Whisper of Death – Noise of Obstinacy

Noise of Obstinacy is an album which if you are in the mind to, you can pick at for its lack of real originality and at times over reliance of certain sounds and textures within its ten ravenous offerings, but at the end of the day the debut album from French metallers Whisper of Death is still one unrelenting buzz saw of enjoyment. Neck muscles and flagging energies are the testament to that. Accomplished and rigorously captivating with a seemingly Cannibal Corpse and Cryptopsy inspired death metal voracity with flavoursome extras, band and album leave ears and appetite gratefully satisfied and often excited.

Whisper Of Death hails from Ablis, a small village south of Yvelines and were soon drawing potent local attention after forming with their live presence which has seen them support the likes of Manimal, Leng Tch’e, Pitbulls in the Nursery, Black Bomb A, the Spirit of the Clan, and Betraying the Martyrs. The quintet released first demo Desossage in 2008, an introduction well-received by the band’s fans and underground. Its unleashing though was followed by a low key period for the band which saw a line-up change and one of its guitarist involved in a serious accident when he was hit by a car. It was unsurprisingly a slow time for the band but as soon as they were able to return to full strength, Whisper of Death released second demo Epilepsy in 2012, followed by the resumption of the band’s live attack. Last year was predominantly given to the creating and recording of Noise of Obstinacy at Studio Dark Wizard with François Ugarte (Pitbulls in the Nursery). Mixed and mastered by Alan Douches at West West Side Music (Nile, Mastodon), the album was uncaged towards the end of 2014, pushing Whisper of Death instantly towards a new attentive recognition.

     Cadaveric Discharge sets the ravaging off, emerging from a swarm of flies to grip ears and imagination with its artillery of lethal beats amidst a squall of savage guitars. It is a vicious entrance but equally a magnetic one with a contagious swing lining emerging grooves and ferocious riffing. The vocals equally grab attention, a dual assault bringing variety to the malevolent delivery of venom soaked words and growls. With all songs sung in French and being linguistically challenged, lyrical adventures are unknown but there is no mistaking the rancor behind them. Turning more bestial with every second, the track is a formidable and pleasing start to the album backed right away by Cemetery Market.

Almost mischievously toying with ears with a quirky sonic flirtation, the second track needs little prompting to throw off the masquerade and show its malicious intent; ragged riffs and hostile rhythms colluding in one precisely honed provocation which is unafraid at times to uncage its darkest animosity and in other moments turn on expectations with striking and slightly warped invention. Across the album there are definitely certain twists and moments of ingenuity which break songs away from feeding assumptions and showing recognisable influences, maybe not enough to be honest, but as here when it occurs even in brief temptations, it turns songs and album into a very potent and potential fuelled proposition,

Both Desossage and Organ Bath pleasingly stir up air and senses, the first a blaze of raw antagonism with shot gun cocks and virulent scourges of tangy grooving making tasty additives to the infectious turbulence around them. The second has a slower gait, virtually lumbering along with low slung grooves and barbarous rhythms. There is still a ferocious intensity and energy to the encounter of course, just with a more pestilential intent rather than rabid instinct. Each hits the mark of enjoyment if not making startling impacts; something the following OBF has far more success with through its avalanche of rhythmic brutality and sonic toxicity. The track is a glorious truculence of sound and attitude, every swing of drum sticks leading to deranged bait whilst venomous grooves provide a sonic straight jacket twisting the psyche with their enterprise. With no lesser a devilish persuasion from the raw vocals and dark hearted bass rabidity, the track is the most adventurous and strikingly unpredictable on the album, and further reason to suspect Whisper of Death will emerge from the crowd if not now some point in the future with this kind of adventure.

Happy Burial whips up a blistering senses flailing storm next, not quite emulating the endeavour of the previous track but creating a bedlamic tempest to easily devour and enthuse about before Surgical Strike unloads its rhythmic torpedoes and sonic rapacity. Once again the track feeds the wants and matches levels already breached by the album but just does not go far enough to forge something truly remarkable. Nevertheless with a great agitation and psychotic mania to the changing assaults of the drums as the bass again finds the most salaciously dark lines to seduce with, the track has attention and pleasure tightly grasped.

Torture for Dummies bounces around like a serial killer waiting its moment to strike, a certain glee and excitement driving hooks and riffs as well as the catchy stride it initially offers. Of course this all plays out within a harsh landscape of sonic cruelty and toxic emotion which is just as bracing as the creative turmoil within it and helps turns Cannibalism Airlines into a visceral theatre of torrential spite and violently wanton rhythms. The track is another major highlight of the album, guitars and bass a flurry of intimidation and fury in their own right.

Battlefield brings the exhausting brutality to an end but not before creating its own peak in the album with a battering of flesh scarring beats, intrusively lingering grooves, and noxious vocals. It is the lighter caustic flirtations of imagination and psyche twisted endeavour which ignite the song predominantly though and ensures the album ends on a real high.

Noise of Obstinacy is as its title declares, a release doing its own things with zeal and defiance. It is not trying to reshape the walls and originality of death and extreme metal but increasingly it thrills and leaves emotions blissful, and I know which I prefer.

Noise of Obstinacy is available now digitally and on CD @ http://whisperod.bandcamp.com/

http://www.whisperofdeath.com/

RingMaster 28/02/2015

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://reputationradio.yooco.org/

Arbitrator – Indoctrination of Sacrilege

If you speak to the right people there are always good, often great things said about any new and emerging band. The confirmation is always only in the music of course and just as often as words are proven, anticipation is left in unintended deceit. Arbitrator since the release of The Consummate Ascendancy EP in 2011 has been a band often talked up and recommended from certainly Canadian and North American sources. Their debut album Indoctrination of Sacrilege is our introduction to the quartet and all promise and suggestions of their growing might have been convincingly proven.

Indoctrination of Sacrilege is a beast of a release, an intensively atmospherically soaked death metal bred proposition which from making an impressive first impression grows into one striking and fascinating theatre of imagination. Fusing in textures and essences from electro and industrial climates to progressive and ambient flavouring, the six track release engulfs and stirs ears and thoughts with skilled and increasingly rewarding adventure. The band itself is the brainchild of Robert Kuklaand, its emergence starting in 2010 and announced by the release of The Consummate Ascendancy the following year. It was an acclaimed proposal from the band but just a tester in many ways for the exploratory might of Indoctrination of Sacrilege. With a line-up of Myles Malloy (lead guitar), Connor ORT Linning (programming), and Soilwork drummer Dirk Verbeuren (ex-Devin Townsend Project, ex-Aborted) alongside Kuklaand (rhythm guitar, bass, vocals), Arbitrator put themselves forward now as one of the more intriguing and exciting progressive death metal prospects. They also still feel like they are still only just scratching the first few layers of their potential despite the weight and success of their album, a potential and prospect of even greater things ahead quite exciting.

The Sacha Laskow (ex-Divinity, Every Hour Kills) produced and Jens Bogren (Opeth, Katatonia, Amon Amarth, Arch Enemy) mastered album, swiftly has the imagination engaged as the entrance of opener They Will Worship This Fire of Agony comes through scenery of portentous bells and death feasting flies as church seeded chants seemingly offering final guidance as a dark pestilential cloud looms nearer and nearer. That sonic threat is realised a muscular wall of riffs and punchy rhythms veined by enchanting keys. It is an immediately incendiary and compelling persuasion enhanced by the guttural growls of Kuklaand and spicy persistent grooves. Samples are soon briefly mingling with the cavernous presence and intimidation of the song too but it is the infectious hooks and melodic winery which most captivates against the evolving and enlarging drama of the keys. It is an imposing and enthralling encounter, and as the album subsequently shows itself to be, a pleasingly unpredictable one.

The potent start to the album is solidly continued by Stillborn Bastard of The Nazarene, it straight away binding the appetite with intensive riffs and rhythmic swings whilst thoughts are provoked by its atmospheric colouring. Kuklaand again impresses as he binds words and syllables with a gripping impassioned tenacity which provides additional potent focal points amidst many on release and track. Samples and keys again paint additional inciting scenes in the ferocious and threatening landscape of the song, though it is the superb melodic enterprise of Malloy which steals more of the glory.

Through each song the album just gets better and creatively bigger, the next up For That Which May Appease Lions unleashing black hearted rock ‘n’ roll in a hellacious offering of grooved and addictive contagion aligned to corrosive and oppressive malevolence. The track transfixes from its first moments, the predatory nature and sound of the bass a delicious stalking within the maelstrom of rancor whilst clean vocals add a different shade of temptation to the voracious soundscape. Keys and guitar endeavour similarly vein the tempest with their own unique and engrossing narratives, everything seamlessly flowing and combining together to enslave ears and imagination. Unpredictability is rife across the track, and reveals more twists and subtle ideation with every listen, an exciting trait just as potent in Serpent of The Styx. The song’s electronic opening is a melodic drift of keys and radiant melodies yet it all comes with a solemn and melancholic charm courted by a slowly brewing dark side. An eruption of that heavy menace is eventually unleashed yet the song still continues to radiate melodic expression within a web of carnivorous grooves and enjoyably volatile rhythms. There is also a cinematic ambience to the track, its ‘warmer’ and calmer moments apocalyptic in suggestion as the track’s muscular and rabid side trespasses and challenges the senses. As its predecessor, the track is a mouth-watering incitement which just gets more addictive and anthemic with every passing minute, hook, and barbarous swing from Verbeuren.

       Profaned and Perfected whilst not quite matching the heights of the previous two tracks, has its own persuasive agenda of spiny grooves and spiky beats to contemplate, and an anthemic swing to drool profusely over. It is an out and out death metal ravishment but also one unafraid to explore warmer climes through the often spellbinding invention of the industrial spiced keys and climactic guitar. The song is still a bruising and commanding predator keeping body and emotions invigorated and fearful before the ‘epilogue’ like instrumental adventure of The Burning Sands of His Kingdom brings the album to a fine close. The electronically driven piece draws a cold and stark wasteland yet equally suggests hope with its melodically epic and intimately expressive tones within rugged scenery.

Over a handful of listens in and there is still more revelations coming forward within songs as Indoctrination of Sacrilege continues to reward, that in itself a strong reason with the diversity of sound and invention to check the album out. Wrapped in the excellent artwork of Colin Marks (Exodus, Scar Symmetry, Jeff Loomis), the release has been suggested for fans of Bloodbath, Dismember, and The Project Hate but also it is easy to suggest that those with a taste for bands such as Opeth, Mercyful Fate, and Escapethecult could do far worse than taking a plunge into Arbitrator and their first album.

Indoctrination of Sacrilege is available from February 13^th @ http://arbitratorofficial.bandcamp.com/album/indoctrination-of-sacrilege

https://www.facebook.com/Arbitratorband

RingMaster 12/02/2015

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

Listen to the best independent music and artists on The RingMaster Review Radio Show and The Bone Orchard from http://www.thereputationlabel.today

 

Gorelust – We are the Undead

It is fair to say that there has been a feverish and increasingly growing appetite for Canadian death metallers Gorelust since they disbanded in 1996, a hunger and attention as new genre fans discovered and devoured the band’s one and only album Reign Of Lunacy which was released the previous year. The acclaimed encounter became a hard to get, desperate to have proposition; that, fan clamour, and no doubt a personal passion for the band in PRC Music owner Rémi Côté leading to a long awaited re-release at the end of 2012 with the label. Now twenty years after their debut’s original release, Gorelust return with its successor and it is as if the band has never been away.

Feeling as if it comes from a time only moments after its predecessor but offering a fresh and modern brutality, We are the Undead is a ravenous beast of a proposal. Consisting of songs written before the band came to an end alongside new offerings, the album is old school death metal at its invigorating predatory best; arguably not loaded with major surprises but still sheds plenty of shadow over similar genre driven releases from younger and newer bands. When there is skilled craft and creative hunger inherent in a band it does not go away with time, the evidence right here in the cold embrace of We are the Undead.

With four of the five which released Reign Of Lunacy back on board, the Québec quartet open up We are the Undead with Lunacy Still Prevails…. It is a scene setting intro primarily, but a viscerally haunting coaxing with a threatening atmosphere and textures drawing ears and imagination into the raw turbulence of the following Rape the Rapist. The drums of Francis Marmen are an immediate flurry of intimidation and brutality, their threat matched by the throaty tones of Pascal Chevrier’s bass and the still distinctive and recognisable guttural roars of Jean Beaulieu. It is a thick and ferocious combination bound in the coarse riffery and sonic enterprise of guitarist Martin Fournier, it all uniting for a nostalgic come modern fury.

The imposingly solid start to the album is pushed on again by Entering the Kill Fest, its initial tenderising of the senses a tasty appetiser for the striding stalking of riffs and rhythms which take rein of the track soon after. There is a swing to the grooves and in less open declaration the delivery of Beaulieu, whilst the sonic invention of the guitar is a searing captivation. Mostly though, the track is pure anthemic temptation, a gripping persuasion emulated in the contagion of There Is No God. The song mixes its gait with fierce charges and more intensively threatening saunters accosting the senses, that alone inescapable bait though it is the primal growls of Beaulieu which put the tang in the poison, especially in the closing seconds where surely his throat lining was torn to shreds.

The album’s title track steps up next providing vicious smog of malevolence and musical savagery, as well as one of the loftier peaks within We are the Undead. Like a hell bred hound with a glint in its eye before ripping out its victim’s throat, the track sizes up and devours ears and psyche with addictive rhythmic bait and a torrent of unpredictable and swiftly changing riffery. It is a fascinating and blistering incitement, vocals and guitar ideation both an enthralling and flavoursome colour to the primal trespass of the listener.

The pair of Penetrating the Weak and City of the Cannibals keep this new plateau firmly prowled by the album; the first offering a rapacious and tenaciously attentive examination of the senses. Once more hell for leather onslaughts are fluidly led in to slower intrusive crawls and just as seamlessly out again. Every second of the track is a descent into the bowels of emotional corrosion and aural violation. Its successor has a more tempestuous almost bedlamic nature and enterprise to its body. Marmen as everywhere batters and bludgeons the senses with tremendous spite and inventive craft whilst musically the song is a maelstrom of sound which never settles in one thought for long. This ensures intrigue and pleasure is high and expectations left empty apart from being swamped by an old school sound which heavily satisfies every constant want from a death metal tempest.

Decapitate the Holy Whore and Farewell to the Flesh both have ears and appetite licking lips again. The first of the two is another delicious stalking with riffs and grooves as infectious and venomously bullying as the deep caustic scowls of Beaulieu and the rugged and salacious tempting and swings of Chevrier and Marmen respectively. Farewell to the Flesh is similarly sculpted in its template but soon spinning a web of sonic enticement and alluring colour through Fournier’s adventure and arguably the most compelling and tasty bassline on the album. Another pinnacle of the excellent release, it again has a more chaotic potency to its design and intent, and maybe it is telling that the very best songs on the album are those with this looseness and slightly experimental character.

We Are the Undead is completed by the hellacious Wretched Life, a final tsunami of death metal voracity to bruise ears and ignite the emotions. It is simply a fine end to an excellent encounter. As suggested earlier, Gorelust and We Are the Undead are not rewriting death metal or really challenging its boundaries, but without doubt both are giving it a thoroughly enjoyable treat.

We Are the Undead is available now via PRC Music @ www.prcmusic.com/store/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=1249

https://www.facebook.com/gorelustband/

RingMaster 12/10/2015

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

Listen to the best independent music and artists on The RingMaster Review Radio Show and The Bone Orchard from http://www.thereputationlabel.today

 

Bloodscribe – Prologue To The Apocalypse

Formed in 2004, US death metallers Bloodscribe have taken their time getting around to unleashing an album, presumably due to circumstances rather than intent, but a decade after emerging they uncage Prologue To The Apocalypse. It is a ten track ravaging running for less than thirty minutes of senses blistering ferocity. Released through Los Angeles’ Gore House Records, the tempest brings death, grind, and slam essences into one accomplished and solid violation, and though ultimately it strongly impresses without igniting any massive excitement, the album puts Bloodscribe firmly on the radar.

Hailing from Boyle Heights, the quintet draw on inspirations from the likes of Dying Fetus, Through the Eyes of the Dead, Origin, Devourment, and Terror for their sound but as their debut assault shows, their sound also holds plenty of invention to not exactly set them apart from the pack but certainly make Bloodscribe a visible proposition live and on record within the local and broader scene.

The album’s 40 second title track starts Prologue To The Apocalypse off, providing a tempting incitement of ravenous riffs and equally imposing rhythms. It is a good entrance but not around long enough to be or offer much more before Pantheon Of Lies invades ears and personal space. Spicy inviting grooves make the first potent impression amongst another raw flurry of sound. Their presence is subsequently an intermittent offering as the voracious heart and muscular riffs, with similarly intensive beats, take over and prowl agreeably over the senses. With the occasional outburst of warlike hostility, the unsurprising but highly enjoyable track ensures the album leaves a swift good impression.

It is a strong imprint continued through Enslaved By Deceptions and Burning Bridges. The first is a predator, every caustic riff and heavily swung beat a natural threat and each grouchy growl of the bass and gutturally swinish vocal roar, viciously engaging. Again it is hard to declare anything new going on but plenty to get teeth and appetite into for a satisfying experience, matched by its successor. The fourth track is a more volatile confrontation, stalking and going for the jugular with alternating intent whilst ‘creaking’ with its flavoursome hooks and tempting via lumbering grooves.

Demons is a deliberate predacious stroll, with a great thick throated bassline for company and acidic sonic stabs of guitar for flirtation. It has little trouble enlisting full attention, rewarding with a more unpredictable character compared to other onslaughts within the album, though it is soon overshadowed by the excellent Annihilation. If other songs can be called predatory, the song is sheer bestial insidiousness. Riffs and rhythms cage and bully from the off even though they come bound in corrosive yet contagious grooves. As all the tracks there is a swing and underlying infectiousness, but here it is given full rein to seduce; just a shame the song is so short at barely over a minute. The juices start flowing and it dumps them and departs, though the next up Kingdoms Fall is not shy at bringing a catchy inhospitable climate and savage maliciousness to bear on ears, even if it lacks the compelling virulence of its predecessor.

Both the sinister fuelled Shadows and the sonically rabid Castrating Humanity trespass ears and psyche with proficient and pleasing rancor, the first breeding a noir lit atmosphere around its insatiable and captivating brutality. The second of the duo similarly entangles the imagination in black hearted scenery of suspicion and demonic oppression, bass and drums especially picturesque in their rapacious endeavour around the ever composed yet rabid vocals.

Completed by the resonating presence of In Ruins, another lingering assassination of hope and light with additional creative cruelty, Prologue To The Apocalypse is an increasingly enjoyable and impressing proposition. As mentioned it has enough to make Bloodscribe a prospect worth paying continued attention to, even if right now they and album do not manage to quite light a blaze of excitement. It is impossible not to recommend its investigation though.

Prologue To The Apocalypse is available now digitally @ http://bloodscribe.bandcamp.com/album/prologue-to-the-apocalypse and on CD via Gore House Productions @ http://store.gorehouseproductions.com/

https://www.facebook.com/bloodscribe

RingMaster 12/02/2015

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

Listen to the best independent music and artists on The RingMaster Review Radio Show and The Bone Orchard from http://www.thereputationlabel.today

 

Hereza – Misanthrope

Offering a thickly promising and swiftly engaging slab of groove infested death metal, Croatia band Hereza make a rather appetising introduction to their presence with debut album Misanthrope. It is not a release to set a cat amongst the pigeons of extreme metal but with additional punk encrusted tenacity and blackened fury, it certainly makes for a very flavoursome base for the band to push on from.

Formed in 2014, the duo of Slobodan Stupar (guitars, bass, drums, backing vocals) and Ivan Kovačević Kova (vocals) take their seeds from the old school origins of death metal but vein their creativity with the potent essences previously mentioned resulting in a familiar but persistently enticing onslaught. Seemingly embracing the inspirations of bands such as Entombed, Entrails, Misery Index, and Marduk, Hereza take little time in gripping attention with Misanthrope and its opening title track.

The song flies at the senses with sonic nostrils flared and rhythms hungry to inflict intimidation. It is a furious and pleasing proposal enhanced by grouchy vocals and emerging predatory grooves, each a fresh threat from the song’s malevolence. With especially its intensive beats ringing in ears, it makes way for the similarly voracious tempest of Grob. Leaving little time for a breath to be swallowed, the track is a hell for leather assault with the skilled craft and enterprise of Stupar impressing. There is a potent rawness to song and indeed album which accentuates the hostile and unforgiving nature of release and sound, an intensive tonic emulated in the broader caustic rock ‘n’ roll of Kraj and the darker toned Unholy Flame of Eternity. The blend of both sets of vocals amidst a spicy melodic adventure lures potently within the first of the two songs whilst the second is marked by a more classic metal infestation of hooks and a contagious swing to beats and riffs alike.

We Are the Disease provides a major pinnacle to the album, its feisty and lighter swagger of sound and character instantly anthemic without defusing the vicious roar and violent heart which lies within its infectious breast. Grooves are just as insatiably addictive too, and though the track is really barely scratching the surface of something truly new it rocks like a bitch taking body and emotions with it. Its catching infectiousness is matched in Objesen which emerges from a sinister intro to flex muscles and rhythmic animosity with bestial potency. Grooves again make the difference between a good and a great song but are in turn impressively backed by the vocals and simply the energy of the track to swiftly recruit eager submission to its lures.

    Whole World Burn with its opening Michael Caine sample stalks ears next, lurching over and snarling at ears with predatory maliciousness while both the corrosive hardcore corruption that is Bullet Storm and the tangy sonic adventure of Cancerous Demise keep album and satisfaction boiling quite nicely. All three offer some inventive and appealing twists to their savage bellows, each individual to the next and employing well used but in the band’s hands, tasty creative ingredients.

That variety continues in the punk driven Pills, the song taking the genre’s raucous antagonism into its death metal foraging of the senses with a furious chorus to match, whilst Noc Zivih Mrtvaca unearths a delicious dirt encrusted bass rapacity to prowl its bruising and volatile belligerence fuelled rock ‘n’ roll. Each leave healthy impressions and pleasure in their grudge loaded wake, the rhythmic lure of the latter powerful bait, before the excellent Death Army March stomps over senses and into the passions with a heavy footed animus. Another peak of the album, it is pure militant bad blood with vocal and creative spite to match.

Closing with the outstanding Erase the Disgrace, a song with the best entrance by far, a haunted sepia lit climate which subsequently erupts into a voracious tempest of aural ravishing, and finally the peddle to the metal charge of Mud, the album inspires full satisfaction with its proposal. Misanthrope is not loaded with surprises apart from being a striking unexpected debut, but succeeds in igniting only good feelings and reactions to its potential soaked presence, and that is more than enough to warrant an investigation by all extreme metal fans.

Misanthrope is available now via PRC Music @ http://www.prcmusic.com/store/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=1242

https://www.facebook.com/herezametal

RingMaster 11/02/2015

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

Listen to the best independent music and artists on The RingMaster Review Radio Show and The Bone Orchard from http://www.thereputationlabel.today

 

 

Carnation – Cemetery of the Insane

Old school in breeding but stoked by a creative voracity which roars with modern hostility, Cemetery of the Insane, the debut EP from Belgian death metallers Carnation is an introduction all fans of extreme metal will want a slice of. Consisting of six tracks which savage the senses and ignite the imagination, the release has every essential death metal essence in compelling abundance, but twisting them into its own not dramatically original but certainly refreshingly inventive designs. The result is a bestial onslaught to fearfully embrace and greedily devour.

With a name seemingly inspired by The Carnation Massacre, a mass murder occurring on December 24^th 2007 near Carnation, Washington, the Heist-op-den-Berg band was formed in 2013 by guitarist Jonathan Verstrepen (Incinerate). Swiftly bringing in bassist Yarne Heylen (Decross), guitarist Bert Vervoort (ex-Decross), vocalist Simon Duson (Prematory), and drummer Morbid (The Reckoning), Carnation set about their intent of bringing old school death to the Belgian metal landscape. Embracing both Swedish and US influences, as merged impressively on Cemetery of the Insane, the band has stepped forward on its back as one new and exciting proposition in not only the Belgian but European extreme metal scene.

The release opens in the dank cellars of Explosive Cadavers, flesh and bone being quietly but openly devoured before the song, with cinematic might, reveals its portentous drama. Once the scene is set, guitars snarl and descend on the senses with instantly contagious and addictive riffery, bait matched potently by the grizzled might of the bass and the sonic grooving holding ears. The track swings along but has greater intimidation and hostility waiting in its air, a threat which frees its restraints for a nastier twist in the nature of the song before entwining both for the rest of the encounter. It is a scintillating start, the excellent vocals of Duson as guttural and insidious as you would wish yet with a quality allowing clarity to the narrative, whilst the venomous rhythms of Morbid take no prisoners whilst casting their anthemic baiting. Similarly the sonic enterprise of the guitars is as invitational as it is corrosive, everything aligning for one virulent insidious persuasion.

The EPs title track is swiftly at the jugular next, Cemetery Of The Insane rampaging with hostile fervour yet also instilling a predatory prowl within its tempestuous walls. The song stalks and seduces the senses with the strong mix of vocals and guitars continuing to impress with just as instinctively barbarous invention. Further lust is dragged from song and appetite by the throaty bass growl and already by this point it is hard not to be enslaved by song and release, especially once the tendrils of sonic colour and the increasingly insatiable torrent of sharp grooves and bruising riffs add their persuasive weight to the temptation.

Both Rituals Of Flesh and Delusions Of Power keep the impressive intensive provocation soaked in venomous and gripping animosity, the first of the two managing to be nastier than those before in touch and sound yet just as imposingly infectious and inventively magnetic. The track almost dances with its rhythmic rabidity and destructive tendencies, revelling in its bloodlust and sonic nagging whilst sculpting a pinnacle for the release. Its successor without quite matching its toxic majesty has its own blistering sonic tapestry of raw riffs, spiky grooves, and bass predation to share, resulting in another seriously enthralling and incendiary ravaging to thoroughly enjoy.

The Great Deceiver closes things off; it’s more restrained and sonically colourful entrance the scenery to oppressing shadows and subsequently, a torrent of abrasing riffs and searing melodic endeavour. As the excellent final foraging of ears and psyche shows, though tracks may not surprise with knee buckling effect there is a great unpredictable trait to them which keeps the listener intrigued and unsure of what is on the encounter’s near horizon.

Definitely a must for all with a taste for the likes of Entombed, Dismember, Gorguts, Autopsy, and Entrails amongst many, Cemetery Of The Insane should be heading all must check out lists.

Cemetery Of The Insane will be available through Final Gate Records digitally and on CD/vinyl from February 6^th via https://finalgaterecords.bandcamp.com

https://www.facebook.com/CarnationBE

RingMaster 05/02/2015

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

Listen to the best independent music and artists on The RingMaster Review Radio Show and The Bone Orchard from http://www.thereputationlabel.today

 

0 X í S T – One Eon

0XiST

Ever had those nightmares which feel so alive that they are virtually stalking thoughts and sanity? If so then you will recognise those same menacing traits in One Eon, the new album from Finnish metallers 0 X í S T. Exploring even richer, more dangerous territory than on their acclaimed debut full-length Nil, the Riihimäki hailing quartet has turned their already oppressive dark metal into a new inescapable predator. Every one of the new album’s six tracks preys on the listener’s fears, escorting them into the darkest corners of mind and soul but with the resourceful craft and startling imagination which the band is already renowned for.

Formed in 2008, 0 X í S T (pronounced zero exist) was soon setting about creating intense and dramatic sounds inspired by essences to be found in bands such as Triptykon, Celtic Frost, Ajattara, and Deinonychus, the first broad invitation to which came with first EP Unveiling the Shadow World via Ostra Records in 2010. The release was followed by the band’s venture in the live arena, quickly taking in successful shows across southern Finland and Estonia. An extremely limited edition CDr two track demo followed as the band began working on Nil, its teasing the appetiser and taster to the subsequent seven track album. Again out through Ostra Records, the band’s first full-length was the spark to a much stronger spotlight upon the band, as was the wealth of live shows which followed taking in furthers countries such as Belgium, France, Germany, Holland, Latvia, Lithuania, Sweden, and Poland.

Recorded last year and now self-released on Death Shrine Offerings, One Eon is the next gripping step in world metal of 0 X í S T’s slowly invasive and absorbing dark metal. It is a proposition which in many ways continues where its predecessor left off but goes far deeper and further into the creative and malevolent depths of the band. The evidence is immediate with opener In the Hood of the Clan of Tombs. Its opening embrace of sonic tempting instantly has a welcoming yet toxic tone to its lure, the guitars of Jani Koskela and Juhani Jokisalo swiftly sharing an intimidating leer in their melodic coaxing. As expected it is a slow enclosing of ears and senses, given weightier substance and menace by the slow lumbering riff of bassist Sameli Köykkä matched by the restrained but intensely premeditated swings of drummer Mikael Ahlstén. The song is a crawling intrusion with vocals to match, but bound in increasingly seductive and unpredictable sonic grooves and creative taunting giving an invigorating nature to its insidious character.

The excellent track continues to twist and flex its animosity with compelling and inventive enterprise, seducing and ravaging the senses before making way for Enshrine which is straight away emulating the success and inhospitality of its predecessor through its own ravenous embrace. Without lumbering into a doom bred gait, the track is unhurried in its overwhelming of ears, almost finding a swagger to its creeping intent and aural consumption along the way, especially when slipping into a bewitching melodic passage with a great mix of blackened and heavy throated vocals. Soon back into its darkest cavernous depths though, the track bruises, seduces, and suffocates the senses and imagination for another thrilling trespass of the listener.

Neither the following Conclusion nor Instincts of a Serpent can find the same heights of the first pair of songs, though both explore riveting new creative journeys to devour heartily. Cleaner vocals are brought into both alongside the raw caustic growls, working well enough but soaked in a little too much theatre maybe for personal tastes. It is a minor personal niggle though as, like in the first of the songs, a delicious melodic endeavour from guitars tempers its ferocious and rabid nature to enthral and inspire thoughts. It’s successor has an almost leech like touch, wrapping its treacherous tendrils of sound and narrative firmly to the psyche whilst leaving body and emotions captivated and fearful of the song’s increasingly blackening touch.

     Leaving no Prospect for a New Dawn takes best track honours next, the bestial roar and creative causticity of its proposal an unrelenting stalking. To its determined rancorous intent though a sonic and melodic charm binds the fears and wounds bred, as in most tracks providing a balm to the overwhelming and intoxicating animus fuelling the encounter. The track is engrossing leaving closing song No Life to Bother a challenge to match up against, which it does with its own smog of lumbering rhythms and towering shadows veined by a contrasting merger of sonic predation and melodic seducing. Enticingly tempestuous with its own sobering and villainous cavern of antipathy, the song brings a fine album to an impressive end.

Having an increasingly deeper rooted soft spot for Nil, it is in some ways hard for One Eon to match up to the first 0 X í S T album for us. Openly though, there is an exciting new exploration to the band’s sound which brought with their open technical skills and intensive imagination, ensures it is going to be one of the most fascinating and satisfying propositions you will hear this year.

Since the recording of One Eon, original bassist Ossi Leino, who played on Nil, has returned to 0 X í S T after the departure of Köykkä.

One Eon is available digitally and on CD from February 4^th @ http://0xist.bandcamp.com/album/one-eon

http://www.zeroexist.net

RingMaster 04/02/2015

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