Horrendous - Ecdysis (2014)

I have a tendency to lavish incredibly huge expectations upon the sophomore outings of promising newcomers in the thrash, death and black metal mediums, which is probably not the fairest way to approach them...so when I saw the cover and read the buzz for the second Horrendous full-length, the high bar they had set with The Chills became an ever looming presence. Easily one of the better of the retro death metal records hailing from the States in the past decade, that album took everything I loved about luminaries like Death, Pestilence and Obituary and re-engineered the formula just enough that it could feel fresh again, while standing out against the hordes of Swedish sound-a-likes and overhyped cavern core elite that had been well on their way to exhausting me by 2012...not that both crowds didn't produce their own brilliant offspring, but they just never gave me the same amount of hope that this reach back to the roots of the genre was much more than mere idol worship; no, this was retracing death metal in order that it might strike out on a path where the songs mattered a lot more than the aesthetics.

Ecdysis is a symbolic title, since it represents a shedding of exoskeleton and 'skin', something the trio have clearly done for this new material. It's not that Horrendous have flipped the script to the point of becoming unrecognizable from the earlier work, but the sophomore is imbued with this dynamic, death & roll sensibility that fully represents their ability to harmonize the melodies and bust out the beautifully tempered leads, against a backdrop that is slightly more groovy and rocking than the more death/thrash foundation upon which the former full-length was built. Again, the production is given a rawer than expected treatment, with the guitar tones slightly reminiscent of the Swedish school but disparate due to how Herring and Knox compose the riffs together. I know the comparison might elude some, but try imagine if you were to mix a more melodic analog of Clandestine with the eloquent, emotional soloing of Andy La Rocque during the King Diamond hot streak of the late 80s, and then a bit of that clinical progressive Death which took off the following decade, especially the bass playing and meandering but adventurous nature of some of the rhythm guitar progressions. Only unlike Schuldiner's work, this doesn't go for that absurd level of production polish. Anyway, if you can imagine that mashup, you'll arrive at what this album creates. Does that sound fucking great?

Well it is, not to the degree that it trumped The Chills for me, but established Horrendous as a persistent forerunner in the 'real death metal' category that also includes bands like Tribulation, Morbus Chron, Binah, Lantern, The Wakedead Gathering and Necrovation, songwriters all, driven by where the music is going just as much as where it's been (which too many like-minded bands get hung up on). While they're by no means 'technical death' as the term implies in today's market, the level of proficiency here never falters behind the morbidity of the medium, these guys can play and they let you know through the sheer versatility of rhythms being fired out in any given tune. The vocals are still a more resonant, rasp-heavy and gruesome product of Chuck Schuldiner and Martin van Drunen influence, and the bass guitars also warrant added attention, since they don't just follow along subserviently to the rhythm guitar notes. The drums are slappy, snappy and natural, and what's more, they don't shy away from throwing you a very 80s' sort of curve ball like the wonderful acoustics of "The Vermillion" or the more speed/heavy metal licks of the second instrumental, "When the Walls Fell", which took me entirely by surprise amongst its more malevolent neighbors while sharing that subsistence on strong lead work and RIFFS FUCKING FIRST.

If The Chills didn't put Horrendous on everyone's map, then I really hope this Ecdysis will not only serve that function but encourage those that missed the debut to explore that too; it was a little more 'evil' sounding to me than this follow-up, but the tradeoff is that this material seems a little more adventurous and busy, even though the two share a level of accessibility you won't get with the more subterranean, clamorous strain of death metal molded in the image of Incantation and Immolation. Great album, I've been revisiting it regularly since the press promo started circulating and I can't see myself stopping anytime soon.

Verdict: Win [8.75/10]

https://www.facebook.com/HorrendousDeathMetal

Lecherous Nocturne - Behold Almighty Doctrine (2013)

My first whirlwind waltz with Lecherous Nocturne came with their 2008 sophomore The Age of Miracles Has Passed, a technical and complex spin on the combined ethos of Suffocation, Morbid Angel, Cryptopsy and Hate Eternal which came and went with frankly not enough fanfare. Granted, this was material with an appeal for fans of faster, more extreme inclinations, not incredibly popular in the middle of the 'new old school' revival, yet for an initial exposure, it was definitely another of those discs that made me feel sad about my own musical abilities, even after decades. This time out, for their third full-length overall, and second for Unique Leader, I wasn't quite so swept away, but it continues along a comparable course, unlikely to disappoint those with a preference for calamitous, ballistic, bristling intensity that rarely leaves space to breathe.

It takes only a haunting, dark ambient intro and about 30 seconds of "Ouroboros Chains" to relay the message that Behold Almighty Doctrine is not banking on its user-friendliness, or accessibility. It's like None So Vile, Covenant and I, Monarch spiking an energy drink with both speed and cocaine, then jerking one another off. Spastic floods of crunching, churning rhythm guitars cede into walls of accelerated, porcupine spine tremolo picking. The bass guitar is broad and murky, creating a sense of confusion and catastrophe as it, too, rifles through millions of notes, and the sheer numbers of patterns invested into this and every other track on the album pretty much guarantee the alienation of anyone seeking simplicity or nostalgia. Drums are loud, abrasive, and move with such celerity that, combined with the guitars, constantly gives an impression that the record as a whole is about to unravel, much like the unprepared listener's sanity. They'll once in a while break into some more clearly discerned riff progression, but further eruption is inevitable: like an active volcano on an Earth spinning at an exponential rate of progress around the Sun.

Behold Almighty Doctrine is like a bad day at work that never ends, where just about everything that could possibly irritate you is happening at once, and you can either roll with the painful pressures and revel in the chaotic emissions, or flee to a safe spot under the stairway. You wouldn't want to listen to this while driving in traffic, but if you give yourself plenty of room to thrash your limbs around, it's an efficient means of calorie burning. The only real breaks in the action are the intro/outro, and the brilliantly diabolic piano run in the "Prelude No. 2" interlude, which seems to imply that 'hey, even if we were writing music 200 years ago we would still fuck you up'. The vocals are messy, salacious barks and rasps, and once in awhile the guitars fuse into a more dissonant, black metal inspired chord progression that adds a bit more balance to the horrific convulsions Lecherous Nocturne deems 'songwriting'. This is daunting, unapologetic shit here, and not for the faint of heart, or anyone who has difficulty following such dextrous, intense sonic speculation. Overall I found the riff selection mildly less remarkable and memorable than on the previous outing, but fans of groups like Krisiun, Behemoth, Belphegor and Hate Eternal should take a painful taste of this, and let it roll around on and then possibly rip out their tongues.

Verdict: Win [7/10]

http://www.lecherousnocturne.net/fr_official.cfm

Dalla Nebbia - Thy Pale Form... EP (2012)

Considering that they've only been around for about two years, I must say that South Carolina's Dalla Nebbia ('From the Fog') has one of the most refined senses of melody in their songwriting that I've ever experienced from black metal in the US. The band's tremolo streams glisten like the tears of clip-winged angels forever severed from their heavenly host, and they usher in enough dynamic range in the three songs of this EP that they can easily comport themselves through 8-9 minute track lengths without dragging the listener under the usual haze of thoughtless repetition and pretentious bloat. Thy Pale Form... is made even more impressive by the fact that it's the work of only two musicians, vocalist Zduhać and multi-instrumentalist Yixja.

The three tracks presented here do well to showcase the band's emotional poles, from the charging and near gladiatorial onslaught of lower pitched chords that inaugurate "The Apex of Human Sorrow" to the lush clean guitars and keys that simulate sorrow through closer "Shade of Memory". All of them, however, possess the duo's aesthetically consistent, exotic rivers of harmony that instantly sweeten the ear like sugar on a tongue, in particular the opener "Thanatopsis" which is through and through the catchiest of the three, from its eerily hypnotic blasted sequences, to the mellow breakdown with cleaner narrative vocals (quoted from an early 19th century poem), to the eruption of blazing, melodic doom in its depths. It would be hard to pin down the sound precisely: certainly there are roots in Swedish black and death metal like Dissection and Katatonia, conjured up through the longing subtext of the guitar melodies; the first Fall of the Leafe album came to mind, perhaps even a touch of the earliest Opeth (Orchid) in the sheer breadth of the songs and their contrast of floods and calms, but these are mere building blocks in the group's DNA, they do not emulate anyone directly.

The rasp throughout Thy Pale Form... is brazen, roaring and creates a carnal counterpoint to the thinner, higher pitch guitar tone it's often set against. On the whole, I felt like the mix of the EP was a bit skewed towards the higher end, so it has this ability to pierce straight into your skull, which works well enough for the melodies but perhaps not so well when the band strikes a more brooding pose. Also, the drums here have been programmed, which is nothing novel for a black metal project like this, but while they're synced up well with the varied riffing patterns, I do feel that an actual live drummer would benefit this music if only for the natural inflection of the bass, snare and cymbals, not to mention the fills. My only other complaint would also be cosmetic: the cover art is probably just something thrown together to create a rustic mood, and the music and introspective, solemn lyrics certainly conjure such a space, but Thy Pale Form... deserves better.

Otherwise, Dalla Nebbia is quite a surprise, from an area one doesn't normally associate with the style, and the pieces are in place here for a promising career, balancing beauty and harrowing aggression. The guitar architecture feels fresh and imperative, not jaded in the least, and fans of other newer US acts in this field like Autolatry, Sylvan Realm and Obsequiae should not hesitate to check this out.

Verdict: Win [7.75/10] 

http://dallanebbia.bandcamp.com/album/thy-pale-form