The Last Ten Seconds of Life – The Violent Sound

Having beat up on and seduced the US metal scene, Pennsylvania hailing The Last Ten Seconds of Life are abut to do the same to a global attention with new album The Violent Sound. It is a success not too hard to imagine almost expect as the release unleashes twelve brutal alternative/nu/groove metal furies that just grip and excite ears and imagination. The band’s sound has plenty more in its arsenal of flavours and temptation but a mix of Korn, Mudvayne, and Britain’s own Anti-Clone is a fair indication to the downtuned tempest the Mansfield based quartet uncage.

Formed in 2010, The Last Ten Seconds of Life has risen through the local and national US metal scene, earning a potent reputation for their fearsomely impressive live shows and releases like debut album Know Your Exits of 2011. The past year though has seen the band evolve their sound into a whole new and striking adventure with new vocalist John Robert C. coming in, his irritable grouchy growls and impressive broader versatility seemingly, on the evidence of The Violent Sound, just bred for the band’s evolution in songwriting and imagination.

Engineered by Grant McFarland and produced by Carson Slovak (August Burns Read, Texas in July), The Violent Sound is the first offering from the new line-up and pretty much goes straight for the jugular as Little Black Line opens things up. Its initial lure though is the clean tones of John Robert, enticing within brewing discord honed tempestuousness which blossoms into a predatory stroll that as good as stalks the senses. The harsh rhythmic tenacity of drummer Christian Fisher is bound to the barbarous groove and tone of Mike Menocker’s bass, both a formidable invasion of ears as the guitar of Wyatt McLaughlin creates a sonic smog of portentous temptation.

Though the song never brutalises, its intent and weight takes no prisoners, setting the listener up for the intensive examination of The Drip. That Korn-esque texture to the band’s sound swiftly seduces ears within the encounter, interrupting a primal trespass equipped with scything grooves and vocal antagonism around rhythmic animosity. The track is glorious, another aural predator further impressing in melodically bred moments of emotive resonance before Bloodlust lives up to its name in tone and emotion. It is a savage uncompromising affair but again one with twists into unpredictable and sinister passages which even if only brief draws the imagination further into the violating tempest.

The following Six Feet is just as diverse in its attack and simply imperious, its volatile climate and grievous intensity skilfully contrasted by the melodic and harmonic swoops upon ears; the two colluding in bewitching espionage before the track is back devouring all before. As much death metal seeded as any of the flavours previously suggested, the track is a carnal incitement igniting an already keen appetite with the album’s title track reinforcing its increasing hold. The Violent Sound roars with sonic spittle lying upon vocal ire as rhythms pounce with animalistic predation, a vicious stalking leading to the calmer melodic and cleaner vocal enterprise of the band which is as virulently infectious as anything escaping the crushingly relentless ferocity.

A Marilyn Mansion air accompanies the flirtatious swagger of Casanova, an irresistible track with all the grooved swerves and salacious moves of a venomous pole dancer while Bag of Bones worms into the psyche with a niggling groove prone to discord fuelled expulsions of sonic unpredictability. Around it, the track brews another fury which buffets and abuses the senses, every swipe and incursion eagerly welcomed as the track swings like a hungry hound with a creative deviousness just as eagerly abound within successor Switch, a volatile fusion of metal and heavily boned rock which either licks at the psyche like a demonic lecher or presses in on the senses like a murderous vice.

That sanguine essence is even more prevalent and zealous within next up Blind Faith but equally the band’s harmonic imagination is a rich lure, so much so that you do not know whether to bow to its seduction or run for the hills, the former ultimately the only reaction to the brilliant protagonist.

It is a success and creative endeavour matched by that within Wise Blood, The Last Ten Seconds of Life again creating a concussive, sublimely seductive siege of ears and senses, trapping the imagination with exotic grooves and spicy melodies amidst vocal dexterity before Social Suicide casts a paradox of contrasting textures which simply captivates with ridiculous ease.

With the groove entangled, sinisterly shadowed Last Words completing the ferocious proposition, The Violent Sound is destined to push The Last Ten Seconds of Life firmly into the broadest metal scene. If not, there is something seriously wrong.

The Violent Sound is released by Siege Music on October 21^st.

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Pete RingMaster 20/10/2016

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

Skin Drone – Evocation

Evocation is the eagerly awaited debut album from US duo Skin Drone, a web based project consisting of vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Erik Martin (Critical Dismemberment) and multi-instrumentalist/producer Otto Kinzel (Chemical Distance/Bluntface Records). Both have released and been part of many striking and praise luring proposals but it is as Skin Drone that the pair arguably creates their most un-conventionally inventive and imposingly experimental adventures as evidenced by Evocation.

The album is a collection of emotionally and lyrically dark tales fuelled by insanity and torment encased in a hard to pin down tapestry reaping the raw and caustic might as well as beauty of certainly extreme, industrial, and avant-garde metal. Each track is a tempestuous journey through ravenous shadows, hellacious landscapes, and emotive turmoil but songs which equally at times share melancholic beauty and intimate psychosis. All grab keen attention on the first listen, each enslaving ears and thoughts, but it is through the journey of numerous plays that their layers, depths, and full compelling characters compellingly truly come alive.

With one half of the band in Hot Springs, Arkansas and the other in Boston, Massachusetts, it is hard not to  be quickly impressed by the skilful and coherent weave of almost kaleidoscopic textures and ideas, an organic unity which has blossomed through assumingly a torrent of ideas and files being passed back and forth between the duo. Admittedly though, as opener Scarlet Road consumes the senses, Evocation has thoughts swiftly engaged in other creative dramas and intrigue too. The first track envelops ears with a rousing roar of vocal squalls amidst technical and death metal animosity. It has a swagger and toxic virulence which needs little time to infest appetite and imagination, with the latter also persistently gripped by the glimmer of unpredictable incitement which rises from the track’s mellow and provocative slips into emotional dissonance. The track is pure fascination, a challenge and poetic tempting leaving a lingering imprint on the psyche whether washing solemnly over the senses or nagging them with torrential antagonistic discord.

Its emotional turbulence is matched by that of the following God Complex, another ravenous proposal of extreme and venomously grooved metal entangled with sinister disharmony and emotional dissension. The raw vocals squalls create a great rapacious texture in the tempest and the haunting ambience sharing the song’s air, adding great discord and heart bred turmoil again in an offering inflamed with raging ire or sharing sombre caresses. The track continues to envelop and involve across its ever evolving body, sharing its discordancy with its outstanding successor, Death Sentence. It is a carnivorous piece of music and invention, but equally a thrilling adventurous dive through a wealth of avant-garde/progressive experimentation amidst a toxically grooved and rabidly irritable incitement; it all colluding for one breath-taking and emotionally pestilential offering.

Shepherd of the Damned is an inharmonious crawl over the senses next, organ and vocal menace a caliginous calling aided by pained clean vocals before a ravaging expulsion of intensity and sounds spills their animosity. The track continues to weave in and out of vicious and elegant melancholy without escaping the emotional hell at its heart before making way for the nature-esque soundscape and again haunting charm of Ghost Reflection. As always though, even in its warmest melodic seducing, shadows lurk, biding their time as strings and keys skilfully serenade and seed the imagination. They are never allowed a real grip here though, instead a tribalistic rhythmic shuffle emerging to surprise and draw the listener closer as similarly bred vocals dance on their beats.

That darkness does get its moment though in the infectious rock ‘n’ roll of City Lights; a track which seems to stalk the senses even as it launches tenacious roars and bruising tides of rhythmic temptation. Even in that predacious intent, guitars create veins of sonic enticement subsequently leading to seductive noir lit physical and emotional scenery. The track is another pinnacle of Evocation, a fiercely memorable and greed sparking moment backed up just as dynamically and imaginatively by Witching Hour. Evil lines every beat and savage riff, Martin’s scarring vocal trespasses too but again the band creates infectious grooves and a raw catchiness which simply pulls you into the fire of the track. An addictive throaty bassline only adds to the irresistible bait of the track’s quarrel and creative rancor too, a lure equalled by the song’s industrial fizz and melodic oasis further in.

Classical keys coax ears and thoughts into the dark conflict within Darkness Within next; the track a heavy resonating smoulder of emotional and sonic disunity growing from a calm reflective charm into intrusive discordance. As with all tracks within Evocation, every moment is in flux and evolving into a new shade of turbulence and anguish brewed intimacy with matching character of sound to enthral and thrill.

Closing up with Salvation, a similar but individual tapestry woven from varying shades of darkness aligned to emotional greys, Skin Drone leave ears and emotions numb and enjoyment rampant. As suggested, Evocation should be embraced over numerous listens, every one bringing something new to explore while casting fresh twists on ideas already nurtured by previous ventures into its impressive depths. This often viscerally impacting album will not be for everyone but for those with bold imagination and a taste for a band pushing its and metal’s boundaries, Evocation and Skin Drone are worth a heavy slice of attention.

Evocation is released June 14^th via Bluntface Records with pre-ordering available @ http://skindrone.bandcamp.com/album/evocation

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Pete RingMaster 10/05/2016

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

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Moth’s Circle Flight – My Entropy

They may have a name which intrigues and lures a look, but it is their sound which ensures Moth’s Circle Flight really grabs attention, especially upon latest album My Entropy. Merging fiery groove metal with the hellacious predation of various extreme metal flavours, the Italian metallers show themselves a formidable and aggressively magnetic proposal. Their music is a rousing incitement which warrants attention and now with My Entropy to the fore, it demands it.

Hailing from Parma, Moth’s Circle Flight began in 2003 though it is probably fair to say that the band hit its stride and now firmly established potency when the line-up of vocalists Gabriele “Gabbo” Rosi and Simone “Pancio” Panciroli, rhythm guitarist Francesco “Baldo” Baldi, and lead guitarist Luca “Pellach” Alzapiedi linked up with bassist “Giupy” and drummer “Simo” around 2012. Since forming though, the band has certainly been a potent live proposition and have played with the likes of Sepultura, Extrema, Exilia, and Goddass over time while releasing an early EP before their well-received debut album Born to Burn in 2009. Recently with bassist Marco “Satir” Reggiani and drummer Fabio “Bersa” Bersani making up the rhythm section, Moth’s Circle Flight released My Entropy, a ravenous assault which sees the band hit a new plateau which could and should put the band on the global metal map.

It erupts into life with Man On The Peak, a distant sonic wind bringing the track towards ears as antagonistic vocals roar. Upon arrival it uncages a host of ear entwining grooves which alone ignite the appetite such their irresistible bait backed by thumping rhythms and the already impressing and enjoyable dual vocal assault. The song relaxes a little as it slips into its accomplished stride, jabbing and confronting the senses with an array of spiky twists and subsequently barbarous turns.   It is a fiercely rousing start to the album, like a seductive fury built on the animosity of Sepultura, the ire of DevilDriver, and the swing of Five Finger Death Punch.

Things only get more compelling and furious with the following Ends Of A Shadow, its initial riffs a thickly alluring bait of invasive resonance. Swiftly southern hues seep from the track’s rabid pores too, a Pantera/Down like flavouring spicing up an already greedy appetite for the encounter. The great mix of vocal delivery from Gabbo and Pancio is a magnetic pull on its own; their tones embracing every shade of clean, guttural, and psychotic even occasionally encroaching on a Burton C. Bell toning. There is a touch of Fear Factory to the music at times too within, with both guitarists weaving a masterful challenge and seduction, a more melodic/nu metal-esque hue.

Raise Your Head rouses ears and emotions next; its body a bruising turbulence of craft and sonic dispute bound in melodic tempting. Again the pair of vocalists capture the imagination, backed as resourcefully in voice by the band and their musical web of unpredictability and multi-flavoured invention. The track is another simply whipping up more greed for the band’s proposal and quickly matched in success by the outstanding Late Promises and its tide of carnivorous riffs and rhythms. Bass groans and sonic whines accentuate the fiery character and intent of the song, though again, it all comes perfectly tempered by melodic and harmonic vocal imagination as well as some great off-kilter twists and turns.

The embrace of melody and clean vocal charm opening up An Old Chant takes mere seconds to seduce and impress before its brutality and creative trespass is unleashed to harry and prey upon the senses. As its predecessor, the track is glorious, a busily resourceful and adventurous invasion built on the keenest grooves and sonic scythes aligned to another great drama of voice and sound. It is a web of persuasion soon emulated in its individual way by Write My Name. The song is almost carnal in its inventive assault and irresistible, though it does lose its potency just a touch when it slips into more melodic passages throughout its otherwise gripping prowl. Managing to weave in some hardcore, blues, and glam metal too, the track still feeds a by now seriously hungry want for more, a need equally satisfied by both With Love, With Flames and Bursting Into Existence. The first of the pair is a relentless fusion of diverse flavours and styles, all honed into a bullish involvement and enslavement of ears and emotions whilst its successor is another instinctive predator. Its thrash and death metal scented infestation of ears is inescapable slavery whilst the net of melodic and sonic mystique which colours the songs’ scenery at times, is the inviting lead to some more richly satisfying vocal and guitar crafted enterprise.

My Entropy closes as powerfully and dynamically as it began; Madball making the first voracious assault to whip up spirit and energies, with plenty of that already established unpredictable imagination involved, before Ray Of Ira brings things to a volcanic fusion of nu, alternative, and death metal with the band’s instinctive groove sculpted emprise of sound.

Though there is plenty about My Entropy which is somewhat familiar, everything is either boldly fresh or twisted into an adventure distinct to Moth’s Circle Flight; a band as suggested earlier, worthy of the closest attention.

My Entropy is out now via Logic(il)Logic Records via most online stores.

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Pete RingMaster 04/05/2016

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

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Jonestown – Aokigahara

Beauty and paradise can turn to pain and hell with seeming ease within the hands of mankind; the utopian vision of the charismatic and disturbed central figure in the inspiration to the band’s name a prime example. UK metallers Jonestown seed their sound and lyrical confrontations in such personal and worldly tempests; to borrow words from their bio, “The name Jonestown encapsulates the fragility of our state in nature and in society. We’re oblivious to how fragile we are and how quickly life can turn to death.” Musically, the Brighton band starts in hellish landscapes of sound and emotion too which, as shown by new album, Aokigahara, is then taken to fiercer debilitating states whilst subjecting the listener to one seriously thrilling incitement.

Formed March 2014, Jonestown took little time to impress and lure thick attention. They won the Metal 2 The Masses competition that same year with their first ever gig together being the initial round of the event which they also won. From there they have played with the likes of Soulfly, Monuments, No Consequence, and Black Dahlia Murder , toured with Prolong the Agony, and drew acclaim with performances at festivals such as Bloodstock Open Air in 2014 and in 2015, both Leofest  and Mammothfest. 2016 is going the same successful way as its recent predecessors for the band, starting with the recent release of their stunning debut album Aokighara. Named after the forest at the base of Mount Fuji known as ‘the Suicide Forest’, the release is cauldron of raw and varied metal ferociousness fuelled with a hardcore laced antipathy in sound and tone. It is a creative animus, a web of inventive rabidity and ravenous imagination, and quite irresistible.

It opens up with Deliverance, a track taking its time to come into view from within a haunting cold ambience. Chilling winds wash provocatively over the senses as a melancholic melody sighs in the background. Soon an imposing wall of intimidating chords and raw intensity looms up though, it in turn erupting into an onslaught of corrosive sonic and rhythmic animosity led by the vocals squalls of Harley Anderson. It takes little time for the technical prowess and unpredictable enterprise of the band to show its impressing nature with guitarist Craig Radford spinning a web of grooves and melodic temptation as a suggestive wrap to his and bassist’s Tony Hardwick predatory riffs and lines, this all without defusing the unbridled rancor of tone and touch of the song.

It is a striking start to the album quickly matched by Cenodoxus and Borderline. The first of the pair is equally as bitter and uncompromising as its predecessor, the senses bruising swings of drummer Rich Owen as virulent as they are punishing. It also pushes the imagination further with a great Korn-esque twist within its Black Dahlia Murder meets Meshuggah meets Murdock like ravishing of ears and emotions. Its successor has its own creative vendetta to share; grooves an infestation as toxic as they are seductive, simultaneously tempering and accentuating the impressive and varied strains of Anderson’s vocal enmity and the carnivorous voice and exploit of the bass.

Mass Extinction Six is a merciless knot of emotional tension and sonic jaundice next, again an assault brought and veined with some richly flavoursome and appetite inciting invention, whilst the album’s title track breeds an emotionally corrupted atmosphere around a whirlpool of virulent riffs and grooves. Without quite matching the earlier pinnacles of Aokigahara, both leave ears resonating and pleasure thick before Aprés Moi shares its own caustic drama. As with all tracks, it is an unrelenting predator, never giving ears a moment’s breath or the imagination time to settle before another raging and contagious outburst of invention and breath-taking hostility erupts to steal attention.

With the mouth-watering emotional discord and physical bedlam of The 33rd Parallel and the sonic terrorism and mesmeric beauty of the equally outstanding Deadweight bringing Aokigahara to a riveting and ferocious close, the album stands as one of the best metal debuts this year and back. At times it almost proves too brutal and invasive to take in one go, but every track brings such a fresh adventure of conflict and emotional friction that tearing away from the album’s grudge proves impossible. Bottom-line is that this is a treat no one should ignore.

Aokigahara is out now @ http://Jonestownbrighton.bandcamp.com

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Pete RingMaster 28/04/2016

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

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Plutonium – Born Again Misanthrope

Born Again Misanthrope is one of those great releases which maybe initially leaves ears and thoughts unsure but with deserved attention works its way deep into the psyche whilst proving to be one highly magnetic proposition. The nine-track engagement, with a tone and character living up to its name, is the recently released third album from Plutonium, a one man project from Sweden and an encounter which crafts and in turn captivates with a voracious theatre of raw and dramatic shadows.

Carlsson, more often known as Mr J,. is the creator of Plutonium and a sound which imaginatively merges extreme industrial and black metal, though that over simplifies the sonic adventure within certainly Born Again Misanthrope. Hailing from Karlskoga, the project emerged in 2003 with an early demo appearing the following year. Three years on and debut album One Size Fits All was unveiled with successor Devilmentertainment appearing four years on. With hindsight investigation of those releases, it is easy to assume Plutonium has drawn potent attention and support over the years, even if yet to find itself breaking into the broader spotlights beyond its homeland. Born Again Misanthrope though, might be the key; certainly it is the most imaginatively accomplished and unique proposal from Plutonium yet and given the time a sizeable magnet for ears and eager attention.

The album opens with its title track and a militarist nagging of beats which subsequently sparks a similarly toned parade of riffs. From there blackened toxic grooves spring upon ears and appetite as the dark rasping tones of Mr J. almost crawl through the enveloping muggy landscape. It is a ravenous confrontation unafraid to allow a seduction of melodic calm to join its persuasive trespass of ears and imagination. The collusion of industrial and extreme metal is a hellacious tempting with post punk and progressive twists icing on the pestilential cake. As suggested earlier, it provides a thick challenge initially, taking body and thoughts aback with its unconventional design and aggravation but over plays the song really blossoms into one dramatically compelling affair.

It is a journey and achievement which pretty much applies speaks for the album too, and second song Cortex Vortex whose intrusive invasion is at first a boldly unsettling incitement. Taking time to acclimatise to its creative animus of rabid intensity and a ravenously tantalising sonic undercurrent though, the song emerges as another captivating protagonist of the senses. Its unpredictability is as enjoyably ripe as the diverse strains of styles woven into the corrosive theatre of sound and intent; a soundscape as prone to melodic and avant-garde intrigue as it is emotive despair.

For personal tastes it is when tracks venture into that wrong-footing and seriously diverse scenery that they truly come alive and remove themselves from more recognisable black metal dilemmas. The Inverted Panopticon Experience is such an offering; though instantly taking a hold of the appetite with its death march of debilitating rhythms and corrosively wiry riffs and grooves, it is the industrial and sonic imagination that elevates its stature and lure even though its dominant incessant stalking of the senses never abates.

Casque Strength has that same nagging quality too though this time with a warmer melodic hue to its worrisome nature. Straight away it is working the senses though it holds it back somewhat as a great industrially coloured atmospheric mist descends before returning to its unbridled niggle soon after as the vocals offer venomous predation through it all. Already a virulent strain of persuasion, the track only grows in potency as an enthralling, almost indie rock bred melody and accompanying hooks perpetually vein the venture whilst sparking a bold swing to the torrent of sonic tempting.

One of the clear pinnacles of the album it is followed by the shadow rich drama of The Masque of The Green Demon. A sweltering reflective ambience envelops ears as guitars slowly spread their sultry lures whilst drawing on stoner and sludge bred qualities as the song bracingly shimmers on the senses. Vocally Mr J. never veers from his black metal inspired delivery yet it works perfectly with the heavy rock ‘n’ roll of the fiercely enjoyable track for arguably the most unique moment on the album.

The harsh cold landscape of Renuntiationem comes next; the track a wasteland of warmth and hope that spawns a dark and sombre hued drone laced with just as melancholy rich elegant melodies. It is a provocative and mesmeric flight of sound and emotion that, as many, flourishes with every listen, though time the outstanding Electric Barbwire Crown of Thorns has no need of. From its first electronic/metal seeded assault, the song has ears and appetite enthralled with a web of sonic enterprise within an industrial tirade of noise. Swiftly though, the song twists and turns through inventive detours and imagination fuelled escapades as addictive and infectious as hey comes. Along with Casque Strength and The Masque of The Green Demon, it is reason enough to check out Born Again Misanthrope and Plutonium.

The short instrumental of Alice in Plutoniumland (Two Minute Hate Part III) sparks the imagination next, playing like the haunted soundtrack to a psychedelic kid’s tale set in dystopian X-Files spawned surroundings. It is an ever giving piece for the listener to play with before Confessions Of A Suicidal Cryptologist aggressively leaps on ears and emotions with its furious smog of intensity and cancerous animosity. Fair to say though, the album closer has its own enthralling moments of boisterous catchiness and brazen rock ‘n’ roll endeavour, not forgetting atmospheric synth woven incitement.

The track provides a formidable and potent end to a thoroughly enjoyable adventure which simply becomes more impressive over time. With certain moments of majestic ingenuity backed by further creatively rousing craft, Born Again Misanthrope is a proposal that extreme and industrial metal fans especially should definitely explore.

Born Again Misanthrope is out now @ http://thetrueplutonium.bandcamp.com/

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Pete RingMaster 13/04/2016

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

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The Mountain Man – Bloodlust EP

Like brawling with a bear, the Bloodlust EP leaves concussive destruction and raw mayhem in its wake. It relentlessly ravages and crushes with five tracks of metal ferocity but like an unbridled storm it also leaves the senses energised and hungry for more. The release is the debut assault from Canadian band The Mountain Man; an introduction to a new primal force with potential swinging from every mighty rhythmic blow and sonic tirade.

Hailing from Vancouver,  The Mountain Man draws on inspirations from the likes of The Black Dahlia Murder, Crowbar, Gojira, Lamb of God, and Black Sabbath for their ravenous sound. They are essences easily heard within the band’s first encounter but no more so than the band’s own distinctive and carnivorous imagination and raging intensity. Since forming, the band has earned a potent reputation for a live presence which has seen them play with the likes of 88 Mile Trip, Nylithia, La Chinga, Slaughterhauser, Warrborn, Ninjaspy, Abriosis, Unbeheld, and Dead Asylum. Now it is the Matt Roach produced, Troy Glessner mastered Bloodlust EP ready to spark not only fresh homeland attention but easy to suspect far wider bred spotlights.

Virtually living up to its name from its first breath, the EP opens with the venomous Backhand of God. Its initial touch is a single captivating melody with just a hint of a rapacious edge to it. That background hunger is soon realised as the evocative groove leads into a blistering haze of raw and imposing intensity led by the bestial growl of vocalist Parker.  By now the track is prowling ears, crawling over the senses with a Lamb Of God like predation wrapped in equally intimidating tendrils of guitar enterprise cast by Tyson Tambellini and Jordan Orr. Increasingly invasive and pleasing, the track makes a formidable, attention grabbing start to Bloodlust, though it is quickly eclipsed by the EP’s title track.

A web of primal rhythms and corrosively roaming grooves instantly ensnare ears  as Parker extends his multi-faceted vocal fury and attack to again direct the tempest. It is an exhilarating and  uncompromising tempest driven by the gloriously thunderous and dynamic beats of Ryan McCreedy, whose hellacious craft is matched in merciless kind by the psyche grinding grooves of bassist Tevyn Pacey. The track is glorious, a torrent of riffs and creative savagery bound in acute melodic enterprise which simply captures the imagination as much as the barbarousness of the track has the body gripped.

Open Graves steps forward next; it also opening with a trespass of a groove impossible to defend against. The song is a dirtier, more muggy proposal than its predecessor but still leaves its all-consuming enveloping of the senses open to ear grabbing imagination and the ever evolving hostility of the rhythms. As the song before, it is maybe hard to say that the track offer s big moments of originality yet every minute provides a collision of fresh violence and creative endeavour which leaves most extreme metal onslaughts heard so far this year, looking a touch pale and uninspired.

Showing greater diversity in their songwriting and ideation, the band opens The Great Decay with a melodic seducing which is as elegant as it is slightly melancholic and certainly laced in devilish intrigue which builds and intensifies into a maelstrom of aggravated emotions and volatile persuasion. There is restraint and unbridled animosity in the song, creative adventure and pure sonic rancor, and numerous other contrasting textures which all unite in an impressive, almost swamp like bellow of provocative suggestiveness. Ending with a brutal predatory charge employing every strain of metal viciousness possible, the track makes way for the closing ferociousness of Ghost.

It too takes to stalking the listener first, but with open barbarism in every aspect of its doom scented and blackened pestilential crawl. Breaking out stoner-esque grooves, if swung by an executioner, the band continues to prove that familiar hues does not mean predictability; the track continuing to weave recognisable yet boldly fresh textures into one mean spirited and fiercely galvanic incitement.

It did not take long to get a lusty appetite for Bloodlust, one which has only increased and got greedier with every outing. We are sure to not be alone in embracing the roar of The Mountain Man, and the recognition that things can only get bigger, better, and more brutal with the band over time. Bring it on!

The self-released Bloodlust EP is out March 25^th @ http://mountainmanmetal.bandcamp.com/

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Pete RingMaster 23/03/2016

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

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Guardian – Revolution

There is a fresh tempest about to savage the British metal scene; a bracing consumption of the senses going by the name of Revolution. It is the title of the debut album from Guardian, a Northumberland quartet which had already shown its creative intent with their earlier Tyrants EP. A long time in the making, the new twelve fury encounter is a ferocious blend of varied metal provocations driven by themes “centring on the balance of life and nature, and an emphasis on the unsustainable damage that humans are inflicting on our planet”, and a wake-up call to national attention for the great invasive roar of Guardian.

The band made their first impact with the aforementioned Tyrants EP mid-2014, inspirations from the likes of Pantera, Machine Head, Whitechapel, and Parkway Drive adding to the varied metal bred textures making up the release’s sound and even more so now, Revolution. Well-received by fans and media alike, the EP was supported by Guardian going on a month long European tour followed by a just as busy series of shows around the UK. Thoughts then turned to the band’s first album, Guardian taking their time to write and create the beast before us and proving suggestions that they are one of Britain’s exciting new breed of extreme incitement.

The short introductory climate of Resolution starts things off, its sombre yet elegant melodies the lining to an emerging portentous air as the instrumental leads ears and imagination into the volatile and combative landscape of the album’s title track. Instantly Revolution is an intimidating threat of wiry grooves and biting riffs against barbarous rhythms, the raw antagonism driven by the throat grazing vocal scowling of Matthew Hall and lit by grooved spicing from guitarist Zac Yates. It is a magnetic challenging of ears and emotions; one sculpted with open enterprise and unpredictable imagination within a ravishing cauldron bred from essences to be found in many flavours from death and thrash metal to hardcore and metalcore.

Apart from the fade-out, the track is an immense beginning backed as forcibly by the mazy dynamics and brutal tirades of Politics. Ears are instantly pushed back by its intensity as the predacious nature of the song brews, building until erupting in a hellacious outpouring loaded with the violent rhythms of drummer Joshua Stephen matched in vitriol by the bestial tones of Cory Young’s bass. Yates again veins the storm with toxic but virulent grooves and hooks, their potency successfully riding the crushing breakdowns, as here, breaching the whole of the album.

Innovate devours the senses next, its instant cantankerous character the spark to the song’s savagery in sound and vocal animosity. Inhospitable but again rabidly catchy, the blistering track inflames the appetite for voracious trespasses before the rapaciously energetic prowl of Capitalism matches its triumph. Rock ‘n’ roll to beat up on the world to; the song is an incendiary slab of heavy-duty metal vehemence leaving body and emotions with a want to take on the world.

Through the fearsome heavy metal seeded enmity of Deliverance and the outstanding hardcore toned Catharsis, band and album keep an already hungry appetite greedier, both tracks a sonic web of inventive twists and murderous inclinations before Propaganda provides a rousing if corrosive weave of winding groove honed tendrils to inflame the cancerous tapestry of sound. In some ways the three together provide the pinnacle of the album, each leading and seeming to inspire the following to new creative antipathies before the ‘mellower’ landscape of Hope hugs the senses. Its touch sears the sense from the off and of course it too unveils barbarous sounds and imagination over time, but from start to finish it enthrals with a ‘lighter’ atmosphere and infectiousness absent elsewhere within Revolution.

Nomadic leads the listener through a meandering landscape coated in raw melodic and electric sonic endeavour next, its rhythms building another bad blooded dispute as Hall’s vocals infest the psyche as supporting band roars incite the instincts. It is a crushingly invigorating proposition setting up body and emotions for the back breaking intensity of Ambivalence and finally the ravenous sonic dexterity and rhythmic rabidity of Restoration. The pair creates an intrusively dramatic and explosively volatile finale to Revolution, at the same time giving glimpse of even richer veins of exploration within the Guardian sound.

Revolution is a thoroughly satisfying and enjoyably exhausting release from a band easy to see making strong waves ahead. It is an encounter which might not live up to its name in regard to stirring up the metal scene, moments of surface similarity between some tracks and a familiar feeling to others noticeable if no issue, but for relentless seriously accomplished and stylish metal fury, Revolution is set to wake up thick attention.

Revolution will be available from 22^nd January through all stores and platforms.

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Pete RingMaster 22/01/2016

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

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