Heaven Shall Burn: Of Truth & Sacrifice (Century Media Records) [Liam True]
When I first found out Heaven Shall Burn were releasing a new album is was a happy little Deathcore kid again and was happily to embrace the mess they were going to unleash. Then I found out that the album would have a whopping 19 songs on it, and will be released as a double album, instead of two albums full of the songs from those sessions, much like previous bands such as Five Finger Death Punch and pretty much anything that King Gizzard have put out. Considering it’s 2020 it’s unusual for a band to release a double disk album. But it’s also refreshing as it never happens much anymore. Clocking it at a total of 1 hour and 37 minutes, it’s a heavy listen in one sitting, unless you split the albums in two to make two separate records.
Either way from start to finish it’s a hard hitting, riff filled, larynx shredding punch to the gut from the German quintet. It’s as heavy as dark matter with the sickening mix of both guttural & clean vocals of Marcus Bischoff and the rhythmic and lead serenading guitars of both Maik Weichert & Alexander Dietz. Packed in at the forefront of the bludgeoning sound is the machine gun drumming of Christian Bass. The record itself is as brutal as it needs to be and on times as slow and sombre to match the intensity it brings. It’s not a perfect record by any means, but it’s a pretty damn good album from the destructive Deathcore group. And with enough music & emotion to get you through the current times, it’s one you shouldn’t miss out on. 8/10
Medico Peste: The Black Bile (Season Of Mist Underground Activists) [Manus Hopkins]
Each song on Medico Peste’s The Black Bile is a different kind of journey. Rather than narrowing their sound down to a specific style of black metal, the Polish group has instead decided to include as many hallmarks of the diverse genre as possible in these seven songs. There are atmospheric elements, thrashier bits, eerie, dissonant riffs, vocals both screeched and growled and pretty much anything else you’d associate with black metal, all pulled off very well. This may only be Medico Peste’s second full-length release, though the band was formed in 2010, but the work that has been put into this album really shows. Each track had to have been made with a clear musical vision in mind, and there’s not a single part of the record that sounds like it had any less thought or time put into it. It’s a well-crafted, well-executed album, and an immersive listen. 9/10
Svengali: Sayonara (Self Released) [Paul Hutchings]
Based in Dubai, Svengali outfit features members from Iraq, India, Lebanon and Iran. Apparently, the largest metal band in the Middle East, their background is a heady mix indeed. Members of the band have been arrested for their passion and devotion to metal music, such is the intolerance they find themselves facing. With that in mind, it’s still time for an honest appraisal and it was somewhat surprising to listen to their second full-length release and find an absence of many of the promised diverse influences that I was expecting. Whilst there is certainly is plenty to enjoy on Sayonara, the band lean closely toward the Machine Head, Biohazard and Killswitch Engage styles with plenty of choppy time changes, jagged riffs, pounding drums and mixtures of clean and angry vocals which are backed by multiple breakdowns. Tracks like Breakaway and Quicksand veer sharply towards routine metalcore.
If like me, you are less enamoured with that style of metal, you can certainly still appreciate the aggressive style and the thunderous rage that the band create. It’s ferocious stuff at times but with elements that blend into the weaker side of the Bullet For My Valentine, it struggles to live up to the PR which suggests it is ‘one of the most ferocious and emotively entrancing metal albums of 2020’. What I will say is that Svengali are tight, on point and with a polished clean production, this is an album that will appeal to many. The band have a decent pedigree and given their background; one can only support their efforts. 6/10
Dopelord: Sign Of The Devil (Green Plague Records) [Matt Bladen]
Grzegorz Pawłowski (guitar), Piotr Zin (bass/vocals), Paweł Mioduchowski (guitar/vocals), Piotr Ochociński (drums) make up Polish stoner/doom band Dopelord, they play low, they play slow and they worship the dark lord and everything green. Sign Of The Devil is their fourth full length and it contains 30+ minutes of heavy fuzz thundering. Their style is very close to that of English doom lords Electric Wizard, though Dopeloard are a little cleaner sounding especially vocally but they still have that hallucinatory sound that Wizard are famed for, the riffs dig deep troughs on the occultist leanings of Hail Satan and Heathen which has a hell of a thump to it. Doom Bastards is a little lighter despite it's title with space rock touches at the beginning before the more traditional doom metal sound towards the end of it's 9 minute run time. Sign Of The Devil is a lot more quality stoner/doom from this Polish four piece, it's not world changing but it's got big grooves. 7/10
When I first found out Heaven Shall Burn were releasing a new album is was a happy little Deathcore kid again and was happily to embrace the mess they were going to unleash. Then I found out that the album would have a whopping 19 songs on it, and will be released as a double album, instead of two albums full of the songs from those sessions, much like previous bands such as Five Finger Death Punch and pretty much anything that King Gizzard have put out. Considering it’s 2020 it’s unusual for a band to release a double disk album. But it’s also refreshing as it never happens much anymore. Clocking it at a total of 1 hour and 37 minutes, it’s a heavy listen in one sitting, unless you split the albums in two to make two separate records.
Either way from start to finish it’s a hard hitting, riff filled, larynx shredding punch to the gut from the German quintet. It’s as heavy as dark matter with the sickening mix of both guttural & clean vocals of Marcus Bischoff and the rhythmic and lead serenading guitars of both Maik Weichert & Alexander Dietz. Packed in at the forefront of the bludgeoning sound is the machine gun drumming of Christian Bass. The record itself is as brutal as it needs to be and on times as slow and sombre to match the intensity it brings. It’s not a perfect record by any means, but it’s a pretty damn good album from the destructive Deathcore group. And with enough music & emotion to get you through the current times, it’s one you shouldn’t miss out on. 8/10
Medico Peste: The Black Bile (Season Of Mist Underground Activists) [Manus Hopkins]
Each song on Medico Peste’s The Black Bile is a different kind of journey. Rather than narrowing their sound down to a specific style of black metal, the Polish group has instead decided to include as many hallmarks of the diverse genre as possible in these seven songs. There are atmospheric elements, thrashier bits, eerie, dissonant riffs, vocals both screeched and growled and pretty much anything else you’d associate with black metal, all pulled off very well. This may only be Medico Peste’s second full-length release, though the band was formed in 2010, but the work that has been put into this album really shows. Each track had to have been made with a clear musical vision in mind, and there’s not a single part of the record that sounds like it had any less thought or time put into it. It’s a well-crafted, well-executed album, and an immersive listen. 9/10
Svengali: Sayonara (Self Released) [Paul Hutchings]
Based in Dubai, Svengali outfit features members from Iraq, India, Lebanon and Iran. Apparently, the largest metal band in the Middle East, their background is a heady mix indeed. Members of the band have been arrested for their passion and devotion to metal music, such is the intolerance they find themselves facing. With that in mind, it’s still time for an honest appraisal and it was somewhat surprising to listen to their second full-length release and find an absence of many of the promised diverse influences that I was expecting. Whilst there is certainly is plenty to enjoy on Sayonara, the band lean closely toward the Machine Head, Biohazard and Killswitch Engage styles with plenty of choppy time changes, jagged riffs, pounding drums and mixtures of clean and angry vocals which are backed by multiple breakdowns. Tracks like Breakaway and Quicksand veer sharply towards routine metalcore.
If like me, you are less enamoured with that style of metal, you can certainly still appreciate the aggressive style and the thunderous rage that the band create. It’s ferocious stuff at times but with elements that blend into the weaker side of the Bullet For My Valentine, it struggles to live up to the PR which suggests it is ‘one of the most ferocious and emotively entrancing metal albums of 2020’. What I will say is that Svengali are tight, on point and with a polished clean production, this is an album that will appeal to many. The band have a decent pedigree and given their background; one can only support their efforts. 6/10
Dopelord: Sign Of The Devil (Green Plague Records) [Matt Bladen]
Grzegorz Pawłowski (guitar), Piotr Zin (bass/vocals), Paweł Mioduchowski (guitar/vocals), Piotr Ochociński (drums) make up Polish stoner/doom band Dopelord, they play low, they play slow and they worship the dark lord and everything green. Sign Of The Devil is their fourth full length and it contains 30+ minutes of heavy fuzz thundering. Their style is very close to that of English doom lords Electric Wizard, though Dopeloard are a little cleaner sounding especially vocally but they still have that hallucinatory sound that Wizard are famed for, the riffs dig deep troughs on the occultist leanings of Hail Satan and Heathen which has a hell of a thump to it. Doom Bastards is a little lighter despite it's title with space rock touches at the beginning before the more traditional doom metal sound towards the end of it's 9 minute run time. Sign Of The Devil is a lot more quality stoner/doom from this Polish four piece, it's not world changing but it's got big grooves. 7/10