkles to his vocals, using more clean voices here in addition to the frigid black metal screams. His guitars/bass/synths are the cacophony of noise on this seventh studio album as the drum assault of Winterhalter is varied and interesting.
The theme of the album is renewal and rebirth, strongly suggesting that the band who have always been outsiders in the metal world (maybe not at Arctangent or Damnation) move more towards the lighter side of their experimentation more to the euphoric post rock of bands such as Mono, Mogwai or Sleepmakeswaves on Komorebi and Améthyste. But there's also the some cathartic moments of bands such as Anathema on L'Envol or Flamme Jumelle or the title track.
With the 15th anniversary of Écailles De Lune coming up next year, Les Chants De L'Aurore is more like their ten year old release Shelter, a stylistic shift towards the incandescent from a band who have never tried to be anything than themselves. Another stunning journey into the world of Alcest. 9/10
Replacire – The Center That Cannot Hold (Season Of Mist) [Zak Skane]
Replacire began as a solo project that Alper formed in from a kickstarter project in 2012 along with three other friends Zak Baskin, Kee Poh Hock and Joey Feretti that he met in Berklee and James Dorton following after for vocal duties. Since then the band have paved a reputation of being the must see up and coming progressive death metal act especially, when it comes to touring with bands such as Hate Eternal and Beyond Creation, gaining the praise from established media outlets like Metal Injection. With two full lengths under their belt The Human Burden and Do Not Deviate, the five piece tech metal outfit are releasing their third output The Center That Cannot Hold.
Through out this 11 track album the band do not hold back from placing all their eggs in one basket, for example one of the main elements that you can hear in this album is Djenty Meshuggah influences especially on the opening track Bloody-Tongued and Screaming where the riffs stagger and stomp in a violent manner as well being followed and accompanied by black metal dissonant chords as well some Animals As Leaders clean sections that brings that classic Tosin Abasy styled thump played riffs. Later in the album these djenty riffs are pushed more front and centre on the track The Helix Unravels with it opening with the classic ba-ba-baba styled rhythms met with some machine gun sextuplet kick patterns that could tear the skin off the bone in seconds if applied at military styled volumes.
Wise Blood Records is on a role with their heavy yet catchy releases, first with Castle Rat and now, even more, with Vexing Hex. This record will be in your head for a while, so do not try to resist the temptations of Solve Et Coagula. 8/10
Foreign Hands - What’s Left Unsaid (Sharptone Records) [James Jackson]
A collection of singles and EP’s precede this debut full length album from American metalcore act Foreign Hands and it starts off kicking and screaming with Resetting The Senses, a track that shows all that the band has to offer within its three and a half minute duration; the chugging riffs are on point for the genre, almost melodic one moment and mosh pit inducing the next.
The staple tradition of clean vocals picking up the choruses is evident throughout the album, whilst the rest is the same style that personally I find rather irksome, it’s just shouting, with little effort or emotion. And whilst the general musicianship within each of the songs isn’t particularly original, the composition is enough to get your teeth into and head nodding and no matter how melodic some of the elements are, how contrasting they are against some of the more traditional metalcore riffs, the grating vocals are far too intrusive for me to let them go and just appreciate the music beneath them.
I’ve entertained a vocal style I’ve disliked for the sake of the music before but in that case the actual music had far more to offer than this had and therefore felt more like something I could enjoy rather than endure; What’s Left Unsaid isn’t going to be such an album however.
Musically it’s a good album, let down by the vocals for me. 5/10
I'd never thought I'd could listen to an album from this band in blazing sunshine with a Pina Colada but if you wanted to choose to do that it would be Les Chants De L'Aurore. Neige adds new wrinkles to his vocals, using more clean voices here in addition to the frigid black metal screams. His guitars/bass/synths are the cacophony of noise on this seventh studio album as the drum assault of Winterhalter is varied and interesting.
The theme of the album is renewal and rebirth, strongly suggesting that the band who have always been outsiders in the metal world (maybe not at Arctangent or Damnation) move more towards the lighter side of their experimentation more to the euphoric post rock of bands such as Mono, Mogwai or Sleepmakeswaves on Komorebi and Améthyste. But there's also the some cathartic moments of bands such as Anathema on L'Envol or Flamme Jumelle or the title track.
With the 15th anniversary of Écailles De Lune coming up next year, Les Chants De L'Aurore is more like their ten year old release Shelter, a stylistic shift towards the incandescent from a band who have never tried to be anything than themselves. Another stunning journey into the world of Alcest. 9/10
Replacire – The Center That Cannot Hold (Season Of Mist) [Zak Skane]
Replacire began as a solo project that Alper formed in from a kickstarter project in 2012 along with three other friends Zak Baskin, Kee Poh Hock and Joey Feretti that he met in Berklee and James Dorton following after for vocal duties. Since then the band have paved a reputation of being the must see up and coming progressive death metal act especially, when it comes to touring with bands such as Hate Eternal and Beyond Creation, gaining the praise from established media outlets like Metal Injection. With two full lengths under their belt The Human Burden and Do Not Deviate, the five piece tech metal outfit are releasing their third output The Center That Cannot Hold.
Through out this 11 track album the band do not hold back from placing all their eggs in one basket, for example one of the main elements that you can hear in this album is Djenty Meshuggah influences especially on the opening track Bloody-Tongued and Screaming where the riffs stagger and stomp in a violent manner as well being followed and accompanied by black metal dissonant chords as well some Animals As Leaders clean sections that brings that classic Tosin Abasy styled thump played riffs. Later in the album these djenty riffs are pushed more front and centre on the track The Helix Unravels with it opening with the classic ba-ba-baba styled rhythms met with some machine gun sextuplet kick patterns that could tear the skin off the bone in seconds if applied at military styled volumes.
In the song as well we also get the violent screeches of the Digitech Whammy being put into good use as it provides these hyper energised Mathcore influences that sound like a aggressive modern re-vamped Dillinger Escape Plan. Following this you get to hear these mathcore influences on songs like their title track The Center That Cannot Hold which brings these Miss Machine era styled accented grooves that involve these intellectually placed chugs along with franticly hammer and pulled off chromatic melodies over jungle styled drum beats. In the track the vocalist James Dorton also harnesses his mathcore influences by channelling his inner Greg Puciato firing his vocals off with this punk hardcore intensity with these furious mid ranges.
Transfixed On The Work also has these mathcore styled accented blasts and guitar riffs in the mix, but Tranfixed also brings in a great mix of everything deathcore. With it’s Death and Job For A Cowboy influences that are matched up along with Whitechapel brutality with its locked in tremolo picked guitar riffs that are eternally bound to the double kick drum patterns followed by virtuosic dissonant chords place to add variety and dynamic breaks into the brutal mix. The arrangements bring in these more proggy elements that were more prominent in more modern JFAC releases. In relation to this, even the vocals bring in some Jonny Davy styled flemmed up fried vocals that match this frenzied delivery.
Following the JFAC influences can also be found on the track A Fine Manipulation that reminds me of their track Ruination with it’s mid tempo speeds and it’s sludgy, eerie chord voicings which then leads us into some classic Deathcore breakdowns. The Ghost in the Mirror continues these vibes by pushing the bass a bit further in the mix so each riffs has this added low mid bite to them and later it allows the bass to cut through the mix when it comes to the bass solo. Living Hell provides some old school Death influences with odd meter Chuck Schuldiner style riffs that come at are followed with some of the most disgusting beatdowns that can easily compete with the best in the game.
Along with the brutal elements James Dorton can also deliver some of beautifully sung clean vocals that sound quite familiar to Opeth's Mikael Åkerfeldt, especially on how the vocal passages follow the dynamics as vocals go from delicate melodies in the quitter sections to heavy harsh vocals in the loader heavy sections. The closing track Uncontrolled and Unfulfilled on the album also delves more into the progressive arrangements talking a lot nodding to Opeth's sound by in incorporating jazzy chords and lead lines whilst hypnotising verses followed with chaotic tremolo picked riffs to close this album to a grandiose finale.
Replacire's The Center That Cannot Hold is a multi tool blade that combines the caveman brutality of bands like Slaughter To Prevail and Spite whilst capturing the intellectually beautiful progressive melodies of bands like Opeth. From the murderous assault of Inglorious Impunity to the intricate technical masterpiece of a closer Uncontrolled and Unfulfilled, this album will give you all the heavy you need. For fans of Death, A Job For A Cowboy, The Dillinger Escape Plan and Opeth. 8/10
Vexing Hex - Solve Et Coagula (Wise Blood Records) [Rich Piva]
Vexing Hex’s lead singer is named Cadaverus, Lord Of Dread, so right off the bat you have scored some points when you are a band that has such tags as “horror” and “occult” in their profile. When you partner that with some of the catchiest and fun heavy rock out there, you are going to have a winner, which is exactly what Vexing Hex has with their second LP, Solve Et Coagula. There are elements of 80s rock, grunge, doom, and some obvious love of grandiose horror imagery, ala Ghost. Ghost is an easy but lazy comparison. Vexing Hex is their own beast, and is way more all over the place than Tobias and his band of ghouls, in all the bet ways.
No matter what direction the nine tracks go on Solve Et Coagula, they are all super catchy ear worms, case in point being the opener, Into The Night, which is more of a pop song with some oohs thrown in to hammer home the point. I love how organ is used on the album and the vocals are the driving force in these tracks sticking with you. The dual guitar solo screams 80s metal in the best ways. Can you sound like Death Angel but still be poppy? The answer is yes, just listen to Besmirched, but also add some cinematic elements to it and what you have is another killer track.
Along with the brutal elements James Dorton can also deliver some of beautifully sung clean vocals that sound quite familiar to Opeth's Mikael Åkerfeldt, especially on how the vocal passages follow the dynamics as vocals go from delicate melodies in the quitter sections to heavy harsh vocals in the loader heavy sections. The closing track Uncontrolled and Unfulfilled on the album also delves more into the progressive arrangements talking a lot nodding to Opeth's sound by in incorporating jazzy chords and lead lines whilst hypnotising verses followed with chaotic tremolo picked riffs to close this album to a grandiose finale.
Replacire's The Center That Cannot Hold is a multi tool blade that combines the caveman brutality of bands like Slaughter To Prevail and Spite whilst capturing the intellectually beautiful progressive melodies of bands like Opeth. From the murderous assault of Inglorious Impunity to the intricate technical masterpiece of a closer Uncontrolled and Unfulfilled, this album will give you all the heavy you need. For fans of Death, A Job For A Cowboy, The Dillinger Escape Plan and Opeth. 8/10
Vexing Hex - Solve Et Coagula (Wise Blood Records) [Rich Piva]
Vexing Hex’s lead singer is named Cadaverus, Lord Of Dread, so right off the bat you have scored some points when you are a band that has such tags as “horror” and “occult” in their profile. When you partner that with some of the catchiest and fun heavy rock out there, you are going to have a winner, which is exactly what Vexing Hex has with their second LP, Solve Et Coagula. There are elements of 80s rock, grunge, doom, and some obvious love of grandiose horror imagery, ala Ghost. Ghost is an easy but lazy comparison. Vexing Hex is their own beast, and is way more all over the place than Tobias and his band of ghouls, in all the bet ways.
No matter what direction the nine tracks go on Solve Et Coagula, they are all super catchy ear worms, case in point being the opener, Into The Night, which is more of a pop song with some oohs thrown in to hammer home the point. I love how organ is used on the album and the vocals are the driving force in these tracks sticking with you. The dual guitar solo screams 80s metal in the best ways. Can you sound like Death Angel but still be poppy? The answer is yes, just listen to Besmirched, but also add some cinematic elements to it and what you have is another killer track.
How about The Ramones meets Devo meets Ghost meets Gary Numan, like we get on One Thousand Eyes? The opening of VViccaphobia could be the opening of a Slayer track and settles firmly into a proto doom kind of groove, but if done by Alice In Chains, and kicks all sorts of ass. The spooky instrumental title track is used like the same on the Ghost debut record, as a bridge to the just as spooky Mind Funeral, which is more catchy ear candy of those who like to wear and paint their walls black.
Straight up 80s stadium heavy rock is what you get with Poison Apple, with the spooky (there it is again) organ in all its glory, like the band was listening to Type O right before they recorded it. The heaviest riff comes from Sarcophagus, but that riff is partnered with harmonized vocals and a grungy undertone giving us another strong track amongst an album full of them. Revivified closes us out with the perfect microcosm of the whole record. Catchy, a little bit poppy, nice, heavy riffs, harmonized vocals, and the organ that will have the metalheads and goths dancing together as one.
Wise Blood Records is on a role with their heavy yet catchy releases, first with Castle Rat and now, even more, with Vexing Hex. This record will be in your head for a while, so do not try to resist the temptations of Solve Et Coagula. 8/10
Foreign Hands - What’s Left Unsaid (Sharptone Records) [James Jackson]
A collection of singles and EP’s precede this debut full length album from American metalcore act Foreign Hands and it starts off kicking and screaming with Resetting The Senses, a track that shows all that the band has to offer within its three and a half minute duration; the chugging riffs are on point for the genre, almost melodic one moment and mosh pit inducing the next.
The staple tradition of clean vocals picking up the choruses is evident throughout the album, whilst the rest is the same style that personally I find rather irksome, it’s just shouting, with little effort or emotion. And whilst the general musicianship within each of the songs isn’t particularly original, the composition is enough to get your teeth into and head nodding and no matter how melodic some of the elements are, how contrasting they are against some of the more traditional metalcore riffs, the grating vocals are far too intrusive for me to let them go and just appreciate the music beneath them.
I’ve entertained a vocal style I’ve disliked for the sake of the music before but in that case the actual music had far more to offer than this had and therefore felt more like something I could enjoy rather than endure; What’s Left Unsaid isn’t going to be such an album however.
Musically it’s a good album, let down by the vocals for me. 5/10
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