Wrust - Intellectual Metamorphosis review for Metal4Africa.com

I recently contributed a review to Metal4Africa.com of Intellectual Metamorphosis by Botswanan death/groove metallers Wrust. Go here to read the review: http://metal4africa.com/reviews/wrust-intellectual-metamorphosis-review/.

Metal 4 Africa review: Junkyard Lipstick - Hellbent

Recently I wrote a review for Metal 4 Africa (an online magazine) on the album Hellbent by thrash-punk band Junkyard Lipstick. You can read my review here: http://metal4africa.com/reviews/junkyard-lipstick-hellbent-review/

This Friday (29 March) sees the launch of Hellbent at ROAR, a popular metal venue in Cape Town. The supporting acts are ING (thrash metal), Sindulgence (experimental death metal) and The Summer Underground (hard rock).

A very late 'Best of 2012' list

I didn't get round to listening to as many 2012 releases as I wanted to, so my list would probably look different from the list below. I also didn't write as many reviews as I wanted to write on this blog. In no particular order:

Sigh  - In Somniphobia (avant-garde black metal with jazz influences)
 Wildernessking (South Africa) - The Writing of Gods in the Sand (black metal)
Absence Of Light (Kenya) - Vyom Chakra (death metal)

Sindulgence (South Africa) - Recollections (progressive death metal)
The Ocean Doesn't Want Me (South Africa) -  As the dust settles (post-metal/ sludge/doom)

Grave - Endless Procession of Souls (old-school death metal)

Sophicide - Perdition of the Sublime (technical death metal)
Electric Wizard -  Legalise Drugs & Murder EP (doom metal)

Be'lakor - Of Breath And Bone (melodic death metal)

Dodecahedron - Dodecahedron (atmospheric black metal)

My album of the year was In Somniphobia by Sigh. I found to be a refreshing and highly original listen. Had I listened to more 2012 releases, my album of the year choice would probablly be different too.

The most disappointing album I heard was Psalms for the Dead by Candlemass. It fell short of being a suitably grand send-off for a doom metal institution.

Friday Night Mayhem at ROAR, 08/02/2013

I found out about this gig the day before it took place. It was a fun Friday night, enhanced by a good crowd turnout.

I haven’t seen Stellitius since SummerFest 2012, so I was looking forward to seeing them again. The set began with a touch of theatricality; recorded growls in a language I couldn’t distinguish played over the PA. The experience of the band was evident by their tight performance and ability to keep going despite glitches – a string snapped on the bassist/vocalist’s guitar, which left the band without bass and vocals for two songs.  Both guitarists played solos, each showing technicality combined with a composed stage presence. I enjoyed the dynamic basslines coming from the powerful vocalist. The audience enjoyed the headbang-inducing grooves, with one young woman getting especially into the music and air-drumming enthusiastically throughout the first half of the set. At the end of the set, the vocalist announced that Stellitius will be releasing an album in the first half of the year, which I look forward to.

Barring their Rock The River 2011/2012 performance, I have struggled to fully enjoy a Marching Dead set. Not because of any lack of polish – they are technically brilliant – but because of the strange atmosphere induced during their sets. By strange atmosphere I mean a vocalist who gives off a conceited air, which can alienate some audience members. This time, I think that the vocalist/bassist (usually vocalist/guitarist) got the balance between stage presence and full-blown ego right this time. I enjoyed Marching Dead’s set, particularly their original number Demon Song, their cover of Black Sabbath’s Heaven And Hell and their cover of Judas Priest’s Painkiller. Vocalist Igor Crous managed the falsetto on the latter admirably, putting his own stamp on the song with a King Diamondlike sound. Both the covers I mentioned were excellent because of the way the band put their own spin on the songs while still staying true to the originals.

I hope that the gig circuit will see a little more of Stellitius in the future, and that Marching Dead will continue to be as enjoyable as they were that night.

Sindulgence - Recollections review

I clearly remember the first time I saw Sindulgence live. It was my first metal gig at the infamous Cape Town venue ROAR; the gig was organised by members of Sindulgence under the banner ‘Fresh Blood’.  I remember being quite impressed by the band; they had a distinct approach to death metal. Numerous Sindulgence gigs later, and I am still impressed. The debut album (which also comes with a DVD) from this hardworking band has left me impressed as well.

Room 302 is a mysterious opening track. It begins with cheerful piano and violin, which then take on ominous undertones. It then flows into the pounding intro of Swindle, with its earworm riffs. Bassist/vocalist Byron Dinwoodie has a unique growl that contrasts with the guttural growls of vocalist Muller Van Niekerk, who also switches to black metal rasps from time to time. Dinwoodie produces clear clean vocals as well; having three different vocal styles could potentially sound schizophrenic, but here it works very well and adds interest to this track and others. Dinwoodie’s clean vocals shine particularly on Silly Dream and Pale Gardens.

Swindle gives the first taste of the contrasting guitar work which appears on this album. The higher notes of the leads weave deftly between the heavy rhythm parts. Guitarists Ryan Eberlin switch between lead and rhythm on the album; both do very well in either role, since the lead and rhythm parts are top quality on each song. There are brilliant solos and riffs throughout, with the tracks Thorns, The March Hare, Silly Dream, Wine Of the Gods and Pale Gardens being guitar highlights for me.

Michael Snyman does a superb job behind the drum kit, with his drum work that easily switches between pounding heaviness and delicate, softer passages. The drum work is varied and intricate, taking on everything from the onslaught of Thorns to the jazz like opening fills on Silly Dream. I daresay that in years to come, Snyman could become one of Cape Town’s prominent metal drummers.

The DVD that comes with the album is an often-funny account of the process of making Recollections. It gives a very good idea of what it’s like to be in Sindulgence. It would be interesting to get to know more South African metal bands through behind-the-scenes documentaries.

The production is more what I would expect from a live album, as opposed to a studio one. The band did intend to have a live feel, so this is a minor gripe, and it doesn’t take away from an album that is, in my opinion, one of the best African metal releases this year.

Recollections is a distinctive and progressive take on death metal, with interesting songwriting and lyrics. Their incorporation of different musical styles is cohesive, and they switch deftly between worlds of reality and fantasy.

Personnel: Muller Van Niekerk – vocals

                Byron Dinwoodie – bass and vocals

                Ryan Eberlin – guitars

                Rodney Dosson – guitars

                Michael Snyman – drums

Web presence:

http://www.reverbnation.com/sindulgence https://twitter.com/#!/SindulgenceBand http://www.myspace.com/sindulgenceband

Grave - Endless Procession of Souls review

 Artist: Grave

 Album: Endless Procession of Souls

Website: https://www.facebook.com/GraveOfficial?ref=ts

Grave hail from Sweden, which is known for the Gothenburg death metal sound. In Endless Procession of Souls, Grave has released an album with a production unusual for Swedish death metal. It has a raw, slightly muffled production. The raw sound doesn’t mean the album is poorly produced; instead, it gives the album character and grit, and has a timeless feel to it. (Warning: I could not resist using many graveyard/death-related similes and imagery in this review.)

The distorted, grim riff of Intro – Dystopia sets the scene perfectly for the rest of the album. Amongst Marble and the Dead continues the grim atmosphere, gloom-laden guitars. The pace switches between thrashy and almost funereal. The vocalist sounds like he was resurrected from the grave; his voice has a desiccated and decayed sound to it. These vocals suit an album that kept me mentally wandering around a misty, forgotten graveyard filled with the sadness of hundreds while I listened.

Irresistible grooves abound – I found it very hard to keep still during this album; some part of me was always moving, either a foot or my head. Disembodied Steps, Passion of the Weak and Encountering the Divine are examples of the groovy goodness. In contrast to the grooves are slower passages which give the listener a breather, and add variety to the songs.

Besides the vocals, the guitars also contribute significantly to the graveyard atmosphere. The bubbling sounds they produce most of the time remind me of thick, primordial tar pits, the graveyards of many hapless animals. At other times, there are solos which sound like chants, solos which scream and then end on droning notes and ones which sound like the moans of lost souls. Winds of Chains goes big on the spookiness, with wind and clinking chains effects in the intro. The droning riffs on Encountering the Divine are full of despair.

The fast drum parts are uncompromising and come down upon the listener in a downpour of acid rain. The slower parts are well controlled. The drums gallop on Plague of Nations and Epos. The latter two tracks also feature standout bass guitar work – Plague of Nations has one of the most sinister (if not the most sinister) bass lines I’ve ever heard, while the bass solo on Epos is saturated with foreboding. Epos ties the beginning and end of the album together very well, with a similar riff to Intro – Dystopia. The former has a clear feeling of finality and despair; Intro was the funeral bell, and Epos is the final spade of dirt on the coffin.

Before I heard Endless Procession of Souls, I hadn’t heard any of Grave’s material before. I am very much encouraged to seek out more of their discography; hopefully their other work matches the high calibre of this album, which I feel is one of 2012’s most impressive death metal releases.

Bloodbeast - Bloodlust review

Upon my first listen of Bloodlust, the debut album from Pretoria death/groove metal band Bloodbeast, I felt like I was listening to the aural equivalent of being slowly squashed beneath a rock. This is a good thing in my book! Bloodbeast is a young band made up of South African metal veterans. The lineup includes members from the well-regarded bands Architecture of Agression, Bile of Man, as well as Fuck the Corpses.

Visceral Birth, a track made up of only strange sounds, begins Bloodlust. Out For Blood then arrives to squash the listener into pulp. Both the chorus and the clean riffs are earworms. The vocals sound menacing, yet they are intelligible, which is something I don't hear often. Sinister bass and crunchy rhythm guitar riffs add to the might of this track. Headbang-inducing grooves appear in parts of Merciless. A blistering solo features in this track. The lead guitar work on this album strikes a balance between simplicity and musical embellishment, as well as having a no-nonsense sensibility about it. On the war-themed Sadeye SNAFU, the guitar solo adds to the unstable atmosphere. As on Butcher for pleasure, the solos are clean, which helps to balance out the heaviness of the other insturments. The solo on Fuck or die also adds to the atmosphere of the song, with its haunting tone.

I found the latter song to be the most visceral and disturbing track on the album. If a band can create a song that makes me feel an almost tangible emotion, even if that emotion is negative, then I consider the song to be good. Fuck or die is about rape, and written from the rapist's point of view. This chilling content made me want to hide inside for the rest of the year. The music video for this song opens with a terrible statistic - that a female born in South Africa is more likely to be raped than learn to read. The great riffs and aforementioned haunting guitar solo add to the song's quality.

'Old school' is a good description for the sound of Bloodlust. The production reminds me of bands such as Death and Obituary. The crunchy, pressing sound fits perfectly on the album, and adds to the songs without sounding muffled. Bloodbeast bring the groove to most of the album; I can imagine that these songs would induce a good deal of headbanging when played live. Bloodlust is a thoroughly enjoyable concrete slab of brutal death metal, a subgenre which can stray into unpleasantness if a band tries to be 'brutal' for the sake of it. Bloodbeast avoid this, and strikes a great balance between melody and brutality.

Hung - 'Hung' Review

After listening to Hung's self-titled debut album, the musical feature which lingered most prominently in my mind was the violin. Coincidentally, this New York melodic death metal band was started by renowned violinist Lyris Hung (the band's namesake). She trained at Juilliard and Columbia University, and has performed with Bryan Adams and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, among others. Hung came to life in early 2005, with the addition of Jon Clark and Sam Roon. Dmitry Kostisyn joined as frontman, and drummer Kenny Grohowski joined after the band went through a few drummers. Hung is not the band's actual debut release, instead it is their first release on an official label (ReThink Records, as well as The End Records).

An acoustic instrumental track begins the album. Titled Eos, it is a hauntingly beautiful combination of soaring violin, acoustic guitar and a little bit of banjo. Desert of Sad gallops off into a lively melodic death metal track. The violins complement the electric guitars very well. Some bubbling guitar notes come just before a catchy clean singing chorus. Other tracks also contain a mixture of clean and harsh vocals, often with both death metal and black metal harsh vocals. This mixture sounded somewhat random at times, but otherwise added interest to the songs. A solid rhythm guitar line provided a great base for the lead to weave around the music, and the drums were the engine of the song. The next track, Maria, sounded quite similar to Desert of Sad. Upon multiple listens, I found that Maria had a slower drumbeat. This song has a juicy bassline and some good riffs.The end of the song has some catchy riffs, as do most of the songs on this album.


Slower interludes among the gallopy rhythms give the songs breathing space, and also prevent them from being monotonous. Track six, Left For The New Life, clocks in at 12:08, yet doesn't feel as long as that because of the interesting tempo changes. Matter of the Blood is another epic (7:01) which avoids tedium. An acoustic and electric guitar duet opens this track. The sound gradually builds in intensity, with the addition of rising violin notes, and a progressive rock sound. Just when I thought this track would be a prog rock number, marching drums and harsh vocals arrived, taking the song in a different direction. The slow interludes in between faster rhythms don't sound abrubt, and work very well.

All the instruments on this album have their standout moments. Recently I broke out of my habit of paying close attention to the guitars only, and as a result, I have found some memorable bass riffs and drum patterns. Drummer Kenny Grohowski does much to drive the songs on this album. He also adds in some interesting patterns, like on Evil Tsar, and goes thrash-like on Sediment of War. Jon Clark and Sam Roon create layered guitar sounds, with a good amount of counter-rhythms. I enjoyed the solos and riffs too: the high-pitched solo on Progeny dances across the soundscape, while the lead guitar wails on Left For The New Life. Progeny also contains an Opeth-like intro with delicate-sounding acoustic and electric guitars. As I mentioned in the beginning of the review, the violin is a prominent feature on Hung. It soars, drops down into darkness and enhances the emotion of the guitars in particular. Lyris Hung is clearly a top-flight violin player.

Hung sounds a bit like it has been done before, but it still has brilliant moments. I enjoyed listening to this album; I felt that the songs told interesting stories, both through the lyrics and the music.

MetalSucks.com is streaming the whole album here: http://www.metalsucks.net/2012/05/07/exclusive-premiere-hungs-self-titled-album/
Find Hung's official website here: http://hungrocks.com/