What to expect this week

Here are some of the bands that I hope to do some album reviews on:

Six Feet Under (death metal)
Severe Torture (death grind)
Cattle Decapitation (death grind)
Spawn of Possession (technical death)
Krypt (black metal)
Bonded by Blood (thrash metal)

Before the Dawn - Rise of the Phoenix

Roughly a year after releasing one of the best albums of 2011, the Finnish melodic death powerhouse known as Before the Dawn is back with a strong follow-up known as The Rise of the Phoenix. I’ve actually known about this release for several months now, so obviously, I’ve been eager to hear it for quite a while. A little over a week ago, I went on the Nuclear Blast website to check the status of the album. I went to Before the Dawn’s page to discover that one of the tracks off the new album had been posted for streaming! Although their overall sound hasn’t gone through many HUGE changes since the release of Deathstar Rising, there are quite a few differences Deathstar Rising and Rise of the Phoenix (I don’t know if they purposefully put the word “rise” in both of those albums).

Let’s start out with the first track I heard off the album, which turns out to be the “title” song off the record (which is also not the EXACT title as the album, just like the title track off Deathstar Rising). The thing that stuck out to me the most was the extensive use of black metal-influenced higher-pitched chords. What I’m talking about are those really atmospheric melodic chords used primarily in the more melodic variations of black metal (although they run through all black metal in some way or another, tracing all the way back to the earliest black metal bands from the late 80s). But of course, these chords are being used in a melodic death fashion rather than in the black metal style that most people are used to hearing them in. The amount of blast beats being used throughout the faster parts of the song has gone up as well as the overall style of drumming.

If you strip away the layer of gothic influence and sound, Before the Dawn’s music is in fact the precise definition of melodic death in its purest and most generic sense. Before the Dawn removes their highly recognized gothic layer in some parts of this album, showing the rawness and pureness of their music. But even though this may SOUND like a disappointment, this album still earned the same score from me that their previous album did (even though I still like Deathstar Rising better).

The growls emitted from the throat of Tuomas aren’t quite as deep and spine-chilling as they are in previous albums, but this was probably done on purpose because it fits the less-gothic sound better. Here’s probably one of the most noticeable changes that Before the Dawn has made: there isn’t nearly as much singing. If you’ve heard Soundscape of Silence (my first Before the Dawn album), then you should know that there’s actually a tad bit more singing than growling. In Rise of the Phoenix, there’s next to no singing; which (fortunately) doesn’t decrease the quality of the music in any way.

In Phoenix Rising, Before the Dawn decides to turn down the opacity of their widely recognized layer of gothic sound and expose the rawness of their music to their listeners. To be honest, I’m extremely glad that the gothic feel hasn’t COMPLETELY vanished, but the atmospheric and epic sound that they use to make up for the hole that they left completely blew me away. I would recommend this to everyone and I guarantee you, Rise of the Phoenix does not disappoint.

Behemoth - Demigod

I first saw Behemoth play live at the Mayhem Festival in 2009. Before then, I had never even heard of Behemoth. A couple of days after I was left speechless by the power of Behemoth’s performance and the level of violence of their moshpit, I got my hands on the first Behemoth album I could find, and it turned out to be Demigod. This is one of the first extreme metal albums that I can remember that blew my mind the FIRST time I heard it. And not only that, my feelings for this album have grown exponentially since then.

Believe it or not, there are actually quite a few people out there in the world that consider Behemoth just to be black metal. Although black metal is very evident in Behemoth’s music, these guys are just simply WAY too fucking brutal and insane to just be black metal. The only way to make black metal THIS extreme is to throw a hell of a lot of death metal in there. The main thing that makes Demigod unique is that it doesn’t seem to mix in death metal…it sounds more like brutal death. And I’m not talking about the “slamming” brutal death stuff that’s BRUTAL, but not SUPER barbaric, I’m talking about the kind of brutality that’s created by bands like Hate Eternal, Aborted (particularly Goremageddeon), and Nile.

As difficult as it is, I’m going to put the sheer brutality and chaos aside and see what lies behind it. This album’s (and actually Behemoth’s) most recognizable trait is the seemingly forced out growls performed by Nerghal. Ever since I first got this album, Nerghal’s growls have been the thing that I’ve always recognized the most…those absolutely demonic vocals. Nerghal’s growls ARE NOT the deep, guttural kind that I have a major soft spot for. They sound very strained and forced out with a lot of voice; which could make “mid-range” a fairly (although not totally) accurate description of the pitch of his growls. Here’s why I particularly love the vocals on the Demigod record: the other guitarists does deep guttural growls and/or mid-ranged screams right along Nerghal’s unique vocals. This altogether makes one hell of a powerful vocal package.

The drumming is so breathtaking that it’s indescribable. Although he didn’t to this either of the times that I saw them, but I’ve seen live videos on YouTube of the drummer breaking out into a massive solo that left the audience paralyzed. Just the fact that he has the confidence to even DO a solo onstage makes him a fantastic drummer! But regardless, he is the spine-chilling growl of this Behemoth that has the power to consume the stars in the night sky. Ok, now let’s look at the bass. You can’t hear the clanging of the bassist picking the strings, but his bass is so deep and so loud that you can hear every note that he’s playing; which (yet again) only adds to the immense power of this Demigod. The reason why you can’t hear the higher-end of the bassist’s guitar is because the two guitars have so much power, crunch, and volume that they pretty much swallow it all up. Any other case, this would be a bad thing; but the vocals and drums have enough power to smash through the barbaric sound of the guitars in order to be heard clearly.

Speaking of guitars, one of the best guitarists of all-time is featured on the most extreme and brutal song on this album, Karl Sanders, who plays on the song Xul. Basically, if you want to hear the definition of mayhem, play this song and it will jump out of your speakers and relentlessly take you by the throat. Honestly, even though there is a large amount of black metal that has been incorporated in this album, the term “melodic” fails to describe any part of this album; it just simply doesn’t exist within this Demigod. Although some of the songs are much more brutal than others, the “less brutal” songs still manage to surpass the brutality of Suffocation, Cattle Decapitation, and Skinless; as well as MATCHING the brutality level of Hate Eternal, Devourment, Nile, and Fleshgod Apocalypse.

Overall, this album couldn’t possibly be any better. Behemoth needed to spend some time in the realms of extreme brutality to give a new twist to their sound that was starting to become monotonous. I would give this album a perfect score and would consider it an absolute essential for ANY metalhead’s music collection. There’s only one other Behemoth album that I’ve given a perfect score to, and that’s Pandemonic Incantations. After this literally grabbed the attention of the mainstream rock and metal media, Behemoth then released their most famous and bestselling album, The Apostasy. My favorite song off of this album is the HEAVY headbanging track which is the last song off the album as well as Before the Aeons Came and the title track, Demigod. 

I See Stars - Digital Renegade

Michigan’s I See Stars first reached my ears when I saw them in 2009 with Asking Alexandria, Attack Attack!, Breathe Carolina, and a couple other screamo bands. At this time, I See Stars (and most of the other bands on that tour) were pretty new; most of them having only one album out. To be honest, I don’t really remember their set at all from this show, which probably implies that I wasn’t hugely impressed or disgusted by them (making them unmemorable). In 2011, after I had almost completely forgot about them, I saw someone wearing an I See Stars shirt and decided that it was time to look them up. I decided to listen to their two albums in chronological order and found 3D to be very rough and not solid at all. It was the first song off End of the World Party (you can read my review on the album) that really grabbed my attention. Since I am very aware of how Sumerian Records treats their bands, I’m assuming that the label spend a lot of time working with them and helping them to solidify their sound and tighten everything up. In other words, their second album was quite an improvement. Now less than a year later, here comes I See Star’s newest product, Digital Renegade.

I’m not going to do TOO much comparing here, but I will say that the amount of dubstep and techno elements used is far greater than ever. Most of the dubstep sounds occur during breakdowns; acting as background effects behind the crunching guitars and drums. Also, there is A LOT more screaming in this album than in the two previous records. I guess the biggest change in the overall sound is that it sounds less atmospheric; it doesn’t have as much of that mystical/trance feel that End of the World Party had.

I already know that the occasional auto-tune that the singer uses is purely for effect. Why? Because he can sing perfectly without it; he can do it in the studio and on stage. And here’s the reason it doesn’t really bother me: it’s not used during the metal parts, only the techno parts, and it fits the music because it has that electronic/digital sound that I See Stars is known for. I did make this pretty clear in my review of their second album: there isn’t really that much about I See Stars that I DON’T like, it’s just that the things that I DO like aren’t good enough to get a super high rating. The unfortunate thing about Digital Renegade is that most of the good qualities are starting to deteriorate a bit.

The biggest problem I have with this album is that even though the songs differentiate a LITTLE from each other, they still sound WAY too much alike. I had a hunch that this would be a problem before I even started listening to Digital Renegade because it’s hard to be this prolific in songwriting and still maintain a very high quality in the new material. In other words, I feel that I See Stars rushed to put this album together and finished with a product with less quality than End of the World Party. Fortunately, it’s not a disaster; but they’re really going to have to make a big step to make up for this loss.

Overall, this album has plenty of memorable moments and vibrant colors within the music, but not a lot of quality. I would recommend this album only to true screamo fans because this is far from being one of the best releases in the genre. I would give this 10/20. But if you are curious to hear this; by all means listen to it!

Summer Slaughter 2012

Will you be going? Because I sure as FUCKING HELL will be buying my ticket the DAY that they go on sale this Friday!!

Although I'm super pumped for ALL of the bands on this bill (even though Periphery isn't really what I would consider to be a Summer Slaughter band...I hope that there aren't more bands this soft in the future..), here are the bands I am most excited for:

Exhumed (second time seeing them)

The Faceless (third time seeing them)

Cannibal Corpse (second time seeing them)

Cerebral Bore

Between the Buried and Me

Goatwhore (third time seeing them)

Veil of Maya (second time seeing them)

Periphery (third time seeing them)

Job For a Cowboy (fourth time seeing them)

1349 - Hellfire

For those of you that are new to black metal, 1349 stand amongst the Norwegian  PURE black metal monsters/masters that are Immortal, Darkthrone, Mayhem, Gorgoroth, Carpathian Forest, Taake, Burzum, and Satyricon (no, I did not miss any). My favorite 1349 album has always been Hellfire. 1349’s sound is for someone who wants a very pure form of black metal, but with a bunch of melody mixed in to give it some extra color. I guess a band that would compare to 1349’s sound would be Watain, but Watain isn’t nearly as fast and chaotic as 1349 (even though I like Watain more). But as far as the quality of the music goes, there are only a few traditional black metal bands that can surpass the quality of Hellfire.

I think I might have under exaggerated the amount of melody this album has. It seems that when you look at just plain black metal all by itself, some of the variations include simple, but extremely gritty and rough (Darkthrone, Mayhem, Drowning the Light), complete insanity and chaos (Gorgoroth, Immortal, Dark Funeral), a bit of a rock n’ roll feel at times (Carpathian Forest, Ravencult, newer Darkthrone), and a traditional sound that’s farther on the melodic side (Watain, Dark Fortress, Drudkh, Burzum). 1349 is more in ranks with Watain as far as HOW MUCH melody they incorporate into their music; but like I said before, the speed and chaos is easily comparable to Gorgoroth. But then again, some of the songs on this album have as much melody as Wolves in the Throne Room.

The general sound that this album has can be accurately described with just one word: POWERFUL. Not only does the music alone make it powerful, but how all the instruments are mixed and produced. In volume, the drums surpass the vocals and guitars to act as the dominant instrument as well as the base. The guitars have a very fuzzy distortion that is as far away from crunchy as you can get. This is one of the characteristics that only make black metal sound more powerful; it weakens the music if it’s put in any other genre. I don’t really know how to describe the position of the vocals…the place where they stand isn’t as obvious as it usually is. It seems more that the vocals are weaved and spread throughout every single layer of the music rather than being on their own layer.

I don’t know what song off this album is the most famous, but I wouldn’t be surprised at all if it’s I Am Abomination. This song was the first thing that put the word “melodic” into my head. After that cheesy voice, the music literally erupts like a frozen volcano into one of the best black metal intros I’ve ever heard in my life. It’s one of those things where you KNOW that these guys are going to have a powerful sound INSTANTLY after they play the first chord. Containing some of the tightest and strongest blast beats played by the (possibly superhuman) drummer, the mix of brutality on the drum set and epic melody on the guitars create a black metal masterpiece that introduces you the album known as Hellfire.

Although I’m a fan of all but one of 1349’s albums, Hellfire is what I would recommend to everyone, especially as a first impression. I would give this album a perfect score for creating a huge smile on my face with the first chords and keeping it there until the guitars fade to raindrops at the end. This is an absolute essential (not just for the black metal collection) for any metalhead that enjoys black metal in any amount. 

Update 4/21

Hey guys, I know my reviews have been getting less frequent recently. The school and work load alone has been enough of a stress as it is, and hearing about the tragic suicide of one of my good friends yesterday hasn't made things any easier. There will be more reviews, I just don't quite know when. I just got a listen of the new Before The Dawn album and it's absolutely killer, so that will probably be one of the next reviews that will get posted.
Other than that, my April concert spree has been amazing with the Metal Alliance Tour on the 1st, The Black Dahlia Murder w/ Nile, Skeletonwitch, and Hour of Penance on the 2nd, Protest the Hero w/ Periphery, The Safety Fire, and Today I caught the Plague on the 3rd, Sepultura w/ Death Angel, Krisiun, and Havok on the 13th, and last night: Behemoth w/ Watain (wearing my new shirt of them right now), The Devil's Blood, and In Solitude. The last concert left in this series is on the 30th and includes my favorite band ever, Opeth.

I plan on posting some reviews of:
1349 (black metal)
Behemoth (black death)
Semblant (gothic metal)
Shroud of Distress (depressive black metal)
Severe Torture (death grind)
I See Stars (screamo)

Cheers,
+Crinn

Onatra - For Your Soul [EP]

I don’t think I’ve ever heard very many (if any) horrible symphonic metal records. The interesting thing is…this is one of my favorite types of music, and one of my FAVORITE bands is from this particular genre, Epica. Yet I don’t know of a whole lot of symphonic metal bands. Over the course of maybe two months, I discovered almost all of the symphonic metal bands I listen to today: Nightwish, Epica, Therion, After Forever, Edenbridge, Within Temptation, and Apocalyptica. The only other symphonic metal bands that I’ve discovered since then are newer groups like ReVamp, Whyzdom, and Tarja. All of these symphonic metal bands are AMAZING and each have a special place in my collection, but I’ve been curious to find some brand new symphonic metal acts out there to impress me. Onatra is the band I’m going to tell you about today. Earlier this year, Onatra released a three song EP that is apparently available to the public for free, which most likely means that this is being used as a teaser to get the community hyped up and excited for a debut full-length. This EP isn’t an outright perfect record; it is, though, EXACTLY what I wanted to hear.

This EP is more than good enough to keep my eye on Onatra for when they release their debut album. But because it’s not AMAZING, it leaves a whole lot of room for improvement to make the upcoming first album seem so much better. Honestly, most of the flaws that this record has aren’t in the music itself; the majority of the flaws lie in the production work. This album is better produced than most self-released EPs I’ve heard, but there are several things about it that make a lot of the elements seem unbalanced and make the music much harder to flow smoothly. Probably the biggest issue that I have is the drums. In this kind of music, the drums NEED to be at the front of the line; if the drums have no volume and punch, the music has no power. If you listen to songs like See Who I Am by Within Temptation or Discord by After Forever, it’s easy to hear that the drums have parts where they’re more in the background, but most of the time they almost completely stick out and rise above the rest of the band. I know that the drums aren’t the ONLY thing that give this kind of music its power, but it certainly is the absolute biggest contributor.

The first track of this EP has a fantastic intro! But the reason why it has next to no power is because the drums have next to no punch. Once again, there isn’t much that can be done musically to help this (except for the use of more cymbals in the tighter parts to make them more powerful). That’s the one single thing that’s almost completely holding back the music, MORE DRUMS! The drums need to be LOUDER and have more damn POWER! Although I have a generally easy time seeing through this and seeing the mass amounts of musical creativity and potential, it does act as a huge obstruction. But don’t let that turn you away, because in the middle of the first track…a guitar solo erupts seemingly out of nowhere to pierce the skies like a rising phoenix. This is one of the better solos I’ve heard in this kind of music in a LONG time. After that solo grabbed my attention and almost pulled me in completely, the song then exploded with power that apparently was there the whole time; I guess it was the guitar solo that did to me what the intro SHOULD have done. That’s the big thing with this type of music, the attention grab of the intro needs to be almost INSTANT, or it will make the music seem dull until something interesting happens (that is, IF something interesting happens).

The second track is a fantastic headbanging song and has most of the grab in the beginning that the first song was missing…but the drums could still use to have more volume and power. The singer is obviously going to be the highlight among audiences once this band REALLY takes off (just like in almost every other symphonic metal band). If you’re curious about how she sounds, she perfectly nails the operatic singing style, but it doesn’t fit the powerless sound of the rest of the music. Another thing that this album is missing: the guitars need more crunch. And by that I mean a much heavier distortion.

Overall, this is actually a fantastic EP, but the numerous production flaws limit the music a lot. This EP shows that this band has talent, skill, and creativity. It also shows that there is plenty of room for improvement that they can fill by the time they release their first full-length album. I would give this 15/20. 

I Am Ghost - Lover's Requiem

Still to this day, I have seen I am Ghost live more times than any other band (six times). Not only has this album become an absolute favorite of mine since its release, it’s an album that musically and emotionally is a definitive classic. Although I’m not nearly as big on the screamo genre as I was two years ago, there are still a small handful of bands that I consider part of my VERY favorite bands group: Underoath, Alesana, and I am Ghost (my favorite out of the three has always been Underoath). It’s easier for other metalheads to understand why I love Underoath, but much, much harder for them to understand my appreciation for Alesana. The reason for both of those is because both of those bands are HUGE; it’s hard for a metal fan not to have heard them at least once in their lives. I am Ghost is a different story because they’re not nearly as popular; some people actually consider them being JUST above the underground level. But why the hell do I LOVE this band (and this album especially) so much?

The first quality of this album has the ability to impress anyone, and that’s the beautiful singing and harmonization. That’s the FIRST thing that I heard, because the intro track is a gothic-style vocal track with two male vocalists (one of them being the lead vox on the rest of the album) and the female singer/violinist. I know I might be making a big deal out of an introduction track, but I CANNOT stress enough how beautiful and paralyzing the singing is on this song! Once this track is done setting the mood and putting you in a relaxed state, it leads into one of the heavier songs on the album. The guitar distortions aren’t too crunchy, but have enough to efficiently weave in the anger. Even in this song, the singing and harmonization is breathtaking! On top of that, the screaming isn’t super high-pitched, but it has a really good, strong sound.

All of the musicians have above-average skill, creativity, and talent; but they’re not like…Opeth status. Some of the things that the guitarists and bassist play could probably be considered along the lines of “generic”, but even that would be somewhat inaccurate. The drummer has a lot of energy and never fails to keep what he plays interesting and attention-grabbing. The harmonizations that the guitarists play vary from being a generic metalcore sound to something completely abstract and (sometimes) gothic…sort of like Scary Kids Scaring Kids, but with a much cleaner sound.

Once again, I’m going to try and get my point across that THE VOCALS ARE AMAZING! My two favorite songs off this album are what I would consider to be the best examples of the singing potential this album has; but it comes down to the point where every song on this record is FILLED to the fucking TOP with some of the best vocal harmonization I’ve heard since…I don’t even know. This style of gothic vocal harmonizing gives the music an extremely melodic sound no matter how heavy and crushing the rest of the music gets; it’s something that even I have trouble understanding. One thing that I like about I am Ghost (and the majority of the screamo genre in general) is that you rarely get an album where all the songs sound EXACTLY the same. On this record, the songs are so different that it’s impossible to mistake one of the songs for another. But even though all of the songs are very different, most of them have that same depressive, melodic, gothic sound; which is ok because they do it perfectly.

Favorite song number one: Killer Likes Candy. This song has great vocal harmonizing, but not the most complex (so it’s harder to notice sometimes). The lead guitar parts don’t seem very complex, but when you get the general complexity of the lead guitar parts and you add on a violin that’s supposed to play the EXACT same thing, you get a pretty amazing sounding lead riff. Favorite song number two: Pretty People Never Lie, Vampires Never Really Die. If you want to hear more of that singing that you heard in the intro track, this song will give you plenty more. This is a heavier song that has a similar mood as Killer Likes Candy; but with more of a gothic sound. Both of these songs are COMPLETELY flawless and surpass my expectations by light years.

Lover’s Requiem is one of my favorite albums and I’ve been listening to it since its release. Unfortunately the lead vocalist quit the band and the group decided they were going to continue on, but under a different name (basically starting a new band). Each of the times I saw them on stage in venues with barely any people at all, I was completely blown away. I would give this album a perfect score and would recommend it to EVERYONE, especially to fans of melodic metal.

Impending Doom - Baptized in Filth

Even though The Serpent Servant got the attention of a large group of people, Impending Doom and their label made sure that EVERYONE saw the news about the release of Baptized in Filth. Not only did it succeed in doing so, but it also brought in a lot more worldwide support. Probably part of what caused that big jump in popularity for Impending Doom is that they decided to join in on the trend that monsters like Meshuggah, Born of Osiris, Veil of Maya, The Faceless, and Animals as Leaders are on. In other words, Impending Doom has gone back to putting a lot of dependence on breakdowns. But this time it’s different, the breakdowns that they use now aren’t generic and super simple, they’re fairly complex in nature and have a lot of diversity. The big question is: will this new sound work for Impending Doom?

The answer to that is yes, it has worked very well with them. But the thing is that Impending Doom doesn’t have a unique, recognizable sound…which is pretty much the definition of a “generic” band. It is true that Impending Doom has gone farther from the generic deathcore sound than they ever have before, but they are still more generic than most other deathcore bands out there due to them not having COMPLETELY adapted to this style. But this new sound has brought Impending Doom out of the super limited realms of the generic deathcore scene and into a much larger area that has more room for creativity.

The sounds of the instruments on Baptized in Filth are different than any other album they’ve ever come out with. Impending Doom is known for having the treble turned down, extremely thick and heavy guitar distortions, shitloads of bass, and drums that sit behind everything else and work as a backbone. This time, the drums stand at the front of a line with a powerful, punchy sound that doesn’t have nearly as much bass as the drums in There Will be Violence and Nailed Dead Risen. I don’t know if I like this or not…it sounds good with the sound, but those thick and deep drums were the only (somewhat) unique trait that I could find in Impending Doom, and now it’s gone. The guitar distortion has also lost almost all of its thickness and crunch and has tightened up a lot to sound really technical with the drums.

One big improvement that they’ve made is that I can actually hear the bass guitar in this album! That’s probably what I hate the most about deathcore, the fact that you can’t hear what the bassist is playing most of the time. On Baptized in Filth, the bassist stands out with the drums and encases the listener in paradise. The vocalist now has a very solidified and developed mid-range growl that he seems comfortable with and he finally perfected his screaming!! That’s what I’ve been waiting for the vocalist to do this whole time, perfect his vocals! This is definitely an improvement on his part.

Baptized in Filth proves that There Will be Violence is NOT a fluke and that Impending Doom can really make above-average deathcore. The reason why I still like There Will be Violence a little more is because of the difference in style. So in other words, the style change that Impending Doom makes in this album isn’t bad at all and they do it very well, I just like the style that There Will be Violence carried more. I would give this 15/20.