Review: PsyOpus – Our Puzzling Encounters Considered

Posted by Goshuggist on Jan 28, 2012 in CD Reviews | 3 comments

PSYOPUS
Our Puzzling Encounters Considered (2007)

US, Metal Blade, Hyper Technical/Avant-Garde/Mathcore.

[Before the review proper starts, I'd like to mention that I'm well aware PsyOpus is not strictly speaking 'Death Metal', but I'll be damned if they aren't included on this website among their technical and progressive brethren, especially considering they're quite easily the craziest band in both groups of music. With that nifty disclaimer out of the way;]

Review: Arsis – We Are The Nightmare

Posted by Goshuggist on Jan 26, 2012 in CD Reviews | 1 comment

ARSIS
We Are The Nightmare (2008)

US, Nuclear Blast, Melodic Technical Death Metal

I consider myself a very open minded metalhead. I try not to be prematurely judgmental with bands I’ve never heard, bands that everyone seems to hate, bands that confuse people et. al. but there is a noteworthy percentage of metal I just don’t understand. Black Metal bands described as ‘kvlt’, the majority of Power Metal, Yngwie Malmsteen and a fairly recent strain of technical death metal known as ‘Melodic Technical Death Metal’, represented by bands like Allegaeon, Vale Of Pnath and of course, Arsis. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I stopped listening to melodic death metal almost entirely around sixteen years old. Maybe the mixture of melodic and technical death metal is just fundamentally flawed to begin with. Maybe, as many fans of Arsis will no doubt tell me after reading this, I’m just a tone deaf rube with a weedly deedly fetish. I consider the last two explanations to be the least likely, but whatever the case may be, Arsis and I have never been able to see eye to eye. Not from a lack of trying mind you. I’ve listened to a fair share of their material and the closest I’ve come to appreciating their style is on their first album ‘A Celebration Of Guilt’. It wasn’t mindblowing, but I do consider it good material. It managed to strike a nice balance between the feel of melodic death metal and the intensity of tech-death. A mere two albums later and my sense of engagement is fleeting at best. I don’t fully understand why ‘We Are The Nightmare’ is so difficult to listen to, but the bizarre mixture of boredom and restlessness this release gives me is undeniable.

Review: Detrimentum – INHUMAN disGRACE

Posted by Witness to the Void on Jan 25, 2012 in CD Reviews | 0 comments

DETRIMENTUM
INHUMAN disGRACE (2012)

England, Deepsend Records, Technical Brutal Death Metal

Like schoolchildren, the metal community loves to bicker over sub-sub genres. Clearly technical brutal death metal differs radically from brutal technical death metal, and therefore deserves as its own separate entity. Thrash/death vs. death/thrash, doom death, death doom, slamming brutal death metal, slam death metal, guttural slamming brutal death metal…

Review: Gallows For Grace – A Process For The Destruction Of Tomorrow

Posted by Goshuggist on Jan 23, 2012 in CD Reviews | 0 comments

GALLOWS FOR GRACE
A Process For The Destruction Of Tomorrow (2008)

Australia, Skull And Bones, Technical Death Metal

“Death creates nothing.”
“Your death will create an opportunity.”

Part Psycroptic, part Brain Drill, part Dying Fetus and all face melting, Gallows For Grace were quite the young tech-death outfit. ‘A Process For The Destruction Of Tomorrow’ is the perfect combination of sweeps, slams and even bits of outright melody. From the first song outside of the 35 second intro, I knew I was in for a treat. Much like their countrymen Ouroboros, Gallows For Grace knew exactly how to synthesize the elements of death metal they loved into a cohesive and increasingly unstoppable whole. This EP is nowhere near as technical as Entrails Eradicated, Monumental Torment, Viraemia or Hedonistic Exility, but I doubt that was the intention. At their most technical, Gallows For Grace can be compared to a mellowed out Brain Drill via ‘Apocalyptic Feasting’ if they somehow merged with ‘Scepter Of The Ancients’ era Psycroptic and ‘Destroy The Opposition’ era Dying Fetus. Blake Simpson, the extremely talented vocalist alternates between John Gallagher style gurgles, Sean Beasely style barks and Matt Chalky mid pitched and shrieked vocals. No pig squeals, no inhales, no cheap vocal tricks of any kind. The music is that much better because of it.

Review: Mindly Rotten – Proliferation Of Disaster

Posted by Goshuggist on Jan 23, 2012 in CD Reviews | 0 comments

MINDLY ROTTEN
Proliferation Of Disaster (2011)

Colombia, Coyote Records, Technical Brutal Death Metal

“Oh.
My.
Fuck.”

That was the most I could muster after listening to Mindly Rotten’s ‘Proliferation Of Disaster’ in its entirety. I’d known of several Colombian Death Metal outfits before stumbling across Mindly Rotten, (Internal Suffering and Ancient Necropsy being the two most prominent) but no predecessors could give me an indication of what was in store for me with this release. I can now say with the utmost confidence that Mindly Rotten renders Deeds Of Flesh jump roping, hopscotching little girls. They make Cattle Decapitation sound like a bunch of month old kittens. This release has singlehandedly raised the bar for unparalleled brutality, all while writing some of the most technically dazzling and innovative brutal death metal of the past seven years AT LEAST.

Review: Xenocide – Galactic Oppression

Posted by Witness to the Void on Jan 23, 2012 in CD Reviews | 1 comment

XENOCIDE
Galactic Oppression (2012)

Canada, Self-released, Progressive / Technical Death Metal

Galactic Oppression via Technical Death Metal? Beam Me Up, Xenocide!

I am a sucker for anything cosmically related in metal. The depths of infinity lends itself perfectly to guitar squeals and rubbery bass. In my iTunes I have multiple playlists devoted solely to those technicians that choose to transverse the cosmos.

In contrast, I am rarely on top of upcoming releases from bands I don’t really know about, especially when they aren’t on one of the bigger metal labels. Hence, I stumbled across Xenocide’s Galactic Oppression album purely by accident – like a small spaceship running into some random object the far off, remote galaxy of the internet. But this is no space junk – this debut fell length contains a wealth of captivating technicality, memorable song writing, and stellar musicianship. The engineers of this vessel, a five piece from Vancouver, Canada, describe their music as “galactic death metal” for fans of “astronomy, death metal, and technology.”

Review: Sarpanitum – Fidelium EP

Posted by Witness to the Void on Jan 18, 2012 in CD Reviews | 0 comments

SARPANITUM
Fidelium (2011) EP

United Kingdom, Self-released, Blackened Technical Death Metal

Amongst the Catacombs of Blackened, Atmospheric Brutality…

In many ways death metal can be compared to horror movies. The obvious comparison lies within the superficial subject matter, yet with deeper research viewers/listeners can find another great similarity; the divide between the fans of old and new. Some new technical death bands, like the twelfth iteration in a big Hollywood franchise film series, slap the audience in the face with the auditory compliment to blood, guts, and gore, delivered in an almost sterilized fashion. Such gives way to complaints about pro-tool driven, break down ridden copies of a copy, or the modern “weedly-deedly” death metal bands that have forsaken the sinister atmospheres and lurking fear of the disturbing death metal of yesteryear.
Yet occasionally a new entry into the field remembers the absolutely essential atmospherics of old, while bringing a certain new flair to the genre. It drips with a diabolic climate, moving like a sinister, maddening force, playing at the edges of our mind, but simultaneously delivers the tingling terror that makes a listener/viewer say “I have never seen anything like this before” in both technique and subject matter. Everyone has seen a slasher film, just as everyone has heard a death metal album about zombies.

Review: Hedonistic Exility – Deevolutional Stasis

Posted by Goshuggist on Jan 16, 2012 in CD Reviews | 0 comments

HEDONISTIC EXILITY
Deevolutional Stasis (2010)

Ukraine, Eclectic Production, Technical Brutal Death Metal w/ parasitic Deathcore intrusions.

I rarely have any kind words for Beneath The Massacre. As I mentioned in my review of ‘Dystopia’ their work is the equivalent of a perpetual stereotype of technical death metal; perfect hater fuel. Initially, when many metalheads made the comparison between Hedonistic Exility and Beneath The Massacre, I stayed as far away as I possibly could. Only recently after diving head first into the Russian Death Metal scene and it’s incorporated regions did I give Hedonistic Exility the time of day. Let me start off by saying that I was completely and utterly wrong in snubbing this band. Thinking in patterns and associations has plenty of benefits, but sometimes a release of the highest quality will slip right through my fingertips because of some loose lipped association with a band I can’t stand.

Review: Vildhjarta – Måsstaden

Posted by Goshuggist on Jan 2, 2012 in CD Reviews | 0 comments

Vildhjarta
Måsstaden (2011)

Sweden, Century Media Records, Djeath Metal. (‘Djent’ + Death Metal)

Vildhjarta is a band I never made much of a fuss about. Up until the release of ‘Måsstaden’, I pegged them as a decent but forgettable outfit from a scene that got old as fast as it was ushered in. The general consensus about ‘djent’ in the metal community is ‘Cheap Meshuggah worship’. Seeing as how Meshuggah is my favorite band, I see nothing wrong with a little worship from time to time, but I say that as a fan with no musical ability of my own. When an entire scene emerges based on giving mediocre bands the time of day they wouldn’t otherwise get just because they like polyrhythms, that’s troubling. It punishes the innovative bands (Animals As Leaders, Uneven Structure, TesseracT) by associating them with derivative copycats.

Review: Beneath The Massacre – Dystopia

Posted by Goshuggist on Nov 24, 2011 in CD Reviews | 0 comments

BENEATH THE MASSACRE
Dystopia (2008)

Canada, Prosthetic Records, Technical Death Metal w/ a hint of deathcore.

As someone who prides himself on being a music lover as well as a metalhead, I can safely say that the overwhelming majority of deathcore bands are complete and utter garbage. It makes being a death metal fan more difficult than it needs to be when some know nothing scene kid tries to pass off Bring Me The Hairstraightener or Shredded Wheat (Waking The Cadaver) as the music I’ll defend to my dying breath. It also makes it extremely difficult to convince other metalheads that despite the bree bree garbage there are bands that fall under the umbrella of deathcore worth checking out; After The Burial, Born Of Osiris, Veil Of Maya and Circle Of Contempt are all bands that while nowhere near as classic or timeless as the best death metal have my respect for making music, and good music at that.