Suffocation - Hymns From The Apocrypha (Nuclear Blast Records) [Matt Bladen]
With the release of their ninth studio record you'll know what to expect from New York death metal legends Suffocation, technically gifted death metal that's as virtuoso as it is extreme. This is the debut record of Ricky Myers who has been the on stage vocalist for Suffocation for a few years outside of the USA but this is his official recorded debut taking over from band founder Frank Mullen. Anyone who has seen him perform knows how good he is, so his performance on this record is just another piece of evidence that he's the right man for the job. What I like is the clarity of his gutural roar, you can hear and understand every lyric.Hymns From The Apocrypha is their first album since 2017 and it's bloody good to have them back ripping other death metal bands to shreds with drumming from Eric Morotti that's inhuman, if there's blastbeat to find he'll find it and play it at double speed for good measure (Perpetual Deception/Dim Veil Of Obscurity). Derek Boyer is the low end devestation his bass playing informing that pulverising pummel on Immortal Execration and Embrace The Suffering. Rhythm guitarist Charlie Errigo chugs away as a bridge between Boyer on Descendents, and lead guitarist Terrance Hobbs, as techincally gifted as the long term shredder but without the need to crank out those face melting solos and lead breaks, case in point being Seraphim Enslavement.
It's almost like Suffocation see what is happening in the world of death metal then try to make something that will wipe other bands off the map, constantly striving to be the most techincally proficient and the most brutal. The originators and the final boss of the death metal genre, Suffocation still reign. 9/10
Insomnium - Songs Of The Dusk (Century Media Records) [Paul Scoble]
Insomnium have been making music together since 1997. The band, who originally played melodic death metal and over the years have also dipped their toes into the doom and death/doom scenes, have released nine albums, the last one being Anno 1696 that was released this year, and three EP’s before Songs Of The Dusk. The band is made up of Niilo Sevänen on bass and vocals, Markus Hirvonen on drums, Ville Friman on guitars and clean vocals, Markus Vanhala on guitars, and Jani Liimatainen on guitars and clean vocals.
The EP opens with Flowers Of The Night, a big slow melancholy track that vacillates between clean sections with spoken vocals, and big, heavy sections with huge riffs and sad melody leads over the top, the vocals on these heavier sections are harsh, but are performed in a way that isn’t aggressive or jarring to the feel of the song. The song boasts a very emotive guitar solo and builds in intensity nearer the end, but still maintains the feeling of melancholy.
Next track Stained In Red has a more extreme and faster feel to the song that preceded it. Again the song has clean sections and much bigger, heavier parts, the balance on this track is definitely towards the heavier material. Several sections have Ttremolo picked riffs that are full of melody and the song boasts some great melodic riffs and melody leads. Stained In Red also has sections that feel dramatic and aggressive, but is still full of melody.
Final (nearly) title track Song Of The Dusk has some of the softer elements from the opening track and some of the more aggressive aspects of Stained In Red. The riffs are big, heavy and full of melancholy, in places the pacing is slow and drifting, almost dreamlike, and elseware the riffs are much more aggressive and faster. There is also a section with soft, clean crystal clear guitar and keyboards that remind me a little of Pink Floyd. The song and EP come to and end with a slowly fading huge riff with beautiful melody lead.
Songs Of The Dusk is a great EP, the three track are very enjoyable and fit together perfectly to form a great 22 minutes, to be honest my only complaint is that the EP is over too soon, it’s a great mix of heavy, beauty and melancholy that is just as affecting as it is enjoyable. 8/10
Carnation – Cursed Mortality (Season Of Mist) [Paul Hutchings]
It seems that Belgian death metal bruisers have been around longer than a decade. They have certainly been on my radar for some time, such is their intoxicating heavy brand of death metal which stands alongside the real beasts of the genre. At 35 minutes in length, it’s quality over quantity on offer with third album Cursed Mortality, but don’t let the running time put you off, for there is a power across this band that allows them to get their message across as succinctly as anyone who takes double that time.
Opener Herald Of Demise features a guest appearance from long-time King Diamond guitarist Andy LaRocque. It’s a snarling opening, with all the expected power and aggression that Carnation bring to the party. Screaming lead work rips out of the melee, adding a level of melody to counter the aural chaos that is erupting all around. Huge raging vocals from Simon Duson centres the focus. It’s a massive start, and unsurprisingly, the tempo rarely dips from hereon in.
Although it’s a relatively short album, the songs pack plenty of heft. Mainly rocking in around the four-minute mark, there’s no space for catching breath, as each song simply steamrolls along after each other. Shortest track Metropolis is brutal, ferocious in power and energy, with a darker edge that shimmers and glistens. Replicant features some clean vocals, which act in complete contrast to the venomous roars of Duson. It also provides a different take on the song, with a modern metal vibe acting in almost defiance of the band’s more usual crushing death metal approach.
After seven blistering songs, Carnation then change things somewhat with the title track which concludes the album. An epic seven and a half minutes in length, it builds slowly, in classic style, sinister tones setting the scene alongside a lone guitar. This evolves into a progressive, complex piece that ebbs and flows, switching clean singing with death growls, calmer, melodic passages with bruising segments and even an Opeth like breakdown towards the end. It’s quite the song, and whilst it remains true to the band’s roots, there’s an inkling of a necessary change of direction which bodes well for the next release. Thunderous stuff. 8/10
Morne - Engraved With Pain (Metal Blade) [Mark Young]
Boston is on fire this month (not literally) as Morne enters the fray with a 4 track EP weighing in at nearly 40 minutes long. It’s an intense offering, making the most of wringing out as much as possible from the form that mixes in sludge and doom against a backdrop of atmospheric touches. It is bleak, unrelenting and at the end, you know you have been through the wringer with them.
However, just because you can write a 10-minute song doesn’t mean that you should. Sometimes, a short sharp blast is more effective than a repeated riff or drawn-out sequence. I’m still on the fence with sludge/doom as a whole as I’ve reviewed some bands recently that have similar length songs but have so much going on or possess a feeling that makes them seem shorter than they are.
Insomnium - Songs Of The Dusk (Century Media Records) [Paul Scoble]
Insomnium have been making music together since 1997. The band, who originally played melodic death metal and over the years have also dipped their toes into the doom and death/doom scenes, have released nine albums, the last one being Anno 1696 that was released this year, and three EP’s before Songs Of The Dusk. The band is made up of Niilo Sevänen on bass and vocals, Markus Hirvonen on drums, Ville Friman on guitars and clean vocals, Markus Vanhala on guitars, and Jani Liimatainen on guitars and clean vocals.
The EP opens with Flowers Of The Night, a big slow melancholy track that vacillates between clean sections with spoken vocals, and big, heavy sections with huge riffs and sad melody leads over the top, the vocals on these heavier sections are harsh, but are performed in a way that isn’t aggressive or jarring to the feel of the song. The song boasts a very emotive guitar solo and builds in intensity nearer the end, but still maintains the feeling of melancholy.
Next track Stained In Red has a more extreme and faster feel to the song that preceded it. Again the song has clean sections and much bigger, heavier parts, the balance on this track is definitely towards the heavier material. Several sections have Ttremolo picked riffs that are full of melody and the song boasts some great melodic riffs and melody leads. Stained In Red also has sections that feel dramatic and aggressive, but is still full of melody.
Final (nearly) title track Song Of The Dusk has some of the softer elements from the opening track and some of the more aggressive aspects of Stained In Red. The riffs are big, heavy and full of melancholy, in places the pacing is slow and drifting, almost dreamlike, and elseware the riffs are much more aggressive and faster. There is also a section with soft, clean crystal clear guitar and keyboards that remind me a little of Pink Floyd. The song and EP come to and end with a slowly fading huge riff with beautiful melody lead.
Songs Of The Dusk is a great EP, the three track are very enjoyable and fit together perfectly to form a great 22 minutes, to be honest my only complaint is that the EP is over too soon, it’s a great mix of heavy, beauty and melancholy that is just as affecting as it is enjoyable. 8/10
Carnation – Cursed Mortality (Season Of Mist) [Paul Hutchings]
It seems that Belgian death metal bruisers have been around longer than a decade. They have certainly been on my radar for some time, such is their intoxicating heavy brand of death metal which stands alongside the real beasts of the genre. At 35 minutes in length, it’s quality over quantity on offer with third album Cursed Mortality, but don’t let the running time put you off, for there is a power across this band that allows them to get their message across as succinctly as anyone who takes double that time.
Opener Herald Of Demise features a guest appearance from long-time King Diamond guitarist Andy LaRocque. It’s a snarling opening, with all the expected power and aggression that Carnation bring to the party. Screaming lead work rips out of the melee, adding a level of melody to counter the aural chaos that is erupting all around. Huge raging vocals from Simon Duson centres the focus. It’s a massive start, and unsurprisingly, the tempo rarely dips from hereon in.
Although it’s a relatively short album, the songs pack plenty of heft. Mainly rocking in around the four-minute mark, there’s no space for catching breath, as each song simply steamrolls along after each other. Shortest track Metropolis is brutal, ferocious in power and energy, with a darker edge that shimmers and glistens. Replicant features some clean vocals, which act in complete contrast to the venomous roars of Duson. It also provides a different take on the song, with a modern metal vibe acting in almost defiance of the band’s more usual crushing death metal approach.
After seven blistering songs, Carnation then change things somewhat with the title track which concludes the album. An epic seven and a half minutes in length, it builds slowly, in classic style, sinister tones setting the scene alongside a lone guitar. This evolves into a progressive, complex piece that ebbs and flows, switching clean singing with death growls, calmer, melodic passages with bruising segments and even an Opeth like breakdown towards the end. It’s quite the song, and whilst it remains true to the band’s roots, there’s an inkling of a necessary change of direction which bodes well for the next release. Thunderous stuff. 8/10
Morne - Engraved With Pain (Metal Blade) [Mark Young]
Boston is on fire this month (not literally) as Morne enters the fray with a 4 track EP weighing in at nearly 40 minutes long. It’s an intense offering, making the most of wringing out as much as possible from the form that mixes in sludge and doom against a backdrop of atmospheric touches. It is bleak, unrelenting and at the end, you know you have been through the wringer with them.
However, just because you can write a 10-minute song doesn’t mean that you should. Sometimes, a short sharp blast is more effective than a repeated riff or drawn-out sequence. I’m still on the fence with sludge/doom as a whole as I’ve reviewed some bands recently that have similar length songs but have so much going on or possess a feeling that makes them seem shorter than they are.
Morne are actively attempting to make you feel fatigued from their music and it does. Its heavy, oppressive and opens with Engraved With Pain, which begins with a simple drum pattern that builds to usher in the song proper. As a statement of intent, this lays down a marker for the music to follow. A central riff anchors the arrangement allowing them to build the atmosphere around it. When the vox comes it suits the music down to a tee, completely in synch. The trouble is that it takes a while to get to this point and doesn’t really grab.
Memories Like Stone has a more urgent feel to it and has more happening with it but again is stretched out, with differing tempos coming in and out and be honest it could have been trimmed to a shorter runtime and still be effective. Wretched Empire has a great build to the intro, and there is a real momentum to this one, and rips through in a way the others should have done. The final track, Fire And Dust, is a slow and ponderous affair charting its way along that dark path with a mournful solo break. It accompanies what is a classic doom roof and it betrays the British roots they look to in their sound.
What I know is that it didn’t grab me in a way that I think it should. It just doesn’t elicit a response from me in either a positive or negative way. Fans of the band and of this music will like it and in all honesty that’s all that counts. For the casual listener, I don’t think there is enough that would maintain interest in it. 6/10
Memories Like Stone has a more urgent feel to it and has more happening with it but again is stretched out, with differing tempos coming in and out and be honest it could have been trimmed to a shorter runtime and still be effective. Wretched Empire has a great build to the intro, and there is a real momentum to this one, and rips through in a way the others should have done. The final track, Fire And Dust, is a slow and ponderous affair charting its way along that dark path with a mournful solo break. It accompanies what is a classic doom roof and it betrays the British roots they look to in their sound.
What I know is that it didn’t grab me in a way that I think it should. It just doesn’t elicit a response from me in either a positive or negative way. Fans of the band and of this music will like it and in all honesty that’s all that counts. For the casual listener, I don’t think there is enough that would maintain interest in it. 6/10