FOR THE LOVE OF METAL
Oak’s debut 12” rumbles and crumbles like Paul Bunyon piloting a city-sized backhoe. Vocalist Jo Gonzalez mixes and mashes his vocal chords to the tune of skidding tires and large men falling down jagged canyons while the humid oppression of the guitar, bass and drums acts like the soundtrack to slow suffocation and violent digestion.
Dark Celebration is a Brazilian-based black/death metal outfit from Rio Grande do sul. Phlegeton: The Transcendence of Demon Lords, recently released by Paragon Records, is their third full-length album and- I hate to say this – it is a very messy, choppy and noisy affair.
Sweden’s New Keepers of the Water Towers have a pretty ridiculous name and their song titles are equally silly (“Scientists and the Man of Ice,” “Giant Subway Beast” and so on.) From a lyrical standpoint, these guys would be perfect for a split EP with Chicago doom/death practitioners Lair of the Minotaur.
Recorded as demos this past April with Scott Ecklein, the four new songs and two covers aren’t just rough around the edges; they’re positively filthy, that barely-produced sound hearkening back to the glory days of tape-trading, the bare-bones mix enhancing the fierce performances. Simply put, as solid as they were before, Saviours has never sounded this great.
Adrien Begrand reviews three brand new, limited edition 7″ singles by Bay Area metal quartet Saviours.
The latest effort from famous Floridian band Obituary is a “summer blockbuster” album if there ever was one.
Dysrhythmia is an instrumental, technical progressive rock/metal trio from Philadelphia that takes complex instrumental, heavy music to new and interesting heights.
Germany’s Long Distance Calling have created quite the slow-burn of an album with Avoid The Light. The band’s music is often described as a mixture of “post-rock” and “post-metal,” and while listening it’s easy to conjure up comparisons with a group like Godspeed You Black Emperor! but also with the more drawn out and ambient side of a band like Agalloch.
On their Myspace page, Finland’s April lists their influences with “All thoroughly emotional and sincere music inspires us!” In hindsight, I should have checked out their page before listening to Anthems of the Rejected (Spinefarm). Expecting a collection of black metal angst with angry, gritty lyrics, I was slightly disappointed to get a set of uber-contemporary, radio-friendly pop-metalcore.
Talk about old school style. Amsterdam’s Conspiracy deliver just that on their latest release, Concordat.
Here is a three track demo release from Toronto’s FATALITY, a thrash metal band with plenty of aggressive, melodic technical hooks, blasting beats and soaring roaring vocals, complete with fast, intricate solos.