This album is pretty cool on the first few tracks, but then it starts to feel like it is not going anywhere. Some parts of the album just do not feel like they’re going far enough into the creative potential that I think this band has. They’re capable of writing cool riffs, and they have an ability to write catchy choruses, but they’re not going far enough to break the mold. Something is missing.
The band definitely draws a comparison to lot of respected influences in the metal community. Guitarist Brett Schlagel definitely has a Demonaz (Immortal) thing going on, and the vocalist Tim Green certainly can conjure some powerful screeching death metal vocals on command. Unfortunately the drumming is soulless, and although their DIY effort to put out the album is admirable the mix is not tremendously impressive. Lyrically they’re not entirely inspiring, but then again this could be said for a lot of metal bands.
Brett Schlagel is the key to this band. His breakneck riffs and ability to play all over the neck are really what will get you through all seven tracks. I think that with the right motivation the rest of this band will be able to catch up and write a really solid follow up.
INTOLERANCE. MEANS. WAAAAAAAAAAAAR!!! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRHRHHOOOOH! Woah. Nervosa slays. I was just about to get a cup of coffee before I threw this on, but I think their new album Agony has served a better purpose by pepping me up with a South American export that may surpass kawa beans; of course the export I speak of is death thrash.
Nervosa are among the best thrash metal bands you’ll find. As my New Noise Magazine comrade Nicholas Senior once said of High On Fire, “This isn’t tofu metal. This is 200 lb pig roast metal.” Could your appetite possibly be more enticed by anything than three thrash metal women burning a pig somewhere in Brazil? Hold that thought for a moment before we carry on.
Oh man those riffs… They’re crushing the divine. Each track sounds like an anti-matter bomb going off in my room. Not only are Nervosa spewing killer crunching metal rhythms, but they’re delivering the goods with lyrics that deal some serious spite to the injustice of our world. Corruption and violence are about as synonymous with Brazil as Christ The Redeemer and soccer are, and that frantic environment may have been a wicked inspiration on this album. That’s just a guess. For real though, the apocalypse seems to be happening everywhere these days, and Nervosa’s lyrics can apply to a lot of experiences anywhere on Earth.
Agony is going to take several listens to appreciate. It’s a gem that sounds like it has been dug up from beneath the remains of 1989 – and from Beneath The Remains. If nothing else, Prika Amaral’s ear slicing solos and the heavy metal thunder foot of drummer Pitchu Ferraz are going to utterly shock the lethargy out of you, but then there’s something special in vocalist and bass player Fernanda Lira. This is not a fantasy. Fernanda is real.
After decimating my ear drums with destructive thrash for forty seven minutes, the lovely ladies of Nervosa drop the bomb with an incredible bluesy track called “Wayfarer,” and the vocal solo at the very end comes from beyond the realms of mortal men. It’s like some Nina Simone type shit. That’s the sign of real artistic talent. They’re emerging on their second LP not just as a formidable force in metal, but they’re pounding their boots in the dirt with a declaration – they’re really fucking good. This is the most powerful speed metal band out right now. Agony sounds like it is going to be one of the best if not the best speed metal release of 2016.
“Back From The Dead” is an appropriate title for the first song off of the new Assassin album. It’s been just about five years since the band released anything of note. Breaking The Silence was an unfocused onslaught, and I think there were some huge lessons to learn as the band suffered the fall out of that album. Unfortunately there are still some problems that haven’t been worked out yet on this new release.
Assassin have the misfortune of living in their own shadow, and it is a big terrifying shadow in the halls of old school thrash legends. The Upcoming Terror is often regarded as a masterpiece and a gem among old school German thrash metal albums, but it is thirty years old now, so it’s time for the remains of this cult legendary outfit to show they’re still in tank 410. For those not in on the reference, check the album cover of their debut. Crushing over everything in their way is what Assassin tries to do on Combat Cathedral, and they hold nothing back when glorifying the old days as they push through. Unfortunately Assassin running on the fuel that they are Assassin isn't going to raise my eyebrows when bands like Nervosa are out there tearing their way through everything in sight, so these old timers have to really show that they still have something to prove. So do they? They are keeping up, yes, but I don’t think they’re slaughtering fields of elder gods here.
The heaviness on this album can be fucking clutch from time to time, but it can also be really overbearing in a sense that it takes away from the quality of their music. It’s just a wall of distortion and sound that is so fucking thick that it unfortunately robs from the fact that the guitarists Scholi and Micha are really skilled guitar players. Also what is up with these drums? I mean the drummer is great, but who decided to make Burn sound like he is dribbling a basketball over a trash can lid for an hour?
Assassin are killer. Their music is groovy as fuck. Interstellar Experience and The Upcoming Terror are fantastic albums that shall never be robbed of their glory, and Interstellar Experience especially showed that this band is just out of this world. This band was giving Kreator a run for their money in 1988. What happened? I want to hear a new Assassin album that sounds like someone cares about this band, but the production and songwriting on Combat Cathedral sucks the life out of my hopes and expectations. There are times when it is really good, like on the intro to “Serpent of Fear,” it’s just perfect – but then it goes off of a cliff less than two minutes into the song. On another note, classic vocalist Robert Gonella is gone, and Ingo Bajonczak isn’t really shining too brightly here. Okay he’s not shining at all. It’s not his fault either. He’s just stuck in this really dry cardboard cutout of that really cool speed metal band Assassin. You know it's a nice cardboard cut out, but it's not really necessary, and you don't have to take it with you anywhere. 410 is still running, but she’s not running at the “Speed Of Light” anymore.
The new Bat is a terrorizer. Conjured from an acidic pool of groovy riffs, combining talents from Municipal Waste, Cannabis Corpse, and Blunt Force Trauma, Ryan Waste leads an all out assault with his new school thrash band on their first full length LP. From first track to last, Wings of Chains is complete with 12 face ripping ragers.
Although this is their first full length, Bat have had plenty of time to perfect their craft. Since their demo in 2013, Bat have been carving their niche into the blackened speed genre.
Wings of Chains is a short album, clocking in at just under a half hour, but that's the way these Richmond speed metal freaks would prefer it. It's in and out, and leaves you wanting more.
Dark Funeral Where Shadows Forever Reign (Century Media)
Unleashed from the cosmic nether comes the new and highly anticipated Dark Funeral album Where Shadows Forever Reign.
A legacy in black metal as genuine and mighty as Dark Funeral's is difficult to achieve. In a genre that often prides itself on being unpopular, and usually loses itself within a heap of stereotypes, Dark Funeral have burned their way to the top of extreme metal without being fake - ever.
Where Shadows Forever Reign is a thick cloud of terror pushing against the listener. The fear is real. Something terrible is happening in the atmosphere, and Dark Funeral are once again on top of it. The thickness comes from an incredibly produced sound made over at Dugout Studios in Sweden. The primal mood of a true black metal album was not betrayed by the attentive ears of Lord Ahriman and producer Daniel Bergstrand (In Flames, Behemoth, Dimmu Borgir). Lord Ahriman and Chaq Mol bury the listener in an unrelenting cadence of tortured riffs that dance around the blistering drumming of Dominator, while singer Heljarmadr recites the prophetic lyrics of eternal night through nine tracks of elite black metal.
Dark Funeral fans have waited years for this album, and the band has answered their summoning call with one of their finest albums in Where Darkness Forever Reign.
Unholy goat blasphemy, Batman, this album rapes angels.
For new fans and old fans alike, the re-release of Sadismo promises power riffs drunk with the power of an ancient abyss. The album was out of print for a while, but Power From Hell's 2007 release has come back to haunt you with Brazilian blackened thrash metal, thanks to Hells Headbangers. Power From Hell went full speed to please your hessian ears on album number two. Sadismo is evil leather metal done right. You could pause this album, but that would be no fun. Play it straight through, 11 tracks of the crazy shit. Stripped down to the core of blackened speed metal's ethos, Power From Hell deliver no bullshit. It's time to go back and appreciate the hell out of this.
This shit makes me feel like I am about to get run over by a 1000 elephants. Just as catastrophe is about to strike, I am dragged down into some Lovecraftian depiction of Nyarlathotep's chaos, and each note sounds like I am going to stabbed by a spear.
This is Immortal Bird.
This album is a culmination of so many good trends that have happened in metal through many decades. Empress/Abscess sounds like Megadeth’s Rust In Peace and Eyehategod’s Take As Needed For Pain weremixed together with eight or nine brilliant death metal albums in a bizarre dark matter ritual that could only happen somewhere you don’t want to be very long. Perhaps that’s why this album only lasts a half hour long. I mean the conclusion is fucking creepy. These musical geniuses leave you off with a really eerie dissonance that belongs somewhere in the I Don’t Think I’m Alone In This Room… category of shock factor. After a relentless melodic groove technical death orgy traumatized my third eye, I only want to think that maybe something is watching me. Thanks Immortal Bird.
Let’s talk about the vocalist, Rae. Now on one hand some readers are going to say it doesn’t matter that she’s a woman, because the music takes precedence, but on the other hand someone is going to say, well you should have mentioned that the singer is a woman and musical genius. Well alright – yes, it’s true, the lead singer is a ferocious she wolf, and an incredibly talented one at that. Rae is also a fucking tempest on the kit, but she’s diverted her focus away from drums to center on her viscous growls and screams on Empress. Immortal Bird are gifted with some captivating lyrics as well, and it only goes to show that death metal is a thinking man’s genre, or a thinking woman’s.
Let’s not overlook the hard work that went into this album either. Layers and layers of cool shit emerge from the murky labyrinth of Empress/Abscess.
I am glad there is no eternity I sleep in the hope that shadows will find me All I want is quiet A place to wait it out Until the demise of the earth in volcanic ash Or blankets of ice
Detroit has always been a place where the vibe is dangerous, and the rock is raw. It comes as no surprise then that Detroit’s latest contribution to thrash & roll is a serious and energetic band called Nuke. Nuke could take their name from a lot of things, like the fictional drug in the RoboCop film, or it could be a reference to the most powerful weapon on the planet. Either way they do not come up short of my expectations. A band named Nuke has to be cool, and Nuke certainly is a blast that you can’t contain.
Slated for release on July 22nd, Nuke promise to deliver a megaton destroyer with their debut album. The band keeps their brand of thrash mania fresh with some old school Maiden inspired riffs and melodies. This is really good music reminiscent of the old days without actually trying too hard to be an old days band. It’s just a true genuine thrash group with a gritty back beat and fire in their veins. The songs inspire a lot of energy, and I can’t help but imagine that their shows are off of the wall.
