THEM – Forever Burns [single] – Self-Release

Unknown but rad heavy metal band!

Straight to the point: this band is unknown, not much information is available, this is a single of the album Sweet Hollow, and the only song in it, destroys the whole world!

The sound is pure King Diamond.

Let’s plunge into the track that is called Forever Burns: the song starts with an attack on drums and riffs a la Andy La Roque, but differently to the sound of our master King, the sound is faster, going to a power metal. The vocalist, however, is a copy-and-paste of King Diamond which is not a bad thing. Although the resemblance, this sound is very original, the changing of the voices from falsetto to low pitched are constant and it leads to the great chorus. The scheme stanza/bridge/chorus is repeated exactly twice. The middle sessions has a “progressive” part, in which the drums while accompanying the vocals, increase in metric ending up in a syncopated drumwork. Then the strident heavy metal solo, pure thing, no frills, no false metal. The song ends with the chorus and that’s that.

A pure chef d’ouvre, I listened to this track some 20 times (really!) not just to understand the sound but just because it’s cool as fuck.

If you’re a fan of King Diamond, try to get more infos about this band, because their album is going to be out any time soon and if it follows what is presented in this track is going to be a great opus.

 Forever Burns [single]  is Self-Released.

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(Daniel “Roderick” Death)

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Certo Porcos – Odio 666 – Greyhaze Records

Brazilian hardcore with metal accent.

The Brazilian band Certo Porcos is a band that has a member of Holocausto – Rodrigo M. aka RODRIGO FÜHRER – and it resounds that act in some way or another.

As you may know, the über classic of Black/Death/Thrash metal Campo de Extermínio is just one face of Holocausto, as the band has been to Thrash, Technical Thrash, Experimental Noise and in their last release De Volta ao Front the band went through a hardcore, punk metal, approach of their sound.

Let’s say that Ódio 666 is a “continuation” of the latter. The band here attacks with Discharge/DRI riffs and simple, but brutal, even guttural sound approach never gets into grindcore, but never failing to approach itself to thrash metal.

The songs are short and in-the face. I would highlight Hate Never Ends with simplest but the most effective riff on the Earth.

Other track that is an earworm is F.O.D.A. with a great chorus.

The sequence of three tracks – Albergue 35, F.F.F.F.F. and You Gotta Fucked Till Die – is really memorable.

This is the simplest but very impressive release. Of course, the more you spin, the more you enjoy it. If I was you, I’d try and put my filthy paws on it. Fun all over.

Odio 666  is out now on Greyhaze Records 

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(Daniel “Roderick” Death)

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Police State – Mind Collapse – Grimoire Records

Punk and Grindcore from PA!

Hailing from US, Police State presents this second release of pure grind punkish attack!

The album has some parts of sludge metal (well, it seems to be the tendency nowadays), but in the bulk it is honest and good ol’ metal punk.

However they are more than a crossover band. By the way I think crossover will never fit their sound: it is a fair mixture of Discharge and Extreme Noise Terror, going to and fro in the punk area to metal area…

Sometimes as in the song Pure Filth they sound like Napalm Death.

But as they accidentally have a British accent, sometimes they just seem like Misery Index of sorts, but, ironically, never going into the “American” way of Brutal Death Metal.

The song Propaganda is like Antigama with the pureness of Agathocles, very fast and extremely unpolished.

This is an honest release, and the noise is pleasant to hear and for those who are never tired of grindcore, this one is for you.

Mind Collapse is out now on Grimoire Records.

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(Daniel “Roderick” Death)

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ALDFRITH: Last day for FREE DOWNLOAD!

Last day to download free stuff from Bandcamp.

Today is the last day to download the mini album Finados from the Dark Ambient/Experimental/No-wave project ALDFRITH. 

Finados was released last Halloween to celebrate the date and the Día de los Muertos, hence the name which is the date of the related holiday in Brazil. 

The mini album is an experiment to open the gates to the next release called A Shinning Star over Northumberland, scheduled for this November, and since it’s a experimental release, no much propaganda was made, so only for promotional reasons it was released for free. 

However the mini-album will be “locked”, which means that it will be out for free downloaders. One can still buy the opus via Bandcamp, and the streaming will continue for free! But NO physical copies will be released and neither the two songs will be available in the next album. So if you want a free download with HIGH QUALITY in FLAC, MP3 (320kbps), MP3 (VBR), AIFF, ALAC, AAC, OGG VORBIS and WAV, run for your life and get your copy and spread the word to your friends. It’s believed that by this hour on Saturday 7th Finados will be already locked up. Good luck!

The link to download free experimental stuff can be found here: aldfrith.bandcamp.com

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(Daniel “Roderick” Death)

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Onirik- Casket Dream Veneration CD/LP – Iron Bonehead / Altare

When harsh Black Metal shows charm and elegance.

Onirik hails from Portugal and as always bears a tradition and the quality of the Black Metal from Lusitanian regions…

That being said, Casket Dream Veneration is their fourth full length and the quality here is simply great.

The album comprises 8 tracks clocking in at 45 minutes of pure quality music.

Everybody here knows that black metal bears no novelty to the formula, and neither Onirik wants to re-create the wheel. The case here is about to do something that is proposed in a best and most respectable way possible.

The band showcases quality in production and in how to manage their instruments, the sound is mid-tempo to snail paced despondency, the suffering that brings cathartic feelings of negative euphoria.

As in the track Invocation and Defiance for example: the riffs cut the eardrums, the atmosphere weights and the sky turns black.

Reverent to the Flames is another sample where the morbid beauty of darkness takes over the room and the suffering is mortification. Disgracefully stalking in the darkness, the classic black metal riffs never sounds like a re-heat of the old, bringing a new spirit to the shadiness surrounding us.

Skipping to the last track called Versos de Um Ritual (Verses from a Ritual) which sums up the entire work, one can notice the elegance in decadence:  sung in hermetic Portuguese accent, the harsh vocals sunk in the background producing a whispering effect are ace. The mid to final session of the song shows a syncopated drum work and a hard-to-get but correct metric with vocals and guitars intertwined in a beautiful confusion.

This album is first rate and seriously, I couldn’t expect anything different from the Portuguese Black Metal scene…

 Casket Dream Veneration CD/LP  is out N.O.W. on  Iron Bonehead / Altare 

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(Daniel “Roderick” Death)

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Darkest Era – Gods and Origins – Cruz Del Sur Music

The raddest band from Northern Ireland is back on the track!

I had the honor to review the 2014 album of Darkest Era called Severance and I was in awe. Now that they announced this EP I am in awe… again.

Amazing heavy metal music with nods to extreme sounds and acoustic folk.

This EP has only two songs, unfortunately, but in times where time seems reduced this is an advantage because one can hear it several times and assimilate the beauty and the clearness of the musical art of Darkest Era that is very akin to Atlantean Kodex, Bathory (Viking era), Primordial and the likes…

First Celtic attack is called An Dagda and it is very aggressive with the earworm riffs and rhythmic session, with a mid-tempo approach but never being lackluster, this is energetic and very well done. Perfect song, but albeit all aggressiveness this song has no guttural voices: it’s very melodic indeed and this guy Krum sings like hell. It turned out that this song is a remake of an old song called An Dagda Awakens.  Ade Mulgrew and Sarah Wieghell are helluva couple of guitarists and they deliver sharp rifferama.

Elohim is a power ballad that is epic beyond control: acoustic and beautiful, this tune is an ode to tradition from auld lang syne. Over again this guy Krum touches the feeling of even the stone-hearted headbanger. A newborn classic for sure.

Gods and Origins is superb.  Now leave me alone because now I’ll continue to admire this EP, non-stop mode.

Gods and Origins is out now on  Cruz Del Sur Music 

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(Daniel “Roderick” Death)

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Apparatus – Apparatus – Lavadome Productions

The abstruse art from Denmark.

By hearing the self-titled album of Apparatus, one cannot avoid the feeling that their sound is obtuse (and abstruse), into a wall of hard-to-get noise.

This album was released in April but just now is being re-released by Lavadome.

11 tracks of absconded music, going to and fro in a spiral of repetitiveness where the drums may or may not be fast, but the Incantantion-esque feeling is inevitable. Not that it’s bad but it’s hard to sit through.

For example, while the iteration is high on the third track Spheres, an atonal piano is played over the low-pitched riffs.

Next track called R’lyeh shows an angular and asymmetrical serpentine music. Contorted and convoluted as in the next track the corrugated and globular Sermon II which opens the path to rugged and Cartesian Dissecting Temporal Dimensions to Afflict the Abyssi of Chronos (and its Euclidean riffs and drumming) it seems that the whole dictionary of fucking geometry and mathematics it’s NOT SUFFICE to describe the disorder and chaos that reigns over the sound of Apparatus.

Yeah, this is complex and Dantesque for sure. The physical universe is not prepared for the sound of Apparatus, neither do you, I suppose. So if you buy this album, make yourself sure to buy that dictionary of crazy terminologies to describe how elliptical and sinous are their sound. If you don’t learn the music by heart you’ll raise your grade in Advanced Placement Calculus and Advanced Placement Physics C: Mechanics.

Apparatus  is out now on Lavadome Productions .

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(Daniel “Roderick” Death)

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Tempestilence – Supreme Denial of God – Alcatéia

3^rd World Underground

Tempestilence hails from Brazil but they are no new to the scenario…

They’d been fully active in the past decade and they kinda disappeared from stage… Now they are back with a renewed line-up and up-to-date  strident death metal with hints to thrash here and nods to black there… But in the essence their sound is old school death metal.

But that is not the “new wave of old school death metal” though; knowing their old works this kind of approach to their sound is inherent to their musical personality and it NEVER tends to be trendy.

The sound is simple; the “takes” are simple and the production, although simple as well is very heavy and dirty this time around. 9 years ago their sound was something more black metal oriented and the flaws were apparent in the demo Under the Ground. Now in Supreme Denial of God they do what every band that tries to keep their work with dignity should do: less is more.

Albeit the first track being an intro, the second song called Maligna delivers a supreme heavy sound, not modern by any means, it is honest and well done. I would like to highlight the drumming of Cleirton Ceará that is plain and decent. No frills, only an exercise in how to keep things heavy.

That is to say that the rhythmic session is hefty and concise.

Renaissance in Putrescence has something of Slayer’s Postmortem, but never getting the ultra velocity.

The exception is the short last song called Grinding Hearts (well they seem to have taken the terminology “grind” seriously) which is very noisy, and for me the best song of the opus…

All in all Supreme Denial of God is substantial to understand what is happening in the Brazilian underground music. Done with veracity, Tempestilence is back with a special charm… the one which is putrid to the core…

Supreme Denial of God is out now on Alcatéia

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(Daniel “Roderick” Death)

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