Well, this took me by surprise! Point Mort, a 5 piece who describe themselves as Chaotic Popcore (I confess, I had no idea such subsets exist) and once you listen to it the following statement via their website makes a LOT of sense:
‘Fancy a good cry while you’re getting kicked in the pit? You’ve come to the right place’.
Le Point De Non-Retour is their second album, and starts off with Avm Ajar, an unsettling blast of electro that is underpinned by Sam Pillays vocals that lurch from the harsh to the clean and back again and with this short opening salvo it sets the album up as being one that doesn’t follow a particular set of rules, apart from the ones they make themselves.
An Ungrateful Wreck Of Our Ghost Bodies is next and is just different again – hardcore/death metal/ extreme/clean vocals just within the first 45 seconds. It is the definition of head spinning, with intelligent choice of guitar lines and some exemplary drumming. One thing that punches through is the vocal performance, it is incredible, absolutely incredible. In one song they bring you everything that you could possibly want in extreme music, and they do it in a devastating fashion.
An Ungrateful Wreck Of Our Ghost Bodies is next and is just different again – hardcore/death metal/ extreme/clean vocals just within the first 45 seconds. It is the definition of head spinning, with intelligent choice of guitar lines and some exemplary drumming. One thing that punches through is the vocal performance, it is incredible, absolutely incredible. In one song they bring you everything that you could possibly want in extreme music, and they do it in a devastating fashion.
What it doesn’t do is repeat the same form of attack all the way through its 10-minute run time, the initial aggression drops away to allow give room for that voice, accompanied with minimal backing. Of course it kicks back in, it has to in order to drag itself to a climax.
It is some opening pair and then they do it again with The Bent Neck Lady, starting with those soaring vocals again with a almost not-there backing, it continues in this vein and its gentle approach is mournful and powerful at the same time.
The darker side is never far away and once they get into that it is royal. If you imagine two sides of the same coin fighting for supremacy, the clean and the dirt both coming together to stomp all over you then that should give you an idea of what to expect.
Everything that guitarists Oliver Millot and Auré-lien Sauzereau do on here is spot-on, showing a deft control and knack for knowing how and when to push forward and when to ease up. In the same manner that An Ungrateful…skipped from one lane to another (and with ease) they do the same here, so that the song is more like a number of chapters.
The expanse of ideas is amazing and the way that they are stitched together so that it just flows shows that they have some serious skill at their disposable.
Thankfully, Skinned Teeth goes for a shorter approach, a welcome 3-minute battering that mixes in hardcore/metal once more, but in an concentrated manner. It allows you to get a breather and get set in for the second half.
Le Point De Non-Retour comes in next, part aggro and part soulful as it navigates its way, and in some ways its quite a traditional kind of build, which is basically put to one side when they get to the last minute or so. This final minute has some severe emotional heft to it, a combination of descending guitars and vocals that stretch and twist.
Thankfully, Skinned Teeth goes for a shorter approach, a welcome 3-minute battering that mixes in hardcore/metal once more, but in an concentrated manner. It allows you to get a breather and get set in for the second half.
Le Point De Non-Retour comes in next, part aggro and part soulful as it navigates its way, and in some ways its quite a traditional kind of build, which is basically put to one side when they get to the last minute or so. This final minute has some severe emotional heft to it, a combination of descending guitars and vocals that stretch and twist.
The backing vocals in this last minute just make it so much better, feeding into that well of emotion. Its possible that this is my favourite on here, just for that final payoff. Lecur brings that frenzied build back once more, with throat shredding performance that screams release before they drop into the ending song, Der.
I’ve said this quite a bit this year that at least for the music I’m hearing there is a real push to make sure that the last track is comparable in quality and in the way it lands to make sure that the whole experience is top class.
With Der, they swing between the soft and hard, the transition being completely organic in how it hits. Its build is fantastic and a lot of that is owed to the guitar tone on this, its heavy without being overwhelming and yet it fills all the spaces that Sam’s voice doesn’t get to.
I’m still none the wiser about how this is popcore, my preconceived expectation was something else and on this they have blown those expectations away and replaced it with an powerhouse of an album. The way it straddles different lanes and the energy that runs through this is phenomenal.
I’m still none the wiser about how this is popcore, my preconceived expectation was something else and on this they have blown those expectations away and replaced it with an powerhouse of an album. The way it straddles different lanes and the energy that runs through this is phenomenal.
Un nouveau groupe a été ajouté à la liste des « must see live » et je vous suggère de lui donner un coup de fouet. 9/10
Demonic Death Judge - Absolutely Launched (Suicide Records) [Mark Young]
Demonic Death Judge - Absolutely Launched (Suicide Records) [Mark Young]
So, If you imagine an early QOSTA or Mondo Generator album that is written and sung by Nick Oliveri, that leans heavily into extreme rock and is imbued with a sense of filth, of grime then you are getting somewhere near with this. It’s a dirty, buzzing noise that Demonic Death Judge bring to the table with this which is also their 5th release in Absolutely Launched which also happens to be chock full of riffs of the most vital kind.
And I mean absolutely full of them. Having the extreme vocal style helps in keeping the momentum moving and give it an overall heavier aspect but you can’t get past those riffs, especially on Natural Wine Guy. It starts off just ebbing along and then it drops into high gear and its irresistible but I’m getting ahead of myself.
They start off with 90’s Violence which has a pure earworm that once heard it will stay with you for days and that’s just the start of the riff-conveyor of what I call top class rhythm guitar work. I liken it to a combination of Black Sabbath and early Grand Magus, where they knew and understood the power of the riff.
They start off with 90’s Violence which has a pure earworm that once heard it will stay with you for days and that’s just the start of the riff-conveyor of what I call top class rhythm guitar work. I liken it to a combination of Black Sabbath and early Grand Magus, where they knew and understood the power of the riff.
You’ve Got Red On You is just mint (and references Shaun of the Dead, natch) and is a particularly good example of riffology 101. I’ve said so many times that if a song moves you to want to learn and play that music then they must be doing right.
Goner is up next and keeps the good stuff coming along whilst Dead Dogs goes a little heavier but maintains that sweat and gasoline approach and of course another mint melody set.
The one thing that they do on these songs is make the riffs memorable without you needing more fingers than god gave you in order to play them. And what’s more they are the sort of riffs that are built with a certain swagger to them. Dead Dogs even manages to throw a little punk in there as a means of shaking things up.
It's on I Realise That..Now that they drop in the blues that had been mentioned in their pr, and for the most part it putters along until the fattest wah breakdown comes crashing in and then suddenly the hairs are up on your arms and you want to start breaking windows or kicking cats.
If you have in your mind a perfect situation where a band comes together, cymbals crashing, lead guitar wailing then it is this and it crashes to completion whilst ushering in Spliffhanger that starts without any discernible break between the two and just continues the excellent work in I Realise That and then we are at the end with title track Absolutely Launched which really evokes Magus on this one in its opening bars.
There feels like there has been a conscious decision to pull back a little on here with the verse guitar which gives them a chance of play a little cleaner so when the heavier moments come in, they hit a little bit harder. The track itself gives them opportunity to exercise those wah pedals once more along with some rhythm that doesn’t miss.
I think that you could a whole lot worse than checking these out, especially if you love top quality riffs delivered at a pace you can actually enjoy. 8/10
Sacred Steel - Ritual Supremacy (ROAR-RPM) [Matt Bladen]
More than 25 years in the metal scene is a long time and much like fellow veterans Hammerfall they haven't changed their style since. Ritual Supremacy is the tenth record from these German wielder's of steel and they stick to their tried and tested formula with a mix of classic, speed and thrash metal.
The snarling Ritual Supremacy kicks off the album with the similarities to Helstar, Running Wild and Omen, histrionic vocals, racing riffs and an ominous sense of the occult. The chugging The Watcher Infernal shifts into more galloping for A Shadow In The Bell Tower. Sacred Steel are definitely a throw back, taking a darker, more brooding style of metal than many of the power/classic metal bands from around the same time.
More American than German as tracks such as Entombed Within The Iron Walls Of Dis and Bedlam Eternal go towards the prog of Nevermore and the doom of Candlemass. It's horror/occult themed heavy metal from a band who've been around the block, this Sacred Steel still shines bright. 7/10
Teaser Sweet - Night Stalker (High Roller Records) [Matt Bladen]
The flame of the NWOTHM is still burning bright and Teaser Sweet have been around it for about ten years forming in 2013 when guitarist Marcus Damberg formed the band with his sister Therese (vocals) and bassist Christoffer Cardell. The line up now includes the siblings alongside Hampus Steenberg on bass and Kent Svensson behind the drums, this Swedish foursome now bring their fourth album Night Stalker on High Roller Records.
Influences well when hear that Night Stalker and Deep In The Woods both steal their main riff from Wasted Years you'll get an idea of their influences. It's Maiden, Priest, Dio, you know the usual galloping basslines, staccato riffs, big lunged vocals, enshrouded with analogue production for that authentic sound. Teaser Sweet spin the wheel with this new one though I will say, adding a bit of a blues sway on Blue Sky, but it does have a lot of similarities to House Of The Rising Sun.
They do their best worth though when they're rocking out, for a band that started as a Kiss covers band, there own music still has those melodic hooks the world biggest b(r)and use so fruitfully but merge it with a British heavy metal heritage. 7/10
I think that you could a whole lot worse than checking these out, especially if you love top quality riffs delivered at a pace you can actually enjoy. 8/10
Sacred Steel - Ritual Supremacy (ROAR-RPM) [Matt Bladen]
More than 25 years in the metal scene is a long time and much like fellow veterans Hammerfall they haven't changed their style since. Ritual Supremacy is the tenth record from these German wielder's of steel and they stick to their tried and tested formula with a mix of classic, speed and thrash metal.
The snarling Ritual Supremacy kicks off the album with the similarities to Helstar, Running Wild and Omen, histrionic vocals, racing riffs and an ominous sense of the occult. The chugging The Watcher Infernal shifts into more galloping for A Shadow In The Bell Tower. Sacred Steel are definitely a throw back, taking a darker, more brooding style of metal than many of the power/classic metal bands from around the same time.
More American than German as tracks such as Entombed Within The Iron Walls Of Dis and Bedlam Eternal go towards the prog of Nevermore and the doom of Candlemass. It's horror/occult themed heavy metal from a band who've been around the block, this Sacred Steel still shines bright. 7/10
Teaser Sweet - Night Stalker (High Roller Records) [Matt Bladen]
The flame of the NWOTHM is still burning bright and Teaser Sweet have been around it for about ten years forming in 2013 when guitarist Marcus Damberg formed the band with his sister Therese (vocals) and bassist Christoffer Cardell. The line up now includes the siblings alongside Hampus Steenberg on bass and Kent Svensson behind the drums, this Swedish foursome now bring their fourth album Night Stalker on High Roller Records.
Influences well when hear that Night Stalker and Deep In The Woods both steal their main riff from Wasted Years you'll get an idea of their influences. It's Maiden, Priest, Dio, you know the usual galloping basslines, staccato riffs, big lunged vocals, enshrouded with analogue production for that authentic sound. Teaser Sweet spin the wheel with this new one though I will say, adding a bit of a blues sway on Blue Sky, but it does have a lot of similarities to House Of The Rising Sun.
They do their best worth though when they're rocking out, for a band that started as a Kiss covers band, there own music still has those melodic hooks the world biggest b(r)and use so fruitfully but merge it with a British heavy metal heritage. 7/10
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