Heboïdophrenie – Origin Of Madness

It may not be healthy and it most probably will end up in physical damage of some sort or another but being ravaged by French metallers Heboïdophrenie is one of our new favourite pastimes thanks to their debut album Origin Of Madness. A mercilessly brutal and carnivorous onslaught of death metal which has been equally bred from the seeds of thrash metal whilst employing certain deathcore voracity, the release like the band’s sound, is an exhaustingly uncompromising and almost theatrically creative savagery which sets senses and imagination afire. Whether the band is carving out sonic atrocities which are as original as they could be can be argued but it is certainly one of the most demandingly satisfying and enjoyable extreme metal releases in recent years.

Erupting from out of Bordeaux in 2010, with influences from the likes of Vader, Cannibal Corpse, Ingested, The Black Dahlia Murder, Meshuggah, Cerebral Bore, Whitechapel, Carnifex, and Kataklysm raging in their own depraved invention, Heboïdophrenie were soon ignited local stages and gaining a potent reputation with their live shows, a presence pushed into a new spotlight home and further afield by Origin Of Madness.

From an Intro of hell bound human suffering, the album explodes into life with the track Heboïdophrenie. Instantly that thrash breeding shows its potency in the predatory striding of the riffs and rhythmic intensity. It is not an assault with overwhelms but definitely sets the senses and imagination on edge ready for the coarse guttural growls of the vocals. They are as bestial as the sounds and unafraid to twist their delivery with varied guises. It has to be admitted we have a soft spot for porcine squeals within metal and they do not come any finer and more riveting than those offered by the song and album. The song continues to examine and test ears and senses, rewarding them with strenuous slab of extreme provocation before making way for the outstanding Feast Of Death. Irresistible grooves bind ears from its first second, intensifying with every second as their virulently nagging toxins work on the senses and passions. The track snarls and grinds vocally and sonically with irresistible hostility and merciless rhythmic provocation but it is that deliciously nagging of grooves which seduces and enslaves the passions.

Both Decay and The Butcher keep that ferocious tempting going, the first another stalking incitement which sizes up the listener whilst preying on their senses and psyche. As all songs though, it is not happy settling for one form of attack, expelling urgent bursts of destructive intent and dirty energy within its slower ear crowding incitement. The second of the two is an even more intensively intrusive stalker, its heavy footed gait coming with a rhythmic swagger and jagged riffery which belies its predacious intent. Returning swinish vocal squalls interrupt and enhance the intimidation whilst again the song agreeably shuffles the charge of its violation.

Rotten drives forward with its own predominately thrash seeded fury, merging it with heavy tempestuous stabs of riffs and beats throughout. A mouth-watering surge of sonic invention spears the track too, it’s solo moment a seductive lance in the pestilence of the track whilst the vocals continue to impress in their strength and varied persuasion. It is a masterful malefaction straight away matched by the unrelenting demands of Bonnet M. The drums mix up a stride of pack like military inspired strength with a brawl of dervish bred swipes to provide an insatiable and infectious spine to the inhospitable emprise. Across this guitars weave blistering sonic netting which sears and entices dramatically. Every song on the album is a bane to expectations but this is to the fore of thrilling unpredictability.

Heavy metal grooves bring their potent expression to the warlike character of Death To All, adding contagious colour to the voracious malevolence and intensity of the track. It is another skilled and irrepressible blend which flirts with the imagination whilst devouring the senses, as emulated in the anthemic Morbid Satyriasis. Old school metal spawned grooves also frequent the scintillating and gloriously barbarous track. Vocals and riffs chew the senses whilst hooks and grooves spill malice soaked seduction with every note. It is a brilliant hunting of the psyche, the listener the quarry to its creative and jaundiced vendetta.

The album closes firstly with Cadaver, a final impressive trespass where vocals worm virulently under the skin and adversarial rhythms conduct the sonic tempest of rage and flesh scorching enterprise. It is another contagion which never relinquishes its tight grip, and a last reminder of how infectious extreme metal can be in the right inventive hands and creative attitude. It is followed by the expressive instrumental Outro, an evocative close to an exhilarating encounter.

   Origin Of Madness is a provocation which turns existing essences and inventiveness into something belonging solely to Heboïdophrenie, and is mercilessly exciting not forgetting powerfully compelling.

Origin of Madness is available now @ http://heboidophrenie.bandcamp.com/album/origin-of-madness

http://heboidophrenie.wix.com/heboidophrenie

9/10

RingMaster 02/09/2014

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

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Mycelia – Nova

Though at times it is uncertain what to make of some elements of Nova, the new album from Swiss metallers Mycelia, the ultimate outcome is a release which leaves the senses alive and thoughts through to passions empowered by the riveting and superbly crafted confrontation. A fusion of progressive and technical metal, the nine track album takes the listener on an enthralling and impressive escapade through sonically carved ventures fuelled by uncompromising melodic and djent invention.

Founded in 2010 by guitarist Mike Schmid and drummer Marc Trummer in the idyllic Swiss mountain town of Le Croix, Mycelia using inspirations from the likes of The Human Abstract, Meshuggah, and The Dillinger Escape Plan was soon creating potent songs. The line-up expanded soon after with the addition of vocalist Marc Fürer, second guitarist Patrick Küng, and bassist Roy Sonderegger. Two digital EPs and shows supporting bands such as Carnifex, Veil of Maya, Suffokate, and Maroon followed as the band built an impressive reputation in the metal scene of their homeland. Debut album Isolator arrived in 2012 to greater acclaim and reception though not long after Küng departed the band. Remaining as a quartet the band worked on writing their second album which they started recording in the latter part of the year with Clawfinger guitarist Jocke Skog at the controls. Seemingly investigating the depths and expanse between bands from The Human Abstract, The Faceless, and Meshuggah to those like Between the Buried and Me, Nova emerges as a riveting exploration which though not flawless leaves a very hungry appetite for the band behind.

The album opens with the towering Shmashmortion, the track immediately standing tall and wide before the ear with crushing kinetic rhythms, grievous throaty bass snarls, and ravaging riffs with sonic grooving twisted around their sinews. With great and varied guttural growls squalling over the whole thing as well, it is an intimidating invitation which leaps with expulsions of raptorial intensity directly on to the senses, chewing them feverishly as the guitars dance tight melodic flames over all surfaces. Leaving breath an absentee in the lungs, the song is a scintillating fury to set passions off in tandem with the absorbing corrosive assault.

The following Ectoparasite exercises the same brew of maelstrom bred rhythmic attack and sonic tantalising but in a distinctly different gait and stance. The bass and riffs prowl and provoke a menacing narrative to the venture but that eventually evolves into a mesmeric sultry weave of melodic grandeur and emotive manipulation before returning in union with the acidic beauty. Though not as instantly dramatic as the first song it worms its charms into the heart and emerges as one of the many highlights of the release.

After the brief and refreshing instrumental Dopamine, the track a rhythmic dance within a heated sway of melodic ambience which allows its sinews to also add their potent textures, Nova takes another of numerous twists with C.O.R.P. and its invention. Ridden by less successful clean vocals which admittedly took time to adjust to, the track teases with some psyched grooves and devouring  rhythms veining another devious web of sonic enterprise which seduces the ear and emotions with ease, the technical flare beguiling without being flamboyant. Intriguing and descriptive in its aural narrative, the song leads thoughts into the visual arms of a sultry and dangerous landscape leaving behind a lingering satisfaction.

The Timemasheen is odd, well in its appearance on the release. A mix of dubstep and trance metal it is a decent enough piece which grips limbs to do its bidding without igniting any real fire in the belly but is utterly out of place on the otherwise impressively creative album. Its touch is soon forgotten though as firstly the excellent instrumental Event Horizon with its predacious intensity and carnivorous rhythmically provoked riffing makes its appearance followed by the three part expanse of The Golden Ratio. The Golden Ratio – Prologue opens with a glorious kiss of classical keys and symphonic whispers before climatic drums and growing energy adds extra passion to each aspect. Bone gnawing riffs and flesh scorching grooves emerge to consume without completely dispersing the beauty as the piece pulls the listener into the heart of the sonic travelogue. The Golden Ratio – Interlude takes a moment to re-establish its classic lined grandeur before opening a torrid heat of rapacious malevolence to take the seduction to deeper depths, the pervading union realised to its fullest potency with The Golden Ratio – Epilogue.

It is a stunning three track conclusion declaring and investigating the rich lengths and textures of the songwriting and its immensely crafted interpretation. Nova even with its surprising and less successful moment is an album of the highest pleasure.  Mycelia will be a major force in the future, whether this album is the accelerator is debatable but it gives the confidence to say it will happen at some point.

www.mycelia.ch

8.75/10

RingMaster 10/07/2013

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

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As Silence Breaks: The Architecture of Truth

The Architecture Of Truth, the second album from Australian metalers As Silence Breaks is a formidable and feisty beast of a release, an album with the surest intent to incite a riot within the senses with explosive yet carefully composed imagination. The album arguably does not offer anything strikingly new or ground breaking but uses and transforms the best of what already has emerged within melodic and extreme metal in a way not many others have imagined to date. This makes for a refreshing and absorbing release of muscle and destructive beauty.

The Sydney quintet of vocalist Sam Rilatt, guitarists Dan O’Brien and Ben Irwin, bassist Kiel Stanger, and Reece Kirby on drums, have become one of the emerging forces in Australian metal since forming over six years ago. Acclaimed and respected live with the band sharing stages with the likes of Darkest Hour, Carnifex, For The Fallen Dreams, Whitechapel, Periphery, TesseracT, Sybreed and The Red Shore, they have garnered a similar response with previous releases since signing with independent label New Justice Records in 2010. The new album can only accelerate their standing in world metal with its challenging and thrilling mix of metalcore, thrash, heavy metal, and melodic death metal. It is a thunder storm in the brain, intimidating, oppressive, and within the tempest elegantly stunning.

The release fries synapses from the off with Litany Of Fear. Its first breath is a solo guitar strumming a welcome with a brewing presence in the distance. Soon the track reaches its full height with an enveloping intense atmosphere giving way to a surging confrontation of picky guitars and rampant rhythms, bass and drums staking their claim on the senses as the guitars mesmerise with air scorching melodic invention. The vocals of Rilatt sear flesh with their coarse tone ably baked by an as abrasive assistance from Irwin. It all combines for an impressive opening fully and easily backed up by the following tracks.

Decimate continues the charge with more crushing riffs and demanding intensity to follow in a similar vein to its predecessor leaving the first full signs of variety to Freedom. The album is a nicely diverse animal and this song instantly ignites the appetite with its greedy tight grooves and electrifying melodic flames. Vocally clean additions expand the chorus and make a good contrast to the growling menace which is relatively standard through all songs.  Less intensive and aggressive than the first pair it incites a purer addictive connection and shows the band as skilled and inventive as they are uncompromising.

Across its length the album has a high consistency with certain peaks coming with songs such as Purpose, Transcendence, and The Warning. These three are the heart of the album and the tracks which spark the strongest fires within. The first is a hungry insatiable brute of a song, its sinews continually shifting and offering unpredicted enterprise. At times it is a raging torrent in the ear and at others a caressing hulk of intense yet understanding power. Woven together the song is a towering inferno of violent invention and stakes a claim for best on album though that is snatched away by Transcendence.

The track bruises just as deeply as it mesmerises, its venom and violence corrupting every pore whilst lighting them with the keenest melodic pleasure. As it reaches its climax it adds some excellent hardcore anthemic touches to complete a riot of undeniable malevolence and satisfaction. The last of the trio The Warning simply rampages with unbridled destructive energy for the fullest pleasure. Within its demanding and merciless assault the band conjures melodies and grooves of excellence especially with some classic metal seeded guitar work, but the main attraction is in the pulsating hunger of the intensity.

From this point the album takes a slight dip but it is more to do with how great the songs leading up to the likes of Fire Borne Chaos and Redeemer are as these later tracks still have plenty to give and enjoy in sound and composition. The Architecture of Truth is a great album for anyone with a liking of As I Lay Dying, In Flames, and Unearth. It might not have enough to make As Silence Breaks yet distinct enough to stand apart from those bands but easily offers plenty to rival them.

https://www.facebook.com/assilencebreaks

RingMaster 13/07/2012

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

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Corroosion: Dirt Awareness

Like the effect of sand in a wind tunnel notched up to the maximum, the new album from Italian deathcore band Corroosion is as abrasive and lethal as their name gives hint to. It is a nasty and destructive piece of work, a sonic blistering without mercy or respect. It is also corruptively magnificent. Dirt Awareness is not the easiest of listens or probably not the most appealing for some at times but stare it right in the eyes and it is becomes one of the more rewarding albums to assault the senses this year and has the makings of an insatiable addiction.

From Turin, Corroosion emerged from the ashes of Hekatomb in 2005. Consisting of vocalist AnD, guitarists Sentenza and Lino, bassist Marco, and Dave on drums, the band made their first mark with their 2008 demo Maze Of Human Deprivation. Relentless gigging followed as well as the six track EP Two Steps Before The Vein, the band all the time creating attention grabbing strokes with their storm of extreme metal leading them to sharing stages with bands such as The Acacia Strain, Deicide, Neaera, Annotations of an Autopsy, Knights of the Abyss, and Slowmotion Apocalypse. Mid 2009 and the band signed with Rising Records and set to work on their debut album Punish The Mind with producer Alan Douches (Killswitch Engage, Emmure, Carnifex, The Acacia Strain, Cannibal Corpse),which was released the following year. 2011 saw the band destroy stages alongside the likes of The Ghost Inside, Bleed From Within, Suffokate, Trigger The Bloodshed, For The Fallen Dreams, before working on their second album. Produced by Fredrik Nordstrom (At The Gates, Job For a Cowboy, Bring Me The Horizon, Dimmu Borgir, In Flames) and released again on Rising on July 23^rd, the album is a titanic treat of invention, imagination and outright violence.

The album creeps up on the ear with the opening to Awareness as echoes of war emerge from the sinister whispers to be replaced by the intrusive windings of guitar grooves and flesh grating vocals. At full stretch the track badgers the senses with crisp punchy rhythms and bruising riffs through an attack which seems tempered, as if the band is simply teasing and taunting its victims. The intensity though is oppressive throughout and heightened in the climaxing storm of scowled group vocals, rigid beats, and manipulative guitars, and the song itself the intimidating beginning and appetizer for the annihilation ahead.

The crushing and quite brilliant track The Loser Slave flies for the jugular within seconds of its appearance, air flaying riffs and grinding grooves to open up the deepest sores laying siege upon the senses. The song evolves into a raging stomp of sounds and bestial borne vocals with a ravenous hunger not to be denied. It is pure malevolence brought with the surest ferocity but dive beyond the surface and there is a continual evolution of invention and sound going on which makes every rampage a new offering. It is this which has the band standing out over other similar bands and makes Dirt Awareness far more than a great album.

More impressive brutality comes in the form of the greedily consuming and relentlessly raging Crimes Of Fathers Times with its dehabilitating diversity of riffs and rhythms skewered with a cruelly niggling groove and the stunning Polarity, both further scarring on the ear and scrambling of synapses with sharp twisting manipulations. The second of the two is a maelstrom of hellacious energy and sounds which use their notes like kinder to spark an inferno of fury and creative excellence to bring one to their knees.

The release is simply one continual high quality and imaginative brute with just the intensity and the caustic covering uniformal. The songs twist and turn within their skins, tempo disruptions, unexpected breakdowns, and perfect unpredictability raging in the eye of every storm such as in further triumphs like Collective Humiliation, Falena, and Repulsion, though every track deserves a mention such the depth of excellence.

The suspicion is Corroosion is still an unknown most have yet to discover but with Dirt Awareness the days of that secret is numbered with the band surely on the verge of deserved major attention.

https://www.facebook.com/corroosion

RingMaster 11/07/2012

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

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Allegaeon: Formshifter

Formshifter the new album from Colorado melodic death metallers Allegaeon is just one of those beasts that you can only be impressed by no matter which metallic flavour lines your heart most. It is quite simply a masterpiece of defence splitting aggression, mesmeric technical prowess, and blistering scorched melodies, that is not to mention the deeply manipulative grooves and tumultuous numbing riffage which drives each and every track. The album is immense, a ruthless incursion of ear and heart which leaves one in no doubt they have just experienced the mightiest and most invigorating storm.

    Formshifter is the follow up to 2010 debut album Fragments of Form and Function, an album that put them on the metal map with force. Formed in 2008 by founding member and guitarist Ryan Glisan and soon completed with the addition of classically trained guitarist Greg Burgess, vocalist Ezra Haynes, and bassist Corey Archuleta, Allegaeon (pronounced: uh-lee-juhn) drew attention with their four tracked self-titled EP of the same year. 2009 saw them sign with Metal Blade Records and the eventual release of their critically acclaimed first album the year after. Following up such an impressive introduction to the wider world is always testing but they make it look easy as they return with an album that puts even that mighty debut in the shade.

Recorded at Lambesis Studios with Daniel Castleman (As I Lay Dying, Impending Doom, Carnifex, Winds of Plague), Formshifter splatters the senses against the cranium from the start with not only brutal intensity and insatiable grooves but also from the sheer class of their melodic invention. It never leaves one alone for a moment persistently barracking, provoking and captivating. It retains the core sound that made its predecessor so dominant but brings a fuller depth and uses a wider palate to create with. The band adds in multi sourced flavours to their melodic death metal spine without diminishing the tight powerful structure and strengths that make them Allegaeon; in fact they have simply just made them even more formidable.

The opening melodic beckoning of first song Behold (God I Am) sets one up majestically for the soon to follow wall of destructive intensity, and riffs that cripple the senses within seconds. It is a rampant muscular assault that leaves no avenue twisted and escape route blocked with its mountainous intensity. With solos which leave flesh as cinders the track is a stunning start to the album and yet not even close to be the best track on the album.

The following Tartessos: The Hidden Xenocryst explores inner corners you did not know existed as its grooves search out every shadow for the stunning guitar invention to glow within. Not one for over blown guitar play or constant solos it is still impossible not to be blown away from the imaginative and glorious creations from Glisan and Burgess, the latter one of the finest guitarists around and with the discipline and skill to stay well away from indulgence.  Throughout the vocals of Haynes growl and crawl all over the emotions with authority, emotion and venomous spite veining every track with a harsh intensity.

Every song on the album is a ravenous predator upon the ear mauling with titanic riffs and melodic ingenuity that lights every pore. The likes of the unrelenting bruising Iconic Images, the viciously clawed The Azrael Trigger a track which twists and torments the senses until you have no idea what day it is, and the infection spewing From The Stars Death Came, all leave one a breathless husk as they devour every synapse and feeling.  It is with Twelve – Vals For The Legions though that the band ignites the most ravenous fire within.  It immediately consumes with a groove which tantalises and excites whilst wrapping it in a fury of rhythms and riffs to bring any stiff kneed recipient to the floor. Contagious and intimidating the song prowls the ear as the guitars eagerly offer a mesmeric sonic intrusion with a final captivation coming from the brief Latin classical guitar insertions which invite nothing but the deepest affection. As the track drops its final colossal note it transforms into a wonderful guitar instrumental, the classical heart and skill of Burgess irresistible, and though the piece feels unrelated to the song it aligns itself to it is a deeply satisfying moment on the album to match the song itself.

Formshifter is immense and Allegaeon a metal giant, the album is the proof so now is the time to go and be impressed.

RingMaster 16/05/2012

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