Ominous Crucifix (Mexico): The Spell of Damnation

Ominous Crucifix (Mexico): The Spell of Damnation (FDA)

Fresh air!

Ominous Crucifix is quite a gem. They allow the riffs to work their magic on the listener, with a steady, uptempo and midtempo style that is easy to feel the crushing heaviness. The band does not pull musical gimmicks or tricks; each song allows the listener to hear it, without depending on blasting for impact or really, anything besides just letting one’s ears absorb the music, and decide if you like it or not based on the song, not on how fast or slow they play.

In this death metal style, the vocals, drums, and riffs are clearly heard. Think, perhaps, Death’s “Leprosy,” Autopsy, Massacre, Grave and death metal that really works on the art of playing midtempo, in which the guitar riffs are all revealed to the listener. That is, Ominous Crucifix puts all their cards on the table and hides nothing because they have no fear.

Essentially, when a band plays really fast it can potentially trick the listener: the songs go so fast and they do satisfy the desire for intensity and speed on the part of the listener, but ask the listener to tell you what they just heard, and they might be at loss to tell you.Maybe you just got bamboozled. The method of overwhelming the listener with speed can easily cover up deficiencies in guitar playing, hide the drummer’s inability to keep a beat by playing monotonously and by growling so fast that all we hear is actually a loud murmur.

Ominous Crucifix is not like that and the deep, gruff vocals are actually intelligible (if you like death metal) and Mr. Rubens Nergal does the patented Tom G. Warrior “ugh!” and other such sounds. It is good to hear a band really work on the art of serious death metal growling. Of course, the guitar riffs do not go at a blazingly blinding speed, but rather are a magnet for headbanging.

I get the impression that the band has not thrown themselves 100% behind doing guitar solos, but things are good the way they are, and maybe in the future they will bust out with more guitar solos, which would be a good thing. There are some catchy riffs like on “Secular Omens of Doom” or “Primitive Sin,” but really the whole album is guitar riffs midpaced/uptempo immediate-impact-for-headbanging.

Death metal that lets the songs speak for themselves. www.facebook.com/pages/Ominous-Crucifix

www.myspace.com/ominouscrucifix

Emptiness (review)

Emptiness  (Belgium): Error               (Dark Descent Records)

Super doom sludge midpaced steady massive dark heaviness, with moments of black metal riffs, shades of prog, but the central thing is that it is cold, unmelodic doom-sludge groove landscapes. Emptiness wants to take their very fat, 50-ton anvil of sound as far as they can. They would like you to join, as long as you have the patience to be dragged through caves and swamps of darkness and sludge. I have listened to Emptiness quite a bit and they have convinced me with their landscapes of doom-death-black-sludge.  It’s a nice feeling when you begin to understand the music, you just have not let the extreme heaviness and coldness of sound cause confusion. These are good songs, but surrounded by gigantic clouds of fog that are there to make it a little bit of puzzle to figure things out. www.emptiness.be

Dogbane (review)

Dogbane  (U.S.): Residual Alcatraz  (Heaven and Hell Rec.)

Dogbane goes back and forth between traditional heavy metal and doom metal, and in any case, it is “big riff” metal, so that the guitar work sounds like it comes from a secret riff vault that Tony Iommi has put away somewhere in a hidden corner of Greensboro, North Carolina, where Dogbane found it, opened it and hit the jackpot.

Dogbane basically has a bit of everything for people who like different moods in their heavy metal, but this is key: variety only within the field of straight traditional heavy metal. For Dogbane, the metal genres that came after 1982 are essentially of no interest to them. Thus, no thrash, death, black, grind, no core, no emo screamo, no breakdowns, no poppy melodies and no funny-looking haircuts and things like that.

“Born to Die,” “Devil in the Dark,” “Ride the Serpent,” “Residual Alcatrazz” and “How the Mighty Have Fallen” are songs with uptempo mood, the kind that makes the Europeans at metal festivals start to shout “hey, hey, hey” with their fist in the hair, and a beer in the other, saying to each other, “Dogbane ist gut! Bier und metal!”

On the other hand, “Banished,” “Annihilator,” and “Fire and Brimstone” take things at a slower tempo to emphasize the heaviness of doom. Sabbath, Trouble and Candlemass are all reference points for the slow motion riffs that circle around. These songs have some melody to them, but it is not too sugary. The longest song on the album is “Burning in the Light” and it is almost 10 minutes long. In said track they summarize everything they do, from the uptempo, to the doom, the heaviness and the melody.

Naturally, Dogbane is about clarity of sound, so the bass guitar is audible and alive in this album. The clear vocals fit the music, in a 70s doom/New Wave of British Heavy Metal, sort of slightly rough, street-metal style. The sound quality has an honesty to it that doomheads will like. 

Dogbane is a balance of heavy metal and doom. C’mon, now doomsters got to check out! www.dogbaneband.com 

Chaos Inception review

Chaos Inception  (U.S.): The Abrogation  (Lavadome)

Super tight and compact death metal of constant blasting, as an expression of a zealous attachment to the one-track mind blasting variety of death metal, ably carying out the task. Chaos Inception will be interesting to the total death metal fan, but perhaps not so much to the casual listener that likes “only some death metal, once in a while.”

On the other hand, the quality of the sound is good and the execution of the songs is strong, with very brief moments of semi-melody here and there. Essentially, you hear three things: furious drumming, fast/thick guitar and growling. Have your phone handy to call 911 with headbanging-induced neck injuries. www.myspace.com/chaosinception

Eternal Helcaraxe (interview)

Eternal Helcaraxe  (Ireland)

Melodies within a black/viking metal framework, with slight symphonic/folk overtones (not too much, though), Eternal Helcaraxe is a solid proposition, with good arrangements and songs. It is a matter of listening to the songs and hearing where it goes, to places of mood and melody joined, for the listening ear to assemble it in coherence.

Praetorian (guitars, vocals) answers questions about their strong album “Against All Odds.”

At the end of the interview you will find all the contact information about the band.

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“Against All Odds” took little time to convince me that it is a good album. How have people in Ireland learned about it?

Thanks. Mostly through word of mouth I'd say, through the internet, too, probably. There was a lot of hype about the album before it's release here in Ireland, because the release "To Whatever End" before it seemed to do pretty well.

What is the story of “One Stands Still Here”? It’s the black metal feeling of the guitar speed/feel and the drumming style, but the melody echoes in the listener’s mind after the song ends.  It will probably stay in your live setlist for a while?

“One Stands Still Here” just came together. We've only played one show since the release of "Against All Odds" and it was our second song. Didn't realize it was so popular till we played it to be honest! But it's a funny release, as everyone seems to have a different favourite song, my personal favourite changes depending on my mood.

“As the Snow Gathers” has lyrics that communicate the idea of cold freezing death. You used clean vocals on this one, but you have the sense not to make it a formula for every song. How many vocalists are there on that song?

There are three vocalists on every song on the album. We find that the three vocals can add another dimension to the songs. Thule our bass player does the clean vocal on that song. I think less is more when it comes to this type of music, but if it suits the song, that's all that matters. We always just try to write the best song we can.

“Shadow of the Wolf” catches the listener’s attention and it is about 4 minutes long, probably the most all-out black metal song. Did you feel that you are becoming too epic and need some balance? Is it closer to your earlier songs? Was your demo “Palest Kingdom” (2008) less multidimensional than “Against All Odds”? Maybe not? I have not heard it yet!

No, didn't really think of the album as a whole when we were writing it, as I said we just wrote one song at a time and try to give each one what we thought it needed. I'm not too sure if our writing style has changed to be honest. We have been playing three of the songs from "Palest Kingdom" in rehearsal because we're re-recording them for a re-release of "To Whatever End" with bonus tracks through Abyss Records. We're re-recording "Burning Light", "Palest Kingdom" and "The Undying Lands". It'll be out next year at some stage. If anything "Palest Kingdom" was probably more epic to be honest, the songs were longer and there was a lot more keyboards on it, too. It was a bedroom recording though so the production really lets it down. 

  

The song “Against All Odds” could be the love song on the album! The war/blood/sword/wolf imagery on the other songs can come across as macho/nationalistic (and homophobic), but on this one, the lyrics worked out very well for the epic feel.

Yes, it's been described as a love song before which is nice, that's what I was aiming for when I wrote it, homophobic is a new one though! Anyway, I think lyrics have to be honest to have impact and that's just how I was feeling when I wrote them. When I'm writing lyrics I don't think of stupid shit like if they are Black metal or Viking metal enough, mainly because most Black metal lyrics in bands are pretty crap, bar a couple of band like Primordial, 40 Watt Sun/Warning or whatever.

Metal Archives says that both Tyrith and Praetorian play drums on the album and Praetorian does drums, guitars, keyboards and vocals?

No, Tyrith done all the drums. I don't know were they got that from, they should probably do some research into these things! I do guitars, keyboards and a third of the vocals.  

Do all of you live in the same city? Only Praetorian remains from the old days? Was it hard to find like-minded people?

We all live in the same town, yeah. No, myself and Maulgrim (guitars, vocals) have been in the band from the start. Haha, maybe you should do your research, too! Yeah, both of us couldn't find members to work and stick with us until after the "Palest Kingdom" release. But the line-up we have had for the last two releases have been great. We've also started writing the new album, too and it’s really strong.  

What type of childhood did Praetorian have that he learned guitar, drums, keyboards and vocals? “Drums” does not mean “drum machine programming” in this case, does it? By the way, what is “Éadóchas”?

I just loved music when I was younger. Still do. Yeah, I programmed the drums for the first release, badly. “Éadóchas” is an ambient side project I do. First release "Beneath The Lonely Mountain" is out on Sword Production. (http://www.sword.pt.vu/)  Any one interested, check it out. http://www.reverbnation.com/eadochas  http://www.myspace.com/eadochas

  New album "Against All Odds" is available from:  www.officialabyssrecords.com 

http://www.eternalhelcaraxe.net

http://www.facebook.com/eternalhelcaraxe

http://www.myspace.com/eternalhelcaraxe666 

https://twitter.com/ehelcaraxe

THE END.

Brume d'Automne (Canada); Cellgraft (U.S.)

Brume d’Automne  (Canada): Brume d’Automne  (Sepulchral Productions)

Raw, noisy and chaotic black metal, with a technical/progressive edge. In particular, the combination of the good, distinctive guitar work and the howling/screaming vocals. The songs sound very well written and have a lot to offer for the listener to experience.

However, the sound quality is too poor and hinders the songs greatly. I went back and compared this 2012 album with the debut album from 2005 “Fiers et Victorieux” and the quality on the old album is better, specifically the drums. On the 2012 album the drums sound like pots and pans and cans being banged on.

Investigate only if a really garage sound quality is no problem. www.facebook.com/BrumeDAutomne

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Cellgraft  (U.S.): Cellgraft LP  

17 songs in 12 minutes results in short bursts of blasting speed. They carry on screaming and growling and quickly move on to the next exercise in musical nihilism and absurdity taken to the limits. Play this battering ram of an album and get the grindcore on. The sound quality is pretty good and it sounds ridiculous, just like this was meant to be. Hooray for grindcore! cellgraft.bandcamp.com/album/cellgraft-lp

Thornafire and Vesperian Sorrow reviews

Thornafire (Chile):  Eclipse Nox Coagula    (Ibex Moon) 

The quality of this album is excellent. The songs illustrate a very serious work ethic in terms of guitar riffs utilized and in the ways that the tracks are constructed. In the almost 40 minutes of practically flawless death metal, Thornafire’s songs highlight guitar work that ranges from huge, quick-impact rhythms to cold, dissonant moment of heaviness and sometimes the heavy riffs may have an affinity for the immediacy of thrash guitar, but this is all with a very strong coat of a thick death metal tone. The songs flow so well that perhaps with repeated listens the different elements may become more comprehensible. What the listener will feel is headbanging death metal of excellence.

Thornafire sounds like a very experienced band and have an air of talent and conviction in the execution of the material. The sound is both massively heavy and easy to hear what the band is playing. Here and there, blasting shows up, but mostly Thornafire is uptempo and fast, without employing the blasting constantly. Overall, the drumming is about hitting hard and carrying an intense, distinctive flow.

The personality of the vocal style comes through clearly. At certain moments it is close to the low growling, but overall it is of the more intense, slightly higher growling where there is an intensity or anger that shines through, meaning that enunciation is distinguishable, and it is not just one big blur of growling.

If you are very selective in death metal, Thornafire is a band that is worth your time. In fact, this album competes with the best death metal out there in 2012. They may not famous in the U.S., but fame and quality of music are not the same thing. Quality. Personality. Strong songwriting.

www.thornafire.cl

Vesperian Sorrow  (U.S.): Stormwinds of Ages (The Path Less Traveled Records)

Call it “symphonic black metal,” but really the most important thing about this album is the band’s objective of creating high quality songs. The atmosphere of the songs revolves around black metal melodic guitar work, enhanced with background atmospheric keyboards. The music exudes complexity in a similar way that Emperor’s music does. It sounds like a lot is happening in the song, there are a lot of layers of things going on and you will hear all sorts of details after repeated listens.

This album is about an hour long; therefore, it is meant to be a total musical experience, in which you already know you will need to hear it lots of times because there is too much going, in a good way.

Personally, I appreciate the type of work that has gone into making such an album. The band is striving for excellence, for a musical adventure with different levels of experiencing the sounds.

Time will tell how well this album will stand up some ten years from now, but it sounds like Vesperian Sorrow has crafted their own masterwork. www.reverbnation.com/vesperiansorrow

Tension Prophecy review

Tension Prophecy (Iran):  Riot of Sacrificers      

On this album Tension Prophecy is doing their darnest to keep their death metal low, blasting and direct. They have the speed and the mosh moments pretty well calculated. “Homicidal Premonitions” is pretty straight from the Suffocation school of death metal. As soon as the song starts, you and your dog should form a circle pit in your room for this one.

When “Necrophobic” kicks in, this one sounds airtight and it’s overkill on the brutality. It’s all good: guitar solos, heavy as a brick guitar riffs and incomprehensible growling. “Pretension until Death” is made for immediate impact. It has a simple beat, and that’s why it tickles your brain so fast. Another good one.

Those are not all the songs, of course, but the main thing is: Tension Prophecy is death metal. Hooray death metal! Basic, good, intense death from Iran. www.reverbnation.com/tensionprophecy

www.myspace.com/tensionprophecy

Nocturnal Torment and Southwicked reviews

Nocturnal Torment (U.S.): They Come at Night  (Deathgasm)

Nocturnal Torment works with the heaviest, thickest, fattest sounding guitar work.

It is not particularly easy to hear clearly what the guitars are playing because the sound is so thick and even sludgy. As a result, the band trades in clarity of instrumentation for a huge wall of sound that is as convincing as it is undeniable.

In theory, this sound probably should not function. Not only are the guitars very low, the vocals sound monotonous and also low. The drumming is of the nonstop blasting and frenzy variety.

Here is the thing, though, Nocturnal Torment captures the attention from the beginning and quickly gets the listener caught up in the barrage. Do the songs sort of sound the same? Sort of! There are slight, almost hidden melodies that make the songs different. Nocturnal Torment is so good at what they do, that you’ll growl along in no time.

Nocturnal Torment plays very fast and sounds massively heavy, proving that they can do both very well. A job done well.  Fun. Impressive. www.deathgasm.com

Southwicked  (U.S./Belgium): Death’s Crown  (Abyss Records)

This band has Allen West, who is of course known for his work with Obituary. Do you happen to like Obituary? Those heavy Obituary grooves and an ear-friendly death metal vibe that I am tempted to call rock and roll. But don’t get the wrong idea. These riffs sound like Obituary and certain parts might remind of certain bits in Obituary albums.

The vocals are low, which is different from Obituary’s painful growling, but the overall drumming, the guitar work and the feel says that Allen West is just doing what Allen West is known for. Listen to those Allen West signature guitar solos!

“Give the people what the people want” is the philosophy this band and Allen West. Personally, I can’t get enough of this stuff. Then again, I do like Obituary a whole lot.  

www.reverbnation.com/southwicked

Morbid Execution review

Morbid Execution  (Poland): Vulgar Darkness   (Deathgasm)

Call it “ancient death metal,” “early death metal style,” or perhaps “primitive death metal.” It is the feeling of death metal that is the crucial centerpiece of the music. Thus, being the fastest, technical or things that constitute musical braggadocio are simply done away with.

The point is to have solid death metal songs where the listener is pulled into the action, and not made to witness as a passive bystander. The songs require little else from the listener, except a love of headbanging metal.

Master/Death Strike, Autopsy, Hellhammer are valid reference points, but I wonder if such a perspective is too narrow. Why would people who totally love Motorhead or Slayer, for instance, not like this music? Maybe even Pantera fans?

Do Motorhead and Autopsy have radically different fundamental goals? Both are about no-nonsense rock n roll. Morbid Execution is no-nonsense rock n roll, but in the form of crushing death metal.

Morbid Execution is, if you will, a simple, un-fancy, non-blasting death metal style. What is important is the overall vibe of heaviness and rawness.  Growling with forcefulness, steady-beat uptempo drumming and simple, catchy guitar work that sounds heavy in the old school way.

This is definitely easy to get into. It’s meant that way. Turn it on and get moving. www.deathgasm.com

black metallers Makam Selatan (review)

Makam Selatan  (Indonesia): Blasphemer Him   

Makam Selatan is bullet belt, corpse-painted angry cat gremlin cave black metal highway to blasting. It sounds ugly, nasty and raw. In other words, Makam Selatan is doing things right. The four songs (18 minutes total time) on this EP are quintessential, stereotypical fast black metal and it will make you glad that these lunatics do it that way because it sounds good.

To hear things correctly, you have to turn this up a lot because this is no big-budget, tech fancy endeavor. It sounds like it was recorded in the grandparents basement. Perfect. I hope they never get a better production because it will ruin the insanity and magic.

They cover Cradle of Filth’s “Devil to the Metal,” but in this way, the song sounds pretty different, more garage black metal. This music is available for free at www.reverbnation.com/MakamSelatanID

Cryptopsy review

Cryptopsy  (Canada): Cryptopsy    (self-release)

Their previous album “The Unspoken King” apparently angered many listeners that want the band to play technical, skillful death metal, and not deviate into other genres, in particular if it is a trendy style.

The new album “Cryptopsy” presents the band concentrating on able instrumentation, a high-intensity delivery throughout the release. In addition, the band exhibits no desire to freak out the listener with moves of eclecticism. Instead, they laser focus on very upfront and energetic drumming and all-out pounding heaviness.

Fulfilling certain expectations about the name of Cryptopsy signals an album where the objective is live up the musical capital they have built up throughout their existence.  

Since Cryptopsy is a famous name in this genre, the main point to emphasize here is that the band has decided to give their public what their public wants. Think of it a very good apology for “The Unspoken King.” www.cryptopsy.ca

Coffin Texts review

Coffin Texts (U.S.): The Tomb of Infinite Ritual   (Dark Descent)  

Coffin Texts plays serious, big-leagues death metal. It is the type of death metal that immediately sounds like they did not write these songs in a half-hearted, quick way.

I, for one, find the music very satisfying. This type of intense, blasting, frenzied, death metal responds to a metal obsessed mentality, played at such mind-numbing speed that people mosh or go crazy in other ways because it is an instinctive reaction. That is a logical response, as bouncing off the walls would also be.

In reality, the care and attention to detail required to make these songs work means that musicians behind this monster that is Coffin Texts have got to be perfectionists and dedicated to their chosen field. Listen to it with headphones on and it is ridiculous that this sounds so coherent. It sounds like mad scientists putting together chemistry equations of brutality.

Death metal for grown ups? Coffin Texts lays out all their cards on the table for the listener: songs of the highest quality, seriously intense blasting drumming, and the type of vocals that invite the listener to join in because they are pretty infectious. The vocals are all classic-style death metal done by a person who brings a distinctive feel to growling, perhaps with a tad of old black metal feeling, too.

The key words with Coffin Texts are: intelligence in song composition, and earnest devotion to their death metal. www.myspace.com/coffintexts