Ted Maul « The RingMaster Review

Since emerging in 2010, UK outfit Furyborn seem to make a potent statement with every move they make within the British metal scene. From their live debut in 2011, they have earned support and a reputation which has only gathered momentum and is sure to again with the release of their debut album, Dawn Of Leviathan. It is a ferociously imposing and compelling affair that arouses the same senses it trespasses with the band’s increasingly distinct and adventurous style of melodic death metal.

That live side of the Poole hailing quintet has seen them become one of the most potent forces across the South of England, win the regional Metal 2 The Masses competition and play Bloodstock Open Air for only their seventh live outing. Since then they have shared stages with the likes of Napalm Death, Threat Signal, Mors Principium Est, Sylosis, The Agonist, Malefice, The Defiled, Evile, (Hed) P.E. and Ted Maul as well as release their first acclaimed EP, The Reaping Of Our Days released in 2012 through Bored Stiff Records. Fair to say the band has been nagging at national and broader attention since day one, increasingly growing both which the highly anticipated Dawn Of Leviathan can only escalate.

The album quickly shows a new strength in intensity, craft, and imagination within Furyborn; a growth in all aspects infused into a maturity which is maybe unexpected within a first full-length, even from a band in its seventh year. Dawn of Leviathan opens with the atmospheric trespass of Second Sun, a brief harass of raw sonic dissonance which leads into the album’s title track where instantly a barrage of intrusive beats from drummer Tim Coulson and ravenous riffs from rhythm guitarist Rob Walker devour ears. Just as forceful are the raw throated roars of vocalist Jut Tabor who quickly seizes attention with his grudging tones, their causticity leading to a great flame of clean endeavour; the frontman, as the sounds around him showing a new dexterity and range which only impresses. It takes little time for band and song to reveal a new lofty plateau to that of the first EP, the melodic suggestiveness of lead guitarist Nick Richardson alone a striking new adventure equipped with the broader imagination and uniqueness that flows through the veins of the track.

The Reckoning follows with the same striking creative tenacity and character, the track a tirade of biting rhythms and corrosive riffs leading the listener into a web of melodic and cleanly delivered temptation. Within the burly, ravenous tempest of bitter sonic and vocal inhospitality, it makes for a compelling mix which only intensifies its lures as the song evolves and broadens its inventive landscape before Exult in Extinction uncages its own rabid assault again led by the uncompromising swings of Coulson. Stalking the senses, the bass of Timmy Hodgson is predatory if sometimes overwhelmed by the storm of riffs and beats while again Richardson veins the cauldron of sound with tendrils of skilful melodic lava. Contrasts flare and meet within the encounter, each colluding with and countering the other in a twisting tempest matched by vocal resourcefulness across the band.

The industrial opening of A Fault in Our Design brings a bold hint of Fear Factory like hues before the track turns to stalking and intimidating the senses. There is a swing to its core presence with breeds the infectiousness soon seeping into every element, the result a blistering yet controlled incitement as predatory as it is melodically tenacious while Life Begins uncages its own mercurial invasion of sound and emotion. Though swiftly persuasive and increasingly compelling, the song does not quite reach the inventive and gripping heights of its predecessors for these ears though individual flair is as open as the track’s animosity and melodic assurance.

The raw rabidity of I Am Heresy has the imagination and appetite magnetically hooked again straight after with its ravenous and invitingly inhospitable assault of the senses while Deep Rising provides an enthralling lure of Tabor’s striking clean side courted by a laid back but fully suggestive climate of electronically led sound. With the irresistible carnivorous tone of Hodgson’s bass to the fore, the track is superb, another stirring magnet within the release adding further aspects to the bold adventure and evolving imagination of Furyborn.

The album concludes with firstly the varied metal symphony of Wraith, an array of flavours swarming with each other before a writhing death metal causticity bursts from within their midst, and finally with the symphonically laced As We Burn. The closer revels in all the new attributes of the band’s sound and writing, its proposal as invasively seductive as it is rancorous and transfixing. Again Fear Factory-esque hues entice as more Sepultura/Gojira like elements challenge, each woven into the individual character of Furyborn’s own sound. One of its major highlights, the song ensures that Dawn of Leviathan ends on a fascinating high.

Throughout, the album tightly holds attention and fiercely pleases, increasingly so with every subsequent listen. The fact that you still feel we are listening in on one step in a journey still to unfold only adds to the impressive nature of a release which is as much about potential as it is ear exciting craft and adventure.

Dawn of Leviathan is out now through most online stores and @ http://furyborn.bigcartel.com/

https://www.facebook.com/furyborn/

Pete RingMaster 11/07/2017

June 1^st sees the re-release of The Infinite Growth Paradigm vs Finite Resources, the debut EP from British metallers Codex Alimentarius. Going a big way, alongside their imposingly potent live presence, in earning them an immediately loyal fan base, the band’s introduction has been “re-fired and re-forged” in such a way that it not only commands but simply demands fresh attention. Like a great many we are sure, Codex Alimentarius evaded our radar first time around and indeed with its successor The Hand Of Apophis. Listening to the MK II version of The Infinite Growth Paradigm vs Finite Resources though, it feels more like destiny than annoyance that the Exeter outfit has taken to now to grab ears and an immediate appetite for their melodic death metal nurtured roar, the EP a searing wake-up call to the world of one fiercely exiting proposition.

Formed in 2009 by the quartet of vocalist Stephen Bending, guitarists Stan Kemble and Tim Wright, and bassist Andrew Dicker, Codex Alimentarius were soon making a strong imprint on the local live scene in their first year before expanding the line-up with the addition of third guitarist Elliott Alderman-Broom and drummer Frank Dennis in 2011. The Infinite Growth Paradigm Vs Finite Resources in 2010 only added to their growing reputation and appeal, its release followed by the band going on to tour with the likes of Vader, Krisiun, and Furyborn as well as share stages with bands such as Sonic Syndicate, Malefice, Evile, Revolker, Ted Maul, Demonic Ressurection and many more over the next handful of years. The well-received release of The Hand Of Apophis in 2014 followed the recruitment of Ray Arrell as the band’s new vocalist and the From Hell To Oblivion UK Tour with Enemy Reign the previous year. Despite all that, Codex Alimentarius was still a passing name for many but it is hard to see that remaining the situation as the revamped The Infinite Growth Paradigm vs Finite Resources resets and re-energises the inevitable emergence of the sextet to the fore of the European metal scene.

Mixed and mastered by Alderman-Broom and wrapped in the artwork of Dicker. Mk II opens up with Baptised and swiftly gets down to catching the imagination with nagging riffs and suggestive melodies within an electronic mist. It is an enticing start which does not force attention but teases and seduces it, coaxing intrigue into the venomously lined tones of Arrell and richly toned grooves just waiting to make their impact. Becoming bolder and in many ways even more toxically attractive, the song blossoms in presence and adventure with Arrell the source of animosity and rhythms the seed of imposing trespass; all bound in the simultaneously seductive and predatory adventure of the guitars.

It is a potent and quickly enjoyable start but one soon eclipsed by the mighty proposal of Collapse. It too harries the senses with riffs and flying beats, their rapacious intent matched by the brooding antipathy of bass. Yet there is a swing and hunger to it all driven by almost rabid grooves and gutturally celebratory vocals which simply enslave ears and imagination. With tinges of thrash and folk metal in its dynamic assault, the track is glorious; only growing to greater heights with reserved passages of melodic endeavour and craft woven into a web of senses entangling temptation.

Good Slaves swaps the boisterousness of its predecessor with a more controlled state but still with a heady drama of energy and portentous suggestion. Sweeping melodies add to its dark edge and cinematic climate, grooves and riffs colluding to provide a heart as rousing as it is invasive as the song ignites body and thoughts with ease before passing its success over to the infectious almost envenomed charm of No Return. It feels calmer and physically kinder than those before it yet makes up for it with a tonal animus which infests vocals, melody, and imagination alike. If missing the extra spark of the previous pair of songs, it is a compelling journey through impressing craft and aural discontent; a merger of light and dark, melody and antagonism which heightens an already keen appetite for band and sound.

There is a bait of real catchiness within the quickly persuasive Symbiosis which follows, a devilish grooving which has swift control of body and attitude as the track grows in virulent contagion and emotional jaundice. It is a beast of a tension strapped, malignant stomp providing another major moment within Mk II, a peak matched by the closing mystique cloaked Arise. With Middle Eastern hues flirting with ears and thoughts from within its feudal proposal, the song breeds and widens its tapestry of creative and physical dexterity; guitars weaving a net of emotional and expressive suggestion around plundering rhythms and vocal causticity. It is a gripping affair which though a slow burner compared to earlier tracks leaves the listener provoked in thought and greed to hear and explore more.

With hindsight now available, Codex Alimentarius have not only given their first EP a new lease of life but released and developed its true character as indeed that of their keenly adventurous and eventful sound. Infinite Growth Paradigm vs Finite Resources (Mk II) feels like the moment that the band will truly step out from the shadows or certainly stoke a fire of awareness and attention; the former most likely such the striking presence and also potential found within the release.

Infinite Growth Paradigm vs Finite Resources (Mk II) is released June 1^st.