Buried Realm - The Ichor Carcinoma

Record Label: Self-release


Heavy metal has long been full of widdly widdly guitar parts where a musician shows off their proficiency at playing the guitar. Buried Realm is essentially a one man project featuring Josh Dummer, who displays his talents playing nearly all the instruments on "The Ichor Carcinoma". The album features guests like Arch Enemy's, Christopher Amott, Brandon Ellis (from Cannabis Corpse and Black Dahlia Murder and Peter Wichers (from Soilwork) plus many more (the guest appearances do make for interesting reading).

The album lulls the listener in with the melodic "Portal", which is a short instrumental track. The albums title track is a punishing beast in more than one way. The guitar wizardry sounds amazing and it's clear that Dummer didn't get his chops down by merely playing Guitar Hero. The vocals to this song begin as death metal grunts and then turn into Danii Filth style shreiks, which are incongruous with the power/progressive Symphony X style of guitar playing. The guitar sound is great but those vocals are like nails on a chalkboard when they're married to a fantastic guitar sound. "Asphyxiation's Lullaby" is much the same story but features some actual singing which matches the music but those grunts and shrieks are also used. The mix of vocal styles completely messes up a track which had so much potential.




"Through Darkened Halls" starts with an electronic opening and also contains that mixture of shrieks and grunts over the banging guitar playing. There's a classical vibe to the guitar in this track, which is also mixed with occasional blastbeats and great soloing coming in and out. Imagine if a "Lord of the Rings" movie was playing with continual loops of Steve Vai's part in "Crossroads" also playing either on the same screen or very nearby and this is the aural equivalent. The vocals sound like a troll and orc chatting.

"Aperion 1 - The Legacy" actually marries the guitar sounds and both clean and shreiked vocals well as the guitar heroics aren't the forefront of the song. They do appear at the end and this gives the song a laid back vibe rather than in your face. "On Serpent Style" is another instrumental track, which features a guitar style that sounds like Satriani on steroids. This track is great. "Aperion II - Global Dreamer" mixes up the shrieked vocals with a melodic chorus, those Symphony X style guitars and some tight mid-tempo drumming. The drumming on the follw-up track, "Unscrupulous" after a slow intro starts out damned fast then slows down and speeds again and so do the guitars. Instrumentally this track is fantastic but again the vocals bring it down a level and it's not because shrieks and grunts are awful rather because they just sound unnecessary on this track.

The bottom line is "The Ichor Carcinoma" should have either featured mainly clean vocals or been wholly instrumental as the vocals are mostly annoying and detract from the technical musicianship. This album would have had a much higher score if it weren't for the incongruity of the death metal vocals with incredibly well played instruments. The non-instrumental tracks don't have much post-review replay value.


Release Date: 29 September 2017



2/5


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Drawers "Drawers"

France isn't exactly the first place you'd think of when you think about metal, rock or sludge.  However there are always a few that are willing to kick against the pricks.   There's no way French sludge/stoner rock band named Drawers could comfortably fit into the mainstream in any county.  The band released their second album which is self-titled earlier this year.

The band are heavily influenced by a few bands from the South part of the United States.  It's difficult to not think of Phil Anselmo whenever the vocals kick in and the reference is more to the slower songs on Far Beyond Driven than any other Pantera.  Thankfully the allusion doesn't mean that Drawers sound like a modern metal claiming to be hardcore outfit due to riffs kicking around in the world of sludge.

Drawers are at their best when they slow down in "Take Stock" as it isn't nearly as reminiscent of other bands.   "Bleak" also takes the slow route and the band comes off better for it as the band are clearly aware that a 10 ton truck driving slowly garners more attention than the same vehicle at ramming speed.  Overall though sadly Drawers aren't much of attention grabber so they get knocked down a peg or two and that is largely due to the plethora of Pantera wannabes in the hardcore and Metalcore arena in the last few years.

Check the album out on the bandcamp link below and feel free to leave your opinion in the comments.

2.5/5

http://drawerskvlt.bandcamp.com/album/drawers-2

Suffer The Wrath - Divine Sign

   As the TV commmercials often tell us, there's nothing quite like a refreshing beverage after a hard day's work and often after listening to a lot of Scandinavian metal hearing bands from countries where English is spoken as the main language can be a refreshing change.  Suffer the Wrath are a death metal band from Illinois who list a bunch of pronounceable pseudonyms on their band bio.

The drumming is fast with furious blast-beats.  The vocals fall somewhere between the breathless Scooby Doo rasps and Cookie Monster grunts with occasional growls.

If you get the feeling you've read this review before its because there isn't really anything that separates Suffer The Wrath from the herds.  Thankfully this EP is only 4 songs long.  Now where's that Goatwhore CD?

2.5/5

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Cvinger "Monastery of the Fallen"

Here's a black metal band from  Slovenia called Cvinger.  As English is not their native language it's difficult to tell if the band want to use the v in their name as a u as in kvlt.  There's definitely nothing commercial about Cvinger's music and it is highly likely they will have a cult following but both of these are simply due to the nature of their music.


A creepy atmosphere is created at the fore of the album on the track "Chapter 1 - Into The Depths of Arcane Sanctuary"  but the music  on "Monastery of The Fallen" is largely generic black metal although the vocals are slightly clearer than most of the genre but the guitars sound like angry bumblebees and there are choral parts that would make the Mormon Tabernacle Choir proud.    Simply having a song entitled "Blaspherion" makes it apparent that Cvinger's blasphemy is an important ingredient in this band's  black metal.  Chants end "Among The Crucified"  and proceedings are kicked off with what sounds like a church choir.   It's nigh impossible not to wonder if a group of monks were brought in to chant on "Chapter 3: Amen" because the song does sound like it was recorded at a monastery.


Applause is deserved for the Cvinger's willingness to experiment with quieter moments however at the end of the dark night, however there's almost nothing other than location that separates Cvinger from the rest of the face painted corpse.  "Monastery of The Fallen" will still appeal to fans of generic black metal who need to be as corpse-rotting cult as humanly possible.

2/5

The album is available on CD for 10 euro and "Monastery of the Fallen" can be heard at Cvinger's bandcamp site.

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Destroyers of All - "Into The Fire"

If you were wondering if Portuguese thrash metal exists, it does and here's the proof.  On this six song release, Destroyers of All play some tight thrash with death metal overtones.  There are traditional metal guitar solos that border on power metal and separate this band from a tonne of others.  The band aren't all about speed or laying waste to everything for the sake of brutality.

The intro to M4 is reminiscent of a number of songs from "Master of Puppets" with that slow build up as the guitar drags the listener in for the pre-pummel.  Later in the song there is that quiet operatic metal choral style and a definite Latin guitar influence before morphing as angry thrash and then regressing to NWOBHM but a modernized version complete with click drums.  The vocals throughout the recording are largely reminiscent of Lamb of God or late period Pantera.

 Destroyers of All throwing of various snippets of metal into a blender is admirable but unfortunately doesn't always come together that well.  The band are at their best when they keep things simple.  "The Astral Projection" would have been a more enjoyable song if the furious thrash tempo hadn't slowed down at all.  

"Into The Fire" has six songs but the meat is the four songs sandwiched between the instrumentals.  The release has its moments but it's difficult to shake the feeling that this band is stretching too high with their hybridization of metallic styles.  There's only haze in crystal ball as the future of this band is uncertain.  There's also an uncertainty whether the band's chosen moniker is a nod to the New Zealand death metal band Ulcerate.  The entire release is available for your listening pleasure at the band's website which is linked below.

2/5

http://www.destroyersofall.com/

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

Into The Storm - Captains

Into The Storm – Captains, 2011
(self-released)

Anyone who has been reading this blog regularly will be aware of the current wave of noisy Seattle rock bands. Into The Storm are definitely in this category and fall under the experimental metal umbrella.

The band have self-released a five song album. There’s absolutely no nice greeting for a listener in the opening song “Bodhi Zephyr” as the song opens with fast complex riffing and raspy scooby doo death metal growls yelling “Fuck Off”, the song does slow down for a little and the death metal growls continue over slow clanging metallic noise. Quick tribal rythms open “Jean-Luc Picard” which then slow down into ambient noise that is not unlike some of the territory Jakob cover but that cartoon dog voice comes into action once again before the song ends with samples over the quieter side of the band. The cliched metal reviewer adjective crushing was coined for “K’nuckles” as it is punishing Obituary death metal. This song is easily the highlight of the album and also the shortest. “Walter White” has a more melodic voice half-singing and dueling it out with the death metal guy and the end of the song the more melodic guy is still left standing.

While the self-releasing an album is applause worthy, Into The Storm could have been a better album if the band either made better use of the melodic vocals or did away with them completely. The death metal vocals make it unpleasant to listen to and that may well be the point but it doesn’t win the band any points here and neither does the fact that most of the songs are just too long.

“Captains” is available from the bands bandcamp site below either digitally at a price of your choosing or on vinyl for $15US.

2/5



Into The Storm on bandcamp.


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I Love Rich - Season of The Rich

I Love Rich “Season Of The Rich”, 2009

Chicago band I Love Rich channel Kiss both musically and lyrically. Discerning whether they’re serious or stretching a band parody as far as it can go when they only thank themselves for being so fucking awesome because everyone else go paid and boldly declare “All lyrics by RICH because honestly, only he could come with lyrics this bad ass”.   Sleepless nights spent thinking out the lyrics to the homage  “Let’s fuck all night” are highly doubtful.    The tongue in cheek “I’m Only Here Because Your Sister Said No” easily wins the best song title.  A knife with a serated punk edge gently cuts through still leaving a heavy chunk of glam metal in “Everybody’s Getting Laid Tonight”. The rawness of the procution here and a couple of the later songs weakens the overall sound bringing the words: filler material to mind.  Whilst it’s not difficult to appreciate the lack of seriousness on the five songs on this EP, I Love Rich come across as nothing more than a coattail riding novelty act.

2/5

I love rich website

The Ax - The Queen of Dirt

The Ax  - “Our Queen of Dirt”, 2009
(Whoa! Boat)

Seattle two-man band The Ax have a debut album that can divided into three sections.  For the first four songs play garage rock that invades guarded personal sound space like an over-agressive washing machine filled to the brim spinning on a heavy-duty cycle.  Possible band comparisons would be Sonic Youth or The Gordons as the vocals on “The Albino” are used as a separate instrument.  In the second part, from “Sharp Teeth”, there’s a Gordon Gano nasal whine over the top of a disorienting near metallic loud droning noise.   In the third and final act, The Ax re-metamorphisize into a fuzzy industrial sandpaper-raw abrasive noise blur with a slight touch of the Jesus and Mary Chain in the singing and using feedback as an accompanying instrument.  . Their quick-change act also changes them into the audio equivalent of blurry vacation snapshots that your friends pester you to look at. Politely you say, “That’s nice” while you’re just secretly hoping they’ll stop and just go home shortly.   In The Ax’s case, I just hoped the songs would get shorter even though none of them reach over the three-minute and a half mark.   Future music theorists will write dissertatons on how a band can drone on and bore in such a short time if anyone actually cares enough about this band to place  “The Queen of Dirt” in a time capsule.

 There is a fascination with close-ups of human eyes and low budget B-grade sci-fi on the album artwork, which indicates a weirdness for weird’s sake if it hadn’t been most likely stolen directly from The Residents.   Admittedly it was late at night but I fell asleep listening to this album a number of times.   That it’s possible to sector this album into parts proves that this material would have been better released as EP’s because these fourteen songs are difficult to digest in one entire sitting.  

2/5

The Ax on bandcamp

The Ax on myspace

Mogul - Build Me a Hunchbank

Mogul “Build Me A Hunchback”, 2008

For every good band there are hundreds of thousands of shitty imitators.  Mogul would mostly  like to be  “Rated R” period Queens of The Stone Age.  It’s a shame that every song on “Build Me a Hunchback” is like the meat and other items that go into sausages.  Sure the meat is great when it’s hot and cooked, preferably on a barbecue. Realistically though, that meat is sweepings of the leftover premium and average goods.  Simply put, this is filler material. There’s no attempt made to stand out from the rest of the stoner crowd.   Every song sounds like it has been lifted from a better band and then watered down.  “Return the Blues” has a slight Fu Manchu feel.   The riffing and vocal styling on “Narrow Shoes” is lifted straight from a recent Josh Homme textbook.  “Genie 18” is more of the same but is long and bores.  If Mogul had cut this song from seven minutes to three minutes, the song would have been better. “Hold On” attempts to vary precedings with an opening powerchord but then the band’s rhythm section come in  and the band consider repetitive riffs and lyrics to be a good idea.  “Sidekick” and  “All of My Bleeding” look longingly with envy towards Kyuss.

 The production is great but these songs are more sterile than a vasectomy clinic run by Lorena Bobbit.
It’d be a lie to suggest this album is vital for fans of the prevoiusly mentioned bands.  It’s likely they all ready own the albums Mogul base their sound on and this album will fall to the back of the pile in no time.  Choose steak, next time.

2/5

Mogul on myspace

Rags & RIbbons - The Glass Masses

Rags & Ribbons “The Glass Masses”, 2011

The promo sticker on Rags & Ribbons CD describes the band as “a rock orchestra that is influenced by classical compositions, intricate vocal harmonies, keyboard virtuosos and a desire to be dramatic and deliver a solid rock sound.  “The Glass Masses” condenses different  genres into a very unique collective voice”.  The part about desire is understandable although the use of that particular word suggests a band that aren’t yet able to deliver what they aspire to and are still at the growing stage.

   Musically it cannot be denied that Rags & Ribbons are consummate performers although it’s certainty that the band will receive accusations of merely being Muse clones.  The allegations are fair enough because often there isn’t much more to them than that.  There is evidence, which suggests that there is more going on, like the layered voices in the all-in gospel choir on “The Marks You Make”.  Then there’s the dramatic side which comes out strongest in the pompous Queen style rock opera.

While I’m not the biggest fan of rock with the tinkling of keys I found that my favorite part of the album was a keyboard dominant instrumental passage in “Lady in Midnight Sun” although song-wise  Rags & Ribbons reach the album’s highpoint in “We Have Been Here Before” with paired back vocals and the dominate keyboard replaced with an 80’s guitar sound reminiscent of early U2.

While there are some great moments on “The Glass Masses:, one Muse is more than enough.  Rags and Ribbons have succeeded in their desires but are yet to offer a unique voice.  I’m a sucker for the digi-pak design even if the artwork looks like someone recently discovered Photoshop.

2/5


Rags & Ribbons on myspace

Rags & Ribbons on bandcamp

Rags & Ribbons on facebook

UIGG - To Punish and Enslave

UIGG “To Punish and Enslave”, 2008

A band with an unpronouncable name is always going to have things working against them. Uigg’s logo looks a little like the symbol Prince used during his nameless years.  UIGG’s symetrical logo can be copied but it’s hard to imagine kids drawing their logo on their schoolbooks and bags.
The band have put their extended artwork and album lyrics on a blog instead of the CD sleeve. Their reasoning was they had too many ideas to fit on paper but this reeks of laziness.  The band is shitting on the people who actually buy CD’s that can’t be bothered with the net.   Believe me, these people do exist, even though they likely won’t read this review.  The sleeve is devoted to thanklists.  Among the list of names each band member separately thanks are members of the band and their cat.  It would have made more sense to put the thanklist where it can be edited as more names come to mind and have the lyrics in a portable format.
 
On their myspace site, Uigg  put themselves in the death, black and thrash metal genres.  The secong song “One Shall Stand, One Shall Fall” has the drummer winning the race to end of the song.  The vocalist and guitarists struggle to catch up and the song suffers as a result. Throughout the album the vocals are either resemble battery acid gargling Danii Filth(mostly with out the little girl shrieks) or  take the Scooby Doo route, which is good when the band slow down and play to their strengths.  “Sadistic Reprisal” demonstrates this bands potentential when they do realize the limits of their capabilities.  In the one song the band combine traditional, death and black metal together and there is an annoying moment where the blastbeat button has been accidentally pressed.  “Carthasis” and “Slamhog” take the death metal tardis back to 80’s thrash but the desire to do to much on the drummer’s part pours rotten milk into the songs.  The band too often act on their urge to punish the listener into knowing that they can play one more than type of metal and the songs suffer as a result and Uigg sound unsure of their identity rather than  a band capable of getting away with genuine transgenre behaviour.


2/5

The band have released another album since this review was written which can be heard on their facebook site.  What little I've listened to does sound better than this album.

Beneath Wind and Waves - Non-etre

I'll admit it first up, I thought Non-être was the band name due to a personal disdain for band names that are far longer than album titles. Turns out that I was wrong on not one but two counts as not only is "Non-être" the album title but Beneath Wind and Waves is a one-man mellow melancholy dealing project by Portland-based singer-songwriter Shawn Lawson Freeman.

With a janglish guitar sound over sombre lyrics like "America loves a trainwreck", it's hard not to think of the likes of Red House Painters. That America is a huge continent and often filled of nothingness comes though ihttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifn the barrenness of Transference" It's not only melancholy as there's a theme of self-absorbtion, which is something most of us are guilty of at sometime or another.

"Persephone" features the vocals of Stephanie Schneiderman and due to its subject matter, music and alternating vocals brings to mind Prefab Sprout's "The Ice Maiden" and the song is definitely one of the highlights on the album.
"98" is one of those weird songs where a male voice takes on a female narrator. I found this baffling due to a female voice being used in other songs and it's tough to tell whether the song is taking on the euthanasia debate.

Lyrics like "You're the sugar in my tea" definitely won't win everyone over and confuses the hell out of me. There's a number of songs that would have been better served with brevity as listening to a number of songs on Non-etre is the aural equivalent of running a marathon due to their length.

2/5








Band Website