Reviews: Shrike, Naxatras, To Obey A Tyrant, Heavy Velvet (Liam Williams, Matt Bladen, GC & Rich Piva)

Shrike – The Divine And The Serpentine (Self Released) [Liam Williams]

Preston based 3-piece metal band, Shrike, come out swinging with their first full-length album, The Divine And The Serpentine. Well, kind of... this album is actually just their 2 latest EPs packed into 1 LP with a couple of bonus tracks at the end. 

Nevertheless, this album is a bit of a beast, coming in with 13 tracks and a total runtime of just over an hour long. 

Since it consists of mostly previously released material, I will be condensing my review into 2 parts with a smaller bit before the summary to cover the bonus tracks, because, trust me when I say, there’s a lot to talk about!

Part 1 (tracks 1-6): We start off with Divine, a simple intro track with some ambient noise, melancholic piano and then a build-up with synth, strings and choir vocals. 

Ebb And Flow continues from the previous track, but with the band playing instead of the synth, strings and choir. Some guitars come in to build things up, there’s some really nice buzzing bass and then things get epic and cinematic sounding. 

This track and the one that follows, Reconstruction, are great, heavy tracks with a lot going on but a lot of fun to listen to. Just when you start getting comfortable with the heavier sound, they switch things up for their 4th track, CXVIII. This is a shorter one, and it’s all acoustic throughout, with vocals coming in around the halfway point. 

An Infinite Debt comes in with the full band repeating the outro of the previous track, albeit this time it’s a heck of a lot heavier. It’s fast and chaotic throughout most of the track, with some crazy drumming and an absolute face-melter of a guitar solo. There’s a slower, ambient part with clean guitars before the drums come back in to build-up to the last chorus. 

Part 1 culminates with The Sinner In Saints Regalia. It starts with some clean guitars which are overtaken by distorted guitars in the intro. 

There’s some great instrumental sections broken up by guitar solos with some sweep picking action before the final vocal part which is followed by the outro, with the band fading out and some orchestral and choir vocals taking over as the song comes to an end.

Part 2 (track 7-11): Part 2 starts with Divine, Pt II. Another intro track (or interlude) which starts with a repeat of the previous tracks outro, but then things take a darker turn. It ends with a droning noise along with some dripping water. 

Then we get to Serpentine. This track starts with the full band coming in with choir vocals over the top. It’s fast and heavy until a part with some isolated clean guitars with the lead guitar creeping in, leading to the final chorus. 

The Riverbank starts similarly to the previous track, with the full band and choir vocals. It has a very interesting bridge section and breakdown with a short guitar solo coming in right at the end. There’s a nice calmer section with clean guitars and clean vocals leading in to the final chorus. 

Plagues Confide Through Masquerade comes in with a very misleading calm isolated guitar intro before the rest of the band come in from nowhere and bring back the chaos. 

There’s a great part with a little back and forth of duel guitars and guitar solos after the bridge/breakdown section. Then it ends with another short clean guitar bit for the outro. 

Then we get to the “last” track of the album, O Father Time. This is a really great bombastic track with a lot going on in the first half. There’s a great breakdown with some choir vocals followed by another awesome guitar solo. 

Things slow down a bit after this and then there’s a calmer part with some isolated acoustic and clean vocals for the first part of the final chorus. The acoustic guitars come back in, with the addition of an ambient lead guitar that play until they fade out.

This next part covers the 2 bonus tracks. The first of which, I believe, is a reworked version of one of their previously released singles, In Pursuit Of The Witch. It starts with a bit of an interesting intro with guitars and choir vocals and there’s even a little guitar solo before the first verse comes in. 

There’s a little misdirection halfway through where they make you think another guitar solo is about to come in but it leads to the bridge section instead. 

Those who might have felt cheated out of a guitar solo though, have no fear, because we’re treated to another epic solo which even has some lovely duel guitar harmonies sprinkled in too. This continues until the song comes to a bit of an abrupt end. 

The next song, the real last track of the album, was a very pleasant surprise to me. It is a cover of a little well known song called No One Knows by Queens Of The Stone Age (one of my favourite bands). 

This cover is really good. They managed to balance being a somewhat faithful rendition whilst adding their own unique sound to the track without it feeling off or out of place. As a big fan of the Queens and heavier music, I think they did a great job!

To summarise, this album was absolutely fantastic! I really enjoyed listening to this one. I was worried with the long runtime before giving it a listen because I thought there would be a lot of boring filler stuff packed in just for the sake of it. But there’s not one bad track here. 

It all seems to fit together really well and I highly recommend listening to it from start to finish to really appreciate it as one solid piece of work. The mix is superb and the performances from all the band members are top notch! Everyone did extremely well. Excellent stuff! 10/10

Naxatras - V (Evening Star Records) [Matt Bladen]

With their previous album, their fourth, Greek psychedelic space rockers Naxatras added Pantelis Kargas on keys and synthesizers, unlocking a piece of their sound that wasn't there on their first three records. 

Naxatras have always been a band that reach sonic horizons, keeping the production warm and analogue while they jam to the science fiction story of their own creation.

Inspired by Hawkwind, Gong and Ozric' Tentacles, this band have been carefully building up their astral soundscapes from their debut and with some Jarre/Vangelis like keys and synths they can now fully experiment with what makes them a band. 

They've played all over the world with some of the top bands in this style and this dogged determination has lead to V their fifth and most accomplished album.

Exploring anew chapter in their own mythology, V steps further into the conceptual world, matching it with forward looking musical dexterity. The electronics glisten and swell against the warm 70's-hued guitar tones, from John Delias. 

The songs are constructed on hypnotic repetition, the bass grooves from John Vagenas locked in with the steady drums and percussion from Kostas Charizanis, the songs are pieced together, a more deliberate way of composing than taking them from jams like they did in their early days.

Naxatras now call to many genres, from the krautrock of Tangerine Dream on Celestial Gaze, to the flute that flutters through Spacekeeper as we segue into the Middle Eastern flavoured Numenia. 

Just with the three first songs you can hear a much wider sonic journey on this fifth record, the undulating percussion and synths swirl on the jazzy Utopian Structures while Breathing Fire is the first track you could consider as a rocker, a 60's proto rocker at that.

But genre names don't really matter, Naxatras are about letting the music consume you be it the Alan Parsons-esque Sand Halo or the flavoursome EDM-meets-classical Legion. On V Naxatras kick out the jams for studied, psychedelic wanderings. 9/10

To Obey A Tyrant - Frigore Inferni (Seek & Strike) [GC]

As genres go, deathcore is one that a lot of people seem to hate! Its not death metal enough for the purist death metal fan and its not hardcore for the always demanding and rule led hardcore crowd, so symphonic deathcore? 

Where do you even start on who will not be a fan of this? In light of all this I imagine To Obey A Tyrant won’t care what you think of their chosen sound though and their new EP Frigore Inferni is here to hammer that point home.

Opening with a subtle orchestral note I, Apollyon doesn’t take long to set the tone with an explosion of noise that takes as much from black metal as it does from death metal and the beatdowny parts are there for all to hear and of course we get the pig squeal vocals layered all over it.

While there is nothing wrong with what I am hearing, it just doesn’t connect with me, because as with most music in this style it doesn’t really stand out from the crowd and I have heard it done so many times I feel you need something different and unique too stand out and this song isn’t it. 

Obsidian Sol takes a little time to kick in and there is more grandeur to this song with the atmospherics shining through much better, which does give it a more unique feel but its not long before it all gets very ‘I’ve heard this before’ again. 

I just sort of sit and listen but not really find anything that grabs my attention until about midway through because this chugging beatdown section is done really well but after that it’s just a bit of a slog towards the end. 

Dawnbreaker once again has an interesting start with a more doom influence and slowing down the pace helps you really hear everything as you want to but then its back to the meat and potatoes thudding and grunting and the brieeee brieee vocals on this song just get on my nerves. 

They switch it up about midway again but drown everything out with the vocals and its just a frustrating listen as there is something there waiting to happen but it just never seems to come? 

On Frigore Inferni the lean is heavily towards the symphonic element of the sound and when they use this sound, they sound genuinely decent, but it’s never used enough, it always seems to fall back to the pedestrian chugging which is a real shame as it takes away from a potent weapon they have to use! 

Prince Ov Death finally gets the mix right and utilizes the swathes of orchestral grandeur and blackened death metal and is hands down the best track on the EP for sure, the styles finally compliment each other instead of fighting for space its just a shame its taken this long for it to click. 

The only thing that needs to be dropped is the pig squeal vocals they just sound out of place here, the high pitched black metal vocal and more straight up death metal growl are more than enough. 

Winters Rite instantly reminds me of an old school UK death metal band called Ignominious Incarceration, and not really to its detriment because they were fucking great but it’s just TOO similar to them and could be lifted directly off their album.

Which isn’t really what I want I want To Obey A Tyrant to sound like themselves and make me think of only them when I listen to their music!? Anyway, having said all that it is a decent enough track to end on.

The overriding feeling here was familiarity, I have heard this done so many times before, sometimes better sometimes worse, this falls into the middle ground really, it was good to listen too in places but never really pushed or challenged me. 

To be a standout symphonic deathcore band you really need to nail everything and there were just too many misses here for me, don’t get me wrong it’s worth a listen but you wouldn’t be rushing back to it in a hurry? 5/10

Heavy Velvet - Scarlet - EP (RidingEasy Records) [Rich Piva]

I feel like Heavy Velvet have been around for a while now, but the California band have only a handful of releases, including this new three song EP, Scarlet. Heavy Velvet are an amalgamation of influences from the 70s and 90s and includes the former guitar player from the awesome Slow Season, David Kent. 

This version of the band has a new rhythm section but still has the great vocals of Erika Leigh. This Heavy Velvet and these three songs are more polished than the first record, seemingly with their eyes on bigger and better things for the band.

The production level has certainly improved, but still keeps that retro vibe to the three tracks, but barely, as this sounds much more modern now. This is a quick EP, clocking in at 11 minutes and definitely leaves you wanting more. Kent is a riff master, and proves that over the three tracks, really taking the lead with his work.

Kane’s vocals are even better than the first record, with the track The Itch being my favourite of the three and where both of them shine the brightest, especially Kent and his work at the end of the song. 

The opener, Modern Love Is A Shame, sets the table nicely for the 70s hard rock meets grunge vibes these guys and girl create. The title track spotlights Kane, showing her bluey chops quite nicely to go along with some heavy, slower riffing.

The band certainly has the right vibe for the name they chose, even if I want maybe a little less on the production knobs to keep that vibe going. Heavy Velvet bring it on these three songs, but at 11 minutes this is more of a maxi-single than an EP, and I hope we get more soon, because this is almost an incomplete grade. 

I like what I hear so far with this new version of Heavy Velvet, we just need more and we need a full vision past the three songs on Scarlet. 7/10