REVIEW: BRAINDEAD - FOR THE LAST HOUR

 

BRAINDEAD - FOR THE LAST HOUR (Blackdeath Prods., 1999)

Produced by Braindead

Recorded with Akai DPS12. Jan-June 1999

Cover art by Nicole Streit

Tracks: 1- Circle of Fire; 2- Burning Down, 3- Addicted to Human Flesh; 4- Sudden Death; 5- Die Without Hope; 6- Face to Face; 7- Another Waste of Time; 8- Dreams of Pain; 9- Beyond the Silence; 10- You Die

Braindead comes to us directly from Switzerland and their music is really melodic death metal. Here on this CD they have achieved a great mix of heavy and raw death metal with interesting guitar melodies. In fact this melodies are the main ingredient of the band´s music and I liked a lot the way in which they are played contrasting with the heavy guitar riffs. David´s vocals are raw and fit perfectly the music of the bandmaking the result heavier. I would like the drums to be mixed a little bit higher (as they did on their next album "Crossing the Device") because in that way the double bass patterns and some interesting passages can be listened better. I like a lot the tracks where the riffs are more rhythmic and heavy as hell like for example "Burning Down". A great mix between fast and heavy songs complemented by interesting melodies and atmospheres.

Favorite tracks: "Burning Down"; "Face To Face" and "Dreams of Pain"

Contact: www.braindead.ch

REVIEW: BIRDFLESH - NIGHT OF THE ULTIMATE MOSH

 

BIRDFLESH - NIGHT OF THE ULTIMATE MOSH (Razorback Recs., 2002)

Recorded at Euphony Studios

Cover Art by Gudda

Tracks: 1- Coffinfucker; 2- Master of Violence; 3- Gore in Gore out; 4- Arabian Psycho; 5- Night of the ultimate Mosh; 6- The rolling massgrave; 7- Above, where are you?; 8- Catmouth; 9- Gut to Kill; 10- Bloodshed attack; 11-Eter nal Emotions; 12- Slaughter of flies; 13- Bowelthrasher; 14- Kid of the brown vomit; 15- the evil pig; 16- Everything is shit; 17- Dance on the frozen desert; 18- Crowes in the nose; 19- Death and insanity; 20- Carmolesting dead; 21- Suicide Maniac; 22- Victim of the grind

I have to say that this band surprised me... I expected only another grind band but Birdflesh is not like that. In fact they have moments where they play straight grindcore but there are many places where they play sort of extreme death metal and they show a lot of ideas such as the climatic passage in the first half of "Gore in, gore Out" or the one or two seconds before entering the more hardcore riff in "Night of the ultimate mosh" . This band is fast and brutal and has extremely brutal riffs together with screaming and guttural vocals. But the good thing here is that they throw short ideas here and there to make things more interesting. The sound of this release is good and you can listen this raw band in all their splendour because the instruments are well mixed and the guitars got the sound they deserve. If you are a lover of speed and brutality Birdflesh can be one of your favorite bands.

Favorite tracks: "Gore in Gore Out"; "The rolling massgrave" and " Dance on the Frozen Desert"

Contact: www.razorbackrecords.com

REVIEW: BARRY GUY/ HOWARD RILEY / PHILIPP WACHSMANN - IMPROVISATIONS ARE FOREVER NOW

 

BARRY GUY/ HOWARD RILEY / PHILIPP WACHSMANN - IMPROVISATIONS ARE FOREVER NOW (Emanem Disc, 2002)

Produced by Martin Davidson

Recorded by Adma Skeaping

Cover by Barry Guy

Tracks: 1- Trio One; 2- Trio two; 3- Trio three; 4- Trio Four; 5- Trio Five; 6- Trio Six; 7- Trio Seven; 8- Trio Eight; 9- Trio nine, 10- Trio ten; 11- Trio Eleven

Here is another recording by a couple of musicians whose great music we have reviewed before: This time double bass master Barry Guy and piano magician Howard Riley are joined by Philipp Wachsmann on violin to create some trio improvisations. And the result is excellent, sometimes with a lot of cohession and osmetimes chaotic but with the musicians always in control of the spontaneous compositions. There are two types of trio tracks here: the first eight ones that were recorded in December 1977 and the last three that were recorded in January 1979 and you can feel the difference among this two groups of improvisations. Also we can listen that some trios are done in order to create atmospheres like for example "Trio Three" by using some double bass and violin sustained note while experimenting with the other instruments and some other trios are more like experimentation with melodic and chaotic lines played by each of the musicians (As an example you should check "Trio Four"). A must for lovers of spontaneous music.

Favorite tracks: "Trio One"; "Trio Four" and "Trio ten"

Contact: www.emanemdisc.com

REVIEW: AUTUMN CLAN - REQUIEM TO THE SUN

 

AUTUMN CLAN - REQUIEM TO THE SUN (W.A.B. Recs., 2002)

Produced by Boban Milunovic

Recorded at Boom Room Studios

Tracks: 1- New Gothicism; 2- Hollow; 3- Requiem To the Sun; 4- Turnin Away; 5- Dream Sequence; 6- Hate Tunes; 7- Garden of Eden; 8- Abuse Me; 9- Desire; 10- Symphony of Sadness; 11- Mortal; 12- Dissonant Trip; 13- The Lack of Inventive Genius; 14- Through

Here we have a heavy gothic band with intense and dark melodies but also with powerful guitar riffs that makes the songs really hard and contrast with the more calm passages where they use clean guitars and arpeffios. The first thing that strikes you here is the sound of the release that has nothing to envy to the one that bands like for example Anathema have. A key element to Autumn Clan´s music is the voice of their singer and guitarist Jens Hermann who sings in a very ethereal manner but reflecting a lot of anguish in his vocals. The vocal lines and the clean arpeggios contrast with the heavy riffs and I liked a lot the tracks where they are put together such as in the end of "Hollow". There is a lot of feeling of sadness here and I like the way in which this guys reflect it through their music, really dark and powerful.

Favorite tracks: "New Gothicism", "Dream Sequence" and "Abuse Me"

Contact: www.wabrecords.org

REVIEW: ASCENSION - WALKING ON THE PSYCHOPATH

 

ASCENSION - WALKING ON THE PSYCHOPATH (Independent, 2001)

Produced by Ascension

Cover Art by Ascension

Tracks: 1- Into Coppice; 2- Black in Men; 3- Two; 4- Me, the Lunatic; 5- Vertigo; 6- Bloodred Letter Day; 7- Paying the Debt of Nature

Ascension is a death metal band that have the characteristic of using a lot of melodies in their music and a lot of really technical passages. The music on this CD has many breaks and changes and you can listen that this guys are really well rehearsed. There are two types of vocals...one that is more guttural and other that is closer to Kreator´s Mille Petrozza. One thing that I love of this guys is the jazz influence that they have....yes!! they throw jazz lines in all their compositions with clean and distorted guitars and I really like the way it sounds. Also there are many guitar solos which I liked alot because they are done with really good taste and an amazing techncal skills. The bass player also helps to the technical side of Ascension´s music playing excelenet melodic lines that one could imagine in the hands of some fusion or jazz player. Thumbs up for this amazing band and I hope they release their new material soon because I am a fan of them now !! This is one of the CDs of the month

Favorite tracks: All the tracks contained here.

Contact: www.ascension-net.de

REVIEW: ARABESQUE - ARABESQUE

 

ARABESQUE - ARABESQUE (Independent, 2002)

Produced by Arabesque

Cover Art by Arabesque

Tracks: 1- Inner Voice; 2- Last Attempt; 3- Haunted; 4- Instant Daydream

Arabesque is a band that plays what can be defined as progressive hard rock or progressive metal...They have intrincated compositions with excellent musicianship. Many of the arrangements are done by the keyboards and the guy who plays them has a lot of technical skills. There are heavy guitars doing interesting and powerful riffs and many licks that give a lot of strength to the songs. I liked a lot the combination of male and female vocals and I think that Katia Salemi´s ánd Nicole´s vocal range is extremely beautifula nad fits perfectly Arabesque´s songs. The drummer and bassist have a lot of technical skills to play this difficult style with many changes and moods. You can see this through the whole recording where the guys follow the guitars, do arrangements on their own or create intrincated rhyths or simple phrases. A great release.

Favorite tracks: The four contained here are really well devloped musical pieces. And I love Katia and Nicole´s vocals

Contact: www.arabesque-site.com

REVIEW: ANOXIA - DEMO 2002

 

ANOXIA - DEMO 2002 (Independent , 2002)

Produced by Anoxia

Cover art by Anoxia

Tracks: 1- Shaped like a Circle, 2- Without Beauty, 3- Kingdom

This guys form Denmark know exactly which is the best point for mixing heavy riffs with melodies. A great part of this is due to having four independent personalities: a great singer that goes from doing interesting melodies with his voice to doing a Cradle of Filth-like scream (this guys has a great vocal range and knows how to use it); a great guitarist that plays heavy riffs and clean guitar arpeggios (like the ones in the beginning of "Without Beauty"), a bass player with a lot of imagination as you can listen through the three tracks contained here and an imaginative drummer who accentuates in a really good way the songs. Maybe mixing the guitars a little bit louder would add some to the final result but the thing is that this three tracks leave you asking for more Anoxia !!!!

Favorite tracks: The three contained here

Contact: www.anoxia.dk

REVIEW: ANNIHILATOR - CARNIVAL DIABLOS

 

ANNIHILATOR - CARNIVAL DIABLOS (Century Media Records, 2001)

Produced by Jeff Waters

Recorded at Watersound Studios

Cover Art by Joachim Luetke

Tracks: 1- Denied, 2- The Perfect Virus, 3- Battered, 4- Carnival Diablos, 5-Shallow Grave, 6- Time Bomb, 7- The Rush, 8- Insomniac, 9- Liquid Oval, 10- Epic of War, 11- Hunter Killer

Annihilator is back and heavier than ever. Two things add a lot of heaviness to the music: 1- The guitar riffs are more devastating (while technical as always) and faster and they have a bigger sound than in all the previous albums; 2- Joe Comeau´s vocals are really powerful and they make the songs more raw and heavy. The drums sound strangely a bit raw (specially the cymbals and hihat) and this adds also to the heavier result. Annihilator has taken the elments of their first two albums, have modernized and accelerated them and add a much better sound in all the instruments and then they have come with this "Carnival Diablos". I think this is the direction which I like in Annihilator´s music: Their combination of heaviness with melodies and interesting arrangements. A lot of riffs reminded me of eighties thrash metal and I like this element to reappear in Annihilator´s music. Great heavy recording!!!!

Favorite tracks: "Battered", "Time Bomb" and "The Rush"

Contact: www.centurymedia.com  or www.centurymedia.de (Century Media Europe)

REVIEW: ANGEL DUST - OF HUMAN BONDAGE

 

ANGEL DUST - OF HUMAN BONDAGE (Century Media Records, 2002)

Produced by Siggi Bemm and Angel Dust

Recorded at Woodhouse Studios

Cover Art by Gerald Axelrod

Tracks: 1- The Human Bondage; 2- Inhuman; 3- Unreal Soul; 4- Disbeliever; 5- Forever; 6- Unite; 7- Got This Evil; 8- The Cultman; 9- Freedom Awaits; 10- Killer

Here we have the return of Angel Dust after their "Enlighten the Darkness" album. This CD m"OF Human Bondage" is their sixth album (their fourth after their reunion in 1997). Here we see Angel Dust achieving great maturity and showing us their best material up to date. The emphasis on this CD is on the strength and heaviness of the songs. This album shows us the arrival of Richie Wilkinson on guitars replacing Bernd. The guitars are as always fast and furious dropping some power chords in the choruses to meke them more catchy and letting vocalist Dirk Thurisch to introduce his great mid ranged melodies. The sound of the CD is amazing (as it was in their previous album) and here the kmeyboards are clearer than before achieving their climax in tracks like " Inhuman". This CD should be on any metal collection !!

Favorite tracks: All the CD. A great demonstration of heavy power metal the way it should be

Contact: South america: www.centurymedia.com. Europe: www.centurymedia.de

REVIEW: ALIENATION MENTAL - BALL SPOUTER

 

ALIENATION MENTAL - BALL SPOUTER (Khaaranus Prods., 2002)

Produced by Alienation Mental

Recorded at Hostivar Studio

Cover Art by Radim Dvorak

Tracks: 1- The Restricted Cerebral Capacity; 2- Screw; 3- Psychogenes; 4- Crossed Out from the List of the Dead; 5- Children of South; 6- The Scathing Feeling Inside of Me; 7- Blind Alley; 8- One of Infinity; 9- Instru-mental; 10- Apocalyptic Vision of the Future

BRUTALITY!!!!!! Here you have Brutality at full speed and with a guitar sound heavier than hell !!!! But this band uses a lot of elements that are not typical in brutal death metal: to name just a few: odd times signatures in some riffs, bass lines with a clean sound, drums patterns that are not typical of the style (despite using blast beats in many places), interesting and technical guitar solos with really good note placement. Then comes the really good sound that this recording has that remark in a really great manner the achievements that the band has made here. I liked a lot the riffs and specially the breaks where the drums remain alone with the bass playing some solo lines like on "The Restricted Cerebral Capacity". This guys have really a lot to offer to fans of extreme music.

Favorite tracks: "Psychogenes"; "Children of South" and "One of Infinity"

Contact: lolokar@mybox.cz