Withered - Verloren (Season Of Mist) [Matt Bladen]
Withered sound is described as tortured blackened death metal and from the explosive opening salvo By Tooth In Tongue you can hear why that is, their music is slow paced, punishing and oppressive but also aggressive, driven and destructive, featuring clean vocals for the first time. They are in frontman Mike Thompson's own words a band "for metal nerds" and with the influences of Coroner, Strapping Young Lad and even bands like Cynic and Akercocke, they are 18 year in the making overnight sensation. Their cult status has held them in high regard and as you listen to this Atlantan acts' fifth full length their well worn themes of grief, loss and emotional pain have constantly been a source of inspiration allowing the music to feature a varied sound throughout.
Supporting Mike Thompson (guitar/vocals) are drummer Beau Brandon, bassist Rafay Nabeel and guitarist/vocalist Dan Caycedo, the four of them playing a record as eclectic as their as live shows. Verloren is Withered re-connecting with their darker, introspective style of music. The production sound is almost like D.I,Y black metal acts, lots of fuzzy tremolo picking abound on The Predation but it's always backed by a much more experimental sound that ranges from heavy death metal grooves, such as on the technically savage From Ashen Shores to ominous My Dying Bride-like doom on Dissolve, beautiful classical guitar pieces, like the title track and they even dig into some grindcore/crust fury. With Verloren (German for missing) Withered remain resolutely in a category of their own, this album bringing them back to the style that they had back in 2005 on their debut, but also adding numerous dimensions to their already eclectic sound. Great extreme metal from the USA! 8/10
Ballsdeep have been apart of the UK Metal scene since 2010 hailing as the Bastard sons of Pantera. Since the bands previously released album …And On The 8th Day… and a three year UK touring cycle doing headline shows and well support bigger acts like Sepultura, Skindred and Evil Scarecrow just to name a few, the band have a new campaign for their up and coming (triple release) album Temperance, Death and High Priestess.
The scheme of this campaign is to release every part of this album every six months to insure that their followers are getting new content and baring witness of the gradual progression of heaviness, starting with Temperance.…and what can say about the first part of this album….Groove? Check! Riffs? Check! Attitude? Double Check!!! Starting from the five track opener Lay The Lines the band just smacks you in the face with this down tempo old school sludgy Lamb Of God groove accompanied with Dimebag Darrell inspired pitch shifted riffs. Other highlights include the energetic Supercharger’s ferocious fast tempo to the sludgy climax of King Of Heathens. Sam Bloor of Lower Lane Studios did a great job capturing the bands intensity making the guitars sound thick, the bass and drums sound punchy whilst getting the best performances out of the vocalists and making him cut through the mix.
In conclusion don’t expect anything genre defying but I can proudly say that this four piece wear their influences on their sleeves with pride and have made awesome but genuine first instalment from the album. If you like old school Lamb Of God and Mastodon mixed with Pantera and Neurosis this triple release for you! 7/10.
Endless Chain – Forthcoming Past (Rockshots Records) [Simon Black]
Less of a band and more of a well-connected solo project with a hell of a lot of high profile guests, Endless Chain’s debut is centred around Finnish guitarist/songwriter Timo Mölsä, who apparently is something of a latecomer - picking up the guitar for the first time in early middle age and forging this project off the back of some demos. His guitar playing is not too bad either – nothing flashy or overly technical, but with a clear melodic through line that leads you through the songs and much like Paradise Lost’s Greg Mackintosh structural use of melody, plays the notes and melody lines that you need to hear to manage the listener’s emotions. He also understands the structural side of songwriting to a tee, as each and every one of the songs on here has balance, structure and packs a hell of a punch.
This is moody and Gothic Metal in the Anathema/late 90’s era Paradise Lost vein, but with a generally cleaner approach to vocals from the four guest vocalists (Mikko Heikkilä, Ville Hovi, Aki and Salla Sundberg). Opening with the slightly clichéd moody opening bars of the title track, the album very quickly moves the spooky keys into the background and focuses on being dark, oppressive, moody and exceedingly heavy man… Forthcoming Past itself is slow and ponderous, creating a crushing sense on relentless inevitability, with Ville Hovi’s drawn out and haunting vocal lines evoking early Ozzy and counterpointed by Aki Salonen’s gruffer lyric lines that either alternate or harmonise in a highly effective way.
In conclusion don’t expect anything genre defying but I can proudly say that this four piece wear their influences on their sleeves with pride and have made awesome but genuine first instalment from the album. If you like old school Lamb Of God and Mastodon mixed with Pantera and Neurosis this triple release for you! 7/10.
Endless Chain – Forthcoming Past (Rockshots Records) [Simon Black]
Less of a band and more of a well-connected solo project with a hell of a lot of high profile guests, Endless Chain’s debut is centred around Finnish guitarist/songwriter Timo Mölsä, who apparently is something of a latecomer - picking up the guitar for the first time in early middle age and forging this project off the back of some demos. His guitar playing is not too bad either – nothing flashy or overly technical, but with a clear melodic through line that leads you through the songs and much like Paradise Lost’s Greg Mackintosh structural use of melody, plays the notes and melody lines that you need to hear to manage the listener’s emotions. He also understands the structural side of songwriting to a tee, as each and every one of the songs on here has balance, structure and packs a hell of a punch.
This is moody and Gothic Metal in the Anathema/late 90’s era Paradise Lost vein, but with a generally cleaner approach to vocals from the four guest vocalists (Mikko Heikkilä, Ville Hovi, Aki and Salla Sundberg). Opening with the slightly clichéd moody opening bars of the title track, the album very quickly moves the spooky keys into the background and focuses on being dark, oppressive, moody and exceedingly heavy man… Forthcoming Past itself is slow and ponderous, creating a crushing sense on relentless inevitability, with Ville Hovi’s drawn out and haunting vocal lines evoking early Ozzy and counterpointed by Aki Salonen’s gruffer lyric lines that either alternate or harmonise in a highly effective way.
They’re The Ones To Fall, takes the pace up slightly, but moody and well-paced remain the watch words through this track and indeed for the remainder of the record. Switching vocalists constantly also gives a lot of breadth to the sound and I wonder how this might work in practice live, as I can imagine only one or two frontmen working on the road in the early days of support slots and venues the size of the average living room. A living room which is going to be heaving with bodies when crowd pleasers like All Of The Above or Scars On Me are unleashed. It’s also not afraid to really take the pace down with the haunting mid-point acoustic ballad A Letter, or its sequel - the beautifully delivered duet Feel adding a female voice in the form of Salla Sundberg. It’s beautiful, haunting and powerful and I am left wishing that this singer had contributed more than the one track to this album.
This style of music fails utterly if it’s not richly produced, and Producer Aleksanteri Kuosa gets this completely, having immersed himself so heavily in pre-production to the point where he’s probably the second most important contributor on here after Mölsä. Polish and attention to detail are clearly on display here and this record feels like it has taken a lot of studio and post-production time to get this many musicians working remotely to sound as effective and cohesive an ensemble, whilst still allowing the contributions of the guests to stand out clearly and distinctively. In fact the only close comparison I can find that gets this balance so perfectly right is the combination of Tobias Sammet and Sascha Paeth on Avantasia projects, but they’ve had years and eight studio albums to get that balance right – Mölsä and Kuosa pull it off on the debut. This is an album that delivers with every listen and if they can make the transition from studio project to live spectacle, then this could be really, really interesting to watch unfold. 9/10
Bloodbeat - Process Of Extinction (Inverse Records) [Matt Bladen]
This style of music fails utterly if it’s not richly produced, and Producer Aleksanteri Kuosa gets this completely, having immersed himself so heavily in pre-production to the point where he’s probably the second most important contributor on here after Mölsä. Polish and attention to detail are clearly on display here and this record feels like it has taken a lot of studio and post-production time to get this many musicians working remotely to sound as effective and cohesive an ensemble, whilst still allowing the contributions of the guests to stand out clearly and distinctively. In fact the only close comparison I can find that gets this balance so perfectly right is the combination of Tobias Sammet and Sascha Paeth on Avantasia projects, but they’ve had years and eight studio albums to get that balance right – Mölsä and Kuosa pull it off on the debut. This is an album that delivers with every listen and if they can make the transition from studio project to live spectacle, then this could be really, really interesting to watch unfold. 9/10
Bloodbeat - Process Of Extinction (Inverse Records) [Matt Bladen]
Coming out of Berlin with their fists flailing, heads banging and guitar riffs tearing at your skin, Bloodbeat play an aggressive style of death/thrash metal, with nods to Slayer and Cannibal Corpse, but also some shifts towards the speedy grindcore of Napalm Death and Misery Index. Beyond The Skeletons is an ideal show of this sound with drumming that comes at you relentlessly, the riffs cutting like a chainsaw and the vocals barked before it explodes into some divebomb solos. It's very much 90's death metal from moment one, the pace never really relenting, except for a few groovy stomps, ripe for mosh pit beating. Jason Juhn's vocals and guitar are the focus of this record leading the riffage along with Paul Hopp (Drums), Daniel Dokic (Guitar) and Fux (Bass) completing the lineup of this German death machine. DM aficionados will probably pick up more in this record and that will lead to them being more critical but in my opinion, Process Of Extinction is just a nasty piece of death metal ripe for armchair pitting. 6/10