To be a gatekeeper in metal is generally frowned upon as elitist these days, to the point where my favorite Awenden / Feminazgul shirt has the phrase “impale the gatekeepers on spears and leave them posted alongside your path as a warning to others” on the back.
Tenebra – Moongazer (New Heavy Sounds / Seeing Red)
There is something evocative about the retro / occult rock of Italian quartet Tenebra that is encapsulated in a most vigorous way on the third track of Moongazer, ‘Black Lace’. A steady, spacious build from jangled, careful chords that takes its time gives room for the powerful smoke-and-whiskey vocals of Silvia to take centre stage, before a Zeppelin-esque vocal-led coda closes things out. It is not the only, nor possibly even the best, song to do this, but as a drawing together of the best elements of the Tenebra sound perhaps serves as their best showpiece. Continue reading
Trad Metal outfit Tower will release their new album, their second, Shock To The System, via Cruz Del Sur Music this November. The album was recorded in May and June at ArtifactAudio in Ridgewood, New York, with Sasha Stroud serving as co-producer and engineer. The album’s cover was created by Morgan Jesse Lappin.
Despite promising to move away from Heavy Metal in favor of a Post Punk sound in marketing materials, Lunar Shadow’s third album still features many of the band’s established quirks. The guitar tone’s lessened distortion promises a less in-your-face attitude, but the actual playing is still based around intricate sweeps and trills. The drumming also continues to mix in some aggressive fills and double bass patterns with the more upbeat rhythms while the vocal delivery still consists primarily of a shrill wail with some variation for mood.
Ghost Cult had the pleasure of catching up with Erica Stoltz of Brooklyn’s trad/stoner band Sanhedrin. They just released their excellent new album The Poisoner via the Cruz Del Sur label. Erica caught us up on the process of creating the new album, working with co-producer Colin Marston, the bands’ hands-on approach to sound recording and writing collaboratively, contrasting the classic scenes between New York and San Francisco, her lyrical inspirations and personal experiences that color the new album and much more!Continue reading
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US trad metallers Argus is releasing a new seven-inch titled “Let Now Your Heart be Troubled/Streets of Gold”, on Sunday,, April 12, 2015 via Cruz del Sur. This release is to coincide with their upcoming Roadburn Festival appearance at the 013 venue in Tilberg, Netherlands. Read the statement by the festival here.
They will also perform at the Gypsy Rose Rock and Blues Bar in Dublin, Ireland on April 10, 2015.
Pitched under the banner of Celtic Metal, Darkest Era’s second full length, Severance (Cruz del Sur), shares more with the Dark Forest’s and Slough Feg’s of this world than it does with a Cruachan or Waylander. With elements of Atlantean Kodex and Trouble prevalent, it is an album borne more of the traditional metal vein than any of the blackened folk ilk that usually fall under that description. That’s not to say there aren’t traces of black metal in their sound, but this tree is rooted in classic metal.
While vocalist Krum (anyone for Quidditch?) rightly takes plaudits for his strong, powerful clean vocals, it is the excellent dual guitars of Ade Mulgrew and Sarah Weighell that keep the ante well and truly “up” throughout with some crushing gallops. In between they flit seamlessly between clean passages and Di’anno-era Iron Maiden harmony riffs and trade-offs, before scooting back into well-crafted and heavy classic metal riffs.
‘Sorrow’s Boundless Realm’ leads the way, an acoustic build up into a blackened riff, before the anthemic ‘Songs of Gods And Men’ stirs and rouses, calling to mind more recent Primordial (they can be forgiven for stealing the middle section and solo from Thin Lizzy classic ‘Emerald’). ‘Beyond The Grey Veil’ is a slower, more considered piece, leading to a doomier outro that calls to mind New Dark Age Solstice.
Come the second half of the album, the gauntlets are off and Darkest Era tear their way home. ‘Trapped In The Hourglass’ nods to Grand Magus before we move via the fist-pumping ‘The Scavenger’ and ‘A Thousand Screaming Souls’ to round things off expertly with the heroic ‘Blood, Sand And Stone’, an epic that spirals off via a dual-guitar build into a soaring lead, with Krum trumping his previous excellent work, fully opening his diaphragm to earnestly guide the ship home.
Mixing NWOBHM and epic doom, Darkest Era’s sophomore effort is an album of stirring and impressive classic metal, and is a call to arms that deserves to be answered.
8 / 10
STEVE TOVEY