Swiss Metal

Things You Might Have Missed 2013: Paysage d’Hiver – Das Tor

By JF Williams on December 18, 2013 in Black Metal, Swiss Metal, Things You Might Have Missed 2013, Black Metal, 2 comments

“Christmas sure came early this year! Swiss ambient black metal enigma Wintherr is back in black (and white and gray) with his 10th (!) full-length demo release Das Tor under the Paysage d’Hiver moniker, and it greets you like a hug from an old friend. For those already familiar with Wintherr’s aesthetic approach of making frigid black metal that was likely recorded with an 8-track in the middle of a blizzard, you can stop reading here and fire up the cassette deck, because Das Tor makes no changes to the sound Wintherr has perfected over the last 15 years. All you need to know, dear reader, is that it slays and deserves all 80 minutes of your attention.” We haven’t highlighted much low-fi, primitive black metal lately, but JF Williams thinks this is worth the press. The cover is pretty damn cool too.

Things You Might Have Missed 2013: Bolzer – Aura

By JF Williams on December 11, 2013 in Black Metal, Death Metal, Iron Bonehead Productions, Swiss Metal, Things You Might Have Missed 2013, Black Metal, Death Metal, 4 comments

“This year produced a great deal of excellent EP releases, but the Swiss duo Bölzer’s mini-LP Aura managed not only to be the best of the bunch, but also beat out most full-lengths with three tracks and 23 minutes of some truly next-level occult black/death metal. The record features perhaps one of the best riffs of 2013 in “Entranced by the Wolfshook,” which marries a Blut Aus Nord-ian guitar tone with pseudo-Wagnerian orchestral synths and an absolutely bangin’ main riff that you can’t help but meet with a shit-eating grin and grimace. Seriously – it’s the kind of metal-as-all-hell lick that an appreciation of which should serve as a litmus test to expose the false amongst our ranks.” JF Williams draws your attention to an EP you might have missed which may or may not feature the Riff of the Year! I like riffs. Do you?

Mumakil – Flies Will Starve Review

By Natalie Zed on June 8, 2013 in 2013, Death Metal, Grind, Relapse, Reviews, Swiss Metal, Death Metal, Grind, 1 comment

“Swiss grindcore legion Mumakil take their name from the gigantic, elephant-like creatures that appear in the Lord of the Rings novels. Also known as Oliphaunts (as the Hobbits of middle-earth refer to them) these 6-tusked monstrosities come from the jungles of Far Harad and are often ridden into battle, covered in armour and even more spikes, by the Haradrim. They are just as magical, and just as terrible, as dragons. It is from these beasts that Mumakil draw their name, and from their lineage hope to extract a sense of heaviness, ferocity, and steer trampling power. Their third full-length, Flies Will Starve, certainly plays like a stampede. At just over thirty-five minutes, this record is composed of twenty-four tracks that do their absolutely best to crush and grind the listener underfoot.” AMG has never been accussed of reviewing too much grindcore, so here’s Natalie with some grindcore, from Switzerland no less!

Sybreed – God is an Automaton Review

By Lord Doom on September 28, 2012 in 2012, 3.5, Listenable Records, Reviews, Swiss Metal, 2 comments

Lord Doom is here to bend your ear about Swiss Modern metallers Sybreed. It’s Djenty, mechanical and heavy. Pummeling is the watch word.

Emerald – Unleashed Review

By Steel Druhm on August 13, 2012 in 2.5, 2012, Heavy Metal, Power Metal, Pure Steel Records, Reviews, Swiss Metal, Heavy Metal, Power Metal, 4 comments

We haven’t done power metal in a few weeks, so here’s some from Switzerland, home of the mighty Krokus. SHUT UP, they are MIGHTY!!

Eluveite- Helvetios Review

By Rusty on February 7, 2012 in 2012, 3.5, Death Metal, Folk Metal, Nuclear Blast, Reviews, 3 comments

So this is a review of an album by a Swiss band being written by an Egyptian guy living in Egypt and published on a website run by a guy living in Sweden. Don’t you just love the Internet? Anyway, Eluveitie is indeed a very Swiss band that draws its influences from the roots of the land; medieval Helvetian and Celtic history. Since I did not study European history or Anthropology at any level, I can’t verify the accuracy, relevance or truthfulness of the stories being told on Helvetios. What I can verify, though, is that the music is quite interesting; especially if you haven’t heard Eluveitie before. They use the standard metal gear of distorted guitars, drums and bass and they’ve added a multitude of native folk instruments to complement and emphasize that snapshot of medieval Europe they’re creating with their music.

Cataract – Killing the Eternal Review

By Steel Druhm on October 4, 2010 in 2.5, 2010, Metal Blade, Metalcore, Reviews, Thrash Metal, Metalcore, 2 comments

What the hell is THIS? A metal-core band I actually like? Impossible! Well, like may be too strong a word here but Killing the Eternal, the sixth album by Swiss metal-core mavens Cataract is much less annoying and cringe inducing than most of the metal-core I’ve been subjected to over time. Perhaps this caught me in a rare moment of good humor, or maybe Cataract have learned over their long existence that their bread is buttered on the death/thrash side of things. One thing is for certain, Cataract manage to avoid many trappings of the classic “core” sound that I find so irritating, and as a result, this is a fairly tolerable, and at times, even enjoyable album.