Crostpaths – Self Titled EP

Nov29

The eagerness of people to push forward UK metallers Crostpaths for attention has raised a certain intrigue and now with the release of their self-titled debut EP, it is easy to understand. It is a highly promising and more importantly thickly enjoyable introduction to the Kent Hailing outfit and easy to expect the fuel to further and greater interest in their potent sound.

Formed a year ago, Crostpaths take the inspirations of bands such as Linkin Park, Skindred, and Papa Roach to their nu-metalcore tagged sound and it is the latter of the trio which most comes to mind across the EP’s three tracks. Even so there is plenty to their music which is refreshingly unique as it is familiar and as it evolves its true identity over time and maturity you can only see the former being the overbearing hue.

The EP opens with Pariah, teasing and taunting with the song’s initially set back bait before standing toe to toe with ears and thrusting rapacious riffs and tenacious rhythms through them. The crossover character of the band’s sound shapes the track’s first engagement, groove and alternative metal building its second manoeuvre as the lead vocals of Ritchie Murray Jack ably backed by those of bassist Owain Lewis prowl and pounce. Pitchshifter styled electronics equally add to the tempest of textures and temptation, the predacious breath of the song armoured by the eclectic web of sound which emerges in individual design across the EP.

If the first track had a bit of a Spineshank meets Papa Roach roar the following Meridian (Aftermath) finds an Emmure/The Kennedy Soundtrack like scent to its equally adventurous roar. There is a calmer melodic air to the song than its predecessor in some ways, Crostpaths exploring their more progressive post metal side but still there are moments when the song snarls and the band’s sound bites.

Bulldozer is the EP’s final offering, a cankerous slab of aggressively antagonistic metal with a combined Rage Against The Machine/Nonpoint resembling ferocity. Brief, taking no prisoners, it is a stirring end to an impressive first uprising with Crostpaths and we hope the first of many more rousing encounters.

The Crostpaths EP is out November 29^th.

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Pete RingMaster 28/11/2019

Fathom Farewell – Consume the Earth

Oct16

Fathom Farewell is a band with a growing wind of praise behind them, one sure to be more vociferous with the release of new EP, Consume the Earth. The Boston quartet have emerged from within the melodic metalcore scene but as the six tracks within their latest offering shows, their sound is a far more adventurous and varied blend of metal and melodic rock enterprise.

Since emerging in 2014, Fathom Farewell has forged a potent reputation and fan base with their Decomposition EP in 2017 especially luring strong praise and attention. Live the band has equally impressed as they have shared stages with the likes of Issues, The Devil Wears Prada, Volumes, I Prevail, Currents and many more, supported Sevendust on their 20th anniversary tour, playing upon the Vans Warped Tour four times as well as making numerous appearances at other prestigious festivals. In the midst of their Raid Area 51 US Tour, the band is hungrily nudging far broader attention with Consume the Earth, a hinting which is hard to see not finding some real recognition such its impressive character of sound and craft.

EP opener, Six Feet Beneath, immediately drew keen ears with its initial rally of rhythms and stabbing riffs, melodic enticement swiftly joining that initial potent lure as the song quickly slips into its magnetic stride. Individual dexterity is just as openly and rapidly in evidence, the guitar of Gage Killion and bass of Steve Almona unveiling respectively sharply incisive and contagiously brooding imagination around the equally compelling rhythms of drummer Casey Albiero. Just as striking come the vocals of Alex Cohen, his variety and agility another major captivation to song and sound as the EP gets off to a stirring start.

Its title track follows and is soon showing the same strength of invention and contagious enterprise, its breath and flavouring arguably even more rapacious than within its predecessor as the song surges boisterously through ears. Again metal and rock textures align to be woven into a song thick in melodic prowess and unpredictable ideation whilst embracing more familiar hues to equally enjoyable success. A momentary calm only brings further and richer drama to the track, the same kind of emotively aflame quiet lining Cohen’s vocals ably backed by the harmonic tones of Almona.

As eagerly devoured as they were, Wide Awake took a far bigger swipe at our favourite track choice, its opening voracious tempting as feral as it is melodically seductive and urgently catchy. It is an infectious adroitness which continues to infest the magnetic landscape of the fiery encounter before Mutiny adds its claim to that personal choice honour and ultimately seizes it. A twirling thread of guitar introduces the immediately tempestuous climate and body of the song, its ferocious metalcore nurtured assault inspiring a similarly fierce and untamed eruption in the vocals. There is an instant infectiousness to the rabidity of the song, rhythms again as barbarous as they are a virulent incitement while Killion’s guitar spins another enticing web before melody and harmony momentarily flood the creative and emotive antipathy; subsequently breaking the turbulence again with similar magnetism in a storm of nothing but.

A far calmer but no less heated Cold Beginnings is next, its evocative and melodically lit body exposed to sonic flames and intense drama throughout before the release is concluded by Soul Within The Shadow. The final track is another with drama soaking every note and syllable, its tapestry of sound and imagination ablaze with melodic intensity and technical insurgency. Equally it has an underlying volatility which erupts with ferocious, masterful, and accomplished adventure.

It is a rousing end to a release which only impressed from start to finish with certain and numerous moments that just lit our fires. Welcome world to Fathom Farewell.

Consume the Earth is out now; available through http://www.fathomfarewell.com/store

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Pete RingMaster 27/09/2019

Tezura – Voices

Sep17

Formed less than a year ago, Tezura is a German band which recently made a rather potent introduction to themselves with the release of their debut EP. Their demo holds four tracks of thrash bred multi-flavoured metal, songs rich in potential and strong in ear grabbing enjoyment.

Hailing from Schongau, Tezura emerged in the winter of 2018 and soon set about working on their first release. Their sound draws on its thrash instincts throughout the quartet of tracks making up Voices but is just as open in its punk and metalcore, amongst other flavours, inspirations.

Behind The Glow sets things off, a lure of guitar central to its potent invitation before the song sets off on its thrash nurtured canter. The guitars of Phil Elste and Timo Kammerer only continue to entice as the latter’s gruff tones enter the creative affray. It is an attack though with melodic dexterity strapped to its rhythmic punch, riffs and grooves casting a subtle yet bold web to the aggressive but controlled nature of drummer Lukas Mayr’s strikes and the heavy dark bassline of Max Wopinsk. There is an imagination and craft to band and song though which ultimately holds attention keenest and caps the satisfaction naturally bred by the EP’s great start.

Its title track is next, riffs immediately gnawing on the senses as the track urgently bursts through ears with punk rapacity. Anthrax spiced fuel equips its driving thrash surge, the guitars again bringing melodic and sonic enterprise to bear on familiar hues with relish as rhythms trespass the senses. Progressive essences add to the song’s infectious character and persuasion before Apotheosis uncages its rawer but no less tempting punk infused metal holler. Untamed and irritable, the song challenges as it baits but equally only gets under the skin with that aggression as well as the harmonic endeavour of vocals and the melodic twine spun by the guitars.

Completed by the predatory exploits of Sun, the track sharing another aspect to the band’s sound with more progressive metal/metalcore essences at large within its creative drama, Voices easily lured eager anticipation for the next outing with Tezura. It is early days but the signs are already there that the band has the instincts and craft to make a real mark.

Voices is available now as a name your price download @ https://tezura.bandcamp.com/releases

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Pete RingMaster 06/09/2019

Arkdown – The Calling

Oct31

Having already teased acclaim and attention with their debut EP a couple of years back, UK metallers Arkdown give them a real shove with its successor, The Calling. Unleashing five uncompromising, seriously predacious cuts of metalcore seeded hostility as stylish as they are rabid the new EP is the declaration of a band ready to take on all comers.

Cast in the steel of their hometown Sheffield hailing Arkdown has been on a steady ascent through the British metal ranks since emerging in 2015. The well received EP, Path, lit up the underground metal scene with its 2016 release whilst live the band’s reputation has only risen as alongside their own shows they have shared stages with the likes of Fit for an Autopsy, Oceans Ate Alaska, Martyr Defiled, Kingdom of Giants, A Night in Texas, and Shields. The Calling is their next bold and impressive step and challenge to the higher echelons of the British metal frontline and further afield.

Though metalcore based, the Arkdown sound is a rich union of flavours, death and melodic metal colluding with rapacious grooves and merciless aggression across that instinctive bed. It makes for tracks which even as they directly assault equally fester in the imagination all twisting and turning with imaginative adventure as quickly shown by EP opener, Wake Up. The initial calm of its intro is soon squashed under the following weight of riffs and rhythms from which vocalist Kyle Dawson enticingly scowls and the guitars of Mike Dyson and Mike Walker spin senses ensnaring webs of antipathy wired with fine melodic thread. Swiftly a diversity of sound and vocal attack mingle in the outstanding trespass leaving ears ringing and pleasure greedily rising.

The following It Calls Me instantly wraps the listener in spirals of contagiously intrusive grooving, the swinging beats of Alex Roberts taking skilled pot shots as again the throat raw variety coated assault of Dawson erupt in animosity and magnetism. With the eager yet brooding basslines of Ed Morley as potent as the invasive enterprise of the guitars, the track grabs best track honours as it further ignited the passions before Mirrors embraces the senses in its own infectious guitar wiring as winds of discontent and dark reflection ravage. As its predecessors, the track is a captivating roar of craft and enterprise built on an array of individual agility and as those before, another mighty reason to devour the Arkdown sound.

The closing pair of Five Years and Falling brings the EP to a rousing close. The first is a sonic wrath within a cauldron of melodic intensity, uncaging grooves and sonic rancor with an intrusive yet deft hand whilst its successor while being the calmest moment within The Calling, indeed a haunting seduction of imagination, it is also a tempest of conflict and venomous ideation as mercurial and volatile as it is tantalising.

Giving five tracks which increasingly fascinate as they corrode the senses, The Calling is a striking and increasingly irresistible encounter from a band surely poised to stir up real fuss with their dynamic, dramatic and deviously compelling sound.

The Calling is out Friday 2nd November.

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Pete RingMaster 31/10/2018

Black Water Chemistry – Return To Ashes

Aug30

Though formed in 2014 it is the last eighteen months or so that the buzz around Welsh metallers Black Water Chemistry has really intensified. It has been a time where the band itself says that they have been “working tirelessly to cement their style and increase their fan base”, success of that intent in the first aspect now strikingly heard within and in the second poised to be ignited by new EP Return To Ashes.

Tagged as metalcore but with much more to its template of imagination and adventure, the Black Water Chemistry sound is a cauldron of aggressive energy and inventive enterprise. It has maybe yet to breach the walls of true uniqueness but as the four tracks within Return To Ashes shows, it has an individuality which is as memorable as it is unpredictable. Formed by blood brothers in vocalist Matt Saunders and lead guitarist Chris Saunders and completed by bassist Gizz, rhythm guitarist Murph, and drummer Dan, the Newport hailing quintet embrace inspirations from the likes of Architects, Parkway Drive, Killswitch Engage, Chelsea Grin, August Burns Red, Mastodon, and Periphery to their creative breast. They are strands of influences which light up the band’s sound but more seems to spark Black Water Chemistry’s own individual endeavour.

The EP opens up with new single Oracles. Instantly ears are under a barrage of predacious rhythms but equally are wrapped in a wiry mesh of grooves hunted by ravenous riffs. Vocals come with matching force and attitude but soon reveal great diversity as clean strains alternate and unite with throaty squalls. Already that richness of sound within its metalcore breeding is working away, enticing and intriguing as simultaneously other aspects trespass the senses. Evolving through more placid but no less gripping moments before the track’s rock ‘n’ roll explodes it is an outstanding start and appetiser to the fresh impetus in the rise of Black Water Chemistry

The Last Iconoclasts follows, it also making a striking entrance as guitars and rhythms concoct a web of rabid temptation before vocals roar and croon to create the song’s very own lure of unpredictability and imagination. The punk ferocity of its predecessor is accentuated within the second offering as too its raw metallic animosity, the song prowling almost stalking the listener at times and seducing them with melodic elegance and angst in others.

There is no let-up in the great mercurial attack of the band’s instinctive imagination and feral enterprise within next up Masterstroke. The song is borne of a more heavy rock/melodic metal seeding but again an untamed but skilfully crafted maelstrom of extreme metal nurtured ill-content. Grooves and riffs tease and nag as rhythms stalk and bite, every twist and turn an ear luring confrontation before the EP concludes with the hellacious fire of its title track. If the last song nagged in certain ways, its successor simply harasses, rewarding its imaginative malefaction with a beguiling entanglement of senses infringing adventure and unexpected twists and turns; at times roaring like a natural union between Periphery, Bring Me The Horizon, and Reuben.

It is a fine end to a release which will surely thrust Black Water Chemistry forcibly into much thicker and eager recognition and attention. Excellent from the off and even more striking by the listen Return To Ashes is a wake-up call to the UK metal scene fuelled by a potential which will conceivably take the band beyond those boundaries.

Return To Ashes is released August 31^st.

https://www.facebook.com/BlackWaterChemistry/ https://twitter.com/B_W_Chemistry https://blackwaterchemistry.bandcamp.com/

Pete RingMaster 29/08/2018

Cancel – Dark Reveries

Jul4

Dark Reveries is the new album from Swiss hardcore fury Cancel; a release which echoes its titles with tracks which savagely grab you from reality to immerse in rousingly, often carnally raucous dissonance. It makes no compromises in its assault and attitude loaded irritability but tempers the compelling causticity with flirtatious imagination whilst declaring the Luzern quintet ready to seize global attention.

Founded in 2011, Cancel has released a host of ear grabbing proposals around a richly received debut album in Circle of 2015. Their sound has evolved across each encounter and ventures a whole new plateau of enterprise and devilry within second full-length Dark Reveries. It is tagged as hardcore but freely ventures across the landscapes of noise, punk, metalcore, and post hardcore with each individual song.

It opens up with Mind Burial, instantly expressing raw vocals and sound upon the senses as rhythms closely prowl. Stalking the listener, the track soon hits a more urgent stride without losing all its restraints; captivating attention with every passing second of its Coilguns meets Red Tape like assault. An instinctive groove seizes its moment to enslave as rhythms continue to prey, all the while the band’s imagination brewing and taking a thicker hold on the album’s thrilling start.

The following Hysteria surges through ears with punk ‘n’ roll rancor, beats thumping with flirtatious violence as group shouts and urges accompany individual temptation. It is a seriously enjoyable and insatiable trespass emulated in its own way by successor Golden Rats but given a whole new web of twists and turns to become scorched by and addicted too. Both tracks reveal more of the bolder hunger and adventure in the band’s sound; exploration further stretched and exploited within the invasively mercurial Death Cab. As its punk heart bellows and ensnares like a malicious Shevils, the band’s rock ‘n’ roll instincts gains momentum, the great blend of vocals following the imaginative endeavour. Wiry grooves and the brooding growl of the bass only add to the unbridled magnetism brewed and devoured.

Poor Man’s Sermon is pure seduction from its first breath, the song slowly unwinding its unpredictable body note by note, clean syllable by alluring word until strolling through post punk/rock terrain courted by throat raw vocal toxicity. It is a fascinating affair and mix which only intensified its ire and hold by the second before the punk hostility of Chased Feelings ripped through ears. It too though embraced a mix of flavours and urgencies within its brief tenure, making way for the anthemic roar and challenging antipathy of Freedom On A Cross. As its predecessor, the track swiftly got under the skin with its predacious swing and inescapable curse of hooks and grooves.

The following minute and a half sees You`re Everything I`m Not ravage the senses, its Converge-esque punk feud colluding with rock ‘n’ roll arousal to manipulate and enslave while Human Machinery straight after sees Cancel spark the imagination more forcibly in its minute of instrumental darkness than many bands do in a ten minute plus flight of suggestion.

Dark Reveries finishes off with its title track, another song which is on the hunt from its opening seconds of sound and invention but with an eagerness which refuses a negative response. It is a swing and purpose which shuffles its attack but cores it with an infectious lure which never deviates from its intent and success.

It is a fine end to an album which just impresses further by the listen. Cancel might not grow to be one of Switzerland’s greatest exports but already they are definitely one of its most pleasurable and captivating.

Dark Reveries is available now @ https://cancel.bandcamp.com/

http://cancelband.com/ https://www.facebook.com/CancelBandOfficial

Pete RingMaster 03/07/2018

VNDTA – Pale Glow

Apr17

The moments of being truly bowled over by a release or ‘new’ band, introduction wise, seem to be far and few between right now but leave us on our backs with jaw wide open with exhilarated awe is just what British metallers VNDTA did with their debut EP, Pale Glow. With a sound which manages to caress and seduce whilst ripping out and feasting on the senses, the Hertfordshire quartet have just announced themselves as a real big deal.

Though formed in 2015, it was 2017 which saw the band really worry attention and acclaim as they shared stages with the likes of Aghast, Vanity, King Leviathan, and Confessions of a Traitor as well as a host of their own headlining shows. To be honest, Pale Glow is actually our introduction to the band and there could be no better a way to meet them and form a lustful union between music and ears.

Like a fusion of the raw aggression and spiteful trespasses of Iwrestledabearonce and Otep with the virulent catchiness of No Doubt and The Cardigans, the VNDTA (pronounced as vendetta) sound swiftly reveals itself within their latest encounter to be as unique to the band as you would wish. Tagged as alternative metal it embraces a host of other metal and punk flavours in its cauldron of intimation and intimidation. The recording of Pale Glow came within a turbulent time, vocalist Megan Targett admitting that “Recording the EP was probably the most difficult week of my life. We were broke, spent weeks living in my car; I ended an abusive relationship and lost a family member. But it didn’t stop me. We used the pain to fuel raw passion into the vocals and the music.” That passion is clear to hear as the EP’s tracks devour and arouse second by second.

From the moment the EP’s title track looms right up from its distant entrance attention was not only hooked but chained to what was to follow. Wiry tendrils of guitar wrap around ears immediately, senses slapping beats alongside and once the first track hits its voracious stride and the vocals of Targett unleash their incitement, the deal between lust and the devil’s music roaring from the speakers was done. Swiftly the singer impresses with a throat abrasing attack and venomous delivery but it is when she breaks into a glorious clean delivery that realisation at her talent is inescapable. Before then guitarists Callan Hughes and Jay Bacon gnaw at and chew on the senses, twisting and turning with grooves as their hooks pierce with imagination as the swinging rhythms of drummer Willem Mason-Geraghty infest body and spirit just as potently. The track is immense and no better way to succumb to the first abusive seduction of VNDTA.

Well we say that but the highlights just flood ears thereon in, the following Excuses a feral yet skilfully honed temptation as contagiously infectious as it is violently manipulative. Targett croons first this time, harmonically enticing as the band spin their creative web. There is of course a constant growl in the throat of singer and song, one subsequently erupting with carnal designs though still with melodic veining and atmospheric suggestion for inventive company. Involvement in voice and attitude is unavoidable as too with next up Swine, a tempest of contrasts and intensity amidst the drama of the imagination. Another as wickedly catchy as it is uncompromisingly gladiatorial, the song is another which just stirs body and spirit.

The visceral and physically twisted enterprise of Martyr is a sonic virus, getting under the skin and into the psyche within a few insidious breaths from where it burns and seduces with toxicity and beauty, again pretty much simultaneously as the sounds abound the senses with antipathy and infectiousness as Targett again simply exhilarates. The suggestive calm which bridges it and successor Rare Breed is magnetic yet soon in the past as the following creative escapade erupts. Again a tapestry of flavours and intrusion descends on ears and once more pleasure is swift and continuous. From voice to sound, melody to rhythm the song is a mercurial adventure rewarding at every twist and tempting at every turn imagination, unpredictability fuelling every moment.

Emotion and passion equally soak every breath and note, the final pair of Leeches and Virus blossoming with both. The first is carnivorous from the off, music and voice an intrusive animus but instantly as catchy as the lighter harmonics which intersperse the tempest of technical, extreme, and grooved endeavour with a fine line in progressive intuition. The track is yet one more immense moment within Pale Glow, a predator of the finest incitement pretty much matched by Virus. Straight away it gets under the skin though maybe no more than its other striking companions, but by the twist and turn it digs deeper and becomes more toxic and intoxicating but similarly graceful as it revolves its attack.

The excellent encounter completes the outstanding release, a nationwide introduction surely leading to bigger, broader, and richer things much as their sound blossoms across its length. Once in a while a band really excites, at the time and for things ahead. VNDTA has us drooling and we can only say go see why.

Pale Glow is out now, available @ http://vndtashop.bigcartel.com/