Sibiir – Swallow & Trap Them

Sibiir is a quintet of experienced musicians from Sigh & Explode, Jack Dalton, Do You Love Melena? and Call:Vega who decided to unite in 2014 to get together and craft some heavy and intense tunes that would reflect their mutual love for the heavier and darker side of music.” It is safe to say on the evidence of their two track debut Swallow & Trap Them, intent has been brewed, explored, and rabidly achieved. A fusion of hardcore ferocity and spite, atmospheric black metal trespass, and murky post metal despondence, the band’s sound and release swarms the senses with carnivorous intent and suffocating malevolence. Yet in its depths there is an instinctive contagion which flirts from within the raw tempest, a compelling lure which just pulls you further into the savagery.

    Swallow & Trap Them is one of those proposals which will alienate as forcibly as it enslaves, not easy to imagine the encounter leaving too many in the middle ground undecided on their take on the fury. That intensity just adds something to a release though, an imposing take it or leave it air virtually demanding a reaction of some sort and certainly the two tracks from the Oslo band enforces that question.

The title track comes first, bestial rhythms and just as feral riffs descending on ears in horde like fashion. Already there is hostility which has the senses withering, even more rapidly once the throat shredding tones of Jimmy Nymoen sear air and song. That initial torrent of barbarous bruising continues throughout but to it guitarists Tobias Gausemel Backe and Steffen Grønneberg spin sinuous sonic enterprise and intrusiveness speared by the predatory call of Kent Nordli’s bass and the quite simply lethal swings of drummer Eivind Kjølstad. It is a maelstrom of energy and rancorous emotion but one unafraid to seed infectious hooks and addictive textures that ebb and flow across the volatile and continually evolving canvas of emotional and physical punishment.

You cannot say that second song These Rats We Deny is a lighter affair but from its first breath it has virulence to its character and smog of noise which just grips from the first second and never releases its hold even as the track throws itself through tortuous scenery and malevolent climates. Bands like Nerv and NVRVD come to mind during the fierce incitement, though it is hard to think of many fuelling their corrosive turbulence with the insidious addiction forging seducing that both tracks carry but These Rats We Deny especially exploits. Finally embalming ears and appetite with the juices of allegiance through a glorious chorus of anthemic band roars, the track and release leaves a big grin on the face and spark for lust in the passions.

You might suspect that Sibiir touched the sweet spot in personal tastes for us and will definitely do so for a great plague of others. These are the first two songs written and recorded by the band and let us hope not the last conjured by the get together of talent, for Swallow & Trap Them is nothing short of violently majestic.

Swallow & Trap Them is available from September 4^th via Disiplin Media.

Pete Ringmaster 04/09/2015

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

For more exploration of the independent check out http://www.zykotika.com/

Kyy – Travesty Of Light

Though blossomed in the heart of traditional Scandinavian black metal, there is no escaping the rock ‘n’ roller in the sound of Finnish metallers Kyy. It has a rousing quality which tempers yet equally accentuates the dark and creatively ravenous instincts of the band’s music which brews a toxicity living up to the meaning of their name, which in English means viper. The invasive evidence relentlessly roars from the band’s debut EP Travesty Of Light, four tracks of insidious black ‘n’ roll to breed a healthy appetite for.

Formed in 2013, the Lahti quintet fuels their music with the “sole purpose is to spawn an antithesis to existence of universe and to serve the Great Unknown.” The tracks making up Travesty Of Light were recorded towards the end of last year with E. Wuokko and came to the attention of Saturnal Records who signed the band up for its unleashing this month, a release coinciding with the same day the band’s first steps into the live scene, starting at Rooster Death Fest in Lahti.

The EP opens with Death – The Great Liberator and an immediate consumption of ears by thick riffs and challenging rhythms escorted by venomous vocal squalls. Already there is a devilish swagger to the track and subsequent scythes of steely sonic bait from the guitars, their lurking presence and occasional expulsions icing on the toxic cake of corrosive intensity and drama clad and hostile enterprise. The track continues to swamp the senses like waves of the sea across its harrowing length, at times a relative calm soaked in melancholic rapacity escaping whilst for the main of its body, the song is an undulating tsunami of inhospitable emotion and ravishing but eventful destruction, physically and emotionally.

Everlasting Fire follows and quickly exposes its rock ‘n’ roll attributes. Whereas its predecessor was a more ‘formula’ black metal affair, the second song instantly rocks like a horned goat in heat but infusing it with an increasingly intrusive and caustic soaking of blackened animosity and sonic brutality. It’s less than three minutes also flirts with understated but unmissable, almost siren-esque, whispers and tendrils of acidic post punk spicing which incite thoughts of bands like Sex Gang Children.

The EP’s title track crawls in next, its melodically honed citric vines of guitar veining a lumbering body of rhythmic punishment and raw intensity. As in the previous pair, vocals are varied but even more diverse and compelling to match the epically hued musical narrative of the encounter. With great choral chants across the band and the song erupting into a corruptively magnetic canter at times, it is a theatre of suggestiveness and imagination all on its own.

Travesty Of Light is brought to a close by Immaculate Serpent King, another track stalking the senses and imagination with shadowed gripped grooves, belligerent rhythms, and a spread of vocals as harrowing as its canvas of sonic and emotional pestilence. Once more there is an instinctive rebellion to the song, a rock ‘n’ roll roar which only enhances and inspires every festering tempting of the elements uniting for the excellent violation.

We are not going to say that Travesty Of Light is going to be the best black metal encounter you will come across this year or that Kyy is going to reshape the genre’s landscape in the future, but both has the potential and right now create one of the most enjoyable raw metal offerings over past months.

The Travesty Of Light EP is available from August 17^th via Saturnal Records.

RingMaster 17/08/2015

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

Nihilistinen Barbaarisuus – The Child Must Die

There is a raw elegance to physical and emotional desolation, and primitive beauty in stark ravenous climates and landscapes. The same can be said of The Child Must Die, the new album from Nihilistinen Barbaarisuus which involves all across seven cold and uncompromisingly atmospheric soundscapes. The band’s previous releases have already explored similar ravenous climes, but as good as they were they all dramatically pale up against the Philadelphia duo’s new offering.

Nihilistinen Barbaarisuus first unleashed their sonic corruption in 2012, the band originally a trio going on to release a self-titled demo that first year and the attention sparking debut album Synkkä Tuuli in 2013. Personnel exits left original guitarist Mika Mage the band’s sole member and the creator of the Väinämöinen EP which immersed further into cold and barren yet inciting aural scenery inspired by his Finnish heritage and the Scandinavian black metal scene. Now with vocalist Joel Robert Thompson (Omelas) alongside Mage (Lawrence’s Creation), Nihilistinen Barbaarisuus return to those biting cold, vast wastelands with The Child Must Die but also with a new power and invention which pushes a promising project into a force coming of age in the extreme metal scene.

Based on The Kalevala, a 19th-century Finnish piece of poetry and with its lyrics adapted directly from the national epic by Mage and Thompson, The Child Must Die immediately submerges the senses with its opener in a pestilential, plague like swarm of riffs bound in alluring grooves. Wondrous Sampo quickly and persistently expands that initial rush; band and album unveiling a far more mature and dynamic weave of textures and sonic flavours than seen from them before. From composing and sound to technical expression and production, the release is an immense step up from, as mentioned, the bands previously impressing propositions. It still retains the raw and caustic quality of those early songs but instead of polishing them as many would have done, simply weaves them into a magnetic tapestry of enchanting and melancholic beauty. Guest keys from Lawrence Wallace virtually swim across the senses, every melodic wave offering a balm but equally an enhancement to the infertile and forbidding landscape engulfing the imagination and coloured ravenously by the raw throat scarring squalls of Thompson.

It is a fascinating start to the album quickly surpassed by its title track. An opening caress of guitar melody within a gentle kiss of keys is bewitching but finds itself soon overwhelmed by a torrent of riffs led by the vicious beats of guest drummer Jeff Willet. Like a consuming cloud with scourge like intent, the corrosive weight and intensity of the song sweeps all before it, but keeping hope a ripe possibility keys and melodies ignite the surrounding shadows simultaneously. It is a hellacious tempest when bearing its soul, but masterfully top and tailed by the warm kiss which began it all.

Let Them Perish comes next, its initial presence and nature a predatory stalking of ears which is almost sizing up the terrain before uncaging another frost encrusted, grimly lit and harrowing swamp of emotion and sound. The track epitomises the new stature and depth of the Nihilistinen Barbaarisuus invention, every unholy and rabid persecution of the senses comes with layers of contradictory but complementing radiance and melodic imagination. This lifts the fiercest atmospheres and darkest ambiences, never derailing their toxic rabidity but providing pocket oases to cling to in the face of the piercing sonic storms.

Feast Of the North Farm is amongst the most ruinous and frigid proposals of sound and emotive scenery on the album but its sonic swing and frosty, but inviting grooves spiced with symphonic seeded luminance, gives it an invitation impossible to resist whilst Amidst the Waves creeps into an even more hostile and erosive climate with the tones of Thompson bordering on insidious at times, the music too. It all leads to a resonating melodic flirtation of a finale though and another compelling incitement within The Child Must Die.

The crushing atmosphere and suffocating weight of Väinämöinen surrounds the listener next but again keys and the persistently impressive enterprise and craft of Mage’s imagination radiates a celestial heat and resolve onto the dead terrain. It enthrals from start to finish, the bass standing like Canute against bitter waves just one thrilling twist in the unrelenting sonic and intensive deluge; just a shame the tracks is closed with a fade-out.

Completed by the spellbinding instrumental The Night She Died, Mage simply owning ears and thoughts with his nimble creative fingers, The Child Must Die is an inescapable declaration that Nihilistinen Barbaarisuus is inventively and imaginatively ready to join the frontline of ambient fuelled black metal, and give a great many current exponents a real run for their money. We will say it again; Nihilistinen Barbaarisuus has come of creative age and in turn given metal a new cold feast to devour with The Child Must Die.

The Child Must Die is available now via Infernal Kommando Records digitally and on CD @ https://nihilistinenbarbaarisuus.bandcamp.com/album/the-child-must-die

https://www.facebook.com/nihilistinenbarbaarisuus/

RingMaster 06/08/2015

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

27 Tons of Metal New England – Various

And Bluntface Records do it again, thrusting the underground scene at the senses courtesy of another essential compilation of some of the most striking and potential drenched bands around. This time the US label is exploring the underground metal scene from New England, which on the evidence of 27 Tons of Metal New England, is simply writhing with great ravenous bands and sounds. The release is as diverse in styles as it is voracious in creativity and though with the amount of bands and metal subgenres involved personal tastes will obviously find a greater hunger for some over others, it is fair to say that the album from start to finish is a compelling treat with no weak spots, and all the more tastier for being completely free.

The encounter opens with Carnivora and a track taken from their outstanding EP, The Vision. Pessimist’s Tongue is the Danvers quintet at their full blistering best and weaving suggestive ambiences into subsequent tapestries of rabid vocals and rancorous intensity. Yet despite its almost cancerous intent and creative breath, there is anthemic energy and a web of searing adventure from the guitars involved, which in turn sparks addictively imaginative exploits from the band across the song’s corrosive landscape.

It is a scintillating start to the release pushed on by Alterius and their uncompromising melodic death metal trespass on the senses, A Citadel’s Demise. The song comes from the band’s latest EP Voyager, and merges classical overtones into its fluid brutal and seductive tempting. Like being serenaded whilst the beast tears your throat out, the track stalks ears and psyche setting in motion a keen appetite to know more, a success matched by Revere quartet Travel Amygdala and their aggressively smouldering Died by a Bullet. Entangling its inventive metal bred sound with progressive and grunge seeded imagination, the song aggressively crawls over the senses enticing and intimidating, especially as it builds in energy and tempestuous air. There is also a potent sludge feel to part of its character too, the thick prowls between forceful strides of creative and vocal drama carrying the strongest whiff, with ultimately everything uniting for one riveting proposition.

Bostonian black metal trio Ashen Wings comes next, the band’s raw and carnivorous sound a bracing magnetic scourge delivered to ears from Cancerous Bones. As insidious and ruinous as you can imagine, it also spawns a swing to its gait which only adds to the addictive proposal on offer before making way for the just as destructively virulent Scourge of the Hierophant from Sorrowseed. A blend of blackened death metal with a healthy vein of classic and melodic tenacity, the increasingly thrilling track smothers ears and appetite with pestilential persuasion whilst provoking the want to offer vocalist Lilith Astaroth some soothing for her surely shredded vocal chords.

     Walk the Earth (No Longer) from sludge/doomers Conclave steps up next, the nine minute intrusion an accomplished and enthralling predation cast with rugged heavy riffs and heavily swiping rhythms, all lorded over by just as unpolished and alluring vocals. From their Breaking Ground EP, the song is as effective descending on ears in top gear or in crowding their walls with a lumbering and weighty provocation within a long but never less than thickly engaging incitement.

The same kind of hold is seized by Beneath The Burial next and their track In Memory, its fusion of hardcore ferocity and metal spawned sonic invention a fury of searing grooves, vocal animosity, and subsequently predatory imagination. As the album itself, there is a wealth of flavours emerging across the track musically and vocally, which only adds to the slow but fiercely burning persuasion of the song to inspire a want for more as it makes way for Skin Drone and God Complex. One of the few bands these ears had already come across and previously devoured, the duo of Bluntface Records founder Otto Kinzel and Erik Martin of Erik Dismembered and Critical Dismemberment unleash one of those examinations which you never know whether to fear or whole heartedly embrace, the latter always the chosen reaction of course. Like a sonic scavenger, the track vocally and musically spills its creative industrial/metal animus on to the senses within an evocative ambience which then inspires a melancholic exploration of emotive and creative expression. The song is a cauldron of inventive sound and emotional intensity, a rich picking for those with an avant-garde side to their preferred examinations.

The scorching designs and temperament of Dirty Birdy from metalcore furnace Don’t Cross the Streams is next; band and track a scarring addictiveness which without springing major surprises has ears and heavy enjoyment sealed from the first clutch of seconds. Their triumph is quickly backed by Stoughton power/progressive metallers Forevers Fallen Grace and Clarion of Regret, another song which needed warming to before its potent expanse of craft and enterprise became an inescapable hook, and after them Makavrah with the excellent Awakening The Ancients. The Peterborough hailing doomsters have a sound which is dangerously mesmeric, a senses meddling sonic bewitchment which as shown by its twelve minutes of evolving soundscape, is hex like in its ingeniously dramatic and creative exploration. With echoes of Show Of Bedlam to it, the track is one delicious incessant crawl.

The industrial endeavour of Isolated Antagonist more than lives up to its offering’s title next, Infection a contagious causticity of sound and emotion with vocals to match as it worms under the skin and into the psyche with lingering rewards, whilst the following Composted bring a carnal presence and hostility into the equation with their track OB/GYN O.G. The band’s death metal onslaught has the voracity of thrash and swagger of groove metal to it, and as hungry hues only help to create an immense and irresistible corruption.

Both Charlestown sextet Untombed and Mike Kerr Band keep the riveting roar of the album going, the first with their groove and antagonism loaded death metal antipathy, Criminal Inception. Savage and violently catchy, the track is another which is maybe not gripped by original exploits but is one spilling a fresh venom which leaves a great many of fellow emerging genre bands in the shade whilst its successor is the title track from its creators recently released new album The Truth of the Lion and features Texan vocalist Adrienne Cowan and Jim Oliveira in its classic/melodic metal lure.

Power groove metal is on the agenda next through Before the Judge and their track Bobby D. With a highly agreeable nag of riffs and grooves lining its erosive blaze, the song stirs the blood whilst pouring more diversity into the compilation, variety further expanded by The Aberration and their track Bologna Skins are the Next Big Thing. The band consists of Travis O’Connell (guitar) and Jim Cole (drums), an instrumental duo creating, on the evidence of their contribution, compelling proposals of snarling progressive metal loaded with uncompromising attitude.

Melodic death metal quartet My Missing Half scars air and ears next with The Lives I’ve Ruined, a song with essences of The Black Dahlia Murder and At the Gates to it whilst finding its own magnetically inventive nature. The track leaves emotions and senses breathless but hungry for more as so many on the release, including Seeds of Negligence and their maelstrom of varied and inhospitable metal posing as The Reaper. The song is a bruising and vicious temptation of death, groove, thrash, and progressive strains of extreme metal, an incendiary incitement sparking a lust for further confrontation.

Dover trio Cactus Hag drags the listener back into a rich immersion of sludge and doom invasiveness with Grand Lodge of the Mirage, the track an insidious erosion snuffing out light and hope whilst sparking just as strong enjoyment. Its smothering rancor is contrasted by the brighter and superbly volatile adventure of G.O.G. from Side Effects May Include, the song another entwining a mass of different styles into its individual tempest of heavy rock and creatively rabid metal, and another only leaving the urge to go explore in their wake. Which is something which also applies to Pelham’s Epicenter and the thrash fuelled insurgency of See Through. With strands of alternative and groove metal to its robust and tenacious exploits, the track is as anthemic as it is strikingly inventive, and amongst admittedly many, an instinctive favourite.

     Fog Wizard get body and passions inflamed again with Fear the Kraken, a rapacious prowling built like Sabbath meets Motorhead with the attitude of Stuck Mojo and the combined snarl of Slayer and Black Flag. One slab of real pleasure is replaced by another and the abrasive kaleidoscope of sound unveiled by Sonic Pulse through Defenders of the Good Time. A brawling festival of power and thrash metal with a flurry of heavy and classic metal hues for greater captivation, the track is a ferocious blaze equipped with drama, familiarity, and inescapable bait.

The heavy weight slab of talent is brought to an impressive end by a trio of bands to also keep a close eye on, starting with the bestial sound of extreme metallers Graveborn. Their mercilessly hellacious and skilled Leviathan is sheer sonic and rhythmic savagery with just as brutishly varied vocals, and another big enticement before heavy/thrash metal Verscythe prove their classic seeds in the richly magnetic Land of Shells.

Completed finally by Vacant Eyes and the melody sculpted funereal death/doom exploration that is The Dim Light of Introversion, a track thick in atmosphere and haunting trespasses for a darkly compelling seducing, 27 Tons of Metal New England is an intensive journey through the depths and expanses of New England’s underground metal scene. It is one of the most extensive and rewarding compilations in a long time which from start to finish, enthrals and assaults, entices and transgresses. If any metal fan does not come away from the encounter with at least a handful of new lusts we would be amazed. So no dawdling, go and get one of the biggest and best free treats of the year,

27 Tons of Metal New England is available for free download @ http://bluntfacerecords.com/27-tons-of-metal-new-england

RingMaster 06/07/2015

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

Listen to the best independent music and artists on The RingMaster Review Radio Show and The Bone Orchard on Reputation Radio @ http://www.reputationradio.net

Isvind – Gud

Formed in 1992, Norwegian black metallers Isvind quickly made a potent impression on the underground scene, forcibly nudging acclaim along the way with their opening releases. It is fair to say though that it is from their return in 2011, that the band has really reaped the rewards for their creatively imposing and inventive sound and releases. New album Gud continues that progression with a mighty and impressive presence equipped with a blistering tempest of sound fuelling atmospherically charged songs. It is a dramatic and ravenous encounter full of surprises and uncompromising textures, and a release to push Isvind towards the strongest spotlight within the black metal scene.

As its potent predecessor Daumyra, the new album comes through Folter Records and features Isvind as a quartet for the first time. Alongside band founders, vocalists/guitarists Arak Draconiiz and Goblin, the Oslo band is completed by bassist Skævvtroll and drummer Slää, though Gud features Antichristian of Tsjuder who replaced Slää after he broke his arm just before the recording of the album. The encounter itself is a cold and harsh landscape of provocative sound and expression, and as mentioned a great unpredictability which turns strong tracks into fearsomely compelling encounters.

Gud instantly ignites the imagination with opener Flommen and indeed the song’s very first touch. Angelic harmonies fill and seduce the air, their beauty mesmeric yet with a tinge of the siren about them which is realised once guitars and rhythms erupt in controlled but fiery style. There is instantly more of a ravenous maverick tone to the bass which quickly catches the ear and gives heavier darker depth to the increasingly sonically descriptive track. Eventually it pulls up, gathers its intent and surges with a torrent of magnetic riffs and hostile rhythms bound in magnetic guitar enterprise. The raw vocal squalls breathe discontent and venom but are superbly tempered by the returning angels across the increasingly rabid of the song. It is a masterful start to the album, a proposal seeded in the cold wastelands of old school black metal yet blowing with fresh creative winds.

   The rich beginning continues with Ordet, grooves and hooks as ready to engage the senses as the barbarous onslaught of riffs and rhythms. It is a contagious mix, bursts of hostility taking seconds of captivating breath throughout as the guitars continue to relentlessly spin their more refined bait across the sonic and emotional ravishment. The track perpetually keeps attention gripped with every pestilential surge which in turn is disrupted by expectation defeating invention, a trait repeated across Gud and indeed following track Himmelen. Its air, as those before it, might suggest uncomfortable and stark landscapes but its uncompromising presence is a full on charge of musical and emotional rabidity, one uncaging brutality rather than ambient suggestiveness and just as riveting.

Dåren leaps in next with an irresistible rock ‘n’ roll swagger and an addictive grooming to its contagious presence, grooves and rhythms a tenacious temptation and violent shuffle respectively never missing a beat in stirring up body and passions of those it simultaneously and venomously violates. The track is outstanding, and only increases its persuasion when sonic and vocal strains of acidity and imagination spill their taunting bait across its insatiable trespass of the senses.

Both Tronen and Boken create their own striking and pleasure inflaming proposals, the first a malevolent fury which veins its caustic ravaging with melodic intrigue and tempting whilst the second is a bellow of raw musical antagonism also eager to share sharp and invention driven exploits. The guitar craft and imagination across both songs is almost bewitching, their ferocity a tasty and bracing abuse but certainly the sonic endeavour that springs often from nowhere, is the richest key to the track’s triumphs, as shown again within Giften. As the previous track, it too is rampant rancor in tone and presence launched from the darkest ruinous intent. The almost nagging unruly persistence which Isvind installs in a majority of their encounters through riffs and rhythms again just bullies and overwhelms welcoming ears here, their submission rewarded with a smug stroll of flirtatious grooves and swaggering beats.

The album is completed by firstly the mercilessly disorientating Hyrden with its bestial rhythms and cosmic ‘hallucinations’ within savagely oppressing sonic scenery, and lastly Spiret. The final song is as cold and unforgiving in sound and atmosphere as it is virulent in grooves and sparkling imagination, a union of extremes providing another mouth-watering peak within Gud.

Though not newcomers by a long way, Isvind probably has not quite breached the frontline of black metal’s attention. That should change once Gud is set free and brings the genre something rather exciting to chew on.

Gud is available from June 26^th via Folter Records @ http://www.folter666shop.de/de/CD/CD-4/isvind—black-metal.html?XTCsid=6nikf1dgnjb2bd4u0e8a90uca1

https://www.facebook.com/Isvindband

RingMaster 25/06/2015

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

Listen to the best independent music and artists on The RingMaster Review Radio Show and The Bone Orchard on Reputation Radio @ http://www.reputationradio.net

 

Hagl – Lenket til Livet

There is something bewitching about stark and expressionless landscapes, a chilling seduction which embraces the senses and enthrals the imagination. This also applies to cold and desolate aural terrains, especially those conjured by Norwegian black metallers Hagl on debut album Lenket til Livet. With masterful creative hues throughout, it is a ten track ravenous exploration of uncomfortable emotional and physical terrains, a captivation of ears and thoughts providing an hour of thickly satisfying provocation.

Featuring members of other Norwegian black metal exports in Beastcraft, Endezzma, and Vulture, Hagl’s sound basks in the seeds and original depths of their region’s black metal, infusing it with strains of modern resourcefulness and ideation. As shown by Lenket til Livet, the trio of Malphas (guitars, bass and mellotron), Sorath (vocals), and Gheist (drums) also delve into the darkest pestilential climates and ruthless depths of ruin, decay, and sound, dragging the listener with them. The album is a long term investment of time and attention it is fair to say, but with increasing rewards repaying the demanding effort.

The album opens with Askefast, its initial web of guitar and sonic tempting a cold, ruthless wind alone setting the terms and conditions of the impending crawl through ears and psyche. The raw monotone shaded tones of Sorath equally set the scene for his delivery and also the insidious nature of song and release. As harsh and abrasive as it all is, there is also a magnetic swim of melodic suggestiveness lurking in the ambience of the track, the guitars almost flirting with the imagination until stepping into clarity further into the song to expel fresh evocative expression.

It is a transfixing start matched by the more rigorous and savage Den Sorte Porten where rhythms and riffs immediately show more aggressive urgency and volatility. A lumbering stalking of the senses emerges eventually though, scythes of guitar and brutal rhythmic stabs lining the incitement before busying themselves again beneath the singularly gaited stroll of the vocals. The song continues to flit between both assaults, smothering all before with its ruinous touch before making way for the predatory and glacial trespass of Ulvehyrde which in turn gives the listener to Fra Kulden Til Flammene to consume. The first of the two reveals a great trail of sonic colouring, grooves which could just as much be bred in the barren realms of post punk as metal, whilst its successor from an enthralling and delicious acoustic serenade of guitar, spreads a melodically toxic tapestry courted by heavier and less dramatic but just as potent bass predation. The track is a gripping affair, the guitar of Malphas absolutely stealing the show but sizeably backed by the individual intimidations and threats of Sorath and Gheist for one of the major moments of the album.

   Helvete Ligger Så I Lende is a little less striking yet the melodic shimmers from the guitar within the relentless encroachment by its bitter and rancorous presence is almost sorcerous in its tempting, whilst Ondskapt brings its own blend of aural savagery and melodic beauty right after. There is a running similarity of sorts in the templates and sculpting of many tracks within Lenket til Livet, as shown again by this pair, but it matters little such the radiant lure and exploits shaping each track’s individual cancers. There is an additional undefined spark to the second of the two allowing it to shine out over others and the fruitless scenery cast by Liksøk right after it, another offering with plenty to entangle ears and appetite in such as the slow rabidity of the vocals and rhythms as well as almost intoxicating melodies.

Sjelefiende almost bounds along compared to the previous songs, its keen stroll an infectious enticement draped in tendrils of sonic suggestion and hate infested vocals, whilst Vardøgn drifts solemnly through its own emotional desolation littered with crystaline temptation. As all tracks there is much more going on within the intrusion, plenty to be discovered over time which ultimately only increases the success and impressiveness of Lenket til Livet too.

Closing with the corrosive weight and ferocity of Endelikt, a track in a constant evolution as bracing as it is inhospitable and as creative as it is overwhelmingly tempestuous, Lenket til Livet is an enthralling and punishingly enjoyable encounter. Though overall it did not ignite ears as to the same consistency as it might and as one of two other recent genre releases every listen brings something new and more persuasive, its stature only growing. Well worth a hearty checking out is the suggestion.

Lenket til Livet is available now via Folter Records @ http://folter666shop.de/

https://www.facebook.com/haglbyge

RingMaster 25/06/2015

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

Listen to the best independent music and artists on The RingMaster Review Radio Show and The Bone Orchard on Reputation Radio @ http://www.reputationradio.net

UMA COMPILATION 2015

It is time for the Underground Metal Alliance (UMA) compilation of some of the best underground metal bands in Italian, and once again UMA Compilation 2015 awakens ears and attention to a host of highly accomplished and thrilling encounters. With a line-up selected by fans and the UMA jury, which included members of Exilia, Sadist, Nanowar as well as managers of studios and festivals, plus other bands already part of the selected UMA roster, the album is an eclectic treat which is all the more sweeter through its availability as a free download for all.

It kicks off with Milan symphonic folk metallers Atlas Pain and their track Each Uisge, a rampant canter of rolling feisty rhythms and raw folk tenacity. It roars and bristles with magnetic persuasion lifting its potency further when allowing a Celtic influence to flirt with the aggressive heart of the excellent starter. It is a fine opening continued by Avoral, epic metallers from the same city, and the dramatic War Is Not Over. With nagging riffs, enjoyably theatrical vocals, and muscle-bound rhythms, the track is an attention grabbing bellow which even ears not quite enamoured with their seed genre can find plenty of resourceful and imaginative textures to enjoy and be involved in. In any large compilation you will always find some songs not quite fitting personal tastes but from start to finish it is fair to say that the compilation has little difficulty sparking a healthy appetite for the strengths and unique characters of all those involved.

Caelestis and Calico Jack are another example of the diversity across the release, the first a Naples duo creating provocative blends of post/progressive rock and shoegaze which immerse ears in captivating landscapes and the second pirate folk metallers from Milan who stomp over the senses and into the imagination with their busy and fiery adventures. The band’s songs are poles apart yet alongside each other, Ode Al Mare and House Of Jewelry make a highly satisfying union backed by the following punk folk metal of Evendim, their raucous temptation Whiskey On Fire an instinctive whipping up of energy and participation from those taking a swig of its rousing persuasion.

A web of nu and progressive metal cast by Pescara quintet Fake Heroes is next and quickly emerges as another keen favourite. The strong vocals in On The Hill are a mellow lure within skilfully conjured tempestuous sounds which busily twist and entice around them. Featuring Giacomo Castellano, the song is a compelling embrace of emotive and technical tempting, almost volatile at times though it is soon clear that GorganerA have that area cornered with their malevolent fusion of death and black metal. As shown by Veleno, The band embraces familiar inspirations yet though only one song, as it stalks and barbarously seduces ears there is an open variety of flavours and ideation ensuring the track stands out.

Away From My Fears from Edolo trio Hell’s Guardian is one of the songs which on first listen seem to lack the spark of others but with persistent listens begins revealing its eventful and increasingly enjoyable attributes, the vocals especially growing in stature and raw charm. It is a slow burn of persuasion, just like the following Falling Snow from avant-garde metallers Ideogram, but an increasingly impressing one. The latter’s offering from its first breath casts elegant melodies and evocative sounds in a masterful invitation, the track subsequently growing into an unpredictable and again persuasive offering as operatic and guttural growls bring their striking mix to an unrelenting maelstrom of musical enticement.

Como quartet Ignotum offer a slice of their enjoyable debut album Larvas Mortal God next, the atmospherically fiery and raucously trespassing Hecatomb Memories an intrusive and compelling insurgence of the band’s black/death enterprise. Its mighty incitement is matched by Kanseil and the excellent roar and devilment of their track Panevin, a song which leaps upon ears from its first breath inciting pleasure physical and emotional enjoyment from thereon in with its anthemic and melodic folk metal revelry.

Novara avant-garde metallers Locus Animæ is another band taking longer to get into, their startling sounds and minimalistic ambiences a pleasingly testing adventure with constant rewards ensuring their song, which also carries the band name, grows to be another welcome proposal over time. Similarly Insane Asylum from heavy rockers Mary Brain is a y less immediate tempting compared to other tracks but soon turns into a raucous highlight with its jagged riffs and predacious personality.

For personal appetite and ears, the album hits the sweet spot over the next handful of songs, starting with the excellent Mechanical God Creation and their slab of technical death metal brilliance, Shadow’s Falling. The song is a brutal beast of intensity and craft, a track making you stand up and pay attention with consummate ease. To be fair every song on the album does do that, though maybe few as commandingly as Milan quintet’s offering. It is followed by Lady Loneliness from Misteyes, the song a bewitching serenade of gothic metal led by a beauty clad caress of female vocals and keys. It gets darker and nastier over time but never loses its elegance and grace.

The outstanding rapper/masked guitarist Red Sky is next, his percussively lively and rhythmically compelling track I 7 Vizi Capitali, an undiluted temptation. The track is a quickstep of animated ideas and atmospheric shadows, a riveting jungle of stirring textures and shamanic tones kissed by the pipe seduction offered by guests Kanseil. Its enslaving persuasion makes way for Scum and their ferocious assault on the senses, Becoming Heavier. Thrash bred, punk infested, and woven with a host of metal essences, the song is a delicious and bracing onslaught, rich in craft and unbridled in fury, and quite thrilling.

Gallipoli heavy metallers Serial Vice provide a heftily flavoursome roar next with You Are Heroin, the song another inescapable anthem bellowing from within the album, whilst the blackened death metal fuelled Il Culto Della Pietra reveals its creators Veratrum to be a gripping and quickly intriguing prospect from Bergamo. Both songs are ripe with enterprise and craft, the latter of the two a broad expanse of textures within a mix of blistering hostility and alluring melodies.

The collection is brought to a close by a trio of tremendous creative outbursts, starting with Roma heavy metallers Whisperz and the rabid tempest of metal bait called Malicious Intent. Taken from their self-titled album, the track is a rugged and flirtatious lure of old school and modern metal, a rousing of attention and energy which the following Winterage takes on its own bold journey with The Harmonic Passage, a symphonic power metal recruitment of body and emotions, and yet another inescapable anthem bursting out. If there is still anyone yet to find their feet listening to the release, there is no chance of remaining uninvolved as Wolfang brings it all to a storming end with their fiery riot of Wild Forest. It is symphonic folk metal let loose to ravish air and ears with unbridled passion and energy.

It is a fine end to an invigorating and exciting release. Italian metal is blooming right now and the UMA Compilation provides all the evidence whilst shaping up to be one of the best collections of artists to thrill ears in recent times.

You can get your copy of UMA COMPILATION 2015 as a free download HERE.

http://www.undergroundmetalalliance.com/
RingMaster 24/06/2015

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

Listen to the best independent music and artists on The RingMaster Review Radio Show and The Bone Orchard on Reputation Radio @ http://www.reputationradio.net