Skeletal Remains - Fragments Of The Ageless (Century Media Records) [Charlie Rogers]
Brutal alternative to The California Raisins, Skeletal Remains have been a household name in modern death metal for over a decade now, and their fifth full album Fragments Of The Ageless aims to add to that legacy. This is 44 minutes of pulverising, nasty death, injected at high speed right into your eardrums. Blisteringly nippy drumming, earthquake inducing bass lines, cross cutting guitar riffs, and demonic barking vocals come together in a maelstrom of groove. There’s more hooks here than your average Bass Pro outlet store.
I’m impressed by the immediately catchy riffs, the frantic rhythms, and the variation of patterns pulled together in each track. There’s space to hear the riffs a lot of the time, with the sound only becoming overwhelming and muddy a handful of times over the 9 tracks. Modern production really has given bands an opportunity to showcase their instruments to the fullest, sounding massive and full while not stepping on each other's toes.
I’m impressed by the immediately catchy riffs, the frantic rhythms, and the variation of patterns pulled together in each track. There’s space to hear the riffs a lot of the time, with the sound only becoming overwhelming and muddy a handful of times over the 9 tracks. Modern production really has given bands an opportunity to showcase their instruments to the fullest, sounding massive and full while not stepping on each other's toes.
The sheer density of the sound on tracks such as To Conquer The Devout demonstrates this perfectly. Afterall, what’s the point in writing challenging, complex material if it’s going to all get lost in the mixing/mastering process? Plus, you’d lose the cool reverse snare sound used in Cybernetic Harvest if there wasn’t space for it to shine out.
Skeletal Remains have honed the ability to write infectious jams to a needle point, sewing banger riff to banger riff over and over again, leaving the listener with few moments to give their neck a break during the album. Even the instrumental tracks Ceremony Of Impiety and ...Evocation (The Rebirth) are entertaining listens in their own right, though the former does sort of serve as a long intro to the track Void Of Despair. Overall, Fragments Of The Ageless is a killer record, well worth giving a spin if you’re into death metal, both modern and retro. 9/10
Midas Fall - Cold Waves Divide Us (Monotreme Records) [Zak Skane]
The opening track In The Morning Will Be Someone Else’s, introduces us to the vocalist gothic, but yet soulful and haunting melodies that are soaked in mystical reverb which float over high pitched echoed guitar melodies and swelling guitar soundscapes. The following track I am Wrong brings in some warm cinematic synths that could happily belong in a block buster hit sound track, especially along with it’s pounding drums and walls of ambient fuzz guitars.
Skeletal Remains have honed the ability to write infectious jams to a needle point, sewing banger riff to banger riff over and over again, leaving the listener with few moments to give their neck a break during the album. Even the instrumental tracks Ceremony Of Impiety and ...Evocation (The Rebirth) are entertaining listens in their own right, though the former does sort of serve as a long intro to the track Void Of Despair. Overall, Fragments Of The Ageless is a killer record, well worth giving a spin if you’re into death metal, both modern and retro. 9/10
Midas Fall - Cold Waves Divide Us (Monotreme Records) [Zak Skane]
The opening track In The Morning Will Be Someone Else’s, introduces us to the vocalist gothic, but yet soulful and haunting melodies that are soaked in mystical reverb which float over high pitched echoed guitar melodies and swelling guitar soundscapes. The following track I am Wrong brings in some warm cinematic synths that could happily belong in a block buster hit sound track, especially along with it’s pounding drums and walls of ambient fuzz guitars.
Salt comes in as the most emotional track on the album with the guitars melding from major and minor arpeggios and chords which are graced by hall style reverbs which makes it a match made in heaven along with the vocal melodies that flutter gracefully in a non liner fashion. The emotional trip continues with In This Avalanche with it’s moving string sections, sung topics of unity and twinkling delays. Point Of Diminishing Return turns up the anti with the drums ascending from it’s subtle approach to cymbal crushing drum beats, the synths become thicker and more in your face with it’s cinematic rumbling textures and gradual building layers of strings and FX keys.
Other highlights on this album is the stellar vocal performances on Atrophy and the heavenly use of guitars layers that merge from bouncing delay effects, spacy reverbs and Gamelan styled melodies. Midas Fall takes us through an astral plane of emotional sections that are projected at us by ambient layers of guitars, dynamic drum parts and cinematic synths. If you are a fan of bands like Hammock, Explosions In The Sky and Oceans Of Slumber this is a band for you. 9/10
Kill The Lights – Death Melodies (Fearless Records) [Matt Bladen]
Is it a metalcore supergroup? Is it a collection musicians looking to escape their former bands while sounding just like them? I think more the latter. Kill The Lights is a transatlantic metalcore band which features ex-Throw The Fight singer James Clark on vocals, Still Remains’ Jordan Whelan and ex-Threat Signal man Travis Montgomery on guitars, while the rhythm section is ex-BFMV as Jason ‘Jay’ James takes bass and Michael ‘Moose’ Thomas is behind the drums.
Kill The Lights – Death Melodies (Fearless Records) [Matt Bladen]
Is it a metalcore supergroup? Is it a collection musicians looking to escape their former bands while sounding just like them? I think more the latter. Kill The Lights is a transatlantic metalcore band which features ex-Throw The Fight singer James Clark on vocals, Still Remains’ Jordan Whelan and ex-Threat Signal man Travis Montgomery on guitars, while the rhythm section is ex-BFMV as Jason ‘Jay’ James takes bass and Michael ‘Moose’ Thomas is behind the drums.
The BFMV influence often is the strongest on blasters like Wasting Away, Man Without A Face, Ghost Of Yesterday, though why they all come one after another is anyone’s guess. There’s very much a move to the melodic with James’ vocals doing the work, his cleans really strong, possibly stronger than his harsh delivery, though that is pretty good. Yes for some it’ll be a bit angsty and 2005 but the songs are at least strong enough to keep you interested.
There’s a ballad, Sleep With The Devil, a few numbers that move more toward the rockier side of metalcore that will be radio staples, such as Bleeding or From Ashes, so for me the thrashy assaults are the best tracks here and there are much more of them. The issue is that while I assume they are trying to get away from the bands they came from, most of the music is very similar to the bands most of the members (at least two) will forever be associated with.
Still it’s catchy, accessible and pretty heavy in places so Kill The Lights will gain more fans on this second album. 8/10
Full Earth - Cloud Sculptors (Stickman Records) [Rich Piva]
Full Earth in the brainchild of former Kanaan and now Motorpsycho drummer Ingvald Vasso and they play proggy instrumental rock layered with organ and synths and do it quite well. This is spacy, huge, complex, and heady stuff played by experts in their craft. There is a lot going on here, and it is very long, so be ready to strap in and spend some time if you really want to get to know Cloud Sculptors.
Full Earth Part 1 – Emanation is 21-plus minutes and is really an album in itself. All sorts of directions and musically elements going on. Lots of proggy keys, expert drumming, heavy space vibes, and even a nice chunky guitar breakdown, but boy is it a lot. Not to be outdone, the second track, clocking in at 20-plus minutes, is the title track, that starts of sparce but once it kicks in, look out. It takes a bit too long to kick in for my taste but I do enjoy when the song really gets going. I dig the heaviness of this one driven but the guitar work. So, to recap, we are two tracks in and already over 42 minutes, with still four to go. I am already beat from this challenging listen. It’s not that it is not rewarding, it is just so much.
Full Earth - Cloud Sculptors (Stickman Records) [Rich Piva]
Full Earth in the brainchild of former Kanaan and now Motorpsycho drummer Ingvald Vasso and they play proggy instrumental rock layered with organ and synths and do it quite well. This is spacy, huge, complex, and heady stuff played by experts in their craft. There is a lot going on here, and it is very long, so be ready to strap in and spend some time if you really want to get to know Cloud Sculptors.
Full Earth Part 1 – Emanation is 21-plus minutes and is really an album in itself. All sorts of directions and musically elements going on. Lots of proggy keys, expert drumming, heavy space vibes, and even a nice chunky guitar breakdown, but boy is it a lot. Not to be outdone, the second track, clocking in at 20-plus minutes, is the title track, that starts of sparce but once it kicks in, look out. It takes a bit too long to kick in for my taste but I do enjoy when the song really gets going. I dig the heaviness of this one driven but the guitar work. So, to recap, we are two tracks in and already over 42 minutes, with still four to go. I am already beat from this challenging listen. It’s not that it is not rewarding, it is just so much.
Did I mention two of the remaining four are over 14 minutes? Clocking in at just over six minutes, Weltgeist is practically a Ramones song in length comparatively, doesn’t really go anywhere as its sparce synths set some kind of atmosphere, but what it is doing to me is making me exhausted. This leads us into one of those 18-plus minute tracks, The Collective Unconscious, that once again takes a while to get going, but once you get to the middle and the guitar soloing the wait will be worth it. I am so, so, so tired though. Echo Tears, like Weltgeist is a six-minute unnecessary bridge to the closer, Full Earth Part II – Disintegration, but by the time I get here all I can really muster up is see above for description.
Full Earth lives up to its name on Cloud Sculptors. This is so full and way too long to expect people to keep interest other than having this on as background music. It is a shame because the good parts are great, the dudes can really play, I love the organ and keys, but this could have been two albums or it could have had 20 to 30 minutes cut to make this possible to be enjoyed end to end. Full Earth is too full and actually too much. 6/10
Full Earth lives up to its name on Cloud Sculptors. This is so full and way too long to expect people to keep interest other than having this on as background music. It is a shame because the good parts are great, the dudes can really play, I love the organ and keys, but this could have been two albums or it could have had 20 to 30 minutes cut to make this possible to be enjoyed end to end. Full Earth is too full and actually too much. 6/10