Space Vacation - melodic metal from California

Space Vacation

White Hot Reflection

Pure Steel Records

April 29th 2022

The melodic traditional band Space Vacation (California, U.S.) is now on its fifth album since its 2008 formation. If the question is, what is most ear-friendly melodic heavy metal in 2022? The answer might be Space Vacation, a type of European-U.S. sound combination of Priest/Scorpions/Maiden and Van Halen/Night Ranger/Sammy Hagar/Y & T. The choruses and singing style are closer to Night Ranger, which is to say that it is exceedingly easy on the ears. The guitar playing is mostly traditional melodic riffs and solos and some shredding. Speaking of Night Ranger, Space Vacation has a song called “Don’t Say It,” which could function as a cousin song to the classic arena hit “Don’t Tell Me You Love Me.”

The album is 13 tracks in one hour, and of those, 12 are songs and another track is a Van Halen-style nice, gentle tapping track called “Sleep Tight.” The guitar player could probably do a solo album of songs like that every month. It’s a short two-minute fun little number, not a song.

Space Vacation is classic-rock-based melodic metal, generally speaking. However, listeners should be warned about some of the lyrics like the opening song “Reign in Hell” or “Being Evil,” which makes them seem like a pro-devil and pro-hell band. Such lyrics may be a turnoff for people who want “fun metal,” not “some jailbird creep who works at Walgreens” telling them about the power of Satan. (To which those people will reply, “If Satan is so powerful, then why does your little band have only 11 people, including your girlfriends, at the local bar when you play a show? Why is Satan not helping y’all to rule the world?”.) Most of Space Vacation lyrics seem ok, and some are even funny in a good way, like on the song “Middle Ages,” with its golden oldies rock vibe singing about a middle-aged person taking pills, going to bed on schedule and being tired all the time. What American mom would not identify with those lyrics about mental and physical exhaustion, right?!

To end, Space Vacation is solid, full of good songs. The melodic, gentle, soft-on-the-ears singing helps.

SPACE VACATION - Reign in Hell (Official Video)

Middle Ages

https://www.facebook.com/spacevacationmusic/

Dead Head - long-running thrash/death from Holland

Dead Head

Slave Driver

Hammerheart Records

29.04.2022

In 1989 the Dutch exporters of fury began by recording two songs “Rites of Kandar” and “I, Tormentor” in what can be described as raging thrash, in a tight, compact, high-speed iteration of Kreator metal. Think of the Kreator songs “Ripping Corpse,” “Pleasure to Kill,” and “Under the Guillotine” and that’s the type of “thrash” that Deadhead had in mind. Decades later after demos, EPs and other recordings, now with a total of seven studio albums (including this one), their music remains aimed at thrash fanatics. The drummer Hans Spijker (1989-1992, 1995-present) believes in playing fast. The guitarists Robbie Woning (1989-present) and Ronnie Vanderwey (1989-present) riff and shred like nobody’s business. The vocalist nowadays is Ralph de Boer (bass, vocals) (2008-2011, 2021-present), given that Tom van Dijk (bass, vocals) (1989-1999, 2003-2008, 2012-2021) is no longer a member of the band.

This new album (ten songs in 46 minutes) is what thrashers and long-time fans expect from this band: headbanging, shredding intense songs. One interesting thing that they are doing on the album is the moderate, limited use of tempo changes. In some spots, they slow the pace from frenetic thrashing to something closer to death metal. They show that they can play some less-than-frenzied moods, but they prefer to keep it as a tertiary element used with a purpose, and not as a recurring formula. Headbanging songs remains the number one priority. That, after decades of music, is worth the time of the rabid thrash zealots the world over.

Dead Head - Acolyte (Official Video)

https://www.facebook.com/Deadheadthrash

Mangog - doom lifers from Maryland, U.S.

Mangog

Economic Violence

Argonauta Records

June 25th, 2021

I missed the boat on this 2021 album by Maryland, U.S. doomsters Mangog. It is their fourth release overall after an EP, an album, another EP and now this album. The band has been active since 2014, but the members are lifers of the scene. The band is led by Bert Hall, Jr., who has been doing the doom craft since 1988, starting with the cult band Revelation.

Mangog is all about traditional doom, almost like if you can imagine the pioneers of heavy rock (Cream, Blue Cheer, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Mountain, Sir Lord Baltimore, Iron Butterfly and all those bands) doing their heavy rock thing in 2022 and you’d have a good idea of these ten tracks in 51 minutes. Some of it is just heaviness, while other parts are a bit more psychedelic, and other segments are bluesier, but it all makes sense as Mangog, giving the die-hard fanatics the sound of a band playing its instruments, not the sound of computer software metal. It’s heavy, with that blues rock edge and grit. The singing is that blue-collar-man singing out his joys and frustrations in life, with a declared sympathy for the working masses struggling to survive under the brutality of the capitalist ruling class and its government. This is pretty much what you’d expect from Bert and company: some quality doom with real-life lyrics.

Economic Violence by Mangog-official page

https://www.facebook.com/MangogOfficial/

Laverno - death metal from Venezuela

The Venezuelan death metal band Laverno is back in action. They say that they have five members and that they all live in Venezuela. They were active between 1992 and 1998 doing shows with bands like DEATH MORTOR, HEX, NOXIOUS, DEMISE, POSTMORTEM, CRUXIFICTION, METALEPCIA, MANIFESTO, EPIDEMIA, TRAUMA, ABADDON, CENTURION, EPITAPHIO, KRUEGER, NECROPCIA, LEVITICO, CROSS OF IRON, BLASPHEMY, TRIFIXION, INQUISITION, REBELION and others. They continued again in 2015 and have been doing shows with: OVERGROUND, FLESH ROTTEN INGESTED, PREDATOR, BIOWARFARE, MORTUORIUM, VALLIUM 100KD, SACRIFICE, ASHTAR SHERAN, CLERIGO EN FUEGO, KHARMA, PERISHING, NOCTURNAL HOLLOUW, VIL HEX, EXARIGON, LA BANDA QUE NO JUEGA, MORPHIN LIPZ, WITHOUS SOUL, and others. They have a 2018 EP called "Regreso a la absolución" (Return to absolution) and it is available at their Youtube channel and at Soundcloud. The band is: Carlos Luis Solórzano and Marcos Alfano on guitars, Hernán Sequera on drums, Jacob Gouverneur does the growling and Jorge Rodríguez is on bass.

The EP is three songs of headbanging death metal in the old-school way. This is not melodic music, but the solos do have a bit of melody. The rhythm or pace of the songs is about the same as thrash, but the music is a bit heavier and with growling, of course. They say that they are working on a new EP that will be called El mar de los cangrejos muertos (The sea of dead crabs). Fans of old-school death may enjoy the direct, no-nonsense approach displayed on the 2018 recording. I have not heard the new music, but if it’s similar to their previous work, it should be a fun listen.

Laverno - EP - Regreso a la absolución (full album)

https://soundcloud.com/lavernovzla

https://www.facebook.com/lavernovzla

Noisgoroth - blasting black metal for Christianity

Noisgoroth seems to be work of one Kenneth "Nattesorg" Holsen, who appears to have done lots of solo metal projects. Specifically, Noisgoroth is blasting black metal, one fast song after another, in the prototypical style of the guitar work associated with the genre. The lyrics do not seem to be available on Bandcamp, but the project is associated with the Christian label Annihilated Pentagram Productions, which features Noisgoroth as one of the entities on the roster. Anyway, it is fast extreme metal for constant headbanging. It is meant for the songs to be in the same style, and on Facebook this is called "monotonous black metal." This is for when only fast black metal will do.

Laid His Mountains and His Heritage [black] by Noisgoroth

https://www.facebook.com/noisgoroth/

Catacomb - old French atmospheric death metal lives again

CATACOMB

Back to Unknown Kadath

XENOKORP

18 March 2022

Catacomb originally was demo-level 1990s death, active from 1990 to 1994. They were active again for 1997 to 2003. The French entity is at it again from 2018 to the present, according to Metal Archives. Including this new EP, there have been some seven demos and EPs. This EP is a re-recording of their 1993 demo called In the Maze of Kadath. The old recording is available on YouTube. It is a good demo of atmospheric uptempo death, but listeners are not able to hear fully what the band was trying to do, given the low quality of the recording.

Catacomb knows this. This is why they felt the need to go back and do a new version with the knowledge, experience and skills that they have now. The result is substantially better in sound quality. From the old recording only two members remain: Benjamin Bussy on bass and vocals and Anthony Derycke on guitars, and no drummer appears to be credited, although the drumming does not sound like real drums, which a weakness of this recording. Nowadays people would say that this is old-school 1980s/early 90s ominous, sinister atmospheric uptempo death, the same style as the demo. The vocals are all low, brutal growling, while the riffs fly about every which way and offering melodic flavorings. The keyboards are important to smooth the harsh, heavy feel. Essentially, they have revived songs that they felt were good compositions but were hindered by the low quality of the recording. Maybe this is a sign that new music is on the way?!

https://www.xenokorp.com/product-category/artist/catacomb/

Stream it on all platforms https://artists.landr.com/692531312389

Back to Unknown Kadath by CATACOMB

https://www.xenokorp.com/product-category/artist/catacomb/

CATACOMB "Back to Unknown Kadath" [Full Album HD]

https://www.facebook.com/CatacombCult/

in Everett this Friday: Rat King, Born Without Blood, Alum Occulta, Effluvia

This extreme metal show will take place this coming Friday in Everett.

THIS FRIDAY AT 8 PM

Rat King, Born Without Blood, Alum Occulta, Effluvia

Night Adder Productions - Tony Vs Garage

https://www.facebook.com/events/1051831915374874?acontext=%7B%22event_action_history%22%3A[%7B%22surface%22%3A%22page%22%7D]%7D

https://www.facebook.com/ratkingseattle/

Void Dancer - Washington state melodeath debut album April 22

Washington state melodic death band Void Dancer has announced that on April 22nd they will have the debut full-length called Prone Burial. The album is a follow-up to their first official recording from 2020, the self-titled EP. Right now they have a song available on Bandcamp and it is called "Utopian Sprawl." Below is said song and also the 2020 EP in case that you may be interested in hearing more of their music by hearing what they have done previously.

Prone Burial by Void Dancer

Void Dancer EP by Void Dancer

https://www.facebook.com/VoidDancerBand/

Falamh - melodic black metal from North Bay, Ontario, Canada

Here is something that I have been checking out recently. They have a 2020 EP and this new one, and both have a rather raw feel and the drum sound seems a bit muffled, and a bit stiff, like drum sampling, resulting in a sound quality not as clear and powerful as the band would want. Yet, despite this issue, it is a pretty good EP (4 full songs in 24 minutes). It is mostly midtempo/uptempo (but not blasting) melodic extreme metal, mostly in the style of traditional, melodic, tremolo black metal with strong growling in the lower register (for black metal) and not too much shrieking. In addition, sometimes the guitar sounds similar to melodic death metal, so there is a feeling that there is some of that in there. There is some clean guitar and some passages in which they go into brief mellower moods, perhaps like more melancholic in feel. They are in that good musical place in which they have some variety in their music, but they are keeping everything balanced. There are headbanging moments, of course, but some other moods. In short, audiences looking for some new classic-style melodic extreme metal may want to consider taking a look at this Canadian band from Ontario.

Aeons Effigy by Falamh

https://www.facebook.com/Falamhband