Reviews

Headline, Reviews, Reviews - Audio September 5, 2012

The End Records – The Music For Nations Reissues Part One

Recently The End Records acquired the rights to the catalogue of Music For Nations, an excellent British label which closed its doors in 2004. When the label folded into Zomba Music, which was owned by BMG which is now owned by Universal, many of the ‘smaller’ releases were discontinued or lost. The End Records has jumped in and brought many of these releases back to North America, some for the first time as domestic releases. Since there are so many of these, I’m going to break them up into a few different articles (hope you don’t mind) and keep the reviews relatively short.

Review roundup by Jason Wellwood

Featured, Reviews, Reviews - Audio September 4, 2012

Serpentine Path – self-titled

Right off the bat, you can tell this is one heavy vegetable; slow, punishing doomy riffs with deep-throated death metal growls. Winter is a definite reference here, albeit this record sounds thicker and sludgier, presumably because it wasn’t recorded in a basement.

Featured, Reviews, Reviews - Audio August 30, 2012

Nate Hall – A Great River

A Great River is raw and jagged, and yet beautifully serene in parts. It’s as incongruent and temperamental as any of our hearts, and Hall tears his chest wide open on the album, unafraid to express his own shortcomings and fears in the hunt for peace and fulfillment.

Featured, Reviews, Reviews - Audio August 30, 2012

The Sequence of Prime – Inter-

For 24 minutes, Inter- roars with the urgency of a timed self-destruct mechanism. Pulse-rifle riffs and leads pour forth in a violent torrent, the drums a pile-driving invocation of horrible, foam-at-the-mouth chaos. All of it an industrial-accident-level cacophony presided over by this voice, this horrible, wonderful oh-you’ve-fucking-had-it-now! madman howl of rage, pain, madness, despair, and enough desperation to choke a vatload of blissed-out science-deniers.

Featured, Reviews, Reviews - Audio August 27, 2012

Cryptopsy – Cryptopsy

I admit when Cryptopsy first crossed my desktop I was hesitant. The clean vocals (and keyboards) of The Unspoken King left a sour taste in my mouth. Not knowing what I was getting myself in to, this self-titled rejuvenation far exceeded any expectations I had. Growing on me with every listen, Cryptopsy is becoming one of the most enjoyable death metal releases of 2012.

Featured, Reviews, Reviews - Audio August 24, 2012

Formloff: Spyhorelandet

Spyhorelandet comprises the kind of unrelenting hopelessness you’ll experience stumbling naked and bleeding though a blizzard after seeing your family devoured by wolves. However, where much of black metal concentrates on diabolic or fantastical pursuits, Formloff are interested in the “ugly personal histories each of us carries”.

Featured, Reviews, Reviews - Audio August 23, 2012

Horseback – Half Blood

Based on The Invisible Mountain and now Half Blood, Horseback has mastered the art of crafting a proper album. The first half has its feet in the dirt, the second half has its eyes on the stars. It manages to cover a lot of stylistic territory, yet it’s a cohesive collection and an effortless listen from start to finish.