Nothing makes me feel more proud than when a local band from the Boston scene makes it. I’ve been a big fan of Fuming Mouth over the years of their growth and was pleased to find their sophomore full-length, Last Day of Sun (Nuclear Blast Records), in my bin.
The Swedish death metal scene, especially the Gothenburg-based one with quintessential names like At the Gates, Entombed, and Dark Tranquility surrounding, is indeed all-around influential; many bands heavily inspired by the Gothenburg death metal scene have emerged throughout the past years. The Minneapolis-bound Majesties is one of the said bands. With members originating from the equally groundbreaking extreme metal acts Obsequiae and Inexorum, there was born a convergence, an allied force between those two acts– which is Majesties who recently have just released their first full-length entitled Vast Reaches Unclaimed, through 20 Buck Spin.
While it seems strange to refer to a sound that has been around for over two decades as “modern”, it feels completely accurate to describe the sonic barrage of Aeon as Modern Death Metal. Renowned for keeping the intensity levels up – backed by a production to level small towns with its ripped, lean torso – for their fifth release Swedish violence-dealers have shown no relenting despite lockdown, No extra inches have been added to their waist-bands, and no sign of flabbiness added to their carb-free sensory assault.
Swedish Melodeath purveyors Soilwork are a staple of the scene. Despite never having the commercial success of In Flames nor the critical acclaim that At The Gates garnered, the band is a reliable ever-present, delivering solid albums on a regular basis.
With Verkligheten (Nuclear Blast), the band’s eleventh album, Soilwork deliver another exactly what they’re good at; a mix of shredding riffs, machine gun drumming, and a penchant for bombastic clean vocals.Continue reading
Despite being established as Death Metal stalwarts, and already perhaps even close to attaining legendary status, the road for Bloodbath has often been seemingly a little bit bumpy. Admittedly a band that wasn’t always the main priority for its various members, over their time Bloodbath has had to lurk in the shadows waiting for busy schedules of to align. With alumni from the likes of Katatonia and Opeth, and more recently Paradise Lost, it has meant live shows are a rarity and album release schedules somewhat inconsistent. However, with Katatonia now on hiatus, it feels like Bloodbath can become a more prominent concern, which certainly seems evident with the fact that The Arrow Of Satan Is Drawn (Peaceville) is quite possibly their most vibrant and strongest effort to date.Continue reading
Take three unashamed Deff Metulz heads from that most renowned city of Stockholm, give them an HM-2 pedal, a huge guitar stack, a heritage that includes Dismember, At The Gates and Entombed and, courtesy of Lawrence Mackrory, a stunning sonic assault that takes all the best aspects of Sunlight Studios merged with today’s production values of volume and clarity, and stand back and wait… for your face to be pinned to the wall behind you as the hurricane of Swedish Death Metallage assaults you with unrestrained glee. Continue reading
With former frontwoman Angela Gossow leaving the band in 2014, and uncertainty in the guitarist department since the departure of Christopher Amott, it was almost a foregone conclusion that more changes in the Arch Enemy camp lay ahead. Having already released War Eternal (Century Media) with Gossow’s replacement, former The Agonist singer Alissa White-Gluz, the band’s new album Will To Power (Century Media) marks the full-length début of former Nevermore guitar maestro Jeff Loomis. Although a hugely popular choice among fans, it does seem a little strange that lead guitarist Michael Amott should then come out so publicly, saying on one hand how perfectly Loomis fits in the band, yet on the other stating how their two styles simply don’t mesh.Continue reading
I’ve mentioned before (and will again – us writers, like bands, have our favoured phrases we come back to, like the metaphoric pooch returning to its gut-chunks), but predictability is underrated. And a bloody good thing, too, at times, because back for the fifth time of asking, and spilling their fetid guts for the baying hordes in time honoured Sunlight styled fashion, is Sweden’s Entrails with World Inferno (Metal Blade).Continue reading
The seemingly timeless Swedish death metal outfit, Entombed A.D. (yeah we still have to use the A.D. suffix), has returned with Dead Dawn (Century Media). The album has a fair balance of the faster, thrashy kind of death metal but also dabbles in the slower, doomier side as well. While I enjoy both sides of the spectrum, it is almost a best practice to have a variety of tempos across the handful of tracks that make the cut for an album anyways. Obviously there have been exceptions to that rule, but when an album comes out where all tracks are enjoyable and do not follow a single formula, you have a solid release.
At just over forty minutes, Dead Dawn had some fun tracks that I could see myself coming back to. ‘As the World Fell’ is one of the slower, heavy tracks on the album that is one of the standouts. On each repeat of the album, this song became an anticipated track to get to. The slow head bang that ensues as second nature whilst playing is a tell tale sign that I found one of my favorites. ‘Silent Assassin’ is from the other side of Entombed A.D., the fast and technical side. Most of the song has a nice d-beat feel to it that is sure to get your legs moving in a two-step formation, specifically to piss off your elitist friends. The beat does change up a bit and even hits that memorable Slayer-type beat on the bell of the ride cymbal (you know exactly which one I am talking about).
Overall I have been fairly happy listening to Dead Dawn. Instrumentally, the album is tight as can be and is for the most part, memorable. There are just times when I expected either a nice growl or maybe even a blood-curling scream, but Lars-Goran Petrov just does not have those dimensions to his vocal capabilities. I just feel there are times where someone with such vocal abilities (even if just a backing track) could really give the sound a bit more backbone. Either way, chalk this one up as another solid metal release for 2016, but nothing revolutionary.
6.0/10
TIM LEDIN
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Going on 20 years as the colossus of Japan’s extreme metal underground, Tokyo’s Coffins has shown no signs of slowing down. Boasting 4 weighty full lengths and no dearth of EPs and splits, this latest offering from Tartarus, entitled Craving To Eternal Slumber (Hammerheart America), is what we kindly refer to in the biz as “more of the same”. This is no fault however, as their œuvre has suffered from no shortage of death/doom cannonading that borrows from the crush of DM veterans Incantation, sludge impresarios Buzzov*en, and the rolling punk inflected gallop of Ilsa. I could go on, but to over-complicate Coffins’ mephitic, yet basic stew is to ovsrstuff the cauldron.
Being a short and sweet handful of songs, and the second major release featuring the new line-up, opening track ‘Hatred Storm’ charging in like a loose, and rather ticked off pachyderm. Alternating between Swedeath romps and grooving headbang sections, complete with a sweet solo by axe-cutioner and former frontman Bungo, the dynamics are set in place for the rest of the effort. The production, in following with previous LP The Fleshland, is considerably less thick and wet than it was in times past, but their sound is no less suffocating, as evidenced by the title track’s menacing, swampy lurch.
While the EP does hold up to multiple listens (I may be on my 10th now), its strengths lie primarily in the tracks that sound a bit more, for lack of better word, ” written “. The title track, despite its initial plod, picks up your attention with a sample of a man being tortured, adding a whole new dimension to this exploration of misery. Opener ‘Hatred Storm’, with its initial kick to the teeth, and the grand neckbreaker that is closer ‘Decapitated Crawl’ also hold the primary meat of interest, not to say the other tracks are at all gristle. A delectably rotten teaser, as Coffins is nothing if not infinitely industrious with their (a)musical output, and will continue sculpting new visions of horror for what I hope is another 20 years. At least.
7.5/10
SEAN PIERRE-ANTOINE