I caught Black Orchid Empire at Radar Festival last year and had a long chat in the green room with them afterwards, they're an affable music loving trio who play an impressive, quite unique style of heavy music, that has evolved over the years to the point it is here on this album.
On stage though they are a tight unit; Billy Freedom's impatient drums locked into Dave Ferguson's insistent basslines as the powerhouse of rhythmn behind Paul Visser's brawny metal guitar riffs. What made me stick around and watch them on that day was their obvious experience garnered from huge amounts of touring and support slots, and that they were an muscular trio with heaps of melody on a day of heavy djenting.
The PR for this story driven (each song rather than an overal concept) fourth record mentions that it's for fans of Deftones (Weakness), Tool (Deny The Sun/Summit) and Biffy Clyro (Puzzle-era) and you can hear all of those influences come through on Tempus Veritas. But they also have plenty of the modern progging of Vola on the chunky groover Last Ronin and Empyre (who they will support on their album release show).
Tempus Veritas is the band attempting to push themselves, they do so by increasing their complexity but also their melody as you can hear on the Smashing Pumpkins meets Muse track Scarlett Haze, odd time signatures and a soaring chorus, the choruses are also huge on closing track Latimer, which will do well on rock radio, the same can be said about Hydrogen and The Raven, the opening duo of songs that embrace you with what Black Orchid Empire are in 2023. Watch out as you'll be seeing their name everywhere soon. 9/10
Fit For An Autopsy, Thy Art Is Murder & Malevolence - The Aggression Sessions (Nuclear Blast) [GC]
The latest volume of The Aggression sessions has 3 absolutely stellar names in the death/metalcore world giving us one original track and a cover of a classic of their choosing. Rather than jump from track to track and confuse myself, I will review them both together as 3 separate entities and then give a combined score at the end.
Fit For An Autopsy
Hellions: As usual FFAO are absolutely on point here, their mix of savage death metal and scathing metalcore infused with rich atmospherics never fails to hit its mark and as expected the guitars are big and chunky and the rhythm of the drums and bass kick the living shit out of you and they throw in a couple of nice beatdown for good measure, great start!
Under A Serpent Sun: This is the first brave choice of cover here, (but not the bravest) trying to reproduce anything that At The Gates did on Slaughter Of The Soul is either stupid or shows supreme confidence in your talent, and FFAO do pull of a decent effort here the guitars aren’t as sharp as you would want but still pack the necessary bite and the vocals are again decent enough so you don’t roll your eyes but, ATG are just the one of the masters of this style and this cover falls just short for me.
Thy Art Is Murder
Until There Is No Longer: Starts off with some atmospheric blackened death metal before the trademark Thy Art Is Murder staccato deathcore foundation kick in and throws some groove infused pummeling and the end section of this song is beautifully savage, these guys are one of the best at the sort of thing and on the evidence shown on this track any new album is going to be a fucking killer. Once more the original track shows the best of the scene.
Hammer Smashed Face: What can be said about this song? It’s a grade A classic and again to cover this is a bold and brave (but still not the bravest move) move, do they pull it off? Yes, they do this track justice in every way, even with the guitars sounding slightly less dirty than the original, it helps and gives the modern sound to a classic track, everything here is nailed perfectly and it’s a brilliant cover.
Malevolence
Waste Of Myself: Has a quiet and brooding start that then explodes into life and has a thrash feel before the more familiar groove filled metalcore shows its face but the undeniable hardcore influences also shine though to really make the whole track a beautiful and bruising beast, Malevolence are slowly but surely building something special and have all the tools to go right to the top and the fact they are from the UK is fucking amazing! They are probably the least known of the 3 bands on here, but they easily show that reputations and names mean nothing, Excellent work.
Left Outside Alone: So, here we have it easily the bravest choice of cover version, they have taken Anastacia’s 2005 hit and thrown it into a mixer and produced a fucking beauty! Full of big, sludgy, and stomping riffs and a masterful drum showing but it’s really the vocals that take your attention because it’s not about solely recreating the song its about stamping your identity on it and everything here screams MALEVOLENCE!! Inspired Choice and best cover on here. 9/10
1782 - Clamor Luciferi (Heavy Psych Sound) [Rich Piva]
I am not sure I have ever called anything that Heavy Psych Sounds put out boring, especially given how much of a roll they have been and are going to be on the last 12 months or so, but unfortunately I think I have found that album in the form of the new 1782 record, Clamor Luciferi. The Italian doom outfit play slow and heavy fuzzy doom with distorted vocals and do not veer too far off the path of their normal output with their new one, which I found to be a bit of a boring slog unfortunately.
You know something is not connecting when you are five songs in and you still think you are on the first song. That is the big problem with Clamor Luciferi. The whole album to me sounds the same with little to no change up in style or approach and could be one long fuzzy 45 minute track of doom. Now these guys do doom well, but I have listened to this a few times now and I find myself wanting to move onto something else quicker than I normally do when something doesn’t connect.
The vocals are a challenge as well, as right off the bat you will lose some listeners there. But overall, this is nine tracks that are all extremely similar in sound and structure and fails to excite or connect with me. The standout track for me is Tumultus XII, but it barely stands out amongst the interchangeable other eight dirges.
Maybe some other will really dig this, but I really struggled Clamor Luciferi. The evil doom stylings are usually right up my alley, but I failed to get this or connect with it in a meaningful way. I did enjoy the fuzzy guitar work and overall evil atmosphere, but that is as far as I can go on praise for the new one from 1782. 5/10
Poison Ruin - Härvest (Relapse Records) [Mark Young]
Medieval Punk?
Philadelphia punks Poison Ruïn bring you their latest release, their first for Relapse Records. What I am surprised about is that it doesn’t go for the throat straight from the off. Track Pinnacle Of Ecstasy starts with some synths that use an historic sounding musical passage to launch us into a mid-paced straight forward offering.
The following all seem to be in a similar pace, although Torture Chamber does pick-up, but it feels as though we have heard this before. In some respects, I suppose we will have done but not in terms of how they have written the 11 songs here using that medieval/fantasy approach instead of the usual topics. That is not to say that this isn’t full of protest. It is but uses the past as a way to show the future.
It is entirely likely that I expected it be faster than it is considering that they have that punk / hardcore tag stuck to them (via online sources). It doesn’t seem to possess the inherent anger that I have previously associated with punk, and it is probably because I haven’t exposed myself to much of it. The sub-three-minute tracks are fine, but where it grows is on the longer ones where they expand the sound by using keys rather than straight into it, such as Härvest or on the Pinnacle Of Ecstasy.
What we have is a decent collection of songs, none of which are too long or repetitive. They are all delivered at more or less the same pace which means they do bleed into each other a little. The approach to use keys sparingly is a good one, as it does break things up and adds to their sound but overall, I feel there is something missing from having a couple of faster paced tracks on here, something that would really whip up the live audience.
Fans of punk, and of their previous releases will go for it, and there are signs there that they will expand as they grow as a band. 6/10