review: Aberration -- cavernous claustrophobic doom death from the Land of Ten Thousand Lakes

Aberration

Aberration

Sentient Ruin Laboratories

January 15 2021

Even though this publication is unable to reveal the identities of the illusionist-contortionists behind Aberration, the Department of Propaganda subdivision of the Ministry of Reeducation from extraterrestrial feudal overlords Sentient Ruin Laboratories has grudgingly released general details that this cacophony involves “members of Void Rot, Suffering Hour, Tvaer, and Nothingness.” That right there, dear reader, for those so inclined, is information that can be pursued at Metal Archives. Aberration is that cavernous death that has recently been spewing out of Minnesota, U.S., involving a specific inner circle of people. It is minimalistic, low-growling indecipherable death that crawls like the slowest death doom only to speed up to black/death velocities. The guitar at times chugs like you chug when you chug with the best of them, for those whole-body headbobbing motions, as you can hear for yourself on track “II.” There are three songs: “I” (06:09), “II” (03:16), and “III” (05:18), working a monolithic, hypnotic effect that happens after entering this one-way cave of heaviness in simplicity. It starts to sound like one whole recording with a couple of pauses in between, and not as separate songs. Aberration is new death but it has the intentions of old hearts at work. The production, heaviness, vocals, density, the blurry fogginess is something that old-school fans might enjoy. To those fans, Aberration might sound like Autopsy recording in their garage some covers of early Incantation, or like Immolation using Autopsy's recording garage to record some Autopsy-Immolation mashup covers. A solid three songs.

Aberration by Aberration

review: Faithful Breath (Germany) -- classic party Viking metal from the 1980s

Faithful Breath

Skol (Re-Release)

High Roller Records

22.01.2020

If we’re talking about classic rock from Germany, here in the U.S. fans think of Scorpions, and to a lesser extent, Accept. Of course, in the 1980s in Germany there were many classic-style bands (the super new trend called thrash also had attracted many younger bands and fans). Faithful Breath is one of those names that dedicated fans of 1980s legacy German party heavy metal should have in their collection if they don't already: tons of fun, big riffs, a cool rhythm section, an attractive, strong singing voice, and those super catchy songs that stayed in the memory long after the needle lifted from the vinyl. If you want party heavy metal, in the same vibe as mid 80s Scorpions, Accept, Judas Priest, Saxon, and Def Leppard (pre-1987), that radio-friendly heavy rock, Faithful Breath is exactly that. This album from 1985, and its predecessor Gold 'n' Glory from 1984, are some of the best material that the band ever did.

Like Scorpions, Priest or Accept, the Faithful Breath musicians labored through the 1970s, and their history actually began before the 1970s. They went through their prog period (see the enjoyable album Back on My Hill from 1980], but beginning in 1981 their music became fun party heavy metal with Viking imagery. That’s this album here. Unfortu-nately, some things must have been going wrong: Did the German rock press reject this band? Did the band feel uncomfortable with their stadium anthem metal style? Did the German fans mock this band (the metal youth were jumping on the thrash trend, after all)? Whatever the problems were, in the late 80s Faithful Breath changed their name to Risk, and they became a thrash band with typical thrash lyrics with newspa-per-like topics. Risk, of course, was good, faster, tighter, more serious, but the fun party metal was gone. Eventually, in the 1990s Risk would also end after some five albums. It’s a shame that Faithful Breath/Risk could not figure out how to keep things together. (As an aside, this listener likes Risk’s The Daily Horror News [1988] and Dirty Surfaces [1990], for a melodic type of thrash.)

(When Faithful Breath/Risk called it quits for good (around 1993, it seems), they already had at least 11 studio full-length albums to their name, and more than 20 years of history. If they had found a way to keep going, being proud of their whole history and playing all their music from the different periods, as a band that was there even before heavy metal was called heavy metal, can you imagine what their status would be now?!!)

Anyway, coming back to this 1985 album right here, if you want the 1980s good times, whether it's Saxon, Scorpions or Van Halen, this one and 1984's Gold 'n' Glory reflect the time when Faithful Breath was the party.

[see the High Roller Records for the info] https://www.hrrshop.de/FAITHFUL-BREATH-Skol-LP-BLACK_1

[this link is here for informational purposes so that you hear what this sounds like] Faithful Breath - 1985 - Skol (FULL ALBUM) [Heavy Metal/Hard Rock]

review: CB3 -- instrumental psychedelic space doom

CB3

Live Sessions

The Sign Records

15 January 2021

CB3 (Charlotta's Burning Trio) has a live session recording (with videos) comprised of three songs from 2020’s studio album Aeons: "Acid Haze" (12:15), "Sonic Blaze" (8:11), and "Warrior Queen" (7:37). The guitar sound is a contemporary heavy, fuzzed out tone, like today's version of late 1960s doom heaviness pioneered by Blue Cheer and the later New Yardbirds/early Led Zeppelin and heavy bands after them: a warm, psychedelic heaviness. This has a super clean sound quality, booming bass guitar grooves and clear drum sound. As an example, the first song is total space doom travelling, and then towards the end of the guitar solo, the tempo picks up for some headbanging that would make all doom fans fans smile. The last portion of the song comes back to the slow mammoth jam filled out with some background sounds of something like an astronomy documentary. In the videos of these songs it looks like the bass player is responsible for the pedal sounds of psychedelia, suspense, white noise and astronomy. Anyway, without any vocals to annoy the listener, the Swedish trio is psychedelic contemporary doom.

Lineup; Charlotta Andersson - guitar; Pelle Lindsjö - bass; Natanael Salomonsson - drums.

CB3 - ACID HAZE (Aeons Live Session)

CB3 - SONIC BLAZE (Aeons Live Session)

Aeons by CB3 (Official)

https://www.facebook.com/charlottasburningtrio

Throwback Thursday: Sound Barrier (USA) -- taking it back to 1983's Total Control

If you are interested in old heavy metal from decades ago, you might be interested in Sound Barrier from California, USA. Metal Archives says:

"The band was formed in 1980 and some time later they recorded a four track demo that lead them to sign with MCA, who released their first album, Total Control, in 1983. It had a lot of funk/blues fusion with metal, but it did not sell as MCA expected and they were dropped.

In 1984, the band released the Born to Rock EP through their own independent label, Pitbull Records. In 1986, they signed with Metal Blade and the Speed of Light album was released with more heavy metal influences in its sound.

After the release of the album, Spacey T. decided to leave and Venetian-born guitarist Alex Masi took his place. Shortly afterward, Emil Lech joined Joshua Perahia and the band collapsed. The remaining members followed Masi to record his solo project."

If you like old heavy metal, you already know that people will have their opinions and whatnot. The important thing is to listen for yourself in a serious way. Everyone is a critic and often people don't even bother to listen to the full album before they react and declare that they know what they are talking about. That's fine, of course. People do what they do. However, the whole 1983 album is available online and there's really no reason not to listen to the entire work and see if it strikes your fancy. You might surprise yourself! By the way, just in case you are wondering: This is not a "funk" album. It is heavy metal music.

The band is active nowadays and you can keep up with them at the Facebook page below.

Sound Barrier- Total Control (FULL ALBUM) 1983

https://www.facebook.com/SBround4/?ref=page_internal

Skelator (Washington state, USA)

ABOUT: Started in San Diego in 1998 by a band of nerdy teenagers trying to rip off Slayer's "Show No Mercy" to a tea then grown up and moved to Seattle to rip off Manowar and kill posers where ever they lie.

Cyber Metal by Skelator

https://www.facebook.com/TrueSkelator

Skarp (Washington state, USA)

Skarp is extreme punk.

Bury Your Dead by Skarp

https://www.facebook.com/Skarp-Official-132362343496066/?ref=page_internal

Six Gun Quota (Washington state, USA)

It looks like this heavy rock band is based in the Tricities area, Washington.

Six Gun Quota "A Means To An End" (OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO)

https://soundcloud.com/user-372381303

https://www.facebook.com/SixGunQuotaBand/?ref=page_internal

Six Days of Darkness (Washington state, USA)

For this death metal band Metal Archives shows only a recording from 2012 called Katharsis, and they do not seem to be active anymore.

Six Days Of Darkness - Rising From The Ground

https://www.facebook.com/SixDaysOfDarkness

review: Dread Sovereign -- swampy old metal featuring Primordial vocalist Nemtheanga

Dread Sovereign

Alchemical Warfare

Metal Blade Records

15 January 2021

"That's Venom's 'Don't Burn the Witch’!'" was the immediate thought upon hearing the opening riff of the seventh song "Devil's Bane." The opening riff is rather similar to the one starting at 00:24 in Venom. Then, the last song "You Don't Move Me" is a Bathory cover, which is to say, it is a Venom cover separated by one degree of Quorthon.

Dread Sovereign features vocalist Nemtheanga who is known for fronting the long-running and critically acclaimed Primordial, a band that was extreme metal until about 2002, and after that they have become known for slower, more melodic, doom-leaning, kind of folky, moody music. Dread Sovereign, on the other hand, is an oppor-tunity to make some politically incorrect metal in which a doomed out guitar tone plays uptempo goes from doom to heavy to extreme, in a big bundle of swampy old metal. This is not Primordial’s "Professor Nemtheanga" doing a dissertation on ancient Irish history as he known for, but more like "some Irish dude named Alan" rocking out at a bar on a Tuesday night living his best life ever and giving all the seven people pre-sent the best time that they could hope for at the local pub in the middle of the week. Dread Sovereign is kind of asking, "Hey, yo, what up, West Virginia?! It’s Tuesday night, my babiessss! Y'all like Venom, Bathory, Sabbath, The Exploited, Motorhead, Crowbar, Candlemass, GBH and all that old stuff? Well, we hope so, ‘cause we about to get up on it!"

You, the person at the bar, are thinking: "Hey, it's Tuesday night, I like Motorhead, and Venom's alright, and who doesn't like Sabbath?! Maybe these guys can entertain me tonight." So, then, your answer goes up, in a metal yell, "Yeahhhhhh!"

The Bathory cover is super low IQ punk metal, politically incorrect, and obscene. It's a good time, unless you are super uptight politically and stuff. Just beware: there is doom in here, so it's not all fast punk metal. Dread Sovereign has a little bit of everything, something for the west end girls, something for the east end boys.

Alchemical Warfare by Dread Sovereign

Throwback Thursday -- Aenygmist (Québec, Canada) melodic black 2005-2012

Below is the 2010 album Creation Born of Trauma. This is the only recording listed on Metal Archives. The music may be of interest to fans of lesser-known melodic black metal. It is not a demo; not a demo quality recording, by the way. The sound quality is rather good, in case that there are concerns about that.

Creation Born Of Trauma by Aenygmist

Throwback Thursday -- Znöwhite thrashing in the 1980s

Below is the debut EP from 1984. Also, below it there is a video of the band performing live, but the sound is of very bad quality so it's not really possible to hear the music well. It is included here for informational purposes.

Wikipedia: Znowhite or Znöwhite were an American thrash/speed metal band who have been credited for helping to pioneer thrash metal in Chicago, Illinois, United States. In 1982, the heavy metal band Znowhite was founded by two African American brothers, guitarist Ian Tafoya and drummer Sparks Tafoya (real names Greg Fulton and Tony Heath), along with cousin Nicky Tafoya (real name Curtis Fulton) on bass. Nicole Lee (real name Sue Sharp) joined the group soon after as lead vocalist. The band originally performed under the title Snowhite, but later replaced the S with a Z. They independently released their three-song flexi disc which featured the song "Hellbent". This caught the attention of Metal Blade Records founder Brian Slagel. On the strength of the recording Znowhite landed a spot on volume three of the Metal Massacre compilation, which helped give them some exposure.

After Znowhite's initial success, Nicole, Ian, and Sparks decided to replace then bassist Amp Dawg. In 1985, Scott Schafer joined Znowhite taking over the bass duties. Four years of grueling back-to-back tours of America and Canada produced the independently released live album Live Suicide. Back in their hometown of Chicago the band started work on what would be the last Znowhite release, their magnum opus, Act of God. Toward the end of the recording sessions Nicole Lee made the decision to leave Znowhite. Act of God was released in 1988 through Roadrunner Records. An extensive American tour followed the album's release and featured Sentinel Beast vocalist Debbie Gunn (real name Debbie Gunderson) and drummer John Slattery - formerly of the band Tools Of Ignorance. Gunn left after the tours due to health issues. Fulton, Schafer, and Slattery went on to form Cyclone Temple[3] When Cyclone Temple disbanded Fulton, Schafer, and Fulton's brother, former Znowhite drummer Tony Heath, formed a new group named Rebels Without Applause. Gunn went on to sing for the group Ice Age[5] and, later, to reform Sentinel Beast.

Live for the Weekend Single 1983

Demo '83 Demo 1983

Demo '83 (#2) Demo 1983

All Hail to Thee Full-length 1984

Kick 'em When They're Down EP 1985

Live Suicide Live album 1986

Act of God Full-length 1988

Znöwhite - All Hail To Thee (full 1984)

Znöwhite - Live at Blondies, Detroit, Michigan 15 May 1988

Throwback Thursday -- Suicidal Tendencies oldie but goodie thrash times

Below are two old videos from Suicidal Tendencies, and some other links for more information if desired.

Wikipedia: Suicidal Tendencies are an American hardcore punk band formed in 1980 in Venice, California, by vocalist Mike Muir, who is the only remaining original member of the band. Along with D.R.I., Corrosion of Conformity, and Stormtroopers of Death, they are often credited as one of "the fathers of crossover thrash". Their current lineup includes Muir, guitarists Dean Pleasants and Ben Weinman, bassist Ra Díaz and drummer Dave Lombardo. Notable musicians who have contributed to the band's studio or live activities include guitarists Rocky George and Mike Clark, bassists Louiche Mayorga, Robert Trujillo, Josh Paul and Stephen "Thundercat" Bruner, and drummers Amery Smith, Jimmy DeGrasso, Brooks Wackerman, David Hidalgo Jr., Thomas Pridgen and session musician Josh Freese.

Suicidal Tendencies have released thirteen studio albums (four of which are composed of re-recorded or previously released material), two EPs, four split albums, four compilation albums, and two long-form videos. The band achieved their first success with their 1983 self-titled debut album; it spawned the single "Institutionalized", which was one of the first hardcore punk videos to receive substantial airplay on MTV. After releasing one new song on the split release Welcome to Venice (1985) and their second studio album Join the Army (1987), Suicidal Tendencies were signed to Epic Records in 1988, and continued their commercial success with its next three albums, How Will I Laugh Tomorrow When I Can't Even Smile Today (1988), Controlled by Hatred/Feel Like Shit...Déjà Vu (1989) and Lights...Camera...Revolution! (1990); the latter two were certified Gold by the RIAA. Their 1992 follow-up album The Art of Rebellion was another success, and included three of their biggest hits "Asleep at the Wheel", "Nobody Hears" and "I'll Hate You Better".

After releasing two more studio albums (Still Cyco After All These Years and Suicidal for Life), the band broke up and severed ties from Sony and Epic in 1995. However, they reunited a year later and have continued to perform and record since then. After over a decade of work and many lineup changes, Suicidal Tendencies released their eleventh studio album with all-new material, 13, in 2013, followed three years later by World Gone Mad (2016); both albums were well-received by critics, and considered comebacks for Suicidal Tendencies. Their most recent releases are the EP Get Your Fight On! and an album featuring unreleased and re-recorded material Still Cyco Punk After All These Years, both released in 2018. The band is currently working on new material for the follow-up to World Gone Mad.

DISCOGRAPHY:

Suicidal Tendencies (1983)

Join the Army (1987)

How Will I Laugh Tomorrow When I Can't Even Smile Today (1988)

Controlled by Hatred/Feel Like Shit...Déjà Vu (1989)

Lights...Camera...Revolution! (1990)

The Art of Rebellion (1992)

Still Cyco After All These Years (1993)

Suicidal for Life (1994)

Freedumb (1999)

Free Your Soul and Save My Mind (2000)

No Mercy Fool!/The Suicidal Family (2010)

13 (2013)

World Gone Mad (2016)

Still Cyco Punk After All These Years (2018)

Suicidal Tendencies - You Can't Bring Me Down (Official Video)

Suicidal Tendencies - Trip at the Brain

Suicidal Tendencies by Suicidal Tendencies

Freedumb by Suicidal Tendencies

https://www.facebook.com/suicidaltendencies

Hail to Azerbaijan: Gatteria; Goat Ripper; Pyraweed

Here are three bands from Azerbaijan: Gatteria is groove metal; Goat Ripper is brutal death metal; Pyraweed is sludge stoner metal.

The Queen We Follow by Gatteria

Taste of Steel Live by Goat Ripper

420 by Pyraweed

Hail to Austria: Adder's Fork; Frust; Weltenasche

If you would like to hear some metal from Austria, check out these three entities. Adder's Fork is melodic metal; Frust is post-black metal; Weltenasche is "atmospheric black metal from Graz, Austria."

Adder's Fork: "This project has been created to channel my musical ideas, influenced by a wide array of great bands like Sisters of Mercy, Talk Talk, Joy Division, The Sound and classic gothic rock/metal classics. What I’m trying to achieve is a satisfying combination of these unforgettable sounds with the more hard-hitting elements of heavy metal, creating my vision of the music that guided me through my life."

The Fatalist by Adder's Fork

The Advent of Adhara by Frust

Melancholie Der Jahre by Weltenasche

Verjährt by Weltenasche

review: Tantivy -- what happens when thrash punk rock meets heavy metal at a biker bar in Wisconsin

Tantivy

Eyes In the Night

15 January 2021

Tantivy is a Wisconsin, USA duo that plays a rowdy, thrashy heavy metal with rough-throat vocals. The music is too tough and too thrashy to call it traditional heavy metal, and too rock and roll to call it thrash, but if you split the difference, you might come up with something like Tantivy, driven by the high energy drumming of Jon Zimick, while his amigo-compadre Adam Geurink takes care of the guitar, bass, and vocals. Geurink, who growls and plays guitar in the fuzzed uptempo heaviness of Wardehns, sounds a bit different here. The vocals are less growled, and easier to understand but still rough, channeling the style of punk metal vocals, and dare we say it, singing. Can you imag-ine thrashy heavy metal played with a punk rock attitude? It’s melodic, catchy, rock-ing, simple and non-computerized garage heavy metal made for the pure fun of it. Hello, Wisconsin!!

Eyes in the Night by Tantivy

review: Winterage -- grandiose symphonic power metal from Italy

Winterage

The Inheritance of Beauty

Scarlet Records

15 January 2021

Metal Archives shows a debut EP in 2011, and album in 2015, and now the sophomore full-length effort by the symphonic power metal band from Italy. The album opens with a grand introduction that welcomes the listener to the world of Winterage’s imagination, and the ambitious, pompous style of huge, melodic opera house power metal. Given the album’s duration of one hour and almost two minutes, the band has in mind something a lot broader and expansive than the framework of power metal per se. Listeners will notice that folk, opera, classical and what is probably Italian traditional music, amongst other components, are woven into a grandiose style. For example, the last song “The Amazing Toymaker” is a 16-minute closer with the feel of opera, film score, circus music (?!) and everything else that your epic-loving ears will like. Winterage is aiming to give audiences a more elegant experience by pairing power metal with various European music traditions or styles. They seek to impress big time, and the genre fans that hear these songs may discover a new gem from Italy.

WINTERAGE - Of Heroes And Wonders (Lyric Video)

https://scarletrecords.it/releases/winterage-the-inheritance-of-beauty/

https://www.facebook.com/winterage

Siren’s Rain (Washington state, USA)

ABOUT: "Offering a layered composition of metal and traditional folk instruments, Siren’s Rain is the premiere folk metal band in Washington State, blending the new with the timeworn. With each album comes rebirth, renewal, and revival. Siren’s Rain is devoted to weaving the haunting and torrid tales of the mysterious North West in song and soul."

Nightmares from the Abyss by Siren's Rain

Beneath the Narrows by Siren's Rain

Sindios (Washington state, USA)

Metal Archives shows an album called Modern Plagues from 2005, and no other recordings for this "progressive melodic black metal" entity.

Modern Plagues

Black Denim Rage -- new thrash demo from the USA (featuring a Running Wild cover)

Black Denim Rage (USA) is "South Florida's newest and youngest 'Street Metal' band, bringing the aggression of the South American scene to a whole new audience. Bring-ing back the 80s with Old School Speed, Thrash, and Heavy Metal." It looks like they formed in 2019, and in August of 2020 they published some "unmixed demos," basically raw recordings of their 1980s-loving songs. Their music now in January 2021 is clearer with the better sound of this demo called State of Emergency, containing four originals and “Soldiers of Hell,” a cover taken from the 1984 debut album by German pirate metal pioneers Running Wild (before formally adopting the pirate image in 1987 with the third album Under Jolly Roger). The Running Wild cover is the catchiest and most melodic, while their own songs push the speed faster, of course, but at the same time there is a melodic sense in the guitar solos, and should interest the really dedicated fans interested new U.S. thrash in 2021.

State of Emergency Demo by Black Denim Rage

Introtyl -- Mexican death metal brutes official music video for "Inner war"

"Inner war" comes from the 2020 EP Vmbra.

Metal Archives shows these recordings:

Inception Demo 2011

Several States of Violence EP 2013

Inception EP 2014

Inside of Violence EP 2017

Dissection of the Soul Single 2018

Creation of Insanity Full-length 2018

Vmbra EP 2020

INTROTYL- INNER WAR

https://www.facebook.com/IntrotylMx

Simulation Theory (Washington state, USA)

ABOUT: "Science Fiction based Brutal Grinding Deathcore from Everett, Wa."

This publication has not found a demo, EP or album online at this time.

https://www.facebook.com/Simulationtheoryofficial

Signed In Blood (Washington state, USA)

ABOUT: Started in March of 2012, Signed In Blood was formed by guitarist Chris "Pirate" Wilder and drummer Justin Walker from the band Perhaps Nothing, and bassist Bo DeLong from Black Heart Blight. In October of 2012, Michael Re joined on as lead guitarist.

Signed In Blood disbanded in 2014.

Scream of the Sun-Signed In Blood

https://www.facebook.com/signedinbloodrocks/?ref=page_internal

Shrouds (Washington state, USA)

ABOUT: "New project consisting of ex members of Unearthly Trance, Madraso, and Evangelist"

On Bandcamp they say: "Rough unedited demo w/o vocals. New recordings coming soon." The recording is from 2016, and there does not seem to be newer music available. Their music is "black metal/ doom/ Dbeat voids."

DEMO by Shrouds

Endorphins Lost -- Washington grind band streaming demo songs from upcoming album

Washington state grind band Endorphins Lost has been working on a new music: "A pandemic edition demo we recently recorded of some of the songs from our upcoming third LP, Night People! We are stoked on how these turned out! This is also the first recording we've done with our new drummer Brian!" It is called Demo 2020 and it is available on Bandcamp. The track list is: 1.The Day The Well Went Dry 01:09; 2.Bounded Choice 00:45; 3.Funerals To Come 01:00; 4.Field Tested Genocide 01:14; 5.60/30 00:39; 6.Uptown Traffic 00:42. The sound quality of these songs is pretty good. One can hear everything just fine, and it is fun and fast grind. As soon as it ends, it's time to hear it again. The full-length album should be a good time, from the looks of it.

Demo 2020 by Endorphins Lost

Frostcloud -- one-person DIY new black metal from Washington state, USA

Frostcloud seems like a very new addition to Metal Archives, and on there and on Bandcamp there is almost no information. It does say "Port Townsend, Washington," a town to north of Seattle, in the western side of the state. In 2020 there was the single “The Blackened Tree” and in 2021 the EP “One,” (includes the 2020 single) lasting a bit of over 26 minutes. This is DIY, humble black metal for the devoted fans of lesser-known projects. Bandcamp attributes the music to one “Spirit,” for whom Metal Archives also lists no name besides said the pseudonym. The music has two basic sides: the fast, shrieking black metal and the mellow, quiet, folky component. The sound quality is about normal for a new project, a type of fuzzy, grey, hazy overall feel, and not an up-front, aggressive sound quality. The only true harsh or extreme element is the shrieking. Other than that, the music is surprisingly easy on the ears for fans of “forest” black metal.

Frostcloud: One [EP] by Frostcloud

The Blackened Tree by Frostcloud

review: Gravehuffer -- big ole hairy American "Show Me State" metal machine

Gravehuffer

NecroEclosion

Black Doomba Records

15 January 2021

Years ago in the ancient lands of the ouemessourita, which is nowadays known as the Show Me State in the U.S., as far back as 2008 there was a band called Krom and they did an album in 2009. Around 2010 they changed their name to Gravehuffer and in 2012 they launched their debut album (but really it was a second one, of course): a rowdy, muscular, punk-metal big boy thick-thrashing with growled-sludge screamed vocals, in a rough-and-ready fun, loud, obnoxious sound. They have been doing more recordings (album, EP, single, split, so on and so forth),and in 2021 they have a new al-bum. Their attitude is the same, but they now sound tighter, especially the drumming. What would happen if a sludge band, one of those big-burger-belly American bands with a thick guitar tone, sped up a whole lot to play thrash/death/black/punk extrem-ity? Well, that’s a bit what this sounds like, very mosh-friendly yet tightly executed, in-cluding with a bit of humor/party jives thrown in for good measure, like the super fun disco introduction to “Death Before Disco” and the cowboy howling and rock and roll party guitar shredding on “Stingray.” There is also some (sampled?) tuba (?) on “Mad Wolf”!

NecroEclosion by Gravehuffer

Causes (single - from NecroEclosion) by Gravehuffer

review: Stellar Death -- mellow & melodic instrumental from USA

Stellar Death

Fragments of Light

8 January 2021

Stellar Death is an instrumental two-piece entity from Washington, D.C., USA. Matt and Scott are or have been involved in Brave, Witnesses, Arise from Thorns, As the Sea Parts, and While Heaven Wept. The music is mostly of a contemplative style. It is not a loud, obnoxious type of guitar sound. Oftentimes it is melodic, bluesy, long-winded passages of easy-listening guitar, aided by background keyboards and/or spacey sounds/ambience. Stellar Death likes for the melodies to float and stay in the air for a while. In some places, there is something that fans would recognize as metal guitar in the sense of the faster tempos or the power chords, although those moods are not the prevalent style and are there as a contrast. In general, it would be accurate to say that this is a relaxing, pleasant listen that allows the audience to focus on the music. In terms of production values, the drums sound mellow and we assume that those are not real, live drums but programmed/sampled sounds. In essence, if you are a metalhead looking for something mellower, ambient, melodic, this recording may spark your curiosity.

Fragments of Light by Stellar Death