UPYR Altars/Tunnels

 Black metal has never really been my cup of corpse paint.  However I have been a fan of musical hybridization for a long time  although that Run D-MC/Aerosmith collaboration should never have happened since it was the genesis of nu-metal.  Since I've contradicted myself in my opening statement I'll get on with the business on hand and say I was recently emailed a bandcamp link from a Bulgarian band called UPYR.  My initial reaction was to consider the band to be huge fans of text messages as I get lost with all the abbreviations the kids use these days.  A quick google revealed that the name is a type of vampire.  What really got my attention though was that the band was described in the email as blackened doom, which caused raised eyebrows as that is a musical description that isn't witnessed every day.

The band also has yet another thing I usually hate: long songs.  There is a difference here as UPYR flirt with different styles within their songs but also stand up on their own two feet and proudly identify themselves through their chosen sounds.  There are tinges of goth here and there and some of the slow spoken parts have a similar bleak feeling and gloominess to "Burning World" era Swans but also British doom bands such as My Dying Bride and Paradise Lost.

There are three songs on the band's CD but their bandcamp site includes a song which is from a cassette.  It's hard to know if it's because this was a December release that I keep staring at the goat and imagine it standing up on two legs completely draped in red. You should do yourself a favour and check this band out.

4/5


UPYR's bandcamp


UPYR's facebook




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Leka "Catopia"

 Felines taking over the world and controlling mankind is an interesting concept.  One Finnish man thought it was worth a death metal project.  Juuso Lienonen is the person pulling most of the strings of his Leka project.  I say most because there is more than one vocalist on his second release "Catopia".

The truth is calling this death metal is a little unfair although it is undeniable that style is the most dominant on Catopia but there are jazz and more traditional rock elements.  The chants at the end of "All Hail The Cat" are reminiscent of Queen.  "The End Starts Now" combines show tunes with Voivod style guitar, Joey Belladonna vocals with a more deathly sound.  This is difficult to make up, mainly because who'd even want to hear that in the first place?  Yet it doesn't sound disjointed and because of the changes in the song grasps the listener's attention.

Leka are the king of surprises.  Just when you think they're getting wimpy and only capable catching small game with fish hooks, they go right ahead and spear you right in the face.  This is much more interesting than just going for straight out brutality.  Most of the times it works although the pop-style singing about intestine eating kittens comes off a little too weak.  There are some great ideas on "Catopia" but not all of them work.  The fluffy ones that do scratch your eyes out.  Check "Catopia" out for yourself on the bandcamp link below.

3/5



http://leka.bandcamp.com/

Chastain "Surrender To No One"

  David T Chastain's long-running power metal vehicle are back.  To be honest, although I've been aware of Chastain's existence for decades, I've never investigated their music.  I'd always assumed that David T. was a Malmsteen widdly-widdly guitar hero type but listening to the first song "Stand Up and Fight", the guitar is much more restrained than any pre-conceived ideas.

The music on offer on this album is slightly Maiden-ish. The band's original vocalist, Leather Leone his returned to the fold and her vocals are ballsier than more than a few men that perform this style of metal.  No annoying high shrieks gets the thumbs up here.   The guitar heroics do come through in "Call of The Wild" but not until near the end of the song.  There's a punchy sound to most of the songs. "Fear My Wrath"falls flat with its slightly slower pace and Leone's vocals don't really work as her voice is much more suited to the punchy metal than potential slow burners, although the thing to fear is the lack of any kind of burning from the tune.  The follow-up tune is appropriately entitled "Save Me Tonight" and is a redeemer with some tasty guitar licks even if it does slow in tempo a little much towards the end of the song.  The title track of this album knocks you straight in the face with its fast tempo and speedy riffing (for power -metal), the drummer really comes into his own on this number.  I'll take Leather Leone over a lot of male power metal vocalists as the absence of ridiculous screams and shrieks caused by wearing too tight leather pants is a huge plus.  Chastain's guitar work is more underplayed than I'd been lead to believe.  The overall result is Chastain sound like a band than one man's musical vehicle.

Standout tracks are "Call of The Wild" and "Surrender to No One".

3/5

http://www.leviathanrecords.com/chastain13.htm

Promiscuity - Basic Instinct

 

  You might ask yourself how good can an Israeli black metal band be?  Promiscuity answer this question by ignoring it, sticking up their middle finger and simply playing a dirty blackened rock and roll.  There's the straight no-nonsense loud and heavy Motorhead approach blended with a more throwback-style of black metal in "The Beauty and the Bitch". As far as I can tell the band don't sound dated but then  And yes, the EP title, "The Beauty and the Bitch"  and album cover are all referencing the movie that cast Sharon Stone into fame.  The vocals are the gruff and gravelly which suits this style of music.  The drums are pummeled at rapid speed and the guitar and bass do more than just manage to keep up.  "Pedophile" opens with an intro which sounds like it was taken from a talk show.  The song contains some furious metallic leads that threaten to pull your ears off and sew them back on your backside.  The song absolutely rips.  Promiscuity's cover of Celtic Frost's "Into The Crypts of Ray" not only let the listener know where the band is coming from but the band manage to inject a little of their own rotten style into the tune.  "Maniac's Blues" is a change of pace with its slower tempo and doesn't aim straight for the throat but goes the serial killer route with a planned out attack.  The song even provides a short interlude of  AC-DC bluesy style swagger.

This is a great EP and one of the best examples of blackened rock and roll out there.  Beware the ice pick killer!



4.5/5




Click the bandcamp link below to hear the whole EP.



Promiscuity's bandcamp

Promiscuity on facebook

Couch Potato Sounds

It's no secret that the small takeover has a soft spot for two piece garage bands who aren't the white stripes. Here's a UK duo who go by the name of King Kool. They've solved Jon Spencer's marriage problems by marrying the sound of the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion with the psychobilly rock of The Cramps. Check out their video to their single, "Rocket Roll" below.








Dot Dash are no strangers to this blog as the Washington DC band have released two great power pop albums in two years and both albums contain a faster track.  On their latest album, they punked it up with a Buzzcocks style track entitled, "A Light in the Distance".



It's always been difficult not to mention the Dissociates whenever Dot Dash are discussed on this blog due to both bands sharing a post-punk style.  Here's the London post-punk or post hardcore in the song "Three Years" which features footage from their tour of the Ukraine.







This post started with a duo so I'll end it with number two.  New Zealand industrial duo, Dying of The Light made a video to the title track of their "Monolithium" EP.  The video is bleak and captures the isolation of the bottom of the world in post-apocalyptic style.  There are nods to Godflesh, as well as NZ bands such as The Skeptics and "Churn" period Shihad.  The band's EP contains a Shihad cover.  Check out the EP here  and watch the video below.

White Orange "Onawa"

 It'd be easy for (m)any regular readers of this blog to guess what White Orange sound since they have a song called  ".....And I Leave The Circus" and the fact that we reviewed them before here may help those without memory problems.    There's no denying that Kyuss and Queens of The Stone Age are likely influences but the fuzzed out feedback places it as the odd man out since it leads into "Either/Or" has more in common with alternative rockers Sonic Youth than the desert stoner rock crowd.    As comparing any band to QOTSA is pretty much useless unless an album is named ".....And I Leave The Circus" is very reminiscent of the slower material from "Rated R", which is an album that was play-listed as a soundtrack to my life for quite sometime. White Orange are keener to get lost in a seventies inspired haze of smoke and guitar.  The band don't resist the temptation to jam out for both their own and the listeners benefit.  It may not be intentional that Dustin Hill has a vocal sound akin to Josh Homme but it works although others may be shaking their fists and cursing at clone bands.  Baby, this rock grooves and the groove rocks.  Vinyl junkies needing  physical grooves in and on black disks should take note that the three songs on this EP are available  in your favourite format from the band's bandcamp site, which is linked below.

3.5/5



Listen to Onawa


White Orange on Facebook

Scythe "Subterranean Steel"

"You shouldn't judge a book by its cover" is a well-worn saying and it often also applies to albums.  There are covers out there with artwork that looks like the artist has only just graduated beyond drawing stick figures and some of these albums are regarded as classics due to the music.  The cover of Chicago band Scythe lends the trio the appearance of a black metal Manowar due to the over the top poses.  Strictly labeling Scythe as black metal is doing the band a slight disservice as the music contains elements of traditional, thrash and death metal.


The Chicago trio put the dirtier side of metal through a blender in"Leather Aggressor" but a filthy black metal heart pumps strongly.  The tempo is high-paced and with clear audible growled vocals, then the pace completely halts and the muddy sound black metal bands are renowned for disappears for what seems like a few seconds and a clear crunchy guitar assaults the listener only to vanish into a murky pit where an absolute pummeling is a necessity.    A strong backbone is provided in "Monarch" due to a simple drumbeat which lets the guitars take over and cast a hellish atmosphere.  If you've ever wondered what a slow moving bulldozer to the cranium feels like then get a dose of the title track although it will move quickly at some unknown point and the blast-beats will replace heavy machinery as you fall heavier into the muddy bog.  Scythe have  a perfect song title in "The Grunting Dead" and the song can only be described as blackened thrash.  The thrash sneaks up on you sometimes like on "The Bray Beast", which has a few riffs that are reminiscent of Exodus but probably at the pace those guys should be playing these days since they're nearing retirement age.  


It's difficult not to wonder if the title "Beyond the Northwoods" was suggested by someone with a lisp as the song takes in black metal and the guitars and drums edge of the sort of thrash metal that the Bay Area was renowned for in the eighties although a group of angry bumblebees make sure black metal gets the last word.  Oddly "Nights of Terror" reminds me of Wall of Silents but I highly doubt that the trio who recorded this song are aware of that band.  Rock, punk, thrash, death and black metal are all put into a concrete mixer  and the concoction is  similar cross-genres sound with crunching guitar leads.


There are a few times on the album that it is difficult to tell if a song has finished and another one has started.  Without any clean singing or breakdowns and gang choruses Subterranean Steel convincingly combine  the black, thrash and black metal sub-genres and keep it dirty and raw.  Clicking on the reverb nation link below is highly recommended as a taster.

4/5

Scythe on reverbnation

Scythe on Facebook

The Small Takeover on facebook