Ævangelist: Matricide In The Temple Of Omega (I. Voidhanger Records) [Paul S]
Ævangelist are a 2 piece from the states, Matricide In The Temple Of Omega is the bands 6th album coming less than a year after their last album Heralds Of Nightmare Descending. Ævangelist are a very unique band, in fact, I’ve been having real problems working out how to describe the band’s sound to you. In many ways they are similar to bands like Portal or Deathspell Omega. Don’t get me wrong, they don’t sound like either of those bands (ok there may be some similarity in riffing with Portal), but both those bands are also unique and very difficult to classify (how dare these bands make it difficult for reviewers like me, is it too much to ask that they make their bands easily pidgenholeable?).
At the end of the day Portal and Deathspell Omega sound like themselves, there isn’t anyone else who sounds like them, and Ævangelist are also in a genre all their own. While I’ve been trying to work out how to describe MITTOO to you, the two things that keep on coming to mind when I listen to this album aren’t albums, they are William S Burrough’s book “Naked Lunch”, and the paintings of Francis Bacon. It feels the way that book makes you feel, and it sounds like a Francis Bacon painting looks (I realise that that is probably no help to you, sorry). The album starts with an intro called Divination, which is nasty discordant noise with a disturbing voiceover (disturbing voice overs are a theme on this album). We are then launched into Æon Deathnell and we get our first taste of the madness of Ævangelist. It isn’t really death metal and it isn’t really black metal, it’s difficult and dense, and feels like it could spiral out of control at any moment. Blasting drums, massively detuned riffs (that may sound a little like Portal), guttural, harsh vocals and the thing that makes this all stand out from the crowd, a sorrowful, wailing melody lead guitar that echoes mournfully over everything else.
This lead guitar, that is by far the loudest thing in the mix, sometimes works with the rhythm guitar, but most of the time it works in total opposition to the other instruments. The effect is in many ways cacophonous, and chaotic, it feels like the album is continually changing, seething and whirling around the listener, this could have been unpalatable, but in many ways it’s the chaos that draws the listener in. Omen Of The Barren Womb begins with a disturbing voiceover before tipping you back into the maelstrom of derangement. The track is slower, but that doesn’t make it any easier, the lead guitar feels more echoey, and that keeps making the track sound bigger and bigger. The Sonance of Eternal Discord starts with a genuinely disturbing voiceover before it continues the craziness, but makes it faster so, well, crazier. The second half of the track keeps on getting more and more intense and over the top, by the end of the track it is almost too much…. almost. Serpentine As Lustful Nightmare starts with dissonant, discordant guitar that feels dirge-like, and slowly builds till we are back with the chaotic feel again, but this time it just keep getting more and more. The second half of the track is just insane swirling chaos, but in such an amazing way it’s totally immersive, and feel like nothing else I’ve ever heard.
Final track, the 18 minute Ascending Into The Pantheon continues the Insane Swirling Chaos for the first half of the song, but changes, for the first time on the album it feels like everything is pointed in the same direction. This is the part where it feels like the lead and rhythm are working together to batter the listener intro the ground. The ending having this purposeful, more direct sound brings the album to a suitable conclusion. Matricide In The Temple Of Omega is an amazing album. It isn’t easy, but it isn’t meant to be easy. The album is intense, brooding, agonising, difficult, dense, chaotic, cacophonous, mournful, dirge like, wailing, and incredibly brilliant. If you like either of the other bands I’ve mentioned in this review, you should check this album out. If you like music that challenges you, that is difficult but ultimately rewarding, then this could be for you as well. Personally, I love it, even if it scares me a little. 9/10
Malphas: The 39th Spirit (Via Nocturna) [Paul S]
Malphas is a 5 piece from Philadelphia, the band have been going since 2012, they have released 1 EP (The Conjuring) in 2015 before this album. The album kicks off with Invoking The 39th Spirit, which starts with a slow build up before exploding into some fantastic neo-classical melodic death metal. The main frames of reference on this album are Children Of Bodom or Fleshgod Apocalypse, not as fast as Fleshgod, but it has the same beautifully florid piano and keyboards. The riffs are complex and melodic, very tuneful and with a complexity that is impressive. Floods has a more direct feel than the opening track.
The track doesn’t mess about, with a driving rhythm and powerful chorus. Legions is a faster track, it has a more aggressive feel to it, and also has a great chorus backed up by a choir (possibly a choir that lives in a keyboard, but it could be a real one). The track also boast a great solo. You will lead My Armies starts with very neo-classical piano before going into some very fast riffing, with some fantastic guitar work (The standard of musicianship on this album is great throughout). Red Constellations keeps the neoclassical feel to it, but is slower, with a more relaxed pace. In fact the tempo of this song is very close to a 3:4 waltz timing, which isn’t very common in metal, but fits very nicely.
The album carries on with very well composed and played melodic death metal. Lots of keyboards and strings, but they have managed to keep all the different elements controlled so it never becomes cluttered or chaotic. The album ends with Heavens Fall parts I and II a pair of huge, epic pieces of melodic death metal. Both tracks are fast, with lots of strings and choir elements that make this a very powerful, but tuneful way to end the album. The 39th Spirit is a great album, particularly as it is a debut album. The band should feel proud that they have produced such a complex, melodic, mature piece of work as their first try at an album. 8/10
Devil's Hand: Devil's Hand (Frontiers Records) [Alex]
Proving proudly retro with a distinctively modern production quality, Devil's Hand is the child of a collaboration between Last In Line singer Andrew Freeman and former Warrant guitarist, Mike Slamer. With that history, they forgivably flaunt their influences in Glam Metal and 80s Classic Rock. Say what you want about the cliché, overindulgence, and ridiculousness, the acts associated with that genre always knew their way around a strong chorus. In fact, that is the most glorious facet associated with this debut. On every song, the gleaming production brings every melody, every crunchy riff, and every futuristic keyboard hook. It’s by no means perfect, and I wouldn’t say it lives up to some of its inspirations, yet it is undoubtedly a fun and amusing piece of modern hard rock.
Determined to start on a motivating note, We Come Alive opens on blaring synths and a crisp guitar part. A driving tempo climbs to a catchy chorus before the pay-off of a soaring lead solo. A tried, tested and wholly unoriginal formula? Absolutely. Some may protest at that, as I’m slightly tempted to, yet like many, I’m not one to resist a throwback, especially when it’s danceable and performed by people with a history in creating this very feisty take on rock n roll. Falling In, Another Way To Fly and Rise Above It All are equally as memorable, and the addition of little quirks in the vein of female backing vocals or subtle keyboard effects, adds to the overall aesthetic of a contemporary metal album, with a classic sound.
Overall, I enjoy Devil's Hand not just for perfecting a tried and true formula to my satisfaction, but also for its tasty instrumental flourishes and striking Songwriting. My main criticism is that it doesn’t quite go completely above and beyond, in the way in which regular readers of my reviews will know that I admire. Keeping an open mind though, there’s a lot of fun to be had with this project, and is one definitely worth the time of anyone with a fondness towards light-hearted and anthemic rock n roll. 7/10
Infinita Symphonia: Liberation (My Kingdom Music) [Rich]
Liberation is the third album by Italian progressive power metal band Infinita Symphonia. Liberation isn’t much of a progressive record being a far more straightforward power metal album and a fairly good one at that. This style of power metal throughout the album is very riff driven and chunky sounding with a suitably pounding rhythm section. The vocals by frontman Luca Micioni carry the strong melodies throughout and he has an impressive range with a rich mid range to ably nailing those power metal wails.
As well as the impressive vocals of Luca Micioni the album has several guest vocalists including Ralph Scheepers, Blaze Bayley and Alessandro Conti. The album does have a few missteps though. The opening song is an atmospheric intro with plenty of synths and symphonics that builds and builds only for the following song to completely deflate that build up. The album also has a bit of a lull during its second half for things to pick up with the enjoyably epic title track only for the end of the album to become a complete anticlimax thanks to a completely unnecessary 11 minute instrumental closing track.
When this album is firing on all cylinders it is very good indeed with the title track, Never Forget and How Do You Feel being particular highlights for me. Liberation is a good power metal album but its inconsistencies and some questionable pacing choices prevent it being anything above good. 7/10
Ævangelist are a 2 piece from the states, Matricide In The Temple Of Omega is the bands 6th album coming less than a year after their last album Heralds Of Nightmare Descending. Ævangelist are a very unique band, in fact, I’ve been having real problems working out how to describe the band’s sound to you. In many ways they are similar to bands like Portal or Deathspell Omega. Don’t get me wrong, they don’t sound like either of those bands (ok there may be some similarity in riffing with Portal), but both those bands are also unique and very difficult to classify (how dare these bands make it difficult for reviewers like me, is it too much to ask that they make their bands easily pidgenholeable?).
At the end of the day Portal and Deathspell Omega sound like themselves, there isn’t anyone else who sounds like them, and Ævangelist are also in a genre all their own. While I’ve been trying to work out how to describe MITTOO to you, the two things that keep on coming to mind when I listen to this album aren’t albums, they are William S Burrough’s book “Naked Lunch”, and the paintings of Francis Bacon. It feels the way that book makes you feel, and it sounds like a Francis Bacon painting looks (I realise that that is probably no help to you, sorry). The album starts with an intro called Divination, which is nasty discordant noise with a disturbing voiceover (disturbing voice overs are a theme on this album). We are then launched into Æon Deathnell and we get our first taste of the madness of Ævangelist. It isn’t really death metal and it isn’t really black metal, it’s difficult and dense, and feels like it could spiral out of control at any moment. Blasting drums, massively detuned riffs (that may sound a little like Portal), guttural, harsh vocals and the thing that makes this all stand out from the crowd, a sorrowful, wailing melody lead guitar that echoes mournfully over everything else.
This lead guitar, that is by far the loudest thing in the mix, sometimes works with the rhythm guitar, but most of the time it works in total opposition to the other instruments. The effect is in many ways cacophonous, and chaotic, it feels like the album is continually changing, seething and whirling around the listener, this could have been unpalatable, but in many ways it’s the chaos that draws the listener in. Omen Of The Barren Womb begins with a disturbing voiceover before tipping you back into the maelstrom of derangement. The track is slower, but that doesn’t make it any easier, the lead guitar feels more echoey, and that keeps making the track sound bigger and bigger. The Sonance of Eternal Discord starts with a genuinely disturbing voiceover before it continues the craziness, but makes it faster so, well, crazier. The second half of the track keeps on getting more and more intense and over the top, by the end of the track it is almost too much…. almost. Serpentine As Lustful Nightmare starts with dissonant, discordant guitar that feels dirge-like, and slowly builds till we are back with the chaotic feel again, but this time it just keep getting more and more. The second half of the track is just insane swirling chaos, but in such an amazing way it’s totally immersive, and feel like nothing else I’ve ever heard.
Final track, the 18 minute Ascending Into The Pantheon continues the Insane Swirling Chaos for the first half of the song, but changes, for the first time on the album it feels like everything is pointed in the same direction. This is the part where it feels like the lead and rhythm are working together to batter the listener intro the ground. The ending having this purposeful, more direct sound brings the album to a suitable conclusion. Matricide In The Temple Of Omega is an amazing album. It isn’t easy, but it isn’t meant to be easy. The album is intense, brooding, agonising, difficult, dense, chaotic, cacophonous, mournful, dirge like, wailing, and incredibly brilliant. If you like either of the other bands I’ve mentioned in this review, you should check this album out. If you like music that challenges you, that is difficult but ultimately rewarding, then this could be for you as well. Personally, I love it, even if it scares me a little. 9/10
Malphas: The 39th Spirit (Via Nocturna) [Paul S]
Malphas is a 5 piece from Philadelphia, the band have been going since 2012, they have released 1 EP (The Conjuring) in 2015 before this album. The album kicks off with Invoking The 39th Spirit, which starts with a slow build up before exploding into some fantastic neo-classical melodic death metal. The main frames of reference on this album are Children Of Bodom or Fleshgod Apocalypse, not as fast as Fleshgod, but it has the same beautifully florid piano and keyboards. The riffs are complex and melodic, very tuneful and with a complexity that is impressive. Floods has a more direct feel than the opening track.
The track doesn’t mess about, with a driving rhythm and powerful chorus. Legions is a faster track, it has a more aggressive feel to it, and also has a great chorus backed up by a choir (possibly a choir that lives in a keyboard, but it could be a real one). The track also boast a great solo. You will lead My Armies starts with very neo-classical piano before going into some very fast riffing, with some fantastic guitar work (The standard of musicianship on this album is great throughout). Red Constellations keeps the neoclassical feel to it, but is slower, with a more relaxed pace. In fact the tempo of this song is very close to a 3:4 waltz timing, which isn’t very common in metal, but fits very nicely.
The album carries on with very well composed and played melodic death metal. Lots of keyboards and strings, but they have managed to keep all the different elements controlled so it never becomes cluttered or chaotic. The album ends with Heavens Fall parts I and II a pair of huge, epic pieces of melodic death metal. Both tracks are fast, with lots of strings and choir elements that make this a very powerful, but tuneful way to end the album. The 39th Spirit is a great album, particularly as it is a debut album. The band should feel proud that they have produced such a complex, melodic, mature piece of work as their first try at an album. 8/10
Devil's Hand: Devil's Hand (Frontiers Records) [Alex]
Proving proudly retro with a distinctively modern production quality, Devil's Hand is the child of a collaboration between Last In Line singer Andrew Freeman and former Warrant guitarist, Mike Slamer. With that history, they forgivably flaunt their influences in Glam Metal and 80s Classic Rock. Say what you want about the cliché, overindulgence, and ridiculousness, the acts associated with that genre always knew their way around a strong chorus. In fact, that is the most glorious facet associated with this debut. On every song, the gleaming production brings every melody, every crunchy riff, and every futuristic keyboard hook. It’s by no means perfect, and I wouldn’t say it lives up to some of its inspirations, yet it is undoubtedly a fun and amusing piece of modern hard rock.
Determined to start on a motivating note, We Come Alive opens on blaring synths and a crisp guitar part. A driving tempo climbs to a catchy chorus before the pay-off of a soaring lead solo. A tried, tested and wholly unoriginal formula? Absolutely. Some may protest at that, as I’m slightly tempted to, yet like many, I’m not one to resist a throwback, especially when it’s danceable and performed by people with a history in creating this very feisty take on rock n roll. Falling In, Another Way To Fly and Rise Above It All are equally as memorable, and the addition of little quirks in the vein of female backing vocals or subtle keyboard effects, adds to the overall aesthetic of a contemporary metal album, with a classic sound.
Overall, I enjoy Devil's Hand not just for perfecting a tried and true formula to my satisfaction, but also for its tasty instrumental flourishes and striking Songwriting. My main criticism is that it doesn’t quite go completely above and beyond, in the way in which regular readers of my reviews will know that I admire. Keeping an open mind though, there’s a lot of fun to be had with this project, and is one definitely worth the time of anyone with a fondness towards light-hearted and anthemic rock n roll. 7/10
Liberation is the third album by Italian progressive power metal band Infinita Symphonia. Liberation isn’t much of a progressive record being a far more straightforward power metal album and a fairly good one at that. This style of power metal throughout the album is very riff driven and chunky sounding with a suitably pounding rhythm section. The vocals by frontman Luca Micioni carry the strong melodies throughout and he has an impressive range with a rich mid range to ably nailing those power metal wails.
As well as the impressive vocals of Luca Micioni the album has several guest vocalists including Ralph Scheepers, Blaze Bayley and Alessandro Conti. The album does have a few missteps though. The opening song is an atmospheric intro with plenty of synths and symphonics that builds and builds only for the following song to completely deflate that build up. The album also has a bit of a lull during its second half for things to pick up with the enjoyably epic title track only for the end of the album to become a complete anticlimax thanks to a completely unnecessary 11 minute instrumental closing track.
When this album is firing on all cylinders it is very good indeed with the title track, Never Forget and How Do You Feel being particular highlights for me. Liberation is a good power metal album but its inconsistencies and some questionable pacing choices prevent it being anything above good. 7/10