Thee Plague of Gentlemen- Primula Pestis ALBUM REVIEW

Release date: March 31st, 2005
Type: Full-length
Label: I Hate
Country: Belgium
Genre: Doom Metal

-written by NausikaDalazBlindaz of metal-archives.com

ENJOYABLE AND ENERGETIC DOOM METAL

This is pretty enjoyable doom metal from a quartet of gents from Ghent in Belgium: there's a good deep motorcycle rumble in the band's sound and the music revolves around a riff-based approach. Guitarist/vocalist Steve McMillan sounds like a mellow version of Metallica man James Hetfield: the voice is tough, gravelly and self-assured. The guy gets the lyrics out and out of the way efficiently so that the instrumentals which those TPOG fellas know are the things we're really hanging out our tongues for can get down - way, waaaay down! - to business.

The guys can plod as slowly as any other doom metal band but when the boys are suddenly overcome by the spirit of rock'n'roll, as on "The Hidden Elixir", these jolly gents go for broke tossing out riff after riff like there's no tomorrow - and sadly after the album's release there was no tomorrow for the band due to McMillan's crimes which caused TPOG to break up and reform as Serpentcult. "The Hidden Elixir" is my favourite track on the album: it's an inspired piece with very catchy riffs, melodies and guitar runs. Not far behind is "Your Love is King (Of the Dead)" which sounds very much like UK doom band Cathedral with Hetfield at the helm as vocalist and the band being energised by the choice of singer.

Perhaps TPOG aren't the most original doom metal band around and they're left far in the dust by a great many other bands in the genre but if you like energetic doom metal even with all the usual musical cliches associated with that music.

68/100

Buy here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0009XFEBS?ie=UTF8&tag=encymetatheme-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B0009XFEBS

Sunn O)))- White2 ALBUM REVIEW

Release date: June 24th, 2004
Type: Full-length
Label: Southern Lord Recordings
Country: United States
Genre: Drone/Doom Metal

-written by NausikaDalazBlindaz of metal-archives.com

TAKING THE SUNN O))) DRONE METAL IDEA TO ITS LIMIT

Superior to "White1" and sounding like it really means business, this album revels in taking the Sunn O))) drone concept to its farthest limit. The grand decleration of war sounds off in opener "Hell-O)))-Ween", a series of monumental twisty-turning guitar riffs that are actually very restrained and not at all scary. The weather changes in "bassAliens" - the withdrawn guitar scrapings bring up a dark chilly feeling and the space embracing the piece seems cold and damp. Guitar tones suggest raindrops and drones hint at mists and grey clouds drifting toward us; as the track progresses, choppy textures herald harsh winds and other disturbances in the atmosphere and beyond.

Pride of place though goes to "Decay2 [Nihil's Maw]" on which Sunn0))) men Greg Anderson and Stephen O'Malley lead their guests Rex Ritter, Joe Preston and Dawn Smithson through a bleak and windswept post-apocalyptic desert soundscape. Out of this desolation arises Attila Csihar, a prophet-shaman recently returned from the world of the dead, to utter despairing lyrics derived from the ancient Indian Vedas scriptures: they warn of the Age of Kali or Kali-yuga whose denizens' worship of materialism, worldly success and superficiality is frighteningly much like ours and whose decline and destruction surely portend our own civilisation's decay and death. Csihar's guttural sermons, dry and unemotional and conveying the impassive nature of the Hindu gods, sure do pack an almighty punch and the Sunn0)))-led musicians are wise to provide minimal backing only. Taking Csihar on board was a master-stroke and he has indeed acquitted himself well in live performances with the band.

75/100

Buy here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00026WSR0?ie=UTF8&tag=encymetatheme-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00026WSR0

Revilement- Pillars of Balance ALBUM REVIEW

Release date: December 10th, 2011
Type: Full-length
Label: Coyote Records
Country: Taiwan
Genre: Death Metal

-written by todesengel89 of metal-archives.com

Technical/brutal death metal has never really interested me, with the only band that had an impact on me being Finland's Demilich, but even then, the material was seldom revisited, since I personally prefer more straightforward old school death metal instead. Revilement, however, managed to capture my attention, being the first brutal death metal band that I encounter from Taiwan that also includes Canadian vocalist Joe Reviled, and also after being exposed to the more black metal side of the country. Pillars of Balance is the band's debut full length album, and the first personal encounter with the band's brand of death metal.

An almost disjointed riffing pattern with blistering speed greets the listener as album opener Pillars of Balance introduces first time listeners to Revilement's style, and Joe Reviled's vocals soon come in, a low gurgled growl, a goregrind style of vocals, belting out undecipherable lyrics yet making it sound as if it were a fourth instrument, along with the guitars, bass and drums, and instantly, bands such as Suffocation are brought to mind. The technicality in the band's music is obvious throughout the album, with the at times odd time signatures and almost progressive song structures that are present, along with the complex riffing of guitarist Allen and the drumming of Billy. The play on cymbals on tracks like Pillars of Balance definitely help to make the album all the more interesting, aside from the usual blasting that albums such as these contain, and his ability to easily shift between different pace and style almost make him sound machine-like, and shows his flair on the instrument. Songs like Terminal Sedation further allows Allen to display his capabilities, with the combination of quick finger-work and weird tempos.

This is not to say that the album is a complete speed-fest as the band also takes a brutal direction as well on some tracks, choosing to slow down and increase the element of heaviness in the music, like on Pity the Humans, where the whole band slows down and the entire band focusses on the intensity in the music and atmosphere. On songs like Terminal Sedation and Tail Devouring Serpent, the band also manages to create a feeling of unease in the listener, with the slow buildup to a climax towards the end of the song, and Path of Apophis even includes an acoustic guitar introduction, and contains some of the more melodic moments on the album. The production quality of the album is also sufficiently raw and even slightly hollow, though not to the extent where clipping becomes immediately obvious and everything becomes nothing but mud, and this helps in making the album sound all the more authentic and organic, and less sterile at the same time. Despite so, each and every instrument is clearly audible on the album, even the rumbling bass of Vic that runs beneath the chaos of Allen's guitars and Billy's drums.

Also included on the album are re-recordings of the tracks on the band's previous EP, Human Vivisection, giving listeners a taste of material that the band wrote earlier in their career, with a seemingly higher focus on speed more than anything else and a heightened sense of urgency compared to their newer songs, though the technicality and brutality of the band is also present. Overall, Pillars of Balance is an enjoyable album for fans of technical and brutal death metal, and places them on the map of Asian death metal, along with bands like Japan's Defiled.

80/100

Antaeus- De Principii Evangelikum ALBUM REVIEW

Release date: September 23rd, 2002
Type: Full-length
Label: Osmose Productions
Country: French
Genre: Black Metal

-written by NausikaDalazBlindaz of metal-archives.com

SOLID MAELSTROM ATTACK ON INSTITUTIONAL RELIGION

Antaeus write quite sophisticated lyrics that revolve around traditional Christian repression of the self and the release of that self into Satanic embrace and presumably spiritual freedom and purification through self-mutilation. Indeed an earlier album the band released which some rate as Antaeus' best was quite explicit about its aims in its title "Cut Your Flesh and Worship Satan". The album under review is raw and brutal with a strong beefy sound, an emphasis on blast beats and militaristic guitar riffing, and deep vocals that stand out in the mix as opposed to most BM releases in which the singing usually fights to be heard above the maelstrom. The tracks are fast and short with clipped playing and the lyrics are usually straightforward and frank in their apocalyptic vision. Clocking in at just under 30 minutes, the album is best appreciated in its entirety and the songs could be seen as chapters in the one epic as they pass very quickly in a blur.

The music is best described as a mixture of death metal and black metal: death metal comparisons can be made with respect to the rhythms and the emphasis on riffing at the expense of melody; on the other hand, the black metal influence is obvious in the blizzard-like barrage of strings and the lack of lead guitar melody lines. The overall impression is of a solid maelstrom attack of hate and loathing aimed at institutional religion and its propaganda that enjoins self-abasement, self-loathing, passivity and acceptance of a highly authoritarian hierarchy thirsting for power and influence and unwilling to accept responsibility for the psychological damage it inflicts on vulnerable people. It's interesting how black metal became a forum for debate about religion and philosophy in France and this inquiry might acccount for the fearsome reputation French black metal bands enjoy.

80/100

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00006G9UC?ie=UTF8&tag=encymetatheme-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00006G9UC

Solar Anus- Skull Alcoholic - The Complete Solar Anus ALBUM REVIEW

Release date: 2006
Type: Compilation
Label: tUMULt
Country: Japan
Genre: Psychedelic Sludge Metal/Rock

-written by NausikaDalazBlindaz of metal-archives.com

SOLAR ANUS RUNS ARE MORE CONSTIPATED THAN FLOWING

Double set consisting of three albums released over 1997 to 2000, this features quite good music but I fiind it hit-and-miss and as the compilation progresses, the album loses inspiration and becomes very mechanical. The Solar Anus modus operandi combines doom metal and stoner hard rock with an irreverent attitude to create heavy riff-driven music, minimalistic in form and style and occasionally showing off good melodies and guitar runs, striving to achieve a transcendental spiritual state with the self-important pomposity of organised religion. A carefree attitude to the pleasures of sex and other body functions and the celebration of these features as a major theme - as if you couldn't guess from the elaborate packaging and the sleeve art of all three albums reproduced in the CD booklet!


30/100

Make a Change... Kill Yourself- Self-titled ALBUM REVIEW

Release date: June 23rd, 2005
Type: Full-length
Label: Total Holocaust Records
Country: Denmark
Genre: Black Metal/Ambient

-written by NausikaDalazBlindaz of metal-archives.com

BEGINS WELL BUT LOSES AGGRESSION AND BITE

A dirgey and solemn funereal doom black metal offering from this delightfully named project of three Danish musicians, this album starts off well on a very solid sonic footing with tremolo guitars pounding out repetitive riff after repetitive riff at a steady pace but as the recording progresses and passes through passages of keyboard-based tones and melodies, it starts to lose its edge and aggression and the vokills, especially the male ones, seem much less menacing than they should be. (Quite possibly because the person singing the childish lyrics isn't the same person who wrote them.) The sound is quite good but the slow pace dulls the impact and power of the music and the singing gets lost in the long drawn-out riffs.

I am really ambivalent about having female vokills on this kind of depressive BM; sure, Demonica has a lovely sweet voice but it's at odds with music that should be misanthropic and seething with animosity towards life. Some of the keyboard passages don't seem original and I keep thinking I've heard them elsewhere on a long-forgotten Swedish goth industrial CD from way back when, when I used to buy a whole load of Cold Meat Industry label releases. Bands and one-man projects specialising in themes self-hate and despair and American bands in particular have cornered this part of the BM spectrum very well - which does not say a great deal that's positive about life in the US of A these days - so this Danish group has its work cut out with regard to developing a more sophisticated and thoughtful lyrical approach and injecting a lot more hate and venom to compensate for the pace. When music is slow as this is, you risk losing momentum and listeners' attention.

Oh well, if Make a Change ... Kill Yourself don't succeed in their chosen field, they could always do work for an advertising agency whose clients are in the self-help publishing industry.


50/100


Buy here: http://www.blackscaped.de/product_info.php?ref=7&products_id=3163&affiliate_banner_id=1

Cormorant- Dwellings ALBUM REVIEW

Release date: December 6th, 2011
Type: Full-length
Label: Self-released/Independent
Country: United States
Genre: Progressive Folk/Black Metal

-written by todesengel89 of metal-archives.com

USA's Cormorant's past releases have caught the extreme metal scene by storm, with their debut EP and full-length album garnering critical acclaim through their unique fusion of various different extreme metal sub-genres. Dwellings sees the band continue in the direction where they have set off from, and their appreciation of different kinds of art-forms is evident from their album artwork, which incidentally was the first thing that caught my attention and piqued my curiousity regarding the music behind the artwork.

The opening riffs of The First Man already displays the folk influences that are present on the band's music, before the vocals of Arthur come in, with almost a sense of frenzy in his vocals, spitting out the lyrics to the songs with much rage and fury, but as the album progresses this makes him seem to only put on a false aggressive front, though this is certainly not something to complain about with the brilliance of the music that one is about to discover. Despite the pace that the band travels at, there is a weird sense of calm and peacefulness in the music as well that is displayed through the melodies of the songs. Unlike many other bands of similar genres, there is not much gain on the guitar, lacking the bite that most extreme metal bands utilise, but this helps in making the softer and more melodic passages on Dwellings more soothing and sincere. Vocalist Arthur also utilises different vocal approaches, depending on and adapting to what is going on in the background, ranging from extreme metal-styled growls and screams to clean vocals and whispers. The clean vocals that are present on songs like Funambulist remind listeners of such French bands as Amesoeurs and Alcest, with the pleasing vocal quality.

The music on Dwellings, as already mentioned, is mostly soothing and at times border on epic and atmospheric. For example, on Funambulist, the band takes a slowdown, focussing on producing a huge wall of sound with an almost fuzzy guitar tone. This is not to say that there aren't heavy moments on the album though, as songs like Junta sees the band slowing down their music even further to a doom-pace, with heavily palm-muted riffs and hard hits on the drums, displaying the heavier side of Cormorant. There are also slightly more upbeat moments on tracks like A Howling Dust as well.

Throughout the album, the various instruments are also noticed to be made use of fully, especially the rhythmic instruments such as the bass of Arthur, with the softer segments seeing the bass taking over the lead role. The guitar solos also seem to take the role of bringing out and accentuating the emotional aspects of the music, with the soaring tone of the guitars, and guitarists Matt and Nick letting their instruments wail, at times sounding as if they were mourning the passing of a close friend. Drummer Brennan displays his versatility as well, through the band's rapid switching between fast and slower moments, incorporating odd time signatures at the same time, yet never missing a single beat. The band's abilities on their instruments is perhaps most evident on the instrumental Confusion of Tongues.

The strength of the band's songwriting is such that even long tracks that range in the 10 minute region such as Funambulist and Unearthly Dreamings never fail to entertain and keep listeners enchanted, not only through the variations in the musical style in a single song, but also through the charismatic execution of the track, and the perfect amount of emotions that they have included in their music. With music as strong as such on Dwellings, it leaves one wondering why bands like Cormorant remained unsigned by major labels, but it could just as well remain so, considering the quality of the work that the band has managed to put out so far on their own, putting many other more recognised and more experienced bands to shame.

90/100