WITHERIA – INFINITE RECOLLECTION

Witheria is one of those bands who have progressive elements but don’t shove them to you. Some prog bands do this by unleashing chunky grooves your way, that you either feel nauseated or underwhelmed. At least from what I gathered in Devastating Return, which was actually thrashier than Infinite Recollection. This does not to insinuate recollection is anything less, but it teeters on quasi-prog thrash.

Infinite Recollection has all the hallmarks of a concept album, with how the songs retain their tempo throughout, while letting riffs breathe by serving them at a mindful pace and number. One can experience this with the leads that shuffle between an effective drag and a quickened pace. A song like Interstellar Lessons Received offers two variations of the lead precede its mid-section with a tantalizing effect. After this is a very progressive riffing in the offing, cupping a tremolo insertion before the song ends. With its changing dynamics, as evident in this song, this would encapsulate a concept like a glove. There is already enough nuclear holocaust thrash. Even so, most of them wouldn’t touch the airlock tightness of this by a mile.

When Infinite Velocity kicks in, the drummer matches the intensity of all the chaos and intensity oozing for the better part of a minute. Would easily match George Kollias, if Witheria were dead onset in playing as they play here. This pummeling from all the band’s quarters are what proliferate this track, with its chameleon-like structure shifts. They very much warrant the song lengths on this album, and note that they all are very engaging, far from dull, whilst keeping the thrash edge in the spastic leads.

Isolation is an effort relayed in keeping variety a staple by providing a psychedelic instrumental mid-album, in the most Witheria sounding way possible, because hearing something similar might be a long shot to darkness. A kind of a passage to the next album realm, or a relaxation stop. It works in every aspect. The band keeps it going with the pace changes, at times traversing along slow, mid and sub-fast, all along the multiple chord progression highway. Seems like their average 3-year album wait period really makes them come up with shattering material. Talk of devastating returns!

Their rhythms are composed of reiterated sensationalism in their first portrayal of sound once a track stakes its claim. The leads are tailored around this. And they vary a lot, even taking their given spots rhythmically. Within the Multitude of Slave comes packing some of the intensity packed earlier. On cue is the drummer, who uses these spotlights to have a bargain of the thunder the guitarists are charging. It is also these intense moments that make these sections sound as heavy as death metal. Hell, they basically are Morbid Angel type chaotic and heavy.

Finishing off with the longest number, it starts easily paced like a couple other tracks, while the vocalist, as per the album, sounds like he weaned his voice on death metal, and funnily enough, matches the guitar screeches that are in place of where his sentences end. This is what truly forward-thinking tharsh is all about. There is a place for the riff-oriented thrash pursuant (and the progressions are easy to take), death metal vocals and little sections for the deathrasher, and tastes of groove for those who want some grooviness to their stuff. And if you qualify your prog with some groove, it is not the shitty kind here. It is a grower that never stops giving.

Sometime back, when I was getting into doom metal, I had gotten attached to the dreary feelings it invoked, and the depressive atmospheres became a sort of a process I ear-administered. Katatonia was good for this, before I found dsbm. It was how I learnt to absorb music without letting its general evocations alter my feelings, since any time I put on soul-crushing music, it recreated the same effect. Nowadays it is a choice to either enjoy it from a musical standpoint, or along with the impression it was intended to arouse in the listener.

With their searing death-doom guitars, Draconian descend down the melancholy path, hewn with strong low-growls that are designed to reverberate any dust settled upon the drabbest and forgotten of hearts. If that is not enough, the record’s darkness is forlorn enough to be the ghost of romance. It is these dark male vocals that the most dominant in Where Lovers Mourn – in the infamous beauty and the beast vocals style. Softness and appeal bringing the sylph-like female vocals more to the forefront. The Cry of Silence manages a fast mid-section, whose guitar tone in that instance provides a Katatonia moment. A goth-rockish vibe that doesn’t last long.

The album delicately balances dire somberness and its little sections of fast pace, given that the latter is counteractive in creating a gloomy scenario, unless it’s black metal. Violin addition to The Solitude proceeds to oppress the listener with wringing darkness, in an effort to cement irreversible and irrefutable despair. The light keyboards propel an already grim sound expanse, furthering the decay of happiness down its cold precipice. Reversio ad Seccesum, appearing mid-album, works more proficiently around this scenario, although the keys aren’t immersed in the track completely – coruscating feebly whenever an effective moment arises. It is really hard to miss the mark with death doom riffs, but rather than solely dwell on them, Draconian excels by injecting them with few acoustics (not the sucky, lifeless type) and thick gothic rock undercurrents.

A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal keeps the gothic momentum running rhymically in a loop, against the heavier guitars that foray into the background, before keys that induce a dirge drape hang on to the song as it ends. While the drums may be fairly simple, they are precise and are on a cue from the lead guitarist. There is also a lingering, subtle atmosphere that is leering on the edge of dissipation, not overcrowding the album’s overall sound – sporadically seeping into tracks.

 

To the general doom sound, there is not much that can be extended forth in terms of uniqueness, as it would only require tight musicianship with a profound vision to put forth solid material down on wax. Draconian’s Where Lovers Mourn is gimmick-free, purging souls with a mix of death doom guitars, gothic rock inspired moments, creating a dragging sound that crushes as much as it depresses. A fantastic record.

CHAOSSWORN – CHALICE OF BLACK FLAMES

When it comes to melody-focused death metal, there is no better place to look than Sweden. Mostly it is the bigger bands that make turn the huger part of the tide. The effect of this is a significant part of the lesser-known outfits either slipping through the cracks or being chocked by the undergrowth of where most seem likely to be stuck – it goes without saying a lot are content with their underdog status. Consequently, at times it is only atrocious music that can hold a band back in such a scenario, without having to state the obvious – all other factors ignored.

Despite an almost great release in their second incarnation, Chaossworn have almost disappeared from the musical landscape. Their black infused death compactions are an okay exercise, particularly in melody. Their music channels what might be compared to another charming but newer band from Germany called The Spirit. For the Germans, theirs is an opposite approach, mostly death infused black metal. I don’t know if Chaossworn’s creative juices ran low, or life commitments got in the way, even though with plenty artists, there usually is a way to make it work eventually.

A three-track EP like Chalice of Black Flames is a mixed bag – it shows a band with intense potential, but no follow-up for close to a decade later, making things a little more confusing since they released it under a label. Which might lead one to assume a lot of potentially negative scenarios from such a situation. It is slightly unlikely that they have a stash of stacked material that they will unleash, should they decide on a sophomore as Chaossworn.

Chalice of Black Flames is an effusive track from the lot. Going by the solidness of the title track and the opener, Bringer of Storms is the sink-point of this three-track EP. More reliant on dissonance-after-leads, it mostly feels out of place when measured against the tracks surrounding it. This is the slow burner of the three songs, focusing and pairing both melody and anti-melody in its search for consequence.

Should the camp ever come out of their self-induced and long overdue hibernation, they will hopefully have been ruminating on such soul scarring and damning constructions.  It should be to let their death black quests and leanings plunder in the name of melody, and be damned if they hit forth with a compilation. Because for such a caliber of artists, they sure during their absence must have felt the itch to compose. At least a couple of times, if not once. This would be too good to be creating for personal enjoyment.

Upbeat and power metal might as well be synonyms. Had a long day? Power it up. Want to charge an already lively environment? Just power it up! The flowery the better. And just like the string instruments, the keyboard can either be used to depress or elevate, under even halfly competent t hands. Power metal engages its discourse with uplifting, keyboards or not. Labeled as melodic heavy metal, Fairytale straddles a ground of power metal and heavy metal without passing its music as traditional heavy metal. Power metal without keyboards, you say?

Fairytale, I exclaim! The last time heavy metal was this super melodic, while retaining lightning speed, all it needed was the keys to serve you either cheese or some fantasy arch. Not be a keeper of the said keys. And I mean, c’mon, the name – Fairytale – is a huge give-away. Take the track Dead silence for instance, after the first few notes, the leads bleed Blind Guardian, the shining number of the batch. Finally as a clear shake on how power metal this is, the vocalist is of the Michael-Kiske-singer-calibre. And sure he does utilize his pipes, hitting the highs when repeating a choral section for emphasis. It is very neat to hear how power metal sounds bar the keys and synths. Take this song with you while at it.

They heave their heavy metal tendencies on Into Your Heart, plainly from how it starts (if you exclude the almost acoustic part), straight to the overweight rhythm that makes the song burlier than it ought to be. The Cowards sharpens its leads that state its presence on both power and heavy metal. Each is on a rush to out-melody the other, and being given equal running time, it remains a matter of which has staying power. The harmonic solo is doused in Blind Guardian too, portending winning for the power metal chunk. Could melodic heavy metal actualize itself trying to compete with Blind Guardian fare?

Come song number six, the piano does make a small appearance on the intro, but from some nuances I heard in earlier songs, there were synth notes making second-long appearances. The grooves on this album are the power metal ones, bursting radiance and pace, without crushing the listener. Light and Shade is also resplendent in its power metal kind of opulence. The Blind Guardian influence is solidified by a cover, for the song Lost in the Twilight Hall. It sounds more heavy metal than it should be.

This little power metal demo is stuck between gushing its influences and a path of its own it should be busy carving. The appealing aspect is that the band is neither uncomfortable with either aspect. At home they seem, when incorporating the shredders they admire, and at large, appear content not to widen their own scope. Could this be the limbo that have confined them to a no-release long stretch? Hades knows nada too. Strip power metal of its keyboards and alas, the emperor had innerwear all along. And uplifting it is.

BIO-CANCER – TORMENTING THE INNOCENT

There is some mean punk that Greece has released in recent times. It would only be fair if some of its heavier cousin from there were as equally mean. Bio-Cancer is the outfit that is on a full-out scourge, which is full-on menacing, and baring teeth dripping rabid, viscous saliva. Ready to snap and effect a bite on their target, like they were walking carrion. They prey on the listener to ensure they return for the same dose of affliction. How they turn their listener a glutton for punishment!

On the album cover, the art portrays a Frankensteinesque chamber, with the mad doctor, unsatiated, ponders on his next excursion. The music is as relentless as the need to be brutal on all fronts. Whereas certain thrash bands dabble in death metal to convey harsher outlines, Bio-Cancer is strictly planted in thrash, stripped of any form of cleanliness in overall sound, yet never sounding raw or unrefined. It really helps a great deal that the singer is as hoarse and quick as a fox in his uber-harsh and snarly screams. He comes off as a ferocious canine out for raw blood.

Tormenting the Innocent is an exercise on unrepentant aggro-thrash out to stake its claim on the otherwise sub-tame genre. The riffs are taut, with the juicier parts delivered by a bass undercurrent. The low end keeps it in check by providing a distinct rhythm, mostly counter to the other guitarists. Boxed Out relays this in a slight solo, while Bulletproof is there to remind the listener that other than there being a bassist, the chops he can pull off and his capacity. There is also a violin thrown in for a couple seconds mid album. Really neat, and what follows it is a profuse riff attack, with bass on call and answering.

Obligated to Incest is a tunnel-boring barrage, unstoppable once the song introducing first few seconds are done away with. A couple sledgehammers, and you get the drill.  From then on it’s a pace to pack as many riffs to this fastidious song. Closer to closure comes a merciless blaze behind the kit – everybody is pulling off their glorious rage and feeding off each other. The same energy is channeled to Think (or any track, really) as the band tries to challenge the listener to think, or rather take a glimpse at their political musings. They just couldn’t resist the urge to foray into such a thrash preoccupation. Not a far reach, since it’s in the wake of Greece undergoing an economic meltdown.

The drummer is a pound machine who plays in a death metal oriented style, which is more pleasurable to listen to in Chemical Castration as it narrates a tale of neutering humans. The mix-up being if it is being advocated to the inmate in question or his tormentors in jail. Lyrically it shoots from various tangents, whilst the brutality theme promised in the title relegated to three songs. It would have been more fun for the whole package unravelling as promised, but still, the other topics cover more weighty matter than all-out fury and violence.

An energy-packed assault is what is to be expected from this release, and it is duly served. No gimmicks, no acoustics, all savagery. The closest it gets to being less nefarious in sound is a violin intro mid album. It is written to match the song that carries it, so it is something to look forward to among the punishing surge of sound. Bio-Cancer are here to stay and slay. Onward to the onslaught they head.

THE INVINCT – A SUN THAT NEVER SETS

Modern metal has caught on like wildfire. At this point in time it is either means djent-inflected or groove-oriented. So much so, that newer bands are even terming and tagging themselves as such. It therefore is not a surprise that they might as well be incorporating both as the difference is as less definitive as where national waters end and international seas begin. From there it’s just the high seas of sound. The bands treading these hydrospace are plainly coasting through overflowing sonic landscapes. Maybe they just let the waves off-set by others reverberate them, even if the final wheel form has reached its pinnacle in this type of music.

However unfamiliar I am with their previous material (which appears to be melodeath), The Invict seem to have curved themselves into the spectacle that wants to be recognized as modern metal. It has been years in the making, with the advent of watering down the once-main genres. Death and thrash had their aspects chopped off to give way to the inevitable rise of groove metal, as djent lurked in the corners. Melodeath, metalcore, and deathcore were also part of this bubbling equation. It is bad enough for In Flames – how the mighty have fallen.

Front to back, A Sun that never Sets does not in a single minute rely on anything else than grooves. Main songwriting is based on this like their ideas were all cast in one stone. I would say they make grown man djent, whatever that might imply, in the vein of Uneven Structure, with a better-sounding load. Should anyone be mining for riffs here, they would be fired by the hiring company for low returns, and take with them home black lung to boot. The only thing that does not come short is the tinge to the songs, which adds a special djent-but-not-really-djent flavor. A heavy strain of djent and groove, as contradicting as that sounds – they pull it off.

What the fuck with that cover, pulling it off from nowhere without realizing how many half-arsed releases have used some form of it? Its variants being aplenty. Or it was too in line with their album title they couldn’t shake off its charms? Either way it matches the approach they have to music on this release. It is either black or white. No in-between. So for people who despise groove, stay in the shades, because it is just regurgitation but you’d have to hear it to believe it is not the flat pounding, and annoying kind. Almost like the ones you hear in progressive music, (here we go again, djent) without being all that progressive.

Their tone really came through for them. I am pressed to say it rather is from where they stand musically. Coming from a melodeath direction, the aspect of melody is not entirely forgotten, even as they transformed to groove purveyors. Their only idiosyncrasy aside, the vocalist is still a melodeath growler, trying his best to match the music that sounds the same all along its tenure – and manages to do so. With regular fill drums, even melodeath does a better job, while not implying the two are comparable.

Well, it seems like it’s not another fad, with how long groove and djent have existed, but their fusion has been in the making. With even purely groove bands being hurled around as modern metal, it is only a matter of time before the whole genre gets much more blurry. The metal community is in for some even more hair-splitting times.

POWERSTEEL – DON’T LET HEAVY METAL DIE

Don’t Let Heavy Metal Die. Metal Force. Which of the two is the alternative title? The better question is why any of those, because with the band name PowerSteel, you now sure are made to believe the release is an effort in redundancy about metal. There is also a different album art for this release floating online, showcasing two iron masks – besides the other one which has a skeleton on a skull-throne. Funny how neither of them acknowledges any of the covers with an official title. How professional.

Besides their hurry to release this record that they overlooked choosing one of the titles they perhaps sent out among promo considerations, the only saving ground on this album is the vocals and a handful of songs, which in turn, are sinking, their solos wrapping them like life jackets, as they gasp for air. Their leads, for example in Survivors, provide the kick-in instinct to wade back the waters in their strain to remain afloat. It is heavy on the recurring lead to make it memorable but passable.

A lot of the songs glorify metal, so is visible how they were failing to settle on one title. It is rather a shame that in the same album, Invaders is a song that sounds very similar to Kill the Beast, the impression being written material getting distributed cross-songs wantonly, as the guitarist were composing their parts for this album. Those tracks share a penchant for the leads furthering a similar note sequence. The grooves of this album are a pinchful of stale. On a brighter day, they could be polished and make the band incorporate a viking sound to their guitar playing – they are that much close yet so far.

Headbangers’ solo has a heavy metal air to it, with its peak veering into the classic sound – they are the absolute highlights of this record, the solos. On that note, the bonus tracks are profuse with an old school production aesthetic, they sound so classic-heavy-metal-good. That production makes the songs feel so fucking old, and two feature the only instances of keys. Three bonus songs, and they are emphatic of how great the band is when not pressuring themselves for a release. Give me an EP of just this, or heck, they sound more like demo material, and it will be on a continuous loop. Of the record’s quality songs, you can take the three bonus tracks, and two or three album openers.

The bonus tracks are less of an effort to fuck with the listener by being better than other songs, and more of presenting earlier unreleased material, which was anything but polished. It is more of how solidly they were written, especially when the band had heavy metal leanings. From the length of this album, they likely put out all the recorded material, so it’s not possible some of those tasty bonus tracks were left out in the obscure colds of vaults. If it had stuck to that songwriting line, this album would have turned out way much better.

PESTILENT – PURGATORY OF PUNISHMENT

This is an inferior product. This is watered-down to the level of drowning in its mini swamp slam. It is just cover the basics, and let every sound run loose release. These descriptions are hard to pin down without the hyphenated words tugging along. I’ll avoid that. What seems to be rampant on Purgatory of Punishment is replenishing a smegma of slams followed by more slams with no fore- or afterthought.

It is obvious Pestilent are not after any artistic distinction (or any qualities along such lines) in the sea of mindless brutal death metal outpours that have seen a spike in recent years. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say brutal death metal has bested black metal in the number of one-man projects, and most equally bedroom confined, which does not bode well for quality. When Carcass were laying down the foundation of medical terms English in metal, they had zero fucking clue the floodgates they were opening. It is now a trans-genre trope with no future signs of relinquishing usage.

The drums are so triggered that some parts of them sound way too robotic. The slams follow the same pattern of downtuned slowness which feels like the guitar is being pinched dedicatedly, on repeat mode. And cymbals just smatter aimlessly to fill out the most parts of the songs. I wonder what the difference between slam like this and nu-metal is: those pinches at the guitars, and a lack of solos draw parallels. The whole rhythm is just chugged-out, while it only beats nu-metal by having more characteristic drumming.

There are tracks that show a little spice-up; Diaries of Dismemberment, with a little better drums, and that’s just about it, while Sadistic Pre-Murder Envenomation provides an instance of near off-slam riffage, and a variety of vocals. The last track teases with a few death metal licks, but never veers on what it’s hell-bent on preaching – colourless slams before the world slams to a halt. The vocals are the usual indecipherable gutturals and a dosage of pig squeals. One would have thought that in their following Promo, things would see an improvement, only they are tighter at being redundant.

You know how generic products are placed in films and other media? Like cola for any red soda, or a thoughtless website name and display page as they highlight a character web-searching? That is the actual end-result here, once you move past the cover, which was a daft effort to disguise it from the hordes of releases that scream boring, repetitive, generic brutal death metal from outlay alone. They just bought a pre-made cover and slapped it on the album, with no regards for whatever mismatch that arises. At being low-tier, they do a great job. At least mass-packaged or repackaged generic shop products don’t have their wrappers misfigured.

VULVODYNIA – MOB JUSTICE

Slam and deathcore. Sometimes the lines are blurry, never mind the two are distinct genres on their own. The current crop of slam is inherently married to deathcore much to the chagrin of older slammers. With the two interchanging aspects, they have become more or less sister genres of late. To Vulvodynia’s credit, the most they took from deathcore was the pig squeals, appropriated along the main vocals. Mob Justice is a slamming piece of bulldozer weight brutality.

Plodding through the sound quagmire, the slams obliterate much of the rocks on their path – given that in a bog, the rocks are way deeper, the slams essentially run that far below with their heaviness. Ready to turn the earth a capture-all soggy slime-pit. The title throws in the idea of a squad that passes on a judgment, which in an actual sense is an unfair set-up system since only the mob’s opinion reigns while the victim in question’s point of view is disregarded, if it even gets a chance of being voiced. Call it mob injustice. It ties to the music in a lyrical manner, with a devastating take to them in their raw honesty about social (mis)deeds, and plagues. Thought-provoking as they are, the jams convey brutal death metal bombardment.

The intro, Feast, pokes at the listener’s auditory system, readying them for a nerve-level assault. It is immediately followed by an all-out outpour of heavy and dendrite-plowing slams, which are interspersed with death metal solos. The slams act in place of the rhythms, majority of the time, that all the listener makes out is them, and vocals. The drums settle in place after a couple of listens, being a little low in the grand mix of the record.

The solos are albeit short, with the one in Blood Diamond taking a meagre forty seconds. There are three guest features, and brutal death metal is notorious for features, presenting a member each, from Malevolence, Gutalax, and The Black Dahlia Murder. Martin Matousek obliterates his appearance with a super-low guttural, it just rivals the bassist in what could be mistaken as the actual low-end. Duncan Bentley and Trevor Strnad share vocal duties on the second-best track of the album, Reclaim the Crown Part I: The Burning Kingdom. It is spastic in its leads accommodation, making it more enjoyable.

The best and the only fully lead-lead song, Echoes of the Motherland, passes along as an instrumental, generating the much-needed colour, besides the achromatic songs composed of slams, drums, and the obligatory solo – leads are few and far between. Cultural Misogyny perpetrates a putrid vocal refrain beyond the song’s half mark, catchy as hell, as it matches the slams it rides along on. It is not a bad record, but the repetitiveness of the slams can be a bit numbing.

 

At the end of the brutal day, Mob Justice satiates any and every slam deficiency, be it a day, weeks, or month old. While missing out on slam is missing out on copious loads of releases, it can be assuaged by an album such as this, since it hits at the very base of every slam requirement.

BOOZE CONTROL – THE LIZARD RIDER

Heavy metal and drinking. They have been a unanimous pair for the longest time now. Rather strange it is, that a band would choose to use a moniker wrapped in irony. The name Booze Control conjures up a mental image of some alcohol lords concerned with their subjects’ sum of beer consumption. A case of metal messiahs eager to limit or lower the intake of a drink guzzled by many listeners of the same music. Perhaps more intriguing is their sharing a country of origin (a nation widely known as the home of the biggest beer festival on the planet) with the in-your-facely named Tankard.

While they are busy confusing folks with their unlikely name, Booze Control are as musically straight as any classic heavy metal band should be. Pure rolling, take-no-prisoners riffs and rhythms. Very well executed and not lacking in any department. When they were promoting the release of this album, they teased with one single, chosen to be Gravelord. After a listen, Lead the Trail came up as another potential, if neglected single. A few listens later, few more tracks cropped up. Problem is singles are supposed to go for the jugular at the swing of a bat, not a while later. I’m not sure if I prefer the sugar rush of singles or the slow burners that tend to stay in a music library for longer. The exception here is that the single has as much staying power as the rest of the songs.

It is a no brainer that singers let the solos shine unaccompanied by vocals. The ones on display here are on a pounding rampage, without unleashing chaos. For Vera, this scenario is preceded by a sped-up rhythm section, laying a foundation for the solo to waltz to. The vocal compartment is duly executed, with an infectious melodic tinge to it, with lines complemented by awesome non word hymns – check out The Wizard. Always keeping the falsettos at a minimum, they help give an extra oomph to the few tracks they appear on. Teetering on speed, Metal Frenzy is a number lyrically dancing to unparalled excitement.

Booze Control wrote a filler-free record that trickles from top to bottom unfiltered of its enriching ingredients of melody, dips on speed, non stale vocals, okay drums, and tremendous riffs, which all make it organic and very replayable. Fans of riff-tight heavy metal need look no further, as the solos and rhythms zing off each other. It is also big in choruses, so if that is a turn on, then that is rightly served. The Lizard Rider artfully dodges the title-track sentiment, which some bands have taken to themselves to extend this right from the moniker – to album and song.

Rats in the Walls has an interesting closure which plays on alternating solos and the main rhythm.  For their heavily advertised by band name beer pre-occupations, there is none of that tackled here. No mention in any song whatsoever. Should it be any consolation, they may get played at a metal bar to remind their listeners of their name. But if it was a tongue-in-cheek name, they succeeded at pulling a few legs.

 

Much as trends are one-upping each other, there are still bands propagating the original heavy metal sound. Booze Control took a huge stride with this release, out to have fun and make a solid release while still at it. This obvious because the songs are all varied and neither is an air of strain felt emanating from any section. All well-prepared musicians, ready to deliver.