Reviews: Downfall Of Mankind, The Ghost Next Door, Battlesnake, Sibiir (Reviews By Zak Skane, Rich Piva, Paul Hutchings & GC)

Downfall Of Mankind – Purgatory (Seek & Strike) [Zak Skane]

Formed in Portugal in 2019, the symphonic deathcore band Downfall Of Mankind combines snuff movie levels of brutal bludgeoning beat downs of modern death metal along with razor sharp technical riffage whilst cinematic layers of orchestral instruments like violins, harps and pianos fill the sonic spectrum. To date the band has released two albums The Path Of Human Existence and Vile Birth before Purgatory.

Following the albums intro track which features intensifying roaring brass instrumentation before the blast beats courtesy of drummer Pedro Peralta ramp up the energy even more before Lucas Bishop whips out the first roar on the album along with Arthur Baptista, Diogo Gates and Sérgio Pascoa bringing in some Slipknot infused modern djent rhythmed riffage. 

The first track Purgatory brings in modern djent chugging patterns welded with half time grooves layered with strings and pulsing choirs before the tempo modulates faster in the pre-choruses to match the mathcore styled riffs. The first chorus on the album features Trivium frontman Matthew Heafy to provide some power metal styled choruses that are traded off with Lucases harsh vocal responses over a bed of half time grooves and blast beats.

Following this God Of Nothingness takes us into Lorna Shore territory from it’s the fast break neck blast beats and technical riffs where the notes are just flying off the page until they descend into face pounding beatdowns which are accompanied by brass instruments and violins. In this track we also get to hear Lucas doing some Will Ramos man bear pig sound vocals as well. Ware Of Hell brings us back into symphonic territory with its classic Deathcore rhythmical breakdowns produced by the tried and tested percussive open power chords whilst neoclassical leads are played below it. In the song we also get to hear the clean operatic sung choruses whilst also including other genres thrown in the mix such as it’s electronic trap drum breaks are provided us with breathing space before the final waves of breakdown finalise the track. 

Self Loathing takes the technicality level up to 100 from it’s Flight Of The Bumblebee paced fret runs before it leads into drum room breaks that bring us into tricky rhymed breakdowns and soaring darked choruses. To close the mid point of the album Down The Barrel Of Madness give us filthy slow modern Whitechapel riffs. Down The Barrel Of Madness also comes in as one of the dynamic songs on the album with it’s haunting cleaning sections that feature jazz and Spanish crossed guitar licks whilst melancholic string accompanies them, while it also brings the most intense and underrated breakdowns this year with the way the tensions build up like a classic horror movie score before it catapults us into the stratosphere with it’s factory machine tight grooves. 

To open the second part of the album As Much As Your Sorrow brings in mainstream metal styled song structures with it’s classic harsh vocal verses into clean sung catchy choruses. Other highlights on this album are Blinding Rage, which sounds like a darker modern sounding Trivium due to having the crossover of deathcore meeting symphonic power metal instead of Trivium's more metalcore approach. The Crease brings in modern Gojira influences from it’s scrap harmonics and modulating rhythms before the songs fades into haunting clean guitars which lead in to the bands ballad Consumed By Strife which bring in Fit For An Autopsy style atmospherics of echo filled guitars and dynamically played drums before it builds up to classic metalcore choruses. 

The closing track on the album Rumbling continues the melodic delivery to a point which is sees the band take a more power metal turn with the clean vocals becoming more powerful melodic and on occasions quite operatic especially in the open phrases in the song. The song is built on a more mainstream metal approach especially with song being more chorus focused. The song adds a few versatile moments such as the brief Spanish styled sections before it goes into a classic deathcore beatdown and brief piano led chorus.

Through this 11 track album Downfall Of Mankind have proved that they are more than just your average deathcore band, the band can be just as melodic and as they are heavy. The production on this album has really given the band justice by capturing their brutally rough edges to the melancholically smooth touches. The band has left multiple paths on where they want to take their sound for future releases but for now we are graced with this multi-layered offering. 8/10.

The Ghost Next Door - Classic Songs About Death and Dismemberment (Ripple Music) [Rich P]

Ripple Music is great at release bands that are not your typical fill in the genre here band. The Ghost Next Door is a perfect example. The last record for Ripple, A Feast For The Sixth Sense from way back in 2019, was not quite doom, not quite prog, but what it was and still is would be excellent.

There we definitely heavy elements of both and if I were forced to pick a side, I would go with more doom than anything else, but again let’s not put the San Francisco band in any box, especially given how their second album for Ripple, and third overall, Classic Songs About Death And Dismemberment sounds. You still get elements of the doom and the prog, but I also hear some serious post hardcore vibes as well, but no matter what, once again, what I am hearing is excellent no matter what label you give it.

I think the guitar tone and the vocals is what makes me say post hardcore, especially right off the bat where I hear elements of Hum and vocally Into Another (there could not be a better combo for this reviewer). Sure, we still get elements of the doom and the prog, but now I would lean more towards prog. TGNS sound more like Vitskär Süden than they do Goat Lord, using two labelmates for comparison but I cannot escape the serious post hardcore leanings I am getting. I am not just getting Into Another vocally, epically with a track like It Takes A Village. 

How about some harmonized vocals for you? That was a nice touch that we did not get from previous output. Overall, I would say there is more singing on album three than ever before. Not that the band was ever full-on cookie monster, but more effort to sing rather that scream seems to be happening here, and it sounds excellent. I love the catchy little middle part in this one too. Diatribe continues the trend and rocks in a way that listeners may not expect from a Ripple band and I keep coming back to the “post” word. I love the tempo change during the chorus that continues to scream Revelation Records. 

Proggy doom rules the day still on some of the tracks on Classic Songs About Death And Dismemberment, Nothing Than Nothing Again being a perfect example, especially with the nice heavy riff. The tracks that really stand out to me however are the ones that continue to push me towards that Hum/Into Another universe, like The Hit That Hits Back, which if you played for me without knowing who it was, I would blab out Into Another before thinking about it to deeply. This track absolutely rules and will be on my year end playlist for sure. 

Same for Static, which sounds more Midwest 90s early emo or something like Shudder To Think during the Dischord years than anything else (another compliment). If there was a band I would compare The Ghost Next Door to currently on the Ripple roster I would say Obsidian Sea, but even that is a stretch because TGND is not as dark as them, but a track like I Am The Monster is where I hear this comparison the most. My only complaint about Classic Songs About Death And Dismemberment is that it is a bit long, coming it at over an hour, but tracks on the back end of the record are still very strong, especially the closer, the epic track Wax And Wane.

The Ghost Next Door have taken a step forward in their maturation as a band with Classic Songs About Death And Dismemberment. These songs show more finesse and the song writing has become more intricate and deeper, not that it wasn’t before, but this is some next level stuff. As I love post hardcore, all things Revelation and Dischord Records, and bands like Hum and Into Another, this is right in my wheelhouse, especially given I still get some of the doomy prog I expect from the band. Another great Ripple release and an excellent addition to The Ghost Next Door discography. 8/10

Battlesnake – The Rise And Demise Of The Motorsteeple (Self Released) [Paul Hutchings]

I’d heard the name but knew nothing about this lot until my mate did one of his deep dives into a complete unknown and mentioned that they were playing locally recently. Their promo pic shows seven dudes, dressed in fantastic garb, robed and horned, and with a keytar prominent. According to the Metal Archives they’ve been releasing music since 2019, including their self-titled debut in 2023. 

Hot on the heels comes The Rise And Demise Of The Motorsteeple, and one that fits in with a lot of the lunacy that has emanated from down under – think King Gizzard and the Wizard Lizard as just one other example and you wonder if the distance and isolation is causing some kind of musical fusion of sorts.

 
Anyway, it’s a crazy album, from start to finish. Vibrant, upbeat, with elements of about a million genres that begins with the creak of machinery before the one-minute opener A Blessing Of Fire And Speed provides a dramatic introduction. One gets the feeling this band don’t do anything small scale. They rip into the Seventies riff of Motorsteeple, a real old school chug that sees Sam Frank’s vocals command the scene. Three guitars give it heft and you are soon nodding along, whether you like it or not.

At 31 minutes in length, it’s not a long album, but the seven main songs are all addictive. The longest song is Road Warrior, which takes an age to start, but when the revs from the bikes segue into Nick Zammit’s drum fills and the familiar riff kicks in, you can’t stop the groove. It’s infectious, even if there is a hint of good ol’ Jebus worship hidden in some of the songs (I may be wrong here of course – it’s happened before).

The interesting thing here is that whilst Battlesnake don’t do anything new, they bring a zany new approach to a standard approach, and it works on every level. The lyrics aren’t mind-blowing, the overall song structures are routine, yet it works fabulously, in part thanks to Frank’s delivery. By the time you’ve whizzed through I Speak Tongues and grooved along to the final song, the excellently titled Pterodactyl Firehawk, you’ll be wanting another hit and pressing play again. It’s simply brilliant and awful … and that makes it a winner. 8/10

Sibiir - Undergang (Fysisk Format Records) [GC]

Before I start, I have to admit to not really knowing anything about today’s artist Sibiir, I do the usual internet searching and I can see they class themselves simply as Norwegian Metal and have a couple of albums and EPs released so far, and today I have their latest album Undergang to listen over and give my thoughts on.

Divergence And Deceit opens the album and starts with an epic death metal feel that then is rudely interrupted by some hardcore punk that also has mixes back into the epic feeling death metal with consummate ease and never relents on pace or anger throughout, Placid Waters has an unmistakable black metal influence mixed in but also doesn’t stray too far from the previous styles and its all hectic and chaotic in just the right way. 

On Ruinous the hardcore punk takes centre stage once again and the whole track oozes with the petulant anger and fury you really want from a good hardcore punk track but still manages to instil a bit of grandiosity from the death metal influence, Engerdal unfortunately takes and absolute age to get going and when it does, it’s a slow and brooding instrumental that seems oddly placed so early into the album its not that it is specifically bad it just doesn’t really do much for me personally. 

It does set the mood for The Flood though which continues with the slowed pace and adds a doomy feel into the mix and again while its not a bad song its just sort of stuns the pace of everything but it does have some really nice guitar work involved to keep you intrigued enough to listen till the end the same sort of pace is kept for Watch…From A House On Fire at the beginning but then it all just slows down even more and the mid-section here is led vocally and backed up with sparse instruments to create an odd feeling of unease and its done well but once again the slowed down pace is just putting me off a bit, when the riffs do come back they are cascading and epic and I just wish the whole song was like this.

The Plague has more of the death metal and once again mixes the doom element for the slower and more precise sound and here it actually works really well, because they also re-introduce the more hardcore sound back into the song and it’s a real force and I fell that this is what they should concentrate on more as when they sound like this it’s an absolute joy to listen too!! Wearing The Weight is a lumbering behemoth that wears the doom element firmly on its collective sleeve, its measured and thoughtful while not ever being to, dare I say it, boring, they absolutely manage to keep you listening all they way till the end and there is more than enough to make this worthwhile and then we have the final track The Famine which has another slow and ominous death metal and pace to it before they unleash one last furious blasting hardcore punk part and mix the two styles to wonderful effect and close the album on a real high.

So, as I mentioned at the start I had no prior knowledge of Sibiir and this being my first listen, what can I say about Undergang? There is a nice effort to mix in a few different styles and create a real sense of grandiosity with some savage heaviness dumped in for good measure, for the most part they really hit the mark and create an unexpectedly beautiful and emotional record, I do get a bit stuck in some places and feel they need to up the pace and really concentrate on having a bit more impact but that is only a small note because overall this was a good listen. 8/10