Dark Lunacy - Weaver of Forgotten (2010)

Dark Lunacy drew their fair share of cult and critical interest through past works like Devoid and Forget Me Not, and justifiably so. Their mix of Romantic themes and classical strings with simple but savvy death metal stood out against the backdrop of stagnation that sours both the melodic death and Gothic metal scenes which this act straddles. Their latest, fourth full-length effort Weaver of Forgotten does little to truly advance the dialogue they started around the turn of the century, it's at least diverse and interesting. This time, the band have honed in on a more mechanical, progressive element which at times reminds me of another Italian outfit, Sadist (and they've recently acquired bassist Andy from that outfit).

Weaver of Forgotten has nothing on that other band's latest, Season in Silence, but it's enough of an adventure that the ears feel they're being assaulted with fresh sounds. There's a backbone of grooved, simplistic chugging that spans tracks like "Archangel'sk" or "Epiclesis" and tends to distract one with its blunt familiarity, but these are condensed into walls of lamenting, multi tracked guitars and Mike Lunacy's harsh, barked vocals, which are honestly hit or miss. You'll still hear some string arrangements, as in the intro of "Masquerade", or woven into the depths of numerous other tunes, congregating with pianos, synthesizers, and a slight hint of techno (intro to "Curtains", for example). Tracks like "Sybir" or "Forgotten" offer interesting passages ripe with atmosphere or hammering rhythms, though they're admittedly not the most memorable of fare one might expect from the band.

The bass of Andy Marchini is another huge feature of the album, and perhaps that is why I'm so reminded of Sadist here, due to the similar jazzed up undertow. However, there are a few issues holding the record back from being more than a briefly pleasurable curiosity, and these include the dull chugging of many of the guitar lines, letting the synthesizers do the work, and the overall production, which feels a bit too digital and uneven. The vocals are somewhat choppy, and much of the album lacks the really effective composition of its elder siblings. Fans of their earlier efforts or some similar Gothic/death/doom metal hybrids might fall in love here, but I felt it was subpar to their previous effort The Diarist, not to mention Forget Me Not, which I'd consider their best. Dark Lunacy still stand their own ground, and there are a few moments on the album where a hazy bliss sets in, a melancholic grandeur, but they're ultimately eclipsed by the modern, groove flourishes infesting so much of the material.

Verdict: Indifference [6.75/10]

http://www.darklunacy.com/

Sinister - Legacy of Ashes (2010)

Sinister might not have produced the very best output in the Dutch death metal legacy, but I'd never deny that they've been the most consistent band hailing from that scene. Their 9th full-length album, Legacy of Ashes, is yet another example of why the band has become synonymous with reliability, an unending titan of forceful butchery that is almost always guaranteed to deliver a reasonable and focused effort, even through what seems to be an ever shifting roster of musicians (no change here from the previous full-length The Silent Howling in 2008, but after recording this they've already hired on a new bass player in Creepmime's Joost Van der Graaf).

Legacy of Ashes features all of the hallmark blasting and punching brutality they've celebrated from their early 90s classics, but with a notable element of thrashing abandon in the riffs that dominated efforts like 1998's Aggressive Measures. I'd almost compare this to the reunion effort Resurrection Macabre from countrymen Pestilence, only that album was more mechanical and repetitious, while this cranks up the aggression, Aad's gruff gutturals sounding similar in their delivery to Patrick Mameli's latest assaults. The material ranges from rapid, atmospheric hostility in "The Sin of Sodomy" or "Into the Blind World" to a few more primal, groove oriented tracks with some savage mute storms that fall somewhere between Slayer and Vader, ala "The Enemy of My Enemy" or "Legacy of Ashes" itself. Some of the more impressive constructions lie deeper into the playtime, like the battering of "The Hornet's Nest" with its taut and reckoning death/thrash outbreaks, or "Righteous Indignations" with its discordant, arching rhythms, but it's consistent enough throughout.

The songs do tend to lack truly killer individual guitar riffs that will sucker your speakers into cyclic masturbation, but on the whole I'd say you get a good, sore neck from this effort, more so than its direct predecessor at least. A few of their albums have lapsed into monotony, but Legacy of Ashes feels slightly more distinct; some clear variation in the tracks, yet still enough of the straight forward components that most have come to associate with Sinister through their 20+ years of existence when they're looking to stand directly in harm's way. No punches are pulled here, it's just tough as nails death metal without indulgent virtuosic tendencies or pedestrian wanking, and likely worth hearing if you're a fan of the band's last decade of material, or their related projects like Infinited Hate, Houwitser or Supreme Pain.

Verdict: Win [7.25/10]

http://www.sinister-hailthebeast.com/

Darkenhöld - A Passage to the Towers... (2010)

There is this pervasive conception, oftentimes a mockery of the black metal genre that it's a haven for cloak wearing psychos, introverts and cellar dwellers hidden from the world, perhaps so far into the occult or fantasy that they're disconnected from the humdrum mediocrity of the modern, tabloid world. To some this translates into endless Youtube videos of Immortal performing pop songs, memes of irony for spastic teenagers and the adults who lovingly forget not to be them anymore. Of course, this is a stereotype which doesn't always find purchase in a musical genre which has been stretched to space, below the Earth, and in nearly every conceivable direction, but I suppose I should insert a confession:

I like the castles. I like the cloaks. I like war and corpse painted, iconoclastic figures wielding weapons and spikes in the coldest forest available. Has it gotten tired, or played out by the year 2010? Almost definitely. But there's just some tangible, impossible majesty to it all that has tipped off endless imaginations (and with any movement, hatred). The reason I mention all this blathering is because the French band Darkenhöld seems such a perfectly glorious proponent of the grandiose, the unreal, the archaic and arcane. Their debut is A Passage to the Towers... not only in name, but in content, for these tracks fire up the synapses and open gates directly to the harbored, lofty spaces standing abandoned in the soul, through streaming, ripping melodic black metal that recalls Immortal and early Emperor, or other acts that retroactively herald the ancient habitats of kings and conquerors.

There is nothing quite 'new' about what they bring to the genre, they're simply very effective at what has been manufactured previously. A Passage to the Towers... collects the material from the band's previous splits, and splices it in with newer compositions for a truly consistent and wondrous experience with excellent production, memorable guitar lines and the ghastly if typical rasp of 'Cervantes' (once of fellow Frenchmen Artefact). Synthesizers drift across the horizon, and the thirst for uplifting black metal is very easily quenched with the surging "Citadel of Obsidian Slumber", the warlike awnings of "Marble Bestiary", or the cavalier charge of "Chains of the Wyvern Shelter". Fantastic images of castles and mythological beasts tower upon the listener, relics of an epoch not of history, but of unfettered imagination running free.

It's not quite what one might expect of most French music of its type, hailing from a land of the unusual and surreal sounds of Deathspell Omega, Blut Aus Norde, and Peste Noire, but its effective in an entirely different light. You get the same feeling listening to this as you do when the cameras pan across the vast landscapes in fantasy films like Lord of the Rings, or the more moody and minimal majesty of Summoning, though Darkenhöld are somewhat louder and more accessible, cautiously merging each melody within the constriction of its aggressive blast beats or pinnacle climbing keyboards. There's nothing 'silly' about the album, necessarily, but it's a great pleasure to listen through, and I do hope there's not enough backlash against such a strain as this that it will be ignored.

Verdict: Win [8.5/10]

http://www.myspace.com/darkenhold

A Forest of Stars - The Opportunistic Thieves of Spring (2010)

My reaction to this unique English band's 2008 debut The Corpse of Rebirth was mixed. Certainly a curious sound coming out of the lot, but not something I felt repeatedly drawn towards or distracted by. In fact, I've been sitting on its follow-up for months, as my thoughts adjusted from being bored to intrigued to enamored and ultimately the state of 'vaguely impressed', with some exceptions made for the relative bloat of numerous tracks, an inescapable ennui brought on solely by the indulgent space in which A Forest of Stars attempt to drown you. Yes, it's a band with some LONG songs, often 13-16 minutes in fact, some of which truly stretching into madness, like the soundtrack to an entire life, a life erring on the side of dementia.

The Opportunistic Thieves of Spring (great title) will take its time with you, indeed, but there are enough hypnotic elements that you won't always lack a reward for the wait. "Sorrow's Impetus" glazes its extensive core with somber string and flute sections between tortured, discordant walls of minimal guitar patterns. "Raven's Eye View" offers a landscape of both tranquil vistas and the upheaval of the earth beneath you, while "Summertide's Approach" is wrist glistening sadness that devolves into proggy organ tweaking and an amazing bridge that reminds me of Sarke's Vorunah (with Nocturno Culto doing vocals). "Thunder's Cannonade" opens with several minutes of violin before the instruments wails along eerily to the black rush, soon broken once more to the delight and horror of unconsciousness. I didn't really care for the male/female vocal companionship in the languid "Starfire's Memory", and yet I absolutely loved the 16+ minutes, psychedelic psychosis and robotic vocals used in the doomed "Delay's Progression", which is not only the highlight of this effort, but of their career.

Without becoming technical or even complex, A Forest of Stars incorporate a large number of ingredients into their music, but I feel like the male vocals of Mister Curse, etc, succeed more than any other . The guitars are very rarely writing interesting lines, they serve only to complement the beats and the more organic tones of the other strings, so prepare for a lot of repetitious where it's not always the most welcome, and as a result the album can feel rather pretentious. However, taken as a whole lozenge, there are indisputable good ideas and an oppressive strata of immersion that seem all too rare in this field of music. This record could represent the parting of the womb to reveal the gore of the newborn, or the final ashes of a human being being returned to earth, and many seconds of triumph and defeat within those two parameters. Your emotional response might be just as varied.

Verdict: Win [7.75/10] (painting out cracked windows of the soul)

http://www.myspace.com/aforestofstars

Hat - Vortex of Death (2011)

Hat is another of the recent crop of Norse black metal acts that I felt I could go either way on, but they've thankfully incorporated enough of an adventure into their sophomore Vortex of Death that I found myself drawn back to its contents a number of times, thanks to some savvy riffing, decrepit atmosphere and hints of experimentation which leave the safety and sanctity of their primary genre for a balanced, atmospheric leverage that simply functions. The material is often as primal and ambivalent as the next underground band, but enough thoughts are provoked through its composition that a close listen will reveal thoughtful passages of repressed synthesizers, whispered dialog/vocals and other tricks of the night.

However, it doesn't always shake the straightforward blast and weave of sobering familiarity, and there are moments of "Inhumanus Revelatio", "Overmenneske" or "The Flesh I Wear" which are hardly as compelling as others within the very same tracks. The guitars are thin and bristling, the drums barely noticed without their crashing vortices of support for the rasping and tearing of the vocals. On the whole, this level of sound actually suits the material quite well, because it creates a pattern of depth, like one being in front of the other, as if the band were playing at you from a series of hills, each piled with bones and cinders. The result is that some of the moodier, slower pieces like "The Path to Immortality", or the shifting "Invocating Death" with its stark and engrossing bridge sequence gone mad with rushing, blood stream riffs that channel eerie beauty, are well worth hearing even if the album is not entirely consistent.

I'll admit that I don't remember much about the band's debut The Demise of Mankind, but I can recall the band's name and logo, and with Vortex of Death, I'll be sure to keep them on my watch list. The delivery here is not stunning, nor staggering, but both convex and insular. Evil, and at its very best, mildly alien in composition, which is always sure to draw the ear deeper than your run of the mill black metal album about forests, snow and Satan. Not that Hat are writing about ponies, mind you, the band's name is Norwegian for hate, and their music is neither comfortable nor compromising, but they will not betray your attention span with needless, excess repetition or recycling all of the precise tropes that you might have grown tired of over the past 20 years they were hammered into you.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10]

http://www.myspace.com/Evighat

Tankard - Vol(l)ume 14 (2010)

The time has come for us to grab our liquid lunches and return to the realm of the unending German thrash parade Tankard, as they pump out their 14th full-length album straight from the tap. This is an effort that might actually surprise some long term listeners of the band, since the writing seems a bit more morose and melodic this time around, at times falling more into the speed/power category than strictly a thrashing, but this is not exactly news, as the drunks have been incorporating such tactics on many of their 21st century releases like Thirst, Beast of Bourbon, or the excellent Beauty and the Beer from 2006, the last of which is the closest parallel one could make to the sound here, though it's not necessarily that good.

Now, I'm not saying this will appeal to everyone that has followed the band since the untouchable first three albums of their career, because obviously a lot of that virile, bursting energy has vacated its physical premises. The band are getting on in years, and you're not going to be hearing any "Shit-Faced" or "Zombie Attack" level material, but as an approximation of 'mature' Tankard, Vol(l)ume 14 is not without its merits. About half the songs are drop dead catchy, and the other half just passable. As much as it's strange to hear Tankard singing about Facebook, Twitter, obesity, and other plagues of our 21st century existence, and not tearing up hotel rooms and puking, it's also fairly entertaining, and not the first time the band have decided to stick with the issues of the day. "Fat Snatchers (The Hippo Effect)", "The Agency", "Condemnation" and "Beck's In the City" are three of my choices here, each with a catchy chorus and solidly plotted riffing that should keep your neck hammering despite their dynamics, and the sort of cleverly titled "BP (Black Plague)" is Tankard's tribute to the Gulf Oil Crisis, though not one of the better songs.

Where the album does sort of dissemble is in its opening and closing tracks, the former of which, "Time Warp" is simply not that strung. Almost anything else here would have served better, though Gerre's vocals in the bridge are quite good (he sounds excellent throughout, as he maintains the bitter sneer of his German accent). "Weekend Warriors", the 7+ minute finale, is not the first song of its title (Iron Maiden beat them to it, among others), but the tribute to paintball and physical excess beyond the work week is only firing on about half of its cylinders, with Any Gutjahr's riffs weaving between excellence and oblivion. A few other tunes, like the spiky and melodic "Rules for Fools" and "Somewhere in Nowhere" promise a lot but don't pack in enough punch, both seemingly ineffective and similar to the superb "We Still Drink the Old Ways" from Beauty and the Beer.

Listening straight through, though, there's not a whole lot to complain about. It doesn't number among the band's greater efforts, but it's right about on par with its direct predecessor Thirst, with a few tracks worthy of a hand picked career compilation. The production sounds about as good as the last two, and the musicianship is at the usual high standards, with a fair amount of deviation and variation in the track structures, and ultimately, I'd probably take this over the latest offerings from Destruction, Sodom or Holy Moses. Tankard is very much alive, despite the obvious cirrhosis and dead brain cells, reliable like your favorite Pilsner glass, and sooner or later, they'll knock another album out of the park. This is not that, but neither is it a waste of time.

Verdict: Win [7.25/10]

http://www.tankard.info/

Fester - Winter of Sin (1992)

Fester's Winter of Sin has been out of print for some time now (on CD, at least). Being that it's one of very few death metal cult classics from the land of Norway in the early 90s, and obscure, old school death metal is growing quite popular alongside the many young acts that worship the style, it makes perfect sense for a label to license and re-issue it, which is what Abyss Records have done here. Sadly, I'm not sure that time has been all that kind to this band, who originally existed from 1989 to the mid 90s before a recent reformation. I'll go further and admit that I was never much of a fan to begin with. The songs feel no more hooky or interesting now than they did almost 20 years ago, and they simply don't have the gruesome and fascinating staying power of a band like Molested.

However, Fester get a few points for their vision, which was somewhat unorthodox for death metal bands of their day. The riffs move largely in a sluggish sense that evokes a doom/death hybrid, while the vocals are rasped much like the black metal genre. The Norse have a strict dynamic sense, with clashing drums and sloth-like mute phrasing to the guitars that are not above or afraid to emit melodic components where necessary, and they'll often throw in this great echoed chamber into a track like "Sences Are the True You" which allows for several seconds at least of real menace ala Pestilence meeting Darkthrone, or a strange peripheral similarity to Celtic Frost or Hellhammer. The occasional noodly solos can be distracting, perhaps effective under a different mix, and the actual riffs are rarely ear catching beyond their archaic authenticity, so there are just not any songs here I can really get into.

The primal, almost minimal of "As the Swords Clinch the Air" loses traction when it erupts into the mid pace with tinny drums, and the strange rock & roll grooves of "A Dogfight Leaves a Trace" feel clamorous and out of place, both contributing to the sloppy overall feel. Certain tracks such as "The Commitments That Shattered" or the atmospheric "Liberation" are more taut and acceptable than others, but neither holds up particularly well against the better death (or black) metal albums that were being cranked out in this period. Winter of Sin was never a horrible album, per se, but it's a little weak for anything more than cult appeal. That said, I know there are folks out there who enjoy these records (and I feel that the sophomore Silence is a little better than this), so having them back in circulation doesn't hurt, especially with a remix and remaster.

Verdict: Indifference [5.5/10]

http://www.myspace.com/festernorway

Hinsides - Universe Aspire in Mysticism (2010)

It becomes increasingly more difficult to appreciate an album like Universe Aspire in Mysticism in recent years, if only because it feels it has been written so many times in the past. You've really got to dive in between the notes and graphs to find something to clasp on to, but ultimately the Norse band is somewhat redeemed by its slower material. Hinsides have been around for a few years now, and this is their second full-length offering of straight forward black metal, with a pretty notable inspiration from Immortal or Bathory, perhaps a touch of Enslaved, a few interesting chord patterns shoved in among the legions of charging hessian troops that the band are constantly hammering out.

At first, I wasn't sure what to expect, for the bizarre 6:35 minute intro "Dark Matter Dawn" creates a disturbing ambiance through feedback and bizarre sounds that is anything but cohesive and eloquent. However, "666 to Nero" is a straight forward blasting black track which sounds like almost any random piece selected from an earlier Immortal album, or Marduk, or Mayhem, and though it's not at all bad, it just doesn't really catch on until the bridge breakdown with its whispered vocals. "Black Witchery Ritual" starts at a slower, majestic pace and only forces a few blasts into its compositions, for a greater overall effect, which feels like drifts of ash tainted snow alighting on some twisted sage of the occult. Other stronger tracks include "Within Infinite Mysteries" and "Moonlight Path to Darkness", though the latter does suffer from a few moments of less effective riffing among its 8+ length.

Tone-wise, I actually like the bass sound of Glaurung here, how it hovers just below the splintering sorrow of the guitar chords, Gravklad barking across the joint maneuvers with a pretty expectant rasp. The bass constantly feels like a mystery, even below the less exciting riffs, and certainly adds a dimension that slightly curbs the mediocrity of some of the writing. Once in a while, like the closer "Moonlight Paths to Darkness", you'll hear some synths added which also add another layer of depth, and one wonders if more of this might not have evoked a greater response in some of the other pieces, like "Dodenatt" or "The Passage", which, while adequate, are just not compelling. In the end, for a universe aspiring to mysticism, this album is not quite mystical enough. There is nothing inherently wrong with the style or the skill of the musicians, but it's unlikely to provoke repeated visits. These Norse know what they're doing, but it's been done to a fault.

Verdict: Indifference [6.75/10]

http://www.hinsides.biz/

Bane - Chaos, Darkness & Emptiness (2010)

You wouldn't think of Serbia as a hotbed for metal acts quite yet, but in fact there are a hundred or so bands hailing from the area, one of whom I present to you here. Bane, not at all to be confused with the popular US hardcore band, performs a mix of black and death metal with strong production and an intense focus on the riffing over sheer vitriolic speed, their debut Chaos, Darkness & Emptiness a decent if familiar work that may indeed appeal to fans of numerous genres. The 'death metal' portion of the album manifests largely through some of the chugging riff patterns and about 50% of the vocals, which are splayed out in guttural excess, while the remainder consists of streaming, cutting chords and rampant snarling.

Bane certainly sounds like a great deal of other bands, in particular Norse bands like Emperor in collision with Swedish bands like Dark Funeral or Hypocrisy, but I'd say they cast a wide enough net that you don't feel the material is too derivative of any one school of fish. Perhaps the strongest point of this full-length debut is that the band pace themselves well, offering some variety through the track list that keeps the listener engaged, though not exactly glued. The "Awakening of the Evil Spirits" intro is a nice synthesized classical overture breached by the hammering of "The True Insomnia", a piece that quite evenly divides its time between the two constituent genres, while "Pandemonium" writhes along at a brisk, mid pace through which the thunder of the rhythms is glazed over in chorus shouts, double bass and brisk flights of increased speed. After this is an acoustic piece, "Lost Shadows", and then a fairly brutal onslaught called "Abhorrence".

No two songs sound quite the same, and each delivers at least 1-2 quality riffs, my personal favorites coming in the melodic swagger of "The Haunting Presence" or the callous, blasting abandon of "The Dawn No More Rises". There's a nice ambient interlude piece deeper in the album titled "Dysthymia" which further cements the band's ability to vary up their content that the witness remain allured, but I wouldn't say that this was necessarily a great record, if only because there aren't enough tracks that you'll want to revisit constantly. Fans of bigger budget Swedish or Norse melodic black metal might very well find this their cup of blood tea, because the mix itself is quite enormous, and the compositions are never boring, but they're not blazing any new trails through the conscience. So, what we're ultimately left with is a debut that shows the talent and reach of a batch of individuals (all of whom also perform in other acts), but does little to bore itself beyond the upper layers of memory.

Verdict: Win [7/10]

http://www.myspace.com/baneband

Brutally Deceased - Dead Lovers' Guide (2010)

2010 will go down in history texts as the year that the Czechs became the first people to successfully manufacture a time machine, and though it only traveled back about 20 years to the Swedish death metal scene of 1990, much field study was accomplished in a short span of time to the craftsmanship of classic albums, specifically Left Hand Path by Entombed or Like an Ever Flowing Stream by Dismember. The tones, settings and devices were replicated with loving care, but upon return to the 21st century, the temporal explorers all quit the Time Agency and then decided to form a band. That band is Brutally Deceased. The hour is now, not 1990, and the album Dead Lovers' Guide has arrived, which must be one of the most guiltless excursions down memory lane I've ever heard, if those memories were skeletal fingers clutching at my ear drums from the earth of a clandestine cemetery.

Yes, Brutally Deceased will come under fire like so many other bands for their utter lack of originality, and I myself have found myself growing tired of such releases, but Dead Lovers' Guide is so unapologetic in 'getting it right' that I've naught but admiration for what they've accomplished with it. The Czechs readily admit that they formed this very band for the worship of Swedish death metal, so we are left to judge it upon those merits alone. Innovation was never really in question for this debut, and about the best I can say is that the vocals are more guttural and blunt than those of an L-G Petrov, but otherwise it functions on the same course, with dark and morbid, explosive guitar passages that conjure oppressive, sepulchral nostalgia through the notation alone, with a rock steady rhythm section and a front man who sounds like the very garbled graveyard dirt itself being manifest into a golem of elemental death.

Like the late lovers on its cover, the album wastes no time in embracing the emptiness of your heart with its downtrodden, almost romantically woven rhythms of "Lustful Sodomy in the House of God". It's a fine setup, but immediately eclipsed by the uproar of the title track, as massive chords and streaming guitars cycle through explosive postmortem, and a breakdown that is almost the match of anything Entombed wrote for Clandestine. Other tracks of note include the sinister, surging "They Shall Feast", coiled hostility of "Demise of the Human Swine", and nihilistic blitzkrieg of "All That Rots and Withers", which eschews the fragile balance of melody and aggression to blast and brutalize your person. The band also covers, fittingly, the opening track to Like an Ever Flowing Stream, "Override of the Overture", and though it's not different enough from the original to truly standout (how could it be, this band is already akin to a paraphrased tribute to early Dismember), it meshes well with the band's own content.

I've said it before many times, but the relationship of the listener to the Dead Lovers' Guide will depend almost entirely on how much they're willing to once again delve into the same terrain. There's nothing dishonest about the intentions here, it's Swedish death metal, non Swedish band, and Brutally Deceased will have it no other way. If you're attention span simply cannot hold another album that sounds like Entombed, Dismember, Grave and Unleashed circa the dawn of the 90s, then it probably will not succumb to the wiles of this debut. However, if you seek more of this sound, or you're willing to make just one more exception, then I must admit that the Czechs have done a pretty bang up job of writing good songs with a loyal dispensation to their influences, not directly biting off riffs but coming very close in both attitude and sepulchral attitude. Dead Lovers' Guide sounds enormous despite being derivative. Clearly the band is in love with the tone and structure here, and it shows in the final product.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10]

http://www.myspace.com/brutallydeceasedband