…ghts. Layers of orchestration, piano, and keyboard parts push the ballad “Fly, Icarus Fly” into theatrical landscapes, Peer Johnasson using every ounce of his gritty pipes to the max, similar in some respects to the attitude of Udo Dirkschneider next to the metal / hard rock registers of Jorn Lande and Rob Halford. Not content to rest on past accomplishments, the quintet explores a bit more modern hard rock/groove context towards the back half of…
…Distance stands tall as leaders on the back of an album that was brilliantly written, ambitious, and executed masterfully to the most minute of detail. From smooth pianos combining with mournful leads, to balanced by crunchy rhythms and thick atmospheres, Air Not Meant for Us has a bit of everything. A true achievement. 4. Cattle Decapitation – Terrasite (Metal Blade Records) San Diego’s prime metal export Cattle Decapitation continues to innovat…
…ents around him usher in an almost dreamy landscape at times (albeit a darkly dreamy feeling), which really closes the EP in the best possible way – a little bit of a breather so that you can jump right back into the fray once more. Alluvial continue to prove they should be considered among death metal’s upper echelon. Death is But a Door is short but oh so sweet in delivering plenty of bludgeoning riffs, visceral blasts, and a potent dose of atmo…
…red to the last one. If you add in the extra (time), we are stoked to finally have this out shortly. Dead Rhetoric: Was it a challenge to figure out what songs to release in the interim? Because these songs didn’t end up on the record… Cleary: Yeah, we actually did three songs that we just recorded at home and then sent out to get mixed. That was “Deathwish”, “Strange Love”, and then there’s a third song that will be a bonus track on the new recor…
…ns in their titles, while waxing poetic about wild tales of culinary-based lyrics, it unfortunately may lead to a portion of the audience to dismiss them as a bit of a gimmick. But truth be told, At the Plates may have very punny song titles and some crazy yet fun lyrics, Omnivore is a ‘melodic’ death metal release that’s going to start your 2024 off in very satisfying ways. While it’s quite fun to look at the titles, such as “Punish My Waistline”…
…ease. As previously stated, this was our first time seeing Gost, having sadly narrowly missed other opportunities to catch a live set. Gost’s stage presence has changed throughout the years – from a skull mask adorned by a hoodie, to black metal-ish corpse paint – and we were treated to the full skull mask, which was super cool. Thus, we were also treated to varied set from his impressive discography, with songs spanning each full-length, resultin…
…running with it for now). Dead Rhetoric: Where did you want to come across lyrically for this effort? Do you place an equal amount of importance on shaping the melodies/lyrics in a certain way to match or mirror the musical atmosphere present track by track? Bell: Most of the melodies/lyrics were written in this kind of assembly-line fashion AKA melody first, lyrics second. There was some variability but mostly that’s how it came together. A littl…
…e a bit of culture shock and adjustment that had to be made? Zaks: Absolutely. Simply because I didn’t speak the language. When I moved here, I was seventeen. I didn’t study English at school, I studied German. It wasn’t really helping me. Even when I tried to apply some of my German knowledge, it was nonexistent. I had to learn English from scratch. I could start communicating after a year, maybe even longer. It was one of the biggest challenges…
…ven employing it effectively in some of Akane’s vocal performance. Truthfully, this chorus is probably her strongest in terms of sheer power of the EP. “Mujuryokuhiko” feels the most epic of the bunch, with the playful violin giving it an almost jovial feel that effectively contrasts the more rock-driven nature of the rest of the group. Ayasa’s solo in this song is a real stunner. Last in the mix is “Hanabi,” which has the most fun and rock-ish at…
…ges to hit an impressively wide spectrum, all of which is executed flawlessly. Finally, “Procession” concludes No Dawn for the Caliginous Night on a forlorn note, with haunting narrations by Samantha Alessi, and additional vocals by Misery Index’s Jason Netherton adding to what is a colossal build of strain and aural anguish. It’s absolutely the most funeral of all of the variations of doom on the record, yet contains a bit of everything laid out…
…umentation and vocal lines and wraps them in some very poignant, surprisingly glum lyrics. Each song they’ve released so far (7 as of writing) is an absolute powerhouse of melodies and good-time hard rock. My stats.fm app tells me I’ve listened to this song over 140 times this year, and it came out in the end of August. Check out “Answer to Extreme” too while you are at it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU3f8ZGfd5g Best Music Video: Hanabie “B…
…r expanding pit. Vocalist Devin Swank is an imposing presence both physically and audibly, with monstrously deep growls and abundant energy, urging the crowd to slam along. Stringed warriors Ced Davis and Drew Arnold form an imposing duo, along with skin pounder Cody Davidson providing wild rhythmic calamity. The band clearly relish being on stage, and it shows with every note. What was the most noteworthy and viciously amusing moment of the eveni…
…eatest Sorcerer song delivered to date. Elements of the devil himself vocally as well as musically creep in to segments of the title track, while vocalist Anders Engberg uses his resourceful bellow in lower to mid-range capacity for the majestic “Unveiling Blasphemy”. Consciously focusing on shorter or faster material next to the expected epic doom traits gives a bit more explosive energy when taking in songs such as “Thy Kingdom Will Come” as wel…
…ut any sense of ear fatigue. The finale “Twilight of the Gods” possesses a bit of a Tony Martin-esque Black Sabbath flavor musically, while the operatic choir parts extend the throwback nature – hundreds of years of influences all converging as one. For this scribe, Therion were at their best during the Theli through Secret of the Runes studio album period – since then, certain releases have been as strong while others a bit weaker. Leviathan III…
…visualized the cover. It took some time, but we feel the end result is really great. Absolutely this cover is in the old, power metal style. Like many other people, I don’t buy as many records anymore – I usually listen to music on Spotify. But if you go to a record store and look at the covers, I think the cover should really mirror what the sound is like. I think it’s important, but not as important as it has been in the past. You had to go down…
…fan support, festival opportunities that it built up around that were totally overwhelming. Totally unexpected. Right away I was in this uncharted territory. There’s no playbook, there’s no script to follow in this profession if you want to say, or any kind of artistic pursuit. I did what I thought was for the best. Set a deadline for You Are Here, took a big advance, bought some recording gear that I thought I was going to be able to use right ou…
…o deliver powerful tracks that have that x factor to cement themselves deeply into the heads (and hearts) of headbangers everywhere. As a singer Clau Violette possesses that multiple threat angle of serene, clean melodies plus ripping screams to tear limbs as much as captivate in capable, memorable ways. When they wish to add a bit of djent, stunted work into the normal alternative/groove metal mix, you’ll get a Gojira meets Jinjer-like atmosphere…
…long period of time. We were able to work on this for a long time, obviously separately because of the time period. Because of the pandemic, it necessitated how we went about writing the songs over lockdown. We made a great album previously with Sea Savage, so we were happy with this new way of writing. I think before Sea Savage was out, we even started working on songs for this record. Philly: We had done a demo. We’ve been very lucky with these…
…Kaivs’ sound is deeply rooted in old school Swedish death metal of the early 90s, especially with the guitar work. What kind of inspirations do you draw from that scene, and what elements do you try to incorporate into your music? Foam: We try to do it in our own way, you know? I can’t invent anything today, but we try to have something personal. Death metal is unconventional, scary – it’s not mainstream! As always, we required the Boss HM-2 peda…
…cts. We viewed this record as an opportunity to firm that stuff up and really apply cinematic moods and instrumentation in the presentation of it – to make those elements more of a defining feature. Having this short film experience, in a track that really is so about the mood and scoring of it. You don’t hear drums for like 5-minutes! So that was a big part of the driving motivation – to have something out in that time period that suited the musi…
…but the crux of the band’s songwriting and performance delight sits squarely on the shoulders of these main musicians – the eight tracks wistfully casting shadows into these emotions and painful memories much like their influence bank of Opeth, Katatonia, and others in that category. Occasional circular spirals of music drift beyond into intoxicating passages of beauteous wonderment. Listen to the closing minute-plus instrumental to softer vocal…
…the jig, holding a flame torch high, drinking your favorite mead to soothe your soul. Through Bruadarach you’ll get a solid sample of the creative output plus sonic infusion applied, in the end equally enthralling to hopefully garner more people into their coven. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5qpbghwZQw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPDzXYUv7lM Skiltron on Facebook…
…o and cleaner guitar passages within “Letters of Life” allow Sandro to really belt out the melodies in his best light – the man certainly has aspects of Bruce Dickinson and Geoff Tate within his wheelhouse, capable of rearing back for that key money note signature to mesmerize when need be. The additional sound effects, be it dragon sounds or synthwave spots never deter from the metal proceedings – they only add dynamic contrasts to color the song…
…ry important. The video director understands where we want to go artistically. To me that’s really important, that the vision I have in my head comes out better than I expected. That’s why you have to work with very professional people, because they will translate this even better. We recorded these videos in Berlin, Germany. We recorded a total of three music videos in two days, it was a lot of hard work and a lack of sleep. It was also done in t…
…Satan’s Fall originally began as Satan’s Cross – can you tell me a little bit about those early days? Mäenpää: Yeah, we did start as Satan’s Cross but then there was some Mexican band that took the name at the same time, so we changed the name. The band started with Kride the ex-guitar player and with their other bandmates jamming out in their rehearsal space with these songs. They asked Tommi the ex-drummer and Markus the ex-singer to play. From…
…in a bit more Slipknot-ish punch, allowing “Never Be the Same” to be an early standout, especially when the half-time breakdown segment provides perfect pogo-oriented body action. Daniel Szabo has a solid backbone presence on the drums, traversing a mix of hardcore/metal chops that keep tracks like “I Don’t Belong To You” while his fleet snare / double kick activity pulsates in a logical, energetic fluidity of motion. There’s no doubt the quartet…
…ce again use his rhythmic rasp to initiate call to arms action through his lyrics. Hungering Inside won’t exactly win originality awards – but Miara has executed through this record a solid grasp of the mechanics within this style. Now it’s more a question of band chemistry, live performances, and natural seasoning to take shape so that we can hear a bit more originality / growth for the next effort. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIJ7O1qelTs htt…
…y, I think the most important thing in this style of metal is not necessarily the lyrics, but they are important, it’s more about the melody and the music itself. The vocals and lyrics in the process come afterward, the way it plays with the music, they have to be complementary. For the lyrics even, I derive that from the sound the songs have. It’s the way it makes me feel when I listen to it, I gain inspiration from that. Dead Rhetoric: How do yo…
…in there, and if you look at them and see – these are people that can really only survive and live by being on stage and singing. I really like that. It’s like, this is my only option. It’s all I can do.” Outside of black metal, another of Himari’s main interests happens to be anime. In addition to playing solo shows, she’s been able to play at a number of anime conventions as well – merging some of her strongest passions. But as one might imagin…
…n. The sound continues to penetrate a classic thrash template, injecting a bit of power metal to keep things a bit more melodic – pulling from a host of Bay Area / North American influences, while the vocals possess that sharp raspy edge that pushes the larynx to the bring of destruction. The guitar work from Chris Ira contains solid rhythm mechanics as well as fluid, thrilling lead break spots – molding cuts like “Die Alone” and “March of the Dam…