NVRVD – Coma EP

How are your lists of candidates for release of the year going? There have been already, though barely touching half way into 2013, plenty of impressive declarations and adding further spice to the pot we have the exceptional new EP from German band NVRVD (Never Void). The six track release is a tempest of refreshing invention, invigorating imagination, and sadistic sonic manipulation brought in one expansive and startling storm of excellence. Released via Hummus Records, Coma takes the already impressive sound first unleashed on their previous trio of albums and the outstanding split release EP with Coilguns last year, and takes it to another plateau of eclectic fascination and senses altering mastery.

Since forming in 2004, the Minden/ Bielefeld trio of bassist and vocalist Stefan Braunschmidt, guitarist and vocalist Christian Braunschmidt, and drummer Lukas Heier, have continued to make striking marks on noise driven invention, their loose and inventive blend of post metal and hardcore never standing still or in the same place two tracks running as evidence on Coma, let alone release by release. Each song is an adventure, a dive into distinct and invasive realms which take the listener on a journey into the heart of the piece and their own darkened thoughts. The EP is the band at its most potent and expressive, the tracks making up its ferocious yet welcoming toxicity insatiably contagious and breathtakingly exhilarating.

Coma was worked on in a sparsely populated area in Northern Germany called Oberohe, a place helping to sculpt the dark atmosphere of the release through its loneliness and unobtrusive presence. Opening song also called Oberohe, is easy evidence of that influence and inspiration, its near haunting and desolate approaching atmosphere and dark emotive ambience an enveloping heavy embrace, the rich texture of the breath of the song as compelling and intensive as the following sonic tempest of doom laded oppressiveness. Sucked into its heady embrace the track then grips the element of surprise and rips a fissure in the settled depths with a carnivorous assault and senses chewing shot of adrenaline though still within the intense weight of the exhausting atmosphere.

The following Impartial Eyes wastes no time in flying at the ear in a fury of punk fuelled hardcore spite, rhythms flaying at flesh like a dervish and riffs spiralling like a sonic tornado over the landscape of the enthralling invention. The track brawls and riots upon and with the senses, igniting passions into a recruitment of wholehearted venom seeping involvement with equally contagious enterprise.

As third track We Are stands roaring into the ear, its face millimetres from the senses with predatory bass provocation unrelenting in its rapacious persuasion and the guitars conjuring a sonic web of intrigue and merciless temptation, the EP has already unleashed an expanse of diversity and ingenuity which those only aware of their appearance of the split will be possibly not expecting, as impressive as the tracks from the band upon that were. The song is a raw and abrasion coated slab of instinctive and invidious rock ‘n’ roll, a bestial fury which traps the essences of metal, punk, and noise for its own divisive ends  whilst creating an irresistible blackened confrontation.

An Echo To Your Unbeliefs dips into the misshapen dark atmospheric depths which were first revelled in with the opening track, the short instrumental guiding the listener into the unsympathetic turmoil and sheer venomous glory of No Heaven. A vicious maelstrom of seductively intimidating and again insatiably varied aural violence, the track is a mesmeric and destructive treat which is direct and uncompromising yet continually shifting and filling the ear with evolution within again barely over two minutes of abusive alchemy.

Final song instrumental Niederohe leaves a hunger for much more the only overriding emotion, its teasing melodic bass beckoning alongside an equally tempting scurrying of riffs bringing the ear into the clutches of further predatory sonic enticement, its harsh beauty sirenesque in sound and touch. It is the perfect enthralling end to an impossibly impressive release which sets NVRVD onto yet another plateau. They are in many ways a mix of Dillinger Escape Plan, Coilguns, and Converge, but equally not meaning only an ear to sound encounter can represent their sound.

Released as a 12’’ Vinyl and as a handmade digipack, Oberhoe is a must have/should have release.

https://www.facebook.com/NVRVD

10/10

RingMaster 03/06/2013

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

Listen to the best independent music and artists on The RingMaster Review Radio Show and The Bone Orchard from

http://www.audioburger.com

 

Nails – Abandon All Life

   

    There is nothing at all comfortable about the new sonic scourge from Californians Nails, in either listening to its primal rage or in its furnace borne construction, but the rewards and intrusive pleasure reaped from its caustic presence far easily outweighs any pain suffered. Brawling with ten tracks at just over seventeen minutes combined, Abandon All Life is a ravenously vicious express train of grind and hardcore soaked in a death metal malevolence, a record with a sonic dexterity which sculpts varied textures and sounds into a multi-levelled tsunami of violent passion and destructive attitude.

Recorded with Kurt Ballou of Converge, the Southern Lord released album follows up the acclaimed debut full length Unsilent Death with a similar intent but a further honed venom and craft from the quartet of vocalist/guitarist Todd Jones, guitarist Saba, drummer Taylor Young (Crematourim), and bassist John Gianelli (Fell To Low). It gives no respite or mercy just drives its howling anger and pissed off breath with a revengeful malicious intensity and sonic blistering which sears the senses long before notes place their lethal hands on the ear. Strike a match whilst listening to the album and it would be no surprise to see the world go up in flames such the vitriolic fumes given offer by this exceptional raw release.

Opener In Exodus takes a mere scorch of sonics before chewing on the ear with rabid riffs and spiteful rhythmic provocation, all coming together to explode into a pungent ferocity of impassioned toxicity. There is no respite from its brief but corrosive maelstrom which transfers seamlessly into the following Tyrant. The second song snarls and brawls like the first but incites its storm bred climax with a rhythmic build up which is as infectious as it is the devious portal into the closing savagery. The drums cage and abuse the senses with villainous expertise whilst the bass offers a carnal presence which equally seduces and ravages. Their union is bestial adding the darkest shadows to the burning sonic rage of the guitars and the equally mordant vocal squalls of Jones.

There is an open diversity within the air expelling surface of the songs with God’s Cold Hands one of the keenest and most compelling examples. The outstanding track is as abrasive and sonically torrential as any song on the album but underlines it with a barbed groove which erodes the senses with an understated yet siren like potency. The track savages the senses in its jaw, thrashing them from side to side but then coats them in a sludge/doom prowl of sound to further excite and captivate before leading to a final toxic crescendo. The invention continues with Wide Open Wound, a predatory crawl of blackened sludge veined with exhausting punk spite and acerbic chugging metallic borne riffs. The song chews and growls with a hateful passion yet invigorates the fight and inspiration to stand defiant, as does the album as a whole across its biting tracks.

The following merciless title track with its barbaric rhythms and volcanic emotive fire, the sadistic and irresistible Pariah, and Cry Wolf all exhaust and vaporize the air around them, the latter of the three mutilating synapses with a ferociousness which can only be classed as sonic assassination. Their contagious violence hands over to the closing might of Suum Cuique, a track which incorporates all the qualities which came before into one lasting ruinous confrontation with a slight bedlamic nature to its satanic mastery.

Abandon All Life is an album which defies the expectations and anticipation set in place from the previous album to offer a violation beyond not only what Nails brought before but most of the efforts of their fellow sonic conspirators.

http://abandonalllife.com/

8.5/10

RingMaster 04/04/2013

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

Listen to the best independent music and artists on The RingMaster Review Radio Show and The Bone Orchard from

http://www.audioburger.com

Family: Portrait

With more insatiable grooves and curves than Megan Fox, Portrait the debut album from Brooklyn metalers Family, is a rich and expansive onslaught of intense energies and climactic melodic pinnacles. As mesmeric as it is vindictive and as oppressively heavy as it is finely crafted, the album is a towering slab of impressive invention and unique adventure. It is at times brutal and in others hypnotically seductive but always a bruising and incendiary compulsion. Sucking the best essences of anything from heavy to progressive metal and doom/sludge to classic rock, Family twist it into their own crushing vehemence, an original corruption which corrupts the senses as deeply as it ignites their passion. It is a release which is felt as well as heard, thoughts and emotions dragged eagerly into the mix.

Portrait finds guitarist and primary songwriter Steven Gordon and bassist/vocalist Kurtis Lee Applegate alongside drummer Phil Sangiacomo and guitarist Owen Burley, though the last pair have since left to be replaced by Jody Smith and Josh Lozano respectively. It is an album themed by the story of a dysfunctional family that develops supernatural powers, a tale as intriguing as the ever caustic grooves and barbed hooks which litter the songs. Engineered and mixed by Justin Mantooth and mastered by Alan Douches, the release also sees a guest appearance from guitarist John Lamacchia (Candiria, JulieChristmas, Spylacopa, Crooked Man) on the track Daddy Wronglegs. It is an album which once it has its abrasive and sultry progressive claws in will not go away, either whilst in its company or after the engagement, with certainly the hypnotic melodic grooves and sharp irresistible hooks making numerous returns in thought and imagination.

The opening distant drum brews and guitar scrapes which announce the opener Bridge & Tunnel, fires up interest but it is when the track lets loose an undulating groove and accompanying bass growl directly in the ear that the capture is fully made. With slight stoner whispers and an increasing squeeze of sonically carved manipulations the track writhes and fingers the passions like a horny teenager, no sense of delicacy or restraint. The coarse scathing vocals only add to the senses stripping riffs and harmonic disruptions whilst leading to even deeper approval.

Daddy Wronglegs and Bopsky next leave their individual scarring, the first an ever shifting doom darkened hardcore rub which seeps through every pore with tar like intensity speared by crunching bites incendiary melodic rages, and the second a dramatic series of climatic builds and challenging sonic scenarios. Both songs intrigue and incite the imagination musically and lyrically, the developing heart of the story and its emotion as engrossing as the sumptuous weaves which the band intersperse within the flattening energy. It has to be said the likes of TV show Heroes and Misfits as well as numerous other superhero exploits were never this intrusively infectious, then they never had the shadows and startling corrosive breath which Portrait envelops with.

Arguably the album gets better as it progresses, the likes of the perpetually shifting Illegal Women, the alternately ferocious and deliciously captivating Delphonika, and the magnetic guitar lure that is The Wonder Years, just triggering further realms of invention and its lustful acceptance. Portrait is an album which words do not quite do justice to. The masterful structure of sound and composition as well as the balance between primal violence and the revolving unpredictable flow of multi faceted imagination and sounds just immense. At times the songs have a feel of improvisation, or rather the track just evolves instinctively making moments where classic guitar solos merge into harsh noise conjurations or stoner/southern aural croons stand side by side with erosive and rabid malevolence, so exhilarating.

Completed by the again excellent tracks Othermother and Exploding Baby, the album is a colossal confrontation which only rewards in deep pleasure and satisfaction. If the likes of Led Zeppelin, Unsane, Mastodon, Down, Black Tusk, and even Converge do it for you, then Family has plenty for you in Portrait.

www.familyslays.com

RingMaster 30/10/2012

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

 

Overthrow: Adjust to Darkness

Fusing an abrasive mesh of punk and metal, Norwegian band Overthrow unleash their impressive debut album Adjust to Darkness, a release which sparks plenty of positive and enthused reactions to its uncompromising and accomplished sounds. It is an album which feels heavily inspired by fellow countrymen Kvelertak but attempts to stir its own distinct journey. Whether it is successful in that is arguable but certainly it does not fail in providing a pleasing and satisfying storm of aggression and passion. There is a thrash driven aspect to the sound alongside the hardcore punk breath which opens up an invention to ensure it is an album which steps aside and to the fore of most other similarly fuelled releases.

Overthrow formed in 2007 and built a strong and keen fan base over the subsequent years. Last year they released a pair of demos in Octoskulls and Sleeplessness Awaits with both receiving impressive responses in not only their homeland but also internationally. Renowned for their adrenaline fired live performances the band have shared stages with the likes of In Flames, Clutch, Kvelertak, Cancer Bats and Valient Thorr as well as opening the main stage for Lamb of God at the Hove festival, all to great acclaim. Released through Indie Recordings, Adjust To Darkness is the next step in what one can only see as a certain wider recognition, its Matt Bayles (Mastodon, Purified in Blood, Botch, Isis) mixed sounds an easy and riotous engagement impossible to ignore.

The title track opens up the release and immediately tells you all you need to know about Overthrow, an energetic uncompromising rock n roll band with precise intent and matching skills. The track barges through the ear with muscles pulsing and sharp incisive guitar work to leave one short of breath and energised emotionally and physically. The following Come Thunder rises to and surpasses the great start with its feisty and punishing energies whilst its successor Let Them Fall simple ignites all the passions. The first of this pair twists into unexpected well crafted asides at times to lift the song further in strength whilst the second is a outstanding rock n roll riot. Thumping rhythms, flesh scorching guitar lashes, and caustic vocals rampage as eagerly and powerfully as the energy driving the track to leave one wholly enamoured and empowered.

Adjust to Darkness is an album which never takes a backward step and even if some tracks are stronger and more successful than others there is never a moment of peace or neglect of satisfaction and enjoyment. Tracks like Phantom Hearts, Woolgatherer, and Relapse snap shut like man traps around the senses with their different but equally effective razor sharp attacks. The first chews up the ear with coarse and destructive riffs and beats from bassist Tor Arne Håland and drummer Espen Kvaløy whilst the second is just a forceful bruising from the guitars of Erlend Færevåg and Ole Gaard, whose vocals are as scathing and aggressive as the hungry sounds. The latter ensnares the appetite with a more classic metal form of thrash n roll to confirm the variety within the creativity of the band effectively shown by this trio of songs alone.

Within the three the best track on the album lies in wait, ready to pounce and devour the senses. Sleeplessness Awaits is a bestial confrontation speared by anthemic group vocal charges and rhythms which cage the heart with ease. It is a towering piece of invention and inspiration to spark a near ardour like enthusiasm to it and the album overall.

Overthrow has with the release of Adjust to Darkness shown why there is a strong buzz around the band, a garnering of positivity which will accelerate as the release places its rampant touch across the globe. If bands such as Kvelertak, Cancer Bats, Municipal Waste, and Converge have you keen than this quartet is a must investigation.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Overthrow/126344084069670

RingMaster 23/10/2012

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

The Great Sabatini: Matterhorn

The new EP from Canadian grind metalers The Great Sabatini leaves a dirty big permanent indentation on the senses and psyche that is as welcome as it is destructive and intrusive. Matterhorn is no release to get your quick fix of infectious and undemanding pleasures from for it is a crippling, desensitising, and cruel intrusion that is far more rewarding and extensively satisfying. The EP leaves one grasping for a safety point, a ledge to use for some resemblance of security but the  eight tracks that make up the release only whip  away the balance and sure footing time and time again. It is not an easy listen but it deeply exhilarating and worth every single violation it delights in swamping its recipients with.

Formed in 2007 the Montreal quartet of Steve, Sean, Rob, and Joey (Sabatini) create sounds that have found themselves drenched in or pulled from the combined might of grindcore, math metal, sludge, noise rock, and progressive metal. They then twist them into a precise yet seemingly chaotic and openly oppressive dehabilitating corruption or as they call it and themselves, “swamp trench arithmetic.” Their first year saw the release of their debut EP Burning Wilderness and plenty of shows plus a coast to coast Canadian tour the following year, early evidence of the band work ethic. First album Sad Parade of Yesterdays arrived late 2009 supported by a North America tour, the band all the while picking up a formidable underground following and acclaim. Over the past years they have supported the likes of Coliseum, Today is the Day, Fuck the Facts, Threat Signal, Psyopus, and Bionic gaining further momentum if not yet the breakthrough their sounds deserve. The 7” single Napoleon Sodomite of last year accompanied what is an insatiable gigging regime the band seems to have but it is with Matterhorn that one feels they might at last find their deserved place in the attention and thoughts of the bigger musical world to stand nearer to the likes of Unsane, Today Is The Day, Botch and Converge.

Released through No List Records, Matterhorn attaches itself to the ear with rumbling riffs and a predatory bass in the opening City Limits. Soon it sidesteps in pace and tone into a caustic and intimidating questioning of the senses. It is a thick and muggy assault that takes its time like a jabbing boxer, finding the weak spot and bruising it with a towering intensity and seismically sonic probing. The vocals are coarse and intrusive to combine with the not so much brutal but heavily demanding sounds.

Zacios follows with again an opening fingering and teasing of the already inflicted wounds. Once inside it quickens its energy with concussive rhythms and a groove that winds tighter and tighter around its victim. It is raw with the baritone bass licking its lips as it prowls the song and the guitars cutting through with direct and intrusive melodic acidity. Nothing is clear cut in sound or intent with everything coated in feedback and filth dripping distortion but nor is it impossible to hear and enjoy the individual elements that make up the tsunami of intensity, the production perfectly appreciative and understanding of the sound.

The band throws one off kilter a little with Invisible Door, or rather lulls one into a sense of relief with its ambient soothing and beautiful yet disturbed atmosphere. With an emotive piano leading the way with estranged sampled voices and a marvellous distressed sax in the background the song takes one to a back street world, a place of shadows which then suddenly lurch out from the brilliant Null And Void. The song is the highlight of the release, muscular, threatening and opposingly vibrant, the track a persistent aggressor that leaves a breathless and grinning wasted wreck in its wake.

The closing duo of songs Wagons and Sad Parade of Yesterdays finish things up just as impressively. The first introduces itself with an ethnic like beckoning before expanding into a scorched mesh of incisively cutting guitars and overwhelming impactful energy. The closing ten minute Sad Parade of Yesterdays is the most impressive if not the favourite on Matterhorn. The track reflects the EP title in its massive heights of quality and invention from the band. The most progressive and stirringly open song it brings all the impressive elements of the band to a full and breathtaking journey.

Matterhorn is accompanied by free digital release The Royal We EP produced by Topon Das of Fuck the Facts which offers more of the same excellent and challenging sounds. The Great Sabatini takes your senses and thoughts to leave them floundering, whimpering and enthralled not to mention deeply satisfied.

RingMaster 21/04/2012

The best and easiest way to get your music on iTunes, Amazon and lots more. Click below for details.

Revocation – Chaos of Forms

Every now and then amongst a plethora of great releases there is one album that goes a little further and deeper to pleasure and ignite every sense.  Chaos of Forms from Boston metalers Revocation is one such glorious album, a release that taunts, teases and then delivers the most inspired and satisfying sounds. It does not take too many seconds of the opening track to suggest and instantly prove that the album should go down as one of this year’s most essential and rewarding releases. It is lively, hectic and thoroughly hypnotic with a blissful blend of thrash, death, and technical metal intricacies that mesmerise on every level.

The trio of David Davidson (guitars / vocals), Anthony Buda (bass / vocals), and Phil Dubois (drums) follow up their acclaimed Existence Is Futile of 2009 with all the essences that made that release so impressive. On Chaos of Forms everything is raised to greater heights, the unrelenting flow of intense siren like riffs powerful and instinctively direct with the blistering energy produced consuming and animating every synapse and sense. Intertwined are some of the most elaborate and mesmeric melodies found anywhere, and to finish off such impressive sounds there is a glorious unpredictability and  waves of unexpected diversions oozing out of every song. It is unlikely there can ever be the perfect album but Revocation come very close with Chaos of Forms.  

The one major difference to its predecessor is the addition of guitarist Dan Gargiulo to the ranks, his concise skill and sounds complimenting the undeniable ability and creativity of Davidson to bring an even sharper edge and artistry to the music. Together  they produce stunning sounds and ideas that ripple and pulsate from the heavy thrash/metal riffs to the engaging and catchy melodies, not forgetting some of the most hypnotic and ingenious progressive technical metal wizardry to grace any ear. This even more impressive sound and creativity cannot be put down simply to Gargiulo’s addition as everyone has found another peak from the rhythmic beats produced by Buda’s bass to some of the more impressive drumming display shown anywhere for many years from Dubois, but certainly as a quartet there is an even greater animated vision and stimulus to the music.

From the opening devastation within first track ‘Cretin’ the album simply dictates the next 50 minutes of one’s life. There is so much going on that it is impossible to lose focus or become bored, every song  alive with unexpected elements spawn from high calibre songwriting. The deep growling basslines and eager aggression within next track ‘Cradle Robber’, plus the urgent punk thrust of the straighter thrash fuelled ‘Harlot’ combines with the opener to bring one of the best openings to any album in a long time. Not that the quality or satisfaction slips in any degree across the length of the album.

Though direct and verging on violent the first three songs are more intent than intrigue even though crafted with plenty of wonderful twists and turns. It is with ‘Dissolution Ritual’ and its wonderful prog jazz mid way meandering that the heart of songs are really shuffled up and the imaginative originality they conjure unleashed on eager ears. The black/death metal muscles of ‘Conjuring The Cataclysm’ veined with scorching progressive metal flows and thug harmonies, the wonderful jazz funk excursions of ‘The Watchers’, and the hardcore/metal brutality of ‘Beloved Horrifier’ a song with the  combined might of Brutal Truth and Converge, contain flavours and spices as diverse as they are addictive.

Chaos of Forms is immense, an essential investigation for all who entertain metal sounds in any form. If there is any negative to the album it is still hiding despite complete plays running into the teens. This may well be the album of the year, without doubt  certainly top three.

RingMaster 29/11/2011

The best and easiest way to get your music on iTunes, Amazon and lots more. Click below for details.