Reviews

Record reviews

Noumena – Death Walks With Me Review

Noumena – Death Walks With Me Review

“Steel Druhm has been banging the drum for little known Finnish act Noumena for quite some time. Ever since stumbling on them, I’ve been a huge fan of their brand of morose, melodic death and I spin their Absence and Anatomy of Life albums all the damn time at Casa de Steelo. In fact, I think Anatomy of Life stands as one of the finest examples of melo-death every recorded. It had all the quintessentially Finnish “dead puppy under the Christmas tree” melancholy you’ve come to expect from countrymen Insomnium, Omnium Gatherum and Rapture, mixed with the guitar wizardry of early In Flames and rounded out with haunting female vocals (and winning guest vocals from Tuomas Tuominen of Fall of the Leafe/Man-Eating Trees to boot).” If you like Finnish melo-death (and you should), you had best join Steel Druhm’s drum circle as he sings the praises of this long overlooked band.

Black Boned Angel – The End Review

Black Boned Angel – The End Review

“There’s no point in dancing around it – doom/drone is about as niche as niche gets. Unless you’re a serious enthusiast of bands like Earth (early material) and Sunn O))), it’s very likely that Black Boned Angel haven’t been a band on your radar, and with their latest (and last) opus, that isn’t very likely to change.” Drone is a mighty tough sell, but Noctus has his sales pitch ready and he wants to tell you why this is something special. Hell, this guy could sell spit to Geoff Tate!

Persefone – Spiritual Migration Review

Persefone – Spiritual Migration Review

Persefone is in a bit of a strange position; a darling of the underground progressive metal scene, while still not being particularly well known. Formed in 2003, these Andorran prog metallers have a sound deeply influenced by the ’90s melodeath, progressive black and prog scenes including Opeth, Borknagar, Arcturus and Symphony X. In 2004 they released their debut record Truth inside the Shades and followed up quickly in 2006 with the epic Core. But it wasn’t until 2009 when Persefone blew the world of progressive metal up with Shin-Ken. The record was long, in-depth and gripping — with a unique sound palette that still hit home with metal fans. Technical, sprawling and unique Shin-Ken set the bar for Persefone tremendously high.

Blackshine – Soul Confusion Review

Blackshine – Soul Confusion Review

“And now for something completely different. Blackshine is an underground Swedish act sporting an interesting blend of thrash and hard rock. Though I’ve seen them refered to as “death n’ roll,” I never found that to be an apt descriptor. Their sound is like a raucous blend of First Wave Bay Area thrash, Motorhead, Sentenced, a wee bit of Wolverine Blues-era Entombed and a smattering of stoner/biker rock.” If that sounds like a heady brew of influences, join Steel Druhm as he gets his Blackshine on.

Echtra – Sky Burial Review

Echtra – Sky Burial Review

Sky Burial is the third-full length album from atmospheric black metal/folk/drone group Echtra, who hail from Olympia, Washington. The record, which is composed of two twenty-three minute tracks entitles “Sky Burial I” and “Sky Burial II,” forms the first instalment of a conceived trilogy of albums entitled The Passage Cycle. Each of these three records will deal with “sloughing off the mortal coil” in some way, and the transition from one state of being to the next. Echtra is a solo project, all elements performed by the eponymous multi-instrumentalist, though Echtra is joined by guest musicians for rare live performances.” Can you ignore a one-man, folksy black metal project from the Great Northwest? You Echtra ass you can’t! Natalie Zed explains why this is worth your precious time.

The Moth Gatherer – A Bright Celestial Light Review

The Moth Gatherer – A Bright Celestial Light Review

“The guitarist plays his guitar while high on meth-infused beer, plugging the guitar cable into a meth-powered amplifier and stomps on the pedal incessantly with the enthusiasm of a little kid playing Dance Dance Revolution at the arcade. The drummer prefers rhythmic consistency to speed; the bassist wears an invisibility cloak even as he hits low notes that causes window panes to reverberate, giving away his presence; the vocalist sings about life’s saddest moments (boo-hoo v.v). Finally, there are also calm, acoustic interludes that serve as breaks between heavy passages.”

Avantasia – The Mystery of Time Review

Avantasia – The Mystery of Time Review

“You have to give Tobias Sammet his steely props. He doesn’t do things half-assed. Nope, he goes big, bold and lets the Metal Gods sort shit out. His Edguy material is plenty pretentious and overblown, but it can’t hold a magic candle to the sheer pretentious pomposity and bombast of his Avantasia project. Taking cues from Arjen Luccasen’s Ayreon outings, Sammet drags in every singer, guitarist and hanger-on he can and it seems he’s playing a metallic version of Pokemon (gotta catch em all). His last feat was the impressive double release of the Angel of Babylon and The Wicked Symphony albums (my fanboyish reviews of which, landed me a spot at AMG Industries, Ltd. for some reason), and I was very curious how he could top those massive platters of symphonic excess.” So how exactly does Mr. Sammet top his prior output? Steel Druhm is here to unravel the mysteries of time.

Exarsis – The Brutal State Review

Exarsis – The Brutal State Review

“One of the stranger parts of American culture is the phenomena of the Civil War reenactment. For those of you unfamiliar with this, it is exactly what it sounds like: History buffs and other geeks dress in 1860’s-era clothing, meet at a public place, and painstakingly recreate some of our nation’s most infamous battles. As fun as this might be to watch, the reenactments are somewhat predictable, because every single time (with one exception) the outcome is exactly the same. If you can imagine the futility of witnessing the same battle over and over again, fully knowing how it will end, then you are beginning to understand how difficult it is to review retro thrash albums.” And that brings us to the dulcet tones of Greek thrashers Exarsis. Mr. Fisting thinks these guys just made one of the better Bay Area thrash records of 1989, except that they’re from Greece and it’s 2013. That poses a problem.

Amaranthe – The Nexus Review

Amaranthe – The Nexus Review

As a young boy I learned a really important lesson at the hands of one of my favorite bands, Europe. Sure, you laugh, but I was 5 and it was the ’80s, so I was well within my rights to listen to Europe. In 1984, Sweden’s very own, very popular foray into glam rock released a record called Wings of Tomorrow. The album cover was simple. An armored bird of prey, in profile against a red planet cradled in a vast blanket of stars, ready to attack an unseen foe. Five-year-old me was in awe. My unconstrained imagination transported me into space with this mighty, ironclad hawk, to fight futuristic wars. This set the stage for a magical listening experience and the record is still one of my favorites. When I finally got around to The Final Countdown something important had changed: the cover was five poofy haired dudes in space. No suspension of disbelief, no imagination, just Swedish glam rockers in space. And the record? Well, it had one great song… and in retrospect a lot of stinkers. At that moment, an important seed of distrust of bands with their own pictures on the cover of a record was instilled in me. If a band isn’t creative enough to come up with a cool record cover, that band probably isn’t creative enough to write really good music.

Beyond the Shore – Ghostwatcher Review

Beyond the Shore – Ghostwatcher Review

“Madam X rarely wanders down the road of hardcore or metalcore since dealing with mallrats and emo’s is troublesome (where to hide the bodies and all…). Once in a while though, venturing out into the unknown pays off and you stumble across an album with a little more imagination and progression (cast your mind back if you will to 2011’s Digital Veil delivered by Travis Richter’s The Human Abstract). Now jump back to 2009 to the release of Lexington, Kentucky based Beyond the Shore’s first EP precursor (The Arctic Front). While the album bore some small resemblance to Parkway Drive, it sounded juvenile and lacked the intensity of say “Dark Days.” Four years later Beyond the Shore haven’t been working on a funeral doom album. No, instead they’ve been working on getting into Metal Blade Records (home to As I Lay Dying and a host of other big names) good graces, honing their sound and gathering some interesting elements to add to their music.” Is our Madam X warming up to metalcore?? Say it ain’t so, X!! Oops, there I go using genres as pejoratives…