Album Reviews

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    Grave Siesta – Grave Siesta (2011)

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    Making its way from Finland, today we have Grave Siesta and their self-titled debut full-length release. In this album the band cruises through 45 minutes of very unique and diverse sounding Doom Metal that seems to not take any particular shape, but sounds crunchy enough to be noticed. The band formed in 2010, and with a couple of demos under their belt they unleash this very solid freshman effort that will surely get them some attention.

    With a hefty dosage or Stoner Rock, Psychedelic Rock and a Doom Metal core, the band opens this release with the punishing “Work Enslaves”. In this track the guitars immediately pop-out and the typical Finish-sounding vocals appear. The bands vocalist Taito Halonen sounds very similar to M Mystons from the Finish Rock outfit Mystons. There are some screams that definitely sound different but fail to make an impression in this track. “Barbaric” has a more traditional Doom feeling to it and delivers more excellently crafted guitar riffs. The vocals again shine thanks to the Southern feeling to them, greatly enhancing the gritty sound of the song.

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    Demonic Death Judge – The Descent (2011)

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    Rounding up the promo package we received from Inverse Records, today we have Demonic Death Judge and their highly entertaining mixture of Sludge Metal with Black Metal. Before you start frowning in disgust, you actually have to give this band a chance and listen to their very original musical approach. The only band we can think that plays something in this alley is Glorior Belli on their last album “The Great Southern Darkness”.

    Opening with “Nepal”, the band fully explodes into some crunchy riffing and very hellish vocals. While this combination might sound odd at first, it slowly grows on you. The guitar work is very traditional Sludge/Southern inspired and the atmosphere feels this way, but the vocals gravitate towards another area. There are some very good acoustic melodies thrown into the mix that makes this song even more appealing.

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    Alcest – Les Voyages de l'Âme (2012)

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    Flying high on the success of their classic “Écailles de Lune”, Alcest has managed to tour the world and still found time to record “Les Voyages de l'Âme”. In this new release, the band efficiently re-hashed “Écailles de Lune”, toned down the Black Metal aspect of things, and still delivers 8 brilliantly atmospheric tracks. However, the ‘originality’ or ‘something different’ factor is lacking a bit with this release.

    Opening with “Autre Temps”, Alcest makes it very clear that their sound is untouched and delivers a very ethereal track. The vocal harmonies are as heavenly as possible and they beautifully contrast the powerful guitars. The bass guitar and drums are also very well incorporated and perfectly mixed to be in the background of the atmospheric elements.

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    Psycroptic – The Inherited Repression (2012)

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    In a time when all the Technical Death Metal bands are graded base on how many notes they can whip out in the least amount of time, it is nice to listen to a band that actual focuses on how well the songs listen and structures them around melody and not technical level. Australia’s Psycroptic presents us their fifth full-length release “The Inherited Repression” with a high level of maturity and musicianship.

    Pummeling through nine tracks, “The Inherited Repression” keeps the focus on the melodic aspect of things and the nice technical details are mostly playful elements that increase the band’s appeal. With some hints of the great Death, the band delivers waves of excellently crafted riffs and a less annoying version of Chuck Schuldiner-styled vocals. This is immediately evident with the opener “Carriers of the Plague”, a track where the guitar work is very elaborate but the song is also very catchy and effective. We particularly love the melodic passages that get repeated through the song, and the massive drumming as well.

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    Herem – II (2011)

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    Delivering six crushing Death/Doom Metal tracks, today we have Herem and their very well crafted second full-length release titled “II”. For around 45 minutes the band delivers excruciatingly painful and devastating music unlike any other band these days. Mixing a beefy Death/Doom sound with some Sludge influences and some experimental elements, the band reminded us a bit like Frothy Days Longing, an American band that played a similar style and was also led by a female growler.

    Opening with the hypnotic “Heavens”, the 90’s Death/Doom sound is immediately present and while the growls sound a bit different than you typical ones, Valendis Suomalainen does one hell of a job in sounding very brutal and powerful. The riffing is very powerful and the production perfectly accentuates the distorted guitars. The experimentally ethereal entrance to “Earth” generates a very interesting atmosphere that is nicely ‘culminated’ with powerful riffs and some very deep and disturbing (in a good way) growls.

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    Iron Fire – Voyage of the Damned (2012)

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    Led by the multi-faceted vocals Martin Steene, Iron Fire delivers the latest mash-up album with “Voyage of the Damned”. Featuring a plethora of vocal styles and ridiculous amounts of layering and studio magic, this release actually sounds very dynamic and highly efficient. The band’s Power Metal trademark is clearly evident but it is all the ‘extra stuff’ going on that makes them truly unique and different.

    The real album opener “Enter Oblivion OJ-666” features over the top keyboard arrangements graciously overdone by extremely over the top vocals. Martin goes back and forth between styles never sounding dull, and in a weird way we actually liked it a lot. The somewhat more conventional “Taken” showcases the ‘serious’ side of the band and delivers a very powerful and well crafted track.

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    The 11th Hour – Lacrima Mortis (2012)

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    Seems like the extremely talented Ed Warby still wants to sing and his (again) god-awful vocals adorn this release, but luckily the music is heaps better than on the band’s first release “Burden of Grief”. The mood in “Lacrima Mortis” is a bit darker thanks to the more ‘gothic’ elements introduced in this release as well as the deep growls of Pim Blankenstein Officium Triste. The riffing is also more dynamic and keeps the attention away from the horrible singing.

    With the opening track “We All Die Alone”, The 11th Hour starts with a desolate piano section accompanied by violins that will make you drop anything else you are doing and focus on this release 100%. The riffs are majestic in the sense that they transfer those juicy depressive emotions we love about Doom Metal. Ignoring the crap-tastic clean vocals, this song is very powerful and melodic. The My Dying Bride-esque “Rain on Me” quickly follows and by this time you know that “Lacrima Mortis” will be one hell of an album.

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    The Kandidate – Facing the Imminent Prospect of Death (2012)

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    Opening 2012 for Napalm Records today we have The Kandidate’s sophomore release “Facing the Imminent Prospect of Death”. The band plays and inferior version of label mates Hatesphere’s Groove infused Thrash Metal. While not entirely bad, “Facing the Imminent Prospect of Death” is an album devoid of any originality and it is as vanilla as you can get.

    Featuring the original Hatesphere singer Jacob Bredahl, this release indeed sound a bit like older Hatesphere without the constant improvement they offered through the years. The crunchy opening track “Death” delivers pretty solid riffing and a very catchy nature, but it kind of feels a bit cold for an opening track. The music gets a bit better in the next track, but it never really picks up. We have some nice powerful riffs that circle around the songs a bit too much and never really hooked us into liking the tracks.

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    Aenaon – Cendres et Sang (2011)

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    After delivering two impressive EP’s: Phenomenon and A Parallel Zoetrope, Aenaon finally signed with Code666 to release their debut full-length “Cendres et Sang”. In this very impressive freshman release, the band makes use of their superior ability in crafting interesting and unique sounding Black Metal songs and deliver 10 tracks of majestic music that many veteran bands wish they would have in them.

    Since the Jazzy opener “Kafkaesque”, you know you are in for a treat and a very unique album. This intro nicely blends with the second track “Suncord” and when the riffing starts we are immediately reminded of bands like Farsot and similar creative-Black Metal acts. The melodic aspect of the band’s sound is what makes them so special, particularly in the intricate passages crafted in the middle of this track that feature a hefty Jazz influence.

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    Saturnian Mist - Gnostikoi Ha-Shaitan (2011)

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    With a very peculiar ear-raping Black Metal sound, Saturnian Mist delivers their debut full-length release titled “Gnostikoi Ha-Shaitan”. The band pummels through eight tracks of putrefied Black Metal that at first will make you want to turn it off, but once you warm up to it, you will find it very refreshing and somewhat different to all other BM releases.

    Firing up the riffing machine since the opening track “The Regicide”, the band delivers very crunchy guitars (somewhat similar to some Sludge albums) that are nicely utilized to transmit hellish Black Metal sounds. The pounding bass guitar is pretty well mixed in-between to add more rawness and brutality to the music. The vocals are more like growls than your average BM snarl, but the weirdest part is the Hardcore-ish sound they have to them.

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