“Swimming among an overcrowded sea of retro-thrashers, tech-death wankers, and sweepy-haired shoegazers playing post-whatever-the-fuck-the-flavor-is-this-week, there’s a band from Italy that’s looking to Finland and Seattle for the inspiration behind their début, Quiescence. Shores of Null may be a brand-spankin’-new band, but they are looking to capture your attention in pretty interesting ways. And they succeed to a degree.” Grymm just might have stumbled on something interesting here.
“It’s 2014, and bog standard black metal is alive and well! The Italian group Profezia (“masters of high drama”, if the promo hype is to be believed) play a kind of Burzum-esque minimalist black metal. Oracolo Suicida is their third full-length originally released late last year, but is now seeing release in the states through the grimmest of long-running black metal labels, Moribund Records. I probably don’t need to tell you that Profezia lives up to its promise of offering cold, grim black metal done in the old way, and for many, that will be good enough. But for those looking for a little more than “Old English font” black metal, a litany of concerns arise for Oracolo Suicida.” Please observe silence as JF williams begins the reading of the litany.
“Reductivity is hard to resist when reviewing a band like the Italian death/thrash 4-piece Omnivore. If I were lazier, my review of their self-titled debut would be comprised entirely of Youtube links to various songs by Sadus, Kreator, Demolition Hammer and early Sepultura. I’d be a jerk, but accurate nonetheless.” JF Williams is a jerk, but he’s our jerk, so it’s okay. BTW, here’s more re-thrash.
“First off, let’s get one thing straight: Genghis Khan was, in all likelihood, not a rocker. He was many things — military genius, emperor, conqueror of many lands, and guy who killed a shitload of people. It’s possible that some of those things kind of rock, although the surviving populations of Russia, China, and the Middle East may beg to differ. Regardless, Khan lived many centuries before western music even existed, and there’s no evidence of him liking rock or metal. Anyways…so yeah, Genghis Khan the band. These guys are an Italian trio playing what could loosely be called ‘power metal.'” Mr. Fisting loves his world history and has some issues with this Italian trio’s debut album and its historical inaccuracy. Forget the wrath of Khan, this is the wrath of Fisting!!
“Labyrinth is 2013’s incarnation of Fleshgod’s neo-classical death metal. Once again, Labyrinth is not a clone of the band’s previous work, but instead it seems to be Fleshgod’s attempt to reach a happy medium between Agony and Oracles, musically.” Angry Metal Guy weighs in to wordily explain how he feels about the latest slab of orchestral tech death from Italy’s Fleshgod Apocalypse. When we say wordily, we really mean it. Like a thousand freaking words just telling you what he thinks of this album. It’s kind of ridiculous really. No one should spend that much time writing about an album. Who the hell does he think he is?
“Re-thrashers just keep coming through the floorboards and as with roaches, for every one you see, hundreds more lurk just out of sight. Ultra-Violence is a new bug and they hail from Italy of all places. Their Privilege to Overcome debut doesn’t completely reinvent the thrash wheel, but it does offer a dizzyingly schizoid blend of modern thrash, second wave Bay Area style thrash like Defiance and Faith or Fear, Germanic thrash, crossover hardcore like D.R.I. and modern stuff like Machine Head.” If that doesn’t sound like a thick re-thrash stew, nothing does! Join Steel Druhm as he examines if Ultra-Violence has what it takes to kick the requisite amount of buttcheek.
“It seems I’m not quite over my hankering for cheese. In simple terms, that means you get to sit through a review of Resurrection, the aptly titled rebirth of Italian band Death SS and their brand of ‘horror music’. Death SS have quite a history, going back to their inception in 1977 with the only constant of the band (outside of the Evil Metal EP) being the odd vocal styling’s of Steve Sylvester. The list of former members is pretty astonishing (upwards of 30 member changes) which probably accounts for why Death SS have done a complete about-turn when comparing Resurrection against its predecessors.” First Powerwolf and now this? Madam X is off the reservation and wandering through Cheese Land and she may never be the same. Ever see KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park? This could be KISS Meets the Madam.
“Yup, I’ve been picking promo’s based on album art again, some say it’s no way to pick an album, that the two don’t correlate, I disagree. Don’t knock the system till you’ve tried it! What it boils down to is that I have no history with Ecnephias, I’ve not come across their dark melodies before and as mentioned it was graphic artist Pierre-Alain D. (3mmi Design) and his attractive album art that prompted me towards this review.” Madam X reviews some blackened death which may or may not sound like Septicflesh. You people love when we do that!
“This album has been giving me fits. I initially confused the band with a power-prog outfit and volunteered to review it. Well, it’s about as far from power prog as Earth is from the Sun. No, Kaledon is a super mega cheesy symphonic power metal ensemble from Italy and they desperately want to be the next Rhaposdy of Fire. To that end, they pile on the swords, sandals, Spartacus and silliness (and they even roped Fabio Lione into guest vocals somehow). Though this is their seventh album (most being part of concept series called Legends of the Forgotten Realm), I had somehow missed them all, which is fortuitous, because from my investigations, they aren’t very good. In fact, they assault the listener with some of the most generic, uninteresting power metal in recent memory. Altor: The King’s Blacksmith is a heaping helping of cheese coated fruit, unfit for consumption by all but the most ardent LARPer.” Steel Druhm doesn’t like LARPing, but he does like power metal, even cheesy power metal. Doesn’t seem as if he’s liking this slice of spoiled Rhapsody pie though….
Noctus loves sludgy stuff and according to him, Void of Sleep fits the bill nicely. Who can argue with doomy but catchy music from Italy anyway?
