REVIEW: TOTIMOSHI - MYSTERIOSO?

 

TOTIMOSHI - MYSTERIOSO? (Berserker Recs., 2002)

Produced by Alex Newport

Artwork by Elizabeth Mc. Grath

Tracks: 1- Float, 2- Screwed, 3- Cellophane, 4- The Bleed, 5- Dirt Farmer, 6- Vitreol-a, 7- Oblivion, 8- Horselaugh

What a powerful release!! Totimoshi is a strange name and the music that this band plays is like a mix between gothic, punk, stoner and metal. The main feature here are the powerful guitars (with a really fat sound that makes the riffs devastating) with interesting riffs that go along the drums in a really great way. Another feature is the vocalist who is versatile and knows how to accentuate certain phrases to achieve a better result being really tight with the rest of the band. The good thing is that this band sounds like Totimoshi and not as any other band from a similar style. An original release full of crunchy chords and interesting ideas.

Favorite tracks: The whole CD is an example of crushing and devastating music.

Contact: www.berserkerrecords.com

REVIEW: TONY WREN / LARRY STABBINS / HOWARD RILEY / MARK SANDERS - FOUR IN THE AFTERNOON

 

TONY WREN / LARRY STABBINS / HOWARD RILEY / MARK SANDERS - FOUR IN THE AFTERNOON (Emanem Disc, 2002)

Produced by Martin Davidson

Recorded by Steve Lowe

Tracks: 1- A Soft Day, 2- Game of Two Halves, 3- Where are the Snows, 4- Rough Crossing, 5- Blue Dark, 6- Embarrasment of Witches, 7- Transcension

This is a kiler quartet: Tony Wren on double bass; Howard Riley on piano; Larry Stabbins on sax and Mark Sanders on percussion. This guys create some of the greatest spontaneous music I have ever heard. They have the musical skills and technique to achieve a great result. It is amazing to listen to Stabbins sax runs played over Riley´s piano arrangements. I think this is one of the ensembles that I feel more interconnected between them in order to achieve great results. Sanders is a killer percussionist and he is risponsible of adding a lot of twisted rhythms to the musical compositions contained on this CD, while Wren adds a lot of bottom end and arrangements to the music. This is one of the best improvisational CDs I have ever heard.

Favorite tracks: "Game of Two halves"; "Rough Crossing" and "Blue Dark".

Contact: www.emanemdisc.com

REVIEW: THE NEW PLAGUE - SHACKLED AND ENSLAVED

 

THE NEW PLAGUE - SHACKLED AND ENSLAVED (Independent, 2001)

Produced by The New Plague

Recorded at Digit Sound Studio

Artwork by Adam Whitley and Shaun Lipsmeyer

Tracks: 1- World Annihilation, 2- Within, 3- Stormbringer, 4- Life, Death and the Abyss, 5- New Worlds, 6- The Great Unknown, 7- Pleasure Thru Pain, 8- Cult of the Dragon, 9- Pazuzu, 10- I Am Misanthrope

This is a band of old school death metal. The music of the New Plague is a blast of fury in the vein of old Morbid Angel, Left Hand Path-era Entombed and also some Venom. So as you may see this is a devastating band. There are certain thrash influences here and there too in their music. Every track here is conceived to be a deathly and powerful discharge. They are fast and brutal with great work of guitarist and drummer (great double bass drumming) who seem to be very well rehearsed and really tight (there are excellent bass passages in "Within" for example at 1:44). The vocals are guttural and fit the music that The New Plague makes perfectly adding more brutality to this powerful trio. Fans of brutal and technical death metal will surely like this one.

Favorite tracks: "Pleasure Thru Pain", "World Annihilation" and "The Great Unknown".

Contact: www.thenewplague.com

REVIEW: THE CULT - BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL

 

THE CULT - BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL (Atlantic Recs., 2001)

Produced by Bob Rock

Artwork by P.R. Brown

Tracks: 1- War (The Process), 2- The Saint, 3- Rise, 4- Take the Power, 5- Breathe, 6- Nico, 7- American Gothic, 8- Ashes and Ghosts; 9- Shape the Sky, 10- Speed of Light, 11- True Believers, 12- My Bridges Burn

Of all the bands that were popular in the late eighties and early nineties I always liked The Cult. It seems to me that this guys always prefered to do good songs than combing their hair and using make up and all that bullshit. There are two records which I don´t like that much....one is "Love" (too pop for my taste) and "The Cult" (too alternative, I thought that they were copying other bands). But this latest one goes in the path that albums like "Sonic Temple" or "Ceremony" marked. That is rocking riffs with some Led Zeppelin and seventies influences and one of the strongest Ian Astbury´s performance on vocals. Welcome back to the right track.

Favorite tracks: "Take the Power"; "American Gothic" and "Speed of Light" .

Contact: www.thecultnet.com

REVIEW: SUICIDAL WINDS - VICTIMS IN BLOOD

 

SUICIDAL WINDS - VICTIMS IN BLOOD (No Colours recs., 2002)

Tracks: 1- Victims in Blood, 2- Dimension of Death, 3- Morbid Temptation, 4- Storms of Hell, 5- satanic Wrath, 6- Force of Darkness, 7- Ashes from a Past Life, 8- Outbreak of War, 9- The Mangler, 10- Lord of Abyss, 11- Meaningless Life

Here we have death /thrash metal directly from Sweden and full of energy and hate! This is the second album from this swedish guys and this one is extremely brutal. The influences that I find are from early Kreator and Destruction. Killer riffs with interesting drumming all over the CD. Here we have a band designed for headbanging and crushing you live (I think that a Suicidal Winds show must be devastating). I like a lot the thrash influences that this band has that makes their music sound different than most of the bands that are playing brutal death metal. The vocals are screaming ones and closer to the ones of Mille Petrozza. This band is a great exponent of this tyle and you can see it through this recording.

Favorite tracks: "Victims in Blood"; "Morbid Temptation" and "Ashes from a Past Life".

Contact: www.no-colours-records.de

REVIEW: SORROWSTORM - CAVERNS OF GRIEF

 

SORROWSTORM - CAVERNS OF GRIEF (Dysmorphic Recs., 2002)

Produced by Sorrowstorm

Tracks: 1- Breed the tyrants; 2- Nocturnal Apparition, 3- Enslaver of Hateful Souls; 4- The Arduous Warpath; 5- Caverns of Grief; 6- Chanting the Last Passages

Sorrowstorm is a christian black metal band created by Phil from Encryptor. He is the main musician behind both bands and here he has the opportunity to show a more melodic sound, specially because the compositions contained here use a lot of keyboards passages and a lot of interesting melodic guitar lines. There are rotten vocals all over the recording but sometimes they use some clean vocals in the form of ethereal chants that are really well developed on this recording. They also use a more guttural voice that is closer to the one used in Encryptor. The guitar riffs are really technical in some places and they give a lot of variation to the tracks contained in "Caverns of Grief". I liked a lot this band and I hope to listen more from them very soon.

Favorite tracks: "Nocturnal Apparition"; "The Arduous Warpath" and "Chanting the Last Passages".

Contact: www.sorrowstorm.com

REVIEW: SOMBER SERENITY - SINGULAR

 

SOMBER SERENITY - SINGULAR (Medusa Prods / Dragon Design, 2002)

Recorded at Little Dream Studio

Artwork by Mike Schindler / Dragon Design

Tracks: 1- In Solitude Divine, 2- Tragedy Star, 3- Goddess of light, 4- The Severance, 5- The Sufferer, 6- Last Scion of Winter, 7- Swallow the Sun, 8- Nemesis, my Childe

How great is this album!!! It starts with a clean guitar and then all of a sudden the crushing guitars enter along with clean vocals... then other voices scream the lyrics. This band has found a great equilibrium in their music and combine perfectly melodies and atmospheres with crushing riffs and drum beats. Take some Anathema, add some Paradise Lost then some bands like Katatonia and Opeth, mix it with a little My Dying Bride and you will have only an approximation to Somber Serenity´s sound. There are heavier tracks like "Tragedy Star" (pure deathly vocals....even more guttural...and then enter some heavy metal riffs...amazing!). The main feature here are the compositions of this guys which are perfectly developed. This guys also have hooks in their songs and that is really important. This band will be a classic in the near future.

Favorite tracks: The whole Cd is amazing. A classic . A perfect blend between heaviness and darkness.

Contact: www.dragondesign666.de

REVIEW: SOLEKAHN - SUFFERING WINDS

 

SOLEKAHN - SUFFERING WINDS (Imperial Maze Recs., 2002)

Produced by Solekahn

Recorded at Labyrinth Studio

Tracks: 1- A Narrow Passage, 2- Visages, 3- Senses Labyrinth, 4- Profaned Nights, 5- Entangled, 6- In Dementia, 7- Arena, 8- Beyond the Pasts

It is weird. Solekahn has riffs that sound definitely black metal (as well as some drums patterns), but the vocals are completely death metal. Plus, the guitars have a different kind of distortion...I don´t know how to describe it. The tracks contained on this CD are short (all the CD lasts 18 minutes) and the music goes along the pattern of death / black metal with a lot of rhythm changes and good guitar riffs (specially I liked a lot the slower ones). All this elements combined create a new kind of darker than hell music (I think that Khaos voclas are harmonized in tracks like "Profaned Nights" and that makes things sound really strange...great!). They also used clean guitars in someplaces like in the beginning of "Entangled" which is a really charming track. Thuis is definetly a really dark release.

Favorite tracks: "Senses Labyrinth"; "Entangled" and "In Dementia".

Contact: imperial.maze@caramail.com

REVIEW: SLOW HORSE - SLOW HORSE II

 

SLOW HORSE - SLOW HORSE II (Berserker Recs., 2001)

Produced by Martin Bisi

Recorded at B.C. Studios, Brooklyn

Artwork by Scott Sanfratello

Tracks: 1- I´m Nothing, I´m No one, 2- The Games You Play, 3- Stay, 4- Let It Slide, 5- Coming Unhinged, 6- Nameless, 7- Untitled, 8- The Last, 9- Nº9

Slowhorse´s music is Slow and rhythmic with voclas that make melodies over the guitar riffs in a really drmatic and interesting way. The CD starts with the hypnotic "I´m nothing, I´m no one" a really depressive track with a slowpaced guitar riff and an interesting bass arrangement. I find some interesting Saint Vitus influences in the music of this band (and some The Obsessed too in some guitar riffs) but the music sounds more rhythmic than in that bands. The guitars have a seventies -like sound that fits perfectly with the rest of the music. One of the main things here and that I think that the band should exploit at its maximum level are certain vocal harmonies that they use (for example in tracks like "The Games You Play") and that gives a lot of dynamics to the music. Lovers of doom and related styles ...Slowhorse is here for you!!

Favorite tracks: "Stay"; "Let It Slide" and "The Games You Play".

Contact: www.berserkerrecords.com

REVIEW: SKYMNING - ARTIFICIAL SUPERNOVA

 

SKYMNING - ARTIFICIAL SUPERNOVA (Candlelight Recs., 2002)

Recorded at Studio Mega

Tracks: 1- Synthetic Visions, 2- Shadowed / Astral Silver, 3- Shatter the World / Artificial Supernova, 4- Axoskeletal / X.T.C., 5- Suicidal Dominion, 6- Inner Cosmic Experience / Inject the Spirit, 7- Solitude, 8- Esperandote, 9- Elite

This is a really strange kind of metal....it has some elements from death metal, some from modern metal and a certain industrial sound. But this mix gives us the sound of Skymning´s music. There is a heavy work of guitars here and a really mechanichal drummer who makes things feel heavier than hell. There are really original riffs like the ones in "Shadowed / Astral Silver". The great thing in Skymning is that despite the heaviness of their music they always find some place for interesting melodies. And this melodies are the ones that you remember later and that give the tracks a lot of identity. A really great release with an original sound and a lot of interesting ideas.

Favorite tracks: "Axoskeletal/X.T.C."; "Suicidal Dominion" and " Esperandote".

Contact: www.candlelightrecords.co.uk or www.blackendrecords.com