Australia’s Voyager has stealthily grown into one of my favorite bands over the past five years. While I was suitably impressed by 2009s I Am the Revolution, I was utterly blown away by 2011s The Meaning of I, to which I gave an extremely rare perfect score. They have a very distinctive sound and approach to power-prog and their ear for melody and hooks is second only to Anubis Gate. Naturally, as the release of V grew near I became giddy like a school girl at a Justin Bieber kissing booth. Now I’ve spent some serious time with V  and it actually comes close to my high expectations…at first. This is really a tale of two albums: the first half is one slick, smooth, memorable song after another, but the second half drops way off, becoming far more pedestrian and unremarkable. V also sacrifices heaviness for more poppish melodies and their musical palette seems less diverse than before, but when it works, it works very well. Unfortunately, that’s only about 60% of the time here.

The first six songs are all very good to great examples of power-prog as seen through Voyager‘s unique musical prism, but all are lighter and more restrained than their recent material. Opener “Hyperventilating” picks up right where The Meaning of I left off and has that same progtastic mix of smooth-as-silk vocals, offbeat riffing and melodious keyboards. It’s a strange song, but the kind Voyager does so well and it sticks in your head like a tick. Better still is “Breaking Down,” which has everything I love about this band in spades: heavy, twitchy riffing, twinkling keyboards and a big, emotional vocal performance.

Follow ups like ” A Beautiful Mistake,” “You the Shallow” and “Embrace the Limitless” are all high quality winners that will have power-prog fans in a tizzy. Then things go from nicey to dicey and while tracks like “The Domination Game” and “It’s a Wonder” are good and grow on you, it feels like something essential is missing. Others like “Peacekeeper,” “The Morning Light” and “Summer Always Comes Again” do almost nothing for me, and while they aren’t bad songs per se, they aren’t anywhere near Voyager‘s peak output and they border on filler.

The album is 54 minutes in length, but has about 36 minutes of prime, A-list material, and after the early run of great songs, the back-end really suffers by comparison. The inclusion of so many “B-Team” cuts really drags V down and instead of a short and awesome platter, we get a merely good one with chaff.

The individual performances are great and the band sounds as insanely tight as ever, though Daniel Estrin’s vocals once again steal the show. Yes, he sounds a lot like Simon Le Bon (Duran Duran), but he has a huge range and a true ear for vocal phrasing and hooks. He can give even the lesser songs a jolt of interest and he’s one of the best singers in this genre. The axe-work of Simone Dow and Scott Kay also impresses with loads of interesting riffs and emotive solos. The overall heaviness is less than it was and the nervous Voivod elements are mostly gone, but they still do fine job.

The production is once again mega-polished and clean enough to lick ice cream off of. As on The Meaning of I, it borders on sterile and mechanical, but it suits the music and hey, you don’t see many Dynamic Range scores of 9.

I certainly wish Voyager had cut some of the dead weight from V, but at least they deliver 3/4ths of a great album with some instant classics to add to their resume. Despite the middling score, I still highly recommend hearing this since the first half is so damn good and nobody can touch these cats when they’re in the groove. Oh well, it was the best of times, it was the BLURST of times??

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 9  |  Format: 256 kbps AAC
Label: Nightmare Records
Websites: voyager-australia.com  |  facebook.com/voyageraustralia
Release Dates: Out Worldwide (digitally) on 06.02.2014

The post Voyager – V Review appeared first on Angry Metal Guy.

With 2012’s Kentucky, Panopticon became among the most interesting black metal projects operating in the U.S. Unlike many USBM lynchpins that stubbornly ape the sound and ethos of their Scandinavian influences, Austin Lunn’s one-man black metal project took a full-fledged approach to the genre as tied to his own home and hearth of Kentucky as that of his Scandinavian forefathers. For those out of the loop, the result was an ambitious, politically-charged concept album centered around Kentucky’s blood-soaked history of coal mining, soundtracked by an unprecedented mix of black metal and bluegrass music.

Despite its ambitions, Kentucky was an imperfect rendering of this blackenend bluegrass vision. As a folk music counterpoint to Lunn’s harsh, blast-heavy metal sections, Kentucky’s bluegrass elements were awkward and ramshackle when compared to the more fluid compositions of the European school of black metal/folk integration. Without precedence or a frame of reference, it felt lost, unfocused, incomplete – yet, exhilarating all the same. Kentucky’s execution was arguably flawed, but it plainly clear that Lunn was on to something.

After a series of subsequent splits with Vestiges and Falls of Rauros, Panopticon has continued its vision of homegrown American black metal with a 74 minute long marathon of an LP, Roads to the North. Like the rest of Panopticon’s discography, Roads… is ambitious and brimming with personality, but never before has the project so seamlessly married intention and execution.

Lunn indeed summons every trick up his sleeve on Roads to the North, and even introduces a new one in the form of pure Gothenburg melodeath riffing that switches in and out of the black metal frenzy. It practically ambushes the listener on opening track “The Echoes of a Disharmonic Evensong” among the fiddles and post-rock garnish, but it hardly feels out of place. Instead, it’s groovy and it rocks hard. “Where Mountains Pierce the Sky” similarly invokes In Flames and At the Gates with commanding – and catchy – riffing alongside gorgeous folk arrangements. The stylistic counterpoint is just as fluid and sublime as it is disparate and strange.

I could spend the rest of this review picking apart the truly motley complex of moving parts that Lunn has stuffed into this record’s 74 minutes, but what really makes Roads to the North work so well is how inconspicuous these disparate parts are in fleshing out its emotional core. The music is simply so arresting that it’s only after “Chase the Grain” wraps things up and your heart rate resumes a normal rhythm that you might think it a miracle the record didn’t derail itself into a trainwreck. Instead, it makes Kentucky feel like a mere curiosity.

Beyond simply being fantastic heavy metal, Roads to the North importantly succeeds in its fusion of bluegrass elements into the already opulent songwriting. The aching, plaintive Americana laced in “Where Mountains Pierce the Sky” and the two pure bluegrass numbers “The Long Road Part 1: One Last Fire” and “Norwegian Nights” sport loose, lively performances that become sort of miraculous considering Lunn presumably performs these stomping jams by himself, track-by-track. More importantly, the presence of bluegrass counterpoint to the unusually lively metal compositions clashes only negligibly; by and large, the integration is executed splendidly.

Panopticon has always been interesting, but Roads to the North is flat-out incredible. It’s undeniably Lunn’s finest work and the closest he has ever come to a perfect rendering of his vision of a homegrown American black metal. It deserves to be heard not only by those who liked the project’s previous material, but anyone who can appreciate ambitious, honest, and emotionally resonant metal.

Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 9 | Format Reviewed: 128 kbps mp3
Label: Bindrune Recordings
Websites: PanopticonOfficial | Facebook.com/PanopticonOfficial
Release Dates: Out Worldwide: 08.01.2014

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Our review of Fallujah‘s latest opus garnered attention recently. While other zines produced reviews that were like an unregulated experiment of the wanton fusion of two separate strains of exaggeration in praise of Unique Leader’s uniquest of leaders, headstrong Kronos did not join the throngs of adoring critics. He argued, clearly and forcefully, that even if the music on The Flesh Prevails is top notch, the mixing and mastering are not. The Flesh Prevails is a brutal and invigorating record, but the brickwall into which listeners careen is almost as brutal as the music itself. The Flesh Prevails is an ear fatiguing DR3, the promo mp3s peaked in the reviewer’s speakers, and the lack of dynamics palpable. Or maybe it’s better to say: the dynamics weren’t palpable.

Thanks to the W0nderz 0f th3 Internetz™ we received a drop-in visit from Zack Ohren. Zack mixed and mastered The Flesh Prevails and he went to bat for Fallujah‘s newest oeuvre. The thrust of his argument was thus: First, Fallujah plays dense, heavy material. It follows, then, that the DR score will be lower than on another kind of material. Second, Fallujah wants the sound to be immense and rarely uses quiet sounds or clean guitars. Instead, the band layers everything for desired effect. The mix follows suit and the master then also needed to push that sound. The band made a choice when offered a number of different options. Finally, Zack argued that the difference between the DR10 master and the DR3 promotional mp3s was not great. His argument, without trying to parse it too much, was that the mastering wasn’t the sole culprit for the sound: the music and the mix were also “at fault” due to conventions of the scene (see: the drums) and processes that happened before the record was mastered.

I do not intend to mediate this discussion or to comment on it further. But I will say this: Upon receiving the DR10 (no loudness) version of The Flesh Prevails I logged into Windows, opened up Foobar2000 and imported “The Night Reveals.” I then did a double-blind ABX (also known around here as The Swanö Challenge). I compared the tracks 14 times and could distinguish them every single time — there was therefore statistically a zero chance I was guessing. The DR10 master was thicker and fuller, with the vocals taking up more space in the mix and a way punchier snare drum. The bass, as well, was more prominent and filled out the sound. And it sounded so damned good.

However, I think that Zack is partially correct in his assessment that the difference between the DR10 and the DR3 master are not so great as one might expect. This might seem counterintuitive to a lot of you, but it makes a lot of sense if you start to think about how modern metal is produced. If you’re engineering a record with a  DR3 master in mind, you make a number of choices in order to make sure that when the record loud it doesn’t sound like shit. The product that is produced, then, is perfectly geared to get really loud without clipping audibly—and that’s what The Flesh Prevails is. It’s a loud record, built to be a loud record.

But while this master is not a great example of the loudness war at work in that a DR10 mix will likely not cause the scales to fall from anyone’s eyes, the audible differences in dynamics and the thickness of some of the tastiest parts of the mix (bass! punchier snare! fuller vokills!¹) do make me think that this is still a better final product. As I sit and listen to it in my cans, it sounds brutal and it sounds immense. It’s a modern mix, and Fallujah‘s desire to pursue ‘their’ sound succeeds, even when it’s not mashed together.

So why do we need a DR3 master? If the DR10 master is just as brutal, only with a wider spectrum and more dynamics even when the mix is geared for a loud mastering job, I’m not sure what the purpose of an overdriven master is. I’m left hoping, regardless, that the band and their label choose to release the DR10 master for fans that want it. The Flesh Prevails is a brutal tour de force of techy death metal and one of the better records I’ve heard this year. There’s no reason that I should hesitate to buy the CD because of the mastering job. For those interested in getting this mix, you can buy the vinyl (I will)—but that raises the question “why is it only people who buy vinyl who get better mastering jobs?” But I guess that’s a whole other can o’ worms, innit?

A Second/Revised Review
By: Kronos

It’s been around a month since I panned Fallujah’s incredibly ambitious The Flesh Prevails on account of a gratuitously loud mastering job, and now that the storm that battered the review’s comments section has passed, the staff at Angry Metal Guy have all agreed that it’s time to take another look at the album. But this time it’s not quite the same album. How so? We have an alternate master, provided for us with consent from Fallujah by Zack Ohren, the man behind the knobs for The Flesh Prevails.

Quickly after my review was published, Zack appeared on the scene to engage us in an excellent discussion on his mastering choices and the reasons that I thought the album sounded like dirt. Despite taking a lot of criticism, he kept up with a lot of questions and always provided reasonable and level responses and was just generally a good guy. So before I get started, I have to tip my hat to him for making this meta-review possible. Zack took pride in his work and took action to resolve this little debacle I’ve created, and were it not for him I probably would have completely written off this album as a casualty of brickwalling.

Zack provided for us a largely-unlimited mix of the album in .wav format, measuring a cool DR10 overall. As he said, the difference isn’t night and day, but it’s impossible to miss just how much better this non-brickwalled, lossless version of the album sounds

Gone is the clipping – entirely². The intro to “Starlit Path” now produces waves of tranquility rather than disgust; where before the song showed weakness, it now produces strength. The initial crescendo, which was suggested rather than performed in the original version, now appropriately ushers in the release of energy that truly begins the record. “Carved from Stone” is similarly improved. It may not be quite as assaulting as the homogenized-volume version from the original promo material, but the trade-off is between heaviness and listenability. While going through my original review, I usually dreaded hearing certain portions of “Carved from Stone” and “Sapphire” because of just how corroded their most excellent features were. Now, the songs can breath – synthesizers that were once suffocating have become beautifully diaphanous.

The contrast and headroom afforded by this un-mastered master unmistakably change the recording for the better. The Flesh Prevails’ excellent writing and performances deserve no less. The emotion of the album can finally break the surface and make the songs truly beautiful and moving. “Chemical Cave” can now send shivers down my spine, and the dual centerpiece of “The Night Reveals/The Flesh Prevails” is a journey rather than a slog. One can take note of “The Flesh Prevails” echoing the motif that ends “The Night Reveals” before it runs away with the simple, beautiful melody without being distracted by hiss and crackle.

The difference is more than a placebo, and though a few minutes of listening makes it obvious how much more dynamic and organic the album sounds in this incarnation, it’s still worth taking a look at the data- and the data speaks for itself. “Starlit Path” is now a stunningly dynamic DR10 compared to the homogenous DR3 of the original, and a comparison of their waveforms is stunning.

What I want to achieve more than anything with this, apart from being able to make an “Angry Meta-Guy” joke again (do your worst, Steel Druhm), is to make Fallujah and Unique Leader seriously consider releasing a secondary version of The Flesh Prevails. This master, or something like it, is what Fallujah fans deserve. I know that quite a few commenters on my original review have skipped this album because of the mastering and would gladly drop cash for a more dynamic version of the record, and I imagine they’re only a small number of the fans who are disappointed with how The Flesh Prevails sounds. The ball is now firmly in your court, Unique Leader and Fallujah. I respect the band’s choice to have the album sound how they wanted it, but I think it’s worth their time to reconsider that choice, because I’m not alone in thinking that it has seriously hurt what should be an excellent album.

Revised Rating: 4.0/5.0

The post Fallujah – The Flesh Prevails Prevails: A Review of the DR10 Master appeared first on Angry Metal Guy.

Concepts are tough nuts to crack, you’ve got to get your story across in roughly 7-10 tracks and at the same time the songs themselves need to stand alone and impress. Venereal Dawn¹ is the latest addition to the now seven-deep discography for German black metallers Dark Fortress and it was three years in the making. The album’s concept weaves a tale of survival, betrayal and sacrifice in what is said to be an extremely hostile environment. I’m left with two questions: (1) did our Angry Metal Overlord mistakenly pass on an episode of Lost for my reviewing pleasure? [Answer: Your Angry Metal Overlord does not make mistakes - AMG] More importantly, (2) can vocalist Morean, now well-entrenched in the band’s sound after Eidolon and Ylem, pull off this vague concept?

Venereal Dawn unfurls with the title track at a hefty 11 minutes and as far as epics go, it’s manageable up until the final two minutes, at which point you’re quite ready to hit skip. Your expectation for the song is for something akin to what Dark Fortress have done previously: mid-tempo black metal, symphonic without the use of orchestrations, melodic and very modern, and this certainly delivers that along with a few extra surprises. Atmospheric at first, Morean makes his grand entrance with a menacing narration of poetic proportions before amping up the drama and taking Dark Fortress towards territory that holds hints to the blackened death of Hate.

The rest of the album follows suite and feels like a grab bag of who’s who in metal. You’ve got “Lloigor” that opens up sounding like it should be on Opeth‘s Watershed and a short way in you find something along the lines of [Luca Turilli's] Rhapsody [of Fire] complete with “In a world…” movie guy voice cropping up. “Betrayal and Vengeance” could easily have been a discarded Naglfar track but with a bunch of Kvarforth (Shining) grunts and theatrics thrown in for giggles. And then there’s “Chrysalis” and “Luciform,” which evoke a weird Hate and Nevermore hybrid which made me want to listen to The Godless Endeavour and The Obsidian Conspiracy. Finally “On Fever’s Wings” bookends the album in all its 11 minute glory that invites Black Sun Aeon, Machine Head, latter day Cemetery and Tiamat to this very muddled party.

Dark Fortress run a tight ship and there’s no lack of precision and talent present in the band. Seraph (drums) also plays for prog metallers Noneuclid and symphonic band ReVamp and I suspect this is where his demanding drum contortions have grown and developed from. Asvargr and Santaura (Noneuclid and Tryptykon) handle the guitars and for the most part they continue with the technical guitar lines that were a part of Ylem. They’ve tried to bring in the heaviness that was lacking in the earlier release and they certainly hit closer to home with the integration of their dextrous, snaking guitar work into Seraph’s uncomfortable tempo shifts.

With the band having worked on this concept for so long, my expectations were high, but in the end Venereal Dawn‘s concept strikes me as too generalized and too tough to spin into a workable idea. Worse yet, with everything Dark Fortress brings to the table, there’s too much happening simultaneously on Venereal Dawn and it isn’t cohesive. This makes it a record that doesn’t catch one’s attention or leave the listener wanting to hear it again. Dark Fortress have veered further away from the black metal of their past and instead, built on to the progressive tendencies and technicality that they worked with on Ylem. Unfortunately, this time around they’ve taken it a step too far, cramming in an over-abundance of variation and as many jarring switches as they possibly can. Finally, all Dark Fortress ends up with are a bunch of dead, bloated bodies in the water and one disappointed reviewer watching them drift downriver out of sight and mind.

Rating: 2.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 256 kbps mp3
Label: Century Media Records
Websites: DarkFortressOfficial | Facebook.com/OfficialDarkFortress
Release Dates: EU: 2014.09.01 | NA: 09.02.2014

The post Dark Fortress – Venereal Dawn Review appeared first on Angry Metal Guy.

Let’s face it: traditional symphonic metal is a playground of melodrama that’s nowhere near brutal enough. That’s why Fleshgod Apocalypse and Septicflesh (get mad about that concretion) are such popular bands – no matter how much we complain about their loud as hell albums here, there’s no denying that symphonic death is the perfect step forward for the maligned fusion genre. Recent experimenters in their wake are also making impressive strides for symphonic metal by combining it with the even more reviled genre of djent (get mad about that as well). Last year Ovid’s Withering (Flesh) put out a great album that we embarrassingly missed, and Xerath has been making djent-influenced symphonic music, also unnoticed by this site, since 2009. Xerath is quite the rarity, a band that’s truly one of a kind. Whether you like their ‘Strapping Young Lad writes a film score’ style or not, there’s certainly nobody out there quite like them, and III doesn’t bring them any closer to an archetype than their first two albums did. They still don’t give a shit about genre lines, seem unaware of conventions, and aren’t even remotely Greek.

If you’ve listened to opener “I Hold Dominion,” you’ll know exactly why III is different from any other symphonic death album. It just doesn’t sound like any usually associated band. It’s what would happen if Devin Townsend was asked to score the next shitty Zack Snyder movie. The song is huge, dramatic and full of just plain weird twists, moving from menacing atmosphere to a powerful strut and then falling into a prog-rock groove, and though it might be cheesy at first, it’s worth plenty of attention. It’s a harbinger of things to come.

III is a huge album from a perspective of both musical content and length the songs – all fourteen of them – are surprisingly varied and even quite memorable. It’s impossible in a short space to enumerate the ways each song fits into the patchwork, but be assured that there’s an astoundingly low level of filler here – even the less likeable songs, such as “Passenger” and “Bleed this Body Clean” have their place and personality, and moments of excellence pop up at regular intervals, like the soaring chorus and melody of “Death Defiant,” the subtly shuffling intro of “The Chaos Reign,” and the cooled-down solo in “Sentinels.”

Richard Thompson puts out an excellent performance on this album, as pitch-perfect in his Devin Townsend impression as ever before. The guy’s almost a laryngeal clone of Hevy Devy, which is most certainly nothing to complain about. Keeping with Xerath’s sonic stasis are the riffs, which are as weird and unique as ever, as fans of the band are sure to note. For every Strapping Young Lad-style syncopated groove there’s a bizarre Gojira riff apparently written by Dizzy Gillespie. The strange composition and phrasing of Conor McGouran’s guitar lines keeps the album interesting, jumping between relatively predictable death metal rhythm riffs to thrashy death grooves that spill over bars like a bebop horn line or a Count Bassie saxophone soli. ”Ironclad” and “2053” (which also gets points for its subtle Oppenheimer sample) are the best examples of this. Even the symphonic elements are strangely jazz-oriented, used more to beef up chords or add emphasis to the big hits than to carry a melody or set a scene.

The biggest drawback to III is its length, and while there are no obvious songs that need removal (with the possible exception of “Witness,” though I’m loathe to throw out a bass solo), it does go on for quite a while, ending just short of 70 minutes. It’s an album best listened to in chunks, and it would have been a great touch for the band to include an obvious intermissive point somewhere around the middle of the album- a definite break just before “Sentinels” would have been nice. Complicating this issue is the homogeneity of song length; save for “I Hold Dominion,” every song sits around 4-5 minutes long. The unvaried song lengths make the album seem even longer, since endings and beginnings are so regular. That being said, it’s really not a huge drawback at all. III doesn’t seem to drag on for too long, and the last two songs, “Veil – Part 1” and “Veil – Part 2,” shake up the album’s formula at just the right moment by incorporating piano, prog rock keyboards, and stronger orchestral melodies to finish the colossus of an album on a definite high note.

I’ve never been a big fan of Xerath, but III just might convert me. It’s not very different from I or II at all, but everything just seems better. The dramatics are more convincing, the riffs more interesting, the writing a bit more varied, and the band’s performances are all measured but tight and memorable. Finally, Xerath’s bizarre music just clicks together and becomes the perfect amalgam of its tremendously varied influences. III  is a huge accomplishment and one of this summers most unexpectedly excellent albums, and there’s plenty of time to give it a listen before this falls’s incredible release schedule. While it might not be everyone’s cup of tea, it’s a cup of something you want to drink.

Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label:  Candlelight Records
Websites: XerathOfficial | Facebook.com/Xerath
Release Dates: EU: 2014.09.15 | NA: 09.16.2014

The post Xerath – III Review appeared first on Angry Metal Guy.

Threshold has long been a darling of the progressive metal scene for two very simple reasons: they’re unbelievably consistent and more importantly, they’re the anti-Dream Theater in that they remember how to write actual songs and not just seven minute, ego-driven wank fests that go nowhere. Despite the tragic death of long time singer Andrew “Mac” McDermott in 2011, the band bounced back hard with 2012’s March of Progress, recruiting original singer Damian Wilson to get the job done, and now they’re back with For the Journey. As before, we get oodles of pristine, highly melodic prog metal that’s a stylistic cousin to Anubis Gate, and like all Threshold material, it’s loaded with first-rate writing and crisp, sharp musicianship. The overall style is classic Threshold, but this is a more introspective, moody and somber outing than March of Progress and it feels like the album one would have expected immediately following the passing of McDermott. That we get it a few years later is a small matter, it’s still Threshold and it’s pretty damn wonderful, and since I have many leather bound books and my study smells of rich mahogany, I clearly know of what I speak.

Most of the songs here have an immediate warmth and familiarity because they stick so closely to what the band has done in the past. And though I suppose it’s rather unproggish of them, this isn’t an album that stretches the Threshold sound palette in any new direction. Instead, they play to their long established strengths and craft beautiful soundscapes with deep melodic hooks. Opener “Watchtower on the Moon” could have been on any album since Hypothetical and fit right in. It’s fairly urgent, and though direct, it has enough offbeat elements and time shifts to qualify as prog. It also uses big, muscular riffs ripped from a Brainstorm album to counter point the rich, melodious keys and vocals. “Unforgiven” delivers a melancholy and utterly captivating tune which Wilson makes absolutely essential with his crystal clear and empathic vocals.

The album centerpiece is the twelve minutes of “The Box,” where the band dabbles in a number of textures and moods while showcasing their ability to make such a long song workable, enjoyable and at times, rather heartbreaking. Again, Wilson is a key to keeping the listener’s ear glued, but the writing and performances are all stellar. The album’s denouement is equally gipping, with “The Mystery Show” and especially “Siren Sky” demonstrating the band is capable of generating enormously emotional compositions with their well appointed style.

The only song that fails to impress is “Autumn Red,” and though it’s far from bad, it suffers from sitting alongside much bigger, grandiose numbers and ends up feeling unnecessary. A bitter nit-picker could argue the front-end of the album is stronger and things fade a bit before reaching the big finish of “Siren Sky,” and to a small extent that may be valid. But the level these chaps operate at is so far above the average band, a slight drop off means next to nothing.

This is a band of truly gifted performers and that comes across on every track. Wilson in particular shines bright, making an Icarus like run at the lofty heights set aside for Sir Russell Allen when he isn’t doing fifth-rate bar rock with Adrenalin Mob. The man has a truly sensational set of pipes and he’s been an absolute savoir for the band. The fret-board heroics by longtime member Karl Groom and relatively new Pete Morten are so satisfying because they’re always so understated. They play within their compositions, not over them or through them and the solos feel like thoughtful accents to well written pieces, not attempts to set land speed records for note burning. Richard West’s keyboard are essential but tasteful, with some sweet Hammond organ pieces cropping up here and there. The backline is equally praiseworthy, with Steve Anderson’s bass presence very sharp and audible, and Johanne James turning in a wonderfully nuanced performance behind the kit. These are musician’s musicians and they’re a joy to hear in action.

For the Journey is everything you expect from a Threshold album. It’s a treasure trove of sweet harmonies and melodies and it’s so pleasing to the ear, you can sometimes forget it’s metal, but it is. I’m thrilled these guys are still turning out product and love that they have Wilson back in the fold. Now get your smoking jackets on, grab a snifter of cognac, blast this muther and get some fucking culture, you lowbrow ruffians!

Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 7  |  Format Reviewed: 270 kbps MP3
Label: Nuclear Blast [EU][NA]
Websites: thresh.net  |  facebook.com/threshold
Release Dates:  EU: 2014.09.19  |  NA: 09.30.2014

The post Threshold – For the Journey Review appeared first on Angry Metal Guy.

Written By: Gothmog

These days, prog metal seems to be coming down to how many strings your guitar has, if you’re a virtuoso or not, and what presets you have on your Axe-FX. Seriously, it seems like all the prog metal bands in the scene today have been obsessing over effect processors and compression during production, that it just drains the enjoyment out of it. Even then, they’re too busy wanking on their guitars, trying to constantly outperform everyone else who crosses their path. Essentially, to quote Devin Townsend, it’s a “dick swinging competition.”

So in the midst of all this, Finland’s Malpractice are trudging on, six albums into their career. Turning Tides, the second release featuring vocalist Aleksi Parvianen after 2008’s mildly thrashy Triangular, continues the self-described “connoisseurs of prog”’s career and showcases that they’re as dedicated to the genre as they claim to be. Going against modern prog’s trends, Malpractice take influence from classic prog metal like Symphony X, Dream Theater (the most obvious) and Queensryche, balancing out a traditional heavy metal sound with progressive changes and rhythms here and there, while featuring plenty of melodies and massive, heavy riffs with a surprise or two. In 44 minutes, Turning Tides accomplishes nothing entirely new, but that doesn’t stop it from being a solid album that might leave a bigger impression than you expect.

Take “Weight of the World” for example. Malpractice’s Dream Theater influence becomes more obvious as the song goes on, and the bridge is a full on talent spectacle. If the song hasn’t caught your attention by then, the harmonized, sweeping guitars will definitely do the job. While making their influences obvious, Malpractice have their own sound here. This also becomes obvious on the 15 minute title track, where the band works with different dynamics during the extensive and impressive bridge, keeping all aspects of the music interesting as it spirals up and down before coming back for a strong finish.

Malpractice are smart with their compositions and dynamics, too, as they know how to let a song breathe and not suffocate it with technicality. Prog bands can easily make their songs overly complicated and take away any sense of enjoyment from the music, but Malpractice prove they know better. Closing track “Out” displays this nicely when they leave most of the flashy guitar and drum work for when the vocals aren’t the main focus. You won’t feel overwhelmed at all listening to Turning Tides and that’s a major plus.

While simplicity is certainly respectable, opening track “Best Kept Secret” nearly becomes too simple, resembling that heavy metal song we’ve heard a thousand times before in some kid’s garage. It has its hooks, sure, but the riff and progression has been done by countless other bar bands. Sometimes the vocal melodies are also questionable, where they may seem outright silly or just in poor taste. This isn’t a constant issue, but when they happen it’s incredibly obvious.

The production of the album is good despite the overwhelming sound of the bass drum when the double-footwork comes in. When the band is doing simpler beats, there are no complaints to be made on the songs, however when sixteenth and thirty-second notes happen, it overwhelms the rest of the music and completely throws the mix out of synch. Had it been lowered in these parts, the drums would have been absolutely perfect.

Even so, Turning Tides is enjoyable, fun, and stays true to progressive metal as it was originally founded. There’s no crazy tricks here, but the songs are catchy, the musicianship is clean and precise, and it never drags or tries to fit with the “in” crowd. Malpractice clearly love what they do and they’re refreshingly self aware of what they are and want to be.

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 6 |  Format Reviewed: 320 kbps MP3
Label: Sensory Records
Websites: MalpracticeOfficial | Facebook.com/malpractice
Release Dates: EU: 2014.09.15 | NA: 09.16.2014

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Written By: Diabolus in Muzaka

Is there a better way to start a review of a metal album that with a brief discussion of semantics? Yes, there is, but I’m going to do just that anyway, written hooks be damned. Can anyone accurately define what “progressive” metal, or even “progressive” music, is? Is it letting everyone within earshot know that you listened to and enjoyed the entire discographies of King Crimson, Camel, and The Mahavishnu Orchestra? Is it mixing off-kilter riffs with huge, poppy hooks, modern-to-a-fault production, and good cop/bad cop vocals? Is it a shameless display of instrumental prowess? Is it Cynic? I have no idea, and I doubt many others do either. Point is, most things that don’t fit neatly into any genre box get thrown under the “progressive” umbrella, but are any of these countless bands truly pushing metal meaningfully forward? Probably not. Quartered, a “progressive” alt-metal band from Vancouver, are one such band guilty of this. But does that damn their anticipated new EP release, Eyes and Ears?

The EP catches my ears right off the bat with “Blink Blink Flash,” a solid number reminiscent of Deftones and Mnemic, with an incredibly catchy chorus and a groovy bridge spearheaded by guitarist Jeff Wang, where vocalist Greggor Williams screams the title a few times, sounding more than a little bit like Vision of Disorder’s Tim Williams. “Speak of the Devil” shows the abundant softer side of Quartered in its finest form, with Williams delivering a well thought out and technically proficient vocal part that becomes the highlight of the song, which succeeds compositionally too. Sure, the slow-burn buildup formula has been done to death, but Quartered manage to make it work by drawing heavily on latter-day Katatonia. “Take Me There Tonight” is a dead ringer for Mnemic in its verse, with bassist Craig Rudder and drummer Scotty Miller in lockstep with one another, giving the song a nice heft.

It’s a shame, then, that the album takes a nosedive immediately after making a such a good first impression. “Call Me Crazy” starts off with a riff that legitimately sounds like pop-punk a la The Ready Set, and this sets a tone that, with few exceptions, remains through most of the EP. Quartered often resides in metal’s own uncanny valley, one where bands can’t seem to decide whether or not they want to embrace the genre or shoot for pop fans’ hearts and wallets. Instead of enhancing both aspects of the music, it serves to negatively impact them instead, making the poppy parts feel disingenuous and the heavier parts feel forced. “Violent Love,” the most aggressive song on here, shows this clearly by sounding more like a band trying to appease their metal fan base than anything; sounding like The Dillinger Escape Plan by numbers doesn’t help either. In fact, a good four songs on this EP simply whizzed by and simply left me cold, yearning for the promise showed on “Blink Blink Flash” and “Speak of the Devil” to rear its head again.

Eye and Ears’ production, handled by the band themselves and Royce Whittaker at Spinnaker Sound, does a good job of allowing each member’s individual performance to have its own space in the mix. On a technical level, the entire band puts on a solid performance; these guys can play, and they make it known, but they never engage in senseless wankery. Another plus is the production of Miller’s drums: they sound pretty big and natural, a definite asset to the music. It’s nice to hear a modern metal band utilize more dynamic range in the mastering process, so Quartered is definitely on the right path there. Jeff Wang’s guitar tone is also quite good, if not a bit sterile in the distorted segments. This works a bit to his advantage however, as it allows for his excellent technique to shine through and not be muddied at all.

Overall, Eyes and Ears shows a young band trying to find their footing in a crowded scene and striking gold a couple of times in the process. This is a definite improvement over 2010’s much more metalcore-y Walks Like a Ghost, in both production and songwriting, and that gives me some hope for Quartered to become a louder voice in the alternative metal scene if they can keep up these consistent improvements. That said, I only find myself coming back consistently to “Blink Blink Flash” and “Speak of the Devil,” which does not say great things about the other six songs here. With more honed and memorable songwriting, Quartered could be onto something. As of right now though, their potential needs further tapping.

Rating: 2.0/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps MP3
Label: Self-released
Websites: QuarteredOfficial | Facebook.com/Quartered
Release Date: Out Worldwide: 09.27.2014

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It’s easy to forget that at the time of it’s release, Ziltoid The Omniscient was something of a reboot for Devin Townsend‘s career. Having disbanded both his solo group and the long-running Strapping Young Lad in 2007, Townsend decided to return home, get healthy, and focus on family life. Ziltoid was his first release after that self-imposed exile. The record was charmingly low-budget, recorded solely by Townsend and a drum machine, and there was no tour to promote it.

Seven years later, Townsend is destroying stages worldwide with his eponymous Project and his increasingly ambitious endeavors. He’s made about 9 billion albums since Ziltoid The Omniscient, but that record still has a warm spot in the hearts of many younger Devin fans. Townsend has been threatening various follow-up projects for years, including a puppet show, internet radio series, and a sequel. And at least for the sequel, the wait is now over in the form of the larger-than-life double album Z2. Unlike the original, Z2 is mostly plot-driven. Narration takes a lead role, while the music itself is often little more than background. Many tracks are much longer than necessary in order to accommodate the fairly convoluted storyline (“War Princess” is particularly guilty of this). Sometimes, as in “Wandering Eye,” perfectly good musical ideas appear briefly, then get discarded to leave room for the characters’ dialogue. I imagine that this music will eventually be used in the Ziltoid TV show or whatever, and that’s great, but few of these tracks can stand on their own merit. The storyline itself is full of Flash Gordon-style sci-fi clichés and plot twists, which is fun if you’re into that sort of thing. Oh, and closing track “Dimension Z” features guest vocals submitted by literally hundreds of Devin Townsend fans, in what was an extremely cool move on his part.

Z2‘s 2nd disc, Sky Blue, feels almost like a collection of bonus tracks. This disc is separate from the Ziltoid storyline, and more song-based — think Epicloud, or the short-lived Devin Townsend Band. There’s a few heavier songs, some electronica-tinged ballads, and a surprisingly high number of Autotuned, club-ready dance tracks. Longtime collaborator Anneke Van Giersbergen (ex-The Gathering) is featured heavily on this disc, and is basically co-lead vocalist with Townsend at this point. As much as these songs seem like throwaways, they do have a bit more staying power than the first disc’s material, by virtue of being, y’know, actual songs.

The original Ziltoid ruled for two reasons. First, the more meandering tracks were anchored by some excellent stand-alone songs (see “Hyperdrive,” “Color Your World,” “The Greys”). Secondly, the whole “alien searching the universe for coffee” plot doubled as an extended metaphor for the music business, family, and the fragile male ego. Z2 doesn’t operate on either of those levels. It’s fun, and there’s some compelling (if half-baked) musical ideas. But for the most part, this is nothing more than a victory lap for Townsend and co.

Z2 could’ve easily been a bigger, more badass version of the original, like Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Instead, it’s the metal equivalent of Die Hard 2: Die Harder — way too long, occasionally boring, and entirely unnecessary for anyone who’s experienced the original. I’m sure the Dev fans will eat this stuff up, regardless what some asshole blog reviewer thinks, and that’s fine. I’m still holding out for the puppet show though.

Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 9  |  Format Reviewed: 192 kbps MP3
Label: InsideOut
Websites: DevinTownsendOfficial | Facebook.com/DevinTownsend
Release Dates: EU: 2014.10.27 | NA: 10.28.2104

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I know embarrassingly little about the Russian metal scene, so the opportunity to review Tantal’s latest album was particularly… tantalizing. Formed in Pushkino in 2004, Tantal released their debut The Beginning of the End (is that really the best name for a first album?) in 2009. This flew completely under my radar, so I had no idea what to expect from Expectancy – a post-Soviet critique of the motivational theories of Victor Vroom in the style of In Flames, perhaps? Well musically we’re in the right ballpark, even if I’m not convinced the lyrics adequately rebut Vroom’s fundamental model. But anyway. Let’s deal with the music, shall we?

I had hoped I could get through this review without mentioning Arch Enemy (Tantal’s vocalist is female y’see), but opener “Through the Years” has more than just a hint of Michael Amott’s trademark tuneful-yet-thrashy riffing to it, while the aggressive, screamed vocals are rather similar to Alissa White-Gluz’s delivery on the Swedes’ latest offering. In general though, Tantal’s approach is very different, incorporating far more elaborate melodies and song structures compared to Arch Enemy’s straightforward pop metal. The following track, “Expectancy Pt. 1,” is a fine example, starting off like a slowed-down Nevermore before adding hints of Evergrey, all the while alternating between screamed and sung vocals to keep things more interesting. “Echoes of Failures” incorporates a strong Dark Tranquility influence, which reappears later on during “Expectancy Pt. 2” in a satisfyingly thrashy guise after a progtacular melodic guitar opening.

While the elaborate songwriting and prog influences help to distinguish Tantal from the melodeath pack, they do little to improve the music itself. Too often the band gets lost in ornate melodies that don’t really go anywhere, but instead are used in an effort to distract from what are often quite tired chord progressions. This results in a distinct lack of any memorable tunes, as well as severe song bloat – the band just don’t have the writing chops to pull off an album full of 6-7 minute long songs. Sometimes, as on “Expectancy” parts 1 & 2, they manage to hit the spot, but most of the tracks could benefit from some heavy editing (or even total removal: “Pain That We All Must Go Through,” “In The End Pt.2”).

Though the songwriting lets the album down, the playing is of a high standard. When she’s not vomiting forth her animalistic growls, Milana Solovitskaya’s vocal tone is somewhere between Christina Scabbia and Anneke van Giersbergen. While Milana has a strong voice that contrasts well against the screams, her melodic delivery is one-dimensional, lacking the emotional range or subtlety of the aforementioned singers. The guitar playing is technically very skillful, but I’m not sure “ooh crikey, this chap must have practiced lots” is the desired response to a guitar solo (unless you’re Yngwie, I guess). Sound-wise things are generally good; the production is slick and suits the style well enough, though the bass gets a bit lost and the low dynamic range doesn’t help the more involved arrangements.

Tantal have produced a decent album that shows potential, and if you’re a fan of the style who can forgive the compositional shortcomings you’ll no doubt find much to enjoy. For my money, though, they’re too busy struggling to escape the confines of the melodeath genre (which, let’s face it, had run out of steam over a decade ago) to create memorable music.

Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 160 kbps mp3
Label: Bakerteam Records
Website: Facebook.com/TantalOfficial
Release Date: Out Worldwide: 20.27.2014

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Written by: L. Saunders

Firstly, before I delve into the guts of this review, here’s a bit of context regarding the elaborate conceptual narrative San Francisco’s Giant Squid have once again crafted with their latest weird and wonderful musical trip, entitled Minoans. The Minoan civilization emerged on the island of Crete and thrived from roughly 2700 to 1450 BC. The civilization was rediscovered by British archaeologist Arthur Evans early in the twentieth century and has been referred to by American historian William Durant as “the first link in the European chain.” Singer/guitarist/artist Aaron Gregory, Giant Squid’s mastermind behind their epic lyrical concepts, further elaborates, “Lyrically, the album is a giant love letter to the Mediterranean and specifically Bronze-age Greece – a region, people and time period that deeply fascinates me and which I feel mirrors these heartbreakingly turbulent times we live in today.” I’m not here to give you a fucking history lesson, but for those seeking to get the full engagement of another carefully constructed and highly ambitious Giant Squid concept album, there’s an interesting backstory behind this mysterious civilization well worth investigating.

Not many bands in the realms of heavy music truly defy genre classification quite like Giant Squid.The wildly innovative five-piece have been churning out their oddball hybrid of sludge, doom, prog and post whatever-the-hell for the past decade, cultivating an incredibly unique sound while keeping their tentacles shifting restlessly into uncharted waters. Minoans is yet another exceptional showcase of the band’s evolving creative arc, sweeping the listener into the alternatively soothing, unpredictable and turbulent waterways in which Giant Squid resides. The songwriting is typically diverse and eclectic, conveying a wide range of moods and emotions, while also proving to be Giant Squid’s most restrained and somber effort. Ebbing and flowing through eight intricate compositions over an almost too short 43 minute run-time, Minoans contains all the quirky traits I’ve come to expect from the band. Shrouded in shadowy darkness and melancholy, Minoans never gets bogged down in its doom and gloom, allowing shards of light and rays of hope to pierce the inky darkness.

Churning sludge riffs, intricate arrangements awash with enchanting cello and keys, and the intoxicating dual vocal harmonies from Gregory and the phenomenal Jackie Perez Gratz (Amber Asylum, Grayceon) bookend densely packed and highly emotive songs. Gratz is Giant Squid’s wildcard and not-so-secret weapon and her see-sawing cello lines provide much of the album’s simmering tension. Whether functioning as an atmospheric backdrop beneath the guitars, drums, keys and bass, or taking on a lead role, her skilled use of the instrument adds rich texture and class to the material. Dual vocal harmonies work their wonders throughout the album, with Gratz equally adept on lead vocals. However it’s the tremendous impact of how her silky, ethereal singing contrasts with the strange warbling of Gregory’s tremendous voice that resonates most deeply. Gregory in particular continues to grow, shedding some of his Serj Tankianisms to develop into an accomplished and distinctive singer. The achingly beautiful duet the pair supply on the mournful balladry of penultimate track “The Pearl and the Parthenon” is particularly heart wrenching.

Like any good concept album, Minoans is best absorbed in one sitting to get the fully immersive experience. Often quietly ominous and slow building, Minoans is never dull. The intricately layered compositions swell, contort and release a myriad of emotions and epic crescendos that are impeccably well-constructed. Despite not conforming to traditional structuring, each song flows cohesively and represents a distinctive standalone chapter to the greater narrative. The earworm hooks and subtle melodies may not present themselves on the first few listens, but for patient listeners willing to persevere, the rewards are deeply satisfying. Although not without its gems, such as the epic slow building dirge of the opening title track, the first half of the album is trumped by the exceptional second movement. This is where the album’s shape shifting narrative comes to its crushing conclusion. Album highlight “Sixty Foot Waves” displays Giant Squid’s masterful grasp of dynamics. The song’s slow burning segments, shifting soft/loud dynamics and dark alluring melodies are embellished by a loose and playful central groove, before it culminates in a powerhouse climax adorned by lurching double bass backed riffs and a haunting melody that recalls the chilling theme to Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream.

There’s really not much in the way of drawbacks to be found here. Recorded and mixed by Tim Green (Melvins, Earthless) Minoans has an earthy, slightly muddied sound that suits the material well. Perhaps a touch more definition and clarity might have marginally improved the finished product, while the slower pacing of the album’s first half might test the less patient listener. But these are just nitpicking points that don’t really compromise the overall high quality of the album. Otherwise Minoans is a deceptively addictive album that’s another resounding success from Giant Squid, perhaps only falling short of their unheralded classic, The Ichthyologist. Sure it might be understandably too out there for some metalheads, but heavy music fans seeking something undeniably original and exotic will find Minoans, and for that matter Giant Squid’s entire catalog, a thrilling and deeply moving experience.

Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Translation Loss
Websites: GiantSquidOfficial | Facebook.com/GiantSquidBand
Release Dates: EU: 2014.10.28 | NA: 10.27.2014

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The Seasons of Mist promo team must have collectively flipped their titties when the Sydney Conservatorium of Music announced they were to use Ne Obliviscaris‘s “And Plague Flowers The Kaleido” on their teaching syllabus. In a world of increasingly simple and commercial music, nothing screams musical credibility more than appreciation from a prestigious classical school. Mutual respect and musical coalition of the ‘complex’ and ‘respectable’ genres of classical, jazz and metal are commonly used by bands and fans for self-validation and in intellectual dick-waving contests. The one complaint I had about Ne Obliviscaris‘s début LP, Portal Of I, was that it was one of these exercises. It’s a fantastic, accomplished work of art and it was one of my favorites from 2012, but it lacked that feeling. It was a work of aesthetics without a tangible soul.

The same cannot be said of Citadel. Start to finish, there is a sense of cohesiveness and an underlying purpose to the record, beyond mere skill and pretentiousness (have you seen those song titles?). More, the Melbourne-based six-piece retains their unique brand of extreme metal combined with classical and jazz, improving on the already-stellar musical credibility which they crave so. Citadel is the complete package for the discerning prog fan and metalhead, and I cannot recommend it highly enough.

It’s not easy to pigeon-hole No Obliviscaris into a single extreme genre. While Portal Of I could be broadly categorized as symphonic black metal, Citadel bears stronger death influences. Compare the intros of “Tapestry Of The Starless Abstract” with “Pyrrhic”: the latter from Citadel bears further down-tuned guitars, a thicker bass drum, and tasty chromatic chord progressions, whereas the former has a more typical tremolo-picked black metal melody. The extreme metal sections here are absolutely punishing, such as on the opening five minutes of “Pyrrhic” and “Devour Me, Colossus I: Blackholes.” The battering blast beats, and the thick, technical riffs, contribute to this effect.

But along with its heaviness, there are the undeniable classical sections. The introduction, “Painters Of The Tempest I: Wyrmholes,” and the conclusion, “Devour Me, Colossus II: Contortions,” enclose the record, slowly breaking you into the complex soundscapes and lifting you away again at the end. Tim Charles’s violin is exemplary, and more varied than on Portal Of I. He uses a greater range in pitch, as well as more minor and atonal notes on these two songs, with the result of a beautifully unsettling experience. The recurring piano keys on these two tracks are haunting and bring the record full circle, while establishing the theme of the record. Charles narrates the quiet, desolate wandering through the eponymous citadel, just as the heavy tracks narrate its eventual destruction.

The greatest asset of Citadel is undoubtedly its ability to surprise the listener. Just when you think the band is settling into a regular rhythm, they introduce a new sound, nail a unique transition or progress to a new phase of a song. “Pyrrhic” will undoubtedly go down as one of my favorite tracks from this year, featuring a jaw-dropper of a breakdown and transition. After blasting the listener with some of the most aggressive material on the record, the tempo slows to a near stop, with ambient noise and a simple drum-line. After building, the background unexpectedly cuts – the use of silence as a contrast floored me. Additionally, the interlude, “Painter Of The Tempest III: Reveries From The Stained Glass Wound” (Pretentiousness: unparalleled), bears a flamenco flavor, with dual melodies from the violin and an acoustic guitar. They even use some djent-y riffs towards the end of “Painters Of The Tempest II: Triptych Lux.” There’s a sophisticated and utterly compelling integration of many components and styles here.

If I have one gripe (and I do only have one) it’s the production. Rather than allowing the enamored listener – of which there are many where this hype train is concerned – to gradually unfurl the intricacies of the music on their own, everything is unsubtly shoveled to the fore. There are many layers and instruments going on at various points here, which requires clarity in mixing, but everything sounds far too pristine. Each instrument seems to have been produced to have equal weighting and the same effect – the violin should be more delicate to better contrast the guitars, for example. The kick drum is similarly over-produced, weakening the rhythm component.

Quirky production aside however, Citadel is nigh-on masterful. Credibility permeates everything, from the complex song-writing and varied vocals to the superior riffing, violin-work and interesting drumming. A melancholic note overhangs the record, reflecting the theme of a destroyed society, which gives this record better direction than Portal Of I. I only hope Ne Obliviscaris continue along this path – self-indulgent dick-waving and all.

Rating: 4.5/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Season of Mist
Websites: NeObliviscarisOfficial |Facebook.com/NeObliviscarisBand
Release Dates: EU: 2014.11.07 | NA: 11.10.2014

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Twenty-two years in the making, Manimalism is finally releasing their self-titled début. Fittingly, despite the obviously excellent instrumentation, it took a few listens before I started to actually enjoy the record. Now, I’ve reached the point where I think this aural demonstration of the Kim Sølve’s twisted imagination is as clever as it is disturbing. Originating as Taarenes Vaar in 1992 on a very different metal landscape, Sølve resolved to push his brand of Norwegian black metal further than previously. Composed of two demos from 1996 and 1997, plus additional material from the same period, the integration of black metal with avant garde here is raw and darkly perverse. Though not extreme in the same way as Mayhem or Thorns, the complex musical interplay, dissonant soundscape and crooned vocals contribute to an unsettling listening experience. While not perfect, I’ve been spinning it with maniacal glee.

First off, Sølve’s lyrics and the overall tone of the music are awesome. It strongly evokes an image of a Satanic dinner party, with the perversions of eloquence and etiquette this would entail, and equal quotients of sex and violence. The almost stately delivery of the vocals on “Demons In Tuxedos” feels like the opening address, and the creepy swing on “Romance” feels like the post-dinner encounter with a seductress in a dark back room. The heaviest track, “The Crooner,” is when Satan is gleefully slipping daggers between shoulder blades, and “The Cocktail Party To End Them All” is the grand conclusion to the wicked revelry. Manimalism tells a story, and I eagerly anticipate future nightmares which Sølve will hopefully unleash on the world.

Additionally, the musicianship here is excellent. A perfectionist, Sølve has shifted the line-up many times until he settled on Plenum on bass, Bjeima on drums, and himself on guitars. The rhythm and drum-line on “Romance” is perfectly decadent for such a record: it reminds me of Sigh‘s “Amnesia” for its dark and sexual swing. The technical transitions on “The Crooner” are impressive and the complex compositions and layering across the entire record aids the feeling of uniqueness. The tense atmosphere, occasional blast beats and tremolo-picked chords grounds Manimalism in black metal, but the progressiveness veers into avant garde, revealing more with each listen. The record thrives on the synthesis of discordant chords, swinging rhythms and convoluted yet melodic vocal and guitar lines. This is best represented by “The Dandified And The Devilish.”

In this lies the greatest flaw of the fascinating music: you need to be a very active listener to get everything from this record. Only when paying attention can you fully appreciate the dark intricacies and subtle instrumentation. This is not a background record, and virtually requires explicit contemplation. Many people listen to music while otherwise occupied, and this record can wash by without leaving a mark on those with divided attention. This is arguably true of much music, but it says something that I noticed it particularly for Manimalism. Additionally, as the maelstrom builds around you towards the end of “The Gentleman Is In The Detail” and in “The Crooner,” the music calls for a blackened croak or shriek, but Manimalism resolutely only uses clean vocals. The self-important and grandiose style largely fits the decadence, but does not do justice to the full extent of the complex music. The twisted soundscape would benefit from sparingly-used extreme vocals in my opinion.

Nevertheless, this is a very strong record. To those willing to invest a little time, Manimalism exemplifies the best aspects of Norwegian black metal, and builds on this to reach more progressive territory. Indeed, the production is far superior to other 90s Norwegian black metal, with a deeper bass and more holistic approach and with all instruments represented. All Manimalism needs is a little time to get under your skin. Ignore their name, listen a few times, then fall for one of the best blackened progressive records of the year.

Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 9 | Format Reviewed: 192 kbps mp3
Label: Adversum
Websites: Facebook.com/Manimalism
Release dates: Out Worldwide: 11.17.2014

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Here’s a free top tip for all you kids looking to break into the music business: name your band something easily googleable. Distance have been kicking around for almost ten years now – forming in 2005, releasing a demo in 2006 and several singles at the end of the last decade – but presumably escaped any significant interest because no-one could bloody find them. Someone at Mighty Music eventually stumbled upon the right combination of search terms, though, and now Distance are finally releasing their debut album, the mundanely titled I. Such imaginative naming did not inspire confidence, but you know, books and covers and all that.

Distance’s sound can be summarized simply as “modern metal,” sitting somewhere in between Soilwork, Textures, and Threat Signal. They employ many of these bands’ tricks: atmospheric keyboards, a combination of clean singing and screaming, and a healthy mixture of rhythmic intricacy and soaring melody. Opener “Fragments” exemplifies this approach: contrasting thrashy, nouveau-melodeath riffs against a catchy clean chorus, while keeping things interesting with some rhythmic diversity. This approach is repeated for most of the album, with little hints of God Forbid and even Slipknot (see “Process of Self Destruction”) occasionally creeping in alongside the aforementioned influences. It’s a decent formula and they write some good riffs, but there’s nothing that really distinguishes them from the many other purveyors of this style.

Things take a turn for the better on fifth track “Conception,” which is by far the most unique song on the record. Opening with groovy slapped bass and a dramatic synth line, it’s just like Faith No More at their most epic (and least humorous). The remainder of the track doesn’t quite live up to the excellent opening, but overall the composition is an improvement. “Seeker of Truth” also flirts with the Soilwork-meets-Faith No More style at times, and features some great textural clean guitar picking in the background. The writing on these two tracks is promising and a step above the rather generic remainder of the record.

I was unsurprised to learn that I was self-produced. The recording is fine – sharp guitars, powerful drums and mostly audible bass (naturally all over-compressed) – but the music would have benefited a great deal from a knowledgeable producer’s guidance. Firstly, every track (saving opener “Fragments”) runs over five minutes, with half of them over six. They just don’t have enough to say within each song to warrant this, and they come across as long for the sake of “proggyness” rather than because they need to be. Secondly, and much more damagingly, the clean vocals are often out of tune. I’m not a great fan of the vocal style itself, imported straight from 90s grunge (your mileage may vary), but the tuning is the main problem. This is most excruciatingly apparent during the many harmonized vocal sections. Particular low points are “Open Wound” and “Too Late,” which I’ve winced through during every listen. A serious producer would have insisted on trimming much of the fat from the songs, and certainly wouldn’t have allowed the vocal performance to pass quality control.

I is a frustrating album: for every one exciting musical moment, two are tedious, and for every bit of skillful playing, an off-key vocal line insults your ears. Distance certainly have potential, and if they can develop their individualism while tightening up the songwriting and fixing the singing, their next release could be rather tasty. Add 0.5 to the score if you can tolerate the vocals, but even then, this record misses the mark by quite some distance.

Rating: 2.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 256 kbps mp3
Label: Mighty Music
Website: DistanceOfficial | Facebook.com/Distance
Release Date: Out worldwide: 11.10.2014

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If you’re anything like me, you’re super awesome. But more to the point, you would have been saddened by the split of blackened death metal troublemakers Akercocke a couple of years ago. Perhaps the UK’s most consistently entertaining extreme metal act of the last decade, they seemed to improve on every album, reaching a pinnacle on 2007’s Antichrist. “Best to give up while you’re ahead” you might think, but I suspected they would have improved still further if they’d released anything more. Voices are the band that rose from Akercocke’s ashes¹, and 2013’s From the Human Forest Create a Fugue of Imaginary Rain almost proved my intuition right. It was an excellent debut, but didn’t quite tickle me in the same way the ‘cocke had managed. London doesn’t tickle me either; it flays me alive.

London is a concept album. I’m not clear on the precise details, but it involves a wretched man on the verge of suicide, following his descent into madness as he wanders through the London night, pushed into his current state by the rotten city and its inhabitants. His only apparent source of human contact, and the object of his infatuation, is prostitute “Megan.” The band mention on the audio commentary (available on Spotify) that the narrative themes are strongly influenced by Graham Green’s “The End of the Affair,” and this is apparent in the ideas of confused love, hatred, and jealousy. A narrator updates us on details between songs in delectably dark prose, but you are never sure whether the story being told is as things are, or as they are imagined by the protagonist’s tortured mind.

The musical parallels with Akercocke are clear, but Voices have managed to create a sickening identity all of their own. You always felt a welcome guest at Akercocke’s rituals – a little uncomfortable at times perhaps, but delighted by the decadence of the Satanic rights you witnessed. Voices offer no such comforts, instead tying you to a lamppost with razor wire and pissing in your open wounds as they force their despairing noise into your skull. The death metal influences are subtler, rarely giving us the opportunity to headbang to old-school riffs as Akercocke did, and when they do surface they’re more Ulcerate than Morbid Angel. Instead we are exposed primarily to dissonant, experimental black metal, blending elements from Blut Aus Nord, Anaal Nathrakh, and Arkhon Infaustus with Voices’ own grim psychedelic wanderings. The compositions are sculpted to provide visceral accompaniment to the evolution of the storyline, so while the songs aren’t conventionally structured, each has a unique identity. Sometimes the writing is not quite there – trance-like repetition stretched too far or a riff that doesn’t entirely draw you in – but such moments are rare.

The septic atmosphere is conjured through a combination of eerie melodies, clashing harmonies, intense dramatic vocals, and a harsh production. The discordance and angular riffing are designed to alienate and erode the listener’s stamina; we are allowed the occasional moment of catharsis but rarely for long. “The Ultimate Narcissist,” for instance, would have been an almost triumphant ending for the record, but of course that’s not the point and our spirits are summarily crushed by the anguish of “Cold Harbour Lane.” Peter Benjamin’s clean singing is similar to former Akercocke colleague Jason Mendonça’s – perhaps more melodramatic – while his harsh vocals range from brutal growls to unbearable, tortured shrieks. The guitar tone is highly distorted, and the whole production is treble heavy, bass light, and very compressed, furthering the aural discomfort. Usually I would criticize this, but it matches the horrid atmosphere the band aim to create. The music wouldn’t work so effectively if recorded with vintage analogue warmth.

A teacher once explained to me the importance of concept in music thus: “A student submitted a repetitive dirge as their GCSE ² composition that bored me to tears. The piece was called ‘Factory’. I gave it an ‘A’.” London is leagues away from boring, and, despite its flaws – occasional lapses in composition, the compressed production – it succeeds spectacularly in delivering the concept. You might not enjoy every moment of your listening experience, but you’ll be completely captivated right until the final excruciating note.

Rating: 4.5/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 256 kbps mp3
Label: Candlelight Records
Website: VoicesLondonOfficial | Facebook.com/VoicesLondon
Release Date: EU: 2014.11.17 | NA: 01.27.2015

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Sphere fetishists of the world rejoice! We now present to you a band that not only has “sphere” in the moniker, but also offers a song called “The Sphere.” And yes, there’s a goddamn sphere on the cover too. Are you not entertained?! Ok, now that the sphere furbies left, we can get on with the review of what is a shockingly good album. Triosphere is a progressive power metal act hailing from Norway and though AMG and myself enjoyed their 2010 effort The Road Less Travelled a good deal, this tops it in every way. Their song writing has grown by leaps and bounds since their last release and The Heart of the Matter finds them honing their sound and style to a fine edge. They’re heavy enough to avoid being lumped in with the typical Euro-power suspects, while being proggy and diverse enough to appeal to broad cross sections of the metalverse. It’s a cliché to say there’s something here for almost everyone, but in this case, it’s the cold, hard truthy truth.

Take opener “My Fortress” for instance. It starts out with a simple, tension building riff as most Gamma Ray epics do, then erupts with thick staccato riffs that are much heavier than you’d expect, before seguing into a lovely chorus that could be on an Edenbridge album. But before you think Ida Haukland is just another pretty face in the babe metal parade, she’ll blow your doors off with raspy, often quite manly pipes and a very aggressive delivery. The woman can belt, croon, coo and whatever else the music requires and she keeps things grounded and often rather edgy. The guitar work is equally powerful, and there are riffs and harmonies on “Steal Away the Light” that could easily have appeared on the last two Omnium Gatherum outings. Did I mention these tunes are also catchy as all hell? Well, they are.

And the catchy keeps going with “Breathless,” which is quickly becoming one of my favorite songs of the year. It’s a pitch perfect take on goth metal like recent Tristania and Autumn, but with enough metal gravitas to avoid the pitfalls of such once proud acts as Within Temptation. Haukland brings her A game and gives a big, emotional performance with a chorus that hits like a dump truck full of concrete and rebar. They even round it off with understated prog touches, making it seem more high brow than it is. “Departure” is almost as good, with another ear worm laden sales job by Haukland, another tasty chorus and some expressive and emotive guitar work. Also of note is the Foo Fighter ethos and alternative rock charm of “Remedy” and the somewhat overblown symphonic cheese of “The Heart Dominion,” which rises above the goo to be an impressive metal tune thanks to the raspy, aggressive vocals.

It isn’t until near the album’s end that the band hits a speed bump, with the less than gripping “Storyteller.” The rest of the material works regardless of the style the band attempts, be it a soft ballad (“Virgin Ground”) or straight out Euro-power speed (“Relentless”). Though the album runs 54 minutes, it doesn’t feel long as it zips by with grace and power, demanding immediate replays.

Much of the album’s success can be attributed to Haukland’s vocal ability. AMG described her delivery on the last album as “androgynous” and that was certainly fitting, but here she’s more firmly rooted on the feminine side of things, though she still utilizes a rougher, masculine rasp when it suits the song. She’s a real talent, as are her bandmates, and together they make their genre bending sound both effortless and convincing. Guitarists T.O. Byberg and Marius Silver Bergesen deliver all the typically zippy power metal riffery, but incorporate extra heavy riffing that wouldn’t sound out-of-place on a Fear Factory album. Their forays into prog mostly serve to color and shade the songs, which themselves remain linear and simple.

Triosphere is definitely improving with each release and this is another sleeper hit for 2014 and one I can’t stop spinning. I’m thankful for it too, as it will help keep me occupied until Jorn Lande‘s much-anticipated Dracula concept album arrives in 2015. It’s going to be a tough wait, so here’s to the sphere!

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 6  |  Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: AFM Records
Websites: thetriosphere.com  |  facebook.com/triosphere
Release Dates: EU: 2014.11.07  | NA:  12.02.2014

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Metal has been extremely retro in the last 5 years. From rethrash to retro death metal, the whole scene has crawled into its proverbial ass in order to wallow in the digested remnants of metal music that is just plain better. Rethrash celebrates the 2.5 years when thrash was the heaviest and most exciting music on the planet. Retro death celebrates a time when bands would scrape together their last Swedish kronor to put a record together that would still sound like total shit. All the bands who wish they were Black Sabbath celebrate a time when amplifiers didn’t actually have overdrive. But all of these celebrated sounds appeal to us because they were authentic: times when newness and creativity gave the world something exciting and special. One such scene for me is the melodic death and black metal scenes of the Scandinavian 1990s. It’s an era when metal was heavy, engaging, abstract, and yet melodic—it felt exciting and new. While not all of the best ideas from this era were executed perfectly at the time, it laid the groundwork for the late ’90s and the early aughts when great metal bands produced great music.

With that background in mind, you should understand what I mean when I popped into Dreamgrave‘s SoundCloud site to listen to the first track on their debut album Presentiment and thought: “Man, this sounds like the fucking ’90s.” It wasn’t really the sound, per se—though admittedly there are a lot of different sounds that one can mix and match when you’re listening to the album—but instead, it oozed passion, tension, excitement and that elusive x factor that so often feels missing from records I review these days. Presentiment has it all in spades: a unique sound, varied writing, excellent melodic presentation, progressive tendencies and the best beauty-and-the-beast vocal duet since Ásmegin‘s Hin vordende sod & sø on opener “Black Spiral.”

The best way to describe Dreamgrave‘s music is likely to say: listen to it yourself. That’s not a cop out, though, it’s a compliment. It’s a compliment for a band that does such a great job of straddling a variety of sounds and influences. Presentiment‘s smattering of different influences is only less impressive than their ability to blend them into a cohesive whole. Opener “Black Spiral” sounds like Ásmegin‘s stellar debut while moments on “The Last Drop Falls” and “False Sense of Confidence” evoke both Unexpect, Diablo Swing Orchestra, Old Man’s Child and Orphaned Land. This wide variety of influences sounds like it should be scattered or difficult to fuse, but whether rocking My Dying Bride doom, Opeth 6/8 swing, or Anathema ethereal vocal harmonies, Dreamgrave shows a mastery of composition and balance. There are moments that remind me of old school Children of Bodom (“False Sense of Confidence”) and there’s even keyboard tone that reminds me of Saviour Machine—if anyone remembers them.

However, don’t misunderstand me: Dreamgrave is no retro-’90s band. While much of this is feels like putting your feet into a comfortable pair of old shoes, there’s still something more here. Dreamgrave has chops. The songwriting is lively, inventive, and playful, showing a tendency to think laterally while moving between the dour and doomy to the heavy and occasionally even downright black or full-on jazz. The vocal interplay between Mária Molnár and growler/singer Dömötör Gyimesi flows throughout the record and adds layers of interest onto what is already layered and interesting. The song and vocal arrangements are evocative, powerful, and technically impressive—wandering through complex time signatures and lacing them together into epic songs. But there is also a sense of balance on Presentiment; things are in their place, and epic turns never feel forced—it all fits perfectly.

Critically, I have two major points: while the production is very good for what it is—especially given that it is a self-released album—the record could sound better. An even more “naturally” acoustic sound at times with an even broader dynamic range would make this material sparkle. And since there is no label breathing down Dreamgrave‘s neck about being “competitively loud,” this shouldn’t be an issue. This record is essentially a DR5, though there are tracks that clock in higher¹. This is just completely unnecessary. Secondly, while the vocals for me are a strength, there are moments here and there where I think some of the harmonies, phrasing and vocal lines show off that this is not a professional band working with a top-notch producer. In the very opening strains of “Black Spiral” are a couple of strange things that sound a bit off, and the cleans around 5 minutes in “Presentiment” have some strange mismatches that don’t sound intentional or artful. In a record that seems so extremely well performed and produced, these small moments really do offer a distraction that kills immersion.

But these points are hardly deal-breakers: Presentiment is a great record from an emerging and exciting band. Hailing from Hungary, I’m not sure Dreamgrave has much of a scene to speak of, but due to the glories of the Internet they have been able to self-release a digital record that will hopefully get them noticed. If you’re a fan of eclectic, progressive death and doom metal, this is a band to watch and a record to buy.

Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 6 [5 w/caveat] | File Format: ALAC
Label: Unsigned
Websites: dreamgrave.com | dreamgrave.bandcamp.com
Release Date: October 28th, 2014 [Digitally]

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Here at Angry Metal Guy US headquarters, subtle signs point to 2014 drawing to a blustery close. My very metal cats watch the crackling fireplace, mesmerized as the world burns at their paws. Top 10 lists hastily scrawled on the backs of store receipts and the margins of the daily paper are pulled from coat pockets and tossed carelessly about, littering every surface. And as the holiday silly season approaches, I’m winding down, bourbon in hand, returning to the contemplative atmosphere of post-metal and avant guard favourites like Agalloch, A Forest of Stars, Anathema, Horseback and New Keepers of the Watertowers. Now a year and some change after the release of Dustwalker, British progressive black metallers – Fen recapture my attention with their fourth full-length release. And those of you that read my review of Dustwalker will remember I ended up more enamoured with the album art than the contents of the album. Will Carrion Skies be redolent of the decaying flesh referenced in the album title, or can it overcome the stigma of image over substance?

Carrion Skies introduces itself with “Our Names Written in Embers Part 1 (Beacons of War),” a sonic journey that has the expanse of a night sky filled with New Keepers of the Watertower atmosphere and a smattering of A Forest of Stars sparkle. The subtleties last only a short time before things are heavied up and Frank Allain (The Watcher) and Grungyn make their snarling blackened appearance. The track shifts and contorts, winding through moments of sparse post-metal instrumental weirdness that feels somewhat Opeth-like before you feel Fen‘s deliberately slow and deathly grip strangle you with moments of Mournful Congregation malady.

After being beaten for a good and solid eleven minutes by Part 1 of “Our Names Written in Embers,” Part 2 appears a little brighter but with little or no break inbetween. The seamless transitions between tracks work in favour of the album’s flow but with continued listening leave you unsure which track you’re immersed in without physically checking your playlist. Instrumentally, Carrion Skies is a beautiful melting pot of subtle textures, distant light and extreme darkness with a dynamic and well thought out production that plays its part in bringing each nuance and melody out, building it up and letting it shine splendiferously.

There’s no one particular performance that stands out above any other on Carrion Skies. The drums play their part with subdued but gripping precision, the guitar work is melodic and contradistinctive enough to keep you listening despite the lengths of the tracks, and vocals vary between Anathema tinged wispy cleans, Mournful Congregation infused gurgling, Agalloch croaks and a rather solitary sounding blackened howl. Carrion Skies main drawbacks are the lengths of the tracks that have a tendency to run on, and that the album must be treated as a single entity, with each track treated as a sub-part of a greater story. It’s not the kind of album you’re going to be able to spin casually or piecemeal. Carrion Skies is ultimately a time consuming listen that needs a lot of time and repeat plays to grow, develop and build familiarity.

Bleaker, harder and more ambient, Carrion Skies is indeed Fen‘s best and most intense storm thus far. It’s more mature, emotional, well thought out and cohesive than its predecessor, and like Horseback‘s Half Blood and A Forest of Stars‘ Shadowplay for Yesterdays, given the time Carrion Skies needs to grow and carry you away, both its light and darkness shine through brightly.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Code666 Records
Websites: Facebook.com/FenOfficial
Release Dates: EU: 2014.11.24 | NA: 12.02.2014

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Written By: Dr. A.N. Grier

I was quite intrigued when I grabbed the promo for Resumed’s debut album Alienations for two reasons: they’re technical death metal and they’re Italian. However, when I hit the play button expecting to find some spaghetti-flavored Origin (or something equivalent), I instead found the other kind of tech death. You know, the kind linked to words like “jazz,” “fusion,” “funk,” and “virtuoso playing.” Admittedly, this style of technical death is not my favorite, but it turns out Resumed can shred virtuously. Not the best song writing in the world but the musicianship of each member is astounding. Let the wanking begin!

I have to say the first reference that came to mind as opening track “Dead Inside” powered forward was Symbolic and The Sound of Perseverance-era Death. The similarities tend to be in the realm of the heaviness, chords, and arrangements of Chuck’s last two albums. Other references come in the form of the Johnny Hedlund-meets-John Tardy croaks delivered by Daniele Presutti (which, unfortunately, he delivers without much variation in every song). Resumed’s technicality can be described as seamless transitions through varying time changes, alternating riffs, and impressive soloing that reminds me of John Petrucci at times. Slower passages and interludes are filled with sustaining guitars, crystal clear bass leads, and frills (and fills) courtesy of drummer Filippo Tirabass.

However, what really shines on Alienations is undoubtedly Giulia Pallozzi’s bass. Be it her ability to slap out some bass leads on songs like “Alienation” and “Predicting the Future” or settle into the rhythm section (like a normal bassist) in “U.F.O.” and “Seeking Perfection,” her bass is the concrete that holds the songs together. Yes, I said songs. Thankfully, Resumed is one of those tech death bands that focuses more on song structures and less on guitar wankery (even though Resumed wanks a lot). Equally impressive is Tirabass’s drum performance as he breezes through song complexities with every drum and cymbal in his arsenal. He does everything from beating and blasting his way through death marches to tap-dancing along the tops of his cymbals through ever-changing riffs and herky-jerky stops and starts.

“Predicting the Future” is a good example of what this dynamic duo can do as they lead the charge with a jazzy Atheist intro that builds and expands into a Death-esque progginess full of chugging guitars, bass licks that ascend and descend the fretboard and soaring solos. Conversely, “U.F.O.” finds the technicality sitting in the background, pulling the song along at lightning speed in good old-fashioned death metal fashion. These two songs show the extremes of what I’m talking about but are by no means the only songs that mix it up. Each song finds the band showing off what they can do and it’s pretty damn impressive.

However, as with most of these tech/prog metal bands, the riffs are a necessity for creating memorable songs that avoid becoming a long drawn-out mass of squealing, finger-tapping, rosewood-burning boredom. For the most part, this is achieved. With stomping death riffs of the title track, cool galloping guitars on “Into the Trip,” and the crushing brutality found buried in “Seeking Perfection,” every song is chockfull of riffs, riffs and more riffs, making them denser than a holiday fruit cake. Other examples include the massive death riffs, Dream Theater-inspired solo sections, and jazz-influenced interludes found on “Alienations,” as well as the droning opening riff of “Secret in Mind,” which morphs into a death metal assault before finally spinning out into spacey weirdness. Oh, and don’t forget about all the goddamn solos. Seriously, what’s a fruitcake without some icing? Guitarists Daniele Presutti and Carlo Alfonso Pelino do nothing short of impress with their carpal-tunnel inducing wizardry. I swear they incorporate every note into their six-string assaults on “Predicting the Future,” “Into the Trip,” and “Secret in Mind.”

In the end, I guess the real icing here is the production. While this may not be my favorite type of metal, it is definitely my favorite type of sound. Rich and full, you can hear everything in this DR10 journey. Smashing the dynamics would have completely ruined this album. Good choice on the mix, guys. So, you feeling techy? Looking for a good sounding album? If so, check this out.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 10 | Format Reviewed: 160 kbps mp3
Label: Bakerteam Records
Websites: Facebook.com/Resumed
Release Dates: EU: 2014.12.01  |  NA: 01.20.2015

Written By: Diabolus in Muzaka

Technical Death Metal is pretty great in theory: blistering speed, pulverizing heaviness, and death metal’s knack for sharpened (meat)hooks. Unfortunately, these three assets don’t always coalesce into a nicely unified package, and tech-death often becomes a pissing contest akin to ridiculous analytic philosophy: who can leave their contemporaries in the dust the fastest through sheer technicality? When it’s done right, it can produce great results (Obscura, Cryptopsy, etc.), but when it is done wrong, as it is at an alarming rate, we end up with anything from a disappointing waste of talent (Necrophagist’s Epitaph), warp-speed dog shit (Brain Drill), or worse: a crippling case of style over substance. Italian tech-death newcomers Resumed have the style, but do they possess the substance to make their debut release Alienations a worthwhile addition into a tech-death fan’s library of sphere adorned album art and space-related titles?

Let’s get this out of the way right now: Resumed are talented musicians. Carlo Pelino and Daniele Presutti’s guitars shred all over the place, Filippo Tirabassi’s drums are tight and precise to a fault, and Giulia Pallozzi’s bass playing is, from a technical standpoint, excellent. They also really enjoyed the two final Death albums, and decided to write the eight songs that comprise Alienations in that vein. Unfortunately, they’re not nearly as adept at writing Death songs as Death was (an understandable fault), and the 41 minutes of metal here all whiz by with nothing at all memorable to encourage repeat listening.

That’s not to say there’s absolutely nothing good here, because there is on occasion: “Predicting the Future” has a solid bass/guitar solo tradeoff that really works, but its impact is lessened after the intro to the song itself, which was so similar to “Zero Tolerance” that I just felt like listening to Death instead. Opening track “Dead Inside” begins the album well enough and sucked me in for a couple of minutes, but a lack of memorability and sense of direction transform it into a slog. “Into the Trip” begins with a riff that actually does an okay job at approximating the more intense parts of Symbolic, but Resumed leans on it a bit too much, overplaying it to the point where it becomes almost irritating.

While Resumed play unmemorable tech-death for 41 minutes, at least they sound great doing it. The production by Tirabassi is well-rounded and sports an excellent mastering job, with each instrument being audible and clear and no clipping whatsoever. Guitars are precise and tight, if a tad airy in sound, and Pallozzi’s bass has a tasty, ever-so-slightly overdriven tone that punches through the mix, showcasing her skill wonderfully. Tirabassi’s drum work is a treat to listen to, with each and every note coming through clearly. Special mention should be made of his kick drum, which occupies the happy middle between click and thud, avoiding the dreaded “typewriter kick” that too often plagues modern death metal. Vocals, on the other hand, are a bit too high in the mix, which serves to amplify their fatal flaw: they’re boring. It’s impressive that Presutti is playing guitar while growling, but his vocal patterns seem tacked on and his growl is monotonous, lacking in power and intensity. The vocals seem to be there for the sole reason that metal songs tend to have vocals most of the time, and as such, end up adding a boring percussive element to Resumed’s otherwise blistering technical attack.

The most difficult aspect of listening to Alienations is that it has all of the trappings of an excellent tech-death album: great instrumental performances, tons of “betcha can’t play this” solos, bass fills at least once a minute, fast but not totally monotonous drums, and a great production that lets the music hit hard whilst giving it ample room to breathe. What ended up happening was akin to going to a five star restaurant and being handed a day old McDouble on a silver platter: the window dressing is there, but the most important part is bad, and I don’t want to experience it again.

Rating: 1.5/5.0

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Archspire are, first and foremost, fast. Everything about The Lucid Collective is tight, taught and percussive, from the brutal-death-leaning snare tone to vocalist Oli Peters’ inhumanly pummeling rap-growled vocal lines. Guitarists Dean Lamb and Tobi Moreli execute hairpin curves in mid riff while the bass hammers along in support. These guys are no slouches, not by a long shot, but as always, technical ability is a prerequisite in this genre rather than a standout attribute. The Lucid Collective is worth your time because its performances rarely attempt to overshadow the core of wild riffing and adrenaline-soaked rhythm that’s at the center of the album.

The album clocks in at a little over half an hour (excellent timing for a tech-death album), and there’s nary a dull moment to be seen. “Lucid Collective Somnambulation” explodes out of your speakers with little introduction and its intensity holds for the rest of the record. Spectacularly, not a single song is wasted. Even though everything’s a wank-fest at it’s core the songs sport memorable rhythms, leads and vocal lines, with powerful solos to boot. Archspire knows how to write excellent riffs that are both comprehensible and interesting and they back those riffs up with measuredly virtuosic performances all around.

The Lucid Collective‘s sound is best understood as Planetary Duality-era The Faceless played at double speed by slam dilettantes. On top of that very solid foundation, the band draws influence from not only their immediate peers but more groove-oriented death subgenres and even chopper-style hip-hop vocals. Everything fast gets thrown into the pot, and out pour gems like “Join us Beyond,” “The Plague of Am,” and “Kairos Chamber.”

In order to keep the record clean, the production of The Lucid Collective is slightly lacking in low-end compared to its peers. The guitars are very treble-oriented, and the bass most prominent in the middle of it’s range. It’s a production choice I wholeheartedly support – although the album seems a little airy at first, it sounds very good when the 64^th notes roll in and never gets muddy.

Somehow, Archspire have both won tech-death’s pissing contest and produced a damn good album, which should stun you more than a little bit. If you’re on the search for tech death that’s as memorable and effective as it is searingly fast, The Lucid Collective will not disappoint.

Tracks to Check: “Join us Beyond,” “Lucid Collective Somnambulation” and “Kairos Chamber”

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