Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Dead Awaken - When Hope Turns Dripping Red




Here's some more death metal from another Swedish trio.  This time round though it's largely of a more generic variety, which spells boring to most reviewers and this one is no exception.    The vocals are the belched out cookie monster variety and the drum beats are slow.   "Rocket Symphony" and has a standard rock beat which betrays the song's title.  If this what a Swedish rocket sounds like then their sports cars must be of the silent variety. There is a lot of promise in "Deutches Afrika Corpse" with its brutal blistering  riff salad intro and the song holds together well although unfortunately the drum sound lacks any major punch.  "Mudhell"  is an interesting beast as it starts out deathly and then has a military marching beat in the middle and only in the dying seconds does the song speed up again.


Overall, this release is strictly for fans of generic death metal.  All others will find little of interest on "Where Hope Turns Dripping Red".    It might be an idea to hide the drummer's copy of "And Justice For All" somewhere it can't be easily be found and slip in any Slayer album in the case or MP3 file.


2/5






Monday, May 13, 2013

Masquerader - Singular Point




 Here's another sophomore EP but this time it's from a Taiwanese thrash metal band who make no bones about being anything other than a thrash metal band.  The reference points are definitely 80's thrash and the geographical reference is definitely once again the Bay Area although "Singular Point"'s science fiction cover is more akin to Canadian's Voivod or their young devoted acolytes, Vektor.

Ian Hsiao's vocals  bring Exodus to mind especially in "Thrasher Commandos" which will take many back to a time and a place where those uniformed in high tops and denim jeans and jacket  fought weekend battles against the "glam fags".  There are a few high pitched moments but thankfully no silly falsetto screams.  The drumming is tight and furiously fast and the guitar riffs are weighty and tight despite their seemingly frenetic pace.   The guitar sound is very much in the San Francisco mold although there although there a moments that the aforementioned Canadians come to mind.

There will be some that will say that the lyric could have used a bit more work but for a band whose second language is English, I found these well written compared to a crop of other bands who sail in the same boat.  They deserve bonus points for writing about nuclear power, which is very much a current issue in their homeland of Taiwan.  The S.A.T.A.N nonsense should have been left in the eighties, although Masquerader are hardly alone in writing cliched satanic lyrics.    The overall production is slick.   Masquerader are a force to be reckoned with live and this EP backs up their live show.  All fans of eighties thrash metal should check "Singular Point out.

4/5

Masquerader on facebook

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Septekh - Apollonian Eyes





(Abyss Records)


  Whether it's fortunate or unfortunate that geographical locations are often used to describe a band's music is difficult to say, especially in the case of metal.  References such as Bay Area thrash, Japanese hardcore don't really hurt but rather aid both a listener and give a reviewer an easy reference points.  It's fairly easy to know what you're in for when you're told a band is Swedish death metal although on Septekh may well be from Sweden, the band's  latest release "Apollonian Eyes"  is much more than run of the mill old school death metal.  There's a potpourri of metallic styles at work that is reminiscent of Demontage.

Vitriolic deathly vocals are spat out in the title track but there are mixture of blackened death metal riffs with chunks of Maiden.  It's also  clear that these guys are fans are of early Kreator especially in "Burn it To The Ground" which sounds like it could have been written in the early eighties by the German thrashers.   In places the drums don't sound quite as tight though but that only contributes to an even grittier death and roll sound.  Tasty  power metal and new wave of British metal chunks are dealt out on "Vlad Tapes" and regardless of your poker face,  it's definitely a winning hand .  The usage of both the traditional metal riffs and blackened metal within their old school death metal style, it's clear Septekh are not content to keep to the stale cookie cutter pattern.

The main complaint with this release is its too short.   The band keep this listener wanting to hear more from them.

4/5

Septekh's band website

Septekh on facebook





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