metalhead gallery

Here we've got another incredibly matched split 7" release from two of the better retro bands spewing out the old school love. Finland's Winterwolf, who released an excellent debut in 2009's Cycle of the Werewolf, have an excellent pedigree which includes Antti Boman of Demilich (known as Abominator here) and Corpse of Deathchain; while Disma, from New Jersey sport several members of the death doom upstarts Funebrarum, and grumbler Craig Fucking Pillard who you may remember from a few Incantation records called Onward to Golgotha and Mortal Throne of Nazarene! In other words, two of the best growlers the genre has ever had, right where they belong, fronting newer acts that deliver upon their 'charms', on a split record with superb cover art...

Unfortunately, each of the band's only brings a single track to the table, and looking at the listing for the forthcoming Disma full-length, it appears "Of a Past Forlorn" will also be present there, so I can't say that this split has an immense, inherent value outside of the collector sect. Both of the artists have some similarities in their mesh of authentic death & doom with the old school, Swedish sprung power in the guitar tone, but they use this to their full advantage. With "Eaters of the Cross", Winterwolf create a dire melodic intro redolent of formative era Entombed, with a ghastly ringing of bells and an extensive sample from the British cult classic The Curse of the Werewolf (1961), though I can't say that the song maintains its quality all that much once they burst into the faster paced material, outside of one good riff in the bridge. Disma's cut features more guttural, resonant vocals, and doomed passages, especially the closer.

I have admittedly heard better from each of them, on the Cycle of the Werewolf full-length and The Vault of Membros demo, but the split choices are a fairly strong showing. I'd have to give Winterwolf credit for that intro, but the Disma tune is stronger overall. The production is powerful and raw in each case, the bands adequately summoning the cavernous credibility so popular in this newer wave of bands. But I reiterate: this is a collector's item, its brevity barely worth putting on your record player to risk any scratch to its surface. A more substantial full length split or even a handful of added tracks would have improved its value exponentially as far as the audience, but instead this is just a limited press item you'd want on display or in your bin of tasty rarities that you might likely never listen to. The songs are certainly decent, but its just not that substantial, and you're better served heading straight for the full-lengths.

Verdict: Indifference [5/10]

http://www.myspace.com/dismadeathmetal
http://www.myspace.com/winterwolfofficial

After shaking free their impulse to produce forgettable renditions of their classic material (dragging it forth unto the 'now') with newer vocalist Tomi Joutsen, Amorphis have returned to what actually matters: composing new songs that best suits the current lineup of the band. Having been well in favor of the last three albums (Eclipse, Silent Waters, and Skyforger), I found myself anticipating this much as I looked forward to each of their new releases in the 90s, but the streak seems to have hit a bump in the road with The Beginning of Times, their latest conceptual piece, and tenth studio full-length. It's hard to believe Amorphis have entered double digit albums and that it's been 15 years since I was salivating over Elegy and Tales from the Thousand Lakes, but the band has come a long way, both evolutionarily and de-evolutionarily.

To be clear, The Beginning of Times is not a disappointment of the caliber that Pasi Koskinen's swansong Far From the Sun was in 2003. The general ingredients of Skyforger are firm in place, between Joutsen's balanced singing and growling and the heightened sense for melody that the band have embarked on since the mid-90s. Unfortunately, where albums like Elegy and Skyforger wrought such melodies into glorious, potent compositions, those of this album seem to simply sail along, never offensive or well structured enough to glean the ear's affection beyond a handful of spins. Often the songs become a little too fruity or happy, like "Song of the Sage" or the vapid "Mermaid", in which both Tomi's cleans and the female guest vocals seem rather lame, and the music returns to the Tuonela era with less than astounding results. There are a few too many 'soothing' songs, like "You I Need" and "Reformation" which don't really add up to the engrossing experiences the band were churning out in the past ("My Kantele" and so forth).

On the other hand, there are some goodies lurking in the album's depths. "Beginning of Time" feels like an Elegy natural, with loads of melodic bombast in the backing vocal arches and the general thrust of the thundering rhythms into the glorious, growled chorus above the organs. "Escape" and "Crack in a Stone" are two of the most catchy songs amidst the 54+ minute length, and I only wish they'd been thrust up towards the fore in place of "Battle for Light", which isn't as compelling. The production here is on par with the past few efforts, wonderfully capturing the varied instrumentation and dynamics of crushing aggression and blissful, accessible melody so beloved in the band's current audience. Lots of synthesizer, piano, clean guitar passages, and multiple vocal styles provide for an appreciable, kinetic backdrop, and they treat their lyrics and history with the love of natural born sons, looking backward to propel forward. Ultimately, this is least impressive album with Joutsen at the helm, but it's nothing to scoff at, and earns a few needed points late in the game to squeak by.

Verdict: Win [7.25/10] (echoes and tones I understand)

http://amorphis.net/

Back for seconds after their solid if unremarkable Cultus Nex, Finns Sacrilegious Impalement represent the widespread devotion to the traditional black metal aesthetic just as well as any hopefuls out there in the deep underground. Drawn from equal parts influence of all of the major Scandinavian scenes (you'll hear some Swedish and Norse appeal in addition to the Finnish strains of a Barathrum or Horna), they're also well enough versed in variation that they don't bore the listener to tears. Proficient musicianship, a strong presence in front man Hellwind Inferion's dominant, hoarse delivery, lyrics of sadness, sacrilege and isolation, and a brazen production which takes the listener head on through its trials and torments.

So why doesn't II - Exalted Spectres bowl me over? This is simply just another of those cases of having been done before, in particular the band's faster fare ("Blessed to Resist", "Wolves of the Black Moon"), which I am hard pressed to distinguish from hundreds of other bands along the same general lines. Now, that's both a strength AND a weakness. The Finns do not claim to be reinventing the wheel, simply driving it into the cracked, burning pavement of the Abyss until it is destroyed. You know what you're getting intro (a song unto itself) simmers into existence at a mid paced gait, but once "Blessed to Resist" hammers forth, the album seems to immediately elevate in derivation, rapid and rushed, without any inherent intrigue. To be fair to the band, they do mix things up deeper into the track list. "Aletheia" is a tranquil menace delivered through sequences of pensive, clean guitars, and "Grand Funeral Convoy" also takes its time with the listener rather than blasting forth towards monotony.

Even these diversions, however, do not necessarily grab the attention front and center. Exalted Spectres is passable background noise, competent enough that I'd never write Sacrilegious Impalement off entirely, but the band's production, tone and aggression easily trump their ability at songwriting. Most of the individual riffs are drawn from the well of familiarity, and thus the layered, punishing mood of the album only gets them so far. In the end, I feel like I took away even less than I did from Cultus Nex. That wasn't a great disc itself, but the writing was slightly stronger. If you enjoy your black metal with raw but efficient studio values and a firm grasp on dynamic contrasts, in the vein of say, De Mysteriis dom Sathanas, then give this a try, but this sophomore is not about to turn many heads or horns in the band's direction.

Verdict: Indifference [6.5/10]

http://www.myspace.com/sacrilegiousimpalement

Another entrant into the atmospheric death metal derby, Finland's Desolate Shrine seek to match wits and a crushing miasma with one of them most monolithic, harrowing tones I've heard yet. This is sheer 90s gristle cast in a vaulted construct of pain. Think of the slow, desolate slog of Bolt Thrower colliding with the simmering Swedish groove and tone of Entombed or Dismember, and then add two vocalists, one with the expected guttural tone and another with a slightly higher pitch. A bruised and bloody duo howling from the cavernous, decrepit depths of the intense guitar mix, the brute and warlike drumming. I had initially misled myself to believe this would be more of a death/doom outing, due to the title, band name and cover art, but it's far more likely to appeal to fans of stuff like Vasaeleth, Denial, and Innumerable Forms.

That said, Tenebrous Towers does not quite sound like any of the above. It's almost uplifting, the curvature of the crashing guitar rhythms elevated towards the rafters of its subterranean habitat. Tracks like "Mouths of Baal" and "Born to Lose One's Way" are both expressive and vibrant enough to throw one off balance, though the band also has no problem hammering out faster, aggressive material like "Chaos and Wrath" or the burgeoning "Burning Devotion". They even take it down a notch for the most substantial piece on the album, "The Brightest Night", a spacious (8+ minutes) elegy which inevitably erupts into violent tumult. But the most catchy tune on the album is the opener, "The Smell of Blood and Iron", with a very Entombed like underpinning rhythm morphed into layers of rust and lichen peeling, savage melodies.

On the downside, not all of what Desolate Shrine are penning necessarily sticks to the ear, thus it becomes more of a work of resonance than intricacy, a loud titan beneath the earth, afraid to subside as it shifts the landscape about it, but an earthquake that one is likely to forget before too long. Still, if you're interested in wallowing in such an atmosphere, Tenebrous Towers is a good place to start, a port of call where old school Swedish and Finnish influences gather and interbreed, then drill their way into the spaces below.

Verdict: Win [7/10]

http://www.facebook.com/desolateshrine

It's exciting to experience such a nigh endless wave of old school death metal approbation when the field had seemed so long cashed in and abandoned to the wanking modernity of the brutal tech institute, and Finland's Gorephilia are just another of those many reasons to return to the cycle. My first guess would have been that this band would resurrect the sounds of their forebears in Adramelech, Convulse, Demigod and Demilich, but what manifests is a brute mongering of early Asphyx, Grave, Incantation and perhaps a pinch of Dutch Pestilence (Consuming Impulse era). In particular, vocalist Henu sounds like a deeper, neanderthal approximation of Martin van Drunen's tone, and his presence above the dour melodies and bludgeoning undertow of mutes and chords lends this EP an enormous atmosphere.

Much of the Ascend to Chaos material moves at a crawl; but a kinetic, tactile crawl through which the double bass and grooves remain rampant while betwixt spikes of descending, morbid acceleration that conjure the creepiness of early 90s melodic scrawl. Once the intro passes, you're beaten with three great tracks in a row: the surefooted, lurching "Death, Chaos, Doom", warlike "Reaching the Divine End" and the more frenetic "Give In to Madness". Also of note is the nearly eight minute closer, "Tower of Bones" which channels the most variety in the lineup, from downcast death/doom to a chugging momentum. The title track is a caustic, dark ambient trip which places the listener squarely in the mood for such sepulchral erudition, so the EP is rather well rounded in all.

I won't say it's perfect, because not all of the writing is easily retained in the memory, and though it feels dark and sincere, it's obviously operating heavily within the plowed out landscape of its influences. Yet Gorephilia do well to mix it up between the primacy of the vocals and grooves, and the slicing, depressive miasma of the melodies, so you feel that same freakish authenticity you might have once felt for albums like Left Hand Path, Consuming Impulse, Nespithe, and so forth. Certainly worth a listen for every crypt hugger who desires death metal from where it belongs, beneath the soil of the grave; cut off from the airy span of the surface world.

Verdict: Win [7.75/10]

http://www.gorephilia.com/

When it rains blood, it floods viscera, and such could be said for the initiative of Dark Descend records in snapping up a pair of promising Finnish elite to help usher forth the tsunami of guts inherent in the exploration of classical death metal components. Corpsessed are a bit more rugged and raw than the other acquisition, Gorephilia, and they draw more directly from their Finnish predecessors like Demigod and Demilich, though one can also distinctly hear the influence of the Swedes Entombed and Grave, and a bit of the old, pervasive Incantation depth. The Dagger & The Chalice EP is their first official output, though the members have been involved in other obscure productions prior to this.

Like a lot of the old school crop, Corpsessed open with a ghastly intro that draws the listener directly into a sluggish, subterranean mood, and they do it with tortured, funeral guitars and resonant growls that echo off the roof of melodic feedback as the drums slowly escalate into a double bass hammering. A good setup, and "Crypt Infester" follows with a slightly chaotic mesh of roiling grooves that seem an unholy collaboration of Entombed, Demilich & Disharmonic Orchestra between bursts of harrowing acceleration. It's decent, but much better are the blunt and unforgiving "Nameless Cult" or the dense, fibrous menace of "Altar of Worms". I wasn't so much into "Massgrave", I found its central, swaggering groove dull by comparison to the others, but the Finns compensate with the closer, the curious title track, ominous ambiance morphed into a grating, brutal death clamor.

Easily, this will be another band that sates the tastes of those enamored to the new wave of old. Fancy the cavernous criteria of Innumerable Forms, Evangelist, Vasaeleth, Gorephilia, Sonne Adam or any number of modern translations of the too-soon forgotten sphere that was atmospheric death in the 90s? Then I'm sure you are not going to find much disappointment with The Dagger & the Chalice. The production is immense and oppressive, the majority of the songs deliver enough dynamic punishment to never grow tired. About the only thing lacking here would be the truly memorable riffs it takes to thrust death metal into infinity, but on atmosphere alone it succeeds.

Verdict: Win [7.25/10]

http://www.myspace.com/corpsessed

Norther might possess all the substance of a shopping spree at your local brand name clothing boutique, but I've certainly found them to be adequate songwriters for a number of their past albums. The Finns have always been compared to their countrymen Children of Bodom and Kalmah, or the Swedes Soilwork for good reason: they use the same frenetic, melodic pacing and excess of synthesizers as a central instrument. To that effect, Circle Regenerated, their sixth album is no different than what they've been writing on the past few albums Till Death Unites Us and N, both of which were well developed, accessible and admittedly 'bubblegum' flavored even in comparison to the earlier, heavier efforts.

Think Children of Bodom with more clean, pop oriented chorus sequences. If such a prospect terrifies you, then you will spit upon the ground Norther so proudly stride upon. Otherwise, if you're a fan of the past few records from Soilwork or Omnium Gatherum, you'll likely feel right at home with Circle Regenerated. It's not really all that good, in part to the aforementioned cleaner vocals which sound extraneous and unnecessary. Take the opener "Through It All", an energetic offering with a steady escalation towards a snarled climax that simply does not need the following clean vocals. Much of the depth here is created through the relationship of the keys and the guitars, the latter of which alternate between progressive thrash, chugging and your basic melodic death chords, and such traits are solid throughout the album: "Some Day", "We Do Not Care", and in the strident thrust of "Break Myself Away".

The problem here is that the band confine all notions of possible creativity to these two instruments, and even then we've heard this album constantly from Finland for years now. An obvious better example would be the latest Children of Bodom, which fires on similar cylinders to this but is slightly more successful at inspiring the listener's fingers to hit the repeat button. Norther otherwise seems devoid of anything interesting to say. You needn't even glance beyond the song titles: "Believe"? "Falling"? "Some Day"? "Truth"? "The Hate I Bear"? carry all the emotional appeal of a gaggle of preschoolers fighting over a piece of apple pie at recess. Stop being so goddamn laconic, and offer us a framework we might find compelling. No layers to peel away. Too much on the sleeve. It wasn't such an obstruction when the music was better, but six albums deep, and you should have more to say than this candy coated gibberish... Lady Gaga has a greater capacity for prose.

I hate to sound so harsh on Norther. Their musical abilities are adequate (if not novel), but it would be nice if they could flex their virile energies into more than just the ducking and weaving of the melodies. The previous album N had a similar, simplistic aesthetic delivery (lyrics and titles included), but there were a few outrageously fun tracks there that compensated. Here, despite the fervor with with several members have applied themselves, the songs were very difficult to distinguish even after numerous plays through, and ultimately it comes off as their least impressive effort to date.

Verdict: Indifference [6/10]

http://www.norther.net/

Finland's Rainroom occupies a rather unique niche in doom metal, but then, most of the artists on the Firebox roster do. Performing a fusion of progressive rock, doom and death through extensive compositions between 7-10 minutes in length, they remind me of an alternative Opeth with traces of mid-t0-late 90s Katatonia. There is a talent here for extrapolating simplistic rhythms into hypnotic, solemn patterns, and the Finns are good at exploring the chords and notes they select. Married with an intriguing steampunk aesthetic (in the cover art, titles, and lyrics), And the Other That Was a Machine is a clear step up in curiosity and content over the band's 2006 self-released debut Netherself, so they've put the intervening half decade to good enough use.

There are but five tracks on this release, totaling about 44 minutes, so in this way too it reminds me of earlier Opeth efforts like Morningrise, though Rainroom are replacing the melancholic, naturalist motif with an organic, machine-like quality riven through the guitar tone and the mood captured with even their most primal of chord streams (akin to Brave Murder Day). It's a catchy enough practice, in particular through the earlier cuts "...yeah, Many Machines" and "Abort Engine", but I did feel like the band often struggled with bringing the tracks to the proper level of resonant, emotional of climax. Thus, they tend to feel like very level fields of expression. But there are some cool touches here, like the music box atmosphere of the "Loew Mechanism" intro that cedes into jarring, dark fabric grooving, or the psychedelic, clean wisps of guitar which cut into "Steam Conjecture".

The closer is a taut evocation of sparse longing, "Forms and Facades (or a Dream of an Omniscient Automaton)" which alternates between rhythmic chugging and ringing melodies to create an engrossing, fragmented effect beneath JP Eloranta's growls, like some median between Opeth and Perfect Symmetry-period Fates Warning. Ultimately, while I was impressed by the visuals that the concept of this album brings to mind, and how the musical pallor provides an organic backdrop for the steam-driven wonders of the imagination, I felt like a few of the songs did drag their feet for a few minutes of excess, with little interesting to occur until the inevitable shifts in tempo. Rainroom are a dynamic act, but there could certainly be some more variation applied to this same conceptual space, with almost limitless results. If the band were to continue along this path of inquiry with more memorable, manageable music, then we'd be witness to something unique and fascinating. This sophomore album is worth hearing, but it doesn't always hold up to its promise.

Verdict: Win [7/10]

http://www.myspace.com/rainroomband

Genre: Black Metal
Info: mp3, 320 kbps
Label: Hammer Of Hate
Release Date: February 8th
Country: Finland
Behexen - My Soul For His Glory (2008)

01. Let The Horror And Chaos Come
02. Born In The Serpent Of The Abyss
03. Demonic Fleshtemple
04. O.O.O.
05. Cathedral Of The Ultimate Void
06. My Soul For His Glory
07. And All Believers Shall Be Damned
08. My Stigmas Bleeding Black

Download @ Mediafire
Behexen @ Myspace

Taken from: thecoldblackmetal.blogspot.com