Warlung returns just over two years from releasing their previous LP Vultures Paradise, with its fifth release in just eight years, with the release of The Poison Touch. Another excellent entry into their catalogue with great vocals and blazing guitar work.
Warlung takes 80s metal, and puts a modern, heavy touch to it, and starts off strong with the track Digital Smoke. With great riffs and soaring guitar work, it’s a great start to this album. The riffs and high energy continue on the next track White Light Seeker. Mourning Devils is a short transitional track with haunting guitars and what sounds like a touch of synth. And a fuzzy bass riff starts the next track Spell Speaker. I can’t tell you how much the greatness of the dual guitar work is throughout this album.
Some more great riffage and harmonies on the next track Holy Guide, followed by the howling guitar on Rat Bastard, a true call back to 80s metal. The Sleeping Prophet changes it up with a strong ballad with great vocals by George Baba once again. Finally, 29th Scroll, 6th Verse is an epic conclusion to this great album, filled with some heavy guitar riffs and wah pedals throughout.
Overall, Warlung continues to bring the heavy, with great guitar solos and vocals. They show no signs of slowing down with the release of yet another outstanding album. 9/10
Obscureviolence - Refuting The Flesh (Transcending Obscurity Records) [Mark Young]
Those folks at Transcending Obscurity have an eye for the brutal and with Refuting The Flesh, they have found another outlet for a wicked combination of black and death metal. Obscureviolence, with two members from Horror God bring you a 21-minute beating that takes in blasts, jangling chords and of course some low-down vocals. It has that air (or stench?) of old school extremity in how they churn through each of the tracks here.
Exodus is our leaping in point, discordant noise that ushers in a nifty build that will definitely be used as their intro music when they play this lot live. Segueing into the title track, Refuting The Flesh is the core example of how they have melded the two together, the chug, the blast and some righteous whammy abuse at the end. With this they know that they have to get their (meat) hook into you and make it absolutely imperative that you stay the whole course. In terms of achieving that, it is a powerful start and they balance having the two styles in play quite well.
Source Of Life charges in with one of those delicious percussive riff after a frankly discordant intro, a build that having been executed is then dropped off a cliff. Its aim is to crush and to do so they deploy every trick at their disposal. Its high on aggression and thankfully low on subtlety and closes with an atonal lead break which is always welcome and then into Spiritual Agony, which has a cheeky nod to Morbid Angel at the outset and then they are straight into total demolition mode.
The one thing an EP does not need is an intro and unfortunately Origin is just that and seems like a very annoying way to start as it doesn’t really show anything or give you any idea of what to expect, For Those Afraid To Die offers a bit more but doesn’t really do much for me as it sounds like the guitars are non-existent in the mix, I can hear the drums and vocals clearly but that’s about it and it’s just an overall frustrating listen because I imagine even if I could hear the guitars they wouldn’t be doing anything interesting?
Warlung takes 80s metal, and puts a modern, heavy touch to it, and starts off strong with the track Digital Smoke. With great riffs and soaring guitar work, it’s a great start to this album. The riffs and high energy continue on the next track White Light Seeker. Mourning Devils is a short transitional track with haunting guitars and what sounds like a touch of synth. And a fuzzy bass riff starts the next track Spell Speaker. I can’t tell you how much the greatness of the dual guitar work is throughout this album.
Some more great riffage and harmonies on the next track Holy Guide, followed by the howling guitar on Rat Bastard, a true call back to 80s metal. The Sleeping Prophet changes it up with a strong ballad with great vocals by George Baba once again. Finally, 29th Scroll, 6th Verse is an epic conclusion to this great album, filled with some heavy guitar riffs and wah pedals throughout.
Overall, Warlung continues to bring the heavy, with great guitar solos and vocals. They show no signs of slowing down with the release of yet another outstanding album. 9/10
Obscureviolence - Refuting The Flesh (Transcending Obscurity Records) [Mark Young]
Those folks at Transcending Obscurity have an eye for the brutal and with Refuting The Flesh, they have found another outlet for a wicked combination of black and death metal. Obscureviolence, with two members from Horror God bring you a 21-minute beating that takes in blasts, jangling chords and of course some low-down vocals. It has that air (or stench?) of old school extremity in how they churn through each of the tracks here.
Exodus is our leaping in point, discordant noise that ushers in a nifty build that will definitely be used as their intro music when they play this lot live. Segueing into the title track, Refuting The Flesh is the core example of how they have melded the two together, the chug, the blast and some righteous whammy abuse at the end. With this they know that they have to get their (meat) hook into you and make it absolutely imperative that you stay the whole course. In terms of achieving that, it is a powerful start and they balance having the two styles in play quite well.
Source Of Life charges in with one of those delicious percussive riff after a frankly discordant intro, a build that having been executed is then dropped off a cliff. Its aim is to crush and to do so they deploy every trick at their disposal. Its high on aggression and thankfully low on subtlety and closes with an atonal lead break which is always welcome and then into Spiritual Agony, which has a cheeky nod to Morbid Angel at the outset and then they are straight into total demolition mode.
Its just 3 minutes of organised chaos with the bulk made up of a frenzied attack which hits exactly like you want it to and is carried over into The Absurdity Of Existence, with the growled vocals that are barely legible whilst there is a serious drum clinic being provided. Having this and Spiritual Agony side by side shows that they are unafraid of saying the same thing, they just want to cave your skull in.
Pulse Of Subconscious Cruelty is their final song and keeps that intent and momentum in check. They don’t back off at all, it is either all or nothing from them and rightly so. There have been a lot of bands that promise a lot and deliver little and with Obscureviolence they promised and made sure that they delivered. Once Exodus starts running it is a full-on assault and battery from them, and they make sure that every song stays true to that promise. I won’t tell you that this is new or ground breaking or a refresh, its just good honest extreme metal, made by fans of extreme metal for fans of extreme metal. Give it a go!! 7/10
Days Of Jupiter - The World Was Never Enough (Reigning Phoenix Music) [Chris Tsintziras]
Days Of Jupiter are a Swedish band and their music is a fine blend of modern metal and classic rock, always sealed with their own stamp. They have millions of streams on Spotify and widespread acceptance all over the globe, the band has certainly a huge fanbase who will get very excited about this new album. This time, Days Of Jupiter with their new album The World Was Never Enough, on this fifth record they aim to please their huge and undeniable fanbase, and at the same time to attract new listeners who may not have heard them before signing to Reigning Phoenix Music.
Pulse Of Subconscious Cruelty is their final song and keeps that intent and momentum in check. They don’t back off at all, it is either all or nothing from them and rightly so. There have been a lot of bands that promise a lot and deliver little and with Obscureviolence they promised and made sure that they delivered. Once Exodus starts running it is a full-on assault and battery from them, and they make sure that every song stays true to that promise. I won’t tell you that this is new or ground breaking or a refresh, its just good honest extreme metal, made by fans of extreme metal for fans of extreme metal. Give it a go!! 7/10
Days Of Jupiter - The World Was Never Enough (Reigning Phoenix Music) [Chris Tsintziras]
Days Of Jupiter are a Swedish band and their music is a fine blend of modern metal and classic rock, always sealed with their own stamp. They have millions of streams on Spotify and widespread acceptance all over the globe, the band has certainly a huge fanbase who will get very excited about this new album. This time, Days Of Jupiter with their new album The World Was Never Enough, on this fifth record they aim to please their huge and undeniable fanbase, and at the same time to attract new listeners who may not have heard them before signing to Reigning Phoenix Music.
The album consists of 10 songs, which have a fine music blend that is all over the genre sphere. Whether it's the modern metal of bands such as Avenged Sevenfold or Lamb Of God, something from the 80' rock sound inspired by Scorpions or Europe, it's got song that will have wide appeal. My favourite track is My Heaven, My Hell but that is definitely a hard choice because of how good this band are. Days Of Jupiter's foundations are solid. They have their own identity you won’t say that you have heard it elsewhere. I personally loved this album! 8/10
Ephemera - For Those Afraid To Die (Morning Star Heresy Productions) [GC]
Whenever I see something described as melodic hardcore, I always wonder what exactly does that mean? And as Ephemera are described as this, I sort of go into this with trepidation but none the less For Those Afraid To Die is waiting for my thoughts.
Ephemera - For Those Afraid To Die (Morning Star Heresy Productions) [GC]
Whenever I see something described as melodic hardcore, I always wonder what exactly does that mean? And as Ephemera are described as this, I sort of go into this with trepidation but none the less For Those Afraid To Die is waiting for my thoughts.
The one thing an EP does not need is an intro and unfortunately Origin is just that and seems like a very annoying way to start as it doesn’t really show anything or give you any idea of what to expect, For Those Afraid To Die offers a bit more but doesn’t really do much for me as it sounds like the guitars are non-existent in the mix, I can hear the drums and vocals clearly but that’s about it and it’s just an overall frustrating listen because I imagine even if I could hear the guitars they wouldn’t be doing anything interesting?
Heaven fares slightly better as I can hear the guitars here and it features Jesse Leach from Killswitch Engage but that’s about the best thing really, it just sort of plods away and never really gets out of first gear, nothing grips you or demands your attention, so it just sort of passes me by really? And just like that its onto final track House Fire and once again the drums and vocals drown everything out completely and the pace of the music is just far too slow and plodding and they add in an almost rap type verse that just makes me want to turn it off and give up, I don’t and my reward for perseverance is? Well, nothing really? Just more of the same uninspiring stuff and then it finishes and I’m not sure if I am pleased or just disappointed?
This really was not for me, I found everything that I could actually hear boring and uninspired, its just felt like they didn’t know how to really push a song forward to get that killer hook in and grab your attention. The fact For Those Afraid To Die was only 3 tracks long is probably a blessing as the longer it went on, I know the more annoyed I would have become with it. I really can’t say anything very positive about this so I’m just going to stop now. 2/10
This really was not for me, I found everything that I could actually hear boring and uninspired, its just felt like they didn’t know how to really push a song forward to get that killer hook in and grab your attention. The fact For Those Afraid To Die was only 3 tracks long is probably a blessing as the longer it went on, I know the more annoyed I would have become with it. I really can’t say anything very positive about this so I’m just going to stop now. 2/10
No comments:
Post a Comment