These Finnish metallers sure know their game: powerful, terrific hooks; heavily overloaded sweeping rhythms; and fantastic, scorching guitar work relying on fast-mid paced, yet imaginative enough drumming. This is one well-functioning unit. And thanks to all of the above, the album flows very nicely and manages to maintain focus and interest, with a couple of softer moments, for the sake of variation. The songs are all well-written and display the band's undeniable talent.
When my editor-in-chief handed over some 15 albums to be reviewed about a month ago, I didn't really check what was into the package until about a week later (I had too much backlog work to be done first before I could concentrate on something else), and found myself somewhat dumbfounded at finding the new Aborym album in there. Surely, he knew that this band had Black Metal ties?
I guess the easiest way to describe this band is to tag them with the sludge metal label. Their thick rhythms, distorted riffs, fat grooves, and heavy as shit drumming is a trademark of the genre, so I guess that's what they are. It's very hard not to be drawn onto bands like Lento, Amebix, Melvins, Godflesh, Switchblade and more when listening to this. From the opener of “Trakthor” through “Melicow” and “Moongitruce” the band seems to create an honest and raw take on.
Norway has always been one of my elected countries when it comes to so-called Nordic-styled Black Metal, of course, yet also when talking about whipping, possessing Traditional Folk Music. I’m not only referring to, for example, some of the project done by Black Metal artists (like Darkthrone, Satyricon, Windir with a couple of folkish side-projects), even though, when introducing this band, I have to refer to the Norwegian Black Metal scene as well.
The first part of a trilogy by legendary Californian act Von. Fifty-five minutes of icy, painful, misanthropic and desolate Aural Darkness.
Toxic Holocaust mutated into existence in 1999, when Joel Grind merged his love for classic punk and metal into his ideal band. Like his influences - Bathory, Venom, English Dogs, Possessed, Broken Bones – TH featured blazing riffs, gravel-throated vocals, and a deadly fixation on the evil in man and a post-apocalyptic world. Grind wrapped all of these elements up with a DIY attitude and begin writing and recording material almost instantly.
Although Comedown Machine is already the 5th full-length album by this relatively successful New York City based quintet, I have to admit that it's the first time I consciously heard the band's music. The experience, I daresay was a slight disappointment at first, the music not being quite what I had expected.
Terror, hailing from Los Angeles and Richmond, has been around for ten years now and can easily be considered as the hardest working band around: five studio albums, side projects such as Down To Nothing and Donnybrook and countless tours around the world later, they're ready to unleash a new masterpiece.
After the release of the excellent record Keepers Of The Faith, expectations were high.
Taylor’s Universe blend elements of prog with RIO, fusion and jazz giving the listener something to think about. The album is very challenging, but never gets too loud or busy to lose the audience. Although probably categorized somewhere in the fusion camp, Taylor’s Universe have a very fresh feel to it and never gets too difficult for my liking. The result is a very listenable, free jam-oriented album with plenty of chilled-out instrumentals and infectious hooks.
In a very short time (foundation was in January of 2010) after coming out of the rehearsal room, this Limburg (Belgian province in the Dutch part of the country) based instrumental band made an impression at a couple of band competitions [won 2011's Maanrockrally and Theater Aan Zee (the latter got the band 7500 euros of production budget), and were finalists at that same year's Limbomania]. Not that surprising really, considering we're dealing with a septet which includes no less than 5 guitarists!
